time that M. de Cambray wrote those things except that he being since made Archibishop of Cambray would no longer tye himself to the Doctrine he had voluntarily subscribed that he would now vary from it and Lastly that he has forgot the Submission that God had then put into his Heart 15. They that have seen our Discussion must own continues he that M. de Meaux who at first would thunder against all has been constrained to admit one after another things which he had a hundred times rejected as most pernicious It was I then that taught an evil Doctrine it was I to whom they must give Arbitrators M. de Cambray who spoke only of Submission to our Sentiments really he that taught us M. de Meaux was for thundering against all but if he was altogether of so thundering a Disposition and so unjust in the time of the Discussion why would you expect his Decision to submit your self to it why would you desire it so earnestly why would you hear in him not only a Doctor whom you were pleased to call one of the greatest but God himself were these serious Words or Flattery and Derision were these the Thunder-claps that you respected and a Man who thundered right or wrong that you took for your Judge and that you would hearken to as to God himself 16. Let us read once more the same words They that have seen our Discussion must own that M. de Meaux who was for thundering against all was constrained one after another to admit things that he rejected But who was it that saw that Discussion who besides us was admitted there by what Witnesses will he prove that I have so much varied but if I was to acknowledge so many faults was M. de Cambray to acknowledge nothing for me I have produced his Letter and a Memoire written with his own hand It must be confess'd that he acts two very contrary Parts let us read the Letters he wrote during the Discussion he desired only a Judgement after which he offered a Retraction at first and to abandon all Let us read the Memoire he makes after the same Discussion M. de Cambray has not only no Sentiment he was to forsake but it was we that were to forsake ours to embrace his which we did nothing but thunder against right or wrong without Judgment 17. It was not says he the Person of M. Guyon and her Writings I was concern'd for but for the Doctrine of the Saints which is but too little known to most part of the Scholasticks We were those Scholasticks then to whom the Doctrine of the Saints was so unknown and it was M. de Cambray that taught us that Doctrine During the Discussion he carried himself as a Scholar but since he is arriv'd to an higher Degree he would propose new Rules by his Explication he repents that he had so submitted and he speaks now as tho' he was the Arbitrator of all 18. We are not infallible No without doubt but yet he shou'd shew us wherein we had need of Instruction What Errors did we teach Did we except against some part of the Doctrine of the Saints Did we desire Doctors and Arbitrators Go let us take heed not to glory except it be in the Lord Let us not speak of the deference we owe to one another a Disciple of Jesus Christ reckons it his glory to learn every day and that too of all Men But yet we must not forget the part that we acted M. de Chaalon M. de Tronson and I Without doubt they looke upon us as Men of sound and uncorrupt Doctrine to whom they would referr all upon the Mysteries of Prayer and Pure Love that is to say upon most Essential Points of Faith M. de Cambray himself proposed us received us and lookt upon us as such and now all of a sudden we are no more but a sort of Doctors to whom as well as to the most part of the Scholasticks the Doctrine of the Saints is utterly unknown 19. But whilst M. de Cambray ascribes to himself so much Authority and Light God permits that he should discover to us his Changeableness Now he boasts only of the School and accuses us as being Opposers of the Scholastick Doctors but then his Business was only to teach us the Doctrine of the Saints unknown yea most unknown not to some or to a small Number but to most of the Doctors of the School 20. It is not the Person of M. Guyon and her Writings I was concerned for What was the thing then in Question at that time Who was it that proposed the Question Why were Arbitrators chosen and desired Arbitrators to whom all was submitted was it not to Judge of the Prayer and of the Books of M. Guyon will he always forget and loose sight of the express Subject of the Dispute M. de Cambray had not then published any thing upon that Matter It was not he that was accused it was M. Guyon and her Books Why did he meddle so far in that Business who call'd him thereunto if not his own Conscience by which he knew thà t if we Condemn'd the Books of Madam Guyon which he had so much recommended he would be thereby Condemned himself Why did he Compose so many Writings was it to accuse or excuse and defend those Books that must then have been our Question and yet if we believe M. de Cambray this was not the Matter he was concerned for it was for the Doctrine of the Saints What For the Doctrine of the Saints in general or in relation to those Books that were so mightily accused He would then teach us that those Books were conformable to the Doctrine of the Saints and that if they were accused it was because the Doctors of the School for the most part were ignorant of that Doctrine which Madam Guyon came to teach them 21. Let us tell the truth as it results from the Matters of Fact and from the Writings just now mentioned Whilst she wrote before as the Party accused the Abbot de Fenelon wrote also as much as she either as her Advocate or Interpreter However to hinder her Condemnation the Matter in Question was not the Person who always spoke as having submitted it was the Books and the Doctrine he had a mind to defend and he had no other Reason or Title for entring upon that Cause What he had begun when only M. de Fenelon he continued it when made Arch bishop of Cambray it is under this Title that he subscribed the thirty four Propositions He persisted to submit all to the Arbitrators he had Chosen and to whom he sent all his Writings He received that Motion as a Motion from God which he entertained even to the time of his Consecration If he afterwards forgets all what have we to say to it but that he dissembled or that being advanced as high as he could be he had changed his Designs and taken another Method 22. He
plain enough by the Conduct I have Observ'd she has been condemned confined loaden with Infamy I never spoke a Word to justifie her to excuse her to make her Condition easie As to the Matter of the Doctrine I never ceased to write and to quote the approved Authors of the Church They that have seen our Discussion must own that M. de Meaux who was at first for thundering against all has been constrained to admit one after another things which he had a hundred times rejected as most pernicious It was not then the Person of M. Guyon and her Writings I was concerned for it was the Doctrine of the Saints but too much unknown to most of the Scholastick Doctors 24. As soon as the Doctrine was secured without sparing the Errors of such as are led away by Delusions were not concern'd at M. Guyon's Captivity and Disgrace If I refuse now to approve what M. de Meaux says of M. Guyon it is because I won't disgrace her utterly against my Conscience nor dishonour my self by charging her with Impieties and Blasphemies that reflect unavoidably upon my self 25. Thus you see all the Reasons M. de Cambray gives for not approving my Book from thence result Facts of the greatest Consequence in order to know perfectly the Spirit that Prelate was at first in and the alteration that hath happened in his Conduct since he has been Arch-bishop One may easily understand what the Meaning of those thundering Airs is that he begins to give me of that profound Ignorance he ascribes to the Shool the Authority whereof he now feigns himself to have a Mind to maintain of those Divisions which he ecchoes out so loud altho' there never was the least Ground for it between M. de Chaalons who was constrained to make great Instances and me who resisted him 〈◊〉 did not yield without force Those Matter of Fact and others are of the greatest Consequence let the prudent Reader remember them But in order to comprehend them the better let us without Interruption go on with what follows of his Writing 26. Since I have signed the thirty four Propositions I have declared upon all Occasions that offer'd themselves naturally that I had signed them and that I thought it was never to be allowed that any should go beyond those Limits 27. I afterwards shewed to the Arch-bishop of Paris a most large and exact Explication of the whole System of the inward Ways in the Margin of the thirty four Propositions That Prelate did not observe in it the least Error or the least Excess M. Tronson to whom I also shewed that Work did not correct any thing therein Observe by the way in the Matter of Fact that there is no mention made here of having communicated those Explications to me of which truly I never heard any Body speak one Word 28. It is about six Months since a Carmelite of the Suburb of St. James desired of me some Instruction in that Matter I wrote presently a long Letter to him which I had examin'd by M. de Meaux He proposed to me only to avoid a Word indifferent in it self but which was by that Prelate observ'd had been sometimes abused to ill Ends. I took it out presently and added besides some Explications full of preservatives against those Errors that he required not The Suburb of St. James that gave Birth to the most implacable Critick upon the Mystick Divines had not one Word to say against that Letter M. Pirot said boldly it might be used as a certain Rule in those Matters In effect I have condemned therein all the Errors that have alarm'd some good people in these latter times By the way it falls much short of it and when all is done we don't talk here of examining a particular Letter the Nature of which I know only by a confused Recital But here he begins to come to something more essential 29. Yet I do not find it enough to dissipate the vain Umbrages and think it necessary to to declare my self still in a more Authentick Manner I have writ a Book wherein I explain to the bottom the whole System of the inward Ways wherein I mark on one side whatsoever is conformable to the Faith and grounded upon the Tradition of the Saints and on the other whatsoever goes beyond and which ought to be rigorously censured The more I am under a necessity of refusing my Approbation to the Book of M. de Meaux the more Capital it is to declare my self at the same time in a more Emphatical and Express Manner The Work is now ready They have no cause to be afraid that I should contradict there M. de Meaux I would rather choose to dye than to present the Publick with so scandalous a Scene I shall not mention him but to praising him and making use of his words I know perfectly his Thoughts and I may promise that he will be satisfied with my Work when he sees it published 30. Further I won't presume to have it printed without Consulting any body I design to entrust the Arch-bishop of Paris and M. Tronson with it as a great Secret of the highest degree as soon as they have read it over I will publish it according to their Corrections They shall be the Judes of my Doctrine and nothing but what is approved by them shall be printed I should have the same Confidence in M. de Meaux were I not under a Necessity of Concealing from him a Work the printing whereof 't is likely he would hinder out of respect to his own 31. In this Work I shall exhort all the Mysticks that have errred in Doctrine to own their Errors I shall add that such as have explained themselves ill without falling into any Error are obliged in Conscience to condemn their Expressions without restriction never to use them any more and to prevent all Equivocating by a publick Explanation of their real Sentiments Can any body go further to repress Error 32. God alone knows to what degree I suffer in making a Person suffer upon this occasion for whom I have the most constant and most sincere Respect and Affection of any Person in the World 33. Thus the Memoire written by the Arch-bishop of Cambray concludes We may easily understand who the Person is whose Suffering he is so sorry to occasion and what the Subject of that Suffering is All the sincere Friends of M. de Cambray do truly suffer to see him so strangely addicted to the Defence of that Book that he had rather separate himself from his Fellow-Bishops than Condemn it than to unite himself to them by a common Approbation of my Book to which he just now declares in this Memoire that the only Obstacle that hinders him was his being unwilling to disapprove the Books of M. Guyon But we leave these Reflections and come to the Essential Facts contained in this Memoire SECTION V. Of the Matter of Fact contained in that Memoir 1. LEt us begin
at the last whilst our Memory is yet fresh There are two of 'em very important The One of which is That the Explications put on the Margin of the thirty four Propositions were concealed from me and shew'd only to the Arch-bishop of Paris and M. Tronson They begun then from that time to Comment upon the Articles they turn'd them they explain'd them after his way He Conceal'd it from me Why because he knew in his Conscience that he departed from our first Sentiments He will say that M. de Paris and M. Tronson would have thought as I did Who doubts of it So they did and M. de Paris has well shewed it But then every one has his own Eyes and his own Conscience One helps another Why then did they separate me from those Gentlemen seeing that they and I drew up those Articles with a perfect unanimity as has been saip Why did he hide himself but from him to whom before his being Arch-bishop and at the time of the Examination of the Articles he referred all things as to God without any further discussion as a Child as a School-boy It is not for my advantage that I put him in mind of those words it is to shew the laudible disposition of Humility and Obedience God then inspired M. de Cambray with What has since happened that should alter his Resolution is it because I had Consecrated him is it because he was not satisfied with his having Chosen me for that Work when at that time he was more full than ever of the Sentiments God had inspir'd him with towards me tho' unworthy and renewed his Protestation that he would never entertain other Opinions than mine the Purity whereof he knew It was notwithstanding after having Signed the Articles that he gives unknown to me a large Explanation of 'em to the Arch-bishop of Paris and to M. Tronson As for me I should be satisfied with it but as for M. de Cambray would he separate and disunite Brethren and Unanimous Persons that had laboured and concerted things so perfectly together and as became Church-men If that was his Design what Conduct is this if it was not why does he hide himself from me who breathed out nothing but Unity and Concord Was I become of a sudden morose capricious and unmanageable it had been much better to have Communicated to me what he was treating with the inseparable Fellows of my Labour than a Letter to a Carmelite which related nothing to our purpose seeing that was writ rather with respect to his particular Instruction than to the State of the Matter in General But what he would make shew of some Remains of Confidence for a Man that deserved an entire Confidence whilst the Essential Part is concealed from him and whilst M. de Cambray in order to lessen the Number of the Witnesses of the Variations he was contriving labours secretly to separate him from them to whom God had join'd him in this Work 2. I have writ a Book wherein I fully explain the whole System of the Inward Wayes The Work is now ready They need not be afraid that I shall therein Contradict M. de Meaux I 'd rather choose to dye than to present the Publick with so Scandalous a Scene Without the Trouble of Dyeing to avoid that Scandal he should have only Communicated that New Work to me as all the others had been Communicated and as I had Communicated that which I was Medirating I take here Heaven and Earth to Witness that I never knew even according to the Confession of M. de Cambray what he was Contriving and that I have my Hands free from the Scandalous Divisions that are thereupon happened 3. I shall not speak of M. de Meaux but to praise him and make use of his Words Whom do they think to amuse by that ambiguous Discourse to what purpose serves wavering Praise in a Book of Doctrine Is it not common to use the Words of an Author against himself and to convince him Thus M. de Cambray did not give the World any Assurance against the Dissentions they had reason to fear from his Book so that once more I am innocent 4. I know perfectly well the Thoughts of M. de Meaux and I may venture to promise that he will be satisfied when he shall see my Work publish'd What he knows my Thoughts so well that he won't do so much as ask them I will be satisfied He answers for it so I see but his Book publish'd Did he think to draw the Publick after him and by their Authority to drag me also along to make me believe that in the Articles of Issy I had thought of all that he would do or that though he might be assur'd if I durst say so of my pacifick Temper he believed I would connive at every thing did he not think that Discretion Patience Compliance especially in matters of the Faith have bounds beyond which they must not be push'd There was a surer Method to prevent so great a Mischief which was to concert and to endeavour to understand one another as I had given him Example He shunned a way so fair and so natural and thought to draw the Publick after him but so far were they from suffering themselves to be drawn away that he saw an universal Uproar against it that the like will hardly be found exemplified Thus God turns Men out of the way when they neglect the certain and simple means they have in their Hands and relye upon their Eloquence 5. I don't presume to have this Work printed without consulting any body He promises to consult the Archbishop of Paris and M. Tronson and not to have any thing printed but what they approve I would have says he the same confidence in M. de Meaux were I not under the necessity of concealing from him a Work the printing whereof 't is likely he would hinder out of respect to his own Why should I hinder it Did he know in his Conscience that by turning the Articles as he has done our Books would be contrary to one another and that he argued upon Principles opposite to those we had agreed upon This is what he should have prevented It was perhaps out of Jealousie of excelling me that I would hinder his Book from coming out what Mark had I ever given of so mean a Disposition why would he suspect such a thing of his Fellow-Bishop his Friend his Consecrator who may well be accused of being too much possess'd with a good Opinion of his Compliance If I had been as unreasonable to shew so shamful a Jealousie and to wrangle vainly with M. de Cambray M. de Paris and M. de Tronson would have confounded me and because 't is likely I should contradict them upon this Conjecture and Appearance he really exposes the Church to the greatest Scandal that could be rais'd 6. But whence comes this change of Conduct He to whom all was referred during the Discussion of