most on the contrary we regard often what does most delight our senses or rather what is most for our advantage and thus we render our love vain or please the vanity of those who love us For this cause I have found it more sure to avoid all persons who would love me Nature does often flatter us in this point perswading us that we love the soul of the person when we love only the body and its endowments or our own delectation and advantage And having ask'd her why she would not stay in one fixt place since she was out of her own Country and why she would not be known She answered Tho I am a Stranger yet I may be taken notice of by staying long in one place which I do not desire for men are full of vain curiosity they would hinder my inward repose and quiet without any profit therefore I love rather to travel and continue unknown for men cannot give me any thing nor I them And having replied unto her that men might instruct her in the matter of perfection or that she her self might also instruct some others She answer'd I never learn'd any thing from any man and as to the teaching of them they have too much presumption of their own knowledge to hearken to a Child as I am I choose rather to leave them in their Ignorance than to speak to them to be pursued and persecuted by them I ask'd her if she was not afraid of being wanting in Charity to her Neighbours while she would not teach them or believ'd that they would persecute her in well-doing She said Sir if I had not made the experiment I durst not say so but believe me I have search'd in diverse places for persons who were esteem'd good men to declare my sentiments to them and to manifest the blindness that is now in Christendom and I have not found any body who has followed my sayings on the contrary some have reproach'd and persecuted me so that I have been constrain'd to withdraw out of their reach for they would have treated me hardly and even imprison'd me because I told them the truth which they will not learn because it reproves 'em They oppose themselves and are alarm'd against this truth more than against the Devil himself at this time it is put out of credit those who possess it are oblig'd to hold their peace and to conceal themselves I have experienc'd this in divers Countries where I have every where met with this opposition by which I sufficiently perceive that the darkness is universal thro all the world I cannot be wanting in charity in this point for I have often expos'd my Life for the salvation of my Neighbour and I would do it yet if I found matter dispos'd which failing I am resolv'd to continue alone tho with regret seeing all the world perish while they will have no help and will not know their blindness I do not believe that God will reckon with me as being wanting on my part to my Neighbour in what was in my power I ask'd her from whence she deriv'd her sentiments and what Books she made use of for her spiritual reading She said She had never taken any thing out of Books that she made no use of them nor carried any with her on the way but a small one in which were written the WORDS OF JESVS CHRIST which she carried instead of a Box of Reliques not to read it but out of devotion esteeming those words more than all the Reliques of the world and as for her sentiments that they came to her without her knowing how that in her Childhood she had been instructed in the principles of the Catholick Faith and that coming after wards to the use of reason she found her self replenish'd with the Doctrines of Jesus Christ and entertain'd her spirit with the consideration of the life of the first Christians These thoughts inflam'd her with a desire of imitating and following them therefore she said to her parents and friends Let us go into the Conntry where the Christiaus live whom Jesus Christ has taught And when they answer'd her Here is the Land of the Christians Jesus Christ has taught us She thought within her self that this could not be true that the life which she and all other persons led was not conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ nor to that of the first Christians She always ask'd again Where was the Land of the Christians till every one derided her as if she had been a Fool assuring her that she liv'd in the Land of Christians and that they had the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which she could not comprehend saying I see here Coffers full of Silver costly Furniture and sine Houses whereas Jesus Christ was poor and born in a Stable How can we be Christians I cannot believe this At last she resolv'd not to speak any more of it thinking in the mean time how she might find the way and the opportunity of coming one day into the Land of Christians While she consider'd all the actions and deportment of men she found them always more contrary to her sentiments which made her often weep when she was alone and she made her complaint to Jesus Christ and ask'd him how she might live as a Christian and be his Spouse It seems says she Sir that God had pity on my tender tears for a little after I receiv'd a secret advertisement as if some one had spoken within me and answered my demands This gave me so much consolation that childish plays and pleasures were no more agreeable to me I could find no other contentment but in entertaining my self with these secret thoughts that taught me all the sentiments I still retain not but tho thro my wickedness I lost this conversation for a time when inclining to follow the pleasures of the world and to give my self to the vanities of youth earthly sentiments began to possess my spirit But the great mercy of God has since recall'd me and restor'd the same inward delights with more solidity and light I never acquir'd sciences any other way than by recollection I have no need either of Books or Masters to teach me on the contrary they would be a great hindrance to me if I should make use of them even an Angel from Heaven if visible would hinder me This I could hardly understand saying to her if an Angel from Heaven would be a hindrance to you how dare we speak to you any more to hinder you She said Do not mistake me Sir I mean that an Angel from Heaven can teach me no more than I learn by my inward conversation therefore he would be unprofitable to me but you cannot hinder me so long as you profit by my words my Charity
of all honour which then all the world will render to him and just to render compleat Justice to every one There are so many innocent persons afflicted and Saints unknown and despised on the other hand there are so many wicked men honour'd rais'd to places and Honours and even held for Saints All these being Dead and the Truth as to them undiscover'd must not God avenge the quarrel of the Good and make appear the wickedness of the wicked that he may be Just Good and True I said to her That every one look'd for these Reparations in the day of the general Judgment which must be done in a little time or suddenly where every one shall be recompenc'd in Heaven according to his Merits or Sufferings She said Sir They will make God a God of Confusion What appearance is there that this Judgment can pass in a day or suddenly since the whole world must appear there It should be necessary that all the men in the world should after the manner of an Enchantment be Transported to the same place in an instant who could hear in that croud the Justification of the Righteous If it were to be done only by word they would not hear one by reason of another and if every one in particular must be spoke to to declare his good or evil Deeds it would need a long time before all were repair'd Years would not suffice to Judg so many men as have been upon the Earth Truly Sir all the speculations of men are nothing in respect of the Truth but Chimera's in the Air. God took six days to Create the World deliberately and in order as he has done all his works by weight and measure without any disorder or confusion He made Noah prepare an hundred years before the Deluge and when it came it began to Rain which Rain lasted forty days The Plagues are now begun and will follow in order even to their end and the Judgment will also go on in order so deliberately that there shall not be the least confusion in it for that can come only from men and not from God who does all in Order Neither is there any imaginary Heaven as people fancy it where every one shall be Rewarded or Restored for Heaven is no other but the presence of God who contains all things and can't be contain'd by any because he is greater than all things We are in Heaven when we are resign'd to him whether we live or die we are still in Heaven when we are in God Now being thus Divinely in God we do not notwithstanding receive the material and bodily reparation of the sufferings which we have materially and bodily endur'd And as God has given us both a Body and Soul he has also given us a Paradise both of Body and Soul For this cause God would have become Man even tho man had never sin'd for God makes all his works perfect and compleat The Soul can indeed have its compleat Paradise by the Presence of God because it is a Spirit like to him but the Body can have no Paradise but a Material and Bodily one like it self because it is of a Material Nature it cannot have a perfect happiness by a Spirit or Divinity Lo this is the reason why Man that he may be happy must of necessity have his Paradise in the world which was Created by God for no other end but to serve for a Paradise to Man whom he was pleas'd to Create of a Bodily and Spiritual Nature both together and he has also prepar'd for him both a Bodily and Spiritual Blessedness which are the Presence of God as to the Spiritual and for the Corporeal the Earth and the World and all that therein is By which you may see Sir the truth of the coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth to Reign with Men that their eternal Blessedness may be compleated and that every one may have a Reparation by fulfilling all Righteousness not in a speculative or imaginary way or of a short continuance but a Real Divine and Corporeal Reparation which will last for ever For God's Recompences are not Temporal and Finite but Eternal as coming from an Eternal God who can't give finite or imperfect gifts Consider Sir all these Truths and you will perceive sensibly why Christ must come to Reign upon Earth and that he has not taken an human Body to Reign in the Empyreal Heaven which is Divine but only to Reign on Earth for this Divinity has no need of any Body but this body has need of and must of necessity have some material place to contain it such as the Earth is And if to repair an injury done to any it be needful to make the reparation in the same place and before the same persons where the injury was done why should not God repair upon Earth the injuries received there On Earth they shall be repaired as on Earth they have been committed The Eighth Conference Shews that M. Anthoinette Bourignon is sent from God to declare the Truth to Men. I said to her that I was now convinc'd of all that I must confess before all the world that she possest the Holy Spirit for a humane Spirit could never give so clear an understanding of all the marvels of God She Said Sir you are not deceived in believing that I possess the Holy Spirit because he lives in me and teaches me all that I have told you for I have never learn'd any thing from any man neither would I learn of them because they are in darkness and do not know the Truth in any thing They believe they are very Learned and they are nothing but ignorants being turn'd away from the Truth by so many Novelties which they have made them believe They will needs maintain the Roman Church to be holy and own her Councils as acted by the Holy Spirit while neither the one nor the other is true For the Church is the Babylon of confusion and the Councils are the means by which the Devil has withdrawn Christians from the Law of God they having Ordain'd so many outward things that the inward may be forgotten and that thro so many Natural things People may think no more of the Spiritual Their Commands their Sacraments their Indulgences are all diversions from Salvation to obtain which there is nothing needful for all persons even those who are without God's Grace and straying from the way of Salvation but the observing the Commands of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel for God will never give any other Commands and Jesus Christ will never give any other Counsels than those he has given us by his Doctrine of the Gospel He says That he is not come for the Righteous but for sinners This being so all sinners who desire to be converted must take up this Gospel-Life by which they shall certainly attain to Salvation since Jesus Christ is
of God and that of men I have been often deceiv'd my self by these seeming vertues being perswaded that there were yet many true Christians but having seen them tried by tribulations and contempt they were consum'd as the chaff in the fire and if they had been GOLD in Charity Persecution would have render'd them more bright Many souls will be deceiv'd at death who in their life time presum'd they were true Christians while in the sight of God they will be worse than Heathens Such is the blindness wherein we live at present in which no body makes a right judgment of himself or of others every one presuming to be sav'd without good works whereas no works can be good if they do not proceed from Charity which is at present banisht from the hearts of all men for which cause there are no more perfect Christians upon earth for the Christian life is all Charity and the Love of God which is no longer in use I ask'd her How long she believ'd it is since there was no more Charity nor true Christians upon Earth She answer'd There has been no longer Charity upon earth Sir since Christians left the Gospel simplicity from that time Charity began to wax cold and when the Church would â—eeds establish herself in pomp riches and magnificence this outward splendor has utterly destroy'd the spirit of the Gospel Studies have banisht the holy spirit and the learning of men has stifled the wisdom of God so that the evil has always encreast till by the traditions of men they have annull'd the Law of God and extinguisht Charity which is no longer known and much less practiced in our dangerous and woful times the danger being so much the more to be fear'd the less it is known because no body apprehends those truths which God himself has reveal'd They content themselves with the judgment of men founding their Salvation upon the doctrine of the learned who are far estrang'd from the wisdom of the holy Spirit to which even they will not yeild themselves they lean so much upon their own Judgment These are blind who lead the blind and both together shall fall into the ditch according to the saying of Jesus Christ Who with just reason has call'd these last times dangerous because under a pretext of Piety and Religion men are led to damnation Simple People believing that they hear God when they hear those Guides who do very often teach the doctrine of Devils For if you observe what questions and disputes are now form'd in the Church you will find that they make debates of things which humane malice could not raise They must needs have come from the bottom of Hell They maintain that it is almost lawful to commit all sorts of sins without offending God that one may swear falsly without sinning and so of the rest which you may better know than I for I am struck with so much horror when I hear such things that I was never desirous to be acquainted with these black villanies they are grown to such a height that they maintain no body is oblig'd to love God which overturns the first and the greatest Commandment and is repugnant to nature itself which carries in it this obligation of loving a God of whom it holds its being and all things Do you not think Sir that this Doctrine is of Antichrist since it contradicts the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the Commandment which God gave to man from the beginning of the world and in all times and all ages Nevertheless they preach this publickly with many other abominations and many believe that these are truths because they are advanc'd by learned persons and such as are plac'd in Ecclesiastical Authority and Dignities who ought to be the true Members of the holy Church Pardon me Sir that I digress from the answer which I should have made to your demand It is because a sensible regret transports me and makes me exceed when I think upon the reasons why there are no more true Christians The Third Conference The Means by which Christianity began to decay from the Time of the Apostles and has continu'd so to do to such a degree that at present there are no true Christians upon Earth viz. 1. The Admission of false Brethren 2. Appropriation 3. Debates 4. Partialities 5. Men of Learning 6. Disputes 7. The Victory of the Devil I Reply'd to her That she could not offend me in this On the contrary I was very curious to understand more clearly the causes and reasons why there were no longer any true Christians on Earth She said Sir let us sit down here I will give you a particular account of the original progress and end of this calamity Assoon as the first Christians began to grow remiss the Devil like a strange Shepherd slipt into the Sheep told of J. Christ where he led astray many of his Sheep who by little and little forsook their true Shepherd turning away from Righteousness and Truth to follow Iniquity and Lies The Evangelical Poverty is contemn'd by them sufferings are become insupportable to them humility is disdain'd In fine they would no longer hear the voice of their lawful Shepherd whose word serv'd for the nourishment of their souls from that time Antichrist began his Reign and has ever since augmented his Power He could not endure that Jesus Christ had brought the word unto men by following of which they might be to all Eternity in the Glory of the blessed from which he had been chac'd and banisht for all Eternity Therefore he endeavours to make war against this word that he might efface it out of the memory of men and might thereby hinder their coming to the Kingdom of Heaven He did not tempt them by evil deeds or by wicked actions but by tricks and slights covering his malice under the cloak of piety and reason First he incites the wicked his Adherents to list themselves into the Christian Life that Tares might be sown among the good grain He thrusts in many false brethren among the true that he might by them do his work covertly and under a pretext of piety for otherwise he would not have been able to gain any thing upon the hearts of those first Christians who being fill'd with the holy Spirit and burning with the fire of the Love of God he could not have catcht them with evil things or such as had an appearance of evil He multiples therefore first the number of Christians so exceedingly that every one judg'd it was impossible to live any more in common He moves by humane reason the hearts of the most perfect to yield to a separation and to consent that every one should possess his own particular wealth without forgetting in the mean time Charity which every one should preserve in his heart to supply the necessities of their brethren Thus this old Serpent has always colour'd his inventions with piety
quiet and find leisure to entertain my self with God I think the plagues are so near that shortly there will be no need of Preachers to proclaim the judgments for the plagues will make themselves be felt sufficiently by unbelievers who in my opinion will be converted too late for the pains will be so great that they will not know whither to turn them for fear Never any such thing has been seen since the world was made I 'm afraid only for those who will not believe because they will not be converted and will not prepare for sufferings and being surpriz'd at unawares will be in danger of perishing with the wicked for thus it fell out in the time of the universal Deluge tho it is to be believ'd there were yet some here and there who feared God nevertheless all perished because of their unbelief Eight persons only did escape the shipwrack because they believed the word of Noah And now when we speak of the last times and of Judgment they think we tell them fables yea they reject them as untrue and impertinent discourses One says this will not fall out in my time and thus they thrust it out of their minds This has often troubled me for one must be without Charity who is not grieved to see his Neighbour perish while he will not believe his danger nor will he have help I said to her that the evil could not be wholly desperate so long as there was yet Life in man that he might still be converted that he has always God for his Father who abounds in mercy entreating her to discover these truths to men among whom there were yet some without doubt who would follow them and that Ignorance was the cause of their damnation She said Sir if there were not an infatuation of mind spread thro the whole world I would yet have some hope of the Conversion of some Souls in particular But this Antichrist by his Devilish arts has corrupted the minds of men especially of Christians that he might â—ender them stupid and without reason in the matter of their salvation and of the knowledge of God This stupidity cannot be humane for there are yet too many fine wits in the world to suffer themselves to be deluded by false perswasions that we are Christians and that the Roman Church is guided by the holy Spirit that all the Devotions which are used at present in the Church are things that perfect us or render us holy for there needs no more than a simple human reasoning to perceive that there is no Holiness nor Righteousness nor Charity among men now notwithstanding there were never so many Churches in the world so many Masses so many receivings of the Sacraments so many Priests Monks Religious and devout persons as there are at present Can we conclude that all these things which seem to be holy are withal good since they have produced so many bad effects Could holy things work wickedness in men as we see and feel it If this were only among the Heathens Jews Turks or Hereticks we might have some ground to believe that the Christians had receiv'd the grace of God by means of their Christian exercises and the common receiving of the Sacraments to live better than all those other Sects who are not the people of God or at least to be less wicked than they but we see the quite contrary that the Christians now adays have less of righteousness and charity than the Turks themselves and in the mean time they suffer themselves to be blinded with this amusement that they are Christians and will be sav'd with these seeming devotions and the receiving of the Sacraments Iâ— the Devil had not infatuated all their spirits it would be impossible that there should be so much as one how simple soever who would let himself be perswaded to believe a thing contrary to what he saw with his eyes felt with his hands and comprehended with his mind This is notwithstanding what all people do while they believe they are Christians and will be sav'd after the manner that they live now It is most true that the mercy of God is very great and men may be converted so long as they are yet in life but by what means do you judge Sir that they can be converted As long as they cannot be convinc'd that this outward Church is not the holy Church and that all those means of Salvation which she has appointed are not the true means no body will ever be converted For tho indeed their hearts were moved with compunction and repentance thro the fear of Gods judgments yet they would not return to true faith but would go seek for the cure of their souls in the Sacraments and the pious exercises to which they have been so long accustom'd and thus they would remain in the same state in which they were formerly without ever attaining to true repentance For if I should tell them the truth and teach them the true means of recovering the grace of God they would believe that I design'd to seduce and deceive them So much are they pre-occupy'd with lies and delusions I said to her That this proceeded from ignorance that she ought to declare in particular wherein true faith does consist that without doubt many would yet open their eyes and would embrace it there being many who desire not to be damn'd of whom I was one She answered There is no longer Faith Sir among the People of God It has been banish'd from them since men placed their faith and confidence upon one another from that time God has been forgotten Men have made it be believ'd that they would save one another tho' these Saviours cannot save themselves nor make one hair of their heads Nevertheless by their Perswasions they have made almost all the World to become Idolatrous Every one has forsaken the TRVE FAITH to follow and adhere to these men plac'd in Ecclesiastical Dignities whom they have follow'd and honour'd as Gods believing they had got enough when they knew how to please and content them Nature took its content thus the Mind its satisfaction In one word the true invisible and incomprehensible God has been raz'd out of the memory by these false ones visible and sensible to our Nature they have begun to make the way of Salvation broad whereas Jesus Christ made it narrow and the Divine and Spiritual Church they have rendred humane and carnal and thus they have become still worse till now that we are arrived at the height of all Evil. The greatest of all is that men do not perceive it for they are become insensible through so long a custom I believe indeed there are yet many persons who would not be Damn'd but what means is there to save them when they will not believe that they have abandon'd their true Faith And how can they be made to change so long as they believe that they are
Conference That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawyul Husband I Said to her That she gave a deal of Light in divers things for which I did infinitely bless God but I could not deny it troubled me a little to hear that the Roman Church was thus fallen from the Spirit of true Christianity She said Sir it is more expedient for the Salvation of your Soul that you know the Misery into which the Church has fallen than if you knew the highest Mysteries of the Trinity or the greatest Good of all Men together Because an Evil known is easie to be avoided But as long as 't is unknown and hid from us it is always dangerous and may greatly hurt us without our being aware of it Therefore you ought to give the more Attention and to apply your Understanding more to understand and comprehend the Truth which I tell you of Evil than to discover the Good For if I told you the Good of all Men this would only give you some little Contentment or sensual Satisfaction which would add nothing to your Soul But by knowing the Evil as it is you may prudently beware of it that it do not touch or harm you For all these Evils which I said were introduc'd into the Church even while it was yet Holy are all covered with Appearances of Good and Piety and Reason because the Devil could never have gained so many Souls as have followed him but under this Colour or Mantle of Good And he will yet gain many by their Ignorance of these Evils or by their Unbelief of them For as long as they take Evil for Good they will still blindly follow it and Ignorance will not excuse the Sin For God having given us an Understanding to comprehend and a Spirit to discern we ought particularly to apply them to what concerns our Salvation and when the Truth is set before our Eyes and we will not open them to consider it we resist it and may look for the Condemnation of the Holy Spirit who says that Vnbelievers shall have their Portion with Sorcerers I said to her I would not be incredulous but believe the Truth But that I felt an inward Opposition when it thus overturn'd the Church in the chief Points of Belief which we owe to it in case it were the Holy Church She said Sir I believe in the Holy Church and if I had a thousand Lives I would voluntarily expose them for its Defence and would think my self happy to spend the last Drop of my Blood for such a Cause But when God makes me see clearly that She is not Holy nor that which Jesus Christ established but that She is the Whore which is spoken of in the Revelation I cannot resist so clear Truths which do not only lie secret in my Soul but God gives me also Terms and Words whereby to explain them to you that you may likwise receive the Knowledge of them for your Salvation For which I have often bless'd God who bestows on us so many particular Favours hoping he will do it also to others But I intreat you doubt not what I tell you of the Miseries into which Men are fallen For they are yet greater than I have told you But persuade your self assuredly if they were not true I would not have engag'd my self in Discourses so melancholly and disagreeable to your Sentiments It would be more pleasant to me to tell you that the Roman Church is Holy and Perfect and that those who obey and follow her are holy This would recreate both my Heart and yours and the Hearts of all who could hear it I should be very light-headed or void of Understanding to please my self with things which displease all the World and which oblige me still to hold my Peace and to conceal my self Because I know very well if they should hear me declare those Truths all the Romanists would rise up against me and even the most Pious would think they made a Sacrifice to God in killing me For they are ignorant of these Truths and are wedded to their Church as if she were Holy knowing no better because the great Darkness that is now throughout the whole World wherein the Devil has bewitch'd all Minds with Errours they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth which every one withstands even thinking they do well in it I ask'd her If I might not suspend my Belief of those things which were contrary to the Church and believe only what concern'd Vertue and the Love of God She said Sir you can never follow Good without departing from Evil nor adhere perfectly to God without abandoning that which is contrary to him Have you not remark'd in how many things this Roman Church is contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ How therefore can you adhere to her and follow Vertue and the Love of God so long as they are really contrary Jesus Christ says that We cannot serve two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other You must chuse which you love best Good can never profit you without the Knowledge of Evil because while you do not know and believe it you will insensibly fall into it yea you will often take Evil for Good For the Evil of this Church is still covered with the Sanctity of pious Reasons and Arguments And if Antichrist did not cover his Wickedness with Vertue he could gain none but the Wicked but with pious Pretexts he gains all the Good who would even make a Scruple not to follow him as you do Sir by your Demand For if you do believe and follow Vertue and the Love of God you will certainly hate all that is contrary thereunto I think I have already told you enough to let you see that the Rules the Commands and Ordinances of this Church are not conformable to those of God who when he created Man gave him full Liberty to use his Will wheras those constrain it in all Points and will not only subject it by Councils or Advices but by Force and Violence both bodily and spiritual So that as much as in them lies they destroy the Law and the Ordinances of God to establish their own Authority and to bind the Souls of Christians by so many Constraints that 't is impossible for them to satisfie them without displeasing God tho' there were no other thing but the forbidding Priests to labour and making them swear never to explain the Holy Scriptures otherwise than the ancient Fathers have done Do you not see Sir that all their Laws are nothing but political and made to maintain their State and Authority If a Prince or a King to whom you were subject did become a Tyrant would you make any Scruple to abandon him when it were in your Power to do it tho' he were the lawful Son of your King and gracious Father who had preceded him A
are not to be found among the Votaries in Cloysters On the contrary we see they are rather guilty of six Sins against the same Holy Spirit which are so ordinary in these Votaries that it may be said they are inseparable from them For we find in them always a Presumption of being saved without good Works because being full of self-love they can never be good They oppose also the known Truth because the real Truth reproves them Therefore they will not hearken to it chusing rather to perish in their Darkness and to lay the Stress of their Salvation upon the Opinion or Discourse of Men. So that we need not enter into Monasteries to discover clearly that they are not become Saints by their Vows and the Constraint of their Rules nor yet have quitted all Commerce with Men since we see they desire as much their Conversation as secular Persons do And what will it serve for the Perfection of Souls to have their Wills bound by Vows and even their Bodies shut fast up when the Spirit is yet curious to know what passes in the World as the Practice is in the enclosed Cloysters For if one would learn all sort of News he may go into one of their Parlours and if our Will were bound to God when it is bound to the Will of Men there wou'd not be such Contradictions in the Cloysters where as many Persons as there are there are almost as many contrary Wills All this does sufficiently make appear that the Rules and Vows do not make the Person holy or depending upon the Will of God On the contrary they rather estrange him from it For as soon as they have fulfill'd their Obedience to their Superiour they believe they have wholly satisfied God whereas very often they offend him for these Superiours are often estranged from the Spirit of God neither is it to be accounted a great Vertue that we acquiesce in the Will of some Person whom we love This is purely natural and not from the Holy Spirit I said to her That we have sometimes heard that Miracles have been wrought by this Obedience to Men. She said Sir these cannot have been true Miracles if they had their Rise from Obedience to Men. There are so many things to be distinguished in the matter of Miracles that the Devil may easily work such as the World wou'd admire And I believe he has already deceived many pious Persons by false Miracles For he can dazle Mens Spirits and make them take nothing for something He can also trouble the Humours of the Body and cause Diseases which he can afterwards remove because it is done by Charms and by the same Charms it may be undone again Besides that he has so many who are bound to him by precise Covenant who do his Will by whom he can work many Malefices which might seem real Miracles tho' they be only all Tricks of the Devil Therefore I will not believe that those Stories which they tell us of Miracles fallen out by this Obedience to Men are true nevertheless I do not reject the Approbation that God has sometimes given of the Submission rendered to his Servants who possess his Spirit and spread it by teaching it to others in obeying of whom they obey God himself because they are not moved but by him So that those who obey them do indirectly obey God In this manner I believe that God may work true Miracles to confirm that it was his true Spirit which dwelt in these Superiours As he wrought Miracles to confirm that the Apostles did possess his Spirit because he did not remain in the Flesh to converse with Men and teach them He taught them by his Servants Therefore he said He that hears you hears me But he says not this to all bodily Superiours as it is now taken because it is to be feared that many of these do directly follow the Devil's Will and consequently teach others to do the same at least indirectly By which we may fear the Hazard there is in this Submission to Men and may learn also the Deceit there is in what they teach Christians now and particularly those who wou'd serve God in Perfection I said to her That the Vows were approved by the Church as a perfect thing and that all the World did look on them as good things She said And for my part Sir I look upon them as evil things for all Persons For he who resolves to be resign'd to God with all his Heart has no need to be constrain'd to this by Men because the Love he bears him is still strong enough to tie him to God without needing that Men shou'd interpose in it and he who has not this resolute Will of resigning himself to be governed by God cannot make Vows in any Order except in Hypocrisie Because Vows cannot constrain his Will but his Body and when the Body is constrain'd to do good against the Desire of the Will he is then the real Martyr of the Devil because he suffers much and merits nothing And thus Vows cannot be good neither for the Wicked nor yet for the Good who if they are so truly have no need to be forc'd to do good by the Constraint of Men if these Holy Founders have instituted Vows which I do not believe this must have been only out of humane Respect or Persuasion or for want of divine Light and if the Church approves them it is to keep these Persons in a precise Dependence upon her from which if these Vows were laid aside many would deliver themselves which is to be desired and it were far better that all these Persons in Vows had their Liberty than to continue cloyster'd to the Damnation of their own Souls and the deceiving of others who look upon those under Vows as Saints submitting to their Council and Government tho' very often they are governed by the Devil and he by their Means gains the most Pious who could not be gain'd any other way but by this Cover of Religion which all the World esteems to be good and holy By this the Devil gets into the Throne of God that he may deceive by false Appearances If he had remain'd among the Turks Jews or Heathens he could not have become Antichrist seeing one cannot shock an Enemy at a distance unless he approach him So the Devil could not stock the Doctrine of Jesus Christ if he had not insinuated into the Church it self and among those in it who make a Profession of Vertue as the Monks and Religious Persons and he having slipt in among these draws all the World after him and yet they do not discover him neither dare they believe that he dwells in these Persons who in Appearance and in the Esteem of all the World are holy because he has on his side the 〈…〉 earned I said to her That they who had enter'd upon a vertuous Course of Life went into the Cloysters that they might learn it better
the Holy Spirit speaks so succinctly that one Word makes me comprehend many things He gives Subtilty to the Understanding to conceive great Things by one of his small Motions It is just as if one were in a fine Room well adorned with divers Furnitures and Rarities But there were no Light in it whereby to see all these things In such a Case it wou'd require a great many Words to make him who had never seen them understand in particular all the fine things and Furniture that were in the Room telling him here are such and such Pictures such Tables such Seats and such like Things and yet we could not make him comprehend well the Beauty of this Furniture and Rarities But if a Light were brought into the Room tho it were but that of a Candle in a Moment it would give more Knowledge of all the Things that are in the Room than all the Discourses that were uttered to make them known So it is with the Light of the Holy Spirit when it enters into a Soul it makes it know and comprehend all things very clearly Nevertheless these things cannot be seen by Souls who are yet in the Darkness and Obscurity of their own Passions Many Words and Discourses must be used to make them understand the Rarities that are in the Works of God It is thus Sir that I tell you all my Words do not come immediately from the Holy Spirit But indeed all the Substance of what I say Because I never had any other Master nor any other Study but that of purging my Soul from Earthly Affections By this I received the Light of all the things of which I have spoken to you with many more which nevertheless I could not make you understand but by Words and Discourses accommodated to your Capacity which are not all precisely endited by the Holy Spirit Word for Word except that in general they are produced by the Gift of Wisdom which the Holy Spirit always brings along with him into the Soul where he resides giving it the Skill to express it self and to make Divine Things be understood by those who are in Darkness Therefore Sir you are not deceived in believing that my Words come from the Holy Spirit For it is true if you take them in Substance But if you would maintain a precise enditing of Words the Enemies of the Truth might surprize you in some Terms not well express'd or some Word of a contrary Signification or other Faults of my Language which come from my Weakness or Ignorance For the Holy Spirit can commit no Faults He always gives his Light perfect and compleat to the Soul that is purified from it self But he does not always give precise Words and Terms to make it be understood by others because it does not remain always precisely hearkning to the Enditing of the Holy Spirit being often distracted by Earthly Objects which divert it sometimes without its being aware and in this Diversion it may commit many Faults even tho' it had received the Holy Spirit For this Cause our Life is always dangerous and we ought still to watch that we be not surprized by our Enemies I asked her How she could see by the Light of the Holy Spirit things which consist in Matter of Fact as the Deportment of the Jews and Christians and others She said Sir this is manifested to my Understanding even as Divine Things are without any Distinction except that the Soul receives more Contentment in conceiving and understanding the Things of God than those which respect Men tho' all come from the same Source nevertheless they have different Effects For when God shews to the Soul his straight Righteousness his universal Goodness his pure Truth it is filled with Wisdom and solid Vertue by those which it remarks in God and when he makes it see his Glory Majesty and his Almighty Power the Soul is filled with Joy Honour and Strength in Consideration of the Qualities of its God But he no sooner makes appear to it the deplorable State to which Men are reduced now than the Soul is afflicted and thirsts with a Desire to see them converted unto God who also shews unto it all the necessary Means for this Conversion And as a Physician cannot rightly cure a sick Person or Patient without seeing first the Cause of the Disease or laying open the Sores of his Evil even so does God towards a charitable Soul that is touched with a sensible Regret to see its Neighbour perish and with a Desire to succour him with all its Power Then God makes it see the Sores that is the Faults and Sins of his People more distinctly than if it conversed daily with them even though it has never seen them by the Eyes of the Body Nevertheless it knows them better than they who converse daily with them Because the Light of God pierces to the Bottom of Souls and the Sight of Men perceives only outward things Therefore many are often deceived and take what is false for true But God judges always with an upright Judgment And when the Soul has Bowels of Charity to help its Neighbour God shews it the State in which he lives and also the Means by which he may rise again from his Fall This is the Reason why God makes Matters of Fact which respect our Neigbour to be as well perceived as divine Things and that by the Light of the Holy Spirit which is so much the brighter the farther it is removed from Humane Light and Natural Knowledge For this Cause Sir I retire so much from Men and will learn nothing from them because their Wisdom hinders and obscures the Light of the Holy Spirit and according as I am removed from them accordingly I approach to true Knowledge For sometimes I wou'd tell you better what passes among the Turks or other remote Places than what is done in my Presence For my Eyes may deceive me But the Holy Spirit cannot deceive me I asked her How this Light had its Original If the Holy Spirit did immediately declare things to the Soul or if the Soul did propose them first She said Sir this is done differently For sometimes the Holy Spirit gives Notices of the Things which the Soul never saw nor thought of At other times he makes it understand something which it saw or understood imperfectly But for the most Part the Light is demanded by the Soul when it prays for it or for somewhat else Then if it be well recollected it receives the Understanding of what it asked either God grants it or makes it see wherefore he denies it or else what it ought to do or forsake to co-operate with the Designs of God and to obtain its Request Behold how the Lights of the Holy Spirit have their Rise All that is needful in this is to disengage our Soul from Earthly Affections and to resign it to the Will of God Then he governs and illuminates it in such sort
his VVorks It must needs be that all things be very shortly overturned for no body knows God any more nor his VVorks I acknowledged my Fault in having so often spoke evil of the VVorks of God saying to her that it was only thro Ignorance and not thro' Malice She said Sir Ignorance excuses not Sin You are always obliged to know that God is a perfect Good from whom no Evil can ever proceed and that all his Works are accompanied with Truth and all sorts of Perfections And that he can never do any imperfect thing and therefore you ought not to wish that any thing were otherwise than he has appointed it for all the Wise Men who are were or shall be upon the Earth cannot have all together the least Wisdom of God and all that they have they have from him Is not this general Rule sufficient to make your Spirit submit to these Ordinances especially as to this Free-will of Men which he has ' given them as a Pledge of assurance that they are his real Children in acknowledgment of which they ought to bless and praise him day and night because he could never testifie more Love to them than by this liberty he has given them to love him For my part I can say in truth that I would chuse rather that God should annihilate me than take from me the Liberty to love him Therefore I resent it so much when I hear it said That it would be better not to have Free-will for I feel by Experience that it is the only thing that unites Men to God and that also which can make them enjoy Eternal Happiness no body can comprehend but he who experiences it what Consolation the Soul receives when it can unite this Free-Will to God This is so perfect an Alliance that nothing can be found in Grace more accomplish'd no more than there can be any thing found in Nature more perfect than that two Persons united in their Wills in God join also in Body this compleats their Contentment but if there were force limitation or constraint on either side the Pleasure could not be compleat This is the Figure of the perfectly free Union that the Soul ought to have with God and if the Soul were constrain'd or forc'd to this union God could not take perfect delight in it because to have a compleat Contentment in the Union of two things they must needs equally concur to it I said to her That I must confess I had been in great Darkness and that I had never conceiv'd that so great a Good did proceed from Free-will no more than the happiness which is found in Marriage when two Persons are united in Body and in Mind She said This is because People consider things only superficially and on the outside without piercing into their Sources for it is the Free-will of Man only that gives him a perfect Union with God without which he could never come to love him perfectly therefore among all the Spiritual Graces that God has imparted to him this Free-Will is the greatest good as also Marriage among natural Goods is the most perfect though Men do very frequently abuse both making use of their Free-Will to damn themselves and of Marriage to sin This is not God's Fault who has ordained both the one and the other holy and perfect but only Man's who abuses the most perfect Gifts of God as well in Grace as in Nature Ought we for this to desire that he had not bestowed these Graces on Man This would be to own that Man's Wickedness should make the Goodness of God to cease which cannot be for God will never cease to be good because Man is evil He remains still the Fountain of all Goodness and the giver of all Good though the men of the World be wicked God will never change for the Goodness or Wickedness of Men nor for any other thing because he continues always that which he is Let Man do what he will with all the other Creatures they shall never be able to make God desist from the least Righteousness Goodness and Truth which he possesseth in himself and will always exercise without regard to the goodness or wickedness of Men. Their abuse of his Graces will never hinder him from extending his Goodness towards them If they use them well they shall receive the promised reward and if they they use them ill they shall meet with the just Punishment without any mutability in God It pleased God to Create Man after his Likeness and so he was made for God's Power is equal to his Will and he would have this Man also joined to his Like as God was to him that is to say entirely spiritually and bodily Now Man could not be like to God by his humanity for God was not corporeal or natural neither could he be like to God by a bounded and limited Will and Spirit because God has a free Power to do or not to do any thing God then must needs have given to Man the same free Power of his Will or otherwise he could not be like to him in any thing And since he would create Man after his own Likeness he was obliged to give him the free disposal of his own will there being nothing else in which he could resemble God By which we see that Free-Will is the greatest spiritual Gift that Man has receiv'd from God since without it he could not any way resemble Him And afterwards to render this resemblance most compleat God took a natural Body and a reasonable Soul like to Man that he might in all respects resemble him that is divinely by the free Power of his VVill and after the manner of Man by the Body and Soul which Jesus Christ assumed in due time that not only Man might be like God but that also God might be like to Man that there might be a perfect and compleat Contentment between God and Man which will appear after the end of all Evil when God shall reign with Men on Earth Divinity and Humanity together joining themselves inseparably by an indissolvable and eternal alliance of Will Body and Spirit by a perfect Bond and Union This is the final Cause for which God became Man that they might dwell together in an Eternal holy Union the figure of which he shew'd in the Earthly Paradise when he created the Woman to give Adam his compleat and perfect contentment for though indeed he had been created with his Free-will to be able to love God and take delight in him and also in all the Creatures which were made subject to him yet his Contentment was not fully perfect for God was to be the delight of his Soul and all the other Creatures of his Senses But his Body did not see its like therefore God says It is not good for Man to be alone let us make a help like to him Because God will make all his
Works perfect in all respects He is not satisfied to have created Adam in the enjoyment of his Free-will by which he might have his VVill united to God's he gives him also all beautiful things to recreate his Sight and all â—avoury things to recreate his taste all pleasant things for his hearing all things necessary for his Entertainment and he will needs also give him a Companion suitable to his Person that both as to Body and Soul he might have perfect Contentment compleat in all respects therefore he instituted Marriage that the Souls which are united together by will in God might be also united in Body and that Man by this Figure might see how compleat and perfect the Union must be that he must have with God in all respects and without any defect The Third Conference Speaks of the Perfection and of the abuse of Marriage I said to her that Marriage was very holily instituted but that it was very ill observ'd because no body observes narrowly the works of God She said Sir this is the cause why the VVorld is condemned for God is no longer known nor lov'd in it and no body is sensible of this Fault They use their Free-will to satisfy themselves every one willing and desiring that which is pleasant to his Senses or advantageous for his Interest in this VVorld They will all that which God does not will and notwithstanding they hope to be saved and make a contrary use of all that God has given us Marriage is a Holy thing and may well be called a Sacrament for God has instituted it and all that he has done is Sacred and Holy But what do we see in rhe use of this Sacrament but the Sin of Lust and filthiness people carrying more disorderly in it than the Brute Beasts They joyn Bodies when their Desires and Wills are far divided The ends for which God instituted it are no longer regarded by married Persons It is their only desire to satisfie their Lust or Avarice For the rest they only mind it but by accident And as there is nothing more holy and perfect than the Bond of Marriage for two Persons who have dedicated their Wills to God because it unites three things which make now but one to wit the will of God and the wills of the Married Persons who by excess of their united VVills unite also Bodies in the Spirit and Design of God so on the contrary there can be nothing more wicked than two Bodies united by Carnal Concupiscence for this Alliance is the source of all sorts of Sins yea the Abyss of all Evils And as those who are united to God have by being married with a Person equally united to God a perfect Contentment both of Soul and Body so those who live after their own will have by marrying with their Like still some discontent both of Body and Soul because their Souls not being in God they cannot have Peace and their Bodies being joyn'd without Love cannot be satisfied nor contented but they are in Body and Soul as in a temporal Hell which prepares the way to Hell Eternal for these Bodies united without Souls and VVills can produce nothing but Sin through the Lust of the Flesh besides Contention and Strife with a thousand other kinds of Excess Vain-glory Luxury gluttony to which Married Persons excite one another So that their whole Life is nothing but a constant course of sinning which extends also to their children thro' the bad example of the Parents who train them up in evil customs and they increase the number of the wicked Hereby the world grew still worse and its wickedness is still increased and the perverse generation is become so numerous that the Evil is without Remedy for no body is aware of it because every one treads the same path Custom is changed into Nature And whereas they ought to marry for the Two Ends that God gave them that is to preserve a perfect Unity among his true Children and to increase the number of them by generation they usually marry to satisfie their Concupiscence and so they beget Children for the profit of the Devil Thus the works of God are perverted by evil practices for of all that God has done in Nature there is nothing more holy than the Matrimonial Conjunction which by a perfect Union binds persons in Love for otherwise God might have made men engender as the Fishes or in any other separate manner which his Almighty Power and Wisdom could have provided for But resolving to have in Nature a figure of the Union of his Three Powers and of the entire and perfect Alliance which he would make with man he ordain'd that their generation should be by the conjunction of two persons that he might keep them always inseparably united to his will in body and will by a Bond of Charity and gave them a natural bent and inclination to this conjunction which is the most perfect thing in the world if it were observed in the spirit of charity I said to her That it must be acknowledg'd no body understood the works of God and that they made an ill use of all especially of this Matrimonial Conjunction from whence so many sins did proceed and instead of regarding it as an holy thing it was matter of shame and blushing amongst the most sober persons She said Sir 'T is sin that renders it shameful even as that of Adam made him see his Nakedness and gave him ground thro' confusion to hide and cover himself If he had remain'd in innocency he would never have been ashamed of being Naked but it was his sin only that caused this shame He had no need of covering himself before he sinn'd for his body was more beautiful and more artificially contriv'd than ever the most costly Stuffs with which he could cover himself but the imagination being disorder'd by sin made him see beautiful things as if they had been filthy This has remain'd even till now in the imagination of all men who esteem that to be good and beautiful which they imagine to be so and reckon that also to be filthy and evil which seems so to their imagination Hence it comes that they look on natural things as shameful but if they regarded them in Truth and Innocence all would seem good and beautiful to them for God could never make any thing evil but man perverts all good into evil and by his sin corrupts all things the most innocent become the most wicked by sin It must be acknowledged Sir that the way in which men now joyn for generation is very filthy and makes chast souls blush because they observe nothing there but the sin which is in it which is infamous For this cause they are asham'd of it But if this sin were remov'd they would see nothing in it but what is pleasant as if two little children should play together quite naked there would be nothing but pleasure in this because of
Ordinances of the Church than to those of God I ask'd her Whether she was a Catholick and whether one could be sav'd out of the holy Church She said Yes Sir I am a Catholick and ready to die for the Faith and Doctrine of Jesus Christ because 't is necessary for me If I had remain'd in innocence without having contracted so many evil habits by the conversation of men I should not have needed the Law of God nor the Precepts of Jesus Christ but having departed from that innocence in which I ought to have resign'd my self wholly to God yielding up to him the free will that he gave me I have need now of this Law and those Evangelical Counsels as means to recover that innocence and that I may with singleness of heart resign my will to that of God as all other men also have need of them for every one has departed from that innocence and contracted many evil habits which hinder this resignation to God I embrace indeed the Apostolical Faith and Belief but I do not believe many things which those who call themselves the Christian Church lay before us because they are not true for he who should believe to be sav'd by going to Church and frequenting the Sacraments or such like things would at death find himself deceiv'd because no Prayers or Sacraments operate without an inward disposition And whereas we see people frequent the Churches and Sacraments without piety or devotion we may well judg that the world is deceived by such like things while they place the hopes of their salvation on outward things which are but the signification of the inward disposition of the mind You will say It may be Sir that the Church supposes this inward disposition which is a false supposition because we see evidently by experience that the inward disposition is very far from what appears outwardly and upon this supposition the Church could not appoint the baptising of new born Infants who are not at all capable of inward dispositions I doubt not but these Romanists would bring many Reasons and Arguments but I hold to the Truth of God and know no other Church but the souls which possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Lo this is the only true Church out of which there can be no salvation for every one has need of taking up these means that by them he may attain to a RESIGNATION to God I said to her That truly there must be some infatuation of Spirit that tied us to this Church for tho we see she does not at all possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ yet we are afraid to leave her as if she were the holy Church tho the truth makes it evidently appear that she is not She said Sir I bless God that he opens your Eyes to discover the truth in what concerns your salvation for as long as you do not discover evil you cannot avoid it but will still be in danger of being deceived by it If the Devil were not in this Church it is impossible that so many good spirits should thus blindly follow her 'T is certainly by an infatuation of the understanding for they see enough in the outside to judg assuredly that she is not guided by the holy spirit and that she follows not in any respect the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and nevertheless they continue so wedded to her thro' som panick or pusillanimous Fear that they dare not shake off her dependance fearing they should do evil in following the truth And if any person of a sound Judgment discovers her deceits and uncharms his Understanding so as to perceive her Errors yet out of respect to the Glory of the World he dare not forsake her because this Church is advanc'd to so great Honour and Authority that no body dares leave her for fear of being disgrac'd or persecuted by her as she would certainly do so long as it is in her power For this cause Jesus Christ speaking of the last Times in which we are fallen says That a man must get out of Judea and flee even without returning to his house to take his Cloaths Judea is the Church and the Sanctuary where the abomination of desolation is now so increas'd that it is at its heighth A man needs not glory in being a Son of the Church for the Children shall be cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Jews and Heathens shall be admitted into it for God can make of these stones Children of Abraham Lay aside therefore Sir all these Fears and Pusillanimities they proceed from a softness of spirit Keep close to the Truth and follow her without Fear for she will guide you to salvation If Glory or Interest do not hold you in a dependance on the Church leave her boldly for her Reign will be very shortly at an end and she will perish with all her Glory and Possessions 'T is better lose our Garments than our Life or even our Wealth and Honour than our souls The Fifth Conference Of the Destruction of Christendom I Said to her That I was not so afraid as she thought and that I had ask'd many things of her of which I made no doubt but I desir'd always to be further cleared and therefore propos'd many questions Yet on the contrary I had long suspected that the Church was the VVhore in the Revelations in which her behaviour had confirm'd me therefore would flee out of her Dependance She said 'T will be your best course for her time draws near in which she shall be raz'd and rooted out and her Children scatter'd and divided All the World shall bewail her and call her miserable fot her misery shall be great and all her Villanies shall be discover'd It would be then too late to forsake her for all those who shall be found drinking out of her Cup shall perish with her Therefore Jesus Christ has said That we must not wait till the winter or the Sabbath-day That is till the time of persecution and the Day of the coming of Jesus Christ in his glory for in her persecution there will be so great evils that the like were never seen Men shall pine away for Terror and Fear and be very uncapable of studying how to find the Truth Therefore you must not wait till the time of extremity but flee and get out of her before Neither must you wait till the Day when our Saviour shall come in his Glory because he will render to every one acecrding to his works the time of penitence shall be past it must be done presently or else we shall all perish For the Lord will overthrow all evil by the brightness of his coming which is to be looked for only in order to receive our last Judgment for which it is more than time to prepare our selves and to flee to the Mountains taking heed of men who have for so long deceived and
divers other Cases we are guilty of the sins which others commit by not hindring them when we might have done it The Ninth and Last is That we do not tell the Evils that we know of others to those who might put a stop to them as in not telling the Faults of Children Scholars or Servants to Fathers Superiours or Masters who might prevent them Silence in this respect does as much Evil as the Faults which are committed without the knowledge of the Superiours because if they were known to them they might hinder or correct them which they not doing being ignorant of them the fault and blame falls upon those who conceal them whether to please the Evil doers or upon any other pretext whatsover because by their silence in some manner they co-operate to the sin Nevertheless there are very few who are apprehensive of these kinds of sins and much less do they repent of them for they imagine they are not guilty of them because they have not committed them effectively in their own Persons yet they will be all imputed to them as well as if they had personally committed them and they cannot be excused through ignorance because all Christians are obliged to know what they ought to do or avoid for Jesus Christ and his Apostles have set down all for him who will take the pains to search for it But the darkness is so great that they perceive not the things that are necessary and they live in such a negligence of their Salvation as if they were assur'd of it though they be very far from it because no unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Those who enter there must be holy None can otherwise draw near to God the Source of all Purity and Holiness In which many are deceiv'd who believe that Holiness belongs only to the Perfect whom they imagine to be some singular Persons And yet without Holiness no Man shall ever be saved I said to her That very few Persons consider'd these things and scarce any look on themselves as guilty of those sins which they commit in another no more than of those which they commit against the Holy Ghost because they perceive not that they are guilty of them though notwithstanding I see clearly that those who are esteemed holy or perfect are tainted both with the one and the other of the said sins She said Sir I am well pleased that you begin to discover that by which the World is condemn'd that you may not need to believe it blindly for if you perceive clearly that the Holy and the Perfect now are polluted with the sins which they commit in another and with those against the Holy Ghost those whom they call Wicked are visibly defiled with divers kinds of Actual Sins Which is known to all the World Of whose Salvation then can you hope for The Wicked bring their Condemnation upon them through their obstinacy in a wicked Life and the Good draw it on by the sins which they commit in another and those against the Holy Ghost which they will not know and much less amend because they presume upon the certainty of their Salvation without all these Circumspections whereby they might discover the state of their Souls or the Sins with which they may be defiled which are Spiritual and of which through blindness they are insensible Hereby the Proof is just of the World 's being universally judged because the sins are universal which sins do judge and condemn Souls For God judges no Body He only fulfils all Righteousness and those who shall be condemned shall be so always by their own sins and never otherwise And if Sins condemn then all they who live in them do bear their Condemnation And since we see that in this Age neither the Good nor the Wicked are free from sins we cannot but see and confess that the whole World is judg'd and condemn'd and that we are arriv'd at the general Judgment seeing generally sin rules and bears sway We must not look for any other cordemnation but that of our own sins known to Gods Justice which condemns always all that 's unjust without hatred and without favour The Righteous Ballance of this Divine Justice being still kept steady by a Hand that never shakes does always condemn Unrighteousness I said to her That I was wholly convinc'd by so clear and true Arguments That I acknowledg'd without doubt the World was generally judg'd by its general Sins asking her if while this Sentence was putting in execution there were not means whereby a Man might be converted She said Yes Sir there are means of Conversion as long as we have life There is place for Repentance till Jesus Christ shall come upon the Earth and root out all Evil yea even when he shall come there will be yet hopes of Pardon Therefore he says That Sinners and Harlots shall inherit the Kingdom and the Children thereof shall be cast out because these wicked Persons may be yet converted and acknowledge their sins whereas those Children of the Kingdom who esteem themselves holy and religious continuing obstinate in the presumption of their Salvation will be cast out though they be called the Children of God and of his Kingdom There are therefore means of Conversion for those who will repent and change their manner of Life even though they were the greatest Sinners of the World yea even for those who are full of the sins against the Holy Ghost or of the sins committed in another provided they get out of their darkness and receive the Truth For these ends God puts his last Sentence in execution slowly and sends his Plagues one after another that he may give time and leisure to all those who desire to be converted to do penitence In which he still exercises the Effects of his Almighty Goodness and Mercy not willing that a sinner should perish but that he live and be converted The sins against the Holy Ghost will be forgiven as well as other sins provided they repent of them which they not doing they shall no more be pardoned when Jesus Christ shall come upon the Earth than at present For where there is no Repentance there can be no pardon for this cause the sins against the Holy Ghost will be very rarely pardoned because they are very seldom repented of and amended The Tenth Conference Shews what Souls shall be happy and explains the Eight Beatitudes I asked her By what means we might know or discover those who are truly converted to God She said Sir Take the Eight Beatitudes which Jesus Christ has declared and see if those who say they are converted do possess them For these only shall be blessed and no others Many say by word that they would be converted and be wholly for God and notwithstanding there are no appearances of it These are nothing but wouldings without effect with which we deceive the World and our selves and
sufficient to make Adam understand that he would do well to examine himself Just so it was not needful that he should say in express Words It is my Will that you submit your Will to mine This ought to be understood sufficiently when he sayes I forbid thee to eat of this Tree Man in himself had no other Fruit worthy of God but the Disposal of his Free-will for all his other Things were either Humane or Material This Free-will alone was Divine The use of which ought to be reserved for God alone Even though he had never declared that he would have it for himself yet Man was certainly obliged both by Divine and Humane Right voluntarily to offer it to him The Twentieth and Fourth Conference Shews Why Men cannot abandon themselves to a Dependance upon God I said to her There was nothing more reasonable nor more just or perfect than for Man to resign his Will to that of God asking her why Men had difficulty to do this She said Sir There is nothing better for Man than to resign his Will to that of God and we see nothing less practised than this Because no Body applies his Spirit to consider this Obligation One diverts himself by his Studies another by his Offices another by his Trade Just as if every one had been created only for such Employs They Rule on Earth as Little Gods without thinking on this DEPENDANCE and when God shall come at the Hour of our Death he will deride the Men who have lived thus as he did Adam when he cloathed him with a garment of Skins saying to him Behold Adam is become a God like us Men now may indeed at Death look for the like Reproaches Because God has placed them in this Valley of Misery to do Penitence and they will needs Rule and take their pleasures in it as in a Paradise forgetting that they ought to depend upon God and submit their Wills to his And instead of doing this they will needs govern themselves and follow their own Inclinations These evil Habits make it seem difficult for Men now to abandon their Wills to God because they have possessed them till this present Time And seeing all that has Life is in a continual Motion if we live to our Senses we advance alwayes in Brutishness And if we live to the Devil we advance alwayes in Malice but if we live to God we advance alwayes in the Divine Nature The difficulty that we find to resign our Will to that of God proceeds certainly from this that we are habituated not to depend on the Will of God and that we have debased this Divine Quality that he has given us even to the Earth or to Hell When we leave it to the power of the Devil to Rule over our Free-will we then render our Divine Souls Devils and when we let it be Ruled by our Brutish Passions we then render our Divine Soul Beastly What Injury does Man to himself that he will not yield up his Free-will into Gods Hand who would render it wholly Divine This is the One Thing necessary and we do not apprehend it Nevertheless we cannot be saved by any other Means since this is the only Way that leads to Salvation we must of necessity retake it or we shall all perish We must be born again and re-enter into the Original State in which God created us For he has changed nothing in Man by Sin no more than he has done in the Earth the Beasts and Elements except that all these Things have contracted some Malignity in themselves which Man must correct by resisting his own Will in which this Malignity resides For as long as we shall follow our own Will we shall still grow worse Because this Malignity that is in our Will encreases according as we follow it By which we may evidently see that he who will not yield up his own Will to God cannot be saved For this Divine Quality which is in us being become brutish produces all sorts of Evils even as the Devils since they applied their Divine Qualities to do evil have an insatiable appetite to Evil. But when this our Will is yielded up into Gods Hand it is in its Center and produces all sort of good Of necessity therefore we must retake our Original and the first essential Commandment that God gave us which is a DEPENDANCE upon his Will It is this that Jesus Christ sayes Except you repent you shall all perish The trouble that we shall have to resign our Will to God will purge our Souls and by this Violence we shall possess them I said to her That none had ever searched so deep into the necessity of this Dependance upon God as she had deduc'd it Which notwithstanding was so clear and true that no Body could doubt of it That Man owed all to God since he had received all from him She said Sir The cause why they do not penetrate the necessity of this Dependance upon God is the Blindness of Men who being diverted by their Worldly Affairs and Business do not apply themselves to that which concerns their Eternal Happiness contenting themselves with this to believe blindly what is laid before them that is the Reasons and Sentiments of Men without searching into the Essence of the Thing or the Truth of their Original It is in this that Jesus Christ said If the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch They teach in the Roman Church a great many Lawes and Commands Counsels Rules Means Cases of Conscience and a Thousand sorts of Inventions to please God which of themselves are not capable of saving so much as one Soul While in the mean time all the World build their Salvation upon these Things But they are deceived since nothing can obtain it but a DEPENDANCE UPON GOD And as near as we come to this Dependance we come as near to our Salvation and as far as we are estranged from it we are as near our Damnation We ought not to go by Four Ways when there is but one that is straight The taking so many different Methods to go to God are only By-ways since there is but One only that can unite us to him That is the DEPENDANCE of our Will upon his all being comprehended in it because this is the Essence of all Good Since nothing is good but God no good can come but from him alone who does alwayes well and never ill Nevertheless he will not act in us any good but in so far as our Free-will is resigned to him He does alwayes good where he meets with no opposition and he will never do it where our Will opposes it self Because it is he who gave this Liberty to the Soul and he will never repent of any of the Works that he has done If we could speak of God as we would do of a Man we would say that he is very sorry when Man
to know if really she has the Quality of our true Mother and if she be allied with our true Father who is unchangeable in all his Qualities to whom this Spouse ought to be alwayes conformable We must see if what they call our Mother has the Spirit and the Works of our Father and if we find no Likeness in her we must renounce her and hold her as a Deceiver and a Liar unworthy of our Affection The Twentieth and Seventh Conference Shews The true Marks whereby to discover where the True Church is and that it concerns every one to examine it I asked her How I might discover where my true Mother the true Church is What Marks there are whereby to know her that I may not be deceived She said Sir You shall discover her by this that she will follow the Footsteps of Jesus Christ and be wholly conformable to his Doctrine There is but one Church only as there is but one onely God and there is so strait a Bond and Alliance between God and the Church that they are but one and the same Thing as it is said that in Marriage Two are but one Flesh so in the Alliance of God with the Church two are but one Spirit God is the Bridegroom and the Soul is the Bride As it is said concerning Adam Let us make a Companion meet for him for it is not good that Man should be alone This is the Figure of what he had said before Let us make Man after our own Likeness because it was found meet that God should delight himself with something that was like to him For this cause he created the Divine and Eternal Soul and plac'd it in the Body and Understanding of Man that it might multiply and communicate it self For it is the Property of Good to be communicative This Divine Soul being form'd in Time must live for ever else it should not have been Divine nor capable of being united and ally'd to God who created it for these ends And as Adam and Eve ought to have been united in Heart Body and Will so the Soul ought to be united in Love Understanding and Will with God Not that Natural Love nor that Humane Understanding no more than our bounded Will Because all this has no Sympathy with God and they are but the Case wherein God has shut up this Divine Soul which is Free and Eternal as God This Divine Reason and Free-will make the Church by the Alliance that God makes with it which is much more strait than the Alliance that this Divine Soul makes with the Animal Soul of Man which do so nearly approach one another that no Humane Spirit is able to distinguish them no more than any can distinguish the Free and Rational VVill from God himself Because he has so straitly united them that the Soul is God and God is the Soul as the VVill of Eve was that of Adam so the VVill of the Soul is that of God By which you may still discover Sir where the Spouse of God or the True Church is Because where she is to be found she carries still along with her the same Qualities of her VVell beloved and when you do not find them in those who call themselves the Church believe firmly that they are all Cheats For the Spouse of God will be alwayes comely and there can be no Blemish in her Because she shall never be parted from the Qualities of her Husband alwayes Just Good True and All-powerful And when you shall see Sion Jerusalem Judea or Rome such as you call the Church to be fallen away from these Qualities never believe that she is your Mother the Holy Church Upon these Accounts Jesus Christ has so often warned you to beware of false Christs and false Prophets For they come to delude and deceive many Do not let your self be deluded Sir For there shall never be but one True Church which shall be united to God VVhosoever has not this Unity is not the Church but they are Seducers of the People who under this Cloak of God's Spouse do seduce many You must lift up your Head and look on high to see whence the Church took her Original and you will perceive that the Church is no other but the Alliance that God made with the Divine Soul of Man which he made his Spouse though she was unworthy of it He so ennobled her that he would joyn himself to her and ally with her by an indissoluble Alliance which can never end for the Two Parties are Immortal to wit God and the Divine Soul But to take for the Spouse of God Persons who are no wayes in the Spirit of God nor in Union with him and to reverence them as the Church is to wrong the Honour that we owe to God To see a Church seek the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this VVorld and to believe that she is the Spouse of God is to derogate from her Divine Quality and to ascribe the Honour to Vice that is due only to True Vertue VVe should not thus let them cover our Eyes as they do to those who are going to be hanged that they may not see their doleful End VVe must take off this Bandage that we may look about us and learn where the True Church is which can save us and not suffer our selves to be led on blind-fold to Eternal Death by VVords or false Appearances since Truth only is capable to save us I said to her That I had never yet discovered Souls united to God and that nevertheless I believed I was in the Church She said Sir You are deceived For the Church is no where but in the Souls that are united to God no more than a Woman can be the Spouse of a Man who has never approached her We must not believe that the Church consists in wearing a Garment of Purple or Red or Fine Linnen These are rather the Marks of the Reprobation of the falsely Rich Man who was buried in Hell and the Scripture brings no other cause of his Damnation than these Fashions of Apparel and that he was Rich and a Feaster If all these Things were Marks of his Damnation why should they be now a dayes the Marks of the Holy Church God is not changeable He cannot now unite to himself what he then Reprobated and Condemned No no Sir the Spouse of God will never be vain nor proud nor polluted with any sin For she is all pure Do not think that you are in the Church when you are under Persons who seek Riches of this World for such Souls are Adulteresses and have abandoned their lawful Husband and live in Adultery with the Kings of the Earth Which ought to make you abhor her instead of cleaving to her If you have never met with Souls resigned to God you have never found the True Church Because there never was any other and never will be hereafter She must