can a man as the Apostle saith to the Ephesians chap. 2. which was dead in sin help himself Also even as we did not bring so much as a haire to our creation so neither to our redemption or regeneration and sanctification which are much greater and more noble then our creation it selfe Wherefore The cause of the incarnation of the Son of God it was necessary that the Sonne of God should take humane nature upon him to recover that which was lost in Adam to revive that which was dead in him which that it may be brought to effect accordingly we must imitate the Traveller which is cruelly handled and wounded and laid upon the ground and could not help himselfe him therefore the mercifull Samaritan taketh up and bindeth up his soares and then laieth him upon a horse leadeth him into the Stable and after that omitteth nothing which an industrious and faithfull Physitian can administer to a sick person And as the Traveller also sheweth himselfe observant to his Physitian and Christ iâ— our Physitian not we our selves observeth his beck and command so let us remember to doe the like if we desire to be healed Let us doe our full diligence and power to our Physitian Christ let us resigne our selves wholly unto him let us trust in his faith that he will bind up and cure our wounds also let him powre in Wine and Oyle into them neither will hee be wanting or faile to restore us to our former health that is so soon as a sinner repeÌ„teth converteth himselfe by heavenly grace to God is grieved from his heart for his sinnes and resisteth not that his wounds should be washed in the sharp wine of contrition and lastly to be anointed with the Oyle of Consolation then presently Christ by his grace doth work and bring forth faith in him and the fruits of faith as life peace joy consolation and happinesse renewing him after his own image and working in him to will and finish according to his good will Phil. 2. For seeing that the abundance of sinnes are greater then humane nature can beare as witnesseth the Scripture which John 8. pronounceth the naturall man the servant of sin and Rom. 7. sold under sinne and can doe nothing but sinne according to that of Jeremy 13. If the Aethiopian can change his hue or the The naturall man neither can nor will doe doe any good Leopard his spots and you can doe well and forget to doe evill therefore the singular grace of God appeared to all men by his Gospel teaching us by the words of Paul to Tit. 2. that denying all impiety and worldly desires wee may live a just and sober life in this present world As if hee should say by the The grace of God doth all things in us word of God grace is offered unto us and doth instruct inlighten allure and teach us heartily to move and provoke us to desist from sinne which teaching of the divine grace or joynt warning by the Word consenteth with the inward testimony of the conscience whereby the man both from without and within is convicted that he doth evill and of leading a life against the way of God and his conscience he ought to change it to better let him know this if he would bee saved Furthermore if hee will bend his eares and mind and being full of good hope denounce warre against vice then the grace of God Man is meere darknes Christ is meere light worketh all things in man as faith charity and all the fruits of faith For as darknesse cannot lighten it selfe and the Sunne not shining we doe in vain open our eyes so neither can man inlighten himselfe according to that in Psalm 13. O Lord thou givest light unto my Lanthorn and my darknesse But the divine Grace or Christ himselfe is the cleare light which is risen to all men sitting in darknesse and in the shadow of death How the true light lightâ—â—s all men which inlightneth all men or every man that cometh into this world that is by manifesting himselfe and offering his grace He I say is the light of the world shewing to all men the way of life and like a good Shepheard guiding his Flock into the right way he sought us as his lost sheep daily even now seeketh us and allureth us nay more followeth us embraceth us after the manner of a bride or spouse that he loveth whose grace I would to god most men did Christ as a Bridegroome imbraceth our souls not refuse give repulse to his love prefer the darknes of vice before his light And even as a Physitian saith to his sick Patient Beware of this if you will not dye for you hinder the efficacie and force of the medicine that you cannot bee made whole so Jesus Christ the true Physitian of our souls saith My sonne I pray thee incline thy mind to repentance and leave thy sinnes Impeninitence hindereth the efficacie of Christs merits that pride covetousnesse concupiscence of the flesh wrath revenge and forsake them or most certainly the honour of my merit shall profit thee nothing when thou art a hinderance that my grace cannot be sown in thee that it cannot increase in strength bring forth fruit Truly for this very cause I give my Apostles in charge before all things to preach repentance and I called Why repentance is to be preached before all things sinners to repentance because an impenitent heart cannot participate of my merits Which speech when a sick man heareth the Physitian of our soules as to abstaine from sinne or else he must utterly perish the word of God coming expresly to his mind let him know this that it is most certain that God hath promised remission of sinnes to all men gratis but under this law and condition if they will convert themselves to God according to that of Ezekiel 33. If the wicked shall repent him of his sinnes hee shall live the life and not die all the offences which hee hath done shall not bee True faith imputed unto him Wherein truly the repentance of sinnes is joyned to remission neither doth Christ the sonne of God in any other sense promise life eternall to those that beleeve in him For faith doth alwayes oppose it selfe to the Old Man tameth the flesh and subjecteth it to the spirit that is converteth the man rooteth up and amendeth sinnes and cleareth and purgeth the heart it being the fountain of all evill Truly this is true faith that I say that turneth it selfe from the world from sinnes and from the Devill to Christ and seeketh solace and rest for his soule against the grieving debt of his sinnes in the onely blood death and merit of Christ without the works of any man whatsoever What man is so foolish to beleeve that his sinnes are pardoned of God although hee doe not desist from his sinnes this man hath a false faith neither ever
state of innocencie to love God with all his heart with all his soule and all his strength and his neighbour as himselfe Hereupon it is that when Almighty God requireth the heart of man the whole man as concerning body soule and all his strength is to be understood In which sense the name of heart in Scripture is understood every where so that with it doe come all the strength of the soul and â—â— it were the nerves the understanding memory affections and desires Neither is it for other reasons when God requireth the soule understanding by that denomination the whole man so much as in him is which indeed is to bee conformed to Iustice righteousnesse and ioy cleave together him to bee renewed in Christ and that he ought to walk in spirit or in a new and spirituall life But the perfection of most sincere joy doth accompany the perfection of holinesse righteousnesse and love in the man wherewith he was most sincerely affected God so disposing it that where divine holinesse is there also should be divine joy which two as they cannot be separated so they make the Image of God But we who in this life doe attain to onely an unperfect and begun righteousnesse of God and his holinesse for these beginnings of the righteousnesse of Christ living in all the faithfull if we be devout if we be exercised in the Kingdome of God we shal do participate thereof in this world and have the fruits thereof even the first fruits of that heavenly joy Therefore how much every Christian profiteth in love so much divine pleasure and joy hee doth find in himselfe Which holy and divine love because in that day it shal receive the last hand and its perfection therefore also our joy shall be then perfect Christ bearing witnesse John 16. For charity or love is life and joy as contrariwise where love is not there is neither life nor joy but death it The greatest ioy for the love of God selfe wherein the Devil and wicked impenitent men shall remain to all eternity This love maketh the father of the son the bridegroome of the bride draw an incredible delight yet it is a far greater love that is perceived from the love of the Creator which most lovingly kisseth us with the kisses of his mouth that is in Christ and in him by the charity or love of the holy Ghost cometh upon us and taketh up his dwelling with us And of this image of God the Image of God differ God which consisteth in similitude with God when wee make mention of it we doe not mean that a man should be every way like God in justice righteousnesse and holinesse and become like God himselfe for God is incomprehensible and he is immense as concerning his essence virtue and properties but onely to carry about the image of God as is declared in divers places of this book Where what wee have commented of the Image of God those are no conjectures but things indeed neither can it be denied of the most perverse that Almighty God created man that he might be his most cleare looking-glasse so that if one were desirous to know the nature of God he might look back to himselfe and counsell with himselfe contemplate God in himselfe as in a glasse might see his Image within and in his heart as his life and happinesse But the Devil beholding this Image The acts of the Devil to abolish the Image of God of God in man with wicked envious eyes laid in wait with many deceits and machinations until at last through disobedience and an hostile mind conceived against God hee overthrew that Image and destroyed it which he hath attained unto with such craft as never any thing was attained unto or shall be Neither was it an obscure thing unto him if the man had remained in that state he had been his Pride the original of all sin Lord but so soon as he fell from him hee became a tyrant to him Therefore when all his forces of malice and craft displayed hee found nothing more fit to perfect his cogitations then that sinne by which hee was bewitched and pulled from God hee began to insinuate into our mother the affectation of the divine Majesty by sweet and flattering speeches with the help of the Serpent that old and deceitful Parasite and the atchiever of so great The fall of Adam a wickednesse which proud thought once entied into the heart and admitted there followed Apostasie disobedience and transgression of the precept concerning the Tree of knowledge not to bee touched Hereby came the image of God to be overthrown the holy Ghost to fly away and the image of the Devil to bee set up in the place of the divine Majesty and both of them to become the bondslaves of the Devil and he their Lord to handle their souls most cruelly and as a Giant handleth a child to blind the understanding to turn the will from God to accompany all the powers of the whole heart against God and intoxicate them with Satanicall malice to overthrow all the image of God in man to plant his own in the roome to infect them with the contagion of his own nature to beget after his own image children not now of God but his own to fulfill all kind of sinne and enmity against God and lastly to slay them with eternal death For even as in the image of God life eternall and the happinesse of man was contained so death and condemnation did follow its losse This death those doe best understand which fall and are cast into most grievous spirituall temptations being exposed to the tyranny of the Devill by infesting the miserable soule of them most cruelly with the custome of sinning Spiritual death and eternall by the fall of Adam under which crosse being depressed and troden down only unlesse the holy Ghost doe under-prop him and comfort him then the Devil doth fasten his death upon them and tormenteth their soules with pains grief infernal whereupon it must needs be that all the powers of the body doe faile the heart waxeth dry and the marrow to be consumed Psal 6. and the Spirituall temptation 38. and the word of God if any go about to be without life with juice and with all devotion and spirituall life Into which Spiritual death state when the businesse is to bee brought then the man is converted in the agonie of a true spirituall death esteeming nothing of the holinesse of all men righteousnesse dignity strength power glory honour arts and wisdome of all men without doubt this man shall perish unlesse the grace of God doe prevent him Therefore learn of me O man that Originall sin is the most terrible of terrible sinnes that is the losse of the hereditary righteousnesse of God and contrariwise the hereditary unrighteousnesse What our originall sin is of the Devil and man planted in the place for which the
justification onely proceedeth from faith in Christ And faith is like But in Christ a new-born babe newly come into the world weake and naked set before the eyes of his Saviour from whom as from his parent hee receiveth justice honesty holinesse grace and the holy Ghost And after this manner is the naked child by the mercy of God cloathed and both his bracelets being taken away he receiveth of God grace health and holinesse This alone therefore this only receiving maketh him godly holy and happy and our true justification onely through faith and not What our justification is through works I say by faith which apprehending Christ be it what it may be with all his goodnesse he challengeth and maketh it his own properly then of necessity sinne death Devill and hell must Sin and death hell are subiect to faith give back and vanish away and so powerfully lively and effectually doth the merit of Christ through faith work and abound that even the sinnes of the whole world cannot hurt them Now seeing that Christ by faith liveth and dwelleth in thee let us never think or beleeve that this his habitation is a dead work but rather a certain living thing not idle powerfull working or as I may say in one word a renewing for faith performeth two things first it transplanteth thee into Christ and giveth him freely unto thee with all that he hath secondly it reneweth thee in Christ that thou mayst grow green and flourish and live in him neither is the graffe brought into the stock for other purpose but that it should flourish and bring forth fruit in it And even as by the Apostasie of Adam and by the deceit and seducing of the Devill the seed of the Serpent and the Diabolicall corruption of his nature is sown in man growing up into a tree bearing the fruits of death so by the word of God and the holy Ghost the faith is sown in our hearts as the seed of Faith is the seed of God God in which after a wonderfull manner are shut up all divine vertues and properties from whence in a like manner doth flow forth a most glorious and new Image of God and bringeth forth a new tree whose fruits are obedience and patience humility courtesie peace charity justice a new and another man and so the whole Kingdome of God for true and saving faith reneweth the whole man maketh clean the heart joyneth and uniteth it to God purged anew and set free from earthly things it hungreth and thirsteth after righteousnesse it worketh love it bringeth peace joy patience strength moderation in adversity it overcommeth the world it maketh us the sonnes of God and heirs of all celestiall goodnesse and co-heirs with Christ If it happen any to be without or to be ignorant of this joy which is by faith acknowledging himselfe to be of little faith let him beware he distrust not therefore but rather let him trust in grace Consolation of those that have little Faith promised by Christ which promise remaineth certain immoveable and everlasting And although we through humane infirmities doe often fall and goe backwards let us in the mean while alwayes account it sure and certain that the grace of God remaineth solid and firm whensoever by true and serious repentance we arise from our fall for Christ is and will be Christ and Saviour although you take hold of him by a firm or weak faith for he imbraceth both alike and Christ is alike to all Moreover the promise of grace is universall and perpetuall upon which it is necessary our faith be founded without difference firme or weak and in the mean time erect and fill thy heart with hope God will in his good time in his own season bring that sincere and sensible joy unto thee although he hide himselfe a while in the inwards of thy heart Psal 37. 77. Of which Argument I shall say more Lib. 2. CHAP. VI. How the word of God by faith in man ought to spread forth live Luke 17. For behold the kingdom of God is within you BEcause in Regeneration and Renovation of the man all things are in us therefore our great Gods will was that those things which by faith in man ought All the new man is set forth in the Scripture to be done spiritually fulfilled should be outwardly set forth in writing and the whole new man painted and fully set forth in his word for seeing that his word is the seed of God in us certainly it is necessary that it should bring forth fruit and out of that seed to grow by faith which the Scripture outwardly doth teach and beare witnesse of or certain it is that the seed and embryon is dead I say in faith and spirit I ought to tast prove and joyfully in the inward sense perceive heare see and touch even those things the Scripture doth dictate The word of God is to quicken in us and declare most truly neither did God the Father in his counsell manifest the Scripture that as a dead letter it should lie hid in paper ink but that it should receive life in faith and Spirit or as we vulgarly say be turned into our juyce and bloud spring up and grow young in us to another new and inward man because I say all things ought and it is meet so to be to be fulfilled and performed in faith and spirit through Christ whatsoever the Scripture doth outwardly teach Let us shew it in the example of Cain and Abel whose natures manners and actions if you call to mind you cannot but understand that History If you suppose in the place of Cain and Abel the names of the old and new Man to be in the like manner to be done and iterated for what is the displeasure of both what is that lying in wait that Cain laid against Abel What others are all those then the daily strife of the flesh and the spirit what other enmity then the seed of the new man and the seed of the Serpent Neither is there other reason in common sense for by the food from heaven the corruption of the flesh is to be drowned and washed but just and faithfull Noe is to be preserved in the Ark and a new Covenant is to be made between thee and thy great God Moreover the Tower of Babel or Confusion ought not to be built in thee Thou must with Abraham goe forth of thine own Countrey or knowledge and all things are to be left even thy life it selfe that thou mayst walk perfectly before God carry out the victory and goe into the land of promise and Kingdome of God And Christ meaneth no other thing Matth. 10. Luk. 14. If any come unto me and hateth not his father and mother his wife and children his brothers and sisters yea and further his own life he cannot be my Disciple that is to wit he must bid all these adieu The
whose hearts not onely by nature but by the word revealed the new covenant the word of God is written and yet do despise and cast behind them this grace and favour Of which new Covenant Jeremy saith Chap. 3. This shall be my compact I will put my Lawes into their inwards and I will write it in their hearts and a man shall not any more teach his neighbour and a man his brother saying Know the Lord for all men shall know me saith the Lord even from the least to the greatest because I will forgive their iniquity and I will not remember their sins any more Heare what is said Heb. 10. To those that voluntarily offend or sinne against God after the knowledge he hath received for such there is no sacrifice left for him but a certain terrible expectation of judgement and offering by fire which consumeth the adversary He that breaketh the Law of Moses without any mercy by the mouth of two or three witnesses shall die the death how much more and worse doe you thinke doe they deserve death which have contemned against the Sonne of God and polluted the bloud of the Testament in whom he is sanctified and contumaciously despised the spirit of grace for we know who hath said Vengeance is mine and I will return it upon them And again because the Lord will judge his people It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God With which heavie sentence without doubt those are not strucken which fall through humane frailty but those that wittingly and willingly sin against the truâ— knowledge and persevere in impenitencie CHAP. VIII Without true repentance no man can challenge Christ and his merits to belong unto him Numb 9. The unclean may not celebrate the Passeover THe words of our Saviour Christ Mat. 9. are The healthy hath no need of the Physitian but the sick I did not come to call the just but the sinners to repentance whereby we are clearly taught that Christ indeed did call sinners but to repentance neither can any come unto him without repentance without conversion from sinne and What is true repentance faith for repentance is no other thing then by true contrition and sorrow to die unto sinne and by faith to obtain forgivenesse for sinne and to live unto righteousnesse in Christ so that in true repentance necessarily serious and divine contrition must go before a heart as I may say broken and câ—ucifying the flesh whereupon in Cap. 6. Epist ad Hebr. Repentance is said to be or is called the worke of dead men because by it we abstain from those works whose reward is death which if it be not done then the merit of Christ profiteth not us one haire For seeing Christ proffereth himselfe to be the Physitian of our souls his holy bloud to be the only and most true medicine of our sins and no medicine although it be most pretious can cure the sick man which will not refraine from hurtfull thinâ—s and things resisting the power of the medicine so it remaineth that the bloud of Christ and death can profit nothing those that purpose not to abstain from sinne Whereupon blessed Paul cap. 5. ad Galat. saith Whosoever doth such things the works of the flesh doe not obtaine the Kingdome of heaven nor shall have any part in Christ Moreover if Christ by his bloud is become our medicine who can doubt that first we must be sick for the whole have no need of a Physitian but the weake And none is spiritually sicke who is not penitent and who is not sorrowfull from his heart for his sinnes who hath not a contrite heart and humble who is secure as concerning the wrath of God who hath not resolved and firmly in his mind decreed to flye all worldly concupiscence who lastly seeking after honour wealth and pleasure takes no knowledge of his sinnes such as are so those are not sick and consequently need no Physitian and Christ profiteth them nothing it is manifest Therefore again and again let this be remembred that Christ called sinners but it was to repentance because a penitent heart contrite pensive and faithfull onely and alone is capable of the most pretious bloud death and merit of Christ I account him happy whosoever he be that heareth this holy calling inwardly and in his heart I call that a divine sorrow and anguish for sinnes which worketh repentance God worketh spirituall sorrow to stedfast salvation as the words be 2 Cor. 7. The holy Spirit doth produce this divine sorrow by the Law and serious meditation of the passion of the Lord because it not onely aboundeth with the documents of grace but also withall hath in it an earnest exhortation to repentance and a most terrible glasse of the divine wrath For if we seek into the cause of his The Passion of Christ efficieÌ„t to repentance most bitter death what else can we say was the cause but our sinnes If you joyn the divine love out of which he most willingly gave his Son for us as also you shall have his singular example both terrible and wonderfull of his divine justice and clemency which seeing they are so who then sincerely loving Christ can be affected and delighted with sinne which he knows Christ had with his bloud washed and purged Consider also with me O man which art subject to pride and art slave unto ambition with what contempt and how great humility Christ Jesus ought to repaire our pride and insolency think of his poverty that he might satisfie for thy covetousness The fruits of Christs passion surcease at last through God so studiously to seek after wealth and insatiably to thirst after riches most wretchedly He with incredible griefe of mind and anguish not to be uttered doth satisfie and abolish the pleasures and concupiscence of the flesh and thou contrariwise continually dost give thy selfe to pleasure and lust how evill is thy preposterousnesse pravity and wickednesse to take delight and pleasure in those things which to Christ were so wonderfully bitter he died to expiate thy wrath hatred enmity rancor bitternesse desire of revenge and implacability with extreame mildnesse and patience and wilt not thou even for the least cause be very angry and account revenge more pleasant then life even for which thy Redeemer did drink the most bitter cup of death wherefore so many as aspire to the name of Christians and doe not abstain froÌ„ sin those I say do even crucifie Christ and doe make a mock of him as it is said The impenitent do even crucifie Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. Therefore it is unpossible that those should participate of the merits of Christ which indeed they doe tread under foot as it is in the same Epistle Chap. 10. And because they doe pollute the blood of the Testament neither beleeve truly that their sinnes are expiated by him or much esteem his death or think
sinner is cast from God and judged to eternall death incurring the same without doubt unlesse he obtain remission of sinnes by faith in Christ Which naturall corruption of soule mind and body that thou O man mayst understand more exactly it shall not grieve me to expresse it more plainly or more at large exhorting and praying thee for Gods sake and thine own happinesse that thon wouldest diligently read and daily meditate this Article whereby thou mayst know thy naturall misery and thy in-born wickednes no otherwise then in a glasse and that which followeth it continually lament and deplore the same For the sum of Christianity is no other thing What Christianity is then a continuall spirituall wrastling with originall sinne and continuall purging of it by the holy Ghost and a serious no superficial repentance For how much every one mortifieth this naturall iniquity so much from day to day hee is renewed towards the Image of God On the contrary so many as inwardly and from the heart doe not mortifie it by the holy Ghost these are hypocrites whatsoever shew of holinesse Hypocrites they outwardly shew unto the world And whatsoever is not dead in it selfe and The necessity of regeneration is not renewed by the holy Ghost to the image of God all that is unfit for the kingdome of heaven Whereby there is to be noted the necessity of the new birth and renovation if we will put out the Image of the Devill opposite to the divine law For as the Devill doth hate God with all his heart so hath hee taught the humane soule against God in hostile manner to behave it selfe not to love him not to honour him not to call upon him to be against and to flye from him As the Devill liveth thus day by day in blindnesse little caring what is the Divine will so all things bewitched by him spend the time unmindfull of God and his commandements which mist and night of humane mind is a horrible and terrible destruction of the light and of the image of God and also abominable sin whereby the man is so farre slided back that hee doth say There is no God Psalm 14. And for this blindnesse all humane kind is abomination and accursed before Almighty God And although there bee and remain in man a certain spark of naturall light by the force thereof he understandeth some God to be and that he is just as the Ethnick Philosophers doe teach yet the spirituall life according to God and his righteousnesse is A spark of natural light remaining in mâ—n altogether extinguished in him For the conscience which is the Law of God written in the heart of man in the creation teacheth what is good whereby there is no man so brutish in his pleasures but by that conscience he thinketh there is a God and that he is moved with no motion but is chast and therefore it cannot but that hee abhorreth all filthinesse neither should hee doe otherwise But this good and right thought and spark our light is put out by the filthy pleasures of the body and the concupiscences thereof no other wayes then if water were cast upon it After the same manner a slanderer or an homicide sometime reasoneth with himselfe Certainly there is a God that wil not that men should be killed but would have them preserved but this spark lasteth not long but The spirituell life in man is altogether dead by and by Devillish wrath and the sweetnesse of revenge extinguisheth it From which it is understood that a spirituall life consisting in love and truth in a carnall man is altogether dead neither doth hee think otherwise howsoever sometimes by the light of nature they understand that there is a God and that he doth governe humane affaires yet by and by being blinded with the darknesse of heart they call in The mortall blindnesse of man question his providence as their books doe witnesse And from this naturall blindnesse and in-born mists ariseth incredulility unstedfastnesse and wavering-mindednesse which all men naturally are incident unto and for which before Almighty God they are abomination because they live not in faith and they doe not trust from their heart For seeing that a naturall man of the spirituall life and works of the same is altogether ignorant and profane hereon it is that hee calleth not on God but trusteth in his wisdome power and strength then which nothing can bee thought more foolish Of the same blindnesse the fruit is contempt of God and spirituall security For as the Devill secure of God careth not to humble himselfe before him but persevereth in his pride so hee The seed of the Devill in man doth infect the soule of man by the contempt of God with security and insolencie so that he doth not humble himself before God but secure of the divine fear doth all things after his own will and mind proudly insolently As the Devill carried along with his own strength and wisdome governeth himselfe so the soule of man infected with the contagion of the Devill is wise unto it selfe doth counsell and govern it selfe As the Devill seekes his own honour onely so the man hath no care of the divine honour but onely his own As the Devil hath contended with God so hath hee armed the soule of man against God by impenitence As the Devill doth blaspheme the name of God and is extreamly ungratefull towards his Creator as he is unmerciful wrathfull and bloudy so he hath infected man with these vices as with a pestilent poyson As the Devil rejoyceth to exercise tyranny against man and stirreth up one against another so man by his discipline depraved insolently carrieth himselfe over his neighbour and despiseth him as a man of no account derideth him as a foole and abhorreth him as a man covered with greatest sinnes and outrages As the Devill is an homicide so he stirreth up the soule to the same cruelty and thirst of humane bloud Lastly perswade thy selfe assuredly that God doth not accuse the outward members but the God accuseth the soul alwayes heart and soule alwayes for the heart and soule is an homicide and a lier noâ— his hand not his mouth Therefore when God commanded man to call upon him in necessity he gave that charge to the soul not to the mouth Hee that understandeth not this he truly remaineth as a Mole-warp in the Scripture neither understandeth the nature of originall sinne of repentance of the new birth lastly not any Article of Religion We see daily before our eyes the extream malice of men their horrible pride cruelty hatred and beastly envie so that they are accustomed to lie in wait for another mans life with the hazard of their own and desire to have their neighbour utterly overthrown Which inhumane and detestable envie wrath and rancor of minds what other thing is it then that seed The holy matrimony in the state of innocency and image of
created that being enlightned with spirituall light by the inward eyes of the soul he might contemplate the presence of God and his most sincere love towards him might live with Man was born to a spirituall life him and depend on his beck and call throughout all his life And of this spirituall light in the Kingdome of heaven the naturall man hath not the least spark and he must needs abide in this hereditary and in-bred blindnesse unlesse hee bee divinely Naturall blindnesse enlightned To which I would to God that naturall blindnesse did not adjoyn it selfe nor that the perversity of man were Man is nothing without Christ so great as to put out that small light of nature whereby morall vertues and externall honesty of life is governed There is great infirmity in the sons of God Which when it cometh to passe then truly all the soul is blind and cannot be set free from such great blindnesse unlesse it be enlightned by Christ regenerated by his spirit renewed after the Image of God and be made a new creature or to speak more truly in this fraile life it onely beginne to be For if every one of us that are in the new creature by the holy Ghost doe consider it will appeare in truth that the Image of God is lightly ingraven in us or rather shadowed onely faith hope charity and the feare of God these are onely in the beginning little humility but on the contrary diffidency pride and impatience much greater prayer weak and faint and cold and love to our neighbour as weak Moreover very small sparkes of spirirituall chastity on the contrary flames of carnall pleasures as also selfe-love the desire of private profit and honour and the heat of concupiscence will bee found in our hearts Whereupon it followeth that to Inward strife the last gasp of our life we are to fight and wrastle with old Adam and the image of the Devil by the spirit of God neither ought we to have a greater care and to lay it to heart then to pray mourn sigh to ask to seek and knock that the holy Ghost may be given us who as our Captain may daily abolish in us the image of the Devil and also renew us after the Image of God Whereby we are to understand that we are not to trust to our selves but to the divine grace and that is it which doth all things in us all things are to bee sought desired and intreated for of Christ by faith Divine knowledge and wisdome against our blindnesse the righteousnesse of Christ against all our sins Christ his sanctification against our impurity Christ his redemption virtue victory and fortitude against The use of this chapter Death Hell and the Devill pardon of all sins against the kingdom of sin Satan eternal blessednesse against all spirituall and corporall miseries and last of all in Christ alone to obtain life eternall Of which I shall say more in the second Book CHAP. XLII Wherein the reason of the order of the first Book is set down and therewith is taught that spiritual pride is to be eschewed and herewithal that no true and celestiall gifts can be obtained without prayer 1 Corinth 4. What hast thou that thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou boast as if thou hadst not received it BEfore I put an end to this Book I thought good to understand and foresee that the Reader be admonished of two â—hings rather two Chapters The first is that through all this book is by penitence with all his fruits as by renovation in Christ by mortification of the flesh deniall of our selves contempt of the world and exercise of charity so copiously and diveâ—sly described that was not without cause nor rashly done by me For first of all repentance is the beginning and foundation Repentance is the beginning of Christianity of Christianity of a holy life and our blessednesse through faith secondly true and solid consolation in the mind of man cannot be felt to effect by him that doth not not exactly understand the nature of originall sinne never to bee sufficiently deplored fruits and what kind of horrible pestilent deadly and diabolicall poyson and seed it is when we have studied what we can which unlesse it be done and a man before all things doe well know his owne miseries and so the terrible corruption of our originall sin in vain and of no account are all the books of spirituall and Evangelicall consolation whereby it is given to understand how preposterous and choyce our nature is and how it rejoyceth in flatteries because most men about this foundation and the fore-cited things of our sins of our in-bred corruption and inborn wickednesse wee onely please our selves Which way of reasoning the holy Scripture is just contrary whose saying is that a medicine is to bee prepared for the sick and not for the sound and healthy seeing that Christ is the true Physitian altogether unseasonable consolation of our souls yet the crown of his merit with all vulgar consolations is of no worth nor use where the knowledgement of the disease went not before so the whole Christian life is nothing else but a continuall A Christian life and daily crucifying and mortifying of the flesh Neither can any man this to be said again and again belong to Christ who composeth himselfe and his life otherwise but those that are so those are never Orphans and without sincere joy nor lastly without celestial comfort and consolation Seeing this which wee speak of our proper misery the knowledge of our corruption and infirmity by the holy Ghost and meditation of the holy Scripture and Gospel doth bring forth most true consolation of it selfe and the own nature bringeth us to Christ which seeing it is so to bee advised by mee Let no man of corrupt judgement deceive thee and perswade thee that these bookes are of little regard Perswade thy self these are a blind Foolish iudgement of this book kind of men and that with the most ignorant of men they take knowledge of the misery of their nature both what Adam and Christ is how Adam is to die in us and how Christ ought to live in us let not this be held for a dream understand it not so And whosoever disdaineth this notice it is certaine that he hath his mind stuffed with the darknesse of ignorance neither doth he understand what repentance what faith what new birth what regeneration is and in what chapters the whole course of living Christianty is contained And this is the first I desire thee my Reader And the second that thou be mindfull of spirituall pride After that Almighty God Three sorts of spiritual pride shal begin by his grace to work in thee spirituall gifts new virtues and new knowledge in thee ascribe none of these to thine own strength but wholly to divine grace even the beginning of a
most noble is that man in whom Christ is all and doth all whose noble thoughts mind words are the will of Christ the thoughts of Christ and the mind of Christ according to that of Paul * 1 Cor. 2. We have the mind of Christ Lastly whose words are Christs And so it needs to be indeed because the life of Christ is that new and another life in man neither is the new man any other thing then he who liveth in Christ according to the Spirit whose life I say courtesie patience and humility is no other then that of Christ And this the new creature and the life of Christ in us according to that of Paul to the Galatians Gâ—l 2. I live but not I but Christ in me liveth this also is to follow Christ truly and truly to repent for by this method the old man is destroyed and the carnall life declineth the new spirituall and heavenly life ariseth and breaketh out of the clouds This who ever doth he truly is a Christian not in title only but in work and truth a true son of God begotten of God and Christ renewed in Christ and quickened by faith and so long as the inward man dwelleth in flesh and blood we may wish so much perfection rather then attain unto it but it is as meet and necessary to indeavour and to aspire thereunto and study the same and to wish it from our inward minde and to strive that the life and kingdom The strife daily fighting with corrupt nature of Christ may be in us and not the life of Satan let all our counsels respect this all our cares and inward groans be sent this way and let this be our only strife and warfare that we may mortifie the old man by daily repentance For how much every one dieth to himself so much doth Christ live in him how much corruption How the man is daily renewed departeth from our nature by the Holy Ghost so much divine grace cometh in how much the flesh is crucified so much is the spirit quickened so much of the work of darknesse as is destroyed so much is the man illuminated by how much the exterior man is lessened and wasted so much the inward is renewed 2 Cor. 4. so much as you lose of your vaine affections and carnall life and are wasted as self-love ambition wrâ—th covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse so much Christ liveth in you the further a mans heart is set from the world from concupiscence of the eyes flesh and pride of life so much more of God Christ and the Holy Spirit doth flow into him Last of all the more nature flesh darknesse and the world do bear rule in man so much lesse grace spirit of light God and Christ is found in him Moreover this new kind of living is to the flesh The new life is the crosse of the flesh an enemy and bitter crosse because it is that by which it is subjugated and brought under and crucified with all the desires and concupiscences thereof but yet is that wherein the whole power and fruit of penitency consisteth This is the inward desire of the flesh and blood that it had rather lead a free life dissolute according to its own will and among pleasures and all kind of voluptuousnesse for it only knows this to be sweet and pleasant as contrariwise the life of Christ to the flesh and the old man is a heavie crosse but to the new man and him that is spirituall it is an easie yoak a light burden and a most quiet Sabbath truly the true rest is sought for in vain else were they in the faiâ—h of Christ and in his sweetness humility patience and love of Christ whereupon it is said Mat. 11. You shall find rest for your souls Truly he that loveth Christ will not think it bitter to suffer death it self for him This therefore is that sweet yoak of Christ which we are commanded to take upon us that our soules might be refreshed and come into his rest which command if we determine to obey and mean to put on Christ his life and yoak then we must shake off the yoak of the Devill our way of carnall life wicked and dissolute nor must we suffer the flesh as a Lady to insult and disquiet the spirit but all things are to be brought under the Law obedience and yoak of Christ will I say reason understanding and all carnall What the yoak of Christ is appetites which the concupiscence of Adam and this flesh of ours is well pleased to be honoured worshipped and to be praised of men to abound in riches and pleasures to bring all which on the other side under the yoak of Christ and his discipline nothing regarding his ignominy contempt and poverty to think himself unworthy all things that the world gapeth What the life of Christ is after and for which other men do contend that truth is the crosse of Christ wherewith the flesh is delighted I say that extreme humility of Christ and his most noble life which to the spirit is a most easie yoak and a most easie burden for what other was the whole life of Christ then holy poverty extreme contempt and vile persecution who came not into the world to be attended on but to serve us himself and spend his life and shed his dearest blood to redeem our offences It is the property of The naturall man the spirituall the naturall man to seek after honours and hunt after great things The spirituall on the other side loved the humility of Christ and desireth to become nothing And whereas most men do desire to go before or excell others scarce one coveteth to be reputed as nothing of whom the one belongeth to the square or rule of life of the old Adam the other to the rule of Christ The carnall man and he who hath not yet learned what Christ is that is to say meer humility courtesie and love accounteth it folly to live as Christ liveth and thinketh those onely wise that live after their owne The false true light will delicately and easily not knowing that then he chiefly liveth in the Devill when most foolishly he applaudeth himselfe and esteemeth his own life as the best and most pleasing which most miserable men being fast bound in the lust of their own carnall wisdome doe inforce others to follow the like errours contrariwise those whom the true and eternall light hath inlightned those are touched at the heart when they doe see the pomp and disdaine pride pleasure wrath revenge and such kind of fruit of the carnall life which causeth them to sigh from the bottome of their hearts saying How farre is this from Christ and his knowledge from true repentance from genuine Christianity and lastly from the fruits of the new birth of the sonnes of God for he liveth yet in Adam in the old creature and in the Devill himselfe for to offend
boldly and willingly to sinne is nothing else then to live in the Devill In whom therefore the life of Christ is not this man is without repentance neither is a true Christian nor the sonne of God nay Christ knoweth him not He who will rightly know him as a Saviour and example of life it is meet he know him to be meere love meere courtesie patience and humility which vertues of Christ it behoveth thee to have and love them from the bottome of thy heart and fasten them to thy self As a plant by its favour and smel that it sendeth forth bewrayes its own nature so thou oughtest to know Christ and by experience be certain that he is a certain most fragrant The true knowledge of Christ stock from whence thy soule doth draw and obtain admirable strength and new vitall spirits as also singular joy and solace And after this manner is tasted how sweet the Lord is so is the truth known so is the chiefe and eternall good perceived and then doth he know certainly that nothing is better then the life of Christ nothing more pleasant sweet pretious or more full of tranquillity And lastly nothing can be more likened or be compared to life eternall And do we doubt that because it is better then all it should be more desireable for in whom the life of Christ is not this man cannot know what the peace and tranquillity of eternall life is nor what the chiefe good is nor everlasting truth nor what is true peace and joy the true light and true charity seeing Christ is all these himselfe whereupon John Ep. 1. chap. 4. saith Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God he that loveth not knoweth not God because God is love Whereby the fruits of the new birth which is of God appeareth and also life and a new creature not to be words and an externall forme but a substance but the Queen of vertues and which is God himselfe that is to say Charity for of whomsoever any is born it is meet he should have the same properties and he that saith he is born of God let him shew that by charity because God is charity In like manner the knowledge of God resteth not in words and shadowed or vain knowledge but in lively amiable pleasant and most sincere pleasure which ought to flow into the bottome of our heart and mind and there to dwell when we taste by faith inwardly in our hearts the sweetnesse of God This I say this is the true lively and efficacious knowledge of God of which David in Psalm 84. speaketh saying My heart and my flesh rejoyceth in the living God and Psalm 63. How pleasant is thy mercies over our lives where it is presently manifested the joy and sweetnesse of the knowledge divine which is infused into the faithfull heart and so at length the man liveth in God and God in him so is truth known and so the same truth knoweth man CHAP. XII The being of a Christian man is to die to himselfe and the world and to live unto Christ 2 Corinth 5. Christ died for all men that those which live might not now live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again OVer and above this that this sentence is full of consolation whilst it is manifested that Christ died for all men as also it containeth a most wholsome doctrine concerning the way of a Christian life how we ought to live that is to say not to our He that wil live in Christ must dy to the world selves onely but to him who died for our cause but this by no means can be done unlesse first we die to our selves and the world Therefore if thou hast purposed to live in Christ necessarily thou must die to worldly concupiscence but if thou mind to live to thy selfe and the world it will profit nothing to be with Christ But there be 3. kinds of death one spirituall when the Death is three fold man daily dieth to himselfe that is to the concupiscence of his flesh covetousnesse pride voluptuousnesse wrath such like the second naturall the third everlasting of the second speaketh Paul to the Philippians châ—p 1. To live to my selfe it is Christ and to die it is gain as if he should say To a Christian desiring to die Christ is his life and death gaine for when he changeth this short and miserable life for a better life and this earthly and fraile goods for stable and eternal goods this is a most gainful exchange and he who shall be well pleased with this saying and fit himselfe to the first sort of death in my judgement he shall not erre For that soule is thrice and foure The life of Christ times happy to whom to live is Christ that is wherein Christ liveth or that hath the life of Christ that is followeth his humility and lowlinesse But alas most men The life of the Devill at this day have taken upon them the life of the Devill and their life is the Divell As for example covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath blasphemy for this is the life of the Devill But thou O man walk carefully and look about thee again and again and see who liveth in thee and thou What it is to die to themselves and the world shalt be most happy if thou canst truly say To me to live is Christ not in the other life only but also in this present life so truly it is needfull also in this present life now that for thee to live is Christ gain to die For is there any thing more profitable then to die in this condition to covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath and hatred that Christ by that means may live in thee For how much every one dieth to the world so much Christ liveth in him Goe to them let Christ live in thee in time that thou in like manner maist live with him in From whence be the perturbations of the mind eternity But seeing that the mind distracted with divers worldly concupiscences is not capable of true tranquillity and peace it followeth that those that doe die before they begin to live in Christ that which our Sarah the type of the new birth great God hath taught us in divers figures in the old Testament for Sarah when by reason of her age she was unfit to bring children and dead to marriage bed did conceive in her womb and brought forth Isaac which word signifieth Laughter So then unlesse thou root out of thy mind worldly love thou shalt not be able to feel and receive the joy of the Spirit The promise was not made unto Abraham of Christ Abraham is a type of the abnegation of the world and the covenant of circumcision annexed before he left his proper habitation and his own inheritance it is no otherwise with man so long as he hath his mind fixed to the world it is
impossible for him to taste and receive Christ into his heart Herod being dead Christ returned into Judea Matth. 2. The document is plain so long as the mind doth play the Fox with the World Christ cannot enter into it and therefore thou must die to the Fox First die unto Adam that Christ may live in thee Herod that the child Christ may live in thee All which returnes to this that you must die unto Adam or the old man before Christ can live in thee Paul to the Galat 2. saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And to the Coloss 2. You are dead yet he writes to the living and your life is hid in Christ for then every one is truly dead when he ceaseth to be that he was before Those which are of the spirit doe understand the things of the spirit saith St. Paul Rom. 8. and to the Galat. 5. If we live in the spirit we walk also in the spirit Neither is it sufficient to boast of the faith and the spirit in words but words are to be approved by the fruits and works for it is spoken to all men by the Apostle If you live after the flesh you shall die but if you mortifie the works of the flesh by the spirit you shall live wherein very many are like unto Saul who did not slay Agag the King of the Amalekites Concupiscences are to be morâ—ified not hidden as God commanded him but put him into prison so these men doe nourish and hide closely their concupiscence when they should be eradicated utterly and not any part of the root left behind let us doe this unlesse with Saul we lose our Kingdome The scope of the whole Scripture requireth the new man that is lest we be deprived of our eternall life In briefe the whole Scriptures with the consent of all Histories Types and Figures doe point out Christ whose life we ought to imitate and doe set out the scope thereof neither doe I speak here of the great world and of his exceeding testimonies of God and divine love There is a sort of men that not unfitly may be compared to Winter trees for as they receive easily their leaves which were cast off the yeare changing and becomming favourable so many in adversity doe retaine their pleasures within and hide them which yet doe forthwith in prosperity having as it were gathered a troop breake out on a sudden A true Christian is most unlike to those hypocrites who in prosperity and adversity liveth according to piety equally just and faithfull to his Christ and taketh all things indifferently his lot doth cast upon him When our great God did grant to Achab victory over the King of Syria upon that condition that being taken he should hold him in prison that he should remain an example to shew that God was stronger then all his enemies and did require just punishment against those that did blaspheme his Name he despising the Name of God and his Commandements having taken his enemy in battell saluted him as his brother and let him goe for which disobedience and giving life to a man deserving to die the Prophet pronounceth the pain of death to Achab by Gods appointment To whom these are most like who nourish and feed their own concupiscences when they should pull them up by the roots therefore willingly without mortification of the flesh there is no good in man do draw eternall death upon themselves And therefore it is most true that without mortification of the flesh no prayer nor piety Lastly without mortification no work of spirituall devotion can abound in the soule which was the cause God Almighty Exod. 19. appointed all those beasts to die that should approach unto the mount Sinai and by how much more ought we to kill our beastly concupiscences if we ascend to the holy mount of God and offer our prayers to God and if we meditate on the word of God lest if we do otherwise we die the death Gen. 32. we Iacob thou must be before thou be Israel read that a new name was given unto Jacob to wit Israel which signifieth a Champion or a Prince of God because in wrastling with the Angell of God he beheld his face But before this Jacob which signifieth a Supplanter or Vnderminer for so he was not onely in name but in deed after whose example unlesse thou first through the holy Ghost doe tread down thy concupiscences to become Israel or the Prince or Captain of God thou shalt never attain Man must displease himselfe to please God the place of a Captaine or see the face of God The same Jacob that he might enjoy the beautifull maid Rachâ—l he was constrained to take Lea with bleared eyes doe thou such a thing and if thou art in love with Rachel that is if thou darest marry with Christ the true Jacob first doe not despise Lea that is despise thy self as a beast-like and sinfull man displease thy selfe and force it to death But there be very many who like unto Jacob are deceived of their owne life thinking verily he had met with Rachel that is that he had led a Christian life pleasing to God inwardly declared in truth afterward then see that they live with Lea that is they have not yet learned Christ and therefore not in the favour but in the hatred of God and that most deservedly Therefore let us doe this Before all let us displease our selves and as Lea in the house of her father be counted unworthy so let us contemne our selves taking to us humility lowlinesse and patience that at the last we may obtain faire Rachel for whom as Jacob served constantly the whole seven yeares her love The service of mystical Iacob mitigating the hardnesse of his labour and wearing out the time without tediousnesse so the most faithfull spouse of our soules Christ Jesus served full thirty three yeares in this world a most hard service or servitude for our cause according to that of Matth. 20. The Sonne of man came not to be ministred unto but to serve others and give his life a redemption for many And according to that of Jacob which he indured after a sharper manner for our love This twenty yeares saith he I served thee in thy house abiding both heat and cold and frost and I watched both day and night And shall we doubt yet to love Christ again and make warre all our life against his capitall enemy the world CHAP. XIII For Christ and eternall salvation to which we were created and redeemed every Christian ought willingly to die to themselves and the world 2 Corinth 8. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ because for you he was made poore being rich that by his poverty yee might be made rich FOr thy Christ thou must die to thy selfe thy sinnes and the world thou must doe good and live a holy and innocent life not that thou canst
canst not live with him in this life It remaineth therefore whose life in this world is not in Christ he shall not have life in the other world Here I pray thee now examine thy life and see whether it be more like to Christs or the Vnion with Christ or the Devill Devils Certainly with one of them thou shalt be joyned eternally after death But who is dead to himselfe he is in love with no businesses yea is dead to the world what other thing is it to die unto the world then not to love the world and the things of this world according to that of John Epist 1. chap. 2. He who loveth the world is not of God For what should he doe in the world who inwardly and in his heart is dead to it Whom also whosover loveth he is no otherwise then Samson of Dalila overcome of it and condemned to all the torments and vexations which the He is overcom of the world that loveth it worldly life containeth or affordeth Moreover the love of the world belongeth to the old man not to the regeneration because the world hath nothing but honours The old man delighteth in the world the new man in Christ wealth concupiscence of the eyes and of tâ—e flesh with the pride of life in which the old Adam is conversant and delighteth it selfe And contrariwise to the new man he hath all things in Christ as joy honour wealth and pleasure for what can be more The Image of God the great est dignity of man honorable to a man or is more to be desired then the Image of God renewed by Christ Or if we seek pleasures what man in his wits can doubt that God doth give delight to his above all creatures and delight The man is made for greater things then this world them more as the words of Taulerus say Furthermore what think you of that which the Scripture teacheth Man was not made for the worlds sake but the world for mans sake nor to fill his belly with delicate meat pamper his own wit heap up riches spread his Empire abroad to get most ample possessions grounds and fruits of the earth to be gorgeously attired to abound in gold and silver to be Lord of the earth to put all his delight and joy therein as in his paradise to place it and know hope for nothing but what is before his eyes Or lastly for any terrene cause whatsoever or any thing that is fraile although of it selfe it be good pleasant and pretious No truly he must goe hence he is but a tenant and a life-renter of this great world into which we enter many at one instant as it were by heaps yet death calls for us also As it is not profitable for any of us to carry with us a grain of all the treasure we have heaped whereby it evidently appeareth that we were not created for this temporall life To what man was created neither this world to be the principall end of our creation seeing that we live therein as prilgrims and guests therefore another cause brought us into this world and for whom we were born which is God himselfe and the image of God which we bear in Christ and unto whom we are renewed In this we are convinced evidently to wit that we are especially created for the kingdome of God and life eternall which Christ hath recovered for us and to whom we are regenerate by the holy Ghost How preposterous then is it for one to fix his heart to the world and give his minde to earthly things when we know the other to be more noble then the whole word I say for a man to attend and spend his time on earthly things which is the most excellent of all creatures which carrieth about him the image of God in Christ and is renewed to this image Wherefore as I said before the man for the world was not created but the world was created for man and therefore carrleth about with him the image of God in Christ of which the excellency and nobility is so great that all men with all his workes and power could not repaire one soule or renew the Image of God But for this cause it was necessary that Christ should die that because the image of God was defaced and destroyed in man it should be renewed by the holy Ghost and he should become forthwith the habitation and house of God And this being known and called to mind if he be right minded he will never compare the riches of the world honours To preferre earthly things before heuvenly is great madnes and pleasures with the price of his soule which Christ hath redeemed at such a price for what is it to cast pearls in the mire and before swine if this should not be That which our Saviour saith Matth. 16. pertaineth to this place What profiteth it a man to get the whole world and lose his owne soule For seeing the world is mortall and the soul of man immortall the world with all his pomp cannot recover one soul CHAP. XIV A true Christian ought after the example of Christ to contemne the world and hate his life in this world John 12. He that loveth his soule loseth it and he that hateth his soule in this world doth preserve it to eternall life HE that will hate himselfe he must first not love himselfe so that he may daily die to sinne and therefore he must continually Selfe-love the chiefest enemy of the soul Idolatry wrastle with himselfe and his flesh for nothing is more hurtfull to a man that is desirous of his salvation and more hindereth him then selfe-love I say that carnall Philautia of which this following discourse in all this book is the subject I doe not say that care of preserving our selves but loving our selves is forbidden For seeing that God alone is to be loved it followeth that he who loveth himselfe is an Idolater and maketh himselfe God what every one loveth in that his heart is fixed neither can we be taken but with the love and servitude of something so as we become servants despoiling our selves of our proper liberties and consequently having so many Lords we are subject unto as we have objects to love but if thy love be sincerely and simply towards God then thou art subject to no object but it is manifest thou art at liberty wherefore thou must be very circumspect that thou follow nothing that may hinder the divine love in thee And if thou desirest to possesse God alone as much as thou art able so much in like The law of God brings forth tranquillity the world perturbation manner of thy all must thou consecrate to him But if thou love thy selfe and please thy selfe much pensivenesse sorrow feare and sadnesse will befall thee Contrariwise if thou love God and rejoycest in him onely and dost dedicate thy selfe onely to him then will he be thy
which is life it selfe this Way is Truth this Truth is the Way O the blindnesse a worm of the earth will make himself great when the Lord of glory in the world did willingly give up his own life Blush therefore faithfull soule and doe not thou when thy heavenly spouse celestiall Isaac cometh Humility is the way to Christ on foot to meet thee fit aloft on thy Cammel but like to Rebecca who beholding her Husband for bashfulnesse covered her face and comming down from her Camel went on foot with him so thou from the toylsome beast of thy proud heart descend lowly upon the ground and meet thy Spouse and he wil infold thee in his armes and bring thee into his heart Goe from thine own land and from thine acquaintance and from thy fathers house and come into the Land I will shew unto thee so said God unto Abraham Gen. 12. Goe thou likewise out of the house of thy selfe love and proper will for selfe-love corrupteth true judgement blindeth the understanding The evil fruits of selfe love disturbeth the reason seduceth the will corrupteth the conscience shutteth the gates of life and knoweth neither God nor his neighbour expelleth vertue hunteth after honours lyeth in wait for riches longeth after pleasures and lastly preferreth earth before heaven who so doth so love his life loseth it John 12. but whosoever hateth his own life that is doth deny his selfe-love this man shall keep it to eternall life selfe-love is the root of impenitence and eternal damnation with the which whosoever are bewitched they are without humility and acknowledgement of their sinnes the remission whereof can be obtained with no teares For they were not teares for God offended but for their own proper losse Mat. 13. the kingdome of heaven is compared to a pretious stone or pearle of great value which to obtain the Jeweller went and sold all that he had This Pearle is God himselfe or eternal life which to obtain all other things are to be left of which thing wee have a most absolute example Jesus Christ who descended from heaven not for his owne but for thy cause not to serve or profit himselfe but thee and shall we then doubt to seek him alone who did forget himselfe and for us gave himselfe unto death It is the part of a faithful Spouse to seek to please none but her husband and thou being spoused to Christ desirest still to please the world See then thou remember What soule is the virgin and spouse of Christ that thy soule is espoused to Christ yet not without a sacrifice with this condition annexed that thou mayst not love any but Christ rather perswade thy selfe thus that thou oughtest to contemne and put all things out of thy mind that thy Spouse might deem thee worthy of his loving imbracements for if thou darest divide thy love so that thou beholdest not Christ alone in all things now thou art no virgin but an adulterer for it behoveth the charity of Christians to be a chaste virgin and without spot Therefore as in the Law of Moses it was lawfull for the Priests onely to marry with virgins so Christ our true high Priest doth desire a virgin soule and which is taken with nothing besides his love and so knoweth not her own self in respect of Christ that which he professeth in expresse words saying If any come unto me and hateth not his own sâ—ule he cannot be my Disciple What it is so to doe to hate himselfe Why a man must hate himself let us shew in a word We all doe carry about with us the old man and are so the old man himselfe whose nature and property is to doe nothing but sinne to love himselfe to follow his profits and honors to pamper his own will and the flesh for the flesh and bloud is at all times like unto it self studieth it selfe giveth honour to it selfe doth applaud it selfe doth serve it selfe doth respect it selfe in all things it is easily grieved envious bitter covetous of revenge All which thou dost and art for seeing they arise and flow from thy heart this is thy life thine I say of the old man Wherefore thou must hate thy selfe if thou desirest to be Christs Disciple And he that loveth himselfe he that loveth his proper pride covetousnesse wrath hatred envie lying perfidiousnesse unrighteousnesse and wicked concupiscence which without doubt are not to beloved of any they are not to be excused and covered but followed with professed and open hatred mortified and utterly denied by him that will be Christs Disciple CHAP. XV. In a true Christian it behoveth the old man should daily die and the new man be renewed Also what it is to deny himself and what is the true Crosse of Christ Luke 9. If any will follow me let him deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me THese are the words of St. Paul Ephes 4. of the old man Lay aside according to your former conversation the old man which is corrupted according to the desires of error but be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put you on the new man wich is created according to God in justice and holinesse of truth And he expresseth the cause 1 Cor. 6. For yee are bought with a great price therefore glorifie and beare about with you God in your hearts What the old man is we said even now as What the old man is pride covetousnesse lust unrighteousnesse wrath enmity hatred and envie all which must die in a true Christian that the new man might spring up and be daily renewed The old man therefore dying the new man quickneth in opposit to it that is pride wasting humility succeedeth by the grace of the holy Ghost wrath dying lowlinesse shineth in the room covetousnesse being extinguished trust in God is increased the love of the world being taken away the love of God waxeth warm And What the new man is this then is the new man with his members these are the fruits of the Spirit this is the living and powerfull faith this is Christ in us and his most noble life this is new obedience this is the new commandement this is the fruits of regeneration in us in which whoso live these verily are the onely sonnes of God and therefore it is said that a man ought to deny himselfe as proper honour selfe-will and his own judgement privat profits and his own estimation yea to forgoe his own right and not onely all other things but to think himselfe unworthy to live his owne life What it is to deny himselfe Wherfore a true Christian and one that is indued with the humility of Christ doth willingly acknowledge that the man cannot All things are to â—e used with feare by his own right challenge or require any of those things which God bestoweth on him seeing that all things that are are the free gifts of Gods divine munificence wherupon he useth
is to be done to us and no other matter more heavie and more worthy of tears then the sinnes and impenitencie of men If it came to mind so often unto a man that he should die and that he was to plead his cause before God as often as he in a pensive manner Cause of mourning discusses the matter with himselfe of the helps of this life surely he would be more sad and more diligent in the amendment of his life and of repentance And if the same man should call to mind the eternall torments he could not but despise the world and in comparison of them think all the afflictions of this world pleasant From which opinion and fervency of devotion we are the more distant because we are so much inveagled with the inticements of the flesh In brief it behoveth The life of the flesh is the death of the spirit a Christian most firmly to perswade himselfe that if it goe well with his body and that he flow in pleasures of this world that his spirit is dead but that hee liveth if hee crucifie his flesh with his desires and concupiscences for the one is the death of the other if the spirit live it must needs be the body shall spiritually die and be offered a living sacrifice Rom. 12. Which way of life all the Saints from the beginning of the world did observe eating and drinking with thanksgiving the bread and cup of The bread of tears tears according to that of David Psalm 80. Thou shalt feed us with the bread of tears and thou shalt give us drink of teares by measure And Psalm 41. My teares were unto me my bread both day and night And this bread of teares faith by a wonderfull sweetnes doth mix and temper and the drink of teares is pressed from the tender grapes of devout hearts by true repentance and sorrow which worketh to stedfast salvation As The fruit of worldly sorrow contrariwise the sorrow of this world bringeth forth death witnesse St. Paul the losse of honour temporall and frail goods and it is often so sharp and bitter and impatient that men catch themselves in a net or bring themselves to their own death by divers wayes of which there be many examples in the histories of the Ethnicks for which it were better to be more moderate and shew themselves better Christians who know it to be far unworthy their profession for the loss of frail goods to lose their souls which the whole world will not recompence Far be it from us that for temporall goods we should not mourn or thirst after eternall seeing the use of them is most short ends with death When a man departeth saith the Psalm 49. he taketh not all neither doth his glory descend with him which law is equally spoken to all no lesse to the King then to the meanest Begger the dead body putrifieth and so a living Dogge is better then a dead Lion as saith Solomon Eccles 9. yet the Lord will set the death at all times and the face of them that are in bonds among all people and he wipeth the the teares from every face as it is written Isa 25. Therefore remember to carry moderatly the losse of earthly things and that the whole world is not worth one soul for The love of the world bringeth sorrow which Christ vouchsafed to die But if thou prosecutest not these frail things with so unruly a love thou shalt be lesse troubled with the losse of them seeing this that it is the condition of things beloved that things lost are more desired and so the labour of fools afflicteth them which are the From whence the pertur bations of the mind words of Eccles 10. The sons of this age doe gather goods with great labour with no lesse fear doe they possesse them and with greatest griefe forgoe them which is the sorrow of the world begetting death Apoc. 10. we read of those that followed adored the Beast had no rest to whom all these are like that adore the goodly Beast of earthly wealth and avaritious desires thereof a kind of men most wretched unquiet and full of sorrows whom perhaps we shall shall not evilly compare to Camels or Mules for as they by rockes and steep hils carrying Silken Garments Pearls Aromatick Spices and generous Wines on their backs doe draw many servants with them for security sake and so at evening coming to their stables their pretious ornaments and painted cloathes and garments are taken from them and now being weary and stripped nothing but the prints of stripes foul marks of blows are to be seen So those which in this world did shine in Gold and Silkes the day of their death being come have nothing but the prints and skars of sinnes through the abuse of riches committed unto them Learn then O learn to leave the world The world in the world iâ— to be left before it leave thee with most bitter pains which he who doth and first separateth his soul from the world to this man it is easie to be separate in body from it neither doth he grieve for the losse of it For as the Israelites even now being about to leave Egypt were daily pressed with greater burdens by Pharaoh going about utterly to overthrow their whole progeny or stock so We carry nothing out of the world the infernall Pharaoh envying our eternall salvation when we are neer to death so much greater care and rapacious desire of earthly things is hee wont to infest our soules withall which blindnesse is the more remarkable because we cannot carry the least dust with us of all those heaps of mony which we have gotten into the Kingdome of heaven because that way is so strait as all earthly things and of the body doe exceedingly hinder the passage of the soule The way is strait which leadeth to heaven and few there be that find it Matth. 7. As the Husband-man on the Barn-floore separateth the Wheat from the Chaffe so death setteth free the seed of the faithfull souls from the chaffe of the world neither are they any other thing else indeed but chaffe carried hither and thither with the wind Psalm 1. Therefore do that with all thy might and let not that depart out of thy mind which we brought before out of St. Paul The sorrow which is according to God worketh repentance to a firm salvation but the sorrow of the world bringeth death CHAP. XXI What is true divine Worship Levit. 10. The sonnes of Aaron did offer to the Lord strange fire and there went fire from the Lord and devoured them THis fire is said to be strange fire because it was other then that which burned perpetually on the Altar and which by the commaandement of God did burn the Offering and it is a type of the false divine The false worship of God worship The sonnes of Aaron did deserve to be burned with the
way of the Devil when true faith and the works thereof doe not leave us empty or void of knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. Now seeing that a man having the Light and Life of Christ dwelleth in him for all these things hee is himselfe therefore according to the saying of the Prophet Esay chap. 11. upon such and no otherwise then upon Christ himselfe do rest the gifts of the holy Ghost that is to say the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of counsell and fortitude the Spirit of knowledge piety and the feare of the Lord. Wherefore Saint Peter in the second of the Acts speaketh thus to the Jewes Repent and you shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost as if he should say The Spirit of God of which you have had experience and which is the Illuminator of the heart sendeth not it self into other minds then those that are faithful and repent Goe to then O mortals which desire to bee freed from the blindnesse of heart and everlasting darknesse and lastly from the Devil himselfe imitate Christ in faith and true conversation and amendment being sure that the neerer you are to Christ the neerer you are to Eternall Light and by how much morâ— unfaithful you are so much neerer you aâ—â— to Darknesse and the Devill For as Faith Christ and all vertues are knit together so in like manner incredulity the Devil and all vices doe cleave together Behold with me the Apostles imitating Christ in faith contemning the world denying themselves renouncing their possessions and living in eternity by which things they attained to this that they might be heavenly illuminated and might bee indued with the holy Ghost To whom was most unlike the young man that was so rich whilst hee studied himselfe and thought himselfe something Luke 18. Therefore hee remained in the darknesse of the world neither was he inlightned to eternall life For hee that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him And blessed John professeth plainly That he which loveth not remaineth in darknesse and knoweth not whither hee goeth because darknesse hath blinded his eyes To whom agreeth Taulerus who in all his Sermons every where sheweth and admonisheth without serious exercise of faith without mortification and selfe-denial without inward turning himselfe to his heart and lastly without the inward Sabbath of the soule no man can receive the divine Light or perceive it in himselfe In brief as much as in the condition after conversion the works of darknes by the spirit of God in man are destroied so much is he illuminated and by how much more more powerfully on the other side our corrupt nature as the flesh the world in man do beare rule so much lesse Grace Light Spirit of God and Christ is in him Therefore it remaineth without daily coÌ„tinual repentance no man can be illuminated when as he hath not resisted one â—ice nor The further froÌ„ the life of Christ the further from the true light rooted out one and exerciseth innumerable others bringeth forth out of himselfe continually with more increase then people are wont to doe And as darknesse is thicker in it selfe and more cloudy by how much the Sunne goeth back from us by so much we are unlike to the life of Christ so much more plentiful are wee in sinne and darknesse groweth the thicker in us till they become eternal night On the contrary hee which by the grace of God entereth the Chariot of virtue with a good courage and firm hope this man cannot but profit in them daily one following another as rings be linked one to another in a golden chain Which connexion blessed Peter expresseth The knowledge of Christ in love faith and the fruits thereof is to grow in Christ profit in him writing in the second Epistle cha 1. And you ought to have care and to use diligence ministring in your faith virtue and in your virtue knowledge in knowledge abstinence in abstinence patience in patience piety in piety brotherly love in brotherly love charity And if yee doe these things and abound therein you shall not be found empty nor without fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ As if he should say he that shall not addict himselfe wholly to the study and exercise of these virtues he knoweth not Christ but he that by faith profiteth in them he groweth in Christ all other as proud ones wrathfull ones covetous ones impatient ones profit not in Christ but in the Devil And it is left us Christians in precept that as a child by little and little and in time is made a man so we may grow in faith and in the study of virtue to perfect The fruit of the death of Christ in us men to the measure of full age in Christ Ephes 4. Coloss 1. But to whom these things are not ready or at hand saith Saint Peter 2. Epist 1. he is blind and hand-bound forgetfull of the purging of his old sinnes As if he should say It is for certain that Christ by his death and bloud took and did beare all our sinnes but in the mean time we must beware that we addict not our selves to sin hereafter but rather the death of Christ fructifying in us we die to the world and live in Christ which whosoever doth not care to doe to this man it is plain that the purging of his old sins profiteth nothing Whereupon it followeth if wee desire to have the sinnes of our former life remitted and pardoned we must forbeare â—â— sin we must repent and beleeve in Christ which if we doe not then we retain all those sinnes of our former life and they are to be lamented by us to all eternity without all hope of expiation or forgivenesse so that it is possible that even for wrath alone a man may be damned which if he had by Christian lowliness corrected then in truth he had obtained pardon for all his other sins which because he neglected to do therfore according to the words of Saint Peter He is blind being forgetfull of the purging of his old sinnes Whereby it is given to understand The necessity of repentance how necessary a thing repentance is and the changing to a betternesse For although Christ died for our sins blotting them out and abolishing them with the incomparable price of his bloud yet we doe not participate of that merit unlesse we repent it profiteth nothing And howsoever every man is promised pardon for his sins for the merit of Christ yet that promise pertaineth nothing to thee to the unbeleever nor the impenitent but to those alone which doe amend their lives when it is most meet that those sinnes be remitted which we goe not about to remember but those onely which we were heartily grieved for And to this pertaineth that which is spoken Matth. 11. The poore receive the Gospel that is obtain the remission of sinnes Now
the Devil of which wee speak God had planted in man in the state of innocency a pure chast and honest conjugall affection that he might beget children after the image of God according to the spirit neither could there bee imagined a more holy pleasure or love then to propagate the image of God and to multiply humane kind to the glory of God and good of men So I say if men in the state of innocency could beget infinite children and could propagate the honour of God and his image in infinite generations for the great love both of God and man as the image of God nothing more acceptable nothing more pleasant and nothing would be more to be desired For even as God in the creation of man did receive an ineffable pleasure and had in him or took in him delight as his image so the man was to receive and have most pure pleasure in the procreation of his life and sending forth of the divine Image which at this day is the reason of marriages and how Satan hath spotted and defiled that The abuse of matrimony most pure and chast matrimoniall love with his filthinesse it is as evident as the noon-day Therefore they mix together no otherwise then brute beasts and in a blind and furious heat doe beget like unto themselves Moreover as the Devill is a Thiefe and a Robber so hee infuseth the same guile and art in the soule of man As the Devil is a calumniator a Sophister a Sycophant and a Scoffer of God and man depraving both deeds and words and wresting the sense and repugning it with false interpretation of which craft hee shewed us a faire example when hee suduced our first parents so the minds of men corrupted with his pestilent contagion did contract a perverse nature lying and cunning intrapping and calumniating Which Diabolicall and Satanicall corruption of the soule inexpressible both in the craft and variety of it selfe the Psalmist describeth under the person of a double tongued lying man Psalm 14. Rom. 3. and blessed James chap. 7. For God as wee said even now doth not accuse the mouth onely the tongue hands and feet but the whole Man in his own law yea his heart and mind as the cause and fountain of all evill as appeareth by the two last precepts of the Decalogue concerning concupiscence to be avoyded Which is well to be observed The Image of the Devill with special regard And this is that image of the Devil set by his Father against the divine image as lust and pleasure in sinning slandering and reproaching so farre forth as many that desire to be accounted good Christians take occasion of traducing their neighbour which happily being done they say applauding themselves I did this lately now I have enough I am freed of a great burden I seeme to my selfe to returne as it were to life again when at length I have satisfied my mind What blindnesse is this of yours and unhappinesse O mortals even not to know by whose instinct you doe these things whose sonnes you are whose image you beare about or doe you doubt that these workes are of the Devill the work-master these fruits to be of the seed of the Devil these properties to bee from the nature of the Devil which hee hath planted in our nature that hee might riot by a plentiful increase in vices of all kinds as pride covetousnesse lust and slanders of which wee spake erewhile And this corruption of the Satanicall image or originall sin is so filthy horrible and profound as no man can in thought much less in speech expresse the abomination of your hearts Which notwithstanding no creature no Angell I say nor men can either amend or purge or root out For seeing our strength and powers are utterly worne No creature can extirpate sin out consumed and spiritually dead it is a vain thing to expect any thing from them Therefore this remaineth that we bee miserable and unhappy to all eternity or use the counsell or help of some most powerfull avenger and extirper of sinnes Lord of evill and death and which can by himselfe change renew and purge humane nature Whereby it appeareth in the first place that justification can be obtained by no humane good work as also the necessity of regeneration is to bee found out The natural power of man And to speak this again the soul can by its own power or strength do nothing but live in its in-born pravity malice and all kind of fins both against the precepts of God and most especially against the first Table in transgressing whereof consisteth the true enmity with God in our understanding will we are so blind corrupt and dead that it is against nature to feare God love call The true explication of free-wil on him honour praise worship trust in him and to convert our soules to him As concerning the second Table truly I confesse that there is in the soule a spark of free-will remaining yet very weak and without sinewes which therewithall it is hardly able to retain and bridle the evill concupiscences that they break not forth into outward works to which things the example of the virtuous Ethnicks are extant in their virtue but to change the heart to turn it to God to purge it from wicked concupiscences is a greater work onely a work of divine strength For the inward roots and fangs of evill are most deeply fastened so as all the endeavours of free-will cannot perform to forbeare to breake out openly into flames to destroy all but liveth in smoak and ashes Therefore without God this humane kind could not subsist the will of man is so depraved and howsoever the Devil can do nothing more to exercise the greatest cruelty in the mind of man yet he cannot extirpate all naturall strength and affections whereby wee know the law of nature and in-bred affection of married couples parents and children which are foundations and bands of humane society For hee that will doe all things to which hee is carried by the force of corrupt nature it must needs bee that Why naturall love is left in man he shall disturb humane society and find out a revenging sword of revenging power Moreover it must bee thought a deed done by the singular counsell of God that this naturall affection was not utterly extinct that we might understand the love of God was the soveraigne good and the Image of God which we lost by our fall and vice But that which pertaineth to spirituall good concerning blessednesse and the Kingdome of God is as true as truth it selfe blessed Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. The naturall man understandeth not the things that are of the spirit of God for it is foolishnesse to him and be cannot understand it that is he hath not the least spark of the spirituall light tasting nothing of those things which belong to an heavenly divine and spirituall life to which man onely was
the same as other mens goods with feare and trembling not to his private pleasure or instruments of his private Comparison between a carnall and a spirituall man profits praise and estimation Goe to then let us compare together a Christian in deed and selfe-lover as also a genuine man and one answering to his name and one desirous of this deniall of which we speak If you offer the one a contumelious affront presently you shall see him wax hot to be grieved with anger to reprove him to brawle and play the mad-man in words deeds to be revenged and to bind his allegation with an oath all which are the old man to whom it is proper and easie to be angry to practise hatred and revenge On the contrary he that hath denied himselfe is courteous well-pleased patient thinking nothing of revenge confessing himselfe to be worthy of all these and much more because all these are contained under the name of self-deniall of which patience humility and lowlinesse Christ denied himself we have an absolute example Christ Jesus who sooner would deny himselfe when he said Matth. 20. The Sonue of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister unto others And Luke 22. I am in the midst of you as one that ministreth And Cap. 9. The Son of man hath not where to rest his head And Psalm 22. I am a worm and no man In like manner blessed David when Shimei reviled him denied himselfe saying The Lord hath commanded him for I am a worm in the sight of the Lord I am worthy farre worse All the Saints have denied themselves things Briefly all the Saints of God and the Prophets have denied themselves holding themselves unworthy of any good thing hereupon they did beare all things patiently they cursed no man giving thanks for their injuries they blessed their persecuters and prayed for them that slew What it is to deny our selves them and so by many tribulations have entred the Kingdome of heaven Thou hast now what it is to deny their selves That is to acknowledge themselves unworthy of any good thing and worthy of all evils that might befall And this is the Crosse of Christ which he commanded us to carry Luke 9. He that will be my Disciple let him deny himselfe and take up my Crosse and follow me For this life of Christ is a crosse to the old man and to the flesh and bloud a punishment The works of Christ yea death it self because he had rather lead an unbridled life after his own wil in this kind of pleasure then in humility lowlines patience and lastly to assume the life of Christ entirely Which nevertheless is to be done necessarily whatsoever is The decay of the old man is the beginning of the new the old man ought to die in a Christian for thou shalt never put on the humility of Christ unlesse thou put off the pride of the old man nor his poverty unlesse thou cut off avarice by the root nor the contempt of glory and reproaches unlesse thou pull up ambition by the root Lastly nor the lowlinesse and patience of Christ unlesse thou correct thy desire of revenge and thy wrath All which things the Scripture calleth the deniall of himselfe the bearing of the Crosse of Christ and the following of Christ and that for no hope of profit merit reward praise or glory but only for the love of Christ because he hath done this first because this is his life and lastly because he hath left this in cōmand Furthermore seeing this is the Image of God in Christ and us a greater honor then this none can happen to man it were a thing very unworthy to expect other reward The Image of God the greatest dignity of man of our work and daīly labour for those that define all things by the honour of this world and attend this onely by which onely part they are made better then others when by their own judgement Fortune hath bestowed all things upon them The beginning and end of all men is one No man better then others neither is one better then another nor one entreth this life or goeth forth with better conditions then others and yet what madnesse is this of ours we vex our selves willingly and to other crosses we adde a wheele of ambition to the vice of selfe-love Selfe-love forbidden from whence that mad giddy hunting after honour doth spring or flow forth Which whosever loveth and applaudeth and flattereth himselfe in and serveth both pomps honours and praises it is certain that he averteth his minde from God and Christ to the world and himselfe And to such as this appertaineth that of our Saviour If thou wilt keep thy self thy soul and thy life thou must hate all these things but if thou intend to love them truly thou art in the way of perishing Which paradoxicall sentence old Adam to whom it is alwayes pleasing to be accounted some body out of his own image or inward man refuseth and is adversary to it Thereupon it is that there be few which know this genius of Adam or being known dare meet and encounter it specially when we must needs extirpate both this and all other things that have their beginning with us and their continuance and die with Christ as is pride covetousness ambition pleasures wrath which we must kill and bury in the humility of Christ poverty contumely suffering and lowlinesse of Christ But whosoever is dead after this fashion to himselfe he easily thenceforth contemneth the world God maketh glad the heart of him that is dead to the world with all the pomps thereof wealth honours and pleasures comprizing all these in one Christ a true stranger to this world new born but a continual guest and table-friend of Christ who by and by will fill his heart with joy exceeding and in this life wil keep a daily jubilee with him and in the other and in the other an eternall jubilee with all the Saintss CHAP. XVI In a true Christian the strife of the Flesh and Spirit never ceaseth Rom. 7. I see another Law in my members resisting the Law of my mind IN a true Christian the man is two-fold Man is twofold in use Exterior and Interior which two although they be conjoyned yet they doe daily differ by turnes ruling and dying according to that of S. Paul 2 Cor. 4. If our outward man be corrupted yet the inward is daily renewed The same Paul calleth Rom. 7. The law of the mind and of the flesh to the Gal. 5. the Flesh and the Spirit The flesh he saith coveteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Therefore when the spirit overcommeth the man liveth in a new nativity and a new creature and in God and in Christ But the flesh reigning the same man liveth in the Devill and in the old nativity The carnall and spiritual man without the
kingdome of God and is called carnall and to be wise according to the flesh is death Therefore according to the rule of either of them the man obtaineth his name in Scripture according as the carnall man or the spirituall man speaketh But if the concupiscence with his strength be overcome it will be argument of the strength which the spirit hath in the inward man and if it faint it is a signe of the weaknesse of the faith and spirit because these two are one thing according to that of 2 Cor. 4. having the same spirit The spirit and faith are suteable of faith for which we speak Moreover when one hath himselfe and his proper lusts tamed and keepeth them in their duties he is stronger then he that overcometh a most strong Tower according to the holy Proverb Chap. 14. The patient man is better then a strong man and he that ruleth over The greatest victory to overcome himself his mind then he that gaineth a Citie If therefore thou hast a desire and settest thy heart upon the greatest victory and to obtain it then conquer thy selfe thy privat wrath pride covetousnesse and evill concupiscence What it is to overcom the kingdome of the Devlll and thou hast overturned the kingdome of the Devill which ruleth in the world by such things and means of which sort of victors and conquerers there be very few to be found and there be many The victory of the soul keepeth the whole man conquerers of Cities Here consult with me and advise if thou pamper the flesh overmuch thou slayest thy soul but it is better to overcome the soule that the body therewith may be preserved then that this overcomming it with the soule doth perish for our Saviour Christ once said John 12. He that loveth his own life loseth it and he that hateth his own life in this world keepeth it to eternall life But howsoever this strife may have in it sharp things to bee born yet it bringeth forth in the end a famous victory and most beautifull Crown Be thou faithfull unto death saith the Sonne of God Apoc. 2. and I will give thee a crown of life And 1 John 5. This is the victory which overcommeth the world even our What it is to overcom the world faith that is to say the world within us and in the inwards of our hearts which being overcome we become more stronger then our selves What if some should say unto me Shall I then be damned if sinne sometimes subject me unwilling to it therfore to be put out of the number of the sonnes of God according to that of 1 Joh. 3. He that sinneth is of the Devill God defend For if thou finde a conflict of the spirit and a strife with the flesh that thou dost those things that thou wouldst not which are the words of S. Paul it is a manifestation of a faithfull heart and that the faith or the spirit is averse to the flesh for St. Paul by his own example teacheth that this strife is to be found in good and faithfull The strife of faith souls when he professeth plainly that he perceived another law in his members resisting the law of his mind which is the new creature the new and inward man and taking him captive in the law of sinne causing him to do the things he would not and to will is present with him but to finish that which is good he could not for he could not do the good that he would but to do the evil he would not that was present Therefore most lamentably he exclaimeth Vnhappy man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Like unto which is that which Christ pronounceth Matth. 14. The spirit truly is ready but the flesh is Sinne reigning not dwelling doth damne weak Therfore sinne doth not rule in man so long as this strife is perceived in him neither is it to be said that sinne exerciseth his dominion over him against which he daily fighteth and that which doth not rule the spirit resisting it that consequently cannot damne a man It is the equall condition of all Saints to have sinnes according to that of Paul I know because it dwelleth not in me that is in my flesh good dwelleth not Also that of blessed John Epist 1. Chap. 1. If we say wee have no sinne wee deceive our selves which vulgarly we call Sinne dwelling in us to distinguish it from sinne reigning whose property it is onely to condemne for that sinne we contend with and doe not consent unto that is not imputed unto us Paul speaking to the Rom. 8. Now then there is no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus who live not after the flesh that is they doe not suffer it to beare rule But as many as are not exercised in this daily strife these are not born again having sinne reigning and therefore overcome and servants of Sinne and Satan and damned so long as they suffer sinne to rule over them This strife is shadowed unto us in the type of the Canaanites Josh 13. 15. whose remainder in the promised rest was suffered to dwell amongst the children of Israel but Mystical Canaanite not to rule over them even so the holy men of God every one of them feele and suffer their imperfections remaining who in the mean time suffer them not to rule over them as becommeth the new man I say a true Israelite and Champion of God as contrariwise it is fitting the old Adam should be subdued and brought under Therefore the daily strife against the old man sheweth the new man and argueth it plainly strength and victory sheweth a true Israelite and a new born man Lastly the warfare approveth him to be a Christian for the Land of Canaan is conversant The spirit ought to look lest the flesh do rule long and occupied in warfare but if it happen sometimes the flesh or the Canaanites doe invade the territories it is the part of Israel and the new man not to suffer a tyrant long but having gathered his new strength and aid by the grace of God in Christ and by serious repentance and remission of sinnes to arise from his fall and implore and intreat the true Iosua to give him victory even that true Prince of his people to lend him aid to overcome the Canaanites which being done first the sinne is covered blotted out of mind and pardoned and the man is again renewed to life and transplanted into Christ Wherefore they who feele many imperfections in their flesh and cannot doe and perform all things according to their mind let me perswade them again and again as true converts and true repentants to impute them upon the merits of Jesus The imputation of the merits of Christ is onely belonging to the penitent Christ effectually and intreat him to hide their spots under his most perfect obedience This I say is the meanes and this