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
understood them they afterwards despis'd them and would no longer believe them so as to mock and make a by-Word of what the Prophets said to them Even Jeremy himself thought he was much mistaken when he saw not the Effect of the good Promises that God had made to his People Ah! Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People and Jerusalem saying Ye shall have Peace whereas the Sword reacheth unto the Soul The same Difficulty of not being able to comprehend the Word of God according to our way of conceiving it befel the very Disciples of Jesus Christ who had convers'd with him they were mistaken and thought themselves deceived witness the two who after his Death going to Emmaus sad and without hope said We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel and beside all this to Day is the third Day since these things were done And even when Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven some ask'd him if at this time he would restore Israel The Holy Spirit makes many things be said in another Sense than Men understand it as in what he made Caiphas say concerning Jesus Christ that it was expedient that one Man should die that the whole People perish not which he spoke not of himself and understood in another manner and for a quite different end than that of the Holy Spirit Thus we see we may be easily mistaken by our way of understanding the Words and Revelations of God They are an Abyss and Depth of Spirit which our natural Sense cannot comprehend We must free our Mind from our way of conceiving things and place it in the Liberty of a Faith which may make it reckon its own ways of conceiving obscure and dark There we shall receive the Abundance of the Spirit Wisdom and Understanding proper for conceiving aright the Words of God which no Man that is not Spiritual can comprehend or judge of they being Divine He cannot judge even reasonably of them and if he judge of them according to the outside he is not Spiritual For tho' they be covered with this outside yet he cannot understand them as St. Paul says that the natural Man does not conceive the things which are of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are Spiritual But the spiritual Man discerns all things It is a rashness therefore to give our selves the Liberty to treat of Divine things by a way of comprehending them naturally when they require a Discerning that is Supernatural to Sense Let us conceive this also by some Examples Suppose a Holy Person sees he is persecuted by his Enemies and God says to him I will deliver thee from them all see Jer. 1. 19. this Prophecy may be true tho' his Enemies kill him as it happened to that Prophet therefore he who should understand this Prediction in a temporal way should be deceived for God might have spoken of the true and chief Deliverance and Victory which is Salvation by which the Soul is victorious and delivered from all its Enemies in a far more true and profitable way than the temporal and outward Deliverance And in this Sense that Prediction was more true and ample than the Man would have conceiv'd it to be if he understood it only for this temporal Life For the Words of God do comprehend always the principal and most useful Sense and Man may understand them after his way according to the less principal Sense and so be mistaken Add that if a Person to whom God has given such a Promise be the Head of a Family or Society bodily or spiritual the Promise may concern his Children or those associated with him bodily and may be fulfilled in them tho' as to the Death of the Head the Promise is annihilated Even so if a Soul desiring to die a Martyr for God receive this Word from him Thou shalt be a Martyr it may fall out that the Person shall not die a Martyr and yet the Promise remain true for it will be accomplish'd according to the principal and essential part God giving him the Love and Recompence of Martyrdom making him a Martyr of Love giving him a Martyrdom lengthned out in Labours the continuance of which will be more troublesome than Death In which he will accomplish both the desire of the Soul and his own Promise for the desire of the Soul was not simply that kind of Death which of it self would signifie nothing without God's Friendship but to render to God the Service and the Love of a Martyr The other because God will give most perfectly the Reality and Recompence of this tho' by other means God has promised to fulfil the Desire of the Righteous because their Desires are just and true If therefore God do not fulfil them during this temporal Life it is certain he will do it after this Life and in a most perfect manner so that the Promises do still remain most true The second Cause why divine Words and Visions tho' always true in themselves yet nevertheless are not always certain as to us is because of the Reasons Motives and Grounds upon which they are built since they may change the Effect does not follow We must therefore believe that these things will infallibly come to pass so long as that shall remain which moves and incites God for Example to punish as if God said Within a Year I will send such a Plague upon this Kingdom the Ground of this Threatning is a certain Transgression which they commit in this Kingdom against God If therefore the Transgression cease or vary the Punishment may also cease or be changed Nevertheless the Threatning was true forasmuch as it was founded on an actual Fault and it would have been executed if the Offence had continued This appears in what happened to the City of Ninevah whither God sent the Prophet Jonah to denounce from him Yet Forty Days and Ninevah shall be destroyed Which nevertheless was not fulfilled because the Cause of this Threatning ceas'd which was the Sins of the People who immediately repented otherwise this Denunciation from God would certainly have taken effect The same thing as to the matter of divine Threatning we see in King Ahab whom God threatned by the Prophet Elias with a great Judgment Him his House and Kingdom But because he rent his Garments with Grief covered himself with Sackcloth fasted and lay in Sackcloth and Ashes humbled and afflicted himself God immediately tells him by the same Prophet that he would not send that Evil in his Days Where we see because Ahab chang'd the Threatning and Sentence of God ceas'd also From hence we must conclude that tho' God reveal or speak affirmatively to a Soul any thing in Good or Evil concerning it self or others this may change more or less or none at all according to the Change of the Affection or Disposition of that or these Souls and according to
Sin since which time it can produce nothing but all sort of Evil it being impossible for it to do any Good or to have one good Thought For this Cause Job had good Reason to curse the Day of his Birth for none of the Beasts would be so miserable in their Nature as is Man if he had not in him a Divine Nature 4. All must grant this and say with your Friends that it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ seeing he lived supernaturally having subjected his Humane Part to his Divine and made his Flesh die that he might live to his Spirit and despised Temporal things that he might embrace Eternal But I would gladly ask all those Natural Persons if they desire to do the same things And if they have put to Death the old Adam in them that is the Inclinations of corrupt Flesh And if they have labour'd with all their Power to revive in them the Spirit of the new Adam which contradicts the Sensualities of the Flesh Which appears by the Person of Jesus Christ who overcame all Natural Sensualities 5. It may be they will say that it would be impossible for them to attain to such a Perfection as Jesus Christ had while they will not part with so much as one of the Affections which they have for their Pleasures or Sensualities that they might follow him at a distance For they do not so much as desire to imitate him far les to tend to his Perfection They believe indeed by an imaginary Speculation that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them and they will not believe by a Divine Truth that he has merited for them by his Sufferings the Grace and the Power to imitate him because they do not desire to do it for they love rather to remain in the Corruption of the old Adam than to be quickened into the new which is Jesus Christ 6. Thus it is that those poor Souls flatter themselves to their Ruine while they say that they cannot imitate Jesus Christ nor live without Sin because of their great Frailty This is as much as to say that they resolve not to be saved and they resolve to die in their Sins for there are only two ways the one of Salvation the other of Damnation and Jesus Christ is that which leads to Salvation He who will not walk in the same Way in which he walked cannot find Life but without all doubt shall die for ever Therefore my dear Child do not give way to the Discourses of those poor blinded ones who have fill'd their Understanding with Errors but walk according to the Light that God has given you and labour to be born again in the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Saviour Withdraw from the World since he says that he prays not for the World but for those whom his Father has given him out of the World Those who are of the World are they who love the transitory things of the World and will not part with them to imitate Jesus Christ They are rich in Will and proud in Heart loving their fleshly Sensualities while they flatter themselves by saying that it would be impossible for them to imitate Jesus Christ and to live without Sin because of their great Frailty which if they understood aright they would use means to overcome it and he who felt his Heart cleave to Riches would not possess them but would put them far away from him as some of the Heathens did who threw all their Money into the Sea fearing least it should deprive them of the Liberty of their Mind And if a Man found himself so frail as to fall into the Sin of Pride he would shun Offices Greatness and Honours that he might follow the Poverty and Lowliness of Jesus Christ and if hâ— found himself so frail as that he could not eat and drink delicate things without falling into the Sin of Gluttony he would take the coarsest Meats and Drink proportionably to support the Weakness and Frailty of Nature weaning it from all Sensuality or fleshly Apperite But Men do not feel themselves too frail to iudulge their Body in all its Appetites and Pleasures and they will needs make themselves believe that they are too frail to abstain from Sin or to imitate Jesus Christ 7. This Sentiment is so Erroneous that I would be ashun'd to refute it were it not that I see so many Souls possess'd with it especially among those of Calvin's Reformatiâ—on who live and die in this Belief that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them that it is impossible for them to do good or to imitate Jesus Christ This it seems is inculcated unto them from the Cradle since in effect we see that all their practice is founded upon it while they live according to the Motions of corrupt Nature and with this believe that they shall be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ without striving to imitate him since they are taught that it is impossible to do this And tho' this is a false Theology yet every one follows after it leaning upon a broken Reed 8. For that Man of whom I spoke to you formerly said that it was impossible for him to do any good Work yea to say the Lord's Prayer with Attention no more than they with whom he convers'd whom he had often ask'd if they could say it with Attention and they all answered they could not It is to be remarked that they were Merchants of great Trade and Spirit who found out all sort of Inventions for gaining of Money with great Dexterity and Care and their Spirit was not disingag'd for saying the Lord's Prayer with Attention For where their Treasure was there was their Heart and the Attention cannot be perfect in two so contrary things at the same time but if they had purg'd their Souls from coveting earthly Goods and as carefully applied their Understanding to speak unto God and to hear him without doubt they might not only have said the Lord's Prayer with Attention but might also have attention seriously upon continual Prayer which Jesus Christ has so much recommended to us saying that we ought always to pray and never to cease 9. But those poor Ignorants think to please God with fair Words as they please Men by saying that they are too frail to do any Good far less can they imitate Jesus Christ for these Excuses will condemn them For if they were truly sensible of their Frailty they would avoid the Occasions of Sin and use the Means of Poverty Humility and Patience that they might imitate Jesus Christ for he did nothing when he was upon Earth but that which another would do that were animated with the same Spirit that he was For the same God has through all the same Power and can do by the Body and Spirit of other Men that which he did by that of Jesus Christ 10. For in as much as he is God his Power is not limited provided that Man give no â—indrance
Can any thing fall out against the Will of God and which he has not decreed to fall out As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner Let no Man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God O Israel thy Destruction is of thy self God did not decree that Man should sin nor that he would permit him to sin but took care by all means to prevent it and has spar'd no Mean to recover him from it But Man has wilfully destroyed himself God created him out of pure Love to delight himself in him and therefore to make this Love perfect and compleat he created him altogether Free and Perfect He would not bound nor limit the Will of Man whom he would needs make after his own Likeness to be his Spouse and not his Slave or constrain'd to do his Will as are all the other Creatures But Man was created altogether Free as a little God Sovereign and Ruler over the other Creatures and free to use them well or ill as he would If he had received only a limited Will he would have had no Divine Quality for God to take his Delight with him for that two Beings may find Contentment together there must be a Proportion and Sympathy between them God cannot take his Delight with any Creature of a bounded Will he himself being an infinite God there must be in Man some infinite Quality by which he may unite himself to God and that is an absolute Liberty of willing which nothing can constrain This was the most precious thing that God could give to Man for by it he was made like to God for otherwise he should have been a limited Creature in whom God could not take Pleasure Could God take Delight in a thing so unlike himself Could so powerful a God unite himself to such an impotent Creature that had not Free-will to love him God having no Bounds nor Limits could he take Pleasure in a Creature whose Will was bounded And could a limited Will attain to the Love of a God without Limits This is the only thing that makes Man capable of being united to God We see in Nature the Alliance is not true and agreeable if two Persons be not united in their Wills in God if there be Force Limitation or Constraint on either side the Contentment cannot 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 Where there is Constraint there can be no perfect Love the Free Consent and Cooperation of two united must necessarily concur to make the Love compleat As God gave this Liberty to Man when he created him so he will never take it from him for his Designs are unchangable all his Works are Eternal and his Gifts are without Repentance Both Devils and Men shall have their Free-will to all Eternity else they could not do Evil for God never retracts what he has once given he will never retake those Divine Qualities the Divine Soul and Eternal Liberty and cannot bound them because he cannot be changeable in his Gifts nor can he take away what he has been pleas'd once to give If it be establish'd among Men to lay no longer Claim to a thing given how much more ought we to hold that God lays no Claim to the Free-will of Devils and Men to whom he voluntarily gave it The Devils and demned Souls will never use their Liberty to do well being so habituated to Evil and in the Element of it as the Holy Angels and Blessed Saints will never use their Liberty to do Evil it being swallowed up in God From hence it is evident that God did not predetermine Man from all Eternity to Good or Evil by any absolute Decree for this is to constrain that which he would have to be Free to ranverse the Order he had so wisely establish'd and to take from man the most precious thing that he gave him If he had made Man a limited Creature he would have predestinated all Men to Salvation so that none of them should have perished For all that God makes absolutely dependent on him is always Good without any mixture of Evil and it can never be that a limited Creature can do Evil since God can create nothing that is Evil. God endued Man with such an unlimited Free-will that he would not only not predetermine him but also not foresee how he should dispose of that Free-will that he might not thereby limit it or oblige Man to do what he had foreseen His Power and Wisdom is as great yea far more conspicuous in forming him thus Free and letting him fully enjoy the Liberty that he had given him than if he had limited him by Fore-sight and Predestination God being Almighty can save or damn as he pleases and no body can withstand him for all are subject to him but he neither does nor ever will do it but in the Ways which his powerful Wisdom and the Love he has conceived for Man have resolved upon whom he would needs create like unto himself by the absolute Free-will he gave him and would neither constrain him to Good nor hinder him from Evil but would have him his by pure Love with the free Consent of his Will that he might delight in him and Man also might voluntarily delight in the Love of his God Thus we see how Sin came into the World and how Man damns himself God neither willed it nor permitted it that he might bring Glory to himself a most blasphemous Sentiment but against the Will of God Man abused the most precious Gift that could be bestowed upon him his Free-will and turn'd away his Love from God and placed it on himself and on the Creature God does not permit Man to do Evil but by all Means restrains him He permits him only to use the Free-will he has given him and having endued him with an immortal Soul and an eternal Liberty he can no more take away this Liberty without destroying his Nature and making him cease to be Man than he can make a Circle to be a Square without destroying the Nature of a Circle God by giving Man Free-will to make him capable of the greatest Good is no more the Cause of Man's Sin and Reprobation than a Cutler would be the Cause of a Lord 's murthering of his Brother because it was done with a Weapon which he had made for him of well-temper'd Steel of a sharp Edge and for good Uses It would be a cruel Malice to accuse the Cutler of the Murther the Malice is infinitely greater to say that God created us for Damnation or is the Cause of it because he has given us Free-will You see saith S. Augustin how much Good is wanting to the Body where the Hands are wanting and yet he makes ill use of his Hands who
many vocal words others to Speculations or Meditations of the Spirit which they call Mental Prayers But believe me it is neither Words nor Speculation that makes Prayer But TRUE PRAYER consists in the Conversition of Spirit that Man has with his God when his heart speaks to him and asks the things that he has need of or blesses him and thanks him for his Favours or praises his Greatness Goodness Love and the other Qualities which Man observes in his God This Elevation of Spirit or Conversation that he has with God makes up true Prayer without which there can be no true Prayer tho' they call by this Name many divers things which it were impossible that Man could do continually as Jesus Christ has said that he must always pray and never faint 17. He could not have appointed Man to do impossible things as continual Prayer would be after the manner that they would understand it For if to pray a Man behov'd to be always in Churches all the other things necessary for the support of Life would perish and Man would die for want of them And if to pray he must be always on his Knees the Body could not suffer this continual Fatigue And if he behov'd always to meditate fine Speculations in his Spirit he would break his head or if he must speak Prayers continually he could neither sleep eat nor drink So that it is not to be believ'd that God demands of Man any other continual Prayer but that of the Conversation of his Spirit with God which may be done continually while working drinking eating writing yea even while sleeping seeing he who has entertain'd his Spirit with God all the day long does certainly rest with him while sleeping because the Spirit having walked with its God while awake it reposes it self likewise with him when sleeping And usually the vital Spirits are full of that which they love and that which has been seen and heard in the day time is represented unto the Spirit in Sleep So that he who converses with his Spirit elevated unto God by day loses very little of the same Conversation during the night and even sometimes God communicates himself unto him by Dreams 18. By which it appears that it is very possible to pray continually as Jesus Christ has taught us yea there is nothing more easie and agreeable For my part I could not live without this continual Prayer and Death would be more sweet to me than to be one hour out of it because all sorts of Pleasures without this Conversation are to me Vexations and mortal Afflictions For this cause I abide always in it and I do not think that you have seen me go out of this Conversation to delight in other things By which you may see that it is very possible to pray always and never to cease and that it is even good and pleasant seeing he who is in this continual Prayer is never melancholy which you may also have observed as to me amidst so many different Events and occasions of Grief 19. Give your self therefore to this Continual Prayer and by it you shall overcome both your inward and outward Enemies You shall have Joy and Peace in your self and you shall learn all that you have need to do and avoid Do not apply your self to contemlate the great Wonders of God or his Conduct towards Men nor the other Mysteries of God or of Religion but practise this Continual Prayer according to your need speaking to God continually If you are in Temptation beg his Assistance if you are in Ignorance beg Wisdom from him to fulfil his Will if you are weak Strength and if you receive his Graces bless him and thank him for this Favour done to you a Sinner And thus you shall have continual matter of having your Spirit lifted up to God in which TRUE PRAYER consists By this you shall habituate your self by degrees to speak unto God and to converse with him in Spirit and at last he will speak unto you and you shall be here united unto him looking for a perfect Unity in Eternity Which she wishes you who remains Your very affectionate in Jesus Christ A. B. From the place of my Retreat Apr. 7. 1671. LETTER III. That the Spirit cannot rule where the Flesh rules That to him who has mortified the old Adam in himself it is most easie to imitate Jesus Christ and that it is difficult only to him who would live according to his Natural Inclinations This is the 7th Letter of the Third Part of La lum nee on tenebr My dear Child 1. I Do not wonder that your Friends say It is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ so long as they live according to their Natural Inclinations for it is a certain Truth that a natural Man cannot live according to the Spirit of Jesus Christ He must be regenerated and the old Adam must die in him for the Spirit cannot reign where the Flesh reigns seeing they are two sworn Enemies and cannot agree together no more than Heat and Cold This it is that makes Thunders and Lightnings in the Air when the Cold and Heat meet together the same befalls Souls cold in Charity when they feel themselves touch'd by the Arrows of God's Love or the heat of his Anger 2. If it be said to a carnal Person that he ought to love God with all his Heart with all his Soul and with all his Strength you shall see him presently break out in Words and throw out as it were fiery Flames of Anger to maintain that he loves God while in effect he loves nothing but himself And if it be told him that he cannot love God while he loves himself and the transitory things of this World he well let fly like Claps of Thunder against him who lays before him this Truth because he neither knows nor conceives it and his natural Inclinations cannot take pleasure in loving that which they do not see nor feel such as God and eternal Things which are invisible to his Carnal Eyes 2. We must of necessity die to the Flesh that we may live to the Spirit otherwise we shall never comprehend Spiritual things There are two Natures in us the one is Divine and other Humane The Divine Nature loves things Eternal and the Humane Nature loves things Temporal The Divine respects nothing that is earthly and the Humane respects nothing that is heavenly because each of these tend always to their Centre The Divine part in Man aims and tends to Divine things and endeavours to serve God who is its Principle from whence it comes and the Humane Nature aims and tends always to Earth from whence it takes its Original and cannot be pleased in any other thing This is the Reason why they who live according to their Nature say That it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ which is most true as long as they will needs continue to live according to their Nature For it was corrupted by
Roman Church who do as your Preachers and say that I am become a Heretick and therefore would think they did God good Service to take away my Life and have even watched divers Occasions to murther me which God discovered to me timously that I might avoid them and if I would yet go to their Churches I think I should not come out alive but they would stone me as they did S. Stephen for having spoke the Truth And being born and brought up in the Roman Church it is not permitted me to go to another without sinning mortally according to their Ordinances so that by Force I must stay in Solitude and not go to Church which I suffer willingly and comfort my self that so many Fathers Hermits were so agreeable to God while they lived in the Desarts and did not use the Sacraments nor other outward Solemnities And in her forecited Letter to Mr. Reinboth As to what you tell me says she that you wish I had not touched the Ecclesiastick State I could not omit it since for them particularly that Work was made The Light of the World and they ought all to thank God that he has permitted their Faults to be known that they may amend them while they are yet in this World But in order to this they must really desire to become true Christians such as I have described them for otherwise they will take God's Admonitions for the Reproofs of a Wife which they will not endure I pardon them for they do it out of Ignorance thinking these are Novelties tho' they be the ancient Truths of God but a little grievous to those who live according to the Motions of corrupt Nature For it would always bear Rule be praised and esteemed and cannot endure Reproof nor bear its Faults without taking the Alarm or avenging it self opposing still the Truth that reproves it and will not acknowledge its Fault This is the Way of a natural Man who has not yet overcome himself in which your Pastours seem yet to be fix'd since they would blame me for speaking the Truth of the Degeneracy of the Ecclesiastick State of which too much cannot be spoken and they themselves ought to publish it if they were free of Passions and regarded more the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls But impartial and disinterested Persons are no longer to be met with Every one looks to his own Advantage his own Glory and Profit and when they are in this State I need not wonder if your Pastours blame me since I bring them no Profit Advantage or Vain-glory. This is not that I will not honour or prefer Church-men in their Dignities since I esteem them as the Lieutenants of God of which I have spoken sufficiently in the Advertisement against the Quakers For I always distinguish the State from the Person I honour Priests Magistrates Judges and other Superiours because God has establish'd this Order upon Earth without which Men would be much more disorderly But I cannot honour the Faults of all those Persons who are plac'd in State and Dignity since they seem to me more heinous in such than in the Common People and I remark that Jesus Christ despised wicked Priests and Judges more than he did private Sinners for he dismissâ—d the Woman taken in Adultery saying only to her Go and sin no more He called an Usurer to be an Apostle he suffered a Magdalen a common Sinner to kiss and follow him But he does not so treat the Pharisaical Priests or Judges and Superiours but gives them publickly many Reproaches and Contempts calling them so often Hypocrites whited Sepulchers Generation of Vipers and saying they made clean the out-side of the Cup and Platter but within were full of Corruption and dead Mens Bones And if you had liv'd Sir in the Times of Jesus Christ and heard him thus despise and condemn the Priests and Superiours you would have taken Offence that he blamed so particularly the Ecclesiastick State since you take Offence now that I blame the Faults which God has made known to be universally in that State And if you believe there are amongst others some good Men who are not guilty of the Faults that I have marked in that Light of the World it is not of them that I speak since I will not blame the Office in it self seeing God has established it and Jesus Christ himself honour'd it even in wicked Persons whom he reproved for many Faults for after he had healed the Leper he commanded him to go shew himself to the Priest It is not to be believ'd that this was to a holy Priest since he was of the same Synagogue with those who out of Envy crucified Jesus Christ but he would teach the Respect and Honour that ought to be had to the Priestly Dignity tho' the Vices of the Persons placed in that Dignity are much more displeasing to God than the Vices of others and they will certainly be more punish'd in Hell for their Dignities and Offices which they have unworthily discharged Therefore I had more ground to touch the Ecclesiastick State than any other on that Occasion when I was conversing with Ecclesiastick Persons For it would not have touched them so nearly to have spoken to them of the deplorable State in which Lawyers Merchants Physicians and other secular Persons do now live since the Vices of others could not be corrected by those Church-men and they might well correct their own Vices which I discover'd to them to be crept into the Ecclesiastick State for they must account for this before the great Judge I never repented of having touched on that Occasion the Ecclesiastick State since this is the chief Cause of the Degeneracy of Christendom For if the Priests had continued true Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ undoubtedly they would yet draw to that State of Christianity a great Number of People after them But when we see the Heads of the Christian Church degenerate from that Spirit and that they will not so much as hear their Degeneracy spoken of what can be hoped for from the People but that they will become still worse as Experience makes appear c. Thus it appears how far she is from overturning or despising Priesthood and the outward Ordinances how plainly she distinguishes the Offices and Dignities from the Persons the Use of Divine things from the Abuse of them and that she as much honours the former as she exposes the Evils of the latter and why it is the Church-men on all sides raise such a Hue-and-Cry against her I designed once to have set down here her execellent Vindication of the Sacraments and outward Ordinances and the Dignity and Reverence of the Priesthood from the Reproaches of the Quakers in her Advertisement against them But lest it should make this Paper swell too much I have forborn it XXI They accused her that she rejected and despised the Holy Scriptures from which she vindicates her self in many
acts any thing that is base or filthy with them If you should see any without Feet you would confess there is much wanting to the Perfection of the Body yet you would not deny but that he who should use them either to hurt any one or to his own Dishonour makes an ill Use of his Feet With our Eyes we see the Light and discern the Forms of Bodies Yet many act Evil with their Eyes and make them the Instruments of Lust Yet you see what a Defect there is in the Face without the Eyes Now where these are entire who is the Giver of them but God the Giver of all Good Wherefore as you approve of those in the Body and without regarding those that misuse them give Praise to God that gave them So it is necessary that the Free-will without which no one can order his Life aright must be both Good and also the Gift of God And you must confess that those rather are to be condemn'd that make ill Use of this Good than that he should be Impeached who gave it Since then in the Body you grant the Eye to be a Good which yet if it were wanting there would be no Hinderance to our living well How can that seem to you no Good without which none can live aright For there is nothing that I do so firmly and intimately feel as that I have a Will and that by it I am moved to do this or that And I see not why I should call it mine if the Will wherewith with I do will and not will is not mine Wherefore to whom must it be attributed if I commit Evil thereby but to my self For since God hath made me and I cannot do any thing well but by the Will it doth thence sufficiently appear that the Will was given rather for this End by the good God And unless that Motion were voluntary and in our Power whereby the Will is turned hither and thither Man would be neither worthy of Praise when he lifteth it up to Things above nor of Blame when he wresteth aside as it were a certain cardinal Point of the Will to Things below Neither were he to be admonished that neglecting these temporal he should seek to gain Eternal Things and that he should refuse to live ill and chuse to live Well But whosoever thinks that Man is not to be admonished to this ought not to be suffered among Men. XII But if Man have Free-will can be do Good of himself without the Grace of God or if he turn away from God can he recover again without God's Grace or is God partial in his Grace denying it absolutely to some and bâ—stâ—wing it on others In all this these are her Sentiments As to the first God is the Author of all Good and Man can never do any Good of himself but by the Grace of God with which God requires that Man by his Free will should co-operate that he may give him more Grace To conceive how God gives his Grace to Man and how he must co-operate therewith we need but consider the Order that he has placed in Nature as to the human Body It is he who forms it independantly from the Creatures so that Parents cannot add one Hair to the Head of their Infant Yet he brings no Men into the World but by the Co-operation of two Persons who are so united as that two Bodies are made one Flesh as Hearts and Wills ought to be one in Christ Jesus for the Forming of the Holy Church God might have created all Men of the Dust of the Earth as he did Adam or made them generate as Fishes but he wills this Conjugal Co-operation to maintain his Charity among his Creatures and produces no Men by any other Way tho' he be Almighty Even so he gives his Grace to Man that he may love him and work out his Sâ—lvation It is he alone who gives this Grace and Man contributes nothing to it nor has ever merired it Nevertheless this Grace liberally given will never produce its â—â—â—ect without the Consent of the Free-will of Man and his Co-operation tho' he can add nothing to Grace which comes immediately from God as does also the Generation of Men. But the Ordinance of God will still stand and Man ought not to ask the Reason of it or to say that the Grace of God ought to operate alone or which is worse to say that Man can do Good of himself These are Sayings as rash as presumptuous whereby Men would give Laws to God and would have his Grace to operate alone And to attribute to Man the Power of doing Good without being prevented by his Grace is a Pride surpassing that of Lucifer who would only equal himself to God whereas Man who would do Good of himself preferrs himself to him and will not take him for the Co-operator of his Good but will assume the Power of doing it by himself That we may conceive how all Good comes from God and that Man can do no good of himself we are to consider that Man being created to enjoy God and to enjoy all his Works is made up of many several Faculties Capacities or Vessels as it were fitted for receiving and being filled with their respective Goods from God and the Creatures and is endued with a Free-will whereby he may turn these Faculties to their respective Objects or turn them away from them as he pleases We may conceive this as to spiritual things by considering the Case as to bodily things Thus his Eyes are formed to receive the Light and all the Objects which it presents The Light surrounds him he opens his Eyes and receives it or he shuts them and keeps it out and walks in Darkness or he encompasses himself with a thick Wall that he may not behold the Light or he does that which makes them blind and so his Darkness comprehends it not Has he reason to boast himself because he opens his Eyes and beholds the Light as if he were the Author of it or had given himself the Power to behold it or to accuse the Light when he shuts his Eyes against it or makes himself Blind The Delight and Good he receives is not from himself but from the Light nor yet the Power of beholding it and the Evil or Privation of it is purely owing to himself Even so God's Delight is with the Soul as the Light is to shine into the Eyes if it turn to him he fills it with Good if it turn away from him it is all Misery and Darkness As to the second if Man now by his own Free-will can in his corrupt State do Good and turn to God she says There is no Good but what comes from God and no Good can proceed from corrupt Man more than pure Wine can come out of a filthy Vessel full of Uncleanness The Scripture tell us a Man takes out of the Treasure of his Heart that which is in it
the Cause and Reason that God looks to and this will not be fulfill'd after the Manner that we look for it even without knowing sometimes wherefore but God only knows For tho' he say and teach and promise things many times this is not that they are to be understood received or possessed at the same time but that they are to be afterwards understood or when it shall be fit to give Clearness in them or when the Effect shall follow as this fell out often even to the Disciples of Jesus Christ of whom S. John says These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembred they that these things were written of him There may pass many particular things after this Manner which cannot be understood before their Time To shew this in the Matter of the Promises of God which are not fulfilled to those to whom they were made for want of good Dispositions we read in the Book of the Kings that God being provoked against the High-Priest Eli because of the Sins of his Children whom he did not correct sent to tell him these Words by Samuel I said indeed that thy House and the House of thy Father should walk before me for ever as to the Priesthood but now the Lord saith be it far from me For this Office being founded on this that he ought to glorifie and honour God and God having promised the Continuance of it to him upon the same Ground presupposing that on his Part he would not be wanting in his Duty it came to pass that Eli coming short in his Zeal for God's Honour who as the Lord complains of him honoured his Sons more than God himself dissembling their Sins for fear of dishonouring them it fell out I say that God's Promise failed him also which would have been firm if they had remained firm in their Piety We must not therefore think that Divine Visions and Revelations tho' true in themselves ought to fall out infallibly as they â—ound particularly when by the Order of God they depend upon human things which may vary change be omitted or not Now God knows when Revelations are thus annex'd to Conditions and Dispositions which depend upon Men and he does not always discover it and oftentimes he speaks or reveals the Thing without saying any thing of the Condition as he did to the Ninevites to whom he foretold determinately that they should perish within Forty Days Sometimes also God declares this Condition as he did to Roboam If thou keep my Commandments as my Servant David I also will be with thee and will build thee a stable House as I did to David But whether he declare these Conditions or not it appears by what has been said hitherto that we cannot be assured by the natural Way of Perceiving that we are not mistaken in the Understanding of Divine Revelations They will say it may be Why then does God communicate them It is to make them be understood in their Time by the Order of him who has told them and he shall conceive them to whom it shall please God to give the Understanding of them yea even those shall see the Ratification of them who shall be in the Dispositions requisite and annex'd to those Declarations Laying aside this People expose themselves to great Dangers of Error and Confusion when they will needs judge determinately and absolutely of them by what seems and appears at first outwardly of them The Prophets knew this very well they who had God's Word in their Mouth and to whom it was heavy and grievous to carry it to the People because a great Part of the Predictions did not fall out according to the Sence of the Letter nor so soon as they look'd for them which made the Prophets so ridiculous that Jeremy said I am in Derision daily every one mocketh me for since I spake I cried out I cried Violence and Spoil but the Word of the Lord was made a Reproach unto me and a Derision daily Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his Name And the Reason why Jonah fled when God sent him to denounce the Destruction of Ninevah was that he could not comprehend assuredly the Truth of the Divine Words nor determinately understand their Sence So for fear they should mock at him if this Prophecy came not to pass he chose rather to flee than to prophesie and having prophesied he abode forty Days without the City to see if his Prophecy should be fulfilled which when it was not he was so far grieved as to say to God in his Complaint I pray thee O Lord was not this my Saying when I was yet in my Country Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish for I know that thou art a Gracious God and a Merciful And the Saint being grieved prayed to God that he would take him out of this World Must we therefore be astonish'd if the things that God reveals to his Friends do not fall out as they might have conceived them and far less as others understood them For suppose God declare unto them some Good or Evil for them or others if these things are founded on certain Dispositions of Spirit the Obedience of those Souls as to God and a certain Perseverance and that this must fall out upon these Conditions yet it is not certain for this that the Event shall fall out as the Words sound so long as the Condition and Perseverance are uncertain and do not appear Here is more than sufficient for solving all the Difficulties that may occur in the Writings of A. B. as to any Predictions And as to the Promises and Declarations of God how absolute soever they may seem in Words yet the Completion of them is not to be look'd for when there is not a Correspondence by an entire Conversion unto God in those to whom they are given God does not retract his Promises but he leaves them to whom they were given takes his Talents from them to give them to others till he find such as will profit by them A. B. has declared all that has been said on this Head in Two or Three Lines God says she is always True and cannot Lie But Men do not understand his Language or do not know the Time of his Predictions or they hinder the Effect of his Promises by their Sins or Indispositions XXV In the last Place it is given as an Instance that A. B. was not led by the Spirit of God and that she had not the Gift of Discerning if Spirits were of God or not in that she was deceived for many Years by S. Saulien and others It is to be considered that the Holy Spirit does not confer his Gifts upon those in whom Self-will does yet reign and who are guided by it but on those only who are dead to their own Wills When these are endued with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit they