when all exercises and all strength of our own faileth even then are these the exercises of God and his strength When all our strength is vanished away and we have so long laboured under the Law that we can do no more then is God present whether we will or no for here a man must go on nor is it permitted him to go back again for he is in the hand of the Lord into which he often desired to come and that hand will not then let him go till it hath rightly broken him in pieces by afflictions and hath tumbled him up and down thorough various cases Whence it comes that healwayes more and more loseth himself till he be freed from all his flesh and is made capable of the heavenly influence Whoever they are who are not thus exercised but abide in their own labour can never be advanced higher but stand at a stay always in the same state and if one shall return after the space of a year or two years yea of ten unto them he shall find them still as he formerly left them how much soever they exercise themselves under the Law and severity and good works and labours and fastings and abstinence c. Yet they all stop their course here being still inwardly unchanged and unregenerated and of the new creature or regeneration know nothing because they are not exercised in the hand of the Lord by means of the aforesaid sufferings for affliction alone is this way to the new Generation to Wisdom and to true Knowledge The aforesaid labour also must be under the Law yea and go before that other else we cannot arrive at the said state of suffering so that no one abides therein for the mind is not yet so purified and there still sticketh unto its bottom somewhat that is worldly though one may appear otherwise outwardly Consequently we become not in our minds partakers with Christ until being purified by that purgatory and these sufferings we are made capable of him for light and darkness Christ and Belial dwell not together Those middle things which are interposed between God and us and unto which we always remain fixedly holding our eye so as we cannot see God those middle things I say are to be removed by the means of sufferings from God if we are to be united to him If Gold could be sensible and speak it would certainly say what it should suffer before it could be purified and so the Earth would say how much it must suffer and how much it would stand in need of before the seed is produced out of its bowells When a man hath brought all his labours to an end nor cannot go on further then is the chiefest and highest work yet before his hands lying as undone If this must be perfected and done it must be done by God for it behooveth that he should accomplish these things which are impossible for a man to do CHAP. XXXII A Man who hath begged help from the Lord judges other men honester then himself for he confesses that if others had had this grace which was done to him that they had been more faithful and more honest by much then himself is Whence also he abstaineth from rash judgment and commiserates poor men because he beholds their future misery out of which he himself thorough the mercy of God without any merit of his own is snatched and therefore he cannot extol himself above others nor tax them or delude them but rather humbleth himself beneath all and burneth with a universal charity Moreover he would willingly renounce his own Salvation that others might but be saved Nor can he do otherwise because this is the property of regeneration He who hath regeneration and is arrived at the true substance adhereth to no things whatsoever he does or omits to do or eats or drinks or goes or stands whether he be with others or whether he be alone but he alwayes is free from all and uncesâ—antly beholdeth God whose he is properly and for whose sake he useth all things At what time he is rapt upwards he is put beyond himself and is without all discretion and when he is let down again from that same mountain he uncessantly looketh back upwards again The new man by a continual ascent every houer and moment goes away unto God nor doth he ever stop his course because God is unsearchable and past finding out He regards not temporals though he may seem so and though he does eat drink sleep and is cloathed for if he should regard them he would still stand in time but all the aforementioned things are snatched from him by fire that he might ascend above time and stand in God He dyed and rose again in God he fell oil from all things and perished both in Body Soul and Spirit At first every one is an infant then a youth and thence he goeth into man-hood and at length into old age then we falter and can no longer enjoy the pleasure of youth and at last we say I remember that I have been a young man but time is gone When young men rejoyce I am in sadness and whilst they live I dye CHAP. XXXIII THere is not a letter in the Holy Scriptures which ought not to be understood and interpreted concerning the body of Christ now there are many members of Christ's body that which is not in one member is in another The whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament with all figures and ceremonies prefigure the very substance of the matter and is a type of the internal truth as the Image in the glass is the representation of the face And as the Image cannot be in the glass of whom there is no truth or substance So there is no representation of Scripture or of ceremonies or of figures to which there belongs not some truth and substance When therefore a representation or Image is true there is also a true essence or substance There is no shaddow without a body nor figure or Image without an essence The Book of Psalms begins maturely with man and continues with him unto old age and even to his end and with man it riseth up from bottom to top No Christian transcendeth the exercises of the Psalms nor can he get so high but the Psalms accompany him still and express his mind How long doth the faithful man wait for God till he cometh and when he is come he departs again and hides himself that a man cannot find him And by this very thing God will purge a man that he may learn truly to possess him without appropriation for at first he assumeth God with appropriation and this then is that same subtile flesh of hiâ— which ought to be consumed CHAP. XXXIIII FAith is a most desolate thing Juâ—â— as when many things are reachâ— out to any one and he catcheth at theâ— but then they are pull'd away again but at last a door of escape is opened 〈◊〉 him which then
death that is knowable to the humane wisdom And because aâ— to their own strength in which they live they dye not in body and soul being wholly condemned before God hencâ— it is that they usurp to themselves as theiâ— propriety that intellect of God that is that they themselves might by the benefit of that thing conserve life which properly ought to be the condemning sentence and the death of their ipseity For if the Truth of God should enter into them in by a certain essential state it would be impossible that a man could endure one spark thereof without being melted quite down Therefore we must dye not only as to our wisdom in the highest degree but as to our own proper Salvation that God alone may be our Wisdom life and Salvation This done our ipseity is condemned before God and thrust down into a death according to the flesh which is as it were essential whence nothing can again bud forth either in respect of God or of the Creature so that whatsoever had bin ours ought to be altogether made subject to its death judgment and sentence of condemnation That same small last Chapter is contrary to that writing inasmuch as it determineth that sometime calm seasons may be gained even according to the flesh for so I transfer it even as the writing its self speaketh so as they then may esteem themselves pure because they who are purified know how to apply all things to a true use Which I also affirm but in its own meaning but that at which this writing aimeth is contrary to my mind for the liberty of Christ belongs to the inward man and doth only affect the mind unto eternal salvation in Divine Truth but the flesh is condemned and suppressed and bound down into death so as that no man can then rightly use the Creatures of God but with grief and misery because that in all these a man may behold his own death in which formerly he had thought to have found life and yet with these very things he is well contented acknowledging this divine judgment for truth and so remains yielded up into death But the Inward man is then conversant in eternal joy being signed or sealed by the Spirit of God I have wrote this in haste that I might satisfie thy desire according to the testimony of my mind The Lord have mercy on them on us all and pluck us quickly out of our errors Alas who am I a miserable wretch who thus writeth I beg Grace of the Lord for without his Grace I shall never be advanced nor abide in him EPIST. XXIII A further consideration concerning the opinion of H. N. To his brother A. W. DEarest Brother thou maist read over this small Treatise and send it back again to me because I must treat something thereof with N. that I may oppose him somewhat about those things which he accounts for true for that which he makes his scope is not pleasing to me which they call the Intellect of God in which both heaven and earth are indeed locally moved and every creature vanisheth out of its condition or state and yet in the same mystery and inheritance they conclude nature to be left alive whereas notwithstanding Nature cannot in and by its life arrive at that pass but only and alone by the benefit of its death introduced into it by Christ our Lord and Saviour and that in so much verity that Nature appears no more with its own proper life but remains eternally cast off with the death and curse thereof But that Nature which thay call purged and dead to its reason in my opinion doth indeed only depend on principles of understanding and science but not on Truth it self for hitherto it hath not approached to the essence it self nor is united therewith for though Reason layeth aside its natural discretion that thereby it may be nearer to the divine intellect yet for all that the intellect is not yet then made one with the Essence but is rather contrary to it and as it were an enemy to Truth seeing that that spiritualized Nature hideth it self under the shew of intellect but not of essence and is in that still entertained Who shall deliver a man from these intricacies The Lord have mercy on us anâ— My Brother I therefore write thus that I may also discover to thee my opinion for that man is endowed with no smaâ—â— understanding yet he is deeply seduced and is deeply wise but withal he is deeply to be disputed with The Lord keep us humble in the Truth that that which belongs to death may be also thrown off into death but let him reign and rule to all eternity EPIST. XXIV Being a brief argument that the foundation of the family of Love is laid and built upon carnal liberty To the same person I W. was here and hath utterly and cordially renounced the thing its self because he had experienced found from their presence that they were infected with the venome of carnal liberty and that all issued out of that fountain Also I restored to him the books if haply they might be willing to have them restored again to them he also was most fully satisfied admiring that so sublime an understanding was subject to errours for he confessed that my opinion was beyond all doubt true seeing that a man is always to be subjected to divine terrours But that such elevated spirits do fall into errours is from thence that they too much covet their proper security whence at length springs up boasting and pride and then after that a fall The Lord preserve us all from evil according to his great mercy that seeing it is of grace that we are saved so also in grace are we conserved and not thorough our own selves EPIST. XXV Concerning the Opinion of Plato To the same person MY brother I send thee back the little book concerning Plato which when I had read I found just so as thou writest For the falling of these who call themselves the family of Love is subtile though in that small tract they are mightily defended all things being interpreted for the better yet the excuse relisheth not well with me except I should say that by their ultimate scope to which they think they shall come by the means of Love their wisdom is shameful as in them so also in us yet with this distinction for what in them is righteousness truth and wisdom must be to us unrighteousness falsness and foolishness if so be that glory to the Lord must spring up thorough us all which yet they are willing to reserve and ascribe to themselves as also did the Jews though in a more excellent degree Now it behooveth a Christian to dye as to them both and by the Lord to be condemned to death viz. as to wisdom and righteousness Moreover may the Lord also freely bestow on us his grace according to his most holy will EPIST. XXVI A Christian consideration concerning
the Resurrection To the same person DEarest brother we will beg of the Lord that he may have mercy on us and that he will lead us into the power of the Resurrection every one according to the measure of his illumination by the quickning power of his spirit by the benefit of whom all seeds do put forth their faculties in growing For the natural life faculty understanding wisdom and sense do all tend to death in time and though a man deluded by some fair shew may imagine to himself an eternal permanency of these things yet when the sun is risen to a burning strength all these will dry up or wither nor is it possible for them to consist or abide the just judgment of God as being that which melteth all down yea furthermore the very discretion it self of the soul must dye likewise as far as the natural man studyeth to preserve it if that that man according to the testimony of his conscience is willing to satisfy the Law least that soul do tumble down into utter destruction Now because it is not the proper disposition of the natural man to lose any thing but rather with the top of the life of the Soul to preserve all things therefore it is subjected to the divine judgment that is to death and because he is willing to conserve life in himself and in his Soul now there is life no where but in God the soul cannot come at the true nourishment of life but is to be deliveral up to death inasmuch as the natural man properly is death it self and belongeth to death For they are bound up together into one body and both viz. the body from the soul and on the other part the soul from the body are moved together whether it be to grief or to joy yea though it be in the state of the highest knowledge unto which the soul according to the natural rule of life could possibly ascend For she cannot be elevated higher in understanding unless first as to her knowledge by which the natural man is informed by her she shall dye so as that it behooveth both soul and body as one man to dye after that the spiritual conception is now out of that deadned seed is wont to spring forth a new plant enriched with divine fruitfulness which no death can touch any more neither according to soul nor according to body because this generation not of man but without man nor out of his will but without his will not with hope but without all hope arriveth at the state of eternity out of the eternal grace of God so as that it is of God and of life always abiding nor is it corruptible even as also God is in his own nature Every thing therefore returneth to that out of which it first sprung viz. the natural man with its perfect body and in its sphere to death without any resurrection at all according to its own proper nature and the supernatural man in its perfect sphere to eternal life abiding eternally in God and yet as a Creature but glorified in God He who comes to this state cannot deny the truth of the thing but he who partaketh nothing thereof also as a natural man uttereth with truth that he believeth that there is no resurrection and although he should confess it yet even that confession of the resurrection must dye because unto the natural man as such there never even eternally belonged any resurrection even as it is impossible for a seed sown to come to a perfect death unless it be wholly corrupted in its self If therefore it can be brought to pass that a man can give up himself to death with a hope of receiving forthwith another life and as to that state and according to that rule of his knowledge wherein he is dead a better for no man can whilst his present understanding is in being attain to another understanding or life unless the former be first dead then indeed there would be no need to proceed to a further death because it can only follow that which had been in being before Now therefore there is here place for death when by the benefit of corruption through the operation of God a new plant ariseth according to the nature of the corruption done every thing according to its own kind as there is example in all creatures and in the corruptible propagation of them So that by how much the more the natural man affirmeth that there is no more Resurrection by so much the more he confirmeth it because he truly is preparing himself for death and uttereth publickly his Testimony concerning his corruption and his eternal death for there is to be no Resurrection of him and thus also to his may together with the Keepers whom the Pharisees set a Testimony concerning the Resurrection of Christ be given which also by this means is mightily confirmed for them who stand in the very door to such a state and do believe it For when the Pharisees having sealed up the Sepulcher had concluded that they had shut up a kind of dead Corpse and to have kept it in that pit of Death the keepers of the Sepulcher who yet were sent to do mischief became witnesses of his Resurrection although it is not believed to this very day but by his Disciples by the Keepers is meant the natural man My Brother this my own true Epistle will clearly open to thee my mind and will be to thee as it were the hand of a Dial which thou must well eye and consider that thou maist likewise write back thy opinion to me whereby it may appear wherein we agree and wherein we differ if we are careful concerning this opinion The Lord look upon us all in his mercy and bring us into his own clearness EPIST. XXVII A faithful Admonition concerning the Resurrection of the Flesh To his Brother A. W. MY Brother Let us go to that man and let us set before him Death and Life Resurrection and incorruptibility all unfolded in their own degree and nature and it shall be at his pleasure to make choice of any one of these For if he shall choose nature in his life then in good earnest he must perish in an eternal death nor shall he ever arrive at such a life as he seeks but if he will approach unto the truth even as also the thing is he shall live while he dieth and he shall acknowledge the true Resurrection which else is denied to him My Brother May God exhibit to him and to us his mercy according to the variety of his compassions nor may he ever leave us in our miseries but remember us in this life subject to so many sufferings in which we cry out laboriously unto the Lord with many sighs that by his hand we may be promoted to incorruptibility which can by no means be effected but by our death which comprehends in it self the relinquishing of all those things which we know by
of gross Instruments Christ saith Except a man leaveth c. If a man must leave any thing he ought first to have it Thus therefore a man first hath Father Mother Friends Riches Honours of this World and Learning Now this forsaking is the image of those things which also must besides these be forsaken for all that is gotten out of them viz. those fruits which are sprung forth out of the corruption of earthly things are also to be corrupted and consequently those good things also are to be forsaken but out of that forsaking are still gotten other greater goods and more high fruits which again must be subjected to corruption whence afterwards other fruits do come forth augmented a hundred fold And thus Death and Corruptions do alwayes ascend Higher and Higher as also do the fruits and the Life Springing from thence No man can apply the Craetures to that Parable unless he himself become above the Creature Paul saith Unhappy man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Here is to be noted that Paul had not any Body of Death in that state in which we have some such like for as to this state he was already Dead nor was there need as to that that he should dye yet further and the lowest of these did no longer belong unto him for out of many Deaths he alwayes ascended to a more Sublime Life and as to that Life he was again to dye and upon this account it was that he wore a Body of Death And by how much the Higher he ascended into this Life so much the Higher also was he elevated as to new Deaths We forsake the Body because we found it before in Adam if also we must forsake our Soul that also must first be found of us but we find it when we leave the Body A man never found himself in that which he once has lost but that loss dying and Condemnation is Eternal without Redemption But in God that is found in God also is Redemption but not in that which hath Perished Else man should stand in time and not in Eternity and with him would be found nothing but the old stock Before an elect Man comes into Hell or the Grave of which he doth not yet know whither he shall come thither or not if he be then asked to renounce the Creature he saith yes and doth renounce it so as he will never more touch it or desire it for God in that renounciation taketh away also the desire so that such a one cannot and will not desire any thing more God leadeth a man by unknown wayes just as when one comes into a strange Country where he knows not the way nor understandeth the Language nor hath any Mony and yet he goes on still As long as a Man hath still left any things to fly to so as all things have not renounced him faith hath not yet found â—oom in him CHAP. XXI THe difference betwixt those who are in the Hell of the happy and those who are in the Hell of the Damned is â—his they who live in the Hell of the Blessed bear a pure Heart and a clean Conscience nor is there any accusation â—n them O that I had done this O that 〈◊〉 had omitted that c. if one saith Those that complain not of such things have not been Subjected to any sufferings â—t is answered to him Ask any one who â—s Condemned to Death whether or no â—â—e be not subjected to misery sufferings â—hough he should confess the Judgment which he suffers to be Just and that he is â—eservedly put to all Torture and Punishment nor would he desire otherwise then that he might Suffer Yet nevertheâ—ess he is in Misery and suffers the anguish and pains of Death But happy are these Condemned ones who then at last go down into their Hell when first they have contended Rightly with all their might or strength applied all which particulars must precede if any one expects to be put forwards by God But we must labour to attain to the very Top so as that we cannot go Higher and then at length it is propounded to a man that all whatsoever he hath hitherto Laboured for and his own proper Righteousness of which Paul saith 10 to the Rom. 3. They seeking to Establish their own Righteousness are not Subject to the Righteousness of God cannot possibly stand in the sight of God also he must confess that he deservedly suffers the Judgment of God and to be cast into this Hell And then is he Subjected to those Pains and is filled with so many Anguishes though his Conscience be pure because he hath applied all his strength that he might live according to the will of God Which they who are in the Hell of the damned have not done and therefore they have not this Glory but Conscience alwayes accuseth them that they are Impure besides these sit down in the lower-most Hell when the elect may sit in the Uppermost Hell and suffer the Torments of this Judgment finding refreshment neither in God nor in the Creatures Between the Creatures and those who sit in the uppermost Hell is a great Gulph so that they can come no more unto them nor do they desire it because they have been renounced of the Creatures and when that Renounciation is Past then is the last farewel taken that they can never more touch them and therefore they are Separated from the Creature and from God also Yet they very well know that God liveth and that they are to be kept bound in this dark prison which is enlightened neither by God nor by any creature where also they hope for no Redemption eiâ—her from God or from the creature â—or have they any faith but afterwards when they have endured all this for some time then faith begins to come â—nd the man thus sighs and breaths out 〈◊〉 that I might embrace Christ with these my arms O that I might see the Salvation of Israel and then Christ come alwayes nearer till he stands just nexâ— unto him and frees him from out of thiâ— darksome prison Death and Hell and transplanteth him into life Heaven and true Light It is then indeed that a man apprehendeth what that was that Chriâ—â— descended into hell as also that he wenâ— down to the lowermost places Forthâ— lowest places of the Earth do denote thâ— most remote separation from God iâ— which a man lives in his ownness and in which Christ cometh unto him and leadeth him out thence together wiâ—â— himself The Ancients did thus painâ— out the nearest hell that a certain maâ— sat upon him whose name was US bâ— held a Cup in his hand offering it to aâ—â— that came that they might Drink Thâ— same US is in us when we glow wiâ—â— the highest zeal we possible can unâ—â— we come into the hell of Tryals and thâ— all whatsoever is ours is consumed aâ—â— all Egoity and Meity c. and whâ—â—
in the death and not in the life of the flesh it much more behooveth him to possess use know and behold the creature in the same death of the flesh for if this is to be done inwardly as to God much more ought it to be done outwardly as to the creature for all things must be beheld and applied in death and not in life if it be to the rightly done Whilst therefore we are not yet dead but are yet alive we ought to be lifted up on the cross and lay down such a life under a just judgment For else we cannot be conversant in or with the sight of God unless when we lye down in death and our conversation which is without death is no conversation in the sight of God and though in the sight of Men it may have a semblance yet it cannot stand before God But when life is as was said so laid down we are by the resurrection of Christ raised up again into a new life for unless the resurrection of Christ should be we should remain eternally in death When the thief on the right hand leaving all did turn himself unto Christ he begged to be heard of him in his Kingdom Therefore he yielded up himself into conformity of the death of Christ wherefore also he was conformed also in the resurrection He was crucified by Law which like a just Magistrate did not desist from him till it had thrown him into death and then he had finishâ—d his office and so became justified from â—in he also revived not any more into â—hat life to which he dyed by the Law â—therwise the Law would have had power over him again But Christ vivified him another way and in his resurrection raised him up again into eternal life which is God himself Then the Law had no more power over him for that life for which Satan by means of the Law accuseth a Man is judged by and thorough death and is taken out oâ— the way All that came out of Aegypt must dye in the Wilderness but their Children came into the Promised Land by these particulars that fruit is denoted which follows upon a going out When a man comes into the Land of Promise and there grows fat and gross if then he doth not behave himself rightly he is again expelled into the Land of the North where much misery grief and pain 〈◊〉 sustained till the Lord doth bring him from thence again then he enters into again by another way viz. with a greâ—ter glory and riches then before anâ— then he shall never be cast out again Fâ—â— though they which Returned from Babylon did not find that in the temple which they had before yet the Glory of thâ— last temple was greater then that of the first CHAP. XXVIII WHen a Man loseth himself he nevers finds himself the same again as he was when he lost himself and he knows not the fruit as yet of that losing of himself when he as yet hath not seen it or experienced it When corruption is present Fruit doth not presently appear for that does grow by degrees even to its full ripeness He that is free from all persons hath need that he be free also in his own person and that not only notionally but also essentially When a man hath lost is body he never findeth it the same again but in his Soul he finds a supernatural understanding Light and Claritude and whâ—â—â—â—ver then he understands of Gods is 〈◊〉 â—et God but rather the contrary 〈◊〉 A â—herefore he hath found his Soul so 〈◊〉 also â—ust he again lose it as before he 〈◊〉 did is body so as he shall never firâ—â—â—'d it such a Soul again But the calamity of this destruction and death is vast but out of these a man comes into the true essence viz. God and then that is much more essential then it was at first when he was to lose himself with so great an anguish and Death CHAP. XXIX WHen a man loseth himself as to the body he afterwards findeth himself as to his Soul in the supernatural understanding knowledge vision and use then when he again loseth himself as to his Soul he is stripped of all these again and then ariseth great calamity Hell and Misery yet if he goeth forth out of them then he findeth himself in the vision of God and in such wisdom understanding and claritude as the former understanding vision and use of his Soul when he first â—ost his body could not comprehend Christ therefore so assumed humanity 〈◊〉 that he was united therewith But 〈◊〉 after that the inferiour Powers also aâ— to be assumed by him there is yet need of another death Then a Man stands in a full purpose of persevering in Christ and never to go back again from him just like him who sitting at a Table spread and filled with various and delicate sorts of Food desires not to depart from thence or like him who living well and sound desires not to kill himself How much misery and difficulty of death is required before a man is purified â—s known to them who have experienced the thing and when a man is purged and prepared for the seed of God that â—t may be sown yet he does not hitherto apprehend nor perceive that seed and knows not that he is sown therewith until it cometh up nor yet doth it come up until it be corrupted in the Earth How great miseries and anguishes in dvâ—ng are required to that corruption of the â—eed is also known to them who have â—elt it This death of the Soul happeneth â—fter the death of the Body is past for a â—eath also belongeth to the Soul both which deaths must be fulfilled in a man When the body is lost the Soul also must be lost And this is that same Talent which the Lord required of the man besides those Ten for both sums are due unto him and he will have both paid unto himself That which was said before concerning the seed sown in a purified mind which is not perceived until it be corrupted and growth forth the very same thing doth more clearly appear from the similtude of the Field sown with Corn. CHAP. XXX IN a man from whom sin is taken away and who is purged again from sin no more motions thereof are found in the bottom of the mind for from a root cleansed from all sins how can any evil spring forth For that would be â—â—sign that somewhat was still deficient there and that the bottom was not wholly purified If Plato had had his foundâ—tion thoroughly purged he had not indulged his anger over his servant Whâ—â— motions soever happen in them that aâ—â—urified proceed not from the bottom of their minds but from without only and such do presently drive them out again whether it be anger or honour or ambition or such like To a man once purified there is yet need of a closer purification â—nd after that of another yet more close Death and
corruption do ascend as the increase ascendeth Let no man think that he who hath a certainty of eternal life hath therefore no need to suffer It is written Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Foot-stool When therefore the mind of a man is the Heaven and throne of God then God useth his flesh as subjected unto himself and for his foot-stool There were given to the Woman in the Revelations two Wings that she should flie away into the Wilderness from before the face of the Dragon but the Dragon went forth and fought with her seed those are such men as are not yet set fully at liberty Illumination is never brought to pass in a man unless first he be purified for â—llumination must be expected to follow purification until the very last point of impurity be also perfectly purged out And then presently succeds Illumination and when the business draws towards en end claritude doth always as it were hover over him nor does he yet enter until the very last point also be purged out and then at length the enters The first purification of a man is by working under the Law the second by Christ under Grace Do thou consider how that which is bound may then be freed and how a man must be quite wearied out in the combate under this Illumination But as it was said here of the first Illumination viz. that it is not made before the first purification be accomplished even unto its utmost degree so it is not in the second purification wherein the foundation is purged viz. that we might then look for Illumination when purification was fully accomplished Now though there be a disparity by reason by Illumination yet there is none such by reason of purification for even as the first is performed gradually so also is the second There is no means extant by whose help God and our mind can be united but only the most pure body of Christ If we must be regenerated and become new creatures now in time then must that be fulfilled in our Souls which was done in the body of Christ for it behooved him to suffer to dye to be laid in the Sepulchre and then to rise again thus ought our Spirits to be also conformed yea our bodies also before they can be vivified to live eternally must first dye in much misery and anguish and then be raised up again at the last Day CHAP. XXXI THe new man doth all things out of or from regeneration He hath no need to go first and hear or read what he is to do or to leave undone because all his things proceed out of Regeneration To a regenerate Man who worketh and exerciseth himself in God eating and drinking and sleeping and every temporal need begets trouble and anxiety He who hath regeneration it self and is come into the essence of God restraineth himself within bounds nor does he act as formerly when he had the thing only in notion There is no need to command a man newly born that he should live and see and eat and drink and sleep and wake and desire and go and stand and speak c. for he does all these things unbidden by nature for it is his essence and property that which he outwardly hears and sees is only the expression of himself for he derives none of these from elsewhere for he had them before and it is his nature and he thus acteth freely Nor is it needful that it should be told him what a man is or what it is to live to eat to drink to sleep to wake to desire to stand to go c. for he knows all these by his own proper experience But on the contrary a man that is not yet born knows not what a man is or what it is to live to eat to drink to sleep to watch to desire to go to stand c. Neither can it so be propounded to him that he may understand it or by expression have it represented to him The like to this may be said of a man born of God who knoweth all things by his own proper experience whatever the Scriptures testify and express for all that is his nature and propriety and nothing is adverse to him which he cannot freely do And therefore he is no longer under the Law He knows by his experience the wayes by which we are led to regeneration or what regeneration or a man new born again is as also what is his life his food his drink his exercise his work his going his standing c. and of these things there is no need that any of them should be commanded to him for he hath all things of himself and they are his propriety besides he freely and willingly doth them nor can he do otherwise There is no need to tell a Lover what Love is nor a Godly man what Godliness is and because he is so come unto the very essence of things that they are become his habit and use and being always present with him he cannot then be angry though he be contradicted and the matter is not believed by men for else he knows and is sensible of the thing and that he who is against him ought to be subjected to his Judgment He who is fully sound in health cannot be angry nor grieved though one should say to him that he is sick for he feels that it is otherwise but he who hath the thing only in notion but not in substance cannot bear contradictions and affronts Before we arrive at regeneration we must be drag'd thorough an unknown forsaken and desolate path and God pulls a man by this way against his will For when a man laboured under the Law so that he could advance no further and supposed that he was now arrived at the end of his journey then at length must he journey and be hurried thorough this unknown way The first way was pleasant and full of fresh-green herbs though it also seemed difficult and a man thought that the end thereof would be God Yet the end proved to be no other then this aforesaid rough-way which is Purgatory in which a man is purged from all things which are of the flesh God indeed draws a man hither and thither in this way and still some small piece of flesh is torn off here or there till it be left quite bare and nothing but Spirit remains Then the man willingly yields himself up into the hands of God and into those sufferings because the carnal affections are thus consumed in this purgatory so that there is nothing remains but Spirit Then God cometh and applyeth himself unto man and gives himself to be known of man and so this man comes at length to arrive at true substance or essence of which he is made capable by this suffering for in this suffering or purgatory he is fully purged and made fit to receive God When God is willing to help us then he exerciseth us with this suffering
he weighs in the balance and because he doth not see it to bâ— a true going forth he forth with lets it gâ—â— and waiteth upon the Lord. This faith bâ—â— holdeth those things which appear not anâ— which a man knows not whence the are to be taken for he hopes where theâ—â— is no hope The Thief saw Christ naâ—ed hanging next unto him upon the Croâ—â— so that there could appear no Kingdom no Salvation or Life to belong unto him but contrary to all his whole capacity 〈◊〉 Understanding he did believe that whicâ— he did not see By how much the farther off and by how much the moâ—â— incredible the things are which are propounded by so much the greater is thâ— Faith And by this faith cometh Salvation and righteousness above all the understanding faculty and capacity of man Christ saith I am humble These words sometimes do dart like a flash of lightening into a man and then vanish away again if they should abide so many adversities and injuries could not fall upon a man for he would alwayes think that these were justly done unto him and they also were still to be heartily loved from whom these were done unto him Yea though these should be a hundred sold more and greater which do happen to him either from God or men yet would he alwayes abide without complaint or murmuring and would confess all to be rightly and not injuriously done unto him When Paul said that he was the lowest of the Apostles then was he the greatest Better is an humble sinner confessing his sins then a just man puffed up boasting much and handling others with hard words All things may be fulfilled in a man which are extant in Scripture but not by a man's but by God's strength and when thus the meaning of Scripture is fulfilleâ— in a man the Scripture is a representation of the things which are fiulfilled iâ— him so that when he looks into Scripture he may have the representation 〈◊〉 all things which are in himself CHAP. XXXV IN all height of condition humility is to be kept and in the Deity the Humanity is not to be forgotten nor must any one fall back into himself but property of person is always to be excluded and God alone is to be beheld No man descendeth I say more humbly then did Christ who yet was the most high for he comprehended both God and man So also ought we when exalted up into the Deity to retain the humanity noâ— to forget our finderness for our emptiness must always be beheld and we are to be humbled beneath all others We can never come unto poverty oâ— Spirit unless first we be taken up into God and after that be let down again from him in the condition of the created Nature that is into our emptiness or anity and then Christ for certain reâ—aineth alwayes with us No man is â—â—fer then in the creature that is when â—pon the acknowledgment of our own â—mptiness we renounce ambition that 〈◊〉 the endeavour of appropriating The â—eacock helps us to a similitude for this â—or when he beholdeth his tayl he setteth 〈◊〉 upright but when he looks down upon â—is feet he lets his tayl fall so doth a man set in the vision of God he desistâ—th from all aspiring of mind when he â—ooks upon his feet that is the state of his â—reated nature Littleness is to be learnâ—d of Christ for we ought to be afraid â—â—est thorough high speculatious we be liftâ—d up and so fall like Lucifer Christ â—aith I am humble if he was humble â—ho was so high in the Deity and one â—ith it what then ought not an elect â—an to be Humility therefore and littleâ—ess should be always the care of an elect â—an that he may give to God the things â—hat are God's and keep to himself that which is his For in pride consisteth the highest enmity to God and the greatest fall from him If therefore an elect Man be a little too much elevated in sublime matters let him acknowledge his errour with the deepest grief and let him confess that he oweth a thousand talents when another perhaps who is still living in nature scarce oweth one The delight and study of true Christians is always to desire humble and low things and there security abideth with them and Christ dwelleth in them CHAP. XXXVI WHen a man is exercised about the loss of his Soul he knows no way of escaping out eternally but he is quiet and chooseth to remain in that same death and perdition of his Soul without any condition made nor can he believe any redemption or salvation and if one talketh to him of these good things he refuseth to hear them yea all comfort is a bitter affliction to him when now he shall be at rest in this eternal damnation and death Of these Jâ—â— saith I despaired nor shall I at all live beyond this moment thou hast set me â—t the very bottom These happen to a â—an in the perdition and corruption of â—is Soul his body being already dead But concerning those things which are done after the death of Body and Soul nothing can be said for they must be â—elt all that are spoken are quite contrary to the thing it self all this abovesaid is â—he way to that end that lasteth eternally He who is exercised in the aforesaid way â—ometh to attain the apprehension of that end just as he doth who finds his way â—ut This end and this way are the actions of God only but the passion or sufâ—ering belongs to man This is that way â—nto which a man is against his will â—ompelled by God here will prevails â—ot but coaction as the Lord saith to Peter When thou wert young thou didst â—â—ird thy self and thou wentest whither â—hou wouldest but when thou shalt be old â—hou shalt stretch forth thy hands and thou â—alt go whither thou wouldst not He who persevereth not in the said passion â—ut goes back from Christ that is freeth â—imself that liberty of his belongeth to time but not to God and that man is abortive of whom Esdras saith There shall be many abortives CHAP. XXXVII THe Elect stand yielded up and left to God and what ever they meet with they accept it from God alone and acknowledge it to be God nor do they respect the creatures Wherefore also they love their enemies and are in themselves free from envy and hatred and can pray for their enemies whose friends they are confessing all to be good that happeneth to them but for them that injure them they one the other side count those things not to be good True Christains with all that they have are not their own but God's propriety Whatsoever therefore hapeneth to them happeneth to God also they take all as from God Nor do look upon men nor upon other things but upon God to whom they give up themselves knowing that all things come from him They who are in this state to them every
only continence but not real patience But this is patience when a man can imprecate no evil upon another by reason of any adversity but if any one hath injured him he prayeth heartily for him note he hath a kindness for him and loveth him and if one hath taken any thing from him he yieldeth up and giveth all these things to him as unto his own self and is upon it of a chearful and not of a sad mind And this is the fruits of the spirit but continence is the work of the Law and cannot justify a man in the sight of God and is precedent unto righteousness which follows afterwards through faith in which all things are real which were before notional for in old things did abide the shaddow but the real things are of Christ himâ—elf Paul saith The Law could make nothing perfect but was the bringing in of a better hope There was no rest to the Fathers till Christ did come as the Prophet saith concerning Sion Isaiab 62.1 That if one would be made one with the truth it cannot be done whilst non-corruption lasteth and whatsoever is said or understood of it whilst it lasteth is without experience Non-corruption hopeth in vain for it cometh or arriveth not unto God For no man receiveth God without death and destruction Every natural man is in the desire of God or the creature and yet neither is due unto him for if he could come at God as he does to the creatures he would alike abuse him as he abuseth them viz. with appropriation These may be thus observed every imagination which is in man concerning God or the truth before purgation or death nature is ready to appropriate it to her self and to rest contented therein with delight that she may upon that account receive honour and respect and notwithstanding this conversation is still but according to the flesh which is followed by death For this rising up cannot abide this bridegroom must be taken away before the real truth can appear The Apostles possessed Christ before his death imaginarily but after death really Whence Paul writeth That he knew Christ no longer after the flesh but after the spirit and the truth and that he walked according to that spirit and not according to the flesh and that they were now become invisible to evey natural man whence they can be judged by none but are able to judge all that they were now sanctifyed or made holy by the Holy Spirit after that Christ was risen again from the death before whose death and resurrection no man could be holy The Holy Spirit maketh holy as the Lord saith Vnless I go away the Holy Spirit the Advocate will come unto you And no man putteth new wine into old bottles c. To renounce all creatures that nothing may remain but God and to set God only for the end and aim Nature and Flesh do hear it with terrour for they are amazed at this when they hear that all things must be taken away from them So that if the flesh can but retain one only thing though the vilest yet would it put or place its whole life therein and would adhere thereunto But in truth it cannot be so well done for it for all things will renounce it which way soever it tendeth Whence at length it must without any support let it self down into death and plainly dye to all things When a King and a Beggar are starved to death the death of either is the same and alike but yet with a distinction He that is in corruption beholding other good men still standing in non-corruption thinketh thus Alas in what condition are you O how much still can you be satiated and exhilerated with God when I can neither be so nor desire it To be at rest no where but in God it 's requisite before all things that one should become poor The sufferings of Job are not hid from me but that which followed after it cannot make me glad The Lord saith What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul and what advantage would it be to a man to know all things and yet he experienceth them not nor are they fulfilled in him and therefore we ought not to take care of that to know or understand much but that we may sensibly apprehend and experience much Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth faith the Apostle Experience supplieth all things in man and is adequate to knowledge And thus also the man is made humble CHAP. XIII WHen death is known it is also feared And by how much the more profoundly death is known by so much the more doth it terrify and is it feared If Death must be true it must be true as to all things When Nature is once dead as to corporal things it ought to remain dead and as to them never to revive again But then life ascends in the Soul and there seeks nourishment But Death follows it thither also and cuts off the thred of that life also that it may there also remain always dead nor can it ever revive again So that at last the life ascendeth above all creatures yea above the Angels also by how many degrees it is to ascend into life by so many deaths it is to dye and always to abide in death If one abstaineth from any thing he may take it up again but according to what any one is dead unto that ought always to remain dead so as that it can never be re-asumed I never possess piety and whatsoever I receive from God by my piety I am plainly robbed thereof and I can boast no where neither before God nor before any man nor before my own self for I live by free-grace alone This state is so miserable that no man knoweth it but he that is touched therewith And though I must live by free-grace yet I know of no grace nor can I comprehend or understand nor know nor find where that grace should be nor whence it should come although I have often felt it Therefore ought this grace to be both given and taken above and beyond the understanding knowledge and comprehension of all men yea above all merit or godliness that is in a man as also above all intellect and illumination but as for the justice of God judgment hell and damnation these I can most exactly know and understand whence they can come for they alwayes do handle me very severely But the will of God is my chiefest Salvation As long as the will of God overshaddows me I can bear all though I should be roasted or boyled annihilated or slain in Body Soul and Spirit But when the will of God hideth it self for some time that I do not feel it over me I fall into such streights as an unexperienced person cannot believe My whole hope is that the Lord will lead us all thorough all though the case be full of sorrows for his arm is all powerful
he yet stands in the creature He that standeth in God he hath no business with the creature but with God and knows him to be faithful and just in judgments To such a man no injury can be done for whatsoever happens unto him he knows it to be decreed by God Jordan is the River of jugdment to it judgment is due over it judgment hangeth thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness said our Lord when he was about to be baptised in Jordan He who understands any thing which he hath not experienced hath no real understanding thereof For he is like to him who speaks of a fair Country in which he never yet was CHAP. IIII. NO man can have humility without affliction Herod the fiery dragon and the mountain lifted up would have killed the little infant under the shew of devotion or worship The greatest danger is hanging over our heads from Pride which dares kill every birth Christs humanity is the highest of figures I desired and I sought but whatever I sought and found it now lies in death and suffers destruction together with all that that was gain to me and that too without all hope of recovery For that which must rise again is not the body which is sown for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and therefore must a man be slain according to the Flesh for it 's according to the Flesh that a man dyes and is made alive again according to the spirit If a thing should rise again as it dyes it would rise again in nature and would be natural but it is not so done Paul faith It is sowen a natural body Nature partaketh not of the Kingdom of God hence it is that the death thereof is without all hopes The natural man hopeth to be the heir of the Kingdom and thinks that the promises of God belong unto him and applies all that is written to himself but then afterward the thing comes to be otherwise apprehended when one is lead whither he would not and God is glorified in and by his death There nature is renouned and it must be robbed of all salvation and be denyed That which the natural man applied to himself another taketh They that went out of Aegypt desired to come into the promised Land and did divide it out to themselves but they abode in the wilderness and dyed there and their posterity only entred into Palestine Whatsoever therefore the natural man understands or sayes concerning these things yet all this is against him for it speaks of a sword which is to kill him Now they which are in this exercise and speak any thing thereof they speak it with affliction and not with delight nor can they ask for more then formerly because it belongs not unto them seeing all things tend to corruption and death and into death a man is unwillingly dragged he conveighs not himself thither for if it stood at his dispose he would never choose this state or condition but he is catched and put thereinto by another who is above him and stronger then himself Just as it is now with the death of the body so the matter is also carried in this other death of which it is said viz. When any one thinks he hath found his Soul and that he is confirmed in life yet must he be subjected unto death Now the Lord suffers him first to grow and to increase and grow ripe in youth but when he is accomplished in that youth he plainly careth not for death and though he knows that a time of dying must come yet lie laies it not close to heart till he be grown old then death frights him and stands before his eyes and yet neither then does he know how much misery there is there to be met with for if he knew it he would dye aforehand for mere grief They who depart from earthly things according to the testimony of conscience that they may seek the salvation of their Souls and to arrive at true ripeness of youth rejoyce in this death when they hear of it and understand it because of the fruit that springs from thence But they who are in this death are destitute of that joy for if they could yet have any joy they would still have life and consequently could not be in death because what ever dyes is separated from all life Posterity only lives and rejoyces Nothing is due to corruption but death and destruction and in death all things are removed as faith and trust and hope and charity and all joy and every thing that is founds is to be forsaken Now if it be to be forsaken and lost it must first be found out and taken up for that which one hath not he cannot give up Now that which here is thus to be forsaken is also destitute of hope as was said and therefore this desertion is donâ— not with delight but with great aâ—â—â—ction The first desertion indeed is doâ—â— with joy because then some better thing is hoped for But that hope is not here but in this point there is a total forsaking and a being made naked oh all sides Gain as they say makes labour sweet But mat labour out of which no gain is hoped for is without doubt a matter hard and bitter and sharp Labour at first was sweet because gain sprung therefrom viz. that the life or soul might be found which also was found But when this life is found it is lost again in that same dying and a man is alienated from himself and God possesseth the place of self and there is no more mountain or valley but God alone for Nature is quite shut out CHAP. V. IF sin were not neither would death be if death were not neither would there be a resurrection therefore all things work together for good for the elect Now that which first departed from earthly things is presently after elevated into divine and so remains in it self without death For though it may dye as to its gross earthly nature or creature yet as to its self it is without death as having only changed one state into another and standeth still in its own life and yet is but the natural man in his own propriety though in a more pure estate And thus he proceedeth from state to state from a lower to a higher from a pure one to one more pure And although all that is here said of states are by the means of death and corruption accomplished yet the man himself remains yet in himself without and beyond death and corruption for he is still the same and cannot forsake his propriety and stands in desire as to God as he before stood inâ—desâ—â— as to the creature and thus he ascendâ— and goes forwards until he arriveth at the most pure and nobler state it is possible for him to arrive at And all this 〈◊〉 still but a figure and a notion but a purer and noble figure but if we must come above
but in a just measure and order and that to his own glory and for the promotion and growth of the man All which would a man hinder if being impatient under the cross he should not wait upon God Great is the fruit of affliction and therefore in it is the Lord to be expected I expected the Lord from the morning watch even until the evening saith the Psalmist and Isaiah saith Blessed are all they that wait upon the Lord for they that wait upon him shall never be confounded the Psalmist saith In waiting I waited upon the Lord and he regarded me Now if there were neither faithfulness nor good will in the Lord of visiting and helping his the Scripture would never have represented these things to us in asmuch as it speaketh nothing but what is true The Lord grant us Faith Paul saith I believe all the things which are written in the Law and the Prophets The eye of our opinion Love and favour is to be turned upon God and in all things we ought to set him for our mark and end and not things created if we would conâ—inue pure and unburthened The natural state by the fall of Adam is this that we should turn our eyes upon those things from whence springs up to us nothing but blindness and ignorance which things also are again changed in a true change which tends to their original but that then happeneth with grief and with anguish Now he that casts himself into that original he arrives at the port of grace and that is revealed to him which he before knew not for the imitation of Christ openeth and revealeth but the imitation of the flesh hideth and shutteth In all things we are perverse until we come unto judgment and death Unless the Lord should exhibit himself unto us and should sustain us by his power we should all utterly perish whence we ought deservedly to beware of all rashness There is no need that a man should be more sollicitous about the getting of knowledge then he should be of attaining of death for in death things do open and give out themselves and true knowledge is unfolded whereas if life should remain that could not be effected though a man should strive with never so much study and labour Yea though he might get knowledge according to the letter yet for all that all things are still shut up and hidden from him before he can yield himself up into death and admit in himself the dying of the guilty body such studyings and endeavours after knowledge are rather an hinderance because thereby a man neglecteth his own self and becomes forgetful of his own concerns Of this also saith our Lord What shall it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul That any one in this world should not be solicitous nor feed carking care many things are requisit for there are some who take no care at all because they labour not by reason of want or penury And many are such by nature Yet this is not that which our Lord saith For the words of our Lord always point at some other thing then what we derive from Adam yea they are spoken quite contrary to that which we are in Adam Therefore our Lord is very odious to the flesh yea the very death and destruction thereof is Christ who proceeds quite contrary to our Nature CHAP. XXVIII NEcessary affairs are done and performed by the chosen of God without the cleaving or sticking of their hearts unto them And if it be not thus but that the heart is rather burdened with them and is involved in imaginations this is not thorough any fault in the things but because of that defect that still abideth in man And thus a man goes away blinded not knowing himself until he falleth into temptation or tryal But when he comes to a feeling knowledge of himself then he may be advanced which could never be done afore because he had to do with sin secretly That which a man sometimes thought was hurtful to him and his hinderance that afterwards serves to advance and put him forwards Therefore should a man remain without any choice of his own but wait what God will do with him and thus yield himself up as being bowed under the divine will Here is the communion of Saints and that in the highest degree Let therefore the lowest degree blush that even it also doth not earnestly long after this communion for if the Sun gives himself forth in common certainly then the Moon ought to do the like who else ought to be ashamed if she should claim to her self too great a propriety and arrogate all to be hers He who is swallowed up by created things feeles from them either a pleasure or a pain even to joy or grief so as he can have no peace But he who is free from them is free also from both those evils so that neither what is pleasant neither what is ungrateful neither gladness nor sorrow reacheth him And because joy hath no place in him neither also doth sorrow touch him if things do happen other ways then joy and desire do expect and ask To stand between comfort and discomfort between joy and grief and to remain untouched and unmoved by either is a great liberty and the gift of God for no man hath that of or from himself Yea let no man unduely think that he hath gotten that for many things are required before we can arrive at this state or condition and when we are come thither yet is not glory thereof belonging to man but to God alone And thus man is to abide in humility without judging or contemning of others CHAP. XXIX SIn is hated in a double sense and that by divers sorts of persons For some do hate sin because of affliction they thereby being afflicted and terrified in their consciences as also because of the loss they sustain by it as the loss of their souls of heaven and of eternal salvation and if these two were not viz. the torment of conscience and the loss of heaven they could love sin and be friends with it yea become to be united and to be in league therewith And it is thus proved because that same hatred of sin proceeds not from the nature of the mind nor from regeneration in as much as there is in this state still left the old life to which belongeth judgment and condemnation and is that that must dye the death Whereas others viz. such as are transplanted into God do hate sin out of the Nature of their mindes and out of regeneration For the new life which is in them will not bear sin nor suffer it to be and that not because of that torment of conscience or loss of salvation but out of its own nature by reason of its tenderness and its holy temper For this nature can endure nothing that is strange for it is the Newman Christ Jesus who is God himself Hence
thing can be attained to but by Christ These are those things whereof the Scripture maketh so often mention viz. our own proper righteousness our own proper works our own proper holiness and all such like viz. if we trust too much to any of these means which were granted unto us from the Lord and stick rather unto them then to the only loâ—e God For to love God is no other thing then most accurately to do that which he willeth not for the hope of any salvation or of any good things whatever for the Love of God it self thus puts a man on that he cannot do otherwise And here it is that we are able to search into the most inward corners of our hearts whether or no we seek ourselves else where either in Soul or body and whether we serve God and love him for this end that our souls may gain salvation But here for the most part it will be answered that whatever things are done are done only for love yet nevertheless men do perform these things out of the terrour and the impulse of their own conscience as the scripture witnesseth I say not all this because I would detract in the least from good works set light by them but rather that we should go on further not to rest here nor am I willing we should sit down in a private kind of peace of having gained some steps only before we be come unto the end nor till the scope for whose sake all this is done be duly attained And though there be others behind us who follow up after us being yet a great way off yet it is incumbent on us because of our greater knowledge received to put out this our talent to the highest interest we can possibly that in us may be found constant perseverance if so be at length we can arrive perhaps to a true dying having no need more to reiterate so often our renewing of death so that all may together and at once remain buried also in Christ's death eternally a more certain essential sort of death as I may so say following us into that better state or condition Most beloved Lady receive I pray thee these my letters kindly if perhaps they may prove to be of any use to thee in thy holy endeavors and that we may come at length to the total renouncing our flesh that then we may be judged according to the rule of righteousness which the Law requires by Christ For in Christ sin is utterly condemned to death and as much as we are planted together with him in the likeness of his death so much also shall we thorough his resurrection be received into the newness or the Spirit who then performs in Man the office of a Governour and is to him in the stead of his life whose place before this our flesh supplied all that is beyond this the Lord himself will manifest to us when we come thither If therefore we have our inward senses rightly exercised by the Lord and do firmly adhere to him with continued prayers then will he kindle in thy heart some living light which my dead writings can never effect by means of which being inflamed with a greater zeal to renounce all flesh we shall be able to offer to the Lord our hearts emptied and set free by a meer and pure submission unto and a firm purpose of remaining and persevering in his will so will the thing prosper and our work will more happily succeed But why this work will succeed with so much difficulty and with such a length of time this is the reason because somewhat still will stick close to the heart which we cannot wholly renounce for when but one half of the heart is yielded up the offering remains impure nor is it accepted whence it is that the Scripture commands us to have a great care of or to watch such a heart which seeks double ways and carrieth upon either shoulder and halts on either leg c. For we cannot at the same time satisfy the flesh conscience hindering us and conscience too the flesh hindering us therefore it is necessary that we yield our selves up wholly as a pure offering and grateful to the Lord for such a one is received by the Lord and blessed of him that thenceforth he may bring forth fruit and at length that thence may arise the righteousness that is available before God Unto which may the Lord promote us and keep us by his infinite mercy in Christ our Lord and Saviour The Lord preserve us that we may persevere in his grace according to the tenour of his most holy Will EPIST. VI. Being a Christian exhortation which containeth many points very useful and profitable to all Christians To the same Lady MOst beloved Lady seeing that there remaineth no more time to me in this life as far as by my uttmost capacity of sense and reason I am able to judge or is to me known I am constrained of my self freely to open and more and more to unfold my mind to you Yet the true fruits of proficiency in the Lord are not attained to by my leters nor by our mutual converse appointed in the Lord of purpose but only and alone by the grace and mercy of God For that the same dependeth only on the meet divine commiseration he best knoweth yet only in Soul and conscience who himself is exercised in the very work oâ— the Lord. In the first place therefore it behooâ—â— is diligently to beware that we be not 〈◊〉 our lusts driven to that pass as to think that God is the cause of sin whereas the night can sooner be made the day then he be any such thing Because in God there is no darkness at all but meer light and whosoever would come to know this work of God thorough his mercy they must begin this knowledge with sincerity of mind which seeks nothing else but God alone whosoever proceedeth with a double heart is an abomination to the Lord. Now doubleness of heart consists in this when we are not with out whole heart Soul and thoughts given up and wholly left to the Lord also when we pour out our prayers before him with a heart divided in two whence â—lso it is that we are not heard according â—o our desires For the Lord loveth us â—ore then we our selves do love our â—elves inasmuch as he is averse to our estruction and always freely bestoweth 〈◊〉 us that which is most useful and â—ost profitable for our happiness which â—â—deed is that which at first is unâ—â—own 〈◊〉 us but is at length made known 〈◊〉 us though by and thorough great afflictions because that we were so far falen into our desires and into that evil which we call our Propriety that we must first be subjected to great anguishes and griefs before we can become submitted to the will and obedience of God which is that which can be never done without a spiritual death and the
desire as also that I placed more confidence in the Lord then in my own letters being fixed in this firm hope that he would direct all things to the best end and that he would apply a remedy to all distractions of thy heart and that he would thrust them all under his obedience For even as I my self according to my simple way do confide in the Lord alone in all my necessities waiting for help from him only so also I judge the like of thee with firm belief that the Lord will out of his compassion behold and look upon thy case and will deliver thee from all thy troubles of heart although this thy state may press thee to so much the more diligent and fervent and more continual calling upon God and to a greater abode in his fear because else it an be no otherwise done but that all labour glory cogitation fruit and pleasure of the flesh with all those things which belong unto the world and have communion therewith do all at last together tend to eternal destruction nor can they by any hope of life be firmly fixed to eternity for Death and an eternal blotting out do pass upon all things which are without God! But the faithful and merciful God will have compassion on us that we may be subjected to his chastisement with a continual meditation on the divine judgment under which it behooveth all flesh to tremble and to give glory to God alone that thus being yielded up unto God we may be wholly governed by him and that we may serve him in all righteousness and holiness as it becomes the Sons of God God grant this to thee which I wish from the very bottom of my Soul as the Lord also knows that we may together remain given up to the Lord both in body and soul O would to God that our hearts could be always mindful of that misery destruction and eternal death which hangeth over all flesh and where it is truly made manifest how far all joys are distant from us as also the pleasures in this earth together with all the advantages pride and other vanities that are pleasing to our flesh and all the other motions tending thereunto Nevertheless from the Lord I always hope that which is best viz. that it wilâ— come to pass that he will purify us miserable creatures even as gold is purged by the fire and that he will wash us from all impurities The Lord grant that our familiarity which we have in divine love may not by these sufferings be diminished or decreased but rather be comfirmed by the divine benediction which is fertil in all who are patient and who in Goliness and the fear of the Lord do constantly persevere even to the end of the fight although they were vexed with all manner of tryals The Lord of all grace have mercy on us all that we may never but be proficients and seriously and diligently walk in the way of his fear that we may always be more and more endowed with his grace EPIST. XIV A brief Instruction how any one may in due order arrive at Regeneration and whence it is the new creature may have its Original To the same person DEarest N. I could not withhold my hand but must send this letter to thee seeing I am not at leisure to come unto thee therefore this Epistle shall supply the want of my presence For I am wholly perswaded in the Lord that thy heart yea when not admonished by me will not yet be tyred out of the continuance in the work begun and in the growth in the fear of God our Saviour least that any one happly should disturb confound thee by these or any other perswasions for to come at the very thing its self there is no need of many rules and exhortations Search narrowly into thy own self and if thou canst find any thing for whose sake thy conscience shall accuse thee then it concerns thee to desist from that and to dye thereunto This therefore is requlsit that thou learn to examine thy self whether thou sufferest any thing against thy will and with a certain kind of indignation nor art thou willingly subjected with humility to all others For its necessary that in all resepects thou shouldest account of thy self from the very bottom of thy heart for the least and the most despicable and that thou willingly submit thy self to every body yea to him that injureth thee If thou wilt endeavour this thou wilt soon find in thy self a great defect nor wilt thou willingly perform that but wilt be moved to indignation and to impatience But if thou art never looking back and art subduing the flesh with a just and true zeal and wilt accomplish the rooting out from thy self the serpentine nature at length by the breaking forth of the divine illumination thou shalt find great grace in these things But here is need of great and accurate examination and the Lord is at all times both night and day to be call'd upon with a fervent mind that he will bestow wisdom on thee to know thy self and all thy stains of nature even the most hidden that thou mayest be able to cure them diligently to renounce them and wholy to dye unto them For after that the flesh is withered and nature dead the new creature may at last be planted in thee whose source is out and from God and not out and from man and the admonitions of man nor out and from any external ceremonious rite for it is born of God who is a spirit in our spirit so also is all the true spiritual circumcision of all things internal in our Soul where it is also promised to us that by the holy Spirit the eternal God the Saviour shall be raised up in us out of his own seed who shall abolish all enmity which still lieth between God and the inward man himself and will eternally unite us with God and will bring us to our Original which is God himself Dearest N. I should indeed writ more of this to thee for I further desire that thou wouldst thy self set too thy hand to the performance of these things and that thou wouldst get a living sense in thy heart of all these For in thy own self thou wilt find a true monitor who will more rightly then I can observe thy defects neglect him not but lend thy ear to his accusations and then forthwith will thereupon follow certainly very notable advances Also the Lord who heareth the desires of all who persevere will not reject thy prayers and tears but to all whatsoever thy heart pressed down with straights and griefs proposed to its self he will behold with merciful eyes and succour thee with a strong hand And if sometimes he may seem plainly to have deserted thee nor that he will ever hear thy prayers then do thou fully believe that at this very time he is nighest unto thee that he may succour thee with his help
and to the very bottom of the Soul about these the business have not so well succeded even as neither can these be attributed to them all in common nor are they wont to be given or received by words and admonitions To the Lord therefore I commit them who in his own time and according to his own good pleasure will advance those persons higher For they earnestly listen and are delighted with my present discourses but how pleasant they be to them even in their very Souls the Lord knoweth for I do not apprehend that their progress forwards is yet so great and perhaps the Lord will yet for some time keep them so But for my part I order my conversation for the most part with my self only because many discourses and admonitions to others do very much disturb me when yet all concerns as well inward as outward I freely would so deliver up and oblige to the Lord that I would think say or do nothing but to the Lord alone yet how much difficulty I shall every where find in all these the Lord himself knoweth Yet he who is faithful is never left destitute of power as most miserable I do find thorough the mercy of God who helpeth my arm to fight As to our other familiar she-friend she receiveth all with her whole heart and a willing mind whither they concern the understanding or the will but because of that sollicitous care wherewith she is involved in outward things not a few as also because of her trade the true fruit cannot yet spring forth from the true root But the Lord who is faithful administreth as I perceive all means for the removing away by divers sufferings these hindrances and of bringing forth this fruit with deep pangs so that I hope at length that the death of nature will follow in the end The Lord look in mercy upon her as likewise on us all that in his time and according to his good pleasure we may come to the true essence of divine clarity and that we all being delivered out of the hand of our enemies may serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life now and for ever incessantly in inaccessible clarity Amen In the year 1552. EPIST. XVII A wholsome Admonition in what steps the progress of the Just doth consist with a Conclusion concerning Esau and Jacob. To J. W. My John I Heartily wish that all thy affairs may have good success Having an occasion thus offering it self I was willing to write these lines unto thee that by the benefit of them we may be promoted to continued progresses in the Lord. For I hope thorough the grace of God that thou maist daily go forward in that truth and in the true Circumcision of thy heart and not in the acquisition of many Sciences and of divers Knowledges wherein the greatest part of our time is consumed and not upon that for the sake of which yet life is given unto us viz. that we may know God But God cannot be truly known by science but by finding him in our selves so as that which we know of God is found and expressed in us and in our Soul so that we our selves are not far distant from that which we acknowledge for good but are united with it not in or by opinion but in very deed and truth But these things can never be fully accomplished unless first we dye to all those which we our selves have and possess in our selves which is that that is called the old man who very subtilly exerciseth his dominion in man according to the variety of mens conditions If the flesh be still gross also its fruits and vices are gross Now if any one will supplant his external vices there is another more subtile thing dwelleth in man which he had never before known because it formerly did stick to him in a grosser substance And seeing that the Scripture also doth sufficiently propose it we are diligently to labour according to that Scripture because it is that which is ordained of the Lord for this end Having therefore received of the Lord sufficient knowledge concerning these things let us be diligent in our indeavours for little knowledge is necessary thereunto if so be the heart it self be but prepared which incessantly both day and night called upon the Lord with intimate desire aspiring to a union so that no creature can any more move it against the Lord and turn it away from him May the Lord give unto his mercy and be a help to our misery in which we being yet bound in the darkness and chains of death are still captive My John I communicate my heart to thee in my letters even as I enough know that thou also seekest my prosperity so that let us both together seek the Lord being perhaps not far distant in the Lord one from another Presently after thy departure it was decreed by the Senate that E. and W. do leave their dwellings so that they must be gone from hence The Lord bestow on them his grace and mercy that they learn to bear these things in true patience even from their own brethren and to accept from the Lord that cross for their own advancement and for the rejection of all other things and that they may resign up all to the Lord and turn off from them their brotherly Love For Esau always remained the brother of Jacob but that Jacob received the blessing was done of grace according to the election of God in which indeed Jacob did stand but yet without boasting and without pride for it behooved him always to bow himself before Esau in sufferings without murmuring And although Esau behaved himself with a very proud carriage towards his brother yet the blessing was continued to Jacob though Esau endeavoured to snatch it from him again by persecution For Jacob lived not only in shew but in truth when he dwelt in tents On the contrary Esau cared only for all outward things by labouring and hunting The Lord grant that we may so rightly immitate the birth of Esau that Jacob may at length come forth for the birth-right was due to Esau but for this end only that Jacob should be brought forth The Lord have mercy on us NB. The birth of Esau signifies the birth out of works under the Law but the birth of Jacob signifies that that is of faith under grace EPIST. XVIII Being a most excellent admonition concerning the Education of Youth together with that wide difference wherein the old Philosophers are far distant from Christians To Dr. J. Velsius DEarest Dr. That my young Nephews have succeeded well in your house was to me altogether grateful and most cordially acceptable for I know that you will take care of their affairs by a diligent inspection for the sake of that relation that is between us whereby these growing twigs may be advanced in their true increase for they stand greatly in need of a prudent overseer
a new promise of grace because grace in the regenerated hath taken most deep root according to its own true nature so that such have certainly no need to seek out some remedy out of their own selves Which whilst others do they do in this very point testify that they have not attained to that of which they boasted and which they by the testimonies of the Scriptures attributed to themselves in the very truth and according to the proper essence of the thing For the old man who always by force usurpeth the empire in man with transgression which indeed is termed a tripping and is made light of yet nevertheless in the sight of God it can never be tollerated in the new man without real mortification alledgeth a contrary testimony viz. that we yet live the life of the old man nor as yet are disposed unto death because that no sin can be committed against our wills and without pleasure or delight Hence therefore is it manifest that we still are kept in the life of the old man and are not yet arrived at the new life for a man comes not to the death of natural strength in his carnal life and with the complacency of proper will or by the study of proper righteousness and austerity but against its own will viz. it is to be subjected on the cross to the obedience of God by the means of pouring forth of the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord into whose communion we are taken by a like death according to the inward man so that on the cross we wholly put off our natural life which we had in the flesh being buried with Christ and afterwards raised up again into another supernatural life so as the power of the Law which being as yet not perfectly killed lurketh in the members of our natural body is wholly enervated in the mind and Soul and in the whole humanity having utterly lost all right in and upon the life of man For a man is not excited into such a life ove◠which the jurisdsction of the Law can domineer with a deadly accusation but when it hath fully finished this judgment in man by this death the man also by the benefit of the same death is altogether freed from that Law EPIST. XXII Being a fundamental Relation in what properly consisteth the Oeconomical Government of the Family of Love To the same person MY John I received thy letters together with the books and having somewhat perused them I gain'd the understanding of the greater part of the opinion yet I shall keep the Books till thou comest But the opinion of the Writer is contrary to my mind because it consisteth in the knowledge only of a seeming divine truth and not in an essentia◠truth of God And this is my opinion seeing no man can be more instructed according to this way than the Writer himself of these Books If I may understand his fundamentals from his Books it cannot possibly be that any of those who are inferiour to him can more happily explain the thing to me Yet I am willing that thou shouldest enquire how they carry themselves in their conversation that thou wouldest as exactly as possibly thou canst find out also the rest of their state or condition for when thou shalt come hither I shall more fully discover to thee my opinion concerning those Writings Now I only ask pardon seeing that matters are thus the cause whereof if it shall please the Lord I shall tell thee at thy coming May the merciful and faithful God have mercy on them and us that in an acknowledgement of their darkness they may be led by the Lord in the straight way unto his essential truth before which the natural Reason which inordinately appropriateth God to it self may utterly perish whereby I fear they are still too much bound though they think themselves clearly set free therefrom For all that for which they labour and contend and which they account their utmost aim as far as I can imagine must yet be judged of God for that which reason endeavoureth to effect with them by knowing all that must be God himself so that nothing but God can acknowledge himself in us we in the mean time being by a real death of body and soul as to our creaturely part wholly laid aside and then that life which ought to be in us can be nothing else but Christ as Paul saith likewise so that after we are buried by death we are no more raised up again into Nature but into the Spirit For nature remaineth condemned upon the Cross and being once dead is not again revived Now I judge that nature in these people is still egregiously and in very deed and especially alive although they may think that they are already purified because that they perswade themselves through their ignorance and blindness that they have already plainly conquered that combat of an accusing conscience I write all this to thee with the greatest brevity because thou didst demand my opinion but when God permitting thou shalt come thy self we will talk more concerning them My Opinion therefore as I said is contrary to these Writings and my mind can no waies assent unto them For that aim which the Writer himself calleth the Intellect of God in my sense is indeed nothing else than that they would have Nature as yet not deadned to become a propriety to themselves when indeed Nature before it be dead cannot be otherwise in it self for in it the highest death consisteth True indeed that by reading I find somewhat concerning Death and of the abnegation of the reason and the discretion of Nature so as that the Author would have all humane wisdom and knowledge overturned before we can come to the truth of God yet nevertheless the Soul of a Man doth remain proper to him yea though he renounceeth his intellect so that in this very point the Writer erreth in which he taxeth others and in truth far more vilely seeing that he thereby would come to a greater knowledge but especially that he by the means of his temerity would arrive at that which others seek by means of worship and ceremonies For these from a vow do love their body goods wife and children that they may possess the inheritance of heaven but they do forsake their natural and humane wisdome and reason that they may obtain something that is better viz. the understanding of God and yet both of them are still captivated in that that their Ipseity or Iness still remaineth proper to them although to some more miserably then to others Now it is impossible that they should this way arrive at the truth of God and can possibly be planted into liberty as in the sight God because that they are not lead in tha◠true and as it were that essential death to be found in both Soul and Body bu◠are only instructed by knowing though for this very reason they reject others 〈◊〉 of a certain
consideration of eternity according to his unspeakable mercy Moreover my brother as to my state or condition that abideth in perpetual agony of death with most sharp persecution performed within me after various manners yet to one only end for whose sake all must be done What the Lord may in time do with me is known only to himself and his eternal decree But which way soever I turn my self and whatsoever I consider or behold nothing but a vast abyss and a parching heat of all misery do continually represent themselves to my eyes The Lord in his commiseration lead most wretched me by his fatherly hand thorough things present and to come in this unknown uncertain desert and desolate condition yet I give thanks to his goodness that under this his powerful hand he revealeth to me his fatherly mind The Lord be my helper and my conducter in all things and keep me and teach me in his School and under his discipline His grace be over us all together with his unspeakable mercy Amen EPIST XXXIII How ignorant Nature well stumble in much disputing and will comdemn its neighbour also how the sense of all Scriptures ought to be apprehended in our own selves under the cross MOst beloved N. I pray the Lord that he will promote thee in his way in which thou mayest follow most diligently his will without much disputing by which the flesh rather then God's spirit hath to do we therefore must lay out our time with more advantage For when for the most part we think to speak from the spirit of God perchance nature lurketh under the fair show of the spirit so long as we are still cloathed about with flesh so that when we least believe it yet we then account of the flesh instead of the spirit Therefore we are to walk before the Lord with fear without any bold disputings and we must beware as much as in us lyes to walk innocently before God and before men lest we fall into our own condemnation whilst we are condemning others if not in words yet in heart Moreover most dear N. that writing which I received pleaseth me well although I have not read it thorough so accurately by reason of the weakness of my head For though I cannot truly reach the sense of any writings unless I can apprehend the virtue of them in my own self under the cross whence the true fruit is manifested seeing I tread no further then unto the state in which I then consist by suffering I always follow the steps of Chirst where the latter always discover the defect and imperfection of the former Yet let every man mind his own calling and observe it diligently so all in time will clearly appear and come forth into the light Salute P. N. our friend heartily God will look upon him to his advantage and will make his dayly sighings fruitful thorough his eternal mercy which we are all to expect none excepted The Lord endow thee with wisdom and prudence that thou mayest act aright in all things and that thou mayest walk before him with trembling There are books enough for us to look into if we will but perpetually observe our own consciences that we may most accurately follow their dictates Moreover thorough the providence of God we have the Old and New Testament for our only external rule but the holy spirit above all these for our alone master or Teacher Blessed is he who is deprived of his own proper wisdom and is instructed and instigated by the spirit of the Lord alone The Lord be with thee and with us Amen EPIST. XXXIV Concerning a certain danger that hung over that place by reason of persecution unto which he was about to go DEarest Brother may the Omnipotent Lord preserve my mortified body according to his mercy in his divine will I have purposed to go to that place and to expect the will of God concerning me beseeching him from the most inward and deepest bottom of my soul that he will set me before the enemy and that the remnant of my life which is very small may not tend to the destruction but to the salvation of any one this I beg from his eternal goodness and mercy withal hoping that this danger will prove destruction to me only and will go no further The Lord make known his will to me in this one desire of mine according to his commiseration If the Lord shall suffer me in this tabernacle tolerably to pass through so as still to subsist as I have occasion I shall signify it to thee But my brother which way soever I turn my self or look back all things renounce me and of the present there remains no place more for me And therefore I convert my self to that which the forsaking of all creatures sheweth unto me The Omnipotent God take care to secure me under his own protection EPIST. XXXV An answer sent to his brother concerning a woman that dyed also concerning his own condition together with a devout exhortation MOst beloved brother a real grief hath possessed me for the departure of that woman out of this temporary world I trust in the Lord that all will be done for a good end and from him I expect peace and tranquillity with commiserating grace which we all hunt after and heartily seek for our Souls together with an expectation of an eternity to come I find in my heart that I am now obliged to her children and I love them with a true tendency of mind according to my poor slender ability May the Lord for his mercy-sake turn all for the better Moreover as to what concerns my condition the same kind of bonds do always hold me bound according to the will of God in a disease and an infirmity So long as it shall please the Lord May he direct my ways and bow them down under his fear in the obedience of his most holy will and may he bestow freely his grace on us all that we may continue our lives in righteousness with devotion and a diligent observation of all our works and counsels least in all our actions there be somewhat found that is contrary to the will of God May the Lord give his grace to us all that we may go forwards in his way and bear such fruits as may be pleasing to him In the eight following Epistles is somewhat described of that great misery into which the Lord cast him a little before his death I. MY brother my body hath an increase of some strength just as a man groweth but very slowly so as it can scarcely be observed though yet it proceedeth on Yet is the purpose of God unknown to me although like a pestiferous cloud a many difficulties and sorrows are set before my eyes out of which I can spy no deliverance but by death that so I may wholly penetrate even unâ—â— God which will come to pass if the times shall prove prosperous yea and further also of all means