they should suffer when they suffer because they bee Saints just men he doth not consent that they should suffer for those things which indifferently be fall to men in this present life From all this which is spoken it may be gathered that a Christian person when he is evill entreated for his piety and justice rejoycing that in it and by it the name of God is illustrated he ought to remit himselfe wholly and altogether to God reducing his minde to content it selfe of that which God shall ordain and dispose of him and when he is evill entreated as a person of the world he ought to believe and hold for certain that God will draw him out of that affliction and out of that trouble with much satisfaction and his own content and hee ought to reduce his minde to content himselfe of that which God will doe And this truly is a Christian disposition of the soule which is only found in them that stand incorporated in Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XVI That the promises of God belong to them who belieue them CHristian piety requires that a Christian man should hold certainly and firmly that God will maintaine him in this present life with his grace and in his grace that in the other life he will giue him immortality and glory Humane wisdome presuming or pretending piety perswades him that hee ought to hold for certain that God will deal thus with him but on condition that hee haue Faith Hope and Charity which are the gifts of God that giue life and being to a Christian. And in the mean while humane wisdome understands not that a man shall so far enjoy these three Graces as he shall abide certainly and firmly grounded in those other two things wherein Christian piety requires that a Christian man should abide firm and assure himselfe in For in these two things doth Faith and Hope consist from which Charity doth arise and proceed Whence it is well gathered that it belongs to a Christian to shut his eares to humane wisdome and to open them to the Promises of the holy spirit and so to attend to certifie himselfe and found himselfe in those two first things And as I understand the matter he shall then obtain and possesse these three Christian gifts of Faith Hope and Charity when he shall certainly and firmly belieue that God will maintain him in this present life with his grace and in his grace and that in the other life he will give him immortality and glory I know will the pious Christian say that God calls not unto him but those whom he hath first known and predestinate I know also that those whom he calls them hee iustifies and them he glorifies And I know certainly that he hath called me and thereby I assure my selfe that hee hath known and predestinated me and that he hath justified me and that he will glorifie me In this let him stand in this let him confirm himselfe without doubting in any manner For the promises of God are fulfilled with them That this is true may be proved by many authorities of holy Scripture But better it will be to say in this māner That the truth of this matter is not believed except it be experimented and the experience appertaines only to them that stand incorporated in Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XVII In what manner a Man ought to resolue himself touching the world and touching himself that he may become a true Christian. ALL the Christian businesse consists in trusting believing and loving for all this is piety justice and holinesse for as much as a man having confidence gets piety believing gets justice and loving holinesse That a man may trust belieue and love it is necessary to apprehend to understand and know To apprehend in what thing he ought to haue confidence To understand in what it is cōvenient to believe And to know that which ought to be loved Of this wisdome cognition and intelligence a man is uncapable partly for the depravation that is naturall to him by reason of Originall sin and partly by reason of that which is acquired by evill custome worse exercises The Wise man meant this when he said That wisdome entreth not into a minde that is evill enclined nor abideth in a body subject unto sin Whereupon I understand that a man which desireth to trust belieue and loue that he may obtain piety justice and holinesse to such a one it appertaines to bee wise to know and to understand dispoilng his minde of all evill inclinations and estranging his body from all evill exercises and from every evill custome Together with this I understand that to the intent a man may dispoile his mind of every evill inclination it is meeter that a man should couragiously and generously resolve himselfe touching the world turning his back to all the honour thereof to all the glory thereof and to all the estimation thereof not pretending unto it not procuring it nor willing it in any thing nor in any manner putting an end to all kinds of ambition and self esteem Together with this I understand that to the intent a man may estrange his body from all evill exercise and from all evill custome it is meet that a man should valorously resolve touching things which concern himselfe renouncing in good earnest all those things from which there doth come or may come any satisfaction or any corporall content putting an end to all estranging himselfe from it and abhorring it For doing in this manner he shall purifie his soule and his body and he shall make himselfe able God giving unto him that wisdome understanding and knowledge which he is capable of And so doing he shall come to obtain Confidence Faith and Loue and shall be Pious Iust and Holy and consequently he shall become a true Christian. Vnto this resolution I understand that Iesus Christ our Lord inviteth every one of us saying Hee that will come after me c. And as I understand it then a man is to be said to take his crosse upon him when willingly he suffers the martyrdome with which the men of the world will martyrize him whether it be of the body or of the soule That of the body the true Christians of the Primitiue Church did suffer when those which were open enemies of God and of Christ took away their lives because they believed in Christ That of the minde hath been suffered and is daily to be suffered by true Christians that haue followed the steps of the Ancient when they who are secret enemies of God of Christ doe despise them esteem them for vile and for nobody deprive them of honour and fame And as I understand it this is the most cruell and most terrible and most unsupportable martyrdome of all And a man that stands constant in this kind of martyrdome may well hold himselfe for a true martyr of Christ. Together with this I understand that to the resolutions
world and enamour of himselfe is to apply their mindes to disenamour themselves of the world not accepting of its Favours nor its Cherishments nor its flatteries but driving them away from himselfe flying them and abominating them Not pretending for all this that God being moved by this their exercise should enamour them more of himselfe but that the favours of God finding them dispoiled deprived of the favours of the world will become more effectuall in them will more penetrate and transforme them more into God and so they shall more speedily and intirely obtaine and get the Love of God That this is true every man will easily understand that shall consider how that he that hath expelled and altogether abandoned the familiarity and conversation of a base and vulgar Person comes much more easily to enamour himselfe of a Personage exceedingly qualified in worth Having passed through these considerations and understood these secrets and others that are annext unto them and that doe depend on them looking towards the Holy Scripture I have known that these things are very conformable to that which I have read therein for as much as Solomon in his Canticles doth celebrate this Enamourment between God and the soule and that the departing from God is called Adultery when the soule leaves God and applies it selfe to the World And it seemes to me that our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ leaving one that would have followed him and calling another that alleaged excuse or delay it was nothing else then to refuse the love of one and to enamour the other This selfe same as I conceive he meant to let his Apostles understand when he said unto them you have not chosen me but I have chosen you as if he should have said you have not enamoured your selves of mee but I have enamoured you This very selfe same as I understand S. Iohn meant to say when he said that to become the sons of God must proceed not from the will of man nor from mans spirit but by the will of God and by the Holy Spirit in such sort that in this present life it appertaines to a man to apply himselfe to disenamour himselfe of the world and to occupy himselfe in praying God that he would enamour him of himselfe to this effect giving unto him his holy Spirit which is obtained by believing in Christ our Lord. CONSID. XXIV That those Persons who are governed by the holy Spirit in their serving of God pretend to increase in the love of God GOd generally loves all men and he loves with particular love all those for whom he hath executed the rigour of his Iustice on his only begotten Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. Men generally hate God and they hate him with particular hatred who are guilty to have added other depravations to their naturall depravation The love which God beares men proceeds from the great things which he hath done for them in such sort that with reason he loves them more to whom justification by Christ doth appertaine And mans hatred towards God proceeds from the depravation wherewith he offends him for as it is said He that offends pardons not in such sort that with reason they most haâ—…e God that have most offended him According to reason it seemes that God being most perfect he ought to be most soveraignly beloved of man and that man being most highly imperfect ought to be most highly hated of God Likewise because man hath received many good things from the Liberality of God he oughtmuch to love God and God having received from man nothing but offences and injuries he ought to be hated of God But on the other side so great force hath the obligation which God hath to loue man for the great matters that he hath done and doth for him that however he know the height of imperfection to be in him that he is offended by him he doth not leaue to loue him it comming so to passe on Gods behalfe in this case with men as it comes to passe to a good father with a disobedient and vitious son who is more drawn by the force of that which he hath done for his son to loue him then by the disobedience and depravation of his son to hate him And likewise on the other side the hatred and enmity which a man hath to God through his naturall depravation and through the offences that he hath added to this depravation enforce so much that although man know the height of perfection in him and although he finde feel himselfe benefitted of God not only he cannot bring himselfe to loue God but also hee cannot leaue to hate him That betiding a man in this case with God that betides to a vitious and malignant son with a good father with whom his villany and malignity hath more force to hate his father then the knowledge of his fathers goodnesse and of the great obligation which he hath to his father to make him loue him Whereupon I understand that God willing to be loved of man as a good father would be loved of his sonne knowing that the impediment of this loue is that which is spoken of that he who offends pardons not executed the rigour of his justice on his own son as if a good father should say to a disobedient son See I haue chastised ' thy brother for thy disobedience and offences fince then I haue taken away the impediment loue thou me as I louethee Hence I understand that the intent which God had executing the rigour of his justice on Christ was not lesâ—…e to secure me then to satisfie himselfe Further I understand that a man who giues credit to this justice executed on Christ accepting it and making it his own doth altogether loose the hatred which he beares to God and begins to loue God even as the son who belieues that his father hath chastised his brother for that which hee had disobeyed in leaues to hate his father and begins to loue him And now I understand that as the son desiring not that his father should loue him for hee already knowes that he loues him nor much lesse that he should loue him more for he knowes that he loues him much but he himselfe desiring greatly to loue his Father applies himselfe with all his force to serue him in every thing which hee thinks to be pleasing unto him puts himselfe to great hazards for him and deprives himselfe of all his pleasures and all his satisfactions for him considering that being loved by his Father and likewise doing great things for his Father he shall come to loue his Father greatly Even so neither more nor lesse the man that is already justifi'd desiring not that God should loue him for hee knowes already that God loues him nor that he should loue him more for he knows that he loues him much but he himselfe desiring to loue God much applies himself with all his force to serve God knowing that
being helped by the holy spirit in the proper occasions they are mortified not avoiding any of them and therefore they are the same in the occasions as out of the occasions The eight Difference is That they who mortifie themselves by their proper industry doe principally attend unto the mortification of the flesh they that be such having no intent to mortifie the minde not knowing that from thence ariseth all the evill And they who are mortified by the holy Spirit attend principally unto the mortification of the minde knowing that from thence comes all the evill And knowing that the minde being mortified the flesh remaines mortified By the examination of these Differences may a person know whether he mortifies himselfe or whether hee be mortified by the holy Spirit Being advertised of this that there are three estates in those persons who are mortified by the holy Spirit The one is when the holy spirit mortifies them without that they know or feel the vertue of the holy Spirit in them And in this estate that belongs to them which is said in the fourth difference The other is when the holy spirit mortifies them and they feel and know in themselves the virtue of the holy spirit And in this estate there appertaines unto them that which is said in the first Difference The third is when through the absence of the holy Spirit or because they doe not feel and know his presence they goe mortifying themselves with their own industry And in this estate they feel a good part of that which is said in the First the Third the Fourth and the Fift Difference to be felt by them who mortifie themselves by their own proper industry It is very true that to them who are mortified by the holy spirit their owne industries in mortification are profitable unto them It being indeed true what S. Paul saith That to them that loue God all things work for good to the glory of God and of the Son of God Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LIX That in the motions to pray the Spirit doth certifie a man that he shall obtaine that which he demands REeading in Isaia that death being intimated unto Hezekiah a pious King on Gods behalfe hee resented himselfe was grieved and lamented praying God with teares that he would not take away his life And reading a litle after that the destruction of Hierusalem being intimated on Gods behalfe unto the selfesame King with the Babylonian captivity without resenting himselfe nor being grieved nor lamenting without praying God that he would revoke the sentence he was contented that the will of God should be executed accepting it as a benefit of God that those evills should not come in his time And considering that God prolonged the time of Hezekia's life and that he did execute his sentence upon Hierusalem I come to certifie my selfe that pious persons being governed by the spirit of God and chiefly in their prayers in as much as S. Paul saith The spirit of God prayes by them and in them they doe never as it were pray to God but for that which it is Gods will to grant them of which the holy spirit which inspires them to pray is certain According to the judgement of humane reason it had been more just and more convenient that Hezechiah should haue resented himselfe and lamented and been moved to pray God for the revocation of the sentence given against Hierusalem then for the revocation of that sentence which was given against his own proper life And Hezechias a pious King moved by the holy spirit prayed for his own life for that which touched Hierusalem he conformed himselfe with Gods will whereby I understand that it behoues pious persons to keep good accompt with their motions I would say they ought to bee well advertised being moved to pray to God for any thing whether that motion be of humane spirit or of the holy spirit And I understand likewise that the proper countersigne whereby they may be able to judge between these motions is the Inward certainty or uncertainty with which they shall finde themselves in prayer Finding themselves uncertain that they should obtain of God that which they demand they shall judge that the motion is of humane spirit And finding themselves certain to obtain it they shall judge that the motion is of the holy spirit For as much as the motion of the holy spirit drawes alwaies with it the certification a man judging in this manner if the spirit of God which hath moved me to pray did not know that it is the will of God to grant me that which I demand it would not haue moved me This certification I certainly hold was in Hezekiah at that time when he demanded his life to bee prolonged And because he did not feel in himselfe this certification I doe certainly hold that the selfe same Hezekiah did not demand that the sentence against Hierusalem should be revoked With this assurance I see that Christ prayed raising up Lazarus and praying for the conservation of his Disciples And with doubtfulnesse I see he prayed in the Garden and because he felt whence this motion did arise in praying he remitted himselfe unto the will of God And if the son of God himselfe felt these two motions and in one of them he found himself certain and in the other doubtfull every one may think whether it be not necessary to be watchful over himselfe in them albeit they only shall know them that shall bee true members of the same Son of God Iesus Christ our Lord. CGNSID LX. Whence it proceeds that the superstitious are severe and the true Christians are Mercifull Pittifull THE severity and rigour that I see and know for the most part in those persons which the common people holds for devout and spirituall they being in very truth superstitious and ceremonious in as much as appertaines to the chastising or desiring to chastise the vices defects of men I understand proceeds from two causes The one is the proper nature of a man who is inclined to prize and esteem his own things and to condemne and despise others And the other is the proper nature of superstitions and ceremonies to which is annexed severity and rigorousnesse And so it is that these such like superstitious and ceremonious persons desiring that their superstious and ceremonious living should be esteemed and prised are forced to be severe rigorous with workes and words against them who being not as they are haue outward defects and vices that so their manner of life which they hold for vertuous may be the more prised and esteemed And it is likewise true that superstitions and ceremonies having their originall and beginning from some kinde of law which men haue imagined and severity and rigour being annexed to the nature of a law for by these it is maintained and sustained it comes to passe that as well those who attend to the observation of the law or
the selfe same as to command me that I should be like unto him and that I should doe as hee doth Secondly that the affection of revenge proceeds from a base minde and that the inclination to pardon proceeds from a generous Thirdly that a Christian man seeing that he can with greater ease pardon an injury then revenge it he knowes that God will have from him that which is very easie for him to doe and that which is more convenient for him and more profitable to him And by this meanes I know how great the love is which God beares unto men for whom he hath executed the rigour of his justice in his onely begotten sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. V. The difficulty that is to enter into the kingdome of God how it is to be entred and in what it consists NAturally man trusteth not himselfe of another man but in that which he cannot doe of himselfe nor also doth he put confidence in God except in that which hee knowes and sees that hee is not able to obtaine by meanes of any creature so great is the impiety of mans minde And hence it proceeds that he who hath greater favour of the creatures doth bring himselfe with greater difficulty to have confidence in God That this is true we may from hence understand that of infirme people they are onely brought to remit themselves to the will of God that have not the meanes to pay Physitians nor physique and they who although they have meanes are come to those tearmes that they have no more hope at all neither in the one or other of these things From whence I consider the perversity of man and I also consider the goodnesse of God in as much as he doth help and favour them who when they can doe no otherwise remit themselves to his divine will and for the rest he regards not how pious or how impious we be but only hath respect to this that he hath promised his help to them that shall remit themselves to him and that it belongs to him to maintain his promise That this is true we haue the proof every houre not only in that which we have of sicknesse but also in all other things that befall men in this present life This selfe same thing which we see by experience in outward things I hold for certain that we may also see in inward things forasmuch as a man is never brought to remit to God his justification nor his resurrection nor his eternall life untill he see and know that this cannot be obtained by meanes of the creatures Now considering that as well for outward as for the inward things the rich man hath the meanes according to his own opinion to bee able to serve himselfe of the creatures without remitting himselfe to the will of God that he should doe with him according as it seemes to him I know the cause why Christ saith that a rich man enters with difficulty into the kingdome of Heaven that is comes to remit himselfe unto the will of God and to suffer himselfe to be ruled and governed by God renoūcing the regiment and goverment of humane wisdome and renouncing the favour of the creatures Whereupon I gather that he whom God will set in his kingdome whether he be rich or whether he be poor first he opens his eyes that he may see his own impossibility and the impossibility that all creatures haue to bee able to giue him that which he pretends would haue And I consider that the difference that is betweene the Pious and the wicked when they recommend themselves to God consisteth in this that the wicked remits himselfe to God because he can doe no otherwise the Pious remits himselfe to God even when he might help and serve himselfe of the creatures and this as well in the outward things as also in the inward And I suppose that a man may come to know when he trusteth in God for inward things by that which he shall finde in himselfe touching his trusting in God for externall things They which are in the kingdome of God after this manner which I haue spoken of are the poore in spirit which Christ commends And such a one did David feel himselfe when he called himselfe poore and a beggar And they as I understand haue impart obtained that which is demanded when we say Thy Kingdome come And considering the felicity that doth consist in the being and persevering in this kingdome I understand the cause why Saint Iohn began his preaching from this kingdome and the cause why Christ began from the self same and the cause why he sent his Apostles for the self-same effect Whence I gather that the beginning the middle and end of Christian preaching ought to be to preach the kingdome of God and to enforce men that they should enter thereinto renouncing the kingdome of the world all that appertaines thereunto The men that are as it were natiue in this kingdome I consider that they are planted in God as a Tree is planted in the earth And as the tree maintaines it selfe and produceth Flowres and Fruits by the vertue which th◅ earth communicates unto it So he also that stands in the kingdome of God maintaines himselfe and produceth flowres fruits by the spirit of God which governeth ruleth him And he that is such is the sonne of God is just and shall arriue glorious and have everlasting life For he is conformable to Iesus Christ the sonne of God And he that is such a one doth as it were for vantage enjoy of the things of this present life litle or much according as it appertaines to the glory of God Between that which they that are without this kingdome of God know and understand of it by that which they read and by that which they heare and that which they who are in it understand and know of this selfe-same kingdome by that which they feel and that which they proue in themselues I know a much greater difference then between that which they know understād of the regiment and goverment of a most perfect King by that which they read by that which they heare being themselues out of the same and that which they know and understand of the selfesame regiment and goverment by that which they see and proue being themselues under the same I will adde this which in my judgement is to the purpose that according as the qualities of the hearbs that are in the selfe same medow are different so they doe diversly participate of the vertue of the earth some more some lesse and some in one manner and some in another Even so as the constitutions of them who are in the kingdome of God are different so doth God diversly communicate unto them of his spirit to him more to him lesse to him after one manner and to him after another and all are in the same kingdome all participate of the selfe
that Christ counselling his to say Thy will be done does counâ—…ell them to haue this desire of which I haue spoken and that they should alwaies sigh â—…n this mâ—…nner as if he should haue said Craue of God that he would make you exempt from that ordinary Regiment and government and make you free from the government of his Mediate Will that he set you in that of his Immediate Will in such sort that like as the heavenly armies are immediatly governed of God so you also that are on earth may bee immediatly governed of God! Whence I gather that when a pious person shall feele himselfe troubled and molested in his body or in his minde it shall be well that attributing that trouble and molestation to the subjection of that will of God which is mediate he should feele in himselfe the evill of Adam and that desiring and sighing to feele the good of Christ he should say to God Thy will be done Free me Lord from this thy mediate and generall will set me in thy immediate and particular will deprive me of the feeling of evill of the disobedience of Adam and set me in the feeling of good of the obedience of Christ They who say these words Thy will be done and understand it not in this manner if they shall well examine their mindes I am assured they shall find they say because they cannot choose for if so be they could cause that God should doe that which they would they would not easily remit themselves to the Will of God but when they cannot put in execution their own wills they say unto God Thy will be done making a vertue of necessity They who say unto God Thy will be done pretending as is said to bee subject to the Will of God that is Immediate they say it with all their minde they say it with the holy Spirit and they say it in that sense which Iesus Christ our Saviour intended it should be said I doe not understand that in that Will of God which I call Mediate there is not a particular providence of God but I understand that that providence is generall to many persons such as is to raine the sun shine c. of which things many enjoy their parts And the Immediate Will I understand it is a more particular and more favourable providence with them who are elected such as it was in giving us Christ and such as are other favours which are done more to one then to another of which sometimes some wicked like wise haue their part although that bee not Gods principâ—…l intent so as when he staid the Sun through Ioshuah's prayers of that favour many wicked had their part as man may say by chance the people of God enjoying it much otherwise because they felt the favour of God In this selfesame manner a man may discourse through all outward favours which God doth unto his of which others likewise that are not his doe alwaies enjoy some part but they doe not know that more particular and more favourable providence and Will of God and so as much as concernes them they are things that come by chance I resolue therefore my selfe in this that saying the Mediate Will of God I understand that particular providence of God which is with naturall order in which alwaies God doth concurre and that saying the Immediate Will of God I understand the more particular and favourable providence of God by which the naturall order is altred And to this I attribute all that which God works in his and for his And I call them his who are incorporated with Iesus Christ our Lord CONSID. XLI That God will that Pious Persons should know that all things are to come from him and that they should pretend to haue them all of him COnsidering that Iesus Christ our Lord certifies every pious person that hee shall obtain from his eternall Father all that which with confidence he shall demand in Prayer and experimenting in my selfe and finding the selfesame experience in other persons addicted unto piety that sometimes I doe lesse fully obtain that which I demand when to my seeming I haue most confidence in prayer And that sometimes I doe obtain that which I demand when to my seeming I haue lesse confidence in prayer I suppose that God so demands of a man confidence in his prayers as he demands of him all his loue God well knows that a man cannot Loue him with all his heart and he well knows that he cannot haue confidence in prayer for both the one and the other is contrary to his naturall inclination and it is necessary that both the one and the other should come from him And hee requires it of man because man should know himselfe and knowing himselfe should humble himselfe and remit himselfe to the mercy of God and should not pretend to be able to doe any thing of himselfe And because hee knowes that a mans minde is most arrogant he is sometimes the more deafe to a mans petition when it seems to a man himselfe to haue greatest confidence in his praier This God doth to the intent that a man should not attribute that to his own confidence which hee obtaines by prayer and to the intent that hee should understand the difference between that confidence which is properly his own and that which comes from God And to the intenâ—…â—…e migâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…hat 〈◊〉 â—…akes â—…nd not of him and that hee loves him sometimes hee gives him that which he demands when to his owne seeming hee hath least confidence other times he gives it him without demanding only upon desiring and sometimes he gives him that which he would it may be desire without any desiring at all Whereupon I understand that God would have from a man that hee should apply his minde to give all his love unto him to have confidence only in him to hope from him all whatever appertaines to this present life or to the future With this application and with this propension I understand that a man obtaines two principall things the one that God winkes at his coldnesse in love his weakenesse in confidence and his impatience in hope and the other that God himselfe by litle and litle goes inflaming him in loue fortifying him in confidence animating him in hope and so he comes to fulfill that which Iesus Christ our Lord promised CONSID. XLII In what sort a pious person ought to governe himselfe in the state of prosperity and in inward adversity IT comes to passe that a pious person finding himselfe in a dry and discontented estate findes himselfe likewise without confidence and as it were an Infidell And it comes to passe that the selfe same finding himselfe in another estate with satisfaction and with joy and content findes himselfe together therewith full of confidence and full of faith whereupon the enemy of mankinde willing to disturbe his felicity comes to perswade him that he trusteth and believeth for
them for this but for another And for a man to be thus not contented of this life only as I understand it is a great countersigne for a man to bee assured of his piety and of his Predestination For I hold for certaine that to them to whom God meanes to give eternall life hee doth also put a great love and great affection of it in such sort that hee who shall finde in his minde a desire that there were no other life let him hold himselfe impious although hee would choose to die and let him not despaire For albeit he be out of piety hee ought to thinke that God is able to draw him out of it as he hath drawn and doth draw all them that have beene and are in it And hee who shall finde in his minde a love of eternall life not contenting himselfe with ◅his present may hold himselfe for pious and for predestinated unto life everlasting although he feare death considering all this which hath beene said and above all that even the only Begotten Sonne of God feared Death Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XLVI That they who walke through the Christian path without the inward light of the holy Spirit are like unto them that walke in the night without the light of the Sunne ALL they who being guided only by their naturall light and by humane wisdome presume to understand the things that are of the Spirit of God to walk in the Christian way that is to live Christianly I liken them to a man that goes by night with the light only of his own eyes through a way that is full of dangers and inconveniencies And it seemes to me that as to such a one sometimes a piece of wood will seeme a thiefe and a stone an armed man and thereupon he will fly and be afraid and another time the water will seeme a stone and he will wet himselfe and the shadow will seeme to him a tree and thinking to leane to it he will fall on the ground Even so neither more nor lesse hee that walkes Gods way being guided by his naturall light is sometimes affrighted by those things which ought not to affright him and is sometimes secured and reposeth himselfe on those things on which he ought not to secure nor repose And so going hee goes on groping like a man amazed and without knowing what he doth Hee that walkes by the light of the holy Scripture and by the examples of Saints but without the Spirit I liken him unto one that walkes by night carying a candle in his hand and goes not altogether in the darke but yet notwitstanding he goes not without feare nor hee goes not secure in his minde nor certaine not to fall into many inconveniences Whereupon I understand that as to the traveller of whome I have spoken that travels by night by the light of his owne eyes only the best and most wholesome counsell that could be given him were that hee should stay in his journey whilst the night lasteth untill such time as the ◅unne were risen and would shew him the way and the things that are in it and he might travell being helped by the light of his own eyes Even so to him that walkes Gods way only with his naturall light with the testimony of Scriptures and with the example of Saints the best and most wholesome counsell that could be given him is that he should firme himselfe in his journey whilst the night of his owne proper blindnesse continueth untill such time that God send him his spirit by meanes whereof with his naturall light◅ and with his wisedome hee may be able well to understand the journee and to see all that is therein And if any person shall demand me saying How shall I doe to firme my selfe in this journey I will answer him Exercise not thy selfe in any thing pretending Iustification thereby nor Religion of any sort nor of any quality and pray God affectionately that hee would send thee his Spirit which may be unto thee as a Sunne in this journey wherein by thine owne wisedome thou neither knowest nor canst travell and stand attentive all the time that God shall deferre to send unto thee his Spirit applying thy selfe to all those things which offer themselves to thee in which thou knowest true piety without any mixture of superstition and content thy selfe of whatsoever God doth and be discontented of all whatever thou dost thy selfe This is that which I should say unto him And I understand that as if the sunne should breake forth altogether with all his splendor it would in such sort blind the eyes of the Traveller of whom I have spoken that he would not be able to make any more use of them then as if it were night Even so in like manner if the Spirit of God should at once give unto a person all that knowledge which he gives in lengh of time it would blind him and put him in greater inconvenience then at first And because this is true I understand that our God rich in liberality and in mercy gives unto us his spirit and he gives it unto us in such manner as it may helpe and not harme us not according to our appetites but according to his eternall wisedome by which as a good Father he governeth them who are his sonnes remaining incorporated in his only Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XLVII Foure Counter-signes to know them by who pretend piety and the spirit not having either the one or the other VNderstanding that the false Prophets of whom our Lord Iesus Christ counselleth us to beware because they shew themselves as Sheep and are Wolves are properly those who having entred themselves into Christian piety pretending by their own exercises and by their own industry to obtain the spirit of God and to become spirituall and not being able to compasse their intent remain alwaies impious in their minds although they dissemble and feigne piety as much as it may bee feigned with strange superstitiōns and other ceremonies which haue an appearance of piety understanding likewise that the cause why Iesus Christ our Lord ◅aith unto us That we should beware of them is because they are the most pernitious pestilence that can be for them who attend unto piety in as much as having ◅ost the shame of the world and having renounced honour and outward reputation and having lost the respect unto God and to all religion they doe only attend to doe all the dammage that they can to piety and to those persons that attend unto it finding the dore open thereunto by the communication and conversation that they haue with such persons Now desiring that pious and spirituall persons should know these kinds of Wolves that make themselus Sheep and knowing them should beware to converse and deale with them with that dove-like simplicity which they haue obtained through the holy Spirit using that serpentine wisdome which is naturall unto them I haue
God without depraving themselves and without loosing charity nay rather illustrating the glory of God mortifying themselves and growing in charity they come to belieue that God doth all things some with his mediate will and others with his immediate will some as in vessels of hatred of wrath and disfavour and others as in vessels of loue of mercy and favour And those are they who amongst all men are pious knowing God and are iust knowing the Son of God Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. L. In what the Depravation of man doth consist and in what his Reparation doth consist In what Christian Perfection doth consist COnsidering that which I understand and know of Gods being in as much as he is impassible and immortall and in as much as he is wise just and mercifull faithfull and true and considering that which I understand and know of the being of a man in as much as he is passible and Mortall and in as much as he is ignorant impious vindicative false and a lier And understanding by the testimony of holy Scripture that man in his first creation was created after the Image and similitude of God I come to understand that there is as much difference from the kinde of being in which God created man to that kinde of being wherein hee now is and abides as from that being which I know of God to that being which I know of man And knowing by testimony of holy Scripture that for the sinne of the first man from that first perfect being and that being like unto God man is come to this imperfect being and like unto the being of other animals in as much as pertaines to his body and to the being of evill spirits as touching his soule I come to understand that the evill which is to come to mankind by the sinne of the first man consists in this that of impassible he is become passible subject to cold and to heate to hunger and to thrist with all other corporall incommodities and of immortall hee is become mortall subject unto death and of wise he is become ignorant of just impious of mercifull vindicative of faithfull false and of true a lier Whereby I understand that because the evill into which mankinde fell through sin toucheth men in their bodies and in their mindes the grace which God hath pleased to doe unto mankinde by meanes of Iesus Christ our Lord appertaines likewise both to bodies and to mindes and so it is that assoone as a man is called of God he doth accept for his the Iustice of God executed on Christ being made a member of Christ hee begins to be partaker of that first Reparation which is of the minde and is by the death of Christ And it is also true that that man who shall depart from this life a member of Christ shall be partaker of the last Reparation which shall be of the body and shall be by the resurrection of Christ and shall be in the generall resurrection of all men in such sort as they who are members of Christ by the death of Christ doe repaire the evill of their mindes in this present life if not altogether yet in part and they doe repaire by the resurrection of Iesus Christ the evill of their body in life everlasting and then shall they have recovered intirely that Image and that similitude of God with which they were created being in their bodies impassible and immortall and being in their mindes just wise mercifull faithfull and true in which I understand our whole felicity doth consist After that I have understood all this I resolve my selfe that the proper exercise of a Christian in this present life is to attend unto the reparation of his minde to recover the image and similitude of God with which he was created And albeit as I haue said so much of this is recovered as there is as a man may say of the incorporation in the death of Christ in a man neverthelesse I understand it appertaines to a Christian to exercise him selfe to recover it in this manner When he shall be sollicited by the depravation of his minde unto impiety remembring himselfe that God is just he shall say no to me it belongs to be just and not impious When he shall be sollicited unto revenge remembring himselfe that God is mercifull he shall say no to me it appertaines to be mercifull and not vindicatiue When he shall be sollicited unto wrath remembring himselfe that God is patient he shall say no to me it appertaines to be patient and not wrathfull When he shall be sollicited to falsity and lyes remembring himselfe that God is faithfull and true he shall say no to me it appertaines to be faithfull and true When he shall be sollicited to desire to bee esteemed and prized of the men of this world remembring himselfe that God is a Pilgrim and stranger in this present life he shall say no for to me it appertaines to be a pilgrim and stranger with God that I may be altogether like unto God And finally when he shall be sollicited to any thing which may redound to the hurt of his neighbour in any sort whatsoever remembring himselfe that God loues men so much that to repaire their evill and dammage in which they were thrown down headlong he gaue his own Son unto death hee shall say no to me it appertaines to haue loue and charity And so running through all those things with which a man may be sollicited by his own affections through the depravation of the minde he shall finde perfections in God with which he may represse them and so by litle and litle hee shall goe augmenting in himselfe the reparation of his minde which is the first thing and hee shall goe every houre more abilitating the reparation of his body which is the last And in this exercise I understand the Christian perfection consisteth I would say that 〈◊〉 is a Christian more or lesse perfect in this life 〈◊〉 â—…ch as occupying himselfe more or lesse in this exercise he doth obtain more or lesse of that part which is to be gotten in this present life of the image and likenesse of God with which he was created And for this cause I understand that our Lord Iesus Christ concludeth his discourses of Christian perfection saying Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect As if he should haue said Finally I say unto you that you attend to be like unto God in perfection He is perfect and you also attend to bee perfect as he is And this is properly a Christian admonition in as much as it is of Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LI. In what manner God makes himselfe to be felt and in what manner God makes himselfe to bee seene HAving oftentimes said that to those persons who are entered into the kingdome of God accepting the grace of the Gospell God makes them to Feele his presence and to the selfe same he lets his presence
diligence which a man useth with intent to increase his estate his honour and his reputation and to conserve himselfe in that which he hath got In such sort as there are two parts of the Ambitious Affection the first to encrease the second to maintain Humane wisdome judgeth them free from the affection of Ambition who set an end to growing and in very truth they are free from a good part thereof Yet the other remains which is so much harder to leave by how much humane wisdome doth not know it nay rather judgeth them vile and of no worth that haue it not But the holy Spitit which knows it judgeth them ambitious which haue it will that they whom he governs should utterly leaue it renounce it and free themselves in such manner that they haue no intent to grow in the eyes of the world nor haue intent to conserve themselves although it require not of them that they should studiously and for their own phantasies doe things by which they should come to bee abased and diminished from that state of honour and reputation wherein they finde themselves contenting it selfe that they should reduce their mindes to increase decrease according as it shall be Gods will And it will also that together herewith they should employ themselues altogether in all things to augment themselves in the eyes of God and to conserve themselves in that wherein they shall be augmented And therefore to the pious Christian who ought to learne humility of Christ to reduce himselfe to be like unto Christ in his humility it appertaines to set an end to all ambition dispoyling himselfe of all affection and thoughts touching his advancement in the things of this world or touching his conserving himselfe in them thinking only to augment himselfe in the things of God Trusting Hoping Loving and procuring to conserve himselfe in that which he shall haue obtained touching Confidence Hope and Loue resolving himselfe that that which appertaines to him is to please God and them who are partakers of the Spirit of God and not the world nor those who follow the opinions and counsels of humane wisdome and doing so they shall become like our Lord Iesus Christ. CONSID. LIII In what manner the men of the world attending unto Honour are lesse vitious then attending unto conscience ALL men are generally maligne and perverse in so much as to walke amongst them is the same as to walk amongst Tygres and Lions and amongst Vipers and Serpents except only in as much as their furies and their outrages are tied by some chaines amongst which the chiefest and most strong are Honour in as much as pertaines to this present life and Conscience for the life to come I would say that the intent of the Honour of the world doth bridle some men that they are not so vitious nor so licentious in their living as they would be following their naturall inclination And some other men the feare of eternall punishment bridleth for they think if I doe this I shall offend God and he will chastise me with eternall punishment And this is the conscience in such manner that a man may say that all men who are not governed by the holy spirit are like many Lions that sta◅d chained that they should not doe harme but in such manner◅ as breaking the chaines with their fury they doe evill according to their naturall inclination in as much as the men that stand bound with these chaynes doe not evill nor are licentious but the chaines being broken with their fury and rage they doe evill according to their naturall inclination Whereupon considering that of these chaines with which men stand bound the strongest is the honour of the world in as much as a man doth more easily cast his conscience behind then his honor I come to understād that the men who attend unto the honor of the world because they are tyed with the stronger chayne are amongst the other men of the world the least vitious and least licentious partly by their own proper inclinations for being subject to the goverment of humane wisdome they doe much esteem Honour partly for respect of those persons with whom they take counsell who being partly themselves applyed to Honour and understanding it doe alwaies counsell rightly according to that which belongs to Honour which doth not so happen in conscience in as much as a man is not of himselfe inclined unto it either because he doth not believe more then he sees or because he doubts or because he puts himselfe upon the hazard and in as much as willing to be counselled in those things whereof he doubts he takes counsell with other men who neither are applied to conscience nor understand it and so cannot counsell rightly accorping to that which is due to conscience That this is true he shall clearly know whosoever shall come to examine himselfe finding it true that they doe more esteem Honour then Conscience and that they are more resolutely and more virtuously counselled in a businesse when they put it in a case of Honour then when they put it in a case of conscience And it may bee that the cause wherefore according as it is reported they liue lesse vitiously amongst the Infidels then amongst those who are called Christians is because they in most things attend unto Honour and these in many things attend unto Conscience Out of this generality I except regenerated men renewed by the holy spirit who without being bound with chaines liue modestly and temperately In this they are governed by the holy Spirit which is communicated unto them that belieue In whom this goverment is so powerfull that without being bound with any chayne for they feare not dishonour nor are of scrupulous conscience and yet they passe the men of the world in not being vitious and licentious having slaine all their affections on the Crosse of Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LIIII That Prayer and Consideration are two books or Interpreters very sure ones to understand holy Scripture and how a man ought to serve himselfe of them I Hold it for a very certain and very true thing that for the understanding of holy Scripture the best the most certain and the highest interpreters of all that a man can finde are these two Prayer and Consideration Prayer as I understand discovers the way and opens and manifesteth it And Consideration I understand puts a man into it and makes him walke therein Furthermore I understand that it is necessary that these two interpreters or books should bee helped on Gods part he inspiring him who prayes to pray For I understand that he who prayes not being inspired to pray praies out of his own proper phantasie out of his owne proper affection and out of his own proper will and not knowing to pray as he ought is not heard in his prayer and he who prayes being inspired to pray prayes for the glory of God and prayes for the will of
of the Ceremonies and Superstitions that arise frō it as also they who attend to cause others to obserue them are severe and rigorous against them that doe not obserue thē From hence I understand the cause whence the severity and rigour in the Hebrewes did proceed And hereby I doe not marvell if they that in being superstitious and ceremonious are like unto the Hebrewes are also severe against the vices and defects of men And that which I more esteem is that hereby I understand why God in the time of the law was severe and rigorous shewing more severity and rigorousnesse unto men then piety and mercy although he did shew them both the one and the other And I esteem it much more that hereby I understand that because after that God sent his onely begotten son Iesus Christ our Lord into the world men stand not subiect to the Law but under the Gospell which is estranged from severity and rigour it comes to passe that they who belong unto the Gospell being the people of God are not severe nor rigorous against the vices and defects of men but are rather pittifull and mercifull And also it comes from hence that God shews more pitty and mercy then severity and rigour In such manner that the affection of severity and rigour in a man is a signe of self-selfe-loue and of a minde subject to the law to superstitions ceremonies as were the minds of the Hebrews And a pittifull and mercifull affection is a signe of mortification and of a minde freed from the Law by the Gospell such are those of true Christians members of Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXI In what manner a pious person governes himselfe in those things that befall him EVery Pious person in those things that come unto him in this present life as I understand governes himself in this manner The accidents being of that quality that his own will concurres not in them if they be adverse and contrary as the losse of honour or of estate or the death of some person deare unto him he comforts himselfe saying so it hath pleased God And if they be prosperous and favourable as the increase of outward and inward goods he doth not pride himselfe considering this is the work of God and not mine The things being of that quality that his own proper will concurres in them if they be of evill such as are his proper defects and sins he embraceth himselfe with Christ saying If in me there be defects and sins there is in Christ satisfaction and justification And if they be of good and of favour in outward works or in inward sentiments he doth not grow proud because in such matters he sees the goodnesse of God and not his own proper goodnesse And I understand that the content which such a person finds in those things which he doth well is much like to the content which a person may feel when a person makes a good letter because another that writes well leads his hand by his I would say that as such a person contents himselfe seeing a letter made with his hand although not with his industry attributing the industry to him that guided his hand and attributing to himselfe the errours that are in the letter knowing that the other would haue made a better with his own hand so the spirituall person doth content himselfe of the consideration of the works which God doth in him and by him attributing them to God and attributing to himselfe the errors that are in his works knowing that they would be much better if God had done them without him That this is true they shall understand by proper experience who haue a rellish of the things of the holy spirit which are obtained by Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXII That humane wisdome hath no more iurisdiction in the judgement of their workes who are the sonnes of God then in the iudgement of the proper works of God IN the selfe same manner and for the selfe same cause which S. Paul understood that they who are governed by the spirit of God are the sonnes of God I understand that they who are the sonnes of God are governed by the spirit of God And I understand that as humane wisdome is uncapable of the knowledge of God so likewise it is uncapable of the knowledge of them who are the sonnes of God And even as humane wisdome penetrateth not to understand the admirable ccunsell that is in the works of God neither doth it also penetrate to understand the divine counsell that is in the works of them who are the sonnes of God Both those and these being done by the spirit of God Farther I understand that humane wisdome when it sets it selfe to judge the works of them that are the sons of God condemning and taxing them through cause of that selfe same temerity which appeares when it sets it selfe to judge the works of God condemning them and calumniating them I would say that that rashnesse of men is not lesse which follow the iudgement of humane wisdome when they sett themselves to iudge evill of Moses for the Hebrews whom he slew when they worshipped the Calfe and when they sett themselves to judge evill of Abraham because he commanded his wife Sarah that she should lye saying that she was his sister and not his wife And because S. Paul cursed Ananias standing at iudgement in his presence And because hee excused his cursing saying he did not know him And when in like manner they set themselves to iudge certain things like unto these which the sonnes of God doe being governed by the spirit of God which according to the iudgement of humane wisdome are absurd and reproveable and according to the iudgement of God are holy and good I say that this is no lesse rashnesse then that with which they sett themselves to iudge evill of God because he favours many lewd men with temporall good depriving many good and because hee doth other things which humane wisdome calumniates and condemnes and for which humane Laws doe rigorously chastise those men that doe them In as much as humane wisdome hath no more iurisdiction in the iudgement of the works of pious men then in the iudgement of the works of God they being done by God himselfe and the other by those who being the Sonnes of God are governed by the spirit of God and therefore are free and exempt frō all humane law as God himselfe is free and exempt I would say that men should not haue had more reason to haue chastised Abraham if he had killed his soone Isaac then to condemne God because he slaies many men by suddain death But this goverment of the spirit of God is not known nor vnderstood but of them who are partakers of the spirit of God itselfe as it is known by experience and as it is said by S. Paul the great Preacher of the Gospell of God and of Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXIII
on heare-say having neither certain knowledge nor proper experience nay rather neither pretending the one nor procuring the other and that which is worse reprehending them who pretend the certaine knowledge and procure the experience not contenting themselues to testifie on heare-say by relation of others And in divine matters I understand that they haue certain knowledge whoknow God and Christ by revelation and inspiration of which things they only can giue testimony who haue them and their testimonie is true The other albeit they giue testimony of themselues by heare-say their testimony is not true because they doe not think as they speak And in the selfe same things of God I understand that they haue experience who finde and feele in themselves the effects which the knowledge of Christ which makes them just works in them and by consequence the effects of piety and the effects of justification All other men when they giue testimonie of these things not having the experience of them their testimony is not true because they doe not think what they speak From all this I come to gather that a man ought to judge himselfe incredulous and defectiue in the Faith as long as he hath not so much faith as sufficeth therewith to remoue mountaines from one place to another that judging himselfe such he ought to demand of God that he should giue him faith not contenting himselfe to testifie in divine things by heare-say and byrelation but by certain knowledge and proper experience Furthermore I come to gather that there being in effect as much faith in a man as there is knowledge of God and Christ and that by faith a man gets iustification and by justification he gets glorification and life eternall And that God being able to giue in an instant to a man so much knowledge of himselfe and of Christ letting himselfe to be known and shewing forth Christ unto him so much as sufficeth to belieue wee ought not to distrust of the salvation of a man whilst his soule in his body alwaies hoping that God will doe with him that which hee can doe and that which hee useth suffering himselfe to bee known and shewing Christ unto him to the intent that knowing he may belieue and loue and belieuing he may enioy the Christian iustification and enioying the Christian iustification he may goe to liue and reign with Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXX In what those three gifts of God Faith Hope and Charity doe consist and in what their eminency amongst other gifts doth consist and the eminency of Charity amongst the three gifts COnsidering that the Apostle sets forth the most high and excellent amongst the gifts of God Faith Hope and Charity I have oftimes set my selfe to examine in what this eminency doth consist and not having been able to understand in what they consist it seemes to mee that I am not able to understand in what their eminency amongst the rest doth consist Now begining to mine ownseeming a little to understand in what they consist I begin likewise to feele in what their eminency doth confist Faith as I understand consists in this that a man should believe and hold for certain all that which is contained in holy Scripture having confidence in the divine promises that are contained in it as if to him properly and principally they had been made Of the two parts of faith which are to believe and to have confidence I understand that of one of them a mans mind is in some manner capable I would say that a man is able to bring himselfe to believe or at least to perswade himselfe that he doth believe And of the other I understand he is incapable I would say he is not able of himselfe to reduce himselfe to have confidence nor to perswade himselfe that he hath confidence In such sort as he who believes and hath not confidence shewes that his beliefe is industry and humane wit and not divine inspiration And he who believing hath confidence shewes that his belief is inspiration and Revelation Whereupon I understand that to have confidence is a good countersigne in a man to certify himselfe that he believes by inspiration and revelation Hope as I understand consists in Patience and in the sufferance with which a man that believes and hath confidence expects the accomplishment of the Promises of God without putting himselfe into the Divells service with impiety nor into that of the world with vanity nor into that of his own flesh with vice Like as a captain who having promise from the Emperor that at his coming into Italy he will use his service albeit the Emperor slow his journey and he be sollicited by many Princes that would serve themselves of him will accept no party expecting the coming of the Emperor fearing that if he come and find him in others service he will not accept him to his own service This Hope presupposeth Faith I would say that to expect it is necessary that there should be Faith in him who hopes with which he should give credit to that which is told him and have confidence in that which is promised him For otherwise he should not be able to maintaine himselfe in expecting And that Hope doth properly consist in this I understand by some speeches which we read in the Gospell such as is that of the Ten virgins who did expect the Bridegroome and that of men that expect their Lord when he returnes Charity I understand consists in the love and in the affection which a man that believes hath confidence and Hopes carries to God and to Christ and likewise to the things of God and of Christ standing properly affectionated and enamoured of believing of having confidence and of hoping in such manner that because he who hath these three gifts of God stands united with God believing hoping and loving with great reason are these three gifts the most high and most excellent amongst all the other Having understood in what these three gifts of God consists and in what their eminency doth consist and desiring to understand for what cause the selfe same Apostle puts Charity for more eminent then Faith and Hope I think and hold for certain that the eminency consists in this that he who believes hath confidence shall never stand solid in the Faith if he finde not a tast and rellish in the believing and in the hauing confidence nor shall he stand solid in Hope if he doe not finde a tast and rellish in the Hope Charity therefore being that which gives the tast and savour with which Faith is sustained and Hope it well followes that Charity is the most eminent between Faith and Hope in as much as it maintaines and upholds the other and it by it selfe alone maintaines and upholds it selfe and in as much as Faith shall faile when there shall be nothing to believe nor to have confidence in and Hope shall faile when Christ being returned and the resurrection of
the just being made there shall be nothing more to hope but Charity shall never faile for there shall be alwaies what to Love and there shall be alwaies what to tast For in eternall life we shall love God and Christ and we shall finde rellish and savour in the contemplation of God and of Christ wee who in this present life have lived with Faith Hope and Charity being incorporated in Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXXI Vpon the most holy prayer of OUR FATHER IN the most holy prayer of Our Father I consider all this First that calling God Father it becomes me to reduce my selfe to hope from God all that which an obedient son may hope from a most good and loving Father And albeit I am a disobedient Son it matters not For God considers me not by that which I am of my selfe but by that which I am by Christ of whom I am a member and who was a most obedient Son through which Sonship I call God Father If I should call him Father for the common generations sake my being would be of importance but calling him so through particular regeneration my being imports not to make mee obedient or disobedient but as I have said the being of Christ who was most obedient And farthermore I understand that it is necessary that I should reduce my selfe to be with God such a one as a good and obedient Son is with his Father Secondly I consider that saying Our I presuppose that I hold for brethren all those who through regeneration hold God for their Father and that I ought to govern my selfe with them as with brethren Thirdly I consider that because God is where he is known holy Scripture useth to say that God is in Heaven for there God is known God is in all his creatures but it is not said that he is but only in them who know him and where he lets himselfe to be known Fourthly I consider that the proper desire of a pious Christian is that Gods Name should be sanctified I would say that God should be esteemed and judged of every one for Holy and for just in all his works as he is in truth Humane wisdome not finding holinesse nor justice in many of those things which be fall men in this life flying from the inconvenience of attributing injustice to God falls into another inconvenience depriving God of his particular Providence in all things And the holy spirit knowing in all things holinesse and justice on Gods part doth not doubt to attribute them all to God desiring that men captivating the judgement of their own humane wisdome should sanctify the name of God confessing and holding that God doth all things and that in all things is holinesse and justice There are some men who sanctify God in the things which they judge good drawing themselves back in those things which they judge to be evill And there are other men who sanctify God generally in all things but with the mouth and not with the heart And the desire of the Pious Christian is that God should be sanctified in all things and that the sanctification should come from the Heart for in this manner God will be sanctified Fiftly I consider that the proper and continuall sighing of a pious Christian consists in the desire that the Kingdome of God should suddenly come when the resurrection of the just being made Christ shall consigne the Kingdome to his eternall father For that shall be properly the Kingdome of God in as much as the just shall be governed immediatly by God seeing God himselfe face to face God reignes in this present life in the just but by Christ as he gives light but by the Sunne and God shall reigne in life eternall by himselfe as by himselfe he shall give light Sixtly I consider that the pious Christians flying from the will of God which is with wrath and that which is mediat by those things which we call second causes doe demand that that will of God should be executed here on earth which is executed in heaven understanding that which is with mercy and with love and that which is immediat by God himselfe Seventhly I consider that the Pious Christians feeling that through the curse for the first mans sinne it results that they eat their bread with sorrow and care they demand of God that freeing them from the sollicitude and the griefe he should provide them of ordinary sustentation in such manner that they may be provided and sustained according to their necessities without griefe or sollicitousnesse acknowledging their sustentation only from the liberality of God and even in this beginning to feele the remedy of the first mans sinne together there with feeling the benefit of Christ. Eightly I consider that the pious Christians not because they make any doubt of the generall pardon which they have had by the justice of God executed in Christ for of this they are most assured but because they rejoyce to remember themselves that they are debtors which remembrance breeds in them humility in the sight of God they aske alwaies of God that he would pardon them those things for which he might in justice chastize them And I understand that they alleage the pardon which they have given to them who were their debtors rather to oblige themselves to pardon then to oblige God that he should for such cause pardon them This I understand thus by that which Iesus Christ himself ads in the Gospell saying If you pardon you shall be pardoned Ninthly I consider that the pious Christians knowing their own weaknesse fear the Temptation in as much as it may sever them from Christian decorum and knowing here with the necessity which they have to be mortified with temptations they demand of God not that he should not tempt them but that the temptations may be of that quality that they should not make them to loose the Christian decorum Tenthly I consider that pious Christians having understood that many are the evills that combat the just they are afraid to be oppressed by them and knowing the frailty of their own forces to be able to make resistance they have recourse to God demanding of him that he should free them from all In these desires and in these demands I understand that pious persons stand and persevere not only through the outward doctrine of Iesus Christ our Lord which they finde written in his history but also through the inward doctrine of the holy spirit who puts these desires into their mindes and moves them to demand these things And they who with the outward Doctrine of Christ have not that inward of the holy spirit in praying â—…s taught and not inspired doe not pray as the true and lively members of Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXXII That man pretending that part of the image of God which did not appertaine unto him lost that part which did appertaine to him IN the creation of man I read that he was
most christianly and when they would bring themselves with humane industry to have confidence to believe and love finde most difficulty in this are true Christians incorporated in Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXXVIII Two griefes one according to the world and the other according to God And two weaknesses one according to the flesh and the other according to the Spirit AS Saint Paul puts two griefes one according to the world and saith that this causeth death and the other according to God and saith that this causeth life Even so I put two weaknesses one according to the Flesh and I understand that this causeth feare and another according to the spirit and I understand this causeth love And I put them because I feele them in the Griefes which S. Paul puts understanding that then a man feeles griefe according to the world when he falls into some such inconvenience as causeth shame or losse or any other discommodity in the eyes of the world in the reputation and dignity of the world And I understand that this griefe causeth death in as much as a man that grieves in this manner except he speedily remedy his griefe becomes blasphemous against God in as much as attributing unto him the cause of his griefe he laments of him and by being blasphemous against God he comes to get himselfe eternall death In the selfe same manner I understand that then a man feeles griefe according to God when he falls into any inconvenience by reason whereof he feares to be deprived of the grace of God and of the holy spirit of Christ and of God himselfe And I understand that this griefe causeth life in as much as he who is grieved in this manner doth more and better know himselfe and ◅o doth more cordially recommend and remit himselfe to God and from this recommending himselfe to God he comes to obtain resurrection and life everlasting For the two weaknesses which I put I understand that a man is then weak according to the flesh when his weaknesse growes from selfe love And I call weaknesse to resente himselfe for those things which come to passe against his will This weaknesse I understand causeth feare for where selfe-love is there is alwaies fear And I understand that this weaknesse is tolerable in Christian persons being no signe of impiety but of imperfection ◅n the selfe same manner I understand that a man is then weak according to the spirit when his weaknesse growes from the love of God resenting himselfe when he sees himselfe deprived of God or of any of the things that are of God which are meanes to him to grow in the love of God and in the confidence in God This weaknesse I understand causeth love because it proceeds from love and so is converted into love and is therefore laudable and a signe of christian perfection Weaknesse according to the Flesh but not blame-worthy I understand was that which S. Paul felt for the reprobation of the Hebrewes And weaknesse according to the spirit I understand was that which S. Paul ◅elt through the sting of the flesh and that which he felt for the sicknesse unto death of his friend And that also was weaknesse according to the spirit which they of Miletum felt for the departure of S. Paul Whence I gather that Christian persons ought not to grieve themselves much in their weaknesses that are according to the flesh since in them they be tolerable for they are not mortall And that the selfesame Christian persons ought to rejoyce much in their weaknesses which are according to the spirit in as much as they are signes of perfection and the way of vivification of resurrection and of eternall life The sons of this world feele the griefe that is according to the world but they doe not feele the griefe which is according to God And those of God feele the one and the other griefe the one in as much as Adam lives in them and the other in as much as Christ lives in them The sons of this world have indeed the weaknesse that is according to the flesh but all of them doe not know it for weaknesse neither feele it as such The weaknesse which is according to the spirit they neither have nor know nor feele And the sons of God have know and feele both the weaknesses knowing in the weaknesse that is according to the flesh the reliques of the old Adam and knowing in the weaknesse that is according to the spirit the renovation of the new Adam our Lord Iesus Christ. CONSID. LXXIX How perilous the errors be which men doe pretending piety I Hold for certaine that amongst those errors which wee who are the sons of God committing may offend God the greatest are those which are committed pretending piety That this is true I see as well by the rigorousnesse with which God hath chastized these errors according as it is read in holy Scripture as also because it appeares in the selfe same Scripture that God hath with his hand restrained them who have been his not consenting that they should fall into these kind of errors not having done the same in other errors wherein they have had intention to satisfy their appetitites and affections Of the rigorousnesse with which God hath chastized them who have erred pretending piety he might principally give testimony who willing to hold up the Arke of the Testimony which to his seeming was about to fall died instantly And Saul who was deprived of the kingdome of Israell and perpetually deprived of the grace of God for the sacrifize that he made to God for the victory that he had against certain nations of which God had given him command that he should not leave any live thing which should not passe the edge of the sword Whereupon if any shall demand saying Why then hath not God used the selfe-same rigorousnesse with others who have erred more perniciously pretending piety as a man might say with S. Paul who before he was a Christian pretending piety persecuted and slew the Christians I will make answer First that as hitherto God hath not given me the accompt thereof And then I will say that God doth not use this rigorousnesse except with them who are of the number of his And S. Paul when he was in that error was not in the number of those who were Gods the Hebrew people having then left to be the people of God and therefore his error was not chastized as that of Vzzahs nor as that of Sauls That God hath restrained with his hand his elect not suffering them to erre in piety albeit he haue suffered thē to erre in other things it serves me for a most effectuall example that which is written of David who pretending piety desired to build the Temple of Hierusalem and God did not consent thereunto because it was not his will that he should build it unto him and therefore hee should haue erred if he had builded it And the
many words cannot want much vanity Next these great Writers have drawne all the Sriptures to Questions and Disputations and made as it were an Academy thereof raising such doubts in every thing as they have made the Doctrine of the Son of God and of his Apostles and our most certaine and infallible hope of Eternall life to become a matter altogether doubtfull And this which I shall now adde is not of lesse importance then the other inconveniences and that is that with their ample and infinite volumes they have withdrawn and estranged men from the study of the truly holy Scriptures and from the Contemplation of simple verity and instead of Christ's Disciples have made them mens Scholars So that we are come to that passe as more and greater credit is given to those which are termed Doctors as if so be Christ and his Apostles were not the true and Eternall Doctors and masters of the Church then to the simple Doctrine of Christ himselfe This is the benefit and the edification that the Church hath reaped from these huge volumes which our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ seeing the safety of his Church being more deare unto him then his owne life hee hath stirred and raised up some and opened their eyes to the intent that they should by litle and litle reduce his sheepe to the greene and healthfull pastures of holy Scripture and to the pure cleare and sweet Fountaines of God's Word And herein every one hath busied himselfe according to his talent that is the gift which hee hath received But to me it seemes and I hope it will doe so likewise to a◅ that have a true relish of Christs Doctrine that this our Author in these divine Considerations and some other writings of his hath so well considered and propounded to all our Considerations the duties of a Christian man that there are but a few very few that can goe before him He hath not indeed writ so huge a Volume nor scribled so much paper No the Bookes which he hath written are litle and few but pure cleare and truly Divine Many have written of the vertues manners and duties of a wise and good man as Aristotle Panetius and Cicero and amongst Christians Ambrose and in our age Thomas Venatorius But none of all these hath intreated with such sublimity nor made such effectuall demonstration nor discoursed with such sweetnesse nor with such Maiesty nor with such authority nor with such grace as our Valdesso This this is that which truly deserves to be entitled the Booke of Christian duties the Booke of Christian demon◅rations and of truly divine speculations Herein is shewed the Originall the Cause the Progresse and the End of every motion of every action of every event that is done under heaven either by God or the Divell or by the godly or by the wicked man and all this from cleare certaine and unquestionable Principles of holy Scrip◅ure accompanied with so good and proper examples and similitudes and compassions and divisions and definitions that unlesse we will be too too obstinate and out of common sense we must needs come to agreement touching that which a man owes unto God to himselfe and to his Neighbour And further what the benefit of Christ is and to whom it is profitable what the infirmity and what the Power of Christ is his abasement an◅ his exaltation our owne Mortification and our Vivification Election and Reprobation and a thousand other like good and profitable heads are here to be clearly learned in such manner as growing practique in this Booke you shall come to understand all things necessary to holy Scripture better then by the great and many Commentaries of many others Now for this great and heavenly treasure we are all debtors to M. Peter Paul Vergerius as the instrument of the divine Providence in causing it to be printed for the view enioyment of every one He comming from Italy and leaving his feigned Bishoprick to come unto a true Apostleshippe whereunto he was called by Christ brought with him many excellent compositions doing herein as men use to doe when their houses are on fire or their City sack'd and ruin'd every one endeavours to escape away with the best and most precious things that he hath so our Vergerius esteeming nothing more deare then the glory of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ brought away with him those things which might best serve to the illustration and enlargement thereof Hee abandoned therefore the earthly treasures and brought away with him the heavenly and divine treasures amongst which this is one of the best and most rare that can be imagined And knowing that good and excellent things become so much greater better and more praise-worthy as they become more common hee left unto me these hundred and ten Considerations that I should cause them to be put in print which I have as you see accordingly performed with as much diligence as I have known or beene able to use These Considerations as many well know were first written by the Author in the Spanish language but afterward by a certaine pious and worthy person translated into Italian Yet have they not beene able altogether to quit those forms of speech which are proper to Spain And besides there are some words though not many of the language of the Author For Iohn Valdesso was by Natiō a Spaniard of noble kindred of an honourable degree and a resplendent Chevali◅r of the Emperour but a much more honourable resplendent Chevalier of Christ. True it is he did not much follow the Court after that Christ had revealed himselfe unto him but abode in Italy spending the greatest part of his life at Naples where with the sweetnesse of his Doctrine and the sanctity of his life hee gained many Disciples unto Christ and especially among the gentlemen and Cavaliers and some Ladies he was very eminent and most praise-worthy in all kind of praise It seemed that hee was appointed by God for a Teacher and Pastor of noble and illustrious Personages Although hee was of such benignity and charity that hee accounted himselfe debtor of his Talent to every me ane and rude person and became all things to all men that he might gaine all to Christ. And not this alone but he gave light to some of the most famous Preachers of Italy which I very well know having conversed with them themselves He never had wife but lived most continently nor did he attend to ought else as much as he could then unto tru◅ Mortification in which death overtaking him hee became perfectly mortified so to b◅ perfectly quickned in the Resurrection of the Iust and to enioy our Lord Christ. He died in Naples about the yeare 1540. Hee hath left behinde him also certaine other good and pious Compositions which as I hope shall by Vergerius his meanes be communicated ◅nto you Goe to then Brethren and Sisters in the Love of God and in the precious blood of
very great difference in that which they that are pious doe and in that which they doe that are impious forasmuch as they neither knew nor doe know the will of God and therefore albeit they did it yet for all this they did not serve nor doe serve God therein But the pious because they know the will of God and knowing it put it in execution they serve God therein And in as much as they who are such doe set themselves to all their works with this knowledge they doe as I understand in all things serve God Those are they who believe and doe Gods justice executed on Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XXVI That the Flesh whilst it is unregenerated Flesh is the enemy of God and that Regeneration is properly the work of the holy Spirit SAint Paul the Apostle speaking by eyperience of the holy Spirit condemnes the Flesh for the enemy of God I understand by Flesh all men in as much as they are not regenerated by the holy Spirit Humane prudence that alwaies opposeth it selfe against the holy Spirit holding this condemnation for an hard and terrible thing and not willing to endure it will haue it that S. Paul meanes by Flesh that which Socrates or Plato would haue meant that is the Iudgement of the Flesh. In this opinion all they who follow humane wisdome doe concurre holding it for an absurd and evill thing to condemne as sinnes al the works of unregenerated Flesh. For according to their opinion there are some with which unregenerated men doe not only not offend God but in effect doe him service such as are those wherein they agree with beasts both the one and the other being moved by naturall instinct as for a Father to beget Children and for a Son to nourish his Father which things humane wisdome saith since they be not vices nay rather being vertues in brute beasts it is no waies just to say that the selfe same should be sinnes in unregenerated men for in such case the condition of man-kinde would come to be worse then that of brute beasts Here I understand humane wisdome deceives itselfe in as much as it doth not consider that the brute beast having neither wisdome nor reason doth not alter the order of God nor the institution of nature and a man not regenerated by the holy Spirit by his prudence and reason doth continually pervert and alter it nay he cannot leaue to pervert and alter it in as much as being proud he goes mending the workes of God by his own reason and by his own prudence and in as much as loving himselfe in every thing that he doth he pretends his own interest and his own proper glory and so hee doth not follow the naturall order nor pretends the glory of God In such sort as the Father bringing up the son and the son nourishing the Father every one of them pretends his own glory his own interest and his own satisfaction That being properly in men through the vice of their corrupted flesh which leaves to loue and to esteem God and esteems and loves it selfe ayming in every thing at its own proper glory and its own proper â—…nterest Whereupon I consider in this present life that which is in the house of a great Lord who hath thirty slaues for whom he doth sufficiently provide all necessary things and ordaining them the things in which he will be served of them Of these thirty slaves I imagine that ten of them are fooles without understanding and without any manner of discourse altogether as Beasts These as I understand it without perverting and without altering the order which their Lord hath given them doe that which is commanded them not pretending any thing else but only to obey their Lord The other ten I suppose are well experienced and haue judgement and discretion who pretending to know and understand as much as their Lord and sometimes more pervert the order that is given unto them supposing to finde the point better and having the eye to their own interresses haue alwaies an eye to gaine their liberty and to be better intreated and more cherished of their Lord not contenting themselves with their servitude nor contenting themselues with that ordinary entertainment which they receaue from their Lord The other Ten I imagine to my selfe are likewise experienced and understanding and such as haue judgement wit and understanding but perswading themselves that their Lord knowes more then they and no waies serving themselves of what they know to understand their Lords meaning in that which is commanded them without perverting or altering the order that is given unto them obey their Lord and contenting themselues of their servitude and of their entertainment obey their Lord pretending only to doe that which is ordained them for the profit for the satisfaction and for the glory of their Lord. The first Ten serue but like Beasts with their bodies and these in the world are the brute Beasts The second Ten in serving pretend to serue but offend and then offend most when they serue most and best for then they doe most alter and pervert the will and order of their Lord And these are all men in as much as they are not regenerated by the holy Spirit The third Ten serve as obedient Sons not perverting nor altering the order and will of their Lord and they serue both with their bodies and with their mindes and these are the men that are regenerated by the holy Spirit without which regeneration it is impossible that men should reduce themselues to this degree And therefore S. Paul well saith that the flesh is the enemy of God and is not subject to the Law and will of God neither though it would could it in as much as a man doting upon his own wisdome and his own reason pretends to mend the works of God and in as much as being enamoured of himselfe in every thing which he doth hee hath an eye unto himselfe To the intent this may be the better understood I say that by regeneration I understand that change and outward and inward Renovation which the holy Spirit doth in those persons who believing in Iesus Christ and accepting as their own Gods justice that hee executed upon Christ are changed and renewed in all their affections in such sort that no waies pretending in the execution of their own appetites nor in the sway of their own affections that which they did pretend before their regeneration having lost that understanding to goe about mending of Gods works and having lost their own loue whereby they loved themselues as if one of the Tenne slaues of the second order should passe to the number of the Ten of the third order Those men who by wit and humane artifice pretend to change themselues and to renew themselues as I understand it doe not obtain this Christian regeneration but that which is humane that which is of the flesh and of humane wisdome reason such
also the affections of the minde that might make them interressed and lovers of themselues and consequently remisse with their neighbours This mortification in them proceeding partly from that union which they hold in their hearts with God never forgetting themselues of God and principally from that incorporation with which they stand incorporated in the death of Christ who killing his own flesh on the Crosse did likewise kill the flesh of all them who believing in him are made his Members And they who remain in this never come to excuse their licentious liues in the liuelinesse of their mindes saying it pleaseth God they should be so nay rather finding in themselues any vice and finding in their minds any liuelinesse they know the reliques of their own iniquity rebellion and sin and demand of God that he should mortify them in them as he hath mortified the rest nor doe they ever become remisse in helping and favouring their neighbours except in as much as the affections that are according to the flesh and humane wisdome dying in them and those which are according to the spirit reviving they doe not move with an anxious affection of the flesh but are moved with a moderate desire of the spirit And in as much as they doe not feel in themselves any motion to help succour their neighbours they know that God will haue it so This I say because those persons that stand in this piety keeping good account with their inward motions hold those to be wills of the flesh which are not according to that which they knew to be the will of God And they hold those to be the will of the spirit which they know to be conformed to the will of God making this judgement by that which is the due of piety and that which is the due of justification and by that which the holy Scriptures New and Old teach and standing attent hereunto they overcome the motions which are according to the flesh and execute those which are according to the spirit And albeit they haue their imperfections by Gods will their desire is to become perfect And although they hold the sufferings of their neighbour to bee the will of God they hold likewise their motions to help and favour them to be the will of God And knowing in their own imperfections and in the sufferings of their neighbours the will of God which is with wrath and knowing in their own desires of perfection and in their motions to succour their neighbours the will of God which is with mercy loving the will which is with mercy and flying from that which is with wrath they doe attend unto perfection and doe attend to succour their neighbours remaining quiet when they doe not perceive any motion understanding it that God would haue them to remain quiet Having said that which moveth men not to attribute all things to God and that which may be answered unto it now I will say that which I think thereabout remitting my selfe to more perfect and spirituall iudgement In God I consider two wills as at other times I haue considered it one Mediate in as much as it workes by these which we call second Causes And the other Immediate in as much as it works by it selfe Vnto the Mediate I understand men stand subiect through original sin and from the Mediate I understand that men are exempted and freed by regeneration but in a certain manner I suppose that in a mans flying those things which by this Mediate will might doe him harme and in applying himselfe to those things which by the selfe same might doe him good a mans freewill doth consist all those things appertaining to good or ill being exteriour corporall to vertuous or vitious living in the outward To the Immediate will of God I understand generally all men are subiect God working in them in some with loue in others with hatred in some with wrath in others with mercy in some with favours and in others with disfavour And this will of God I understand is that unto which S. Paul saith men cannot make resistance and this I understand that God useth illustrating his glory and shewing his omnipotency in them that are his in such sort that in this Will of God there are two parts or two wills one of Hatred of Wrath and disfavour and the other of Loue of Mercy and Favour The first as I understand fell upon Pharaoh upon Shimei and upon them to whom God gaue the spirit of errour and upon Iudas and vpon those whom God delivered over to a reprobate sense And this selfe same I understand fell upon all those which are vessels of wrath as was Nero and as all they haue been and are and shall be who with malignity persecute the Christian spirit in those who are the Members of Christ. All these as I understand doe the will of God without understanding themselues that this is the will of God For if they did understand it they would cease to be impious and they would be pious That will of God which is of loue of mercy and favour I understand it in Moses and Aaron and David in the Saints of the Law and I understand it in S. John Baptist and in the Apostles and in the Martyres and likewise in all those who are called of God to the participation of the Gospell all which I understand doe fulfill the will of God for herein consisteth piety And I understand that neither Pharaoh nor Iudas nor those who are vessels of wrath could cease to be such nor Moses nor Aaron nor Paul nor those who are vessels of mercy in such manner that Iudas could not forbeare to sell Christ nor S. Paul could not forbeare to preach Chrîst Finally I understand that in those things which are done in the world by Gods Mediate will they who are vessels of wrath know the naturall order and know the goodnesse or malignity of men And I understand that in the selfesame things they who are the vessels of mercy know in the naturall order the wil of God who set this order and in that which is or seems to be goodnes or malice of men they know with the will of God the goodnes malice of men In the self same manner I understand that in those things which are done by the Immediate will of God they who are impious doe not know but only their own proper wills and those which are of them that doe them and I understand that in the selfe same things they who are pious know the will of God attributing all things to God considering in those who are the vessels of wrath as were Pharaoh Shimei Iudas and Nero the will of God with wrath with hatred and with disfavour and knowing in them who are vessels of mercy as those of the Hebrew people and those of the Christian people the will of God with loue with mercy and with favour And in this manner without doing iniury to
united with it abides in it alwaies remembring himselfe of it It is very true that not thus neither is the dwelling of man in god understood For this union I understand Christ our Lord prayed unto his eternall and heavenly Father demanding of him that they who were to belieue in him should be one self thing with him and with the Father himselfe should be one selfe same thing between themselves From this divine union it proceeds that a man altogether and in all things remits himselfe to the will of God dispoyling himselfe of his own proper will and so brings himselfe to will that which God wills and in that manner which God wills to loue that which God loues and in that manner which God loues it and consequently not to will that which God wills not and not to loue that which God loues not And the man that is thus remitted and thus reduced may hold for certain that hee stands united with God and that he dwells in God and God in him And he shall understand that he so far stands united with God as far as he stands thus remitted thus reduced If he stand much the union is much if litle the union is litle It proceeds also from this divine Vnion that a man likes and dislikes all those things which those persons like and dislike who stand in the selfe same Vnion in such manner that there is between them a very great conformity in wills and so great is the conformity which is between them as the Vnion is great which they haue with God and between themselues This conformity is likewise a good countersigne with which a man may certifie himselfe whether he stand united with God and how much of this union he hath gotten Having understood how the Vnion between God and man is made by Loue and that Loue growes from that knowledge which a man hath of God And having likewise understood in what the Union and the Loue and the Knowledge doe consist I come to resolve my selfe in this that to that person which attends unto piety it belongs to attend to obtain the knowledge of God and with the knowledge the loue and with the Loue the Vnion Pretending to obtain all this by the liberality of God and exercising himselfe in knowing himselfe I would say the frayle and miserable being of man and to disenamour himselfe of himselfe not willing to be loved for himself and procuring to be loved for God and in disuniting him selfe from himselfe not willing to haue things according to his own fantasie and will but according as God shall offer them to him either by himself or by means of men or by meanes of the creatures And in this manner shall he obtain the perfect knowledge of God the perfect loue of God and the perfect Vnion with God But not now in this present life for the flesh except it be raised up is not a fitting subject for this but in life everlasting where the flesh being raised up shall be an able subject to bee as it shall be like unto the glorious flesh with which Christ Iesus our Lord arose CONSID. LXXIV That it beâ—…ides to pious persons in spirituall things as it befalls in outward things to him who having been blind begins to see TO the person that begins to understand spirituall and divine things and that begins to know them I understand that befals which befalls those persons who having by some accident lost the sight of their eyes begin to recover it I would say that as those persons goe knowing the being of things according as they goe recovering the sight of their eyes first confusedly as it befell to the blinde man in the Gospell who beginning to open his eyes saw men and it seemed to him that they were trees and afterwards lesse confusedly untill such time as by litle and litle they come to see and know things in their own proper being In the selfesame manner these persons goe on knowing spirituall and divine things accordingly as they goe purifying their mindes with Faith and with Loue and with union with God First they know them confusedly and afterwards lesse confusedly and so by litle and litle they goe advancing in the knowledge of them untill such time as they ariue I would say unto such passe as they come to know God and the things that are gods in that manner which may be in this present life And hence as I understand it proceeds that that thing which a person without the spirit holds for holy and just and good in the things of God another person who hath the spirit condemnes reputes defective and evill And hence it likewise proceeds that that which a person who hath litle of the spirit holds for most certain another who hath more spirit then he holds for an errour Going on thus from one step to another the clearenesse of that judgement increasing which spirituall persons haue of divine matters Whereby I understand that the errour of pious persons when in those divine and spirituall matters which they know they form their conceitâ—… according to that which they come to know by the first knowledge not expecting other knowleges more cleare and more evident is no lesse then that of the blinde man who begins to recover the sight of his eyes when in the things which hee begins to see hee formes his conceits according to that which they appeared unto him at the first not expecting to see them better and more clearely Furthermore I understand that it belongs to every Pious person to be very modest and very moderate in approving or condemning things for as much as pleaseth or displeaseth God considering that the judgement which God makes of things is very different from that which men make how spirituall soever they be In as much as oftimes a person that hath much spirit condemnes that which another who hath little spirit approves And I understand that only those things ought to be approved for holy and to be condemned for evill of which we have the certain testimony of Iesus Christ our Lord. CGNSID LXXV How it is understood that God communicates unto us his Divine treasures by Christ how God reignes by Christ and how Christ is the head of the Church WIlling to understand in what manner we who are the members of Christ doe obtaine all the things of God by Christ I consider that as all men who have the outward sight of the eyes cleare doe know the outward being of things through the benefit of the Sun in which God hath set his outward light so all men who have the sight of their inward eyes cleare doe know all inward things by the benefit of Christ in whom as Saint Paul saith God hath set all the Treasures of his Divinity I would say that as God having set all the outward light in the Sunne the Sunne it selfe sends forth his beams which worke his effect and are efficacious in those things which are
bound to give unto God They think of the Christian businesse that it is a living under the goverment of the holy spirit in holinesse and iustice And they think of the Gospell that it is a Proclamation that compriseth these two things Remission of sinnes and Iustification by Christ And the regiment and goverment of the holy spirit Of which two things they enioy who believing in Christ accept the Gospell From all this discourse I gather that they who understand Justification to be a fruit of Piety follow Plato and Aristotle And that they who understand Piety to be a fruit of iustification Iustification being a fruit of Faith follow S. Paul and S. Peter It is also gathered that this name Piety understood in the manner in which it is here understood it cannot be attributed to God because he owes no man any thing Nay on the contrary every one owes to him And that which he doth with us is not for piety is not for debt nor for obligation but for compassion for mercy and for liberality being in every thing towards us compassionate mercifull and liberall Which ought principally to be known in this that he put all our sinnes on his pretious son Iesus Christ our Lord to put on us the iustice of the selfesame Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XCVIII How that is to be understood that the holy Scripture saith attributing condemnation sometimes to infidelity and sometimes to evill works and salvation sometimes to Faith sometimes to good works AMongst those things in holy Scripture which give molestation to Christian persons who having faith feel within themselves the fruit of Faith that is Iustification and the fruit of justification that is the peace of conscience when they will examine with them their conceptions their spirituall feelings I hold for very principall this that feeling themselves justifi'd by Faith consequently with peace of conscience cannot understand for what cause Christ speaking of the day of Iudement saith that he will condemne some because they have not done well and will save others because they haue done well Nor for what cause S. Paul saith That God will render to every man according to his works Rom. 2. And S. Peter That God will iudge every one according to his works At which they so much the more marvell in as much as the same Christ saith that he that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned And the selfesame S. Paul saith that the Faith of the heart iustifieth and the confession of the mouth saveth And the selfesame S. Peter attributes the salvation of the soule to Faith And from their not understanding of this matter it comes to passe that every one of them thinks in this manner If God be to judge me according to my works there is no doubt but he will condemne me for there is not in them any goodnesse nay in those which seem best there is more contamination of selfe-loue interest and proper glory in such sort as if I be to be judged by my work it will goe ill with me Whereupon being desirous to take away this molestation and this scruple of Christian persons and spirituall and to salve the intelligence of the holy Scriptures in such sort as they should not contradict themselves I think thus That in good or evill works God cōsiders not the quantity but the quality which consisteth in the minde of him that doth the works in the thing wherein he implies it That this is true in evill workes needs no proofe and that it is true in good works is evident by that which Christ saith of them that cast their monies into the Treasury of the Temple praysing the minde of him that did the works And it is evident likewise by that which the selfesame Christ saith speaking of the day of judgement where he doth not say that hee will saue them who haue bin charitable simply but they that have been charitable with himselfe that is they who believing shall stand incorporated in him Whence it seems that Christ saith that he will saue them who haue used charity with him and condemne them that haue not used it Now it being cleer that they cannot work with a pious minde but only who are pious and holy nor can know Christ in his members to use charity towards him but they onely who appertain to the selfesame body of Christ it is clearely approved that none can work well work Christianly but those who are the members of Christ those who haue the spirit of Christ and are pious and holy and just and believe in Christ. And this being approved it is likewise approved that it is the selfesame in holy Scripture to say That men shall be saved by their good works and condemned by their evill works and to say That they shall be saved by their Faith and condemned by their Infidelity Whereupon Christian persons are to two things The one That they only work well for holding themselves justified by Christ they doe not pretend to justifie themselves by their own good works and so working they work purely for the loue of God and not for their own proper loue as those men work who not holding themselves justified by Christ pretend to justifie themselves by their own good works and so working for their own proper loue proper interest and not for the love of God they noe not work well for their works doe not please God cannot be called good works The other that God judging them according to their works will not put to their accompt the contamination that he shall know in them having pardoned them originall sin together with all that which they haue from this evill root And because he will put to their accompt the Faith which he shall haue given them and the purity that shall be in their works whether few or many in as much as they shall be the fruit of Faith And so God shall saue them shewing in the outward judgement that he saves them for their good works saving them indeed by the Faith which he shall have given them God shall iustifie the sentence with which he condemnes the impious superstitious and shall save the pious and holy alleaging the outward works of the one and the other the living with holinesse and iustice on the one part and the living with iniustice and impiety on the other part But this shall not be but for men who know not nor see not but in the outward And in the self same sentence they who know and see the inward the root whence this living working on the one part and this living and working on the other grow they being more then men by the Christian regeneration shall know that Faith hath saved them that shall be saved and that infidelity shall haue condemned them that shall be condemned Here may an impious person say to me willing to calumniate holy Scripture and a superstitious willing to canonize his own
descends a vitall vertue by meanes whereof it lives so every one of those who being incorporated in Christ are the Church of god because he can speake saith and affirmeth that he feeles that from Christ there comes unto him a spirituall vertue by meanes whereof he lives a spirituall life This S. Iohn thus understood Chap. 1. when he said For of his fullnesse have we all received and grace for grace And so S. Paul understood it Colos. 1. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullnesse dwell I know Christ for King in the people of god for I understand that he is he who with his spirit rules and governes it not onely in inward things and divine as head but also as god In outward things and corporall as King In all which things being as they are the Sonnes of god as S. Paul saith Rom. 8. they are lead by the spirit of God And so I understand that the kingdome of god is not called the spirituall kingdome because he governes us in spirituall things but because governing us in spirituall and corporall things he doth not govern us with the outward law but with the inward law which is the government of the Holy Spirit the Christian spirit Of this kingdome of Christ the holy Scriptures are full Esay 5. Mic. 5. Daniel 7. By which I understand that in this present life God reigns but by Christ that in lifeeternall god shall reign but by himselfe For then he shall be all in all 1. Cor. 15. In this manner I know Christ glorious for King in the people of god for Head in the Church of god and for Lord of the Elect of god And I know Christ humble most innocent and free from all sinne and abounding in all justice And I know fullfilled in him in part the promises of god made to David and to Abraham And I know him for the Sonne of god first borne and onely begotten I know that he is the Word of god with which god created all things I know him eternall consubstantiall And I hold for certain that as the Christian faith shall goe on being in me more efficacious mortifying me and quickening me so theseknowledges of Christ shall goe on being more cleare and more distinct by which I shall goe on from day to day alwaies more knowing god as he may be knowne whilst this flesh being passible and mortall is not a subject habilitated to see Christ to see God face to face as I shall see him in life eternall Having taken this resolution in the conceit which I ought to have of Christ I goe resolving my selfe in the conceit that I ought to have of them who are the members of Christ considering every one of them a Sonne of god not first borne as Christ who alwaies was a Sonne but an adopted Sonne by Christ and in Christ not onely begotten as Christ who is the sonne by generation but regenerated by Christ and in Christ borne the sonne of wrath and re-borne the sonne of God not in the state of gloryfication in which Christ i◅ but in the state of opprobry in which Christ was not Lord of Gods elect but one of the number of them who being elected of God are the servants of Christ redeemed and bought by Christ Not head of the Church of God as Christ but a mēber of the Church of God of which Christ is the head Not King of the people of God as Christ but governed by the spirit of Christ by meanes of which spirit I know that all the members of Christ stand united amongst themselves and united with Christ himselfe and therefore united also with God God abiding in them and they in God And so I see fullfilled that Prayer which Christ made unto his Father for this union Iohn 17. saying That they may be one in us c. And I understand that in this vnion consisteth all the christian perfection I pray God that he doe in such manner Imprint it in my memory that it may not seeme that it sever itselfe or depart from it not so much as for one moment to the intent that I never may doe thing which shall not be worthy of this union which I acknowledge from my christ who is my Lord my Head and my King To him be glory with the Father and the holy spirit Amen CONSID. CX That the principall gifts are not understood untill they be possessed A Most great testimony of the Christian life is this that according as a christian man goes perfecting himself in his christian customes so he goes clearing himselfe in his christian conceptions Nay I hold for certain that the selfesame christian spirit which goes perfecting him in his customes goes clarifying him in his conceptions so much that it can be hardly understood whether the clarification in the conceptions comes from the perfection in the customes or the perfections in the customes come from the clarification in the conceptions And therefore it is sure to say that both the one and the other thing comes from the christian spirit which doth marvellously work both the one and the other in them who accept the Gospell of Christ. This I haue said to this purpose that I having understood that the christian businesse is not science but experience and having by many comparisons procured to make some persons capable of this truth I haue never remained satisfied in my minde in such manner that it seemed to me to haue expressed to mine own manner my conceit untill now that having in mine own judgement comprehended it with more clearenesse itseems to mee to bee able to expresse it better And so I say that between the believing and accepting the christian things Faith Hope Charity with humane wit◅ or with the christian spirit I know the difference which I know between accepting approving those three naturall vertues Magnanimity Valour and Liberality and having them indeed I would say that as there be mē who hearing speak of these three naturall vertues and of the perfection of them albeit they doe not know them in themselves do approue them and accept them for good so there bee also of those men who hearing speak of those three gifts of God Faith Hope and Charity and of the perfection and efficacy of them albeit they doe not know them in themselves doe approve them and accept them for good believing that thy who accept the grace of the Gospell doe enjoy the remission of sins the reconciliation with God through Christ and approving the hope with which they expect the felicity of eternall life and the loue with which they loue God aboue every thing and they loue their neighbour as themselves And I say farther that as whilst they who approve those three natural vertues not possessing them albeit they willingly heare talk of them through the desire which they haue to possesse them yet is not that so much as that it gives them entire