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
Christians I 've sought from my Nativity I liv'd I wrote to shew how such to be Convinc'd the World of â—rrors sins abuses All hate me for 't each one my NAME traduces To death they persecute me every where How should I other Lot than JESUS bear AN APOLOGY FOR M. Antonia Bourignon In Four Parts I. An Abstract of her Sentiments and a Character of her Writings II. An Answer to the Prejudices raised against them III. The Evidences she brings of her being led by the Spirit of God with her Answers to the Prejudices opposed thereunto To which is added A Dissertation of Dr. De Heyde on the same Subject IV. An Abstract of her Life To which are added Two LETTERS from different Hands containing REMARKS on the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism Detected AS ALSO Some of her own Letters whereby her True Christian Spirit and Sentiments are farther justified and vindicated particularly as to the Doctrine of the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ Non multum Disputandum Nuda enim Veritas seipsam Validissime tutatur probé intellecta genuinâ suâ luce tenebras omnes Dispellit Rob. Leighton Archiep. Glasc Prelect Theol Paraenes p 199 LONDON Printed for D. Brown at the Black Swan without Temple Bar S. Manship at the Ship in Cornhil R. Parker at the Unicorn under the Piazza's of the Royal-Exchange and H Newman at the Grashopper in the Poultry 1699. THE PREFACE I. SVch and so universal are the Prejudices raised amongst all Parties against the Writings and Sentiments of A. B. that the Sight of the very Title Page of this Apology will make some perhaps throw it by which Disdain scorning to look into it others to take it up in Derision and ask What would this Babler say Others to pry into it with an evil Eye with a Design only to carp at it and to pick out here and there some Expressions or Sentiments which differ from the ordinary Systems and put them in such a Dress as may excite the Hatred and Derision of the People II. But being fully perswaded in my Conscience that those Writings do greatly tend to revive the Life and Spirit of Christianity which is acknowledg'd to be so much decay'd and lost amongst all the Parties of Christendom and knowing that there are many well-disposed Persons who are frightned from lookâ—ng into them because of the odious Representations made of them and the Prejudices given them against them who if these Prejudices were remov'd would certainly peruse them with Delight and Profit to their Souls and would sensibly â—eel that the True Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the only way to eternal Life chalk'd out in his Life and Sayings is there plainly and distinctly represâ—nted I shall therefore in all Sincerity without Respect of Parties or Persons write this Apology And I do earnestly beg of Almighty God the Father and Fountain of all Light and Love that he may be pleas'd so to illuminate my Mind with his Heavenly Light and warm my Heart with his Divine Love that I may utter nothing but what flows from or tends to both and that some Rays of both may stream through this Writing to touch the Hearts and Spirits of others III. To dispose Persons to hearken to and to make a right use of an Apology of this Nature it is fit to premise two things First That it needs not prejudice any against A. B. and her Writings so far as not to listen to an Apology for both that they know she is evil spoken of said to be an Enthusiast an Enchantress a Blasphemer a Seducer and the Devil of a Saint that her Writings are said to be full of Heresies Delusions and Errors and that by Persons of all Parties Papists Protestants Lutherans Calvinists Presbyterians Episcopal Persons Anabaptists Quakers and even by the Preachers and Writers and Learned Men of the respective Parties for there is nothing more ordinary than for the most Innocent and the most Vpright to be thus treated Woe to you when all Men shall speak well of you This was the Treatment that Innocence and Truth it self met with our Lord Jesus Christ He was made to pass for a Blasphemer a Sorcerer a Perverter of the Law of God The most Learned and the most Godly in his Age hated him They who in other things stood at the greatest Distance did agree in this Herod and Pilate the Pharisees and Sadducees the Jews and Samaritans So that this may be rather a favourable Prejudice on her behalf at least so far as to allow her a fair Hearing IV. 2. I shall entreat you may not come to read this Apology nor the Writings to which it invites you with an evil Eye They who come to consider Writings or Persons with this Disposition are not capable of understanding them aright themselves or of giving a true Representation of them to others I know no Person tho' never so innocent nor Truth tho' never so clear nor Book tho writ with never so much Plainness Sincerity and Consistency which they who consider with this Spirit may not mistake expose misrepresent and ridicule Nothing more true than our Saviour's Words nothing more confirm'd from daily Experience The Light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light but if thine Eye be Evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness It was from those different Dispositions that our Lord himself and his Doctrine met with such different Entertainment in the World They who were full of Self-love and Esteem and desir'd to love God and the World both to please Him and their Appâ—tites too to get and keep that Rank in the Esteem of Men which they thought they merited and hugg'd the Glosses and Sences they had put upon God's Law by which they had reconcil'd it with the following of their own corrupt Inclinations such look'd on all that Jesus said aud did with an evil Eye they never came to hear him but with a Design to catch him in his Words and they found out ways to put a hard Sence upon every thing The Miracles he wrought they said were done by the Power of the Devil they accus'd him of breaking the Sabbath Day and of countenancing it in his Disciples of Blasphemy in calling himself the Son of God of Pride in speaking well of himself of a Design to destroy the Law and seduce the People by his Doctrine and they made him an Enemy to Caesar in calling himself a King But the sincere and the single-hearted who came with a pure and upright Desire and Intention to understand and to follow the Truth did readily embrace the Doctrine of Jesus Christ the entrance of his Words gave them Light and Understanding and they were so fully satisfied of the great things of God's Law that they were not apt to wrest or mistake his Sayings or Actions in things of lesser moment
Religion have to one another This then is certainly a remarkable Property of the Writings of A. B. that they give so distinct a view of the Relation of the several Parts and Duties of Christianity to one another and to the whole How some hold the Place of the end and others of the means some of which are so absolutely necessary in Man's present State that without them he cannot attain the End They make appear that the great end of Christianity is to bring us back to the Love of God and that we can never recover this without the mortifying of our Corrupt Nature and that this cannot be effected but by obeying the Doctrine and following the Example of Jesus Christ so that his Commands are all the necessary Helps of our Frailty teaching us what way to overcome our Corrupt Nature and to return to the Love of God For the End of the Commandment is Charity The Gospel-Law teaches Man Poverty of Spirit to shew Man that Covetousness has withdrawn him from the Love of God and that he cannot recover it without ceasing to covet earthly Goods and it teaches Men to be humble in Heart and to choose the lowest Place because they have lost the Love of God by loving themselves and thinking themselves worthy of Honour and Glory while they merit nothing but Contempt and Confusion Jesus Christ chose a poor and mean State in the World lived in Hardships and Unease in Reproach and Contempt and never did his own Will but the Will of him that sent him to show us what are the things that withdraw us from the Love of God and what are the means we must use to overcome them XVIII 3. The Writings of A. B. do give us most lovely Representations of the Divine Nature such as may serve to enflame our Souls with Love and Wonder when we think on the depth and height and breadth and length of the Love of God in Christ Jesus which passeth all Knowledge They shew us that God's very Nature is Love that there is none Good but God that no kind of Evil comes from him but all Good that it was nothing but Love and Goodness that made him create Man so wonderful a Creature that he might communicate himself to him and dwell in him by his Light and Love and that he might oblige him by the greatness of his Magnificence made a world of beautiful Creatures to attend him and to compleat his Happiness and Contentment would needs become like to him as he had at first form'd Man after his own Image And so far was he from designing that Man should destroy himself that he us'd all means to prevent it and to keep him from abusing the greatest Natural Gift he could bestow upon him Liberty of Will and which he could not in justice take back again for the Gifts of God are without Repentance That Man's Baseness and Fall did not alter God's Love but he resolves to recover him again and continues unalterably his first Design of taking his Delight with him that he accepts of the Intercession and Mediation of Jesus Christ for that End and allows Man Grace and a Time and Means of Penitence that the very Evils that came upon Man and upon the Creatures by his Sin he order'd them all so as that they might tend to his Good and his Recovery thrust him out of a delightful Paradise into an Earth cursed for his sake and bringing forth Throns and Thistles least the Pleasures of the first should now still bewitch his Heart the more and that the Miseries and Vexations of the last might give him Occasions for Penitence and make him return to his God that God has not forsaken Man but Man has forsaken his God that God by all his Works and by his Operations in Man gives him all sort of Occasions to love him That he is not content to send us his Servants and Prophets to enlighten us but he came himself and became in all things like to us yet without Sin that he might redeem and save us That God tempts no Man but every Man is drawn away of his own Lust That he damns no Man for he is the Fountain of all Good and can do no Evil and the Damnation of a Soul is the greatest Evil in the World That he does not permit Sin but permits Man to make use of his Free-will which being the greatest Treasure he could receive it was not just for God to take it back again and if Man abuse it it is for himself so he may do with his Hands and Tongue which are given him for excellent uses That as God is not the Author of any Sin any Moral Evil neither by Influence nor by Decree nor by Permission but it proceeds wholly from Men and Devils by the ill use of the Liberty and Free-will that God gave them so neither is he the Author of any Natural Evil or Malignity that is in the Creatures he having created all Good and Perfect but Sin and the Self will of Man has brought a Malignity into all things and therefore it belongs to Man as being the Works of his Hands That God lets this Malignity continue now in this Time of Trial to withdraw Man from the Love of the Creatures that at the Times of the Restitution of all things he will deliver all his Creatures from the Malignity contracted by the Sin of Man and since it is just to render to each one what belongs to him it is necessary that they who will not return to a Dependance upon their God have for their Portion this Malignity of all the Creatures to all Eternity as being the Work of their own Hands That in the Love of God consists all Good and all Happiness and in the turning away from that Love all Evil and all Misery which Men are not now so sensible of because of the superficial and transient Delights with which the Creatures do amuse and tickle them but upon the removal of that they shall feel it to all Eternity God is not the Author of Death but by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and Death has pass'd over all because all have sinn'd It is saith St. Augustine God alone the only Truth the only Salvation of all and the First and Supream Essence from whom every thing is what it is in so far as it is for in so far as it is what it is it is good and therefore Death is not from God For God did not make Death neither does he take Pleasure in the Destruction of the Living for the supream Essence makes every thing to be what it is and therefore it is called the Essence But Death constrains that which dies not to be in so far as it dies for if these things which die should die altogether undoubtedly they would come to nothing But by how much less they partake of Essence by so much they die Now a Body is less
them would be false and nothing but Chimera's of our own Imagination The Analogy holds in Divine and Spiritual Things as well as in Bodily and Material ones There is a solid substantial living and fruitful Knowledge of them when God communicates himself to the Soul and brings along with him his Love and Light and Joy and Peace These are all felt by it as we feel the Light when it shines into our Eyes This Knowledge is to be had only from God as the Sun and Light can be seen only by themselves For the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Tho' the Sun shine never so brightly yet if we be shut up with thick Walls round about us or if our Eyes be blinded we cannot behold the Light This is the State we are born in in corrupt Nature The Light shines in Darkness and the Darkness comprehends it not The natural Man perceives not the things that are of God but they are Foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Those Impediments and Distempers must be removed if we would know God aright and therefore the Light has embodied himself and the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us and became in all things like to us except Sin that he might shew us how to come to God not by much Reading nor great Learning nor high Speculations but by becoming like little Children by Simplicity and Singleness of Heart by Humility and Prayer by taking off our Desires from all other things and turning our Souls to God Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light The meek will he teach his Way I am the Light of the World says Christ he that follows me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life The Divine Knowledge that is thus obtained is solid and living it satisfies the Heart it enflames it with Charity the Love of God and our Neighbours this Wisdom that is from above is pure and peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisie There is another Knowledge of Divine Things which is only superficial and speculative and consists in the forming to our selves the Pictures of Divine Things in the Absence of the Things themselves and employing our Thoughts and Faculties about these If we do this only in so far as it may be helpful to excite us to the other and to labour after those Dispositions that may make us meet for it it may be a good Handmaid and Subservient to it But if we make it our Study and employ our Time and Faculties about it we do as foolishly as they who being hungry and thirsty and depriv'd of the Light of the Sun should with the dim Light of a Candle go into a Gallery and view the Pictures of the Light and Sun and of all sorts of delicate Wines and Meats and should draw a great many of these themselves each Club contending that their Pictures were the truest quarrelling and fighting about them and and forcing one another to assent and swear to their Belief and Opinion of them and hating such as differed from them and were so craz'd in their Imaginations as to fansie they did eat and drink and enjoy the Light but when they awake their Soul is empty This is that Theology which has overspread the Christian World for the cultivating of which Seminaries are erected Masters and Professors set apart the Youth trained up to handle their Weapons and to argue Pro and Con upon every Head The very Catechisms fill'd with the nice Speculations of the respective Parties and the People to con their hard Words and to think themselves mighty knowing in Religion In this thousands of Volumes are written and the Opinions and Pictures drawn by former Ages enquir'd into and curious Criticisms made about every Line in the Study of which Divines employ their Time and Talents In this the Preachers multiply Sermons giving Stones for Bread and the People have itching Ears Ever learning and never be able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth like Physicians and Patients that should love to talk and hear respectively elaborate Discourses about Receipts of Physick the Receipts being plain enough of themselves without ever applying effectually to use them In this Men employ their eal to maintain their Opinions to form and foster Sects and Schisms to multiply Debates and Controversies to hate and malign those that differ from them to raise Tumults and Rabbles to animate Princes against their People and People against their Princes and to fill the World with Blood and Confusion Now all the Writings of A. B. tend to lead Men to that Theology and Divine Wisdom that is to be had only by deep Humilty of Heart and Poverty of Spirit to be learn'd only in the School of Jesus Christ by denying of themselves and following of him and to take them of from that false and superficial Knowledge of Divine Things which stands in a perfect Opposition to the other It makes the Mind incapable of being enlightned by the Spirit of God it keeps it in a constant Amusement it is that Knowledge that puffs up and makes us think we know something when we know nothing as we ought to know but if any Man love God the same is known of him It is the Wisdom that descends not above but is earthly sensual and devilish working Envy Strife and Confusion and every evil Work It is of this that God threatned he would destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and bring to nought the Vnderstanding of the Prudent Therefore God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the Wise He chose for his Aposles simple illiterate Men and when the Learned came to him he despised their Wisdom sending Paul to School as an Ignorant to learn of Ananias what he ought to do And when Nicodemus came to be his Disciple the only learned Man that came to be converted by him he declar'd to him with Asseverations that unless he were converted and became as a little Child he could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven to make him understand that his Learning and Wisdom was a Hinderance to it that he must turn away from it to embrace the Simplicity of a Child What he says to him he says to all the Learned that shall ever be in the World Nicodemus was already turned from Evil to Good when he offered to be his Disciple but this was not enough Jesus Christ declares to him that notwithstanding of this he shall not enter there unless he become as a little Child learning the Simplicity of Jesus Christ and detesting the Wisdom and Learning of Men. If the Wisdom and Studies of Men were not Hinderances to them why would he have them Simple as Children The same Spirit
have also the Pencil which is the Word with which Jesus Christ and his Apostles laid on these fine Colours of Vertues in Souls but they want as that Ape the Spirit of that excellent Master which is Jesus Christ They have on Paper the same Words which the Holy Spirit dictated but they have not the same Holy Spirit to apply them in Practice to their own Souls and far less to the Souls of their Hearers XXV 10. Those Writings give us such just and clear Representations of the Truths of Christianity as tend to take us off from Self and from the Creatures and to make us turn unto and depend wholly upon God such as does not favour us in the least Sin and yet encourages the greatest Sinner to turn to God such as leads us to ascribe nothing to our selves but Evil and nothing to God but Good Such as lets us see that nothing can excuse us from obeying the Commands of the Gospel and following the Example of Jesus Christ without which by him tâ—ere is no Salvation It is true of Doctrines as well as Men By their Fruits ye shall know them Such Doctrines as tend to sooth Mens Corrupt Inclinations to teach them how to love God and the World too to gratifie their Appetites here and yet hope to enjoy God hereafter I do not mean in so many express Words but in their natural Tendency such certainly are not of God Now the Doctrines contained in those Writings have quite another Tendency as has been said There we have such true and lively Representations of God as shews us that he is altogether Lovely of his Design in creating Man only to be enjoy'd and lov'd by him without any decree or purpose of damning the greatest part of Mankind as may stir us up to comply with so tender a Love with so generous a Design of the horrid Degeneracy and Corruption of Man now both in Soul and Body as may make us abhor our selves of our Sins their being purely our own deed without any the least Predetermination or Concurrence of God but the contrary as may keep us from excusing our selves or laying the blame on God of the Merits Satisfaction and Intercession of Jesus Christ as may convince us that Pardon and Reconciliation with God and Grace and Means to return to God is to be obtain'd and that only by him of the Necessity and Nature of the preventing concurring and renewing Grace of God as may make us continually seek to him for it and yield up our selves to be guided by it of the Nature and Corruption of our Will as shews the absolute necessity of denying it and yielding it up to God of the Doctrine and Example of Jesus Christ as may convince us that our Corrupt Nature cannot be overcome and we cannot return to the Love of God without obeying his Precepts and following his Example Now Writings of such a Tendency ought not to be despis'd and ridicul'd by the Professors and Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ and that they have this Tendency I appeal to any who have read any of them without an Evil Eye XXVI 11. Those Writings do contain also many Divine Explications of the Holy Scripture not after the way of criticizing and reckoning up the several meanings and acceptions of a Word or the various Sences of Inpreters which a Man may be well vers'd in and yet be altogether ignorant of the true sence and meaning of the Holy Scripture where he pretends to Interpret it We see all Sciences have a certain Light by which they are discerned a certain Disposition of Faculties which makes us capable to understand them certain Principles which lead to the Knowledge of them and when these are wanting we grope in the Dark Children and Boys may understand all the Words of a Book of Philosophy of the Propositions in Euclid and yet understand nothing of the Truths contain'd there To understand the Holy Scriptures and the things of God we had need to be endued with the same Spirit and to be in the same Disposition with those who wrote them Now if any will be pleas'd to compare the Expositions given in those Writings of some places of Holy Scripture with the learned Comments of the Interpreters and Criticks of the Age I am perswaded that if they be not greatly prejudic'd they will be convinc'd that her Expositions come from a more Divine Original than than the most of the other that they give a clearer Light more worthy of God and more suitable to the great Ends of Religion that in this the Truth of our Saviour's words is manifest that God hides these things from the Wise and Prudent and reveals them unto Babes and that with great reason she blest God who preserv'd her from drinking in Humane Learning Of all these I shall instance one which deserves a particular Consideration and that is her Exposition of the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew set down in the First Part of La Lumiere nee on Tenebres It is too long to offer to transcribe it here they who are desirous to see it need not want Occasions To this I cannot but subjoin the just Cautions she gives and the excellent Rules for the Interpreting of the Holy Scriptures She makes appear how rash Men are in glossing the Holy Scriptures since the things which concern our Salvation are so plainly set down in them that they need no Glosses and the obscure things cannot be understood but by the same Spirit who endited them and not by Humane Wisdom which is directly opposite to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which descends only into humble Souls That they who will needs interpret the Scriptures by Humane Wisdom fall into great Mistakes and understand the Terms quite othewise than the Spirit of God intended Thus it is said that God hardened Pharaoh's Heart the meaning cannot be that he hardens Mens Hearts by making them obstinate in Evil for God can never co-operate to any Evil being the Fountain of all Good But he speaks thus to make us know that he leaves a wicked Man to go on in his Wickedness when he will not be restrain'd But on his part he uses always Goodness towards them that he may convert them both by good Inspirations Admonitions and other proper Means But when their Free-wills are willful to persist in Evil he leaves them to themselves The main Difficulty there is in understanding of the Scriptures arises from this that we do not know the Qualities of God and we are ready to attribute to him such as Men have imagining that he has a Love for some and a Hatred for others And thus every one is wedded to his own Sence and Opinions and will maintain them as the Truths of God But the best Course is still to take the Holy Scriptures in that Sence that draws us more and more to the Love of God and to the Knowledge of our own
her Thoughts and withal that she had written her Thoughts lately on the same Matter which he having obtain'd the Sight of after Importunity and with a Promise to restore it within three Days he read it with Feeling and Admiration and returning it said You have said more things and more forcible on this Subject in one Sheet than I have done in all my Book which has cost me so much Time Pains and Expences and therefore I condemn it never to see the Light It is the 4th Chapter of the fore-cited Book XXVIII 13. Those Writings are worthy of our Regard in that they tend to discourage and remove out of the Christian World the Disputing and Controversal Divinity and to take Men off from the Spirit of Controversie which has banished the Life and Spirit of Christianity from among Men. Some are ready to say that her Writings tend rather to multiply Controversies than to remove them in that they advance so many new Doctrines and Opinios which were never formerly heard of But these need give no Occasion of Dispute she declares they are not Matters of Faith are not necessary to Salvation they who are perswaded of the Truth of them and find them helpful to increase their Love and Admiration of God will receive them without disputing about them and they who are not perswaded of the Truth of them may let them alone and so there needs no Dispute and no Body will contend with them about them But those Writings tend to take Men off from this Spirit they make so clear a Difference between the Essentials and the Accessories of Religion so plainly describe the first that all cannot but be convinc'd of them and they shew that the last ought not to be any Subject of Debate and Contention They make appear that the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is to be learn'd by Simplicity and humble Prayer and not by Controversie and Debate and that none are more capable of understanding it than they who are led by the Spirit they shew that there is nothing more contrary to the Spirit and Great End of Christianity than the Spirit of Controversie That they who are led by it cannot endure that others should differ from them in some Sentiments about Religion even tho' they agree in the Essentials and Fundamentals of it but presently they prosecute him with all the Spite and Rancour they are capaple of as the Enemies of God and Religion and do all they can to inspire the same Spite and Aversion against them in all on whom they have Influence They assix on them hateful Names accuse them of Crimes they were never guilty of Blasphemy Idolatry c. they treat them with Contempt and Scorn make them pass for mad and distracted the Good in them or the Truth that appears in their Writings they conceal and are griev'd at it and make it pass for what they call in Scorn Flights of Devotion or the Effects of a warm Imagination and they rejoice when they meet with any thing that can expose them or make them hateful they cannot easily believe any thing that is Good in them but very readily Evil they do not consider the great Tendency of their Life and Writings but cull out some Instances and Passages of both which may separately seem hâ—rsh and they assix on them the hardest Sence they are capable of and from these draw Consequences and form odious Pictures of them from them they can endure no hard Words without Rage and Displeasure but against them they insult and triumph In a Word this Spirit is the compleat Reverse of that Charity which S. Paul describes It suffers little is unkind envious rash puffed up behaves it self unseemly seeks it self is easily provoked thinketh Evil rejoiceth in Iniquity but rejoiceth not in the Truth bears with nothing believes nothing hopes nothing endures nothing Now all things being diffusive of themselves this Evil exerting it self in the Writings and Discourses of Men spreads like a Contagion and our corrupt Nature being more susceptible of Evil than Good is soon seized with the Malignity Hence cometh that Hatred Variance Strife Evil-speaking those Revilings Calumnies Sects Schisms Wars Fightings Persecutions c. which have made the Christian World so much the Sport of the Devil and the By-word of the rest of Mankind Now one would think that by this time Men might be so generally out of Love with the Humour of Controversie so offended with the Trickâ— of laying the Stress of Christianity on things wherein it does not consist and so sensible of the Mischiefs that both have done to Religion throughout all Christendom that those Writings would be generally acceptable which tend to sweeâ—en Mens Minds towards one another to lessen a Concern for Sects and Parties to give a clear View of the Essentials of Christianity and plainly to distinguish them from the Accessories and Circumstantials and to lead Men to the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and the Recovery of the Love of God as those Writings most certainly do XXIX 14. The Manner after which those Writings were composed is something singular and extraordinary It cannot be denied but that they are writ with much Clearness Solidity and Force in all the things that may be useful for the Salvation of Man yet they are not the Effect of Study and the reading of other Books for she read none and did not derive her Knowledge either from learned Men or Books reckoning their Learning a Straying from the right Way and that as the Writing-Master would needs have a Double hire from those who had learn'd to write an ill Hand to wit one hire for unteaching them so ill a Habit and another to teach them to write well because he must be at more Pains with such than with those who had learn'd none at all so she was with the Learned who came to learn from her in Christ's School she had a double Labour one to unteach them the imaginary Wisdom which they had embraced join'd with Presumption and Rashness and the other to make them receive the true Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Humility and the Lowness and Simplicity of a Child And as her Writings were not the Result of Study and human Learning so neither were they the Effect of Meditation and human Reasoning We must think before we write and take Time to order our Thoughts and consider our Words we must blot out and mend and add to our first Draughts But when she put Pen to Paper she wrote as fast as her Hand could guide the Pen and what was once written was witten without blotting out or Change And when she returned to any Writings that she had laid by unfinish'd tho' for some Months or Years she did not apply her self to read them over but having read only five or six of the last Lines to see how the Period ended she immediately wrote on with her former Swiftness her Sentiments flowing from her as Water
does from a Fountain She needed not it seems the Buckets of Study and Meditation wherewith to draw out of the broken Cisterns of others but she had within her a Fountain of living Water still springing up to everlasting Life As this is attested by those who were of her particular Acquaintance and all her Manuscripts are still extant written with her own Hand so a particular Account is given given of this by Mr. Francken Merchant at Amsterdam in his Testimony concerning her where among other things he tells That a learned Man of Amsterdam a Doctor of Law said to him one Day that he could not believe but it was some learned Man who had writ these Letters and publish'd them under the Name of A. B. as not being willing to be known and Mr. Francken assur'd him of the contrary but however he not having had long time to converse with her he would take care to inform himself more narrowly so as to be able to convince him as it fell out for some time since after he had told him he had often found her in her little Chamber with a Piece of Deal Board on her Knees writing without any other Thing but the Paper on which she wrote and the Pen and Ink which she made use of and she leaving off to write upon her Discovering that he was in the Room and because she never wrote but with Attention to the Voice of God in the inward Silence and Recollection of her Spirit he would take up the Paper with her Permission to read it and found it was writ so swiftly that there would be yet ten or twelve Lines fresh and wet Having made this Trial of it his Friend he says was perswaded of it as much as if he had seen it himself having full Confidence in his Sincerity from long Experience and Familiarity XXX 15. That which ought greatly to recommend her Writings to us is the Conformity of her Life and Practice It is the general Complaint concerning those who recommend Vertue and a truly Christian Life to others that they do not practice it themselves that they speak by one Principle and live by another and so their Words have little Force and they destroy Christianity one way more than it is possible for them to build it up another I know some have made an ill Use of the Elogies which have been given of her Life and Spirit by those who were Eye-witnesses of all like Spiders sucking Poison from the Flowers where the Bees gather Honey they exaggerate some of their Expressions far beyond the Intent of them and in Opposition to the Testimonies of those who were living Witnesses of her Life they some eighteen Years after she is dead will needs draw a Picture of her that may represent her very ugly with what Equity and Candour will appear in its due Place However any who shall read impartially the Story of her Life and the Testimonies given of her throughout all the Periods of it â— will conceive better Thoughts of her than what the New Narratives would give of them They will see that she liv'd constantly as one travelling towards Eternity and therein studying in all things to conform her Life to that of Jesus Christ in these and such-like Instances She convers'd always with God and no more with Men than her Duty and Charity requir'd she led a Life of continual Penitence mortifying her corrupt Nature and never gratifying her sensual Appetites in any thing Tho' she might have enjoy'd the Pleasures of her Senses the Delights of her Taste and of her other Senses yet she voluntarily depriv'd herself of them to please God Tho' she had lawfully acquir'd Riches yet would never use them but for pure Necessity Tho' she might have been conveniently serv'd and honour'd according to her Condition yet she despis'd these Honours and Services to imitate Jesus Christ loving rather to live unknown and serve herself than to be serv'd There was nothing observ'd in her Actions contrary to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God but they appear'd still to be accompanied with those three Qualities deriv'd from the Spirit of God She never recommended to any the Practice of a Vertue which she did not most exemplarily practice herself She was most humble and self-denied always ready to serve others rather than be serv'd by them and to take to her self the meanest and the least of every thing She did not affect to be thought humble by humble Words Gestures Habits c. nor did she distinguish her self from the rest of the World by any singular indifferent Thing but as to Habit Diet c. conform'd her self to the Customs of the Places where she happen'd to be So great was her Charity that she brought up some hundreds of Girls maintaining fifty of them at a time for the space of seven Years on her own Charges what was allow'd by the Founder being only for ten employing her Time Wealth Strength of Body and Mind in Training them up in all Vertuous Exercises and distinguishing herself in nothing from them as to Diet Bread Apparel c. Such was her Love to Men's Souls that she spared nothing to perswade them to the Love of God and to Imitate Jesus Christ and employ'd her Time and Wealth in writing and publishing the Truths of God for that End She suffer'd patiently all manner of Reproaches and Persecutions for the Sake of Jesus Christ She had an invincible Firmness and Constancy in what was Truth Nothing could shake or alter her She did nothing to please Men She had a constant Equality of Mind in all Conditions She discover'd a wonderful Prudence on all Occasions Let any body but read the Testimonies given of her by those who knew her in her Youth in her old Age and in all States of her Life as they are set down in Recucil des Temoignages and particularly that of Mr. Francken Merchant of Amsterdam and they will see how closely she was a Follower of Jesus Christ in Humility and Poverty of Spirit in a Contempt of all earthly Things in a Life of Labour and Penitence and in the true Love of God and the Souls of Men. Now Writings whose Substance and Essence contains such excellent Truths as those I have mention'd in the Account of the Essentials of Christianity and which have such remarkable Qualities and penn'd by one who liv'd so her self ought certainly to meet with some Regard and not to be immediately thrown away and People frighted from looking into them because there are in them some Sentiments which do not relish and seem to us Extravagant XXXI But perhaps it will be said that those Doctrines which she calls Accessories may be dangerous Opinions and damnable Doctrines and that what she seems to build with the one Hand she pulls down with the other that she makes a Mahumetan Paradise Eating and Drinking and Generation in the Kingdom of Heaven How easie a thing is it
not interpos'd and become a Mediator between God and them who being touch'd with a deep fence of the wretched State into which Man had plung'd himself he ardently prays and interceeds with his Heavenly Father that he would have pity on those his wretched rebellious Creatures and his Brethren that he would be pleas'd to pardon them grant them his Grace tho' most unworthy of it and â—llow them yet a Time of Trial becoming Surety for them that they should detest and abhor their Corruption deny themselves and return to the Love of God His Mediation is accepted and upon the account of his Merits and Intercession Man is pardoned Grace is given him of new and a Time of Trial allow'd him in which he must lead a Life of Penitence and thereby mortifie his Corrupt Nature and return to the Love of God 2. The Time of Trial given to Man at first was a State of Pleasure and Delights but since the Fall of Man the Time of Trial assign'd him is a State of Labour and Toil and therefore God thrust Man out of a delightful Paradice and suffered the Malediction and Curse of his Sin to fall upon the Creatures in a great measure that they all might afford him Vexation instead of Pleasure and so he might have occasion of doing Penitence because he had turn'd away his Heart and Affections from God and set them on the Creature 3. The Son of God having undertaken the Recovery of Mankind out of pure Love and Compassion he provides means and remedies according to the different states of their Maladies The First Command he gives Man as a necessary mean of his Recovery is a Life of Penitence and Labour to eat his Meat in the sweat of his Face but Men multiplying their Sins he multiplied his Commands as so many means to turn them from their Sins and gave them variety of Precepts to make them think upon God in all their Actions and Words so that their Hearts might be in a continual Elevation to him But they cleave to the Letter of the Law without comprehending the Sence of it and turn'd away yet more from the Love of God placing their Affections on the Creatures the Riches Pleasures and Honours of this Life pleasing themselves with the outside of their Rites and Ceremonies 4. When all other means prov'd unsuccessful Jesus Christ tries the last Remedy Men were not capable in their Mortal State of being taught by him in his Glorious Body He had obtain'd of his Father to give them in Spirit good Thoughts and Motions yea Divine and Supernatural Light but all this was not capable to convert them or to make them sensible they were in a State of Damnation because of each one 's inveterate habit to follow their brutish Nature There was need of a Mean visible and sensible to their Corruption to move their Hearts otherwise they had all been lost without a sence of their own Misery all perishing without perceiving it by a damnable Imitation of one another thus all running in the Broad Way to Hell Having therefore obtain'd from his Father Mercy and Pardon for them upon their Repentance Jesus Christ resolves to become a Mortal Man He therefore cloaths himself with our Mortality and bringing along with him his Divine Light to enlighten them and his Divine Love to enflame them he becomes in all things like to Corrupt Man yet without Sin he teaches them by his Word and his by Example how they should mortifie their Corrupt Nature do Penitence and recover the Love of God he charges himself with the miseries and frailty that Sin has brought upon Humane Nature taking on himself all their Maledictions and the Punishments due to their Sins which he did bear and suffer as if he had been the greatest of all Sinners living a Life of extream Poverty Labour Contempt and Pain undergoing a shameful painful and accursed Death and so obtaining Pardon for all who should thus follow his Steps 5. God made his Will known to good Men to the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets by the Organ of the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ But since Men were taught by Jesus Christ in his Mortal Body there is no need to see or understand by his Glorious Body They have received the Light of Truth so that they need not bodily Visions to understand the Will of God Jesus Christ speaks now to them in Spirit and in Truth enlightning Souls with his Divine Light inwardly by his Holy Spirit which operates in Souls disengag'd from themselves and from all earthly Affections acting in them sweetly and powerfully when the Soul is in Peace and Tranquility of Mind It hears then as a soft Wind which surrounding it with Joy makes it see what it ought to do and avoid both for its own Conduct and for that of other well-dispos'd People 4. As to the Present State of the World the Summ of her Accessory Sentiments are 1. THAT all Men have corrupted their Ways and that there are no True Christians in the World truly mortified to corrupt Nature and regenerated in the Love of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ 2. That the present State of Christendom is a perfect Babel our Language being confounded and the Builders do not understand one another 3. That we have glossed away the Laws and Doctrine of Jesus Christ by our Expositions as much as the Scribes and Pharisees did Moses's Law by their Traditions 4. That we live presently in the Reign of Antichrist and that he rules in Spirit through all the Earth by his Three Antichristian Qualities which he sheds into Man's Nature Injustice Malice and Hypocrisie under a cover of Religion in Opposition to the Three Divine Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth which Jesus Christ came to plant in the Hearts and Lives of all his Disciples That Men seduce one another under fair Appearances That Sin is mask'd with Holiness and cover'd with Hypocrisie 5. That the Source of all the Evils in the Church is in the Corruption of the Pastors and Churchmen and that the Abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary That all the Degeneracy of Christians comes from the Degeneracy of their Guides 6. That the Wickedness of Man now being Universal and come to a height greater than in the Days of Noah the Sentence of Gods last Judgments is irrevocably past and the Plagues are begun and will continue till that by War Famine Pestilence and other grievous Judgments all the Wicked be consumed from off the Face of the Earth but this shall be done slowly and in a Course of many Years that many may thereby be awakened and brought to Repentance 5. As to the State of Things to come her Sentiments are 1. THAT God will yet once renew his Gospel-Spirit upon Earth and will fill well-disposed Souls with the Spirit that Jesus Christ had while upon Earth and
that the latter Christians shall live in greater Perfection than those of the Primitive Church did That he will send his Holy Spirit to lay before us those means of Salvation which Jesus Christ taught us while on Earth that we may clearly see how far we are estranged from them and to give us the Light of the Truth that we may see the way to return and to take up again the same Gospel-Means and recover the Dependance of our Will on God without which none can be saved And God will give the full Understanding of all that has been delivered in his Name from the Beginning of the World both by the Holy Prophets and by Jesus Christ and his Apostles or other Saints his Disciples 2. The Original Design of God in the creating of Man being to take his Delight with him for which End he not only made Man after his own likeness but he also became Man that he might live with him in perfect Resemblance to all Eternity and this being now suspended unto Man because of his Sin until that he have accomplished his Penitence to which he is subjected by Sin yet since God does not change nor will ever alter his Designs this time of Penitence being finished Man will enter again into Communion with God as if he had never offended him He will speak to God Face to Face by his Humanity which will be rendred immortal as well as is that of Jesus Christ that they may delight themselves perfectly together upon Earth which will then be rendred Paradice by the lovely Presence of God who for this End became Man and in the End of the World will come in Glory upon Earth to Live and Reign for ever with Men which is as it were The Sum of all the Designs that God has over Men and the Alliance he has often promised to make with Man 3. All the Works of God are Eternal and nothing that he has made shall ever perish And in the End of this World at the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory all things shall be renewed and restored into that primitive Integrity in which they were at first created All the Evil that is in the Creatures the Fruit of Man's Sins shall be wholly taken away All Nature shall then put off the Corruption Darkness and all the Disorders with which it had been tainted since Adam's Sin All shall become Bright Glorious and Luminous all Corruption shall be removed from the Body of Man and it shall be re-establish'd in that glorious perfect State in which it was at first created And the Soul become perfectly pure shall take its Delights with God and the Body with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God created them for those Ends and for no other thing that Man might have his full perfect Contentment of Body and Mind in that Life Eternal wherein Jesus Christ shall reign always in Body and Soul with the Bodies and Souls of the Blessed who shall be united in Spirit unto God and in Body unto the Body of Jesus Christ 4. After the Judgment when God shall take all Malignity from the Earth and from all the Creatures the Venom from Serpents Scorpions and other poysonous Beasts Maladies and Infirmities from the Bodies of Men and Beasts and Weaknesses from Spirits All this shall be reduced into some corner of the Earth all in a mass that these Malignities may act together upon the Bodies of the damned and that the Works of their hands be rendered unto them For God never made any of all these Evils He created all things Good Men only by their Wickedness have given Malignity unto all created things and therefore it ought to appertain to them and to be rendered to them by the Right of Justice which will come to pass at the Judgment when the Bodies of the Wicked shall rise also that none of the Works of God may perish and shall be sent into that miserable Corner with all the Evils which shall be removed from the Blessed and from the Earth from Plants Beasts and all the Elements that all these things may serve them only for Delight and Pleasure without being able to do any more Evil as they were in the Beginning of their Creation and all their Malignities which they have contracted by the Sins of Men shall be rendered unto their Authors 5. God having at the First Creation endued all living Creatures with a Power of producing their like and Man in his perfect State being endued with the same Power of producing his like without the help of another he shall be re-establish'd into the same State again So that in the Kingdom of Heaven there will be eternal Propagation but altogether Holy altogether Pure and Deified without concupiscible Appetite but by pure Acts of Love to God which will extend it self to the Production of New Creatures to the Glory of their Creator There there is not Male and Female they neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels in Heaven XXXVIII This as a Sum of her Accessory Sentiments and they who shall consider them without prejudice will hardly think that for them she deserves to be treated either as an Heritick or as a Mad Whimsical Woman It has been already said that she does not propose them as Articles of Faith necessary to be believed by all that according to St. Augustine these only are damnable Doctrines which tend to destroy Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour which it is evident those Sentiments do not and it were easie to make appear that many other Doctrines and Practices do which pass among many for very Christian XXXIX Besides it is evident that these Sentiments tend to clear and confirm all the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity and to endear them to us They shew us the great Designs of God's Love in the Creation of Man the excellent State in which he made him and the Happiness to which he design'd him They make appear evidently that all our Evil is from our selves and all our Good from God They shew us the Ground and Reason why Man's Redemption was set about and not the fallen Angels why Jesus Christ took such Interest in Man became Intercessor and Surety for him and why his Mediation was accepted by God his Father and why after other means essay'd he at last cloath'd himself with Man's Mortality why the following of his Counsels and Example is indispensibly necessary to Salvation They represent to us the horrid Corruption that Man is fallen into by Sin both as to Soul and Body and all the Creation by him and how mad we are to gratifie our corrupt Inclinations and to love this present World They direct us to a right use of the Rods and Judgments of God and awaken us to a sence of our present State wherein all the World lies in Wickedness They give us a prospect
even the Learned as well as the Vulgar begin again to acknowledge to be somewhat else than meer Mechanism This Production all the Art of the World cannot imitate but it is derived down from the first of every Kind to the respective Series of Individuals of that Kind thro' all Generations That all Men do thus derive their Off-spring from Adam as to their Bodies no body will deny but the general Opinion of the Learned has been that our Souls are immediately created or infus'd by God into our Bodies and that we do not derive them from our Parents and so from Adam But as God has endued Man with a Power of producing the Bodies of his Off-spring so also it seems evident that he has endued Man's Soul united to his Body with a Power of producing Souls united to Bodies which receive also from their Constituents the same Power of producing other Souls united to Bodies and that altogether like themselves There is no Contradiction in the Nature of the Thing and the Blessing of Multiplying given to Man is as unlimited as that to the other Creatures and the Scripture speaks of the Children in the Parents Loins and by this we easily conceive how the Corruption of Man's Nature is communicated to his Posterity without any Blemish in the Holiness and Righteousness of God for he having created Man Holy and Righteous with a Power to produce his like had he continued so the Souls which proceeded from him had been so too but he being corrupted in his Nature he could derive no other to his Posterity For Propagation is redoubling of the same Being and of the same State in which it is But on the other Hand if Souls are not derived from the Parent but immediately created by God Children may be less said to be the Off-spring of their Parents than the Young of the other living Creatures are from them so that they all do more perfectly produce their Kinds than does Man But above all this will never satisfie as to the other great Truth That all Souls are now impure and corrupt from their Original and Children of Wrath by Nature as the Scripture says It were blasphemous to say That God creates Souls impure ignorant and corrupt and it is no less evil to think that God creating them pure and holy does immediately put them into Bodies where they no sooner are but immediately they are thereby reputed so corrupt and guilty as to merit an eternal Separation from God The devout and profound S. Augustine was so sensible of the Difficulties in this Matter that he was undetermined what Side to take and professed that he had seen nothing that cleared them and he was for bearing with one another as to a Difference of Sentiment in these Things It is absurd to conclude this Sentiment to be false because we cannot conceive how Souls should propagate Souls without communicating of themselves in whole or in part if the last they are divisible and not spiritual if the first they should cease to animate their former Bodies this is to reason about Souls from the Idea's we have of Bodies Do not we experience ten thousand things in the World tho' we cannot conceive how they are We see the Soul produces Thoughts and one Thought produces another and this in infinitum Now it is easie for God to make that in certain Circumstances the Divine productive Vertue of the Soul should beget a Thought which has in it a Principle of Activity as it self has and that this Principle after its Production should not depend any longer on the producing Soul but subsist by it self 8. It has been judged the greatest Uncharitableness for her to declare to the World that there are no True Christians whereas in Truth it is one of the greatest Acts of Charity If a number of Persons were desperately Sick and their Distempers had so craz'd the most of them that they were not sensible of their own Sickness and Dangers tho' they perceived sufficiently the Illness of their Neighbours would it be Uncharitableness to awaken them and tell them of their Danger and direct them to the true Remedies even tho' some of them were using the proper means and tending to recovery it were certainly a Kindness done them all She does not say that there are not among Christians who have good Purposes and good Desires and who are good in Comparison of the Wicked but none who are truly regenerately into the Spirit of Jesus Christ She says * To be a true Christian is to imitate the Actions of Jesus Christ and to obey his Instructions Thus Jesus Christ says To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven we must become as a little Child we must take the last Place we must do Penitence we must be poor in Spirit we must deny our Selves we must love our Neighbours as our selves we must take the Kingdom of Heaven by force we must pluck out the Eye or cut off the Hand that offends us we must leave our Offering to go and be reconciled to our Brother we must love our Enemies and do good to them that hate us that we cannot serve two Masters we must not care for the Morrow but lay up Treasures in Heaven we must enter by the strait Gate that a rich Man will hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that we must take up our Cross and follow him that we must give an Account of every idle Word that God hides his Secrets from the Wise and Prudent and reveals them to Babes that he came not to be served but to serve c. She appeals to Christians whether they be renewed into this Spirit and makes through all these Instances how far they are from it and how few there are who aspire after it And to make People believe otherwise is but cheating Men into Damnation 9. That the present State of Christendom is a Babel where the Language is confounded and the Builders do not understand one another is but too sad a Truth to be denied If a wise Master Builder design to build a glorious City and give particular Instructions how the inferiour Workmen shall be trained up for it and by what Marks they shall be chosen and what Measures they shall observe in squaring fitting and laying of the Stones and if the Workmen shall be trained up by quite different Measures and chosen for the Office by other Marks and if the Workmen do so far mistake their Measures Rules and Instructions as that some of them say he commanded one thing and others the quite contrary some that the Stones should be hewn after such a way and others after a quite different way and should live in a continual Debate and Scuffle each side contending that they were only in the right and striving to draw as many Stones as they could to themselves and then instead of carefully and wisely hewing them and fitting them for the Building should animate
these Stones with the same Spite against the Fellow Workmen and Fellow Stones which possest themselves and with great Fury should throw them at them and dash them to pieces against each other and so render them unfit for ever entring into the Building This would certainly be such a Babel as that nothing could exceed it The Parable is so plain it needs no Explication 10. To make appear that we have glossed away the Laws and Doctrines of Jesus Christ by our Explications of them as much as the Scribes and Pharisees did Mâ—ses's Law by their Traditions we need but consider that as the Pharisees tho' they retained still the Letter of the Law and were very zealous for it yet their Lives were contrary to it but they could so gloss and interpret it as to reconcile it to their Practice Even so tho' the Lives of Christians be in a far greater Contradiction to the Laws of Jesus Christ and they retain and honour the Letter of them still yet they have learned so to gloss and interpret them as to reconcile their Life with the Hopes of Heaven and the Favour of God and their Belief of their being Good Christians For if they had not put false Glosses on the Doctrine of Jesus Christ there is no Christian who desires to be saved that would live as they do at present for every one would see that he could not be sav'd after this manner and that the Lives of Christians now are quite contrary to those of the Primitive Church and the Institution of Jesus Christ His Words are plain and simple they need no Glosses He tells his Disciples they must not lay up Treasures upon Earth they must renounce all they Possess they must be poor in Spirit take the last Place and deny themselves Now if they employ all their Life in getting and keeping of worldly Goods if they seek after Places and Honours take their Delights and Ease follow their honest Inclinations and please themselves their Life would seem a plain Contradiction to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but we have learned to Gloss so as to reconcile them It is but the Love of all these that Jesus Christ forbids and we are ready to make our selves believe that our Hearts are not set upon them as if the Bent of a Man's Desires and Pursuit could be towards a thing all his Life-time and his Heart not set upon it Jesus Christ knows well our Weakness and Frailty that we cannot be immers'd in worldly things without loving them more than the Body can lie in Snow without being chill'd by it and that we know not how much our Heart is glew'd to a thing till we be separated from it which is the mean also to wean our Hearts and therefore that we might not put false Glosses on his Doctrine he has explained it by his own Life he himself lived in perfect Poverty Contempt and Affliction was Poor as to Wealth Friends Honour Reputation Learning Greatness denied himself in every thing that we Love and Value and embraced the things that we abhor and dread But this we say was as our Redeemer to suffer and satisfie the Justice of God for our Sins and to merit for us Mercy and Pardon It was so but withal it was to give us an Example that we should follow his Steps His whole Life and Death was a continual Sacrifice to God renouncing all things that sensible Nature takes Pleasure in that we might learn from him how to make thus a continual Sacrifice of our Will and Desires and Satisfaction to God Oh! but we think he knows our Frailty and that we cannot do this and we rejoice that he has suffered thus for us and we hope in his Merits for Mercy and Salvation There is no Salvation indeed but by his Merits but they are apply'd only to those who follow his Example for he tells us none can come after him but they who deny themselves and take up their Cross and follow him and he lived after this manner that he might merit Grace for us to follow his Example so that we have no True Faith in his Merits when we think this impracticable But we have another Gloss yet whereby to indulge and gratifie corrupt Nature Jesus Christ lived after this manner not that we should live a Life actually strip'd of all worldly things that gratifie Nature and Self as his was but to teach us to be as poor of them in Spirit If we have them outwardly in Possession not to have our Hearts set on them and if we be deprived of them to be contented and resigned to the Will of God Indeed Poverty of Spirit is that in which Jesus Christ would have us mainly to follow him and if we be poor in Spirit in the midst of the greatest Abundance we are truly his Disciples But he that is poor in Heart seeks not for Wealth nor Pleasures nor Honours and if he have them they are a charge and burden to him and he takes no more of them for himself than simply serves the Necessities of Nature and that of the least and meanest rather than the best and choicest But the reason why Jesus Christ has given us such an Example and counselled us to follow it is because of our Weakness and Frailty If we can be poor in Spirit in the midst of the greatest Abundance there is no hazard of Wealth no need to abandon it but our Lord knew how hard it was for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He himself could have remained poor in Spirit in the greatest Affluence of worldly things but he knew it was impossible for us to do so too and therefore in Consideration of our Frailty and to give us an Example he came into the World strip'd of all that pleases and gratifies corrupt Nature that he might teach us the safest and surest way to mortifie our Love to the World and to our selves and to become poor in Spirit And that all our Glosses and Explications on this Doctrine and Life of Jesus Christ are false appears by the Fruits of them in our Hearts and Lives 11. That the Reign of Antichrist prevails in the World at present few Protestants do deny that his Empire is more Universal than is generally believed appears from this that the Devil being properly the Antichrist by counter-acting the Designs of Jesus Christ under a Cover of his Religion and being for him and by infusing his Nature and Qualities into Men he has accordingly instead of the Divine Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth with which Jesus Christ came to inspire all his Disciples he has I say shed among the Professors of Christianity his contrary Evil Qualities of Injustice Malice and Hypocrisie under a Cover of Masses Communions Prayers Preachings and the other outward Forms of Christianity This is too evident a Truth to be denied And under this Cover keeps Men in a vain Amusement and makes
them believe they are good Christians tho' really in their Hearts they have not one of the Qualities of the Spirit of Jesus Christ For instead of loving Poverty they love the Wealth of this World instead of loving Sufferings they love their Pleasures their Ease and their Contentments and instead of being willing to be despised they desire to be honoured and so of all the rest And in L'Antichrist Decouvert A. B. has made appear beyond all Exception that the Spirit of Antichrist prevails among all the Parties of Christendom and that thereby the Devil has with more Cunning and more irreclaimably possest Men with his Spirit and especially the Well-meaning so that the Harlots and openly Wicked will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than they because their Wickedness being manifest they are by the Grace of God more readily converted whereas in these the Spirit of the Devil being converted with the Mask of Jesus Christ he still makes them believe that they are guided by the Spirit of God when they are really acted by the Spirit of Antichrist 12. That the Degeneracy of Christendom proceeds from the Degeneracy of its Guides and Pastors is but too evident to be denied and the Evil is more sad and irremedible that they cannot endure to have it told them The Corruption of the other States of Christendom may be spoken of without exciting so much of Mens Indignation but if the Corruption of the Pastors be touch'd a Man must look for nothing but Rage and Resentment This cannot be spoken of but presently it is a Combination against the Priesthood as our Lord was accused as designing to destroy the Law because he exposed the Corruption of the Scribes and Pharisees All Protestants do generally grant that the Degeneracy of Christendom before the Reformation was chiefly owing to the Degeneracy of its Clergy and we being as far from True Christianity now as formerly there is Ground to think the Matter is not much mended We see what a strange Change the Holy Lives and Doctrine of a few simple Men wrought in the Conversion of many Thousands to the Faith and Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Primitive Church and how little is to be seen of this now The reason of this Difference is not because of their working Miracles for these serve only to confirm the Truth of a Doctrine which being once confirmed there is no more need of them but they are as effectual in all After-ages to those who are firmly perswaded of them so that to such as think they would be bettered if they saw such Miracles is applicable that of Jesus Christ If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one should rise from the Dead Neither can this Difference be imputed to the greater Prevalence of Wickedness now the World being highly corrupted also at that time and that to no small Degree It is to be attributed then to the Difference of the Spirit by which they were animated from that by which the Pastors of the Church are now generally led The things of God are not known but by the Spirit of God and where God finds pure and self-denied Souls he delights to communicate himself to them and to make them the Organs of conveying his Light and Spirit unto others who are not capable of receiving it immediately themselves Mens Minds are generally so extraverted and turned towards sensible things that they cannot be affected with the things of the Spirit of God unless they be conveyed to them by means that may affect their Senses and this is the reason of the great Necessity and Usefulness of the Pastoral Office For this Cause the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among Men full of Grace and Truth And when he ascended into Heaven he sent the Comforter who led his Apostles into all Truth and by their means conveyed the same Light and the same Spirit into others and they were filled with the Holy Ghost so that it was not so much they who spoke and acted as the Spirit of God by them and there their Doctrine and Lives had a wonderful effect in the Converting of others even as one Flame kindles another they had a living not a dead and barren Knowledge of Divine Things their fervent Charity did animate all their Words and Actions and there was nothing impossible to such a Faith and such a Charity this made them pray fervently to God for his Divine Grace to others and he would not deny the Requests of such ardent Charity And his holy Spirit encreasing the Vertue and Efficacy of their Prayers and Labours did inseparably join his powerful Operations to awaken convert and purifie the Hearts of others This made St. Paul say When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth as the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ manifested by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart This wrought the Conversion at one time of 3000 and again of 5000 at one Sermon of St. Peter This made the Officers who were sent to apprehend Jesus Christ say Never Man spoke like this and the Evangelists of our Lord 's preaching That he taught as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and they were astonish'd at his Doctrine For his Word was with Power or to speak with St. Paul in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit and of the Power of God that is they made the Operations of the Spirit of God to be felt in the Heart Moreover they taught Men by their Deeds as well as their Words the Holiness of their Lives and their Abstraction from all earthly things did procure Belief to all they said and let the World see that they bid others do nothing but what they firmly believed and heartily set about themselves So that the whole Body of the Church was sound when to be a Minister of Jesus Christ it was required only to embrace an Evangelical Life and to give Evidence of the sincere Love they bear unto Jesus Christ and of being led by his Spirit But wicked and worldly Men crept into the Church and their number increasing they got themselves in to be the Pastors of it then under an outward Cover of Piety and Religion Men were turned away from an Evangelical Life and led to Damnation Then the Pastoral Office was turned into a Trade whereby Men might gain Honour or Greatness or Wealth in the World or at least their Living Then Men fitted themselves for the Pastoral Office not by Humility and Purity of Heart but by Study and Learning then the Pastors becoming generally void of the Spirit of God were deprived of the true and living Knowledge of the things of God and
God giveth them Light and they shall reign for ever and ever see Isa 60. In a Word she makes appear that all the Holy Scriptures by Parables Figures and Prophecies do point out this Kingdom of Jesus Christ with Men This being the Sum of the Designs which God has over Men. And that this is a just and necessary thing it is unconceivable that God would have created this beautiful World only for this short Life of Penitence only for our Misery only to serve Devils and Men as Instruments of their Wickedness and Rebellion against him and then should abolish this great Work of his Hands That it is most just that all things be re-establish'd in their first State that all things be restored that Reparation be made of all the Injuries and Affronts done to his Humanity and to those who loved and followed him and that all that has been done unjustly be repaired both bodily and spiritually and that on the same Theatre that God having given Man both a Body and Soul there must be likewise a Paradise for both the Presence of God being the compleat Paradise of the one and all this visible World with all things in it freed from all Malignity and God dwelling visibly and bodily with Man therein the Paradise of the other which will endure for ever For God's Recompences are not temporal and finite but eternal as coming from an eternal God who cannot give finite or imperfect Gifts XLI These are the most singular of her Accessory Sentiments and by what has been said it appears that they are neither inconsistent with themselves nor with the Holy Scriptures nor with the necessary and essential Truths of Christianity that they serve to clear a thousand Passages of the Word of God that they tend to promote the Love of God and of all Men and lead us to mortifie our corrupt Nature and to despise this present World A. B. herself did not at first speak or write of these Sentiments but to some Friends and when they had shewn them to others she was troubled knowing that the Devil would take Advantage thereby to make them despise the other Truths necessary for their Salvation even as many of our Saviour's Disciples being offended at a hard Saying of his forsook him and walked no more with him And I would not have offered to give a Summary of those her Accessory Sentiments in this Apology but that they being now all publick in her printed Writings they who have set themselves to give an odious Character of her and her Sentiments to the World will be sure to dress them up in a Fool 's Coat to excite the People to cry out both of her and them Away with them Crucifie them And therefore I have chosen to give a simple and true Narrative of them even of those which seem most singular and extravagant All the Works of God are a Mystery and the most ordinary things the Formation of Man now and all the other Works would seem to us as strange if we were not accustomed to see them every Day Such things are not to be enquired into neither out of vain Curiosity nor from a disputing Humour which begets Presumption and Pride of Spirit for the Divine Mysteries are rather to be admir'd and ador'd than curiously search'd into by our blind Reason Let us make it our great Business to imitate Jesus Christ in Humility and Self-denial if we would be truly enlightned and delivered from all Blindness of Heart God walks with the Simple he reveals himself to the Humble he gives Understanding to little ones he opens his Meaning to pure Hearts and he hides his Grace from the Curious and the Proud Human Reason is weak and may be deceived but true Faith cannot be deceived See Psal 18. 118. XLII Now the Account I have given of the Sentiments of A. B. both as to the Essentials and Accessory Truths of Christianity is a just and true Representation which may be more fully and satisfyingly had from her own Writings And I shall leave it to all impartial Readers to consider whether the Character which some have been pleased to give of her Sentiments as heretical blasphemous ridiculous and extravagant be just and equal and if it be not the Result rather of their Mistakes and Prejudices than a plain and fair Account of her Doctrine and Sentiments The excellent Monsieur Paschal in his Pensees Chretiennes gives it as the most essential and distinguishing Mark and Character of true Religion that it makes its chief Precept and the great and essential Duty of Man to be To love God with all our Hearts and this he says is the peculiar and singular Character of the Christian Religion in Contradistinction to all others And if we shall impartially compare the Doctrine of Christianity as it represented in the Writings of A. B. with the Accounts of it delivered to us in the Systems of Divinity of the respective Parties in Christendom I think it will evidently appear that it is a most distinguishing Character of the former tho' it makes the Love of God the great End of Religion and all the other Duties of it means to bring us to that End and that the other tho' they cannot omit when they give an Account of Christianity to mention this as one of its great Precepts yet they so shuffle and confound Doctrines and give it such a Place in their Systems as may make People lay greater Stress on other things and give them Ground to hope they may be saved without it or without conforming our Lives to the Rules and Life of Jesus Christ which lead to it The End of the First Part. AN APOLOGY FOR M. ANT. BOVRIGNON PART II. An Answer to the Prejudices raised against her Sentiments and Writings I. THERE is nothing more ordinary than for People upon light and weak Grounds to take up Prejudices against the Persons and Sentiments of others and to judge rashly and inconsiderately of them and this is a Fault to which People of all Tempers are subject The Learned the Dogmatical and the Abettors of Parties cannot endure any thing that seems to lessen the Credit of their Sentiments or their Party they presently raise a Hue-and-Cry and do all they can to animate the People Thus the Scribes and Pharisees were full of Spite and Prejudice against our Lord Jesus Christ and inspir'd the People with the same Spirit The generality of Men see with other Mens Eyes and judge with other Mens Understandings they cannot be at the pains to weigh and consider things impartially themselves but they trust to the Skill and Sincerity of those who pretend to judge for them and such for the most part judging rashly and by their Passions lead the Multitude to do so too Yea even Persons of good Inclinations and who have a true Zeal for God and Divine things are apt to commit the same Fault Thus St. Paul before he was
a Christian being a Man full of Zeal and of great Learning and hearing that there were Persons risen up who would destroy the Law and seduce the Simple and that they worshipped the first of these Impostors who was hanged on a Tree and that these new Upstarts were but a Rabble bigotted with that new kind of Folly which was like to hazard the Law of God and this being told him by all his Masters and Teachers the Priests the People his Kinsfolks and Friends instead of informing himself without Prejudice of those Men their Doctrine their Behaviour which would have prevented many false Steps he is carried to reproach and hate and persecute them that he may maintain the Truth of God and cut off Error and Heresie and the Seduction of the People Now what has fallen out in former Times may fall out in this and the most innocent Persons and Writings may meet with the most universal Reproaches and Prejudices It is certainly the Devil's Interest that it should be so and we see how successful his Attempts have been in former Ages He still made it his Business to get on his side those who set up to be the Guides and Leaders of the People and by this means always to oppress blacken and discredit Truth and Innocence II. Now the Person and Writings of A. B. have been loaded with as many Reproaches and Prejudices as any in this Age and that both in her Life time and since her Death Where-ever she went the Church-men of the respective Parties breath'd nothing but Fire and Faggot against her in their Pamphlets and Pulpits made her to pass for the worst of Hereticks and her Writings for a Sink of all Heresies and Blasphemies and thus it was easie to inspire People with Rage and Fury so that if they could have had her to have ston'd her to Death they would have thought they had done good Service and no sooner is one of her Writings translated into English for the spiritual Good of well-disposed Souls but immediately some are pleas'd to sound the Trumpet and to cry out Heresie and Blasphemy Errors and Delusions and this is enough to frighten a whole Island from looking into these Writings and to breed an Aversion against those who esteem and value them because of the Truths of God contain'd in them It was a remarkable Providence that she met with such Opposition from all Parties while she lived whereby as she discovered impartially the Evils of the respective Sects and Parties into which Christendom is divided so also she clearly vindicated her self from being guilty of the Errors and Heresies of which they accus'd her discovered the Impudence of their Calumnies and Slanders and remov'd from well-dispos'd Persons the Prejudices which had been given them against her We need only then give a short Account of what was laid to her Charge and her own Vindication of herself by which her Sincerity her Innocency her distinct and most rational Knowledge of the Truths of Religion her Orthodoxy and the Subservency of her Writings to the great Ends of Christianity will I hope appear to all unbiass'd Readers III. But first let us premise the Complaint she makes in general of the unjust Measures of her Adversaries how void they were of true Charity and Equity What ever Good or Truth was incontestably in her Writings they conceal'd it they lessen'd it whatever was capable of being turn'd to an Evil Sence they perverted it they pick'd out half Sentences here and there throughout her Writings and on these they put a Sence which she never intended concealing in the mean time what went before or after that might serve to clear the true sence and meaning of the Expression Any Doctrine of Christianity that was not so fully exprest in one Place they were ready to accuse her of denying it tho' she most clearly asserted it in another They were ready to catch at her Words and to interpret them according to the Niceness of the Schools not considering the simplicity and plainness with which she wrote she being intent to make known the Truth to all sincere and well-disposed Souls without regarding that nice and captious Wits would be ready to carp and quibble upon this or the other Word and not allow her to explain her self In short the great End of Christianity being to bring Men to the Love of God and the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and Self-will and this being the Butt of all her Writings as is most evident to any who pleases to read them she makes appear that her Adversaries cannot be Lovers of the Truth or of God that their Aim is not to maintain the Truth and oppose Error else they would rejoice to see this great End of Religion to be the Butt and Substance of so many Writings and that there are uncontestably contain'd in them so great a number of Divine Truths all tending to this End They would own and acknowledge this they would wish to meet with the Truth every where even in the things which seem'd to them obscure and disagreeable to it they would see if these were more clearly explain'd in other Places and if they might well bear a Sence that were agreeable to this great End of Religion or if even the Errors which they thought were contain'd there were no ways destructive of the true Love of God and so for the sake of them the whole Writings need not be forbidden and discredited IV. They may be convinced of the Injustice of the Measure by considering only how hard they would think it to have their own Writings so treated how odd it would seem to them if one should deal with the Sacred Scriptures after that Method and what wretched Conclusions an Enemy of Christianity might thereby draw from them and that if it had been their Luck to have been bred up at the Feet of Gamaliel among the Jewish Rabbies or with Porphyr among the Philosophers the Spirit and Measures by which they judge of Persons Sentiments and Writings would have animated them as much against Jesus Christ himself and had they come but Sixteen Hundred Years sooner into the World and been leaven'd with the same Spirit they should have been listed among the Philo-Judaeus's and the Porphyrs and overlooking the Substance of the Doctrine and Life of Jesus Christ would have pick'd out a half Sentence here and a Word or two there and some Passages of his Life that prejudiced Minds would be readiest to judge hardly of and wrest them to such a Sence and give all such a Turn as might make him pas for a Blasphemer a Seducer a Subverter of the Law of God a Teacher of Doctrines that would turn the World upside down one Self-conceited who spoke well of himself and ill of others who were more learn'd and pious than himself in a word give such a Character and Narrative of him patch'd up of some shreds of the Story of his Life and
Doctrine written by his own Disciples and dress him up in such a mock-Robe as might make him and his Doctrine the Object of the Scorn and Hatred of the People I know People flatter themselves with the Opinion that it were impossible for them to have treated Jesus Christ at this rate as the Scribes and Pharisees in our Saviour's Days imagin'd that had they liv'd in the Days of their Fathers they would not have persecuted and kill'd the Prophets as their Fathers did and yet our Lord shews them they have the same Spirit tho' they seem'd to honour the Prophets * by building their Tombs and garnishing their Sepulchres and saying If we had been in the Days of our Fathers we would not have been Partakers with them in the Blood of the Prophets Yet they persecuted those who were then sent amongst them and that the same Temper and Spirit reigns now in the world A. B. makes appear in her Writings and her Enemies did discover it in their Practices V. But it will be said they had good Reason to treat her as they did We come therefore to consider the Prejudices raised against her Doctrine and they have not been wanting to represent her as the Grossest of Hereticks but Wisdom is justified of her Children And 1. They accused her of denying the Holy Trinity and ground their Accusation upon this that she did not approve of the Word Person to express the Distinction of the Trinity and us'd to explain it by Comparisons and Similitudes Whereas she declares That she believes in one Divine Essence the most Holy Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost that the Essence of God is incomprehensible and so is the Mystery of the Trinity that it is a great Presumption in Men who cannot comprehend that which is in themselves what their Memory Understanding and Will is yet to imagine they will easily comprehend what is in God That our Soul which is nothing but a silly Creature is yet invisible and incomprehensible to us tho' it be in us and tho' we perceive and feel it to act and operate that no Body can comprehend what a Soul is and yet Men are so presumptous as that they will needs know what is in God and what the Three Persons of the Trinity are which are in him and that not for to honour or love him the more but that they may be able to talk and dispute well of them and to draw evil Consequences from them That God made St. Augustin know that this was incomprehensible by any Creature when once walking by the Sea-side and labouring to understand it he saw a Child running to fetch the Water of the Sea in his Hands into a little Hole which he observing and asking the Child what he did he replied he would have all the Water of the Ocean brought into that little Pit at which St. Augustin smil'd saying You can never do this my Child give over this Vndertaking The Child replied I shall sooner do this than you shall understand what you would comprehend with your Vnderstanding and then evanish'd It is true she makes use of Similitudes to express it by as That there is in God the eternal Understanding the eternal Word the eternal Love or Heart as there is in Man the Understanding the Speech and the Heart That there is in Man the Understanding the Memory and the Will which is a Figure of the Holy Trinity that God One in Essence has in himself Three essential Qualities which are diverse Righteousness Goodness and Truth and that nothing can be done by God but with Righteousness Goodness and Truth altogether and if one of these Qualities be wanting it cannot come from Gâ—d who is indivisible in these Three qualities which may be call'd Persons That she does not pretend thereby to give adiquate Notions of the Mystery of the Trinity which she declares is incomprehensible but that instead of the dark dry and barren Speculations of the Schools thereabout we may consider those Three Divine Qualities without which God never does any Work And to find if we are the Children of God we must see if we partake from him of those Three Qualities of the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God and if we do not find them all Three together in our Souls we ought not to perswade our selves that we are the Children of God for as we approach unto him by Love accordingly those Three Qualities encrease in the Soul and as we find our Souls to be estranged from Righteousness Goodness and Truth accordingly we are estranged from God In using Similitudes thus to express the Holy Trinity she does nothing but what St. Augustin and other of the Ancient Fathers have done and she is far from saying that nothing else is comprehended in the Holy Trinity but that we ought to be taken up with such useful Considerations of what is in God rather than feed our Minds with fruitless Speculations which tend only to nourish Debate and Curiosity And when once some of her Friends told her that the Churchmen accus'd her of making the whole Mystery of the Holy Trinity to consist in the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God she answered expresly They lye in so saying They said to her that she had said in the mean time more than once that Righteousness Truth and Goodness were the Trinity that was in God she replied I had no design to search into the Depth of this Mystery and to say that all did consist in this but that this was the most profitable and the most saving Consideration that we could have in the matter of the Holy Trinity of which the ordinary Speculations are often rash and unprofitable and for the most part injurious to God She did not desire to use often the Word Person because she look'd on that as a Word proper to created Beings that Jesus Christ is indeed a Person in God being truly Man as we are Yet she sometimes expresses the Mystery by the Word Persons In Temoign de Verite Part 2. p. 199. she says I do not believe that there is any Body living upon Earth who does more honour the most Holy Trinity than I do And I believe firmly One only God in Three Persons as I have done from my Childhood And how could I deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ since it is seen by all my Books that I hold Jesus Christ for True God and True Man both together even from the Beginning of the World which is to honour him more than to believe that he is God and Man only since he was born in Bethlehem and chargâ—d with our Miseries and Sorrows VI. They accus'd her also of denying the Divinity of Jesus Christ tho' there be nothing more False as appears through all her Writings She declares expresly in the Profession of her Faith that she believes that â—esus Christ is True Eternal God and True Man And in
say he is our Pledge and by his Sufferings has paid the Penalty due to our Sins having died to redeem us while we will suffer nothing nor share in his Pains being well pleased to have our Debts paid with the Goods of another It is on the other hand a great Boldness in those who think they shall be saved by their own Merits without the Merits of Jesus Christ For if Jesus Christ had not merited for them the Grace to do well they were not capable of having so much as one good Thought or Desire of doing one good Work So that all the Grace they have of doing any Good comes from the Merits of Jesus Christ tho' by Ignorance they despise it as poor blinded ones who can discern nothing thro' the Weakness of their Sight For if Jesus Christ had not come to bring Light to the World no body would have perceived his own miserable State and if he had not interceded with his Father no body would have had the Grace to receive his Light so that without Jesus Christ all Men would have remained lost thro' their Blindness and would never have been able to comprehend by what Means they ought to return to God if Jesus Christ had not come to teach them by Word and Deed. And if he had only taught them by Word as the other Prophets no body would have followed him since they believe even yet that it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ and to follow the Evangelical Life But he himself has put it in Practice before Mens Eyes that after his Example they must endeavour to satisfie the Justice of God by the Union of his Sufferings and of his Charity which are Sacrifices more agreeable to God his Father than our unclean Offerings and our Works defiled with Sin If one had mortally offended his Equal he durst not of himself procure Peace and the Pardon of his Offence but he would interpose some Mediator who were a Friend of the offended Person to satisfie his just Wrath. But they who would be saved by their good Works have too much Pride to take Jesus Christ as Mediator but with an up-lifted Head they address to God whom they have so often offended that they rather draw down his avenging Hand upon their Heads than the Pardon of their Sins for God resists the Proud and gives his Heart to the Humble If they join'd their good Works to the Humility of Jesus Christ they might peradventure receive the Mercy of God by his Son Jesus Christ but standing up as the Pharisee who thanked God for his good Works they shall no more be justified than he was when he went out of the Temple Because he who is not cloathed with Jesus Christ is not admitted to his Father since before his Coming into the World all Men were Enemies to God So that he who is not cloathed with Jesus Christ cannot be acknowledged for his Friend far less for his Son seeing the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the only Son in which he takes Pleasure and not in another He therefore who thinks to go to God without the Mediation of Jesus Christ will be rejected as unworthy and rash because Jesus Christ is the only Door of Salvation They are Thieves who would enter by the Windows into the Kingdom of Heaven for that only belongs to the Disciples of Jesus Christ In which those greatly deceive themselves who believe that they may enter into it while they despise him or reject his Merits which have opened the Door to all those who will follow and imitate him Yet not to those who esteem Jesus Christ and his Merits but with all this will not embrace Penitence under a Pretext that Jesus Christ has satisfi'd wholly for their Sins comprehending even those which they shall commit in time to come as well as those which they have committed in time past In which Error are the most part of those who are called Christians yea amongst others the most perfect We hear nothing more ordinary in their pious Discourses than to say God is Good he will save us and Jesus Christ died to give us Entry into Paradise And with these fine Discourses every one thinks they are sure of Paradise even tho' they live and die in their natural Motions and Sentiments which is a great Mistake for God tho' he be good will save no body but him who shall satisfie his Divine Justice The Merits of the Death and Suffering of Jesus Christ will never be applied but to Souls which are regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ For he has not suffered but for those who from a natural Life shall enter into a spiritual one For Jesus Christ says that all Righteousness must be fulfilled Now it were not just that they who have forsaken a Dependance upon God to depend upon their own Wills should enjoy the Merits of Jesus Christ without being converted and embracing his Spirit since he came not but to bring Sinners to Repentance and he who continues to persevere in his natural Life cannot repent and so cannot enjoy the Merits of Jesus Christ since it is not for those that he has suffered or merited but only for those who by Ignorance or Frailty have quitted their Dependance upon God and delight themselves in the Creatures without thinking they ought to delight themselves in God alone They lived in the Darkness of Death without knowing it Therefore Christ had Compassion on them and offered himself to his Father promising unto him that they should be converted and do Penitence provided he brought them the Light of Truth by which they might get out of their Darkness and their Errors In this Jesus Christ was our Pledge and answered for our Penitence with which we must be saved and not otherwise Therefore they form to themselves imaginary Ways in the Air who think that Jesus Christ is come to save us in speculative Way or by some incomprehensible Mysteries seeing our Redemption is accommodated to our Capacity But the Devil to divert us from taking the straight Way thro' which Jesus Christ walked blinds our Eyes with imaginary Things that we may never come to the Knowledge of the straight Truth making some believe that they cannot be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ and others that his Merits will save them even though they use no Endeavours to imitate and follow him Many other Passages might I bring out of her Writings but these may shew her Sentiments in this Matter The Sum of her Sentiments comes to this That Man turning away his Heart and his Affections from God thereby all Communion between God and Man ceas'd and so Man was plung'd into an irrecoverable State of Sin and Misery as well as the fallen Angels if there had been none to interpose for him with God for whose Sake he should shew him Mercy there being nothing now in Man that could move God to have any Regard for him That Jesus Christ true God and
in his Spirit that he dwelling in our Hearts by Faith may communicate himself to us with all his Graces and Merits It is in the former Sence only that A. B. declares against the common Doctrine Of the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ as if it were a Substitution of total Discharge dispensing with the Obligation that lies on us to live a Life of Penitence and not at all in the Second They who read the Writings of A. B. will see that this is the Summ and Substance of her Sentiments on this Head and that any simple Expressions which seem harsh by themselves are to be interpreted by this Measure And they who consider by what Principles the Generality of the Christian World do I do not say speculate and talk but live and act and what Encouragement the Doctrine and Glosses of Men has given thereunto and how tho' they live in a perfect Contradiction to the Life and Spirit of Jesus Christ yet they hope and believe they shall be saved by his Merits will see how necessary and how seasonable it is to inculcate those Truths upon the Hearts of Men. VIII But because it gives great Offence to some that she says Tho' Christ has satisfied all for us on his part yet that the Merits of his Satisfaction will not be applied to us unless we our selves do satisfie the Justice of God for our Sins and in order to our Purification I shall set down her Sentiment more particularly in this Matter We sometimes stumble at Words and Terms when we grant the thing it self upon the matter and it is like this is the case with many here 1. Then she says That no Man could merit Eternal Life tho' Adam had never sinn'd for all our good Works are but Temporal and bear no proportion to eternal Happiness Heaven and eternal Life is the free Gift of God which he prepared for Man before he created him and so he could not merit it He does not therefore bestow it for our Merits but for his great Mercy and for the Love he bears us He is no Merchant and will not sell his Paradise at any price but will give it freely and he has no need of our good Works or Penitence but because of our Corruption and Infirmity we have great need of them without which we must perish 2. That we having forfeited God's Favour and eternal Life Jesus Christ has merited for us Pardon Grace and Life Eternal upon Condition that we receive and correspond with the Pardon and Grace offered and turn again to God with all our Hearts and embrace the Means that are necessary for this End without which in Justice Pardon and Grace could not be demanded for Man and for our Performance of this Jesus Christ becomes our Pledge and Surety 3. As such he cloaths himself with our Mortality and undergoes all the Parts of this Penitence himself that he might merit Grace and Pardon for Man and might strengthen and direct him how to embrace this Penitence and to follow his Example 4. Upon his Intercession and obtaining of Grace and Pardon for Man the Love of God is not immediatly conferr'd upon Man but the Grace of doing Penitence by which he might recover it And this was a greate Mercy to Man than if God had simply pardon'd him and restor'd him to his Love without suffering the Earth to be accursed or all to be corrupted by Sin since it is to be fear'd Man would have quickly fallen back again into new Sins finding himself as before in all sorts of Delights such as Adam had For we see how Men now turn away their Hearts from God to love the Creatures and themselves even when they see they are so wretched weak and imperfect subject to all sorts of Maladies and to Death and that all the Creatures now do them mischief whereas formerly they honour'd and obey'd them as their Lord and tho' they see themselves and all the Creatures so filthy corrupt and miserable yet they cannot abstain from loving them to the Prejudice of the Love they owe to God How much more would Man have done so in case he had remained as beautiful and perfect after his Sin and all the other Creatures had continued as lovely as before It is to be fear'd he would not have remained in the Love of God if he had recovered it after his Sin by the pure Mercy of God without out the Condition of doing Penitence or without all the other Creatures their being accursed in him since we see Men do yet love this Life that is so miserable and the Creatures that are so wretched and Man feels in himself Contradictions Griefs Displeasures and all sorts of vicious Passions which he cannot govern by his Reason and yet his Spirit is become so brutish that it loves those Miseries and Imperfections tho' he find nothing in himself or the other Creatures but what is worthy of Contempt and Hatred Yet he loves and esteems them to the Contempt of the Love of his God who knowing the Baseness of Man's Heart has given him Penitence as a necessary Mean to withdraw his Affections from this wretched Life that he may turn them to his God who will have Man to love him only And for the same Reason he has permitted all the Creatures which were subject to Man to contract with him the Malediction of Sin that by this Mean occasion might be given to Man to return to the Love of his God the only lovely Object 5. Since this Penitence contains the necessary Means to recover the Love of God and we cannot do this so long as we love Self and the Creatures and this corrupt Love cannot be mortified so long as we gratifie our Senses and our Appetites and enjoy a Paradise here and our Lusts cannot be subdued without feeling the Bitterness Anguish Griefs and Pains of them to extinguish the Sence of the unlawful Pleasure and Delight we took in them Penitence therefore is 1. The turning away our Hearts and Affections from every thing that hinders the Love of God Love not the World c. 2. And in order to this the avoiding all the Occasions that may foster the Love of other things and continually striving against and doing Violence to Self-love Self-will and Corrupt Nature He that will come after me saith our Lord let him deny himself And 3. The embracing willingly the Anguish Bitterness and Pains the Afflictions both inward and outward that must be endured for the purifying of our Hearts and bringing us to the Love of God and let him take up his Cross 6. Jesus Christ has taught us how to undergo this Penitence by his Doctrine and by his Example and follow me 7. It is most unreasonable to think that we are discharg'd from this Penitence because Jesus Christ did thus live and suffer for us for we must have the Spirit of Christ our Old Man must be crucified with him we must be conformed
to his Image we must suffer with him if we would reign with him His was meritorious and expiatory and exemplary ours is absolutely necessary for our Purification By his he obtain'd Pardon and Grace for us and chang'd the Eternal Punishment we deserved into a Temporal Penitence for our Purification and Recovery and to say we cannot undergo this Penitence is to have no Faith in his Merits to believe that it is enough that he did undergo this for us is the greatest Indignity done him and the greatest Cheat that we can put upon our Souls it is to belie and be false to our Surety and our Pledge It is like Bankrupts to swagger and rant it out with our Creditor's Goods because our Surety has paid the Debt for us It is to make Jesus our Slave to suffer all manner of Afflictions Poverty Reproach and Pain for us that we may go to Heaven in the pleasant and broad Way of Honours Wealth and Pleasures It is to be well pleas'd that the Physician has provided wholsome and necessary Physick for our Recovery and has taken it himself for our Direction and Encouragement but tho' we be sick to Death we will not taste it our selves because of the Bitterness of it believing that we shall Recover nevertheless because the Physician has taken it Jesus Christ led this Life of Penitence for us in his visible and mortal Body that he might shew us how ready he is still to undergo it in every one of us by his Spirit 8. God has no need of this our Penitence but we stand in need of it to recover the Love of God He does not covet our Wealth or Honours or Friends or Ease in that he requires of us to be poor in Spirit to deny our selves to take up our Cross and follow Christ to forsake all things since he created all things for Man and would be well pleased he could enjoy them still But Man is become so miserable that he cannot enjoy these things without setting his Heart upon them and turning it away from God and therefore Jesus Christ has given this his Gospel-Law without which no body can recover the Love of God It is a sad Mistake then to think that there is no necessity of good Works but only by way of Gratitude and Thankfulness to God as if he had need of our Acknowledgments or as if we could make him Presents of our Good Works to thank him which cannot be said but in Contempt of the Riches of God who possesses all in himself and seeks nothing without himself and needs not that we should give him any thing all the good Works that Men can do are for no other End but to resist and overcome the Evils of their Corruption And they are as necessary for our Salvation as Bread is for the Life of the Body for we cannot be saved without subduing our Corruption and no Body can do this but by the means of such good Works and such Penitence as stifles and mortifies the Vices and Sins which this Corruption has brought into the Soul 9. It is a Pride to glory in our Penitence since it is enjoined us for our Sins it ought rather to fill us with Humility and Confusion for in the Beginning it was not so God created us to live in all sorts of Delights without any Pain All this beautiful World was created to serve for Pleasures to the Body of Man and God himself was the Delight of his Soul But Sin only has changed that excellent Order and made Man subject to that over which he ought to rule because he had withdrawn his Subjection from God Our Sins have occasioned the Law of Penitence which Jesus Christ came to teach us by Word and Deed. This Penitence does not consist in Undergoing Pennances chosen by our selves and after our Fancy by which the Devil would drive us headlong and excite us to Vain-glory and which usually make Men presumptuous believing themselves to be better than others and that God is obliged to them for their good Works as the Pharisee All this proceeds from Self-love but true Penitence consists in taking patiently whatsoever God permits to befall us either to our Body Estate or Mind and willingly to suffer it in the Spirit of Penitence to satisfie for our Sins for every Moment there falls out Occasions of Suffering and and Submission so that we need not seek for them It is necessary that we practise this Resignation of our Will to God for accomplishing the saving Penitence which he has enjoined us and for the Exercise of all sort of Vertues 10. Since then the Justice of God could not permit that Pardon and Grace should be given to sinful Man but upon Condition that he turn away from Sin to God and in order to that live a Life of Penitence and co-operate with the Spirit of Suffering Self-denial and Mortification which God will communicate to him if he sincerely desire to be saved it is necessary that Man satisfie this Duty which is so just before God and which the Justice of God requires as well as the Nature of the thing it self This is that which she calls Man's Satisfying God's Justice on his Part this is that from which the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ does not procure us a Dispensation for then he had neither been just to God nor us but he merited the Acceptance of it at God's Hands and Grace and Strength for us to perform it and taught us how to undergo it If People are nice and captious and will needs carp at Words and Expressions as Satisfaction and the Satisfying the Justice of God while they understand what is meant by them no body will contend with them about them provided they grant the Truth and Reality of the thing that no body will be saved by the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ without the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and the Recovery of the Love of God It is good Consideration which is now generally assigned why God thought not fit as Governour of the World to pardon Rebellious Man without the Intervention of an expiatory Sacrifice in the Life and Death of Jesus Christ that Men might thereby see the Evil of Sin and God's infinite Hatred and Abhorrence of it and so might be diverted from continuing in it or returning to it It is for the very same Reason that God thought not fit to pardon Man for the Sufferings of Jesus Christ unless he also follow him in a Life of Penitence and Sufferings for we are not so sensible of what others suffer neither does it breed in us such an Abhorrence of that which has occasioned their Sufferings as when we suffer the like Pains and Evils our selves without which we have as superficial a Sense of them as of the Actings on a Theatre And therefore to give us the more lively Sense of the Sufferings of Jesus Christ and to enflame our Love to him
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
is impossible to observe and then to damn us for not observing them that it is to indulge and gratifie our corrupt Nature in following our own Wills and Inclinations and taking our Ease and Pleasure here and yet to give us the false Hopes of eternal Life and Salvation hereafter because of some speculative Doctrines and Opinions and some fine Words and Complements that we give to God Whosoever impartially considers the ordinary Systems that are given of the Christian Religion and the Use that the Generality of People make of them in their Lives and Practice will easily see that they are exactly calculated for dispensing with a Man's following closely the Life and Laws of Jesus Christ and allowing him to gratifie his corrupt and sinful Inclinations in things that do not sound harsh in the World and are not hateful before Men without using the indispensably necessary Means of mortifying the Love of himself and the World and recovering the Love of God It will not be impertinent on this Occasion that the most pious Dr. Henry More in his Divine Dialogues having set down his Reasons of hoping for a glorious State of the Church and a Renovation of it approaching lays down some Principles the Practice of which he thinks would hasten and advance those excellent Times and his last and chief Principle is Faith in the Power of God and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ which he has promised to all Believers that by this Assistance we may get the Conquest over all our Sins and Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God that through the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us we are able to be reduced to that Rectitude of Life and Spirit which our Saviour sets out in his Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in the Gospels It is this Doctrine he says that must renew the World in Righteousness and bring on those glorious Times For what Doctrine but this says he can reach the Hypocrisie of Mens Hearts who under Colour of not being able to be rid of all their Sins will set themselves against none or but the least considerable or will be sure to spare their darling Sins and perpetually decline that Self-resignation which is indispensably required of every true Christian nay they will quit none of them under Pretence we must necessarily retain a gradual Imperfection throughout And they will be sure to pitch on that Degree that is most for their own Ease and the Satisfaction of their own Lusts It is this Faith he says in the Promise of the Assistance of the Spirit of Christ in the new Birth that must renew the World into the Living Image of God and make all the Nations of the Earth Blessed which must bring the new Jerusalem from Heaven and will call down God himself to pitch his Tabernacle amongst Men. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Much more to this purpose is said there by that excellent Person If this be a Doctrine so necessary for renewing the World and awakening Men out of their deadly bloth and Slumber in their Sins what need have all the Pastours of the Church to lay it to heart themselves and withal to inculcate it more earnestly on the People And tho' perhaps in some particular Churches their Sermons Confessions of Faith and Catechisms have propagated quite contrary Doctrine yet that O! they may not continue to sow Pillows to the Armholes of Sinners and blow them up with the false Hopes of Salvation Wo to the Watchmen that do so Let us remember that the Possibility of obeying the Commands of God and the Duty of tending always to Perfection thro' Faith in Jesus Christ is the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and also of the holy Fathers The Love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit in the Hearts of those who are truly justified And this begets the Love of our Neighbour and the fulfilling of the Law And this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him c. It is an impious thing to say the Commands of the Spirit are impossible Basil in verba Mos Attende tibi c. We detest says S. Augustin the Blasphemy of those who say that there is any thing impossible commanded by God to Man and that the Commands of God may not be observed by every Man This Doctrine has no dangerous Consequence provided 1. it be not founded on a Presumption of Man's Strength but only in the Power and Strength of the Holy Spirit 2. That they who have not attained to Perfection yet are not excluded from Salvation if they be in the Way to Perfection and tending to it 3. That it be not said that in that State there is not a Possibility of Sinning yea and of perishing 4. That it be acknowledged that this is not a Perfection of Degrees free of all Imperfection Yea the Scripture tells us of some that walked in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless But that the contrary Doctrine has mischievous and most damnable Consequences has been made appear Were it not better says one how imperfect so ever we are yet to hearken to those sincere and generous Souls that we may be animated by Hope and strengthened in God to become what we are not yet than to give ear to cowardly Seducers who as the guilty Spies in Moses's Time make the Peoples Hearts to melt and dispose them by their diabolical Lyes and Calumnies to rebel against God and to return into Egypt It is true say they the Land is a good Land flowing with Milk and Honey but the Cities are great and strong and there are mighty Giants there and a strong People we cannot overcome them for they are stronger than we It is true say they at present the State of Regeneration and of perfect Christianity is an excellent thing full of Divine Joy and Delight but it is of hard Access there are high Walls of Difficulties Sin and the Devil are strongly fortified in the Hearts of Men there are strong Passions and a profound Corruption there we can never overcome this which is stronger than we who being so frail cannot exactly do that which God has commanded us for that End These are the execrable Tongues and the living Interpreters of the Will of Satan whom they will curse to all Eternity who have been so unhappy as to hearken to them and to live in Sloth and be seduced by their Means Let us go up let us go up said Caleb and Joshua wisely let us go up boldly and possess this Land certainly we shall be stronger if we strive to please the Lord he will bring us into it and will give it to us Let us not rebel against the Lord let us not fear those Enemies we
and a great Dishonour done to Jesus Christ but whosoever reads without Prejudice the Sixth Letter of the Second Part of Solid Vertue and the Accessory Letter in the end of that Part will see how rashly they condemn her There she says That Jesus Christ was united always to his Heavenly Father in his Superiour part is most true I have written that he never contracted Sin tho' he contracted all the Maledictions of Sin after he cloathed himself with our Mortality But he resolving to become a Mortal Man subjected himself to all the Miseries both of Body and Mind which Sin had brought into humane Nature and according to this he felt in his natural Will a Rebellion to the Will of God in Sentiment but never in Consent and resisted this Rebellion which he felt in his Corruption for he says I came not to do my own Will but the Will of him that sent me Now if his own natural Will had been so inseparably united to the Will of his Father to what purpose would he have distinguish'd these two Wills since they were but one For he gives us sufficiently to understand thereby that his own Will was Evil since he would not follow it but that of his Father which alone he knew to be Good for there is nothing Good but God and Jesus Christ himself had nothing Good in him but what God did operate there so that as he was God he was most Good most Wise and most Powerful but as Man he was every way frail as all other Men since he voluntarily cloathed himself with their Miseries in the Womb of the Virgin and became then truly Man of the corrupt Race of Adam And in this corrupt mass he felt a Rebellion of his Will against the Will of God which all Men feel in themselves And therefore he behov'd to resist his own Will and contradict it with so much Vehemence that he sweat Blood in the Garden where he says also to shew his wrestings my Soul is heavy even unto Death and to his Father Not my Will but thino be done after his own Will had pray'd If it be possible let this Cup pass from me and even being on the Cross he says My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Could he say in Truth that he was forsaken by his Father if he had not found in his Inferiour part the separation of his Will from that of God he could not believe nor say that he was forsaken of his eternal Father since his Superiour part was never divided from him one Moment For if it had been never so little separated he had certainly fallen into Sin as other Men whereas it may be said to the Praise of Jesus Christ exclusively of all other that he never sinn'd and that his Soul remain'd still pure and immaculate in the Frailty and Rebellion with which he charg'd himself for the Love he bare to us doing as a most faithful Brother who throws himself into a Sink of Uncleanness to draw out his Brother whom he sees perishing without Succour and Help For Jesus Christ according to his humane Nature is truly our Brother come of Adam our common Father and he saw in the Bosom of his Father that we were all lost in the Sink of our Self-will Therefore he would needs throw himself into it to draw us out and save us from those Dangers Would you think it a dishonour if your Brother should voluntarily throw himself into a Sink to get you out of it when without his Help we could not Recover but must perish for ever would you not rather be oblig'd to honour such a Benefactor and to esteem as Jewels the Filth that he had contracted to deliver you from Death How can you think that this is to dishonour Jesus Christ All those things are so clear that it is a wonder how Men find Difficulty in them but they judge of God and his Works as they would of their Equals and would attribute Honour to Christ by the Contempt they have for his Person Seeing he would not be so valuable in his humane Nature if he had not therein a Will rebellious to the Superiour part of his Soul for in that case he would have had nothing to fight against and consequently could not carry the Victory which belongs only to victorious Combatants and not to those who are in Quiet and without Enemies And if Jesus Christ had not charg'd himself with our corrupt Will he could not endure and suffer for in this case all his Sufferings would have been insensible by the inseparable Union with God who is Impassible as well as Immortal And of necessity this Divinity of Jesus Christ behov'd to be in some way separated from his Humanity for to work our Redemption For abiding in this perfect Union with the Divinity he could not satisfie for Man since Man himself owes this Satisfaction to the Divinity seeing he alone had done Evil against the Will of God he also ought to repair it but God ought not to satisfie himself for guilty Man since being Independent on all things he has no need of Men nor of their Satisfaction but Jesus Christ as Man being the true natural Brother of Men would needs for the Love he bare them charge himself with the Miseries and Sins into which they had wilfully plung'd themselves And I think Sir you will find in the Scripture that Jesus Christ was even made Sin for Men. Not that it is to be understood that Jesus Christ ever sinn'd or actually followed the rebellious Will of his humane Nature But the Inferiour and Mortal part gave him Combats and Assaults which Jesus Christ behov'd to resist Jesus Christ also could not in Justice say to Men as he does Be ye Followers of me if it had not been so since their rebellious Wills could not attain to the Perfection of a Will altogether holy and united with that of God And if God required of Men the Imitation of Jesus Christ in case he had not had Rebellion in his humane Nature he should have required of them impossible things as some erroneous Persons would maintain saying and preaching that it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God or the Law of the Gospel and tho' these are Blasphemies against God many believe them because this Doctrine flatters their Corruption and lets them live quietly in their Sins and Negligence on this false Supposition that they cannot keep the Commands of God nor imitate Jesus Christ The Will of Jesus Christ himself his Apostles and all Persons living in the World even tho' they were regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ have all of them their natural Evil-wills and all their Vertues and Perfections consist in resisting them manfully which they must do even till Death for tho' they have overcome their own Wills by force of Resistance yet it is but asleep or mortified and may be awakened or revive by diverse Accidents Therefore a regenerate Person
himself has still his Self will to fight against even to Death Wherefore the Apostle says Our Life is a continual Warfare and Jesus Christ makes appear sufficiently that he had his Self-will to resist even to Death when towards the end of Life he yet prays Not my Will but thy Will Father be done But if you cannot understand these things says she leave them for those who shall understand them take only of my Writings what is good and profitable for your Soul and suspend your Judgment as to the rest till God give you Light for there are many things in them which it is not necessary for the Salvation of many to understand And it is far better to know well how to love God than how to speak well of Vertue Thus it appears with what Force and Evidence she advances this Sentiment and yet how far she is from requiring a Belief of it from all as of necessity to Salvation how clearly she shews that it is so far from dishonouring Jesus Christ or being contrary to his Purity in that State of Trial and Temptations to which he voluntarily subjected himself that on the contrary it manifests the greatness and constancy of his Love to God the ardency of his Charity for Men the firmness of his Adherence to God amidst all Temptations the value of his Merits and Satisfaction for us and the encouragement he has given us by his Example to resist all Temptations and to follow his Steps and to depend on him for Succour and Compassion since we have not a High-Priest who cannot be touch'd with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all Points tempted like as we are yet without Sin In this Passage we see also how expresly she asserts our Redemption by Jesus Christ and his Satisfaction for our Sins They who desire this Matter handled at more length may find it in Oecon. Div. Part 5. p. 21 to 60. and in the Accessory Letter above-mention'd I shall here only add that we ought not to stumble at harsh Expressions when we know the main intent of them as St. Paul says Christ was made a Curse and Sin which seems most harsh There is an ambiguity in the Words Evil Corrupted and Corruption which may either signifie Sin it self or the Effects and Consequences of it So the Will signifies sometimes the Superiour Faculties of the Soul sometimes the Bent and Inclination of sensible Nature to please it self and in this last Sence one may have a Self-will evil and corrupted yet without sinning when he resists it So the Summ of her Sentiment is that Jesus Christ took on him not the act of Evil or Sin but the Impulsions the Inclinations the Temptations weaknesses of the Inferiour Will of sensible Nature not to consent to it in any thing but to resist it and to make all these die in himself by the Power of his Spirit and his Eternal Light and by means most contrary to the Inclinations of sensible Nature that he might the more help and encourage his Brethren to the same Fight and Victory XVII To some her Sentiments concerning the State of Children before they have attain'd the use of their Reason is no small stumbling to wit That the Will of Children is bound up in the Will of the Parents till they have attained the use of their Reason and can use their own Free-will themselves then they are free to choose Good or Evil and to be sav'd or damn themselves according to this Choice But before they come to the use of Reason this Choice is in the Power of their Parents who may save or damn them even as they can give them natural Life or Death because of the strict Union and Sympathy between the Body of the Mother and of the Child in the Womb. If she takes in Poyson the Child dies if Physick it is healed for these two Bodies are but one and the same Substance divided into two parts This is true also as to the Soul so that if a Mother give the Child in her Womb to the Devil it is his till being come to the use of Reason it resists the Devil renouncing him with its Free-will and abjuring its evil Inclinations to become the Child of God And if Fathers or Mothers were true Christians or Persons regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ undoubtedly they would produce also Christian Children in this Regeneration and till they had attain'd the use of their Reason they would always be God's by the Free-will of their Parents but if they become Wicked of their own Wills after this they are free to do it and their Parents cannot hinder them I know many doubt of a Child dying in Infancy can be damn'd but it is for want of Divine Light that they do not comprehend the Works of God with whom it is as Just to damn the Child of a wicked one as it is to save the Child of a just Man for he has united inseparably the Will of the Father to that of the Child as he has united the Body of the Child with that of the Mother And if they will condemn this for an Injustice they may as well hold it an Injustice that all Men are fallen in Adam which would be a Blasphemy against God He created at the Beginning all Men in Adam as he did all the Trees of one kind in the first Tree of that kind c. and all things with Seeds for to produce each one their like which will never change for the Works of God are Eternal being created by an Eternal God and Man not being capable of using this Free-will in his Childhood of necessity it must subsist somewhere to be preserv'd till it may reside in the Person for whom it was created As we see the Free-will of all Men was in the Free-will of Adam since all are Partakers of his Sin and Miseries that he brought upon Man for it is most certain that God could not have given to Man an inclination to Evil which he feels from his Birth nor the Miseries of Body and Mind in which he finds himself For God being all Good cannot do any Evil and we must of necessity conclude that the Free-wills of Men were in the Free-will of Adam when he sinn'd And since all Christians believe that all Men sinn'd in Adam why ought they not by the same Consequence to believe that Children sin in their Parents or are damn'd in them The Catholicks believe that all Children are sav'd provided they be baptized and that those Children shall be damn'd who shall die without Baptism but that they shall not endure the Pains of Hell as those who sin with their Free-will It is true as in Paradise there are diverse Degrees of Glory signified by those Words of Scripture which say In God's House there are many Mansions there are also diverse Punishments in Hell but it is not true that all Children dying without outward Baptism shall be
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
Profession of this new Worship and are joined to those Persons and their Opinions Now she establish'd no new Worship nor new Exercises nor Laws nor Rules that savour of a Sect but only by her Life and Writings call'd on People to return to the Love of God and to imitate the Life of Jesus Christ in which State they were not and without which they could not be saved In her Letter to M. Reinboth Superintendant in Holstein I am very far says she from making a new Church as some maliciously slander me for I bring no new thing and Novelties are very displeasing to me I am careful therefore not to introduce any but I labour to advance in a Gospel-Life and to practise it And all my Writings and all I said formerly to well-disposed Persons aimed only at this and I forbear now to speak to them because I found it was unprofitable Your Preachers wrong me greatly when they cry out that I draw their People from them for in the ten Months I have been in Holstein I have not made Acquaintance with so much as one Person not so much as with my Landlady so that I give them no ground to say or think that I strive to draw People to form a new Church or teach a new Doctrine seeing that which Jesus Christ left us is the most perfect and the last that God will send unto Men. No new thing needs be invented but we should labour to perfect our selves in it and to put it truly in Practice instead of Disputing about it for all these Disputes are raised by the Devil to bring Hatred Divisions and Discords amongst Christians whereas the Church of God should be united in Peace and Love in the meek Spirit of Jesus Christ and it is now divided in as many Parties as there are different Sects which is lamentable and disturbs the Peace of Christian Souls and makes that they do not love one another tho' Jesus Christ has so earnestly recommended to them to love one another They are all partial and only love the Party which they have undertaken to stand by or defend This proceeds from an Antichristian Spirit and not from the Spirit of Christ XX. They libell'd her that she despised Sermons Sacraments Pastours Priesthood and all Government which were all most horrid Calumnies This says she in her Letter to Dr. Nieman Superintendant in Holstein is a gross Calumny for I wish with all my Heart that both Church and State may continue in Vigour for otherwise there would be no Knowledge of God in the Land nor Commonwealths maintained Seeing Preachings and Sacraments preserve amongst Men the Memory of sacred things and States keep their People in their Duty by Justice or else there would be nothing but Confusion and the Good would be destroyed by the Wicked if there were no Government and Magistrates to rule and govern them I indeed despise the Abuse of Churches and Sermons and Sacraments but not the Use of them nor the Essence of these which are established by God as is also Government and Magistracy And there is a great Difference between the despising a thing in it self and the Abuse that is made of it For it is one thing to say that every Sect abuses the Holy Scriptures and another to say that the Scripture is of no Worth or to despise it because many abuse it Now it seems Buchardus would make People believe that I despise all these Holy Things when I despise only the Abuse of them as true Christians ought to do who lay to Heart God's Honour They ought to lament when they see Men to degenerate as to the Love of God that they seem to hold meerly to the Bark of the things ordained by God without squaring their Lives by them They say I despise the Sacraments and other Offices of Piety while I believe there is no body that esteems them more than I do For the Quakers accused me by their defamatory Treatise That I had an abominable Doctrine sending Persons to Churches Sermons or Sacraments or other outward Solemnities desiring to infer from this that I had not the Spirit of God since I still esteemed those outward Devotions and also incited others to make use of them as Means to approach unto God Your Preachers may read what I have written in that Advertisement upon this Head so that I need not enlarge my self farther here but will satisfie them as to what they say That in effect I despise the Sacraments and other outward Devotions because I do not go my self to the Church nor to the Sacraments and they will needs reject all that I say in the Praise of Holy Things because I do not observe them my self to give an Example to others and would infer from thence That I speak with Dissimulation in praise of Holy Things and not sincerely as I think in my Heart This convinces me that they no ways know me For if they only knew me outwardly they would sufficiently see that I am sincere and not at all feigned or dissembled so that if I had in my Heart a Contempt for the Sacraments and other outward Devotions I would openly declare it by Word and Writ for I have overcome the World and am not afraid to tell the Truth of what I know I have indeed written against the Abuse of the Sacraments and other outward Solemnities but I never spoke against the things themselves seeing they are good and have often serv'd me as Means of Union with God But if I do not go now to the Church or Sacraments it is not out of Contempt of Holy Things but because I have no longer so great need of outward Means of Union with God as I had formerly when the Conversation of Men and the Diversion of the Cares of temporal Affairs did divert my Attention from God I retired then to Churches and approached the Sacraments that I might be the more recollected and united to God But since God has given me the Grace to find this Recollection in my little Chamber and to entertain my self in Spirit with God in Solitude I have not thought it so necessary to use these outward Ceremonies which sometimes would serve me for a Distraction to my inward Recollection This is partly the Reason why I have left them off but this is not all For if I had the Freedom to go to Church I would go to it on the Days commanded and would receive the Sacrament at the Times appointed Since I am under the Ordinances of the Roman Church Jesus Christ teaches me to obey the Laws both of God and Men as he himself did on Earth obeying Caesar and other Superiours tho' they were sometimes evil but their Ordinances good as I have particularly shewn in the said Advertisement But I cannot go to Church without hazard of my Life and it is not lawful for me to expose my self to so evident Dangers and Necessity has no Law There are Persons in the
Roman Church who do as your Preachers and say that I am become a Heretick and therefore would think they did God good Service to take away my Life and have even watched divers Occasions to murther me which God discovered to me timously that I might avoid them and if I would yet go to their Churches I think I should not come out alive but they would stone me as they did S. Stephen for having spoke the Truth And being born and brought up in the Roman Church it is not permitted me to go to another without sinning mortally according to their Ordinances so that by Force I must stay in Solitude and not go to Church which I suffer willingly and comfort my self that so many Fathers Hermits were so agreeable to God while they lived in the Desarts and did not use the Sacraments nor other outward Solemnities And in her forecited Letter to Mr. Reinboth As to what you tell me says she that you wish I had not touched the Ecclesiastick State I could not omit it since for them particularly that Work was made The Light of the World and they ought all to thank God that he has permitted their Faults to be known that they may amend them while they are yet in this World But in order to this they must really desire to become true Christians such as I have described them for otherwise they will take God's Admonitions for the Reproofs of a Wife which they will not endure I pardon them for they do it out of Ignorance thinking these are Novelties tho' they be the ancient Truths of God but a little grievous to those who live according to the Motions of corrupt Nature For it would always bear Rule be praised and esteemed and cannot endure Reproof nor bear its Faults without taking the Alarm or avenging it self opposing still the Truth that reproves it and will not acknowledge its Fault This is the Way of a natural Man who has not yet overcome himself in which your Pastours seem yet to be fix'd since they would blame me for speaking the Truth of the Degeneracy of the Ecclesiastick State of which too much cannot be spoken and they themselves ought to publish it if they were free of Passions and regarded more the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls But impartial and disinterested Persons are no longer to be met with Every one looks to his own Advantage his own Glory and Profit and when they are in this State I need not wonder if your Pastours blame me since I bring them no Profit Advantage or Vain-glory. This is not that I will not honour or prefer Church-men in their Dignities since I esteem them as the Lieutenants of God of which I have spoken sufficiently in the Advertisement against the Quakers For I always distinguish the State from the Person I honour Priests Magistrates Judges and other Superiours because God has establish'd this Order upon Earth without which Men would be much more disorderly But I cannot honour the Faults of all those Persons who are plac'd in State and Dignity since they seem to me more heinous in such than in the Common People and I remark that Jesus Christ despised wicked Priests and Judges more than he did private Sinners for he dismissâ—d the Woman taken in Adultery saying only to her Go and sin no more He called an Usurer to be an Apostle he suffered a Magdalen a common Sinner to kiss and follow him But he does not so treat the Pharisaical Priests or Judges and Superiours but gives them publickly many Reproaches and Contempts calling them so often Hypocrites whited Sepulchers Generation of Vipers and saying they made clean the out-side of the Cup and Platter but within were full of Corruption and dead Mens Bones And if you had liv'd Sir in the Times of Jesus Christ and heard him thus despise and condemn the Priests and Superiours you would have taken Offence that he blamed so particularly the Ecclesiastick State since you take Offence now that I blame the Faults which God has made known to be universally in that State And if you believe there are amongst others some good Men who are not guilty of the Faults that I have marked in that Light of the World it is not of them that I speak since I will not blame the Office in it self seeing God has established it and Jesus Christ himself honour'd it even in wicked Persons whom he reproved for many Faults for after he had healed the Leper he commanded him to go shew himself to the Priest It is not to be believ'd that this was to a holy Priest since he was of the same Synagogue with those who out of Envy crucified Jesus Christ but he would teach the Respect and Honour that ought to be had to the Priestly Dignity tho' the Vices of the Persons placed in that Dignity are much more displeasing to God than the Vices of others and they will certainly be more punish'd in Hell for their Dignities and Offices which they have unworthily discharged Therefore I had more ground to touch the Ecclesiastick State than any other on that Occasion when I was conversing with Ecclesiastick Persons For it would not have touched them so nearly to have spoken to them of the deplorable State in which Lawyers Merchants Physicians and other secular Persons do now live since the Vices of others could not be corrected by those Church-men and they might well correct their own Vices which I discover'd to them to be crept into the Ecclesiastick State for they must account for this before the great Judge I never repented of having touched on that Occasion the Ecclesiastick State since this is the chief Cause of the Degeneracy of Christendom For if the Priests had continued true Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ undoubtedly they would yet draw to that State of Christianity a great Number of People after them But when we see the Heads of the Christian Church degenerate from that Spirit and that they will not so much as hear their Degeneracy spoken of what can be hoped for from the People but that they will become still worse as Experience makes appear c. Thus it appears how far she is from overturning or despising Priesthood and the outward Ordinances how plainly she distinguishes the Offices and Dignities from the Persons the Use of Divine things from the Abuse of them and that she as much honours the former as she exposes the Evils of the latter and why it is the Church-men on all sides raise such a Hue-and-Cry against her I designed once to have set down here her execellent Vindication of the Sacraments and outward Ordinances and the Dignity and Reverence of the Priesthood from the Reproaches of the Quakers in her Advertisement against them But lest it should make this Paper swell too much I have forborn it XXI They accused her that she rejected and despised the Holy Scriptures from which she vindicates her self in many
Places This says she is the greatest Falshood of all for I said from the Beginning that if my Life and Words are not conformable to the said Scriptures they ought not to believe me This I have often repeated since and say it over again now and on all fit Occasions I tell every one that the Sence of the Scriptures is the Nourishment of Souls It seems to me says she a very ill thing to forbid Christians the Reading of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue since it must teach us all that we ought to do and forsake c. The only Good says she that remains in the World is that the Text of Scripture remains in its Integrity that the Devil has never had Power to change and falsifie it but to oppose it only by the Glosses and Inventions of Men who endeavour to accommodate it to the modern Corruption but in vain they cannot change it since they who will follow Jesus Christ may yet find it entire and draw in its Fountain all that is written by the Apostles Prophets and other Souls filled with the Holy Spirit In this the Promise of Jesus Christ is fulfilled That Hell shall never be able to pluck it out of the Hands of the Christians that it may serve for Food and Nourishment to all true Believers who not stopping at the broken Cisterns of human Learning shall draw out of the Fountain of living Water to the End of the World In a Word thro' all her Writings she recommends the Reading of the Holy Scriptures looks on it as one of the greatest Miracles of Providence that they have been preserved uncorrupted and entire to be a standing Testimony against the Professors of Christianity while their Lives are a flat Contradiction to them That the Doctrine of Jesus Christ contained in the Gospels is the last Doctrine that is to come into the World and fully directs us the Way to eternal Life and desires that her Life and Doctrine may be examined thereby and no Regard had to it but in so far as it is conformable thereunto and that she aims at nothing but to perswade People to embrace in their Life and Spirit the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ contained in the Gospel It is true she did not give her self to reading of the Holy Scriptures being immediately and inwardly taught by God the same Truths which are contained in them Every one says she ought to use the Means that lead them best to the Love of God because the Ways to this Love are divers some attain to it by the Means of reading seriously the Holy Scriptures others by humble assiduous Prayers others by Solitude and retiring from human Conversation and so of many others It is of small Moment to know by what Means others have attained to this Love of God provided we take the Means that are most fit for us to attain to it also There are divers Ways as there are divers Sins which are Hindrances in those Ways which every one ought to oppose according as he knows them to be in himself without offering to make one general Law and Rule whereby to lead all to God for he who is not immediately instructed by the Holy Spirit would do very ill if he should not make use of the reading of the Holy Scripture or if he should not search for those who speak by the Holy Spirit for this would be to tempt God to Will that he should instruct all Men immediately while they are so taken up with or wedded to the Affairs of this World And on the contrary it would be very ill done if one should make use of Reading or other outward Means when he has withdrawn from all Creatures and finds the immediate Conduct of God Such a Soul would oppose the Holy Spirit and would hinder the operation of his Graces if it should make use of Reading or other outward Means because in this State it ought not any longer to act but to be passive and follow the Spirit who guides it it without operating any more it self In doing this she is far from despising or rejecting the Holy Scriptures when I am with a Friend and converse with him by Word of Mouth and he answers me after the same manner we will not then make use of Writing or Letters and yet it cannot be concluded from thence that I reject or despise his Letters this way of Communication by Letters is most agreeable but it is for the Absent They who see and converse with one another make no use of Writing but they do not despise it they have a more speedy and delightful way of communicating their Thoughts Thus A. B. having inward and immediate Conversation with God had no need of the Scripture for to know his Will she learned it from his own Mouth and enjoy'd his Presence but they who have not recovered that Divine Conversation must have Recourse to the Scriptures and other outward Means according as they find them helpful to bring them nearer to God till they attain to the Enjoyment of himself And this is very agreeable to St. Augustin's Doctrine in his excellent Treatise de Doctrina Christiana He therefore who is establish'd in Faith Hope and Charity and inviolably retains them needs not the Scriptures unless it be to instruct others Therefore many live in the Desart by these Three without Books Hence I think that in them is already fulfill'd that which is said whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away XXII That she declared so positively that there are no True Christians at present upon Earth and that God would make her the Instrument of renewing the Spirit of the Gospel is another grievous Prejudice against her this was often objected to her and is answered by her in many Places of her Writings It was not Uncharitableness but great Charity to Men's Souls that mov'd her to declare this to all the World She was perswaded that none were True Christians but they in whom the Spirit of Christ did live whose Affections and Desires were set only on things Eternal and not on things Temporal that one could not be a True Christian by serving God and Mammon both by joining the Love of God and Self-love seeking to please Men and to please God too She met with many of good Inclinations but none who were truly Regenerated She did well as she says to tell this and she had done a great Evil in saying the contrary for to have said so to others could not have profited them even tho' it had been true it could not encrease their Holiness but rather give them occasion of Vain-glory Nature being tickled with little But when we are told that we are not True Christians we have reason to use the means to become so and to humble our selves before God that we may obtain his Grace If there are True Christians
that God dwells in my Heart by his Righteousness Truth and Charity and that he makes me govern all my Actions by the square of these Vertues which is a sufficient Evidence to me that it is God who guides me since the Devil and Nature have nothing of these Vertues And therefore there cannot be a surer Testimony that a Soul is guided by the Holy Spirit than when it is possest with the Righteousness Truth and Charity of God I imagine if Bucchardus heard that I say I have the Truth Righteousness and Charity of Moses he will condemn me more than ever having done it so often thro' his Book tho' I had not there spoken openly of the Graces which God had given me But the being condemn'd by so imperfect a Man can do no hurt to my Soul For God knows it is he who commands me to do this and it matters little whether it please or displease Men it is enough to me when it pleases God Yet I will not say that I have the same Degrees of the Vertues Righteousness and Charity that Moses had For God has not reveal'd to me how much of them he imparted to him but I will only say that my Soul is possest in proportion with the same Charity Righteousness and Truth that Moses had but if he had a Pound of each of these Vertues and I an Ounce only I do not at all know neither will I ask for the Vertue of another does not concern me it is enough for me that I be faithful in what is committed to me If God has given me his Divine Love I must do all my Actions and form all my Intentions for this Love without seeking in any thing my own or the Satisfaction of Men and if God has given me his Righteousness I must exercise this Vertue equally in things great and little according to my Employ doing always justly to every one even to my Enemies And God has so planted this Righteousness in the bottom of my Soul that I cannot suffer Injustice towards the Beasts far less towards any Person And the Truth that God has imparted to me is so rooted in my Soul that I suffer for it all sort of Persecutions And tho' it be hard for me to suffer so much for having told the Truth which God commands me I cannot cease to do it For it is better to obey God than Man As to the Accusation of Pride for saying that she underderstood all the Holy Scriptures without having read them that it was enough for the Fathers that they understood what Men had need of then that God now reveals the Secrets which he would then have kept to be hid that the Prophets have indeed declar'd all that must come to pass but neither they themselves nor any others understood their Sayings that all this was spoken without blasphemous Pride appears by the rest of the Discourse and the comparing it with all her Writings That the Prophets had Visions of things to come which they themselves did not perfectly Understand cannot be denied that God may give a fuller understanding of them near the time of their Accomplishment is no absurd nor impossible thing that he has been pleas'd so to do to this Virgin all her Writings do testifie that she declares this without Pride as it appears in all her Writings so in that very place cited Where she says Yes Sir I may say it with Confusion that it has pleas'd God to communicate his Secrets to me which he has hid from the Wise and Great of the Earth If such has been his Will who can reprove it or find fault with that which he finds Good Is not he the absolute Lord of all things That which he will he can do without Man's being able to contradict it for no Body is capable of giving Law to him he is as Powerful as Just and Good let us only adore his Designs Tho' I were evâ—n the most wicked Creature in the World he might serve himself of me in what pleases him and then might damn me in the end if I have merited it All things being subject to him all must obey him the Infernal Powers as well as the Celestial and Terrestrial Nothing can resist his Almighty Arm I must submit if God will declare his Marvels by me I cannot hinder him If he will speak by a Stone or Wood he ought to be heard with respect And as to the Expression in one of her Letters wherein she calls her self a Mother of True Believers for which the Anabaptists or Mennonists accuse her of blasphemous Pride she unanswerably vindicates her self I do not wonder says she that those Mennonists are scandaliz'd at it for they do not know from what Fund it is taken and while they think I am led by the same Spirit with them they must needs be scandaliz'd at the simple Truth with which I express my Sentiments They think I would do better to study humble Words to speak soberly in what relates to me and that I ought not to tell so openly the things which God communicates to me for they practice the quite contrary to my Sentiments and yet think they possess the finest Vertues They have for a Maxim to learn to speak humbly and have for Rules to be simply apparel'd to be strictly united to their Party and not to converse nor drink or eat with those who are cut off from it and far less to assist them any manner of way And all these things are contrary to what God has planted in my Soul To study to speak humbly of ones self having a proud Heart is a great Pride accompanied with Deceit and Lying The Pride consists in desiring to be thought Humble before Men by speaking humbly the Lying consists in saying often that which is False for he who says he is Weak and has no Good in him is sometimes so proud at the Bottom that he cannot endure that another should have so mean Thoughts of him and would be ill content to hear some one say that he has not Vertue or that he is not in a State of Perfection Do you not remember Sir that some of those learned Persons ask'd you if I durst say that they are not regenerated in Jesus Christ while none of their Actions do discover this Regeneration For we see them as much wedded to earthly things as other Men for they are well pleas'd to be honoured and served and esteemed by every Body If they were regenerated all these Desires would be dead in them the Spirit of Poverty Sufferings Humility and Charity would effectually live in their Souls for Regeneration consists in dying to ones self to live to God and if they were dead to the World they wuold seek the things which are above and no longer those which are on Earth And yet they who are sunk into the Traffick of the World and gain as much as is possible for them would have it be believ'd that
they are regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ tho' all their Actions be quite contrary to those of Jesus Christ and his Spirit for tho' they speak humbly and have an humble Shew and Gestures yet they have a very proud Heart and then they would have it believed that they are regenerated and would take it in ill part if I would say they are not They do not perceive that it is a greater Pride in them to say that they are regenerated than in me to say that I am a Mother of true Believers for he who is regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives no longer but Jesus Christ lives in him And a Mother of True Believers is nothing but a frail Creature who may yet sin and undo her self It is a small matter to be a Mother or Father of True Believers as to our own Perfection this gives us no more If God give us sufficient Light for the Conduct of our own Life in particular or if he give us of it in Abundance to enlighten others also this will not add one Degree of Glory to our Soul but in as far as we have been faithful Dispensers of the Graces of God For to be only the matter of a Father or Mother of True Believers a Statue or Image of Wood or Stone would serve as well as a living Person for as much as God is not tied to any thing he can as well speak by the Organ of a Statue of Wood or Stone as he did heretofore by Clouds by a burning Bush by Thunder all these matters cannot boast themselves because God operates by them for he has equally Power over all things and makes use of such Instruments as he pleases If he will beget True Believers by my Mouth he can do it as well as by an Image carv'd out of Wood. The Mennonists therefore are very unjust to take Scandal at the Works of God after I had explain'd to them what I meant by that Word a Mother of True Believers that I understood that all those whom God shall make use of for the Conversion of others shall be the True Fathers and Mothers of those who shall become True Believers by their means and that it is after this manner that St. Paul said I have begotten you The Apostle knew well that he had not Power to beget Children to God but he perceived well that God gave him Light in his Understanding and Words in his Mouth and Charity in his Heart and that by all these things many would be regenerated by becoming True Children of God and dying to the Flesh to live to the Spirit I have explain'd this Word of Mother of True Believers by saying that God by my Organ will give his Light to Men by which they shall see their Darkness and receive the Understanding of the Truth This Light with which he will produce True Believers is not mine tho' he produce them by my Mouth my Hand or my Spirit but it is God's even as our Bodies are not our Parents but of God for they cannot make one Hair of our Head yet God calls them Fathers and Mothers and commands to obey them under pain of Damnation This one Instance of an Expression so highly exaggerated formerly and of late which I think she vindicates as to the true Sence and Meaning to the Satisfaction of all equitable Readers upon the supposition of her being endued with Light by God for the Good of others this Instance I say may serve for a Sample to shew how unjust Men are in forming Characters of Persons from shreds of Expressions gathered here and there and put altogether without letting the World see the Contexts of them the main Scope of them or the Sence and Meaning given of them by the Persons concern'd and how highly thereby they sin against the Truth murther the Reputation of such impose upon the rest of Mankind and beget and become real Fathers of Hatred and Aversion in their Minds and Spirits Lord open their Eyes and lay not this Sin to their Charge As we are very apt to take up with false Vertues our selves so we are ready to judge rashly of others and to accuse them of Pride of which we our selves are more guilty Thus the Jews treated Jesus Christ Abraham say they is dead and the Propthes and thou sayest If a man keep my Saying he shall never taste of Death Art thou greater than our Father Abraham which is dead and the Prophets are dead whom makest thou thy self We see the Saints have often spoke well of themselves and yet with the Spirit of Humility Thus David says of himself I have more Vnderstanding than all my Teachers I understand more than the Ancients Thus S. Paul throughout all his Epistles speaks often well of himself proposes himself and his Vertue for a Pattern and Example So that you see one may speak well of themselves and not from a Spirit of Pride or Self-glorying as our Lord Jesus Christ David S. Paul and other Saints have done False Humility speaks meanly of ones self to cover its secret Pride and to get the Reputation of being humble True Humility speaks the Truth in Simplicity whether of ones self or others without regarding that the World will Censure it as an Effect of Pride and Vain-glory. By this Spirit the Saints were acted from this Principle A. B. spoke thus of herself and that I dare say with less Pride and Vain-glory than others have written against her XXIV Some accuse her of great Injustice in affixing Doctrines Sentiments and Opinions upon Parties and Persons which they do not own She say they makes Men more guilty than they are she imputes to particular Persons to Doctors and even to whole Parties Sentiments Vices and Sins which they have not and of which all think them innocent With this also the Enemies of Jesus Christ did reproach him that he falsly imputed to them Evils of which they were innocent as Murther Thou hast a Devil who seeks to kill thee Jesus Christ tells that we must not judge according to Appearance but righteous Judgment In an unregenerate State Men do not know themselves but they think they are what they are not and what they truly are that they will not believe and they wholly disclaim it The Jews not doubt were astonish'd when the Prophets imputed to them atheistical profane and Epicurean Sentiments as the Denying of Divine Providence and the Immortality of the Soul and making their chief Happiness to consist in being wicked No doubt they would cry out against them as Calumniators and imputing to them Sentiments quite contrary to what they had It is like this was not their Doctrine nor the Sentiments according to which they reasoned far less the Subject of their publick Instructions And yet God by his Prophets reproaches them with it as if they had taught it in express Terms Ezekiel says of them They say the Lord seeth not
render the Scriptures useless to give way to a Private Spirit and to all manner of Confusion and Imposture 3. And both these are the more confirm'd in their Sentiments by seeing the many false Pretenders to Divine Inspiration which have been in the World The Devil studies always to ape and counteract God and since he can easily transform himself into an Angel of Light he most effectually undermines the True Religion of Jesus Christ by appearing to be for it and under a Cover of Religion he insinuates into Mens Minds his Infernal Qualities of Pride Hypocrisie and Unrighteousness and one of the Disguises under which he acts is that of a Pretence to Divine Inspiration and the being led by the Spirit of God And this he has done in all Ages both before and since the Coming of Jesus Christ He rais'd up among the Jews false Prophets and that especially when there were any truly inspir'd by God that those last might be discredited and despised because of the Impostures of the other And this is also one of the Artifices he had used among Christians through all the Ages of the Church and particularly in this last Age setting up whole Orders and Societies of Persons who pretend to be immediately enlightned and guided by the Spirit of God tho' the quite contrary appear by their Life and Spirit And thereby he not only infatuates some but makes them also such a Stumbling-Block to others as to make some of them to despise all Revelation from God and to look upon it as an Imposture and others to be altogether prejudic'd against any who may be truly inspir'd by God in this present Age tho' the Evidences were never so Uncontestable and Convincing however they own the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because the Convincing Reasons which prove it have not the Prejudices of a contrary Education to withstand them And thus the Devil is become most successful in Disparaging and putting out of Credit with the Wise the Rational and the Learned all immediate Inspiration by the Spirit of God in this Age of the World tho' it were ever so clear and evident III. As for those who are Enemies to all Divine Revelation it is a folly to think of Convincing them that God has been pleas'd to communicate to any in this Age the immediate Knowledge of his Will by the Light of his Holy Spirit for if they believe not Moses and the Prophets Jesus Christ and his Apostles neither will they be perswaded tho' one should rise from the Dead Yet if they were sincerely and truly rational and not fantastically so it would certainly astonish them and awaken their Consideration to see a Chain of Sentiments so well connected so agreeable to True Reason so worthy of God so sutable to his Divine Perfections so clearly pointing out the Nature and Duty of Man the great End of his Being and the true way to prosecute it so plainly unfolding the Mysteries of Providence and the past present and future State of the World so far beyond all that ever any or all of the Philosophers have said of former or later Ages and that declared by an illiterate Woman void of all Study and Learning without conversing with Men or Books but living retir'd from the World in a continual Dependance upon God and Elevation of her Spirit to him and in a Conformity of her Heart and Life to those Sentiments And if they are not greatly partial and prejudic'd they must needs acknowledge that here is the Finger of God But they who 〈◊〉 the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God and that the Penmen of them were inspir'd by the Holy Spirit that Holy Men of God spake of old time as they were mov'd by the Holy Ghost tho' there were then false Prophets among the People as there shall be now false Teachers among Christians they can neither think it impossible nor improbable that God should even in this Age immediately enlighten and guide by his Holy Spirit Souls truly denied to the World and to themselves and wholly resign'd to him IV. For God having created Man after his own Image to love and to enjoy his Maker and that he might take his Delight with Man his Soul was originally design'd for God's Temple and Dwelling-place that he might reside in it and fill it with his Light and Love And tho' Man by turning away from God did wilfully deprive himself of this Happiness yet through the Merits and Intercession of Jesus Christ God has pity on him and continues to prosecute his first Design of taking his Delight with him And this is the End of all his outward Dispensations toward Man Therefore says St. Chrysostom We ought in all things to lead so pure a Life as that we should no ways need the help of Letters but instead of them should use the Grace of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit might write upon the Table of our Hearts as they write upon Paper But since we have thrust this Grace from us let us at least make use of the second Mercy But that the first was far more sublime God makes appear both by his Words and Deeds For he spoke to Noah and Abraham and his Posterity and to Joseph and Moses not by Scripture but by himself because he found their Hearts Pure But when all the People of Israel did degenerate into the Sink of Vices then Scripture and Tables were given them by which they were warn'd And we see this happened not only to the Holy Men of the Old Testament but also of the New For Christ did not deliver any Writing to the Apostles but instead of Scripture promised to give them the Grace of the Holy Spirit He says he will teach you all things And that you may know that this is far better than the other hear what the Lord says by the Prophet And I saith the Lord will make a New Covenant with you I will put my Laws in your Minds and write them in your Hearts and they shall be all taught of God St. Paul also to shew the Excellency of this says he had receiv'd the Law not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart But because in process of time many had stray'd from the right way they needed therefore again that Warning that is given by Scripture Consider then what a Degree of Madness it is that when we ought to lead a Life of such Integrity and Perfection as not to need Scripture but should yield up our Hearts to the Holy Spirit for Paper to be writ upon how is it I say if when we have lost this first Dignity and stand in need of the lesser yet we will not use aright even this second Remedy for our Salvation Thus he begins the Preface to his Homilies on St. Matt. shewing that if Mens Hearts were pure God would speak inwardly to them by his Holy Spirit that he has done so
to pure and well-disposed Souls both under the Old and New Testament and that the Scriptures are a second Remedy which God makes use of because of the Blindness and Impurity of Mens Hearts Thus St. Augustin likewise makes appear that the Scriptures and all the outward Dispensations of the Gospel do lead us to this and that a pure Heart and a good Life are necessary Dispositions for it St. John says that In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men and the Light shineth in Darkness and the Darkness comprehended it not That was the true Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth And our Saviour says He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him And when one of his Disciples ask'd how he would manifest himself to them and not to the World Jesus said If a 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 the Apostle assures us that the things of God cannot be known but by the Spirit of God and that the natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness to him neither can they know them because he are spiritually discerned He tells us likewise that they who are in Christ Jesus the Spirit of God dwells in them and that if they have not the Spirit of Christ they are none of his and that being led by God's Spirit they are his Sons So that all who are truly regenerated are led by the Spirit of God V. They whom God employs for the Good and Salvation of others he not only endues them with the Light and Grace necessary for their own Conduct and Salvation but also with Divine Light and Wisdom that may make them fit Organs and Instruments to communicate the same Blessing to others This is evident from the Holy Scriptures VI. Such is the infinite Goodness of God towards Man that when he has given Men his Law and made known to them their whole Duty yet when they have generally strayed from it and both Priest and People have corrupted their Ways God has been pleas'd to raise up extraordinary Prophets to let them see how grosly they had mistaken and perverted Gods Law to awaken and call them to Repentance and to warn them of God's approaching Judgments VII The Instruments that God made use of on such Occasions were generally Persons who had no worldly nor humane Advantages to recommend them were neither Learned nor Great nor Rich nor Honourable nor Wise in the World's esteem but he chose the weak and the foolish things of the World to confound the Wise and the Mighty Elisha a Labourer of the Ground Amos a Herdsman David a Shepherd John and James Peter and Andrew Fishermen Mathew a Publican Simplicity and humility of Heart were the chief Qualities which recommended them to his Choice They were generally despis'd rejected and condemn'd by the People of the Age wherein they lived Above all they were persecuted by the Pastours and Priests who had the Dexterity by their Learning and Subtilty to wrest and criticize upon their Words and Writings and turn them into Heresies and Blasphemies that they might make the People abhor and persecute them and it was in the following Ages after their Death that Men began generally to esteem and honour them VIII The Holy Persons thus inspir'd by God were far from despising his Word and the Holy Scriptures these they could not contradict for the Spirit of God cannot contradict himself but they shew People how greatly they strayed from them in their Life and Practice They did not contemn his Ordinances but they made appear how Temple and all was an Abomination to God so long as they who profess'd to be his People and to worship him by them did live wickedly and neglect the weightier Matters of the Law They were far from making any Schism or setting up a New Sect and Party but they plainly told both the People and the Priests and Pastours their Sins and Degeneracy and warn'd them to flee from the Wrath to come IX There were not wanting at the same time false Prophets to oppose and destroy the Credit of the true and they wrought Signs and Wonders to procure Belief but the Truth and Sincerity of the one was still discernable from the Paint and Falshood of the other by such as were truly sincere themselves And he that did the Will of God would know of the Doctrine whether it were of God or whether Men spoke of themselves They who were truly led by the Spirit of God liv'd as they spake they required not of others what they did not first themselves they did not flatter the People in their Vices nor promise them Peace Peace when sudden Destruction was near nor did they seek themselves X. As God did thus immediately enlighten by his Holy Spirit some pure and well-disposed Souls before the Coming of Jesus Christ and after his Ascension so it is neither impossible nor improbable that our infinitely Good God should shew the same Mercy in after Ages It is not against his Nature no more than it is against the Nature of the Sun to send his Light and Heath through all where Clouds and Walls do not shut them out for his Delight is to be with the Children of Men. Neither has he declar'd any where that he will not do it as for the Curse denounc'd Revel 22. 18. against those that shall add to the things contain'd therein upon which some understand as such a Declaration from God as it relates only to that Prophesie so it lays a restraint on Men only and not on God as appears by comparing it with that of Deut. 4. 2. 12. 32. If it be said that no immediate Revelation for the Instruction of Mankind is to be expected after the Days of the Apostles because the Will of God and the Way of Salvation were clearly and fully declar'd by Jesus Christ if this Argument were good it would follow that the Doctrine of the Apostles is not to be received as a Divine Revelation but in so far as it contains a Relation of that which was delivered to them by Jesus Christ whereas it is certain they delivered to the Church many other things immediately taught them by the Spirit of God Wherefore from the Fulness Clearness and Perfection of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ we may well infer that there shall be no Revelation of a New Doctrine or a New Religion
after it but nevertheless an immediate Revelation tending to explain and illustrate the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to vindicate it from the false Glosses of Corrupt Teachers and to awaken and excite Men to follow and obey it may be both useful and necessary The Jewish State did no more call for his Mercy than does ours Have we the whole Will of God and our Duty consign'd to us in Writ So had they Was it that from time to time their Faith and Hope might be strengthned and encouraged in the Approach of the Messiah the same need have we who are bidden hope and look for his Coming again in Glory and yet in these last Days there are Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his Coming Was it because of the great Degeneracy both of the Priest and People that they needed such extraordinary Messages and Warnings from God So do we Ought we to reject all who lay any Claim to Divine Inspiration without any farther Enquiry because there are in this Age many Impostours Enthusiasts who falsly pretend to be led by the Spirit of God and are not So might they Were they in Circumstances to discern those who were truly led by the Spirit of God from those who were acted by a Lying Spirit So may we So that from the Nature of God the Methods of his dealing with Men and the present State of the World and of Mankind this appears to be no impossible nor improbable thing XI Nay there are strong Presumptions on the other side that God will shew his Mercy to Mankind We are forbidden to believe every Spirit but are bidden try the Spirits whether they are of God or not If none are inspir'd by God what need is there to try any but to reject all We are told that in the last Days God will pour out of his Spirit upon all Flesh And when the Apostle S. Peter applies this Prophecy to the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the Day of Pentecost he meant not thereby to limit that Promise to that Time as if it had its full Completion but to shew that then it began to be fulfilled and that Jesus being now ascended to his Father and having received the Promise of the Holy Ghost had shed forth this upon them And it evidently appears that he did not limit it to that Time but shew that that was rather the first Fruits of it and that it was to be fulfilled and continued in all After-ages he saying expresly Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost For the Promise is unto you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Which was as it were a Preludium and first Fruits of what they might expect For it is not God's Manner to promise largely and liberally and to perform meanly and sparingly and the Number of Persons on whom the Gifts of the Spirit were poured out in those Days was too small to fill up the Extent of Joel's Prophecy especially if we compare it with and interpret it by other Prophecies of the same Nature it will appear that this is a Mercy which God designs to communicate in a higher Measure after the coming of Jesus Christ than formerly For he has promised that he will put his Law in their inward Parts and write it in their Hearts And they shall teach no more every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord. And we are told that the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea So that the Reason why this is so little experienced among Christians now adays is not because the Lord's Hand is shortned that he cannot do it or that this was a Mercy to be shewn only to the first Christians but because our Sins have separated between us and our God XII There have not been wanting in the several Ages of the Church some pure and holy Souls extraordinarily enlightned by the Spirit of God as Anthony and Paul the Hermit and many others of the Ancient Fathers of the Desart and in the later Ages Thaulerus Thomas a Kempis and some other extraordinary Persons as they who read their Lives or Writings without prejudice may see XIII It is generally believed by all Protestants that we are at present in the Reign of Antichrist and it is generally own'd by all That before the End of the World there will be a Destruction of the Antichristian State and a glorious State of the Church of Jesus Christ in Purity and Holiness without which the Conversion of the Jews and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles cannot be hoped for All the Prophecies both of the Old and New Testament do point at this and their Description of it is so great and magnificent that it were absurd to apply it to any Event has fallen out already for in Divine Things the Reality of them does vastly transcend the most magnificent Descriptions that can be given of them There is nothing more plain from the Holy Scriptures and the State of the World than that the glorious Times foretold by the Spirit of God are not yet come And considering the great Corruption of the World and how unlikely it is that by human Wisdom or Reason such a Change will be wrought since the World by Wisdom knows not God there is all Ground to believe and hope that God will by an extraordinary Effusion of his Spirit bring about so great a Change XIV There being a two-fold Coming of Jesus Christ and a double Completion of Prophecies in relation to both therefore as the Preaching of John the Baptist was the first Coming again of Elias so many judge the Prophecy imports a Second Coming not of his Person but of some in his Spirit to restore all things Jesus Christ telling us even after John was beheaded that Elias will come indeed and restore all things To this Purpose a very sincere Enquirer into the Prophetick Stile takes out of the Prophecies and History concerning Elias and John Baptist a Character of that Spirit of Elias that must renew the World That its Doctrine must be that of casting away all Corruption Insincerity and Hypocrisie Declaring against all Distortion or Perversion of the Simplicity of Christian Truth by proud or politick Persons which will be no sectarian Spirit to rend and tear but a reconciling Spirit to solder together the Affections of Men Which will neither abrogate what is authentick noâ— introduce what is new but be a Restorer only of what useful Truths and Practices may seem to have been lost in the long Delapse
of Ages And perhaps of such clear and plain Principles as may solve the most concerning Difficulties that human Reason is subject to be entangled with He is that Voice in the Wilderness Prepare ye the Way of the Lord and make his Paths straight that they shall be of a Spirit separate from the World and untainted and unsophisticated by the unwholsom Converse of Men That this Spirit will appear rough and rude to the World because it will so freely and impartially reprehend the World and declare the Truth in all Plainness and Simplicity of Heart with an holy Boldness and Vndauntedness of Courage to witness to the Truth and a raising of Men out of a false Security from external or carnal Respects as did the Baptists the Sadducees and Pharisees with a vehement Jealousie in behalf of the Purity of God's Worship against all Polytheism and Idolatry and using only the Power of the Spirit from on High to oppose all Weapons of any carnal Warfare Characters which one would think had been purposely design'd for the present Subject XV. Thus then we ought to be so far from looking on it as an absurd or impossible thing that any should be extraordinarily and immediately led by the Spirit of God in this last Age of the World that we have Ground rather to hope and look for it if God shall find Subjects capable of it We ought not therefore in Prudence indifferently to reject all that come to us as from God with a Thus saith the Lord in their Mouths for by so doing we may chance to repulse God's Messengers and refuse to hear from him that which may be of great Importance to our Salvation Nor ought we on the other hand to receive blindly all as such who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God since many false Prophets do and shall arise and deceive many but we ought to follow the Apostle's Advice and try the Spirits whether they are of God or not Yet this does not oblige us to go and find out and enquire into the Grounds of every Pretender which were an infinite Labour and Expence of Time in an Age that abounds with Multitudes of Pretenders We are dispensed from that when the Falshood of the Pretension discovers it self by some plain Mark or Sign as the wicked or even worldly Life of the Pretender his Disowning the Holy Scriptures or denying or opposing any essential Truth of Religion But when there are no such evident Marks of the Falshood of one's Pretensions to immediate Revelation but they are back'd with such Considerations and attended with such Circumstances as make the Truth of them probable we are concern'd in Prudence to give our selves the Trouble of Enquiring into them and tho' upon Tryal they be found empty we must not think our Pains lost because it is better to be at some Pains in Examining a false Pretension to Revelation than to reject a true one because we would not give our selves the Trouble to enquire into it XVI Seeing then the Pretensions of A. B. to Divine Inspiration are of this last Sort and that by the Testimony of one of her most furious Enemies There are Persons who have the Reputation of Sence Probity and Learning who look upon her as one immediately enlightned by the Spirit of God and seeing the Things that she declares to us are of the greatest Moment and do most nearly concern us we ought in Prudence to hear and weigh the Evidences brought to make appear that she is immediately led by the Spirit of God and see whether they be such as may belong to Impostours or to deluded Persons and what Marks are given whereby we may discern those who are truly inspired by God from Impostours false Prophets and such as either acted by the Spirit of the Devil or the Heat of their own Imaginations I shall set down those Marks and Evidences in her own Words XVII Suspect says she all that I say to you as from God in case that you observe my Life my Manners and my Actions are not all conformable to those of Jesus Christ and that my Doctrine is not entirely like to the Holy Scripture for if it is God that speaks to me he is unchangeable he never changes what he said to his Apostles and his Disciples is the same thing which he declares now inwardly to the Soul There can be no change in God Besides this the Word of God is Living and Operative The Operations that you feel inwardly of my Words ought to be a sure Evidence to you that it is God for it would be a kind of Idolatry to attribute That to the Creature which belongs to the Creator I am a pure Nothing but God is All in me he teaches me he acts he speaks in me without Nature's contributing any thing but as a simple Organ as a Pencil contributes to the Art of a fine Painter Your natural Spirit is capable of judging this for where should a little Girl learn all the Law of God which is imprinted in the Marrow of my Bones without Study and without Books If I perceive the most secret Thoughts of your Heart from whence can this come but from God only Consider always what Properties the Spirit of God has in himself and the Spirit of the Devil and do not believe every Spirit for this is the Time of the Reign of Anti-christ and he has great Dominion over the Spirits of Men now deceiving them with false Appearances under the Pretext of Goodness and Vertue and transforms himself into an Angel of Light to seduce the Well-meaning I intreat you to take good heed and remark rather the Life and Behaviour of the Person who says he has Communication with God than his Words for the Devil can speak well of Divine Secrets as when he was an Angel He has not lost his Lights but they serve him for a Hell therefore he tempts the best by Divine Lights but he cannot give them in Effect the Properties that the Spirit of God brings along with him Read them with Attention The Properties of God He is Truth He is the Way He is Life He who lives in God walks always in Truth He who lives in God is conformed to the Life of Jesus Christ He who lives in God walks in Sincerity of Spirit and Simplicity of Heart He who lives in God fears nothing He who lives in God seeks nothing He who lives in God hopes for nothing out of God for he finds all in him The Properties of the Devil He is the Father of Lies the Master of Inconstancy the Inventer of Hypocrisie He who is of the Devil deals in Lies He who is of the Devil is inconstant He who is of the Devil is dissembled counterfeit hypocritical He who does an unseemly thing hates the Light that his Deeds may not be known He who is of the Devil seeks Darkness for fear that he be discovered He who is of the
Devil is haughty proud and desirous of Honour He who is of the Devil has a Deference to none The surest Mark to know true Prophets is to remark if they who call themselves such are true Christians since of Necessity they must first be this before they can be true Prophets Examine if they have the Qualities of a true Christian and if they truly know God He who truly knows him loves him and he cannot love him without partaking of his Divine Qualities and being transform'd into them As God is good righteous and true so will he be who truly knows and loves him If we see in these Prophets any thing contrary to the Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God we must not believe that they are sent from him because he who is his Friend is always transform'd into him and partakes expresly of his Three Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth bringing them forth in all his Works They also are not true Christians who are not true Disciples and Followers of Jesus Christ To be his Disciple we must do as he did and to be his Follower we must depend in all things on God as he depended and be willing for the Salvation of our Neighbour to endure hard Treatments Affronts Pains yea Death And if they who call themselves Prophets are not possess'd with this Sentiment they have not true Charity are not true Christians nor the Disciples of Jesus Christ You may ask me if I do not believe that I am a true Christian I will answer My Belief may perhaps deceive me but if you do not observe in me the Qualities of Charity the Fruits and Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Eight Beatitudes you ought not to believe it For these Marks are infallible to a truly Christian Soul so that they who have them not or at least do not labour to obtain them cannot be call'd truly Christian far less Prophets say what they please The Affectation of Desiring that People believe them is a Sign that they seek their own Glory For the Prophet of God affects nothing and forces nothing He only declares his Commission to him to whom he is sent as a Messenger that has no Concern in the Contents of the Letter that he carries Therefore they use to make themselves be believed the Desires they have that their Prophecies may come to pass and their Eagerness to act in their Designs shew that they seek their own Satisfaction For the Friend of God acts always with Meekness and Indifferency leaving all the Success of his Commission to God and he is as content with his own Confusion as with his Honour seeking and aiming at no other thing but to have satisfied him who sent him If those Prophets were of God they would all speak conformably and also with Constancy for there can be no mutability in God what he said to the Ancient Prophets he says yet now adays to the Souls which he possesseth They can be no new Prophecies for God has forâ—â—old all from ancient Times but he gives now the understanding and clearing of these ancient Prophecies to Souls resign'd to him Neither do they bring new Laws or Instructions because Jesus Christ has brought the last which is the Gospel and he teaches all things in Perfection and what Men ought to do and avoid that they may return to a Dependance upon God from whence they have strayed and this so perfectly that he has perfectly compleated all the Laws and all saving Instructions So that if any would teach another thing he is a Seducer and ought not to be believed But when one comes from God to awaken Men that they may consider how they are fallen from the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and how far they are estranged from a Dependance upon God making this appear to them by eternal Truths and by so clear Reasons that all Men of sound judgment may comprehend it these things ought not to be rejected because they are good in themselves and cannot but profit those who believe them tho' they should come from the Mouth of a false Prophet yea of the Devil himself We ought not then to stick so much at examining the Instrument from whence those Truths came to know if it be true and good and aim at God's Glory and the Salvation of Souls For God makes use sometimes of Persons who are imperfect and vicious yea of the Devil himself to declare to us the Truth that is necessary for us that we may not pretend Ignorance or blame God for our Damnation as being wanting to warn us He therefore sometimes makes Beasts wicked and possess'd Persons to speak that they may manifest his Will to us but we must not therefore make reckoning of the Beasts Devils and wicked Persons but Profit by the Things that God makes known to us by them when that which they say is good and true If a Soul be truly possest with the Holy Spirit he discovers himself sufficiently by his Operations He brings forth there always his Fruits he brings thither infallibly his Gifts by which we may truly know that it is he Tho' he be an invisible Spirit he is seen and sensibly comprehended by his visible Works and by the Operations he works in the Soul and Understanding of him who possesses him which may be clearly seen in the Conversation of the Person who says he possesses him For he must be Charitable Joyful Peaceable Patient Persevering Good Gentle Meek Faithful Modest Continent and Chast The Holy Spirit cannot be in a Soul without producing those Fruits no more than the Sun can be without giving Light to the Earth which feels 〈◊〉 Heat and Splendour tho' it does not comprehend the Essence of the Star There may be Fruits in the Soul resembling these which are only Sensualities and Self-love and Moral Vertues tho' they may take the Name of the Fruits of the Spirit they are vain because they respect only the present time They who do not possess the Holy Spirit cannot discern if he reside in another but by the Wisdom of the same Spirit which is known by the Holy Scriptures without which there is nothing but Darkness and Ignorance If we would discover that a Soul has True Charity we must see if its Works are accompanied with the Conditions of that Charity described by St. Paul That we may give Credit to the Sayings of those who say they are led by the Holy Spirit we must first see if what they say be conformable to the Holy Scriptures for the Holy Spirit is Uniform through all He inspir'd the Prophets of the ancient Law and thereafter the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ as he does Souls living at present upon Earth There must be a Conformity in Substance between all those Inspirations if they proceeded from one and the same Holy Spirit All being but the same Doctrine and the same Spirit in which there can never be any Deceit because the Spirit of God
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
will tell me that you would try the Spirit of God by true Miracles and not by such as come by the Intervention of the Devil I ask by what means you shall discern between these so long as you have not that Holy Spirit which would learn you all Truth Then you would discern all things and would not need to ask Miracles to know if another be guided by that true Spirit For Faith alone would give you Evidence enough When the Pharisees ask'd Miracles of Christ and he had done some they said presently he had a Devil and that he cast out Devils by the Power of Beelzebub who was more Powerful than the inferiour Devils Do you not think that the same would happen now and if I also wrought Miracles would they not undoubtedly say that I were a Sorceress which were even to be feared since now there is no more need of Miracles except to bewitch Mens Spirits with Admiration our Faith being sufficiently confirm'd and the Gospel Law verified There is nothing wanting but that it is not put in practice and there is no need of Miracles to assure all Christians that they cannot be sav'd without the practice of it since Jesus Christ and his Apostles have so strongly affirm'd it One must deny the Gospel to believe that he can be saved without imitating Jesus Christ seeing he says that he is the way and that he who enters by him shall be saved that he also is the Door and that we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but by him What Miracles will you require Sir from one who does no other thing but repeat the same Words which Jesus Christ and his Apostles pronounc'd and says no other thing but that to be a Christian we must have the Spirit of Jesus Christ I have done no ill to any Body nor said any other thing in Substance but that Men are fallen from the Faith and that they have by their Sins drawn down the Judgments of God upon their Heads that of necessity we must be converted to God and take up the Spirit of the Christians of the Primitive Church or otherwise we are not True Christians All these Truths are so clear that all Men ought to become silent and confounded by them silent in that they cannot bely the Truth and confounded to see that they are so far from God and the practice of True Christians But being unwilling to yield to this Truth and to be asham'd that their Degeneracy is laid open they will not be silent but strive to reproach those who tell this Truth and tempt them with Foreign Questions and Arguments even demanding of them outward Signs and Miracles as if they were of the Essence of Vertue while they cannot give the least Ray of Vertue to him who works them for True Miracles come from God and not from the Person that does them who is only his Instrument to shew to Men that which God operates So that you cannot be assured that a Person has the Holy Spirit even tho' he should work outward Miracles since Judas did them as well as the other Apostles and yet was a Devil We need another Touchstone to know the Spirit of God for St. Paul says tho' we could remove Mountains and had the Gift of Prophecy all this would be nothing without Charity It is a great Blindness to seek for Miracles and outward Signs that we may believe that a Soul is guided by the Holy Spirit It were better to search in the Scriptures what Gifts and Fruits the Holy Spirit brings always along with him and observe if they who say they are endued with the Holy Spirit have in them those Gifts and Fruits for then it is certain they are possest with the Holy Spirit for all these things are Supernatural and Divine Not that I would exclude True Miracles from Souls that love God for they would certainly do them in this present Time as much as the Apostles did them in their Days if it were necessary for God's Glory who will always do the Will of those who love him in all Times and Places But I have said all this to make appear to you that this is the least Favour that God does in this World to a faithful Soul that it has the Gift of Prophecy or of doing Miracles and that these things ought not to be valued in respect of Faith and Charity which unite Souls to God These are True Miracles with respect to the Souls of their Neighbour they restore to them Sight Health and Life and with those Philosophers Stones of Living Faith and Charity they change earthly Souls into the pure Gold of Divine Charity These are the True Miracles which shall be done in this Fulness of Time to prove the force of the Holy Spirit by the Cure of Souls more worthy beyond Comparison than Mortal Bodies The Summ of what she says on this Head is this That it is not necessary that every one who is immediately taught by the Spirit of God should prove the same by outward Miracles that they are necessary only for the Confirmation of a New Doctrine That she declares no other Doctrine than the Gospel of Jesus Christ which our Lord and his Apostles have sufficiently confirm'd already That to demand Miracles now is to tempt God and to expose our selves to be deluded by the Devil who we are told will in these last Times by his false Prophets do Signs and Lying Wonders which without the Spirit of God cannot easily be distinguished from true Ones That they are not the surest Touchstones of one's being guided and taught by the Spirit of God but the Gifts and Fruits of the Spirit particularly Living Faith and Charity and that by these the Spirit of God does greater Miracles in converting and healing the Souls of others than all outward Miracles on Bodies would amount to And that in these last Times God will manifest the Power of his Spirit by working these Miracles on Souls by turning them away from things Earthly and Temporal to things Heavenly and Eternal There were many of the ancient Prophets of whom we do not read that they wrought Miracles and their Prophesies were generally for After-times and not fulfilled in their own Days yet the People were bound to receive them as sent from God and there were sufficient Evidences for it in their Doctrine and Lives Besides it was no less than a Miracle and beyond the Power of Nature that she knew the Thoughts of other Mens Hearts and their inward Dispositions not that she always did so but when God thought fit to discover them to her either for her own Safety or for the Good of others This is oft-times declared and Instances given of it not only by her self but also by M. de Cort Poiret Tiellens Francken and many others The manner also of having so clear and comprehensive a Knowledge of Divine Things without Study Conferences Meditation or Books is no less strange
promises that if our Eye be Single our whole Body shall be full of Light and if it be Evil it will be full of Darkness For tho' a Soul have not in it self the Holy Spirit yet it shall have the Understanding enlightned to discover him in others provided it behold them with a single Eye without Dissimulation or Surprize but in the Simplicity of a Child as Jesus Christ says we must be in if we would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They who see me write know well that I do it without any Study or humane Speculation and that it flows from my Spirit as Water flows from its Fountain and that I do nothing but lend my Hand and my Spirit to another Power than mine And God gives yet a more sure Testimony by imparting to me his Righteousness Truth and Charity For these things cannot come from Nature which being corrupted can produce no Good nor any Divine Vertues because I am come of the Corrupt Mass of Adam as all the rest of Men there could not be in me any Righteousness Truth and Charity which are all Divine and Supernatural Vertues which cannot enter into the Soul of Men but by the Work of the Holy Spirit This gives me a sufficient Testimony that I am led by God since the Devil and Nature have nothing of those Vertues And therefore we cannot find a surer Evidence that a Soul is led by the Holy Spirit than when it is possest of the Righteousness Truth and Charity of God For if we desire to see Miracles for a Proof we may be deceived since the Devil can do Miracles or things which seem Supernatural but he can never have in him the Righteousness Truth and Love of God The Good Spirit and the Evil may be known by the Qualities which they have The Spirit of God has in him a Peace and Sweetness that comforts the Soul and draws it to an inward Quiet But the Spirit of the Devil disturbs the Understanding disquiets it and robs it of Tranquility and Rest The Spirit of God acts sweetly and strongly in Peace and Tranquility of Mind All that comes from the Spirit of God is always accompanied with the Qualities of God which are Goodness Righteousness and Truth And that which comes from the Spirit of the Devil carries always the Qualities of the Devil which are Malice Injustice and Lying The Evil Spirit may sometimes move to do a good thing to draw Evil out of it but that seeming Goodness can never be accompanied with Righteousness and Truth which are the inseparable Qualities of God which the Devil may sometimes separately make use of to deceive Men aping the Works of God but he can never do a thing that is Good Just and True altogether since this appertains to God only who cannot be divided in any of these Qualities God does not speak to me by Voices Thundrings and Lightnings as he did of Old to the Prophets or as he spake to Tobit by Angels in the Likeness of Young Men or as he spoke to Jacob in the Vision of a Ladder upon which Angels did ascend and descend or as he spoke to Joseph in a Dream saying to him Take the Child and the Mother and flee into Egypt For I durst not rely upon all these things in which the Devil and the Fancy of Man may mingle themselves and make such things be seen and heard as if they came from the Spirit of God But I fix on the solid Truth of God on his Righteousness and on his Love because in such things the Devil can have no hold I have sometimes had Dreams and Visions coming from God as I may afterwards make appear by Experience but I do not rely on these Dreams and Visions unless the same things that I have seen and dream'd be confirm'd unto me by a secret Notice Intelligence after the manner that I converse ordinarily with God For so soon as the Soul is free of all Image and delivered from the agitation of its Passions and the Imagination ceases to operate then I hear the Voice of God and his Reasoning not with my Ears but with my Understanding And after this manner he makes me see and hear all that I need to know both for my own Conduct and that of others which many have experienc'd and found that I have told them the most secret things of their Hearts which neither Men nor Devils could know Never amuse your self with Discourses Visions or Revelations made to you or others if you do not perceive assuredly that they are accompanied with the Qualities of the Good Spirit of God or otherwise you will be easily deceived Remark always if what you say or do be accompanied with the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God and then you shall assuredly hear God speak to your Soul For if you walk in these Qualities you will be in God and the Devil can deceive you no longer by Illusions or false Imaginations as he will easily do so long as you do not possess those essential Vertues of the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God in which you ought always to walk if you would not be seduced by Satan The Devil can give Visions Ravishments or supernatural Extasies to Sorcerers yea make them foretel things to come being a subtile Spirit and foreseeing afar and by conjectures what will come to pass and he may make them fall out by the means of his Sorcerers who being powerful and numerous may by their Power and Authority bring about what has been Fore told Therefore it is fit to receive nothing for Truth but the things which lead us to a more strict Union with God and Denial of our selves These things are always Good even tho' they should come from the Devil himself we cannot be deceived in believing them I can never have the least doubt as if it were an evil Spirit that communicates himself to my Understanding for the evil Spirit could not in my Judgment produce so good and so constant Operations such as the Love of God and the Hatred of ones Self Moreover he could not separate the Soul from the Pleasures of this Life nor remove from it the coveting the Riches and Honours of the World nor give it a full Contentment in the want of all humane Consolation nor yet Joy in Hardships and Contempt All these things cannot come from the Devil for he is too opposite to all these Vertues and leads ordinarily to all sort of Evil tho' at first he cover them with Vertues The End of his Operations make appear sufficiently the Deeds of the Author and make known the Workman by his Works Thus you see how certain Marks she gives whereby to distinguish true from false Enthusiasm the Conduct and Inspiration of the Spirit of God from the Illusions of the Devil or Ones own Imagination and how Men may preserve themselves from being impos'd upon by the last That where a Soul is
that he spake to his People by him because he was incredulous and rendred himself unworthy of entring into the promis'd Land Must we not believe the Holy Scripture endited by Solomon because â—e fell into Idolatry Or ought we to doubt if David had the Spirit of God because he fell into Adultery and other Sins Truly this would be very extravagant and render all the Works of God suspected and doubtful because of the Trailty of Men. For in the New Testament does not the Apostle make this Distinction of his own Spirit from the Spirit of God When he says It is I who says or does this and elsewhere It is the Spirit of God who says it Even Jesus Christ had he not the Spirit of God in him and the Natural Spirit both When he prays to his Father that his own Will might not be done If he had not had a Natural Will he would not have prayed thus And it could not be the Spirit of God that made him say If it be possible let this Cup pass from me Nor which made him doubt that he was forsaken of his Father in the very brink of Death of necessity these were simply natural Motions which mov'd him to all these things and not at all the Motions of the Holy Spirit Why would they then have me of another Stuff than the Prophets Apostles and Jesus Christ himself and hinder that my natural Motions should not act any more in me after that I have received the Holy Spirit Must I become immoveable in Body and Spirit that I may move no longer naturally Must the Spirit of God make all the Functions of my Spirit and Body to cease that he alone may operate in them Truly God would make use of a strange Figure against his Ordinary since he always makes use of humane Creatures to speak to Men and to make known his Will to them by Organs of those like themselves And for this Cause Jesus Christ took a truly humane Body that by means palpable to their Humanity he might make himself to be understood and obeyed And the Body and Spirit of Jesus Christ did act humanly And the Apostles acted in many things according to their natural Motions and in many things were mistaken for we read that the Apostles being one night assembled after that they had received the Holy Spirit when St. Peter was in Prison from whence being come out miraculously he knock'd at the Gate where they were assembled and the Maid Roda told them he was at the Gate they thought with one common Judgment that the Maid dream'd saying to her that she was a Fool. All the Motions which this Holy Assembly had could not come but from Nature Must we conclude from thence that they had not received the Holy Spirit or that they had lost him because of such Mistakes or because they acted according to their natural Passions or Functions in this Opinion I think we should commit a great Sin to believe any such thing or to suspect the Holy Spirit in them because they are mistaken in some things for these Faults and Mistakes are annexed to humane Nature since Sin which has so blinded Man's Understanding that he is oft-times mistaken in that which he sees before his Eyes But the Holy Spirit can never be mistaken in any thing nor inspire things that are not true And it would be an abominable thing to believe it or to judge that a Person were not guided by the Holy Spirit because he is mistaken in some indifferent things For the Holy Spirit does not teach the Soul that he possesses all the Circumstances of that which it ought to do and say but he teaches it the essential things of Righteousness Goodness and Truth in all that it ought to do or avoid And it is the Business of the Understanding to comprehend and search out the means to attain to these Ends whetting its Spirit and all the Faculties of its Soul that it may rightly accomplish in all things Righteousness Goodness and Truth And if those natural Functions were made to cease acting after this manner the Holy Spirit could do nothing by the Person who is the visible and sensible Organ an Instrument of God without which Instrument he cannot make gross and natural Men to understand him Therefore the Angels themselves have sometimes taken humane Bodies to make themselves be seen and perceived by Men according to their natural Sight and Sentiments Now it is true that God has given me his Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ which teaches me all Truth but yet it is not true that he teaches me in particular all the Words that proceed out of my Mouth nor all the Letters or Syllables that I write far less all the Motions of my Body for this is done humanly by my own Spirit or my visible Body For if the Holy Spirit did dictate to me all the Words that I must pronounce or all the Words that I must write I could never commit Faults in Speaking or Writing which I do often commit not knowing sometimes where to find Words to express my self well nor Orthography to write well which I have declared in my printed Writings saying It is the Spirit that teaches me the Doctrine which I write but as for the Faults which are in the Pen or the Words it is I who commits them and not the Holy Spirit which may satisfie all captious Spirits who seek to discredit the Wisdom of God by the Faults that I might have done Naturally Since the Proverb says that all Men do fail and mistake themselves and the Perfect are in Heaven because there are no Perfections but in God alone And it would be to tempt him to require of a human Creature the Perfection of all things since this appertains to God only and not to Men who have only a limited Perfection every one his Talent one the Perfection of speaking well another of writing well another of singing well with other natural Gifts which do not come immediately from the Holy Spirit tho' he makes use of all those Gifts when they may serve for the Glory of God and when the Person offers and resigns them up to his Government For Example God has given me an Ability to compose my Writings and it is his Will that I do it for his Glory and the Good of Souls These things come in Substance from the Holy Spirit but it is my natural Hand that writes it and my natural Spirit that conceives it which may commit accidental or material Faults but there can be no Faults in the thing it self every one may assuredly believe and follow that without amusing himself whether I have any Defect in the Manner or if there be any thing of natural mingled with it since God makes use of Nature and even of its Defects to teach Men to seek those things that are above and not the things that are upon the Earth For all that fine Learning and studied
know no true Christians it cannot be understood that I know them for true Christians because I call them by that Name but I conform my self in this to the Disposition of those who hear me and not to the Truth of what they are Which if I would follow I behov'd sometimes to call those nominal Christians Atheists or Antichristians which scarce any Man would understand therefore to make my self be understood I must use common and ordinary Terms and pronounce them as briefly as I can since we must give an account of every idle Word I ought not to add uselesly to the Name of Christians as they call them since it is understood well enough of it self without pronouncing those Words as the Quakers do To make appear how fully she clears her self as to Contradictions which they were ready to impute to her I shall here adduce one Instance I understand says she by yours that my Writings have had some good Operation in your Soul but withal that you have found as it seems to you some Contradiction in them in that I say absolutely that to be a true Christian one must abandon all that he possesses and nevertheless you find in one of my Letters that a Man must keep his Goods for his Necessities since the World is now without Charity and they would leave the Just without help in his need Both these things are most true and do not at all contradict one another for a Man must absolutely abandon the Love of earthly Goods if he would become a true Christian Jesus Christ has very often affirm'd this Truth in his Gospel and said that he who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be his Disciple I bring no Novelties when through all my Writings I press this Necessity of forsaking all things to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ since Jesus Christ his Apostles and all who have received the Holy Spirit say the same thing and there is but one Truth which is God which says through all the same thing So that they who speak otherwise are Liars and Seducers of the People who flatter Men to destroy them under the Pretext of Glosses and false Reasons which they draw from the Holy Scriptures without any Ground This I have declar'd sufficiently in my Writings as you have well observ'd and approved as you say seeing I very much blam'd a Woman of Friesland who was yet careful what she should eat and drink and wherewithal she should be cloathed after she had resolved to become a true Christian as you have remarked in the Second Letter of the Fourth Part of La lum née en tenebres And I am still of the same Sentiment that when one relies upon temporal things and will not voluntarily abandon them to follow Jesus Christ he cannot be his Disciple and that Woman will never be one so long as she is not disengag'd from temporal Goods Tho' she be now gone out of her Country with a design to embrace a Gospel Life she cannot attain to it because of the Affection she has still for her Ease and Conveniences which proceeds from Self-love being anxious for the temporal Part and fearing Want And I can assure all those who are still in that Disposition that they are not true Christians But when I wrote to one of my Friends in the 24th Letter of the Fourth Part of La lum née en tenebr as you alledge that he â—ought to keep his Goods for his own Necessities or that of others without leaving them to his Friends or giving them to the Poor now adays I had reason to do it because this Man was more disengag'd in his Soul from temporal Wealth than that Woman and had already resolv'd to abandon them all so that his Heart was free to possess them as if he did not possess them which a Person wedded to them could not do tho' it seems to him he could and he will say so with his Mouth for there is nothing more deceitful than the Heart of Man which none knows but God and he to whom God reveals it And I had reason to advise this Man to keep his Goods and that Woman that she should not care for the Morrow without any Contradiction in my Advices but in the Disposition of those Two Persons whom you mention Since the one was free to possess Wealth without sinning and not the other and a good Physician ought always to consider the Original of his Patient's Disease if he would heal him For if he ordain the same Physick for all sorts of Maladies he would kill more than all the Executioners together So you must not think that there is a Contradiction in my Two Letters mentioned by you but that there are Two divers Remedies for Two different Diseases to wit one Remedy against the Love or Desire of earthly things and another against too great Liberality or Indiscretion Again A. B. says somewhere That no Body ever was or can be saved but by the Merits of Jesus Christ and some Pages after in the same Treatise she says that no Body can be saved by the Merits of another This seems contradictory as well as those Two Propositions the one of St. Paul and the other of St. James Man is justified by Faith without the Works of the Law and Man is justified by Works and not by Faith only This last Contradiction â—s reconciled by saying that St. Paul understands that the Principle which admits in us that true Righteousness which God places there is Faith and that Works are not that Principle But St. James means that that Principle which admits in us the Righteousness of God is Faith but that Faith is not destitute of Works for if Faith were without Works it were a dead Faith which would justifie no Body Thus these have no Contradiction and yet are harder to reconcile than any Passages of the Writings of A. B. Thus as to the forecited Passage when she says that no Body is saved but by the Merits of Jesus Christ her meaning is that Jesus Christ is the Author and meritorious Cause of the Salvation of Men who will accept of this Salvation by the ways that God teaches them and when she says that no Body can be saved by the Merits of another this signifies that none who will not co-operate to their Salvation by the ways that God preâ—cribes them câ—n be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ or that the Merits of Jesus Christ will not save those who will not follow the way of Salvation Thus you see how easie it is for critical and captious Spirits to find Contradictions where there are none that the Holy Scriptures themselves have many seeming Contradictions tho none in Truth that they who are led by the Spirit of God write in great Simplicity regarding the Essence and Substance of divine Truths and not the niceness of Terms and how captious Spirits may misinterpret them and divine Truths had need to be read and
understood them they afterwards despis'd them and would no longer believe them so as to mock and make a by-Word of what the Prophets said to them Even Jeremy himself thought he was much mistaken when he saw not the Effect of the good Promises that God had made to his People Ah! Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People and Jerusalem saying Ye shall have Peace whereas the Sword reacheth unto the Soul The same Difficulty of not being able to comprehend the Word of God according to our way of conceiving it befel the very Disciples of Jesus Christ who had convers'd with him they were mistaken and thought themselves deceived witness the two who after his Death going to Emmaus sad and without hope said We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel and beside all this to Day is the third Day since these things were done And even when Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven some ask'd him if at this time he would restore Israel The Holy Spirit makes many things be said in another Sense than Men understand it as in what he made Caiphas say concerning Jesus Christ that it was expedient that one Man should die that the whole People perish not which he spoke not of himself and understood in another manner and for a quite different end than that of the Holy Spirit Thus we see we may be easily mistaken by our way of understanding the Words and Revelations of God They are an Abyss and Depth of Spirit which our natural Sense cannot comprehend We must free our Mind from our way of conceiving things and place it in the Liberty of a Faith which may make it reckon its own ways of conceiving obscure and dark There we shall receive the Abundance of the Spirit Wisdom and Understanding proper for conceiving aright the Words of God which no Man that is not Spiritual can comprehend or judge of they being Divine He cannot judge even reasonably of them and if he judge of them according to the outside he is not Spiritual For tho' they be covered with this outside yet he cannot understand them as St. Paul says that the natural Man does not conceive the things which are of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are Spiritual But the spiritual Man discerns all things It is a rashness therefore to give our selves the Liberty to treat of Divine things by a way of comprehending them naturally when they require a Discerning that is Supernatural to Sense Let us conceive this also by some Examples Suppose a Holy Person sees he is persecuted by his Enemies and God says to him I will deliver thee from them all see Jer. 1. 19. this Prophecy may be true tho' his Enemies kill him as it happened to that Prophet therefore he who should understand this Prediction in a temporal way should be deceived for God might have spoken of the true and chief Deliverance and Victory which is Salvation by which the Soul is victorious and delivered from all its Enemies in a far more true and profitable way than the temporal and outward Deliverance And in this Sense that Prediction was more true and ample than the Man would have conceiv'd it to be if he understood it only for this temporal Life For the Words of God do comprehend always the principal and most useful Sense and Man may understand them after his way according to the less principal Sense and so be mistaken Add that if a Person to whom God has given such a Promise be the Head of a Family or Society bodily or spiritual the Promise may concern his Children or those associated with him bodily and may be fulfilled in them tho' as to the Death of the Head the Promise is annihilated Even so if a Soul desiring to die a Martyr for God receive this Word from him Thou shalt be a Martyr it may fall out that the Person shall not die a Martyr and yet the Promise remain true for it will be accomplish'd according to the principal and essential part God giving him the Love and Recompence of Martyrdom making him a Martyr of Love giving him a Martyrdom lengthned out in Labours the continuance of which will be more troublesome than Death In which he will accomplish both the desire of the Soul and his own Promise for the desire of the Soul was not simply that kind of Death which of it self would signifie nothing without God's Friendship but to render to God the Service and the Love of a Martyr The other because God will give most perfectly the Reality and Recompence of this tho' by other means God has promised to fulfil the Desire of the Righteous because their Desires are just and true If therefore God do not fulfil them during this temporal Life it is certain he will do it after this Life and in a most perfect manner so that the Promises do still remain most true The second Cause why divine Words and Visions tho' always true in themselves yet nevertheless are not always certain as to us is because of the Reasons Motives and Grounds upon which they are built since they may change the Effect does not follow We must therefore believe that these things will infallibly come to pass so long as that shall remain which moves and incites God for Example to punish as if God said Within a Year I will send such a Plague upon this Kingdom the Ground of this Threatning is a certain Transgression which they commit in this Kingdom against God If therefore the Transgression cease or vary the Punishment may also cease or be changed Nevertheless the Threatning was true forasmuch as it was founded on an actual Fault and it would have been executed if the Offence had continued This appears in what happened to the City of Ninevah whither God sent the Prophet Jonah to denounce from him Yet Forty Days and Ninevah shall be destroyed Which nevertheless was not fulfilled because the Cause of this Threatning ceas'd which was the Sins of the People who immediately repented otherwise this Denunciation from God would certainly have taken effect The same thing as to the matter of divine Threatning we see in King Ahab whom God threatned by the Prophet Elias with a great Judgment Him his House and Kingdom But because he rent his Garments with Grief covered himself with Sackcloth fasted and lay in Sackcloth and Ashes humbled and afflicted himself God immediately tells him by the same Prophet that he would not send that Evil in his Days Where we see because Ahab chang'd the Threatning and Sentence of God ceas'd also From hence we must conclude that tho' God reveal or speak affirmatively to a Soul any thing in Good or Evil concerning it self or others this may change more or less or none at all according to the Change of the Affection or Disposition of that or these Souls and according to
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
No sooner did one of her Friends break it off to her than she was seiz'd with an Aversion and a Divine Warning and bid them beware to let him come into her Chamber but remove him presently out of the House Some Weeks after she got the sad News of M. de Cort's Death the only Assistance she had in the World This at first made her complain to God but upon a Warning from him she said to him who had brought her the News Since it was the Will of God so to permit it I am content and satisfied and I desire not that it should be otherwise LVII M. de Cort being dead they levell'd all their Rage against A. B. whom he had constituted his Heiress when he was formerly in Noordstrand Anno. 1668. When walking one Day solitary in the Fields as he was wont and offering up his Prayers to God and asking what he should do with that Isle it was answer'd him thrice as with an intelligible Voice Give this Isle to Anthoinette Bourignon He believ'd at first some Body near him might have spoke so but looking round about him on the Plain he was certain that no Body was near him Then going quickly into his Lodging he wrote the Testament with his own Hand laying up one Copy of it seal'd among the Registers of the Isle and sending another by Post to Amsterdam in a Letter to A. B. praying her to examine it and alter it as she pleas'd She threw it on the Table without opening it saying to her Friends I have nothing to do with a Testament for my own Goods are a Burthen to me and so it remain'd seal'd long after his Death This greatly afflicted him when he return'd to Amsterdam and when she told him there would be no want of Persons to accept his Testament he said Not such as I wish For if I leave my Goods to the Oratory they will not pay my Debts and if I leave them to my Friends they will destroy one another with Processes and every one will take what he can in Confusion She said Let us speak of other things LVIII This serv'd them for a Pretext to pursue her and they thought to get her shut up in the Place where he had been therefore they pursue the grand Officer for setting M. de Cort at Liberty that to be free of them he might put A. B. into the same Place They had many Meetings and Contrivances on this Subject It had been easie to execute all against a poor Languishing Creature that could not stir but God hindered them both by Motions of Piety and the Fear of God which he inspired in to the grand Officer and by discovering to her in her spirit their Plots when they were contriving them She told her Friends who were with her I see says she in my Spirit such and such Enemies met together who devise how to seize me They have sent for the grand Officer such propose to him that I am Heiress of M. de Cort he has a right to seize me and treat me as M. de Cort was otherwise they will pursue him He hears them he wavers somewhat but I perceive yet in his Heart Piety and the Fear of God that hinder him from yielding to the Solicitations of my Enemies this was so true that the grand Officer declared more than once all the same things to two of her Friends After the Death of M. de Cort she wrote to Brabant that if any of his Kinsfolks would be his Heir provided they would pay his Debts she would quit that Inheritance and yield them all her Rights But it was told her that neither any of them were capable of doing it neither did they desire to meddle with it so that she was obliged to do it for the Honour of his Memory and for the Payment of his Creditors which she still offered to do if they would liquitale their Claims and give her Access to his Inheritance LIX But her Enemies Malice still encreasing she found it necessary to seek to preserve her Life by flight and being so sick and weak that she could not stand she was carried in the Night to the other end of the City to a Merchant's House where she was hid Eleven Months with no less Hazards than those she had escaped being left without Help and without Necessaries when she could not rise of her self Yet God was pleas'd to give her Health by degrees and returning to her first Lodging she publish'd some of her Books and then went from Amsterdam to Harlem after she had petition'd to be allowed to stay under the Security of a Habcas Corpus and it being made known to her That it was the Will of God she should go to possess Noordstrand she took Shipping for Holstein at Enchuysen a Town in North-Holland Four of her Friends going with her they landed at Tonningue in Holstein the 13th of June 1671. and in July went to Sleswick where she liv'd peaceably for some time under the Duke's Protection Many Nobles and Officers both of the Court of Holstein and Denmark came to see her and discourse with her of spiritual things and did highly esteem both her and her Writings LX. About this time the Quakers publish'd a Book against her in low Dutch to defame her and within Three Months the Answer was compos'd translated into Dutch and printed at Amsterdam under the Title of An Advertisement against the Sect of Quakers Where she makes appear how far they are from being led by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and does so plainly point out their Spirit that as to the general Temper of their Sect and Party they may therein see themselves as in a Mirrour It contains also the Foundations of all sorts of States Order Justice Manners and Commerce amongst Men and gives a perfect Idea of a True Christian or a Regenerate Person LXI When the War broke out at that time between France and Holland several Persons of Friesland to the number of Twenty who were convinc'd of the Truth of her Writings but were not disengag'd enough from the World came to Holstein to live with A. B. and to embrace as they said an Evangelical Life their Design might be justly suspected since the Incommodity of War had made them abandon the World But since in the Parable of the Gospel the King received to his Feast those who came there by Constraint so she would not refuse these tho' it appeared there was Constraint mingled in their Procedure This is properly the Compel them to come in of the Gospel and not that Men ought to constrain one another by force to embrace some Religion which they judge best Which is intirely Diabolical and cannot please God who requires a free and willing Service for the most Essential Part of Religion is an Offer of our Liberty our Will and our Heart unto God and not a forced Act of a Person who might say to God Lord I
her best Friends who were with her fell sick also unto Death but God upheld them they were all three expos'd to the Mercy of some wicked Servants who had horrible Projects against them if God by the Warnings he gave her and by the Arrival of some Friends from Amsterdam had not prevented it LXXX Those Servants began by robbing all that was in the Lodging which they confest they consum'd in their nightly Sabbaths After this they resolved in their Sabbaths at the Solicitation of the Devil to murther her by Night and her two Friends that was then sick They declar'd they had been prest to it by some who had promis'd them a Thousand Crowns that for six Days they were watching an Occasion and for three Nights came to the Door of the Apartment where she was arm'd with Swords and Hatchets to execute the Design That they gave it over one of the Nights because they could not agree whether to begin at her or her two Friends and the two other Nights they found the Door shut which they had left open and thereafter some Friends came they confest they had tried often before to poyson her with Diabolical Powders amongst her Meat and that of her Friends not doubting but that might be the cause of their continual Maladies LXXXI After this came the last Persecution that befel her of which the Author of the Continuation of her Life thinks fit to give only a general Account without mentioning the Particulars hoping that God may give Repentance to some of those who had a hand in it The Occasion was this She had caused to be brought from Holland of the Effects that belong'd to her Friends to the Value of many thousands which were lent in this Country under her Name thinking it may be that this would serve to make them protect her that they might the longer enjoy these Advantages and she could not credit the Suggestions made to her that perhaps they would endeavour to pick a Quarrel with her that they might have a Pretext to keep her Goods after they had treated her ill and chas'd her away This seem'd the quietest Time she had yet enjoyed the Fever had left her tho' Weakness confined her for the most part to her Bed and there was nothing but Assurances of Friendship but underhand it was quite another thing Quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames LXXXII She had at Hambourg some Enemies who hated her mortally they prompt a Child of eight or nine Years of Age to utter many Falshoods against her and her Friends because he had staid with them they made him say he had been press'd by severe Chastisements to declare certain things to the Disadvantage of some Which were pure Falshoods invented because of six stripes with a Wand which his Master gave him for some little Faults without the knowledge of A. B. and that many Weeks before the pretended Fact of the rigorous Treatment which they suggested to him to complain of However how soon this is heard of in East-Friesland it was enough to turn all into a Civil or Capital Crime into Criminal Tortures inflicted privately by Order of that Maid against the Right of Authority for which her Person and Goods ought to be arrested And Letters were sent to the Magistrates of Hamburg to cause the Child to depone judicially and send the Act to them that the Crime might not go unpunish'd and to other three to abet this and that two of them would come straight to East-Friesland and insist against her demanding to seize her Person and arrest her Goods assuring them of Success The Magistrates judged it unworthy of their Notice but a Lutheran Priest took the Deposition by Writing and in all the eight Articles it contained there was not one thing against A. B. but a Friend of hers whose Reputation and Probity suffic'd to preserve him from Suspicion of any base thing When she heard of all she said Ah this was unhappily lent Silver Then said I find I must absolutely leave this Place quickly And tho' she knew not where to retire yet she took Courage and God gave her suddenly Strength to walk which she had lost for more than a Year LXXXIII She parted from thence secretly into Franeker in West-Friesland which is under the jurisdiction of the States-General taking one Friend along with her there she turn'd in into a House of one of her Acquaintance sending her Friend to Amsterdam that he hiring a Lodging there she might afterwards retire to it So she was resolved to pass the Winter there but the Inconveniency of the Lodging brought such an Alteration on her Body that her Fever return'd with greater Violence with a Flux and a continual Vomiting October 8th St. Vet. her Malady encreas'd daily She prepar'd to die spoke to those of the Lodging about her Burial That they should cause her Body to interr'd in the most mean and simple manner as if she had been a simple Maid-Servant and that quickly and without noise She spoke many things addressing her self to God but those of the House not understanding French could give small Account of it Those of the Lodging being taken up about their Affairs after they had waited on her for some Days committed her to the care of two old Women who had no regard for her She became every Day weaker and her Disease encreas'd so that the 20th of Octâ—ber St. Vet. Anno. 1680. her Soul was separated from her earthly Tabernacle having lived 64 Years 9 Months and 14 Days LXXXV 1. Antonia Bourignon was of a middle Stature and Slender her Countenance was agreeable her Complexion brown her Forehead without Wrinkles her Looks full of Ingenuity her Mien her Speech her Address without Affectation and agreeable She had a lively Spirit a quick Ear a strong Sight a good Memory a clear Judgment 2. Tho' she was of a healthful Body and a cheerful Mind of an agreeable Temper and lively Spirit had abundance of temporal Goods and all the Advantages that could be desired to lead a pleasant and honourable Life in the World yet in the flower of her Age she despised all these to follow Jesus Christ in a Life of Poverty Contempt and Trouble and persevered in it till Death maugre all the Scorn Oppositions Hardships and Discouragements she met with 3. In all things she studied to be poor in Spirit and still chose for her self the meanest and the least things when she might have had the best and in the greatest Abundance Her Diet was sober without Abundance or Delicacies She made no difference of Meats except that she shunn'd those which were too dear or which were more for gratifying the Palate than for necessary Nourishment She was modest in Apparel without affecting Singularity accommodating her self to the Custom of the Place where she was only she took care to imitate the Lowliness of Jesus Christ and therefore never chose the finest
upon some extraordinary Accident or some great Fault committed by others yet it was soon â—ver and she no sooner entred into her Chamber or her Solitude but she returned again with great Tranquility She usually said That she hated nothing but Honour and Sin 15. Her Patience and Resignation was singular in the Sicknesses Pains and other Adversities which beâ—el her and her bearing with the Faults and Infirmities of those who were with her tho' upon Occasions her Zeal and Fervour made her rebuke them earnestly especially when they sinned wilfully and maliciously For they who were of good Inclinations and sinned through Infirmity or Ignorance she bear with them or corrected them with great Mildness and Lenity but if any who had been often admonished did sin wilfully and maliciously she did rebuke them vehemently and being moved with a lively Zeal set her self against their Iniquity and we see it was usual for the most Holy to do so Moses Paul and others yea and Jesus Christ himself 16. Her Faith in God did uphold her on all Occasions never doubting of the Truth of his Word waiting his Time for the fulfilling of it and looking still to the things which are not seen and which are eternal 17. Her admirable Knowledge in Divine Things appears by all her Writings and the manner of acquiring it was no less Admirable not by the means of Books Schools or Men as was evident to all who convers'd with her and appears from all her Writings But all my Books says she and Library consist in the Conversation of my Spirit with God and my School is to learn to purge my Soul from Sin and to withdraw its Affections from all earthly things that it may love only those which are Eternal The manner also of composing her Writings as has been already mentioned was no less singular and extraordinary Her Knowledge was singular also in other things as there was occasion for it particularly in the Law in the Matters of Right and Justice so that the greatest Lawyer could not have more distinctly deduced an Affair nor urged it with stronger Reasons as appears in the Affairs of M. de Cort and of Noordstrand 18. Her Humility and Lowliness did shine forth in her Actions so that they who conversed with her do declare they could not observe in her any thing of Pride or Self-esteem Yet this was not express'd by artificial humble Words and Gestures which affect the Reputation of being thought so and cover the greatest Pride but by an unaffected Poverty of Spirit and giving the Glory of all Good to God And the very things which her Enemies adduce as Instances of Pride were great Evidences of the contrary 19. Simplicity and Sincerity of Heart were her nature there was no Guile in her Spirit she not only would not deceive Men but also would not deceive her self and because of this single Eye her whole Body was full of Light for God makes wise the Simple 20. She often bless'd God for three Things 1. That he never let her drink in the Doctrine of Men for this she said would have made her uncapable of receiving that of the Holy Spirit 2. That he had not engaged her in a married State for then she would have lost the Liberty of cleaving to God only 3. That he gave her Peace and Tranquility of Mind in all Rencounters for otherwise she would have oft times stumbled or fallen in the so many different Accidents and Miseries to which she was exposed 21. Her Life was a continual Prayer her Spirit being always turned towards God whether she was writing or working or eating or walking or in her Chamber or travelling every thing gave her Occasion of begging his Help or to bless him for his Favours or to adore and celebrate his Perfections 22. As she heartily regrated the Divisions of Christendom so she advised those of her Friends who had withdrawn themselves from the World to lead a Christian Life not to make new spiritual Assemblies and Meetings She said Christians ought always to entertain one another with spiritual Things and that all their Words and Works should be Sermons for edifying and animating one another to Vertue and to the Perfection of their Souls She bid them purge their Souls from Sin and labour to acquire true Vertue and to preach to themselves and others by their Life Not but that she thought publick Assemblies were necessary for those who were still taken up about Worldly Affairs and who would apply the whole time of their Life in temporal Affairs if there were not some Times appointed for Prayer or some Places for hearing Instruction Nor did she think publick Assemblies unlawful when they sincerely sought the Glory of God Nor that they who were truly regenerated themselves and endu'd with Divine Light to instruct others ought not to teach them But she gave this Counsel to her Friends both that they might avoid the Scandal of Forming a new Sect and the drawing upon themselves unnecessary Persecutions and Hatred in Places where such Assemblies were not tolerated and that they might not be tempted to Vain-glory Curiosity and Destruction by offering to teach others before they were well taught themselves for their own Perfection or by desiring to learn from others that which they did not practice 23. Being ask'd concerning the Eucharist if she held Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation or a figurative Representation only She said These were all unprofitable Speculations about which Men dispute to no purpose and yet none of them can tell how this Mystery is Neither is it necessary for Salvation nor for the Fruit of true Communicating As for me says she I never apply my self to these Formalities but in Simplicity I lift up my Heart and Spirit unto God and place my self always as in his Presence and I communicate uniting my Design and my Intention with that of Jesus Christ and in his Spirit without troubling my self with other Particularities provided my Spirit be united to his and in a true Disposition of conforming my self to him and of following him 24. Tho' she had the Liberty to Converse with many Yet she said she saw it not fit since Men now are so accustomed to see affected Gestures and counterfeit Vertues that they cannot receive True Vertue says she unless it be accompanied with that Surliness and those Hypocritical Gestures which I abhor for God will not lead me by these Ways He gives me a Tranquility of Mind and a Joy in my Soul that even appears outwardly I have no insolent Laughters but a continual Joy that oftentimes chears those who converse with me when they know that my Joy does not proceed from any human Satisfaction but from my Conversation with God But they who do not understand these things do imagine that one who has received the Holy Spirit should be still melancholy sad and serious to the utmost Degree thinking that he ought not to do or speak the least thing
without deriving Vain glory from them This befals all those who live still in the Sentiments of corrupt Nature But I am says she by the Grace of God arrived at that State that the Praises and Reproaches of Men are all one to me and I make no more reckoning of the one than of the other because of the small Esteem I have of the Judgment of Men who often praise that which they ought to despise and despise that which they ought truly to esteem If says she M de Cort has said in his Preface that I have more Light than all the Authors that he had ever read this does not infer that he would place me above the Prophets Apostles or Jesus Christ himself as you alledge but he would only declare that he received more Light by my Discourses than by reading of all the Authors he had ever seen yea even the Scripture it self since it is obscure in some places whereas our daily Conferences gave him more Clearness and my Practice made him penetrate the true Sence of the Scriptures in which he had read many things whereof he understood nothing at all If the Author had not been hasty to condemn her but had calmly heard and considered what she had to say for her self he would not perhaps have past so hard a Censure but would have been convinc'd that the most humble may speak well of themselves and suffer others to do so too and that without the least Tincture of Pride or Vain-glory. If we would first set our selves to cast out the Beam out of our own Eye we should then see clearly to take the Beam out of anothers VI. The Second Accusation that she overturn'd Priesthood and the Ordinances is evinced to be as palpable a Mistake as the former in the Second Part Of the Apology pag. 154 155 c. It was no fair dealing in the Author to pick out some few Words of a Passage and not relate the whole as it is in p. 54. of the First Part of the Light of the World And whereas you ask says she whether all these outward Devotions which are now in use in Christendom are good and saving I doubt it very much for Christ taught no such Varieties of Devotions as we see now adays but he taught solid inward Vertues as Faith Hope and Charity these are the Instructions of Jesus Christ but they who are at present call'd Churchmen teach no other thing but to resort to Churches to frequent Sacraments and to say a great many vocal Prayers by rote and number and with these outward things they make them believe that they are True Christians which cannot be since Christianity consists in an inward spiritual Life for it is Divine and not Humane Which Words might have born a more favourable Construction than the overturning of all Priesthood and the Ordinances of the Gospel they being truly levelled against the Corruptions of the Ordinances and might have been so understood especially if the Author had considered that A. B. had never yet been without the Bounds of the Roman Communion whose Churchmen all Protestants do accuse of laying the Stress of Religion too much upon the Varieties of their outward Devotions and Ceremonies And when it is told that A. B. has written an express Apology for Pastors the Pastoral Office and the Publick Ordinances it is I must say a singular way of answering to reply that those Enthusiasts are all Contradictions to themselves and opposite to one another as if one could not blame the Abuses of the Priesthood and outward Devotions and yet stand up for the Office of Pastors and the Ministry without a Contradiction Sure the Holy Scripture is a good President which establisheth these and yet condemns the Abuses of them in a thousand Places calling the Pastors Deceivers Dumb Dogs Hirelings Hypocrites Thieves Wolves and many other Names of this nature God abhors his own Institutions when corrupted Church-men have their Corruption as well as others and to flatter them in them is but to sow Pillows to their Arm-holes When the Pastoral Office is turn'd into a Trade whereby Men chiefly propose to get a Living and Reputation in the World when the great End of it is despised and the Duties of it done superficially in order to these other Ends This is a Priestcraft that should be decried and they who have the greatest love to Christianity will be most forward to do it and it is in this Respect only that A. B. condemns the Abuses of the Priesthood and the outward Ordinances and not the Function and the Offices themselves VII The Author's Third Point of her Vncharitableness and damning all the World is cleared in the Apology A. B. declares that God would have all Men to be saved and that no Body can be saved without being regenerated into the Spirit of Jesus Christ the Spirit of Charity Humility and Poverty and without leading his Life and that in the mean time all generally have strayâ—d out of the Paths of his Life and are Strangers to his Spirit If this be a certain Truth then to cry aloud and give warning of this is an Act of the greatest Charity If mortal and pestilential Diseases had overspread the whole Earth and the Contagion were universally derived from Parents upon the Children and the most part were insensible of their Disease and could hardly be perswaded that they were sick if notwithstanding it should please God to raise up a skilful and infallible Physician who had provided certain and undoubted Remedies taken them first himself and left plain Directions how to use them and great numbers at first by following his Rules and Example had fully recovered their Health If yet in process of Time the generality of Men few or none excepted left off to follow the Precepts would not be confined to such strict Rules of Physick as to Air Diet Company Self-will c. as if they were all contagious and thought the Physician 's Rules and Example unpracticable but yet made a Fashion of honouring him and proceeded so far as to restrain the grossest outward Eruptions which would make them loathsome to their Neighbours tho inwardly they still laboured under mortal Diseases and could hardly be convinced of it Would it be thought want of Charity in any to give loud Warning of this to the World If any had recovered or were upon the recovering Hand would they think themselves greatly injured by any who should say that now there were none in Health and they did not see how any could recover after the manner the lived now They would rather think it might well be said so the Number being so few that they might be called none at all and this might perhaps excite and awaken some of those who remained still insensible of their State to take the true Measures for their Recovery That this is a true Figure of the Spiritual State of the World at present is but too evident
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
their Purity notwithstanding their Contradiction to Mens Lives in whose hands they are to be a standing Miracle and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to be the last and most perfect Doctrine that is to come into the World and the Standard by which all others are to be examin'd and tried and desires no body may receive her Sentiments but in so far as they are agreeable thereunto and condemns the Practice of the Roman Church in with-holding the Use of the Scriptures from the People as a heinous Injustice and Impiety Tho' she does not think that God has bound up himself only to this way of communicating his Light but may when he pleases immediately communicate the same to any Person without the Use of the Holy Scriptures and such Persons may forbear the reading of them as she did without despising them as one needs not be taken up with reading his Friend's Letter when he is immediately conversing with him And for an Evidence of it she appeals to the Truths which she declares are communicated to her by God if they are not the same in Substance with those contained in the Holy Scriptures XI The Author comes next to some of her Opinions which she her self has often declared are not necessary to be believed and which if Men please they may count them Dreams and Fancies He calls them wild and barbarous and indeed as he conceives and represents them he would make some of them appear Extravagant enough tho' a candid Interpretation of them will render them both amiable and useful Thus what Wildness or Barbarity is there in Asserting that Jesus Christ and his Church are one that it is his Spirit internally animating influencing and informing the Souls of Men that makes them Members of his Mystical Body which is the Church or in Asserting that the last Judgment by which she means the Universal Plagues by which God will in a Course of many Years destroy the Wicked from off the Earth is at hand Few who seriously consider the State of the World will think this a wild and barbarous Notion but the Scoffers who walk after their own Lusts and say Where is the Promise of his coming She maintains no Mahumeâ—an Paradise but such a one as Man would have enjoy'd in the State of Innocence when as yet he had no Lust or Concupiscence Vnto the Pure all things are Pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing Pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled She says with our Saviour That the Saints after the Resurrection neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels in Heaven She condemns human Learning no farther than it fosters Pride Amusement Self-conceit and the Lust of the Eye or Curiosity and destroys Charity and the Love of God There is no greater Absurdity in saying that Jesus Christ thought fit to appear in our human Nature void of human Learning no Mathematician no Philosopher nor Critick than to say that he appear'd poor and despised of all not having where to lay his Head since he thought fit to deny himself of all that we make the Object of our Vanity and Concupiscence XII What the Author is pleas'd to say of M. Poiret that he was craz'd and is still so reputed being utterly false can do him no Hurt with such as are either acquainted with himself or his Writings but it shews that Mens Passions will make them rashly utter false and extravagant Things which they themselves do not believe For the Author himself in the next Page reckons him among the Men of Sence and Learning who have written in Defence of A. B. abroad It is no wonder then that some in Britain admire his Books for he is no superficial rambling Writer as they discover more than an ordinary Degree of Sence and Learning so they direct to the solid Knowledge and Practice of true Christianity Freed from the false Glosses of Parties and the Disguises of Self-Love and corrupt Nature the Charge of his denying the Divine Prescience is clear'd in the Apology * They do also endeavour to make him odious by publishing an Expression which they say he used in a private Conversation with two Gentlemen of their Acquaintance M. Poiret himself says it is not easie for him to remember the Conversations he hath with all who come to see him nor if he had such an Expression to any but that if he had those Gentlemen may think he had Reason for what he spoke and he is well pleased that all the World know it that as he is fully perswaded that God is so he is perswaded that A. B. was illuminated and inspired by his Holy Spirit Both these are Truths but it does not follow that he looks upon both as of equal Moment or that he believes them upon equal Grounds XIII After the Author has formed so grievous and unjust a Charge laying aside a Christian Temper he proceeds in his 8. Sect. to sound the Trumpet and excite others to Fury and Indignation and in his late Book of the History of Sin and Heresie p. 33. he repeats over the same Charge with all the hard Words that Spite and Fury could invent and insinuates his Fears of a Growing Sect and Party It is strange to see Men more alarm'd and enrag'd against Enemies created by their own Fancy than they are against real ones If the Author of the Preface were once out of the Heat that his Imagination has put him in it were easie I should think to convince him that these he calls Bourignianists are no such Enemies as he has fansied to himself I can assure him they do heartily own that our Reconciliation with God is obtain'd only by the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ That the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures is the Standard by which we are to try and examine all Doctrines That no Inspiration can come from God that does not fill the Soul with Humility and Charity or That instills under the Sheeps Clothing of Devotion and Piety any Heresie or any thing that tends to Schism or to withdraw Obedience from their lawful Bishop or to set up new Sects and that Corruptions in the Church are better amended by living in the Communion of it and there by good Example to reclaim than by open Desertion to set up opposite Factions which heightens Animosities embitters Spirits renders them deaf to one anothers Advices and often proceeds to Blood and Slaughter as the Author of the Preface does so rationally conclude it in the Marks he gives to distinguish between Inspirations from God and Diabolical Enthusiasm And if there be any thing in the Writings of A. B. contrary to these or to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ they do openly disown and disclaim the same and stand up for them no farther than they tend to promote the great Interests of Christianity Truth Holiness and Peace XIV I come now to
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
excuses himself that he offers to judge and censure her Actions If he satisfie himself I shall excuse him but can find no excuse for his Misrepresentations and giving these as the greatest Proofs of Sanctity adduced by her Friends which neither she nor they reckon to be such viz. Affected Solitude and Retirement Celibacy Fastings Watchings Humiliations wearing of Sackcloth a contempt of the common Ornaments of her Sex with such like Austerities and great Raptures and Extasies in Devotion and declaring that he perceives no singular Instance of Sanctity mention'd by them beside those For it was easie to observe from the Accounts given of her that she lived as one constantly travelling towards Eternity and as such studied in all things to conform her Life to that of Jesus Christ I shall not here recount the many Instances of this which aâ—e to be seen in the First Part of the Apology and in the Character given of her in the end of the Apology but shall refer the Doctor to the Places cited on the Margent in which Places he will see some Instances of true Sanctity which he did not think fit to notice how observable soever they be in her own Writings and in the Accounts that are given of her by those who knew her in her Youth and Old Age and in all the Stages of her Life in the Temoign de la Verite and particularly in that by Mr. Franken Merchant in Amsterdam In the Eighteenth Article he speaks as if A. B. and others in comparing her Life with that of Jesus Christ thought that there were an Equality without giving any Evidence for it the thing is utterly false both she and they affirm only that she was a Follower of Jesus Christ she makes the Essence of Christianity to consist in the Imitation of Jesus Christ and in all her Writings lays before us his Life and Spirit for our Imitation in a way more divine and forcible than the general way of sermonizing And if her Vertues were truly Transcripts of the Life of Jesus it is very Just that they be represented to the World as such that so it may appear that it is the Devil and our corrupt Nature only that makes us believe that he is not imitable and that by such an Instance we may be stirred up to be true Followers of Jesus Christ In the next Article he hath a long Discourse upon Solitude Because he says it is recommended as a special Act of Sanctity by the Example and Sentiments of A. B. and because it has been much debated by Heathens and Christians by Ancients and Modern yet few says he have offered a just Decision of the Matter I was in good Hopes this should have been done by him yet at last he will not determine which of the States the Active or the Contemplative is fittest but then he thinks A mixt State the happiest which is plainly every Bodies State and gives his Reasons for it and corrects a vulgar Error concerning the Clergy as if they all ought to be Men of Study and Retirement which he says is a great Mistake since they are to shew the Possibility of the Divine Laws by their Practice and he who can hear himself prais'd without Vanity and accused without Wrath can accept of good things when they are offered without a brutal Joy and yet never be out of Humour when are they wanting Such a one prosecutes the End of his Calling better and his Conversation does more good c. A. B. considers and determines this Matter upon other Principles and by another Spirit It is not which of the States makes a Man a Drone or a Drudge in which a Man may enjoy himself best or do most good acquire Knowledge and Experience give himself to Study or to Business Which are the Measures by which the Doctor determines But she says we are all travelling to Eternity and our great Business both as Men and Christians is to give our whole Love to God and to keep our selves unspotted from the World that every one is obliged sincerely to examine their own Hearts and Consciences and whatever they find to be a Hindrance to the Love of God by all means to avoid it and whatever they find to be to them a necessary Help to it to embrace it that the Corruptions abounding in the World make it very hard for some to converse with it and not become Partakers of their Sin that many are so weak or so easie to be surprized by the Temptations it offers that they find it for their Safety as much as they can to avoid them by Solitude and Retirement that Babylon is presently over all and God calls to all his Children to come out of her least they be Partakers of her Sins and so of her Plagues also That nevertheless God has different Ways of bringing Souls unto himself and therefore what Method one follows and finds for his Eternal good he is not to impose upon others nor are others to despise him XXIII In the 20th Article the Doctor brings as he thinks certain Proofs that she had no Sactnity 1. That till the 18th Year of her Age she ran into a vain and light Conversation by which she lost her Conversation with God where in his Judgement he shews a flat Contradiction in the Preface to the English Reader of the Light of the World because a few Lines before he had affirmed this he had said that from her Childhood she had inward Conversation with God as if any could lose a thing they never had or never lose it because they had it from their Childhood However this he thinks proves That she could not be anointed by the Spirit of God to declare his Will for if it had been so it is no ways likely he would have left her so soon to her self or suffered her to be corrupted whom he had appointed to be so great a Light especially when that which tempted her was but the Censures and Misconstructions of other Men What could not the Spirit of God break through this Temptation Was her Grace too weak to resist it Must so Holy a Person do Evil merely to pass for a Wit The Doctor reasons upon other Principles different from those of the rest of Mankind when he comes to speak of A. B. Were not David and Solomon separated from the Womb Did not their Graces and Sanctity appear early Did they not fall into grievous Sins Is this a Proof that God did not anoint them to declare his Will Could not the Spirit of God break through their Temptations c. But moreover it is to be considered that it was no gross and scandalous Sin by which she lost her Conversation with God and yet notwithstanding she lived a Life of great Mortification for it for several Years 2. His next Proof is that even after this which is pretended to be the Time of her Conversation She did not determine the great State of her
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
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
many vocal words others to Speculations or Meditations of the Spirit which they call Mental Prayers But believe me it is neither Words nor Speculation that makes Prayer But TRUE PRAYER consists in the Conversition of Spirit that Man has with his God when his heart speaks to him and asks the things that he has need of or blesses him and thanks him for his Favours or praises his Greatness Goodness Love and the other Qualities which Man observes in his God This Elevation of Spirit or Conversation that he has with God makes up true Prayer without which there can be no true Prayer tho' they call by this Name many divers things which it were impossible that Man could do continually as Jesus Christ has said that he must always pray and never faint 17. He could not have appointed Man to do impossible things as continual Prayer would be after the manner that they would understand it For if to pray a Man behov'd to be always in Churches all the other things necessary for the support of Life would perish and Man would die for want of them And if to pray he must be always on his Knees the Body could not suffer this continual Fatigue And if he behov'd always to meditate fine Speculations in his Spirit he would break his head or if he must speak Prayers continually he could neither sleep eat nor drink So that it is not to be believ'd that God demands of Man any other continual Prayer but that of the Conversation of his Spirit with God which may be done continually while working drinking eating writing yea even while sleeping seeing he who has entertain'd his Spirit with God all the day long does certainly rest with him while sleeping because the Spirit having walked with its God while awake it reposes it self likewise with him when sleeping And usually the vital Spirits are full of that which they love and that which has been seen and heard in the day time is represented unto the Spirit in Sleep So that he who converses with his Spirit elevated unto God by day loses very little of the same Conversation during the night and even sometimes God communicates himself unto him by Dreams 18. By which it appears that it is very possible to pray continually as Jesus Christ has taught us yea there is nothing more easie and agreeable For my part I could not live without this continual Prayer and Death would be more sweet to me than to be one hour out of it because all sorts of Pleasures without this Conversation are to me Vexations and mortal Afflictions For this cause I abide always in it and I do not think that you have seen me go out of this Conversation to delight in other things By which you may see that it is very possible to pray always and never to cease and that it is even good and pleasant seeing he who is in this continual Prayer is never melancholy which you may also have observed as to me amidst so many different Events and occasions of Grief 19. Give your self therefore to this Continual Prayer and by it you shall overcome both your inward and outward Enemies You shall have Joy and Peace in your self and you shall learn all that you have need to do and avoid Do not apply your self to contemlate the great Wonders of God or his Conduct towards Men nor the other Mysteries of God or of Religion but practise this Continual Prayer according to your need speaking to God continually If you are in Temptation beg his Assistance if you are in Ignorance beg Wisdom from him to fulfil his Will if you are weak Strength and if you receive his Graces bless him and thank him for this Favour done to you a Sinner And thus you shall have continual matter of having your Spirit lifted up to God in which TRUE PRAYER consists By this you shall habituate your self by degrees to speak unto God and to converse with him in Spirit and at last he will speak unto you and you shall be here united unto him looking for a perfect Unity in Eternity Which she wishes you who remains Your very affectionate in Jesus Christ A. B. From the place of my Retreat Apr. 7. 1671. LETTER III. That the Spirit cannot rule where the Flesh rules That to him who has mortified the old Adam in himself it is most easie to imitate Jesus Christ and that it is difficult only to him who would live according to his Natural Inclinations This is the 7th Letter of the Third Part of La lum nee on tenebr My dear Child 1. I Do not wonder that your Friends say It is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ so long as they live according to their Natural Inclinations for it is a certain Truth that a natural Man cannot live according to the Spirit of Jesus Christ He must be regenerated and the old Adam must die in him for the Spirit cannot reign where the Flesh reigns seeing they are two sworn Enemies and cannot agree together no more than Heat and Cold This it is that makes Thunders and Lightnings in the Air when the Cold and Heat meet together the same befalls Souls cold in Charity when they feel themselves touch'd by the Arrows of God's Love or the heat of his Anger 2. If it be said to a carnal Person that he ought to love God with all his Heart with all his Soul and with all his Strength you shall see him presently break out in Words and throw out as it were fiery Flames of Anger to maintain that he loves God while in effect he loves nothing but himself And if it be told him that he cannot love God while he loves himself and the transitory things of this World he well let fly like Claps of Thunder against him who lays before him this Truth because he neither knows nor conceives it and his natural Inclinations cannot take pleasure in loving that which they do not see nor feel such as God and eternal Things which are invisible to his Carnal Eyes 2. We must of necessity die to the Flesh that we may live to the Spirit otherwise we shall never comprehend Spiritual things There are two Natures in us the one is Divine and other Humane The Divine Nature loves things Eternal and the Humane Nature loves things Temporal The Divine respects nothing that is earthly and the Humane respects nothing that is heavenly because each of these tend always to their Centre The Divine part in Man aims and tends to Divine things and endeavours to serve God who is its Principle from whence it comes and the Humane Nature aims and tends always to Earth from whence it takes its Original and cannot be pleased in any other thing This is the Reason why they who live according to their Nature say That it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ which is most true as long as they will needs continue to live according to their Nature For it was corrupted by
Sin since which time it can produce nothing but all sort of Evil it being impossible for it to do any Good or to have one good Thought For this Cause Job had good Reason to curse the Day of his Birth for none of the Beasts would be so miserable in their Nature as is Man if he had not in him a Divine Nature 4. All must grant this and say with your Friends that it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ seeing he lived supernaturally having subjected his Humane Part to his Divine and made his Flesh die that he might live to his Spirit and despised Temporal things that he might embrace Eternal But I would gladly ask all those Natural Persons if they desire to do the same things And if they have put to Death the old Adam in them that is the Inclinations of corrupt Flesh And if they have labour'd with all their Power to revive in them the Spirit of the new Adam which contradicts the Sensualities of the Flesh Which appears by the Person of Jesus Christ who overcame all Natural Sensualities 5. It may be they will say that it would be impossible for them to attain to such a Perfection as Jesus Christ had while they will not part with so much as one of the Affections which they have for their Pleasures or Sensualities that they might follow him at a distance For they do not so much as desire to imitate him far les to tend to his Perfection They believe indeed by an imaginary Speculation that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them and they will not believe by a Divine Truth that he has merited for them by his Sufferings the Grace and the Power to imitate him because they do not desire to do it for they love rather to remain in the Corruption of the old Adam than to be quickened into the new which is Jesus Christ 6. Thus it is that those poor Souls flatter themselves to their Ruine while they say that they cannot imitate Jesus Christ nor live without Sin because of their great Frailty This is as much as to say that they resolve not to be saved and they resolve to die in their Sins for there are only two ways the one of Salvation the other of Damnation and Jesus Christ is that which leads to Salvation He who will not walk in the same Way in which he walked cannot find Life but without all doubt shall die for ever Therefore my dear Child do not give way to the Discourses of those poor blinded ones who have fill'd their Understanding with Errors but walk according to the Light that God has given you and labour to be born again in the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Saviour Withdraw from the World since he says that he prays not for the World but for those whom his Father has given him out of the World Those who are of the World are they who love the transitory things of the World and will not part with them to imitate Jesus Christ They are rich in Will and proud in Heart loving their fleshly Sensualities while they flatter themselves by saying that it would be impossible for them to imitate Jesus Christ and to live without Sin because of their great Frailty which if they understood aright they would use means to overcome it and he who felt his Heart cleave to Riches would not possess them but would put them far away from him as some of the Heathens did who threw all their Money into the Sea fearing least it should deprive them of the Liberty of their Mind And if a Man found himself so frail as to fall into the Sin of Pride he would shun Offices Greatness and Honours that he might follow the Poverty and Lowliness of Jesus Christ and if hâ— found himself so frail as that he could not eat and drink delicate things without falling into the Sin of Gluttony he would take the coarsest Meats and Drink proportionably to support the Weakness and Frailty of Nature weaning it from all Sensuality or fleshly Apperite But Men do not feel themselves too frail to iudulge their Body in all its Appetites and Pleasures and they will needs make themselves believe that they are too frail to abstain from Sin or to imitate Jesus Christ 7. This Sentiment is so Erroneous that I would be ashun'd to refute it were it not that I see so many Souls possess'd with it especially among those of Calvin's Reformatiâ—on who live and die in this Belief that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them that it is impossible for them to do good or to imitate Jesus Christ This it seems is inculcated unto them from the Cradle since in effect we see that all their practice is founded upon it while they live according to the Motions of corrupt Nature and with this believe that they shall be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ without striving to imitate him since they are taught that it is impossible to do this And tho' this is a false Theology yet every one follows after it leaning upon a broken Reed 8. For that Man of whom I spoke to you formerly said that it was impossible for him to do any good Work yea to say the Lord's Prayer with Attention no more than they with whom he convers'd whom he had often ask'd if they could say it with Attention and they all answered they could not It is to be remarked that they were Merchants of great Trade and Spirit who found out all sort of Inventions for gaining of Money with great Dexterity and Care and their Spirit was not disingag'd for saying the Lord's Prayer with Attention For where their Treasure was there was their Heart and the Attention cannot be perfect in two so contrary things at the same time but if they had purg'd their Souls from coveting earthly Goods and as carefully applied their Understanding to speak unto God and to hear him without doubt they might not only have said the Lord's Prayer with Attention but might also have attention seriously upon continual Prayer which Jesus Christ has so much recommended to us saying that we ought always to pray and never to cease 9. But those poor Ignorants think to please God with fair Words as they please Men by saying that they are too frail to do any Good far less can they imitate Jesus Christ for these Excuses will condemn them For if they were truly sensible of their Frailty they would avoid the Occasions of Sin and use the Means of Poverty Humility and Patience that they might imitate Jesus Christ for he did nothing when he was upon Earth but that which another would do that were animated with the same Spirit that he was For the same God has through all the same Power and can do by the Body and Spirit of other Men that which he did by that of Jesus Christ 10. For in as much as he is God his Power is not limited provided that Man give no â—indrance
to it by his Free-will So that if one at present did submit his Will to that of God as Jesus Christ did he would certainly feel the same Operations of Divine Vertues that he felt in his Soul and would likewise do the outward Miracles that he did if there were need for them for the Spirit of God is not lessened and his Power was not limited to the Person of Jesus Christ only seeing he says that his Delight is to be with the Children of Men. He does not speak of one singular Man but of all Men who submit their Wills to his and renounce the Corruption of the old Adam to be cloathed with the new which is Jesus Christ 11. Those will find sufficiently by Experience that it is very possible to imitate Jesus Christ yea that it is easie and agreeable when they are denuded of that old Adam For Jesus Christ himself says that his Yoke is easie and his Burthen light This Truth it self cannot lye that it should be true that it is impossible to bear this Yoke But carnal Persons do certainly lye while they say that it is impossible to imitate him since he did nothing as Man but that which another Man may do being posses'd with the Holy Spirit for Gâ—d is impassible and cannot have endur'd the Sufferings of 〈◊〉 Christ It was his Humanity only that suffered assiâ—â— by the Grace of God which will not be denied to thoâ—â— that ask it seeing God is the common Father of all Men and promises to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask it His Promises are infallible the Scripture assures us of this saying Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my Words shall not pass away bringing the Comparison of an evil Father who would not give his Son a Stone instead of Bread nor a Serpent for a high Fish asking them How then shall not your heaâ—â—â— Father give his Holy Spirit to him who asks him 12. Truly my dear Child I can scarce reason more to make appear those Truths which are so clear I have spoken of them several times and they still bring me new Arguments to maintain the Corruption of our miserable Times wherein Men have invented so much silly Stuff whereby to flatter such as themselves and to make them live and die in the Sentiments of corrupt Nature falsly perswading them that they cannot attain to the Perfection of Jesus Christ that they may not use any Endeavours to attain to it for it would be in vain to endeavour that which is impossible Therefore we see Men to the Eâ—â—y of one another give up themselves to Pastimes take their Pleasures and heap up Riches as if they were created for this looking for Salvation as it were in Recompence for their Sins Which is very sad and will make many to be deceiv'd at Death who in this Life think that they are good Christians because they have not committed the gross Sins of Theft Whoredom or Drunkenness and have frequented Churches and Sacraments prayer much and given much Alms All this will avail nothing before God if we are not animated with the Spirit of Jesus Christ 13. For God will know no Men but those who at Death shall be cloathed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is Charitable Humble poor in Spirit in short adorned with all his Vertues and to be a Christian one must imitate him as he himself has said For his Doctrine is not a History to be read or heard out of Curiosity but is all Lessons which we must retain to put them in practice else we shall falsly bear the Name of Christian which signifies no other thing but a Person dead to the Flesh to live unto the Spirit or one who has renounced the Corruption of the old Adam to live renewed into the Spirit of Jesus Christ 14. It is far more safe to believe that Jesus Christ by his Death and Sufferings has merited for us the Grace of dying to our selves that we may live unto him than to believe that he has satisfied all for us while we rest upon this false Pillow abiding in the Sentiments of our Nature eating drinking and doing all other things according to our Sensualities This is the broad Way that leads to Peâ—dition and many there are who walk in it but you my dear Child take the narrow Way that leads to Life even tho' there be few that walk in it Every one will bear his own Burthen If your Friends will not walk in it leave them rather than follow them seeing Jesus Christ says that we must can off the Member or pluck out the Eye that offends us and that he who leaves not Father and Mother Wife and Children for his Names sake is not worthy of him I do not require of you the Perfection that Jesus Christ had but that you tend to it and aspire after it as much as is possible for you In doing of which you will oblige her to love you who subscribes her self Yours wholly in God Antho. Bourignon Amsterdam July 1â—th 1670. LETTER IV. That God does not pardon Sin without Penitence To the same Wherein is declared that Men fall every Day of new into Adam's Sin turning away from God to love the Creature and that they can never be saved without being revived into the Spirit of Jesus Christ who has merited for us the Grace to imitate him This Letter is the Eighth of La lum nèe en tenebr Part iii. My dear Child 1. I Wonder how it is possible that your Friends should say that I reject the Merits of Jesus Christ and that I do not look upon them as the Means of our Salvation seeing that I do not look for Salvation for my self but by the Merits of Jesus Christ who came into the World to redeem us after that we had been all lost by Sin and by it sold and delivered up into the Power of the Devil 2. For Sin is no other thing but a turning away from God to turn towards the Creature The Angels did first thus turn away when they saw themselves so Beautiful and so Perfect they were pleased in themselves desiring to be like unto God And thus they became Devils Enemies of God and of all his Works looking on them with Envy and Jealousie labouring as much as was possible to destroy and corrupt them Therefore the Devil tempted Man as soon as he perceived his Creation that he might hinder the Designs which God had of taking his Delight with him and Man by the Instinct of the Devil turn'd away from his God to regard the Creatures in regarding of which he coveted and lov'd them against the Prohibition of his God thus withdrawing himself by his Will to cleave to the Satisfaction of his humane Nature which we do yet daily 3. And this turning away from God is call'd Sin which brought forth Death to the Soul of Adam and to all Men in him seeing Adam had in his Loins all the Men that are
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
blinded ones so often repeat that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for us and say that I reject his Merits by teaching that of necessity we must imitate him if we would be saved This might well surprize some weak Spirits who would think that they did Honour to Jesus Christ in saying that he had merited all for them and that they are too weak to endure any thing But this cannot surprize one of sound Judgment who will very clearly perceive that I esteem the Merits of Jesus Christ since to them I ascribe my eternal Happiness 11. For if Jesus Christ had not interposed with God his Father for our Reconciliation never any Man had been saved since every one of them would have turn'd away from God to cleave to their natural Sentiments of which they were become Idolaters to love them with all their heart as they were obliged to love God having chang'd the Love of God into that of our fleshly Sensualities Of necessity there behov'd to be a MEDIATOR between God and Man to make this RECONCILIATION and to obtain the PARDON of so great a Fault 12. We were all guilty of High Treason against God and justly condemn'd to eternal Punishment unable to deliver our selves from it having lost the Grace of God and become his Enemies There was nothing to be hop'd for on our part for obtaining Mercy for we even knew not our Miseries so far were we from having Strength to help them or Assurance to beg of God his Grace whose Enemies we had made our selves by our Sins There was no ground of hoping for Mercy by our selves therefore JESUS CHRIST as our Advocate undertook our Cause and procur'd this Pardon not as the Ddvocates at the Tribunals of this World who plead that they may gain Money but as a divine Advocate who aims at nothing but his Father's Glory He offers to pay himself the Penalties due to our Sins that his Father might in justice pardon the Guilt of them and take us again into his Favour which he has assuredly obtain'd for Light and Grace have been given us by Jesus Christ otherwise no body would see from whence he had strayed by Sin nor whether he had gone by the forgetting of God 13. It is the Light only which Jesus Christ brought upon Earth that has made us see both the one and the other for after that he had obtain'd the PARDON of our Sins as to the Guilt by his Merits only who was innocent and subjected himself to Sufferings and to Death that he might reconcile us with God and deliver us from the Power of the Devil to which we had voluntarily subjected our selves this bowed the heart of God to speak after our way and forc'd his Will unto Mercy towards us This Grace was grace was granted unto us by God only for the Merits of Jesus Christ of his Death and his Sufferings without our Intervention So that Jesus Christ may for this be truly call'd our Saviour for he alone has saved us from the death of Sin and recover'd us from eternal Damnation into which we had miserably fallen through our own Fault and our Sins for it was impossible for Man to recover himself from so grievous a Fall 14. He would have remain'd to all Eternity in his Damnation without remedy since he saw not the means by which he might be re-united to his God But Jesus Christ brought Light unto them when he came into the World and has made them see by his Deeds and Words the things which had withdrawn them from God and what things they must do that they may return unto him for he was not satisfied to have obtained Grace for them but he would also procure their Salvation which cannot be obtain'd without the co-operation of our own Will because we are created by God free Creatures He cannot take back that which he his once given So that tho' God was able to create us of nothing without our own Will before we had a Being yet we cannot be saved without the co-operation of this Free will which he has given us for Adam could not be saved after his Sin without his accepting of the Penitence due unto it even so Jesus Christ cannot save Men by the Merit of his Sufferings and of his Death if they will not take the Remedies for their Evils 15. He is indeed the Physician who prepares Physick for our Souls and takes it himself in our presence but if we will not swallow it our selves it will have no operation upon us This we ought well to consider if we would know how Jesus Christ has suffered for us and how his Merits will be applied unto us for to believe foolishly that the Merits of Jesus Christ will save us without our co-operation is a very dangerous Mistake seeing God could not pardon the Sin of Adam who had committed but one Disobedience without obliging him to so long a Penitence how could he save us who have committed so great a number of Sins unless we will embrace for them the Sufferings which Jesus Christ has taught us since the Scripture assures us by Jesus Christ that unless we do Penitence we shall all perish 16. How can we refute this Truth by saying That we are too frail to imitate Jesus Christ This is directly to reject his Merits since they have merited for us Pardon and Grace to amend our Sins and to do Penitence for them They who after so many Favours say that they are uncapable to imitate him despise his Merits and will not have them applied unto them rejecting them as insufficient to give them strength to do well which is false for there is nothing wanting to us on God's part He says Be faithful in few things and I will set you over many things We have received by Jesus Christ the Light of Truth which is not a small Grace since by it we can discern Good and Evil and in what state our Soul in 17. If we were faithful in this Grace of Knowledge we would obtain that of amending our Faults and resisting Vice and after being faithful to this Resistance we would obtain Grace to renounce all together the Inclinations of our Nature and to die unto the Old Adam that we might live unto the New which is Jesus Christ This is to have no Faith nor Belief in Jesus Christ for if we did believe that he has merited for us the Grace of God by his Death and Sufferings it would be impossible to say or believe that we are too frail to be able to imitate him 17. Your Friends reject my Sentiments as if I rejected the Merits of Jesus Christ and they do not see that it is they themselves who do indeed reject them while they say that they esteem them This cannot proceed but from a great blindness of Spirit that they do not sufficiently-discover it and in this they are much to be lamented since they cannot be saved in this Belief because Faith without
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
runs thro' all that Divine Book of Thomas à Kempis of the Imitation of Christ Lo here an Extract of one Chapter where Jesus Christ thus speaks to the Soul Son let not the fine and subtile Sayings of Men move thee for the Kingdom of God is not in Word but in Power Take heed to my Words which do enflame the Heart and enlighten the Mind which bring Compunction and procure various consolations Never read my Word for this End That thou may be esteem'd the more learned or the more wise but study the Mortification of thy Vices for that will profit thee more than many hard Questions When thou hast read and known much thou must still return to one Principle I am he who teaches Man Knowledge and gives to Little Ones a more clear Understanding than what he can be taught by Man He to whom I speak will soon be Wise and will profit much in Spirit Wo to them that enquire many curious things from Men and care little how to serve me I am he who elevates the humble Mind in a Moment that it may conceive more Reasons of the Eternal Truth than if one studied for Ten Years in the Schools I teach without the Noise of Words without the Confusion of Opinions without the Vanity of Honour without the Debate of Arguments I am he who teaches to despise earthly things to loath present things to seek and relish eternal things to flee Honours to suffer Reproaches to place all their Hope in me to desire nothing besides me and to love me ardently above all things For a certain Person by loving me dearly did learn Divine Things and spoke wonderful Things he profited more by forsaking all than by studying difficult things But to some I utter common things to some special ones to some I appear sweetly in Signs and Figures but to others I reveal Mysteries in much Light There is one Voice of Books but it does not equally instruct all for I am the Teacher of the Truth inwardly the Searcher of the Heart the Understander of the Thoughts the Furtherer of Actions distributing to every one as I shall judge worthy Now Writings whose chief Tendency is to lead us to so excellent a Master to learn in Christ's School and teach us how to labour for the Dispositions which he himself requires of us deserve to meet with some Regard by those who pretend to be his Disciples XXIII 8. Another remarkable Quality of those Writings is that they are so clear and plain and simple The Thoughts of the Studious and of the Learned are out of the common Road of the People and so are their Words and Language too and when they write they can hardly avoid the Terms of the Schools and all affect a certain Eloquence that darkens the Thoughts which we would express both because we have not clear Perceptions of those Truths and we still seek our selves and many who have pretended to Divine Inspiration have written so Mysteriously and under such dark Figures that they cannot be easily comprehended But those Writings are so clear that we may easily and distinctly perceive the Intent of them so plain that Children and the most illiterate People may easily understand them and so simple that there is nothing of humane Art or Varnish to be seen in them XXIV 9. It is no less remarkable that there is a convincing Force and Efficacy in those Writings which does sensibly touch the Hearts of those that read them their Consciences bears them witness of the Truth of things as to themselves and they are convinced of all not that all are so who read any of them no more than all who heard Jesus Christ himself were affected with his Words tho' he spoke as one that had Authority and not as the Scribes tho' never Man spoke like him yet the Pharisees said he had a Devil but others who heard him felt that he had the Words of Eternal Life So some call this Virgin a Devil and Enchantress a mad whimsical Woman Others are so convinced of the Truths of the Gospel contained in her Writings that they are ready to answer she is not mad but speaks the Words of Truth and Soberness Many I know can bear me Witness that upon the reading of her Writings they have felt a deeper Sense of Divine things and their Hearts and Consciences have been more touched than by most of other Writings which they have seen And this can be testified by Persons of different Parties and Perswasions by Learned and Unlearned and it deserves the more Consideration that they are not written in a Way to move the Passions in Flights of Devotion as some would have them pass for but in a simple naked Declaration of Divine Truths All Writings carry along with them certain Impressions of the Spirit with which they are written which we are apt to discern and accordingly to be affected by them If Self be the chief Mover it will be seen thro all the Disguises of the Writer There 's a certain Driness and Deadness in most of Writings and Sermons now adays about Divine Things that they do not at all touch the Heart and even the best of them savour more of the Head of than the Heart of the Spirit of Man than of the Spirit of God and so they cannot rise higher than their Original they may strike and please our Fancy but they cannot move the Divine Faculties of the Soul I cannot give a better Account of this than A. B. does when she complains that tho' there was never more Preaching than in this Age yet never a greater spiritual Famine that they do not give Nourishment to Souls which every Day wax leaner and leaner in Vertue and colder in Charity She says The Word of the Preachers cannot be God's Word for then certainly it would produce its Effects in well-disposed Souls for the Word of God is powerful It would possess the inseparable Qualities of God Righteousness and Goodness and Truth If one of these be wanting it is not the Word of God they may use the Terms and Expressions which Jesus Christ and his Apostles used yet that is not the Word of God They are not called by God but carried to the Ministry by Ambition or some worldly and human Interest Their Sermons are nothing else but Apish Mummeries If an Ape saw an excellent Painter drawing a curious Picture and if in his Absence it should take the Pencils and Colours and so scratch upon the same Table it would entirely Daub all tho' it made Use of the same Pencils and Colours because it wanted the Painter's Spirit this Defect marrs all even what was beautiful there before the Ape touch'd it This is the true Emblem of most of the Preachers and Writers now adays in Religion They have the Scripture as the Pallet wherein are distinguish'd the fine Colours of Vertues with which Jesus Christ began the excellent Portraiture of the Holy Church They
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