Nature his Righteousness his Goodness his Truth and to be transform'd into the same Image to love him with all our Hearts is to love him only for himself and all other things only in and for God and entirely to depend upon him To love our Neighbours as our selves is to love them as his Images as being capable to be transform'd into his Nature and to endeavour to bring them with our selves to the Love and Enjoyment of God This is the Essence of Religion and the indispensible Duty that God requires of Man in all Estates whether that of Innocence or of his Reparation since his Fall and as our Saviour tells us Matth. 22. 40. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets Had man continued in the Integrity in which he was created no other Duty had been requir'd of him But he turning away his Love from God and setting it on himself and on the Creatures making himself his last End and the Creatures his chief Happiness Means are propos'd to Man to bring him back to the Love of God and to remove the Hindrances of it and he having forfeited the Friendship and Love of God Hopes are given him of Recovering his Love and Favour for obtaining of which the Intercession of a Mediator was needful who by his Merits and Favour with God might obtain it and the main Hindrances of the Love of God being Self-love and the Love of the Creatures he is directed to the Use of such Means as may effectually mortifie and subdue these in him and Man being a wayward Patient unwilling to take the Physick provided for him as being bitter and unpleasant the Physician takes Man's Nature on him and takes the Remedies first himself flies the Ease the Honours the Riches the Pleasures and the Sciences of this World embraces Poverty Reproaches Troubles and Pains and denies himself and his own Will in every thing that he might do the Will of him that sent him So the essentially necessary and effectual means to recover the Love of God is Faith in God through Jesus Christ with unfeign'd Repentance a constant denial of our selves and forsaking of every thing that hinders us to love God and for this End the taking up our Cross daily and following of Christ The Holy Scriptures are the Sacred Records wherein God's Love to Mankind the Life and Doctrin of Jesus Christ and the Precepts he has given for the mortifying of our corrupt Nature and returning to the Love of God are plainly manifested to us and in this respect they are necessary to make us wise unto Salvation as the written Counsels of a Physician would be for the Recovery of his Patient's Health Sermons religious Offices Sacraments sacred Assemblies Pastors Church-Government c. are more remote means for bringing Men to Salvation and if rightly us'd may be very helpful to direct them in the Practice of the necessary and effectual means for returning to an entire Dependance upon God But if the first be wholly neglected and these be rested on and if we think we are religious because zealous about these things and in the mean time are still Lovers of our own selves self-will'd self-conceited worldly-minded envious malicious our Actions void of Righteousness Goodness Truth c. our Religion is the Leaven of the Pharisees it is but a Form of Godliness we are alienated from the Life of God it is a Righteousness of our own and we are as mad and foolish as sick Men would be who should run about among Apothecaries and Surgeons and be very greedy to hear the Receipts of Cures for their Maladies dayly read and explain'd to them should fight and quarrel and hate and destroy one another in contending which were the best Explanations of the Receipts and which Company of Apothecaries and Surgeons had the best Form of Government and in the mean time both Directors and Patients were sick unto Death yet neither would apply themselves to take those Remedies which by all were granted to be necessary and effectual for their Recovery and without which they must inevitably perish Now the Writings of the Author of this following Treatise containing such bright Illustrations of the Truths of God reveal'd in the Holy Scriptures and discovering so plainly in what manner they are perverted by the false Glosses of the Professors of Christianity in their respective Parties I hope it will be no ill service done to the Christian Religion and to this Island in particular to make them more generally known to this part of the World of which Design this is an Essay The Author was a Virgin call'd Antonia Bourignon born in the Town of Lisle in Flanders in the Year 1616. the Daughter of a rich Man there and Baptiz'd and Bred up by her Parents in the Communion of the Church of Rome Being taught to read in her Childhood and having read the Gospels and being told of the Life of Jesus Christ how poor and mean and despis'd and self-denied he was and seeing all People live very unlike to him in Ease and abundance and Pleasures and Honours she ask'd her Parents Where are the Christians Let us go to the Country where the Christians live And tho' her Parents derided her for this yet this Impression ever remain'd with her and it was her constant Theme to let the World see what a true Christian is and that none such are to be found From her very Childhood she had inward Conversation with God and gave her self to Prayer and Divine Retirement but this Retirement being look'd on by the Suggestions of her elder Sister to her Companions as the effect of Stupidity and Sottishness and she despis'd therefore to avoid this she applied her self to take part in their Recreations and Divertisements and she quickly gain'd their Esteem and Favour above her Sister but lost her Conversation with God Yet he did not cease now and then to awaken her even in the midst of her Divertisements but Company and these Amusements still got the Ascendent Then God tried her with more severe means filling her Mind with fearful Ideas of Death Judgment and Hell whereby she came to her self again and saw the Vanity of all earthly things which would end at Death and leave the Soul empty of true Good and full of real Evils This made her abhor her present Life all worldly Advantages the Body and the Caring for it And because the Sollicitations of earthly things were apt to return again she took Care to have this deeply engraven upon her Spirit she went oft to Charnel-houses to view the Bones of the Dead saying See what thou art within a little while thou shalt be like this and yet more horrible She handled them to overcome her natural Horror for them and to make the Thoughts of Death familiar to her For six Months she begg'd no other thing of God but the Remembrance of Death and obtain'd it It was about the fifteenth or sixteenth Year of her
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
the Bad had the Free-Will of their Children joyn'd to their own and might save and damn the Soul of their Children as they might save and damn their own Soul because they were inseparably joyn'd and united together for Good and for Evil So that Baptism cannot save the Soul of a Child who is without the Grace of God thro' the Free-Will of his Parents and the want of this Baptism cannot hinder the Salvation of an Infant who is in the Grace of God thro' the Free-Will of his Parents tho' he should die without being baptized For if this outward Baptism be so necessary to Salvation the Primitive Christians and they who followed them would have baptized young Infants and likewise all those immediately who came in to be Christians On the contrary they kept many in the State of Catehcumens for a long Space of Time during which they might die as 't is to be believed many did Those who had the Will to follow Jesus Christ perfectly should they have been damned for not having receiv'd the outward Sign of Baptism No no Sir It does not go so before God as Men make us believe For a real Desire only to be a Christian is capable to save us even tho' we should die without Baptism because God searches the Heart and trys the Reins having more Regard to the Baptism of Desire than to that of Water which is given only to confirm the Will of the Heart of Man and if we should be surprized with Death e're we have made this outward Confirmation we should not for this cease to enjoy Eternal Life and to reign with God in his Glory I said to her That many Fathers had written of the Necessity of being baptized and that it was taught thro' all the Roman Church that Baptism gives Salvation to all those who receive it that it even cleanses from all actual Sins if we have been defiled with them before Baptism She said I know not what the Fathers say nor what is taught by all the Romanists but I declare to you what God makes me know and understand in the Inward of my Soul I do not think that all they who are baptiz'd shall be sav'd for Jesus Christ has said that they who believe and are baptiz'd shall be saved Now Infants newly born are not capable of believing and if their Parents be wicked they likwise have not Faith to believe in the Name of their Children how therefore can Baptism work Faith since Jesus Christ places it before Baptism Faith must be the chief Piece for working Salvation which being wanting Baptism can do nothing How would you therefore have wicked Children to be saved by Baptism For Example A Sorceress being with Child gives her Soul to the Devil and also that of the Child which she bears and as soon as it comes into the World it is carried to Baptism and thereafter dies By what do you think that this Child should be saved If it be not capable of having Faith and if its Parents have denied God should the Water of Baptism alone have more Force than the Free-Will of its Parents who would give it to the Devil with the Consent of their Will Can God resist their Will after having given them the Power of enjoying this Free-Will both in regard of their own Salvation and that of their Children We see that by an exact Justice Subjects bear the Punishment of the Sins of their Kings as David's People were chastized for the Adultery and Murther which their King had committed How should not Children bear it with much more Reason for the Sins of their Parents who have much more of Union and Dependance than the King with his Subjects who has nothing over them but a voluntary Submission which they yield to him I said to her That no Christians doubted but that a Man must be baptized to be saved and that none could enter into Paradise without having received Baptism To which She replied Sir if this were true it would be a great Unhappiness to many good Men who are dead long ago because many were not baptized aright thro' the Fault of the Priest who may be did not pronounce the Words of Baptism thro' Neglect or his Mind being carried otherwise or he had not the Intent to baptize or which is worse if the Priest who baptized was a Sorcerer as it falls out but too often and instead of baptizing Children in the Name of God he should give them to the Devil all these Persons ill baptized must according to your Saying be damned even tho' they should have lived holily in case this Baptism were so necessary to Salvation God would be cruel thus to damn Persons for the Fault of some wicked Priests who had no Relation neither to their Souls nor their Bodies Nevertheless it should be in his Power to save or damn all those whom he should baptize Truly Sir these Sentiments which they have of God are insupportable to me because they contradict his Justice and Truth They must be ignorant of him to believe that he would yield up the Salvation of his People to the Disposal of some wicked Man who adhering to the Devil might give him all the Souls of those whom he should baptize If he left us the Free-Will to save or damn our selves and that he himself would not reserve this Power over us but still leave our Free-Will to act without forcing us to Salvation nor yet hindring our Damnation when such is our Will how should he give to a Man the Power of being able to damn us by an evil Baptism There can be no Appearance of Truth in this and if it be difficult for you to believe that Parents have the Free-Will of their Children in their Power how is it not much more uneasie to you to believe that a Priest should have the Power to damn so many Persons thro' his Fault of not having the Intention to baptize them aright For Parents have contributed to the Formation of the Body and the Soul of their Children whereas this Priest has never known them And what Jesus Christ said to the young Man in the Gospel that to be saved he must keep the Commandments would not be true in case Baptism were so necessary seeing he who should keep them without being baptized could not be saved since Salvation depends on Baptism I was so convinc'd by such powerful Reasonings that I knew not what to reply Nevertheless I yet said to her that Faith was necessary to Salvation with Baptism but that it is supposed the Faith of the Parents supplies that of the Children and that the Godfather and Godmother are likewise taken to confirm it in Name of the Children She said Sir it is an ill-contriv'd thing to baptize Children before the Use of Reason For they cannot have Faith and their Parents or Godfathers and Godmothers are also sometimes void of it They content themselves
Christian has no need of being forc'd and they who are not so have no need of these Commands I said I believ'd that all our good Works to make them meritorious ought to proceed from the Heart and from our Will but that God alone can search the Inward and therefore the Church ordain'd outward things of which she could judge and that to keep Christians united together it was needful to give them Laws and make them be observed She said Sir you grant me by what you say that the Church at present is not that which Jesus Christ established since to keep Christians united she makes Laws that are nothing but civil and temporal ones respecting only outward things because that which was established by Jesus Christ ought not to be upheld but by the Bond of Charity uniting Christians by a Conformity of their Wills in God which Unity of Spirit appears sufficiently by outward Operations because the Christian who is possess'd with Charity cannot remain hid For Charity is always working There need no other outward Laws to make appear to Men whether we be true Christians but THE LOVE of GOD and CHARITY FOR OVR NEIGHBOVR These things are as well outward as inward and may be judg'd by Men For to discover true Christians it was not needful to ordain them so many Precepts under Pain of mortal Sin For the Doctrine of the Gospel was but too sufficient to regulate all their Actions and Manners Why should they command the hearing of Mass under the Pain of mortal Sin since Jesus Christ in his Gospel has never oblig'd nor even counsel'd any body to do it nor yet to confess their Sins once a Year Tho' indeed he says confess your Sins one to another this is not that one must do it once a Year But when he has sinned he must be humbled and confess to his Brother that he is a Sinner and this rather in publick than in private that the Humility of declaring our selves Sinners and the Confusion that we have to be known for such before Men may give satisfactory Punishment to our Sins This is not to say that he must go and confess at certain Times and Days But when the Sinner desires to return to God in Heart and Affection even tho' this should not befal but once in his Life and at the end of it He should not cease for this to have the Pardon of his Sins and to obtain Mercy from God And if to be saved it were so precisely necessary to communicate at Easter how could a Paul a Macarius and Anthony and so many other holy Hermites have been saved who ended their Lives in the Deserts of Aegypt and Thebais without having ever communicated or heard Mass If Jesus Christ had spoken of the Eucharist when he said Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood you shall have no Life in you This Church which you believe to be holy would have err'd in holding all these Persons for Saints who never communicated or at least very seldom For St. Paul the Hermite having been for so many Years in the Desert without seeing any body died without receiving the Eucharist The Aegyptian Mary after having been thirty Years without seeing any body received it once only before her Death with a thousand such like What could these be saved without observing so much as one of these Commands of the Church For they sanctified all the Days of their Life by a continual Union with God as all true Christians ought to do It was not needful for them to pitch upon certain Days appointed by the Church all their Days none excepted being sanctified by continual Prayer In like manner they could not observe the Fasts of Lent and the other times expresly appointed For their Life was nothing but a continual Fast taking no other Food but what was purely necessary as all true Christians ought to do who expect to be satisfied in the other World without desiring to satiate themselves in this Why should they who have studied to defend this Church say that People cannot marry in Lent or Advent Neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles ever forbad such things neither did they command the Paying of Tithes For that great Apostle St. Paul says that his Hands gain'd his Bread and that he was chargeable to no body And Jesus Christ bids his Disciples tho' The Workman be worthy of his Reward take and eat whatsoever is given them and when they enter into a Place and are not received that theygo from it shaking the Dust off their Feet whereas those Councils ordain the Payment of Tithes by Force So that he who is wanting in it should be treated as a Criminal I do not know Sir how you can say that all these Laws with so obliging them were needful to keep Christians united by many others to observe them by Force Because I can see nothing in all these Ordinances which has the Property of uniting Hearts On the contrary rather of dividing them I said to her That in all well order'd Common-wealths there must always be heads and Superiours whom we ought to obey and follow their Laws or otherwise there could be no Order She said Sir if you hold the Church for a Civil Common-wealth you have Reason but if you hold her to be Holy and Spiritual or the Spouse of Jesus Christ you are much in the wrong For her Head was still her Superiour and has given her such excellent Laws and Rules that no body can add any thing more perfect to them Those who would needs make some Changes in them have wholly confounded them and they who would be their Superiours have abused the Graces of their Liege Lord Since being appointed his Lieutenants on Earth to maintain his Ordinances they have neglected them and have made others after their own Mode or for their own Advantage against the Designs of their Sovereign Master For by forbidding to marry at certain times they disturb the Order that God has set from the beginning of the World Nothing was more holy nor ever will be amongst Men in this World than Adam before his Sin Nevertheless God gave him a Wife that he might know her for the Generation of Men and for the perpetual Unity that they ought to have together If God found it meet that this Marriage should be instituted in the Earthly Paradise in the most holy time that ever was before Adam had sinn'd why do these Persons forbid to marry in the times of Lent and Advent If it were for the Piety of the Time they would not give so many Dispensations to do it after they have forbidden it For ordinarily we see more of the Rich married in this forbidden Time than in that which is allow'd It seems this Prohibition is but for the Poor who have not Money enough to obtain these Dispensations It is a Pain to me to bend my Mind under these Laws For I
Time is come to put this Sentence in Execution It will begin with the Plague of War and then that of Pestilence and after of Famine that there may be time given to all Men of good Will to repent and to take these Plagues in Penitence for their Sins and by these Sufferings to find a Way to return to God with all their Heart and to rise from Death to Life that is to say from Sin to Grace as the Jews shall do by being converted first of all that the Lord may find them watching at his Coming and may say to them Well done good and faithful Servant because thou hast been faithful in a few things I will set thee over great things Enter into the Joy of thy Lord Which Joy shall be recovered at the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory who will overthrow all Evil by the Brightness of his Coming which shall be seen and understood by all the Men who shall then be remaining on the Earth Thus it is that God orders these last things with Weight and Measure that he may still exercise his Righteousness Goodness and Truth even to the End of the World waiting still for Sinners to Repentance being desirous that they shou'd be converted and live Whatever Men say God will never depart from his eternal Qualities and will not confound his last Works no more than he did his first For he continues still firm and constant in all his works If Men will not know this 't is their own Fault and the Effect of the straying of their Minds Nevertheless it is time to open their Eyes For the Plagues are begun I said to her That the Jews were wilfully obstinate not to believe that Jesus Christ was God which the Christians did believe assuredly and consequently they were nearer to be converted than the Jews She said Sir the Jews are less obstinate than the Christians because there is more Ground for their Unbelief than for that of the Christians who reject the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory tho' it be verified by all the Holy Prophets the Apostles and Jesus Christ himself who in so many divers Places declare his glorious Coming and very few speak of his Coming in Reproach This makes the Jews doubtful knowing that God never surprises any but often foretells the things that must come to pass and they finding so frequently in the Holy Scripture the Prophesie of his Coming in Glory and so seldom his Coming in Reproach they have some fundamental Reasons for which they cannot believe his Coming in Reproach But so soon as the Truth shall come to enlighten them they will yield to it because they love it Whereas the Christians do formally resist it and wilfully impugn it and will not believe what they read so often nor hearken to the Light that is offered them thereupon being desirous to continue obstinately in the Persuasions in which they have been trained and blindly to believe the Sentiments of Mens preferring them to the Truth of God So that the Jews will sooner believe that Jesus Christ is God than the Christians will believe that the same Jesus Christ shall come to reign in Glory upon Earth tho this Coming be much more to be desired and valued than that Coming in Sufferings and Reproaches For he who highly esteems God will be troubled to believe or see he shou'd be abased or despised and become the Reproach of Men he who deserves all Honours in Heaven and Earth Hereby the Jew's have more humane Ground not to believe the Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings than the Christians have not to believe his Coming in Glory which is more honourable pleasant and desirable tho' the Jews as well as the Christians do very ill not to believe both the Comings of Jesus Christ which are equally true both the one and the other I said to her That she seem'd to hold the Jews Part more than the Christians She said Pardon me Sir I am not partial and if I were I wou'd rather take the Christians Part among whom I am born than that of the Jews whom I never saw I hold only the Part of Truth without leaning to any Side because I have no Pretensions upon Earth Neither Jews nor Christians will give me any thing But God will judge me in Truth and Righteousness Therefore I will always observe it without Respect to any body If I knew not that the Jews are more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians I wou'd not speak to their Advantage But I cannot conceal the Truth when it is asked me If you address these Jews you will find my Saying true For I know nothing of my self All comes from a Source from whence no Lye can be drawn I am not enclined for the Jews nor for any other Sect in the World For I know none of them that are well pleasing to God But I love those best that are most disposed to receive the Truth and to be converted unto God and I remark this People of the Jews to be more disposed for this than any other Which in Trust I declare to you Not that I may be lov'd or despised but that I may simply declare the Truth as I know it Make a Trial of it Sir and of all the other Things which I have told you you will find them in their Time all true For I am not for telling things that are extravagant or without Necessity You will have Need after this to know all that I have declared unto you They will be very profitable for you and for those whom you shall judge capable of receiving them Doubt nothing of them Conceive and digest them all You shall receive from them great Light in your Understanding and Strength and Nourishment to your Soul and you shall still enter farther into the Knowledge of God and of your self which shall be an Everlasting Happiness for you Beware of being tempted to believe the Contrary Because the Devil will surprize you with false Appearances under a Pretext of scrupulous Piety and Justice The Eighteenth Conference How the Holy Spirit gives his Light to the Soul I Said to her That I would not doubt of her Words because I believed that they all came from the Holy Spirit She said Softly Sir all my Words come not from the Holy Spirit For he does not dictate to me all the Words that I must pronounce but the Substance of all that I say because I would never speak otherwise than by his Motion and no other Discourses are necessary for me For I have no Desire to please any and all that makes not for the Glory of God seems to me a superfluous and useless Thing Therefore I do not willingly utter any Discourse but these to which the Holy Spirit moves me But he does not dictate to me all my Words I have Need to express my self by Humane Reasons or Comparisons because otherwise they could not understand me For
nor any Created Thing because he contains all in himself But he has chosen our Will for himself that it being united to his own he might take his delight and pleasure in it Consider a little Sir how far we stray from the Designs of God while we thus use our own Will in all Things without discovering the Wiles of Satan who under good and pious pretences leads us at his pleasure from a Dependance upon God and yet we do not perceive it I said to her That it was an Infatuation of Spirit that no Body saw precisely the necessity of this Dependance but they imagin'd it was enough to believe in the general that God is our Creatour and that we have receiv'd all from him She said Sir Faith without Works is dead It is not enough that we believe by way of Speculation That we have received all from God but on the contrary this belief will render us more guilty For to believe that God is our Creatour and that all Things appertain to him and notwithstanding of this Belief to desire to rule upon Earth as Soveraigns of our own Will and not to submit it but by constraint to all that God permits to befal us against our own Inclinations this is directly opposite to our Belief and so is it to believe also that we received all that we have from God and nevertheless to use all these things according to our Appetites and Inclinations as all the World does For he who has received a good Judgment applies it to acquire Sciences Offices or Dignities in this World forgetting that this Judgment pertains not to him but God only gave it him that it might be applied to know and love him and if he apply it to any thing else he must render a strict account of it Nevertheless no Body considers this Every one thinks he is Master and Lord of his own Understanding and may dispose of it independently according to his own Will It is the same also with him who has Wealth he makes himself Lord and Master of it even as if it belong'd to him in property He employes it in Glory Pomp and Vanity or other Pleasures of his Body or Mind or in the Things to which he finds himself most inclin'd as if he had created these Riches himself and held them of none and while he says by Word that he has received all from God yet notwithstanding he will not use them but according to his own Will And thus by his Deeds he belies what he say by Word Thinking to deceive God he deceives himself and is his own Ruine For while we will use our own Will in all things we withdraw from a Dependance upon God which is so necessary for our Salvation The Fifteenth Conference Shews how every thing must be used to keep us in a Dependance upon God I asked her How every thing ought to be used that we may have this entire Dependance upon God She said Sir We must first consider for what End we were Created And seeing that it was to Love and Serve God we must apply our selves to nothing else except by the by in necessary Things reserving all our Affections for him who Created us for these Ends And whether we have Wit or other Talents of Body or Mind or Riches Honours and Prosperity we must never use these Things but for the Glory of God Because all pertains to him and we are but the Stewards of them liable to give an Account And we ought to manage them so well that nothing may be used but by the Appointment and Will of God which we ought always to inquire into and follow and never our own Will for it ought still to depend upon him who gave it Could God demand less of us than the Dependance of our Will on his after he had given us our Body with all its Properties and our Soul with all its Faculties and this Beautiful World with all that is in it to enjoy them fully at our Wish with Joy and Ease demanding nothing else for so many Gifts Graces and Prerogatives but the Resigning of our Wills to his notwithstanding of which Man is so ungrateful unthankful and unreasonable as to deny it to his God his Creatour This Dependance of our Will so small a Gift that God asks of us should it be refus'd him when we know that all comes from him and that his Goodness has so advantagiously bestowed Favours on us Truly Sir this Ingratitude deserves that all the Creatures rise up against Man to take Vengeance of the Injury he has done his Creatour in denying him the Dependance of his Free will and that he will dispose of it himself Even insensible Things are obliged by strict Justice to avenge such an Ingratitude Which will be very speedily done Because the Measure is full All Men harden their Hearts and stop their Ears against Gods Demand Of resigning their Wills to his Will None will hearken to it any longer Therefore the Sentence of Universal Rods is given out and shall not be revoked Because none will revoke the Resolution that every one has taken of following their own Will in every thing and will not depend upon God as if we were our own Soveraigns I said to her There were yet some Persons in the World whose Wills were resign'd to that of God She said Sir I know none of them But I do not know all the World If there be some yet scattered up and down the World God will take them into his particular Care But the General Judgment shall not be delayed for this The Plagues shall encrease still even till the Consummation of all Evil and if they go on leisurely it is to give Time and Leisure to Men of Good Will that they may be converted and repent of their Ingratitude yeilding up to God the Free-will that he so freely gave them to use it according to his Will This is now done by few or none We hear nothing else said but I will be resign'd to God while in effect all the World follow their own Will Some give themselves eagerly to Study some to Trade some to the Law to Offices Benefices and that uncessantly till every one has obtained their Pretensions And we settle our selves upon Earth as an abiding City or as if we were created for this Miserable Life here we build Tabernacles as if we were to remain in them always while we see our Friends and Neighbours dye in a little time and we know that none stays here but every one dyes in his turn some sooner and some later without knowing at what Hour our turn will come We are born in Miseries in which we live and dye without seeing any other End for our selves but Death which may make us sufficiently comprehend that we are not created for this Life but we must look for another For God could never have had so low an End in creating us as the the
well and secure The Thirteenth Conference Of true Faith according to the tenour of the Creed Of the knowledge of God and of our selves by the consideration of his Works I Told her That I did not believe that I had true Faith and that she had sufficiently made appear to me that I could not be right therefore I desired to understand of her wherein true Faith does consist tho' it were but upon my own account for I desired to profit in it She said Sir let us examine a little together our Creed and see if there be so much as one Article of it observed even by the most perfect Christians now-a-days If we believ'd that God is Almighty that he created the Heaven and the Earth could we live without loving and fearing him as we do Could we also attribute to our selves the earthly good things which all the World seeks after and loves since they are all created by God and do all appertain to him in Property which we do daily usurp In the second place If we did believe in Jesus Christ the only Son of God who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary could we reject his Instructions since he is the Son of God the Fountain of all Wisdom Could we follow a Carnal Church seeing she is altogether Spiritual engendred in the Body of Jesus Christ by the operation of the holy Spirit Could we also live in Luxury when God chose a Virgin for his own Mother Would we not endeavour to love Virginity since God has so much esteem'd it Moreover if we believ'd that Jesus Christ the Son of God has suffer'd even so far as to be Crucified Dead and Buried could we live so softly seeking all eases to our Body not willing to suffer any thing that is painful nor affronts nor tribulations when we believ'd that the Son of God has indeed suffer'd for us even to a shameful Death yea was buried as a corruptible Man Would we not imitate or follow him at some distance in case we had the faith that we profess Moreover if we believ'd that he is risen from Death to Life that he is ascended into Heaven were it possible that we could love this present Life while we hope that we shall rise again since Jesus Christ is risen again to ascend unto Heaven Would not this withdraw our affections from the Earth through the hope of ascending unto Heaven with Jesus Christ Were it possible that we would build Houses and make so many other settlements as we do on Earth as if it were our abiding City And if we did believe that Jesus Christ will come from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead were it possible that we would live in so great a neglect of our Salvation with so little care of making ready our Accompts to render them to that great Judge who will demand of us an account of all our Thoughts Words and Deeds Would we not rather lay aside all our worldly Affairs to attend on this which is the most important to us yet on the contrary is often the least of our â—ares And did we believe likewise that there is a holy Spirit and a holy Church is it possible that we would be so little Spiritual so Natural and Earthly so wedded to our Senses in which we live sometimes more brutishly than the Beasts themselves whereas our Souls ought to be wholly Spiritual and Holy since we have a Holy Spirit and a Holy Church And did we believe the Communion of Saints is it possible that every one should be so much wedded to his own Interest and Wealth If Prayers and good Works ought to be all common amongst Christian Brethren how much more ought temporal Wealth to be for the succour of our Neighbour which is very far from Mens dispositions now who study nothing but to keep up and increase their own Wealth understanding no other thing but mine and thine both in Spirituals and Temporals And did we believe in the remission of Sins how would we be penitent and contrite to obtain the pardon of them instead of continuing in them through hardness of heart as we see the most part of men do who finish their Lives in black thoughts and despair instead of having immediate recourse to mercy according to their belief For he who has promised the remission of Sins has not promised them time to persevere in them If this belief were real they would not persevere in them for one day for they are not certain of living so long And did we believe in the Resurrection of the Flesh how could we love and esteem our flesh in a condition so miserable as that of this mortal Life We would greatly contemn it in the hope we had of its Resurrection l in which it should live most happy delivered from so many miseries calamities and maladies under which it groans during its exile in this miserable World which setting aside the hopes of its Resurrection must rather be called Death than Life the belief of this Article would give a disgust of the delights of this present Life and make us aspire towards that to come And did we believe in Life eternal what would we not do to obtain it We would voluntarily forsake Father Mother and all our Goods to obtain this eternal Life for it deserves more than a thousand Worlds which cannot last but for a small time in respect of Eternity whereas we see the most part of men so in love with this miserable Life that they would fain abide here for an Eternity though it be filled with miseries and calamities Do you not see Sir that there is no more faith in the House of God That no body lives conformably to his belief That they place faith only in Words as I have told you formerly They say over it may be every day their Creed and yet they do not observe so much as one Article of it These are nothing but words that vanish into Air and nevertheless they would take it very ill to make appear to them that they have not true faith tho' it be always operative and never idle True faith works always the vertues of which I told you in the Souls which possess it and if these operations are not seen it may indeed truly be said that these Souls have not faith for it can never be any where without operating its vertues no more than the Sun can be without giving his beams Consider it well Sir and you will find my saying true and you will condemn your self I told her I perceived clearly that People lived in a distraction of spirit and that few persons knew themselves That it was no wonder they knew not God since they did not know themselves and that truly we were deceived She replied Sir he who knows God will always know himself and he who knows himself will assuredly know God for the one is linked unto
would not be capable of gaining our Affection For it is impossible to love them without being distracted and turned away from God For if we considered the Qualities of God and compared them with those of the Creatures we would see that those are but Dung compared with Gold Besides that all the Creatures together cannot save us nor give us so much as one Moment of Life We pass sometimes our whole Life in studying to render our selves accomplish'd among Men and they have no Power to make us happy even in this World for their Friendship is changeable and their Fortune unconstant Their Fidelity does often depend upon our Complaisance a small Word ill plac'd will render them your Enemies And tho' it were real and constant death can rob you of it in a Moment and you will never find them any more in your Need. Do you not see that all things are frail upon which there is no leaning no Ground to let our selves be charm'd or our Senses tickl'd if there were not a Disorder of Spirit and a Forgetfulness of God! And if this were remov'd it is impossible to love the Creatures in themselves and to cease to love God even tho he had never commanded us Even Natural Instinct leads us to his Love by the consideration of his wonderful Works and of his Benefits which we receive every Moment There needed no other Love to oblige us to love him with all our Heart and with all our Strength The Sixteenth Conference Of continual Prayer and constant Communion with God for which we were created And how we are distracted from it by the Business of this World and by the Enjoyment of frail Creatures I Perceiv'd most clearly that all this was true and moreover that all Men were very far from such Sentiments that every one of them spent their Life in the Affairs and Business of the World and thought not themselves obliged to keep Communion in Spirit with God fearing that this might rob them of the Time and Occasion of dispatching well their Affairs I ask'd her Whether every one was oblig'd to keep continual Communion with God If this was not the particular Business of the Monks the Religious or other Persons who make Profession of a Spiritual Life tending to Perfection She said Sir all Christians are Religious for there can be no other Religion but a Christian Life Every one who would be sav'd is obliged to entertain his Spirit continually with God therefore Jesus Christ says That we ought always to pray and never faint He speaks to Persons of all Conditions not to the Religious only for there were none in his Time who did wear disguised Habits as they do now but all Christians were religious as they are yet at present Neither the Habit nor the Cloyster do make Religion but the Observance of the Evangelical Counsels We are greatly mistaken if we think that God has a Regard to the States and Conditions of Persons He regards not whether we be Religious or Married but whether we observe his Commandments and his Doctrine Every one is free to chuse what State he will provided that in it he observe the Christian Doctrine There is not any State nor any Condition that can exempt a Person from keeping continual Communion with God For he invites us to this and we are created for no other Thing All other Affairs or Businesses are but accidental and of small importance whether they succeed or miscarry it matters little because all their Successes cannot serve us but for this short Life which stands not in need of much if we would content our selves with what is necessary only In which we would be more happy than all the Kings of the Earth for all that we possess beyond this Necessity is Affliction and Vexation of Spirit God created us to love him only and that he might take his Delight with us and we with him This is the only End of our Creation He had no need of us but he would create us to take his Pleasure with us This is that which we do least of all think of or apply our selves unto It seems we would change the Designs that God has concerning us while we will not follow his Ordinance of Praying always One thinks he is born to be a Lawyer an Advocote a Priest a Monk a Merchant or for any other State Office or Benefice to which he is advanc'd and they press hard to perfect themselves to increase and prosper in it as if they were created to do this And when they are arriv'd at the highest of their Pretensions Death comes which consumes all What a silly Business have we aim'd at What a poor Stay of all our Hopes Our Riches are perish'd Our Honours remain on the Earth All our Travels Cares and Labours have left us nothing but Ashes and Rottenness in Recompence of all our Acquests The Noble and the Ignoble the Prince and the Servant being all reduc'd to the same Estate all naked in the Grave the Poor and the Rich having an equal Portion Behold the End of all the Business and Affairs of the World for the Advancement of which we neglect Communion with God tho' this would advance them more if we were habituated to this Communion which would perfect all things I said to her That Men were very blind in not considering seriously these Truths and that she ought to pray to God that he would take from them the Vail which hindred them from seeing their so great Misery and that they might comprehend the Obligation they have to pray always which they were very far from doing To which she replyed Men Sir are as far from Salvation as they are far from this Knowledge For Jesus Christ has said nothing in vain To be saved we ought assuredly to pray always for as soon as we shall cease to have our Spirit lifted up to God we shall fall into many Evils from which we can very hardly recover our selves because Sin blinds the Soul and renders it often insensible of its Evils If this were not true how could it be that one should see every Day his Brother or his Neighbour die leaving behind him all upon the Earth without carrying away any thing and that he should not thereby discover his own Folly and his Blindness in labouring with so much Care to heap up earthly Goods which at Death serve for nothing What tho' I pray Sir God will never force their Wills he sends them occasions enough to open their Eyes But as long as they shall continue to have their Affections set on earthly Goods they cannot love God one of these Affections must go out to let the other in They can never dwell both together And for my part I can never pray for an unjust thing God makes no body blind but their Sins and the little desire they have to seek God has clos'd their Eyes He well
Perfection than formerly Which I doubt very much for if you think to teach the People the Evangelical Life and do not observe it your self this is worse than to hold your Peace because every one will have Ground to believe that it is nothing but a Formality which must be observ'd in declaring the Gospel and that there is no need to put it in Practice seeing they who teach it do not practise it themselves I think in this Case it were better to be ignorant of it than not to practise it when we know it At least it is a less Evil never to have understood it than to have known it and not to practise it tho' both are evil because all Christians are oblig'd to know the Gospel for we cannot without Guilt be ignorant of it but to hear it so often and for all this not to desire to follow it is a double evil because of the Ingratitudes which are committed in not practising what we know by the Grace of God It is a Grace to be caught and an Ingratitude not to follow Instructions Therefore you will do nothing but spend your self in Teaching and will not replenish others Besides that in Teaching there is always the Hazard of Vain-Glory because Flattery is the Ruine of our Souls and perswades us that we have that which they say we have I said unto her That infallibly many would put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel if they knew it as I do at present because these Truths are so clear that of necessity one must yield to them She said Sir Do not engage your self to declare the Truths which God now makes known to you For they will not be well receiv'd by the Learn'd You ought first to have overcome all Human Regards which you have not yet done Likewise you must have the Courage to expose your Life for this Truth For otherwise you will be opprest without any Profit because they would outragiously persecute you if you should declare the naked Truth of the State of the Church at present and if you teach that to be a true Christian one must observe the Doctrine of the Gospel they will altogether oppose you and will affirm That all they who are baptiz'd are Christians however Wicked they be Thus you will have much to suffer and will profit others nothing Because all that you might build up by Teaching of the Truth the Learn'd will destroy by their Arguments and will easily dissuade People from believing you even rejecting your Doctrine as Evil and Seditious for they study nothing so much as to flatter the World and speak as they are desirous to hear They have forgotten that Jesus Christ said by his Apostle That he who would please men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ There can be no Preaching any longer without Reproof but what flatters the Ear and is agreeable to the People for the Truth which reproves is so disapproven by Men that I believe Sir if you should speak publickly the Truths which I in confidence have told you they would cut you off from the Church declaring you an Heretick yea they would even pursue you to Death because they could not approve the Truth without condemning themselves their Lives being contrary thereto and no Body hates his own Soul Therefore they condemn others I ask'd her If I ought always to continue idle without doing any thing seeing I could not Teach nor Preach any more and that I had no other Employment for that I had passed all my Life-Time in Study and in the Direction of Souls She said Sir Labour first for your own Perfection until you be entirely united to God and then you will be capable of other things If there be no Profit to be reap'd among the Catholicks you may go among the Heathens and Hereticks who will be more disposed to receive the Truth than those who are under the Roman Church Because others sin through Ignorance and these Romanists through Malice Many Heathens would follow the Truth if they knew it and likewise divers Hereticks because they seek and ask it always Therefore we hear them dispute willingly to shew that they are not at Rest but seek and ask always after the Truth But the Catholicks do opinionately presume of their Salvation because they esteem themselves the People of God as they are truly even as the Jews were who are now abandon'd but shall be converted so soon as the Roman Church shall be overthrown Those will be truly capable of receiving the Spirit of Truth acknowledging their Errors and Ignorances Labour in the mean Time Sir for your own Perfection and you will very shortly see that the Harvest will be ripe and that there will be need of Workmen We approach so near that I fear your Soul will not have so soon acquir'd its own Perfection as these things will come to pass Therefore make haste fearing to be sent away as an unprofitable Servant Occupy the Talent which God has given you for he will come very shortly to demand an account of it Apply your self to your own Perfection with the same Earnestness wherewith you formerly applyed to the Perfection of others without any Profit I ask'd her If she believ'd that the Roman Church would be Destroy'd and Ruin'd and the Christians scatter'd as the Jews are at present She replyed Yes Sir and much more for the Jews have continued constantly in the Jewish Law tho' they be bodily scatter'd through all the World they are nevertheless united in an uniform Faith and Belief holding still the Law which God had given them But the Christians have denied their Faith tho' they be yet united Bodily How would they preserve it in Time of Persecution when all this Lustre and this Magnificence of the Church shall be destroy'd so that there shall not be one Stone upon another in its outward State no more than there is at present in its inward This must needs come to pass Sir else God would not be Just for the Jews might Reproach him with Reason That they never committed such an Infidelity against their God as the Christians do It is very true they kill'd the Body of Jesus Christ but that was through Ignorance The Christians do kill it a thousand times out of pure Malice They believe that the same Body of Jesus Christ is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they give it daily unto Whores Thieves Murtherers and Sorcerers and yet they make them believe that they shall thereby receive Graces The Jews never believ'd that they obtain'd Grace in putting Jesus Christ to death as these Christians do believe in receiving him unworthily For Pilate said that he found no Fault in him and was in great Fear to condemn him And the Christians go affrontedly to receive him with a Soul full of Sins believing in the mean Time that he is oblig'd to impart unto them his Graces in
subject to all sorts of Miseries than we are in our selves nothing more changing nothing more weak nothing more perishing Is this capable of our Love An Abridgment of all sorts of Miseries more infirm than any Animals and the things which are without us are yet of far less consideration 〈◊〉 we love Meat and Drink is there any thing more 〈◊〉 for as soon as we have swallow'd them they are corrupted and chang'd into Putrefaction If we love the Pleasures of the Sight this is a thing that passes in a Moment and cannot give Satisfaction The more we would satisfie our Senses the more they thirst for the Eye is never satisfied with seeing no more than the Ear with hearing Even so of the Lust of the Flesh These are all insatiable things of the nature of Salt-Water the more we drink of it the more we thirst And as for the Pride of Life what does it put in us but a Blast of Wind For if a Woman bow or a Man be discovered in our Presence what does that give us These are all but imaginary Goods which put nothing in him that loves them If we would search into these Truths it would be very easie to strip us of our selves and of all created Things For they are not at all lovely but to those who have lost their Wits Our Soul is created for things more great It ought not to debase its self to Objects so unworthy of its Love It is very easie to forsake our selves and all things when we enter into the Consideration of things that are everlasting All our Amusements proceed from this that we come not to the Knowledge of God and our selves For if we knew God we could not any longer love any other thing and if we knew our selves we would hate our selves and all things because we have nothing in our selves which is not hateful Thus all the Love which we bear to our selves and to other things proceeds from pure Ignorance and the want of Serious Reflection on our selves and on all created Things I ask'd her How I might make this Serious Reflection and discover the Nothingness of all created Things And said That I must acknowledge her Saying was true that there is nothing worthy of our Love But I could not discover the cause of the Blindness of my Mind in this since I had a Desire to discover the Truth and to be taken up entirely with God She said Sir the Fault of your Straying as that of all the World proceeds from this That Men amuse themselves with the speculation of visible and sensible things by which they forget the invisible and spiritual And thus they go on always in a Forgetfulness of God and of their own Salvation Men do even serve for a Hindrance to one another For being all full of these Distractions and Wandrings of Mind they speak almost of no other thing One speaks of his Health another of his Meat another of that which seems fair and good to him And thus they fill one another's Minds with earthly Idea's and they neglect the consideration of heavenly things upon which alone their Happiness depends That Application of Spirit which we give to our selves to others to our Affairs Business or other things which respect only this present Life do rob us of that Time and Attention which appertains to God For we are not created for this present Life but only to live for ever with God If we are oblig'd to remain here for some space of Time this is only to satisfie the Justice of God who being offended by us has destin'd this short Life for the time of our Penitence which being finish'd he will pardon us and restore us into our true Country which is his Presence We ought continually to aspire after it without pleasing our selves in our Exile and Prison What Folly to take Pleasure in Sufferings The Riches the Honours and the Pleasures of this World are all troublesome and painful things and we reckon them for Happiness We glory even in our Chains and Fetters Our Sin has discovered our Nakedness and its Shame has oblig'd us to cover our Body and this same Covering which ought to serve us as matter of continual Confusion serves us on the contrary for Vain-Glory which is altogether foolish since our Habits are the Marks of Sin and we wear them to glory in them If you desire Sir to discover these Truths and to be entirely taken up with God fix your Understanding on the Consideration of all the things which are not God and you will find them all Vain and Transitory even your Life it self It passes every Moment and ought rather to be call'd Death than Life for we die daily And from thence ascend to the Consideration of God and of our Soul which are things Solid and Eternal You will by this Mean be oblig'd to love the one and forsake the other But you can never make these serious Remarks if you do not quit the Commerce of Men and abstain from all that is unprofitable and what does not avail for the Glory of God By the means of these Omissions you will acquire a clear Understanding of the Truth and a continual Communion with God For the Cause of our Blindness of Mind proceeds from this that we divert our selves always with Men or the other Creatures who do distract us from the Knowledge of God and of our selves For all that is not God is nothing The Twenty Second Conference That no true Contentment can be had but in God alone How to return thither Of Gifts And of those which are made to Churches which will perish I Receiv'd a great deal of Light by such firm Reasonings to which all Men of the World must needs yield I said to her That I found only a Difficulty to withdraw my self from all things and to think of God only because our Spirit does easily wander She said Sir all the Difficulty there is in doing this is only in our Imagination for in the Practice there is great Contentment For he who entertains himself always with God is in a continual Feast more pleasant even to the Senses than the most sumptuous earthly Banquet would be For the Soul having full Satisfaction the Spirit is in Peace and the Body at rest all the Senses having a Satiety and Contentment whereas in the Commerce of Men none of them can find full Satisfaction for as long as the Soul does not repose in its God it is like a Stone in the Air which never rests until it have found its Centre or like a Fish that is out of the Water which remains without Vigour dries up and dies if it be not put into it again Even so a Soul which is out of God dries up and dies not being able to find true Contentment even as to the Body out of him There is nothing but a Life truly Christian that is free and pleasant for it
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
spiritual or imaginary as they would sometimes make us believe why would Jesus Christ have made us to ask so many different things If Paradise were not accompanied with the Earth and with all the Creatures which we see and with our Body with all its Functions why must we pray to have our daily Bread when there will be no need of Eating Why should we pray that the Name of God may be Hallowed seeing all the Blessed have always Hallowed it and will never cease to do it tho' we should not pray for it Must there not be in this a Sense which we have not as yet discovered and that this Hallowing of the Name of God ought to be underderstood that all the Men who are upon Earth may Hallow his Name for it cannot be done fully by Angels by the Blessed and by some particular Souls living upon Earth But this Name must be Hallowed generally by all Men in Body and in Soul Which will be when this Kingdom shall come wherein the Will of God shall be done upon Earth as the Angels and the Blessed do it in Heaven and wherein shall be given us also our daily Bread that is every day in particular Graces in abundance for our Souls and all sort of delights to satisfie our Bodies wherein we shall pardon our Brethren their Sins as we shall see that God has pardoned us in giving us besides Pardon Eternal Happiness wherein there shall be no Temptations of the Enemy nor of our Nature for it will not any longer feel any vicious Inclinations where in short there can never enter any Evil but all sort of Happiness of Joy and of Contentments Perfect and Compleat Incomprehensibly Delightful This is what S. Paul saw when he said That they had never entred into the Mind of Man the things which God had prepared for his Elect. All the Holy Scriptures are full of this Kingdom which is to come to us This is the Feast signified by the Parable of the King Who made a Marriage for his Son This Son is Jesus Christ who is Allied with the Human Creature His Nativity in Flesh was but the betrothing wherein he has indeed promised unto Man an Alliance as he had done before to Abraham which will be accomplish'd and consummated only at the coming of Jesus upon Earth in Glory when he shall be perfectly United to Man Body and Soul with the Divinity all together This is that also which is signified unto us by the Parable Of the Master who went into a far Country giving Talents to his Servants to every one according to his Ability and at his return he demanded of each of them an account to give them their Wages Jesus Christ having given his Graces and Talents by his Gospel has ascended unto his Father which is the Long Journey But he will return in his Glory to demand an account of every one of all the Graces received in this time and to place his faithful Servants over great things and make them enter into the Joy of their Lord. This is also the Parable Of the Master who made a Feast and sent his Servants to call those that were bidden who all excused themselves One had bought Oxen another a Field another had taken a Wife The Birth of Jesus Christ was the time when he came to invite Men to the Feast which God would make that he might take his delight with Men and as soon as the day shall come that all shall be ready upon Earth for receiving the Son of Man in his Glory those who were invited by his Evangelical Doctrin will excuse themselves One will say I have been a Merchant I must wait upon my Merchandise I cannot attend it Another will say I have been a Labourer I must take care of my Labours I cannot attend it Another will say I have been Married I must satisfie my Wife and Family I cannot attend it And when Jesus Christ will swear that none of those who were called shall taste of his Banquet That is that all they who have received the Gospel and have not obeyed it shall never enter into his Kingdom For no State or Condition ought to hinder the observing of the Doctrin of the Gospel For Jesus Christ has not brought it from Heaven for the Monks or Religious only seeing there were none such then but he has brought it for all Christians in general whom he has particularly invited to make this Alliance with them And they who would not observe this Holy Doctrin shall never taste the Delights of that Marriage Feast All the other Parables speak of nothing but this Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth when he compares this Kingdom of Heaven to A Grain of Mustard he signifies that it will be only the Little and the Humble who shall inherit this Kingdom and when they shall be mortified upon Earth they will grow so strongly that the Angels of Heaven shall come to rest in their Branches And when this Kingdom of Heaven is compared To a Treasure hid in the ground that he who has found it ought to sell All that he has to buy this ground that he may have this Treasure That is that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ is hid from the Judgment of the Wise being as it were sunk in the ground till the time appointed and then it shall be found by the Simple who labour in this Life to find the Kingdom of Heaven and when they shall discover it they will sell all that they have that they may follow this Evangelical Life In short Sir time would fail me to relate to you in particular all the Parables with all the Passages of Holy Scripture which treat of this Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth because it treats of nothing so much as this as well in the Old as in the New Testament The Song of Zaohary is that he saw by a Prophetical Spirit the Re-establishment of the People of God in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ The Song of the Virgin Mary speaks of no other thing For what ground would she have had to rejoyce in the Lord since all his Life was a train of Sadness and Sorrow What ground would she have had to Sing his Magnificence since she saw him so Poor and Despised in the Stable of Bethlehem and pursued to Death in his Tender Infancy as he was all the rest of his Life What ground of rejoycing to see him Imprisoned and Accused as a Malefactor The Sword of Sorrow had always pierc'd her Heart to see her Son God and Man Beaten Torn and at last Hang'd upon a Cross in her presence It must needs be that her Joy proceeded from a Prophetick Spirit in seeing that one day he would be upon Earth in Glory wherein all Generations would call her Blessed which has never been done For none Praise her but a small number of Christians amidst so many Nations And that sometimes in such a
Heaven and the rest shall be given you this also will not come to pass in this Life For the Servants themselves who seek the Kingdom of Jesus have suffered many Necessities and Lazarus at the the Rich Man's Feet could not obtain a crum of Bread tho' he did not cease to ask it If the Promise which Jesus Christ has made of giving the rest to those who shall seek his Kingdom were to be understood of this present Life none if the Friends of God would stand in need of any thing tho' they should not ask of any it would be needful that God accomplish what he has promised them And if the Kingdom of Heaven were only spiritual as People do imagine there would be no need of any rest or other things after having obtain'd this Kingdom which would suffice fully Do you not see Sir that this promise of Jesus Christ is to be understood of his Kingdom upon Earth where he will give besides his Glory all material things for the delights of our Body Which he calls The Rest and makes us understand that we shall not need to seek and labour to have them but that he will give them freely as an excess of Blessedness And when Jesus Christ says He who shall leave Father Mother Brethren Sisters Lands or any other thing for his Name shall have a hundred fold in this World neither can this be understood of this present Life for the Apostles and so many other Saints who abandon'd all to follow him had not an hundred fold in Earth Mother Brethren Sisters Houses or Lands but on the contrary had need of many things after having abandon'd them Jesus Christ himself after having abandoned the delights of Heaven says That he had not in this Life a stone where to rest his Head How then should his Promises be true that he would render a hundred fold in this Life Jesus Christ can he lie and make all who have abandon'd all for his sake to be afterward in want of things necessary which would be very far from having the hundred fold of them We see the Wicked have ordinarily more Prosperity in Earthly Goods than the Just Jesus Christ would be a deceiver to falsifie his Promise which he has made unto all those who shall forsake all for his sake This cannot be thought But he promised to those who shall have left Father Mother or any other thing for his sake that they shall possess Life Eternal which shall be in that World when Jesus Christ shall come to dwell with his Creatures where he shall render the hundred-fold of all the things which they shall have forsaken for his sake for one Father they shall find an hundred because all those Blessed Ones shall have the Hearts of a Father and Mother toward their Neighbour All shall be Brethren and Sisters under the government of one and the same Father And the Earth being purg'd from all the Wicked shall suffice to give unto the Just an hundred times as much as they shall have abandoned in this miserable Life Lo thus the Promises of Jesus Christ shall be accomplish'd in a perfect sense in his Kingdom which can in no wise be accomplish'd in a perfect sense elsewhere no more in the Empireal Heaven as is imagined than in this time of Penitence There would need years of time to relate unto you Sir all the passages of Holy Scripture which verifie these Truths for when Gabriel says of Jesus Christ that he shall be great and be called the Son of the most High he cannot speak of his coming in the Stable of Bethlehem for he was but a little Infant abandoned and neglected of Men where his Grandeur did consist of Poverty and Miseries And when he began to be known and to speak in publick they call him the Son of the Carpenter and of Mary amongst the common People Which is very far from being call'd the Son of the most High and how should he lift up his Horn seeing he was wrapt up in Swadling-cloths and bound with Swathing-bands And it seems he had not strength to resist King Herod and the Pharisees who pursued him to death before whom he fled instead of resisting Do you not see Sir that nothing has in this World its perfect Sense Nevertheless all that is spoken by the Holy Spirit must be intirely fulfilled And if we hope that this accomplishment ought to come to pass in this time of Penitence we deceive our selves for the more it shall continue the more will Men mistake the greatness of God and the less will they call him the Son of the Most High and the less will he make his strength appear that he may give place to Man to use his Free-will But as soon as the time of the Reign of Jesus Christ shall come he will exalt his Horn to exercise his Power and condemn the Wicked and he shall be known of all Men for the Son of the Most High For he will come in Majesty and Power to rule over all things Whereas in the Empireal Aether there will be no need of exalting his Horn and shewing his Power seeing all submit to him by Love It is therefore of the day when he shall come to reign upon the Earth that Zacharias speaks by his Prophetical Spirit when he saw the Glory of Jesus Christ upon Earth And when he himself says If I be lifted up I will draw all unto me he does not speak but of this Kingdom to come For he has not drawn all unto him by his death upon the Cross because the most part of Men has since voluntarily yielded themselves unto the Devil The Twenty ninth Conference Of the Marks to know that we are fallen into the last Times and that the World is Judged to wit That Men are without Righteousness Truth and Goodness before God and that the execution of the Plagues makes it already effectually to appear I said to her That I understood sufficiently what she meant by this Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth that I would apply my self to discover it more intreating her to tell me the Marks whereby to know that we were in the last times and that the Judgments were at present begun She said Sir observe well the deportment of Men and you will see clearly that it must needs be that they are Condemned for therein you do not perceive any Penitence nor desire of amendment On the contrary they grow every day worse and cannot so much as suffer that the truth of their faults should be shewn them and reckon themselves more secure in evil-doing than the Good have ever been in well-doing For the Saints themselves have feared God and dreaded Death Whereas Men at present have lost the fear of God and fear only Men and instead of dreading the passage of Death they dread only the day in which they must lose their Life which they love more than God Every one lyes
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
Roman Catholicks tho' this they hold for an Article of Faith that none can be saved out of her Communion This is very ill conceiv'd since God is universal and he 's to be found every where by those who seek and worship him For he 's not fix'd to any material Body All Souls who take their Delight in him are his Spouses call them by what Name or Religion you please For all these different Names or Opinions do not make a Christian but only the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ makes a Christian And all those who put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel are Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ even tho' they were Turks or Heathens Of which Professions I believe several condemn and judge the nominal and professing Christians since God has no Respect of Persons and will judge all Men according to their Works This the Scripture confirms saying by your Works you shall be judged and by your Works you shall be condemn'd And Jesus Christ himself taught the Truth of God his Father to the Samaritan Woman and to many other Nations who were not Jews saying to his Apostles Go teach all Nations He that believes shall be saved He even ate and conversed with Sinners to see if any of them would receive the Truths of his Father and put them in Practice and tho' at first he rejected the Canaanitish Woman as a Dog yet he shew'd her Grace and Mercy by her Conversion and persevering Humility For the same Reason he says to Christians that Publicans and Sinners shall enter into the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out which still farther confirms this Truth That Religion does not save a Man but the Love of God that sanctisies him This made me get over all Humane Respects and declare the Truth of the things which were ask'd me by so many different Conferences all about the Roman Church For at that time I knew no other Religions and with Compassion I booked upon all those who died out of the Romanâ— Church as damn'd as our Divines taught So that being ask'd by a Romish Priest I answered plainly to all his Questions Vpon which many took Occasion to say that I had chang'd my Religion and was become an Enemy of the Roman Church which is not true since being born in it I will live and die therein without changing Name or Religion but only my Manners and Life And will endeavour to be regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and to follow and imitate him even to Death letting Ignorant Men say and judge of me as they please In the mean time I offer this LIGHT OF THE WORLD to all good Souls who seek the Truth and desire to become true Christians that they may truly discern Reality from Appearance For this prevails now through all the World among all sorts of Sects and Religions where every one cleaves to the Bark and does not touch the Wood fancying that Vertue consists in having a fine Religious Name of that of the Reformed the Evangelicks the Catholicks Yea that they are persons guided by the Holy Spirit of which the Quakers boast though all these sorts of Names are false and not at all suitable to the Life and Manners of those who call themselves so For if they who are called Reformed were truly so we would see the Reformation in their Life and Manners Whereas we find they all live according to Flesh and Blood which the Scripture says shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They are neither reformed in their Moveables nor their Apparel nor in their Eating or Drinking They seek in all the finest and the best They labour and trade diligently that they may have wherewith to maintain themselves in Pomp Excess or Plenty as much as they can without bridling their fleshly Appetites or their Sensualities in any thing still coveting more that they may give it as much Satisfaction as they can that in this World they may have Ease Honours and Pleasure Thus they are called Reformed though in Effect they will not reform themselves in the least thing for the Kingdom of Heaven By which we see that they who call themselves Reformed bear a false Name that makes them Hypocrites and Deceivers of others and of themselves As those also are deceived who call themselves the Evangelicks For in all their Works and Practices there is nothing conformable to the Gospel but all directly opposite to it For they do not observe so much as one Point of the Evangelical Councils For instead of loving voluntary Poverty they love the Abundance and Riches of this World unsatiably and they who ought to be the Guides to those Evangelical Perfections are the farthest remov'd from them abandoning their Flocks and Churches to find others that afford them more temporal Profit They are far from imitating the Apostles who said freely I have received and freely I give thee since these modern Evangelicks give at the greatest Price and to him that bids most And therefore they do not justly bear the Name of Evangelicks since they neither teach nor Practise so much as one Council of the Gospel and have nothing but false Names and Parades that they may appear to be in the Sight of Men what they are not at all in the Sight of God No more than those are Catholicks who bear the Name since to call one a Catholick is to say he is a Person joyn'd in the Communion of Saints which these are not who call themselves Catholicks since we perceive not any Holiness in their Lives but much Vice and Injustice accompanied with Hypocrisie and seeming Vertue without any Reality or Sanctification They boast that they are Abraham's Children without doing the Works of Abraham or that they are Christians without observing the Commands of Christ They content themselves to be called Catholicks without conforming their Lives to those who liv'd holily upon the Earth whose Lives and Histories they read without endeavouring to become holy as they were whose Feast s they solemnize tho' they shall never be in their Communion nor truly Catholicks till in their Lives they follow their Vertues and walk in the streight Way that leads to Life So that this Name of Catholick will condemn them rather than justifie them whereas they presume to be preferr'd by God to all other Religions because they are of the most Holy and Perfect Religion according to the Name of Catholick which they bear This would really be if their Souls were united to Jesus Christ in the Communion of Saints which only and no other thing makes a Catholick By which we see that these Persons bear a false Name since they presume of their Salvation because of the Name Catholick and be-believe they are in the true Church out of which they say there is no Salvation This would be true if the Roman Church were the only Communion of Saints But because
thro' too much Labour And on the contrary how many are there who kill themselves by indiscreet Fastings or other Penances or the Neglect of necessary things All those are wilful Murtherers because they kill themselves to satisfie their own Sensualities or Inclinations and they are also often Murtherers of others because they occasion sometimes their Neighbours Death by indirect Ways as in forcing some to work beyond their Strength or in crossing and vexing them so much in their Goods and in their Spirit that they die of Grief or by not taking away Debates and Quarells when they can do it and these encrease till they come to kill one another or when by some Act or Omission they occasion the Rise of such Debates or when one comes to die thro' the Neglect of our necessary Succour or Assistance By all these things wilful Murther is committed tho' the Will be indirect it ceases not to be before God as great a Sin as a direct Murther For the Life is taken away indirectly as well as directly And sometimes it would be less evil to kill a Person at one Stroke than to kill him by degrees and the Sin also would sometimes be less by a Stroke given in a sudden Passion than when it lasts for so long a time and these Sins are often repeated Nevertheless none do perceive these kinds of Sins to be such as they are but the most spiritual fall into them thro' Negligence and very often without desiring to know them And thus while they do not repent of them they cannot obtain Pardon no more than of the other Sins against the Holy Ghost because they are committed secretly and without Repentance which draws on a Despair of Salvation which is also one of those Sins This Despair of Salvation is ordinarily excited by the Devil at the End of their Life When he he has train'd up Souls in the other Sins against the Holy Ghost he discovers them to them at Death to make them fall into Despair of their Salvation For then their Eyes being open'd to consider the great Number of Sins which they have committed against the Holy Ghost all the Days of their Life of which they have never repented and how often they have receiv'd the Sacraments in this evil State This makes them fall into a Despair of being saved because the Soul is disordered and cannot perceive the Means of its Salvation Yea tho' they should not distinctly perceive all those Sins they are notwithstanding in such Confusion and Perplexity that they durst not hope for Salvation and they would be ashamed to declare their Misery to Men who still held them for good Men. Hence it is that these Souls die without Repentance which is the Consummation of all their Evils For by the straight Righteousness of God no Sins will ever be pardoned without Repentance and they not embracing this die miserably tho' they have lived in a seeming Holiness they go notwithstanding to receive their Portion with Devils even tho' they had but one of these Sins against the Holy Ghost they shall never be saved I said to her That I began to doubt of the Salvation of all Men since they who are called Saints do so commonly perish That these Sins against the Holy Ghost were so much to be dreaded and nevertheless so few are afraid of them that God's Judgment of things is quite different from that of Men. She said Yes truly Sir God's Judgment is quite another thing than Man's For most frequently what they esteem Good is in God's fight very bad This is since they left his Righteousness and lean'd to their own They are now uncapable of making a right Judgment because their own Righteousness is blind and founded only on their own Imaginations and not at all on the Truth which could never deceive them For it is unchangeable and without Dissimulation but the Truth and Righteousness of Men is lying and deceitful and he who trusts in it must of Necessity perish because it flatters us to our Perdition If we had continued in the Righteousness of God our Judgment would have been conformable to his But since we are fallen into Unrighteousness we judge unrighteously both in respect of God and of our selves For we judge falsely of God on all Occasions attributing very often to him the Blame of our Damnation and of all the other Evils which befall us Tho' notwithstanding no Evil can come from God he being the Fountain of all Good to which all Evils are opposite We may also judge amiss as to our selves believing often our Salvation to be sure when it is in great Hazard as you may see by the Deduction of the Sins against the Holy Ghost of which I have so particularly spoken to you to let you see Sir how the most Pious are deceived since they strayed from the Righteousness and the Truth of God they are full of frivolous Devotions which blind their Understanding that they know not real Truth nor solid Vertue but amusing themselves with the Discourses of Men and seeming Vertues they live and die in a Presumption of their Salvation without good Works and thus they perish for ever The Ninth Conference That no body can be saved but he who professes the Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God The World is at present without them but it shall be renewed The Danger that Men are in Secret Evil ought to be discovered I Said to her That many would be deceived at Death because no body is endued with that Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God and if there can be no Salvation without these no body will be saved or very few She said No Sir no body can be saved if he do not possess the RIGHTEOVSNESS the GOODNESS and the TRVTH of God Therefore Jesus Christ says Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect He does not mean that we should be perfect as God in his Power or his Essence but in proportion to our being in his Righteousness his Goodness and Truth The Righteousness of God makes us do all things justly as well in Regard of our Enemies as of our Friends and our selves so that we must always at all times and on all Occasions be righteous both in Word and Deed. In this consists the Righteosness of God For if we are righteous only according to our own Inclinations we have nothing but a Humane Righteousness which ends with us and cannot save us Consider Sir the Righteousness of the Pharisee you 'll see that he fasted twice a Week paid Tithes of all that he possess'd and did other good things in the Judgment of Men and notwithstanding he is rejected by God and not justified which makes it appear to us sufficiently that to be saved we must have another Righteousness than our own that it must be conformable to the Righteousness of God or else it will not avail us for Eternity because it is said elsewhere If your
away all the Fruits of the six Days Labours which he did in creating this beautiful World if all this shou'd be for the Devil and his Adherents No no Sir this cannot go so God must have his time to reign over all his Creatures that they may adore and know him the only true God and that the Number of his Elect may be multiplied as much as he has destin'd them that these never dying may bless him to all Eternity This is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which I wait for Sir with Chearfulness Nothing can afflict me in this Hope It is a joyful Life to think on it what Joy must it be to possess it I said to her That these Words did ravish me with Pleasure but that I had also in Exchange the Grief to believe that all Men now are in a State of Damnation for fear lest I also be of the Number She replied You may indeed rejoice Sir 'T is the greatest Ground of Joy that we can ever have 'T is the Master-piece of all the Works of God and the Accomplishment of all things For this the World is created for this Man is created and for this God is become Man The Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings was for Sinners but his glorious Coming will be for the Righteous Therefore he says being in the World I am not come to save the Righteous but to bring Sinners to Repentance God from all Eternity design'd to become Man to the end he might not only make Man like to him but that God also might be like to Man that he might take his perfect and compleat Delight with him 'T is good to consider this Sir that God is not become Man only on design to suffer and to die For this would have been a sad Subject and the ancient Patriarchs wou'd have had little Ground to have prayed and desired so earnestly that God should become Man to see him hardly used suffering Reproaches Scourges and so cruel a Death The Love they bare to God wou'd rather have made them desire to remain in their Captivity than to be delivered from it at so dear a Price as the Sufferings and the Death of God-Man All those Wishes and Aspirations which all the Fathers and Prophets of the ancient Law made cou'd not be for this Coming in Sufferings but rather that glorious Coming wherein Jesus Christ being lifted up will draw all Men unto him which his Death on the Cross has not done because very few followed him then and no body follows him at present This is very far from drawing all to him seeing so few have been drawn from the Beginning of the World even till now Must there not a Time come wherein that he may fulfil his Word he will draw all in general to him Must he not also to make the same Accomplishment take away the Sins of the World For his Death instead of taking away the Sins of the World has rather brought on more because they have encreas'd and multiply'd since Can God fail in his Promise Must there not come a time when he will take away all the Sins of the World If this were not God shou'd not be faithful in his Promises which cannot be true For Heaven and Earth shall pass away but his Promises shall not pass away There is not a Syllable of them which shall not have its entire Accomplishment in an altogether perfect Sence They wou'd sometimes make us believe that all this shall be fulfilled in Paradise and they tell us that nothing defiled can enter there How then shall there be Sins there to be taken away And if all the Blessed are united to him there will be no more need of drawing them I said to her That I was so convinced as to believe that we must look for a new World and a new Earth and that I knew well enough that nothing of the holy Scripture shall have its Accomplishment in this World but that I was not freed from the Trouble of believing that all Men now were in a State of Damnation of which Number I was one tho' nevertheless I desired to be saved whatever it cost She said Sir to discover Truths you must always take things in their Source Consider I pray you that the Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings was for no other Grounds but to make known to Men their Sins in which they liv'd so blindly that the most Part knew not what they did but followed one another insensibly in the Way of Perdition as they do yet at present God of his great Mercy wou'd have become Man before his Coming in Glory that he might bring Light to Sinners whereby they might know their Sins and to teach them in particular what they ought to do and avoid to the end they may observe the Law of God which he came not to change nor abolish no more than to give a new one but only to teach the Means by which Men shou'd easily attain to the observing of this Law of God which was given from the Beginning of the World and will never be changed For God will never demand any other thing of Men but the Dependence which they ought always to acknowledge they have on their God who has created them and given them all things In the Practice of this Dependence is contain'd all the Law and the Prophets and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ They can have no other thing in Substance But Men being fallen from the observing of this first Law have need from time to time of divers Means to raise them again from their Fall For these ends Jesus Christ is come into the World timously and ere it perish before his limited time that taking Humane Flesh he might teach Men palpably according to their Senses to the end they might not be any more ignorant of any thing but might get out of Darkness to discover their Sins and see clearly the Way they ought to take to come to Salvation And that those Means which Jesus Christ came to teach them might not seem too grievous and difficult to them he wou'd needs pave the Way himself and put them in practice all the time he was on Earth to the end Men might afterwards follow his Steps and imitate his Example By this Foundation Sir you can easily discover whether all Men be in the Way of Salvation or Damnation Lay this down first that no body shall be saved but he who keeps the Law of God Secondly that Men thro' their Frailty cannot observe this Law but by such Means as Jesus Christ has taught them because they imagine that they live in a Dependence upon God when they do but depend on their own Wills To make this known Jesus Christ teaches them that to be his they must deny themselves Not that this Law of denying ones self was ordain'd in these precise Words in the Beginning of the World but it was tacitly contain'd in
and Submission so that we need not seek for them It is only necessary that we practise this Resignation of our Will to God for accomplishing the saving Penitence which he has enjoyn'd us and for the Exercise of all sort of Vertues For as soon as God shall be Master of our Will he 'll lead it to all good so that we shall do no longer Evil even in temporal things For God will govern all with his Spirit of Righteousness Goodness and Truth which can never fail in any thing Righteousness doing good to all and evil to none Truth giving Light to discern all things and so to bring all to a good End If you resolve Sir truly to resign your self to God you shall enjoy all this Happiness but as long as you act by your own Will you 'll spoil all and shall not be saved I said to her That this Way was so streight that one would be afraid to pass through it and that it would make one afraid that he could not be saved She said This Way is only a little streight at the Beginning but as soon as one has forc'd himself to depart from his own Will 't is then so large free and pleasant that there can he nothing more agreeable For the Soul which has resign'd its Will to God lives like a Child without Care and tho' Heaven and Earth shou'd be overturned she is still in Repose and without Fear knowing well that God who governs her is able to preserve her through all She seeks no longer after any thing knowing well that her God will still provide for her She has no more Desire after any thing for she finds in God a Satiety and perfect Satisfaction She places her Hope no longer in any thing but the Promises of God In short Sir this is a Life wholly delightful and pleasant full of solid Contentment which is not founded upon the Levity of Chances or Changes of Men but upon a permanent Stability Whereas on the contrary the Life of one who is governed after his own Will is very miserable and he walks continually upon the Briars and Thorns with which it is sown So that a Soul subject to to its own Passions furnish him with a kind of Martyrdom How many Vexations and Cares are there to satisfie this Self-will which often is unsatiable The more 't is satisfied the less 't is contented How often does our Self-will throw us into irreparable Mischiefs It 's ignorant inconstant insolent hasty and enclin'd to all sort of Evil so that he who follows it is oblig'd to lead a miserable Life and to end it in an unhappy Death It seems Sir you are afraid yet of resigning your self to God as if this Resignatination were a streight Way and troublesome Life when you see by so many Truths that 't is so sweet and agreeable and on the contrary that which seems so pleasant to you is so painful and dangerous All the Difficulty that you 'll find to make this Resignation is no other thing but a Shadow which appears something and in Effect is nothing As soon as you shall turn away your Eyes from your self to look towards God this Shadow of Apprehension will vanish and you shall see it no more I said to her That I was not so much afraid of resigning my self to God For I wou'd willingly do it but that in several Recounters she had given me Occasion to doubt of my Salvation She said Sir do you love flattering Discourses more than the Truth If it be so you may retire from me For I am settled in the Truth and I have no desire to depart from it I can make no Reflection whether it pleases or displeases my Hearers but I am resolved still to observe it tho' it wou'd cost me my Life For he who forsakes the Truth forsakes God which I will never do I love rather to lose the Favour of all the Men of the World than to omit the Truth when I am oblig'd to speak it But setting aside this Obligation I can very well hold my Peace because Jesus Christ has said that Pearls should not be cast before Swine If the Truths that I have told you beget Scruple in you 't is a sign that you are not resolved to be sav'd For otherwise you wou'd greatly rejoyce to understand the Truth Those who are called Swine in the Gospel are Men who make a Dunghil of the Roses of true Vertue or of the Pearls of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Those hidden Secrets are precious Stones and he makes a Dunghil of them who says that they are imaginary or contriv'd things or Heresies All these Sentiments make a Dunghil of the Pearls which are presented to them and according to the Counsel of Jesus Christ they ought not to be told to such but to those who value them as they merit And when yor tell me that I give you occasion to doubt of your Salvation by speaking of true and solid Vertue it seems you wou'd also make a Dunghil of its Roses I have told you the Truth That no body shall be saved but he who of his free Resolution resigns his Will to God's and denys his own You need not therefore doubt of your Salvation if so be you will do this Sir but if you will not doubt confidently of your Salvation For you shall never obtain it This Doubting is good if thereby you take a Resolution to search for the means of your Conversion For the Fear of God is the Beginning of true Wisdom If you be not in Fear as to your Salvation you will presume of it and therefore will be sure of your Damnation Because he who presumes to have it uses no Endeavours to obtain it but dies in a Sin against the Holy Ghost Therefore it is a great Advantage that I have made you doubt of your Salvation since this Doubt will certainly lead you to Salvation I said to her That I desired indeed to have the Fear of God and of my Salvation but that I saw my self so far from this perfect Resignation that it seem'd to me I could never attain to it She said Sir that is nothing but a panick Fear because there is no Ground to fear what we wou'd willingly do If you have been resolved in it for so long a time past suffer not the Devil to tempt you now For there is no more Difficulty at present than the first Day you had the Will to do it Be not carried away by imaginary things which are nothing but Amusements Fix on the Reality of the thing You perceive clearly that you have a Free Will and Choice and that by this you act in all things It is by it you go from one Place to another It is it that desires to see and hear It makes you covet or pretend to Wealth Places or Honours It is it also that desires Pleasures and Prosperities It is it likewise that wou'd rule over others
the same bed To shew that it avails nothing for one to save his Body but he must endeavour to be united unto God or otherwise he shall be taken in what place soever he go to I said to her That I would follow her even to Death because she had the words of truth tho all the world should withstand it She said Sir There is no need that you follow my Person but my words keep them in your Heart and thereby you will attain to Salvation for they are saving Never turn away from them For the Devil has this invention to raise a great many distractions that he may divert us from following the Truth he sends sickness Troubles Affairs of Importance and a thousand other occasions to divert our good purposes that we may never bring them to effect If you were speaking Sir with all good men who are in publick Offices whether Civil or Ecclesiastick they would acknowledg to you that they were never so throng'd with Affairs or Business as now because the Devil being unable to gain them entirely to himself he endeavours at least to give them so much business as that they may not have leisure to think of their Salvation nor of the Dangers in which they live We must certainly discover his wiles or otherwise he will draw us along with him insensibly He has deceived so many by these means making them believe that their imployments were profitable for the Publick or their Neighbours when they serv'd for nothing but human accommodations without any advantage to the Glory of God or the Salvation of Souls And under this False Perswasion many have lost their own Salvation without procuring that of others It is not in these last times Sir that Places Offices or Imployments are saving it is much for a Man to save his own Soul for the times are too dangerous and the world too blind and obstinate If they perceived their blindness they would seek to find a remedy But while they believe they see clearly they cannot think of a remedy and they fall easily into eternal ruin But if you Sir for your own part would be saved remember the Truth and follow it for without it there can be no Salvation For it alone makes us to know God and the Devil and likewise the state of the World and that of our own Conscience Truth shews us also the certain way of Salvation and by it all the wonders of God are discovered It is the Light of the World and the sure harbour of Salvation without which nothing can be good or beautiful The seventh Conference Shews that Jesus Christ will come in Glory or else he should not be the Saviour of the World as he is and there would be no just Recompence for the Good and for the Wicked I said to her that I had sufficiently discovered the truth of this that we are in the last times that the VVorld is judged and Antichriso reigns and also that the Plagues are begun because there is no truth nor Righteousness among Men but that I did not yet see why Jesus Christ shall come to reign in Glory upon Earth She said This is the most evident truth and the greatest Goodness and Justice of God because Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World and the restorer of all things You see clearly by all the Truths that I have told you that very few will be saved of all those who live at present after the usual manner and if this miserable World should last yet longer there would still be fewer because every day it grows worse How therefore should Jesus Christ be the Saviour of the World if he did not restore all things No body could be Saved for the whole World perishes There must come a time that the whole World shall be saved that he may be fitly called the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD And this cannot be in Heaven as People imagine because all who enter there shall be Saved having received Salvation at the hour of Death and this respects only particular persons who by reason of their small number cannot well be called the WORLD because it consists in a Generality and not in some particular Persons 'T is a truth therefore that in a certain time Jesus Christ will save all the World in general This will be at his coming in Glory when he shall have judged the World and condemned the Wicked he will save the Good with all their Posterity who can never perish any more because of the continual Presence of Jesus Christ God and Man who will govern and lead them to Salvation This his coming in Glory is also necessary to restore all things because there has been no reparation yet of all the Injuries and Affronts that were done to his Humanity His low Condition has not been raised up his Poverty has not been enriched his Tears have not been wiped away his Humility has not been exalted neither have any other of his Contempts and Sufferings been repaired nor of those who have loved and followed him One has died as a Malefactor another as a Seducer a St. Andrew on the Cross a St. Lawrence on the Grid-iron and so many other holy Martyrs who have suffered Persecution and Death for Righteousness and Truth There has been no reparation of all this hitherto but by imaginary things as they say that Jesus Christ was exalted on the Cross which is an infamous reparation to dye on a Gibbet as a Malefactor If those who hold this Cross to be a reparation of Honour were hanged after this manner themselves they would not believe that their Honour were repaired by this How can they imagine that that of God was so It is not to be imagin'd that Honour should be repaired by Infamy it self But because his coming in Glory was unknown to them they have applied Infamy to Glory that they might say something of it The truth is Jesus Christ will come upon the Earth to repair all things for it would not be just that he should have suffered so innocently and after him so many other Saints and Martyrs who were free from Crimes and that they should continue dead without being repaired Spiritually and bodily for what they have suffered unjustly or for the Love of God and if People imagine that all these things must be repair'd in a Divine and imaginary Heaven they are deceived because this reparation cannot be perfectly made there for natural sufferings ought also to have suitable reparations unless God did as Charmers do who cure bodily wounds with spiritual rememedies or some artificial words No Sir this will not go after that manner because God does his works always in a perfection every way accomplish'd He will repair both bodily and spiritually all that has been done unjustly and the whole world shall thereby discover his Righteousness Goodness and Truth that every one may know that he is worthy and just worthy
Miseries of this present Life because in this he should have done an ill thing Which God can never do seeing he is the Source of all Good from whom no Evil can proceed But our Self-will alone engenders all the Evils and Miseries that we suffer For he who beats his Brains in Study suffers for the Self-will or Inclination he has for Studies all the Inconveniences that are in this Imployment For God never demanded Learning of any Body though Men cover this with the Pretext of the Glory of God yet there is nothing in it for the most part but Curiosity and Vain-glory or some Designs of making some Fortune in this World Another by his Self-will gives himself to Traffick or the business of Merchandising and will therefore endure Cares Watchings Fatigues and Labours to get a Little Heap of Mony or other Temporal Goods which end with him because he leaves them on the Earth from whence he took them One will be a Priest or a Monk another will Marry or continue free In one Word All Men in the World study to follow their own Wills in every thing without being willing to yield them to God and notwithstanding we think to go to Paradise while we refuse to resign our Will to him which we ought to do though he had never required it of Man It should be offered him in Acknowledgment of so many Benefits received from our God I asked her If it was not lawful for every one to choose some State or Calling by which to gain his Bread She said Yes Sir It is expedient that every one Labour that he may have his Bread for God has appointed Labour in Penitence for our Sins It is a Holy and Sacred Thing to Labour that we may fulfil the Penitence that God himself has enjoyn'd us We are free also to choose some State that of Marrâ—iage is instituted by God but a free Condition gives more leisure for converse with God and to work out our Salvation delivering us from the Cares and Vexations of the Government and Maintenance of a Family which do often breed us many Distractions But to choose humane Offices according to our Will would prove great Hindrances to us and are available only for this Life which needs but a little Food and some Clothing to cover our Body all the â—est is superfluous and a Burden to him that would obey God Therefore all Places Offices or Benefices of what kind soever are great Hindrances to Salvation because they respect only the Earth and aim at nothing but the Wealth Honours or Pleasures of this World which Things do certainly withdraw us from God and even make us often wholly to forget him by the continual Imployments and Diversions which these Places Offices or Benefices bring along with them which are not only undertaken by all means sought after and desired that thereby we may gain our Bread but very often that we may be rais'd to Honour and Vanities or that we may take with more Ease the Delights of the Body or of the Mind or also that we may heap up Temporal Wealth All which Things do certainly withdraw us from God Nevertheless we see Christians now adays do Toil and Sweat and Labour to obtain some Place Office or Benefice and they study all their Life-time to pursue what is pleasant profitable or honourable for them and they believe they are Wise in so doing As if their Happiness did depend upon this present Life and it were needful to make some Fortune here Which is a great Blindness of Mind I asked her If all Places Offices or Benefices were evil since it seem'd necessary and expedient that there should be Judges to maintain Order among the People and also Priests to teach what concerns Salvation She said Sir All Places Offices or Benefices are good in themselves but the ill use that is made of them renders them evil If a Person should engage in any Office of Justice or any other Secular Station singly with a design to Labour to preserve the People in Peace and to maintain Justice and the Innocence of those whom others would wrong this would be a great Charity to his Neighbour and a great Merit and Satisfaction as to the Penitence that every one is oblig'd to accomplish during this Miserable Life Because in taking the Cares and Labour of the Mind for a Pennance we satisfie God in gaining our Bread by these Labours of the Mind and besides this we assist our Neighbour by good Counsel and by maintaining him in his Right and defending him against malicious Persons He to whom God has given the Spirit and Capacity of doing this will be doubly recompenced before God provided he do it in a Spirit of Penitence in respect of himself and of Charity in respect of his Neighbour But it is much to be regretted that Men now regard neither of these Ends For if they could enjoy a good Pension due to any Office with little Travel this is what they would love most They seek not the Toils of it but the Profits Nor the maintaining of Policy or Justice but the Honour of Ruling over the People and if it were only the Zeal of Policy and Justice that moved Men to engage into publick Offices no good Men could stay in them any longer in these unhappy Times wherein Policy and Justice is no longer observed The Laws of Government are all made for the burthen of the Common People and for the Ease and Relief of the Great Men and those in Authority And by the same Breath Justice is rurn'd in their Favour So that Offices good in themselves are become very evil by the bad use which Men make of them now who obey not in any thing the Ordinances of God which are Penitence and Charity to our Neighbour But on the quite contrary they will enjoy instead of suffering and take their Pleasure and Repose instead of doing Penitence If Merchants had the Spirit of Penitence and Traded on design to procure Work to such Neighbours as were more fit for going about some Trade or Handicraft than to Labour the Ground all this would be done in mutual Charity accomplishing their Penitence the one by working and the other by taking care to send their Merchandises to the Places where they might be Retailed But the Intentions of these Men are far from the Designs of God For instead of Trading singly for their necessary Maintenance they do it only to inrich themselves and to encrease their Glory and Vanity So that instead of satisfying God by the Penitence of the Labours and Travels of our Business by undergoing them we but encrease our Sins and instead of exercising Charity to our Neighbour in giving him Wages for his Entertainment People take their greatest Advantages from the Workman and they give him as little as they can for his Labour And thus we do not accomplish Penitence nor yet exercise Charity to our Neighbour
whom I am like but it is because I perceive them to be Enemies of God and they do not desire to know it With which my Heart is very much opprest The Twentieth Conference Shews That there are very few among the Christians who desire to be converted unto God and to return to a Dependance upon him And treats of the necessity of this Dependance I asked her If she did not fear that she should Act against Charity to her Neighbour by retiring thus from their Conversation since she might do them great good She said No Sir I Act not against Charity to my Neighbour Because I cannot help him if he will not have Help I have had but too much Experience of this that Men will not change their Life at least the Christians For I was never acquainted with others to know if they are as much hardned as those who are called Christians For those I say I have done all that could be done to shew them the dangerous State in which they live but I profited very little by it They love rather to see and hear fine Things But for resigning themselves to God no Body will do it but by Word which is as far from the Truth as is Heaven from Hell Every one says that he will be resigned to God while in the mean time no Body will deny his own Will in the least thing we hear them often say I will what God wills And the least Contradiction they meet with does alarum them and those who promise them Salvation comfort them and flatter them saying That this is to be patient when they murmur not against the Appointments of God and that they must only resign themselves and thereby they shall merit much As if God were obliged to Recompence their Impatience For to suffer Contradictions is common and necessary both to the Wicked and to the Good Because no Body can be free of them in this miserable World where every one must suffer will he nill he But to say that we are resigned to God when we are only resigned by force is a Lie because this resignation is a necessary thing when we cannot hinder things to fall out against our Will For to be resigned to God we must have no more Self-will to will this and not to will that For a Thing that we have resigned we do not hold nor possess it any longer to desire to use it Resignation to God is a total dependance upon his Disposal as well for our Soul as for our Body and for all that concerns us bridling our own Will in every Thing without willing or desiring any thing any longer knowing well that Gods Conduct is always more perfect than all that we could wish for If it rain if it be fair if it be hot or cold if we are in Peace or War in Adversity or Prosperity it matters little provided we be resigned to God It is he who governs all these Things and can never do evil If our Friends live or dye what the matter when God ordains it Our Life our Death must not be wisht for nor desired by us because we are not capable enough to judge what is good or evil for us And to offer to give Laws to God is to mock him since he understands and knows all Things He sees far better than we what is good and perfect because he is the Wisdom that cannot be ignorant of any thing and the Goodness that can do no evil and who orders all Things to a good End so that if we were not void of Understanding we would not entertain a Thought of contradicting any Thing that befals us For all turns to good to him who is resigned to God and though we esteem it a Happiness to have good Desires yet it is a Thing infinitely more perfect to have no Desires with a Dependance upon God Because a never so little mixture with this Dependance alwayes hinders the Effect of the Ordinances of God as if we would be Tutors to him or give out our Law for doing well In the mean time we are so short sighted that we do not discern Good from Evil So that if God should permit that to befal us which we often ask and desire of him as Good great Mischiefs would have come upon us so blind are we in the matter of our Salvation And yet we will not resign our Will to that of God but in Word only So that if I should tell Christians now adays that they will never be saved without resigning their Wills to that of God they would say that I damn all the World For they look on the Salvation and Damnation of Men as if they could Damn and Save them whereas it is God only that can Save and Sin only that can Damn Therefore by conversing with Men I will not profit them for their Salvation I said to her That God having imparted to her such Light it ought not to remain under a Bushel But should be set in a Candlestick She said Sir What will it avail to set the Light upon a Candlestick when those who are present will shut their Eyes that they may not see it These Christians are so pre-occupied with their own way of Devotions and with seeming Vertues that they esteem nothing else and as soon as they shall see the Brightness of this Light their Eyes will be dazled with it and they will even complain of the Light of it How is it possible to shew to any that which he will not see I have conversed among others with the most pious of the Religious who could not imagine that there was another way of Salvation but a good observance of their Rules and they thought they did a thing well-pleasing to God to maintain the Honour and Profit of their Order and for my part I judge this to be so far from a Dependance upon God that I think it is the real Mean to take them off from it For as long as we are tied to Rules and Studies to observe them well it is alwayes the Person that Acts and the Care of preserving the Honour and Profit of the Order is indirectly the seeking their own Honour and Profit Which is not only a Vice but also a false Vertue that deceives them to their Ruine and though I assure these Persons that there is no other way of Salvation but that of resigning their Will to God yet they will not hear this Note insisting alwayes on the first Tune they learned and they think they are resigned to God since they have quit the World to enter into a Religious Order and they apply themselves to the observing of their Rules they say their Offices and obey their Superiours choosing rather to resign themselves to Men their Equals than to their God imagining that he is served with Reverences Bowings of the Knee and a great many common Prayers Without remembring that 't is he who searches the Reins and examines
but one Man only and he had but one Will in which was included the Will of all Men that should ever arise from him So that God could not pitch in him upon one Masse of Reprobates and one of Saved Because there was no longer Salvation in him after his Sin nor in all other Men his Posterity All were reduced into this damned Masse without any exception And as none could be damned before Sin so none could be saved after it Because in Adam all Men in general were contained who have still shared in his Happiness and Miseries his Favours and Disgraces his Pleasures and his Penitence All Men being inseparably united to the will of Adam the Father of all living I asked her How it could be that some Men are damned and some saved since there was so strait an union between the Will of Adam and that of other Men She said This comes to pass Sir when every Man comes to the use of Reason He goes out of the Power and Will of Adam and is put into his own full Liberty as Adam was at his Creation with this difference only that Men have in them the Malignity of Sin Which Adam had not when he was created but only an Inclination to good As to the rest all Men in general are put when they are capable of Reason into the same Estate wherein Adam was created with the same Divine Soul wholly free and reasonable capable of being led to good or evil as Adam was But that some are saved or damned is not by any Necessity or Predestination but only by every ones Free-will who are led to good or to evil according to the Choice they make of the one or the other Because on Gods part Man is left free and entire as he was before Sin For God never changes his Works He has not for sin changed any thing in the Earth nor in the Heavens nor in the Elements nor in the Beasts nor in the other Creatures but has continued them all such as he created them without any change but Sin has brought Malignity upon each of them whereas before the said Sin all Things were good without any evil Even so God has changed nothing in Man since his Sin He remainsentire in all his Qualities both Bodily and Spiritual except that by Sin he has contracted a Malignity and an Inclination to evil Which before he had not but a bent and inclination to all sort of good Behold this is the only change that Sin made in Man without his being necessitated to evil far less predestinated to Damnation Since all Men received in Adam the Pardon of this Disobedience having also received in him the Penitence which was accepted for all Men in Adam so long as a Man is unable to use his own Reason For then he is set at Liberty from the Power of Adam and that of his own Parents in whose Will he remain'd till then And coming out of this he is free to choose good and evil and neither God nor Men can constrain him to Salvation or Damnation And that any is saved or damned can proceed from nothing but the free choice that every one makes of following good or evil and not at all from Predestination as they very unjustly do imagine For God will never deprive Man of his Graces how wicked soever he be so long as he shall Live in this World He will never take back the Graces which he gave him in Adam They shall be still communicated to him if he will make a good use of them The Pardon which he granted to Adam he granted to all Men and no Body can believe without Sin that God should Reprobate him for the Sin of Adam For by his Grace he forgave all when he forgave Adam his Sin He cannot retract the Remission which he then gave to all Men to Reprobate them upon the same account of Adams Sin For God never repents him of what by his Mercy he has once done unless Man of his Free-will come to offend God by other new Sins Which he is free to do All Men were created in the State of Innocence in Adam and all Men sinn'd in Adam and also received the Pardon of this Sin in Adam So that all they who dye in Adam are certainly saved by the Mercy of God upon the Pardon that he gave to Adam But if his Children being come to the use of Reason do of their own Free-will turn to evil they then fall again into Gods displeasure and begetting Children in the same displeasure they are in the same Condemnation with their Fathers as being united with them till they come to the use of their own Reason For then they begin to have a Being by themselves whereas before they were reckoned to be one and the same thing with their Parents because of the Sympathy there is in the Union of the Father with the Child whose Will he holds in his Power as Adam held the Will of all Men till they attain the use of their own Reason so that till then they may be predestinated to Salvation or Damnation by the good or ill Will of their Parents and not by the Decree of God who cannot and will not destroy any Body having certainly created and forgiven all the World that all might be saved and none Reprobated For if he had precisely decreed some for Damnation he should not have had so much Righteousness in himself as what he demands of Men For he sayes to them Love your Enemies and do good to them that persecute you This Counsel would have had no Authority if he himself had Reprobated those who are become his Enemies This absolute Reprobation would not be good but the greatest evil that ever could be imagined How could he command Men to do good to their Enemies when he himself would do so great and eternal an Evil for the Fault they had committed against him and that while they were yet in a state of Penitence as they are during this Life where Reprobation shall never have place since till the very last Instant they may find Mercy and Pardon This Reprobation must only operate after Death and not during this Life Because this is the Time of Penitence in which they who shall be certainly Reprobated can have no part and it would be a very rigorous and unjust Thing that God should oblige those to Penitence whom he absolutely resolves to damn I believe Sir they confound the Times when they speak of Predestination and take the present for the Time to come For at the Judgment God will then take Two Masses the One of Elect and the Other of Reprobates who do what they will shall assuredly be damned Because the Time of Penitence will then be past But during this Life there can be no predestinated Reprobates I told her That well-meaning Persons did believe there was in this Life Predestination and that God had here Vessels