Age that these Combats began with her and towards the eighteenth that she came to a full Resolution of yielding up her Will wholly to God and of abandoning the World For seven Years after the Tears and Sorrows of her Penitence did continue which she accompanied with great Austerity and Mortification wearing a Shirt of Horse-hair next her Body Night and Day sleeping only on a Deal-board and that no longer than three Hours each Night passing the rest on her Knees in Prayers giving the Sheets of her Bed and her other Linnen to the Poor and still bringing them back to be wash'd with those of the Family without the Knowledge of the Servants She eat no more than what might preserve her Life and would mingle Earth and Ashes with what she did eat to avoid the Pleasure that might tempt her Her Penitence and Mortifications were not the effects of a Melancholy Humor nor did they produce it she being of a most chearful Disposition even till Death But she punish'd herself with an inward Contentment out of a Principle of Justice being convinc'd there was nothing more just than to regrate the Sin of having ceas'd to love so lovely a God God has no need of our Mortifications but our Flesh and Corruption have great need of them Timothy was so sensible of this that he stood in need of a Caution from the Apostle Paul to look also to his Health No doubt there may sometimes be Excess in these Mortifications of which M. Bourignon was so sensible that she could never advise any Body in this to follow her Example but to resign themselves to God and to take up chearfully the daily Crosses and Mortifications which his Providence shall appoint for them This so few are unwilling to do that undoubtedly God loves more the readiness of those who mortifie themselves too much than the Sloth of those who do it too little or not at all She would have continued this Austerity still if at the Age of twenty five Years God had not commanded her to leave off all this and to lead an ordinary Life When she remembred how she had lost God whom formerly she enjoy'd she would pass whole Nights in crying out My God! my God! where art thou my God! what shall I do what must I do to find thee again what would'st thou have me to do to be well-pleasing in thy Sight what shall I do to fulfil thy Will After much Time many Prayers Watchings and Tears God was pleas'd inwardly to manifest himself to her anew And the first Answer she receiv'd to the Petition she had so often made was this Divine Doctrin which contains the whole substance of the Gospel Forsake all Earthly Things Free thy self from the Love of the Creatures Deny thy self This was about the twentieth Year of her Age. These were the Words which stuck ever with her and upon these she laid the Foundations of a Christian Life She forsook all earthly things for the Love of God and to give her self wholly to him and yielded up her self entirely to his Conduct doing nothing without his Direction She thought to have met with true Christians in the Monasteries and was resolv'd to have shut up her self into one of them But there she found them as full of the Love of the World and of Self-love as elswhere God made known to her That the Society of Christians which she had been seeking for in vain was to be re-establish'd in the World by her means This seem'd impossible to her because of her Sex her Weakness her Ignorance her Meanness and having never read nor been taught by any what the Gospel-Life was And having laid this before God she had this Answer Behold these Trees in the Church-yard they seem dry Wood without Leaves or Fruit or any Appearance nevertheless when the Season comes they shall bring forth Leaves Flowers and in abundance without any Body's touching them So shall it be of my Work The manner how she was train'd up by God for this is remarkable That she might acquire Divine Light she was not sent to Study nor Reading nor Speculations nor to fill her Head with the Knowledge of Spiritual Things But she resign'd her self in Simplicity to God avoiding Sin needless Distractions and the Activity of her own Reason without desiring to know more than what was needful for her to know in the moment in which she was referring all the rest to God who gave her Knowledge and Light according to the Occasions wherein she needed them whether for her own Conduct or that of others for the Discovery of Truth or the Refutation of Error When she had learn'd from God his Designs in general she did not immediately with haste and precipitation set about the Execution of them as many rash Persons would have done with much Zeal She had still this Rule That it was not enough that God inspir'd good Designs but we must also wait upon him till he open the Way and direct all our Steps in the Execution of them that the Spirit of God acts leisurely yea slowly but steadily and what he produces in so leisurely and imperceptible a manner has afterwards a lasting and solid Subsistence Whereas the Spirit of the Devil moves all at first makes a great Noise and a great deal ado but in process of time all slackens and vanishes into Smoak and Nothing She mov'd always by this Rule She made several Attempts to bring others to lead a truly Christian Life Some Nuns were enclin'd to follow her Directions some Bishops and Priests were convinc'd of the total Degeneracy of Christendom and that the Spring of all the Corruption was in the Clergy but Human Respects and Worldly Considerations kept them from prosecuting what their Inward Convictions prompted them to She was prevail'd with to take the Charge of an Hospital of young Maids and to educate them in the Fear of God and the Spirit of the Gospel But after nine Years Labour tho' to outward Appearance they seem'd most modest and vertuous yet to her great Grief she found them in Heart to be led captive by the Devil at his Will She was afterwards mov'd by God to set down in Writing the Divine Truths communicated to her and having ask'd of God If she should keep these Writings secret or publish them He said to her Yes puhlish them for by them the Gospel shall be preach'd thro' all the World The writing of this Treatise The Light of the World was occasion'd by M. Christian de Cort Superior of the Fathers of the Oratory at Mechlin in Flanders a Man full of Zeal for God and Charity for his Neighbour and void of self-seeking He no sooner discover'd that God had hid in her the Treasures of his Divine Wisdom than he took all occasions to be instructed by her in the Truth and when alone set down in Writing the Sum of what had past in their Conversation but this briefly and without Order He acquainted her
Truth will strongly resist it and practising Unrighteousness they will not suffer Righteousness in their presence because it would reprove them I can very well hold my Peace as I have done for so many Years by-gone But when God shall will that I speak I will cry to all the World without fearing those who can but kill the Body Death would be agreeable to me if with it I could enlighten my Christian Brethren and draw them out of Error I said to her That the Church did not put to death the Holy Fathers who had explain'd the Holy Scriptures But on the contrary had honour'd and esteem'd them That neither ought she to be afraid of being ill treated by them but rather receiv'd and approved in explaining the Scriptures She said to me Sir You would always excuse this Church because you have espous'd her as I have also done It proceeds from this that you do not yet distinguish what the true Church is tho' I have so often spoke to you of it The Church in a perfect and defin'd Sense is no other thing but the Souls which are united in Heart and Will wholly unto God These are his only Spouses He never had any others no more under the Old Testament than the New yea from the Beginning of the World and will never have even to the End yea throughout all Eternity Nothing can be the Church but that which is united wholly unto God No more than a Woman can be a Man's Spouse if she be not united to him For if she joyn herself to another she is an Adultress the same is it without Comparison in the Alliance which God makes with Souls If they withdraw from him and joyn themselves to any other thing they are Adultresses and worthy of being divorc'd If God permit a Man to forsake his Wife for Whoredom wherefore should not this Law be observ'd by himself If Rome with its College does remain united to God in the Spirit of Truth she is the Church and his Spouse But if she be separated from that Truth and Righteousness she is no more but a Civil and Political Assembly Make always this Distinction Sir or otherwise you will be deceiv'd taking Falshood for Truth If there were a thousand Popes with as many Counsellors assembled and if they did not possess the Spirit of God they are not the Church but if a simple Woman that spins on a Distaff do possess the Spirit of God she is the Church The Holy Fathers were not ill treated by Rome in expounding the Holy Scriptures because there were yet perhaps in their Time in those Assemblies some Souls which were Churches and who by confequence did defend the Truth But at present this Support is not to be expected but rather mortal Persecutions An evil thing Sir ought not to be maintain'd blindly as if it were good Therefore God has given you a good Judgment to make this Distinction for if you continue always fix'd in the Resolution to take this outward Body of the Roman Church for the Holy Church it is in vain for me to discover to you her Evil and the Infidelity she has committed toward her lawful Husband You would do as he who would permit his Wife to play the Adultress in dissembling it without being desirous to know or discover it The Sin is as great to tolerate it as to do it If God permit me to speak the Truth openly to that Church which you esteem you would see with Regret how ill she would treat me you could not deliver me from the Peril to which your pious Belief would expose me I said to her That for the Exposition of the Holy Scriptures she needed offend no Body That this was but what God had declar'd unto us That every one ought to desire to have still a more clear Vnderstanding of them yea even the Wicked themselves that this ought not to displease them I entreated her to write boldly She said When you shall read Sir the 24th Chapter which I have promised you it may be you will change your Opinion for the Word of God is like to a two-edged Sword Truth cuts all that it meets with in Opposition to it So that without respecting any Body we cut all sorts of Errors and Lies in following only the streight Truth blindly and without knowing it we do often wound those of whom we are not thinking If the Word of God were well explain'd it would offend all the Persons that live now in the World yea those who are esteem'd Holy and Perfect For as we do not see so many little Atoms flying in the Air when the Sun does not shine brightly as we do when he spreads his Beams clearly even so the Souls which are full of Sins and Imperfections do not perceive them so long as the clear Understanding of true Perfection is not given them They believe that they are very clean but so soon as this Divine Light shall give its Rays every one will see evidently that he is deceiv'd that he has no Righteousness and that he is no true Christian Therefore the Devil will hinder as much as he can this Light from being discover'd and will oppose himself thereunto even by those that have most Authority that very few may perceive their Blindness For if these Explications were maturely consider'd by every one all the World would be converted for there is nothing more charming than to consider that which God has done for Man from his Creation and continued even till now which is nothing but a continued Course of Benefits all corresponding to one another always in great Perfection The Creation the Law of Moses the Prophets the Gospels are all the same thing by an excellent Harmony I ask'd her Whether the Ancient Fathers had not discover'd these things aright and if they had not declar'd this to the World by so many Expositions and Books which they had written She said Sir It was not necessary that the Ancient Fathers should have the Understanding of all things It was enough that they understood that which Men had need of then but since we draw near to the Fulness of time it is expedient for Men now that they learn that which must fall out in their Time Therefore God now reveals the Secrets which he would then have to be kept hid When the Apostles ask'd Jesus Christ when these things which Jesus Christ had told them should come to pass He answer'd them That it was not for them to know the Times which the Father had in his own power To shew that unseasonable Light ought not to be desir'd and that to him alone appertains the knowing the Time and the Hour of all things Thus he thought fit to reserve the Understanding of the Scriptures till the necessary time which is at present The Holy Fathers could not know then what he would reserve till now and all that they declar'd of it by so many
Nature his Righteousness his Goodness his Truth and to be transform'd into the same Image to love him with all our Hearts is to love him only for himself and all other things only in and for God and entirely to depend upon him To love our Neighbours as our selves is to love them as his Images as being capable to be transform'd into his Nature and to endeavour to bring them with our selves to the Love and Enjoyment of God This is the Essence of Religion and the indispensible Duty that God requires of Man in all Estates whether that of Innocence or of his Reparation since his Fall and as our Saviour tells us Matth. 22. 40. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets Had man continued in the Integrity in which he was created no other Duty had been requir'd of him But he turning away his Love from God and setting it on himself and on the Creatures making himself his last End and the Creatures his chief Happiness Means are propos'd to Man to bring him back to the Love of God and to remove the Hindrances of it and he having forfeited the Friendship and Love of God Hopes are given him of Recovering his Love and Favour for obtaining of which the Intercession of a Mediator was needful who by his Merits and Favour with God might obtain it and the main Hindrances of the Love of God being Self-love and the Love of the Creatures he is directed to the Use of such Means as may effectually mortifie and subdue these in him and Man being a wayward Patient unwilling to take the Physick provided for him as being bitter and unpleasant the Physician takes Man's Nature on him and takes the Remedies first himself flies the Ease the Honours the Riches the Pleasures and the Sciences of this World embraces Poverty Reproaches Troubles and Pains and denies himself and his own Will in every thing that he might do the Will of him that sent him So the essentially necessary and effectual means to recover the Love of God is Faith in God through Jesus Christ with unfeign'd Repentance a constant denial of our selves and forsaking of every thing that hinders us to love God and for this End the taking up our Cross daily and following of Christ The Holy Scriptures are the Sacred Records wherein God's Love to Mankind the Life and Doctrin of Jesus Christ and the Precepts he has given for the mortifying of our corrupt Nature and returning to the Love of God are plainly manifested to us and in this respect they are necessary to make us wise unto Salvation as the written Counsels of a Physician would be for the Recovery of his Patient's Health Sermons religious Offices Sacraments sacred Assemblies Pastors Church-Government c. are more remote means for bringing Men to Salvation and if rightly us'd may be very helpful to direct them in the Practice of the necessary and effectual means for returning to an entire Dependance upon God But if the first be wholly neglected and these be rested on and if we think we are religious because zealous about these things and in the mean time are still Lovers of our own selves self-will'd self-conceited worldly-minded envious malicious our Actions void of Righteousness Goodness Truth c. our Religion is the Leaven of the Pharisees it is but a Form of Godliness we are alienated from the Life of God it is a Righteousness of our own and we are as mad and foolish as sick Men would be who should run about among Apothecaries and Surgeons and be very greedy to hear the Receipts of Cures for their Maladies dayly read and explain'd to them should fight and quarrel and hate and destroy one another in contending which were the best Explanations of the Receipts and which Company of Apothecaries and Surgeons had the best Form of Government and in the mean time both Directors and Patients were sick unto Death yet neither would apply themselves to take those Remedies which by all were granted to be necessary and effectual for their Recovery and without which they must inevitably perish Now the Writings of the Author of this following Treatise containing such bright Illustrations of the Truths of God reveal'd in the Holy Scriptures and discovering so plainly in what manner they are perverted by the false Glosses of the Professors of Christianity in their respective Parties I hope it will be no ill service done to the Christian Religion and to this Island in particular to make them more generally known to this part of the World of which Design this is an Essay The Author was a Virgin call'd Antonia Bourignon born in the Town of Lisle in Flanders in the Year 1616. the Daughter of a rich Man there and Baptiz'd and Bred up by her Parents in the Communion of the Church of Rome Being taught to read in her Childhood and having read the Gospels and being told of the Life of Jesus Christ how poor and mean and despis'd and self-denied he was and seeing all People live very unlike to him in Ease and abundance and Pleasures and Honours she ask'd her Parents Where are the Christians Let us go to the Country where the Christians live And tho' her Parents derided her for this yet this Impression ever remain'd with her and it was her constant Theme to let the World see what a true Christian is and that none such are to be found From her very Childhood she had inward Conversation with God and gave her self to Prayer and Divine Retirement but this Retirement being look'd on by the Suggestions of her elder Sister to her Companions as the effect of Stupidity and Sottishness and she despis'd therefore to avoid this she applied her self to take part in their Recreations and Divertisements and she quickly gain'd their Esteem and Favour above her Sister but lost her Conversation with God Yet he did not cease now and then to awaken her even in the midst of her Divertisements but Company and these Amusements still got the Ascendent Then God tried her with more severe means filling her Mind with fearful Ideas of Death Judgment and Hell whereby she came to her self again and saw the Vanity of all earthly things which would end at Death and leave the Soul empty of true Good and full of real Evils This made her abhor her present Life all worldly Advantages the Body and the Caring for it And because the Sollicitations of earthly things were apt to return again she took Care to have this deeply engraven upon her Spirit she went oft to Charnel-houses to view the Bones of the Dead saying See what thou art within a little while thou shalt be like this and yet more horrible She handled them to overcome her natural Horror for them and to make the Thoughts of Death familiar to her For six Months she begg'd no other thing of God but the Remembrance of Death and obtain'd it It was about the fifteenth or sixteenth Year of her
confound the Wisdom and the Learning of the World that they may strive rather to be well pleasing to God than men that fleeing all earthly loves which prove bitterness in the end they may give their hearts wholly to him who is altogether lovely whose love is unchangeable who will not disappoint them but will reward their Love with infinite Light and Joy and Love That they who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God may beware of taking God's name in vain and of vouching God's Spirit for all their Dreams and Imaginations for where the Spirit of God resides there his fruits are and the Soul that posses him has it's Affections wholly remov'd from Temporal and Earthly things and set upon those which are Spiritual and Eternal That the Pastors of the Church may see at whose Doors the Guilt of the universal Evils of Christendom are like mostly to be laid that they may fear and tremble when they hear that Salt which has lost it's Savour is good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot of Men that by the grace of God they themselves may be taught true Humility Self-denial and a contempt of all Earthly things without which Spirit they are no more capable of Teaching others however they repeat the Words of Christ and his Apostles than an Ape can make a good Picture tho' he take up and use the Painters Pencils and Colours In one Word that all may be brought to deny themselves and to follow Jesus Christ in the true Love of God and of one another and that the Judgments of God being now abroad upon the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn Righteousness For a further Vindication of these Writings and the Sentiments contain'd in them I shall here Subjoyn the protestation made by P. P. after his having Answered the Calumnies and Reproaches which some had publish'd against them in the V. Sect. of La paix des bonnes Ames pag. 278 279 280. But says he if all that said does not satisfy I will make and do at present make this PROTESTATION before God and before all Men that is That M. B. her Friends and I never had have not yet and shall never have by the Grace of God other Sentiments or Designs than to believe and live as true Christians professing by word and deed all that is Fundamental in true Christianity and which is comprehended in the Apostles Creed That we receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as Divine and Infallible and reject all that is contrary thereunto That we believe and adore the adorable and incomprehensible Trinity the Father the Word or the Son and the Holy Spirit God three and one eternaly Blessed the inward distinctions of which by what name soever they be call'd Real Relative Hipostatical Personal Substantial are as true as they are truly incomprehensible by the mind of Man That we hold Jesus Christ to be true Eternal God and true Man to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World to be the Mediatour beetween God and Men who by his Merits by his Satisfaction by his Righteousness by his Life and by his Death is the Author of Salvation to all those who imitate him or to speak with the Apostle to all those who obey him That we ascribe the Glory of all Good purely to the grace of God and all Evil purely to the fault of Man and of the Devil That we make the essence and perfection of true Christianity to consist in Self-denyal in continual Prayer in the Love of God and of our Neighbour and in the imitation of our Saviour That we consider all other speculations as accessory for which it is good not to condemn any body but to leave every one at liberty to embrace or lay them aside as they find them helpful for the advancement of the essential part That the true Key whereby to come to the Knowledge of Divine things is Humility and Prayer and not the forc'd speculations of Human Reason That all States the Ecclesiastical the Political the Oeconomical are Establish'd by God and that the Honour and Submission which is measured out to them and regulated by the word of God is respectively due to them That when evil is reproved this does not concern those States directly nor good men in them who are free of it but only the abuse and the ill behaviour of the wicked That if in the Writings of M. B. or of her Friends there be any thing that is obscure or that seems contrary to what has been said we offer to clear and reconcile it or to disavow it in case it cannot be made appear that it cannot be well explain'd and that it is not a mistake of words We protest against all that may be cited from her writings or objected by way of consequence against what I have said as against so many shameful Manglings Malicious Interpretations deceitful Calumnies injurious Consequences in which God will do us Justice if Men are not just to us I protest also against all those who offer to pass hard Censures upon what concerns M. B. her Friends or my self without having read the principal of her writings or my system as against unjust and unreasonable Judges at least as against Persons very inconsiderate and unworthy of Credit In short I believe I have reason to require that they who shall be convinc'd to have laid to our charge a hundred falshoods and others who shall believe them without reason may not again be admitted the one in the Quality of Accusers and the other in that of Judges but rejected the one as notorious Impostours and the other as wilfully stupid AN ADMONITION TO THE READER Dear Reader SInce 't is my earnest desire that the perusal of this Divine Work of which this is the first Part may be profitable and advantageous to you I cannot forbear wishing that you may give no place in your mind to certain prejudices with which the most part of the World suffer themselves to be so miserably deluded that they would believe themselves deceived if they did not follow them Permit me to speak to you a word or two of some of those pernicious and deceitful prejudices which you must either banish out of your mind or forbear the reading of this Book as you would not bring upon you your own Condemnation by retaining those things which may cause you to make an ill use of it In the first place I advise you not to regard the appearance state or quality of Persons nor any thing that is purely external and so consequently can neither add nor substract from the Truth which has no dependance on things of that Nature Let the speaker be a Man or a Woman let instructions come from this or that place let the persons who are reproved be great or small Turks or Christians many or few you must not be surpriz'd at any of these circumstances Truth and Falshod may
since 't is certainly a less evil and a less fall to sin thro' ignorance and error than to do it against the knowledge of the truth To pretend to infallibility in the knowledge of the Truth while at the same time it appears by her actions and her own confession that she is corrupted in the practice of a Christian life would be to make a profession of sinning against the Holy Ghost and renouncing of conscience which St. Paul says cannot be done without making shipwrack of the faith So that by this excuse they equally prove that she is fallen into a greater estrangment from God than that which they would excuse and that at the same time she is destitute of true Faith and the knowledge of the Truth and seiz'd with a malady of presumption which puts me in mind of that for which St. Paul assures the Roman Church in the Epistle which he wrote to her that she shall be cut off if she suffer her self to be led into it In the mean time 't is thro' this prejudice that they shut their Ears against the Truth that reproves them and that they reject the remedies tho' they are not ignorant of their disease putting themselves in a condition that resembles the state of Babylon of which the Prophet speaks we would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us go every one into his own country for her judgment reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even unto the skie Do not you likewise render your self uncurable dear Reader by admitting of such prejudices and suffering them to blind you so far as to make you reject the Heavenly remedies which God offers you at present by the hand of a Maid without human instruction and who reproves the abuses of that Society which they call the Church how powerfully soever they are authoriz'd and favour'd by great Persons to whom they are also favourable according to the interest of this World which she does not out of a principle of partiality and private malice as they are supposed to have done who have left the Church of Rome since she never withdrew from it and much less did she list her self into any other particular Sect but disapprov'd them all and discover'd their abuses in her other Writings with as much freedom as in this she has done those of the Roman Church and in the general of all Christians This is one of her first Works which she wrote at a time when she was not acquainted with those who differ in Opinion from the Roman Catholicks The first part which is now communicated was published some years ago in Dutch Since I have had the happiness to see in Manuscript the other two Parts which in my opinion are more admirable than this I can indeed say that I never met with more extraordinary more convincing edifying and moving Truths than those which are in this Divine piece particularly in the two following Parts and especially in the last to incite us to resign our selves entirly to the guidance and direction of God I cannot reflect upon the wonders I have seen in these Treatises without crying out with amasement what other Master than thou O Holy and Adorable Spirit of my God could be the Author of this most Divine Light O most Holy and Almighty God there is none but thee that could so powerfully draw thy Creatures to so holy and pure an end And the first essays of such a Master by the weakest instruments are as perfect Master-pieces as the most finish'd works of others for I can truly say that I have felt as much and even more strength and moving force in these first works than in her last productions And I cannot comprehend how it is possible for any Man to resist such holy Truths without declaring openly for the Devil and undertaking the defence of Vice and Lying There are none in my opinion but the Devil and those who are resolv'd to be his slaves and the protectors of Sin and Iniquity that can hate or oppose this Light For as for those who have still some remainders of good desires in their hearts whatsoever Errors they maintain and with whatsoever vices they may be defiled it is impossible for them to hate those Divine Truths and much less the person by whom they are communicated to us or raise persecution against her Since they are so far from receiving an injury by them that they have a far opportunity of delivering themselves from the most dangerous Evils and to embrace the advantage of a lasting felicity There is a vast difference betwixt representing and doing Evil betwixt admonishing one of his sickness and causing his distemper Such a warning is rather a means to make him to look out for a remedy and when at the same time the most proper remedies are presented to him it is the highest obligation that can be laid upon him especially in matters of eternal importance And yet O blind and perverse World it is your usual custom to wish evil to those who would deliver you from your misery and to requite their Kindness with base and cruel persecutions as it appears manifestly from the fate and experience of the true benefactours of Mankind the Holy Prophet the Son of God himself and all his beloved Disciples and Messengers who had no other design than to procure the Light and Salvation of the World This Messenger of God did often meet with the same treatment as well as the late Mr. De Cort who discovering too open a zeal for the publication of this Work was prevented from accomplishing that design by a Death that was procured by contrivances no less secret than criminal concerning which I may justly use the words of the Prohpet Jeremiah I was like a lamb or an ox that was brought to the slaughter and I knew not that they had devised devices against me saying let us destroy or poyson the tree with the fruit thereof and let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name may be no more remembred For Sinners cannot endure that a good Person should by declaring the Truth deprive them of the pretexts which they use to enjoy their darling Sins with peace and security And the wise are loath to see their Wisdom confounded when they have once given way in their hearts to that proud conceit of being infallible when they are Assembled in a Body As the Church was heretofore deluded by a Spirit of presumption in the days of the Prophets who were persecuted under pretext that the Priests the Learned the Doctors and Pastors whose failing as well as the Errors of the whole Church were expos'd by the Prophets were infalliable in the possession and in the interpretation of the Law of God and their Determinations and Counsels concerning Divine things Come said they and let us devise devices against Jeremiah for the land shall not perish from the priest nor counsel
well and secure The Thirteenth Conference Of true Faith according to the tenour of the Creed Of the knowledge of God and of our selves by the consideration of his Works I Told her That I did not believe that I had true Faith and that she had sufficiently made appear to me that I could not be right therefore I desired to understand of her wherein true Faith does consist tho' it were but upon my own account for I desired to profit in it She said Sir let us examine a little together our Creed and see if there be so much as one Article of it observed even by the most perfect Christians now-a-days If we believ'd that God is Almighty that he created the Heaven and the Earth could we live without loving and fearing him as we do Could we also attribute to our selves the earthly good things which all the World seeks after and loves since they are all created by God and do all appertain to him in Property which we do daily usurp In the second place If we did believe in Jesus Christ the only Son of God who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary could we reject his Instructions since he is the Son of God the Fountain of all Wisdom Could we follow a Carnal Church seeing she is altogether Spiritual engendred in the Body of Jesus Christ by the operation of the holy Spirit Could we also live in Luxury when God chose a Virgin for his own Mother Would we not endeavour to love Virginity since God has so much esteem'd it Moreover if we believ'd that Jesus Christ the Son of God has suffer'd even so far as to be Crucified Dead and Buried could we live so softly seeking all eases to our Body not willing to suffer any thing that is painful nor affronts nor tribulations when we believ'd that the Son of God has indeed suffer'd for us even to a shameful Death yea was buried as a corruptible Man Would we not imitate or follow him at some distance in case we had the faith that we profess Moreover if we believ'd that he is risen from Death to Life that he is ascended into Heaven were it possible that we could love this present Life while we hope that we shall rise again since Jesus Christ is risen again to ascend unto Heaven Would not this withdraw our affections from the Earth through the hope of ascending unto Heaven with Jesus Christ Were it possible that we would build Houses and make so many other settlements as we do on Earth as if it were our abiding City And if we did believe that Jesus Christ will come from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead were it possible that we would live in so great a neglect of our Salvation with so little care of making ready our Accompts to render them to that great Judge who will demand of us an account of all our Thoughts Words and Deeds Would we not rather lay aside all our worldly Affairs to attend on this which is the most important to us yet on the contrary is often the least of our â—ares And did we believe likewise that there is a holy Spirit and a holy Church is it possible that we would be so little Spiritual so Natural and Earthly so wedded to our Senses in which we live sometimes more brutishly than the Beasts themselves whereas our Souls ought to be wholly Spiritual and Holy since we have a Holy Spirit and a Holy Church And did we believe the Communion of Saints is it possible that every one should be so much wedded to his own Interest and Wealth If Prayers and good Works ought to be all common amongst Christian Brethren how much more ought temporal Wealth to be for the succour of our Neighbour which is very far from Mens dispositions now who study nothing but to keep up and increase their own Wealth understanding no other thing but mine and thine both in Spirituals and Temporals And did we believe in the remission of Sins how would we be penitent and contrite to obtain the pardon of them instead of continuing in them through hardness of heart as we see the most part of men do who finish their Lives in black thoughts and despair instead of having immediate recourse to mercy according to their belief For he who has promised the remission of Sins has not promised them time to persevere in them If this belief were real they would not persevere in them for one day for they are not certain of living so long And did we believe in the Resurrection of the Flesh how could we love and esteem our flesh in a condition so miserable as that of this mortal Life We would greatly contemn it in the hope we had of its Resurrection l in which it should live most happy delivered from so many miseries calamities and maladies under which it groans during its exile in this miserable World which setting aside the hopes of its Resurrection must rather be called Death than Life the belief of this Article would give a disgust of the delights of this present Life and make us aspire towards that to come And did we believe in Life eternal what would we not do to obtain it We would voluntarily forsake Father Mother and all our Goods to obtain this eternal Life for it deserves more than a thousand Worlds which cannot last but for a small time in respect of Eternity whereas we see the most part of men so in love with this miserable Life that they would fain abide here for an Eternity though it be filled with miseries and calamities Do you not see Sir that there is no more faith in the House of God That no body lives conformably to his belief That they place faith only in Words as I have told you formerly They say over it may be every day their Creed and yet they do not observe so much as one Article of it These are nothing but words that vanish into Air and nevertheless they would take it very ill to make appear to them that they have not true faith tho' it be always operative and never idle True faith works always the vertues of which I told you in the Souls which possess it and if these operations are not seen it may indeed truly be said that these Souls have not faith for it can never be any where without operating its vertues no more than the Sun can be without giving his beams Consider it well Sir and you will find my saying true and you will condemn your self I told her I perceived clearly that People lived in a distraction of spirit and that few persons knew themselves That it was no wonder they knew not God since they did not know themselves and that truly we were deceived She replied Sir he who knows God will always know himself and he who knows himself will assuredly know God for the one is linked unto
would not be capable of gaining our Affection For it is impossible to love them without being distracted and turned away from God For if we considered the Qualities of God and compared them with those of the Creatures we would see that those are but Dung compared with Gold Besides that all the Creatures together cannot save us nor give us so much as one Moment of Life We pass sometimes our whole Life in studying to render our selves accomplish'd among Men and they have no Power to make us happy even in this World for their Friendship is changeable and their Fortune unconstant Their Fidelity does often depend upon our Complaisance a small Word ill plac'd will render them your Enemies And tho' it were real and constant death can rob you of it in a Moment and you will never find them any more in your Need. Do you not see that all things are frail upon which there is no leaning no Ground to let our selves be charm'd or our Senses tickl'd if there were not a Disorder of Spirit and a Forgetfulness of God! And if this were remov'd it is impossible to love the Creatures in themselves and to cease to love God even tho he had never commanded us Even Natural Instinct leads us to his Love by the consideration of his wonderful Works and of his Benefits which we receive every Moment There needed no other Love to oblige us to love him with all our Heart and with all our Strength The Sixteenth Conference Of continual Prayer and constant Communion with God for which we were created And how we are distracted from it by the Business of this World and by the Enjoyment of frail Creatures I Perceiv'd most clearly that all this was true and moreover that all Men were very far from such Sentiments that every one of them spent their Life in the Affairs and Business of the World and thought not themselves obliged to keep Communion in Spirit with God fearing that this might rob them of the Time and Occasion of dispatching well their Affairs I ask'd her Whether every one was oblig'd to keep continual Communion with God If this was not the particular Business of the Monks the Religious or other Persons who make Profession of a Spiritual Life tending to Perfection She said Sir all Christians are Religious for there can be no other Religion but a Christian Life Every one who would be sav'd is obliged to entertain his Spirit continually with God therefore Jesus Christ says That we ought always to pray and never faint He speaks to Persons of all Conditions not to the Religious only for there were none in his Time who did wear disguised Habits as they do now but all Christians were religious as they are yet at present Neither the Habit nor the Cloyster do make Religion but the Observance of the Evangelical Counsels We are greatly mistaken if we think that God has a Regard to the States and Conditions of Persons He regards not whether we be Religious or Married but whether we observe his Commandments and his Doctrine Every one is free to chuse what State he will provided that in it he observe the Christian Doctrine There is not any State nor any Condition that can exempt a Person from keeping continual Communion with God For he invites us to this and we are created for no other Thing All other Affairs or Businesses are but accidental and of small importance whether they succeed or miscarry it matters little because all their Successes cannot serve us but for this short Life which stands not in need of much if we would content our selves with what is necessary only In which we would be more happy than all the Kings of the Earth for all that we possess beyond this Necessity is Affliction and Vexation of Spirit God created us to love him only and that he might take his Delight with us and we with him This is the only End of our Creation He had no need of us but he would create us to take his Pleasure with us This is that which we do least of all think of or apply our selves unto It seems we would change the Designs that God has concerning us while we will not follow his Ordinance of Praying always One thinks he is born to be a Lawyer an Advocote a Priest a Monk a Merchant or for any other State Office or Benefice to which he is advanc'd and they press hard to perfect themselves to increase and prosper in it as if they were created to do this And when they are arriv'd at the highest of their Pretensions Death comes which consumes all What a silly Business have we aim'd at What a poor Stay of all our Hopes Our Riches are perish'd Our Honours remain on the Earth All our Travels Cares and Labours have left us nothing but Ashes and Rottenness in Recompence of all our Acquests The Noble and the Ignoble the Prince and the Servant being all reduc'd to the same Estate all naked in the Grave the Poor and the Rich having an equal Portion Behold the End of all the Business and Affairs of the World for the Advancement of which we neglect Communion with God tho' this would advance them more if we were habituated to this Communion which would perfect all things I said to her That Men were very blind in not considering seriously these Truths and that she ought to pray to God that he would take from them the Vail which hindred them from seeing their so great Misery and that they might comprehend the Obligation they have to pray always which they were very far from doing To which she replyed Men Sir are as far from Salvation as they are far from this Knowledge For Jesus Christ has said nothing in vain To be saved we ought assuredly to pray always for as soon as we shall cease to have our Spirit lifted up to God we shall fall into many Evils from which we can very hardly recover our selves because Sin blinds the Soul and renders it often insensible of its Evils If this were not true how could it be that one should see every Day his Brother or his Neighbour die leaving behind him all upon the Earth without carrying away any thing and that he should not thereby discover his own Folly and his Blindness in labouring with so much Care to heap up earthly Goods which at Death serve for nothing What tho' I pray Sir God will never force their Wills he sends them occasions enough to open their Eyes But as long as they shall continue to have their Affections set on earthly Goods they cannot love God one of these Affections must go out to let the other in They can never dwell both together And for my part I can never pray for an unjust thing God makes no body blind but their Sins and the little desire they have to seek God has clos'd their Eyes He well
Evangelical Counsels for observing it aright He is despis'd and rejected by the Great Men of this World He is also Reproach'd Buffeted held for a Wicked One To shew that the Praises of Men are not to be sought for but their Reproaches rather to be endur'd for the Love of God At last he is put to Death for the Truth enduring all with Patience To teach us to suffer patiently even to Death And all that he has endur'd has been to give us an Example I ask'd her In case Men had not come to so great Extremity of Evil whether she believ'd that Jesus Christ would have come so soon to take Human Flesh She Replied No Sir he would not have come till the end of the World to judge and condemn Men in abolishing Evil He would have come in the glory of all his Majesty with all his Angels not in Contempt and Sufferings He would have come to Reign not to undergo an infamous Death If you read attentively the Prophets Sir you will find that they speak far more of this coming in Glory than of that in Reproach For the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory is as it were THE SUM OF THE DESIGNS WHICH GOD HAS OVER MEN And the coming in Reproach is as it were the Accident of the said Designs Therefore there will be much more spoken of through all the Holy Scriptures Read Sir attentively all the said Scriptures from the creation of the World you will find that they all will aim at this Kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth with Men for this is the end of their Creation God can never reign fully in Men until the time of this coming in Glory because that they living yet in the liberty of doing evil do not yet give full possession to God to reign in their Souls for very often or at least by accident Sins do rule there Which we have seen in the greatest Saints of the World A David a Solomon all the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ yea all those who have since been esteemed Saints have all in general fallen into Trespasses and have strayed from God for some time By which he could not find in them his perfect reign as he will do after his glorious Coming For then all will be Deify'd Bodies as well as Souls And there will be an end of all Evil. God will then have his full dominion over all Flesh which has never been For the most part of Men in all times have Blasphemed and Despised him tho all were created by him to love him and to adore him They have yielded their honour and love to the Creatures instead of the Creator Is it not fit Sir that these things be one day repaired and that God be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth by his Creatures I said to her That assuredly God would after that manner be adored in Heaven but that I could not comprehend how he could be so here upon Earth She said I perceive Sir that you take for Heaven and Paradise some precise place or some particular part which ferves for a Residence to God And for my part I cannot believe that there is any thing capable of containing God for he is greater than all things and cannot be contain'd by any thing less than himself The Heaven is but his Creature which we say is on high and God has neither high nor low for he contains all Heaven and Paradise is always in him for there can be no other but his Presence and he who is in his Presence is in Heaven and Paradise For my part I know no other They tell us many imaginary things of God and of Paradise which have very little relation to what they are It seems God is like an earthly King who is lodged in some Palace of Wood or Stone These are all Speculations of Men as earthly as their Affections For God cannot have any fixt place for his Residence seeing he comprehends all things When I say that God will be upon Earth reigning with Men the Earth will then be Paradise for in all Places where he is there is always Paradise If God were in Hell Hell would then be Paradise there being no other but the presence of God That makes in all places where it is Heaven and Paradise When this presence is in our Soul our Soul is Heaven How can you not comprehend Sir that God could be truly adored in Spirit and in Truth upon Earth seeing he has so often promised to make an Alliance with Men Must not this Alliance be made upon Earth God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station but Man having a Body has need of some Place to contain him The Earth was created for this necessity that it might contain the Bodies of Men. Why then should not God come upon Earth to dwell with them seeing they cannot go where God is in that purity of Spirit Of necessity he must either come upon Earth or indeed they could not be entirely united together I asked her When Jesus Christ shall come to reign upon Earth and to Allie himself with Men She said As sooon as the Plagues shall have rooted out all the Wicked or the greatest part of them then He will appear in the Clouds and all the World shall see him You may indeed live till then Sir if God please For my part I hope to see him and to reign with him Eternally In this all my hopes and my joy do consist For this Life is too miserable to take any contentment in it without the hope of this time to come I say it will be very shortly for I see the Measure full and Mens sins are come to the height They cannot be more numerous And if there were not some small Veil of Human respect they would Murther Rob commit Adultery and do all sorts of Abomination publickly as well as they do them before God But Pride keeps these things yet concealed that they may not be despised by Men And as for what passeth only before God or a few Persons they make no more reckoning of it It seems all is lawful provided it be not discovered What greater Evil can be expected The abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary Tho Christians be the People of God they have denied his Faith and have abandoned it to become Idolaters of one another Every one has his proper Idol one worships his own Body another his own Spirit another his Learning another his Riches another his Honours another his Children or other Creatures In short none adore God but with their Lips Is it a wonder that the Judgment is near when we see that all Men have abandoned their God Is it not time that he likewise abandon them which he cannot do but according as Man withdraws himself from God by the same consequence God is withdrawn from Man for two things cannot stay together when the one withdraws it self
Heaven and the rest shall be given you this also will not come to pass in this Life For the Servants themselves who seek the Kingdom of Jesus have suffered many Necessities and Lazarus at the the Rich Man's Feet could not obtain a crum of Bread tho' he did not cease to ask it If the Promise which Jesus Christ has made of giving the rest to those who shall seek his Kingdom were to be understood of this present Life none if the Friends of God would stand in need of any thing tho' they should not ask of any it would be needful that God accomplish what he has promised them And if the Kingdom of Heaven were only spiritual as People do imagine there would be no need of any rest or other things after having obtain'd this Kingdom which would suffice fully Do you not see Sir that this promise of Jesus Christ is to be understood of his Kingdom upon Earth where he will give besides his Glory all material things for the delights of our Body Which he calls The Rest and makes us understand that we shall not need to seek and labour to have them but that he will give them freely as an excess of Blessedness And when Jesus Christ says He who shall leave Father Mother Brethren Sisters Lands or any other thing for his Name shall have a hundred fold in this World neither can this be understood of this present Life for the Apostles and so many other Saints who abandon'd all to follow him had not an hundred fold in Earth Mother Brethren Sisters Houses or Lands but on the contrary had need of many things after having abandon'd them Jesus Christ himself after having abandoned the delights of Heaven says That he had not in this Life a stone where to rest his Head How then should his Promises be true that he would render a hundred fold in this Life Jesus Christ can he lie and make all who have abandon'd all for his sake to be afterward in want of things necessary which would be very far from having the hundred fold of them We see the Wicked have ordinarily more Prosperity in Earthly Goods than the Just Jesus Christ would be a deceiver to falsifie his Promise which he has made unto all those who shall forsake all for his sake This cannot be thought But he promised to those who shall have left Father Mother or any other thing for his sake that they shall possess Life Eternal which shall be in that World when Jesus Christ shall come to dwell with his Creatures where he shall render the hundred-fold of all the things which they shall have forsaken for his sake for one Father they shall find an hundred because all those Blessed Ones shall have the Hearts of a Father and Mother toward their Neighbour All shall be Brethren and Sisters under the government of one and the same Father And the Earth being purg'd from all the Wicked shall suffice to give unto the Just an hundred times as much as they shall have abandoned in this miserable Life Lo thus the Promises of Jesus Christ shall be accomplish'd in a perfect sense in his Kingdom which can in no wise be accomplish'd in a perfect sense elsewhere no more in the Empireal Heaven as is imagined than in this time of Penitence There would need years of time to relate unto you Sir all the passages of Holy Scripture which verifie these Truths for when Gabriel says of Jesus Christ that he shall be great and be called the Son of the most High he cannot speak of his coming in the Stable of Bethlehem for he was but a little Infant abandoned and neglected of Men where his Grandeur did consist of Poverty and Miseries And when he began to be known and to speak in publick they call him the Son of the Carpenter and of Mary amongst the common People Which is very far from being call'd the Son of the most High and how should he lift up his Horn seeing he was wrapt up in Swadling-cloths and bound with Swathing-bands And it seems he had not strength to resist King Herod and the Pharisees who pursued him to death before whom he fled instead of resisting Do you not see Sir that nothing has in this World its perfect Sense Nevertheless all that is spoken by the Holy Spirit must be intirely fulfilled And if we hope that this accomplishment ought to come to pass in this time of Penitence we deceive our selves for the more it shall continue the more will Men mistake the greatness of God and the less will they call him the Son of the Most High and the less will he make his strength appear that he may give place to Man to use his Free-will But as soon as the time of the Reign of Jesus Christ shall come he will exalt his Horn to exercise his Power and condemn the Wicked and he shall be known of all Men for the Son of the Most High For he will come in Majesty and Power to rule over all things Whereas in the Empireal Aether there will be no need of exalting his Horn and shewing his Power seeing all submit to him by Love It is therefore of the day when he shall come to reign upon the Earth that Zacharias speaks by his Prophetical Spirit when he saw the Glory of Jesus Christ upon Earth And when he himself says If I be lifted up I will draw all unto me he does not speak but of this Kingdom to come For he has not drawn all unto him by his death upon the Cross because the most part of Men has since voluntarily yielded themselves unto the Devil The Twenty ninth Conference Of the Marks to know that we are fallen into the last Times and that the World is Judged to wit That Men are without Righteousness Truth and Goodness before God and that the execution of the Plagues makes it already effectually to appear I said to her That I understood sufficiently what she meant by this Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth that I would apply my self to discover it more intreating her to tell me the Marks whereby to know that we were in the last times and that the Judgments were at present begun She said Sir observe well the deportment of Men and you will see clearly that it must needs be that they are Condemned for therein you do not perceive any Penitence nor desire of amendment On the contrary they grow every day worse and cannot so much as suffer that the truth of their faults should be shewn them and reckon themselves more secure in evil-doing than the Good have ever been in well-doing For the Saints themselves have feared God and dreaded Death Whereas Men at present have lost the fear of God and fear only Men and instead of dreading the passage of Death they dread only the day in which they must lose their Life which they love more than God Every one lyes
thro' too much Labour And on the contrary how many are there who kill themselves by indiscreet Fastings or other Penances or the Neglect of necessary things All those are wilful Murtherers because they kill themselves to satisfie their own Sensualities or Inclinations and they are also often Murtherers of others because they occasion sometimes their Neighbours Death by indirect Ways as in forcing some to work beyond their Strength or in crossing and vexing them so much in their Goods and in their Spirit that they die of Grief or by not taking away Debates and Quarells when they can do it and these encrease till they come to kill one another or when by some Act or Omission they occasion the Rise of such Debates or when one comes to die thro' the Neglect of our necessary Succour or Assistance By all these things wilful Murther is committed tho' the Will be indirect it ceases not to be before God as great a Sin as a direct Murther For the Life is taken away indirectly as well as directly And sometimes it would be less evil to kill a Person at one Stroke than to kill him by degrees and the Sin also would sometimes be less by a Stroke given in a sudden Passion than when it lasts for so long a time and these Sins are often repeated Nevertheless none do perceive these kinds of Sins to be such as they are but the most spiritual fall into them thro' Negligence and very often without desiring to know them And thus while they do not repent of them they cannot obtain Pardon no more than of the other Sins against the Holy Ghost because they are committed secretly and without Repentance which draws on a Despair of Salvation which is also one of those Sins This Despair of Salvation is ordinarily excited by the Devil at the End of their Life When he he has train'd up Souls in the other Sins against the Holy Ghost he discovers them to them at Death to make them fall into Despair of their Salvation For then their Eyes being open'd to consider the great Number of Sins which they have committed against the Holy Ghost all the Days of their Life of which they have never repented and how often they have receiv'd the Sacraments in this evil State This makes them fall into a Despair of being saved because the Soul is disordered and cannot perceive the Means of its Salvation Yea tho' they should not distinctly perceive all those Sins they are notwithstanding in such Confusion and Perplexity that they durst not hope for Salvation and they would be ashamed to declare their Misery to Men who still held them for good Men. Hence it is that these Souls die without Repentance which is the Consummation of all their Evils For by the straight Righteousness of God no Sins will ever be pardoned without Repentance and they not embracing this die miserably tho' they have lived in a seeming Holiness they go notwithstanding to receive their Portion with Devils even tho' they had but one of these Sins against the Holy Ghost they shall never be saved I said to her That I began to doubt of the Salvation of all Men since they who are called Saints do so commonly perish That these Sins against the Holy Ghost were so much to be dreaded and nevertheless so few are afraid of them that God's Judgment of things is quite different from that of Men. She said Yes truly Sir God's Judgment is quite another thing than Man's For most frequently what they esteem Good is in God's fight very bad This is since they left his Righteousness and lean'd to their own They are now uncapable of making a right Judgment because their own Righteousness is blind and founded only on their own Imaginations and not at all on the Truth which could never deceive them For it is unchangeable and without Dissimulation but the Truth and Righteousness of Men is lying and deceitful and he who trusts in it must of Necessity perish because it flatters us to our Perdition If we had continued in the Righteousness of God our Judgment would have been conformable to his But since we are fallen into Unrighteousness we judge unrighteously both in respect of God and of our selves For we judge falsely of God on all Occasions attributing very often to him the Blame of our Damnation and of all the other Evils which befall us Tho' notwithstanding no Evil can come from God he being the Fountain of all Good to which all Evils are opposite We may also judge amiss as to our selves believing often our Salvation to be sure when it is in great Hazard as you may see by the Deduction of the Sins against the Holy Ghost of which I have so particularly spoken to you to let you see Sir how the most Pious are deceived since they strayed from the Righteousness and the Truth of God they are full of frivolous Devotions which blind their Understanding that they know not real Truth nor solid Vertue but amusing themselves with the Discourses of Men and seeming Vertues they live and die in a Presumption of their Salvation without good Works and thus they perish for ever The Ninth Conference That no body can be saved but he who professes the Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God The World is at present without them but it shall be renewed The Danger that Men are in Secret Evil ought to be discovered I Said to her That many would be deceived at Death because no body is endued with that Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God and if there can be no Salvation without these no body will be saved or very few She said No Sir no body can be saved if he do not possess the RIGHTEOVSNESS the GOODNESS and the TRVTH of God Therefore Jesus Christ says Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect He does not mean that we should be perfect as God in his Power or his Essence but in proportion to our being in his Righteousness his Goodness and Truth The Righteousness of God makes us do all things justly as well in Regard of our Enemies as of our Friends and our selves so that we must always at all times and on all Occasions be righteous both in Word and Deed. In this consists the Righteosness of God For if we are righteous only according to our own Inclinations we have nothing but a Humane Righteousness which ends with us and cannot save us Consider Sir the Righteousness of the Pharisee you 'll see that he fasted twice a Week paid Tithes of all that he possess'd and did other good things in the Judgment of Men and notwithstanding he is rejected by God and not justified which makes it appear to us sufficiently that to be saved we must have another Righteousness than our own that it must be conformable to the Righteousness of God or else it will not avail us for Eternity because it is said elsewhere If your
away all the Fruits of the six Days Labours which he did in creating this beautiful World if all this shou'd be for the Devil and his Adherents No no Sir this cannot go so God must have his time to reign over all his Creatures that they may adore and know him the only true God and that the Number of his Elect may be multiplied as much as he has destin'd them that these never dying may bless him to all Eternity This is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which I wait for Sir with Chearfulness Nothing can afflict me in this Hope It is a joyful Life to think on it what Joy must it be to possess it I said to her That these Words did ravish me with Pleasure but that I had also in Exchange the Grief to believe that all Men now are in a State of Damnation for fear lest I also be of the Number She replied You may indeed rejoice Sir 'T is the greatest Ground of Joy that we can ever have 'T is the Master-piece of all the Works of God and the Accomplishment of all things For this the World is created for this Man is created and for this God is become Man The Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings was for Sinners but his glorious Coming will be for the Righteous Therefore he says being in the World I am not come to save the Righteous but to bring Sinners to Repentance God from all Eternity design'd to become Man to the end he might not only make Man like to him but that God also might be like to Man that he might take his perfect and compleat Delight with him 'T is good to consider this Sir that God is not become Man only on design to suffer and to die For this would have been a sad Subject and the ancient Patriarchs wou'd have had little Ground to have prayed and desired so earnestly that God should become Man to see him hardly used suffering Reproaches Scourges and so cruel a Death The Love they bare to God wou'd rather have made them desire to remain in their Captivity than to be delivered from it at so dear a Price as the Sufferings and the Death of God-Man All those Wishes and Aspirations which all the Fathers and Prophets of the ancient Law made cou'd not be for this Coming in Sufferings but rather that glorious Coming wherein Jesus Christ being lifted up will draw all Men unto him which his Death on the Cross has not done because very few followed him then and no body follows him at present This is very far from drawing all to him seeing so few have been drawn from the Beginning of the World even till now Must there not a Time come wherein that he may fulfil his Word he will draw all in general to him Must he not also to make the same Accomplishment take away the Sins of the World For his Death instead of taking away the Sins of the World has rather brought on more because they have encreas'd and multiply'd since Can God fail in his Promise Must there not come a time when he will take away all the Sins of the World If this were not God shou'd not be faithful in his Promises which cannot be true For Heaven and Earth shall pass away but his Promises shall not pass away There is not a Syllable of them which shall not have its entire Accomplishment in an altogether perfect Sence They wou'd sometimes make us believe that all this shall be fulfilled in Paradise and they tell us that nothing defiled can enter there How then shall there be Sins there to be taken away And if all the Blessed are united to him there will be no more need of drawing them I said to her That I was so convinced as to believe that we must look for a new World and a new Earth and that I knew well enough that nothing of the holy Scripture shall have its Accomplishment in this World but that I was not freed from the Trouble of believing that all Men now were in a State of Damnation of which Number I was one tho' nevertheless I desired to be saved whatever it cost She said Sir to discover Truths you must always take things in their Source Consider I pray you that the Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings was for no other Grounds but to make known to Men their Sins in which they liv'd so blindly that the most Part knew not what they did but followed one another insensibly in the Way of Perdition as they do yet at present God of his great Mercy wou'd have become Man before his Coming in Glory that he might bring Light to Sinners whereby they might know their Sins and to teach them in particular what they ought to do and avoid to the end they may observe the Law of God which he came not to change nor abolish no more than to give a new one but only to teach the Means by which Men shou'd easily attain to the observing of this Law of God which was given from the Beginning of the World and will never be changed For God will never demand any other thing of Men but the Dependence which they ought always to acknowledge they have on their God who has created them and given them all things In the Practice of this Dependence is contain'd all the Law and the Prophets and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ They can have no other thing in Substance But Men being fallen from the observing of this first Law have need from time to time of divers Means to raise them again from their Fall For these ends Jesus Christ is come into the World timously and ere it perish before his limited time that taking Humane Flesh he might teach Men palpably according to their Senses to the end they might not be any more ignorant of any thing but might get out of Darkness to discover their Sins and see clearly the Way they ought to take to come to Salvation And that those Means which Jesus Christ came to teach them might not seem too grievous and difficult to them he wou'd needs pave the Way himself and put them in practice all the time he was on Earth to the end Men might afterwards follow his Steps and imitate his Example By this Foundation Sir you can easily discover whether all Men be in the Way of Salvation or Damnation Lay this down first that no body shall be saved but he who keeps the Law of God Secondly that Men thro' their Frailty cannot observe this Law but by such Means as Jesus Christ has taught them because they imagine that they live in a Dependence upon God when they do but depend on their own Wills To make this known Jesus Christ teaches them that to be his they must deny themselves Not that this Law of denying ones self was ordain'd in these precise Words in the Beginning of the World but it was tacitly contain'd in
and excuse this Roman Church which you may easily perceive to be corrupted And the more she is drest up with Vertues and Sanctity she is the more capable of corrupting the Innocent who approach her thinking to find the Spouse of Jesus Christ without Blemish while in the mean time they contract nothing but the Corruption of an infamous Strumpet Thus the most Sound become diseased and will perish if their Maladies be not quickly laid open and dress'd as is meet by that divine Physician who comes upon the Earth to teach us all things according to the Promise that Jesus Christ gave us speaking to his Diciples saying that he wou'd send the holy Spirit who shou'd teach us all things He is now come Sir hear him The Fifteenth Conference That the Time is come when the Holy Spirit will teach us all Truth How Christians do reject his Light and what Progress the Devil has made among them For what end how and to whom God communicates his Spirit I Ask'd her Who this Physician might be who could cure such Sores and such Corruption She said It is the Holy Spirit Sir which Jesus Christ did promise us a little before his Death who will teach us all things This is that LIGHT which shall arise in the Darkness which the World will not receive but Love their Darkness rather than the Light Therefore is it known by so few because they will not receive it giving more Faith to their Darkness than to this Light which breaks forth as a new Day upon the Earth and comes to discover the Truth of all things But Men are become now so much Lovers of themselves that they will not learn the Truth except in things which are agreeable to them resisting the Truth that reproves them or is not conformable to their Liking and Inclinations In this they will give Laws to the Holy Spirit and make him speak what they encline to hear In these Times the Sins against the Holy Ghost are fully accomplished Therefore Jesus Christ calls them dangerous times because the Sins which are committed then will not be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other When Jesus Christ came into the World they committed many Sins against him Nevertheless all those shall be forgiven because the Jews never understood that he was the Son of God Neververtheless they have perceived and confessed that they did ill in putting him to Death and all the Sins of which we repent shall certainly be forgiven But this Sin which is now committed against this Holy Spirit will never be repented of and therefore will never be pardoned neither in this miserable World nor in that blessed one which is to come because they will never ask forgiveness for them since they will not acknowledge them and if they will not suffer the Physician to lay open and search into the Sores of a Patient how can they hope for a Remedy by his Cure Even so the Holy Spirit cannot heal the Wounds of our Souls if we will not let him discover them I said to her It was very desirable that these Wounds of our Souls were laid open that they might be healed She said Sir it is indeed a desirable thing but it is very little desired For all the World resists this Discovery and they think they do a very pious Action when they will hear nothing spoken of the Evils which have crept into the Church nor yet of the Monks and others who prosess to serve God The Holy Spirit it seems must accommodate himself to the Times if he would be heard and must praise the Vices and Sins that are at present committed against him For that String must not be touch'd to speak evil of those who desire to continue in Reputation or Authority in the Church even tho' they should commit all sort of Abominations and tho' they were Sorcerers and Devils They teach it as a Principle of Vertue that we ought to excuse their Sins and take our Garments to cover them that no body may perceive them This is very far from desiring that these Wounds may be laid open that they may be healed 'T is no wonder Sir that I have so often told you that I cannot see by what way there should be so much as one Person at present saved in Christendom because the greatest Part live as Atheists without acknowledging God any longer or thinking on him and the rest having the Reputation of good Men are so full of the Sins against the Holy Ghost that I know not what way they can be gained If it should be told a Priest Sir you are deceived in the Administration of the Sacraments They do not operate of themselves as you think he would think this Advertisement came from the Devil and would resist it as a very ill thing Or if it should be said to a Monk or any other devout Person that they were not true Christians they would presently take the Alarum and withstand the Person who should tell them this Truth as if he were an Enemy of God and a Liar because he who has no desire to amend will not be pleased to have his Faults discovered to him Thus every one continues in his Sins and desires not to leave them off or so much as discover them In this Men love Darkness rather than the Light which arises so graciously upon which depends the Salvation or Damnation of all the Men in the World For the Darkness is universal and there is no Sect or Nation whatsoever that is in the real Truth I said to her That she was obliged to discover these Truths that they would be of great use tho' it were but to my Soul She said Sir you are no more disposed than any other to receive the Light of the Holy Spirit unless your Heart be humble and your Spirit simplified This is what Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that he must become a Child and enter again into his Mother's Womb affirming elsewhere that l If we are not converted and become as little Children we shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven These very Words must now have their compleat and perfect Sense For he who shall not submit his Spirit in Simplicity as a little Child cannot receive the real Truth which the Holy Spirit brings into the World because the Doctrines of Men and their evil Customs have so blinded and darkned their Understandings that 't is impossible for them to receive the Light of Truth unless they be first stript of all their Sciences acquired by humane Means which prove Vails and Bandages to the Eyes of the Soul For these humane Maxims are all lying and deceitful teaching to honour Men and give Deference to them when they are in Place and Dignities not considering that Honour is due to God alone by his Commandment and that Deference ought to be given to the Truth only to which it is due and as long
upon all the Earth that they who shall kill you for the Truth shall think they do God Service For Satan's Power is so great and universal that it has almost blinded all Men and their Spirits being infatuated they take that which is false to be real and esteem Lyes more than the Truth And all this is so well masqu'd with Vertue and Sanctity that even the best Men will think they do offer Sacrifice to God when they kill you Therefore take heed always Sir that you give not the Children's Bread to Dogs nor cast Pearl before Swine but try well before you speak to any if he hunger and thirst after Righteousness or some other of the eight Beatitudes which are the Marks that Jesus Christ gave whereby to discover those who shall be bless'd and shall receive the Spirit of Truth But as soon as you shall meet with Opposition to the Truth leave off to tell it and never move in that which will avail nothing For God has promised that he will shortly bruise Satan under your Feet Yet a little while the Devil has his Empire which encreases greatly and so soon as it shall be at an end God will bruise him under the Feet of his faithful Servants who shall triumph over all the Powers of Hell But they must yet suffer a little and continue faithful unto death The Seventeenth Conference That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected I Ask'd her If I would run the Risque of these Dangers by going among the Jews since according to her saying they were more disposed to receive the Truth She said Yes Sir there is Hazard there as well as elsewhere because the Devil has those who are in Covenant with him in every Place in every State in every Sect and under every Law For he has run to and fro thro' all the Earth and hath devoured many as well among the Jews as among others But I except the Good among the Jews and I know certainly that these are more disposed to receive the Truth than any others because they sin thro' Ignorance For they never knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and do not yet know it For they look for this Son of God in Glory and know not that he shall be the same who came already among them in Dishonour As soon as they shall discover this Truth they shall return from their Exile and re-enter into the Promise made to Abraham and shall return to be God's People in Exclusion of the Christians who having abused so many Privileges shall be cut off and the Jews settled again on their Ruins I ask'd her Wherefore the Christians could not be reformed that they might become the People of God as well as the Jews Converted to take away their Crown She said Sir the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians are For these sin out of pure Malicé and have forsaken God and his Laws This the Jews have not done They do yet fear and know God and the Christians do neither For they preach publickly that to obtain the Pardon of our Sins we are not obliged to love God that to save us from going to Hell it is enough to have self-love that this Fear of their Damnation is capable of procuring them the Pardon of their Sins and Salvation and they utter a thousand other Blasphemies against God in every thing This they can't do thro' Ignorance because besides the Law of God which they have received as well as the Jews They have moreover the Law of the Gospel and the Doctrine of the Apostles which was left them in Writing for an everlasting Memorial which all Christians ought still to follow The Christians have received Faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he came into the World where he suffered Pains Labours Poverty and Contempt was persecuted imprisoned scourged buffetted and at last put to Death on a Cross as a Malefactor and all this to give an Example to Christians that by following his Steps they might enter into his Glory They do believe all these things and also that the same Son of God is really in the Sacrament of the Altar with a great many other things contain'd in the Creed Nevertheless against their Belief they live directly contrary to what Jesus Christ taught them and what they believe by the Command of God If the Jews believed this that Jesus Christ is the Son of God they would mourn for the Sins which they committed against him and would follow his Example which shall very shortly come to pass whereas the Christians shall die obstinate in their Sins without Repentance By which you may judge Sir that the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Spirit of Truth so soon as it should be communicated to them than the Christians who oppose the known Truth They know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they shew him less Respect than a Servant would do to the meanest Master and eat and swallow him as a Piece of Bread How would you have these Persons to be reformed since they would reform all the World looking on themselves as Gods of the Earth and Children of the true God while they are led by the Devil This they will not acknowledge chusing rather to perish in their Darkness than to give ear to the Truth whereas those Jews would gladly hear what will enlighten them and would be bettered by knowing the Truth For many good Spirits among them aspire after it hungring and thirsting after Righteousness which when they see and know they will immediately embrace it because nothing but Ignorance hinders them from resigning themselves wholly to God Whereas the Christians thro' pure Obstinacy in their Sins will not do it So that if I should go to the College of Cardinals at Rome and tell them that I come from God to advertise them that they are not true Christians and that Jesus Christ taught another way of living than what they observe and that to be saved we must of Necessity follow Jesus they would presently seize on me as a Criminal and put me to death if I would not retract my Words tho' they knew well enough they were true even tho' they should evidently perceive that I had the holy Spirit they would oppose this Truth that they might maintain their Errours How then Sir would you have such Persons to be converted God will never force any body having given to all Men their Free-Will to use it according as they please If these Christians will acknowledge no other God but their own Authority they would deal hardly with God himself if he shou'd come to speak against it How cou'd God in Justice reform these Christians who
the same bed To shew that it avails nothing for one to save his Body but he must endeavour to be united unto God or otherwise he shall be taken in what place soever he go to I said to her That I would follow her even to Death because she had the words of truth tho all the world should withstand it She said Sir There is no need that you follow my Person but my words keep them in your Heart and thereby you will attain to Salvation for they are saving Never turn away from them For the Devil has this invention to raise a great many distractions that he may divert us from following the Truth he sends sickness Troubles Affairs of Importance and a thousand other occasions to divert our good purposes that we may never bring them to effect If you were speaking Sir with all good men who are in publick Offices whether Civil or Ecclesiastick they would acknowledg to you that they were never so throng'd with Affairs or Business as now because the Devil being unable to gain them entirely to himself he endeavours at least to give them so much business as that they may not have leisure to think of their Salvation nor of the Dangers in which they live We must certainly discover his wiles or otherwise he will draw us along with him insensibly He has deceived so many by these means making them believe that their imployments were profitable for the Publick or their Neighbours when they serv'd for nothing but human accommodations without any advantage to the Glory of God or the Salvation of Souls And under this False Perswasion many have lost their own Salvation without procuring that of others It is not in these last times Sir that Places Offices or Imployments are saving it is much for a Man to save his own Soul for the times are too dangerous and the world too blind and obstinate If they perceived their blindness they would seek to find a remedy But while they believe they see clearly they cannot think of a remedy and they fall easily into eternal ruin But if you Sir for your own part would be saved remember the Truth and follow it for without it there can be no Salvation For it alone makes us to know God and the Devil and likewise the state of the World and that of our own Conscience Truth shews us also the certain way of Salvation and by it all the wonders of God are discovered It is the Light of the World and the sure harbour of Salvation without which nothing can be good or beautiful The seventh Conference Shews that Jesus Christ will come in Glory or else he should not be the Saviour of the World as he is and there would be no just Recompence for the Good and for the Wicked I said to her that I had sufficiently discovered the truth of this that we are in the last times that the VVorld is judged and Antichriso reigns and also that the Plagues are begun because there is no truth nor Righteousness among Men but that I did not yet see why Jesus Christ shall come to reign in Glory upon Earth She said This is the most evident truth and the greatest Goodness and Justice of God because Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World and the restorer of all things You see clearly by all the Truths that I have told you that very few will be saved of all those who live at present after the usual manner and if this miserable World should last yet longer there would still be fewer because every day it grows worse How therefore should Jesus Christ be the Saviour of the World if he did not restore all things No body could be Saved for the whole World perishes There must come a time that the whole World shall be saved that he may be fitly called the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD And this cannot be in Heaven as People imagine because all who enter there shall be Saved having received Salvation at the hour of Death and this respects only particular persons who by reason of their small number cannot well be called the WORLD because it consists in a Generality and not in some particular Persons 'T is a truth therefore that in a certain time Jesus Christ will save all the World in general This will be at his coming in Glory when he shall have judged the World and condemned the Wicked he will save the Good with all their Posterity who can never perish any more because of the continual Presence of Jesus Christ God and Man who will govern and lead them to Salvation This his coming in Glory is also necessary to restore all things because there has been no reparation yet of all the Injuries and Affronts that were done to his Humanity His low Condition has not been raised up his Poverty has not been enriched his Tears have not been wiped away his Humility has not been exalted neither have any other of his Contempts and Sufferings been repaired nor of those who have loved and followed him One has died as a Malefactor another as a Seducer a St. Andrew on the Cross a St. Lawrence on the Grid-iron and so many other holy Martyrs who have suffered Persecution and Death for Righteousness and Truth There has been no reparation of all this hitherto but by imaginary things as they say that Jesus Christ was exalted on the Cross which is an infamous reparation to dye on a Gibbet as a Malefactor If those who hold this Cross to be a reparation of Honour were hanged after this manner themselves they would not believe that their Honour were repaired by this How can they imagine that that of God was so It is not to be imagin'd that Honour should be repaired by Infamy it self But because his coming in Glory was unknown to them they have applied Infamy to Glory that they might say something of it The truth is Jesus Christ will come upon the Earth to repair all things for it would not be just that he should have suffered so innocently and after him so many other Saints and Martyrs who were free from Crimes and that they should continue dead without being repaired Spiritually and bodily for what they have suffered unjustly or for the Love of God and if People imagine that all these things must be repair'd in a Divine and imaginary Heaven they are deceived because this reparation cannot be perfectly made there for natural sufferings ought also to have suitable reparations unless God did as Charmers do who cure bodily wounds with spiritual rememedies or some artificial words No Sir this will not go after that manner because God does his works always in a perfection every way accomplish'd He will repair both bodily and spiritually all that has been done unjustly and the whole world shall thereby discover his Righteousness Goodness and Truth that every one may know that he is worthy and just worthy
by him he might rule over all Things as a dependent Deity And for a Token of this Dependance he forbad him to eat of the Fruit of one Tree only permitting him to eat of all the rest The meaning of which was that Man might enjoy use and rule over all Things provided always he acknowledg'd his Dependance on the Supream Deity of whom he held all Things And if Adam had not forgotten himself by quitting this Dependance and desiring to depend upon himself he should never have received any other Command from God nor yet any Man after him But the Righteousness of God oblig'd him to lay other Commands on Man for the Pennance of his Disobedience He enjoyn'd him to till the Ground and to gain his Bread with the sweat of his Face which was the Second Command that God gave to Man which nevertheless was only Accidental through the Fall of Adam and not Essential by the Will of God who lov'd rather to see him free without being subjected to any other Thing but Himself alone And his giving the Commands to Moses for the Children of Israel was also Accidental For if they had not fallen into so many different Sins which took them off from their Dependance upon God he would never have given them divers Commandments But fearing lest his People should perish through Ignorance he still gave them new Commands that by the help of them they might know their Sins and amend them else God would never have constrain'd Man to any other thing but to acknowledge him as the Superiour of all Things For God created him to take his Delight with him in full liberty and without constraint and was not willing to subject him to any other Law but that of Love By which we see that all the other Commands are but Accidentally appointed because of the Sins that Men had committed at divers times who if they would now return to this Dependance upon God would have no need of any other Precept or Commandment for all the rest are only Means to bring us to this Dependance upon God and that we may see and discover all that hinders us from resigning our Will to God's and that discovering them by the Commands we may leave them and amend and so may be able to return to this Dependance which was first enjoyn'd us as the one thing necessary for Salvation And is still so now as well as then The Twelfth Conference Shews That there is one thing only to be done by us that we may be saved I said to her That it was very agreeable to hear that there was but one thing only to be done in order to Salvation And that I would gladly take that short way She said No Sir 'T is true there is but one thing only to be done that we may be saved But there are many things to be parted with which do greatly hinder and distract us We neglect to do that which is necessary to attain to this Dependance and we do that which alienates us from it The Penitence which God enjoyn'd Adam To gain his Bread with the Sweat of his Face is very little regarded among Men now Every Body would live without Labour and they esteem it a Happiness to have Riches that they may live in Ease This is indeed to thwart the Means that God has so savingly taught us After that Adam sin'd and all Men in him of his own free choice he left off this Dependance upon God that he might become wise of himself Thus he render'd himself miserable with all his Posterity Because all the Miseries that we suffer are procured by the following our own Wills We must not impute all our Miseries to Adam but only to the Sins that we our selves commit If we had no other but the Sin of Adam we should need nothing but the Pennance of Labour to gain our Bread and the enduring the Intemperance of the Elements But our own Sins bring upon us a Thousand other Sufferings If we would labour and suffer Cold and Heat or other Intemperances of the said Elements and return again to the Dependance of our Wills upon Gods we should be very quickly restored to the Blessed State wherein Adam was created For our Penitence should be accomplish'd in this short Life which by the Mercy of God is much shortned and then we should enjoy an Eternal Bliss which should never end But since our Actual Self will would not depend upon God but upon its self bending it self to follow its own Inclinations it has procured us a great Number of other Evils which we attribute to God or to Adam and if we consider them aright we will evidently perceive that they derive their dominion from our Self-will and not from any other thing For our Diseases are ordinarily procured by our Intemperance in Eating and Drinking or other Sensual Excesses which we commit to satisfie our own Will which oftimes drives us to some State that causes us a Thousand Sorrows or to some Employment or Trade that brings us into great trouble of Law-suits Quarrels Vexations or to Poverty and other Miseries And the Cause of all this is that we would not submit our Will to Gods who would have govern'd us as a good Father does his Son we having chosen rather to follow our own Will and to undergo all sort of Calamities in this World and run the hazard of suffering far greater hereafter which shall never end For he who will not be guided by God can never be saved since our own Conduct will lead us to the Abyss of all sort of Evils both Temporal and Eternal Because our own Will is ignorant and rash never content nor satisfied never stopping for any sort of Evil Even though it discover its Miseries it does not amend them but imputes them to another either to Adam or even to God And thus flattering our selves always in our own Will we persist therein even to death which gives beginning to a miserable Eternity For no Body can be saved by himself and if we do not yield up our Will to God from whom can we expect Salvation 'T is a great Blindness Sir not to see these Truths which are so evident since we feel our Weakness and know that we have receiv'd all from God and that we can hope for nothing but from him And notwithstanding of all these Considerations we will not resign our Will to his choosing rather to be miserable and to perish at last by following our own We are unthankful to God and cruel to our selves For indeed 't is a great Ingratitude to deny God the only thing he demands of us our own Will having given us all other things and 't is a great Cruelty to our selves to withdraw our Dependance upon God and subject our selves to so many sorts of Evils I asked her How it was possible that Men should deny the yielding up their Will to God since all appertains to him
the Command of some Servants of God This is a certain Proof that it is Sin only that gives all the Malignity to every Thing and that nothing but the Rebellion that Man has raised against his God renders all the Elements and other Creatures Rebels against him If we would from this time yield up our Will into God's Hands and submit our selves entirely to him we should immediately find that all Things would subject themselves to us without any constraint How greatly does Man wrong himself when he will needs dispose of his own Will He makes himself miserable in this World and far more in that to come Whereas by being willing to depend upon God he has all under his Power together with Eternal Bliss What Infatuation of Spirit is it that we will not do a Thing so good so just and so reasonable as to resign our Will to that of God! If Men were taught this as they are other frivolous Devotions it would be impossible that any would deny God so profitable a Submission But they let themselves be amused by the Discourses of Men who propose a Salvation without being able to give it These are those false Christs and false Prophets of whom Jesus Christ has so often told that we must take heed of them who have deceived all the World so that none think any longer of resigning themselves to God or of doing saving Penitence I said to her There were yet divers Persons who desired to be resigned to God and also to do Pennance which cannot be avoided in this World She said Sir You take the Bark often for the Wood For those who say they will be resigned to God have nothing but outward Words For if they were truly so they would be governed by God and would no longer labour for the Earth but only for Heaven Even the Labour that is necessary for the support of Life would be done only to fulfil their Penitence appointed by God But when we see them aim at Places Honours and Dignities or Deal and Traffick to acquire Riches or Pleasures that one would be a Priest another a Religious one build Cloysters another Houses as if he were to abide in them for ever All these Things with a Thousand others are infallible Evidences that God does not govern our Will For he could not move us to make Tabernacles here since he has sent us hither only to undergo a short Penitence He could not incite us to build what must be so quickly destroyed Neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles and Disciples built Temples or Houses being contented with what was simply necessary In which the Heathens will rise up against us in the Day of Judgment who did so despise the shortness of this Life that they would not build Houses contenting themselves with a Tub to cover them from the Injuries of the Season Others threw their Mony into the Sea not judging it necessary for so short a Life though since that Time ours is much shortned Neither can it be true that we are willing to do Pennance because every one avoids Sufferings as much as he can and to do saving Pennance it must be voluntary and suffered for fulfilling the Will of God For else we may suffer much without Meriting as Robbers and Thieves do I said to her That this ought to be preached through all the World that they who would perish through Ignorance might hear the Truth and be converted She said Sir You may do as you please As for me I retire For I am not sent to preach but simply to declare the Truth as I have done to you You may have sufficiently remarked in all my Discourses and my Life if there were any Affectations or Passions which should move me to tell you these Things I am perswaded in the sight of God that I have no Self-Interest in it nor any desire to please or displease Men nor to affect the speaking new or marvellous Things No Sir I am not led by that Spirit but by that of Jesus Christ who had such Compassion for Men that for them he endured a bitter Passion and the Death of the Cross If you preach these Things to Men of good Judgment and who thirst after the Truth they will gladly hear you and yield themselves and return to God For they will easily see that here is no Flattery for any Body nor yet Contempt or sensual Animosity but pure solid Truths which none can resist but they who are in League with Satan and love Lyes and resist the Truth Those will very hardly receive Truths that are so opposite to them they will induce effeminate Spirits to reject these Things as evil perceiving that the knowledge of these will take from their Master the Devil the Power to deceive by Falshood and Hypocrisie and that he will be forced very quickly to discover his Mischievous Reign Because he shall not be able to catch Souls any longer under the colour of Piety and Holiness as he has done hitherto And his furious Reign shall be far less dangerous For so soon as he shall be known for the Devil no Body will follow him any longer except they who wilfully yield up themselves to him Whereas at present every one follows him blindly But so soon as his Malice shall be discovered he shall have no longer Power over Innocent Souls Tell the Truth boldly Sir to all good Men in Confidence But beware of the Adherents of the Enemy and of those who let themselves be governed by his Spirit though they be not precisely in Covenant with the Devil Because these will do you much Mischief when they think they are doing well For they who have their Minds infatuated do serve the Devil as well as Sorcerers themselves The one directly and the other indirectly You will still discover them by the resistance which they will make to the Truth for they will not so much as hear it Because they know very well they cannot change the Truth They endeavour at least to reject and despise it that no Body may receve it This will be the Devils last Effort For as soon as the Truth shall be known it will strongly resist him and at last will break his Head Observe still Sir the Disposition of those to whom you would declare these Truths And when you find opposition from them leave off speaking to them For those who shall be disposed to profit by the Truth will give Ear to it willingly and with Hungry Desires will search even to the Bottom that they may discover the Essence of it For no good Men can resist the Truth nor the Things which are proposed to them without having examined whether they be Good or Evil But the Wicked will resist it before they know it And if they can catch a Word different from their School Terms they will take it in a quite contrary Sence Therefore Sir do not amuse your self with Questions and Disputes For this would
Darkness he knows not whither he goes Learning has led Men into great Presumption and Pride which estranges them from God So that they shall never know the Truth but by becoming Children re-entering into the Womb of their Mother which is the Original and the State of their Creation They must re-take their first Aims if they would discover the Secrets of God's Grace the Power of Free-will the Qualities of God the Love that he bears to Men and the way how he Rules and governs them Nothing of all this has been known hitherto I said to her That we had been for a long time in Errour that it was a wonder God had permitted such Ignorance in his Church She said Sir God never permits Evil on his part but he will not hinder Man to use his Free-will to do evil or good according to his desire If Ignorance entred into the Church it is not he that brought it in because he rear'd it up in Light and Divine Wisdom which if it had followed it could never have fallen into Errour Because the Wisdom of God is all beautiful and without Spot but Men who ought to receive and follow it have withdrawn themselves from it and embraced the Spirit of Errour which has still encreast to a greater Darkness to such a degree as that no Body knows now where he walks and they take False for Real and Lying for Truth and which is worse they love their Darkness and Errours rather than Light Though it be so agreeable yet nevertheless it is despised by Men now who do so cleave to their own Wisdom that they despise the Truth that is presented to them esteeming more their acquired Sciences than the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which is the only Mother that can nourish our Divine Souls which is at present despised by the Learned of this Age. Yea not only despised but even shock'd and persecuted For it is ordinary for the Wicked to persecute those who do not follow their Iniquities and for Fools to despise what they understand not or what they cannot comprehend The Wise of this World will never comprehend the Wisdom of God till they believe themselves to be ignorant as they truly are and till they shall become Children not that they must become Fools nor yet weak in Judgment as a Little Child is but till they shall submit their Wills to God as a Little Child submits himself to his Nurse who takes him up and lays him down and gives him his Nourishment according as she judges it to be needful without the Child's opposing himself thereto And though he cry sometimes when his Nurse handles him yet nevertheless she ceases not to do those necessary Things about him Even so would God do with our Will if it were resigned to him But when we will needs rule it our selves he lets us erre and be ignorant of what we are obliged to know Because he resists the Proud The Twentieth and Sixth Conference Declares the necessity there is of becoming Children that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all worldly Wisdom and all Humane Abuses I asked her How it was possible for a Man to quit all the Sciences acquired after the manner of Men that he may become a Child when he is come to Age She said Sir If you do it not you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus Christ tells this And he cannot lye But he presses this necessity of becoming a Child by threatning that otherwise we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which would be the greatest evil that could befal a Man It were better never to be born than not to be saved And since we cannot be saved without becoming Children we ought to become so at what Price soever Would you Sir esteem more the Honour of the World or your acquired Sciences than the Kingdom of Heaven This would be very lamentable since all the Things of this World pass away like a Bird that cleaves the Air and leaves no Mark of its Way So when we shall have past through this World nothing shall remain to us of our Sciences and Learning nor yet of our Honour and Reputation All ends with us and if some retain still an esteem of our Wisdom after Death we are insensible of it If we pleased our selves while we lived here the suffering for these Complacencies wait for us in the other World And our having been wise here is so sar from making us happy that 't is a great unhappiness to have lost the Kingdom of Heaven by this Wisdom Lay aside Sir all these Humane Considerations and become a Child though you be aged You have need to make the more haste for fear lest Time and Life fail you Never advise with Flesh and Blood for they deceive and corrupt us Let us only consult with our Divine Soul which is reasonable and it will tell you that there is nothing better or more reasonable than to resign our Free-will to God who gave us it and to submit it to his government as a Little Child That on this our Eternal Happiness depends and that nothing else can save us because without this Dependance there is no Salvation I said to her That I perceived this Truth most clearly that there was no Salvation without a Dependance upon God asking how I might now become ignorant of the Sciences which I had heretofore acquired since I could not make my self not to have them She said Sir Nothing can hurt you if all be subjected to God You cannot be ignorant of what you know by means of your Studies But you can submit all these Sciences to God and look upon them as Ignorances as in effect they are Do not apply your Mind any longer to the Study of Sciences and believe that they are all vain in respect of the Wisdom of God You shall know that you are resigned to his Will when you seek no longer for any thing upon Earth neither Learning nor Wisdom nor a desire to know any other thing but what may render you well pleasing to God For he who is resigned to him without guile is not moved with any thing but what concerns his Glory No other thing touches him Whether he be learned or ignorant is all one to him He makes use of Learning in what respects God's Glory and not at all to rule on the Earth knowing well that he who is resigned to God without Learning is as great as he who is so with much Learning And even as one may be poor in Spirit though he possesses Riches so he may have much Learning and yet for all this be simple in Spirit When he submits all his Learning to God he makes use of it as seems good to him But as long as we think to profit by it we are not yet become Children to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And since God makes appear to you