Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	free_a	life_n	sin_n	5,436	5	4.6243	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96266	The narrow path of divine truth described from living practice and experience of its three great steps, viz Purgation, illumination & union according to the testimony of the holy scriptures; as also of Thomas a Kempis, the German divinity, Thauler, and such like. Or the sayings of Matthew Weyer reduced into order in three books by J. Spee. Unto which are subjoyned his practical epistles, done above 120 years since in the Dutch, and after the author's death, printed in the German language at Frankfort 1579. And in Latin at Amsterdam 1658. and now in English.	Weyer, Matthias, 1521-1560.; Spee, J.	1683 (1683)	Wing W1525A; ESTC R231717	176,738	498

those who ●●ve not a true light although they have 〈◊〉 understanding very Subtil as also ●●ose who are tired out from Continuing 〈◊〉 the way of the true light And these ●●en stand in a false liberty nor are wil●●g to pay Tythes to the Lord but only ●●e Thousand parts and yet make no ●●l payment of either by Tythes is meant the outward Conversation in the same manner they lay down one load and are willing to take up another and yet carry neither But he that walketh the true Path doth not thus urge one thing that he may neglect another but be bringeth forth both into use and studieth how to render both to the Lord. But they who are described above are those false Men who admit of a false Liberty not can any one gain any Victory over them or resist them except he be one that is come to Regeneration for such have the true essence of the thing and in the true Light the errours of these Libertine are heheld and they seen wherein they err and how they go beyond al● due bounds nor do Rightly persevere Otherwise they are above every ones understanding and make nothing of tho●● who would resist them because they hav● a sort of Supernatural understandin● which they derived from that Claritu●● which formerly had shined in them 〈◊〉 therefore that is still a Natural Man 〈◊〉 not reach nor understand them an● much less oppose himself against them y●● though he be a Famous Learned Man But he that would reach them and oppose himself to them and get the Victory over them it behooveth him to be not an Animal Man but a Spiritual born of God of whom Paul saith The Spiritual Man judgeth all things c. else ●et him let all disputings alone unless he will be made a Laughing-stock Because ●hey are made yet more Angry and Provoked by his weak Argumentations We must know that Righteousness ●nd Unrighteousness are so alike one to ●he other as are two Hairs of the same Head but God can divide those Hairs ●nd expose their insides to be beheld of Men. The way of happiness and the ●ay of Unrighteousness are gone in by ●he same steps and the one leadeth to ●ighteousness but the other to Unrigh●eousness We have a Similitude in a ●reat heap of Mony that makes up one ●ertain Sum. Now if an honest just man 〈◊〉 to count it and to give the total Sum ●●though he may not rightly know some ●●eces thereof yet if he counts them ho●●estly and keeps back none of them for his own use but compleateth the full Sum God doth not therefore reprove him for his ingenious mind but he who takes any piece from them is a Thief and must expect the Judgment Now he is the man who takes some from them who would excuse his Carnality by the help of the Scriptures In every Illumination Revelation and understanding the essence only 〈◊〉 a thing is to be expected A man had need to have diligent care about all that he meets with lest he admit that which is a fault CHAP. XV. A Man must Endeavour to lead 〈◊〉 innocent and unblamable Life 〈◊〉 which if he shall arrive God w● call him into Judgment and will purg● his floor from Sin at the bottom th● budding forth of which did formerly 〈◊〉 much hurt to the works and though● of a man thorough the Law of sin 〈◊〉 the mind But when sin is perished 〈◊〉 Judgment and is Condemned and wholly cast out Then indeed the mind is no longer Subject unto the Law of sin but is free both from it and its slavery and is now become subject to the Law of God Concerning which Paul saith Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of sin and of death To this belongeth also that saying in Rom. 7. A man therefore is no longer a Servant of sin in his mind but is set free from that Law of sin in his mind unto the Law of God although he still serveth in his members the Law of sin Sin is cast out of the house nor is it any more moved from the internal root but it comes extrinsecally into the house Wherefore it behoveth to place the Law of sin near to the gate that the man inwardly may have converse with God without impediment CHAP. XVI NO man ought to utter forth his words in vain All men cannot be called by the same terms but it must be governed according to the quality of every one To them who are rude as yet nothing of the more Sublime Mysteries may be talked of but they are first to be admonished to put off their thicker outside barks and if they accept that counsel they may be admitted to discourses of Higher matters and so by degrees may be yet farther proceeded with until no Root of sin any more appeareth But he who is not Faithful in lower matters the more Sublime may not be proposed to him or else the discourse would be holden to no purpose Now no wise man does prodigally throw away his rich Merchandise or his Mony He who has purchased his words at an easy Rate that is who hath by no experience apprehended the Truth in himself he easily bolteth them Forth which another can never do to whom what he saith cost him more dear upon which account it is that he utters them in such a manner as if they were cut out of his very Heart and this he does indeed when he certainly sees that they are not spoken in Vain nor does beat the Air for words are extorted from him with difficulty and pain also And this is the difference betwixt those who speak out of Illumination or Revelation and those who speak out of the Essence Substance or Truth of the Thing they speak with Joy and Delight but these with Grief and Sorrow They are defiled with Pride but these speak out of Humility to the Glory of God alone and the amendment of their Neighbour Great also is the difference betwixt those who have their knowledge and understanding only from Reading or Hearing and those to whom it is revealed whose understanding is endowed by Illumination Moreover there is another and great difference as is abovesaid betwixt those who have Revelation and internal Illumination and those who are come to the essence or Substance it self of the thing and do apprehend the Truth thereof for they have their knowledge acquired only by Illumination and therefore understand not what God the Truth and Essence is by it self unti● they arrive thereat themselves They know by Illumination that the thing is but not what the thing is until God by his grace leadeth them so far by and thorough Death CHAP. XVII IF any ones Heart is on the sudden pierced quite thorough that man indeed perceives nothing of the true order of Death but if first his Hands were cut off next his Arms and his Feet and then his Thighs and so

mortifying of all our own powers even as they sensibly feel who are chosen and lead by God into such a death Wherefore we are to endeavour that we may most patiently accept from the Lord whatsoever he hath fore-ordained by his power over us being to our utmost resigned up to him alone continually imploring him by our prayers and with hearts lifted up importunately to beg his mercy that by his grace we may be sustained and preserved even to the end nor that we may not be turn'd aside by any temporal injoyments or by any case happening which is able to make us in this life faint-hearted but that we may abide confirmed in this way with perpetually going forwards in the blessing of God and in real fruitfulness I do not describe the cause by which we may perchance be drawn away and turned aside let every one try himself for there are diverse sins which vex us every one in his own state being captivated by that evil which we term our proper evil in our own will and desires in which every one of us are kept bound or chained May the Lord advance us forward to the true and divine communion and to a willing obedience unto God that we may be set free from all those bonds by which thorough our own faults we are inthralled to which freedome notwithstanding we can never come unless we dye and spiritually depart in and by which captivity is lead forth in triumph after the victory obtained by the most powerful hand of God in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ we being-raised up again in Christ unto the true eternity in the life of the Spirit when that which is become old shall remain cast off neither shall any pardon be given it but be condemned to death and to be perfectly separated from life Let this therefore be our rule thorough our whole life that we endeavour to lay aside that which is a stop and hinderance to our hearts in the way of the Lord which yet is nought else but our own selves who do oppose our selves to the Lord so that we come before him praying with half a heart only whenas notwithstanding if our hearts did spread themselves before the Lord with a perfect resignation and could abide in a continual progress of such a resignation and in a firm purpose of catching at nothing more being free simple and nakedly poured forth before the Lord we should then find with an admirable success the power of the Lord in conquering of sin Yet it 's not possible to arrive at such a liberty of heart but by the special mercy of God to which also are to be joyned our unwearied endeavours and prayers For we have so encompassed our selves about with such a wall of separation that we want the true discerning of our intellect by reason of that thick darkness wherewith our senses are deeply benighted whence it is that we always place without our selves the cause of our holding back and of our barrenness and complain that we are hindred and over-ruled by things external the contrary of which if things proceeded aright and we were sound at the bottom of our hearts would come to pass so as that which is internal would contain and rule in a due order all externals nor would it be hindred by any thing external and thus all would prove well for our use and advantage in the Lord. But the Lord will much better inform us in these matters and effectually cause that if any temporal things that are less necessary become a burden unto us that we shall lay them aside so far forth as it is allowed to us by our Conscience in the Lord yet not without a most exact consideration thereof For he who thus knoweth himself to be weak so as he may easily be hindred by and from things external standeth altogether in need that he should constantly and earnestly beg of the Lord that he may be kept unpolluted and that his Sensitive faculties be thus thorough urgent necessity always kept exercised with continual prayers and an elevated heart which would never be done without necessity for no prayer doth more truely hit the mark then that which floweth from necessity for by how much the more pressing the necessity is by so much the more piercing are prayers made So that in these very evils themselves a remedy is found which leadeth us unto God if so be our ultimate end be nothing else but God and as to things outward we propose to our selves to be obedient to nothing but the divine will and to perform it most exactly But this case doth wind in a man into such difficulties before it can be brought to pass that it will concern him to ingage his utmost resolution and powers to strive with divers and most difficult pangs and desperate temptations which increase upon him dayly more and more For just so it is with these combatants as with the poor wild creature which is driven up and down by the hunters till the time of the Lord be come Now the Lord preserveth us when we know it not yea when we sink into swoons and are swallowed up by straights and then doth our death truely begin when all our arrogance is quite blunted and supprest By reason of the weakness of my hand I could write no more recommending you herewith unto the Lord who can promote us all in his own way and preserve us in a constant diligence and in a perseverance of divine graces EPIST. VII Which is the true way of coming unto Christ very useful for Youth To G. of R. MOst dear G. I gave this to thy Cosin upon his departure hence to be delivered unto thee that thy blooming youth may be more and mo●● put on unto true zeal for I was always in my mind perswaded that thou did●● search out after that which is good 〈◊〉 therefore we are in some measure 〈◊〉 serve one another and to help forward in the ways of the Lord it is necessar● that thou shouldst exercise in practise that gift which thou hast received and advance it unto fruit bearing that thou mayst not only search after knowledge and Science but also to think of this how thou mayest reduce thy self unto a oneness which is not done by knowing many things but in many things desisting from our our own will and in breaking our desires even in the flower of Youth For our own proper desire is indeed contrary to God and this is the chief root out of which all Sins do grow To him therefore that would arrive at the state of Christ there is no other way allowed then that by the Law he die to his natural desires and lusts He that would retain and keep his lusts and desires supposing that only for a knowledge of Christ apprehended in his understanding he shall be accounted before God for a believer this man certainly will wander far out of the way Inasmuch ●s this same faith goeth no further

is it to be avoided because by the help of it occult defects are discovered and the Man confesseth them to the Lord with Contrition who also is able to purge him from them As long as a Man lives he is under the Law and when by his own Endeavours he is come so far that he cannot ascend higher yet he shall get higher and be advanced But it is necessary he should put forth his hand that another may closely take hold of him and lead him into the way which else he will not find that is he must give himself up to God so as that he suffers him only to operate he himself only sitting still and Submitting himself unto God Whatever then is performed that is no longer done by Man but God himself worketh above all actions of Man or his knowledge or Power God acts and Man suffers if this be done God by such sufferings and dyings leadeth and exerciseth the Man which are matters far surpassing his strength and knowledge even as before also the thing was utterly unknown to him nor was it possible for him to undertake such a thing or exercise himself in it And in this death it is that a Man is purged and all things are taken from him all Whatever were able to hinder in him the undertaking of the true essence Then is all propriety and Nature renounced for in God is no propriety but all things ought to be of a Divine Nature nor can any other Nature be brought into God In that death the Soul is lost and when ever this is done then a Man cometh to the true essential Life of God and there Christ revealeth himself most Evidently in Man and then there is no need to search many things concerning the Place wherein Christ is to be worshipped or any other such Particulars because all these will be very perspicuous or known to our eyes The Law is fulfiled by the new Man without all dispute or Imagination Jesus hath strength enough to be able to save and Purify a Man from sin but Christ doth also anoint the Man thus purified with his Holy Spirit CHAP. XII MOre does not belong to a Man then that by God's help he may abstain from sin and that he may have the Law for a School-master for to enter into Death Darkness the Pit and destruction and to be brought from hence again and to rise again into a new Life and a new Heaven and Light belongeth only to the Lord who himself worketh that in Man without all action of the man and that out of meer grace which a man at the time of his Resurrection when that New Day-break Shineth first upon him most clearly acknowledgeth For he acknowledgeth it was the alone Mercy of God which so exerciseth him and brought him back from Death to Life which Mercy he could not acknowledge when he was still under the Law for there his Propriety and his selfness was yet present but the Commiseration of the Lord was hitherto unknown to him because he had not as yet been thus exercised by God above all Operation and Power of his own that he might come to the Denial of himself but he stood as yet under the Law being touched by no Death when he thought that a reward ought to be Given him out of Desert but not out of Grace and then it was that he sought to Establish his own Righteousness but such a Righteousness was unknown to him which above and beyond all his own Operation and Power was setled only by Faith in Christ which Faith is acquired only in Death Darkness and Hell or the Grave A Man in whom the Law hath exercised all its Power and hath slain him remains not in Death but by the Resurrection of Christ is raised up again into a New Life but is not raised up again into the Old Life for when he should hang with Christ upon the Cross and beg to be Freed that he might return again into that Life he is not Heard but he must dye then not can he ever be thus made alive again but by the Resurrection of Christ riseth into a New Life Here the matter is so carried as if the Thief on the right Hand and the other on the Left and Christ also did Hang Naked on the Cross in one Man and as if he was reviled by both of them for faith the Evengelist Which very thing also did the Thieves who were crucified with Him reproach him withal The same is here also as if the Left hand Thief was not willing to Dye yet he must Dye but the Right-hand Thie● yielded himself up unto Death Also a● if the legs of the Thieves were broken but not of Christ and here it should be considered how Christ received the Thief on his Right-hand but the left which denoteth Nature also Perisht unwillingly and shall abide Eternally in Death also how the Right-hand Thief willingly gave up himself to Death and how he shall be Raised together with Christ unto Eternal Life Christ said upon his Cross to the Thief on his Right-hand To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He did not say Thou art with me in Paradise for this could not be so long as he had not yet dyed but he said thus Thou shalt he with me in Paradise viz. When thou hast suffered Death for it is as equally Impossible that a Man who is not yet dead can be exalted in God as it is Impossible that a Hundred Pound Weight of Lead should Fly upwards unto the Sky The Thieves did not Nail themselves to the Cross but they were Nailed the Trees upon which the Thieves Hung were cut Trees and do signify the Old Man or Nature in us for we must dy in this cut Nature and afterwards be revived again in Christ All the promises of God do respect Christ but Christ denoteth all Christians of all whom there is one only Head which is Christ who is all in all CHAP. XIII GOd cometh and openeth to a Man the sence of Scripture as it were in one Moment like lightning which comes as it were in one moment and goes away again in another and then a Man acknowledgeth the sence of Scripture to be far otherwise then before when he had considered it in his own strength And thus God can effect more in one only Moment for the truer understanding of the sence of Scripture then all the Epistles which some can write to others When the Light cometh in process of time it becomes clearer and clearer and again also it is wont to return again yet more clear so that more is still discovered and Manifested to a man which before now lay hid from him If this first Claritude cometh into a man as if it were Angelical but then forward it rusheth in much clearer and so a Man gets from one degree of Angelical Claritude to another Higher degree of the same and then presently he ascendeth yet Higher until he arriveth at the

advancement And then also that which is evil in us is felt and for its fake we can be affected with sorrow and can confess it in the sight of God Therefore prosperous things are not to be sought nor adversity to be avoided For adversity is always safe and does advance us in the Knowledge of our selves And it behooveth a man to be wary and to be in perpetual exercise and trial Sweetness is deceitful and Nature desireth it Bitterness is a Medicine and Nature hateth it and therefore we must do not that which we will but that which we hate CHAP. XXI TO abstain from inordinate and unprofitable words makes a man as if he were dumb and causeth him to be silent in many cases which else he would talk of A lascivious tongue extinguisheth zeal and renders a man inordinate and weak and unfit to overcome temptations In which way soever I am willing to go forwards according to life the gate is shut against me and then death is my refuge I must therefore shut the eye of life and rest quiet in death If I had before-hand known this affliction in which I now lie I had dyed for meer grief but now when I am in it God keeps me in it and I can bear it I never before had believed that the case would be thus as now I find it Judgment doth so drive me that I can have neither comfort nor hope nor faith either in God or in the creature Thus the Natural Man is suppressed by judgment and thus the rod hangeth over him and which way soever he looks death meets him but the mind is free I have no torture of Soul and such sufferings as Francis Spira endured I am ignorant of them Adam was created pure in spirit Soul and Body but by his fall he departed from God and tumbled down into his ownself he became estranged from God and was made his own propriety and a servant of the creatures And this same growth of self is nothing else but our desire endeavour or study of appropriating to our selves which afterwards is so subjected unto judgment that it can have no comfort or life either in God or in the creature Therefore it behooveth us to be reduced again into nothing in respect of all things about which we are made somewhat and then at length God will be all himself in the man himself and that instead of his own propriety and then a Man is restored without propriety And then a man findeth God with God and serveth God with God and that is pleasing to God For God hath no good pleasure but in his ownself Judgment is exercised upon this his propriety and then that loseth all hope of restitution and nothing is due unto it either as to God or as to the creature Thus it may be understood what the fall of Adam is viz. appropriation Therefore are also he is to expect judgment and that too must be acknowledged to be just CHAP. XXII WIthout affliction it is impossible to be promoted in God and to have inward peace for where one is to be promoted or advanced in God and to have inward peace there it behooveth the natural man to be purged from lusts and to have no more delight life or joy in the creature but to want all these and to be suppressed in death and to be fastened to the cross So the Apostle saith They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and 〈◊〉 thereof It behooveth me to give place to judgment and therefore I am without al● solicitude for things temporal whence they may be acquired For I have not 〈◊〉 much time left that my senses can meditate on such a thing It behooveth me to be stripped of the images of all things and therefore I remain without purpose and without councel nor do I know what in time to come I am to do or leave undone to be silent in or to speak but as things are at present so they glide away without my privitie and when all things are past and done I am no more sollicitous concerning them My business is to attend that that is present and incumbent upon me That I thus suffer it is not for my piety but for evil sin and propriety because I descend from Adam over all whom judgment and death is impending without hope of recovery For whatsoever Adam hath he hath it unjustly he is therefore to be dispoiled of all things that he may want all things and retain nothing neither comfort nor pleasure nor joy either as to God or as to the creature for nothing is due unto him nothing belongs unto him he also himself can never attain unto any truth but he is condemned and dyeth in Christ But whatsoever afterwards riseth again in Christ is clean and without appropriation That Christ hath condemned sin it self is not to be understood as if he had sin in himself or he is pure like the sun void of all impurity Whence it is that no unrighteousness can stand before him but as filthiness it is condemned by him just as in the Sun all impurity is detected and demonstrated to be impurity So that the sun cannot endure it but rather des●r●yeth it So Jesus Christ is the Sun of righteousness who by his own proper light virtue and pulchritude condemneth all injustice and unrighteousness and suffers no darkness to stand before him I lie like the trunck of a tree nor have I in me any activity but I suffer only all that that is done in me but I cannot act either by reason or by understanding My state is passive not active the active went before and I also once had it so as also it ought to be or else I had not come unto this Only it is not permitted to me that I may or can act or form in my self the image of any thing We must suffer even in the smallest matters for he that refuseth that cannot be promoted in God by the suggestions of the spirit the suggestions of Nature are to be denyed that satisfaction may be given to the Spirit no man ought to follow Nature that so the will of God may be done and not ours The affliction and misery of Nature is to be sustained for the sake of God and the peace of conscience It is better saith Solomon to be invited unto green herbs with Love then to a fatted calf with hatred Poverty of nature with peace of conscience is better then the delight of Nature with anguish of conscience Necessaries are due unto Nature that by their means a man may be converted unto God but not on the contrary When the conscience is satisfied many sorrows do invade nature But Peter commands that sorrows are to be born for conscience sake viz. Sorrows that are against Nature for conscience sake but not the contrary When it was Summer season to my Nature the heat thereof did stay me but now Winter is followed thereupon yet the Summer is

for a better life Wherefore I pray thee be thou intent to the diligent reading of the Scriptures and apply them unt● the amendment of thy life to the mortifying of all unrighteousness and to th● instruction of thy own self until th● Lord shall please to give thee a great●● measure of understanding the fundame●tal meaning of Scripture that thou mayest not be lead up and down by an● man but mayest be taught by him from heaven Now though all men boast of th● that they are endued with the Spirit 〈◊〉 God and are divinely taught by t●● Spirit of Christ yet are they still a●● great distance from what they boast of for else they all should have fought otherwise then as yet they have demonstrated before the door to grace could be set open They think indeed that they are wholy dead and yet feel sin and the accusation of transgressions to be still alive in themselves nor are they nevertheless willing to listen when one tells them of the mortification of such sins and do always defend their state and condition by these or the like reasons notwithstanding the gainsaying of Conscience which they strive to quiet by outward performances or ceremonies concluding that the obedience due to God consisteth in these performances and so pretend to ●ield obedience to God without or out of themselves when within themselves they find nothing but meer disobedience Whenas in truth whosoever he shall ●e no man excepted who makes all is aim at the true marke he is concern●d first to satisfie inward accusations and 〈◊〉 dye to every sin for if we are dead to one sin we shall wholly run into error if the rest be left still alive But say they Christ dyed for these sins and it 's impossible we should be fully perfect Well then if Christ dyed for one sin certainly also he dyed for another whence it will follow that there is no manifest need that we should dye either to this or to that sin let us therefore abide in the old nature of our flesh seeing that Christ dyed for our sins and will make satisfaction for us So is it add they but we are bound to mortif● all sins that we can but to be compleatly made pure we cannot We tal● thus when we cannot get forward any further for men are apt to think that tha● which exceeds their power is also impossible to God But in good truth when a man can go no further an● hath born the sharpest conflict of all an● still something is wanting to him the God worketh in him such things as a● above all humane Understanding an● does thus cleanse him from those sins from which formerly he could not be let go● free but they always did inwardly accus● and blame him Whosoever therefore affirms that he may come into communion with God whilst he still remains under the condemnation of sin that man deceiveth himself for God hath no communion with sin He that would have a Communion with God and Christ to be extended also to himself must be a sanctified Man even as he is holy without all accusation Let not therefore more be ascribed I pray to us then becomes us nor let us boast our selves richer then we are My dearest Neece I write these things to thee least thou shouldst here or there according to these or these ceremonies or external works be deceived if some body should perchance propose such like unto thee Rather first purifie thy self from all unrighteousness which sticketh fast unto thee according to the testimony that thy own Conscience giveth thereof as also the Scripture bearing the same witness and never look without but always within thy self for thy own Sin thy own Idolatry thy own Pride thy own Malice thy own unrighteousness is to be made known unto thee and from them thou must dye then will the Lord freely bestow more upon thee and as thy soul shall come to want some more things it shall abundantly obtain them Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who is able to lead thee into all Godliness and into the true study of walking in his ways EPIST. IX How one may arrive and come at the best portion which is God himself thorough many tribulations To the same person MAy much grace and salvation fruitfully abound in thee in a true and dayly proficiency in the way of the Lord into which we being in our weakness entred are obliged diligently to go thorough therein that being freed from our weakness and inconstancy we may at last be lead unto the truth of eternal Union with God least that in the multitude and variety of things we be drawn hither and thither and be further sollicited or rested but that we may obtain the best por●ion which is God himself and never more be deprived thereof But before we can come at that all those faculties must first be mortified which hinder God from accomplishing his work in us Now how much any one laboureth in that mortification according to the most inward testimony of his conscience and approveth himself faithful so much fruit also shall spring up from this deadned seed which is to endure much hail and snow and cold and miseries of weather before it can put forth true fruit and such as will prove advantagious to a man Thus also is it with the seed of that ●hin tender knowledge which is sown in us if this is at length to produce such fruit as may be useful to any man for to be a true nourishment inwardly to his soul then indeed is this knowledge to be purified with many temptations assaults difficulties griefs desertions yea all such like hardnesses and least it should remain carnal it is plainly to be slain and mortified Alas what sighs of heart break out before this year of tryal be run thorough in the Wilderness partly because of the ruggedness of the way and partly because of that pinching hunger and thirst of Soul and the want of all divine comforts then flesh and blood look back again to Egypt and repent that they came out from thence In this state we must act cautiously and vigourously call upon the Lod least we be tyred out and the tediousness of the ways roughness quite overcome us For sure it is God will make good his promises to the full leading us from and thorough hardships to a more soft condition thorough disquiets to peace through wants to all plenty and thorough defects to all abundance where all tears are to be wiped away from our eyes nor shall any sorrow be ever able to touchus any more My Neece I therefore write these things because I know that diverse tribulations hand over us under which if we demean our selves with courage we shall certainly be endued with great grace from the Lord Let us therefore rightly observe the perswasions which are dayly set before us from the Lord least we fall back again into the self-same misery Trust not thy flesh for it is manifestly

which lieth hid in man and convinceth him doth yet partake of reason and humane power although the Lord doth afterwards offer to the heart the light of the Gospel and the understanding of a man submitteth it self to that But for all that he is not yet one with the light for no man receiveth this light but he in whom the reason and strength of man are on the Cross become dead with Christ now such a one thence-forward because of the communion he hath received with the death of Christ is also again raised up by the same Spirit of Christ so as the Spirit of Christ thence-forward becometh his life his own reason and all his own powers abiding in death nor is there a Soul living in him but by the vertue of God and thus the man comes to renounce all his own strength and all his own righteousness in the sight of God and becomes conformed to the righteousness of God in himself which the natural man never knoweth nor can arrive thereat Therefore because the Judgment of Calvin reaches not so far and he himself is not yet dead to his own reason strength he indeed bore witness against his own self because that which in the Epistle to the Romans is demonstrated to be death by the Gospel Rom. 8.10 11. and 6.5 6. keeps him in life the light of the Gospel serving him for that purpose even to his own proper commodity For the Gospel was not divulged till after the Resurrection of Christ And then at length Christ the Son of God was acknowledged to be in us otherwise our acknowledgement was not concerned but only about the person of Christ according to the flesh from whence it is apparent that we our selves are still carnal and though we be not plainly like to the ruder part of the World and do account our selves for imitators of Christ who have left all yet still we are to be made liker unto Christ and to be planted into his death Furthermore I here further acknowledge that no man by the strength of Nature derived from Adam can ever attain unto the eternal mercy of God That study indeed and that labour by which such a man in his solicitous endeavours is tired our before he can arrive at the grace of Christ I acknowledge for humane and that it is subject to the Law but that righteousness which one acquireth by this study is not as yet that righteousness which is prevalent in Gods sight for this is at last after the Law constituted in us by Christ First therefore a man must labour under the rigour of the Law even to the highest perfection of himself and to the greatest innocency he possibly can yet when all this is done the Soul is to feel at length the judgment of God and seeing it cannot possibly abide therein it falls manifestly down into death and then at length is it by Christ raised again into the life of the Spirit But now the acknowledgment of the righteousness of God in common is by the Church which is nearer to us proposed in such a manner as this That God thorough and by Christ crecteth salvation meerly without any addition of works which I grant But because these under the law obtained no righteousness by the benefit of Works there being put no study or rigour therefore they also cannot for Christ sake renounce nor forsake their goods seeing as yet they had gained none For they would have them renounce what they have not but in the interim they suffer loss also in that which they have not yet arrived at That therefore which they say is true but it is not rightly apply'd by them as all the Scripture doth demonstrate that it is by their own faults that they come not to the truth Nevertheless I am unwilling to deny unto them all grace for their portion and according to the measure of their gifts seeing that they study with all their might for Christ and by the help of the Scripture do hear somewhat of him provided they be faithful in what they acknowledge and that to the utmost He that neglects this is condemned by his own proper judgment EPIST. XXI The difference between Repentance and Regeneration in relation to a little book of Diederick Phillips which was printed concerning the New Creature To. J. W. DEarest John that acknowledgment of Diederick Phillips concerning the New Creature I do partly own for truth if it be not stretched further then it reacheth viz. that it can according to the testimony of Scripture lead to Repentance and to lead a pious life But if that Repentance and life so corrected thereby he would have to be put for the New Creature whilst yet the Conscience is still under the burden of sins then is it erroneous for whilst that no death hath as yet happened and still sin lieth so powerfully in the whole man that by means of an accusation it often driveth the soul into sadness the Soul is yet under the Law for by the Law in our consciences we are convinced of sin And though a man may force into silence that accusation and that burden of sin that tormenteth our conscience and that by Scripture-promises and so comfort himself yet it must be confessed that then he still abides in the state of the old Man and is not yet arrived at the death of it For the New Creature is not subject to sin therefore also no accusation of the Law in the Conscience can touch it for then a man liveth wholly under grace and his mind stands in no need to be sustained by the external comforts of the Scriptures or also by the absolution from sins according to the testimony of Scripture it should bring forth to him a greater confidence for his life is in the Spirit and consisteth under the Law of the grace of God wherefore also the conscience in its purity enjoyeth the highest peace remaining sealed by the Holy-Ghost but in them who are still under conscience the Law of sin still exerciseth its power and conscience doth still accuse perpetually for some sins so that it hence appears openly that such are not yet dead to the Law because the accusation of the Law doth still remain in its power so long as by the transgression of the Law somewhat is committed against conscience and though we will not confess that we are under the Law or under the accusation thereof notwithstanding that there can be no accusation but by virtue of the Law still reigning here or there yet is the thing manifest by conscience its self which thorough an accusation for sin rendreth us guilty If therefore we could stand in purity by the blood of Christ according to the inward man then indeed the Law by its virtue which it hath in the Conscience thorough sin durst not so assault the Soul of a man as that he must seek comfort out of the Scriptures and to be reconciled with God and to be confirmed by