penitence because they had too much love for themselves and too little affection to seek God esteeming their ease more than the contentment there is in the loving and following of him for this cause they had left her And as for Dangers God preserv'd her she having past thro many dangers without being hurt that her confidence was in him alone who has all power in heaven and in earth that he never forsakes them who put their confidence in him that she reckon'd it a happiness to suffer hunger thirst and other troublesome things since Christ had chosen such sufferings to give us an example and to the end we might follow him and that she had no other intention in this undertaking but to abandon the world to deny her self and to imitate Jesus Christ which she could not so well do in her own Country since the care of temporal wealth the love of friends and the pleasures there are in being honour'd and esteem'd are all things which withdraw from God and hinder the resigning of our selves to him that penitences chosen after our mode are full of self-love but that those which God permits to befal us are pure that the length of the way was not troublesome to her for she had no desire of ever staying in one fixt place because there she found too many distractions by the importunity of the conversation of men who would have disturb'd her inward repose and that she desir'd very much to live unknown We admir'd all this answer for it seem'd not to proceed from human sence since Nature takes no part in so pious a resolution and one must live supernaturally to despise ease friends and honours and to love sufferings and fatigues and flee the conversation of men seeing they are all sociable Creatures delighting themselves among their equals and rejoycing to converse with their like It gave us sentiments of confusion saying one to another what Confusion shall we have in the day of Judgment when simple Girls do such things to please God and we amidst all our Learning and Studies are so far remov'd from such sentiments Truly this Child will condemn us We resolv'd to accompany her and to examine her more narrowly seeing there was something peculiar in her above the spirit and capacity of the female sex for her discourses were firm constant and full of judgment and of divine wisdom tho no ways artificial nor polite but simple and true and in every thing admirable We ask'd her if it was therefore necessary that every one should leave their Country to be sav'd To which she answer'd No for God is to be found every where and in all places that those who are not wedded to any thing have no need of doing it but as for her the removing from her native Country serv'd her as a powerful means to love God alone since before her withdrawing from it her affection was set upon her City her House her Parents her Friends as all appertaining to her but that having done violence to her nature to abandon them she had acquir'd a great liberty of spirit to flie unto God But for other persons who feel no affection to those things which belong to them they may indeed work out their salvation in every place saying that every one ought to examine themselves in this matter as in all others and to remove or avoid all things which hinder them from resigning themselves wholly to God without doing of which there is no salvation And having ask'd her if to be sav'd one must suffer hunger and thirst and all other things troublesome to the body She said That a man ought not to seek nor affect these things but when it pleases God to send them by any accident he ought to suffer them willingly and to rejoyce that he makes us worthy to follow him and to imitate his sufferings Having ask'd her if poverty was necessary to salvation She said That temporal Goods were not evil in themselves but that poverty of spirit was necessary to salvation because a soul who loves and desires temporal goods cannot love God with all his heart nor fulfil the first and the greatest Commandment that riches were a great burthen that they occasion'd great distractions and disquiet that the most secure way was to rid ones self of them unless they serve as means to advance the Glory of God or succour our Neighbour in his necessity that many deceiv'd themselves believing they possest them without affection to them while they would be much troubled to abandon them that we may indeed use them but not love them that many will be damn'd for having lov'd riches and that a great many are stopt in the mid way of Vertue by the cares and desires of riches And asking her if one might not receive honour or suffer to be belov'd by men She said That he who makes himself be honour'd robs the honour which is due to God only and if it be fit to suffer honour for any estate or dignity it ought to be suffer'd with regret as a thing perillous to the infirmity of our corrupt nature which willingly delights in honour which ordinarily tickles the sense and blows up the heart making the soul to perish forasmuch as the honours which we receive without referring them to God are all sins for there is none but God alone who deserves honour and man how great and exalted soever he may be can never merit any thing but contempt and confusion for he being nothing but a silly worm of the earth has notwithstanding rebell'd against his God and Creator And as to the desire of being lov'd by men that this proceeds from self love that our nature affects always to be lov'd to receive some effect of good will from those who love it but that all which is of nature is not of Grace that he who acts spiritually and seeks the perfection of his soul ought to regret and be troubled to see that man who is created only to love God should amuse himself in loving such a creature as he who has no power to better the object which he loves and that it is loss of time and the turning of ones self away from God to love men or to desire to be lov'd by them We may indeed desire that they love God in us for we are all his Images and we may also love them as the Images of God since he commands us to love our Neighbours as our selves for asmuch as both are the Images of the same God but this love ought to be so purely for God that we should have no respect of persons rich poor friends and enemies kindred or strangers and which is very rare to see that in our love we should affect those in whom God lives and operates
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
obliges me to leave my own Contentment of being with God to draw my Neighbour thither I feel indeed that your soul receives its light in speaking to me and that you profit much in hearing me therefore ask what you please and I will answer you as far as it shall please God to permit I am well pleas'd to shew Charity to my Neighbour I find my God always but not always souls dispos'd to receive his instructions He teaches me to prefer Charity to his Consolations and the sensible pleasures which he gives me I felt in my Soul such Consolation as I cannot express in hearing things so admirable Her words pierc'd my Soul I would have done her honour She says to me Beware of that Sir for I hate two things viz. honour and sin You are a Priest to whom honour is due for your dignity I am nothing but a simple Child If God impart to you his Graces by me it is to him you owe the acknowledgment and not to me for I am nothing and if he should withdraw his Graces from me I should be worse than nothing being inclin'd to evil which nothing cannot be We observed in her a profound humility of heart accompanied with great righteousness and truth She did not affect humble discourses but held always the exact truth in every thing saying what was to her praise as well as what was to her contempt telling us that under humble words and countenances the highest Pride was conceal'd that he who affects to be esteem'd humble presumes to bear the name and the appearance of the most perfect vertue because this humility is the foundation of all perfection without which nothing is to be esteem'd for watchings discipline and other mortifications of the body are nothing but vanity without humility Even prayer y without humility is nothing but hypocrisie For God resists the proud and gives his grace to the humble We ask'd her wherein true Humility consists She said In the knowledge of ones self for he who knows himself truly can never attribute to himself any Good either Natural or Spiritual for he will truly perceive that he has not power to make one hâ—â— grow upon his head nor to give himself one day of health or one moment of Life he will see that he is in his nature more miserable than any living creature upon earth depending upon another in every thing which will keep him voluntarily pliant and submissive to others because of the need he has to depend upon another for the maintenance of his body and as to his mind he who knows himself will judge truly that there is nothing more frail and unconstant than the mind of man which changes every moment and cannot know its true Good since we are all born in Ignorance and Weakness there being nothing to be found more miserable than a person subjected to his own passions and will he is in a perpetual slavery without rest or contentment And as to the superiour and divine part what weakness to do Good what bent and inclination to evil what violence to overcome vice in one word man is the abridgment and the abstract of all sorts of miseries This is that which Job so bitterly lamented But whosoever attains to this knowledge of himself he must needs be humble of heart and subject to the Government and Will of God upon whom he knows that he entirely depends Behold wherein true Humility consists pride proceeding from no other thing but from the Ignorance of our selves and from a not depending upon God attributing foolishly some authority and power to our selves desiring to depend upon our own will which is altogether deprav'd and enclin'd to all sort of evil our heart being puff'd up with our very miseries for there is no other thing in us but miseries for which alone we esteem ourselves to be something tho in effect we are worse than nothing which doth no evil By which we abundantly see that humility cannot consist in humble words and gestures but only in the knowledge of our nothingness and that humble actions do often serve as matter for our pride for to desire to appear humble is to be proud We ought to be truly humble before God but not desire to appear such before men We ask'd her wherein true Perfection did consist She said in the LOVE OF GOD For that he who loves God cannot sin nor offend him whom he loves that this love is a law and rule to all our actions that S. Augustin said well in saying Love and do what you will because he who loves God cannot do evil while all that he does centers in this love which he bears to God This love likewise cannot remain idle it must needs produce all sorts of vertues principally Charity which is inseparable from the love of God for since we cannot see or touch God we do it in part in our Neighbour who is the true Image of God This begets in our will a desire of good will toward our Neighbour wishing and procuring him the same temporal and spiritual good things which we wish and pretend to for our selves because of the love we bear to God whom our Neighbour represents from whence all sort of perfections do proceed without which there can be no true perfection since that is all summ'd up and contain'd in the love of God and of our Neighbour for he who loves God will exercise himself in the practice of all sorts of vertues to the end he may render himself agreeable to him whom he loves if he sees that his God has been little he will never desire to be great or that his God has been poor he will never desire to be rich or despis'd he will never desire to be honour'd and so of the rest And if he love his Neighbour out of Charity he will yield to him and serve him in his need wishing him no other evil than he would wish to himself he will willingly bear with his infirmities procuring on all occasions his good and advantage as his own So that all Perfection consists in this LOVE OF GOD AND OF OVR NEIGHBOVR FOR GOD. All the rest are nothing but amusements and lies When we place perfection in any other subject we deceive our selves These answers did ravish us with astonishment being obliged to acknowledge that they were most true in the most perfect and accomplish'd sense Having ask'd her By what means we might attain to this LOVE OF GOD which is true Charity since we are all born in such misery and that God has subjected us to so many evils bodily and spiritual and that our Nature has more need of help and succour than any other Creature To this she answer'd gravely Softly Sir do not blaspheme against God for it is not he who has subjected us to so many
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
with his Resolution to publish this to the World thinking himself oblig'd in Conscience to undeceive others as by these Divine Truths he was undeceiv'd himself But when she had seen his Papers and read a little of them she told him they would be useful for himself but not for others because they often answer'd the Thoughts of his own Mind which no Body perceiv'd but himself and being sollicited by him to compose this Work anew returning him his Papers she her self wrote by way of Conference the things which God brought into her Memory in the same manner as they are now publish'd in the three parts of The Light of the World She went to Holland at the Sollicitation of M. de Cort in order to the Printing of this Book To this she had some Repugnance at first having never been formerly in any Place without the Dependance of the Church of Rome and being made believe that all the Hereticks as they call'd them were monstrous and Infectious But having recommended this Affair to God she was told That these common Differences of Religion do not bring Salvation but the Love of God only and Vertue which we ought to love in all Persons who aspire to it without regarding the outward Religion they profess that she ought to do good to all and communicate to all the Light of the Divine Truth of what Religion soever they be This wrought in her Soul so perfect an Impartiality that she never afterwards enquir'd of what Religion one was provided only he lov'd to put in practice the Doctrin of Jesus Christ and to recover the Love of God This impartiality of Spirit and her equal Concern for the good of all and the Freedom she took to manifest the Corruption of all Parties and how far they were from the Spirit of true Christianity made her to be hated and persecuted on all sides The Jesuits the Jansenists the Lutheran and Calvinist Ministers the Anabaptists the Quakers the Labadists did respectively prosecute her either with their Tongue or Pen or by exciting the Civil Power where she staid or animating the Fury of the Rabble against her They made her pass for a Visionarist a Person of a wicked Life suspected of Sorcery a Blasphemer the worst of Hereticks one who did propagate the most damnable Opinions but Wisdom is justified of her Children The Innocence and Purity of her Life and the perfect Conformity of it to the Christian Doctrin of her Writings was made appear by Evidences beyond all Exception The publick Confession which she made of her Faith and the Agreement of her Writings therewith shew the Falshood of their Calumnies as to her Doctrin and the Writings publish'd against her gave her occasion the more to clear and manifest the Truth so that what they were apt to except against in some of her Writings she more fully explain'd in others as appears for Instance in her Advertisement against the Quakers where she speaks more expressly of the Respect due to Pastors and the Sacraments She deplor'd greatly the unhappy Schisms which have divided Christendom into so many Factions disapprov'd all that savours of the Spirit of a Party of Disputes and Partialities protested a thousand times against the establishing a new one but aim'd to perswade all to observe the Doctrin of Jesus Christ without changing from one party to another so that she even disswaded some Protestants of her Acquaintance from turning over to the Church of Rome as they had been sollicited by others but to obey the Doctrin of Jesus Christ in the Communion wherein they were such Changes being but the effect of Vanity She said the Difference of Sects and Parties among Christians was founded upon their Neglect of the Essentials of Christianity and their Zeal for some of the Accessories and Externals of it and comparing the first to a Sword and the other to its Sheath the great Debate among the respective Parties was which had the best Sheath and in the mean time the Devil robb'd us of the Sword She was desirous to know the Will of God even as to the ordering of outward things and receiv'd from him the following Rules 1. Do all in good order and in season for I am a God of order And Disorder comes from the Devil and from Sin 2. Never be eager in Temporal Affairs but apply your mind to do well what you do in quietness for the wandring of the mind and disquiet spoils all 3. Take care of making a good use of every thing that nothing be spoil'd or lost for what is lost by your negligence will be required of you and what you have no need of may be useful for another 4. Keep your self still imploy'd in things useful saving or necessary For idleness is the Mother of all Evils and the Devil lodges in an idle Soul 5. Labour that you may accomplish your Penitence and not that you may please Men or gain Mony or satifie your self for all the Labours that you go about for any other end than to please me are lost Labour and you have your reward in what you sought for whether it be complaisance of Men or the Mony you have gain'd or your own satisfaction 6. Apply your mind to look well to every thing that nothing perish thro' your negligence and what you observe to be amiss help it as soon as you can by repairing as much as is possible for you all the faults that you have committed 7. Do the same as to the good of your Neighbour that you may fufill that Command of loving your Neighbour as your self They who were with her to whom she had recommended these Rules being unwilling to be so exact in the smalest matters which while they were conversant in the World seem'd to them of no moment and she having ask'd Counsel of God thereupon she had this Answer All that Men have to do in this World are but trifles and of little moment and if they will not obey me in so small and easie matters how will they do in great and difficult ones Not that I have need of them for my self nothing can profit or hurt me But you have great need to observe exactly all these things that I teach you For being made up of a Soul and Body both which have need of entertainment if you do not carefully order Temporal things your Body will fall into a thousand sorts of Miseries Anxieties Maladies Disquiets Confusion Poverty and Want which at last will become unsupportable to you And all this because of your little foresight your disorder or negligence Therefore I instruct you how you ought to carry on all things even to the least of your Actions that you may be happy even in this miserable Life Not that I have need that you be Rich or Poor in Health or Sickness in good Order or in Confusion neat or unclean outwardly all this does not touch me nor offend me so long as your Souls abide in my Love
evils He can never do evil All that comes from him is most good and perfect he created us in an altogether holy and perfect state with an immortal body and a divine soul subject to none but himself having given us a spirit enlighten'd to know him and a power to rule over all the creatures both terrestrial and infernal and if he has oblig'd us to aid and succour one another this is not that he had created us more infirm than any other living creature but only to the end he might afford us matter for entertaining mutual Charity and Union together one assisting his Brother out of love the other being led to love him by the assistance and benefits which he receives from him and thus perpetually to maintain this love by the aliment of the need that we have of one another to the end we might continue united together as Jesus Christ is united to his Father And even the manner of the Generation of men is ordain'd for no other reason but always to preserve this perfect unity of body and spirit Thus you see that God has done all things well tho it seems sometimes to our ignorance that many evil things come from God the only Author of all good and the Destroyer of all evil It is our sin which has caused all the miseries under which we continually groan the maladies and infirmities of body are engender'd in us by sin the weakness ignorance and inconstancy of our spirit do proceed from sin That all the creatures rise up against us and hurt us this is but to take just vengeance of the rebellion which we have committed against God by sin It is a blasphemy therefore to say That God has subjected us to so many evils since we our selves only are the Authors of them and he can never do evil no not to damn us if we do not damn our selves and to know how and by what means we may attain to the LOVE OF GOD which is true Charity we need only take the Gospel and there observe in particular the instructions which Jesus Christ and his Apostles have left us in writing and put them in practice Behold the sure means to attain to true Charity without which no body can be sav'd It is not necessary that we seek any other means than those which Jesus Christ has taught us by word and deed I said to her if to be sav'd one must have this perfect Charity few persons will attain to salvation for we do not observe now that the Charity of which she speaks does possess the hearts of men She answers This is to be bewail'd with tears of blood for no body shall be sav'd without it as St. Paul affirms that Tho we would bestow all our goods to feed the poor tho we could remove Mountains tho we had the Gift of Prophecy yea tho we would give our body to be burned yet all this would be nothing for our Salvation without Charity And if you will exactly run over all the holy Scriptures you shall find by the sayings of Jesus Christ of the Apostles and of all the holy Prophets that never any person shall be sav'd without this Charity which consists in the LOVE OF GOD and of our Neighbour for God In the mean time no body possesseth this Charity and almost all the world presumes to be sav'd There is now Sir so great darkness in the whole world that no body discerns truth from falshood since they have taught Christians that the means of living well and of being sav'd do consist in going to Church in praying morning and evening and in confessing and communicating often By these things they have annull'd the Law of God and stified Charity for this is no more in use among Christians it is not so much as known by them and they understand not what true CHARITY is because this name is now appropriated to the gifts which persons bestow on Monks religious persons the superfluous Ornaments and Buildings of Monasteries and Churches they have baptizd by the name of Charity all these Gifts Presents and Legacies And I in my inward conversation do find them to be sensual affections and call them Robbery and Avarice for he who receives Presents without necessity by way of Alms does certainly commit Robbery and robs the poor and necessitous who alone are capable of receiving alms So that he whosoever he be having necessaries for the support of his life being able to gain them by some trade or labour is oblig'd to restore all the gifts and presents which he receives by way of alms and that person commits the sin of avarice who covets more than what is simply necessary for the support of his life for it is a great folly for a Traveller to load himself with burthens which are not necessary to him for the accomplishing of his Voyage Thus no body can enrich himself or heap up earthly goods without the Lust of Avarice which sin as all others does blind souls rendring them insensible of their own hurt But because they have introduc'd the calling of these vices and sins by the name of Charity every one believes they have it while they co-operate to these vices by this the Devil has seiz'd on the Throne of God and reigns in the Sanctuary by falshood whereas God ought to reign there by truth Behold the deplorable state in which we live at present the danger is so much the greater that all the evils are cover'd with vertue and piety that good men may be the more deceiv'd who live and die in this horrible darkness not knowing what true Charity is far less do they possess it so that I despair of their Salvation If they do not perceive this truth of Charity they can never be sav'd since not knowing it they cannot love it nor endeavour to find it while they think it is enough to bear the name of charitable tho they neither know nor possess true Charity There are so many such errors now in Christendom that Christians are by them led insensibly into Hell while they believe that they are assuredly in the way of Paradice I ask'd her If the goodness of God would permit that so many persons should go to perdition while they believe that they do well and follow the counsel of learned men and such as are authoriz'd by the Church She said Truly Sir there will be more Christian Souls damn'd by these means than by gross visible and material sins because all those persons who think to be sav'd live and die in the sins against the Holy Ghost which will not be pardon'd neither in this world nor in the other Not that these sins are so enormous that they cannot be pardon'd but because they are inward and spiritual little known and far less feared The most devout persons are tainted with them and will
and if he would search narrowly his Conscience he will find that he has resisted and oppos'd grace Some say My grace is not strong enough to make me abstain from sin and another will say If God would give me his grace I should be holy All this is spoken to lay the blame on God of our sins and miseries and to excuse our selves and thus to make God pass for unjust and a partial respecter of those to whom he gives his grace and also cruel in denying it to whom he pleases Thus they look upon God as a person subject to diverse passions of love and hatred of good or ill will Truly Sir I bewail so great a blindness among men How can they make a right judgment of their own concupiscence or of their Neighbour when they make such unjust ones of God himself and notwithstanding think they judge rightly because the learned judge so yea they would even think they sinned or did evil in believing the contrary because this invisible Antichrist has instill'd these sentiments into the mind of the learned that they may never attain to the knowledge of the Righteousness Goodness and Mercy of God and that they may amuse themselves in disputing about questions which are not necessary to our Salvation but serve rather to offend him making our selves Judges of his works debating about his designs This is one of the reasons for which I blame all those studies in the Church of God being perswaded that they have brought many errors into it and wishing always that it had continu'd in the Gospel simplicity as in the times of the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ The Eighth Conference Of the Grace of Ged how it is given us and of the Difficulty of Conversion HAving observ'd that she spoke of the matters of Grace concerning which there had arisen so many Controversies in the Church of which she had hinted something already in the former Conferences I ask'd her what she believ'd concerning Grace and if the opinion of St. Augustin and his Suecessors was not better in holding that all Grace comes from and depends upon God alone than the opinion of some others who hold that Man may have Grace as often as he desires it To which she reply'd I fear Sir I shall not say the things wnich are most agreeable to you for it seems to me you have some interest in this dispute But since I have promis'd to answer all your questions I shall do it truly and in simplicity according to my measure of light without respect of persons confiding in your goodness that you will pardon the freedom which I must use in this discourse As to the first Question Whether the opinion of St. Augustin and his Followers is better than that of his Adversaries in this matter I hold comparing the one with the other that that of St. Augustin is the better or to speak more properly the less dangerous because the design of it seems to be to perswade us that all grace comes immediately from God that we may presume nothing of our selves whereas the contrary opinion rather incites man to attribute grace to himself as if it depended on his own will which would not excite in us so much humility as the first perswasion which for this reason is less dangerous But I believe the minds of neither of these Doctors were sufficiently purifyd to perceive clearly the truth of this question and that their Understandings were not free of the Ideas of their acquired Learning for receiving of this Light of Grace which is not receiv'd but by the same Grace which is obseured when our own sense is in the least mixt with it It is necessary that all the faculties of our soul should be still that we may receive the pure light of the holy Spirit And to answer as to what I believe concerning Grace I will tell you Sir it comes immediately from God without any merit or co-operation of ours for we cannot merit nor co-operate before we have a being Nothing is not capable of being able to desire or co-operate with Grace It must needs be given us thro the sole mercy of God as it was in creating us and drawing us out of Nothing It was his will and pleasure to create us after his own Image and Likeness and to make us Deities depending upon him that he might take his delight with us The Center of our Soul being the place of his Residence He has adorned us with all the Graces that might make us love him and whereas Love cannot be perfect and accomplisht unless the beloved give their free consent to the Lover therefore he created us altogether free to consent to that Love for he would not have our consent thro force nor out of necessity but thro a pure desire of good will on his side Therefore he created us a kind of creatures wholly free and gave us all the graces requisite for his Love and this out of his sole goodness and mercy without any co-operation of ours But instead of applying so many graces so freely bestow'd upon us to love him we have made use of them to offend him Nevertheless this was not capable of making God change the Love which he bare to his creatures or to take from them the Graces which he had already bestow'd upon them He continues unchangeable in his benefits and could not repent of having adorn'd man with so many Graces which he continues to give even after his sin Seeing they were not bestow'd on him for his merits neither are they taken away from him for his demerits for God has no need of man if he be righteous or wicked it is for himself but God respecting always himself imparts still the influences of grace to the wicked as the Sun sends his Beams on the Dunghil as well as on the Diamond these different objects not being able to alter or change him Even so man receives always grace from God on his part but it is not always operative because of the hinderances which sin raises against it for if God did not continually give his grace to man he could not subsist We see by experience that the wicked has all things necessary for his life as well as the righteous tho the one employs them to bless God and the other to curse him The Sun shines upon the wicked as well as upon the good without exception of persons The grace of God is given to every one tho they use it differently Nevertheless we cannot attribute to God the want of his grace but to our own wickedness which opposes it Grace therefore comes immediately from God and nothing comes from man but sin only which hinders the operation of this grace and renders him unable to co-operate with it not being able to enjoy grace and sin both together I ask'd her If sinners might recover Grace as
the mischief proceeds from this that our senses are distracted from the works of God and that we apply them to know and to love earthly objects which are below us and unworthy of being lov'd by us for they can give us no other thing but divertisement of mind and amusement of our senses without any profit since all is but vanity passing away in a moment without leaving any thing in our souls but vexations and regrets at death Behold the height of all the happiness we can ever hope for in loving any creatures whatsoever A mans mind must be infatuated if he do not find in the works of God and in his operations which we experience in our selves all sorts of occasions to love and to follow him For who can consider the beauty of the Sun and of the Stars of Heaven the good and fertility of the Flowers and Fruits of the Earth without being ravish'd with admiration in considering what beauty and goodness he must have who gives them to all these things We amuse our selves sometimes in loving a stone a flower or a humane creature for its beauty and we do not raise our understandings to love the fountain and the giver of all these beauties which is God! most durably beautiful who cannot fade as do all these other beauties which are nothing but phantastical and changeable If God had not the perfection of all beauties how could he give it to so many diverse things for one can never give that which he himself has not Who can say therefore that we do not see nor feel God as we do the creatures since he shews himself and lets himself be felt by his operations which are sensible to our senses Who can say that he does not continually perceive God operating in him and doing him infinite good That we have a being is by the good will of God That we see or speak or hear are the gifts of God That we reason with our understanding that we enjoy our five natural Senses these are all gifts of God which no body can give unto himself and which cannot be acquired by Gold and Silver or Freinds let them be who they will The daily food of our body does it not all come from God For what man can make a grain of Corn or a Strawberry to grow All these things with a thousand others do they not afford us sensible enough subjects to know and to love God Can we say in truth that we do not see him nor feel him since he makes himself to be seen and felt every moment by so many benefits which our Soul and our Body do receive in so great abundance which cannot come from any other but from God himself It would be more true to say that we could not love the creatures than that we cannot love God for they can give us nothing and God gives us all that we see by our natural senses and that this impossibility of loving God and of fulfilling his Commandments is apply'd to a contrary sense and that it is more impossible to love the creatures with all our heart because they can never fill our soul for it is spiritual and they are material and therefore no congruity in them to be loved with all our heart which cannot be filled but with God alone The Fifteenth Conference That God has never given to Man but one only essential Command which is that of his LOVE which is most easie and most agreeable and the Love of all other things most vain I Said unto her That she confounded the Ten Commands of God into one and that they who say it is impossible to keep his Commands speak of all not only of the first She reply'd Sir the first is the only Commandment to which God would have us subjected He has never laid any other burthen upon our shoulders but this gentle Yoke of LOVE All the other Laws and Commands are occasioned by our sins and are ordain'd by God for no other end but that we may know them and beware of them He perceiv'd that men from the beginning of the world began to appropriate to themselves Beasts and other earthly goods as things depending upon themselves which led to a forgetfulness of and an ingratitude to God Therefore he appointed the Sacrifices of Beasts and the other First Fruits that by these outward signs they might always preserve in their heart the remembrance that all which they possest came from God It was his will also that they should build him a rich Temple for the same reason that all men might always acknowledge that all their treasures riches and magnificences came from God and did belong to him Therefore he requires that they build him a magnificent Temple Not that God has need of Temples of Riches or Treasures being All in himself But he requires that man retain this acknowledgment of God that by the remembrance of so many benefits he may be oblig'd to love him and to fulfil this first Commandment That he gave to Moses ten Commands written in stone was when men began to multiply their wickedness giving themselves to swear rob bear false witness commit fornication and the rest the goodness of God forbids all these things fearing lest the ignorance of these evil deeds might be the cause of their damnation By these Commands he shews them their sins forbidding them to commit them any longer because all these things were hinderances of loving God as he had commanded them The Law of Circumcision aim'd also at the same to make man acknowledge that he held his life of God and for an outward sign of this acknowledgment he requir'd that he should shed of his blood Not that he had need either of the blood of men or beasts but it is his will that all things should acknowledge that they receiv'd all their being from God that this acknowledgment might oblige them always to love their Creator Even the Evangelical Law consists in no other thing but in this first Command of loving God with all our heart The counsel of poverty chastity and the rest of the Evangelical counsels are given us only for means to attain to this LOVE because he who loves riches luxury himself or other things cannot love God with all his heart nor fulfil this first Commaadment By which you may perceive evidently Sir that all the Commands of God are comprehended in the first and that all the rest are only prohibitions to do what would hinder this love that God has never given us any other Law but that of loving him and that the pity which he has to see us perish made him give all those prohibitions contain'd in his Commandments Can this be evil or impossible to be observed as you have affirm'd to me Is it impossible to be in the world without killing robbing committing adultery and the rest It is rather impossible for him who has common sense to do
this for all these evil things are repugnant to good sense and the love of God delights comforts and edifies How then should it be impossible to do a thing so good and to omit things so evil this is most good useful and reasonable most easie even to our natural inclination which cannot be without loving something and cannot find an object more good more wise more powerful and more worthy to be lov'd than God and from which we can derive greater advantages both temporal and eternal than from him I told her That she rendered the love of God easie and agreeable that no man could have any thing to say against truths so clear and solid but I would gladly know from whence it comes that we find them so difficult and the love of the creatures so easie She said Sir it proceeds from this that we keep our mind distracted and diverted from God and that we apply it only to the view of the creatures by this means our understanding is filled with these earthly objects which darken our reason and render it uncapable of discerning aright the things which we see and feel For if our reason were not darkned it were impossible that we could love the creatures in themselves because they are so frail so impotent and of so short continuance which are all qualities very little lovely in respect of the Creator of them who by his works makes appear unto us his omnipotence his stability and constancy and his eternal duration The creatures themselves do discover to us this truth when we behold the Sun continue his carreer since the beginning of the world the day still to succeed the night the fountains to give their waters without ceasing the earth to bring forth its fruit continually the air its birds the sea its fishes nature its beasts and men What mighty arm must it be that governs all these things What power that upholds and maintains them What immobility that makes them always persist in an equal pace Is there any reason how little soever it be that is not led to love a God so lovely as he renders himself by the sole government of his creatures How much more must he be so in himself and nevertheless we turn away our understanding from these considerations to turn it towards the creature which is so frail of its self that it merits no other thing but to be despis'd by us For what can there be of lovely in the creatures of what kind soever they may be when we consider them only in themselves they are pure Nothings which have neither strength nor beauty nor goodness nor perfections nor duration All that is beautiful and good in them comes from God and all sorts of evil come from themselves If God did not uphold the Sun and all the Stars in the bounds and limits wherein he has plac'd them they would assuredly consume all the earth The creatures may greatly hurt us and no ways benefit us We are hurtful to our selves and if we had not stray'd from sense and lost our reason it were impossible that we would be led to love the creatures and not to love the Creator I told her That there were creatures so lovely that one must be insensible not to love them and that we cannot hate or despise that which does so strongly tickle our senses as a most fair humane creature would do and likewise so many other different beanties which God has created She said Sir I perceive well that you are yet earthly and that your understanding is not as yet raised from all things to the Lord since you do not well comprehend my saying I do not mean but that we may love all the beauties and goodness in the world for God has created them all for men especially for his elect who may use and enjoy them at their wish provided they take them in God who is their fountain but I blame only the love which is carry'd to the creatures for themselves for else we must love the beauties and goodness of the creatures if we love God because we cannot see the beauty and goodness of God but by his creatures He being an invisible and incomprehensible spirit renders himself visible and comprehensible in his creatures so that he who sees a fair or good thing sees God for there is nothing beautiful and good but he alone He is all beauty and all goodness and nothing can be beautiful and good without deriving it from God But all that is blameable herein is that our understanding is not apply'd to the consideration of the beauties of God in considering these earthly beauties We do not raise our mind higher than these material beauties which do debase us to the love of the earth in diverting us from that which we ought to have for God alone For example if you regrrd the beauty of a flower and love it because it tickles your Curiosity you commit a Folly because there is nothing lovely in this Flower but the Art of the Workman who made it For it it can give you no other but a vain Contentment to the Sight or Smell which are things that pass in a Moment for if you wait but one Day you will see what you lov'd turned to Dung and its sweet Smell chang'd into Stink I have seen Flowers bought for three thousand Florins with a too vehement Ray of the Sun has withered in one Day or a little Rain rotted in the same Time And which is more an Earth-worm has kill'd its Root in one Night Do you not see Objects not very lovely to be lov'd by reasonable Creatures capable of loving a God Must not a Man be come to the highest degree of Folly to set his Affections on things so frail as to be in one Day reduc'd into the Dung-Hill All the Creatures are no other thing in themselves He who sets his Affections on the Beasts sees them dye to his Regret He who places them in Riches sees them perish by a renverse of Fortune He who places them in Honours sees them perish by some Disgrace If he place them in Sciences and in Learning all this perishes by a small Defluxion falling upon the Brain Let him place his Affection on any Human Beauty it passes as quickly as a Flower and is reduc'd to Corruption Even so are the Pleasures of the Mouth and of the Body which afford nothing but great Putrefaction In short if we love our selves in whatsoever it be we render our selves miserable for we cannot be reduc'd to a greater Slavery than to be subject to our Passions which are sometimes so insolent that they render the most perfect Men miserable By which we see that all that is not God is nothing but Misery and Vexation of Spirit and that there is no Happiness in the Love of all these Creatures when they are not regarded in their Fountain which is God whom if we did regard all these Creatures
would not be capable of gaining our Affection For it is impossible to love them without being distracted and turned away from God For if we considered the Qualities of God and compared them with those of the Creatures we would see that those are but Dung compared with Gold Besides that all the Creatures together cannot save us nor give us so much as one Moment of Life We pass sometimes our whole Life in studying to render our selves accomplish'd among Men and they have no Power to make us happy even in this World for their Friendship is changeable and their Fortune unconstant Their Fidelity does often depend upon our Complaisance a small Word ill plac'd will render them your Enemies And tho' it were real and constant death can rob you of it in a Moment and you will never find them any more in your Need. Do you not see that all things are frail upon which there is no leaning no Ground to let our selves be charm'd or our Senses tickl'd if there were not a Disorder of Spirit and a Forgetfulness of God! And if this were remov'd it is impossible to love the Creatures in themselves and to cease to love God even tho he had never commanded us Even Natural Instinct leads us to his Love by the consideration of his wonderful Works and of his Benefits which we receive every Moment There needed no other Love to oblige us to love him with all our Heart and with all our Strength The Sixteenth Conference Of continual Prayer and constant Communion with God for which we were created And how we are distracted from it by the Business of this World and by the Enjoyment of frail Creatures I Perceiv'd most clearly that all this was true and moreover that all Men were very far from such Sentiments that every one of them spent their Life in the Affairs and Business of the World and thought not themselves obliged to keep Communion in Spirit with God fearing that this might rob them of the Time and Occasion of dispatching well their Affairs I ask'd her Whether every one was oblig'd to keep continual Communion with God If this was not the particular Business of the Monks the Religious or other Persons who make Profession of a Spiritual Life tending to Perfection She said Sir all Christians are Religious for there can be no other Religion but a Christian Life Every one who would be sav'd is obliged to entertain his Spirit continually with God therefore Jesus Christ says That we ought always to pray and never faint He speaks to Persons of all Conditions not to the Religious only for there were none in his Time who did wear disguised Habits as they do now but all Christians were religious as they are yet at present Neither the Habit nor the Cloyster do make Religion but the Observance of the Evangelical Counsels We are greatly mistaken if we think that God has a Regard to the States and Conditions of Persons He regards not whether we be Religious or Married but whether we observe his Commandments and his Doctrine Every one is free to chuse what State he will provided that in it he observe the Christian Doctrine There is not any State nor any Condition that can exempt a Person from keeping continual Communion with God For he invites us to this and we are created for no other Thing All other Affairs or Businesses are but accidental and of small importance whether they succeed or miscarry it matters little because all their Successes cannot serve us but for this short Life which stands not in need of much if we would content our selves with what is necessary only In which we would be more happy than all the Kings of the Earth for all that we possess beyond this Necessity is Affliction and Vexation of Spirit God created us to love him only and that he might take his Delight with us and we with him This is the only End of our Creation He had no need of us but he would create us to take his Pleasure with us This is that which we do least of all think of or apply our selves unto It seems we would change the Designs that God has concerning us while we will not follow his Ordinance of Praying always One thinks he is born to be a Lawyer an Advocote a Priest a Monk a Merchant or for any other State Office or Benefice to which he is advanc'd and they press hard to perfect themselves to increase and prosper in it as if they were created to do this And when they are arriv'd at the highest of their Pretensions Death comes which consumes all What a silly Business have we aim'd at What a poor Stay of all our Hopes Our Riches are perish'd Our Honours remain on the Earth All our Travels Cares and Labours have left us nothing but Ashes and Rottenness in Recompence of all our Acquests The Noble and the Ignoble the Prince and the Servant being all reduc'd to the same Estate all naked in the Grave the Poor and the Rich having an equal Portion Behold the End of all the Business and Affairs of the World for the Advancement of which we neglect Communion with God tho' this would advance them more if we were habituated to this Communion which would perfect all things I said to her That Men were very blind in not considering seriously these Truths and that she ought to pray to God that he would take from them the Vail which hindred them from seeing their so great Misery and that they might comprehend the Obligation they have to pray always which they were very far from doing To which she replyed Men Sir are as far from Salvation as they are far from this Knowledge For Jesus Christ has said nothing in vain To be saved we ought assuredly to pray always for as soon as we shall cease to have our Spirit lifted up to God we shall fall into many Evils from which we can very hardly recover our selves because Sin blinds the Soul and renders it often insensible of its Evils If this were not true how could it be that one should see every Day his Brother or his Neighbour die leaving behind him all upon the Earth without carrying away any thing and that he should not thereby discover his own Folly and his Blindness in labouring with so much Care to heap up earthly Goods which at Death serve for nothing What tho' I pray Sir God will never force their Wills he sends them occasions enough to open their Eyes But as long as they shall continue to have their Affections set on earthly Goods they cannot love God one of these Affections must go out to let the other in They can never dwell both together And for my part I can never pray for an unjust thing God makes no body blind but their Sins and the little desire they have to seek God has clos'd their Eyes He well
catch us in this Strait Must not one be very ill advised to amuse himself with these Nothings and lose those things of so great Value We may indeed look upon all these earthly things at a Distance even with Contentment and taste them according as we have need of them for they are created for us while we receive them with Thanksgiving but we ought never to fasten our Affections on them else we shall never arrive at the LOVE OF GOD For our heart cannot be divided between two so different Objects He will have all our Heart or none of it And it can never be fill'd nor fully satisfied but with him alone I said to her That there must always be in the World Persons plac'd in States and Dignities tho' it were but to keep the People in good Discipline That all the World could not abandon their Offices and that I my self was charg'd with one troublesom enough That I thought I held it of God for that I did not seek for it She said Sir I bewail you with all those who are at present in Charge For it is very hard for them to keep themselves right in it I cannot believe that God will place therein any of his Friends because nothing is done any longer for his Glory and the Evil is so far advanc'd that it cannot be resisted any longer so prevalent is it that the Good are obliged to give Place and yield to it by Force So that a good Man now in Office must ruin himself or give way to Evil For he is too weak to resist the Force of the Wicked who are so numerous Therefore I said heretofore that the Good serve the Devil as his Slaves because they are oblig'd to acquiesce to Evil through Force In which nevertheless they do not cease to sin by one of the nine Ways by which we commit it on another and these Sins are imputed to them because they tolerate the Evil. It is not enough that they cannot hinder it For in not hindring it if they could they would commit likewise another of the said Sins which are committed in another there being nine ways by which the Sins of another are laid to our Charge At least those who are now in Offices do commit that of Tolerating Evil and cannot escape to do this if they do not abandon their Offices wherereby they would shew that they love God more than their Offices and that it was he who had plac'd them in them but to believe that God has created or call'd us to any State these are but Fopperies Because he has created us for no other thing but to love him as I have so often repeated States are our own Choice God forces no Body to be a Pope Bishop Prebend Pastor or Priest nor yet to be an Attorney Advocate Counsellor President Governour or of any other such Office and Benefice whatsoever Every one is diligent enough to seek for them It is not as in the former Times when a S. Nicholas and so others did hide themselves that they might not be Bishops or receive other Dignities These were not in the Darkness and Ignorance in which we live at present while we prefer Honours and Wealth to our Salvation and that with so fine Pretences that all the World judges we do very right in continuing in States Offices and Benefices believing the World would be much worse if all these good Men should abandon their Stations And for my part I believe it would be much better Because they would have more Leisure to attend upon their own Salvation and the Perversness of the Wicked would discover it self sooner Which remaining hid for a longer Time does more Harm because an Evil known is easier avoided I said to her It was very evident that God had call'd some to Employments He said to Peter That he was the Rock upon which he would build his Church She said 'T is true Sir S. Peter was call'd to the Building of the Church by Jesus Christ but he would have first a Testimony of him to know if he lov'd him He ask'd him three times The first to know if it was true that he lov'd him in the Sight of God the second if he lov'd him by the Testimony of his own Conscience and the third if he lov'd him by the Testimony of Men to teach us that these Conditions are needful to be capable of Ruling well to wit the Testimony of God that he say of us as he said of his Servant Job That we are his Servants our own Testimony to search if our Conscience reprove us in nothing and that of our Neighbour if our Actions are such as may make them judge that we truly love God These are the Conditions whereby to judge if God calls us to the Government of his Flock In confirmation of which he gives all the Graces requisite to govern well according to his Spirit But when we perceive that we have neither the Love of God as to his Regard of us nor as to a Testimony in our own Conscience nor yet in our Works for the Edification of our Neighbour we ought never to presume that we are call'd of God for any State or Office It is rather to be believed that we are push'd to it of our selves through Presumption and when we do not govern by the Direction of God we fall from one Fault into another without knowing it Our Natural Instinct makes us to govern all by Human Principles That of the Devil makes us to act according to his Principles And thus we commit threefold Evils when we do not govern purely by the Principles of Jesus Christ It were better to be Pastors of Sheep than of Souls and to be Subjects than Lords for he who is in Imployments Offices or Benefices will not only render an account of his own Soul but also of those whom he has under his Charge A Pilgrim is well pleased to have no Burthens He travels the more lightly when he has nothing but his own Body to bear and accomplishes his Journey the sooner Even so it is as to the present Times in which nothing can be done any longer for the Glory of God It were better for a Man to work out his own Salvation than to charge himself with Offices or Benefices which if we remark narrowly are sought for either for our Honour or our Pleasure or our Interest all which are vain and earthly Ends unworthy of a true Christian who ought only to seek the Kingdom of Heaven since Jesus Christ has promised to give him the rest which is but a contemptible thing I said to her That I was wholly prepar'd to quit all Offices and Benefices if I knew that it were the Will of God That I would desire rather to save my self than to possess all the Wealth in the World She said This is a good Design Sir but if you wait till an Angel from Heaven
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
yet many good Men among others who are wicked and do not perceive that the evil is universal when the punishments are so The sacred History of the Scripture makes appear to us that God would have pardoned all that were in Sodom if there had been but ten Righteous within it We believe there are a great many good men according to our judgment whereas it may be before God there are none and even tho there were divers yet it is a good thing that the Righteous be tried by Tribulation for they testifie by it the fidelity they have toward God in continuing constantly faithful to him in adversity as well as in prosperity and likewise they thereby try themselves For many are deceived who thought they were faithful to God in Prosperity and yet Adversities have made them stumble in the midst of their Race or they have perish'd at the first essay of Temptation So that God manifests always great Righteousness and great Mercy chiefly in sending universal Rods in chastning the Wicked and in trying the Righteous if there be any who never suffer for the Guilty but for their own Perfection and Merit Universal Chastisements being much more profitable to the Good than to the Evil because they purifie them and render them more perfect whereas the wicked become worse by them I was obliged to confess That I had done a great wrong in speaking thus of God according to my Sentiment I asked her how I ought to behave my self that I may not any more fall into the like faults and that I might make a right judgment of God She said Sir never judge according to what you see outwardly but give always time to your Spirit to examin the works of God and you will discover that all that he does and permits is accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Power which are his Qualities without which he does nothing Men do deceive themselves and the most wise err in this point when they will censure the works of God In which they are real Ignorants for if they had any small Light they would admire and adore them only without making any judgments of them for of necessity what they make is unjust injurious or rash because no human Spirits are capable of fathoming the works of God for they are all incomprehensible We can only see that in them there is all sort of Goodness Righteousness and Power If we consider only a grain of Corn we shall find in it these three things Power is in its frame because no man is able to make a grain of Corn how Great and Learned soever he be We percieve also in this grain the goodness of God who gives so liberally to the Good and to the Wicked their necessary Food We will there likewise find Righteousness because having made Man subject to be nourished with this grain he provides it for him even tho he be his Enemy that he may find no injustice in God to have subjected him to a thing which afterwards should be denied him He wills that we may comprehend aright that all his works are Just and Good and Powerful tho we be ignorant how he makes them The Twenty fourth Conference Of the Enquiry about the most Holy Trinity and concerning Grace and that the Saints themselves are mistaken therein none being Infallible I Said to her That I had committed a great many faults in this matter that often I would needs dive into the works of God even his highest Mysteries such as that of Grace and the Trinity and that many holy Doctors had pass'd all their Life in such Studies to declare how God begets his Word or how God bestows Grace differently She replied Sir It is very ill done for a silly Worm of the Earth to seek to comprehend that which a God does It is enough always for a Servant to know what is agreeable to his Master in the matter of the duty of his Service without its being permitted him to enquire into his most secret particular Affairs He has performed his Duty when he has done that which is commanded and ordain'd him by his Master Much more blame worthy is it that a Creature should inform it self how God begets his Word or how he distributes his Graces unto Men This is beyond our Duty We ought to reckon our selves very happy to learn that God has so much Goodness that he always imparts to us Grace sufficient to enable us to love and serve him Every one may find this in his own Conscience and Experience which is the Mistress of all Scienc can testifie that every one has received Grace from God even tho he be a great Sinner What need is there after this to inform our selves how God gives these Graces Or if he give more to one than to another If this be not to seek matter to condemn God of Partiality or to make him have respect of Persons and so to render him less Lovely There is yet less ground to inform our selves what the Holy Trinity is for no body is capable of comprehending it nor yet how the Father begets the Son so much the rather that to render unto God agreeable Service there is no need of knowing any other thing than what he commands and ordains us What is more is unprofitable or evil for all that we should be able to say or know of the Trinity cannot but greatly lessen the glory of his Being which is above all that is most Beautiful most Good and most Great There is nothing that can be compared to God neither are there any words that can give us the least signification of the Being of God who comprehends all things If God were Man we would say that his Heart is the Father His Mouth the Son and his Understanding the Holy Spirit because the Heart of Man is the feat of Love his Mouth is the Channel by which this love is communicated and his Understanding is the Garden wherein the Conceptions do grow to make his Love be comprehended These three things are but one Person tho it have these three diverse Operations The Holy Trinity is but one God who is all Love he loves Man incomprehensibly We may call this Love the Father Now no Being is perfect if it be not communicated The Word has communicated unto Man this Love therefore it may be call'd the Son And this Word cannot be comprehended without Understanding which has likewise been given unto Man to comprehend this Love which understanding may be call'd the Holy Spirit All three together are but that sole Love which is God There is not in the Holy Trinity a Man a Child nor a Dove as they paint it unto us but these are all Figures to make us conceive something of God who nevertheless is unconceivable And all that they can say to us of him are but contempts or reproaches which we commit against God for
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
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
no body when he came to Age would remember what he had done so soon as he was born and that he would easily banish out of Mens Minds the Promises which they made in Baptism He has also invented the not reiterating of Baptism fearing least peradventure some coming to be converted should come afterwards to receive Baptism in a due manner and with requisite Dispositions All these Devices have been covered with a pious Pretext That no Christian should die without having received Baptism This every one has asserted under this Appearance of Piety which nevertheless is founded but upon a false Supposition of this express Necessity of Baptism for Salvation which cannot be true seeing so many true Christians died in the Days of Jesus Christ and the Apostles in their Non-age or while they were yet but Catechumens or at the Instant of their Conversion Should not all these Persons be saved after they have been in Heart and Affection consecrated unto God as also those who should yet at present live according to his Law in a Country where Baptism is not used I would fain know Sir if you read any where that the Apostles themselves were baptized and if you could doubt of their Salvation tho' they had not been The Third Conference How the Devil has crept into the Church as Antichrist and is there maintain'd and authoriz'd I Ask'd her How the Devil could start these things which are decreed by Councils She said Sir do you not remember that I have already told you that the Devil slip'd into the Church from the time that Jesus Christ would establish it He had then almost all the World at his Devotion and he needed not great Labour to maintain the World in its Wickedness for it was as it were become natural to it But how soon he saw that Jesus Christ came to enlighten the World and to make known their Sins to them that he might bring them back to Repentance The Devil then unites all his Force and Power to oppose himself to this Light and every way to countermine the Doctrine of Jesus Christ From that time he got the Name of Antichrist because he sets himself against Christ he has ever since continu'd in the Church that he might destroy and ruine it if he could and from time to time he has gain'd some who have followed his Suggestions and his Malice whose Number has always encreas'd and he has maintain'd them in Honour and Dignity making them by his Artifices to arise to the highest Degrees of Honour because then his Adherents did render him the more Service I doubt not but he has made many come to the Office of a Bishop or other Prelacies who being consulted or conven'd together about the Determining of Points relating to our Christianity may have given Sentiments in favour of the Devil and prejudicial to the Salvation of Christians If this were not Sir it were impossible that the Roman Church should have made Decrees so contrary to those of Jesus Christ who never required any thing of any body but in Love For he says if YOU WOULD be perfect or whosoever WILL follow me let him deny himself c. requiring always our WILL in all the Vertues that he teaches us and God himself from the Beginning of the World unto this present time gives us no Command but to love him For all things are nothing but Means to attain to this Love even leaving Men free to observe his Commands according to their Free-Will without Constraint but those of the Councils do oblige Persons by force to observe their Decrees So that they who transgress them are imprisoned and punished This is very far from imitating Jesus Christ in his Meekness which he says we ought to learn of him who is meek and gentle whereas these use Force and Rigour to make their Commands be observed For if a true Christian should not go to Mass on the Days which they have appointed they would commit him to Justice or the Inquisition or if another should not communicate at Easter he would be in the same Condemnation Is not this contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who demands nothing of any body but what they WILL do requiring always a free Consent drawing no body by Force but still saying he that WILL be my Disciple This rigorous Spirit which is now observ'd in the Church is not conformable to that of Jesus Christ whose Yoke is easie and his Burthen light whereas those impose troublesome and grievous Commands yea even impossible to be observed for he who would live as a true Christian would have no need of confessing once a Year Nevertheless these make a Command of it I must confess Sir that by the Grace of God I do not observe it for since I yielded my self wholly unto God and left the Conversation of Men I have had no Ground to confess once a Year Should I be therefore obliged to go and offend God that I might have Matter to confess at the End of the Year that I may observe the Ordinances of these Councils These are things so far from the Spirit of Jesus Christ that I know not how some Saints could co-operate to such Resolutions except by Force when the greatest Part carries it because the most of those Decrees and Commands are more political than divine and Jesus Christ did not follow these Ways They ought to come from above The Fourth Conference Of the Reformation of the Church of its Councils Commands and Ordinances I Said to her That the Councils were held that they might redress the great Abuses which had crept into the Church that it was expedient that the Church gave Commands or otherwise every one would live after his own Will She said Sir we have the Commandments of God Had it not been a more perfect way to reform these Abuses by taking up again only what Jesus Christ had taught us than to make new Commandments What could be wanting in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that other things must be added to it They who would make a good Reformation ought always to take up again the first Institution and make it only be observ'd For the Holy Spirit can never be mistaken There is nothing to be mended in nor added to any of his Works and since we can never change a perfect Form and give it another without spoiling the first so we cannot form new Commandments without deforming those of God which were compleat and perfect The great Abuses which had crept into the Church would have been redress'd better by the Doctrine of Jesus Christ taking it in the plain Letter than by so many other new Precepts and Ordinances No body could have lived any longer after his own Mode when once the Doctrine of Jesus Christ had been set again in its Light for it regulates all our Actions and Manners There needed nothing to be added to it in order
their Imaginations It is not enough to trust to these weak Stays we must take another Aim and direct our Selves towards that Morning Star which appears to our Eyes that we may follow it till we have found this Holy Spirit who must teach us all things The Tenth Conference That the Time is come that Man shall receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness and what hinders them to receive him I Ask'd her How I might find the Holy Spirit For I could not meet with an Assembly of Apostles nor pray with them Forty Days that I might receive him She said Sir you shall receive the Holy Spirit without being in the Company of the Apostles For even they did not receive him in Fulness but in part only and the Promise that Jesus Christ made to send us the Holy Ghost who shall teach us all things had not its full Accomplishment For there were many things which the Apostles knew not and there were also several Faults committed by them after having receiv'd the Holy Spirit It is in these last times that the Holy Spirit comes who shall teach us all things If your Soul were wholy resign'd to the Will of God it wou'd be prepared to receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness For his time is now come Do you not even now feel some Rays of his Light by so many different things which I have told you in our so frequent Conversation Do you not see that many of these things have not been known nor discovered in former times Can you doubt that there is at present a Treasure hid in the Earth which begins to be discovered From whence otherwise shou'd these precious Stones of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ come the so fragrant Roses of true Vertue and so many new Notices which appear in our Eyes as Buds of Paradise Wou'd you have a Holy Spirit visible and carnal Men since the Apostles Days have more Understanding of spiritual things Therefore God has multiplied their Knowledge and refin'd their Understandings that they may conceive the Light of the Holy Spirit by lively Reasons and solid Truths not by material Forms and Figures which were given only for outward Signs capable of being seen by the Eyes of Flesh which did not yet perceive those things of the Spirit For the Holy Spirit not a Dove nor Wind nor Tongues of Fire but an intelligible Spirit who makes us know God and our selves and brings always along with him his twelve Fruits and his seven Gifts all which are spiritual and cannot be seen no more than their Author but by their Operations This is the Holy Spirit which you ought to desire Sir and not a visible and material one Resign your self to God and you shall certainly receive him For his Time is come He is born upon the Earth in Spirit as he was born in Flesh in the Stable of Bethlehem I said to her There were yet many Souls in the World as well as I who earnestly desired to receive the Holy Spirit She said Sir every one will say that he wou'd receive him but I know no body yet who wou'd effectually resign his Will to God's and let himself be ruled and governed by him We still wish for this and that according to our Bent and Inclinations We are sorry for Adversities We do not willingly suffer Tribulations and Crosses We complain of Wrong and Affronts done us We desire to be honour'd serv'd and lov'd and to have our Ease In one Word all our Life is a constant Tract of self-Self-love and yet we say we are resign'd to God and if this were true we wou'd have no longer self-will but that of God wou'd be our Rule and our Contentment as well in Troubles Adversities and Derelictions as in all sort of Prosperity and Abundance For regarding nothing but the Will of God we wou'd receive all things with Joy But as long as the one 's too sweet and the other too salt to our Taste it 's a sign we yet live to our selves and are not resign'd to God nor ready to follow his Will and so are not dispos'd to receive the Holy Spirit because our self-will hinders him For he cannot operate in a Soul which is not disengag'd from its own Will which still opposes the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit and directly hinders his Operations It 's thus that I say I know no body yet who 'll be resign'd to the Will of God except in Words but not in Deed. Indeed we wou'd do God's Will as long as 't is conformable to ours but as soon as it opposes that there 's no more Submission We give God our Will as long as all goes right according to our Desires and Wishes but as soon as the contrary falls out we take back this given Will to dispose of it our selves and thus we continue always full of self-love and yet we wou'd receive forsooth the Holy Spirit to joyn him with our Filth and Imperfections to make a very unsutable Marriage as that wou'd be of God with Sin which are two incompatible things as Heat and Cold which can never dwell together Yea truly tho' there were nothing but the Sin of self-love it is a mortal Wound against the Commandment of loving one God alone The Eleventh Conference How Man must resign himself to God I Said to her That I would very willingly resign my self to God and yield myself to be entirely governed by him and to follow all that I shall know to be his Will She said Sir this Resignation has some Exception yet and is not wholly disengag'd For if you wait till an Angel from Heaven come to make known to you what the Will of God is you 'll no ways be resign'd to him but you must take all that befalls you for his Will great or small things all comes from him without excepting any thing For if you are resign'd to him you 'll have no longer Desires of your own and will no longer seek any thing Therefore all that shall befal you shall come by his Order when you take it from his Hand you can never fail even tho' it were the Devil himself or some wicked Creature did it he 'll never permit them to hurt you but in so far as it shall be his Will 'T is true a wicked Man has his Liberty to do what Evil he pleases but God has Power also to preserve us that their Evils do not touch us Or if he permit them to touch us gives us Strength to suffer them and that with Joy and so they can't wound us For all worldly Good and Evil are for the most part but imaginary things and when our Mind is brought to take Afflictions joyfully they seem to us Contentments and no longer Afflictions This depends so strongly upon our Imagination that our Happiness and Misery seems to depend upon it If we imagine that Riches are a Burden Poverty will be a Repose
Infallible and to use his Almighty Power As also to receive Honour appertains to God only and he who seeks and desires it is a Robber and receives what does not belong to him Moreover if you refer yourself in all things to the Church she will oblige you to things against God and your Conscience and make you to acknowledge that some Saints are Hereticks as if the knew of me she wou'd condemn me for such tho' I act only by the Holy Spirit and all the Books that handle the pure Truth are condemned and forbidden by this Church There is no longer any thing but Lying that triumphs in her For she even teaches that we may have the Pardon of our Sins without a precise Love of God which overturns all the Law and the Prophets For they are established and have spoken for no other End but to teach this Love which Man owes to God And now there are Glosses and Arguments found out to disguise this Love and to give it the Mantle of self-love with which they promise us Salvation that they may make us perish insensibly without knowing it For all they who do not precisely love God go to the Devil Say the Church what it please it cannot change the Ordinance that God made from the Beginning of the World I see nothing there but Tricks and Distractions For instead of saying to us what Jesus Christ said to the Young Man in the Gospel If thou wouldest enter into the Kingdom of Heaven keep my Commandments For the obtaining of this Kingdom she teaches us a thousand Fopperies which Jesus Christ never taught us by Indulgencies Confraternities Cords Girdles or Scapularies and Devotions to Images All this to me seems so far from the Spirit of Christianity that I am pain'd at the Heart when I think on 't I believe all these things serve only to dazle Mens Spirits that they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth and to amuse us as they do the Children with Rattles to charm our Miseries I said to her I would fain discover where the Holy Spirit was that I might follow him She said Sir he is now come in the World You shall know him by Truth Righteousness and Goodness For he is the same with God There are not in God three Persons as People imagine because all that we can say of God is only that he is perfect Love all-just all-good and all-true Behold Sir all that we can know of God in this present Life and when we are told that there are three Persons in God it is to be understood that there are three Powers that Love is his Essence that his Word communicates this Love and that his Understanding makes Man to comprehend it This Love being the Essence of God never beginning and also will never end which Love was communicated to Man from the Creation But seeing he understood it not sufficiently God made his Word to become Flesh that it might be the better understood by an Organ sutable to our Senses Jesus Christ therefore is no other thing but the Word which communicates to Man this Love that is in God and the Holy Spirit is the Wisdom ' that gives the Understanding to comprehend this Love Behold the three Persons that must be known in God these are the LOVE the WORD that declares this Love and the VNDERSTANDING that comprehends it Now the Essence of Love was from all Eterniry But Men cou'd not know it but since the Creation and even then imperfectly Therefore the Goodness of God found out the Means to make it known by this humane Body which he took for this end when he came to treat familiarly with Men he becoming Man to make them see manifestly how much he lov'd them And not being yet satisfied with this to communicate this Love so sensibly he moreover sends his Holy Spirit to teach them all things You shall know him Sir by the principal Qualities of God which are Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are always inseparable from the Spirit of God Remark well if what is told you be still accompanied with these three Qualities I ask'd her If the Holy Spirit comes into the World in Flesh as Jesus Christ did at his Birth She said No Sir there is no need of his coming in the Flesh to communicate himself to Men as Jesus Christ did because he comes not to shew them any new thing for working out their Salvation Jesus Christ having sufficiently taught them all things tho' Men have not comprehended it and now the Holy Spirit comes to give unto the Mind the Understanding of the same things which Jesus Christ taught while he was on Earth Even as Jesus Christ came not to destroy the Law of God but to perfect it so the Holy Spirit comes not now to destroy the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but to perfect it and to give the perfect Understanding of it to all those who will receive it 'T is not Needful that for this end he take a Humane Body because he brings no new Words but new Notices that may be conceived by Mens Spirits These Notices being spiritual have no need of a natural Body that they may be communicated to the Spirits of Men. If you wou'd receive him Sir you must become a Child and submit your self wholly to God and then you will find the Effects But never let your self be deceived by false Appearances For there are now many false Prophets that come in God's Name and are of the Synagogue of Satan as I told you formerly Try always if they who speak to you do possess these three Qualities of God Thereby you shall assuredly discover them For if you let your self be amused with good Words or even by the Gifts of Prophesies or Miracles the Devil can counterfeit enough to deceive you Reject also all those who praise or flatter you Because the Devil does ordinarily use these Means to deceive those whom he desires to gain to himself The Spirit of God is always firm and true full of Righteousness and Goodness There is no need that he make himself visible to the Eyes of the Flesh he shall be sufficiently felt by the Sentiments of the Soul and the Eyes of the Spirit He shall illuminate all Flesh and enlighten the Spirits of all those who will hear and follow him But there must be an humble Heart and a Spirit entirely yielded up to God The Sixteenth Conference How we must beware of false Christs and false Prophets which seduce all the World and are so much followed at present How to discern true Prophets from the false and that it would be to no purpose at present to aim at the Conversion of Christians by preaching the Truth to them I Ask'd her How it was possible to beware of these false Prophets since there were so many of them and that they were disguised with Vertue and Holiness She said
Prayer He himself fasted Fourty Dayes in the Desert and was an hungred But these Reformers speak of nothing but filling their Belly well the better to excite their Lust Are not these who would Reform the Roman Church fine Zealots for the Glory of God We see also that all their Reformation has brought nothing but Schisms and Divisions among the Reformed themselves There is nothing there but Debates and Dissensions They wrote to me some while agoe that Two Preachers of the same Reformed Communion had fallen by the Ears together even in the Temple and the one had rent the others Garment from Head to Foot These are the Effects of their Reformation and of the Remedy they say they have provided for the Abuses of the Roman Church The Scripture sayes That the Tree is known by its Fruit. From whence we may infer how pernicious these Reformations must be which have caused such Mischiefs in Christendom having brought in nothing but Hatred among Christians though Jesus Christ did so much recommend to them To love one another By these Reformations they have despised hated and persecuted one another beat rob'd kill'd and murthered one another without compassion to maintain the Opinion that they have undertaken to believe though all their Opinions be equally bad the one erring one way and the other another So that to maintain the Errours of these Reformers these Christians kill'd and murther'd one another instead of loving one another according to the Counsel of Jesus Christ And these Enmities continue to this Day and they hate and despise one another upon the Account of their Religion though all of them signifie nothing and no Religions can save any Nothing but the Love of God brings Salvation and all these Persons love themselves only and live all according to the Motions of Corrupt Nature Their Religions consisting in nothing but Theory and vain Speculations not at all in Practice But to flatter them with some Piety and Devotion their Reformers have put the Bible in their Hands and some Songs to sing in the Temple since the Priests and Religious Romanists used to sing in the Temple and corrupt Nature has no Repugnance to Songs it rather delights in them as all these Reformers do at this Day who lift up their Voice as well as they can to make their good Voice be heard in the Temple where they sit at their own Ease with the Bible in their Hand on which they profess to read that they may learn to discourse of it though I have not known one Person who puts in practice so much as one Point of the Gospel Lo this is all the Service that these Reformers have learned their Disciples together with the Lords Supper that is performed without Devotion or Piety And notwithstanding of this they call themselves good Christians Evangelical Persons Predestinated or Regenerated Ones and other good Names Though they be as far from Salvation as Heaven is from Earth But these Reformers have known so well how to perswade them of an Imaginary Salvation by their Scholastick Reasons and Glosses that they have thereby so confounded their Spirit as that they receive Lyes for the Gospel That which is most to be admired is that among so many Persons of Vnderstanding who have followed these Reformers none have perceived the Cheat of these Sensual Reformers who teach a Life quite contrary to the Evangelical Life which speaks of nothing but denying a Mans Self bearing down his Flesh and doing Penitence with a Threatning that without this Mean we shall all perish It must indeed be said That from that time Men have been abandoned to the Spirit of Errour and Lying and that Mens Spirit has been quite blinded by Sin and is since still more blinded since yet in our Time we see Persons of a like Temper liâ—t up themselves above others and call themselves the Reformers and Restorers of Israel and separate from the rest of the Reformed that they may live separate from the World in greater Holiness than others Though in their Manners they be as sensual yea more than those whom they have forsaken For having no Accommodation of Worldly Goods and being unwilling to Work but desirous to be well Treated and Served they undertake Reformations drawing over to them Wealthy Persons that they may obtain their Aims and they make all their Goods common In which the Poor cannot but have Advantage and the Reformers Services and a good Time of it according to their Aim since in effect many follow them and give them all their Wealth with which they Eat and Drink and Marry as those did in the Dayes of Noah On which Terms they make them Preachings of Fine Studied Words and fitted for the Gust of the Hearers who are well pleased to have found out a way of Salvation so well accommodated to their Corrupt Natures since they make them believe that they are all ruled by King Jesus They are perswaded by their frivolous Discourses that this is true and thus Men are yet amused by Men as they were in former Times And I can see no other Remedy but that God overturn all these Churches made with Mens Hands that he may establish one made of Spirit and of Life where we shall worship God in Spirit and in Truth Which he makes me hope shall come to pass very shortly since he makes me declare so many Truths with the hazard of my Life to overturn Babel and revive True Christianity Blessed shall he be who shall receive them from God's Hand and shall not resist the Truth as Jannes and Jambres did since these are undone for ever But receive the saving Truth that God has communicated to me in this LIGHT OF THE WORLD which will Illuminate youâ— Soul In the mean time I remain Friendly Reader Your very Affectionate in Jesus Christ ANTHOINETTE BOURIGNON THE LIGHT of the WORLD The third Part. The first Conference Declares that God has never demanded any other thing of man but the dependance of his Will on Gods and that all other Laws are given him by Accident and to discover his Sins HAving been absent for some time from this illuminated Soul I went to find her again to entreat her to pray for me and to tell her I was resolved more than ever to resign my self wholly to God that I might receive his Divine Light She said Sir as soon as you shall make this Resignation of your self and shall deliver up into God's Hand the Freewill that he has given you you shall receive the Holy Spirit which will teach you all things But never turn back again to resume your own will otherwise the last Fault will be worse than the first Since you have now received more Light than formerly walk according to it and do not any more regard the World nor the Creatures for they cannot save you You must fall into the Hands of God whether you will or no No body can escape this whether he live well or
themselves The second Conference Of Free Will That it is the only thing which represents in Man the Infinity and Liberty of God That the greatest Gift which God has given to Man is to love him freely and infinitely which is the greatest Perfection in Grace figured by that of Marriage in Nature I said to her since our own VVill is so dangerous it were to be wish'd we had never receiv'd it She said Sir what Blasphemy do you utter against the Goodness of God who has given us this Free-will as the most precious thing that ever was for by it we are made like to God whereas otherwise we should be nothing but limited Creatures in whom God could not take Pleasure To desire that we had no Free-Will would be to despise extreamly the Treasures of God since it was purposely given us that we might be the more united to him without which we could not be the Images of God because we should have had no resemblance of him without this Free-will which makes us Little Gods without which all Men would be but Filth For according to their Nature alone they are more miserable than the Beasts Could God take delight in a thing so unlike to himself could so powerful a God unite himself to such an Impotent Creature who had not Free-will to love him God having no bounds nor limits could he take Pleasure in a Creature whose Will was bounded and could a limited Will attain to the Love of a God without limits How could a finite Being love an infinite There would be no proportion there and if Likeness beget Love how could a being so vastly different be united in Affection God who has made all his Creatures so perfect even to the least Creature that ought to serve for the use of Man would he have made Man so imperfect who ought to serve for his own delight In this there would be neither Justice nor Goodness and Man alone might lament and bewail his misfortune who would find himself destitute of all the qualities requisite for the end for which he was Created that is to love his God And this Free-will which is given him for this Love only can it be blamed or despised because we abuse it It had been better we had never been Created than to have been without our Free-will which is the greatest Good that the Goodness of God could bestow upon us Would we not judge a Father very cruel who having great Wealth and Treasures would not give them to his Children and who because some of them had abused them would leave all the rest in Poverty and give all his Wealth to Strangers Can we wish that God had done us this Injustice to deny us our Free-will since there was a necessity he should give it to some Are we not his true Children since he has said Let us make Man after our Likeness We are thereby made his Legitimate Children resembling him more than any other Creatures and therefore his greatest Treasures belong to us among which Free-will is the chief and most precious Good If some abuse it it is their own Fault God has always exercis'd the Justice and Goodness of a true Father in giving it to us we are to blame if we will abuse it for these Benefits ought never to be upbraided to any A Son who has wasted all his Patrimony ought to smite his own Breast acknowledging his Fault without ever believing that it comes from the Goodness and Equity of his Father who on his part has done him all the good he could but he ought to beg pardon for having thus abus'd his Favours All those who say they would have wish'd rather not to have had Free-will are unworthy to be call'd the Children of God for they impute to him the Fault which they commit themselves This is a quality of the Devil always to blame others for the faults which they do themselves and to accuse the Good of their own wickedness And to wish we had never receiv'd Free-will is to wish never to have been a Child of God and indirectly to blame him for the Faults which we commit in abusing his Graces This is a great contempt of God that deserves a double Punishment one for the Ingratitude that we commit against God and another for having thus abus'd his Benefits And as a Beast is not capable of knowing the Beauty and value of a precious Stone so Man would have been a brutish Animal if God had not given him an Understanding to comprehend and a Free-will to love Him without which he would be as uncapable of knowing and loving God as a Beast is of a Jewel which surpasses its Capacity And yet they would wish that this Free-will which is the only advantage of Man had not been given him what Ingratitude to take such inestimable Favours of God for a Misfortune I said to her That I intended not to despise the Gifts of God by saying that it had been desirable he had not given this free-will to Man but I only consider'd that by it Man so easily ruin'd himself She said Sir by all these humane Sentiments every one Blasphemes against God 't is no wonder that the Whore in the Revelation is full of names of Blasphemy since Blasphemies are so common in the Christian Church which she represents They esteem that good which God reckons to be Evil and they hold that to be Evil which God counts good yea his most holy and perfect Works are rejected or despis'd by Men which is evident by your present Sentiments since it seems to you it had been better not to have received Free-will from God that is to say by way of Reproof to him that he had done better not to have given it to Man Do we not shew by this that we would be God's Masters and Directors to teach him his Duty and correct him by saying he had done better not to have given this Free-VVill To what is Man come that silly Worm of the Earth who would give orders to so wise and powerful a God Is it enough for Man to excuse himself by saying That he considers only the ill use that is made of these Graces of God without applying his Mind to consider that the VVorks of God are always good just and true and that all the Evil that can ever be found in them proceeds only from the wickedness of Man who abusing the Favours of God makes use of his Graces to offend him It were better to have a Sentiment that reproves Man for this wickedness than one that reproves God in his VVorks as Men do now who judging with carnal Eyes condemn the goodness and righteousness of God 'T is more than time Sir that he should take order with so many evils without suffering any longer so many Blasphemies as are daily utter'd against him and wherein even the Holy judge sinistrously of the most holy and perfect of
or follow him blindly as these Christians say we must obey and follow Men blindly For when we consider all the Works of God and observe what he has done for us it is impossible we should cease to love and follow such a Benefactour If we had but the Light of a Heathen we would not readily yield this blind Submission to Men Because they are not our Creatours nor our Saviours and our Dependance ought to be upon the Lord who created all Things But not on frail Man like our selves who can give us nothing but Promises without Effects for they deceive us when they promise us Salvation since they cannot give it to themselves And yet all the World believes they shall save all Christians of whom I know not so much as one that is in the way of Salvation because they neither know God nor true Vertue but have their Understandings blinded by the Discourses of Men who desire to love and be loved by their like and instead of leading them to the knowledge of the true God to love and follow him they draw them to love themselves And by this blind conduct every one runs to Perdition while many believe that they are in the way of Salvation So that I might well travel through all Christendom with a Lantern to find out so much as one Man as the Philosophers did through the City of Athens Because no Body any longer uses his Reason to see the Obligation that we have to depend upon the Will of God nor yet to consider the Misery and Shortness of this Life nor the Vanity of transitory Things but are in all this as if they were void of Understanding and follow one another blindly without considering any other Thing For if Man did only use his Reason he would see clearly that he is obliged to depend upon his God since he has received all from him and can pretend to nothing but from him His Natural Instinct does sufficiently encline him to this Dependance Though they call this a Heathen Light this is not that it is simply Natural but it is an Impression that God makes on our Understanding which leads us to know God and to submit our selves to him Which if we do we are happy in whatsoever Nation we be For God never demanded any other thing of Men but this Resignation to his Will and if he has since appointed Laws this was but by reason of Mens Frailty having never formerly subjected them to any Laws but that of depending upon him As he would not yet provided we would submit to him This our Christians do not though they hope to be saved I said to her That it troubled me much to hear that not so much as one Christian was resigned to God She said Sir That you may not believe this blindly recal to mind a little the Persons whom you have held for good Men and consider narrowly all their Behaviour that you may see whether they are not guided by their own Wills even in their pious Works whether they are not done from their own Inclinations You will find that this has always been at the Helm to govern all and that if it were not to please our selves many good Works would be left undone For my part I have remarked this in all the Persons whom I have known and I never knew but one Maid who was resigned to God Nevertheless I have met with those who had the greatest Reputation for Vertue and I alwayes perceived that their Actions though good were mingled with Self-love Which hinders a Resignation to God For as long as our Self-will will bear Rule God cannot have our Submission These are all dead Works which shall be recompenced only in this World and not at all in the other I have seen Persons given to Fasting Watching and Prayer diligent in going to Church and in relieving the Poor and yet notwithstanding of this they subjected not their Wills to that of God But followed their own as much as they could imagining that they did all for God while there was no such thing For if God had govern'd their Wills they would have done all their Actions both small and great in the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God From which they were very far estranged and if they had been capable of it I would have made appear to them that their best Actions were very blameable and accompanied with Presumption and Self-satisfaction In this many deceive themselves and believe they are in a State of Salvation though they be very far from it You must not be troubled Sir to hear it said That there is not so much as one Christian in the way of Salvation Since it is true and none are resigned to God But we ought to bewail their Blindness and desire and pray that they may be converted for the Time to come since there is Time for Repentance and Leisure to return to God even to the last Moment of our Life If I should say that all Christians are in a State of Salvation as all these false Prophets do their Salvation would certainly be desperate Because every one would rest on such a dangerous Estate It were far better to tell the Truth by declaring that they are not in the way of Salvation that they may strive to recover it than to flatter them with false Words And it should be more acceptable to them to hear that they are not resigned to God if it be most true than to hear that dreadful Sentence Go ye cursed into Everlasting Fire when they should have thought to hear Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom For it will be too late at Death to return to a Dependance upon God And it is not so now By which you may see Sir that there is more reason to be troubled when we hear them say that Christians are in the way of Salvation than when they say they are in that of Damnation when it is true as it is because of their Blindness For if I did not most evidently perceive this I would not affirm such unpleasant Things But I should be without Charity if I should not declare so important Truths while we are yet living in the Time of Penitence For I perceive inwardly in my Soul that the Thoughts Words and Actions of Men are not at all directed by God For they partake not of his Righteousness Goodness and Truth but on the contrary they are all full of Self-interest Self-honour or Pleasures And notwithstanding no Body will willingly be reproved Every one desires to continue as he is without knowing his Fault and much less amending it covering and palliating his Miseries and excusing them as much as he can So that I see no good that can be done for the Conversion of Christians for they trust too much to the false Perswasion of their Salvation Therefore I will retire and bid you Adieu Not that I am displeased to be among Men to
Terrestrial and Carnal Church By this the Devil has reaped much and replenish'd his infernal Granaries to our Dammage Therefore I intreat you Sir that you would not seek for the Church in any other Place but in the Centre of your Soul For there is so much Deceit under the Mask of Piety that the most knowing are catch'd by it Many are made Saints who are of the Synagogue of Satan I said to her That I had not that Method to discern and find God in the Centre of my Soul entreating she would declare to me the way how I might find him there She said Sir you will see him by the Eyes of Faith If you believe that God is everywhere he is also truly in your Soul and even in a special and particular manner as a thing which is most like to him He is in the Elements giving them Being and Subsistence else they could not subsist He is in the Herbs Trees and other Plants in giving them Vegetation He is in the Animals giving them Life as he does our Bodies For if God were not in all these things they would resolve into the same Nothing from whence they have been taken for no created thing can keep so much as one Plant of an Herb in Life It is God that does all We see this with our Natural Eyes how much more firmly ought we to believe that he is in our Soul which is Divine and Incomprehensible This Quality comes nearer to God than any other Creature We cannot comprehend what a Soul is no more than we can comprehend what God is It has Qualities so approaching to him that it may with Reason be call'd a dependent Deity For we see indeed the Works which it operates in our Body but we cannot see what it is but by its Operations as we cannot know God or perceive what he is but by the Works which he produces to our Knowledge Our Soul gives Motion to our Body and Agility to our Understanding makes the Memory to remember and moves all the other Powers of the Soul We feel and see that this is done in us nevertheless no Body can comprehend how this is done but we must confess that our Soul is a thing incomprehensible as well as God and since there cannot be many Gods we must conclude that God is the Centre of Souls and that they spring from him as a Branch from the Root And as Trees cannot bear Branches without having a Root so the Soul cannot have a Being if God do not give and produce it By which you may abundantly perceive Sir that of necessity God is the Centre of our Soul and that it cannot move but by him no more than the Body moves it self but by the Motion of our Soul This being so we ought therefore to seek God where he is and he being no where so expressly as in the Centre of our Soul it is there that he must be sought as in the true Place of his Residence And if you ask me the Method and the Way to find him in the bottom of your Soul there is no other but to remove all the Hindrances casting out of your Soul all earthly Affections that you may have no other but for him Your Soul will no sooner be free from all these Earthly Affections than it will fall into God as the Stone falls into its Centre I know no other Method but this Disingagement from our selves and from all other things to find God and to become one with him I have sometimes sought him without me by Actions which did seem good but I have since remark'd that those serv'd for Distractions and the more I acted outwardly so much the more did I stray from my God Therefore Sir become wise by my Loss and do not lose your Time in seeking means out of your self for they serve us often for Hindrances Our Soul is his true Temple and the Place of his Rest Let us only remove all that is between him and our Soul and we shall see him Face to Face to speak after our manner That is to say we shall see him clearly by Faith and shall know him by the Operations which he will make in us and shall taste him by the Repose and Consolation of our Conscience I thought that I understood well enough this Truth and that Faith dictates to us that God is the true Centre of our Soul But to taste him and speak sensibly to him by his Operations and Notices this was above my Capacity entreating her to tell me how this was done She said to me Sir The Soul is a Spirit and God is a Spirit and communicates himself in Spirit not with verbal Words but spiritual Motives Which nevertheless are more intelligible than the finest Eloquence of the World God communicates himself to the Soul as the Sun to his Rays and the Soul to its God as the Rays to the Sun by the great Unity and Dependence there is between God and the Soul When once it is denuded of its self it has no more need of Sight or Mouth to understand God than we have need of Words to understand our own Conceptions So soon as the Soul is disingag'd from it self it is so transform'd into God that it is entirely swallow'd up in him and becomes one thing with him having no longer any Will but his nor Desires but what he wishes and it does not move it self any longer but by the Motions of God So that the Soul and God are not any more but one and the same thing And if you do not taste God and understand not his Will it is assuredly because there is yet some Hindrance Do not afflict your self for this Sir but take the Pains to disingage your Soul as much as is possible for you This is all that you can do For to be troubled that you do not feel nor understand the Motions of God would be a Presumption for if your Soul were capable of it God would abundantly give it He wants your Disingagement fearing that you would abuse his Graces in living yet to your self I was wholly ravish'd with Pleasure to hear how God communicates himself to the Soul But perceiving that I was yet far from this Happiness I ask'd her By what means I might be disingag'd from my self and from every other thing that my Soul might taste God She said to me It is very easie Sir to be disingag'd from every thing by considering what it is For if we were not distracted and wandring in our Mind it would be impossible that we could love our selves or other created Things We cannot do it but through a Diversion or straying of the Mind For if we seriously reflect and consider what we love in loving our selves or other Creatures we must confess that we are Senless For what do we in loving our selves we love a thing very Miserable Impotent Unconstant and of short continuance there being no created thing more