for Righteousness sake And by consequence the Doctrine of the learned now adays is altogether Antichristian that is to say contrary to that of Jesus Christ Not that their words are dissonant for they read the same Gospel which Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught but they gloss and explain so the words of the Gospel that they bring forth a quite perverse sence Notwithstanding they live in quiet though all their actions manners and desires be quite contrary to the Gospel Doctrine For every one now idolizes his own proper will And Jesus Christ said That we must renounce it Methinks all Christendom is become at present the people of Ephesus which adored the great Diana with this difference that Christians now adays adore the Corruption of the flesh whereas those adored a Statue of gold or Silver For we see these learned strive who can best find out subtil Inventions by which they may flatter men in their sins or perswade them that they may well follow the motions of their corrupt nature and withall attain to Salvation So that every one follows that Doctrine without perceiving that it is evil That is the reason why every one adores that Diana of corrupt nature as a Goddess And so they bestow all their time and goods to nourish honour and satisfie corrupted nature And more they think there is no evil in so doing while the ministers and learned do the same and promise Salvation to the people that live in that Idolatry But they ought to teach in effect the mortification of their senses the corruption of their natures how much it is ruined by sin and finally the necessity of denying our selves to be saved as Jesus Christ taught by word and works But these savage Pastors will not teach so unto their flocks and will yet less put it in practice themselves Yea nor will not suffer another to teach these Christian Truths It is for that they pursue me every where and would gladly exterminate me because I have written of true Virtue The same befel St. Paul by them of Ephesus who would exterminate him when he taught the truth Saying one to another That they should lose their gain if they suffered Paul to continue preaching Jesus Christ That he would ruin the worship of the great Diana and cause that the Goldsmiths should gain no more in the Workmanship of the Image of Diana It goes just so with these learned ones who are as the masters of the great Diana of corrupt nature which every one adores for his own particular But the Learned are the Masters to gain Money by the worship and adoration of corrupt nature So they speak and teach the people such things as please their corruption and endeavour to please men that they may receive advantages of them which they will not lose When then I begin to speak of true Virtue they are all allarmed against me as they of Ephesus were against St. Paul But these learned take also the Judges to their assistance and persecute me that I should be banisht or be discharged to write or speak of true Virtue Some wish me dead others burnt others that I were thrown in the midst of the Sea that I might speak no more of solid Virtue and so their gain and trade be not diminisht and their shops become unfrequented that is that they sell no more their frivolous Discourses to please men It is that which at last allarm'd them so at Flensburg whither I had gone about some business for the Ministers no sooner had any suspicion that I was in their Town but they preached in divers Churches that I am an arrant and pernicious person that I have a devilish Doctrine and finally no person should lodge me So that I behoved to come out secretly lest I should be massacreed by the Rable and Children whom the preachings of the Ministers had animated against me For they had spoken of me with great spite and horrours proclaming publickly that my Doctrine is worse than that of the Jews Adding beside that my doctrine is a mass of all the old Heresies that ever were in the world Yet I will not teach any thing by my Writings or Discourse but what Jesus Christ taught And if there is any thing contrary to that in them I detest and revoke it as I have often offered to revoke all that they would shew me to be contrary to the holy Scripture But it is not for Errors they persecute me or any evil in my Writings seeing they can shew me nothing such therein They persecute me then because I declare truely what is true Virtue and how a true Christian should live to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ I know well they mask these things saying that there are Errors in my Writings But no person shews me these errors They know not what to say to contemn the truths which I maintain For the Learned said first that I bring nothing of new and that they taught and preached tho same things twenty years agot But when they saw in the Book entituled The testimony of the Truth particulars and truths more clear in divine Mysteries than those they learnt in the Schools they say presently that they are Errors and that never any person wrote such things So that it behoved that God should regulate all according to their studies And should not give any new Graces to men now adays But that he should measure his Light by the rule of their scholastique doctrine and should not send the Holy spirit promised by Jesus Christ who shall teach all Truths Men then resist that Holy spirit and will not hear of other Truths but those they have learnt in the Schools It is every lamentable to see men such enemies of their eternal Happiness in rejecting the Light of the Truth which comes in this last time as the Prophets of God have fore-told That he will pour out his Spirit on all flesh and that your Sons and Daughters shall prophecy and the Old Men see Visions Now because I repeat the same things with many others from God they would kill me as was done to the ancient Prophets they think to hinder by that that true Virtue should be known and far more practised But though they should kill me the Spirit of God shall not die for that And rhe Truth shall always be true For if I should not speak it the Dead would speak or the Stones to declare it unto men And tho these Ministers put me to death God hath yet more than a hunderd millions of persons whom he can use to declare the same Truths which I advance And therefore my Son I exhort you to retain them well and put them in practice for though I were not in the world you must nevertheless save your own soul cost what it will if you will enjoy God to all eternity Which she wishes you with all her heart who loves your Happiness Husum Febr. 5. 1684. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON The
AN ADMIRABLE TREATISE OF SOLID VIRTUE Which the Men of this Generation know not seeing they take the Appearance of Virtue for True Virtue taught by JESUS CHRIST in these words Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and humble of heart as well as in the other Salutary Doctrines which he hath given for true Christians BY ANTONIA BOURIGNON Written in 24. Letters to a Young Man who sought after the Perfection of his Soul Teaching him that it Consists in the Knowledge of our selves and the Mortification of our Five Natural Senses Translated from the Original French At AMSTERDAM By HENRY WETSTEIN 1698. which Jesus saith both reveals and judges mens hearts How much of this divine Truth is in these Epistles the more upright the soul is it shall more discover and how much of this upright sincerity is in the soul the same Epistles will detect Here the most earnest hunger shall be adequately satiated and the most stupid inappetency unless it be voluntarily habitual and perversly obstinate may be awakened to an earnest search of that Virtue by the genuine representation of its inestimable value and ravishing beauty and the easie plain and sure means of attaining it here held forth But being a little may be by farr too much in the ordinary yea I had almost said universal way of talking much like a Perroquet of Virture without any living sence of it in the spirit its best not to divert the Reader from that Fountain where it flows living I mean that Speaker who can truely in a most ample sence say with David Credidi propter quod loquutus sum I believed and therefore I have spoken and with the master of Virtue Verba quae loquor non mea sunt sed patris qui me misit the words which I speak are not mine but the Fathers which hath sent me Only this being likely the first that hath appeared in our Language of the Writings of that extraordinary Organ of God's Spirit ANTONIA BOURIGNON it may be both suitable and acceptable to give the curious Searcher of solid Truth some entry into the unparalelled greatness of the thing by a brief recital of some memorable things of that person and of the thoughts of some few of them whose Souls that same Spirit touched by that Person and her Doctrine who was the Spring and Life of both To begin with the last Mr. Grellot an ancient Protestant Minister expresses the sense of his soul first to his friend Mr. P. and then to Mrs. A. B. her self In his to Mr. P. I Have long ago resolved for my self to endeavour to gain my living by the most abject and contemptible Works and Employs in the World and I have reason to lay my acount so for certainly if I preached in a Church where there were persons how ever little more knowing or of more worldly power than here I would never be suffered only because I manifest the deceipts that reign in Religion and in Sects I most willingly leave that precious Soul Mrs. Bourignon to sleep and rest in Jesus Christ therefore I dare not nor will not pray you to salute her in my Name I pray God only ratifie the Salutation and divine Benediction that you tell me she wishes to me I marvel not at what you write of the Spirit of God which is in Mrs. Bourignon that they who are with you will judge and think and cabal with the spirit of Zelots seeing I find no true Knowledge of God nor of his son nor of the Holy Spirit in men Seeing God shews the Mercy and Grace to you and to me to see and feel that the Spirit of God is in her pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter God give also Grace that it may be for the greater Glory of his Name and to our Souls Salvation Though before I said I durst not nor would not have you to salute that Child of God Mrs. Bourignon from me yet do it if you can conveniently I desire earnestly to see Mrs. Bourignon while she is yet alive for men are not worthy that she should be so long I know not what to make of the ministry I have long deplored the imprudence I had when I engaged in it His Letter to Mrs. BOURIGNON MISTRIS IT is now three years since Mr. P. began to address your Writings to me I had no sooner seen or read them but I judged you were of God I received the Truths of them the rather because God had already told me several like or near unto them Since that time I have been fully perswaded in my interiour and am so dayly more that you are wholly filled with the Holy Spirit and nothing is capable to make me believe the contrary although I were the only person in the world of that mind And I think not strange that you are wholy filled with it seeing you have employed so many years to attain it I mean that you practise Holiness and have given your self to the purifying of your soul and the other things that obtain it from God I see you possess alone all the Truths whereof all the other Sects and Religions of Christians have only a part and that you have them in your Soul and in your Books without any mixture of error whereas on the contrary I see no Sect that hath not more or less of Errors as their Authors did more or less come near to God internally You alone discover fully the false Piety wherein the devout of this World are deceived As I do firmly believe then that being filled with God he wills that you be a Chanel and Conduit through which he will flow into the Souls of them that are disposed and fitted to receive him I desire that he may flow from you into me and that being in me he put there the fruits of his Spirit Adducing the sense of his own abjectness and indignity the multitude of her Letters and Writings already dispersed the Grace and Spirit of God not restricted to particulars as retarding his writing to her he proceeds Yet Mr. P. my Friend among other things he wrote to me from you having saluted me in your name two different times I desired and prayed that these salutations might be ratified by God and thereupon I have resolved to represent unto you something for the good of my soul Which I do most humbly and before God I see also that many good Souls from divers places desire to become yet better some by your Letters and the rest by coming as near unto your Person as they can and that you have the Charity to stretch forth your arms unto all of them I hope also you will hold them forth to me the more willingly because I am afflicted with the sense of my sins and for my not having Love enough to my God and that there be yet many things to be amended in me if I may bear the Image of God or of Jesus as I desire I ought the rather
life were with incomparable Purity Evidence Clearness and Solidity in that Soul which thou didst sanctifie and are yet in her holy Writings In truth the way that is there recommended as necessary to Salvation is the only and the true way there is no danger to abandon our selves wholly and entirely in it for it is the very Truth it is the Truth it self It is the pure Truth There is none Lord there can be none other in Heaven nor in Earth There is none other way unto eternal life than that which thou hast put into the Mouth in the Writings and in the Life of thy most holy hand-maid Antonia Bourignon I praise and bless and thank thee O my God that thou gave me to know the same and hast opened and enclined the ear of my heart thereto Give me Grace to love to observe and to maintain that heavenly Truth unto Death Happy he that should lose a thousand lives for so worthy a subject Happy he who shall never for any consideration leave the practice of it Let me by thy divine Grace be of that number that after this short life of Tryal that most certain and most infallible mean make me enjoy my soveraign End which is to have the happiness ever to adore and praise thy great Majesty O Jesus eternal God Creator Saviour and redeemer of the World while with the Father and holy Spirit thou shalt reign Gloriously in all eternity Amen Revelation Ch. 3. He that hath Ears to hear Let him hear THE PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER THis Treatise consists of two parts whereof the one may be called Extructive which builds or establishes and the other Destructive which destroys or everts For the first ten Letters are adapted to the planting of Virtue and all the rest to evert and root out what may hinder its increase To recommend Virtue is taken the precept of him who is the Master and Example of it by which is made an introduction shewing what Virtues we must in the first place embrace and by what meanstend to them which is by Obedience and renouncing our own will unto the Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart of Iesus Christ see Let. 1 2 3. the Nature of which Humility is explained and the means conducing to the attainment of it viz the knowledge of our Corruption and the Miseries which our Bodys and Souls ly under Let. 4 5 6. Which ought to produce in us the effect of renouncing our natural senses and being content with what is of meer necessity we should flee all Pleasure and proper Satisfaction Let. 7 8. which emptying of our selves will be accompanied with the Love of God which incontinently possesses the Heart from which vitious affections are expelled because of the near relation and sympathy between them as between the Creature and its natural Element In which Love consists the Essence and Complement of all Virtue and all Good Let. 8 9 10. Concerning the overturning and resisting the Impediments and Tentations of Satan is treated Let. 11. whether they be offered to our Imagination or Sensibility even spiritual Let. 12 13. or to the Understanding making us rest in the naked knowledge of the Truth Let. 14. Or exciting us to external acting or internal with Vain Glory or by Dejecting us through immoderate mortifications or in unseasonable good works spiritual or corporal toward our Neighbour Let. 15 16. Or in regard of the Devil accusing him too much or too little of our sins Let. 17 18. Whether these Tentations affect the will whose godly fervour Satan would extinguish by Grief Spiritual Negligence and Self-love as shew Let. 19 20 and to the end There is briefly represente the whole subject handled in this divine Treatise which is more specially noted at the beginning of each Letter that you may kind Reader view as in a Table and beter retain in your memory the divine Instructions therein delivered Moreover you may with us well admire the infamous audacity of some as the Church-men in Holsatia whereby some years ago they caused that these so wholsome instructions while under the Press in the German and Low Dutch Tongues were taken away by force and violence and rent While I consider these obscure enemies of the truth that Scripture offers it self to me that Every one that Doth and will do evil hateth the Light and cometh not to the Light lest his deeds be reproved and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men Love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil. It is far otherwise with him who doth and will do the Truth for he cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest because they are wrought in God Joh. Ch. 3. I pray the God of Truth that he graciously please to instruct and lead you in the way of Truth that you never refuse to come to the Light Farewell TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Cannot abstain from imparting unto you these twenty four letters which I have written to one of my particular Friends where I shew him what Solid Virtue is because it is a matter so necessary for the present time when we see false virtue reign or such as is only apparent to the eyes of men and while so many persons deceive themselves perswading themselves that they have true Virtue whereas they have nothing but fine Speculations They think themselves Humble when they can talk well of Humility and think they have the Love of God when they desire to have it notwithstanding they have in effect only the Love of themselves and it is but Deceit and Falshood when they say they have the Love of God They do not so much as know the corruption of their Nature seeing they think they may follow that corruption without sinning provided they do no evil reproveable before men and have a will to do well and love God Which notwithstanding is not sufficient to be saved for good desires without effect are nothing before God They are indeed Foundation stones serving to the building of true Virtue For without good Desires we cannot do good Works We must first have the desire and after put it in execution which is wanting to many persons of a good will who content themselves to be of a good will and hope with that all shall go well without considering that the holy Scripture says to all in general Depart from evil and do Good Now the Evil is in our corrupt nature which no person ought to ignore yet few depart from that corruption and most love and follow it thinking they do well which is a great abuse and presumption of spirit for we cannot do good except we depart from evil and he that does not resist that corrupt Nature and renounce it cannot acquire true Virtue which few persons comprehend and thence is it that they have only apparent Virtues and no real ones Therefore is it that I have resolved to cause print these twenty four
add nothing to our souls and cannot have the recompense of eternal life They may indeed be a mean to attain to true virtue when our design is to aspire and arrive at it but the misery is that many rest at these means and external virtues as if that were the end And so they think they have virtue indeed whereas they have it only in shadow not in reality And therefore is it that I teach you what true virtue is and particularly what is that meekness which J. Ch. says we must learn of him It is nothing else but a peace quiet and tranquillity of Spirit which resides in the bottom of our soul and all these are Spiritual qualities which cannot be seen or felt but by their outward operations But the essence of that virtue of meekness is a divine quality and you cannot judge by the outward actions if one possesses it for one may well learn to speak mildly without having the mildness which J. Ch. says we must learn of him We may learn meek words like a Perroquet and speak so perhaps for civility or by hypocricy for I have known persons that appeared most meek in their carriage who inwardly were wicked and arrogant And therefore we must not amuse our selves at that outward mildness which is often deceitful and but natural for there are persons so faint-hearted that they fear to speak a harsh word left it give themselves trouble by as harsh an answer and that Sillyness makes them mild and calm both to good and evil And yet such dare believe that they have the virtue of meekness when it is only a vice of sloath and injustice which makes them yield to the sin of others instead of resisting it with diligence and courage but they will not take so much trouble It is not then that false meekness which I exhort you unto my Child for so you should not learn that which J. Ch. teaches but I would gladly make you comprehend what is that true meekness that you might love and follow it It is then an inward peace a quiet of conscience and tranquillity of Spirit which dwells in the bottom of our soul behold what that meekness which J. Ch. recommends to learn of him contains Himself practiced that meekness all the time of his mortal life and you may observe from that if there be at present any souls possessed by his Spirit that is who have effectually those three qualities in their souls for otherways they cannot be possessed of the Holy Ghost Observe well in me If I have peace in my soul quiet of conscience and tranquillity in my Spirit And if you discover in me these qualities believe assuredly that you may obtain them also for God refuses not his graces to them that ask and desire them and he will be loath to refuse that of meekness when J. Ch. says that we must learn it of him for he will not command us to learn that which is impossible God is just and therefore he hath not taught us any thing by Jesus Christ but what he will readily give us That Spirit of meekness and gentleness is the Holy Spirit which J. Ch. says shall not be refused to any bringing us this comparison to the purpose who is he of you who when his son asks bread will give him a stone or if he demand fish will give him a serpent And he Draws this conclusion If you then being evil know to give good things to your children how much more shall not your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him All the evil consists in that we do not desire him and that desire cannot be great in us as long as we do not know him Many say that the Holy Spirit does not work in souls now adays as he did in the days of J. Christ rand his Apostles because they do not see him in form of a dove as he appeared at the baptism of J. Chr. or as tongues of fire as on the Apostles at Pentecost which is a very feeble argument For the Holy Ghost is not limited to times being an eternal God who gives his gifts and bears his fruits at all times and will do to all eternity seeing he can never be barren nor idle operating always in the souls that are disposed thereto and if we see not now these tongues of fire that dove or other external signs it is because we need them no more now the gospel law and the doctrine of Jesus Christ being sufficiently confirmed at least there is no Christian as I believe that calls it in question Moreover these external forms added nothing to the souls of those that received the Holy Ghost but served only to convince the hard-heartedness of the incredulous And therefore true believers have no need to see external figures to believe that the Holy Spirit dwells yet in the soul of him that is thereto disposed They can well examin it themselves knowing but what the Holy Spirit is what are his gifts what his graces and what his fruits of which the meekness we must learn of Jesus Christ is one And though it be declared in divers places of Scripture yet it is all the same thing For J. Ch. says Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and St. Paul puts among the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit goodness and benignity which is the same thing pronounced in different words and is in substance the peace quiet and tranquillity of Spirit residing in the soul that hath these three internal qualities These signs are assured testimonies of the habitation of the Holy Spirit For the natural Spirit cannot give true peace nor true quiet nor true tranquility of Spirit as give the meekness and lowliness which J. Christ says we must learn of him I suppose by these My Child you comprehend sufficiently what is that meekness and lowliness which J. Ch. teaches And also that you have remarked enough that I possess it in my soul seeing you see me in inward peace quiet of conscience and tranquility of Spirit without notable change but yet you know not how you may come to feel the effects of that meekness of J. Ch. in your soul I know certainly you love them so far as you know them but you know not how to attain to them Which I shall also teach you if you will give good attention and follow my counsel for it is very easie to obtain the meekness which J. Ch. teaches if you will empty your soul of what hinders it and absolutely become a disciple of J. Ch. and follow his doctrines And if you feel not in your soul true inward peace quiet of conscience and tranquility of Spirit you may believe you have not yet learnt of J. Ch. his meekness and lowliness and so you must embrace the means to attain to it The first and fundamental means is absolutely to will and desire it which I believe by the grace of God you do In the
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
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
illustrare adultisque ad subtilia ineptis persuadere valeat Cujus exemplum paucis ab hinc annis nobis tulit Flandria in virguncula infante septimum aetatis annum nondum egressa quae cum vitam hanc spatio brevem curriculo miseram satis cerneret mortales tantopere ea capi obstupuit cum Jesum Christum vitam immortalem suis acquisivisse audivisset enixe continuo parentes rogavit ut se in Christianorum regiones ducerent cum autem ipsi Christum in Flandria coli responderent hoc incredibile exclamavit Christum enim paupertatem laudasse illis autem nummos numen esse illum dignitates sprevisse illos autem has ambire flendo arguebat et Quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis That is Such is the efficacy of this reasoning that it is able to illuminate infants in the dawning of their age and to perswade aged people that are not apt or disposed for subtil thoughts whereof Flanders hath a few years ago furnished us an example in an infant Girle not past the seventh year of her age who when she perceived well this life to be of a short continuance and miserable course was astonisht that mortals were so much taken with it and having heard that Jesus Christ had purchased Eternal Life for his Followers she earnestly and continually asked her Parents that they would take her into the country of the Christians and when they answered that Christ was worshipped in Flanders she rejected that as incredible and argued with tears Christ commanded Poverty but they loved money as their God he despised Honours but they coveted them and who could relate or speak of these things without weeping I add one A. de H. which may be something of a Directory to those in the like case with the Writer a renowned Phisitian in the Town of Middleburg in Zealand whose former Writings communicated to the world give testimony how just and penetrating his spirit is when he had well begun to make the matter in question the object of its consideration gives his rawest thoughts in a plain familiar Letter to Mr. P. thus Reverend SIR AFter by your counsel and recommendation I began to read Mrs. Antonia Bourignons Writings I felt as it were a fighting against them and they seemed to me not to deserve so much praise yet considering that your esteem must depend on a well-grounded knowledge because you knew the Gentle-woman you conversed with her and have accurately examined her writings Hence I began to read more attentively whence immediatly a sublim wisdom laying open man's interiour displayed it self The numerous difficulties that occurred in the beginning do evanish as my reading is with more attention Yet I cannot as yet assent unto all perhaps because I have read only few of them and have put fewer of them into practise without which these vritings seem not understandable as also the intelligence of Holy Scripture is promised only to them who obey the will of God That seems to me the greatest difficulty that practice may keep pace with knowledge which to overcome we must seek strength from the Father of Lights which is seldom done according to his will Our corrupt Nature lays many obstacles in the way and the seducing world strengthens it especially in the Art to which I have perhaps without God's conduct addicted my self in which a thousand distractions do dayly occur an Act so uncertain and so filled with Deceipts that I doubt if it may be exercised with a safe Conscience before I would demonstrate and amend its Errors but I know not the source of Errours Sin And in vain is the redress of Evil sought from him who is in Evil. I readily assent to Mrs. Antonia Bourignon that Christians must live otherwise than men do now adays Thoughts of this sort Sir have exercised me since I read your Divine Oeconomie and Mrs. Bourignons Writings and had given me occasion to speak with you if my intended Journey into Holland had succeeded but that being hitherto hindered I would give you these lines to the end you may give me counsel to the reading of these Writings with the greatest fruit and to overcome the corruption of my nature I willingly grant there are so many wholsome Counsels in them that it may seem superfluous to desire more If you think so I am content and recommending my self to your Prayers that God would perfect the work he has begun in me I shall remain Reverend SIR Yours in Christ A. de H His succeeding Letters so much breathed out conviction of Sin Righteousness and Judgment as might stumble worldling hearts But why it were a work beyond a Volum to alledge all that might be adduced of the mighty power and efficacy of her Writings in allarming the Consciences enlightening the Minds and inflaming the Desires to the overturning of the Works of Darkness and contempt of all worldly things to seek only eternal ones and all such as it were to attribute robbery to another power than that of the adorable Majesty of our God and that in all ranks and sorts of persons of different Countries Professions Capacities and Tempers and of all Religions and Sects and generally all that seek God in Truth and sincerity in whatever circumstances have to the measure of that Truth and Sincerity joyned hands embraced approved and acquiesced in the substantial essence of the words and way of Eternal Life here every where and only recommended many of which have been and are impartially speaking the most sound and profound Spirits of the age at least in the European World and as far as the Latin Tongue serves to propagate the communication of Thoughts and that as well in the general quality of a solid judgment and penetrating spirit as in the specification by determining the same to particulars Subjects and Studies whether Theologie or Law or Phisick or Philosophy in all of which some sufficiently attested to the literate World capable of its greatest attempts yet in them God hath reserved that Candour that they would not be disobedient to the heavenly Call but counted all loss and dung for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ though alas the number of such is lamentably small in all sorts In fine Let whosoever is weary and heaven loaden come resolutely absolutely and constantly hither and he shall assuredly by divine assistance find rest to his Soul and the peace which the world cannot give nor take away even amidst all outward Adversities yea and inward tentations beyond the reach of all the Rhetorique in the world yea and all the force and cunning of Earth and Hell to unstable the Foundation either means or end if he continue faithful under Christs Yoak To pass further to a Brief touch of a few of the many Memorable things in her Life from her own Manuscripts and from the faithful and judicious record of her Life continued ANtonia Bourignon was born in the City of Lisle in Flanders on the
none can evite it And it is a happiness which man hath had above the Angels while he can have Pardon of his sin for a small time of Repentance as is this short life for the disobedient Angels were confined to Hell without remission whereas man is only sent for a small time to this world to do Penitence and after return to God whence he proceeded And therefore men ought voluntarily to embrace that Penitence to satisfie the Justice of God when it is so light and short in regard of eternal Damnation to which the Angels were condemned when they disobeyed God And that Penitence is light and easie when we will bear it as a Yoak which God hath given us for our sins Therefore also Jesus Christ calls it his Yoak and not ours to make us understand that all the miseries of this life are light and easie when we receive them from the Hand of God and to satisfie his divine Justice but that same yoak the same miseries are full heavy and grievous when we bear them grudgingly or seek to be delivered and discharged of them which cannot be in this valley of tears which is only a Prison of Penitence where we must stay until the time of our Penitence be over to some longer then to others according to the sentence of the great Judge But if we will take this Life of Penitence for a time of delights and Pleasure we must make an eternal Penitence which shall never end and begins even in this life For although we should employ all the powers of our spirit and forces of our body to charm our Miseries or evite sufferings they will not leave us for all that And whatever we do or say we must always feel heat and cold diseases of body and troubles of spirit the changing of seasons and revolutions of times and so many other accidents which befal man during the course of his life All that must be troublesome and painful to him if he take it not as the Yoak of God but if he embrace it affectionably as Jesus Christ did all shall be light and easie to him as were unto our Saviour Miseries Persecutions Torment and even Death not that his nature was insensible of the Pains and Torments which they caused him but he suffered all for the Love of God which made the most heavy Burdens and the bitter Gall of his cruel Passion appear to him easie light and pleasant If you will my son be his Disciple and become a true Christian embrace with him all the Miseries of this present life suffer patiently what ever befals you contrary to your will and above all deny and renounce your self as Jesus Christ your Captain taught and practised He warred against the inclinations of corrupt nature in every thing For because they tend always to Greatness and to receive Honour he choosed Meanness and Contempt because they tend always to covet riches he would be poor and because they seek always their ease and Pleasure he chose uneasiness and sufferings So that he always crushed the inclinations of corrupted Nature constraining it by the Bridle and Yoak of the Love of God doing every thing contrary to the inclinations of that corrupted nature Behold your Captain who marches before you and calls you to follow him saying If any man will come after me let him take up his Cross and deny himself and follow me You must not my Son seek any other Master nor hear other Doctrine for men deceive and are deceived who will take another way than Jesus Christ took or will enter into life eternal by means quite contrary to those which he used himself If there were another way of salvation Jesus Christ would have taught us it and had followed it himself seeing all he did upon the earth was to give us an example that we might follow and imitate him If then there were any thing better than to renounce our corrupt Nature doubtless he had taught us it Never go to perswade your self that men are too frail to observe the Law of God and the Gospelcounsels seeing the one and the other was given us only for our frailty for if we had been perfect we had not needed any Laws It is sin which hath brought these Laws upon man Yet you must not believe that the Laws are evil seeing they are very good and are the true means of our salvation For without them man had never known his sins and had insensibly abandoned God living without stop worse than a Beast not feeling nor knowing his misery You must know that Adam was not ashamed to see himself naked before God called him asking him Adam where art thou yet he had sinned and his Wife also in the Absence of God and lived still freely after their sin as they had done before but so soon as God called them they began to fear and tremble and be ashamed which made them flee and hide themselves from him not daring to appear before him as formerly The same effect did the Law of God in mens minds in Moses's Days for then also had they quite forsaken their God and lived without minding their duties giving themselves up to all sorts of sins without knowing them and for that would God give them a Law that by it they might know their sins and so abstain from committing them That Law was composed of ten Commands or ten things that they were to observe It is not a Burthen laid upon men by God as some ignorants say blaspheming God He hath not given them Commands which are impossible for them to observe for these things were to be observed in all times although they were not distinctly commanded or forbidden Natural reason ought sufficiently to have taught man that he should not Kill Steal commit Adultery bear False Witness Covet his Neighbour's Goods nor take the name of his God in vain And that same natural reason was sufficient to show them that they ought to love God with all their heart since they had received of him their being and all other things and received continually benefits for their sustenance The same natural Light was sufficient to show to man that he should Honour his Father and Mother since they have brought us up cared for us nourished and taught us in our tender age For ingratitude is an unnatural thing for even the most savage Beasts acknowledge their Benefactors So that the Law of God hath not charged man with any thing that he was not obliged to in all times For from his creation he was obliged to Love God with all his heart and to honour Father and Mother which are the two things commanded in the ten commands the other eight are only Prohibitions of doing evil which man was always obliged to abstain from and ever shall And the cause why God hath declared these things in form of Commands is man's infirmity who had so forgotten his duty that he committed evil without knowing it and should become
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
much power over his spirit Otherwise man hath in him a good judgment beyond any other creature and by that judgment he can assuredly know and discern good from evil And it is free for him to choose the good and hate the evil by an absolute act of his will which the Devil cannot hinder And moreover he hath power to resist the Devil by faith and hope in God who never fails to come to the relief of a man who asks and desires it And therefore my Son you must never say that the Devil made you do any evil which were to make you his slave and testifie your subjection to him as are the Sorcerers who have given him their souls and promised to obey him For such have truely oblieged themselves to do all the evil he pleases and when they do it not he beats and abuses them But you being a Child of God and voluntarily subject to him you must nor fear that the Devil can constrain you to sin against your will and so never attribute to him the fault you commit your self It is true the Devil first incites good persons to sin but they should despise him and not follow him yea and mock at his tentations But we must always watch over his surprisals and never sleep in the way of true virtue Believe then the Apostle's counsel where he says My Brethren be sober and watch for that very reason because the Devil goes about us like a roaring Lion seeking to Devour us We must resist him couragiously and not say I was not thinking of the Devil when I fell into evil For he desires willingly that we do evil without thinking on it That is his best recreation For it does not fall out that good persons do evil but while they sleep and think not of evil Then is it that the Devil acts most in us and causes that we think not of it till after the evil is committed But our negligence or Sleepiness will not find excuse before God seeing we are oblieged to watch always if we would arrive at true Virtue To which she exhorts you who careth for your soul Holstein near Gottorp Castle May 13. 1672. St. Vet. ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE XVIII LETTER The Good and Evil Spirit are known by their Fruit. To the same giving him the signs to know whether it is the Good or Evil Spirit that moves us shewing also a twelfth Artifice of the Devil by which he causes us to impute our Vices to our natural propensions without suspecting him to lurk therein that he may remain unknown My Son I see yet one difficulty which occurs to your Spirit to wit How you should discover when the Devil insinuates himself into your good Actions and how you shall know that it is he that moves you to do good that he may catch you or to cause that what you do with a good intention turn to his Honour For you protest that you will not obey him nor follow his tentation in any thing when you discover and know that he tempts you Believe me my Son that is most easie to discern provided you have an absolute will to resist the Devil It is very good and most easie to discover if it is the good or evil spirit who moves us in all our actions and words to do or say any thing small or great because these two spirits have their qualities and conditions quite different and work in us quite contrary operations and dispositions So that you may as it were feel with your finger if it is a good or an evil spirit which moves you to say or do any thing by the dispositions you shall feel in your Soul For the good spirit produces in our souls Charity Joy Peace Patience Long-suffering Goodness Bounty Meekness Chastity Faith Continence and Modesty And the evil spirit on the contrary produces therein Self-love Sadness Trouble Impatience Rashness Wickedness Fretting Pride Despair Intemperance Inequality Unconstancy and Impurity which are all things contrary to the fruits of the good Spirit And as the tree is known by its fruit so may we know the evil spirit by the fruit he produces in our souls And therefore we must always examin if our enterprises or the will or intentions we have to do or leave undone any thing produce in our souls Charity Peace Faith Joy and the rest And then we may be assured that our enterprises and wills are from God seeing they bring unto us the fruits of his spirit But if on the contrary we feel in our souls Self-love Sadness Impatience and the rest we may well be assured that our desires and enterprises are excited by the Devil Which is a firm and sure rule We need not then amuse our selves at fine speculations to discover if we be moved by the Devil to do or leave undone any thing while we feel in our selves the effects of a good or an evil spirit For the Devil will never incite to Charity seeing it is a divine Quality which the Devil hath not in his power and which unites souls to God But he draws from self-love all manner of advantage and declines the soul from the love of God For he that loves himself covets Pleasures honour and Riches and all that is not God and so he is sad and is not in the capacity to acquire true Virtue for he hath not courage to resist the tentation of the Devil but suffers himself rather to be overcome by dark melancholy Thoughts But the good Spirit banishes these thoughts by the joy which it brings to the Soul And although there were all sorts of occasions of Sadness externally even for our sins that good Spirit comforts and rejoyces the bottom of the soul amidst the most sensible Troubles and Pains When we have then inward joy in the midst of sufferings it is an assured testimony that the holy Spirit dwells in us Which hath often rejoyced me in the midst of Suffering and Persecutions I felt therein a great joy in the bottom of my Soul in lamenting my sins and I thanked God that he gave me these Tears of Repentance But the Devil gives only counterfeit and external joys which afflict and grieve the heart when they are over that is the cause why we see worldly persons always search after new Recreations and Divertisements For th' one is no sooner gone but Melancholy and Sadness seises the heart who would so divert himself and for that he hunts insatiably after new divertisments without finding withal true Contentment which we cannot have but by the joy of the Holy Spirit and that joy is not to be found among the Divertisments of the World I was astonisht to hear one day of a person who would re-establish Israel that he searcht for a great House with a Garden to divert himself and walk therein as also that he must sometimes go to walk in the field or go in a Barque of Pleasure or Boat to divert himself which gave me enough to
Which yet is not so though it mix it self with the Devil's motion It is his custom to follow every ones natural inclination to cover himself the better that he be not known And by that Device he remains unknown each attributing his fault to his nature one would be supported in his Anger Another in his Sadness and Morosity Another in his Lust Saying often I cannot help these things it is my Nature That is a language the Devil hears gladly because so he lurks unknown and makes us go from evil to worse unto death But they that have esteemed the Malice and Wickedness of the Devil natural Weakness and infirmities shall see clearly at death that it is Devilish Malice which mixes it self with every ones natural inclination And the Devil labours always to discover these natural inclinations that he may the better play his part and remain unknown under that covert of natural infirmities And so he amuses many that they never think it is the Devil because he is so straitly united with their natures and that is his subtility He knows well he should not be so much obeyed if he gave tentations contrary to ones natural inclinations and so he follows always every ones Nature and augments the inclinations which he finds there If he meets with a Cholerique person he stirs him up the more to Anger If a Luxurious or Sad person he augments their Luxury or Sadness to gain them all on the weakest side he does as an Enemy that would attacque a City he will not assault where it is fortified but where it is weakest if he find some corner of the wall broken he attempts to break it more that by it he may enter the Town being the most advantagious entry for him And the Devil our Town Enemy does the very same he cannot surprise us in things wherein we are on our guard so he attacques us where we do not expect it and by that means he gains easily our will and makes it obey him in what we have inclination to We must then always make a serious reflection on all our words and actions and then we shall easily discover what comes from the devil seeing it hath always his qualities and produces within us the fruits of Envy Trouble Impatience Sadness and others which I marked above We may also remark enough the qualities of the things the Devil causes us to do For if you will examin your self narrowly you shall always find something in your words untrue or dissembled or spoke by vain complacency to please men which makes that there is not always Justice in your words For he that speaks by the good Spirit is true in the bottom and never speaks any thing to please or flatter men but declares natively the truth of things as well what is contrary to himself as what is advantagious seeing he seeks only to please God alone To know if our actions are excited by the Devil or not you need but mark if they be done for the Glory of God or for your own and if you seek not your self therein For the Devil will always incite us to seek our selves in all that we do He knows well that Self-love mars the Love of God And so he excites our understanding to consider if what we do or say shall be advantagious to us if it shall give us Pleasure Honour or Profit and when we observe none of these advantages in it he slackens our courage that we do not accomplish our undertaking nor prosecute our work The good Spirit on the contrary incites always to labour for the Glory of God and Assistance of our Neighbour And so he that is guided thereby does nothing for his own proper interest but endeavours to his power to assist his Neighbour in need because the Charity which that good spirit carries in it attends more the common good than his own particular By that my Son you may observe all your words and actions to know if they are excited by the good or evil Spirit For these are infallible marks to discern the spirits if from God or the Devil without amusing you to Speculate or seek to discover the Devil in himself since he is an invisible spirit and incomprehensible to your understanding but you shall always discover him infallibly by his qualities and the fruits which he produces in your soul and your inward disposition will tell you it Which she assures you of who is Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 15. May 1672. St. vet THE XIX LETTER We cannot in this Life be Free from Tentations To the same who was grieved for that the Devil hath power to tempt us so variously A Thirteenth Artifice of the Devil is shown him wherein he breaks the firmness of the mind by Sadness That Tentations are necessary and profitable to try and purifie us My Son I See you are grieved in Spirit because the Devil hath power to tempt men so many divers ways but you should rejoyce while you learn the truth of every thing For if you knew it not the Devil would seduce you by ignorance as he hath done so many thousands who have obeyed him because they did not know it they thought to follow the will of God while they followed certainly that of the Devil and so have perished insensibly For before God Ignorance does not excuse sin every one is oblieged to know what he ought to do and omit to attain to Salvation We need not think to say to God after death Lord I knew not this or that or I thought not I did evil in that for all excuses will be uncurrent coyn which will not be received nor approved of him seeing we have aboundantly the means to find if we have the desire to seek What should we say to see a man poor and miserable overcharged with his enemies when he will not be at the pains to labour or seek a better way of living and would needs sleep and rest at his ease though he knew himself to be surrounded by his Enemies we should certainly say that man were the cause of his own miseries and of all the evil that may befal him And why will you not judge also that he who neglects to search the means of his salvation and to discover the wiles of the Devil his Enemy is the cause of his own Damnation for it can be imputed only to our selves seeing we have aboundantly the means to find if we had a true desire to seek Tell me I pray you what cause of ignorance can a Christian pretend who reads and hears the Gospel and the Teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles to which he gives credit and accords that they teach that there is a Devil who is our Enemy and who seeks to Devour us that our life is a continual combat that we must watch and pray that we enter not into tentation Notwithstanding men will not do either the one nor the
other but live at ease without fighting they remain in quiet amidst the danger of their Enemies And which is strange when any would waken them out of that Lethargique Sleep they are grieved and dissatisfied notwithstanding that Sleep will assuredly procure them eternal Death if they do not awake to fight their Enemies We cannot hinder that these Enemies assail us every where but they are unwilling to be discovered because an Enemy discovered is half vanquisht And therefore my Child you ought to rejoyce rather than be sorrowful that God permits that I now discover so many wiles of the Devil For you cannot make that he be not wicked and that all manner of malice proceeds not from him nor can you hinder that he tempt men since our first parents have given him that power and if they had not done it we give him dayly the same power over us which he got over them by the consent of our will to his tentation It being so we must fight or render to him which were lamentable For we were created true Children of God after his Image and Resemblance And we should become by our Sloath Children of the Devil which you must never suffer but endeavour to discover the evil and resist it to your power And bless God also that he sends you his Light that you may know it and beware of it without afflicting your self so much because the Devil hoth power to tempt men For tentations purifie the soul and render it agreeable to God He takes pleasure to see us fight his and our Enemies And he gives us strength and aid if we persevere constantly yea he hath prepared for us Triumphant Lawrels and Eternal Rewards of Victory Therefore you must not give place to that feebleness of spirit to languish because the Devil hath power to tempt men since it is not in you to take it from him he hath too long possessed it For since he made himself the Enemy of God he hath had power to do in himself all the evil he pleased although his evil cannot hurt man unless he consent For man hath full liberty to resist him as the Devil hath full liberty to tempt us If that were not true he could never have tempted Adam our first Father who was altogether holy and perfect at his Creation and had not in his beginning given any occasion to the Devil to tempt him But the Devil being created free as well as man he had power to do all the evil he pleased in himself For he would even be equal with God which is a greater evil than to tempt Adam in his innocence And that of tempting men now is yet far less seeing they are corrupted by the first Sin And it is yet less when he tempts them that have so often consented to him with deliberate will And therefore my Son you have no ground to fret because the Devil hath power to tempt you but you ought truely to regret that you have by your past sins given him so much power over your soul Resolve now to war against him with manly courage and hinder that he get more power over your soul by resisting his tentations for that is a holy and salutary Resolution But that Grief which you conceive because the Devil hath power to tempt you and others comes from him He makes us always desire things impossible and such as are not in our power that he may afflict and discourage us For he knows well that a grieved and discouraged person is not well fitted to resist his tentations and that in that state he can easily lead him from one evil to another And therefore he often causes vain griefs such as is that which proceeds from that the Devil hath so much power to tempt men and also the disturbing grief for our sins past which are no more in our power These are Extremities into which the Devil attempts always to precipitate us It is true we ought to regret that we have willingly given the Devil so much power over us and more lament our by past sins but we must not therefore rest in these griefs seeing they would mar the Graces of God in us It is better to go to God by love and amendment of life than by Melancholies which proceed from the Devil for before his entry there was nothing but all joy in the world and in the heart of man So that sadness is truely a quality of the Devil and so man ought to Despise it if he seeks after true virtue He ought indeed to have a sincere regret from his heart that he hath offended God and beg pardon of him as often as he remembers his sins but he ought never to suffer himself to be overcome of grief since what 's past is not in his power And though he should destroy himself he can never make that what is past should not be He ought then for penitence of his by-past sins endeavour a true conversion to God departing from evil to do good detesting sin to embrace true virtue Which is a true contrition much more solid than tears and immoderate sadness which the Devil ordinarily gives them that begin Of which you must beware my Child for God would be served with a ready and joyful heart And he says that he treats with the converted sinner as if he had never offended him You should then rejoyce for the Grace God hath given you to forsake the World and to turn from Vanity unto the Truth which you now discover and not afflict your self because the Devil hath so much power to tempt men seeing that power cannot be exercised but on those that give or have given him their full consent and that all things turn to good to them that fear God When the Devil tempts you remember that he cannot hurt you without your own consent and your resisting his tentation renders you agreeable to God For your soul must be proved as Gold in the Furnace which grows still the purer by continuing in the fire Even so is a soul purified by long tentation if it remain firm in resisting and nothing can hurt it but sin from which if it abstain it carries the victory over its enemies and all they can do against it are but false allarms which try its Fidelity and Vigilancy And therefore we must not desire that the devils power should be taken from him but earnestly pray to God for strength to resist him and fight until death For Jesus Christ in the prayer which he left to Christians hath not asked to be free from tentation but only not to be led to follow the tentation and to be delivered from evil And since there is no other evil but sin we pray only to be delivered from it and not from tentation which is often profitable and salutary for us yea sometimes necessary to our frailty For our nature is so feeble and corrupted that it could not remain faithful to God out of tribulations
lawful Husband who descended from heaven unto the Earth to teach her them as well by his Works as by his Words all which things are despised by her who should be his lawful Spouse I have often spoken to you of her Excesses and Adulteries will you yet hold her for the Holy Church while the Devil hath placed his throne in her what weakness of spirit to feel repugnancy to forsake so evil a thing upon frivolous perswasions that it is holy while God hath given us an understanding and reason it is for no other end but that we may discern evil from good that we may not perish blindly and now you would change Gods designs in stifling your understanding and reason to follow evil blindly and seeing it so openly evil you form some foolish imagination that it is yet good That must come only from a meer bewitching of spirit because reason even natural discovers sufficiently unto us that the Romish Church at present is not the Spouse of Jesus Christ because she doth not in any thing follow her husband and that two things so alienated cannot make confederacy How can you have repugnance to leave her who hath forsaken her God If Beasts and insensible Creatures and all the Elements have arisen against man when he did forsake the Dependance of his God how should man so reasonable not arise against that Church which hath forsaken the Dependance of her God to will no more dependance but upon her self we should rather have repugnancy to remain under her than to forsake her or otherwise we have less resentments of the offence done unto our Creator than the Beasts and elements or inanimate things which have always resented the injury done unto their Creator yea at the death of Jesus Christ the Stones did rent and the Sun was darkened Have you less affection for God Sir then these stones in not resenting the continual injuries which that Church doth unto God If a beautiful Angel is become a Devil for having desired in his heart to be equal unto God what shall become of her which preferreth her self unto the same God without willing to him in any thing I regret yet your blindness in that point Sir and cannot believe that your repugnancy cometh from your reason but some habitual sensibility which you have unto the Church For if your Understanding did apply it self to discover the origin of that repugnancy it should see clearly that it cometh from the pious affection which you have for the Church but that you do not take it where it is because men are deluded in that as in other things by terms and words of men and when they hear Rome named the Holy Church that word engenders in us affection for her without penetrating if she be that of which they speak when we would deceive a Child and keep him in fear of his Father we put his Cloak and Hat upon a Fagot in some place somewhat obscure which the Child perceiving he believeth that it is truely he and feareth and respecteth him But if he drew near and lift up the Cloak he should see that he was deceived and that what he held for his Father is only some Wood. Verily Sir in the Darkness wherein we live at present they do the very same with us covering Rome with the Cloak of the Holy Church and cloathing it with the Head of Jesus Christ we fear and respect it as if it were our true Mother the Holy Church authorised by Jesus Christ and his lawful Spouse but when we draw near and lift up that Cloak we shall see that there is nothing but Wood instead of Sanctity which cannot be profitable unto us except to warm us in the Winter Verily Sir we must not be so much Children in what regards our eternal Salvation We must not walk blindly in a matter so important If men apply all their spirit to make a Hose or a Shoe why should they not apply it more to save their Soul It is good to have the simplicity of the Dove in regard of God for he that hath abandoned himself unto him hath no more but to suffer himself to be conducted as a little Child but we must have the Prudence of the Serpent to beware of men who can deceive or be deceived and when they say to us behold the Holy Church we must observe narrowly if it is truely her or if it is a Fagot covered with her Mantle It is for that only that God hath given us an understanding that we may always discern true good from false especially in the matter of our Salvation because all other things are vain and perishing unworthy of a serious application of spirit seeing it ought not to be applyed but unto things eternal for which we are created and our misery proceeds from that we make more serious searches to discover the turns and courses of the affairs of the world than those of our Salvation In which the Scripture hath reason to say that the Children of this world are more prudent than the Children of the Kingdom because before engaging in any State Office or Traffique they will always ponder if it be truely advantagious and profitable and they will be loath to rely upon the Words of men and believe blindly that a thing is good before they have first experienced it If they have so much providence for what regards the Earth how much should we have for what regards Heaven we found our Salvation blindly upon what they tell us that Rome is our Mother the Holy Church and we do not sound that affair which concerns us so much to know if truely she hath the quality of our true Mother and if she is confederated with our true Father who is immutable in all his qualities unto which that Spouse must always be conform We must see if she whom they call our Mother hath the Spirit and Practice of our Father and if we find nothing like it we must renounce her and account her deceitful and lying unworthy of our affection FINIS THE ARMS OF THE CITY OF RYSEL ON THE RIVER OF LYSSE IN FLANDERS (a) Ps 8. (b) Ps 119. (a) Ep. 1 2 3. (b) Ep. 4 5 6. (c) Ep. 7 8. (d) Ep. 8 9 10. (e) Ep. 11. (f) Ep. 12 13. (g) Ep. 14. (h) Ep. 15 16. (i) Ep. 17 18. (k) Ep. 19 20 21 22 23 (l) Ep. 24. * 1 John 12 15. * Which is solidly proved in the 2. part of Solid Virtue letter 6. * Of Religions and external pious exercises †An excellent Rule and Comparison * True Catholiques and their Worship (a) Math. 6. v. 2 3. (b) Rom. 6. v. 4. (c) Heb. 9. v. 27. (d) 1 Cor. 1. v. 19. (e) Mark 10. v. 15. (f) Is 5. v. 13. (g) Ps 37. v. 5. (h) Ezek. 18. v. 23. (i) Rom. 11. v. 29. (k) Luk. 15. v. 24. (l) Deut. 32. v. 6. (m) Prov. 23. v. 26. (n) John 3. v. 8. (o) Ps 8. v. 7. (p) Gen. 3. v. 17 19. (q) Prov. 8. v. 31. (r) Cant. 2.4 (ſ) Luk. 10 42. (t) Ps 81. v. 14 17 (u) Math. 6. v. 26. (w) Ps 73 v. 23 24. (x) Ps 73. v. 25 26. (y) Luk. 15. v. 18. (z) Ps 18. v. 5 7. (a) Ps 37. v. 5 6 7. (b) Is 65. v. 3. (c) Ps 34. v. 15. (d) Is 58. v. 13. (e) Ecl. 12. v. 8 9.12 (f) Matth 3. v. 9. (g) Joh. 15. v. 6. (h) Math. 15. v. 24. (i) Is 29. v. 14. (k) Gen 19. v. 26. (l) Is 58. v. 13 14. (m) Ps 46. v. 3. c. (n) Luk 21. v. 36. (o) Ps 25 v. 14. Math. 11 v. 25. (p) 1 Cor. 8. v. 12. (q) Math. 18. v. 3. 1 Pet. 2. v. 2. (r) Math. 13. v. 44. (ſ) Rev. 5. v 1 9. (t) Is 29. v. 14. (v) Rev. 21. v. 2. (w) Ibid v. 3. (x) Rev. 20 v. 14 15. (y) Math. 18 v 3 (z) Gal. 1. v. 16. (a) Eccl. 37. v. 17 18. (b) Ps 73. v. 25 26 (c) 2 Thes 2. v. 4 (d) Math. 27. v. 51. (e) Math. 10. v. 16. (f) 1 Cor 20. v. 15. (g) Luk. 16. v. 8.