Be upon your Guard Sir For it is in this Age that we ought to be sober and watch continually because the Devil goes about us on design to devour and destroy us If we have not Faith to believe all that Jesus Christ has foretold us we could not resist him because he is so disguised with Sanctity and cover'd with Hypocrisie that the most Pious will blindly believe and follow him Resist him strongly Sir because of the warning that Jesus Christ so often gave us to beware of false Christs and false Prophets that they will seduce and deceive many It is not as to Turks Heathens or Hereticks that Jesus Christ bids us be so much upon our Guard but false Christians who sit in the Throne of God He who has not Faith to believe that this is the time now wherein the Abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary cannot resist the Devil because he resists the known Truth and so commits a Sin against the Holy Ghost For this Abomination is so true and manifest that no body can be ignorant of it but they who are obstinate in Sin and will die without Penitence blindly presuming of their Salvation without desiring to discover the Truth which is now set before their Eyes The Holy Spirit who is now come to bring into the World the Light of Truth clearly discovers all things and shall make manifest the Lyes and Defects of those who are believed to be the Church if the People will only give ear to the Truth and not continue obstinately in the Persuasions which they blindly received For such shall be destroyed with Sorcerers not that they shall commit the same Sins with those Sorcerers which poison others but because of their Unbelief they shall persist to believe and follow these false Prophets who shall lead them into the Depth of their own Miseries and this by the just Judgment of God because they loved the Darkness more than the Truth which God sends so liberally for enlightning the World and those who will not receive it resist the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other and consequently they shall be obliged to continue with the Sorcerers whom they wou'd not leave in this Life reckoning themselves to be more holy than the Holy Spirit For they wou'd not believe the Truth of the Evil hid under a Colour of Vertue and Sanctity and resisted the Truth as an evil thing I ask'd her How I might avoid these false Bretheren with whom I must daily converse and if I ought to have an ill Opinion of all She said Sir trust no body unless you see clearly that the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God lives in them or at least that in the whole Course of their Actions they strive to attain to these three Vertues For otherwise you will be easily deceived because you are of easie Belief You shall think you treat with a Servant of God when you shall be treating with a Sorcerer There are so many of them thro' all the World that they make up more than three parts of it and the most Wicked have the Appearance of Vertue and Holiness and by this Hypocrisie they deceive good Men who wou'd scruple to have an ill Opinion of their Neighbour You must not be of the Opinion that all your Friends are Sorcerers thereby to hate and condemn them but you must distrust every one that you may not be deceiv'd by them not to shock them thro' Malice but to beware of them thro' Prudence till you know assuredly that they strive for these three Vertues of God because the Devil can never possess them but in Appearance and 't is easie to discover when they are false For the Qualities of the Devil are Lying Inconstancy Hypocrisie and those who are of the Devil deal usually in Lyes and are inconstant and changeable disguised and dissembled hating the Light fearing lest their Works shou'd be known and made manifest He who is of the Devil is always haughty and proud and affects Honour and will not willingly yield to any body On the contrary he who is of God or seeks him has ordinarily these Qualities he is true sincere and single in Heart and endeavours to conform him self to the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ and neither seeks nor fears nor hopes for any thing without him All these Marks Sir will make you easily discern with what Spirit those are led with whom you must converse that you may not let your self be advised by any erroneous Spirits who are now so numerous and in the highest Places and Dignities Because the Devil being so powerful he still prefers his own to Honours and Offices that by these Means he may gain the more Followers Therefore I advised you heretofore to abandon all that you may not continue in so great Perils as there are now in conversing with Men. I said to her That I had a long time agoe quitted the Conversation of worldly and evil Men but as for those who seem'd to me to be good Men I had never a hard Thought of them and I could hardly believe that they belonged to the Devil She said If none but Worldlings and wicked Men cou'd deceive us Jesus Christ wou'd not have so often said Beware of those who come to you in my Name and deceive many yeae even if it were possible the very Elect. These Words make appear sufficiently that it is not Worldlings and wicked Men of whom Jesus Christ says so often Be not deceived because all good Men do abhor these Worldlings and wicked Men They are therefore out of Hazard of being deceived by them But these devout Persons or who wear Religious Habits being nevertheless in the Devil's Service may deceive many under these false Appearances It is with just Reason that Jesus Christ calls our Times dangerous wherein the Dangers are so cover'd and disguis'd with great Advantages that the one can scarcely be discerned from the other We will esteem it a great Happiness to have some Friend a Priest or a Religious Person or plac'd in some Dignity who being a Man of Honour and Learning will give us his Advice and Counsel both as to our spiritual and temporal Good Nevertheless this Person shall sometimes be engaged to the Devil to do all the Mischief he can Is not this a very dangerous thing For we take their Counsel as if it came from God himself and it comes directly from the Devil who makes us follow his Will under the Pretence of its being the Will of God Was it not needful Sir that Jesus Christ shou'd so often and so precisely warn us to take heed of these Dangers to which no Perils neither from the Wicked nor from visible Devils are to be compar'd because all good Men will always resist them But these false Bretheren who come in Christ's Name wou'd deceive the very Elect Therefore Sir trust no
come to reign on the Earth with Men to render Justice to every one and to root out all Evil and recompence the sufferings of the Righteous without this perswasion you can never support the Evils which hang over our Head for without knowing these Truths it will be impossible not to fall into despair or murmuring against God if we know not his Righteousness Goodness and Truth with which he does all things Thus we cannot besaved without Faith which discovers the Truth All these things are true of Judgment of Antichrist and of the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory but if you will not believe them you resist the known Truth which is a Sin against the Holy-Ghost that shall never be forgiven The Sixth Conference Discovers the Signs that the World is Judged and that ANTICHRIST Reigns now I said to her I would be very careful not to commit any Sin against the Holy Ghost though I knâ—w not yet the Truth in every thing entreating she would afford the means to discover the Truth of all the things she told me to wit the Judgment the Reign of Antichrist and the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory She said You would infallibly believe them if you would seriously remark what you may see with your Eyes and conceive with your Humane Understanding for these things are so far advanced that one may feel them provided his Mind be not infatuated For first as to the Judgment as I have already told you it is easy to see that the world is Judged because sins are universal and no body will Repent There is every where the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life of which no body Repents and Amends and there can be no forgiveness where there is no amendment and therefore of necessity the World is Judged because these evils are not among some particular persons as they have been in all times but they are generally among all men both small and great If you observe them narrowly you will find Sir that these three sins reign infallibly in the Hearts of all men of whatsoever condition those in whom you cannot discover them are very often the greatest Hypocrites who know better to dissemble and cover their sins And for the second The believing that we are now in the Reign of Antichrist you need only Remark narrowly by what Spirit Men are led because they who are led by God follow his Righteousness his Goodness and his Truth On the contrary they who are led by the Devil oppose themselves to this and if you Reflect upon the Actions of Men now you will find nothing in them but Injustice Malice and Lying which are three qualities of the Devil opposed to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God This is so common at present that there is nothing to be seen but Injustice Malice and affected Lies I said to her in my opinion there were some men who seemed to follow Righteousness and Truth tho it must be acknowledged the greatest part live in Injustice and Deceit She said Sir Judg righteously and examin everything to the bottom You grant already that the greatest part of men now live in Injustice and lies All the World finds this by experience And when the greatest part is for the Devil we may well fear that he will shortly have the whole for as rotten Apples spoil the sound ones so Men corrupted by the Devil are still corrupting and drawing in those who are yet sound If all men in general or almostall were on the Devils side the Reign of Antichrist would be at an end for he could gain no more he would be pleased to have all his Adherents with him to Hell for the reason why he keeps them in Life here and raises them to places and preferments is that they may serve him in corrupting others and in doing all the mischief to the good that may be Now there would be no need of this if all in general were dedicated to his service he could go no farther and God would not continue the World in being to wait for men's Conversion for those who are Dedicated to the Devil will not be converted as some other sinners would be who have not yet renounc'd God nor given their Souls to the Devil as his sworn Votaries or Sorcerers do who are precisely dedicated to the Devil of their own free will as the greatest part of men have done This may appear sufficiently by their Malice which is not only human but Devilish also for human Malice extends it self no farther than to that which is pleasant or profitable to the Malicious Person but at present we see men's Malice so black that he who acts it has neither pleasure nor profit by it and nevertheless they afflict the good and ruin sometimes the wealth and honour of their Neighbour without any profit to themselves And lies are so common tho frequently without any advantage that the truth is seldom or never spoken from whence it appears that it certainly comes from the Devil for men could not arrive at such a malice as that is which we see now reign in the World If I told you Sir that I had these truths by any particular Revelation from God you would entertain it may be some scrupulous doubts about it but I refer you to your own experience that you may know by human Reasons that we are fallen into the last times that the Judgment is past on the whole World And that this is now the Reign of Antichrist For as to the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory I cannot make it appear to you so precisely as the things that are already come to pass but if you read attentively the Holy Scriptvres they will plainly enough declare it to you for of all contain'd in them there is nothing more spoken of than of the coming of Jesus Christ on Earth in Glory From the beginning of the World we are told that Jesus Christ was to become man to Reign with men on Earth and tho he had not been man to suffer he had become man to Reign Because he would take and give to men a perfect contentment of Conversing together with them in Body and Soul Divinity and Humanity I cannot make you see this Sir by the Eyes of the Body because the time is not yet come Therefore I send you to the Holy Scriptures But as for the Judgment and the Reign of Antichrist you may see it with your Eyes and comprehend it with your Natural understanding For it is visible and comprehensible by him whose Spirit is not infatuated and who seeks to discover the Truth The thing is so manifest that it speaks out it self Many say blindly We are in the end of the VVorld and they perceive not that they speak truth Others say The Devil reigns over all and they see not that this is the Reign of Antichrist who Rules as
the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the Heavens he must confess that the Authour of all these Things is perfect and looking on the Earth the Trees the Plants and Elements he must discover an incomprehensible Divinity who had the Skill to make all these admirable Things Which obliges all that are Reasonable to Love him And when Man considers himself and sees the Art there is in the Fabrick of his Body in the Faculties of his Soul in the Subtilty of his Spirit he must confess that there is a God the Authour of all this to whom all Things ought to be ascribed Because no Creature is able to do any such thing By all which things a Man comes more perfectly to the Knowledge of God than by Sciences and the Expositions of all the Doctors of the World who have nothing but Limited Sciences The Twentieth and Third Conference Shews That it is by Faith only that we can be Saved which coming from God works still Resignation Even among the Heathens c. I said to her That all this Knowledge of God was nothing but the Faith of a Heathen that it was not capable to work Salvation that to be saved we must have a Divine Faith She said Sir You are ignorant yet of a great many Things For that Faith which you call Heathen is Divine because it comes immediately from God who has imprinted in the Soul of all Men this Divine Light that leads them to the Knowledge of the true God This is a Grace infused without the Concurrence of any Men which is much more perfect then the Faith we give to the Things they propose to be believed by us in the Roman Church many of which are very absurd and neither respect the Glory of God nor our Salvation They give us for an Article of Faith That there are Three Persons in God Though nevertheless no Creature can comprehend what is in God but by his Operations which we see with our Eyes as that he is Almighty that he is All just all Good and True Because all that we see he operates in us and in other Creatures bear these Three Qualities But to know if there be Three Divine Persons in God this surpasses our Capacity Because God is an incomprehensible Being and was never discovered by any so as to know what there is in his Divinity They propose also to us many Things for Articles of Faith which are not of its true Essence seeing no Body can be saved without Faith and they continually propose to us new Things for Articles of this Faith which our Forefathers never believed as such And if we cannot have true Faith now without believing them it were to be feared that our Forefathers were not Saved since they did not believe those new Things which are now proposed to us as Articles of Faith They never believed that the Virgin Mary was conceived without Original Sin and now they would make this Belief to pass for an Article of Faith Though nevertheless there is no appearance of Truth in it For the Virgin came out of the Masse of Adam as all the rest of Men And she did also undergo the Penitence common to all the Children of Adam having gained her Bread by Bodily Labour and suffered the Malignity of all the Elements and her Son Jesus himself shiver'd for Cold in the Stable of Bethelem shewing that he was a real Man descended from Adam subjecting himself to the same Penitence that our First Father had received and accepted from God in the Remission of his Sin Why should they now lay it before us as an Article of Faith that the Virgin was conceived without Sin since all Humane Creatures which are born of Parents who live under the Dependance of God having accepted the Penitence that God enjoyn'd Adam are all born in the Indulgence that God gave to Adam Wherefore should there be a particular Article of Faith for the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin as also for the Infallibility of the Pope seeing all these Things have no respect to the true Faith which must work out our Salvation For if the Virgins Conception was Immaculate or if the Pope be infallible this makes nothing for our Salvation nor as to the Knowledge we ought to have of a God upon whom all Things depend This Light infused in my Soul is true Faith and the Dependance that I desire to have upon the same God is the Work of my Faith What need is there to add yet to this the believing that the Pope is infallible since I have the same Light of Faith that tells me No Man can be infallible Since Adam created in Innocence and endued with all the Grace and Holiness that can be met with in any Man did fall and by failing so grosly shew that he was not infallible may not a Man who is a Sinner fail or err All these Faiths and Beliefs are not divinely infused by God into our Soul as that Faith is which makes us know a God above all Things All good All-just All-mighty but Incomprehensible This Faith Sir which you call Heathen is the True Faith which is able to work Salvation in all those who in consequence of it do through Love resign themselves to the same God I asked her If she believed the Heathens would be saved since they are not baptized She said Yes Sir All the Heathens who knew God by his Works and resigned their Will to him shall assuredly be saved For they had operating Faith True Faith in believing that there is One Almighty God who created the Heaven the Earth and all Things and they had the Works of Faith when they were resign'd to the Will of the same God Which appeared in all those who despised the Things of this Life for that which is to come They could not have done this but by a Divine Light that God infused into their Souls Because the Brutish Senses cannot despise the Pleasures of this Life For they know no other and Nature cannot betray it self by despising what is good for it to choose what is evil for it When we see one who may have Honours Riches and Pleasures in this Life and who yet quits them to be dispised poor and afflicted we may well believe that he has the Light of Faith infused by God into his Soul Because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever induce him to do such Things For no Body hates his own Flesh and the Devil incites alwayes to satisfie Nature And if we see one whom we call a Heathen quit the Conversation of Men and retire into a Solitude we may well believe that he has the true Light of Faith which makes Nature break off conversing with its like For Society is a most Lovely Thing Man is a Sociable Creature above all the other Animals and if the Beasts are sad when they are alone how much more must Man be so when he Lives according to Nature unless it
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
evils He can never do evil All that comes from him is most good and perfect he created us in an altogether holy and perfect state with an immortal body and a divine soul subject to none but himself having given us a spirit enlighten'd to know him and a power to rule over all the creatures both terrestrial and infernal and if he has oblig'd us to aid and succour one another this is not that he had created us more infirm than any other living creature but only to the end he might afford us matter for entertaining mutual Charity and Union together one assisting his Brother out of love the other being led to love him by the assistance and benefits which he receives from him and thus perpetually to maintain this love by the aliment of the need that we have of one another to the end we might continue united together as Jesus Christ is united to his Father And even the manner of the Generation of men is ordain'd for no other reason but always to preserve this perfect unity of body and spirit Thus you see that God has done all things well tho it seems sometimes to our ignorance that many evil things come from God the only Author of all good and the Destroyer of all evil It is our sin which has caused all the miseries under which we continually groan the maladies and infirmities of body are engender'd in us by sin the weakness ignorance and inconstancy of our spirit do proceed from sin That all the creatures rise up against us and hurt us this is but to take just vengeance of the rebellion which we have committed against God by sin It is a blasphemy therefore to say That God has subjected us to so many evils since we our selves only are the Authors of them and he can never do evil no not to damn us if we do not damn our selves and to know how and by what means we may attain to the LOVE OF GOD which is true Charity we need only take the Gospel and there observe in particular the instructions which Jesus Christ and his Apostles have left us in writing and put them in practice Behold the sure means to attain to true Charity without which no body can be sav'd It is not necessary that we seek any other means than those which Jesus Christ has taught us by word and deed I said to her if to be sav'd one must have this perfect Charity few persons will attain to salvation for we do not observe now that the Charity of which she speaks does possess the hearts of men She answers This is to be bewail'd with tears of blood for no body shall be sav'd without it as St. Paul affirms that Tho we would bestow all our goods to feed the poor tho we could remove Mountains tho we had the Gift of Prophecy yea tho we would give our body to be burned yet all this would be nothing for our Salvation without Charity And if you will exactly run over all the holy Scriptures you shall find by the sayings of Jesus Christ of the Apostles and of all the holy Prophets that never any person shall be sav'd without this Charity which consists in the LOVE OF GOD and of our Neighbour for God In the mean time no body possesseth this Charity and almost all the world presumes to be sav'd There is now Sir so great darkness in the whole world that no body discerns truth from falshood since they have taught Christians that the means of living well and of being sav'd do consist in going to Church in praying morning and evening and in confessing and communicating often By these things they have annull'd the Law of God and stified Charity for this is no more in use among Christians it is not so much as known by them and they understand not what true CHARITY is because this name is now appropriated to the gifts which persons bestow on Monks religious persons the superfluous Ornaments and Buildings of Monasteries and Churches they have baptizd by the name of Charity all these Gifts Presents and Legacies And I in my inward conversation do find them to be sensual affections and call them Robbery and Avarice for he who receives Presents without necessity by way of Alms does certainly commit Robbery and robs the poor and necessitous who alone are capable of receiving alms So that he whosoever he be having necessaries for the support of his life being able to gain them by some trade or labour is oblig'd to restore all the gifts and presents which he receives by way of alms and that person commits the sin of avarice who covets more than what is simply necessary for the support of his life for it is a great folly for a Traveller to load himself with burthens which are not necessary to him for the accomplishing of his Voyage Thus no body can enrich himself or heap up earthly goods without the Lust of Avarice which sin as all others does blind souls rendring them insensible of their own hurt But because they have introduc'd the calling of these vices and sins by the name of Charity every one believes they have it while they co-operate to these vices by this the Devil has seiz'd on the Throne of God and reigns in the Sanctuary by falshood whereas God ought to reign there by truth Behold the deplorable state in which we live at present the danger is so much the greater that all the evils are cover'd with vertue and piety that good men may be the more deceiv'd who live and die in this horrible darkness not knowing what true Charity is far less do they possess it so that I despair of their Salvation If they do not perceive this truth of Charity they can never be sav'd since not knowing it they cannot love it nor endeavour to find it while they think it is enough to bear the name of charitable tho they neither know nor possess true Charity There are so many such errors now in Christendom that Christians are by them led insensibly into Hell while they believe that they are assuredly in the way of Paradice I ask'd her If the goodness of God would permit that so many persons should go to perdition while they believe that they do well and follow the counsel of learned men and such as are authoriz'd by the Church She said Truly Sir there will be more Christian Souls damn'd by these means than by gross visible and material sins because all those persons who think to be sav'd live and die in the sins against the Holy Ghost which will not be pardon'd neither in this world nor in the other Not that these sins are so enormous that they cannot be pardon'd but because they are inward and spiritual little known and far less feared The most devout persons are tainted with them and will
This is the cause and the origine of all the corruption of the world and that its evil is remediless when a remedy is poyson'd it cannot cure the Disease but rather make it worse as we see the world is declining daily yea every moment to the worse Those who are cut off from the said Church and whom they call Hereticks can never do so great mischief to the true Church as these persons do who call themselves the Fathers and Doctors of the Church tho they are fallen away from the Doctrine of Jesus Christ since no well-meaning persons will follow Hereticks they rather have an abhorrence of them but even well-disposed persons leaning to the direction of those who are intrusted with the spiritual government of the people do insensibly commit infinite evils following the direction of these Doctors while they do not lead them according to the words of Jesus Christ for their own doctrines cannot but poyson the most pious Souls This is a Leprosy which has infected the whole Church of God which is transmitted from one to another so far as that there are no longer any sound members to be found I bewail only those who desire to follow the truth for they know not where to find it for it is not no longer where it ought to be He who believes the contrary is deceiv'd and he who says it deceives others Jesus Christ is the Truth alone The Tenth Conference Of Remission of Sins of Confession and how it is abused I Ask'd her if she did not believe in the Remission of sins since she maintained so confidently that few or none will be saved and that Paradice is shut She answer'd Yes Sir I believe in the Remission of sins In that consists my joy and my hope I have even told you before that assoon as the sinner knocks God opens to him He needs but turn to him to obtain the pardon of his sins how great and numerous soever they may have been It is not for want of mercy in God that I despair of the Salvation of men but because they will not be converted because the most part do not or will not know their sins I have more hopes of the conversion of gross sinners than of persons who make a profession of vertue because of the presumption of their Salvation grounded upon their own Righteousness they cannot be so readily converted as a sinner who knows his evil life he is more ready to repent of it than they who believe that they live well tho it be not true It is of these that Jesus Christ says that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance So many Souls will be mistaken at death who think they are certain of their Salvation whereas they are very far from it taking false vertue for the true It is in this that Jesus Christ says that he will judge of Righteousness He cannot judge nor condemn the Righteousness which is truly such before him but he speaks of our Righteousness which is righteous in our judgment and in that of men Such Righteousness will be condemn'd of God because they were not righteous before his piercing eyes as they appear'd unto the eyes of men and to our own Behold why I said that Paradice is shut because I cannot discern at present true Righteousness in the vertuous I ask her Whether sins were pardon'd by the Sacrament of Pennance which is the Confession of sins to the Priests She said Sir there are so many abuses committed by this Sacrament that I believe more sins are committed by it than pardoned for people believe that to obtain the pardon of their sins it is enough that they declare them to the Priest and upon this perswasion they take little care to amend them neither also can they have great contrition for a thing which is so easily effac'd by the small confusion that they have in declaring their sins to the Priest No body would quit his pleasure and the contentment which he finds in sin for so small a trouble as there is in confessing it Hence it comes that we see people continue and even endreâ—se their sins all their life time Thus this Confession which is appointed for their Salvation serves to procure their Damnation because so many Confessions without amendment make profuseness of Sactileges of which they never repent because they believe they shall obtain life with these very means that occasion their death and when the soul is about to be separated from the body they only place the hope of their salvation iâ— the same Confession which has wounded the soul with so great a number of mortal wounds It was a great unhappiness did then befal the world Sir when the Church taught that to live well and to be saved a man must confess often The Catechisms which they teach the Children of Christians are stuâ—tâ—d with such doctrines and in all the Indulgences which the Church bestows she always ordains Confessions as one of the necessary means for obtaining the said Indulgences Every body teaches the doing of what is ordain'd by the Church in this case I would willingly ask if this be not to teach indirectly that a man must in frequently when they teach that he must confess often since Confession does always suppose sin He cannot confess frequently without sinning frequently for they who have not sinn'd have nothing to confess nor can they do it frequently without an express commission of sins that they may have matter of confessing frequently I believe Confessors have invented these multitudes of Confessions that thereby they may draw the people to themselves instead of leading them to Christ A true Shepherd-takes more pains to cure his Seeep and does not neglect its Scab that he may be oblig'd to take it often in his lap as these strange Shepherds do who love rather to draw to themselves souls continually laden with sins than to send them to God by the spirit of true repentance This is an error which was introduc'd into the Church by the cunning of that pernicious Antichrist that he might withdraw the souls of sinners from Christ who calls them saying Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest and to lead them to men who slatter and keep them in their sins under a false promise of their Salvation for there is none but God only who can pardon sin and men who pretend to be in Gods stead and do not observe his word are Seducers since his word only can pardon sins It is true it was transferred to men with the same vertue which it had in the body of Jesus Christ but this was only as long as they should continue to persevere faithfully in that word and no otherwise The Apostles did all their works by vertue of this word and not by their own authority These Confessors do the quite contrary remitting sins according to their fancies and will
from it that the true Christian might be known from the false and that we might no longer live amidst so many errors and in so great blindness and consequently in so great hazard of our salvation by adhering to mens Laws and despising Gods perswading our selves that we do well in following their errors inâ—tead of the true Light which has proceeded from Jesus Christ The great unhappiness of men is that they do not know these truths and that they fear they would do ill to believe them I said to her That it was very lamentable to live in so dangerous a time in which the most innocent might perish thro ignorance asking her if she knew a remedy for these evils She said The wickedness of men Sir has brought this ignorance upon the earth Since they forsook the love of the truth they are given up to the spirit of error The ignorance is very gross for every one who would enter into himself might well perceive in the bottom of his soul that he does not love God with all his heart nor his neighbour as himself which are the chief Commands of God without the keeping of which one cannot be saved But men suffer themselves to be amus'd with little Rattles even as they quiet Children which cannot at all cure the evil that presses them but only diverts their minds a little that they may not think upon nor be attentive to their pains These little outward Devotions are the Rattles which those Guides sound in our ears not to cure the wounds which the neglect of this Command of God has caus'd in our soul but rather to amuse our attention that it may not discover those eternal truths They breed up our souls with affections to their persons under a pretext that they stand in Gods stead They perswade us that we shall always receive grace by confessing frequently as if grace were given by the help of sins for confession can bring no other grace than pardon of sins and to receive this grace frequently there is need of sinning frequently What real childish amusements are they to make even those to confess frequently who they believe have nothing but imperfections to confess If they did receive grace as often as they go to confession with so much grace they would leave off their sins and would not be oblig'd to continue for so long time these confessions We may believe they do as those who take Physick out of appetite or custom which spoils and corrupts the health instead of preserving it These ordinary Penitents do wholly the same to their souls as they do to their bodies thus they suffer themselves to be amus'd by foolish perswasions as that also of going often to Church to pray to God as if it could not be done elsewhere Nevertheless Jesus Christ says that one ought always to pray and never to cease One had need therefore to abide night and day in the Church to fulfil this direction These are all errors and inventions of men for a Christian is oblig'd to pray always at all times and in all places without fainting not only when they are in the Church as these Guides perswade them who are no less mistaken in prefixing a certain number of Offices Prayers and Beads and other trifles which they call Prayers tho they do not know what Prayer is for it consists in an elevation of the spirit to God which may be done while we walk and work eat and drink and even while one is at rest for our spirit ought to be continually elevated unto God in acknowledgment of the continual favours which we receive from him yea even in sleeping our will ought to bless him always this is the continual prayer which God demands of us But we do the quite contrary for instead of having our spirit elevated to God continually we employ it in earthly cares and solicitudes about our wealth our family our business or houshold affairs So that even in the little time that we are at Church saying our Pater Nosters our Spirit runs frequently astray and is not elevated unto God for one moment in a day yea it may be has never been so for our whole life and we think we have prayed to God provided we go to Church or say Prayers by muttering over our Beads These are all new Doctrines which neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles ever taught which do often deprive us of the attention we ought to have to true prayer I will not blame the going to Church to pray to God This is very good when we find in the Church more means and a greater facility of elevating the spirit unto God than in the House or elsewhere but I blame all those novelties which divert us from God by amusing us with things that strike upon our senses for which I can see no remedy since these evils proceed from those who ought to redress them If I spoke to these Guides of the Church and told them these truths 't is to be fear'd they would stone me for they will not be reproved in their actions far less in their authority and tho they should clearly perceive the truth they would not receive it and if I should speak to those who are directed and govern'd by them they would think that I would deprive them of their Salvation and render them Hereticks in not obeying those who call themselves the Church for they are so far perswaded that they ought to believe and follow their directions that they would choose rather not to obey God than to despise the counsel of these men the blindness is so far gone that I look upon the evil as desperate which makes me say that the world is judg'd and the sentence is irrevocable because no body sees his misery and even will not see it they would be afraid to offend God by believing the truth of these things The Twelfth Conference That the Conversion of Men now is desperate as it was in the days of Noah and wherefore I Said to her that there were yet many souls in the world capable of receiving these truths and if they heard these things they would infallibly open their eyes and leave their errors requesting her that she would yet speak to others besides me She said Truly Sir I cannot do it for I see no hopes that I can profit by it The darkness is too great and the evil too inveterate As long as God shall not destroy the wisdom of the wise and the prudence of the prudent they will not receive the evangelical simplicity and If they be not converted and become as little Children they will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It would be in vain therefore to speak to them But if you know any one Sir whose understanding is bounded and his will subjected to God you may make the experiment For my part I desire to continue unknown that I may preserve my
well and secure The Thirteenth Conference Of true Faith according to the tenour of the Creed Of the knowledge of God and of our selves by the consideration of his Works I Told her That I did not believe that I had true Faith and that she had sufficiently made appear to me that I could not be right therefore I desired to understand of her wherein true Faith does consist tho' it were but upon my own account for I desired to profit in it She said Sir let us examine a little together our Creed and see if there be so much as one Article of it observed even by the most perfect Christians now-a-days If we believ'd that God is Almighty that he created the Heaven and the Earth could we live without loving and fearing him as we do Could we also attribute to our selves the earthly good things which all the World seeks after and loves since they are all created by God and do all appertain to him in Property which we do daily usurp In the second place If we did believe in Jesus Christ the only Son of God who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary could we reject his Instructions since he is the Son of God the Fountain of all Wisdom Could we follow a Carnal Church seeing she is altogether Spiritual engendred in the Body of Jesus Christ by the operation of the holy Spirit Could we also live in Luxury when God chose a Virgin for his own Mother Would we not endeavour to love Virginity since God has so much esteem'd it Moreover if we believ'd that Jesus Christ the Son of God has suffer'd even so far as to be Crucified Dead and Buried could we live so softly seeking all eases to our Body not willing to suffer any thing that is painful nor affronts nor tribulations when we believ'd that the Son of God has indeed suffer'd for us even to a shameful Death yea was buried as a corruptible Man Would we not imitate or follow him at some distance in case we had the faith that we profess Moreover if we believ'd that he is risen from Death to Life that he is ascended into Heaven were it possible that we could love this present Life while we hope that we shall rise again since Jesus Christ is risen again to ascend unto Heaven Would not this withdraw our affections from the Earth through the hope of ascending unto Heaven with Jesus Christ Were it possible that we would build Houses and make so many other settlements as we do on Earth as if it were our abiding City And if we did believe that Jesus Christ will come from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead were it possible that we would live in so great a neglect of our Salvation with so little care of making ready our Accompts to render them to that great Judge who will demand of us an account of all our Thoughts Words and Deeds Would we not rather lay aside all our worldly Affairs to attend on this which is the most important to us yet on the contrary is often the least of our â—ares And did we believe likewise that there is a holy Spirit and a holy Church is it possible that we would be so little Spiritual so Natural and Earthly so wedded to our Senses in which we live sometimes more brutishly than the Beasts themselves whereas our Souls ought to be wholly Spiritual and Holy since we have a Holy Spirit and a Holy Church And did we believe the Communion of Saints is it possible that every one should be so much wedded to his own Interest and Wealth If Prayers and good Works ought to be all common amongst Christian Brethren how much more ought temporal Wealth to be for the succour of our Neighbour which is very far from Mens dispositions now who study nothing but to keep up and increase their own Wealth understanding no other thing but mine and thine both in Spirituals and Temporals And did we believe in the remission of Sins how would we be penitent and contrite to obtain the pardon of them instead of continuing in them through hardness of heart as we see the most part of men do who finish their Lives in black thoughts and despair instead of having immediate recourse to mercy according to their belief For he who has promised the remission of Sins has not promised them time to persevere in them If this belief were real they would not persevere in them for one day for they are not certain of living so long And did we believe in the Resurrection of the Flesh how could we love and esteem our flesh in a condition so miserable as that of this mortal Life We would greatly contemn it in the hope we had of its Resurrection l in which it should live most happy delivered from so many miseries calamities and maladies under which it groans during its exile in this miserable World which setting aside the hopes of its Resurrection must rather be called Death than Life the belief of this Article would give a disgust of the delights of this present Life and make us aspire towards that to come And did we believe in Life eternal what would we not do to obtain it We would voluntarily forsake Father Mother and all our Goods to obtain this eternal Life for it deserves more than a thousand Worlds which cannot last but for a small time in respect of Eternity whereas we see the most part of men so in love with this miserable Life that they would fain abide here for an Eternity though it be filled with miseries and calamities Do you not see Sir that there is no more faith in the House of God That no body lives conformably to his belief That they place faith only in Words as I have told you formerly They say over it may be every day their Creed and yet they do not observe so much as one Article of it These are nothing but words that vanish into Air and nevertheless they would take it very ill to make appear to them that they have not true faith tho' it be always operative and never idle True faith works always the vertues of which I told you in the Souls which possess it and if these operations are not seen it may indeed truly be said that these Souls have not faith for it can never be any where without operating its vertues no more than the Sun can be without giving his beams Consider it well Sir and you will find my saying true and you will condemn your self I told her I perceived clearly that People lived in a distraction of spirit and that few persons knew themselves That it was no wonder they knew not God since they did not know themselves and that truly we were deceived She replied Sir he who knows God will always know himself and he who knows himself will assuredly know God for the one is linked unto
Perfection than formerly Which I doubt very much for if you think to teach the People the Evangelical Life and do not observe it your self this is worse than to hold your Peace because every one will have Ground to believe that it is nothing but a Formality which must be observ'd in declaring the Gospel and that there is no need to put it in Practice seeing they who teach it do not practise it themselves I think in this Case it were better to be ignorant of it than not to practise it when we know it At least it is a less Evil never to have understood it than to have known it and not to practise it tho' both are evil because all Christians are oblig'd to know the Gospel for we cannot without Guilt be ignorant of it but to hear it so often and for all this not to desire to follow it is a double evil because of the Ingratitudes which are committed in not practising what we know by the Grace of God It is a Grace to be caught and an Ingratitude not to follow Instructions Therefore you will do nothing but spend your self in Teaching and will not replenish others Besides that in Teaching there is always the Hazard of Vain-Glory because Flattery is the Ruine of our Souls and perswades us that we have that which they say we have I said unto her That infallibly many would put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel if they knew it as I do at present because these Truths are so clear that of necessity one must yield to them She said Sir Do not engage your self to declare the Truths which God now makes known to you For they will not be well receiv'd by the Learn'd You ought first to have overcome all Human Regards which you have not yet done Likewise you must have the Courage to expose your Life for this Truth For otherwise you will be opprest without any Profit because they would outragiously persecute you if you should declare the naked Truth of the State of the Church at present and if you teach that to be a true Christian one must observe the Doctrine of the Gospel they will altogether oppose you and will affirm That all they who are baptiz'd are Christians however Wicked they be Thus you will have much to suffer and will profit others nothing Because all that you might build up by Teaching of the Truth the Learn'd will destroy by their Arguments and will easily dissuade People from believing you even rejecting your Doctrine as Evil and Seditious for they study nothing so much as to flatter the World and speak as they are desirous to hear They have forgotten that Jesus Christ said by his Apostle That he who would please men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ There can be no Preaching any longer without Reproof but what flatters the Ear and is agreeable to the People for the Truth which reproves is so disapproven by Men that I believe Sir if you should speak publickly the Truths which I in confidence have told you they would cut you off from the Church declaring you an Heretick yea they would even pursue you to Death because they could not approve the Truth without condemning themselves their Lives being contrary thereto and no Body hates his own Soul Therefore they condemn others I ask'd her If I ought always to continue idle without doing any thing seeing I could not Teach nor Preach any more and that I had no other Employment for that I had passed all my Life-Time in Study and in the Direction of Souls She said Sir Labour first for your own Perfection until you be entirely united to God and then you will be capable of other things If there be no Profit to be reap'd among the Catholicks you may go among the Heathens and Hereticks who will be more disposed to receive the Truth than those who are under the Roman Church Because others sin through Ignorance and these Romanists through Malice Many Heathens would follow the Truth if they knew it and likewise divers Hereticks because they seek and ask it always Therefore we hear them dispute willingly to shew that they are not at Rest but seek and ask always after the Truth But the Catholicks do opinionately presume of their Salvation because they esteem themselves the People of God as they are truly even as the Jews were who are now abandon'd but shall be converted so soon as the Roman Church shall be overthrown Those will be truly capable of receiving the Spirit of Truth acknowledging their Errors and Ignorances Labour in the mean Time Sir for your own Perfection and you will very shortly see that the Harvest will be ripe and that there will be need of Workmen We approach so near that I fear your Soul will not have so soon acquir'd its own Perfection as these things will come to pass Therefore make haste fearing to be sent away as an unprofitable Servant Occupy the Talent which God has given you for he will come very shortly to demand an account of it Apply your self to your own Perfection with the same Earnestness wherewith you formerly applyed to the Perfection of others without any Profit I ask'd her If she believ'd that the Roman Church would be Destroy'd and Ruin'd and the Christians scatter'd as the Jews are at present She replyed Yes Sir and much more for the Jews have continued constantly in the Jewish Law tho' they be bodily scatter'd through all the World they are nevertheless united in an uniform Faith and Belief holding still the Law which God had given them But the Christians have denied their Faith tho' they be yet united Bodily How would they preserve it in Time of Persecution when all this Lustre and this Magnificence of the Church shall be destroy'd so that there shall not be one Stone upon another in its outward State no more than there is at present in its inward This must needs come to pass Sir else God would not be Just for the Jews might Reproach him with Reason That they never committed such an Infidelity against their God as the Christians do It is very true they kill'd the Body of Jesus Christ but that was through Ignorance The Christians do kill it a thousand times out of pure Malice They believe that the same Body of Jesus Christ is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they give it daily unto Whores Thieves Murtherers and Sorcerers and yet they make them believe that they shall thereby receive Graces The Jews never believ'd that they obtain'd Grace in putting Jesus Christ to death as these Christians do believe in receiving him unworthily For Pilate said that he found no Fault in him and was in great Fear to condemn him And the Christians go affrontedly to receive him with a Soul full of Sins believing in the mean Time that he is oblig'd to impart unto them his Graces in
upon his Body Another that of the Carthusians never to eat Flesh nor converse in the World Others rise in the Night to pray Others wear Sackcloth and exercise Discipline making long Prayers and singing Psalms vowing Obedience Poverty and Chastity with a great many other Things painful to the Body and to the Spirit In which all the People desire to imitate them according to their Condition Some will fast sometimes a Week will take Directors to submit their Wills to them will force themselves to say a great many Chaplets or other Prayers and to be in Churches as much as is possible for them with a great many other things which are troublesome and oft-times of little profit for the Salvation of their Souls But if they had been taught That to be saved they must resign themselves to God they would more easily have found this Resignation than all those things which are superfluous for many and would more easily have resign'd their Wills to that of God than to some Man subject to all sorts of Passions Those I say having discover'd the Truth will be converted by the Plagues and will endeavour to approach to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God as much as they are now far from it thro' Ignorance No Body must any longer be flatter'd Sir All those who shall not have this Righteousness of which I have spoken to you will not be sav'd Neither you nor I nor any Body be who they will can be sav'd but by God therefore Jesus Christ has said That with Men it was impossible to be sav'd but that it was possible with God To shew that upon this Union with him our Salvation does depend And that all those means introduc'd by Men are a very small matter for they can serve only to some for means to attain to this Union serving for others for great Hindrances For this Union requires a Recollection of Spirit and not the Diversion of it to so many different things I said to her That no Body doubted that our Salvation depended upon God That no Body could save either himself or others That this Passage of the Gospel was so understood She said Sir you do not understand me well Our Salvation does not depend upon God as you believe it that he saves one and damns another without our contributing thereunto This is an Error which puts the Salvation of the most pious in hazard For God will damn no Body without Sin and likewise he will save no body unless they give themselves to him of their own Free-will And what Jesus Christ said to his Apostles It is impossible as to Men to be sav'd but that it is not impossible to God is to be understood as long as a Man shall live to himself it is impossible for him to be sav'd But if he come to unite himself to God returning with the Heart to him he will save him And when you say to me That all the World will perish if they must needs Exercise the very same Righteousness of which I speak because Men are very far from it it is a certain Truth that continuing in the State in which they are they will all perish For living to themselves it is impossible as to them But if they be converted and return unto God he will save them No Body can look for Salvation after the manner that they live at present for they know not God any longer all having abandon'd him I ask'd her How she perceiv'd that the World is judged and that the irrevocable Sentence is given She said Sir I perceive this by the Justice of God which cannot suffer an Universal Evil without an Universal Chastisement When there have been particular Wicked Men God has condemn'd them in particular For his upright Justice never exceeds nor diminishes any thing from the Merit or Demerit of Men doing always justly as well to the Evil as to the good Now Men having generally all of them abandon'd their God have in doing this given Sentence of the general Destruction of the World which shall not be recall'd because the Will of Man is not inclin'd to return to him but rather to be the more estrang'd from him if the Plagues should yet be delay'd Therefore I affirm with Assurance Sir that the irrevocable Sentence is given to purge the whole World by divers Plagues of War Pestilence and Famine which are fram'd of the three means which have caus'd Men to abandon God Three general Sins will have Three General Plagues The first is that Men have all abandon'd the Love of their Neighbour and instead of loving him as themselves according to the Commandment of God every one endeavours to make War against him by Contempt Envy and Jealousie By Quarrels Lyes and Cheatings All these things have made Man abandon God in his Neighbour who is his true Image They study not only not to love him as themselves but also to vex him in all things There is nothing but Wars and Divisions even among Kinsfolk yea between the Father and the Son All these Discords together do they not make an Universal War We are astonish'd to see the Wars of Provinces and of Kings without considering that every body does the same thing according to his Power A Clown will sometimes fight with his Companion for a Farthing He does as much Evil in proportion as a King who fights against his Equal for a Kingdom for God regards nothing but the Wickedness of the Heart and not the Worth of the Subject If he permit Kingdoms to be everywhere in Wars it is by an exact Justice when all private Men are so already Could he deny Kings the same Liberty that he permits to all others since they were all equally created with the Disposal of their Free Will the King as well as the Clown Would it be just that God should take from Kings the Power to make War and permit it to private Persons He would be a partial God an accepter of Persons If we did live in Peace with our Neighbour God would only punish in particular the Kings which make War But our Domestick Wars do merit that we should suffer Universal Wars and that by a just Judgment Since we will not continue in Peace with God with our selves and with our Neighbours it is not at all meet that we should be so with Kings For our Wars have made us abandon the God of Peace and draw upon our selves the Plague of War by our Sin of Dissension The Plague of Pestilence is also justly prepar'd for us Because all Men in general have abandon'd their God for the Affection which they bear to this miserable Life It is therefore just that it be taken away from us since it has serv'd us for a mean to abandon our God who gave it unto us only that we might love him and we have loved the Gift more than the Giver our Life being the Time of Penitence wherein we ought
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
cry out against me as the Jews cry'd out against Jesus Christ Away with him away with him Crucifie him And I believe if the Priests had me in their Power they would gladly cut me off and would have done it long ' ere now But God sav'd me from their Power that I might yet farther declare his Truths to good Souls who seek and desire them which in Obedience to God I 'll do even at the Peril of my Life since Jesus Christ expos'd his to teach me the Way of Salvation And I entreat the Reader to peruse with Attention this Second Part of the Light of the World waiting till the Third follows He shall therein find the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit the Truth of God and the Light of Truth which must teach all Truth The Truth of the Impartiality of Christian Charity and of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and particularly the discerning of true Vertue from that which is but apparent and the Errours crept into Holy Things more clearly than they 've ever yet been discover'd in the World Receive it therefore as a Present of great Value from her Hand who loves only the Salvation of your Soul and continues Friendly Reader Your very Affectionate in Jesus Christ Anthoinette Bourignon THE SECOND PART OF THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD The First Conference How the Opinions of the Learned are injurious to God they being ignorant of his Works Of God's Presence and of his Grace Of the Liberty Power and Weakness of Man and of the State of Infants before the Vse of their Reason I Said to her That never any Body had known so much of the Works of God and that many Disputes and Questions had been raised in the Church to discover such Secrets She said Sir I have often trembled upon the hearing so many Blasphemies as they thunder out against God by such Disputes One makes God the Author of Evil another makes him the Complice another unjust and partial some attribute to him the Cause of Mens Damnation others the Want of their Salvation every one judges of the Works of God according to his Fancy Liking and Inclinations The Learned do greatly deceive themselves while they will needs comprehend by humane Sentiments his Divine Works If any simple Woman of a humble Heart would seriously consider the Works that God does in her Interiour she might give a better Definition of all his Secrets than all the Doctors of the World wou'd ever do with their Learning They amuse themselves in contending about Words or some Terms that they lay down upon which to found their Disputes and thereon they raise great Buildings without any solid Foundation and the more they will dive into the Matter the more they trouble it because God hides his Secrets from the great and the wise of the World and reveals them to Babes and to the simple for he says Except you be converted and become as little Children you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven making appear sufficiently that it will not be by Philosophical Reasons or Disputes that we shall discover the Truth of his Works but by a dove-like Simplicity I said to her That many believed that Man has his full Liberty to do evil but that he is not so free to do well She said These are all Errours for Man has even more Advantage and Inclination to do good than evil if he did not go out of himself by diverting himself to hear the Discourses of Mens Inventions for God having created him for Salvation did consequently imprint in him the Instinct of doing good and the Will also because good is always agreeable and lovely Evil then must needs be contracted from without us for God being the Centre of our Soul cannot but lead it unto Good and if it followed its self it s Bent and Inclination it could not do Evil because Evil is without us we being led to it either by the Devil or some other Creatures without us who stir our Passions and the Powers of our Soul to pervert them to the Will of doing evil otherwise 't is far more easie for us to do good than evil And as the Ray cannot be separated from the Sun so the Soul cannot be separated from God the Fountain of all Good because it has the same Relation to him that the Ray has to the Sun If our free Will did not put a stop to the Rayes of Grace they would enlighten our Soul continually and could not cease from illuminating and warming it But Sins and vicious Affections do stifle and oppose this Light which being hindred cannot any longer shine into our Souls and then during this Darkness they fall from one Precipice into another The Fault is not that this divine Sun ceases to shine for one Moment but that our Sins put a stop to it which if they were removed this Divine Sun would as suddenly shed forth his Rays We must not labour as we think we ought to obtain the Grace of God but we must only labour to remove the Hindrances which we give to it because Grace always offers it self being inseparably fix'd in God who is the ter of our Soul He cannot leave it But our Sins hindring him keep us from enjoying the Effects of this Grace I said to her That Man indeed received Benefits from God in his Creation and his Graces did abound in him But since he fell into Sin he has lost these Graces and is become unable to do good She said Sir you wrong the Goodness of God to speak or believe so For God has not withdrawn from Man tho' he fell into Sin He contains in himself all things and cannot retire from any thing He is as much the Center of our Souls since Sin as he was before and can never go out of any Place because he comprehends all in himself This being so he does not deny his Graces to any Body For they are where-ever he is and being in the Center of our Souls his Graces consequently are there with him but it is our Fault only that they do not there perform Operations It is true if our first Parents had not sinned we had been born in the state of Innoceence and in coming into the World had not brought with us a Hindrance to Grace which we have contracted by our first Parents but by accomplishing the Penitence that God enjoyn'd them for the said Sins we enter again into the same Grace of our first Parents since God treats with us as if we had never offended him their Sins not being able to change the Grace of God but to subject us indeed to Penitence till we arrive at the Use of Reason and then being transplanted out of the free Will of our Parents we enter into our own If from that Instant our Will desires to reunite it self to that of God we shall receive the Effects of his Grace but the Mischief is we
may lose no Occasions of following the Designs of God and that you deceive no body in teaching them that they have done enough in going to Mass For tho' they should hear a hundred every Day this would avail them nothing if they have not Charity which is not now cherish'd amongst Christians tho' they assemble every Day to Mass because they are not taught for what it is instituted since these Romanists have turn'd all things to their greater Advantage If we would examine narrowly all the other Sacraments we would find all the same Mischiefs done to the Interest of Salvation by those new Inventions and Changes I said to her That it were better than that I did not exercise the Ecclesiastical Functions since there was so much Abuse and Hazard in them She said You would not do Ill Sir to abstain from them and to live as if you were no Priest were it not that not having as yet Light enough to discover the Evils which are hid in them you would by degrees fall into Scruples for leaving off all your pious Exercises Pray to God that he may let you see what you ought to do and he will shew you as he does me that all holy things are become prophane and that there is not any thing in this Roman Church which does not savour of its Corruption All People believe that having declared their Sins to the Priest and got Absolution from him they are pardoned tho' it is God only who can pardon Sins The Priest can indeed pray for the Penitent who humbles himself to declare his Sins as an Intercessour between God and the Penitent but he cannot pardon him by his own Authority He may indeed judge by the Word of God if the Penitent in Justice be disposed to have the Pardon of his Sins and may give him Ground to hope that he shall obtain it of God but not deceive him by making him believe that he himself will pardon them if so be he declare them to him for this Declaration will do nothing without a sincere and a firm Resolution of Amendment which God regards that he may pardon according to his straight Righteousness and not according to the Judgment of the Priest who may be mistaken as well as all other Men. How could God have so little Equity as to commit to some frail Men the Power of saving and damning others What Justice could there be that a Confessour for want of the Intention to absolve should by this means damn thousands of Persons who made their Confessions to him It must needs be an horrible Blasphemy against God for any to have such a Persuasion that a well-meaning Person truly penitent after having duly confess'd dying in this State should be damn'd because the Priest had not the Intention to absolve him If this were true it would be to render God a Tyrant because all our good Works would serve us for nothing in case our Salvation did depend upon a good or ill Absolution These Thoughts or this Belief would make us fall into Idolatry in taking Men for God who could save or damn according to their Fancies This God himself would never do because he can never depart from his Righteousness Goodness and Truth to judge us always according to them whereas Men full of Passion Injustice and Impiety could not but judge us according to these How little Wisdom should we attribute to God in believing that he would give Men Power to save and damn us He who has commanded us to worship none but one God alone he should give us Occasion of worshipping all these Confessors who would be the Saviours of all Christians Do you not palpably feel Sir what evident Perils there are in the Administration of those Sacraments after the manner they are used at present It were far better to be Idle than to do Evil. 'T is no Wonder that I doubt of the Salvation of Christians now when I see in their religious Functions so many things against the Righteousness the Goodness and the Truth of God Nevertheless I will not give you Advice in this You may with your own natural Judgment discern aright Truth from Lying and thereafter resolve to continue or leave off your Ecclesiastical Functions For God never constrains any body each one remaining free to chuse the Means which he perceives to be most expedient without believing any thing blindly no more what I say Sir than if another said it to you But enter into your self that you may judge uprightly of the pure Truth you will perceive and feel it if you be disengag'd from all the Discourses which these Romanists have forg'd to make their Authority valid Free your Spirit of all sorts of Imaginations and Arguments and come to the Center of the Truth to judge if God would in Justice put our Damnation or our Salvation into the Power of any Man unknown to us who might be a wicked Person or a Sorcerer in which Case he would damn as many Souls as he could to gratifie the Devil to whom he belong'd It must not be said in this God is Almighty or his Works are incomprehensible For he never exerts his Power without his Righteousness which is not incomprehensible but makes it self be seen and commprehended by all those who seriously consider it Because no Good is perfect if it be not communicated and known I said to her It was much to be fear'd I had committed many Faults thro' my blind Submission to this Roman Church enquiring of her the Means to repair them She said All that is past is no longer in your Power You must beg Pardon of God who is full of Mercy and does not so much reprove the Faults which are done with a good Meaning as those which are done thro' pure Wickedness Tho' Ignorance does not excuse Sin yet it lessens its Malignity because it has not the full Consent of the Will But now endeavour to search more to the Bottom the Things which concern your Salvation and Do not believe every Spirit but try if what you are to do or believe be of God or of Men or of the Devil For all that is not o God is evil and for want of discovering this Truth each one runs blindly to his own Perdition believing even that they do well in following so great a Number of great and wise Men who maintain this blind Submission which is not fit but for mean Spirits tho' so many of good Judgment have followed it for this long time by-gone which could not have been found without some Infatuation of the Understanding with which the Devil has possess'd all those who lean'd to their own Wisdom or Authority These having their Minds bewitch'd have insinuated their Errors or Ignorances into others and so the Devil by little and little gains all some by Malice and others by Ignorance So that I do not see any Remedy can be put to this but by the
total Ruin of this Roman Church the Fall of which will open the Eyes of all those who are not in Covenant with the Devil which covenanted Persons will continue in their Darkness notwithstanding of the Light that is given But others tho' Wicked will be obliged to confess their Delusions cursing those who have thus deceived them under the Masque and Colour of Good How many Priests Monks and Religious have said and yet say Come to us who are Christ we 'll pardon you your Sins Give us and you shall be saved But Jesus Christ forbids us to go here and there while they say to us that Christ is there I ask'd her How the Righteousness of God could permit so great a Number to perish thro' Ignorance She said It is a culpable Ignorance Because we have always had the Means to search the Truth if we had had a Desire to find it For the Gospel was recoverable especially in the Roman Church where it remains as the Testament that Jesus Christ has left his Spouse What Unrighteousness was there in God in suffering these Persons to remain in the Ignorance of their Errours since they loved them more than the Truth and because these Errors were more agreeable to their Sensualities they have voluntarily followed them building on the Flatteries of those who promis'd them Salvation by these Errors It would be rather an Unrighteousness in God if he had constrain'd them to follow his Truth after having given them their Free-Will He could not take it back again without Injustice no more than we can any thing that we have given to another It is not in our Power to take it again without committing a Robbery Because the thing given away does not any longer appertain to us Thus God by an exact Righteousness may let the Ignorants err Because their Ignorance is affected For if their Ignorance were out of Simplicity God is so good that he would rather send an Angel from Heaven to enlighten them that they might not perish but when the Free Person gives ear to Flatteries and to those who study to speak recording as they desire to hear he ought not in Justice to hinder them For it is most true that if I were to Day among these erring Ignorants and if I told them the Truth I would not be heard and far less followed Because they who teach them these Errors speak more to their Liking and accommodate themselves more to their Sensualities than the Truth does which often reproves them and never flatters them Thus they with just Reason are abandoned to the Spirit of Error since according to the Saying of the Gospel They have loved Darkness more than Light Therefore they shall perish in the Darkness which they love If you knew Sir the Righteousness of God it would be impossible that you could once doubt of it For it is so just that neither Man nor the Devil can find any thing in Truth to blame in it But when we look on Things on the Outside and according to our Ignorance it seems to us that God does unjust things when they are most perfect The Eighth Conference What are the Sins against the Holy Ghost and how much they prevail I Entreated her to tell me In what Sense she understood that all Christians do now live and die in the Sin against the Holy Ghost which shall not be forgiven them neither in this World nor in the other as she had sometime declared to me She said Sir 't is most true the most Pious now-a-days are lost by these Sins For no body is aware of them and they believe that they are the Sins which are abominable before Men because they shall not be forgiven neither in this World nor in thâ— other But they are only spiritual Sins which a Man may commit without having done an ill Action Therefore they shall never be forgiven because they do not know them and far less will they repent of them For this Cause they will not be forgiven in this World For no Sin is forgiven here without true Repentance and absolute Desire of Amendment which two Conditions are nottobe met with in the Matter of those Sins against the Holy Ghost For they are contrary to Repentance and to Amendment and therefore will not be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other For no body will then receive Forgiveness but they who shall receive the Truth which those who commit one of these Sins do resist by impugning the known Truth So that the said Sins will neither be forgiven in this World nor in that to come I do not speak of an imaginary Paradise because no Sin enters there and consequently they cannot be forgiven if there be none But in the other World which shall be the Kingdom of Jesus Christ he will yet find many Sins to be forgiven at his coming Nevertheless those committed against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven there no more than here in this World because they are opposed to all the Means which can procure this Pardon It is of these that Jesus Christ says That he who has sinned against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but he who has sinned against the Holy Ghost it shall never be forgiven him Because this Coming of the Holy Spirit on Earth is the last Mercy that God will grant the World and he who shall resist this can never any more repair his Fault He must needs die in it I entreated She would shew to me in particular the Meaning of these Sins against the Holy Ghost She said Sir I do not know them all in Order but I shall speak of those which I remember beginning with that of the Presumption of being saved without good Works This concerns all those who profess to live will For amongst them there are very few who do good Works because they esteem their Works good when they appear such to their own Judgment or that of some others tho' very often they are not such before God because all that 's good before him must partake of his Goodness which is always Righteous and True Now our good Works for the most part have neither the one nor the other of these Conditions For they are done either out of Humane Respects or out of Natural Inclination or they are not truly good in themselves and when we do any good Works out of Humane Respects they are not good before God and can never make us obtain Salvation because we have received our Reward in this World having obtain'd the end for which we have done them to wit the Satisfaction of Men and we have no right to pretend to any other Recompence And if we have done our good Works out of Natural Inclinations or for our own Satisfaction these Works likewise can give us no Pretension to Salvation because they are rewarded by the Satisfaction which we have received in them Thirdly
we do Works as good which are but indifferent or indeed sometimes evil For to go to Church only out of Custom is an indifferent Work and if being there we behave as in a prophane Place it is an evil Work It is the same as to the frequenting of the Sacraments And if we give Alms thro' some Natural Tenderness or Inclination this Work has not that Righteousness nor Goodness to make it pass for Good in God's Sight So that to do no good Works before God and notwithstanding to presume of Salvation is a Sin against the Holy Ghost So that we believe we have merited Salvation by good Works which do not derive their Goodness from God Nevertheless we think he is obliged to give us Paradise as the most part of Pious and Religious Persons do presuming to have that by Right of Justice which is not due to them because there are none but true Righteousness and Charity that can be call'd good Works by which we may hope for Salvation And tho' none be adorned with these Vertues each one notwithstanding believes he shall obtain it as if God could save without Righteousness There is also another Sin against the Holy Ghost which is to impugn the known Truth This is now commonly Practis'd by those who are called Spiritual For if we should tell any of them that they are not true Christians or that we live in the Reign of Antichrist or that the World is judged and that its Wickedness is come to the Heighth they would believe nothing of this loving rather to stick to their old Customs than to learn how they may become true Christians and they would likewise scruple to believe that we are fallen into the Reign of Antichrist tho' we see by Mens Lives and Manners that of Necessity they must be engag'd to the Devil and tho' they see no Hope or Appearance that the World will grow better yet they do not believe that 't is judged Thus they impugn the Truth of all these things the Belief of which might bring them to Conversion and to a Life leading to Salvation but they impugn all these Truths that they may continue in their so dangerous Darkness tho' they be sufficiently known to all those who will open their Eyes But they who will impugn the Truth commit this Sin against the Holy Ghost which shall not be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other For they will never be converted because of the Resistance which they make to the Truth which is that that gives Salvation They know well enough that their Life is not that of a true Christian Nevertheless they impugn this Truth because they have no Desire to become one They see the Devil rules thro' all in Lyes and Deceits and that all oppose the Doctrine of JesusChrist and they will not believe that this is the time of Antichrist that they might resist and beware of him and by impugning this Truth they desire not to avoid his Snares They see that Wickedness is universally at a Heighth and they will not believe that the World is judged that they may not be afraid of this Judgment Another Sin against the Holy Ghost is the Envy of the spiritual Good of others which is so generally committed that almost they make no Reflection on it and among the most Pious this Envy is the most ordinary We may only remark the several Orders of Religious Persons They are almost insupportable to one another each one valuing his own Order and Community and they cannot hear the Perfections and Praises of others mentioned without having a spiritual Envy against them secretly in their Hearts and even if a particular Person among them excel the rest in spiritual Good he would be envied yea hardly used by all the rest or imprisoned if he should live in greater Perfection among them than generally they do or should declare the truth of their Faults So that if a votary of any of their Religious Orders should observe literally the Gospel which Jesus Christ has left us I believe he would be martyr'd or so hardly us'd by the rest that it would be impossible for him to live among them without suffering a thousand Deaths of Persecutions and for any secular Person who would observe the Gospel in the World he would be envied likewise by all those who profess to be vertuous and are not who would reject with Contempt this manner of Practice which would not be conformable to their own For there is such a secret Pride in their Hearts that they cannot suffer that another should lead a better Life than themselves nor even that he should have the Name of it but they would endeavour to vilifie and despise him or make him to be suspected of Levity or other Evils in which is now fulfilled the Prediction of Jesus Christ when he says You shall be hated of all for my Name 's sake For the Apostles were never hated of all because many still lov'd and follow'd them But at present this Warning is fully accomplished because he who walks in the Truth is hated of all For this Sin against the Holy Ghost of the spiritual envying of another possesses the Hearts of all those who make a Profession of Vertue Because having no true Vertue they envy that which is true and continue therein all their Days without desiring to change because they do not esteem this a Sin but rather Wisdom that they will not own what they do not practise covering this Sin with a Fidelity and Constancy in what has been first taught them And thus they die in Envy Another Sin against the Holy Ghost which is Obstinacy in Sin is also in use amongst those who make a Profession of Vertue For not being willing to own the forementioned things to be Sins they continue obstinate in them and therefore will not be forgiven because they will not ask Pardon nor repent of them For as much as they are persuaded that they are not Sins because they are inward and spiritual Therefore they die in Obstinacy in Sin And even tho' they should live till the other World they would not be converted from the Presumption of their Salvation because they are possess'd with a good Opinion of their good Works neither will they submit to the Truth which would shew them the contrary Thus they commit this Sin with the other following ones which are against the Holy Ghost Wilful Munder is also committed by the same spiritual Persons and they will not acknowledge it For very often they occasion Death to themselves or others by their sensual or indiscreet Inclinations How many of those do we see wedded to their Appetites of Eating Drinking and other bodily Exercises tho' they be prejudicial to their Health They will not change nor leave them even tho' they be advertis'd of it How many die before their time by too much Eating or Drinking or taking something prejudicial to their Health or
thro' too much Labour And on the contrary how many are there who kill themselves by indiscreet Fastings or other Penances or the Neglect of necessary things All those are wilful Murtherers because they kill themselves to satisfie their own Sensualities or Inclinations and they are also often Murtherers of others because they occasion sometimes their Neighbours Death by indirect Ways as in forcing some to work beyond their Strength or in crossing and vexing them so much in their Goods and in their Spirit that they die of Grief or by not taking away Debates and Quarells when they can do it and these encrease till they come to kill one another or when by some Act or Omission they occasion the Rise of such Debates or when one comes to die thro' the Neglect of our necessary Succour or Assistance By all these things wilful Murther is committed tho' the Will be indirect it ceases not to be before God as great a Sin as a direct Murther For the Life is taken away indirectly as well as directly And sometimes it would be less evil to kill a Person at one Stroke than to kill him by degrees and the Sin also would sometimes be less by a Stroke given in a sudden Passion than when it lasts for so long a time and these Sins are often repeated Nevertheless none do perceive these kinds of Sins to be such as they are but the most spiritual fall into them thro' Negligence and very often without desiring to know them And thus while they do not repent of them they cannot obtain Pardon no more than of the other Sins against the Holy Ghost because they are committed secretly and without Repentance which draws on a Despair of Salvation which is also one of those Sins This Despair of Salvation is ordinarily excited by the Devil at the End of their Life When he he has train'd up Souls in the other Sins against the Holy Ghost he discovers them to them at Death to make them fall into Despair of their Salvation For then their Eyes being open'd to consider the great Number of Sins which they have committed against the Holy Ghost all the Days of their Life of which they have never repented and how often they have receiv'd the Sacraments in this evil State This makes them fall into a Despair of being saved because the Soul is disordered and cannot perceive the Means of its Salvation Yea tho' they should not distinctly perceive all those Sins they are notwithstanding in such Confusion and Perplexity that they durst not hope for Salvation and they would be ashamed to declare their Misery to Men who still held them for good Men. Hence it is that these Souls die without Repentance which is the Consummation of all their Evils For by the straight Righteousness of God no Sins will ever be pardoned without Repentance and they not embracing this die miserably tho' they have lived in a seeming Holiness they go notwithstanding to receive their Portion with Devils even tho' they had but one of these Sins against the Holy Ghost they shall never be saved I said to her That I began to doubt of the Salvation of all Men since they who are called Saints do so commonly perish That these Sins against the Holy Ghost were so much to be dreaded and nevertheless so few are afraid of them that God's Judgment of things is quite different from that of Men. She said Yes truly Sir God's Judgment is quite another thing than Man's For most frequently what they esteem Good is in God's fight very bad This is since they left his Righteousness and lean'd to their own They are now uncapable of making a right Judgment because their own Righteousness is blind and founded only on their own Imaginations and not at all on the Truth which could never deceive them For it is unchangeable and without Dissimulation but the Truth and Righteousness of Men is lying and deceitful and he who trusts in it must of Necessity perish because it flatters us to our Perdition If we had continued in the Righteousness of God our Judgment would have been conformable to his But since we are fallen into Unrighteousness we judge unrighteously both in respect of God and of our selves For we judge falsely of God on all Occasions attributing very often to him the Blame of our Damnation and of all the other Evils which befall us Tho' notwithstanding no Evil can come from God he being the Fountain of all Good to which all Evils are opposite We may also judge amiss as to our selves believing often our Salvation to be sure when it is in great Hazard as you may see by the Deduction of the Sins against the Holy Ghost of which I have so particularly spoken to you to let you see Sir how the most Pious are deceived since they strayed from the Righteousness and the Truth of God they are full of frivolous Devotions which blind their Understanding that they know not real Truth nor solid Vertue but amusing themselves with the Discourses of Men and seeming Vertues they live and die in a Presumption of their Salvation without good Works and thus they perish for ever The Ninth Conference That no body can be saved but he who professes the Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God The World is at present without them but it shall be renewed The Danger that Men are in Secret Evil ought to be discovered I Said to her That many would be deceived at Death because no body is endued with that Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God and if there can be no Salvation without these no body will be saved or very few She said No Sir no body can be saved if he do not possess the RIGHTEOVSNESS the GOODNESS and the TRVTH of God Therefore Jesus Christ says Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect He does not mean that we should be perfect as God in his Power or his Essence but in proportion to our being in his Righteousness his Goodness and Truth The Righteousness of God makes us do all things justly as well in Regard of our Enemies as of our Friends and our selves so that we must always at all times and on all Occasions be righteous both in Word and Deed. In this consists the Righteosness of God For if we are righteous only according to our own Inclinations we have nothing but a Humane Righteousness which ends with us and cannot save us Consider Sir the Righteousness of the Pharisee you 'll see that he fasted twice a Week paid Tithes of all that he possess'd and did other good things in the Judgment of Men and notwithstanding he is rejected by God and not justified which makes it appear to us sufficiently that to be saved we must have another Righteousness than our own that it must be conformable to the Righteousness of God or else it will not avail us for Eternity because it is said elsewhere If your
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
the Law of LOVING ONE GOD ONLY because we cannot love him only when we love our selves and whereas Men did not understand well the Contents of this Law Jesus Christ is come to explain it to us so particularly by all the Precepts of his Gospel that no body can be ignorant any longer how he ought to keep the Law of God and consequently work out his Salvation because this Gospel Law does precisely mark out to us all that we ought to do and to avoid So that we must not look any longer from any neither from God nor Men for other Instructions in order to our Salvation because Jesus Christ has omitted nothing nor said any thing that is superfluous but shewn us all things necessary for obtaining eternal Life Now consider Sir if you know any living this Day in the World who have entirely resign'd their Wills to that of God and who love no other thing but him If you do not know any be firmly persuaded that none within your Knowledge is in a State of Salvation And fearing lest you be deceived by this general Persuasion as many are who persuade themselves that they are resign'd to God and love none but him remark particularly if they observe the Gospel Law For we cannot observe the one without practising the other For he who has entirely resign'd his Will to that of God lives no longer to himself but God lives in him and works there all that Jesus Christ has taught seeing the same Spirit lives in one resign'd to God which lived in the Body of Jesus Christ There can never be any difference here being in both the same unchangeable God I said to her That this being supposed I had good Ground to fear that all the World was in a State of Damnation and I likewise but that I would get out of this Darkness and receive the Light that God should give me that I might follow him She said Sir you 'll be happy in doing it For otherwise it is to be feared you may perish with others because all the World goes on blindly to Perdition but the Light is now arisen in Darkness Do not reject it to love your Darkness rather than the Light but rather walk according to it while the Day doth last that is to say our short Life which is nothing but a Day in Comparison with Eternity The Night of this Day is our Death after which there is nothing more to do In whatsoever State we die we shall abide in it Therefore we ought not to let the Occasion slip that is now offered us Let not your felf be gained by Flatteries nor by false Persuasions Seek always the Truth For they who flatter us ruine us Look on all those as Flatterers who speak to you according to their sensual Inclinations and hold those for Deceivers who persuade you that you are a good Christian and that you will be saved after the Way that you live at present For there are no true Christians but those who follow and imitate the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ and there is no Salvation to be hop'd for but in keeping the Law of God You must take up with these two Things Sir if you wou'd attain to Salvation the Law of God and the Doctrine of Jesus The Holy Spirit which is now come into the World brings no new Law nor new Explications of it because Jesus Christ has sufficiently explained it He comes only to make the Law appear and the Sins that are opposite to it to the end that we may embrace the one and reject the other You have wondred sometimes that I told you so many evil Things of the Church and of spiritual Persons Believe me this was not but by the Light of the Holy Spirit that you might avoid the Evil in order to the doing well since you cannot love the one without hating the other Truth must always discern the one from the other or otherwise you will be easily deceived as all the World at present is who take Vice for Vertue and apparent for true good Therefore receive the true Light that you may judge uprightly and not according to the Appearance of Things For the Devil is so covered with Virtue and cloathed with Hypocrisie that he deceives even those of the best Dispositions There are frequently so many false Goods in the World that we do not distinguish them from the true And that we may not come to discover them he puts some Scruples in the Minds of good Men that they may not believe the Truth of the Evil and makes his Adherents teach that 't is a Sin of Detraction to discover the Faults of Priests and of those who make a Profession of Vertue that their Sins remaining secret they may deceive the more and may commit them more honourably and they say that a Man should take his own Garments to cover the sins of the Priests That you may see that this Doctrine comes from the Devil you need but mark what Jesus Christ did in such Encounters whether he covered with his Garments the Sins of the Popes Bishops and Priests who were in his time We will find that he declared them openly before all the World calling them Hypocrites Generation of Vipers wicked Sepulchres and so many other Names to the end he might declare to People their Wickedness that they might beware of them For he says beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and of those who come to you in Sheeps Cloathing and inwardly are ravening Wolves All this with many other Evils Jesus Christ spoke of the Priests of his time and now they teach that we must honour them and speak well of them tho' they live ill Does not this Doctrine oppose that of Jesus Christ and therefore it is Antichristian Nevertheless you Sir with so many others think you commit a Sin to hear the Truth of Evil. 'T is by this false Piety that the Devil takes his Advantage For their Evils being conceal'd they commit them more than if they were discovered because Shame and Humane Respect wou'd with-hold them from Sin and also the Good and Pious wou'd not be so easily deceived as they are by the good Opinion of Evil which often draws in the Good by Ignorance who are persuaded that they who have the Reputation of being good wou'd not do Evil. How many thousand have been deceived after this manner Take heed that you never be one of these but stay yourself on the living Rock which is Jesus Christ He cannot deceive nor fail Take up with his Instructions Sir and follow them You 'll be sure of your Salvation which otherwise I cannot promise you Whatever Men say they are not our Saviours For it is written Wo to the Man that put his Confidence in Man He is truly miserable who grounds his Salvation on the Words and Sentiments of Men who can give us nothing but vain Hopes founded on
Creator of all things If the Glory of his Father had consisted in Churches and sumptuous Ornaments wou'd not he to whom all appertains have pitch'd upon them and built them What Dotages do Men now publish that God is honoured by great Buildings and rich Ornaments So our Dung shou'd be his Honour For all that is fair and good in the Sight of Men is nothing but Dung before God We have renounced the Pomps of the World that we might become the Children of God and by the same Pomps we wou'd honour him in his Churches It is not fit to renounce the Pomps of the World to become Christians since these give Glory to God It had been better to encrease these since they honour God that by the Encrease of them God might receive Encrease of Glory What Blindness of Mind is it Sir that makes Men believe that God is honoured by worldly Pomps when they are applied to Church-Walls If they displease God in the Souls of Christians how much more shou'd they displease him in Churches and Places that are peculiarly dedicated unto him for Prayer since this does still require Attention and these pompous and magnificent Ornaments serve for nothing but to distract and divert the Mind by regarding these Pomps and Ornaments of Churches which do certainly distract the Mind of all those who regard them and can serve for nothing but to satisfie the Avarice of those who covet them Nevertheless they call those charitable who afford them Money wherewith to provide all these Pomps and Ornaments of Churches Every one praises and esteems them as if God were a vain God who wou'd be adorn'd with fine Garments If he wou'd have a rich Temple in Solomon's time it was because People were then so gross that they cou'd comprehend nothing of God or of his Majesty but by gross and material things But now that we have the Doctrine of Jesus Christ we have received Light enough to know that God is a Spirit and Life and not bodily or material So that they who go to Cloysters or Religious Orders that they may follow Jesus are greatly deceived because there he is not at all followed but opposed For which they ought rather to be called the Cloysters of Antichist than of Christ because the things wherein they contradict him are more than those wherein they follow him I ask'd If those would not be saved who should enter into a Religious state with a good Intention and being in it should endeavour to live well according to their Language She said Sir these are all Impostors in the Sight of God For they promise Poverty and they observe it not because they yet covet worldly Goods and do all they can to please Men that they may give them of their Goods These Vows oblige them not to desire Riches and they do their best to have them If they cannot desire them much less can they posses or receive them They vow Chastity also and very often they are content only by Force and for want of Occasions God who tries the Reins sees well if their Hearts and their Thoughts are chaste since so many things contrary thereto are heard of them They vow Obedience and they are full of self-will So far are they from obeying God that they do not so much as hearken to him and are subject only to their own Wills and Desires without any other Submission By what means would you have these Persons saved who falsifie their Faith to God since those cannot be sav'd who falsifie their Faith to Men Some falsifie their Faith to God out of Malice and Hypocrisie and others falsifie it out of Ignorance being directed in their Faith more according to what others do persuade them than according to their real Practice They make them believe that Poverty is observed when they possess nothing in particular and in the mean time since the Kings and the great Men of the World do ordinarily profess nothing in particular having People and Officers under them who govern their Revenues Even as these Votaries of Poverty have who wou'd not by it be depriv'd of a Glass of Wine or any the least thing They are in this more happy than secular Persons who are oblig'd to care and labour for necessary things whereas these Monks have all at their Wish without Pain or Labour and if they be depriv'd of a Wife they are free also of the Labours which Marriage brings along with it So that their Chastity is more sensual than the being joyned with some Person of a froward or contrary Humour which is more irksome than Continence So that these Monks who are called Penitents do far less of Petence in their Monasteries than they wou'd do if they were out of them For their Vows of Obedience do constrain them only to what they have a Mind to do They have no sooner pass'd their Novitiate but they are absolute Lords and taking the Will of their Superiours for that of God they make them easily to condescend to theirs else they wou'd become rebellious and chagrin or Disturbers of others And nevertheless they will think they have kept their three Vows and believe that for this Cause they shall go to Paradise tho' indeed all their Vertues be nothing but imaginary ones or Apish Tricks And tho' they shou'd live well according to their Knowledge yet they perish because Ignorance does not excuse Sin To be saved we must of Necessity have the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God these for the most part have none of these Vertues For that cannot be true Righteousness to quit their own Wealth to go afterwards and beg that of others who very often have need of it themselves and yet dare not refuse these whom they esteem to be the Servants of God neither is it just to live upon Alms when the Body and Mind is sound for Labour neither is it just to leave their own Goods to their Kinsmen to enrich them and they themselves go live at the Charge of a Common-Wealth For my part Sir I perceive in my interiour that all these things are Unrighteousnesses before God however they cover them with Perfections and Vertues Neither do I see the Goodness of God reign in these Souls because its Property is to do good to all and to do evil to none But we see these Religious Persons do good only to themselves or those who are associated with them studying to do Mischief to all those who will not follow them And as for the Truth of God it is yet less observed by them than the two other Vertues For all their Works are nothing but external far from the real Truth of God which appears always to be what it is and these Monks make a shew of the Holiness and Vertues which they do not possess but are truly Hypocrites I said to her That many of these Monks were Saints and did Miracles She said They became not Saints Sir by that manner
upon all the Earth that they who shall kill you for the Truth shall think they do God Service For Satan's Power is so great and universal that it has almost blinded all Men and their Spirits being infatuated they take that which is false to be real and esteem Lyes more than the Truth And all this is so well masqu'd with Vertue and Sanctity that even the best Men will think they do offer Sacrifice to God when they kill you Therefore take heed always Sir that you give not the Children's Bread to Dogs nor cast Pearl before Swine but try well before you speak to any if he hunger and thirst after Righteousness or some other of the eight Beatitudes which are the Marks that Jesus Christ gave whereby to discover those who shall be bless'd and shall receive the Spirit of Truth But as soon as you shall meet with Opposition to the Truth leave off to tell it and never move in that which will avail nothing For God has promised that he will shortly bruise Satan under your Feet Yet a little while the Devil has his Empire which encreases greatly and so soon as it shall be at an end God will bruise him under the Feet of his faithful Servants who shall triumph over all the Powers of Hell But they must yet suffer a little and continue faithful unto death The Seventeenth Conference That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected I Ask'd her If I would run the Risque of these Dangers by going among the Jews since according to her saying they were more disposed to receive the Truth She said Yes Sir there is Hazard there as well as elsewhere because the Devil has those who are in Covenant with him in every Place in every State in every Sect and under every Law For he has run to and fro thro' all the Earth and hath devoured many as well among the Jews as among others But I except the Good among the Jews and I know certainly that these are more disposed to receive the Truth than any others because they sin thro' Ignorance For they never knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and do not yet know it For they look for this Son of God in Glory and know not that he shall be the same who came already among them in Dishonour As soon as they shall discover this Truth they shall return from their Exile and re-enter into the Promise made to Abraham and shall return to be God's People in Exclusion of the Christians who having abused so many Privileges shall be cut off and the Jews settled again on their Ruins I ask'd her Wherefore the Christians could not be reformed that they might become the People of God as well as the Jews Converted to take away their Crown She said Sir the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians are For these sin out of pure Malicé and have forsaken God and his Laws This the Jews have not done They do yet fear and know God and the Christians do neither For they preach publickly that to obtain the Pardon of our Sins we are not obliged to love God that to save us from going to Hell it is enough to have self-love that this Fear of their Damnation is capable of procuring them the Pardon of their Sins and Salvation and they utter a thousand other Blasphemies against God in every thing This they can't do thro' Ignorance because besides the Law of God which they have received as well as the Jews They have moreover the Law of the Gospel and the Doctrine of the Apostles which was left them in Writing for an everlasting Memorial which all Christians ought still to follow The Christians have received Faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he came into the World where he suffered Pains Labours Poverty and Contempt was persecuted imprisoned scourged buffetted and at last put to Death on a Cross as a Malefactor and all this to give an Example to Christians that by following his Steps they might enter into his Glory They do believe all these things and also that the same Son of God is really in the Sacrament of the Altar with a great many other things contain'd in the Creed Nevertheless against their Belief they live directly contrary to what Jesus Christ taught them and what they believe by the Command of God If the Jews believed this that Jesus Christ is the Son of God they would mourn for the Sins which they committed against him and would follow his Example which shall very shortly come to pass whereas the Christians shall die obstinate in their Sins without Repentance By which you may judge Sir that the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Spirit of Truth so soon as it should be communicated to them than the Christians who oppose the known Truth They know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they shew him less Respect than a Servant would do to the meanest Master and eat and swallow him as a Piece of Bread How would you have these Persons to be reformed since they would reform all the World looking on themselves as Gods of the Earth and Children of the true God while they are led by the Devil This they will not acknowledge chusing rather to perish in their Darkness than to give ear to the Truth whereas those Jews would gladly hear what will enlighten them and would be bettered by knowing the Truth For many good Spirits among them aspire after it hungring and thirsting after Righteousness which when they see and know they will immediately embrace it because nothing but Ignorance hinders them from resigning themselves wholly to God Whereas the Christians thro' pure Obstinacy in their Sins will not do it So that if I should go to the College of Cardinals at Rome and tell them that I come from God to advertise them that they are not true Christians and that Jesus Christ taught another way of living than what they observe and that to be saved we must of Necessity follow Jesus they would presently seize on me as a Criminal and put me to death if I would not retract my Words tho' they knew well enough they were true even tho' they should evidently perceive that I had the holy Spirit they would oppose this Truth that they might maintain their Errours How then Sir would you have such Persons to be converted God will never force any body having given to all Men their Free-Will to use it according as they please If these Christians will acknowledge no other God but their own Authority they would deal hardly with God himself if he shou'd come to speak against it How cou'd God in Justice reform these Christians who
abused us to the prejudice of the salvation of our souls We must no longer trust in any body for all have left and forsaken their God tho some remain still in the Faith nevertheless they are not in the works of Faith for the Jews with Faith have not the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is the work of Faith and the Christians have no more Faith and shall not recover it since Jesus Christ says That at his coming he shall not find Faith in Israel They are of the House of Israel and the people of God who nevertheless have denied his Faith and given it to men only I ask'd her To what place I ought to flee since the whole world was judged and the Plagues would be universal That I might put my self in greater danger in the place to which I should flee than in that which I had left She said Flee first out of the Dominions of Rome Sir for that place will be first of all destroyed God ordering all his affairs with Judgment Weight and Measure He will visit first of all those who have most offended him Justice regulates all things and because Christians have more treacheroustly offended him than any others they have drawn on themselves the first Vengeance All others will follow the order of their iniquities as they grow worse in wickedness accordingly they shall be nearer their punishment It is fit always to retire into places where the abomination is less There the Chastisements will be less tho indeed no place shall be exempted from Plagues because all parts of the world have deserv'd them Nevertheless they shall be inflicted only according as every one has merited and deserved them and no further for sins beget miseries and they proceed not from God as they would make us believe because no Evils come from God who alone is the Author of all good So that all the good that we see and feel comes always from God and all the evil that we see and feel comes always from sin and as the goodness of God continually brings forth good things so the malignity of sin continually brings forth evil things and as sins increase evils increase the more Hence it comes that the Plagues are universal because the sins are so for as long as there were places where God was yet honour'd on Earth he bore with others waiting for their Repentance and the universal Plagues shall not fall out so long as there are any who have not deserv'd them For God is too just to afflict a righteous person or to chastise one that is innocent That is but the manner of unrighteous men but God always exercises Righteousnes both as to the good and to the evil However men imagine that God sends his Plagues they are deceived for nothing but sin can bring them on and produce them According as men Offend their Evils increase I said to her that these were most excellent Truths that no evil could come from God and that nevertheless nobody did comprehend this She said Sir the reason is Men do not know the Righteousness the Goodness and the Truth of God but they judg blindly of all they see according to their Passions If they knew the righteousness of God they could never think of praying that God would keep off his last Plagucs for they would see that they will never fall out but when sin shall be universal because God is perfectly Righteous but because we do not conceive this Righteousness we believe that there are yet many good men in the world because they seem so to us In this we give a tacite Reproof to God for if our belief were true that there were yet at present so many good men in the VVorld as we are perswaded there are God would be unjust to send on us so many different miseries as we feel at present If he would have forgiven them in Abraham's time provided he could have shewn him but ten righteous Persons yea even fewer how could he chastise the VVorld now if there were so great a number in it as we believe there are Is he not the same God still And has he not the same goodness since he cannot change Truly Sir men mistake God in every thing and through this mistake they utter reproaches against him and blaspheme against his Righteousness goodness and Truth particularly Christians who with their seeming Piety lay the blame on God of all their mis-deeds Is not this horrible darkness since they choose rather to charge God with their Faults than discover them by the Truth that they might repent of them Truly Sir the power of Darkness is great that it can so obscure all the Men of the VVorld that no body knows the Truth any longer and even the most part shut their Eyes that they may not discover it and in so doing they think they do well The Egyptian Darkness was far less dangerous for it was felt and they durst not stir out of the place for fear of falling but those Christians now do not perceive their Darkness or their Errours on the contrary they think they are in the Light and condemn others who see more clearly than themselves By what means should the Children of the Kingdom be saved when they take lying for Truth which they reject as an evil thing I said to her that nevertheless truth was a very lovely thing and as for my self I would follow it as far as I could discover it She said You will discover it sufficiently if you love it for the holy Spirit who is now born into the World will discover it to all those who shall search for it but there are few among the Christians who would receive it tho' it offer it self first of all to their Eyes because they are so full of Errors and Superstitions that they will not make way for this truth which is lovely They live in a presumption of their Salvation yea they condemn all the World to Damnation because it does not follow their Laws though in the mean time they be but humane and no ways divine Laws And whereas God says that he resists the proud and gives Grace to the humble he who is Truth will resist them even as they resist the Truth which is God But if for your part Sir you do it and will follow it you shall obtain the happiness of reigning with Jesus Christ in Glory But without Faith you cannot be saved for if you do not believe that the World is Judged you are not in the light of Truth because the deportment of Men is a certain Evidence of it since we see them without Repentance and Amendment and if you do not believe that we live now in the Reign of Antichrist you will assuredly be deceived For under the covert of Holiness he will deceive the Elect if it were possible and if you do not believe that Jesus Christ shall
the real truth if they receive it For hitherto it has not been yet discover'd nothing of the Holy Scripture has been explain'd in its perfect sense every one has drawn conjectures from it according to his Light not according to what is in it in effect thus they might well die for holding some opinion which was not the real truth but the opinion of some Author for which they might die indeed without being for this the Martyrs of Jesus Christ For to be such a man must die for the Defence of the Law of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel or otherwise he cannot be a Martyr before God however men call many others by this name this shews that there is obscurity and darkness through all even in the most holy things Every one walks in the dark not discerning the pure Truth Even many who have the best Maxims would judge indeed that I were an Heretick in speaking against the Decrees of the Councils of Rome out of a pious belief that they have been all held by the Co-operation of the Holy Spirit Which is a false Supposition For the Holy Spirit never changes With what he inspir'd the Apostles he inspires also at present those who hear him They are always the same things I said to her That the Holy Spirit did sometimes inspire diverse Means for the attainment of the same End She said 'T is true Sir if the Means which those Councils set before us did all aim at the keeping of the Commands of God and at his Doctrine of the Gospel I should believe that they came from the Holy Spirit but when they aim at a quite contrary sense I may well judge that they come not from thence because God never contradicts himself He has commanded that we love him with all our Heart and these Councils say that to get the Pardon of our Sins and obtain Salvation it suffices that we have a sorrow for sin out of fear of Hell Can these two contrary senses come from the same God And there are so many other things which are variously oppos'd to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as I have told you formerly as the baptizing little Infants and a Thousand other things which are directly contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I know indeed that they deny this Truth saying that they have ordain'd nothing contrary to the Law of God For with studied Words and Terms they cover all their Faults and I am neither a Philosopher nor Divine to answer their artificial Arguments or studied Words but I say in truth that they do in effect directly contrary to the Law of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel Not that they say so but they do it And Deeds are more than Words I doubt not but they would surprize me by my Words For the Devil has nothing but Subtilties wherewith to cover his Malice But they cannot surprize me in the matter of the Essential Truth which abides always true They might say indeed the Councils do not say that we ought not to love God with all our Heart but only that Attrition is sufficient for Salvation Is not that enough to teach indirectly that we are not obliged to love God And is not this indirect Doctrine much worse than the direct which no good Men would follow I asked If the Light which she received from the Holy Spirit was contrary to what the Councils had ordained She said Yes Sir the Decrees which the Councils have made so far as I know them are all directly contrary to what the Holy Spirit dictates to me And you your self may perceive it Though there were nothing but the forbidding to read the Gospels and the holy Bible in the Vulgar Tongue is not this contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who has given his Word rather to the vulgar and simple People than to the Learned And if it had not been his Will they should read it after his Death he would not have left it them in Writing This is the Nourishment of the Children of God And these Councils would make them die for hunger Is not also the forbidding Priests to labour against the Commandment of God who ordained Adam the most holy of all Men to labour in penitence for his Sin And the Oath which they cause the Priests to take not to receive any other Explications of the Holy Scriptures but those approved by the Church is it not also against the Holy Spirit who offers every Moment to give new Light which these Councils do not approve because it would reprovâ— them For all that comes from the Holy Spirit reproves Evil. There are also many other things which these Councils have ordained that are contrary to the Light that God gives me which is wholly conformable to the Law of God and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I have no need to read any Books to know if they be endited by the Holy Spirit because the Sentiment of my Soul gives me still evidence enough of them When I understand only the substance of a thing I perceive certainly whether it come from the Holy Spirit or not You may easily see Sir by all that I have already told you that this Church and her Councils are not guided by the Holy Spirit but by the Spirit of Errour which deceives all the World under this false Masque of the Holy Church and Holy Councils whereby the most Innocent let themselves be ruled by the Devil at his pleasure while they believe that they follow the Truth which is God The Ninth Conference Speaks of the Sins which we commit in another and that to declare the Truth of Evil is not Sin I said to her I was more certain that she was guided by the Holy Spirit than that the Church and her Councils were so and therefore she must tell me what I ought to do She said Sir You may indeed lean to my Sayings because I speak nothing of my self It is true it seem'd somewhat hard to you that I overturn the Church and her Councils and also when I say that the Devil rules them But I know this by the Light of the Holy Spirit which obliges me to declare it perhaps for the enlightning of others that they may be converted or to give them a full Measure that no body may pretend Ignorance For if I were not prest in my Conscience I would beware to speak of such Evils as one trembles to hear them It were more pleasant and agreeable if I could say in truth that the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit and that Rome is the Church of God This Discourse would comfort my Soul and give content to all those who are under her Obedience But this not being true I should flatter them to their destruction Whereas the true knowledge of Things may save them You have been also troubled sometimes to hear me say that all men now are in a state of Damnation which notwithstanding
Advice is often the cause why the Sin is done By a just Title then we ought to bear the punishment of it as we shall certainly do before God who looks more to the Wickedness of the Heart than to the evil Actions And he who counsels another to do evil is sometimes more wicked than he who does it out of complaisance to his Counsellour or out of the esteem he has for him Those in Offices or Attorneys and Advocates who give Counsel and not according to straight Justice and Truth do often fall into these Sins and therefore they ought to be condemn'd of the same guilt with him who commits the evil Deeds to which they have advised him for they have both equally contributed thereunto and the Counsellour often with more Wickedness than the Doer because to counsel Evil is worse than to do it Secondly He who supports Evil commits also the same sin with him who does it because if Evil were not supported it would not be so often committed Therefore the Supporter of Evil causes the evil Deed and gives the Man boldness to commit it the more and therefore he who supports it ought justly to bear the punishment of him who does it yea even more for it would be in his power to hinder it by not supporting it Those are doubly guilty that is of the support that they themselves give and of the Evil done by the other which he would not do if he were not supported in it The Third Way by which we commit sin in another is In commanding to do Evil. In which Fathers and Mothers Masters and Mistresses and other Superiours do very often fall who command those under them to do something that is not just or good These are guilty of as many sins as they command their Subjects or Inferiours who very often if they were left to themselves would not or durst not commit the Evils which are commanded them Though Inferiours are not obliged and never ought to obey the Commands which are given them to do evil yet the Commanders cease not to offend mortally only by commanding it as an Inferiour commits a mortal sin in doing the Evil which has been commanded him because the sins of the one cannot lessen the sins of the other but both are guilty of the same commanded sins In which many are deceived who believe that 't is lawful for them to do the Evils which have been enjoyned them by Father Mother Masters or Mistresses or any other Superiours whosoever they be as also such Superiours deceive themselves who are perswaded that they have not commited sins when they act not in the evil Deeds for truly and in the sight of God they commit as many as they have commanded to be done for if their Wills were not evil they would never advise to do evil much less command it The Fourth way by which we offend God by another is When we commend or approve Evil This is very common in this Age wherein evil Doers are commended When we see any one avenge himself of an Affront we will say He shews that he has Courage we are ready even to praise Children that are malicious in defending themselves as well as others who give blow for blow or those who signalize themselves by Pompand Vanity or we praise those who exceed in Feasting or other Evils whatever they be Now the Praise of Evil incites Men to do it the more and encourages them to commit it the more boldly And therefore he who praises it is guilty of as many sins as he who does the Evil. The Fifth Way by which we offend God in another is In partaking of the Evil as when one has some Advantage by the Evil done by another or if any one profit by the Theft which another commits whether by buying what is stolen ot eating and drinking it or by enjoying some ill-gotten Goods So also he who makes gain by the Gluttony or Drunkenness or other sins which other Men commit By all these Things Men are partakers of other Mens sins and thereby do the same Evil with him who directly commits it yea even more because he who commits Theft or any other actual Wickedness runs the hazard of his Life or of other corporal Punishments but he who partakes in it only lives without fear though he be equally guilty with him who commits it nevertheless he does not undergo the same Pennance in this World neither does he acknowledge his Faults that he may give satisfaction for it in the other Therefore his sin is so much the more dangerous because he does not weigh it as it is weigh'd before God The Sixth Way that we offend God in another is When we take pleasure in another Mans sins as he who takes pleasure to see Men fight a Duel or otherwise or is pleased that another cheats cunningly or steals handsomely or provides for his Accommodations with Luxury and Vanity Thus whatever the Evil be the pleasure that we take in seeing another do Evil is sin For he who loves God ought to be grieved for all kind of Evil that he sees committed by others as well as for what he commits himself The Seventh Way is When we do not correct Evil as much as is in our power as Fathers Mothers Masters Mistresses who tolerate the Evil of their Children or Inferiours because they desire not to offend them or for some other humane Respect or even out of softness of Temper or natural Goodness suffering Evil rather than they will correct it when they are oblig'd to do it All these are guilty of the same Evils with their Children or Inferiours for their tolerating them is the cause that they are habituated and continue in Evil who might have amended if they had been rebuked and chastised for it Thus many will be damn'd who are not apprehensive of it For all the Evils which Subjects or Inferiours commit for want of reproof will be laid to the charge of Superiours as if they themselves had committed them by their own Deed because of the Obligation that lyes on them to correct Evil and their neglecting to do it upon whatsoever pretext The Eighth Way that we offend God in another is When we do not hinder Evil when we may do it as if Two Persons quarrel or fight and we might pacifie or divert them nevertheless we will not give our selves the trouble either through sloth or humane respect or some other cause or when we see one ready to do evil and we might hinder it by admonishing him or discovering his Evil by crying out or otherwise which we omitting we commit the same Evil with him who does it when it is in our power to hinder it by what way soever this might be as by giving too much liberty to those under our Charge or leaving them in dangerous occasions or giving them Money or other things with which they take occasion to offend God In all these and
divers other Cases we are guilty of the sins which others commit by not hindring them when we might have done it The Ninth and Last is That we do not tell the Evils that we know of others to those who might put a stop to them as in not telling the Faults of Children Scholars or Servants to Fathers Superiours or Masters who might prevent them Silence in this respect does as much Evil as the Faults which are committed without the knowledge of the Superiours because if they were known to them they might hinder or correct them which they not doing being ignorant of them the fault and blame falls upon those who conceal them whether to please the Evil doers or upon any other pretext whatsover because by their silence in some manner they co-operate to the sin Nevertheless there are very few who are apprehensive of these kinds of sins and much less do they repent of them for they imagine they are not guilty of them because they have not committed them effectively in their own Persons yet they will be all imputed to them as well as if they had personally committed them and they cannot be excused through ignorance because all Christians are obliged to know what they ought to do or avoid for Jesus Christ and his Apostles have set down all for him who will take the pains to search for it But the darkness is so great that they perceive not the things that are necessary and they live in such a negligence of their Salvation as if they were assur'd of it though they be very far from it because no unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Those who enter there must be holy None can otherwise draw near to God the Source of all Purity and Holiness In which many are deceiv'd who believe that Holiness belongs only to the Perfect whom they imagine to be some singular Persons And yet without Holiness no Man shall ever be saved I said to her That very few Persons consider'd these things and scarce any look on themselves as guilty of those sins which they commit in another no more than of those which they commit against the Holy Ghost because they perceive not that they are guilty of them though notwithstanding I see clearly that those who are esteemed holy or perfect are tainted both with the one and the other of the said sins She said Sir I am well pleased that you begin to discover that by which the World is condemn'd that you may not need to believe it blindly for if you perceive clearly that the Holy and the Perfect now are polluted with the sins which they commit in another and with those against the Holy Ghost those whom they call Wicked are visibly defiled with divers kinds of Actual Sins Which is known to all the World Of whose Salvation then can you hope for The Wicked bring their Condemnation upon them through their obstinacy in a wicked Life and the Good draw it on by the sins which they commit in another and those against the Holy Ghost which they will not know and much less amend because they presume upon the certainty of their Salvation without all these Circumspections whereby they might discover the state of their Souls or the Sins with which they may be defiled which are Spiritual and of which through blindness they are insensible Hereby the Proof is just of the World 's being universally judged because the sins are universal which sins do judge and condemn Souls For God judges no Body He only fulfils all Righteousness and those who shall be condemned shall be so always by their own sins and never otherwise And if Sins condemn then all they who live in them do bear their Condemnation And since we see that in this Age neither the Good nor the Wicked are free from sins we cannot but see and confess that the whole World is judg'd and condemn'd and that we are arriv'd at the general Judgment seeing generally sin rules and bears sway We must not look for any other cordemnation but that of our own sins known to Gods Justice which condemns always all that 's unjust without hatred and without favour The Righteous Ballance of this Divine Justice being still kept steady by a Hand that never shakes does always condemn Unrighteousness I said to her That I was wholly convinc'd by so clear and true Arguments That I acknowledg'd without doubt the World was generally judg'd by its general Sins asking her if while this Sentence was putting in execution there were not means whereby a Man might be converted She said Yes Sir there are means of Conversion as long as we have life There is place for Repentance till Jesus Christ shall come upon the Earth and root out all Evil yea even when he shall come there will be yet hopes of Pardon Therefore he says That Sinners and Harlots shall inherit the Kingdom and the Children thereof shall be cast out because these wicked Persons may be yet converted and acknowledge their sins whereas those Children of the Kingdom who esteem themselves holy and religious continuing obstinate in the presumption of their Salvation will be cast out though they be called the Children of God and of his Kingdom There are therefore means of Conversion for those who will repent and change their manner of Life even though they were the greatest Sinners of the World yea even for those who are full of the sins against the Holy Ghost or of the sins committed in another provided they get out of their darkness and receive the Truth For these ends God puts his last Sentence in execution slowly and sends his Plagues one after another that he may give time and leisure to all those who desire to be converted to do penitence In which he still exercises the Effects of his Almighty Goodness and Mercy not willing that a sinner should perish but that he live and be converted The sins against the Holy Ghost will be forgiven as well as other sins provided they repent of them which they not doing they shall no more be pardoned when Jesus Christ shall come upon the Earth than at present For where there is no Repentance there can be no pardon for this cause the sins against the Holy Ghost will be very rarely pardoned because they are very seldom repented of and amended The Tenth Conference Shews what Souls shall be happy and explains the Eight Beatitudes I asked her By what means we might know or discover those who are truly converted to God She said Sir Take the Eight Beatitudes which Jesus Christ has declared and see if those who say they are converted do possess them For these only shall be blessed and no others Many say by word that they would be converted and be wholly for God and notwithstanding there are no appearances of it These are nothing but wouldings without effect with which we deceive the World and our selves and
Christ speaks only of those who are upon Earth who are obliged to have these Beatitudes if they would be saved and come to the possession of the Promises made to each of the said Beatitudes which are the certain Marks whereby to discover if we live in a state of Salvation or not Nevertheless no body examines himself upon this Head to see if he have those Beatitudes no more than if they were not proclaimed for us We say them as a Litany and not as things that we are oblig'd to put in practice In which we deceive our selves for no body will attain to the state of Blessedness but he who in this World shall put these Eight Beatitudes in practice And as far as Men are estranged from them they are as far from their Salvation I asked her What Remedy there was for such general Evils in which no body could be saved She said Sir I told you long ago that Paradise was shut My meaning was that no Body now at Death attains to Bliss because in their Life-time they make no Preparation for it but they are every way estranged from God For it is not now known what is Sin nor yet what is Vertue They imagine they are Vertuous when they do something that 's good in appearance and that they are not guilty of sin when they do not commit wicked Actions This is the most crafty delusion of the Devil by which he certainly gains all the good through this blindness of Mind This is an universal Evil which makes me afraid that not one Person shall be saved because none do perceive their Evil but grosse Sinners who live in Actual sins As for others every Moment they take the Name of God in vain One will say I trust in God another God will help us another God will shew us Mercy and thus on a Thousand other occasions the Name of God is still in their Mouth calling on him to co-operate in their sins For when they say they trust in God while the Soul wallows in sin is to desire that God would do Injustice Wherefore they may wait long in this sort of confidence and shall never obtain their Desire For God cannot help those who go on in sin without being unjust which he will never be And he who says that God will help him while he lives as People do at present says that God will help him to sin which he cannot do For he cannot contribute directly or indirectly to any Sin and if he assisted us in the way we live he should contribute to many sins which we commit For if he assisted us to preserve our Temporal Goods we would continue yea encrease our Pride our Excesses and Vanities and if he delivered us from Wars Peace would give us occasions to forget God and to abandon our selves the more to bodily Pleasures and Sensualities and if he delivered us from our Miseries of whatsoever kind we would certainly be led to greater Evils For Ease and Sloth engender all sort of Sins And when we say God will have Mercy on us and nevertheless we go on in a state of sin this is to blaspheme against the Righteousness of God Because he can never have Mercy but upon penitent Sinners Which the Godly now a days are very far from for they encourage themselves in their Sins as if they were Vertues and even call them by the Name of Vertues For the Avarice of the Cloisters and of the Religious is call'd Charity done them and the Adorning of Altars building of Houses and Magnificent Churches is call'd the Honour of God though these be but Vanities and Superfluities by which God is greatly offended For if at Baptism we have renounc'd the World and its Pomps to become Christians how can we adorn Churches which we call the Temples of God with the same Pomps and Vanities which Christians are not permitted to seek after in their own Persons nor in what belongs to them How can it be allowed to use them in Places particularly dedicated to God without tacitely Insinuating that God is served with our sins and Impurities as are all sort of Pomps and Vanities which are so common in Churches as well as in other places Nevertheless all this is covered with an Appearance of Vertue and Holiness This renders all the World impenitent For every one amuses himself with the belief of being sav'd in a state of Sin and Damnation Which is truly a desperate state because he who believes he is good will never repent and much less will he do Penitence and consequently he shall never obtain Pardon For God cannot pardon without Repentance All the Remedy that I see in this is a perfect Conversion unto God and a New Birth as if till now we had never been in the World For all that we have done hitherto has been evil and blame-worthy in the sight of God though to us all seem to be good through the Blindness of our Spirits in which we have been so sunk that no Body has seen whither he was going more than we do in a very dark Night Therefore Jesus Christ has said That a man must be born again and become as a little Child else he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He speaks to those of the present Age For if one do not re-enter into the Womb of the Rising Church he cannot be sav'd The Eleventh Conference Shews how a Man must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And that he must return to a Dependance upon God which is the only thing that he essentially requires of Man I asked her How this New Birth could be in those who are already advanc'd in Years and Learning She said Sir We must take up a Life wholly new as if to day we were newly born Because all the good that we think we have done heretofore is all evil or at least good for this Life onely For all our good Works have still been attended with Self-love or Humane Respects which can never be recompenc'd in Eternity because we have here had their Reward What we do out of Self-love is recompenc'd by our Satisfaction and what we do out of Humane respects is recompenc'd by the complacency of Men So that we can never in Justice pretend to any other thing for we are fully satisfied in this World according to the Pretensions or Ends we had in doing our good Works Though they have been covered with a pretence of the Glory of God or Charity to our Neighbours yet in effect all this has been but Vanity-Therefore he who desires to be converted must take up a Life wholly new and believe assuredly that he has never done so much as one Action purely for the Love of God Which we may abundantly perceive by considering all the Sins against the Holy Ghost and those which we commit by another with the Eight Beatitudes and the other solid Vertues Every one may see thereby
and also that the World is Judg'd that you may not flatter your self with false Hopes believing that it will last yet and so continue in sloth I have also shewn you true Vertue that you be not deceived by that which is so but in appearance having also declared to you the Sins against the Holy Ghost and those which we commit in another that you may not be ignorant of any thing that can hinder this Resignation to God For the Ignorance of Good and Evil would insensibly ruine us and whereas we are fallen into the Times of Universal Darkness the Common Enemy might very easily deceive you as he does all the World perswading you that you are resign'd to God when you live yet intirely to your self Therefore I have explained to you so many Things one by one that you might discern aright Truth from Lies and that you might certainly resign your self to God according to your desire And because you can never do good without departing from Evil nor depart from that without knowing it I have therefore endeavoured to discover to you the Good and Evil that Reigns at present in the World that I might give you the certain Marks whereby to know if you are truly resign'd to God or not and since the Commandments of God and also the Law of the Gospel are given us to discover what hinders us to be resign'd to him That by this means we may remove all the Hindrances of our Resignation to God Voluntary Poverty serving as a Mean to free our Self will from the desire of perishing Goods Chastity to free this Will from desiring Carnal Pleasures and Obedience to deliver us from the desire of fulfilling our own Will and so of all the other Evangelical Counsels which teach us to depart from that which hinders our Resignation to God Therefore I judg'd it necessary to declare to you all the Things that hinder this Resignation to God and those also which may serve as Means to facilitate this Resignation which is the only Essential Thing that God demands of all those who would be saved I asked her If it will be enough for me absolutely to resolve that henceforth I will depend upon God and no longer use my own Will in any thing She said This Resolution Sir is a great Beginning but 't is to be feared that we shall not put it effectually in Execution because of our inveterate Evil Habits Our Self-will having always born sway how can we entirely subdue it except by the Means that Jesus Christ has pointed out to us in his Gospel which are as so many Steps to ascend to this Resignation For otherwise we might make false Suppositions as we have done hitherto But when we shall put in practise the Doctrine of the Gospel we shall thereby discover how far we have advanced in this Resignation to God For if our Frailty had not needed these Means God would not have taken Humane Flesh to come and teach us them For he can do nothing that is useless We must therefore fix here Sir and receive this Doctrine of the Gospel in its plain Literal Sense which will teach us all things plainly to our Senses by following of which we shall certainly attain to this Resignation For this is the true the shortest and the most certain way Though indeed God sent at divers times Prophets and holy Persons to tell Men by what Means they might recover this Resignation to God yet none of them has done it so perfectly as Jesus Christ did when he was upon Earth For he has omitted nothing but has taught all so precisely that Men will never stand in need of any other Instructions For this is the last Mercy that God will shew to Men who must not look for any thing after the Doctrine of Jesus Christ And what was taught before or since is not at all comparable to this Doctrine of the Gospel If we would be sav'd we must embrace and follow it for it teaches us all the necessary Means for fulfilling the Law of God The Thirteenth Conference Shews That the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is the last that God will send into the World And that the Holy Spirit comes to give now the perfect Vnderstanding of it I asked her How this Doctrine of the Gospel could be the last Means that God would give to Men to bring them to Salvation since we look yet for the Holy Spirit who in these last Times must teach us all Things She said Sir The Last Times began when God became Man He brought along with him upon Earth his Last Mercy teaching Men by Word and Deed all that they ought to do and avoid without omitting any thing of all that shall be necessary for them even to the End of the World So that none have need of any thing else to be taught them It is true we shall have the Holy Spirit in the End of these Last Times into which we are now fallen and he is already born upon Earth But he comes not to bring us new Means of Salvation but only to lay before us those which Jesus Christ taught us when he was in the World that we may clearly see how far we are now estranged from them and to give us the Light of Truth that we may see the Way to return and re-take the same Gospel-means that we may recover the Dependance of our Will upon that of God which is his First and Onely Essential Command without which no Body can be saved For this is the least Thing that we owe him and if we do not fulfil it our Ingratitude is so great that we cannot in Justice be saved I asked her If the Holy Spirit was born in Flesh as Jesus Christ was in his Time And what things he would teach us more than Jesus Christ has done She said Sir The Holy Spirit is the same God with Jesus Christ who was the Word of God as the Holy Spirit is his Understanding There is but One God only but there are divers Powers And as our Understanding knows more than our Mouth speaks so the Holy Spirit will give more Light than did the Words of Jesus Christ though all comes from one and the same God and one and the same Source What Jesus Christ said was understood by Men only in part and the same Things shall be understood in a perfect and compleat Sense by this Wisdom of the Holy Spirit He needs not take a Body of Flesh to speak to Men For Jesus Christ did that sufficiently so that he needs speak no more But there is need of more Understanding For the Last Times are near their End And before the World end God will give the full Understanding of all that has been delivered in God's Name from the Beginning of the World both by the Holy Prophets and by Jesus Christ and his Apostles or other Saints his Disciples Nothing has been fully
from whom he holds all that he has If he dye in this Ingratitude he must by straight Justice go to Hell since he denies God a Thing which is so lawfully due to him as the Dependance of a Creature upon its Creatour Nothing can ever be demanded that is more equitable and nothing can be more damnable than to use our Free-will in prejudice of the Designs that God had in creating Man Ruler over all provided he acknowledged his Dependance upon the Will of God And as Adam lost himself by quitting this Dependance so all Men ruine themselves who do not submit their Will to that of God Because their Salvation depends on doing this and not on many other things which they teach us as necessary to Salvrtion All which cannot save us without this Dependance For his Law cannot save us nor all our Devotions and Means unless they bring us to this Dependance of our Wills on the Will of God All other Things put together cannot save us I said to her That Men were very blind in this Matter and very far out of the True Way For they do not suppose That we must have our Will resigned to God thus independently from our own but that to be saved it is enough to acknowledge That God is Soveraign over all and that also we keep his Commandments She said Sir I greatly pity the Blindness of Men Because they go astray under false Suppositions of their Salvation This is Faith to believe that God is the Soveraign of all Things But this Faith is not sufficient for Salvation It must be accompanied with the Works of Faith that according to our Belief we may give to God the soveraign and absolute Dominion of our Will and that he may thereby operate his Will in us This Resignation is the Work of our Faith Without this Work we have only a dead Faith which cannot save us but would serve for our greater Condemnation For He who knew his Masters Will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes To know that God is the Soveraign of all Things and not to yield up our Will to be governed by him is worse than not to know his Soveraignty Because this Faith and Belief obliges us to resign our selves wholly to him whereas the Ignorance of this Faith might in some manner excuse us for a time because we are obliged to search and find out all things necessary for our Salvation If we be ignorant of them at one time we must study to learn them at another For Ignorance does not excuse Sin God has given us an Understanding for no other End but to Know and Love him and to know what is necessary for Salvation If we apply it to other Things we are deceived and amused by the Enemy who is well pleased to divert our Understandings to Earthly Things that we may perish through Ignorance or by the Straying of our Minds He who thinks to be saved because he has not Killed Stolen nor committed the other Sins contained in the Decalogue is greatly deceived For these things are not spoken but for Malefactors who quitted a Dependance upon God to follow their own Wills in doing which they fell into all the Sins contained in the Ten Commandments Which moved the Goodness of God to give them this Decalogue that they might discover their Sins and abstain from them in Time coming For before these Sins God never gave any other Law to Man but this of resigning his Will to the Will of God So that he who should abstain from committing the Sins contained in the Decalogue should not be saved if withal he did not resign his own Will to that of God because it is not enough to depart from Evil we must also do Good and having no Good but what comes from God of necessity that we may do Good we must be resigned to him because our own Will leads us always to Evil. By which it appears clearly that the Resignation of our Will to that of God is the only Mean of our Salvation and that no Body shall ever obtain it by any other way than by this Resignation of Will to God I said to her That this being so it had been desirable that never any thing else had been Taught Men And that so many other Precepts and Means had made them hope for Salvation without Ground She said It is true Sir It had been better never to have been instructed in any thing else but in the Obligation we have to resign our Will to that of God This was purely true and Man could not fall into any Errour by this Doctrine but it was also very good that after we had quitted our Dependance God gave us the Ten Commandments that by their Means we might know our Faults without the knowledge of which we might have perished through Ignorance as every one does now by being ignorant That to be saved our Will must depend upon God For every one uses his own Will at his pleasure without considering that in doing this he cannot be saved Even so they went on in all the sorts of sins contained in the Ten Commandments and in the mean time believed they were resigned to God as we now believe we are while we follow our own Will These Commandments were necessary Means to make us return to a Dependance upon God For all those Sins do hinder this Dependance and do oppose the Works which God works in us They must be removed before God have the Dominion of our Souls and ere he can govern them according to his Will Even so we must deny our own Will if we would obtain Salvation For it is still opposed to the Will of God doing its Works either at the Will of the Devil or else according to our natural Inclinations Which cannot be but evil If they had only taught the Commands of God as necessary Means to be resigned to him this had been a desirable Thing For by showing that whosoever is resigned to God does not Kill nor Steal nor do any thing contrary to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God they would discover to all those who did commit such Things that they forsook their Dependance upon God and followed their own Wills that the knowledge of this might make them return to God whom they had forsaken But many other Means which they have taught as necessary for Salvation prove rather Means to hinder it Because many outward Devotions the Ornaments of Churches Images Beads a great many Books and Prayers with a Thousand other Practices which neither God nor Jesus Christ taught prove great Hindrances of the Resignation of our Will to that of God For instead of having our Spirit free to Jet God Act in it what he shall find meet we fill it with our own Affections and keep our Will fixt to some Image Prayer or Devotion which pleases our Humour And thus our Soul not being empty God cannot fill it Thus we
Holy I have told you of the Reign of Antichrist that you may not let your self be deceived by false Appearances of Piety declaring to you that more than Three Fourths of the World are in confederacy with him that you may work out your Salvation with Fear and may trust your self to No body for the most Wicked are the greatest Hypocrites that they may deceive the better I have told you That we are in the Judgment and that the last Plagues are begun that you may not put off your Conversion to another time for that which remains to us is short I have told you that Jesus Christ will come upon Earth to judge the Good and the Wicked and that he will root out all Evil that you may aspire after that Happiness and may decline the Misery of those who shall be sent into Hell I have told you that Jesus Christ will abide upon Earth to Reign there with all the Just for ever that the Expectation of this Glorious Coming may give you Strength to bear with patience the Rods and Tribulations which must shortly fall out such as the like hath not yet been seen I have told you that the World will last for ever and that none of the Creatures shall perish in their Kinds that the Hope of your Blessedness may not be founded upon imaginary Goods and that you may in some manner comprehend what Contentment the Souls and Bodies of the Blessed shall have when all Malignity shall be removed from every thing and all the Elements and other Creatures shall serve for the Delight of Man who shall rule over all being united to Jesus Christ in Body and Soul And this that you may willingly despise the Delights of this present Life in the Hope of those of which are to come I have told you that the Jews shall be converted to God and shall be his People and that the Catholicks shall be cast off and rejected that you may never despise any Body since the Jews the most despised of all Nations shall be the most exalted and of Stones shall be made Children of Abraham and that you may willingly quit the Maximes of the Roman Church which for her evil Deeds shall very shortly be rooted out I have told you that Man is created for no other end but to take his delight with God that you may no longer seek for any thing upon Earth and that you may despise all Things to enjoy this Conversation with God having told you also that this present Life is only a time of Penitence that all your Labours may be done in this Spirit of Penitence to which God has subjected all Men for their Sins In fine I have told you Sir That all the Laws the Prophets and all Vertues do consist in the Resignation of our Will to that of God that you may not be distracted by so many other different things but may pass your Life joyfully under this Dependance upon God which is the least thing we can give to God for so many good Things we have received from him which he permits us to enjoy provided we will depend upon him in all Things I have also shewn you That so many divers Means which the Priests Monks and the Religious have taught us for working out our Salvation are things that withdraw us from it by which we are seduced and deceived For they make us depend upon Men more than upon God Which is an Idolatry that has infected all Christendom in which no Body studies any longer to resign his Will to that of God but every one enjoys and disposes of Things at his own Will as if he were his own Soveraign One will be Great and another Rich one will Rule over others and will be Obey'd and Serv'd one goes in a Coach another upon Horse In short Every one will follow his Delights and Pleasures according to his own Inclination believing notwithstanding that they work out their Salvation because the Priests and Monks promise it to them These are new Gods and new Saviours who have changed the Order established by God our Father and Creatour and the Duties which his Son Jesus came to reach us They lead us in the Way to Hell perswading us that 't is that to Paradise With these Perswasions every one suffers himself to be deceived and seduced there being none now in Christendom who believe that they cannot be saved without resigning their Will to that of God This nevertheless is an Eternal Truth that will never change let Man do what he will If he do not acknowledge the Dependance he has upon God in all Things he shall never be saved and if he do not take up the Counsels of the Gospel as the true Means taught by God for returning to this Dependance he shall never be saved For God teaches nothing that is useless but only Things precisely necessary to which all the World ought to submit This no Body does for they believe Men more than God Though the most part are Rul'd by the Devil who gains the most part of Men to himself by the Means of these wild Shepherds who abandon the Flock to the Power of the Infernal Wolf to destroy them with themselves for ever taking them off from God to draw them to themselves I have told you also That there are no longer any true Christians upon Earth that you may become one and may not blindly suppose your self to be so For there can be no Christians but they who obey the Doctrine of Jesus Christ All others are deceived in believing they are For God does not change upon the Changes of Men We are now as much obliged to depend upon God as Adam the First Man was and as much obliged to Labour the Ground as he though we had committed no other Sin but what he did in us We must also now follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as the Primitive Christians did because this Doctrine is immutable and will never change Therefore he who does not follow it is no true Christian and cannot be saved without becoming so No Body should flatter himself in this Matter We must imitate Jesus Christ or perish for ever Because both by the Will of Adam and by our own we are all fallen into this Sin of Ingratitude that we will not depend upon God And therefore we have need to take up the Law of the Gospel that we may return to a Dependance upon God which is so just and reasonable Though God had never demanded it of Man he is bound both by Divine and Humane Right to render to God this Submission of his Will and he would certainly do it if he were not diverted from it by Men like himself Because even Natural reason obliges him to depend upon him from whom he receives all Things This Humane Wisdom has diverted having found out so many Reasons and Arguments to favour our Self-will that all People believe they may lawfully follow it without
no more Power than God gives him nor yet wicked Men. She said No body in the World has hitherto understood the Works of God but every one judges of his Works according to their short Sight But now that we are arrived at the Fulness of Time he will give the Knowledge of his Procedure as to Men. You shall be perswaded of this if you take good heed to my Discourse and peruse a little the Holy Fathers who spoke of the Grace of God and of all his Works You must confess that the Discourses of a Child are much more clear and intelligible than all the Doctrines of these great Men Because the Hour is now come that all these Things shall be fully manifested and nothing shall be any longer hid from Men of the Designs that God has concerning them You tell me that many Saints have been abused by the Devil and the Wicked without having contributed to it by their Free-will Which is true For God holding the Will of these Saints in his Power because they had yielded up their Free-will to God he enclines their Will to good or necessary Sufferings Not that God gives the Devil or the Wicked this Power to abuse his Servants by his independent Permission out of his absolute Power but he permits the Devil and the Wicked to tempt the Saints with their Consent For they having yielded up their Free-will into Gods Hand he leads it alwayes to good And seeing that Temptations and Persecution were good for some of the said Saints he enclined their Will to desire them and willingly to suffer them Though in the sensual part they felt some Repugnance the Divine Soul and Free-will were joyful and contented with them seeing these Evils befel them by the Will of God to which theirs was united and conformable And thus they suffered with their Free-will Not that God permits the Devil to do evil to follow his Malice For he can never consent to any evil but he permits him for the purging or honouring of his Servants who desire with all their Heart to be purged or honoured that they may be made so much the more agreeable to God when he permits these Sufferings as the true Means of their Perfection For when there is no need of them for their Perfection the Evils which Devils and wicked Men would do them cannot touch them as it has often fallen out that Poyson or other Mischiefs done to Saints has done them no hurt To shew that the Devil and the Wicked are still free on their part to do evil without any other Permission from God but the Free-will that he had once given them but that the Free-will of the good may alwayes resist them and hinder any from coming near them except it be expedient for the Glory of God or their own Perfection Then though the Soul abandoned to God should not see the evils that the Wicked would do it and should not formally oppose it self to them God who still watches for the good of his true Children will never permit any evil to befal them but what is expedient for them Not that he will bound the Will of those Malignant ones that they may not be able to do evil to the good but he will move the Wills of the good to withdraw from them or to shun the Places and Occasions where the evil may befal them or he will give so lively a Faith that Poison or other Evils shall not take hold to hurt his Servants whom he keeps as the Apple of his Eyes Thus it is that God carries as to us doing alwayes good and never consenting to evil nor yet limiting the Free-will that he gave to Angels and Devils and Men both good and bad every one shall enjoy it to all Eternity without hindrance either in the good or in the wicked Therefore on all occasions we judge amiss of the Works of God when we believe that he permits evil in any whosoever This proceeds from our ignorance of the Excellency of the free choice and the Dignity of the Free-will that God has given to Men imagining that he governs them as Slaves by force or by his absolute Authority Which is not at all so For if he gave to all Creatures that are subjected to Man when he created them an amiable Inclination to acquiesce in and follow alwayes the Will of Man without constraint that he might serve him with agreeable Delight wherefore should he not incline Man to follow the Will of God freely and without constraint The Twentieth and Second Conference Speaks of the Disputes that are about Free-will and Predestination I said to her That this Point of the Free-will of Man was debated That all acknowledged he was created in full Liberty but that since his Sin he could no longer do good without a particular Grace from God She said Sir I believe I have told you many times that God never changes Whether Men sin or not he is not therefore moved Free-will has remained with Men since his Sin as well as before it If he deprived not the Devils nor damned Souls of it why should he take it from Man since his Sin especially since he would pardon him and yet take his Delight with him Must he not after his Sin have had the same Divine Soul and Free-will as before For else he could never more have been led to good nor be united to God if this Divine Quality were taken from him or diminished What more particular Grace could be given him than to let him enjoy his Free-will after his Sin A greater Grace could not be given him than this Divine Liberty with which he might accomplish his Penitence and do all other kind of good For if his Penitence had not been accompanied with this Free-will it could never have satisfied an offended God This Divine Quality was needful to satisfie for the Offence done to his Divinity And without having the Liberty to do good by what means could he recover the Grace of God If God had not left Man to his Liberty to do good never any Person would have been saved neither Adam nor any others For without this Liberty of doing good Adam could never have repented nor all Men who have fallen in him For none who are born since would have been free to do good or to beg the Grace of God for fulfilling their Penitence but every one would have been bent to Evil since they had no other Liberty but to do evil Of necessity they must have given themselves to evil since they would not have had the Liberty to do good I am an Enemy to all these Disputes and would wish that all Men would submit their Judgment to the Works of God I said to her That these Disputes were not ended but many held that God had decreed one Masse of Elect and another of Reprobates and that it will fall out so do Men what they please
She said How cruel is it to hear Sir That God should destinate a Masse of Reprobates This is as if they would say that God is wicked from the Creation of Men for if he were not he would not have created a Masse of Reprobates to be miserable to all Eternity do what they will This necessity of being damned reflects upon God For if he had not created them to Damnation they could not be miserable to all Eternity And God could not create them for Damnation but out of pure Malice setting aside this he would rather have left them in nothing than to create them for Reprobation Truly Sir a greater Blasphemy cannot be uttered against God than this for it shocks all his Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are his Eternal Qualities without which he can never do any thing If he had created one part of Men for Damnation he should not have done a just thing since these Reprobates did not merit Damnation before they had a Being and could not in Justice be Reprobated without having deserved it Neither could God exercise his Goodness in determining the Damnation of any Since this Damnation is the greatest Evil in the World How should he be good in doing so great evil to Men And how should he be true in reprobating those of whom he sayes that his delight is to be with them since they are the Children of Men He must want Judgment and Reason who believes that God created a Masse of damned The Superstition of Christians must have invented this blaspheming against God to authorise their Authority and to shew that God also uses Authority over Men as they will use it over their like This is against Truth For God is not partial nor will he ever use Passion towards any All these Words and Disputes are so many Names of Blasphemies of which the Whore in the Revelation is full For I do not believe that any other Sect or Nation sayes that Reprobation is determined of God I asked her What I ought to believe in this Matter that I might not blaspheme against God She said Sir We ought to go to the Original of Man and see in his Beginning how he was created God took not two Masses of Earth to create the one of them for Salvation and the other for Damnation But only one Masse of Earth with which he created one Man only for Salvation creating in him all the Men that ever were or shall be He created them all in general in the State of Innocence and Salvation and for this end gave abundance of Graces both Spiritual and Bodily and that equally to all without exception of any giving to all a Divine Soul and a Free-will that they might be capable to do all manner of good And seeing God created all Men in Adam he could not have created any for Reprobation but all for Salvation none excepted This being so as it truly is no Body could be created for Damnation as they would very unreasonably make it be believed For if some must be necessarily Damned or Saved they should not have Free-will Which none can deny For all Men received a Divine Soul and Free-will in Adam who was the first of the Elect and after him all his Posterity For God never will'd that any should perish but that they Live And seeing he wills that they Live how could he create them for Reprobation since there can never be any Contradiction in God Never believe Sir that any was created for Damnation But if any damn themselves it is contrary to the Designs of God and because they will needs use their Free-will to apply it to evil For if they followed the Will of God and the good Impression that he has given them they could never damn or destroy themselves even though they had sinned Because God desires not the Death of a Sinner but that he should be Converted and Live By which we see that God does not Reprobate the Sinner more than the Just but desires that all should be Saved and none Reprobated as they Maintain But Men now being full of Vices and Passions of Love and Hatred without any thing of Righteousness Goodness and Truth they would fain give Authority to their Malice by making a God to go before them in the Matter of their Passions And as they in taking Dominon over Men do according to their Inclinations disgrace or favour them they would make God as partial as they know they are themselves saying that he damns some and saves others according to his Pleasure Which will never be For God is no more subject to Passions than to change We ought alwayes to come to the Truth and retake the Original and the Essence of Things without amusing our selves with the Discourses of Men who say and do according to their Advantages and if they are not enclined to use their Free-will aright they would fain lay the blame on God saying They have not his Grace or They are not of the Number of those who are predestinated to his Salvation Which makes a great many perish through Sloth or Negligence saying If they are Elected they shall certainly be saved and if they are Reprobated they shall certainly be damned do what they will This is contrary to the Truth For God did not create Man a kind of limited Creature And though it seems sometimes as if God determined good or evil Fortunes yet nevertheless it is not true For he will not determine against the Free-will of Man who shall still be capable of using it well or ill But because our Understanding is bounded it can comprehend only the Accidents it sees without discovering their Sources or Originals For Example We see a Man become poor though he Labour and is no Prodigal We say immediately it is God that afflicts him by evil Fortune while it is for want of Foresight or Management in his Affairs I said to her That it was not believed that God created Man for Damnation but that God Reprobated Man after his Sin which had undone them all She said Sir You will find this absurd For if all Men were created in Adam they are all also fallen in Adam and consequently there could not be a Masse of Predestinated after Sin Because all in general were Reprobated and Damned by the same Sin of Adam He having sinned with his Free-will there was no longer any thing sound in it For if he had not given a full Consent of his Will to Sin none would have been Damned because of the Imperfection of his full Consent as we do not commit a Mortal Sin when our Will does not give full Consent to Evil and no Body doubts but Adam gave the full consent of his Will in disobeying God and consequently he is damned and all Men with him none excepted For he could not have a divided Will nor one part sound and another damn'd Because there was
but one Man only and he had but one Will in which was included the Will of all Men that should ever arise from him So that God could not pitch in him upon one Masse of Reprobates and one of Saved Because there was no longer Salvation in him after his Sin nor in all other Men his Posterity All were reduced into this damned Masse without any exception And as none could be damned before Sin so none could be saved after it Because in Adam all Men in general were contained who have still shared in his Happiness and Miseries his Favours and Disgraces his Pleasures and his Penitence All Men being inseparably united to the will of Adam the Father of all living I asked her How it could be that some Men are damned and some saved since there was so strait an union between the Will of Adam and that of other Men She said This comes to pass Sir when every Man comes to the use of Reason He goes out of the Power and Will of Adam and is put into his own full Liberty as Adam was at his Creation with this difference only that Men have in them the Malignity of Sin Which Adam had not when he was created but only an Inclination to good As to the rest all Men in general are put when they are capable of Reason into the same Estate wherein Adam was created with the same Divine Soul wholly free and reasonable capable of being led to good or evil as Adam was But that some are saved or damned is not by any Necessity or Predestination but only by every ones Free-will who are led to good or to evil according to the Choice they make of the one or the other Because on Gods part Man is left free and entire as he was before Sin For God never changes his Works He has not for sin changed any thing in the Earth nor in the Heavens nor in the Elements nor in the Beasts nor in the other Creatures but has continued them all such as he created them without any change but Sin has brought Malignity upon each of them whereas before the said Sin all Things were good without any evil Even so God has changed nothing in Man since his Sin He remainsentire in all his Qualities both Bodily and Spiritual except that by Sin he has contracted a Malignity and an Inclination to evil Which before he had not but a bent and inclination to all sort of good Behold this is the only change that Sin made in Man without his being necessitated to evil far less predestinated to Damnation Since all Men received in Adam the Pardon of this Disobedience having also received in him the Penitence which was accepted for all Men in Adam so long as a Man is unable to use his own Reason For then he is set at Liberty from the Power of Adam and that of his own Parents in whose Will he remain'd till then And coming out of this he is free to choose good and evil and neither God nor Men can constrain him to Salvation or Damnation And that any is saved or damned can proceed from nothing but the free choice that every one makes of following good or evil and not at all from Predestination as they very unjustly do imagine For God will never deprive Man of his Graces how wicked soever he be so long as he shall Live in this World He will never take back the Graces which he gave him in Adam They shall be still communicated to him if he will make a good use of them The Pardon which he granted to Adam he granted to all Men and no Body can believe without Sin that God should Reprobate him for the Sin of Adam For by his Grace he forgave all when he forgave Adam his Sin He cannot retract the Remission which he then gave to all Men to Reprobate them upon the same account of Adams Sin For God never repents him of what by his Mercy he has once done unless Man of his Free-will come to offend God by other new Sins Which he is free to do All Men were created in the State of Innocence in Adam and all Men sinn'd in Adam and also received the Pardon of this Sin in Adam So that all they who dye in Adam are certainly saved by the Mercy of God upon the Pardon that he gave to Adam But if his Children being come to the use of Reason do of their own Free-will turn to evil they then fall again into Gods displeasure and begetting Children in the same displeasure they are in the same Condemnation with their Fathers as being united with them till they come to the use of their own Reason For then they begin to have a Being by themselves whereas before they were reckoned to be one and the same thing with their Parents because of the Sympathy there is in the Union of the Father with the Child whose Will he holds in his Power as Adam held the Will of all Men till they attain the use of their own Reason so that till then they may be predestinated to Salvation or Damnation by the good or ill Will of their Parents and not by the Decree of God who cannot and will not destroy any Body having certainly created and forgiven all the World that all might be saved and none Reprobated For if he had precisely decreed some for Damnation he should not have had so much Righteousness in himself as what he demands of Men For he sayes to them Love your Enemies and do good to them that persecute you This Counsel would have had no Authority if he himself had Reprobated those who are become his Enemies This absolute Reprobation would not be good but the greatest evil that ever could be imagined How could he command Men to do good to their Enemies when he himself would do so great and eternal an Evil for the Fault they had committed against him and that while they were yet in a state of Penitence as they are during this Life where Reprobation shall never have place since till the very last Instant they may find Mercy and Pardon This Reprobation must only operate after Death and not during this Life Because this is the Time of Penitence in which they who shall be certainly Reprobated can have no part and it would be a very rigorous and unjust Thing that God should oblige those to Penitence whom he absolutely resolves to damn I believe Sir they confound the Times when they speak of Predestination and take the present for the Time to come For at the Judgment God will then take Two Masses the One of Elect and the Other of Reprobates who do what they will shall assuredly be damned Because the Time of Penitence will then be past But during this Life there can be no predestinated Reprobates I told her That well-meaning Persons did believe there was in this Life Predestination and that God had here Vessels
of Election and Reprobation and both necessarily so She said This is Sir because these Persons though well-meaning do not discover the Goodness and the Righteousness of God and they judge only according to the Appearance of Things and not according to the Reality For God can never Reprobate any after that he has created all for Salvation and he cannot damn them for Adam's Sin after he has pardoned it and Man has undertaken the Penitence that God enjoyned him on that occasion If there were any Reprobated for this Sin of Adam in strict Justice Adam ought to be first of all Reprobated since he first committed the Sin 'T is sad to see and hear how Men mistake the Qualities of God making him pass as unjust and evil like themselves I am sorry Sir that I must be so prolix in this Matter but the Thing requires it Because it is a most important Point that regards the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men and therefore I cannot speak too much of it Be not you more weary to hear than I am to speak of it I have still had strange Contradictions in my Spirit when I heard Persons of Sincerity aiming to maintain the Truth and yet notwithstanding very far from knowing it and taking the Sentiments of Men for infallible Truths though very often they persist in their Ignorance which is so great and so prejudicial to the Salvation of many For he who believes he is predestinated to Salvation will not be at the pains to procure it and though he fall into Sins he will not repent of them believing that he cannot be damned and that he shall one Day Repent though it were but the Last of his Life Consider a little Sir what sloth this occasions in those well-meaning Persons and in what hazard they put their Salvation For it is a Delusion to believe that we shall be Saved by God's Predestination Live as we please for God will never Save any since Adam's Sin but those who of their Free-will shall resign themselves to the Will of God Though his Goodness Sav'd all Men in creating them without any Co-operation of theirs yet he will Save none without it after they have their Free-wils to make choice of good or evil God could indeed Save them before they made Resistance and while he was absolute Lord of all Things But since he gave them this Free-will to govern themselves and so many other Things he cannot Save them without themselves Therefore no Body should flatter himself to believe that he shall be Saved if he be predestinated seeing this Predestination can have no more place since the Sin of Adam Every one must exercise himself to work out his Salvation Because no Body shall obtain it but he who of his own Free-will shall yield up into God's Hands the Free Liberty that he gave him These are the Elect Because they being yielded up unto God none can pluck them out of his Hands unless the Person himself should yet withdraw from God Which is almost impossible Because God still directing him his Will can no more be led to evil than that of God is unto which it is joyned and united The Goodness of God replenishes it with so many Graces that it is impossible not to follow them How could the same Goodness ordain that any should be Reprobated since nothing that is evil can proceed from it Must not the Reprobation of Men of necessity come from their evil Will Since it is impossible for God to do evil it is consequently impossible for him to Reprobate so much as one Soul If it be it is still its own Fault only and not at all a Predestination to Damnation Because God damns no Body not even at the Last Day of Judgment For they who shall be then absolute Reprobates shall condemn themselves when the Justice of God shall appear to them their Injustice will give Sentence against themselves and confine them to Hell as the just Merit of their Iniquities and not at all as the Decree of God I said to her It was very probable that God can damn no Body since he is all good and can do no Evil that notwithstanding of this we see according to our short Prospect of Effects as if Men were Predestinated to good and evil As in the Conversion of St. Paul and of Mary Magdalen and on the contrary in the Reprobation of Judas and of the wicked Thief She said Sir These different Accidents are not considered in their Source but only superficially gone over and judg'd according to Humane Sentiments which does not penetrate the Righteousness of God St. Paul was not only a Chosen Vessel on God's part but also on the part of his own Free will For after he had the use of Reason he was alwayes zealous of the Law of God and 't is very probable he had resigned his Free-will to God according to his Knowledge because all that moved him to persecute the Christians was only a desire to maintain his Law which he believed was more perfect as being given by God and imagining that the Christians aimed to destroy it he would maintain it and believe that by doing this he greatly pleased God who seeing this good Desire would needs draw him out of his Ignorance in an outward and extraordinary manner Because it is God's Property to abound in Grace and to prevent Men of good Will by such Means as whereby they may discover that he favours them Therefore he appeared visibly to St. Paul by some Light and made him blind asking him wherefore he persecured him Making him understand by these outward Signs the State of his Soul by the Light he shews him that he was in darkness by the Blindness of his Eyes the Blindness of his Mind which must be directed to some one who might make him see the Truth and by the Question Wherefore he persecuted him to shew him how much he was deceived in Prosecuting the Christians who were the People of God This he knew not all these Things fell out not because God had partially chosen St. Paul to be his Apostle But because he had of his own Free-will chosen to follow Good and to resign himself to God But whereas Men see only these outward Things they believe God acts by Passion as they do and that he prefers one of his Creatures to another Which he does not at all For he loves them all equally as being all his Children and nevertheless gives more Grace to those who are most resigned to him And this with Reason For a Son who does his Fathers Pleasure and is dedicated to his Will is more worthy of Favours than another who resists and despises the Will of the same Father Magdalen received also the Grace of Conversion though she was a Sinner But if we consider well her inward Disposition we shall clearly perceive that she was truly
disposed to resign her self to God notwithstanding her Sins For she no sooner heard the Truth from her Saviours Mouth but she quitted her Sins and bewailed them bitterly detested her Vanities and followed Jesus Christ through all How many other Persons heard the same Truth without resolving to follow him A Thousand Persons followed Jesus Christ bodily and heard the same Words but produced not the same Effects This cannot come from God who has still the same Efficacy But it proceeds from the Indisposition of Souls who do not receive it effectually And Men not being able to dive into the Interiour imagine that this is done by God independently In this they are greatly deceived Which they shall see at the Last Day of Judgment wherein many shall be Saints who were despised and condemned in this World and many others shall be Reprobated who here were held for Saints Because Men regard only the outside But God tries the Reins and examines the Conscience which is known to him alone Therefore Men ought never to judge nor dispute of the Works of God Because they are blind and ignorant in his Matters and when they say that he Saved and Reprobated some in this World they calumniate him and blaspheme against his Qualities of Righteousness and Goodness That Judas was damned was by his own Free-will and not by the Decree of God who spoke more to him to convert him than ever he did to St. Paul or Magdalen and that the wicked Thief is damned was by his obstinacy in Sin For if he had acknowledged his Fault he would have been saved as well as the other I said to her That no Body thought it a Blasphemy against God to say That none can be saved without the particular Grace of God and that some have it and some have it not and that he gives it to whom he pleases She said These Terms of speaking Sir make nothing as to the reality of the Thing It may indeed be said truly that none can be saved without the particular Grace of God But to say that God gives it only to whom he pleases and to understand thereby that he gives it to some and denies it to others with respect of Persons is Blasphemy Because he bestows it alwayes according to his Righteousness not according to his own Choice For this is only the way of passionate Men to favour those for whom they have an Inclination God gives indeed more Grace to some than to others but alwayes in proportion as each one does more resign himself to his Will For he sayes Be ye faithful in little things and I will place you over great things To shew that he encreases his Grace alwayes according to our Fidelity That particular Grace which we stand in need of to be saved was given to us all in the Creation of Adam For he could not create us to Salvation without enduing with suitable Grace for it and the Grace of raising us up again after Sin was also given us in Adam which we might enjoy yet provided we use the same Means of his Penitence And if we have sinned after him by our own Will it shall be forgiven us provided we take up the same Penitence which consists in the Shame and Confusion that Adam had in the Fear he had of God not daring to appear before him and in the Accepting of the Pennance of Labouring the Ground and gaining his Bread with the Sweat of his Face Many Men now say they have not Grace that they might get rid of their Sins And if they would examine their Consciences well they would find it is because they have no Repentance nor Confusion for having committed them nor yet the fear of God nor a desire to do Pennance for them And that they may not acknowledge so great Faults they say they have not the Grace of God that they might amend This is to blame God for their own Wickedness For very often they love their Sins and are only afraid of the Chastisements which these have deserved So that if God had not a Hell to chastise them they would never forsake them so far would they be from desiring to do Penitence for them And yet notwithstanding of all this they are bold to say that they have not the sufficient or effectual Grace of God according to their conn'd Terms upon which they build great Disputes which being well examined we shall find them to be founded only upon Words and that the Truth is alwayes true and that God gave Graces to Man in Adam but too sufficient for Salvation and even generally to all Men for obtaining the Pardon of their Sins This being so why should we attribute the Loss of our Salvation or the not amending of our Lives to the want of Gods Grace Is it not a particular Grace when every one as to his own particular has received sufficient to forsake his Sin if he will and to work out his Salvation Whether God gave these Graces at the Beginning or if he gives them only at present they are still from the same God the Giver of all good as well in one Season as in another What needs disputing whether these Graces are given now or if they have continued with us since Adam It is enough that we have them and may encrease them by our Fidelity For it pleases God alwayes that we be perfect and he is more desirous to encrease his Graces than we are willing to ask them And if we have them not in abundance it is certainly because we have not sought them or done our endeavour to obtain them For God on his part is alwayes ready to open so soon as we knock at the Gate of his Mercy which is abundant to all those who seek it without engaging into that foolish Perswasion That God will not give it but to whom he pleases since he is not partial but alwayes does good to all even to his Enemies themselves I said to her That there was much Ignorance in these Disputes That every one maintained his own Opinion as good and that the best believed Predestination because others attribute too much to the Creature She said Sir I believe that no Body has hitherto discovered the Truth as to the Grace of God For it cannot be true that God has predestinated any to Damnation for the Reasons I have told you nor yet that Man has the Power to save himself when he pleases Because the Habit of Sin is as another Nature from whence we cannot deliver our selves Even as the Souls which are in Hell though they have their Free-will cannot use it in good because they have given loose Reins to Evil they cannot any more have the Will to quit it and being tied and united to all sort of evil Objects they cannot find the means to do well even though they should have the Will Even so in proportion those who are yet in
be found in either of these cases And 't is that only we ought to examine without regulating our judgments according to the differences we observe between the persons that speak to us For in Jesus Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek Roman or no Roman Male nor Female It is here a Maid that speaks to you none of those great Men who are so frequently reprov'd Do not verify by your experience that saying of the Scripture When the rich and mighty speak all hold their peace and what he says they extol to the heavens but when the mean man speaks they say who is this even tho' he offer wise things they would not yield to him If there be any valuable prejudice it should certainly be in favour of the meanest weakest and most contemptible persons since God himself has declared 't is his pleasure to make use of them and Jesus Christ was so rejoyced at that choice that he says to his Father I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and from the learned and hast revealed them unto Babes even so Father since so it seemed good unto thee Is there any thing meaner weaker and more contemptible in the esteem of the World in the matters of Doctrin than a Maid And can any thing be more proper to verify that declaration of the choice of God He has also promis'd the pouring out of his Spirit in the last times upon Daughters as one of the most signal marks of his power And certainly the weakness of the instrument is an evident sign of him who employs it It is plain that such an extraordinary effect must proceed from a cause that is extraordinarily powerful and that cause must be God himflef when the effect is good and useful Secondly in Divine things you must have no regard to the natural qualities of the mind or rather to the human means by which 't is cultivated such as Sciences Study Reading and the like Divine truth is so far from depending on such things that 't is rather obscur'd by them It may be justly reckon'd a prodigy if such unnatural methods should be attended with success when men endeavour to derive into ill prepared Vessels by the exercise of ther corrupt faculties things that are altogether independent upon them and are freely infus'd by a calm insinuation into Souls that are at rest from their own tumults Truly we might be astonish'd if the Learned should find solid truth by persuing such methods as would certainly banish it out of their minds if they were already possess'd of it Man having lost saith Solomon by much reasoning the uprightness in which God created him But when God speaks to us by simple and unlearned laiks we cannot suspect them as we would suspect the Learned that they feed us with their studied speculations or the prejudices they have drunk in at Schools and drawn from the works of Men and repeat to us the songs their Teachers have taught them to sing The Person who speaks here is without study even without reading and which is more without meditation Search a little to find out the source of this fountain and to understand well what Master could have instructed her it could neither be Man the Devil nor Nature But the thing which you ought most to observe that you have no regard to the conduct of Men. I mean that you do not imagine that the Truth much less Salvation depends upon them their Opinions Orders Directions Submission or that it is tied to them by a necessary bond since it has no essential union but with God alone and may be forsaken by all men if they will as any man may and too many actually do This unhappy prejudice has ruined the Christian Church who imagin'd that she could not possibly fall after she had establish'd her self upon the authority of certain particular Persons human Successions outward Assemblies and other Circumstances that are not at all inconsistent with the Spirit of Error It is certain there are few Christians and even few Catholicks who do not see that the Church is extreamly fallen away and corrupted But the Learned have found out a distinction to charm this evil They say that tho' the Church may fall into a moral corruption and be guilty of back sliding from the practice of a Christian life she is still infallible and incorruptible in matters of Faith It is much to be feared that this distinction serves rather to flatter the Spirit of pride than promote that of Humility which is the Spirit of the Gospel and that it proceeds rather from human interest which prepossesses and darkens even the best minds than from an enlightned charity which designs to excuse the evils of the Church as far as Truth permits May not those who have made this distinction perceive they are so far from excusing the Church or lessening the guilt of her fall that they render her guilty of the fall of Devils whereas her Adversaries pretend only to hold her fallible after a manner conformable to human infirmity It seems they contradict themselves in this distraction for can that which has no faith be incorruptible as to faith and that which is not only destitute of the works of Faith but whose works are corrupted and consequently opposite to those of Faith can that have Faith Shew me says the Apostle Shew me the faith of which thou boastest without thy works and I will shew thee the faith which I possess by my works Treating the Man as vain and empty who would give way to such thoughts What then would he have said of those who maintain that one may be not only destitute of works but that even his works may be evil and habitually evil or which is the same thing that his Manners may be corrupted and that nevertheless he might be infallibly possessed with the purity of the true Faith But it may be they understand by Faith Speculations Notions the knowledge of spiritual Things but St. James reckons those things when they are alone and barren to be a diobolical Faith since he expresly ascribes it to the Devil And how can this diminish or cover the evil of the Church that tho' her Manners are corrupted she has nevertheless with an infallible certainty the knowledge of Divine things and the decerning of Truth and Falshood of good and evil This would be rather to make her fall equal to that of the Devil to make her sin with knowledge in the midst of her light and against it Those who assert this Opinion represent her without conscience render her more odious to God and Men more devilish and condemn her to a place in Hell far below the Infidels rather than if they should say that her Morals are or have been Corrupted for her being mistaken in her Knowledge and believing that to be good and true which is not really so
since 't is certainly a less evil and a less fall to sin thro' ignorance and error than to do it against the knowledge of the truth To pretend to infallibility in the knowledge of the Truth while at the same time it appears by her actions and her own confession that she is corrupted in the practice of a Christian life would be to make a profession of sinning against the Holy Ghost and renouncing of conscience which St. Paul says cannot be done without making shipwrack of the faith So that by this excuse they equally prove that she is fallen into a greater estrangment from God than that which they would excuse and that at the same time she is destitute of true Faith and the knowledge of the Truth and seiz'd with a malady of presumption which puts me in mind of that for which St. Paul assures the Roman Church in the Epistle which he wrote to her that she shall be cut off if she suffer her self to be led into it In the mean time 't is thro' this prejudice that they shut their Ears against the Truth that reproves them and that they reject the remedies tho' they are not ignorant of their disease putting themselves in a condition that resembles the state of Babylon of which the Prophet speaks we would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us go every one into his own country for her judgment reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even unto the skie Do not you likewise render your self uncurable dear Reader by admitting of such prejudices and suffering them to blind you so far as to make you reject the Heavenly remedies which God offers you at present by the hand of a Maid without human instruction and who reproves the abuses of that Society which they call the Church how powerfully soever they are authoriz'd and favour'd by great Persons to whom they are also favourable according to the interest of this World which she does not out of a principle of partiality and private malice as they are supposed to have done who have left the Church of Rome since she never withdrew from it and much less did she list her self into any other particular Sect but disapprov'd them all and discover'd their abuses in her other Writings with as much freedom as in this she has done those of the Roman Church and in the general of all Christians This is one of her first Works which she wrote at a time when she was not acquainted with those who differ in Opinion from the Roman Catholicks The first part which is now communicated was published some years ago in Dutch Since I have had the happiness to see in Manuscript the other two Parts which in my opinion are more admirable than this I can indeed say that I never met with more extraordinary more convincing edifying and moving Truths than those which are in this Divine piece particularly in the two following Parts and especially in the last to incite us to resign our selves entirly to the guidance and direction of God I cannot reflect upon the wonders I have seen in these Treatises without crying out with amasement what other Master than thou O Holy and Adorable Spirit of my God could be the Author of this most Divine Light O most Holy and Almighty God there is none but thee that could so powerfully draw thy Creatures to so holy and pure an end And the first essays of such a Master by the weakest instruments are as perfect Master-pieces as the most finish'd works of others for I can truly say that I have felt as much and even more strength and moving force in these first works than in her last productions And I cannot comprehend how it is possible for any Man to resist such holy Truths without declaring openly for the Devil and undertaking the defence of Vice and Lying There are none in my opinion but the Devil and those who are resolv'd to be his slaves and the protectors of Sin and Iniquity that can hate or oppose this Light For as for those who have still some remainders of good desires in their hearts whatsoever Errors they maintain and with whatsoever vices they may be defiled it is impossible for them to hate those Divine Truths and much less the person by whom they are communicated to us or raise persecution against her Since they are so far from receiving an injury by them that they have a far opportunity of delivering themselves from the most dangerous Evils and to embrace the advantage of a lasting felicity There is a vast difference betwixt representing and doing Evil betwixt admonishing one of his sickness and causing his distemper Such a warning is rather a means to make him to look out for a remedy and when at the same time the most proper remedies are presented to him it is the highest obligation that can be laid upon him especially in matters of eternal importance And yet O blind and perverse World it is your usual custom to wish evil to those who would deliver you from your misery and to requite their Kindness with base and cruel persecutions as it appears manifestly from the fate and experience of the true benefactours of Mankind the Holy Prophet the Son of God himself and all his beloved Disciples and Messengers who had no other design than to procure the Light and Salvation of the World This Messenger of God did often meet with the same treatment as well as the late Mr. De Cort who discovering too open a zeal for the publication of this Work was prevented from accomplishing that design by a Death that was procured by contrivances no less secret than criminal concerning which I may justly use the words of the Prohpet Jeremiah I was like a lamb or an ox that was brought to the slaughter and I knew not that they had devised devices against me saying let us destroy or poyson the tree with the fruit thereof and let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name may be no more remembred For Sinners cannot endure that a good Person should by declaring the Truth deprive them of the pretexts which they use to enjoy their darling Sins with peace and security And the wise are loath to see their Wisdom confounded when they have once given way in their hearts to that proud conceit of being infallible when they are Assembled in a Body As the Church was heretofore deluded by a Spirit of presumption in the days of the Prophets who were persecuted under pretext that the Priests the Learned the Doctors and Pastors whose failing as well as the Errors of the whole Church were expos'd by the Prophets were infalliable in the possession and in the interpretation of the Law of God and their Determinations and Counsels concerning Divine things Come said they and let us devise devices against Jeremiah for the land shall not perish from the priest nor counsel