may serve them only for Delight and Pleasure without being able to do any more evil as they were in the beginning of their Creation and all the Malignities which they have contracted by the Sins of Men shall be rendred unto their Authors The Fire of Hell will not be like that which we see because it is now a mixture of the works of God with the malignity of the works of Men as all other things are God has given unto Fire a sweet and agreeable Light and Heat and Sin has given it blackness and to burn These two evils shall be removed and confin'd to Hell that it may burn and blacken the Bodies of Men who have thus spoil'd the works of God by their Rebellion There will not be in Hell Elements or Beasts or other things as God has made them but only the malignity which every one of all these Creatures has contracted by sins For Example the Venom will be removed from Serpents and other creeping things and will be reserved for Hell As also the fury from Lions and Bulls that they may converse with the Blessed with Meekness and Gentleness and that nothing may be able any longer to give them pain that Fire may give heat and light without burning that the Air may surround them without being troubled that the Water may refresh and recreate them without being moved that the Lyons Serpents and all other wild Beasts may sport with Men for their Delight and Recreation and that all things may remain on the Earth to render the Body of Man happy that with his Soul it may have a perfect eternal contentment seeing that the Body has born with the Soul the saving Penitence which God had ordain'd it Whereas on the contrary the Bodies of the Wicked have rebelled against this Penitence and desiring to take their Delights instead of Sufferings To which the miserable Soul acquiescing they have justly merited to suffer joyntly in Hell which will likewise be Material and upon Earth that it may act upon Bodies as well as Souls which was not necessary before the Judgment since that Devils and Damned Souls had no need of a material Place for their being Tormented for all the evil of Souls consists in the privation of the Presence of God The Twenty seventh Conference That a care to withdraw from the Plagues is even a self Love and than the Conversation of our Souls with God suffices us in all Places I Said to her That I saw evidently we drew near to the end of the World because God gave these Discoveries of many things which never any body had understood That her Light was not Human And I entreated her for the love of God to tell me where that little corner of the Earth might be which God would reserve for his Servants that I might save my self during the Plagues She said to me Sir be not curious to know where this material Place will be which God will reserve for his Friends I my self durst not ask him fearing to seek my self or my own repose We are yet in the time of Penitence If we would withdraw that we may not suffer this would be but self-Love We shall be every where in security when our Soul shall be united with God and even tho our Body should feel the Plagues our Soul shall be comforted in the midst of Sorrows as S. Lawrence was in the midst of burning Coals and so many other holy Martyrs Let us rather think of conversing always with God than of putting our Body in a place of Security because it will be always secure in conversing with God If there be a danger which he would not have us suffer he will warn us of it always in time as he did Noah Lot and so many others of Friends He will not permit any thing to befall us but that in which he would try or purge us Do not so much desire to know the place where you may retire as to know the place where God resides to converse with him For in this alone consists all our safety both Bodily and Spiritual You might indeed withdraw bodily into some place of Security where your Souls notwithstanding would not be sure of being Saved And if this were it would be but a poor Safety for our Life is so miserable that to lose it is more desirable than to preserve it were it not the fear of not having yet accomplish'd the Penitence due for our Sins Otherwise Death is pleasant and this Life grievous were it not that it may have God to converse with Without this there is nothing but Miseries I asked her In what place I might find this continual Conversation with God that I might be every where in Security and not fear Death She said Sir You must not go out of your self for God is the Centre of your Soul You must not seek him among the publick Places of the City as the Spouse in the Canticles did who was beaten by the Soldiers But re-enter into your self and you will find him He is no where more particularly than in the Souls of Men. These are his real living Temples where he rests at Noon that is in his most clear Light There entertain your Spirit with him and he will entertain himself with you He is more desirous to hear us than we are to speak to him neither going out nor in nor any other affairs whatsover can hinder this inward Conversation On the contrary it perfects all things So soon as our Affections are taken off from all other Objects and set upon God alone we will find him every where and he will never cease to give us his Graces to accomplish perfectly all our Enterprizes how little so ever they be for his Spirit was the true Wisdom which is not ignorant of any thing no more of Temporal things than of Spiritual This Spirit perfects all sort of things There is no place or condition be what it will that can divert us from this Conversation when our Affections are carried toward it Make a little Experience of it Sir and you will find what I say to be true You could not any longer fear Death in possessing the Author of Life for whether we live or die we will be always in the Earthly Paradise in which nevertheless we may indeed sin as Adam did because there are yet in this miserable Life so many things which may divert us from God that without great violence we cannot remain in this Spiritual Conversation but if Nature must do so great violence to it self at Death to separate from the Soul why may it not do a less to separate it self from that which hinders our union with God It is in this that Jesus Christ says if your Eye your Foot or any other Members of your Body do offend you cut them off pluck them out and cast them from you To shew that we must force our selves to part with all that
the marks and signs of the last times fulfill'd and perfectly accomplisht The life of men is the open book in which these truths are written and the holy Scriptures are the equitable Judge which pronounces this sentence Read Sir with attention they will deliver you from the difficulty you find in believing this for tho indeed they do not determine precisely the day of judgment yet they will make you see sufficiently that the cheif signs which must precede it do already appear That no body will believe this is a most certain evidence of it for Jesus Christ says that it shall be as in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and knew not until the flood came and took them all away Even so is it at present they take their recreations and pleasures heaping up earthly treasures building houses and temples as if they were to remain here to eternity while all must very shortly perish And no body will believe it according to the prediction of Jesus Christ when he compares these last times with those of the universal deluge He says in St. Math. 24. it will be as in the days of Noah adding when you shall see the abomination of desolation to be in the holy place flee away Do you not think Sir that this abomination is now in the holy place if Envy were lost it might be recover'd in the Cloisters if Avarice were dead it would be reviv'd by the Priests Vain-glory and Pride is no where so prevailing as among the Clergy in one word Simonies and all other sins abound in the place which ought to be holy What more sure marks would you have than those which Jesus Christ himself has declar'd to us should precede the Judgment if you desire to see the Stars fall from Heaven the Sun to be darken'd the Moon not to give her Light all these are nothing but material signs which can do no harm to Souls but serve only for outward evidences of the wrath of God and to the end that even insensible things may feel the terrors of that great day as the Rocks did when they were rent at the death of Jesus Christ This added nothing to his passion nor render'd those who put him to death more criminal for they were nothing but insensible rocks without souls or reason Even so will it be as to the Stars and the other celestial bodies if they change colour or suffer any other alteration this will not be hurtful to our souls which are spiritual and cannot receive any punishment by these visible and material Stars so much the rather that these signs and Stars cannot be understood but spiritually For how could the Stars fall from Heaven since the Mathematicians tell us that one Star alone is seven times greater than all the Earth so great a thing cannot fall into one so small for it would not be capable to contain it And if we take the mystical sense calling by the name of Stars persons luminous in Doctrine the Doctors and Guides Prelates Bishops and all those who are plac'd in Dignities to whom the name of Stars may be appropriated as being the Lights of the world this sign would also have at present its sense accomplisht for we see every day such persons fall from righteousness and truth who for some worldly interest or humane respects fall from the truth of the Gospel which is the true heaven of Souls and wallow in the earth among its riches and pleasures as secular persons do In former times how many of those were seen who had their hearts and spirits continually towards heaven their lives and manners did enlighten all the world as the Stars of the Firmament but at present they are fallen into the mire of earthly affections So that it may be truly said that the Stars are fallen from Heaven and that the Sun also is become without light For Truth which is the true Sun of Righteousness cannot any longer appear openly it is become black and hateful to all the world who desiring to be flatter'd and prais'd cannot hear the truth because it reproves the falshood which now prevails These two signs of the Sun and of the Stars appear at present in their full accomplishment in the mystical and inward sense which is much more than if they did appear in the literal and material sense for the reasons above-mentioned and if the Moon be not as yet without light it will be so very shortly in the mystical and perfect sense The Moon is all transitory things which after the manner of the Moon do encrease or diminish according to good or bad fortune These things will lose their light so soon as Wars shall have destroy'd and ruin'd temporal wealth Then all that pomp and magnificence which shines in the Sanctuary will lose its splendor and will no longer yeild any thing but blood Since for Gold and Silver they will cut the throats of those who are plac'd in the highest dignities so that what shines and glisters to day in the Church will wholly lose its lustre and light and by this means this Moon will be darken'd I entreat you to read attentively the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew it speaks of the present time All the Parables do the same I wish I had time and leisure to explain them to you you would see as well as I that the Judgment approaches for all the forerunning signs are already come People do not perceive them for want of reflecting seriously enough on the holy Scriptures or upon the inward life of men now adays they amuse themselves with regarding only their outward piety imagining that there are yet a great many good men because they appear such but before God all are corrupted They resemble the Apples of Sodom which appear beautiful without and have nothing within but rottenness This is the true symbole of the life of Christians now which God makes me perceive abundantly by his inward light This fill'd me with astonishment and desiring to understand her more clearly I ask'd her whether there were not any good men or true Christians in our days She said to me No Sir THERE ARE NO TRVE CHRISTIANS VPON EARTH There are indeed diverse persons who seem to be good men and are really so in comparison of the wicked they may indeed pass for Saints before men but before God they are not true Christians for tho they do not act wickedly but frequent the Sacraments and other exercises of Devotion yet nevertheless they have not the LOVE OF GOD nor Charity for their Neighbour in their hearts much less a hatred of themselves or a desire to embrace the Cross Sufferings and Persecutions to follow Jesus Christ On the contrary they so love themselves that all their designs aim at nothing but their own satisfaction even in the most pious things You would be astonisht Sir to see what difference there is between the sight
become Man-like to us and then our Souls only were like to him It is a more perfect and accomplish'd Conversation of Body and Soul than that of the Soul only But because God will give in the End an accomplishment to all things in an altogether perfect Sense he would have taken Human Flesh that he might converse with us perfectly even tho' Adam had never sinn'd and tho' there had not been any need of redeeming us by his Death God is not become Man to suffer or to die but to converse with us and reign in us visibly and sensibly upon Earth which will be made the Paradise of the Delights of God with Men. I ask'd her If it was not needful that God should become Man to redeem us since we were all lost by Sin She said No Sir God is not subject to any thing and has no necessity He had no need to become Man to redeem us He might with a Word have render'd us the first Grace seeing that with the same Word he had created the whole World He could have created a thousand Adams and a thousand earthly Paradises with the same Perfection in which he had created the first of nothing whom he might justly have let perish eternally instead of becoming Man to redeem them But he could not take his Delight with Men perfectly unless he made himself Man like to them If Man had been like to God and not God like to Man there would have been some Defect in these Delights at least on Man's part who would not have had perfect Delight without seeing his God like unto him as a Lover takes Pleasure to wear the Colours which his Mistress wears This testifies reciprocal Affection when one renders himself as like as may be to that which he loves This Fountain of all Love could do what he would It was needful therefore that he should become Man even tho' Man had not fallen into Sin to the end he might live with him in perfect Resemblance unto all Eternity in all sort of Delights which Happiness is suspended unto Man until that he have accomplish'd his Penitence to which he is subjected by his Sin Which being finished he will enter again into Communion with God as if he had never offended him He will speak with God Face to Face by his Humanity which will be rendred immortal as well as that of Jesus Christ that they may delight themselves perfectly together upon Earth which will then be rendred Paradise by the lovely Presence of God who for these Ends became Man not that he might suffer or die which he would needs do by accident for the Instruction of Men and their Relief I said unto her That this had never been understood after this manner and that many Fathers had call'd the fall of Adam happy which had caus'd the Incarnation of the Son of God without which Fall God would not have become Man She said Sir This is very ill understood The Fault of Adam ought rather to be call'd very unhappy which has caus'd the Sufferings and the Death of Jesus Christ who would assuredly have become Man not suffering but reigning not despis'd but honour'd by every one not poor and vile but in Riches and in Glory not in Reproach but ador'd by all Men living He would have become Man to reign not to suffer for if the design'd End of his Incarnation had been Suffering and Death the Fathers of the Antient Law would not have had Ground to have so much desir'd and aspir'd after that happy Day that they might see with their Eyes God made Man who should deliver them from their Captivity Could they Desire their Deliverance at so dear a Price as the Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ They would have had a pure Self-love in regarding only their own Deliverance and not the Glory of God which could not be met with in the Reproaches Affronts Pains and Death of Jesus Christ which are all things repugnant to his Glory who could not be honour'd by being hang'd between two Malefactors So many Holy Prophets who have foretold the Coming of Jesus in the Flesh did not speak of his Coming to suffer but of his Coming in Glory When David invites all Creatures to praise the Lord he does not speak but of the Time that he must reign upon Earth For he says Heavens Waters Earth and all Creatures bless the Lord. Nothing of all this has blest him in his first Coming in the City of Bethlehem For even Men themselves did then reject and pursue him to put him to Death As King Herod search'd for him a little after his Nativity If the Angels did sing then Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace to Men of Good Will This could not be but by a Prophetick Spirit in regarding his Glorious Coming which will glorifie God and will give universal Peace to all Men of Good Will who shall then be upon Earth seeing that at his Birth as since Men of Good Will have never been in Peace but pursued and persecuted yea even Jesus Christ himself And how should God have been glorified by this Birth seeing that he has been the more blasphemed by Men. I entreated her to tell me for what Reason Jesus Christ became a Suffering Man since he could have redeem'd us without Suffering or becoming Man before the Time of his glorious Coming She said The LOVE Sir which God bears unto Man made him take Human Flesh before his Coming in Glory he perceiv'd that Men would stray always more from him and altogether forget their Duty so that almost no Body would any longer acknowledge God Atheism was almost through all the World Even his own People which were the Jews had made his Law void by their Traditions Every one follow'd the Learned and were lost through Ignorance To remedy which God became Man that he might come and teach them and redress their Faults by Deeds more than by Words For these Ends therefore he takes a Human Body like to us to the End he might walk first in the Life which he would point out unto us and perceiving that Men were undone by the Wealth and Honours of the World he takes a poor Mother who was so despis'd and abandon'd that she was oblig'd to bring him forth in a Stable with all the Inconvenience that Poverty brings along with it And to make appear to Men that Prosperities the Friendships and Caresses of Men did serve for Hindrances of Conversation with God he leaves his Country to go into Aegypt out of all Acquaintance being oblig'd to this by the Pursuits and Persecutions of Herod He labours for gaining his Bread that Men might willingly labour for accomplishing their Penitence At length he begins to teach by Word and to shew to Men wherein they were wanting that they might attain to Salvation He explains to them wherein the Law of God consists and gives them the
always to aspire to that which will be eternal But on the contrary we would be content to lose it the Eternal provided we might live here always All Men almost are in this Error by which they draw down the Plague of Pestilence to put an End to Desires so impious which have made them abandon their God This Life must needs be taken away from us since it serves as a mean to withdraw us from God The Plague of Pestilence is justly sent upon us to give Death to those who love their Lives more than God As is also that of Famine because so many Men have abandon'd their God for the Pleasures of the Mouth How many are there who love Meat and Drink more than Spiritual Delights Provided the Mouth and the Belly be satisfied they care very little for God Is it not fit that they endure Hunger who think of nothing but of filling themselves This evil is so general that in the best Assemblies of Christians now-a-days they speak for the most part of Eating and Drinking to keep themselves chearful Is it not fit that this should be chastised with Justice by an universal Hunger since this Sensual Appetite has caused an universal Sin by almost all the Men of the World From whence I draw the certainty that all are judg'd and that the Sentence is irrevocable Because no Body repents of these three Sins which form the last Plagues and God cannot defer longer to send them I ask'd her how we could believe that the last Plagues were begun She said Sir Do you not perceive that we are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error That Lying prevails and that Truth is opprest That Men promise themselves Peace and Security in the midst of such evident Perils That there is no longer Righteousness nor Sincerity or Fidelity among Men That Evils are conceiv'd without Fear and brought forth without Reprehension That the Just is punish'd as guilty and the Guilty supported and defended That there is no longer neither Faith nor Law among Christians and that they live in a Neglect of God and of their Salvation Are not these the greatest Plagues that could ever befal the World They are more to be dreaded than Fire Pestilence War and bodily Famine which can but kill Bodies Whereas these Spiritual Plagues kill the Soul which is an Eternal Spirit Behold Sir with the Eyes of Truth and you will see that all Souls perish without perceiving it Which is the greatest Punishment that God can ever permit to befal Men. Many say blindly We are at the End of the World for Wickedness abounds in all places There is no Trust to be given to any They deceive one another without Faith or Honesty In saying this they speak the Truth without knowing it far less apprehending it Many Signs have appear'd in Heaven in the Sun in the Stars fearful Comets menacing great Evils which did affright some at first but so soon as the Devil had Leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were but natural things engendred in the Air he made the Fear of those threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of their Minds The Sea has yielded blood And as soon as this has ceas'd the Memory of it has been effac'd Fire has burnt many Cities and they have presently found out some Invention to cover all these Warnings which God gives us saying That these are Casual and Natural Things As also the swallowing up of several Towns and Cities caus'd by Earthquakes They attribute all these Things to future and to natural Causes saying That these Countries situate toward the Sea are subject to Earthquakes In short Sir they make all the Threatnings and Warnings of God to evanish out of Men's Minds that no Body may enter into himself to be converted unto him through Fear and Trembling Some Stroaks of Thunder us'd sometimes to shake intire Cities where the People ran to Confession to prepare themselves for Death But now when they see so many several Effects of the Justice of God by Men's being abandon'd to all sorts of Sins and also by all those outward Sings in Heaven and Earth which have appear'd in our Time and to our Eyes no body is converted unto God for this Far less do they Imbrace the Spirit of Penitence It seems they mock at God's Warnings saying These are Natural Things But I would willingly demand of these Ear-flatterers If God ought not to send his Plagues but by supernatural Things and to make Chimera's in the Air He who has created all the Elements must not he make Use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural Things to make our Body suffer which are likewise Natural If the Bodies of the damn'd shall indeed be punish'd with Natural Things why should not in like manner our Bodies which are yet living upon Earth Since they are not sensible but of Natural Things they must needs have Subjects conformable to their Nature The Deluge was made by a Natural Rain And the last Plagues will be made by Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural Things because the Heaven the Earth and all the Elements ought to rise up against us to avenge the Offence that we do against their Creator and ours If the Fire shall kindle by some accident or the Earth quake by the Tossings of the Sea and overturn Cities would this be accidental unto God who says that to him the Hairs of our Heads are numbred Would he thus let such grievous Accidents fall out Without his Permission this cannot be true But the Devil to divert us from believing that these things are the beginnings of the last Plagues makes it be said by his Adherents that these are Natural Things that no Body may turn to Repentance The Thirtieth Conference How God permits Man to be abandon'd to the Spirit of Error I Ask'd her How God permits that we should be thus abandon'd to the Spirit of Error She said Sir God permits it by his Justice because we have left his Spirit of Truth to hearken unto and follow Lyes He compels no Body leaving every one in the Liberty wherein he created them If Man therewith will needs abandon his God and adhere unto the Devil he lets him for he will not take away again the Free-Will which he has once given him which God will never take back again for he is unchangeable in all his Doings And having once found it good that Man should be a kind of Creature altogether free he cannot afteward find it evil but will leave him this absolute Liberty unto all Eternity If he will use it to love God he will follow the End for which it has been given him and if he will use it to do evil and to withdraw himself from God he is free God will not
by him he might rule over all Things as a dependent Deity And for a Token of this Dependance he forbad him to eat of the Fruit of one Tree only permitting him to eat of all the rest The meaning of which was that Man might enjoy use and rule over all Things provided always he acknowledg'd his Dependance on the Supream Deity of whom he held all Things And if Adam had not forgotten himself by quitting this Dependance and desiring to depend upon himself he should never have received any other Command from God nor yet any Man after him But the Righteousness of God oblig'd him to lay other Commands on Man for the Pennance of his Disobedience He enjoyn'd him to till the Ground and to gain his Bread with the sweat of his Face which was the Second Command that God gave to Man which nevertheless was only Accidental through the Fall of Adam and not Essential by the Will of God who lov'd rather to see him free without being subjected to any other Thing but Himself alone And his giving the Commands to Moses for the Children of Israel was also Accidental For if they had not fallen into so many different Sins which took them off from their Dependance upon God he would never have given them divers Commandments But fearing lest his People should perish through Ignorance he still gave them new Commands that by the help of them they might know their Sins and amend them else God would never have constrain'd Man to any other thing but to acknowledge him as the Superiour of all Things For God created him to take his Delight with him in full liberty and without constraint and was not willing to subject him to any other Law but that of Love By which we see that all the other Commands are but Accidentally appointed because of the Sins that Men had committed at divers times who if they would now return to this Dependance upon God would have no need of any other Precept or Commandment for all the rest are only Means to bring us to this Dependance upon God and that we may see and discover all that hinders us from resigning our Will to God's and that discovering them by the Commands we may leave them and amend and so may be able to return to this Dependance which was first enjoyn'd us as the one thing necessary for Salvation And is still so now as well as then The Twelfth Conference Shews That there is one thing only to be done by us that we may be saved I said to her That it was very agreeable to hear that there was but one thing only to be done in order to Salvation And that I would gladly take that short way She said No Sir 'T is true there is but one thing only to be done that we may be saved But there are many things to be parted with which do greatly hinder and distract us We neglect to do that which is necessary to attain to this Dependance and we do that which alienates us from it The Penitence which God enjoyn'd Adam To gain his Bread with the Sweat of his Face is very little regarded among Men now Every Body would live without Labour and they esteem it a Happiness to have Riches that they may live in Ease This is indeed to thwart the Means that God has so savingly taught us After that Adam sin'd and all Men in him of his own free choice he left off this Dependance upon God that he might become wise of himself Thus he render'd himself miserable with all his Posterity Because all the Miseries that we suffer are procured by the following our own Wills We must not impute all our Miseries to Adam but only to the Sins that we our selves commit If we had no other but the Sin of Adam we should need nothing but the Pennance of Labour to gain our Bread and the enduring the Intemperance of the Elements But our own Sins bring upon us a Thousand other Sufferings If we would labour and suffer Cold and Heat or other Intemperances of the said Elements and return again to the Dependance of our Wills upon Gods we should be very quickly restored to the Blessed State wherein Adam was created For our Penitence should be accomplish'd in this short Life which by the Mercy of God is much shortned and then we should enjoy an Eternal Bliss which should never end But since our Actual Self will would not depend upon God but upon its self bending it self to follow its own Inclinations it has procured us a great Number of other Evils which we attribute to God or to Adam and if we consider them aright we will evidently perceive that they derive their dominion from our Self-will and not from any other thing For our Diseases are ordinarily procured by our Intemperance in Eating and Drinking or other Sensual Excesses which we commit to satisfie our own Will which oftimes drives us to some State that causes us a Thousand Sorrows or to some Employment or Trade that brings us into great trouble of Law-suits Quarrels Vexations or to Poverty and other Miseries And the Cause of all this is that we would not submit our Will to Gods who would have govern'd us as a good Father does his Son we having chosen rather to follow our own Will and to undergo all sort of Calamities in this World and run the hazard of suffering far greater hereafter which shall never end For he who will not be guided by God can never be saved since our own Conduct will lead us to the Abyss of all sort of Evils both Temporal and Eternal Because our own Will is ignorant and rash never content nor satisfied never stopping for any sort of Evil Even though it discover its Miseries it does not amend them but imputes them to another either to Adam or even to God And thus flattering our selves always in our own Will we persist therein even to death which gives beginning to a miserable Eternity For no Body can be saved by himself and if we do not yield up our Will to God from whom can we expect Salvation 'T is a great Blindness Sir not to see these Truths which are so evident since we feel our Weakness and know that we have receiv'd all from God and that we can hope for nothing but from him And notwithstanding of all these Considerations we will not resign our Will to his choosing rather to be miserable and to perish at last by following our own We are unthankful to God and cruel to our selves For indeed 't is a great Ingratitude to deny God the only thing he demands of us our own Will having given us all other things and 't is a great Cruelty to our selves to withdraw our Dependance upon God and subject our selves to so many sorts of Evils I asked her How it was possible that Men should deny the yielding up their Will to God since all appertains to him
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