and instead of saying to sinners go and sin no more as Jesus Christ did to the persons whose sins he pardon'd as to the Paralitick and to the Woman taken in Adultery these Confessors say come again to Confession and we will still absolve you Jesus Christ says If thou hast a quarrel with thy Brother leave thy Offering and go be reconcil'd with thy Brother and these Confessors with a word send them quickly to the Altar without Reconciliation Do they not act directly in opposition to Christ I said to her that I had never searcht so deep in this matter but that I would willingly know if it be not of Confession that Jesus Christ speaks when he says That which you bind or loose in earth I will do it also in heaven and then when St. Peter ask'd If he should seven times forgive his brother who had offended him Jesus Christ answers not only seven times but seventy seven times She reply'd Sir take heed this light is not from men I never spoke so openly to any body but I see plainly that you will profit by it To give a solution to your first question Whether Jesus Christ did not speak touching Confession all that you shall do on earth I will do in heaven this is certainly as to the remitting and retaining of sins but it is not after the manner that men understand it for God never gave this authority to men in themselves but to his Church which is nothing else but his word and therefore this authority does reside always where this word resides Moses and so many other Prophets who wrought so many Wonders in the world perform'd them by vertue of this word and not by their own authority and power They went always to God to know what they ought to do and they wrought according to his will in no ways according to their own for man has nothing of himself but an impotence instead of power but the word of God has power in all places where it resides even tho it should reside in a wicked soul Therefore sometimes even the beasts have wrought miracles By vertue of this word the heavens and the earth do subsist It has the same vertue to remit and retain sins in the bodies of Confessors that it had in the natural and humane body of Jesus Christ for it is always the same which proceeds from Almighty God The only difficulty that I find is to know whether it can still reside in the Confessors at present who do not follow the rules of this holy doctrine God has indeed promis'd to pardon sins to penitent sinners and these Confessors do pardon them to sinners persevering and continuing in their sins so that if it were true that these Confessors could pardon sins according to their own fancy a man would only need to be in favour with some of them to be assured of his Salvation It would be in vain therefore for Jesus Christ to have suffered and endured so much to â—each us humility patience penitence and all the rest if these Confessors with Absolvo can thus forgive us all our sins Every one might indeed live as he pleas'd as they do now without caring much for God since he might obtain Salvation by the means of a man who would call himself the Saviour and Forgiven of sinners I think a man must be deprived of all judgment not to discover this deceit whereas at the same time so many persons live and die in this blindness This is a grosser darkness than that of Egypt As to the second point whether it be in Confession that we must forgive seventy seven times That cannot be authoriz'd by this passage since we find no where that Jesus Christ did forgive sins more than once to those to whom he pardon'd And if a sinner were truly penitent he would be careful not to fall again so often but if he be not penitent he is not capable of obtaining pardon so much as once for Absolution does always suppose Contrition otherwise it would not be available St. Peter asks how often he shall pardon his brother who offended him but Penitents have not offended their Confessors when they go to Confession these so numerous pardons respect the indulgence that we owe to our Christian brethren that we may leave vengeance to God alone but they do not at all regard sacramental Confession The Eleventh Conference Outward Devotions imposed by men are not of true Faith Of the true Church which cannot err in what it imposeth The Doctrines of Jesus Christ and those of men True Prayer HAving heard all these reasons I felt my self in very great perplexities not knowing what â—o reply to such firm reasonings I said only that the Hereticks were not always to blame when they spoke against the Abuses of the Roman Church She said to me Sir I never convers'd with any Hereticks and I desire not to know what their sentiments are in this matter I was born and baptiz'd under the authority of the Roman Church and I never yet travell'd out of it where I might meet with any Hereticks to know what they say of Catholicks but I have learn'd all that I tell you in a profound recollection of spirit join'd to a serious experience I have made frequent Confessions and perform'd all the other particular Devotions of Christians as my Parents did with an exact observance but when it pleas'd God to enlighten me I perceiv'd clearly that Faith does not consist in the wearing of a pair of Beads a Belt or a Scapulary nor yet in hearing many Masses or confessing often and communicating as they taught me but that it consists in the belief and practice of what God has commanded and taught us That all these outward devotions did rather serve as means to withdraw and distract us from the continual attention which we ought to have upon God Therefore I have quitted them all and have fixâ—d upon the Truth of the Gospel which I knew from my tender youth tho I could not follow it because they taught me otherwise In which I fail'd greatly by the Counsel of men God drew me to himself and they drew me to them I regret nothing more than the time that I have spent in following them for all that they call Devotions is nothing but amusement which keeps us tied to the earth and to the creatures Our affections are towards our ghostly Fathers their Masses and Sermons their Churches and the means of adorning them and to all that is sensual which hinders them from being united in God I ask'd her whether all these outward devotions were not good and saving since the Church had instituted and approven them and if she could err in what concern'd the Faith and the Instruction of the faithful She answer'd No Sir the Church can never err in any thing for she is the wisdom the goodness and the power of God the fountain of all
from the wise nor the word from the Prophet come and let us smite him with the Tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words But God has quite other Designs the Lord has said according to the declaration of an other Prophet Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me and their fear and worship of me is nothing but formality and taught by the precept of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid This is an unavoidable judgment which they must resolve to undergoe and their resistance will only serve to make them be more entirely crusht by the powerful hand of God This will be to the little ones and to the simple matter of joy and gladness and they shall sing praises unto the Spirit of God whom Jesus Christ shall send to possess the place of that human and diabodical Spirit which he will extripate blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. If you have a sincere desire to be of the Number of these little and simple ones you will easily perceive by the Divine Light that is communicated to you that God begins to fulfill his word as well as the desire that we profess to have in that Prayer of the Church come lovely Spirit and renew the Earth You will afterwards be more fully convinc'd of this Truth by other works of this nature This is faithfully and sincerely communicated to you according to the Manuscript of the late Mr. De Cort who nourisht his Soul with these Truths by which he had been regenerated to God and incited to renounce the Vanities of this World I have neither added nor substracted any thing from it except some words at the top of the Pages and before the Conferences to serve for an Abridgment of the matter and a help to the memory of the Reader I began also to quote the passages of the Holy Scripture to shew that their is an entire conformity not only of the Doctrin Words and Sentiments but even of the Life Conduct Actions and other Accidents of this Maid with those who were heretofore unquestionably enlightn'd and govern'd by the Holy Spirit But since the prosecution of that Design would have required a great deal of time and since it may be probably supposed that most Readers will not give themselves the trouble of searching and examining so great a number of passages it was thought sufficient to illustrate the first Conference with all the particular Quotations as a sample of that absolute uniformity with the Spirit of God and his direction which might have been easily carried on throughout the whole Work And in the remaining part of the Book you will only find the most necessary passages cited or those which have most manifest relation to the Text. God grant Beloved Reaader that you may reap from this Work an Advantage which may dispose thy Soul to become a Child of his Grace and to receive his Holy Spirit This is the hearty and earnest desire of P. P. P. THE PREFACE OF Monsieur de Cort TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Here present you with an Account of what befel me in a Voyage I made to a far Country to come to which I travelled above a Year accompanied with several of my own Country-men who with me were Eye-witnesses of our meeting by the way with a Pilgrimess who spoke to us admirable and amazing Things that are capable of converting unto God all those who shall read or hear the hidden Secrets of the Righteousness and Mercy of God and the Blindness of Men and the Power which the Devil at present has over them The Thing is as profitable as astonishing for it has never been conceived or comprehended by any humane Wit It must needs proceed from a divine Understanding and it must needs be a Celestial or Terrestrial Angel for neither Philosophy nor Theology could ever teach me the Things which this Pilgrimess taught me in the small time wherein I travelled with her but in a way so simple and so unaffected that all her Words did pierce my Heart and enlighten my Understanding working in my Soul Joy and Compunction together I was at first quite transported beside my self and I thought all my Understanding was renvers'd while I heard her first Discourses being of Opinion that the Words of Jesus Christ were fulfilled in that he says I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and abolish the Prudence of the Prudent for of necessity all Men how knowing and learned soever they be must be struck dumb and confounded by the simple Wisdom of this Pilgrimess and I took it for a singular Mercy of God that he was pleased yet to declare his Secrets to any of his Servants wishing for the Memory of an Angel that I might be able to declare all that I heard of this Pilgrimess since nothing proceeded from her Mouth which was not profitable and most enlightning very convincing and powerful capable of converting the most hardned Hearts and obstinate Sinners But I must yield to my Weakness not being able to declare any other thing but what my Memory shall furnish me with being helped by some Remarks which I made when I had the conveniency of Writing I entreat the Reader that in this Narrative he may not seek for Ornament of Language nor Philosophical Discourses but the naked simple Truth since God makes use of weak Things to confound the strong I will not at all disguise or adorn her Language fearing to oppose the Designs which God has to manifest to all the World that he reveals his Secrets to Babes and that he resists the mighty and the proud Ones of the Earth from whom he conceals and hides his Secrets and Wonders For this Reason we have ground to say with S. Augustin The Ignorant and the Vnlearned take Heaven by force and we with all our Sciences continue drown'd in earthly Affections Are we ashamed to follow them because they have out-run us We ought rather to be ashamed not to follow them And to add here also the Words which the Pilgrims of Emaus said one to another when they remembred what Jesus Christ had spoken to them by the way while he explained to them the Holy Scriptures to wit Was not our Heart on fire and did it not burn within us when he spoke to us in the way and opened unto us the Holy Scriptures This Pilgrimess in speaking to us must certainly be animated with the same Spirit with which our Saviour was for each of us felt his Heart to burn by her powerful Words which did gently beget in our Souls a Contempt of created Things and a Love of Things eternal enlightning our Understandings by Truths so clear that they could not proceed from any other than from the Father
the marks and signs of the last times fulfill'd and perfectly accomplisht The life of men is the open book in which these truths are written and the holy Scriptures are the equitable Judge which pronounces this sentence Read Sir with attention they will deliver you from the difficulty you find in believing this for tho indeed they do not determine precisely the day of judgment yet they will make you see sufficiently that the cheif signs which must precede it do already appear That no body will believe this is a most certain evidence of it for Jesus Christ says that it shall be as in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and knew not until the flood came and took them all away Even so is it at present they take their recreations and pleasures heaping up earthly treasures building houses and temples as if they were to remain here to eternity while all must very shortly perish And no body will believe it according to the prediction of Jesus Christ when he compares these last times with those of the universal deluge He says in St. Math. 24. it will be as in the days of Noah adding when you shall see the abomination of desolation to be in the holy place flee away Do you not think Sir that this abomination is now in the holy place if Envy were lost it might be recover'd in the Cloisters if Avarice were dead it would be reviv'd by the Priests Vain-glory and Pride is no where so prevailing as among the Clergy in one word Simonies and all other sins abound in the place which ought to be holy What more sure marks would you have than those which Jesus Christ himself has declar'd to us should precede the Judgment if you desire to see the Stars fall from Heaven the Sun to be darken'd the Moon not to give her Light all these are nothing but material signs which can do no harm to Souls but serve only for outward evidences of the wrath of God and to the end that even insensible things may feel the terrors of that great day as the Rocks did when they were rent at the death of Jesus Christ This added nothing to his passion nor render'd those who put him to death more criminal for they were nothing but insensible rocks without souls or reason Even so will it be as to the Stars and the other celestial bodies if they change colour or suffer any other alteration this will not be hurtful to our souls which are spiritual and cannot receive any punishment by these visible and material Stars so much the rather that these signs and Stars cannot be understood but spiritually For how could the Stars fall from Heaven since the Mathematicians tell us that one Star alone is seven times greater than all the Earth so great a thing cannot fall into one so small for it would not be capable to contain it And if we take the mystical sense calling by the name of Stars persons luminous in Doctrine the Doctors and Guides Prelates Bishops and all those who are plac'd in Dignities to whom the name of Stars may be appropriated as being the Lights of the world this sign would also have at present its sense accomplisht for we see every day such persons fall from righteousness and truth who for some worldly interest or humane respects fall from the truth of the Gospel which is the true heaven of Souls and wallow in the earth among its riches and pleasures as secular persons do In former times how many of those were seen who had their hearts and spirits continually towards heaven their lives and manners did enlighten all the world as the Stars of the Firmament but at present they are fallen into the mire of earthly affections So that it may be truly said that the Stars are fallen from Heaven and that the Sun also is become without light For Truth which is the true Sun of Righteousness cannot any longer appear openly it is become black and hateful to all the world who desiring to be flatter'd and prais'd cannot hear the truth because it reproves the falshood which now prevails These two signs of the Sun and of the Stars appear at present in their full accomplishment in the mystical and inward sense which is much more than if they did appear in the literal and material sense for the reasons above-mentioned and if the Moon be not as yet without light it will be so very shortly in the mystical and perfect sense The Moon is all transitory things which after the manner of the Moon do encrease or diminish according to good or bad fortune These things will lose their light so soon as Wars shall have destroy'd and ruin'd temporal wealth Then all that pomp and magnificence which shines in the Sanctuary will lose its splendor and will no longer yeild any thing but blood Since for Gold and Silver they will cut the throats of those who are plac'd in the highest dignities so that what shines and glisters to day in the Church will wholly lose its lustre and light and by this means this Moon will be darken'd I entreat you to read attentively the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew it speaks of the present time All the Parables do the same I wish I had time and leisure to explain them to you you would see as well as I that the Judgment approaches for all the forerunning signs are already come People do not perceive them for want of reflecting seriously enough on the holy Scriptures or upon the inward life of men now adays they amuse themselves with regarding only their outward piety imagining that there are yet a great many good men because they appear such but before God all are corrupted They resemble the Apples of Sodom which appear beautiful without and have nothing within but rottenness This is the true symbole of the life of Christians now which God makes me perceive abundantly by his inward light This fill'd me with astonishment and desiring to understand her more clearly I ask'd her whether there were not any good men or true Christians in our days She said to me No Sir THERE ARE NO TRVE CHRISTIANS VPON EARTH There are indeed diverse persons who seem to be good men and are really so in comparison of the wicked they may indeed pass for Saints before men but before God they are not true Christians for tho they do not act wickedly but frequent the Sacraments and other exercises of Devotion yet nevertheless they have not the LOVE OF GOD nor Charity for their Neighbour in their hearts much less a hatred of themselves or a desire to embrace the Cross Sufferings and Persecutions to follow Jesus Christ On the contrary they so love themselves that all their designs aim at nothing but their own satisfaction even in the most pious things You would be astonisht Sir to see what difference there is between the sight
well and secure The Thirteenth Conference Of true Faith according to the tenour of the Creed Of the knowledge of God and of our selves by the consideration of his Works I Told her That I did not believe that I had true Faith and that she had sufficiently made appear to me that I could not be right therefore I desired to understand of her wherein true Faith does consist tho' it were but upon my own account for I desired to profit in it She said Sir let us examine a little together our Creed and see if there be so much as one Article of it observed even by the most perfect Christians now-a-days If we believ'd that God is Almighty that he created the Heaven and the Earth could we live without loving and fearing him as we do Could we also attribute to our selves the earthly good things which all the World seeks after and loves since they are all created by God and do all appertain to him in Property which we do daily usurp In the second place If we did believe in Jesus Christ the only Son of God who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary could we reject his Instructions since he is the Son of God the Fountain of all Wisdom Could we follow a Carnal Church seeing she is altogether Spiritual engendred in the Body of Jesus Christ by the operation of the holy Spirit Could we also live in Luxury when God chose a Virgin for his own Mother Would we not endeavour to love Virginity since God has so much esteem'd it Moreover if we believ'd that Jesus Christ the Son of God has suffer'd even so far as to be Crucified Dead and Buried could we live so softly seeking all eases to our Body not willing to suffer any thing that is painful nor affronts nor tribulations when we believ'd that the Son of God has indeed suffer'd for us even to a shameful Death yea was buried as a corruptible Man Would we not imitate or follow him at some distance in case we had the faith that we profess Moreover if we believ'd that he is risen from Death to Life that he is ascended into Heaven were it possible that we could love this present Life while we hope that we shall rise again since Jesus Christ is risen again to ascend unto Heaven Would not this withdraw our affections from the Earth through the hope of ascending unto Heaven with Jesus Christ Were it possible that we would build Houses and make so many other settlements as we do on Earth as if it were our abiding City And if we did believe that Jesus Christ will come from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead were it possible that we would live in so great a neglect of our Salvation with so little care of making ready our Accompts to render them to that great Judge who will demand of us an account of all our Thoughts Words and Deeds Would we not rather lay aside all our worldly Affairs to attend on this which is the most important to us yet on the contrary is often the least of our â—ares And did we believe likewise that there is a holy Spirit and a holy Church is it possible that we would be so little Spiritual so Natural and Earthly so wedded to our Senses in which we live sometimes more brutishly than the Beasts themselves whereas our Souls ought to be wholly Spiritual and Holy since we have a Holy Spirit and a Holy Church And did we believe the Communion of Saints is it possible that every one should be so much wedded to his own Interest and Wealth If Prayers and good Works ought to be all common amongst Christian Brethren how much more ought temporal Wealth to be for the succour of our Neighbour which is very far from Mens dispositions now who study nothing but to keep up and increase their own Wealth understanding no other thing but mine and thine both in Spirituals and Temporals And did we believe in the remission of Sins how would we be penitent and contrite to obtain the pardon of them instead of continuing in them through hardness of heart as we see the most part of men do who finish their Lives in black thoughts and despair instead of having immediate recourse to mercy according to their belief For he who has promised the remission of Sins has not promised them time to persevere in them If this belief were real they would not persevere in them for one day for they are not certain of living so long And did we believe in the Resurrection of the Flesh how could we love and esteem our flesh in a condition so miserable as that of this mortal Life We would greatly contemn it in the hope we had of its Resurrection l in which it should live most happy delivered from so many miseries calamities and maladies under which it groans during its exile in this miserable World which setting aside the hopes of its Resurrection must rather be called Death than Life the belief of this Article would give a disgust of the delights of this present Life and make us aspire towards that to come And did we believe in Life eternal what would we not do to obtain it We would voluntarily forsake Father Mother and all our Goods to obtain this eternal Life for it deserves more than a thousand Worlds which cannot last but for a small time in respect of Eternity whereas we see the most part of men so in love with this miserable Life that they would fain abide here for an Eternity though it be filled with miseries and calamities Do you not see Sir that there is no more faith in the House of God That no body lives conformably to his belief That they place faith only in Words as I have told you formerly They say over it may be every day their Creed and yet they do not observe so much as one Article of it These are nothing but words that vanish into Air and nevertheless they would take it very ill to make appear to them that they have not true faith tho' it be always operative and never idle True faith works always the vertues of which I told you in the Souls which possess it and if these operations are not seen it may indeed truly be said that these Souls have not faith for it can never be any where without operating its vertues no more than the Sun can be without giving his beams Consider it well Sir and you will find my saying true and you will condemn your self I told her I perceived clearly that People lived in a distraction of spirit and that few persons knew themselves That it was no wonder they knew not God since they did not know themselves and that truly we were deceived She replied Sir he who knows God will always know himself and he who knows himself will assuredly know God for the one is linked unto
the other a serious recollection of spirit may teach us this We speak of God says she as if he were some Phantom of Paradise as an imaginary thing and of our selves as a temporal and transient thing Where is the man living who can comprehend what God is and in what place he abides It is true we have need of some words to signify what we would say therefore we say that God is in Paradise as in the place of his abode But we must not be so simple as to believe that God has any particular abode for there is nothing which can contain him being greater than all things We say that he is in the Heavens and nevertheless the Heavens are but his Creatures very uncapable of being able to contain him We say that he is on the right hand of his Father whither he is ascended These are all words to signify in our Gibberish our little conceptions but we can never attain to the knowledge of what God is or Paradise or even our own Souls for this cause we make often wrong judgments and the Learned fill our minds in this as in other things with the Idea's of their Imaginations which are of little use for our Salvation and far less for the Glory of God for frequently we give attributes to him which do greatly diminish it to speak after our fashion It is enough for our Salvation and his Glory that we know that there is one God and that he is the fountain of all Wisdom the accomplishment of all Power the perfection of all Goodness who never had beginning and shall never have end that he is an invisible and incomprehensible Spirit and that he has given us an understanding to comprehend all these Divine Attributes through the operations which they produce in our minds We may first know that there is a God because we feel in our selves that we have a dependance upon something which we cannot comprehend since all those things which we see in Heaven and in Earth are not capable of having created us nor of maintaining us for all men and all the stars with all that is created in heaven and in earth cannot add one hair unto our head nor give us one moment of life We must conclude therefore that there is a God above all things who has created all who upholds and governs all by a supream power since nothing can have given being unto its self there must have been of necessity some author of all things who has given them all a being and beginning No body can be ignorant of this truth tho they had nothing but a Pagan light And to perceive that he is the fountain of all wisdom we need but consider this beautiful universe how marvellously well done it is What artifice could keep the Globe of the Earth among the Waters What can give splendour to the Sun Beauty to the Moon Lights to the Stars Who can make a tree a fruit a flower a plant of so many different herbs Who can have made the birds of the air the beasts of the earth and of the sea in so many different kinds And above all who could have formed the body of man so wonderfully shap'd with so many different members How many veins muscles and tendons do concur to tye up this tender flesh What master could ever make such a master-piece must not this proceed from the fountain of all wisdom from which all the wisdom of men is derived which we admire without knowing the author of it except by the operations which we experience in our selve Who can be ignorant of his infinite wisdom while he looks upon the Creation and the upholding of this great Universe Who does not feel that he has not in himself any power if it be not given from a supream power which we do not know Who can be ignorant of that Incomprehensible Goodness while he receives every moment the effects of it All that man has he holds it of the Goodness of God for he could not have merited any thing before that God of his Goodness alone did create him We perceive evidently that he is an Invisible and Incomprehensible spirit for none ever saw God or can comprehend what he is He can never have had beginning having given beginning to all things How can that end which is eternally incomprehensible our soul cannot even comprehend itself nevertheless we may well judge that it is immortal for the Wisdom of God could never have created it to live for so small a time as we are upon earth He would have done a thing which was not good which cannot be for our soul is always in bondage so long as it animates this our miserable body God should not be just if he gave it not another time to rejoyce with him else the end of its creation should be miserable It must needs be for accomplishing the goodness and righteousness of God that it live a blessed eternity so that even he could not have created our body to live only this so miserable short life by far greater reason our soul which he created after his own image and according to his own likeness could not be created to be only a Prisoner in our body where it cannot act but by its co-operation with it no more can God act in us but by the co-operation of our soul because there is an indissoluble union in respect of the one and of the other For God is united with our soul as our body is also united with the same I admir'd these marvellous and unheard of discourses and that I might understand more I told her I had never sufficiently understood how the knowledge of God was unseparable from the knowledge of our selves She said to me Sir this is very easie to comprehend if you will seriously reflect upon it for no body can know that God is the fountain of all wisdom without perceiving at the same time that we can have nothing but ignorance only as experience makes sufficiently appear that no body has wisdom at his wish that it must be derived from that supream fountain whose works being considered it must be presently known and acknowledg'd that all our wisdom how great soever we may have imagin'd it being compar'd with the wisdom of God is nothing but pure ignorance and this not being known we will think that our wisdom is great As a person is always the most beautiful and the most perfect when she is alone but approaching others who have more perfection than she this makes her know what she is truly Even so when we know the perfections of God we know our own imperfections If we know his almighty power we shall presently perceive our own weakness or the perfection of his goodness we shall discover how far ours is from it For this cause I have said that we cannot know God without knowing our selves neither can we know our selves without knowing
come to tell you that this is the Will of God you will never do it for God has no Will to make you leave it more than he had any to make you undertake it It concerns every one to examine what Mean will be most proper for him to facilitate his Salvation One may sufficiently perceive in his Conscience without consulting any Body whether Offices Estates and Benefices have been to us the means of more Union with God than if we had not possess'd them and if they have made us draw others to the same Union If we do not find this it is to be feared that our Offices and Benefices have not been sought for or possest for the Love of God but for some Human Accommodation which respects nothing but the Earth This being discover'd it is in your Will to resolve if now you desire to labour for Heaven or rather for the Earth I said to her That I would not pretend any longer to any thing upon Earth that I was very sorry that I had had some Pretensions thereto but that I durst not quickly abandon all without the Advice of some learn'd Person fearing that I might do evil She replyed Sir You are yet far from the Kingdom of Heaven when you will needs advise with Men if you shall follow Jesus Christ Has not he said He who leaves not Father and Mother and his own self cannot be his Disciple Now would you go to ask Counsel of any Man when Jesus Christ has given you his Where could you find better Men are all interested in their own Judgment and will never advise but what they judge most advantagious for Men they having no Light to perceive any other thing They are Flesh and judge according to the Flesh Would you refer what concerns the Salvation and Perfection of your own Soul to their Judgments You must needs perish with them For the Wisdom of Man is foolishness before God All the Evils of the World do proceed from this That Men are govern'd and advised by one another Is it not said somewhere Wo to the Man that puts his Confidence in Man I have also told you That if the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch For my part I can say in Truth That I do not remember that I ever committed any Faults but when I believ'd the Counsel of Men. We ought to go to the Source Sir and let alone the Streams The Gospel is left us in Writing for our Eternal Rule If the Apostles and other Disciples of Jesus Christ had gone to ask Counsel of Men they would never have follow'd him For Men would have call'd it a Folly to abandon all as they do yet to this Day For being of the Earth they respect nothing but the Earth and are blind in the things of the Spirit We can never do ill to follow the Counsels of the Gospel but indeed we may in following the Counsels of Men how learn'd soever For their Doctrines are of this World and that of Jesus Christ is of God The Seventeenth Conference How to discern whether the Motions which do press us to leave the Outward Hindrances to Divine Communion be from God or not That there are likewise Inward Hindrances and that one ought not to be wedded even to good Means I Said to her That I had not Light enough to be sure of my own Motions and to discern whether they are from God or from the Devil or from my self She said That it was good to discern them that the Motions from God do incite always to humble things which the Devil and Nature do oppose because they are things despised by Men and therefore these Enemies do abhor them What comes from God incites to Sufferings and to Patience the things which come from the Devil and from Nature do incite to seek our Ease and Pleasures without desiring to suffer any thing The things of God do lead to Poverty and Self-denial the Devil and the Flesh do desire Riches and seek to be esteem'd and praised In fine Sir says she what comes from God is always conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ For God cannot be contrary to himself Therefore the Light which you have receiv'd that moves you not to seek any longer for any thing upon Earth is but too sufficient to assure you that this Motion comes from God because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever rid themselves of their Pretensions upon each For they cannot profit by any other thing Nature could not sin any more without aiming at earthly things and the Devils could have no hold of a Soul which did not aim any longer at any thing upon Earth We might walk surely on such a Resolution without waiting for Counsel from Men who with their Wisdom do often quench the Lights of the Holy Spirit It were far better to consult the Gospel I was constrained to yield to such Truths I said to her that I would abandon all and would follow her all the Days of my Life She said with Joy Sir How happy will you be to abandon all Your Soul will be at liberty to fly unto God Your Spirit will be calm and your Body better disposed You will experience thereby both Bodily and Spiritual Good But I intreat you do not resolve to follow me always for as for my self I am willing to die alone and as for your concern it will be a greater Perfection that you be disingaged from all Creatures to the end you may wait upon God alone All Company how perfect soever it be is not God He requires our Heart so pure that he does not suffer that it should be divided So long as I can be helpful to you I love indeed to discourse with you But I wish rather that you may speak with God who is the Fountain of all Light He can teach you more in one Moment than all the Men of the World would do in a thousand Years So soon as you shall have found his Conversation you will not be able to take Pleasure any longer in any other Speak to him always Sir until that he answer you He will do it assuredly According as you shall separate your self from the Creatures accordingly you draw the nearer unto God There needs but to remove the Hindrances and this Divine Sun will shine fully into our Souls warming them with his Love He has infinitely more Desire and Affection to receive us than we have to seek him even tho' we be great Sinners he rejects no body he rather embraces them as the Father did his Prodigal Son You are his Child and the Work of his Hands Go to your Father with great Confidence He loves you He seeks you and calls you Do not delay any longer Go forward seek no longer for any other thing but him alone With extream Joy did I hear this Discourse asking her by what means I might find this Communion with God
they have retain'd the Name after having lost the Spirit and their Souls being void of Faith God takes no longer Pleasure in them but they are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error Not that God on his part leaves the Church to err but these Men having forsaken their God have form'd a Church of Flesh which cannot be the true Church which is a pure Spirit as God who is not visible but by his Works so the Church is not visible but by the Bodies of those who possess this Spirit It appears sufficiently that what they now call the Church is not govern'd by Divine Principles but by Human and Natural I ask'd her Whether the Pope the Cardinals the Bishops Prelates Pastors Priests Monks and other Persons making Profession of the Catholick Faith were not the Church And if all these Members together do not make up a Church She said No Sir all these Persons tho' met and assembled in one and the same Place do not make the true Church so long as they do not possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ It is nothing but an Assembly of Flesh subject to Corruption Every one acts there according to his own Sense There they propose and resolve according to Human Arguments not according to the Spirit of God who is not to be found where things are manag'd only by Civil and Politick Measures which do not regard the Glory of God but human Accommodations The holy Spirit does not animate so vile Subjects Nevertheless he governs always the true Church in what Place soever it be He never abandons it But who can discover it It is so hid and unknown that no Body discerns it It is a Treasure hid under the Earth of which Jesus Christ has spoken by Parable saying That the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Treasure hid in the Earth and that he who has discover'd it must sell all that he has to buy this Ground that he may find this Treasure There is no Kingdom of Heaven but in the Church that is to say There is no Salvation out of the Church and not knowing where to find it who can look for Salvation It it no wonder Sir that I said unto you heretofore That Paradise was shut forasmuch as I cannot see where the Church is and consequently where Salvation may be had It is a Vine which is cut even by the Root and Ground We see indeed its Branches extended far enough But they are nothing but dead Wood being cut off from the Root no Fruit can be any longer expected from them The Members which at present they call the Church are cut off from the Root which is Jesus Christ which brought forth great Branches But since they have been cut off from their Root they are fit for nothing but to be cast into the Fire which you will see very shortly Sir in case God give you yet some little Time to live The Twenty First Conference Where the true Church is Where God is How he speaks to the Soul and the Soul to him and how we ought to dispose our selves for this Divine Conversation I Ask'd her If there was no fix'd Place where we might find the Church That for my part I would search for her because I would seek to be saved She said to me Sir The Church is everywhere where there are Souls possessing the Doctrine of Jesus Christ There are no other Places proper or destin'd for the true Church to reside in All those Persons who are call'd Churchmen are as so many Stones with which they have built a material Church which serves now for the Offering of Sacrifice and it may be shortly will serve for a Stable for Horses These Stones and other Materials are not the Church tho' they serve to the Structure of a Building which may be both for Holy and Prophane Uses Therefore Sir the Church is not to be sought for in any fixt Place which is material but in Spiritual Souls who also cannot be found because they are oblig'd to keep themselves hid as the Body of Jesus Christ did before his Passion For they would do them no less Evil than they did to him because the Envy of the Prelates is now far greater than was ever that of the Pharisees who put Jesus Christ to Death God gives you a holy Desire of seeking the Church for he has said Seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the rest shall be added to you This is a Sign that the Church is not tied to any material Place for then there were no need to seek it but to go to the Place where it is For Example If the Church were at Rome there were no need to seek it We would know assuredly where it wâ—re Since Jesus Christ says it must be sought this is indeed a Sign that it is hid and unknown And likewise all they who seek Rome do not for this receive all the rest in Gift since so many things are wanting to them even after they are Romanists Which would not befal a true Christian who would be content with what were purely necessary with which God would always infallibly provide him I said to her That I was not truly satisfied for the Good of my own Soul That I would willingly know where I might find the True Church that I might have Salvation She replyed Sir The Church is within you If you seek the Kingdom of Heaven only let Jesus Christ reign in your Soul by his Doctrine then the Kingdom of Heaven will be in your Soul God being there He reigns always where he is He would reign in all the Souls of Men if they did not put Hindrances thereto The Centre of our Souls is God who being Salvation and Life we ought not to seek without us the Church nor the Kingdom of Heaven For he is not an Earthly and Temporal God but Celestial and Eternal The Church being the Word of God it is in us since he cannot be without his Word as we are always in the Place where we speak He is not Earthly for Jesus Christ says That his Kingdom is not of this World It is therefore a heavenly Kingdom which is in us because God is there whose Kingdom is Celestial and Eternal Where then would you seek the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven but in the Centre of your Soul That is the certain Place of its Residence We may be deceiv'd in all other things but not in this infallible Truth If every one had sought the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven in the Centre of his Soul there would not have been so many Persons deceiv'd Since they have sought God without themselves in so many divers means they have gone astray from him by the same means by which they ought to find him and whilst they sought for the Church in so many Masters Doctors and Directors they have stray'd from that which is Holy to follow a
become Man-like to us and then our Souls only were like to him It is a more perfect and accomplish'd Conversation of Body and Soul than that of the Soul only But because God will give in the End an accomplishment to all things in an altogether perfect Sense he would have taken Human Flesh that he might converse with us perfectly even tho' Adam had never sinn'd and tho' there had not been any need of redeeming us by his Death God is not become Man to suffer or to die but to converse with us and reign in us visibly and sensibly upon Earth which will be made the Paradise of the Delights of God with Men. I ask'd her If it was not needful that God should become Man to redeem us since we were all lost by Sin She said No Sir God is not subject to any thing and has no necessity He had no need to become Man to redeem us He might with a Word have render'd us the first Grace seeing that with the same Word he had created the whole World He could have created a thousand Adams and a thousand earthly Paradises with the same Perfection in which he had created the first of nothing whom he might justly have let perish eternally instead of becoming Man to redeem them But he could not take his Delight with Men perfectly unless he made himself Man like to them If Man had been like to God and not God like to Man there would have been some Defect in these Delights at least on Man's part who would not have had perfect Delight without seeing his God like unto him as a Lover takes Pleasure to wear the Colours which his Mistress wears This testifies reciprocal Affection when one renders himself as like as may be to that which he loves This Fountain of all Love could do what he would It was needful therefore that he should become Man even tho' Man had not fallen into Sin to the end he might live with him in perfect Resemblance unto all Eternity in all sort of Delights which Happiness is suspended unto Man until that he have accomplish'd his Penitence to which he is subjected by his Sin Which being finished he will enter again into Communion with God as if he had never offended him He will speak with God Face to Face by his Humanity which will be rendred immortal as well as that of Jesus Christ that they may delight themselves perfectly together upon Earth which will then be rendred Paradise by the lovely Presence of God who for these Ends became Man not that he might suffer or die which he would needs do by accident for the Instruction of Men and their Relief I said unto her That this had never been understood after this manner and that many Fathers had call'd the fall of Adam happy which had caus'd the Incarnation of the Son of God without which Fall God would not have become Man She said Sir This is very ill understood The Fault of Adam ought rather to be call'd very unhappy which has caus'd the Sufferings and the Death of Jesus Christ who would assuredly have become Man not suffering but reigning not despis'd but honour'd by every one not poor and vile but in Riches and in Glory not in Reproach but ador'd by all Men living He would have become Man to reign not to suffer for if the design'd End of his Incarnation had been Suffering and Death the Fathers of the Antient Law would not have had Ground to have so much desir'd and aspir'd after that happy Day that they might see with their Eyes God made Man who should deliver them from their Captivity Could they Desire their Deliverance at so dear a Price as the Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ They would have had a pure Self-love in regarding only their own Deliverance and not the Glory of God which could not be met with in the Reproaches Affronts Pains and Death of Jesus Christ which are all things repugnant to his Glory who could not be honour'd by being hang'd between two Malefactors So many Holy Prophets who have foretold the Coming of Jesus in the Flesh did not speak of his Coming to suffer but of his Coming in Glory When David invites all Creatures to praise the Lord he does not speak but of the Time that he must reign upon Earth For he says Heavens Waters Earth and all Creatures bless the Lord. Nothing of all this has blest him in his first Coming in the City of Bethlehem For even Men themselves did then reject and pursue him to put him to Death As King Herod search'd for him a little after his Nativity If the Angels did sing then Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace to Men of Good Will This could not be but by a Prophetick Spirit in regarding his Glorious Coming which will glorifie God and will give universal Peace to all Men of Good Will who shall then be upon Earth seeing that at his Birth as since Men of Good Will have never been in Peace but pursued and persecuted yea even Jesus Christ himself And how should God have been glorified by this Birth seeing that he has been the more blasphemed by Men. I entreated her to tell me for what Reason Jesus Christ became a Suffering Man since he could have redeem'd us without Suffering or becoming Man before the Time of his glorious Coming She said The LOVE Sir which God bears unto Man made him take Human Flesh before his Coming in Glory he perceiv'd that Men would stray always more from him and altogether forget their Duty so that almost no Body would any longer acknowledge God Atheism was almost through all the World Even his own People which were the Jews had made his Law void by their Traditions Every one follow'd the Learned and were lost through Ignorance To remedy which God became Man that he might come and teach them and redress their Faults by Deeds more than by Words For these Ends therefore he takes a Human Body like to us to the End he might walk first in the Life which he would point out unto us and perceiving that Men were undone by the Wealth and Honours of the World he takes a poor Mother who was so despis'd and abandon'd that she was oblig'd to bring him forth in a Stable with all the Inconvenience that Poverty brings along with it And to make appear to Men that Prosperities the Friendships and Caresses of Men did serve for Hindrances of Conversation with God he leaves his Country to go into Aegypt out of all Acquaintance being oblig'd to this by the Pursuits and Persecutions of Herod He labours for gaining his Bread that Men might willingly labour for accomplishing their Penitence At length he begins to teach by Word and to shew to Men wherein they were wanting that they might attain to Salvation He explains to them wherein the Law of God consists and gives them the
Evangelical Counsels for observing it aright He is despis'd and rejected by the Great Men of this World He is also Reproach'd Buffeted held for a Wicked One To shew that the Praises of Men are not to be sought for but their Reproaches rather to be endur'd for the Love of God At last he is put to Death for the Truth enduring all with Patience To teach us to suffer patiently even to Death And all that he has endur'd has been to give us an Example I ask'd her In case Men had not come to so great Extremity of Evil whether she believ'd that Jesus Christ would have come so soon to take Human Flesh She Replied No Sir he would not have come till the end of the World to judge and condemn Men in abolishing Evil He would have come in the glory of all his Majesty with all his Angels not in Contempt and Sufferings He would have come to Reign not to undergo an infamous Death If you read attentively the Prophets Sir you will find that they speak far more of this coming in Glory than of that in Reproach For the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory is as it were THE SUM OF THE DESIGNS WHICH GOD HAS OVER MEN And the coming in Reproach is as it were the Accident of the said Designs Therefore there will be much more spoken of through all the Holy Scriptures Read Sir attentively all the said Scriptures from the creation of the World you will find that they all will aim at this Kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth with Men for this is the end of their Creation God can never reign fully in Men until the time of this coming in Glory because that they living yet in the liberty of doing evil do not yet give full possession to God to reign in their Souls for very often or at least by accident Sins do rule there Which we have seen in the greatest Saints of the World A David a Solomon all the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ yea all those who have since been esteemed Saints have all in general fallen into Trespasses and have strayed from God for some time By which he could not find in them his perfect reign as he will do after his glorious Coming For then all will be Deify'd Bodies as well as Souls And there will be an end of all Evil. God will then have his full dominion over all Flesh which has never been For the most part of Men in all times have Blasphemed and Despised him tho all were created by him to love him and to adore him They have yielded their honour and love to the Creatures instead of the Creator Is it not fit Sir that these things be one day repaired and that God be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth by his Creatures I said to her That assuredly God would after that manner be adored in Heaven but that I could not comprehend how he could be so here upon Earth She said I perceive Sir that you take for Heaven and Paradise some precise place or some particular part which ferves for a Residence to God And for my part I cannot believe that there is any thing capable of containing God for he is greater than all things and cannot be contain'd by any thing less than himself The Heaven is but his Creature which we say is on high and God has neither high nor low for he contains all Heaven and Paradise is always in him for there can be no other but his Presence and he who is in his Presence is in Heaven and Paradise For my part I know no other They tell us many imaginary things of God and of Paradise which have very little relation to what they are It seems God is like an earthly King who is lodged in some Palace of Wood or Stone These are all Speculations of Men as earthly as their Affections For God cannot have any fixt place for his Residence seeing he comprehends all things When I say that God will be upon Earth reigning with Men the Earth will then be Paradise for in all Places where he is there is always Paradise If God were in Hell Hell would then be Paradise there being no other but the presence of God That makes in all places where it is Heaven and Paradise When this presence is in our Soul our Soul is Heaven How can you not comprehend Sir that God could be truly adored in Spirit and in Truth upon Earth seeing he has so often promised to make an Alliance with Men Must not this Alliance be made upon Earth God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station but Man having a Body has need of some Place to contain him The Earth was created for this necessity that it might contain the Bodies of Men. Why then should not God come upon Earth to dwell with them seeing they cannot go where God is in that purity of Spirit Of necessity he must either come upon Earth or indeed they could not be entirely united together I asked her When Jesus Christ shall come to reign upon Earth and to Allie himself with Men She said As sooon as the Plagues shall have rooted out all the Wicked or the greatest part of them then He will appear in the Clouds and all the World shall see him You may indeed live till then Sir if God please For my part I hope to see him and to reign with him Eternally In this all my hopes and my joy do consist For this Life is too miserable to take any contentment in it without the hope of this time to come I say it will be very shortly for I see the Measure full and Mens sins are come to the height They cannot be more numerous And if there were not some small Veil of Human respect they would Murther Rob commit Adultery and do all sorts of Abomination publickly as well as they do them before God But Pride keeps these things yet concealed that they may not be despised by Men And as for what passeth only before God or a few Persons they make no more reckoning of it It seems all is lawful provided it be not discovered What greater Evil can be expected The abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary Tho Christians be the People of God they have denied his Faith and have abandoned it to become Idolaters of one another Every one has his proper Idol one worships his own Body another his own Spirit another his Learning another his Riches another his Honours another his Children or other Creatures In short none adore God but with their Lips Is it a wonder that the Judgment is near when we see that all Men have abandoned their God Is it not time that he likewise abandon them which he cannot do but according as Man withdraws himself from God by the same consequence God is withdrawn from Man for two things cannot stay together when the one withdraws it self
the one withdrawing makes a separation as if they both withdrew So that God is as much remov'd from Man as Man has remov'd himself from him And having thus abandoned God what can we expect but universal Plagues which our universal Evils have drawn down upon our guilty Heads Which Plagues having purg'd our Crimes and burnt the Tares the good Grain will then be gathered into the Granary of God which is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I ask'd her Whether this Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall remain upon Earth for ever She saith yes Sir It will be Eternal and never end If you believe in Life Eternal which is an Article of our Creed you believe in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth I have also told you that there is no other Paradise but the Presence of God And whereas Jesus Christ is God as my word is me his Body must have some Station as also all the other Bodies of the blessed God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station nor yet our Soul which is also a Spirit A Spirit is through all and comprehends what is at a distance as well as that which is near As our Thoughts have no need of a way to go to Jerusalem They go thither in the twinkling of an eye for they do not stay in any place Even so God has no need of Heaven nor of Earth to stay in being a pure Spirit nor yet our Souls which are in Paradise when they are united unto God But our Body has need of Heaven and Earth and of all the other things which God has created for it because it is material it must also stay upon material things suitable unto its nature Therefore God has created all this World with all that is in it that Man may have his full delights as well in his Body as in his Soul For God makes nothing imperfect but all his Works shall have their compleat Perfections And resolving to create Man a kind of Creature Spiritual and Bodily both together he gives himself to him for to satisfie his Soul which is a Spirit he will give him likewise all created things to satisfie his Body So that the Soul shall take its delights with God and the Body its delights with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God has created them for those ends and for no other thing that Man might have his full perfect contentment of Body and Mind in that Life Eternal wherein Jesus Christ will reign always in Body and Soul with the Bodies and Souls of the Blessed who shall be united in Spirit unto God and in Body unto the Body of Jesus Christ Behold the alliance which God promised unto Abraham which he did not see but very far of and we see it now very near Do you not think Sir that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ must be upon Earth seeing that he has taken a Human Body like unto ours A spiritual thing cannot support but that which is spiritual But a material must have a stay agreeable to its Nature which is also material Who can or would change that Excellent Order which God has establish'd in all his Works so just and so perfect which alone are worthy of Admiration as the Author is of Adoration Can you yet doubt Sir that Jesus Christ shall reign upon Earth seeing it is a just and necessary thing Would you believe that God should create all this beautiful World only for this miserable Life of Penitence and that at the end of it he should abolish this great Work of his Hands or that he should consume by Fire the whole Universe This would not be a just thing that he had made all these things only for our Miseries This would be as much as to say that God had had little Wisdom I was ravish'd out of my self to hear things so unheard of so admirable and so charming And that I might understand a little more I ask'd her if the Earth and the World would abide for ever She said Yes Sir the Earth and all the rest that God has created will abide for ever in the State in which he established them at their Creation For the whole works of God are all Everlasting Therefore he has created all things with Seeds for to spring and to engender Eternally All which Generations must be made for the delight of Man without Pain or Labour All things would have brought forth their Kind according to their Species in a good and delightful manner x The Sun would have given his light and heat in measure without any Excess the Air without Storms the Sea without Tempests The Fire could not have burn'd us nor the Water drowned us nor the Earth brought forth Thorns nor the Beasts bitten and poyson'd us but all sort of things would have served us for Delight and Recreation So many little Beasts which are upon the Earth and in the Air which seâ—ems useless to us were created to the end that even the least of our Senses might be Recreated Even the diversity of Flies and many other sorts of Animals Herbs Trees and Flowers all these were created not only for the necessities of Men but also for their Delights Which things had nothing but Goodness and Perfection without Sharpness Prickings or Bitings How much more ought Man to be Good and Perfect seeing all these other things which were subjected to him had so much Goodness and Perfection You might ask me from whence it comes that all these Creatures are become Evil seeing they were created so good and perfect I will answer you That the sin of Man has caused all these Disorders and with Justice For all the Creatures of God ought to rise up against Man and take vengeance of his Ingratitude according to their power because he had merited that all that was given him for Joy should serve him for Grief Seeing he who ought to have serv'd for a delight z unto his God turns away from him to offend him his Justice would require that all the Creatures should do the same toward him since he had done it toward his God who had infinitely benefitted him more than any other Creatures which might well offend Man and become his Enemy when he was become the Enemy of God who tho he could not render his Creatures Evil because he is the source of all Goodness from whence nothing that is evil can ever proceed yet he might well permit that his Justice should be exercised by those inferior Creatures when Man had so justly deserved it I asked her If all those Creatures Animate and Inanimate would have an eternal Being She said Yes Sir nothing will perish of all that God hasmade But the evil that is in all these Creatures shall be taken away because it does not come from him and all that comes from Men shall Perish For Example That the Sun burns us and dazles the eyes which look upon him This
comes from Man who has distempered that excellent Star by his Sin That the Air is stormy that the Water is troubled That the Earth brings forth Thorns and Thistles This is for no other reason but to take Vengeance of the Disobedience which Man hath committed against God The Dog bites The Wolf devours the Serpent Poysons and all those other Evils which the Beasts do to Man this is for no other reason but to render him the Punishment that he has merited by his Sin If the Fire burn him if the Air infect him if the Water suffocate him this is but for a just Punishment If the Earth doth not bring forth its Fruits without Labour this is but for a Penance of Man's Sin In short all the Creatures whatsoever even to a Flea are obliged to hurt Man because of the Disobedience that he has committed against their Creator and this by Right and Justice But as soon as his Penitence shall be accomplished and he shall obtain the absolute pardon of his Sin all shall be re-established in their first Estate and shall not fall away any more for the glorious presence of Jesus Christ will confirm them in Grace maintaining them in eternal Peace all the Creatures with men and they shall do then what they should have done from the beginning of the Creation Man's Rebellion against God ceasing This will then be a continual and eternal delight for all things God will do the will of Man who shall love him and Man will do the will of God upon whom he shall depend All the Creatures will do the will of Man who shall command them In short God Man and all the Creatures will have but one and the same will without any Rebellion Will not this then be a Paradise of all the universal World They have sometimes told us extravagant Stories of Paradise but this was but to make us understand that it should be filled with all sort of Contentments as they say to Children that there they shall eat Sugar with Spoons because Children have their delight in it But nothing of all that is told us of it can be true except what God has revealed of it at present because the time approaches and will not be long in coming I ask'd her If Men will be confirm'd in Grace without being able to sin or fall any more as they have done once in Adam She said Men Sir will not remain without Sin by constraint or necessity because God would have them in a Free State that the love he bears them might be perfect but they canuot fall nor sin any longer for they will be eternally united unto Jesus Christ beholding God in Spirit and that glorious Body in Flesh who will Govern them and take his continual Delight with them which will hinder them from thinking of sinning or falling It is true Adam did converse sometimes with God but in a manner that was not Humane and had also Intervals For if he had always continued in Conversation with God he could not have Fallen But in diverting himself from him to hearken to his Wife and the Serpent he falls into Disobedience through the wandring of his Spirit Now in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ there can be no Straying he will be always present with them he will replenish them with Graces and Joys so abundant that nothing can any more divert them No body will say any longer Know the Lord For all shall Know him and Love him The fault of Adam and the hard Penitence which it occasion'd will make them see abundantly what it is to forsake God Likewise they shall not be any longer subject to Concupicense for they shall all be satisfied in Body and Spirit by the glorious Spiritual and Bodily Presence of Jesus Christ who having removed all their Sins will replenish them with the Holy Spirit in Fulness so that they cannot have any more inclinations to any Evil so much the more that it shall be removed from the whole Earth and that all that is evil shall perish I said to her That all the Interpreters who speak of Judgment say That the last Fire must consume all the World She said Sir These Interpreters could see no farther than their Sight reach'd but hold for certain all that I tell you These are Divine Truths The World will not be utterly Destroyed but all Evil shall be Consumed One part of wicked Men will die by the Sword another part by the Pestilence and Famine and all those Beauties and Riches which have served as Fewel to sin will be all burnt and consum'd by Fire which will purge the whole Earth by its heat And as heretofore the World was once purged by the waters of an universal Deluge even so shall it be then by Fire The World did not perish by the Waters but indeed all wicked Men with all their Wickedness and the Subjects of it The same altogether will come to pass by Fire which will burn and purge all Iniquity without sparing any thing But nothing will perish of the Works of God The whole Globe of the Earth will remain The Heavens and the Elements will be shaken but will not perish no more than the Servants of God for whom he will reserve some little corner of the Earth to save them from Shipwrack as he saved Noah in the Ark. How greatly desirable is it to be of that Little Number I asked her If these things would fall out at the day of Judgment or rather at the coming of Jesus Christ in his Glory She said Sir We speak of Judgment as if it would be done in one day or as suddenly as an Enchantment This will not be done as we think The Judgment is already made I believe I have told you heretofore The irrevocable Sentence is given there needs no more but to put it in execution The Unrighteousness of Men has so opposed the Righteousness of God that it cannot be any longer without Chastisements or otherwise he would not be Just The Sword of Justice must needs cut off all that it meets in opposition to it And at this time all oppose this Righteousness Therefore all must be cut off This is the Sentence wich shall not be revoked because Men will not revoke their Unrighteousness This Sentence will be put in execution not in one day as People imagin but by little and little to give time and leisure to Men to be Converted if they will seriously think on it Wars are the beginnings of Sorrows After that will follow the Pestilence and Famine Earthquakes in several places Yea even Fire it self as the forerunner and giver of Advertisement All this will prove worse until the consummation of all Evil As the waters of the Deluge always continued yea encreased untill they had carried away all the People who then lived upon the Earth so shall it be of the last Plagues which are already
may hinder this our Conversation with God even tho it were our own Eye which we ought to pluck out if it hinder us The Twenty eighth Conference How we ought to Pray and to understand the Lord's Prayer in its perfect Sense which regards the Dispositions and Graces that shall be bestowed on us in the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ of which there are here Marvellous things spoken I Asked her How I ought to Pray to the end I might attain to this continual Communion She said to me Sir This Conversation is true Prayer which consists in the elevation of ones Spirit unto God And as long as we converse with God we are still in Prayer whether we adore him for his Almighty Power or bless him for his Favours or beg of him his Light and that which is necessary for us This is to Pray always as long as our Spirit is elevated unto God I know no other method of Praying If you ask of me words for Praying I will tell you what Jesus Christ told his Disciples when they intreated him that he would teach them to Pray as St. John did his Disciples Say Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name and the rest of the Lord's Prayer in which is comprehended all that we can ever ask of God for his Honour and our Salvation In these words are comprehended all the Adorations which we owe to God all the Thanksgivings which we can render him and all that we may or ought to ask of him for our selves and for all others This is the Prayer which Jesus Christ himself did compose and the only one which he taught his Disciples of which we ought to make more reckoning than of all the Prayers in the World Many Persons give themselves to divers Vocal Prayers composed by some Saints or to a number of Beads saying a great many Paters and Aves without reflection so that if we should enquire of these Petitioners what they ask'd of God by so long Prayers it may be it would be hard for them to tell because all passes in many words without much attention Others who seem more Pious and advanced in Virtue give themselves to some mental Prayers and pass many hours in silence on a design to pray to God But at the upshot of all there does not proceed any fruits from all these Prayers for we see them as imperfect at the end of twenty Years of their Prayers as the first day that they began them Yea very often they break their Head and crack their Brains by the force of multiplied Conceptions one Petition only of the Lord's Prayer well understood is of more worth than all these I said to her That I did not well understand the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer entreating her that she would explain them to me She said to me Sir you ask a thing which a long time ago I judged necessary for all People For I think no body does yet well understand that Prayer But we will need a little time to rest to declare it to you in particular Let us sit down here and I will tell it you First when we say Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name We acknowledge That God is our Father that it is he who has Created and Formed us Who art in the Heavens That is higher than all things We use the word Heaven because we know nothing by our Humane Understanding which is higher than the Heavens and when we would say that God is above all things we say he is in the Heavens to make our Sentiments in a certain manner to be understood And when we say His Name be Hallowed this is to wish that all Creatures may adore and bless him which has never yet come to pass on Earth where Men themselves do Blaspheme his Holy Name on all occasions by Word and Deed. God could not have formed this Petition for us if he were not one day to grant it to us For he could not make us ask a thing which he would not give And whereas all his Works will be perfect it cannot suffice that some particular Souls do hallow his Name It must be in a perfect sense that all Men in general with all other Creatures do hallow him which will not be untill Jesus Christ Reign in his Glory upon Earth Then all things will hallow the Name of God but never before And when we say Thy Kingdom come This is no other thing but to Pray that we may arrive at that blessed Kingdom wherein Jesus Christ shall reign over all the Souls and Bodies of the Blessed and over all Creatures For we have never had this Happiness that God should Reign entirely even in our own Souls Having always given hindrances thereunto by our corrupt Nature yea even in the Souls of the Apostles and other Saints God has never compleatly reigned having always there met with some hindrances or rebellions of their own Will against his He can never reign perfectly in us until he have rooted out all our Evils and Miseries that we may Reign with him Which we have never as yet done tho' we have desired to be wholly unto God we have never reigned over all our Passions and Affections so as that we might reign fully with God But we hope that after the Judgment this Kingdom of God will come unto us This is the hope of our Prayers Thy Kingdom come And when we say Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven We beg also the same Kingdom For in our present state we cannot obtain that the Will of God be fulfilled in us and in others as it is fulfilled in God who is always without any contradiction No body can perceive his own Will to be so united unto the Will of God as that of the Blessed who are dead in the Lord On the contrary many do directly resist his Will and the most Perfect follow it at some distance and not as the Angels and the Blessed do in Heaven For where God is all his Will is accomplished and where he is not all is there contradicted Therefore in this Life we never do the compleat Will of God as we shall do it in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ where Earth and Heaven will be the same thing Then his Will shall be fulfilled in Earth as it is in Heaven which we must always pray for untill we have obtain'd it as also That He give us daily Bread That is what we stand in need of daily for the Soul and for the Body Now likewise we cannot obtain these two things during this Life For he who would have bodily aliment ought always to labour and take pains and be sollicitous both in Body and Mind to obtain his aliment and when we receive it it is but in form of a reward because of our Cares and Labours For otherwise we must dye for want if we did not labour both in Body and
spiritual or imaginary as they would sometimes make us believe why would Jesus Christ have made us to ask so many different things If Paradise were not accompanied with the Earth and with all the Creatures which we see and with our Body with all its Functions why must we pray to have our daily Bread when there will be no need of Eating Why should we pray that the Name of God may be Hallowed seeing all the Blessed have always Hallowed it and will never cease to do it tho' we should not pray for it Must there not be in this a Sense which we have not as yet discovered and that this Hallowing of the Name of God ought to be underderstood that all the Men who are upon Earth may Hallow his Name for it cannot be done fully by Angels by the Blessed and by some particular Souls living upon Earth But this Name must be Hallowed generally by all Men in Body and in Soul Which will be when this Kingdom shall come wherein the Will of God shall be done upon Earth as the Angels and the Blessed do it in Heaven and wherein shall be given us also our daily Bread that is every day in particular Graces in abundance for our Souls and all sort of delights to satisfie our Bodies wherein we shall pardon our Brethren their Sins as we shall see that God has pardoned us in giving us besides Pardon Eternal Happiness wherein there shall be no Temptations of the Enemy nor of our Nature for it will not any longer feel any vicious Inclinations where in short there can never enter any Evil but all sort of Happiness of Joy and of Contentments Perfect and Compleat Incomprehensibly Delightful This is what S. Paul saw when he said That they had never entred into the Mind of Man the things which God had prepared for his Elect. All the Holy Scriptures are full of this Kingdom which is to come to us This is the Feast signified by the Parable of the King Who made a Marriage for his Son This Son is Jesus Christ who is Allied with the Human Creature His Nativity in Flesh was but the betrothing wherein he has indeed promised unto Man an Alliance as he had done before to Abraham which will be accomplish'd and consummated only at the coming of Jesus upon Earth in Glory when he shall be perfectly United to Man Body and Soul with the Divinity all together This is that also which is signified unto us by the Parable Of the Master who went into a far Country giving Talents to his Servants to every one according to his Ability and at his return he demanded of each of them an account to give them their Wages Jesus Christ having given his Graces and Talents by his Gospel has ascended unto his Father which is the Long Journey But he will return in his Glory to demand an account of every one of all the Graces received in this time and to place his faithful Servants over great things and make them enter into the Joy of their Lord. This is also the Parable Of the Master who made a Feast and sent his Servants to call those that were bidden who all excused themselves One had bought Oxen another a Field another had taken a Wife The Birth of Jesus Christ was the time when he came to invite Men to the Feast which God would make that he might take his delight with Men and as soon as the day shall come that all shall be ready upon Earth for receiving the Son of Man in his Glory those who were invited by his Evangelical Doctrin will excuse themselves One will say I have been a Merchant I must wait upon my Merchandise I cannot attend it Another will say I have been a Labourer I must take care of my Labours I cannot attend it Another will say I have been Married I must satisfie my Wife and Family I cannot attend it And when Jesus Christ will swear that none of those who were called shall taste of his Banquet That is that all they who have received the Gospel and have not obeyed it shall never enter into his Kingdom For no State or Condition ought to hinder the observing of the Doctrin of the Gospel For Jesus Christ has not brought it from Heaven for the Monks or Religious only seeing there were none such then but he has brought it for all Christians in general whom he has particularly invited to make this Alliance with them And they who would not observe this Holy Doctrin shall never taste the Delights of that Marriage Feast All the other Parables speak of nothing but this Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth when he compares this Kingdom of Heaven to A Grain of Mustard he signifies that it will be only the Little and the Humble who shall inherit this Kingdom and when they shall be mortified upon Earth they will grow so strongly that the Angels of Heaven shall come to rest in their Branches And when this Kingdom of Heaven is compared To a Treasure hid in the ground that he who has found it ought to sell All that he has to buy this ground that he may have this Treasure That is that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ is hid from the Judgment of the Wise being as it were sunk in the ground till the time appointed and then it shall be found by the Simple who labour in this Life to find the Kingdom of Heaven and when they shall discover it they will sell all that they have that they may follow this Evangelical Life In short Sir time would fail me to relate to you in particular all the Parables with all the Passages of Holy Scripture which treat of this Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth because it treats of nothing so much as this as well in the Old as in the New Testament The Song of Zaohary is that he saw by a Prophetical Spirit the Re-establishment of the People of God in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ The Song of the Virgin Mary speaks of no other thing For what ground would she have had to rejoyce in the Lord since all his Life was a train of Sadness and Sorrow What ground would she have had to Sing his Magnificence since she saw him so Poor and Despised in the Stable of Bethlehem and pursued to Death in his Tender Infancy as he was all the rest of his Life What ground of rejoycing to see him Imprisoned and Accused as a Malefactor The Sword of Sorrow had always pierc'd her Heart to see her Son God and Man Beaten Torn and at last Hang'd upon a Cross in her presence It must needs be that her Joy proceeded from a Prophetick Spirit in seeing that one day he would be upon Earth in Glory wherein all Generations would call her Blessed which has never been done For none Praise her but a small number of Christians amidst so many Nations And that sometimes in such a
Heaven and the rest shall be given you this also will not come to pass in this Life For the Servants themselves who seek the Kingdom of Jesus have suffered many Necessities and Lazarus at the the Rich Man's Feet could not obtain a crum of Bread tho' he did not cease to ask it If the Promise which Jesus Christ has made of giving the rest to those who shall seek his Kingdom were to be understood of this present Life none if the Friends of God would stand in need of any thing tho' they should not ask of any it would be needful that God accomplish what he has promised them And if the Kingdom of Heaven were only spiritual as People do imagine there would be no need of any rest or other things after having obtain'd this Kingdom which would suffice fully Do you not see Sir that this promise of Jesus Christ is to be understood of his Kingdom upon Earth where he will give besides his Glory all material things for the delights of our Body Which he calls The Rest and makes us understand that we shall not need to seek and labour to have them but that he will give them freely as an excess of Blessedness And when Jesus Christ says He who shall leave Father Mother Brethren Sisters Lands or any other thing for his Name shall have a hundred fold in this World neither can this be understood of this present Life for the Apostles and so many other Saints who abandon'd all to follow him had not an hundred fold in Earth Mother Brethren Sisters Houses or Lands but on the contrary had need of many things after having abandon'd them Jesus Christ himself after having abandoned the delights of Heaven says That he had not in this Life a stone where to rest his Head How then should his Promises be true that he would render a hundred fold in this Life Jesus Christ can he lie and make all who have abandon'd all for his sake to be afterward in want of things necessary which would be very far from having the hundred fold of them We see the Wicked have ordinarily more Prosperity in Earthly Goods than the Just Jesus Christ would be a deceiver to falsifie his Promise which he has made unto all those who shall forsake all for his sake This cannot be thought But he promised to those who shall have left Father Mother or any other thing for his sake that they shall possess Life Eternal which shall be in that World when Jesus Christ shall come to dwell with his Creatures where he shall render the hundred-fold of all the things which they shall have forsaken for his sake for one Father they shall find an hundred because all those Blessed Ones shall have the Hearts of a Father and Mother toward their Neighbour All shall be Brethren and Sisters under the government of one and the same Father And the Earth being purg'd from all the Wicked shall suffice to give unto the Just an hundred times as much as they shall have abandoned in this miserable Life Lo thus the Promises of Jesus Christ shall be accomplish'd in a perfect sense in his Kingdom which can in no wise be accomplish'd in a perfect sense elsewhere no more in the Empireal Heaven as is imagined than in this time of Penitence There would need years of time to relate unto you Sir all the passages of Holy Scripture which verifie these Truths for when Gabriel says of Jesus Christ that he shall be great and be called the Son of the most High he cannot speak of his coming in the Stable of Bethlehem for he was but a little Infant abandoned and neglected of Men where his Grandeur did consist of Poverty and Miseries And when he began to be known and to speak in publick they call him the Son of the Carpenter and of Mary amongst the common People Which is very far from being call'd the Son of the most High and how should he lift up his Horn seeing he was wrapt up in Swadling-cloths and bound with Swathing-bands And it seems he had not strength to resist King Herod and the Pharisees who pursued him to death before whom he fled instead of resisting Do you not see Sir that nothing has in this World its perfect Sense Nevertheless all that is spoken by the Holy Spirit must be intirely fulfilled And if we hope that this accomplishment ought to come to pass in this time of Penitence we deceive our selves for the more it shall continue the more will Men mistake the greatness of God and the less will they call him the Son of the Most High and the less will he make his strength appear that he may give place to Man to use his Free-will But as soon as the time of the Reign of Jesus Christ shall come he will exalt his Horn to exercise his Power and condemn the Wicked and he shall be known of all Men for the Son of the Most High For he will come in Majesty and Power to rule over all things Whereas in the Empireal Aether there will be no need of exalting his Horn and shewing his Power seeing all submit to him by Love It is therefore of the day when he shall come to reign upon the Earth that Zacharias speaks by his Prophetical Spirit when he saw the Glory of Jesus Christ upon Earth And when he himself says If I be lifted up I will draw all unto me he does not speak but of this Kingdom to come For he has not drawn all unto him by his death upon the Cross because the most part of Men has since voluntarily yielded themselves unto the Devil The Twenty ninth Conference Of the Marks to know that we are fallen into the last Times and that the World is Judged to wit That Men are without Righteousness Truth and Goodness before God and that the execution of the Plagues makes it already effectually to appear I said to her That I understood sufficiently what she meant by this Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth that I would apply my self to discover it more intreating her to tell me the Marks whereby to know that we were in the last times and that the Judgments were at present begun She said Sir observe well the deportment of Men and you will see clearly that it must needs be that they are Condemned for therein you do not perceive any Penitence nor desire of amendment On the contrary they grow every day worse and cannot so much as suffer that the truth of their faults should be shewn them and reckon themselves more secure in evil-doing than the Good have ever been in well-doing For the Saints themselves have feared God and dreaded Death Whereas Men at present have lost the fear of God and fear only Men and instead of dreading the passage of Death they dread only the day in which they must lose their Life which they love more than God Every one lyes
always to aspire to that which will be eternal But on the contrary we would be content to lose it the Eternal provided we might live here always All Men almost are in this Error by which they draw down the Plague of Pestilence to put an End to Desires so impious which have made them abandon their God This Life must needs be taken away from us since it serves as a mean to withdraw us from God The Plague of Pestilence is justly sent upon us to give Death to those who love their Lives more than God As is also that of Famine because so many Men have abandon'd their God for the Pleasures of the Mouth How many are there who love Meat and Drink more than Spiritual Delights Provided the Mouth and the Belly be satisfied they care very little for God Is it not fit that they endure Hunger who think of nothing but of filling themselves This evil is so general that in the best Assemblies of Christians now-a-days they speak for the most part of Eating and Drinking to keep themselves chearful Is it not fit that this should be chastised with Justice by an universal Hunger since this Sensual Appetite has caused an universal Sin by almost all the Men of the World From whence I draw the certainty that all are judg'd and that the Sentence is irrevocable Because no Body repents of these three Sins which form the last Plagues and God cannot defer longer to send them I ask'd her how we could believe that the last Plagues were begun She said Sir Do you not perceive that we are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error That Lying prevails and that Truth is opprest That Men promise themselves Peace and Security in the midst of such evident Perils That there is no longer Righteousness nor Sincerity or Fidelity among Men That Evils are conceiv'd without Fear and brought forth without Reprehension That the Just is punish'd as guilty and the Guilty supported and defended That there is no longer neither Faith nor Law among Christians and that they live in a Neglect of God and of their Salvation Are not these the greatest Plagues that could ever befal the World They are more to be dreaded than Fire Pestilence War and bodily Famine which can but kill Bodies Whereas these Spiritual Plagues kill the Soul which is an Eternal Spirit Behold Sir with the Eyes of Truth and you will see that all Souls perish without perceiving it Which is the greatest Punishment that God can ever permit to befal Men. Many say blindly We are at the End of the World for Wickedness abounds in all places There is no Trust to be given to any They deceive one another without Faith or Honesty In saying this they speak the Truth without knowing it far less apprehending it Many Signs have appear'd in Heaven in the Sun in the Stars fearful Comets menacing great Evils which 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 but natural things engendred in the Air he made the Fear of those threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of their Minds The Sea has yielded blood And as soon as this has ceas'd the Memory of it has been effac'd Fire has burnt many Cities and they have presently found out some Invention to cover all these Warnings which God gives us saying That these are Casual and Natural Things As also the swallowing up of several Towns and Cities caus'd by Earthquakes They attribute all these Things to future and to natural Causes saying That these Countries situate toward the Sea are subject to Earthquakes In short Sir they make all the Threatnings and Warnings of God to evanish out of Men's Minds that no Body may enter into himself to be converted unto him through Fear and Trembling Some Stroaks of Thunder us'd sometimes to shake intire Cities where the People ran to Confession to prepare themselves for Death But now when they see so many several Effects of the Justice of God by Men's being abandon'd to all sorts of Sins and also by all those outward Sings in Heaven and Earth which have appear'd in our Time and to our Eyes no body is converted unto God for this Far less do they Imbrace the Spirit of Penitence It seems they mock at God's Warnings saying These are Natural Things But I would willingly demand of 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 all the Elements must not he make Use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural Things to make our Body suffer which are likewise Natural If the Bodies of the damn'd shall indeed be punish'd with Natural Things why should not in like manner our Bodies which are yet living upon Earth Since they are not sensible but of Natural Things they must needs have Subjects conformable to their Nature The Deluge was made by a Natural Rain And the last Plagues will be made by 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 If the Fire shall kindle by some accident or the Earth quake by the Tossings of the Sea and overturn Cities would this be accidental unto God who says that to him the Hairs of our Heads are numbred Would he thus let such grievous Accidents fall out Without his Permission this cannot be true But the Devil to divert us from believing that these things are the beginnings of the last Plagues makes it be said by his Adherents that these are Natural Things that no Body may turn to Repentance The Thirtieth Conference How God permits Man to be abandon'd to the Spirit of Error I Ask'd her How God permits that we should be thus abandon'd to the Spirit of Error She said Sir God permits it by his Justice because we have left his Spirit of Truth to hearken unto and follow Lyes He compels no Body leaving every one in the Liberty wherein he created them If Man therewith will needs abandon his God and adhere unto the Devil he lets him for he will not take away again the Free-Will which he has once given him which God will never take back again for he is unchangeable in all his Doings And having once found it good that Man should be a kind of Creature altogether free he cannot afteward find it evil but will leave him this absolute Liberty unto all Eternity If he will use it to love God he will follow the End for which it has been given him and if he will use it to do evil and to withdraw himself from God he is free God will not
by God So that the Motions of the Soul and those of God become the same thing and they can no longer be distinguished because the Soul cannot now do any thing but what is just good and true unless it should depart from its Union with God and during this Straying should follow its own Will In this case it may do amiss and not otherwise But for you Sir you are not yet habituated to this Union examine still whether what you think speak or do be just good and true With this you cannot be mistaken even tho' yourown Inclination shou'd incite you to do things which have those three Qualities of God They are always of him tho' the Devil himself shou'd move them because there is nothing just good and true which is not of God because he only is just only good and only true And by these Marks you will certainly discern your own Motions from those of God and even tho' they were but mingled with them there wou'd still be something evil or unjust or untrue and then you must purge your Works from this Malignity or else omit them altogether I told her That I had yet one Doubt that is whether I ought to do or omit the Works in which I perceived not precisely these three Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth whether the Works were indifferent or necessary or out of Complaisance She said Sir you ought to do all necessary Works when they cannot be easily done by others And for those which are indifferent to do them is but to lose time They must either be unprofitable or have some end If this end does not respect the Glory of God take good heed of mis-spending time which is so precious Never be persuaded of this Indifference because under that Name we often do evil things without being aware of it We can never do indifferent things except very subtilly before we reflect upon what we are doing For otherwise all our Actions how small soever they be have some Scope at which they aim And as for Works of Complaisance they are forbidden by Jesus Christ when he says that he who seeks to please Men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ unless your Complaisance aim at some good or necessary End Otherwise every Deed of Complaisance is vain and evil Resolve Sir to do those things only which have the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God For all others are to be suspected and bring no Glory to God nor saving Good to our Neighbour and seeing you wou'd follow Jesus Christ seek those things which are above and not those which are upon the Earth which must very quickly perish It is better to lay up Treasures for Heaven where the Rust does not corrupt For tho' you shou'd gain herethe Friendship of all the Men of the World by your Works of Complaisance they cannot give you any thing One Degree of the Glory of God is of more worth than ten thousand Worlds Endeavour Sir to labour for this or be still Make no more fruitless Labour For all that is not of God is nothing and God alone is all permanent Good I said to her That I had not made this serious Reflection to remark if all my Actions were accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth but that I did them often without thinking on any thing if I did not remark in them any of my own Wickedness She said Sir you do therefore commit many Faults both in respect of this present World and that to come For by proceeding inconsiderately it is certain you act only according to the Motions of Nature which being corrupted can do nothing that 's good After this manner your good Actions are but humane and will end with you this is a very prejudicial Ignorance not to know that all the Works which we do naturally shall not be rewarded before God and that all their Reward is received in this World Many Persons have done many such good Works who notwithstanding shall never be sav'd And even tho' they shou'd suffer Martyrdom by natural Motions this wou'd profit them nothing because to partake of Eternal Life all must have the Righteousness of God For finite things cannot come to be infinite Now all our Works which do not partake of God are finite and cannot reach Eternity because they have not these Eternal Ends but Natural or Temporal ones In this many do greatly deceivethemselves looking for Salvation by Works simply Humane or Natural believing that all Works are good when they are not accompanied with our designed Malice It 's thus before Men who judge only according to the Reach of their short Sight But the clear-seeing Eyes of God do judge according to Eternal Truth and Righteousness Therefore we must endeavour to do our Actions according to these else we shall remain empty-handed at Death It 's not enough that we cease to do evil we must also do well or otherwise we shall fall into the Sin against the Holy Ghost which is a Presumption of being saved without good Works and none can be called good if they bear not the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God His Righteousness does every just thing both as to our selves and our Neighbour His Goodness does good to all and evil to none His Truth is always streight and single and when our Actions are not accompanied with these three Conditions they don't proceed from God but from our Nature or the Suggestions of the Devil who willingly covers his most subtil Temptations with seeming Good that he may make every one believe they shall be saved without good Works by making them esteem their Natural and Temporary Works to be good I said to her I should have great Difficulty to apply my self so as to remark always whether my Actions had these three Qualities and if they were only divine Motions She said Sir if you do not this you 'll lose all your Reward and will also occasion the Damnation of many others while you think you are doing good Works For Example you see some one in Want Your Nature is mov'd with Compassion towards him Without more Reflection you give him of your Goods either what is superfluous or even what you need your self and you believe you do a Work of Charity Nevertheless it may be ill done For if you don't consider from whence the Poverty of that Man proceeds you 'll often occasion his Condemnation For your Gifts may serve him for means to offend God as if he be enclined to drink your Alms will lead him to new Acts of Drunkenness or if he have a proud and haughty Heart by your Gift he 'll be the more puffed up employing it upon sumptuous Apparel or other Vanities to nourish his Pride and his Boasting or to commit other Excesses to which he 's addicted of Luxury Arrogance or Contempt of his Equals In short this Good that you think you have done him will often occasion divers sort of Evils
they say it daily Or they imagine that this Coming shall be so suddenly as if the Judgment were to be by Way of Enchantment and that it were to paâ—s in an Instant or in one Day These are foolish Speculations For the Judgment is already begun and I know not how many Years it shall last only at the End Jesus Christ shall appear upon the Earth in Glory and Majesty and so shall converse with Men who shall be all made happy with his glorious Presence which shall fill them with Glory and shall wipe away all their Tears and Griefs to bring them into Joy that shall never end They who will not believe this are Enemies of their own Good because there is nothing in the World that can give them more Constancy to suffer than the Hopes they have that in the End they shall see the glorious Coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth All sorts of Consolations are comprehended in this I said to her That the Jews look for the Coming of their Messias in Glory that he would come to reign and abide with them but that the Christians look'd for him only to come and judge the World and to go away again carrying along with him all the Blessed She said Sir the Jews shall not be disappointed of their Expectation They shall see their Messiah in Glory who will govern them upon Earth conversing eating and drinking with them For he himself says that he will make his Friends sit down at his Table and that he will rise up and serve them now in this Paradise which the Christians imagine there shall be no need of sitting at a Table nor eating nor being served And also when Jesus Christ said to his Disciples that he would drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till he drank it new in the Kingdom of his Father he means certainly of the Earth which shall be the Kingdom that God will give to the Body of Jesus Christ Because in the Divine Kingdom there can be no Planting of Vines nor making of Presses to drink Wine there Truly Sir the Christians are superstitious in many things and they judge rashly of all that they do not comprehend They may clearly see by the holy Scriptures that Jesus Christ shall have a glorious Reign and that he will be the Restorer of all things and also the Saviour of Men Because all the Prophets with the Apostles and other Saints have sufficiently spoken of these things which shall certainly come to pass For the Scripture cannot err or fail But because they have not received the compleat Knowledge of them to explain all the Christians Fancy in their Speculations that this shall come to pass in a divine and incomprehensible Paradise without reflecting that the divine Kingdom cou'd not be promised to Jesus Christ because as God he always possess'd it and has no need of being promised what he possesses For Possession is always greater than Promise for that is wholly accomplished by Possession Therefore the Promise of Jesus Christ must be on Earth where he shall reign over all Men shall save them and re-establish all things because in the divine Heaven there is nothing to be re-established For nothing was ever spoiled there Nor any to be saved because all that are there have Salvation and whither can they imagine that God shou'd carry the Blessed with him since he comprehends all things and cannot be contain'd by any thing They speak of God as if he had a Closet somewhere for his Retirement I said to her That the Jews had look'd a long time for the Messias but that the Christians did not expect him till the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead She said Sir the Jews have done well always to wait for their Messiah For a Thing is then more loved when it is long desired It is a constant Faith that makes them persevere in this Expectation which shall be recompensed with a great Joy when they shall receive the Fruit of their Hope For it is not vain but very well founded on all the Holy Scriptures which is the most solid Foundation in the whole World since it is the Word of an all-wise all-good and all-mighty God But when the Christians look for their Saviour only on a certain Day they are not so diligent to prepare for his Coming which they imagine to be yet far from them They confound divers things together which have no Relation to one another and they make but one Day of the Plagues the Judgment the Resurrection of the Dead and the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory as if all these things were to be done together But they are greatly deceived we have not a God of Confusion who surprises Persons at unawares confounding them by precipitating things On the contrary all his Ways are so well regulated and ordered that there is not a Devil in Hell that cou'd say in truth that God gave him the least Surprize or that he could find in all his Works the least Injustice or Want of Goodness and Truth This being so how cou'd it be that God shou'd send all his Plagues in one Day that no body might have Leisure to be converted being surprised so suddenly with so many different Evils as to be chastised judged raised again saved or damned all in one Day If God has been just good and true from all Eternity wou'd he become impious at the last Day This cannot be But Men mistake him and every one judges of him according to their Fancy For if they wou'd judge uprightly they wou'd not dare to say that God cou'd surprise Men to judge and chastize them so suddenly I wou'd gladly ask Christians where they find it Written how long the Judgment shall last I said to her That no body had distinguished these Times and that all Christians believed that the Judgment the Chastisement the Resurrection of the Dead and the Coming of Jesus in Glory were but one and the same thing and that they should come to pass all together She said Sir They are very much deceived For these are all divers things which must come to pass at different Times For first of all the Judgment is when God saw the universal Iniquity of all the Men of the World and that not so much as one knew and lov'd him he by streight Justice judged and condemned the World And that he might not surprise any he delays the Execution of his Sentence that Men might discover by Experience that the World is judged seeing the Evils to encrease and Peoples Amendment desperate This is the greatest Evidence to verifie that the Sentence is irrevocable God does this that Men remarking these Truths may quake for Fear and be converted unto him that they may obtain his Mercy at least every one for their own particular I believe Sir that these thirty Years the World is judged and condemned and that now the
Time is come to put this Sentence in Execution It will begin with the Plague of War and then that of Pestilence and after of Famine that there may be time given to all Men of good Will to repent and to take these Plagues in Penitence for their Sins and by these Sufferings to find a Way to return to God with all their Heart and to rise from Death to Life that is to say from Sin to Grace as the Jews shall do by being converted first of all that the Lord may find them watching at his Coming and may say to them Well done good and faithful Servant because thou hast been faithful in a few things I will set thee over great things Enter into the Joy of thy Lord Which Joy shall be recovered at the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory who will overthrow all Evil by the Brightness of his Coming which shall be seen and understood by all the Men who shall then be remaining on the Earth Thus it is that God orders these last things with Weight and Measure that he may still exercise his Righteousness Goodness and Truth even to the End of the World waiting still for Sinners to Repentance being desirous that they shou'd be converted and live Whatever Men say God will never depart from his eternal Qualities and will not confound his last Works no more than he did his first For he continues still firm and constant in all his works If Men will not know this 't is their own Fault and the Effect of the straying of their Minds Nevertheless it is time to open their Eyes For the Plagues are begun I said to her That the Jews were wilfully obstinate not to believe that Jesus Christ was God which the Christians did believe assuredly and consequently they were nearer to be converted than the Jews She said Sir the Jews are less obstinate than the Christians because there is more Ground for their Unbelief than for that of the Christians who reject the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory tho' it be verified by all the Holy Prophets the Apostles and Jesus Christ himself who in so many divers Places declare his glorious Coming and very few speak of his Coming in Reproach This makes the Jews doubtful knowing that God never surprises any but often foretells the things that must come to pass and they finding so frequently in the Holy Scripture the Prophesie of his Coming in Glory and so seldom his Coming in Reproach they have some fundamental Reasons for which they cannot believe his Coming in Reproach But so soon as the Truth shall come to enlighten them they will yield to it because they love it Whereas the Christians do formally resist it and wilfully impugn it and will not believe what they read so often nor hearken to the Light that is offered them thereupon being desirous to continue obstinately in the Persuasions in which they have been trained and blindly to believe the Sentiments of Mens preferring them to the Truth of God So that the Jews will sooner believe that Jesus Christ is God than the Christians will believe that the same Jesus Christ shall come to reign in Glory upon Earth tho this Coming be much more to be desired and valued than that Coming in Sufferings and Reproaches For he who highly esteems God will be troubled to believe or see he shou'd be abased or despised and become the Reproach of Men he who deserves all Honours in Heaven and Earth Hereby the Jew's have more humane Ground not to believe the Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings than the Christians have not to believe his Coming in Glory which is more honourable pleasant and desirable tho' the Jews as well as the Christians do very ill not to believe both the Comings of Jesus Christ which are equally true both the one and the other I said to her That she seem'd to hold the Jews Part more than the Christians She said Pardon me Sir I am not partial and if I were I wou'd rather take the Christians Part among whom I am born than that of the Jews whom I never saw I hold only the Part of Truth without leaning to any Side because I have no Pretensions upon Earth Neither Jews nor Christians will give me any thing But God will judge me in Truth and Righteousness Therefore I will always observe it without Respect to any body If I knew not that the Jews are more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians I wou'd not speak to their Advantage But I cannot conceal the Truth when it is asked me If you address these Jews you will find my Saying true For I know nothing of my self All comes from a Source from whence no Lye can be drawn I am not enclined for the Jews nor for any other Sect in the World For I know none of them that are well pleasing to God But I love those best that are most disposed to receive the Truth and to be converted unto God and I remark this People of the Jews to be more disposed for this than any other Which in Trust I declare to you Not that I may be lov'd or despised but that I may simply declare the Truth as I know it Make a Trial of it Sir and of all the other Things which I have told you you will find them in their Time all true For I am not for telling things that are extravagant or without Necessity You will have Need after this to know all that I have declared unto you They will be very profitable for you and for those whom you shall judge capable of receiving them Doubt nothing of them Conceive and digest them all You shall receive from them great Light in your Understanding and Strength and Nourishment to your Soul and you shall still enter farther into the Knowledge of God and of your self which shall be an Everlasting Happiness for you Beware of being tempted to believe the Contrary Because the Devil will surprize you with false Appearances under a Pretext of scrupulous Piety and Justice The Eighteenth Conference How the Holy Spirit gives his Light to the Soul I Said to her That I would not doubt of her Words because I believed that they all came from the Holy Spirit She said Softly Sir all my Words come not from the Holy Spirit For he does not dictate to me all the Words that I must pronounce but the Substance of all that I say because I would never speak otherwise than by his Motion and no other Discourses are necessary for me For I have no Desire to please any and all that makes not for the Glory of God seems to me a superfluous and useless Thing Therefore I do not willingly utter any Discourse but these to which the Holy Spirit moves me But he does not dictate to me all my Words I have Need to express my self by Humane Reasons or Comparisons because otherwise they could not understand me For
of all honour which then all the world will render to him and just to render compleat Justice to every one There are so many innocent persons afflicted and Saints unknown and despised on the other hand there are so many wicked men honour'd rais'd to places and Honours and even held for Saints All these being Dead and the Truth as to them undiscover'd must not God avenge the quarrel of the Good and make appear the wickedness of the wicked that he may be Just Good and True I said to her That every one look'd for these Reparations in the day of the general Judgment which must be done in a little time or suddenly where every one shall be recompenc'd in Heaven according to his Merits or Sufferings She said Sir They will make God a God of Confusion What appearance is there that this Judgment can pass in a day or suddenly since the whole world must appear there It should be necessary that all the men in the world should after the manner of an Enchantment be Transported to the same place in an instant who could hear in that croud the Justification of the Righteous If it were to be done only by word they would not hear one by reason of another and if every one in particular must be spoke to to declare his good or evil Deeds it would need a long time before all were repair'd Years would not suffice to Judg so many men as have been upon the Earth Truly Sir all the speculations of men are nothing in respect of the Truth but Chimera's in the Air. God took six days to Create the World deliberately and in order as he has done all his works by weight and measure without any disorder or confusion He made Noah prepare an hundred years before the Deluge and when it came it began to Rain which Rain lasted forty days The Plagues are now begun and will follow in order even to their end and the Judgment will also go on in order so deliberately that there shall not be the least confusion in it for that can come only from men and not from God who does all in Order Neither is there any imaginary Heaven as people fancy it where every one shall be Rewarded or Restored for Heaven is no other but the presence of God who contains all things and can't be contain'd by any because he is greater than all things We are in Heaven when we are resign'd to him whether we live or die we are still in Heaven when we are in God Now being thus Divinely in God we do not notwithstanding receive the material and bodily reparation of the sufferings which we have materially and bodily endur'd And as God has given us both a Body and Soul he has also given us a Paradise both of Body and Soul For this cause God would have become Man even tho man had never sin'd for God makes all his works perfect and compleat The Soul can indeed have its compleat Paradise by the Presence of God because it is a Spirit like to him but the Body can have no Paradise but a Material and Bodily one like it self because it is of a Material Nature it cannot have a perfect happiness by a Spirit or Divinity Lo this is the reason why Man that he may be happy must of necessity have his Paradise in the world which was Created by God for no other end but to serve for a Paradise to Man whom he was pleas'd to Create of a Bodily and Spiritual Nature both together and he has also prepar'd for him both a Bodily and Spiritual Blessedness which are the Presence of God as to the Spiritual and for the Corporeal the Earth and the World and all that therein is By which you may see Sir the truth of the coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth to Reign with Men that their eternal Blessedness may be compleated and that every one may have a Reparation by fulfilling all Righteousness not in a speculative or imaginary way or of a short continuance but a Real Divine and Corporeal Reparation which will last for ever For God's Recompences are not Temporal and Finite but Eternal as coming from an Eternal God who can't give finite or imperfect gifts Consider Sir all these Truths and you will perceive sensibly why Christ must come to Reign upon Earth and that he has not taken an human Body to Reign in the Empyreal Heaven which is Divine but only to Reign on Earth for this Divinity has no need of any Body but this body has need of and must of necessity have some material place to contain it such as the Earth is And if to repair an injury done to any it be needful to make the reparation in the same place and before the same persons where the injury was done why should not God repair upon Earth the injuries received there On Earth they shall be repaired as on Earth they have been committed The Eighth Conference Shews that M. Anthoinette Bourignon is sent from God to declare the Truth to Men. I said to her that I was now convinc'd of all that I must confess before all the world that she possest the Holy Spirit for a humane Spirit could never give so clear an understanding of all the marvels of God She Said Sir you are not deceived in believing that I possess the Holy Spirit because he lives in me and teaches me all that I have told you for I have never learn'd any thing from any man neither would I learn of them because they are in darkness and do not know the Truth in any thing They believe they are very Learned and they are nothing but ignorants being turn'd away from the Truth by so many Novelties which they have made them believe They will needs maintain the Roman Church to be holy and own her Councils as acted by the Holy Spirit while neither the one nor the other is true For the Church is the Babylon of confusion and the Councils are the means by which the Devil has withdrawn Christians from the Law of God they having Ordain'd so many outward things that the inward may be forgotten and that thro so many Natural things People may think no more of the Spiritual Their Commands their Sacraments their Indulgences are all diversions from Salvation to obtain which there is nothing needful for all persons even those who are without God's Grace and straying from the way of Salvation but the observing the Commands of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel for God will never give any other Commands and Jesus Christ will never give any other Counsels than those he has given us by his Doctrine of the Gospel He says That he is not come for the Righteous but for sinners This being so all sinners who desire to be converted must take up this Gospel-Life by which they shall certainly attain to Salvation since Jesus Christ is
the Command of some Servants of God This is a certain Proof that it is Sin only that gives all the Malignity to every Thing and that nothing but the Rebellion that Man has raised against his God renders all the Elements and other Creatures Rebels against him If we would from this time yield up our Will into God's Hands and submit our selves entirely to him we should immediately find that all Things would subject themselves to us without any constraint How greatly does Man wrong himself when he will needs dispose of his own Will He makes himself miserable in this World and far more in that to come Whereas by being willing to depend upon God he has all under his Power together with Eternal Bliss What Infatuation of Spirit is it that we will not do a Thing so good so just and so reasonable as to resign our Will to that of God! If Men were taught this as they are other frivolous Devotions it would be impossible that any would deny God so profitable a Submission But they let themselves be amused by the Discourses of Men who propose a Salvation without being able to give it These are those false Christs and false Prophets of whom Jesus Christ has so often told that we must take heed of them who have deceived all the World so that none think any longer of resigning themselves to God or of doing saving Penitence I said to her There were yet divers Persons who desired to be resigned to God and also to do Pennance which cannot be avoided in this World She said Sir You take the Bark often for the Wood For those who say they will be resigned to God have nothing but outward Words For if they were truly so they would be governed by God and would no longer labour for the Earth but only for Heaven Even the Labour that is necessary for the support of Life would be done only to fulfil their Penitence appointed by God But when we see them aim at Places Honours and Dignities or Deal and Traffick to acquire Riches or Pleasures that one would be a Priest another a Religious one build Cloysters another Houses as if he were to abide in them for ever All these Things with a Thousand others are infallible Evidences that God does not govern our Will For he could not move us to make Tabernacles here since he has sent us hither only to undergo a short Penitence He could not incite us to build what must be so quickly destroyed Neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles and Disciples built Temples or Houses being contented with what was simply necessary In which the Heathens will rise up against us in the Day of Judgment who did so despise the shortness of this Life that they would not build Houses contenting themselves with a Tub to cover them from the Injuries of the Season Others threw their Mony into the Sea not judging it necessary for so short a Life though since that Time ours is much shortned Neither can it be true that we are willing to do Pennance because every one avoids Sufferings as much as he can and to do saving Pennance it must be voluntary and suffered for fulfilling the Will of God For else we may suffer much without Meriting as Robbers and Thieves do I said to her That this ought to be preached through all the World that they who would perish through Ignorance might hear the Truth and be converted She said Sir You may do as you please As for me I retire For I am not sent to preach but simply to declare the Truth as I have done to you You may have sufficiently remarked in all my Discourses and my Life if there were any Affectations or Passions which should move me to tell you these Things I am perswaded in the sight of God that I have no Self-Interest in it nor any desire to please or displease Men nor to affect the speaking new or marvellous Things No Sir I am not led by that Spirit but by that of Jesus Christ who had such Compassion for Men that for them he endured a bitter Passion and the Death of the Cross If you preach these Things to Men of good Judgment and who thirst after the Truth they will gladly hear you and yield themselves and return to God For they will easily see that here is no Flattery for any Body nor yet Contempt or sensual Animosity but pure solid Truths which none can resist but they who are in League with Satan and love Lyes and resist the Truth Those will very hardly receive Truths that are so opposite to them they will induce effeminate Spirits to reject these Things as evil perceiving that the knowledge of these will take from their Master the Devil the Power to deceive by Falshood and Hypocrisie and that he will be forced very quickly to discover his Mischievous Reign Because he shall not be able to catch Souls any longer under the colour of Piety and Holiness as he has done hitherto And his furious Reign shall be far less dangerous For so soon as he shall be known for the Devil no Body will follow him any longer except they who wilfully yield up themselves to him Whereas at present every one follows him blindly But so soon as his Malice shall be discovered he shall have no longer Power over Innocent Souls Tell the Truth boldly Sir to all good Men in Confidence But beware of the Adherents of the Enemy and of those who let themselves be governed by his Spirit though they be not precisely in Covenant with the Devil Because these will do you much Mischief when they think they are doing well For they who have their Minds infatuated do serve the Devil as well as Sorcerers themselves The one directly and the other indirectly You will still discover them by the resistance which they will make to the Truth for they will not so much as hear it Because they know very well they cannot change the Truth They endeavour at least to reject and despise it that no Body may receve it This will be the Devils last Effort For as soon as the Truth shall be known it will strongly resist him and at last will break his Head Observe still Sir the Disposition of those to whom you would declare these Truths And when you find opposition from them leave off speaking to them For those who shall be disposed to profit by the Truth will give Ear to it willingly and with Hungry Desires will search even to the Bottom that they may discover the Essence of it For no good Men can resist the Truth nor the Things which are proposed to them without having examined whether they be Good or Evil But the Wicked will resist it before they know it And if they can catch a Word different from their School Terms they will take it in a quite contrary Sence Therefore Sir do not amuse your self with Questions and Disputes For this would
Because this Malignant Free-will being a Divine and Eternal Quality of necessity makes its Works eternal So that these miserable Souls shall have upon them all the Malignity of all the Creatures to all Eternity as being the Work of their Hands I asked her If the Devils had also their Free-will and if God could not bound them She said Yes Sir the Devils shall have their Free-will to all Eternity as well as Men For God never retracts what he has once given The Angels were intelligent Beings capable of being united to God which Capacity could not be given them but by a Divine Quality which is that Eternal Liberty without which they could not have Sympathy with God For Angels as well as Men are but simple Creatures who can have no proportion with their Creator Therefore he has given both to the one and the other of these Creatures a Divine Soul and an Eternal Free-will that by these Divine Qualities they might have a Capacity of Loving an Eternal God Now the wretched Inclination of this Free-will resisting the Designs that God had in blessing them so advantagiously with Divine Gifts would needs use this Liberty to apply it to the doing evil instead of following the good for which this Liberty was given them Notwithstanding God will never retake those Divine Qualities that he has once given them The Divine Soul and Eternal Liberty will never end For all that is Divine is Eternal and God cannot bound them because he cannot be changeable in his Gifts nor can he take away what he has been pleased to give If it be Established among Men to lay no longer claim to a Thing given how much more ought we to hold that God lays no claim to the Free-will of Devils and Men to whom he voluntarily gave it This Gift only makes the Souls of Men and also those of Devils to be immortal For otherwise both the one and the other would have been reduced to nothing as soon as they sinned for God being the Source of all good can never do evil nor give eternal Pains But the great Blessings which he gave his Creatures in giving them a Divine Soul and Free-will have served the Devil for his Eternal Misery as they will do to wicked Men who if they will apply this Divine Liberty to do Evil they shall bring upon themselves all the evil they shall do which will be eternal as proceeding from their eternal Will If Man had had only an Animal Soul and a Limited Will their Evils would have ended with themselves as those of the Beasts do who do evil or good by their bounded Will and all their Works such as they are do end with their Animal Soul which is nothing but transient and temporal If Men had not a Divine Soul and an Eternal Will they would wholly do the same For they are not in Qualities different from the Beasts except by their Divine Qualities which render them Immortal and Eternal For since God established them in a Divine Soul and Will they can never end being Eternities as God except that they had a Beginning and God was incomprehensibly without Beginning and to all Eternity I asked her If the Souls of the Blessed in Paradise could do as much good as they would and in like manner if the Souls of Devils and of the Damned could do as much evil as they would She said Yes Sir For their Wills have no Bounds neither the one nor the other Have you never heard say that in Paradise there are infinite Goods That is to say That those Free-wills which are in Paradise will never cease to do good even infinitely For there can be no Barenness with God but a production of continual Goods which shall never have an end Thus the Blessed shall produce all the Good that their Free-will shall desire And in like manner the Wills of Devils and Damned Men shall produce as much Evil as their Free-will shall desire They shall not be able to do evil according to their Wills to the Men yet Living on the Earth much less to the Blessed in Heaven Because these can resist them by their Free-will which is enclined to good The Free-will of the Good having as much power to do well as the Free-will of the Wicked to do evil They are both free to do in themselves all the good and evil that they will but the Evil cannot take hold of the good Wills of others no more than the good of the Good can profit the Wicked and the evil of the Wicked cannot hurt the Good but in so far as both the one and the other give the Consent of their Free-will Which indeed may be done during this Life Because Man is yet in an uncertain State of Salvation or Damnation and even to his Last Breath his Will may be led to good and to evil Therefore it is said that the least in Paradise is greater than the most holy among Men because of the uncertainty of their Blessedness they being still in danger of consenting to the evil Suggestion of the Devil or the Example of some wicked Man being here alwayes in peril for we are still encompassed with our Enemies who do all the evil they please by their Free-will But we may also resist it by ours For neither Devils nor any wicked Men whosoever can ever have power over our Free-will For it will still be left free to us and we may consent to or reject the Temptations of the Devil and wicked Men they not being able to hurt us without our Consent We cannot hinder them to tempt us since they have their Liberty and they cannot hinder us to resist them for we in like manner have our Free-will But the Souls of Devils and the Damned do certainly as much evil as they can because they have let pass all occasions of doing good and cannot now have any good Will for they have destin'd it to evil But the Souls of the Blessed cannot be molested by the Devils and wicked Men For their Will is absolutely destinated to good which destination is an opposition to all sort of Evil. So that the good of the Blessed cannot touch the evils of the Miserable nor these on the other hand the goods of the Blessed For every one has made a choice of good and evil for Eternity and cannot repent of it since they are passed out of this World For in whatsoevr State Man shall dye he shall abide in it If he dye in the eternal Resolution of good he shall do good to all Eternity and if he dye in the Resolution of doing evil he shall do evil to all Eternity And he must look for no other Sentence but what he has made up for himself by his own Free-will I said to her That many holy Persons were sometimes abused by Devils and wicked Men though they had not contributed to Evil by their Free will And it is ordinarily said that the Devil has
but one Man only and he had but one Will in which was included the Will of all Men that should ever arise from him So that God could not pitch in him upon one Masse of Reprobates and one of Saved Because there was no longer Salvation in him after his Sin nor in all other Men his Posterity All were reduced into this damned Masse without any exception And as none could be damned before Sin so none could be saved after it Because in Adam all Men in general were contained who have still shared in his Happiness and Miseries his Favours and Disgraces his Pleasures and his Penitence All Men being inseparably united to the will of Adam the Father of all living I asked her How it could be that some Men are damned and some saved since there was so strait an union between the Will of Adam and that of other Men She said This comes to pass Sir when every Man comes to the use of Reason He goes out of the Power and Will of Adam and is put into his own full Liberty as Adam was at his Creation with this difference only that Men have in them the Malignity of Sin Which Adam had not when he was created but only an Inclination to good As to the rest all Men in general are put when they are capable of Reason into the same Estate wherein Adam was created with the same Divine Soul wholly free and reasonable capable of being led to good or evil as Adam was But that some are saved or damned is not by any Necessity or Predestination but only by every ones Free-will who are led to good or to evil according to the Choice they make of the one or the other Because on Gods part Man is left free and entire as he was before Sin For God never changes his Works He has not for sin changed any thing in the Earth nor in the Heavens nor in the Elements nor in the Beasts nor in the other Creatures but has continued them all such as he created them without any change but Sin has brought Malignity upon each of them whereas before the said Sin all Things were good without any evil Even so God has changed nothing in Man since his Sin He remainsentire in all his Qualities both Bodily and Spiritual except that by Sin he has contracted a Malignity and an Inclination to evil Which before he had not but a bent and inclination to all sort of good Behold this is the only change that Sin made in Man without his being necessitated to evil far less predestinated to Damnation Since all Men received in Adam the Pardon of this Disobedience having also received in him the Penitence which was accepted for all Men in Adam so long as a Man is unable to use his own Reason For then he is set at Liberty from the Power of Adam and that of his own Parents in whose Will he remain'd till then And coming out of this he is free to choose good and evil and neither God nor Men can constrain him to Salvation or Damnation And that any is saved or damned can proceed from nothing but the free choice that every one makes of following good or evil and not at all from Predestination as they very unjustly do imagine For God will never deprive Man of his Graces how wicked soever he be so long as he shall Live in this World He will never take back the Graces which he gave him in Adam They shall be still communicated to him if he will make a good use of them The Pardon which he granted to Adam he granted to all Men and no Body can believe without Sin that God should Reprobate him for the Sin of Adam For by his Grace he forgave all when he forgave Adam his Sin He cannot retract the Remission which he then gave to all Men to Reprobate them upon the same account of Adams Sin For God never repents him of what by his Mercy he has once done unless Man of his Free-will come to offend God by other new Sins Which he is free to do All Men were created in the State of Innocence in Adam and all Men sinn'd in Adam and also received the Pardon of this Sin in Adam So that all they who dye in Adam are certainly saved by the Mercy of God upon the Pardon that he gave to Adam But if his Children being come to the use of Reason do of their own Free-will turn to evil they then fall again into Gods displeasure and begetting Children in the same displeasure they are in the same Condemnation with their Fathers as being united with them till they come to the use of their own Reason For then they begin to have a Being by themselves whereas before they were reckoned to be one and the same thing with their Parents because of the Sympathy there is in the Union of the Father with the Child whose Will he holds in his Power as Adam held the Will of all Men till they attain the use of their own Reason so that till then they may be predestinated to Salvation or Damnation by the good or ill Will of their Parents and not by the Decree of God who cannot and will not destroy any Body having certainly created and forgiven all the World that all might be saved and none Reprobated For if he had precisely decreed some for Damnation he should not have had so much Righteousness in himself as what he demands of Men For he sayes to them Love your Enemies and do good to them that persecute you This Counsel would have had no Authority if he himself had Reprobated those who are become his Enemies This absolute Reprobation would not be good but the greatest evil that ever could be imagined How could he command Men to do good to their Enemies when he himself would do so great and eternal an Evil for the Fault they had committed against him and that while they were yet in a state of Penitence as they are during this Life where Reprobation shall never have place since till the very last Instant they may find Mercy and Pardon This Reprobation must only operate after Death and not during this Life Because this is the Time of Penitence in which they who shall be certainly Reprobated can have no part and it would be a very rigorous and unjust Thing that God should oblige those to Penitence whom he absolutely resolves to damn I believe Sir they confound the Times when they speak of Predestination and take the present for the Time to come For at the Judgment God will then take Two Masses the One of Elect and the Other of Reprobates who do what they will shall assuredly be damned Because the Time of Penitence will then be past But during this Life there can be no predestinated Reprobates I told her That well-meaning Persons did believe there was in this Life Predestination and that God had here Vessels
Sir that there is no Salvation without this Dependance let about it quickly without considering whether you have Sciences or any other thing Because God can make all work together for good A Man must not regard himself but the Will of God who desires that all Men of what condition soever keep themselves in a Dependance upon him yielding up their Free-wills under his Power without desiring to use them themselves I said to her That absolutely and irrevocably I resigned my self to God to be a true Child but that I found yet some difficulty to forsake the Church She said Soft soft Sir You must never renounce the Holy Church Rather die than do so You must only renounce the Abomination which is crept into the Roman Church now Do you not see that she has falsified her Faith to her Lawful Husband Jesus Christ and that she has not continued faithful to Him I would be well pleased if you could shew me so much as one Point that she observes of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ or so much as one thing that she practises which is not directly contrary to the Life and Doctrine of her Lawful Husband who came down from Heaven to Earth to teach her them both by Word and Deed All which Things are despised by her who ought to be his Spouse I have often spoke to you of her Excesses and her Adulteries Would you yet hold her for the Holy Church since the Devil has plac'd his Throne in her What Weakness of Spirit is it to feel a Repugnance to renounce a Thing so wicked under frivolous Perswasions that she is Holy When God gave us Understanding and Reason this was for no other end but to make us discern good from evil that we might not perish blindfold And now you would change the Designs of God by stifling your Reason and Understanding that you may follow evil blindly And when you see it so plainly evil you form some foolish Imagination that nevertheless it is good This must needs come from a pure Infatuation of Spirit For even Natural Reason discovers to us manifestly enough that the Roman Church now is not the Spouse of Jesus Christ because she does not follow her Husband in any thing and two so distant Things cannot make an Alliance How can you have a Repugnance to quit her who has abandoned her God If the Beasts and insensible Creatures and all the Elements did rise up against Man when he quitted his Dependance upon his God How should not Man who is so reasonable rise up against that Church who has quitted the Dependance upon her God because she will not depend any longer but upon her self One should rather have a Repugnancy to remain under her than to quit her Or else we have less Resentment of the Offence that is done our Creatour than the Elements and the Beasts or inanimate Things who have still resented the Wrong that was done their Creatour even at the Death of Jesus Christ the Rocks rent and the Sun was darkened Have you less affection Sir for your God than these Stones that you do not resent the continual Injuries which the Church does to God It a beautiful Angel became a Devil for having desired in his Heart to be equal to God what shall she become who prefers her self to the same God without desiring to give deference to him in any thing I do even bewail Sir your Blindness in this Point and I cannot believe that your Repugnancy proceeds from your Reasoning but from some Habitual Concern that you have for the Church For if you applied your Understanding to consider the Original of this Repugnancy you would see clearly that it proceeds from the pious affection that you have for the Church but that you do not take her where she is For we amuse our selves in this as in other Things with Terms and Expressions of Men And when we hear them call the Roman Church the Holy Church this Word begets in us an affection for her without discovering if it be she of whom they speak When they would beguile a Child and make him afraid of his Father they put his Cloak and Hat upon a Stick in some obscure Place which the Infant perceiving believes it is truly he and fears and respects him But if he draw nearer and take by the Cloak he perceives easily that he is beguiled and that what he took for his Father was but a Piece of Wood. Truly Sir in the Darkness in which we live at present they make us see just the like by covering Rome with the Cloak of the Holy Church and muffling her with the Head of Jesus Christ we Fear and Reverence her as if she were our True Mother the Holy Church Authorised by Jesus Christ and his Lawful Bride But when we approach nearer and lift up this Cloak we shall see clearly that 't is nothing but Wood instead of Holiness which can be of no use to us except to warm us in the Winter Season Truly Sir we ought not to be so much Children in what regards our Eternal Salvation We ought not to walk blindly in so important an Affair If Men apply their Minds wholly to make a Stocking or a Shoe why should not we apply them more to save our Souls It is good to have the Simplicity of the Dove with respect to God For he who is resigned to him ought to do nothing but let himself be guided by him as a Little Child But we must have the Prudence of the Serpent to take heed of Men who may deceive or be deceived And when they say Lo the Holy Church we must remark narrowly if she be truly so or if it be a Fagot covered with her Garment It is for this only that God gave us Understanding that we might still discern true Good from what is false precisely in the matter of our Salvation Because all other Things are vain and perishing unworthy of a serious Application of Spirit since it ought to apply it self only to Eternal Things for which we were created And our Misery arises from this that we make more serious Enquiries to discover the Turnings and Windings of the Affairs of the World than those of our Salvation In which the Scripture has reason to say that the Children of this World are wiser than the Children of the Kingdom Because before we engage in any Place Office or Traffick we still search narrowly if it is profitable and advantagious for us And we would take heed not to trust to Mens Words or to believe blindly that a Thing is good without having first made the Experiment of it If we have so much Foresight in what respects the Earth how much more ought we to have it for that which respects Heaven We trust our Salvation blindly to what they tell us that the Roman Church is our Mother the Holy Church and we do not dive into this Affair which concerns us so much
still his Spouse though there were but one Soul only as there was but one when Adam was created alone This Number of many only makes those Blessed who are of the Number For God on his part takes as much delight with one Soul only that is resigned to Him as He would do with a Hundred Millions For there is nothing to do with Quantity when the Business is about Quality If an Hundred Millions of Souls are resigned to God they make altogether but one only Church which could consist as well in one Soul only as in this great Number Because the Spouse of God is One And as in Nature a Man may have as much Contentment in Marrying a Wife who is Little and Tender as one that is Big and Lumpish Without comparison God is as much Honoured though there were but one Soul only in the World that were resigned to him as if all Men in general were so who only can receive themselves the Honour of their Happiness every one for his own particular For nothing can be taken away nor added as to God who is and comprehends all Things His Alliance that he has made with the Soul of Man is not encreas'd or diminished by the great or small Body of his Church He will still have his Spouse with whom he will take his delight in the kind that he created which was but one Man alone She shall still be preserved as the Rose among Thorns How wicked soever the World may become his Church will still remain there in her kind The Church will always have her Beauty and her Qualities as much in one Soul alone as in an Hundred Millions which altogether would make but one no more than if there were but one alone After this manner God in all Ages has had his Church upon Earth But in how many Souls it consisted is known only to God The People of Israel were called the People of God among whom there were assuredly Souls resigned unto him These made up the Church in their Time and no others Even so among the Jewish People and also the Catholicks The Church of God has alwayes been among them since Gods Alliance with Man could never fail But to believe that all that Masse of People who call'd themselves the People of God were the Church is to deceive our selves Because there never will be any other but the Souls which of their Free-will do resign themselves to the Will of God All others are only Carnal and Material Churches I said to her That we strayed much and greatly erred in believing that all who are called the People of God do make up the Church and that at present she consisted of Christendom which Jesus Christ authorised and said that what she did on Earth should be done in Heaven She said Sir Men are blind and walk where they see nothing I believe that the Spouse of God resides among Christian People though it were no more but in one Soul alone But to believe that this Church consists of that great Number of Persons who are called Christians is greatly to deceive our selves Because of them God may say truly My People have forsaken me Which appears by the whole Behaviour of these Christians now who live wholly as if there were no God every one being so wedded to his own Will as if it had only been given him to satisfie himself and using the Authority that God gave his Church as if they were Soveraigns and independent upon him All which things are inconsistent with the Spouse of God which moves not but by the Motion of her Husband of whom she knows she holds all things and she never ascribes any thing to her self How should this Masse of Christians compose the Church since among them we do not observe almost any who will resign their Wills to the Will of God And those who make their Profit of the Authority that Jesus Christ gave his Church are Robbers and take what belongs to another For when Jesus Christ said Whatsoever you shall do here on Earth I will do in Heaven He spoke to his Spouse and not to his Enemies as those Persons are who cleave to their own Wills who do very impertinently usurp the Title of the Church or Spouse of God For his True Spouse is in nothing contrary to her Husband Being united by a Holy and Divine Will So that they cannot disclaim one another and therefore what she shall do on Earth shall be done also in Heaven by their Unity of Wills which are still conformable Though this Will be wrapt up in the Spirit and Body of the Spouse which is yet on Earth it is nevertheless united to that of her Husband which is in Heaven And therefore what the one does the other approves Because one and the same thing cannot be against it self I said to her That this Quality of Vnion of Will to that of God was a Divine Thing and invisible to Bodily Eyes asking her how I might discover and know the True Church and Spouse of God She said Sir You will perceive it sufficiently even by the Eyes of the Body if you seriously apply your Spirit to discover her Qualities For St. John in his Revelation paints out all her Qualities under the Figure of a Woman who sits in the Sun and has the Moon under her Feet and upon her Head Twelve Stars This Woman is the True Church and the only Spouse of God She is first seated in the Sun that is that the Spouse of God reposes alwayes in the Light of Truth and never turns aside from it that she does not walk therein as a Passenger but sits in it as in her Place of Repose Secondly that she has the Moon under her Feet That is that all Things that are mutable and changeable as the Moon such are the Goods the Riches the Honours and Pleasures of this World are all trod under feet by the Church or Spouse of God Thirdly That she bears on her Head Twelve Stars These are the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit with which the Spouse of God is still inseparably adorned because the Spirit of God where he resides is never barren There he always brings forth his Fruits and there also he still bestows his Gifts By which Sir you may sufficiently discover in what Soul the Church resides If you do not find all this Furniture never believe blindly that the Church is in those who do not possess these Qualities or Conditions which are the True Marks of the Church without which you can never own that she is the True Spouse of God For these Marks are inseparable from Her and where you shall not find them you must immediately desist from believing that you have found the Church Because there can be nothing but Delusion where they say she is without these Qualities For she never goes without them And therefore be not amused though they say to you This is the Church