is impossible to observe and then to damn us for not observing them that it is to indulge and gratifie our corrupt Nature in following our own Wills and Inclinations and taking our Ease and Pleasure here and yet to give us the false Hopes of eternal Life and Salvation hereafter because of some speculative Doctrines and Opinions and some fine Words and Complements that we give to God Whosoever impartially considers the ordinary Systems that are given of the Christian Religion and the Use that the Generality of People make of them in their Lives and Practice will easily see that they are exactly calculated for dispensing with a Man's following closely the Life and Laws of Jesus Christ and allowing him to gratifie his corrupt and sinful Inclinations in things that do not sound harsh in the World and are not hateful before Men without using the indispensably necessary Means of mortifying the Love of himself and the World and recovering the Love of God It will not be impertinent on this Occasion that the most pious Dr. Henry More in his Divine Dialogues having set down his Reasons of hoping for a glorious State of the Church and a Renovation of it approaching lays down some Principles the Practice of which he thinks would hasten and advance those excellent Times and his last and chief Principle is Faith in the Power of God and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ which he has promised to all Believers that by this Assistance we may get the Conquest over all our Sins and Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God that through the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us we are able to be reduced to that Rectitude of Life and Spirit which our Saviour sets out in his Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in the Gospels It is this Doctrine he says that must renew the World in Righteousness and bring on those glorious Times For what Doctrine but this says he can reach the Hypocrisie of Mens Hearts who under Colour of not being able to be rid of all their Sins will set themselves against none or but the least considerable or will be sure to spare their darling Sins and perpetually decline that Self-resignation which is indispensably required of every true Christian nay they will quit none of them under Pretence we must necessarily retain a gradual Imperfection throughout And they will be sure to pitch on that Degree that is most for their own Ease and the Satisfaction of their own Lusts It is this Faith he says in the Promise of the Assistance of the Spirit of Christ in the new Birth that must renew the World into the Living Image of God and make all the Nations of the Earth Blessed which must bring the new Jerusalem from Heaven and will call down God himself to pitch his Tabernacle amongst Men. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Much more to this purpose is said there by that excellent Person If this be a Doctrine so necessary for renewing the World and awakening Men out of their deadly bloth and Slumber in their Sins what need have all the Pastours of the Church to lay it to heart themselves and withal to inculcate it more earnestly on the People And tho' perhaps in some particular Churches their Sermons Confessions of Faith and Catechisms have propagated quite contrary Doctrine yet that O! they may not continue to sow Pillows to the Armholes of Sinners and blow them up with the false Hopes of Salvation Wo to the Watchmen that do so Let us remember that the Possibility of obeying the Commands of God and the Duty of tending always to Perfection thro' Faith in Jesus Christ is the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and also of the holy Fathers The Love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit in the Hearts of those who are truly justified And this begets the Love of our Neighbour and the fulfilling of the Law And this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him c. It is an impious thing to say the Commands of the Spirit are impossible Basil in verba Mos Attende tibi c. We detest says S. Augustin the Blasphemy of those who say that there is any thing impossible commanded by God to Man and that the Commands of God may not be observed by every Man This Doctrine has no dangerous Consequence provided 1. it be not founded on a Presumption of Man's Strength but only in the Power and Strength of the Holy Spirit 2. That they who have not attained to Perfection yet are not excluded from Salvation if they be in the Way to Perfection and tending to it 3. That it be not said that in that State there is not a Possibility of Sinning yea and of perishing 4. That it be acknowledged that this is not a Perfection of Degrees free of all Imperfection Yea the Scripture tells us of some that walked in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless But that the contrary Doctrine has mischievous and most damnable Consequences has been made appear Were it not better says one how imperfect so ever we are yet to hearken to those sincere and generous Souls that we may be animated by Hope and strengthened in God to become what we are not yet than to give ear to cowardly Seducers who as the guilty Spies in Moses's Time make the Peoples Hearts to melt and dispose them by their diabolical Lyes and Calumnies to rebel against God and to return into Egypt It is true say they the Land is a good Land flowing with Milk and Honey but the Cities are great and strong and there are mighty Giants there and a strong People we cannot overcome them for they are stronger than we It is true say they at present the State of Regeneration and of perfect Christianity is an excellent thing full of Divine Joy and Delight but it is of hard Access there are high Walls of Difficulties Sin and the Devil are strongly fortified in the Hearts of Men there are strong Passions and a profound Corruption there we can never overcome this which is stronger than we who being so frail cannot exactly do that which God has commanded us for that End These are the execrable Tongues and the living Interpreters of the Will of Satan whom they will curse to all Eternity who have been so unhappy as to hearken to them and to live in Sloth and be seduced by their Means Let us go up let us go up said Caleb and Joshua wisely let us go up boldly and possess this Land certainly we shall be stronger if we strive to please the Lord he will bring us into it and will give it to us Let us not rebel against the Lord let us not fear those Enemies we
it I take Cant for a multitude of Words without any True and Divine Sence and not flowing from an inward Life and Spirit and of this there is but too much in the World But the Writings of A. B. are of another Temper and no Body will nauseate them upon this Head but they who have a secret Disgust for the Holy Scriptures God's Ways are not as our ways When we write we seek our selves we strive to discover our Reason and our Learning and study what may please the Curiosity the Fancy and the Niceness of others The Holy Writings are most unlike to ours both as to Matter and Manner and Method and Stile they are not written to please the Learned the Orator the Philosopher the Critick the Curious but to bring down every lofty Imagination and to mortifie our Self-conceit to Comfort the Humble and the Afflicted to give Light and Knowledge to the Poor and Simple and to send the Rich away empty They repeat again and again the great and necessary things of God's Law to mortifie our Niceness and Curiosity and to beat them in upon us by all means while we think it enough to know these things tho' we are not so happy as to do them Now Writings that partake so much of this Spirit will not be despis'd on this Head by any sincere Christian XXVII Some endeavour to render her Sentiments ridiculous concerning the State of the Blessed in the Life to come and they say she establishes a Mahumetan Paradise Eating and Drinking and Generation in the Kingdom of Heaven making the Earth to become that Heaven and that it shall be a Place of all sensitive Delights Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled I would gladly ask such if Adam had continued always in the State of Innocence perfectly Pure and Holy whether they would have called his State a Mahumetan Paradise and a sensual Life If there were no Concupiscence in Man's Nature but a most ardent pure and habitual Love of God the Beauties and Delights of all the Creatures would serve to enflame the Soul still the more with the Love of God There needs no more but to understand her Sentiments to be convinced of the impudent Falshood of their Reproaches She says then That the Earth and all this visible World being wholly renewed and restored to that glorious State in which it was at first formed of which in the First Part shall be the Seat of the Kingdom of God with Men for ever where Jesus Christ God-Man will reign with the Blessed both as to his Divinity and Humanity That Heaven as to the Soul is the Presence of God and we are in Heaven when we are in God and God is in Heaven as he is in the Souls of his Saints as Augustin interprets Our Father which art in the Heavens but as God has given us both a Body and Soul he has given us also a Paradise of both the Soul can have its compleat Paradise in the Presence of God but the Body must have a material and bodily one like it self For this end the Earth and all this visible World and all that therein is were created and for the same Reason God would have become Man tho' Man had never sinn'd that he might live with him both bodily and spiritually and to make his Happiness compleat And therefore he being unchangeable in his infinitely Wise and Good Designs he will certainly make not an imaginary but a real divine and corporeal Reparation of all things to last for ever for his Recompences are Eternal and will purge away from all the Creatures the Malignity and Corruption that Sin has brought upon them And in this State every individual Saint being restored in Body and Soul to the State in which Adam was in his greatest purity before the Woman was formed out of him shall produce his like of himself alone through all Eternity from a Principle of the Love of God and by an ardent Desire that there may be still more Creatures to love and praise the Divine Majesty This then shall not be a corrupt lustful and shameful Propagation like to that of this corrupt World but altogether Pure Holy and Glorious as we see in a manner an earthly Figure of it still in all the Plants and Trees In the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God in Heaven Now what is there in all this unworthy of God or unsutable to the State of the Blessed or contrary to the Holy Scriptures or to the Nature of things It is certain none of the Works of God shall perish but all shall be restored to their primitive Perfection The Scripture tells us there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth Whose Habitation would the Earth have been if Man had never sinn'd and if the Earth had never been accursed And whose Habitation shall it be when it is renewed and made a new Earth When Men fancied all the Works of God to be shut up as it were in a round Sphere and the Earth to be its Centre and the Planetary and Starry Heavens so many firm and solid Orbs moving round about it and the Empyreal Heaven above all this Sentiment about the Earth might have been thought absurd But in the Age we live in wherein is made known the vastness of the Universe and that all the fix'd Stars are probably Suns and Centres of different Systems of the whole and all the other Planets as well as our Earth among which it moves replenish'd no doubt with variety of living and intelligent Beings we have reason to admire the Providence of God in giving Discoveries to a simple unlearned Woman of the State and Habitation of the Blessed sutable to what is now known of the Frame of the Universe which is also fully confirmed from the Holy Scriptures as was shewn in the First Part and does so clearly demonstrate the unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness of God who having created Man in a Pure and Happy State and the Delights and Beauties of this World for his Accessory Felicity and the Devil by his Craft and Subtilty having perverted both and made this Earth for many Ages nothing but Scenes of Wickedness and Misery yet God by his infinitely Wise Conduct and Providence brings about at last the perfect Renovation of Man and of his Habitation the Earth and of all the Creatures and makes it an Eternal Paradise of unspotted Purity and Bliss Whereas on the other Hand it is most unaccountable how infinite Wisdom and Goodness who changes not after he had form'd Man and this World in so excellent a State and both are corrupted by the Devils should continue the Earth for so many Ages to be the Theatre of their Wickedness and then entirely destroy it Might it not then be said as she expresses it That God
general Destruction of the World which shall not be recalled because the Will of Man is not inclin'd to return to God but rather to be the more estrang'd from him if the Plagues should yet be delayed That therefore the irrevocable Sentence is given to purge the whole World by divers Plagues of War Pestilence and Famine which are framed of the Three Means which have caused Men to abandon God Their Want of True Love to one another their Love of this present Life and their being addicted to their sensual Appetites the Pleasures of the Mouth and Belly She shews that many Signs have appeared in the Heavens fearful Comets menacing great Evils Fire has burnt many Cities many have been swallowed up by Earthquakes That these did affright some at first but so soon as the Devil had leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were Natural things he has made the fear of all these Threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of Mens Minds so that no Body is converted to God nor embraces the Spirit of Penitence but they mock at God's Warnings saying These are but Natural things She asks these Ear-flatterers If God ought not to send his Plagues but by Supernatural things and to make Chimera's in the Air He who has created alâ— the Elements must he not make use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural things to make our Bodies suffer which are likewise Natural The Deludge was made by a Natural Rain and the last Plagues will be made Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural things because the Heaven the Earth and all the Elements ought to rise up against us to avenge the Offence that we do against their Creator and ours c. I have transcrib'd all this because I think the present Age ought to lay these things deeply to Heart It is a most Remarkable Providence that a simple illiterate Maid should give Warning to the World of the Approaching of the last general and dreadful Judgments of God and give such clear Grounds for it from the Word of God and the State of the World and declare that she is commanded by God so to do and that now since her Removal both the Wickedness of Men and the Signs and Judgments of God have been still encreasing There have been such signal and dreadful Earthquakes in many Places swallowing up many Thousands such universal Wars destroying there Hundreds of Thousands the Fire of which seems only to be covered a while to break out into a greater Flame such pestilential Diseases in many Places particularly in France Scotland America sweeping off vast Numbers and now most grievous Dearth and Famine which for One Year scourged France but for these Three last Years has most signally visited Scotland and now this present Year being the Fourth is like to come to so great a heighth as to threaten an utter Desolation Mens Hearts failing them for fear all observe such a general Change of Seasons that the Heavens the Air the Earth and all the Elements do frown upon us and deny their wonted kindly Influences and Means of Life so that this last Plague threatens to visit other Nations likewise yet the rest of Men which are not killed of these Plagues do not repent of the Works of their Hands so that we have just ground to apprehend that these are but the beginnings of Sorrows It is high time for us then to awake out of our Stupidity to repent and do works meet for Repentance that we may not be found among the Scoffers in the last Days who say Where is the promise of his coming For tho' these were not the last Plagues and Judgments yet as A. B. says as if I remember rightly Vincentius of Terrara preached in his time to one City That within a few Years the last Judgment would be and tho' it was not yet many thereby were led to Repentance so tho' these were not the last general Judgments yet they will be the last particular Judgments to many Thousands and it is a good Office to awaken Men thereby to Repentance 14. That the Works of God shall not perish but endure for ever and shall be wholly renew'd and freed from all Corruption is expresly declared in the Holy Scriptures where we are told that the Creature itself also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of Gâ—d And that according to his Promise we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And it is said I John saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away And we are told that the Heavens must receive Jesus Christ until the time â— the Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by he Mouth of all his holy Prophets since the World began See Is 65. 17. 66. 22. 15. That Jesus Christ will come and Reign in Glory with the Saints and Blessed for ever upon Earth appears from many express Testimonies of Holy Scripture Thus David invites all Creatures to rejoice and be glad before the Lord for he comes to judge the Earth the World shall be established that it shall not be removed with Righteousness shall he judge the World and the People with his Truth Thus it is said that the Kingdom and Dominion and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Thus it is said The Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with him And it shall come to pass in that Day that the Light shall not be clear nor dark But it shall be one Day which shall be known to the Lord not Day nor Night And the Lord shall be King over all the Earth In that day shall there be one Lord and his Name one Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth And The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever And I John saw the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband and I heard a great Voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God c. see all that and the next Chapter And there shall be no Night there and they need no Candle neither Light of the Sun for the Lord
by the Spirit of God who cannot contradict himself for God is Yesterday and to day the same unchangeable and always equal to himself from whom no Variableness nor Contradiction can proceed But if her Adversary would examine all the Holy Scripture after the Manner he had done her Writings he would find many more such seeming Contradictions in the Bible For indeed there are many more according to the narrow Apprehension and shallow Judgment of Men who being earthly and carnal cannot understand spiritual things or those endited by the Holy Spirit and they forge in their little Brains Errours out of most solid Truths and Contradictions out of the greatest Conformities From hence have sprung so many Errours Schisms and Divisions in the Church of God because every one would understand the Scripture after their own Mode they have invented so many different Religions and each says This is founded on the Holy Scripture tho' very often they have different Sentiments and contradict one another in the same Truths while every one thinks he understands them aright Tho' they are uncapable of understanding Divine Things for the same Spirit that endited the Holy Scriptures gives the Understanding of them and when the Spirit of Man undertakes to do it he still falls from one Errour into another and loses himself in that great Ocean of Divine Wisdom which he cannot understand nor comprehend It does not trouble me that there appears to be Contradictions in my Writings to the Judgments of Men since they will hardly find two Prophets speak the same Words upon the same Matter and the four Evangelists do not relate the same Things after the same Manner Must it therefore be said that there are Contradictions in the Holy Scriptures as this Benjamin Furly says there are in my Writings God commands to honour Father and Mother and Jesus Christ says we must hate Father and Mother adding that he who does not forsake Father and Mother and all things cannot be his Disciple How will this Benjamin reconcile these two Passages For to honour Father and Mother is a thing quite contrary to the hating and forsaking them And Jesus Christ says that he is not come to bring Peace upon Earth but War between Father and Son c. And elsewhere he says my Peace I give you In one Place he says Drunkards and Gluttons shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and elsewhere he says that that which enters into the Mouth does not defile the Soul Truth is invincible and does not change for all that may be thundered against it but it is the more established when it is opposed and contradicted by ignorant Persons as this Benjamin who cannot discern Truth from Lying and from Contradictions He confounds one time with another and will needs give general Rules for all sorts of Occasions and when these Rules are not punctually observed at all times he thinks that Persons do change or contradict themselves And if he had been an Apostle of Jesus Christ when he lived upon Earth he would have often reproved him as at present he does me For when Jesus Christ was afraid of his Enemies he bids his Apostles buy Swords and if they wanted money to do it that they should sell their Garments and a little after he commands to put up the Sword and threatens that he who strikes with the Sword shall be strucken by it If this Benjamin had been in S. Peter's Place when he cut off Malchus's Ear he would certainly have been displeased at Jesus Christ and blamed him for Inconstancy and Contradiction because he could not discern the time when he ought to strike and when he ought to forbear He reproaches me that I have written somewhere that I might say something that is not true without lying or sinning He does not consider that there are material Lies which are not Sins He would have Words precisely spoken which are true according to his Caprice for it is a chief Article of the Quakers to justifie themselves before Men for they study precise Words that they may not commit a material Lie and they dare not call a Christian by that Name without adding as they call them fearing to Lie by calling him a Christian when he is not truly such For my part I am far from these Maxims for I never regard the pronunciation of Words but the Essence of the Truth of the things which I advance If I express them in this or that Term it is all one to me provided I deceive no Body and that I make the things to be understood which I would signifie But there is this difference between the Spirit that guides me and the Spirit that guides that Sect that they would be esteem'd by Men for good Men and for the People of God whereas I am not concern'd how they esteem me for I am content with the Testimony of my own Conscience and seek not the Approbation of Men far less will I say any Words to the end they may think that I am Just and guided by God It suffices me that I know it and God knows it for it is written He who would please Men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ Therefore I will freely speak a material Lie when I believe the thing is true for Example I have often said that I was Two Years younger than I find I am since I caus'd one to search the Register of my Baptism I grant I have thus made many material Lies yet without sinning thereby or lying since a Lie is a Deceit or Falseness of the Heart that kills the Soul which I could not do by saying that I was Two Years younger for I aim'd not thereby to deceive any Body nor to speak against the Truth I have uttered many such material Lies I love rather to possess the Essence of Truth in the bottom of my Soul than to speak verbally true Words through Hypocrisie For what else is it to call Men by the Name of Christians and to add to it as they call them than Hypocrisie and Contempt of the Truth such as the Jews had when they said to Pilate that he ought to write on the Cross of Jesus Christ that he was King of the Jews by adding to it as he said which Pilate would not add saying only What is written is written as I also answer to this Benjamin when he would teach me to speak Words which are true before Men For I know well that all whom I call Christians are not truly Christians before God yet I will not learn from the Quakers to add to the Name of Christian as they call them since this seems to me superfluous and I have no other Intention in calling them simply Christians but to make it be understood of whom I speak to wit that I speak not of the Jews or Heathens but of those only whom I call Christians yet without design to maintain that they are true Christians Since I declare elsewhere that I
so many Gifts and that he continues them every Moment and will continue them even to our Death 14. From whom do we look for our Happiness but from God who will judge us If we have served the World it will pay us with Ingratitude if our selves we have nothing but Weakness and Miseries I can see no other Happiness but that of LOVING GOD all the rest is vain and perishing Riches Wisdom Pleasures Honours are nothing but Smoak if they aim at any other End but this of LOVE All the rest is nothing but Emptiness Filtihness and Inconstancy unworthy of being lov'd by a Soul so Noble and Divine the Lawful SPOUSE of GOD and the COHEIRESS of JESUS CHRIST Is it not sad yea Abominable that it should joyn it self or commit Adultery with the Base things of the Earth forsaking its Faithful BRIDEGROOM who loves it so perfectly and who has done such admirable things to engage it to his Love yea to consent only to let it self be loved by him according as he desires but that it should thrust away from him to love and cleave to the Earth Winds Metals Flesh and Blood how depraved is its Judgment Which makes me often sigh when I see this Ingratitude of the Creatures towards their Creator whom I beg that he may open the Eyes of their Souls to see the true Means of their Salvation In the mean time I continue Sir Your most humble Servant Antho. Bourignon Gaunt March 15th 1667. LETTER II. Of PRAYER wherein it consists Of set Prayers and Exercises and their Use Of CONTINUAL PRAYER its Nature the absolute Nec ssity of it for overcoming our Enemies both unvard and outward for obtaining the Grace of God for attaining unto Perfection and how to persist in it without Interruption This Letter is the 7th of Tomb. de la Fausse Theologie Part iv My dear Friend SInce you have resolved to deny your self and no longer to follow your Sensualities you have need of Continual Prayer that you may be enabled to perform you good purposes For when the Devil has once had Power over a Person and made him love and follow his Sensualities he does not easily depart from him not being willing to quit the Fortress of which he has once been Governour but he keeps it by force and against the Inclination of the Person who would thrust him out of it so that he must oppose him by force It is of such Devils that Jesus Christ says That they go not forth but by Fasting and Prayer not that Jesus Christ and his Apostles had not Grace from God powerful enough for casting out all sorts of Devils but when they have once gained a Power over the Will of Man and he has consented to all the Suggestions of the Devil he will not go out but by the force of Fasting and Prayer seeing he has gain'd the Man's Soul by Sensualities and the Neglect of Prayer 2. He must of necessity be thrust out by means directly contrary to those which he has made use of for getting entry into Souls When they have obeyed the Devil in following the Sensualities of corrupt Nature they must afterwards renounce the same Sensualities by Fasting and Abstinence otherwise they will never cast out this sort of Devils And if they have hearkned to the Temptations of the Devil instead of the Inspirations of the Holy Spirit there is a necessity of continual Prayer to cast forth this kind of Devil seeing he has continually entertained the Spirit with vain Thoughts the same Spirit must entertain it self continually with God otherwise it can never thrust out this kind of Devil 3. And therefore I exhort you unto CONTINUAL PRAYER that you may overcome this Enemy of your Soul and chase him out by the help of Prayer which is a powerful Armour against all the Furies of Hell 4. In the mean time I must shew you what PRAYER is before you can perform it aright for we often take some fine words that we have read or heard of others to be Prayer as in this Country they use to read or sing Psalms when they would pray and in other places they say so many Pater Nosters Ave Maria's or some other Prayers written in some Books or they learn the words that they may repeat them when they would pray 5. All this ought not to be termed Prayer since these words and these Psalms may be said without making any Prayer to God and that one may pray in saying Psalms he ought to have the same DESIRES which they had who made them and to say the same words with the same Desire that they had in saying them otherwise this cannot be PRAYER but rather idle Words which do not profit yea by these Words Men do often reproach God or they utter Lies or Mockings For to say a Psalm of David which he uttered when he was penitent when he fasted and prayed washing his Couch with his Tears while they who sing these things are very often fill'd with Wine and delicious Fare spending whole Nights in Riot and Luxury is not this to mock God and to lie in his Presence So do they also who say the Lord's Prayer or any other Prayers without having Desires sutable to the Words which they pronounce 6. They will say that God is their Father without being willing to obey him as Children That his Name be hallowed while indeed they dishonour and despise him loving rather their own Will and Honour than God's They say Let his Kingdom come when they desire nothing but to reign in this World where they would wish still to live if God would give them Prosperity And by word they say His Will be done on Earth as it is in the Heavens while they will not resign themselves to the Will of God in any thing but endeavour to accomplish their own as much as is possible for them And while they pray to have daily Bread they labour and study to have Abundance and maugre God they will needs have more than the daily Bread for which they pray They pray likewise That he would forgive them their Sins while they love them and will needs go on to commit them more and more every day And That he would deliver them from evil while they pursue and do the Evil from which they say they would be delivered And while they pray to God That he would deliver them from Temptation they feed it follow and obey it 7. Behold how Men do mock God by such Prayers and lie in his Presence I do not therefore desire that you pray after this manner for it avails nothing and you cannot thereby obtain the Grace of God but rather a greater Condemnation for God will not be mocked and he takes no pleasure in vain Discourses He only searches the Reins and tries the Consciences being the Searcher of hearts and not the Hearer of our feigned words The Gospel likewise tells us That we must not pray as the