blessed Spirits embrace an holy soule CHAP. XXIV Of the Charity or Love towards God and our Neighbour 1 Timoth. 1. The end of the Commandement is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained THis being delivered blessed Paul describing the most noble vertue that is to say Charity doth insist chiefly on foure things concerning it First of all that it is the end of the Law or a brief and short collection of all the commandements because by this or in this the law is fulfilled The reason is because in it all the commandements are fulfilled and lastly because without it all the gifts of vertues are unprofitable idle and fruitlesse And whereas he saith in the second place that Charity ought to proceed out of a pure heart that The sincerity of divine love pertaineth to charity towards God wherto it is requisite that the heart be void of all worldly love according to that of 1 Ioh. 2. Little children do not love the world nor the What a cleane heart is things that be in the world because every thing that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life The world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Therefore whosoever hath his heart free and at liberty from all love of the creatures so as he rest not in any fraile creature neither put his trust in them but onely from the bottome of his heart longeth and seeketh after God alone after the example of David who in the Psalmes saith My flesh faileth me and my heart it fainteth O God of my heart and my portion for ever O God For what is there in heaven that I regard or in earth that I preferre before thee This mans charity proceeded out of a pure heart Also if any take singular delight pleasure and joy in the love of God such a purity of heart as the holy Ghost sheweth in the Psalm 18. I will love thee O God my strength the God of my health and my refuge my rock my protection the horn of my salvation and my Redeemer The Charitie out of a good conscience third thing requisite to charity was a good conscience which respecteth our neighbour who is to be loved of us for no profit sake for this is the property of false love and that which proceedeth from an evill conscience neither in word nor deed proudly to offend him and diligently to beware neither openly nor closely to detract from him or hate him nor with envie wrath or disdain to maligne him lest our heart doe check us in our prayer 1 Joh. 3. The fourth thing requisite in Charity Love from fraile consciscience is faith unfained lest we determine any thing against the rule of Faith and Christian profession and lest we deny God openly or secretly in prosperity or adversity Goe to now let us consider apart the singular heads Paul saith Charity is the end of the Law For Charity or Love which proceedeth out of true faith is the most noble of all fruits and works of God then which a man can doe nothing better or more acceptable to God for God requireth God requireth not of us costly gifts and workes not of man any heavie things nor lofty nor great workes to his service and worship but rather he hath contracted the most rigid religion of the old Testament and a multitude of Commandments and the variety of them in Faith and Charity and hath added thereunto the gift of the holy Ghost according to that of Saint Paul Rom. 5. The love of God is infused into your hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us By which words he insinuateth unto us the originall of Charity Moreover Charity is not a heavie work but a pleasant and easie work to a good and faithfull man according to that of St. John 1 Epist chap. 5. His commandments The easines of charity are not heavy that is to say to illuminate Christians to whom the holy Ghost hath given a cheerfull heart and a free will moved and stirred up Furthermore God God requireth not much learning requireth not of us much learning or teaching but only charity which if it be sincere burning vehement is far dearer then arts and wisdom of the whole world so that all other things Arts Sciences works and gifts without it are unprofitable and thought of as dead works 1 Cor. 13. For without Charity every work is of no momēt learning is indifferent and common equally as well to Christians as to Ethnicks and the works of the faithfull and the Infidels in that are alike But charity onely is the sure Badge and Character of a Christian discerning the false from the truth For where charity is wanting there is no goodnesse whatsoever externall shew of greatnesse and excellency it commendeth it selfe by For God is Charity and he that abideth in Charity abideth in God and God in him 1 John 4. Whereupon it followeth where Charity is not God is not there Charity maketh all things easie is heavy to no man Charity is pleasant and acceptable with God and also the man that exerciseth it For where other Arts and Sciences and Wisdomes are gotten with great labour care and griefe and with the losse of their strength charity onely cheereth the body and mind doth adde vegetation and mendeth the soule neither is it losse to any but rather of it selfe bringeth ample fruits For love is the reward of the lover and vertue is a reward unto it selfe like as vice in like manner doth punish and torment it selfe And when other faculties of the body What is done out of charity hath God the Author pleaseth him and mind are weakened and tired and wearied only charity is never weary nor ever ceaseth howsoever Prophesie may passe away Tongues may cease and Sciences may be destroyed yea and faith it self shall fail 1 Cor. 13. What God will accept must necessarily proceed from God He that loveth God praieth wel and freely for he approveth of nothing which he doth not first work in us And seeing that God is love therfore that ought to proceed from faith which is pleasing to God and out of love without hope of any profit that it shall profit our neighbour And so should our prayers arise from love Oh then you mortals imagine what prayers those can poure out to God whose hearts are ful of wrath and rancor which if such should recite the whole Psalterie they can neverthelesse be nothing else but abomination before God when true adoration consisteth in Spirit in Faith and chiefly in Charity not in words Let Christ be in our memory who out of his abundant mercy prayed Father forgive them In a word he that loveth not God that man prayeth not in whom the love of God is that man preferreth nothing before God
nor esteemeth any thing so sweet He that loveth God serveth him from his heart he that loveth not God he serveth not him although he heap mountains upon mountains So then nothing can befall a man better or more profitable then that the love of God should wax warm in his heart Whatsoever faith worketh in man and all things ought to be done in faith Faith in charity should doe all things in man ought to be done in charity no otherwise then the soule through the body seeeth heareth tasteth smelleth speaketh and doth all things I say after that manner should charity doe all things in thee that All things ought to be done in charity towards our neighbour whether thou eat or drink hear or speak praise or dispraise all things should be done in charity after the example of Christ in whom most pure love wrought all things Wherefore if thou dost look upon thy neighbour let sincere charity fix thine eyes upon him if thou hearest him let charity erect thine eares if thou speakest unto him let most loving commiseration governe thy tongue Lastly have a care and study this one thing that charity through faith may be the root and beginning and cleave unto thee alwayes which can beget in thee nothing but what is good and wherewith thou beginnest the law of God whose love also is the fulfilling of the law or the true abridgement thereof Which majesty of the divine love all the old Saints of God with admiration exclaime O Charity The praise of Charity of God in the holy Ghost the sweetnesse of the soul and the divine life of man he who hath not thee is dead though alive he that hath thee never dieth before God where thou art not there the life of men is continuall death where thou art there the life of man is a fore-tast of the eternall life And thus much of Charity so farre as it is the end of the Law Let us God is mans soveraigne good come now to the other attribute the purity of the heart which consisteth in this That the mind being void of worldly love doth rest upon God as his chiefest good according to Psalm 16. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou art he that dost restore my inheritance to me Psal 37. The Lord knoweth the dayes of the unspotted and their inheritance shall be for ever And therefore the mind of man ought to take his chiefest delight and pleasure in God alone because he is the chiefest good and consequently good it selfe and vertue it selfe verily meer favour grace love lowlinesse patience faith truth consolation peace joy life and happinesse all which he bestowed upon Christ also so that he Why vertue is to be loved which hath him hath all things Wherefore he that loveth God ought to love also his truth mercies goodnesse and all vertues For the true lover of God loveth all things that are acceptable to God and contrariwise abhorreth and hateth all things that be against God Therefore justice is to be beloved truth mercy because God is all these meeknesse humility by reason of the example of our most humble and meek Saviour Contrariwise a true lover of God hates every vice as the adversary and enemy of God and the work of Why vice is to be hated the Devill therefore he hateth a lie because the Devill is a lier and consequently other sinnes because they are part of the Devill And whosoever loveth sinne as a lie and injustice this is a sonne of the Devill as it is in John 8. Even as he that loveth Christ our Redeemer and Saviour he also loveth the example of his most innocent life I say his meeknesse humility and patience he is the sonne of God But thou must remember that thou pray to God for this purity of love who certainly willingly and freely through the love of Christ doth kindle it in thee if so thou incessantly with daily prayers cease not to importune him and offer up thy heart unto him every houre and moment But if thy charity be could and weak so that sometimes thou faile and fall goe to rise again and goe to work and renew thy Charity be sure the eternall light of the divine love is not extinguished God our most gentle Saviour will enlighten thee again which albeit it be so yet thou shouldest The charity of God and our neighbour cannot be severed pray unto God daily lest at any time hereafter he suffer the most bright fire of divine love to be extinguished And thus much of the Charity from the heart purged from the love of the world and the creatures Let us see now the charity of our neighbour out of a pure conscience The charity of God and our neigbour is one and they cannot be severed neither is the love of God more manifest in any thing then by and in the love of our neighbour If any man say that he loveth God and hateth his neighbour he is a lier For hee that loveth not his brother whom he seeth how can he love God whom he seeth not And this is the commandement we have received from God That he that loveth God should love his brother also 1 John 4. For the love of God cannot dwell in the heart of a man-hater or hostile revengefull man Whereupon if thou hast no pitie on thy brother and knowest that he hath need of thy help how canst thou love God that hath no need of thy help As by faith we are united to God so by charity wee are to our neighbour joyned 1 John 4. He that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him As a man consisteth of body and soule so faith and charity of God and our neighbour doth make a true Christian And seeing that God is well affected towards all men who is so indeed it followeth that he is of one mind with God and so consents It is the property of Charity to bewaile a sinner to him he that doth contrary is adversary to God because he is an enemy to mankind Furthermore it is the property of this charity to bewaile humane errors because they represent as in a glasse our own proper defects and bring to our memory the most infirm condition of our humanity whereupon it followeth that we are to bear the infirmity of our neighbour with patience humility and meeknesse Truly such as sin through want of strength We are to bear with the weak more then of purpose and whereof they soon recollect themselves doe rebuke and punish themselves and doe of themselves acknowledge their sinne these truly are to be pitied and condoled and doe deserve pardon He that denieth this surely hath not the spirit of Christ For to punish the fallings and infirmities of our neighbour rashly and with severe judgement without mercy or commiseration onely is proper to him that is without the most mercifull law of God the Father Sonne
contempt persecution contumely and reproach the crosse death martyrdome and punishment whereupon Moses preferred the contumely of Christ before the treasure of Aegypt which is true illumination XV. The true name of Christians written The name of Christians in heaven is the true knowledge of Christ in faith by which we are transplanted into Christ and written in him as in the book of life from whom do flow living virtues which God in that day will beautifie with an honorable testimonie Mat. 25. bringing forth all those treasures which we have layed up in heaven 1 Tim. 6. and bringing to light every work which is wrought in God Joh. 3. None of the Saints hath made himselfe famous by any vertue which will be forgotten Psal 112. And this vertue of his as faith charity mercy patience and the like are that name written in heaven and the note and character of the Saints and the eternall names of heaven Of which more in the second Book CHAP. XLI In which is repeated the summe of the whole Book That the whole Christian Religion doth consist in the restauration of the divine Image in Man and extirpation of the Image of Satan 2 Corinth 3. We all beholding with a revealed face the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same Image from glory to glory as it were by the Spirit of the Lord. IN the true knowledge of Christ and of his person offices benefits and heavenly gifts doth consist the blessed life which the H. Ghost doth enlighten in us as a certain new light which in it selfe becometh more and more cleare as a certain metalline body Wherin consists eternall life or a glasse by making it cleane becommeth more neat and clearer or as an infant daily augmented in stature and growth For even as righteousnesse is given to a man by faith in Christ and then hee beginneth his conversion or regeneration or to bee begotten in his conversion and daily to be renewed after the Image of God neither is he by and by a man but is an infant whom afterwards the holy Ghost doth nourish and from day to day doth more and more conform him to Jesus Christ For the whole life of a Christian man upon this earth What Christianity is ought to be nothing else then a reformation of the image of God so that hee might live continually in the new birth and on the contrary mortifie the old man daily Which manner of life is onely begun in this world and perfected in the world to come Therefore he that before the day of the last judgement and so of his death hath not made his beginning in this man the Image of God shal never be erected to all eternity Wherefore I hold it very needfull forthwith to inculcate and inform what is the Image of God and also what the Image of Satan is seeing that in the knowledge of these the whole Christian religion consisteth and from this one head many other doctrines of originall sin of freewill and so of repentance of faith of justification of prayer of regeneration renovation sanctification and of the new life and obedience come to be explained Therefore the soul of man is an immortall spirit indued by God with excellent powers and faculties as understanding will memory and other motions and affections of the mind And this ought to be turned to God in him to be made the image of God so The soul of man is the glass of God that as the object in a glasse so in it God may be manifested and made conspicuous In which sense Saint Paul speaketh 1 Cor. 3. That the glory of God in the image of God renewed doth shine as in a glasse Moreover as God is good and holy himself so the substance and essence of the soule in the beginning The conformity of our soule with God in the state of inâ—ocency was originally good and holy And as in God there was no evill so the soul of man was without all evill from the beginning as in God nothing is but good Deut. 32. Psal 92. so in the soule there was nothing that was not good as God is all-knowing and wise the humane soule was full of divine knowledge and spiritualls celestiall and eternal wisdome as the divine wisdome disposed all things in number weight and measure and knew the strength of all creatures as wel celestial as terrestrial so the mind of man was enlightned by the same light Neither was the will inferiour to the understanding as equally holy and conformable to the divine wil in all things Therefore as God was so the soule of man was just benigne merciful long suffering patient meek courteous true and chast Which conformity of the humane wil with the divine all the affections appetites desires motions of the heart did participate emulating or following most perfectly the motions and affections of the divine wil even as God is charity so the affections of the man did breathe nothing but meer charity and as God Father Sonne and holy Ghost are joyned together and conspire in ineffable and eternal love so all the affections motions and desires of the humane soule by a meer most pure most perfect and most ardent love from the bottome of the heart did grow warm and Thâ— body of man is the temple of God prosper together so that the man loved God and his honour more dearly then himselfe Moreover even as in the soule so also in the body the image of God did shine most gloriously which therefore in all the faculties thereof was holy chast subject to no filthy concupiscences or motions beautiful comely of perfect health immortal and was without molestation tediousnesse passion griefe vexation and old age In brief the whole man both in mind and body was perfect holy just and acceptable to God every way For as the man was the image of God it followeth necessarily that the body it self be holy and conformable to God according to blessed Paul who commanded to sanctifie the body soule and spirit together For seeing that the man consisteth of soule and body and therefore bodily and spiritual functions going together it is necessary that a soule holy and just accomplishing its workes through the body and in the body should have an observant instrument and equally holy as it selfe Therefore as the soule did burn or was zealous in the most pure love of God so all the faculties of the body did imitate the same gesture in the love of God and his neighbour As the soule was all mercifull so the body with all the powers thereof did incline to clemency As in the divine soul chastity did shine so all the body with all internall and externall senses and powers did use perfect purity and chastity In brief the perfections of virtues were conspicuous no lesse in the body then in the mind or soul Wherefore it was easie What heart signifieth in Scripture for a man in the
state of innocencie to love God with all his heart with all his soule and all his strength and his neighbour as himselfe Hereupon it is that when Almighty God requireth the heart of man the whole man as concerning body soule and all his strength is to be understood In which sense the name of heart in Scripture is understood every where so that with it doe come all the strength of the soul and â—â— it were the nerves the understanding memory affections and desires Neither is it for other reasons when God requireth the soule understanding by that denomination the whole man so much as in him is which indeed is to bee conformed to Iustice righteousnesse and ioy cleave together him to bee renewed in Christ and that he ought to walk in spirit or in a new and spirituall life But the perfection of most sincere joy doth accompany the perfection of holinesse righteousnesse and love in the man wherewith he was most sincerely affected God so disposing it that where divine holinesse is there also should be divine joy which two as they cannot be separated so they make the Image of God But we who in this life doe attain to onely an unperfect and begun righteousnesse of God and his holinesse for these beginnings of the righteousnesse of Christ living in all the faithfull if we be devout if we be exercised in the Kingdome of God we shal do participate thereof in this world and have the fruits thereof even the first fruits of that heavenly joy Therefore how much every Christian profiteth in love so much divine pleasure and joy hee doth find in himselfe Which holy and divine love because in that day it shal receive the last hand and its perfection therefore also our joy shall be then perfect Christ bearing witnesse John 16. For charity or love is life and joy as contrariwise where love is not there is neither life nor joy but death it The greatest ioy for the love of God selfe wherein the Devil and wicked impenitent men shall remain to all eternity This love maketh the father of the son the bridegroome of the bride draw an incredible delight yet it is a far greater love that is perceived from the love of the Creator which most lovingly kisseth us with the kisses of his mouth that is in Christ and in him by the charity or love of the holy Ghost cometh upon us and taketh up his dwelling with us And of this image of God the Image of God differ God which consisteth in similitude with God when wee make mention of it we doe not mean that a man should be every way like God in justice righteousnesse and holinesse and become like God himselfe for God is incomprehensible and he is immense as concerning his essence virtue and properties but onely to carry about the image of God as is declared in divers places of this book Where what wee have commented of the Image of God those are no conjectures but things indeed neither can it be denied of the most perverse that Almighty God created man that he might be his most cleare looking-glasse so that if one were desirous to know the nature of God he might look back to himselfe and counsell with himselfe contemplate God in himselfe as in a glasse might see his Image within and in his heart as his life and happinesse But the Devil beholding this Image The acts of the Devil to abolish the Image of God of God in man with wicked envious eyes laid in wait with many deceits and machinations until at last through disobedience and an hostile mind conceived against God hee overthrew that Image and destroyed it which he hath attained unto with such craft as never any thing was attained unto or shall be Neither was it an obscure thing unto him if the man had remained in that state he had been his Pride the original of all sin Lord but so soon as he fell from him hee became a tyrant to him Therefore when all his forces of malice and craft displayed hee found nothing more fit to perfect his cogitations then that sinne by which hee was bewitched and pulled from God hee began to insinuate into our mother the affectation of the divine Majesty by sweet and flattering speeches with the help of the Serpent that old and deceitful Parasite and the atchiever of so great The fall of Adam a wickednesse which proud thought once entied into the heart and admitted there followed Apostasie disobedience and transgression of the precept concerning the Tree of knowledge not to bee touched Hereby came the image of God to be overthrown the holy Ghost to fly away and the image of the Devil to bee set up in the place of the divine Majesty and both of them to become the bondslaves of the Devil and he their Lord to handle their souls most cruelly and as a Giant handleth a child to blind the understanding to turn the will from God to accompany all the powers of the whole heart against God and intoxicate them with Satanicall malice to overthrow all the image of God in man to plant his own in the roome to infect them with the contagion of his own nature to beget after his own image children not now of God but his own to fulfill all kind of sinne and enmity against God and lastly to slay them with eternal death For even as in the image of God life eternall and the happinesse of man was contained so death and condemnation did follow its losse This death those doe best understand which fall and are cast into most grievous spirituall temptations being exposed to the tyranny of the Devill by infesting the miserable soule of them most cruelly with the custome of sinning Spiritual death and eternall by the fall of Adam under which crosse being depressed and troden down only unlesse the holy Ghost doe under-prop him and comfort him then the Devil doth fasten his death upon them and tormenteth their soules with pains grief infernal whereupon it must needs be that all the powers of the body doe faile the heart waxeth dry and the marrow to be consumed Psal 6. and the Spirituall temptation 38. and the word of God if any go about to be without life with juice and with all devotion and spirituall life Into which Spiritual death state when the businesse is to bee brought then the man is converted in the agonie of a true spirituall death esteeming nothing of the holinesse of all men righteousnesse dignity strength power glory honour arts and wisdome of all men without doubt this man shall perish unlesse the grace of God doe prevent him Therefore learn of me O man that Originall sin is the most terrible of terrible sinnes that is the losse of the hereditary righteousnesse of God and contrariwise the hereditary unrighteousnesse What our originall sin is of the Devil and man planted in the place for which the
comfort never shalt thou be overcome with sorrow feare and sadnesse he who seeketh himselfe every where and in all things and followeth after his own profit onely praise and honour he never attaineth to tranquillity for alwayes something meeteth him that bringeth perturbation Therefore beware you beleeve not that the increase of wealth fame and honour is good and profitable but rather set before thee the best things contemne such things and extirpate the root of concupiscence which hindereth thee in pursuance of the love of God Now seeing the commodities of this True constant rest in God life praise honour and likewise the world it selfe are fraile and floating away but the love of God remaineth for ever that delight cannot be durable which thou takest in the love of thy selfe and earthly things because it may vary by very light occasion where contrariwise the mind firmly set upon divine love cannot but continually rejoyce vain frail and brickle is that which is not grounded upon God but doe thou forsake all things and thou shalt finde all things by faith For the lover of himselfe and the world findeth not God The love Who findeth not God of our selves is earthly and not of God and is chiefe enemy to heavenly wisdome Humility is the companion of heavenly wisdome for it careth nothing lesse then to be eminent in the world and to be accounted great for which cause and for their own profit and simplicity it cometh to passe as almost with one blot it is put out of the mind and memory of Man Therefore although many in Sermons doe boast and make a noyse thereof yet remaineth and will remain this pretious Pearle unknown and hidden as long as in life and manners we are farre from it and know little And the onely way to find it is to unlearn and forget humane wisdome proper applause selfe-love And for humane and earthly wisdome which the whole world boasteth to be such but indeed is ridiculous and vile you must change for celestistiall and divine It is impossible to love Wherein the love of God consisteth God unlesse you hate your selfe that is unlesse thou be displeased with thy selfe for thy sinnes crucifie thine own flesh and mortifie thy proper will that is by how much any man is attentive to the love of God so much more doth he study to mortifie and keep under the concupiscence of the flesh and his owne proper appetites Also the further thou departest from thy selfe and thy proper love by the power of divine love by so much the nearer art thou hidden in God and his love through faith For even as inward peace dependeth on vacancy and leasure from outward things so it must needs be that when the inwards are at leasure and the heart free from all creatures it cleaveth to God alone giving back from other things the soule must enter Selfe-love the love of God are two cōtrary things into God by consequence Moreover he that goeth about to deny himself therein it must needs follow that he doth not his own work but Christs I am saith John 14. the Way the Truth and the Life without the way no man goeth on without Christ the way the truth the life the truth nothing is known and without life no man liveth Therefore look upon me who am the Way which you ought to walk in the Truth which you ought to beleeve and lastly the Life which you ought to live and hope in I am the Way that endureth for all ages the infallible Truth and the Life everlasting and eternall The Kings way to immortall life through my merit the truth it selfe in my word and life through the power and efficacie of my death Therefore if you continue in this Way the Truth doth carry you to eternall Life If you will not erre follow me if you will know the Truth beleeve me and if you will possesse Life eternall put your trust in my death And what is that Kings Way that infallible Truth and that Life the best and most noble of all others Truly other life cannot be then the most holy and pretious merit of Christ nor other truth then the word of God lastly no other life then sempiternall happinesse Now then if you desire to be exalted into heaven it behooveth thee to beleeve in Christ and after his example to follow humility in this world which is the onely Kings way If thou wilt not be deceived of the world take hold of his word by faith and follow the footsteps of his life because this is the chiefest and the infallible truth If thou desirest to live with Christ with him in time and through him thou must die to sinne and become a new creature because this is life In brief Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life no lesse by example then merit Be you followers of God as most deare children saith S. Paul to the Ephes 5. Let us therefore with all our Our life ought to be conformed after the life of Christ might power endeavour this one thing that our life may as neere as possible it may be be most like unto Christs life so that if other things be wanting to confound false Christians even this onely example of Christ might be sufficient for we may be ashamed to lead our lives in pleasures when Christ Jesus led his life amongst sorrow and tribulation even to his death And if a Souldier doe forget his own proper recreation when he seeth his Captain by fighting valiantly receive his death and thou gettest honour before thy Captaines eyes used most contemptuously shall I not say that thou dost not fight under his Banner But alas we will be accounted Christians Many Christians but few followers of Christ but how few be there that imitate the life of Christ Truly if it were the part of Christians to be seekers after wealth perishing fame and honours Christ would never have commanded the losse of them for eternall good Behold with me his life and doctrine and thou shalt not deny that nothing is more unlike then the world and He that manger that stable those swadling cloathes are not those a spectacle or looking-glasse of the contempts of these worldly things Or let us perhaps say that thou wilt by these examples draw thy selfe from the true and right way nay rather it is meanes to bring thee into the right way when we shall compare his doctrine and way together with his example whereupon he saith and proclaimeth that he is the Way and the Truth Therefore when they by contempt misery and reproaches doe attempt to make the way to attain to heaven it followeth that thou that seekest after jollity and wealth and thirstest after promotion art in a ready way to hell returne thou and come out of that broad high-way and come again into this way that cannot stray and embrace the truth that cannot deceive And lastly live in him
eternity the visible world with the invisible the earthly habitation with the heavenly mortall with immortall things frail with eternall things The meditation of eternall and temporall things doth introduce wisdom In which comparison or meditation of contrary things our soule is enlightned and by faith we behold many things to the knowledge whereof they are not admitted those which to this contemplation are not at leasure and therefore like a Sow in the mire so they wallow in earthly matters drowned in covetousnesse fixed to the cares and study of earthly things given to usury and as concerning the soule blind howsoever otherwise they have a quick sight and have Lynxes eyes Because such as these thereby have addicted themselves to this fraile and worldly life and thinke this alone most pleasant the best and most To Christians the world is a crosse and exile noble when true Christians esteeming all things with a sound judgement and right estimation accounteth it an exile a valley of teares a den of misery a prison of griefe and sorrow Therefore those which love the world do not exceed brute beasts in prudence and die like a beast as saith the Psalmist they think not on heavenly things they rejoyce not in God they are pleased onely in earthly things in these things they take sweet delight and rest and having obtained these things doe thinke they are exceeding well Men in deed and truth wretched all manner of wayes blind and meere animals sitting here in the darkness of ignorance and hence removing to that of death and eternall damnation Christians are strangers in the world But we must firmly imprint this in our mindes that we are strangers and Pilgrims in this world after the example of Christ whose doctrine and life wee we ought alike to love and to him as an Image and pattern for all true Christians to follow and set before them to conform our manners thoughts and the whole course of our lives conversations Who when he was the most noble of all men he chose voluntarily that life in which nothing is notable as for himselfe besides extream poverty and contempt of honour wealth and pleasure which three the world hath for their three Gods Therefore thereupon Matth. 8. he confesseth that the Sonne of man hath not whereon to rest his head David before he was called to the Kingdome was poore vile and contemned and being made King esteemed all Kingly splendor as nothing in comparison of life eternall whereupon the Psalmist singeth Psal 84. How delightfull are thy Tabernacles O God of power my soul fainted and failed me in the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh were exalted in the living God Better is one day in thy house then a thousand elswhere I have indeed a Kingdome I have subjects and people subdued unto me I have Kingly Palaces and the Tower of Sion but these are nothing in respect of thy Tabernacle O Lord. Neither was blessed Job of another mind when he rejoyced in his Redeemer nor Peter nor Paul nor the other The Saints live in Christ Apostles which intended not the riches of this world but sought after the riches of another world took upon them the life of Christ walking in his charity lowlinesse and patience they contemned the world they prayed for them that cursed them they thanked them that reproached them in persecutions they praised The Saints were dead to themselves and the world God by many tribulations it behoveth us to enter into the Kingdome of heaven And last of all when they were slain they with Christ prayed Father forgive them And what is it to die to wrath revenge bitternesse of mind ambition pride the love of the world and himselfe also what is it to live in Christ and in his charity lowlinesse humility and patience Lastly what is it to be made alive in Christ by faith if this be not it Which most noble way of living to the lover of this world is altogether unknown Therefore because they live not in Christ being ignorant that the true life is in him Eph. 4. it commeth to passe that they are dead in their sinnes wrath hatred envie covetousnesse usury pride and covetousnesse of revenge in which so many as are drowned therein those for that cause are without true repentance neither live in Christ by faith whatsoever they perswade and boast of themselves Contrariwise true Christians doe understand that it is their duty to follow the steps of Christ to conform their lives to the life of Christ and to take from him as from a book and an authentick author the Rule of life and doctrine And these are found to be such that none but this is the onely true life which is in Christ Jesus according to that saying The life of Christ can teach us all things these say with the Apostles 2 Corinth 4. We doe not contemplate those things which are seen but those things which are not seen For those things which are seen are temporall but those things that are not seen are eternall And Hebrews 6. 13. We have no abiding Citie here but seek after one to come Which if it bee true that we be strangers and have not any abiding place in this world it followeth that we were not created for the cause of this world and it followeth then that there remaineth for us another world another countrey other dwellings for which we shall think it gain to lay down hundred worlds yea our life it selfe which a true Christian well knowing he rejoyceth in his inwards that he was ordained to eternall life and attending this one thing that he may grow rich in God he laugheth at the madnesse of those that are made blind with the love of the world who feareth not miserably to afflict their souls for these brickle and frail things and so unhappily to lose them CHAP. XVIII That God is grievously angry with those that prefer frail things before eternall also why and how farre we ought not to set our heart on creatures Behold burning among them in wrath the fire of the Lord hath devoured the extream part of the Tents Numb 11. THe people of Israel that murmured against Moses saying Who shall give us flesh to eat We doe remember the Fishes The type of the true false Christian and Cucumbers which wee did eat in Egypt is a type of men of this time who under the pretext of the Gospel and title thereof seek after nothing but earthly and carnall things as honours wealth and pleasures they use more diligence to be sumptuous then to become blessed and happy they study to please men more then God And lastly attribute more to the concupiscence of the flesh then to the poverty of the spirit Contrariwise the Character of a true Christian is to have more care of eternal honour and glory then this momentary to thirst after heavenly and let earthly goe to seek after invisible and neglect
should shadow mine own honour under them and expect any thing besides the honour of God and the good of my neighbour therefore all are abomination accursed before Almighty God according to that of Matth. 7. Many Why God respecteth not the gifts shall say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and cast out Devils in thy Name and have done many miracles in thy Name And then I shall say unto them Because I know you not depart from me The alms of the ambitious is damnable you workers of iniquity and you have not respected me sincerely but your selves Of the like mind is Saint Paul If I should give all that I have unto the poore and have not charity it profiteth mee nothing Even that love which exerciseth or sheweth liberality for Gods cause alone and not for his own praise or profits sake Such as was the righteousnesse of the Pharisees who offered many sacrifices and drew on others that they might adorn their Temples with their gifts and offer costly offerings the slaverie of which ambition drew them to forget the offerings of the poore whose gifts ought rather to bee preferred out of pitie alone Which preposterous charity in them Christ upbraideth Matth. 23. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because under long prayers you devoure widowes houses In which perverse religion there be now followers which bequeath large legacies to Temples and Monasteries that their Clerks and Monkes may make long prayers for them which truly is false love seeking themselves and if you scan it well not respecting divine honour but themselves But we who know to live justly by faith let us rather be penitent aâ—d offer our selves to God by mortifying and crucifying our flesh then all our works of charity not out of selfe-love nor for the cause of praise or profit whatsoever but let us doe it for the love and sincere love of God being sure if we doe it otherwise they will not profit us a haire Therefore although thou give thy body to be burned and want love which is due to God alone and his praises and honour thou doest nothing saith Saint Paul Neither doe they profit any more which whip and burn their bodies by humbling and afflicting their souls as speaketh Isai 58. because indeed they are conceited in their singular sanctity and affect their own proper praises and their presumptuous religion in their private judgement doe not respect God but applause popular praise and estimation whereby many of them are so blinded God suffering them the work of error 2 Thess 2. that they make no doubt to suffer themselves to be burned for the defence of their False Martyrs conceived heresie and if God be pleased to become Martyrs of Christ when yet they doe not serve Christ but themselves neither doth the punishment but the cause make a Martyr Such Martyrs as these the Devill even amongst the Ethnickes hath many were so blinded in their understanding they were contented to die for their Altars and Idols And the same is done this day amongst Christians under the shew of the Christian faith seeing the Ethnicks themselves to gain an immortall name to perswade themselves they doe well in so doing To whom for self-love and glory or praise there were like unto them certain Monks devout persons in our age which are called Catholicks which for the cause of propagating Religion will perswade Princes and Monarchs that they are to doe the like unto them even die for the Catholicks cause Whose madnesse is so much the more manifest being they beleeve that they suffer for Christs cause and they become his Martrys when contrariwise they become the Martyrs of Roman Bishops and of their private renown and praise And thus much of coated or cloak charity powerfully seduced and carried on by a false light It remaineth therefore without the sincere love of God and our neighbour and a holy and Christian life all Arts Sciences Faculties profit nothing wisdome how great soever and if it be as great or greater then that which was in Solomon is nothing the knowledge of the whole Scripture and universall Theology is nothing lastly all works whatsoever and Martyrdome it selfe if you will so call it yea to know the will of God and his word and to live after the prescript rule thereof that onely augmenteth the guilt of eternall damnation according to that of Saint John 15. If I had not come and spoken unto them they had had no sin but now they have no excuse for their sin CHAP. XXXVI Of those that live not in Christ but have their heart fixed to the world although they possesse the outward letter of the Word and do not tast the inward force of it and the hidden Manna Apocalypse 1. To him that overcometh I will give the hidden Manna I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it BY this Sentence it appeareth wee are taught that no man doth taste the inward sweetnesse of the heavenly joy and solace hidden in the word of God which doth not overcome his own flesh and the Who be apt to tast heavenly sweetnesse world with all the pomps and concupiscences thereof and lastly the Devil himselfe that is to say they who crucifie their own flesh daily by their serious contrition and repentance with all the desires and concupiscence thereof who die to themselves and the world daily lastly to whom this life is a meer crosse I say these are divinely fed with heavenly Manna and drink the Nectar of Paradise Contrariwise those that follow none but worldly pleasure it is unprofitable for those to taste the hidden Contraries ioy not together Manna For like things are delighted in their like and seeing that the word of God is spirituall it is no marvell if worldly minds be not delighted therewith For even as the soul receiveth no strength of the food which the stomack hath not concocted so the soule of the divine Word or Manna receiveth no strength unlesse it bee converted into it selfe that is into life Yea as a man sick of a Fever distasteth all things and are bitter unto him so those that are sick of the worldly Ague that is of the love of the world covetousnesse pride and lust these I say doe loath the word of God and distast it as bitter Contrariwise With whom the word of God hath no savour those that have the Spirit of God these doe find in it the hidden Manna never to be tasted by them that are carried away with the world which is the cause that many by the daily hearing of the Gospel doe feele little desire and spirituall joy because they are not carried by the Spirit of God nor have any heavenly but earthly minds But he that will fully and soundly understand the word of God and eate Manna it behoveth him to study to
some Patron of power to defend or protect them from injury oppression and detraction so I knowing nothing of worth in these evill times can escape detraction and oppression doe commend these works of Iohn Arndt concerning true Christianity to God the onely patron and defeâ—der of his own profession and no earthly protector assuring my selfe that as they have escaped the envie of his own countrey-men and have been protected by the heavenly power from the fire of persecution sword and injury so likewise I do assure my selfe these books shall here continue in our native tongue and be preserved to a long-lasting memory to Gods glory and his countries good which is the translators onely aim and desire O these doe hang out before the doore of the house an encomium or title of praise as it were an Ivy-bush to draw custome to the Wine-celler The name of this book is instead of an Ivybush to all good Christians and better wine then is within it cannot be had even that wine for which wee contend with so much losse of British bloud and we the laymen do stand up for with hazard of our lives and fortunes I say that heavenly pearle or hidden treasure in the field which by most if not all the Bishops since the dayes of Langfrank and Thomas hath been defaced or neglected even to this day wherein the Bishops still with their Prelatical faction doe labour after the â—â—â— example who fought for preheminence honour wealth and wine for the belly preferring it before the true vine and wine of John Arndt in this body comprised which undoubtedly is the best unlesse it may be impaired something in the Celler through the default of the Drawer yet seeing it retaineth the true taste spirit and in it self is found good and wholsome and by your good favours gentle Readers covered and conveyed in the cup of charity which maketh the good will more acceptable then the Simon Castrensis Machivelenum Auglicanum edidit gift it may easily draw from the Translator the remainder of the vessell in such expressions as Philopatiris is able So resteth your devoted servant to be commanded Radulphus Castrensis Antimachivalensis THE FIRST BOOKE of true Christianity CHAP. I. Of the Image of GOD. EPHES. 4. Be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new Man which is created after God in justice and in the sanctity of truth THE Image of God in Man is a conformity or similitude of the Man concerning thâ—e Soule Understanding Spirâ—t Mind Will and all the faculties both of Body and Mind with God or the holy Trinity and with all his divine Attributes vertues will and proprieties said Faciamus Let us make which are words as I may sâ—y of the Man the Image of the Trinity sacred Senate of the holy Trinity Gen. 1. man after our image and similitude and let him rule over the fishes of the sea and fowles of heaven and beasts of all the earth and every creeping thing that moveth on the earth Whereby evidently appeareth that the holy Trinity planted his Image in man so as meere divine holinesse justice and goodnesse might shine and send forth light in his soule understanding will and hearts desâ—â—e yea even in his life and all his actions nothing but divine love vertue and purity be found in him no otherwise then in the blessed Angels This Image God had made in man to take delight in and rejoyce as it wee in his soule Truly even as one becomming a father and beholding himselfe or an other selfe in his off-spring cannot but rejoyce with an inward joy hardly to be expressed So Gods delight and chiefe pleasure was to be with the sonnes of men or our first Parents Prov. 8. For although God rested in all his works yet he did take singular and chiefe delight in man because in him his divine Image did most perfectly and exactly appeare or shine forth by his innocency and excellency The Image of the Trinity in the soul or inward beauty For â—â—at cause God had planted three chiefe faculties as a most ample dowrie in the soule of man to wit Intellect Will and Memory and those the same holy Trinity doth produce preserve sanctifie and illuminate and lastly doth most beautifully adorne them with his graces gifts and works Certainly it is the property of every image whatsoever to set forth the like forme and figure neither can it be thought worthy the name of an image unlesse it be as like as it may be to that body that it ought to represent Let us take for example of what we say a looking-glasse in this an image cannot appeare unlesse it draw a similitude or like form from elsewhere and as I may so say conceive it then also by how much purer and clearer the glasse is so much the more evidently doth the image of God appear in it In like manner the more clearer and pure the mans soule is so much the clearer doth the divine Image shew forth it selfe And therefore to this end our great God created man altogether pure without blemish or spot indued with faculties of soul and body blamelesse unreproveable that the image of God might be seen in him and not so as in a glasse a vain and livelesse shadow appeareth but a true and a living Image and likenesse or similitude of the invisible God and of his inward hidden immense beauty I say an Image of the divine wisedome the understanding of man of long suffering goodnesse meeknesse and patience of God in the spirit of man of love and mercy in the affections of the heart of justice sanctity sincerity and purity in the will of lowlinesse gentlenesse humanity and vertue in all his actions and words of power in his Dominion and rule over the earth and fear of The true use of the image of God all living creatures granted unto him last of all of eternity in the immortalitie of the soule Moreover out of this Image man should or ought first of all know God and then himselfe I say God his Creator to be all things the chiefe and only being of whom all other created things have their being and all those essentially whose image should shine in man Therefore seeing that he should cary the image of God is all goodness essentially the divine Goodnesse it consequently followeth that God is the chiefe and universall goodnesse essentially and also the essentiall love life and holinesse wherefore to God alone all honour praise glory magnificence wherefore to God alone honor glory is due fortitude power and vertue is due because he is all these essentially but to any creature none of all these is due And thereupon it is Matth. 19. to a certain man thinking Christ to be onely man and therefore saying Good master what good shall I doe that I may have eternall life answer is made What doest thou call me good None is good but onely God
it sufficient to be the Sonne of God that he was the fairest of all creatures in body and mind without fault and lastly that he was in the favour and love of God unlesse he should be God himselfe hereupon he conceived hostile hatred against God being ready as farre as in him lay utterly to deface and extirpate God A more detestable sinne then this can no man think Then afterwards it followed Adam and the Devill Lucifer committed one fault that the man concerning his heart and minde became like unto the Devil because they both committed one fault and now was no more the sonne of God nor the Image of God but of the Devil and the instrument of the Devill capable of all Devillish malice to this adde that he became of a divine celestiall and spiritual Image altogether earthly and carnall and a beastly creature for the Devill that he might erect his own Image in man durst first by inticing deceitfull and crafty speeches sow his seed in man that is to say selfe-love ambition selfe-will and affectation of the Divinity whereupon the Scripture calleth all selfe-lovers a Generation of vipers Matth. 3. and those that be of a Devillish nature The seed of the Serpent I will put enmity between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the woman Gen. 3. And from this seed of the Serpent or seed of Vipers nothing or no off-spring can come but terrible fruit as the Image of Satan the off-spring of Belial the children of the Devil for as even as in any other seed be it never so small yet after a wonderfull and hidden manner all the qualities and properties stature thicknesse length bredth with boughes leaves flowers and fruits and so the whole tree with innumerable fruits of the whole stock and plants is contained so in this pestilent and The pestilent seed of Adam fatall seed of the Serpent I say in the self-love of Adam and his disobediences so oft as we delivered it by carnall generation there lieth the death deadly bearing tree the innumerable fruits of malice and lastly the image of Satan with all his markes and properties For shew me any child and behold even from his mothers womb first swadling cloaths this native Scandal called an action originally sinne corruption and especially disobedience and selfe-love doe grafie or sow it selfe and so soon as it groweth up regard and you shall see a violent naturall self-love ambition a desire of glory covetous of revenge lying and by and by as an Army marching commeth on disdain arrogancy pride blasphemy oathes fearfull dire imprecations deceits contempts of God and his Word contempts of his parents Magistrates to these adde wrath brawlings hatreds envie dissimulations revenge homicide and all kind of cruelty especially when scandals and occasions doe happen therewith which as Midwives doe help to bring forth the off-spring of Adams and the Devils corruption for you shall see break forth impudencie shamelesnesse lust venereall cogitations whoredoms obscene and filthy speeches shamelesse behaviour both in words and deeds drunkennesses gluttony intemperance in food and apparell levity effeminacie Besides all these covetousnesse usury deceits frauds fallacies craftinesse impostures and juglings and to speak all at once all kind of wickednesse and naughtinesse and so various and abounding that cannot be declared Scandals of doctrine according to that of Jeremy 17. The heart of man is wicked and inscrutable who shall find it out But if you adde thereunto the seducing and hereticall spirit then you shall heare renouncing of God forsaking of him idolatry hatred of the truth and persecution the sinnes against the holy Ghost faith-breakings corruptions of the faith depraving of Scriptures and terrible seducings All which are no other then the fruits of the Serpent and the image of Satan in the man And who could even suspect in the beginning in so weake and feeble an Malice is hidden in man infant such a heap of wicked deeds or a heart so pestililent and that such a Basilisk did therein lurk and hide it selfe thereunder but he that is in life and conversation worst of all and in the cogitation of his heart intentive to evill at all times even from his tender infancy as it is Gen. 6. written who could have produced these things to light and expressed them if triall had not manifested it therfore wicked and extream evill is that root from whence so deadly and pestiferous a tree doth grow O terrible seed of the Serpent and of vipers from whom so deformed and stinking an image doth arise and increase for within all evils are fomented and from thence doe arise and grow provoked nourished set forward by externall provocations for what cause it is to Why offences were for bidden by Christ be thâ—ught Christ Jesus did so seriously prohibit that children should be provoked by evil example for in whom this seed of the serpent lurketh and the beginning of all wickednesse and flagitious acts their beginning and entrances are closely hidden and are deceiveable no otherwise then cruell poyson in a pestilent worm Learn therefore O man of me that the sins of Adam and originall corruption of Originall sin unexpressible our kind is not lightly to be regarded or slighted because this infection and depravation is greater then any words can expresse or human intellect can search into know thy selfe and what thou becamest to be after the fall of Adam consider how thou from the Image of God became the Image of the Devill a compendium I say and an epitome or an abridgement to receive all Devillish nature malice and wickednesse into a little roome for even as in the Image of God all vertues and divine The Image heavenly and earthly properties were contained and as before the fall man did carry the celestial Image that is to say he was all heavenly spirituall Angelical and divine so now after his apostasie he carrieth about with him the image of The man is a beast the earthly and is become altogether and fundamentally earthly carnall and beastly And why so This thy fierce wrath is it thine Is it proper to a Lion or to a Man Thy envie and covetousnesse insatiable do not Dogges and Wolves the same Thy intemperance and shamelesnesse is hoggish yea if thou look rightly into thy selfe thou shalt find within even in thy heart a certain world of beasts yea even in thy tongue alone in that least of thy members as St. James saith Chapt. 3. a lake and a sea of venemous worms a harbour of unclean spirits a biding place or cage of unclean birds as witnesse Isa 3. Apoc. 18. but we often increase so much in malice that in wrath we exceed all kind of beasts the Dogges in envie the Wolves in covetous ravening the Foxes in craftinesse the Basilisk in poyson of the eye and last of all the very Hogges in filthinesse And from this beastly nature Christ Mat. 3.
most noble is that man in whom Christ is all and doth all whose noble thoughts mind words are the will of Christ the thoughts of Christ and the mind of Christ according to that of Paul * 1 Cor. 2. We have the mind of Christ Lastly whose words are Christs And so it needs to be indeed because the life of Christ is that new and another life in man neither is the new man any other thing then he who liveth in Christ according to the Spirit whose life I say courtesie patience and humility is no other then that of Christ And this the new creature and the life of Christ in us according to that of Paul to the Galatians Gâ—l 2. I live but not I but Christ in me liveth this also is to follow Christ truly and truly to repent for by this method the old man is destroyed and the carnall life declineth the new spirituall and heavenly life ariseth and breaketh out of the clouds This who ever doth he truly is a Christian not in title only but in work and truth a true son of God begotten of God and Christ renewed in Christ and quickened by faith and so long as the inward man dwelleth in flesh and blood we may wish so much perfection rather then attain unto it but it is as meet and necessary to indeavour and to aspire thereunto and study the same and to wish it from our inward minde and to strive that the life and kingdom The strife daily fighting with corrupt nature of Christ may be in us and not the life of Satan let all our counsels respect this all our cares and inward groans be sent this way and let this be our only strife and warfare that we may mortifie the old man by daily repentance For how much every one dieth to himself so much doth Christ live in him how much corruption How the man is daily renewed departeth from our nature by the Holy Ghost so much divine grace cometh in how much the flesh is crucified so much is the spirit quickened so much of the work of darknesse as is destroyed so much is the man illuminated by how much the exterior man is lessened and wasted so much the inward is renewed 2 Cor. 4. so much as you lose of your vaine affections and carnall life and are wasted as self-love ambition wrâ—th covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse so much Christ liveth in you the further a mans heart is set from the world from concupiscence of the eyes flesh and pride of life so much more of God Christ and the Holy Spirit doth flow into him Last of all the more nature flesh darknesse and the world do bear rule in man so much lesse grace spirit of light God and Christ is found in him Moreover this new kind of living is to the flesh The new life is the crosse of the flesh an enemy and bitter crosse because it is that by which it is subjugated and brought under and crucified with all the desires and concupiscences thereof but yet is that wherein the whole power and fruit of penitency consisteth This is the inward desire of the flesh and blood that it had rather lead a free life dissolute according to its own will and among pleasures and all kind of voluptuousnesse for it only knows this to be sweet and pleasant as contrariwise the life of Christ to the flesh and the old man is a heavie crosse but to the new man and him that is spirituall it is an easie yoak a light burden and a most quiet Sabbath truly the true rest is sought for in vain else were they in the faiâ—h of Christ and in his sweetness humility patience and love of Christ whereupon it is said Mat. 11. You shall find rest for your souls Truly he that loveth Christ will not think it bitter to suffer death it self for him This therefore is that sweet yoak of Christ which we are commanded to take upon us that our soules might be refreshed and come into his rest which command if we determine to obey and mean to put on Christ his life and yoak then we must shake off the yoak of the Devill our way of carnall life wicked and dissolute nor must we suffer the flesh as a Lady to insult and disquiet the spirit but all things are to be brought under the Law obedience and yoak of Christ will I say reason understanding and all carnall What the yoak of Christ is appetites which the concupiscence of Adam and this flesh of ours is well pleased to be honoured worshipped and to be praised of men to abound in riches and pleasures to bring all which on the other side under the yoak of Christ and his discipline nothing regarding his ignominy contempt and poverty to think himself unworthy all things that the world gapeth What the life of Christ is after and for which other men do contend that truth is the crosse of Christ wherewith the flesh is delighted I say that extreme humility of Christ and his most noble life which to the spirit is a most easie yoak and a most easie burden for what other was the whole life of Christ then holy poverty extreme contempt and vile persecution who came not into the world to be attended on but to serve us himself and spend his life and shed his dearest blood to redeem our offences It is the property of The naturall man the spirituall the naturall man to seek after honours and hunt after great things The spirituall on the other side loved the humility of Christ and desireth to become nothing And whereas most men do desire to go before or excell others scarce one coveteth to be reputed as nothing of whom the one belongeth to the square or rule of life of the old Adam the other to the rule of Christ The carnall man and he who hath not yet learned what Christ is that is to say meer humility courtesie and love accounteth it folly to live as Christ liveth and thinketh those onely wise that live after their owne The false true light will delicately and easily not knowing that then he chiefly liveth in the Devill when most foolishly he applaudeth himselfe and esteemeth his own life as the best and most pleasing which most miserable men being fast bound in the lust of their own carnall wisdome doe inforce others to follow the like errours contrariwise those whom the true and eternall light hath inlightned those are touched at the heart when they doe see the pomp and disdaine pride pleasure wrath revenge and such kind of fruit of the carnall life which causeth them to sigh from the bottome of their hearts saying How farre is this from Christ and his knowledge from true repentance from genuine Christianity and lastly from the fruits of the new birth of the sonnes of God for he liveth yet in Adam in the old creature and in the Devill himselfe for to offend
impossible for him to taste and receive Christ into his heart Herod being dead Christ returned into Judea Matth. 2. The document is plain so long as the mind doth play the Fox with the World Christ cannot enter into it and therefore thou must die to the Fox First die unto Adam that Christ may live in thee Herod that the child Christ may live in thee All which returnes to this that you must die unto Adam or the old man before Christ can live in thee Paul to the Galat 2. saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And to the Coloss 2. You are dead yet he writes to the living and your life is hid in Christ for then every one is truly dead when he ceaseth to be that he was before Those which are of the spirit doe understand the things of the spirit saith St. Paul Rom. 8. and to the Galat. 5. If we live in the spirit we walk also in the spirit Neither is it sufficient to boast of the faith and the spirit in words but words are to be approved by the fruits and works for it is spoken to all men by the Apostle If you live after the flesh you shall die but if you mortifie the works of the flesh by the spirit you shall live wherein very many are like unto Saul who did not slay Agag the King of the Amalekites Concupiscences are to be morâ—ified not hidden as God commanded him but put him into prison so these men doe nourish and hide closely their concupiscence when they should be eradicated utterly and not any part of the root left behind let us doe this unlesse with Saul we lose our Kingdome The scope of the whole Scripture requireth the new man that is lest we be deprived of our eternall life In briefe the whole Scriptures with the consent of all Histories Types and Figures doe point out Christ whose life we ought to imitate and doe set out the scope thereof neither doe I speak here of the great world and of his exceeding testimonies of God and divine love There is a sort of men that not unfitly may be compared to Winter trees for as they receive easily their leaves which were cast off the yeare changing and becomming favourable so many in adversity doe retaine their pleasures within and hide them which yet doe forthwith in prosperity having as it were gathered a troop breake out on a sudden A true Christian is most unlike to those hypocrites who in prosperity and adversity liveth according to piety equally just and faithfull to his Christ and taketh all things indifferently his lot doth cast upon him When our great God did grant to Achab victory over the King of Syria upon that condition that being taken he should hold him in prison that he should remain an example to shew that God was stronger then all his enemies and did require just punishment against those that did blaspheme his Name he despising the Name of God and his Commandements having taken his enemy in battell saluted him as his brother and let him goe for which disobedience and giving life to a man deserving to die the Prophet pronounceth the pain of death to Achab by Gods appointment To whom these are most like who nourish and feed their own concupiscences when they should pull them up by the roots therefore willingly without mortification of the flesh there is no good in man do draw eternall death upon themselves And therefore it is most true that without mortification of the flesh no prayer nor piety Lastly without mortification no work of spirituall devotion can abound in the soule which was the cause God Almighty Exod. 19. appointed all those beasts to die that should approach unto the mount Sinai and by how much more ought we to kill our beastly concupiscences if we ascend to the holy mount of God and offer our prayers to God and if we meditate on the word of God lest if we do otherwise we die the death Gen. 32. we Iacob thou must be before thou be Israel read that a new name was given unto Jacob to wit Israel which signifieth a Champion or a Prince of God because in wrastling with the Angell of God he beheld his face But before this Jacob which signifieth a Supplanter or Vnderminer for so he was not onely in name but in deed after whose example unlesse thou first through the holy Ghost doe tread down thy concupiscences to become Israel or the Prince or Captain of God thou shalt never attain Man must displease himselfe to please God the place of a Captaine or see the face of God The same Jacob that he might enjoy the beautifull maid Rachâ—l he was constrained to take Lea with bleared eyes doe thou such a thing and if thou art in love with Rachel that is if thou darest marry with Christ the true Jacob first doe not despise Lea that is despise thy self as a beast-like and sinfull man displease thy selfe and force it to death But there be very many who like unto Jacob are deceived of their owne life thinking verily he had met with Rachel that is that he had led a Christian life pleasing to God inwardly declared in truth afterward then see that they live with Lea that is they have not yet learned Christ and therefore not in the favour but in the hatred of God and that most deservedly Therefore let us doe this Before all let us displease our selves and as Lea in the house of her father be counted unworthy so let us contemne our selves taking to us humility lowlinesse and patience that at the last we may obtain faire Rachel for whom as Jacob served constantly the whole seven yeares her love The service of mystical Iacob mitigating the hardnesse of his labour and wearing out the time without tediousnesse so the most faithfull spouse of our soules Christ Jesus served full thirty three yeares in this world a most hard service or servitude for our cause according to that of Matth. 20. The Sonne of man came not to be ministred unto but to serve others and give his life a redemption for many And according to that of Jacob which he indured after a sharper manner for our love This twenty yeares saith he I served thee in thy house abiding both heat and cold and frost and I watched both day and night And shall we doubt yet to love Christ again and make warre all our life against his capitall enemy the world CHAP. XIII For Christ and eternall salvation to which we were created and redeemed every Christian ought willingly to die to themselves and the world 2 Corinth 8. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ because for you he was made poore being rich that by his poverty yee might be made rich FOr thy Christ thou must die to thy selfe thy sinnes and the world thou must doe good and live a holy and innocent life not that thou canst
canst not live with him in this life It remaineth therefore whose life in this world is not in Christ he shall not have life in the other world Here I pray thee now examine thy life and see whether it be more like to Christs or the Vnion with Christ or the Devill Devils Certainly with one of them thou shalt be joyned eternally after death But who is dead to himselfe he is in love with no businesses yea is dead to the world what other thing is it to die unto the world then not to love the world and the things of this world according to that of John Epist 1. chap. 2. He who loveth the world is not of God For what should he doe in the world who inwardly and in his heart is dead to it Whom also whosover loveth he is no otherwise then Samson of Dalila overcome of it and condemned to all the torments and vexations which the He is overcom of the world that loveth it worldly life containeth or affordeth Moreover the love of the world belongeth to the old man not to the regeneration because the world hath nothing but honours The old man delighteth in the world the new man in Christ wealth concupiscence of the eyes and of tâ—e flesh with the pride of life in which the old Adam is conversant and delighteth it selfe And contrariwise to the new man he hath all things in Christ as joy honour wealth and pleasure for what can be more The Image of God the great est dignity of man honorable to a man or is more to be desired then the Image of God renewed by Christ Or if we seek pleasures what man in his wits can doubt that God doth give delight to his above all creatures and delight The man is made for greater things then this world them more as the words of Taulerus say Furthermore what think you of that which the Scripture teacheth Man was not made for the worlds sake but the world for mans sake nor to fill his belly with delicate meat pamper his own wit heap up riches spread his Empire abroad to get most ample possessions grounds and fruits of the earth to be gorgeously attired to abound in gold and silver to be Lord of the earth to put all his delight and joy therein as in his paradise to place it and know hope for nothing but what is before his eyes Or lastly for any terrene cause whatsoever or any thing that is fraile although of it selfe it be good pleasant and pretious No truly he must goe hence he is but a tenant and a life-renter of this great world into which we enter many at one instant as it were by heaps yet death calls for us also As it is not profitable for any of us to carry with us a grain of all the treasure we have heaped whereby it evidently appeareth that we were not created for this temporall life To what man was created neither this world to be the principall end of our creation seeing that we live therein as prilgrims and guests therefore another cause brought us into this world and for whom we were born which is God himselfe and the image of God which we bear in Christ and unto whom we are renewed In this we are convinced evidently to wit that we are especially created for the kingdome of God and life eternall which Christ hath recovered for us and to whom we are regenerate by the holy Ghost How preposterous then is it for one to fix his heart to the world and give his minde to earthly things when we know the other to be more noble then the whole word I say for a man to attend and spend his time on earthly things which is the most excellent of all creatures which carrieth about him the image of God in Christ and is renewed to this image Wherefore as I said before the man for the world was not created but the world was created for man and therefore carrleth about with him the image of God in Christ of which the excellency and nobility is so great that all men with all his workes and power could not repaire one soule or renew the Image of God But for this cause it was necessary that Christ should die that because the image of God was defaced and destroyed in man it should be renewed by the holy Ghost and he should become forthwith the habitation and house of God And this being known and called to mind if he be right minded he will never compare the riches of the world honours To preferre earthly things before heuvenly is great madnes and pleasures with the price of his soule which Christ hath redeemed at such a price for what is it to cast pearls in the mire and before swine if this should not be That which our Saviour saith Matth. 16. pertaineth to this place What profiteth it a man to get the whole world and lose his owne soule For seeing the world is mortall and the soul of man immortall the world with all his pomp cannot recover one soul CHAP. XIV A true Christian ought after the example of Christ to contemne the world and hate his life in this world John 12. He that loveth his soule loseth it and he that hateth his soule in this world doth preserve it to eternall life HE that will hate himselfe he must first not love himselfe so that he may daily die to sinne and therefore he must continually self-Selfe-love the chiefest enemy of the soul Idolatry wrastle with himselfe and his flesh for nothing is more hurtfull to a man that is desirous of his salvation and more hindereth him then selfe-love I say that carnall Philautia of which this following discourse in all this book is the subject I doe not say that care of preserving our selves but loving our selves is forbidden For seeing that God alone is to be loved it followeth that he who loveth himselfe is an Idolater and maketh himselfe God what every one loveth in that his heart is fixed neither can we be taken but with the love and servitude of something so as we become servants despoiling our selves of our proper liberties and consequently having so many Lords we are subject unto as we have objects to love but if thy love be sincerely and simply towards God then thou art subject to no object but it is manifest thou art at liberty wherefore thou must be very circumspect that thou follow nothing that may hinder the divine love in thee And if thou desirest to possesse God alone as much as thou art able so much in like The law of God brings forth tranquillity the world perturbation manner of thy all must thou consecrate to him But if thou love thy selfe and please thy selfe much pensivenesse sorrow feare and sadnesse will befall thee Contrariwise if thou love God and rejoycest in him onely and dost dedicate thy selfe onely to him then will he be thy
present things and lastly to crucifie the flesh that the spirit may live in him Truly in this is both the foredeck and the poop of Christianity to imitate our Saviour or as Augustine saith The chiefest Christ is the rule of our life of religion is to imitate him whom thou lovest from which opinion differeth not much that saying of Plato drawn from the law of Nature The perfection of men consisteth in the imitation of God whereupon nothing else is left unto us then that Christ ought to be the example and square of our life and that all our counsels studies and cogitations should respect that one thing how we should come to him by him be saved and live with him eternally All things are to be done in faith expecting with joy the dissolution of our prison And that we shall attain if we direct all our labours actions businesse and vocations by faith and goe on with desire and hope of eternall life or to speak more significantly if we never lay aside the memory The love of the world is extinguished by faith of eternall happinesse in all our actions because through this feare of God is begotten in man a certain holy desire of eternal things and withall the desire coveting of earthly things insatiable in its own nature is restrained according to that saying of St Paul to the Coloss 3. Whatsoever you doe in word or deed doe all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thankes to God the Father through him And the name of God is nothing but the honour praise and glory of God According to thy Name let it be O God and thy praise to the ends of the world saith David Psal 48. Which Whâ—â— the name of God iâ— scope if all our works and life doe chiefly respect then we think of eternity and our works are done in God and consequently our selves are in God Briefly God our chiefe good and the eternall life of all our thoughts works and words should be the first mover if we will not faile of eternall salvation That which Paul most elegantly expresseth to 1 Tim. chap. 6 But thou O man Who iâ— the man of God or the man of the world of God flie these things to wit covetousnes He calleth a Christian a man of God because borne of God and living in God hee is the sonne and heir of God Even as contrariwise a man of the world is he who liveth after a worldly life whose inheritance is the world and whose belly is filled with the goods of the earth as it is in Psalm 17. Which way the Christian is farre from seeking after faith and love and unsatiably covetous of eternall life to which he was created alone which if it come not to passe then the man linketh himselfe to enormous sins which our just God doth punish with eternall fire prefigured by the burning of the Tents sent from heaven and from an angry God to punish and revenge the excesses of the Israelites The wrath of God from whence Wherefore so often as such like plagues are sent upon the wicked as inundation fire warre hunger pestilence let us alwayes call to mind and remember that these are the most just punishments of a moved and angry God because the people of Israel unmindfull of heavenly things did follow after transitory things did prefer present things before future and had more care of the body then of the soule which things let us not erre in It is an extream point of ingratitude and contempt A great contempt ingratitude to God of God both here and hereafter to be punished to wit to contemne God for whom we beare about both body and soule and from whom we received them and instead thereof to worship Idols of the creatures the work of mens hands to esteem eternall things after transitory For these creatures Why creatures are given to us are given to us for necessity and not to set our hearts and minds after them that which God alone deservedly challengeth to himself and that they might be as prints and testimonies of God whereby we come neerer to the knowledge and love of God the author of them all which divine institution when the love of the world dare abrogate it then the same by the most just vengeance of God together with the proper Idolaters are turned into the fire The love of the world Is converted into the fire of Sodom and infernall flood of which Sodom and Gomorrah is a type and this burning of the Tents of which we speak Truly all creatures are of themselves good but when men set their hearts upon them and that not after a lawfull manner but doth worship them as Idols then they become abomination How the creature becometh abomination before God Almighty no otherwise then the detestable and execrable Images of gold and silver and therefore matters of eternall fire although gold and silver of themselves are good creatures In brief the love of Christians joy wealth and honour are circumscribed in eternity whereupon there followeth even life eternall for where thy treasure is there is thy heart Luke 1â— On the contrary from the concupiscence The fruit of worldly love and love of the world nothing can follow but eternall damnation for the world passeth away with all the pomp thereof but he that doth the will of God continueth for ever whereupon B. John 1. Epist chap. 2. beseecheth the faithfull saying Little sonnes doe not love the world nor those things that be in the world which being so manifestly shewed thee that God would not have us love any creature first Why the creatures are not loved because love is the heart of man and the most noble of all affections which therefore is due to God alone as to the chiefest and onely good Secondly because it is a great folly to love that which cannot love us again whereupon in vain are frail and transitory things beloved by good right is God alone to beloved above all creatures who out of his exceeding love created us to eternall life redeemed and sanctified us Thirdly because naturally like things are Why man was created after Gods Image loved therefore God made thee after his own image and likenesse that thou mightest love him and thy neighbour Fourthly although our soule be like to wax ready The soule is the lookingglasse of God to take any impression put upon it rather like a glasse representing all objects set before it whether of heaven or earth yet it is born onely to set God before it Fifthly as the Patriarch Jacob when he lived in Mesopotamia amongst strangers and after twenty yeares service demanded his two What our mind ought alwayes to respect wives and his wages and being provoked with the sweet memory of his country did think and desire to return to the same so our soule among worldly occupations and businesses of our
Himselfe From divine patience and long-suffering ariseth a wonderfull patience towards his neighbour and that so great that if it were possible for a Christian to die seven times yet he would forgive his enemy that cruelty being mindfull of the great mercies of God first shewed unto him From divine righteousnesse floweth the acknowledgement of his sinnes whereupon he prayeth with the Prophet To thee O Lord belongeth justice but to us confusion of our faces Dan. 9. Enter not into judgement with thy servant because no flesh is justified in thy sight Psal 130. Lord if thou regardest our iniquities who can stand before thee Psal 143. Out of the knowledgement of the divine truth doth flow faith and integrity towards our neighbour whereby frauds do cease falshood and lying and a true Christian with such thoughts fortifieth his heart doth not circumvent his neighbour for by this means thou shalt offend the verity of God which is God himselfe who when he dealeth so faithfully truly with me it were very unworthy for me to carry my self otherwise towards my neighbour Out of the knowledge of the eternall wisdome of God floweth forth the feare of God whom it is manifest to be the searcher of the hearts to see into the inward of man whereby deservedly we reverence the eyes of the divine Majesty He that planted the eare shall he not hear or he which made the eye shall he not see Psalm 94. Woe unto you that are of a deep heart that you might hide your counsell from the Lord whose works are in the dark and say Who seeth us and who doth know us Perverse is this your thought as if the clay should rise against the Potter and the work should say to the maker Thou didst not make me and the workmanship should say to his maker Thou understandest not And thus farre of the true knowledge of God wherein consisteth repentance and repentance in the renovation of the mind and these things concerning the amendment of life that which concerneth the other part of divine worship and is that holy fire appointed by God for offering the sacrifice lest he wax hot in his wrath and send revenge A type of this repentance was the forbidding-drinking The type of repentance of wine by divine commandement to the Priest when he entred the Tabernacle of the Testimony which spiritually belongeth to all Christians for if we will enter into the Tabernacle of eternall life it is necessary that we abstain from concupiscence of the world and of the flesh also from all things by which the flesh may subjugate the spirit for the love of the Pleasure is like unto wine world pride and other vices as sweet and strong wine doe cloud the soule and the spirit whereby they are brought under the power and servitude of the flesh For even as Noah and Lot being overtaken with wine left themselves uncloathed so honour pleasures and riches after the manner of strong wine doe invade try and disturb the soule and the spirit whereby a man may be prohibited entrance into the Tabernacle of the Lord that is from his knowledge and driven from his sanctification losing the difference of holy things and prophane clean and uncleane so that he understandeth nothing in divine things and therefore neither can instruct the people left in his charge with wholsome doctrine which is a just judgment of all those that mad themselves with the wine of concupiscence so that their own thoughts and intellect are not conversant in the true light and at the last doe rush into everlasting darknesse Moreover this repentance or sorrow and griefe for sinnes and also effectuall faith in Christ Jesus before remission of sinnes which as it doth consist onely in the sole merit of Christ so no man can challenge to himselfe this merit of Christ without repentance whereupon remember the Thiefe upon the Crosse who repented before his forgivenesse and Christ admitted him to Paradise and that was not a slight or superficiall repentance but a hearty and true as appeared by the chiding of his fellow Thiefe And dost not thou feare God For us we receive punishment due for our deeds but this man hath done none evill And moreover he praied unto Christ Lord have me in remembrance when thou comest into thy Kingdome which certainly were most sure arguments of a faithfull and contrite heart And that free pardon of his sinnes which a repentant heart in true faith apprehendeth and requesteth is Christ supplieth all things for us of such force as God excuseth all things which was impossible for us to expiate and that for the death and bloud of Christ wherewith he purgeth all things blotting out all our offences as if they never had been done and his abundance of satisfaction not now equalling but exceeding the heavinesse of our offences and sinnes Whereupon blessed David crieth out Psalm 51. I shall be made clean from my offences and I shall be whiter then the snow Now seeing the condition of our pardon is such and our payment so good as the Creditor can make no more demands nor the debter hath not any thing to pay Hereupon it is said that God forgetteth them and never Why God forgets sinnes more will call our sinnes to mind so that the sinner turns to him as witnesses Esa 18. chap. 1. This conversion or condition not without which he commending specially to the people under the person of God saith Wash you be you clean â—ease to doe perversly and after that come and argue with me If your sinnes were as red as Skâ—rlet they shall be made as white as snow As if he should say You which require your sinnes to be pardoned by compact and promise go to if you will and call me to account Truly I deny not that I promised you to pardon your sinnes but it was no otherwise but you must first repent which if you prove together with a true and lively faith you overcome and then there shall be no delay in mee but your sinnes how many and how great soever they shall be put out of my memory with one blot Repentance therefore repentance I say is true confession that contrition I say of the spirit in faith which whosoever findeth in his heart this man our Bishop Christ Jesus by his death and bloud doth absolve from all his sinnes I say with that bloud True absolution which crieth to God in heaven for us Deut. 4. we read that Moses set apart Cities Bezer Ramoth and Golon to which one might flie if hee had killed his neighbour Spirituall homicide by chance by which most beautifull type we are taught so often as we kill our neighbour by our tongue thoughts hatred envie anger revenge and unmercifulnesse we are to run by flight of faith and repentance to the throne of Grace and Mercie which is the Merit and Crosse of Christ which being taken hold on we are in safe keeping nor with
this man it is manifest doth not know God who is nothing but Charity or Love For the knowledge of God and Christ is known by experience and feeling and seeing that Christ is meer love and meeknesse it followeth that he that is without charity is without Christ according to that of By charity God is known Saint Peter Epist 2. chap. 1. If you had charity this would not leave you empty nor without fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ And Christ himselfe John 13. In this all men may know if you be my Disciples What a disciple of Christ should doe if you love one another But to be the Disciple of Christ is not sufficient to be a Christian in name and outward profession but it behoveth us to be more to beleeve in Christ to love him and follow him to live in him to counsell with him to listen to him to be inwardly loved of him and lastly to participate with him in all his goodnesse Which love of Christ who so hath not this man is not of Christ for how should Christ know him which is destitute of Christ For even as an Apple by his savour and a Flower by his smell is knowne so a Christian is known by his love Bouldly and without doubt blessed Paul affirmeth it 1 Corinth 13. All gifts without Charity is nothing And in truth the knowledge of divers Tongues nor Miracles nor knowledge of Mysteries or any such like good things doe shew a good Christian but faith which God requireth no hard thing worketh by charity Moreover God commandeth not hard things unto us as to work miracles but to exercise charity and humility neither in the day of judgmeÌ„t shal it be demanded of thee how thou hast been verst in the Arts Tongues Sciences but whether thou hast loved charity through faith I have been hungry saith our Saviour Matth. 25. and thou gavest mee to eate And blessed Paul to the Galatians chap. 5. witnesseth In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Charity Furthermore the words of Saint John Epist 1. Chap. 4. If any man say he loveth God and hateth his brother he is a lier For he that doth not love his brother whom hee seeth how can hee love God whom hee hath not seen And this commandement have we of God He that loveth God should also love his brother And this one thing they teach That the charity and love towards God cannot consist without the He must love his neighbour that wil love God love and charity towards our neighbour For he that hateth him cannot but hate God that is the chiefe lover of man Charity is the Law of Nature from which doe flow all good things to mankind and without it mankind would perish Al good is out of charity of necessity When any good thing happeneth to man it proceedeth from Love whereupon Saint Paul calleth charity the Bond of perfection to the Colossians chap. 3. and Rom. 12. doth declare in excellent words and magnificent oration the fruits thereof And our Saviour himselfe The whole law depends on charity Matthew 7. doth teach All things that you would that men should doe unto you doe you the same unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets I passe by that of the Ethnickes whose famous Adage or Sentence is out of the Law of Nature and taken from their Schoole That which you would not should be done to you doe not the same unto another Which most excellent admonition the Emperour Severus a Prince most praise-worthy daily had in his mouth and inserted it in his written lawes Charity is a Charity is the hope of eternall life certain figure of eternall life and a foretast or sweet drink of it wherein the elect doe mutually love each other sincerely do receive singular delight one from another and doe converse together in a wonderfull and ineffable concord sweetnesse affection cheerfulnesse and mildnesse and courtesie one with another Who so therefore doth desire as it were a certain fore supper of the eternall beatitude let him study Love wherewith he may Affinity with God by charity be delighted with singular pleasure and affection in the inward of his soul For how much purer more fervent and fruitful your charity is so much the neerer it approcheth to the divine nature when in God in Christ and the holy Ghost the charity is most pure most rare most fervent and noble Therefore that love will be pure when we love not for private profit but onely for the cause of God alone whom we may know in like manner he loved us and took in us delight most purely and for no good of his own Which he that doth not so but loveth his neighbour for his own profit his love is not pure and divine wherein The difference betwixt Ethnick and ChristiaÌ„ charity also consisteth the difference betweene Ethnick and Christian charity for they do all their vertues in seeking after their own private gain and honour do as it were cast ink upon Ivory but the Christian he loveth his neighbour in God and Christ gratis And the love is true and unfained when theâ—e is no hypocrisie nor dissimulation and love is born in the heart not in the lips and tongue wherewith many are deceived Lastly charity is ardent when it is accompanied with mercy and compassion and when the affairs of our neighbour goe as near to our heart as our own so that we should be ready to lay down our life if need It is the Christians property to love their enemies were for him John 3. after the example of Moses and Paul who wished to be accursed for their brethren Wherupon that also followeth that we ought even to love our enemies Matth. 5. Love your enemies do good unto those that hate you and pray for them that persecute you revile you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for if you love them which love you what reward have you or shall you have Doe not the publicans the same In this therefore conâ—isteth the excellency prerogative nobility and dignity of Christians to subject nature unto it selfe to tame his flesh and bloud and to overcome the world with the evill that is therein with goodnesse to the Romanâ— chap. 12. It is the commandement of God in Exod. 23. If thou meetest with thine enemies Oxe or Asse going astray bring him home If thou seest the Asse of him that hateth thee falling under his burden thou shalt not passe by him but thou shalt succour him What care hath God about dumb creatures blessed Paul 1 Cor. 9. admiring writeth Hath God care of Oxen And doth hee not speak this concerning us much more And Rom. 12. he elegantly giveth in charge If thine enemy hunger give him meat Wherefore lest wee think it not sufficieÌ„t not to hurt our neighbour but moreover we
sinne selfe-love arrogancy and ambition New-birth is found in Christ so from Christ by faith and the holy Ghost our nature is to be renewed and sanctified all selfe-love arrogancy and ambitition to die in it and it behoveth us to get a new heart and spirit from Christ as we have from Adam flesh subject to sin And of this new birth Christ is called Father eternall or of the future Age Isa chap. 9. The works of Christians ought to proceed from the new birth Whereupon it followeth consequently that all the works of Christians and gifts which shall be acceptable to God ought to proceed from the new creature that is from faith in Christ and the holy Ghost which if it be not so done whatsoever things although they be most excellent gifts and even miracles themselves before God they are void and to no purpose And towards our neighbour all things ought to be done in charity 1 Cor. 14. and without hope of proper gain or honour For example of which and a most excellent pattern God Almighty offered and gave us his Sonne in whom there was no selfe-love no arrogance lastly no desire of private profit or praise or glory and nothing but sincere and meere love and humility neither also as other Saints was hee proposed to us to imitate because their example was from without and so to behold or renew but that hee might by faith live and breath in us which when it cometh to passe even then all our works words and so our knowledge doe proceed from Christ as from a living foundation and originall if otherwise then all our works and gifts if they be Angelicall or of what kind soever they are neverthelesse nothing worth For where selfe-love is there the hatred of God is where arrogancy there the contempt of God where by no reason it can come to passe that works springing from thence should be acceptable to God Let us therefore doe this let us beseech Almighty God from the bottomes of our hearts to give us faith and sincere love contaminated with no desire of honour profit or glory but proceeding from a pure heart which being obtained not onely illustrious gifts and works but the least also even a cup of cold water will be most deare and acceptable to God For a small worke that proceedeth Charity maketh the least work great from sincere charity and humility is most excellent and better then all great ones that have their original from the desire of pride and glory CHAP. XXXII Not great gifts but faith that worketh by charity doth shew a man a Christian and acceptable to God 1 Cor. 4. The Kingdome of God is not in talke but in vertue BLessed Paul going about to describe a Christian man in briefe finishing the thing saith 1 Tim. 1. The end of the law is charity God doth not require great knowledge from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained as if he should say That any man may bee made a Christian and â—cceptable to GOD are not required hard and lofty matters no worldly wisdome no humane learning no gifts no eloquence no knowledge of tongues lastly no miracles but that hee have faith in charity to doe all things resigned to God devout and well addicted and not carelesse of the motions and rule of the holy Ghost Wherefore let us not much regard that What it is to mortifie the flesh any one is expert in the tongues and how eloquent he is but how he shewes forth his faith by love and mortifying of the flesh For they that be Christs doe mortifie the flesh with the concupiscence thereof that is to say arrogancy selfe-love covetousnesse of glory proper gain hunting after praise whereupon blessed Paul denieth the Kingdome of God to consist in words or gifts and Arts but in vertue or living exercise of vertue in faith as charity lowlinesse and humility Therefore Before God nothing availeth but a new creature no man I say no man is in greater grace with God or blessed because he is indued with great gifts but because hee is found in Christ by faith and liveth in him as a new creature And if any man have Great gifts od not make a man happy attained unto so great and such gifts as no man else neglecting daily repentance he is not renewed in Christ and if he deny not the world although hee have never so many gifts if he despise not himselfe nor hate himselfe last of all doe depend upon the pure and sole grace of God no otherwise then an infant dependeth of the pap he with all his Arts and Gifts shall be damned it is a thing most manifest For neither are those given us of God that by them before God wee should bee great or blessed but for the edification of the To what end gifts are given of God Church Therefore when Luke 10. the seventy Disciples returned with joy saying Lord even the Devils are subject unto us in thy name Christ answereth Doe not rejoyce in this for neither miracles nor gifts shall save us but rejoyce that your names are written in the book of life that is because you beleeve and acknowledge me By faith Moses was saved not by hiâ— miracles and Miriam the sister of Moses being indued with â—he gift of prophesie and by whom the Spirit of the Lord did speak was punished with Leprosie Finally the Apostles not because of their miracles or tongues sake but for their faith were made Citizens of Heaven Let us remain I say let the least and the greatest remain in faith humility â—epentance in crucifying and mortifying of the flesh and in the new creature which as in Christ in faith and charity it liveth so in like manner Christ liveth in it So let us be found that Christ may acknowledge us for his Let Christian Charity remain to be that new life of the new man yea the life of Christ in the faithfull and that efficacious and working power of the holy Ghost by which Saint Paul Ephes 3. wisheth us to bee filled in all fulnesse of God Like unto that of Saint John God is Love and he that remaineth in love remaineth in God Whereupon it followeth that hee that feeleth love in his heart feeleth God himselfe Where as a certaine fore-runner or leading-starre it is present therefore Saint Paul as a tree from the root whereof with all the fruits thereof describeth it in 1 Corinth chap. 13. Charity saith hee is patient c. All which are the properties of Christians and consequently the life of the new man And to speak in a word God the Father is Love God the Sonne is Love God the holy Ghost is Love the whole mysticall body who is Christ or the Christian Church is bound together in the bond of Love So there is but one God one Christ one Spirit one Baptisme one Faith and lastly the happy and sempiternall life shall bee nothing but
can a man as the Apostle saith to the Ephesians chap. 2. which was dead in sin help himself Also even as we did not bring so much as a haire to our creation so neither to our redemption or regeneration and sanctification which are much greater and more noble then our creation it selfe Wherefore The cause of the incarnation of the Son of God it was necessary that the Sonne of God should take humane nature upon him to recover that which was lost in Adam to revive that which was dead in him which that it may be brought to effect accordingly we must imitate the Traveller which is cruelly handled and wounded and laid upon the ground and could not help himselfe him therefore the mercifull Samaritan taketh up and bindeth up his soares and then laieth him upon a horse leadeth him into the Stable and after that omitteth nothing which an industrious and faithfull Physitian can administer to a sick person And as the Traveller also sheweth himselfe observant to his Physitian and Christ iâ— our Physitian not we our selves observeth his beck and command so let us remember to doe the like if we desire to be healed Let us doe our full diligence and power to our Physitian Christ let us resigne our selves wholly unto him let us trust in his faith that he will bind up and cure our wounds also let him powre in Wine and Oyle into them neither will hee be wanting or faile to restore us to our former health that is so soon as a sinner repeÌ„teth converteth himselfe by heavenly grace to God is grieved from his heart for his sinnes and resisteth not that his wounds should be washed in the sharp wine of contrition and lastly to be anointed with the Oyle of Consolation then presently Christ by his grace doth work and bring forth faith in him and the fruits of faith as life peace joy consolation and happinesse renewing him after his own image and working in him to will and finish according to his good will Phil. 2. For seeing that the abundance of sinnes are greater then humane nature can beare as witnesseth the Scripture which John 8. pronounceth the naturall man the servant of sin and Rom. 7. sold under sinne and can doe nothing but sinne according to that of Jeremy 13. If the Aethiopian can change his hue or the The naturall man neither can nor will doe doe any good Leopard his spots and you can doe well and forget to doe evill therefore the singular grace of God appeared to all men by his Gospel teaching us by the words of Paul to Tit. 2. that denying all impiety and worldly desires wee may live a just and sober life in this present world As if hee should say by the The grace of God doth all things in us word of God grace is offered unto us and doth instruct inlighten allure and teach us heartily to move and provoke us to desist from sinne which teaching of the divine grace or joynt warning by the Word consenteth with the inward testimony of the conscience whereby the man both from without and within is convicted that he doth evill and of leading a life against the way of God and his conscience he ought to change it to better let him know this if he would bee saved Furthermore if hee will bend his eares and mind and being full of good hope denounce warre against vice then the grace of God Man is meere darknes Christ is meere light worketh all things in man as faith charity and all the fruits of faith For as darknesse cannot lighten it selfe and the Sunne not shining we doe in vain open our eyes so neither can man inlighten himselfe according to that in Psalm 13. O Lord thou givest light unto my Lanthorn and my darknesse But the divine Grace or Christ himselfe is the cleare light which is risen to all men sitting in darknesse and in the shadow of death How the true light lightâ—â—s all men which inlightneth all men or every man that cometh into this world that is by manifesting himselfe and offering his grace He I say is the light of the world shewing to all men the way of life and like a good Shepheard guiding his Flock into the right way he sought us as his lost sheep daily even now seeketh us and allureth us nay more followeth us embraceth us after the manner of a bride or spouse that he loveth whose grace I would to god most men did Christ as a Bridegroome imbraceth our souls not refuse give repulse to his love prefer the darknes of vice before his light And even as a Physitian saith to his sick Patient Beware of this if you will not dye for you hinder the efficacie and force of the medicine that you cannot bee made whole so Jesus Christ the true Physitian of our souls saith My sonne I pray thee incline thy mind to repentance and leave thy sinnes Impeninitence hindereth the efficacie of Christs merits that pride covetousnesse concupiscence of the flesh wrath revenge and forsake them or most certainly the honour of my merit shall profit thee nothing when thou art a hinderance that my grace cannot be sown in thee that it cannot increase in strength bring forth fruit Truly for this very cause I give my Apostles in charge before all things to preach repentance and I called Why repentance is to be preached before all things sinners to repentance because an impenitent heart cannot participate of my merits Which speech when a sick man heareth the Physitian of our soules as to abstaine from sinne or else he must utterly perish the word of God coming expresly to his mind let him know this that it is most certain that God hath promised remission of sinnes to all men gratis but under this law and condition if they will convert themselves to God according to that of Ezekiel 33. If the wicked shall repent him of his sinnes hee shall live the life and not die all the offences which hee hath done shall not bee True faith imputed unto him Wherein truly the repentance of sinnes is joyned to remission neither doth Christ the sonne of God in any other sense promise life eternall to those that beleeve in him For faith doth alwayes oppose it selfe to the Old Man tameth the flesh and subjecteth it to the spirit that is converteth the man rooteth up and amendeth sinnes and cleareth and purgeth the heart it being the fountain of all evill Truly this is true faith that I say that turneth it selfe from the world from sinnes and from the Devill to Christ and seeketh solace and rest for his soule against the grieving debt of his sinnes in the onely blood death and merit of Christ without the works of any man whatsoever What man is so foolish to beleeve that his sinnes are pardoned of God although hee doe not desist from his sinnes this man hath a false faith neither ever
smell so Christ which is the tree of life by tasting and by triall is understood I say by tasting in faith his lowlinesse and humility and patience and by eating of his fruit whereby consequently his soule might find rest and tranquillity and be made capable of divine grace and consolation Which two into a heart void of faith and unfenced with the humility and lowlinesse of Christ cannot enter to fructifie seeing that God giveth grace only to the humble Seeing then it is thus what doth Christ profit a man who hath no society with him Such are all those who living in the darknesse of sinne cannot be companions of light according to that of Saint John If we say we have society with him and walk in darknesse we are liers and want the truth But if we walk in the light as hee is in the light we have joynt fellowship with him Which in the second chapter hee addeth The darknessc is passed over and the true light now shineth hâ—e which saith hee is in the light and hateth his brother is in darknesse untill now He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no offence in him But he that hateth his brother is in darknesse and walketh in darknesse and knoweth not whither he goeth because darknesse hath blinded his eyes And how long a man remaineth in that terrible cloud of sinnes he cannot bee lightned of Christ which is the true Light and come to the knowledge of God For the true knowledge of God and Christ consisteth in that hee understands God to be meere The true knowledge of Christ Grace and Charity which who hath not and exerciseth this man knoweth it with the most ignorant So all knowledge consisteth ariseth out of the understanding experience and works of truth and so certain it is that hee which doth not exercise charity howsoever hee make many words of it yet he perceiveth not the perfect nature of it In like manner Christ is meere love humility meeknesse patience and vertue the which who hath not is ignorant of Christ although hee can prattle many things of him and usurp his name After the same manner the word of God is nothing but Spirit whereupon they which live not in the Spirit these consequently doe not know what the word of God is although they fable and dispute of it every where Therefore it belongeth not to him to judge of love who never exerciseth it For all knowledge as we said even now beginneth with feeling experieÌ„ce Knowledge ariseth out of experience Nor is it his part to speak of the light that never moved a foot out of his own darknesse to see the light and what is light in man but faith and charity according to the saying of Christ Matth. 5. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Now seeing that the most holy life of Christ is nothing but meer love if we endeavour to drink and draw from him true faith humility lowlinesse and patience as it is given in commandement to us by the severe Law of Learning then truly we are transformed into his image and we are beautified and adorned with his love no otherwise then if we were covered with Christ himselfe which is the eternal and true Light according to that of the Ephesians chap. 5. Arise thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ will inlighten thee Whereupon it followeth again that as many as doe not awake from the sleep of the world that is concupiseence of the eyes of the flesh and pride of life their soule cannot truly be illuminated by Christ Contrariwise they which assume the life of Christ and follow him in faith these truly are illuminated according to that of Saint John chap. 8. I am the light of the world he which followeth me in faith charity hope patience lowlinesse humility feare of Onely the martyrs of Christ illuminated God and prayer walketh not in darknesse but shall have the light of life As if he should say Onely those that imitate me have the light of life and the true illumination and knowledge of mee By reason of the same Faith and Life of Christ or Christian life blessed Paul Ephes 5. calleth the faithful the Light You were saith he sometimes darknesse but now light in the Lord. And 1 Thess 5. You are all the sonnes of light and the sonnes of God we are not of the night nor darknesse having put on the breast-plate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation To this belongeth that of the Book of Wisdome which faith That the holy Ghost doth flye wicked persons but comes into holy souls and of them makes Prophets and friends of God Which if it flye the wicked it is plain that they cannot be inlightened of it To which that is like that Christ denieth the world that is carnal minds not repenting them at all can they receive the holy Ghost But that there might be a perfect and absolute example amongst men and an Idea of vertue therefore the Son of God became Man and by his most holy life became the publick Light of the world that all men might follow him beleeve in him and be illuminated from him Now seeing the false Christians themselves know not Christ to be the most perfect and absolute righteousnesse or vertue therefore they did not care for following him it is manifest that the Ethnicks the most rigid observers lovers of vertue did goe far beyond them Of whom the wisest as Plato Aristotle Cicero and Seneca determined If the virtue of the body may be seen or could bee seen it would appeare more cleare then Lucifer or the day starre But those that shal behold Christ with the eye of faith he being the true Lucifer or Day-star doth far excel them and Faith in Christ illuminateth the heart those shall so see and contract the word of life 1 John 1. But if the Ethnicks did so esteeme virtue and desired to see it how much more ought Christians to esteem it above all things seeing Christ is meere virtue meere The love of Christ is to imitate Christ lowlinesse yea God himselfe Whereupon not without cause Saint Paul preferreth the love of Christ before all Sciences or knowledge for that he which loveth him it necessarily followeth that hee doe embrace his lowlinesse and humility out of his meere and most sincere love towards him whereby he is further illuminated and daily Light grace is given by humility transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. For God giveth grace to the humble saith Saint Peter 1 Epist chap. 5. And Saint Bernard The floods of grace doe flow downwards not upwards By all which it cometh to passe that the grace of the light and of knowledge divine is not communicated to a man that liveth not in Christ but walketh in the
the Devil of which wee speak God had planted in man in the state of innocency a pure chast and honest conjugall affection that he might beget children after the image of God according to the spirit neither could there bee imagined a more holy pleasure or love then to propagate the image of God and to multiply humane kind to the glory of God and good of men So I say if men in the state of innocency could beget infinite children and could propagate the honour of God and his image in infinite generations for the great love both of God and man as the image of God nothing more acceptable nothing more pleasant and nothing would be more to be desired For even as God in the creation of man did receive an ineffable pleasure and had in him or took in him delight as his image so the man was to receive and have most pure pleasure in the procreation of his life and sending forth of the divine Image which at this day is the reason of marriages and how Satan hath spotted and defiled that The abuse of matrimony most pure and chast matrimoniall love with his filthinesse it is as evident as the noon-day Therefore they mix together no otherwise then brute beasts and in a blind and furious heat doe beget like unto themselves Moreover as the Devill is a Thiefe and a Robber so hee infuseth the same guile and art in the soule of man As the Devil is a calumniator a Sophister a Sycophant and a Scoffer of God and man depraving both deeds and words and wresting the sense and repugning it with false interpretation of which craft hee shewed us a faire example when hee suduced our first parents so the minds of men corrupted with his pestilent contagion did contract a perverse nature lying and cunning intrapping and calumniating Which Diabolicall and Satanicall corruption of the soule inexpressible both in the craft and variety of it selfe the Psalmist describeth under the person of a double tongued lying man Psalm 14. Rom. 3. and blessed James chap. 7. For God as wee said even now doth not accuse the mouth onely the tongue hands and feet but the whole Man in his own law yea his heart and mind as the cause and fountain of all evill as appeareth by the two last precepts of the Decalogue concerning concupiscence to be avoyded Which is well to be observed The Image of the Devill with special regard And this is that image of the Devil set by his Father against the divine image as lust and pleasure in sinning slandering and reproaching so farre forth as many that desire to be accounted good Christians take occasion of traducing their neighbour which happily being done they say applauding themselves I did this lately now I have enough I am freed of a great burden I seeme to my selfe to returne as it were to life again when at length I have satisfied my mind What blindnesse is this of yours and unhappinesse O mortals even not to know by whose instinct you doe these things whose sonnes you are whose image you beare about or doe you doubt that these workes are of the Devill the work-master these fruits to be of the seed of the Devil these properties to bee from the nature of the Devil which hee hath planted in our nature that hee might riot by a plentiful increase in vices of all kinds as pride covetousnesse lust and slanders of which wee spake erewhile And this corruption of the Satanicall image or originall sin is so filthy horrible and profound as no man can in thought much less in speech expresse the abomination of your hearts Which notwithstanding no creature no Angell I say nor men can either amend or purge or root out For seeing our strength and powers are utterly worne No creature can extirpate sin out consumed and spiritually dead it is a vain thing to expect any thing from them Therefore this remaineth that we bee miserable and unhappy to all eternity or use the counsell or help of some most powerfull avenger and extirper of sinnes Lord of evill and death and which can by himselfe change renew and purge humane nature Whereby it appeareth in the first place that justification can be obtained by no humane good work as also the necessity of regeneration is to bee found out The natural power of man And to speak this again the soul can by its own power or strength do nothing but live in its in-born pravity malice and all kind of fins both against the precepts of God and most especially against the first Table in transgressing whereof consisteth the true enmity with God in our understanding will we are so blind corrupt and dead that it is against nature to feare God love call The true explication of free-wil on him honour praise worship trust in him and to convert our soules to him As concerning the second Table truly I confesse that there is in the soule a spark of free-will remaining yet very weak and without sinewes which therewithall it is hardly able to retain and bridle the evill concupiscences that they break not forth into outward works to which things the example of the virtuous Ethnicks are extant in their virtue but to change the heart to turn it to God to purge it from wicked concupiscences is a greater work onely a work of divine strength For the inward roots and fangs of evill are most deeply fastened so as all the endeavours of free-will cannot perform to forbeare to breake out openly into flames to destroy all but liveth in smoak and ashes Therefore without God this humane kind could not subsist the will of man is so depraved and howsoever the Devil can do nothing more to exercise the greatest cruelty in the mind of man yet he cannot extirpate all naturall strength and affections whereby wee know the law of nature and in-bred affection of married couples parents and children which are foundations and bands of humane society For hee that will doe all things to which hee is carried by the force of corrupt nature it must needs bee that Why naturall love is left in man he shall disturb humane society and find out a revenging sword of revenging power Moreover it must bee thought a deed done by the singular counsell of God that this naturall affection was not utterly extinct that we might understand the love of God was the soveraigne good and the Image of God which we lost by our fall and vice But that which pertaineth to spirituall good concerning blessednesse and the Kingdome of God is as true as truth it selfe blessed Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. The naturall man understandeth not the things that are of the spirit of God for it is foolishnesse to him and be cannot understand it that is he hath not the least spark of the spirituall light tasting nothing of those things which belong to an heavenly divine and spirituall life to which man onely was
circumference of his heart In the tents of the Lord our God the plants of the Lord doe flourish as the Cedar in Labanon These tents are the meeting-place or inward and spirituall Sabbath of our heart and the flourishing Lebanon is in the desart and solitarinesse of the spirit which solitarinesse thou oughtest to follow diligently that thou mightest search thy selfe and contemplate the benefits and wonders of God Neither are those to be followed or imitated who are delighted in the reading of Whatsoever doth not make us better is to be avoided subtile and quaint things whereby the heart is more provoked then amended whatsoever doth not further or disturb the quietnesse of the heart or is not a furthering to amendment of life let it be farre from thine eares thy mouth eyes and thought for the trees of the Lord doe attend nothing but to grow and profit in Christ such as was Paul who desired to know nothing but Christ crucified so did all the Saints of God who strived with all diligence to live in silence and by inward devotion after a divine manner to emulate the heavenly and holy Intelligences and to hide themselves in God alone which is the onely rest of our souls of which number I have heard one say so often as he conversed with men he was made lesse in some part or other For seeing humanity consisteth in the similitude of God and therefore The definition of man God defined man to be an Image like to him it follows by how much the liker he is to God he hath put off so much the more of his humanity and the neerer he is joyned to God by so much he shall become liker unto him But no man can be joyned to God who first doth not forsake the world The same reason is of all seeds that The seed of God bringeth divine fruit they bring forth fruit like themselves therefore if the seed of God be in thee as the holy Spirit and Word divine it followeth that thou become a tree of righteousnesse and plant of the Lord to glorifie him Esay 61. Nothing is more frequent Scandalous words offend the soul then that a word may fall from thee or another whereby the heart afterwards is pricked and the soul abhorreth it wherefore no man is more secure safer and more at tranquillity then he that keepeth himself at home so containeth his thoughts words and his senses within the threshold of his heart When Diogenes the Philosopher was met by a certain man who being impertinently acute accosted him after this manner Man or no man What I am thou art not But I am a man therefore thou art none He merrily taxing his foolish acutenesse answered It will be truer if thou begin with me He who will speake laudably let him first learn to hold his peace for to speak many things is no eloquence it is garrulity or pratling He that will rule his heart Vertue ariseth froÌ„ contraries well let him learn first to keep it well seeing it is an impossible thing rightly to excell others unlesse he learn to serve obey God He that loveth peace and tranquillity of the minde let him keep his tongue and study to preserve a good conscience True rest for that which is evill foameth as the sea unlesse it return to its rest which is Christ by contrition and repentance The Dove which Noah sent out of the Ark when it found no rest returned to the Ark. This Ark is Christ and the Church having only one Doore or Window that is repentance by which we must goe to Christ for aid As the Dove having made her flight returned to the Ark of God so doe thou remember so often as thou fliest into the sea of the worldly businesses that thou return by and by to Christ and thy rest yea whilst thou art conversant amongst men and attendest worldly affairs The fear of God let it be done with feare and humility yet let it be without secure and precipitate rashnesse but be thou like the Shrub bound to the pearch of distrust and the feare of God lest perhaps the wind of perturbation doe break thee then which nothing is more frequent amongst men little conversant with the inward man and using the world more freely Wherefore perswade thy selfe there is no more trust to be given to the world then to the sea and that the externall calm of the world doth easily turn it selfe into a whirl-wind and an evill conscience doth obey the delight thereof True peace and rest But if men would seek no pleasure in ftail things if they were not intangled with the world lastly if they would trust lesse to their worldly goods then they would by experience find more peace and tranquillity in their consciences and divine consolations and visitations would be oftner manifest but seeing that they will not beleeve these things it cometh to passe that they lose that conversion amendment and devotion amongst men which they might find in themselves For what things within and in the heart are found by resting they are by seeking here and there unwarily and hastily lost and this followeth upon course As a tree no where profiteth better then in his naturall soile so the inward man in no place groweth in goodnesse sooner then in the profound inwards of the heart where Christ is Joy and heavinesse is in the hand of the conscience which if thou usest and imploy it in inward and The nature of the conscience divine things it will return thee again sweet and delightfull pleasures but if in outward and worldly things thou dost rest it will return thee vexation and torment As often as a faithfull soul grieveth and is sorrowfull for his sinnes so often Wholâ—some sorrow he mourneth secretly and in the fountain of teares many nights washeth himself therein and cleanseth himself in the Spirit and Faith in Christ that he may become holy and worthy to enter into the Temple and most holy place where the Lord may have most secret speech with him And because God is an unknown God it behoveth the soul to be most familiar with him if he will have him to communicate his divine mind unto it Psalm 85. I will bear what Divine communication the Lord will speak in me Psal 34. I sought the Lord and he heard me and took me out of my trouble he being poore he cried and the Lord heard him and he delivered him out of all his troubles Psalm 5. But I will pray unto thee and thou wilt heare my voyce right early I will meet thee early and I shall see thee By how much more our soul departeth from the world so much more familiar it becometh with God so did the Patriarch Jacob when he estranged himself from his countrey and kindred he had conference with Angels and with God Neither can it be sufficiently expressed by any words with how much love God and the