59. You must in an office either serve God or the devil, for you canst not serve two masters alike; for self and resignation are two [distinct]. He that serves God is resigned up into him, and in all things has respect to truth and righteousness, and will promote that. But he that serves self has respect to favour, and the highness and magnificence of the world, that he may have it all at his disposing: This officer is in the ministry and service of the evil Adam, in whom the devil has his throne, and helps him to pronounce the sentence of justice.
60. O you worldly judge! rely not you upon the tower of
Babel, upon worldly determinations, ordinances and conclusions, upon human institutions, statutes, laws and decrees: the top thereof reaches not into heaven; that is only the height of the confusion of strife and a misunderstanding. 1 God sees you in your very heart, he proves and tries your will [and desire] ; the law pleads not for you before God, though you orderest yourself according to that, when your heart knows it ought to be quite otherwise; and then think no otherwise with yourself but that you pronounce the sentence of justice for the devil, and serve him under a hypocritical mantle or cloak. The justice and right is God's, and it is God himself; but wrong2 is the devil's, and it is the devil himself: that master which you serve is he that will reward you and pay you your wages, he himself will be your wages: and this you are to expect in your office.
1 Or, mistake. 2 Or, unrighteousness.
61. And Moses says further, Then his master took him and put him into prison, where the king 's prisoners lay: and he lay there in prison. But the Lord was with him, and vouchsafed protection towards him, and caused him to find favour in the eyes of the officer of the prison, that he committed all the prisoners in the prison under his hand, that whatsoever was done there must be done by him. For the officer of the prison took not any thing upon him; for the Lord was with Joseph, and what he did the Lord made it successful (Gen. xxxix. 20-23).
In this figure we see the final and last proof and trial of God's children, how they must leave their honour and welfare, and also put their life in hazard, and resign themselves wholly to God, to do whatsoever he will with them; for they must forsake all for God's sake, and leave the world, and be as a prisoner who expects death, and relies no more upon any man; and knows not how to get any comfort from any creature, but relies barely and merely upon God and his grace: and then is a man passed through all proofs and trials, and now stands waiting the commands of his Lord, what he will have him to be.
62. For he says very inwardly to God, Lord, will you have me in prison and in misery, that I shall sit in darkness, then I will willingly dwell there; if you bringest me into hell, I will go along; for you are my heaven. If I have but you, I inquire not after heaven and earth, and if body and soul should fail, 1 yet you are my comfort; let me be where I will, yet I am in you and you in me, I have fully enough when I have you, use me for what you will.
1 Or, be famished.
63. In this last proof and trial man becomes the image of God again, for all things become one and the same, and are alike to him. He is all one with prosperity and adversity, with poverty and riches, with joy and sorrow, with light and darkness, with life and death. He is as nothing to himself, for in his will he is dead to all things. And he
59. You must in an office either serve God or the devil, for you can not serve two masters alike; for self and resignation are two [distinct]. He that serves God is resigned up into him, and in all things has respect to truth and righteousness, and will promote that. But he that serves self has respect to favour, and the highness and magnificence of the world, that he may have it all at his disposing: This officer is in the ministry and service of the evil Adam, in whom the devil has his throne, and helps him to pronounce the sentence of justice.
60. O you worldly judge! rely not you upon the tower of
Babel, upon worldly determinations, ordinances and conclusions, upon human institutions, statutes, laws and decrees: the top thereof reaches not into heaven; that is only the height of the confusion of strife and a misunderstanding. 1 God sees you in your very heart, he proves and tries your will [and desire] ; the law pleads not for you before God, though you orderest yourself according to that, when your heart knows it ought to be quite otherwise; and then think no otherwise with yourself but that you pronounce the sentence of justice for the devil, and serve him under a hypocritical mantle or cloak. The justice and right is God's, and it is God himself; but wrong2 is the devil's, and it is the devil himself: that master which you serve is he that will reward you and pay you your wages, he himself will be your wages: and this you are to expect in your office.
1 Or, mistake. 2 Or, unrighteousness.
61. And Moses says further, Then his master took him and put him into prison, where the king 's prisoners lay: and he lay there in prison. But the Lord was with him, and vouchsafed protection towards him, and caused him to find favour in the eyes of the officer of the prison, that he committed all the prisoners in the prison under his hand, that whatsoever was done there must be done by him. For the officer of the prison took not any thing upon him; for the Lord was with Joseph, and what he did the Lord made it successful (Gen. xxxix. 20-23).
In this figure we see the final and last proof and trial of God's children, how they must leave their honour and welfare, and also put their life in hazard, and resign themselves wholly to God, to do whatsoever he will with them; for they must forsake all for God's sake, and leave the world, and be as a prisoner who expects death, and relies no more upon any man; and knows not how to get any comfort from any creature, but relies barely and merely upon God and his grace: and then is a man passed through all proofs and trials, and now stands waiting the commands of his Lord, what he will have him to be.
62. For he says very inwardly to God, Lord, will you have me in prison and in misery, that I shall sit in darkness, then I will willingly dwell there; if you bring me into hell, I will go along; for you are my heaven. If I have but you, I inquire not after heaven and earth, and if body and soul should fail, 1 yet you are my comfort; let me be where I will, yet I am in you and you in me, I have fully enough when I have you, use me for what you will.
1 Or, be famished.
63. In this last proof and trial man becomes the image of God again, for all things become one and the same, and are alike to him. He is all one with prosperity and adversity, with poverty and riches, with joy and sorrow, with light and darkness, with life and death. He is as nothing to himself, for in his will he is dead to all things. And he
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