may my Nephews exercise themselves the most they can in those endeavours that they may learn to repress their youthful and inordinate affections and appetites which will without doubt spring up in them at their own season The Lord seasonably grant to them to own the witness of their conscience against all these that being kept safe from them all they may never consent to any depraved inclination EPIST. XIX That there is a certain especial difference between the exalted rational Zeal and the Zeal that is pure and Christian To the same Person My Dr I Have recommended thy case and purpose to the Lord who can safely keep us all by his Grace and shew to us our errors for though we are for that purpose subjected to sufferings yet nothing is more wholsom for us than a discovery of our spots and defects which is not wont to be done without our indignation and opposition But if the Spirit of Christ must restore and enliven us all then plainly must there be no place left in us for bitterness of spirit against any one For this is alone the Doctrine of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and humble in heart For all hearts that are puffed up are in his time to be brought low even as alas we find it in many The Lord keep us most miserable worms for I never am frighted with greater horror than when behold my self The natural man scratcheth to himself by appropriating to him self all things whatsoever God bestows upon him out of free grace so that all thing also which are in themselves pure by this appropriation become as it were infected with poyson Now if Nature were deadned and the understanding purified then indeed such usages of Gods gifts would not be so multiplied But now that eviâ— which we call I is so great and our corrupt Nature through its own self-pleasing is so faln and sunk into its own self that we wait not for the time of trials with some difficulties and restâ—â—int and prayer together with a hope 〈◊〉 the promises of God to be fulfilled in a fit season as it hath been foretold by the Lord. The Lord be mindful of wretched me that write thus and be helpful to thee according to his own and not according to my will I also very earnestly intreat thee that thou take not in bad part this my freedom in writing to thee for my mind never desisteth from having a kindness for thee But high pride of heart and a contemning esteem of our Neighbour as also the doing him injury never is allowed a place in the Christian State but rather that which hath a fair shew of some sort of Zeal that is natural mixed with Mosaical rigour For nothing hath appeared in Christ but meer sufferings and death silence and patience even to the Cross upon which even to the last gasp of his life he signalized his obedience in which he was subjected to his Father withour murmuring also that his Majesty of his eternal Godhead he did not take up again as he might have done but rather bore in himself humanity and imbecility and abiding in huâ—â—â—ty and contempt even to the very death he was crowned with Victory For if the external assaults of his enemies could have moved the internal nature of his eternal birth then indeed that which is immovable could have been moved by some outward violence even as alas it most commonly happneth to us that our whole humanity is shocked inwardly and outwardly when yet we do think it to be the zeal of the Lord. But before we can come to the purity of these motions as it manifested it self in Christ against them who dishonoured God and profaned his Temple certainly there are many things to be eradicated out of our fleshly part if we would be thought to be wholly burning in zeal of spirit But as I hope the Lord will in his time manifest these things to us more clearly for when we are grown old we must carry so no things with great pains which whilsâ— youth flour sheth with a flaming zeal we cannot own and undertake Because all that is talked of death and dying to young persons they cannot in good truth come to them seeing that their bones and marrow are alwaies full of all fleshliness with that fervent vigour together with a full strength of the growing faculty and voluptuous tendency which for the sake of its own power and the glory of self-will is wont to oppose it self to God But then if any one proceed further and draweth forth all his strength even unto the top of all his age then comes decreasing that we are unwillingly lead into the will of God by a manifest other process and then those judgments seem to hang over us which once we decreed to others and that youthful life free and wanton swelling with zeal is now by the just judment of God under the decreasings of old age condemned to death but then at length succeeds understanding and discretion together with continual sufferings in the ways of the Lord even unto our death and the proper sentence pronounced to us for just as all that ought to dye that is possessed of life also is that matter here For God alone if he be truly in us is conjoyned with death but not with our life because no flesh how pure so ever it be can abide in his sight For whatever shined forth externally in Christ even that by a like death must be done inwardly in us if so be we are willing in the resurrection to be incorporated into a communion of his glory Otherwise we stick only but in the flesh of Christ though glorious contemplating alone the life of Christ's humanity not yet glorified but we hinder the growth of that fruit which through the death of Christ in the resurrection by the supernatural birth and a new life is poured forth into us with eternal grace The Lord open my mind to you for here I acknowledge my understanding to be too weak and slender EPIST. XX. An acknowledgment concerning the disputation held at Francfort between John Calvin and Justus Velsius of the power of Man or of free-will To A. G. THe Grace of our Lord and his mercy be upon thee and on all those who fear the Lord and seek his truth Most beloved A. concerning what thou didst write to me about that dispute held at Franckfort betwixt Velsius and Calvin my opinion is That Velsius did stumble therein whilst he attributed too much to the power of man for humane power is judged and condemned by the Lord if it be before a man is made partaker of the divine birth because what is new born is of God and not of man it is eternal and immortal even as he is who begat it But on the contrary Calvin failed in that point wherein he rejected all the powers of man universally which indeed I allow to be true unless that I also judge that that knowledge
he would more gladly hold his peace Yea oftentimes he purposeth with himself for his part to be silent but when time and causes do drive then in truth he is forced to speak seeing the thing now urgeth him And that too not out of Envy Hatred or Exacerbation but is only performed through the moving cause at least of his Neighbour Now before this a man did not behold others with a benigne mind but was unmerciful and full of taxations against others so that if also he now sees any one that doth so yet doth he bear all this with a willing mind Alas how miserable do those men live who seek not after God When they have lived Thirty Forty Fifty yea an Hundred Years yet are all these passed away as it were by a blast and so many years have slipped away in vain It behooveth a man to be Faithful and Serious in that degree in which he is set and the Lord will advance him yet Higher CHAP. V. WE must study to conform ourselves to what we hear or read and if we cannot get Higher beyond that then cometh God and effecteth by himself that which was impossible for us and above our strength and through Faith he raiseth up and also infuseth into us the Righteousness which availeth in his sight All this is done by God for that Man who hath laboured so far as he can get no Further on and should this Man live yet a Thousand Years yet he could never be able to go beyond that except God should come and quite above his own Power through Faith should effectually work it and should accomplish all things in him which the Law requireth of him and unto which he could not come nor of himself attain to until God himself should set these things before him and in the Manner abovesaid put or help him forwards But that God may lead a Man up thither where the Man may despair ever by his own procedure to arrive when as before he thought that by his own endeavour he could go so far as to become conformable to the Law God proposeth to him somthing for to try him whether it be possible to come thither as if he should say Go too If thou thinkest that thou art able by thy own Industry to come up thus far I will teach thee that it is impossible for thee and then he shews him another Light to which a Man cannot be conformable although his Age should extend it self till it be equal to all Ages of the World except God should come and render him conformable to the abovesaid Light and that above and beyond all Study and all working or Power of his own Now these things are to be expected from God and to be done through Faith and then the Glory is from the Lord but man hath nothing to boast off but in God That which Conscience exhibiteth to a Man he must Satisfy it and then his Conscience will shew unto him yet more and so onwards until he comes into God and is manifestly made spiritual How How far and High soever any one goeth forwards yet he always sees before him yet Higher and Farther whether he thinks he may come and where he willingly would be for as whilst he is below he sees that above which he is to break thorough so also when he is Higher he sees that that is yet Higher which he would willingly break through and if that was done yet alwayes appears another and again another and he never comes to the end of them He who would never be at rest but is still intent upon the destruction of his will God doth not leave that Man without proficiency and advancement A fairer Similitude there is not then that of the Grain of Wheat which groweth not forth out of the Earth unless it first be corrupted and dye What was contrary to nature that did I And if I had not done it I had not been thus advanced by the Lord. God hath advanced me by force wherefore it is not lawful for me to judge any one but Mercy is to be exercised by me The most desirable advancement that excelleth all others Consisteth in Prayers if together therewith any one will bid farewel to lust and will renounce wicked Cogitations To a young beginner all defects are laid open out of the Scriptures and then he falls diligently to his Prayers The difference betwixt those who are led through Death and those who are not yet led thorough it neither of whom yet is contented is this They who are led thorough Death have a certain bottomless pit before there eyes by the sight of which all that they possess they little Esteem off always tending to farther things yet are they contented thus that they deliver themselves up wholly to the will of God so as they acquiesce therein and commit all to him only so long as he is pleased to lead them thereinto otherwise not But they who are not yet led thorough Death in what State or Condition soever they are they are always full of fear and terrour and as yet have not yielded up their whole cause to God so as to â—â—â—uiesce therein in what State soever it is his wâ—â—â— that they remain in but always dâ—â— to be put forwards which also is 〈◊〉 which the Lord will do for them if 〈◊〉 desist not from Prayers The Philosophers were Spectators 〈◊〉 the Israelites and would strive to hint 〈◊〉 Mark with their arrows but the rewaâ—â—â— was not given but only to those thâ—â— strove CHAP. VI. THere were many Commandmeâ—â— given to the Israelites which wâ—â—â— not commanded to the Gentiles so aâ—â— when Moses that is the Light of Lâ—â—â— is come in us many depravities are 〈◊〉 covered in us and made manifest whiâ—â— the Gentiles were Ignorant off and dâ—â— not think them for sin Now as maâ—â—â— sins were then detected so also do 〈◊〉 we want expiation Sacrifice and Spriâ—â—ling by meanes of which we may 〈◊〉 purified expiated and corrected Aâ—â— as those things were Typically and Fiâ—â—ratively amongst the Israelites so also 〈◊〉 they really and essentially among us 〈◊〉 is necessary that a Man be ingrafteâ—â—â—o the stock of the Israelites if he would â—â—ve at Regeneration which Geneaâ—â—y stock or linage is derived from Aâ—â— through all Generations Adam is the â—â—â—l Noah is zeal by which every one â—â—deavours to lift himself up out of the 〈◊〉 where also is the Original of the at Giants The zeal of Noah is that â—â—ich a Man can effect by his own proâ—â— Operation making account that â—â—se conduce to his Righteousness and â—â—vation But then that is very disâ—â—asing to God so that by a certain â—â—od poured out in Man all these his â—â—orks are drowned This is the case â—â—ich produceth so much Misery and 〈◊〉 great streights as they only know who â—â—ve experienced the thing And then 〈◊〉 things perish except Noah that is the â—â—al of man whom God preserveth and â—â—kes up unto himself
concupiscence is viz. properly that sin which leadeth away a man into captivity Therefore because commonly he is accounted a pious man who studieth to be of a good outward conversation for more then what is without a man cannot see hence it is that a man sticks always about these things supposing that â—e hath accomplished all things unless by chance he falls again into some gross sin Yet for all this the root of sin still remains deeply fastened in him but the mind takes no further care how it may come to the true purging out of all these seeing it may seem impossible for a man to be freed from them Which indeed is very true as to us but to God all thing are possible hence it is found in the elect that God even quite conquereth sin in man and will rule and govern in the man not only by plucking out all the external acts of the more gross sins bâ—â— also in the very bottom it self of the heats yea and in the most inward faculties 〈◊〉 sensuality Love appetite and our proper will by which all our external actions are governed If this thing were made more commonly known and should be received by many in good earnest men would no go up and down with such merry gâ—stures and in such security as the do but without all doubt would be convinced that the are sinners and are 〈◊〉 yet at a great distance from the son-shâ—â—â— of God although now they think themselves set on the highest step of divine grace and that they have just hope of the inheritance of Sons But if the Lord should take away the vail from their hearts as it is done in thee and should rob them of that peace which they have gotten from without they certainly would be involved in the like miseries and streights and would apprehend themselves to be the poorest of all though a blind security doth now perswade them that they shine in the greatest riches Yet the Lord who is the searcher of the hearts and the reins will in his own time most clearly uncover all and will bring them into the Light to whom we ought to submit our selves with patience and long-suffering waiting for his salvation and redemption in us for its better by real inward poverty to draw â—earer to God then being by imagiâ—ary and false riches blinded in our â—earts be hindred from the true going forwards unto God I was willing heartiâ—y to discover these things to thee that â—he true difference of thy condition might according to my small judgment and the testimony of my heart become more and better known unto thee for I am of opinion that thou thy self if the Lord shall leave thee for some space of time in this condition wilt come to know the truth of the matter more exactly and to perceive those things which hitherto have layn hid from thee Now therefore weigh all things more rightly which perhaps hitherto thou hast not done even as many things are wont to be lightly neglected Yet I trust in the Lord that he will stand by thee every where least thy burthen should be too heavy for thee to bear and that thou be not tempted beyond what is meet for thy weakness to suffer according to his mercy For our nature is not fit without the divine help to bear these burthens in regard no support can appear to it now from any where else because in whatsoever thing it formerly was wont to rest and to trust all that in such a state shrinks far away Nor can a man in this condition be better advised then plainly to neglect all external temporary means wherewith his mind was used to be delighted and to renounce them quite inasmuch as they are such as will else still be the cause of many afflictions Let him therefore do this viz. let him learn to subject his whole self to the will of God submitting himself to all that God shall impose upon him in this his tribulation with a firm resolution of mind to bear them all so long as it shall please God If a man can arrive at this renunciation and submission he shall surely find a wonderful advantage and a strange renovation of heart insomuch that that which before was difficult and hard will be now pleasant and grateful to him and that which before was meer terrour yea as death to him will now be as a Sanctuary of refuge yea life it self to him And to tell it in short all things will change themselves in a man when the Spirit of the Lord ruleth in him and impels him to the obedience of the Divine will Whereas whilst he â—s miserably led by the conduct of his own carnality he will live as governed into meer disobedience under his own proper will for which very reason the divine will is so troublesome to us that we cannot be subjected unto iâ— nor yield up our selves to the hand of God but rather as far as in us lyes we choose to save our lives and not to lose them But the Lord who seek our advantage and intends nothing else but good to us regards not that complaineâ— of our flesh but gives up our Souls thorough much sorrow stirred up in us by an accusing conscience to that we ought to subject our selves till all impurity of our inbred and corrupted appetites be by the devouring flames of the divine judgment consumed and purged away in us Then at length we come to apprehend the Lord and to be willing and to seek out both as well internally as externally that all our perverse thoughts and sensual appetites may be purified nor to be no longer stirred up by our own proper will to all wicked desires and pleasures wherewith our corrupt nature aboundeth The Lord illuminate our understanding and grant unto us wisdom and true discretion that every where and time we may contain our selves in good order under his fear whereby we may proceed and grow in divine knowledge and grace according to the measure of our calling and so at length if it may be that we may be able to arrive to a fall age in Christ according to the divine soveraign pleasure and commiseration Let us with all our might and power adore the Lord with uncessant prayers and humiliation poured out before him least that which is temporary and partaketh of time should find any place in our hearts but rather that it be so expulsed that the Lord himself may possess that place even until all our thoughts words and works be performed only according to the will of God and may grow forth with all discipline and obedience under the most mighty hand of God and that we may with all patience wait for and expect his coming unto manifestation When he himself will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his â—nd give them eternal comfort and true â—â—lvation unto which it now in this moment of time behooveth them to be prepared by a constant sorrow and misery
by fear and anxiety by terrours and by death for they cannot like the common sort of men spend their lives in meer pleasures but he does always detain his under a rigid discipline and many frights and makes them drink down the bitter potion of tribulations that all their internal faculties as well of spirit as of Soul may be brought under the Cross nor can they ever arrive at true peace until every one of them learns nakedly to yield up himself into the will of God and contentedly to take of the potion mixed by God and given him to drink out of meer grace and Love Now that this cup is bitter is no fault of God's but our own and that because we are contrary and enemies to what is good and cannot bear to be purged just like the vulgar people whose troubles are increased by a mixt Physick-wine For by nature a man flieth from all things which are hard and produce pains and yet there is no other way to be recovered nor to come at health then by those means by which we are always more and more adapted to Christ our head by a similitude of his sufferings death and burial that afterwards by a like resurrection also we may be taken into him and be possessed of a never-fading crown of glory For how much we suffer together with Christ so much also shall we reign with â—im not indeed in this time of temporaâ—y abode but in the truth and permaâ—ency of spirit and life in which we â—hall arise and be excited to such a likeâ—ess of Christ as consisteth not with deâ—raved Nature but is lifted up above Nature and is conformed into a spirituâ—â— eternal and immortal life Thus thereâ—â—re all and every one of them in their â—wn order may expect it will be acâ—â—rding to the measure of the divine gifts â—â—at the enemy may for the time to â—â—me have no more right nor power â—er our Souls by reason of sin under â—hich hitherto we have been bound â—â—d captivated hoping for salvation â—â—d redemption in Christ from all our internal enemys who force our Souls into slavery so that in tract of time we may in all holiness and righteousness serve the Lord as present with us all the days of our life He therefore that hath appeared on earth to preach the Gospel to the poor and to the desolate will comfort and cure our sorrowful hearts and graciously set the captives free he I say will in his own time appear gracious to thy humane weakness and will bless thy internal poverty and affliction with a greâ—â— plenty of the fruits of holiness Now thesâ— few things I was willing according to thâ— simplicity of my heart and my meaâ— gifts in the Lord to write unto thee from an earnest desire to serve thee that 〈◊〉 perhaps some means might be discoveâ—ed to thy heart thorough the diviâ—â— mercy leading to a greater proficiencâ— in the knowledge of God and thâ— thy Soul might be sealed up in eternâ—â— peace and reconciliation thorough thâ— grace of God and by his Spirit Aâ—â— 31. 1559. EPIST. V. For what end the Scripture was given and how we ought most exactly to satisfie conscience also concerning the difference between humane righteousness and that which availeth before God To U. of W. MOst dear Lady having this occasion offered I was willing to write a few lines unto thee giving thanks to you all for your friendly inclinations of heart towards us The eternal God grant that that bond in which we being bound together in him and do profess a mutuall union to the true members may become more firm and may grow in Christ our Lord according to his holy will to his glory and our death As to what concerns my condition it is indeed at present such as is tolerable to the flesh as long as it shall please God for the bond of death remains in my heart and in my members and all the rest is known unto the Lord. The Lord himself take us all into his protection that we may be preserved in his fear this dangerous time which as I conjecture cannot be done but by most hard sorrows O would to God we could at length come even unto the death of Christ and feel it in our souls which indeed is set before our eyes in the holy Scriptures yet somewhat shadowed O Lord grant unto us that life which the Scripture every where beareth witness of yet oftentimes by so frequent exercises of so many various readings a man is but kept back and distracted when as yet it 's in the first place necessary that every one should observe himself in the acts of hearing speaking thinking working and in all else where a man is busied about any other matters in things of thiâ— life and that all these be to his utmost put to the examination of his judgment and that he most exactly endeavours in all hath a care to satisfy his own conscience for so long as the accusatioâ— thereof endureth by the guilt of anâ— though the least transgression it 's impossible that peace an be found in hâ— Soul Because as long as any one does not satisfy his own conscience he is willingly kept a prisoner under sin But the difficulty of this way hindereth many as much as that which the Scripture saith that no man can stand before God in his own proper righteousness which is very true However yet if we are willing to trace thorough this most rocky way of our conscience even to its utmost limit it is necessary that at length we should come to a mortification and destruction of all our laborious endeavours and then will our own righteousness shame us On the contrary we all would dye before ever we have lived and glory that we have renounced our own righteousness when as even yet we stick in the midst of our sins breaking forth into outward acts But the matter is to be otherwise and more accurately considered if we desire to make a proficiency in the Lord for that life which we live in the flesh is dead in the sight of God nor hath no liveliness in it in his account Yea furthermore that life which our Soul enjoys whilst it confideth in and s bottomed on these or these things must also be changed for a death and it 's by no means to be permitted that the enormities thereof should rejoyce in its progress For this life which our Soul hath taken to herself after this manner springs from no where else then from out of that imaginary righteousness and holiness which we fancy is to be found in us and which tickles us with a strange kind of sweet flattery and privately is very pleasing to us yea and gives to our Souls a kind of tranquillity These things are hid so deeply in a man and deceive us with such dissimulation as if all were well with us whence it is that all things are ascribed unto Christ because the man knows that no such
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
taketh all as from the Creator whether they be grateful or ungrateful and though we may not as yet come thus far yet is this to be accounted for a rule and to be followed with all endeavour And with this I would have thee recommended to the Lord who will be helpful to us all and keep and promote us all more and more in his own way EPIST. XXX How a Noble Plant springeth up out of the Dead Seed through the Divine fuitfulness To his Brother A. W. DEarest Brother The Herb we have received The omnipotent Lord who from his eternal beaming forth hath made to come forth the out-flowing powers of all his Creatures according to the common and out-streaming operation of the Law of Nature replenish thine and the common emptiness of others with increase in the blessing of the most noble Plant of God according to his nature that that only Seed which by the benefit of corruption hath utterly lost all its own propriety in a deadly and eternal intemperance and is eternally united with the earth of an imperserutable perfection will fructifie in thee through God contrary to all hope or glory to the greater glorification in the vertue of God Moreover my Brother we received all which are to be brought back again to God as to the Original of all with thansgiving even unto the scope of our death Thus we miserable wretches in this our received way are faln down into to that which we call our propriety so that when we are to depart from that our assumed life we are overwhelmed with sorrows and bitterness although all this is done out of the just judgment of God that all may come unto his truth even as the heavens and the earth are called unto the truth because undeniably all things must come to this state and to render their source glorified by their death and by their being melted down thereinto I wish thee my small portion of health in my state of rejection and disertion from the Lord which I suffer but yet not without mercy that which may happen also to thee but with real commiseration according to thy calling as also to all that are the holy ones of God My brother be mindful of us all may the mercy of God and his eternal and to all creatures his incomprehensible grace come upon us with plenty that by the virtue thereof that miracle of the supernatural spiritual and eternal life may be discovered and acknowledged together with the spiritual salvation in Christ his eternal and only begotten son in whom miserable we are depressed down into death with verity EPIST. XXXI Concerning the right uncloathing of self and of the yielding up of the soul in all sufferings DEarest brother The Lord be mindful of our misery and first to behold me the most miserable one with commiseration and offer to himself my heart made bare and emptied by many pressings together and that he will renunerate it with the blessing of fruitfulness in a divine and eternal redemption and freedom from all the Enemies of my heart who hold it captive in the chaines of darkness out of the just judgment of God to whom I am subjected being ignorant whither at last I must go hence seeing that my anxiety the longer it is is so much the more vehement so that I must always fall into the hands of the Lord seeing all else are fallen away from me The Lord look upon my nakedness and be my preserver that being kept up by and in him I may bring forth fruit to his glory and to the sanctification of things temporaneous in the effusion of the blood of my own proper life and in the liberty of the divine obedience With these I recommend thee to the Lord who can advance us higher in his ways and can fasten us firmly to the cross in true submission and yielding up of our wills that in him we may be kept safe all that short space of our faintings in this time being in his fear delivered up unto death according to the ordination of his judgment impending over us that so we may be led and get forwards in his ways and that we may bid farewel with all our might to time that eternity may take place in us and that we may so dye to our selves that we may walk here on the earth only as Pilgrims The Omnipotent God deal with us in his good pleasure according to his mercy and lead us thorough with Victory even in our imbecillity unto the very end EPIST. XXXII Concerning the death of all created things and of all those which are born out of them MOst beloved brother All things do tend to the end and death of their created nature whence do arise many sighs and a most bitter agony But the Lord will again bring forth his holy one out of death and the grave that he may not see corruption My brother thy pressure is great and severe I know thou desirest comfort but from God only who cannot come but thorough the death of all creatures or of the whole created nature until the last breath of life be also breathed out nor can any refreshment of members be hoped for Let us in a free communion be made partakers of thy sufferings with divine compassion patiently expecting the accomplishment of the judgment in its own order furthermore we will labour according to the will of God and we will sweat till we come to the appointed end even as the hand of the Lord shall over rule us May the omnipotent Lord by his fatherly grace lead us thorough this most difficult labour and strengthen us according to the inward man that we may forsake that which is external and deliver it up to eternal corruption from out of the first judgment to his eternal praise and glory to which we all aspire everyone of us according to his own manner and service but not for our sakes or for our commodity as some now unjustly do and think wherefore also this counterfit opinion shall sink down into defect and death together with the death of the creature by a most hard and terrible fall Because all that that we possess with a lye in time must be yielded up to the eternal truth but all to the glory of God so that at length one may become a looking-glass to the other and God at last may overcome all and persist alone but we in our lies must perish My brother the times of our parents and forefathers are passed and labor belongeth now to our time to the end also of which all things preparatory are at hand The Lord stretch out his hand with mercy over wretched me and over us all that we may be taken into the order which is pleasing to him thorough faith under the obedience of his eternal will so that our will life and choice being subjected to his judgment may be condemned and consumed May the Lord give to us all communion in God with a
shall fail me The Lord prepare us all that we may be made fit for his work in those things which he himself seeth and judgeth II. My brother the condition of my body is tolerable as it always was but I remain unshaken in my heart and the trust or confidence of my life is so small by reason of want of strength in my limbs that I can only walk up and down the house with trembling under the hand of my God True indeed I remain like others as to outward appearance but at heart and over my orignal and root of life there impends a judgment and by my unconsidered steps thorough the terrours of death it threatneth an end and my departure out of this time such is the constitution of my whole life way and conversation May the merciful Father open the bowels of his paternal inclination to me a most wretched creature that he may keep me safe from the evil one and preserve us all by his eternal grace Be mindful of forsaken and for lorn me as my compassionate brother if perhaps the Lord may be willing to exhibit his mercy to us III. My brother mine accustomed infirmity still remaineth as long as the Lord will The Lord be my promoter in his commiserating grace and may he preserve me and continue to hold me in his discipline under a suffering obedience of his holy will The cause why I have wrote no mere is the weakness of my hand According to the Lord my writing is not necessary to thee seeing that he himself will operate by his own grace in thy heart thorough the influence of his Spirit from whom all words and all writings may be separated by reason of his immense and glorious clatitude The Lord keep and promote you all in his ways under his fear and likewise us thorough all the time of our earthly combat And so I heartily salute you IV. My brother as to what belongs to my condition it still conflicts with its usual and difficult disease so long as it shall so please God He according to the order of his Justice put me down into this death of corruption and with his own hand plucketh me up again that I may wait for eternity which springeth up from out of the seed of this corruptible mortality May the Lord freely bestow on us all his mercy as with a long-suffering constancy we hope from the Lord it will be that with a heart prepared and submitted we may receive all from his hand and may be lead thorough even unto the end Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who will lead us all with all our strength and essence unto the true death in Christ that he out of this 〈◊〉 may build up an eternal life whiâ—◠〈◊〉 never more be subjected unto any 〈◊〉 V My brother my condition is the 〈◊〉 that it was when you departed bâ—◠〈◊〉 consideration thereof doth shake al◠〈◊〉 powers into a trembling and a terâ—â—â—â— because of that evident death by the 〈◊〉 of the Lord which as it were an obâ—â—â—re cloud of death I have always before my eyes even from that very time whâ—â— thou wert with me the reason bâ—◠〈◊〉 its beginning and of its end is whâ—â— hid from me the truth it self will bâ—â—â—â— it self forth in its own meaning and oâ—der As to my outward body which respecteth my disease I am not at all chanâ—â—â— but anguishes have taken full possession on all my faculties Be thou recommended to the mercy of God VI. My brother The Lord help us poor wâ—â—â—ches in this dangerous condition of this natural and mutable life whom it behooveth to be kept with believing under all uncertainties in the fear of God according to the faith whereby we believe that all the certainty and firmness of our purposes are to be wholly destroyed corrupted and annihilated that another 〈◊〉 fruit may spring up to eternal life 〈◊〉 â—â—ising out of the foregoing corruptible seed The Lord grant to us his salvation and grace that we may adore or worship 〈◊〉 in Spirit and in Truth even as he himself desireth VII The Lord in his mercy help us all and free us from our errours in his own time For I poor wretch do suffer the justice of the Lord and do bear his judgment upon me as long as this carnal spirit in this my dying nature still breatheth May the eternal and merciful God appear to me by his grace yea and to us all and lead us into his own will VIII My brother The Lord is my deliverer in my necessity and will confirm me in his grace even unto the end My brother I am willing thou shouldest know that my body cannot possibly endure any longer this immense misery without dying God assist me in my sufferings to the last and receive me into his eternal rest My Weakness is great all things are known to the Lord. Thy brother in the highest streights the most wretched in the Lord. M. W. To his Sister the ninth day before his death DEarest Sister whilst I am writing this I am so ordered that I can write no more My dearest sister be mindful of thy younger brother and of his wife and small children that they may be the most advanced and helped as the time may need My most beloved Sister I am in the highest content in the Lord my God and by his grace do bid the farewel with this my dying hand being according to the will God bound in so short a chain as he proposed to himself The Lord our God grant peace to our beloved brothers and sisters And now I turn me to my present call viz. to that eternal peace thorough the death of my flesh which now hasteneth it self to its end And now my most beloved Sister behold my dying salutation and my last farewel to thee from the bottom of my heart wherewith saluteth thee as departing out of this life thy brother M. W. 16 April 1560. He died in the Lord 25 April in the year of our Lord 1560. and of his own age the 39. THE END