yet many good Men among others who are wicked and do not perceive that the evil is universal when the punishments are so The sacred History of the Scripture makes appear to us that God would have pardoned all that were in Sodom if there had been but ten Righteous within it We believe there are a great many good men according to our judgment whereas it may be before God there are none and even tho there were divers yet it is a good thing that the Righteous be tried by Tribulation for they testifie by it the fidelity they have toward God in continuing constantly faithful to him in adversity as well as in prosperity and likewise they thereby try themselves For many are deceived who thought they were faithful to God in Prosperity and yet Adversities have made them stumble in the midst of their Race or they have perish'd at the first essay of Temptation So that God manifests always great Righteousness and great Mercy chiefly in sending universal Rods in chastning the Wicked and in trying the Righteous if there be any who never suffer for the Guilty but for their own Perfection and Merit Universal Chastisements being much more profitable to the Good than to the Evil because they purifie them and render them more perfect whereas the wicked become worse by them I was obliged to confess That I had done a great wrong in speaking thus of God according to my Sentiment I asked her how I ought to behave my self that I may not any more fall into the like faults and that I might make a right judgment of God She said Sir never judge according to what you see outwardly but give always time to your Spirit to examin the works of God and you will discover that all that he does and permits is accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Power which are his Qualities without which he does nothing Men do deceive themselves and the most wise err in this point when they will censure the works of God In which they are real Ignorants for if they had any small Light they would admire and adore them only without making any judgments of them for of necessity what they make is unjust injurious or rash because no human Spirits are capable of fathoming the works of God for they are all incomprehensible We can only see that in them there is all sort of Goodness Righteousness and Power If we consider only a grain of Corn we shall find in it these three things Power is in its frame because no man is able to make a grain of Corn how Great and Learned soever he be We percieve also in this grain the goodness of God who gives so liberally to the Good and to the Wicked their necessary Food We will there likewise find Righteousness because having made Man subject to be nourished with this grain he provides it for him even tho he be his Enemy that he may find no injustice in God to have subjected him to a thing which afterwards should be denied him He wills that we may comprehend aright that all his works are Just and Good and Powerful tho we be ignorant how he makes them The Twenty fourth Conference Of the Enquiry about the most Holy Trinity and concerning Grace and that the Saints themselves are mistaken therein none being Infallible I Said to her That I had committed a great many faults in this matter that often I would needs dive into the works of God even his highest Mysteries such as that of Grace and the Trinity and that many holy Doctors had pass'd all their Life in such Studies to declare how God begets his Word or how God bestows Grace differently She replied Sir It is very ill done for a silly Worm of the Earth to seek to comprehend that which a God does It is enough always for a Servant to know what is agreeable to his Master in the matter of the duty of his Service without its being permitted him to enquire into his most secret particular Affairs He has performed his Duty when he has done that which is commanded and ordain'd him by his Master Much more blame worthy is it that a Creature should inform it self how God begets his Word or how he distributes his Graces unto Men This is beyond our Duty We ought to reckon our selves very happy to learn that God has so much Goodness that he always imparts to us Grace sufficient to enable us to love and serve him Every one may find this in his own Conscience and Experience which is the Mistress of all Scienc can testifie that every one has received Grace from God even tho he be a great Sinner What need is there after this to inform our selves how God gives these Graces Or if he give more to one than to another If this be not to seek matter to condemn God of Partiality or to make him have respect of Persons and so to render him less Lovely There is yet less ground to inform our selves what the Holy Trinity is for no body is capable of comprehending it nor yet how the Father begets the Son so much the rather that to render unto God agreeable Service there is no need of knowing any other thing than what he commands and ordains us What is more is unprofitable or evil for all that we should be able to say or know of the Trinity cannot but greatly lessen the glory of his Being which is above all that is most Beautiful most Good and most Great There is nothing that can be compared to God neither are there any words that can give us the least signification of the Being of God who comprehends all things If God were Man we would say that his Heart is the Father His Mouth the Son and his Understanding the Holy Spirit because the Heart of Man is the feat of Love his Mouth is the Channel by which this love is communicated and his Understanding is the Garden wherein the Conceptions do grow to make his Love be comprehended These three things are but one Person tho it have these three diverse Operations The Holy Trinity is but one God who is all Love he loves Man incomprehensibly We may call this Love the Father Now no Being is perfect if it be not communicated The Word has communicated unto Man this Love therefore it may be call'd the Son And this Word cannot be comprehended without Understanding which has likewise been given unto Man to comprehend this Love which understanding may be call'd the Holy Spirit All three together are but that sole Love which is God There is not in the Holy Trinity a Man a Child nor a Dove as they paint it unto us but these are all Figures to make us conceive something of God who nevertheless is unconceivable And all that they can say to us of him are but contempts or reproaches which we commit against God for
wisdom the original of all goodness and incomprehensible power In short the Church is God himself who cannot fail or err therefore Jesus Christ says he that hears you hears me because the word of God is God as our word is us our heart must be where we speak and also our understanding even so where the word of God is which is his Church there the holy spirit is which is his understanding and the almighty power which is his heart From whence it appears that the holy Trinity composes the Church which is no other but the power of the Father the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and the good will of the Son All these things are found united in the Church for God having a design to make man after his likeness he transferr'd to him his own qualities therefore he gives to his Church the power to pardon sins goodness by the communication of his word and his wisdom by the understanding of that word Jesus Christ who took human flesh has brought us the word of God which has taught us his wisdom and shewn us his love even as by our word we express what is in our understanding and the affections of our heart which God also did to us when he sent us his word upon earth by the organ of the humanity of Jesus Christ He made this alhance with men that he might have them after his likeness Therefore he has call'd them his Spouse and his Church which is altogether divine and spiritual But men would indeed disguise it and render it material sensual and carnal in giving the name of Church to men who do not possess this word without which they cannot be the Church nor have the power the wisdom nor the love which God gave to his lawful Spouse Therefore they may greatly err and fail in appointing and approving of rules for Christians And whereas you ask Whether all these outward Devotions which are now in use in Christendom be good and saving I doubt it very much for Jesus Christ taught not such varieties of devotion as we see now adays but he taught solid and inward vertues as Faith Hope and Charity Faith to believe in an Almighty God of whom we hold all things Hope to hope in him only without putting our confidence in any other thing and Charity to love him alone without placing our affection on any created thing whether in heaven or in earth These are the instructions of Jesus Christ but those at present who are call'd Church-men teach no other thing but to resort to Churches to frequent the Sacraments and to say a great many vocal prayers by rote and number With these outward things they make men believe that they are true Christians which cannot be since Christianity consists in a spiritual and inward life for it is divine and not humane If these outward devotions had been means proper for us to become good Christians we may be perswaded that Jesus Christ would have taught us them for he had more wisdom to foresee our need and weakness than these guides of souls can have and likewise more love to take care that nothing should be wanting to us for the time to come He left only his word to serve for the nourishment of our souls saying that it is the bread come down from heaven and that whosoever shall eat it shall not die whereas these persons give us only the Eucharist for nourishment in which the promise of Jesus Christ cannot be accomplisht for the host does not descend from heaven as his word does and they who eat it do not all live for ever For we see abominable souls even Sorcerers do communicate frequently and thereafter die in their sins We see also Bigots communicate very often who never attain to true faith nor the knowledge of the truth without which they cannot live for evel How then should the word of Jesus Christ be fulfill'd that they who eat this bread shall not die since all those die eternally after having so often eaten the Eucharist Jesus Christ cannot lie for he who incorporates his word shall never die because it gives life and nourishment to the soul and makes it live eternally I said to her This being suppos'd we must needs be in a time of great darkness in which there are many errors and many more erroneous who run blindly to damnation because the most pious hold Rome and all her Council for the Church She said Sir the Devil upon a false supposition finds matter enough to raise fine edifices I have no particular knowledge of Rome nor of her Council but I tell you in truth if the Pope with all his Council would say any thing to me which was contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I should not be oblig'd to believe him nor yet are any other Christians The Bark should never be taken for the Wood because it can never beat Fruit as the Tree would do tho it had little Bark The true Church where-ever it is brings forth always holy Fruits and if the Tree be known by its fruit we will know the Church by what it brings forth The practice of those who are Members of Rome doth sufficiently evidence to me that the holy spirit cannot be the Author of those things which are contrary to the practice of Jesus Christ We see the Prelates attended with Servants Coaches and Trains like to secular Princes their Furniture and Houses do surpass them Iâ— they had faith to believe that God being man was poor and despisd they would blush for shame as all other Christians to make themselves thus to be honoured Their faith being dead they run blindly to damnation This vail which is put before their eyes to make them believe that the Church ought to be upheld by worldly honours serves for nothing but to flatter them and to render them insensible of their misery For if the Church had had need of temporal wealth and honour Jesus Christ would have provided it sufficiently for all appertains to him being King and Creator of all things He knew all the revolutions of time he would surely have foretold them that it should be permitted them at a certain time to make themselves be honour'd and serv'd but on the contrary he foretels that God will cast down the mighty from their seats that he will resist the proud and will exalt the humble and there is nothing which he says more expresly than that we ought to learn of him to be meek and lowly in heart to which Lesson the arrogance and the pride of Christians now are directly opposite and they who may be called by their proper names Antichristians because they are thus oppos'd to Christ for these only are Christians who put in practice this doctrine of Jesus Christ all others who bear this name without doing it are nothing but rotten Members of the Church and it were better they were cut off
he is not to be compar'd to any thing We must force our selves to love him not to comprehend him The Saints themselves committed great faults while they would needs embark into these Studies I believe the Devil has raised Disputes thereupon to amuse Men in useless things rather than profitable and to seek to comprehend what ought to be adored I ask'd her if the holy Doctors could indeed have committed such faults since we held that they had the Holy Spirit She said Yes Sir they committed many others through Ignorance They err'd in many things The Holy Spirit did not always guide their Pen nor their Understandings They were always frail Men so long as they lived upon Earth They might always fail and err for Jesus Christ says that He who says he is without Sin is a Liar I believe I have also told you heretofore Sir that none is Infallible but God Men who have the Holy Spirit are not always so disengaged from themselves that the Holy Spirit has that absolute dominion over them Their own sense of things gives them frequent hindrances and as long as they act naturally they stray from the Holy Spirit and do often commit in these wandrings great faults as David did tho God says that He was a Man according to his own Heart And Solomon who had received the Spirit in fulness did notwithstanding Sin greatly against the Faith it self and against the Commandments of God You must not wonder therefore that the Holy Fathers have committed faults in the Church the Apostles themselves committed them though they had visibly received the Holy Spirit We must never build on a Foundation so weak as Men are They may all err tho they were Saints and have erred in many things in upholding the Church For as soon as they perceived that it failed in the Souls of Christians and that its Honour and Authority was fallen they would needs redress it by worldly Honours and Riches and even defend it by Disputes and by Arms all which things are Buildings made with Mens hands which shall be ruined For that which God has not built shall be Destroyed Jesus Christ knew far better the means that were proper to uphold his Church He saw the time to come as well as the present He has not ordain'd that it should be maintain'd by Silver Authority Arms or Disputes but by Holiness The Twenty fifth Conference That the Holy Spirit sends always new Influences and that we must not bound his Lights nor the Interpretation of the Scriptures to that which the Holy Fathers have formerly had I Could not resist so clear Truths perceiving well that all Men are Fallible But because every one had always received the Opinions of the Holy Fathers as things certain I said to her that I had sworn to receive no other Explications of the Holy Scriptures but those of the Holy Fathers and that the Church did oblige all Persons plac'd in Dignities to do the same So that in all Benefices received they still take this Oath before they enter in possession of them She said Sir the Church can oblige no body to resist the Holy Spirit Your Oath is not obligatory in this case If God favour you or some other Person of your Acquaintance with any new Light must you reject it to obey Men Jesus Christ did not forbid this On the contrary he has said Receive the Holy Spirit And When he shall come he will teach you all things He speaks to the Apostles and to all Christians in them This Holy Spirit is never idle He operates always new Graces in those who receive him and gives still more clear Interpretations of the Holy Scriptures according as the end of the World approaches we shall every day understand them more clearly We see the figure of this in the Sciences of Natural things There is at present more knowledge of them than ever and Men now do know much more of Natural things which those who are gone before us were ignorant of yea understood them in a sense quite contrary to the truth They taught that the Sun goes round about the Earth Now they teach that the Earth turns and that the Sun is fixt which is more to be believed And thus in many Natural things they have discovered many Secrets since Sciences were encreas'd The Figure is never so accomplish'd as the thing figured Wherefore then should the Light of the Holy Spirit or the understanding of the Holy Scriptures be bounded to what the holy Fathers understood of them Every one of them had Discoveries according to his Talent and no more I believe Sir that if you examin them narrowly you will find that they do not accord in all things yea even that they sometimes contradict one another which cannot come from God for there is never any contradiction in him Each of the Fathers saw as far as his view reached and no more God does always farther discover his Secrets Can Men cause others to swear or can they swear themselves that they shall not receive any other Discoveries but that which the holy Fathers have received without opposing the Grace and Light of God This would be to speak after our way to clip the wings of the Holy Spirit that he might not flie farther than Men had marked out to him Truly Sir there are great Errors in all things It seems Men would take from God Power and Authority to attribute it to themselves giving him Laws and forbidding Men to obey him The holy Fathers could not be so rash as to believe that no body could understand the Holy Scriptures farther than they for they affirm that there are depths of hidden Treasure which they cannot comprehend In effect I believe that nothing has been yet understood in a perfect sense of all the Holy Scripture even till now and that likewise there is nothing accomplished but the Death of Jesus Christ Nevertheless all must be understood and accomplish'd in a perfect Sense before the end of the World God has not said or done any thing in vain He will give to Men the full understanding of all that he has said by his holy Prophets from the beginning of the World and nothing is so hid but it shall be discovered before the World end Why then should they forbid to receive other Interpretations than those which the holy Fathers in past times have received It were better to command to Pray continually for greater Light that we may know the better the Mysteries of our Faith that we may the better observe and follow them for we can never have so much love for a thing unknown as for that which we know I said to her that this Oath was not ordained to oppose directly the Holy Spirit but rather to hinder every one from Interpreting the Scriptures after his own way from which many Errors might proceed if there were not an uniform Belief among all Christians
She replied Truly Sir you cannot cover these Evils for they are too manifest Whether this opposition to the Holy Spirit be made directly or indirectly it is always evil They may indeed perswade the People to believe that the Holy Fathers had more light for understanding the Holy Scriptures than Laick Persons taken up about the Affairs of the World But to oblige Priests to take Oaths not to receive any other Interpretations than those of the ancient Fathers is to make them Swear indirectly that they shall oppose the Holy Spirit Seeing they would believe they falsified their Oath in receiving a new Light of the Holy Spirit which the Fathers had not received If new Light must come before the end of the World and the Priests have sworn not to receive it Laicks receiving it will be yet less approved by that which you call the Church than the Priests who have the first Rank there To whom then shall the Holy Spirit address to spread his Light upon the Earth He must of necessity bestow it on the Turks Jews or Heathens since those who are called Christians will not or cannot receive it for fear of falsifying their Oath And if God reveal his Secrets to Babes as he ordinarily does who among the Christians would receive this Revelation The particular Priests could not do it because of their Oath and if they would present it to what is called the Body of the Church They would examin whether the ancient Fathers have said the same things which if they did not find they would reject it as a Heresie since their resolution is not to receive any thing but what the ancient Fathers have said If the Church were that which Jesus Christ brought from Heaven it would be always uniform and guided by the same Holy Spirit There would be no need to fear that every one would Interpret the Holy Scriptures after his own way for there could not be but one and the same Belief For all would be Saints and capable of Interpreting the Scriptures yea even of Prophecying according as God who is free should grant Light to every one tho Men would indeed Captivate and limit him by their new Laws The Twenty sixth Conference How and wherefore the Holy Scripture has not been understood in a perfect Sense as yet in any thing which is shewn by new Explications touching the Creation of Man his Fall the Coming of Jesus Christ in Disgrace and his coming in Glory upon Earth to reign there for ever Of the Glorification of the Creatures both Animate and Inanimate and what makes Paradise and Hell and that universal Plagues and Rods shall preceed all these things HAving remarked that she spake so often of the Holy Scriptures which she said had not been understood hitherto in their perfect Sense I asked her how she could speak of them since she had told me that for a long time past she had not read them nor made use of any Books and from whence could she know that they were not understood in their perfect Sense She said Sir I will tell you trusting in your Secrecy that God hath given me the understanding of all the Holy Scripture without having read it and when by chance or casually I hear Sermons or other Conferences to Explain it I perceive plainly that they do not speak of it in its perfect Sense Sometimes they explain something in part and at other times in a sense altogether contrary or ill applied for what they say is repugnant to what I know in my Intercourse and the Spirit of God cannot have contrary Senses either the one or the other must be deceived As for me I think my Sentiment is immediately given to me from God because I never studied nor learned any thing from Men and this likewise cannot come from my Imagination because I never give way to Speculation and desire not to know nor learn any thing for I stop my Ears to all that they would teach me fearing lest there should remain in my Understanding any Idea's of the Things which I had read or heard which would mingle themselves with the Light which God gives me I would be very presumptuous to believe that these so clear Interpretations come from my self I said to her That I remember she had divers times cited some Passages of Scripture and even referr'd to the Chapter of the Text as speaking of the last Times in the 24th Chapter of S. Matthew entreating me to read it asking her How she could know this She said to me Sir I have read sometimes transiently the New Testament having obtain'd Permission of a certain Bishop But as soon as I began to read I perceiv'd in what I read all my Sentiments explain'd so that if I were to write the Sentiments which I carry within me I should compose a Book like that of the New Testament so much do I find them altogether conformable And it seeming to me that it would be useless to read what I did so sensibly possess I left off to read except where there was occasion to speak of the Gospel or any other thing contain'd in the said Testament I was then well pleas'd to cite it that by this mean my Saying might be more authoriz'd by the Holy Scripture than by my simple Word tho' it be altogether conformable thereunto And that 24th Chapter of S. Matthew is so much the more in my Heart that I see it treats of the Time in which we are fallen at present I wish all the World would read it that they might apprehend the more the Danger in which we live without perceiving it I said to her I had read that Chapter divers Times and nevertheless did not comprehend that it spoke of this present Time entreating she would explain it to me She said Sir I will do it by the Grace of God But I must have Time to rest Let us still go on our Way and how soon I shall stop I will give you that Explication in Writing Give me only the Text and I believe you will receive great Light from it You may also confront it with the Explications which the Holy Fathers have made of it You will see which of all will have the most perfect Sense That will be a small Sample which will shew what the whole Piece will be For it seems to me that I will be oblig'd one Day to explain all the Holy Scripture in general but for this end I will need to keep my self without the Reach of the Roman Church because by speaking the Truth of it I will be liable to their Reproof Truth does alway shock Lying as Righteousness does Unrighteousness I know I cannot but speak the Truth and also that they who do not follow it do resist it For this cause they kill'd the Holy Prophets and Jesus Christ himself because they bear Witness to the Truth I can expect no less Recompence from Christians now for they being without the
confound the Wisdom and the Learning of the World that they may strive rather to be well pleasing to God than men that fleeing all earthly loves which prove bitterness in the end they may give their hearts wholly to him who is altogether lovely whose love is unchangeable who will not disappoint them but will reward their Love with infinite Light and Joy and Love That they who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God may beware of taking God's name in vain and of vouching God's Spirit for all their Dreams and Imaginations for where the Spirit of God resides there his fruits are and the Soul that posses him has it's Affections wholly remov'd from Temporal and Earthly things and set upon those which are Spiritual and Eternal That the Pastors of the Church may see at whose Doors the Guilt of the universal Evils of Christendom are like mostly to be laid that they may fear and tremble when they hear that Salt which has lost it's Savour is good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot of Men that by the grace of God they themselves may be taught true Humility Self-denial and a contempt of all Earthly things without which Spirit they are no more capable of Teaching others however they repeat the Words of Christ and his Apostles than an Ape can make a good Picture tho' he take up and use the Painters Pencils and Colours In one Word that all may be brought to deny themselves and to follow Jesus Christ in the true Love of God and of one another and that the Judgments of God being now abroad upon the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn Righteousness For a further Vindication of these Writings and the Sentiments contain'd in them I shall here Subjoyn the protestation made by P. P. after his having Answered the Calumnies and Reproaches which some had publish'd against them in the V. Sect. of La paix des bonnes Ames pag. 278 279 280. But says he if all that said does not satisfy I will make and do at present make this PROTESTATION before God and before all Men that is That M. B. her Friends and I never had have not yet and shall never have by the Grace of God other Sentiments or Designs than to believe and live as true Christians professing by word and deed all that is Fundamental in true Christianity and which is comprehended in the Apostles Creed That we receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as Divine and Infallible and reject all that is contrary thereunto That we believe and adore the adorable and incomprehensible Trinity the Father the Word or the Son and the Holy Spirit God three and one eternaly Blessed the inward distinctions of which by what name soever they be call'd Real Relative Hipostatical Personal Substantial are as true as they are truly incomprehensible by the mind of Man That we hold Jesus Christ to be true Eternal God and true Man to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World to be the Mediatour beetween God and Men who by his Merits by his Satisfaction by his Righteousness by his Life and by his Death is the Author of Salvation to all those who imitate him or to speak with the Apostle to all those who obey him That we ascribe the Glory of all Good purely to the grace of God and all Evil purely to the fault of Man and of the Devil That we make the essence and perfection of true Christianity to consist in Self-denyal in continual Prayer in the Love of God and of our Neighbour and in the imitation of our Saviour That we consider all other speculations as accessory for which it is good not to condemn any body but to leave every one at liberty to embrace or lay them aside as they find them helpful for the advancement of the essential part That the true Key whereby to come to the Knowledge of Divine things is Humility and Prayer and not the forc'd speculations of Human Reason That all States the Ecclesiastical the Political the Oeconomical are Establish'd by God and that the Honour and Submission which is measured out to them and regulated by the word of God is respectively due to them That when evil is reproved this does not concern those States directly nor good men in them who are free of it but only the abuse and the ill behaviour of the wicked That if in the Writings of M. B. or of her Friends there be any thing that is obscure or that seems contrary to what has been said we offer to clear and reconcile it or to disavow it in case it cannot be made appear that it cannot be well explain'd and that it is not a mistake of words We protest against all that may be cited from her writings or objected by way of consequence against what I have said as against so many shameful Manglings Malicious Interpretations deceitful Calumnies injurious Consequences in which God will do us Justice if Men are not just to us I protest also against all those who offer to pass hard Censures upon what concerns M. B. her Friends or my self without having read the principal of her writings or my system as against unjust and unreasonable Judges at least as against Persons very inconsiderate and unworthy of Credit In short I believe I have reason to require that they who shall be convinc'd to have laid to our charge a hundred falshoods and others who shall believe them without reason may not again be admitted the one in the Quality of Accusers and the other in that of Judges but rejected the one as notorious Impostours and the other as wilfully stupid AN ADMONITION TO THE READER Dear Reader SInce 't is my earnest desire that the perusal of this Divine Work of which this is the first Part may be profitable and advantageous to you I cannot forbear wishing that you may give no place in your mind to certain prejudices with which the most part of the World suffer themselves to be so miserably deluded that they would believe themselves deceived if they did not follow them Permit me to speak to you a word or two of some of those pernicious and deceitful prejudices which you must either banish out of your mind or forbear the reading of this Book as you would not bring upon you your own Condemnation by retaining those things which may cause you to make an ill use of it In the first place I advise you not to regard the appearance state or quality of Persons nor any thing that is purely external and so consequently can neither add nor substract from the Truth which has no dependance on things of that Nature Let the speaker be a Man or a Woman let instructions come from this or that place let the persons who are reproved be great or small Turks or Christians many or few you must not be surpriz'd at any of these circumstances Truth and Falshod may
evils He can never do evil All that comes from him is most good and perfect he created us in an altogether holy and perfect state with an immortal body and a divine soul subject to none but himself having given us a spirit enlighten'd to know him and a power to rule over all the creatures both terrestrial and infernal and if he has oblig'd us to aid and succour one another this is not that he had created us more infirm than any other living creature but only to the end he might afford us matter for entertaining mutual Charity and Union together one assisting his Brother out of love the other being led to love him by the assistance and benefits which he receives from him and thus perpetually to maintain this love by the aliment of the need that we have of one another to the end we might continue united together as Jesus Christ is united to his Father And even the manner of the Generation of men is ordain'd for no other reason but always to preserve this perfect unity of body and spirit Thus you see that God has done all things well tho it seems sometimes to our ignorance that many evil things come from God the only Author of all good and the Destroyer of all evil It is our sin which has caused all the miseries under which we continually groan the maladies and infirmities of body are engender'd in us by sin the weakness ignorance and inconstancy of our spirit do proceed from sin That all the creatures rise up against us and hurt us this is but to take just vengeance of the rebellion which we have committed against God by sin It is a blasphemy therefore to say That God has subjected us to so many evils since we our selves only are the Authors of them and he can never do evil no not to damn us if we do not damn our selves and to know how and by what means we may attain to the LOVE OF GOD which is true Charity we need only take the Gospel and there observe in particular the instructions which Jesus Christ and his Apostles have left us in writing and put them in practice Behold the sure means to attain to true Charity without which no body can be sav'd It is not necessary that we seek any other means than those which Jesus Christ has taught us by word and deed I said to her if to be sav'd one must have this perfect Charity few persons will attain to salvation for we do not observe now that the Charity of which she speaks does possess the hearts of men She answers This is to be bewail'd with tears of blood for no body shall be sav'd without it as St. Paul affirms that Tho we would bestow all our goods to feed the poor tho we could remove Mountains tho we had the Gift of Prophecy yea tho we would give our body to be burned yet all this would be nothing for our Salvation without Charity And if you will exactly run over all the holy Scriptures you shall find by the sayings of Jesus Christ of the Apostles and of all the holy Prophets that never any person shall be sav'd without this Charity which consists in the LOVE OF GOD and of our Neighbour for God In the mean time no body possesseth this Charity and almost all the world presumes to be sav'd There is now Sir so great darkness in the whole world that no body discerns truth from falshood since they have taught Christians that the means of living well and of being sav'd do consist in going to Church in praying morning and evening and in confessing and communicating often By these things they have annull'd the Law of God and stified Charity for this is no more in use among Christians it is not so much as known by them and they understand not what true CHARITY is because this name is now appropriated to the gifts which persons bestow on Monks religious persons the superfluous Ornaments and Buildings of Monasteries and Churches they have baptizd by the name of Charity all these Gifts Presents and Legacies And I in my inward conversation do find them to be sensual affections and call them Robbery and Avarice for he who receives Presents without necessity by way of Alms does certainly commit Robbery and robs the poor and necessitous who alone are capable of receiving alms So that he whosoever he be having necessaries for the support of his life being able to gain them by some trade or labour is oblig'd to restore all the gifts and presents which he receives by way of alms and that person commits the sin of avarice who covets more than what is simply necessary for the support of his life for it is a great folly for a Traveller to load himself with burthens which are not necessary to him for the accomplishing of his Voyage Thus no body can enrich himself or heap up earthly goods without the Lust of Avarice which sin as all others does blind souls rendring them insensible of their own hurt But because they have introduc'd the calling of these vices and sins by the name of Charity every one believes they have it while they co-operate to these vices by this the Devil has seiz'd on the Throne of God and reigns in the Sanctuary by falshood whereas God ought to reign there by truth Behold the deplorable state in which we live at present the danger is so much the greater that all the evils are cover'd with vertue and piety that good men may be the more deceiv'd who live and die in this horrible darkness not knowing what true Charity is far less do they possess it so that I despair of their Salvation If they do not perceive this truth of Charity they can never be sav'd since not knowing it they cannot love it nor endeavour to find it while they think it is enough to bear the name of charitable tho they neither know nor possess true Charity There are so many such errors now in Christendom that Christians are by them led insensibly into Hell while they believe that they are assuredly in the way of Paradice I ask'd her If the goodness of God would permit that so many persons should go to perdition while they believe that they do well and follow the counsel of learned men and such as are authoriz'd by the Church She said Truly Sir there will be more Christian Souls damn'd by these means than by gross visible and material sins because all those persons who think to be sav'd live and die in the sins against the Holy Ghost which will not be pardon'd neither in this world nor in the other Not that these sins are so enormous that they cannot be pardon'd but because they are inward and spiritual little known and far less feared The most devout persons are tainted with them and will
and acknowledge the Justice of God which will leave nothing of all our good deeds without a recompence no more than our evil deeds without a punishment which every one shall receive by the just ballance of his Righteousness To accomplish which we must in this World have reparation of all the wrongs which have been done us and the falshood must be discovered the Mask must be taken off from all Men that their deceits and their hypocrisies may be known How they have dealt fraudulently with the Innocent All must be discovered at the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and all things even material which have served for our reproach must serve for our glory As to S. Lawrence's his Grid-Iron and to S. Andrew his Cross And so of all the other Martyrs and chiefly the Instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ which will shine in his glory like precious Stones and that materially for otherwise there could not be had a perfect and compleat reparation if we looked but for a spirtual Paradise because we suffer here in Body and Spirit both together This Kingdom approaches Sir for the Plagues are already begun I said unto her That no body believ'd that the last Plagues were begun nor the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth She said Sir The incredulous will go with Sorcerers For he who has no belief of this Kingdom can never well suffer the Plagues which go before it There is nothing but k this hope alone that can give force to sustain those so great Persecutions that there never were any like unto them It is therefore to be feared that these incredulous will perish with the Wicked For if we do not believe that we are fallen into the last times and that the Plagues are begun we will assuredly be deceived by that pernicious one Antichrist who reigns in Persons in Authority whom we take sometimes for Holy and Vertuous and believe that we do well to let our selves be guided and govern'd by them if we lay aside the doubt or belief that we are fallen into that dangerous time foretold by Jesus Christ wherein Evil is covered with Piety And if we do not believe that the Plagues which are begun are the beginnings of Sorrows with which God will purge the Earth we shall easily be brought to Murmour against him Yea we shall fall it may be into Despair in seeing the best Christians Persecuted by Persons who seem worse than our selves yea Churches ruined the Religious banished and all that they call a Church overturn'd and opprest in its source All this will give occasion to Blaspheme against God in case we do not know the wickedness of Men which had drawn down these Plagues upon our Heads We will commit a thousand sins of Murmurs against our Enemies and also against the disorders of those who ought to govern us Setting our selves to seek Human Succours which will sometimes do us more harm than our Enemies and thus we should suffer miserably as do Thieves and Murtherers Whereas did we believe that we are fallen into the last times and that the Plagues are begun we would return to God by Penitence taking all from his Hand as well the Rod as the Bread For all these things must come to pass and by Sufferings we must enter into his Glory as Jesus Christ has pav'd the way I said unto her That I my self could hardly believe that the last plagues were begun and also that Jesus Christ would come to reign upon the Earth were it not that she gave me the view and understanding of these things She said Sir this proceeds partly from want of Application of Spirit and partly because the Devil has bewitched the Spirits of all Men that they may not discover the truth of their Happiness nor of their Misery For if this were known many Persons would get out of Darkness and would follow the Light of Truth Whereas by that infatuation of Spirit the Good perish with the Wicked And thus he gains all to himself To give you a firm belief that Jesus Christ will come to reign upon Earth Sir apply your mind seriously to the reading of the Holy Scriptures You shall find through all that they declare this glorious coming and all that Man shall receive thereby This has been figured from the beginning of the World and by all that has past in it since all has been nothing but the Figures of this glorious Reign of Jesus Christ You have now a little prospect of this by what I have declar'd unto you Search into the matter you will find the thing more true than all the other mysteries of our Faith There is no more obscurity in it for the time is come for the understanding of it What the Fathers in past times have explain'd with so much pains and so imperfectly will be easie to you and in a perfect sense No body will be able to doubt or be ignorant of it who will submit his Spirit unto God with Humility of Heart All that Jesus Christ and the Apostles have said has been fulfilled but in part But you will find the accomplishment and the perfect sense in this glorious Reign of Jesus Christ By discovering assuredly that all which they thought fit to declare cannot be understood of any other thing but of this Reign Remark all the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer which I have elsewhere explained to you No body can imagine that all that we ask in that Prayer can be obtained during this miserable Life and it must needs be granted that we pray for another Life which we do not yet know and that this Life also must be material as well as spiritual For if it were only divine we would not ask for daily Bread nor that the will of God should be done there or that his Name should be Hallowed For all these things are done always in the Empyreal Heaven where no body has need of material Bread Spirits being filled with the presence of God There is nothing there likewise to be forgiven for no body there offends his Brother Temptations are banish'd from thence and Evils cannot enter there The blessed Life that we look for must needs be material as well as spiritual in which we shall have need of all the things which we ask in the Lord's Prayer since they cannot be obtain'd in this present Life and Jesus Christ could not have made us ask for unprofitable things or for those which he would not give This could not be done by a God who can do and know all things For it would be altogether unprofitable to ask what we cannot obtain here and it would be a superfluous thing to ask that of which we would have no need in the Empyreal Heaven as they imagine Paradise to be all the other Doctrins of Jesus Christ are also like to the petitions of that Prayer For when he says seek the Kingdom of
those Persons commit in the Abuse of their Privilege Because those Goods which are dedicated to the Service of God whether Tithes or other are not proper to the Priests who possess them but to poor Christian Brethren and they cannot take of them for their own Use beyond what is justly necessary even tho' they be Pastors or have Charges This cannot warrant them to distribute or heap up this Wealth of the Church except for the Entertainment of their poor Christian Brethren after the Example of the Apostles who distributed to every one according to their Necessities So that no body had need of any thing even tho' they did not oblige them to give them Goods by Force For when Ananias and Saphira brought a Part of their Wealth to St. Peter when they came to be Christians he said to them your Wealth was your own and you might have kept it Wherefore have you lyed to the Holy Ghost To shew that they constrain'd no Body to give their Goods leaving every one free to do it who would whereas they constrain Men by Force to give their Goods to the Priests and damn them if they do it not as if they by their own Authority could damn them which they cannot do For Jesus Christ has said Judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned For my part I think if People did not give so many Tithes they would not co-operate to so many Sins and that temporal Wealth has been the Cause of the Church's Ruine and that the Holy Ghost has been entirely banish'd from her For since she would needs maintain her self by Wealth Honour and Authority the Holy Spirit has been banish'd from her and she governed by a purely Humane and Political Spirit or to speak truly a Diabolical one Because a Spirit simply Humane could not ordain things contrary to Jesus Christ For Humane Wickedness does not extend farther than the Pleasure Honour or Profit of Man but these ordain things wherein they have neither the one nor the other of these Advantages as to cause baptize and confirm Children in their Infancy and to fast on Pain of mortal Sin The Fifth Conference That all Men ought to labour to satisfie the Justice of God by this Penitence I said That it was at least needful that some Tithes or Goods should be appointed for those who were necessary for the Service of God and of Christian People because they were forbidden to trade or work to get their Breaed She said Sir this forbidding the Priests to work that they may get their Bread cannot come from God because he commanded all Men in Adam to gain their Bread with the Sweat of their Body Why then should the Priests be exempted who ought to obey him more precisely than others because they make a particular Profession of it and they ought more punctually to be subject to the Commandments of God who having appointed bodily Labour for Penitence did not exempt the Priests nor his Apostles nor Joseph nor Mary nor even Jesus Christ himself who labour'd for his bodily Food How can they change so general an Ordinance confirmed by so many Saints and by Jesus Christ himself If Labour were evil God would not have appointed it for he cannot do evil things and if it were not good and saving the Saints and the Apostles would not have exercised it and Jesus Christ would not have confirm'd it by working himself with his Mother and his Father By what Spirit could they forbid the Priests to work when we hear St. Paul say Lo these Hands gain'd my Bread not being willing to be chargeable to any What greater Dignity would the Priests pretend to now-a-days than the Apostles had and Jesus Christ himself that they should be interdicted and forbid Working Do we not plainly see that these are but the Inventions and Commandments of Men for their Ease and Commodity For God never changes his Laws and can never find that to be evil which he has once found to be good If Labour be good wherefore should it be forbidden the Priests who ought to be more good and perfect than others And if Labour were not good yea necessary for Man God would never have ordain'd it as a Satisfaction for his Sins I said to her That Labour was forbidden the Priests that thereby more time might be given them for attending on their Studies and the Perfection of Souls for fear temporal Labours and Business should deprive them of the Leisure to attend upon what is for the Glory of God She said Sir these Ends have not their Effect For tho' the Priests use no bodily Labour yet notwithstanding they do not apply themselves to labour for the Glory of God but rather to offend him by their Sloth and Idleness which is the Cussion whereon the Devil rests The ceasing to labour defiles them with a double Sin For notwithstanding of this they do not give themselves to the Study of Perfection On the contrary they give way to Temptation and give the Devil Leisure to tempt them at his Pleasure For wherever he meets with Idleness there he enters as into his own House It were better to command the Priests to labour much that the Devil might get no hold on their Souls because being disoccupied from all the Business and Affairs of the World they are the better disposed to hearken to the evil Thoughts and Suggestions of the Devil Whereas a Soul that is continually employed takes no Leisure to give Ear to the Devil Do we not see so great a Number of Priests Monks and Religious pass their Time without doing any thing and live in Sloth upon the Sweat of the People They will not be ashamed to go beg their Bread at the Houses of poor Labourers and Tradesmen who have no other thing but what they can gain by the Sweat of their Face who sometimes give them what they 've need of themselves Nevertheless they dare not refuse them because they are Church-men But if they were of the true Church built by Jesus Christ they would be so filled with Charity that instead of asking or receiving Alms of these poor Workmen they would work themselves to give them the Gain of their Labour Sir I look upon what is received by Form of Alms as a Robbery when we may get our own Bread by our Trade or Labour or we may have whereupon to live of our own Goods and I believe 't is thus before God For it is an unjust thing to live on anothers Goods and to keep our own or to go beg when God has given us an healthful Body and sound Mind that we may labour But you will still excuse that Church which you have for so long a time look'd upon as holy It were better to open your Eyes to discover the Reality of its Wickedness that you let not your self be deceiv'd to your Perdition The Sixth
Conference That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawyul Husband I Said to her That she gave a deal of Light in divers things for which I did infinitely bless God but I could not deny it troubled me a little to hear that the Roman Church was thus fallen from the Spirit of true Christianity She said Sir it is more expedient for the Salvation of your Soul that you know the Misery into which the Church has fallen than if you knew the highest Mysteries of the Trinity or the greatest Good of all Men together Because an Evil known is easie to be avoided But as long as 't is unknown and hid from us it is always dangerous and may greatly hurt us without our being aware of it Therefore you ought to give the more Attention and to apply your Understanding more to understand and comprehend the Truth which I tell you of Evil than to discover the Good For if I told you the Good of all Men this would only give you some little Contentment or sensual Satisfaction which would add nothing to your Soul But by knowing the Evil as it is you may prudently beware of it that it do not touch or harm you For all these Evils which I said were introduc'd into the Church even while it was yet Holy are all covered with Appearances of Good and Piety and Reason because the Devil could never have gained so many Souls as have followed him but under this Colour or Mantle of Good And he will yet gain many by their Ignorance of these Evils or by their Unbelief of them For as long as they take Evil for Good they will still blindly follow it and Ignorance will not excuse the Sin For God having given us an Understanding to comprehend and a Spirit to discern we ought particularly to apply them to what concerns our Salvation and when the Truth is set before our Eyes and we will not open them to consider it we resist it and may look for the Condemnation of the Holy Spirit who says that Vnbelievers shall have their Portion with Sorcerers I said to her I would not be incredulous but believe the Truth But that I felt an inward Opposition when it thus overturn'd the Church in the chief Points of Belief which we owe to it in case it were the Holy Church She said Sir I believe in the Holy Church and if I had a thousand Lives I would voluntarily expose them for its Defence and would think my self happy to spend the last Drop of my Blood for such a Cause But when God makes me see clearly that She is not Holy nor that which Jesus Christ established but that She is the Whore which is spoken of in the Revelation I cannot resist so clear Truths which do not only lie secret in my Soul but God gives me also Terms and Words whereby to explain them to you that you may likwise receive the Knowledge of them for your Salvation For which I have often bless'd God who bestows on us so many particular Favours hoping he will do it also to others But I intreat you doubt not what I tell you of the Miseries into which Men are fallen For they are yet greater than I have told you But persuade your self assuredly if they were not true I would not have engag'd my self in Discourses so melancholly and disagreeable to your Sentiments It would be more pleasant to me to tell you that the Roman Church is Holy and Perfect and that those who obey and follow her are holy This would recreate both my Heart and yours and the Hearts of all who could hear it I should be very light-headed or void of Understanding to please my self with things which displease all the World and which oblige me still to hold my Peace and to conceal my self Because I know very well if they should hear me declare those Truths all the Romanists would rise up against me and even the most Pious would think they made a Sacrifice to God in killing me For they are ignorant of these Truths and are wedded to their Church as if she were Holy knowing no better because the great Darkness that is now throughout the whole World wherein the Devil has bewitch'd all Minds with Errours they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth which every one withstands even thinking they do well in it I ask'd her If I might not suspend my Belief of those things which were contrary to the Church and believe only what concern'd Vertue and the Love of God She said Sir you can never follow Good without departing from Evil nor adhere perfectly to God without abandoning that which is contrary to him Have you not remark'd in how many things this Roman Church is contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ How therefore can you adhere to her and follow Vertue and the Love of God so long as they are really contrary Jesus Christ says that We cannot serve two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other You must chuse which you love best Good can never profit you without the Knowledge of Evil because while you do not know and believe it you will insensibly fall into it yea you will often take Evil for Good For the Evil of this Church is still covered with the Sanctity of pious Reasons and Arguments And if Antichrist did not cover his Wickedness with Vertue he could gain none but the Wicked but with pious Pretexts he gains all the Good who would even make a Scruple not to follow him as you do Sir by your Demand For if you do believe and follow Vertue and the Love of God you will certainly hate all that is contrary thereunto I think I have already told you enough to let you see that the Rules the Commands and Ordinances of this Church are not conformable to those of God who when he created Man gave him full Liberty to use his Will wheras those constrain it in all Points and will not only subject it by Councils or Advices but by Force and Violence both bodily and spiritual So that as much as in them lies they destroy the Law and the Ordinances of God to establish their own Authority and to bind the Souls of Christians by so many Constraints that 't is impossible for them to satisfie them without displeasing God tho' there were no other thing but the forbidding Priests to labour and making them swear never to explain the Holy Scriptures otherwise than the ancient Fathers have done Do you not see Sir that all their Laws are nothing but political and made to maintain their State and Authority If a Prince or a King to whom you were subject did become a Tyrant would you make any Scruple to abandon him when it were in your Power to do it tho' he were the lawful Son of your King and gracious Father who had preceded him A
how far he is from the State of the Blessed that Jesus Christ has marked out in the Eight Beatitudes and if he desire to recover them what need he has to take up a Life wholly new and to become as a new-born Infant who lets himself be govern'd by his Heavenly Father Neither Years nor Learning can hinder the resigning of our selves to God that he may rule us as it shall please him For the more we are advanc'd in Years the more haste we ought to make to attain to Salvation because we have no more Time but the small part of our Life that remains The Conversion of those come to Years ought not to be delay'd one Day because their Life may be gone and then there is no Recovery for after Death there is no Remission The Learned ought also to consider that all their Learning is nothing but Ignorance in the sight of God which becomes often a hindrance to his Grace and that the Time is come that he will destroy the wisdom of the wise and abolish the prudence of the prudent that all may receive the Kingdom of Heaven as little Children I said to her It was very desirable to be of the number of those true Converts and that I would be the first who would resign all to God as a little Infant She said Sir No body can be entirely converted if he do not know what is Sin and also true Vertue These Two Things are necessary For otherwise one will think he is converted while he is yet full of Sins and has not acquir'd any solid Vertues Therefore I have spoken so particularly to you that you may not abide in the darkness which surrounds all the Men of the World There may be yet many who desire to be converted But few of these know their inward Sins and yet fewer know what is true Vertue All these would make false Conversions in the sight of God For if one does not know his hidden Sins he cannot amend them and if he know not what true Vertue is he cannot put it in practice The ignorance of these Two Things hinder a Man from being converted to God or yielding himself to be governed by him This is therefore what he ought first of all to learn to know the state of his own Soul in what degree of sin it is and also in what degree of true Vertue If these things were known there be many who would embrace the Spirit of Penitence and resign themselves to God as little Children But because they know not the state of their own Conscience many do insensibly perish not knowing their Misery If you desire Sir to be resign'd to God as a Child think that all you have done hitherto is worth nothing and cast your self into the Arms of God who is your Father as a Child who cannot speak that he may teach you all things He will certainly do it For he desires our Conversion When we withdraw from him by our Sins he suffers it because he will not take back the Free-will that he has once given us For he is unchangeable in all his Works But as soon as we return to him by Penitence he receives us as the Father did his Prodigal Son owns us for his Children and the Heirs of his Glory But if you resolve to adhere to your own Wisdom you will never receive the Holy Spirit You must become simple as a Child and not use your own Will any longer resigning and committing it wholly into the Hands of God giving him the Reins of your Will that he may guide and direct it as it shall please him and that you may no longer abuse it as you have done hitherto Which you must acknowledge with Regret For if our Will had been govern'd by God we had never fallen into such Extremities of all Evils I said to her I must acknowledge my Will had not been govern'd by God because I knew not as I do now the way how to resign my self to God She said Sir No body can be saved who knows not that he must be entirely resigned to God For this is the first and last Commandment that he has given to Man And to say better It is the only thing that God requires of Man If we would absolutely depend upon God we should fulfil all the Law and the Prophets This is the one thing needful All that ever I can say Sir is comprehended in THE DEPENDANCE that we ought to have upon God for he has never demanded any other thing of Man nor will he so long as the World shall last but this Dependance that he owes to God It is a very small Matter that he asks of us 'T is a great Ingratitude also for us to deny this Dependance upon him since he is the Lord and Creatour of all Things has created us of Nothing and gives us all that we have to enjoy in full Liberty provided only we still acknowledge our Dependance upon him in all Things This Great God could he demand less of a silly Worm of the Earth than the Acknowledgment of Dependance upon its God This is so just a Thing that though God had never declared to Man that he desir'd this of him he was oblig'd always to acknowledge it since all came truly from him and he had bestow'd on him so many Favours and Prerogatives which should oblige him to a continual Gratitude even though he had never had any thing beyond Natural Reason For it is said that even Brute and Cruel Beasts have been sensible of a Benefit received from Men all the Days of their Life and Man endued with so accomplisht an Understanding will not acknowledge the Dependance he has upon God nor yield up his Will to his even though he be so good as to desire it For if God were not an Excess of Goodness he would rather disdain Men of so little Worth than permit them to unite their Will to his Nevertheless he permits and desires it yea rejects and threatens those who will not do it as Jesus Christ threatned St. Peter when he would not be washed by him If we had but a little of Judgment we would entreat God to permit not only that our Will may be united to his but rather that ours may be wholly annihilated and that he may exercise his own over us only and absolutely I asked her What she meant by saying That the Acknowledgment of our Dependance upon God was the only Commandment since God had given us so many others She said Sir There is no Essential Commandment but this All the rest are Accidental For when God created Adam and in him all Men he gave him Power over all Sublunary Things having made all the Beasts subject to him that he might rule over all as a Little God without any Reservation except that he should always acknowledge the Dependance that he had upon his Creator Which being done
to know if really she has the Quality of our true Mother and if she be allied with our true Father who is unchangeable in all his Qualities to whom this Spouse ought to be alwayes conformable We must see if what they call our Mother has the Spirit and the Works of our Father and if we find no Likeness in her we must renounce her and hold her as a Deceiver and a Liar unworthy of our Affection The Twentieth and Seventh Conference Shews The true Marks whereby to discover where the True Church is and that it concerns every one to examine it I asked her How I might discover where my true Mother the true Church is What Marks there are whereby to know her that I may not be deceived She said Sir You shall discover her by this that she will follow the Footsteps of Jesus Christ and be wholly conformable to his Doctrine There is but one Church only as there is but one onely God and there is so strait a Bond and Alliance between God and the Church that they are but one and the same Thing as it is said that in Marriage Two are but one Flesh so in the Alliance of God with the Church two are but one Spirit God is the Bridegroom and the Soul is the Bride As it is said concerning Adam Let us make a Companion meet for him for it is not good that Man should be alone This is the Figure of what he had said before Let us make Man after our own Likeness because it was found meet that God should delight himself with something that was like to him For this cause he created the Divine and Eternal Soul and plac'd it in the Body and Understanding of Man that it might multiply and communicate it self For it is the Property of Good to be communicative This Divine Soul being form'd in Time must live for ever else it should not have been Divine nor capable of being united and ally'd to God who created it for these ends And as Adam and Eve ought to have been united in Heart Body and Will so the Soul ought to be united in Love Understanding and Will with God Not that Natural Love nor that Humane Understanding no more than our bounded Will Because all this has no Sympathy with God and they are but the Case wherein God has shut up this Divine Soul which is Free and Eternal as God This Divine Reason and Free-will make the Church by the Alliance that God makes with it which is much more strait than the Alliance that this Divine Soul makes with the Animal Soul of Man which do so nearly approach one another that no Humane Spirit is able to distinguish them no more than any can distinguish the Free and Rational VVill from God himself Because he has so straitly united them that the Soul is God and God is the Soul as the VVill of Eve was that of Adam so the VVill of the Soul is that of God By which you may still discover Sir where the Spouse of God or the True Church is Because where she is to be found she carries still along with her the same Qualities of her VVell beloved and when you do not find them in those who call themselves the Church believe firmly that they are all Cheats For the Spouse of God will be alwayes comely and there can be no Blemish in her Because she shall never be parted from the Qualities of her Husband alwayes Just Good True and All-powerful And when you shall see Sion Jerusalem Judea or Rome such as you call the Church to be fallen away from these Qualities never believe that she is your Mother the Holy Church Upon these Accounts Jesus Christ has so often warned you to beware of false Christs and false Prophets For they come to delude and deceive many Do not let your self be deluded Sir For there shall never be but one True Church which shall be united to God VVhosoever has not this Unity is not the Church but they are Seducers of the People who under this Cloak of God's Spouse do seduce many You must lift up your Head and look on high to see whence the Church took her Original and you will perceive that the Church is no other but the Alliance that God made with the Divine Soul of Man which he made his Spouse though she was unworthy of it He so ennobled her that he would joyn himself to her and ally with her by an indissoluble Alliance which can never end for the Two Parties are Immortal to wit God and the Divine Soul But to take for the Spouse of God Persons who are no wayes in the Spirit of God nor in Union with him and to reverence them as the Church is to wrong the Honour that we owe to God To see a Church seek the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this VVorld and to believe that she is the Spouse of God is to derogate from her Divine Quality and to ascribe the Honour to Vice that is due only to True Vertue VVe should not thus let them cover our Eyes as they do to those who are going to be hanged that they may not see their doleful End VVe must take off this Bandage that we may look about us and learn where the True Church is which can save us and not suffer our selves to be led on blind-fold to Eternal Death by VVords or false Appearances since Truth only is capable to save us I said to her That I had never yet discovered Souls united to God and that nevertheless I believed I was in the Church She said Sir You are deceived For the Church is no where but in the Souls that are united to God no more than a Woman can be the Spouse of a Man who has never approached her We must not believe that the Church consists in wearing a Garment of Purple or Red or Fine Linnen These are rather the Marks of the Reprobation of the falsely Rich Man who was buried in Hell and the Scripture brings no other cause of his Damnation than these Fashions of Apparel and that he was Rich and a Feaster If all these Things were Marks of his Damnation why should they be now a dayes the Marks of the Holy Church God is not changeable He cannot now unite to himself what he then Reprobated and Condemned No no Sir the Spouse of God will never be vain nor proud nor polluted with any sin For she is all pure Do not think that you are in the Church when you are under Persons who seek Riches of this World for such Souls are Adulteresses and have abandoned their lawful Husband and live in Adultery with the Kings of the Earth Which ought to make you abhor her instead of cleaving to her If you have never met with Souls resigned to God you have never found the True Church Because there never was any other and never will be hereafter She must
Truth will strongly resist it and practising Unrighteousness they will not suffer Righteousness in their presence because it would reprove them I can very well hold my Peace as I have done for so many Years by-gone But when God shall will that I speak I will cry to all the World without fearing those who can but kill the Body Death would be agreeable to me if with it I could enlighten my Christian Brethren and draw them out of Error I said to her That the Church did not put to death the Holy Fathers who had explain'd the Holy Scriptures But on the contrary had honour'd and esteem'd them That neither ought she to be afraid of being ill treated by them but rather receiv'd and approved in explaining the Scriptures She said to me Sir You would always excuse this Church because you have espous'd her as I have also done It proceeds from this that you do not yet distinguish what the true Church is tho' I have so often spoke to you of it The Church in a perfect and defin'd Sense is no other thing but the Souls which are united in Heart and Will wholly unto God These are his only Spouses He never had any others no more under the Old Testament than the New yea from the Beginning of the World and will never have even to the End yea throughout all Eternity Nothing can be the Church but that which is united wholly unto God No more than a Woman can be a Man's Spouse if she be not united to him For if she joyn herself to another she is an Adultress the same is it without Comparison in the Alliance which God makes with Souls If they withdraw from him and joyn themselves to any other thing they are Adultresses and worthy of being divorc'd If God permit a Man to forsake his Wife for Whoredom wherefore should not this Law be observ'd by himself If Rome with its College does remain united to God in the Spirit of Truth she is the Church and his Spouse But if she be separated from that Truth and Righteousness she is no more but a Civil and Political Assembly Make always this Distinction Sir or otherwise you will be deceiv'd taking Falshood for Truth If there were a thousand Popes with as many Counsellors assembled and if they did not possess the Spirit of God they are not the Church but if a simple Woman that spins on a Distaff do possess the Spirit of God she is the Church The Holy Fathers were not ill treated by Rome in expounding the Holy Scriptures because there were yet perhaps in their Time in those Assemblies some Souls which were Churches and who by confequence did defend the Truth But at present this Support is not to be expected but rather mortal Persecutions An evil thing Sir ought not to be maintain'd blindly as if it were good Therefore God has given you a good Judgment to make this Distinction for if you continue always fix'd in the Resolution to take this outward Body of the Roman Church for the Holy Church it is in vain for me to discover to you her Evil and the Infidelity she has committed toward her lawful Husband You would do as he who would permit his Wife to play the Adultress in dissembling it without being desirous to know or discover it The Sin is as great to tolerate it as to do it If God permit me to speak the Truth openly to that Church which you esteem you would see with Regret how ill she would treat me you could not deliver me from the Peril to which your pious Belief would expose me I said to her That for the Exposition of the Holy Scriptures she needed offend no Body That this was but what God had declar'd unto us That every one ought to desire to have still a more clear Vnderstanding of them yea even the Wicked themselves that this ought not to displease them I entreated her to write boldly She said When you shall read Sir the 24th Chapter which I have promised you it may be you will change your Opinion for the Word of God is like to a two-edged Sword Truth cuts all that it meets with in Opposition to it So that without respecting any Body we cut all sorts of Errors and Lies in following only the streight Truth blindly and without knowing it we do often wound those of whom we are not thinking If the Word of God were well explain'd it would offend all the Persons that live now in the World yea those who are esteem'd Holy and Perfect For as we do not see so many little Atoms flying in the Air when the Sun does not shine brightly as we do when he spreads his Beams clearly even so the Souls which are full of Sins and Imperfections do not perceive them so long as the clear Understanding of true Perfection is not given them They believe that they are very clean but so soon as this Divine Light shall give its Rays every one will see evidently that he is deceiv'd that he has no Righteousness and that he is no true Christian Therefore the Devil will hinder as much as he can this Light from being discover'd and will oppose himself thereunto even by those that have most Authority that very few may perceive their Blindness For if these Explications were maturely consider'd by every one all the World would be converted for there is nothing more charming than to consider that which God has done for Man from his Creation and continued even till now which is nothing but a continued Course of Benefits all corresponding to one another always in great Perfection The Creation the Law of Moses the Prophets the Gospels are all the same thing by an excellent Harmony I ask'd her Whether the Ancient Fathers had not discover'd these things aright and if they had not declar'd this to the World by so many Expositions and Books which they had written She said Sir It was not necessary that the Ancient Fathers should have the Understanding of all things It was enough that they understood that which Men had need of then but since we draw near to the Fulness of time it is expedient for Men now that they learn that which must fall out in their Time Therefore God now reveals the Secrets which he would then have to be kept hid When the Apostles ask'd Jesus Christ when these things which Jesus Christ had told them should come to pass He answer'd them That it was not for them to know the Times which the Father had in his own power To shew that unseasonable Light ought not to be desir'd and that to him alone appertains the knowing the Time and the Hour of all things Thus he thought fit to reserve the Understanding of the Scriptures till the necessary time which is at present The Holy Fathers could not know then what he would reserve till now and all that they declar'd of it by so many
Expositions and Books was but what they could know by Divine Light joyn'd to their own Conceptions which were not always guided by the Holy Spirit For their Studies and proper Sentiments often hindred this Knowledge and serv'd for Clouds to that Divine Sun who could not dilate his Beams fully upon their Souls because they were not entirely free and disingag'd from their own Idea's and Preoccupations It is true they said many things useful for that Time but not sufficient enough to enlighten those of the present Time All now must be known as it is The Prophets have indeed declar'd all that must come to pass even to the End of the World but neither they themselves nor any others understood their Sayings Jesus Christ himself declar'd what they had said by Parables not being willing to give the Understanding of them but only tell them That they might adore the Marvels of God when they should see the Things come to pass which had been for so long a Time foretold I ask'd her If she had received from God those Discoveries which have been for so long time hid from all the World She said Yes Sir I may say it with Confusion That it hath pleased God to communicate his Secrets to me which he had hid from the Wise and Great of the Earth If such has been his Will who can reprove it or find Fault with that which he finds good Is not he the absolute Lord of all things That which he wills he can do without Men's being able to contradict it for no Body is capable of giving Law to him He is as Powerful as Just and Good Let us only adore his Designs Tho' I were even the most wicked Creature of the World he might serve himself of me in what pleases him and damn me in the End if I have merited it All things being subject to him all things must obey him the Infernal Powers as well as the Celestial and Terrestrial Nothing can resist his almighty Arms. I must submit Sir if God will declare his Marvels by me I cannot hinder him If he will speak by a Stone or Wood he ought to be heard with Respect I have not sought nor ask'd these things they have been pour'd into me insensibly When once I desired no more to know any thing I have learn'd all things even to the greatest Mysteries of our Faith and all that shall befal Men even to the End of the World Nothing has been conceal'd from me I know the Master-pieces of the Works of God and the Accomplishment of the Holy Scriptures The Re-establishment of the Holy Church and the Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth The Alliance which he promised unto Abraham and all the Things which are foretold by the Holy Prophets Nothing shall pass without having its accomplish'd Sense and its present Accomplishment in the Mystical Literal Divine and Material Sense It it an Abyss of Joy to think of it What Joy to see it brought to pass If you saw it as I do Sir you could no longer love any other thing no more than all other Men For no Delights can be imagin'd greater than those which Jesus Christ has promised to Men to Live to Converse and to reign among them Visibly and Bodily upon Earth This is a thing which ravishes my Soul with Joy and Contentment You need not be astonish'd that I take no more Pleasure in earthly things since these heavenly ones do take me up entirely I heard all these things with Admiration not knowing what to answer but to entreat her that she would explain herself a little more upon this Subject She said Consider Sir God created Man to take his Delight with him For this End he made him after his own Image and Likeness because there can be nothing more delightful than to rejoyce with ones like Therefore he made Man with a Divine and Immortal Soul like to himself He made him Good Righteous and Powerful in nothing different from himself but in this that he must depend upon God as his Creator whereas God has a Sovereign Independency without Origine or Beginning and Man receiv'd Being at a certain Time produc'd by the Goodness and Power of God whom he ought always to acknowledge and obey But instead of doing this he slighted this Dependence desiring to stand by himself and as God to know all things Which destroyed and ruin'd him for no sooner did he conceive the Desire of knowing Good and Evil and of equalling himself unto God eating the Apple which God had forbidden him for an outward Mark of his Ambition but he presently perceived the Misery into which he had reduc'd himself finding himself stript of all the Graces and Prerogatives into which God had so freely plac'd him and fell into Derision with God because of his Arrogance Notwithstanding of this God does not change and will never change his Designs He desires to take his Delight with Men For he created them for no other End Therefore he will not destroy or annihilate them as they merited but makes them only know the Fault which they had committed in desiring to shake off their Dependence upon him and he gives them a certain time to do Penitence for this Fault to the end that this Penitence being finish'd he may receive them again into his Favour and give them the first Robe of Innocence with the same Goodness and Power wherein he created them that throughout all Eternity he might accomplish his first Designs which are to take his Delight with Men. This Time of Penitence is this short Life wherein we breath at present which is the Exile into which we were banish'd from Paradice which was the Presence of God that Adam enjoy'd before his Sin for he then communicated himself to him as a Friend unto his Friend This makes Paradise there being no other Place that can make it but this Presence of God this alone is the Paradise of Delights For tho' indeed Adam had remain'd in the earthly Paradise in which he was he had continued as miserable as on the Earth which we possess at present after having quit the Conversation of God through his own Fault because nothing can be Paradise but this Divine Canversation And if Adam had remain'd in this Earthly Paradise after his Sin he had been even much more miserable than we are in this strange Land Because he might have eaten of the Tree of Life that he should not die and consequently have continued always miserable without ever finishing his Penance which the goodness of God foreseeing he banish'd him out of it that his Penance might be only temporal and passing In this he has shewn us great Mercy For as soon as we shall have finish'd this short Penance which he has enjoyn'd us we shall return into the same Conversation with God that Adam had before his Sin and even more familiar since God is