CAUTIONS TO THE READERS OF MR. LAW. cxxxvii

before us, cannot but be of great service. And, therefore, I see not why time is not as well spent in the writings of the noble army of saints, and martyrs, and confessors, as in those of J. Behmen; and much better than in searching for truth in the inward depth and ground of the heart, which is indeed, we see," deceitful above all things. Who can know it?"

COPY OF A LETTER TO A LADY ON THE SUBJECT OF JACOB BEHMEN'S

WRITINGS.

MADAM,

(See p. xl.)

April 8th, 1758.

THOUGH your letter did not give me all the satisfaction I had hoped for, yet I find in it several hints, for which you are much to be honoured; and, to say the truth, I never met with a person, who, after diving into those matters with which you are at present engaged, did yet possess such a spirit of humility, and remain so open to conviction. Being, therefore, persuaded you have no disposition to reject the truth, provided I can make it appear. to you, and I have no temptation, God is my witness, to offer you any thing else instead of it; I have resolved to address myself more closely to the subject in question; for, till we descend to particulars, but little good can be expected from general objections, easily obviated by as general answers; and, perhaps, after all, the real merits of the cause have not been brought into consideration.

I am ready to join issue with you, that if J. Behmen was not inspired, he must either have been a hypocrite or a madman; and that his writings are utterly to be rejected by every sober Christian. You have shown your judgment, madam, in thus bringing the whole matter to a single point; for now there is only one question to be settled : and, as you suspect me of taking up with false reports of your author, I shall not be content with any report at all, but set down his own words, or refer to their place, where I have occasion to speak of his doctrines.

You argue for the probability of his inspiration from those words of St. Peter, Acts, ii. 17. which, if you examine the place, will appear to have been applied, not to any future inspirations at some distance of time, near to the dissolution of the world; but to the present event then brought to pass: "THESE," says he, are not drunken, as ye suppose; but THIS IS that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: It shall come to pass in the last days," &c. where it is plain St. Peter applies these words of the prophet to the miraculous gifts of the Spirit at the time then present. He does not, indeed, confine the gifts of the Spirit to that time and season only; yet his words give us no ground to expect any extraordinary effusions towards the conclusion of the world. How this affair is, and what we are really to look for, must be learnt from some other passages.

The error, I presume, arises from a misunderstanding of that phrase, the last days, which are taken for these days and this age, when things are drawing apace to their latter end. But, madam, the Scripture has divided the ages of the world into three grand periods; the first of which is called the beginning, whose date begins at the creation, and takes in all the generations till the establishment of the law of Moses: as where Christ says, "From the beginning it was not so." Matt. xix. 8.; Mark x. 6. The second is called the old time, or the time of the law, when the people of God were under the elements of the world, and the oldness of the letter. The third and last period is the time of the Messiah, when the law was fulfilled, and "all things became new ;" and this period, from its first commencement to its conclusion, is meant by the latter days, the last time, &c.

After this rule the blessed apostle thus expresseth himself, Heb. ix. 26: "But now once in the END of the world hath he (Christ) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." If we should here attend only to the sound of the expression, without comparing the Scripture with itself to attain its sense, we might as well expect that Christ should appear again in those days to put away sin, as expect another miraculous effusion of the Spirit from those words alleged by St. Peter, wherein the last days are spoken of; for, as it is here said, " In the end of the world he hath appeared," so is it in the other place-" He hath shed forth this which ye see and hear." And this abundantly confirms what I have advanced, that the words in question belonged to an event not now to be expected, but then accomplished.

If we are desirous to know in what posture the Christian church should be toward the end of the world (in the sense in which we commonly understand that phrase), that is, toward the second advent of Christ, we shall discover a face of things very different from what those words of the prophet Joel have described to us; for these days, madam, are not to be distinguished by the wisdom or holiness of those who live in them, but, on the contrary, by their abominable ignorance and wickedness. The light of God is to be almost extinguished, and his lamp going out in the temple at that midnight wherein the bridegroom cometh; and false delusive lights are to rise up instead of it. Why else is it said, 2 Thess. ii. 3: "That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first?" and again, that," when the Son of Man cometh, he should not find faith on earth;" for that " false Christs and false prophets," called in another place (1 Tim. iv. 1.)" seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy,"

should arise with such seeming pretensions as should be sufficient almost to "deceive the very elect ;" and that these deceivers should multiply so abundantly, that, for the sake of some few, God in mercy would cut short the days, lest a total corruption should take place?

Our blessed Saviour is particularly earnest with us on this subject, bidding us beware, for that he has "told us before," that some should be enticing us into the fields and deserts, others into the "secret chambers," &c. so that ignorance cannot be our excuse if we are "led away with the error of the wicked, and fall from our own steadfastness."

So little encouragement is there to expect new lights and revelations in these times, that, on the contrary, if any man now pretend to be "some great one," sent from God to enlighten the world, we are to suspect him for one of these impostors: and as J. Behmen has assumed such a character, the probability lies strongly against him, even before we examine his credentials.

:

66

There is another thing you will readily grant: that, supposing any such deceiver should arise, with his books written at the instigation of Satan; I say supposing such a thing, there would be all the reason in the world to expect a considerable mixture of sanctity, temperance, humility, abstraction from the world, and other the like virtues his writings would else stand no chance to " deceive the elect;" who are not to be ensnared by open vice and bare-faced immorality, but only with high pretences to the contrary. Hence it is, that the ministers of Satan never appear with their proper colours, but transformed as the ministers of RIGHTEOUSNESS" (2 Cor. xi. 15.) even as their master himself was into an " angel of light;" and in this shape, as a great and good man has observed, the devil is most a devil, because he can most deceive." The fact has always been as I am representing it; for, if any heretic started up in the primitive church, it was ever with some pretences to superior holiness, mortification, giftedness, spirituality, &c. that his personal character might raise the admiration of unwary men, and so make way for the most pernicious and diabolical errors in points of faith. The Scriptures give us some instances, such as " abstaining from meats," and "forbidding to marry;" to which others might be added from ecclesiastical history. The impostor is never content either with the ordinary knowledge or the ordinary fruits of the Gospel; but would far exceed them, and outstrip the practical attainments of all other Christians; the best of whom he will condemn as Sodomites, fatted swine, shepherds of Babel, mouth apes, which, with innumerable others of the same cast, are the lamb-like phrases of Jacob Behmen. So that

if you should find a contempt for the vanity of the world, humility, charity, and other great and shining virtues strongly recommended, this is by no means to be allowed as a test either of the divinity of his commission, or the truth of his preaching. For these are the "feigned words" (2 Pet. ii. 3.) with which he makes merchandise of unstable souls, turning their ears from the truth, that they may be turned unto fables: and if many were led away with such devices, even in those early days, when the love of Christians did even astonish infidels, when a spirit of martyrdom flourished, and the preaching of the apostles yet sounded in the church;, what wonder is it if many should be ensnared by them in these dregs of time, when the love of many is waxed cold, and the truth of God is in general " evil spoken of" throughout the world.

These reflections I have set down as preliminaries: they are intended as a sprinkling of water to lay any little dust that may have been raised for the deceiving your eye-sight; and they are offered to a person whose good sense and discernment will immediately see, and I have reason to think, as readily acknowledge, the truth of them.

The probability then, it seems, as to the affair of inspiration, is against the writings of J. B. Such things are not now to be expected, but the contrary. How the fact is in itself, we are in the next place to consider; and there is but one method of doing it to any purpose, which is this: there is a word of revelation before us, and we all agree that it was "given by inspiration of God." Whatever, therefore, is false, this must be true; so true, that it is the test and standard of all truth upon earth. Every thing that opposes this word of truth must be a lie; and he that delivers it a liar. If he pretend to have received it of God, it is so much the worse; for then it is not only a lie, but a blasphemy: and he himself is a blasphemer, because he makes the Spirit of truth the author of his lies. What J. B. has written must be judged of by this rule, and received or rejected as it shall be found to agree with it.

And, first, let us take a view of his style and method in general, which is not at all like that of the Scripture, but the reverse of it; for the Scripture is clear and uniform in its language, as coming all of it from the same author, and addressing itself to the capacity of all mankind. Even where it is most obscure, as in the visions of Ezekiel and the Revelation of St. John, it borrows ideas from the things that are before us, and takes the visible objects of the natural creation to express and delineate what is unknown or invisible; so that if you have obtained its meaning in one case, you will be able