her Works that she speaks only against those who make use of the Sacraments while they continue and proceed in a corrupt state that it would be tedious to insert in this place See the 28 29 30 and 31. Numb of the 1st p. of Antichrist Reveal'd and the 1st Letter of the 3 p. of the Tomb of false Divinty where she is so far from condemning true Christians for Consecrating their little Children to God in Baptism that she declares expresly that Infant Baptism would be of good use if Parents would take care to educate their Children in the true faith and put them in mind after they are of Age of the promise they made in their name at Baptism namely that they should be Christs Disciples and renounce the Devil the World and all its Vanities And tho' she believ'd according to the opinion of several Learned Men that adult Persons were only Baptiz'd in the primitive Church and preferr'd that custom as being less subject to abuses yet she did not think that this rule or practice was then so generally receiv'd but that it might admit of just exceptions And therefore in an other part of her Writings after she has declar'd speaking to an Anabaptist that we must not amuse our selves with disputing about the external forms of Baptism while the Soul is not willing to die to the corruptions of the flesh that it might live again to the Spirit of Jesus Christ She adds That since the Scripture informs us that in the days of the Apostles whole Families were Baptiz'd at once it is probable that there were young Children as well as old Persons in them In short These things may be done either out of a good or bad Principle but usually and at present generally these things were done out of a bad Principle and this is what she reproves and condemns with so much reason and justice As for that Question whether we ought to condemn the Repitition of Baptism when it was not duly perform'd at first If that Repitition may serve to promote a true conversion to God and his love it 's plain it cannot be disapprov'd but by a Spirit that prefers external things before God and his love which cannot be ascrib'd to the Spirit of God Thus the Scripture furnisheth us with instances of this Repitition of Baptism when it may serve as a mean to receive the Spirit of God See Act. 19. 2 c. Some will be apt to take up a prejudice against her because in some places she speaks with some sharpness against the Protestants the Reformation made by them and the first Reformers But they who consider with what severity she treats the Church of Rome in whose communion she was looking on her as the great Whore that sits on many waters how plainly she represents the corruption of all Parties and how ready every side is to be wedded to the little interest of their rispective Parties will rather admire and love the Impartiality and Ingenuity of her Spirit than be prejudic'd against her upon that head God dwells not in Temples made with mens hands and the human and political constitutions of Churches with their respective Acts Articles Covenants and Schemes of Government have hitherto prov'd but the occasion of mutual hatred and contention and not being Cemented with CHARITY of all these buildings one stone is not like to be left upon another that shall not be thrown down When the Temple was built all the stones were hewn and squar'd in the Wilderness and there was neither Hammer nor Ax nor any Tool of Iron heard in the House while it was in Building And that God may thus rear up the living Temple of his Church will be the prayer of all serious Persons But for a full satisfaction to the exceptions that may be made against her I refer to her own Writings and to the Apologetical Preface written by the R. P. P. and prefixt to her Life In the mean time as her Writings seem design'd for the common good of all Mankind and for reviving the true Spirit of Christianity in the World so I heartily wish they may be made universally useful and that the communicating them to the World in their respective Languages may have its due effect That the Heathen may see how by Nature they are alienated from the life of God and how desirous God is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth That the Mahomitans may admire and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ whom they Honour for a great Prophet and against whose Religion the greatest prejudice is the ill representation made of it by the Lives and Practices of those who profess it That the Jews may be convinc'd that Jesus is the true Messiah whom they look for who is to come again in Glory upon Earth and who having kept them for so many Ages scatter'd among other Nations in a state of contempt and reproach is thereby preparing them for a more exalted state when they shall be graffed in again and made the head who are now the tail That the Professors of Christianity may learn what it is indeed and how far they are from it and that their eyes being open they may see they are greater Idolaters than the Heathens while these thro' ignorance and in the simplicity of their hearts bow their bodies before the Sun or their Idols but those in the midst of light with the bent of their hearts their Love their Affections and endeavours do Worship Gold and Silver and Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Men and Honours and their own Wills and Passions that while they profess to abhor Idols they may cease to be the greatest Idolaters themselves That the several parties of Christendom may be convinced that they have lost Christianity and are fighting for its shadow and while its Essence is Righteousness Goodness and Truth the Devil has shed among them his contrary Antichristian Qualities of Injustice Malice and Hypocrisy under an outward cover of Masses Prayers Preachings Communions Sacraments Sabbaths Holy-Days Fasts c. which when the essence of Christianity is gone are an abomination unto God That the Learned may learn not to be puff'd up with their knowledge and become so humble as to be willing to learn something from a simple Maid that perhaps may be of more use to them than all their Learning and that they may be sensible that Divine Light and Knowledge does as far transcend their Notional Learning as the enjoying and beholding the Sun the Light and all this visible World does the looking upon their Pictures That her own Sex may admire the goodness of God in chusing a Virgin for his Mother and a Virgin to be the Organ of his Light and Spirit in this last Age of the World that they may see they are capable of more excellent endowments than those in which the other Sects pretend to excel them in which God seems to give them the preference to
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
the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the Heavens he must confess that the Authour of all these Things is perfect and looking on the Earth the Trees the Plants and Elements he must discover an incomprehensible Divinity who had the Skill to make all these admirable Things Which obliges all that are Reasonable to Love him And when Man considers himself and sees the Art there is in the Fabrick of his Body in the Faculties of his Soul in the Subtilty of his Spirit he must confess that there is a God the Authour of all this to whom all Things ought to be ascribed Because no Creature is able to do any such thing By all which things a Man comes more perfectly to the Knowledge of God than by Sciences and the Expositions of all the Doctors of the World who have nothing but Limited Sciences The Twentieth and Third Conference Shews That it is by Faith only that we can be Saved which coming from God works still Resignation Even among the Heathens c. I said to her That all this Knowledge of God was nothing but the Faith of a Heathen that it was not capable to work Salvation that to be saved we must have a Divine Faith She said Sir You are ignorant yet of a great many Things For that Faith which you call Heathen is Divine because it comes immediately from God who has imprinted in the Soul of all Men this Divine Light that leads them to the Knowledge of the true God This is a Grace infused without the Concurrence of any Men which is much more perfect then the Faith we give to the Things they propose to be believed by us in the Roman Church many of which are very absurd and neither respect the Glory of God nor our Salvation They give us for an Article of Faith That there are Three Persons in God Though nevertheless no Creature can comprehend what is in God but by his Operations which we see with our Eyes as that he is Almighty that he is All just all Good and True Because all that we see he operates in us and in other Creatures bear these Three Qualities But to know if there be Three Divine Persons in God this surpasses our Capacity Because God is an incomprehensible Being and was never discovered by any so as to know what there is in his Divinity They propose also to us many Things for Articles of Faith which are not of its true Essence seeing no Body can be saved without Faith and they continually propose to us new Things for Articles of this Faith which our Forefathers never believed as such And if we cannot have true Faith now without believing them it were to be feared that our Forefathers were not Saved since they did not believe those new Things which are now proposed to us as Articles of Faith They never believed that the Virgin Mary was conceived without Original Sin and now they would make this Belief to pass for an Article of Faith Though nevertheless there is no appearance of Truth in it For the Virgin came out of the Masse of Adam as all the rest of Men And she did also undergo the Penitence common to all the Children of Adam having gained her Bread by Bodily Labour and suffered the Malignity of all the Elements and her Son Jesus himself shiver'd for Cold in the Stable of Bethelem shewing that he was a real Man descended from Adam subjecting himself to the same Penitence that our First Father had received and accepted from God in the Remission of his Sin Why should they now lay it before us as an Article of Faith that the Virgin was conceived without Sin since all Humane Creatures which are born of Parents who live under the Dependance of God having accepted the Penitence that God enjoyn'd Adam are all born in the Indulgence that God gave to Adam Wherefore should there be a particular Article of Faith for the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin as also for the Infallibility of the Pope seeing all these Things have no respect to the true Faith which must work out our Salvation For if the Virgins Conception was Immaculate or if the Pope be infallible this makes nothing for our Salvation nor as to the Knowledge we ought to have of a God upon whom all Things depend This Light infused in my Soul is true Faith and the Dependance that I desire to have upon the same God is the Work of my Faith What need is there to add yet to this the believing that the Pope is infallible since I have the same Light of Faith that tells me No Man can be infallible Since Adam created in Innocence and endued with all the Grace and Holiness that can be met with in any Man did fall and by failing so grosly shew that he was not infallible may not a Man who is a Sinner fail or err All these Faiths and Beliefs are not divinely infused by God into our Soul as that Faith is which makes us know a God above all Things All good All-just All-mighty but Incomprehensible This Faith Sir which you call Heathen is the True Faith which is able to work Salvation in all those who in consequence of it do through Love resign themselves to the same God I asked her If she believed the Heathens would be saved since they are not baptized She said Yes Sir All the Heathens who knew God by his Works and resigned their Will to him shall assuredly be saved For they had operating Faith True Faith in believing that there is One Almighty God who created the Heaven the Earth and all Things and they had the Works of Faith when they were resign'd to the Will of the same God Which appeared in all those who despised the Things of this Life for that which is to come They could not have done this but by a Divine Light that God infused into their Souls Because the Brutish Senses cannot despise the Pleasures of this Life For they know no other and Nature cannot betray it self by despising what is good for it to choose what is evil for it When we see one who may have Honours Riches and Pleasures in this Life and who yet quits them to be dispised poor and afflicted we may well believe that he has the Light of Faith infused by God into his Soul Because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever induce him to do such Things For no Body hates his own Flesh and the Devil incites alwayes to satisfie Nature And if we see one whom we call a Heathen quit the Conversation of Men and retire into a Solitude we may well believe that he has the true Light of Faith which makes Nature break off conversing with its like For Society is a most Lovely Thing Man is a Sociable Creature above all the other Animals and if the Beasts are sad when they are alone how much more must Man be so when he Lives according to Nature unless it
seen of Men they sought the Praise of Men more than that of God they devour'd Widows Houses but had still a Religious Pretence for it they would learn People to despise their Parents but it was on the account of Corban they would hate and persecute others even to Death but it was to do God Service they were mighty zealous to propagate their Religion and would compass Sea and Land to gain Proselytes but then our Saviour tells us They were twofold more the Child of the Devil than themselves Now it is observable That our Saviour's Reproofs are levell'd mostly against these two last sort of Persons The former he treats with such Pity and Compassion that his Enemies tax him for a Friend of Publicans and Sinners He tells them There is joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repents more than ninety and nine just Persons that need no Repentance And that he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance But for the other two he warns his Disciples to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees He calls them a Generation of Vipers whited Sepulchres fair and beautiful without but within full of Corruption and Rottenness he terms them the Children of the Devil and asks How they can escape the Damnation of Hell To judge according to Appearance one would think they deserv'd a milder Treatment and that the other ought to have been most Lasht and this is the Course and Practice of the World But that which seems Righteous before Men is an Abomination in the Sight of God Our Saviour's Conduct in this we may be sure was the effect of Divine Equity and Wisdom The Publicans and Sinners were not only look'd on as such by all others but also were self-condemn'd they knew they were doing what they ought not to have done their Conscience could not but often smite them and the Divine Grace exciting them and outward Afflictions chastising them might one time or other bring them to Repentance and the Sense of the greatness of their Sins might awaken in them an answerable Sense of the Divine Goodness so that where Sin had abounded Grace should so much the more abound and they who saw there was so much forgiven them would love much But the Pharisees and Sadducces were not so capable of Conviction their Sores were skin'd over with a fair Shew of Reason and Religion their Sins were mostly Spiritual they had no Remorse for them the World and they themselves did approve them in what they did they thought they were doing God Service and they had form'd to themselves such a Righteousness of their own as made it next to impossible to bring them to Repentance or to seek after the Righteousness of God by Faith There was no such Hazard that sincere and well-meaning Persons should be seduc'd by open and scandalous Sinners Their gross Sins and the ill Character they went under were as Beacons to warn others to beware of them But it was not so easie to avoid the Leaven of one of the other two they compass'd Sea and Land to gain Proselytes and the specious Reasons of the one and the seeming Piety Zeal and Devotion of the other with such a plausible Representation of Religion as might encourage them to hope for Heaven tho' they lov'd the World and follow'd their own Wills here were Snares which it was not easie to escape Publicans and Sinners were more capable of receiving the Truth they were convinced of all and even when they were not resolv'd to follow it yet the inward Conviction of their Consciences would keep them from maligning or persecuting the Publishers of it But the other two resisted it with all their Force stuck at nothing that might suppress it did calumniate and defame it persecuted its Author and Followers to the Death and thought that in all they did God Service Jesus Christ then foreseeing the Effects of the Effects of the Malice and Subtilty of the Devil how forward he would be to slip into his Church to profess himself his Disciple and pervert his Design and Doctrin under Colour of owning and promoting it and knowing well the Corruption of Men's Hearts how naturally the Love of themselves and of the World would make them take up with Shadows of Religion instead of the Life and Substance of it he takes Care not only to shew them plainly by his Life and Doctrin wherein it truly consists viz. in true CHARITY as its End and in a constant denial of our selves as to our own Wills and as to the Honours Riches and Pleasures of this World as the effectual and necessary Means of attaining to this End But he also lets them see the false Religion that Self-love takes up with and the main Branches into which it divides itself in the different Pictures of the Pharisees and Sadducees the one making an Idol of their corrupt Reason and worshipping it for their God and the other teaching for Doctrins the Commandments of Men making the Commandments of God â—f none effect either through their own Glosses or the Traditions of their Elders being more zealous for these than the plain and simple Word of God and both of them establishing a Righteousness of their own a Righteousness founded on Self-love Self-will and the Love of Temporal Things and making void the Righteousness of God being void of Charity and the Love of things Eternal And that the Disciples of Jesus Christ had need of such Warnings the fatal Experience of all following Ages has but too evidently testified and as it seems in our Saviour's Days in the last Age of the Jewish State these Corruptions among them were come to their heighth so in this last Age of the degenerate Christian State this twofold Leaven seems to have spread through all Parties and leaven'd the whole Lump The World is now full of those who set up for great Masters of Reason and measure every divine Truth by Mathematical Principles and Demonstrations and what will not bear that Test is ridicul'd by them and tho' a Truth be never so plainly reveal'd in the Holy Scriptures yet if it do not suit their way of Reasoning and if they think it lies fair to be pelted by their Witticisms they are sure to treat it in Derision and to start Questions about it as their Predecessors did to our Saviour about the Resurrection of the Woman who had been married to seven Husbands that were Brethren viz. Whose Wife she should be of the seven at the Resurrection And tho' they meet daily with as inexplicable Difficulties in the visible World in Bodies the being of which they cannot deny and if they had liv'd all their Days in an Island among People where the manner of the Propagation of Men and Beasts was never heard of when they had been told of it would have thought it as ridiculous and impossible a thing as any Truth deliver'd in the Holy Scriptures and tho' they have liv'd to see the
Nature his Righteousness his Goodness his Truth and to be transform'd into the same Image to love him with all our Hearts is to love him only for himself and all other things only in and for God and entirely to depend upon him To love our Neighbours as our selves is to love them as his Images as being capable to be transform'd into his Nature and to endeavour to bring them with our selves to the Love and Enjoyment of God This is the Essence of Religion and the indispensible Duty that God requires of Man in all Estates whether that of Innocence or of his Reparation since his Fall and as our Saviour tells us Matth. 22. 40. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets Had man continued in the Integrity in which he was created no other Duty had been requir'd of him But he turning away his Love from God and setting it on himself and on the Creatures making himself his last End and the Creatures his chief Happiness Means are propos'd to Man to bring him back to the Love of God and to remove the Hindrances of it and he having forfeited the Friendship and Love of God Hopes are given him of Recovering his Love and Favour for obtaining of which the Intercession of a Mediator was needful who by his Merits and Favour with God might obtain it and the main Hindrances of the Love of God being Self-love and the Love of the Creatures he is directed to the Use of such Means as may effectually mortifie and subdue these in him and Man being a wayward Patient unwilling to take the Physick provided for him as being bitter and unpleasant the Physician takes Man's Nature on him and takes the Remedies first himself flies the Ease the Honours the Riches the Pleasures and the Sciences of this World embraces Poverty Reproaches Troubles and Pains and denies himself and his own Will in every thing that he might do the Will of him that sent him So the essentially necessary and effectual means to recover the Love of God is Faith in God through Jesus Christ with unfeign'd Repentance a constant denial of our selves and forsaking of every thing that hinders us to love God and for this End the taking up our Cross daily and following of Christ The Holy Scriptures are the Sacred Records wherein God's Love to Mankind the Life and Doctrin of Jesus Christ and the Precepts he has given for the mortifying of our corrupt Nature and returning to the Love of God are plainly manifested to us and in this respect they are necessary to make us wise unto Salvation as the written Counsels of a Physician would be for the Recovery of his Patient's Health Sermons religious Offices Sacraments sacred Assemblies Pastors Church-Government c. are more remote means for bringing Men to Salvation and if rightly us'd may be very helpful to direct them in the Practice of the necessary and effectual means for returning to an entire Dependance upon God But if the first be wholly neglected and these be rested on and if we think we are religious because zealous about these things and in the mean time are still Lovers of our own selves self-will'd self-conceited worldly-minded envious malicious our Actions void of Righteousness Goodness Truth c. our Religion is the Leaven of the Pharisees it is but a Form of Godliness we are alienated from the Life of God it is a Righteousness of our own and we are as mad and foolish as sick Men would be who should run about among Apothecaries and Surgeons and be very greedy to hear the Receipts of Cures for their Maladies dayly read and explain'd to them should fight and quarrel and hate and destroy one another in contending which were the best Explanations of the Receipts and which Company of Apothecaries and Surgeons had the best Form of Government and in the mean time both Directors and Patients were sick unto Death yet neither would apply themselves to take those Remedies which by all were granted to be necessary and effectual for their Recovery and without which they must inevitably perish Now the Writings of the Author of this following Treatise containing such bright Illustrations of the Truths of God reveal'd in the Holy Scriptures and discovering so plainly in what manner they are perverted by the false Glosses of the Professors of Christianity in their respective Parties I hope it will be no ill service done to the Christian Religion and to this Island in particular to make them more generally known to this part of the World of which Design this is an Essay The Author was a Virgin call'd Antonia Bourignon born in the Town of Lisle in Flanders in the Year 1616. the Daughter of a rich Man there and Baptiz'd and Bred up by her Parents in the Communion of the Church of Rome Being taught to read in her Childhood and having read the Gospels and being told of the Life of Jesus Christ how poor and mean and despis'd and self-denied he was and seeing all People live very unlike to him in Ease and abundance and Pleasures and Honours she ask'd her Parents Where are the Christians Let us go to the Country where the Christians live And tho' her Parents derided her for this yet this Impression ever remain'd with her and it was her constant Theme to let the World see what a true Christian is and that none such are to be found From her very Childhood she had inward Conversation with God and gave her self to Prayer and Divine Retirement but this Retirement being look'd on by the Suggestions of her elder Sister to her Companions as the effect of Stupidity and Sottishness and she despis'd therefore to avoid this she applied her self to take part in their Recreations and Divertisements and she quickly gain'd their Esteem and Favour above her Sister but lost her Conversation with God Yet he did not cease now and then to awaken her even in the midst of her Divertisements but Company and these Amusements still got the Ascendent Then God tried her with more severe means filling her Mind with fearful Ideas of Death Judgment and Hell whereby she came to her self again and saw the Vanity of all earthly things which would end at Death and leave the Soul empty of true Good and full of real Evils This made her abhor her present Life all worldly Advantages the Body and the Caring for it And because the Sollicitations of earthly things were apt to return again she took Care to have this deeply engraven upon her Spirit she went oft to Charnel-houses to view the Bones of the Dead saying See what thou art within a little while thou shalt be like this and yet more horrible She handled them to overcome her natural Horror for them and to make the Thoughts of Death familiar to her For six Months she begg'd no other thing of God but the Remembrance of Death and obtain'd it It was about the fifteenth or sixteenth Year of her
directed unto all men who were to come of Adam because he held in his power the free will of all his posterity Therefore God spoke to all men when he spoke to our first Father The Prohibition which he gave him m not to eat of the fruit of a tree was nothing but an outward sign of the dependance which he ow'd unto God even as a Superior reserves to himself some yearly rent in the Donation which he makes of his Lands or Mannors to the end that always these goods or lands may be oblig'd yearly to acknowledge the Superiour upon whom they depend God had bestow'd on man all this beautiful world which we behold with all that is in it but he would have him still to acknowledge the dependance that he had upon his God and Lord that the knowledge of this might oblige them to love such a Benefactor who had given them all these created things which they might enjoy provided always they did acknowledge and love the God who had so freely bestow'd them He forbad them to eat of one Tree only permitting them to eat of all the rest to shew that he permitted man to enjoy all the fruits of the earth provided he preserve always the obligation that he has to God He requires for a Testimony of this that he abstain from eating of this forbidden fruit to the end he might never forget the love and the obedience which he ow'd unto the Lord from whom he had receiv'd all things This Prohibition is no other thing but a Command to love him which being done man might do all that he desird This Commandment was also given unto man when God requir'd Sacrifices from him not that God had need of beasts or other things but he demands this outward testimony in confirmation of the inward acknowledgment and love which they bear unto God the giver of all things The Law he gave to Moses contain'd also no other thing but this love and gratitude which we owe unto our God Tho these Commandments are divided into ten yet they are all comprehended in that of loving and acknowledging God for all the rest are but prohibitions not to do the things which would hinder this love and gratitude because he who takes the name of God in vain or he who steals or covets his Neighbors goods or commits Fornication and so of the rest does not love nor acknowledge God And to make this love and acknowledgment easie to him God forbids him to commit these things as being contrary to this love But as to the summ of these Commandments it consists in one only to wit in the love and acknowledgment of God when he commands to keep holy the Feasts and to honour Father and Mother all this depends upon the love of God which we ought to testify also outwardly in sanctifying the days which are dedicated unto him The honour which we owe to Fathers and Mothers signifies only an acknewledgment that we owe unto our Benefactors of whom God is the principal yea even the giver of all things but because our Parents do us good in nourishing helping caring for us and teaching us during our weakness he commands us to honour them as little Gods for the small good things which they do us to the end that by this outward acknowledgment we may be mindful of our acknowledgments which we owe to God in proportion to the benefits which we receive from him Behold how God has many times forbidden us not to love the creatures since by so many diverse ways he commands us to love him to the exclusion of all things Which Jesus Christ himself has well exprest to us when he says that we must love God with all our heart with all our strength and with all our thoughts There could not be more express terms to shew that our heart is created for God only and for nothing else I receiv'd such light by these reasonings that it was my delight to hear them And to make her speak the more I said to her that there were some Authors who maintain'd that it was impossible to love God with all our hearts and to keep his Commandments She was mov'd with anger saying What injury do they to God by such sentiments I swear to you Sir these persons know neither God nor themselves when they assert such things They are insupportable to me What well dispos'd Soul could suffer that they should say of God that he has given Commandments to man which it is impossible for him to observe This is to desire to make him pass for a Tyrant and also for an Ignorant For to lay on a heavier burthen than our shoulders could bear would be a Cruelty and to damn men for not having done that which was impossible for them a Tyranny Could God give insupportable Laws without being unjust Could he overcharge men without cruelty He who made men could he be ignorant of their strength and capacity that he did not give them laws according to their weakness or infirmities What Blasphemies do they commit against the supream Wisdom which knows all things What injury to that straight Righteousness What contempt to make him ignorant of the strength and capacity of men He who knows the most secret thoughts of the heart and all things past and to come as well as the present O ingrate creature If thou knewest thy self thou would'st perceive but too much that thou art capable of loving God with all thy heart For there is nothing more natural to man than love and there is nothing which does more oblige to love than the benefits receiv'd without having merited them What is wanting to you therefore to be able to love with all your heart Is there any thing more lovely than he all-beautiful all-good all-wife all-perfect in short the accomplishment of all perfections Our heart which cannot live without love could it find any object more lovely or any greater subject of acknowledgment for so many benefits received from him I said to her That it was truth and that no objects could be found so worthy of our affection as God is but the evil came from this that we did not see nor feel God as we do the creatures which are material and sensible to our senses She said to me It is true Sir God being a pure Spirit is not visible nor sensible to our natural senses But believe me he is more visible and sensible to our understanding by his works than are all the creatures together and he does us also much more good than all that is created in heaven and in earth For this cause we ought to love him alone more than all other things together for if our understanding would apply its self to the consideration of the wonderful works of God it would find more ground to love God than any thing how lovely soever it might be even according to the natural senses All
subject to all sorts of Miseries than we are in our selves nothing more changing nothing more weak nothing more perishing Is this capable of our Love An Abridgment of all sorts of Miseries more infirm than any Animals and the things which are without us are yet of far less consideration 〈◊〉 we love Meat and Drink is there any thing more 〈◊〉 for as soon as we have swallow'd them they are corrupted and chang'd into Putrefaction If we love the Pleasures of the Sight this is a thing that passes in a Moment and cannot give Satisfaction The more we would satisfie our Senses the more they thirst for the Eye is never satisfied with seeing no more than the Ear with hearing Even so of the Lust of the Flesh These are all insatiable things of the nature of Salt-Water the more we drink of it the more we thirst And as for the Pride of Life what does it put in us but a Blast of Wind For if a Woman bow or a Man be discovered in our Presence what does that give us These are all but imaginary Goods which put nothing in him that loves them If we would search into these Truths it would be very easie to strip us of our selves and of all created Things For they are not at all lovely but to those who have lost their Wits Our Soul is created for things more great It ought not to debase its self to Objects so unworthy of its Love It is very easie to forsake our selves and all things when we enter into the Consideration of things that are everlasting All our Amusements proceed from this that we come not to the Knowledge of God and our selves For if we knew God we could not any longer love any other thing and if we knew our selves we would hate our selves and all things because we have nothing in our selves which is not hateful Thus all the Love which we bear to our selves and to other things proceeds from pure Ignorance and the want of Serious Reflection on our selves and on all created Things I ask'd her How I might make this Serious Reflection and discover the Nothingness of all created Things And said That I must acknowledge her Saying was true that there is nothing worthy of our Love But I could not discover the cause of the Blindness of my Mind in this since I had a Desire to discover the Truth and to be taken up entirely with God She said Sir the Fault of your Straying as that of all the World proceeds from this That Men amuse themselves with the speculation of visible and sensible things by which they forget the invisible and spiritual And thus they go on always in a Forgetfulness of God and of their own Salvation Men do even serve for a Hindrance to one another For being all full of these Distractions and Wandrings of Mind they speak almost of no other thing One speaks of his Health another of his Meat another of that which seems fair and good to him And thus they fill one another's Minds with earthly Idea's and they neglect the consideration of heavenly things upon which alone their Happiness depends That Application of Spirit which we give to our selves to others to our Affairs Business or other things which respect only this present Life do rob us of that Time and Attention which appertains to God For we are not created for this present Life but only to live for ever with God If we are oblig'd to remain here for some space of Time this is only to satisfie the Justice of God who being offended by us has destin'd this short Life for the time of our Penitence which being finish'd he will pardon us and restore us into our true Country which is his Presence We ought continually to aspire after it without pleasing our selves in our Exile and Prison What Folly to take Pleasure in Sufferings The Riches the Honours and the Pleasures of this World are all troublesome and painful things and we reckon them for Happiness We glory even in our Chains and Fetters Our Sin has discovered our Nakedness and its Shame has oblig'd us to cover our Body and this same Covering which ought to serve us as matter of continual Confusion serves us on the contrary for Vain-Glory which is altogether foolish since our Habits are the Marks of Sin and we wear them to glory in them If you desire Sir to discover these Truths and to be entirely taken up with God fix your Understanding on the Consideration of all the things which are not God and you will find them all Vain and Transitory even your Life it self It passes every Moment and ought rather to be call'd Death than Life for we die daily And from thence ascend to the Consideration of God and of our Soul which are things Solid and Eternal You will by this Mean be oblig'd to love the one and forsake the other But you can never make these serious Remarks if you do not quit the Commerce of Men and abstain from all that is unprofitable and what does not avail for the Glory of God By the means of these Omissions you will acquire a clear Understanding of the Truth and a continual Communion with God For the Cause of our Blindness of Mind proceeds from this that we divert our selves always with Men or the other Creatures who do distract us from the Knowledge of God and of our selves For all that is not God is nothing The Twenty Second Conference That no true Contentment can be had but in God alone How to return thither Of Gifts And of those which are made to Churches which will perish I Receiv'd a great deal of Light by such firm Reasonings to which all Men of the World must needs yield I said to her That I found only a Difficulty to withdraw my self from all things and to think of God only because our Spirit does easily wander She said Sir all the Difficulty there is in doing this is only in our Imagination for in the Practice there is great Contentment For he who entertains himself always with God is in a continual Feast more pleasant even to the Senses than the most sumptuous earthly Banquet would be For the Soul having full Satisfaction the Spirit is in Peace and the Body at rest all the Senses having a Satiety and Contentment whereas in the Commerce of Men none of them can find full Satisfaction for as long as the Soul does not repose in its God it is like a Stone in the Air which never rests until it have found its Centre or like a Fish that is out of the Water which remains without Vigour dries up and dies if it be not put into it again Even so a Soul which is out of God dries up and dies not being able to find true Contentment even as to the Body out of him There is nothing but a Life truly Christian that is free and pleasant for it
flows from God the Fountain of all Joy and Pleasures An Human Life is a Life of Constraint The Life of Sinners is a Life of Slavery There is none but the Life of a true Christian that is fill'd with Delights The Human Life must force it self for to maintain it self aright in State and Honour and constrain its Nature and its Inclinations to yield unto and please Men fearing to offend or disoblige them therefore we are often constrained to bow as a Reed under the Power of the Great or those in Authority having no more Liberty than the Good or Bad Opinion of Men gives us The Life of a Sinner is a real Slavery for he is tortur'd with his own Passions which do often serve as an Executioner both to Body and Soul destroying both the one and the other What Pain is there in doing Evil What Displeasures and Remorse when the Evil is done How is a Sinner hated by others and a Burthen to himself He has not sometimes the Freedom to speak or lift up his Head for fear his Sin be discovered Is it not therefore more easie to abandon all and to entertain our selves only with God than to undergo the Yoke of a Human or of a Sinful Life Seeing he who is resign'd to God lives as a Child without Care who is carried in the Arms of his Father He fears nothing being under the Guard of the Almighty he desires nothing more for he has found all He can seek nothing because all things are found in God Riches Beauty Honour Pleasure all are there in abundance The Soul is joyful the Heart content and the Body in Repose How can you find Difficulty Sir in a thing agreeable and full of all Good It should rather be found in the Life which you lead Tho it be honest yet it is subject to a thousand Disquiets and Cares to maintain you aright and to please every Body To quit all things is to quit very little for to find the All. And not to think but upon God is to do that which naturally we would do upon the ceasing of the eagerness of our Imagination which frames to it self some imaginary Pleasure in the Conversation of Men which is nevertheless interwoven with a great many Displeasures and Discontents All this may be overcome by retiring our Spirit with God I said to her That I wish'd nothing more than to find my self in so happy a State which would yield me Communion with God That for this cause I would willingly abandon a thousand Worlds Begging she would tell me in order what I ought to do for the first She said Sir After that you shall have wholly abandon'd the World present your self before God as the Prodigal Son acknowledging that you have wasted so many Graces which he had imparted to you that you might love him and that you have applied them to please Men. Tell him plainly that you have sinned against him and Heaven And then he will give you the first Robe of Innocence in imbracing you as his Son Resign your self wholly to him as a Child newly born again and then he will govern you in all your Ways learning you to speak to walk to eat and all the rest that hitherto you did not know how to do aright for if you walk'd it has been to seek Temporal Things and if you have eaten it was but for the Maintenance of your Body and if you spoke it was only to please or satisfie Men All which things are Vain and Unworthy of a true Child of God Quit therefore Sir all your old Habits and suffer your self now to be conducted by God who is your true Father Receive from him what shall befal you If Prosperities come upon you bless him if Adversities receive them with Joy for he had no other things whilst in this World but Tribulations Esteem your self happy to imitate him Seek no longer any other thing but what God shall permit to befal you and then you will find that the Lord is good and gracious Tho' Tribulations seem sometimes bitter yet they are made sweet by the Conformity of the Life of Jesus Christ Pains suffered with Jesus Christ are rendred agreeable This Resignation to God is the first part of Blessedness which draws along with it all the rest When you shall be resigned to his Government you will have no longer need of Masters or any other Helps For he alone is your Protector in this Valley of Miseries which will not last but for a Moment in respect of Eternity Let us suffer with him if we would reign with him I ask'd What I should do with my temporal Goods if I should distribute them to the Poor or to Churches or rather to religious Convents She said Sir Keep your Temporal Goods for your Entertainment For he who has not wherewith to maintain himself now-a-days when Charity is dead would have Vexations to seek and find it So much the more that Justice requires rather to retain what we have lawfully acquired for our own Nourishment than to give it away and to be oblig'd afterwards to ask of others This Pretext of Voluntary Poverty hath introduc'd among the Religious great Avarice for after having abandon'd their own they seek with more Greediness the Wealth of Others than ever they did their own Which obliges them to flatter People and often to give way to evil that they may have where withal to live and they are unsatiable to augment and increase it It is a kind of Robbery to take the Goods of others by way of Alms when we have the Means to live upon our own But if you have more than suffices for your Entertainment distribute it to Christian Brethren who have need of it as the first Christians did so that no Body among them had need of any thing because the Rich did impart to the Poor what was necessary for them There being then no Proposal of Building so many Churches and Monasteries as at present which are built more for the Commodity and Pleasures of Monks than for the Glory of God which does not consist in material Temples as it does in the Living Temples of the Souls of true Christians These are the true Temples of God where he will reside to all Eternity But not in these Machines of Stone or Wood which will perish very shortly with their Builder who will be oblig'd to suffer Poverty by Force since they would not suffer it voluntarily according to the Vows and Promises which they make publickly of it If at present you do not find true Christians to whom to give of your Abundance keep it for the Love of God until you shall know them His Mercy will very shortly form a great number of them For to give to the Wicked is to co-operate to their Vices Having remark'd that she spoke of the Destruction of Churches and Monasteries I ask'd her If she
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
with doing the outward Ceremonies without considering what is done Baptism is an outward Sign to shew that he who is baptized gives up and consecrates himself to the Service of God and will live in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ renouncing the Devil the World and its Pomps This is what he ought to do in the inward of his Soul who desires to be baptized and then to come publickly to the Font of Baptism to confirm the Vows and Promises that he has made to God in his Heart that they may be publickly known and own'd by the Church But in the Baptism of new born Infants nothing of this can concurr For the Infant being weak has not yet the Will to give it self to the Service of God or to follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ nor yet to renounce the Devil and the World and its Pomps For it has no Sense nor Understanding more than a silly Beast and the most Part of Parents who ought to supply the Defect of the Infant have not Faith themselves and cannot teach them to follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ since they themselves will not do it On the contrary so soon as their Children begin to have any little Judgment they teach them to follow the World and its Pomps which is very far from minding them that they have renounced it by Baptism What Effect therefore can this outward Sign have when nothing is effectuated in the Heart of him who receives it neither by himself nor by his Parents And when Godfathers and Godmothers speak in the Name of the Infant they lye For they say that he desires to be baptized and the Infant cannot have this Desire They say that he renounces the Devil the World and its Pomps and as soon as these outward Ceremonies are ended they never think more on what they have promised in the Child's Name far less do they acquaint him with it when he is grown up to the end the Child may remember the Promise which he made at Baptism For in doing this they would give a Reproof to themselves because neither Father nor Mother nor Godfather nor Godmother nor any Body at present observes the Doctrine of Jesus Christ tho' all Christians are outwardly baptiz'd They would count him a Fool or a very Precisian who should affirm that we are oblig'd to keep and observe the Evangelical Life because it is not any longer in use They would even be ashamed to renounce the World and its Pomps because the most wise and the most holy follow the World and its Pomps The Wise say that one must live civilly and maintain himself in Honour and the Saints at present say that a Man must accommodate himself to the World that we cannot make a World by our selves We see the most Reformed Monks study to please the World desiring to be lov'd and honour'd by it and would be very sorry to be hated by the World as Jesus Christ foretold his Servants should be On the contrary every one seeks to draw the World to himself and to have its Friendship to the end that having gain'd the Heart he may likewise gain the Purse Are not these fine Christians in Parade and not in Effect For they have no sooner renounc'd in Baptism the World and its Pomps than they think of nothing but to follow and to love it as if their Promise were nothing but a Formality of Words They do with God as they would do with a Fool promising him a great many things to please him without having any Desire to give him them Baptism ought not to be received but by him who resolves in himself to consecrate himself to God and to follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which he ought to know before he be baptized and resolve of his own Free-Will that he will follow it quitting the Maxims of Men which are all contrary to those of Jesus Christ The Christians of old did so No body was made Christian but they who of their deliberate Will would consecrate themselves to God and follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but at present they force every one to be baptized before they have the Use of Reason without knowing what they do or what they promise I said to her That the Custom of baptizing Children in their Infancy was Instituted on good Grounds to the end no Christians might die before they were baptized that all those who died in their Childhood might assuredly be saved She said Sir I believe rather that the Devil invented this to the end no Christian might be saved as it falls out that very few shall be saved of those who are baptized in their Infancy because when they are outwardly baptized they believe they are sufficiently assured of their Salvation which is the greatest Mistake in the World For Baptism operates nothing in our Souls no more than the other Sacraments but according to their Disposition How can a Child without Judgment have the Dispositions requisite for receiving Baptism If their Baptism were delayed till they had their full Reason we would certainly yet find true Christians for they who had no Mind to follow Jesus Christ would not be baptized unless it were out of Hypocrisie But at present every body thinks himself a good Christian if so be he have been outwardly baptized without considering that this Sign gives nothing to our Souls if we have not suitable Dispositions If they were not baptized in their Infancy all those who desire to be saved would study to know what is necessary for becoming true Christians and would have no Rest till they had obtained this Happiness but at present every one rests satisfied with this outward Baptism not considering that to be Christians they must follow the Instructions of Jesus Christ without which it had been better they had never been baptized It is just the same as if a Servant should go hire out himself to serve some Prince or Lord and as soon as he had got on his Livery should quit his Master to give himself to Robbery setting himself to steal and rob in the same Habit which would serve him the better to catch his Prey For the Merchant who should see him clothed with some Prince's or Lord's Livery would not be aware that he were a Robber till he saw the Effects of it But if this Robber were some Day seiz'd by Justice he would be more severely punish'd for having committed his Thefts and Robberies in some Prince's Livery than if it had been in his own Habit. Even so it is when a Person is baptized and immediately abandons himself to the Vanities of the World he deceives God and the World and renders himself subject to greater Chastisements than if he were not baptized because this outward Sign which should serve him to obtain Grace serves for his greater Condemnation as the Liverty serves the Robber We see the Devil has found out this Invention to baptize young Children knowing well that
a Man must deny himself By which words he explains to us what this DEPENDANCE on God ought to be for the whole Law of the Gospel is nothing else but the Explication of the dependance that we ought to have on the VVill of God And when he says Deny your selves this is nothing else but to say Resign your selves to God because he who follows himself hinders God from ruling over him so all the other Precepts of Jesus Christ are but to point out to us the means by which we may attain to this Resignation of our Will to God's for when Jesus Christ says Renounce all that you possess This is not that God has need of Silver or other Possessions but because Man has so set his Affections on what he possesses in this World that he would not be content that God should take them from him and as long as he has a desire to possess them he cannot be resign'd to the Will of God for he has yet his own And when Jesus Christ says Take up your Cross and follow me this is also to lead us to this Resignation of our Will to that of God for being all good he cannot do Evil to any nor take Pleasure in making us suffer but he who will not endure the Pains and Crosses that shall befall him cannot be resign'd to God for he does not willingly suffer though his Sins have deserv'd it And when Jesus Christ says that we must cut off the Foot or pluck out the Eye that offends us It is not that God has need of any of the Members of our Body but to teach us that he who is resign'd to the Will of God ought willingly to lose his Foot or his Eye yea his Life when God shall permit it for he who has resign'd his Will to the Will of God has no more any Care of or respect to himself suffering himself to be entirely governed by God independently from his own Will And because we did not comprehend sufficiently how this dependance ought to be and were so far removed from it Jesus Christ came upon Earth to explain to us by what means we ought to recover it for all his Precepts are only means to attain to it I asked her how we might know when we are wholly refi n'd to God and that our Liberty and free-will is yielded up to his disposal She said Sir it is very easie to know this for he who has truly yielded up his Free-will to God will use it no more but deny all that it demands even to the least things he yields no longer to it in any thing but waits on God for all that he must have having no more to yield up to him but this Free-will he only receives from God without acting in any thing Such a Person performs all his Actions in dependance on God if he eats and drinks it is nothing but out of pure Necessity without regarding whether it be sweet or sowr all is good to him provided it be wholesome and sufficient for the maintenance of his Life He seeks neither Ease Pleasures Honours Riches nor any Earthly Contentment and if any of these things occur he takes them indifferently from God's Hand for he has no longer any desire of his own He neither desires Honour Estate Riches nor any thing that delights the Mind knowing well that it is not in this Life that one must take his Contentment no more than Jesus Christ did while he was on Earth On the contrary he finds in his Soul a willingness to suffer Reproaches Pain and Labour though contrary to his natural Inclination A Soul dead to it self and resign'd to the VVill of God neither seeks good nor even Vertues but those which God will give it and affects no means to obtain them but is well contented to be most ignorant and stript of all sorts of Sciences and means even of perfection In one word Sir a person who has yeilded up his free will to God desires no longer any thing on Earth and expects only what it shall please God to permit or send him receiving Prosperity and Adversity with an even mind without Joy or Grief since he believes That God will not permit any thing to befall him but what shall turn to his good All these are signs to know whether we be resign'd to God or not for we must not flatter our selves in saying that we are resign'd to God while we live wholly to our own wills and follow as much as we can our own inclinations I said to her That I never knew any on Earth who was so resigned to God as to take all from his hands and to have no self-will on occasions tho' many pretend that they will live wholly to God and do his will She said Sir Do you not see that these are all Cheats and that those who say they would please God and do his will deceive themselves in believing that God is pleas'd with their words without effect If you never knew any person who yeilded up to God the free will that he gave him you may well say that you know none in a state of salvation for no man can be saved who follows his own will For Adam committed no other sin to undo us but the following his own will The matter of eating an Apple was not sufficient to cause all the miseries under which we yet groan That which ruin'd the Children of Israel was nothing else but that they would not be contented with the Government and Will of God desiring rather to suffer the miseries of Egypt in doing their own wills than to enjoy the delights they had while they Resign'd themselves to God VVhen all the world-perish'd by an universal Deluge it was because every one was more bent to follow his own will than to submit to the word that God proclaimed by Noah And when the Jews were given up to the Spirit of Error it was for no other Reason but that they valued more their own will than the light that God sent them to receive and know His. By which we may see that in all Times and Ages God has always demanded the Submission of Man's Will to his own and has rejected all those who follow their own Will Do you believe Sir that it will not be thus with Christians and all the World now It is certainly the very same thing for God never changes What he required from Adam he certainly requires from all his Posterity We are mistaken if we think to deceive him now with formal Words and Discourses saying that we will be resigned to him and do his VVill when in effect we will only follow our own on all occasions This is one deceit among others which are crept into Christendom to make all the World Perish For no body knows what it is to be resign'd to God while every one says he is and on this false perswasion they insensibly destroy
Ordinances of the Church than to those of God I ask'd her Whether she was a Catholick and whether one could be sav'd out of the holy Church She said Yes Sir I am a Catholick and ready to die for the Faith and Doctrine of Jesus Christ because 't is necessary for me If I had remain'd in innocence without having contracted so many evil habits by the conversation of men I should not have needed the Law of God nor the Precepts of Jesus Christ but having departed from that innocence in which I ought to have resign'd my self wholly to God yielding up to him the free will that he gave me I have need now of this Law and those Evangelical Counsels as means to recover that innocence and that I may with singleness of heart resign my will to that of God as all other men also have need of them for every one has departed from that innocence and contracted many evil habits which hinder this resignation to God I embrace indeed the Apostolical Faith and Belief but I do not believe many things which those who call themselves the Christian Church lay before us because they are not true for he who should believe to be sav'd by going to Church and frequenting the Sacraments or such like things would at death find himself deceiv'd because no Prayers or Sacraments operate without an inward disposition And whereas we see people frequent the Churches and Sacraments without piety or devotion we may well judg that the world is deceived by such like things while they place the hopes of their salvation on outward things which are but the signification of the inward disposition of the mind You will say It may be Sir that the Church supposes this inward disposition which is a false supposition because we see evidently by experience that the inward disposition is very far from what appears outwardly and upon this supposition the Church could not appoint the baptising of new born Infants who are not at all capable of inward dispositions I doubt not but these Romanists would bring many Reasons and Arguments but I hold to the Truth of God and know no other Church but the souls which possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Lo this is the only true Church out of which there can be no salvation for every one has need of taking up these means that by them he may attain to a RESIGNATION to God I said to her That truly there must be some infatuation of Spirit that tied us to this Church for tho we see she does not at all possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ yet we are afraid to leave her as if she were the holy Church tho the truth makes it evidently appear that she is not She said Sir I bless God that he opens your Eyes to discover the truth in what concerns your salvation for as long as you do not discover evil you cannot avoid it but will still be in danger of being deceived by it If the Devil were not in this Church it is impossible that so many good spirits should thus blindly follow her 'T is certainly by an infatuation of the understanding for they see enough in the outside to judg assuredly that she is not guided by the holy spirit and that she follows not in any respect the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and nevertheless they continue so wedded to her thro' som panick or pusillanimous Fear that they dare not shake off her dependance fearing they should do evil in following the truth And if any person of a sound Judgment discovers her deceits and uncharms his Understanding so as to perceive her Errors yet out of respect to the Glory of the World he dare not forsake her because this Church is advanc'd to so great Honour and Authority that no body dares leave her for fear of being disgrac'd or persecuted by her as she would certainly do so long as it is in her power For this cause Jesus Christ speaking of the last Times in which we are fallen says That a man must get out of Judea and flee even without returning to his house to take his Cloaths Judea is the Church and the Sanctuary where the abomination of desolation is now so increas'd that it is at its heighth A man needs not glory in being a Son of the Church for the Children shall be cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Jews and Heathens shall be admitted into it for God can make of these stones Children of Abraham Lay aside therefore Sir all these Fears and Pusillanimities they proceed from a softness of spirit Keep close to the Truth and follow her without Fear for she will guide you to salvation If Glory or Interest do not hold you in a dependance on the Church leave her boldly for her Reign will be very shortly at an end and she will perish with all her Glory and Possessions 'T is better lose our Garments than our Life or even our Wealth and Honour than our souls The Fifth Conference Of the Destruction of Christendom I Said to her That I was not so afraid as she thought and that I had ask'd many things of her of which I made no doubt but I desir'd always to be further cleared and therefore propos'd many questions Yet on the contrary I had long suspected that the Church was the VVhore in the Revelations in which her behaviour had confirm'd me therefore would flee out of her Dependance She said 'T will be your best course for her time draws near in which she shall be raz'd and rooted out and her Children scatter'd and divided All the World shall bewail her and call her miserable fot her misery shall be great and all her Villanies shall be discover'd It would be then too late to forsake her for all those who shall be found drinking out of her Cup shall perish with her Therefore Jesus Christ has said That we must not wait till the winter or the Sabbath-day That is till the time of persecution and the Day of the coming of Jesus Christ in his glory for in her persecution there will be so great evils that the like were never seen Men shall pine away for Terror and Fear and be very uncapable of studying how to find the Truth Therefore you must not wait till the time of extremity but flee and get out of her before Neither must you wait till the Day when our Saviour shall come in his Glory because he will render to every one acecrding to his works the time of penitence shall be past it must be done presently or else we shall all perish For the Lord will overthrow all evil by the brightness of his coming which is to be looked for only in order to receive our last Judgment for which it is more than time to prepare our selves and to flee to the Mountains taking heed of men who have for so long deceived and