beware of her said she was guided by an evil Spirit that one such was plague enough in a Community And told her self that the Devil conâ—ducted her that he transform'd himself into an Angel of Light that there needed no other proof than her living without a Director and she would ruine her self if she did not submit to their Direction They pressâ—d her by so many Reasons that she doubted in might be true She had recourse to God but her Spirit being toâ—t with divers Passions she discern'd nothing being wholly in Darkness She went to the Archbishop who being perswaded she was guided by the Holy Spirit thought she ought not to take the Direction of Men. Pere du Bois confirm'd the same She rested upon this yet begg'd leave of the Archbishop to read the New Testament that she might discover her Errors by confronting her Sentiments with the Gospel She no sooner began to read attentively the Gospels than she perceived such a Conformity with her inward Sentiments that if she were to set them down in Writing she should write such a Book in Substance as the Gospel She left off to read more because God taught her inwardly all that she needed and that his Conduct and the Gospel were the same thing XXVI The Archbishop with the Consent of his Council judging the Undertaking to be from God gave her his Blessing and Permission to begin such a Society at Blatton where a Widow-Woman had offered a piece of Ground for which she afterwards paid her and there was a House begun but not finish'd because of the Death of the Pastor G. de Lisle and the Churchmen applied with all Vigour to stop it as they did He ask'd her Whereupon they would live She said upon their little Garden and God would provide for the rest That he never fail'd those who serv'd him truly and if they serv'd him ill far better that all be dissolved than to deceive the World by Hypocrisie He ask'd If she would make Vows She said None He said Each ones Love was not so strong as to make them persevere freely She said They who have it not will not come And if they lose the Love of God when they are there it is far better they return to the World than to disorder others or make them lukewarm XXVII She had communicated to Pere du Bois upon his importunity a Writing wherein she represented that God had made known to her that all the Evils of the Church came from the Churchmen and that they must amend if they would turn away God's Wrath. This Paper was quickly spread abroad of which she complain'd to Pere du Bois who said he was oblig'd in Conscience to do it All the Churchmen and Religious Orders were so far from amending there Faults thereby that it fill'd them with Hatred and Revenge against her uttering many Reproaches some of them declaring that if they could have her they would drown her XXVIII The Jesuits learning the Design she had of re-establishing a Christian Life in a Community set on the Archbishop with so much Earnestness and so many Calumnies against her that they entirely chang'd him and he retracted his Permission She remonstrated to him his Sin in being so easily perswaded by Men to change his Resolutions and to oppose what he knew came from God and forewarn'd him that for a Punishment he should die very shortly as he did about Six Months thereafter Pere du Bois perswaded her to go to Liege where she would obtain her desire but before she return'd the Jesuits had constrain'd the poor Maids to promise by Oath not to follow her and even not to speak to her Two of the best of them Mary Malapert and La Barre the younger died shortly after through the Anguish and Affliction of Spirit in which they put them A. B. says of Mary Malapert that she was the purest Soul that ever she knew and the only Person she ever knew in the World in a State of compleat Regeneration and Union with God which she enjoyed without knowing it well her self not but that when she enjoyed actual Conversation with God she was then most certain of it but when she return'd to her Directors they knew so well to distract her by outward things by constrain'd Rules and clouds of foreign Thoughts that she knew not where she was nor the true State of her Soul And one of the three things for which A. B. always bless'd God was that he had preserv'd her from the Direction of Men. XXIX Having after this staid for some time at Blatton and then by Pere du Bois's Advice with the Countess of Wallerwal who living in Caelibacy and designing to employ her Wealth to the Glory of God desired to see her where she met with nothing but Distraction she was call'd back to Lisle by the Sickness of her Mother who long'd to see her before she died She found her sick to Death who bless'd God that he had granted her desire and foretold her what grievous Afflictions were to befal her After her Mother's Death she resolving to retire again her Father and Friends urge her that all the Laws both of God and Man do oblige her though she had been in a Desart or a Cloyster to come and assist her aged Father in his Affairs She was perswaded so to do and so ordered her Hours of Recollection and the Times of managing his Affairs that she did all to his Contentment Yet tho' Sixty Years of Age he would needs marry without his Childrens knowledge a poor Maid for his Fancy without either Wit or Vertue A. B. staid with them four Months to acquaint her with the Affairs in which time she suffered grievously by her She resolvâ—d to retire and desired of her Father some of her Mother's Goods for her Substance which he utterly refused It is well known that the Laws and Customs of the Low-Coâ—ntries are quite different from those of England or Scotland particularly in this Matter of the Goods of Husband and Wife for the Goods of the Wife being either the Portion given her or any other Goods given her or purchas'd by her self the Husband has nothing but the Use and Profit of the Portion during the Wife's Life and she may dispose of and trade with her other Goods as she pleases and at her Death the Propriety and Profit also of her Portion and all her Goods do belong to her Children or other Heirs and none of them to the Husband A. B. related to her Sister what had past and that their Father said all their Motherâ—s Goods belong'd to him Upon which her Sister's Husband resolvâ—d to oblige him by Law and accordingly presented a Bill to the Magistrate But he being a Man of Wit and Credit drew them into a Process in which they could not get Justice for during it her Brother-in-Law fell sick and died upon which she desisted from that pursuit and retir'd to a little
Proposal to the Archbishop of Cambray XXIV Pere du Bois and sâ—me Maâ—â—s esteem her XXV The Jesuits disturâ— her XXVI The Bishop grants her desire XXVII The Clergy incensed against her XXVIII 〈◊〉 Bishop retracts his Permission XXIX She waits on her Mother at her Death keeps her Father's House He marries and she retires XXX Lives in great Solitude at St. Andrew XXXI I disturbed by an insolent Youth XXXII Is forced from thence by the War XXXIII Does the last Offices to her Father and succeeds to her Mother's Goods XXXIV Nothing in this contrary to the Laws of God or Man XXXV St. Saulieu accosts her XXXVI She undertakes the Care of a Hospital of Orphans XXXVII Her frequent Sicknesses there XXXVIII St. Saulieu's Persecution of her XXXIX Her Delivery from him and his end XL. She turns her House into a Cloyster XLI The Discovery of the Childrens Sorceries XLII Their Declarations XLIII No ground to disbelieve this Story or that the World swarms with such XLIV The Parents accuse her to the Magistrates XLV 〈…〉 XLVI Malefices to take a way her Life XLVII She wiâ—hdraws to Gaunt and Mechlin XLVIII Is esteem'd by Learned and Good Men there XLIX Particularly by M. de Cort L. Goes to Holland LI. â— sick at Amderdam and is visited by Persons of all Perswasions Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 2. Letter 1. LII Wrote here some of her Books LIII Mr. de Cort cast into a Dun geon by the Jansenists LIV. Her Concern for him and his Deliverance LV. They Peâ—â—n him in Holstein LVI Her long Sickness LVII M. de Cort had left her his Rights to Noordstrand LVIII They persecute her therefore LIX She goes to Holstein LX. The Quakers write and she Answers LXI Some Anabaptists of Friesland come to her LXII Their Behaviour LXIII The occasion of a new Persecution LXIV The Pastours of Holstein are alarmed LXV She is persecuted at Flensbourg LXVI At Husum and robb'd of her Printing Press Books and Papâ—rs LXVII General-Major Vanderwyck appears for her LXVIII The Pastors write against her LXIX She lives in great Secâ—ecy and Hazard at Sleswick the People being inflam'd by the Pastors LXX The scattering the Sheets of her Books discovers the Calumnies of the Pastors LXXI The Court gives her Protection LXXII She gives in a Confession of her Faith LXXIII The Church men prevail LXXIV She goes to Hambourg LXXV Her Exercâ—se and Writings there LXXVI She is persecâ—ted by the Pastors there LXXVII Goes to Lutzburg in Friesland LXXVIII Her Employment and Writings there LXXIX Long Sickness LXXX Persecuted anew by her Servant's Sorcerers LXXXI By those who pretended to protect her LXXXII The Pretence for it and the true Cause LXXXIII Goes to Franeker LXXXIV Her Death LXXXV Her Character Matth. 26. 48. 73. Temoign de Vertie Part 1. p. 146. Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 3. Letter 1. nu 17 18. Avis salut lett 133. I. The Occasion of the Letter II. Necessary Qualifications in Writers of Narratives und Characters III. These wanting in the Authours of the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignanism detected IV. The first Authour's rash and spiteful Charge against A. B. V. A. B. Vindicated from the 1 Of blasphemous Priâ—â— Parole de Dieu p. 127. Temoig de verite Part 2. p. 47. Ibid. p. 59 60. Iâ—id p. 81 â—â— VI. From the 2. That she overturn'd Priesthood c. * Sâ— Is 1. VII From the 3 Of Uncharitableness c. * p. 63 161 c. Gen. 6 12. Ps 14. 3. Mic. 7. 2. b Light of the World Part 1. p. 47. c â—emo igâ— de veâ—iâ—e Part 2. p. 71. VIII From the 4 Of 〈…〉 the Design 〈…〉 IX From the 5 Of her denying the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ * p 86 87 c. * See Apâ—logy p. 59 c. Light of the World p. 139. Light of the World p. 142. X. From the 6 Of her Contempt of the Holy Scriptures * p. 159 c. XI From the 7 Of her wild and barbarous Notions * See the Apology p. 72. c. * Ibid. p. 180. c. XII The undiscreet Treatment of M. Poiret pag. 127 c. XIII The Fury of his Zeal wrong levell'd XIV The Doctor the Author of the Narratives the Occasion of all this Noiseâ— XV. Great Caution to be used in judging of Spiritual Things XVI The Falseness of the Charge of a Sect. XVII His Uacharitableness to his Country-men XVIII In both the Narratives he fights with his own Shadow XIX His Disin genuity in his Narrations XX. Appears in his unjust Way of forming her Character 1. By pâ—ecing together half Sentiments from different Places 2. By borrowing pieces of it from her avow'd Enemies * Nar. 1. p. 75. 3. By obtruding false Translations Rev. 4. 14 4. By affirming things as said of her without giving Evidence * Pâ—eface §. 2. * p. 3. §. 3. p. 5. §. 4. 5. By drawing Consequences contrary to their Principles which their Sayings do not infer and they expresly disclaim Nar. 1. p. 18. §. 10. c. La paix de bonnes ames p. 186 c XXI The Dr's great Mistake as to the Regard required to the Testimony of Men. See Apology p. 14. c. XXII The true Reasons why A. B. was highly esteemed not adduced by the Doctor Nor those adduced sufficiently disproved As 1. her Sanctity * See Apology p. 137. The Doctor not faithful in relating the Proofs of her Sanctity * See Apology p. 42 43. XXIII His Reasons against her Sanctity disproved and she vindicated from 1. That of a light and vain Conversation 2. From following her own Humour without any regard to the Principles of Religion 3. From her Disobedience toâ—her Parents 4. From Covetousness because of her Law Suits a Vie exter â— 49. b 〈…〉 c ibid. n. 57. d Viâ— exter n. 52 54. e ib. n. 5 49 51. f ib. p. 180. g ib. and Part de Dien n. 9. p. 163. h Parole de Dieu p. 67. i Vie exter p. 186. k Avâ—s salut p. 86. l Vie Continuè◠cap. 12. p. 128 129. Temoign de Verite Part 2. p 3â—2 303 * Avertis contre les Tremb p 213 c. XXIV 〈…〉 c. XXV 2. Her Knowledge of secret Thoughts not disproved XXVI 3. Her foretelling things to coâ—e not disproved * Apology p. 230. c. XXVII 4. The Supernatural Means of her Knowledge not disprov'd XXVIII 〈…〉 c. 3â— n. 5 6 〈…〉 XXIX Just Remarks upon what 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 Narra 1. p. 75. Ibid. p 76. XXX Some Remarks upon the Second Narrative 1. He persists in his false Representations 2. In his Curtailings and Glossings Nar. 2. p 4. Light of the World Part 2. p. 84. Light of the World Part 1. p. 92. Nar. 2. p. 5. Light of the World Part â— p. 39. 3. Makes Questions upon a false Supposition 4. He opposeth the Truth and joins with the Pelagians Light of the World Part 2. Conf. 13. p. 85. e 1 Cor. 6 17. D. C. Nar. p. 36 37. 5. A just Character of M Poiret and the Narrator's unchristian dealing with him considered Tem. des S. Ecrit p. 387 388. Ibid. p. 402 4â—3 D. C's Essays part 2. pag. 163 164 165. 6 The Narrator's Mistakes as to the comparison betwixt Jes Christ's First birth and the Renovatioâ— of his Gospel Spirit 7 His rash Censure of things he does not understand Narr 2. p. 49. 8. His 〈…〉 〈…〉 I. The Occasion and Design of the Letter II. Remarks upon Doctor Cock bourn's Letter to his Friend 1. H. judging others condemns himself * Letter p. 2. 2. Unjust 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 * Pag. 9. c. â— pag. â—â— 3. The Doctor in Danger by becoming hâ—s own Interpreter * Pag. 30. 4. Not just in making of Characters 5. Makes a Controversie where there is none A. B's Writings valuable for their Plainness Simplicity and Disinterestedness 7. The Doctor 's Prenciples not friendly to St. Paul Etoile du Matin p. 23. 8. His Rudeness to A. b's Friends 9. His Rudeness to the Philadelphian III. Remarks upon the second Narrative 1. A. B's Pretences to Sanctity not so high at he describes them for she does not exalt her self above the Prophets c. She does not pretend to be without Sin or Corruption Solid Vertue Part 2. p. 71. She owns her Failings * 1 Narrat p. 49. In that very passage cited by the Author Vie exter p. 150. * Pag. 6. He most injuriously mistakes and translates some of A. B's words Put malicious glosses upon others * Tomb. dela Faus Theol. part 2. let 14. p. 115. Ibid. Ibid. Pag. 7. Pag. 2. 2. A. B. â—as made no Additions to the Essentials of Christianity * a Nar. p. 11. 3. Her Expression about Moses's Chair no mark of Pride * 2 Nar. p. 11. Pierre dâ— Touche p. 286. 4 Her Pretences to Knowledge not such as he describes them 2 Nar. p. 15. 5. That she requires the same respect to her Sayings as to the Scripture is false 2 Nar. p. 20 22. * Lum en ten part i. pag. 2. 6. The Doctor draws unjust and invidicus Consiquences 1. Instance * Light of the World Part 2. p. 85. Matt. 5. 14. 1. Tim. 4. 16. * Pag. 32. Second Instance * Light of the World Part 2. Conf. 17. p. 128 129 7. The Doctor 's Ignorance of A. B.'s Princâ—ples appears 2. Nar. p. 33. n. 7. IV. A 〈◊〉 Survâ—r of the Doctor 's whole Performance with Reflections on his undisercet Zeal 2 Nar. p 55. Letteâ— p. 21. V. 5. The Writer apologizeth for himself I. God alone Lovely Motives to the Love of God 1. He is the Fountain and Accomplishment of all Good II. 2. The Soul's Likeness to him III. 3. Of the Benefits bestowed by him upon the Soul and Body IV. 4. The Provision he has made both for Soul and Body V. 5. His Mercy to become the Saviour of Man VI. 6. His Inacrnation VII 7. His Annihilation VIII 8. His becoming a Teacher and Prophet IX 9. His becoming a Priest X. 10. That he gave his Life even for his Enemies XI 11. The Advantages of Divine Love XII 12. The Vanity of the earthly Love of Riches Honours Pleasures XIII 13. Nothing Lovely but God 14. Without him all is Folly and Misery
Christians I 've sought from my Nativity I liv'd I wrote to shew how such to be Convinc'd the World of â—rrors sins abuses All hate me for 't each one my NAME traduces To death they persecute me every where How should I other Lot than JESUS bear AN APOLOGY FOR M. Antonia Bourignon In Four Parts I. An Abstract of her Sentiments and a Character of her Writings II. An Answer to the Prejudices raised against them III. The Evidences she brings of her being led by the Spirit of God with her Answers to the Prejudices opposed thereunto To which is added A Dissertation of Dr. De Heyde on the same Subject IV. An Abstract of her Life To which are added Two LETTERS from different Hands containing REMARKS on the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism Detected AS ALSO Some of her own Letters whereby her True Christian Spirit and Sentiments are farther justified and vindicated particularly as to the Doctrine of the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ Non multum Disputandum Nuda enim Veritas seipsam Validissime tutatur probé intellecta genuinâ suâ luce tenebras omnes Dispellit Rob. Leighton Archiep. Glasc Prelect Theol Paraenes p 199 LONDON Printed for D. Brown at the Black Swan without Temple Bar S. Manship at the Ship in Cornhil R. Parker at the Unicorn under the Piazza's of the Royal-Exchange and H Newman at the Grashopper in the Poultry 1699. THE PREFACE I. SVch and so universal are the Prejudices raised amongst all Parties against the Writings and Sentiments of A. B. that the Sight of the very Title Page of this Apology will make some perhaps throw it by which Disdain scorning to look into it others to take it up in Derision and ask What would this Babler say Others to pry into it with an evil Eye with a Design only to carp at it and to pick out here and there some Expressions or Sentiments which differ from the ordinary Systems and put them in such a Dress as may excite the Hatred and Derision of the People II. But being fully perswaded in my Conscience that those Writings do greatly tend to revive the Life and Spirit of Christianity which is acknowledg'd to be so much decay'd and lost amongst all the Parties of Christendom and knowing that there are many well-disposed Persons who are frightned from lookâ—ng into them because of the odious Representations made of them and the Prejudices given them against them who if these Prejudices were remov'd would certainly peruse them with Delight and Profit to their Souls and would sensibly â—eel that the True Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the only way to eternal Life chalk'd out in his Life and Sayings is there plainly and distinctly represâ—nted I shall therefore in all Sincerity without Respect of Parties or Persons write this Apology And I do earnestly beg of Almighty God the Father and Fountain of all Light and Love that he may be pleas'd so to illuminate my Mind with his Heavenly Light and warm my Heart with his Divine Love that I may utter nothing but what flows from or tends to both and that some Rays of both may stream through this Writing to touch the Hearts and Spirits of others III. To dispose Persons to hearken to and to make a right use of an Apology of this Nature it is fit to premise two things First That it needs not prejudice any against A. B. and her Writings so far as not to listen to an Apology for both that they know she is evil spoken of said to be an Enthusiast an Enchantress a Blasphemer a Seducer and the Devil of a Saint that her Writings are said to be full of Heresies Delusions and Errors and that by Persons of all Parties Papists Protestants Lutherans Calvinists Presbyterians Episcopal Persons Anabaptists Quakers and even by the Preachers and Writers and Learned Men of the respective Parties for there is nothing more ordinary than for the most Innocent and the most Vpright to be thus treated Woe to you when all Men shall speak well of you This was the Treatment that Innocence and Truth it self met with our Lord Jesus Christ He was made to pass for a Blasphemer a Sorcerer a Perverter of the Law of God The most Learned and the most Godly in his Age hated him They who in other things stood at the greatest Distance did agree in this Herod and Pilate the Pharisees and Sadducees the Jews and Samaritans So that this may be rather a favourable Prejudice on her behalf at least so far as to allow her a fair Hearing IV. 2. I shall entreat you may not come to read this Apology nor the Writings to which it invites you with an evil Eye They who come to consider Writings or Persons with this Disposition are not capable of understanding them aright themselves or of giving a true Representation of them to others I know no Person tho' never so innocent nor Truth tho' never so clear nor Book tho writ with never so much Plainness Sincerity and Consistency which they who consider with this Spirit may not mistake expose misrepresent and ridicule Nothing more true than our Saviour's Words nothing more confirm'd from daily Experience The Light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light but if thine Eye be Evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness It was from those different Dispositions that our Lord himself and his Doctrine met with such different Entertainment in the World They who were full of Self-love and Esteem and desir'd to love God and the World both to please Him and their Appâ—tites too to get and keep that Rank in the Esteem of Men which they thought they merited and hugg'd the Glosses and Sences they had put upon God's Law by which they had reconcil'd it with the following of their own corrupt Inclinations such look'd on all that Jesus said aud did with an evil Eye they never came to hear him but with a Design to catch him in his Words and they found out ways to put a hard Sence upon every thing The Miracles he wrought they said were done by the Power of the Devil they accus'd him of breaking the Sabbath Day and of countenancing it in his Disciples of Blasphemy in calling himself the Son of God of Pride in speaking well of himself of a Design to destroy the Law and seduce the People by his Doctrine and they made him an Enemy to Caesar in calling himself a King But the sincere and the single-hearted who came with a pure and upright Desire and Intention to understand and to follow the Truth did readily embrace the Doctrine of Jesus Christ the entrance of his Words gave them Light and Understanding and they were so fully satisfied of the great things of God's Law that they were not apt to wrest or mistake his Sayings or Actions in things of lesser moment
have also the Pencil which is the Word with which Jesus Christ and his Apostles laid on these fine Colours of Vertues in Souls but they want as that Ape the Spirit of that excellent Master which is Jesus Christ They have on Paper the same Words which the Holy Spirit dictated but they have not the same Holy Spirit to apply them in Practice to their own Souls and far less to the Souls of their Hearers XXV 10. Those Writings give us such just and clear Representations of the Truths of Christianity as tend to take us off from Self and from the Creatures and to make us turn unto and depend wholly upon God such as does not favour us in the least Sin and yet encourages the greatest Sinner to turn to God such as leads us to ascribe nothing to our selves but Evil and nothing to God but Good Such as lets us see that nothing can excuse us from obeying the Commands of the Gospel and following the Example of Jesus Christ without which by him tâ—ere is no Salvation It is true of Doctrines as well as Men By their Fruits ye shall know them Such Doctrines as tend to sooth Mens Corrupt Inclinations to teach them how to love God and the World too to gratifie their Appetites here and yet hope to enjoy God hereafter I do not mean in so many express Words but in their natural Tendency such certainly are not of God Now the Doctrines contained in those Writings have quite another Tendency as has been said There we have such true and lively Representations of God as shews us that he is altogether Lovely of his Design in creating Man only to be enjoy'd and lov'd by him without any decree or purpose of damning the greatest part of Mankind as may stir us up to comply with so tender a Love with so generous a Design of the horrid Degeneracy and Corruption of Man now both in Soul and Body as may make us abhor our selves of our Sins their being purely our own deed without any the least Predetermination or Concurrence of God but the contrary as may keep us from excusing our selves or laying the blame on God of the Merits Satisfaction and Intercession of Jesus Christ as may convince us that Pardon and Reconciliation with God and Grace and Means to return to God is to be obtain'd and that only by him of the Necessity and Nature of the preventing concurring and renewing Grace of God as may make us continually seek to him for it and yield up our selves to be guided by it of the Nature and Corruption of our Will as shews the absolute necessity of denying it and yielding it up to God of the Doctrine and Example of Jesus Christ as may convince us that our Corrupt Nature cannot be overcome and we cannot return to the Love of God without obeying his Precepts and following his Example Now Writings of such a Tendency ought not to be despis'd and ridicul'd by the Professors and Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ and that they have this Tendency I appeal to any who have read any of them without an Evil Eye XXVI 11. Those Writings do contain also many Divine Explications of the Holy Scripture not after the way of criticizing and reckoning up the several meanings and acceptions of a Word or the various Sences of Inpreters which a Man may be well vers'd in and yet be altogether ignorant of the true sence and meaning of the Holy Scripture where he pretends to Interpret it We see all Sciences have a certain Light by which they are discerned a certain Disposition of Faculties which makes us capable to understand them certain Principles which lead to the Knowledge of them and when these are wanting we grope in the Dark Children and Boys may understand all the Words of a Book of Philosophy of the Propositions in Euclid and yet understand nothing of the Truths contain'd there To understand the Holy Scriptures and the things of God we had need to be endued with the same Spirit and to be in the same Disposition with those who wrote them Now if any will be pleas'd to compare the Expositions given in those Writings of some places of Holy Scripture with the learned Comments of the Interpreters and Criticks of the Age I am perswaded that if they be not greatly prejudic'd they will be convinc'd that her Expositions come from a more Divine Original than than the most of the other that they give a clearer Light more worthy of God and more suitable to the great Ends of Religion that in this the Truth of our Saviour's words is manifest that God hides these things from the Wise and Prudent and reveals them unto Babes and that with great reason she blest God who preserv'd her from drinking in Humane Learning Of all these I shall instance one which deserves a particular Consideration and that is her Exposition of the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew set down in the First Part of La Lumiere nee on Tenebres It is too long to offer to transcribe it here they who are desirous to see it need not want Occasions To this I cannot but subjoin the just Cautions she gives and the excellent Rules for the Interpreting of the Holy Scriptures She makes appear how rash Men are in glossing the Holy Scriptures since the things which concern our Salvation are so plainly set down in them that they need no Glosses and the obscure things cannot be understood but by the same Spirit who endited them and not by Humane Wisdom which is directly opposite to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which descends only into humble Souls That they who will needs interpret the Scriptures by Humane Wisdom fall into great Mistakes and understand the Terms quite othewise than the Spirit of God intended Thus it is said that God hardened Pharaoh's Heart the meaning cannot be that he hardens Mens Hearts by making them obstinate in Evil for God can never co-operate to any Evil being the Fountain of all Good But he speaks thus to make us know that he leaves a wicked Man to go on in his Wickedness when he will not be restrain'd But on his part he uses always Goodness towards them that he may convert them both by good Inspirations Admonitions and other proper Means But when their Free-wills are willful to persist in Evil he leaves them to themselves The main Difficulty there is in understanding of the Scriptures arises from this that we do not know the Qualities of God and we are ready to attribute to him such as Men have imagining that he has a Love for some and a Hatred for others And thus every one is wedded to his own Sence and Opinions and will maintain them as the Truths of God But the best Course is still to take the Holy Scriptures in that Sence that draws us more and more to the Love of God and to the Knowledge of our own
her Thoughts and withal that she had written her Thoughts lately on the same Matter which he having obtain'd the Sight of after Importunity and with a Promise to restore it within three Days he read it with Feeling and Admiration and returning it said You have said more things and more forcible on this Subject in one Sheet than I have done in all my Book which has cost me so much Time Pains and Expences and therefore I condemn it never to see the Light It is the 4th Chapter of the fore-cited Book XXVIII 13. Those Writings are worthy of our Regard in that they tend to discourage and remove out of the Christian World the Disputing and Controversal Divinity and to take Men off from the Spirit of Controversie which has banished the Life and Spirit of Christianity from among Men. Some are ready to say that her Writings tend rather to multiply Controversies than to remove them in that they advance so many new Doctrines and Opinios which were never formerly heard of But these need give no Occasion of Dispute she declares they are not Matters of Faith are not necessary to Salvation they who are perswaded of the Truth of them and find them helpful to increase their Love and Admiration of God will receive them without disputing about them and they who are not perswaded of the Truth of them may let them alone and so there needs no Dispute and no Body will contend with them about them But those Writings tend to take Men off from this Spirit they make so clear a Difference between the Essentials and the Accessories of Religion so plainly describe the first that all cannot but be convinc'd of them and they shew that the last ought not to be any Subject of Debate and Contention They make appear that the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is to be learn'd by Simplicity and humble Prayer and not by Controversie and Debate and that none are more capable of understanding it than they who are led by the Spirit they shew that there is nothing more contrary to the Spirit and Great End of Christianity than the Spirit of Controversie That they who are led by it cannot endure that others should differ from them in some Sentiments about Religion even tho' they agree in the Essentials and Fundamentals of it but presently they prosecute him with all the Spite and Rancour they are capaple of as the Enemies of God and Religion and do all they can to inspire the same Spite and Aversion against them in all on whom they have Influence They assix on them hateful Names accuse them of Crimes they were never guilty of Blasphemy Idolatry c. they treat them with Contempt and Scorn make them pass for mad and distracted the Good in them or the Truth that appears in their Writings they conceal and are griev'd at it and make it pass for what they call in Scorn Flights of Devotion or the Effects of a warm Imagination and they rejoice when they meet with any thing that can expose them or make them hateful they cannot easily believe any thing that is Good in them but very readily Evil they do not consider the great Tendency of their Life and Writings but cull out some Instances and Passages of both which may separately seem hâ—rsh and they assix on them the hardest Sence they are capable of and from these draw Consequences and form odious Pictures of them from them they can endure no hard Words without Rage and Displeasure but against them they insult and triumph In a Word this Spirit is the compleat Reverse of that Charity which S. Paul describes It suffers little is unkind envious rash puffed up behaves it self unseemly seeks it self is easily provoked thinketh Evil rejoiceth in Iniquity but rejoiceth not in the Truth bears with nothing believes nothing hopes nothing endures nothing Now all things being diffusive of themselves this Evil exerting it self in the Writings and Discourses of Men spreads like a Contagion and our corrupt Nature being more susceptible of Evil than Good is soon seized with the Malignity Hence cometh that Hatred Variance Strife Evil-speaking those Revilings Calumnies Sects Schisms Wars Fightings Persecutions c. which have made the Christian World so much the Sport of the Devil and the By-word of the rest of Mankind Now one would think that by this time Men might be so generally out of Love with the Humour of Controversie so offended with the Trickâ— of laying the Stress of Christianity on things wherein it does not consist and so sensible of the Mischiefs that both have done to Religion throughout all Christendom that those Writings would be generally acceptable which tend to sweeâ—en Mens Minds towards one another to lessen a Concern for Sects and Parties to give a clear View of the Essentials of Christianity and plainly to distinguish them from the Accessories and Circumstantials and to lead Men to the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and the Recovery of the Love of God as those Writings most certainly do XXIX 14. The Manner after which those Writings were composed is something singular and extraordinary It cannot be denied but that they are writ with much Clearness Solidity and Force in all the things that may be useful for the Salvation of Man yet they are not the Effect of Study and the reading of other Books for she read none and did not derive her Knowledge either from learned Men or Books reckoning their Learning a Straying from the right Way and that as the Writing-Master would needs have a Double hire from those who had learn'd to write an ill Hand to wit one hire for unteaching them so ill a Habit and another to teach them to write well because he must be at more Pains with such than with those who had learn'd none at all so she was with the Learned who came to learn from her in Christ's School she had a double Labour one to unteach them the imaginary Wisdom which they had embraced join'd with Presumption and Rashness and the other to make them receive the true Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Humility and the Lowness and Simplicity of a Child And as her Writings were not the Result of Study and human Learning so neither were they the Effect of Meditation and human Reasoning We must think before we write and take Time to order our Thoughts and consider our Words we must blot out and mend and add to our first Draughts But when she put Pen to Paper she wrote as fast as her Hand could guide the Pen and what was once written was witten without blotting out or Change And when she returned to any Writings that she had laid by unfinish'd tho' for some Months or Years she did not apply her self to read them over but having read only five or six of the last Lines to see how the Period ended she immediately wrote on with her former Swiftness her Sentiments flowing from her as Water
retained only the outside and the Letter and varnished it over with their Learning and Human Doctrines and so the Blind led the Blind Then instead of the Gospel Simplicity Schools and Universities were multiplied and there was nothing to be seen but Disputes and Controversies Then the Pastors being void of true Charity and of the Spirit of Jesus Christ their preaching could have no Divine Force more than the Motions of Puppets or the Words of Parrots Then they learned to preach the Gospel by Study and Human Learning committing the Idea's of it to their Brain as Men learn other Trades and varnish over their Sermons with the same Words and Expressions that Jesus Christ and his Apostles used without comprehending or conveying to others the Divine Sence of them and what came from the Brain could go no farther than the Brain nothing can rise higher than its Original Then the great Business of Religion is turned upon the Pastor's side into an Art of Preaching where on a Theatre he displays his Learning and Eloquence and on the Peoples side into the work of Hearing and when they have continued daily in those pious Exercises for 20 30 40 or 50 Years they are for the most part no more truly Vertuous than when they began whereas where the Word of the Lord is there is Power Then the Pastors being proud and ambitious and envious and worldly and sensual and selfish they seek their own things under a Cover of seeking the things of Jesus Christ their Actions belie their Words and for their own Credit they so gloss and explain the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as to perswade People they may be good Christians and good Ministers of Jesus Christ and yet gratifie their Appetites and Inclinations Then being void of true Faith and true Charity they place Religion in a System of Opinions and Rites and tho' they agree in the common Principles yet differing in other things of lesser moment they thereupon divide dispute and quarrel form Parties draw all they can to their Side out of a Pretence to the Glory of God inspire them with Hatred and Fury against those that differ from them sooth and flatter the corrupt Inclinations of those of their own Party or the Great and those on whom they depend and stir up Magistrates and Princes to War and Bloodshed to persecute those who differ from them And as they make War against one another by their Disputes so they make Princes and secular Persons to do it by their Swords Thus instead of the Charity Peace and Concord which Jesus Christ left his Disciples they beget Hatred Strife and Envy among them and such is their Influence upon the People that they head their Passions and what they hate and call Heresie so do they Instead of the Self-denial and Mortification to the World which Jesus Christ and the first Pastors practised and taught they teach by their Example how to gratifie Self and love the World and yet seem greatly to honour Jesus Christ and to be Champions for his Religion And if the Salt have lost its savour wherewith shall the Flesh be salted And if they who should be the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth are thus become Darkness and without Savour how great is that Corruption And how great is that Darkness Those of every Party do plainly discern this Evil in the Guides and Leaders of the opposite Parties but our Self-love blinds and hinders us from considering it in our selves This is not to be understood but that there are Pastors of good Inclinations and right Intentions amongst the several Perswasions and therefore what is said ought not to be applied to them but that this corrupt Spirit of Pride Vain-glory 〈…〉 Avarice the Love of Money 〈…〉 Politicks the pleasing of the 〈…〉 Aversion to the Humility Simplicity 〈…〉 and Cross of Christ prevails 〈…〉 in all Parties under a Cover of 〈…〉 Opinions and so serves still to 〈…〉 the more is a sad Truth that cannot be 〈◊〉 13. That we are in the last Times that the Wickedness of Men is as great and universal as in the Days of Noah that the Abomination of Desolation is in the Holy Place that we are now in the time of the last Judgments of God by which he will sweep the Wicked off the Earth and which shall be more dreadful and terrible than any that ever were A. B. does so sensibly make appear in her Writings particularly in the Light of the World That they are real Enemies to Mens Souls who scoâ—â— at them and divert People from laying them to Heart She makes appear that Iniquity is so great and universal that there is no 〈◊〉 Faith nor Law among Men. People study nothing but to deceive their Neighbours the Father cannot trust his Son nor the Son his Father the Brother 〈◊〉 up against his Brother Friendship is only feigned 〈◊〉 is full of Deceit and Fraud nothing but Pride and Ambition reigning in the Hearts of all Men. Judges are without Equity Priests without Sincerity Cloisters filled with Avarice and the Devout full of Malice which has been at all times in some particular Persons but is at present so multiplied that it possesses almost all 〈◊〉 And Charity is not only wakâ—d cold but altogather frozen and dead in the Hearts of Men. That the Signs of the last Times are all fully accomplish'd particularly those in 2 Tim. 3. 1. c. and Matt. 24. That Mens Lives are the open Book in which these Truths are written and the Holy Scriptures are the equitable Judge which pronounces the Sentence That People scoff at this and no Body will believe it is a most certain Evidence of it For Jesus Christ says that it shall be as in the Days of Noah they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in Marriage and knew not until the Flood came and took them all away c. She makes appear how the Abomination and Desolation is in the Holy Place if Envy were lost it might be recovered in Cloisters if Avarice were dead it would be revived by the Priests Vain-glory and Pride is no where so prevailing as among the Clergy In a word Simonies and all other Sins abound in that Place which ought to be Holy That these are the Stars which fall every Day from Righteousness and Truth for some worldly Interest or humane Respects She makes appear that Men do not now embrace Penitence nor desire Amendment that they rather grow every Day worse and cannot suffer that their Faults should be truly shewn them That at all times there have been wicked Persons but when all in general do forget him it is to be believed that assuredly we are in the last Times and that the Judgment is given out because the Measure is full That God cannot suffer an universal Evil without an universal Chastisement and now Men having generally all of them abandoned their God have in doing this given Sentence of the
things which are despis'd yea and things which are not to bring to nought things that are that no Flesh should glory in his Presence And thus he destroys the Wisdom of the Wise and brings to nothing the Understanding of the Prudent so that it shall be said where is the Wise Where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this World This they will acknowledge was the way of God's Dealing in former Times and why would they have him to alter it now when the Pastors Doctors and Teachers the Learned the Scribes and the Disputers of the Age are as full of their own Wisdom of their humane Studies and Learning as ever the Scribes and Pharisees the Wisemen and Philosophers were when God rais'd up Publicans and Fishermen to confound their Wisdom and Learning by the Simplicity of their Words That it is not St. Paul's Meaning that God may not thus communicate his Light and Truth to a Woman as well as Men for the Good of others is evident from the Sayings themselves In his time when the Faithful met together it was not as now when a Man who has his Head full of Learning declaims an Hour or two alone very often with Conceitedness enough to the People who must take for good Coin all that he says is such and which he stamps with Passages of Holy Scripture But then there were mutual Conferences where each of the Faithful were allow'd to tell their Sentiment or ask that of his Brethren and Elders but that all might be done in Order St. Paul ordains that their Women might not be of the number of the Interlocutors either by telling their own Thoughts or asking those of others but that they should do this at Home and even there should not pretend to teach their Husbands but learn of them It is evident then he speaks of ordinary Women married and encumbred with the Cares of their House who have need to learn and yet would be thought very Knowing and it is a Rule of Decency to avoid Confusion But at present they would have St. Paul's Meaning to be that Women enlightned by God in a free State always employed about Divine things should I do not say abstain from speaking publickly but even not write in secret in their own Houses the saving Light that God communicates to them and commands them and that when there is no fear of Confusion since such being very rare it is not to be fear'd that their number will bring Confusion This is as far from his Opinion as Falshood from Truth who a little before allows a Women to Prophesie if she have the Gift of it provided she be vail'd who knew that Anna spoke in the Temple and had seen Four Virgins Prophesie which were the Daughters of Philip the Evangelist Thus those envious Usurpers of the Key of Knowledge and Instruction are they become such absolute Masters of it as to oblige God to give it to no Body but to them A Passage of the Life of Tâ—resâ— is remarkable to this purpose as they spoke to her one Day of those Words of St. Paul and she thought on them God said to her Tell them not to be directed by one single Passage of Scripture but let them consider other Places and ask them if they will bind up my Hands XXIII They accused her of intolerable and blasphemous Pride in speaking well of her self in pretending to know the Accomplishment of the Holy Scriptures yea and to understand them better than they who wrote them that she calls her self a Mother of True Believers and that she exalts her self above the Prophets Apostles the Virgin Mary yea above God himself It is easie to give an ill turn to ones Words but Charity thinks no Evil and interprets them by the whole Tenour of their Life Spirit and Sentiments 1. That she exalted her self more than the Prophets Apostles the Virgin Mary c. she said was an impudent Lie for I know very well says she that I am a simple humane Creature as all other Men come of the corrupt mass of Adam And I do not say that I am either Prophet or Apostle or Virgin Mary or God himself as this Bucchardus says but I declare I am a frail Creature as all others to whom nevertheless God has sent his Light of Truth to communicate it to Men. Did they believe truly that there is a living God they durst not treat so ill the things which are declared from God and cause to be burnt by the Hangman the Books which the Holy Spirit has dictated of which they may have Evidence both from God and Men for they who see me write know very well that I do it without any humane Speculation or Study and that this flows from my Spirit as a River of Water flows from its Fountain and that I only lend my Hand and my Spirit to another Power than mine Many Persons are Witnesses of this God also has given me a more sure Testimony by imparting to me his Righteousness his Truth and his Charity for these things cannot come from Nature which being corrupt cannot produce any Good nor any Divine Vertues because I am come from the corrupt mass of Adam as all the rest of Men there could not be in me any Righteousness Truth or Charity which are all Divine and Supernatural Vertues which come not into the Souls of Men but by the work of the Holy Spirit for none but God only is perfectly Just and True And no Body can glory in the Righteousness Truth and Charity that he possesses without having a disordered Mind because these Vertues are no ways in the Person but in God alone who imparts them to whom he pleases And he who has receiv'd any of these Vertues ought to glorifie God and not to glory in himself for them as by the Grace of God I do not glory in my self And I do not fear that any Body can prove that I ascribe any Perfection or Vertue any manner of way to my self for God has given me too much of the Light of Truth to do this having made me see clearly that all Good comes from God and all Evil from Man and from the Devil which two Creatures being equally withdrawn from God the Fountain of all Good are fallen into all sort of Evil. And therefore nothing can proceed from the corrupt Nature of Man but Evil and Sin for this cause a Man can have no occasion of glorying in himself for his Vertues which are not his nor at his disposal And therefore Bucchardus has said most injuriously in his Book that I esteem my self more than the Prophets Apostles c. of whom I do not know to what Degrees of Grace they arriv'd that I should compare them to the Graces that God has imparted to me I know well that I am a poor Creature subject to many Miseries and Infirmities which makes me often humble my self before God and Man But I well know also
came near their Principles She told them their Malady was that they would needs comprehend all by the activity of Humane Reason without giving place to the Light of Divine Faith which requires a Cessation of the activity of our Reason that God may shed or revive therein that Divine Light without which not only God is not well known but even he and the true Knowledge of him are banish'd out of the Soul by this activity of our corrupt Mind and Reason which is a real kind of Atheism and rejecting of God They were so full of their Idea's that they mock'd at her Remonstrances But one of them being a little after seiz'd with a mortal Sickness in the Flower of his Age and God opening his Eyes to let him see his Error he began to lament and cry Night and Day My Vnderstanding my Vnderstanding to what hast thou brought me Alas my Reason in which I so much trusted what assistance canst thou give me now Now thou canst give me neither Salvation nor the hope of it I must be damned There can be no Mercy for me A Friend of A. B. going to see him in that State endeavour'd to comfort him but the other finding no Quiet ask'd him still If he thought there was yet any Mercy to be hop'd for his Soul And then casting again his Eyes and Arms from one side to another began again his Complaints My Vnderstanding my Vnderstanding Whether hast thou guided me Some of his Friends amongst others Steno and Swammerdam came often to visit and comfort him but nothing could calm him At last he turns to the Friend of A. B. saying Go tell that good Soul meaning A. B. to pray to God for me that I may obtain the Pardon of this Sin otherwise I am damned or must suffer a very long Purgatory O if I could recover of this Sickness I would turn wholly unto God and would follow quite another Way But when this was told to A. B. She answered He shall not rise again but he will die for if he should recover he would fall again more profoundly into this pernicious Errour He died his Judgment being sound and good but with Great Repentance and Contrition adoring with great Fervency Jesus Christ crucified to the Greeks and to the Philosophers Foolishness A. B. had such an Horrour for this wicked Disposition of the Philosophers that she could not suffer it affirming that God had declared to her expresly That this Errour of Cartesianism was the worst and most cursed of all the Heresies in the World and a formal Atheism or a rejecting of God in whose Place corrupt Reason did set up it self Not that this Idol of corrupt Reason is not a thing common to all the Learned and to all sorts of Philosophers as well as the Cartesians but these are incomparably more wedded to it they think they are in Possession of it above all and they will admit of nothing but by this Way After she had been visited by all sorts of Persons who reaped not that Profit they might have done God sent her two or three sincere and well disposed Men who finding in her Life and Conversation the Means to approach unto God and to advance the Perfection of their Souls left the World their Business and Friends and continued with her all the time of her Life and theirs All others withdrew to her great Satisfaction She said God had made her see by this Converse with People of all Sorts whom she had admitted indifferently by his Divine Order how few are to be gained in the World even among the best and those who seek the Truth and that after these Visits God would never more engage her to such a Distraction and that she should lead a retir'd Life all the rest of her Days Which fell out and she begun it then in Amsterdam and did not give access as formerly LII She employ'd most of this Time to compose many Books Of which these are the Principal The Funeral of False Divinity in 4 Parts Upon Occasion of some Conferences with the Cartesian Philosophers she wrote the Holy Perspective There she wrote also her Outward Life and the New Heaven and the New Earth In the writing of which she was so ravished that she often forgot her necessary Food She designed to have continued these Wonders But God said unto her Leave that Work Men are not worthy nor capable of it they will imagine that they have the Dispositions requisite for that glorious State but they are very far from them Shew them rather the miserable State they are brought into by Sin under the Dominion of corrupt Nature and under the Empire of Antichrist who now rules over them without their apprehending it Write to them of the Reign of Antichrist So she laid by her Pen and that Work saying to God I shall do it Lord and wrote afterwards the Treatise of Antichrist discovered in Three Parts She began another Treatise called The last Mercy of God but did not finish it for the Reasons told in the Conclusion of it and the Traverses she met with in the Imprisonment of M. de Cort and her own Persecutions and Flights kept her from the Pursuing that and other Works which she had begun LIII Had M. de Cort followed her Counsel he might have avoided all the Mischief he fell into but the Sincerity and Goodness of his Nature would not let him think that he had such cruel Enemies especially amongst his Brethren and Friends the Priests Churchmen and his own Disciples whom he had brought up and to whom he had hitherto left and given all he could not believe that they would seek to imprison him or endeavour to poison him as she forewarn'd him of both and still bid him take heed of them The true Cause of this Imprisonment was that God having touched his Heart to hearken to the Divine Truths declared unto him by A. B. he resolved not only to embrace them but to publish them also to others designing to retire to the Isle of Noordstrand of which he was Director and had the best Part of it at his Disposal and to invite good Men thither who desir'd to lead a Christian Life This seem'd to his Brethren an Apostacy and the setting up a new Heresie they resolve therefore to ruin him But this Pretext would not do at Amsterdam or Holstein and therefore they must devise another At Amsterdam there is a Dungeon where at the Instance of Creditors they arrest and shut up Strangers who are in Debt till they have satisfied it There are usually ten or twelve Prisoners there living in Despair as mad passing the time in swearing blaspheming and committing a thousand Impieties and sometimes killing one another having no Food but a piece of brown Bread and a little small Beer and there some of them die in Misery They thought this Place would do as well as one of the Prisons of the Roman Inquisition and to
render thee such and such a Worship and Service but it is much against my Will they constrain me to it and I would not do it were it not to avoid barbarous Usage and to gain some Money Pleasures and Honours This is the Disposition of Heart to which those detestable Murtherers of Conscience and Religion do reduce Men and which they call the Conversion of Hereticks and the Compel them to come in of the Parable Whereas that Constraint of the Gospel is nothing but the Declartion of God's Judgments upon good Men who would needs stay in the World and that these shall partake of its Plagues and Scourges which God will pour out on all the Earth XLII A. B. caused 'em to hire a great Lodging for those Persons in the Town of Susum resolving to leave Sleswick to stay with them to see if they were dispos'd to embrace a truly Christian Life She came thither in July 1672. but instead of finding Persons disposed to embrace a Gospel Life she was astonished to see a Company of People who seem'd to be come as to a Country Fair to eat drink do nothing to observe no Rules nor good Manners nor Discretion tâ— seek every one their own their Ease and what accommodated them best the best things their Fancy and their own Will each desired to be best treated most sparâ—d most honoured and which was worst none would unlearn this soft LIfe nor deny themselves to embrace another She soon saw that this would not agree with the Designs and Will of God and after some trial of them she rid her self of them by degrees all of them engaging in the World the Flesh and earthly Things more than ever and the most part of them became her Enemies and Slanderers where ever they went On this Occasion she wrote many Letters where she makes appear the Qualities and Dispositions which one must have to become a True Christian and the Indispositions which render Persons uncapable of this they make up the Book call'd The Stones of the New Jerusalem She wrote also upon the same Occasion The Blindness of Men now-a-days which contains the History of these Frieslanders and refutes the Errors to which the most part of the Mennonists or Anabaptists are subject as these were About this time also she wrote for her Friends the First Part of the Treatise of Solid Vertue where she lays down the Grounds of the Apprenticeship of a Christian Life of the Imitation of Jesus Christ of Vertue and of the Conflict we must undertake against all the Insults of the Devil She design'd to cause her Books to be printed in her own House and therefore brought from Holland compleat Furniture for a Printing-Office But one little Essay gave her Enemies Occasion to persecute her to a high Degree LXIII A Young Man of the Reformed Church of Altena near Hamburg being ill treated by his Pastors and forbid the Lord's Supper for reading and expressing his Esteem of some of her Writings took occasion to search for her and came to Husum which so vext these Gentlemen that under the Name of the Visiter of their Sick they publish'd Two Treatises in High Dutch against her and put them in the Gazettes accusing her both of Heresie and of an evil Life She perceiving that the Devil design'd to pre-occupy Men against the Truth by the Defamation of her Person in a Country where she was not known and in a Tongue which she did not understand writes a Book which she causes to be translated and printed in her own House in High Dutch under the Title of The Testimony of Truth where she makes appear the Injustice of the Calumnies and Accusations and that the true Cause why they persecuted her was that no Body would heâ—r the Truth which reproves and disturbs them in the â—â—joyment of their Pleasures Honours and Ambition wherein the Churchmen and Pastors are as much or more engaged than the rest of Men and shews that she has no Aim but to lead Persons to Jesus Christ not to her self nor to any Sect new or old To this she joins a Collection of authentick Attestations of Persons who knew her in her native Country many of them being upon Oath before Judges and of those who were with her that she might stop all the Ways by which they would defame her and render in her Person the Truth of God hateful and contemptible LXIV This made a terrible Alarm It was not written against the Lutheran Pastours yet those of Holstein took it to them M. Ouve of Flesburg and Burchardus of Sleswick animate the rest by their Writings Preachings and Discourses they Stir up the People against her who would have massacred her if they had found her in the Streets they stir up the Judges and Magistrates impute to her a thousand horrible Crimes worthy of Death as Blasphemy the Overturning of Christianity and of all States both Civil and Ecclesiastick they charge her with a thousand Heresies tell that such and such Hereticks were burnt alive and such after their Death and she was worse than them all Some among them would not dip their Hands iâ— innocent Blood particularly M. Reinboth Superintendant and Pastour of Duc a Man of Honesty and Conscience who would let none of the Pastours under his Care vent their Spleen against her while he liv'd but Dr. Nemo who succeeded him was not so moderate LXV The Pastours of Susum and Sleswick obtain'd of the Court and Magistrates a Sentence to forbid her Printing-Office and then an Order to take Informations concerning her and hers at Husum but they could find nothing but that they were good People and lived a good just chast and exemplary Life Yet they continued their Pursuits She retired out of the Jurisdiction of the Duke of Holstein to Flensbourg till the Cloud were over She was but few Days there tho' in the greatest Privacy when the Pastours were advertised and it being at Christmas when the People shew more Zeal and Devotion than ordinary and the Pastours preach oftner all their Sermons tended to inspire the People with a Spirit of Rage and Horrour against this Woman so that the Mob in their Fit of Zeal would have thought it great Service to God to have â—orn in Pieces such a Person if they could have found her So she returned to Sleswick the 5th of January 1674. The next Day the Pastours came to have found her and the Magistrates came and broke up her Coffers examining the Widow that came with her at their Town-House and removing her out of Town with a Rabble Upon which A. B. wrote a Letter to them complaining of their Injustice forbidding her Friend to give it till he was about to go out Town How soon they read it they put him in Irons in a Dungeon to live on Bread and Water for five Weeks making him pay Two Crowns a Week for his Treatment which she behoved to send else he must perish in
the Prison 〈◊〉 brought him by the Hangman theâ— ' a Guard to the Place of Execution and caused to be 〈◊〉 her Books which they found in the Coffer and the Letter before him wishing they had her to burn there with them and the Hangman led him out of the Town and they banishâ—d him all Holstein The Pastours read an Ordinance of the Magistrates from the Pulpits forbidding to lodge any of the Friends of this Maid or to keep any Correspondence with them The Animosity was no less every where The Roman Priest the Jesuit of Frederickstadt wish'd he might furnish Fewel to burn her Peter Gerard Patin Priest of the Oratory at Mechlin who staid at Noordstrand and possess'd it for the Society and others of the Oratory detainned her Goods rejoiced in her Persecutions and made several Attempts to rid themselves of her LXVI When she returned to Husum she had a little Security there The Churchmen continued secretly their Pursuits to destroy her And where they become a Party they are an inexhaustible Source of Enmity and as all the People count them holy Men at least zealous for the Truth so they never want Men enough ready to devote themselves to the Execution of their unjust Passions When they forbad her to print any more there was in the Press unfinish'd in Low and High-Dutch the Treatise of Solid Vertue and since it treated of no Controversie she might have finish'd the Sheets that were wanting but she did it not However Surmises being made to the Pastours that the Press was going they obtained Orders from the Court that the Fiscal of Sleswick should seize the Press and what 〈◊〉 to it and under Colour of this by the Instigation or the Pastours and other Enemies he came with Fury Feb. 2. with Force to assist him entred the House with Insolence Cries and Menaces broke up the Chests and Chambers searched thro' all took not only the Press and what belongâ—d to it but many thousands of Books come from Holland a Hundred Reams of White-Paper her Papers and Books which concerned her Goods her Process her Books of Rentals Obligations Titles Papers of the Executory of M. de Cort being two Days a pillaging and all the Rabble about them All was had to the Town-House of Susum and from thence transported in ten or twelve Carts The Fiscal tore the Books in the Streets and gave them to any Body that pleas'd to have them crying Here 's the ungodly and blasphemous Books of Anthoinette Her Loss amounted to more than Six thousand Florins LXVII Yet the Pastors insatiable in their Persecutions continu'd their Complaints at the Court of Gottorp complaining that she was suffered still to write and speak and that any were permitted to go near her the Duke wearied with their Importunities Consents that she shall be put in perpetual Imprisonment and the Order is sent to General-Major Vanderwyck He was a Man of Probity and one that fear'd God and by a remarkable Rencounter those very Persecutions had brought him to know and esteem her for the Soldiers who were Centinels at the General 's Gate having catch'd some flying Leaves of her Book when they were transporting them in Carts the General coming in took out of one of their Hands one of these Sheets which was of the Treatise of Solid Vertue he thinking it had been a Gazette but having read it he was so astonish'd and so touch'd that he sigh'd for the Injustice done to those good Persons of whom he had never heard any thing spoken but ill Is this says he the Doctrine and the People of whom they speak so much Evil and whom they treat at this rate From that time he loved them When he received this Order he was so much touch'd with Indignation and Grief that he immediately went to ask the Prince the cause of his Commission and if he had heard the Accused in their own Defence The Prince said not but the Pastors would not give him rest and said so much ill of her that he must needs remove the Occasion But the General excus'd himself from executing the Order said he could not do it in Conscience and that his Highness should consider that even the Heathens condemn'd no Body without having first heard them that he should not let himself be so much pre-occupied by those Pastors as to hear them only and give Sentence on their Word without hearing the other Party The Prince was touch'd with it and well pleasâ—d he had hindred so unjust an Execution and immediately he generously revoked the Sentence which the Pastors had surpriz'd from him by their cunning Lies A Pattern for all Princes to imitate LXVIII The Pastours finding they had not Audience enough at Court resolve to make the World ring with their Slanders and bloody Reproaches against an innocent Maid Burchardus writes a Book called Christian and Solid Remarks on the blasphemous Errors of Antoinette Bourignon which she answered by a Writing Entituled The Touchstone M. Ouwe wrote another Pasquil called Apocalipsis Haereseos c. but he is so beside himself that he fights with his own Shadow and there could be no better Answer to him than to let him alone All their Writings and Calumnies can never alter the Heart of a good Man that is truly touch'd with a sence of Divine things One Line of Truth is more Powerful than all their Sophistries One of their Designs in writing was to engage her to answer that they might have a Pretence to seize her she being forbid to publish any thing and this they threatned to her Friends She resolved to go where she might be in more Security LXIX In the middle of the hard Winter 1674. which was so Extraordinary both for Frost and Snow she went to Sleswick where she was in as great Hazard as at Susum The late Exploit against her and the Calumnies and Sermons of the Pastors had alarum'd all the People They thought her some strange Monster of a Woman who had written Books which were burnt in some Places and confiscated in other and against which the Pastors thundred with so much Zeal and concluded her worse than the Hereticks that had been burnt To receive her into their Houses they thought was to take in one worse than the Devil and they would not have fail'd to turn her out to the Streets again The People were eanest to enquire for her every where and even as she past sometimes tho' unknown they would be enclin'd to think that it was Aâ—thoinette tho they had never seen her and knew only that she was a French Woman and unmarried and so nimble a Fugitive that she would be whiles here whiles there as it were by a Charm without knowing how She was forâ—'d to change from one House to another for she was no sooner come into any but they would presently think perhaps this was Anthoinette and became so prying and inquisitive that she was still necessitated to seek
speak with the Author of Bourignianism detected who might have allowed one of the Writings of A. B. to be put in English and recommended as useful to advance the Interest of true Christianity without making such a Noise about it yet it no sooner comes to his Hands but he presently raises the Hue and-Cry Delusions and Errours and magnifies it into a new and growing Sect that he might get himself a Name and have the Glory to encounter and as he hop'd to defeat it But the Doctor is not so dreadful an Enemy as he would seem at first On-set they who bluster most are not always the most dangerous They who have read the Writings of A. B. and find that the Marrow and Substance of them are the Essential Truths of Christianity and that her singular Sentiments which she says are not necessary to be believed do not contradict those Essential Truths do justly wonder what has moved the Doctor to raise all this Dust and Clamour I know he once profess'd a great Veneration for Thomas à Kempis his Book de Imitatione Christi but he being a Mystick and one who seems to own his being immediately enlightned by the Spirit of God it may be the Doctor despises him now as in his late Letter he declares he has long since turn'd off such Conversation and a deceas'd Friend of his had not only a great Esteem for that Book but also for others of the same Nature such as the Life of M. de Renti c. The Person I mean was the most pious and learn'd H. Scougall of whom the Reverend Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Sarum gave so deserv'd a Character in his Preface to Bishop Bedal's Life and with whom he prevail'd to let him publish his Devout Treatise of the Life of God in the Soul of Man to which he was pleas'd to prefix a Preface and to subjoin a Discourse of his own of a Spiritual Life which little Book also contains an excellent Idea of the Divine Life in the Soul and particularly a Notion of Faith far above the Common and approaching as near as any I know to that of A. B. viz. that it is a kind of Sense and feeling Perswasion of Spiritual Things and has the same Place in the Divine Life that Sense hath in the Natural Now the Doctor professing a great Esteem for these Writings and acknowledging that they contain the Marrow and Substance of Christianity and the Writings of A. B. being the same in Substance and she requiring no Regard to be had to her accessory Sentiments but in so far as any should find them useful for increasing in them the Love of God some think it unaccountable why the Doctor should fall so foul upon her for her accessory Opinions and does not rather honour her for the sake of the main Truths and more favourably and candidly construct the others XV. There are Variety of Dishes in spiritual as well as in bodily Food and that may be very agreeable and healthful to one Palate which another cannot relish why should the Doctor then set up to be a Taster to all the World and because his nice and learned Palate cannot relish some course and homely tho' very substantial Fare should he therefore cry out There is Death in the Pot and frighten all others from tasting of it as far as his Testimony can have Influence We do not use to drive our Flocks from a good Pasture even tho' all the Herbs in it be not equall◠nourishing They who have a true Sense and Relish of Divine Things if they were reading the Writings of A. B. would be so affected with the Divine Truths contained therein as they would quite pass over the accessory Opinions they would run to the Pearls and gather the wholsom Food and apply themselves only to Things which direct them to the Love of God and the mortifying of their corrupt Natures The Doctor should have considered the Woe pronounced against all them by whom Offences do come and not rashly have laid a Stumbling-block before his Brethren and by his abusive and unlovely Characters endeavoured to raise Prejudices against and frighten many from A. B's Writings where they might have reaped so much Good and Profit and been brought to a true and lively Sense of Divine Things XVI The Doctor is unjust in his Title Page where he calls his Narratives The Delusions and Errours of A. B. and her Growing Sect. I know no such Sect in the World A. B. was grieved there were so many Sects already so far was she from designing to make a new one I know none who esteem her Writings that are form'd into any Sect. I know of no separate Meeting nor new Rites nor other Symbols that distinguish this Sect. There be Romanists Calvinists Lutherans there be of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Perswasions who esteem those Writings as they do other good Books yet they form no new Sect or Party there are none farther from the Spirit of a Sect than they unless this be called a new Sect to endeavour after the Spirit of the Primitive Church viz. an entire and brotherly Union in Divine Charity XVII He is neither kind nor just to his Country men in telling the World the Infection has seized many in Scotland and some of the better Sort who have been reputed Men of Sence Learning and Probity They might have read those Writings as they do other good Books without being branded for Hereticks and Sectarians he might have discovered what he thought to be Delusions or Errours without defaming his Country-men or bringing up an evil Report upon them his Books might have instructed and confuted them without pointing them out I am perswaded the Doctor would think it a crying Sin to proclaim those Persons to be Thieves Robbers and Murtherers tho' I think his saying so would do them no great Hurt and if he would consider things calmly he would find it no less and perhaps a greater injustice to tell the World they are become Hereticks Blasphemers Idolaters and new Sectarians and so thereby as far as in him lies to murther their Reputation make some to despise and abhor them and excite others to persecute them as Men unworthy to live But as a Conquerour he was resolv'd upon to a Triumph and to add to the Glory they must be led at his Chariot XVIII The Doctor has taken up two long Narratives in fighting with his own Shadow the first in proving that we ought not to believe the high Characters which M. de Cort M. Poiret and others give of the Person and Sentiments of A. B. upon their bare Word and the second that we are not to believe the Characters she gives of herself and her own Sentiments upon her own Testimony without sufficient Enquiry and Evidence And in both these I know none will contend with him In the First he would make Men believe that the great Business of her Friends is to recommend her
to all the World by a great many Elogies of all Sorts that Men all might extol her and adhere to her for the Making up of a New Sect. In the Second he gives this Idea of herself as if her great Design was to boast that she was endued with all Sort of Prerogatives that she might draw Souls to follow her as if she aim'd to be the Head of a Party in Religion and to draw Disciples after her Now there is nothing more false than all this for the Friends of A. B. had no other Aim but to seek after the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus 2. And having found the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ most purely and savingly represented in the Writings and Conversation of A. B. they do highly valuâ— them and endeavour to conform their Hearts and Livâ— unto them 3. They desire that these Truths in 〈◊〉 Purity and Force may be communicated unto others 〈◊〉 the Glory of God and the Salvation of their Souls 4. And therefore thought themselves obliged to vindicate the Author from the many Aspersions Calumnies and Reproachâ—â— cast upon her at the Instigation of Satan by wicked and malicious Men by declaring what they had seen and known for many Years of this Virgin that so the Weak migâ—t 〈◊〉 be frighted away from the Truth by the malicious 〈◊〉 of Slanderers As for A. B. herself the bent of her 〈◊〉 was to live retir'd with God and to conceal rather 〈◊〉 publish his Graces to her Soul and thus she did for 〈◊〉 than fifty Years and would have done so still had 〈◊〉 God commanded and Providence order'd her such 〈◊〉 sions as oblig'd her to publish these Truths 1. 〈◊〉 present there are no true Christians upon Earth 2. 〈◊〉 what Means the Spirit of true Christianity is to be 〈◊〉 according to the true Precepts of the Gospel which 〈◊〉 disguised by the Glosses of Men. 3. That they who 〈◊〉 not sincerely labour after this would be shortly 〈…〉 by the just Judgments of God The various 〈…〉 and Objections that were brought against her 〈…〉 to declare several other Truths in Vindication of 〈…〉 and Doctrine and thus she is obliged to declare to 〈◊〉 that God who makes Use of weak and simple Me 〈◊〉 confound the Wise had sent her to make know◠〈◊〉 Truths of Jesus Christ to others that by the 〈…〉 God those Things are done in her from the doing of which they excuse themselves as if they were impossible to others she was obligâ—d to speak of God's Mission his Call to teach others and the Gifts and Capacities he bestows for that End and that there might be no Obstacle in her to hinder others from embracing the Truths of Jesus Christ she clears herself from the reproachful Calumnies and Lies form'd against her by the contrary Vertues and Favours which God had bestow'd on her and by the unquestionable Evidences and Testimonies of those to whom she was well known This is true Matter of Fact and these were the Occasions and Reasons which led both her and her Friends to speak of the Graces of God bestowed on her XIX The Doctor 's first Narrative contains his Character of A. B. taken as he says from her Friends with his Inferences from it and then his Collection of the Reasons why they have such Sentiments of her with his Censure of them In the First there is not one Instance of a fair and ingenuous Narration but many of great Injustice Disingenuity and foul Dealing most unbecoming a Writer of Narratives For XX. 1. The Method he follows palpably discovers that his great Aim was to blacken her If one designed to make a beautiful Person appear ugly he could not do it more effectually than if he should first deprive her of all Life and Spirit then take off the Skin of the Body and dismember it all in Pieces and quite invert the Order of its Parts and take withal only some Bits of it to set them together and at last bespatter all with Filth and Spittle crying Here is the Woman And such is the Doctor 's singular Way of making Characters They who have reaped great spiritual Advantages from the Writings and Conversation of any Person do speak of such a Person with more Esteem and Admiration than others who not having had such Experiences will think their Expressions extravagant especially when half Sentences are taken out by themselves and pieced with others at a great Distance from them and yet this is the Doctor 's Way of making up the Character of A. B. skipping from one Book to another from one Chapter to another to pick out the half Sentences that might be serviceable to his evil Design In the rest of his Narrative he takes out little Passages of her Life here and there without narrating ingenuously the true Circumstances of them he dresses them up with his fine Reflexions and so exposes them to the World as a Character of her Life The Answer he gives to this in his Letter to his Friend at London Art XIV is frivolous and needs no Reply it shews only how willing he is to say any thing rather than ingenuously confess a real and a heinous Sin 2. The Doctor 's foul Dealing appears farther in making up this Character by borrowing Pieces of it not from her own or her Friends Writings but from those of hers and their avowed Enemies as the next Day some of the Doctor 's Temper and Acquaintance will it may be take her Character as given by her Friends upon his Word and so fill it with horrid Untruths Thus he takes a Part of their Character of her from the Author of the Leipsick Transactions which Part is shewn to be a most abominable Falshood in the Monitum ad Acta Erudit Leips and what Regard is to be had to the Testimony and Judgment of the Collector of the Leipsick Acts in this Matter appears by the Account of a Friend of his who speaks thus of that Subject Firmiter persuasus sum fuisse Bourignoniam Virginem pussimam c. I am firmly perswaded that the Virgin A. Bourignon was most pious and her Heart the Temple of the Holy Spirit her Doctrine as to the main is holy and sound and her Books most worthy to be perused by the Serious As to her Sentiments concerning some Mysteries she wrote no doubt according to her Perswasion and it savours nothing of Folly or Enthusiasm if you shall read her Writings without Prejudice â—and a sectarian Infallibility even tho' you be of another Opinion your self I impute it to human Weakness if she thought that no Body would be saved but they who embraced her Sentiments yet she herself uses to distinguish between the Sentiments about the Mysteries of Religion and the Doctrine of Godliness The Collectors of the Leipsick Acts have pass'd a severe Censure against her and our Author M. Poiret Yet I knew the Author of that severe Censure wrote