Life by Motives and Principles of Religion but by her own Humour she resolved upon a Celibate Life only because she would not be crost c. But the Doctor sets this in a false Light as he does every thing else that concerns her The true Case is this when she was a Child it troubled her to see her Father sometimes so rough to her Mother and when he was in Wrath she would run and embrace his Knees to appease him and then would retire and pray that God would never suffer her to marry but that he would take her for his Spouse This was before her turning aside from God to divert her self with the Vanities of the World In the 18th Year of her Age she was struck with a deep Remorse for her straying from God and led a Life of most severe Penitence for Seven Years so that other Considerations did then affect her and draw her to a State of Celibacy As for the Doctor 's immodest Insinuations upon this Occasion I shall leave it to his own Conscience to check him for them but for the other Reason he gives for her Celibacy That she undervalued all she saw and could find none of Merit enough to deserve her c. it s purely his own Invention without the least Ground given for it in her Life or Writings or any manner of way and will be judged by every enquiring Reader to be a malicious and wilful Calumny 3. A Third Evidence against her Sanctity is says he her Disobedience to her Parents contrary to whose express Commands she was importunate to go into a Cloyster and when that would not do stole away from her Father's House privately He exaggerates this matter greatly but is not aware of one Reason he brings which determines the Case clearly on her side If the Case had been says he about turning Christian she ouâ—ht to have done it even without a particular Revelation whether her Father would or not The Case was the very same with her and a particular Command from God to strengthen it She saw she could not become a true Christian without abandoning the World and that while she was in her Father's House she could not sufficiently disingage her self from it and therefore resolved to obey Jesus Christ who bids us forsake Father and Mother and all that we have for his sake Our Lord called James and John the Sons of Zebedee from waiting on their Father and they forsook all and followed him 4. The Doctor triumphs greatly in his Fourth Instance her suing her Father at Law to divide his Goods with her after his Second Marriage which does not agree he says with common Measures of Grace and good Nature because it proceeded from an inordinate Love of the World and could not be managed without great disrespect to her Father The Doctor 's Passions make him so disingenuous in every thing that relates to this Virgin that it will nor be thought strange to tell that he is manifestly so in this Instance Mr. Poiret's Reply to this being so full in the fore-mentioned Letter to a Friend I need only adduce it for her Vindication and this the rather because the Doctor thinks that the Reason why he who continued her Life takes no Notice of this Passage tho' she gives an Account of it herself was because he knew not how to justifie it It is not true says he M. Poiret that I had any Interest to defend the Life and Actions of Mrs. A. B. by a Legacy which she left me as the Narrator says she did not leave me in Legacy to the Value of a Penny But there is nothing more contrary to Truth as well as to Justice and Charity than what he says of the Law-Suits of Mrs. A. B. with her Father and Step Mother I pray God he may not have acted maliciously against his Knowledge in the Judgment that he would have the English and Scots to make of her Civil Actions whose Civil Laws are different from those of her Country It may be it would be a Crime in England or Scotland for a younger Daughter after her Mother's Death to require by Law of her Father the Goods of her deceas'd Mother But in France where among Citizens in the matter of Succession there is no Distinction between Son or Daughter elder or younger it is the Law and Custom in many Places That after the Decease of the Mother her Goods are takâ—n from the Administration of the Father and put under other Curators to be after equally divided amongst the Children And in Mrs. A B's Country the Law is That the Widow-Husband cannot marry again until he first divide with the Children of the first Marriage and give them their Mother's Goods and to refuse this is to violate Law and Justice now this is what the Father of A. B. did whose Injustice our Doctor thinks fit to justifie and for this end to suppress change and falâ—ifie the Circumstances of the Affair against the Truth of what he had read of it To render Mrs. A. B. faulty and impious against her Father he speaks nothing of the Laws or Customs of the Place tho' they were expresly mentioned in her Acâ—count of the Affair according to which the Father is the Breaker of them and the Daughter would have them observed He say the Father would have maintain'd her in his House but he does not tell that his new Wife whom he had taken clandestinly tho she was but a poor Girl without Wit or Vertue studied to waste and consume the Goods of A. B. persecuting her for the Four Months she staid with her Father in so continual and cruel a manner as cannot be expressed Mrs. A. B. saw and experienced that this was inconsistent with her Recollection and contrary to the will of God He says that Mrs. A. B. was picqued because her Father refused her Money but does not tell that her Father was then in a most plentiful Condition that as for her self she had not a Penny that she ask'd only what was necessary for her That he irritated by his Wife was so cruel as not to assist her with a Penny when she was dangerously Sick that for want of Convenience she was obliged to lie under a Roof when the Snow and Cold deprived her even of the Nights rest so that Strangers were mov'd to give her Alms. He would have it to be understood that she entered into a Law Sure against her Father of her own head and therefore says that her Sister was already dead and that her Brother-in-Law perswaded her to proceed hoping afterwards to wheedle her out of it all which is false Her Married Sister was yet living and lived Five Years thereafter and about Four Years after her Husband The half of the Mother's Goods belonging to the Sister and her Husband they resolved to require their Father to deliver them to whom they did not appertain and it was only by
way of Concomitance and Adjunction that Mistress A. B. interven'd in it it not being Just that she should wrong her Brother-in-Law and Sister by refusing her Assent to this Affair and it appears that she came in but accessorily for how soon her Brother-in-Law died she wholly desisted from it So that the Question comes to this If in a Place where the Laws require that a Father before he marry again leave the Goods of the deceas'd Wife to the Children that he had by her a Daughter of more than Twenty Years of Age persecuted by a Mother-in-Law who wastes her Goods does commit a Crime when after having asked in vain but only simple Necessaries from her Father who is in a plentiful Condition she consents that her elder living Married Sister and her Husband should apply to the Judges to demand their own Goods which are wasted and a Portion for this Maid while they constantly refuse to allow her the least share for the necessities of Life so as to leave her generally without any Help even in her Maladies how dangerous soever they were or might be No Man living hitherto not even any of her greatest Enemies had so much as a Thought to give her the least Reproach for it and this is the Reason why he who continued her Life had no ground nor thought of making any Apology for this Fifteen or Twenty Years after this a certain Doctor lifts up himself to accuse her for this of Impiety and an inordinate Love to the World and that she had neither Law nor Reason on her side and glories publickly in this fine Discovery which ought rather to fill him with Confusion before God and Men considering the Artifices wherewith he hath disguised and perverted the Matter of Fact God's forbidding to meddle with other Mens Matters and the wretched Injustice with which he takes part against the Right of oppressed Innocence Having given an Account of the just Reason she had to resume the Sure after her Father's Death he thus concludes As there was nothing in this but what was according to Divine Natural and Civil Equity and since Mrs. A. B. affirmed that she acted in this by the Will and Motion of God and against her particular Inclination and in short since the Effect makes appear that she made use of her Goods for the Glory of God and the Advantage of the Poor in the Erection of a Hospital which subsists to this Day and to which she left all her Goods What is here in all this that deserves not to be esteemed in the Judgments of all good Men So far M. Poiret The Doctor is unjust when he would have it pass for an Invention of M. Poiret's That she was commanded by God to pursue her Right and that she should need it for his Glory c. He knows that M. A. B. declares that she was expresly mov'd to it by God And the Sincerity that appears in all her Life and Actions and that Poverty of Spirit which she still possessed in the midst of Abundance may convince any unprejudiced Person of the Truth of her Declaration and that she was not acted by an inordinate Love of the World That this was not inconsistent with her Abstractedness from the World as it appears by an excellent Resolution which she gave on another Occasion the Extract of which you see in the Third Part of the Apology N. 23. p. 227. So he who continues her Life does sufficiently evince it in the Place cited by the Doctor tho' not with that Justice and Candour that might be expected from a Narrator by some Reflections upon God's Dealing with her in that Matter such as that this happened after he had made Trial of her hearty Sincerity by a twelve Years actual Disingagement from the World that it was against her Will but by God's express Command that she resumed her Goods that she possess'd them in a most real Disingagement and employed them in God's Service only and concludes with this Illustration of the Matter If we had not seen Abraham pass three Days with Peace and Tranquility of Mind in the Resolutions and actual Preparations to kill his Son if we had not seen him ready to stab him and putting the Knife to his Throat we could not have known and he himself could not have certainly known whether his Affections were so disingaged from his Son as to give him wholly to God But after this Proof God gives him back that which he might afterwards possess according to God It is such an Abandoning of all that God requires of all true Christians tho' not of all after the same Manner after which he restores unto them their abandonâ—â— Goods or not as he sees fit and if he give them they are a Charge to them who possess them then when their Disingagement is true they possess them then as Goods which are not theirs but given them of God that they may employ them for God only who allows them to take of 〈◊〉 their simple Necessaries and no more all the rest ought to be for him and on his Account This is what truly befel M. A. B. who on this Occasion receiv'd and dispens'd God's Goods with an exemplary and unviolable Fidelity and spared no Pains to maintain what was God's because he had declared that such was his holy Will The other Branch of the Doctor 's Accusation as to Coverousness in her suing her Right to the Isle of Noordstrand is no less unjust than the former and his Account of it is not fair nor ingenuous M. de Cort left her sole â—eiress by his latter Will without her Knowledge or Consent when he was far distant from her in Noordstrand and when she testified an Aversion unto it her own Goods being a Charge to her already he told her with Grief there was none else that â—e could trust with it for if he should leave it to the Fathers of the Oratory they would not pay his Debts it to his Relations they would destroy one another with 〈◊〉 Suits The Doctor might have taken the true Narrative of it where it was to be had and not from M. Baylâ—s Dicâ—â—onaire Critique if he had given her own Defences against his malicious Accusation when it was brought against her with the same Spite and Fury by Benjamin Furly the Quaker he might have spared all his Insults or the Reader would have found them to be very ridiculous Her Defence is to be had at large in the Place cited on the Margent in her own Words the Substance whereof in short is this That it could not be Covetousness that acted her in that Business of Noordstrand since she was told it was burdened with Debts more than it was worth and was therefore refused by his Blood-Relations when she proffered it unto them with the same Conditions she her self held it That she had given sufficeint Testimony of her Detachment from the World when at the
things and entirely resign'd unto him It is not for those Scessers then that I have written this Abridgment but for those who desire in the Simplicity of their Hearts to be helped on in the way to Eternal Life Jesus Châ—ist is the way and we are made believe that his Life is unimitable The first Christians followed him in a Life of Poverty Reproach and Pains in which now we think he neither can nor ought to be followed Here 's an Instance of are in this last Age of the World who as she declares to all that 〈◊〉 is no Salvation without following the Example aâ—◠〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ so she made him her constant Pattern and this her great Work from the Eighteenth Year of her Age to her Death and thereby encourages and invites 〈◊〉 all to deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow him Give her then of the Fruit of her Hands and let her own Works praise her in the Gates AN APOLOGY FOR M. ANT. BOVRIGNON PART IV. CONTAINING An Abridgment of her LIFE To which are added Two Letters concerning the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism Detected by different Hands I. MRs. Antonia Bourignon was born in the Town of Lisle in Flanders the 13th of January 1616. baptiz'd in the Parish of St. Maurice and nam'd Antonia her Father was John Bourignon an Italian by Nation and her Mother Margaret Becquart born near to Lisle they lived in a married State Thirty One Years having Four Daughters of which Antonia was the Third and One Son all of which died in their Childhood except the eldest Daughter who lived till the Thirty Sixth Year of her Age and was twice married She died Anno 1647. Her Mother in July 1641. Her Father married again in October being more than Sixty Years Old and died April 1648. And Antonia remained the only Heiress of her Mother her Sister having died without Children II. When she came into the World her Mother thought she had borne a Monster because her whole Forehead was covered with black Hair even to her Eyes and her upper Lip was fastned to her Nose and so her Mouth stood open they conceal'd her for some Months and the Hair fell off of it self and the Lip was untied by a Surgeon and she encreast in Comliness yet her Mother could not forget the Aversion she had conceiv'd and could not love her as she did her other Children but slighted her from her Infancy and could hardly look upon her the other Children also treated her rudely without her Father's knowledge who then loved her best of all his Children But his Affairs kept him still abroad except at Meals III. This rough Treatment made her retire from childish Plays and be much alone God then drew her powerfully to himself as soon as she had any use of Reason all her Thoughts were serious and her Reasonings seem'd not to proceed from a Child and having been instructed by her Parents when about Four Years of Age of the First Principles of Christianity and of all that Jesus Christ had done and suffered for Men she was desirous to be inform'd in what Country the Christians lived and profest a great desire to go thither and when her Parents mock'd her and told hâ—â— she was in the Country of Christians she said that could not be for Jesus Christ was born in a Stable and liv'd in Poverty whereas they all love to have fine Houses and fine Furniture and much Wealth and therefore she concluded they were not Christians and that she would go into the Country where the Christians do live but no Body understood this Language but turn'd it into Raillery and so she was constrain'd to hold her Peace IV. Finding so little Satisfaction in the World she turned her self unto God by Prayer and he being always ready to be found of them that seek him with their whole Heart especially little Children she from her Infancy had daily Conversation with God he speaking inwardly to her Heart and she thought this Divine Conversation was a thing common to all Then every thing serv'd her for an Occasion to Address to God Thus for Instance remarking that her Father was surly to her Mother and oft-times transported with Anger against her after having endeavour'd to appease him by her childish Embraces she would retire apart and considering how hard a thing it was to be married to a troublesom Husband would say to God My God my God grant I may never marry and she beg'd that instead of being married he would give her the Grace to become his Spouse Her Prayer was so well-pleasing to God that he granted her the full Accomplishment of it giving her from her Infancy the Gift of Chastity and Continence in so perfect a manner that she often said she never had in all her Life even by Temptation or Surprize the least Thought unworthy of the Chastity and Purity of the Virgin State V. Her Sister was much addicted to the Vanities of the World and could not look upon her Retiredness and Aversion from them without Indignation and Displeasure and among her Companions she made all this pass for an Effect of Stupidity and Dulness This made her quit her first Simplicity to follow for some time the Vanities of the World not that her Heart was set upon them but to shew that she had enough of Spirit and was not a Fool as her Sister would make them believe Thus the Devil laid Snares for her to entrap her and the sweetness of her Humour gain'd her the Love of the Young People they converst with beyond her Sister Thus she continu'd to Dress to frequent their Company to recreate her self with them in their Plays Dances and other youthful Divertisements tho' in all Honesty if that may be call'd Honesty which turns away the Heart from God however it past for such in the World Thus she greatly pleas'd her Parents particularly her Father who deny'd her nothing whereby she might appear with Advantage in the World Her Parents were anxious to have her married being Rich and having but Two Daughters and many Young Men would have had her for their Wife but she could never resolve to marry having an Aversion to it Yet she took Pleasure in the Conversation of the Youth till they urg'd her to marry and then she withdrew from them and would discourse with them no more She began also to take Pleasure in the Praises and Esteem of Men because they said she was fair and lovely whereas her Mother had still call'd her ugly and despis'd her on all Occasions VI. But as the World took place in her Soul God withdrew from it by degrees so that she felt no longer that Devotion or Pleasure in Prayer or Solitude which formerly gave her so much Contentment This made her Melancholly and the more she endeavoured to divert it by Company the more it encreast For her Soul was never at rest
beware of her said she was guided by an evil Spirit that one such was plague enough in a Community And told her self that the Devil conâ—ducted her that he transform'd himself into an Angel of Light that there needed no other proof than her living without a Director and she would ruine her self if she did not submit to their Direction They pressâ—d her by so many Reasons that she doubted in might be true She had recourse to God but her Spirit being toâ—t with divers Passions she discern'd nothing being wholly in Darkness She went to the Archbishop who being perswaded she was guided by the Holy Spirit thought she ought not to take the Direction of Men. Pere du Bois confirm'd the same She rested upon this yet begg'd leave of the Archbishop to read the New Testament that she might discover her Errors by confronting her Sentiments with the Gospel She no sooner began to read attentively the Gospels than she perceived such a Conformity with her inward Sentiments that if she were to set them down in Writing she should write such a Book in Substance as the Gospel She left off to read more because God taught her inwardly all that she needed and that his Conduct and the Gospel were the same thing XXVI The Archbishop with the Consent of his Council judging the Undertaking to be from God gave her his Blessing and Permission to begin such a Society at Blatton where a Widow-Woman had offered a piece of Ground for which she afterwards paid her and there was a House begun but not finish'd because of the Death of the Pastor G. de Lisle and the Churchmen applied with all Vigour to stop it as they did He ask'd her Whereupon they would live She said upon their little Garden and God would provide for the rest That he never fail'd those who serv'd him truly and if they serv'd him ill far better that all be dissolved than to deceive the World by Hypocrisie He ask'd If she would make Vows She said None He said Each ones Love was not so strong as to make them persevere freely She said They who have it not will not come And if they lose the Love of God when they are there it is far better they return to the World than to disorder others or make them lukewarm XXVII She had communicated to Pere du Bois upon his importunity a Writing wherein she represented that God had made known to her that all the Evils of the Church came from the Churchmen and that they must amend if they would turn away God's Wrath. This Paper was quickly spread abroad of which she complain'd to Pere du Bois who said he was oblig'd in Conscience to do it All the Churchmen and Religious Orders were so far from amending there Faults thereby that it fill'd them with Hatred and Revenge against her uttering many Reproaches some of them declaring that if they could have her they would drown her XXVIII The Jesuits learning the Design she had of re-establishing a Christian Life in a Community set on the Archbishop with so much Earnestness and so many Calumnies against her that they entirely chang'd him and he retracted his Permission She remonstrated to him his Sin in being so easily perswaded by Men to change his Resolutions and to oppose what he knew came from God and forewarn'd him that for a Punishment he should die very shortly as he did about Six Months thereafter Pere du Bois perswaded her to go to Liege where she would obtain her desire but before she return'd the Jesuits had constrain'd the poor Maids to promise by Oath not to follow her and even not to speak to her Two of the best of them Mary Malapert and La Barre the younger died shortly after through the Anguish and Affliction of Spirit in which they put them A. B. says of Mary Malapert that she was the purest Soul that ever she knew and the only Person she ever knew in the World in a State of compleat Regeneration and Union with God which she enjoyed without knowing it well her self not but that when she enjoyed actual Conversation with God she was then most certain of it but when she return'd to her Directors they knew so well to distract her by outward things by constrain'd Rules and clouds of foreign Thoughts that she knew not where she was nor the true State of her Soul And one of the three things for which A. B. always bless'd God was that he had preserv'd her from the Direction of Men. XXIX Having after this staid for some time at Blatton and then by Pere du Bois's Advice with the Countess of Wallerwal who living in Caelibacy and designing to employ her Wealth to the Glory of God desired to see her where she met with nothing but Distraction she was call'd back to Lisle by the Sickness of her Mother who long'd to see her before she died She found her sick to Death who bless'd God that he had granted her desire and foretold her what grievous Afflictions were to befal her After her Mother's Death she resolving to retire again her Father and Friends urge her that all the Laws both of God and Man do oblige her though she had been in a Desart or a Cloyster to come and assist her aged Father in his Affairs She was perswaded so to do and so ordered her Hours of Recollection and the Times of managing his Affairs that she did all to his Contentment Yet tho' Sixty Years of Age he would needs marry without his Childrens knowledge a poor Maid for his Fancy without either Wit or Vertue A. B. staid with them four Months to acquaint her with the Affairs in which time she suffered grievously by her She resolvâ—d to retire and desired of her Father some of her Mother's Goods for her Substance which he utterly refused It is well known that the Laws and Customs of the Low-Coâ—ntries are quite different from those of England or Scotland particularly in this Matter of the Goods of Husband and Wife for the Goods of the Wife being either the Portion given her or any other Goods given her or purchas'd by her self the Husband has nothing but the Use and Profit of the Portion during the Wife's Life and she may dispose of and trade with her other Goods as she pleases and at her Death the Propriety and Profit also of her Portion and all her Goods do belong to her Children or other Heirs and none of them to the Husband A. B. related to her Sister what had past and that their Father said all their Motherâ—s Goods belong'd to him Upon which her Sister's Husband resolvâ—d to oblige him by Law and accordingly presented a Bill to the Magistrate But he being a Man of Wit and Credit drew them into a Process in which they could not get Justice for during it her Brother-in-Law fell sick and died upon which she desisted from that pursuit and retir'd to a little
House at the Church of St. 〈◊〉 near Lisle XXX There she liv'd alone wrought to gain her living was mâ—re conâ—â—ted than ever being rid of the Affairs of the World and convers'd with no body A poor Maid brought her Food once a Week and very often the Door was not opened till she came again The Consolations she received from God in that Place were unexpressible full of spiritual Delights So that she often past whole Days without eating or drinking not knowing it was Night She was so transported with them that she ask'd of God if there was any thing beyond them in Life Eternal He answered Infinitely more beyond Comparison You ought not during this Life to delight your self in such Sensibilities The least sensible Motions of the Soul are the most perfect and of which the Devil can take no hold as he does in the sensible ones Thus he delivered her from all corporâ—al Sensibilities to which she was no more subject and â—he afterward walked surely in Spirit and in Truth And whereas she would fix her Residence in that Place of Delights he said to her Thou shalt walk yet in the World and be persecuted and reproached Thou shalt fly into the Desart through rugged Ways Prefer my Glory to thy Contentment I had no Repose upon Earth XXXI She was troubled there for some time by the pursuit of a foolish Youth Nephew to the Pastor there who having seen her became desperately in Love with her and still haunted about her House She complain'd to his Uncle who having threatned to put him away if he should not desist he chang'd his Love into Fury and several times shot a Fuzee through her Chamber and at last gave out he had married her and in less than an Hour all Lisle was full of it every one spoke of her with Contempt she knowing nothing of it till her Confessor sent to ask her and the Preachers publish'd the Falshood of it to the People XXXII After Four Years stay in this Retreat she was forc'd to flee in haste the French coming into this Village to surprize Lisle She retir'd into the Town in the House of a poor devout Maid who gave her a Corner in a Garret where in the Winter she suffered great Cold being oft covered with Snow in the Morning when she awak'd The Countess of Willerwall wrote to her earnestly to return to her which she did and staid with her about a Year till she was call'd to Lisle her Father being a dying XXXIII Having done the last Offices to her Father and her Sister being dead Childless and she remaining the sole Heiress of her Mother she was doubtful whether she should meddle with the Succession She considered on the one hand that after having forsaken all worldly Goods to follow the Poverty of Jesus Christ she ought not to take them up again on the other side she knew not to whom to leave it fearing to do Evil and to partake in the Sins of those who should possess it Her Mother-in-Law had wasted those Goods more than a half for the Five Years she had liv'd with him and tho' at his Marriage he had 20000 Florins in Cash yet she had not only spent that but great Revenues of his own Goods and of his first Wife 's besides the Revenues of his Office capable of maintaining honourably all his Family so that at his Death there was not wherewith to bury him She would not be guilty therefore of leaving them to one who would make no other use of them but to offend God In this Perplexity she advis'd with her Confessor who thought that she ought to take what belong'd to her and dispose of it in Alms remitting her nevertheless to be determined by God After some Days of earnest Prayers to God that he would direct her what to do in this matter he said to her Pursue your Right take your Goods you shall have need of them for my Glory She claim'd then the half of the Goods due to her by Law and Custom as the sole Heiress of her Mother leaving the other for the Children of the second Marriage and was tost with many Troubles before that Process was at an end XXXIV Some are ready to interpret this as a hankering after the World as she foresaw they would and that her Declaration that it was the Will of God that she should possess her Rights was purely her own Invention to cover this We are still apt to measure others by our selves and to think tht their Actions cannot proceed from another Spirit and Principle than what we are conscious ours would flow from in the same Circumstances But they who consider the whole tract of her Life will not be so rash in their Judgment Worldly Goods are not Evil in themselves the only Evil is that when we possess them we are not as tho' we possest them not but our Hearts are set on them and therefore God commands either the forsaking or keeping of them and we ought either to abandon or possess them according as our Hearts are apt to be set upon them or are wholly mortified to them A. B. had been habituated to a State of Mortification to the World and all earthly things by an actual abandoning of it in a course of many Years God having thus tried her as he did Abraham in relation to his Son Isaac and this was become her Delight and Element And when she came to possess them again it appears through all her Life that she did it as tho' she possest them not looking on her self only as a Steward of them to employ them for her Master's Use and they as a weighty Charge to her which she would gladly have been rid of employing them wholly for many Years in the bringing up of Orphans and never throughout all her Life taking to her self but simple Necessaries no more than if she had been in the greatest Poverty XXXV Being one Day in the Street about her Affairs a Man whom she knew not accosted her and afterwards came to her Lodging telling her there were multitudes of poor Infants made Orphans by the Wars in great Want both as to Body and Soul and that she might remedy this great Evil God having given her Talents and Commodities to undertake so good a Work and prayâ—d her to recommend this Proposition to God who would make known his Will to her thereabout The Man had a great Appearance of Piety and spoke so divinely of spiritual Things that she thought he was taught by the Holy Spirit He told her He was call'd John S. Saulieu born near Dorway that he had never studied Letters but for his own Perfection that he had still convers'd with Vertuous Persons and staid some time with an Hermit and had now for his Director the Pastor of St. Stephens at Lisle and a Character being ask'd of him he said he was a Man of an Apostolick Zeal He walk'd on the Streets
since or shall be born by his Seed in Generation And by this means all Men have perish'd in him having contracted the Corruption that we do yet feel in our Nature for tho' God did pardon Adam and Men in him his Sin as to the guilt yet he did not remove the Miseries of Spirit and the Corruption of Flesh which the same Sin had brought upon him seeing even to this Day we feel Inconstancy Ignorance and Wickedness in our Spirit and Corruption Pains and Death in our Flesh 4. God cannot have made all these things since they are Evil and he can do nothing but Good being himself the perfect Goodness from which no Evil can ever proceed but he has left to Adam and his Posterity the Miseries which their Sin had brought forth that thereby Penitence might be done for it during this Life which is our time of Trial For seeing the Justice of God could not promise the Pardon of Sin without Satisfaction it was needful by a straight Justice that the same Flesh which had taken Pleasure to turn away from him should likewise suffer Pain that it might return unto him 5. But Men since Adam instead of accepting of this Penitence and suffering willingly the Miseries of this Life to satisfie the Justice of God rebell'd against him and endeavour'd to charm their Miseries by striving to reject Sufferings and to take their Delights instead of Penitence and thus they straied more and more from God so that at last they quite forgot him to delight in themselves God of his Goodness raised up Prophets from time to time as Moses and others to withdraw Men from these Errors He gave them Laws and Ordinances that they might discover their Sins and amend them by returning unto him and repenting that they had forsaken him but very few heard his Voice and many hardned their Hearts chosing rather to adhere to themselves and follow their Sensualities than willingly to take up the Penitence ordain'd by God for this short Life so that all Men in general have at last corrupted their Ways and walked according to the Concupiscence of the Flesh in a forgetfulness of God and thus have all merited Damnation and that incomparably more than Adam since he fearâ—d God and repented how soon he heard his Voice not daring to appear before him out of great Confusion for his Sin 6. But Men after him have voluntarily damn'd themselves and given the Devil Power to rule over their Souls whom they do insensibly obey more than God for while they follow their natural Will they do indirectly follow that of the Devil seeing these two Wills of the fallen Angels and of Men are equally rebellious against God and those Men who follow the Will of their corrupt Flesh may be well called the Devil's Angels for one is always his Angel whose Will he does if he submit his Will to God's he is the Angel of God for Angel imports Subject or Obedient Those Men who obey the Law of the Gospel are the Angels of Jesus Christ for this Cause the Scripture says that the Son of Man will come attended with his Angels which are not pure Spirits according to the Angelical Nature but Men who have followed the Will of Jesus Christ 7. This being so he may be well call'd our Saviour for if he had not come at last into the World all Men had perished He alone is the Foundation of our Salvation since Sin and I confess before all Men that the Light of Faith teaches me that I could not be saved without the Coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth and I will always ascribe my Salvation to the Merits of his Sufferings So far am I from rejecting them as your Friends do blindly believe And I have much more reason to say that they reject the Merits of Jesus Christ since they say that they have not Grace to imitate Jesus Christ while they look only to the Power of their corrupt Nature without making use of his Sufferings which have merited for us the Grace to be able to imitate him yea to obtain the Perfection of God himself if we will apply his Merits to our Soul and let his Spirit fill it since Truth it self says to us Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Jesus Christ will require nothing of us that 's impossible no more than his Father but he says Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you ask and ye shall receive This does not teach us that we cannot attain to the Perfection of Jesus Christ but even to aim at that of our heavenly Father 8. Remark well my dear Child the Sentiment of your Friends and you will find that it cannot come but from the Devil and this under a good Pretext of ascribing their Salvation to the Merits of Jesus Christ For if they truly believed that his Sufferings have merited for them the Grace of God they could not in Truth say that they are too weak to imitate Jesus Christ since this Grace of God gives strength to the Weak to overcome the Corruption of our Nature from which we ought never to ask Advice if we may imitate Jesus Christ For if his Apostles and Disciples had ask'd Advice from their Wives their Children Fathers and Mothers Brethren and Sisters undoubtedly they would not have counfell'd them to forsake them that they might follow Jesus Christ since no man hates his own Flesh which seeks its own Advantages so that if the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ had ask'd Counsel of their Flesh and their Selfwill if they could follow Jesus Christ they would never have been Apostles nor Disciples seeing without the Grace of God we can do nothing but know our Frailty and Weakness 9. But since Jesus Christ is come into the World to reconcile us unto his Father and to bring us back to him by his Grace there is no longer any cause of Fear on God's part We may do what we will by the assistance of this Grace which is never denied to him who seeks and asks it so much the more that Jesus Christ is come to merit it for us by his Sufferings but not to merit Salvation for us while we continue to cleave to our corrupt Nature by which we may see clearly the Falshood of that Doctrine that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for us after the manner that so many understand it for this makes them sleep the sleep of Death since they reject the Grace that Jesus Christ has purchas'd for us of his Father to embrace the means by which we may overcome the Flesh and live unto the Spirit of Jesus Christ follow his Example and imitate his Virtues that hereafter we may follow him in Eternity where none shall enter but he who shall be cloathed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ 10. This is that of which I was desirous to warn you for fear that you let your self be deceived by false Appearances hearing those poor
deceitful and transitory World For my part I see all these things as clear as the Sun I will therefore despise and forget them that I may think only upon durable Goods whcih will never end If you will accompany me you may do it for God has created you free placing you between Fire and Water that you may choose which you please best The Fire will warm you with a Desire of having Riches Pleasures and Honours in this World And the Water will make you to embrace Penitence that you may resist the Devil the World and the Flesh which are the Three Enemies of your eternal Bliss You have already taken up a Resolution to travel towards Eternity and to quit the way of the World which in effect you do not as yet perfectly do Therefore you cannot accompany me until you shall be altogether free from earthly Goods and shall have quitted the Desire of pleasing Men For these things would always make you stumble in our Journey 13. For sometimes a Man must lose or spend earthly Goods upon Occasions respecting Eternity which would be troublesome to you so long as you have yet any Affection for these Goods And in the way to Eternity we must often displease Men. Therefore Jesus Christ says that he who would please Men is not his Disciple And elsewhere he says that he came not to bring Peace upon Earth but War between Father and Son Brother against Brother Husband against Wife c. to shew that he who would travel towards Eternity must fight against all those who travel towards the World even tho' it were against his nearest Kinsfolk and Friends For if one would shâ—ken that he may please them he will never arrive at Eternity for they will still hold us in the way without coming to the End For our nearest Relations are the most powerful Enemies that we meet with in travelling towards Eternity when they will not accompany us we must therefore quit the Desire of pleasing them for this Cause Jesus Christ said that he who forsakes not Father Mother Sisters Brethren and all things for his Name is not worthy of him Whereby he shews what Foundation of Vertue those ought to have who would travel towards Eternity 14. They ought first of all to offer unto God all the Goods which they possess to be employed only for his Glory and no longer according to our Desires or that we may follow our Sensualities Secondly A Man must leave off the Desire of pleasing Men since in pleasing them of necessity he must displease God because their Desires are altogether different from those of God and respect only their own Interests and therefore they cannot approve that we should abandon the World and its Riches and Pleasures of which they partake so long as we possess them to satisfie them You see why it is that we must lose their Friendship if we would have God's and undertake this War into which Jesus Christ is come to engage us against the Flesh and our nearest Relations 15. People think that it is well done to preserve Peace among them which I grant so long as they will travel with us in the way to Eternity There is nothing more desirable in this World than Peace and Concord between Friends and Neighbours But when they detain or hinder us from travelling towards Eternity we must break that Peace which ominates nothing but the Wrath of God For it is one of the Signs of his last Plagues when Men shall promise to themselves Peace and Security then says the Holy Spirit is the Time of their utter Ruine Thus it befalls a Person who undertakes to travel towards Eternity and will maintain Peace with those who yet travel towards the World We must declare WAR against them if they retard or hinder us from advancing towards Eternity for their Friendship is not so considerable as our Eternal Salvation which they cannot give us but they may serve as a mean of our Damnation For these two Points the Love of Riches and the Desire to please Men have been the Occasion of the Eternal Ruine of a great many even well-meaning Persons 16. For so long as we have yet an Affection for earthly things we cannot travel towards Eternity We must be altogether free and aspire only after our blessed Country taking for our Necessity the least that is possible for us of earthly things that we finish our Voyage the least of Honour of Offices of Money of Apparel of Meat and Drink that we can And with this we shall indeed travel together towards Eternity adn chearfully perform the Voyage For tho' we should find in our way Labours Cares Sufferings Persecutions Contempt Reproaches Prisons or Death all this will seem Light to us in the Hope of that Eternal Blessedness For if he who travels after the World thinks himself happy in gaining Money by his Pains Cares or Labours how much more ought he who looks for the Eternal Reward in travelling towards Eternity He will be loth to stop to gather up the Sand of Gold and Silver which would be very heavy to him in travelling towards Eternity I advise you therefore to cast it far from you and then I will take you by the Hand that we may the better accomplish our Journey In expectation of which I remain Your faithful Friend in God A. B. Amsterdam Octob. 23. 1670. FINIS I. The ill Entertainment such an Apology will meet with II. The Apologistâ— pâ—â—posâ—to write it notwith staâ—ding and why III. Writings not to be despised because they and their Author are evil spoken of by all IV. Not to read them with an evil Eye V. The Method and Manner of this Apology I. Men ought to consider what is said and not who says it Matt. 13. 55. II She treated otherwise III. None ought to take Mens Sentiments on Trust from others especially Enemies IV. Nor to weigh them by the Systems and Opinion of Men. V. She owns the Scriptures for the Test of all Doctrines and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ for the last and compleat Doctrine of Salvation and this the Butt of all her Writings Renouv. de l' Espr Eva. Pref. pag. 110. VI. The Truths of Religion of two sorts Essential and Accessory VII The Ground of all the Holy Scriptures and the Apostleâ— Creed VIII Her Profession of Faith prefix'd to all her Writings IX Her Sentiments to be measur'd by her Confession X The Essentials Man created only to love God a. Renouv de L. Espr Evang. Pref. p. 102. b ibid. p. 6. c Light of the World Part 1. p. 138. Renouv. Pr. p. 12. Endued for that End with perfect Liberty and other Divine Qualities d Man has damn'd himself by turning his 〈◊〉 from God iâ—id pref p. 10â— e ib. p. 128. His Misery now f ibid. Jesus Christ has obtained Mercy and Grace for them All Men so by Nature and cannot recover themselves g ibid. p. 102. h ibid. p 103. To recover the