your heart, and so fight with the merits and satisfaction of Christ against him, then you will be hindered; for the devil opposeth it strongly: He striveth against the soul as long as he can: He letteth not the soul go before it heaps all earthliness upon his neck, and departs from it; when the soul doth so, then it departeth out of his country, and then he is overcome: But O, how doth he continually lay that [as a net] before it, and goeth always about like a fowler; and if he can possibly, he will cast the earthly garment on to it again.
16. O how hard a combat must the poor soul hold out against the devil; but therein the sufferings, merit, satisfaction, and death of Christ, are available, when the devil hath ensnared the poor soul again, and will not let it go, but goeth down with it into the abyss, into despair: There the soul must take with it the sufferings and death of Christ, and walk with the devil through hell, into the death of Christ, and out of Christ's death spring up with Christ into God again; and then it is the lily which the devil doth not like to smell upon.
17. But for you to depend wholly on the history, and so to apply the merit, suffering, and death of Christ, and will still keep the devil lodging in your soul, that is a reproach to Christ: What doth it avail you to pray, that God would forgive you for Christ's sake, when you forgive not all others? Your heart sticketh full of revenge and robbery.
18. You go to church, into the congregation of Christ, and you bring a false hypocrite, liar, a covetous, angry, adulterous, proud person and soul in with you; and the same you bring out with you again. What benefit have you thereby? You go into the congregation to the Supper of Christ, and desire Christ's flesh and blood, and yet keep the black devil in you for a guest: What mean you? You receive nothing but the severe anger of God: How would you feed upon Christ's flesh and blood, if your soul be not inclined with all earnestness and sincerity into God? Do you suppose that Christ's body and blood dwell so in the earthly element that you can chew it with your teeth? No, friend, it is a more pure and subtle thing; the soul must apprehend it, the mouth of the soul must receive it:
But how shall it receive Christ, if the devil be still lodging in the soul? The soul must be in the will of God, if it will feed upon God: Indeed it can continually eat of Christ's flesh, if it live in the flesh of Christ, for every spirit eateth of its own body [is fed by its own substance which is its flesh and blood].
19. This testament is ordained to that end that in the congregation we should there eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood; that we should thereby commemorate his death, and teach the same to our children, and tell them what Christ hath done for us, that we might be preserved in one mind and will, and that we should be one body in Christ, and walk together in one love; and therefore we should eat of one and the same bread, and drink of one and the same cup, and acknowledge that Christ hath begotten us again to one body in himself, and that he hath, through his death, brought us again, through hell and the fire of God's wrath into his Father in himself, that we might wholly put our wills into his will, and love one another, and make one another rejoice in him, and sing, speak of, and declare his marvellous deeds and benefits, and thereby renounce the old devil who hath held us captive, and tread him under foot in our mind.
20. This is the right Catholic [or universal] way of true faith:
He that teacheth and liveth otherwise is not appointed
for a shepherd by Christ, but is a shepherd sprung up of himself from his own art and reason,
your heart, and so fight with the merits and satisfaction of Christ against him, then you will be hindered; for the devil opposes it strongly: He strives against the soul as long as he can: He letts not the soul go before it heaps all earthliness upon his neck, and departs from it; when the soul does so, then it departs out of his country, and then he is overcome: But O, how does he continually lay that [as a net] before it, and goes always about like a fowler; and if he can possibly, he will cast the earthly garment on to it again.
16. O how hard a combat must the poor soul hold out against the devil; but therein the sufferings, merit, satisfaction, and death of Christ, are available, when the devil has ensnared the poor soul again, and will not let it go, but goes down with it into the abyss, into despair: There the soul must take with it the sufferings and death of Christ, and walk with the devil through hell, into the death of Christ, and out of Christ's death spring up with Christ into God again; and then it is the lily which the devil does not like to smell upon.
17. But for you to depend wholly on the history, and so to apply the merit, suffering, and death of Christ, and will still keep the devil lodging in your soul, that is a reproach to Christ: What does it avail you to pray, that God would forgive you for Christ's sake, when you forgive not all others? Your heart sticks full of revenge and robbery.
18. You go to church, into the congregation of Christ, and you bring a false hypocrite, liar, a covetous, angry, adulterous, proud person and soul in with you; and the same you bring out with you again. What benefit have you thereby? You go into the congregation to the Supper of Christ, and desire Christ's flesh and blood, and yet keep the black devil in you for a guest: What mean you? You receive nothing but the severe anger of God: How would you feed upon Christ's flesh and blood, if your soul be not inclined with all earnestness and sincerity into God? Do you suppose that Christ's body and blood dwell so in the earthly element that you can chew it with your teeth? No, friend, it is a more pure and subtle thing; the soul must apprehend it, the mouth of the soul must receive it:
But how shall it receive Christ, if the devil be still lodging in the soul? The soul must be in the will of God, if it will feed upon God: Indeed it can continually eat of Christ's flesh, if it live in the flesh of Christ, for every spirit eats of its own body [is fed by its own substance which is its flesh and blood].
19. This testament is ordained to that end that in the congregation we should there eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood; that we should thereby commemorate his death, and teach the same to our children, and tell them what Christ has done for us, that we might be preserved in one mind and will, and that we should be one body in Christ, and walk together in one love; and therefore we should eat of one and the same bread, and drink of one and the same cup, and acknowledge that Christ has begotten us again to one body in himself, and that he has, through his death, brought us again, through hell and the fire of God's wrath into his Father in himself, that we might wholly put our wills into his will, and love one another, and make one another rejoice in him, and sing, speak of, and declare his marvellous deeds and benefits, and thereby renounce the old devil who has held us captive, and tread him under foot in our mind.
20. This is the right Catholic [or universal] way of true faith:
He that teaches and lives otherwise is not appointed
for a shepherd by Christ, but is a shepherd sprung up of himself from his own art and reason,
No commentary for this page.
There is commentary on page 1.