is no longer desired when viz. any one desires to arrive at the true Substance or essence There is a Claritude given which foretelleth to a man that essence of the thing in which he is not yet got and to which he at last cometh Just as a flower is a certain demonstration of the Fruit that is to come in the future CHAP. XIX WHen the Lord said to the younger Son My Son go and Work in the Vineyard to day and he answered I go Lord but coming unto the Elder he also said Go Work in the Vineyard and he answered I will not Those two Sons are but one Man For when a man begins he will do all he will Suppress sin purifie himself he will Worship Love and adore God and adhere unto him c. He thinks that he is able to perform all this But when the Business comes to Trial then a man at last apprehendeth that he can scarcely observe the outward show of Virtue or Righteousness and that also with much indignation and reluctancy because he hath not that true essential Righteousness and Virtue whence true desire springeth For it is essential virtue only that makes a man pleasant and willing to do whatsoever he is to do and to omit whatsoever he is to omit and if this Virtue be essentially in him then is he more backward and full of loathing against Vice then he was before against Virtue when Vice was yet in the Throne Therefore unless the very root of Vices and of Unrighteousness whence external wickednesses do Spring as the Fruits of a corrupt Tree be purged out no true Virtue or real and Substantial Righteousness can grow forth in a man And therefore all men are Liars and have only the outside-shew of Righteousness without the true essence of the thing for the thing comes not forth out of the mind because the mind hath not received it For the Heart of that man that is full of any thing the man himself is the most Subjected servant to that thing Also sin is not heartily or from the mind omitted as being yet in the mind though as to shew it may be omitted I say not all this for this Purpose that a man ought to wait so long to omit the shew of the Vices and perform a shew of vertue till Vice inwardly also be extirpated and essential virtue Implanted but that none should remain contented if as to the shew only he omitteth Vice and have the Possession of Virtue nor that then he account of himself for a Just man or should think that he hath then so fulfilled Righteousness and to have departed from sin For we must Earnestly Pray both by Night and by Day that it be omitted Heartily or out of the Mind which externally is omitted as to the shew thereof But the truth is that is not the work of man but of God only for it is not Possible for any man to extirpate sin from the Root it self but a man can suffer only that God may do that according to his faithful Promises If a man could perform that thing it would not be a constant or an abiding thing because whatsoever a man doth is inconstant and is annihilated again by man If therefore a man should suppress sin it would again Bud forth for the work of a man is not Permanent or lasting but may be broke off by others But that which God worketh is Subject to no Destruction When he Suppresseth sin and extirpates it it must remain Supprest for Evermore and Righteousness implanted in its stead must abide the same to all Eternity CHAP. XX. THis is the meaning of the Parable of the two Sons who should go and labour in the Vineyard he that would not do it he did it that is he came so far as to confess that it was impossible for him to extirpate sin and to implant Righteousness And when he thus became deficient in himself and despaired thereof he waited for the Gracious promises of God viz. that God himself would do that when it proved Impossible for man to do it And that same will to perform of the first Son and all his other Actions and Omissions exercised as to shew are prefigured by Abraham's begetting Ishmael for he brought him forth by working he himself doing it but he was according to the flesh But he could not produce Isaac by working for as to him he was to wait on the Promise of God viz. That God himself should work it and he be born after the Spirit And when these things are fulfilled whatever is to be omitted is omitted without labour and whatever is done is done without labour for the Lord hath willing Servants who do all willingly and omit also because that which at first made a man backward and loath is extirpated and in its room righteousness is implanted To resist the breaking out of sins by the law of sin and to have a show of vertue cannot be done with man's working but the extirpation of sins and the implantation of righteousness is done without mans working according to the word of promise which is to be expected with desire if this shall once come upon us it cannot be again suppressed but must remain eternally Before Christ comes the Law and makes a man contrite and and sorrowful so as if a Man will submit unto it he will desire Christ That which the Law shews it does not take away and that which it commands it doth not give But at length Christ cometh and taketh away what the Law had discovered viz. Sin and he implaneth what the Law had commanded viz. Righteousness therefore Christ comes at last and he doth all this and then begins in man the time of the New Testament that in him all things may be fulfilled and confirmed which had been promised of Christ but before this he lived under the Law viz. in the time of the Old Testament and wanted Christ The Friends of God live in the continual death of the flesh but in mind they live and are free To rejoyce in sorrow and to live in death is to take safety from ones enemies For what enemy is greater than Death and yet out of it how much Health springeth for by Death we are separated from that which came into us by the Fall of Adam Before Death a man hath a Kingdom in God but in death God hath or giveth a Kingdom in man Man is led against his will into this death as Christ said unto Peter When thou wert young thou didst Gird thy self and went whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thoâ— shalt stretch out thy hands and another shalâ— bind thee and lead thee whither thou wouldâ—â— not A man ought not to depart from men that are his Adversaries for being with them he is prepared and his foundation is uncovered to him but let him depart from those who esteem highly of him lest perhaps he fall into Pride to gross works there is need
is it to be avoided because by the help of it occult defects are discovered and the Man confesseth them to the Lord with Contrition who also is able to purge him from them As long as a Man lives he is under the Law and when by his own Endeavours he is come so far that he cannot ascend higher yet he shall get higher and be advanced But it is necessary he should put forth his hand that another may closely take hold of him and lead him into the way which else he will not find that is he must give himself up to God so as that he suffers him only to operate he himself only sitting still and Submitting himself unto God Whatever then is performed that is no longer done by Man but God himself worketh above all actions of Man or his knowledge or Power God acts and Man suffers if this be done God by such sufferings and dyings leadeth and exerciseth the Man which are matters far surpassing his strength and knowledge even as before also the thing was utterly unknown to him nor was it possible for him to undertake such a thing or exercise himself in it And in this death it is that a Man is purged and all things are taken from him all Whatever were able to hinder in him the undertaking of the true essence Then is all propriety and Nature renounced for in God is no propriety but all things ought to be of a Divine Nature nor can any other Nature be brought into God In that death the Soul is lost and when ever this is done then a Man cometh to the true essential Life of God and there Christ revealeth himself most Evidently in Man and then there is no need to search many things concerning the Place wherein Christ is to be worshipped or any other such Particulars because all these will be very perspicuous or known to our eyes The Law is fulfiled by the new Man without all dispute or Imagination Jesus hath strength enough to be able to save and Purify a Man from sin but Christ doth also anoint the Man thus purified with his Holy Spirit CHAP. XII MOre does not belong to a Man then that by God's help he may abstain from sin and that he may have the Law for a School-master for to enter into Death Darkness the Pit and destruction and to be brought from hence again and to rise again into a new Life and a new Heaven and Light belongeth only to the Lord who himself worketh that in Man without all action of the man and that out of meer grace which a man at the time of his Resurrection when that New Day-break Shineth first upon him most clearly acknowledgeth For he acknowledgeth it was the alone Mercy of God which so exerciseth him and brought him back from Death to Life which Mercy he could not acknowledge when he was still under the Law for there his Propriety and his selfness was yet present but the Commiseration of the Lord was hitherto unknown to him because he had not as yet been thus exercised by God above all Operation and Power of his own that he might come to the Denial of himself but he stood as yet under the Law being touched by no Death when he thought that a reward ought to be Given him out of Desert but not out of Grace and then it was that he sought to Establish his own Righteousness but such a Righteousness was unknown to him which above and beyond all his own Operation and Power was setled only by Faith in Christ which Faith is acquired only in Death Darkness and Hell or the Grave A Man in whom the Law hath exercised all its Power and hath slain him remains not in Death but by the Resurrection of Christ is raised up again into a New Life but is not raised up again into the Old Life for when he should hang with Christ upon the Cross and beg to be Freed that he might return again into that Life he is not Heard but he must dye then not can he ever be thus made alive again but by the Resurrection of Christ riseth into a New Life Here the matter is so carried as if the Thief on the right Hand and the other on the Left and Christ also did Hang Naked on the Cross in one Man and as if he was reviled by both of them for faith the Evengelist Which very thing also did the Thieves who were crucified with Him reproach him withal The same is here also as if the Left hand Thief was not willing to Dye yet he must Dye but the Right-hand Thieâ— yielded himself up unto Death Also aâ— if the legs of the Thieves were broken but not of Christ and here it should be considered how Christ received the Thief on his Right-hand but the left which denoteth Nature also Perisht unwillingly and shall abide Eternally in Death also how the Right-hand Thief willingly gave up himself to Death and how he shall be Raised together with Christ unto Eternal Life Christ said upon his Cross to the Thief on his Right-hand To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He did not say Thou art with me in Paradise for this could not be so long as he had not yet dyed but he said thus Thou shalt he with me in Paradise viz. When thou hast suffered Death for it is as equally Impossible that a Man who is not yet dead can be exalted in God as it is Impossible that a Hundred Pound Weight of Lead should Fly upwards unto the Sky The Thieves did not Nail themselves to the Cross but they were Nailed the Trees upon which the Thieves Hung were cut Trees and do signify the Old Man or Nature in us for we must dy in this cut Nature and afterwards be revived again in Christ All the promises of God do respect Christ but Christ denoteth all Christians of all whom there is one only Head which is Christ who is all in all CHAP. XIII GOd cometh and openeth to a Man the sence of Scripture as it were in one Moment like lightning which comes as it were in one moment and goes away again in another and then a Man acknowledgeth the sence of Scripture to be far otherwise then before when he had considered it in his own strength And thus God can effect more in one only Moment for the truer understanding of the sence of Scripture then all the Epistles which some can write to others When the Light cometh in process of time it becomes clearer and clearer and again also it is wont to return again yet more clear so that more is still discovered and Manifested to a man which before now lay hid from him If this first Claritude cometh into a man as if it were Angelical but then forward it rusheth in much clearer and so a Man gets from one degree of Angelical Claritude to another Higher degree of the same and then presently he ascendeth yet Higher until he arriveth at the
those who â—â—ve not a true light although they have 〈◊〉 understanding very Subtil as also â—â—ose who are tired out from Continuing 〈◊〉 the way of the true light And these â—â—en stand in a false liberty nor are wilâ—â—g to pay Tythes to the Lord but only â—â—e Thousand parts and yet make no â—â—l payment of either by Tythes is meant the outward Conversation in the same manner they lay down one load and are willing to take up another and yet carry neither But he that walketh the true Path doth not thus urge one thing that he may neglect another but be bringeth forth both into use and studieth how to render both to the Lord. But they who are described above are those false Men who admit of a false Liberty not can any one gain any Victory over them or resist them except he be one that is come to Regeneration for such have the true essence of the thing and in the true Light the errours of these Libertine are heheld and they seen wherein they err and how they go beyond alâ— due bounds nor do Rightly persevere Otherwise they are above every ones understanding and make nothing of thoâ—â— who would resist them because they havâ— a sort of Supernatural understandinâ— which they derived from that Clarituâ—â— which formerly had shined in them 〈◊〉 therefore that is still a Natural Man 〈◊〉 not reach nor understand them anâ— much less oppose himself against them yâ—â— though he be a Famous Learned Man But he that would reach them and oppose himself to them and get the Victory over them it behooveth him to be not an Animal Man but a Spiritual born of God of whom Paul saith The Spiritual Man judgeth all things c. else â—et him let all disputings alone unless he will be made a Laughing-stock Because â—hey are made yet more Angry and Provoked by his weak Argumentations We must know that Righteousness â—nd Unrighteousness are so alike one to â—he other as are two Hairs of the same Head but God can divide those Hairs â—nd expose their insides to be beheld of Men. The way of happiness and the â—ay of Unrighteousness are gone in by â—he same steps and the one leadeth to â—ighteousness but the other to Unrighâ—eousness We have a Similitude in a â—reat heap of Mony that makes up one â—ertain Sum. Now if an honest just man 〈◊〉 to count it and to give the total Sum â—â—though he may not rightly know some â—â—eces thereof yet if he counts them hoâ—â—estly and keeps back none of them for his own use but compleateth the full Sum God doth not therefore reprove him for his ingenious mind but he who takes any piece from them is a Thief and must expect the Judgment Now he is the man who takes some from them who would excuse his Carnality by the help of the Scriptures In every Illumination Revelation and understanding the essence only 〈◊〉 a thing is to be expected A man had need to have diligent care about all that he meets with lest he admit that which is a fault CHAP. XV. A Man must Endeavour to lead 〈◊〉 innocent and unblamable Life 〈◊〉 which if he shall arrive God wâ— call him into Judgment and will purgâ— his floor from Sin at the bottom thâ— budding forth of which did formerly 〈◊〉 much hurt to the works and thoughâ— of a man thorough the Law of sin 〈◊〉 the mind But when sin is perished 〈◊〉 Judgment and is Condemned and wholly cast out Then indeed the mind is no longer Subject unto the Law of sin but is free both from it and its slavery and is now become subject to the Law of God Concerning which Paul saith Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of sin and of death To this belongeth also that saying in Rom. 7. A man therefore is no longer a Servant of sin in his mind but is set free from that Law of sin in his mind unto the Law of God although he still serveth in his members the Law of sin Sin is cast out of the house nor is it any more moved from the internal root but it comes extrinsecally into the house Wherefore it behoveth to place the Law of sin near to the gate that the man inwardly may have converse with God without impediment CHAP. XVI NO man ought to utter forth his words in vain All men cannot be called by the same terms but it must be governed according to the quality of every one To them who are rude as yet nothing of the more Sublime Mysteries may be talked of but they are first to be admonished to put off their thicker outside barks and if they accept that counsel they may be admitted to discourses of Higher matters and so by degrees may be yet farther proceeded with until no Root of sin any more appeareth But he who is not Faithful in lower matters the more Sublime may not be proposed to him or else the discourse would be holden to no purpose Now no wise man does prodigally throw away his rich Merchandise or his Mony He who has purchased his words at an easy Rate that is who hath by no experience apprehended the Truth in himself he easily bolteth them Forth which another can never do to whom what he saith cost him more dear upon which account it is that he utters them in such a manner as if they were cut out of his very Heart and this he does indeed when he certainly sees that they are not spoken in Vain nor does beat the Air for words are extorted from him with difficulty and pain also And this is the difference betwixt those who speak out of Illumination or Revelation and those who speak out of the Essence Substance or Truth of the Thing they speak with Joy and Delight but these with Grief and Sorrow They are defiled with Pride but these speak out of Humility to the Glory of God alone and the amendment of their Neighbour Great also is the difference betwixt those who have their knowledge and understanding only from Reading or Hearing and those to whom it is revealed whose understanding is endowed by Illumination Moreover there is another and great difference as is abovesaid betwixt those who have Revelation and internal Illumination and those who are come to the essence or Substance it self of the thing and do apprehend the Truth thereof for they have their knowledge acquired only by Illumination and therefore understand not what God the Truth and Essence is by it self untiâ— they arrive thereat themselves They know by Illumination that the thing is but not what the thing is until God by his grace leadeth them so far by and thorough Death CHAP. XVII IF any ones Heart is on the sudden pierced quite thorough that man indeed perceives nothing of the true order of Death but if first his Hands were cut off next his Arms and his Feet and then his Thighs and so
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
from him and hath given him the Wisdom that he can behold God in the person of man and can take all things from his hands And so he can give all glory to God and is a true worshipper of him CHAP. XXVI ALl fear of God which any one hath before the birth of Jacob is a servile fear and the filial fear comes not at first but when there is a new birth The servile goes before but lasteth not and the filial follows and abideeth When Esau was born he knew nothing as yet of Jacob but supposed that the inheritance of the blessing was his First he came forth but in part and in time was put further out till also his feet came forth then he looks back upon Jacob and is smitten with grief and he saw also his own danger and yet he contrives to kill him and to take him out of the way but the more he endeavours to suppress him by so much the more does Jacob come forth It is written concerning Esau Though thou shouldst build thy nest amongst the Stars yet I will pull thee thence Betwixt Esau and Jacob there is no dying for Jacob held Esau by the heel and followed him Esau is the beginning that which follows is Jacob the habitation of Esau was in the desart Moreover concerning Esau and Jacob Esau proceeded from Isaack which is a divine birth yet the judgment cometh upon him Such a thing is Righteousness in a man upon which also cometh judgment Esau hath the Righteousness of God as if it were his propriety and he applieth it unto his delight and he seeketh life for himself therein and therefore the judgment of God must come upon Esau that he must lay down his life till he comes into the state of Jacob who abideth resigned up unto God and whether God giveth or whether God taketh away any thing he is satisfied therewith So soon as a Man receives a new life he â—s again subjected unto judgment and is forced to suffer death CHAP. XXVII THat which is moved together with the body of Christ that is a member in the body of Christ The humanity of Christ is a middle thing between God and us and God cannot come into us but by mediation of this The feeding on the most pure body of Christ transferreth us into a divine essence and that food consumeth all flesh Christ when he had taken the Bread said In doing this ye shall declare my Death This is the sense and the impression of the death of Christ the expression of which is the declaration thereof Hence it may be observed what kind of food it is to eat the flesh of Christ and to drink his blood viz. such as many who formerly had been fed and filled by Christ going back did forsake him when they should have come unto his food Great is the difference betwixt the essential truth and the notional truth Also between the essential death and the notional death There is also great difference between those who know God in Nature aâ—â—â—â—cordingly do possess and use him and 〈◊〉 who know God in God and accorâ—â—â—ly do possess and use him for purâ—â—â—ture such as is created from God â—â—â—â—eth into God without all Adamicaâ—â—â—cidents It is true indeed that the Israe◠〈◊〉 who came out of Aegypt did eat Heaâ—â—ly bread in the Wilderness yet that coâ—◠〈◊〉 not preserve them so as that they shoâ—â— abide but dye they must as Christ saâ—â—â—â— Your Fathers did eat the bread from Heavâ—â— and are dead When first we come out of Aegypt 〈◊〉 cometh to pass that we can in the 〈◊〉 of flesh or of Nature see know posseâ—â—â— and use God yea and hold him in oâ— propriety but that nature must come 〈◊〉 to death and be judged of God anâ— then we possess and know God not 〈◊〉 the life of the flesh or of Nature bâ—â— in the death of the flesh and then God is possessed without appropriation without touching or handling for whatever feels or touches in us is the flesh and is delivered up into death from God but afterwards in a true quiet resignation God beholdeth himself in us and there knows and loves himself and although formerly we knew and applied God in Nature or the life of the flesh yet that state remains no longer but by and thorough judgment is pressed down into death and hath nothing in God neither pleasure nor joy nor comfort And although Nature or the flesh had for some time some such thing in God yet now it hath it no more Whatsoever came out of Aegypt and did rejoyâ—â— to go forward into the promised Land that must fall in the Wilderness and dye but the Children sprung from them did come into that Land Now thouâ—â— the flesh is thus condemned unto death that it can have no delight nor joy 〈◊〉 God yet the mind is and resteth in peaâ—â— and joy and then the man when thâ— flesh is thus dead is like to wax which softened by the fire and is made fit receive all Impressions As often as a 〈◊〉 is willing upon the appearance of Gâ—â— to gain his life in God and he himself â—â—prehends the very thing he ought theâ—fore again to be judged and to suffer a new death It behooveth the thieves to remain under judgment upon the cross retaining no life either in God or in the creatures nor for the obtaining of life can they be heard until the thief on the right hand forsaking all accidents shall turn himself unto Christ It also behooves this man to remain in judgment according to the flesh till as to that he shall be dead Nor shall he ever be raised up again into that life according to which he hath dyed but he is eternally to forsake it out of or from that just judgment But he shall be raised into another life which is God himself And this is then that pure nature that pure humanity that pure flesh which Christ assumed as it is written Zach. 2.12 And the Lord shall possess Judah his portion in the sanctified Earth And such purified flesh hath access to God and God does manifest himself to it with delight and it standeth given up under God and possesseth God without appropriation seeing he leaves him also free Such a man possesseth God no more in Nature that is in the life of the flesh but possesseth God in the death of Nature It possesseth God in God it knoweth God in God it seeth God in God It knoweth Christ no more according to the flesh as formerly but according to the Spirit God in this man enjoyeth all things and does with him according to his pleasure both in time and in eternity and this Man is at rest in God But the anâ—iety which he suffers in the flesh or nature he indeed perceiveth that sometimes he knows not which way to turn him but he so is at rest that he wills nothing but what God willeth if therefore it behooveth a man to possess God
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
for where the virtue of divine will is felt there such words do excite consternation Therefore it is not for him to say I hope it will be so or so or so it shall be or so it shall not be and the like but he saith thus 〈◊〉 hope the Lord will do it Christ saith I am the truth We think that Christ is with us and that he is such a one as we are by Nature but thus he is contrary to us and is our death CHAP. VIII ALl ceremonies conform themselves according to God and are a representation of the hidden truth but they do not conform themselves unto our weakness as some say yea and that God gave them because of our weakness when as other wise they had not been necessary to which opinion we must assent Yea furthermore they say that the very incarnation of Christ is to be thus adorned which opinion be it far from us He that is upon a right foundation and hath an understanding heart will be wholly opposite to these opinions For such a one feels and knows that without the incarnation of Christ no salvation can be found on the earth and that ceremonies together with all creatures are only a representation of the heavenly truth and that they are all conformeâ— according to God but not according to us and so also they ought to be And therefore they judge too dryly concerning them who say they are toys and trifles as also they do attribute too much to them who are glued fast unto them and from them do make Gods to themselves and set them in the place of the true substance They err on both hands Wherefore we are to wait for a right judgment in all things from the Lord and and to fear least any thing is rashly added from our opinion for opinion deceiveth us Where the powers of sin are felt and are conquered and broken a man is cast into great affliction But when a man puts that affliction from him and puts it upon Christ as if he had satisfied for it and that that satisfaction ought to be impâ—ted to a man and to be fulfilled in him so as that sin is to be taken away and righteousness to be fulfilled there a man hath not a true sense of sin but neglectâ—th it with a light mind this opinion also is contrary to the writings of the Prophets and the doctrine of the Apostles who testify that Christ must snatch a man out of sin and let up righteousness and break the Serpents Head and overcome all things and that this victory ought to be done in a man and not to remain without him Rom. 8. 4. for they ought to be a people in whom all things are done and fulfilled which the Prophets and the Apostles and all ceremonies testify Let no man therefore deceive himself by imposing upon Christ any thing without himself Where God doth possess a man there God reigneth and keepeth him but man is not at all touched with any care for what belongeth to God But a man is not to eye any thing but his littleness and emptyness that is his selfishness this is due unto him and upon that account he boweth under all and judgeth himself to be worser more foolish and more unworthy then all men All the rest that is any things is God and is due to God nor doth it concern man But if any one departing from his nothingness will arrogate to himself the things which beâ—ong unto God that will prove the highest pride and the most heavy fall CHAP. IX WHen any one is given up to the will of God there is nothing so heavy nor so painful which he cannot bear in the will of God without election But as God willeth so is a thing commended to him who will do all things And where that is there is peace and no where else A certain person said such as the judgment is so I suffer under a heavy judgment heavily under a light judgment lightly When one also is ashamed befote his neighbour because of that for whose sake he was ashamed before God conscience is more at quiet but when one for a secret hidden baseness blusheth not before man conscience is burdened and therefore here we must be bound and no man ought to be ashamed when he is obliged to confess himself guilty before his neighbour God keepeth his promises but we understand them perversly until their own â—ime comes when we see what they are and to whom they belong He whose will is resigned he wanteth appropriation and its the same to him whither the thing be or be not He who hath a will yielded up to God he esteemâ—â—â— for heavenly whatsoevr happeneth to him For all that is God to him and God is Heavenly Whatsoever falleth out to him be 〈◊〉 advantage disadvantage peace disquiet riches poverty bitter sweet heat cold hunger thirst honor dishonor yet aâ—â— all these God to him and consequently Heaven he is also without appropriation and nothing else pleaseth him as if 〈◊〉 were Heaven unless that God wills it But before any one comes thither many thing are required especially Time He who wants this resigned will esteemeth all that are against his own will for torments and Hell yea even those things which of themselves are pleasant Out proper will therefore is to be discarded and to this purpose serve our exercises O how bitter is death to him who is yielded up to life All things perish but God and what is united to him The voice of the Spirit is such a terror to the flesh that when any thing is spokâ—en to it of the spirit it is frighted and â—rembles because the Spirit is its destruction They who aim at a mark shut one eye and always level at the mark and when one hitteth the mark then he turns himself and looks upon all the rest which none of the rest do because they have not yet struck it but do still level their aim By the cross God casteth on man chains and a bridle And except this should be so he would wander into errour in time and though a man sometimes may think that he shall serve God better unless this or that happens yet God adjudgeth it otherwise and knows this to be best contrary to a man 's own opinion CHAP. X. A Man always requires time and space and thinks that he shall satisfie the Law and yet it cannot be done and he must dye and God must fulfil the Law in his stead That which a man thinks he shall do in his life that is at last performed in his death When the passion and death of Christ are really in a man also his resurrection is really in him if one is real such also is the other if the one be only notional so also is the other for there are divers resurrections A man given up to God belongs to God and he hath no propriety but is a stranger to himself whatever therefore God or
the creatures shall do unto him he ought not to intangle himself with them because they are all of God whose he is When one runneth so long that for want of breath he lies down then he dispiseth whatever is his own and so at length room is made for faith To stand therefore in faith is a most miserable thing for then is man's estate quite consumed so that he lives upon the savour of another from whom he expecteth that which he wanteth Paul saith If ye live according to the flesh ye shall dye They who are in death if they would draw life from else where yet have they no time for to be accused because judgment is forthwith ready at hand and the sword slayeth them But others who are yet accused are not yet in death A Malefactor who hath already suffered punishment and is dead is no longer accused for justice hath pass'd upon him and now because of that he is justified from whence was his accusation God freeth a man but not so as to take him from the cross but to leave him there God reconcileth a man's enemies to him so as that he patiently endured them as sent unto him from the hand of God Before acquiescence a man is unbridled but in acquiescence he beholdeth the will of God and there finds rest Nothing is so strong and powerful in a man that God is not above it and which he cannot overcome and drive out and so set the man at liberty For nothing is prevalent against the Lord before whom all things must fall and be as nothing that the victory may be to God and all things be confounded before him Before justification by death sin hath the dominion in man but not after justification because then it is crucified in him CHAP. XI WHere the new creature is God assumeth the Spirit of man who then becometh a stranger to himself nor stands no longer in his own place inasmuch as God taketh it up who is over him and keepeth him This man is saved out of grace and he stands with fear and trembling before God on his part wanting all prop as having God only for his upholder and then he is held up as it were by a hair only trembling with uncertainty as on his part nor hath he any thing in which he can glory besides his infirmity which he always beholdeth all things else are loosned from him and stand on God's part and do arrive at him only thorough grace and yet he must not look upon them for â—â—e ought behold nothing but his infirmities Far be it from such a one to say he cannot fall for he that says that is either fallen already or very nigh unto falling He who meditates what way things will go with him he understands not the thing it self as that which is pleasant but thinks it to be against him and is frighted with death When a man comes under grace then also he comes under the cross for then the natural man is in a continual death When a man understandeth what he is to lay aside he speaks not of corruption rashly and with joy There is such a thing as a resurrection but it is not so gross a thing as is believed God indeed pardoneth infants if they speak foolish words but he doth not so to others for far be it from them to speak like infants Now such are infants who have not yet been exercised by God A cut finger is cured again but a heart wounded is never cured That which is in the state of abstinence can return into the first state of life but that which is dead riseth not again in that state in which it is dead CHAP. XII THe torments of the Martyrs are the glory of the death and resurrection of Christ for these have demonstrated that a man is to be led in a certain way above Nature thorough the death and resurrection of Christ which way is impossible to Nature We must then die to all humane strength that the virtue of Christ may operate all these thing Whence it is that they are called the lights of mankind because they are led above all the strength understanding and will of men And all these things can the virtue of the life death and resurrection of Christ perform if it be not without a man but really cometh into him Where there is a real death and corruption there also succeedeth a real life and salvation but where that is not really done but notionally only and remains without a man there also life and salvation is not real but notional only and without a man The Martyrs in their torments gave glory unto God Glory is not given to God before that a man arriveth at or cometh unto his death and is estranged from himself and God doth take up his room or place who keepeth governeth leadeth and exerciseth him above all reason which reason here neither sees nor knows any door of escape but is held captive under the obedience of faith because a thick cloud and a dark mist hath covered the eyes thereof that it cannot see the way whereby God is wont to lead a man This is here that passive state when a man dyeth and suffers God But in the active state under the Law when life still is present it was not so for then a man was governed by reason to whom was added Will and Knowledge about the actions and omissions of a man though all things are directed by divine help and in divine claritude which struck reason down so that a man could govern himself conduct and conserve himself day and night yet when all these are taken away he must at length come into death that God may come and take his place and administer all things himself Then a man is drawn another way then what he walked before and it is that which excels his own will knowledge and strength This man is become passive and God operateth in him As the conscience and the mind was captivated and sadened when it was well with the flesh so when the flesh came into death the mind and conscience was exhilerated and set at liberty Many and great gifts of the Holy Spirit do come really into a man which yet are not Regeneration But they go and come Whereas that is Regeneration when where God hath planted his habitation and God is become one with man In God neither the world not pleasure nor joy is suffered Nature must want all these when the mind standeth in God They who stand under grace their outward man is always conserved or kept by a deadly judgment their internal man by vital nourishment thus they are always kept by God Into the mind which standeth in God no motion to joy or grief can penetrate But there comes a great sorrow which descends into the flesh that the mind may remain free What is patience is it or not when a man suffers and complains to no man no no for this is
only continence but not real patience But this is patience when a man can imprecate no evil upon another by reason of any adversity but if any one hath injured him he prayeth heartily for him note he hath a kindness for him and loveth him and if one hath taken any thing from him he yieldeth up and giveth all these things to him as unto his own self and is upon it of a chearful and not of a sad mind And this is the fruits of the spirit but continence is the work of the Law and cannot justify a man in the sight of God and is precedent unto righteousness which follows afterwards through faith in which all things are real which were before notional for in old things did abide the shaddow but the real things are of Christ himâ—elf Paul saith The Law could make nothing perfect but was the bringing in of a better hope There was no rest to the Fathers till Christ did come as the Prophet saith concerning Sion Isaiab 62.1 That if one would be made one with the truth it cannot be done whilst non-corruption lasteth and whatsoever is said or understood of it whilst it lasteth is without experience Non-corruption hopeth in vain for it cometh or arriveth not unto God For no man receiveth God without death and destruction Every natural man is in the desire of God or the creature and yet neither is due unto him for if he could come at God as he does to the creatures he would alike abuse him as he abuseth them viz. with appropriation These may be thus observed every imagination which is in man concerning God or the truth before purgation or death nature is ready to appropriate it to her self and to rest contented therein with delight that she may upon that account receive honour and respect and notwithstanding this conversation is still but according to the flesh which is followed by death For this rising up cannot abide this bridegroom must be taken away before the real truth can appear The Apostles possessed Christ before his death imaginarily but after death really Whence Paul writeth That he knew Christ no longer after the flesh but after the spirit and the truth and that he walked according to that spirit and not according to the flesh and that they were now become invisible to evey natural man whence they can be judged by none but are able to judge all that they were now sanctifyed or made holy by the Holy Spirit after that Christ was risen again from the death before whose death and resurrection no man could be holy The Holy Spirit maketh holy as the Lord saith Vnless I go away the Holy Spirit the Advocate will come unto you And no man putteth new wine into old bottles c. To renounce all creatures that nothing may remain but God and to set God only for the end and aim Nature and Flesh do hear it with terrour for they are amazed at this when they hear that all things must be taken away from them So that if the flesh can but retain one only thing though the vilest yet would it put or place its whole life therein and would adhere thereunto But in truth it cannot be so well done for it for all things will renounce it which way soever it tendeth Whence at length it must without any support let it self down into death and plainly dye to all things When a King and a Beggar are starved to death the death of either is the same and alike but yet with a distinction He that is in corruption beholding other good men still standing in non-corruption thinketh thus Alas in what condition are you O how much still can you be satiated and exhilerated with God when I can neither be so nor desire it To be at rest no where but in God it 's requisite before all things that one should become poor The sufferings of Job are not hid from me but that which followed after it cannot make me glad The Lord saith What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul and what advantage would it be to a man to know all things and yet he experienceth them not nor are they fulfilled in him and therefore we ought not to take care of that to know or understand much but that we may sensibly apprehend and experience much Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth faith the Apostle Experience supplieth all things in man and is adequate to knowledge And thus also the man is made humble CHAP. XIII WHen death is known it is also feared And by how much the more profoundly death is known by so much the more doth it terrify and is it feared If Death must be true it must be true as to all things When Nature is once dead as to corporal things it ought to remain dead and as to them never to revive again But then life ascends in the Soul and there seeks nourishment But Death follows it thither also and cuts off the thred of that life also that it may there also remain always dead nor can it ever revive again So that at last the life ascendeth above all creatures yea above the Angels also by how many degrees it is to ascend into life by so many deaths it is to dye and always to abide in death If one abstaineth from any thing he may take it up again but according to what any one is dead unto that ought always to remain dead so as that it can never be re-asumed I never possess piety and whatsoever I receive from God by my piety I am plainly robbed thereof and I can boast no where neither before God nor before any man nor before my own self for I live by free-grace alone This state is so miserable that no man knoweth it but he that is touched therewith And though I must live by free-grace yet I know of no grace nor can I comprehend or understand nor know nor find where that grace should be nor whence it should come although I have often felt it Therefore ought this grace to be both given and taken above and beyond the understanding knowledge and comprehension of all men yea above all merit or godliness that is in a man as also above all intellect and illumination but as for the justice of God judgment hell and damnation these I can most exactly know and understand whence they can come for they alwayes do handle me very severely But the will of God is my chiefest Salvation As long as the will of God overshaddows me I can bear all though I should be roasted or boyled annihilated or slain in Body Soul and Spirit But when the will of God hideth it self for some time that I do not feel it over me I fall into such streights as an unexperienced person cannot believe My whole hope is that the Lord will lead us all thorough all though the case be full of sorrows for his arm is all powerful
When a man stands between Conscience and Flesh and when conscience ceaseth then the flesh urgeth him and to him it is said Amend thy life or thou must dye but when one stands between life and conscience and transgresseth as to his life presently it is said to him from God Thou must die CHAP. XIV THe Will of God is the death of the Flesh Faith when it is upon trial God then proving it it experienceth the greatest misery There are many waies of coming unto regeneration but the end of all is one and the same yet one ascendeth in some much higher then another doth as when any one cometh into the Sun-shine he hath the Sun yet is one nearer to the Sun than another This is my counsel that a time be set to attain unto God The inward mind is free but the outward humanity without grace is exercised under a severe judgment I have no prop under me whether I respect God or the creatures or heaven or the Earth and I have nothing but that I can lay my self down in the Divine Will being wholly set down under God The Kingdom of Heaven is present but I cannot enjoy it the Sun indeed hath shined but now the falling thereof is come and it shineth no longer I lie down in darkness and in the shaddow of Death nor is there any comfort left to me but in the will of God for I will nothing but only what he willeth Into which state if any one really cometh he is of all men the most miserable I say this that I may express that misery in which I lie To understand these things is pleasant but really to feel them most bitter When the Spirit suffers the flesh ought to suffer with it But when the flesh suffers there is no need for the Spirit to suffer It is never better with me then when I give up my self into death The flesh suffereth its own judgment when the Spirit is in peace but when the Spirit suffers the flesh must suffer also The poor animals must dye for my sake though against my will But because I also give my self up to death I do not refuse the death also of the animals he that giveth not himself up into death cannot take his food with thanksgiving He that is to exercise modesty he ought to be exercised by various afflictions oâ—herwise he will wander if he shall use it without the experience of the cross If I should stand betwixt two things nor knew which of the two I am to do I would weigh them and would take that which is contrary to my flesh When I do so it is well with me and I call God to witness saying Thou knowest O Lord what I have done But when I do otherwise viz. that which is grateful unto Nature it is always ill with me and I cannot call God to witness Conscience indeed is free but I dare not alleadge that for it is of grace The suffering is hard when no hope is left in the future for the natural man for though the day-break is come yet there is no redemption nor comfort but a man must wait without hope and be quiet in death And though all the joy comfort and refreshment of the whole world were present yet he is bound as it were with cords and can tast of none of them And therefore he never desires that time may run out that a day a week a month a year may come for whatever cometh to pass in them is to him as it were a non-entity because he can rest no where nor use any thing for his delight for he is made bare or naked of all and is put upon the crost Hence is it that both things present and to come are indifferent to him when even then he shall be the same as he is now But those to whom the body of sin is not yet crucified they are touched with the desire of time For they are free and can take up such things as they meet with But this state cannot last long for judgment will come then whatever shall be with him for the furture he cannot take it up and that which is contrary to him he cannot reject for he is impotent whilst he hangeth on the cross nor can he execute his own will CHAP. XV. ALl things are or consist in order order must be kept If one is willing to knit together superiour things that he may loosen inferior things he would break order and wander in errour of which we must beware The Lord saith He that breaks the lest Commandment and shall so teach c. We must seek a free condion in God in which one is free from himself for to be free from ones self is a liberty which is to be attributed to God The grossest and the lowest things are images of things superiour which is to be understood as well of things spiritual as things corporeal for we ascend from the one into the other and from the inferiour to the superiour even as pleasures and the abuse of good things and the building on the sands are images When things are most gross and low then are they the image of things superiour and that which is visible denoteth that that is invisible The Spirit also hath its flesh in which it dwells Also mysteries have their external Histories They who urge mysteries so as to exclude historys disturb order and do err Although Christ the blessed fulfils all things in spirit in his elect which he performed coporally in the days of his flesh yet were they also corporally done in him therefore the historical sense must remain but also it behooveth a man to experience in his own self the mystery likewise The Lord saith Love your Enemies The cross passion adversity Death c. are our enemies which we are to love and embrace The natural man is surrounded with death and which way soever he turns himself he hath a sword presented to his sight just as when one turns on this and on that side should look about him and still some body runs before his face so also is judgment always meeting with the natural man ready to snatch away his life which way soever he turns himself At last he yields up himself when he can no more make his escape But the spirit is in life when the body or nature hangs stretched out upon the Cross Zeal in kindled with divine pleasure is a great pleasure but the Cross and violent plagues follow after it Myrrh was the last gift For it is written They offered Gold Franckincense and Myrrh When I hear the Scripture I am frighted for it denoteth the natural death Nature will have an appropriation therefore communion is a death to it at which it is affrighted CHAP. XVI TO desist from propriety and to help another at our own loss is a thing truly pleasant To find gain in loss and to abstain from that which is best in our esteem and to prefer
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
our sinful flesh In the death of a natural man the will of God only ruleth viz. because that God so willeth it and it so pleaseth him and his judgment thus requireth it Hither a man is to refer himself this is his only restand quiet viz. the will of God Things plainly happed otherwise then one thinketh all things observe another manner then a man thinketh CHAP. XII THere is no coming unto an internal state or spiritual exercises except first all the ceremonies are broken by affliction The warm bed is to be left There are men in the world that for the sake of Idolatry exceed that hardship and patiently endure the cold and incommodities why may not the same be done for the sake of the true worship and though at the beginning when one is setled in a custom of lying in bed the thing will not be without difficulty yet in time it will become easy and a man will hate his bed and the too much use thereof and will not use it but for necessity All things whatsoever which are at first done with great difficulty they become gentle and easy by use A man must combate stoutly and with affliction too that laying aside his confusion he may be brought into order and consequently that God may draw nearer unto him He that is kept in confusion and neglecteth the means of his getting forwards cannot be promoted but many years and times are spent with him so that he sâ—ill remains that which he was and the fault is in some prop or support he hath either secretly or manifestly as well in small as in great matters Where Nature is crucified there she wants a prop for on what another is upheld and proppd up with on that the cannot leane her self We must beware of every affair that is used for to pass away time sportfully and unprofitably time is to be weighed in a ballance and to be spent on God for it is precious and runs swiftly Whatsoever is to a man most difficult and bitter that he must do and whatsoever is most easy and sweet that he must omit To keep himself pure in impurity is a piece of art and commendable but let no man that is already out of the reach of such mingle himself with them for that would be a rashness Whereas he that is in them already ought to enter into this combate and to conquer the enemy and with tears and sorrow break thorough the hostile troops That which is here said of impurity is not to be understood of those things which are in themselves impure for no purified person can pass thorough them when they are prohibited and are not in the least allowed of but of things that are not impure of themselves yet are such by which a man may be polluted by reason of his own proper impurity when he satisfieth not his own conscience and walketh not streight forwards in the way of God He that will not suffer is afflicted in the earth He erreth in his understanding when one is lead into the revelations and knowledge of many things but he himself remains without and beyond them The Lord saith What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul He also that went into the marriage without a wedding-garment was cast out For those thing which he had notionally by knowledge and in the understanding he had not substantially and really In the science of things a man glorieth and is glad and delighted when he speaketh or writeth of them all things are done with joy But when the substance or essence of things cometh he lieth down in death Nor can he rejoyce or be delighted because he partaketh nothing and hath no thing therein but his death and destruction The Science or knowledge of them can no more make him merry because they are contrary unto him And whatever he knoweth readeth heareth oâ— thinketh concerning them that all make against him because all these things aâ— contrary or adverse unto him CHAP. XIII WHen a man lies in death he no longer his own for he plainly alienated from his own self Her therefore he ceaseth from labour neithâ—â— does he act any more and God stanâ— in the stead of himself and fulfills and erecteth that in his death which had not been done in his life For whatever he handled in his life he did it at all by images but here in death God hath established the very substance it self and this is a grace and the generation which is made in death That which Christ denoteth cannot be fulfilled for it is a generation which is of it self passive in the destruction and death of a man It is impossible to man therefore God himself doth it whence it is that to him alone the glory is due A man who is in death is not afflicted by the delay of time but he who yet hopeth for joy and pleasure he is afflicted with every delay until that cometh which was hoped for But the dead lie down without hope nor is there any thing which they expect for they are forsaken and stripped of all But in these things they acknowledge the will of God and comfort themselves that God so willeth The will of God is their couch When a man gives himself up to one lust then one follows another but then a man hath to do as it were with a Lion who if any one lays hold on one paâ—â— of any thing he ever draweth it nearer So also if one yields himself up to one lust he also quickly yields to another and so the world gaineth him again tâ—â— he be wholly swallowed up therein But then at last the man truely neglecteth himself and expecteth the severe judgment of God CHAP. XIV WHen a man perceiveth that he is willing to abide in his present state and to be at rest and to subsist in it then the Spirit ceaseth and the man slips down out of the spirit into the flesh there the rule or government of the Spirit is hindred and the literal Kingdom is set up there then is no longer a spiritual Kingdom nor an increase nor proficiency but a going backwards and a leaping back again into the flesh and into the creature And then beginneth hatred and persecution towards the adverse part that they will not so much as receive them into their house that is they will by no means come near them for the sake of that And thus these must suffer by and from them for the sake of the Name of Christ even as also they suffer in their flesh for the sake of sin by the Law of sin For the flesh of these persons together with its lusts and affections are by the Law lifted up from the earth upon the cross and the lusts and appetites of Nature are cut off and rejected by their objects that they can no longer use them nor draw life from them The universal increated Salvation hath in it self no judgment concerning others
for really it is without judgment nor hath it any need of any means by which it may abstain from judgment because it hath no such thing in it self But proper Salvation hath hitherto carried along with it judgments and if it must abstain from them it must do it by some means which the real Salvation wanteth Now those means are the creatures for the essence is God himself who endureth no creature Before the essence cometh all images must vanish Real salvation hideth or withdraweth it self from no man neither is it separated nor included nor made proper But if any one secludeth or separateth himself he withdraws or hides himself from it then the blame is not to be laid on that but on him who doth it Thus is the man who is in this Salvation and where this Salvation taketh place CHAP. XV. THe chiefest and greatest affliction of all the damned is this that they are separated from God so that he that feels that separation feels the pains of hell God is essentially very good nor is there any good but God he therefore that is deprived of that hath nothing Whence it 's said He is a poor man who goes to hell For some years together all things have fallen away from me yet hitherto the chief and real death followed not thereupon as now it does Death indeed was always present with me but it was never essential death till now For here a man lieth in death and destruction nor can he take or use any discretion nor think this or that nor conceive images unless it be that he lyes essentially in death and that death is really present And when in this misery one begins to talk of these or the other divine things even for that Nature is to be punished again and to be crucified with yet a more bitter death Nature cannot enter in again as she went out for here she took breath again and was recreated and yet there belongeth nothing to her but destruction and death They who lye in this affliction if one propoundeth to them any comfort of life they esteem it for poison and for bitterness and for adversity nor can they listen to it Even as if one who is lead into death looking round about him should see all and every one to be dead all whomsoever he beholdeth yea his kindred and familiar friends Here let it be observed how great is that affliction to be deserted of all and to draw life no where and to be a captive and bond-slave unto death even to the desertion of all creatures But God ennobleth the case by changing it and that thorough a great difficulty of sufferings when they are not ennobled as to an outward fair shew before the flesh but in Spirit The former state is always more noble then the following but not in the sight of God for the tents of Kedar are black but God knoweth them to be otherwise inwardly Christ comes not as it was expected His face is sad like a man of sorrows c. CHAP. XVI THe following combate is always terrible in respect of the foregoing and that which follows that is yet more terrible and so is every other after the former so that the preceding conflicts in respect of the following are always light though they also in respect of those that were afore them were heavy And all this God doth who leadeth a man by and thorough these hard ways till he hath rightly prepared him and rendred him purged from all dross and filâ—h and this a man suffers and God operates A man is overcome by God and passively lead and though at first he was also active under Law yet afterwards he is not so Because thorough this whole state even to the following he suffereth and the state which followeth in respect of the foregoing is horrible whereas before that it did seem to be noble yet in respect of man and not of God For by how much the sublimer is the corruption by so much the more noble will be the fruit for a man is still lead more deeply and deeply into affliction The former state is always more eligible in respect of that which follows so that a man as far as he is in the foregoing cannot account of himself in regard of the following an heretick When Christ saith If they shall say Lo here is Christ go not forth he would say this We must not depart from affâ—ition Into them who lie down in death Life cannot enter They who have not yet lain down in death and yet obey the governance of their conscience stand in the midst between Life and death they are subject to great labour and strife who endeavour by the help of conscience to suppress that life which they have in themselves These men as yet can know no death until they come into that state but yet they believe it They who are in death even their very cogitations do lye in death that they can be delighted with noth ng neither with God nor with the creature For if they could still be delighted with any thing by thinking or cogitation that would still prove to be a life which cannot be in this case It one placed under a naked sword should be asked whether he took delight at that time in any thing without doubt he would answer that he sat in death nor could possibly fancy to himself any other thing but a certain and a real death If such a one should get up on his legs to look about on life and things temporal he would see nothing before him but a cloud that is judgment and death The state of such men is plainly miserable and painful nor is it to be wished for as if perhaps we should say O would to God we were like such or such but this is to be wished that the will of God is to be accomplished in us that we may bear it and be united with it Moreover those men who thus lie in death have little or no comeliness in them but are very much deformed and therefore he who is conversant with them must beware least he imitates their words or behaviours For whatsoever they do or omit to do are silent in or speak it 's all performed in death nor can any life joy comfort or pleasure lay hold of them in this state They are untouched by delectation and are filled with death If therefore he who is without the bounds of this state should imitate their words and actions he would do thus whilst he is still full of life and with a feeling of comfort of joy of pleasure c. and then would he wander egregiously because he would be in no want of delectation in regard he would still remain full of life and therefore let him have a great care and keep his life safely least he put it forth into jeopardy for though he be still often accused in his conscience for negligence yet inwardly he hath much joâ— and comfort which
upon these good qualities because concupiscence is still present and the objects are only changed and become more noble And this is that same state and condition which goes before that same death corruption and the grave and must be brought to pass and no man can arrive thereat unless it be given to him of God for from him flows the helps and assistance and that accompanied with the desertion and renounciation of all things visible and inferior by means of many afflictions This is that state to know Christ according to the flesh in which all things are to be left before we come to the other desertion where Chirst appeareth and is acknowledged or known in spirit nor doth he ever appear as he did in the former or foregoing state To observe order in all things and to be exorbitant in nothing keeps the mind free but when it is otherwise there arise burdens and cares nor is there any liberty allowed for profitable exercises because of the great heap of confusions that hinder the man Whoever therefore would be freed from all pernitious imaginations he ought to beware that when he erred upon one hand being turned therefrom that he err not also on the other for a burden awaiteth upon him on either side wherefore we must pray unto God to direct our external affairs into a middle way for that middle is between both extreams good Now this is said concerning things necessary outwardly but not of things internal unless it be so far as externals have a respect to internals and are serviceable unto them and if they be rightly ordered do promote them for when they are disorderly they became an impediment to internal concerns and do disturb the man making him restless Whereas if these things be performed with a turning unto God in fear and in thanksgiving then is it from God and it is right and the man is well enough but else affliction waiteth on the flesh CHAP. XXV WHatsoever hath received life ought to dye Paul saith If ye live according to the flesh ye shall dye in what thing soever a man placeth his life according to the flesh in that very thing also he taketh his death therefore he ought to beware so as that he place his life in none of those things in which there is no life Just so bitter is the difficulty of dying as was the life formerly sweet It is therefore necessary that a man put always a curb upon himself and that he keeps himself in prison as it were least he any ways strayeth and that he should bound himself within narrow limits and that he be in constant expectation of the Lord. For the Lord cometh not but with streights and pressures for in such it is that the advancement and growth of a man consisteth otherwise he is stunted In the cross alone conversion and faith in Christ is given and there it is that we have or hear our answer All fruit grows out of pressure affliction and misery which is every where presented by things visible Let every one therefore become subject to the cross and let him not flie from it at all God knoweth the conclusion of every thing and prepareth its end how compassionately also doth he deal with us No man ever perished but he that did flee from the cross nor was willing to suffer outwardly and inwardly too Let not a man be perverse proud and lifted up nor let him speak ambitious words but let him be humble simple and lowly and let him possess his mind in holiness and in contrition and let that appear in all his doings in all his apparel manners words and works nor let him ever shew himself proud and puffed up nor having together therewith the contempt of his neighbour CHAP. XXVI TRue Godliness suffers vehement trials and temptations through all degrees or steps whatsoever He therefore that endeavours to be pious in God he must yield himself up to affliction and must not refuse death nor any pains or dolours Blessed is the man that endureth his tryal c. We must either confess or deny Christ in the time of afflicton and necessity and if then we do not deny Christ but stay with and near him and firmly keep our standing that temptation bringeth great increase and profit to us and our vertue is inlarged and strengthened so that we shall be enabled to stand upright also in a greater temptation and to confess Christ therein The Psalmist saith They shall go from virtue to virtue or from strength to strength and the God of Gods shall be seen in Zion God doth grant his gifts to man yet not without trying him either before or after Wherefore it is written Prepare thee for the trial and bear patiently The Lord saith Ye are they who have persevered in my temptation and I c. Again He that overcometh even as I overcame shall be heir of all Man therefore ought to reduce his life to become a meer combate Job saith What is man that thou magnifiest him or why settest thou thy heart upon him When our Lord teacheth his disciples to pray Lead us not into temptation he does not mean that they should not be tried but that they should not be overcome in the temptation or tryal but that they should remain constant Therefore to this purpose belong Watchings Fastings and Prayers as he himself saith Watch and Pray least ye fall into temptation These words he said unto his disciples when he arose from prayer in that most remarkable temtation So they in 2. Chron. 20. also called upon God in the time of battle and he was intreated of them for they trusted in him Shall not therefore our God judge them true indeed there is no such courage and strength in us that we are able to resist a multitude which rusheth in upon us but when we know not what we ought to do we have only this refuge left to direct our eyes unto thee Hearken all ye of Judahâ— and those that inhabit Jerusalem Thus saith the Lord Be not ye afraid nor tremble at this great multitude for the battle is not yours but the Lords do you only stand still and ye shall see the salvation of God on your behalfs Trust ye in the Lord your God and you shall be safe Believe his Prophets and all shall happen well As Jehosaphat gave councel the children of Judah were made strong for they trusted in the Lord the God of their fathers Help us O Lord our God for in thee do we put our trust CHAP. XXVII A Man in affliction ought to abstain from all delights of the creatures nor ought he to seek for a comforter amongst them but place all in the Lord Let him abide without comfort without complaint till the Lord cometh Yea also let him reject all strange waves of escape and such like evasions and let him wait for the Lord for the Lord will approve himself faithful to him and will suffer him to bear
from us we are â—â—und stark naked because these things â—ere not at the first owned in spirit beâ—â—re God who only remains constant â—â—d immutable to all eternity For God is a spirit and he that would â—ow him in truth and see his brightâ—â—s and adore him it behooveth this â—â—n to endeavour after all this in spirit â—â—d into this state or condition it is necessary that a man be truly and properly lead by God in his own time yea and that it also is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but if so be any one be faithful in that wherein he standeth then shall much more be given unto him Concerning all these things thou wilt find most full instruction in those two Treatises intituled the German Divinity and that of the Imitation of Christ the Authors of which have experienced these things in God and do give concerning them a true guidance and information which we are to find in our own selves although they do not put into our hand the very things it self yet is the world deceived in this very particular viz. that it can account of some certain semblance of a thing for the very thing it self For the flesh or Nature in us is never willing to sit down in an inferiour seat and if it but begins to reject somewhat that is false yet by and by it leans upon some other such like prop being confidently perswaded she is acted by a divine spirit when indeed all this notwithstanding springs out of flesh and blood 〈◊〉 little heightened out of their natural propriety Such is the cunning of us all â—one excepted It behooveth us therefore to apprehend and learn all these things in God that the light may be separated from the darkness and that that notable difference and distinction in this very point be well known to us least we take one thing for another viz. flesh for spirit Death for life slavery for liberty and for the free flowing grace of divine power These things because a man in his life time is always willing to get and keep Reconciliation and eternal Salvation are plainly known to a few inasmuch as a man esteems those things in the place of God and for things divine which indeed do but hold him bound in a perpetual imprisonment being that which is his own nature and propriety viz. the fear of eternal damnation by means of which he abstaineth from all external and carnal filthiness and impurity and cuts off those things from himself being then fully perswaded that now he is truly at liberty so that he will not proceed further on and refuseth to deny and resign up both the proper and the imaginary salvation of his Soul although he should experience or feel in himself that the true righteousness which is acceptable before God is that very circumcision that is done in spirit and thence springs up the New-creature of God However it is necessary that every one should first satisfie in all respects his own proper righteousness holiness and imaginary salvation that in the end he may rightly understand the difference of both viz. of Light and Darkness and of the holiness that is from man and that which is from God for if he be not faithful in the smallest things how shall he arrive at greater which certainly is impossible Therefore it behooveth every one to satisfy his own conscience and with all moderation and discretion to obey the testimony of his own heart that being raised up thorough all the degrees of holiness and being inriched with all the affluence riches and imaginary goods of his own spirit he may at length be brought to the divine poverty of Spirit by the manifestation in him of the divine righteousness and of that degree which is by far the most excellent and exalted as being that which throws down all the rest so as there remains nothing that can stand before it which is not its own self By this way we come to apprehend our selves to be poor miserable rejected and condemned yea blind unhappy and neglected yea unfit to perform any the least good who formerly ascribed to our selves all good things righteousness and Salvation beâ—ng confidently perswaded of our eternal â—ife and divine Sonship Then Then I say it is that we find our selves to be wholly in corruption and condemnation at length seriously understanding that we formerly had not so much as â—he true tast of any good which could compare with that good which we now â—ee And then we come and readily sit â—own by all other men yea though they â—e the most profligate wretches because â—ow at last we begin to set before our eyes with fear and trembling and condemnation and to behold our corruption at the very bottom so that for the future we reflect upon no one more then upon our selves and if before we reviled any repulsed persecuted cast out reproached or looked upon them with an evil eye I speak of such as supposed that they did these things out of a godly zeal now indeed we become hugely wary and leave every one to his own Lord and Master because this true combate hath done in us havock enough and begun its cruelty I was willing to unfold to thee these things by these few lines which notwithstanding thou wilt better and more piercingly feel in the very thing it self Therefore exercise thy life in these things and shew thy self strong in them importunately begging and expecting all from God above with all long patience and sufferance who will in his own time effect all things for thee for here we are not to run before but follow after only Now therefore thou hast writings enough whence thou mayest learn how to behave thy self in external conversation and honesty wherein thy conscience will most notably both lead thee and condemn thee too The Lord grant to thee to meditate to understand and to be wise that according to his will thou mayst be instructed in his School and by his discipline that all may be consummated in him and by him and to his Glory EPIST. III. A Preparation to the entrance into the promises of God To the same Person PRemising all due readiness of my respects most Noble Lady having taken hold on this occasion I am willâ—â—ng to send this letter to thee For though for some space of time I did not visit â—hee by my letters yet have I always been sollicitous for thee in the Lord with 〈◊〉 continued readiness of my heart and â—n inclination of my poor mind being otherwise certain that much writing did not conduce any thing to the increase of grace but the movings of God only do And therefore I had determined in my mind to forbear writing least perhaps I should thereby disturb the working of thy Soul trusting in the divine mercy that God himself would preserve thee to become more strong and more pure by his inward motions in thy Soul and by purifying it from all inherent
for a better life Wherefore I pray thee be thou intent to the diligent reading of the Scriptures and apply them untâ— the amendment of thy life to the mortifying of all unrighteousness and to thâ— instruction of thy own self until thâ— Lord shall please to give thee a greatâ—â— measure of understanding the fundameâ—tal meaning of Scripture that thou mayest not be lead up and down by anâ— man but mayest be taught by him from heaven Now though all men boast of thâ— that they are endued with the Spirit 〈◊〉 God and are divinely taught by tâ—â— Spirit of Christ yet are they still aâ—â— great distance from what they boast of for else they all should have fought otherwise then as yet they have demonstrated before the door to grace could be set open They think indeed that they are wholy dead and yet feel sin and the accusation of transgressions to be still alive in themselves nor are they nevertheless willing to listen when one tells them of the mortification of such sins and do always defend their state and condition by these or the like reasons notwithstanding the gainsaying of Conscience which they strive to quiet by outward performances or ceremonies concluding that the obedience due to God consisteth in these performances and so pretend to â—ield obedience to God without or out of themselves when within themselves they find nothing but meer disobedience Whenas in truth whosoever he shall â—e no man excepted who makes all is aim at the true marke he is concernâ—d first to satisfie inward accusations and 〈◊〉 dye to every sin for if we are dead to one sin we shall wholly run into error if the rest be left still alive But say they Christ dyed for these sins and it 's impossible we should be fully perfect Well then if Christ dyed for one sin certainly also he dyed for another whence it will follow that there is no manifest need that we should dye either to this or to that sin let us therefore abide in the old nature of our flesh seeing that Christ dyed for our sins and will make satisfaction for us So is it add they but we are bound to mortifâ— all sins that we can but to be compleatly made pure we cannot We talâ— thus when we cannot get forward any further for men are apt to think that thaâ— which exceeds their power is also impossible to God But in good truth when a man can go no further anâ— hath born the sharpest conflict of all anâ— still something is wanting to him the God worketh in him such things as aâ— above all humane Understanding anâ— does thus cleanse him from those sins from which formerly he could not be let goâ— free but they always did inwardly accusâ— and blame him Whosoever therefore affirms that he may come into communion with God whilst he still remains under the condemnation of sin that man deceiveth himself for God hath no communion with sin He that would have a Communion with God and Christ to be extended also to himself must be a sanctified Man even as he is holy without all accusation Let not therefore more be ascribed I pray to us then becomes us nor let us boast our selves richer then we are My dearest Neece I write these things to thee least thou shouldst here or there according to these or these ceremonies or external works be deceived if some body should perchance propose such like unto thee Rather first purifie thy self from all unrighteousness which sticketh fast unto thee according to the testimony that thy own Conscience giveth thereof as also the Scripture bearing the same witness and never look without but always within thy self for thy own Sin thy own Idolatry thy own Pride thy own Malice thy own unrighteousness is to be made known unto thee and from them thou must dye then will the Lord freely bestow more upon thee and as thy soul shall come to want some more things it shall abundantly obtain them Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who is able to lead thee into all Godliness and into the true study of walking in his ways EPIST. IX How one may arrive and come at the best portion which is God himself thorough many tribulations To the same person MAy much grace and salvation fruitfully abound in thee in a true and dayly proficiency in the way of the Lord into which we being in our weakness entred are obliged diligently to go thorough therein that being freed from our weakness and inconstancy we may at last be lead unto the truth of eternal Union with God least that in the multitude and variety of things we be drawn hither and thither and be further sollicited or rested but that we may obtain the best porâ—ion which is God himself and never more be deprived thereof But before we can come at that all those faculties must first be mortified which hinder God from accomplishing his work in us Now how much any one laboureth in that mortification according to the most inward testimony of his conscience and approveth himself faithful so much fruit also shall spring up from this deadned seed which is to endure much hail and snow and cold and miseries of weather before it can put forth true fruit and such as will prove advantagious to a man Thus also is it with the seed of that â—hin tender knowledge which is sown in us if this is at length to produce such fruit as may be useful to any man for to be a true nourishment inwardly to his soul then indeed is this knowledge to be purified with many temptations assaults difficulties griefs desertions yea all such like hardnesses and least it should remain carnal it is plainly to be slain and mortified Alas what sighs of heart break out before this year of tryal be run thorough in the Wilderness partly because of the ruggedness of the way and partly because of that pinching hunger and thirst of Soul and the want of all divine comforts then flesh and blood look back again to Egypt and repent that they came out from thence In this state we must act cautiously and vigourously call upon the Lod least we be tyred out and the tediousness of the ways roughness quite overcome us For sure it is God will make good his promises to the full leading us from and thorough hardships to a more soft condition thorough disquiets to peace through wants to all plenty and thorough defects to all abundance where all tears are to be wiped away from our eyes nor shall any sorrow be ever able to touchus any more My Neece I therefore write these things because I know that diverse tribulations hand over us under which if we demean our selves with courage we shall certainly be endued with great grace from the Lord Let us therefore rightly observe the perswasions which are dayly set before us from the Lord least we fall back again into the self-same misery Trust not thy flesh for it is manifestly
contrary and in enmity to the divine will and therefore it is to be suppressed strongly by using all diligent watchfullness or else it will deceive thee by its subtilty will seduce thee to a turning aside although it may appear very gentle unto the. Submit thy self to sufferings that thou mayest with a ready mind bear whatsoever is grievous burdensome and tedious and endure even to the end and in this dayly cross possess thy soul with patience Let not the Length of time be irkesome to thee offer up to the Lord thy carnal mind opportunely for all that belongs unto it must at last be made subject to the Lord either sooner or later Endeavour this sedulously viz. to give up freely to the Lord thy flesh and blood thy soul and spirit that he may do with them according to his own good pleasure so as thou mayest never hereafter find any contradiction in thy self about these but that Christ alone may be in thee thy will life and sole governour The Lord have compassion on us all I pray thee give my hearty commendations to A. the wife of thy brother and give her this letter to read in some measure to stir her up to the Lord whereby she may with a heart prepared endure her many griefs and sorrows and willingly to accept them from the hand of the Lord as from him who by these means striveth to chasten and to purify her So that she also bewareth that she be not insnared by any sin but will strictly observe her life viz. to please God and to perform that which will be pleasing to him yea also let her learn to sustain willingly what he shall lay upon her that that which is at first sharp or sower may at last become sweetned to her in the Lord and she her self at length may remain wholly yielded up to the Lord. And thus I recommend thee to the Lord who can advance both thee and all of us by his grace that we may become his living Sacrifice and sweet Savour to his heavenly father that our labour may not be in vain but may dayly increase with fruit-bearing EPIST. X. A brief information how a man who begins with zeal is used to be lead thorough continual sufferings and conflicts and what kind of fruit are at last brought forth from those dolours To his Sister A. MY most beloved Sister That all may be well with thee in the fear of the Lord I desire with all my heart and thy further growth in him does very greatly rejoyce me For although in these dangerous times many new things are here and there produced from multiplied discords one shewing this and another that way by all which the hearts of many are disturbed and they are disquieted contrary to the intention of Godliness Yet God hath prepared an eminent glory for them who with a valiant mind do break thorough these things Also because now a narrower way is proposed then in times past therefore also a greater grace is now apprehended to be in man for by the benefit of straights and anxieties are gotten all the good things which God hath promised unto man and nothing is more contrary unto God then an imaginary peace and tranquillity and such a condition as in which it is well with a man and in which he liveth a quiet pleasant life free from any vexation of adversities misfortunes and other mischiefs Briefly God is never farther absent from us then when all things happen unto us according to our own wills and when we enjoy every where a prosperous success whereas straights misfortunes a cross and a pressing need are nearer to God be they in matters great or small provided that in these evils we so behave our selves as to bear our sufferings with a willing mind and with joy as from the hand of God that thereby we gaining the knowledge of our captivity and chains do endeavour forthwith to put them off and to dye For so long as we find any thing yet in us which stirreth us up either to sorrow or to joy so long are we bound and captivated to our own selves and are the Slaves of Nature Now if we being set free from the first natural generation should penetrate to the other that is spiritual and should be led into the true state thereof certainly then no adversitie misfortune injury yea nor fire nor sword nor any thing else that is a relict of nature can overcome a man which should be accounted by us for evil as the Vulgar accounts them for evil for whatsoever happeneth to a regenerate man is accounted by him as a means to the eternal glory of God so that to such a man nothing is sweet or more worthy his esteem then every adversity and injury wherewith he is wont to be treated from others so that by how much the more of them are sent him from God so much the more he will judge that he is propitious to him But there are many things required first before we can learn to acknowledge the hand of God for when we are first overwhelmed by any adversity then we either throw the blame upon man or we complain that God doth afflict us and this proceeds from this that we yet stick and lye in our sins because of which we are accused in our own conscience and rendred Enemies to God Therefore are all things to be laid aside whatsoever we acknowledge to be unjust though they may seem never so small and we must go forward with a stout zeal so that we must both day and night fall down upon our faces in prayers unto the Lord that he will please to bestow on us freely wisdom and understanding for the true knowledge of our selves consisting not in words but in deeds that afterwards we being our selves destroyed may truely dye also that we may reflect upon no man in the World but upon our selves by which at last we may learn to acknowledge the good hand of God who gives to his own nought but the cross and this is the supream and safest way by which a man is saved My dearest Sister I have here in few words described to thee the Type only or the picture and shadow of that fruit which groweth out of the cross yet if thou art willing to know the thing it self in the truth thereof and to apprehend it with a right faith thou thy self wilt seek it properly as from thy own experience But before thou canst believe that the cross is of such great advantage to thee thou wilt feel certainly many adversities and miseries and it will behoove the to cut off many of thy accommodations that so thou wilt behold no body else but look at thy own self for it behooveth thee to find salvation in thy own self and so also thou art to make experiments of dying for thy self He that is honest without himself he also is saved without himself and the salvation of such a one stands allways in need
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 wilâ— 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
nature and possess and love and in which we live The power of death shall be known to all things living but by so much the more difficulty by how much the greater knowledge some have on this earth for at the time of death all things are to be given up to God and then all things are shut up and ended in the truth of God The Lord unite us with himself who himself is the beginning and end old and new yet is he one and immutable void of all increase in himself though in the temporary creature he is known with increase and decrease As much therefore as we depart from temporariness so much are we united with God in whom there is no time and in him who is the last and the first with an everlasting presence and in him all Multiplication and Substraction of time is taken away and made co-equal and all flesh which is spiritualized and which was wont to express it self in time doth melt away before eternity The Lord be merciful to us all as of one flesh that bidding farewel to that shadow of time we may grow in his fear and let his name be more and more sanctified over all his creatures in time and let our life perish and vanish away like smoke even as in is evidently done to all flesh together with which all things do tend to corruption whatever it was that ever sprung from it whether they were deeds or whether there were thoughts But it is not so with him who is godly for he with all his works is preserved and will grow and live to Eternity because every appetite life and desire of his is nothing else but God and therefore whatsoever is his tendeth to Eternity As on the contrary the desire and scope of a worldly man is nothing else but flesh which alone doth also move and direct him therefore the effect must perish with the cause as experience testifies for the fruit cannot be otherwise then is the root whence it is sprung May our eternal Saviour Christ Jesus purifie us that in him we may bring forth true fruit and according to the multitude of that his most abundant Grace which God hath richly poured forth upon us from the very beginning of the World we may abide permanent in him Amen EPIST. XXVIII Being a most beautiful Admonition very profitable as unto the death and departure of Nature To a Sick Man I Heartily salute thee in the Lord most dear N. as to what concerneth thy disease I hope the best of thee according to the mercy of God and that his hand was not in vain lifted up over thee For he by his Discipline will lead and conserve us that no rottenness shall grow in us but that by his judgment we be still more and more purified and cleansed from all impurity of Nature bred with us and dead still lurking in us The grace and mercy of the Lord be with thee dearest N. in that thy misery and disease which thou must bear in the flesh and may he grant to thee true submission and yielding up under his hand that with a bowed heart thou maist bear all things in obedience to him according to his holy will concerning thy miserable self that thou maist be lead in his way with perseverance to his glory and be preserved in the death of thy flesh whereby the life of the spirit may from day to day more and more increase in thee and be manifested in the heart of thy dying body Moreover I beg of the Lord that he would strengthen thy Limbs for his service so that if they become deficient as to Nature which yet must be done by continued labours in the way of the Lord that our essence may in time wax old and decrease yet through Christ they may be raised again to an eternal and fresh-springing youth in God where no fainting nor old age nor death can touch them The Lord preserve us and his mercy be present with us in all our adversity lest perhaps that prove able to hinder us in our way that our continued anxiety conjoyned with the highest danger to which in this combat we must subject our selves lest it be in vain nor draweth us back but rather may fruitfully promote us to a perpetual progression and success of his grace and of divine benediction maist thou remain recommended unto God who will free us out of this present Dungeon of this temporary flesh and imbecility according to his own acceptable will will elevate us into the sublimity of Eternity into the life of the spirit through the Resurrection of Christ to whom be the glory to all Eternity EPIST. XXIX How a purified mind ought to bear without any commotion the failings of his Neighbour with all patience To his Brother D. John W. DEarest Brother that that man is affected with such streights and with such griefs of heart that we also must suffer together with him For in that that he is alwaies subjected to sufferings nor can come at any peace is indeed not the work of man but the gift of God yea a great and eminent gift to endure the folly of another and to cover it over with an unvariable mind towards his Neighbour For though we be unduely used or handled by our Neighbour yet in truth a purified heart ought not to be moved by it but must alwaies act according to the bond of Charity which is alone its aim for in that there ariseth no suspicion of evil and although modest reason also may descend to make an excuse yet even all that too must be alwaies done without any motion of mind for as much as he is such a one as the injury and trouble of no creature can move him because he remains confirmed in that which is truly immovable Dearest Brother I therefore write thus that if that same trouble should be reiterated thou maist alwaies have this aim fixed in thy sight For although as to the creature the justice is on your part yet the mind ought to remain alwaies free without the use of this right otherwise there would arise an enmity from thence and a bitterness of heart For thus that which is earthly overwhelmeth that which is heavenly with such a blindness that it plainly seems to a man that he hath some divine right whenas yet God cannot but love nor doth he require any other thing of us according to the measure of his Justice Not as if I would willingly lay some blame upon thee do I say thus but that thy heart may not be nor that any rule should be wanting to thee if you behave your self otherwise thou wilt be obnoxious to a heavier judgement except thou proceedest with caution My Brother strive to have a mind unmoved which cannot be hindred but rather promoted by the enmity of the Creatures All things to a just man turn to good whether it be death or life or dissention or love for such a one overlooking the Creature
consideration of eternity according to his unspeakable mercy Moreover my brother as to my state or condition that abideth in perpetual agony of death with most sharp persecution performed within me after various manners yet to one only end for whose sake all must be done What the Lord may in time do with me is known only to himself and his eternal decree But which way soever I turn my self and whatsoever I consider or behold nothing but a vast abyss and a parching heat of all misery do continually represent themselves to my eyes The Lord in his commiseration lead most wretched me by his fatherly hand thorough things present and to come in this unknown uncertain desert and desolate condition yet I give thanks to his goodness that under this his powerful hand he revealeth to me his fatherly mind The Lord be my helper and my conducter in all things and keep me and teach me in his School and under his discipline His grace be over us all together with his unspeakable mercy Amen EPIST XXXIII How ignorant Nature well stumble in much disputing and will comdemn its neighbour also how the sense of all Scriptures ought to be apprehended in our own selves under the cross MOst beloved N. I pray the Lord that he will promote thee in his way in which thou mayest follow most diligently his will without much disputing by which the flesh rather then God's spirit hath to do we therefore must lay out our time with more advantage For when for the most part we think to speak from the spirit of God perchance nature lurketh under the fair show of the spirit so long as we are still cloathed about with flesh so that when we least believe it yet we then account of the flesh instead of the spirit Therefore we are to walk before the Lord with fear without any bold disputings and we must beware as much as in us lyes to walk innocently before God and before men lest we fall into our own condemnation whilst we are condemning others if not in words yet in heart Moreover most dear N. that writing which I received pleaseth me well although I have not read it thorough so accurately by reason of the weakness of my head For though I cannot truly reach the sense of any writings unless I can apprehend the virtue of them in my own self under the cross whence the true fruit is manifested seeing I tread no further then unto the state in which I then consist by suffering I always follow the steps of Chirst where the latter always discover the defect and imperfection of the former Yet let every man mind his own calling and observe it diligently so all in time will clearly appear and come forth into the light Salute P. N. our friend heartily God will look upon him to his advantage and will make his dayly sighings fruitful thorough his eternal mercy which we are all to expect none excepted The Lord endow thee with wisdom and prudence that thou mayest act aright in all things and that thou mayest walk before him with trembling There are books enough for us to look into if we will but perpetually observe our own consciences that we may most accurately follow their dictates Moreover thorough the providence of God we have the Old and New Testament for our only external rule but the holy spirit above all these for our alone master or Teacher Blessed is he who is deprived of his own proper wisdom and is instructed and instigated by the spirit of the Lord alone The Lord be with thee and with us Amen EPIST. XXXIV Concerning a certain danger that hung over that place by reason of persecution unto which he was about to go DEarest Brother may the Omnipotent Lord preserve my mortified body according to his mercy in his divine will I have purposed to go to that place and to expect the will of God concerning me beseeching him from the most inward and deepest bottom of my soul that he will set me before the enemy and that the remnant of my life which is very small may not tend to the destruction but to the salvation of any one this I beg from his eternal goodness and mercy withal hoping that this danger will prove destruction to me only and will go no further The Lord make known his will to me in this one desire of mine according to his commiseration If the Lord shall suffer me in this tabernacle tolerably to pass through so as still to subsist as I have occasion I shall signify it to thee But my brother which way soever I turn my self or look back all things renounce me and of the present there remains no place more for me And therefore I convert my self to that which the forsaking of all creatures sheweth unto me The Omnipotent God take care to secure me under his own protection EPIST. XXXV An answer sent to his brother concerning a woman that dyed also concerning his own condition together with a devout exhortation MOst beloved brother a real grief hath possessed me for the departure of that woman out of this temporary world I trust in the Lord that all will be done for a good end and from him I expect peace and tranquillity with commiserating grace which we all hunt after and heartily seek for our Souls together with an expectation of an eternity to come I find in my heart that I am now obliged to her children and I love them with a true tendency of mind according to my poor slender ability May the Lord for his mercy-sake turn all for the better Moreover as to what concerns my condition the same kind of bonds do always hold me bound according to the will of God in a disease and an infirmity So long as it shall please the Lord May he direct my ways and bow them down under his fear in the obedience of his most holy will and may he bestow freely his grace on us all that we may continue our lives in righteousness with devotion and a diligent observation of all our works and counsels least in all our actions there be somewhat found that is contrary to the will of God May the Lord give his grace to us all that we may go forwards in his way and bear such fruits as may be pleasing to him In the eight following Epistles is somewhat described of that great misery into which the Lord cast him a little before his death I. MY brother my body hath an increase of some strength just as a man groweth but very slowly so as it can scarcely be observed though yet it proceedeth on Yet is the purpose of God unknown to me although like a pestiferous cloud a many difficulties and sorrows are set before my eyes out of which I can spy no deliverance but by death that so I may wholly penetrate even unâ—â— God which will come to pass if the times shall prove prosperous yea and further also of all means