confound the Wisdom and the Learning of the World that they may strive rather to be well pleasing to God than men that fleeing all earthly loves which prove bitterness in the end they may give their hearts wholly to him who is altogether lovely whose love is unchangeable who will not disappoint them but will reward their Love with infinite Light and Joy and Love That they who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God may beware of taking God's name in vain and of vouching God's Spirit for all their Dreams and Imaginations for where the Spirit of God resides there his fruits are and the Soul that posses him has it's Affections wholly remov'd from Temporal and Earthly things and set upon those which are Spiritual and Eternal That the Pastors of the Church may see at whose Doors the Guilt of the universal Evils of Christendom are like mostly to be laid that they may fear and tremble when they hear that Salt which has lost it's Savour is good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot of Men that by the grace of God they themselves may be taught true Humility Self-denial and a contempt of all Earthly things without which Spirit they are no more capable of Teaching others however they repeat the Words of Christ and his Apostles than an Ape can make a good Picture tho' he take up and use the Painters Pencils and Colours In one Word that all may be brought to deny themselves and to follow Jesus Christ in the true Love of God and of one another and that the Judgments of God being now abroad upon the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn Righteousness For a further Vindication of these Writings and the Sentiments contain'd in them I shall here Subjoyn the protestation made by P. P. after his having Answered the Calumnies and Reproaches which some had publish'd against them in the V. Sect. of La paix des bonnes Ames pag. 278 279 280. But says he if all that said does not satisfy I will make and do at present make this PROTESTATION before God and before all Men that is That M. B. her Friends and I never had have not yet and shall never have by the Grace of God other Sentiments or Designs than to believe and live as true Christians professing by word and deed all that is Fundamental in true Christianity and which is comprehended in the Apostles Creed That we receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as Divine and Infallible and reject all that is contrary thereunto That we believe and adore the adorable and incomprehensible Trinity the Father the Word or the Son and the Holy Spirit God three and one eternaly Blessed the inward distinctions of which by what name soever they be call'd Real Relative Hipostatical Personal Substantial are as true as they are truly incomprehensible by the mind of Man That we hold Jesus Christ to be true Eternal God and true Man to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World to be the Mediatour beetween God and Men who by his Merits by his Satisfaction by his Righteousness by his Life and by his Death is the Author of Salvation to all those who imitate him or to speak with the Apostle to all those who obey him That we ascribe the Glory of all Good purely to the grace of God and all Evil purely to the fault of Man and of the Devil That we make the essence and perfection of true Christianity to consist in Self-denyal in continual Prayer in the Love of God and of our Neighbour and in the imitation of our Saviour That we consider all other speculations as accessory for which it is good not to condemn any body but to leave every one at liberty to embrace or lay them aside as they find them helpful for the advancement of the essential part That the true Key whereby to come to the Knowledge of Divine things is Humility and Prayer and not the forc'd speculations of Human Reason That all States the Ecclesiastical the Political the Oeconomical are Establish'd by God and that the Honour and Submission which is measured out to them and regulated by the word of God is respectively due to them That when evil is reproved this does not concern those States directly nor good men in them who are free of it but only the abuse and the ill behaviour of the wicked That if in the Writings of M. B. or of her Friends there be any thing that is obscure or that seems contrary to what has been said we offer to clear and reconcile it or to disavow it in case it cannot be made appear that it cannot be well explain'd and that it is not a mistake of words We protest against all that may be cited from her writings or objected by way of consequence against what I have said as against so many shameful Manglings Malicious Interpretations deceitful Calumnies injurious Consequences in which God will do us Justice if Men are not just to us I protest also against all those who offer to pass hard Censures upon what concerns M. B. her Friends or my self without having read the principal of her writings or my system as against unjust and unreasonable Judges at least as against Persons very inconsiderate and unworthy of Credit In short I believe I have reason to require that they who shall be convinc'd to have laid to our charge a hundred falshoods and others who shall believe them without reason may not again be admitted the one in the Quality of Accusers and the other in that of Judges but rejected the one as notorious Impostours and the other as wilfully stupid AN ADMONITION TO THE READER Dear Reader SInce 't is my earnest desire that the perusal of this Divine Work of which this is the first Part may be profitable and advantageous to you I cannot forbear wishing that you may give no place in your mind to certain prejudices with which the most part of the World suffer themselves to be so miserably deluded that they would believe themselves deceived if they did not follow them Permit me to speak to you a word or two of some of those pernicious and deceitful prejudices which you must either banish out of your mind or forbear the reading of this Book as you would not bring upon you your own Condemnation by retaining those things which may cause you to make an ill use of it In the first place I advise you not to regard the appearance state or quality of Persons nor any thing that is purely external and so consequently can neither add nor substract from the Truth which has no dependance on things of that Nature Let the speaker be a Man or a Woman let instructions come from this or that place let the persons who are reproved be great or small Turks or Christians many or few you must not be surpriz'd at any of these circumstances Truth and Falshod may
great desire of Vertue and an absolute resolution of embracing an Evangelical Life having discovered sufficiently by her Discourses that without this no Body will be saved Her Words have so enlightened my Understanding that all the Learning I had acquired seems to me as Darkness and Ignorance in respect of that divine Wisdom which is so mercifully poured out upon the Earth by the Organ of a silly Maid I wish that every one had seen her and heard her as I have done and might receive thereby the same Operations which my Soul has felt for I look upon her Acquaintance as a greater favour than all the Graces and Favours which God has bestowed on me in this World yea even than my Creation it self for that would serve me in little stead without the working out of my Salvation which would have been in great danger if I had not attain'd to the knowledge of my Self and of the Designs and Marvels of God which I have learned and discovered by the means of this Creature and she has certainly been sent me as the only means of the perfection of my Soul and of all those who will profit by the recital of this Narrative which I find my self obliged to publish for the profit of many This is the true Treasure hid in the Earth He who shall find it ought to sell all that he has to buy this Ground to the end he may discover and find this Treasure and take it up with Joy as the most precious Thing of the World I cannot hinder some who wish Evil or are Enemies to the Truth from finding or pretending something that is not agreeable to them for the Light does always offend Blear-Eyes who cannot endure the Light and the Truth which reproves is never agreeable to our Senses But I would admonish them to beware of reprehending or making themselves Masters of the holy Spirit I behov'd for some time to suspend my Judgment as to the Belief of some Points of Doctrin for I had learn'd them from my Masters in another sense but since I have laid aside all these Authors who have written us their Sentiments and fix'd on the sacred Text of the holy Scriptures I have found so much Conformity in them with the Life Manners and Words of this Pilgrimess that no Doubts could come any longer into my Mind and I could not without betraying my Conscience give her so much as one Contradiction Since that gives me an infallible proof that this Soul is truly possest by the holy Spirit who has brought forth in her his Twelve Fruits his Seven Gifts and the Eight Beatitudes which Jesus Christ has taught I should believe I committed a great sin to think that any other Thing might proceed from such a Source than what is Divine so much the rather that I have always remarked that this Soul did act in nothing naturally but by supernatural Motives never being moved but by the motion of the holy Spirit In confirmation of which I would be ready to spend the last drop of my Blood to the end that none might reject this Light to love rather their Darkness as Jesus Christ has foretold that many would do but that every one may embrace it for Salvation to the end we may altogether enjoy the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which is here so particularly treated of with eternal Joy and Contentment Which is earnestly wisht you by Friendly Reader Your most affectionate in JESVS CHRIST Christian de Cort Superiour of the Oratory and Pastor of St. John at Mechlin At Mechlin the 10th of August 1667. M. A. B.'s Confession of Faith which she presented at the Court of Gottorp to oppose the Calumnies which the Church-men had spread that they might raise Suspicions of the Purity of her Faith I. I Am a Christian and I believe all that a true Christian ought to believe II. I was baptized in the Catholick Church in the Name of the Father in the Name of the Son in the Name of the Holy Ghost III. I believe the Twelve Articles of the Creed or the Apostles Symbol and I do not doubt of any one Article thereof IV. I believe that Jesus Christ is true God and that he is also true Man and that he is the Saviour and Redeemer of the World V. I believe in the Gospels the holy Prophets and all the holy Scripture both of the Old and New Testament And I will live and die in all the Points of this Belief which I protest before God and Men to all those whom it shall concern In Testimony whereof I have signed this my true Confession with my Hand and seal'd it with my Seal At Sleeswick the 11th of March 1675. Anthoniette Bourignon L. S. A Catalogue of the BOOKS written by M. A. B. born at L'Isle in Flanders 1. THE Life of M. Antonia Bourignon 2. God's Call and Men's Refusal in 2 parts 3. Light arisen in Darkness in 4 parts 4. The Grave of false Theology driven out by the true coming of the holy Spirit in 4 parts 5. An Advertisement against the Quakers 6. A Treatise of solid Vertue in 2 parts 7. The Light of the World in 3 parts 8. The Academy of learn'd Divines in 3 parts 9. The Testimony of the Truth in 2 parts 10. Innocence manifested and Truth discovered 11. The Touchstone 12. The Blindness of Men now in 2 parts 13. Antichrist discovered in 3 parts 14. The new Heaven and the new Earth 15. The holy Perspective 16. The last Mercy of God 17. The renewing of the Gospel Spirit in 3 parts 18. The Stones of the New Jerusalem 19. The Persecutions of the Just 20. The Morning Star 21. The Confusion of the Builders of Babel 22. Saving Instructions and Advices The most part of these Works are Translated from the French into the Dutch and High Dutch the first part of Solid Vertue the Touchstone and the first part of the renewing of the Gospel Spirit are also in Latin A Table of the Conferences of this first Part of the Light of the World The First Dialogue or Conference OF Gods dealing with A. B. particularly how he immediately instructed her from her Infancy The opposition of Men. Of Christian perfection and of the deplorable state of Christians Pag. 1. The second Conference Of the Judgment of God Of the last times and of the Men of the last times 17. The third Conference The methods by which Christianity has begun to decay from the times of the Apostles and has continued so to do to such a degree that at present there are no more true Christians upon Earth to wit 1. The admission of false Brethren 2. Appropriation 3. Debates 4. Partialities 5. Scholars 6. Disputes 7. The Victory of the Devil 23. The fourth Conference Of the Qualities and Manner of acting which ought to have been in the Guides of the Church to uphold it in its good Estate against all Enemies and not give way to the Spirit of Antichrist as they
end of the world This is the greatest miracle that God has done upon earth after men have invented so many glosses and opinions to contradict it and the life and manners even of those who are call'd the People of God are so different from this Doctrine that yet notwithstanding it subsists in its integrity in the hands and power of those who raze out and efface it by their manners and actions If it were not upheld by miracles how often would it have been stifled by the wisdom of the learned who if it were in their power would never suffer a Doctrine which so directly reproves their lives and manners In which God shews his almighty power that all men who shall be born upon the earth may have their recourse to this fountain of living water which is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and that no body may pretend ignorance under pretext that there are different or new doctrines and errors for he who has a desire to search has also the means to find the real truth written in the holy Gospel or the rest of the holy Scriptures It was not therefore necessary to maintain it by so many disputes which Jesus Christ never taught us either by word or by deed Men could not destroy that which God would build It had been more expedient to strengthen and comfort the faithful than to dispute against the erroneous who were raised up only by the Devil they would have perished of themselves for all that is nor built by God shall be destroyed A small number of faithful Believers were far better than so great a multitude of Christians in appearance who do nothing but debate and dispute without possessing true living faith The rotten members corrupt those which are yet sound The Devil is never sooner overcome than by despising him for then he knows not how to take hold of the good but disputes and debates furnish him with diverse weapons to attack and overcome them The Fourth Conference Of the qualities and ways of acting which ought to have been in the Guides of the Church to maintain it in its good estate against all Enemies and that they might not make way for the Spirit of Anti-christ as they have done I Admired all this so powerful discourse desiring always to hear more I ask'd her how she conceiv'd that the Saints were thrust from the Government of the Church when the learned undertook it since many learned and great Doctors have been canoniz'd Saints and held for such She said Sir it is very rare to find a learned Saint or at least one who becomes holy by learning for all humane wisdom is foolishness before God All the Saints are certainly wise but few learned men are Saints I do not mean that there have not been some Saints who were engag'd in the Government of the Church as St. Ambrose St. Augustin and others but I cannot believe that a body is sound when it hath the Leprosy in any of its members The whole body of the Church was sound when to be an Apostle or Minister of the Church 't was only requir'd to embrace an evangelical life for all the rotten members were cut off from it or corrected or indeed they withdrew of themselves not being able to endure so great a sanctity that reprov'd them in all their manners St. Paul forbids Christians so much as to eat with sinners behold how he cuts off the rotten members and elsewhere it is said If thy brother will not believe the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen In many places of Scripture you will find this rejection St. Peter makes Ananias and Saphira fall dead at his feet for their lying St. Paul delivers over to the Devil the Corinthian besides so many others who have been chastized for not having continu'd faithful observers of the Law of the Gospel Others have withdrawn of themselves as Judas to go and hang himself and a great many others who withdrawing themselves gave occasion to Jesus Christ to ask the other Disciples If they would go also to which they reply'd and whither shall we go Lord thou hast the words of eternal life These three means were capable of upholding the holy Church in its Integrity and Holiness as Jesus Christ had establisht it and did himself observe these rules that is that the erroneous should be rejected and despis'd or else corrected for their errors or otherwise permitted to go out and withdraw themselves but these new Doctors have found out as a more perfect mean for the upholding of the Church to admit only the wise and learned to the government of it that the erroneous might be oppos'd and overcome by disputes Is the invention and wise foresight of these men more perfect than the ordinance and doing of God Can that eternal wisdom be ignorant that Learning was necessary for the government of his Church Was it necessary that men should change reform or perfect what Jesus Christ had establisht to wit that the government of his Church should appertain to those who have given evidence of the love they bear him for this cause he puts the question to St. Peter thrice to know if he lov'd him before he made him head of his Church On the contrary men are more inquisitive to know if any Minister of the Church be great and learned than if he love God This is a renversement of spirit which has seiz'd upon men since they would needs be govern'd by the wise of the world and they have despis'd the holy simplicity of the Gospel This mischief could not be brought in by humane frailty it must needs proceed from the malice of the Devil Man indeed thro frailty might backslide and follow Jesus Christ at a little farther distance than he had taught him but could not arrive to such an excess of wickedness as directly to oppose and despise his doctrine and practice This must needs come from that spirit of error who from the beginning entred into the the Church to oppose Christ and is therefore justly called ANTICHRIST He has so cunningly masqu'd and disguis'd his errors with piety and reason that they have been follow'd notwithstanding there have been at diverse times holy persons in the government of the Church The Fifth Conference Of Antichrist and how he rules every where in Spirit I Begg'd she would tell me whom she understood to be Antichrist and how he could introduce himself into the Church in its beginning since it appears from the holy Scriptures that he is to come only towards the end of the world and is called the man of sin the son of perdition and is not to reign but three years and a half She said I perceive Sir that you take for Antichrist a humane body which is to be born by the operation of the Devil I believe that this will fall out at the end of the world yea that he is already born
he is not to be compar'd to any thing We must force our selves to love him not to comprehend him The Saints themselves committed great faults while they would needs embark into these Studies I believe the Devil has raised Disputes thereupon to amuse Men in useless things rather than profitable and to seek to comprehend what ought to be adored I ask'd her if the holy Doctors could indeed have committed such faults since we held that they had the Holy Spirit She said Yes Sir they committed many others through Ignorance They err'd in many things The Holy Spirit did not always guide their Pen nor their Understandings They were always frail Men so long as they lived upon Earth They might always fail and err for Jesus Christ says that He who says he is without Sin is a Liar I believe I have also told you heretofore Sir that none is Infallible but God Men who have the Holy Spirit are not always so disengaged from themselves that the Holy Spirit has that absolute dominion over them Their own sense of things gives them frequent hindrances and as long as they act naturally they stray from the Holy Spirit and do often commit in these wandrings great faults as David did tho God says that He was a Man according to his own Heart And Solomon who had received the Spirit in fulness did notwithstanding Sin greatly against the Faith it self and against the Commandments of God You must not wonder therefore that the Holy Fathers have committed faults in the Church the Apostles themselves committed them though they had visibly received the Holy Spirit We must never build on a Foundation so weak as Men are They may all err tho they were Saints and have erred in many things in upholding the Church For as soon as they perceived that it failed in the Souls of Christians and that its Honour and Authority was fallen they would needs redress it by worldly Honours and Riches and even defend it by Disputes and by Arms all which things are Buildings made with Mens hands which shall be ruined For that which God has not built shall be Destroyed Jesus Christ knew far better the means that were proper to uphold his Church He saw the time to come as well as the present He has not ordain'd that it should be maintain'd by Silver Authority Arms or Disputes but by Holiness The Twenty fifth Conference That the Holy Spirit sends always new Influences and that we must not bound his Lights nor the Interpretation of the Scriptures to that which the Holy Fathers have formerly had I Could not resist so clear Truths perceiving well that all Men are Fallible But because every one had always received the Opinions of the Holy Fathers as things certain I said to her that I had sworn to receive no other Explications of the Holy Scriptures but those of the Holy Fathers and that the Church did oblige all Persons plac'd in Dignities to do the same So that in all Benefices received they still take this Oath before they enter in possession of them She said Sir the Church can oblige no body to resist the Holy Spirit Your Oath is not obligatory in this case If God favour you or some other Person of your Acquaintance with any new Light must you reject it to obey Men Jesus Christ did not forbid this On the contrary he has said Receive the Holy Spirit And When he shall come he will teach you all things He speaks to the Apostles and to all Christians in them This Holy Spirit is never idle He operates always new Graces in those who receive him and gives still more clear Interpretations of the Holy Scriptures according as the end of the World approaches we shall every day understand them more clearly We see the figure of this in the Sciences of Natural things There is at present more knowledge of them than ever and Men now do know much more of Natural things which those who are gone before us were ignorant of yea understood them in a sense quite contrary to the truth They taught that the Sun goes round about the Earth Now they teach that the Earth turns and that the Sun is fixt which is more to be believed And thus in many Natural things they have discovered many Secrets since Sciences were encreas'd The Figure is never so accomplish'd as the thing figured Wherefore then should the Light of the Holy Spirit or the understanding of the Holy Scriptures be bounded to what the holy Fathers understood of them Every one of them had Discoveries according to his Talent and no more I believe Sir that if you examin them narrowly you will find that they do not accord in all things yea even that they sometimes contradict one another which cannot come from God for there is never any contradiction in him Each of the Fathers saw as far as his view reached and no more God does always farther discover his Secrets Can Men cause others to swear or can they swear themselves that they shall not receive any other Discoveries but that which the holy Fathers have received without opposing the Grace and Light of God This would be to speak after our way to clip the wings of the Holy Spirit that he might not flie farther than Men had marked out to him Truly Sir there are great Errors in all things It seems Men would take from God Power and Authority to attribute it to themselves giving him Laws and forbidding Men to obey him The holy Fathers could not be so rash as to believe that no body could understand the Holy Scriptures farther than they for they affirm that there are depths of hidden Treasure which they cannot comprehend In effect I believe that nothing has been yet understood in a perfect sense of all the Holy Scripture even till now and that likewise there is nothing accomplished but the Death of Jesus Christ Nevertheless all must be understood and accomplish'd in a perfect Sense before the end of the World God has not said or done any thing in vain He will give to Men the full understanding of all that he has said by his holy Prophets from the beginning of the World and nothing is so hid but it shall be discovered before the World end Why then should they forbid to receive other Interpretations than those which the holy Fathers in past times have received It were better to command to Pray continually for greater Light that we may know the better the Mysteries of our Faith that we may the better observe and follow them for we can never have so much love for a thing unknown as for that which we know I said to her that this Oath was not ordained to oppose directly the Holy Spirit but rather to hinder every one from Interpreting the Scriptures after his own way from which many Errors might proceed if there were not an uniform Belief among all Christians
She replied Truly Sir you cannot cover these Evils for they are too manifest Whether this opposition to the Holy Spirit be made directly or indirectly it is always evil They may indeed perswade the People to believe that the Holy Fathers had more light for understanding the Holy Scriptures than Laick Persons taken up about the Affairs of the World But to oblige Priests to take Oaths not to receive any other Interpretations than those of the ancient Fathers is to make them Swear indirectly that they shall oppose the Holy Spirit Seeing they would believe they falsified their Oath in receiving a new Light of the Holy Spirit which the Fathers had not received If new Light must come before the end of the World and the Priests have sworn not to receive it Laicks receiving it will be yet less approved by that which you call the Church than the Priests who have the first Rank there To whom then shall the Holy Spirit address to spread his Light upon the Earth He must of necessity bestow it on the Turks Jews or Heathens since those who are called Christians will not or cannot receive it for fear of falsifying their Oath And if God reveal his Secrets to Babes as he ordinarily does who among the Christians would receive this Revelation The particular Priests could not do it because of their Oath and if they would present it to what is called the Body of the Church They would examin whether the ancient Fathers have said the same things which if they did not find they would reject it as a Heresie since their resolution is not to receive any thing but what the ancient Fathers have said If the Church were that which Jesus Christ brought from Heaven it would be always uniform and guided by the same Holy Spirit There would be no need to fear that every one would Interpret the Holy Scriptures after his own way for there could not be but one and the same Belief For all would be Saints and capable of Interpreting the Scriptures yea even of Prophecying according as God who is free should grant Light to every one tho Men would indeed Captivate and limit him by their new Laws The Twenty sixth Conference How and wherefore the Holy Scripture has not been understood in a perfect Sense as yet in any thing which is shewn by new Explications touching the Creation of Man his Fall the Coming of Jesus Christ in Disgrace and his coming in Glory upon Earth to reign there for ever Of the Glorification of the Creatures both Animate and Inanimate and what makes Paradise and Hell and that universal Plagues and Rods shall preceed all these things HAving remarked that she spake so often of the Holy Scriptures which she said had not been understood hitherto in their perfect Sense I asked her how she could speak of them since she had told me that for a long time past she had not read them nor made use of any Books and from whence could she know that they were not understood in their perfect Sense She said Sir I will tell you trusting in your Secrecy that God hath given me the understanding of all the Holy Scripture without having read it and when by chance or casually I hear Sermons or other Conferences to Explain it I perceive plainly that they do not speak of it in its perfect Sense Sometimes they explain something in part and at other times in a sense altogether contrary or ill applied for what they say is repugnant to what I know in my Intercourse and the Spirit of God cannot have contrary Senses either the one or the other must be deceived As for me I think my Sentiment is immediately given to me from God because I never studied nor learned any thing from Men and this likewise cannot come from my Imagination because I never give way to Speculation and desire not to know nor learn any thing for I stop my Ears to all that they would teach me fearing lest there should remain in my Understanding any Idea's of the Things which I had read or heard which would mingle themselves with the Light which God gives me I would be very presumptuous to believe that these so clear Interpretations come from my self I said to her That I remember she had divers times cited some Passages of Scripture and even referr'd to the Chapter of the Text as speaking of the last Times in the 24th Chapter of S. Matthew entreating me to read it asking her How she could know this She said to me Sir I have read sometimes transiently the New Testament having obtain'd Permission of a certain Bishop But as soon as I began to read I perceiv'd in what I read all my Sentiments explain'd so that if I were to write the Sentiments which I carry within me I should compose a Book like that of the New Testament so much do I find them altogether conformable And it seeming to me that it would be useless to read what I did so sensibly possess I left off to read except where there was occasion to speak of the Gospel or any other thing contain'd in the said Testament I was then well pleas'd to cite it that by this mean my Saying might be more authoriz'd by the Holy Scripture than by my simple Word tho' it be altogether conformable thereunto And that 24th Chapter of S. Matthew is so much the more in my Heart that I see it treats of the Time in which we are fallen at present I wish all the World would read it that they might apprehend the more the Danger in which we live without perceiving it I said to her I had read that Chapter divers Times and nevertheless did not comprehend that it spoke of this present Time entreating she would explain it to me She said Sir I will do it by the Grace of God But I must have Time to rest Let us still go on our Way and how soon I shall stop I will give you that Explication in Writing Give me only the Text and I believe you will receive great Light from it You may also confront it with the Explications which the Holy Fathers have made of it You will see which of all will have the most perfect Sense That will be a small Sample which will shew what the whole Piece will be For it seems to me that I will be oblig'd one Day to explain all the Holy Scripture in general but for this end I will need to keep my self without the Reach of the Roman Church because by speaking the Truth of it I will be liable to their Reproof Truth does alway shock Lying as Righteousness does Unrighteousness I know I cannot but speak the Truth and also that they who do not follow it do resist it For this cause they kill'd the Holy Prophets and Jesus Christ himself because they bear Witness to the Truth I can expect no less Recompence from Christians now for they being without the
Roman Catholicks tho' this they hold for an Article of Faith that none can be saved out of her Communion This is very ill conceiv'd since God is universal and he 's to be found every where by those who seek and worship him For he 's not fix'd to any material Body All Souls who take their Delight in him are his Spouses call them by what Name or Religion you please For all these different Names or Opinions do not make a Christian but only the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ makes a Christian And all those who put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel are Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ even tho' they were Turks or Heathens Of which Professions I believe several condemn and judge the nominal and professing Christians since God has no Respect of Persons and will judge all Men according to their Works This the Scripture confirms saying by your Works you shall be judged and by your Works you shall be condemn'd And Jesus Christ himself taught the Truth of God his Father to the Samaritan Woman and to many other Nations who were not Jews saying to his Apostles Go teach all Nations He that believes shall be saved He even ate and conversed with Sinners to see if any of them would receive the Truths of his Father and put them in Practice and tho' at first he rejected the Canaanitish Woman as a Dog yet he shew'd her Grace and Mercy by her Conversion and persevering Humility For the same Reason he says to Christians that Publicans and Sinners shall enter into the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out which still farther confirms this Truth That Religion does not save a Man but the Love of God that sanctisies him This made me get over all Humane Respects and declare the Truth of the things which were ask'd me by so many different Conferences all about the Roman Church For at that time I knew no other Religions and with Compassion I booked upon all those who died out of the Romanâ— Church as damn'd as our Divines taught So that being ask'd by a Romish Priest I answered plainly to all his Questions Vpon which many took Occasion to say that I had chang'd my Religion and was become an Enemy of the Roman Church which is not true since being born in it I will live and die therein without changing Name or Religion but only my Manners and Life And will endeavour to be regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and to follow and imitate him even to Death letting Ignorant Men say and judge of me as they please In the mean time I offer this LIGHT OF THE WORLD to all good Souls who seek the Truth and desire to become true Christians that they may truly discern Reality from Appearance For this prevails now through all the World among all sorts of Sects and Religions where every one cleaves to the Bark and does not touch the Wood fancying that Vertue consists in having a fine Religious Name of that of the Reformed the Evangelicks the Catholicks Yea that they are persons guided by the Holy Spirit of which the Quakers boast though all these sorts of Names are false and not at all suitable to the Life and Manners of those who call themselves so For if they who are called Reformed were truly so we would see the Reformation in their Life and Manners Whereas we find they all live according to Flesh and Blood which the Scripture says shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They are neither reformed in their Moveables nor their Apparel nor in their Eating or Drinking They seek in all the finest and the best They labour and trade diligently that they may have wherewith to maintain themselves in Pomp Excess or Plenty as much as they can without bridling their fleshly Appetites or their Sensualities in any thing still coveting more that they may give it as much Satisfaction as they can that in this World they may have Ease Honours and Pleasure Thus they are called Reformed though in Effect they will not reform themselves in the least thing for the Kingdom of Heaven By which we see that they who call themselves Reformed bear a false Name that makes them Hypocrites and Deceivers of others and of themselves As those also are deceived who call themselves the Evangelicks For in all their Works and Practices there is nothing conformable to the Gospel but all directly opposite to it For they do not observe so much as one Point of the Evangelical Councils For instead of loving voluntary Poverty they love the Abundance and Riches of this World unsatiably and they who ought to be the Guides to those Evangelical Perfections are the farthest remov'd from them abandoning their Flocks and Churches to find others that afford them more temporal Profit They are far from imitating the Apostles who said freely I have received and freely I give thee since these modern Evangelicks give at the greatest Price and to him that bids most And therefore they do not justly bear the Name of Evangelicks since they neither teach nor Practise so much as one Council of the Gospel and have nothing but false Names and Parades that they may appear to be in the Sight of Men what they are not at all in the Sight of God No more than those are Catholicks who bear the Name since to call one a Catholick is to say he is a Person joyn'd in the Communion of Saints which these are not who call themselves Catholicks since we perceive not any Holiness in their Lives but much Vice and Injustice accompanied with Hypocrisie and seeming Vertue without any Reality or Sanctification They boast that they are Abraham's Children without doing the Works of Abraham or that they are Christians without observing the Commands of Christ They content themselves to be called Catholicks without conforming their Lives to those who liv'd holily upon the Earth whose Lives and Histories they read without endeavouring to become holy as they were whose Feast s they solemnize tho' they shall never be in their Communion nor truly Catholicks till in their Lives they follow their Vertues and walk in the streight Way that leads to Life So that this Name of Catholick will condemn them rather than justifie them whereas they presume to be preferr'd by God to all other Religions because they are of the most Holy and Perfect Religion according to the Name of Catholick which they bear This would really be if their Souls were united to Jesus Christ in the Communion of Saints which only and no other thing makes a Catholick By which we see that these Persons bear a false Name since they presume of their Salvation because of the Name Catholick and be-believe they are in the true Church out of which they say there is no Salvation This would be true if the Roman Church were the only Communion of Saints But because
Souls who are not sanctified are not truly Catholick neither will they be saved for their Religion since no Religion saves unless the Heart be truly Religious or truly Catholick In which also those who are called Quakers do greatly deceive themselves who through a foolish Imagination fancy that they are guided by the Holy Spirit as soon as they have begun to conform themselves to this Sect as if it had more Force to sanctifie Men than all the other Religions together even the most perfect none of which can save so much as one Soul For there is nothing that saves but the LOVE OF GOD and not a Religion Every one ought to hold the Religion that serves him as a Mean to attain to this LOVE without taking his Religion for the End of his Salvation if they would not be greatly deceived at Death thinking to plead their Religion which they imagine to be the best as the Quakers believe they have the Holy Spirit and so take the Name of Quakers tho they have him only by Imagination and false Persuasions and the Devil makes them believe they are better than all the rest of Men because they have quitted outwardly the gross Sins of Drunkenness Theft Lying and the like tho' in their Manners they be as vicious as others presuming that they have the Holy Spirit which they have not living in an Esteem of themselves and a Contempt of others calling themselves spiritual while they remain carnal despising all the Means of Piety and Devotion to adhere to their own Caprices and they imagine they are illuminated by the Holy Spirit when they are mov'd only by their own disorderly Passions which do often precipitate them into fruitless Sufferings and Persecutions with the Scandal of their Neighbour So that no body has Ground to believe that he shall be saved for being of the Quakers Opinion no more than the being of any other Sect or Religion since all these Names do nothing to the Salvation of Souls But to be sav'd of Necessity we must be renewed in the Life of God And the Scripture says Obedience is better than Sacrifice This shews that it 's better to be resigned entirely to the Will of God to be ruled thereby than to profess any Religion how good and holy soever we think it to be These material Bodies do not save the Soul but the Love that it bears to its God will save it and nothing else In which Men deceive themselves when they lay the Stress of their Salvation upon some means which they make use of to be saved How good soever these outward things be they give nothing to the Essence of the Soul which is wholly divine and spiritual and cannot attain to Salvation if it be not united to its God who created it for this End tho' the Blindness that Sin has brought upon Man's Spirit does not often persuade him that he shall be saved by other Means as by going oft to Church frequenting the Sacraments hearing many Preachings or spiritual Books or in being able to discourse of these things in giving to the Poor out of his Abundance in making long Prayers and so many other Actions which they call pious as if God to save us had need of these things Which is a great Delusion For it is only our Infirmity and Weakness that has need of these outward Things For it is written that the true Worshippers shall worship God in Spirit and in Truth and not in the Temple nor on the Mountain That is to say not in material Temples nor in Mountains of high Speculations but the Spirit and the Heart must be truly possest with the Love of God without which no body will be saved Not that I would reject or despise all these pious Means or good outward Works as these Reformed do blindly reject all sorts of good Works as evil since these good Works may serve as effectual Means to attain to this Love of God seeing the covetous Man mortifies his Avarice by giving his Goods to the Poor and he who cannot pray to God in his House for the Distraction of his Affairs does well to go to Church that he may be the more recollected Or he who feels more Compunction and Piety in his Soul in frequenting the Sacraments or has more inward and saving Light by going to Sermons or reading the Scripture or some other spiritual Book he is oblig'd to use all the Means which lead him to the Love of God without despising the least Mean that may help his Weakness in raising him to the Love of God since every one is oblig'd to seek the Means of his Perfections I blame only the Abuse that is made of these things in taking them for the End of Salvation whereas they are only Means to assist Humane Weakness which forgets easily Eternal and invisible things if she be not often put in Remembrance of them by outward things But I blame those who are so ignorant as to believe that they shall be saved for being of some Religion or for using the Sacraments and doing some good Work since these things do not sanctifie us being of themselves dead Works which cannot give Life to our divine Souls and the Devil himself might do all these outward things tho' he shall never be sav'd I believe indeed some captious Spirits will take Occasion to say that I am not truly Catholick in speaking against the Vse of the Sacraments and other Ceremonies of the Roman Church but I cannot preserve my self from the Calumny of partial Persons who love their Darkness rather than the Light that I offer them from God who has given me his Holy Spirit promis'd by Jesus Christ which teaches me all Truth since Jesus Christ himself could not avoid the being calumniated imprison'd persecuted and at last put to Death by means of the Jewish Priests who said they were in God's stead and sate in Moses's Chair as the Priests of all Religions say now While in the mean time they outragiously persecute the Truths which I learn immediately from God without Study without Meditation Discourse Reading or any other Means which would rather prove a Hindrance to me than an Illustration of the Light of the Holy Spirit who endites to me all things necessary for the Salvation of Souls and gives me also his Gift of Strength to bear joyfully those Persecutions and Outrages which these more than Pharisaical Priests exercise against me For they will not suffer that the Truth of God should come to light by any but themselves tho' they 've rendred themselves most unworthy of it because they will not apply themselves to the Imitation of Jesus Christ nor to the Sanctification of their Souls and if these be wanting they shall never understand the inward Voice of God 'T would be a great Vertue in them if at least they would suffer another to understand it But they can't attain to this Christian Vertue of rejoycing in the Good of another They
away all the Fruits of the six Days Labours which he did in creating this beautiful World if all this shou'd be for the Devil and his Adherents No no Sir this cannot go so God must have his time to reign over all his Creatures that they may adore and know him the only true God and that the Number of his Elect may be multiplied as much as he has destin'd them that these never dying may bless him to all Eternity This is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which I wait for Sir with Chearfulness Nothing can afflict me in this Hope It is a joyful Life to think on it what Joy must it be to possess it I said to her That these Words did ravish me with Pleasure but that I had also in Exchange the Grief to believe that all Men now are in a State of Damnation for fear lest I also be of the Number She replied You may indeed rejoice Sir 'T is the greatest Ground of Joy that we can ever have 'T is the Master-piece of all the Works of God and the Accomplishment of all things For this the World is created for this Man is created and for this God is become Man The Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings was for Sinners but his glorious Coming will be for the Righteous Therefore he says being in the World I am not come to save the Righteous but to bring Sinners to Repentance God from all Eternity design'd to become Man to the end he might not only make Man like to him but that God also might be like to Man that he might take his perfect and compleat Delight with him 'T is good to consider this Sir that God is not become Man only on design to suffer and to die For this would have been a sad Subject and the ancient Patriarchs wou'd have had little Ground to have prayed and desired so earnestly that God should become Man to see him hardly used suffering Reproaches Scourges and so cruel a Death The Love they bare to God wou'd rather have made them desire to remain in their Captivity than to be delivered from it at so dear a Price as the Sufferings and the Death of God-Man All those Wishes and Aspirations which all the Fathers and Prophets of the ancient Law made cou'd not be for this Coming in Sufferings but rather that glorious Coming wherein Jesus Christ being lifted up will draw all Men unto him which his Death on the Cross has not done because very few followed him then and no body follows him at present This is very far from drawing all to him seeing so few have been drawn from the Beginning of the World even till now Must there not a Time come wherein that he may fulfil his Word he will draw all in general to him Must he not also to make the same Accomplishment take away the Sins of the World For his Death instead of taking away the Sins of the World has rather brought on more because they have encreas'd and multiply'd since Can God fail in his Promise Must there not come a time when he will take away all the Sins of the World If this were not God shou'd not be faithful in his Promises which cannot be true For Heaven and Earth shall pass away but his Promises shall not pass away There is not a Syllable of them which shall not have its entire Accomplishment in an altogether perfect Sence They wou'd sometimes make us believe that all this shall be fulfilled in Paradise and they tell us that nothing defiled can enter there How then shall there be Sins there to be taken away And if all the Blessed are united to him there will be no more need of drawing them I said to her That I was so convinced as to believe that we must look for a new World and a new Earth and that I knew well enough that nothing of the holy Scripture shall have its Accomplishment in this World but that I was not freed from the Trouble of believing that all Men now were in a State of Damnation of which Number I was one tho' nevertheless I desired to be saved whatever it cost She said Sir to discover Truths you must always take things in their Source Consider I pray you that the Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings was for no other Grounds but to make known to Men their Sins in which they liv'd so blindly that the most Part knew not what they did but followed one another insensibly in the Way of Perdition as they do yet at present God of his great Mercy wou'd have become Man before his Coming in Glory that he might bring Light to Sinners whereby they might know their Sins and to teach them in particular what they ought to do and avoid to the end they may observe the Law of God which he came not to change nor abolish no more than to give a new one but only to teach the Means by which Men shou'd easily attain to the observing of this Law of God which was given from the Beginning of the World and will never be changed For God will never demand any other thing of Men but the Dependence which they ought always to acknowledge they have on their God who has created them and given them all things In the Practice of this Dependence is contain'd all the Law and the Prophets and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ They can have no other thing in Substance But Men being fallen from the observing of this first Law have need from time to time of divers Means to raise them again from their Fall For these ends Jesus Christ is come into the World timously and ere it perish before his limited time that taking Humane Flesh he might teach Men palpably according to their Senses to the end they might not be any more ignorant of any thing but might get out of Darkness to discover their Sins and see clearly the Way they ought to take to come to Salvation And that those Means which Jesus Christ came to teach them might not seem too grievous and difficult to them he wou'd needs pave the Way himself and put them in practice all the time he was on Earth to the end Men might afterwards follow his Steps and imitate his Example By this Foundation Sir you can easily discover whether all Men be in the Way of Salvation or Damnation Lay this down first that no body shall be saved but he who keeps the Law of God Secondly that Men thro' their Frailty cannot observe this Law but by such Means as Jesus Christ has taught them because they imagine that they live in a Dependence upon God when they do but depend on their own Wills To make this known Jesus Christ teaches them that to be his they must deny themselves Not that this Law of denying ones self was ordain'd in these precise Words in the Beginning of the World but it was tacitly contain'd in
withdraws himself from him and damns himself but that he cannot hinder it Not that the Almighty Power of God does not reach all Things or that his Power is limited but it is because it pleased him to give Man this Free-will when he created him that with it he might love him and Man nevertheless turns away from loving Him to love some Creatures that are unworthy of him This is an occasion for him to repent to speak in our Gibberish But God can never have any kind of Repentance or any other Passions Because he is unchangeable and never retracts what he has once done The first and last Thing that he demands of Man is that he acknowledge in all things the Dependance that he has upon God and that he so love him as to yield up the Free-will he gave us into his power Lo this is all that God requires of Man All the other Precepts Counsels and Commands are only accessory and casual not at all necessary for him that fulfils this only essential Commandment which Men now have forgot because of the Traditions of Men which has so filled their Spirits that no Body penetrates now into the Essence of Vertue and they know not wherein it consists Which is very deplorable I asked her How it was possible that Man should come to such an Ignorance of God and of himself and to such a forgetfulness of his Salvation She said The Reason is Sir that whereas Men ought to apply their Reason and Understanding to know the Works of God they have applyed them to Earthly Things and pried into the Works of God to apply them to Evil. For Example We see some Rod or Chastisement befal us We immediately say that God is angry and that he afflicts us These are the Sentiments of the most pious and they are much better than those who ascribe this to Fortune or Second Causes for there is no Solidity in this whereas the first has some regard of God yet nevertheless it is so imperfect that it is injurious to him instead of being honourable For if we speak truly of God it cannot be said that he is angry because he is not subject to any Passion no more to Wrath than other Passions Neither does he afflict us because no Evil or Afflictions can come from him as being the Source of all Good from which no Evil can be derived But these Terms are used even in the Holy Scripture to make us understand something of God according to our Capacity And if it were said that any other thing than God afflicts us it would induce Men being so imperfect to Vengeance instead of Repentance It is better therefore to use Terms which do rather excite us to Vertue as the Scripture way of speaking does wisely but we must not infer from this that these Terms are in effect true but only to give us some signification that is less evil of the things that we ought to understand And nevertheless they insist sometimes upon certain Terms and thereon build Disputes and Questions which amuse the World and turn them away from the knowledge of God and of themselves and of Eternal Salvation as the Debate about the Grace of God or Predestination has done They found it upon this that God in several places of the Sacred Text has said that he has elected one and reprobated another or that he forsook his People or hardened Pharaoh's Heart These are all Terms accommodated to our Capacity but it does not follow that they are so really For God Elected all Men that were or shall be to Salvation and none to Reprobation Because God does always good to all without respect of Persons or regard of Mens Merit or Demerit for he respects himself only that he may still exercise his Goodness from which there cannot proceed so much as the Reprobation of one Soul For where there is nothing but all good there no evil can be found and Reprobation is the greatest Evil in the World which never can come from God who is all good And to believe that God gives his Graces only to whom he pleases is also to render him partial and passionate favouring one more than another Which cannot be found in God who is always just as well as always good and never favours any out of Preference Though the Scripture uses these Terms nevertheless the Favours of God are still enlarged according as the Soul resigns its self to his Will and no farther Because his Goodness is still accompanied with Righteousness He still abounds in Graces and denies them to none If any do not feel the Operations of them it is because he uses them according to his own Will applying them to evil as is done in Nature when they abuse their Beauty Health Wealth or Honours to offend God who notwithstanding does not withdraw these Natural Graces because of their Abuse no more than he does his Spiritual Graces which his Goodness still bestows though we abuse them For God can never cease to do well And when 't is said that he forsakes his People this is also but a way of speaking Because God never forsakes any thing since he comprehends in himself all things He cannot quit or abandon any thing no more than he can harden the Hearts of any For this would be to do an ill thing But these are all Terms used in the Scriptures that Men may not interpret to an evil Sense the Works which they see fall out without their knowledge For if the Text said that Men have the Grace of God and also their Salvation at their will they so love themselves that they would not any longer acknowledge God but would ascribe to themselves the Power of saving themselves which would be a greater Evil than to say that our Salvation depends immediately upon the Grace of God Because this is true but not in the way that Men take it when they say that they cannot be saved without the Grace of God as if God had not given his Graces to all Men from their Creation which whatever a Man do will never be taken back or retracted If he hardens his Heart to evil this is when he will irreconcilably withdraw his Free-will from a Dependance upon God Then the Justice of God cuts short this Injustice So that it may be indirectly said that God hardens Hearts even as we would say that the Fire has burnt the Wood that was put into it this would be a true thing For the Fire consumes all that is capable of that Element but if nothing be put into it for its Aliment it would consume its self instead of consuming any other thing Even so is it as to the Justice of God which devours all that is opposed to it Unjust Hearts are hardned by the Justice of God which like a Fire devours all that is thrown into it When a wicked Man has determined to run to evil he falls into God's Justice
to know if really she has the Quality of our true Mother and if she be allied with our true Father who is unchangeable in all his Qualities to whom this Spouse ought to be alwayes conformable We must see if what they call our Mother has the Spirit and the Works of our Father and if we find no Likeness in her we must renounce her and hold her as a Deceiver and a Liar unworthy of our Affection The Twentieth and Seventh Conference Shews The true Marks whereby to discover where the True Church is and that it concerns every one to examine it I asked her How I might discover where my true Mother the true Church is What Marks there are whereby to know her that I may not be deceived She said Sir You shall discover her by this that she will follow the Footsteps of Jesus Christ and be wholly conformable to his Doctrine There is but one Church only as there is but one onely God and there is so strait a Bond and Alliance between God and the Church that they are but one and the same Thing as it is said that in Marriage Two are but one Flesh so in the Alliance of God with the Church two are but one Spirit God is the Bridegroom and the Soul is the Bride As it is said concerning Adam Let us make a Companion meet for him for it is not good that Man should be alone This is the Figure of what he had said before Let us make Man after our own Likeness because it was found meet that God should delight himself with something that was like to him For this cause he created the Divine and Eternal Soul and plac'd it in the Body and Understanding of Man that it might multiply and communicate it self For it is the Property of Good to be communicative This Divine Soul being form'd in Time must live for ever else it should not have been Divine nor capable of being united and ally'd to God who created it for these ends And as Adam and Eve ought to have been united in Heart Body and Will so the Soul ought to be united in Love Understanding and Will with God Not that Natural Love nor that Humane Understanding no more than our bounded Will Because all this has no Sympathy with God and they are but the Case wherein God has shut up this Divine Soul which is Free and Eternal as God This Divine Reason and Free-will make the Church by the Alliance that God makes with it which is much more strait than the Alliance that this Divine Soul makes with the Animal Soul of Man which do so nearly approach one another that no Humane Spirit is able to distinguish them no more than any can distinguish the Free and Rational VVill from God himself Because he has so straitly united them that the Soul is God and God is the Soul as the VVill of Eve was that of Adam so the VVill of the Soul is that of God By which you may still discover Sir where the Spouse of God or the True Church is Because where she is to be found she carries still along with her the same Qualities of her VVell beloved and when you do not find them in those who call themselves the Church believe firmly that they are all Cheats For the Spouse of God will be alwayes comely and there can be no Blemish in her Because she shall never be parted from the Qualities of her Husband alwayes Just Good True and All-powerful And when you shall see Sion Jerusalem Judea or Rome such as you call the Church to be fallen away from these Qualities never believe that she is your Mother the Holy Church Upon these Accounts Jesus Christ has so often warned you to beware of false Christs and false Prophets For they come to delude and deceive many Do not let your self be deluded Sir For there shall never be but one True Church which shall be united to God VVhosoever has not this Unity is not the Church but they are Seducers of the People who under this Cloak of God's Spouse do seduce many You must lift up your Head and look on high to see whence the Church took her Original and you will perceive that the Church is no other but the Alliance that God made with the Divine Soul of Man which he made his Spouse though she was unworthy of it He so ennobled her that he would joyn himself to her and ally with her by an indissoluble Alliance which can never end for the Two Parties are Immortal to wit God and the Divine Soul But to take for the Spouse of God Persons who are no wayes in the Spirit of God nor in Union with him and to reverence them as the Church is to wrong the Honour that we owe to God To see a Church seek the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this VVorld and to believe that she is the Spouse of God is to derogate from her Divine Quality and to ascribe the Honour to Vice that is due only to True Vertue VVe should not thus let them cover our Eyes as they do to those who are going to be hanged that they may not see their doleful End VVe must take off this Bandage that we may look about us and learn where the True Church is which can save us and not suffer our selves to be led on blind-fold to Eternal Death by VVords or false Appearances since Truth only is capable to save us I said to her That I had never yet discovered Souls united to God and that nevertheless I believed I was in the Church She said Sir You are deceived For the Church is no where but in the Souls that are united to God no more than a Woman can be the Spouse of a Man who has never approached her We must not believe that the Church consists in wearing a Garment of Purple or Red or Fine Linnen These are rather the Marks of the Reprobation of the falsely Rich Man who was buried in Hell and the Scripture brings no other cause of his Damnation than these Fashions of Apparel and that he was Rich and a Feaster If all these Things were Marks of his Damnation why should they be now a dayes the Marks of the Holy Church God is not changeable He cannot now unite to himself what he then Reprobated and Condemned No no Sir the Spouse of God will never be vain nor proud nor polluted with any sin For she is all pure Do not think that you are in the Church when you are under Persons who seek Riches of this World for such Souls are Adulteresses and have abandoned their lawful Husband and live in Adultery with the Kings of the Earth Which ought to make you abhor her instead of cleaving to her If you have never met with Souls resigned to God you have never found the True Church Because there never was any other and never will be hereafter She must
believ'd that they would be shortly ruin'd She said Sir I believe that God will very shortly grant this great Mercy to the World which is very desirable seeing that he cannot be known so long as this Lustre of Honour and Riches rules in the Church She will never be holy till after the Destruction of all these visible and magnificent Things which have chas'd away the Holy Spirit and have rendred it the Babylon of Confusion God can never be glorified in the same Place where Men do attribute all the Glory to themselves and the Church cannot subsist but by the Virtue and Holiness in which its lawful Bridegroom Jesus Christ did establish it If she be joyned and allied with Honour and Riches she has play'd the Adultress and deserves to be rejected by her lawful Husband who has for so long a Time born with her Whoredoms that they are come to a heighth being become unsupportable to those who have fully discover'd them How much more must they be so to the clear-sighted Eyes of her lawful Husband We ought to wait for yea to wish and desire those Ruins which will discover where the true Christians are This Mask of Hypocrisy being taken off we will see them with open Face Which will be a far less Evil because there will be far less of Deceit in it It is now as in a Comedy where the Servant acts the Part of a King and so soon as it is finish'd we will see indeed that the King was nothing but the Servant Those who reign at present in the Church being stript of their Apparel it will then appear whether they are Prelates for God or for Mony and Honour The Twenty Third Conference Of the Destruction of the Church and of the Vprightness of God in his Judgments and in all that he does I ask'd her If there was no way to appease God by Prayer or Penances that this total Ruin of the Church might be prevented which is replenish'd with so great a Number of Persons as well of Priests as Religious which make some say that the Church was never so numerous nor in so fine Order as now She reply'd Sir There were never so many Religious and so little of Religion It is of this great Diversity that Jesus Christ said Do you see all these things I tell you there shall not be be left one Stone upon another that shall not be overthrown The Temple of Jerusalem was only the Figure of the Church of which Jesus Christ spoke in a perfect Sense saying That all these Orders all these Priests all these Religious Persons and Zealots which compose the Church with all other Christians should be destroy'd after such a manner that two should not abide together So that all shall be destroyed and displac'd These things must needs come to pass because all study to be Priests and Religious and no Body to be a true Christian Jesus Christ cannot reign in all these things He must needs demolish them and cast down the mighty from their Seats and abolish the Wisdom of the Wise and then he shall reign Would you Sir Pray and do Penance that Jesus Christ may not reign If his Kingdom be inseparable from his Gospel-Spirit it must be establish'd that he may reign there and it cannot be establish'd if Riches Power and Honours be not banish'd out of the Church For tho indeed he should come bodily into the World as he did in the time of the Jews he would not be received by the Church She would rather Murther him a thousand times than either hear or follow him for she will Rule and not Submit and will persevere in the Glory and Wealth of the World and contempt of the humility and poverty of Spirit wherein Jesus Christ has placed her Therefore of necessity all these Riches Grandeurs and Honours must be destroyed before Jesus Christ can reign in his Church He has no need of that great number of Priests nor of the multitude of Monks But he cherishes Souls humbled and despised for his Word All that splendor and that order which appears beautiful in Men's Eyes is defective before the Lord who has chosen Contempt and Reproach for our Example I said to her Seeing the wrath of God was so great that it will not be appeased we must resolve to suffer but it was very hard to see the total ruin of the Church in which among others there might be yet a great many good men who would suffer innocently She said Sir you do not know God yet since you imagin that he is angry and will not be appeased and that he does hard things in his universal Chastisements yea that he seems cruel in making the Innocent to suffer with the Guilty Believe me Sir all these Sentiments are Blasphemies which you utter against God without knowing it for want of not considering sufficiently that God is a Being All-just All-good and All-powerful If he be All-just he can never commit Injustice if he be All-good he can never do an evil thing if he be All-powerful nothing can be wanting to him nor fail him How say you that his Wrath cannot be appeased since an infinite Goodness cannot have Wrath. And if he could not be appeased he were not Merciful If he did a hard thing this would likewise offend his Goodness And if he should make the Innocent suffer with the Guilty he would act against his Justice All which things can never be done by God But our narrow mind not comprehending that Almighty Power Goodness and Righteousness judgeth rashly of God We imagin that he is in anger when he does not pardon any more And if we would fix our minds to consider the reasons why he does not Pardon we would easily perceive that he cannot in justice pardon any longer because our sins are very numerous and without repentance We love them and we will not part with them Must he then not chastise them if he love Righteousness and instead of perceiving that they constrain God to this chastisement we see nothing but that God is greatly in wrath as if he were subject to vicious Passions like to ours We judge likewise that he will not be appeased when he chastiseth notwithstanding our Prayers but we do not see that these Prayers are not effectual because they are not accompanied with regret and resolution of amendment We pray that God may pardon us and not chastise us that we may the more peaceably continue in our Sins which peace and prosperity do nourish Would God be merciful if he should pardon us or be appeased in such a case He would rather be unmerciful in being appeased and in giving us time and means to sin the more Who does not see that our judgments are deceived and that we would by them blame God for our own faults as when we say that it is a hard thing to have universal Chastisements when we believe there are
yet many good Men among others who are wicked and do not perceive that the evil is universal when the punishments are so The sacred History of the Scripture makes appear to us that God would have pardoned all that were in Sodom if there had been but ten Righteous within it We believe there are a great many good men according to our judgment whereas it may be before God there are none and even tho there were divers yet it is a good thing that the Righteous be tried by Tribulation for they testifie by it the fidelity they have toward God in continuing constantly faithful to him in adversity as well as in prosperity and likewise they thereby try themselves For many are deceived who thought they were faithful to God in Prosperity and yet Adversities have made them stumble in the midst of their Race or they have perish'd at the first essay of Temptation So that God manifests always great Righteousness and great Mercy chiefly in sending universal Rods in chastning the Wicked and in trying the Righteous if there be any who never suffer for the Guilty but for their own Perfection and Merit Universal Chastisements being much more profitable to the Good than to the Evil because they purifie them and render them more perfect whereas the wicked become worse by them I was obliged to confess That I had done a great wrong in speaking thus of God according to my Sentiment I asked her how I ought to behave my self that I may not any more fall into the like faults and that I might make a right judgment of God She said Sir never judge according to what you see outwardly but give always time to your Spirit to examin the works of God and you will discover that all that he does and permits is accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Power which are his Qualities without which he does nothing Men do deceive themselves and the most wise err in this point when they will censure the works of God In which they are real Ignorants for if they had any small Light they would admire and adore them only without making any judgments of them for of necessity what they make is unjust injurious or rash because no human Spirits are capable of fathoming the works of God for they are all incomprehensible We can only see that in them there is all sort of Goodness Righteousness and Power If we consider only a grain of Corn we shall find in it these three things Power is in its frame because no man is able to make a grain of Corn how Great and Learned soever he be We percieve also in this grain the goodness of God who gives so liberally to the Good and to the Wicked their necessary Food We will there likewise find Righteousness because having made Man subject to be nourished with this grain he provides it for him even tho he be his Enemy that he may find no injustice in God to have subjected him to a thing which afterwards should be denied him He wills that we may comprehend aright that all his works are Just and Good and Powerful tho we be ignorant how he makes them The Twenty fourth Conference Of the Enquiry about the most Holy Trinity and concerning Grace and that the Saints themselves are mistaken therein none being Infallible I Said to her That I had committed a great many faults in this matter that often I would needs dive into the works of God even his highest Mysteries such as that of Grace and the Trinity and that many holy Doctors had pass'd all their Life in such Studies to declare how God begets his Word or how God bestows Grace differently She replied Sir It is very ill done for a silly Worm of the Earth to seek to comprehend that which a God does It is enough always for a Servant to know what is agreeable to his Master in the matter of the duty of his Service without its being permitted him to enquire into his most secret particular Affairs He has performed his Duty when he has done that which is commanded and ordain'd him by his Master Much more blame worthy is it that a Creature should inform it self how God begets his Word or how he distributes his Graces unto Men This is beyond our Duty We ought to reckon our selves very happy to learn that God has so much Goodness that he always imparts to us Grace sufficient to enable us to love and serve him Every one may find this in his own Conscience and Experience which is the Mistress of all Scienc can testifie that every one has received Grace from God even tho he be a great Sinner What need is there after this to inform our selves how God gives these Graces Or if he give more to one than to another If this be not to seek matter to condemn God of Partiality or to make him have respect of Persons and so to render him less Lovely There is yet less ground to inform our selves what the Holy Trinity is for no body is capable of comprehending it nor yet how the Father begets the Son so much the rather that to render unto God agreeable Service there is no need of knowing any other thing than what he commands and ordains us What is more is unprofitable or evil for all that we should be able to say or know of the Trinity cannot but greatly lessen the glory of his Being which is above all that is most Beautiful most Good and most Great There is nothing that can be compared to God neither are there any words that can give us the least signification of the Being of God who comprehends all things If God were Man we would say that his Heart is the Father His Mouth the Son and his Understanding the Holy Spirit because the Heart of Man is the feat of Love his Mouth is the Channel by which this love is communicated and his Understanding is the Garden wherein the Conceptions do grow to make his Love be comprehended These three things are but one Person tho it have these three diverse Operations The Holy Trinity is but one God who is all Love he loves Man incomprehensibly We may call this Love the Father Now no Being is perfect if it be not communicated The Word has communicated unto Man this Love therefore it may be call'd the Son And this Word cannot be comprehended without Understanding which has likewise been given unto Man to comprehend this Love which understanding may be call'd the Holy Spirit All three together are but that sole Love which is God There is not in the Holy Trinity a Man a Child nor a Dove as they paint it unto us but these are all Figures to make us conceive something of God who nevertheless is unconceivable And all that they can say to us of him are but contempts or reproaches which we commit against God for