to keep the Word of God Should God through his Son impose us things Impossible What an absurd speech is this Shall a Man think to make the most gracious and most merciful God a Tyrant O abominable Error to the greatest hinderance of the true Birth When Peter gave Christ hindersom and offensive counsel disswading him that he with his suffering should not fulfil the Will of his Father Christ reproved Peter calling his words the speech of Satan saying Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savorest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Mat. 16.23 Mark 8.33 Even so may a man likewise say to those that rather speak to please and nourish the security of the flesh and quench the Spirit then to help and set forth the Word of God by men and yet notwithstanding will be held and called good Christians therefore saith Christ Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 7.21 but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Christ will have his Word kept in deed and not only with opinion tongue or oral faith comparing such a one with a wise man which built his house upon a rock Mat. 7.25 The true faith makes indeed up the house but good works of Love lays the foundation as Christ saith Joh. 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words which consisteth properly in our life and conversation viz. to walk in his steps even as he hath walked 1 John 2.6 Therefore Christ neither regarded nor required in his followers any prating wit but obedient works of Love and charitable Deeds proceeding from a free heart and he saith further Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Mark 8.34 Neither may any man boast of Christ as if he knew him unless he keepeth his Commandments for otherwise he is a Lyar in whom there is no truth But whosoever keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected Hereby know we that we are in him 1 Joh. 4.5 Also every one that doth righteousness is born of him 1 Joh. 2.29 Yea he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3.7 Now what want or Impossibility is here Are the Commandments of christ too too grievous Saith not John that the Commandments of Christ are not grievous 1 John 5.3 And Christ himself wisheth us and all others to come freely and confidently unto him and take his yoke upon us being that his yoke is easie and his burden light Matth. 11.30 Now by whom I pray is the truth by Christ or by Antichrist But here lies all the difficulty viz. Antichrist and the Child of this World will not turn in and enter to the Love of God fully and aright leaving the cursed love of the world and of the flesh which hath taken so deep roots in his heart Therefore he had rather make God to be unjust and with the Excuse of Impossibility justifie himself leaving the whole Burden upon the neck of Christ only that he himself may go free and in the security of his wicked spirit and flesh according to his own bestial desire and disposition jump as it were into the Kingdom of God as if he need to do nothing and take no care for his Salvation but only to live freely forth on in pleasures and carnal lust of his Heart proceeding from the false and venomous seed of the wicked Serpent and yet would merit Heaven thereby though he never put on again the Heavenly Image of Christ changing his Bestial and Diabolical Malice into Love But what doth a Men else but shew forth that he hath an abomination to the Childship of God which is in Christ Jesus For St John saith in his 1 Epistle cap. 5.2 By this we know that we love the Children of God when we love God and keep his Commandments for this is the love of God viz. that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous To whom therefore Love is hard and grievous he is as yet far from God and his Image being as fast and deep in Lyes Darkness and Death 1 Joh. 2.9 21. and cap. 3.14 Yea he is an Antichrist christ bearing the Mark of the Beast and of the Whore in his Heart and in his forehead Apoc. 19. c. For God Himself is Love and Love is God and he that loveth not knoweth not God 1 Joh. 4.7 Whosoever therefore will be and be called a right true Christian and attain to perfection desiring to be one Spirit with God and obtain his Image again he must make haste and strive to this Gate where the Love of Christ stands open continually and diligently exercising himself therein especially in the inward Image and Likeness of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ esteeming it above all Creatures and then nothing will be hard and grievous for him for what can be grievous to him that rightly loveth Now to learn this aright we must look and consider well what is to be observed in christ CHAP. V. What are those seven thins in Christ which ought to be well and especially considered And how we may attain to the perfection of Love THere are summarily seven principal Points in our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ well and especially to be considered Viz. 1. His wonderous Humiliation and Conception 2. His Birth of a Virgin 3. His whole Life in his Infancy Youth and Mans Age 4. His bitter Passion and Death 5. His Descending into Hell Resurrection Apparition and Clarification 6. His Ascension and Entrance into his Glory again 7. His Glorious Manifestation or Revelation and coming again to Judgment and to his Kingdom In these seven Points all the Mysteries of God are comprehended without which no Man can be a true Teacher in the Church of God and of christ according to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit which are ordained by God to such Ministry although they are not absolutely necessary for every Child of God for it is not Knowledg and Science that saveth and maketh us happy in Christ Jesus but the true Faith being effectual by Love Therefore the knowledg wisdom and understanding of children is one thing and another thing that of the young Men and another thing that of Fathers and old Men for every one hath his own peculiar Gift of Grace of the Spirit of God as Paul teacheth 1 Cor. 14. For it is not a meer Outward Literal or Habitual work of Reason borrowed from the Heathens as now adays is taught in the Schools where the Spirit of God with his true Gifts is extruded and rejected But the Spirit of God and of Christ imparteth in to every one as much as it pleaseth and according as the holy Souls do order and behave themselves in praying aright that they may be fully and fundamentally Partakers of the Divine
Gifts and taught by God Himself as Christ speaketh wherein the vocation and calling of every one to the Ministry of Preaching properly consisteth and thereby is distinguished and discerned from Hirelings having nothing but outward self-forged Arts and Inventions These three Degrees of several Gifts Christ also Himself went through for being a Child he encreased in Age Nature Wisdom and Favor with God and Man and with the twelfth year of his Age he concluded his Infancy or Childship and begun his Youth but what he did in this Youth until the thirtieth year of his Age is not recorded seeing it hath not pleased the Spirit of God to reveal more unto us but what was requisite and necessary to the Performance of his proper Office doubtless to the end that we the more diligently and earnestly should ruminate and observe his Precepts Commandments Miracles Testimonies and Sufferings not mixing there-amongst any other impertinent and unnecessary things seeing the wanton outward Reason always rather flattereth the flesh in its wickedness then obeyeth the Spirit of Christ In the thirtieth year of his Age his right Office of Redemption and Mans Age begun of which the four Evangelists sufficiently do witness yet far more was done then recorded as John saith in the end of his Gospel But what is written is abundantly sufficient if we would but order and rule our selves accordingly and not with Babels foolish Reason account it Impossible as we have said afore Now as these three Degrees have their three several times so also have they their several knowledg Hence it is that the Apostle saith When I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child But when I became a Man I Put away childish things Also We know in part and we prophecy in part And he saith to his Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.1 Brethren I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal but as unto Babes in Christ I have fed you with Milk and not with Meat c. But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away This we may also in truth and without folly apply to the several times and ages of Christians saying that they be threefold and that in respect of knowledg wisdom and understanding we have been but Children hitherto in all our deep learned Men and great Schollers as the world thinks them to be and they themselves all one and other love to be called having nothing but some Ethnical literal Learning confusedly heaped and hoarded up according to the outward carnal Reason whereof they have made a self-forged Art without the power and vertue of the Spirit to deceive the world to their own heavy Judgment in that great day And it is still so at this very day in so much that is goeth with us now as some hundred years ago when people lay in Blindness and Darkness so that it is very hard for a man to rid himself out from them until Satan be bound Apoc. 20. The same happened in the time of the Apostles with the Corinthians where one called himself of Apollo another of Cephas another of Paul But were not they herein fleshly-minded yet notwithstanding they were Christians though but little Children in Christ and not spiritual though yet spiritual in another respect for Paul could not speak to them of Christ and his Mysteries as he fain would seeing they could not yet bear such solid food for to new wine we must have new bottels And the very Disciples themselves were even so in the beginning that they understood nothing of what was told them being unsensible of it and the words were hidden to them So is it with the Christians at this very day in deed and in truth for what is it but blindness and Ignorance proceeding from the Heathenish carnal understanding according to the outward Reason wherewith Men so pitifully torment both themselves and others that they purposely of meer abominable pride arising from the vain wisdom of the wicked flesh curse and condemn one another and that against the express Word of God One is and will be called after this Sect another after that Sect and its Author and oftentimes for a slight and frivolous Opinions sake concerning this or that Point they give one another Nick names therewith to exasperate the Hatred conspiracy and confederation of one party against the other for that purpose plotting and inventing divers tricks and stratagems for the undermining and supplanting of each other and yet nevertheless all these without the ground of true Love will be called Christians in so much that now adays all chambers and Chappels are full of those that cry out Lo here is Christ not there those be Hereticks c. But are not these humane and carnal as Paul saith Yes verily as bad as the Corinthians formerly if not worse Now what should we say and think of these Men if we our selves were strong and spiritual Nothing else but what we would have and wish them to judg of us if we were Children and they strong to wit from Christians we should expect and look for nothing else but Love as Christ himself in divers places repeats this his earnest Commandment viz. that we should love one another as he hath-loved us John 15.17 By this only mark his Disciples or true Christians yea all true Christianity is known and discerned For Love is above all Faith Knowledg and Mysteries It also can bear suffer and endure all things it vaunteth not it self nor is it puffed up though it were never so strong wise and wealthy but rather the stronger wiser and richer it is the more and easier it beareth the weak silly and poor otherwise it cannot be the Love As it now further more plainly shall appear CHAP. VI. Of the difference betwixt the unfeigned true Love and false Love and how the false Love always mingleth it self with the true NOw adays a Man may justly make moan and complain that there is so little true Wisdom to be found amongst Men and that all men run on in their Blindness as the Prophet saith Many men boast of Love and think that to be sufficient though it be but for our own end or else if they do but thereby shew some Hospitality or other liberality in relieving the necessity of their Neighbor This indeed according to the outward shew is somewhat yet very unclean in so much it scarce is to be accounted a sign or mark of Love And though it be somewhat yet notwithstanding it is far inferior to the Love prescribed and enjoyned in the Law which saith Thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thy self Therefore there is a very great difference between Love and Love namely as great as there is between the threefold World For first the Creature-like Love proceedeth from the Elementary Sydereal or Astral Spirit and from its Inclinations and Aspects and is caused and engendered by a
and Commandment proceedeth from the Angelical World and is ordained by the disposition of Angels Galat. 3.19 Acts 7.53 spoken and expressed by Angels Heb. 2.2 which word few men do understand viz. that the Law is from the Angelical and not from the Divine World seeing the Divine World is and abideth clean without Law Therefore the Filiation or Childship proceedeth only from the Divine World the Servantship from the Angelical and the Creatureship from the Elementary World Further Love surpasseth all Mysteries all Knowledg and Faith being no Man is able to search out the Mysteries of this Depth or Abyss Yea no man can rightly beleeve that God so loveth sinners unless he finds in himself the upright Love for without Love all is in vain but through Love all things are sanctified and without it nothing is profitable Whosoever therefore hath this Love dwelling in himself he hath rightly the Spirit of God and can search and know all things even above Angels for he can see clearly and evidently how God loveth the fallen Man and not the fall of the Devil O what a deep Mystery is this which with no tongues can be expressed unless a man truly had known Mysterium magnum Creationis the great Mystery of Creation which therefore is so unknown to Man because they know nothing of the threefold World wherein the Key of David is comprised namely the Testimony of God of those three that bear witness in Heaven and Earth Now if we intend to edifie one another in Love then we must first know the Love speak of it and search for it Many are ready enough to talk of Love but what Love properly is in its self thereof they are altogether ignorant yea they abhor it when a man rightly nameth it and yet fiercer they grow when a man with truth will lead them to it Thus far they are gone from the Spirit of God and his Wisdom that they carry nothing about them but the lust of wrath Wherefore God can neither have his Mansion and Habitation by them but they abide in Death for Love only hath all promises in it is profitable to all things being the Mother of Godliness and by it all things are clean unto the clean Good works also by Love obtains the promise of Eternal Life Thus by Love a man both prayeth fasteth and eateth aright otherwise all is in vain though a man suffer himself to be burned CHAP. VII Wherein doth the dayly Practise of Love towards our Neighbor truly consist SEeing Love is a thing of so great consequence that the new Creature in Man consisteth in it therefore hath Christ so earnestly commanded us the serious and dayly practise of it in so much that we should love our very Enemies for therein Perfection consisteth It is necessary therefore that we lay hold on Love even enter into it if we mean to draw near to God and obtain everlasting Happiness It is not in mans own free will to choose whether he will do it or no but there is a necessity for it if we will be called Christians in truth And moreover what can be said to be better graceful I pray then to grow and increase in this Love towards all men which Love must be without any respect of persons so far forth as concerns the common Love If we therefore be found to be in this Love it is Impossible that we should despise judg or condemn one another much less envy persecute destroy and kill one another for we have all of us one Father and one and the same God hath created us All wherefore then should we despise one another transgressing the covenant of our fathers which is Love Therefore I cannot see how he that calls himself of Paul should be better then he that calls himself of Apollo and Cephas are not they all Christians and beleeve in Christ Therefore they amongst themselves being compared one with another are humane glorying in men they are carnal being they do not judg according to the Spirit but according to the flesh But in respect of God they are his Children as the very Apostles strong and spiritual men themselves and in this respect none is better then another in the sight of God For as it is amongst the members of the body viz. the feet cannot see the eyes do neither be they so clear and pure as the eyes are but are not they for all this members of the body The feet have no such light perspection and discerning faculty as the eyes have yet notwithstanding the eye doth not despise the feet for they are fellow-members of one and the same body they are not envious one against the other though the feet now and then should be unsavory for God Almighty hath so ordered and disposed the members of the body that one should not exalt and raise it self up against the other seeing the feet are not only members of the body but fellow-members with the eye and how could the eye be exalted and seen in its state and beauty if it were not raised up and supported up and supported by the feet Is it not so that one member must praise and set forth the other The feet likewise cannot despise the eyes much less judg and censure them for they cannot see nor go aright without the eyes and if the eyes did not lead and guide them they would soon go into the ditch and together with them the whole body also therefore as the feet do see by the eyes and yet notwithstanding they are not eyes so likewise the eyes go by the feet though they themselves be not feet but eyes Now as it is with the members of the body so it is with Christians For as the members of the body are different yet not disagreeing nor divided otherwise the whole body would go to ruine So also Loving Christians I say the Loving Christians who are endued with Love and do love another whether he be friend or foe Jew or Turk Heathen or Christian for this we owe one to another as the Scripture exhorteth us saying Owe no man any thing but to love one another Thus by Love all Christians are rightly and easily known though according to the outward Letter they be Heathens Jews and Turks and in humane censure and opinion Infidels as knowing nothing of Christ according to the literal faith yet notwithstanding they are Christians in deed and in truth even because they love their Neighbor and do good to him And thus it appears plainly what a Christian is what it is that makes a Christian or whereby a man comes to be a Christian is and abideth so according to Christs own word and saying viz. Hereby it shall be known that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another In a word This is both the old and new Commandments on which both the Law and the Gospel even the everlasting Gospel dependeth by which all Heathens Jews Turks and all that are not Christians shall
Mystery of God the Father and of Christ Hitherto we could not for the whole world is full of fleshly-minded men and the spiritual men are so few among the children of men for men speak one with another unprofitable carnal vain and wicked words being voyd and ignorant of the mind of Christ yet notwithstanding a man may find now and then some few that have already received a Glimpse or Spark from the Father of Lights waiting together with us for the Glorious Manifestation of the Children of God who among all Nations as yet are hid for far be it and false it is that all Sects should be reprobate and rejected for God shall yet both call and gather many of and amongst them and use them as precious Stones for the Building of his great glorious third and last Temple False and idolatrous it is to think according to the Roman Catholiques self-love and conceit that all Protestants are damned Hereticks for the Lord hath chosen not a few of them whom he shall make his Evangelists and send them in Troops to preach his Salvation A great mistake and blindness it is that one Sect imagineth the other to be an Abomination before God not knowing the Lord will call of them many chosen Instruments to work upon his Temple and to convert his People Israel to Himself through his Spirit which shall be shed abroad upon all of us and so forth de Paribus idem Judicium for God neither seeth nor judgeth according to the judgment of man but he looketh to the Heart and dealeth with us in great forbearance He governeth us with great Patience and hath mercy upon us without Intermission Wherefore then should not we also have pity and compassion towards our fellow-servants let them be according to the letter what they will and love them from our very heart thereby praising our Father which is in Heaven If we be stronger wiser and more righteous then our fellow-servant is well and good let us bear his weakness folly and sin as Christ did that we may fulfil his Law If he erreth then let us instruct him in Love according to the simplicity of Children not with many Articles whereby he will be but more disturbed and confounded If he be faln let us help to raise him up again not with reproaches reviles and expostulations but with a meek spirit for he that thinks himself to stand let him take heed lest he fall not If he be obstinate and refractory then let us bear and carry him for it is neither strength nor art to carry one that is light and willing but him that is heavy hard and froward that the strength and vertue of God may be seen and known to dwell with us together with the patience of Christ and the meekness of his Spirit If he be altogether a weed yet we are willing to suffer him to grow until the time of the Harvest and not root him out lest we in so doing should also hurt the Wheat Now what a folly is it that we hitherto so unchristianlike have despised reproached judged and condemned one another I my self was also once among the Scornful Fools Blasphemers and untimely Judges whereof I am now justly ashamed Therefore beloved Man whosoever thou art boast not against another for who hath set thee before another or what hast thou beyond him or above him which thou hast not received or wherefore dost thou judg anothers servant and thereby curse his Master whether he stands or falls he stands or falls to his own Lord and Master We must all of us appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ and every one must give an account for his own self and every one must also bear his own burden and have his own honor or dishonor by himself and for himself and not by any other Wherefore dost thou vaunt and boast thy self being puffed up against another who hath Justified thee before thy Neighbor if thou perswadest thy self that thou understandest things better and to be of greater ability in they wisdom My Beloved boast not your selves one against another but rather love one another for the Spirit of Wisdom and Truth cometh is come and shall come and pass one sentence upon all your Sectarians to wit that ye know neither Christ nor your own selves nor one another if so be that you imagine your selves to be wiser more understanding and learned and more righteous then another But if ye be simple then abide ye in the Love of Christ not judging nor despising nor condemning one another and so ye shall neither be despised judged nor condemned but mercy shall be unto you from the Lord. Now when the Spirit of Judgment cometh then shall we plainly see how grievously we all of us have erred one as well as another not one of us excepted Therefore O Man examine thy self well and consider that we are not able to answer for one of a thousand Therefore let us in serious Repentance and contrition of heart lay hold on Love towards one another that we may also be apprehended by the Love and preserved to Eternal Mercy If thou think it strange when we say that all of us have erred and gone astray and thou thereby conceivest as if we should have been excluded from Salvation seeing we have not had the perfect Wisdom then know and understand that no Article of Faith no Prophecy no Knowledg no Wisdom no Mystery yea no Faith neither according to thy knowing as thou conceivest it in the letter nor Baptism nor Absolution nor Communion shall nor can save thee but only the Spirit the Spirit the Spirit I say it is which quickeneth and saveth where that is there is all the rest also be it what it will and call it what you will therefore things must be judged spiritually and not animally humanely and carnally And whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ belongeth not to Him though he boast profess and protest never so much therefore in the time of their Ignorance God hath winked at all Sects call them what Sect you will seeing it hath been the time of Desolation whereby Christ is rooted out and the Man of Sin set up in the holy place and hath given out concerning himself that he is God to the end that he now might manifest the exceeding Riches and the great hidden Depths of his Wisdom and Knowledg and convert to himself not only the Christians being so confused and distracted among themselves but also all Jews Turks and Heathens yea all the World and therefore he will shew his exceeding great Mercy unto all Men in the whole World yea unto all Creatures CHAP. X. How in the End here we shall enter into the Kingdom of Christ and how we may beware of Hinderances SEeing he hath concluded All under the Error of Folly and confusion of great Babel so now he will also have Mercy upon all not only upon the distracted and perplexed Christians but also upon the erring