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truth_n believe_v faith_n word_n 14,132 5 4.8692 4 true
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A28519 A consolatory treatise of the four complexions, that is, an instruction in the time of temptation for a sad and assaulted heart shewing where-from sadness naturally ariseth, and how the assaulting happeneth : hereto are annexed some consolatory speeches exceeding profitable for the assaulted hearts & souls, written ... March 1621 / by the Teutonicall philosopher, Jacob Behmen.; Trost-Schrift von vier Complexionen. English Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624.; Hotham, Charles, 1615-1672? 1654 (1654) Wing B3402; ESTC R19729 29,679 98

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her sad condition thinks God will have none of her when she cannot palpably feel his presence She sees other men that walk along with her in the way of Gods fear that yet are cheerfull enough and supposing this cheerfulness of theirs proceeds only from a divine fountain of love and light in their souls is conceited that she is not accepted with God but rather rejected by him because she does not presently upon her conversion which she expected feel in her heart the like comfortable effects of the refreshing presence of God Before the time of my enlightning it went even thus with me I stood out a hard conflict before I obtain'd my precious Crown of victory and then did I first learn out this experimental knowledge that God dwells not in the outward fleshy heart but in the souls center in himself then was I also first aware of it that 't was God which had laid hold on me and drawn me to him in my first desire which before I was ignorant of thinking the good desire had been my own property and that God was indeed far from me But afterwards I saw him and rejoyc'd at the unspeakable grace and love of God and now write the same for a caveat that they by no meanes faint or despair when the comforter delayes his comming but rather think of that of David Heaviness may endure for a night but joy commeth in the morning Thus hath it far'd with many of the chiefest saints of God they were forc'd to strive a long time for their Crown of Victory nor indeed is any man crown'd therewith till he hath passed as a Conqueror through the combat T is indeed deposited neer the soul but in the second principle the soul stands fixt upon the first principle and therefore if she will have the Crown set upon her head in the time of this life she must earnestly fight and contend for it And then if she go not so far as to obtain it in this world yet she obtains it after this life in the laying down of this earthly tabernacle For Christ saith Be of a good comfort I have overcome the world and in the world you have sorrow but in me peace The precious pearl lies in many an assaulted and troubled spirit much neerer than in them that think they have already comprehended it but it hides it self for where it lies richest and most noble there will it not easily discover it self but rather wraps it self close up as if it would never be communicated therefore let no soul be hereby terrified or amazed She therefore hides herself that the desire of the soul being the more earnestly enflamed after her may in the comprehension drink deep to assuage her thirst and meanwhile knock unweariedly at her gates till it be opened unto him For sayes Christ Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you And My Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that pray to him for it Have a certain assured confidence upon Gods promise and however thy misgiving heart say no yet let not this affright thee For to believe is not to be fill'd with joy in the fleshly heart and outward complexion that the fleshly mind and Spirit be so jocund that the very heart and reines leap for joy this is not faith but these are only some love emanations from the Holy Ghost within a divine lightning which hath no stability but after a short resplendence disappeares For God dwells not in the outward heart or complexion but in himself in the second center in the Jewell of the noble Image of Gods likeness which is hidden in this outward world But the true Faith is that the Spirit of the Soul with its will and desire goes into and thirsts after that it neither sees nor feeles here understand that of the soul in it self precisely considered stands not in this time yet she sends in the subtill spirit of the will which hath its original from her fire-life and in this spirit of the will is the pretious pearle received so that the souls-fire now remaines in the desire For so as the pearl remaines in the spirit of the will so long does the desire remain in the soul For this pearl is a spark of the Divine love t is the engin with which the Father drawes the soul unto him in his love the soul must therefore stand fast in her desire even when the outward reason out of the dark Complexion speaks a flat contradiction and denies Gods presence there Were not God present there could be no desire or will after him in the estranged soul For where God is not in the Spirit of the will the soul is as wholly blind and dead as to God desires not God at all nor hath any want or breathing after him but lives and disports himself in the heaven of his own natural light and self-pleasing imaginations only is a more subtil piercing understanding than the other beast of the field his souls natural essence being of a higher gradation than theirs Therefore by no means let any troubled soul suffer the complexion to fasten such an imagination as this upon his heart that God is not present with her will have none of her other wise the soul feeding upon such imagination becomes exceeding heavy It s a very great sin for the mind to shape out such a fancy in the heart for by this means the soul which is a noble creature out of Gods Nature falls into great anxiety and the Phantasy kindles the souls fire with this fewell and causes it to burn in the painfull principle Dear soul think no other when the anxious property of thy complexion thus kindled by the starrs begins to move but that thou then standest as a labourer in Gods vineyard thou must not stand idle but be working thou dost God herein a great and very considerable piece of service And thy labour is this that thou overcome the temptation by an unmoveable faith however no comfort in the outward heart appear to support it Be not deceived T is not faith to give assent to what I see and feel but this is faith to trust the hidden Spirit and believe the truth of its words maugre all the contradiction of blind nature and this so firmly that I chuse sooner to lose my natural life than distrust his promise this is a faith which wrastles rightly with God as old Jacob did the whole night which though it neither sees nor feels the least atome of the thing hop'd for yet rests firm upon the word of promise this faith does indeed overcome God as 't was said to Jacob thou hast wrastled with God and Man and half got the upper hand If thou ask what word of promise I mean I answer 't is this My Father will give the holy Spirit to them that humbly and fervently beg it of him And this is that which the mouth of Christ it self hath further delivered When he