God will more adundantly break forth hereafter But I must possess my end and departure hence and that is now at hand yet nevertheless I stand in the communion of those forespoken of God is a perfect and a pure God with whom that one may be united many things are requisite And therefore we must not cry out too plainly although we hear and see many great matters in a certain Man for all as yet may have an ill conclusion This I say for this end that we should always abide in fear CHAP. XXXVI Containing the last Exhortation of Matthew Wyer and his Departure out of this life ANd now I shall bid you farewel for perhaps it is determined that I may speak no more I will recommend my self to the Lord. See that ye labour and walk in all conscience before God Love your brothers and sisters as your own selves and take care of them otherwise judgment will come upon you This you must do that when you shall lye as I now lye ye may lye with a quiet heart Behave your selves in all things uprightly and seek after the salvation of your Souls for salvation is of greater price then mony or all goods Mony with its goods perish together but salvation brings peace to the heart of Man Let me depart from you in freedom from my death as I hope a living motion will spring up in you I recommend you to the Lord who can freely bestow on you wisdom and understanding and all other necessaries in a hundred fold The Lord will presently give me rest I expect and wait for eternal rest I am to suffer so long as the Lord will have me If I had known this affliction before now I should have dyed for meer grief O inward desertion O desolation Wisdom 1. which now stands ready at hand I desire to be the most vile of all and only long for the crums which fall from the childrens table If I could have avoided this affliction yet I would not for my conscience hath bound me to abide by it Misery in affliction is great a man would willingly be lead with certainty but yet is he lead with uncertianty and it is as if one should journey by night and yet not know the way when besides the waters are out he may chance to fall and yet he must go forwards Yet is he secretly lead by God and when the morning arises he shall see that the business hath succeeded well enough In affliction nothing is known how that a man is sustained and taken care of but at last it is acknowledged and then it is known that God was always present even in his desertion The highest affliction doth manifest that selfishness or propriety which yet was before undiscerned and God prepareth a man for this highest of afflictions All things are snatched from me even before my face yet I know what I am to do I will beg of God a favourable death for my self O Lord behold thy miserable creature O Lord imbrace me for all things are from thee O Lord imbrace all my powers and strength and grant strength unto me in this my deepest misery Here I ly before thee like a most wretched worm All the affliction which I have hitherto suffered is nothing to this misery Having finished these words and commending his spirit into the hands of God he fell asleep in the Lord by a pleasan◠and easy departure on the 25th April in the year 1560 about the 4th hour in the morning at Wesel in the year 〈◊〉 his age 39. Here end the Sayings THE EPISTLES OF M. Wyer Which he sent to his Familiar FRIENDS WRITTEN By the Author in the Low-Dutch and published after his Death Being afterwards turned into Latin and out of the Latin now at last into the English Tongue LONDON Printed for Benj. Clark in George-Yard in Lombard-street 1683. TO THE READER A brief Narrative concerning the Original of this small Treatise READER WHo art a Christian in good earnest before I shall begin to relate any thing of this little tract or of it's original or subject I am willing faithfully to exhort thee as also most earnestly to beseech thee that thou diligently callst upon God for illumination and for the opening of the Eyes of thy understanding whereby thou mayest be enabled according to his good pleasure rightly to understand that which is here proposed which being by the grace of God performed thou shalt in very deed experience that this book will be very useful and profitable unto thee seeing it is every where filled with the most excellent and choice expressions which are able to lead thee unto the true judgment of many points Nor does it only bring most notable advantage to thee only but also to all the Elect who duly and according to true knowledg have a zeal for God but to such as are perverse and behold all things with perverse and blind Eyes these things will without doubt seem to be full of dulness and foolishness O that our eyes were single then certainly we should easily perceive that these Epistles and sayings have not flowed from humane wisdome nor through the dead letter as to the more divine senses nor from the outward bark only but from the instinct of the holy Spirit and that he who wrote and spoke these to have been indeed a man divinely illuminated and a very intimate friend of God and that he learnt and drew these truths out from the book of his cross and by the means of his inward Sorrows in the School of Christ But let us make our approach nearer to the thing intended and that we may preface a few things concerning the original of this small treatise let the hearty Reader know that the aforesaid-friend of God wrote these Epistles to his familiars and friends seperated from his dwelling in divers places to every one according to his condition to stir up their zeale by no other means then the study of simplicity with no intention to have them afterwards printed and published insomuch as that after his death they being by some honest hearted searchers collected together were thus put together into one Volume But those sayings of his he himself wrote not but only uttered them orally And this was his faithful counsel that every one ought to seek the thing there where he himself had sought and found it and in which place only it can be found and gotten viz. In God the ever springing fountain of all wisdome and goodness and from whom flow these living streams neither may any one who is not willing to be deceived draw them from strange muddy Cisterns or Lakes Now by what means those his sayings were he not knowing it taken from his mouth and comprehended in one volume we shall briefly declare This most religious Matthew amongst those of his family bred up an honest young man whose name was John Spee filled with an earnest fervor and Zeale for the divine glory This person
shall fail me The Lord prepare us all that we may be made fit for his work in those things which he himself seeth and judgeth II. My brother the condition of my body is tolerable as it always was but I remain unshaken in my heart and the trust or confidence of my life is so small by reason of want of strength in my limbs that I can only walk up and down the house with trembling under the hand of my God True indeed I remain like others as to outward appearance but at heart and over my orignal and root of life there impends a judgment and by my unconsidered steps thorough the terrours of death it threatneth an end and my departure out of this time such is the constitution of my whole life way and conversation May the merciful Father open the bowels of his paternal inclination to me a most wretched creature that he may keep me safe from the evil one and preserve us all by his eternal grace Be mindful of forsaken and for lorn me as my compassionate brother if perhaps the Lord may be willing to exhibit his mercy to us III. My brother mine accustomed infirmity still remaineth as long as the Lord will The Lord be my promoter in his commiserating grace and may he preserve me and continue to hold me in his discipline under a suffering obedience of his holy will The cause why I have wrote no mere is the weakness of my hand According to the Lord my writing is not necessary to thee seeing that he himself will operate by his own grace in thy heart thorough the influence of his Spirit from whom all words and all writings may be separated by reason of his immense and glorious clatitude The Lord keep and promote you all in his ways under his fear and likewise us thorough all the time of our earthly combat And so I heartily salute you IV. My brother as to what belongs to my condition it still conflicts with its usual and difficult disease so long as it shall so please God He according to the order of his Justice put me down into this death of corruption and with his own hand plucketh me up again that I may wait for eternity which springeth up from out of the seed of this corruptible mortality May the Lord freely bestow on us all his mercy as with a long-suffering constancy we hope from the Lord it will be that with a heart prepared and submitted we may receive all from his hand and may be lead thorough even unto the end Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who will lead us all with all our strength and essence unto the true death in Christ that he out of this 〈◊〉 may build up an eternal life whiâ—◠〈◊〉 never more be subjected unto any 〈◊〉 V My brother my condition is the 〈◊〉 that it was when you departed bâ—◠〈◊〉 consideration thereof doth shake al◠〈◊〉 powers into a trembling and a terâ—â—â—â— because of that evident death by the 〈◊〉 of the Lord which as it were an obâ—â—â—re cloud of death I have always before my eyes even from that very time whâ—â— thou wert with me the reason bâ—◠〈◊〉 its beginning and of its end is whâ—â— hid from me the truth it self will bâ—â—â—â— it self forth in its own meaning and oâ—der As to my outward body which respecteth my disease I am not at all chanâ—â—â— but anguishes have taken full possession on all my faculties Be thou recommended to the mercy of God VI. My brother The Lord help us poor wâ—â—â—ches in this dangerous condition of this natural and mutable life whom it behooveth to be kept with believing under all uncertainties in the fear of God according to the faith whereby we believe that all the certainty and firmness of our purposes are to be wholly destroyed corrupted and annihilated that another 〈◊〉 fruit may spring up to eternal life 〈◊〉 â—â—ising out of the foregoing corruptible seed The Lord grant to us his salvation and grace that we may adore or worship 〈◊〉 in Spirit and in Truth even as he himself desireth VII The Lord in his mercy help us all and free us from our errours in his own time For I poor wretch do suffer the justice of the Lord and do bear his judgment upon me as long as this carnal spirit in this my dying nature still breatheth May the eternal and merciful God appear to me by his grace yea and to us all and lead us into his own will VIII My brother The Lord is my deliverer in my necessity and will confirm me in his grace even unto the end My brother I am willing thou shouldest know that my body cannot possibly endure any longer this immense misery without dying God assist me in my sufferings to the last and receive me into his eternal rest My Weakness is great all things are known to the Lord. Thy brother in the highest streights the most wretched in the Lord. M. W. To his Sister the ninth day before his death DEarest Sister whilst I am writing this I am so ordered that I can write no more My dearest sister be mindful of thy younger brother and of his wife and small children that they may be the most advanced and helped as the time may need My most beloved Sister I am in the highest content in the Lord my God and by his grace do bid the farewel with this my dying hand being according to the will God bound in so short a chain as he proposed to himself The Lord our God grant peace to our beloved brothers and sisters And now I turn me to my present call viz. to that eternal peace thorough the death of my flesh which now hasteneth it self to its end And now my most beloved Sister behold my dying salutation and my last farewel to thee from the bottom of my heart wherewith saluteth thee as departing out of this life thy brother M. W. 16 April 1560. He died in the Lord 25 April in the year of our Lord 1560. and of his own age the 39. THE END
THE NARROW PATH of Divine TRUTH DESCRIBED From Living Practice and Experience of its three great Steps viz. Purgation Illumination Vnion According to the Testimony of the holy Scriptures as also of Thomas a Kempis the German Divinity Thauler and such like Of the SAYINGS of MATTHEW WEYER Reduced into order in Three Books by J. Spee Unto which Are subjoyned his Practical Epistles done above 120 years since in the Dutch and after the Author's Death Printed in the German Language at Francfort 1579. And in Latin at Amsterdam 1658. and now in English London Printed for Ben. Clark in George-Yard in Lombard street 1683. A. D. To the Reader If Job and the Psalms Reader thou dost know Then the same truth these lines to thee will show God thee enlighten to sind the Cross-way out Which Christ hath trod thy way to Heav'n no doubt THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Have determined to collect and put together some of the more Notable Sayings of the Holy Scripture which make for the better understanding of this Book that whosoever shall please to consider them or such like he may be able thereby more easily and without scruple to turn over this small Treatise especially if he come to those places by which the most illuminated Matthew Wyer complained of his Inward Pains and anguish which throughout the Book he frequently did lest the Reader thereby be frighted from them or should account such Pangs and Desertions for absurd and fantastical Therefore by means of these he will remember and consider that this way of the Cross although now adaies it be almost utterly unknown and forsaken was e'n to Christ and all his true members alwaies accustomed and trod in For this is that narrow way and that straight gate by which we must enter into life yea by this same way viz. by sorrows sufferings streights and death our Fore-runner Jesus Christ thorough the whole course of his life walked even to his sepulcher and hath made it plain to and for us all whom he would have to be Imitators of himself for it behooved him to suffer and so to enter into his glory Of him Isaiah saith He had no form nor comeliness and we saw him and he was not of an aspect so as that we could be delighted in him a man despised and the least of men a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity c. Observe and consider O thou devout Reader together with all those who truly love Jesus Christ and desire to be Imitators of him how narrow and sharp and how many Pangs and Desertions is this way filled with which yet Christ entred into after his last supper and has left to us for an ensample For then it was that his Soul was sorrowful even to the death then it was that for very agony he sweat drops of blood and prayed to his heavenly Father thrice that if it were possible that cup might pass from him nor yet was he heard nor wâ—â—â— any helper present with him The wine-press was to be trodden and the cup to be drunk down the flood was to be waded thorough and obedience to be yielded unto the Father even to the very death of the cross upon that he was hanged naked between two Thieeves as the incendary trumpeter of the seditious presently after they divided his Garments by lot even before his eyes many also shaking their heads at him so that nothing else incompassed him round but Ignominy and Reproach and one sorrow trod upon the heels of another Then the Waves of afflictons were so many that they entred even into his soul because he was deserted of his Father that out of meer pressures and dereliction he cried out with a loud voice My God My God why hast thou forsaken me All which are found described at large in the Evangelists Prophets and in the Psalms especially in the 22 Psalm where the Prophet complains in the person of Christ My God I called unto thee all the day but thou wouldst not hear I a am worm and no man Also in Psalm 60. Save me O God because the floods have entred into my Soul I am stuck fast in the deep mire and there is no bottom and so on to the end of the Psalm Moreover in Psalm 88. My soul is filled with evil and my life approacheth unto the grave or Hell c. By which and the like sayings expressing the torments of Christ the whole Psalter with the Prophets are perfectly filled But now if thou shalt say Christ indeed as the Scriptures do testifie did suffer all these things and fulfilled them in his example yet is it impossible that any one can imitate him in such streights and desertion it is answered Christ himself hath said He that taketh not up his Cross and cometh after me cannot be my disciple nor is he worthy of me Also Peter hath said Christ hath suffered for us leaving us an example that we might follow his steps Now if this were impossible would not these and the like Sayings read every where up and down the Scriptures be in vain But what doth Paul say I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me and Christ saith That that which is impossible with men is possible with God For he worketh in us both to wil and to do Yield thy self therefore to God and commit thy cause unto him O man and hope in him that he will perform and fulfill all things in thee for he alwaies even from the very beginning of the World even to this very day hath put an end to the combats of his Peopleâ— and he is faithful and suffereth no man to be tempted beyond what he is able to bear Never yet did such misery touch his Elect but he still together with the Temptation found out a way to escape As it is made manifest in the Example of the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles who all as also the Author of these Sayings were led through Fire and Water through miseries and streights and through a total desertion yet every one according to his measure so as they became as Gold purified in the fire and were purged from their sins Alas how vastly great was that micsey in which David cried out â—nd complained the sorrows of death have compassed me about and the torments of Hell have made me affraid the snares of death have laid hold upon me Also when Jeremiah for meer anxiety and desertion cursed the day of his nativity as we may read them in their own places And who can express in words that both internal and external misery wherewith Job was afflicted from the Lord. Who will give unto me this saith he that thou mayest cover me in Hell or the Grave My dwelling is in Hell or the grave and I have made my bed in darkness c. Also in another place by reason of his continual desertion he openly cursed the day of his birth as did Jeremiah to many more such
that which God puts forward And when a Man is so reduced into his nothingness then also must this nothingness be reduced into nothing nor ought a man even to arrogate that to himself for God by his judgment hath reduced him into Nothing The new man doth not profit or go forwards for it is God himself but a man profiteth or goeth forward in the new man who neither is deficient nor proficient in this a man profiteth or goeth forward and increaseth The fear and terrour of God is introduced into a man with great affliction CHAP. II. TO speak forth the hidden things of God is rather rashness then devotion for they are to be adored and we ought to tremble before them but not to babble them out Some indeed do freely meddle with them even by talking of them but he that is humble adoreth them with an humble voice For though one does understand some profound meaning yet it always reveals it self to be more profound The essence of a thing is too worthy to be expressed in words When I pray that the will of God may be done I am terrfied and I must add O Lord with thy grace I can desire no joy no comfort no nor heaven no more then doth that wall for I may not it is grace and mercy which I desire communion is a most terrible thing to the flesh because the flesh desires propriety and full possession to it self therefore is communion death unto it Faith is like unto a ship driven from the shore which hath neither rudder mast nor oares He that is without appropriation cannot be angry at whatsoever he is either to suffer or do for to be angry belongs perhaps to others rather then to him and therefore he is to decline it Nothing is to be done boastingly For to do or to omit any thing boastingly is a great evil Whatsoever claims pleasure that must dye if he who is well and at ease do then lose his time then is time made his proper own CHAP. III. TO abstain and repress ones self is no death in respect of my death because that is done out of purpose but this without and beyond all purposes yet not so as if the will of God were not pleasing to me God hath led me violently To be thus lead is the work of God nor is it done unless God wills In the agony of death many things are often done which are not done in the life's time In the agony of death is exercised a hard judgment and then is a man sometimes promoted therein to which he could never come before in all the time of his whole life First he must conflict with joy then with sorrow and lastly with death Whatsoever words are spoken without experience I have no esteem of them If I had known that this misery in which I now live was to come upon me I had perished but now that I am in it God holdeth me in it God holdeth me privately I knowing it not The Creature which is rightly used is made more noble and cometh to God thus every creature must return to its original that is to God and this is done by that man who abideth in a right way The true use of the creatures is performed with giving of thanks therefore except one rightly useth the creature he useth it to judgment Concupiscence is a thing so secretly hidden in Man that a Man knows not whither it be concupiscence or not till for its sake he be lead away captive By how much any one is nearer to God by so much the more pitiful is his internal condition To know God is a state the most subjected to affliction of all By how much any one is nearer to God by so much the higher is he in sufferings To know God is indeed a bitter state by reason of the departure of the creature which for his sake must be left By how much the greater affliction any one is exercised in so muc the greater grace he hath and is dearer unto God If any one could lay open my inside he would see there nothing but death I have no prop nor comfort nor rest neither in Heaven nor in Earth except the will of God in which I lye down God begins some new thing with me I never was at this rate in sufferings as I now am I have nothing but the will of God in which I acquiesce And though I am pressed with so hard afflictions yet am I far beneath the passion of Christ the son of God whose hard and vehement passion cannot be compared with by any other God upholdeth me above my own strength for it were impossible else for me to do or suffer that which I do We aim at great things but the cup we must first drink before those great things can come is a bitter cup. CHAP. IIII. IT is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God who sheweth mercy This a man must experience with Paul in the highest streight and temptation before these words can be spoken by him This is proposed to a man that that very thing which thou lovest thou must forsake What it is to be naked and forlorn no man knoweth but he who feels it and he who either was or is in such a state I fall down before God like a most miserable worm being unworthy to lift my eyes up unto him O the cup that is to be drunk O the draught that consumeth all things he will not put out the smoaking flax therefore it shall consume with fire Here I lie like a dumb thing or like to a post and I only suffer misery and affliction I lye under the will of God and corrupt If it be said This is not in vain for fruit will follow c. I leave that to God and only suffer his will In God there is no suffering if I could stand wholly in God there would be no need that I should suffer God keeps me in the snares of death and causeth me in time to go into the nothingness of my self Though one may get up many degrees yet we are always to descend descend descend until we come into dust and ashes That which before now we talked concerning this Nothingness it was with a certain kind of pleasure yet even all that must be subjected under its judgment We cannot arrive at this nothingness but by the exercise of God To be delighted with a righteous man or his writings words or works and to have a kindness and a good will for them it is the gift of God When any one is freed from the creatures that he can have an in difference for them without grief or joy whether it be loss or gain there is made a breaking thorough and it is a certain sort of a singular death that belongs to this case nor is it the work of man but of God Many suppose themselves to be that which temptation or trial discovers to them that
for where the virtue of divine will is felt there such words do excite consternation Therefore it is not for him to say I hope it will be so or so or so it shall be or so it shall not be and the like but he saith thus 〈◊〉 hope the Lord will do it Christ saith I am the truth We think that Christ is with us and that he is such a one as we are by Nature but thus he is contrary to us and is our death CHAP. VIII ALl ceremonies conform themselves according to God and are a representation of the hidden truth but they do not conform themselves unto our weakness as some say yea and that God gave them because of our weakness when as other wise they had not been necessary to which opinion we must assent Yea furthermore they say that the very incarnation of Christ is to be thus adorned which opinion be it far from us He that is upon a right foundation and hath an understanding heart will be wholly opposite to these opinions For such a one feels and knows that without the incarnation of Christ no salvation can be found on the earth and that ceremonies together with all creatures are only a representation of the heavenly truth and that they are all conformeâ— according to God but not according to us and so also they ought to be And therefore they judge too dryly concerning them who say they are toys and trifles as also they do attribute too much to them who are glued fast unto them and from them do make Gods to themselves and set them in the place of the true substance They err on both hands Wherefore we are to wait for a right judgment in all things from the Lord and and to fear least any thing is rashly added from our opinion for opinion deceiveth us Where the powers of sin are felt and are conquered and broken a man is cast into great affliction But when a man puts that affliction from him and puts it upon Christ as if he had satisfied for it and that that satisfaction ought to be impâ—ted to a man and to be fulfilled in him so as that sin is to be taken away and righteousness to be fulfilled there a man hath not a true sense of sin but neglectâ—th it with a light mind this opinion also is contrary to the writings of the Prophets and the doctrine of the Apostles who testify that Christ must snatch a man out of sin and let up righteousness and break the Serpents Head and overcome all things and that this victory ought to be done in a man and not to remain without him Rom. 8. 4. for they ought to be a people in whom all things are done and fulfilled which the Prophets and the Apostles and all ceremonies testify Let no man therefore deceive himself by imposing upon Christ any thing without himself Where God doth possess a man there God reigneth and keepeth him but man is not at all touched with any care for what belongeth to God But a man is not to eye any thing but his littleness and emptyness that is his selfishness this is due unto him and upon that account he boweth under all and judgeth himself to be worser more foolish and more unworthy then all men All the rest that is any things is God and is due to God nor doth it concern man But if any one departing from his nothingness will arrogate to himself the things which beâ—ong unto God that will prove the highest pride and the most heavy fall CHAP. IX WHen any one is given up to the will of God there is nothing so heavy nor so painful which he cannot bear in the will of God without election But as God willeth so is a thing commended to him who will do all things And where that is there is peace and no where else A certain person said such as the judgment is so I suffer under a heavy judgment heavily under a light judgment lightly When one also is ashamed befote his neighbour because of that for whose sake he was ashamed before God conscience is more at quiet but when one for a secret hidden baseness blusheth not before man conscience is burdened and therefore here we must be bound and no man ought to be ashamed when he is obliged to confess himself guilty before his neighbour God keepeth his promises but we understand them perversly until their own â—ime comes when we see what they are and to whom they belong He whose will is resigned he wanteth appropriation and its the same to him whither the thing be or be not He who hath a will yielded up to God he esteemâ—â—â— for heavenly whatsoevr happeneth to him For all that is God to him and God is Heavenly Whatsoever falleth out to him be 〈◊〉 advantage disadvantage peace disquiet riches poverty bitter sweet heat cold hunger thirst honor dishonor yet aâ—â— all these God to him and consequently Heaven he is also without appropriation and nothing else pleaseth him as if 〈◊〉 were Heaven unless that God wills it But before any one comes thither many thing are required especially Time He who wants this resigned will esteemeth all that are against his own will for torments and Hell yea even those things which of themselves are pleasant Out proper will therefore is to be discarded and to this purpose serve our exercises O how bitter is death to him who is yielded up to life All things perish but God and what is united to him The voice of the Spirit is such a terror to the flesh that when any thing is spokâ—en to it of the spirit it is frighted and â—rembles because the Spirit is its destruction They who aim at a mark shut one eye and always level at the mark and when one hitteth the mark then he turns himself and looks upon all the rest which none of the rest do because they have not yet struck it but do still level their aim By the cross God casteth on man chains and a bridle And except this should be so he would wander into errour in time and though a man sometimes may think that he shall serve God better unless this or that happens yet God adjudgeth it otherwise and knows this to be best contrary to a man 's own opinion CHAP. X. A Man always requires time and space and thinks that he shall satisfie the Law and yet it cannot be done and he must dye and God must fulfil the Law in his stead That which a man thinks he shall do in his life that is at last performed in his death When the passion and death of Christ are really in a man also his resurrection is really in him if one is real such also is the other if the one be only notional so also is the other for there are divers resurrections A man given up to God belongs to God and he hath no propriety but is a stranger to himself whatever therefore God or
but in a just measure and order and that to his own glory and for the promotion and growth of the man All which would a man hinder if being impatient under the cross he should not wait upon God Great is the fruit of affliction and therefore in it is the Lord to be expected I expected the Lord from the morning watch even until the evening saith the Psalmist and Isaiah saith Blessed are all they that wait upon the Lord for they that wait upon him shall never be confounded the Psalmist saith In waiting I waited upon the Lord and he regarded me Now if there were neither faithfulness nor good will in the Lord of visiting and helping his the Scripture would never have represented these things to us in asmuch as it speaketh nothing but what is true The Lord grant us Faith Paul saith I believe all the things which are written in the Law and the Prophets The eye of our opinion Love and favour is to be turned upon God and in all things we ought to set him for our mark and end and not things created if we would conâ—inue pure and unburthened The natural state by the fall of Adam is this that we should turn our eyes upon those things from whence springs up to us nothing but blindness and ignorance which things also are again changed in a true change which tends to their original but that then happeneth with grief and with anguish Now he that casts himself into that original he arrives at the port of grace and that is revealed to him which he before knew not for the imitation of Christ openeth and revealeth but the imitation of the flesh hideth and shutteth In all things we are perverse until we come unto judgment and death Unless the Lord should exhibit himself unto us and should sustain us by his power we should all utterly perish whence we ought deservedly to beware of all rashness There is no need that a man should be more sollicitous about the getting of knowledge then he should be of attaining of death for in death things do open and give out themselves and true knowledge is unfolded whereas if life should remain that could not be effected though a man should strive with never so much study and labour Yea though he might get knowledge according to the letter yet for all that all things are still shut up and hidden from him before he can yield himself up into death and admit in himself the dying of the guilty body such studyings and endeavours after knowledge are rather an hinderance because thereby a man neglecteth his own self and becomes forgetful of his own concerns Of this also saith our Lord What shall it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul That any one in this world should not be solicitous nor feed carking care many things are requisit for there are some who take no care at all because they labour not by reason of want or penury And many are such by nature Yet this is not that which our Lord saith For the words of our Lord always point at some other thing then what we derive from Adam yea they are spoken quite contrary to that which we are in Adam Therefore our Lord is very odious to the flesh yea the very death and destruction thereof is Christ who proceeds quite contrary to our Nature CHAP. XXVIII NEcessary affairs are done and performed by the chosen of God without the cleaving or sticking of their hearts unto them And if it be not thus but that the heart is rather burdened with them and is involved in imaginations this is not thorough any fault in the things but because of that defect that still abideth in man And thus a man goes away blinded not knowing himself until he falleth into temptation or tryal But when he comes to a feeling knowledge of himself then he may be advanced which could never be done afore because he had to do with sin secretly That which a man sometimes thought was hurtful to him and his hinderance that afterwards serves to advance and put him forwards Therefore should a man remain without any choice of his own but wait what God will do with him and thus yield himself up as being bowed under the divine will Here is the communion of Saints and that in the highest degree Let therefore the lowest degree blush that even it also doth not earnestly long after this communion for if the Sun gives himself forth in common certainly then the Moon ought to do the like who else ought to be ashamed if she should claim to her self too great a propriety and arrogate all to be hers He who is swallowed up by created things feeles from them either a pleasure or a pain even to joy or grief so as he can have no peace But he who is free from them is free also from both those evils so that neither what is pleasant neither what is ungrateful neither gladness nor sorrow reacheth him And because joy hath no place in him neither also doth sorrow touch him if things do happen other ways then joy and desire do expect and ask To stand between comfort and discomfort between joy and grief and to remain untouched and unmoved by either is a great liberty and the gift of God for no man hath that of or from himself Yea let no man unduely think that he hath gotten that for many things are required before we can arrive at this state or condition and when we are come thither yet is not glory thereof belonging to man but to God alone And thus man is to abide in humility without judging or contemning of others CHAP. XXIX SIn is hated in a double sense and that by divers sorts of persons For some do hate sin because of affliction they thereby being afflicted and terrified in their consciences as also because of the loss they sustain by it as the loss of their souls of heaven and of eternal salvation and if these two were not viz. the torment of conscience and the loss of heaven they could love sin and be friends with it yea become to be united and to be in league therewith And it is thus proved because that same hatred of sin proceeds not from the nature of the mind nor from regeneration in as much as there is in this state still left the old life to which belongeth judgment and condemnation and is that that must dye the death Whereas others viz. such as are transplanted into God do hate sin out of the Nature of their mindes and out of regeneration For the new life which is in them will not bear sin nor suffer it to be and that not because of that torment of conscience or loss of salvation but out of its own nature by reason of its tenderness and its holy temper For this nature can endure nothing that is strange for it is the Newman Christ Jesus who is God himself Hence
then â—nto the understanding his salvation also â—n go no further then into the underâ—tanding and reason so that it must at last needs dye in that death that is so necessary to all Christians viz. wherein Reason is destroyed for in this death there remains nothing but the Soul or mind only But if it be objected that our faith and knowledge do penetrate even into the most inward regions of the Soul and mind I answer thereto That then also it is necessary that this our Soul and mind when it shall live with such an estrangedness from the flesh that it cannot but with great Nauseousness and tedious disdain bear in its self all the desires and lusts which spring from the nethermost parts of the flesh so as it would rather dye infinite deaths and to be freed from them then with pleasure even once to perform them in the verv act Behold my G. this brief proposal how every one ought to prove and try hâ—â— faith If any man believeth in Chriâ—â— from the very bottom of his Soul 〈◊〉 must need be wracked with great doâ—lours in his Soul by reason of sin so thâ— he will account of sin for the most grievous torture that can be found in all thâ— world and for his greatest enemy and how then for the sake of acting it can he enter into a friendship with it Although therefore the Vulgar knowledge of those who glory in the Gospel may say on this wise Sin if so be it is not perpetrated in the very act though it should lurk in the heart doth us no hurt yet do thou I pray hear how Christ doth nevertheless assert that he who looketh on a woman to lust after her is already guilty in the sight of God by which words surely Christ excuseth not but accuseth the lusting of a man and will really have it accounted for sin in the sight of God Dearest G. I beseech thee do not despond in thy mind because of this hard saying for all things are possible to God I only write this of purpose that thou mayest seasonably learn to judge of all things least thou shouldst consume thy youth unprofitably and that thou mayest bear fruit to God â—in thy own soul they in the mean time who are of the dregs of the Vulgar though they may have knowledge yet they lye down tired in sloth nor do they oppose sin with the least burning zeal or breaâ—â— its impetuous assaults Nor yet doth this external abstinence from sins and the debilitating of them suffice for it 's necessary to descend to the very bottom it self when even the thoughts are to be judged in the presence of God Far therefore be it from us to commit sin in the very act Also this my Letter intends this at least that thy young limbs be stirred up both night and day to the worship of God by continued prayers in temperance purity meekness of heart long-suffering lovâ— of thine Enemies as also in the Reading of Scripture in holy proficiencies anâ— in other virtues conducing to Christian discipline Concerning which thy owâ— Conscience will afford to thee a testimony all which being performed thou wiâ—â— every day rejoyce in thy great success iâ— the work of the Lord that at last wheâ— thy most miserable condition is known thou wilt be a terrour to thy own selâ— and therefore thou wilt so much thâ— more diligently call upon God for help that his most powerful right hand maâ—â— at length gratiously support thy Soul and conquer the power of the enemy in a real victory The Lord have mercy on us all and heal our diseases and effectually cause us to hunger and thirst after his righteousness least we be left naked in our own impurity EPIST. VIII How any one who is studious concerning the way of the Lord ought dayly to exercise himself MOst beloved Neece Because I understand that thou earnestly desirest such a disposition of heart as truely to walk in the ways of the Lord I could not withhold my self but must write to thee these few things for thy greater confirmation in them that thou being once entred into this way shouldest not desist from vigorously proceeding forward and to adhere to the Lord with thy whole heart together with a total suppression of thy carnal part Be therefore diligently studious that thy diligence be not tired out in reading in humanity in Silence in meekness in temperance forbearance patience and compassion also learn to exercise thy self in all studyes of virtues that thou being found faithful in little things mayest be made ruler over much greater for if thou shalt not be faithful in these few things assuredly thou wilt never be entrusted with more But I hope that thou wilt receive wisdom and prudence from the Lord that thou wilt have a care of and diligently attend unto thy own self least some bitter root should spring up in thee and so thou and thy Soul tumble head-long into destruction for the flesh doth very subtilly assault a man to beguile him and turn him away from Godliness Wherefore making a strict watch upon thy life and conversation carefully incompass thy self round having cut off the world and all wantonness of life speech and thoughts preferring every one with all gentleness and patience not only the good but also the evil and the immodest Learn also to bridle in thy self and to humble thy self being always turned to the Lord in thy heart Never let vain evil and unworthy thoughts arise in thy mind but always oppose them with great earnestness pouring out to the Lord fervent prayers and if thou gettest any spare time on holy days or otherways employ it in reading the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament or else of that little book intituled Of the imitation of Christ and in these exercise thy self and learn to ponder them often in thy mind If thou readest any thing which thou doest not understand call upon the Lord with ardent sighs and dayly tears that he would open to thee the true sense of his most holy word for to be the Necessary food of thy Soul for the more thou shalt follow the Lord the more thou shalt understand of holy Scripture and by how much the less thou art intent to wait upon the Lord by so much the less shalt thou understand Scripture Therefore let thy constant endeavours be to approve thy self faithful in these things which are viz. made known to thee in and by mortification and a continual access to God by prayer nor let any time slip by thee in vain and withouâ— thus doing If thou repliest that thou understandest not what thou readest again say that though thou mayest noâ— understand all yet is it incumbent oâ— thee to exercise thy self in the sacred word of the Lord as also to be unwearâ—edly sollicitous about it For by thesâ— exercises thou shalt sooner be amended then by idleness and these are the beâ—â— means of instituting and of exercising anâ— man
for by how much the more miserable the more anxious and the more deserted any one is so much the nearer is God to him the helping of whom he then most speedily performeth when no comfort nor help is found unto or for our desires And this is the true knot of all piety The Lord grant in his own time that thou mayest truly apprehend this in thy own self For the grace and word and promises of God do abide in man in a living sense nor can it be expressed in words how the very thing it self properly is and although all writings may give testimony of this word and of this grace yet are not they properly that very word and the very Salvation of God for the virtue and operation of these ought to be livingly expressed in us The Lord be mindful of us all thorough his mercy EPIST. XV. How Youth is to be supported during its weakness To F. S. DEarest F. We hope it will so be that the Lord will direct all to the best end and will stretch forth his helping hand to that young man to make his voluntary entrance that he may be brought to a greater firmness seeing that he is not yet exercised in the ways of the Lord and he still flourisheth in his Youth But the hand of the Lord is liberal towards young and old and is stretched forth with plenty of grace where and whensoever he shall please Therefore the Lord I hope will remember this weak one and will hear his dayly complaint and in his time will help him for when all the creatures sail and all remedies vanish away and there is no other deliverer found or invented then will God alone of necessity present himself as a Deliverer For the Lord will look back upon all such whose hearts he hath of purpose put in the wine-press of tribulations that being left nakedly poor of all evils so as they appear dryed up yet after they shall thus be subjected to his judgments they shall not want retribution but shall abound in his blessing by the communion of the blood of Christ poured forth and of his eternally prevailing merits and of the reconciliation made betwixt God his father and our miserable humane nature It would be profitable for him if he should remain with thee all the winter that so he might enjoy a further introduttion and should learn more firmly to set his feet in the ways of the Lordâ— now when he is yet of an infirm age and is more infirm in zeal for it is our duty to lend a hand to the weak and to be a prop to them as it was done for us in our youth although I my self have not extended my age very much yet have the bonds of death bowed me down under the judgment of the Lord in the prosecution of my misery with continued terrours The Lord have pitty on me and graciously discover to me his countenance shining with the light of grace and so enlighten the darkness of my heart EPIST. XVI A fair admonition to his Cosin German wherein he very greatly demonstrates a most tender care of his Soul hitherto had with solicitousness To M. D. W. MOst beloved Cosin I was altogether obliged to write in what state our affairs are for though hitherto for some good space of time we have been somewhat separated as to bodily presence yet I am assured in the Lord that we were so much the more diligently excited to a mutual care by an inward presence of mind The Lord knoweth how mindful I am of thee and how much care I have for thee in the midst of my most sad conversation filled with all griefs and in my constant combate But I trust in the eternal God and his providence that he will with stretched out arms lead and keep us all under his own discipline Now because I have crept thorough many dangers of mind how great the power of corrupted nature is is very plainly manifested in me by and thorough the power of God though that also is come to pass by and thorough innumerable anxieties in all which yet the glory of God every where revealeth it self upon which account I am deeply concerned with a most vehement sollicitousness for those who are my fellow-sufferers in these straights to whom the Omnipotent God will reach out his hand and seasonably set before their eyes the virtue of his grace which lyeth hid under those sufferings that at last the man may be stirred up to the desire of the true cross of Christ our Lord in which all the treasures of divine grace are known in their highest beauty without which no man can be set free from out of the chains of his nature And here indeed there is need of great caution and we must diligently adhere to the Lord both day and night for often times nature cloathed with the outward shew of good presents her self to us but if she be tumbled down into death then will her fruits be at length truly made known and the power of God will shine forth so much the more gloriously The Lord of his mercy be mindful of us all that we may wisely order our conversation and the forces of all our enemies being all overcome and broken we may at length arrive truely at the true brightness of God For the wall of separation hindering that clarity is great which it behooveth with unwearied labour to diminish thorough the benefit of the cross and with daily torture of mind to destroy Yet the eternal and merciful Lord pierceth thorough all darkness as doth the Sun and so refresheth those that are in an agony with their pains that his grace and glory never shine forth more clearly then from under sufferings although whilst we yet remain subject to vanityes and are still captives to creatures that claritude is still very much diminished for so long as we yet are busied about images the efficacy of truth which seeing it is to be without any image cannot then be united to them is very wonderfully hindred For God is but one only and to know him from the very bottom of our hearts is all the skill and is such as is never learned in an undisturbed life Dearest Cosin I do open to thee as it were the interiour bosom of my mind shewing whither all my labour tendeth and at what mark all my whole being and all my words and thoughts do aim at with grief and which I continually with tears of heart pour forth before my God and do with hope account the Lord will not reject me poor wretch but chastise in his way and will bless with increase my labour after the decease of my nature My Cosin as to what concerns those friends who have changed their dwelling their outward condition is as yet tolerable as also the outward conversation both of the Mother and of them also is full of piety even as formerly But if we look further even to the utmost power of nature
and to the very bottom of the Soul about these the business have not so well succeded even as neither can these be attributed to them all in common nor are they wont to be given or received by words and admonitions To the Lord therefore I commit them who in his own time and according to his own good pleasure will advance those persons higher For they earnestly listen and are delighted with my present discourses but how pleasant they be to them even in their very Souls the Lord knoweth for I do not apprehend that their progress forwards is yet so great and perhaps the Lord will yet for some time keep them so But for my part I order my conversation for the most part with my self only because many discourses and admonitions to others do very much disturb me when yet all concerns as well inward as outward I freely would so deliver up and oblige to the Lord that I would think say or do nothing but to the Lord alone yet how much difficulty I shall every where find in all these the Lord himself knoweth Yet he who is faithful is never left destitute of power as most miserable I do find thorough the mercy of God who helpeth my arm to fight As to our other familiar she-friend she receiveth all with her whole heart and a willing mind whither they concern the understanding or the will but because of that sollicitous care wherewith she is involved in outward things not a few as also because of her trade the true fruit cannot yet spring forth from the true root But the Lord who is faithful administreth as I perceive all means for the removing away by divers sufferings these hindrances and of bringing forth this fruit with deep pangs so that I hope at length that the death of nature will follow in the end The Lord look in mercy upon her as likewise on us all that in his time and according to his good pleasure we may come to the true essence of divine clarity and that we all being delivered out of the hand of our enemies may serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life now and for ever incessantly in inaccessible clarity Amen In the year 1552. EPIST. XVII A wholsome Admonition in what steps the progress of the Just doth consist with a Conclusion concerning Esau and Jacob. To J. W. My John I Heartily wish that all thy affairs may have good success Having an occasion thus offering it self I was willing to write these lines unto thee that by the benefit of them we may be promoted to continued progresses in the Lord. For I hope thorough the grace of God that thou maist daily go forward in that truth and in the true Circumcision of thy heart and not in the acquisition of many Sciences and of divers Knowledges wherein the greatest part of our time is consumed and not upon that for the sake of which yet life is given unto us viz. that we may know God But God cannot be truly known by science but by finding him in our selves so as that which we know of God is found and expressed in us and in our Soul so that we our selves are not far distant from that which we acknowledge for good but are united with it not in or by opinion but in very deed and truth But these things can never be fully accomplished unless first we dye to all those which we our selves have and possess in our selves which is that that is called the old man who very subtilly exerciseth his dominion in man according to the variety of mens conditions If the flesh be still gross also its fruits and vices are gross Now if any one will supplant his external vices there is another more subtile thing dwelleth in man which he had never before known because it formerly did stick to him in a grosser substance And seeing that the Scripture also doth sufficiently propose it we are diligently to labour according to that Scripture because it is that which is ordained of the Lord for this end Having therefore received of the Lord sufficient knowledge concerning these things let us be diligent in our indeavours for little knowledge is necessary thereunto if so be the heart it self be but prepared which incessantly both day and night called upon the Lord with intimate desire aspiring to a union so that no creature can any more move it against the Lord and turn it away from him May the Lord give unto his mercy and be a help to our misery in which we being yet bound in the darkness and chains of death are still captive My John I communicate my heart to thee in my letters even as I enough know that thou also seekest my prosperity so that let us both together seek the Lord being perhaps not far distant in the Lord one from another Presently after thy departure it was decreed by the Senate that E. and W. do leave their dwellings so that they must be gone from hence The Lord bestow on them his grace and mercy that they learn to bear these things in true patience even from their own brethren and to accept from the Lord that cross for their own advancement and for the rejection of all other things and that they may resign up all to the Lord and turn off from them their brotherly Love For Esau always remained the brother of Jacob but that Jacob received the blessing was done of grace according to the election of God in which indeed Jacob did stand but yet without boasting and without pride for it behooved him always to bow himself before Esau in sufferings without murmuring And although Esau behaved himself with a very proud carriage towards his brother yet the blessing was continued to Jacob though Esau endeavoured to snatch it from him again by persecution For Jacob lived not only in shew but in truth when he dwelt in tents On the contrary Esau cared only for all outward things by labouring and hunting The Lord grant that we may so rightly immitate the birth of Esau that Jacob may at length come forth for the birth-right was due to Esau but for this end only that Jacob should be brought forth The Lord have mercy on us NB. The birth of Esau signifies the birth out of works under the Law but the birth of Jacob signifies that that is of faith under grace EPIST. XVIII Being a most excellent admonition concerning the Education of Youth together with that wide difference wherein the old Philosophers are far distant from Christians To Dr. J. Velsius DEarest Dr. That my young Nephews have succeeded well in your house was to me altogether grateful and most cordially acceptable for I know that you will take care of their affairs by a diligent inspection for the sake of that relation that is between us whereby these growing twigs may be advanced in their true increase for they stand greatly in need of a prudent overseer