his VVorks It must needs be that all things be very shortly overturned for no body knows God any more nor his VVorks I acknowledged my Fault in having so often spoke evil of the VVorks of God saying to her that it was only thro Ignorance and not thro' Malice She said Sir Ignorance excuses not Sin You are always obliged to know that God is a perfect Good from whom no Evil can ever proceed and that all his Works are accompanied with Truth and all sorts of Perfections And that he can never do any imperfect thing and therefore you ought not to wish that any thing were otherwise than he has appointed it for all the Wise Men who are were or shall be upon the Earth cannot have all together the least Wisdom of God and all that they have they have from him Is not this general Rule sufficient to make your Spirit submit to these Ordinances especially as to this Free-will of Men which he has ' given them as a Pledge of assurance that they are his real Children in acknowledgment of which they ought to bless and praise him day and night because he could never testifie more Love to them than by this liberty he has given them to love him For my part I can say in truth that I would chuse rather that God should annihilate me than take from me the Liberty to love him Therefore I resent it so much when I hear it said That it would be better not to have Free-will for I feel by Experience that it is the only thing that unites Men to God and that also which can make them enjoy Eternal Happiness no body can comprehend but he who experiences it what Consolation the Soul receives when it can unite this Free-Will to God This is so perfect an Alliance that nothing can be found in Grace more accomplish'd no more than there can be any thing found in Nature more perfect than that two Persons united in their Wills in God join also in Body this compleats their Contentment but if there were force limitation or constraint on either side the Pleasure could not be compleat This is the Figure of the perfectly free Union that the Soul ought to have with God and if the Soul were constrain'd or forc'd to this union God could not take perfect delight in it because to have a compleat Contentment in the Union of two things they must needs equally concur to it I said to her That I must confess I had been in great Darkness and that I had never conceiv'd that so great a Good did proceed from Free-will no more than the happiness which is found in Marriage when two Persons are united in Body and in Mind She said This is because People consider things only superficially and on the outside without piercing into their Sources for it is the Free-will of Man only that gives him a perfect Union with God without which he could never come to love him perfectly therefore among all the Spiritual Graces that God has imparted to him this Free-Will is the greatest good as also Marriage among natural Goods is the most perfect though Men do very frequently abuse both making use of their Free-Will to damn themselves and of Marriage to sin This is not God's Fault who has ordained both the one and the other holy and perfect but only Man's who abuses the most perfect Gifts of God as well in Grace as in Nature Ought we for this to desire that he had not bestowed these Graces on Man This would be to own that Man's Wickedness should make the Goodness of God to cease which cannot be for God will never cease to be good because Man is evil He remains still the Fountain of all Goodness and the giver of all Good though the men of the World be wicked God will never change for the Goodness or Wickedness of Men nor for any other thing because he continues always that which he is Let Man do what he will with all the other Creatures they shall never be able to make God desist from the least Righteousness Goodness and Truth which he possesseth in himself and will always exercise without regard to the goodness or wickedness of Men. Their abuse of his Graces will never hinder him from extending his Goodness towards them If they use them well they shall receive the promised reward and if they they use them ill they shall meet with the just Punishment without any mutability in God It pleased God to Create Man after his Likeness and so he was made for God's Power is equal to his Will and he would have this Man also joined to his Like as God was to him that is to say entirely spiritually and bodily Now Man could not be like to God by his humanity for God was not corporeal or natural neither could he be like to God by a bounded and limited Will and Spirit because God has a free Power to do or not to do any thing God then must needs have given to Man the same free Power of his Will or otherwise he could not be like to him in any thing And since he would create Man after his own Likeness he was obliged to give him the free disposal of his own will there being nothing else in which he could resemble God By which we see that Free-Will is the greatest spiritual Gift that Man has receiv'd from God since without it he could not any way resemble Him And afterwards to render this resemblance most compleat God took a natural Body and a reasonable Soul like to Man that he might in all respects resemble him that is divinely by the free Power of his VVill and after the manner of Man by the Body and Soul which Jesus Christ assumed in due time that not only Man might be like God but that also God might be like to Man that there might be a perfect and compleat Contentment between God and Man which will appear after the end of all Evil when God shall reign with Men on Earth Divinity and Humanity together joining themselves inseparably by an indissolvable and eternal alliance of Will Body and Spirit by a perfect Bond and Union This is the final Cause for which God became Man that they might dwell together in an Eternal holy Union the figure of which he shew'd in the Earthly Paradise when he created the Woman to give Adam his compleat and perfect contentment for though indeed he had been created with his Free-will to be able to love God and take delight in him and also in all the Creatures which were made subject to him yet his Contentment was not fully perfect for God was to be the delight of his Soul and all the other Creatures of his Senses But his Body did not see its like therefore God says It is not good for Man to be alone let us make a help like to him Because God will make all his
most on the contrary we regard often what does most delight our senses or rather what is most for our advantage and thus we render our love vain or please the vanity of those who love us For this cause I have found it more sure to avoid all persons who would love me Nature does often flatter us in this point perswading us that we love the soul of the person when we love only the body and its endowments or our own delectation and advantage And having ask'd her why she would not stay in one fixt place since she was out of her own Country and why she would not be known She answered Tho I am a Stranger yet I may be taken notice of by staying long in one place which I do not desire for men are full of vain curiosity they would hinder my inward repose and quiet without any profit therefore I love rather to travel and continue unknown for men cannot give me any thing nor I them And having replied unto her that men might instruct her in the matter of perfection or that she her self might also instruct some others She answer'd I never learn'd any thing from any man and as to the teaching of them they have too much presumption of their own knowledge to hearken to a Child as I am I choose rather to leave them in their Ignorance than to speak to them to be pursued and persecuted by them I ask'd her if she was not afraid of being wanting in Charity to her Neighbours while she would not teach them or believ'd that they would persecute her in well-doing She said Sir if I had not made the experiment I durst not say so but believe me I have search'd in diverse places for persons who were esteem'd good men to declare my sentiments to them and to manifest the blindness that is now in Christendom and I have not found any body who has followed my sayings on the contrary some have reproach'd and persecuted me so that I have been constrain'd to withdraw out of their reach for they would have treated me hardly and even imprison'd me because I told them the truth which they will not learn because it reproves 'em They oppose themselves and are alarm'd against this truth more than against the Devil himself at this time it is put out of credit those who possess it are oblig'd to hold their peace and to conceal themselves I have experienc'd this in divers Countries where I have every where met with this opposition by which I sufficiently perceive that the darkness is universal thro all the world I cannot be wanting in charity in this point for I have often expos'd my Life for the salvation of my Neighbour and I would do it yet if I found matter dispos'd which failing I am resolv'd to continue alone tho with regret seeing all the world perish while they will have no help and will not know their blindness I do not believe that God will reckon with me as being wanting on my part to my Neighbour in what was in my power I ask'd her from whence she deriv'd her sentiments and what Books she made use of for her spiritual reading She said She had never taken any thing out of Books that she made no use of them nor carried any with her on the way but a small one in which were written the WORDS OF JESVS CHRIST which she carried instead of a Box of Reliques not to read it but out of devotion esteeming those words more than all the Reliques of the world and as for her sentiments that they came to her without her knowing how that in her Childhood she had been instructed in the principles of the Catholick Faith and that coming after wards to the use of reason she found her self replenish'd with the Doctrines of Jesus Christ and entertain'd her spirit with the consideration of the life of the first Christians These thoughts inflam'd her with a desire of imitating and following them therefore she said to her parents and friends Let us go into the Conntry where the Christiaus live whom Jesus Christ has taught And when they answer'd her Here is the Land of the Christians Jesus Christ has taught us She thought within her self that this could not be true that the life which she and all other persons led was not conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ nor to that of the first Christians She always ask'd again Where was the Land of the Christians till every one derided her as if she had been a Fool assuring her that she liv'd in the Land of Christians and that they had the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which she could not comprehend saying I see here Coffers full of Silver costly Furniture and sine Houses whereas Jesus Christ was poor and born in a Stable How can we be Christians I cannot believe this At last she resolv'd not to speak any more of it thinking in the mean time how she might find the way and the opportunity of coming one day into the Land of Christians While she consider'd all the actions and deportment of men she found them always more contrary to her sentiments which made her often weep when she was alone and she made her complaint to Jesus Christ and ask'd him how she might live as a Christian and be his Spouse It seems says she Sir that God had pity on my tender tears for a little after I receiv'd a secret advertisement as if some one had spoken within me and answered my demands This gave me so much consolation that childish plays and pleasures were no more agreeable to me I could find no other contentment but in entertaining my self with these secret thoughts that taught me all the sentiments I still retain not but tho thro my wickedness I lost this conversation for a time when inclining to follow the pleasures of the world and to give my self to the vanities of youth earthly sentiments began to possess my spirit But the great mercy of God has since recall'd me and restor'd the same inward delights with more solidity and light I never acquir'd sciences any other way than by recollection I have no need either of Books or Masters to teach me on the contrary they would be a great hindrance to me if I should make use of them even an Angel from Heaven if visible would hinder me This I could hardly understand saying to her if an Angel from Heaven would be a hindrance to you how dare we speak to you any more to hinder you She said Do not mistake me Sir I mean that an Angel from Heaven can teach me no more than I learn by my inward conversation therefore he would be unprofitable to me but you cannot hinder me so long as you profit by my words my Charity
may serve them only for Delight and Pleasure without being able to do any more evil as they were in the beginning of their Creation and all the Malignities which they have contracted by the Sins of Men shall be rendred unto their Authors The Fire of Hell will not be like that which we see because it is now a mixture of the works of God with the malignity of the works of Men as all other things are God has given unto Fire a sweet and agreeable Light and Heat and Sin has given it blackness and to burn These two evils shall be removed and confin'd to Hell that it may burn and blacken the Bodies of Men who have thus spoil'd the works of God by their Rebellion There will not be in Hell Elements or Beasts or other things as God has made them but only the malignity which every one of all these Creatures has contracted by sins For Example the Venom will be removed from Serpents and other creeping things and will be reserved for Hell As also the fury from Lions and Bulls that they may converse with the Blessed with Meekness and Gentleness and that nothing may be able any longer to give them pain that Fire may give heat and light without burning that the Air may surround them without being troubled that the Water may refresh and recreate them without being moved that the Lyons Serpents and all other wild Beasts may sport with Men for their Delight and Recreation and that all things may remain on the Earth to render the Body of Man happy that with his Soul it may have a perfect eternal contentment seeing that the Body has born with the Soul the saving Penitence which God had ordain'd it Whereas on the contrary the Bodies of the Wicked have rebelled against this Penitence and desiring to take their Delights instead of Sufferings To which the miserable Soul acquiescing they have justly merited to suffer joyntly in Hell which will likewise be Material and upon Earth that it may act upon Bodies as well as Souls which was not necessary before the Judgment since that Devils and Damned Souls had no need of a material Place for their being Tormented for all the evil of Souls consists in the privation of the Presence of God The Twenty seventh Conference That a care to withdraw from the Plagues is even a self Love and than the Conversation of our Souls with God suffices us in all Places I Said to her That I saw evidently we drew near to the end of the World because God gave these Discoveries of many things which never any body had understood That her Light was not Human And I entreated her for the love of God to tell me where that little corner of the Earth might be which God would reserve for his Servants that I might save my self during the Plagues She said to me Sir be not curious to know where this material Place will be which God will reserve for his Friends I my self durst not ask him fearing to seek my self or my own repose We are yet in the time of Penitence If we would withdraw that we may not suffer this would be but self-Love We shall be every where in security when our Soul shall be united with God and even tho our Body should feel the Plagues our Soul shall be comforted in the midst of Sorrows as S. Lawrence was in the midst of burning Coals and so many other holy Martyrs Let us rather think of conversing always with God than of putting our Body in a place of Security because it will be always secure in conversing with God If there be a danger which he would not have us suffer he will warn us of it always in time as he did Noah Lot and so many others of Friends He will not permit any thing to befall us but that in which he would try or purge us Do not so much desire to know the place where you may retire as to know the place where God resides to converse with him For in this alone consists all our safety both Bodily and Spiritual You might indeed withdraw bodily into some place of Security where your Souls notwithstanding would not be sure of being Saved And if this were it would be but a poor Safety for our Life is so miserable that to lose it is more desirable than to preserve it were it not the fear of not having yet accomplish'd the Penitence due for our Sins Otherwise Death is pleasant and this Life grievous were it not that it may have God to converse with Without this there is nothing but Miseries I asked her In what place I might find this continual Conversation with God that I might be every where in Security and not fear Death She said Sir You must not go out of your self for God is the Centre of your Soul You must not seek him among the publick Places of the City as the Spouse in the Canticles did who was beaten by the Soldiers But re-enter into your self and you will find him He is no where more particularly than in the Souls of Men. These are his real living Temples where he rests at Noon that is in his most clear Light There entertain your Spirit with him and he will entertain himself with you He is more desirous to hear us than we are to speak to him neither going out nor in nor any other affairs whatsover can hinder this inward Conversation On the contrary it perfects all things So soon as our Affections are taken off from all other Objects and set upon God alone we will find him every where and he will never cease to give us his Graces to accomplish perfectly all our Enterprizes how little so ever they be for his Spirit was the true Wisdom which is not ignorant of any thing no more of Temporal things than of Spiritual This Spirit perfects all sort of things There is no place or condition be what it will that can divert us from this Conversation when our Affections are carried toward it Make a little Experience of it Sir and you will find what I say to be true You could not any longer fear Death in possessing the Author of Life for whether we live or die we will be always in the Earthly Paradise in which nevertheless we may indeed sin as Adam did because there are yet in this miserable Life so many things which may divert us from God that without great violence we cannot remain in this Spiritual Conversation but if Nature must do so great violence to it self at Death to separate from the Soul why may it not do a less to separate it self from that which hinders our union with God It is in this that Jesus Christ says if your Eye your Foot or any other Members of your Body do offend you cut them off pluck them out and cast them from you To shew that we must force our selves to part with all that
to know if really she has the Quality of our true Mother and if she be allied with our true Father who is unchangeable in all his Qualities to whom this Spouse ought to be alwayes conformable We must see if what they call our Mother has the Spirit and the Works of our Father and if we find no Likeness in her we must renounce her and hold her as a Deceiver and a Liar unworthy of our Affection The Twentieth and Seventh Conference Shews The true Marks whereby to discover where the True Church is and that it concerns every one to examine it I asked her How I might discover where my true Mother the true Church is What Marks there are whereby to know her that I may not be deceived She said Sir You shall discover her by this that she will follow the Footsteps of Jesus Christ and be wholly conformable to his Doctrine There is but one Church only as there is but one onely God and there is so strait a Bond and Alliance between God and the Church that they are but one and the same Thing as it is said that in Marriage Two are but one Flesh so in the Alliance of God with the Church two are but one Spirit God is the Bridegroom and the Soul is the Bride As it is said concerning Adam Let us make a Companion meet for him for it is not good that Man should be alone This is the Figure of what he had said before Let us make Man after our own Likeness because it was found meet that God should delight himself with something that was like to him For this cause he created the Divine and Eternal Soul and plac'd it in the Body and Understanding of Man that it might multiply and communicate it self For it is the Property of Good to be communicative This Divine Soul being form'd in Time must live for ever else it should not have been Divine nor capable of being united and ally'd to God who created it for these ends And as Adam and Eve ought to have been united in Heart Body and Will so the Soul ought to be united in Love Understanding and Will with God Not that Natural Love nor that Humane Understanding no more than our bounded Will Because all this has no Sympathy with God and they are but the Case wherein God has shut up this Divine Soul which is Free and Eternal as God This Divine Reason and Free-will make the Church by the Alliance that God makes with it which is much more strait than the Alliance that this Divine Soul makes with the Animal Soul of Man which do so nearly approach one another that no Humane Spirit is able to distinguish them no more than any can distinguish the Free and Rational VVill from God himself Because he has so straitly united them that the Soul is God and God is the Soul as the VVill of Eve was that of Adam so the VVill of the Soul is that of God By which you may still discover Sir where the Spouse of God or the True Church is Because where she is to be found she carries still along with her the same Qualities of her VVell beloved and when you do not find them in those who call themselves the Church believe firmly that they are all Cheats For the Spouse of God will be alwayes comely and there can be no Blemish in her Because she shall never be parted from the Qualities of her Husband alwayes Just Good True and All-powerful And when you shall see Sion Jerusalem Judea or Rome such as you call the Church to be fallen away from these Qualities never believe that she is your Mother the Holy Church Upon these Accounts Jesus Christ has so often warned you to beware of false Christs and false Prophets For they come to delude and deceive many Do not let your self be deluded Sir For there shall never be but one True Church which shall be united to God VVhosoever has not this Unity is not the Church but they are Seducers of the People who under this Cloak of God's Spouse do seduce many You must lift up your Head and look on high to see whence the Church took her Original and you will perceive that the Church is no other but the Alliance that God made with the Divine Soul of Man which he made his Spouse though she was unworthy of it He so ennobled her that he would joyn himself to her and ally with her by an indissoluble Alliance which can never end for the Two Parties are Immortal to wit God and the Divine Soul But to take for the Spouse of God Persons who are no wayes in the Spirit of God nor in Union with him and to reverence them as the Church is to wrong the Honour that we owe to God To see a Church seek the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this VVorld and to believe that she is the Spouse of God is to derogate from her Divine Quality and to ascribe the Honour to Vice that is due only to True Vertue VVe should not thus let them cover our Eyes as they do to those who are going to be hanged that they may not see their doleful End VVe must take off this Bandage that we may look about us and learn where the True Church is which can save us and not suffer our selves to be led on blind-fold to Eternal Death by VVords or false Appearances since Truth only is capable to save us I said to her That I had never yet discovered Souls united to God and that nevertheless I believed I was in the Church She said Sir You are deceived For the Church is no where but in the Souls that are united to God no more than a Woman can be the Spouse of a Man who has never approached her We must not believe that the Church consists in wearing a Garment of Purple or Red or Fine Linnen These are rather the Marks of the Reprobation of the falsely Rich Man who was buried in Hell and the Scripture brings no other cause of his Damnation than these Fashions of Apparel and that he was Rich and a Feaster If all these Things were Marks of his Damnation why should they be now a dayes the Marks of the Holy Church God is not changeable He cannot now unite to himself what he then Reprobated and Condemned No no Sir the Spouse of God will never be vain nor proud nor polluted with any sin For she is all pure Do not think that you are in the Church when you are under Persons who seek Riches of this World for such Souls are Adulteresses and have abandoned their lawful Husband and live in Adultery with the Kings of the Earth Which ought to make you abhor her instead of cleaving to her If you have never met with Souls resigned to God you have never found the True Church Because there never was any other and never will be hereafter She must
from the wise nor the word from the Prophet come and let us smite him with the Tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words But God has quite other Designs the Lord has said according to the declaration of an other Prophet Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me and their fear and worship of me is nothing but formality and taught by the precept of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid This is an unavoidable judgment which they must resolve to undergoe and their resistance will only serve to make them be more entirely crusht by the powerful hand of God This will be to the little ones and to the simple matter of joy and gladness and they shall sing praises unto the Spirit of God whom Jesus Christ shall send to possess the place of that human and diabodical Spirit which he will extripate blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. If you have a sincere desire to be of the Number of these little and simple ones you will easily perceive by the Divine Light that is communicated to you that God begins to fulfill his word as well as the desire that we profess to have in that Prayer of the Church come lovely Spirit and renew the Earth You will afterwards be more fully convinc'd of this Truth by other works of this nature This is faithfully and sincerely communicated to you according to the Manuscript of the late Mr. De Cort who nourisht his Soul with these Truths by which he had been regenerated to God and incited to renounce the Vanities of this World I have neither added nor substracted any thing from it except some words at the top of the Pages and before the Conferences to serve for an Abridgment of the matter and a help to the memory of the Reader I began also to quote the passages of the Holy Scripture to shew that their is an entire conformity not only of the Doctrin Words and Sentiments but even of the Life Conduct Actions and other Accidents of this Maid with those who were heretofore unquestionably enlightn'd and govern'd by the Holy Spirit But since the prosecution of that Design would have required a great deal of time and since it may be probably supposed that most Readers will not give themselves the trouble of searching and examining so great a number of passages it was thought sufficient to illustrate the first Conference with all the particular Quotations as a sample of that absolute uniformity with the Spirit of God and his direction which might have been easily carried on throughout the whole Work And in the remaining part of the Book you will only find the most necessary passages cited or those which have most manifest relation to the Text. God grant Beloved Reaader that you may reap from this Work an Advantage which may dispose thy Soul to become a Child of his Grace and to receive his Holy Spirit This is the hearty and earnest desire of P. P. P. THE PREFACE OF Monsieur de Cort TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Here present you with an Account of what befel me in a Voyage I made to a far Country to come to which I travelled above a Year accompanied with several of my own Country-men who with me were Eye-witnesses of our meeting by the way with a Pilgrimess who spoke to us admirable and amazing Things that are capable of converting unto God all those who shall read or hear the hidden Secrets of the Righteousness and Mercy of God and the Blindness of Men and the Power which the Devil at present has over them The Thing is as profitable as astonishing for it has never been conceived or comprehended by any humane Wit It must needs proceed from a divine Understanding and it must needs be a Celestial or Terrestrial Angel for neither Philosophy nor Theology could ever teach me the Things which this Pilgrimess taught me in the small time wherein I travelled with her but in a way so simple and so unaffected that all her Words did pierce my Heart and enlighten my Understanding working in my Soul Joy and Compunction together I was at first quite transported beside my self and I thought all my Understanding was renvers'd while I heard her first Discourses being of Opinion that the Words of Jesus Christ were fulfilled in that he says I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and abolish the Prudence of the Prudent for of necessity all Men how knowing and learned soever they be must be struck dumb and confounded by the simple Wisdom of this Pilgrimess and I took it for a singular Mercy of God that he was pleased yet to declare his Secrets to any of his Servants wishing for the Memory of an Angel that I might be able to declare all that I heard of this Pilgrimess since nothing proceeded from her Mouth which was not profitable and most enlightning very convincing and powerful capable of converting the most hardned Hearts and obstinate Sinners But I must yield to my Weakness not being able to declare any other thing but what my Memory shall furnish me with being helped by some Remarks which I made when I had the conveniency of Writing I entreat the Reader that in this Narrative he may not seek for Ornament of Language nor Philosophical Discourses but the naked simple Truth since God makes use of weak Things to confound the strong I will not at all disguise or adorn her Language fearing to oppose the Designs which God has to manifest to all the World that he reveals his Secrets to Babes and that he resists the mighty and the proud Ones of the Earth from whom he conceals and hides his Secrets and Wonders For this Reason we have ground to say with S. Augustin The Ignorant and the Vnlearned take Heaven by force and we with all our Sciences continue drown'd in earthly Affections Are we ashamed to follow them because they have out-run us We ought rather to be ashamed not to follow them And to add here also the Words which the Pilgrims of Emaus said one to another when they remembred what Jesus Christ had spoken to them by the way while he explained to them the Holy Scriptures to wit Was not our Heart on fire and did it not burn within us when he spoke to us in the way and opened unto us the Holy Scriptures This Pilgrimess in speaking to us must certainly be animated with the same Spirit with which our Saviour was for each of us felt his Heart to burn by her powerful Words which did gently beget in our Souls a Contempt of created Things and a Love of Things eternal enlightning our Understandings by Truths so clear that they could not proceed from any other than from the Father
say that her Life was altogether miraculous as if Adam had never sin'd in her This we do not speak lightly but after much proof and experience by so constant and familiar a Conversation of so long continuance travelling with her Night and Day amidst Ease and Trouble Want and Abundance and so many other Occasions which are to be met with in Traveling of observing a Person exactly in all her Manners where nothing can remain unknown or counterfeited coming under the Eye and Judgment of Persons of Learning and Judgment as this Pilgrimess has done who assuredly was sent to us from God to manifest us his Secrets and his Wonders This is an Instance of his great Mercy that in the midst of so gross universal Darkness as is at present in the World God has vouchsafed yet to send us such a Light capable of enlightning the whole World at least all those who will receive it For no Body can seriously read or hear the Discourses of this Pilgrimess without discovering the state of his own Conscience and also the poor Estate into which Christendom has now fallen the blindness of Men and the hazard of their Salvation She shews clearly that we live now in the last Times that this is the Reign of Antichrist that he has almost full Dominion over all Men that his Kingdom will very shortly be at an end She does not draw her Discourses from imaginary Things nor from fine Speculations invented by Philosophical or Poetical Reasonings but in a Reasoning so firm and constant that she seems to possess in her Nature the Abridgment of all the Sciences of Men together with Truths so convincing so clear and eloquent capable of engaging every good Understanding to an infallible Belief though her Stile is always simple and sincere She spoke Of Extasies and Ravishments which the Devout esteem Vertues as great Imperfections and Weaknesses for Souls establish'd in Vertue which consists only in Righteousness and Truth and Faith saying that all the rest were nothing but amusements on which a Soul establish'd in the Love of God will never rest She told us such high Mysteries of our Faith as never any has attain'd to so clear Understanding of them She spoke of Judgment quite after another manner than all the Authors who ever wrote upon this Subject and yet with such clearness that every Mind would be ravish'd at it with pleasure and astonishment She knew Things to come and did not foretel them but by way of supposition or related them as if she had dream'd them We found divers times that she could tell what past in her absence and how our Souls behav'd themselves towards God She made no reckoning of all these extraordinary Graces saying That they gave nothing to the Soul which possesses them that neither Miracles nor Gifts of Prophecy were necessary to our Salvation that one might have them and yet be damned that all our Happiness consists in possessing in our Souls the Love of God which is true Charity that other Gifts are accidental that the Wicked may indeed work Miracles and have the Gifts of Prophecy when it pleases God that the Devils themselves do frequently Things altogether miraculous and foretel likewise Things to come In short this illuminated Soul desired nothing but what was solid and perfect rejecting even a great many particularities which are mention'd in the Life of some Saints saying That either they had Imperfections among their Vertues or rather that they who wrote their Lives were not endowed with the holy Spirit to discern true Vertue from natural Weaknesses that God was not visible to the Eyes of the Body that our Imagination may frame many Visions of divers Figures and that the Devil mingles himself always in things sensible to our Gust and to our natural Senses that there are great Cheats among Persons who make Profession of a spiritual Life that the Devil slips in there as an Angel of Light and that he who does not force himself to overcome his natural Inclinations can never come to live Christianly that all that is of Nature is not of Grace that to live a Christian one must live supernaturally that our Soul is a Spirit that God does not communicate himself unto it but in Spirit and in Truth That there are none but Souls purified from themselves and from all earthly Objects who hear the Voice of God that the Cares of ones Health of his Honour and of his Wealth are great hindrances to the receiving of divine Notices which are formed by the sole motion of the Soul which receives and understands them according as it is stript of it self In short this divine Soul told us so many Secrets of the mystical and inward Life that all our Theology was too short and insufficient to answer her to so high Questions not only in Matters of Theology but also in all other Matters according to the various Rencounters and Occurrences which fell out in so long a Voyage so that one would have thought that tho' a Man had perused all sorts of Histories and grown old in the Study of all sorts of Sciences he could not know with such Understanding all the Things which this Pilgrimess told us Which she made very little reckoning of saying That all the Sciences which do not serve as means to love God are vain and frequently the occasion of our Damnation Her Conversation was always serious and when by chance we felt into any unprofitable or indifferent Discourse she was silent and calmly withdrew making appear sufficiently that it was not agreeable to her and sometimes she said Discourses which profit nothing do weary and oppress my Spirit I love my Solitude better in which it re-inforces it self and becomes vigorous And therefore I entreat you let me go alone as long as I profit you in nothing and you will do me a pleasure It is impossible to write in particular the admirable Things which we heard of this Pilgrimess She told us so great Marvels concerning the State of the World the just Vengeance that God would take of wicked Christians and the Mercy which he would shew unto the Good that the like were never heard of and it would be hard to believe them if this did not come from the Mouth of a Soul directly illuminated who spoke by the motion of the holy Spirit So that we may say of her Discourses what S. Paul said of his Rapture That he had seen and heard things which Eyes had not seen nor Ear heard and that is has not entred into the mind of Man what God has prepared for his Elect. What she said was to fall out in the last Time during the Judgment and after the Judgment was never before heard of nor conceived They are Things which do ravish all Men with Fear with Joy and with Astonishment For my part I can say as to my self that the meeting with this Pilgrimess has withdrawn me from all sort of Evil has given me a
penitence because they had too much love for themselves and too little affection to seek God esteeming their ease more than the contentment there is in the loving and following of him for this cause they had left her And as for Dangers God preserv'd her she having past thro many dangers without being hurt that her confidence was in him alone who has all power in heaven and in earth that he never forsakes them who put their confidence in him that she reckon'd it a happiness to suffer hunger thirst and other troublesome things since Christ had chosen such sufferings to give us an example and to the end we might follow him and that she had no other intention in this undertaking but to abandon the world to deny her self and to imitate Jesus Christ which she could not so well do in her own Country since the care of temporal wealth the love of friends and the pleasures there are in being honour'd and esteem'd are all things which withdraw from God and hinder the resigning of our selves to him that penitences chosen after our mode are full of self-love but that those which God permits to befal us are pure that the length of the way was not troublesome to her for she had no desire of ever staying in one fixt place because there she found too many distractions by the importunity of the conversation of men who would have disturb'd her inward repose and that she desir'd very much to live unknown We admir'd all this answer for it seem'd not to proceed from human sence since Nature takes no part in so pious a resolution and one must live supernaturally to despise ease friends and honours and to love sufferings and fatigues and flee the conversation of men seeing they are all sociable Creatures delighting themselves among their equals and rejoycing to converse with their like It gave us sentiments of confusion saying one to another what Confusion shall we have in the day of Judgment when simple Girls do such things to please God and we amidst all our Learning and Studies are so far remov'd from such sentiments Truly this Child will condemn us We resolv'd to accompany her and to examine her more narrowly seeing there was something peculiar in her above the spirit and capacity of the female sex for her discourses were firm constant and full of judgment and of divine wisdom tho no ways artificial nor polite but simple and true and in every thing admirable We ask'd her if it was therefore necessary that every one should leave their Country to be sav'd To which she answer'd No for God is to be found every where and in all places that those who are not wedded to any thing have no need of doing it but as for her the removing from her native Country serv'd her as a powerful means to love God alone since before her withdrawing from it her affection was set upon her City her House her Parents her Friends as all appertaining to her but that having done violence to her nature to abandon them she had acquir'd a great liberty of spirit to flie unto God But for other persons who feel no affection to those things which belong to them they may indeed work out their salvation in every place saying that every one ought to examine themselves in this matter as in all others and to remove or avoid all things which hinder them from resigning themselves wholly to God without doing of which there is no salvation And having ask'd her if to be sav'd one must suffer hunger and thirst and all other things troublesome to the body She said That a man ought not to seek nor affect these things but when it pleases God to send them by any accident he ought to suffer them willingly and to rejoyce that he makes us worthy to follow him and to imitate his sufferings Having ask'd her if poverty was necessary to salvation She said That temporal Goods were not evil in themselves but that poverty of spirit was necessary to salvation because a soul who loves and desires temporal goods cannot love God with all his heart nor fulfil the first and the greatest Commandment that riches were a great burthen that they occasion'd great distractions and disquiet that the most secure way was to rid ones self of them unless they serve as means to advance the Glory of God or succour our Neighbour in his necessity that many deceiv'd themselves believing they possest them without affection to them while they would be much troubled to abandon them that we may indeed use them but not love them that many will be damn'd for having lov'd riches and that a great many are stopt in the mid way of Vertue by the cares and desires of riches And asking her if one might not receive honour or suffer to be belov'd by men She said That he who makes himself be honour'd robs the honour which is due to God only and if it be fit to suffer honour for any estate or dignity it ought to be suffer'd with regret as a thing perillous to the infirmity of our corrupt nature which willingly delights in honour which ordinarily tickles the sense and blows up the heart making the soul to perish forasmuch as the honours which we receive without referring them to God are all sins for there is none but God alone who deserves honour and man how great and exalted soever he may be can never merit any thing but contempt and confusion for he being nothing but a silly worm of the earth has notwithstanding rebell'd against his God and Creator And as to the desire of being lov'd by men that this proceeds from self love that our nature affects always to be lov'd to receive some effect of good will from those who love it but that all which is of nature is not of Grace that he who acts spiritually and seeks the perfection of his soul ought to regret and be troubled to see that man who is created only to love God should amuse himself in loving such a creature as he who has no power to better the object which he loves and that it is loss of time and the turning of ones self away from God to love men or to desire to be lov'd by them We may indeed desire that they love God in us for we are all his Images and we may also love them as the Images of God since he commands us to love our Neighbours as our selves for asmuch as both are the Images of the same God but this love ought to be so purely for God that we should have no respect of persons rich poor friends and enemies kindred or strangers and which is very rare to see that in our love we should affect those in whom God lives and operates
the other a serious recollection of spirit may teach us this We speak of God says she as if he were some Phantom of Paradise as an imaginary thing and of our selves as a temporal and transient thing Where is the man living who can comprehend what God is and in what place he abides It is true we have need of some words to signify what we would say therefore we say that God is in Paradise as in the place of his abode But we must not be so simple as to believe that God has any particular abode for there is nothing which can contain him being greater than all things We say that he is in the Heavens and nevertheless the Heavens are but his Creatures very uncapable of being able to contain him We say that he is on the right hand of his Father whither he is ascended These are all words to signify in our Gibberish our little conceptions but we can never attain to the knowledge of what God is or Paradise or even our own Souls for this cause we make often wrong judgments and the Learned fill our minds in this as in other things with the Idea's of their Imaginations which are of little use for our Salvation and far less for the Glory of God for frequently we give attributes to him which do greatly diminish it to speak after our fashion It is enough for our Salvation and his Glory that we know that there is one God and that he is the fountain of all Wisdom the accomplishment of all Power the perfection of all Goodness who never had beginning and shall never have end that he is an invisible and incomprehensible Spirit and that he has given us an understanding to comprehend all these Divine Attributes through the operations which they produce in our minds We may first know that there is a God because we feel in our selves that we have a dependance upon something which we cannot comprehend since all those things which we see in Heaven and in Earth are not capable of having created us nor of maintaining us for all men and all the stars with all that is created in heaven and in earth cannot add one hair unto our head nor give us one moment of life We must conclude therefore that there is a God above all things who has created all who upholds and governs all by a supream power since nothing can have given being unto its self there must have been of necessity some author of all things who has given them all a being and beginning No body can be ignorant of this truth tho they had nothing but a Pagan light And to perceive that he is the fountain of all wisdom we need but consider this beautiful universe how marvellously well done it is What artifice could keep the Globe of the Earth among the Waters What can give splendour to the Sun Beauty to the Moon Lights to the Stars Who can make a tree a fruit a flower a plant of so many different herbs Who can have made the birds of the air the beasts of the earth and of the sea in so many different kinds And above all who could have formed the body of man so wonderfully shap'd with so many different members How many veins muscles and tendons do concur to tye up this tender flesh What master could ever make such a master-piece must not this proceed from the fountain of all wisdom from which all the wisdom of men is derived which we admire without knowing the author of it except by the operations which we experience in our selve Who can be ignorant of his infinite wisdom while he looks upon the Creation and the upholding of this great Universe Who does not feel that he has not in himself any power if it be not given from a supream power which we do not know Who can be ignorant of that Incomprehensible Goodness while he receives every moment the effects of it All that man has he holds it of the Goodness of God for he could not have merited any thing before that God of his Goodness alone did create him We perceive evidently that he is an Invisible and Incomprehensible spirit for none ever saw God or can comprehend what he is He can never have had beginning having given beginning to all things How can that end which is eternally incomprehensible our soul cannot even comprehend itself nevertheless we may well judge that it is immortal for the Wisdom of God could never have created it to live for so small a time as we are upon earth He would have done a thing which was not good which cannot be for our soul is always in bondage so long as it animates this our miserable body God should not be just if he gave it not another time to rejoyce with him else the end of its creation should be miserable It must needs be for accomplishing the goodness and righteousness of God that it live a blessed eternity so that even he could not have created our body to live only this so miserable short life by far greater reason our soul which he created after his own image and according to his own likeness could not be created to be only a Prisoner in our body where it cannot act but by its co-operation with it no more can God act in us but by the co-operation of our soul because there is an indissoluble union in respect of the one and of the other For God is united with our soul as our body is also united with the same I admir'd these marvellous and unheard of discourses and that I might understand more I told her I had never sufficiently understood how the knowledge of God was unseparable from the knowledge of our selves She said to me Sir this is very easie to comprehend if you will seriously reflect upon it for no body can know that God is the fountain of all wisdom without perceiving at the same time that we can have nothing but ignorance only as experience makes sufficiently appear that no body has wisdom at his wish that it must be derived from that supream fountain whose works being considered it must be presently known and acknowledg'd that all our wisdom how great soever we may have imagin'd it being compar'd with the wisdom of God is nothing but pure ignorance and this not being known we will think that our wisdom is great As a person is always the most beautiful and the most perfect when she is alone but approaching others who have more perfection than she this makes her know what she is truly Even so when we know the perfections of God we know our own imperfections If we know his almighty power we shall presently perceive our own weakness or the perfection of his goodness we shall discover how far ours is from it For this cause I have said that we cannot know God without knowing our selves neither can we know our selves without knowing
deserves to be sought and Men do not deserve that God should seek them There are a great many Persons who say That they desire to love God but they desire not to quit their earthly Affections It is to no purpose to pray for such because they oppose themselves to the Grace of God not being willing to part with that which resists his Grace no more than God will give his Graces but to those who seek and desire them effectually in forsaking themselves and all other created things to find God I said to her That all her Sentiments were very far from the Sentiments of Men who believed that they might love God while they loved themselves or some other thing not vitiously She replied to me All Men now are possess'd with the Spirit of Error and of Ignorance For to believe that we may love God and our selves or other Creatures is a great Error and a false Persuasion for there is no relation between God and the Creature that they could dwell together in the same Place Our Soul was created Divine and Spiritual to the End God may rule there and if we debase it by the Love of Material and Human Things it is rendred uncapable of Divine things for that which is Carnal cannot be Spiritual and as Cold and Heat cannot abide together so Spiritual Things cannot dwell with Natural the one does always chase away the other a Contrary its Contrary Men live now as carnally as the Beasts being sensible of nothing but according to our brutish Senses And yet we would persuade our selves that we are Christians In which we are greatly deceiv'd for the Life of a Christian is a Spiritual Life not a Natural The Beasts are not created but for the Nature of Men but these are created for God who is a Divine Spirit We may sufficiently perceive this by considering the Course of our Life which is nothing but Pains Labours Vexations and Miseries Could it be possible that God should have created us for Ends so miserable as what we possess in this World This truly would be a miserable End God can never do such an Evil For no Evils can proceed from him but all sorts of Good The End of our Creation must be Divine and Spiritual or else Man would have Reason to curse the Day of his Birth which makes way for a miserable Life wherein those who are esteemed the most Happy are most to be bewailed We will esteem that Man happy who is a King a Prince or a Lord and they are all more miserable than a poor Peasant who has no other Cares but to maintain his Family and his Person whereas these others are oblig'd to maintain their Train their Subjects their Offices their Honours which they are sometimes oblig'd to defend at the Peril of their Lives Whereas a poor Fellow will accomplish the Course of his Life in Quietness notwithstanding of the Affronts which he receives A rich Man is likewise esteem'd happy for his Riches but what Labours does he not undergo to acquire them Or what Cares or Disquiets to preserve them It is altogether a Trade to have Riches A Man needs no other Work for all his Life-Time but to keep them well We will esteem a Person happy who is raised to an Estate Honour and Dignities Nevertheless there is nothing more miserable he being subject to all that concerns his Office not having sometimes the Leisure to attend upon himself How Circumspect must he be that he displease not the Great and that he may satisfie every Body which is indeed very difficult What Care must he take to provide for all that maintain him in Honour fearing lest he fall into any Disgrace or Contempt How must he bear with the Envious and with Slanderers In short Sir all these things which are call'd Happiness in this World are nothing but phantastical and imaginary Goods and real Evils They are so many Rattles which the Devil shakes that he may divert the Attention we ought to have upon God and he makes us forget the End for which we are created by all these Trifles which are nothing but real Amusements of Children and they make us perish through Ignorance rendring us uncapable of loving God I ask'd her Whether then all States Riches and Honours in which God or Nature has placed Men ought to be abandon'd And if we could not love God with any of these things She replyed They must be certainly left Sir before God can be lov'd Not that all these things are evil in themselves but because of the Infirmity of our Nature which has not found the Art of possessing them in God and while we possess them in themselves they are assuredly evil and hurtful to our Soul hindring it from Communion with God and from attaining to the End for which it was created It is just the same as if a Traveller instead of advancing on his Way to arrive at the Place which he aims at would needs stop in all the Gardens through which he must pass to gather and eat the Fruits which he found in them or to pass his Time in Smelling all the Flowers which he saw there We would reckon such a Person a Fool as in effect he would be because these Amusements and his Loss of Time would deprive him of the Happiness of arriving at the Place he design'd for and Night surprizing him by the Way would put him in hazzard of being pillag'd by the Robbers or devour'd by Wild-Beasts or at least incommoded as to his Rest which he would be oblig'd to take on the hard Earth with many Inconveniencies and Miseries All these Evils and Dangers would befal him because of the Folly he had committed in stopping among these Flowers and Fruits If he had only look'd on them at a distance smell'd them as he past along or pull'd an Apple for his Thirst this had not retarded his Journey but might have made it more Light by the Smell of the Flowers and the Refreshment of the Apple Even so is it as to Wealth Honours and Riches We being all Travellers and Pilgrims in this Life which ought to be compar'd but to a Day because of its short Continuance We travel towards Eternity but in our way we must pass through the Garden of this World wherein we perceive Fruits and Flowers which tickle our Senses On one Side we see the Riches which our Parents have left us or the Honour to which we have succeeded with some Place or Dignity These are the pleasant Fruits presented to our Eyes On the other side we perceive the Odour of Wine and of exquisite Meats rich Moveables beautiful Faces These are as so many divers Flowers and Fruits which charm our Smell but if we stop to taste and handle them we hinder our Journey to Eternity and we put our selves in Hazzard of being surpriz'd by Death and devour'd by the Devil who is always watching to
come to tell you that this is the Will of God you will never do it for God has no Will to make you leave it more than he had any to make you undertake it It concerns every one to examine what Mean will be most proper for him to facilitate his Salvation One may sufficiently perceive in his Conscience without consulting any Body whether Offices Estates and Benefices have been to us the means of more Union with God than if we had not possess'd them and if they have made us draw others to the same Union If we do not find this it is to be feared that our Offices and Benefices have not been sought for or possest for the Love of God but for some Human Accommodation which respects nothing but the Earth This being discover'd it is in your Will to resolve if now you desire to labour for Heaven or rather for the Earth I said to her That I would not pretend any longer to any thing upon Earth that I was very sorry that I had had some Pretensions thereto but that I durst not quickly abandon all without the Advice of some learn'd Person fearing that I might do evil She replyed Sir You are yet far from the Kingdom of Heaven when you will needs advise with Men if you shall follow Jesus Christ Has not he said He who leaves not Father and Mother and his own self cannot be his Disciple Now would you go to ask Counsel of any Man when Jesus Christ has given you his Where could you find better Men are all interested in their own Judgment and will never advise but what they judge most advantagious for Men they having no Light to perceive any other thing They are Flesh and judge according to the Flesh Would you refer what concerns the Salvation and Perfection of your own Soul to their Judgments You must needs perish with them For the Wisdom of Man is foolishness before God All the Evils of the World do proceed from this That Men are govern'd and advised by one another Is it not said somewhere Wo to the Man that puts his Confidence in Man I have also told you That if the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch For my part I can say in Truth That I do not remember that I ever committed any Faults but when I believ'd the Counsel of Men. We ought to go to the Source Sir and let alone the Streams The Gospel is left us in Writing for our Eternal Rule If the Apostles and other Disciples of Jesus Christ had gone to ask Counsel of Men they would never have follow'd him For Men would have call'd it a Folly to abandon all as they do yet to this Day For being of the Earth they respect nothing but the Earth and are blind in the things of the Spirit We can never do ill to follow the Counsels of the Gospel but indeed we may in following the Counsels of Men how learn'd soever For their Doctrines are of this World and that of Jesus Christ is of God The Seventeenth Conference How to discern whether the Motions which do press us to leave the Outward Hindrances to Divine Communion be from God or not That there are likewise Inward Hindrances and that one ought not to be wedded even to good Means I Said to her That I had not Light enough to be sure of my own Motions and to discern whether they are from God or from the Devil or from my self She said That it was good to discern them that the Motions from God do incite always to humble things which the Devil and Nature do oppose because they are things despised by Men and therefore these Enemies do abhor them What comes from God incites to Sufferings and to Patience the things which come from the Devil and from Nature do incite to seek our Ease and Pleasures without desiring to suffer any thing The things of God do lead to Poverty and Self-denial the Devil and the Flesh do desire Riches and seek to be esteem'd and praised In fine Sir says she what comes from God is always conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ For God cannot be contrary to himself Therefore the Light which you have receiv'd that moves you not to seek any longer for any thing upon Earth is but too sufficient to assure you that this Motion comes from God because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever rid themselves of their Pretensions upon each For they cannot profit by any other thing Nature could not sin any more without aiming at earthly things and the Devils could have no hold of a Soul which did not aim any longer at any thing upon Earth We might walk surely on such a Resolution without waiting for Counsel from Men who with their Wisdom do often quench the Lights of the Holy Spirit It were far better to consult the Gospel I was constrained to yield to such Truths I said to her that I would abandon all and would follow her all the Days of my Life She said with Joy Sir How happy will you be to abandon all Your Soul will be at liberty to fly unto God Your Spirit will be calm and your Body better disposed You will experience thereby both Bodily and Spiritual Good But I intreat you do not resolve to follow me always for as for my self I am willing to die alone and as for your concern it will be a greater Perfection that you be disingaged from all Creatures to the end you may wait upon God alone All Company how perfect soever it be is not God He requires our Heart so pure that he does not suffer that it should be divided So long as I can be helpful to you I love indeed to discourse with you But I wish rather that you may speak with God who is the Fountain of all Light He can teach you more in one Moment than all the Men of the World would do in a thousand Years So soon as you shall have found his Conversation you will not be able to take Pleasure any longer in any other Speak to him always Sir until that he answer you He will do it assuredly According as you shall separate your self from the Creatures accordingly you draw the nearer unto God There needs but to remove the Hindrances and this Divine Sun will shine fully into our Souls warming them with his Love He has infinitely more Desire and Affection to receive us than we have to seek him even tho' we be great Sinners he rejects no body he rather embraces them as the Father did his Prodigal Son You are his Child and the Work of his Hands Go to your Father with great Confidence He loves you He seeks you and calls you Do not delay any longer Go forward seek no longer for any other thing but him alone With extream Joy did I hear this Discourse asking her by what means I might find this Communion with God
the one withdrawing makes a separation as if they both withdrew So that God is as much remov'd from Man as Man has remov'd himself from him And having thus abandoned God what can we expect but universal Plagues which our universal Evils have drawn down upon our guilty Heads Which Plagues having purg'd our Crimes and burnt the Tares the good Grain will then be gathered into the Granary of God which is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I ask'd her Whether this Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall remain upon Earth for ever She saith yes Sir It will be Eternal and never end If you believe in Life Eternal which is an Article of our Creed you believe in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth I have also told you that there is no other Paradise but the Presence of God And whereas Jesus Christ is God as my word is me his Body must have some Station as also all the other Bodies of the blessed God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station nor yet our Soul which is also a Spirit A Spirit is through all and comprehends what is at a distance as well as that which is near As our Thoughts have no need of a way to go to Jerusalem They go thither in the twinkling of an eye for they do not stay in any place Even so God has no need of Heaven nor of Earth to stay in being a pure Spirit nor yet our Souls which are in Paradise when they are united unto God But our Body has need of Heaven and Earth and of all the other things which God has created for it because it is material it must also stay upon material things suitable unto its nature Therefore God has created all this World with all that is in it that Man may have his full delights as well in his Body as in his Soul For God makes nothing imperfect but all his Works shall have their compleat Perfections And resolving to create Man a kind of Creature Spiritual and Bodily both together he gives himself to him for to satisfie his Soul which is a Spirit he will give him likewise all created things to satisfie his Body So that the Soul shall take its delights with God and the Body its delights with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God has created them for those ends and for no other thing that Man might have his full perfect contentment of Body and Mind in that Life Eternal wherein Jesus Christ will reign always in Body and Soul with the Bodies and Souls of the Blessed who shall be united in Spirit unto God and in Body unto the Body of Jesus Christ Behold the alliance which God promised unto Abraham which he did not see but very far of and we see it now very near Do you not think Sir that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ must be upon Earth seeing that he has taken a Human Body like unto ours A spiritual thing cannot support but that which is spiritual But a material must have a stay agreeable to its Nature which is also material Who can or would change that Excellent Order which God has establish'd in all his Works so just and so perfect which alone are worthy of Admiration as the Author is of Adoration Can you yet doubt Sir that Jesus Christ shall reign upon Earth seeing it is a just and necessary thing Would you believe that God should create all this beautiful World only for this miserable Life of Penitence and that at the end of it he should abolish this great Work of his Hands or that he should consume by Fire the whole Universe This would not be a just thing that he had made all these things only for our Miseries This would be as much as to say that God had had little Wisdom I was ravish'd out of my self to hear things so unheard of so admirable and so charming And that I might understand a little more I ask'd her if the Earth and the World would abide for ever She said Yes Sir the Earth and all the rest that God has created will abide for ever in the State in which he established them at their Creation For the whole works of God are all Everlasting Therefore he has created all things with Seeds for to spring and to engender Eternally All which Generations must be made for the delight of Man without Pain or Labour All things would have brought forth their Kind according to their Species in a good and delightful manner x The Sun would have given his light and heat in measure without any Excess the Air without Storms the Sea without Tempests The Fire could not have burn'd us nor the Water drowned us nor the Earth brought forth Thorns nor the Beasts bitten and poyson'd us but all sort of things would have served us for Delight and Recreation So many little Beasts which are upon the Earth and in the Air which seâ—ems useless to us were created to the end that even the least of our Senses might be Recreated Even the diversity of Flies and many other sorts of Animals Herbs Trees and Flowers all these were created not only for the necessities of Men but also for their Delights Which things had nothing but Goodness and Perfection without Sharpness Prickings or Bitings How much more ought Man to be Good and Perfect seeing all these other things which were subjected to him had so much Goodness and Perfection You might ask me from whence it comes that all these Creatures are become Evil seeing they were created so good and perfect I will answer you That the sin of Man has caused all these Disorders and with Justice For all the Creatures of God ought to rise up against Man and take vengeance of his Ingratitude according to their power because he had merited that all that was given him for Joy should serve him for Grief Seeing he who ought to have serv'd for a delight z unto his God turns away from him to offend him his Justice would require that all the Creatures should do the same toward him since he had done it toward his God who had infinitely benefitted him more than any other Creatures which might well offend Man and become his Enemy when he was become the Enemy of God who tho he could not render his Creatures Evil because he is the source of all Goodness from whence nothing that is evil can ever proceed yet he might well permit that his Justice should be exercised by those inferior Creatures when Man had so justly deserved it I asked her If all those Creatures Animate and Inanimate would have an eternal Being She said Yes Sir nothing will perish of all that God hasmade But the evil that is in all these Creatures shall be taken away because it does not come from him and all that comes from Men shall Perish For Example That the Sun burns us and dazles the eyes which look upon him This
may hinder this our Conversation with God even tho it were our own Eye which we ought to pluck out if it hinder us The Twenty eighth Conference How we ought to Pray and to understand the Lord's Prayer in its perfect Sense which regards the Dispositions and Graces that shall be bestowed on us in the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ of which there are here Marvellous things spoken I Asked her How I ought to Pray to the end I might attain to this continual Communion She said to me Sir This Conversation is true Prayer which consists in the elevation of ones Spirit unto God And as long as we converse with God we are still in Prayer whether we adore him for his Almighty Power or bless him for his Favours or beg of him his Light and that which is necessary for us This is to Pray always as long as our Spirit is elevated unto God I know no other method of Praying If you ask of me words for Praying I will tell you what Jesus Christ told his Disciples when they intreated him that he would teach them to Pray as St. John did his Disciples Say Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name and the rest of the Lord's Prayer in which is comprehended all that we can ever ask of God for his Honour and our Salvation In these words are comprehended all the Adorations which we owe to God all the Thanksgivings which we can render him and all that we may or ought to ask of him for our selves and for all others This is the Prayer which Jesus Christ himself did compose and the only one which he taught his Disciples of which we ought to make more reckoning than of all the Prayers in the World Many Persons give themselves to divers Vocal Prayers composed by some Saints or to a number of Beads saying a great many Paters and Aves without reflection so that if we should enquire of these Petitioners what they ask'd of God by so long Prayers it may be it would be hard for them to tell because all passes in many words without much attention Others who seem more Pious and advanced in Virtue give themselves to some mental Prayers and pass many hours in silence on a design to pray to God But at the upshot of all there does not proceed any fruits from all these Prayers for we see them as imperfect at the end of twenty Years of their Prayers as the first day that they began them Yea very often they break their Head and crack their Brains by the force of multiplied Conceptions one Petition only of the Lord's Prayer well understood is of more worth than all these I said to her That I did not well understand the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer entreating her that she would explain them to me She said to me Sir you ask a thing which a long time ago I judged necessary for all People For I think no body does yet well understand that Prayer But we will need a little time to rest to declare it to you in particular Let us sit down here and I will tell it you First when we say Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name We acknowledge That God is our Father that it is he who has Created and Formed us Who art in the Heavens That is higher than all things We use the word Heaven because we know nothing by our Humane Understanding which is higher than the Heavens and when we would say that God is above all things we say he is in the Heavens to make our Sentiments in a certain manner to be understood And when we say His Name be Hallowed this is to wish that all Creatures may adore and bless him which has never yet come to pass on Earth where Men themselves do Blaspheme his Holy Name on all occasions by Word and Deed. God could not have formed this Petition for us if he were not one day to grant it to us For he could not make us ask a thing which he would not give And whereas all his Works will be perfect it cannot suffice that some particular Souls do hallow his Name It must be in a perfect sense that all Men in general with all other Creatures do hallow him which will not be untill Jesus Christ Reign in his Glory upon Earth Then all things will hallow the Name of God but never before And when we say Thy Kingdom come This is no other thing but to Pray that we may arrive at that blessed Kingdom wherein Jesus Christ shall reign over all the Souls and Bodies of the Blessed and over all Creatures For we have never had this Happiness that God should Reign entirely even in our own Souls Having always given hindrances thereunto by our corrupt Nature yea even in the Souls of the Apostles and other Saints God has never compleatly reigned having always there met with some hindrances or rebellions of their own Will against his He can never reign perfectly in us until he have rooted out all our Evils and Miseries that we may Reign with him Which we have never as yet done tho' we have desired to be wholly unto God we have never reigned over all our Passions and Affections so as that we might reign fully with God But we hope that after the Judgment this Kingdom of God will come unto us This is the hope of our Prayers Thy Kingdom come And when we say Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven We beg also the same Kingdom For in our present state we cannot obtain that the Will of God be fulfilled in us and in others as it is fulfilled in God who is always without any contradiction No body can perceive his own Will to be so united unto the Will of God as that of the Blessed who are dead in the Lord On the contrary many do directly resist his Will and the most Perfect follow it at some distance and not as the Angels and the Blessed do in Heaven For where God is all his Will is accomplished and where he is not all is there contradicted Therefore in this Life we never do the compleat Will of God as we shall do it in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ where Earth and Heaven will be the same thing Then his Will shall be fulfilled in Earth as it is in Heaven which we must always pray for untill we have obtain'd it as also That He give us daily Bread That is what we stand in need of daily for the Soul and for the Body Now likewise we cannot obtain these two things during this Life For he who would have bodily aliment ought always to labour and take pains and be sollicitous both in Body and Mind to obtain his aliment and when we receive it it is but in form of a reward because of our Cares and Labours For otherwise we must dye for want if we did not labour both in Body and
and cannot suffer from any It is it that desires its Ease and Repose with many other things for our Advantage It is always our selfwill that Works in us without ceasing This being discovered there is nothing more to be done but to interdict and forbid it these Operations to the end it may let God work alone in us what it shall please him and then there will be nothing more to fear For when we shall attain to this so much desired Resignation there is nothing more to be feared For God who will rule us will give us all things Does this seem difficult to you Sir that you doubt you cannot attain to it There is nothing to do here but to cease For God does then all in us There is nothing necessary but to rest For this Resignation consists not in Actions but in Omissions The Practice of it is so sweet that there 's nothing more desirable All consists in taking care not to let our own Will act And so often as we perceive that it is enclin'd to any thing to Bridle it and to say to it Cease for God only ought to move thee Is not this a sweet Exercise upon which notwithstanding our Salvation depends For if it depended upon wearing Sackcloth taking Discipline to our selves Fasting Watching or other troublesome things we wou'd have ground to say and to fear that we cou'd not attain to it but when we must only resign our Will to God no body can excuse himself without Hazard of perishing The Twelfth Conference Of discerning the Motions of God from those of Nature wich must be done by Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are three divine Qualities according to which all our Motions and all our Actions ought be regulated with great Care I Ask'd her how I might know when my own Will acted that I might make it cease She said Sir as often as it is led to any thing that is evil or very unprofitable it is certainly always our self-will Because God cannot encline it to such things And when we seek our Honour Pleasure or Profit this also proceeds from our self-will For God will never give any such Desires Indeed he permits them sometimes to befal us but he will never make us seek or desire them Therefore if we have a serious Application of Spirit we will remark presently if it be God or our self-will that acts in us For God can never move it but to good or necessary things and will never make our Will act but what shall be for his Glory or for the saving Good of our Neighbour Nothing else can come from God but from our self-will which is wholly deprav'd and ought never to do any thing for it self for it spoils all It were better to make it cease without any more ado than to let it act alone and without God Because we presume often that we have done many good Works which will be found to be evil and condemned by God because our selfwill was corrupted from the Beginning of the World in Adam and is yet more corrupted by our own actual Sins so that it is not capable of moving it self but to Evil and not at all to Good This may be very easily observed For we feel always in our selves some Inclination to do Evil And if it were not restrain'd or bridled by Reason or Vertue we wou'd do nothing without Sin or which did not â—avour of its Corruption For if we speak it will be still with an Inclination to augment what is for our Liking or Advantage or to excuse our Faults so that naturally we wou'd never abide in the streight Truth And if we converse or do Business with our Neighbour it will be still with a Spirit of Covetousness either of Wealth Honour or Pleasure so that all our own Bents and Inclinations are carried always to Evil unless we be habituated by Vertue or good Breeding not to follow Lying Rapine or Deceit nor the Spirit of Covetousness I ask'd her By what means I might discover if it be God that moves my Will in all my daily Actions She said Sir there are certain Marks whereby to know when these Motions come from God because they are always accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth which Qualities are still inseparable from God's Spirit who never changes but abides always righteous good and true and therefore cannot move to any Actions Words or Thoughts but those which are accompanied with these three Conditions or Qualities Therefore when we feel our selves moved to undertake any thing whatsoever we must always bend our Mind to remark our Undertaking ' ere we begin it and see if it respect the Glory of God or the saving Good of our Neighbour And if so we may persue our Undertaking but by means that are just good and true For else we may be yet mistaken thinking that it was for the Glory of God and the Good of our Neighbour when it was only our own Will and Inclination For a Motion that comes from God is still accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth and if we must lye or be unjust or hurt our Neighbour that we may attain to our Pretensions however they may be good in themselves yet nevertheless they are not of God That we may follow the Motions of God we must always observe this Rule to remark in all our Actions whether small or great if they are accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth And if all these together are not to be found in them we must still reject them as evil things and produc'd by our self-will For God will never move to any thing how small soever it be if it be not just good and true This is the true Touch-stone whereby to discover when Motions come from God We need not consult Oracles but examine well if our Works be disinteressed from all our own Advantages and if they be just good and true I ask'd her If my self-will might not mingle with the Divine Motions She said Yes Sir our self-will does very readily mingle with the Motions from God By this many Saints have committed great Faults This falls out when we arenot wholly disengaged from our selves and Nature does yet live with Grace Notwithstanding it is easie to discover it when we are not precipitate in any thing and when we take time to examine narrowly what we do to see if it be just and good and true Then there 's nothing to be fear'd whether our own will mingle there or not It 's God always is just good and true Our Nature being transform'd in him does the same Functions of Righteousness Goodness and Truth Therefore St. Paul said It is no longer I that live but Jesus Christ lives in me because the Soul which is resigned to God does so habituate it self to his Will that it always becomes one and the same thing with it so that its own Will being purged from it self moves no longer but
by God So that the Motions of the Soul and those of God become the same thing and they can no longer be distinguished because the Soul cannot now do any thing but what is just good and true unless it should depart from its Union with God and during this Straying should follow its own Will In this case it may do amiss and not otherwise But for you Sir you are not yet habituated to this Union examine still whether what you think speak or do be just good and true With this you cannot be mistaken even tho' yourown Inclination shou'd incite you to do things which have those three Qualities of God They are always of him tho' the Devil himself shou'd move them because there is nothing just good and true which is not of God because he only is just only good and only true And by these Marks you will certainly discern your own Motions from those of God and even tho' they were but mingled with them there wou'd still be something evil or unjust or untrue and then you must purge your Works from this Malignity or else omit them altogether I told her That I had yet one Doubt that is whether I ought to do or omit the Works in which I perceived not precisely these three Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth whether the Works were indifferent or necessary or out of Complaisance She said Sir you ought to do all necessary Works when they cannot be easily done by others And for those which are indifferent to do them is but to lose time They must either be unprofitable or have some end If this end does not respect the Glory of God take good heed of mis-spending time which is so precious Never be persuaded of this Indifference because under that Name we often do evil things without being aware of it We can never do indifferent things except very subtilly before we reflect upon what we are doing For otherwise all our Actions how small soever they be have some Scope at which they aim And as for Works of Complaisance they are forbidden by Jesus Christ when he says that he who seeks to please Men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ unless your Complaisance aim at some good or necessary End Otherwise every Deed of Complaisance is vain and evil Resolve Sir to do those things only which have the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God For all others are to be suspected and bring no Glory to God nor saving Good to our Neighbour and seeing you wou'd follow Jesus Christ seek those things which are above and not those which are upon the Earth which must very quickly perish It is better to lay up Treasures for Heaven where the Rust does not corrupt For tho' you shou'd gain herethe Friendship of all the Men of the World by your Works of Complaisance they cannot give you any thing One Degree of the Glory of God is of more worth than ten thousand Worlds Endeavour Sir to labour for this or be still Make no more fruitless Labour For all that is not of God is nothing and God alone is all permanent Good I said to her That I had not made this serious Reflection to remark if all my Actions were accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth but that I did them often without thinking on any thing if I did not remark in them any of my own Wickedness She said Sir you do therefore commit many Faults both in respect of this present World and that to come For by proceeding inconsiderately it is certain you act only according to the Motions of Nature which being corrupted can do nothing that 's good After this manner your good Actions are but humane and will end with you this is a very prejudicial Ignorance not to know that all the Works which we do naturally shall not be rewarded before God and that all their Reward is received in this World Many Persons have done many such good Works who notwithstanding shall never be sav'd And even tho' they shou'd suffer Martyrdom by natural Motions this wou'd profit them nothing because to partake of Eternal Life all must have the Righteousness of God For finite things cannot come to be infinite Now all our Works which do not partake of God are finite and cannot reach Eternity because they have not these Eternal Ends but Natural or Temporal ones In this many do greatly deceivethemselves looking for Salvation by Works simply Humane or Natural believing that all Works are good when they are not accompanied with our designed Malice It 's thus before Men who judge only according to the Reach of their short Sight But the clear-seeing Eyes of God do judge according to Eternal Truth and Righteousness Therefore we must endeavour to do our Actions according to these else we shall remain empty-handed at Death It 's not enough that we cease to do evil we must also do well or otherwise we shall fall into the Sin against the Holy Ghost which is a Presumption of being saved without good Works and none can be called good if they bear not the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God His Righteousness does every just thing both as to our selves and our Neighbour His Goodness does good to all and evil to none His Truth is always streight and single and when our Actions are not accompanied with these three Conditions they don't proceed from God but from our Nature or the Suggestions of the Devil who willingly covers his most subtil Temptations with seeming Good that he may make every one believe they shall be saved without good Works by making them esteem their Natural and Temporary Works to be good I said to her I should have great Difficulty to apply my self so as to remark always whether my Actions had these three Qualities and if they were only divine Motions She said Sir if you do not this you 'll lose all your Reward and will also occasion the Damnation of many others while you think you are doing good Works For Example you see some one in Want Your Nature is mov'd with Compassion towards him Without more Reflection you give him of your Goods either what is superfluous or even what you need your self and you believe you do a Work of Charity Nevertheless it may be ill done For if you don't consider from whence the Poverty of that Man proceeds you 'll often occasion his Condemnation For your Gifts may serve him for means to offend God as if he be enclined to drink your Alms will lead him to new Acts of Drunkenness or if he have a proud and haughty Heart by your Gift he 'll be the more puffed up employing it upon sumptuous Apparel or other Vanities to nourish his Pride and his Boasting or to commit other Excesses to which he 's addicted of Luxury Arrogance or Contempt of his Equals In short this Good that you think you have done him will often occasion divers sort of Evils
Works perfect in all respects He is not satisfied to have created Adam in the enjoyment of his Free-will by which he might have his VVill united to God's he gives him also all beautiful things to recreate his Sight and all â—avoury things to recreate his taste all pleasant things for his hearing all things necessary for his Entertainment and he will needs also give him a Companion suitable to his Person that both as to Body and Soul he might have perfect Contentment compleat in all respects therefore he instituted Marriage that the Souls which are united together by will in God might be also united in Body and that Man by this Figure might see how compleat and perfect the Union must be that he must have with God in all respects and without any defect The Third Conference Speaks of the Perfection and of the abuse of Marriage I said to her that Marriage was very holily instituted but that it was very ill observ'd because no body observes narrowly the works of God She said Sir this is the cause why the VVorld is condemned for God is no longer known nor lov'd in it and no body is sensible of this Fault They use their Free-will to satisfy themselves every one willing and desiring that which is pleasant to his Senses or advantageous for his Interest in this VVorld They will all that which God does not will and notwithstanding they hope to be saved and make a contrary use of all that God has given us Marriage is a Holy thing and may well be called a Sacrament for God has instituted it and all that he has done is Sacred and Holy But what do we see in rhe use of this Sacrament but the Sin of Lust and filthiness people carrying more disorderly in it than the Brute Beasts They joyn Bodies when their Desires and Wills are far divided The ends for which God instituted it are no longer regarded by married Persons It is their only desire to satisfie their Lust or Avarice For the rest they only mind it but by accident And as there is nothing more holy and perfect than the Bond of Marriage for two Persons who have dedicated their Wills to God because it unites three things which make now but one to wit the will of God and the wills of the Married Persons who by excess of their united VVills unite also Bodies in the Spirit and Design of God so on the contrary there can be nothing more wicked than two Bodies united by Carnal Concupiscence for this Alliance is the source of all sorts of Sins yea the Abyss of all Evils And as those who are united to God have by being married with a Person equally united to God a perfect Contentment both of Soul and Body so those who live after their own will have by marrying with their Like still some discontent both of Body and Soul because their Souls not being in God they cannot have Peace and their Bodies being joyn'd without Love cannot be satisfied nor contented but they are in Body and Soul as in a temporal Hell which prepares the way to Hell Eternal for these Bodies united without Souls and VVills can produce nothing but Sin through the Lust of the Flesh besides Contention and Strife with a thousand other kinds of Excess Vain-glory Luxury gluttony to which Married Persons excite one another So that their whole Life is nothing but a constant course of sinning which extends also to their children thro' the bad example of the Parents who train them up in evil customs and they increase the number of the wicked Hereby the world grew still worse and its wickedness is still increased and the perverse generation is become so numerous that the Evil is without Remedy for no body is aware of it because every one treads the same path Custom is changed into Nature And whereas they ought to marry for the Two Ends that God gave them that is to preserve a perfect Unity among his true Children and to increase the number of them by generation they usually marry to satisfie their Concupiscence and so they beget Children for the profit of the Devil Thus the works of God are perverted by evil practices for of all that God has done in Nature there is nothing more holy than the Matrimonial Conjunction which by a perfect Union binds persons in Love for otherwise God might have made men engender as the Fishes or in any other separate manner which his Almighty Power and Wisdom could have provided for But resolving to have in Nature a figure of the Union of his Three Powers and of the entire and perfect Alliance which he would make with man he ordain'd that their generation should be by the conjunction of two persons that he might keep them always inseparably united to his will in body and will by a Bond of Charity and gave them a natural bent and inclination to this conjunction which is the most perfect thing in the world if it were observed in the spirit of charity I said to her That it must be acknowledg'd no body understood the works of God and that they made an ill use of all especially of this Matrimonial Conjunction from whence so many sins did proceed and instead of regarding it as an holy thing it was matter of shame and blushing amongst the most sober persons She said Sir 'T is sin that renders it shameful even as that of Adam made him see his Nakedness and gave him ground thro' confusion to hide and cover himself If he had remain'd in innocency he would never have been ashamed of being Naked but it was his sin only that caused this shame He had no need of covering himself before he sinn'd for his body was more beautiful and more artificially contriv'd than ever the most costly Stuffs with which he could cover himself but the imagination being disorder'd by sin made him see beautiful things as if they had been filthy This has remain'd even till now in the imagination of all men who esteem that to be good and beautiful which they imagine to be so and reckon that also to be filthy and evil which seems so to their imagination Hence it comes that they look on natural things as shameful but if they regarded them in Truth and Innocence all would seem good and beautiful to them for God could never make any thing evil but man perverts all good into evil and by his sin corrupts all things the most innocent become the most wicked by sin It must be acknowledged Sir that the way in which men now joyn for generation is very filthy and makes chast souls blush because they observe nothing there but the sin which is in it which is infamous For this cause they are asham'd of it But if this sin were remov'd they would see nothing in it but what is pleasant as if two little children should play together quite naked there would be nothing but pleasure in this because of
be to cast Roses before Swine Offer them only to those who will take pleasure to smell them and not to these who will cast them into the Dunghil All good Men will feel in the Bottom of their Souls that this cannot come from the Devil For he is the Father of Lyes and never incites to Self-denial because he is too proud Nor to the Love of God because he hates him And yet less to resign our Will to that of God for he catches all Men by their Self-will All my Discourses have for their Scope all that is contrary to the Devil who is never contrary to himself The Ninteenth Conference Sheweth That the Spirit of Antichrist hinders Men from discovering the saving Truth and that the Heathens are more resigned to God than the Christians at present I said to her That I thought no Body in the World could resist so clear Truths without betraying his own Conscience That all the Things she had told me did speak forth themselves and were attended with such solid Foundations and such firm Reasons that the Learned and Vnlearned might comprehend them and that the Scope of all was the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls and that there was nothing in them that savoured of the Earth She said If we were not fallen into the Reign of Antichrist no Body could resist so clear Truths All the World would feel them and would discover his Deceits every one would flie to the Desert to do Penitence bewailing his past Life and the Errours wherein he had lived for so long a time But the Michief is that this Antichrist has so great a number of Adherents who take up his Quarrel and resist the Truth that the good themselves have difficulty to receive it For they disfigure it and make it pass for Lyes and Heresies telling those who advance it that they would seduce the People as they said of Jesus Christ when he brought Light into the World calling him a Seducer of the People or one that had a Devil The Power of Darkness is much encreast since the Time that he was upon Earth and nothing is to be look'd for but Outrages from all the Devil's Adherents In this case a Man must count it a Happiness to suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake and believe that there is no more blessed Death than to dye a Martyr for the Truth But he must beware of Men and use the Wisdom of the Serpent and rather part with his Skin than lose his Soul You will find more Welcome Sir among the Jews and Heathens than among the Catholicks who condemn others to Authorize their own Customs despising the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who sayes Judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned These Catholicks condemn all those who do not follow them This is the cause why they are judged and condemned first to be rooted out They condemn so many holy Heathens who will go before them in the Day of Judgment because they were faithful to God though they had not any Laws or Institutions to know Him Nevertheless many resigned their Wills to that of God and obeyed the Truth in their Lives whereas these Christians follow Lyes of which the Devil is the Father and none of them will resign themselves to God nor take notice of the Truth which discovers the shortness of this miserable Life and the certainty of one that shall be Eternal These Heathens knew a God to whom they resigned themselves and seeing the Misery of this Life they bewailed it they laughed when they considered the Stupidity of Men who took pleasure in this Life and judg'd that they ought not to be called Men because they did not use their Reason to discover the Truth of Things For he who went through the City of Athens with his Lantern seeking for a Man in the midst of so many Thousands as were in the Market-place could not be ignorant that they who were about him were all Men But seeing they were all occupied in buying and selling and Trading for the Earth he could not acknowledge them to be Reasonable Men Because he who has Reason ought to use it for his Eternal Happiness else he is nothing but a Beast For Reason only makes a Man without which he does not differ from the Brute Beasts for they are unreasonable Animals and Men are reasonable ones Laying aside which they are as much Brutes as the Beasts This made the Philosopher search for a Man among so great a Number and could not find one because all spent their Lives in Worldly Business instead of employing them in the Study of the Knowledge of God and of the Truth which is the same God And they condemn those Heathens as damned and for my part I look upon them as SAINTS and believe they will come to Reign with Jesus Christ upon Earth to condemn the Christians who besides the Light of the Heathens had Lawes and Commandments from God with the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which obliged them to a farther Knowledge of God and the Immortality of their Souls the Shortness and Misery of this Life that they might despise it and the Vanity of perishing Goods that they might abandon them Nevertheless not one of these Christians does any of these Things I asked her If it was indeed possible that not so much as one Christian should be resigned to God nor have the Vertues of the Heathens She said Yes Sir This is most true that not so much as one Christian is resigned to God nor understands true Vertue as much as the Heathens did Because none apply themselves to it Since they became Idolaters of Men they have left off to know God and abondoned themselves to the Will of their Idols instead of the Will of God They Preach and Teach through all Christendom That we must depend upon Men whom they call the Fathers of the Church That we must believe and follow them even with a blind Obedience In which they prefer themselves to God who demands only of Man that he obey him in what he shall make known to him having given him Eyes to discover this Beautiful Universe that when he sees the Heavens the Earth the Sun the Stars and all the Elements with so many different Creatures so marvellous and so well ordered he might clearly perceive that all those Things must proceed from a God since Men and Nature can make nothing like them Moreover when Man considers himself he discovers evidently by his Understanding that his Soul his Memory his Understanding cannot come but from a God for no such Thing can come from Nature no more than his Body since all the Industry of Men is not capable to make so much as one Hair of our Head This obliges us to acknowledge a God by so many different Operations without being put to know God blindly no more than to love
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
still his Spouse though there were but one Soul only as there was but one when Adam was created alone This Number of many only makes those Blessed who are of the Number For God on his part takes as much delight with one Soul only that is resigned to Him as He would do with a Hundred Millions For there is nothing to do with Quantity when the Business is about Quality If an Hundred Millions of Souls are resigned to God they make altogether but one only Church which could consist as well in one Soul only as in this great Number Because the Spouse of God is One And as in Nature a Man may have as much Contentment in Marrying a Wife who is Little and Tender as one that is Big and Lumpish Without comparison God is as much Honoured though there were but one Soul only in the World that were resigned to him as if all Men in general were so who only can receive themselves the Honour of their Happiness every one for his own particular For nothing can be taken away nor added as to God who is and comprehends all Things His Alliance that he has made with the Soul of Man is not encreas'd or diminished by the great or small Body of his Church He will still have his Spouse with whom he will take his delight in the kind that he created which was but one Man alone She shall still be preserved as the Rose among Thorns How wicked soever the World may become his Church will still remain there in her kind The Church will always have her Beauty and her Qualities as much in one Soul alone as in an Hundred Millions which altogether would make but one no more than if there were but one alone After this manner God in all Ages has had his Church upon Earth But in how many Souls it consisted is known only to God The People of Israel were called the People of God among whom there were assuredly Souls resigned unto him These made up the Church in their Time and no others Even so among the Jewish People and also the Catholicks The Church of God has alwayes been among them since Gods Alliance with Man could never fail But to believe that all that Masse of People who call'd themselves the People of God were the Church is to deceive our selves Because there never will be any other but the Souls which of their Free-will do resign themselves to the Will of God All others are only Carnal and Material Churches I said to her That we strayed much and greatly erred in believing that all who are called the People of God do make up the Church and that at present she consisted of Christendom which Jesus Christ authorised and said that what she did on Earth should be done in Heaven She said Sir Men are blind and walk where they see nothing I believe that the Spouse of God resides among Christian People though it were no more but in one Soul alone But to believe that this Church consists of that great Number of Persons who are called Christians is greatly to deceive our selves Because of them God may say truly My People have forsaken me Which appears by the whole Behaviour of these Christians now who live wholly as if there were no God every one being so wedded to his own Will as if it had only been given him to satisfie himself and using the Authority that God gave his Church as if they were Soveraigns and independent upon him All which things are inconsistent with the Spouse of God which moves not but by the Motion of her Husband of whom she knows she holds all things and she never ascribes any thing to her self How should this Masse of Christians compose the Church since among them we do not observe almost any who will resign their Wills to the Will of God And those who make their Profit of the Authority that Jesus Christ gave his Church are Robbers and take what belongs to another For when Jesus Christ said Whatsoever you shall do here on Earth I will do in Heaven He spoke to his Spouse and not to his Enemies as those Persons are who cleave to their own Wills who do very impertinently usurp the Title of the Church or Spouse of God For his True Spouse is in nothing contrary to her Husband Being united by a Holy and Divine Will So that they cannot disclaim one another and therefore what she shall do on Earth shall be done also in Heaven by their Unity of Wills which are still conformable Though this Will be wrapt up in the Spirit and Body of the Spouse which is yet on Earth it is nevertheless united to that of her Husband which is in Heaven And therefore what the one does the other approves Because one and the same thing cannot be against it self I said to her That this Quality of Vnion of Will to that of God was a Divine Thing and invisible to Bodily Eyes asking her how I might discover and know the True Church and Spouse of God She said Sir You will perceive it sufficiently even by the Eyes of the Body if you seriously apply your Spirit to discover her Qualities For St. John in his Revelation paints out all her Qualities under the Figure of a Woman who sits in the Sun and has the Moon under her Feet and upon her Head Twelve Stars This Woman is the True Church and the only Spouse of God She is first seated in the Sun that is that the Spouse of God reposes alwayes in the Light of Truth and never turns aside from it that she does not walk therein as a Passenger but sits in it as in her Place of Repose Secondly that she has the Moon under her Feet That is that all Things that are mutable and changeable as the Moon such are the Goods the Riches the Honours and Pleasures of this World are all trod under feet by the Church or Spouse of God Thirdly That she bears on her Head Twelve Stars These are the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit with which the Spouse of God is still inseparably adorned because the Spirit of God where he resides is never barren There he always brings forth his Fruits and there also he still bestows his Gifts By which Sir you may sufficiently discover in what Soul the Church resides If you do not find all this Furniture never believe blindly that the Church is in those who do not possess these Qualities or Conditions which are the True Marks of the Church without which you can never own that she is the True Spouse of God For these Marks are inseparable from Her and where you shall not find them you must immediately desist from believing that you have found the Church Because there can be nothing but Delusion where they say she is without these Qualities For she never goes without them And therefore be not amused though they say to you This is the Church
are so degenerate in this Age that they are enclined more to dispute than to discover the Essence of that which is necessary for their Salvation If this were not the Unhappiness of Men now no Body would call in question whether Man ought to resign his Will to that of God if he desire to be saved Because there is nothing more reasonable nor better nor more just than that a Creature resign himself to the Will of its Creatour and depend upon him from whom it has received All. I said to her That there was no debate to be made about so certain Truths That every one ought to submit their Judgment to this Dependance upon God which assuredly was necessary in all Ages and under all Laws She said Sir Man has nothing in him that is worthy of God but his Divine Soul which consists in Reason and Free-will And if we do not yield it up to the Will of God what is it that we can offer or give Him He has no need of Gold or Silver or Land or Flesh or any Thing that is Natural Because his Being is wholly Divine He could not therefore demand any other thing of Man but this Reason and Free-will As in effect he has not demanded and will not demand any other thing When he said in his Commandments that we must not Kill nor Steal and so forth this was only to draw Man from his Self-love which led him to all these Things And when He taught so particularly by the Gospel what we ought to do and avoid it was because Man followed his own Will in so many divers things It was needful to point out to him every particular wherein he went astray and that for this End only that he might return to this Dependance upon the Will of God For otherwise many Things that Man had were not evil in themselves as Father Mother Brother Sisters Lands Houses Riches all which Things might be very well possest if there were a Dependance of his Will upon that of God For God did not forbid them by the Ten Commandments because Men were not then so absolutely Masters of their own Wills as they became since for they are not satisfied now to use and follow their own Wills during some Passion of Anger or Swearing or the like but they follow them in all Things loving Father Mother and the rest out of pure Self-love For if this were not Self-love Jesus Christ would draw no Body from it since he sayes That we ought to love our Neighbour as our selves And several other times he exhorts that we love one another By which it appears evidently that he would only hinder us from following our Self-will in all these Things because all sorts of Sins consist in the following our own Wills as all Vertue consists in resigning our Will to that of God These are the Two Things which can Save and Damn us Though they be explained all at length by the Doctrine of the Gospel yet they are all abridged by the resigning of our own Will to God or by the following our own Will In this all Good and Evil does consist Of which we are free to make a Choice and to follow the one or the other For there is no Salvation without resigning our Will to God and no Damnation without following our own Will Let them grow old in Study and turn over all the Books of the World and let them treasure up all the Sciences they can never find a Truth more clear than That all Vertues and Salvation consist in the Resignation of our Will to that of God and that All Sins and Damnation consist in following our own Will This is an Eternal Truth which will never change Every one should lay it to Heart because it concerns him For it is a general Rule that respects every one Rich Poor Learned Ignorant Let us Work and Fast and Pray and do all that we can if withal we follow our own Will assuredly we shall be damned And on the other hand Let us take rest and Eat and Drink and do every other thing in a Dependance upon the Will of God we shall certainly be saved For God has nothing to do with the Offerings of Metals but that of our Free-will which he has reserved for himself Of which he gave a Figure by the forbidding Adam to eat of One Tree only Jesus Christ gave us this Conclusion also when after so many Instructions he said I came not to do mine own Will but the Will of him that sent me If Jesus Christ himself who was the Word of God lays down his own Will and sayes that he came not into this World to follow it but that of his Father what then ought to be done and said by the Reasonable Creature who desires to save its Soul since it is the Will of God that it should be saved Nevertheless it will not be saved without this Self-RESIGNATION I said to her That I wish'd from the Bottom of my Soul that never any Body had taught any other thing but the Dependance that we owe to God since in truth all is comprehended in it She said Sir I hope your Wish shall very shortly be accomplished because Jesus Christ promised it by a Parable where it is said That the Kingdom of Heaven is like to Leaven which a Woman took and put into Three Measures of Meal till the whole was leavened And because now we are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven God makes us to understand all that he said in former Times by Parables for then the Time was not come to make these Things be manifestly understood because the World who then liv'd did not see the Things signified by all these Parables But at present we are arrived at the end of the Last Times and shall see the Things fulfilled which are uttered by Similitudes He sayes first That the Kingdom of Heaven is like to Leaven which a Woman took as if he had said The Kingdom of Heaven will be proclaimed by a Woman who taking the Old the First and only Essential Commandment OF RESIGNING OUR WILL to that of God she will put it in the Law of Nature and in the Written Law and in the Evangelical Law which are the Three Measures of Meal and that God sent his Word these Three several Times to serve for Bread and Nourishment to our Souls And it seems this Word though sent after different wayes has not been converted into Bread because so few have nourished their Souls by it and this Food has remained in the Meal even till now Very few resigned themselves to God during the Law of Nature since at the Time of the Deluge Noah only with his Family were saved and only Eight Persons of all the World escaped the Flood And in the Written Law how few also were abandoned to God Since Moses so suddenly broke the Stone because he saw that few would observe the