when all exercises and all strength of our own faileth even then are these the exercises of God and his strength When all our strength is vanished away and we have so long laboured under the Law that we can do no more then is God present whether we will or no for here a man must go on nor is it permitted him to go back again for he is in the hand of the Lord into which he often desired to come and that hand will not then let him go till it hath rightly broken him in pieces by afflictions and hath tumbled him up and down thorough various cases Whence it comes that healwayes more and more loseth himself till he be freed from all his flesh and is made capable of the heavenly influence Whoever they are who are not thus exercised but abide in their own labour can never be advanced higher but stand at a stay always in the same state and if one shall return after the space of a year or two years yea of ten unto them he shall find them still as he formerly left them how much soever they exercise themselves under the Law and severity and good works and labours and fastings and abstinence c. Yet they all stop their course here being still inwardly unchanged and unregenerated and of the new creature or regeneration know nothing because they are not exercised in the hand of the Lord by means of the aforesaid sufferings for affliction alone is this way to the new Generation to Wisdom and to true Knowledge The aforesaid labour also must be under the Law yea and go before that other else we cannot arrive at the said state of suffering so that no one abides therein for the mind is not yet so purified and there still sticketh unto its bottom somewhat that is worldly though one may appear otherwise outwardly Consequently we become not in our minds partakers with Christ until being purified by that purgatory and these sufferings we are made capable of him for light and darkness Christ and Belial dwell not together Those middle things which are interposed between God and us and unto which we always remain fixedly holding our eye so as we cannot see God those middle things I say are to be removed by the means of sufferings from God if we are to be united to him If Gold could be sensible and speak it would certainly say what it should suffer before it could be purified and so the Earth would say how much it must suffer and how much it would stand in need of before the seed is produced out of its bowells When a man hath brought all his labours to an end nor cannot go on further then is the chiefest and highest work yet before his hands lying as undone If this must be perfected and done it must be done by God for it behooveth that he should accomplish these things which are impossible for a man to do CHAP. XXXII A Man who hath begged help from the Lord judges other men honester then himself for he confesses that if others had had this grace which was done to him that they had been more faithful and more honest by much then himself is Whence also he abstaineth from rash judgment and commiserates poor men because he beholds their future misery out of which he himself thorough the mercy of God without any merit of his own is snatched and therefore he cannot extol himself above others nor tax them or delude them but rather humbleth himself beneath all and burneth with a universal charity Moreover he would willingly renounce his own Salvation that others might but be saved Nor can he do otherwise because this is the property of regeneration He who hath regeneration and is arrived at the true substance adhereth to no things whatsoever he does or omits to do or eats or drinks or goes or stands whether he be with others or whether he be alone but he alwayes is free from all and uncesâ—antly beholdeth God whose he is properly and for whose sake he useth all things At what time he is rapt upwards he is put beyond himself and is without all discretion and when he is let down again from that same mountain he uncessantly looketh back upwards again The new man by a continual ascent every houer and moment goes away unto God nor doth he ever stop his course because God is unsearchable and past finding out He regards not temporals though he may seem so and though he does eat drink sleep and is cloathed for if he should regard them he would still stand in time but all the aforementioned things are snatched from him by fire that he might ascend above time and stand in God He dyed and rose again in God he fell oil from all things and perished both in Body Soul and Spirit At first every one is an infant then a youth and thence he goeth into man-hood and at length into old age then we falter and can no longer enjoy the pleasure of youth and at last we say I remember that I have been a young man but time is gone When young men rejoyce I am in sadness and whilst they live I dye CHAP. XXXIII THere is not a letter in the Holy Scriptures which ought not to be understood and interpreted concerning the body of Christ now there are many members of Christ's body that which is not in one member is in another The whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament with all figures and ceremonies prefigure the very substance of the matter and is a type of the internal truth as the Image in the glass is the representation of the face And as the Image cannot be in the glass of whom there is no truth or substance So there is no representation of Scripture or of ceremonies or of figures to which there belongs not some truth and substance When therefore a representation or Image is true there is also a true essence or substance There is no shaddow without a body nor figure or Image without an essence The Book of Psalms begins maturely with man and continues with him unto old age and even to his end and with man it riseth up from bottom to top No Christian transcendeth the exercises of the Psalms nor can he get so high but the Psalms accompany him still and express his mind How long doth the faithful man wait for God till he cometh and when he is come he departs again and hides himself that a man cannot find him And by this very thing God will purge a man that he may learn truly to possess him without appropriation for at first he assumeth God with appropriation and this then is that same subtile flesh of hiâ— which ought to be consumed CHAP. XXXIIII FAith is a most desolate thing Juâ—â— as when many things are reachâ— out to any one and he catcheth at theâ— but then they are pull'd away again but at last a door of escape is opened 〈◊〉 him which then
can not now own it that this is that very case True indeed he wisheth O that this were it and yet he judgeth that this his suffering is plainly some other thing till God bringeth him forth as purged or cleansed And then he is cloathed with Righteousness and is translated into the true essence then also he hath utterly lost himself yea and all that also wherein he sought himself and is made one with God who is made unto him all things Formerly he sought to save his Soul alwayes fearing lest he should lose it but now he stands in the hand of God given up to God and with him and out of him God doth what he pleaseth both in time and in eternity for he acquiesceth in all things and desireth nothing but that the will of God may be done in him CHAP. XXIIII WHen sin is discovered to a man then it seemeth to him to be as it were a Sword at which he is frighted and fleeth to God and so Satan is kill'd by his own Sword Paul saith From out of many sins Righteousness is manifested when sins are multiplied that is when the multitude and magnitude of sins become known to a man then he turns his back at last upon sin and goes to God who delivers him from it and in the place of sin manifesteth to him his own Righteousness for as sometimes many Hounds pursue after one Hare when the Dogs are taken off the Beast is freed and remains alone so also God doth with the multitude of sins so as they all at last leave following a man Therefore it is written in the Psalms A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand and they shall not come near thee This falling of thousands and ten thousands is done in man but it approacheth not unto a man but he is kept upright in God and is taken into his glory And then he becomes as if he were not he is as it were so wholly deified that he can find nothing but God neither himself nor any creature And when he is thus in an exstasie and in a rapture above then is he void of discretion and without reason Not as though they were not still in being in him but that he is not sensible of them until he returns into his mind again but it is a pain to him that he is forced to descend again into discretion For it was a great bitterness to Paul that he was forced to return back into discretion for the sake of his Brethren No man understands those places of Paul's sin Experience is the mother of understanding If one hath once tasted Hony he needs not to be told that Hony is Sweet He that seeth a white thing there is no need to say unto him that thing is white for he will answer what need is there to tell me that when I my self both see and understand the very thing He that hath the very thing it self stands in no need of the type or shaddow of that thing CHAP. XXV CHrist descended so low as we also are to come down he went no lower but he ariseth much higher then we can Now can we also possibly come into that depth unless first we shall arrive at exaltation Man hath Christ first in Nature and alwayes receives him more sublime yet so as what hath gone before is still sown again to spring up into a more noble plant so that at length man receiveth Christ without all or any creature Thus man is alwayes ascending by and thorough the creatures until he hath found Christ without the creatures A man ascends by the Angels unto the Son who gives him up unto the Father Generation proceeds from one degree unto another until one climeth above all things into Eternity and there generation endeth for there is the eternal abyss in which he is wholly swallowed up and he who arrives so far knows all things in a constant Idea out of which God snatcheth him and he alwayes sees most clearly by what degrees God was present with him and therefore he persisteth in a perpetual giving of thanks Also in such a claritude and vision of God he is in a perpetual death and is as it were some hungring Soul to whom it is not lawful to eat of Meats set before him But if he doth throw his life into danger and doth eat then must he again dye a new death therefore such kind of men are both poor and rich for though they are in the bosome of all comfort yet they want all comfort so also they in joâ—s want joy and in pleasures want pleasure And these are they who are poor in spirit who have not whereon to lay their heads and dare touch nothing and stand they do as it were upon a round Globe yet they have wings but know it not As to themselves they are altogether distitute of all security but in God's sight they are secure Whereas they who are secure in themselves want security before God This state is not the state of Esau but of Jacob for Esau hath God for his propriety but God hath Jacob for his own propriety who stands in being given up to God because God hath made him fit and capable and hath reduced him to obedience and therefore the man possesseth God with acquiescence and in the midst of all riches and glory he accounts himself a poor wretch he is quietly satisfied in all things which God shall do If he gives him Heaven he is quetly pleased if he cast him into hell it self he bears it patiently and still continueth resigned up to the will of God also what things soever God puts upon him by other men he receives them all as from God and hath nothing to do with men but with God who does all these things by means of men therefore is he at peace with all men and can hate no man for any adversity done unto him for he takes it from God and not from Man whom he still looks upon but as on instruments by which God worketh as when a trumpet soundeth it is not the trumpet maketh the sound but the Trumpeter Hence it follows that he standeth in a willing patience against all that can happen unto him by men so that if they hate him blaspheme him injury him hinder him punish him revile him detract from his reputation take away his goods his friends his house and do persecute him captivate him bind him on wracks torment and kill him he takes all these from the hand of God alone and hath no business with men and in all these he looks upon God only and not upon Men he renounceth to all persons and can take all in good part So also on the contrary if any one good happeneth to him from men he takes all that also from God because he hath taken off his eyes from all means and hath fixed them upon God alone he also hath no respect of persons which God hath withdrawn
corruption do ascend as the increase ascendeth Let no man think that he who hath a certainty of eternal life hath therefore no need to suffer It is written Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Foot-stool When therefore the mind of a man is the Heaven and throne of God then God useth his flesh as subjected unto himself and for his foot-stool There were given to the Woman in the Revelations two Wings that she should flie away into the Wilderness from before the face of the Dragon but the Dragon went forth and fought with her seed those are such men as are not yet set fully at liberty Illumination is never brought to pass in a man unless first he be purified for â—llumination must be expected to follow purification until the very last point of impurity be also perfectly purged out And then presently succeds Illumination and when the business draws towards en end claritude doth always as it were hover over him nor does he yet enter until the very last point also be purged out and then at length the enters The first purification of a man is by working under the Law the second by Christ under Grace Do thou consider how that which is bound may then be freed and how a man must be quite wearied out in the combate under this Illumination But as it was said here of the first Illumination viz. that it is not made before the first purification be accomplished even unto its utmost degree so it is not in the second purification wherein the foundation is purged viz. that we might then look for Illumination when purification was fully accomplished Now though there be a disparity by reason by Illumination yet there is none such by reason of purification for even as the first is performed gradually so also is the second There is no means extant by whose help God and our mind can be united but only the most pure body of Christ If we must be regenerated and become new creatures now in time then must that be fulfilled in our Souls which was done in the body of Christ for it behooved him to suffer to dye to be laid in the Sepulchre and then to rise again thus ought our Spirits to be also conformed yea our bodies also before they can be vivified to live eternally must first dye in much misery and anguish and then be raised up again at the last Day CHAP. XXXI THe new man doth all things out of or from regeneration He hath no need to go first and hear or read what he is to do or to leave undone because all his things proceed out of Regeneration To a regenerate Man who worketh and exerciseth himself in God eating and drinking and sleeping and every temporal need begets trouble and anxiety He who hath regeneration it self and is come into the essence of God restraineth himself within bounds nor does he act as formerly when he had the thing only in notion There is no need to command a man newly born that he should live and see and eat and drink and sleep and wake and desire and go and stand and speak c. for he does all these things unbidden by nature for it is his essence and property that which he outwardly hears and sees is only the expression of himself for he derives none of these from elsewhere for he had them before and it is his nature and he thus acteth freely Nor is it needful that it should be told him what a man is or what it is to live to eat to drink to sleep to wake to desire to stand to go c. for he knows all these by his own proper experience But on the contrary a man that is not yet born knows not what a man is or what it is to live to eat to drink to sleep to watch to desire to go to stand c. Neither can it so be propounded to him that he may understand it or by expression have it represented to him The like to this may be said of a man born of God who knoweth all things by his own proper experience whatever the Scriptures testify and express for all that is his nature and propriety and nothing is adverse to him which he cannot freely do And therefore he is no longer under the Law He knows by his experience the wayes by which we are led to regeneration or what regeneration or a man new born again is as also what is his life his food his drink his exercise his work his going his standing c. and of these things there is no need that any of them should be commanded to him for he hath all things of himself and they are his propriety besides he freely and willingly doth them nor can he do otherwise There is no need to tell a Lover what Love is nor a Godly man what Godliness is and because he is so come unto the very essence of things that they are become his habit and use and being always present with him he cannot then be angry though he be contradicted and the matter is not believed by men for else he knows and is sensible of the thing and that he who is against him ought to be subjected to his Judgment He who is fully sound in health cannot be angry nor grieved though one should say to him that he is sick for he feels that it is otherwise but he who hath the thing only in notion but not in substance cannot bear contradictions and affronts Before we arrive at regeneration we must be drag'd thorough an unknown forsaken and desolate path and God pulls a man by this way against his will For when a man laboured under the Law so that he could advance no further and supposed that he was now arrived at the end of his journey then at length must he journey and be hurried thorough this unknown way The first way was pleasant and full of fresh-green herbs though it also seemed difficult and a man thought that the end thereof would be God Yet the end proved to be no other then this aforesaid rough-way which is Purgatory in which a man is purged from all things which are of the flesh God indeed draws a man hither and thither in this way and still some small piece of flesh is torn off here or there till it be left quite bare and nothing but Spirit remains Then the man willingly yields himself up into the hands of God and into those sufferings because the carnal affections are thus consumed in this purgatory so that there is nothing remains but Spirit Then God cometh and applyeth himself unto man and gives himself to be known of man and so this man comes at length to arrive at true substance or essence of which he is made capable by this suffering for in this suffering or purgatory he is fully purged and made fit to receive God When God is willing to help us then he exerciseth us with this suffering
he yet stands in the creature He that standeth in God he hath no business with the creature but with God and knows him to be faithful and just in judgments To such a man no injury can be done for whatsoever happens unto him he knows it to be decreed by God Jordan is the River of jugdment to it judgment is due over it judgment hangeth thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness said our Lord when he was about to be baptised in Jordan He who understands any thing which he hath not experienced hath no real understanding thereof For he is like to him who speaks of a fair Country in which he never yet was CHAP. IIII. NO man can have humility without affliction Herod the fiery dragon and the mountain lifted up would have killed the little infant under the shew of devotion or worship The greatest danger is hanging over our heads from Pride which dares kill every birth Christs humanity is the highest of figures I desired and I sought but whatever I sought and found it now lies in death and suffers destruction together with all that that was gain to me and that too without all hope of recovery For that which must rise again is not the body which is sown for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and therefore must a man be slain according to the Flesh for it 's according to the Flesh that a man dyes and is made alive again according to the spirit If a thing should rise again as it dyes it would rise again in nature and would be natural but it is not so done Paul faith It is sowen a natural body Nature partaketh not of the Kingdom of God hence it is that the death thereof is without all hopes The natural man hopeth to be the heir of the Kingdom and thinks that the promises of God belong unto him and applies all that is written to himself but then afterward the thing comes to be otherwise apprehended when one is lead whither he would not and God is glorified in and by his death There nature is renouned and it must be robbed of all salvation and be denyed That which the natural man applied to himself another taketh They that went out of Aegypt desired to come into the promised Land and did divide it out to themselves but they abode in the wilderness and dyed there and their posterity only entred into Palestine Whatsoever therefore the natural man understands or sayes concerning these things yet all this is against him for it speaks of a sword which is to kill him Now they which are in this exercise and speak any thing thereof they speak it with affliction and not with delight nor can they ask for more then formerly because it belongs not unto them seeing all things tend to corruption and death and into death a man is unwillingly dragged he conveighs not himself thither for if it stood at his dispose he would never choose this state or condition but he is catched and put thereinto by another who is above him and stronger then himself Just as it is now with the death of the body so the matter is also carried in this other death of which it is said viz. When any one thinks he hath found his Soul and that he is confirmed in life yet must he be subjected unto death Now the Lord suffers him first to grow and to increase and grow ripe in youth but when he is accomplished in that youth he plainly careth not for death and though he knows that a time of dying must come yet lie laies it not close to heart till he be grown old then death frights him and stands before his eyes and yet neither then does he know how much misery there is there to be met with for if he knew it he would dye aforehand for mere grief They who depart from earthly things according to the testimony of conscience that they may seek the salvation of their Souls and to arrive at true ripeness of youth rejoyce in this death when they hear of it and understand it because of the fruit that springs from thence But they who are in this death are destitute of that joy for if they could yet have any joy they would still have life and consequently could not be in death because what ever dyes is separated from all life Posterity only lives and rejoyces Nothing is due to corruption but death and destruction and in death all things are removed as faith and trust and hope and charity and all joy and every thing that is founds is to be forsaken Now if it be to be forsaken and lost it must first be found out and taken up for that which one hath not he cannot give up Now that which here is thus to be forsaken is also destitute of hope as was said and therefore this desertion is donâ— not with delight but with great aâ—â—â—ction The first desertion indeed is doâ—â— with joy because then some better thing is hoped for But that hope is not here but in this point there is a total forsaking and a being made naked oh all sides Gain as they say makes labour sweet But mat labour out of which no gain is hoped for is without doubt a matter hard and bitter and sharp Labour at first was sweet because gain sprung therefrom viz. that the life or soul might be found which also was found But when this life is found it is lost again in that same dying and a man is alienated from himself and God possesseth the place of self and there is no more mountain or valley but God alone for Nature is quite shut out CHAP. V. IF sin were not neither would death be if death were not neither would there be a resurrection therefore all things work together for good for the elect Now that which first departed from earthly things is presently after elevated into divine and so remains in it self without death For though it may dye as to its gross earthly nature or creature yet as to its self it is without death as having only changed one state into another and standeth still in its own life and yet is but the natural man in his own propriety though in a more pure estate And thus he proceedeth from state to state from a lower to a higher from a pure one to one more pure And although all that is here said of states are by the means of death and corruption accomplished yet the man himself remains yet in himself without and beyond death and corruption for he is still the same and cannot forsake his propriety and stands in desire as to God as he before stood inâ—desâ—â— as to the creature and thus he ascendâ— and goes forwards until he arriveth at the most pure and nobler state it is possible for him to arrive at And all this 〈◊〉 still but a figure and a notion but a purer and noble figure but if we must come above
are outwardly in affliction and captivity For these if they could kill their keeper they would readily do it that they might get loose yea if they could break the windows gates and walls But this other sort do not thus behave themselves but are subjected unto the will of God and in it do quietly rest and although they could do as other do yet that they cannot desire there is therefore a great difference betwxt the coaction of those and of these CHAP. VII GOd himself is the uncreated Salvation which spreads it self forth round about just as the Sun is every where dispersed abroad where it can be received But where it cannot be received the fault is not in it self If therefore this universal uncreated Salvation which is God himself ought to take place in man then must the proper included and created salvation of man perish for this is not God himself and therefore it cannot stand in the sight of God and a man must on that score be cast into death and destruction and be deprived of his Soul which he had with much labour saved and when by his labour he was come so far that he could not get further then was it time for God not be at rest but to cast him into death that so he might by grace establish that in the man which the man by the Law could not gain thorough much labour For whatsoever Christ represented in life and doctrine is impossible to be actively fulfilled yet it must be fulfilled in death It behooveth a Man to dye that God himself may effect the matter and that the glory thereof may not be Man's It is not labour but Regeneration Christ bringeth grace and that which is grace is not the labour of man and afterwards a man having passed his own proper created Salvation comes unto the universal increated Salvation which is God himself and this Salvation knoweth God and with this a man can stand before God for God can stand before himself And this man no more judgeth any one For this Sun hath nothing strange in it with this salvation a man hath communion without appropriation And here it is that the communion of Saints taketh place Life repulsed by one flees to another in which it lives till it self also dyeth When the life dyeth as to the creature it is nothing esteemed off in respect of that life which dyes as to it self for there life yet remains alive and receiveth other and greater objects then it had before and in them it then liveth and hath only changed one for another and instead of a worser hath received a better nor is it dead in it self but is still the very same life but when a life dyeth to its own self there is affliction unspeakable when it can have nothing whereby it can be sustained and which can refresh or comfort it for the destruction thereof is without hope for when it falleth can rise up again no more because it falls a natural thing and it riseth again a spiritual thing and therefore like seeketh like the old bottle cannot contain new wine a new patch agreeth not with an old garment therefore we must dye to deformity when conformity is to be performed It is very necessary to have discretion but no man can have it but he that hath the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit of which the Prophet speaketh and the last of them is The fear of the Lord for when one receiveth the former gifts then at last he is round about filled with the fear of the Lord and the Lord is feared in all CHAP. VIII ABout the prophetical promises of God we must always observe whom they respect for they belong not to the natural man and he participateth nothing of them but only his destruction Whatever is extent in the Prophets and the Apostles have wrot is praised as that which is beautiful yea and it is beautiful but to the Natural man it is death and he participateth nothing thereof Although therefore he shall praise it as that which is beautiful yet it is his death yea and therefore he must come into death if it must be applied unto him But Christ is constituted by his father to be the Saviour that he may apply all that and fulfil it by the cross No man that is not dead cometh under grace and the Gospel therefore they falsly boast who glory that they are under grace without death A man not dead is first to be subdued by the Law and therefore is to be prepared for death by means of which he is freed from the Law and comes under grace as long as he is alive he belongs to the subjection of the Law but when he is after that dead he is under grace for Christ is not the servant of sin that he might leave our sins in their own state but he came that he might free us from sin which is done by the means of death Sin is punished with death And Christ is no defender of the natural man that he should remain alive For if he should do that we should come without death into God which is impossible Let every one therefore abstain from false boastings and defend no unrighteousness for that thing will never find success The whole world is full of false boastings concerning Christ but we must not be conformed to the word as Paul saith A man is secretly besieged by many things of which he is ignorant and he then at last comes to apprehend it when they are withdrawn from him Also a man sometimes apprehendeth a defect in himself and is ignorant what it should be which oftentimes is so great that it must be qualified by the Lord. The misery defect and death of nature is rather to be born with then to fly to complaints anger and murmurings Suffer and hold thy tongue and thou shalst be advanced with help and assistance Break not out into words but repress their motion Flee not from the affliction of thy Nature for come it from whence it will it will bring with it great gain unto thee and will be a benefactour to thy heart If thou shalst not do this thou shalst have a disturbed mind and shalst hot be advanced forward by any exercise There are many things in which a man followeth concupiscence where yet he pretends to another fair outside show Whatever is beyond necessity is contrary to God and to all righteousness yea and to a man 's own self No man ought to boast of his exercise before others but to walk in the fight of God and to rest quiet in him For it s enough if God seeth it All high-mindedness is to be avoided least we be esteemed for some body before others Exercise thy self before God To be able to tolerate ignorance is wisdom It is the part of grave old men to wink at the folly of youth When any one lies in death and is filled therewith and both inwardly and outwardly is without rest
mortifying of all our own powers even as they sensibly feel who are chosen and lead by God into such a death Wherefore we are to endeavour that we may most patiently accept from the Lord whatsoever he hath fore-ordained by his power over us being to our utmost resigned up to him alone continually imploring him by our prayers and with hearts lifted up importunately to beg his mercy that by his grace we may be sustained and preserved even to the end nor that we may not be turn'd aside by any temporal injoyments or by any case happening which is able to make us in this life faint-hearted but that we may abide confirmed in this way with perpetually going forwards in the blessing of God and in real fruitfulness I do not describe the cause by which we may perchance be drawn away and turned aside let every one try himself for there are diverse sins which vex us every one in his own state being captivated by that evil which we term our proper evil in our own will and desires in which every one of us are kept bound or chained May the Lord advance us forward to the true and divine communion and to a willing obedience unto God that we may be set free from all those bonds by which thorough our own faults we are inthralled to which freedome notwithstanding we can never come unless we dye and spiritually depart in and by which captivity is lead forth in triumph after the victory obtained by the most powerful hand of God in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ we being-raised up again in Christ unto the true eternity in the life of the Spirit when that which is become old shall remain cast off neither shall any pardon be given it but be condemned to death and to be perfectly separated from life Let this therefore be our rule thorough our whole life that we endeavour to lay aside that which is a stop and hinderance to our hearts in the way of the Lord which yet is nought else but our own selves who do oppose our selves to the Lord so that we come before him praying with half a heart only whenas notwithstanding if our hearts did spread themselves before the Lord with a perfect resignation and could abide in a continual progress of such a resignation and in a firm purpose of catching at nothing more being free simple and nakedly poured forth before the Lord we should then find with an admirable success the power of the Lord in conquering of sin Yet it 's not possible to arrive at such a liberty of heart but by the special mercy of God to which also are to be joyned our unwearied endeavours and prayers For we have so encompassed our selves about with such a wall of separation that we want the true discerning of our intellect by reason of that thick darkness wherewith our senses are deeply benighted whence it is that we always place without our selves the cause of our holding back and of our barrenness and complain that we are hindred and over-ruled by things external the contrary of which if things proceeded aright and we were sound at the bottom of our hearts would come to pass so as that which is internal would contain and rule in a due order all externals nor would it be hindred by any thing external and thus all would prove well for our use and advantage in the Lord. But the Lord will much better inform us in these matters and effectually cause that if any temporal things that are less necessary become a burden unto us that we shall lay them aside so far forth as it is allowed to us by our Conscience in the Lord yet not without a most exact consideration thereof For he who thus knoweth himself to be weak so as he may easily be hindred by and from things external standeth altogether in need that he should constantly and earnestly beg of the Lord that he may be kept unpolluted and that his Sensitive faculties be thus thorough urgent necessity always kept exercised with continual prayers and an elevated heart which would never be done without necessity for no prayer doth more truely hit the mark then that which floweth from necessity for by how much the more pressing the necessity is by so much the more piercing are prayers made So that in these very evils themselves a remedy is found which leadeth us unto God if so be our ultimate end be nothing else but God and as to things outward we propose to our selves to be obedient to nothing but the divine will and to perform it most exactly But this case doth wind in a man into such difficulties before it can be brought to pass that it will concern him to ingage his utmost resolution and powers to strive with divers and most difficult pangs and desperate temptations which increase upon him dayly more and more For just so it is with these combatants as with the poor wild creature which is driven up and down by the hunters till the time of the Lord be come Now the Lord preserveth us when we know it not yea when we sink into swoons and are swallowed up by straights and then doth our death truely begin when all our arrogance is quite blunted and supprest By reason of the weakness of my hand I could write no more recommending you herewith unto the Lord who can promote us all in his own way and preserve us in a constant diligence and in a perseverance of divine graces EPIST. VII Which is the true way of coming unto Christ very useful for Youth To G. of R. MOst dear G. I gave this to thy Cosin upon his departure hence to be delivered unto thee that thy blooming youth may be more and moâ—â— put on unto true zeal for I was always in my mind perswaded that thou didâ—â— search out after that which is good 〈◊〉 therefore we are in some measure 〈◊〉 serve one another and to help forward in the ways of the Lord it is necessarâ— that thou shouldst exercise in practise that gift which thou hast received and advance it unto fruit bearing that thou mayst not only search after knowledge and Science but also to think of this how thou mayest reduce thy self unto a oneness which is not done by knowing many things but in many things desisting from our our own will and in breaking our desires even in the flower of Youth For our own proper desire is indeed contrary to God and this is the chief root out of which all Sins do grow To him therefore that would arrive at the state of Christ there is no other way allowed then that by the Law he die to his natural desires and lusts He that would retain and keep his lusts and desires supposing that only for a knowledge of Christ apprehended in his understanding he shall be accounted before God for a believer this man certainly will wander far out of the way Inasmuch â—s this same faith goeth no further
may my Nephews exercise themselves the most they can in those endeavours that they may learn to repress their youthful and inordinate affections and appetites which will without doubt spring up in them at their own season The Lord seasonably grant to them to own the witness of their conscience against all these that being kept safe from them all they may never consent to any depraved inclination EPIST. XIX That there is a certain especial difference between the exalted rational Zeal and the Zeal that is pure and Christian To the same Person My Dr I Have recommended thy case and purpose to the Lord who can safely keep us all by his Grace and shew to us our errors for though we are for that purpose subjected to sufferings yet nothing is more wholsom for us than a discovery of our spots and defects which is not wont to be done without our indignation and opposition But if the Spirit of Christ must restore and enliven us all then plainly must there be no place left in us for bitterness of spirit against any one For this is alone the Doctrine of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and humble in heart For all hearts that are puffed up are in his time to be brought low even as alas we find it in many The Lord keep us most miserable worms for I never am frighted with greater horror than when behold my self The natural man scratcheth to himself by appropriating to him self all things whatsoever God bestows upon him out of free grace so that all thing also which are in themselves pure by this appropriation become as it were infected with poyson Now if Nature were deadned and the understanding purified then indeed such usages of Gods gifts would not be so multiplied But now that eviâ— which we call I is so great and our corrupt Nature through its own self-pleasing is so faln and sunk into its own self that we wait not for the time of trials with some difficulties and restâ—â—int and prayer together with a hope 〈◊〉 the promises of God to be fulfilled in a fit season as it hath been foretold by the Lord. The Lord be mindful of wretched me that write thus and be helpful to thee according to his own and not according to my will I also very earnestly intreat thee that thou take not in bad part this my freedom in writing to thee for my mind never desisteth from having a kindness for thee But high pride of heart and a contemning esteem of our Neighbour as also the doing him injury never is allowed a place in the Christian State but rather that which hath a fair shew of some sort of Zeal that is natural mixed with Mosaical rigour For nothing hath appeared in Christ but meer sufferings and death silence and patience even to the Cross upon which even to the last gasp of his life he signalized his obedience in which he was subjected to his Father withour murmuring also that his Majesty of his eternal Godhead he did not take up again as he might have done but rather bore in himself humanity and imbecility and abiding in huâ—â—â—ty and contempt even to the very death he was crowned with Victory For if the external assaults of his enemies could have moved the internal nature of his eternal birth then indeed that which is immovable could have been moved by some outward violence even as alas it most commonly happneth to us that our whole humanity is shocked inwardly and outwardly when yet we do think it to be the zeal of the Lord. But before we can come to the purity of these motions as it manifested it self in Christ against them who dishonoured God and profaned his Temple certainly there are many things to be eradicated out of our fleshly part if we would be thought to be wholly burning in zeal of spirit But as I hope the Lord will in his time manifest these things to us more clearly for when we are grown old we must carry so no things with great pains which whilsâ— youth flour sheth with a flaming zeal we cannot own and undertake Because all that is talked of death and dying to young persons they cannot in good truth come to them seeing that their bones and marrow are alwaies full of all fleshliness with that fervent vigour together with a full strength of the growing faculty and voluptuous tendency which for the sake of its own power and the glory of self-will is wont to oppose it self to God But then if any one proceed further and draweth forth all his strength even unto the top of all his age then comes decreasing that we are unwillingly lead into the will of God by a manifest other process and then those judgments seem to hang over us which once we decreed to others and that youthful life free and wanton swelling with zeal is now by the just judment of God under the decreasings of old age condemned to death but then at length succeeds understanding and discretion together with continual sufferings in the ways of the Lord even unto our death and the proper sentence pronounced to us for just as all that ought to dye that is possessed of life also is that matter here For God alone if he be truly in us is conjoyned with death but not with our life because no flesh how pure so ever it be can abide in his sight For whatever shined forth externally in Christ even that by a like death must be done inwardly in us if so be we are willing in the resurrection to be incorporated into a communion of his glory Otherwise we stick only but in the flesh of Christ though glorious contemplating alone the life of Christ's humanity not yet glorified but we hinder the growth of that fruit which through the death of Christ in the resurrection by the supernatural birth and a new life is poured forth into us with eternal grace The Lord open my mind to you for here I acknowledge my understanding to be too weak and slender EPIST. XX. An acknowledgment concerning the disputation held at Francfort between John Calvin and Justus Velsius of the power of Man or of free-will To A. G. THe Grace of our Lord and his mercy be upon thee and on all those who fear the Lord and seek his truth Most beloved A. concerning what thou didst write to me about that dispute held at Franckfort betwixt Velsius and Calvin my opinion is That Velsius did stumble therein whilst he attributed too much to the power of man for humane power is judged and condemned by the Lord if it be before a man is made partaker of the divine birth because what is new born is of God and not of man it is eternal and immortal even as he is who begat it But on the contrary Calvin failed in that point wherein he rejected all the powers of man universally which indeed I allow to be true unless that I also judge that that knowledge