life were with incomparable Purity Evidence Clearness and Solidity in that Soul which thou didst sanctifie and are yet in her holy Writings In truth the way that is there recommended as necessary to Salvation is the only and the true way there is no danger to abandon our selves wholly and entirely in it for it is the very Truth it is the Truth it self It is the pure Truth There is none Lord there can be none other in Heaven nor in Earth There is none other way unto eternal life than that which thou hast put into the Mouth in the Writings and in the Life of thy most holy hand-maid Antonia Bourignon I praise and bless and thank thee O my God that thou gave me to know the same and hast opened and enclined the ear of my heart thereto Give me Grace to love to observe and to maintain that heavenly Truth unto Death Happy he that should lose a thousand lives for so worthy a subject Happy he who shall never for any consideration leave the practice of it Let me by thy divine Grace be of that number that after this short life of Tryal that most certain and most infallible mean make me enjoy my soveraign End which is to have the happiness ever to adore and praise thy great Majesty O Jesus eternal God Creator Saviour and redeemer of the World while with the Father and holy Spirit thou shalt reign Gloriously in all eternity Amen Revelation Ch. 3. He that hath Ears to hear Let him hear THE PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER THis Treatise consists of two parts whereof the one may be called Extructive which builds or establishes and the other Destructive which destroys or everts For the first ten Letters are adapted to the planting of Virtue and all the rest to evert and root out what may hinder its increase To recommend Virtue is taken the precept of him who is the Master and Example of it by which is made an introduction shewing what Virtues we must in the first place embrace and by what meanstend to them which is by Obedience and renouncing our own will unto the Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart of Iesus Christ see Let. 1 2 3. the Nature of which Humility is explained and the means conducing to the attainment of it viz the knowledge of our Corruption and the Miseries which our Bodys and Souls ly under Let. 4 5 6. Which ought to produce in us the effect of renouncing our natural senses and being content with what is of meer necessity we should flee all Pleasure and proper Satisfaction Let. 7 8. which emptying of our selves will be accompanied with the Love of God which incontinently possesses the Heart from which vitious affections are expelled because of the near relation and sympathy between them as between the Creature and its natural Element In which Love consists the Essence and Complement of all Virtue and all Good Let. 8 9 10. Concerning the overturning and resisting the Impediments and Tentations of Satan is treated Let. 11. whether they be offered to our Imagination or Sensibility even spiritual Let. 12 13. or to the Understanding making us rest in the naked knowledge of the Truth Let. 14. Or exciting us to external acting or internal with Vain Glory or by Dejecting us through immoderate mortifications or in unseasonable good works spiritual or corporal toward our Neighbour Let. 15 16. Or in regard of the Devil accusing him too much or too little of our sins Let. 17 18. Whether these Tentations affect the will whose godly fervour Satan would extinguish by Grief Spiritual Negligence and Self-love as shew Let. 19 20 and to the end There is briefly represente the whole subject handled in this divine Treatise which is more specially noted at the beginning of each Letter that you may kind Reader view as in a Table and beter retain in your memory the divine Instructions therein delivered Moreover you may with us well admire the infamous audacity of some as the Church-men in Holsatia whereby some years ago they caused that these so wholsome instructions while under the Press in the German and Low Dutch Tongues were taken away by force and violence and rent While I consider these obscure enemies of the truth that Scripture offers it self to me that Every one that Doth and will do evil hateth the Light and cometh not to the Light lest his deeds be reproved and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men Love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil. It is far otherwise with him who doth and will do the Truth for he cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest because they are wrought in God Joh. Ch. 3. I pray the God of Truth that he graciously please to instruct and lead you in the way of Truth that you never refuse to come to the Light Farewell TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Cannot abstain from imparting unto you these twenty four letters which I have written to one of my particular Friends where I shew him what Solid Virtue is because it is a matter so necessary for the present time when we see false virtue reign or such as is only apparent to the eyes of men and while so many persons deceive themselves perswading themselves that they have true Virtue whereas they have nothing but fine Speculations They think themselves Humble when they can talk well of Humility and think they have the Love of God when they desire to have it notwithstanding they have in effect only the Love of themselves and it is but Deceit and Falshood when they say they have the Love of God They do not so much as know the corruption of their Nature seeing they think they may follow that corruption without sinning provided they do no evil reproveable before men and have a will to do well and love God Which notwithstanding is not sufficient to be saved for good desires without effect are nothing before God They are indeed Foundation stones serving to the building of true Virtue For without good Desires we cannot do good Works We must first have the desire and after put it in execution which is wanting to many persons of a good will who content themselves to be of a good will and hope with that all shall go well without considering that the holy Scripture says to all in general Depart from evil and do Good Now the Evil is in our corrupt nature which no person ought to ignore yet few depart from that corruption and most love and follow it thinking they do well which is a great abuse and presumption of spirit for we cannot do good except we depart from evil and he that does not resist that corrupt Nature and renounce it cannot acquire true Virtue which few persons comprehend and thence is it that they have only apparent Virtues and no real ones Therefore is it that I have resolved to cause print these twenty four
of Corruption which the great one hath engendered there And when it obeys that Corruption it obeys the Devil himself For the Corruption of Nature and the malice of the Devil are the same thing even as a man's Child is another man Men are grosly ignorant in that they think they are not tempted of the Devil when they do not feel in themselves preter-natural evils and they call the Malice of their Nature a Fragility without having ever seriously considered whence that natural wickedness comes to them God never created evil but he made man altogether perfect and with an inclination and will to Good without knowing any thing of evil and therefore of necessity the wickedness and inclination to evil which man feels in his nature must come from the Devil and it self may be called a Devil seeing there is no other evil but him as there is no other good but God So that they that follow the inclinations of their corrupt Nature march quietly to eternal Damnation And the Devil does not drive such with tentations but stands afar off to see them go on knowing well that they shall become dayly worse if they but follow simply the inclinations of their corrupt nature Which few are aware of but they will find themselves deceived at Death for during their life they think it is no evil to follow their natural inclinations yea say some God created Nature and cannot be offended that we follow it That is one of the greatest Tentations and is a sentiment which opens a door to all sorts of evils It is true God created nature and wills that man use it but the Devil hath so corrupted Nature that man can no more use and follow it without sinning since it is corrupted Man cannot even do any natural function now without sinning against God and that as long as he hath not overcome the corruption of his nature For if the natural man eat and drink he does it with affection now that affection ought to be carryed to God alone so he sins when he turns it elsewhere and when he gives his affection to see hear smell taste or feel he loves something else than God But he ought to love him with all his heart and not place his affections on other things beside him alone and so long as man puts his affection on eating drinking cloathing or lying c. he is turned from all good which is God and turned to all evil which is the privation of all good It is the same if we love our Riches Honours and Pleasures for we are turned from God unto the love of our selves when we love the Pleasures of the flesh and not those of the spirit and that exchange of affection causes us to fall into all evil seeing it deprives us of all good If then we will depart from all evil and possess all good we must of necessity resist and overcome the inclinations of corrupt nature otherwise we shall insensibly fall into all sorts of sin For it is enough to carry us to Hell to follow corrupt nature And therefore my Son you must die to your self first if you would arrive at true Virtue seeing as long as corrupt nature is not entirely mortified in you you cannot live in the spirit of Jesus Christ because for that you must become a new creature and detest that old corruption which the Devil hath intruded into the Works of God for it s that is our Enemy and causes us all sorts of Evil. Notwithstanding the ignorant think it a happiness when they can follow their natural inclinations although it is in effect the source of all Evils Which you may well see by the reasons which I have formerly deduced For although God hath created Nature and ordained that it should be sustained by aliments and also re-produce it self by generation yet he would always have the Heart and Affections of man to himself entirely without parting God willingly permits that man eat and drink and generate and use his five natural Senses for his necessity but he will also that we place not our Affections and Heart on these which he requires to be preserved for himself only indivisibly We may then well use all these things but not fasten our heart on 'em For when in the beginning man was created in Grace he did eat drink generate and use his five natural senses because he could do all that with thanksgiving to God When he tasted of good things he praised God who had made them so savoury for him when he saw beautiful things he praised their Author in admiring those Beauties If he smelled good Odours or heard pleasant Melody or touched smooth and pleasant things he rejoiced in God blessing him in that he had not only given him the things necessary for entertaining his life but also for Pleasure and Delight All these things then served man only to bless their Creator and glorifie him in his Creatures And man desired not Generation but to encrease the Praises and thanksgiving which they owed unto God Behold how man used all these things well before the devil had corrupted his Nature but since he is turned from God to carry his affections to himself as he does at present he desires not generation but for his own satisfaction and not for augmenting the Glory of God but to wallow in concupiscence for they have more inclination to enjoy the Pleasures of the Flesh than to produce Children to glorifie God And when men enjoy the pleasures of their senses and use the beautiful and good creatures it is more to satisfie themselves than to bless and magnifie God who gives them So esteeming more the gift than the giver From all which we see that what served unto man for blessing when he was in Grace serves now as a means of sinning and losing the Grace of God Yet we find men so blinded with self-love that they perswade themselves they can see hear smell taste and feel all that is good and pleasant and praise God in the mean while which is but falshood For since man's Nature was corrupted it no more refers any thing to God but in all these things pleases it self and uses them as if it were worthy of them as it was before sin But that is a gross Error for corrupt nature cannot seek the Glory of God it seeks only its own and hath no intention to bless and praise God for what it posesses This desire of satisfying the five senses is common to all that live according to corrupt nature none excepted Therefore those that say that they know to use good and pleasant things in praising God do but flatter themselves For to do that they must have overcome corrupt nature which they have not yet done since we see them search after good and pleasant things for their satisfaction But if they had overcome corrupt Nature they would no more satisfie it in any thing For that corruption is never so mortified in this life
but that is only an excuse for their sin 'T is true the Devil can tempt man against his will but cannot make him sin against his will he may trouble his spirit and make him remember what he should forget And forget what he ought to mind But if the person be well upon his guard and will not do evil he shall discover easily that that comes from the Devil being against his will and so will betake himself to continual Prayer to God which Jesus Christ hath so much recommended to us as most necessary for our salvation Since we have continually an Enemy to combat we must continually have Arms to defend us and that will be necessary all the days of our life That is it which the Apostle counsels us To pray always without ceasing Because we have always need of divine succour and help against the continual Assaults which the Devil gives us For it is his business and employ to do the most evil he can And as a Merchant accounts himself happy to gain much Money by his Trafick or an Artist by his Labours so also the Devil accounts himself happy in gaining many souls to himself that he may exercise on them his Cruelty and Malice And therefore he never ceases for his part to labour and invent new snares to catch the soul of man And when we shut the door of our heart to him on one side he attempts to enter by some window on the other So that all human wisdom is not able to discover all the Subtilties of Satan who being a most subtil spirit surpasses in subtilty the capacity of man's spirit And therefore is it that he must of absolute necessity use continual Prayer to discover the tentations of the Devil which he cannot know without a divine Light and yet less hath he power to resist them without the assistance of God Whom he ought continually to invocate and call for help without intermission Seeing the Devil never sleeps and watches over us when we rest But the strength of Faith and Hope in God can make us overcome the Devil and despise him as but miserable impotence Seeing he can never make us fall into any sins without the consent of our own will which refusing him he can in no wise hurt man although he should tempt him with all his might during all his life These tentations serve only for greater and true virtues to the man because he passes the time of his tryal in testifying his faithfulness to God while he does not consent to the tentations the devil offers And I account it a much happier state to be tempted than not to be so while we resist the tentations seeing they purge our souls and satisfie the Justice of God who hath in Justice enjoyned penitence for our sins which we must needs accomplish during the time of our tryal which God hath limitted since the creation of man And if we will not voluntarily suffer the tentations of the Devil now we must suffer aboundantly more sensible pains after our death when the soul being separated from this mortal body feels more vividly the separation from his God than it does when joyned with its mortal body which diverts the sense of that separation by its five natural senses which seeing hearing tasting smelling and feeling gross and earthly things are suspended and amused that he cannot feel so lively the separation of his soul from God and so charms his great misery with the amusements of earthly things Which are nothing but truely Charms and Bewitchings for though we see by experience that never any person in the world was fully satisfied and content with earthly things although enjoying all they could demand of them so love we them and that love ruins us from the Love of God without that we feel the pain of it But after death all these gross and earthly things being ended as to us thence shall we feel vividly the absence of God because not diverted more with other things and that shall endure until the time of our tryal shall be past which God alone knows how long it shall endure But it is most certain that he that will not voluntarily endure the tentations of the Devil in this present mortal life shall assuredly suffer them more sensibly after death seeing no evil shall remain unpunished and no good without recompense And he that does the good of resisting the Devil in not following his tentations must expect an everlasting Reward and therefore methinks not to be tempted in this mortal life is the greatest of all tentations Since it deprives us of the good of satisfying the Justice of God and oblieges us to suffer afterward more sensible pains And therefore my Son be not offended to feel the tentation of the Devil but resist it valiently for the Glory is in the combat and not in Idleness and Rest seeing while we feel not tentation it is a sign that the Devil holds us in a lethargique sleep to cause us to die an eternal death insensibly and without pain But when he combats us with all his forces it is a sign that he does not hold us and that he fears to lose us Therefore take courage and pray God with an humble heart that he may give you strength to overcome the Enemy But never say it is the Devil makes you do evil but smite on your Breast and confess your guilt since the Devil cannot compel you to do evil but only your perverse will when it consents to his tentations For if the Devil could speak when you say that it is he made you do evil and sin he would give you the lie and say that it was not he that made you sin but that it was your own will without the consent of which you cannot sin You may well sin without the Devil for his malice hath entered into us by Adam's first sin but the Devil cannot bring forth sin in us without our consent You are always free to do evil though the Devil do not tempt or compel you because your nature was corrupted by the first sin and thence all men from Adam bring with them in their nativity that corruption and inclination to evil But when man is arrived to the use of reason he ought thereby to discern good from evil and choose which he will follow Yea he hath a natural instinct which makes him discern evil from good for we see often a Child without any Discretion be ashamed for having done evil and his countenance testifies sufficiently that he knows when he commits evil And therefore we ought never to believe that we cannot discern good from evil to make choise for that is but to flatter our selves For lo the wickedest man in the world however blinded in his sins knows assuredly well enough when he does evil but he hath no will to change his wickedness into good or he hath not the courage to resist the Devil and that because he hath given him so
knew it And they shewed at first to be touched but no sooner did she without designing any person discover the nature and properties of Hypocrisie and the general corruption even in the most devout and holy but they finding themselves pinched rose all up against her by the artifices descried in the Letters she wrote then in the 3. part of Light arisen in Darkness and 2. and 3. Part of the Funeral of False Theologie Mrs. B. in one of her Letters to them having written not considering when she sought after them that there were no more true Christians and God told her she should be the mother of true believers Lest that especially that mother of true believers should stumble these erudide heads she would score it out but God said to her what 's written let it stay written and indeed no sooner had they that in their hands but they made such a dirty hubub her Pride her Pride that though her after-writings satisfie any that have common sense on that head these men have not yet come to themselves Mr. Serrarius famous enough for his correspondencies and his Writings was of the first that knew and recommended her every where he would lead her every where as a living Gospel that should enlighten all the world he would cause print all her Writings and even of his Titles and Prefaces to them yet extant but seeing at length that she would not swerve from the pure Truth God revealed in her to second his particular Opinions of the restoring a Levitical Worship of the Jews and his esteem of a certain Seducer at that time arisen in Palestine he rejected her for his own Imaginations Mr. Comenius so famous among the Learned his Learning not having puft him up as it does ordinarily fell out with Mr. Serrarius because of his injustice against Mrs. Bourignon and retained a Veneration for her all the rest of his Life and on his Death-Bed desired a last visit of her saying O That Holy Maid where is she then may I be so happy as to see her yet once before I die all the Knowledge and Sciences I have attained are but productions of reason and of Human Spirit and Study but she has a Wisdom and Light that come only from God immediatly by the Holy Spirit After she had seen him and was gone he said of her with transports of joy to them that visited him I have seen an Angel of God! God has sent me his Angel to day God did also let her see how far the best cultivated human spirit is blind and far from the Kingdom of God by conferences she had with some Cartesians both Divines and meer Phylosophers she had a discourse with the Professors Heydan and Burmannus but Nicodemus was too great a Doctor to understand Christs Language or learn of him though so blind as to deny that the Spirit blows where he lists at present and his Voice to be heard to infer that we must not abandon our Vessel to the conduct of his divine Inspirations but steer by human spirit and reason She wrote to him on that occasion Letter 12. of the first part of the Funeral of false Theologie The Phylosophers would perswade her that she came near to their Principles but God shewed her their Nullity and errour She told them their disease that they would comprehend all by the activity of human Reason and not give place to the Illumination of divine Faith which requires a cessation of our Reason and Spirit that God may display that divine Light which gives the only true Knowledge of God but the mean pass that Reason with all its equipage of Ideas and clear and distinct Conceptions will be at to defend or regulate it self before God at Death felt a Cartesian gentleman even in this life who in the profound stupid security they are all leavened with after their once doubting to the full Scorned Mrs. Bourignons admonitions saying laughing You call your self the Mother of believers by the Truths you say you perswade and make them believe and I who have clear and evident demonstrations by which I can perswade reasonable spirits and make them believe much better I shall be the Father of believers But this poor Father of believers who was otherwise a man of spirit of a good beneficent nature and a person of quality being a little after in a deadly Disease in the flower of his age God opened his eyes to see his poor state and lament his error he began to cry with Tears night and day O my understanding my understanding whereto hast thou brought me Alas my Reason I relied so much on what assistance canst thou give me now Thou canst not now give me Salvation nor the hope of it I must be damned there can be no mercy for me A friend comforting him the best he could he wholly disconsolate asked continually Think you than there is yet any mercy to be hoped for my Soul and then looking and tossing about cryed again My understanding my understanding alass whereto hast thou led me Then to the first Friend Go tell desire that good soul Mrs Bourignon to pray to God for me that I may obtain pardon of that sin for otherwise I am damned or I must suffer a flul long Purgatory O! if I could recover from this Disease I would turn wholly to God and would follow altogether another way but when he told Mrs. Bourignon of it she answered he shall not recover but he shall die for if he did recover he would fall deeper in that pernicious Error As in effect he did in a good and sound Judgment in great contrition adoring Jesus Christ crucified God having shown her experimentally by that frequent conversation how little hope remains of converting the world by the little welcome and less Correspondence the Truth met with even with the best and wisest of all sorts he brought her with the two or three that seeing the means of purifying their souls to the Love of God and working out their salvation in her company would sell all for that Pearl of great Price maugre the tentation that lost the young man in the Gospel for they had great Riches and Reputation too I say he brought them from Holland to Holsatia And as from the beginning God did in all her after course unto himself serve himself of the manifold Malice and Persecutions of Satan against the Truth and Light of God to confound that blackfiend and all his Hellish Works of Darkness his violent Persecutions to extinguish it served but as wind to kindle it his Attempts to cut off the Messenger of it in one place served but to carry her further to more places and persons as with a general embassage his secret Blows God did more secretly often forewarn her of in spirit his outward open Violences he often no less wonderfully averted his calumnies and Accusations of Heresie did but bring the Truth to more admirable and dazling Evidence and bring to
Wiles of the Devil which he opposes to Virtue that we may evite them which are recited in this and the following Letters as 1. That the Devil mixes himself in what is sensual in man 2. That he accommodates himself to the inclinations and impulses of every one leaving all the rest in quiet p. 93. XIII Whatever is sensible to Nature is not the Work of Grace or Virtue Discovering a third Artifice of the Devil whereby he perswades men that they may satisfie their senses in a slate of regeneration and Praising God A 4. by which he affixes the Heart to spiritual Pleasures and Delights wherewith the Followers of Virtue are affected p. 102. XIV The Devil transforms himself into an Angel of Light Discovering a 5. and 6. Artifice of the Devil by which he causes men to apply themselves to the study of the Truth and mystical and Spiritual things 5 That they may comprehend and understand them Or 6. That they may unseasonably instruct others p. 111. XV. The Devil instigates unto Good that he may bring Evil out of it A seventh Deceit of the Devil is to carry us out of our selves to compare our Good Works with others that we may draw Vain Glory from our Virtue An 8. whereby he excites us to immoderate Mortifications and Macerations of our Body And a 9. Whereby he excites us to immoderate spiritual Good Works toward our Neighbour as to desire to instruct convert reprove or correct him unseasonably p. 121. XVI The Devil mixes himself in our Good Works A tenth Artifice of the Devil in our corporal Good Works which the Devil often turns to his own honour Yet we must not therefore cease from them but joyn Moderation and avoid Human Respect and considerations and Pride which insult over us in this time of tryal p. 130. XVII Sin proceeds from Man's Free Will An eleventh Tentation is proposed by which we impute the guilt of our sins to the Devil to excuse our selves It is shewed that the Devil cannot bring man to sin nor do him any hurt without his own free Consent p. 139. XVIII The Good and Evil Spirit are known by their Fruit. Proposing the Signs to know whether we are ruled by the Instinct of the Good Spirit or of the Evil. A 12. Artifice of the Devil by which he causes that we impute our Vices to our natural Inclinations without suspecting him to lurk therein that he may remain undiscovered p. 149. XIX We cannot in this Life be free from Tentations Shewing to him that was afflicted that the Devil hath power so variously to tempt us that a 13. Artifice of the Devil is to break the firmness and strength of our mind by grief Also that Tentations are necessary and profitable to try and purify us p. 158. XX. Spiritual Diligence is necessary to Salvation A 14. Impediment of the Devil more pernicious than the rest is spiritual Negligence Moving also unto spiritual diligence by consideration of the Care usually bestowed in Worldly things which the Children of this world manage with more Prudence and Care than the Children of Light do their Business p. 168. XXI Spiritual Diligence necessary beyond all other Virtues Shewing how necessary Spiritual Diligence is for confirming the mind in Virtue and to remove two more Impediments of the Devil viz. 15. Sins of Omission with which the Devil tempts good men and 16. self-love which insinuates it self in all and is a continual sin p. 177. XXII Spiritual Diligence necessary to Salvation Exhorting unto Spiritual Diligence because without it none can persevere in the Service of God nor overcome corrupt Nature and Self-love p. 186. XXIII Spiritual Diligence necessary to Salvation Shewing the necessity of Spiritual Diligence to watch over all the actions of our corrupt Nature and proper Will and to acquire the knowledge of our selves That spiritual Negligence is a fountain of all Evils and is alone sufficient to damn us since it renders our Souls rude and like uncultivated and cursed ground which brings forth noehing but Bryars and Thistles and so is far from Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart p. 194. XXIV Men are Idolaters of their own Corruption and Enemies of True Virtue Shewing that the continuing of this subject is hindered by the Devils exciting the Wise of this World who are Enemies of Virtue and Friends of corrupt Nature to distract the mind of the Writer by their Disputes Lies Calumnies and all manner of Persecutions p. 202. An Extract of some of the Works of Mrs. A. Bourignon belonging to some Most Essential Matters of Christianism and Health Being a Letter written to one of her Intimates Mr. van de Velde concerning TOLERATION That it ought never to go the length of communicating with Sin directly or indirectly Of the Essential and of the Perfection of Christianity Of Religions Worships and Ceremonies and their use p. 220. Some Conferences taken out of the Third Part of the Light of the World viz. Conference XI How we must be Regenerated to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that we must return into the Dependance of God which is the only thing which God requires essentially of Man p. 219. Conference XII That there is but one only thing to be done to be saved p. 226. Conference XVII Being a Collection of all the preceding Matters their End and Use p. 235. Conference XXVI Declareth the necessity of becoming a Child to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all Worldly Wisdom and all Human Abuses p. 245. A Profession of Faith and Religion made Publick by Mrs. ANTONIA BOURIGNON I. I Am a Christian and I believe all that a true Christian ought to believe II. I am baptised in the Catholique Church in the Name of the Father in the Name of the Son in the Name of the Holy Spirit III. I believe the twelve Articles of the Credo or Apostles Creed and do not doubt in any Article of it IV. I believe that Jesus Christ is True God and that he is also True Man and that he is the Saviour and Redeemer of the World V. I believe in the holy Gospel in the holy Prophets and in all the holy Scripture both of the Old and New Testament I will live and die in all the points of this belief which I protest before God and Men to all whom it may concern To the faith whereof I have subscribed this my Confession with my hand and sealed it with my Seal Sleeswick 11. March 1675. Sealed and subscribed L. S. ANTONIA BOURIGNON A CATALOGUE Of Books Composed by Mrs. ANTONIA BOURIGNON I. THe Life of Mrs. A. Bourignon wherein is 1 an Apologie for her Person and for her Doctrine 2 Her Inward Life by her self 3 Her Outward Life by her self II. Her Life continued until her death by a Person of her Acquaintance III. God's Call and Mens Refusal in two Parts with a treatise of the Solitary Life and Gods Last Mercy IV. Light arisen in Darkness in
seems to have some pleasure in it seeing there are persons that have no greater pleasure in the world than to eat and drink well and that sense adds somewhat to mans body Yet it is more replenisht with miseries than the other four because it hurts more both the soul and body of man seeing it causes so many diseases and even death by its excesses and also so many souls damn themselves in striving to satisfie the pleasure of Taste which leads them to several other sins and withdraws them assuredly from the love of God who requires to have our affections alone For he is a jealous God and notwithstanding we place them in things vile and corruptible as are meat and drink For what is more naughty than meat and drink They have scarce past the throat but they become putrid and corrupt and especially the more fine and delicate corrupt more than the courser And for all that people love them bestowing pains and travail to attain them which is a gross blindness of mind from which I pray God preserve you that your love may remain in God only and you may know the truth of all salutary things in the desire whereof I remain Your Well-wisher in Jesus Christ ANTONIO BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 17. Febr. 1672. St. vet THE VII LETTER He that serves the Lusts of his Senses by that same Renounces the Love of God To the same exhorting him to the effects of Humility by the Renouncing of his senses showing him that no man can follow them unless thereby he renounce the Love of God which is the end of our Creation and the essence of true Virtue My Dear Child I Deduced to you in my last how vain and miserable are the Pleasures of the Senses and have shewed you the truth of several things that you might arrive to the Humility of heart which Jesus Christ requires It is much to understand well these things but also you must set about the practice and embrace in good earnest the mortification of your senses following the truths you have known otherways it s a small matter to know the Truth if you put it not in practice knowledge is very good for you cannot practise what you know not but if that knowledge be not fruitful it cannot serve for our Salvation We must needs put to our hand and war against our corrupt nature otherways we must die the eternal Death after the temporal Which may easily be conceived since mans nature is corrupted by Adams sin and hath quitted dependance on God to depend of it self It must then of necessity remain in that corruption and sin until every man for his own particular have overcome that corruption and disobedience which he hath contracted against God or else he abideth in death and dies damned eternally For although Adam had not sinned all men in general and every one in particular could have sinned and corrupted his way by leaving dependance on his God and that because all the men that were or shall be are all created free and can continue in the dependance of God and also recede from it if they please for God forces no person So that he that is arrived to the use of Reason hath the same liberty to sin and retire from dependance on God that Adam had before his sin yet with this difference that Adam at the beginning had not in his nature that frailty and inclination to sin and evil which men have who proceeded from him after his sin for they have contracted that frailty and inclination to evil from their first father and also the infirmities of body which we see in all men and feel in our selves for no person is exempt from the evils which sin hath caused in man's nature Though it is free to all men to follow that inclination to evil which they feel in themselves as also they can by the Grace of God overcome their infirmities and the corruption of their five senses in not following them but fighting against them And it is in that that Jesus Christ says we must take the Kingdom of Heaven by Force and the Violent take it so That is not that we should fight by force to gain the Kingdom for God created it for us and he gives it us freely but it is that we must resist with force the corruption of our nature that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and so that we approve not in us the sin which Adam committed and do not of our own proper will retire from dependance on God Therefore it is the Scripture says Our Life is a continual Warfare For we must continually combat the corruption of our senses without that we can never return to dependance on God from which Adam's sin hath withdrawn us seeing our senses being corrupted beget all sorts of evil and there needs no more but to follow them and their inclination to turn us away from God and remain in the way of damnation For no sooner loose we the reins to our Sight but it pleases it self to behold beautiful or curious things and no sooner have we considered them but we covet them And if we yield to the sense of Hearing the Heart delights in it and the Affection is drawn to it It is even so with Smelling where the sensitive part takes pleasure And if we please our selves in Taste all our care and study are put to search means to satisfie it and that sense is more insatiable than any other and precipitates into all sorts of sins Moreover it excites the sense of feeling for he that pleases his taste seeks also to satisfie his feeling with pleasure and satisfaction Even all the five senses are moved only by the love we carry to our selves and desire of affording our selves pleasure All these things with-draw us assuredly from God and dependance on him and he hath commanded us to love him with all our heart So that he wills not that we fix our heart on things so frail and vile as are the Sight Hearing Smelling Taste and Feeling For it is unworthy of a divine Soul which God hath given us capable of loving an eternal God who desires and commands that we love him with all our heart So that the man that hath affection for his senses quits voluntarily the dependance of God seeing he does not submit himself to his will who demands that we should love him with all our heart And that is from the disorder which the devil hath caused in man's nature when he made it turn the affection upon the creatures which is due to God alone In which consisted the first sin which man committed and thence all other sins draw their origin For nothing can be evil or sin but what is committed against the will of God and there is nothing but that can be evil as nothing can be good but what is done by his will So the Devil laboured violently from the beginning of the world to pervert
will not promise that you shall have in his service sensual Pleasure or worldly Riches and vain Contentment but I promise you assuredly Quiet of Conscience Tranquillity of Spirit an inward Peace and contentment in your Soul Which are things far more estimable than the vain Pleasures and impure Contentments and aboundance of the Riches of this world which can never satisfie our souls being they are spiritual and cannot consequently be satisfied with material things Therefore is it that there was never any man perfectly content and satisfied in this world unless he loved God with his whole heart There is no other but such an one who can be entirely content for only the Love of God is capable fully to satisfie our souls for they are little divinities which cannot be fully contented out of God from whom they proceeded Therefore must you my Child labour to attain to that love for when you have truely found it you shall have all things and you shall reign over all the world having in contempt all that is not God And you have no violence to use with God to obtain his love seeing he gives it liberally and freely to all that desire and ask it and even compels men by an express Command which he hath given them but you must do a little violence to your self to obtain that love because your affections are carried to other things than him so you must reclaim them and constrain them to return to their God and in that you shall have so many combats as you have habitudes to love other things than God If you be then strongly addicted to self-love or Love of other Creatures your combats shall be so much the greater But the business deserves suffering well seeing after we shall enjoy so great Good temporal and eternal we should spare nothing to gain such a Treasure the Pain shall pass swiftly and the Joy endure eternally And therefore you must suffer willingly to retire your affections from earthly things and place them in God alone I have sufficiently shown you in my last that that is good pleasant honourable and profitable It remains for you now to put it in practice Examin once what it is that you love beside God and then detest that love and withdraw from it your heart If you love objects without your self flee from them as the enemies of your good loose from them your heart and desire no more to see them And if your Affections be occupied in Self-love remove them from an object so little lovely to place them in God who only merits your affections and nothing else Protest then against that natural inclination of Self-love and yield no more any thing to that nature but things purely necessary for it is your greatest enemy to which you must not furnish Arms to fight against you the better You must know that corrupt nature wars against the Love of God as far as you yield to it So give it the least satisfaction you can even till you have overcome it withdraw then from it your Affections you must restrain it as a Horse with Bridle that it kick not nor attempt but to serve the master you love Behold the means to render you free to love God with your whole heart for as soon as your affections are retired from all Creatures they will be assuredly carryed to love God their Creator because the Love of God is the element of our Soul in which only it can live recreate and repose it self That Love of God is the true center of our Souls whither they fall of themselves so soon as they are disengaged of other affections which are all vain It is as with a Stone thrown into the Air which will not rest till it fall on the Earth which is its center unless it be retained with bonds or other thing It is the very same with man's Soul which is thrown into the air of the Vanities of this world It cannot find rest there if we did not retain it by Force by Baits and Allurements of Affection for earthly things doubtless it would presently fall into the Love of God which is its center and element where it can rest and recreate it self to satisfaction because the Soul hath nothing more suitable to its nature than God from whom it proceeded and it can never repose till it be returned to him and when it is compelled to remain out of its element it is as a Fish which by Nets and Lines is forced out of the water which is to it very disagreeable and causes to it Death if it be not quickly returned into the water The same happens to the Soul when it suffers it self to be entangled in the nets of earthly Affections it must quickly die because it cannot find there an element suitable to its divine nature and so it languishes withers and dies an eternal death unless it break the nets of earthly Affections to return to its element which is the Love of God You must my Son labour that you may break all the bonds of earthly Affections and so soon as you feel affection for any thing that is not God rescind it quickly for it is a chain which retains you out of your element and though it should be painful for you to loose your heart from any thing to which it enclines these Pains shall quickly change into Consolations for you shall no sooner be returned into the Love of God but you shall bathe in ease and pleasure as fish newly returned to the water which is its element It is for that Jesus Christ says that his yoak is easie and his Burthen Light He calls a Yoak our natural inclinations because we must constrain and retain them and they are troublesom and grievous to bear For if we follow them we precipitate our selves into a thousand Evils seeing nature being corrupted by sin enclines always to evil And these evils are often troublesom and weighty to bear I know well that to us it seems grievous that we may not in any thing follow our natural inclinations but if we take on that Yoak for the Love of God it will become light and easie to us as Jesus Christ hath taught No person can dispence or excuse himself from bearing it since our first Father Adam laid it on the shoulders of all his Posterity all men in general and every one in particular are charged with the miseries which sin brought upon human nature They are all subject to Heat Cold Intemperance of the Air Hunger Thirst Infirmities and Diseases of the Body to Ignorance and Inconstancy of Spirit and the disorderly motions of Passions for sin hath brought all these things upon man's nature which God created altogether perfect but since all men have pertaken of Adam's Sin they are also subject to his Penitence That is the Yoak which God hath given man to satisfie his divine Justice So that all men coming into the world must bear that Yoak will they or not
Nothing which we call evil And that evil is in its essence in the Devil as Good is in God without mixture for there can be no Evil in God and there can be no Good in the Devil But we find a mixture in the other Creatures which have partaken of Good from God and evil from the Devil and so they can be mixed of these two things and are good or evil in proportion as they partake of the one or the other God gave unto man all sorts of Goods in aboundance since he had the power to give them And the devil that impotence hath given nothing to man but so much evil as he hath obtained consent from the free will of man and no more for he is nothing but miserable impotence And to know that the Malice of the Devil and the Sin of Man are but nothings you need but consider what we see and touch in nature For we see assuredly that Hunger and Thirst is but the want of Meat and Drink Cold is but the privation of Heat and Death the privation of life and so is it with all other sorts of evils which befal man which are only the privation of the Goods which he needs for his sustenance temporal and eternal For though we say that there are in Hell pains and Torments Fire Ice Sadness Bitterness and all sorts of Pains All these are nothing in effect but the privation of the goods which man should have had to be happy viz. all sorts of Contentments in God all Pleasure all Satisfaction and Delight Refreshment Peace and Joy eternal But the privation of all these things makes the Torments and Sufferings of Hell without need that there should be material Fire Ice or Famin. It is enough that the soul of man be deprived of all good to suffer all sorts of evil We may see that yet more clearly in a new born Infant if it be left without the good of assistance it is reduced to all sorts of evil and will die without our touching it to do it any evil for we deprive it of life in depriving it of assistance It is the same with the malice of the Devil and the Sin of man They are only privations of Good which notwithstanding cause Pains and Torments incomprehensible to mans soul And all that is represented to us by fire Hunger and other Torments of Hell which is nothing in regard of the reality of the Pains and Torments which a soul suffers that is deprived of the Grace of God For that soul is not only fallen into the Cold of Ice and Heat of Fire but also into all other sorts of Torments because the privation of the Grace of God is the possession of all sorts of evil and seeing that Grace causes us all sorts of Good its privation must needs throw us into all evil Now whatsoever lives in nature generates always because there is in it a bent and inclination to produce its like Herbs and Plants yield their seeds and sprigs or branches nothing remains unfruitful that lives in nature every kind produces its like to its power Beasts produce after their kinds men produce human Creatures spirits spirits every one according to their nature The good spirits which are the Angels of God produce always good spirits the evil which are the Devils produce evil The one and th' other of these spirits attempt to produce in the souls of men their own sort And as men are the noblest of all the Creatures there is neither Angel nor Devil hath power over him but so far as man gives them The good Angels always incite men to good the evil who are the Devils to evil And that by the desire that each of these spirits hath to render men like to themselves the Devil endeavours to render the souls of men devilish and the good Angels to render them Angelical Man in the mean while remains free to yield himself to be begotten unto good or evil for none of these spirits can force man they can but incite him Every one attempts to render him of his own party but since the Devil hath corrupted man's nature he hath also more power over it than the good Angel which hath not advanced it to good as the Devil to evil All the good in man comes from God only and not from the Angel who being a pure spirit hath not power but over the spirit of man in representing to him good things but the Devil as a subtil spirit hath insinuated himself into the spirit of man by means of the human nature And as the vital spirits in man are in his blood dispersed throw his whole body so does the spirit of the Devil mix and disperse it self with the vital spirits of man and works much more upon his nature than the good Angel who cannot joyn with the corruption of that nature because he is a spirit altogether pure but the Devil is impure and accords well with the impurity of our corrupted nature And therefore he is always more united with us than the good Angel who does not delight but in the pure spirit of man For he finds nothing conform to his Angelick nature but the spirit of man because our human nature is too gross and earthly to be united with the Angelick Nature But the Devil as an impure Beast wallows freely in the flesh and blood that he may gain the soul of man He so mixes himself with the blood of man that he easily moves all the parts of his body to do evil but man knows not that it is the Devil For he is so united to corrupt nature that though we feel his motions we think that they proceed but from our own nature Which is because man cannot comprehend that the Devil should so mix with flesh and blood since he is only a Spirit without Body as he is truely but the Devil hath that subtilty to joyn himself to the vital spirits of man to move the flesh to Luxury Wrath and other vicious Passions You may see that my Son by your proper experience For if you mark well the disposition of your sentiments you shall find that you have been often carryed away with vicious passions even against your will and that you have perceived them with regret which cannot proceed from your self for your will cannot contradict it self If you had naturally a will to the pleasure of the flesh it would not displease you but contrariwise you would take pleasure in it and be glad that you might effectuate it But when that carnal thought or desire displeases you and you regret it that is a token that it comes from a spirit which is without you and yet is in you without that you know how he is there Yet you see well by the operations which he does there that that proceeds not from your own will which cannot desire what displeases it but it complains with St. Paul where he says the Good that I would I do not
other but live at ease without fighting they remain in quiet amidst the danger of their Enemies And which is strange when any would waken them out of that Lethargique Sleep they are grieved and dissatisfied notwithstanding that Sleep will assuredly procure them eternal Death if they do not awake to fight their Enemies We cannot hinder that these Enemies assail us every where but they are unwilling to be discovered because an Enemy discovered is half vanquisht And therefore my Child you ought to rejoyce rather than be sorrowful that God permits that I now discover so many wiles of the Devil For you cannot make that he be not wicked and that all manner of malice proceeds not from him nor can you hinder that he tempt men since our first parents have given him that power and if they had not done it we give him dayly the same power over us which he got over them by the consent of our will to his tentation It being so we must fight or render to him which were lamentable For we were created true Children of God after his Image and Resemblance And we should become by our Sloath Children of the Devil which you must never suffer but endeavour to discover the evil and resist it to your power And bless God also that he sends you his Light that you may know it and beware of it without afflicting your self so much because the Devil hoth power to tempt men For tentations purifie the soul and render it agreeable to God He takes pleasure to see us fight his and our Enemies And he gives us strength and aid if we persevere constantly yea he hath prepared for us Triumphant Lawrels and Eternal Rewards of Victory Therefore you must not give place to that feebleness of spirit to languish because the Devil hath power to tempt men since it is not in you to take it from him he hath too long possessed it For since he made himself the Enemy of God he hath had power to do in himself all the evil he pleased although his evil cannot hurt man unless he consent For man hath full liberty to resist him as the Devil hath full liberty to tempt us If that were not true he could never have tempted Adam our first Father who was altogether holy and perfect at his Creation and had not in his beginning given any occasion to the Devil to tempt him But the Devil being created free as well as man he had power to do all the evil he pleased in himself For he would even be equal with God which is a greater evil than to tempt Adam in his innocence And that of tempting men now is yet far less seeing they are corrupted by the first Sin And it is yet less when he tempts them that have so often consented to him with deliberate will And therefore my Son you have no ground to fret because the Devil hath power to tempt you but you ought truely to regret that you have by your past sins given him so much power over your soul Resolve now to war against him with manly courage and hinder that he get more power over your soul by resisting his tentations for that is a holy and salutary Resolution But that Grief which you conceive because the Devil hath power to tempt you and others comes from him He makes us always desire things impossible and such as are not in our power that he may afflict and discourage us For he knows well that a grieved and discouraged person is not well fitted to resist his tentations and that in that state he can easily lead him from one evil to another And therefore he often causes vain griefs such as is that which proceeds from that the Devil hath so much power to tempt men and also the disturbing grief for our sins past which are no more in our power These are Extremities into which the Devil attempts always to precipitate us It is true we ought to regret that we have willingly given the Devil so much power over us and more lament our by past sins but we must not therefore rest in these griefs seeing they would mar the Graces of God in us It is better to go to God by love and amendment of life than by Melancholies which proceed from the Devil for before his entry there was nothing but all joy in the world and in the heart of man So that sadness is truely a quality of the Devil and so man ought to Despise it if he seeks after true virtue He ought indeed to have a sincere regret from his heart that he hath offended God and beg pardon of him as often as he remembers his sins but he ought never to suffer himself to be overcome of grief since what 's past is not in his power And though he should destroy himself he can never make that what is past should not be He ought then for penitence of his by-past sins endeavour a true conversion to God departing from evil to do good detesting sin to embrace true virtue Which is a true contrition much more solid than tears and immoderate sadness which the Devil ordinarily gives them that begin Of which you must beware my Child for God would be served with a ready and joyful heart And he says that he treats with the converted sinner as if he had never offended him You should then rejoyce for the Grace God hath given you to forsake the World and to turn from Vanity unto the Truth which you now discover and not afflict your self because the Devil hath so much power to tempt men seeing that power cannot be exercised but on those that give or have given him their full consent and that all things turn to good to them that fear God When the Devil tempts you remember that he cannot hurt you without your own consent and your resisting his tentation renders you agreeable to God For your soul must be proved as Gold in the Furnace which grows still the purer by continuing in the fire Even so is a soul purified by long tentation if it remain firm in resisting and nothing can hurt it but sin from which if it abstain it carries the victory over its enemies and all they can do against it are but false allarms which try its Fidelity and Vigilancy And therefore we must not desire that the devils power should be taken from him but earnestly pray to God for strength to resist him and fight until death For Jesus Christ in the prayer which he left to Christians hath not asked to be free from tentation but only not to be led to follow the tentation and to be delivered from evil And since there is no other evil but sin we pray only to be delivered from it and not from tentation which is often profitable and salutary for us yea sometimes necessary to our frailty For our nature is so feeble and corrupted that it could not remain faithful to God out of tribulations
encline to and you shall follow assuredly the Spirit of God So shall you carry the victory over that evil spirit who troubles you now Ply and submit your understanding under the Holy Spirit and never believe your self wiser than him in any thing For men are now abandoned to the spirit of error and their best Sciences are but Ignorance their Wisdom Folly And although you think sometimes to have reason to contradict me do it not And after you shall see that your reason cannot be better than mine which you may experiment while I remain Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle May. 19. 1672 St. vet THE XX. LETTER Spiritual Diligence is necessary to Salvation To the same to whom is shewn a Fourteenth snare of the Devil more pernicious than the rest viz. Spiritual Negligence He is moved to Spiritual Diligence by consideration of the diligence usually bestowed on temporal things which the Children of this World administer with more Care and Prudence than the Children of Light do Spiritual Things My Son I Perceive it appears some what difficult to you to watch continually so narrowly over all your Words and Actions But believe me if you do it not the Devil will assuredly surprise you in every thing And you shall obey him without knowing it For he is a most cunning spirit who watches always without rest And therefore it is necessary despising all difficulties to resolve absolutely for the combat if you will obtain salvation and tend to true Virtue For without fighting there is no Victory and except you apply your spirit to watch diligently over all your actions and words you shall fall into all sorts of evil And therefore is it that they call Negligence a mortal or capital sin Now Negligence is not understood to be a mortal sin as signifying the want of bodily travail and labour for many persons are not oblieged to bodily labour having other occupations of Body and Spirit more profitable and necessary sometimes than bodily Labour And when they apply themselves to those good and useful things they fall not into that sin of Negligence which is called mortal for every one ought to occupy himself in different things according to his condition or disposition A sick person cannot labour bodily and sometimes also not in Spirit neither because of his Infirmity and so he falls not into the mortal sin of Negligence for he may by acting resignation to the will of God be more diligent than one that labours both in Spirit and Body A good Master of a Family labours often more in eying and watching over his Servants than he that delves the Ground An Artist labours more by ordering well the Building of a House than the Workman that builds it And so with other persons who perform their duty every one in his state and vocation So that we must not believe that that sin of Negligence is committed by them that labour not corporally but by all them that neglect to watch over their souls and to discover the tentation of the Devil Seeing such neglect their eternal Happiness and consent tacitly to the tentation of the Devil which is certainly a mortal sin and causes Eternal Damnation that is it wherefore this Negligence is accounted among capital sins and ought to be called Mortal since it causes Death to the Soul For he that through Negligence does not resist the Devil he leaves his soul a prey to him And he that searches not all means to find true Virtue shall never obtain it but dying without it shall never come to eternal Happiness And therefore you must of necessity have spiritual Diligence if you would be saved For it were but flattering of your self to think that God will receive your Excuses when you shall say I did not know that the Devil had so much Subtilty and Power over us to tempt us or if you should think to excuse your self before God by your Frailty and Weakness you could not abstain from sin and could not attain to true Virtue because you could not find the way For all these Excuses and false Reasons God will not accept because he searches the Reins and tryes the Consciences and sees the least motions of our wills And he knows without needing witnesses what Diligence we have given to watch over our Souls and what Diligence to evite sin and follow true Virtue For God is not as men who amuse one another by the false Philosophy which they 've learnt in the Schools which serves only to maintain wickedness and excuse the malice of their likes They invent smooth words to make wickedness appear Truth and please themselves with these fine words and suffer themselves to be perswaded that Falshood is Truth when adorned with the fine terms and words of their false Philosophy But God regards the Essence and Reality of the thing and sees even to the bottom of our Souls and so he knows if we have done all Diligence in earnest to discover the deceits of the Devil and find the means to arrive at true Virtue and finding that we have done neither the one nor th' other we are condemned without place for Excuses And so my Child you must not be deceived Think not to find Excuses before God when you have lived in spiritual Negligence for he will not accept them He hath given you a Body and Spirit and that to apply them both diligently to eschew evil and follow good But the misery is that men now adays are fallen into so profound an ignorance that they employ body and soul in Care and Diligence to acquire the things of the earth and render themselves by that means incapable of having spiritual Diligence for when a Vessel is filled with dung there can be nothing that is good put in it Alas what are all the Cares of the business and affairs of the world other than Dung which hath filled your Spirit You were a diligent Merchant and your care and diligence hath heaped up money to you but now what will you do with that money you cannot expend it for Meat and Drink and Cloathing nor can you carry it with you at Death and if you leave it to your Relations they shall thereby become more vicious and proud So that every way you must acknowledge that your spirit hath been always filled with the dung of cares and diligence for earthly things And it is no wonder that so you could not discover the wiles of the Devil nor the means which advance unto true Virtue because your Diligence was employed about other things But now when the Goodness of God hath discovered to you the truth of these things you must endeavour to use that Diligence to discover the tentations of the Devil and the means to arrive at Virtue which formerly you used in your temporal affairs I believe you would not then let slip any occasion wherein you saw any profit without accepting it and that you suffered
Money nor other Service nor Medecines which could not prolong his Life one day And so he demanded of him assurance of his Salvation since he could not prolong his life that if he must die he might do it with peace and in assurance to die happy and to be saved That demand afflicted much the Prince and made him answer that his Salvation depended upon the Grace and Mercy of God and consequently it was not in his power to promise and far less to give it him Which grieved the Servant so exceedingly that turning away from his Prince and turning his face to the wall he said O Miserable man that I am have I passed all the days of my life to serve and please a Master who is not able to assist me in my greatest need nor give me one hours life I will not henceforth serve so impotent a Master And in that resolution he made a vow to God That if he would restore him his health that he would forsake men and retire to the Desert to serve God alone and attend the perfection of his Soul and so give himself to a Lord that could give him Life and Salvation Which he did in effect for God having restored him to health he retired to the Desert and there lived a good life during some years and in the end died well Does not that History open your understanding to understand the blindness of men who spare nothing in the service of the world but bestow therein their care and labour without scruple to please men such as themselves or to gain a little earthly Goods For Although that Story were not true as I believe firmly that it is Yet we see dayly that every one cares and labours for a little Money or a little Favour which they expect from men though it is most certain that they can give us nothing that 's solid and that they leave us at death not having the power to give us an hour of life Ought we not to have shame and confusion to say or think that it is difficult to watch always over our Words and Actions to discover the Snares of the Devil and the means to attain true Virtue While thereon depends our eternal Happiness and there is nothing can concern us so nearly as that For the devil snatches all occasions to surprise us And if we are not well on our guard we shall not speak one word nor do one action whereby he will not cause us to sin although we do not perceive it For he will make us speak what we ought to keep in silence and be silent of what we ought to speak to draw thence his advantage and to bring disorder and confusion in all to make us sin or others by our means And therefore pray I you to be diligent and to watch over all your actions that you may overcome the Devil and arrive at true virtue Which she wishes you who loving your Salvation remains forever Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle June 1. 1672. St. vet THE XXI LETTER Spiritual Diligence necessary beyond all other Virtues To the same shewing him how necessary Spiritual Diligence is to confirm the mind in virtue And to remove yet two Impediments of the Devil Viz. 15 sins of Omission wherewith the Devil tempts good persons and 16 self-love which every-where mixes it self and is a continual sin My Son YOU must know that Spiritual Diligence is the most necessary of all the Virtues without which you cannot persevere in any Virtue and the Devil will always labour to cause you to lose them by degrees if you keep not firmly that of Spiritual Diligence For if he see you to have obtained the Virtue of Humility he will excite occasions of Pride as the Praises of men Prosperity in temporal Goods and such like to make you lose your Humility which you have already obtained by the Grace of God Be always on your guard then with Spiritual Diligence otherways you shall insensibly loose Humility before you be aware Which befel my self for after God had given me the Virtue of Humility I felt again Pride rise in my heart I felt a dissatisfaction when men gave me no Title of Honour or Respect but called me simply by my Name I even murmured at their incivility and though I testified nothing of it outwardly my Humility was notwithstanding weakened inwardly So that if God had not given me spiritual Diligence to watch continually over my Soul I had assuredly lost that comely Virtue of Humility as also that of Voluntary Poverty For after I was entirely freed from the Covetousness of this worlds Goods and had effectually forsaken them I felt covetous thoughts many years after For certain pious persons having demanded of me to put some Money in fellowship with them in their businesses which I did with intention to bestow all the Gain upon the Poor but after I had made that resolution I began to argue with my self If it was not enough to leave them the half of the Gain or some part of it and keep the rest for my self But examining my Conscience with Spiritual Diligence I discovered that the Devil intended by that to cause me to relapse into the Covetousness of the goods which by Virtue I had abandoned Which befel me also again after many years One time while I was at Malines about some business I conceived a desire to buy some Laces which are made there in aboundance with design to sell them dearer at Lisle and so save the expense of my Voyage Now after I had boughr them and saw appearance of gain I thought I might well keep that gain for my self though I was then in a house of poor which I had undertaken to govern for Charity and to employ thereon all my Labour and Industry for entertaining those Miserable Girles without seeking my own particular interest But the Devil endeavours always to surprise persons of a good will by most subtil snares unless they remain firmly fixed in spiritual Diligence and watch over all their words and actions For though it seemeth often that our actions are good reasonable and for a good end yet the Devil furs himself therein and attempts to get his advantage And when he cannot gain much he contents himself with little but yet brings always some hurt to the perfection of our souls or that of others So that we must be diligent that he may gain nothing For he cannot hurt us when we perceive it and have our wills fixed on God and a resolution to tend to true Virtue For when we discover the snares of the Devil we shall assuredly resist them but if we fall into spiritual negligence hee 'l ensnare us in all things and I believe we shall not speak a word from which he shall not draw some advantage against our souls or those of others For he will make us be silent of what we should speak for our advancement spiritual
her the text of the gospel with promise to submit my understanding unto the Light of the Holy Spirit entirely to my power She said Sir that Submission is the preparation requisit For if you would act the Doctor or wise learned man you should put opposition unto the Light of the Holy Spirit source of all Wisdom You must always believe and maintain that he is more wise than all the Doctors that ever were in the world and that we learn more by a little ray of his Light than by an hundred years of most assiduous study Therefore render all your Wisdom Ignorances and become as an Infant newly born again that you may receive these new Intelligences which shall give you more light than ever all the Old Fathers together have had because they have never discovered the hidden Treasures because the time was not yet come Every one spoke according to his thoughts and not as it was really because it was a closed Book which none was worthy to open but Jesus Christ himself since he was killed and put to death There is not hitherto any thing accomplished of all the Holy Scriptures but that death which shall disclose the marvellous things of God which have remained hidden until now and begin to be revealed unto them who shall be humble of heart but the wise shall perish with their wisdom Therefore do I exhort you Sir unto Simplicity and Submission that you may receive the Light which begins to soring in our time and see the new heavenly Jerusalem descend adorned as a Bride unto the day of her Nuptials The League and alliance of God with men shall then be accomplished The Earth shall then be renewed All Creatures shall leave their Malignities which shall be confined unto the center of the Earth to torment the Bodies and Souls of all them who would not submit their wills unto God They shall receive there pains according to their sins being over-whelmed with those Malignities which these sins have caused CONFERENCE XXVI Declareth the Necessity of becoming a Child to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all Worldly Wisdom and all Human Abuses I asked her How it were possible to leave all Sciences humanly acquired to become a Child when one is an Aged Man SHe said Sir except you do it you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is Jesus Christ who saith it and he cannot lie but he urgeth that necessity of becoming Children by Threatenings of not entering into the Kingdom of heaven which were the greatest evil that can befal man It were better never to be born than not to be saved and seeing we cannot be saved without becoming Children we must do it at any rate Would you Sir esteem more the Honour of the World or your acquired Science than the Kingdom of heaven That were very lamentable seeing all the things of this world do but pass as the Bird which cutteth the Air and leaveth no trace of its way after it so we when we shall be passed through this world there shall remain nothing of our Sciences or Studies nor of our Honour and Reputation all endeth with us and if there remain in the spirit of others any reputation that we were wise and learned that is insensible unto us after death If we have pleased our selves therein in our life the sufferings of these complacencies attend us in the other world and instead that it should be a happiness to us that we have been wise it is a great misery to us to have lost the Kingdom of Heaven by the same wisdom Forsake all these human Considerations Sir and become a Child though you be aged You must make the more haste lest time and life escape Never consult flesh and blood for they deceive and corrupt us Let us consult only our divine Soul which is reasonable and it shall tell you that nothing is better nor more reasonable than to abandon our free will unto God who hath given us it and to submit it unto his government as a little Child that on that depends our eternal Happiness and that nothing else can save us because without that Dependance there is no Salvation I said unto her That I knew most clearly that truth that there was no Salvation without the Dependance of God asking how I could now ignore Sciences formerly acquired seeing I could not make my self not to have them She said Sir nothing can hurt you if all be submitted unto God You cannot ignore what you know by means of your Studies but you can well submit all these Sciences unto God and account them as Ignorances as in effect they are Apply no more your spirit unto the study of Sciences and believe them to be all vain in respect of the Wisdom of God You shall know that you are abandoned unto his will when you seek no more any thing upon Earth neither Learning nor Wisdom nor desire to know any thing else but what may render you acceptable unto God For he that is abandoned unto him without Deceit moves himself no more but for what regards his Glory all the rest toucheth him no more If he is wise or ignorant it is indifferent unto him Wisdom serves him for what regards the Glory of God and in no wise to rule upon Earth knowing well that he who is abandoned unto God without Sciences is as great as he who is so with much Learning and even as we may well be Poor of Spirit in possessing Riches so can we possess much learning and withal be simple of Spirit when we have submitted all our Learning unto God he serves himself of it as he pleaseth but so long as we will rely on and make account of them we are not yet become Children to have entry into the Kingdom of Heaven And seeing God sheweth you Sir that there is no Salvation without dependance on him put your self promptly therein without considering if you have Sciences or any thing else For as the Proverb is God makes Mercury of all wood we must not regard our selves but his will who desires that all men of whatever conditions hold themselves under his Dependance remitting their free wills into his power without using the same themselves I said unto her That absolutely and irrevocably I abandoned my self unto God to be a true Child but that I had yet some repugnancy to renounce the Church She said Ha Sir you must never renounce the Holy Church but rather die but you must only renounce the abomination which is crept into the Romish Church of these days Do you not see that she hath falsified her faith unto her lawfull Husband Jesus Christ and hath not remained faithful unto him I should be glad that you could shew me one only point of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that she observes or one only thing that she practiseth that is not contrary to the Life and Doctrine of her