then â—nto the understanding his salvation also â—n go no further then into the underâ—tanding and reason so that it must at last needs dye in that death that is so necessary to all Christians viz. wherein Reason is destroyed for in this death there remains nothing but the Soul or mind only But if it be objected that our faith and knowledge do penetrate even into the most inward regions of the Soul and mind I answer thereto That then also it is necessary that this our Soul and mind when it shall live with such an estrangedness from the flesh that it cannot but with great Nauseousness and tedious disdain bear in its self all the desires and lusts which spring from the nethermost parts of the flesh so as it would rather dye infinite deaths and to be freed from them then with pleasure even once to perform them in the verv act Behold my G. this brief proposal how every one ought to prove and try hâ—â— faith If any man believeth in Chriâ—â— from the very bottom of his Soul 〈◊〉 must need be wracked with great doâ—lours in his Soul by reason of sin so thâ— he will account of sin for the most grievous torture that can be found in all thâ— world and for his greatest enemy and how then for the sake of acting it can he enter into a friendship with it Although therefore the Vulgar knowledge of those who glory in the Gospel may say on this wise Sin if so be it is not perpetrated in the very act though it should lurk in the heart doth us no hurt yet do thou I pray hear how Christ doth nevertheless assert that he who looketh on a woman to lust after her is already guilty in the sight of God by which words surely Christ excuseth not but accuseth the lusting of a man and will really have it accounted for sin in the sight of God Dearest G. I beseech thee do not despond in thy mind because of this hard saying for all things are possible to God I only write this of purpose that thou mayest seasonably learn to judge of all things least thou shouldst consume thy youth unprofitably and that thou mayest bear fruit to God â—in thy own soul they in the mean time who are of the dregs of the Vulgar though they may have knowledge yet they lye down tired in sloth nor do they oppose sin with the least burning zeal or breaâ—â— its impetuous assaults Nor yet doth this external abstinence from sins and the debilitating of them suffice for it 's necessary to descend to the very bottom it self when even the thoughts are to be judged in the presence of God Far therefore be it from us to commit sin in the very act Also this my Letter intends this at least that thy young limbs be stirred up both night and day to the worship of God by continued prayers in temperance purity meekness of heart long-suffering lovâ— of thine Enemies as also in the Reading of Scripture in holy proficiencies anâ— in other virtues conducing to Christian discipline Concerning which thy owâ— Conscience will afford to thee a testimony all which being performed thou wiâ—â— every day rejoyce in thy great success iâ— the work of the Lord that at last wheâ— thy most miserable condition is known thou wilt be a terrour to thy own selâ— and therefore thou wilt so much thâ— more diligently call upon God for help that his most powerful right hand maâ—â— at length gratiously support thy Soul and conquer the power of the enemy in a real victory The Lord have mercy on us all and heal our diseases and effectually cause us to hunger and thirst after his righteousness least we be left naked in our own impurity EPIST. VIII How any one who is studious concerning the way of the Lord ought dayly to exercise himself MOst beloved Neece Because I understand that thou earnestly desirest such a disposition of heart as truely to walk in the ways of the Lord I could not withhold my self but must write to thee these few things for thy greater confirmation in them that thou being once entred into this way shouldest not desist from vigorously proceeding forward and to adhere to the Lord with thy whole heart together with a total suppression of thy carnal part Be therefore diligently studious that thy diligence be not tired out in reading in humanity in Silence in meekness in temperance forbearance patience and compassion also learn to exercise thy self in all studyes of virtues that thou being found faithful in little things mayest be made ruler over much greater for if thou shalt not be faithful in these few things assuredly thou wilt never be entrusted with more But I hope that thou wilt receive wisdom and prudence from the Lord that thou wilt have a care of and diligently attend unto thy own self least some bitter root should spring up in thee and so thou and thy Soul tumble head-long into destruction for the flesh doth very subtilly assault a man to beguile him and turn him away from Godliness Wherefore making a strict watch upon thy life and conversation carefully incompass thy self round having cut off the world and all wantonness of life speech and thoughts preferring every one with all gentleness and patience not only the good but also the evil and the immodest Learn also to bridle in thy self and to humble thy self being always turned to the Lord in thy heart Never let vain evil and unworthy thoughts arise in thy mind but always oppose them with great earnestness pouring out to the Lord fervent prayers and if thou gettest any spare time on holy days or otherways employ it in reading the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament or else of that little book intituled Of the imitation of Christ and in these exercise thy self and learn to ponder them often in thy mind If thou readest any thing which thou doest not understand call upon the Lord with ardent sighs and dayly tears that he would open to thee the true sense of his most holy word for to be the Necessary food of thy Soul for the more thou shalt follow the Lord the more thou shalt understand of holy Scripture and by how much the less thou art intent to wait upon the Lord by so much the less shalt thou understand Scripture Therefore let thy constant endeavours be to approve thy self faithful in these things which are viz. made known to thee in and by mortification and a continual access to God by prayer nor let any time slip by thee in vain and withouâ— thus doing If thou repliest that thou understandest not what thou readest again say that though thou mayest noâ— understand all yet is it incumbent oâ— thee to exercise thy self in the sacred word of the Lord as also to be unwearâ—edly sollicitous about it For by thesâ— exercises thou shalt sooner be amended then by idleness and these are the beâ—â— means of instituting and of exercising anâ— man
is it that these two Sorts do thus differ one from another The first is when some are the enemies of sin for their own sakes when as by nature they are still friends But the other and second sort is when it hath lost ipseity or propriety and hateth sin by nature for such are in God and being new creatures have attained a new sense which is spiritual Whereas the former sort is still natural and hath a natural sense whence they wear about them not the new but the old creature Yet they are well enough in their own kind and their state or condition precedeth the latter or second and waites for it The Lord be merciful to us For this last state is not the result of our studyes and endeavours but of the grace of God a mâ—n comes thereunto not actively but passively and it behooveth that God only be the work-master therein Tauler saith Keep thy self passive and God will be active and then the thing will not be impossible because God himself will do it and transfer a man to that one scope or end viz. God himself and all this by and thorough Christ Jesus our Lord who being just suffered for the unjust that he might bring us unto God and that is it which is promised in the Prophets that the Lord would prepare such a people as should declare his praise which is written in Luke 1.71 Salvation from our enemies And that which Paul saith Tâ— condemn sin thorough sin it is a great biâ—terness to me yet it is a sword that pierceth into my breast No man can know what it is unless he have layn in it But to all the rest who yet stand in the labour of the Law those sayings are as sweet as hony but to me bitter but when they also shall have come thus far the same thing will happen also to them Oh grief that I must draw my Salvation from out of my enemies and experimentally feel that sin shall be condemned thorough sin CHAP. XXX IF we ever are willing to become proficients we must bear one with another as God also hath born with us and still beares with us and even as others also do bear with us Yet it is chiefly to be endeavoured that we dayly become less and less troublesome unto others and being accepted of God we should have soundness of conscience We ought to be brethren and not accuse diffame or contemn one another for any shame or spot And if any one cannot do or have this from the very foundation yet he ought to suppress these things in himself and to have a care least they break forth again and then will the conscience be endued with no bitterness and the state of the man will be well We ought not to be troublesome to one another in gestures or words or works or thoughts but every where to seek peace in love And because now it s told us concerning affliction that we must be subjected thereunto in what manner soever it rusheth in upon us it is to be accepted as from the hand of God and a man in affliction ought to abstain from all delights derived from the creatures We must begin to cut off our members before we come at the heart Sin must be starved to death and as it is usual to deal with a feaver neither food is to be given to it and wherever it would put forth it self it is to be hindred from growing Yea also its life which is so strongly manifested in us is by the help of conscience to be suppressed until it come to its death If any one would seriously possess these things let him dayly call upon God that he would be present with him in them When he the Author was sometimes asked what was to be done with those persons who persecuted others for the sake of Faith answered that we ought to love even our persecutors and added this similitude If any one by great and dayly travail desired to go to Cologne by a journy or way very difficult and troublesome and some body should by chance come and put this traveller into a Coach and so carry him to Cologne certainly to such a one he ought to return the greatest thanks but not hatred CHAP. XXXI Concerning the exercise of Prayer THe Author being asked concerning prayers answered I every day appear thrice before the Lord in prayer Being asked whither by the voice of his mouth He answered Yes viz. in the Morning at Noon and at Night Being asked whither he did so by reason of all those sins which pressed him down with the heaviest care or anxiety and which were in him most displeasing to God He answered Yes But said he such representations were always set before my â—â—es that I might appear pure and that did keep me from sinning Moreover I always had my mind lifted up to God in my labour that I might diligently observe the very bottom of my heart nor would I let my hands be free from labour If I had wandred or erred any where or had done any thing that I knew to be unjust I was not heard but rejected of the Lord. Therefore I was still endeavouring that I might always appear purer and purer if I intended to be heard of the Lord. It is necessary that a man should exceeding seriously and diligently exercise himself in prayer if he intends to be advanced in the Lord For Paul saith That man ought to pray in every place lifting up pure hands without wrath and contention viz. least that our consciences should accuse us or our cogitations excuse themselves and thereupon become angry and contend in us Prepare thyself first before thou prayest nor go about it like one that is about to tempt God We ought with fear and terrour yea with great trembling appear before God in prayer and therefore we ought to be prepared before we pray Poverty and affliction teach us to pray By how much greater the affliction is by so much the more peircing will the prayer be We are to endeavour not to seem or profess our selves otherwise before men then we profess our selves before God For men before men seem to be somewhat when yet before God they be still as a nothing in the bottom and consequently they deceive themselves CHAP. XXXII A Man ought not openly to reveal his divine exercise viz. that by which he is exercised by God Some are naturally so close of heart that they are willingly silent and reveal to no man their divine exercise that is the gift of God and is pleasing to God Others are naturally open of heart so as they willingly discover to any one their divine exercises and their whole mind and that is very displeasing to God Such therefore are to endeavour and study to gâ—t close hearts and let them learn to bridle their tongues and beg help from the Lord. For no man can readily come to be silent unless first he be deeply smitten in his heart with
nature and possess and love and in which we live The power of death shall be known to all things living but by so much the more difficulty by how much the greater knowledge some have on this earth for at the time of death all things are to be given up to God and then all things are shut up and ended in the truth of God The Lord unite us with himself who himself is the beginning and end old and new yet is he one and immutable void of all increase in himself though in the temporary creature he is known with increase and decrease As much therefore as we depart from temporariness so much are we united with God in whom there is no time and in him who is the last and the first with an everlasting presence and in him all Multiplication and Substraction of time is taken away and made co-equal and all flesh which is spiritualized and which was wont to express it self in time doth melt away before eternity The Lord be merciful to us all as of one flesh that bidding farewel to that shadow of time we may grow in his fear and let his name be more and more sanctified over all his creatures in time and let our life perish and vanish away like smoke even as in is evidently done to all flesh together with which all things do tend to corruption whatever it was that ever sprung from it whether they were deeds or whether there were thoughts But it is not so with him who is godly for he with all his works is preserved and will grow and live to Eternity because every appetite life and desire of his is nothing else but God and therefore whatsoever is his tendeth to Eternity As on the contrary the desire and scope of a worldly man is nothing else but flesh which alone doth also move and direct him therefore the effect must perish with the cause as experience testifies for the fruit cannot be otherwise then is the root whence it is sprung May our eternal Saviour Christ Jesus purifie us that in him we may bring forth true fruit and according to the multitude of that his most abundant Grace which God hath richly poured forth upon us from the very beginning of the World we may abide permanent in him Amen EPIST. XXVIII Being a most beautiful Admonition very profitable as unto the death and departure of Nature To a Sick Man I Heartily salute thee in the Lord most dear N. as to what concerneth thy disease I hope the best of thee according to the mercy of God and that his hand was not in vain lifted up over thee For he by his Discipline will lead and conserve us that no rottenness shall grow in us but that by his judgment we be still more and more purified and cleansed from all impurity of Nature bred with us and dead still lurking in us The grace and mercy of the Lord be with thee dearest N. in that thy misery and disease which thou must bear in the flesh and may he grant to thee true submission and yielding up under his hand that with a bowed heart thou maist bear all things in obedience to him according to his holy will concerning thy miserable self that thou maist be lead in his way with perseverance to his glory and be preserved in the death of thy flesh whereby the life of the spirit may from day to day more and more increase in thee and be manifested in the heart of thy dying body Moreover I beg of the Lord that he would strengthen thy Limbs for his service so that if they become deficient as to Nature which yet must be done by continued labours in the way of the Lord that our essence may in time wax old and decrease yet through Christ they may be raised again to an eternal and fresh-springing youth in God where no fainting nor old age nor death can touch them The Lord preserve us and his mercy be present with us in all our adversity lest perhaps that prove able to hinder us in our way that our continued anxiety conjoyned with the highest danger to which in this combat we must subject our selves lest it be in vain nor draweth us back but rather may fruitfully promote us to a perpetual progression and success of his grace and of divine benediction maist thou remain recommended unto God who will free us out of this present Dungeon of this temporary flesh and imbecility according to his own acceptable will will elevate us into the sublimity of Eternity into the life of the spirit through the Resurrection of Christ to whom be the glory to all Eternity EPIST. XXIX How a purified mind ought to bear without any commotion the failings of his Neighbour with all patience To his Brother D. John W. DEarest Brother that that man is affected with such streights and with such griefs of heart that we also must suffer together with him For in that that he is alwaies subjected to sufferings nor can come at any peace is indeed not the work of man but the gift of God yea a great and eminent gift to endure the folly of another and to cover it over with an unvariable mind towards his Neighbour For though we be unduely used or handled by our Neighbour yet in truth a purified heart ought not to be moved by it but must alwaies act according to the bond of Charity which is alone its aim for in that there ariseth no suspicion of evil and although modest reason also may descend to make an excuse yet even all that too must be alwaies done without any motion of mind for as much as he is such a one as the injury and trouble of no creature can move him because he remains confirmed in that which is truly immovable Dearest Brother I therefore write thus that if that same trouble should be reiterated thou maist alwaies have this aim fixed in thy sight For although as to the creature the justice is on your part yet the mind ought to remain alwaies free without the use of this right otherwise there would arise an enmity from thence and a bitterness of heart For thus that which is earthly overwhelmeth that which is heavenly with such a blindness that it plainly seems to a man that he hath some divine right whenas yet God cannot but love nor doth he require any other thing of us according to the measure of his Justice Not as if I would willingly lay some blame upon thee do I say thus but that thy heart may not be nor that any rule should be wanting to thee if you behave your self otherwise thou wilt be obnoxious to a heavier judgement except thou proceedest with caution My Brother strive to have a mind unmoved which cannot be hindred but rather promoted by the enmity of the Creatures All things to a just man turn to good whether it be death or life or dissention or love for such a one overlooking the Creature
taketh all as from the Creator whether they be grateful or ungrateful and though we may not as yet come thus far yet is this to be accounted for a rule and to be followed with all endeavour And with this I would have thee recommended to the Lord who will be helpful to us all and keep and promote us all more and more in his own way EPIST. XXX How a Noble Plant springeth up out of the Dead Seed through the Divine fuitfulness To his Brother A. W. DEarest Brother The Herb we have received The omnipotent Lord who from his eternal beaming forth hath made to come forth the out-flowing powers of all his Creatures according to the common and out-streaming operation of the Law of Nature replenish thine and the common emptiness of others with increase in the blessing of the most noble Plant of God according to his nature that that only Seed which by the benefit of corruption hath utterly lost all its own propriety in a deadly and eternal intemperance and is eternally united with the earth of an imperserutable perfection will fructifie in thee through God contrary to all hope or glory to the greater glorification in the vertue of God Moreover my Brother we received all which are to be brought back again to God as to the Original of all with thansgiving even unto the scope of our death Thus we miserable wretches in this our received way are faln down into to that which we call our propriety so that when we are to depart from that our assumed life we are overwhelmed with sorrows and bitterness although all this is done out of the just judgment of God that all may come unto his truth even as the heavens and the earth are called unto the truth because undeniably all things must come to this state and to render their source glorified by their death and by their being melted down thereinto I wish thee my small portion of health in my state of rejection and disertion from the Lord which I suffer but yet not without mercy that which may happen also to thee but with real commiseration according to thy calling as also to all that are the holy ones of God My brother be mindful of us all may the mercy of God and his eternal and to all creatures his incomprehensible grace come upon us with plenty that by the virtue thereof that miracle of the supernatural spiritual and eternal life may be discovered and acknowledged together with the spiritual salvation in Christ his eternal and only begotten son in whom miserable we are depressed down into death with verity EPIST. XXXI Concerning the right uncloathing of self and of the yielding up of the soul in all sufferings DEarest brother The Lord be mindful of our misery and first to behold me the most miserable one with commiseration and offer to himself my heart made bare and emptied by many pressings together and that he will renunerate it with the blessing of fruitfulness in a divine and eternal redemption and freedom from all the Enemies of my heart who hold it captive in the chaines of darkness out of the just judgment of God to whom I am subjected being ignorant whither at last I must go hence seeing that my anxiety the longer it is is so much the more vehement so that I must always fall into the hands of the Lord seeing all else are fallen away from me The Lord look upon my nakedness and be my preserver that being kept up by and in him I may bring forth fruit to his glory and to the sanctification of things temporaneous in the effusion of the blood of my own proper life and in the liberty of the divine obedience With these I recommend thee to the Lord who can advance us higher in his ways and can fasten us firmly to the cross in true submission and yielding up of our wills that in him we may be kept safe all that short space of our faintings in this time being in his fear delivered up unto death according to the ordination of his judgment impending over us that so we may be led and get forwards in his ways and that we may bid farewel with all our might to time that eternity may take place in us and that we may so dye to our selves that we may walk here on the earth only as Pilgrims The Omnipotent God deal with us in his good pleasure according to his mercy and lead us thorough with Victory even in our imbecillity unto the very end EPIST. XXXII Concerning the death of all created things and of all those which are born out of them MOst beloved brother All things do tend to the end and death of their created nature whence do arise many sighs and a most bitter agony But the Lord will again bring forth his holy one out of death and the grave that he may not see corruption My brother thy pressure is great and severe I know thou desirest comfort but from God only who cannot come but thorough the death of all creatures or of the whole created nature until the last breath of life be also breathed out nor can any refreshment of members be hoped for Let us in a free communion be made partakers of thy sufferings with divine compassion patiently expecting the accomplishment of the judgment in its own order furthermore we will labour according to the will of God and we will sweat till we come to the appointed end even as the hand of the Lord shall over rule us May the omnipotent Lord by his fatherly grace lead us thorough this most difficult labour and strengthen us according to the inward man that we may forsake that which is external and deliver it up to eternal corruption from out of the first judgment to his eternal praise and glory to which we all aspire everyone of us according to his own manner and service but not for our sakes or for our commodity as some now unjustly do and think wherefore also this counterfit opinion shall sink down into defect and death together with the death of the creature by a most hard and terrible fall Because all that that we possess with a lye in time must be yielded up to the eternal truth but all to the glory of God so that at length one may become a looking-glass to the other and God at last may overcome all and persist alone but we in our lies must perish My brother the times of our parents and forefathers are passed and labor belongeth now to our time to the end also of which all things preparatory are at hand The Lord stretch out his hand with mercy over wretched me and over us all that we may be taken into the order which is pleasing to him thorough faith under the obedience of his eternal will so that our will life and choice being subjected to his judgment may be condemned and consumed May the Lord give to us all communion in God with a
THE NARROW PATH of Divine TRUTH DESCRIBED From Living Practice and Experience of its three great Steps viz. Purgation Illumination Vnion According to the Testimony of the holy Scriptures as also of Thomas a Kempis the German Divinity Thauler and such like Of the SAYINGS of MATTHEW WEYER Reduced into order in Three Books by J. Spee Unto which Are subjoyned his Practical Epistles done above 120 years since in the Dutch and after the Author's Death Printed in the German Language at Francfort 1579. And in Latin at Amsterdam 1658. and now in English London Printed for Ben. Clark in George-Yard in Lombard street 1683. A. D. To the Reader If Job and the Psalms Reader thou dost know Then the same truth these lines to thee will show God thee enlighten to sind the Cross-way out Which Christ hath trod thy way to Heav'n no doubt THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Have determined to collect and put together some of the more Notable Sayings of the Holy Scripture which make for the better understanding of this Book that whosoever shall please to consider them or such like he may be able thereby more easily and without scruple to turn over this small Treatise especially if he come to those places by which the most illuminated Matthew Wyer complained of his Inward Pains and anguish which throughout the Book he frequently did lest the Reader thereby be frighted from them or should account such Pangs and Desertions for absurd and fantastical Therefore by means of these he will remember and consider that this way of the Cross although now adaies it be almost utterly unknown and forsaken was e'n to Christ and all his true members alwaies accustomed and trod in For this is that narrow way and that straight gate by which we must enter into life yea by this same way viz. by sorrows sufferings streights and death our Fore-runner Jesus Christ thorough the whole course of his life walked even to his sepulcher and hath made it plain to and for us all whom he would have to be Imitators of himself for it behooved him to suffer and so to enter into his glory Of him Isaiah saith He had no form nor comeliness and we saw him and he was not of an aspect so as that we could be delighted in him a man despised and the least of men a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity c. Observe and consider O thou devout Reader together with all those who truly love Jesus Christ and desire to be Imitators of him how narrow and sharp and how many Pangs and Desertions is this way filled with which yet Christ entred into after his last supper and has left to us for an ensample For then it was that his Soul was sorrowful even to the death then it was that for very agony he sweat drops of blood and prayed to his heavenly Father thrice that if it were possible that cup might pass from him nor yet was he heard nor wâ—â—â— any helper present with him The wine-press was to be trodden and the cup to be drunk down the flood was to be waded thorough and obedience to be yielded unto the Father even to the very death of the cross upon that he was hanged naked between two Thieeves as the incendary trumpeter of the seditious presently after they divided his Garments by lot even before his eyes many also shaking their heads at him so that nothing else incompassed him round but Ignominy and Reproach and one sorrow trod upon the heels of another Then the Waves of afflictons were so many that they entred even into his soul because he was deserted of his Father that out of meer pressures and dereliction he cried out with a loud voice My God My God why hast thou forsaken me All which are found described at large in the Evangelists Prophets and in the Psalms especially in the 22 Psalm where the Prophet complains in the person of Christ My God I called unto thee all the day but thou wouldst not hear I a am worm and no man Also in Psalm 60. Save me O God because the floods have entred into my Soul I am stuck fast in the deep mire and there is no bottom and so on to the end of the Psalm Moreover in Psalm 88. My soul is filled with evil and my life approacheth unto the grave or Hell c. By which and the like sayings expressing the torments of Christ the whole Psalter with the Prophets are perfectly filled But now if thou shalt say Christ indeed as the Scriptures do testifie did suffer all these things and fulfilled them in his example yet is it impossible that any one can imitate him in such streights and desertion it is answered Christ himself hath said He that taketh not up his Cross and cometh after me cannot be my disciple nor is he worthy of me Also Peter hath said Christ hath suffered for us leaving us an example that we might follow his steps Now if this were impossible would not these and the like Sayings read every where up and down the Scriptures be in vain But what doth Paul say I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me and Christ saith That that which is impossible with men is possible with God For he worketh in us both to wil and to do Yield thy self therefore to God and commit thy cause unto him O man and hope in him that he will perform and fulfill all things in thee for he alwaies even from the very beginning of the World even to this very day hath put an end to the combats of his Peopleâ— and he is faithful and suffereth no man to be tempted beyond what he is able to bear Never yet did such misery touch his Elect but he still together with the Temptation found out a way to escape As it is made manifest in the Example of the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles who all as also the Author of these Sayings were led through Fire and Water through miseries and streights and through a total desertion yet every one according to his measure so as they became as Gold purified in the fire and were purged from their sins Alas how vastly great was that micsey in which David cried out â—nd complained the sorrows of death have compassed me about and the torments of Hell have made me affraid the snares of death have laid hold upon me Also when Jeremiah for meer anxiety and desertion cursed the day of his nativity as we may read them in their own places And who can express in words that both internal and external misery wherewith Job was afflicted from the Lord. Who will give unto me this saith he that thou mayest cover me in Hell or the Grave My dwelling is in Hell or the grave and I have made my bed in darkness c. Also in another place by reason of his continual desertion he openly cursed the day of his birth as did Jeremiah to many more such
is no longer desired when viz. any one desires to arrive at the true Substance or essence There is a Claritude given which foretelleth to a man that essence of the thing in which he is not yet got and to which he at last cometh Just as a flower is a certain demonstration of the Fruit that is to come in the future CHAP. XIX WHen the Lord said to the younger Son My Son go and Work in the Vineyard to day and he answered I go Lord but coming unto the Elder he also said Go Work in the Vineyard and he answered I will not Those two Sons are but one Man For when a man begins he will do all he will Suppress sin purifie himself he will Worship Love and adore God and adhere unto him c. He thinks that he is able to perform all this But when the Business comes to Trial then a man at last apprehendeth that he can scarcely observe the outward show of Virtue or Righteousness and that also with much indignation and reluctancy because he hath not that true essential Righteousness and Virtue whence true desire springeth For it is essential virtue only that makes a man pleasant and willing to do whatsoever he is to do and to omit whatsoever he is to omit and if this Virtue be essentially in him then is he more backward and full of loathing against Vice then he was before against Virtue when Vice was yet in the Throne Therefore unless the very root of Vices and of Unrighteousness whence external wickednesses do Spring as the Fruits of a corrupt Tree be purged out no true Virtue or real and Substantial Righteousness can grow forth in a man And therefore all men are Liars and have only the outside-shew of Righteousness without the true essence of the thing for the thing comes not forth out of the mind because the mind hath not received it For the Heart of that man that is full of any thing the man himself is the most Subjected servant to that thing Also sin is not heartily or from the mind omitted as being yet in the mind though as to shew it may be omitted I say not all this for this Purpose that a man ought to wait so long to omit the shew of the Vices and perform a shew of vertue till Vice inwardly also be extirpated and essential virtue Implanted but that none should remain contented if as to the shew only he omitteth Vice and have the Possession of Virtue nor that then he account of himself for a Just man or should think that he hath then so fulfilled Righteousness and to have departed from sin For we must Earnestly Pray both by Night and by Day that it be omitted Heartily or out of the Mind which externally is omitted as to the shew thereof But the truth is that is not the work of man but of God only for it is not Possible for any man to extirpate sin from the Root it self but a man can suffer only that God may do that according to his faithful Promises If a man could perform that thing it would not be a constant or an abiding thing because whatsoever a man doth is inconstant and is annihilated again by man If therefore a man should suppress sin it would again Bud forth for the work of a man is not Permanent or lasting but may be broke off by others But that which God worketh is Subject to no Destruction When he Suppresseth sin and extirpates it it must remain Supprest for Evermore and Righteousness implanted in its stead must abide the same to all Eternity CHAP. XX. THis is the meaning of the Parable of the two Sons who should go and labour in the Vineyard he that would not do it he did it that is he came so far as to confess that it was impossible for him to extirpate sin and to implant Righteousness And when he thus became deficient in himself and despaired thereof he waited for the Gracious promises of God viz. that God himself would do that when it proved Impossible for man to do it And that same will to perform of the first Son and all his other Actions and Omissions exercised as to shew are prefigured by Abraham's begetting Ishmael for he brought him forth by working he himself doing it but he was according to the flesh But he could not produce Isaac by working for as to him he was to wait on the Promise of God viz. That God himself should work it and he be born after the Spirit And when these things are fulfilled whatever is to be omitted is omitted without labour and whatever is done is done without labour for the Lord hath willing Servants who do all willingly and omit also because that which at first made a man backward and loath is extirpated and in its room righteousness is implanted To resist the breaking out of sins by the law of sin and to have a show of vertue cannot be done with man's working but the extirpation of sins and the implantation of righteousness is done without mans working according to the word of promise which is to be expected with desire if this shall once come upon us it cannot be again suppressed but must remain eternally Before Christ comes the Law and makes a man contrite and and sorrowful so as if a Man will submit unto it he will desire Christ That which the Law shews it does not take away and that which it commands it doth not give But at length Christ cometh and taketh away what the Law had discovered viz. Sin and he implaneth what the Law had commanded viz. Righteousness therefore Christ comes at last and he doth all this and then begins in man the time of the New Testament that in him all things may be fulfilled and confirmed which had been promised of Christ but before this he lived under the Law viz. in the time of the Old Testament and wanted Christ The Friends of God live in the continual death of the flesh but in mind they live and are free To rejoyce in sorrow and to live in death is to take safety from ones enemies For what enemy is greater than Death and yet out of it how much Health springeth for by Death we are separated from that which came into us by the Fall of Adam Before Death a man hath a Kingdom in God but in death God hath or giveth a Kingdom in man Man is led against his will into this death as Christ said unto Peter When thou wert young thou didst Gird thy self and went whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thoâ— shalt stretch out thy hands and another shalâ— bind thee and lead thee whither thou wouldâ—â— not A man ought not to depart from men that are his Adversaries for being with them he is prepared and his foundation is uncovered to him but let him depart from those who esteem highly of him lest perhaps he fall into Pride to gross works there is need
only continence but not real patience But this is patience when a man can imprecate no evil upon another by reason of any adversity but if any one hath injured him he prayeth heartily for him note he hath a kindness for him and loveth him and if one hath taken any thing from him he yieldeth up and giveth all these things to him as unto his own self and is upon it of a chearful and not of a sad mind And this is the fruits of the spirit but continence is the work of the Law and cannot justify a man in the sight of God and is precedent unto righteousness which follows afterwards through faith in which all things are real which were before notional for in old things did abide the shaddow but the real things are of Christ himâ—elf Paul saith The Law could make nothing perfect but was the bringing in of a better hope There was no rest to the Fathers till Christ did come as the Prophet saith concerning Sion Isaiab 62.1 That if one would be made one with the truth it cannot be done whilst non-corruption lasteth and whatsoever is said or understood of it whilst it lasteth is without experience Non-corruption hopeth in vain for it cometh or arriveth not unto God For no man receiveth God without death and destruction Every natural man is in the desire of God or the creature and yet neither is due unto him for if he could come at God as he does to the creatures he would alike abuse him as he abuseth them viz. with appropriation These may be thus observed every imagination which is in man concerning God or the truth before purgation or death nature is ready to appropriate it to her self and to rest contented therein with delight that she may upon that account receive honour and respect and notwithstanding this conversation is still but according to the flesh which is followed by death For this rising up cannot abide this bridegroom must be taken away before the real truth can appear The Apostles possessed Christ before his death imaginarily but after death really Whence Paul writeth That he knew Christ no longer after the flesh but after the spirit and the truth and that he walked according to that spirit and not according to the flesh and that they were now become invisible to evey natural man whence they can be judged by none but are able to judge all that they were now sanctifyed or made holy by the Holy Spirit after that Christ was risen again from the death before whose death and resurrection no man could be holy The Holy Spirit maketh holy as the Lord saith Vnless I go away the Holy Spirit the Advocate will come unto you And no man putteth new wine into old bottles c. To renounce all creatures that nothing may remain but God and to set God only for the end and aim Nature and Flesh do hear it with terrour for they are amazed at this when they hear that all things must be taken away from them So that if the flesh can but retain one only thing though the vilest yet would it put or place its whole life therein and would adhere thereunto But in truth it cannot be so well done for it for all things will renounce it which way soever it tendeth Whence at length it must without any support let it self down into death and plainly dye to all things When a King and a Beggar are starved to death the death of either is the same and alike but yet with a distinction He that is in corruption beholding other good men still standing in non-corruption thinketh thus Alas in what condition are you O how much still can you be satiated and exhilerated with God when I can neither be so nor desire it To be at rest no where but in God it 's requisite before all things that one should become poor The sufferings of Job are not hid from me but that which followed after it cannot make me glad The Lord saith What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul and what advantage would it be to a man to know all things and yet he experienceth them not nor are they fulfilled in him and therefore we ought not to take care of that to know or understand much but that we may sensibly apprehend and experience much Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth faith the Apostle Experience supplieth all things in man and is adequate to knowledge And thus also the man is made humble CHAP. XIII WHen death is known it is also feared And by how much the more profoundly death is known by so much the more doth it terrify and is it feared If Death must be true it must be true as to all things When Nature is once dead as to corporal things it ought to remain dead and as to them never to revive again But then life ascends in the Soul and there seeks nourishment But Death follows it thither also and cuts off the thred of that life also that it may there also remain always dead nor can it ever revive again So that at last the life ascendeth above all creatures yea above the Angels also by how many degrees it is to ascend into life by so many deaths it is to dye and always to abide in death If one abstaineth from any thing he may take it up again but according to what any one is dead unto that ought always to remain dead so as that it can never be re-asumed I never possess piety and whatsoever I receive from God by my piety I am plainly robbed thereof and I can boast no where neither before God nor before any man nor before my own self for I live by free-grace alone This state is so miserable that no man knoweth it but he that is touched therewith And though I must live by free-grace yet I know of no grace nor can I comprehend or understand nor know nor find where that grace should be nor whence it should come although I have often felt it Therefore ought this grace to be both given and taken above and beyond the understanding knowledge and comprehension of all men yea above all merit or godliness that is in a man as also above all intellect and illumination but as for the justice of God judgment hell and damnation these I can most exactly know and understand whence they can come for they alwayes do handle me very severely But the will of God is my chiefest Salvation As long as the will of God overshaddows me I can bear all though I should be roasted or boyled annihilated or slain in Body Soul and Spirit But when the will of God hideth it self for some time that I do not feel it over me I fall into such streights as an unexperienced person cannot believe My whole hope is that the Lord will lead us all thorough all though the case be full of sorrows for his arm is all powerful
When a man stands between Conscience and Flesh and when conscience ceaseth then the flesh urgeth him and to him it is said Amend thy life or thou must dye but when one stands between life and conscience and transgresseth as to his life presently it is said to him from God Thou must die CHAP. XIV THe Will of God is the death of the Flesh Faith when it is upon trial God then proving it it experienceth the greatest misery There are many waies of coming unto regeneration but the end of all is one and the same yet one ascendeth in some much higher then another doth as when any one cometh into the Sun-shine he hath the Sun yet is one nearer to the Sun than another This is my counsel that a time be set to attain unto God The inward mind is free but the outward humanity without grace is exercised under a severe judgment I have no prop under me whether I respect God or the creatures or heaven or the Earth and I have nothing but that I can lay my self down in the Divine Will being wholly set down under God The Kingdom of Heaven is present but I cannot enjoy it the Sun indeed hath shined but now the falling thereof is come and it shineth no longer I lie down in darkness and in the shaddow of Death nor is there any comfort left to me but in the will of God for I will nothing but only what he willeth Into which state if any one really cometh he is of all men the most miserable I say this that I may express that misery in which I lie To understand these things is pleasant but really to feel them most bitter When the Spirit suffers the flesh ought to suffer with it But when the flesh suffers there is no need for the Spirit to suffer It is never better with me then when I give up my self into death The flesh suffereth its own judgment when the Spirit is in peace but when the Spirit suffers the flesh must suffer also The poor animals must dye for my sake though against my will But because I also give my self up to death I do not refuse the death also of the animals he that giveth not himself up into death cannot take his food with thanksgiving He that is to exercise modesty he ought to be exercised by various afflictions oâ—herwise he will wander if he shall use it without the experience of the cross If I should stand betwixt two things nor knew which of the two I am to do I would weigh them and would take that which is contrary to my flesh When I do so it is well with me and I call God to witness saying Thou knowest O Lord what I have done But when I do otherwise viz. that which is grateful unto Nature it is always ill with me and I cannot call God to witness Conscience indeed is free but I dare not alleadge that for it is of grace The suffering is hard when no hope is left in the future for the natural man for though the day-break is come yet there is no redemption nor comfort but a man must wait without hope and be quiet in death And though all the joy comfort and refreshment of the whole world were present yet he is bound as it were with cords and can tast of none of them And therefore he never desires that time may run out that a day a week a month a year may come for whatever cometh to pass in them is to him as it were a non-entity because he can rest no where nor use any thing for his delight for he is made bare or naked of all and is put upon the crost Hence is it that both things present and to come are indifferent to him when even then he shall be the same as he is now But those to whom the body of sin is not yet crucified they are touched with the desire of time For they are free and can take up such things as they meet with But this state cannot last long for judgment will come then whatever shall be with him for the furture he cannot take it up and that which is contrary to him he cannot reject for he is impotent whilst he hangeth on the cross nor can he execute his own will CHAP. XV. ALl things are or consist in order order must be kept If one is willing to knit together superiour things that he may loosen inferior things he would break order and wander in errour of which we must beware The Lord saith He that breaks the lest Commandment and shall so teach c. We must seek a free condion in God in which one is free from himself for to be free from ones self is a liberty which is to be attributed to God The grossest and the lowest things are images of things superiour which is to be understood as well of things spiritual as things corporeal for we ascend from the one into the other and from the inferiour to the superiour even as pleasures and the abuse of good things and the building on the sands are images When things are most gross and low then are they the image of things superiour and that which is visible denoteth that that is invisible The Spirit also hath its flesh in which it dwells Also mysteries have their external Histories They who urge mysteries so as to exclude historys disturb order and do err Although Christ the blessed fulfils all things in spirit in his elect which he performed coporally in the days of his flesh yet were they also corporally done in him therefore the historical sense must remain but also it behooveth a man to experience in his own self the mystery likewise The Lord saith Love your Enemies The cross passion adversity Death c. are our enemies which we are to love and embrace The natural man is surrounded with death and which way soever he turns himself he hath a sword presented to his sight just as when one turns on this and on that side should look about him and still some body runs before his face so also is judgment always meeting with the natural man ready to snatch away his life which way soever he turns himself At last he yields up himself when he can no more make his escape But the spirit is in life when the body or nature hangs stretched out upon the Cross Zeal in kindled with divine pleasure is a great pleasure but the Cross and violent plagues follow after it Myrrh was the last gift For it is written They offered Gold Franckincense and Myrrh When I hear the Scripture I am frighted for it denoteth the natural death Nature will have an appropriation therefore communion is a death to it at which it is affrighted CHAP. XVI TO desist from propriety and to help another at our own loss is a thing truly pleasant To find gain in loss and to abstain from that which is best in our esteem and to prefer
was daily with him so that as there was occasion he heard his speeches with his friends and familiars that came from several places to visit him as also such discourses as he frequently had with himself All therefore what ever he had heard being well imprinted upon his mind and memory when the discourse was ended he in his own chamber faithfully committed it to writing nor did he in the least acquaint any one with them even to his last breath But then when he was about to die he discovered to his friends who stood by that he had privily committed those sayings to writing as they would find them amongst his written-papers Now why that treatise of his sayings was divided into three parts the reason was because the aforesaid John Spee by reason of his own private affairs went away twice and consequently had ordered according to each space of time a part distinct by it self even as they were afterwards kept divided and are here printed But the distinction or distribution into Chapters and Verses was done by another for the Readers sake that by the guidance of a Table every particular point might be the more conveniently inquired after and be found out Moreover as to the forementioned John Spee This may be said of him He was an unmarried Young Man descended of a Noble Family very pious and having a manifest warmth and Zeale This man seeing he was blessed of the Lord with the true knowledge of the most holy Gospel having bid adieu to the world dayly studied and searched into the Holy Scriptures being with all his might intent thereon so that he might but arrive at the true knowledge of himself And when he saw that youthful lusts according to the flesh did strive to get dominion over his soul and upon all sides rushed in upon him he began to exercise himself with all his utmost endeavours in watchings and fastings dayly and both night and day tiring himself out with prayers that he might resist those invading lusts and cast a bridle over them And when he observed that sin did not yet cease from his Soul and mind he entred into a more hard or strict course of life with all severity which he continued even to his death out living the most pious Matthew eleven Months only for he then died and was carried into the true rest from all his labours on the second of March 1561. May our merciful Lord and God grant to us all his compassion and graciously help us that we may in his good time be set free from alâ— our erroneous waies and thoughts and from all our faults and blemishes Amen THE EPISTLES OF Mat. VVyer EPIST. I. By what means we may come to the clear perception of divine Grace To G. of F. WHereas I certainly find in thee a desire greatly enflamed and that thy soul even burns with a thirsty longing after the gaining the most clear perception of true divine Grace manifested by Christ our Saviour I could not rest contented until taking this matter in hand I should endeavour briefly to shew to thee what that is that can conduct or lead thee thereunto whereby those things may be the better discovered to thy sight which are here a hinderance to thee so that they being rejected thou mayest with fear beware of what hides thy light with thick darkness For it is impossible whilst there yet remains but one only yea though it be the least root of sin in which a man still persists that he can ever arrive at such a degree of Grace because at the time that Regeneration is perfected when by that clear light above nature manifested to and in a man by the holy Spirit that same enmity that is interposed between him and God is represented to him no iniquity nor any accusation of conscience ought to be found in him Yea so pure must that regeneration be that that man as far as he is conscious to himself should have nothing either in Heaven or in Earth which he shall not have already resigned up so as to be ready with a most ardent zeal to forsake all things for the sake of God Yea he shall never have need further to sustain even the least check of conscience but shall have beaten back all by a most invincible perseverance in fighting and shall have supplanted all whatsoever may disturb his conscience insomuch that by these means his soul may at last arrive to have a conscience in full peace and void of all accusations For often times a man thinks that he is come to the cutting off many wicked inclinations and that then he is in little or no want and that chiefly because that which is the quite contrary whereby it 's possible for him to be corrupted is not manifestly made known to him whereas if all that was a little more clearly manifested to him he would certainly then very readily apprehend that he was yet at a far greater distance from that degree of a more purified conscience Seeing therefore this is the condition of man that his unrighteousness and wickedness is greater then he can know therefore all such things as fall within his sight are alwayes to be by him sedulously cut off for he neither can sooner be able to perceive those sins which are unknown to him or shall he observe depravities which were not before understood but by thus doing For so long as a man liveth slothfully in known sins the sins that are unknown will not shew themselves whence it comes to pass that a man living at this rate commonly remains in darkness and the light never comes to shoote forth it's beams manifestly in him For when he shall have rooted out those sins that dayly rack his conscience there presently will arise in their stead another new accusation of his conscience which was till now unknown to him seeing that same field of accusations will never be barren even to the last moment of the combate Wherefore the aforesaid vices are not laid open even to the very bottom of his nature unless they shew their faces by degrees and that even from the very first entrance into the combate to the very point of time when the strivings with the accusing sin are finished by afflictions and through the cross the Soul at last gaining her freedome from and becoming conqueress over them all in a conscience truly pure and throughly purged apprehending nothing at all either within or without her self as far as it is truly possible for a man to see and know after a most exact scrutiny made by the power of God which she hath not fully resigned up and denied herself in And to declare it in short upon this very point turns the hinge of the matter and unto this ought all such as earnestly endeavour after the attainment of rest and peace with their utmost diligence to reach after it with their whole heart and to Institute their lives accordingly thereunto unless they are willing to
by fear and anxiety by terrours and by death for they cannot like the common sort of men spend their lives in meer pleasures but he does always detain his under a rigid discipline and many frights and makes them drink down the bitter potion of tribulations that all their internal faculties as well of spirit as of Soul may be brought under the Cross nor can they ever arrive at true peace until every one of them learns nakedly to yield up himself into the will of God and contentedly to take of the potion mixed by God and given him to drink out of meer grace and Love Now that this cup is bitter is no fault of God's but our own and that because we are contrary and enemies to what is good and cannot bear to be purged just like the vulgar people whose troubles are increased by a mixt Physick-wine For by nature a man flieth from all things which are hard and produce pains and yet there is no other way to be recovered nor to come at health then by those means by which we are always more and more adapted to Christ our head by a similitude of his sufferings death and burial that afterwards by a like resurrection also we may be taken into him and be possessed of a never-fading crown of glory For how much we suffer together with Christ so much also shall we reign with â—im not indeed in this time of temporaâ—y abode but in the truth and permaâ—ency of spirit and life in which we â—hall arise and be excited to such a likeâ—ess of Christ as consisteth not with deâ—raved Nature but is lifted up above Nature and is conformed into a spirituâ—â— eternal and immortal life Thus thereâ—â—re all and every one of them in their â—wn order may expect it will be acâ—â—rding to the measure of the divine gifts â—â—at the enemy may for the time to â—â—me have no more right nor power â—er our Souls by reason of sin under â—hich hitherto we have been bound â—â—d captivated hoping for salvation â—â—d redemption in Christ from all our internal enemys who force our Souls into slavery so that in tract of time we may in all holiness and righteousness serve the Lord as present with us all the days of our life He therefore that hath appeared on earth to preach the Gospel to the poor and to the desolate will comfort and cure our sorrowful hearts and graciously set the captives free he I say will in his own time appear gracious to thy humane weakness and will bless thy internal poverty and affliction with a greâ—â— plenty of the fruits of holiness Now thesâ— few things I was willing according to thâ— simplicity of my heart and my meaâ— gifts in the Lord to write unto thee from an earnest desire to serve thee that 〈◊〉 perhaps some means might be discoveâ—ed to thy heart thorough the diviâ—â— mercy leading to a greater proficiencâ— in the knowledge of God and thâ— thy Soul might be sealed up in eternâ—â— peace and reconciliation thorough thâ— grace of God and by his Spirit Aâ—â— 31. 1559. EPIST. V. For what end the Scripture was given and how we ought most exactly to satisfie conscience also concerning the difference between humane righteousness and that which availeth before God To U. of W. MOst dear Lady having this occasion offered I was willing to write a few lines unto thee giving thanks to you all for your friendly inclinations of heart towards us The eternal God grant that that bond in which we being bound together in him and do profess a mutuall union to the true members may become more firm and may grow in Christ our Lord according to his holy will to his glory and our death As to what concerns my condition it is indeed at present such as is tolerable to the flesh as long as it shall please God for the bond of death remains in my heart and in my members and all the rest is known unto the Lord. The Lord himself take us all into his protection that we may be preserved in his fear this dangerous time which as I conjecture cannot be done but by most hard sorrows O would to God we could at length come even unto the death of Christ and feel it in our souls which indeed is set before our eyes in the holy Scriptures yet somewhat shadowed O Lord grant unto us that life which the Scripture every where beareth witness of yet oftentimes by so frequent exercises of so many various readings a man is but kept back and distracted when as yet it 's in the first place necessary that every one should observe himself in the acts of hearing speaking thinking working and in all else where a man is busied about any other matters in things of thiâ— life and that all these be to his utmost put to the examination of his judgment and that he most exactly endeavours in all hath a care to satisfy his own conscience for so long as the accusatioâ— thereof endureth by the guilt of anâ— though the least transgression it 's impossible that peace an be found in hâ— Soul Because as long as any one does not satisfy his own conscience he is willingly kept a prisoner under sin But the difficulty of this way hindereth many as much as that which the Scripture saith that no man can stand before God in his own proper righteousness which is very true However yet if we are willing to trace thorough this most rocky way of our conscience even to its utmost limit it is necessary that at length we should come to a mortification and destruction of all our laborious endeavours and then will our own righteousness shame us On the contrary we all would dye before ever we have lived and glory that we have renounced our own righteousness when as even yet we stick in the midst of our sins breaking forth into outward acts But the matter is to be otherwise and more accurately considered if we desire to make a proficiency in the Lord for that life which we live in the flesh is dead in the sight of God nor hath no liveliness in it in his account Yea furthermore that life which our Soul enjoys whilst it confideth in and s bottomed on these or these things must also be changed for a death and it 's by no means to be permitted that the enormities thereof should rejoyce in its progress For this life which our Soul hath taken to herself after this manner springs from no where else then from out of that imaginary righteousness and holiness which we fancy is to be found in us and which tickles us with a strange kind of sweet flattery and privately is very pleasing to us yea and gives to our Souls a kind of tranquillity These things are hid so deeply in a man and deceive us with such dissimulation as if all were well with us whence it is that all things are ascribed unto Christ because the man knows that no such
thing can be attained to but by Christ These are those things whereof the Scripture maketh so often mention viz. our own proper righteousness our own proper works our own proper holiness and all such like viz. if we trust too much to any of these means which were granted unto us from the Lord and stick rather unto them then to the only loâ—e God For to love God is no other thing then most accurately to do that which he willeth not for the hope of any salvation or of any good things whatever for the Love of God it self thus puts a man on that he cannot do otherwise And here it is that we are able to search into the most inward corners of our hearts whether or no we seek ourselves else where either in Soul or body and whether we serve God and love him for this end that our souls may gain salvation But here for the most part it will be answered that whatever things are done are done only for love yet nevertheless men do perform these things out of the terrour and the impulse of their own conscience as the scripture witnesseth I say not all this because I would detract in the least from good works set light by them but rather that we should go on further not to rest here nor am I willing we should sit down in a private kind of peace of having gained some steps only before we be come unto the end nor till the scope for whose sake all this is done be duly attained And though there be others behind us who follow up after us being yet a great way off yet it is incumbent on us because of our greater knowledge received to put out this our talent to the highest interest we can possibly that in us may be found constant perseverance if so be at length we can arrive perhaps to a true dying having no need more to reiterate so often our renewing of death so that all may together and at once remain buried also in Christ's death eternally a more certain essential sort of death as I may so say following us into that better state or condition Most beloved Lady receive I pray thee these my letters kindly if perhaps they may prove to be of any use to thee in thy holy endeavors and that we may come at length to the total renouncing our flesh that then we may be judged according to the rule of righteousness which the Law requires by Christ For in Christ sin is utterly condemned to death and as much as we are planted together with him in the likeness of his death so much also shall we thorough his resurrection be received into the newness or the Spirit who then performs in Man the office of a Governour and is to him in the stead of his life whose place before this our flesh supplied all that is beyond this the Lord himself will manifest to us when we come thither If therefore we have our inward senses rightly exercised by the Lord and do firmly adhere to him with continued prayers then will he kindle in thy heart some living light which my dead writings can never effect by means of which being inflamed with a greater zeal to renounce all flesh we shall be able to offer to the Lord our hearts emptied and set free by a meer and pure submission unto and a firm purpose of remaining and persevering in his will so will the thing prosper and our work will more happily succeed But why this work will succeed with so much difficulty and with such a length of time this is the reason because somewhat still will stick close to the heart which we cannot wholly renounce for when but one half of the heart is yielded up the offering remains impure nor is it accepted whence it is that the Scripture commands us to have a great care of or to watch such a heart which seeks double ways and carrieth upon either shoulder and halts on either leg c. For we cannot at the same time satisfy the flesh conscience hindering us and conscience too the flesh hindering us therefore it is necessary that we yield our selves up wholly as a pure offering and grateful to the Lord for such a one is received by the Lord and blessed of him that thenceforth he may bring forth fruit and at length that thence may arise the righteousness that is available before God Unto which may the Lord promote us and keep us by his infinite mercy in Christ our Lord and Saviour The Lord preserve us that we may persevere in his grace according to the tenour of his most holy Will EPIST. VI. Being a Christian exhortation which containeth many points very useful and profitable to all Christians To the same Lady MOst beloved Lady seeing that there remaineth no more time to me in this life as far as by my uttmost capacity of sense and reason I am able to judge or is to me known I am constrained of my self freely to open and more and more to unfold my mind to you Yet the true fruits of proficiency in the Lord are not attained to by my leters nor by our mutual converse appointed in the Lord of purpose but only and alone by the grace and mercy of God For that the same dependeth only on the meet divine commiseration he best knoweth yet only in Soul and conscience who himself is exercised in the very work oâ— the Lord. In the first place therefore it behooâ—â— is diligently to beware that we be not 〈◊〉 our lusts driven to that pass as to think that God is the cause of sin whereas the night can sooner be made the day then he be any such thing Because in God there is no darkness at all but meer light and whosoever would come to know this work of God thorough his mercy they must begin this knowledge with sincerity of mind which seeks nothing else but God alone whosoever proceedeth with a double heart is an abomination to the Lord. Now doubleness of heart consists in this when we are not with out whole heart Soul and thoughts given up and wholly left to the Lord also when we pour out our prayers before him with a heart divided in two whence â—lso it is that we are not heard according â—o our desires For the Lord loveth us â—ore then we our selves do love our â—elves inasmuch as he is averse to our estruction and always freely bestoweth 〈◊〉 us that which is most useful and â—ost profitable for our happiness which â—â—deed is that which at first is unâ—â—own 〈◊〉 us but is at length made known 〈◊〉 us though by and thorough great afflictions because that we were so far falen into our desires and into that evil which we call our Propriety that we must first be subjected to great anguishes and griefs before we can become submitted to the will and obedience of God which is that which can be never done without a spiritual death and the
contrary and in enmity to the divine will and therefore it is to be suppressed strongly by using all diligent watchfullness or else it will deceive thee by its subtilty will seduce thee to a turning aside although it may appear very gentle unto the. Submit thy self to sufferings that thou mayest with a ready mind bear whatsoever is grievous burdensome and tedious and endure even to the end and in this dayly cross possess thy soul with patience Let not the Length of time be irkesome to thee offer up to the Lord thy carnal mind opportunely for all that belongs unto it must at last be made subject to the Lord either sooner or later Endeavour this sedulously viz. to give up freely to the Lord thy flesh and blood thy soul and spirit that he may do with them according to his own good pleasure so as thou mayest never hereafter find any contradiction in thy self about these but that Christ alone may be in thee thy will life and sole governour The Lord have compassion on us all I pray thee give my hearty commendations to A. the wife of thy brother and give her this letter to read in some measure to stir her up to the Lord whereby she may with a heart prepared endure her many griefs and sorrows and willingly to accept them from the hand of the Lord as from him who by these means striveth to chasten and to purify her So that she also bewareth that she be not insnared by any sin but will strictly observe her life viz. to please God and to perform that which will be pleasing to him yea also let her learn to sustain willingly what he shall lay upon her that that which is at first sharp or sower may at last become sweetned to her in the Lord and she her self at length may remain wholly yielded up to the Lord. And thus I recommend thee to the Lord who can advance both thee and all of us by his grace that we may become his living Sacrifice and sweet Savour to his heavenly father that our labour may not be in vain but may dayly increase with fruit-bearing EPIST. X. A brief information how a man who begins with zeal is used to be lead thorough continual sufferings and conflicts and what kind of fruit are at last brought forth from those dolours To his Sister A. MY most beloved Sister That all may be well with thee in the fear of the Lord I desire with all my heart and thy further growth in him does very greatly rejoyce me For although in these dangerous times many new things are here and there produced from multiplied discords one shewing this and another that way by all which the hearts of many are disturbed and they are disquieted contrary to the intention of Godliness Yet God hath prepared an eminent glory for them who with a valiant mind do break thorough these things Also because now a narrower way is proposed then in times past therefore also a greater grace is now apprehended to be in man for by the benefit of straights and anxieties are gotten all the good things which God hath promised unto man and nothing is more contrary unto God then an imaginary peace and tranquillity and such a condition as in which it is well with a man and in which he liveth a quiet pleasant life free from any vexation of adversities misfortunes and other mischiefs Briefly God is never farther absent from us then when all things happen unto us according to our own wills and when we enjoy every where a prosperous success whereas straights misfortunes a cross and a pressing need are nearer to God be they in matters great or small provided that in these evils we so behave our selves as to bear our sufferings with a willing mind and with joy as from the hand of God that thereby we gaining the knowledge of our captivity and chains do endeavour forthwith to put them off and to dye For so long as we find any thing yet in us which stirreth us up either to sorrow or to joy so long are we bound and captivated to our own selves and are the Slaves of Nature Now if we being set free from the first natural generation should penetrate to the other that is spiritual and should be led into the true state thereof certainly then no adversitie misfortune injury yea nor fire nor sword nor any thing else that is a relict of nature can overcome a man which should be accounted by us for evil as the Vulgar accounts them for evil for whatsoever happeneth to a regenerate man is accounted by him as a means to the eternal glory of God so that to such a man nothing is sweet or more worthy his esteem then every adversity and injury wherewith he is wont to be treated from others so that by how much the more of them are sent him from God so much the more he will judge that he is propitious to him But there are many things required first before we can learn to acknowledge the hand of God for when we are first overwhelmed by any adversity then we either throw the blame upon man or we complain that God doth afflict us and this proceeds from this that we yet stick and lye in our sins because of which we are accused in our own conscience and rendred Enemies to God Therefore are all things to be laid aside whatsoever we acknowledge to be unjust though they may seem never so small and we must go forward with a stout zeal so that we must both day and night fall down upon our faces in prayers unto the Lord that he will please to bestow on us freely wisdom and understanding for the true knowledge of our selves consisting not in words but in deeds that afterwards we being our selves destroyed may truely dye also that we may reflect upon no man in the World but upon our selves by which at last we may learn to acknowledge the good hand of God who gives to his own nought but the cross and this is the supream and safest way by which a man is saved My dearest Sister I have here in few words described to thee the Type only or the picture and shadow of that fruit which groweth out of the cross yet if thou art willing to know the thing it self in the truth thereof and to apprehend it with a right faith thou thy self wilt seek it properly as from thy own experience But before thou canst believe that the cross is of such great advantage to thee thou wilt feel certainly many adversities and miseries and it will behoove the to cut off many of thy accommodations that so thou wilt behold no body else but look at thy own self for it behooveth thee to find salvation in thy own self and so also thou art to make experiments of dying for thy self He that is honest without himself he also is saved without himself and the salvation of such a one stands allways in need
for by how much the more miserable the more anxious and the more deserted any one is so much the nearer is God to him the helping of whom he then most speedily performeth when no comfort nor help is found unto or for our desires And this is the true knot of all piety The Lord grant in his own time that thou mayest truly apprehend this in thy own self For the grace and word and promises of God do abide in man in a living sense nor can it be expressed in words how the very thing it self properly is and although all writings may give testimony of this word and of this grace yet are not they properly that very word and the very Salvation of God for the virtue and operation of these ought to be livingly expressed in us The Lord be mindful of us all thorough his mercy EPIST. XV. How Youth is to be supported during its weakness To F. S. DEarest F. We hope it will so be that the Lord will direct all to the best end and will stretch forth his helping hand to that young man to make his voluntary entrance that he may be brought to a greater firmness seeing that he is not yet exercised in the ways of the Lord and he still flourisheth in his Youth But the hand of the Lord is liberal towards young and old and is stretched forth with plenty of grace where and whensoever he shall please Therefore the Lord I hope will remember this weak one and will hear his dayly complaint and in his time will help him for when all the creatures sail and all remedies vanish away and there is no other deliverer found or invented then will God alone of necessity present himself as a Deliverer For the Lord will look back upon all such whose hearts he hath of purpose put in the wine-press of tribulations that being left nakedly poor of all evils so as they appear dryed up yet after they shall thus be subjected to his judgments they shall not want retribution but shall abound in his blessing by the communion of the blood of Christ poured forth and of his eternally prevailing merits and of the reconciliation made betwixt God his father and our miserable humane nature It would be profitable for him if he should remain with thee all the winter that so he might enjoy a further introduttion and should learn more firmly to set his feet in the ways of the Lordâ— now when he is yet of an infirm age and is more infirm in zeal for it is our duty to lend a hand to the weak and to be a prop to them as it was done for us in our youth although I my self have not extended my age very much yet have the bonds of death bowed me down under the judgment of the Lord in the prosecution of my misery with continued terrours The Lord have pitty on me and graciously discover to me his countenance shining with the light of grace and so enlighten the darkness of my heart EPIST. XVI A fair admonition to his Cosin German wherein he very greatly demonstrates a most tender care of his Soul hitherto had with solicitousness To M. D. W. MOst beloved Cosin I was altogether obliged to write in what state our affairs are for though hitherto for some good space of time we have been somewhat separated as to bodily presence yet I am assured in the Lord that we were so much the more diligently excited to a mutual care by an inward presence of mind The Lord knoweth how mindful I am of thee and how much care I have for thee in the midst of my most sad conversation filled with all griefs and in my constant combate But I trust in the eternal God and his providence that he will with stretched out arms lead and keep us all under his own discipline Now because I have crept thorough many dangers of mind how great the power of corrupted nature is is very plainly manifested in me by and thorough the power of God though that also is come to pass by and thorough innumerable anxieties in all which yet the glory of God every where revealeth it self upon which account I am deeply concerned with a most vehement sollicitousness for those who are my fellow-sufferers in these straights to whom the Omnipotent God will reach out his hand and seasonably set before their eyes the virtue of his grace which lyeth hid under those sufferings that at last the man may be stirred up to the desire of the true cross of Christ our Lord in which all the treasures of divine grace are known in their highest beauty without which no man can be set free from out of the chains of his nature And here indeed there is need of great caution and we must diligently adhere to the Lord both day and night for often times nature cloathed with the outward shew of good presents her self to us but if she be tumbled down into death then will her fruits be at length truly made known and the power of God will shine forth so much the more gloriously The Lord of his mercy be mindful of us all that we may wisely order our conversation and the forces of all our enemies being all overcome and broken we may at length arrive truely at the true brightness of God For the wall of separation hindering that clarity is great which it behooveth with unwearied labour to diminish thorough the benefit of the cross and with daily torture of mind to destroy Yet the eternal and merciful Lord pierceth thorough all darkness as doth the Sun and so refresheth those that are in an agony with their pains that his grace and glory never shine forth more clearly then from under sufferings although whilst we yet remain subject to vanityes and are still captives to creatures that claritude is still very much diminished for so long as we yet are busied about images the efficacy of truth which seeing it is to be without any image cannot then be united to them is very wonderfully hindred For God is but one only and to know him from the very bottom of our hearts is all the skill and is such as is never learned in an undisturbed life Dearest Cosin I do open to thee as it were the interiour bosom of my mind shewing whither all my labour tendeth and at what mark all my whole being and all my words and thoughts do aim at with grief and which I continually with tears of heart pour forth before my God and do with hope account the Lord will not reject me poor wretch but chastise in his way and will bless with increase my labour after the decease of my nature My Cosin as to what concerns those friends who have changed their dwelling their outward condition is as yet tolerable as also the outward conversation both of the Mother and of them also is full of piety even as formerly But if we look further even to the utmost power of nature
and to the very bottom of the Soul about these the business have not so well succeded even as neither can these be attributed to them all in common nor are they wont to be given or received by words and admonitions To the Lord therefore I commit them who in his own time and according to his own good pleasure will advance those persons higher For they earnestly listen and are delighted with my present discourses but how pleasant they be to them even in their very Souls the Lord knoweth for I do not apprehend that their progress forwards is yet so great and perhaps the Lord will yet for some time keep them so But for my part I order my conversation for the most part with my self only because many discourses and admonitions to others do very much disturb me when yet all concerns as well inward as outward I freely would so deliver up and oblige to the Lord that I would think say or do nothing but to the Lord alone yet how much difficulty I shall every where find in all these the Lord himself knoweth Yet he who is faithful is never left destitute of power as most miserable I do find thorough the mercy of God who helpeth my arm to fight As to our other familiar she-friend she receiveth all with her whole heart and a willing mind whither they concern the understanding or the will but because of that sollicitous care wherewith she is involved in outward things not a few as also because of her trade the true fruit cannot yet spring forth from the true root But the Lord who is faithful administreth as I perceive all means for the removing away by divers sufferings these hindrances and of bringing forth this fruit with deep pangs so that I hope at length that the death of nature will follow in the end The Lord look in mercy upon her as likewise on us all that in his time and according to his good pleasure we may come to the true essence of divine clarity and that we all being delivered out of the hand of our enemies may serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life now and for ever incessantly in inaccessible clarity Amen In the year 1552. EPIST. XVII A wholsome Admonition in what steps the progress of the Just doth consist with a Conclusion concerning Esau and Jacob. To J. W. My John I Heartily wish that all thy affairs may have good success Having an occasion thus offering it self I was willing to write these lines unto thee that by the benefit of them we may be promoted to continued progresses in the Lord. For I hope thorough the grace of God that thou maist daily go forward in that truth and in the true Circumcision of thy heart and not in the acquisition of many Sciences and of divers Knowledges wherein the greatest part of our time is consumed and not upon that for the sake of which yet life is given unto us viz. that we may know God But God cannot be truly known by science but by finding him in our selves so as that which we know of God is found and expressed in us and in our Soul so that we our selves are not far distant from that which we acknowledge for good but are united with it not in or by opinion but in very deed and truth But these things can never be fully accomplished unless first we dye to all those which we our selves have and possess in our selves which is that that is called the old man who very subtilly exerciseth his dominion in man according to the variety of mens conditions If the flesh be still gross also its fruits and vices are gross Now if any one will supplant his external vices there is another more subtile thing dwelleth in man which he had never before known because it formerly did stick to him in a grosser substance And seeing that the Scripture also doth sufficiently propose it we are diligently to labour according to that Scripture because it is that which is ordained of the Lord for this end Having therefore received of the Lord sufficient knowledge concerning these things let us be diligent in our indeavours for little knowledge is necessary thereunto if so be the heart it self be but prepared which incessantly both day and night called upon the Lord with intimate desire aspiring to a union so that no creature can any more move it against the Lord and turn it away from him May the Lord give unto his mercy and be a help to our misery in which we being yet bound in the darkness and chains of death are still captive My John I communicate my heart to thee in my letters even as I enough know that thou also seekest my prosperity so that let us both together seek the Lord being perhaps not far distant in the Lord one from another Presently after thy departure it was decreed by the Senate that E. and W. do leave their dwellings so that they must be gone from hence The Lord bestow on them his grace and mercy that they learn to bear these things in true patience even from their own brethren and to accept from the Lord that cross for their own advancement and for the rejection of all other things and that they may resign up all to the Lord and turn off from them their brotherly Love For Esau always remained the brother of Jacob but that Jacob received the blessing was done of grace according to the election of God in which indeed Jacob did stand but yet without boasting and without pride for it behooved him always to bow himself before Esau in sufferings without murmuring And although Esau behaved himself with a very proud carriage towards his brother yet the blessing was continued to Jacob though Esau endeavoured to snatch it from him again by persecution For Jacob lived not only in shew but in truth when he dwelt in tents On the contrary Esau cared only for all outward things by labouring and hunting The Lord grant that we may so rightly immitate the birth of Esau that Jacob may at length come forth for the birth-right was due to Esau but for this end only that Jacob should be brought forth The Lord have mercy on us NB. The birth of Esau signifies the birth out of works under the Law but the birth of Jacob signifies that that is of faith under grace EPIST. XVIII Being a most excellent admonition concerning the Education of Youth together with that wide difference wherein the old Philosophers are far distant from Christians To Dr. J. Velsius DEarest Dr. That my young Nephews have succeeded well in your house was to me altogether grateful and most cordially acceptable for I know that you will take care of their affairs by a diligent inspection for the sake of that relation that is between us whereby these growing twigs may be advanced in their true increase for they stand greatly in need of a prudent overseer
death that is knowable to the humane wisdom And because aâ— to their own strength in which they live they dye not in body and soul being wholly condemned before God hencâ— it is that they usurp to themselves as theiâ— propriety that intellect of God that is that they themselves might by the benefit of that thing conserve life which properly ought to be the condemning sentence and the death of their ipseity For if the Truth of God should enter into them in by a certain essential state it would be impossible that a man could endure one spark thereof without being melted quite down Therefore we must dye not only as to our wisdom in the highest degree but as to our own proper Salvation that God alone may be our Wisdom life and Salvation This done our ipseity is condemned before God and thrust down into a death according to the flesh which is as it were essential whence nothing can again bud forth either in respect of God or of the Creature so that whatsoever had bin ours ought to be altogether made subject to its death judgment and sentence of condemnation That same small last Chapter is contrary to that writing inasmuch as it determineth that sometime calm seasons may be gained even according to the flesh for so I transfer it even as the writing its self speaketh so as they then may esteem themselves pure because they who are purified know how to apply all things to a true use Which I also affirm but in its own meaning but that at which this writing aimeth is contrary to my mind for the liberty of Christ belongs to the inward man and doth only affect the mind unto eternal salvation in Divine Truth but the flesh is condemned and suppressed and bound down into death so as that no man can then rightly use the Creatures of God but with grief and misery because that in all these a man may behold his own death in which formerly he had thought to have found life and yet with these very things he is well contented acknowledging this divine judgment for truth and so remains yielded up into death But the Inward man is then conversant in eternal joy being signed or sealed by the Spirit of God I have wrote this in haste that I might satisfie thy desire according to the testimony of my mind The Lord have mercy on them on us all and pluck us quickly out of our errors Alas who am I a miserable wretch who thus writeth I beg Grace of the Lord for without his Grace I shall never be advanced nor abide in him EPIST. XXIII A further consideration concerning the opinion of H. N. To his brother A. W. DEarest Brother thou maist read over this small Treatise and send it back again to me because I must treat something thereof with N. that I may oppose him somewhat about those things which he accounts for true for that which he makes his scope is not pleasing to me which they call the Intellect of God in which both heaven and earth are indeed locally moved and every creature vanisheth out of its condition or state and yet in the same mystery and inheritance they conclude nature to be left alive whereas notwithstanding Nature cannot in and by its life arrive at that pass but only and alone by the benefit of its death introduced into it by Christ our Lord and Saviour and that in so much verity that Nature appears no more with its own proper life but remains eternally cast off with the death and curse thereof But that Nature which thay call purged and dead to its reason in my opinion doth indeed only depend on principles of understanding and science but not on Truth it self for hitherto it hath not approached to the essence it self nor is united therewith for though Reason layeth aside its natural discretion that thereby it may be nearer to the divine intellect yet for all that the intellect is not yet then made one with the Essence but is rather contrary to it and as it were an enemy to Truth seeing that that spiritualized Nature hideth it self under the shew of intellect but not of essence and is in that still entertained Who shall deliver a man from these intricacies The Lord have mercy on us anâ— My Brother I therefore write thus that I may also discover to thee my opinion for that man is endowed with no smaâ—â— understanding yet he is deeply seduced and is deeply wise but withal he is deeply to be disputed with The Lord keep us humble in the Truth that that which belongs to death may be also thrown off into death but let him reign and rule to all eternity EPIST. XXIV Being a brief argument that the foundation of the family of Love is laid and built upon carnal liberty To the same person I W. was here and hath utterly and cordially renounced the thing its self because he had experienced found from their presence that they were infected with the venome of carnal liberty and that all issued out of that fountain Also I restored to him the books if haply they might be willing to have them restored again to them he also was most fully satisfied admiring that so sublime an understanding was subject to errours for he confessed that my opinion was beyond all doubt true seeing that a man is always to be subjected to divine terrours But that such elevated spirits do fall into errours is from thence that they too much covet their proper security whence at length springs up boasting and pride and then after that a fall The Lord preserve us all from evil according to his great mercy that seeing it is of grace that we are saved so also in grace are we conserved and not thorough our own selves EPIST. XXV Concerning the Opinion of Plato To the same person MY brother I send thee back the little book concerning Plato which when I had read I found just so as thou writest For the falling of these who call themselves the family of Love is subtile though in that small tract they are mightily defended all things being interpreted for the better yet the excuse relisheth not well with me except I should say that by their ultimate scope to which they think they shall come by the means of Love their wisdom is shameful as in them so also in us yet with this distinction for what in them is righteousness truth and wisdom must be to us unrighteousness falsness and foolishness if so be that glory to the Lord must spring up thorough us all which yet they are willing to reserve and ascribe to themselves as also did the Jews though in a more excellent degree Now it behooveth a Christian to dye as to them both and by the Lord to be condemned to death viz. as to wisdom and righteousness Moreover may the Lord also freely bestow on us his grace according to his most holy will EPIST. XXVI A Christian consideration concerning
consideration of eternity according to his unspeakable mercy Moreover my brother as to my state or condition that abideth in perpetual agony of death with most sharp persecution performed within me after various manners yet to one only end for whose sake all must be done What the Lord may in time do with me is known only to himself and his eternal decree But which way soever I turn my self and whatsoever I consider or behold nothing but a vast abyss and a parching heat of all misery do continually represent themselves to my eyes The Lord in his commiseration lead most wretched me by his fatherly hand thorough things present and to come in this unknown uncertain desert and desolate condition yet I give thanks to his goodness that under this his powerful hand he revealeth to me his fatherly mind The Lord be my helper and my conducter in all things and keep me and teach me in his School and under his discipline His grace be over us all together with his unspeakable mercy Amen EPIST XXXIII How ignorant Nature well stumble in much disputing and will comdemn its neighbour also how the sense of all Scriptures ought to be apprehended in our own selves under the cross MOst beloved N. I pray the Lord that he will promote thee in his way in which thou mayest follow most diligently his will without much disputing by which the flesh rather then God's spirit hath to do we therefore must lay out our time with more advantage For when for the most part we think to speak from the spirit of God perchance nature lurketh under the fair show of the spirit so long as we are still cloathed about with flesh so that when we least believe it yet we then account of the flesh instead of the spirit Therefore we are to walk before the Lord with fear without any bold disputings and we must beware as much as in us lyes to walk innocently before God and before men lest we fall into our own condemnation whilst we are condemning others if not in words yet in heart Moreover most dear N. that writing which I received pleaseth me well although I have not read it thorough so accurately by reason of the weakness of my head For though I cannot truly reach the sense of any writings unless I can apprehend the virtue of them in my own self under the cross whence the true fruit is manifested seeing I tread no further then unto the state in which I then consist by suffering I always follow the steps of Chirst where the latter always discover the defect and imperfection of the former Yet let every man mind his own calling and observe it diligently so all in time will clearly appear and come forth into the light Salute P. N. our friend heartily God will look upon him to his advantage and will make his dayly sighings fruitful thorough his eternal mercy which we are all to expect none excepted The Lord endow thee with wisdom and prudence that thou mayest act aright in all things and that thou mayest walk before him with trembling There are books enough for us to look into if we will but perpetually observe our own consciences that we may most accurately follow their dictates Moreover thorough the providence of God we have the Old and New Testament for our only external rule but the holy spirit above all these for our alone master or Teacher Blessed is he who is deprived of his own proper wisdom and is instructed and instigated by the spirit of the Lord alone The Lord be with thee and with us Amen EPIST. XXXIV Concerning a certain danger that hung over that place by reason of persecution unto which he was about to go DEarest Brother may the Omnipotent Lord preserve my mortified body according to his mercy in his divine will I have purposed to go to that place and to expect the will of God concerning me beseeching him from the most inward and deepest bottom of my soul that he will set me before the enemy and that the remnant of my life which is very small may not tend to the destruction but to the salvation of any one this I beg from his eternal goodness and mercy withal hoping that this danger will prove destruction to me only and will go no further The Lord make known his will to me in this one desire of mine according to his commiseration If the Lord shall suffer me in this tabernacle tolerably to pass through so as still to subsist as I have occasion I shall signify it to thee But my brother which way soever I turn my self or look back all things renounce me and of the present there remains no place more for me And therefore I convert my self to that which the forsaking of all creatures sheweth unto me The Omnipotent God take care to secure me under his own protection EPIST. XXXV An answer sent to his brother concerning a woman that dyed also concerning his own condition together with a devout exhortation MOst beloved brother a real grief hath possessed me for the departure of that woman out of this temporary world I trust in the Lord that all will be done for a good end and from him I expect peace and tranquillity with commiserating grace which we all hunt after and heartily seek for our Souls together with an expectation of an eternity to come I find in my heart that I am now obliged to her children and I love them with a true tendency of mind according to my poor slender ability May the Lord for his mercy-sake turn all for the better Moreover as to what concerns my condition the same kind of bonds do always hold me bound according to the will of God in a disease and an infirmity So long as it shall please the Lord May he direct my ways and bow them down under his fear in the obedience of his most holy will and may he bestow freely his grace on us all that we may continue our lives in righteousness with devotion and a diligent observation of all our works and counsels least in all our actions there be somewhat found that is contrary to the will of God May the Lord give his grace to us all that we may go forwards in his way and bear such fruits as may be pleasing to him In the eight following Epistles is somewhat described of that great misery into which the Lord cast him a little before his death I. MY brother my body hath an increase of some strength just as a man groweth but very slowly so as it can scarcely be observed though yet it proceedeth on Yet is the purpose of God unknown to me although like a pestiferous cloud a many difficulties and sorrows are set before my eyes out of which I can spy no deliverance but by death that so I may wholly penetrate even unâ—â— God which will come to pass if the times shall prove prosperous yea and further also of all means
shall fail me The Lord prepare us all that we may be made fit for his work in those things which he himself seeth and judgeth II. My brother the condition of my body is tolerable as it always was but I remain unshaken in my heart and the trust or confidence of my life is so small by reason of want of strength in my limbs that I can only walk up and down the house with trembling under the hand of my God True indeed I remain like others as to outward appearance but at heart and over my orignal and root of life there impends a judgment and by my unconsidered steps thorough the terrours of death it threatneth an end and my departure out of this time such is the constitution of my whole life way and conversation May the merciful Father open the bowels of his paternal inclination to me a most wretched creature that he may keep me safe from the evil one and preserve us all by his eternal grace Be mindful of forsaken and for lorn me as my compassionate brother if perhaps the Lord may be willing to exhibit his mercy to us III. My brother mine accustomed infirmity still remaineth as long as the Lord will The Lord be my promoter in his commiserating grace and may he preserve me and continue to hold me in his discipline under a suffering obedience of his holy will The cause why I have wrote no mere is the weakness of my hand According to the Lord my writing is not necessary to thee seeing that he himself will operate by his own grace in thy heart thorough the influence of his Spirit from whom all words and all writings may be separated by reason of his immense and glorious clatitude The Lord keep and promote you all in his ways under his fear and likewise us thorough all the time of our earthly combat And so I heartily salute you IV. My brother as to what belongs to my condition it still conflicts with its usual and difficult disease so long as it shall so please God He according to the order of his Justice put me down into this death of corruption and with his own hand plucketh me up again that I may wait for eternity which springeth up from out of the seed of this corruptible mortality May the Lord freely bestow on us all his mercy as with a long-suffering constancy we hope from the Lord it will be that with a heart prepared and submitted we may receive all from his hand and may be lead thorough even unto the end Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who will lead us all with all our strength and essence unto the true death in Christ that he out of this 〈◊〉 may build up an eternal life whiâ—◠〈◊〉 never more be subjected unto any 〈◊〉 V My brother my condition is the 〈◊〉 that it was when you departed bâ—◠〈◊〉 consideration thereof doth shake al◠〈◊〉 powers into a trembling and a terâ—â—â—â— because of that evident death by the 〈◊〉 of the Lord which as it were an obâ—â—â—re cloud of death I have always before my eyes even from that very time whâ—â— thou wert with me the reason bâ—◠〈◊〉 its beginning and of its end is whâ—â— hid from me the truth it self will bâ—â—â—â— it self forth in its own meaning and oâ—der As to my outward body which respecteth my disease I am not at all chanâ—â—â— but anguishes have taken full possession on all my faculties Be thou recommended to the mercy of God VI. My brother The Lord help us poor wâ—â—â—ches in this dangerous condition of this natural and mutable life whom it behooveth to be kept with believing under all uncertainties in the fear of God according to the faith whereby we believe that all the certainty and firmness of our purposes are to be wholly destroyed corrupted and annihilated that another 〈◊〉 fruit may spring up to eternal life 〈◊〉 â—â—ising out of the foregoing corruptible seed The Lord grant to us his salvation and grace that we may adore or worship 〈◊〉 in Spirit and in Truth even as he himself desireth VII The Lord in his mercy help us all and free us from our errours in his own time For I poor wretch do suffer the justice of the Lord and do bear his judgment upon me as long as this carnal spirit in this my dying nature still breatheth May the eternal and merciful God appear to me by his grace yea and to us all and lead us into his own will VIII My brother The Lord is my deliverer in my necessity and will confirm me in his grace even unto the end My brother I am willing thou shouldest know that my body cannot possibly endure any longer this immense misery without dying God assist me in my sufferings to the last and receive me into his eternal rest My Weakness is great all things are known to the Lord. Thy brother in the highest streights the most wretched in the Lord. M. W. To his Sister the ninth day before his death DEarest Sister whilst I am writing this I am so ordered that I can write no more My dearest sister be mindful of thy younger brother and of his wife and small children that they may be the most advanced and helped as the time may need My most beloved Sister I am in the highest content in the Lord my God and by his grace do bid the farewel with this my dying hand being according to the will God bound in so short a chain as he proposed to himself The Lord our God grant peace to our beloved brothers and sisters And now I turn me to my present call viz. to that eternal peace thorough the death of my flesh which now hasteneth it self to its end And now my most beloved Sister behold my dying salutation and my last farewel to thee from the bottom of my heart wherewith saluteth thee as departing out of this life thy brother M. W. 16 April 1560. He died in the Lord 25 April in the year of our Lord 1560. and of his own age the 39. THE END