by many others by many of the Practical Writers of Christianity and what needs so much adoe about the Writings of this Woman We ought not to deny to others their just Praise and I wish that not only many but all the Practical Writers of Christianity did breath the same Spirit But because other Writings are good and useful we ought not therefore to despise these if they be so too In things convenient for the Body the Providence of God affords not only what is simply necessary but Plenty and Abundance and what is distasteful to one Palate will relish with another and promote their Health And why should our Eye be Evil because God is Good If he be pleas'd to afford us Plenty and Variety of Spiritual Entertainment tending to mortifie our Corrupt Nature and to bring us to the Love of God and some of it does not please our Taste why should we be so peevish and ill natur'd as not only to throw all away that comes from that hand but decry it as rank Poison and forbid any to touch it as they would escape Damnation when it may be all the Evil lies in the Malady and Distemper within us which it comes to remove and what we will not use nor relish may prove very savoury and healthful to the Souls of others It is strange to see the Disposition of Men. The Poets and Plays both Ancient and Modern tho' they flow from and greatly tend to cherish the Corruption of Humane Nature yet the Learned do Study and Esteem them but Writings of this Nature whose only Aim is to perswade Men to love the Life of Jesus Christ in their respective Communions without setting up a New Sect or Party and to tell them they do it not meets with nothing but Reproach and Contempt upon a Pretence there are in them some Sentiments different from the ordinary tho' they are most consistent with the Essentials of Christianity and are declared not to be necessary to Salvation As if we would hate and persecute our best Friend because his Cloaths differed from ours in their Fashion Some peculiar Characters of her Writings and Sentiments XVI NOW as that which I have mentioned is the great Design of those Writings and for that Reason they ought to be as readily entertain'd as we do other good Practical Books so there are some things observable in them in the Prosecution of that great Design of the Renovation of a Gospel Spirit which in my Esteem do merit a particular Consideration I shall mention some of them And First that which has been already touch'd her making so clear a Distinction between the Essentials and Accessories of Religion and her laying so little Stress upon the last tho' she declares that she had particular Discoveries in them seems to me a particular Character of her Spirit They who set up for a peculiar Knowledge in Divine things or to reform the Corruptions of the Church or to be Guides and Directors of others they presently insert all their little Opinions and Doctrines into their Confessions of Faith make them Articles of their Creed Shibboleths of their Party so that none can be of their Communion who do not profess to believe them and they are more zealous for their particular Forms and Confessions than for the Gospel and Laws of Jesus Christ and are ready to esteem or despise others according to their Zeal or Coldness for these and thus tho' a Man be proud and covetous and malicious and his Spirit quite contrary to that of Jesus Christ yet if he be zealous for their peculiar Doctrines and Forms of such a Party he shall in his own and their Esteem pass for a good Christian they imagining that God lays as great a Stress on their Doctrines and Forms as they do themselves while they call them the Cause of Christ the Jewels of his Crown c. thus most heinously taking God's Name in Vain Others again who pretend to divine Revelation are still upon Mysteries and Visions But A. B. does most clearly and distinctly represent wherein the Essence of Christianlty consists makes that the Butt of all her Writings shews what are the Accessory Truths and tho' she pretends to particular Discoveries in them yet tells they are not Articles of Faith nor necessary to Salvation that they who see no Clearness in them nor Benefit by them may let them alone and tho' we should believe them never so firmly yet without a Gospel-Life and Spirit there was no Salvation XVII 2. The Writings of A. B. do clearly shew the Relation that the several Parts and Duties of Christianity have to one another and the Place that every one holds in Relation to the Whole and this is of no small moment to direct us aright in our Endeavours after a Christian Life and Spirit We may know many of the Parts and Duties of the Christian Religion and seem much Occupied about some of them and yet never make any Advances in a Christian Life all that is directed by Wisdom is done for a fit and proper End and fit and seasonable Means are employed for attaining of that End We see the Footsteps of infinite Wisdom even in the Motions of the brute Creatures The Birds in the Spring gather proper Materials and build their Nests and lay their Eggs and hatch their Young if they should be taken up only about gathering Sticks without putting them to any further Use the Wisdom of their Maker in the Forming of them would not thereby appear Now God has given Man an Understanding whereby he may discern a proper End for his Actions and suitable Means by which to accomplish it We see in all Trades and Arts they have their proper Ends and their peculiar Means to attain to them and if the respective Masters or Apprentices should be still occupied about some of the remoter Means of their Calling without ever directing them to the Attainment of the End of it or should think to attain the End without the Use of the necessary and immediate Means we would think they had lost their Wits If they who pretend to rebuild an House busie themselves only in providing some of the Materials and contriving Models and reading Books of Architecture and hearing Discourses about it and lay some Stones of it upon an old runious Foundation without ever doing more or if they think to get the House built without ever digging deep to lay a good Foundation or using the other consequent necessary Means of Building such but build Castlâ—s in the Air. Now tho' Men are not so absurd and unreasonable in other things yet they are so in Religion They are taken up with some of the remoter Duties of Religion without ever aiming at the End of it or they think to attain the End without using the necessary Means for the Attainment of it and become thereby so darkned in their Minds as not to perceive what Relation the Parts and Duties of
retained only the outside and the Letter and varnished it over with their Learning and Human Doctrines and so the Blind led the Blind Then instead of the Gospel Simplicity Schools and Universities were multiplied and there was nothing to be seen but Disputes and Controversies Then the Pastors being void of true Charity and of the Spirit of Jesus Christ their preaching could have no Divine Force more than the Motions of Puppets or the Words of Parrots Then they learned to preach the Gospel by Study and Human Learning committing the Idea's of it to their Brain as Men learn other Trades and varnish over their Sermons with the same Words and Expressions that Jesus Christ and his Apostles used without comprehending or conveying to others the Divine Sence of them and what came from the Brain could go no farther than the Brain nothing can rise higher than its Original Then the great Business of Religion is turned upon the Pastor's side into an Art of Preaching where on a Theatre he displays his Learning and Eloquence and on the Peoples side into the work of Hearing and when they have continued daily in those pious Exercises for 20 30 40 or 50 Years they are for the most part no more truly Vertuous than when they began whereas where the Word of the Lord is there is Power Then the Pastors being proud and ambitious and envious and worldly and sensual and selfish they seek their own things under a Cover of seeking the things of Jesus Christ their Actions belie their Words and for their own Credit they so gloss and explain the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as to perswade People they may be good Christians and good Ministers of Jesus Christ and yet gratifie their Appetites and Inclinations Then being void of true Faith and true Charity they place Religion in a System of Opinions and Rites and tho' they agree in the common Principles yet differing in other things of lesser moment they thereupon divide dispute and quarrel form Parties draw all they can to their Side out of a Pretence to the Glory of God inspire them with Hatred and Fury against those that differ from them sooth and flatter the corrupt Inclinations of those of their own Party or the Great and those on whom they depend and stir up Magistrates and Princes to War and Bloodshed to persecute those who differ from them And as they make War against one another by their Disputes so they make Princes and secular Persons to do it by their Swords Thus instead of the Charity Peace and Concord which Jesus Christ left his Disciples they beget Hatred Strife and Envy among them and such is their Influence upon the People that they head their Passions and what they hate and call Heresie so do they Instead of the Self-denial and Mortification to the World which Jesus Christ and the first Pastors practised and taught they teach by their Example how to gratifie Self and love the World and yet seem greatly to honour Jesus Christ and to be Champions for his Religion And if the Salt have lost its savour wherewith shall the Flesh be salted And if they who should be the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth are thus become Darkness and without Savour how great is that Corruption And how great is that Darkness Those of every Party do plainly discern this Evil in the Guides and Leaders of the opposite Parties but our Self-love blinds and hinders us from considering it in our selves This is not to be understood but that there are Pastors of good Inclinations and right Intentions amongst the several Perswasions and therefore what is said ought not to be applied to them but that this corrupt Spirit of Pride Vain-glory 〈…〉 Avarice the Love of Money 〈…〉 Politicks the pleasing of the 〈…〉 Aversion to the Humility Simplicity 〈…〉 and Cross of Christ prevails 〈…〉 in all Parties under a Cover of 〈…〉 Opinions and so serves still to 〈…〉 the more is a sad Truth that cannot be 〈◊〉 13. That we are in the last Times that the Wickedness of Men is as great and universal as in the Days of Noah that the Abomination of Desolation is in the Holy Place that we are now in the time of the last Judgments of God by which he will sweep the Wicked off the Earth and which shall be more dreadful and terrible than any that ever were A. B. does so sensibly make appear in her Writings particularly in the Light of the World That they are real Enemies to Mens Souls who scoâ—â— at them and divert People from laying them to Heart She makes appear that Iniquity is so great and universal that there is no 〈◊〉 Faith nor Law among Men. People study nothing but to deceive their Neighbours the Father cannot trust his Son nor the Son his Father the Brother 〈◊〉 up against his Brother Friendship is only feigned 〈◊〉 is full of Deceit and Fraud nothing but Pride and Ambition reigning in the Hearts of all Men. Judges are without Equity Priests without Sincerity Cloisters filled with Avarice and the Devout full of Malice which has been at all times in some particular Persons but is at present so multiplied that it possesses almost all 〈◊〉 And Charity is not only wakâ—d cold but altogather frozen and dead in the Hearts of Men. That the Signs of the last Times are all fully accomplish'd particularly those in 2 Tim. 3. 1. c. and Matt. 24. That Mens Lives are the open Book in which these Truths are written and the Holy Scriptures are the equitable Judge which pronounces the Sentence That People scoff at this and no Body will believe it is a most certain Evidence of it For Jesus Christ says that it shall be as in the Days of Noah they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in Marriage and knew not until the Flood came and took them all away c. She makes appear how the Abomination and Desolation is in the Holy Place if Envy were lost it might be recovered in Cloisters if Avarice were dead it would be revived by the Priests Vain-glory and Pride is no where so prevailing as among the Clergy In a word Simonies and all other Sins abound in that Place which ought to be Holy That these are the Stars which fall every Day from Righteousness and Truth for some worldly Interest or humane Respects She makes appear that Men do not now embrace Penitence nor desire Amendment that they rather grow every Day worse and cannot suffer that their Faults should be truly shewn them That at all times there have been wicked Persons but when all in general do forget him it is to be believed that assuredly we are in the last Times and that the Judgment is given out because the Measure is full That God cannot suffer an universal Evil without an universal Chastisement and now Men having generally all of them abandoned their God have in doing this given Sentence of the
the Apostle says Of our selves we cannot think one good Thought but through Christ that strengthens us we are able to do all things It is true says she if we consider only the Miseries and Weakness of Man corrupted by Sin the Gospel-Law is impossible but not if we have regard to the Power of God's Grace This Jesus Christ intimated to his Apostles when he told as to a rich Man's entring into the Kingdom of Heaven that it was impossible with Men but not with God when a Man shall entirely yield up himself to him to be wholly governed by him God will easily operate in him a Gospel-Life and Jesus Christ has said if you who are evil know how to give good things to your Children how much more will your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that ask him It is false therefore to say that the Gospel-Law cannot be kept since it was given for no other End and Jesus Christ brought it from Heaven as the only Remedy of all our Evils and the only Means of our Salvation and has said I have done these things to give you an Example And God will never enjoyn Man to do any thing but what he will give him Grace to accomplish But such is Man's Wickedness that he would impute to God his own Faults and the Blame of his Damnation on him as if he were severe and cruel by laying on him Burthens of Commands that are insupportable that Man may thus be justified and God condemned tho' truly Man only is worthy of Condemnation For God still imparts his Graces to him and all those Laws are special Instances of his Love to Man that by them he might bring him back to the Love of his God for his eternal Salvation And in many Places of her Writings she shews the Possibility of Obeying God's Commands and the Blasphemy of the contrary Doctrine from the Design of them and the End for which God gave them Open your Eyes says she to see this Light of Truth That never any Body will be saved who dies without the Love of God and that no Body can love God if he do not hate himself These are the Sentences which God has often confirmed to me and given me Assurance that they are true and that all the Laws and Commands which God has given to Men are only so many Means to make them return to his Love Now the whole Doctrine of the Gospel is nothing else but so many Means to withdraw Man from Sin that he may recover the Love of God And when this Law teaches him Poverty of Spirit it is to shew him that Covetousness has withdrawn him from the Love of his God and that he cannot return to it without leaving off to covet earthly Goods And when it teaches him to be humble of Heart and to chuse the last Place it is because he had lost the Love of God by loving himself esteeming himself worthy of Honour and Glory tho' he be worthy of nothing but Shame and Confusion And he not knowing this stands in need of a Doctrine contrary to his Errours and Ignorance to make him return to the Love of God which he had lost by his Pride And when Jesus Christ declares that he came not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him it is to teach Men that to fulfil their own corrupt and perverse Wills they have left off to do the Will of God and to love him and that if they do not renounce their own Wills to follow the Will of God and thereby to return to his Love they cannot be saved Behold how Jesus Christ has brought Physick for our Diseases being desirous to cure them by Remedies contrary to our Infirmities and yet these Ignorants would gloss away the Gospel-Law as if it were impossible to observe it as they say it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God tho' both these Laws be nothing else but Remedies for our Diseases Christians she says are guilty of Ingratitude when they say they cannot keep the Commandments of God nor the Laws of the Gospel since all these are only true Means to recover the Love of God For all the Commandments are no other thing but Means to loose Mens Hearts from Self-Love and the evil Inclinations that Sin has brought into their Nature All the Commands import no other thing in Substance but that Man must always resist his Self-Love refusing its Desires because being corrupted by Sin it can desire nothing but what is Evil or tends to an evil End which because Men did not well know God would shew them in particular what they ought to do and forbear that they might recover his Love Now tho' he has given his Commands because of our Frailty yet Man is so ungrate as to say it is impossible for him to keep those Commands because of that very Frailty for the Help of which God has given his Commands as Supports to his Frailty He is Evil in that wherein God is Good and takes for Burthens the Helps that God has given him because of his Frailty For if he had not had any frailty God would never have given him any Laws since the Love he bare to God was a Law to it self and had no need of any other Guide or Directour The Summ of her Sentiments in this Matter is that all the Laws of God are given to Man as Helps of his Frailty as Warnings to shew him what Way he has stray'd from God and as indispensable and necessary Means to recover and bring him back again to the Love of God even as if a Father should give his Son who was become an habitual Drunkard or lewd Person strict Commands absolutely to forbear such Conversation and such Houses which would infallibly intangle and keep him still in his Sins that Jesus Christ has in his own Example as a Man shewn us both the Necessity of this and how possible and easie it is to observe them That no Man can observe them by his own Strength but only by the Grace of God that we are first Children before we are Men and our Falls and Stumbles ought not to discourage us but we must get up and go forward and depend upon God and he will be with us as the Child that is learning to walk must not be discouraged by its Falls but must get up and go forward and hold more closely by its Mother That they who are truly regenerated may live in Obedience to God without Sin but are not impeccable may fall from that State and yet recover it again by the Grace of God that to say the Commandments of God are impossible is to deny the Merits of Jesus Christ the Efficacy of his Intercession the Power of his Grace the Usefulness of his Example to assert the Force of the Devil and corrupt Nature beyond that of God to accuse God of the greatest Cruelty in giving us Laws which it
the Grandeur of Charity or the Love of God that of Reason and that of worldly Empire and Honour Alexander and others have excell'd in the last and seem Great to the Eyes of Flesh Archimedes and others have excell'd in the second and seem Great to the Eyes of Reason Jesus Christ appear'd in none of these Grandeurs had neither Learning nor worldly Greatness and was of no regard neither to the Eyes of the Flesh nor those of the Great Philosophers and of Reason but O! how Great was he in the Eyes of Charity how Meek and Humble and Patient and Self-denied in a Life of absolute Poverty Contempt and Pain for the Love of God and Men. Now all the Writings and Actions of A. B. tending to draw Men into this Kingdom of Charity and the Love of God which is of a quite distinct Rank and Order from that of humane Reason as well as of worldly Greatness it was no wonder that she put no great Value on the one more than the other they being both unspeakable Hindrances in the way to it and the second more than the third She shews that there is in the Soul a Principle for above humane Reason and that is Divine Faith which does not consist in believing only with the understanding the Twelve Articles of the Creed which may be done by a humane Faith as we believe the recital of some History when a Person worthy of Credit relates it this gives not to the Soul any Divine Vertues which God only can operate in us Faith is a Divine Light which God infuses in the Soul which makes us to know and desire Eternal things and despise Temporal It is not a natural Quality as our Reason but a Divine Quality which proceeds from God as the Beams do from the Sun as nothing can make us see the Sun but the Sun himself It was communicated to all Men at their Creation lost by their Fall renew'd by the Merits and Grace of Jesus Christ When it shines in our Souls it warms them with the Love of God and Men who bear his Image and Likeness and produces Charity And this Charity regulates all our Life and gives weight and measure to all our Actions For Divine Faith is always living and operating It partakes of all the Divine Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth So that he who has Faith in his Soul cannot be Unjust nor a Liar nor a Deceiver nor Wicked nor seek his own Interest his own Glory his own Pleasure or Satisfaction seeing all these respect time and earthly things Humane Reason is an Inferiour Principle that may indeed convince us that there is a God the Author of Nature who made and sustains all things but this cannot produce in our Souls Faith and Charity Vertues derived immediately from God and not from Nature or the Understanding of Man which is a frail Creature limited to Earth and Time And to think to know or comprehend God by the natural Understanding is a greater Folly than the Heathens committed in worshipping the Sun All Men being now void of humane Faith take up with a humane Belief and divide and dispute and quarrel and hate and despise one another without knowing wherefore and without perceiving that the Folly they have in themselves is more to be despised than what they require in their Brother The active Exercise of our Reason when depriv'd of the Light of Faith serves but the more to confound and darken us it keeps us in a vain Amusement makes us neglect the necessary means of obtaining Divine Faith blows up the Heart with Pride makes us despise the most Divine Truths when they do not accord with our Principles and value our selves beyond others tho' humble ignorant Persons are more to be regarded as being more disposed to receive the Light of Faith than those Learned who have drunk in the Doctrine of Men. She blesses God that preserv'd her from this for then she should have been uncapable of receiving that of the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ call'd the Simple and Ignorant to be his Disciples and Apostles it was they whom he train'd up to instruct and teach others the way to Salvation When a Learned Nicodemus came to him he told him that unless he became as a little Child he could not enter into the Kingdom of God He founded no Colleges nor Academies to train up his Followers in all sorts of Learning but taught them by Word and Deed to deny themselves in all earthly things and to take up their Cross and follow him True Religion is preserved or received by the same means by which it is at first instituted and established They who say in another case that Christ being more faithful than Mâ—ses in all the House of God who yet left not a Pin of the Tabernacle unmade and therefore he surely could not be wanting in ordering what was fit for his Church may examine their own Measures by this Rule She says The Schools and Doctrine of Men have corrupted the true Sence of the Scriptures and by their Learning authorize all sorts of Sins that it seems the Schools are expresly instituted to forge Cases of Conscience capable of leading Men to Hell For what need is there to Gloss the Gospel and the Life of Jesus Christ They are clear Truths which Jesus Christ taught by Word and Deed that we must be poor in Spirit humble in Heart desirous to suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake and to do to others as we would have them do to us but to corrupt all these things the Learned make Glosses that it is not against Poverty of Spirit to labour or trade that we may get Money and make some Fortune in the World and to flatter Men the better to their Ruine they add by Word that we must possess Riches as not possessing them which is a great Deceit for Men are not now so dispos'd as those of the Old Testament who receiv'd Temporal Goods from God as a Blessing to employ them to his Glory not having their Hearts any ways wedded to them as those of our Time who incessantly covet Riches desiring still more and more It is an infallible Truth that all who would be saved must love God with all their Heart And if we ask those Divines if it be not lawful for a Man to love his Father Mother Wife Children Kinsfolk Friends yea his Country Money House Honour Divertisements Meat Drink Cloaths and every other Creature they will answer yes because they love them themselves and yet imagine they fulfil the Command of God of loving him with all their Heart and to disguise this Lie the better they will say We must not love all these things inordinately giving us to understand thereby that our Hearts may be well divided into so many different Affections without sinning which has so authoriz'd the neglect of the Command of loving God with all our Heart that no Body thinks it is needful They live and die in
they will become no less for this Saying and if there are none at least some will be awakened out of their Security and endeavour to become so If A. B. had said that God by an unchangeable Decree from all Eternity had predestinated the greatest part of the World to Damnation it might then indeed be said that she is void of Charity to God and Man But when she declares that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance and yet that all Men were living in a Contradiction to the Life and Spirit of Jesus Christ she could not do them a more charitable Office than to warn them of their Danger Will they say the Psalmist was uncharitable and damn'd all the World because he tells us the Lord look'd down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God they are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doeth Good no not one Every Man ought to weigh the Truth or Falshood of this Saying as to himself and see if he can make this particular Exception to the general Saying There is no True Christians upon Earth let him set at the Foot of it Except I my self And if his Conscience dare not write down this Exception he has reason to thank the Charity that put him to the Trial without regard whether it be true or false as to others which will avail him nothing so long as it holds as to himself And as to the other part of the Prejudice that God will make her and her Writings the Mean of the Renovation of the Gospel Spirit She says It is God who enlightens Understandings who warms Wills with his Love who produces Charity in Souls in short who is the only Giver of all Good without any Creatures being able to cause to be born in the Soul of another the Spirit of Regeneration which is to live again to God and to die to ones self This is a Masterpiece of the Works of God much more rare and precious than the Body of Man and nevertheless he will not do it but by the means of Creatures who shall be subject to him and will hear his Voice who will make others Partakers of the Light which God communicates to them that by it they may be enlightned and know their Errors and the Way to become True Believers The Understanding the Speech and the Hand of such spiritual Mothers is the Matter with which God will beget his True Children making them comprehend his Truths by the Words Writings and Actions of those who shall receive the Word of God immediately who are few in number because Men are now so diverted in the Affairs and Business of this World that they cannot hear the Voice of God tho' he speak continually to their Heart And to supply their Weakness and the Wandrings of their Spirit his great Goodness causes to speak and write by sensible and visible Objects the things which may render all those True Believers who truly desire to become so And that her Writings are of this Nature full of Divine and Saving Truths Simple and Solid Milk for Babes and Meat for strong Men suted for all Capacities and all Ages they manifest themselves as the Light does to those who are not Blind And as to their reproaching her that being a Woman yet she would presume to instruct the World when St. Paul would not suffer a Woman to speak in the Church and therefore calling her in Contempt and Old Wife she said That for her being a Woman she could not hinder it since no Body forms themselves they must ask God if they would know why he created her a Woman and not a Man that she her self had been displeas'd at it but since God made her know it was his Pleasure she was content for she lov'd rather to be a little Atom in the Will of God than a whole World in her own Will And when she began to teach by her Writings it was by an express Command of God which she long resisted for which she begs Pardon for she could not resolve on this because she was a Woman who has never so much Authority in matter of Doctrine as a Man But she came over all humane Respects and expos'd her self to all their Mockeries She says If the Truths of God must be rejected because they are dictated by a Woman all the Great and Learned that ever were in the World ought also to be rejected seeing all are equally come of a Woman Why should they then despise their Origin since God does not despise it but makes use of them to operate his greatest Marvels and always Figures the Church his Spouse by a Woman Women are as capable of receiving the Graces of God as Men there being no difference between their Souls and the bodily difference respecting Nature only in which even Woman ought to be more regarded than Men seeing when God would needs become Man he would have a Woman for his Mother but not a Man for his Father and he has done his greatest Wonders by the means of Women What Triumphant Victory did Judith obtain against Holofernes and Esther in the Deliverance of God's People And whereas it is said it is not permitted Women to teach the Apostle she says ordains the aged Women to teach the younger and to instruct their Children and Family in the fear of God and both in the Old and New Testament we read of many Women-Prophetesses foretelling things to come And the Apostle says it is an honour to a Woman to prophesie with her Head covered She says they ought to let God speâ—k by a Woman if it be his Pleasure since he spoke in former Times to a Prophet by a Beast that he bestows his Graces and Wisdom on whom he pleases and Man ought not to ask him why he does so That before God it is not Man or Woman that signifies any thing but the Spirit of Righteousness and Truth That they ought not to regard whether she be Man or Woman but whether what she says be Just and True That she writes by an express Command of God doing this as secretly as she can shut up in her Chamber That Men are now less dispos'd to receive his Divine Light than Women since their Hearts are blown up with Pride to apply all Glory and Authority to themselves instead of referring it to God and cannot endure that a simple Woman as she should speak of Divine Things least their Learning should be less esteem'd So those Great Philosophers will not let God do his Marvels by the means of a Virgin but will oblige him to operate by Great Divines not remembring that he has said * He has chosen the weak things of the World to confound the things that are mighty and the foolish things of the World to confound the wise and base things of the World and
is unchangeable always consistent with himself and no Body can be mistaken in following what is conformable to the Gospel even to tho' it were declar'd by a wicked Person yea by the Devil himself But if some one declare some particular thing respecting the Salvation or Damnation of any they must see from whence this Knowledge comes If such have it by the Light of the Holy Spirit they must believe it as the Scripture or else they be in Hazard of being forsaken by God for despising the Warnings which he often gives us by some one of his Friends whom he makes use of to declare his Will to those who would not hear it so particularly themselves As he did to David by the Prophet Nathan to declare his Sin to him of which he was become insensible and so many others whom he has withdrawn from the way to Hell by the Warnings of some Souls enlightned by him as he does sometimes yet at present A True Prophet never seeks himself desires not to please Men aims at nothing but to satisfie the Will of God tho' it cost him his Life He speaks of his Commission without fear or respect of any He has no soft Words that flatter the Ears but hard ones that pierce Hearts He declares the Truths that reprove Men more willingly than those which commend them A True Prophet rejoyces more to be hated than lov'd because he sees then he is more conformable to his Master who in doing Good was hated and persecuted by Men. There is not a more certain Mark than the Reproach and Contradictions of Men whereby to discern a True Prophet from a False for Falshood always flatters and so is loved by the People who are willingly flattered The Holy Spirit can have no regard to what pleases or displeases but to what is pure Truth without respect of Persons And if there remain any doubt if it is the Holy Spirit who speaks by a Person who says so we must try if that Person possess the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit his Seven Gifts and the Eight Beatitudes so you shall see visibly in them the Holy Spirit by his infallible Operations Thus you see what excellent and true Marks and Characters she gives whereby we may try whether any be truly endued with the Spirit of God or not and the more her Doctrine Life and Spirit are enquir'd into by the Lovers of Sincerity and Truth the more they will abide this Touchstone And it will still the more clearly appear that her Doctrine is the same in Substance with the Gospel her Life and Spirit a Transcript of it that the Law of God was written in her Heart from whence her Doctrine came as from a Fountain of Living Water springing up to Everlasting Life and was not derived from the broken Cisterns of humane Learning Conversation Study and Books And that her Words are sharp and piercing searching into the Heart and Conscience and far from soothing and flattering the Corruptions of Men. XVIII M. Pascal has given it as a distinguishing Mark and Character of the Christian Religion in Contradiction to all other Religions of the World as an Argument of its Divine Authority and Original that it makes Charity or the Love of God its principal End and Man's chief Duty which no other Religion does And I think it may be given as a distinguishing Character of the Doctrine of A. B. its being a true Representation of Christianity in Contradiction to most of the Systems of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which have been advanc'd in this last Age of the World that she makes Charity or the Love of God the great End of that Religion and the Precepts and Life of Jesus Christ the necessary Means to bring us to that End and when this is so clearly discovered and represented to us by an illiterate Child without the use of any humane Helps and our false Glosses whereby we have perverted the Doctrine of Jesus Christ are laid open to us to ascribe this to Natural Judgment Heat of Fancy any Humane or Diabolical Means or to think to confound it with our Buffoonry and Criticks is a Spiritual Infatuation like that of the Scribes and Pharisees XIX Now all that has been or can be opposed to those Evidences of A. B. her being led by the Spirit of God come under these Two Heads viz. it is either affirm'd that these Marks and Characters are not sufficient Evidences even tho' she had them or that they do not all belong to her I shall give you then her own Vindication of her self in answering some Prejudices relating to these Heads First then they objected that there could be no sufficient Evidence of her being led by the Spirit of God unless she were endued with the Power of working Miracles In Answer to which she says It is a great Ignorance to desire to see Miracles that we may believe that a Soul is possest with the Holy Spirit for the Devil at this time can easily do Wonders Jesus Christ has assur'd us that in the last Times many false Prophets will arise that shall do great Signs and Wonders And we live now in the Reign of Antichrist They who ask now for Miracles deserve to be seduc'd by Satan for what need is there of them since God is not to send into the World a New Doctrine The Gospel Law is the last and most perfect of all Laws Nothing New will come to instruct Men except the fulfilling of the Gospel Law which was sufficiently confirm'd by Jesus Christ and his Apostles who needed then for the Hardness of Mens Hearts to work outward Miracles because of their Unbelief For those Persons Signs were wrought that were visible to their Senses But now Men are sufficiently confirm'd in the Gospel Law There are no Christians incredulous in this Point And therefore Miracles would serve to no purpose now since nothing is taught but what Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught and this is believed both by good and bad Christians I think you have not the true Touchstone to discern if a Person has the Spirit of God when you would try him by Miracles for the Spirit of Satan may do great Signs and Wonders in the Persons where he dwells I have seen Persons possest with that unclean Spirit who would have done admirable things Some were Blind for some Years and recovered their Sight in an Instant others were Dumb and recovered their Speech by supernatural Means others did hang and flee visibly in the Air before all the People others were without Pulse and Motion for some Nights and Days and in an Instant would arise and walk chearfully Are not here the Dead raised the Sick healed the Blind recovered to their Sight the Dumb to their Speech and Bodies suspended in the Air by the Power of the Devil How could you judge then by Miracles if a Person be led by the Spirit of God or of the Devil You
and extraordinary XX. 2. It is objected against her being led by the Spirit of God that many have had Visions and Revelations and yet not from God but that they have been acted either by the Heat of their own Imagination or by Illusions from the Devil who can transform himself into an Angel of Light and work upon the Fancies and Imaginations of corrupt Men so as to make his Illusions pass for Immediate Communications from God and therefore she may be reckoned among the Enthusiasts and Visionaries with which the World abounds Enthusiast is a Word which at first had a Good meaning viz. one truly led by the Spirit of God but now generally it is taken for one who falsely pretends to it and is not And of such there are several sorts of false Enthusiasts in the World tho' all of them do not go under that Name 1. Many there are who indulging still their corrupt Nature and being strongly acted by their own Imagination or by Impulses of the Devil pretend to Divine Inspiration and vent impious absurd and corrupt things as inspir'd by God By their Fruits ye shall know them Others are become Idolaters of their Reason make it their God But the most ordinary false Enthusiasts are they who least of all will own the Name those I mean who pretend to be Embassadours from God and that to resist them is all one as to resist the Spirit of God and that their Sermons and Explications of the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the Word of God tho' in the mean time they have not the Spirit of Jesus Christ are far from being enlightned by him venting their own Notions Passions Errors and Wranglings for the Word of God wresting it to speak as they would have it and in the mean time hating and persecuting those who are truly taught of God and calling them by the odious Names that belong to themselves True Divine Inspiration so far as we can conceive it from the Representations of those who have been truly and immediately Illuminated of God may be considered under these Two general Heads 1. Either God communicates himself his Light and Truth immediately to the Soul without the Intervention of any sensible Idea or Image Or 2. He makes use of sensible Images to affect the Soul and that after different manners by Dreams Visions Voices c. and it is in these especially and not in the former that the Devil labours to ape God and to delude Souls or that Men are deluded by their own warm Imaginations and the Devil's Illusions or their own Fancies pass for Divine Visions c. Now that the Motions and Sentiments of A. B. were not the Effect of such an Enthusiasm seems evidently to appear from her own Writings It is best to hear her self That I may satisfie says she to a great Lawyer the Question so oft proposed by you how I understand and speak with God I shall tell you in Simplicity what I can say of it God is a Spirit the Soul is a Spirit they communicate in Spirit they are not verbal Discourses but spiritual Notices Intelligences Spirituelles which nevertheless are more intelligible than the best Eloquence of the World God makes himself to be understood by the Soul by inward Motions which the Soul understands and comprehends according as it is freed of earthly Idea's and in so far as the Faculties of the Soul do cease the Motions of God are so much the more intelligible unto it The Notices of God are infallible when the Soul is free of all Images and in a Forgetfulness of all created things but they are doubtful when it acts by Imaginations and seek Sensibilities or any other thing that is not purely God The Saints themselves have in this Point committed Mistakes by Visions vocal Words Extasies or other Sensibilities to which the Imagination contributes God is a Spirit the Soul purified is transform'd into him and has no need of Words nor of Sight to understand him more than we need an Eye or a Tongue to understand our own Conceptions It is hard to declare how this is done it must be hard also to believe it and in Effect it is subject to Deceptions and Illusions of the Devil or the Imagination if these inward Notices and Knowledge be not declared by a Person whose Life and Words are conformable to the Gospel as being inspir'd by one and the same Spirit The rest of this Letter is transcrib'd above There is nothing more Difficult for Man's Understanding than to discern Spirits to know if they are of God or of the Devil or from Nature to discern this a Divine Light is necessary for the same things which the Spirit of God operates that of the Devil or of Nature may do also If the Spirit of God make a Soul say that which is to its Praise by a Spirit of simple Truth that of the Devil will make the same things be spoken through pure Pride that of Nature to get Esteem being so subtile in its Flatteries that it will sometimes utter things to its Contempt that it may appear Humble before those who hear them The same thing may be Holy Diabolical or Humane according to the inward Intention and Motion of the Soul that operates which God alone knows evidently in which so many deceive themselves who presume to discern Spirits and to guide Souls by their own natural Light These are the Blind who lead the Blind and both fall into the Ditch I entreat you to remark that the Holy Spirit is not visible to be seen by the Eyes of the Body where he resides but he manifests himself sufficiently by the Operations which he produces in those Souls which possess him They are adorn'd with all his Gifts and Fruits which are sure Marks of his Operations for neither the Devil nor Nature can work such Effects no more than natural Fruits can be brought forth without the Trees by which Fruits we discern the Trees so ought we to discern Souls that are filled with the Holy Spirit for to regard only the Bark which are the outward Actions and Words there is occasion of being greatly deceived for the Devil covers himself with the Garment of seeming Vertue and Sanctity and under this deceives the most Pious and the most Learned The Twelve Fruits and the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Eight Beatitudes have always their Operations in the Person who possesses the Holy Spirit who cannot reside any where without them more than the Sun can be without Light so that it is in vain to seek other Signs whereby to discern this Spirit since these only are the true Oneâ— So that we may know if a Person be animated by the Holy Spirit or by the Devil or by Nature by the Operation of his Works we need only consider them with a single Eye with a pure Intention without Curiosity or Affectation and then we cannot be deceived for God
truly purified and the Communications of God's Spirit are to the inferiour Understanding without the use of the Imagination or Senses or the imprinting on them Images Visions or Voices there neither the Devil nor Man's Imagination can have any hold that the Devil cannot work on the Imagination of such as he does on Wicked and Brain sick Persons That when Visions Voices and sensible Raptures are communicated to such that they may be assured that they are from God they ought to apply to him in that inward way in which he is pleas'd to communicate himself the Soul being delivered from the agitation of its Passions and the Imagination That the Spirit of God brings along with him Peace and Tranquility of Soul and his Divine Qualities of Goodness Righteousness and Truth and his Operations are both good and abiding but the Spirit of the Devil disturbs the Understanding robs it of Tranquility and Rest and that which proceeds from that Spirit carries always with it the Qualities of the Devil Injustice Malice Hypocrisie These are the distinguishing Evidences for ones self And for others that they may not be impos'd upon by any pretending to be led by the Spirit of God when it may be they are guided by the Illusions of the Devil or their own Fancy that there is no Hazard of being mistaken if we follow that only which is conformable to the Gospel tho' it were declared by a wicked Person or the Devil himself that there cannot be a surer Testimony that one is led by the Spirit of God than if he produce in them his Fruits and Gifts and impart to them the Divine Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Charity and by their means produce the same good Effects in others That the evil Spirit may sometimes move to do a good thing to draw Evil out of it but can never do that that is Just and Good and True altogether which comes from God only and tho' the Devil cover his Wickedness at first with seeming Vertues yet the End of all his Operations shew from whom they come Thus A. B. lays no stress on Visions Extasies Raptures or other Sensibilities to which the Imagination contributes and where the Devil and Fancy may impose but upon the immediate Notices of God to the Understanding and for the Truth of this and her Sincerity in it appeals to the Fruits of God's Spirit and the Divine Qualities which he had implanted in her Soul and by which she constantly steer'd all her Actions And that no Body may be deceived by her declaring things as Truths from God which are not she desires they may receive them only in so far as they are conformable to the Gospel and then there is no Hazard of being deceived those Truths being so well confirm'd already and so necessary for all who would be saved and in so far as they lead us to a more strict Union with God and Denial of ones self And these are always Good tho' the Devil should declare them we cannot be deceived in believing them XXI 3. It was said that she was a Woman of a fine natural Spirit of a clear and piercing Judgment and a lively Imagination and being retir'd and thoughtful it was no wonder tho' she had clear and extraordinary Thoughts and Sentiments beyond others all this might be the Effect of the excellency of her Natural Spirit and not from the Spirit of God This Thought always readily occurs to those who upon the reading of her Writings are convinced of the excellency of her Sentiments and it was objected to her self I shall here set down her own Answer You ought to have more Charity for me than to call me Wise and of a good Natural Judgment when you judge that I am Proud for your saying serves only to make me more so I have always said that I am nothing but a simple Child and now I hear Divines and the Learned say that I have a great Natural Spirit which makes me say and write things which so many Persons do admire I have always referr'd them to the Spirit of God who produces them immediately in me and now you would have me so Presumptuous as to believe that all this comes from my self or from my Natural Judgment I should be a wise Girl indeed if I had found out so many excellent Truths without School or Study without Books and without Masters I believe it is Ignorance that makes you speak so and that you know not what the Spirit of God is nor what a Natural Spirit is and cannot distinguish that which comes from Nature from that which comes from Grace as not being sufficiently advanced in the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit I am afraid my Judgment may offend you but I will make it appear to you that it is most true and that you have not yet penetrated nor discovered how the Spirit of God acts and how the Spirit of Nature acts and not having this Touchstone which discovers fine Gold from the Counterfeit you easily take the one for the other You will needs hold the rank of Masters whereas it were your Happiness to be good Scholars To shew that I have more Charity for your Soul than you have Ill-will for mine I will declare what the Spirit of God is and what the Natural Spirit is that you may no longer be mistaken I will tell you what Operations proceed from both these Spirits and how they must be animated The thing is clear and certain easie to be understood by those who will use their Reason and they who do not use it are Beasts for nothing distinguishes a Man from a Beast but Faith and Reason I set down therefore for the chief Mark and Ground of discerning Spirits that the Spirit of God has this Quality that he never acts and operates but for things Divine and Eternal or tending to Eternity and that the Natural Spirit never acts nor aims but for things Earthly and Temporal For all that is from Nature tends to its Centre which is the Earth and Time where Nature is bounded to delight it self without knowing or tending to any other thing but what is conformable to Nature When you would know then if it be Nature that directs the Actions of a Person remark only if by what they say or do they aim only at things earthly and transitory in this case you may well judge that they have but a Natural Spirit and not the Spirit of God since this never acts but for Divine things tending to Eternity So that when you see Persons labour to gain Money or to have Pleasure and Satisfaction in this World it may be absolutely said they have but Natural Spirits and cannot thereby find God nor Life Eternal for tho' they flatter themselves and say that they trade only to make a right use of their Wealth and study that they may make a right use of their Learning all this is but for Time and earthly Things proceeding only
Words yea these Niceties of the precise Truth of Terms are things on Earth esteemed by vain Men who seek Praise and Curiosities more than the Essence of the Means of their Salvation and the Holy Spirit will not encourage these Niceties but inspires always Simplicity For this Cause I do not reflect upon the Mistake that I oft times commit of naming Peter for Paul or Wood for Stone It is enough to me that I make the Substance of the thing be understood that Men may return to the Love of God And he having permitted me to cause to be printed all my Writings has not appointed in what Time by what Person in what Place or by what Means I might do it I must therefore apply my natural Spirit to find out these Means I have writ of it to my Friends and advertised them that it was the Will of God that this should be done for his Glâ—â—â— And if I had not acted naturally in this these Persons could not know this express Will of God because they are not yet so disengaged that they may hear the Voice of God Ought I therefore to hold my Peace and not to write because the Holy Spirit does not dictate to me all the Words and because I make use of those which I speak in my homely vulgar Language And must I prove otherwise than by my Words that it is the Holy Spirit who acts in me They who consider this without an evil Eye will I am perswaded be convinc'd that she is far from attributing her Mistakes and Defects to the Dictates of the Spirit of God and that yet it might be very well said to him who was desirous to reduce her Writings to a greater Exactness free of all Mistakes What Rashness is it for Men to offer to correct the Works of God For God thinks fit to chuse weak and foolish things to confound the wise and mighty and to make his strength appear in their weakness that when we see the great and substantial Truths of God declared by one of such Simplicity without Disguise and Affectation without all Human Learning and the Artifices and Exactness whereby we recommend our Writings to the World we may clearly see that it is not her own Natural Spirit that by its Industry and Application searches out and discovers those Divine Truths tho' its Defects and Weakness appear in applying to declare them to the World but that it is the Spirit of God And as they who are very intent upon the cultivating of their Minds with Human Learning are very unconcern'd as to fine Cloaths and other outward things about which others are very nice and ready to laugh at their unfashionableness so one who is wholly taken up with the great and substantial Truths of God and Eternity and intent to impress them on the Hearts of others has no regard to niceness of Words and Terms is not curious to avoid little Mistakes about lesser and accidental Matters but earnest only to inculcate to them the great things of Eternity And that this was the Disposition of A. B's Spirit appears thro' all her Writings It may be Joshuah knew not whether it was the Sun or Earth that stood still and Esay thought that Hezekiah would undoubtedly die of his Disease and S. Matthew that Jeremy had written that which Zachary had said and that there were two Thieves who upâ—raided Jesus Christ on the Cross tho' S. Luke tells it was but one of them and Jesus Christ himself that there were Figs on a Fig-Tree when there were none But what will some say is not this to take from the divine Writers their Authority and Force This is as ridiculous as if a Man dying for Hunger would not take the Bread offer'd him under a Pretext that he who offer'd it was mistaken in some Words when he offered it as that he said it was bak'd such a Day whereas it was on another Day or that it came from Peter's House whereas it came from John's or that the Corn it was made of came from France when it was from Germany from whence the poor famish'd Man would fancy that the Bread could not nourish him that it was not good that they who were mistaken in this might be mistaken in taking it may be Poison or Tares for Corn or Arsnick for Meal But what ought such Mistakes to be imputed to the Holy Spirit God forbid they belong only to the Creature And when it pleases the Holy Spirit for so saving Ends as to recommend Simplicity the study of Purification the cleaving to the one thing needful to teach those who desire to be enlightned by God that they must leave off the ways of humane Exactness and Speculation and of confounding the Understanding with a Thousand barren and needless Curiosities which certainly devour much precious time without making us well-pleasing to God or advancing one step in his Love but have rather turn'd us away from it and occupied and blown us up with these useless Vanities That the Holy Spirit I say should permit for so saving an Advantage some Mistakes which regard Accidental Foreign and Accessory things to remain some time in the Instruments which he makes use of most certainly and infallibly in the things that concern the way to Heaven What is there in all this that derogates from the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls or the Divine Authority of those sent by God to guide Man without fail to this supream End The Difference that is observed amongst Persons inspired by God and sometimes of the same Person from himself comes from this that they have not the same Gifts by Nature or are not equally enlightned or the same Person is not so much at one time as at another even touching Divine Things when they are Accessories Thus the Apostles knew not from the Beginning that the Gentiles would be called to the Gospel and therefore at first they lived exactly after the Manner of the Jews But when God gave and encreased this Light they acted and spoke otherwise must we conclude from this that they were first deceived or that the Holy Spirit did not inspire them or did not inspire them aright Not at all But that at first it was not necessary it should be made known to them till the saving Doctrine of the Gospel were established among the Jews So that we must hence conclude only that the Holy Spirit gives and encreases his Light as he sees it expedient for Men's Salvation Thus A. B. in her younger Years had not received the Light which respects the glorious State in which Adam was created before Eve and therefore spake of Adam then according to the common Opinion but afterwards in a more sublime Manner XXIII 5. It was again objected to her that she contradicted both the Holy Scriptures and her self and therefore could not be led by the Spirit of God To this she replied That this cannot be true indeed if her Writings be endited
do not exercise them according to their own Will or as they please but they are resign'd to God that he may do in them and by them when and how he please For Example St. Paul had without doubt the Gift of Miracles he struck Elymas Blind raised the Young Man that fell down dead and healed others And yet nevertheless when he was taken he made none Blind that he might escape from his Persecutors neither did he miraculously heal Epaphirus Trophimus Timothy And even so when the Light of God the Gift of Knowledge c. is given unto the Saints they do not therefore discover all things in that Light and by that Gift according to their Will but being dead to their own Will and resign'd to the Will of God they discover in that Light of God those things only which he is pleased to manifest unto them in it so that if God in his Wisdom see it convenient for them that they be ignorant of the Evils of some with whom they converse whether to exercise them or that some external things may be done to them by these Hypocrites or for other Ends known to his infinite Wisdom then without any Prejudice to the Light of God or the Gift of Discerning of Spirits they shall not know these Hypocrites till God be pleas'd to bring that Gift into act as to that Matter which he uses to do when he sees it necessary either for their own Salvation or that of others or for the Glory of his Name It is a great Error then for us to think that the Gifts of God are managed by Mens Self-will or Self-wisdom and from hence to conclude that that Person to whom the inward Disposition of others was known for some time did not only want the Gift of Discerning Spirits but that also it is from hence evident that it cannot be known from such a Person 's Life and Doctrine that he was led by the Spirit of God since he did embrace in others that which was but Appearance and Imposture only for Truth For David Jeremy another true Prophet they who baptized Simon Magus Paul as to Demas have sometimes taken the Appearance or Imposture of some Hypocrites or Liars for Truth Does it from hence follow that it could not be known by their Life and Doctrine that they were led by the Spirit of God As if the stress of their whole Life and Doctrine were to be laid upon some one or other innocent Mistake Or as if rather from hence it ought not to be inferred that God in his Wisdom saw it expedient that they should be ignorant of the Hypocrisie of such Persons for some time and that the Gift of Discerning of Spirits should be differently directed and applied in those who are acted by the Spirit of God according to his Will who can truly say Not I live but Christ lives in me Thus I have given a plain and true Narrative of the Sentiments of Antonia Bourignon both as to the Essential and Accessory Truths And of the Prejudices generally raised against her and the just Defences she makes for her self by which she clears and removes them and of the Evidences she brings for her being led by the Spirit of God and not by that of the Devil or Nature or her own Imagination and the Answers given to what is oppos'd against it And tho' I might have contracted all into lesser Bounds yet I chose rather to give it in her own Words and to let her speak for her self And now after all I beg leave to summ up the Evidence XXVI If any pretend to be led by the Spirit of God and in the mean time are worldly or sensual or selfish or contradict the Doctrine of Jesus Christ it is evident they are not of God But if any publish to the World a Doctrine that is Pure and Holy tending only to mortifie Corrupt Nature and to recover the Love of God if it be wholly conformable unto and the same with the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and of his Gospel If they who publish it do still live conformably unto it and bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit of God in their whole Life and Practice despising all temporal things and tending only to things eternal and manifesting the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God in all their Actions if their Words be accompanied with a Force and Power which reaches the Heart and convinces the Conscience If they discover often the secret Thoughts of the Hearts of others and their Dispositions even sometimes tho' their Persons be unknown to them If they be Persons full of Simplicity and Sincerity having no worldly Aim doing nothing to please Men nor to gain their Esteem but declaring the Truth in Simplicity even in things which they know will be most unpleasing to Men and will bring upon them Hatred Contempt and Persecution from Men instead of their Favour and Esteem If they are altogether Illiterate and have acquired no Knowledge by the humane means of Study Reading Conversation and Meditation and yet manifest a clear distinct and comprehensive Knowledge of Divine Things far beyond the most Learned Divines If in declaring those Truths to the World by writing they flowed from them as Water does from a Fountain as fast as their Hand could guide the Pen without musing or meditating what to write or changing and correcting what they had once written or reading it over again and yet all as to the main is of a Thread most rational and clear and consistent and no real Contradiction either to the Holy Scriptures or amongst those Writings themselves as to the Essence and Substance of them And if such declare to the World that of themselves they are sinful Nothings of the corrupt Mass of Adam from whence nothing can come but Evil and that all the Good that is in them and all the Truths they communicate to the World is not from them but from God and the immediate Operation of his Holy Spirit who is pleased to make use of weak and simple Means to confound the Mighty and Wise If all these can be truly said of any these are certainly Evidences that will abide the Verdict of an impartial Jury even tho' there be no visible Miracles as John the Baptist and many of the ancient Prophets did none there being no New Doctrine publish'd but the pressing and clearing of that already declared and confirm'd by Jesus Christ and his Apostles Now this is the Summ of the Plea of Antonia Bourignon and for the Proof of it as to her Doctrine and Sentiments she refers to her Writings which any that please may consult as to her Life and Spirit to those who were daily Witnesses of it of which there are a Cloud of Testimonies made publick as also for the manner of composing her Writings As to the Force and Efficacy of them to those who by their Experience have found and do attest it And these are the
to see her and she urging to pursue her Journey to the Desart he by no means would suffer her but having brought her some Refreshment went to Mons to acquaint the Archbishop of Cambray of her who bid him keep her till he came there this greatly troubled her fearing to be detained and making her Complaint to God seeing he said she should serve him perfectly in the Desart it was told her That the time was not yet come many Societies of Men and Women must follow her thither and that she should re-establish his Gospel Spirit And when she could not comprehend how this could be being an ignorant Child who had never learnt of any what a Gospel Life was and knew none and had no Authority it was said to her Behold these Trees in the Church-Yard they seem dry Wood without Leaves or Fruit or any Appearance nevertheless when the Season comes they shall bring forth Leaves Flowers and Fruit in abundance without any Bodie 's touching them So shall it be of my Work XVIII The Archbishop Vanderburgh came about Three Weeks after and spoke with her and was perswaded that she was guided by the Spirit of God but would not let her go to the Desart but oblig'd her to live a Recluse there in a little House which the Pastour offer'd to make for her in the Church-yard But the same Day her Parents came thither from Lisle to find her and with great Difficulty she was prevail'd with to return with them her Father faithfully promising to the Archbishop to allow her all freedom to serve God in the Perfection she desired without engaging her in worldly Affairs or urging her to Marry the Archbishop being surety he should perform it and if not he would take her into his own Care XIX But after some Months her Father engag'd her again into his Affairs and on divers Occasions spoke to her of Marriage contrary to his Promise which greatly troubled her She beg'd leave to return to the Archbishop which he would not permit She exercis'd her self in visiting the Sick and Poor in frequenting the Churches learn'd the Offices and other vocal Prayers in which she found great Devotion and confest and communicated thrice a Week but she found at length that the Poor were deceitful and not thankful to God but by what they got sinn'd the more She left off visiting them yet gave for God all she could All Creatures became Hindrances to her and she gave her self more to Solitude and Silence and went seldomer to Church finding more Recollection in her Chamber She could not say her Office being still interrupted with inward Conversation She beg'd of God to know if he had forsaken her or if she had become sloathful He said I am Spirit speak to me in Spirit I will operate now in Spirit and in Trtuh Cease and I will do all She resign'd her self wholly to him banishing all Imaginations of her own And she understood more clearly the Inspirations of God XX. The Religious of the several Orders came to her to warn her of her Danger of being deluded by the Devil for want of a Director and each offered their Service She thank'd them and was warn'd by God to apply to her own Pastor and never had any other Confessor She continued in her Retirement and interiour Prayers with great delight The Devil fail'd not to disturb her therein by Spectres and other Noises She was greatly afraid but addressing to God and pursuing her Prayers he said Fear not I am with thee And thus she acquired so much firmness that she fear'd nothing but Sin XXI Being still warned to go from her Father's House and not having obtain'd his leave nor finding any dispos'd to go with her she propos'd to stay till she knew the Place and Persons that were to follow her that she might go seek them tho' to the end of the World It was said to her Seek none but cultivate what shall be delivered and put into your Hands Declare only my Designs It troubled her to declare those Designs out of fear of Vain-glory and conceal'd the Graces of God to her even from her Confessor She pray'd to God that he would deliver her from this Enterprize and choose another she being a simple Girl void of all Force and Authority every way weak He said to her I will be thy All My Power is not limited Give thy Consent She said Wherefore hast thou not made me a Man I would have had more Advantage and Capacity that thou mightest serve thy self of me He answered I will serve my self of the vilest Matter to confound the Pride of Men. I will give thee all that thou shalt need be faithful to me XXII Resolving then to go tell the Archbishop what the Will of God was after she had staid for a Year and a half with her Parents she begg'd leave of her Father on her Knees and his Blessing telling him that God had call'd her out of the World Her Confessor and the Prior of the Capuchins her Father 's intimate Friend soliciting him to grant it but he would not do it threatning his Malediction if she should go The Prior and Pastor told him that his Malediction could not reach her being in the Grace of God and they desir'd her to go freely whither God call'd her XXIII She came to the Archbishop at Mons and declar'd to him that God had tauâ—ht her to lead a Gospel Life and to live as the first Christians disengag'd from all earthly things from all Creatures and from the Love of her self and that many would follow her therein and begg'd Permission to take a Place in the Country in his Diocess to begin it He ask'd what she meant by a Life disengag'd from all earthly Goods We cannot live upon nothing She said We will labour the Ground and have our Necessaries from the Fields without asking Money of those who would come thither Poor and Rich shall be alike welcome We aiming at no Commodity on Earth but pure Necessaries and to please God He said she propos'd great things and he would think on it and caus'd to lodge her in a House of Devout Maids of Notre Dame which was better regulated than the Cloisters XXIV Two Days thereafter he sent Pere du Bois Superiour of the Oratory at Maubeuge to examine her who having heard her Propositions admir'd them and was perswaded she was taught of God Four Maids of the House observing her Behaviour and Retiredness that she staid alone in her Chamber had no Bed sought no Ease nor Pleasure eat but once a Day at Night and that moâ—tly Bread and Water desired earnestly to speak with her and were so perswaded of her being led by the Holy Spirit that they resolv'd to follow her wherever she should 〈◊〉 XXV The â—â—suits being the Directors of that House set themselves to counteract her tho' they knâ—w not her Design they bid the Maids
that you shall re-establish his Gospel-Spirit upon Earth among Men and Women that a great Number shall follow you to the Desart and out of the Hurry of the World and such like Promises which not being yet fulfilled it follows you cannot die yet since the Work for which God raised you up is not yet done and God will not forsake his Work She answer'd God will not give over his Work neither will he fail in his Promise but I have already seen enough that may save the Truth of his Promise tho' I die I have seen the Accomplishment of it in part by the first Fruits tho' not so perfectly God has already given me several Children I have some of them who are gone to him I have seen some of them follow me in Retiring from the World and hear me with all their Heart and that of all sorts tho' they have neither been in so great Numbers nor so perfect Nevertheless this is enough to have seen by the first Fruits the Truth of the Promises of God which on his Part he never fails to fulfil entirely But when Men do not correspond thereto God leaves them retakes from them his Gifts and seeks out other Subjects fitter to receive the Accomplishment of what he promises Whereas Men at present do render themselves unworthy of it and will not acknowledge nor receive the remarkable Graces that God offers them I greatly fear lest God withdraw his Gifts from them and turn himself to others so I cannot assure you that I shall not die shortly On the contrary when I consider the Ingratitude and Vnthankfulness which Men shew for the Favours of God I doubt if God will not shortly take me out of the World But added she suppose God withdraw me what is your Concern with my Person You ought not for this to leave off to seek God to cleave to him to do the best that is possible for you to enjoy his Spirit and then you shall have no more need of my Person for there is nothing in me to be esteemed nor sought after nor followed but the Spirit that guides me LXXVI So long as her Enemies knew not that she was at Hamburgh she liv'd peaceably enough but it coming at last to the Ears of the Lutheran Pastors they were the more affected with it that one or two of their Hearers relish'd the Truth of her Writings which put them into an extream Jealousie the predominant Passion of Churchmen They set Spies on her Friends who went to see her and having thereby found her Lodging and being certainly inform'd of her being there they assemble in Consistory and conclude to depute two of their number to Morrow Morning to represent this to the Magistrates that they might preserve the City and Religion from being infected with so great an Evil. A. B. was advertised of this and convey'd about Ten a Clock at Night to a little Garret beside a poor Man having sent her Manuscripts before her On the Morrow the Council sent four armed Sergeants to bring her to the Town-House but did not find her She staid fifteen Days in this little Garret from whence she wrote Letters to encourage her Friends But her Enemies persisting in their search for her she resolved to go to Friesland to a Baron who had invited her thither So she parted from Hamburg the 26th of June 1677. LXXVII After several Troubles in her Journey she came at last to the Lordship of Lutzburgh in East-Friesland and being well received by the Lord of the Place sent for her Friends to Sleswick who had endured much from the Rage of the People and Pastors there Reflecting on the Place where she was she judged it proper to live in according to the Designs of God who had already said to her The Perfection that I desire is to have your Heart entirely looss'd from all the Goods of the World 2dly From all the Creatures 3dly From the Love of ones self and to desire nothing but God alone To live in a forgetfulness of all the World To shut up your selves in some Place apart To offer and give up your selves entirely unto God Not to aim at any good things upon Earth To live all in common on the same Revenue and the same Entertainment And that without any other Engagement or Bond but the Love of God and without any other Rule but the Holy Gospel To receive all Souls who are fit and dispos'd for it without regarding whether they have temporal Means or not and this after the same Manner with the Christians of the Primitive Church God had also said unto her formerly upon Occasion of this Petition which she often put up unto him Lord what wilt thou have me to do Separate your selves entirely from Men. Keep silence Possess nothing in Property the Earth is sufficient to maintain your Life Do not entertain your Body but with its own Labour Never give it any thing but its Necessity Let nothing be in the Lodging but that the use of which is necessary Continue always in Simplicity and Poverty of Spirit Have no Priests but for necessity Let nothing be divided among you but let all be common without Preference Manure the Ground Be united as I am with my Father Let it be your only care to loosen Souls from the Earth I will take care of the rest LXXVIII She accepted the Care of a Hospital with which the Baron was charg'd by his Ancestors for a Retreat to Stran ers and the Persecuted and to her great Satisfaction she was freed of this Charge by a Letter from the Baron after having born it about two Years with Trouble and without any Fruit for the Glory of God There came thither some Strangers from Holland Hamburgh and elsewhere to lead as they said a Christian Life with her but really they gave her only much Trouble by bringing Dispositions quite contrary to that Design So they return'd whither they pleas'd While she and hers enjoy'd any Health they applied themselves to the care of Houshold Affairs to a Country Life to Husbandry the feeding of Beasts she sometimes to write and others to translate her Writings or put them in a Condition of being printed She was visited by many Persons even of Quality who came more than once and from several Places to converse with her She wrote here the Letter which makes the Body of the First Part of The Renovation of the Gospel Spirit and the Introduction that is prefixt to it She finish'd there the Second Part which she had began formerly and began the Third which is not finish'd she being employ'd in it when the last Persecutions and Death came upon her she made ready also the best part of her Manuscripts for the Press LXXIX She had there two long Sicknesses the first a continued Fever for some Months and the other a violent Quartan Ague which lasted for sixteen or eighteen Months When she was at the worst two of
If God has declared in different Ages of the World that all Flesh has corrupted his Ways that there was none that did Good no not one that the good Man is perished out of the Earth and there is none Vpright among Men And at the same time there might have been some few who sought God with all their Hearts God's Saying was not to damn but to rescue from Damnation Why may not the same be now declared if the World be in as bad a State I am sure the Vncharitableness and Damning lies on the other side If any pleases to read the entire Passages out of which the Author has cull'd his half Sentences it is like they will have other Impressions of her Spirit than what he would give them She shews what is the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ And therefore says she I fear there shall be so few Souls at present saved because few or none follow indeed this Doctrine of Jesus Christ and there is nothing more true than that without doing this we cannot be saved as you also acknowledge It were better as she says for every on◠to search their own Hearts and to discover if they really possess the Qualities which the Spirit of Jesus Christ has than to dispute whether there be yet any True Christians upon Earth seeing this touches no Body in general but every one for himself ought to labour to become a true Christian without being so curious to know whether his Neighbour be so or not since though all the Men of the World were so and I were not this would avail me nothing The Design of such Words is not that we may nicely and critically quibble upon the Words but that we may impartially search our own Hearts and see what Truth there is in them as to our selves VIII One could hardly have imagined that the Author could have formed his fourth Accusation of her misrepresenting the Design and Import of the Gospel and founded it upon the Passages he cites She says the Design of the Gospel is to recover Men to the Love of God and that the Laws and the Life of Jesus Christ are the necessary means to that End She never understood it that all use of Riches was forbidden or that Riches without any more were an infallible Sign of not being a Christian but that we ought to be poor in Spirit even when we have Riches and if they prove an Impediment to that rather to abandon them than not to aspire to the other The first Passage the Author cites to prove his Charge is a Saying of hers when a Child of Four Years occasioned by the difference she then observed betwixt the Lives of them about her and the Character she had then learned of Jesus Christ which taking her own Sence of them do not in the least differ from the true Design and Import of the Gospel This says she is an Eternal Truth that the Spirit of God loves and desires nothing but things Eternal and the natural Spirit only loves and seeks after things Temporal This was clearly shewn me from my Childhood and therefore at the Age of Four Years I was desirous to go and find out the Country where the Christians lived reasoning with my little Judgment that those could not be True Christians who seek after or desire the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this World but that they ought only to seek after things Eternal In the other Place she is speaking against the excessive Pomp of the Church of Rome The Practice of those says she who are Members of Rome does 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 and Coaches and Trains like to Secular Princes their Houses and Furniture do surpass them this the Author leaves out if they had Faith to believe that God being Man was poor and despised they would blush for Shame as all other Christians to make themselves thus to be honoured All which might have been said without so harsh a Censure from a Protestant Minister as that she had mistaken the whole Design and Import of the Gospel I thought still that to desire and love and make one self to be honoured had been Pride and Ambition as well as to desire Riches is Covetousness and that it had been inconsistent with the Spirit of the Gospel in Churchmen as well as in others Our Author in the next Impression of his Preface by his way of Reasoning may bring in our Saviour mistaking the Design of his own Gospel when he says Woe to you that are Rich how hard it is for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Woe to you that are full Woe to you that laugh Woe to you Pharisees for you love the uppermost Seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the Markets and to go in long Cloathing and to have the uppermost Rooms at Feasts he may as consequentially infer that the Rich and such as live Plentifully and make themselves to be honoured are acccording to Christ's Doctrine in a State of Damnation as that according to A. B's Doctrine all Prelates and all Christians who have Servants or Coaches or make themselves to be honoured do all run blindly to Damnation But if he can put such a Sence upon our Saviour's Words as is consistent with the Use of Riches and giving honour to whom it is due why may not he candidly construct her Words without inferring that she destroys all Relations among Men. The Author's Friend it seems hath no regard to Truth when he makes him inconsiderately publish so many Falshoods The Jesuits never cheated A. B. of any of her Estate she left not M. Poiret a Penny and he always was and still is as sound and sober in his Mind and Reason as the Author IX But the most grievous Accusation and that in which he most triumphs is the 5th that she miserably perverts the Doctrine of the Gospel falling in with the vile Socinian Heresies and even outdoing them and that she absolutely denies and disputes against any Satisfaction made by the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ From this her own Writings fully vindicate 〈◊〉 as is made appear in the Apology The Socinians its known deny the Foundation of all Merit in Jesus Christ his Divinity and Personal Union with the Godhead they deny the very saving Means and Remedies that flow from his Merits viz. the inward renewing and sanctifying Grace and Operations of Jesus Christ purifying the Soul they deny the Disease it self that needs these Remedies viz. the vast and unspeakable Corruption of our whole Natures both inward and outward derived upon us by Adam and greatly encreas'd by us All this A. B. utterly abhors and declares on the Contrary that Jesus Christ is true Eternal God and true Man that he is the Mediator between God and Man the Saviour and
and not him but her the last and highest Expression of God's Love to Mankind And that all her Words and Writings are Sacred as Scripture it self and ought to have the same Authority For these and such like Expressions he should have given us his Vouchers for the Places cited by him import no such thing but we are hopeful no impartial Reader will believe the Doctor in these upon his own bare Credit and Authority after the Sample he has given of his way of writing Narratives 5. It is against natural Equity as well as Christian Charity to draw hateful Consequences from or put Sences upon the Sayings and Writings of others which may load them with Reproach and Hatred Which the Sayings do not necessarily infer but are capable of a more benign Interpretation which are against their known Principles and openly and sincerely disclaimed by them But such is the Doctor 's way The Persons whom he traduces having a deep Sence of the Divine Truths of God and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ contain'd in the Writings and shining forth in the Life and Spirit of A. B. were perswaded that all who would peruse them with sincerity and simplicity of Heart would find great Profit to their Souls and therefore they recommended them with much concern to others but were far from intending to affirm those things to which the Doctor perverts their Words or the odious Consequences which he widely draws from them As that A. B. is the greatest that ever was born of a Woman above all the ancient Patriarchs to be preferred to Moses and the Prophets to John the Baptist and the Apostles and at least ought to be honoured equally with Jesus Christ who is said to be God Blessed for ever that she was as much without Sin as he and her Body of a better Frame That it is a clear Consequence from what they say That she must either have always been personally united to the Deity and so to be esteemed God-Woman or else that her Body and humane Nature were not real but a meer Phantome by which God was pleased to declare his Will to Man That all her Words and Writings are of the same Authority with the Sacred Scriptures That there ought to be a Commemoration of her in the publick Liturgies as well as of our Lord Jesus Christ and instead of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ now we should say the God of A. B. and the Spirit that spoke by her The Persons cited by the Doctor do abhor such Consequences their Words compared with the rest of their Writings will not bear them And in the Sence he puts on them they disclaim them as none of theirs Every Body can best explain their own Sense and Meaning and what is apt to be misunderstood in one Place Equity requires that we interpret it by another where a Man does more distinctly express and explain his Mind in relation to that very thing The Doctor knows how M. Poiret vindicates himself in his Answer to M. Juricu's Critique of him M. Jurieu says he is offended that I have an Esteem for A. B. tho' I have less Attachment to her than he has to Calvin and many of his Hearers have to him I have never regarded through all but the Wisdom and Truth of God and it was always indifferent to me by what means God would make it known to me by a Man or a Woman by one Learned or Unlearned by a Catholick a Calvinist a Lutheran c. I will approach to it not because of the Organ that God makes use of but because of the Truth that he communicates thereby It would be ridiculous to insult over a Person of Sense who goes to a Fountain as if he went thither out of Love to the Wooden Pipe Yet as to me this is the admirable Procedure of M. Juriâ—u c. Thus M. Poiret clears himself in his Answer to M. Jurieu and if the Doctor will accept of it I shall give him his Vindication of himself in a Letter to a Friend upon Occasion of the Doctor 's First Narrative As saith he I never recommended Mrs. A. B. for any oâ—her Reason but because she proposes the Doctrine of Jesus Christ with all Clearness and Purity and draws Souls to none but to him so it is against Truth and Equity what the Narrator says of me in Opposition to St. Paul who desired to know nothing but Jesus Christ Crucified that I it seemed desired to know nothing but M. A. B. To recommend an INstrument that leads to none but Jesus Christ is that to recommend this Instrument in Opposition to Christ or to him who recommends none but Christ By this Reasoning neither Saint 〈◊〉 nor any other ought to be recommended Beâ—â—â— I have published many Books wherein I have not 〈…〉 one Word of her as usually I do not speak of 〈…〉 any unless they speak of her to me first and 〈…〉 I gave of her were extorted by the 〈…〉 Slanders and Persecutions of her Adversaries 〈…〉 was very far from exalting her above Jesus 〈…〉 as he would insinuate against the Truth but sincâ— I saw that good Souls might be deprived of that sâ—ving Profit which they would reap from her Writings if they were diverted from them by the Evil Impressions of Defamers I only aimed simply to bring them to an even Ballance by this Consideration that there are other Persons convinced that she M. A. B. was quite another Person than she is represented to have been by her Defamers who never conversed with her â—â—ver knew her and whose Character of her while they decry one who had no other Design but to recommend the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is contrary to Righteousness and Charity Whereas the recommending of such Persons and the interpreting Candidly all they say is by St. Paul ascribed to Charity And as for any Personal Attachment to Mrs. A. B. I am so free from it as I have already publickly declared That if the Universal Defamation of her might serve to advance the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men I should be well pleas'd that she were calumniated every where without Reply Thus for M. Poiret XXI After the Doctor has patch'd up her Character and given his Comment upon it he is at great pains Artticle XII to prove that which no Body denies viz. That we ought not to receive A. B. as so highly dignified of God and her Scheme of Religion and System of Opinions as divine and absolutely necessary to be followed upon the bare Authority and Testimony of those Men whom he had formerly quoted For as to the embracing her System of Opinions as absolutely necessary they do not require any such thing A. B. her self does expresly declare That she does not require any to believe the Truths she writes because she says they are revealed to her by the Spirit of God but to examine if they be not the Truths
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ she would have Men take up the Spirit of the first Christians and let the good Seed of the Doctrine of the Gospel spring up in their Souls and not her Doctrine For she has no particular nor new Doctrine as to the Conduct of Mens Souls* and that when she adds any thing in her Writings that does not concern the Doctrine of the Gospel they ought to lay it aside till God give them a more clear Understanding of it And as to her Friend's Testimonies they were designed in some measure to ballance the bold and impudent Censures and Calumnies of her Enemies and to excite Men to examine and weigh her Writings impartially and not to suffer their Minds to be forestall'd by Prejudices or to judge rashly and inconsiâ—erately of things before they know them So the Doctor might have spared this Narrative and it may be all that is to follow for his only Business ought to have been to let the World see that what she calls the Doctrine of the Gospel and necessary to Salvation really iâ— not so or that her other Sentiments do destroy it for provided that Men be perswaded of the Truth of this that none can be saved without the Love of God and will follow the only way to come at this the mortifying corrupt Nature and following the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ she is content to undergo all reproach her self and that all her other Sentiments and Doctrines pass for Dreams and Romances If the Doctor say as he does in his Letter Artticle XV. that he finds nothing good in her Writings but what is common and handled in every Practical Treatise and the Subject of daily Sermons Well might not the Doctor have suffered her Books to pass among Practical Treatises and even to be preferred to most of them by such who see the Doctrine of Christ more clearly and purely represented in them than in others without the Glosses of corrupt Nature and feel a Divine Force Power and Spirit accompanying them who see in them the horrid Corruption of our Nature and of our Wills clearly laid before them the Christian Vertues most lively represented and most excellent Directions how to copy them out according to the great Original Jesus Christ XXII The other Part of the Doctor 's Narrative is spent in disproving the Reasons why A. B. is so much admired and said to be divinely inspired c. and I am sorry that his Passions or Prejudices do as much darken his Reason and with-hold him from candour and fair dealing here as in the former The Reasons which they bring are to be had more truly from her and their Writings and are set down in the Thrid Part of the Apology and some of those mentioned by the Doctor were never brought by them as Reasons why they thought her divinely inspir'd but upon other Grounds of which afterwards The first he considers is her Sanctity which he says is nor always attended with extraordinary Illuminations and then inferrs that suppose her to be truly and extraordinarily Holy she is not therefore to be reckon'd to know the Mind of God in all things by immediate Revelation all which is readily granted But make once the Doctor 's Supposition and then add that the Person so truly Holy declares that God is pleas'd to communicate his Light immediately unto her and that without all humane Helps and that upon trial it be found that what she declares is the same with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what God has already revealed by his Spirit this I think may be reckoned a weighty Evidence of Divine Inspiraration for a Person so truly Holy would not lye nor would God suffer such a one to be so deluded The Doctor singles out every Reason by it self and would prove that suppose it were true the Consequence is not just and so rejects the Consequence drawn from them altogether which is just as if one should reason that 2 and 4 and 6 do not make 12 because 2 makes not 12 and 4 makes it not nor yet 6 Ergo c. In the rest of this Article he has a long Discourse to shew How far Saints should keep their Distance and be cloathed with Humility and how others should beware of running into excess when they honour them not to exalt them to an equality with God nor near it we ought to honour those whom God hath honoured yet only so as to make them the subject Matter of honouring God A. B. and her Friends do perfectly join with the Dostor what goes beyond this they abhor it Where there is no Humility there is no Sanctity for that is the Foundation of this but we may be greatly mistaken to call that Humility which is the greatest Pride to speak meanly of our selves when it appears by all our Actions that we are not so in our Hearts the Saints may declare the Grace of God to themselves with the greatest Humility ascribing all to God and seeing the more their own Nothingness As David Paul c. and what A. B. says of her self may proceed from the same Spirit notwithstanding of all the Doctor 's Reasons That her Friends publish blasphemous Encomiums of her and are guilty of Idolatry as to her is a bold unjust and malicious Calumny which they utterly deny In the XV. Article he justifies his Zeal against her and them for exalting her above the present State and Capacity of humane Nature only that all her metaphysical Whimsies which M. Poiret is passionately fond of might be received for Divine Truths I have already replied to this that neither A. B. nor M. Poiret do bid any believe what he calls Whimsies to be Divine Truths but only entreat Men to be True Christians and if they please they may look upon all her other Thoughts that have no immediate relation to this to be really metaphysical Whimsies It is a wrong Imagination of his that that make her impeccable or at least never to have actually sinned She asserts the contrary her self and they believed no such thing as I have already shewn M. de Cort's Expression As if Adam had never sinned in her implies no such thing as the Doctor inferrs from it but that during the time he conversed with her he observed in her such a compleat and solid Vertue that he thinks she could not have been in a purer State tho' she had not been born of the corrupt mass of Adam as indeed she was So this is the Subject of another Consideration whether by the Grace of God a Person may be advanced to such a State of Vertue as not actually to commit any Sin neither in Heart nor Life tho' they be born of the corrupt mass of Adam are not impeccable and have been guilty of many Sins In the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Article he proceeds to shew That the things they instance in her are not certain Proofs of Sanctity and first
then as to the Substance and Essence of the Truths tho' it may be as to Faults of Speech through its own Weakness and Ignorance which Faults come from it self and not from the Holy Spirit And yet it is not the Will of God that it should be taken up about the Correcting of these Faults both because this would divert its immediate Attention from God and make it lose the Divine Light and withal his immediate Force and Power is seen in its Weakness Again in the 17th p. of his Narrative when he cites a part of this 18th Conference of the 2d Part of the Light of the World to prove that she pretended to know all matters of Fact whatsoever he leaves out that which serves to qualifie the Meaning of it All that is needful in this says she is to disingage our Soul from earthly Affections and to resign it to the Will of God then he goâ—verns and illuminates it in such sort as that it cannot be ignorant of any thing that it ought to know For as for simple Curiosities we ought never to ask or desire them but only that which is well-pleasing to God or profitable to our Neighbours the Knowledge of which things God does not deny to Souls who are faithfully dedicated to him Thus the Spirit of God made known to Peter the matter of Fact of Ananias and Saphira and to Elijah that of Gheazi where is there Occasion from this for all the Narrators idle Jests in the 19th and 20th p. of the Narrative 3. The Doctor starts a great many Questions upon a false Supposition p. 31. it being already told in the English Preface to the Light of the World that not M. de Cort but M. A. B. did write all the Conferences of the Light of the World which are now published 4. I am sorry that he seems to have drunk in the Hetetodox Sentiments of his new Friends and to declare himself so much Pelagian as to deny all kind of Vnion betwixt a regenerate Soul and God For one of the Articles of his Impeachment of A. B. seems to import no less for he accuses her because she asserts that there was some kind of Union betwixt her and God and that he dwelt with her in some ineffable and incomprehensible manner I thought that all God's Woorks had been incomprehensible and that if he dwell in any Soul it is in an ineffable manner And Jesus had said if any Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our Abode with him and St. Paul declares that Christ lived in him and that if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his I thought all this did import some kind of Union betwixt a regenerate Soul and God If any will please to read the half Sentence if you knew me you should also know God in the Original it self they will see how far she is from his Insinuations of Parallelling her self with Jesus Christ or making her self equal with God If says she I should say things contrary to the Gospel do not believe me For you ought not to believe any thing because I say it to you but only because it is really true And if you knew me you should also know God because he is one and the same Spirit in all things So far as you shall discern Righteousness Goodness and Truth in any Person so far shall you discern God living in them and no farther The Doctor wilfully mistakes her Meaning in the other Passage he cites Light of the World Part 2. Conference 17. p. 128 129 and keeps out of the midst of it that which clears it most She makes not a Distinction betwixt a Doctrine as from of a prophetical Spirit and as immediately from God as he would insinuate but that what God thought fit to declare more darkly by the Prophets now about the time of their Accomplishment he declares them more manifestly with such Clearness and Reasons as bring along with them their own Evidence And that he communicates now a Light not of prophecying things to come but of shewing the approaching and present Accomplishment of what has been foretold already The Prophecies says she of the Antient Prophets will all of them very shortly be fulfilled there is no need of any longer having obscure Prophecies because we are fallen into the last Times wherein all the Prophecies shall cease and we shall see them all entirely accomplished and we shall not receive any more new ones because the King of all the Prophets will himself govern his People and will give an entire Accomplishment to all that has been prophesied of him so tho' Sir you shall not need to say that you hold these Truths from a Prophet because the Work does always bear witness who the Workman has been Thus A. B. in the midst of the Passage which the Doctor has cited No doubt when the Doctor began this Narrative he resolved to be Ingenuous and to curtail no Passage that might qualifie her Meaning But when he writes against A. B. it will not do with him Naturam expellas furcâ licet usque recurret 5. M. Poiret being still alive the Narrator should have dealt by him as a prudent Man and a Christian Pastor he should have pleased to tell him his Fault and endeavour'd to restore him in the Spirit of Meekness if there were any Defects and Errors I am perswaded he would have found him easily convinced of them for he is none of the crack'd whimsical bigotted Heterodox and Blasphemous Fouls which he and his Friend represent him to be He is a Protestant Minister whom Providence has discharged from the exercising of his Office by the Dissolution of his Congregation through the Miseries of Wars he has a sound Mind a solid Head a clear Understanding a penetrating Reason and Judgement a cheerful Temper and a sincere Mind He is not wedded to any Party or Person farther than they are united to the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus he values the Writings of A. B. because they contain the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ rescued from the false Glosses of corrupt Nature and because her Life and Spirit were conformable to her Writings he most firmly believes and adheres to all the Articles of the Christian Faith and labours to have them transcribed in his Heart and Life and values no other Sentiments nor Reasonings but as they tend to promote the Interests of Christ's Gospel The unjust and unaccountable Representations given of him by the Narrator and his Friend have made me give you this Character of him and that this is a true one his Writings are irrefragable Evidence which whosoever disparages betrays only the wrong set of his own Heart and Understanding As for that Letter which has given Occasion to the Doctor 's hasty Excommunication of him and made him inconsiderately rank him with Mahomet Ebion
and Corinthus it ought to be considered 1. That it was in a manner extorted from him by one who some time before had gone over to the Church of Rome and because his Change was disaproved by A. B. being enraged at her endeavour'd to divert well-meaning Persons from hearkning to the Truths of the Gospel contain'd in her Writings because it was not foretold in the Holy Scriptures that God would communicate his Graces to a Woman for the Renovation of his Gospel Spirit M. Poiret upon this Occasion applied himself to shew both the Absurdity and Falseness of the Exception which otherways it may be would never have entered into his Mind 2. That the Doctor here again falls into his ordinary Method of connecting very distinct Passages together and leaving out that which would put them into a right Light as is evident from the Letter it self and falsly translating some part of it as that Adam some time after his Creation had brutal Inclinations for there is no such Expression there 3. That M. P. considers the thing only in Thesi what Evidences the Scriptures give of God's purpose and design to make Womankind the Instrument of his Light and Spirit to the World when the other Sex Man through his Pride and Wisdom had rendred himself uncapable of it 4. That if the Narrator had been so just as to have shewn the Principles upon which M. Poiret proceeded I am sure no candid Reader would have subscribed the Doctor 's Sentence They are to be gather'd from Temoign des S. Ecrit That God is resolute in all his designs and will at last bring them to pass The counsel of the Lord stands for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations That God made Man for true Happiness in the Enjoyment of his God and that he persists in this design through all Generations That Adam beginning soon after his Creation to turn away from God to the Creatures God to prevent his total Fall resolved to give him a Help-meet for him a Woman in whom the divine Image should shine that his Soul might be thereby raised unto God That this first Eve thwarting his design by turning Man farther away from God yet he still persisted in his design resolving to put his divine Image in a Woman and by her as by a second Eve to reduce the Generality of Mankind and that accordingly he gives the Promise of the Enmity between the Seed of the Woman and that of the Serpent Gen 3. 15. That Jesus Christ coming in the Flesh is pointed out in this Prophecy by these words I will put for it is he who speaks in a glorious Body and shews that he will be the Source of the Enmity against the Devil and Sin that is the Author of Grace Sanctification and all divine Strength and Virtue that we need against the Enemy That the Serpent's Head not being yet bruised Jesus Christ must be supposed farther to fulfill this Prophecy by making a Woman his Organ or Instrument for exciting again and promoting among Men this Enmity against the Devil c. Now what is there in all this that deserves Excommunication as a Blasphemer and a vile Heretick not worthy to live Blasphemy is to speak Evil of God and Heresy pertinaciouslâ— to teach that which turns away from the Love of God and this is very far from either 5. The Doctor ought to treat others with Meekness and Charity and Equity lest he himself be tempted and fall into the same Condemnation with which he unjustly reproaches others When he considers the Reasons why God was pleased to permit Sin which is so disagreeable to himself and so pernicious to his Creatures he tells us God has not concealed from us the Reason of this Conduct his own Glory is the End of all and by Sin his Glory is exceedingly manifested As he manifested the Omnipotency of his Power by creating many things out of nothing so he demonstrates the infinity and vast wonderful reach of his Wisdom in that he can bring Good out of Evil. How could we have known God's wonderful Patience his Meekness Long suffering and Forbearance and his strict and severe Justice in distinguishing the merits of Persons and Things if Sin had not entred into the World What adorable Instances of Love Mercy and Goodness would have been wanting if Sin had not given occasion for them If Sin had not happened where would there have been place for the Mercy of God Who would have dream'd of the stupendious Love of God towards Mankind It might have been suspected without Sin that God and all other things were under some inevitable Fate but now it appears that he is free that he can do what he pleases and that all things are managed by his Wisdom If the Revelation of the Gospel be admitted God has had more Honour and been more glorified by the Fall of Angels and the Sin of Man than by the Creation of the World I have staid long says he upon this but it is pardonable seeing the importance and intricacy of the Subject required it and seeing some have written Volumes upon this alone which very few have cleared to Satisfaction And the sum you see of the Doctor 's Resolution is That God decreed and resolved to permit Sin and Wickedness in the World because by his way of managing it it would tend most to his Glory and his Perfections and Attributes would not have been so conspicuous without it Father forgive him for he knows not what he says I doubt not but the Doctor has written all this with a good Intention but upon the matter it is Blasphemy with a Witness and a very unfit Resolution for convincing of the Atheists and Deists Non ipsa peccata saith St. Augustin vel ipsa miseria perfectioni universitatis sunt necessaria sed animae in quantum animae sunt quae si velint peccant si peccaverint miserae fiunt A. B 's Writings which the Doctor so much despises do clear the Mysteries of Providence far more to the Honour and Glory of all the divine Attributes and to the Conviction of our Reason as many who do read them without prejudice are fully perswaded 6. But to return to the Narrative as to what he says of a Parallel drawn up by A. B. betwixt her and Jesus Christ his Misrepresentations and Mistakes lie in this That she calls it a Comparison not a Parallel there being a great difference between these two In how many publick Sermons have the Sufferings and Virtues of King Charles the Martyr been compared with those of his Master Jesus Christ Will it be said that the Preachers intended to make a Parallel betwixt them or to make Jesus Christ the Type of him 2. The Comparison is between the second Birth of Jesus Christ or the renewing of the Church and his first Birth and not betwixt him and A. B. He may speak as she says out of a Bush or out of an
Ass but his Spirit is still to be regarded through all she is but the Organ the Instrument and the Conduit but the Spirit Life and Power the living Waters and the pure Truth come from Jesus Christ 3. Tho' there were no more but this one Expression in the Comparison it were enough to shew how far she is from making a Parallel as to what relates to her self The Child Jesus says she gathered Disciples after him the second also will draw a great number of persons to be Disciples of the first 4. There are few serious Christians who do not believe that there will be a renewing of the Church of God before the End of the World and that Jesus Christ will live in her by his Light and Spirit Now there being a great Analogy in the Works of God through the several Ages of the World a prudent serious Christian will not scoff at the making a Comparison betwixt the Renovation of his Gospel Spirit in the World and the first establishing of it 7. As to what he says in his Tenth Article her own Defences are already given in the Apology As I shall never desire to mock at and speak evil of things that I do not know so had the Doctor lived among the Pharisees at the time of the Birth of Jesus Christ he would have made it as much the subject of his Scorn and Raillery that it was said a Virgin betroth'd to a Husband had conceived a Son only by the power of the Holy Ghost as now he diverts himself and others with his light and foolish lests in relation to this Virgin To turn an innocent Raillery in Conversation which had nothing in it of any impure Idea and uttered 30 years ago by a Person of known Gravity who never staid with A. B. tho' he greatly esteem'd her and with whom her other Friends had never any Acquaintance to turn this I say into an impure Jest and fix it upon her and her Friends as their ordinary Conversation shews only how impure as well as malicious the Imaginations of some are who catch at all occasions to turn the most innocent things that way Turpe est Doctori c. 8. It is a dangerous thing it seems to come near the Narrator when he is in his Majesty for then he lays furiously about him The Author of The State of the Philadelphian Society had a modest Reflection upon the Doctor 's boasting that he would overturn the Quakers Philadelphians Quietists and Pietists as well as the Bourignianists all at one blow The Doctor treats him with a great deal of Insolence and Scorn tho' what he said stands good after all that the Doctor hath yet replied The Doctor says that the Church of England and the Presbyterians do not stand upon the same Foundation nor resolve their Faith by the same Rule yet themselves say they do it viz. by the divine Authority of the Scriptures and the Practice of the purest Ages of the Church which was all the Postscript affirmed What that Author said of the internal Light of the Spirit of God being so rationally stated in the Treatise it self in opposition to all Enthusiastical Delusion and Imposture and made appear to be ownd by all the Reformed Churches and particularly by the Church of England I am sorry that the Doctor shews himself such an Enemy to the Grace and Spirit of God as to flout at it and to scoff at Authors and Writings which he does not know There are many who look upon the Writings of A. B. as excellently representing the Essentials of Christianity yet they do not believe her other particular Sentiments but commend her Discretion in the manner of their delivery Now he who that Author hopes may undertake to give a true Character of her may be of that number and so the Doctor might have spared all his Declamations about his Vtopias and Hennepins The Doctor concludes with an uncommon strain of disdainful and boasting words If he persist to amuse Men with his Narratives as he has already given a proof with how little Caâ—dour he manages them and confounds and â—â—akens the Truth instead of clearing it so he may be disappointed of his Designs and miss his Aim come short of the Glory and Name he aspires after and make the Writings of M. A. B. to be more valued and esteemed in the World in which I am sorry he should think himself unhappy for the more narrowly they are enquired into by sincere and serious Persons their Worth will the more appear and they who clearly see the great and essential truths of Jesus Christ contained in these Writings will never be shaken by his Narratives and let him calumniate as he will it will still more and more appear that God has chosen the weak base and foolish things of the World to confound the Wise the Learned and the Mighty and the Writings of that despised and pious Virgin M. Aâ—t Boâ—â— ignon will be admired and esteemed when it will be quite forgotten that ever there were such Writings in the World as the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourign Detected It may please God to open his Eyes and to let him see what Mistakes his Passions and his rash and hasty judging of things have made him run into and what mischief he does unto the true interest of Christianity how he entertains and diverts the Scoffers and the Profane and lays a stumbling-block in the way before many serious Persons to turn them away from that by which they might reap unspeakable spiritual profit to their Souls by his giving such Characters of Persons and Writings which aim at nothing but to perswade People to the Love of God and for that end to follow the Example of our Lord Jesus Christ in a Life of Penitence and Mortification of our corrupt Nature which desire none to sollow the Instrument of these Writings but Jesus Christ only nor believe any thing upon her Authority but upon his only and as it is conformable to his Gospel nor to have any regard for her particular Sentiments as not being necessary to Salvation and which do not at all tend to make a new Sect or divide Christians or separate them from their lawful Pastors but to unite us all in the Spirit of Jesus Christ If he seriously pursue this great Design himself in the true Fear of God his Prejudices will vanish as a Mist before the Sun That God may grant him this Grace and that he may instantly ask it of him with a sincere and humble heart is the earnest and daily Prayer of SIR c. POSTSCRIPT HAving seen a Letter of M Poiret's to a Friend I here send you an Extract out of it by which you will see with what a Christian Spirit he considers the Doctor 's unworthy Usage of him Nil moror quod in me ita debacchetur Narrator dicta in sensus horridos blasphemos interpretetur aversionem suam
expresly bear that were needful to be known for her own and others Conduct and therefore not of such as would tend only to gratifie Pride and vain Curiosity and carnal Interests of Men and consequently tho' we should suppose that A. B. had the Spirit of God yet it will not follow that she would be useful to the Doctor for easing the Minds of curious Girls by shewing them what was written in the Book of Fate as he very piously jests pag. 18. He falls very foul on M. P. ◠Narrat p. 49. as if he and others descended to the light and wanton Railleries of the Profane for relating a much more innocent Jest tho' I think his half Page looks liker that sort of Wit The Doctor seldom narrates any thing A. B. said or did or was said of her but he pushes it to an Excess and carries it to a height that was never intended However I suppose he will not neither indeed can he deny the possibility of the thing since the Holy Scriptures furnish us with a great many Instances of God's having discovered the secret Dispositions of the Souls of Men and other matters of fact to illuminated Persons All then he can aim at must be to evince the Nullity of this Pretence as to A. B. 5. To say* that A. B. requires the same Respect to her Sayings as to the Scripture is in my opinion to do her very great Injustice for since very plainly and frequently she acknowledges and asserts that the Sacred Writings are the Standard and Rule by which all other Doctrines must be tried and examined it is evident that in so doing she owns a peculiar Respect and Deference to be due to the Holy Scriptures which neither hers nor any others Sayings ought to pretend to Look says she with a suspicious eye upon any thing I declare unto you as coming from God in case you find my Doctrine not entirely agreeing with the Holy Scripture Whence it is plain that she would have her Sayings to be tried by the Holy Scriptures and that the value of what she says is to be determined by its Conformity to them This one would think is not to put the Scriptures and her Sayings in the same ballance or to require an equal respect to be paid to both The Doctor now that he peruses A. B's Writings could not but remark this and a great many more Passages to the same purpose How comes it then to pass that he brings not in these into his Accounts of A. B. Why this would spoil the design that he hath conceived of exposing her to the World altogether in black and horrid shapes But says the Doctor what she delivered must be of the same Authority with the Holy Scriptures because God is the Author of it But tho' we should suppose A. B. to be truly inspired yet his Consequence will not follow and the Reason is because as one very pertinently expresses it Quae à Deo procedunt ejusdem sunt veritatis c. Things that proceed from God are of equal Truth but not of equal Authority for tho' some things may be of God yet if any Person do not know or doubt if they be such they have not the same Authority nor Right to such a Persons Obedience as those things whose divine Origin is allowed by universal Consent altho' when it is evident to any person that any thing is revealed to them by God they are bound to pay the same Obedience to things thus revealed as to God himself Several Books that are now universally received into the Canon of Scripture were for some time doubted of in the Primitive Church it is certain that the questioned Books tho' really of Divine Original were not of the same Authority with these that were by unanimous Consent acknowledged to be Divine 6. If the Doctor can hit on any Period in A. B.'s Books that can give the least Colour to an invidious Consequence he is sure to make it serve his turn but without any Regard to that Candor that might be expected from him Of this we have a remarkable Instance pag. 32. n. 7. I shall give you the whole Passage to which he refers as it is If saith she I should say any thing contrary to the Gospel do not believe me for you ought not to believe any thing because I say it to you but because it is really true And if you knew me you should also know God because he is one and the same Spirit in all things so far as you shall discern Righteousness Goodness and Truth in any Person so far shall you discern God living in them and no farther So that its never good to follow Persons for themselves but to follow the Righteousness Goodness and Truth which you shall discover to abide in them Now to discover the Vanity of that Improvement which the Doctor makes of this Passage let it be considered that when things which import Excellency are attributed both to Jesus Christ and to Christians his Followers it is undeniable that we must alter our Idea's of these things according as we differently apply them either to him or them Our Lord calls himself the Light of the World and he is so in a Supernatural manner because he is the Divine Source and Original of all spiritual Light he in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge This same very Title he gives all his faithful Followers But will any Body imagine that it is applied to them in that same Sence in which it is understood of him No sure for we conceive of them only as subordinate Luminaries which receive all their Light and Heat from the Son of Righteousness And when St. Paul assures Timothy that by doing what he recommended to him he would save both himself and those that heard him we must not entertain the same Idea of Saving when we apply it to Timothy that we have when we attribute it to Jesus Christ Just so tho' our Lord uses concerning himself Words to the same Purpose with these which A. B. hath in this Period yet we must not imagine that they are of the same Import or that she intended they should Indeed the very Scope of the Passage plainly enough determines that she meant no more but this if you were acquainted with me and saw my Life and Practise you would see that I imitate and transcribe in my Conversation the Divine Qualities of Truth Righteousness and Goodness for God who by his Holy Spirit works uniformly in all his Children imprints these Characters of himself on them all and as much of these as you discern in me so far do you discern God in me and your seeing me exemplifie them before you in a lively manner will be an Inducement to you to imitate them and so to know God truly for then we truly know God when we imitate his Perfections If the Doctor had not been visibly in a
since or shall be born by his Seed in Generation And by this means all Men have perish'd in him having contracted the Corruption that we do yet feel in our Nature for tho' God did pardon Adam and Men in him his Sin as to the guilt yet he did not remove the Miseries of Spirit and the Corruption of Flesh which the same Sin had brought upon him seeing even to this Day we feel Inconstancy Ignorance and Wickedness in our Spirit and Corruption Pains and Death in our Flesh 4. God cannot have made all these things since they are Evil and he can do nothing but Good being himself the perfect Goodness from which no Evil can ever proceed but he has left to Adam and his Posterity the Miseries which their Sin had brought forth that thereby Penitence might be done for it during this Life which is our time of Trial For seeing the Justice of God could not promise the Pardon of Sin without Satisfaction it was needful by a straight Justice that the same Flesh which had taken Pleasure to turn away from him should likewise suffer Pain that it might return unto him 5. But Men since Adam instead of accepting of this Penitence and suffering willingly the Miseries of this Life to satisfie the Justice of God rebell'd against him and endeavour'd to charm their Miseries by striving to reject Sufferings and to take their Delights instead of Penitence and thus they straied more and more from God so that at last they quite forgot him to delight in themselves God of his Goodness raised up Prophets from time to time as Moses and others to withdraw Men from these Errors He gave them Laws and Ordinances that they might discover their Sins and amend them by returning unto him and repenting that they had forsaken him but very few heard his Voice and many hardned their Hearts chosing rather to adhere to themselves and follow their Sensualities than willingly to take up the Penitence ordain'd by God for this short Life so that all Men in general have at last corrupted their Ways and walked according to the Concupiscence of the Flesh in a forgetfulness of God and thus have all merited Damnation and that incomparably more than Adam since he fearâ—d God and repented how soon he heard his Voice not daring to appear before him out of great Confusion for his Sin 6. But Men after him have voluntarily damn'd themselves and given the Devil Power to rule over their Souls whom they do insensibly obey more than God for while they follow their natural Will they do indirectly follow that of the Devil seeing these two Wills of the fallen Angels and of Men are equally rebellious against God and those Men who follow the Will of their corrupt Flesh may be well called the Devil's Angels for one is always his Angel whose Will he does if he submit his Will to God's he is the Angel of God for Angel imports Subject or Obedient Those Men who obey the Law of the Gospel are the Angels of Jesus Christ for this Cause the Scripture says that the Son of Man will come attended with his Angels which are not pure Spirits according to the Angelical Nature but Men who have followed the Will of Jesus Christ 7. This being so he may be well call'd our Saviour for if he had not come at last into the World all Men had perished He alone is the Foundation of our Salvation since Sin and I confess before all Men that the Light of Faith teaches me that I could not be saved without the Coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth and I will always ascribe my Salvation to the Merits of his Sufferings So far am I from rejecting them as your Friends do blindly believe And I have much more reason to say that they reject the Merits of Jesus Christ since they say that they have not Grace to imitate Jesus Christ while they look only to the Power of their corrupt Nature without making use of his Sufferings which have merited for us the Grace to be able to imitate him yea to obtain the Perfection of God himself if we will apply his Merits to our Soul and let his Spirit fill it since Truth it self says to us Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Jesus Christ will require nothing of us that 's impossible no more than his Father but he says Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you ask and ye shall receive This does not teach us that we cannot attain to the Perfection of Jesus Christ but even to aim at that of our heavenly Father 8. Remark well my dear Child the Sentiment of your Friends and you will find that it cannot come but from the Devil and this under a good Pretext of ascribing their Salvation to the Merits of Jesus Christ For if they truly believed that his Sufferings have merited for them the Grace of God they could not in Truth say that they are too weak to imitate Jesus Christ since this Grace of God gives strength to the Weak to overcome the Corruption of our Nature from which we ought never to ask Advice if we may imitate Jesus Christ For if his Apostles and Disciples had ask'd Advice from their Wives their Children Fathers and Mothers Brethren and Sisters undoubtedly they would not have counfell'd them to forsake them that they might follow Jesus Christ since no man hates his own Flesh which seeks its own Advantages so that if the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ had ask'd Counsel of their Flesh and their Selfwill if they could follow Jesus Christ they would never have been Apostles nor Disciples seeing without the Grace of God we can do nothing but know our Frailty and Weakness 9. But since Jesus Christ is come into the World to reconcile us unto his Father and to bring us back to him by his Grace there is no longer any cause of Fear on God's part We may do what we will by the assistance of this Grace which is never denied to him who seeks and asks it so much the more that Jesus Christ is come to merit it for us by his Sufferings but not to merit Salvation for us while we continue to cleave to our corrupt Nature by which we may see clearly the Falshood of that Doctrine that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for us after the manner that so many understand it for this makes them sleep the sleep of Death since they reject the Grace that Jesus Christ has purchas'd for us of his Father to embrace the means by which we may overcome the Flesh and live unto the Spirit of Jesus Christ follow his Example and imitate his Virtues that hereafter we may follow him in Eternity where none shall enter but he who shall be cloathed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ 10. This is that of which I was desirous to warn you for fear that you let your self be deceived by false Appearances hearing those poor
Works is a dead Faith in which while they remain they will never obtain Salvation seeing a living and operative Faith is necessary which cannot be recovered but in the imitation of Jesus Christ for otherwise no body can recover the Grace of God which he has merited for us for those only who will embrace the Gospel Law for it only teaches us how to return to God and points out all the things which have withdrawn us from him 18. If the Gospel Law did not tell me that I must be poor in Spirit I would never have known that the Goods of the World could withdraw me from God and if the same Law did not tell me that I must be humble in Heart I would have remained in the Pride in which Nature begot me and if the same Law did not teach me that I must deny my self take up my Cross and follow Jesus Christ I would never have known that the Love of my self drew me away from the Love of God or that my natural Inclinations did incline me to Sin I would never have done Violence to them that I might take the Kingdom of Heaven by force but having learned in the School of Jesus Christ the Truth of my Duties I will follow them and walk in the Light that he has purchas'd for me by his Sufferings and will not lean upon the Opinions of blinded Men who take Lies for Truth for I know well that for me the Gospel Law was made and that without the observing of it I cannot be among those whom the Father has given unto Jesus Christ and for whom he prays unto his Father I hope you also will be of that number my dear Child that having been in this World united in the Spirit of Jesus Christ we may be united together with him for ever Which she wisheth who remains Yours wholly in God A. B. Amsterdam Jul. 15. 1670. LETTER V. A Traveller to Eternity minds not earthly things To a Child of God who did not sufficiently comprehend that the Cares of this Life were an Hindrance to the Perfection of the Soul and was troubled to hear me say that it behoved me to tarvel alone to Eternal Life seeing he was desirous tobear me Company Shewing him that all the things of this World are vain and when we make it our Business to acquire them or to please Men we are not to look for an Eternal Reward This is the Twelfth of La lum née en tenebr Part iv My dear Child 1. I Know that you are troubled to hear me say that I am all alone in the World since you desire to accompany and follow me Your Desire is good in this but my Proposition is true that I am all alone in the way through which God leads me You ought not to be troubled to hear the Truth but rather to discover what must be done to accompany me I TRAVEL TOWARDS ETERNITY and I see all the World travelling towards the Land of their Banishment which is this miserable World after which every one aspires for I have not yet found one Person who seeks nothing but eternal things only 2. All Men of sound Judgment say that they aspire after things Eternal while their Thoughts Labour and Studies are taken up about what respects the Earth and Time Is it possible that they can have such a Blindness of Spirit as to believe that they desire eternal things when they despise them â—or â—e who seeks after the Goods of this World gives a sure Evidence that he despises Eternity Since it gives a full Satisfaction to the Man who desires it and he can no longer desire any other thing For all that is Temporal and Transitory seems to him Dung and Filth of which he makes use of the least â—e can and would flee in the Air towards Eternity without any wise touching the Earth if his Body were not of so 〈◊〉 Matter and obliged to take such gross Food for its 〈◊〉 But they who travel towards the World are still desirous of Silver and Gold that by this means they may make themselves to be served and honoured that they may take their Delight in Eating Drinking Walking commodious Apparel in adorning their Houses with fine Moveables and rich Ornaments that they may satisfie their Five Natural Senses of Sight Hearing Smell Taste and Feeling 3. So that it is no wonder that a Person who travels towards Eternity finds herself alone in the way since all the Men that we see now do so desire and seek after all these things studying and labouring with all their Power to obtain them and they will not despise or forsake them for all the Reasons that can be told them They would indeed have Eternity without resolving to forsake temporal things tho' Jesus Christ tells us That we cannot serve Two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other They wrest this Passage according to the Sensuality of their Inclinations and they will needs follow them and have eternal Life also which is impossible Therefore I do not understand Men now neither do they understand me and for this Cause we cannot stay together 4. I must indeed out of necessity be among Men But as soon as it shall be possible for me I will leave them to follow the way that God points out to me and leave them to follow those ways which they will needs choose for their Damnation I will not say my dear Child that you walk in this way of Damnation since you have an effectual Desire to be saved and to accompany me But you are yet travelling towards the World which is not as yet crucified in you you do not yet know how one must die to it in all things I am therefore troublesome to you in RESOLVING TO WALK ALONE and you give me more trouble to oblige me to follow you in travelling towards the Earth and Temporal things where I cannot accompany you without continual Strife and Debates for there is not a temporal Action or Word which is not blameworthy in this way that leads to Eternity For I should no sooner hear you speak of things which respect the Earth only but I would reprove you for them as idle Words and unprofitable for Eternity And if by your Actions you should labour for earthly things I would complain of your Employ and reckon your Labour to be vain 5. You see how I would be a Burthen to you and you would be insupportable to me And therefore our Journey would be melancholly and troublesome both for you and me and worse than that of two Persons who did not understand one another by Signs nor Words Nevertheless your Company does not offend me for I love it because of the good Desires which you have neither will I reprove you by way of Correction or Reproof but out of good Inclination for your Perfection which I love as my own But your Nature will feel Troubles thereby which perhaps would be insupportable to
did tlus produce one to whom the Divine Nature united it self ibid. p. 32 33. 7. He began to be too much immers'd in sensible Delights and the Woman made to prevent his Fall ibid. p. â—6 63 64 65. XXXIV 2. Of Man's Fall c. 1. She Sins and leads Man to sin too ibid. p. 57. 2. The horrid Corruption that flow'd from thence to his Soul L'Etoile du Matin p. 6 7 8. Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. avant Pr. p. 16 17 pref p. 11 12 13. To his Body L'Etoile du Matin p. 6. 3. To the rest of the Creatures ibid. p. 5. 4. To all Mankind Renouv. de l'Espr Evang. Pref. p 22 23. XXXV 3. The Means of his Recovery 1. Jesus Christ by his Merits and Mediation obtains Pardon for him upon Terms and becomes his Surety L'Etoile du Matin p. 122. Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. Pref p. 21 25 30. 2. His Time of Trial is now a State of Labour Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. part 2. p. 89 90 91 c. 3. A Life of Penitence enjoyn'd him Renouv. â—de l' Espr Ev. Pref. p. 44 45. c. 4. Jesus Christ cloaths himself with his Mortality to recover him L' Etoile du Matin p. 122. 123 c. Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. pref p. 38 39. 50. 5. We are taught now by the Light of Truth and no need of bodily Visâ—ons Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. part 2. p. 99. XXXVI 6. The present State 1. No true Christians at present Acad des Theol. part 1. cap. 9. 2. Christendom a Babel Conâ—us des Ouvr de Babel 3 The Doctrine of Jesus Christ glossed away Tomb. de la fausse Theol. part 1. let 1. 4. Antichrist reigns now L'Etoile du Matin p 98 99 100. Antich Decouv Light of the World part 1. p. 31. part 3. p. â—9 5. The Churchmen the Source of all the Evil. Temoign de Verite part 2 p. 50 76. 6. God's last Judgments begun L'Etoile du Mâ—tin p. 107 108 c. Light of the World part 1. p. 151 188. part 3. p. 29. XXXVII 5. The State of Things to come 1. God will renew his Gospel Spirit Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. Pref. p. 125. 2. And will â—ulfil his Propose of living with Man forever on Earth Light of the World part 1. p. 145. part 3. p. 83. La Derniere Mesericorde p 157 158. 3. And â—enew all his Worke into 〈◊〉 primitive Integrity 〈…〉 Renouv. de l' Espr 〈◊〉 part 2. p 131 132 1â—â— Light of the World part 1. p. 148. 4. And the Malignity banish'd from all Le Nouv. Ciel p. 127 128 129. Renouv. de l' Esp Evâ—ng part 2. p. 132 133. Light of the World part 1. p. 153. 5. Man restored to his First State Etoile du Matin p 93. Light of the World part 1. p. 169. XXXVIII These Sentiments not damnable XXXIX They clear the Doâ—ctrines of Christianity XL. They are consonant to the Holy Scriptures 1. As to the Beauty of all things Nouv. Ciel p. 80. Gen. 1 31. 2. As to the Beauty of Man's Body 3. As to Man's being created to produce his Kind * Gen. 1. 27. Etoile du Mat. p. 64 68. Gen. 1. 31. Gen. 2 18. 4. That Jesus Christ came of Adam Renouv. de l' Esp Ev. part 2. p. 98. Etoile du Matin p. 32 33. a Exod. 3. 2. 6. b c. 13 21 c c. 33 9 11. d c. 33. 2 3. e Ib. v. 22 23. f ch 14. 28 35. Dr. Scot's Christian Life part 2. vol. 2. p 233 to 258. 5. That Sin did strangely deform Man 6. And the Creatures a Rom. 8. 20. b v. 22. c v. 21. 7. That all Men are propagated of Adam both as to Soul and Body Eph. 2. 3. Aug. de lib. arb l. 3. c. 21. Item Epist Hieron ad de Orig. animarum 8. That there are no truâ— Christiani Acad. de Theol. part 1. c. 9. Light of the World p. 1. conf 2 9. That Christendom is a Babel Confus des Ouvr de Babel 10. That Mâ—â— gloss 〈◊〉 the Lawâ— oâ—â—esus Christ Tombâ—d la fausse Theol. p. 1. let 1. Matt. 16. 24. 11. That we are in the Reign of Antichrist Antichr Decouv Light of the World p. 1. conf 5. 12. The Corruption of the Pastors the Source of all the Evil. 1 Thess 2. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 3. Light of the World part 1. Conf. 1 2 3. 4 9. Nouv. ciel let 5. P. 147. 165. La Sainte Visiere ch 1 2 3. Tomb. de la fauss Theol. part 1. let 1 9. 〈…〉 Judgmentâ— Light of 〈◊〉 World 〈◊〉 1. Con. 2 29. Mat. 24. 8. 2 Pet. 3. 3. 14. That the Works of God shall not perish but be renewed a Rom. 8. 21. b 2 Pet. 3. 13. c Rev. 21. 1. d Act. 3. 21. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Renascentia Secundus Ortus Restauratio That Jesus Christ will reign for ever on the Earth with the Blessed a Ps 96. and 98. b Dan. 7. 27. c Zech. 14. 6 c. d Rev. 5. 9 10. e Rev. 11 15. f Rev. 21. 2. g Rev. 22. 5. Light of the world part 3. Conf. 7. XLI That those Sentiments are neither inconsistent with themselves nor with the Scripture Joh. 6. 66. Mat. 11. 25. Joh. 8. * Graditur Dâ—us cum Simplicibus revelat se Humilibus dat intellectum Parvulis aperit sensum puris Mentibus abscondit Grattam Curiosis Superbis Ratio humana debilis est falli potest Fides autem Vera falli non potest Th. a Kemp de Imit Chr. Lib. 4. c. 18. sect 4. XLII That this Account is just and they who give contrary Representations are not fair I. There is a general Disposition to judge rashly II. The Writings and Person of A. B. thus treated III. The unjust Measures of her Adversaries IV. Their Spirit and Temper like that of the Scribes and Pharisees Matt. 23. 29 30. V. Prejudices cleared 1. Of the Holy Trinity Antich Decouv part 2. p. 9 10. Pierce dâ— Touch. p. 111 112. Antich Decouv p. 2. n 314122. Antich Decouv part 2. n. 5. Lavice Continuè p. 553 554. Pierce de Touch. p. 114. VI. Of the Divinity of Jesus Christ VII As to the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ The Sum of her Sentiments as to the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ VIII Of the Satisfaction due by Man Le Temoign de Verite part 1. p. 83. Renouv. de l'Espr Evang avantprop n. 35. Preface n. 33 40. 47 67. 103 138 139 140. Le Temoign de Verite Part 1. n. 59 61 64. Renouv. de l'Espr Ev. Pref. n. 52. Ibid. n. 35. Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. avantprop n. 34 35. Le Temoign de Verite p. 1. n. 107 Light of the World part 2. conf 11. Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. p. 2. n. 105 106 Et est Justitiae Pulchritudo cum Benignitatis Gratia concordans ut quoniam bonorum inferiorum dulcedine decepti sumus amaritudine paenarum
Proposal to the Archbishop of Cambray XXIV Pere du Bois and sâ—me Maâ—â—s esteem her XXV The Jesuits disturâ— her XXVI The Bishop grants her desire XXVII The Clergy incensed against her XXVIII 〈◊〉 Bishop retracts his Permission XXIX She waits on her Mother at her Death keeps her Father's House He marries and she retires XXX Lives in great Solitude at St. Andrew XXXI I disturbed by an insolent Youth XXXII Is forced from thence by the War XXXIII Does the last Offices to her Father and succeeds to her Mother's Goods XXXIV Nothing in this contrary to the Laws of God or Man XXXV St. Saulieu accosts her XXXVI She undertakes the Care of a Hospital of Orphans XXXVII Her frequent Sicknesses there XXXVIII St. Saulieu's Persecution of her XXXIX Her Delivery from him and his end XL. She turns her House into a Cloyster XLI The Discovery of the Childrens Sorceries XLII Their Declarations XLIII No ground to disbelieve this Story or that the World swarms with such XLIV The Parents accuse her to the Magistrates XLV 〈…〉 XLVI Malefices to take a way her Life XLVII She wiâ—hdraws to Gaunt and Mechlin XLVIII Is esteem'd by Learned and Good Men there XLIX Particularly by M. de Cort L. Goes to Holland LI. â— sick at Amderdam and is visited by Persons of all Perswasions Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 2. Letter 1. LII Wrote here some of her Books LIII Mr. de Cort cast into a Dun geon by the Jansenists LIV. Her Concern for him and his Deliverance LV. They Peâ—â—n him in Holstein LVI Her long Sickness LVII M. de Cort had left her his Rights to Noordstrand LVIII They persecute her therefore LIX She goes to Holstein LX. The Quakers write and she Answers LXI Some Anabaptists of Friesland come to her LXII Their Behaviour LXIII The occasion of a new Persecution LXIV The Pastours of Holstein are alarmed LXV She is persecuted at Flensbourg LXVI At Husum and robb'd of her Printing Press Books and Papâ—rs LXVII General-Major Vanderwyck appears for her LXVIII The Pastors write against her LXIX She lives in great Secâ—ecy and Hazard at Sleswick the People being inflam'd by the Pastors LXX The scattering the Sheets of her Books discovers the Calumnies of the Pastors LXXI The Court gives her Protection LXXII She gives in a Confession of her Faith LXXIII The Church men prevail LXXIV She goes to Hambourg LXXV Her Exercâ—se and Writings there LXXVI She is persecâ—ted by the Pastors there LXXVII Goes to Lutzburg in Friesland LXXVIII Her Employment and Writings there LXXIX Long Sickness LXXX Persecuted anew by her Servant's Sorcerers LXXXI By those who pretended to protect her LXXXII The Pretence for it and the true Cause LXXXIII Goes to Franeker LXXXIV Her Death LXXXV Her Character Matth. 26. 48. 73. Temoign de Vertie Part 1. p. 146. Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 3. Letter 1. nu 17 18. Avis salut lett 133. I. The Occasion of the Letter II. Necessary Qualifications in Writers of Narratives und Characters III. These wanting in the Authours of the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignanism detected IV. The first Authour's rash and spiteful Charge against A. B. V. A. B. Vindicated from the 1 Of blasphemous Priâ—â— Parole de Dieu p. 127. Temoig de verite Part 2. p. 47. Ibid. p. 59 60. Iâ—id p. 81 â—â— VI. From the 2. That she overturn'd Priesthood c. * Sâ— Is 1. VII From the 3 Of Uncharitableness c. * p. 63 161 c. Gen. 6 12. Ps 14. 3. Mic. 7. 2. b Light of the World Part 1. p. 47. c â—emo igâ— de veâ—iâ—e Part 2. p. 71. VIII From the 4 Of 〈…〉 the Design 〈…〉 IX From the 5 Of her denying the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ * p 86 87 c. * See Apâ—logy p. 59 c. Light of the World p. 139. Light of the World p. 142. X. From the 6 Of her Contempt of the Holy Scriptures * p. 159 c. XI From the 7 Of her wild and barbarous Notions * See the Apology p. 72. c. * Ibid. p. 180. c. XII The undiscreet Treatment of M. Poiret pag. 127 c. XIII The Fury of his Zeal wrong levell'd XIV The Doctor the Author of the Narratives the Occasion of all this Noiseâ— XV. Great Caution to be used in judging of Spiritual Things XVI The Falseness of the Charge of a Sect. XVII His Uacharitableness to his Country-men XVIII In both the Narratives he fights with his own Shadow XIX His Disin genuity in his Narrations XX. Appears in his unjust Way of forming her Character 1. By pâ—ecing together half Sentiments from different Places 2. By borrowing pieces of it from her avow'd Enemies * Nar. 1. p. 75. 3. By obtruding false Translations Rev. 4. 14 4. By affirming things as said of her without giving Evidence * Pâ—eface §. 2. * p. 3. §. 3. p. 5. §. 4. 5. By drawing Consequences contrary to their Principles which their Sayings do not infer and they expresly disclaim Nar. 1. p. 18. §. 10. c. La paix de bonnes ames p. 186 c XXI The Dr's great Mistake as to the Regard required to the Testimony of Men. See Apology p. 14. c. XXII The true Reasons why A. B. was highly esteemed not adduced by the Doctor Nor those adduced sufficiently disproved As 1. her Sanctity * See Apology p. 137. The Doctor not faithful in relating the Proofs of her Sanctity * See Apology p. 42 43. XXIII His Reasons against her Sanctity disproved and she vindicated from 1. That of a light and vain Conversation 2. From following her own Humour without any regard to the Principles of Religion 3. From her Disobedience toâ—her Parents 4. From Covetousness because of her Law Suits a Vie exter â— 49. b 〈…〉 c ibid. n. 57. d Viâ— exter n. 52 54. e ib. n. 5 49 51. f ib. p. 180. g ib. and Part de Dien n. 9. p. 163. h Parole de Dieu p. 67. i Vie exter p. 186. k Avâ—s salut p. 86. l Vie Continuè◠cap. 12. p. 128 129. Temoign de Verite Part 2. p 3â—2 303 * Avertis contre les Tremb p 213 c. XXIV 〈…〉 c. XXV 2. Her Knowledge of secret Thoughts not disproved XXVI 3. Her foretelling things to coâ—e not disproved * Apology p. 230. c. XXVII 4. The Supernatural Means of her Knowledge not disprov'd XXVIII 〈…〉 c. 3â— n. 5 6 〈…〉 XXIX Just Remarks upon what 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 Narra 1. p. 75. Ibid. p 76. XXX Some Remarks upon the Second Narrative 1. He persists in his false Representations 2. In his Curtailings and Glossings Nar. 2. p 4. Light of the World Part 2. p. 84. Light of the World Part 1. p. 92. Nar. 2. p. 5. Light of the World Part â— p. 39. 3. Makes Questions upon a false Supposition 4. He opposeth the Truth and joins with the Pelagians Light of the World Part 2. Conf. 13. p. 85. e 1 Cor. 6 17. D. C. Nar. p. 36 37. 5. A just Character of M Poiret and the Narrator's unchristian dealing with him considered Tem. des S. Ecrit p. 387 388. Ibid. p. 402 4â—3 D. C's Essays part 2. pag. 163 164 165. 6 The Narrator's Mistakes as to the comparison betwixt Jes Christ's First birth and the Renovatioâ— of his Gospel Spirit 7 His rash Censure of things he does not understand Narr 2. p. 49. 8. His 〈…〉 〈…〉 I. The Occasion and Design of the Letter II. Remarks upon Doctor Cock bourn's Letter to his Friend 1. H. judging others condemns himself * Letter p. 2. 2. Unjust 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 * Pag. 9. c. â— pag. â—â— 3. The Doctor in Danger by becoming hâ—s own Interpreter * Pag. 30. 4. Not just in making of Characters 5. Makes a Controversie where there is none A. B's Writings valuable for their Plainness Simplicity and Disinterestedness 7. The Doctor 's Prenciples not friendly to St. Paul Etoile du Matin p. 23. 8. His Rudeness to A. b's Friends 9. His Rudeness to the Philadelphian III. Remarks upon the second Narrative 1. A. B's Pretences to Sanctity not so high at he describes them for she does not exalt her self above the Prophets c. She does not pretend to be without Sin or Corruption Solid Vertue Part 2. p. 71. She owns her Failings * 1 Narrat p. 49. In that very passage cited by the Author Vie exter p. 150. * Pag. 6. He most injuriously mistakes and translates some of A. B's words Put malicious glosses upon others * Tomb. dela Faus Theol. part 2. let 14. p. 115. Ibid. Ibid. Pag. 7. Pag. 2. 2. A. B. â—as made no Additions to the Essentials of Christianity * a Nar. p. 11. 3. Her Expression about Moses's Chair no mark of Pride * 2 Nar. p. 11. Pierre dâ— Touche p. 286. 4 Her Pretences to Knowledge not such as he describes them 2 Nar. p. 15. 5. That she requires the same respect to her Sayings as to the Scripture is false 2 Nar. p. 20 22. * Lum en ten part i. pag. 2. 6. The Doctor draws unjust and invidicus Consiquences 1. Instance * Light of the World Part 2. p. 85. Matt. 5. 14. 1. Tim. 4. 16. * Pag. 32. Second Instance * Light of the World Part 2. Conf. 17. p. 128 129 7. The Doctor 's Ignorance of A. B.'s Princâ—ples appears 2. Nar. p. 33. n. 7. IV. A 〈◊〉 Survâ—r of the Doctor 's whole Performance with Reflections on his undisercet Zeal 2 Nar. p 55. Letteâ— p. 21. V. 5. The Writer apologizeth for himself I. God alone Lovely Motives to the Love of God 1. He is the Fountain and Accomplishment of all Good II. 2. The Soul's Likeness to him III. 3. Of the Benefits bestowed by him upon the Soul and Body IV. 4. The Provision he has made both for Soul and Body V. 5. His Mercy to become the Saviour of Man VI. 6. His Inacrnation VII 7. His Annihilation VIII 8. His becoming a Teacher and Prophet IX 9. His becoming a Priest X. 10. That he gave his Life even for his Enemies XI 11. The Advantages of Divine Love XII 12. The Vanity of the earthly Love of Riches Honours Pleasures XIII 13. Nothing Lovely but God 14. Without him all is Folly and Misery