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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42287	An apology for M. Antonia Bourignon in four parts ... : to which are added two letters from different hands, containing remarks on the preface to The snake in the grass and Bourignianism detected : as also some of her own letters, whereby her true Christian spirit and sentiments are farther justified and vindicated, particularly as to the doctrine of the merits and satisfaction of Jesus Christ.	Garden, George, 1649-1733.; Bourignon, Antoinette, 1616-1680.; De Heyde, Dr.	1699 (1699)	Wing G218; ESTC R18554	402,086	456

Religion have to one another This then is certainly a remarkable Property of the Writings of A. B. that they give so distinct a view of the Relation of the several Parts and Duties of Christianity to one another and to the whole How some hold the Place of the end and others of the means some of which are so absolutely necessary in Man's present State that without them he cannot attain the End They make appear that the great end of Christianity is to bring us back to the Love of God and that we can never recover this without the mortifying of our Corrupt Nature and that this cannot be effected but by obeying the Doctrine and following the Example of Jesus Christ so that his Commands are all the necessary Helps of our Frailty teaching us what way to overcome our Corrupt Nature and to return to the Love of God For the End of the Commandment is Charity The Gospel-Law teaches Man Poverty of Spirit to shew Man that Covetousness has withdrawn him from the Love of God and that he cannot recover it without ceasing to covet earthly Goods and it teaches Men to be humble in Heart and to choose the lowest Place because they have lost the Love of God by loving themselves and thinking themselves worthy of Honour and Glory while they merit nothing but Contempt and Confusion Jesus Christ chose a poor and mean State in the World lived in Hardships and Unease in Reproach and Contempt and never did his own Will but the Will of him that sent him to show us what are the things that withdraw us from the Love of God and what are the means we must use to overcome them XVIII 3. The Writings of A. B. do give us most lovely Representations of the Divine Nature such as may serve to enflame our Souls with Love and Wonder when we think on the depth and height and breadth and length of the Love of God in Christ Jesus which passeth all Knowledge They shew us that God's very Nature is Love that there is none Good but God that no kind of Evil comes from him but all Good that it was nothing but Love and Goodness that made him create Man so wonderful a Creature that he might communicate himself to him and dwell in him by his Light and Love and that he might oblige him by the greatness of his Magnificence made a world of beautiful Creatures to attend him and to compleat his Happiness and Contentment would needs become like to him as he had at first form'd Man after his own Image And so far was he from designing that Man should destroy himself that he us'd all means to prevent it and to keep him from abusing the greatest Natural Gift he could bestow upon him Liberty of Will and which he could not in justice take back again for the Gifts of God are without Repentance That Man's Baseness and Fall did not alter God's Love but he resolves to recover him again and continues unalterably his first Design of taking his Delight with him that he accepts of the Intercession and Mediation of Jesus Christ for that End and allows Man Grace and a Time and Means of Penitence that the very Evils that came upon Man and upon the Creatures by his Sin he order'd them all so as that they might tend to his Good and his Recovery thrust him out of a delightful Paradise into an Earth cursed for his sake and bringing forth Throns and Thistles least the Pleasures of the first should now still bewitch his Heart the more and that the Miseries and Vexations of the last might give him Occasions for Penitence and make him return to his God that God has not forsaken Man but Man has forsaken his God that God by all his Works and by his Operations in Man gives him all sort of Occasions to love him That he is not content to send us his Servants and Prophets to enlighten us but he came himself and became in all things like to us yet without Sin that he might redeem and save us That God tempts no Man but every Man is drawn away of his own Lust That he damns no Man for he is the Fountain of all Good and can do no Evil and the Damnation of a Soul is the greatest Evil in the World That he does not permit Sin but permits Man to make use of his Free-will which being the greatest Treasure he could receive it was not just for God to take it back again and if Man abuse it it is for himself so he may do with his Hands and Tongue which are given him for excellent uses That as God is not the Author of any Sin any Moral Evil neither by Influence nor by Decree nor by Permission but it proceeds wholly from Men and Devils by the ill use of the Liberty and Free-will that God gave them so neither is he the Author of any Natural Evil or Malignity that is in the Creatures he having created all Good and Perfect but Sin and the Self will of Man has brought a Malignity into all things and therefore it belongs to Man as being the Works of his Hands That God lets this Malignity continue now in this Time of Trial to withdraw Man from the Love of the Creatures that at the Times of the Restitution of all things he will deliver all his Creatures from the Malignity contracted by the Sin of Man and since it is just to render to each one what belongs to him it is necessary that they who will not return to a Dependance upon their God have for their Portion this Malignity of all the Creatures to all Eternity as being the Work of their own Hands That in the Love of God consists all Good and all Happiness and in the turning away from that Love all Evil and all Misery which Men are not now so sensible of because of the superficial and transient Delights with which the Creatures do amuse and tickle them but upon the removal of that they shall feel it to all Eternity God is not the Author of Death but by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and Death has pass'd over all because all have sinn'd It is saith St. Augustine God alone the only Truth the only Salvation of all and the First and Supream Essence from whom every thing is what it is in so far as it is for in so far as it is what it is it is good and therefore Death is not from God For God did not make Death neither does he take Pleasure in the Destruction of the Living for the supream Essence makes every thing to be what it is and therefore it is called the Essence But Death constrains that which dies not to be in so far as it dies for if these things which die should die altogether undoubtedly they would come to nothing But by how much less they partake of Essence by so much they die Now a Body is less

Can any thing fall out against the Will of God and which he has not decreed to fall out As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner Let no Man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God O Israel thy Destruction is of thy self God did not decree that Man should sin nor that he would permit him to sin but took care by all means to prevent it and has spar'd no Mean to recover him from it But Man has wilfully destroyed himself God created him out of pure Love to delight himself in him and therefore to make this Love perfect and compleat he created him altogether Free and Perfect He would not bound nor limit the Will of Man whom he would needs make after his own Likeness to be his Spouse and not his Slave or constrain'd to do his Will as are all the other Creatures But Man was created altogether Free as a little God Sovereign and Ruler over the other Creatures and free to use them well or ill as he would If he had received only a limited Will he would have had no Divine Quality for God to take his Delight with him for that two Beings may find Contentment together there must be a Proportion and Sympathy between them God cannot take his Delight with any Creature of a bounded Will he himself being an infinite God there must be in Man some infinite Quality by which he may unite himself to God and that is an absolute Liberty of willing which nothing can constrain This was the most precious thing that God could give to Man for by it he was made like to God for otherwise he should have been a limited Creature in whom God could not take Pleasure Could God take Delight in a thing so unlike himself Could so powerful a God unite himself to such an impotent Creature that had not Free-will to love him God having no Bounds nor Limits could he take Pleasure in a Creature whose Will was bounded And could a limited Will attain to the Love of a God without Limits This is the only thing that makes Man capable of being united to God We see in Nature the Alliance is not true and agreeable if two Persons be not united in their Wills in God if there be Force Limitation or Constraint on either side the Contentment cannot be compleat This is the Figure of the perfectly Free Union that the Soul ought to have with God and if the Soul were constrain'd or forc'd to this Union God could not take perfect Delight in it Where there is Constraint there can be no perfect Love the Free Consent and Cooperation of two united must necessarily concur to make the Love compleat As God gave this Liberty to Man when he created him so he will never take it from him for his Designs are unchangable all his Works are Eternal and his Gifts are without Repentance Both Devils and Men shall have their Free-will to all Eternity else they could not do Evil for God never retracts what he has once given he will never retake those Divine Qualities the Divine Soul and Eternal Liberty and cannot bound them because he cannot be changeable in his Gifts nor can he take away what he has been pleas'd once to give If it be establish'd among Men to lay no longer Claim to a thing given how much more ought we to hold that God lays no Claim to the Free-will of Devils and Men to whom he voluntarily gave it The Devils and demned Souls will never use their Liberty to do well being so habituated to Evil and in the Element of it as the Holy Angels and Blessed Saints will never use their Liberty to do Evil it being swallowed up in God From hence it is evident that God did not predetermine Man from all Eternity to Good or Evil by any absolute Decree for this is to constrain that which he would have to be Free to ranverse the Order he had so wisely establish'd and to take from man the most precious thing that he gave him If he had made Man a limited Creature he would have predestinated all Men to Salvation so that none of them should have perished For all that God makes absolutely dependent on him is always Good without any mixture of Evil and it can never be that a limited Creature can do Evil since God can create nothing that is Evil. God endued Man with such an unlimited Free-will that he would not only not predetermine him but also not foresee how he should dispose of that Free-will that he might not thereby limit it or oblige Man to do what he had foreseen His Power and Wisdom is as great yea far more conspicuous in forming him thus Free and letting him fully enjoy the Liberty that he had given him than if he had limited him by Fore-sight and Predestination God being Almighty can save or damn as he pleases and no body can withstand him for all are subject to him but he neither does nor ever will do it but in the Ways which his powerful Wisdom and the Love he has conceived for Man have resolved upon whom he would needs create like unto himself by the absolute Free-will he gave him and would neither constrain him to Good nor hinder him from Evil but would have him his by pure Love with the free Consent of his Will that he might delight in him and Man also might voluntarily delight in the Love of his God Thus we see how Sin came into the World and how Man damns himself God neither willed it nor permitted it that he might bring Glory to himself a most blasphemous Sentiment but against the Will of God Man abused the most precious Gift that could be bestowed upon him his Free-will and turn'd away his Love from God and placed it on himself and on the Creature God does not permit Man to do Evil but by all Means restrains him He permits him only to use the Free-will he has given him and having endued him with an immortal Soul and an eternal Liberty he can no more take away this Liberty without destroying his Nature and making him cease to be Man than he can make a Circle to be a Square without destroying the Nature of a Circle God by giving Man Free-will to make him capable of the greatest Good is no more the Cause of Man's Sin and Reprobation than a Cutler would be the Cause of a Lord 's murthering of his Brother because it was done with a Weapon which he had made for him of well-temper'd Steel of a sharp Edge and for good Uses It would be a cruel Malice to accuse the Cutler of the Murther the Malice is infinitely greater to say that God created us for Damnation or is the Cause of it because he has given us Free-will You see saith S. Augustin how much Good is wanting to the Body where the Hands are wanting and yet he makes ill use of his Hands who

till she forsook the World the Things of the World and Self that she might love God only and be resign'd to his Will in every thing In which Resolution she persevered so faithfully even to the end of her Life that she would rather have died a Thousand times than have desired any Creature or followed her own Will in any thing never undertaking any thing till she was first perswaded that it was the Good-will of God As appears every where in the Writings of Antonia Bourignon particularly in the Account of her inward and outward Life and the Continuation of it where this is sufficiently demonstrated Which Testimony tho' given by her self is nevertheless true as I have made appear in the Seventh Section IX Moreover this Testimony is confirm'd by many Good and I●ous Men who knew Antonia Bourignon from her Infancy and did narrowly observe her Conversation Many such Testimonies are to be met with in that Treatise of A. B. which is called The Testimony of the Truth It is worthy of Observation that these Testimonies seem to have been published by the Providence of God that it might be evident to every one that A. B. led a Pious and Holy Life and that the Mouths of malicious Slanderers might be stopped not only by Two or Three Witnesses by whose Mouth every Truth is established but by such a Cloud of Witnesses who assure us that the Thoughts and Words of Antonia Bourignon were serious and pious even from her early Infancy so that observing the change that Man is subject to throughout all his Life and that he must part with all at Death while he seems to propose to himself in every thing that he undertakes an abiding and perpetual Good this made her conclude that we were not created for this wretched Life but for an abiding eternal and blessed Life of which she became so desirous that she counted all bodily Delights Recreations Pleasures fine Cloaths and all other perishing things as Dung and Loss for the Love of those good things which were Eternal and would never fail And about the Fourth Year of her Age having learned that our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles did lead a Life wholly free of all earthly and temporal Cares and Desires that they might only care and seek for those things which are above and are eternal she look'd on such a Life as most reasonable and worthy of a Man but observing that the Life of Christians now adays was altogether contrary to that kind of Life hence she concluded that they were not True Christians and begging that her Parents would have her to the Country where the Christians liv'd she vehemently thirsted to go thither that she might lead a truly Christian Life And tho' they endeavour'd to perswade her that she liv'd amongst Christians yet she could not believe this especially when advancing more in Years she found that the best among all the Parties of Christendom did still love and seek after earthly things so that their Deeds were directly opposite to the Deeds of Jesus Christ and of the First Christians While in the mean time our Saviour says expresly That the Disciple ought to be like his Master and that he who believes in him shall do the Works that he did yea greater Works than these as the Children of Abraham do the Works of Abraham X. As Antonia Bourignon grew in Years the Love of God and her Neighbour did encrease in her of which she gave infallible Proofs on all Occasions for observing that the Conversation of Men was an effectual Mean to withdraw us from God and to deprive us of his Love she therefore lived as solitarily as was possible not that she was Melancholly or Brainsick for such also seek to be Solitary but that applying her self to the Contemplation of God and of his Perfections she might the better continue in his Love She was otherwise of a chearful sociable and ingenuous Temper and understood well how they ought to carry themselves who desire to be lov'd by the World as appear'd in the time that she applied her self to the Conversation of the World XI Moreover she denied her self as to Meat Drink Apparel c. all things that were not absolutely necessary for the support of Life and this both that she might not adhere to any Creature and that she might bestow on the Poor and the Sick what she had beyond her Necessity And that Antonia Bourignon did these things not that she might be seen of Men like unto the Hypocrites but only from the Love of God and her Neighbour and things Eternal appears from hence that she did all these things in secret as much as was possible entering into her Chamber and shutting the Door pray'd to her Father in Secret and gave Alms her Lefthand not knowing what her Right-hand was doing She shew'd such a chearful Countenance that none but her pious Mother knew that she fasted XII That the Deeds and Actions of Antonia Bourignon did proceed from the Love of God appears also from this that she persever'd in them constantly to the end of her Life except that short time in which she engag'd her self ●n the Vanities of the World and no Reproaches Persecutions hard Usages with which she wrestled throughout all her Life did ever make her s●acken nor yet the Deceit fair Words and feign'd Sanctity of Hypocrites and Impostours who continually endeavour'd by many ways to distract her and to withdraw her from the Love of God So that she had received the Gift of Fortitude from the Holy Spirit to such a Degree that she would not have done any thing against the Will of God nor omitted that which she knew to be agreeable to the Will of God no not for the whole World And tho' she greatly desired Solitude because there she had learned to converse with God and to hear him in a profound Silence yet when the Glory of God or the Salvation of her Neighbour did require that she should converse with Men she willingly left that Solitude For she ever observed this Rule to prefer the Glory of God and the Salvation of her Neighbour to her own Profit being always ready not only to lay down her Life for her Neighbour but being content also to be blotted out of God's Book and with St. Paul to be an Anathema for her Christian Brethren XIII Antonia Bourignon finding that Virginity was most acceptable to God and an effectual Mean of persevering in the Love of God she therefore from her Childhood begg'd of God that she might be the Spouse of Jesus Christ earnestly desiring never to be married to any Man This she obtain'd so perfectly from God that she never entertain'd a Thought contrary to it tho' she was oft-times sought in Marriage by Persons who could have afforded her many worldly Advantages and her Parents were solicitous to have her married Yea her Father contrary to her Will promised her in Marriage to