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
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-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
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
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
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
it I take Cant for a multitude of Words without any True and Divine Sence and not flowing from an inward Life and Spirit and of this there is but too much in the World But the Writings of A. B. are of another Temper and no Body will nauseate them upon this Head but they who have a secret Disgust for the Holy Scriptures God's Ways are not as our ways When we write we seek our selves we strive to discover our Reason and our Learning and study what may please the Curiosity the Fancy and the Niceness of others The Holy Writings are most unlike to ours both as to Matter and Manner and Method and Stile they are not written to please the Learned the Orator the Philosopher the Critick the Curious but to bring down every lofty Imagination and to mortifie our Self-conceit to Comfort the Humble and the Afflicted to give Light and Knowledge to the Poor and Simple and to send the Rich away empty They repeat again and again the great and necessary things of God's Law to mortifie our Niceness and Curiosity and to beat them in upon us by all means while we think it enough to know these things tho' we are not so happy as to do them Now Writings that partake so much of this Spirit will not be despis'd on this Head by any sincere Christian XXVII Some endeavour to render her Sentiments ridiculous concerning the State of the Blessed in the Life to come and they say she establishes a Mahumetan Paradise Eating and Drinking and Generation in the Kingdom of Heaven making the Earth to become that Heaven and that it shall be a Place of all sensitive Delights 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 I would gladly ask such if Adam had continued always in the State of Innocence perfectly Pure and Holy whether they would have called his State a Mahumetan Paradise and a sensual Life If there were no Concupiscence in Man's Nature but a most ardent pure and habitual Love of God the Beauties and Delights of all the Creatures would serve to enflame the Soul still the more with the Love of God There needs no more but to understand her Sentiments to be convinced of the impudent Falshood of their Reproaches She says then That the Earth and all this visible World being wholly renewed and restored to that glorious State in which it was at first formed of which in the First Part shall be the Seat of the Kingdom of God with Men for ever where Jesus Christ God-Man will reign with the Blessed both as to his Divinity and Humanity That Heaven as to the Soul is the Presence of God and we are in Heaven when we are in God and God is in Heaven as he is in the Souls of his Saints as Augustin interprets Our Father which art in the Heavens but as God has given us both a Body and Soul he has given us also a Paradise of both the Soul can have its compleat Paradise in the Presence of God but the Body must have a material and bodily one like it self For this end the Earth and all this visible World and all that therein is were created and for the same Reason God would have become Man tho' Man had never sinn'd that he might live with him both bodily and spiritually and to make his Happiness compleat And therefore he being unchangeable in his infinitely Wise and Good Designs he will certainly make not an imaginary but a real divine and corporeal Reparation of all things to last for ever for his Recompences are Eternal and will purge away from all the Creatures the Malignity and Corruption that Sin has brought upon them And in this State every individual Saint being restored in Body and Soul to the State in which Adam was in his greatest purity before the Woman was formed out of him shall produce his like of himself alone through all Eternity from a Principle of the Love of God and by an ardent Desire that there may be still more Creatures to love and praise the Divine Majesty This then shall not be a corrupt lustful and shameful Propagation like to that of this corrupt World but altogether Pure Holy and Glorious as we see in a manner an earthly Figure of it still in all the Plants and Trees In the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God in Heaven Now what is there in all this unworthy of God or unsutable to the State of the Blessed or contrary to the Holy Scriptures or to the Nature of things It is certain none of the Works of God shall perish but all shall be restored to their primitive Perfection The Scripture tells us there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth Whose Habitation would the Earth have been if Man had never sinn'd and if the Earth had never been accursed And whose Habitation shall it be when it is renewed and made a new Earth When Men fancied all the Works of God to be shut up as it were in a round Sphere and the Earth to be its Centre and the Planetary and Starry Heavens so many firm and solid Orbs moving round about it and the Empyreal Heaven above all this Sentiment about the Earth might have been thought absurd But in the Age we live in wherein is made known the vastness of the Universe and that all the fix'd Stars are probably Suns and Centres of different Systems of the whole and all the other Planets as well as our Earth among which it moves replenish'd no doubt with variety of living and intelligent Beings we have reason to admire the Providence of God in giving Discoveries to a simple unlearned Woman of the State and Habitation of the Blessed sutable to what is now known of the Frame of the Universe which is also fully confirmed from the Holy Scriptures as was shewn in the First Part and does so clearly demonstrate the unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness of God who having created Man in a Pure and Happy State and the Delights and Beauties of this World for his Accessory Felicity and the Devil by his Craft and Subtilty having perverted both and made this Earth for many Ages nothing but Scenes of Wickedness and Misery yet God by his infinitely Wise Conduct and Providence brings about at last the perfect Renovation of Man and of his Habitation the Earth and of all the Creatures and makes it an Eternal Paradise of unspotted Purity and Bliss Whereas on the other Hand it is most unaccountable how infinite Wisdom and Goodness who changes not after he had form'd Man and this World in so excellent a State and both are corrupted by the Devils should continue the Earth for so many Ages to be the Theatre of their Wickedness and then entirely destroy it Might it not then be said as she expresses it That God
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
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
since or shall be born by his Seed in Generation And by this means all Men have perish'd in him having contracted the Corruption that we do yet feel in our Nature for tho' God did pardon Adam and Men in him his Sin as to the guilt yet he did not remove the Miseries of Spirit and the Corruption of Flesh which the same Sin had brought upon him seeing even to this Day we feel Inconstancy Ignorance and Wickedness in our Spirit and Corruption Pains and Death in our Flesh 4. God cannot have made all these things since they are Evil and he can do nothing but Good being himself the perfect Goodness from which no Evil can ever proceed but he has left to Adam and his Posterity the Miseries which their Sin had brought forth that thereby Penitence might be done for it during this Life which is our time of Trial For seeing the Justice of God could not promise the Pardon of Sin without Satisfaction it was needful by a straight Justice that the same Flesh which had taken Pleasure to turn away from him should likewise suffer Pain that it might return unto him 5. But Men since Adam instead of accepting of this Penitence and suffering willingly the Miseries of this Life to satisfie the Justice of God rebell'd against him and endeavour'd to charm their Miseries by striving to reject Sufferings and to take their Delights instead of Penitence and thus they straied more and more from God so that at last they quite forgot him to delight in themselves God of his Goodness raised up Prophets from time to time as Moses and others to withdraw Men from these Errors He gave them Laws and Ordinances that they might discover their Sins and amend them by returning unto him and repenting that they had forsaken him but very few heard his Voice and many hardned their Hearts chosing rather to adhere to themselves and follow their Sensualities than willingly to take up the Penitence ordain'd by God for this short Life so that all Men in general have at last corrupted their Ways and walked according to the Concupiscence of the Flesh in a forgetfulness of God and thus have all merited Damnation and that incomparably more than Adam since he fearâ—d God and repented how soon he heard his Voice not daring to appear before him out of great Confusion for his Sin 6. But Men after him have voluntarily damn'd themselves and given the Devil Power to rule over their Souls whom they do insensibly obey more than God for while they follow their natural Will they do indirectly follow that of the Devil seeing these two Wills of the fallen Angels and of Men are equally rebellious against God and those Men who follow the Will of their corrupt Flesh may be well called the Devil's Angels for one is always his Angel whose Will he does if he submit his Will to God's he is the Angel of God for Angel imports Subject or Obedient Those Men who obey the Law of the Gospel are the Angels of Jesus Christ for this Cause the Scripture says that the Son of Man will come attended with his Angels which are not pure Spirits according to the Angelical Nature but Men who have followed the Will of Jesus Christ 7. This being so he may be well call'd our Saviour for if he had not come at last into the World all Men had perished He alone is the Foundation of our Salvation since Sin and I confess before all Men that the Light of Faith teaches me that I could not be saved without the Coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth and I will always ascribe my Salvation to the Merits of his Sufferings So far am I from rejecting them as your Friends do blindly believe And I have much more reason to say that they reject the Merits of Jesus Christ since they say that they have not Grace to imitate Jesus Christ while they look only to the Power of their corrupt Nature without making use of his Sufferings which have merited for us the Grace to be able to imitate him yea to obtain the Perfection of God himself if we will apply his Merits to our Soul and let his Spirit fill it since Truth it self says to us Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Jesus Christ will require nothing of us that 's impossible no more than his Father but he says Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you ask and ye shall receive This does not teach us that we cannot attain to the Perfection of Jesus Christ but even to aim at that of our heavenly Father 8. Remark well my dear Child the Sentiment of your Friends and you will find that it cannot come but from the Devil and this under a good Pretext of ascribing their Salvation to the Merits of Jesus Christ For if they truly believed that his Sufferings have merited for them the Grace of God they could not in Truth say that they are too weak to imitate Jesus Christ since this Grace of God gives strength to the Weak to overcome the Corruption of our Nature from which we ought never to ask Advice if we may imitate Jesus Christ For if his Apostles and Disciples had ask'd Advice from their Wives their Children Fathers and Mothers Brethren and Sisters undoubtedly they would not have counfell'd them to forsake them that they might follow Jesus Christ since no man hates his own Flesh which seeks its own Advantages so that if the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ had ask'd Counsel of their Flesh and their Selfwill if they could follow Jesus Christ they would never have been Apostles nor Disciples seeing without the Grace of God we can do nothing but know our Frailty and Weakness 9. But since Jesus Christ is come into the World to reconcile us unto his Father and to bring us back to him by his Grace there is no longer any cause of Fear on God's part We may do what we will by the assistance of this Grace which is never denied to him who seeks and asks it so much the more that Jesus Christ is come to merit it for us by his Sufferings but not to merit Salvation for us while we continue to cleave to our corrupt Nature by which we may see clearly the Falshood of that Doctrine that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for us after the manner that so many understand it for this makes them sleep the sleep of Death since they reject the Grace that Jesus Christ has purchas'd for us of his Father to embrace the means by which we may overcome the Flesh and live unto the Spirit of Jesus Christ follow his Example and imitate his Virtues that hereafter we may follow him in Eternity where none shall enter but he who shall be cloathed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ 10. This is that of which I was desirous to warn you for fear that you let your self be deceived by false Appearances hearing those poor
Works is a dead Faith in which while they remain they will never obtain Salvation seeing a living and operative Faith is necessary which cannot be recovered but in the imitation of Jesus Christ for otherwise no body can recover the Grace of God which he has merited for us for those only who will embrace the Gospel Law for it only teaches us how to return to God and points out all the things which have withdrawn us from him 18. If the Gospel Law did not tell me that I must be poor in Spirit I would never have known that the Goods of the World could withdraw me from God and if the same Law did not tell me that I must be humble in Heart I would have remained in the Pride in which Nature begot me and if the same Law did not teach me that I must deny my self take up my Cross and follow Jesus Christ I would never have known that the Love of my self drew me away from the Love of God or that my natural Inclinations did incline me to Sin I would never have done Violence to them that I might take the Kingdom of Heaven by force but having learned in the School of Jesus Christ the Truth of my Duties I will follow them and walk in the Light that he has purchas'd for me by his Sufferings and will not lean upon the Opinions of blinded Men who take Lies for Truth for I know well that for me the Gospel Law was made and that without the observing of it I cannot be among those whom the Father has given unto Jesus Christ and for whom he prays unto his Father I hope you also will be of that number my dear Child that having been in this World united in the Spirit of Jesus Christ we may be united together with him for ever Which she wisheth who remains Yours wholly in God A. B. Amsterdam Jul. 15. 1670. LETTER V. A Traveller to Eternity minds not earthly things To a Child of God who did not sufficiently comprehend that the Cares of this Life were an Hindrance to the Perfection of the Soul and was troubled to hear me say that it behoved me to tarvel alone to Eternal Life seeing he was desirous tobear me Company Shewing him that all the things of this World are vain and when we make it our Business to acquire them or to please Men we are not to look for an Eternal Reward This is the Twelfth of La lum née en tenebr Part iv My dear Child 1. I Know that you are troubled to hear me say that I am all alone in the World since you desire to accompany and follow me Your Desire is good in this but my Proposition is true that I am all alone in the way through which God leads me You ought not to be troubled to hear the Truth but rather to discover what must be done to accompany me I TRAVEL TOWARDS ETERNITY and I see all the World travelling towards the Land of their Banishment which is this miserable World after which every one aspires for I have not yet found one Person who seeks nothing but eternal things only 2. All Men of sound Judgment say that they aspire after things Eternal while their Thoughts Labour and Studies are taken up about what respects the Earth and Time Is it possible that they can have such a Blindness of Spirit as to believe that they desire eternal things when they despise them â—or â—e who seeks after the Goods of this World gives a sure Evidence that he despises Eternity Since it gives a full Satisfaction to the Man who desires it and he can no longer desire any other thing For all that is Temporal and Transitory seems to him Dung and Filth of which he makes use of the least â—e can and would flee in the Air towards Eternity without any wise touching the Earth if his Body were not of so 〈◊〉 Matter and obliged to take such gross Food for its 〈◊〉 But they who travel towards the World are still desirous of Silver and Gold that by this means they may make themselves to be served and honoured that they may take their Delight in Eating Drinking Walking commodious Apparel in adorning their Houses with fine Moveables and rich Ornaments that they may satisfie their Five Natural Senses of Sight Hearing Smell Taste and Feeling 3. So that it is no wonder that a Person who travels towards Eternity finds herself alone in the way since all the Men that we see now do so desire and seek after all these things studying and labouring with all their Power to obtain them and they will not despise or forsake them for all the Reasons that can be told them They would indeed have Eternity without resolving to forsake temporal things tho' Jesus Christ tells us That we cannot serve Two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other They wrest this Passage according to the Sensuality of their Inclinations and they will needs follow them and have eternal Life also which is impossible Therefore I do not understand Men now neither do they understand me and for this Cause we cannot stay together 4. I must indeed out of necessity be among Men But as soon as it shall be possible for me I will leave them to follow the way that God points out to me and leave them to follow those ways which they will needs choose for their Damnation I will not say my dear Child that you walk in this way of Damnation since you have an effectual Desire to be saved and to accompany me But you are yet travelling towards the World which is not as yet crucified in you you do not yet know how one must die to it in all things I am therefore troublesome to you in RESOLVING TO WALK ALONE and you give me more trouble to oblige me to follow you in travelling towards the Earth and Temporal things where I cannot accompany you without continual Strife and Debates for there is not a temporal Action or Word which is not blameworthy in this way that leads to Eternity For I should no sooner hear you speak of things which respect the Earth only but I would reprove you for them as idle Words and unprofitable for Eternity And if by your Actions you should labour for earthly things I would complain of your Employ and reckon your Labour to be vain 5. You see how I would be a Burthen to you and you would be insupportable to me And therefore our Journey would be melancholly and troublesome both for you and me and worse than that of two Persons who did not understand one another by Signs nor Words Nevertheless your Company does not offend me for I love it because of the good Desires which you have neither will I reprove you by way of Correction or Reproof but out of good Inclination for your Perfection which I love as my own But your Nature will feel Troubles thereby which perhaps would be insupportable to