only continence but not real patience But this is patience when a man can imprecate no evil upon another by reason of any adversity but if any one hath injured him he prayeth heartily for him note he hath a kindness for him and loveth him and if one hath taken any thing from him he yieldeth up and giveth all these things to him as unto his own self and is upon it of a chearful and not of a sad mind And this is the fruits of the spirit but continence is the work of the Law and cannot justify a man in the sight of God and is precedent unto righteousness which follows afterwards through faith in which all things are real which were before notional for in old things did abide the shaddow but the real things are of Christ himâ—elf Paul saith The Law could make nothing perfect but was the bringing in of a better hope There was no rest to the Fathers till Christ did come as the Prophet saith concerning Sion Isaiab 62.1 That if one would be made one with the truth it cannot be done whilst non-corruption lasteth and whatsoever is said or understood of it whilst it lasteth is without experience Non-corruption hopeth in vain for it cometh or arriveth not unto God For no man receiveth God without death and destruction Every natural man is in the desire of God or the creature and yet neither is due unto him for if he could come at God as he does to the creatures he would alike abuse him as he abuseth them viz. with appropriation These may be thus observed every imagination which is in man concerning God or the truth before purgation or death nature is ready to appropriate it to her self and to rest contented therein with delight that she may upon that account receive honour and respect and notwithstanding this conversation is still but according to the flesh which is followed by death For this rising up cannot abide this bridegroom must be taken away before the real truth can appear The Apostles possessed Christ before his death imaginarily but after death really Whence Paul writeth That he knew Christ no longer after the flesh but after the spirit and the truth and that he walked according to that spirit and not according to the flesh and that they were now become invisible to evey natural man whence they can be judged by none but are able to judge all that they were now sanctifyed or made holy by the Holy Spirit after that Christ was risen again from the death before whose death and resurrection no man could be holy The Holy Spirit maketh holy as the Lord saith Vnless I go away the Holy Spirit the Advocate will come unto you And no man putteth new wine into old bottles c. To renounce all creatures that nothing may remain but God and to set God only for the end and aim Nature and Flesh do hear it with terrour for they are amazed at this when they hear that all things must be taken away from them So that if the flesh can but retain one only thing though the vilest yet would it put or place its whole life therein and would adhere thereunto But in truth it cannot be so well done for it for all things will renounce it which way soever it tendeth Whence at length it must without any support let it self down into death and plainly dye to all things When a King and a Beggar are starved to death the death of either is the same and alike but yet with a distinction He that is in corruption beholding other good men still standing in non-corruption thinketh thus Alas in what condition are you O how much still can you be satiated and exhilerated with God when I can neither be so nor desire it To be at rest no where but in God it 's requisite before all things that one should become poor The sufferings of Job are not hid from me but that which followed after it cannot make me glad The Lord saith What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul and what advantage would it be to a man to know all things and yet he experienceth them not nor are they fulfilled in him and therefore we ought not to take care of that to know or understand much but that we may sensibly apprehend and experience much Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth faith the Apostle Experience supplieth all things in man and is adequate to knowledge And thus also the man is made humble CHAP. XIII WHen death is known it is also feared And by how much the more profoundly death is known by so much the more doth it terrify and is it feared If Death must be true it must be true as to all things When Nature is once dead as to corporal things it ought to remain dead and as to them never to revive again But then life ascends in the Soul and there seeks nourishment But Death follows it thither also and cuts off the thred of that life also that it may there also remain always dead nor can it ever revive again So that at last the life ascendeth above all creatures yea above the Angels also by how many degrees it is to ascend into life by so many deaths it is to dye and always to abide in death If one abstaineth from any thing he may take it up again but according to what any one is dead unto that ought always to remain dead so as that it can never be re-asumed I never possess piety and whatsoever I receive from God by my piety I am plainly robbed thereof and I can boast no where neither before God nor before any man nor before my own self for I live by free-grace alone This state is so miserable that no man knoweth it but he that is touched therewith And though I must live by free-grace yet I know of no grace nor can I comprehend or understand nor know nor find where that grace should be nor whence it should come although I have often felt it Therefore ought this grace to be both given and taken above and beyond the understanding knowledge and comprehension of all men yea above all merit or godliness that is in a man as also above all intellect and illumination but as for the justice of God judgment hell and damnation these I can most exactly know and understand whence they can come for they alwayes do handle me very severely But the will of God is my chiefest Salvation As long as the will of God overshaddows me I can bear all though I should be roasted or boyled annihilated or slain in Body Soul and Spirit But when the will of God hideth it self for some time that I do not feel it over me I fall into such streights as an unexperienced person cannot believe My whole hope is that the Lord will lead us all thorough all though the case be full of sorrows for his arm is all powerful
our sinful flesh In the death of a natural man the will of God only ruleth viz. because that God so willeth it and it so pleaseth him and his judgment thus requireth it Hither a man is to refer himself this is his only restand quiet viz. the will of God Things plainly happed otherwise then one thinketh all things observe another manner then a man thinketh CHAP. XII THere is no coming unto an internal state or spiritual exercises except first all the ceremonies are broken by affliction The warm bed is to be left There are men in the world that for the sake of Idolatry exceed that hardship and patiently endure the cold and incommodities why may not the same be done for the sake of the true worship and though at the beginning when one is setled in a custom of lying in bed the thing will not be without difficulty yet in time it will become easy and a man will hate his bed and the too much use thereof and will not use it but for necessity All things whatsoever which are at first done with great difficulty they become gentle and easy by use A man must combate stoutly and with affliction too that laying aside his confusion he may be brought into order and consequently that God may draw nearer unto him He that is kept in confusion and neglecteth the means of his getting forwards cannot be promoted but many years and times are spent with him so that he sâ—ill remains that which he was and the fault is in some prop or support he hath either secretly or manifestly as well in small as in great matters Where Nature is crucified there she wants a prop for on what another is upheld and proppd up with on that the cannot leane her self We must beware of every affair that is used for to pass away time sportfully and unprofitably time is to be weighed in a ballance and to be spent on God for it is precious and runs swiftly Whatsoever is to a man most difficult and bitter that he must do and whatsoever is most easy and sweet that he must omit To keep himself pure in impurity is a piece of art and commendable but let no man that is already out of the reach of such mingle himself with them for that would be a rashness Whereas he that is in them already ought to enter into this combate and to conquer the enemy and with tears and sorrow break thorough the hostile troops That which is here said of impurity is not to be understood of those things which are in themselves impure for no purified person can pass thorough them when they are prohibited and are not in the least allowed of but of things that are not impure of themselves yet are such by which a man may be polluted by reason of his own proper impurity when he satisfieth not his own conscience and walketh not streight forwards in the way of God He that will not suffer is afflicted in the earth He erreth in his understanding when one is lead into the revelations and knowledge of many things but he himself remains without and beyond them The Lord saith What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul He also that went into the marriage without a wedding-garment was cast out For those thing which he had notionally by knowledge and in the understanding he had not substantially and really In the science of things a man glorieth and is glad and delighted when he speaketh or writeth of them all things are done with joy But when the substance or essence of things cometh he lieth down in death Nor can he rejoyce or be delighted because he partaketh nothing and hath no thing therein but his death and destruction The Science or knowledge of them can no more make him merry because they are contrary unto him And whatever he knoweth readeth heareth oâ— thinketh concerning them that all make against him because all these things aâ— contrary or adverse unto him CHAP. XIII WHen a man lies in death he no longer his own for he plainly alienated from his own self Her therefore he ceaseth from labour neithâ—â— does he act any more and God stanâ— in the stead of himself and fulfills and erecteth that in his death which had not been done in his life For whatever he handled in his life he did it at all by images but here in death God hath established the very substance it self and this is a grace and the generation which is made in death That which Christ denoteth cannot be fulfilled for it is a generation which is of it self passive in the destruction and death of a man It is impossible to man therefore God himself doth it whence it is that to him alone the glory is due A man who is in death is not afflicted by the delay of time but he who yet hopeth for joy and pleasure he is afflicted with every delay until that cometh which was hoped for But the dead lie down without hope nor is there any thing which they expect for they are forsaken and stripped of all But in these things they acknowledge the will of God and comfort themselves that God so willeth The will of God is their couch When a man gives himself up to one lust then one follows another but then a man hath to do as it were with a Lion who if any one lays hold on one paâ—â— of any thing he ever draweth it nearer So also if one yields himself up to one lust he also quickly yields to another and so the world gaineth him again tâ—â— he be wholly swallowed up therein But then at last the man truely neglecteth himself and expecteth the severe judgment of God CHAP. XIV WHen a man perceiveth that he is willing to abide in his present state and to be at rest and to subsist in it then the Spirit ceaseth and the man slips down out of the spirit into the flesh there the rule or government of the Spirit is hindred and the literal Kingdom is set up there then is no longer a spiritual Kingdom nor an increase nor proficiency but a going backwards and a leaping back again into the flesh and into the creature And then beginneth hatred and persecution towards the adverse part that they will not so much as receive them into their house that is they will by no means come near them for the sake of that And thus these must suffer by and from them for the sake of the Name of Christ even as also they suffer in their flesh for the sake of sin by the Law of sin For the flesh of these persons together with its lusts and affections are by the Law lifted up from the earth upon the cross and the lusts and appetites of Nature are cut off and rejected by their objects that they can no longer use them nor draw life from them The universal increated Salvation hath in it self no judgment concerning others
from him and hath given him the Wisdom that he can behold God in the person of man and can take all things from his hands And so he can give all glory to God and is a true worshipper of him CHAP. XXVI ALl fear of God which any one hath before the birth of Jacob is a servile fear and the filial fear comes not at first but when there is a new birth The servile goes before but lasteth not and the filial follows and abideeth When Esau was born he knew nothing as yet of Jacob but supposed that the inheritance of the blessing was his First he came forth but in part and in time was put further out till also his feet came forth then he looks back upon Jacob and is smitten with grief and he saw also his own danger and yet he contrives to kill him and to take him out of the way but the more he endeavours to suppress him by so much the more does Jacob come forth It is written concerning Esau Though thou shouldst build thy nest amongst the Stars yet I will pull thee thence Betwixt Esau and Jacob there is no dying for Jacob held Esau by the heel and followed him Esau is the beginning that which follows is Jacob the habitation of Esau was in the desart Moreover concerning Esau and Jacob Esau proceeded from Isaack which is a divine birth yet the judgment cometh upon him Such a thing is Righteousness in a man upon which also cometh judgment Esau hath the Righteousness of God as if it were his propriety and he applieth it unto his delight and he seeketh life for himself therein and therefore the judgment of God must come upon Esau that he must lay down his life till he comes into the state of Jacob who abideth resigned up unto God and whether God giveth or whether God taketh away any thing he is satisfied therewith So soon as a Man receives a new life he â—s again subjected unto judgment and is forced to suffer death CHAP. XXVII THat which is moved together with the body of Christ that is a member in the body of Christ The humanity of Christ is a middle thing between God and us and God cannot come into us but by mediation of this The feeding on the most pure body of Christ transferreth us into a divine essence and that food consumeth all flesh Christ when he had taken the Bread said In doing this ye shall declare my Death This is the sense and the impression of the death of Christ the expression of which is the declaration thereof Hence it may be observed what kind of food it is to eat the flesh of Christ and to drink his blood viz. such as many who formerly had been fed and filled by Christ going back did forsake him when they should have come unto his food Great is the difference betwixt the essential truth and the notional truth Also between the essential death and the notional death There is also great difference between those who know God in Nature aâ—â—â—â—cordingly do possess and use him and 〈◊〉 who know God in God and accorâ—â—â—ly do possess and use him for purâ—â—â—ture such as is created from God â—â—â—â—eth into God without all Adamicaâ—â—â—cidents It is true indeed that the Israe◠〈◊〉 who came out of Aegypt did eat Heaâ—â—ly bread in the Wilderness yet that coâ—◠〈◊〉 not preserve them so as that they shoâ—â— abide but dye they must as Christ saâ—â—â—â— Your Fathers did eat the bread from Heavâ—â— and are dead When first we come out of Aegypt 〈◊〉 cometh to pass that we can in the 〈◊〉 of flesh or of Nature see know posseâ—â—â— and use God yea and hold him in oâ— propriety but that nature must come 〈◊〉 to death and be judged of God anâ— then we possess and know God not 〈◊〉 the life of the flesh or of Nature bâ—â— in the death of the flesh and then God is possessed without appropriation without touching or handling for whatever feels or touches in us is the flesh and is delivered up into death from God but afterwards in a true quiet resignation God beholdeth himself in us and there knows and loves himself and although formerly we knew and applied God in Nature or the life of the flesh yet that state remains no longer but by and thorough judgment is pressed down into death and hath nothing in God neither pleasure nor joy nor comfort And although Nature or the flesh had for some time some such thing in God yet now it hath it no more Whatsoever came out of Aegypt and did rejoyâ—â— to go forward into the promised Land that must fall in the Wilderness and dye but the Children sprung from them did come into that Land Now thouâ—â— the flesh is thus condemned unto death that it can have no delight nor joy 〈◊〉 God yet the mind is and resteth in peaâ—â— and joy and then the man when thâ— flesh is thus dead is like to wax which softened by the fire and is made fit receive all Impressions As often as a 〈◊〉 is willing upon the appearance of Gâ—â— to gain his life in God and he himself â—â—prehends the very thing he ought theâ—fore again to be judged and to suffer a new death It behooveth the thieves to remain under judgment upon the cross retaining no life either in God or in the creatures nor for the obtaining of life can they be heard until the thief on the right hand forsaking all accidents shall turn himself unto Christ It also behooves this man to remain in judgment according to the flesh till as to that he shall be dead Nor shall he ever be raised up again into that life according to which he hath dyed but he is eternally to forsake it out of or from that just judgment But he shall be raised into another life which is God himself And this is then that pure nature that pure humanity that pure flesh which Christ assumed as it is written Zach. 2.12 And the Lord shall possess Judah his portion in the sanctified Earth And such purified flesh hath access to God and God does manifest himself to it with delight and it standeth given up under God and possesseth God without appropriation seeing he leaves him also free Such a man possesseth God no more in Nature that is in the life of the flesh but possesseth God in the death of Nature It possesseth God in God it knoweth God in God it seeth God in God It knoweth Christ no more according to the flesh as formerly but according to the Spirit God in this man enjoyeth all things and does with him according to his pleasure both in time and in eternity and this Man is at rest in God But the anâ—iety which he suffers in the flesh or nature he indeed perceiveth that sometimes he knows not which way to turn him but he so is at rest that he wills nothing but what God willeth if therefore it behooveth a man to possess God
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
When a man stands between Conscience and Flesh and when conscience ceaseth then the flesh urgeth him and to him it is said Amend thy life or thou must dye but when one stands between life and conscience and transgresseth as to his life presently it is said to him from God Thou must die CHAP. XIV THe Will of God is the death of the Flesh Faith when it is upon trial God then proving it it experienceth the greatest misery There are many waies of coming unto regeneration but the end of all is one and the same yet one ascendeth in some much higher then another doth as when any one cometh into the Sun-shine he hath the Sun yet is one nearer to the Sun than another This is my counsel that a time be set to attain unto God The inward mind is free but the outward humanity without grace is exercised under a severe judgment I have no prop under me whether I respect God or the creatures or heaven or the Earth and I have nothing but that I can lay my self down in the Divine Will being wholly set down under God The Kingdom of Heaven is present but I cannot enjoy it the Sun indeed hath shined but now the falling thereof is come and it shineth no longer I lie down in darkness and in the shaddow of Death nor is there any comfort left to me but in the will of God for I will nothing but only what he willeth Into which state if any one really cometh he is of all men the most miserable I say this that I may express that misery in which I lie To understand these things is pleasant but really to feel them most bitter When the Spirit suffers the flesh ought to suffer with it But when the flesh suffers there is no need for the Spirit to suffer It is never better with me then when I give up my self into death The flesh suffereth its own judgment when the Spirit is in peace but when the Spirit suffers the flesh must suffer also The poor animals must dye for my sake though against my will But because I also give my self up to death I do not refuse the death also of the animals he that giveth not himself up into death cannot take his food with thanksgiving He that is to exercise modesty he ought to be exercised by various afflictions oâ—herwise he will wander if he shall use it without the experience of the cross If I should stand betwixt two things nor knew which of the two I am to do I would weigh them and would take that which is contrary to my flesh When I do so it is well with me and I call God to witness saying Thou knowest O Lord what I have done But when I do otherwise viz. that which is grateful unto Nature it is always ill with me and I cannot call God to witness Conscience indeed is free but I dare not alleadge that for it is of grace The suffering is hard when no hope is left in the future for the natural man for though the day-break is come yet there is no redemption nor comfort but a man must wait without hope and be quiet in death And though all the joy comfort and refreshment of the whole world were present yet he is bound as it were with cords and can tast of none of them And therefore he never desires that time may run out that a day a week a month a year may come for whatever cometh to pass in them is to him as it were a non-entity because he can rest no where nor use any thing for his delight for he is made bare or naked of all and is put upon the crost Hence is it that both things present and to come are indifferent to him when even then he shall be the same as he is now But those to whom the body of sin is not yet crucified they are touched with the desire of time For they are free and can take up such things as they meet with But this state cannot last long for judgment will come then whatever shall be with him for the furture he cannot take it up and that which is contrary to him he cannot reject for he is impotent whilst he hangeth on the cross nor can he execute his own will CHAP. XV. ALl things are or consist in order order must be kept If one is willing to knit together superiour things that he may loosen inferior things he would break order and wander in errour of which we must beware The Lord saith He that breaks the lest Commandment and shall so teach c. We must seek a free condion in God in which one is free from himself for to be free from ones self is a liberty which is to be attributed to God The grossest and the lowest things are images of things superiour which is to be understood as well of things spiritual as things corporeal for we ascend from the one into the other and from the inferiour to the superiour even as pleasures and the abuse of good things and the building on the sands are images When things are most gross and low then are they the image of things superiour and that which is visible denoteth that that is invisible The Spirit also hath its flesh in which it dwells Also mysteries have their external Histories They who urge mysteries so as to exclude historys disturb order and do err Although Christ the blessed fulfils all things in spirit in his elect which he performed coporally in the days of his flesh yet were they also corporally done in him therefore the historical sense must remain but also it behooveth a man to experience in his own self the mystery likewise The Lord saith Love your Enemies The cross passion adversity Death c. are our enemies which we are to love and embrace The natural man is surrounded with death and which way soever he turns himself he hath a sword presented to his sight just as when one turns on this and on that side should look about him and still some body runs before his face so also is judgment always meeting with the natural man ready to snatch away his life which way soever he turns himself At last he yields up himself when he can no more make his escape But the spirit is in life when the body or nature hangs stretched out upon the Cross Zeal in kindled with divine pleasure is a great pleasure but the Cross and violent plagues follow after it Myrrh was the last gift For it is written They offered Gold Franckincense and Myrrh When I hear the Scripture I am frighted for it denoteth the natural death Nature will have an appropriation therefore communion is a death to it at which it is affrighted CHAP. XVI TO desist from propriety and to help another at our own loss is a thing truly pleasant To find gain in loss and to abstain from that which is best in our esteem and to prefer
from us we are â—â—und stark naked because these things â—ere not at the first owned in spirit beâ—â—re God who only remains constant â—â—d immutable to all eternity For God is a spirit and he that would â—ow him in truth and see his brightâ—â—s and adore him it behooveth this â—â—n to endeavour after all this in spirit â—â—d into this state or condition it is necessary that a man be truly and properly lead by God in his own time yea and that it also is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but if so be any one be faithful in that wherein he standeth then shall much more be given unto him Concerning all these things thou wilt find most full instruction in those two Treatises intituled the German Divinity and that of the Imitation of Christ the Authors of which have experienced these things in God and do give concerning them a true guidance and information which we are to find in our own selves although they do not put into our hand the very things it self yet is the world deceived in this very particular viz. that it can account of some certain semblance of a thing for the very thing it self For the flesh or Nature in us is never willing to sit down in an inferiour seat and if it but begins to reject somewhat that is false yet by and by it leans upon some other such like prop being confidently perswaded she is acted by a divine spirit when indeed all this notwithstanding springs out of flesh and blood 〈◊〉 little heightened out of their natural propriety Such is the cunning of us all â—one excepted It behooveth us therefore to apprehend and learn all these things in God that the light may be separated from the darkness and that that notable difference and distinction in this very point be well known to us least we take one thing for another viz. flesh for spirit Death for life slavery for liberty and for the free flowing grace of divine power These things because a man in his life time is always willing to get and keep Reconciliation and eternal Salvation are plainly known to a few inasmuch as a man esteems those things in the place of God and for things divine which indeed do but hold him bound in a perpetual imprisonment being that which is his own nature and propriety viz. the fear of eternal damnation by means of which he abstaineth from all external and carnal filthiness and impurity and cuts off those things from himself being then fully perswaded that now he is truly at liberty so that he will not proceed further on and refuseth to deny and resign up both the proper and the imaginary salvation of his Soul although he should experience or feel in himself that the true righteousness which is acceptable before God is that very circumcision that is done in spirit and thence springs up the New-creature of God However it is necessary that every one should first satisfie in all respects his own proper righteousness holiness and imaginary salvation that in the end he may rightly understand the difference of both viz. of Light and Darkness and of the holiness that is from man and that which is from God for if he be not faithful in the smallest things how shall he arrive at greater which certainly is impossible Therefore it behooveth every one to satisfy his own conscience and with all moderation and discretion to obey the testimony of his own heart that being raised up thorough all the degrees of holiness and being inriched with all the affluence riches and imaginary goods of his own spirit he may at length be brought to the divine poverty of Spirit by the manifestation in him of the divine righteousness and of that degree which is by far the most excellent and exalted as being that which throws down all the rest so as there remains nothing that can stand before it which is not its own self By this way we come to apprehend our selves to be poor miserable rejected and condemned yea blind unhappy and neglected yea unfit to perform any the least good who formerly ascribed to our selves all good things righteousness and Salvation beâ—ng confidently perswaded of our eternal â—ife and divine Sonship Then Then I say it is that we find our selves to be wholly in corruption and condemnation at length seriously understanding that we formerly had not so much as â—he true tast of any good which could compare with that good which we now â—ee And then we come and readily sit â—own by all other men yea though they â—e the most profligate wretches because â—ow at last we begin to set before our eyes with fear and trembling and condemnation and to behold our corruption at the very bottom so that for the future we reflect upon no one more then upon our selves and if before we reviled any repulsed persecuted cast out reproached or looked upon them with an evil eye I speak of such as supposed that they did these things out of a godly zeal now indeed we become hugely wary and leave every one to his own Lord and Master because this true combate hath done in us havock enough and begun its cruelty I was willing to unfold to thee these things by these few lines which notwithstanding thou wilt better and more piercingly feel in the very thing it self Therefore exercise thy life in these things and shew thy self strong in them importunately begging and expecting all from God above with all long patience and sufferance who will in his own time effect all things for thee for here we are not to run before but follow after only Now therefore thou hast writings enough whence thou mayest learn how to behave thy self in external conversation and honesty wherein thy conscience will most notably both lead thee and condemn thee too The Lord grant to thee to meditate to understand and to be wise that according to his will thou mayst be instructed in his School and by his discipline that all may be consummated in him and by him and to his Glory EPIST. III. A Preparation to the entrance into the promises of God To the same Person PRemising all due readiness of my respects most Noble Lady having taken hold on this occasion I am willâ—â—ng to send this letter to thee For though for some space of time I did not visit â—hee by my letters yet have I always been sollicitous for thee in the Lord with 〈◊〉 continued readiness of my heart and â—n inclination of my poor mind being otherwise certain that much writing did not conduce any thing to the increase of grace but the movings of God only do And therefore I had determined in my mind to forbear writing least perhaps I should thereby disturb the working of thy Soul trusting in the divine mercy that God himself would preserve thee to become more strong and more pure by his inward motions in thy Soul and by purifying it from all inherent
thing can be attained to but by Christ These are those things whereof the Scripture maketh so often mention viz. our own proper righteousness our own proper works our own proper holiness and all such like viz. if we trust too much to any of these means which were granted unto us from the Lord and stick rather unto them then to the only loâ—e God For to love God is no other thing then most accurately to do that which he willeth not for the hope of any salvation or of any good things whatever for the Love of God it self thus puts a man on that he cannot do otherwise And here it is that we are able to search into the most inward corners of our hearts whether or no we seek ourselves else where either in Soul or body and whether we serve God and love him for this end that our souls may gain salvation But here for the most part it will be answered that whatever things are done are done only for love yet nevertheless men do perform these things out of the terrour and the impulse of their own conscience as the scripture witnesseth I say not all this because I would detract in the least from good works set light by them but rather that we should go on further not to rest here nor am I willing we should sit down in a private kind of peace of having gained some steps only before we be come unto the end nor till the scope for whose sake all this is done be duly attained And though there be others behind us who follow up after us being yet a great way off yet it is incumbent on us because of our greater knowledge received to put out this our talent to the highest interest we can possibly that in us may be found constant perseverance if so be at length we can arrive perhaps to a true dying having no need more to reiterate so often our renewing of death so that all may together and at once remain buried also in Christ's death eternally a more certain essential sort of death as I may so say following us into that better state or condition Most beloved Lady receive I pray thee these my letters kindly if perhaps they may prove to be of any use to thee in thy holy endeavors and that we may come at length to the total renouncing our flesh that then we may be judged according to the rule of righteousness which the Law requires by Christ For in Christ sin is utterly condemned to death and as much as we are planted together with him in the likeness of his death so much also shall we thorough his resurrection be received into the newness or the Spirit who then performs in Man the office of a Governour and is to him in the stead of his life whose place before this our flesh supplied all that is beyond this the Lord himself will manifest to us when we come thither If therefore we have our inward senses rightly exercised by the Lord and do firmly adhere to him with continued prayers then will he kindle in thy heart some living light which my dead writings can never effect by means of which being inflamed with a greater zeal to renounce all flesh we shall be able to offer to the Lord our hearts emptied and set free by a meer and pure submission unto and a firm purpose of remaining and persevering in his will so will the thing prosper and our work will more happily succeed But why this work will succeed with so much difficulty and with such a length of time this is the reason because somewhat still will stick close to the heart which we cannot wholly renounce for when but one half of the heart is yielded up the offering remains impure nor is it accepted whence it is that the Scripture commands us to have a great care of or to watch such a heart which seeks double ways and carrieth upon either shoulder and halts on either leg c. For we cannot at the same time satisfy the flesh conscience hindering us and conscience too the flesh hindering us therefore it is necessary that we yield our selves up wholly as a pure offering and grateful to the Lord for such a one is received by the Lord and blessed of him that thenceforth he may bring forth fruit and at length that thence may arise the righteousness that is available before God Unto which may the Lord promote us and keep us by his infinite mercy in Christ our Lord and Saviour The Lord preserve us that we may persevere in his grace according to the tenour of his most holy Will EPIST. VI. Being a Christian exhortation which containeth many points very useful and profitable to all Christians To the same Lady MOst beloved Lady seeing that there remaineth no more time to me in this life as far as by my uttmost capacity of sense and reason I am able to judge or is to me known I am constrained of my self freely to open and more and more to unfold my mind to you Yet the true fruits of proficiency in the Lord are not attained to by my leters nor by our mutual converse appointed in the Lord of purpose but only and alone by the grace and mercy of God For that the same dependeth only on the meet divine commiseration he best knoweth yet only in Soul and conscience who himself is exercised in the very work oâ— the Lord. In the first place therefore it behooâ—â— is diligently to beware that we be not 〈◊〉 our lusts driven to that pass as to think that God is the cause of sin whereas the night can sooner be made the day then he be any such thing Because in God there is no darkness at all but meer light and whosoever would come to know this work of God thorough his mercy they must begin this knowledge with sincerity of mind which seeks nothing else but God alone whosoever proceedeth with a double heart is an abomination to the Lord. Now doubleness of heart consists in this when we are not with out whole heart Soul and thoughts given up and wholly left to the Lord also when we pour out our prayers before him with a heart divided in two whence â—lso it is that we are not heard according â—o our desires For the Lord loveth us â—ore then we our selves do love our â—elves inasmuch as he is averse to our estruction and always freely bestoweth 〈◊〉 us that which is most useful and â—ost profitable for our happiness which â—â—deed is that which at first is unâ—â—own 〈◊〉 us but is at length made known 〈◊〉 us though by and thorough great afflictions because that we were so far falen into our desires and into that evil which we call our Propriety that we must first be subjected to great anguishes and griefs before we can become submitted to the will and obedience of God which is that which can be never done without a spiritual death and the
which lieth hid in man and convinceth him doth yet partake of reason and humane power although the Lord doth afterwards offer to the heart the light of the Gospel and the understanding of a man submitteth it self to that But for all that he is not yet one with the light for no man receiveth this light but he in whom the reason and strength of man are on the Cross become dead with Christ now such a one thence-forward because of the communion he hath received with the death of Christ is also again raised up by the same Spirit of Christ so as the Spirit of Christ thence-forward becometh his life his own reason and all his own powers abiding in death nor is there a Soul living in him but by the vertue of God and thus the man comes to renounce all his own strength and all his own righteousness in the sight of God and becomes conformed to the righteousness of God in himself which the natural man never knoweth nor can arrive thereat Therefore because the Judgment of Calvin reaches not so far and he himself is not yet dead to his own reason strength he indeed bore witness against his own self because that which in the Epistle to the Romans is demonstrated to be death by the Gospel Rom. 8.10 11. and 6.5 6. keeps him in life the light of the Gospel serving him for that purpose even to his own proper commodity For the Gospel was not divulged till after the Resurrection of Christ And then at length Christ the Son of God was acknowledged to be in us otherwise our acknowledgement was not concerned but only about the person of Christ according to the flesh from whence it is apparent that we our selves are still carnal and though we be not plainly like to the ruder part of the World and do account our selves for imitators of Christ who have left all yet still we are to be made liker unto Christ and to be planted into his death Furthermore I here further acknowledge that no man by the strength of Nature derived from Adam can ever attain unto the eternal mercy of God That study indeed and that labour by which such a man in his solicitous endeavours is tired our before he can arrive at the grace of Christ I acknowledge for humane and that it is subject to the Law but that righteousness which one acquireth by this study is not as yet that righteousness which is prevalent in Gods sight for this is at last after the Law constituted in us by Christ First therefore a man must labour under the rigour of the Law even to the highest perfection of himself and to the greatest innocency he possibly can yet when all this is done the Soul is to feel at length the judgment of God and seeing it cannot possibly abide therein it falls manifestly down into death and then at length is it by Christ raised again into the life of the Spirit But now the acknowledgment of the righteousness of God in common is by the Church which is nearer to us proposed in such a manner as this That God thorough and by Christ crecteth salvation meerly without any addition of works which I grant But because these under the law obtained no righteousness by the benefit of Works there being put no study or rigour therefore they also cannot for Christ sake renounce nor forsake their goods seeing as yet they had gained none For they would have them renounce what they have not but in the interim they suffer loss also in that which they have not yet arrived at That therefore which they say is true but it is not rightly apply'd by them as all the Scripture doth demonstrate that it is by their own faults that they come not to the truth Nevertheless I am unwilling to deny unto them all grace for their portion and according to the measure of their gifts seeing that they study with all their might for Christ and by the help of the Scripture do hear somewhat of him provided they be faithful in what they acknowledge and that to the utmost He that neglects this is condemned by his own proper judgment EPIST. XXI The difference between Repentance and Regeneration in relation to a little book of Diederick Phillips which was printed concerning the New Creature To. J. W. DEarest John that acknowledgment of Diederick Phillips concerning the New Creature I do partly own for truth if it be not stretched further then it reacheth viz. that it can according to the testimony of Scripture lead to Repentance and to lead a pious life But if that Repentance and life so corrected thereby he would have to be put for the New Creature whilst yet the Conscience is still under the burden of sins then is it erroneous for whilst that no death hath as yet happened and still sin lieth so powerfully in the whole man that by means of an accusation it often driveth the soul into sadness the Soul is yet under the Law for by the Law in our consciences we are convinced of sin And though a man may force into silence that accusation and that burden of sin that tormenteth our conscience and that by Scripture-promises and so comfort himself yet it must be confessed that then he still abides in the state of the old Man and is not yet arrived at the death of it For the New Creature is not subject to sin therefore also no accusation of the Law in the Conscience can touch it for then a man liveth wholly under grace and his mind stands in no need to be sustained by the external comforts of the Scriptures or also by the absolution from sins according to the testimony of Scripture it should bring forth to him a greater confidence for his life is in the Spirit and consisteth under the Law of the grace of God wherefore also the conscience in its purity enjoyeth the highest peace remaining sealed by the Holy-Ghost but in them who are still under conscience the Law of sin still exerciseth its power and conscience doth still accuse perpetually for some sins so that it hence appears openly that such are not yet dead to the Law because the accusation of the Law doth still remain in its power so long as by the transgression of the Law somewhat is committed against conscience and though we will not confess that we are under the Law or under the accusation thereof notwithstanding that there can be no accusation but by virtue of the Law still reigning here or there yet is the thing manifest by conscience its self which thorough an accusation for sin rendreth us guilty If therefore we could stand in purity by the blood of Christ according to the inward man then indeed the Law by its virtue which it hath in the Conscience thorough sin durst not so assault the Soul of a man as that he must seek comfort out of the Scriptures and to be reconciled with God and to be confirmed by
consideration of eternity according to his unspeakable mercy Moreover my brother as to my state or condition that abideth in perpetual agony of death with most sharp persecution performed within me after various manners yet to one only end for whose sake all must be done What the Lord may in time do with me is known only to himself and his eternal decree But which way soever I turn my self and whatsoever I consider or behold nothing but a vast abyss and a parching heat of all misery do continually represent themselves to my eyes The Lord in his commiseration lead most wretched me by his fatherly hand thorough things present and to come in this unknown uncertain desert and desolate condition yet I give thanks to his goodness that under this his powerful hand he revealeth to me his fatherly mind The Lord be my helper and my conducter in all things and keep me and teach me in his School and under his discipline His grace be over us all together with his unspeakable mercy Amen EPIST XXXIII How ignorant Nature well stumble in much disputing and will comdemn its neighbour also how the sense of all Scriptures ought to be apprehended in our own selves under the cross MOst beloved N. I pray the Lord that he will promote thee in his way in which thou mayest follow most diligently his will without much disputing by which the flesh rather then God's spirit hath to do we therefore must lay out our time with more advantage For when for the most part we think to speak from the spirit of God perchance nature lurketh under the fair show of the spirit so long as we are still cloathed about with flesh so that when we least believe it yet we then account of the flesh instead of the spirit Therefore we are to walk before the Lord with fear without any bold disputings and we must beware as much as in us lyes to walk innocently before God and before men lest we fall into our own condemnation whilst we are condemning others if not in words yet in heart Moreover most dear N. that writing which I received pleaseth me well although I have not read it thorough so accurately by reason of the weakness of my head For though I cannot truly reach the sense of any writings unless I can apprehend the virtue of them in my own self under the cross whence the true fruit is manifested seeing I tread no further then unto the state in which I then consist by suffering I always follow the steps of Chirst where the latter always discover the defect and imperfection of the former Yet let every man mind his own calling and observe it diligently so all in time will clearly appear and come forth into the light Salute P. N. our friend heartily God will look upon him to his advantage and will make his dayly sighings fruitful thorough his eternal mercy which we are all to expect none excepted The Lord endow thee with wisdom and prudence that thou mayest act aright in all things and that thou mayest walk before him with trembling There are books enough for us to look into if we will but perpetually observe our own consciences that we may most accurately follow their dictates Moreover thorough the providence of God we have the Old and New Testament for our only external rule but the holy spirit above all these for our alone master or Teacher Blessed is he who is deprived of his own proper wisdom and is instructed and instigated by the spirit of the Lord alone The Lord be with thee and with us Amen EPIST. XXXIV Concerning a certain danger that hung over that place by reason of persecution unto which he was about to go DEarest Brother may the Omnipotent Lord preserve my mortified body according to his mercy in his divine will I have purposed to go to that place and to expect the will of God concerning me beseeching him from the most inward and deepest bottom of my soul that he will set me before the enemy and that the remnant of my life which is very small may not tend to the destruction but to the salvation of any one this I beg from his eternal goodness and mercy withal hoping that this danger will prove destruction to me only and will go no further The Lord make known his will to me in this one desire of mine according to his commiseration If the Lord shall suffer me in this tabernacle tolerably to pass through so as still to subsist as I have occasion I shall signify it to thee But my brother which way soever I turn my self or look back all things renounce me and of the present there remains no place more for me And therefore I convert my self to that which the forsaking of all creatures sheweth unto me The Omnipotent God take care to secure me under his own protection EPIST. XXXV An answer sent to his brother concerning a woman that dyed also concerning his own condition together with a devout exhortation MOst beloved brother a real grief hath possessed me for the departure of that woman out of this temporary world I trust in the Lord that all will be done for a good end and from him I expect peace and tranquillity with commiserating grace which we all hunt after and heartily seek for our Souls together with an expectation of an eternity to come I find in my heart that I am now obliged to her children and I love them with a true tendency of mind according to my poor slender ability May the Lord for his mercy-sake turn all for the better Moreover as to what concerns my condition the same kind of bonds do always hold me bound according to the will of God in a disease and an infirmity So long as it shall please the Lord May he direct my ways and bow them down under his fear in the obedience of his most holy will and may he bestow freely his grace on us all that we may continue our lives in righteousness with devotion and a diligent observation of all our works and counsels least in all our actions there be somewhat found that is contrary to the will of God May the Lord give his grace to us all that we may go forwards in his way and bear such fruits as may be pleasing to him In the eight following Epistles is somewhat described of that great misery into which the Lord cast him a little before his death I. MY brother my body hath an increase of some strength just as a man groweth but very slowly so as it can scarcely be observed though yet it proceedeth on Yet is the purpose of God unknown to me although like a pestiferous cloud a many difficulties and sorrows are set before my eyes out of which I can spy no deliverance but by death that so I may wholly penetrate even unâ—â— God which will come to pass if the times shall prove prosperous yea and further also of all means
make themselves more assured or may expect or receive it from any creature whatsoever but feelingly livingly and internally being convinced in their own hearts do truly become sensible of the highest love in the deepest enmity of the greatest riches in the extreamest poverty of the profoundest joy in the most pressing streights and misery and in the fiercest combat the sweetest peace and in a word in the lowest despondencies and weakness yea desperation and inconstancy the highest faithfulness and constancy ought to be found in God Here Faith comes to be tryed whether it be of man or whether it be of God for if it be of man it refuseth to choose for it self true poverty of Spirit together with the abnegation of proper happiness which it elected for it self for it denieth to assume for its conservation and happiness any thing but what is before its own eyes and is promised in words grosly understood from the Scriptures and acquiesces in the doing of them only that the Soul may be saved but if some things seem to it to be impossible to be performed it layes all that upon the shoulders of Christ as without and beyond it self and so quiets its own conscience in the best manner it can be possibly performed When as if from the most inward secrets of its own Soul it would confess the truth it would indeed tell you of a conscience not soundly pacified but rather of one that gnaweth and tormenteth unless it strives of set purpose to hide the true state of the matter But if such a one be about to object and say This is the Devil that thus accuseth and blameth a man in his conscience from which notwithstanding any one may be freed by and thorough Christ Well then it this is the Devil that thus accuseth him without any Lie and yet by this accusation keepeth him still captive in his chaines for he hath not as yet forsaken him then Christ dwelling in him also hath not as yet set him thus at liberty from the Devil Hell and Sin that his freedom and reconciliation might be truly found to be in Christ himself Because for him for whom Christ dyed in him also he ought to rise again so as Death Sin the Devil and Hell may have no just right over him yea not so much as to touch him with the least finger because that he being plainly freed from all these by Christ dwelling in him he is become a member of his body against which can no accusation or condemnation be brought for even as the head is found blameless in innocency so also is the whole body with all its members Let every one narrowly prove himself before he boasteth himself to be a member of this body for Christ is not so vile in us as we may think him to be nor is the imitation of him so small a thing that it can be comprehended and known by our gross natural reason Because as he was supernaturally conceived and born so in like manner did he operate and speak yea whatever is manifested concerning Christ ought to be most exactly expressed in us in Spirit and Life and in divine truth therefore he that will glory that he understands and knows Christ and is a partaker of him it behooveth him in the same manner with Christ to be regenerated in Spirit so 〈◊〉 that it is no longer he but Christ who liveth in him And then indeed no Devil nor any accusation can touch him moreover he also will himself judge of all far otherwise then by the light judgmenâ— of a natural man seeing all the mysteryes of the Scripture are to all that iâ— of Nature left in him occult and hidden until the man be transplanted into thâ— likeness of Christ where not the leasâ— room is left for nature inasmuch as she is condemned already as being at enmity even with God himself Thus I have briefly and succinctly laid before thee those things which are ordinarily met with in them who conceive a zeal for God that thou mayest learn cautiously to proceed in thesâ— matters and that thou be not driven hither and thither by every wind of doctrine but that thou mayest finish thy combat with a serious and most arden zeal until the Lord shall guide thee aâ— last unto the regeneration which is doâ—â— in spirit being frequently invoked bâ— prayers and sighs after many adversities and both inward and outward sorrows by which a man is wonderfully put forward towards that which he aims at The Lord grant to thee his grace in his own time that thou mayest at last become joyfully sensible in the secret of thy heart of those most excellent helps and victories which are attained to thorough the cross sufferings and pains EPIST. II. Concerning the most subtil craftiness of Humane Nature To the same Lady THe Lord multiply unto thee the benediction of internal grace and the right understanding of his will inasmuch as his will cannot be acknowledged by nature left to herself seeing she is plainly contrary thereunto although sometimes she may seem to be thoroughly united unto it for all men do with open mouths boast of the knowledge of God and no man will be wanting in that every body cries that he is arrived thereat and that he hath fully obtained it I speak oâ— those who study their own righteousness and give up themselves to God and trusâ— confidently before God that they arâ— made free thorough Jesus Christ wherâ— notwithstanding such a man never yeâ— arrived in the least to truly know himself and hath never as yet observed the most crafty temptations and the seducements of his own nature because he esteemed that for good which on the quite contrary did draw him farthest away from God and his motions and comes quite opposit to all those things which God willeth and desireth Here thou must diligently have a care rightly to understand the nature and desires of that propriety which give me leave to call Tuity or Thiness which dwells in the flesh and yet bears before it a certain appearance of some spiritual quality For all men are lead captive by this enemy none excepted though he be the most devout yea though he may seem to live the life of an Angel and may bring to light wonderful secrets yet will he be no less then the rest catcht and bound in these most subtle fetters And although some begin to be aware of these snares yet for all that some other such like trap is laid more fineâ—y and secretly which the fall into â—ometimes which afterwards doth afresh â—â—â—rify them when as before they seemâ—â— to themselves to have obtained illumination salvation Yea even God himself Now this a man cannot know unless 〈◊〉 be lead thorough them and tries all 〈◊〉 God for in such a man these matâ—ers cannot be more plainly or deeply â—â—planted so as to abide in that presence of God true indeed they may partly be â—omprehended by Nature but when Nature is withdrawn