four Parts V. and VI. The Funeral of false Theologie in four Parts VII The Light of the World in three Parts VIII The Accademy of learned Theologues in three Parts And Confusion of the Builders of Babylon IX A Treatise of Solid Virtue in two Parts X. Advertisment against the sect of Quakers And the persecution of the Righteous XI The Testimony of the Truth first Part. XII A Collection of Testimonies given unto A. Bourignon XIII The Testimony of the Truth second Part. And Innocency avowed and Truth discovered XIV The Touch-stone And the Morning-star XV. The Blindness of the men of this time in two Parts XVI Antichrist discovered in three Parts And the Holy Perspective XVII The renewing of the Gospel Spirit in three Parts XVIII The New Heaven and New Earth And the Stones of the New Jerusalem XIX Wholsome Advices All these Books are originally in French The greatest part of them are translated into High and Low Dutch Solid Virtue 1 Part The Touch-stone and The Gospel Spirit 1 Part are translated into Latin And are all to be sold by Henry Wetstein Bookseller at Amsterdam AD SOLIDAE VIRTUTIS Amicum ejusdemque hostem ALLOQUIUM Totius libelli ideam exhibens DIscere Virtutem Lector sine fraude doloque Vis liber hic monstrat Christum panditque sequendum Pare teque nega mitesce dejice temet Mens ignara tibi est cor pravum corpus iniquum Et cujus pudeat miseri ne tu illius ergo Sensibus indulge satis esto necesse repelle Cetera replet amor vacuas sacer almaque virtus Ast non una manet te crux non pugna reposcit Te semel Assiduos versas o Orce labores Mox sensum mulces mox ludis imagine mentem Jam specie veri noti Jam gloria pellit Te motore animum vis mox in corpore regnet Saevitia utve alios jam passim mens pia curet Jam te astute reum fers intus mox sine culpa Ut lateas fueris Jam mentem sanguine tetro Obruis laxas eam ut aut ignavia perdat Perdat amorve suus Sic sunt fraudesque dolique Orce tui Patet ars tua sic patet modus illam Frangendi Rabiem fundis nec miror in ista Quae docet haec sacro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numine virgo THE FIRST LETTER That all Christians ought to learn of Jesus Christ Meekness Mildness Gentleness and Lowliness of Heart Written to one desirous of true virtue Shewing him that to attain thereto we must have submission and obedience by which we may begin to learn meekness lowliness and humility of heart My Dear Child I Perceive you have not yet comprehended well what Jesus Christ teaches saying learn of me for I am meek and lowly and humble of heart because upon occasion you do not exercise it enough but yield loose reins to your nature for when it enclines to anger you speak harshly and sometimes use force and violence to fulfil what you have resolved as well in small matters as in great which does not testify humility of heart seeing the humble heart yields willingly to another in things not evil and does not imagin that another ought to follow our will But it is always willing to follow anothers will in whatever is not contrary to God and the perfection of its own soul I suppose you may well have observed that in me for ordinarily I inform my self of the will of my brethren to Know what they love best in indifferent things and I have more contentment to do any thing after their desires than after my own for that yields me more quiet and inward peace feeling a certain satisfaction to see them content and joyful And even my nature enclines to it by the habit which I 've used to resist my own will in every thing and being overcome it rules over all things and has no grudge for whatsoever comes contrary to it provided it be not against the glory of God or the love of our neighbour All beside is indifferent to me if it is rain or fair weather if I eat harsh meats or sweet when they wrong not my health if I be alone or in company so that the one be as wholesome as the other And finally I 'm as well content to be in one countrey as another providing I have the same occasions to live well And so I am comforted in every event whether I be sick or in health I have no choose in case I honour God as well in one state as in another it is all one to me and I would never choose any thing so that I receive from the hand of God whatsoever comes to pass and so I as always content and joyful If you knew but to learn that method you would be very happy and continually in quiet whereas now fretting and discontent you disquiet and trouble your Spirit and are burthensome to others and so hinder mutual love for a bitter word is pleasant to no body and a mild one mollifies the heart even of a furious person I know your heart is good and that you hate no person notwithstanding to judge by the tone of your voice one would say that you are envious and they that know not your heart think you are in rage you must know that they are not always disposed to bear with you and that may marr the peace and diminish charity which Jesus Christ hath so much recommended to Christians Saying if you love one another thereby shall all men know that you are my disciples I believe you love the brethren in the bottom of your heart but sometimes you speak to them as if you hated them and would not hear them speak If they spoke as you do you would have difficulty to suffer them So you ought to consider that they have much to suffer that you speak so harshly They do very well in suffering you but it is no advantage for your soul for if all the world should bear with you that will not justifie you before God nor will your nature for that change its evil inclinations but be strengthned in them And so you shall be in danger to live and die imperfect which you would regret much before God when too late Therefore it is much better to endeavour now to overcome that bilious humour which is in your nature than be Slave to a wrathful passion which masters you whereas you should govern it and use it only when it concerns the maintaining the truth and defence of the glory of God Then is it that there is place for anger as the scripture also says be angry and sin not But we must never be angry for things indifferent and of small import much less speak harshly because Jesus Christ says we must be meek and lowly of heart That is a lesson he gives to all Christians and exhorts them to learn it of him
than any other virtue seeing it begets of it self several others and banishes several vices which cannot abide in an humble heart as Pride Presumption Avarice Pomps and Vain Glory and many other sins which proceed from Pride of Heart but when it becomes humble then are all these vices banisht And to know what that Humility of Heart is essentially you are to believe that it is a perfect knowledge of ones self For he that knows himself well can never be proud nor have an esteem of himself He will not glory in the Praises and Honours of Men He will not desire Riches to be adorned or served for an humble heart believes that it deserves nothing and the least things content and satisfie it An humble Heart is not in wrath for being abased or despised because he seeth in knowing himself that he deserves nothing but is worthy of all contempt And whereas that is not practised among men it is because they know not themselves and so esteem themselves worthy of Esteem and Honour Riches and service and that makes them Proud For if they observed well whence they are what they are and what shall become of them it were impossible that they should in the least esteem themselves on the contrary they would see that they deserve all sort of Contempt because they are as to the Spirit frail ignorant and unconstant and as to the body full of Miseries Infirmities and Diseases liable to death and corruption All these things should not Give matter of exalting himself to man's understanding or to make him esteem himself in any wise but rather ground to humble and abase himself before God and Men because of his infirmities and miseries and yet we see they make themselves great are arrogant esteem much of themselves and in fine believe themselves worthy of all sorts of Honours Pleasures Riches and services every one advancing himself with all his power all that proceeds from thence that men know not themselves for if they did they would be ashamed to glory in their miseries folly and ignorance For man hath nothing else in himself and all these defaults are annexed to his corrupt nature If you open but the eyes of your understanding you shall see abundantly the miseries of your spirit and how it is agitated by divers motions and intemperate passions Also as soon as you open the eyes of the body you see the bodily miseries under which all men lye and if you reflect whence the body of man proceeds and of what substance it is formed you shall find that he proceeds of an unclean and putrid matter and from those members of his parents bodys which are the most shameful And thence he hath no subject to glory or esteem himself in his origin seeing it is from so vile and base things which ought to give him occasion of confusion and humility And even beasts have more estimable qualities than men as to the body For he would presently be stifled in the filth accompanying his nativity if he were not delivered by the assistance of others and he would presently starve with hunger and other necessities if care were not taken to sustain him whereas the beasts can help themselves so soon as they come into the world And if man will look forward into his life he shall find that it is but a mass of miseries linked one to another What feebleness is in man's body He can endure neither too much heat nor too much cold a little over in exercise and he is wearied he must rest and sleep or he looses his strength and health he must be cloathed and alimented cleaned and cherished whereby his understanding is occupied in care travail and disquiet all the days of his life to relieve the infirmities of his body And how many sorts of diseases afflict the body of man They are almost innumerable and they say thaâ— the Eye alone is liable to fifty sorts what then oâ— all the other members When every one hath its particular ones beside the disordered motions of thâ— passions as of Fear Terror Sadness Melancholy Anger Jealousie and such other sorts of evils to which man is subject during this miserable life where he hath no subject of glorying and esteeming himself but great reason to abase himself in the view of so many miseries to which his sin hath reduced him which gives him good cause of submission and humility before God and Men feeling himself miserable and infirm both in soul and body for the Spirit hath its diseases as well as the body for do but take heed to yourself and you shall find your spirit agitated by various superfluous desires and useless thoughts which carry it away often against its intention as the Apostle testifies that it is not in the power of man to order his thoughts which every one may feel For when we would fix our heart on prayer or other good exercise it wavers here and there that we cannot retain it So that we may truly say that it is not in man's power to contain his thoughts So infirm is his Spirit that his Reason hath not the force to stay the course of his thoughts which often sway the reason whither it would not So that man's Spirit is captivated under the tiranny of his disordered passions which often lead him into great evils even contrary to his will whereof the Apostle says I approve not what I do because what I would not that I do and what I would that I do not To prove how many evils the spirit of man is subject as well as his body and that there is no subject of glorying in the one or th' other seeing they are equally infirm and miserable changeable and inconstant For what mutations feel we not in our spirit the variety and changing in one day of Joy Sadness Hopes Displeasures and Desires are scarce numerable how many diverse thoughts we love at one time what we hate at another what we desire one day dissatisfies us another so that we know not our selves sometimes what we would be at and are often afflicted for having what we had desired And if one should write all the thoughts and desires which pass in the spirit of a man himself would be ashamed of his inconstancy and instability and would be far from haughtiness for the qualities of his spirit no more than for those of his body but would see ground of humility for his miseries for there is nothing can elevate the heart of man in an esteem of himself but a blast of wind which the Devil inspires into his spirit to precipitate him into the sin of Pride by sottish imaginations which proceed from that air which is in effect nothing wherewith he is filled For even all the sciences of man's understanding are but figures formed of that wind as we see figures in the air by the Clouds appearing sometimes as if we saw Mountains moving or Houses and Armies all which notwithstanding are but
Nothing which we call evil And that evil is in its essence in the Devil as Good is in God without mixture for there can be no Evil in God and there can be no Good in the Devil But we find a mixture in the other Creatures which have partaken of Good from God and evil from the Devil and so they can be mixed of these two things and are good or evil in proportion as they partake of the one or the other God gave unto man all sorts of Goods in aboundance since he had the power to give them And the devil that impotence hath given nothing to man but so much evil as he hath obtained consent from the free will of man and no more for he is nothing but miserable impotence And to know that the Malice of the Devil and the Sin of Man are but nothings you need but consider what we see and touch in nature For we see assuredly that Hunger and Thirst is but the want of Meat and Drink Cold is but the privation of Heat and Death the privation of life and so is it with all other sorts of evils which befal man which are only the privation of the Goods which he needs for his sustenance temporal and eternal For though we say that there are in Hell pains and Torments Fire Ice Sadness Bitterness and all sorts of Pains All these are nothing in effect but the privation of the goods which man should have had to be happy viz. all sorts of Contentments in God all Pleasure all Satisfaction and Delight Refreshment Peace and Joy eternal But the privation of all these things makes the Torments and Sufferings of Hell without need that there should be material Fire Ice or Famin. It is enough that the soul of man be deprived of all good to suffer all sorts of evil We may see that yet more clearly in a new born Infant if it be left without the good of assistance it is reduced to all sorts of evil and will die without our touching it to do it any evil for we deprive it of life in depriving it of assistance It is the same with the malice of the Devil and the Sin of man They are only privations of Good which notwithstanding cause Pains and Torments incomprehensible to mans soul And all that is represented to us by fire Hunger and other Torments of Hell which is nothing in regard of the reality of the Pains and Torments which a soul suffers that is deprived of the Grace of God For that soul is not only fallen into the Cold of Ice and Heat of Fire but also into all other sorts of Torments because the privation of the Grace of God is the possession of all sorts of evil and seeing that Grace causes us all sorts of Good its privation must needs throw us into all evil Now whatsoever lives in nature generates always because there is in it a bent and inclination to produce its like Herbs and Plants yield their seeds and sprigs or branches nothing remains unfruitful that lives in nature every kind produces its like to its power Beasts produce after their kinds men produce human Creatures spirits spirits every one according to their nature The good spirits which are the Angels of God produce always good spirits the evil which are the Devils produce evil The one and th' other of these spirits attempt to produce in the souls of men their own sort And as men are the noblest of all the Creatures there is neither Angel nor Devil hath power over him but so far as man gives them The good Angels always incite men to good the evil who are the Devils to evil And that by the desire that each of these spirits hath to render men like to themselves the Devil endeavours to render the souls of men devilish and the good Angels to render them Angelical Man in the mean while remains free to yield himself to be begotten unto good or evil for none of these spirits can force man they can but incite him Every one attempts to render him of his own party but since the Devil hath corrupted man's nature he hath also more power over it than the good Angel which hath not advanced it to good as the Devil to evil All the good in man comes from God only and not from the Angel who being a pure spirit hath not power but over the spirit of man in representing to him good things but the Devil as a subtil spirit hath insinuated himself into the spirit of man by means of the human nature And as the vital spirits in man are in his blood dispersed throw his whole body so does the spirit of the Devil mix and disperse it self with the vital spirits of man and works much more upon his nature than the good Angel who cannot joyn with the corruption of that nature because he is a spirit altogether pure but the Devil is impure and accords well with the impurity of our corrupted nature And therefore he is always more united with us than the good Angel who does not delight but in the pure spirit of man For he finds nothing conform to his Angelick nature but the spirit of man because our human nature is too gross and earthly to be united with the Angelick Nature But the Devil as an impure Beast wallows freely in the flesh and blood that he may gain the soul of man He so mixes himself with the blood of man that he easily moves all the parts of his body to do evil but man knows not that it is the Devil For he is so united to corrupt nature that though we feel his motions we think that they proceed but from our own nature Which is because man cannot comprehend that the Devil should so mix with flesh and blood since he is only a Spirit without Body as he is truely but the Devil hath that subtilty to joyn himself to the vital spirits of man to move the flesh to Luxury Wrath and other vicious Passions You may see that my Son by your proper experience For if you mark well the disposition of your sentiments you shall find that you have been often carryed away with vicious passions even against your will and that you have perceived them with regret which cannot proceed from your self for your will cannot contradict it self If you had naturally a will to the pleasure of the flesh it would not displease you but contrariwise you would take pleasure in it and be glad that you might effectuate it But when that carnal thought or desire displeases you and you regret it that is a token that it comes from a spirit which is without you and yet is in you without that you know how he is there Yet you see well by the operations which he does there that that proceeds not from your own will which cannot desire what displeases it but it complains with St. Paul where he says the Good that I would I do not
Clouds agitated by the wind and representing such figures to our eyes It is even so with mens Sciences who fancy themselves wise when they are very ignorant For I do not believe that they have yet truly discovered one science even natural and how can they then in mystical or spiritual things That is what Jesus Christ said to his disciples He that seeth me seeth my father but you know neither me nor the father Notwithstanding we will often search curiously the profound Mysteries and divine Secrets and we know not natural things which we see and handle One will vaunt in being a Doctor of Medicine another in Theology another will be an Astronomer and so of other sciences although they be all alike ignorant of what they profess and think they know well And that proceeds from that airy Pride which the Devil hath inspired in to their Spirit perswading them that they are wise and worthy of honour and esteem though they be in effect ignorant and worthy of contempt We see that Physicians esteem themselves wise because they have read Medicinal Authors and these Authors are often as ignorant as they that read and follow them because all they have written is but vanishing figures which waver in the air of their imaginations and what the ancients have written is followed by their posterity And so they think to cure the sick by remedies coined in the air of mans imagination who seem to have divers Sciences and Remedies while they do but guess and hazard the lives of the sick and I believe the Physicians have killed many more than they 've cured to reckon the most common and ordinary and that because they have not discovered the Secrets of Nature and know not the constitution of man's body nor the origin of his diseases and consequently cannot exhibit proper remedies for them but often give what proves poison to kill men instead of curing them And therefore there is no subject of glorying for being called a Doctor in Medicine but rather of abasement and confusion for their great ignorance to the hurt of the Patient they take care of And as that ignorance is great in regard of bodily medicine it is yet greater in regard of the spiritual which is Theology for it kills many more souls than medicine does bodies and so th' one hath not subject of glorying of his skill more than th' other being they are equally ignorant which do not add nor pare the one from the other having each great ground of humility If Astrologers also knew how far short they are of the knowledge of the heavens they would be ashamed to bear the name and would acknowledge all their wisdom in that to be but folly and fancies of men who have not attained to the truth of that Science and what they have written are but imaginary suppositions far from being truths And upon like imaginations are founded also all other human Sciences which they learn by reading and study For when they are not founded 〈◊〉 the Truth of God they are altogether vain and false and are only fit to deceive men who by them deceive one another and hinder each other to come to the knowledge of the Truth of God and Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which is the only true wisdom and before which all the wisdom of men is but folly to blind our spirits that they should not come to the knowledge of themselves In which consists True Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ says we must learn of him which to do she prays you who loves the perfection of your soul Your Well-affectioned in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON In Holstein near Gottorp Castle Jan. 18. 1672. St. Vel. THE V. LETTER Humility is acquired by the Knowledge of ones Self To the same showing him that the true Knowledge even of things most esteemed by men ought to serve to humble them such as the Honours Riches and Pleasures of this life That all these are vain disquieting unsatisfying and hurtful My dear Child YOu have seen by my last what Humility is where I have shown you that it consists in the knowledge of our selves and that no person can ever be proud but for lack of knowing himself for in knowing themselves they will find subject enough to humble themselves by seeing their infirmities and miseries both of soul and body for he who will reflect seriously upon himself he shall not only discover his own nothingness but will judge himself much worse than nothing and consequently will be far from esteeming and magnifying himself unless he be altogether a fool and void of all reason and understanding For if he judge by an upright judgment what he is he shall see nothing but misery and infirmities in his nature and ignorance and Disorder in his spirit for a Beast knows more than he for the conduct of its life and is more moderate in eating and drinking and other natural things than man and we see him frequently exceed in these things which Beasts do not Thence is it that man is much more subject to diseases than the Beasts because they commit more excesses and Intemperances than they And when man finds himself more disorderly and foolish in the conduct of his life than the Beasts ought he not to humble himself before God and men as worthy of all confusion seeing God hath given him a Spirit more perfect than any Beast and yet he knows not to apply it to rule his passions and appetites which often causes to him great evils and sometimes death Which ought to be a great subject of humility and Contempt of himself he can never knowing that magnify and esteem himself if it is not because he is void of judgment and reason which he looses as soon as he gives entry to the vanities which the devil inspires into his spirit to esteem himself Then he goes from one error to another because fallen from the Light of the Truth and knows nothing but falshood which that evil Spirit makes him believe and inspires into his Spirit that he is worthy of Honour for his Wisdom or Riches or Virtue though he be contemptible even in all these very respects For his Wisdom is but folly before God and his riches are but weighty charges painful to be born and cause trouble and disquiet to preserve them and his Virtue cannot be other than feigned seeing it is not founded on the knowledge of his nothingness and truth of his miseries And Therefore vain-glory and esteem of our selves can never be other than meer folly which Satan inspires and foists into mens spirits seeing there is in them nothing esteemable as to the corrupted nature but aboundance of miseries worthy of Contempt and Scorn So that we may truly call a proud man a very Fool because he glories of his Miseries and judges his Ignorance Wisdom and his Troubles Riches For such are temporal Riches which create continual troubles and disquiet with a thousand cares both to acquire
they would willingly be great and rich that they may have Means to please their Senses and these Pleasures ruin Soul and Body For since Nature was corrupted by sin all the senses of man are become brutish and insolent and know no more what is good or evil for them intemperate without order or measure and therefore the Scripture says that the Eye is never satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing to show how our senses are disordered and insatiable the more the eye sees the more it would see and so the ear hear and they are never satisfied It is the same with the Feeling Smelling and Taste the other three senses For whenever a man gives himself to satisfie his senses he is never fully satisfied nor content For in every place he may find something that smells unpleasantly and though he carry about Musk and Civet that will not hinder that he breath not in the bad Exhalations and Vapours of the Air caused by the corruption and filth of the bodies of Men and Beasts although he had but the stink of his own body since all that proceeds out of it is nasty and putrid which cannot satisfie his smell which desires always good smells and agreeable and in loving that we can never be content nor satisfied And yet less can we satisfie the sense of feeling it being insatiable They would have fine Linnen Silks soft Beds smooth Coverings and other things agreeable to the touch which is not content with things that are sufficient But the sense of Taste exceeds all the others in disorder and intemperance For he that will satisfie his taste and delicacy renders himself miserable and in continual dissatisfaction For when he hath one food that is good he desires another as better the Wine is too sharp or stale for him the Beer is too sweet for his delicate taste he longs always for what he hath not and what he cannot get so insolent are mans natural senses that they often tyrannize over the spirit with a thousand tortures of Desires Intemperances Lusts Excess and Gluttony which bring Diseases Poverty and Death And yet they call him happy who hath the means to satisfie his senses without discovering that they are corrupted by sin and therefore they beget all sorts of Evils which she prays you to discover who wisheth your good Holstein near Gottorp Castle 15. Febr. 1672. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE VI LETTER Humility is attained by Knowing our selves To the same who is admonished to learn Humility by knowing the truth of our Corruption and Sin which is the disorder of our natural senses My Dear Child I Cannot entertain you too much of the Corruption of man and the Miseries to which he is subject during this miserable life to prevent your ever placing your affections on it but that you may learn the Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ teaches which will follow upon the knowledge of your self but you shall never attain it unless you examin in retail the miseries and infirmities of your body and spirit since it is that knowledge which should teach you the Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ requires For if you remain in the general ignorance of men you shall never attain to it you will always think you deserve Honour and Esteem seeing others like your self honoured and esteemed and that they also take their pleasures and sensualities more than you do But trust me my Dear Child that conduct proceeds from the blindness of their minds and from the profound darkness in which they are without perceiving it and they blind one another still more by their practice for one thinks he is as good as the other and that he may do what another doth and so one follows another blindfoldly and thinks he doth but what is suitable for an honest man to do But however great the number of blind are that will not help you in particular and that broad way will always lead to perdition tho many tread it The great number of miserables will not lessen your condemnation on the contrary it will augment your pains and miseries far from any ways mitigating them Therefore is it that you must not regard if others be blind and know not themselves esteeming themselves and following their sensualities for you shall not give an accompt for them There shall only your own works follow you at Death and according to them shall you be judged God affords you now the occasion of Discovering the truth of all things beware of neglecting it but bless the Lord for it is a great mercy he shows you beyond so many thousands of persons who perish for want of knowing themselves and for having never discovered the truth of things as they are before God They amuse themselves to look one to another without penetrating into the state of man and what he is whence he is and whither he tends though it is a thing of so great import on which our eternal salvation depends Therefore I exhort you to lay to heart the knowledge of your self seeing that must rule all your actions and make you become humble of heart as Jesus Christ teaches us to be The truth of all things should deliver you from all evil that is also the mistress of virtues for if you possess the Truth of God that shall teach you all virtues and deliver you from all vice for the cause why man is vicious and not virtuous is because he knows not the truth of things and takes the Shadow for the Body the Bark for the Wood and so goes from evil to worse For if he knew truly what sin is and what virtue he would deliver himself from the one to attain the other since he would see clearly that sin is a meer Tyrant which tortures Soul and Body and that virtue is beautiful good sweet and pleasant And so he could not retain himself from hating sin and loving virtue seeing that is good and equitable but for lack of knowledge of things they love what they should hate and hate what is lovely and to show you what sin is know that in it self it is nothing but a disorder of corrupted nature For when God created man he was well ordered temperate and regular in all his natural functions and he might enjoy the pleasure of all his senses without doing evil because all that God made was good and he created beautiful things to please his sight and all the melodies of Beasts Men and all melodious things to afford pleasure to the hearing and all Flowers and pleasant smells for his smelling and all smooth and agreeable things for his feeling and all good and savory things to afford pleasure to his Taste so that he could allowably enjoy the Pleasures of all his five natural senses because all the other Creatures were created for the pleasure and recreation of Man who was so perfect that he used all these things only for his recreation with just order weight and measure
man from the will of God who had created him to delight himself with him and willed for that that he should love him with all his heart There cannot be delight but with what is beloved and therefore will God be loved of man with all his heart and that he place his affections in nothing else but in him only The Devil no sooner perceived that but he enticed him by the five natural senses which are as the five windows of our heart to withdraw his heart and affections from God and to place them on visible and sensible things The Devil then first moved Adam's heart to regard the beautiful Creatures which God had created for him he moved also his sense of hearing to give attention to the false perswasions of that old Serpent who made him believe that he should know Good and Evil if he did eat the fruit of the Tree which God had forbid him to eat of He moved him to put his Hand to touch that Apple his Smelling to smell it and his Taste to eat it and by that means the Devil carryed Adam's Heart and affection to the Creatures and turned him away from the Love he owed to God If the Devil could have drawn man's Heart directly to love him he had done it but because he is an invisible spirit he could not move the five natural Senses of man to love him And therefore he served himself of visible and sensible creatures to get himself indirectly loved by man that by moving man to self-love and to use all the other Creatures to satisfie his self-love and consequently withdraw him from the love of God which he hath done with too much success seeing he hath caused Adam and all that were to proceed from him to disobey against God and so made him abandon that dependance that he would no more depend but upon his own will and love nothing but himself Behold the miserable fall into which the Devil caused all men to fall into in Adam And they all in general are born in that misery and disobedience since the fall of Adam and come into the world with that evil inclination to love themselves and follow the corruption of their senses which breeds all sorts of sins because they are now moved by an evil spirit which is the Devil whence no good can proceed for the privation of all good is the possession of all evil So that he that hath rejected the love of God and would not renounce himself hath deprived himself of all sort of good seeing there is no other good but God and is fallen into all sorts of evil that is to say into the privation of all sorts of Good God never created any evil but man produced it when he deprived himself of the Love of God in which alone consists all sorts of Good And that is the thing they call sin which signifies to turn away and desert God who is all good and in the privation of him is all evil So that he that hath withdrawn his affections from God to place them in the love of himself or of any other creature hath abandoned all Good and embraced all sorts of Evil. For there can be no other evil but the privation of all good into which man engages himself when he carrys his love and affections to any thing else than God And what Adam did once by the instigation of the Devil men do it for their own particular as often as they set their affections on any thing beside God only Observe a little my Child how often you have fallen into the same sin with Adam and loved any other thing than God alone and also if you are not actually addicted to your self-love and retired from the love of your God but I am not surprised at it because you never knew that sin consisted in that and no person hath taught you it for the men of this time are ignorant of that truth as well as you and they that are esteemed the most virtuous are full of self-love though they think themselves free from sin so far does the heart of man deceive it self But for your part be wiser for though all men should go to perdition you must endeavour to save your own Soul The great number of damned would not diminish your torments if you should be damned with them but rather augment them by the augmentation of crys blasphemies and noysomeness of Fire and Brimstone which shall augment in Hell with proportion to the number of damned And therefore I counsel you to leave that common tract of the blindness of men which esteem nothing sin but the material things which they have prescribed one to another to be evil Things which God regards little seeing he is a pure Spirit whom not only these gross material things offend as they decifer sins as Drunkenness Robbery Whoredom and other material sins blameable before men but God is offended to see the heart of man cleave to and love things so vile since he created him to love his God only who will delight himself with him And yet man deserts God to delight himself in the satisfaction he takes in eating drinking and cloathing and recreation with any other creature Which hugely displeases God and man becomes his enemy by disobedience while he acts against the designs God had in creating him after his own image and likeness to take his delights with him notwithstanding man against the intention of God delights in himself and the Creatures that are less than himself For whatsoever is created under Heaven is much below man who is as the head and principal of all the works of God and was established over all the other inferiour works of God being made as a little God in his divine nature which is enclosed in his Humanity But the Devil envious of his happiness from the instant of his creation strove to make him lose that part of the divinity which God had bestowed on him he rendered him sensual and earthly to make him leave the love of divine and heavenly things which alone he ought to have loved and by that means he had enjoyed all the other creatures at pleasure as master and Lord of all that was subjected to him But the proud Devil could not suffer man in dominion over the other Creatures he being rejected and banisht from the friendship of God deprived of all good and replenisht of all evil so he by Rage and Envy attempted to destroy man with himself and make him companion of his miseries and seeing man composed of a body and a spirit he insinuated into his spirit endeavouring to unite himself with him under pretext of procuring good to him and so made him imagin that he should know all things as God if he would eat the fruit God had forbid him to eat of and these thoughts being entred into Adam's spirit gained his affection and made him forget the Love and Obedience which he owed to God beginning to love
hour to any thing that is not of God we are for that hour turned from God to the creatures which is sin since we do in that what God hath forbid viz. We cease to love him with all our heart For we ought to love him always without interruption and therefore is it we must refrain our senses and give them laws that they take no other liberty but to follow the will of God We may well use these five natural senses and employ them to the Glory of God who gave them for we cannot be without seeing hearing smelling feeling and tasting but we must not take pleasure in these for our proper satisfaction we must employ them only on things necessary and those that may serve to the Glory of God and the good of our Neighbour For example man is made up of Soul and Body he hath need to employ all his five natural senses for the conservation of the one and th' other he must see and behold all things that may serve him for the perfection of his soul and hear touch taste and feel them loving them as the means of his salvation He must also look upon all things that he needs for entertaining his body to which his natural senses can afford him much help for he must see things necessary as a House to Dwell in Cloathes to cover him food to nourish him all that must be lookt on He must hear the means to obtain them smell them that he take nothing hurtful in his aliments touch and taste them for that same end For all things necessary are good and it can never be sin to use them for necessity But it is always evil to use them to satisfie our sensual pleasures or self-love because that is an affection we carry to our selves and our affection and love ought to be to God alone not to things so base and vile which we may well use but never love seeing God will have our heart entirely Which was figured by the earthly Paradise where God placed man at the beginning of the world He gave him a full liberty to eat of all sorts of Delicious fruit but reserved that of one only tree of which he forbad man to eat and that to let us understand that God does permit us to use all the Creatures which he hath created for us provided we keep our affection for himself only so he forbids us to place it on any thing else as marks the first Command to love God with all our heart that is that our heart ought not to be Divided and parted to something else but be altogether to him But men do not penetrate that as they ought they perswade themselves that it is allowable to love divers other things with God in which they grievously deceive themselves while the Command of God expresses punctually viz. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart if then it had been permitted to love other things with God he had not added with all thy heart We make questions and Disputes upon so many Mysteries of our faith and so many degrees of virtue and we leave behind the principal piece in which consists all faith and virtues For what shall it profit a man to have penetrated all the secrets of Nature and even all the Doctrines of Deep and mysterious Theology if with all that he fulfil not the Command of Loving God with his whole heart and have his heart Divided into many divers affections all his knowledge will profit him nothing we must then fulful that first Commandment to love God with all our heart I know well there are several glosses to explain how we must love God with all our heart one says we must love him above other things and where we have an ounce of love to our Money Honour Pleasures Parents or even our self we must have a pound for God and that so we fulfil that first Command and love God with all our heart Others say we must love him so that if the case were we must lose God or our goods parents or any other thing that we should lose all rather than quit God Others say it is impossible to fulfil that Command And so every one attempts to extinguish in the spirit of man the knowledge of the necessity of loving God with our whole heart which is much to be lamented and afflicts the heart seeing so many men prefer the Glosses and Sentiments of men to so express Ordinances of God He had added in vain the words with all your heart if we might put a part of our affections or of our heart in the creatures Yet God never did any thing in vain If he had not intended to show that men ought to love him with all their affections indivisibly he had not added with all your heart Consider a little my Son with your self by his grace if God does not well Deserve that we love him with all our heart Our being and all that we have is from him that whole heart with which he will be loved he gave it us should not that be great ingratitude to refuse him the heart he gave us himself to the end it might be for himself alone He gives us to enjoy so many Creatures provided we keep our Heart for him which is the only forbidden fruit Is not that the least God could demand of man in bestowing so many benefits on him Ought not man of himself to offer unto God his Heart with all other things although he were not commanded Whatever we have or can have comes immediately from him and consequently all ought voluntarily to be offered unto him without constraint Moreover on whom can we better bestow our heart than on God and who can render it more happy than he If we bestow it on our Parents or Friends they cannot render it happy and content even in this world If we place it in the Riches Honours and Pleasures of this world all these cannot satiate it seeing they are like salt-water the more our heart Drinks the more it is parched And therefore man is very unprovident to place his affections in any other thing than in God There is nothing but him that can satisfie and render us happy and content seeing in God alone is all sorts of Good and out of him all sorts of Evil. Never rest then my Son on mens Discourses for they are Liars and Deceivers and their glosses are invented only to flatter their looseness and that of others who have no internal Light So they say it is impossible to keep that Command of loving God with all our heart and they say so because they have no will to do it But God can never command things impossible beside mans spirit can easily comprehend that it is not impossible to love God with all our heart for there is nothing more natural to man than love and there is no object more lovely than God All that we see and know in nature hath some
Vices if he does not of himself entreat us to counsel and admonish him when he fails For one man ought never to go to compel another in what regards his perfection since God hath created us free and will not that we should be Slaves but wills that our souls should be his Spouses to yield themselves voluntarily to his Love But all Constraint is Slavery So we must never use rashness to force men to do well or constrain him to forsake his sins God will have us free during the time of our tryal which is this short life And it is the Pride and Presumption of our selves to go to instruct or correct our Neighbour by authority who is sometimes better before God than our selves though he have not so many moral Virtues or outward Appearance of Good which we often learn and observe that we may be agreeable to men who despise always what is reprehensible before them That is the reason of politique persons abstaining easily from gross and external sins that they may appear good which is often less virtue than that of such as speak rudely and commit open evil The best is to teach and preach to our selves and to have Piety and Charity for others when we think they do evil and we cannot hinder them It belongs to Judges to repress external Malifices to preserve good Policy But you who are a free person take not the charge of others but labour to learn well true Virtue and to put it in practice for the Devil cannot deceive you there as he can easily in the exercise of external Works of Mercy bodily or spiritual which you would do but he insinuates himself more easily in the bodily than spiritual being more sensible and visible and so more praised and applauded of men who esteem nothing more than liberality When then they see one that feeds the hungry gives drink to the thirsty cloaths the naked lodges strangers visits the sick and buries the dead They hold him for a Saint But it is rare to find such now adays in the miserable age wherein we live For generally men are filled with Avarice and Covetousness and seek only their own proper interests without troubling themselves with the necessities of their Neighbour Charity is cold in mens hearts and they esteem him virtuous who gives a little out of his superfluities to the poor or does any other outward merciful work Now the Devil easily furrs himself into all these things and if we discover not his subtilties we may do many works of corporal mercy which shall turn to his honour For he that does these things to be esteemed of men is a Hypocrite as were the Pharisees to whom Jesus Christ so often upbraided their Vice They did truely many works of mercy spiritual and corporal but those did not save them For Jesus Christ despised them calling them so often Hypocrites notwithstanding all their good works And even though we do them not to be seen and praised of men yet the Devil can find his advantage therein by the vain complacency which we take from them within our selves For it is always more honourable to give than to receive And there are some so naturally given to liberality that they will readily give what they have need of themselves only to satisfie their natural inclination Others are so disposed naturally to action that they will willingly incommode themselves to give Meat and Drink to the Hungry and Thirsty to lodge Strangers cloath the Naked visit the Sick and bury the Dead And that by a natural inclination they have to do so And therefore my Son you ought well to discern the Spirit which moves you to do Works of Mercy as well spiritual as corporal For the Devil often moves our hearts to multiply them and do them to excess to distract us from inward entertainment and to hinder us that we may never attain to true virtue And that so we may rest upon Virtues which men esteem such as are external works of Mercy which are generally praised without discernment But they can well be Sins instead of Virtues From such My Son you must keep you well that the Devil deceive you not Which you are advertised of by Your Well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle May 5. 1672. St. Vet. THE XVI LETTER The Devil Corrupts our Good Works To the same shewing him a Tenth Artifice of the Devil in our Corporal Good Works taward our Neighbour which he often brings about to his Honour Yet we must not therefore cease from them but joyn Moderation in them and put away human Considerations and Pride which attacque us in this time of Tryal My Son I Believe it surprises you that I said in my last that Works of Mercy are often done to the Honour of the Devil Yet it is most true but for want of thoroughly considering the matter that offends the tender-conscienced and them that by a natural easiness accounts all good they believe blindly that all that 's called Good is so and that all sort of good works are agreeable to God which is false For the Devil insinuates himself into our best actions to render them evil And he hath done so from the beginning of the world bringing evil into all the Works of God which were all created good We may find that in our selves for though God created Man altogether good and perfect yet we feel that he is now evil and imperfect He was created to honour God and most men honour the Devil and obey him in every thing instead of obeying their Creator All judicious persons see that in the conduct of men now adays to be true And yet they will not believe that mens good works are done to the honour of the Devil and so they there that they esteem more their good works than those of God For man though created of God altogether holy and perfect serves to the honour of the Devil And wherefore should we not believe that men's good works serve thereto So such persons though otherways judicious here fail grosly But that is not strange seeing the Devil blinds their understanding that they should not see the truth of things but be led by their own inclinations and simplicity For it is much more agreeable to nature to believe that we do good than to think that we do evil and that our good works serve to the Honour of God and not to that of the Devil For man feels in himself a satisfaction when he does well and he hath an ambition to tend to do what is most estimable Then being more honourable to serve God than the Devil men perswade always themselves that they serve God especially when they apply themselves to Works of Mercy Notwithstanding the Devil reaps often the glory more than God So when the Devil sees any turn from sin and keep himself from evil doing to which he can no more engage him he induces him ordinarily to do many
understand that the Holy Spirit had not yet brought forth his fruits in his soul though he was accounted a Saint For then should he not have needed human Divertisments to be joyful by As for me I know by experience that I have more joy and contentment in my soul in Solitude and far from human divertisments than I have in mens conversation or amongst the most divertising Objects Which gives assurance that my joy proceeds from the Holy Spirit It must needs be that it comes not from human means for it were my Consolation never to come out of my Closet and to hear nothing but in my own heart and inner man But the Joy which proceeds from the evil Spirit terminates and ends always in Sadness and Melancholy with an earning after new Divertisments to divert that Sadness so that it is most easie to Discover if it is the good or evil spirit which dwells in our souls by the Dispositions and operations which we feel in them when we have the desire to do or say any thing we need not so much go to consider if it is in appearance good or indifferent to know if it comes from God as to examin the disposition which that desire brings into our soul to wit if it is in Peace and waits for the effect of its desires with Patience and Long-suffering For that is a sign the Spirit of God hath given us that desire and that it is his will that we effect it but if we perceive that that desire to do or say any thing marr our Peace and disturb our Spirit with impatience and attempt to precipitate us before the time of fulfilling our desires That is a sign that it comes from an evil spirit And if the desire or thing is good in it self it is a sign that the Devil would mix and insinuate himself into that good work to reap his Glory thence However we must not cease to do or speak what is good in it self but we must be on our guards that we suffer not the Devil to insinuate himself in it We must then use continual Prayer to have God's succour and Assistance and Strength to overcome the tentation which the Devil offers us while we are doing good We must never cease from doing Good Works because of the tentation of the Devil For he would gladly always hinder them if he could But we must examin well the inward disposition of our Souls to discover if the Devil does not insinuate himself therein that we may purifie our intentions and beware that the Devil find no advantage therein And if you will know my Son when it is God that inspires any thing to you remark always if it is accompanied with Goodness Benignity Faith Continence and Chastity For God never gives inspirations that are not accompanied with these conditions But the Devil often gives inclinations to do good with Fretting Malice Despite Dispair Inconstance Levity and Impurity I have seen sometimes persons that gave to the Poor by Despite and Fretting upbraiding and reproaching them without any faith of an eternal Reward I have seen others assist at publique Devotions with insolence and lightness And now adays almost all marry by incontinence and impurity All these things though good in themselves are induced and excited by the evil spirit since they tend to an evil end though good in appearance And therefore must we always be upon our guard and watch against so powerful an Enemy who attempts to surprise us in all our actions both good and indifferent that he may render them evil therefore we must study well to discern the good spirit from the evil Which we may do seeing there are assured marks to know them Never say then My son that you know not if it is God or the Devil who moves you to do or omit any thing but rather acknowledge with Humility of heart that you are not vigilant enough and diligent to discover that evil spirit who dazles your understanding that you should not know him For every word you speak or action you do you may discover if it comes of the Devil provided you make a serious reflection upon your self But the misery is that we are distracted and wandering and the Devil makes us forget what we should remember and puts in our mind what we should forget that he may bring confusion in all our behaviour Remark well that Advertisment and you shall find by experience that it is but too well grounded for since the Devil can no more make you fall into manifest sins he will always endeavour to make you contradict the holy spirit which you do not yet know well You have indeed resolved in general to obey him and follow him as you have done in abandoning the World in loosing your affections from earthly goods and desiring to follow Jesus Christ in his Lowness and Humility All that proceeds from the Spirit of God who hath governed you in the most important things and the Devil could not hinder it But now he attacques you in small things and of little import that he may hinder you to do the will of God in every thing and often he gains your will to make it contrary to the will of God in common and ordinary things For if you reflect upon your self you shall find there a certain opposition to whatever I propose to you which comes often even contrary to your will yea you are vexed that you should have so opposed or contradicted me Yet on the first occasion you do it again which cannot proceed of your self since you are displeased at it Now it is a firm and true Rule that whatever Evil we do against our will comes of the Devil and not of our selves I know that Spirit of contradiction which you have against what I desire comes not of your own will For you would gladly obey me in every thing seeing you know that I never desire any evil But you cannot in effect obey me in things good and salutary which comes assuredly of the Devil who is a spirit directly contrary to the Spirit of God which governs me For he moves as soon as I speak and brings some contradiction or opposition to what I propose he is troubled enraged and frets and would cause among us Thunder and Lightning as Heat and Cold do which occur in the air Which you do often and know not to help it because you have not sufficiently Discovered that it is the Devil does it in you against your will For you alledge sometimes reasons as if you would sustain his Quarrel and shew that you have reason to contradict me which you could not do if you believed that I have the Spirit of God from whom no evil can proceed But the Devil makes you forget that and excite in you a spirit of contradiction to which your nature is also enclined which is the cause you Discover not sufficiently that it is the Devil and attribute it to your natural inclination
rendet our selves its Slaves And though there were no other Devil but the Corruption of mans Nature we behoved notwithstanding to combat it continually seeing that Corruption is as much an Enemy of our Salvation as the Devil If you will my Son examin well your own self you shall find by experience that you do not one single action which though good in it self is not defiled with self-love and self-seeking and that you speak not one word which you aim not for your own advantage or praise or to excuse and justifie your self For Self-love searches always his own ease and satisfaction and will not have the blame in any thing Yea it would appear innocent in the most manifest faults it commits It speaks to excuse them reasons to maintain its opinions or what it hath fancyed or undertaken to maintain In fine it employs all the forces of body and spirit to disown its guilt So proud is that corrupt nature that it will not be blamed in any thing if it can evite it Now all these things are manifest sins which rob our heart of the Love and Honour of God to make us love and esteem our selves And so infring the Command To Love God with all our Heart while we love our own glory and esteem our selves with all our heart I have often declared that the ressence of sin consists in that man retires his affections from God to place them in any thing else beside him So we must conclude that man falls so often into sin as he turns to love himself And he falls so often into the love of himself as he will justifie or excuse himself since there is nothing just or excuseable in his corrupt nature It is by sin become altogether evil and cannot of it self do any Good spiritual or temporal But is filled with all sorts of evils from which no good can proceed That is a truth to which all the world would readily acquiesce if they were disengaged of self-love for then should they see that they are slow to all good and bent to all evil That they are ignorant impotent and in short all that we do in this life is only to be esteemed or to evite the contempt and humiliations that may befal us Which proceeds from that Pride of Life which sin hath planted in the bottom of the hearts of all men that come into the world They bring with them that pride which makes them live in continual sins if they do not resist it continually by Spiritual Diligence and watch not over all their Words and Actions to limit and regulate them by the Law and Will of God Which cannot be done without that Spiritual Diligence which ought to rule all our words and actions if we would attain to Salvation Which she wishes you who loves your soul ANTONIA BOURIGNON Husum Jan. 27. 1674. THE XXII LETTER Spiritual Diligence is necessary to Salvation To the same Exhorting him to Spiritual Diligence because without it none can persevere in the Service of God nor overcome his Corrupt Nature and Self-love My Son I Cannot over much explain the worth and necessity of Spiritual Diligence since it does occasion your eternal Salvation and all the good things we attain in this life and that which is to come Consider well that necessity that you may apprehend it and put it into practice since thereupon depends your eternal happiness For though you had acquired several other Virtues yet the Devil could easily ensnare you by Spiritual Negligence and suffer you to do well for a time that he might ensnare you after He hath not been able to hinder you to forsake the world to give your self to the Service of God seeing that was your absolute resolution Neither could he hinder that you have detested sin and undertaken to follow true Virtue But he attends you in the passage that he may stop your course and hinder your perseverance by divers tentations and by occasions which he will excite to withdraw you from your good purpose He will excite men of good will to render your resolution suspect even upon pious pretext Hee 'l make you sometimes doubt if you should not do better to remain in the world and make your Light to shine to others to enlighten them again he will represent to you if you had not better yet merchandise that you might assist your Neigbour out of your superfluity or by your good Example For the Devil tempts by all sorts of means and when he cannot bring us to evil actions he insinuates himself into our good works yea even into our good intentions and mixes therein some of his venom a little when he cannot much He gives sometimes a weariness in the way of Virtue and makes appear burthensom what is in it self light giving the Soul a backwardness or difficulty in well doing or in overcoming it self Also he takes away the Hope of surmounting our imperfections and arriving at true Virtue that he may render our souls slack and lazy because they see not the means whereby to arrive at true Virtue So that he confounds our spirits that they may not discover the truth of things as they are before God but that they should occupy themselves always with apparent Virtues and curious Speculations And therefore is it we have need of continual Prayer and spiritual Diligence if we would persevere in the service of God otherwise the Devil would gain us by the one or other way Let us then watch always that he make not our first Fervour cool and slacken our good resolution of embracing solid Virtue He will attempt even when we have obtained true Virtue to lead us into Spiritual Negligence perswading us that we may well rest at ease seeing we have acquired it and that we cannot advance further I have known such persons as said to me That they were arrived at the highest degree of perfection to which they could attain And they said so because they had read all they could read And so they judged that to read more was but to repeat what they had already read and understood Which was to me a great Pride and a Spiritual Negligence which the Devil had planted in their heart to make them perish by that Negligence For not to advance in Virtue is to fall back and recoil seeing man never attains that perfection that he ought It is written in the holy Scripture Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect To teach us that we should tend to the perfection of God and never rest in the way of Virtue but always tend to a higher degree of perfection even to the last moment of our life to follow the nearer the perfection of our heavenly father But the Devil envious of our happiness endeavours to his power to divert us He serves himself of spiritual Negligence when he cannot prevail by evil desires and actions It is alike to him by what means he ensnare our souls provided he can in the
receiveth every thing which human wisdom hath diverted having found so many Studies and Arguments to favour our proper will that all men believe it to be lawful to follow it without offending him who pleased to reserve it for himself Sir these are all blind who lead the blind and all fall into the ditch Be you never of that band but believe in the Light which God sheweth you I have spoken TRUTH unto you not affecting to be believed or followed but only to tend and aim at your Salvation All that I have told you is necessary for you if you will use it well because we cannot love God without knowing him nor follow Virtue without comprehending it we cannot also evite the Deceit without discovering it nor escape the Paws of the Devil without turning away therefrom make good use of all these things and you shall be happy in this world and in the other I doubt not but my manner of speech may have given you pain and difficulty because they do not accord with your Philosophy Theology or other Scholastique Sciences But believe that I have never made profession of any human Sciences I love rather to be ignorant of than to know them and if I could learn in a quarter of an hour all the Sciences of the Schools I would not employ so little time thereto because I know that human Sciences are great Impediments unto the Holy Spirit and also that the time is come when God shall destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and bring to nothing the Prudence of the Prudent and so I cannot use fine Discourses but such only as make known the native Truth the words the terms may well be debated and controlled but never the true sense which is true I will not dispute with the Wise seeing God shall shortly overcome them by the effects of my words nor also polish my Language because the simple nativeness pleaseth God more than the rhetorical Eloquences subject unto vanity for he that speaks that he may speak elegantly is filled with vain-glory willing to renounce which I seek only simple words that may express my conceptions I believe Sir that you have sufficiently understood me and that I can say no more to you to co-operate unto your Salvation there remains no more but to put it in practice Which you shall do more easily in solitude or the desert than elsewhere because of the corruption of men which are great letts unto us and also the power which the Devil hath at present over their spirits to bewitch them that are yet sound and entire Flee then Sir that you may evite all these dangers lest you might be diverted from your good proposal and should look back as Lot's Wife who was changed into a Statue of Salt Yet a little Penitence and after God will deliver you to enter into the joy which shall never end That is it I wish unto you in giving you Adiew I was grieved to hear that she would leave me praying her not to withdraw seeing I would follow what she had taught me which was nothing else but Self-denial and Dependance upon God She said unto me Sir it shall be more pure that you remain alone for I am only a Creature as you are and we must cleave unto the Creator alone without interruption he shall conduct you at his pleasure provided you be abandoned unto his will you need no more instructions of any person I have told you more than sufficient to conduct you unto union with God It should be hereafter only repetitions of things foresaid which should bereave your time and mine which it is better to employ in the practice than in repetitions Leave me in my liberty and take you also yours God hath not created us together He shall save us though separated in body True Union consists in a conformity of will with God and not in particular Conferences I must confess I have often distracted my self from entertainments with God to speak to you of so many divers things but I judged them necessary for your Salvation therefore have they not been grievous unto me but now when you know the truth of many things it is not necessary to speak more unto you God shall always teach you enough provided you continue faithful unto him He hath never refused what men ask for their Salvation You must have no more any other pretensions Let the World be overturned Let the Romish Church perish Let the Elements be moved against sinners all that cannot touch you provided you keep you firmly united with God Leave willingly every thing to find that union If I be with you or not it is a small matter provided you be with God that should suffice because he alone can save you and none else There is always mixture when a Creature cleaves to its like I have often despised them who hold themselves addicted to persons although it were under some pious pretext I will not do my self what I despise in others I said unto her That she had promised to explain to me the 24. Chapter of St. Matthew that she should at least give me it before she left me She said Sir I do not willingly fail of my Promise give me the text of that Chapter and I shall explain it unto you word by word wishing that all men of good-will might see it that they might discover that it is of this present time that that chapter speaks Every one reads it without understanding it notwithstanding there are pleasant advertisments to beware of this dangerous time wherein we live at present These are not Fables made at pleasure but Truths proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus Christ himself which every one ought well to apprehend and follow the councels which he gives They are most salutary and most proper for escaping the evils to come which hang over our heads I must give it in writing for an eternal remembrance that men may observe if all that it contains shall not be effected in our time Do not oppose what you shall find contrary to your studies or old impressions because the Holy Spirit shall give perfect and unheard of intelligences of the Holy Scriptures because we are arrived in the fulness of time If you will receive them with Humility of Heart you shall understand all things in perfection but you must become a Child and cease from being a Wise Man because God reveals his secrets only unto little ones and hides them from the great and wise of the earth We must not resist the Holy Spirit and say such a Father explaineth it so or otherwise because the fulness is always more than a part You shall find what I say more clear than whatever the Holy Fathers have said because the time of the fulfilling of every thing is come but we must render simple our understanding as little Children or otherwise we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I brought unto