to give a hateful Turn to ones Sentiments to make them pass for impious extravagant and ridiculous I shall therefore set down here a brief Summary of her Accessory Sentiments first premising some things that may dispose the Reader to consider them calmly and without prejudice 1. She declares they are reveal'd unto her by God and that now in the End of the World and near the Time of the Restitution of all things many things which were more darkly represented in the Holy Scriptures are now to be manifestly laid open when the Time of fulfilling all is at hand and that such things are now laid before us like a Clustre of Grapes of the Land of Promise to make us conceive something of the Beauty and Glory of the Heavenly Jerusalem 2. She declares as has been said that those Accessory Truths are not necessary to Salvation are not Articles of Faith ought not to be enquired into from a Spirit of Curiosity are not design'd for all but for those who being perswaded of them are thereby stirr'd up so much the more to the Love and Admiration of God and for others they maâ— let them alone XXXII 3. St. Augustin has given us an excellent Rule whereby to judge charitably of Sentiments and Interpretations of the Holy Scripture Whosoever says he so understands the Holy Scriptures or any part of them as that thereby he does not build up the twofold Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour he does not understand them aright But whosoever gives such a Sense of them as is profitable for advancing this Charity and yet what he says is not the particular Sense of the Writer in that place he does not err damnably neither does at all lie And if he err by a Sense which edifies Charity which is the End of the Commandment he so errs as if one by a mistake leaving the Highway should go streight over the Field to the Place whither the Way leads If these Accessory Sentiments then tend to promote the Great End of Religion the Love of God and our Neighbour tho' there were no Evidence for them from the Holy Scriptures they are neither hurtful nor damnable In giving an Account then of her Accessory Sentiments I shall consider them under these Heads Those which relat to 1. The State of the World before Man's Fall 2. The Fall of Man and its Consequences 3. The Methods taken for Man's Recovery by Jesus Christ 4. The Present State of the World 5. The Future State and the Restitution of all things And because the Series and Chain of those Accessory Sentiments cannot be well conceiv'd without some mention of the Essential Ones too I shall not scruple to do it where it is necessary to understand the Connexion of those Sentiments 1. As to the State of the World before Man's Fall the Summ of her Sentiments is as follows 1. VVHEN God created all things at First there was no Deformity in any of his Works all was Beautiful and Luminous no Grossness in the Earth no Whirlwinds and Hurricanes in the Air no Tempests in the Sea no Poison in the Herbs no Venom in Insects The Earth was all transparent throughout in it were to be seen the Plants the Stones and Metals all transparent likewise one might see thorouh it to its Center as easily as through the Air all the Beasts and Plants were all Beautiful in their respective kinds no Deformity in any of them and the Beauty of their Frame and Contrivance was to be seen throughout all being Transparent and Luminous All things were worthy of God and were Representations of his Greatness Magnificence Goodness Beauty Light and Fruitfulness in several ways and according to their different kinds 2. God having resolv'd to form a Creature that should love and enjoy him and in whose Love he would take Delight and Pleasure he creates Man after his own Image endues him with an immortal Soul breathed from himself with Understanding capable to receive him with a Heart to desire and thirst after him and cleave to him with a perfect Liberty and Free-will to do it heartily and freely and without the least Limitation or Constraint And to oblige him the more to love him his most Bountiful God and Lover gives him for an Accessory Felicity and Happiness the whole Creation subjects all his Works to him to be his Servants and to attend upon him puts all things under his Feet that he receiving the Homage and Delight of all the Creatures might return the Praise of all to God in the constant Love and Adoration of so Bountiful a God who would give himself to be lov'd and enjoy'd by him and would take his Delight with him and would give him such a world of beautiful Creatures to serve and attend upon him 3. That Man might partake of this Accessory Happiness and receive the Delight and Homage of all the Creatures and rule over them as their Lord and King he forms to him a Body as the Case and Organ of his Soul by which he might communicate with all the Creatures and rule over them and endues it with Faculties and Senses capable to give them Orders and to take in the Tribute of their Delights and Pleasures the Sense of Seeing to take in their Light and Beauty of Hearing to be entertain'd with their Melody and Musick Smelling to receive their odoriferous Steams and the Taste to relish their Sweetness and Delight the power of Moving of Speech and Gestures whereby to rule and govern them he might go to any place and make known his Will which all obeyed 4. This Body was not created by God after the manner that we see it at present but incomprehensibly more beautiful and more perfect as the Master-piece of all Nature clear subtile agile and transparent its Skin like Moscovy Glass its Flesh like Crystal its Veins like streams of Rubies its Waters like Diamonds its Nerves like the Hyacinth the Substance of the Fruits its Aliment that of all good Odours its Excrements all its Parts within and without its Bones Muscles Sinews Bowels all so bright fram'd with such Art that all the Beauties of the Universe were nothing to the least part of it The Quintessence of all Natural things was the Matter of which it was form'd and all Nature obey'd it If he design'd to go on the Waters they supported him if to the Center of the Earth it yielded to him if through the Air it was a Chariot to him The Sun the Stars the precious Stones and all the Beauties of the Earth were nothing if compar'd with the least Beauty of the Body of Man His Soul was wholly Divine his Understanding clear-sighted penetrating all the Secrets of Nature all things Divine and Supernatural 5. Man when he was created at First was endued with a Principle of Foecundity with a Power to produce his like without the help of another having within
not interpos'd and become a Mediator between God and them who being touch'd with a deep fence of the wretched State into which Man had plung'd himself he ardently prays and interceeds with his Heavenly Father that he would have pity on those his wretched rebellious Creatures and his Brethren that he would be pleas'd to pardon them grant them his Grace tho' most unworthy of it and â—llow them yet a Time of Trial becoming Surety for them that they should detest and abhor their Corruption deny themselves and return to the Love of God His Mediation is accepted and upon the account of his Merits and Intercession Man is pardoned Grace is given him of new and a Time of Trial allow'd him in which he must lead a Life of Penitence and thereby mortifie his Corrupt Nature and return to the Love of God 2. The Time of Trial given to Man at first was a State of Pleasure and Delights but since the Fall of Man the Time of Trial assign'd him is a State of Labour and Toil and therefore God thrust Man out of a delightful Paradice and suffered the Malediction and Curse of his Sin to fall upon the Creatures in a great measure that they all might afford him Vexation instead of Pleasure and so he might have occasion of doing Penitence because he had turn'd away his Heart and Affections from God and set them on the Creature 3. The Son of God having undertaken the Recovery of Mankind out of pure Love and Compassion he provides means and remedies according to the different states of their Maladies The First Command he gives Man as a necessary mean of his Recovery is a Life of Penitence and Labour to eat his Meat in the sweat of his Face but Men multiplying their Sins he multiplied his Commands as so many means to turn them from their Sins and gave them variety of Precepts to make them think upon God in all their Actions and Words so that their Hearts might be in a continual Elevation to him But they cleave to the Letter of the Law without comprehending the Sence of it and turn'd away yet more from the Love of God placing their Affections on the Creatures the Riches Pleasures and Honours of this Life pleasing themselves with the outside of their Rites and Ceremonies 4. When all other means prov'd unsuccessful Jesus Christ tries the last Remedy Men were not capable in their Mortal State of being taught by him in his Glorious Body He had obtain'd of his Father to give them in Spirit good Thoughts and Motions yea Divine and Supernatural Light but all this was not capable to convert them or to make them sensible they were in a State of Damnation because of each one 's inveterate habit to follow their brutish Nature There was need of a Mean visible and sensible to their Corruption to move their Hearts otherwise they had all been lost without a sence of their own Misery all perishing without perceiving it by a damnable Imitation of one another thus all running in the Broad Way to Hell Having therefore obtain'd from his Father Mercy and Pardon for them upon their Repentance Jesus Christ resolves to become a Mortal Man He therefore cloaths himself with our Mortality and bringing along with him his Divine Light to enlighten them and his Divine Love to enflame them he becomes in all things like to Corrupt Man yet without Sin he teaches them by his Word and his by Example how they should mortifie their Corrupt Nature do Penitence and recover the Love of God he charges himself with the miseries and frailty that Sin has brought upon Humane Nature taking on himself all their Maledictions and the Punishments due to their Sins which he did bear and suffer as if he had been the greatest of all Sinners living a Life of extream Poverty Labour Contempt and Pain undergoing a shameful painful and accursed Death and so obtaining Pardon for all who should thus follow his Steps 5. God made his Will known to good Men to the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets by the Organ of the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ But since Men were taught by Jesus Christ in his Mortal Body there is no need to see or understand by his Glorious Body They have received the Light of Truth so that they need not bodily Visions to understand the Will of God Jesus Christ speaks now to them in Spirit and in Truth enlightning Souls with his Divine Light inwardly by his Holy Spirit which operates in Souls disengag'd from themselves and from all earthly Affections acting in them sweetly and powerfully when the Soul is in Peace and Tranquility of Mind It hears then as a soft Wind which surrounding it with Joy makes it see what it ought to do and avoid both for its own Conduct and for that of other well-dispos'd People 4. As to the Present State of the World the Summ of her Accessory Sentiments are 1. THAT all Men have corrupted their Ways and that there are no True Christians in the World truly mortified to corrupt Nature and regenerated in the Love of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ 2. That the present State of Christendom is a perfect Babel our Language being confounded and the Builders do not understand one another 3. That we have glossed away the Laws and Doctrine of Jesus Christ by our Expositions as much as the Scribes and Pharisees did Moses's Law by their Traditions 4. That we live presently in the Reign of Antichrist and that he rules in Spirit through all the Earth by his Three Antichristian Qualities which he sheds into Man's Nature Injustice Malice and Hypocrisie under a cover of Religion in Opposition to the Three Divine Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth which Jesus Christ came to plant in the Hearts and Lives of all his Disciples That Men seduce one another under fair Appearances That Sin is mask'd with Holiness and cover'd with Hypocrisie 5. That the Source of all the Evils in the Church is in the Corruption of the Pastors and Churchmen and that the Abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary That all the Degeneracy of Christians comes from the Degeneracy of their Guides 6. That the Wickedness of Man now being Universal and come to a height greater than in the Days of Noah the Sentence of Gods last Judgments is irrevocably past and the Plagues are begun and will continue till that by War Famine Pestilence and other grievous Judgments all the Wicked be consumed from off the Face of the Earth but this shall be done slowly and in a Course of many Years that many may thereby be awakened and brought to Repentance 5. As to the State of Things to come her Sentiments are 1. THAT God will yet once renew his Gospel-Spirit upon Earth and will fill well-disposed Souls with the Spirit that Jesus Christ had while upon Earth and
they will not be reduced from their supposed Errors by Noise and Banter All to the best of my Understanding that A. B. pretends to is only to be an Instrument in Christ's Hands and that no otherwise than by publishing these Truths that he by his Spirit communicated to her and which his Power and Grace alone was afterwards to make effectual Now let it be supposed but not granted that it was so What Disparagement is it to our Redeemer to make use of a poor contemptible Creature in order to accomplish great Designs Was it any Dishonour to him that his Apostles in his Name and Power converted more to the Christian Religion and wrought more Miracles than he did himself when he dwelt in mortal Flesh V. Perhaps it may be thought I am byassed in Favours of A. B. and therefore not so capable to discern that Latet Anguis in Herba I am sure if I am so my Prejudices are of no old Date they are not yet so rooted but sober and just Reasonings might discuss them and reclaim me from my Mistakes neither I think can it be said that they have been fortified from any prospect of Reputation or worldly Interest But whatever my Prejudices may be I can sincerely declare that what determined me to have an Esteem for this Person 's Writings was a Conviction that they not only recommended the great and essential Duties of the Gospel distinguished them from the Accessories discovered the Mischief of Sects and Parties and the Vanity of laying Stress on nice and airy Speculations but also because they suggested solid Principles which might serve as an Antidote against the Infusions of Atheists and Deists Pelagians and Socinians Antinomians and Fatalists and false Pretences to Inspiration And tho' I met with some things in them that seem'd a little odd and startling yet I choosed rather to suspend my Judgment since even her self does not impose them on any than forego what appear'd to me so very solid and useful Some LETTERS OF M. ANT. BOVRIGNON Whereby her True Christian Spirit and Sentiments are farther justified and vindicated particularly as to the Doctrine of the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ as is to be seen in the Third and Fourth Letters All of them are most worthy to be perused by those who sincerely love and impartially seek after the Truth and the Salvation of their Souls LETTER I. Concerning the Love of God Written to a Pastor at Mechlin and is the 15th of La lum nec en tenebr Part I. SIR I. I Know not how one of sound Judgment can love any other thing but God seeing there is no created thing that is worthy of our Love as he is being the Fountain of all Good Wisdom the Giver of all Wisdom the Beauty that creates all Beauty the Righteousness of the Righteous the Goodness of all Goodness the Accomplishment of all Perfections in short the only Object worthy of our Love without whom nothing is Lovely neither in Heaven nor in Earth Nothing without him can satisfie our Soul nothing can content it nothing can give it Perfect Pleasure nothing can make it happy neither now nor hereafter It is he who created us it is he who preserves us it is he who will judge us If Good of its own Nature is always Lovely why then does not the Soul employ all its Powers to love the Original the Perfection and the Consummation of all Good which is God II. If Likeness beget Love how can your Soul which was made after the Similitude of God live without loving him What other Lovely Object can it find without God whom only it resembles What Original or Pattern is there among all perishing Things to this Divine and Immortal Soul which cannot find its like but in God himself III. If Benefits do oblige even Nature it self to love its Benefactors how ought the Soul to love its God when he has given it all that it posseseth and has promised infinite and eternal Goods beyond Comparison in the Life to come He has given the Soul which he created of nothing He not only made it after the Similitude of the Angels of Heaven but after the likeness of God himself so that all Souls are by Creation made little Gods Could this God of Love give unto Man greater Goods and Gifts to make himself be loved by him than this Divine Creation of his Soul Immortal as himself The Body which he formed to be the Keeper and Sheath of this Soul could it have more Perfections Is there any thing in Nature more Admirable than the Body of Man animated with all the Powers of the Soul with an Understanding to conceive with a Memory to remember with a Will to act so that the very Body is in some manner an Image or Resemblance of the HOLY TRINITY IV. Could God give unto Man more and greater Gifts than he has done to oblige him to love him For after having given him a Being and Life he upholds and maintains it with all necessary things which he has likewise created for the Entertainment of this Man to whom he has subjected so many Creatures under his Power having made him Superiour over all the living Creatures and given him Authority as the Master-piece of the Works of God the Earth for his Foot-stool the Air to breath in the Fire to warm him the Water to refresh him the Fruits to nourish him the Flowers to recreate him in short all the visible and material things that God created were only for the Body of Man What must he have laid up for his Soul which is beyond all Comparison more valuable as being Divine created after the Image of God If he has made so many admirable Things for the entertainment of the Body which must die and remain for so short a time upon Earth Should not all those Gifts all those Benefits oblige Man to love such a Benefactor Seeing he has not received and can never receive any true Good without this Giver of all Good V. How can he be without loving him when he considers his Love which was not satisfied with having freely imparted unto us so many Gifts but after that this ungrateful Man had abused so many favours by turning away from his Creator to join himself to the Creature valuing the Gifts more than the Giver presuming to merit yet more he rebels against his Orders will needs out of Ambition of Spirit know more than it pleas'd his Creator and breaks his Commandment that he might equal himself unto him This God of Love who in a Moment could have punished all these Ingratitudes by an eternal Damnation unto which he had banish'd the fallen Angels lov'd Man more than the Angels and having more regard to the Love he bear him than to his Disobedience he pardons his Sin and forgives his Fault upon Condition of a temporal Penitence VI. This Testimony of Affection from a God towards his Creature
did tlus produce one to whom the Divine Nature united it self ibid. p. 32 33. 7. He began to be too much immers'd in sensible Delights and the Woman made to prevent his Fall ibid. p. â—6 63 64 65. XXXIV 2. Of Man's Fall c. 1. She Sins and leads Man to sin too ibid. p. 57. 2. The horrid Corruption that flow'd from thence to his Soul L'Etoile du Matin p. 6 7 8. Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. avant Pr. p. 16 17 pref p. 11 12 13. To his Body L'Etoile du Matin p. 6. 3. To the rest of the Creatures ibid. p. 5. 4. To all Mankind Renouv. de l'Espr Evang. Pref. p 22 23. XXXV 3. The Means of his Recovery 1. Jesus Christ by his Merits and Mediation obtains Pardon for him upon Terms and becomes his Surety L'Etoile du Matin p. 122. Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. Pref p. 21 25 30. 2. His Time of Trial is now a State of Labour Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. part 2. p. 89 90 91 c. 3. A Life of Penitence enjoyn'd him Renouv. â—de l' Espr Ev. Pref. p. 44 45. c. 4. Jesus Christ cloaths himself with his Mortality to recover him L' Etoile du Matin p. 122. 123 c. Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. pref p. 38 39. 50. 5. We are taught now by the Light of Truth and no need of bodily Visâ—ons Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. part 2. p. 99. XXXVI 6. The present State 1. No true Christians at present Acad des Theol. part 1. cap. 9. 2. Christendom a Babel Conâ—us des Ouvr de Babel 3 The Doctrine of Jesus Christ glossed away Tomb. de la fausse Theol. part 1. let 1. 4. Antichrist reigns now L'Etoile du Matin p 98 99 100. Antich Decouv Light of the World part 1. p. 31. part 3. p. â—9 5. The Churchmen the Source of all the Evil. Temoign de Verite part 2 p. 50 76. 6. God's last Judgments begun L'Etoile du Mâ—tin p. 107 108 c. Light of the World part 1. p. 151 188. part 3. p. 29. XXXVII 5. The State of Things to come 1. God will renew his Gospel Spirit Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. Pref. p. 125. 2. And will â—ulfil his Propose of living with Man forever on Earth Light of the World part 1. p. 145. part 3. p. 83. La Derniere Mesericorde p 157 158. 3. And â—enew all his Worke into 〈◊〉 primitive Integrity 〈…〉 Renouv. de l' Espr 〈◊〉 part 2. p 131 132 1â—â— Light of the World part 1. p. 148. 4. And the Malignity banish'd from all Le Nouv. Ciel p. 127 128 129. Renouv. de l' Esp Evâ—ng part 2. p. 132 133. Light of the World part 1. p. 153. 5. Man restored to his First State Etoile du Matin p 93. Light of the World part 1. p. 169. XXXVIII These Sentiments not damnable XXXIX They clear the Doâ—ctrines of Christianity XL. They are consonant to the Holy Scriptures 1. As to the Beauty of all things Nouv. Ciel p. 80. Gen. 1 31. 2. As to the Beauty of Man's Body 3. As to Man's being created to produce his Kind * Gen. 1. 27. Etoile du Mat. p. 64 68. Gen. 1. 31. Gen. 2 18. 4. That Jesus Christ came of Adam Renouv. de l' Esp Ev. part 2. p. 98. Etoile du Matin p. 32 33. a Exod. 3. 2. 6. b c. 13 21 c c. 33 9 11. d c. 33. 2 3. e Ib. v. 22 23. f ch 14. 28 35. Dr. Scot's Christian Life part 2. vol. 2. p 233 to 258. 5. That Sin did strangely deform Man 6. And the Creatures a Rom. 8. 20. b v. 22. c v. 21. 7. That all Men are propagated of Adam both as to Soul and Body Eph. 2. 3. Aug. de lib. arb l. 3. c. 21. Item Epist Hieron ad de Orig. animarum 8. That there are no truâ— Christiani Acad. de Theol. part 1. c. 9. Light of the World p. 1. conf 2 9. That Christendom is a Babel Confus des Ouvr de Babel 10. That Mâ—â— gloss 〈◊〉 the Lawâ— oâ—â—esus Christ Tombâ—d la fausse Theol. p. 1. let 1. Matt. 16. 24. 11. That we are in the Reign of Antichrist Antichr Decouv Light of the World p. 1. conf 5. 12. The Corruption of the Pastors the Source of all the Evil. 1 Thess 2. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 3. Light of the World part 1. Conf. 1 2 3. 4 9. Nouv. ciel let 5. P. 147. 165. La Sainte Visiere ch 1 2 3. Tomb. de la fauss Theol. part 1. let 1 9. 〈…〉 Judgmentâ— Light of 〈◊〉 World 〈◊〉 1. Con. 2 29. Mat. 24. 8. 2 Pet. 3. 3. 14. That the Works of God shall not perish but be renewed a Rom. 8. 21. b 2 Pet. 3. 13. c Rev. 21. 1. d Act. 3. 21. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Renascentia Secundus Ortus Restauratio That Jesus Christ will reign for ever on the Earth with the Blessed a Ps 96. and 98. b Dan. 7. 27. c Zech. 14. 6 c. d Rev. 5. 9 10. e Rev. 11 15. f Rev. 21. 2. g Rev. 22. 5. Light of the world part 3. Conf. 7. XLI That those Sentiments are neither inconsistent with themselves nor with the Scripture Joh. 6. 66. Mat. 11. 25. Joh. 8. * Graditur Dâ—us cum Simplicibus revelat se Humilibus dat intellectum Parvulis aperit sensum puris Mentibus abscondit Grattam Curiosis Superbis Ratio humana debilis est falli potest Fides autem Vera falli non potest Th. a Kemp de Imit Chr. Lib. 4. c. 18. sect 4. XLII That this Account is just and they who give contrary Representations are not fair I. There is a general Disposition to judge rashly II. The Writings and Person of A. B. thus treated III. The unjust Measures of her Adversaries IV. Their Spirit and Temper like that of the Scribes and Pharisees Matt. 23. 29 30. V. Prejudices cleared 1. Of the Holy Trinity Antich Decouv part 2. p. 9 10. Pierce dâ— Touch. p. 111 112. Antich Decouv p. 2. n 314122. Antich Decouv part 2. n. 5. Lavice Continuè p. 553 554. Pierce de Touch. p. 114. VI. Of the Divinity of Jesus Christ VII As to the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ The Sum of her Sentiments as to the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ VIII Of the Satisfaction due by Man Le Temoign de Verite part 1. p. 83. Renouv. de l'Espr Evang avantprop n. 35. Preface n. 33 40. 47 67. 103 138 139 140. Le Temoign de Verite Part 1. n. 59 61 64. Renouv. de l'Espr Ev. Pref. n. 52. Ibid. n. 35. Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. avantprop n. 34 35. Le Temoign de Verite p. 1. n. 107 Light of the World part 2. conf 11. Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. p. 2. n. 105 106 Et est Justitiae Pulchritudo cum Benignitatis Gratia concordans ut quoniam bonorum inferiorum dulcedine decepti sumus amaritudine paenarum
his Body the Principles of both Natures and in that respect being a compleat and perfect Man which Power was actuated upon ardent Acts of Love to God and a Desire to produce a Creature like himself to love and enjoy his Maker 6. Adam while he was in perfect Innocence did thus produce one like himself who was the First-Born of every Creature the Second Adam and the Son of Man And God being desirous to give to Man a full and perfect Contentment in Body and Spirit and to dwell with him bodily and visibly so that he might Converse with Man as a Friend with his Friend he therefore not only made Man after his Image but he becomes like to Man he unites himself to the Humane Nature in the Second Adam that he might Converse familiarly with Man by an Organ to be seen heard and felt by him conformable to his Nature This is Jesus Christ Eternal God and True Man 7. Notwithstanding of this Adam swimming amidst all sensible Delights the Time of Trial given him being then a State of Delight and Pleasure began to lean too much towards them and to please himself in them without turning his Soul so constranly towards God and so became less sensible of the Motions of God's Light and Love upon his Spirit being taken up too much other ways which encreasing still upon him to prevent his total Degeneracy and that he might not sink so low as to place his Love and Affections on things which were only earthly and material God resolves to make a Help for him he for this end takes one of the Principles of Foecundity out of Man and therewith forms the Woman who being form'd more Beautiful than any of the Creatures and being a more lively Representation of God he might love her in God as God's Image being endued with a Divine Soul as he was and so she might take off his Affections from the other Creatures and raise them towards God 2. As to Man 's total Fall and the Consequences thereof 1. THE Woman who was given for a Help to Man to keep him from a total Degeneracy listning to the Temptations of the Serpent the most subtile and beautiful of all the Beasts turn'd away from God her self and led on Man to do so too both of them shaking off their Dependance upon God and his Will and following their own Wills and breaking a just and easie Command that God had given them forbidding them to eat of the Fruit of one Tree as an Acknowledgement of Homage to their Great Creator and Benefactor and that they held all of him 2. As by turning from the Sun we fall into Darkness and Obscurity so Man much more by turning away from God and setting his Heart upon the Creatures brings an universal Corruption and Misery on himself and on all the Creatures which had been subjected to him Above all Sin corrupted Man's Soul did it the greatest Mischief having damn'd it eternally and made it like unto the Devil For both were created by God to love him and when they both withdraw this Love from God to love themselves or other Creatures they are equally become Devils the one incarnate and the other spiritual depriv'd of all sort of Good and fallen into all sort of Evil. So that if Man will consider himself narrowly he shall find his Soul defil'd with all sort of Sins fill'd with Injustice subject to Lying enclin'd to Covetousness blown up with Pride furious with Anger Lustful Gluttonous Sloathful Negligent with all other sort of Sins which reside in the depth of his Soul Sin so corrupted his Will that he had always a Bent and Inclination to Evil so that all that comes from the Self-will of Man is Sin his Self-will being fill'd with nothing but Self-love Sin has also so corrupted his Reason that it is no longer capable of discerning and judging aright of things It has so darkened his Memory and confounded his Understanding that he takes Evil for Good and Good for Evil without Judgment and Reason From the Corruption of his Soul did flow that of his Body all its Humours and Parts being disordered his glorious Body becomes filthy dark and deform'd in every part of it contracts that gross Crust of Corruption which we now carry about with us and which has seiz'd on every the least part of it within and without so that our First Parents were asham'd of themselves sought wherewith to cover their Nakedness and went and hid themselves The Senses also became gross dull and feeble could discern nothing but the outside of things and the whole Body became full of disorder within subject to the ill Impressions of all the Creatures and at last to Dissolution and Death 3. Man by his Fall brought also a Corruption and Deformity upon all the Creatures which had been subjected to him the Earth became gross and dark barren and unfruitful and all the Creatures became hurtful and mischievous to Man and rose up against him who had shaken off his Allegiance to their Bountiful Creator The Air stifles him the Waters drown him the Fire burns him the Earth Corn and Trees deny him their Fruits without his Care and Labour the Stars send bad Influences on him and he is subjected to Cold Heat Hunger Thirst Weariness and innumerable other Evils being deprived of the Dominion he had over all things and subjected unto them 4. All Men in the World are the Natural Off-spring of Adam and do descend from him both as to Body and Soul so that they must partake of the same Qualities with him being all his Living Images and therefore all Men who were in his Loins when he turn'd away from God sinned in him and do inherit his Corruption and Misery both of Body and Mind as if he had not sinned he had produc'd all Men to Salvation as God created them But every Man for himself would have had the same Liberty that Adam had to remain firm in the Love of God or to turn away from it by placing his Affections on himself or other Creatures He might damn or save himself during this Time of Trial and all who had remained faithful to God would have been saved on the contrary all who had withdrawn their Affections from him to love any other thing would have been damn'd and their Posterity would have been in the same State tho' Adam had never sinn'd So free and independent would Men have been during their Time of Trial which is that in which we live at present and must continue till the Day of Judgment And then being confirm'd in Grace as the faithful Angels are they could never fall away being perfectly united to God after this Time of Trial. 3. As to the Means and Method for Man's Recovery 1. ALL Mankind had been thus irrecoverably lost and damn'd as the fallen Angels are if the Son of God our elder Brother had
seems therefore now that all was not good as he had made it that Man began to abuse the Free Will that God had given him to be less ardent in his Love and Dependance upon God and to lean towards the Creatures and therefore to prevent his total Fall he makes a Help-meet for him gives him a Companion endu'd with an immortal Soul and the living Image of God as himself that in Loving this living Image of the Divinity as himself his Affection might be raised and strengthened in the Love of God 4. That Jesus Christ was come immediately from Adam and that God in him did assume the human Nature before the Fall of Man is insinuated by those Instances in the Holy Scripture that he is call'd peculiarly the Son of Man there being none other so but he the second Adam that he is said to be the First-born of every Creature none of the Creatures having produc'd any of their Kinds before Adam that the Lord conversed familiarly with Adam and spoke with him Face to Face and he heard the Lord walking in the Garden and hid himself Thus it was God in the human Nature Jesus Christ that spoke to Adam to Noah to Abraham to Jacob to Moses to the Patriarchs and the Prophets The Interpretations which by latter Writers are given of those Apparitions are an evident Straining of the Text as to say that it is a created Angel a Simple Creature who says I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham And Moses hid his Face for he was afraid to look upon God It was he who in Person did lead the Israelites by Day in a Pillar of a Cloud and by Night in a Pillar of Fire out of which he spake to Moses Face to Face as a Friend speaketh to his Friend Thus after the Idolatry of the Golden Calf he threatned not to go up any longer in the midst of them but to send an Angel before them And when Moses desired to see his Glory he was covered with the Lord's Hand while he passed by and permitted only to see his back Parts because he could not see his Face and live the Weakness of our corrupt Nature not being able to behold that Glory without being dissolv'd and yet this Divine Body tho' covered with a Cloud made such Impression by the Rays of its Glory on the Body of Moses as that after forty days Conversation his Countenance did shine And the ancient Fathers were so sensible that all this could not be said of an Angel that many of them were in the Opinion that the Son of God did assume a human Body before he was incarnate and therein appeared to Adam and the Patriarchs so Justin Martyr Tertullian Irenaeus c. A very pious and learned Divine of the Church of England has of late made appear that Jesus Christ immediately after the Fall of Man became the Mediatior and Surety of a New Covenant and so under the most high God and Father did immediately rule and govern his Church and People and that therefore 1. There was a certain extraordinary Angel who frequently appeared and spoke to the Jewish Patriarchs who is sometimes called Jehovah who ordinarily assumed to himself Divine Appellations and to whom the holy Men rendred Divine Honours Vows and Sacrifices and that he appear'd to them in the Form of a Man 2. That he was a Divine Person and no created Being 3. That he was that Divine Person that descended upon Mount Sinai and from thence removed into the Tabernacle and thence into the Temple 4. That he was not God the Father 5. That he was God the Son who appeared to the Patriarchs Joh. 8. 56 58. brought Israel out of Egypt and descended on Mount Sinai Heb. 12. 16. Eph. 4. 8. Psal 68. led them thro' the Wilderness into Canaan 1 Cor. 10. 9. dwelt in the Jewish Tabernacle and Temple Joh. 12. 41. compared with Is 6. 1. and was that Jehovah and Divine Lord and King who under the most high Father presided over the Jewish Church Eph. 5 14. with Is 60. 1. Is 41. 4. and 48. 12. with Rev. 1. 2 17. and 2. 8. and after his coming into the World he still retain'd his Right and Title of King of Israel Matth. 2. 2. Joh. 1. 49. and 12. 13. Zech. 9. 9 14 15. Joh. 18. 33 34 35 36 37. Now it being evident that immediately after the Fall of Man Jesus Christ became a Mediatour and Surety for him that he took the immediate Care of his People and often appeared to them in the Form of a Man is it not as agreeable with the Analogy of Faith and the Holy Scriptures to say he was truly so than to affirm that he took only the Appearance of a Man till he cloathed himself with our Frailty and Mortality Besides this is a wonderful Instance of the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God that so many of the Angels having fallen from their first State and so all Intercourse between God and them broken off to prevent the Fall of Man or if he should fall that there might be a way for his Recovery and that there might be one for whose Sake and Mediation he might pardon Man and conferr new Graces on him that therefore the Eternal Son of God should unite himself to Man's Nature and become Man while Man was yet in his Integrity and Innocency since afterwards the Divinity would not have united it self to sinful Man and so all Intercourse between God and Man should have been broken off as it is between him and the Fallen Angels 5. That Sin did strangely deform the Body of Man and that it became quite another thing than it was before appears by this that Man after his Sin was ashamâ—d of himself saw his Nakedness and was ashamd of it and sought something wherewith to cover it whereas there was no such Shame before no more than the Sun can be ashamed that his Light and Glory is not covered with Clouds and Darkness 6. That Sin has also deform'd the Creation which is to be restored to its primitive State is expresly pointed out in the Holy Scriptures we being told that the Creature was made subject to Vanity and that the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in Pain together until now and that it shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God 7. That all Men are the Natural Off-spring of Adam as to their Souls as well as to their Bodies seems to be a most just and true Sentiment We see in this visible World God has endued all living Creatures with a Power to produce their like from the meanest Plant to the most perfect Animal All kinds of Birds Beasts and Fishes produce their Off-spring of the same kind of Body Life and Spirit with themselves endued with the same Power of producing their like which Life and Spirit
even the Learned as well as the Vulgar begin again to acknowledge to be somewhat else than meer Mechanism This Production all the Art of the World cannot imitate but it is derived down from the first of every Kind to the respective Series of Individuals of that Kind thro' all Generations That all Men do thus derive their Off-spring from Adam as to their Bodies no body will deny but the general Opinion of the Learned has been that our Souls are immediately created or infus'd by God into our Bodies and that we do not derive them from our Parents and so from Adam But as God has endued Man with a Power of producing the Bodies of his Off-spring so also it seems evident that he has endued Man's Soul united to his Body with a Power of producing Souls united to Bodies which receive also from their Constituents the same Power of producing other Souls united to Bodies and that altogether like themselves There is no Contradiction in the Nature of the Thing and the Blessing of Multiplying given to Man is as unlimited as that to the other Creatures and the Scripture speaks of the Children in the Parents Loins and by this we easily conceive how the Corruption of Man's Nature is communicated to his Posterity without any Blemish in the Holiness and Righteousness of God for he having created Man Holy and Righteous with a Power to produce his like had he continued so the Souls which proceeded from him had been so too but he being corrupted in his Nature he could derive no other to his Posterity For Propagation is redoubling of the same Being and of the same State in which it is But on the other Hand if Souls are not derived from the Parent but immediately created by God Children may be less said to be the Off-spring of their Parents than the Young of the other living Creatures are from them so that they all do more perfectly produce their Kinds than does Man But above all this will never satisfie as to the other great Truth That all Souls are now impure and corrupt from their Original and Children of Wrath by Nature as the Scripture says It were blasphemous to say That God creates Souls impure ignorant and corrupt and it is no less evil to think that God creating them pure and holy does immediately put them into Bodies where they no sooner are but immediately they are thereby reputed so corrupt and guilty as to merit an eternal Separation from God The devout and profound S. Augustine was so sensible of the Difficulties in this Matter that he was undetermined what Side to take and professed that he had seen nothing that cleared them and he was for bearing with one another as to a Difference of Sentiment in these Things It is absurd to conclude this Sentiment to be false because we cannot conceive how Souls should propagate Souls without communicating of themselves in whole or in part if the last they are divisible and not spiritual if the first they should cease to animate their former Bodies this is to reason about Souls from the Idea's we have of Bodies Do not we experience ten thousand things in the World tho' we cannot conceive how they are We see the Soul produces Thoughts and one Thought produces another and this in infinitum Now it is easie for God to make that in certain Circumstances the Divine productive Vertue of the Soul should beget a Thought which has in it a Principle of Activity as it self has and that this Principle after its Production should not depend any longer on the producing Soul but subsist by it self 8. It has been judged the greatest Uncharitableness for her to declare to the World that there are no True Christians whereas in Truth it is one of the greatest Acts of Charity If a number of Persons were desperately Sick and their Distempers had so craz'd the most of them that they were not sensible of their own Sickness and Dangers tho' they perceived sufficiently the Illness of their Neighbours would it be Uncharitableness to awaken them and tell them of their Danger and direct them to the true Remedies even tho' some of them were using the proper means and tending to recovery it were certainly a Kindness done them all She does not say that there are not among Christians who have good Purposes and good Desires and who are good in Comparison of the Wicked but none who are truly regenerately into the Spirit of Jesus Christ She says * To be a true Christian is to imitate the Actions of Jesus Christ and to obey his Instructions Thus Jesus Christ says To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven we must become as a little Child we must take the last Place we must do Penitence we must be poor in Spirit we must deny our Selves we must love our Neighbours as our selves we must take the Kingdom of Heaven by force we must pluck out the Eye or cut off the Hand that offends us we must leave our Offering to go and be reconciled to our Brother we must love our Enemies and do good to them that hate us that we cannot serve two Masters we must not care for the Morrow but lay up Treasures in Heaven we must enter by the strait Gate that a rich Man will hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that we must take up our Cross and follow him that we must give an Account of every idle Word that God hides his Secrets from the Wise and Prudent and reveals them to Babes that he came not to be served but to serve c. She appeals to Christians whether they be renewed into this Spirit and makes through all these Instances how far they are from it and how few there are who aspire after it And to make People believe otherwise is but cheating Men into Damnation 9. That the present State of Christendom is a Babel where the Language is confounded and the Builders do not understand one another is but too sad a Truth to be denied If a wise Master Builder design to build a glorious City and give particular Instructions how the inferiour Workmen shall be trained up for it and by what Marks they shall be chosen and what Measures they shall observe in squaring fitting and laying of the Stones and if the Workmen shall be trained up by quite different Measures and chosen for the Office by other Marks and if the Workmen do so far mistake their Measures Rules and Instructions as that some of them say he commanded one thing and others the quite contrary some that the Stones should be hewn after such a way and others after a quite different way and should live in a continual Debate and Scuffle each side contending that they were only in the right and striving to draw as many Stones as they could to themselves and then instead of carefully and wisely hewing them and fitting them for the Building should animate
to his Image we must suffer with him if we would reign with him His was meritorious and expiatory and exemplary ours is absolutely necessary for our Purification By his he obtain'd Pardon and Grace for us and chang'd the Eternal Punishment we deserved into a Temporal Penitence for our Purification and Recovery and to say we cannot undergo this Penitence is to have no Faith in his Merits to believe that it is enough that he did undergo this for us is the greatest Indignity done him and the greatest Cheat that we can put upon our Souls it is to belie and be false to our Surety and our Pledge It is like Bankrupts to swagger and rant it out with our Creditor's Goods because our Surety has paid the Debt for us It is to make Jesus our Slave to suffer all manner of Afflictions Poverty Reproach and Pain for us that we may go to Heaven in the pleasant and broad Way of Honours Wealth and Pleasures It is to be well pleas'd that the Physician has provided wholsome and necessary Physick for our Recovery and has taken it himself for our Direction and Encouragement but tho' we be sick to Death we will not taste it our selves because of the Bitterness of it believing that we shall Recover nevertheless because the Physician has taken it Jesus Christ led this Life of Penitence for us in his visible and mortal Body that he might shew us how ready he is still to undergo it in every one of us by his Spirit 8. God has no need of this our Penitence but we stand in need of it to recover the Love of God He does not covet our Wealth or Honours or Friends or Ease in that he requires of us to be poor in Spirit to deny our selves to take up our Cross and follow Christ to forsake all things since he created all things for Man and would be well pleased he could enjoy them still But Man is become so miserable that he cannot enjoy these things without setting his Heart upon them and turning it away from God and therefore Jesus Christ has given this his Gospel-Law without which no body can recover the Love of God It is a sad Mistake then to think that there is no necessity of good Works but only by way of Gratitude and Thankfulness to God as if he had need of our Acknowledgments or as if we could make him Presents of our Good Works to thank him which cannot be said but in Contempt of the Riches of God who possesses all in himself and seeks nothing without himself and needs not that we should give him any thing all the good Works that Men can do are for no other End but to resist and overcome the Evils of their Corruption And they are as necessary for our Salvation as Bread is for the Life of the Body for we cannot be saved without subduing our Corruption and no Body can do this but by the means of such good Works and such Penitence as stifles and mortifies the Vices and Sins which this Corruption has brought into the Soul 9. It is a Pride to glory in our Penitence since it is enjoined us for our Sins it ought rather to fill us with Humility and Confusion for in the Beginning it was not so God created us to live in all sorts of Delights without any Pain All this beautiful World was created to serve for Pleasures to the Body of Man and God himself was the Delight of his Soul But Sin only has changed that excellent Order and made Man subject to that over which he ought to rule because he had withdrawn his Subjection from God Our Sins have occasioned the Law of Penitence which Jesus Christ came to teach us by Word and Deed. This Penitence does not consist in Undergoing Pennances chosen by our selves and after our Fancy by which the Devil would drive us headlong and excite us to Vain-glory and which usually make Men presumptuous believing themselves to be better than others and that God is obliged to them for their good Works as the Pharisee All this proceeds from Self-love but true Penitence consists in taking patiently whatsoever God permits to befall us either to our Body Estate or Mind and willingly to suffer it in the Spirit of Penitence to satisfie for our Sins for every Moment there falls out Occasions of Suffering and and Submission so that we need not seek for them It is necessary that we practise this Resignation of our Will to God for accomplishing the saving Penitence which he has enjoined us and for the Exercise of all sort of Vertues 10. Since then the Justice of God could not permit that Pardon and Grace should be given to sinful Man but upon Condition that he turn away from Sin to God and in order to that live a Life of Penitence and co-operate with the Spirit of Suffering Self-denial and Mortification which God will communicate to him if he sincerely desire to be saved it is necessary that Man satisfie this Duty which is so just before God and which the Justice of God requires as well as the Nature of the thing it self This is that which she calls Man's Satisfying God's Justice on his Part this is that from which the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ does not procure us a Dispensation for then he had neither been just to God nor us but he merited the Acceptance of it at God's Hands and Grace and Strength for us to perform it and taught us how to undergo it If People are nice and captious and will needs carp at Words and Expressions as Satisfaction and the Satisfying the Justice of God while they understand what is meant by them no body will contend with them about them provided they grant the Truth and Reality of the thing that no body will be saved by the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ without the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and the Recovery of the Love of God It is good Consideration which is now generally assigned why God thought not fit as Governour of the World to pardon Rebellious Man without the Intervention of an expiatory Sacrifice in the Life and Death of Jesus Christ that Men might thereby see the Evil of Sin and God's infinite Hatred and Abhorrence of it and so might be diverted from continuing in it or returning to it It is for the very same Reason that God thought not fit to pardon Man for the Sufferings of Jesus Christ unless he also follow him in a Life of Penitence and Sufferings for we are not so sensible of what others suffer neither does it breed in us such an Abhorrence of that which has occasioned their Sufferings as when we suffer the like Pains and Evils our selves without which we have as superficial a Sense of them as of the Actings on a Theatre And therefore to give us the more lively Sense of the Sufferings of Jesus Christ and to enflame our Love to him
Can any thing fall out against the Will of God and which he has not decreed to fall out As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner Let no Man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God O Israel thy Destruction is of thy self God did not decree that Man should sin nor that he would permit him to sin but took care by all means to prevent it and has spar'd no Mean to recover him from it But Man has wilfully destroyed himself God created him out of pure Love to delight himself in him and therefore to make this Love perfect and compleat he created him altogether Free and Perfect He would not bound nor limit the Will of Man whom he would needs make after his own Likeness to be his Spouse and not his Slave or constrain'd to do his Will as are all the other Creatures But Man was created altogether Free as a little God Sovereign and Ruler over the other Creatures and free to use them well or ill as he would If he had received only a limited Will he would have had no Divine Quality for God to take his Delight with him for that two Beings may find Contentment together there must be a Proportion and Sympathy between them God cannot take his Delight with any Creature of a bounded Will he himself being an infinite God there must be in Man some infinite Quality by which he may unite himself to God and that is an absolute Liberty of willing which nothing can constrain This was the most precious thing that God could give to Man for by it he was made like to God for otherwise he should have been a limited Creature in whom God could not take Pleasure Could God take Delight in a thing so unlike himself Could so powerful a God unite himself to such an impotent Creature that 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 This is the only thing that makes Man capable of being united to God We see in Nature the Alliance is not true and agreeable if two Persons be not united in their Wills in God if there be Force Limitation or Constraint on either side the Contentment cannot be compleat This is the Figure of the perfectly Free Union that the Soul ought to have with God and if the Soul were constrain'd or forc'd to this Union God could not take perfect Delight in it Where there is Constraint there can be no perfect Love the Free Consent and Cooperation of two united must necessarily concur to make the Love compleat As God gave this Liberty to Man when he created him so he will never take it from him for his Designs are unchangable all his Works are Eternal and his Gifts are without Repentance Both Devils and Men shall have their Free-will to all Eternity else they could not do Evil for God never retracts what he has once given he will never retake those Divine Qualities the Divine Soul and Eternal Liberty and cannot bound them because he cannot be changeable in his Gifts nor can he take away what he has been pleas'd once to give If it be establish'd among Men to lay no longer Claim to a thing given how much more ought we to hold that God lays no Claim to the Free-will of Devils and Men to whom he voluntarily gave it The Devils and demned Souls will never use their Liberty to do well being so habituated to Evil and in the Element of it as the Holy Angels and Blessed Saints will never use their Liberty to do Evil it being swallowed up in God From hence it is evident that God did not predetermine Man from all Eternity to Good or Evil by any absolute Decree for this is to constrain that which he would have to be Free to ranverse the Order he had so wisely establish'd and to take from man the most precious thing that he gave him If he had made Man a limited Creature he would have predestinated all Men to Salvation so that none of them should have perished For all that God makes absolutely dependent on him is always Good without any mixture of Evil and it can never be that a limited Creature can do Evil since God can create nothing that is Evil. God endued Man with such an unlimited Free-will that he would not only not predetermine him but also not foresee how he should dispose of that Free-will that he might not thereby limit it or oblige Man to do what he had foreseen His Power and Wisdom is as great yea far more conspicuous in forming him thus Free and letting him fully enjoy the Liberty that he had given him than if he had limited him by Fore-sight and Predestination God being Almighty can save or damn as he pleases and no body can withstand him for all are subject to him but he neither does nor ever will do it but in the Ways which his powerful Wisdom and the Love he has conceived for Man have resolved upon whom he would needs create like unto himself by the absolute Free-will he gave him and would neither constrain him to Good nor hinder him from Evil but would have him his by pure Love with the free Consent of his Will that he might delight in him and Man also might voluntarily delight in the Love of his God Thus we see how Sin came into the World and how Man damns himself God neither willed it nor permitted it that he might bring Glory to himself a most blasphemous Sentiment but against the Will of God Man abused the most precious Gift that could be bestowed upon him his Free-will and turn'd away his Love from God and placed it on himself and on the Creature God does not permit Man to do Evil but by all Means restrains him He permits him only to use the Free-will he has given him and having endued him with an immortal Soul and an eternal Liberty he can no more take away this Liberty without destroying his Nature and making him cease to be Man than he can make a Circle to be a Square without destroying the Nature of a Circle God by giving Man Free-will to make him capable of the greatest Good is no more the Cause of Man's Sin and Reprobation than a Cutler would be the Cause of a Lord 's murthering of his Brother because it was done with a Weapon which he had made for him of well-temper'd Steel of a sharp Edge and for good Uses It would be a cruel Malice to accuse the Cutler of the Murther the Malice is infinitely greater to say that God created us for Damnation or is the Cause of it because he has given us Free-will You see saith S. Augustin how much Good is wanting to the Body where the Hands are wanting and yet he makes ill use of his Hands who
acts any thing that is base or filthy with them If you should see any without Feet you would confess there is much wanting to the Perfection of the Body yet you would not deny but that he who should use them either to hurt any one or to his own Dishonour makes an ill Use of his Feet With our Eyes we see the Light and discern the Forms of Bodies Yet many act Evil with their Eyes and make them the Instruments of Lust Yet you see what a Defect there is in the Face without the Eyes Now where these are entire who is the Giver of them but God the Giver of all Good Wherefore as you approve of those in the Body and without regarding those that misuse them give Praise to God that gave them So it is necessary that the Free-will without which no one can order his Life aright must be both Good and also the Gift of God And you must confess that those rather are to be condemn'd that make ill Use of this Good than that he should be Impeached who gave it Since then in the Body you grant the Eye to be a Good which yet if it were wanting there would be no Hinderance to our living well How can that seem to you no Good without which none can live aright For there is nothing that I do so firmly and intimately feel as that I have a Will and that by it I am moved to do this or that And I see not why I should call it mine if the Will wherewith with I do will and not will is not mine Wherefore to whom must it be attributed if I commit Evil thereby but to my self For since God hath made me and I cannot do any thing well but by the Will it doth thence sufficiently appear that the Will was given rather for this End by the good God And unless that Motion were voluntary and in our Power whereby the Will is turned hither and thither Man would be neither worthy of Praise when he lifteth it up to Things above nor of Blame when he wresteth aside as it were a certain cardinal Point of the Will to Things below Neither were he to be admonished that neglecting these temporal he should seek to gain Eternal Things and that he should refuse to live ill and chuse to live Well But whosoever thinks that Man is not to be admonished to this ought not to be suffered among Men. XII But if Man have Free-will can be do Good of himself without the Grace of God or if he turn away from God can he recover again without God's Grace or is God partial in his Grace denying it absolutely to some and bâ—stâ—wing it on others In all this these are her Sentiments As to the first God is the Author of all Good and Man can never do any Good of himself but by the Grace of God with which God requires that Man by his Free will should co-operate that he may give him more Grace To conceive how God gives his Grace to Man and how he must co-operate therewith we need but consider the Order that he has placed in Nature as to the human Body It is he who forms it independantly from the Creatures so that Parents cannot add one Hair to the Head of their Infant Yet he brings no Men into the World but by the Co-operation of two Persons who are so united as that two Bodies are made one Flesh as Hearts and Wills ought to be one in Christ Jesus for the Forming of the Holy Church God might have created all Men of the Dust of the Earth as he did Adam or made them generate as Fishes but he wills this Conjugal Co-operation to maintain his Charity among his Creatures and produces no Men by any other Way tho' he be Almighty Even so he gives his Grace to Man that he may love him and work out his Sâ—lvation It is he alone who gives this Grace and Man contributes nothing to it nor has ever merired it Nevertheless this Grace liberally given will never produce its â—â—â—ect without the Consent of the Free-will of Man and his Co-operation tho' he can add nothing to Grace which comes immediately from God as does also the Generation of Men. But the Ordinance of God will still stand and Man ought not to ask the Reason of it or to say that the Grace of God ought to operate alone or which is worse to say that Man can do Good of himself These are Sayings as rash as presumptuous whereby Men would give Laws to God and would have his Grace to operate alone And to attribute to Man the Power of doing Good without being prevented by his Grace is a Pride surpassing that of Lucifer who would only equal himself to God whereas Man who would do Good of himself preferrs himself to him and will not take him for the Co-operator of his Good but will assume the Power of doing it by himself That we may conceive how all Good comes from God and that Man can do no good of himself we are to consider that Man being created to enjoy God and to enjoy all his Works is made up of many several Faculties Capacities or Vessels as it were fitted for receiving and being filled with their respective Goods from God and the Creatures and is endued with a Free-will whereby he may turn these Faculties to their respective Objects or turn them away from them as he pleases We may conceive this as to spiritual things by considering the Case as to bodily things Thus his Eyes are formed to receive the Light and all the Objects which it presents The Light surrounds him he opens his Eyes and receives it or he shuts them and keeps it out and walks in Darkness or he encompasses himself with a thick Wall that he may not behold the Light or he does that which makes them blind and so his Darkness comprehends it not Has he reason to boast himself because he opens his Eyes and beholds the Light as if he were the Author of it or had given himself the Power to behold it or to accuse the Light when he shuts his Eyes against it or makes himself Blind The Delight and Good he receives is not from himself but from the Light nor yet the Power of beholding it and the Evil or Privation of it is purely owing to himself Even so God's Delight is with the Soul as the Light is to shine into the Eyes if it turn to him he fills it with Good if it turn away from him it is all Misery and Darkness As to the second if Man now by his own Free-will can in his corrupt State do Good and turn to God she says There is no Good but what comes from God and no Good can proceed from corrupt Man more than pure Wine can come out of a filthy Vessel full of Uncleanness The Scripture tell us a Man takes out of the Treasure of his Heart that which is in it
and a great Dishonour done to Jesus Christ but whosoever reads without Prejudice the Sixth Letter of the Second Part of Solid Vertue and the Accessory Letter in the end of that Part will see how rashly they condemn her There she says That Jesus Christ was united always to his Heavenly Father in his Superiour part is most true I have written that he never contracted Sin tho' he contracted all the Maledictions of Sin after he cloathed himself with our Mortality But he resolving to become a Mortal Man subjected himself to all the Miseries both of Body and Mind which Sin had brought into humane Nature and according to this he felt in his natural Will a Rebellion to the Will of God in Sentiment but never in Consent and resisted this Rebellion which he felt in his Corruption for he says I came not to do my own Will but the Will of him that sent me Now if his own natural Will had been so inseparably united to the Will of his Father to what purpose would he have distinguish'd these two Wills since they were but one For he gives us sufficiently to understand thereby that his own Will was Evil since he would not follow it but that of his Father which alone he knew to be Good for there is nothing Good but God and Jesus Christ himself had nothing Good in him but what God did operate there so that as he was God he was most Good most Wise and most Powerful but as Man he was every way frail as all other Men since he voluntarily cloathed himself with their Miseries in the Womb of the Virgin and became then truly Man of the corrupt Race of Adam And in this corrupt mass he felt a Rebellion of his Will against the Will of God which all Men feel in themselves And therefore he behov'd to resist his own Will and contradict it with so much Vehemence that he sweat Blood in the Garden where he says also to shew his wrestings my Soul is heavy even unto Death and to his Father Not my Will but thino be done after his own Will had pray'd If it be possible let this Cup pass from me and even being on the Cross he says My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Could he say in Truth that he was forsaken by his Father if he had not found in his Inferiour part the separation of his Will from that of God he could not believe nor say that he was forsaken of his eternal Father since his Superiour part was never divided from him one Moment For if it had been never so little separated he had certainly fallen into Sin as other Men whereas it may be said to the Praise of Jesus Christ exclusively of all other that he never sinn'd and that his Soul remain'd still pure and immaculate in the Frailty and Rebellion with which he charg'd himself for the Love he bare to us doing as a most faithful Brother who throws himself into a Sink of Uncleanness to draw out his Brother whom he sees perishing without Succour and Help For Jesus Christ according to his humane Nature is truly our Brother come of Adam our common Father and he saw in the Bosom of his Father that we were all lost in the Sink of our Self-will Therefore he would needs throw himself into it to draw us out and save us from those Dangers Would you think it a dishonour if your Brother should voluntarily throw himself into a Sink to get you out of it when without his Help we could not Recover but must perish for ever would you not rather be oblig'd to honour such a Benefactor and to esteem as Jewels the Filth that he had contracted to deliver you from Death How can you think that this is to dishonour Jesus Christ All those things are so clear that it is a wonder how Men find Difficulty in them but they judge of God and his Works as they would of their Equals and would attribute Honour to Christ by the Contempt they have for his Person Seeing he would not be so valuable in his humane Nature if he had not therein a Will rebellious to the Superiour part of his Soul for in that case he would have had nothing to fight against and consequently could not carry the Victory which belongs only to victorious Combatants and not to those who are in Quiet and without Enemies And if Jesus Christ had not charg'd himself with our corrupt Will he could not endure and suffer for in this case all his Sufferings would have been insensible by the inseparable Union with God who is Impassible as well as Immortal And of necessity this Divinity of Jesus Christ behov'd to be in some way separated from his Humanity for to work our Redemption For abiding in this perfect Union with the Divinity he could not satisfie for Man since Man himself owes this Satisfaction to the Divinity seeing he alone had done Evil against the Will of God he also ought to repair it but God ought not to satisfie himself for guilty Man since being Independent on all things he has no need of Men nor of their Satisfaction but Jesus Christ as Man being the true natural Brother of Men would needs for the Love he bare them charge himself with the Miseries and Sins into which they had wilfully plung'd themselves And I think Sir you will find in the Scripture that Jesus Christ was even made Sin for Men. Not that it is to be understood that Jesus Christ ever sinn'd or actually followed the rebellious Will of his humane Nature But the Inferiour and Mortal part gave him Combats and Assaults which Jesus Christ behov'd to resist Jesus Christ also could not in Justice say to Men as he does Be ye Followers of me if it had not been so since their rebellious Wills could not attain to the Perfection of a Will altogether holy and united with that of God And if God required of Men the Imitation of Jesus Christ in case he had not had Rebellion in his humane Nature he should have required of them impossible things as some erroneous Persons would maintain saying and preaching that it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God or the Law of the Gospel and tho' these are Blasphemies against God many believe them because this Doctrine flatters their Corruption and lets them live quietly in their Sins and Negligence on this false Supposition that they cannot keep the Commands of God nor imitate Jesus Christ The Will of Jesus Christ himself his Apostles and all Persons living in the World even tho' they were regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ have all of them their natural Evil-wills and all their Vertues and Perfections consist in resisting them manfully which they must do even till Death for tho' they have overcome their own Wills by force of Resistance yet it is but asleep or mortified and may be awakened or revive by diverse Accidents Therefore a regenerate Person
had created the Earth and so many reasonable Creatures only for the Glory of the Devil and his Adherents if he did not renew the Earth and make it bring forth Fruit for his Glory And as to Man's Propagation of his like to all Eternity if Man had continued Pure and Holy I am sure this would not have been thought a sensual State A Power to produce a Creature that is capable of loving and enjoying God is an astonishing Perfection only Concupiscence has now so polluted our Hearts that we cannot think of this but our Imagination presently defiles it and we joyn it to the sensual Idea's that Sin and Lust have brought into the World and cannot conceive how the one can be without the other judging of things according to our Corrupt Nature and we presently cry out A Mahumetan Paradise Which truly discovers only the Filthiness and Corruption of our Hearts and not the Impurity of the Sentiment but only that to the Impure nothing is pure If there were a Creature perfectly Pure and Holy and if God endued it with a Power of producing its like this Production would be no Act of Concupiscence but an Act of the most ardent Love of God This is the State she says the Saints shall be in to all Eternity which whatever be of the Truth of it is no Mahumetan Paradise and as there are remarkable Places of Scripture cited for the Proof of it so the Reason she assigns is very weighty to wit That all the Works of God are Eternal and his Gifts without out Repentance and if there were no such Production to all Eternity a very small number of Men would bless him for rever whereas so many reasonable Creatures are become Adherents to the Devil It must needs be then that the Generation of the Blessed multiply eternally as the Generation of the Miserable has multiplied temporally from the Beginning of the World And why should we think it absurd to say that Angels do thus produce their like to all Eternity We see here in this visible World that all Creatures who have any Degree of Life from the highest to the lowest are endued with this Power of producing their like all the Plants and Trees all the Beasts Birds Fishes and Insects and the reasonable Creature Man both as to his Soul and Body as has been made appear and you know the Rule of Analogy is of great weight as to all the Works of Nature And therefore unless we should suppose God to act unlike himself as to a higher Degree of living Beings we have all the Reason that the Nature and Analogy of things does suggest to conclude that Angels also do produce their like to all Eternity XXVIII It is not possible to foresee all the Prejudices that People may conceive or that may be suggested to them against the Writings and Sentiments of A. B. far less to Answer them all particularly in this Apology I have considered only the most Remarkable of those which do usually occur and have for the most part set down her own Answers in this the former and the following Parts which tho' it has made it the longer yet I hope it will make it the more useful I am not asham'd to Copy for I write only Narratives and not Originals If others write Originals when they pretend to write Narratives I shall not envy them I am only sorry that some are at such pains to deter Men from perusing those Writings which may be most useful to help them in the way to Eternal Happiness If they will not make that good use of them themselves they need not hinder others from profiting by them Thousands perhaps would be awakened to a deeper sense of the necessity of mortifying and dying to their Corrupt Nature who would never be stumbled at the things which they carp at but pass them over Whatever are her singular Sentiments such as this last mentioned you may look upon them all if you please as Dreams and Romances but since the necessary Duties of Christianity and the plain Way to Eternal Life are so clearly so forcibly and so divinely inculcated and prest in all those Writings and no stress laid on those other things O! that the Love of God and of Men's Souls and our own Salvation may constrain us to the serious practice of them our selves and make us carefully to avoid the being an Offence and Stumbling-Block to others O si tantam ad hiberent diligentiam ad extirpanda vitia Virtutes inserendas sicuti ad movendas quaestiones tunc non fierent tanta mala scandala in populo Tho. Ã Kemp. de Imitat Christ l. 1. c. 3. n. 5. The End of the Second Part. AN APOLOGY FOR M. ANT. BOVRIGNON PART III. Containing the Evidences which she brings that she was led by the Spirit of God With her Answers to the Prejudices against the same To which is added A Dissertation of Dr. De Heyde on the same Subject I. IN the Age wherein we live there needs no greater Prejudice against a Person his Sentiments and Writings than for him to declare that he is immediatly led by the Spirit of God This is enough to make us reject all he can say without any farther Enquiry We presently conclude he is Brainsick Hypochondriack Melancholly and Craz'd at least as to that Point however Rational he may be in other things or otherwise that he is a Knave who designs to put a Trick upon Mankind and that all who esteem him are as much Fools or Knaves as he II. The Wise and the Learned of the World and from them the generality of Men are enclin'd to think so upon different Grounds and Principles 1. Some disbelieve all Revelation from God and conclude that as all other Creatures have natural Powers given them to guide them to the End and Perfection of their Being so has Man and that there is nothing necessary for him to lead him to the End and Perfection of his Being but only the right Use and Improvement of his Reason 2. Others are convinc'd of the shortness and insufficiency of Humane Reason to lead Man to Happiness and of the Truth and Necessity of Divine Revelation But then God having spoken at sundry times and in diverse manners unto the Fathers by the Prophets and in these last Days by his only Begotten Son and all this being consign'd in Writing to be a standing Rule to all Generations and confirm'd by most satisfying Evidences to be from God they conclude that we must not look for any to be thus immediately inspir'd and enlightned by God now by whom he should speak to us and that any who pretend to it are Impostours or Brainsick Persons who will needs ape what they read or hear of in the Holy Scriptures and fancy they are such Persons immediately enlightned by God as they read of in those Holy Writings and to own any now as inspir'd by God is to
and extraordinary XX. 2. It is objected against her being led by the Spirit of God that many have had Visions and Revelations and yet not from God but that they have been acted either by the Heat of their own Imagination or by Illusions from the Devil who can transform himself into an Angel of Light and work upon the Fancies and Imaginations of corrupt Men so as to make his Illusions pass for Immediate Communications from God and therefore she may be reckoned among the Enthusiasts and Visionaries with which the World abounds Enthusiast is a Word which at first had a Good meaning viz. one truly led by the Spirit of God but now generally it is taken for one who falsely pretends to it and is not And of such there are several sorts of false Enthusiasts in the World tho' all of them do not go under that Name 1. Many there are who indulging still their corrupt Nature and being strongly acted by their own Imagination or by Impulses of the Devil pretend to Divine Inspiration and vent impious absurd and corrupt things as inspir'd by God By their Fruits ye shall know them Others are become Idolaters of their Reason make it their God But the most ordinary false Enthusiasts are they who least of all will own the Name those I mean who pretend to be Embassadours from God and that to resist them is all one as to resist the Spirit of God and that their Sermons and Explications of the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the Word of God tho' in the mean time they have not the Spirit of Jesus Christ are far from being enlightned by him venting their own Notions Passions Errors and Wranglings for the Word of God wresting it to speak as they would have it and in the mean time hating and persecuting those who are truly taught of God and calling them by the odious Names that belong to themselves True Divine Inspiration so far as we can conceive it from the Representations of those who have been truly and immediately Illuminated of God may be considered under these Two general Heads 1. Either God communicates himself his Light and Truth immediately to the Soul without the Intervention of any sensible Idea or Image Or 2. He makes use of sensible Images to affect the Soul and that after different manners by Dreams Visions Voices c. and it is in these especially and not in the former that the Devil labours to ape God and to delude Souls or that Men are deluded by their own warm Imaginations and the Devil's Illusions or their own Fancies pass for Divine Visions c. Now that the Motions and Sentiments of A. B. were not the Effect of such an Enthusiasm seems evidently to appear from her own Writings It is best to hear her self That I may satisfie says she to a great Lawyer the Question so oft proposed by you how I understand and speak with God I shall tell you in Simplicity what I can say of it God is a Spirit the Soul is a Spirit they communicate in Spirit they are not verbal Discourses but spiritual Notices Intelligences Spirituelles which nevertheless are more intelligible than the best Eloquence of the World God makes himself to be understood by the Soul by inward Motions which the Soul understands and comprehends according as it is freed of earthly Idea's and in so far as the Faculties of the Soul do cease the Motions of God are so much the more intelligible unto it The Notices of God are infallible when the Soul is free of all Images and in a Forgetfulness of all created things but they are doubtful when it acts by Imaginations and seek Sensibilities or any other thing that is not purely God The Saints themselves have in this Point committed Mistakes by Visions vocal Words Extasies or other Sensibilities to which the Imagination contributes God is a Spirit the Soul purified is transform'd into him and has no need of Words nor of Sight to understand him more than we need an Eye or a Tongue to understand our own Conceptions It is hard to declare how this is done it must be hard also to believe it and in Effect it is subject to Deceptions and Illusions of the Devil or the Imagination if these inward Notices and Knowledge be not declared by a Person whose Life and Words are conformable to the Gospel as being inspir'd by one and the same Spirit The rest of this Letter is transcrib'd above There is nothing more Difficult for Man's Understanding than to discern Spirits to know if they are of God or of the Devil or from Nature to discern this a Divine Light is necessary for the same things which the Spirit of God operates that of the Devil or of Nature may do also If the Spirit of God make a Soul say that which is to its Praise by a Spirit of simple Truth that of the Devil will make the same things be spoken through pure Pride that of Nature to get Esteem being so subtile in its Flatteries that it will sometimes utter things to its Contempt that it may appear Humble before those who hear them The same thing may be Holy Diabolical or Humane according to the inward Intention and Motion of the Soul that operates which God alone knows evidently in which so many deceive themselves who presume to discern Spirits and to guide Souls by their own natural Light These are the Blind who lead the Blind and both fall into the Ditch I entreat you to remark that the Holy Spirit is not visible to be seen by the Eyes of the Body where he resides but he manifests himself sufficiently by the Operations which he produces in those Souls which possess him They are adorn'd with all his Gifts and Fruits which are sure Marks of his Operations for neither the Devil nor Nature can work such Effects no more than natural Fruits can be brought forth without the Trees by which Fruits we discern the Trees so ought we to discern Souls that are filled with the Holy Spirit for to regard only the Bark which are the outward Actions and Words there is occasion of being greatly deceived for the Devil covers himself with the Garment of seeming Vertue and Sanctity and under this deceives the most Pious and the most Learned The Twelve Fruits and the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Eight Beatitudes have always their Operations in the Person who possesses the Holy Spirit who cannot reside any where without them more than the Sun can be without Light so that it is in vain to seek other Signs whereby to discern this Spirit since these only are the true Oneâ— So that we may know if a Person be animated by the Holy Spirit or by the Devil or by Nature by the Operation of his Works we need only consider them with a single Eye with a pure Intention without Curiosity or Affectation and then we cannot be deceived for God
and not him but her the last and highest Expression of God's Love to Mankind And that all her Words and Writings are Sacred as Scripture it self and ought to have the same Authority For these and such like Expressions he should have given us his Vouchers for the Places cited by him import no such thing but we are hopeful no impartial Reader will believe the Doctor in these upon his own bare Credit and Authority after the Sample he has given of his way of writing Narratives 5. It is against natural Equity as well as Christian Charity to draw hateful Consequences from or put Sences upon the Sayings and Writings of others which may load them with Reproach and Hatred Which the Sayings do not necessarily infer but are capable of a more benign Interpretation which are against their known Principles and openly and sincerely disclaimed by them But such is the Doctor 's way The Persons whom he traduces having a deep Sence of the Divine Truths of God and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ contain'd in the Writings and shining forth in the Life and Spirit of A. B. were perswaded that all who would peruse them with sincerity and simplicity of Heart would find great Profit to their Souls and therefore they recommended them with much concern to others but were far from intending to affirm those things to which the Doctor perverts their Words or the odious Consequences which he widely draws from them As that A. B. is the greatest that ever was born of a Woman above all the ancient Patriarchs to be preferred to Moses and the Prophets to John the Baptist and the Apostles and at least ought to be honoured equally with Jesus Christ who is said to be God Blessed for ever that she was as much without Sin as he and her Body of a better Frame That it is a clear Consequence from what they say That she must either have always been personally united to the Deity and so to be esteemed God-Woman or else that her Body and humane Nature were not real but a meer Phantome by which God was pleased to declare his Will to Man That all her Words and Writings are of the same Authority with the Sacred Scriptures That there ought to be a Commemoration of her in the publick Liturgies as well as of our Lord Jesus Christ and instead of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ now we should say the God of A. B. and the Spirit that spoke by her The Persons cited by the Doctor do abhor such Consequences their Words compared with the rest of their Writings will not bear them And in the Sence he puts on them they disclaim them as none of theirs Every Body can best explain their own Sense and Meaning and what is apt to be misunderstood in one Place Equity requires that we interpret it by another where a Man does more distinctly express and explain his Mind in relation to that very thing The Doctor knows how M. Poiret vindicates himself in his Answer to M. Juricu's Critique of him M. Jurieu says he is offended that I have an Esteem for A. B. tho' I have less Attachment to her than he has to Calvin and many of his Hearers have to him I have never regarded through all but the Wisdom and Truth of God and it was always indifferent to me by what means God would make it known to me by a Man or a Woman by one Learned or Unlearned by a Catholick a Calvinist a Lutheran c. I will approach to it not because of the Organ that God makes use of but because of the Truth that he communicates thereby It would be ridiculous to insult over a Person of Sense who goes to a Fountain as if he went thither out of Love to the Wooden Pipe Yet as to me this is the admirable Procedure of M. Juriâ—u c. Thus M. Poiret clears himself in his Answer to M. Jurieu and if the Doctor will accept of it I shall give him his Vindication of himself in a Letter to a Friend upon Occasion of the Doctor 's First Narrative As saith he I never recommended Mrs. A. B. for any oâ—her Reason but because she proposes the Doctrine of Jesus Christ with all Clearness and Purity and draws Souls to none but to him so it is against Truth and Equity what the Narrator says of me in Opposition to St. Paul who desired to know nothing but Jesus Christ Crucified that I it seemed desired to know nothing but M. A. B. To recommend an INstrument that leads to none but Jesus Christ is that to recommend this Instrument in Opposition to Christ or to him who recommends none but Christ By this Reasoning neither Saint 〈◊〉 nor any other ought to be recommended Beâ—â—â— I have published many Books wherein I have not 〈…〉 one Word of her as usually I do not speak of 〈…〉 any unless they speak of her to me first and 〈…〉 I gave of her were extorted by the 〈…〉 Slanders and Persecutions of her Adversaries 〈…〉 was very far from exalting her above Jesus 〈…〉 as he would insinuate against the Truth but sincâ— I saw that good Souls might be deprived of that sâ—ving Profit which they would reap from her Writings if they were diverted from them by the Evil Impressions of Defamers I only aimed simply to bring them to an even Ballance by this Consideration that there are other Persons convinced that she M. A. B. was quite another Person than she is represented to have been by her Defamers who never conversed with her â—â—ver knew her and whose Character of her while they decry one who had no other Design but to recommend the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is contrary to Righteousness and Charity Whereas the recommending of such Persons and the interpreting Candidly all they say is by St. Paul ascribed to Charity And as for any Personal Attachment to Mrs. A. B. I am so free from it as I have already publickly declared That if the Universal Defamation of her might serve to advance the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men I should be well pleas'd that she were calumniated every where without Reply Thus for M. Poiret XXI After the Doctor has patch'd up her Character and given his Comment upon it he is at great pains Artticle XII to prove that which no Body denies viz. That we ought not to receive A. B. as so highly dignified of God and her Scheme of Religion and System of Opinions as divine and absolutely necessary to be followed upon the bare Authority and Testimony of those Men whom he had formerly quoted For as to the embracing her System of Opinions as absolutely necessary they do not require any such thing A. B. her self does expresly declare That she does not require any to believe the Truths she writes because she says they are revealed to her by the Spirit of God but to examine if they be not the Truths
Love of God Man must now live a life of Penitence i Pierre de Touche p. 3â—9 No Salvation in the State of corrupt Nature and Jesus Christ only has made us capable of getting out of it k ib. p. 310. No Salvation without returning to the Love of God l Renouv de l' Espr pref p 25. Jesus Christ as our Pledge suffers and merits for Man m Antechr dec part 2 p. 41 74. n ibid. part 3. p. 48 49. o Pierre de Touche p. 3 8 Renouv. de l' Esp Ev. part 1. p. 156. Jesus Christ's Life is our Copy how to recover the Love of God p Renouv de l' Esp Ev. pref p. 128 129. None sav'd by Christ but who obey his Gospel-Law and follow him q Pierre de Touche p. 310. The Precepts of Jesus Christ are all Remedies for Man's Evils r Renouv de l' Esp Ev. avant pref p. 22. All Good from God all Evil from Man s Light of the World part 3. p. 69 c. The One Essential Command t Acad. des Theol. part 1. p. 47 c. The Essence of Vertue and Sin u Light of the World part 2. p. 57 c. Nothing acceptable to God but what is just good and true x Acad. des Theol part 1. p 62 c. Not much speculâ—tive Knowledge but Resignation of our Liberty and Faculties to God necessary to Salvation XI The Substance of these Truths XII That they are the Essence of Christianity appears 1. from Scripture XIII 2. From the Fathers S. Aug. de Doctrin Chr. lib. 1. c. 3 4 5 9 10 11 12 13 22 19 35. c. XIV Her own Declaration that her great and only Aim is the Love of God and that she lays no Stress on the accâ—ssory Truths Renouv. de L. Espr Ev. pref p. 110 111 112 c. XV. Her Writings not to be despis'd tho' others may have done as well XVI Some peculiar Characters of her Writings and Sentiments 1. The clear Distinction betweeen the Essentials and Accessories L' Etoile du Matin p. 40 41. XVII 2. The Relation that the Duties of Christianity have to one another Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. part 2. n. 81. part 3. n. 39 48. XVIII 3. Her most amiable Representation of the Divine Nature Light of the World part 1. conf 7 14 15. part 2. conf 1. part 3. conf 1 2 18. Renouv de l' Espâ—it Evang. Preface n. 15 c. * Vâ—s Deus una Veritas una Salus omnium prima atque summa Essentum ex qua est omne quicquid est in quantumest quia in quantum est quicquid est bonum est Et ideo ex Deo non est Mors. Non enim Deus Mortem fecit nec laetatur in Perditione Vivorum quoniam summa Essentia esse facit omne quod est unde Essentia dicitur Mors autem non esse cogit quicquid moritur in quantum moritur nam si ea quae moriuntur penitus morirentur ad nihilum sine dubio pervenirent Sed tantum moriuntur quantum minus Essentiae participant Corpus autem minus est quam vita quaelibet quoniam quantulumcunque manet in specie per vitam manet Corpus ergo magis subjacet Morti ideo vicinius est nihilo Quapropter Vita quae Fructu Corporis delectata negligit Deum inclinatur ad nihilum ista est nequitia Id enim amat quod minus est quam Vita quia Corpus est propter ipsum Peccatum quod amatur fit corruptibile ut fluendo deserat Amatorem suum quia ille hoc amando deseruit Deum Quod vero Corpus Hominis cum ante Peccatum esset in suo Genere optimum post Peccatum factum est imbecillum Morti destinatum quanquam justa vindicta Peccati sit plus tamen Clementiae Dei quam Severitatis ostendit Ita enim nobis suadetur a Corporis Voluptatibus ad aternam Essentiam Veritatis Amorem nostrum opportere converâ—i Et est Justitiae Pulchritudo cum Benignitatis Gratia concordans ut quoniam bonorum inferiorum Dulcedine decepti sumus Amaritudine Poenarum crudiamur S. Aug. de Vera Relig. Cap. 11 12 15 Oâ—con diâ— tom 3. c. 13. Hos 13 9. 1 Joh. 4. 8. Is 27. 4. XIX 4. Their Tendency to Union and Concord Lum enteneb part 3. letter 2. Rom. 14. 2 c. XX. 5. The 〈…〉 from 〈…〉 XXI 6. The leading to a true Reformation Renouv. de l'Esp Ev. Sainte Visiere Nouv. ciel p. 160. Joh. 14. 6. c. 10. 9. XXII 7. The taking off from a speculative Knowledge of Divine things Tomb de la fausse Theol. p. 1. 1 Cor. 2. 11 Joh. 1. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 14. Mat. 2. 26. and c. 6. 22. Ps 25. 9. Joh. 8. 12. Jam. 3. 17. Is 29. 3. 1. Cor. 8. 2 3. Jam. 3. 15. Is 29. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 19 27. Tomb de la fausse Theol. p. 1. let 1 2 c. La Sainte Visiere De Imitat Christi L. 3. c. 4â— XXIII 8. The Plainness and Simplicity of them XXIV 9. The convincing Force of them Recueil des Temoignages Nouv. ciel p. 166. 170. XXV 18. The just and excellent Representation of the Trushs of Christianity Renouv. de l' Espr Evang. c. XXVI 11. The Divine Explications of Holy Scripture Renouv. de L'Espr Ev. p. 1. Her Cautions and Rules for interpreting of the Holy Scriptures La Dern misericorde de Dieu avantprop n. 135 136 139 140 146 147 148. Eodem certe Spiritu credenda intelligenda S. Scriptura quo tradita est Th. a Kemp. Micah 6. 8. Matt. 22. 37 40. Ezek. 18. 27 28. S. Aug dâ— Doct. Chr. L. 1. ch 36. XXVII 13. The clearing of Difficulties in a few Words Acad. des Theol. part 1. ch 1 2. XXVIII 13. The taking Men off from the disputing Theology La Sainte Visier Tomb. de laâ—auss Theol. Etoile du Mat. p. 37. 1. Cor. 13. 4 c. XXXI 14. The singular Manner of the writing them * Recueil des Temoign p. 84 85 c. XXX 15. The Conformity of her Life and Practice Recueil de Temoign La Vie de M. A. B. XXXI A Summ of her Accessory Sentiments 1. That they are not her own L'Etoile du Matin p. 34. 2. Not necessary to Salvation ib. p. 41 42 Renouv. part 2. p. 121 122 223. XXXII 3. St. Augustin's Rule for judging of Sentiments * De Doct. Christiana lib. 1. c. 36. XXXIII 1. Before the Fall 1. No Deformity in the Works of God Le Nouv. Ciel p. 34. 2. Man created to enjoy God and all his Works The Qualities of his Soul Lum en teneb part 1. let 15. 3. A Body given him wher by to rule over the Creation ibid. 4. The wonderful Glory and Beauty of that Body Le Nouv. Ciel p 44 45 51 74. 92. L'Etoile du Matin p. 3 10. 5. Man capable of producing his like ibid. p. 33. 6. Adam