Disciples Learn of me for I am lowly and meek and you shall finde reft to your souls and again Love ye one another or love together as I have loved you by this said he shall all men know that you are my disciples He did not say They should be known by working miracles casting out Devils preaching teaching or praying which should be more minded by those that now desire signes and wonders that they may otherwise see if they shut not their eyes while true love and meekness are the greatest of miracles in these last and perilous times wherein men strive to resist evil not to suffer it to revenge wrongs rather then to forgive them as Christ commanded rather to fain love and meekness then be possessed of them suffer and endure all things and such is not worthy the name of love or meekness in mans will which is but altogether imperfect but meekness as in pure love and spiritual affections is perfect meekness and he that hath this is a meek man poor in spirit that knoweth himself as he is and ought to be known dissembleth not but loveth all others in or for God but where grudgings are in the heart towards any or unquiet thoughts the heart is not clean the conscience is not pure nor the walking charitably or with God in love of clean affections and consequently in and for God for the more evil any one doth to a meek man the more good doth he to him as to a man out of his right minde and so do thou and pray for such as Christ commanded and observe how he himself did by Judas for all his wickedness and to others never so much as saying to any man Thou lyest though some falsly accused him said He had a devil c. neither do I read that he reproved Judas openly bâ—t rather waited for his repentance to the very last and the more like to Jesus Christ thou art herein the more thou lovest thy self onely in God and not out of him and so thou lovest truly and not onely for righteousness vertue of God in thee or others so thou lovest not thy felf but God and if thou be yet bound in sin and feelest the burden of it then so thou lovest thy self for God to be freed by him from sin into his service and so if thou truly live in meekness thou lovest every man in the first place thou lovest God in man and in the second place thou lovest man for God that he may be his so should God be loved in all and for all and all in him and this is true love but if thy minde be troubled or unquiet when thou art rebuked belyed or evilly entreated then there is pride remaining in thy heart seem thou never so holy outwardly and there lyes hid like a Fox in his den And no good deed canst thou possibly do but it is spoiled therewith and thou hast thy reward for it is a mystery to love mens persons which ever ought to be and loathe their sins as contrary to God but it is no mystery to fain or pretend love fast sit silent preach give to the needy c. for these things bad men may do but to love men truly and hate the evil in them is the gift of God by the holy Spirit of Love which he gives freely and readily to all that wait truely for it and is therefore most pretious and profitable and without this there is not meekness of love to all men and a seeking the salvation of all but a stumbling and erring from the truth and mistaking one thing for another errours for truth and truth for errours because Covetousness and Anger is not forsaken while any other love but what is so in God and for God remains as to any creature or thing and thou shalt sinde it easier to forsake riches and lusts then the love of them for he that coveteth or desireth any thing he hath not and thereby keeps back the clean desires to Vertâ—e is yet covetous and look how much sorrow thou feelest upon the loss of any thing so much was thy love to it so that thou covetest not spiritual things so as thou oughtest but that thou stamblest at them and then how shouldst thou be filled with kindly savour within while the flesh retains its beastly savour without But this know that diligent watching inward hunger and pains helpeth the holy Spirit in thee to overcome yet while the bad root lives its evil branches will be springing up for therein is the compleat nature of the evil root and thereof the loathsome fruit which every evil man brings forth out of the evil treasure of his heart and there the strong man armed keeps the house until there be a free yeilding to Jesus Christ in meekness and pure love wherein he may overcome that strong man and strip him of all his strength and weapons wherein he trusteth and create the new man according to his own image and likeness of righteousness and true holiness and as thou receivest him with ability to exercise thy sences and discern things rightly to have Jesus Christ formed in thee and as thou conceivest him and he lives in thee thou wilt bring forth good things out of the good treasure of his life by strong desires and earnest actings to please him and be made like unto him not as of fleshly forming but in full meekness of minde pure love full perfection and fruition of all heavenly vertues and unchangeable blessedness whereunto Christ Jesus is the door he the Porter and not another he opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens by him is the enterance the going in and out and finding pasture for he is the pasture even the living bread that came down from heaven and is in heaven the well of water springing up to everlasting life of whom all the several sects and sorts of men that climb up another way are ignorant and so wanting the nourishment thereof fall short of the glory of God and yet forward to reprove others without any certain knowledge of those things in themselves or considering with how much meekness gentleness love and privacie for the most part reproofs ought to be even in weighty matters and in all as thrust on by divine love and some hopes of thereby shewing the sinner the evil of his way that he may be reclaimed ever weighing well how dangerous it is to abase and reprove others and not live in the light ones self and how many tribulations and tentations others have born to keep thee low in thine own eyes and learn to know how to esteem others highly in love for their works sake but but whosoever arrogates to or exalts himself thereby becomes base and blockish an antichrist unfit for any spiritual work and shall certainly fall low at last because the power of the Lord Jesus hath not had a kindly working in such a soul or his pure presence received by it or
rightly known to it to live and grow up in it as it is in all meek souls that in a still and quiet staidness suffer him and yeild to him for the increase and finishing of his own work therein The Soul of Man which the LORD GOD formed as hath been said by breathing of his breath of life into him is a worthy likeness image or similitude of God not the bodily shape but the inner powers thereof but since falling from the light and heavenly presence of sweet love and sure joy into the painful darkness and lusts of this wretched life is by his own act cast out of the heritage of heaven So that man now in no wise can know Jesus Christ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world by running out with his thoughts into the most excellent way that mans wit can imagine but by a turning the Soul in to that of God within it self in the light thereof and there waiting for his still voice wherein the Lord Jesus Christ moveth which the wise and prudent men of this world imagine to be a low mean natural and contemptible thing but therein is the living and true God discovered to the soul and exalted above all created things whereby the soul seeth it self and also above it self into the heavenly place while it is so kept in the most inner and precious clean part of it self and taketh pure pleasure therein and that not onely for the light sake but for the blessed love which is in that light and the knowledge it giveth how to seek God within and forget all bodily things without and also forget thinking of it self and wayting to finde therein onely the uncreated God that made him and gave him reason will and affections and quickeneth him in Christ Jesus by his blessed light and so as Christ Jesus moves in him by his grace so moveth the soul to find and feel him more in himself as the true light which is not a natural or bodily thing but truth and faithfulness in spiritual light for as bodily light serveth to the body or outward man so this true light and faithful spiritual being which is God in Christ sheweth to the reason of the soul first it self and then in and by it self all other spiritual things that are needful to the knowledge and salvation of the Soul So said David By or In thy light we see light And thus is God a consuming fire that burneth and consumeth sin out of the soul and purifieth it even as fire parifieth Metals and these are as favory words as also is the work to those that so receive them and when the inner eye of the Soul is opened through grace to have such a beholding of Jesus Christ thereby shall the soul be raught to turn the outward powers into spiritual use and not to reft in a bare believing but grow in farther sight and knowledge of him untill the reasonable soul receive the kingdome of God as Christ said and that full blessed and endless life in him And in order thereto ever to feel and know how Jesus Christ opens the inner eye of the soul of his goodness and meer mercy when and as he pleaseth by lighting the reason with his true inner light in the conscience to see him and know him by little and little as the soul may suffer him whereby he gently sheweth the soul that he is an unchangeable being of saving strength faithfulness goodness and blessedness of endless life which the obedient soul learneth to see as much more then can be well express'd as Jesus pleaseth to reveal to him by his holy Spirit and that not blindly nakedly or unsavourily as in mans own reason by his outward learning or other bodily abilities but with an understanding enlightned comforted and strengthened by the gift of the holy Ghost with a wonderfull inexpressible love reverence godly fear spirituall savour and heavenly delight so as that the affections become ravished therewith and keeps from the minding of earthly things And thus is Go pleased to beget his owne likeness in man which beg tring is his Son in flesh even that goodness sight and sure knowledge of God in Christ and love unfained in him which is a reforming of the soul in faith and feeling and yet may not be grown so fully perfect in love as some have felt and written of but the more clean clear and simple the soul is made in parting from fleshly love the more quick sight and greater love to God it hath and it may be so as though there were no other man that believed in or loved Jesus Christ but that he were alone as Elijah once thought yet he would love him trust in him and follow him and not part with him for all other things and then a man valueth all earthly created things at one rate as nothing worth in his esteem knowing that both the love and the things themselves that worldly men esteem and delight in shall perish together coveting nothing but close communion with Jesus Christ spiritually not fleshly for he knows not after the flesh but loves and owns Jesus Christ in all men without respect to outward persons and things and flies from the vain sights of worldly delights that others take pleasure in his delight being onely in Jesus Christ lest other things should let the freedome of his heart from him neither doth he value or heed the speakings of other men unless in the same light love meekness of Jesus Christ and would rather be still in peace having nothing outwardly unless it be spoken feelingly and stirringly as of the love of Jesus to farther him therein And as for speaking or hearing of worldly speech it hath no savour in him much less stories tidings or vain janglings can have no place in his thoughts and therefore not in his affections for as the inner eye of the soul is opened through faith working by love into the beholding of Jesus Christ by inspiration of speciall grace it is thereby made clean subtill and able to move to and work in the Lords vineyard in such manner of working by the holy Ghost as the greatest learned men on earth cannot imagine with all their wit and skill much less shew it with their tongues because it is not gotten by study nor through any mans labour but by pure and speciall gift of the holy Ghost and is not different in quality from the heavenly gift in conversion of the chosen souls but is the same though it be otherwise felt and shadowed out to the soul For as the soul groweth in grace so grace groweth in the soul and increaseth more and more unto the perfect day and heavenly kingdom of especiall seeing into the secrets of the Lord Jesus so that when the heart awaketh to God and is knit to him then it sleepeth and is lost from the world And thus the Apostles slept to the worldly love while in true inspiration of
was rejected and also man cast out of Paradice from the sweet presence of God into this visible world to take his portion where his proud heart had chosen it in the knowledge of good and evil inventions and lusts without and contrary to God and how this begot in him an evil opinion of God trouble of Mind and condemnation in himself whereby sorrow of soul seised on him love meekness and humanity was lost and he was dead unto God and all good but alive to every lust and fleshly delight inwardly as a devil and outwardly as a beast by his so abusing his trust insomuch that he then esteemed God who before was his life and delight as his enemy and became affraid of him and could in no wise change his mind to love and trust God again though the Lord God changed not but covered himself with outward things as Fig-leaves and hid himself from the presence of God amongst the trees when he heard his voice there in the cool of the day Or how Adam excused himself concerning his nakedness his fear or the prevalency of the temptation by reason of his light or loose-mindedness how he was driven out of the Garden and Cherubims with a flaming sword set up to turn every way and keep the way of the tree of life or what was figured out thereby concerning mans having his chosen portion in this world of his own will selfish wisdom and earthly glory by which sin entred and death by sin came over all men inasmuch as all have sinned and come short of the glory of God by turning his truth into a lye worshipping and serving the Creature instead of the Creator who is God over all and rich unto all that call upon him and so are become enemies in their minds through evil works and to every good work reprobares and no way to be recovered but through the love and tender mercy of the Lord God so much abused in the then promised seed to bruise the Serpents head destroy his sinful will and wisdom in mans mortal body and restore him again to God from whom by transgression he fell by turning his mind into the eternal counsel will and thereby bringing in an everlasting righteousness in the new man created in Christ Jesus by the spirit of holiness to good works and walk in them to the restauration of all things c. But of these things briefly that I may be more large touching the end of mans Creation and his duty in relation thereto in which Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice Snoch walked with God pleased him was translated and not found by any tentation for God took him into the eternal heavenly hearing seeing tasting feeling of love and firm obedience wherein the Lord GOD accepts every man that so comes unto him in Christ Jesus the same unchangeable way truth and life as babes and sucklings and so receive his kingdom as little children and in the new spiritual birth and by the sincere milk of the word grow up in him and become wholly his and for him in his eternal counsel and will and have their conversations in heaven hating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God and partaking of his holiness and glory wherein the Tempter cannot find them though he may contend as he did about the body of Moses But though Enoch so walked with God and after him Noah was singular in his generation yet as it is written The wickedness of man was great in the earth the imaginations and thoughts of his hears onely evil continually for all flesh had corrupted their way the earth was filled with violence insomuch that the Lord repented that he had made man on the earth but man by his Deed causing this repented not to give glory to God in any general way yet for all this the Lords love and long suffering waited in the days of Noah and afterwards suffered the evil manners of his people the natural seed of Abraham in the wilderness and endured as now he doth the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction by unbelief hardness of heart and rebellion against him that spend their times and weary their wits about eating drinking revelling dancin and serving their lusts of all kinds with violence in vicious living as if that were the very end of mans Creation The Lords love in tendering redemption his outward chastisements inward smitings and sufferings in his beloved servants whereby he warneth all men to repentance and to take heed how they allow or plead for their sins as most do saying They must have their sins while their souls are in their bodies or as some speak until their last gasp but it were better said by such men That they may but will not come to Christ to be led otherwise by his light and spirit of holiness to be cleansed from all unrighteousness were they but willing to follow him in his blessed footsteps before the Lords jealousie and wrath be yet farther kindled against them that so wax old in their evil ways by custom therein specially in these times of tryal while he is working wonders in the earth and delivering his chosen ones avenging his elect that cry to him executing the judgement written as well for the rebellious as for proving and purging his own houshold-servants or think the time not near when he shall say They are turned to their idols let them alone They that are filthy let them be filthy still Why should they be smitten any more Let them go to the gods they have served Give them their portion c. As ignorance is ever the mother of Devotion in erroneous principles Opinions and Practises so consequently it is of Divisions in those erroneous-paths whereby wilful ignorance is turned into immodest Zeal and hasty frowardness to make by-ways with gaudy and guilded shews for others to fall down before and worship but my business being here specially to give some directions to weary Travellers that are going out of their way and yet would know and enter the door of mercy and hope to find refreshment for their souls and likewise to the rebellious that are in bondage that the Lord God might dwell amongst them and bring them also into his fold and freedom of glorious liberty with the sons of God and therefore briefly touch and pass over the many by-ways that lead to and thorow Presumption into Despair and thence into endless misery as the way of Cain Nimrod the old world Jannes and Jambres Ishmael Esau Core and his company Nadab and Abibu Balaam and sundry other false Prophets Apostates and Persecutors as recorded in holy Scripture over-many here to mention and at this time too manifestly in use to be now hid III. The covetous prophane worldly men in their several ways chuse their portions in this world their great desires hopes fears and cares being to get save and possess an earthly inheritance which is their portion and their hearts there also some taking
in his own light and spiritual leading in every mans conscience there to arise and his enemies be scattered as he transformeth and reneweth the mind according to his blessed will of heavenly love and the contrary thereto is onely unreasonable unrighteous intolerable and abominable to God as that which enforceth men of corrupt and unstable minds to formalities and hypocrisie whereof ensueth condemnation in themselves to their souls besides the many other mischiefs and miseries to mankinde for what is out of faith is sin both in the commander and actor and if the heart condema God is greater and knoweth all and who shall justifie where he condemns and as it is written Blessed and happy is he that condemns not himself in the thing that he alloweth and contrarily which ought to be well heeded and warily observed by all men and is by those that are willing to know and perform the great trust reposed in them concerning their own souls as knowing that they must give an account of themselves to God and ought not to trust their souls with others that have other ends then for the Lords service and learned Arts whereby to call good evil and evil good put darkness for light and light for darkness as blind men or with their eyes shut and unwilling to know the light of life and leading of the holy Spirit of truth as if as the fool said in his heart there were no God or not desiring the knowledge of his way and yet concerning the things of this world cry Give give more more when they have not rightly learned how to use that they have V. You that are strict and zealous Professors in your ways should study to be quiet in your selves and with others you have a zeal as for God but not according to knowledge of him as a fire of love in you kindled by the holy Ghost and therefore you are such and so diversly opinionated without unity or order amongst your selves but one fort contending for the Monster Uniformity another for their new-made Faith a third for their dead dumb and empty ordinances and each impleading others and employing your selves like Nadab and Abibu or Core and his company in kindling and offering strange fires before the Lord and resisting the truth taught in the light of Christ by his blessed Spirit which leads into all truth as Jannes and Jambres sometime withstood Moses but your deeds are so manifest and you stopt and reproved in your inward and outward parts so as not like much farther to prevail are again in love as heretofore warned to turn in your minds to him that there smiteth for amendment that a remnant of you forsaking the sparks of their own kindling may be purged purished and brought forth as gold tryed and saved by that consuming fire which burns and wasts all sin our of obedient souls with the fleshly loves and lovers thereof so as there may be no more mis-judging by private and perverse spirits of ignorance weakness or thick darkness that cannot comprehend the deep things of God but do turn the minds out of the true light of Jesus Christ wherein his servants see light to walk that pure path of holiness in him to glory in words emptiness and vanity of your wills bodily wits and works as did the former persecuters of Christ Jesus not wisely heeding the Lords hand whereby he is restoring all things into the glorious liberty of his sons and daughters and how he therefore now shakes the earth and heavens also which should abate the edge of mens earthly appetites accompanied with such strange and hideous effects and would if they knew any thing of the Lords pure and powerful workings or of the times and seasons or were but near ripe for truth and apt to the kingdom of God and would take such off from expecting greater signes and wonders or acting another thing by another spirit of private interpretation different from the Lords purpose so many ways manifested and therefore it is evident that such men are sick weak or fallen asleep so that they cannot discern the Lords body his truth and true worshippers nor other things that differ And though you may not be competent Judges in spiritual matters yet consider is it righteous or reasonable that those who are either meerly carnal or have not yet received so much as the bare presence of the holy Spirit in grace should judge others that are sealed with the Spirit of promise baptised and made to drink into that one Spirit which judgeth all things and so are partakers of the divine nature of the immortal and invisible God Have you never read how the Lords praise is perfected in the mouths of his babes and sucklings and that whosoever doth not receive the kingdom of God as a little Childe shall in no wise enter therein or how the mysteries of that kingdom are hid from the wise and prudent and revealed to such babes or how the halt lame and blind whom you despise do enter while you your selves and others art shut out and the rich sent empty away Remember that Exhortation of Christ Jesus to men of your sort saying Wash the inside that the out may be clean also It is high time for you to be willing to put away the evil of your doings and yeild to his light and leading of his Spirit that your souls may be prepared and fitted to feel and know him as God equal with the Father spiritually to clense you from all unrighteousness and then you will not suppose that any good thing of him can make you happy but what is so revealed and wrought in you or be ignorant of the danger of resisting or neglecting such divine stirrings in your souls by any your exquisite Arts natural Reasons or bodily Wits as some do who are so much thereby deceived that they think they are not deceived You may read likewise of some that had travelled pretty far in outward Ordinances been baptised with water c. and yet not heard that there is an holy Ghost and such in those days are not a few that have their cars stopped with dumb and deadly sounds of words or thereby become so dull of hearing that they hearken not to the voice of the Charmer though he charm never so wisely nor are gotten one step farther then those that had not heard of an holy Ghost though they can talk much of him by what they have read or others told them and how then should they believe on him of whom they have not heard specially while they are so willingly led by such ignorant talking that so dulls them and hinders their heeding of the true light and hearing what the holy Spirit saith and how he revealeth the deep things of God to all watchful and willing souls so that such have their loves to and their faith and lives in mans wisdom and seldom or never come to the love of God indeed and in truth but remain vain and unruly
reasonable things But the soul is to seek for a higher knowledge of and in it self in the light as to know that it is invisible and immortal of the breath of God wherein God is to be seen spiritually which is a great mystery not to be exprest in words but to be sought out and kept clean and bright from worldly wisdom fleshly filth and earthly vanities above the sensual part to see it self in Jesus Christ the Way Truth and Life the ancient Path wherein the holy men of God ever walked to please him in diligent labour and travel of mind and sufferings of the outward man and yet with fulness of joy and spiritual delight In every spiritual work and employment mans will wisdom reasoning and earthly affections are to be left behind as Abraham left his servants when he went to offer his Son Isaac for a burnt-offering to the Lord and as Moses drawing near to God put off his shoes so all you that will draw near unto the Lord God cast aside and leave behind you your own selfishness wills wisdoms and imaginations with every high thought that exalteth it self and keeps your souls from closing with the Lord in his holy service that you may be by him prepared to meditate watch pray and give thanks in all things and at all times and embrace all divine counsel and heavenly help thereby freely tendered in the pure light and tender touches in the conscience to move the heart into an awful dread and true fear of God that by the stirrings of grace you may come to a knowledge of him spiritually which gift is common to all bat particularly received by the diligent soul that waits therein stable and firm according as it so receiveth and keepeth thereto with all ready chearfulness moving in its own measure of grace so given though it be never so little for the Lord is pleased suddenly to prepare mens hearts by putting meditations into their minds in the beginning and time of their conversions especially of such as have been much occupied in worldly defilements and then commonly the thoughts of such when once turned in are most upon their sins with great sorrow meekness and tears asking forgiveness and watching thereto as the Lord toucheth their so us sharply to make them the sooner clean for then the sin will be ever in the sight as foul and horrible and accompanied with fightings and hard conflicts in their consciences so as that they can take no rest until the Lord Jesus give it as pleaseth him wherein is his tender mercy that he may scowre and cleanse such souls the more speedily and forgive their sins as he wipeth them away wherein justification is in sanctification and sanctification accompanied with justification and fitteth the soul to receive some spiritual grace and gift of his love and so the holy Spirit oft stirreth to meditations in God which worketh a kindly work in their souls to be waited in and the fruits of the Spirit to be received and all in Jesus Christ as the pure power endless love and wisdom of God that sets the heart upon hungering after his vertue and spiritual discoveries in such exercises as God is graciously pleased to give in to the soul and so meditation watching and praying have no rules bounds or limits set by man unto them but when and as the Lord Jesus pleaseth to give by the holy Spirit for his gift it is for disposing of his chosen ones and drawing in their souls to him to be made wise in waiting knowing and obeying him spiritually wherein he giveth such tender-heartedness that they oft melt into devotion and are ravished in souls above measure somewhat like as it sometimes was with the Disciples that sate together and were filled with the holy Ghost and then spake forth the great and wonderful things of God when all they knew was oy that spiritual ravishing love and so the Lord is pleased oftentimes to open his treasury and give to some very plentifally in all ages as their souls come to be cleansed and the way made open and easie to them though the doing thereof is a great mystery to others that remain ignorant or are net watchful and diligent so that it passeth over them some growing contrary to it and at enmity with it for then the Lord withdraweth it again by reason of that slothfulness and abuse and sometimes from the more diligent to prove and try such that they may know wherein their strength standeth and after that to feel their own weakness and also know their respective states and how to love more spiritually and so partly it was with the Disciples that loved Christ much while in the flesh with them but then fleshly as in his manhood and therefore he told them it was necessary for them that he should go away and send the holy Ghost to teach them to know and love more spiritually and so the Lord oft withdraws himself outwardly that the inward and heavenly presence of his love may be the more earnestly desired meditated on and pressed after and that the soul may know its duty and employment in waiting watching and suffering until it be throughly renewed strengthned and established in his spiritual might and power to glorifie him with more fervent love and holy worship and if it so come to pass that he who is watchful and diligent therein feels not this vertue enabling him to meditation or spiritual imployment with his whole heart as he desireth but in stead thereof fee leth many other thoughts run in upon him and hinder him and the more pain he taketh to keep his heart in watching and waiting for spiritual feeling the farther off it is to the very last and again harder afterwards this is to teach him to watch more singly and sincerely within the soul and forget all things without and to know that it is no easie thing to love with all the heart until the heart be renewed for this work will be found painful and laborious at first by the pressing in of vain thoughts and a full hard task it is for him that feels no grace to be long meditating waiting and watching in his soul and much will he be encumbered with running and roving thoughts as having gotten no sure hold of his heart and therefore is the heart to be kept unto God in the light with all diligence for thereout come the issues of life or of death for there is the good or the evil treasure and when well kept there springs up wise and clear thoughts clean affections fiery desires to spititual employment vertue and vertuous actions but otherwise thereout come the contrary as evil thoughts unclean desires and affections for every mans thoughts and meditations discover to him that is of a heedful mind what he is as that whereon he thinketh and meditateth in that he loveth so that he loveth is his God and the more he loveth God the more he mindeth him and meditateth on
heaven that Christ said is within the heritage of heavenly love is found and repossessed in mans soul for it is not so easily found as many usually suppose nor is it a work of one day onely but attained by much waiting in the light sweeping searching watching praying and silent mourning before the Lord and as the heart and conscience becomes purified then he shall finde that homely and peaceable presence of Jesus Christ the pearl of great price in the glimmering shadow of pure shining brightness in his soul But though Jesus Christ is so hid in the soul yet no man is any whit the better thereby that doth not there finde him and feel his operations spiritually but remains as it is written a reprobate whatsoever he may be otherwise And a great mercy it is to man that this Jewel was lost where it may be found again by the light in the scarching and watchful soul where Jesus Christ full oft calleth and knocketh by his privy voice stirring reproving and inviting the soul to a diligent search and withal to abandon other lovers vanities and entanglements that hinder the hearing of his voice for as it is said this daughter must consider and forget her own people and her fathers house of worldly thoughts loves cares and fears which hinder the soul that it can neither see him nor hear him and therefore all troublesome thoughts restless noise and imaginations are to be put away as Hagar the bond-woman that may not be heir with the son of the free woman for while the soul is in the bondage of corruption there is nothing within but black clouds and spiritual blindness with fleshly thoughts and desires crying against it in the dark conscience but as the inner eye of the soul is opened in the light which is of Jesus Christ in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily there is that pure sight and sweet love of endless vertue and blessed rest which is found within the soul by the great and burning desires for him whereby all other loves and lovers are cast out and not suffered to rest in the heart which is a right seeking for him this hid Treasure And as this stirring and waiting in the light waxeth firm stable and unmoveable it will be holpen and comforted by inward and spiritual strength of love and sweet savour in the soul with light of continual springing faithfulness and assured knowledge of him and the powers of the thoughts onely upon him and freed from every other affection to rest in the sweet anointing which is the shadow and taste of Jesus Christ and the better any soul finds him the more it will desire him in cleanness of heart and pureness of conscience to meet him more singly in the same way he appeareth and wherein it hath seen and found him at first and other times since most savourly And though thou art altogether blind and seest nothing rightly in thy self or of the Godhead of Christ yet consider seriously what thou wantest and what thou hast lost for thy soul can have no true content or sure satisfaction but in God from whence it is and if thy heart say I want and would have Jesus Christ and nothing but him onely wait therein for him as not satisfied with that appearance and follow him as he leadeth thee and more and more press forward to know him and the power of his resurrection and fellowship of his sufferings and to be made conformable to his death and so grow up in him as he moves and grows in thee and yet know that when thou hast found the most of him in the highest ravishments of spirit as Peter and Iohn in the mount or as Paul mentioned thou hast not therein fully attained to him as he is in his joy for he is still above that any soul feeleth as the fountain of all joy and sweetness but thou art ever to know and feel a spiritual longing after him and a loathing of all things else and then thou wilt find him more worth then all things even then all visions and revelations though not without visions and revelations then all joy in heaven and earth if it might be had without him for thou wilt then say in thy soul as David whom have I in heaven but thee and I desire nothing in the earth besides thee as feeling and finding that his pure presence onely gives understanding to the simple he teacheth fools knowledge whereat the Nations are angry the people and their teachers rage and imagine a vain thing against him and his holy One as not willing to know him for fear of the Cross and the shame which he despised for the joy set before him and are therefore grieved that any others should Conversion is properly a turning from evil to good from lust to pure love which is God and this conversion is ever accompanied with repentance from dead works that are past and out of that nature love and liking wherein they were wrought to serve the living and true God and therefore it is not every turning of mans body and mind from one outward form or practice to another as it were thereby to serve and worship God for then the divers Political turnings of former and latter times would be conversion to him which he may not so accept because he changeth not but is the same at all times even the unerring Father of spirits and so to be worshipped in spirit and in truth and these are outward turnings from one act of mans will to another or from evil to worse as the Proselytes that the Pharisees made sevenfold worse then before whilst the ground of sin with its branches remain standing uncut down or toucht from whence such traditional turnings arise to oppose that one truth and good way of the Lord wherein all obedient souls are made free from such shifts and changes but while men have either not know the fear of the Lord or are departed from it left and lost the power of godliness and simple truth in themselves so that their salt is without savour their minds run abroad and their hearts are filled with fleshly desires loves and fears wherein they labour night and day to gain and keep the love and friendship of this world which is enmity to God with the profits and pleasures thereof and therein serve themselves like the beasts that perish and have their hearts oft filled with wrath and revenge like unreasonable beasts against others of their own kind when they are hindred of any their desired ends and likewise against such as so hinder them not therein unless by standing in their way as the Angel before Balaam and so touching their more quick and tender parts and that onely in love to bring them back into the light and fear of the Lord that their blind and dead souls might be lighted and enlivened to have regard to the honest principle of God in themselves and others that would rule all
the powers of the soul So there is a meekness that is gained by the working of reason in fleshly feeling and another that is deeply felt in the soul and is the free and spiritual gift of love and it is a full hard thing and a great mystery to him that stands in the working of his own reason to keep constant rest and softness in his heart and charity to love men when they despise him without resisting or repining thereat c. Both these are of love but the first worketh by the reason of the soul the second worketh by the holy Spirit in the soul and so the first is imperfect the second perfect The first meekness a man feeleth in beholding his sin and wretchedness and judging himself unworthy of any mercy or good thing at the hand of God and as the worst of creatures worthy of all sufferings and thus thrusteth himself down under all others and grieveth in his heart when he is overcome by any temptation confesseth accuseth himself and asketh forgiveness c. But this is not perfect meekness for it comes of beginning to profit in grace caused by beholding of sins and this is the meekness that love worketh by the reason of the soul But perfect meekness the soul feeleth of the sight and spiritual knowledge of Jesus Christ seeing him to be all and do all in the soul and for it and hath so great love and joy in that spiritual sight that it forgetteth it self after a sort and leaneth to Jesus Christ with all the love it hath to behold him and heeds not any unworthiness or sins before done but setteth it self with all sins past and good deeds also at nought as unworthy to be remembred and judgeth no particular soul neither better nor worse them himself but loves and helps the good in all and every man therein and slighteth and despiseth all the joy and worship of this world as seeing it so little and nought in regard of the joy and love the soul feeleth in the spiritual sight of Jesus Christ and knowledge of his purity and holiness that though he might have all worldly joy and worship without sin yet he would not meddle with it The world hath no savour in this meekness but is exceeding far from it It is the lover of Jesus Christ onely that hath this meekness abiding in him with liking and gladness and that without any heaviness or stirring for it But the world hath a proud meekness belonging to an hypocrite without this joy or gladness by the gift of the holy Ghost and do heed the praises of men as also fear their dispraises taking pleasure or displeasure thereat in themselves and it 's like this was the snare that David prayed to have his heart pluckt out of And many that yet love the praise of men more then God or his praise do bestir themselves travel and labour with their wills wits and affections and so think on God Christ and outward exercises as it were by their strength to draw out of themselves a feeling of the love of God in Christ even by bodily force and mastery if that were possible But these love not spiritually nor is this a kindly or gracious work of love but a kind of maddoing of the soul at Reasons bidding which without meekness and forsaking the love of earthly things is very dangerous to beget spiritual pride which otherwise done in meekness of love and a loathing of all earthly affections may finde favour with the Lord and be by him changed from mans own works into spiritual workings for as man cannot think a good thought of himself so he ought to forbear his own thinkings words and works as not good and therefore can find no acceptance with God and wait with patience for the Lords working in him to will and to do of his good pleasure all other workings being to the soul's greater sufferings and loss as the Prophet said The kindling of fires with mans own sparks causeth the foul to lie down in sorrow In such an imperfect Lover Love worketh freely by the affections of man but in perfect Lovers Love worketh within in the light by spiritual affections killing all other affections in the soul and that both kindly and quietly but man not knowing this work of the holy Spirit will not believe how the vertues of Meekness Soberness Chastity Love and Cleanness is wrought so quietly and surely without travel or painful labour of the body and bodily wits and therefore they labour and toil day after day with their Reasons and outward exercises in their own strength to get vertues and make love by words and other stirrings and what they seem so to get they have much more ado to keep with all their fightings against sin contendings for grace and wranglings about it and therefore are like Wrastlers sometimes above and soon again underneath up and down in and out off and on getting and losing and so weary their wits and tire themselves because all this striving is in their own reason might and strength of self-will as fightings with themselves but neither in true savour nor love and therefore have not the victory or upper hand of what they strive about and such must loose the full rest because no man may so put himself fully into Gods hands for that man seeth him not but his eye being shut he thereby closeth it faster lest he should see and will not know it and though some such may suffer bodily pains for what they do as in love to Jesus Christ and that gladly yet being not of the holy Spirit led by the fire of burning love and brightness it is fully mingled with high pride presumption judging and disdaining them by whom they suffer and yet these say and think they are in charity and that they suffer all for the love of God but are begailed by the Devil's transformings because their knowledge of God is principally in imaginations and their love to him in natural affections and bodily likenesses at the best but as milk before strong meat for in strong feeding on the Father's Bread at his own Table the imaginations may not be serviceable unless to the feeling in understanding when need is and then onely as a hand-maid waiting on the hand of her Dame Many do like well of the Vertues of Meekness Lowliness and Patience as in their own reasons and wills that are enemies thereto in their affections through grudgings in themselves at those in whom they are and so can have no love to Vertue or vertuous men or know how to delight in them as such spiritually and what these men do by the stirrings of reason in them is but out of a fleshly fear of God or rather applause of men for Jesus Christ is but as a stranger to the soul until his Image be therein reformed in meekness and love which is his Livery and wherein he discovers himself and his secrets as he said to his
the holy Ghost contemplating on Jesus Christ they were awake though they had other sleeps sometimes as when Christ said Could you not watch with me one houre having their souls inspired through grace and the speciall eye therein opened and beholding Jesus Christ in purity and poverty of spirit inward silence true rest peace in conscience highness of heavenly thoughts with singleness and purity of heart disliking the joyes of this world and onely delighted with spirituall savour of bright burning love thirsting for and gently seeking the Lords blessed presence spiritually These are true testimonies of the inspiration of the holy Ghost in this keeping the spirituall eye of the soul but seeing that reforming onely in faith and fleshly feeling is very low and perilous in its beginning because of the aptness then to yield to the tempter and backslide and reforming in spirituall feeling and savour so high and sure great diligence is requisite in watching waiting coveting and labouring as the Lord Jesus moveth in disposing the affections and bringing the heart to cleanness and feeling of grace which is a constant work of much travel of soul against all wicked stirrings and temptations for it so falls out with some that through negligence and yielding to tentations the enemy enters the soul again and then it feels not the grace as it did but it is withdrawn and the soul returns into the state as before but then the soul is in much blindness pain sorrow and unsavouriness for it relisheth worldly things but unsavourily and is encumbered with bodily wit and earthly matters for the time and then it desireth after the grace of Christ Jesus again and may not find it for a time but this withdrawing is alwayes for just cause and also in much merey to prove the soul and let it see that without Christ it can do nothing and come to him again with much pain and labour fear care and watchfulness while it supposeth that Jesus Christ heareth not which is his dealing with many for their spirituall strength and growth in him for then the Lord Jesus is sure that the soul will not turn again to worldly love for that it can have no savour therein and then after a time Jesus Christ returneth into that soul full of grace and truth visiteth it in its desires sighs and longings for very love to his presence and then as he toucheth it softly and anoynieth it with the oyle of gladness it is healed of all pains and pantings and then it cryeth to Jesus in the spirit with a glad heart and sweet still voyce as his love teacheth This opening of the spirituall eye of the soule is a light darknesle and rich poverty leading to purity of spirit quietness of conscience inward peace and spirituall rest with high and heavenly thoughts in singleness of soul a light and feeling of grace in the secrets of the heart tasting heavenly savour of inflamed love with bright-shining light of reforming into pure feeling whereof many holy men of God have written every one according to his respective feeling thereof in the grace of the holy Ghost and though they seem divers in shewing by words because then each one spake after his own then receiving and encreasing in grace yet nevertheless they agreed in all as in one sentence of unchangable verity for the soul that through the Lords mercifull visiting with his grace comes to see the face of Jesus by that touching and especiall grace of the holy Ghost is changed and turned from what it was into another manner of living for it is wonderfully drawn first into it self from love and likings of all earthly things insomuch that it hath lost the savour of the bodily life and all things else save onely Jesus Christ and is thereby made clean from all the filth of sin and all inordinate affections are wiped off and washed away in the blood of the Lamb and hath nothing standing to hinder him between God and his soul but onely the bodily eye which is thereby become blind and the soul in spirituall rest with Jesus Christ without fears cares or desires of worldly things but fully imployed in a free and spiritual working and love therein whereby its rest increaseth to perfection it being truly called rest because grace hath wholly loosed the heavy yoak and bonds of fleshly love to work with ease in sweet amity joy and delight as the holy Spirit directeth the soul and leadeth it And this doth silence the soul from janglings of all other speakers for it is the voyce of Jesus Christ in heavenly vertue softly sounding in the clean soul by his quick and piercing word sharply dividing between the joynts and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart that slayeth all fleshly love and keepeth the soul quiet from all the stirrings thereof and so is silence made in heaven for half an hour as it is written even within in the clean soul that is lifted up by grace from earthly love to heavenly conversation and so it is in silence though but for a short time before it be again assaulted by its enemies yet hath it peace in conscience because this grace puts out all gratings prickings stirrings and fightings of sin making Jesus Christ and the soul both one in agreement of will and affections so that there are no upbraidings of sin nor reprovings for faults for the Son and that soul have kissed each other and are become friends and all faults past are forgiven whereby the soul feeleth assurance of its salvation by the witness of the holy Ghost in the heart and thereby receiveth day by day more and more spirituall joy and boldness to come to the throne of grace the holy Spirit bearing witness of its sonship and the witness in the conscience administring sure consolation with peace and pure accord love and lasting friendship between Jesus Christ and the soul so that the soul is then above the world in high and heavenly contemplation which is an earnest of true glory here in the body in the knowledge of Jesus Christ with so strong and lasting desires of love that many waters cannot quench And blessed is that soul which is ever fed in feeling of love in Jesus Christs presence is born up by desire to him in his absence for he is wise and hath well learned Christ that holdeth him sadly and reverently with pure affections while he is present and while he is as absent beareth it patiently and easily without bitter pains of impure desires and as there are diversities of feelings in the presence of grace so there are in the absence of grace according to the souls meekness or growth therein and therefore he that knoweth not the absence of grace is readily deceived by outward sounds of other mens sayings and he that is not diligent and watchfull to keep the presence of grace is very unkind to Jesus Christ that in and for love giveth it for the soul should be
like her head in vertue and firmness of perfect love And this take for a maxime that he who perceiveth no changes in feeling of his grace given him but still remains a like all whole strong stable unbroken or unhurt as he thinketh must needs be either full perfect or full blind but the latter is more like or most to be feared for he that is so perfect that he is above all touches of earthly things dwelleth in Jesus Christ by sweet and soft love is accepted into a high estate of heavenly glory and restfull pleasure knowing nothing but pure love which is God but he is full blind indeed that feigneth himself to be in grace and savour with Jesus Christ without spirituall feeling of the holy Ghost and setleth himself in a stay'd condition as if he were ever in feeling working in spirituall grace thinking that all is grace that he feeleth without and within and that what he doeth and speaketh is grace and that he is unchangable therein and alwayes at one stay and condition which he esteemeth good Such a soul is fully blind and altogether without feeling of grace in any its workings for they are wrought as aforesaid and by a lively inspiration thereof with the spirituall presence of Jesus Christ in the soul and sweetness of his love by his wonderfull in-dwelling there This is the life of feeling in grace after the measure of the gift with a reverend beholding him spiritually without which in some measure all is but deceitfull and nothing worth nor any way of good use but hurtfull for as the soul is the light and life of the body so is Jesus Christ the light and life of the soul by his gracious presence which cannot so well be exprest as felt for it is the light life love joy strength and rest of the soul that hath painfully felt it yet with sweetness insomuch that it cannot cease from desiring it And this is that no man may mistake in or concerning the work of grace in his own soul and he who will remain still filthy may bear his own burthen whatever he be and his shame also for God hath not left himself without a witness in every man neither is he wanting to any though as Christ said The holy Ghost inspireth where and when he will and that privily as the wind bloweth oft-times when men are least aware of him but is known by his stirring and turning the heart into a beholding of his goodness and melting it into softness of love yet wondereth at his highness shining brightness but the substance effect of this shining grace remaineth though not in its fervour while the soul is kept clean without fallings by wilfulness or negligence into a dissolute life of fleshliness and outward vanity and also know that the soul which is unacquainted with the touches of spirituall grace is an enemy to all spirituall works as being old dry rotten barren and without savour in it self for the salt hath there no savour and to be trodden under foot and nothing but the light of grace through touching maketh it lively sharp quick subtil ready and able to spirituall work by giving it great freedome and a holy readiness in will and affections to obey all the stirrings of grace in the soul and to watch thereto for opening of the spirituall eye whereby it becomes apt to meditation watching and prayer but not to pray in the common manner it did before with loud voyce many words and other mens speakings but in stilness of the voyce and tenderness of heart being gathered up into it self and in the spirituall presence of Jesus Christ wherein every word and syllable hath a savoury sweet sound and delectable melody in the heart by the holy Spirit as being wholly entered into the fire of love the powers of the soul being all heated and inflamed with love so that the sparks flie upward whence the fire came and therein is the soul so comfortably enlightned that it knowes not how to leave off watching praying and praising God with spirituall delight and heavenly joy when no matter is seen outwardly nor voyce heard And this is the food and nourishment of the soul and of much vertue against temptations and likings of the world for it beareth up both soul and body from painfull heaviness of heart and feeling of the wretchedness of this earthly life and the soul is thereby kept quick and lively This was Davids prayer as Incense ascending and perfuming the soul and so as any hath a Psalm of the spirit which is savoury and soft sweet and pleasant in the pure mind broken and burning heart it giveth up a sweet smell to the face of our Lord Jesus Christ these are the prayers and praises heard and accepted of God as before hath been said yielding and also receiving grace from him which he accepts as an addition to his Glory and all other praying wants savour and sweetness as a speaking of words with the tongue when the heart is gone after other lovers or likings of fleshly things and the soul is not master of the bodily wits and imaginations of the brain and is that wherein is no constant devotion no freeâ—om of spirit no ardent and burning love and affections nor whole mind but much speaking and running about here and there by words seeming to speak of spirituall matters without savour profit or any soul-satisfaction and therefore hear with me a few words more of this weighty business of Prayer and keep first to silence and firm watchfulness that thou maist first come to a joyfull feeling of this spirituall praying and that shall teach thee unchangable wisdome without fancy or faineâ—ness that those are possessed with that speak well or ill of things they know not and therefore abide therein untill grace come into thy soul otherwise and will remove it in part for a time and employ thee otherwise and then therein be obedient for that is the best of all sacrifices whereby the holy God will be served and so there is no need of mans teaching how to pray or praise him what words to speak how to divide duties into parts or to guide the affections for the holy Spirit teacheth all this and much more as he pleaseth and the soul feeleth it self led thereby to enjoy Jesus Christ in some measure but this praying and praising God with the Spirit and understanding the wise world accounts foolishness and being strangers to it would have others continue so likewise In this spirituall watchfulness is the Revelation of Jesus Christ whereby the writings of the holy men of God are rightly shewed and opened which mans wit learning reason or study cannot reach for the understanding thereof is freely shewed to the clear soul by Jesus Christ who is the well-spring of wisdome and knowledge it is he that maketh the soul lively and wise to understand the holy Scriptures and yet not all at once in speciall view thereof
but grace giveth ability in spirituall manner as it cometh into the pure mind and this opening of the understanding is by the working of the holy Ghost in the pâ—esence of Jesus Christ whereby the soul is enabled to expound the Scriptures one after another be they never so hard or secret and the harder they be and the farther from mans reason and understanding the more delightfull is the true shewing of them whether it be Literal as concerning the outward man Moral to inform of vertues to be followed and vices to be eschewed Mystical to see the words and works of Jesus Christ spiritually or Spirituall as longing after him and his works to do them in like love and live in them as his friends so said he and this last truly understanding Scriptures savours well and very sweetly in the Lords taste for so the spirit of life giveth understanding of what was formerly by himself directed and from him written and so of no private interpretation quickning the thoughts of the soul therein with great sweetness savour and delight in special sad and serious waiting on Jesus Ghrist to understand Scriptures in his will and his testimonies of love therein through divers inward discernings sweet movings and sudden touchings of the holy Ghost whereby the soul is taught and enabled thereto without other helps and he that thus is given to understand the Scriptures values not the knowledge of men gotten by learning arts and sciâ—nces though of never so great worldly cunning and skill for the end of the true knowledge thereof taught by Jesus Christ is that the soul may see and enjoy him and attain salvation to life eternall and therein glorifie him as God equall with the Father c. whereas the other way of knowledge is for self-ends worldly vanities and fleshly delights When the servants of Jesus Christ are well skilled concerning their hearing the voyce of Christ they truly hearken know and follow him and then neither feignedness by transformings nor otherwise can deceive them for therein is no fainedness fancy pride nor hypocrisie but soundness meekness peace and charity full of life love and grace so that when it soundeth in the soul it so aboundeth with strength and vertue that it causeth the soul to leave all to wait upon it to listen hearken perceive rest in and love the sweet breathing of his spirituall voyce according as he sheweth himself whether as a Master a Father a Husband c. keeping the soul in a wonderfull reverence and lively beholding of him with much liking and delight to the soul that it may become a true and faithfull Spouse to him in the fulness of fellowship and light of love and this is in great power and glory a state of perfection in the way to as full communion with God as Adam had in innocency and Enoch by walking with him but the sight strength and comforts of some are therein more then others though all in this state are growing into the love and life of God in Christ Jesus so as the eye of heaven is opened to all such clean souls whereof holy men have diversly written as they were moved by the holy Ghost as of a life above all appearances likenesses bodily creatures or things even as in heaven beholding the Lord Jesus spiritually and loving him faithfully and therein knowing God the holy Ghost as love uncreated and the love formed in the affections of the soul to be of and by him through the sight and knowledge of the unchangable light and truth which is of God placed and seated in all meek souls wherein the spirit of holiness resteth and pleasantly walketh pet this formed love in the soul is not God himself but the love which the soul feeleth in Jesus Christ and to him neither is this the cause of coming to Jesus Christ but pure love which is God himself is the true cause of this knowing and drawing to himself for he sheweth and giveth of this love which is the holy Ghost to teach and lead therein so that God is both the giver and the gift as Christ Jesus said I give my life c. whereby mans soul comes to know this uncreated love and to know and love Jesus Christ as the free gift of God whereby he toucheth the heart with the invisible light to know him and receive his love and to love him again as in and with the same love so freely given and received but all in his own time by more quick or flow gracious feelings imparted into such souls as are cloathed with the new light of righteousness and true holiness which is a right reforming in this spirituall savour love and meekness but he is not so lighted and led by the holy Spirit that thinks he can do any good thing of himself or otherwise then by such working in him spiritually To you my dear friends that are of the holy brethren partakers of the heavenly vocation I salute you in the pure light of unchangable and endless love in Christ Jesus our Lord according to the spirit of holiness and undefiled liberty wherewith he hath made us free to serve him in spirit and truth have you born the indignation of the Lord in your own particulars are you purged from the pollutions of the world cleansed from the filthiness of flesh and spirit and thereby departed from the shadowes of this world and received glorious garments of the Lord put off the mortall and put on the immortall cloathing and sweetly confessed and meekly suffered for the name and testimony of our Lord Jesus who is our life and who of very faithfulness and pure love hath caused us to be troubled and is near at hand to succour you and give you rest in him purifie and prepare you for further trials to your spirituall profit and advantage in filling up the measure of his sufferings in your flesh and overcoming by the blood of the Lamb the word of his testimony and not loving your lives unto the death wherein the eternall God will be your refuge and underneath his everlasting arm for your defence and therefore all to be faithfull and diligent that truth suffer not by any faint or feeble owning of it for we are not called onely to believe but to suffer also for him in whom we believe and you be here onely as pilgrims and strangers that have freely parted with your owne wills desires fleshly affections and worldly delights that the eternall will of God may be done in you and by you and now bear the Cross quietly and patiently in clean vessels as Temples of the living God for his worship in the beauty of holiness and what have you here more that is worthy your minding that man can take from you or how may you withhold any other thing from our Lord or his service wherein you know that your loss or labour will not be in vain And therefore gird up the loyns of your minds stand fast quit you