Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abide_v	able_a	holy_a	66	3	3.8135	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96266	The narrow path of divine truth described from living practice and experience of its three great steps, viz Purgation, illumination & union according to the testimony of the holy scriptures; as also of Thomas a Kempis, the German divinity, Thauler, and such like. Or the sayings of Matthew Weyer reduced into order in three books by J. Spee. Unto which are subjoyned his practical epistles, done above 120 years since in the Dutch, and after the author's death, printed in the German language at Frankfort 1579. And in Latin at Amsterdam 1658. and now in English.	Weyer, Matthias, 1521-1560.; Spee, J.	1683 (1683)	Wing W1525A; ESTC R231717	176,738	498

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 him●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 s●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 o● thinketh concerning them that all make against him because all these things a● 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 neith●● does he act any more and God stan● 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 pa●● 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 t●● 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

desire as also that I placed more confidence in the Lord then in my own letters being fixed in this firm hope that he would direct all things to the best end and that he would apply a remedy to all distractions of thy heart and that he would thrust them all under his obedience For even as I my self according to my simple way do confide in the Lord alone in all my necessities waiting for help from him only so also I judge the like of thee with firm belief that the Lord will out of his compassion behold and look upon thy case and will deliver thee from all thy troubles of heart although this thy state may press thee to so much the more diligent and fervent and more continual calling upon God and to a greater abode in his fear because else it an be no otherwise done but that all labour glory cogitation fruit and pleasure of the flesh with all those things which belong unto the world and have communion therewith do all at last together tend to eternal destruction nor can they by any hope of life be firmly fixed to eternity for Death and an eternal blotting out do pass upon all things which are without God! But the faithful and merciful God will have compassion on us that we may be subjected to his chastisement with a continual meditation on the divine judgment under which it behooveth all flesh to tremble and to give glory to God alone that thus being yielded up unto God we may be wholly governed by him and that we may serve him in all righteousness and holiness as it becomes the Sons of God God grant this to thee which I wish from the very bottom of my Soul as the Lord also knows that we may together remain given up to the Lord both in body and soul O would to God that our hearts could be always mindful of that misery destruction and eternal death which hangeth over all flesh and where it is truly made manifest how far all joys are distant from us as also the pleasures in this earth together with all the advantages pride and other vanities that are pleasing to our flesh and all the other motions tending thereunto Nevertheless from the Lord I always hope that which is best viz. that it wil● come to pass that he will purify us miserable creatures even as gold is purged by the fire and that he will wash us from all impurities The Lord grant that our familiarity which we have in divine love may not by these sufferings be diminished or decreased but rather be comfirmed by the divine benediction which is fertil in all who are patient and who in Goliness and the fear of the Lord do constantly persevere even to the end of the fight although they were vexed with all manner of tryals The Lord of all grace have mercy on us all that we may never but be proficients and seriously and diligently walk in the way of his fear that we may always be more and more endowed with his grace EPIST. XIV A brief Instruction how any one may in due order arrive at Regeneration and whence it is the new creature may have its Original To the same person DEarest N. I could not withhold my hand but must send this letter to thee seeing I am not at leisure to come unto thee therefore this Epistle shall supply the want of my presence For I am wholly perswaded in the Lord that thy heart yea when not admonished by me will not yet be tyred out of the continuance in the work begun and in the growth in the fear of God our Saviour least that any one happly should disturb confound thee by these or any other perswasions for to come at the very thing its self there is no need of many rules and exhortations Search narrowly into thy own self and if thou canst find any thing for whose sake thy conscience shall accuse thee then it concerns thee to desist from that and to dye thereunto This therefore is requlsit that thou learn to examine thy self whether thou sufferest any thing against thy will and with a certain kind of indignation nor art thou willingly subjected with humility to all others For its necessary that in all resepects thou shouldest account of thy self from the very bottom of thy heart for the least and the most despicable and that thou willingly submit thy self to every body yea to him that injureth thee If thou wilt endeavour this thou wilt soon find in thy self a great defect nor wilt thou willingly perform that but wilt be moved to indignation and to impatience But if thou art never looking back and art subduing the flesh with a just and true zeal and wilt accomplish the rooting out from thy self the serpentine nature at length by the breaking forth of the divine illumination thou shalt find great grace in these things But here is need of great and accurate examination and the Lord is at all times both night and day to be call'd upon with a fervent mind that he will bestow wisdom on thee to know thy self and all thy stains of nature even the most hidden that thou mayest be able to cure them diligently to renounce them and wholy to dye unto them For after that the flesh is withered and nature dead the new creature may at last be planted in thee whose source is out and from God and not out and from man and the admonitions of man nor out and from any external ceremonious rite for it is born of God who is a spirit in our spirit so also is all the true spiritual circumcision of all things internal in our Soul where it is also promised to us that by the holy Spirit the eternal God the Saviour shall be raised up in us out of his own seed who shall abolish all enmity which still lieth between God and the inward man himself and will eternally unite us with God and will bring us to our Original which is God himself Dearest N. I should indeed writ more of this to thee for I further desire that thou wouldst thy self set too thy hand to the performance of these things and that thou wouldst get a living sense in thy heart of all these For in thy own self thou wilt find a true monitor who will more rightly then I can observe thy defects neglect him not but lend thy ear to his accusations and then forthwith will thereupon follow certainly very notable advances Also the Lord who heareth the desires of all who persevere will not reject thy prayers and tears but to all whatsoever thy heart pressed down with straights and griefs proposed to its self he will behold with merciful eyes and succour thee with a strong hand And if sometimes he may seem plainly to have deserted thee nor that he will ever hear thy prayers then do thou fully believe that at this very time he is nighest unto thee that he may succour thee with his help

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

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 judgmen● of a natural man seeing all the mysteryes of the Scripture are to all that i● of Nature left in him occult and hidden until the man be transplanted into th● likeness of Christ where not the leas● 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 thes● 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 a● last unto the regeneration which is do●● in spirit being frequently invoked b● 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 o● those who study their own righteousness and give up themselves to God and trus● confidently before God that they ar● made free thorough Jesus Christ wher● notwithstanding such a man never ye● 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 fine●y and secretly which the fall into ●ometimes which afterwards doth afresh ●●●rify them when as before they seem●● 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 mat●ers cannot be more plainly or deeply ●●planted so as to abide in that presence of God true indeed they may partly be ●omprehended by Nature but when Nature is withdrawn

from us we are ●●und stark naked because these things ●ere not at the first owned in spirit be●●re God who only remains constant ●●d immutable to all eternity For God is a spirit and he that would ●ow him in truth and see his bright●●s and adore him it behooveth this ●●n to endeavour after all this in spirit ●●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 ●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 be●ng confidently perswaded of our eternal ●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 ●he true tast of any good which could compare with that good which we now ●ee And then we come and readily sit ●own by all other men yea though they ●e the most profligate wretches because ●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 will●●ng to send this letter to thee For though for some space of time I did not visit ●hee by my letters yet have I always been sollicitous for thee in the Lord with 〈◊〉 continued readiness of my heart and ●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