life were with incomparable Purity Evidence Clearness and Solidity in that Soul which thou didst sanctifie and are yet in her holy Writings In truth the way that is there recommended as necessary to Salvation is the only and the true way there is no danger to abandon our selves wholly and entirely in it for it is the very Truth it is the Truth it self It is the pure Truth There is none Lord there can be none other in Heaven nor in Earth There is none other way unto eternal life than that which thou hast put into the Mouth in the Writings and in the Life of thy most holy hand-maid Antonia Bourignon I praise and bless and thank thee O my God that thou gave me to know the same and hast opened and enclined the ear of my heart thereto Give me Grace to love to observe and to maintain that heavenly Truth unto Death Happy he that should lose a thousand lives for so worthy a subject Happy he who shall never for any consideration leave the practice of it Let me by thy divine Grace be of that number that after this short life of Tryal that most certain and most infallible mean make me enjoy my soveraign End which is to have the happiness ever to adore and praise thy great Majesty O Jesus eternal God Creator Saviour and redeemer of the World while with the Father and holy Spirit thou shalt reign Gloriously in all eternity Amen Revelation Ch. 3. He that hath Ears to hear Let him hear THE PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER THis Treatise consists of two parts whereof the one may be called Extructive which builds or establishes and the other Destructive which destroys or everts For the first ten Letters are adapted to the planting of Virtue and all the rest to evert and root out what may hinder its increase To recommend Virtue is taken the precept of him who is the Master and Example of it by which is made an introduction shewing what Virtues we must in the first place embrace and by what meanstend to them which is by Obedience and renouncing our own will unto the Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart of Iesus Christ see Let. 1 2 3. the Nature of which Humility is explained and the means conducing to the attainment of it viz the knowledge of our Corruption and the Miseries which our Bodys and Souls ly under Let. 4 5 6. Which ought to produce in us the effect of renouncing our natural senses and being content with what is of meer necessity we should flee all Pleasure and proper Satisfaction Let. 7 8. which emptying of our selves will be accompanied with the Love of God which incontinently possesses the Heart from which vitious affections are expelled because of the near relation and sympathy between them as between the Creature and its natural Element In which Love consists the Essence and Complement of all Virtue and all Good Let. 8 9 10. Concerning the overturning and resisting the Impediments and Tentations of Satan is treated Let. 11. whether they be offered to our Imagination or Sensibility even spiritual Let. 12 13. or to the Understanding making us rest in the naked knowledge of the Truth Let. 14. Or exciting us to external acting or internal with Vain Glory or by Dejecting us through immoderate mortifications or in unseasonable good works spiritual or corporal toward our Neighbour Let. 15 16. Or in regard of the Devil accusing him too much or too little of our sins Let. 17 18. Whether these Tentations affect the will whose godly fervour Satan would extinguish by Grief Spiritual Negligence and Self-love as shew Let. 19 20 and to the end There is briefly represente the whole subject handled in this divine Treatise which is more specially noted at the beginning of each Letter that you may kind Reader view as in a Table and beter retain in your memory the divine Instructions therein delivered Moreover you may with us well admire the infamous audacity of some as the Church-men in Holsatia whereby some years ago they caused that these so wholsome instructions while under the Press in the German and Low Dutch Tongues were taken away by force and violence and rent While I consider these obscure enemies of the truth that Scripture offers it self to me that Every one that Doth and will do evil hateth the Light and cometh not to the Light lest his deeds be reproved and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men Love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil. It is far otherwise with him who doth and will do the Truth for he cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest because they are wrought in God Joh. Ch. 3. I pray the God of Truth that he graciously please to instruct and lead you in the way of Truth that you never refuse to come to the Light Farewell TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Cannot abstain from imparting unto you these twenty four letters which I have written to one of my particular Friends where I shew him what Solid Virtue is because it is a matter so necessary for the present time when we see false virtue reign or such as is only apparent to the eyes of men and while so many persons deceive themselves perswading themselves that they have true Virtue whereas they have nothing but fine Speculations They think themselves Humble when they can talk well of Humility and think they have the Love of God when they desire to have it notwithstanding they have in effect only the Love of themselves and it is but Deceit and Falshood when they say they have the Love of God They do not so much as know the corruption of their Nature seeing they think they may follow that corruption without sinning provided they do no evil reproveable before men and have a will to do well and love God Which notwithstanding is not sufficient to be saved for good desires without effect are nothing before God They are indeed Foundation stones serving to the building of true Virtue For without good Desires we cannot do good Works We must first have the desire and after put it in execution which is wanting to many persons of a good will who content themselves to be of a good will and hope with that all shall go well without considering that the holy Scripture says to all in general Depart from evil and do Good Now the Evil is in our corrupt nature which no person ought to ignore yet few depart from that corruption and most love and follow it thinking they do well which is a great abuse and presumption of spirit for we cannot do good except we depart from evil and he that does not resist that corrupt Nature and renounce it cannot acquire true Virtue which few persons comprehend and thence is it that they have only apparent Virtues and no real ones Therefore is it that I have resolved to cause print these twenty four
light more and more divine and saving mysteries which ript up all his hellish Heresies and Mysteries of Iniquity to the gnawing of his malicious spirit and all the like instruments of his fury while the Bread of Life was aboundantly dispensed to hungry souls whom it shall nourish unto Eternal Life when all the Wicked shall be cut off and the Meek shall inherit the Earth For the more particular Account of her divine Pilgrimage see the History of her Life and take here a short Bill of that heavenly chear now dispensed in her Writings that took up the spare hours of her many diversions at Amsterdam The funerall of false Theologie in the first part of which she shews the Confusion the Ignorance Corruption Insensibility and foundamental Errors of Christians and even of Conductors and modern Divines In the second their Presumption Envy Pride Obstinacy and Head strongness In the third that all their Theorie and Practices are no more but Pharisaical without divine Faith In the fourth that the Devil has great power over men over the wicked and even over the best whom by these other he turns away from following God and engages them to co-operate to the Evil of others and makes them draw back after they have abandoned the World That is a work of singular efficacy and profit Scarce did ever man read it without being touched in his soul even the most wicked who became pale and as struck dead with it Upon occasion of some converse she had with some Cartesian Philosophers she composed The Holy Perspective wherein she shews that Men and particularly Christians have lost the Light of God which is true and divine Faith to be led by corrupt Reason and by a false or most faint Light they draw from nature so perverse brutish carnal and gross as it is become by sin that this is it that has destroyed all Christian-religion and brought it to the Blindness and Darkness wherein it is immersed and that God may restore it its first state there is no other way but to abandon that false Guide of Reason and to resign our selves to God that he may himself revive in us that divine Light of Faith which we have extinguished The New Heaven and New Earth in which is shewn in what Glory the World and Man were created how they have miserably faild from it how they entertain and even encrease their Misery and by what means they ought to return into the disposition God requires to restore them to their first Glory and renew all the world God showed her in Spirit the Glory and Beauty of the first World not supportable by corporal Eyes All was bright transparent shining with Light and unspeakable Glory God's last Mercy in which by a reason enlightened by Faith not perverted by human Studies and Prejudices she leads every man of good judgment to a conviction of the spiritual things which Faith discovers and unto which every man's Reason when conducted by a person that is illuminated by Faith renders so convincing Testimonies that they who will yield themselves to its Touch are moved and pressed to ask of God a saving and divine Knowledge of them by the Light of Faith With all these are intermixed many other divine Lights and profound Mysteries which God had reserved to this end of the last hour able to enlighten to quicken to inflame to strengthen to encourage and to ravish any that have not renounced all interest in heavenly things If any find difficulties in her Writings consider that she having no further human Learning than that having learnt it she did once read the New Testament and finding it the same with what God spake in her Soul she closed the Book to apply seriously to the doing of it seeking no more reading meditation conferring or other study than that of purifying her soul from earthly Affections and sins in following Jesus Christs Doctrine and Example She could not speak after the Rules and with the Cautions of human Literature far less by the pedantry of the Schools it were then most cruel injustice to judge her by them Again we must not suppose when she treats of a matter what she does not mention in that place that she denies it nor require her to treat so fully more than her scope there requires as the Scholastiques who handling a matter at their tour adduce all they can relating to it In the Third place to understand her Writings as all others divinely inspired the Key is a good Will Humility and Prayer to a Malign a Corrupt Proud Self-wise and Self-powerful Reader no entry in them no favour from them but that of Death And the center end and aim of these Writings being the Love of God by renouncing our selves the Creatures and sin the Devil the World and the Flesh the farther we are from this the greater discord and contradiction between these Writings and our corrupt hearts and blind spirits and if ever we will be reconciled it must be by valuing loving esteeming and submitting to them as they are conducive to these ends and the difficulties will all quickly evanish this way the Disciples of Christ of Prophets and Apostles entered into their Masters Doctrine To conclude with the zealous and sincere Author of her Life LOrd thou hast yet manifested the words of eternal Life in these last days and our ears have heard and our hands have handled the word of life which thou hast put into her these words of Life which are originally in thee we have seen and heard them and we bear testimony that thou hast manifested them to us and our testimonie is most true before thee and before whosoever will open the eyes of his Conscience to consider it in thy divine Presence Yes Lord my God Creator and Inspector of my Heart who hast given me to love thy divine Truth more than the Sciences and the Advantages of Egypt thou knowest that I hate lying and falshood and that I would not for any consideration recommend untruth I cannot deny that I have obtained of thy Grace to discern the Truth from Falsehood and that I have done it in this Work thou knowest O Lord. Thou knowest my God that if after all possible application of spirit I could find in the intentions in the end the Writings and the Practice of Antonia Bourignon thy Creature any thing contrary to thy Glory that rendered thee less worthy of the infinite and eternal Adoration Love and Praises due unto thee if any thing favouring Corruption and Sin and that might contradict thy holy Image and the Doctrine and Life of thy Christ if any thing dangerous for mens Salvation thou knowest I would abhor that that I would detest it that I would curse it Is it not true O Searcher and Judge of my Thoughts that this disposition is most really in the bottom of my Soul Is it not in the deepest and final sincerity of my heart that I protest openly that the words of eternal
four Parts V. and VI. The Funeral of false Theologie in four Parts VII The Light of the World in three Parts VIII The Accademy of learned Theologues in three Parts And Confusion of the Builders of Babylon IX A Treatise of Solid Virtue in two Parts X. Advertisment against the sect of Quakers And the persecution of the Righteous XI The Testimony of the Truth first Part. XII A Collection of Testimonies given unto A. Bourignon XIII The Testimony of the Truth second Part. And Innocency avowed and Truth discovered XIV The Touch-stone And the Morning-star XV. The Blindness of the men of this time in two Parts XVI Antichrist discovered in three Parts And the Holy Perspective XVII The renewing of the Gospel Spirit in three Parts XVIII The New Heaven and New Earth And the Stones of the New Jerusalem XIX Wholsome Advices All these Books are originally in French The greatest part of them are translated into High and Low Dutch Solid Virtue 1 Part The Touch-stone and The Gospel Spirit 1 Part are translated into Latin And are all to be sold by Henry Wetstein Bookseller at Amsterdam AD SOLIDAE VIRTUTIS Amicum ejusdemque hostem ALLOQUIUM Totius libelli ideam exhibens DIscere Virtutem Lector sine fraude doloque Vis liber hic monstrat Christum panditque sequendum Pare teque nega mitesce dejice temet Mens ignara tibi est cor pravum corpus iniquum Et cujus pudeat miseri ne tu illius ergo Sensibus indulge satis esto necesse repelle Cetera replet amor vacuas sacer almaque virtus Ast non una manet te crux non pugna reposcit Te semel Assiduos versas o Orce labores Mox sensum mulces mox ludis imagine mentem Jam specie veri noti Jam gloria pellit Te motore animum vis mox in corpore regnet Saevitia utve alios jam passim mens pia curet Jam te astute reum fers intus mox sine culpa Ut lateas fueris Jam mentem sanguine tetro Obruis laxas eam ut aut ignavia perdat Perdat amorve suus Sic sunt fraudesque dolique Orce tui Patet ars tua sic patet modus illam Frangendi Rabiem fundis nec miror in ista Quae docet haec sacro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numine virgo THE FIRST LETTER That all Christians ought to learn of Jesus Christ Meekness Mildness Gentleness and Lowliness of Heart Written to one desirous of true virtue Shewing him that to attain thereto we must have submission and obedience by which we may begin to learn meekness lowliness and humility of heart My Dear Child I Perceive you have not yet comprehended well what Jesus Christ teaches saying learn of me for I am meek and lowly and humble of heart because upon occasion you do not exercise it enough but yield loose reins to your nature for when it enclines to anger you speak harshly and sometimes use force and violence to fulfil what you have resolved as well in small matters as in great which does not testify humility of heart seeing the humble heart yields willingly to another in things not evil and does not imagin that another ought to follow our will But it is always willing to follow anothers will in whatever is not contrary to God and the perfection of its own soul I suppose you may well have observed that in me for ordinarily I inform my self of the will of my brethren to Know what they love best in indifferent things and I have more contentment to do any thing after their desires than after my own for that yields me more quiet and inward peace feeling a certain satisfaction to see them content and joyful And even my nature enclines to it by the habit which I 've used to resist my own will in every thing and being overcome it rules over all things and has no grudge for whatsoever comes contrary to it provided it be not against the glory of God or the love of our neighbour All beside is indifferent to me if it is rain or fair weather if I eat harsh meats or sweet when they wrong not my health if I be alone or in company so that the one be as wholesome as the other And finally I 'm as well content to be in one countrey as another providing I have the same occasions to live well And so I am comforted in every event whether I be sick or in health I have no choose in case I honour God as well in one state as in another it is all one to me and I would never choose any thing so that I receive from the hand of God whatsoever comes to pass and so I as always content and joyful If you knew but to learn that method you would be very happy and continually in quiet whereas now fretting and discontent you disquiet and trouble your Spirit and are burthensome to others and so hinder mutual love for a bitter word is pleasant to no body and a mild one mollifies the heart even of a furious person I know your heart is good and that you hate no person notwithstanding to judge by the tone of your voice one would say that you are envious and they that know not your heart think you are in rage you must know that they are not always disposed to bear with you and that may marr the peace and diminish charity which Jesus Christ hath so much recommended to Christians Saying if you love one another thereby shall all men know that you are my disciples I believe you love the brethren in the bottom of your heart but sometimes you speak to them as if you hated them and would not hear them speak If they spoke as you do you would have difficulty to suffer them So you ought to consider that they have much to suffer that you speak so harshly They do very well in suffering you but it is no advantage for your soul for if all the world should bear with you that will not justifie you before God nor will your nature for that change its evil inclinations but be strengthned in them And so you shall be in danger to live and die imperfect which you would regret much before God when too late Therefore it is much better to endeavour now to overcome that bilious humour which is in your nature than be Slave to a wrathful passion which masters you whereas you should govern it and use it only when it concerns the maintaining the truth and defence of the glory of God Then is it that there is place for anger as the scripture also says be angry and sin not But we must never be angry for things indifferent and of small import much less speak harshly because Jesus Christ says we must be meek and lowly of heart That is a lesson he gives to all Christians and exhorts them to learn it of him
their Affairs and Houshold disquiets them Fortune is against them and in the end their Pleasures terminate in divers Griefs the Pleasures of the Flesh in Pains those of the Pallate into Diseases Honour into Contempt and Slights even as Haman's Pleasure when invited to the Queens Banquet changed into Grief when he saw that Mordecai would not render him the honour he desired so do all earthly pleasures terminate in Displeasure and sadness So that we can find no other true pleasure in the world but to love God only which is full pleasant and also honourable for what Honour is man capable of approaching unto that of loving a God so mighty who created Heaven and Earth and all other things and sustains them by his almighty power and who can give unto men eternal Salvation If we count it Honour that we love a King a Prince or other Person in Authority how much ought we to think us honoured that we may love a God who is incomprehensibly good and wise and what Honour is it for a small Worm of the Earth such as man is that he may love God who desires to be loved of him and even commands him to love him with all his heart As if God delighted to honour man by requiring to be loved of him And the honour of loving God is so considerable that it passes all that man is capable of in heaven or on earth Moreover it is also Profitable for him seeing that love can render him happy in this world and to all eternity Whereas all the Creatures together cannot procure us the one nor the other What profit can we draw from the Creatures who are unable to give us a Day yea an hour or even a moments life What could they then to give us Eternal Life All the advantage men can Draw one from another is a little Money Honour or Pleasure which vanish and most part ends in pain and grief as I have before shown And therefore we cannot truely call Pleasures the Advantages and Profits that men cause one to another No more ought we to esteem Honours which are but a blast of wind which vanishes in the air of a small Disgrace and so leaves nothing in the person honoured but a piercing grief that he is no more honoured What profit is it for a man to get of his fellow a little more money It is only a more weighty charge to bear in this world where the richest are the most miserable for they can never have more of their Riches but a little necessary nourishment and cloathing to cover them all the rest is superfluous to them and should serve others seeing he must not take for himself but for pure necessity What 's over gives only the Disquiet Care and Trouble of Dispensing or bestowing it So that a Lacquey is happier than his Master he hath no care but for himself but the Master must care for himself and all under him and see that nothing be wanting to them or else his servants will upbraid or despise him Is not that a poor advantage a little money that men can afford and yet he that receives it is obliged to a thousand thanks and beside to take a more honourable state which brings him more Care and Disquiet than he had before he was so rich That testifies that nothing in this world can advantage man or give him true Honour Pleasure or Content And so there is nothing but God can render man happy in this life and that to come seeing all the advantages men reap one from another serve but for their damnation Their Pleasures retire the Soul from God their Honours cause them to fall into Pride and their Riches into Avarice which leads them to the broad way of damnation and notwithstanding they fancy themselves happy for having the good will of men which is cause of their eternal misery But so great is their blindness that they cannot see these miseries however evident They perswade themselves that they are Happinesses that their Disquiets are Peace and their Displeasures Contentments For how many persons are there in the world who study all the Days of their life to perfect themselves in some Science to be esteemed of men how many that labour travail and put themselves in several hazards to gain a little money and how many that expose riches and life too to preserve their honour Although all these things be vain yet they love and esteem them often more than they do God for we see them not do for him what they do for the Creatures they render to them painful and hard services and imagin to themselves that there is more difficulty to love God than to love the World Notwithstanding the Love of God is easie sweet pleasant honourable and profitable as I have shown but the love of the world is disquieting sad without repose honour or profit for time and for eternity Which you may remark my Child by the reasons I have above deduced to you which should open your eyes to discern Falshood from Truth that you may never give place to the false perswasions which the blinded Christians would establish They say it is impossible to love God with all our heart and so blaspheme against him For God could not command an impossibility but all that he commands is good easie and pleasant And if you consider narrowly his ten commands you shall find but two of action viz. That of loving God and the other to honour Father and Mother The other eight are but prohibitions to do evil as not to kill steal bear false witness and the rest Is it then impossible to abstain from committing these evils that these blinded minds say it is impossible to keep the Commands of God Believe not these falshoods but constrain your self to get out of that valley of Snow which is the Riches and Pleasures of this life and ascend to the Mount of Consideration of things eternal and you shall find it pleasant to love God to which you shall have the helping hand of her who is Your Well-affectioned in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 25. April 1672. st vet THE X. LETTER The Love of God is easie and renders all things easie To the same to whom is shown that the Love of God is in its self most easie to attain whence proceed the difficulties that occur in it and how to be removed that this love wonderfully lightens the incommodities of this life and renders the observing the commands of God and the Gospel-advices easie My Dear Child BElieve firmly that the words of Jesus Christ are true viz. That his Yoak is easie and his Burthen is Light and take his counsel in taking his yoak which you shall feel to be such if you will take it on I experience it daily more and more believe that you shall experience it as I do if you continue in the resolution to follow Jesus Christ and become his true disciple I
pleasure in or consent thereto Although you should be tormented all the days of your life by evil thoughts that shall not make you lose the Grace of God so long as they displease you Yet you have cause to humble your self before God for your former sins for if you had never sinned and willingly given entry to evil thoughts the Devil would not have had the power to cause you to have them after against your will But what is past is no more in your power it remains only that you strive for the time to come never more to return to them Remain then faithful to God and persevere in your good resolution which you have taken to find true Virtue Never weary in that search it deserves well that you endure some trouble for even the worldlings endure yet much more in the service of the world For what Disquiets Cares and Travails does not a Merchant suffer to gain a little Money What pains must not a Gentleman take to preserve his Honour what Fatigue and Toil hath the Labourer and Tradesmam to gain their Food which you have in the service of God without trouble Will you not suffer a little Tentation of the Devil to arrive at true Virtue which is to buy at a very easie rate For all that the Devil can do to you is inconsiderable in respect of the joy which attends you in Heaven if you endure with perseverance he may well disturb your Spirit with divers Tentations but can never cause you to fall into sin without that your own will consent to him For when you have rendred your will to God he will keep it well and not permit that the Devil gain to make it consent unto Evil. And what more the Devil can do is but a small matter He should have no power over your will if he had not had so formerly so he could not have troubled you so often For I perceive often his contradictions against me by you against your will He knows that I belong to God and follow his will which he contradicts to his power but he cannot hinder that I know and practise it and so hinder that you should follow it and causes you to contradict it often in small things because he cannot obtain that you should oppose it in great things He gains always a little when he cannot gain much I know well that is against your will and what comes to pass against it comes assuredly from the Devil for a man cannot be contrary to his own proper will what he wills he desires and what he desires effects it so far as he can And therefore it is the Devil that does in him whatever he does against his own will If you comprehended well that my Son you would resist him more and would no more cause me so much pain by the contradictions you make to the Will of God which by his Grace I know in things great and small and it you must follow to your power But you have not yet sufficiently discovered the subtil Snares of that old Serpent nor overcome your self nor human considerations which are the Chains that yet hinder your flight to God but do not lose courage If I have overcome the world you may also overcome it and shall become master of the Devil and of your self God is not partial nor an Accepter of Persons He bestows his Grace upon all them that seek and desire it in truth I wish you these desires and remain Your Well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holste in near Gottorp Castle 27. April 1672. St. vet THE XII LETTER The Devil the Enemy of true Virtue Opposes it with all manner of Devices To the same to whom is shewn that it is necessary to know the Wiles of the Devil with which he opposes true Virtue that we may evite them which are shown in this and the following Letters as 1. That the Devil insinuates himself into what is sensual in man 2. That he suits himself to the impulses and inclinations of every one leaving the rest in quietness My Son I Spake much to you in my last of the tentation of the Devil because it is as necessary for you to know in order to your salvation as it is to know true virtue For if you know only the good you shall easily fall into the evil even without perceiving it and so shall sometimes follow evil thinking that you do well But since I have undertaken to teach you all things necessary to salvation I must speak to you of the malice of the Devil and how he tempts men to lead them to perdition as he hath already led many even such as have never discovered that is was the Devil who incited them to do evil and so have suffered themselves to be seduced insensibly by him though they have been persons well enclined yet have they been lost by ignorance For ignorance does not excuse before God Every one is obliged to know what he ought to do and leave that he may please the Lord. If then I should now speak to you only of the beauty and excellency of virtue and you knew not the Wiles of Satan whereby he attempts to hinder men to arrive at it doubtless you should never enjoy it he would stop you in the way by one means or other So that I judge it more necessary that you know the Malice of the Devil and the power he hath over men when he is unknown to them than to teach you the Deepest Mysteries of Divinity For all sciences together could not make you holy but the Malice of the Devil should lead you to Damnation if you knew it not Therefore I pray you to apply diligently your spirit to comprehend that all sorts of Evil come from the Devil as all sorts of Good comes from God There is only these two things that are good and evil So that whatsoever is good in Heaven or on Earth in all the Creatures in every place proceeds immediately from God and all that is evil in every thing comes from the Devil For he being by his sin separated from God is fallen into all evils There is no good but in God alone and in the privation of good consists all evil All that is infallible Evil then is no real thing and God never gave it a being but all good things come ever from God whence it follows that the privation of all good is all evil So that the Devil being seperated from God who is all good is consequently fallen into all evil which is nothing else but a privation of all good That miserable Nothing is the Devil who by his free will would separate himself from all good and it is that separation which makes all evil There can be no other evil but the want and deprival of all good seeing God never created Evil. Now nothing can have a being but what God created and having never created evil it cannot be other thing but a cursed
lawful Husband who descended from heaven unto the Earth to teach her them as well by his Works as by his Words all which things are despised by her who should be his lawful Spouse I have often spoken to you of her Excesses and Adulteries will you yet hold her for the Holy Church while the Devil hath placed his throne in her what weakness of spirit to feel repugnancy to forsake so evil a thing upon frivolous perswasions that it is holy while God hath given us an understanding and reason it is for no other end but that we may discern evil from good that we may not perish blindly and now you would change Gods designs in stifling your understanding and reason to follow evil blindly and seeing it so openly evil you form some foolish imagination that it is yet good That must come only from a meer bewitching of spirit because reason even natural discovers sufficiently unto us that the Romish Church at present is not the Spouse of Jesus Christ because she doth not in any thing follow her husband and that two things so alienated cannot make confederacy How can you have repugnance to leave her who hath forsaken her God If Beasts and insensible Creatures and all the Elements have arisen against man when he did forsake the Dependance of his God how should man so reasonable not arise against that Church which hath forsaken the Dependance of her God to will no more dependance but upon her self we should rather have repugnancy to remain under her than to forsake her or otherwise we have less resentments of the offence done unto our Creator than the Beasts and elements or inanimate things which have always resented the injury done unto their Creator yea at the death of Jesus Christ the Stones did rent and the Sun was darkened Have you less affection for God Sir then these stones in not resenting the continual injuries which that Church doth unto God If a beautiful Angel is become a Devil for having desired in his heart to be equal unto God what shall become of her which preferreth her self unto the same God without willing to him in any thing I regret yet your blindness in that point Sir and cannot believe that your repugnancy cometh from your reason but some habitual sensibility which you have unto the Church For if your Understanding did apply it self to discover the origin of that repugnancy it should see clearly that it cometh from the pious affection which you have for the Church but that you do not take it where it is because men are deluded in that as in other things by terms and words of men and when they hear Rome named the Holy Church that word engenders in us affection for her without penetrating if she be that of which they speak when we would deceive a Child and keep him in fear of his Father we put his Cloak and Hat upon a Fagot in some place somewhat obscure which the Child perceiving he believeth that it is truely he and feareth and respecteth him But if he drew near and lift up the Cloak he should see that he was deceived and that what he held for his Father is only some Wood. Verily Sir in the Darkness wherein we live at present they do the very same with us covering Rome with the Cloak of the Holy Church and cloathing it with the Head of Jesus Christ we fear and respect it as if it were our true Mother the Holy Church authorised by Jesus Christ and his lawful Spouse but when we draw near and lift up that Cloak we shall see that there is nothing but Wood instead of Sanctity which cannot be profitable unto us except to warm us in the Winter Verily Sir we must not be so much Children in what regards our eternal Salvation We must not walk blindly in a matter so important If men apply all their spirit to make a Hose or a Shoe why should they not apply it more to save their Soul It is good to have the simplicity of the Dove in regard of God for he that hath abandoned himself unto him hath no more but to suffer himself to be conducted as a little Child but we must have the Prudence of the Serpent to beware of men who can deceive or be deceived and when they say to us behold the Holy Church we must observe narrowly if it is truely her or if it is a Fagot covered with her Mantle It is for that only that God hath given us an understanding that we may always discern true good from false especially in the matter of our Salvation because all other things are vain and perishing unworthy of a serious application of spirit seeing it ought not to be applyed but unto things eternal for which we are created and our misery proceeds from that we make more serious searches to discover the turns and courses of the affairs of the world than those of our Salvation In which the Scripture hath reason to say that the Children of this world are more prudent than the Children of the Kingdom because before engaging in any State Office or Traffique they will always ponder if it be truely advantagious and profitable and they will be loath to rely upon the Words of men and believe blindly that a thing is good before they have first experienced it If they have so much providence for what regards the Earth how much should we have for what regards Heaven we found our Salvation blindly upon what they tell us that Rome is our Mother the Holy Church and we do not sound that affair which concerns us so much to know if truely she hath the quality of our true Mother and if she is confederated with our true Father who is immutable in all his qualities unto which that Spouse must always be conform We must see if she whom they call our Mother hath the Spirit and Practice of our Father and if we find nothing like it we must renounce her and account her deceitful and lying unworthy of our affection FINIS THE ARMS OF THE CITY OF RYSEL ON THE RIVER OF LYSSE IN FLANDERS (a) Ps 8. (b) Ps 119. (a) Ep. 1 2 3. (b) Ep. 4 5 6. (c) Ep. 7 8. (d) Ep. 8 9 10. (e) Ep. 11. (f) Ep. 12 13. (g) Ep. 14. (h) Ep. 15 16. (i) Ep. 17 18. (k) Ep. 19 20 21 22 23 (l) Ep. 24. * 1 John 12 15. * Which is solidly proved in the 2. part of Solid Virtue letter 6. * Of Religions and external pious exercises †An excellent Rule and Comparison * True Catholiques and their Worship (a) Math. 6. v. 2 3. (b) Rom. 6. v. 4. (c) Heb. 9. v. 27. (d) 1 Cor. 1. v. 19. (e) Mark 10. v. 15. (f) Is 5. v. 13. (g) Ps 37. v. 5. (h) Ezek. 18. v. 23. (i) Rom. 11. v. 29. (k) Luk. 15. v. 24. (l) Deut. 32. v. 6. (m) Prov. 23. v. 26. (n) John 3. v. 8. (o) Ps 8. v. 7. (p) Gen. 3. v. 17 19. (q) Prov. 8. v. 31. (r) Cant. 2.4 (ſ) Luk. 10 42. (t) Ps 81. v. 14 17 (u) Math. 6. v. 26. (w) Ps 73 v. 23 24. (x) Ps 73. v. 25 26. (y) Luk. 15. v. 18. (z) Ps 18. v. 5 7. (a) Ps 37. v. 5 6 7. (b) Is 65. v. 3. (c) Ps 34. v. 15. (d) Is 58. v. 13. (e) Ecl. 12. v. 8 9.12 (f) Matth 3. v. 9. (g) Joh. 15. v. 6. (h) Math. 15. v. 24. (i) Is 29. v. 14. (k) Gen 19. v. 26. (l) Is 58. v. 13 14. (m) Ps 46. v. 3. c. (n) Luk 21. v. 36. (o) Ps 25 v. 14. Math. 11 v. 25. (p) 1 Cor. 8. v. 12. (q) Math. 18. v. 3. 1 Pet. 2. v. 2. (r) Math. 13. v. 44. (ſ) Rev. 5. v 1 9. (t) Is 29. v. 14. (v) Rev. 21. v. 2. (w) Ibid v. 3. (x) Rev. 20 v. 14 15. (y) Math. 18 v 3 (z) Gal. 1. v. 16. (a) Eccl. 37. v. 17 18. (b) Ps 73. v. 25 26 (c) 2 Thes 2. v. 4 (d) Math. 27. v. 51. (e) Math. 10. v. 16. (f) 1 Cor 20. v. 15. (g) Luk. 16. v. 8.