How a righteous Man in this present Time is brought into hell, and there cannot be comforted, and how he is taken out of Hell and carried into Heaven, and there cannot be troubled.Christ's soul must needs descend into hell, before it ascended into heaven. So must also the soul of man. But mark ye in what manner this cometh to pass. When a man truly Perceiveth and considereth himself, who and what he is, and findeth himself utterly vile and wicked, and unworthy of all the comfort and kindness that he hath ever received from God, or from the creatures, he falleth into such a deep abasement and despising of himself, that he thinketh himself unworthy that the earth should bear him, and it seemeth to him reasonable that all creatures in heaven and earth should rise up against him and avenge their Creator on him, and should punish and torment him; and that he were unworthy even of that. And it seemeth to him that he shall be eternally lost and damned, and a footstool to all the devils in hell, and that this is right and just and all too little compared to his sins which he so often and in so many ways hath committed against God his Creator. And therefore also he will not and dare not desire any consolation or release, either from God or from any creature that is in heaven or on earth; but he is willing to be unconsoled and unreleased, and he doth not grieve over his condemnation and sufferings; for they are right and just, and not contrary to God, but according to the will of God. Therefore they are right in his eyes, and he hath nothing to say against them. Nothing grieveth him but his own guilt and wickedness; for that is not right and is contrary to God, and for that cause he is grieved and troubled in spirit.
For this hell
shall pass away,
But Heaven shall endure for aye.
Also let a man
mark, when he is in this hell, nothing may console him; and he cannot believe
that he shall ever be released or comforted. But when he is in heaven, nothing
can trouble him; he believeth also that none will ever be able to offend or
trouble him, albeit it is indeed true, that after this hell he may be comforted
and released, and after this heaven he may be troubled and left without
consolation.
Again: this hell and this heaven come about a
man in such sort, that he knoweth not whence they come; and whether they come
to him, or depart from him, he can of himself do nothing towards it. Of these
things he can neither give nor take away from himself, bring them nor banish
them, but as it is written, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou
hearest the sound thereof," that is to say, at this time present, "but thou
knowest not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth."[12] And when a man is in one of these two states, all is
right with him, and he is as safe in hell as in heaven, and so long as a man is
on earth, it is possible for him to pass ofttimes from the one into the other;
nay even within the space of a day and night, and all without his own doing.
But when the man is in neither of these two states he holdeth converse with the
creature, and wavereth hither and thither, and knoweth not what manner of man
he is. Therefore he shall never forget either of them, but lay up the
remembrance of them in his heart.
[11] The writer is probably alluding to Ps. 49:8.
[12] John 3:8.