have such Authority that all the World dreads them and thus the Evil being unknown does Mischief to many and encreases daily and there can be no Remedy applied to it And he who should attempt to do it wou'd be crush'd under their powerful Arm For they govern now all the Kings and great Men upon the Earth as it is declared in the Revelation that The Whore commits Adultery with the Kings of the Earth I ask'd her If this Whore of the Revelation was the Roman Church She said Yes Sir doubt not of it It is of her only that S. John speaks in his Revelations Her Whoredoms will suddenly come to a Height You will very quickly see her overturn'd and render'd infamous before all the World All those who follow her shall be desolate For she shall be so miserably treated that all the World will bewail her and according as she lifted up her self in Glory and Magnificence she shall be as much debased and contemned All her Courtiers who at present extol and defend her shall perish with her and shall swallow down as much of her Curse as they now drink of her delicious Wine Yet a little while and she shall have no longer Force to persecute the Friends of God Then we may preach the Truth thro' all the World and every one shall receive it What is now hid and cover'd with Silk and Purple will then be discover'd to their Mischief and Confusion Read Sir the Particularities of this Whore in the Revelation you will find more than I tell you of them for I see its Mischiefs only in general and they are so horrible to me that I tremble to think of them and cannot notwithstanding o pray that they may not come to pass because this is what she has merited by the streight Righteousness of God which will never be truly known or followed but by the Ruine of her who has quitted her lawful Husband to joyn her self with Fornicators Such are all false Christians with whom she commits daily new Adulteries to the wronging of her faithful Husband who has lov'd her so much and enrich'd her with all sort of Graces and Vertues which she abuses to give up her self to her own Voluptuousness and Pleasures These if considered will be found the Abyss of Evils For she has no longer Fidelity nor Loyalty for her lawful Husband She despises his Commandments and Laws In short she will depend only on her own Authority and Power without reserving it to him from whom she received it with all that she has and possesses which she perâ—erts so miserably to the Prejudice of so many Souls whom she leads with her self to Damnation I ask'd her How it was possible that a thing so holy establish'd by Jesus Christ could become so abominable She said Sir the most perfect things become the most vile when they abuse their Perfections We see Examples of this both in divine and humane things The Angels who were such excellent Heavenly Creatures are they not become most infamous Devils Men who were created by God with all sort of Perfection surpassing all other Creatures are they not become more miserable in Nature than any other Animals for having abused the Graces of God Consider a beautiful Woman that gives up her self to Lewdness Does she not commit more Sins and Impieties than an ugly one wou'd do tho' she shou'd prostitute her self as well as the fair one The more wealthy a Man is the more he loses when ruined and one that stands very high when he falls hurts himself worse than if the Fall had been only from his own Height because the greater Height we fall from the Fall is the more grievous Jesus Christ had raised the Roman Church above all the People of God that ever were in the World For neither the Children of Israel nor the People of the Jews nor any others did ever receive such Graces and Prerogatives as the Church did that Jesus Christ himself came to establish upon Earth He bestowed on her and adorned her with all sorts of Gifts and Graces promising her a perpetual Assistance and infinite Happiness sending her the Holy Spirit to rule and govern her But she abusing all his Favours falsifies her Faith promised to her God makes no reckoning of his Laws and Ordinances but will follow her own Institution She abandons her self to that which most pleases her Sensualities and makes Alliance with the Kings of the Earth and Creatures like her self having wasted with them all the spiritual Treasures which she had received from her only Husband So that in her there is no Footstep any longer to be seen of the Path in which she trod nor any of the Ways by which he walked nor any Observance of the Precepts that he gave her Instead of Poor she is become Rich instead of Contempt she is honour'd and instead of renouncing the World she seeks it follows and carelles it Are not these Heights of Infidelity great enough to make her be rejected and abandoned unto the Miseries in which she is plunged I said to her That this Change of the Church from Poverty to Riches and from Contempt to Honour was introduc'd for a good End and that the Councils had so ordain'd it for to support her She said Sir these are all vain Amusements to believe that what Jesus Christ found to be evil the holy Spirit wou'd now find it to be good We have not a mutable God who changes his Resolutions as Men do He never chang'd and never will change The Doctrine that Jesus Christ brought upon Earth is the last Instruction that God will send Men for working out their Salvation We must not look for any other thing Whatsoever is contrary to his Words does certainly come from the Devil who presided in these Councils who thus chang'd the Rules that Jesus Christ gave his Church for maintaining her aright in his Spirit But they would not persevere therein but devised to find out Ways to maintain themselves in the Name and Authority of the Church by worldly Riches and Honours It had been much better for the Salvation of Souls that the Church had perish'd outwardly when inwardly she did so than to invent new Ways contrary to Jesus Christ to maintain her in Reputation Even as it wou'd be much better not to have a Body than to have one that is rotten For that wou'd only infect others I cannot express to you Sir the Stench that I feel of the Corruption of the Body of this Church How much more Stinking must it be in the Nostrils of God Wou'd it not be a great Sin to praise and commend a Whore that outwardly were beautiful but Pocky within and design that many might go into her to be infected with her Filthiness Such a one wou'd commit as many Murthers as there were Persons killed by Familiarity with her Are not you afraid Sir to do the same when you will so much commend
the Holy Spirit speaks so succinctly that one Word makes me comprehend many things He gives Subtilty to the Understanding to conceive great Things by one of his small Motions It is just as if one were in a fine Room well adorned with divers Furnitures and Rarities But there were no Light in it whereby to see all these things In such a Case it wou'd require a great many Words to make him who had never seen them understand in particular all the fine things and Furniture that were in the Room telling him here are such and such Pictures such Tables such Seats and such like Things and yet we could not make him comprehend well the Beauty of this Furniture and Rarities But if a Light were brought into the Room tho it were but that of a Candle in a Moment it would give more Knowledge of all the Things that are in the Room than all the Discourses that were uttered to make them known So it is with the Light of the Holy Spirit when it enters into a Soul it makes it know and comprehend all things very clearly Nevertheless these things cannot be seen by Souls who are yet in the Darkness and Obscurity of their own Passions Many Words and Discourses must be used to make them understand the Rarities that are in the Works of God It is thus Sir that I tell you all my Words do not come immediately from the Holy Spirit But indeed all the Substance of what I say Because I never had any other Master nor any other Study but that of purging my Soul from Earthly Affections By this I received the Light of all the things of which I have spoken to you with many more which nevertheless I could not make you understand but by Words and Discourses accommodated to your Capacity which are not all precisely endited by the Holy Spirit Word for Word except that in general they are produced by the Gift of Wisdom which the Holy Spirit always brings along with him into the Soul where he resides giving it the Skill to express it self and to make Divine Things be understood by those who are in Darkness Therefore Sir you are not deceived in believing that my Words come from the Holy Spirit For it is true if you take them in Substance But if you would maintain a precise enditing of Words the Enemies of the Truth might surprize you in some Terms not well express'd or some Word of a contrary Signification or other Faults of my Language which come from my Weakness or Ignorance For the Holy Spirit can commit no Faults He always gives his Light perfect and compleat to the Soul that is purified from it self But he does not always give precise Words and Terms to make it be understood by others because it does not remain always precisely hearkning to the Enditing of the Holy Spirit being often distracted by Earthly Objects which divert it sometimes without its being aware and in this Diversion it may commit many Faults even tho' it had received the Holy Spirit For this Cause our Life is always dangerous and we ought still to watch that we be not surprized by our Enemies I asked her How she could see by the Light of the Holy Spirit things which consist in Matter of Fact as the Deportment of the Jews and Christians and others She said Sir this is manifested to my Understanding even as Divine Things are without any Distinction except that the Soul receives more Contentment in conceiving and understanding the Things of God than those which respect Men tho' all come from the same Source nevertheless they have different Effects For when God shews to the Soul his straight Righteousness his universal Goodness his pure Truth it is filled with Wisdom and solid Vertue by those which it remarks in God and when he makes it see his Glory Majesty and his Almighty Power the Soul is filled with Joy Honour and Strength in Consideration of the Qualities of its God But he no sooner makes appear to it the deplorable State to which Men are reduced now than the Soul is afflicted and thirsts with a Desire to see them converted unto God who also shews unto it all the necessary Means for this Conversion And as a Physician cannot rightly cure a sick Person or Patient without seeing first the Cause of the Disease or laying open the Sores of his Evil even so does God towards a charitable Soul that is touched with a sensible Regret to see its Neighbour perish and with a Desire to succour him with all its Power Then God makes it see the Sores that is the Faults and Sins of his People more distinctly than if it conversed daily with them even though it has never seen them by the Eyes of the Body Nevertheless it knows them better than they who converse daily with them Because the Light of God pierces to the Bottom of Souls and the Sight of Men perceives only outward things Therefore many are often deceived and take what is false for true But God judges always with an upright Judgment And when the Soul has Bowels of Charity to help its Neighbour God shews it the State in which he lives and also the Means by which he may rise again from his Fall This is the Reason why God makes Matters of Fact which respect our Neigbour to be as well perceived as divine Things and that by the Light of the Holy Spirit which is so much the brighter the farther it is removed from Humane Light and Natural Knowledge For this Cause Sir I retire so much from Men and will learn nothing from them because their Wisdom hinders and obscures the Light of the Holy Spirit and according as I am removed from them accordingly I approach to true Knowledge For sometimes I wou'd tell you better what passes among the Turks or other remote Places than what is done in my Presence For my Eyes may deceive me But the Holy Spirit cannot deceive me I asked her How this Light had its Original If the Holy Spirit did immediately declare things to the Soul or if the Soul did propose them first She said Sir this is done differently For sometimes the Holy Spirit gives Notices of the Things which the Soul never saw nor thought of At other times he makes it understand something which it saw or understood imperfectly But for the most Part the Light is demanded by the Soul when it prays for it or for somewhat else Then if it be well recollected it receives the Understanding of what it asked either God grants it or makes it see wherefore he denies it or else what it ought to do or forsake to co-operate with the Designs of God and to obtain its Request Behold how the Lights of the Holy Spirit have their Rise All that is needful in this is to disengage our Soul from Earthly Affections and to resign it to the Will of God Then he governs and illuminates it in such sort
and in the keeping of my Commandments But the love I bear you and the care I have for you makes me give you these instructions for your own good But the full story of her Life is to be had in the Account of it written by her self and the continuation of it by the R. P. P. I know People will be possest with many prejudices against the Writings of this Person The plain representation which she gives of the Gospel Life and Spirit and the contrariety of the lives of Christians thereunto of the universal Corruption of all parties and their taking up with the shadow instead of the substance of Religion will provoke many to disparage and discredit them by all means and the Craftsmen that live by those Silver Shrines will stir up the multitude against them and from the circumstances of her Person and the singularity of some of her Sentiments they will take occasion to fill Peoples minds with prejudices so as not once to allow her a fair hearing I shall not offer to remove the particular exceptions which may be made against them I shall only take the freedom to say something as to three or four general Prejudcies which are most obvious They are ready to except against her for pretending to Divine inspiration and that the Doctrin she declareth is immediately and inwardly communicated to her by the Spirit of God That God may immediately inspire Souls with his Divine Light and Truth cannot be denied That he has tied himself never to do it after the Apostle's days and the Consignation of the Gospel in writiting cannot be made evident That there are many false pretenders to Divine inspiration and who thus highly take the name of God in vain is but too evident especially in the Age wherein we live That we ought not to believe every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God or not The Spirit of God has already warn'd us that the surest Test wherby to try them is the conformity of the Doctrin with the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is sufficiently confirmed already and its tendency is to take us off from all Earthly things and from our selves and to bring us to God and the entire correspondence of the Persons Life and Spirit therewith in all things will I think be readily granted by many Now M. A. B. desires to be put to this fair Tryal if her Doctrin be not the same with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and if the constant tract of her Life and Spirit be not answerable thereunto and the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit which he ever brings along with him wherever he resides were not to be seen in her It is just then to give her a fair hearing And if you peruse her Writings impartially it is like you will meet with many remarkable Characters that are not ordinarily to be found in many Writings A clear and distinct account of the essential Truths of Christianity with a constant urging of them as the one thing necessary and distinguishing them from the accessory Truths which are not necessary to Salvation An unimitable simplicity of expression which a Child may understand with as singular a sublimity of thoughts a convincing power and force going along with them a plain unfolding in a few Lines the difficulties about which the Learned write many Volumes a constant harmony and uniformity of sentiments in the Writings of a course of forty Years from about the 23d to the 65th year of her Age in which she died with an evidence and clearness to the conviction of our natural Reason and all this by one who never read any Books never conversed with the Learned to be instructed by them never premeditated what she wrote never blotted out nor mended what was once written but being attentive unto the love of God in the calm and inward recollection of her Spirit wrote as fast as her hand could guide the Pen and when some writings were laid by unfinished for some years return'd to them and finish'd them after the same manner without reading any more of what had been written than some few of the immediately foregoing Lines to make a due Connexion And innumerable instances more But above all the exact and constant purity of her Life being a perfect pattern and living exemplar of the Spirit and Doctrin of the Gospel are things that deserve consideration If there were a Race and Nation of People born blind who had never seen the light but knew their Houses their Furniture their Fields c. only by the touch If some strangers should come in among them pretending to see the Light they would not readily take it on their word having no Idea of any such thing But if those strangers at their very first entry should describe their Houses where they had never formerly been their Dishes their Seats their Bulk Places and Shape and going out should tell them on a sudden the Neighbouring Hills Vallies Rivers and Villages their situation and distances which the Inhabitants themselves could not learn but by long use and by going from place to place and feeling them with their hands or staff they would certainly be convinced that these were endued with some more ready and perfect faculty and mean of knowing all these things than ever they experienc'd So for those who pretend to Divine Inspiration and to be led by the Spirit of God and give no evidence for it but their bare assertion indulging their corrupt Nature and being as much Lovers of their own selves and of Earthly things as others there is no reason to take it on their word but rather to look on them as deceivers But if any professing an inward illumination from God and a lively sense of Divine things should despise the Ease the Honours the Wealth and Pleasures of this World oppose constantly the desires of corrupt Nature deny their own Will mortify their outward senses have their minds ever turned towards God being always resign'd to his Will and withall without Study Reading Learning or Meditation should give a more clear full plain and consonant representation of Divine Truths even to the conviction of our natural reason than we are able to do after much Study Learning and Conversation we have reason to think that such are endued with a more clear effcttual and enlightning sense and knowledge of the Divine Truths than our notional knowledge can pretend to It is by this Test that M. A. B. desires to be Tryed It being objected to her that since she declared only the Truths contain'd in the Gospel of Jesus Christ there was no need of any new Revelation of them they being reveal'd already To this she replyed that as the Law of God of old was so corrupted by the glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees that they had made the Commandments of God of no effect thereby and therefore God was pleased to rescue his Law from their corruptions by the
confound the Wisdom and the Learning of the World that they may strive rather to be well pleasing to God than men that fleeing all earthly loves which prove bitterness in the end they may give their hearts wholly to him who is altogether lovely whose love is unchangeable who will not disappoint them but will reward their Love with infinite Light and Joy and Love That they who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God may beware of taking God's name in vain and of vouching God's Spirit for all their Dreams and Imaginations for where the Spirit of God resides there his fruits are and the Soul that posses him has it's Affections wholly remov'd from Temporal and Earthly things and set upon those which are Spiritual and Eternal That the Pastors of the Church may see at whose Doors the Guilt of the universal Evils of Christendom are like mostly to be laid that they may fear and tremble when they hear that Salt which has lost it's Savour is good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot of Men that by the grace of God they themselves may be taught true Humility Self-denial and a contempt of all Earthly things without which Spirit they are no more capable of Teaching others however they repeat the Words of Christ and his Apostles than an Ape can make a good Picture tho' he take up and use the Painters Pencils and Colours In one Word that all may be brought to deny themselves and to follow Jesus Christ in the true Love of God and of one another and that the Judgments of God being now abroad upon the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn Righteousness For a further Vindication of these Writings and the Sentiments contain'd in them I shall here Subjoyn the protestation made by P. P. after his having Answered the Calumnies and Reproaches which some had publish'd against them in the V. Sect. of La paix des bonnes Ames pag. 278 279 280. But says he if all that said does not satisfy I will make and do at present make this PROTESTATION before God and before all Men that is That M. B. her Friends and I never had have not yet and shall never have by the Grace of God other Sentiments or Designs than to believe and live as true Christians professing by word and deed all that is Fundamental in true Christianity and which is comprehended in the Apostles Creed That we receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as Divine and Infallible and reject all that is contrary thereunto That we believe and adore the adorable and incomprehensible Trinity the Father the Word or the Son and the Holy Spirit God three and one eternaly Blessed the inward distinctions of which by what name soever they be call'd Real Relative Hipostatical Personal Substantial are as true as they are truly incomprehensible by the mind of Man That we hold Jesus Christ to be true Eternal God and true Man to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World to be the Mediatour beetween God and Men who by his Merits by his Satisfaction by his Righteousness by his Life and by his Death is the Author of Salvation to all those who imitate him or to speak with the Apostle to all those who obey him That we ascribe the Glory of all Good purely to the grace of God and all Evil purely to the fault of Man and of the Devil That we make the essence and perfection of true Christianity to consist in Self-denyal in continual Prayer in the Love of God and of our Neighbour and in the imitation of our Saviour That we consider all other speculations as accessory for which it is good not to condemn any body but to leave every one at liberty to embrace or lay them aside as they find them helpful for the advancement of the essential part That the true Key whereby to come to the Knowledge of Divine things is Humility and Prayer and not the forc'd speculations of Human Reason That all States the Ecclesiastical the Political the Oeconomical are Establish'd by God and that the Honour and Submission which is measured out to them and regulated by the word of God is respectively due to them That when evil is reproved this does not concern those States directly nor good men in them who are free of it but only the abuse and the ill behaviour of the wicked That if in the Writings of M. B. or of her Friends there be any thing that is obscure or that seems contrary to what has been said we offer to clear and reconcile it or to disavow it in case it cannot be made appear that it cannot be well explain'd and that it is not a mistake of words We protest against all that may be cited from her writings or objected by way of consequence against what I have said as against so many shameful Manglings Malicious Interpretations deceitful Calumnies injurious Consequences in which God will do us Justice if Men are not just to us I protest also against all those who offer to pass hard Censures upon what concerns M. B. her Friends or my self without having read the principal of her writings or my system as against unjust and unreasonable Judges at least as against Persons very inconsiderate and unworthy of Credit In short I believe I have reason to require that they who shall be convinc'd to have laid to our charge a hundred falshoods and others who shall believe them without reason may not again be admitted the one in the Quality of Accusers and the other in that of Judges but rejected the one as notorious Impostours and the other as wilfully stupid AN ADMONITION TO THE READER Dear Reader SInce 't is my earnest desire that the perusal of this Divine Work of which this is the first Part may be profitable and advantageous to you I cannot forbear wishing that you may give no place in your mind to certain prejudices with which the most part of the World suffer themselves to be so miserably deluded that they would believe themselves deceived if they did not follow them Permit me to speak to you a word or two of some of those pernicious and deceitful prejudices which you must either banish out of your mind or forbear the reading of this Book as you would not bring upon you your own Condemnation by retaining those things which may cause you to make an ill use of it In the first place I advise you not to regard the appearance state or quality of Persons nor any thing that is purely external and so consequently can neither add nor substract from the Truth which has no dependance on things of that Nature Let the speaker be a Man or a Woman let instructions come from this or that place let the persons who are reproved be great or small Turks or Christians many or few you must not be surpriz'd at any of these circumstances Truth and Falshod may
from the wise nor the word from the Prophet come and let us smite him with the Tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words But God has quite other Designs the Lord has said according to the declaration of an other Prophet Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me and their fear and worship of me is nothing but formality and taught by the precept of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid This is an unavoidable judgment which they must resolve to undergoe and their resistance will only serve to make them be more entirely crusht by the powerful hand of God This will be to the little ones and to the simple matter of joy and gladness and they shall sing praises unto the Spirit of God whom Jesus Christ shall send to possess the place of that human and diabodical Spirit which he will extripate blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. If you have a sincere desire to be of the Number of these little and simple ones you will easily perceive by the Divine Light that is communicated to you that God begins to fulfill his word as well as the desire that we profess to have in that Prayer of the Church come lovely Spirit and renew the Earth You will afterwards be more fully convinc'd of this Truth by other works of this nature This is faithfully and sincerely communicated to you according to the Manuscript of the late Mr. De Cort who nourisht his Soul with these Truths by which he had been regenerated to God and incited to renounce the Vanities of this World I have neither added nor substracted any thing from it except some words at the top of the Pages and before the Conferences to serve for an Abridgment of the matter and a help to the memory of the Reader I began also to quote the passages of the Holy Scripture to shew that their is an entire conformity not only of the Doctrin Words and Sentiments but even of the Life Conduct Actions and other Accidents of this Maid with those who were heretofore unquestionably enlightn'd and govern'd by the Holy Spirit But since the prosecution of that Design would have required a great deal of time and since it may be probably supposed that most Readers will not give themselves the trouble of searching and examining so great a number of passages it was thought sufficient to illustrate the first Conference with all the particular Quotations as a sample of that absolute uniformity with the Spirit of God and his direction which might have been easily carried on throughout the whole Work And in the remaining part of the Book you will only find the most necessary passages cited or those which have most manifest relation to the Text. God grant Beloved Reaader that you may reap from this Work an Advantage which may dispose thy Soul to become a Child of his Grace and to receive his Holy Spirit This is the hearty and earnest desire of P. P. P. THE PREFACE OF Monsieur de Cort TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Here present you with an Account of what befel me in a Voyage I made to a far Country to come to which I travelled above a Year accompanied with several of my own Country-men who with me were Eye-witnesses of our meeting by the way with a Pilgrimess who spoke to us admirable and amazing Things that are capable of converting unto God all those who shall read or hear the hidden Secrets of the Righteousness and Mercy of God and the Blindness of Men and the Power which the Devil at present has over them The Thing is as profitable as astonishing for it has never been conceived or comprehended by any humane Wit It must needs proceed from a divine Understanding and it must needs be a Celestial or Terrestrial Angel for neither Philosophy nor Theology could ever teach me the Things which this Pilgrimess taught me in the small time wherein I travelled with her but in a way so simple and so unaffected that all her Words did pierce my Heart and enlighten my Understanding working in my Soul Joy and Compunction together I was at first quite transported beside my self and I thought all my Understanding was renvers'd while I heard her first Discourses being of Opinion that the Words of Jesus Christ were fulfilled in that he says I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and abolish the Prudence of the Prudent for of necessity all Men how knowing and learned soever they be must be struck dumb and confounded by the simple Wisdom of this Pilgrimess and I took it for a singular Mercy of God that he was pleased yet to declare his Secrets to any of his Servants wishing for the Memory of an Angel that I might be able to declare all that I heard of this Pilgrimess since nothing proceeded from her Mouth which was not profitable and most enlightning very convincing and powerful capable of converting the most hardned Hearts and obstinate Sinners But I must yield to my Weakness not being able to declare any other thing but what my Memory shall furnish me with being helped by some Remarks which I made when I had the conveniency of Writing I entreat the Reader that in this Narrative he may not seek for Ornament of Language nor Philosophical Discourses but the naked simple Truth since God makes use of weak Things to confound the strong I will not at all disguise or adorn her Language fearing to oppose the Designs which God has to manifest to all the World that he reveals his Secrets to Babes and that he resists the mighty and the proud Ones of the Earth from whom he conceals and hides his Secrets and Wonders For this Reason we have ground to say with S. Augustin The Ignorant and the Vnlearned take Heaven by force and we with all our Sciences continue drown'd in earthly Affections Are we ashamed to follow them because they have out-run us We ought rather to be ashamed not to follow them And to add here also the Words which the Pilgrims of Emaus said one to another when they remembred what Jesus Christ had spoken to them by the way while he explained to them the Holy Scriptures to wit Was not our Heart on fire and did it not burn within us when he spoke to us in the way and opened unto us the Holy Scriptures This Pilgrimess in speaking to us must certainly be animated with the same Spirit with which our Saviour was for each of us felt his Heart to burn by her powerful Words which did gently beget in our Souls a Contempt of created Things and a Love of Things eternal enlightning our Understandings by Truths so clear that they could not proceed from any other than from the Father
of all Lights She told us Things unheard of so marvellous and sublime that we often remained quite lost with admiration for we had never heard such Things She explained likewise the Holy Scriptures so perfectly that none of the holy Fathers have ever so done nor any Body since the Creation of the World That which did most astonish us was That she told us she had never read nor learn'd them of any Body She knew also the secret Thoughts of the Hearts of many For a proof of which she told us Things so particular about our own inward State that neither Men nor Devils could ever know them Which befel us many times for she warned us of divers Mischiefs hid under a Mask of Piety saying That we were fallen into the dangerous Times foretold by Jesus Christ wherein many call themselves Christians and his Disciples who nevertheless are of the Synagogue of Satan who call themselves the Priests of God the Confessors and Guides of Souls while they adhere unto the Devil by express Covenant That these do seduce many by false appearances and that even those who have resolved to follow God are deceived by these false Prophets who deceive even the Elect under a colour of Holiness and Devotion that all the World was now full of such Guids Which at first did a little stumble us for we could not be enclined to believe that so many People in Christendom even Priests and religious Persons were bound unto the Devil by express Covenant We ask'd her for what reason we ought to believe a thing so abominable For it was always best to have a good Opinion of our Neighbour until the contrary were manifest She says Gentlemen it is meet in the general that you entertain in your Minds a pious Belief that every one is better than your selves but if you piously believe in particular that all the Persons with whom you converse are good you are undone It is more needful for you to discover the Evil which they have hid within them than their Good which will advantage you nothing but their Evil may greatly hurt you when it is unknown to you for you cannot beware of it while you do not know it or at least are in doubt of it It is with this pious Belief that the Good are entrapp'd by Satan who would never follow the Ill which is manifest But that which is hid under Good is much more dangerous You are free Gentlemen to believe of this what you please For my part I declare only what I learn in my inward Conversation with God I have many other Secrets to declare but methinks you are too scrupulous to hear them I will speak no more than you please I know very well how to hold my peace if my Words offend you or do not at all profit you Nevertheless I tell you in Truth that if these Evils be not made manifest to the World all Men are in danger of perishing For very shortly the Plagues of God will fall upon Christians and if Men will not believe that they have thus forsaken God to join themselves unto the Devil the most perfect will blaspheme against the same God who shall afflict them with divers Chastisements such as the like have never yet fallen out She said as in a Spirit of Fury God would be very unjust to exercise so much Rigour against the Christians if they were as good as you believe them or would think them to be It were better for us to separate for your Thoughts are altogether different from mine Go Gentlemen pursue your way For my part I love rather to walk alone and not to speak to you any more keeping my Secrets for my self I never spoke so openly of these Things This so rough and confident Answer did inflame our desire to speak to her the more that we might discover some other Thing knowing well that it is against the timerousness of the Feminine Sex to do and speak so positively to Persons of Learning and Authority as all of us were nevertheless like a strong Woman who would place her Confidence in God alone she answers us without fear making appear sufficiently that she neither desired our Friendship nor our Company no more than our Approbation but with a generous Contempt she walked without any humane Respect testifying abundantly that she sought for nothing upon Earth and that she feared no other Thing but God Which we remarked sufficiently during the whole time of our Voyage having never perceived her to baulk a word to please any Body keeping always to the strait Truth as well in small Things as in great Her Spirit was firm and constant always present to it self we never saw her wandring nor distracted She had a Judgment so just and equitable that she could not suffer the least Injustice tho' it had been in her own favour This streight Judgment was always blind without respecting either her Friends or Enemies her Honour or Reproach her Ease or Trouble her Hurt or Profit In fine we always discovered in her a perfect streightness on all sorts of Rencounters and a Truth so firm that never one Word did contradict another in so long a space of time and amidst so many different Discourses and Subjects She spoke very little unask'd and answer'd our Demands so effectually that often we remained mute and without Reply in very sublime Things being oblig'd to acknowledge that the Wisdom infused by God does far surpass all the Wisdom of Men. But it is no wonder that God did communicate himself to this Soul for she desired no other Communication nor Contentment but only what she found with her God For if we were about to tell her some News even of pious Matters she begg'd we would not speak of them to her saying that they were nothing but Distractions And when we entred into any strange Towns where she had never been she took no notice of any thing in them For having one Day entred into a Town and abode there for three Days after we came out of it I would needs speak of the fine Church that was there She said Is there a Church there Truly I did not see it Thus in whatsoever place she was she continued always in her Recollection We saw her often in Rencounters where she met with Affronts and Contempt and on other Occasions where she received Praises she never changed her Countenance receiving Contempt without Trouble and Praises without pleasure She shewed some Discontent when any Gift was offered her or when we would have rendered her any Service which she would never accept of except in case of Necessity or Sickness We perceived her always of a joyful Countenance but never to delight her self in any earthly Thing that might give her Joy In short we may all truly affirm that we never observed in her any Vice Sin or any weakness of Spirit but a perfect and solid Vertue surpassing natural and humane Strength which made us
great desire of Vertue and an absolute resolution of embracing an Evangelical Life having discovered sufficiently by her Discourses that without this no Body will be saved Her Words have so enlightened my Understanding that all the Learning I had acquired seems to me as Darkness and Ignorance in respect of that divine Wisdom which is so mercifully poured out upon the Earth by the Organ of a silly Maid I wish that every one had seen her and heard her as I have done and might receive thereby the same Operations which my Soul has felt for I look upon her Acquaintance as a greater favour than all the Graces and Favours which God has bestowed on me in this World yea even than my Creation it self for that would serve me in little stead without the working out of my Salvation which would have been in great danger if I had not attain'd to the knowledge of my Self and of the Designs and Marvels of God which I have learned and discovered by the means of this Creature and she has certainly been sent me as the only means of the perfection of my Soul and of all those who will profit by the recital of this Narrative which I find my self obliged to publish for the profit of many This is the true Treasure hid in the Earth He who shall find it ought to sell all that he has to buy this Ground to the end he may discover and find this Treasure and take it up with Joy as the most precious Thing of the World I cannot hinder some who wish Evil or are Enemies to the Truth from finding or pretending something that is not agreeable to them for the Light does always offend Blear-Eyes who cannot endure the Light and the Truth which reproves is never agreeable to our Senses But I would admonish them to beware of reprehending or making themselves Masters of the holy Spirit I behov'd for some time to suspend my Judgment as to the Belief of some Points of Doctrin for I had learn'd them from my Masters in another sense but since I have laid aside all these Authors who have written us their Sentiments and fix'd on the sacred Text of the holy Scriptures I have found so much Conformity in them with the Life Manners and Words of this Pilgrimess that no Doubts could come any longer into my Mind and I could not without betraying my Conscience give her so much as one Contradiction Since that gives me an infallible proof that this Soul is truly possest by the holy Spirit who has brought forth in her his Twelve Fruits his Seven Gifts and the Eight Beatitudes which Jesus Christ has taught I should believe I committed a great sin to think that any other Thing might proceed from such a Source than what is Divine so much the rather that I have always remarked that this Soul did act in nothing naturally but by supernatural Motives never being moved but by the motion of the holy Spirit In confirmation of which I would be ready to spend the last drop of my Blood to the end that none might reject this Light to love rather their Darkness as Jesus Christ has foretold that many would do but that every one may embrace it for Salvation to the end we may altogether enjoy the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which is here so particularly treated of with eternal Joy and Contentment Which is earnestly wisht you by Friendly Reader Your most affectionate in JESVS CHRIST Christian de Cort Superiour of the Oratory and Pastor of St. John at Mechlin At Mechlin the 10th of August 1667. M. A. B.'s Confession of Faith which she presented at the Court of Gottorp to oppose the Calumnies which the Church-men had spread that they might raise Suspicions of the Purity of her Faith I. I Am a Christian and I believe all that a true Christian ought to believe II. I was baptized in the Catholick Church in the Name of the Father in the Name of the Son in the Name of the Holy Ghost III. I believe the Twelve Articles of the Creed or the Apostles Symbol and I do not doubt of any one Article thereof IV. I believe that Jesus Christ is true God and that he is also true Man and that he is the Saviour and Redeemer of the World V. I believe in the Gospels the holy Prophets and all the holy Scripture both of the Old and New Testament And I will live and die in all the Points of this Belief which I protest before God and Men to all those whom it shall concern In Testimony whereof I have signed this my true Confession with my Hand and seal'd it with my Seal At Sleeswick the 11th of March 1675. Anthoniette Bourignon L. S. A Catalogue of the BOOKS written by M. A. B. born at L'Isle in Flanders 1. THE Life of M. Antonia Bourignon 2. God's Call and Men's Refusal in 2 parts 3. Light arisen in Darkness in 4 parts 4. The Grave of false Theology driven out by the true coming of the holy Spirit in 4 parts 5. An Advertisement against the Quakers 6. A Treatise of solid Vertue in 2 parts 7. The Light of the World in 3 parts 8. The Academy of learn'd Divines in 3 parts 9. The Testimony of the Truth in 2 parts 10. Innocence manifested and Truth discovered 11. The Touchstone 12. The Blindness of Men now in 2 parts 13. Antichrist discovered in 3 parts 14. The new Heaven and the new Earth 15. The holy Perspective 16. The last Mercy of God 17. The renewing of the Gospel Spirit in 3 parts 18. The Stones of the New Jerusalem 19. The Persecutions of the Just 20. The Morning Star 21. The Confusion of the Builders of Babel 22. Saving Instructions and Advices The most part of these Works are Translated from the French into the Dutch and High Dutch the first part of Solid Vertue the Touchstone and the first part of the renewing of the Gospel Spirit are also in Latin A Table of the Conferences of this first Part of the Light of the World The First Dialogue or Conference OF Gods dealing with A. B. particularly how he immediately instructed her from her Infancy The opposition of Men. Of Christian perfection and of the deplorable state of Christians Pag. 1. The second Conference Of the Judgment of God Of the last times and of the Men of the last times 17. The third Conference The methods by which Christianity has begun to decay from the times of the Apostles and has continued so to do to such a degree that at present there are no more true Christians upon Earth to wit 1. The admission of false Brethren 2. Appropriation 3. Debates 4. Partialities 5. Scholars 6. Disputes 7. The Victory of the Devil 23. The fourth Conference Of the Qualities and Manner of acting which ought to have been in the Guides of the Church to uphold it in its good Estate against all Enemies and not give way to the Spirit of Antichrist as they
never repent of them as long as they presume to be sav d according to the doctrine of the learned of this age This is not against the goodness and mercy of God because he has left us his doctrine in writing in his Gospel and the other holy Scriptures which will never perish according to the promise that heaven and earth shall pass away but his words shall not pass away Every one may have recourse thither without amusing himself with the new inventions of men Leaving the fountain of living waters to draw out of broken Cisterns which can hold no water Ignorance will not excuse sin We feel indeed in our Conscience that we do not follow the doctrine of Jesus Christ that our life and our manners are in nothing conformable to the life of the first Christians that our heart is not inflam'd with the LOVE OF GOD nor Charity to our Neighbour and nevertheless we would flatter our selves with the presumption of our salvation because men do promise it to us who have no power to give it to us no more than to themselves In this point our Ignorance is too gross and affected and will not serve to excuse us before God but will rather serve for our Condemnation for we might always find the truth if we had done our endeavour to seek it But because our Guides have taught us ways of salvation more pleasing to our senses and to our taste we have follow'd them rather than those which Jesus Christ has shewn by his deeds and taught by his word It is just that he abandon us to the spirit of errour since of our own free will we have more esteem'd Error than the Truth which alone leads to Salvation I ask'd her If she did not esteem the Priests and Guides of Souls and if to attain to Salvation we ought not to follow their Instructions She said Yes Sir I honour and esteem true Priests because they ought to be the Ambassadors of God to distribute to the ignorant the points of Faith and the doctrine of Jesus Christ which is the nourishment of all Christian Souls But I may say with a sensible regret that I know no true Priests who are simple Ministers of Jesus Christ only to declare and interpret his word because every one ofthem abounding in their own sense teach that which is most sutable to their inclinations They ought to be nothing but the Organs of the Holy Spirit and it seems they are become his Masters Humane Learning and Studies have depriv'd them of the Gospel simplicity they ascribing to themselves what appertains to God conducting Souls by their own measures not by the Rules of the Gospel forasmuch as they themselves do not follow them Some indeed speak the words of the Gospel but they do so gloze and disguise it that no body thinks himself obliged to put it in practice Which is very lamentable for Jesus Christ yesterday and to day is altogether the same and will be even to the end of the world without any change or mutation This being most true how is it possible that any can be sav'd while they do not follow in any thing what he has taught us He has said that he who does not deny himself cannot be his Disciple which no body does On the contrary every one loves himself and yet they call themselves the Disciples of Jesus Christ It must needs be that the one or the other is deceiv'd This impossibility which Jesus Christ has laid down is it render'd possible by the authority of those Guides who assure all the world of their Salvation while they love themselves This cannot be true for Jesus Christ cannot lie but men indeed may err especially in things wherein they have interest for if they taught simply that a man must deny himself and the other points of the Gospel they would give severe reproofs to themselves because their lives and manners are very far from this practice therefore they study to find out glosses reasons and exceptions to the end they may find means not to be oblig d to follow and practice this holy doctrine which is repugnant to their sences Thus every one lives in a presumption of his Salvation without any ground for these men are not Saviours and cannot save us but are rather Seducers of whom Jesus Christ foretold that they should come in the last times in which we are certainly fallen at present wherein the spirit of error does fully reign where truth is stifled and lying prevails The Second Conference Of the Judgment of God Of the Last Times and of the Men of the Last Times REmarking these last words I ask'd her if she sirmly believ'd that the last times were come and whither the Judgment approached She said to me Believe me Sir there is nothing more true we actually live in the last times and the judgment is so near that before three years I believe you will see the effects of it I could not be perswaded to believe this continuing pensive and silent which she perceiving said Sir the difficulty you find to believe these things proceeds from the universal darkness that is now upon the earth by which all the world is blinded and no body sees where he goes no more than they who liv'd during the Egyptian darkness which was so great that none could stir out of the place in which they were this was nothing but the outward figure of the inward darkness in which men walk at present We do not perceive that we are fallen into the last times nevertheless we may see by the lives of men now that all the signs are fallen out which Jesus Christ has foretold viz. that iniquity shall be multiplied and Charity in many shall wax cold and so of the rest Who can doubt that this is not at present when iniquity is so great and so universal that there is no more faith nor law among men People study nothing but to deceive their Neighbour the Father cannot trust his Son nor the Son his Father the Brother rises up against the Brother friendship is only feign'd business is full of deceit and fraud We see nothing but pride and ambition reigning in the hearts of all men Judges are without equity Priests without sincerity Cloysters fill'd with avarice and the devout full of malice which has been at all times in some particular persons but is at present so multiply'd that it possesses almost all men in general and charity is not only waxt cold but is altogether frozen and become dead in the hearts of men So that these signs of the last times are all fully accomplisht Read if you please the Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy where he says that in the last times there shall come men loving their own selves c. You will see more clearly than the Sun all
wisdom the original of all goodness and incomprehensible power In short the Church is God himself who cannot fail or err therefore Jesus Christ says he that hears you hears me because the word of God is God as our word is us our heart must be where we speak and also our understanding even so where the word of God is which is his Church there the holy spirit is which is his understanding and the almighty power which is his heart From whence it appears that the holy Trinity composes the Church which is no other but the power of the Father the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and the good will of the Son All these things are found united in the Church for God having a design to make man after his likeness he transferr'd to him his own qualities therefore he gives to his Church the power to pardon sins goodness by the communication of his word and his wisdom by the understanding of that word Jesus Christ who took human flesh has brought us the word of God which has taught us his wisdom and shewn us his love even as by our word we express what is in our understanding and the affections of our heart which God also did to us when he sent us his word upon earth by the organ of the humanity of Jesus Christ He made this alhance with men that he might have them after his likeness Therefore he has call'd them his Spouse and his Church which is altogether divine and spiritual But men would indeed disguise it and render it material sensual and carnal in giving the name of Church to men who do not possess this word without which they cannot be the Church nor have the power the wisdom nor the love which God gave to his lawful Spouse Therefore they may greatly err and fail in appointing and approving of rules for Christians And whereas you ask Whether all these outward Devotions which are now in use in Christendom be good and saving I doubt it very much for Jesus Christ taught not such varieties of devotion as we see now adays but he taught solid and inward vertues as Faith Hope and Charity Faith to believe in an Almighty God of whom we hold all things Hope to hope in him only without putting our confidence in any other thing and Charity to love him alone without placing our affection on any created thing whether in heaven or in earth These are the instructions of Jesus Christ but those at present who are call'd Church-men teach no other thing but to resort to Churches to frequent the Sacraments and to say a great many vocal prayers by rote and number With these outward things they make men believe that they are true Christians which cannot be since Christianity consists in a spiritual and inward life for it is divine and not humane If these outward devotions had been means proper for us to become good Christians we may be perswaded that Jesus Christ would have taught us them for he had more wisdom to foresee our need and weakness than these guides of souls can have and likewise more love to take care that nothing should be wanting to us for the time to come He left only his word to serve for the nourishment of our souls saying that it is the bread come down from heaven and that whosoever shall eat it shall not die whereas these persons give us only the Eucharist for nourishment in which the promise of Jesus Christ cannot be accomplisht for the host does not descend from heaven as his word does and they who eat it do not all live for ever For we see abominable souls even Sorcerers do communicate frequently and thereafter die in their sins We see also Bigots communicate very often who never attain to true faith nor the knowledge of the truth without which they cannot live for evel How then should the word of Jesus Christ be fulfill'd that they who eat this bread shall not die since all those die eternally after having so often eaten the Eucharist Jesus Christ cannot lie for he who incorporates his word shall never die because it gives life and nourishment to the soul and makes it live eternally I said to her This being suppos'd we must needs be in a time of great darkness in which there are many errors and many more erroneous who run blindly to damnation because the most pious hold Rome and all her Council for the Church She said Sir the Devil upon a false supposition finds matter enough to raise fine edifices I have no particular knowledge of Rome nor of her Council but I tell you in truth if the Pope with all his Council would say any thing to me which was contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I should not be oblig'd to believe him nor yet are any other Christians The Bark should never be taken for the Wood because it can never beat Fruit as the Tree would do tho it had little Bark The true Church where-ever it is brings forth always holy Fruits and if the Tree be known by its fruit we will know the Church by what it brings forth The practice of those who are Members of Rome doth sufficiently evidence to me that the holy spirit cannot be the Author of those things which are contrary to the practice of Jesus Christ We see the Prelates attended with Servants Coaches and Trains like to secular Princes their Furniture and Houses do surpass them Iâ— they had faith to believe that God being man was poor and despisd they would blush for shame as all other Christians to make themselves thus to be honoured Their faith being dead they run blindly to damnation This vail which is put before their eyes to make them believe that the Church ought to be upheld by worldly honours serves for nothing but to flatter them and to render them insensible of their misery For if the Church had had need of temporal wealth and honour Jesus Christ would have provided it sufficiently for all appertains to him being King and Creator of all things He knew all the revolutions of time he would surely have foretold them that it should be permitted them at a certain time to make themselves be honour'd and serv'd but on the contrary he foretels that God will cast down the mighty from their seats that he will resist the proud and will exalt the humble and there is nothing which he says more expresly than that we ought to learn of him to be meek and lowly in heart to which Lesson the arrogance and the pride of Christians now are directly opposite and they who may be called by their proper names Antichristians because they are thus oppos'd to Christ for these only are Christians who put in practice this doctrine of Jesus Christ all others who bear this name without doing it are nothing but rotten Members of the Church and it were better they were cut off
well and secure The Thirteenth Conference Of true Faith according to the tenour of the Creed Of the knowledge of God and of our selves by the consideration of his Works I Told her That I did not believe that I had true Faith and that she had sufficiently made appear to me that I could not be right therefore I desired to understand of her wherein true Faith does consist tho' it were but upon my own account for I desired to profit in it She said Sir let us examine a little together our Creed and see if there be so much as one Article of it observed even by the most perfect Christians now-a-days If we believ'd that God is Almighty that he created the Heaven and the Earth could we live without loving and fearing him as we do Could we also attribute to our selves the earthly good things which all the World seeks after and loves since they are all created by God and do all appertain to him in Property which we do daily usurp In the second place If we did believe in Jesus Christ the only Son of God who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary could we reject his Instructions since he is the Son of God the Fountain of all Wisdom Could we follow a Carnal Church seeing she is altogether Spiritual engendred in the Body of Jesus Christ by the operation of the holy Spirit Could we also live in Luxury when God chose a Virgin for his own Mother Would we not endeavour to love Virginity since God has so much esteem'd it Moreover if we believ'd that Jesus Christ the Son of God has suffer'd even so far as to be Crucified Dead and Buried could we live so softly seeking all eases to our Body not willing to suffer any thing that is painful nor affronts nor tribulations when we believ'd that the Son of God has indeed suffer'd for us even to a shameful Death yea was buried as a corruptible Man Would we not imitate or follow him at some distance in case we had the faith that we profess Moreover if we believ'd that he is risen from Death to Life that he is ascended into Heaven were it possible that we could love this present Life while we hope that we shall rise again since Jesus Christ is risen again to ascend unto Heaven Would not this withdraw our affections from the Earth through the hope of ascending unto Heaven with Jesus Christ Were it possible that we would build Houses and make so many other settlements as we do on Earth as if it were our abiding City And if we did believe that Jesus Christ will come from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead were it possible that we would live in so great a neglect of our Salvation with so little care of making ready our Accompts to render them to that great Judge who will demand of us an account of all our Thoughts Words and Deeds Would we not rather lay aside all our worldly Affairs to attend on this which is the most important to us yet on the contrary is often the least of our â—ares And did we believe likewise that there is a holy Spirit and a holy Church is it possible that we would be so little Spiritual so Natural and Earthly so wedded to our Senses in which we live sometimes more brutishly than the Beasts themselves whereas our Souls ought to be wholly Spiritual and Holy since we have a Holy Spirit and a Holy Church And did we believe the Communion of Saints is it possible that every one should be so much wedded to his own Interest and Wealth If Prayers and good Works ought to be all common amongst Christian Brethren how much more ought temporal Wealth to be for the succour of our Neighbour which is very far from Mens dispositions now who study nothing but to keep up and increase their own Wealth understanding no other thing but mine and thine both in Spirituals and Temporals And did we believe in the remission of Sins how would we be penitent and contrite to obtain the pardon of them instead of continuing in them through hardness of heart as we see the most part of men do who finish their Lives in black thoughts and despair instead of having immediate recourse to mercy according to their belief For he who has promised the remission of Sins has not promised them time to persevere in them If this belief were real they would not persevere in them for one day for they are not certain of living so long And did we believe in the Resurrection of the Flesh how could we love and esteem our flesh in a condition so miserable as that of this mortal Life We would greatly contemn it in the hope we had of its Resurrection l in which it should live most happy delivered from so many miseries calamities and maladies under which it groans during its exile in this miserable World which setting aside the hopes of its Resurrection must rather be called Death than Life the belief of this Article would give a disgust of the delights of this present Life and make us aspire towards that to come And did we believe in Life eternal what would we not do to obtain it We would voluntarily forsake Father Mother and all our Goods to obtain this eternal Life for it deserves more than a thousand Worlds which cannot last but for a small time in respect of Eternity whereas we see the most part of men so in love with this miserable Life that they would fain abide here for an Eternity though it be filled with miseries and calamities Do you not see Sir that there is no more faith in the House of God That no body lives conformably to his belief That they place faith only in Words as I have told you formerly They say over it may be every day their Creed and yet they do not observe so much as one Article of it These are nothing but words that vanish into Air and nevertheless they would take it very ill to make appear to them that they have not true faith tho' it be always operative and never idle True faith works always the vertues of which I told you in the Souls which possess it and if these operations are not seen it may indeed truly be said that these Souls have not faith for it can never be any where without operating its vertues no more than the Sun can be without giving his beams Consider it well Sir and you will find my saying true and you will condemn your self I told her I perceived clearly that People lived in a distraction of spirit and that few persons knew themselves That it was no wonder they knew not God since they did not know themselves and that truly we were deceived She replied Sir he who knows God will always know himself and he who knows himself will assuredly know God for the one is linked unto
God for he who knows that he is but a pure nothing he must confess that there is something above him from whom he has receiv'd what he is because a Nothing cannot do any thing nor give any thing to its self Every one knows well that there has been a time in which he was not and when he is made he does not know how nor from whence he is taken which obliges him to acknowledge a God the Author of all things and even tho he went not out of himself he must know God All these truths seem'd to me so clear that I knew not how they could be call'd in question tho in the mean time we see no body attains to this knowledge of God or of himself that it must needs be acknowledged that we were fallen into a total forgetfulness of God and ignorance of our selves and that we were assuredly deceiv'd and seduc'd She said to me Sir the deceit is so great that no body can comprehend it We run as it were blindfold to damnation without perceiving it and whereas those who guide us ought to set us again into the right way they are the very persons who deceive us because they themselves are deceived by Satan Wherefore there is nothing to be hop'd for but a total ruine which will be irreparable seeing that it is eternal We are careful enough to avoid the perils of the body but we are too little careful to avoid the perils of the soul which are without comparison much more considerable Man having forsaken his God from whom can he expect Salvation When we leave God assuredly he leaves us not that he withdraws himself from us in respect of himself because he abides always through all without any change But he withdraws himself from us when we withdraw our selves from him for a thing which we leave cannot abide with us it is always as far from us as we are far from it tho we only make this separation It is fit to understand how we can truly say that God leaves us or forsakes us because many understand it amiss in attributing to God the cause of this forsaking It may be said that God has forsaken us now because this is true but we ought always to understand in what manner he leaves us for otherwise we blaspheme against God not by words but intention in conceiving that God does of himself forsake us The Fourteenth Conference How God forsakes us and how we forsake him by distraction of Spirit by which the Devil has seduc'd men withdrawing them from the Love and Gratitude which they owe to God who by all things does most sensibly discover himself to be alone lovely I Ask'd her by what mean we had fallen into such an ignorance and abandoning of God and of our selves She said By the straying of our spirit which has left off to entertain it self with the consideration of the marvels of God Our soul was created to love him and to bless him continually in which consists the continual prayer which Jesus Christ has recommended to us since he became man for we have no other thing to do in this world but this continual prayer God having given us all the rest We see in the Creation of Adam that he had no need to think on any other thing but to bless and love God and if he had entertain'd himself in this praise and love we had never fallen into all the miseries under which we yet groan The Devil who is nam'd the Serpent made it his business to entertain them to the end he might distract them from the Communion which they ought to have with God How soon he got the Woman to listen to him he began to draw her affections which were due to God only towards the fruits of the earth which were given her only for use and not to place her affection upon them from hence he likewise incited her to desire knowledge of good and evil withdrawing the attention which she had to God to apply it unto curiosity and a desire to be great and wise Lo this was the cause why we did abandon God and lose the knowledge of our selves Our first Parents began to do this in the terrestrial Paradise and we have continu'd it from generation to generation until we have arrived unto a total forgetfulness of God and an entire ignorance of our selves For if you will consider it well Sir you will be oblig'd to say that all men say really in their hearts There is no God because all their actions are done as if there were none and this evil proceeds from no other thing but that our spirit has no longer communion with God I ask'd her Whether men now do the same things which our first Parents did in the earthly Paradise and if they let themselves be thus seduced by the Devil She answered Truly Sir they do much worse for they do not follow the suggestion of the Devil in one thing only but in all their actions desires and enterprizes Who does not see now adays that all men have left off to entertain their spirits with God and that they have fix'd them on the consideration of created things hearkening willingly unto things curious and pleasant to their senses as our Mother Eve did And when the Devil proposes to our thoughts any thing which seems to be either pleasant or profitable to our nature who does not presently follow it without restraint and without fear and instead of fixing upon the consideration of the wonderful works of God we are continually busied in seeking our pleasures in the creatures in self-complacency or in the desires and coveting of earthly goods which things do entirely withdraw us from the total attention that we ought to have upon God alone for whom we are created and not for these things which are subjected to us and which God created for our footstools as the earth and metals and we will needs carry them upon our shoulders yea even upon our head and in our heart The Devil represents to us that these earthly pleasures are delightful that these beauties are agreeable that with Money we may do and know every thing and we believe this deceiver and follow his counsels employing the whole time of our life in seeking our pleasures and contentments and in heaping together earthly goods which is the cause that we are diverted from God for our spirit and understanding cannot attend upon two things so distant from one another as is God and the creatures We abandon the All to seek the Nothing as did our first Parents I said to her That Adam and Eve were expresly forbidden to eat of the fruit of a tree and that we are not thus expresly forbidden by God to love the creatures She reply'd He has not only once thus forbidden us but many times in different times and ages The Prohibition which God gave unto our first Parents Sir was
says That they shall live for ever He has said elswhere That neither Whoremongers nor Drunkards shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Neverthelss we see daily such Persons receive the Eucharist Can they live for ever without entring into the Kingdom of Heaven There would be a great Contradiction in the Words of Jesus Christ He cannot save those whom he condemns nor say to those who shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that they shall live for ever It is assuredly his Word which he calls his Flesh and his Blood For whosoever shall eat it that is to say incorporate it as the Nourishment of his Soul it must needs be that he live for ever for this Word gives Life Eternal and he who feeds upon it as on his daily Bread can never die this is the Tree of Life seeing it gave Life to all things This Word has created Heaven and Earth of nothing How should it not give Life unto the Soul which receives it And if it have the Force to translate Bread into the Body of Jesus Christ as they teach how shall it not change our Souls into the Spirit of Life Eternal if we receive and incorporate it as becomes Jesus Christ said These are my Mother my Sisters and my Brethren who hear my Word and do it To shew that he esteems more the Receiving of his Word than the having contributed to the Formation of his Human Body it being most certain that the Virgin Mary was more happy in receiving and doing his Word than in being his natural Mother I said to her That there were many Errors in the Church if the Sense that she proposed ought to be received That it was very clear and intelligible but it had never been understood after this manner She said Blessed be God Sir that he grants yet this Mercy to the World to send his Light amidst the so obscure Darkness into which it is brought at present All the highest Mysteries of our Faith are involved in this Obscurity nothing is understood in a perfect Sense and they do often apply Senses contrary to the Truth They have walk'd as groping even till Now. It is no Wonder if they fall from one Error into another insensibly It is a great Happiness that it has pleas'd God to let us live even until the Time that he comes to enlighten the World after that so great a number have perish'd through Ignorance We have no more deserv'd it than they Let us endeavour to apply it rightly unto our Salvation without letting the occasion slip which is now so freely offered us How many souls are there of such a tender Conscience that they dare not reject a Sentiment which comes from the Roman Church or any Decree of its College fearing to offend God because they look upon it and take it for the Holy Church I knew a Person of a very good Life a Doctor of Theology who said That if the Pope forbad him to read the Gospel he durst not read it any longer So much was he preoccupied with this Belief that Rome is the Holy Church Upon this Supposition all the most pious do follow that which is Evil without perceiving it because they have taught us that we owe a blind Obedience As if we were permitted to follow Evil blindfold which is a great Error For we are all oblig'd to discern whether what we follow be good or bad For Example This Doctor could not abstain from Reading of the Gospel without offending God highly tho' the Pope had forbidden him to read it because this Prohibition is contrary unto Jesus Christ who has brought his Word from Heaven to be the Rule of our Life and the Nourishment of our Souls and has said That it must abide in us for ever How could we cast it behind us because a Pope forbids it who cannot destroy what God has establish'd nor forbid what he has commanded without being Antichrist for all that is against Christ is assuredly Antichrist We may indeed believe and follow what the Pope and his Councils do ordain us when they are things conformable to the Law of God and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is no other thing but the Explication of the Law Tho' this were taught us by the Devil himself we could not do ill to follow it But the things which are contrary ought never to be blindly follow'd God has made us Reasonable Creatures to the End we may discern Good and Evil. All the Blindness that a true Christian ought to have is to captivate his Spirit under the incomprehensible Works of God not to captivate it to believe that that which is Evil is Good A man must have lost Sense and Spirit to abandon himself to such a blind Obedience which nevertheless the most part of pious Christians do who do yield in all things to the Ordinances of the Pope or of his Council If this Mischief be not shortly at an End and if the Truth be not discover'd in this Point all the World will perish Because many things will be determin'd which will be against God tho' it were nothing but the Infallibility of the Pope It contradicts directly the Truth because no Man can ever be infallible how holy soever he may be S. Peter the first Pope did expresly deny his Master and did really err in dissembling because of the Jews for which S. Paul reproves him Can it ever be said without Blasphemy that a Man is Infallible secing Infallibility appertains to God alone Neither the Pope nor any other can err or fail in following the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but in following their own Judgments or those like themselves they may fail and err greatly I ask'd her How it was possible that God should have left his Church for so long a Time in Errors She said Sir God has not left his Church in Errors she can never err nor fail for she is one and the same thing with God As the Bridegroom is but one Flesh with his Spouse even so the Church is but one Spirit with God Therefore she can never be left in Errors not for one Moment But the Errors which I discover to you Sir are in Men not in the Church for the Church is no where but in the Souls which possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who have never err'd so long as they abide in it The Church is a Spiritual and Invisible Spirit which renders it self visible by the Human Bodies which this Spirit animates So long as these Bodies are animated and possest with this Spirit of Jesus Christ they are all Members which make up this Church But if this Spirit withdraw himself they are no more but Members of Flesh not Members of the Church Errors therefore are insinuated into these Members of Flesh not into the Spirit of God But whereas these Members of Flesh did possess formerly the Spirit of the Church
yet many good Men among others who are wicked and do not perceive that the evil is universal when the punishments are so The sacred History of the Scripture makes appear to us that God would have pardoned all that were in Sodom if there had been but ten Righteous within it We believe there are a great many good men according to our judgment whereas it may be before God there are none and even tho there were divers yet it is a good thing that the Righteous be tried by Tribulation for they testifie by it the fidelity they have toward God in continuing constantly faithful to him in adversity as well as in prosperity and likewise they thereby try themselves For many are deceived who thought they were faithful to God in Prosperity and yet Adversities have made them stumble in the midst of their Race or they have perish'd at the first essay of Temptation So that God manifests always great Righteousness and great Mercy chiefly in sending universal Rods in chastning the Wicked and in trying the Righteous if there be any who never suffer for the Guilty but for their own Perfection and Merit Universal Chastisements being much more profitable to the Good than to the Evil because they purifie them and render them more perfect whereas the wicked become worse by them I was obliged to confess That I had done a great wrong in speaking thus of God according to my Sentiment I asked her how I ought to behave my self that I may not any more fall into the like faults and that I might make a right judgment of God She said Sir never judge according to what you see outwardly but give always time to your Spirit to examin the works of God and you will discover that all that he does and permits is accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Power which are his Qualities without which he does nothing Men do deceive themselves and the most wise err in this point when they will censure the works of God In which they are real Ignorants for if they had any small Light they would admire and adore them only without making any judgments of them for of necessity what they make is unjust injurious or rash because no human Spirits are capable of fathoming the works of God for they are all incomprehensible We can only see that in them there is all sort of Goodness Righteousness and Power If we consider only a grain of Corn we shall find in it these three things Power is in its frame because no man is able to make a grain of Corn how Great and Learned soever he be We percieve also in this grain the goodness of God who gives so liberally to the Good and to the Wicked their necessary Food We will there likewise find Righteousness because having made Man subject to be nourished with this grain he provides it for him even tho he be his Enemy that he may find no injustice in God to have subjected him to a thing which afterwards should be denied him He wills that we may comprehend aright that all his works are Just and Good and Powerful tho we be ignorant how he makes them The Twenty fourth Conference Of the Enquiry about the most Holy Trinity and concerning Grace and that the Saints themselves are mistaken therein none being Infallible I Said to her That I had committed a great many faults in this matter that often I would needs dive into the works of God even his highest Mysteries such as that of Grace and the Trinity and that many holy Doctors had pass'd all their Life in such Studies to declare how God begets his Word or how God bestows Grace differently She replied Sir It is very ill done for a silly Worm of the Earth to seek to comprehend that which a God does It is enough always for a Servant to know what is agreeable to his Master in the matter of the duty of his Service without its being permitted him to enquire into his most secret particular Affairs He has performed his Duty when he has done that which is commanded and ordain'd him by his Master Much more blame worthy is it that a Creature should inform it self how God begets his Word or how he distributes his Graces unto Men This is beyond our Duty We ought to reckon our selves very happy to learn that God has so much Goodness that he always imparts to us Grace sufficient to enable us to love and serve him Every one may find this in his own Conscience and Experience which is the Mistress of all Scienc can testifie that every one has received Grace from God even tho he be a great Sinner What need is there after this to inform our selves how God gives these Graces Or if he give more to one than to another If this be not to seek matter to condemn God of Partiality or to make him have respect of Persons and so to render him less Lovely There is yet less ground to inform our selves what the Holy Trinity is for no body is capable of comprehending it nor yet how the Father begets the Son so much the rather that to render unto God agreeable Service there is no need of knowing any other thing than what he commands and ordains us What is more is unprofitable or evil for all that we should be able to say or know of the Trinity cannot but greatly lessen the glory of his Being which is above all that is most Beautiful most Good and most Great There is nothing that can be compared to God neither are there any words that can give us the least signification of the Being of God who comprehends all things If God were Man we would say that his Heart is the Father His Mouth the Son and his Understanding the Holy Spirit because the Heart of Man is the feat of Love his Mouth is the Channel by which this love is communicated and his Understanding is the Garden wherein the Conceptions do grow to make his Love be comprehended These three things are but one Person tho it have these three diverse Operations The Holy Trinity is but one God who is all Love he loves Man incomprehensibly We may call this Love the Father Now no Being is perfect if it be not communicated The Word has communicated unto Man this Love therefore it may be call'd the Son And this Word cannot be comprehended without Understanding which has likewise been given unto Man to comprehend this Love which understanding may be call'd the Holy Spirit All three together are but that sole Love which is God There is not in the Holy Trinity a Man a Child nor a Dove as they paint it unto us but these are all Figures to make us conceive something of God who nevertheless is unconceivable And all that they can say to us of him are but contempts or reproaches which we commit against God for
the one withdrawing makes a separation as if they both withdrew So that God is as much remov'd from Man as Man has remov'd himself from him And having thus abandoned God what can we expect but universal Plagues which our universal Evils have drawn down upon our guilty Heads Which Plagues having purg'd our Crimes and burnt the Tares the good Grain will then be gathered into the Granary of God which is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I ask'd her Whether this Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall remain upon Earth for ever She saith yes Sir It will be Eternal and never end If you believe in Life Eternal which is an Article of our Creed you believe in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth I have also told you that there is no other Paradise but the Presence of God And whereas Jesus Christ is God as my word is me his Body must have some Station as also all the other Bodies of the blessed God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station nor yet our Soul which is also a Spirit A Spirit is through all and comprehends what is at a distance as well as that which is near As our Thoughts have no need of a way to go to Jerusalem They go thither in the twinkling of an eye for they do not stay in any place Even so God has no need of Heaven nor of Earth to stay in being a pure Spirit nor yet our Souls which are in Paradise when they are united unto God But our Body has need of Heaven and Earth and of all the other things which God has created for it because it is material it must also stay upon material things suitable unto its nature Therefore God has created all this World with all that is in it that Man may have his full delights as well in his Body as in his Soul For God makes nothing imperfect but all his Works shall have their compleat Perfections And resolving to create Man a kind of Creature Spiritual and Bodily both together he gives himself to him for to satisfie his Soul which is a Spirit he will give him likewise all created things to satisfie his Body So that the Soul shall take its delights with God and the Body its delights with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God has 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 will 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 Behold the alliance which God promised unto Abraham which he did not see but very far of and we see it now very near Do you not think Sir that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ must be upon Earth seeing that he has taken a Human Body like unto ours A spiritual thing cannot support but that which is spiritual But a material must have a stay agreeable to its Nature which is also material Who can or would change that Excellent Order which God has establish'd in all his Works so just and so perfect which alone are worthy of Admiration as the Author is of Adoration Can you yet doubt Sir that Jesus Christ shall reign upon Earth seeing it is a just and necessary thing Would you believe that God should create all this beautiful World only for this miserable Life of Penitence and that at the end of it he should abolish this great Work of his Hands or that he should consume by Fire the whole Universe This would not be a just thing that he had made all these things only for our Miseries This would be as much as to say that God had had little Wisdom I was ravish'd out of my self to hear things so unheard of so admirable and so charming And that I might understand a little more I ask'd her if the Earth and the World would abide for ever She said Yes Sir the Earth and all the rest that God has created will abide for ever in the State in which he established them at their Creation For the whole works of God are all Everlasting Therefore he has created all things with Seeds for to spring and to engender Eternally All which Generations must be made for the delight of Man without Pain or Labour All things would have brought forth their Kind according to their Species in a good and delightful manner x The Sun would have given his light and heat in measure without any Excess the Air without Storms the Sea without Tempests The Fire could not have burn'd us nor the Water drowned us nor the Earth brought forth Thorns nor the Beasts bitten and poyson'd us but all sort of things would have served us for Delight and Recreation So many little Beasts which are upon the Earth and in the Air which seâ—ems useless to us were created to the end that even the least of our Senses might be Recreated Even the diversity of Flies and many other sorts of Animals Herbs Trees and Flowers all these were created not only for the necessities of Men but also for their Delights Which things had nothing but Goodness and Perfection without Sharpness Prickings or Bitings How much more ought Man to be Good and Perfect seeing all these other things which were subjected to him had so much Goodness and Perfection You might ask me from whence it comes that all these Creatures are become Evil seeing they were created so good and perfect I will answer you That the sin of Man has caused all these Disorders and with Justice For all the Creatures of God ought to rise up against Man and take vengeance of his Ingratitude according to their power because he had merited that all that was given him for Joy should serve him for Grief Seeing he who ought to have serv'd for a delight z unto his God turns away from him to offend him his Justice would require that all the Creatures should do the same toward him since he had done it toward his God who had infinitely benefitted him more than any other Creatures which might well offend Man and become his Enemy when he was become the Enemy of God who tho he could not render his Creatures Evil because he is the source of all Goodness from whence nothing that is evil can ever proceed yet he might well permit that his Justice should be exercised by those inferior Creatures when Man had so justly deserved it I asked her If all those Creatures Animate and Inanimate would have an eternal Being She said Yes Sir nothing will perish of all that God hasmade But the evil that is in all these Creatures shall be taken away because it does not come from him and all that comes from Men shall Perish For Example That the Sun burns us and dazles the eyes which look upon him This
Man must be his own Enemy or of an effeminate Heart if he have not the Courage to leave his own Country that he may avoid his Tyranny and Severity and live in Repose and Tranquillity I said to her That this Comparison was not sutable and that I had not found the Roman Church Tyrannical She said Sir that is because you have always submitted to her Laws without considering whether they were good or evil and the good Impression they cunningly gave you of her Merits made her Burthens tho' very weighty seem light to you If you have done it in Innocence God will pardon you because you perceived no other thing at that time But at present when God sends you his Divine Light that you may discover the Dangers in which you have walk'd amidst your Darkness do not resist it by Doubts or Scruples which the Devil will put into your Mind which have no other Foundation but a Pusillanimity and Softness of Heart which more regards Natural Sensibility than the Perfection of the Soul to which if you would attain you must hear what God teaches and commands you without amusing your self with so many other different things which Men propose to you who are not to be trusted But God can never deceive you no more than he can suffer any Mutation or Change He is our lawful King who has always governed us by Fatherly Affection and Love And even when Men had offended him thro' Excess of Wickedness he sent them his Word cloathed with our Humane Nature that he might bring us to acknowledge our Fault that we may return to him by Love and not by Force For the whole Doctrine of Jesus Christ is filled with the Light of Counsels and Admonitions not with forc'd Commands or violent Drawings but gentle and willing making no Change to the first Law of God but ouly an Explanation and Illustration of it For Jesus Christ gives us no new Commandment by his Gospel but enlarged the Means by which we may the better observe the first Commandment of God declaring to us what we ought to do and to avoid for this End But this Church which succeeded him has indeed chang'd the Government For instead of preserving the Spirit of a most gentle Father she has taken that of a real Tyrant and wicked one I ask'd her If she held the Roman Church to be that which succeeded Jesus Christ and his Apostles She said Yes Sir the Roman Church was in her Beginning the true Spouse of Jesus Christ who had received all the Riches of the Gospel the true Word of God and the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost But since she left that she has fallen into the Misery into which Adam fell when he would quit his Dependance on God and become his Enemy that he might depend on none but himself Adam was the same Person after his Sin that he was before it but he was not cloathed with the same Graces nor with the same Spirit For he was ashamed and confounded subject to all sorts of Miseries bodily and spiritual ignorant inconstant and malicious with all the other Miseries under which we now groan Even so is it of the Roman Church which was established with all the Graces of the Holy Spirit but since she would needs depend upon her self and establish her own Authority she has lost the Grace of God with all the spiritual Gifts with which she was adorned and has consented to the Suggestions of the Devil as Adam did and has ever since been estranged from God and encreased in Wickedness as Man did after Sin Tho' he was the same by Nature he was not the same by Grace For by his Free-Will he had denuded himself thereof and cloathed himself with Wickedness The same has befallen the Roman Church Since she changed the Order in which God had set her and would needs give Orders and Praecepts to her self after her own Way â— and according to her own Inclinations she is fallen from the Grace of God and sunk into all sort of Miseries Tho' Jesus Christ had chosen her for his true Spouse she has falsified her Faith and the Fidelity she ow'd to her lawful Bridegoom to go joyn her self to the Kings of the Earth whereas Jesus Christ has had so carefully warned her That his Kingdom was not of this World yet she would needs reign heâ—e and rule over all Earthly Powers whereas her dear Husband would only suffer and be despised Thus she has withdrawn from him to her Loss to commit Adultery with the Honours Grandeurs and Riches of the World and therefore has deserved to be called THE GREAT WHORE in the Revelation I said to her That Jesus Christ had promised to his Church that he would never leave her asking how this could be that she was now abandon'd to so sad a State She said Sir Jesus Christ will never be wanting in his Promise and has never left his Church no more than a Man ceases to be espoused to a Wife tho' she falsifie her Faith to him She continues always his Wife but he may both by Divine and Humane Right repudiate her and with just Reason when she will needs continue in her Whoredoms he ought in good Conscience to reject her and thrust her away as unworthy of his Company Even so God cannot abandon his true Church He will still uphold her tho' she were but in one Soul only She shall never perish For she shall be always united to the Spirit of her Husband who is God Immortal and Unchangeable who cannot change nor forsake any thing but when those Men who represent the Church do falsifie their Faith to him and will needs take their Pleasure in worldly Riches Grandeurs and Honours they withdraw from and forsake their lawful Husband for this Earthly Trash and instead of continuing the faithful heavenly Spouse they become Harlots by cleaving to earthly Honours and Pleasures By which you may see Sir that Jesus Christ has not left his Church but has only repudiated the Harlots whom he has discovered in it who are not such by Faults or Falls that are casual of which she repents or desires to amend but by so long inveterate Habits that she will never change from them but by Death Therefore there is nothing to be looked for but the Destruction of that BABYLON and the Fall of that GREAT WHORE who is spoken of in the Revelation For she will never leave her Whoredoms but by a total Falland Ruine which shall be irrecoverable I ask'd her How it came that God had not preserved his Church in the same Place where he had established her tho' it were but in one Person only That this would be a great Happiness to find it in the Colledge of Rome She said Sir God hath no Respect of Persons and has no fix'd Place being universally in all things Even so is it
and excuse this Roman Church which you may easily perceive to be corrupted And the more she is drest up with Vertues and Sanctity she is the more capable of corrupting the Innocent who approach her thinking to find the Spouse of Jesus Christ without Blemish while in the mean time they contract nothing but the Corruption of an infamous Strumpet Thus the most Sound become diseased and will perish if their Maladies be not quickly laid open and dress'd as is meet by that divine Physician who comes upon the Earth to teach us all things according to the Promise that Jesus Christ gave us speaking to his Diciples saying that he wou'd send the holy Spirit who shou'd teach us all things He is now come Sir hear him The Fifteenth Conference That the Time is come when the Holy Spirit will teach us all Truth How Christians do reject his Light and what Progress the Devil has made among them For what end how and to whom God communicates his Spirit I Ask'd her Who this Physician might be who could cure such Sores and such Corruption She said It is the Holy Spirit Sir which Jesus Christ did promise us a little before his Death who will teach us all things This is that LIGHT which shall arise in the Darkness which the World will not receive but Love their Darkness rather than the Light Therefore is it known by so few because they will not receive it giving more Faith to their Darkness than to this Light which breaks forth as a new Day upon the Earth and comes to discover the Truth of all things But Men are become now so much Lovers of themselves that they will not learn the Truth except in things which are agreeable to them resisting the Truth that reproves them or is not conformable to their Liking and Inclinations In this they will give Laws to the Holy Spirit and make him speak what they encline to hear In these Times the Sins against the Holy Ghost are fully accomplished Therefore Jesus Christ calls them dangerous times because the Sins which are committed then will not be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other When Jesus Christ came into the World they committed many Sins against him Nevertheless all those shall be forgiven because the Jews never understood that he was the Son of God Neververtheless they have perceived and confessed that they did ill in putting him to Death and all the Sins of which we repent shall certainly be forgiven But this Sin which is now committed against this Holy Spirit will never be repented of and therefore will never be pardoned neither in this miserable World nor in that blessed one which is to come because they will never ask forgiveness for them since they will not acknowledge them and if they will not suffer the Physician to lay open and search into the Sores of a Patient how can they hope for a Remedy by his Cure Even so the Holy Spirit cannot heal the Wounds of our Souls if we will not let him discover them I said to her It was very desirable that these Wounds of our Souls were laid open that they might be healed She said Sir it is indeed a desirable thing but it is very little desired For all the World resists this Discovery and they think they do a very pious Action when they will hear nothing spoken of the Evils which have crept into the Church nor yet of the Monks and others who prosess to serve God The Holy Spirit it seems must accommodate himself to the Times if he would be heard and must praise the Vices and Sins that are at present committed against him For that String must not be touch'd to speak evil of those who desire to continue in Reputation or Authority in the Church even tho' they should commit all sort of Abominations and tho' they were Sorcerers and Devils They teach it as a Principle of Vertue that we ought to excuse their Sins and take our Garments to cover them that no body may perceive them This is very far from desiring that these Wounds may be laid open that they may be healed 'T is no wonder Sir that I have so often told you that I cannot see by what way there should be so much as one Person at present saved in Christendom because the greatest Part live as Atheists without acknowledging God any longer or thinking on him and the rest having the Reputation of good Men are so full of the Sins against the Holy Ghost that I know not what way they can be gained If it should be told a Priest Sir you are deceived in the Administration of the Sacraments They do not operate of themselves as you think he would think this Advertisement came from the Devil and would resist it as a very ill thing Or if it should be said to a Monk or any other devout Person that they were not true Christians they would presently take the Alarum and withstand the Person who should tell them this Truth as if he were an Enemy of God and a Liar because he who has no desire to amend will not be pleased to have his Faults discovered to him Thus every one continues in his Sins and desires not to leave them off or so much as discover them In this Men love Darkness rather than the Light which arises so graciously upon which depends the Salvation or Damnation of all the Men in the World For the Darkness is universal and there is no Sect or Nation whatsoever that is in the real Truth I said to her That she was obliged to discover these Truths that they would be of great use tho' it were but to my Soul She said Sir you are no more disposed than any other to receive the Light of the Holy Spirit unless your Heart be humble and your Spirit simplified This is what Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that he must become a Child and enter again into his Mother's Womb affirming elsewhere that l If we are not converted and become as little Children we shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven These very Words must now have their compleat and perfect Sense For he who shall not submit his Spirit in Simplicity as a little Child cannot receive the real Truth which the Holy Spirit brings into the World because the Doctrines of Men and their evil Customs have so blinded and darkned their Understandings that 't is impossible for them to receive the Light of Truth unless they be first stript of all their Sciences acquired by humane Means which prove Vails and Bandages to the Eyes of the Soul For these humane Maxims are all lying and deceitful teaching to honour Men and give Deference to them when they are in Place and Dignities not considering that Honour is due to God alone by his Commandment and that Deference ought to be given to the Truth only to which it is due and as long
as we don't apprehend these things we will think we do well to adhere to the Sciences we have learned from Men and will not empty our selves of them that we may receive the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit especially when by it we shall discover things quite contrary to our Sentiments or those which our Masters taught us You are not more than any other Sir delivered from your own Wisdom which hinders the Holy Spirit and that even under a Colour of good For you wou'd make Scruple to believe the Holy Spirit when it shou'd tell you things contrary to the Councils held in the Roman Church as I perceived when I spoke of such things to you because you have been brought up in it and foster'd with a Belief that these Councils were directed by the Holy Spirit tho' this cannot be true it being your Resolution not to depart from her This will hinder you from submitting to the Light of the Holy Spirit which will have no Opposition nor Resistance but a simple Submission I said to her That I could not disown I had Difficulty to believe things contrary to the Councils Nevertheless I would follow the Light of the Holy Spirit She said Sir you cannot follow the one without quitting the other because indeed they are as far from one another as Truth is from Lyes For the Holy Spirit teaches only the Truth which makes for the Glory of God whereas these Councils teach only that which makes for their own Glory and Authority Take off a little Sir this Veil of Preoccupation of believing blindly that Rome is the Holy Church and submit to God that he may shew you what Truth is in this You will feel evidently in the Bottom of your Soul that God cannot change as these Persons have changed the Institutions of Jesus Christ We must not be so void of Judgment as blindly to lay the Foundation of our Eternal Salvation upon false Suppositions but we must fully open our Eyes and consider if what we have learned hitherto be more clear and solid than what is now discovered You will thereby perceive which of the two is farthest from the true Light But as long as you are partial and can hardly believe this or that your Soul is not free to receive this Truth If you believe things because Councils or others have told you them you are not established in the Truth of these things but only in the Opinion you have of those who tell you them And do you not know that the Holy Spirit says that all Men are Lyars Wherefore then will you believe things because Men say them I wou'd never have you to believe my Words because I say them but I wou'd indeed have you to believe them because they are true We ought always to follow and love the Truth wherever it is but never to believe and follow a Lye even tho' it shou'd come from the Mouth of a holy Person For otherwise we shall commit great and irreparable Faults as to the Salvation of our Souls especially in this dangerous time wherein the Devil is plac'd in God's Throne and teaches us Lyes instead of the Truth That God has given us an Understanding to comprehend is not for temporal and transient things but that we may understand and discern the Things that concern our Salvation and Eternal Life In this we ought to employ all the Force of our Spirit to discover if what they tell and teach us now in this Matter be true or not without adventuring upon a blind Belief as all Christians do at present I said to her That I would not lean to a blind Belief but to the streight Truth She said Sir if it be so you will have no trouble to believe what I tell you tho' it be contrary to the Councils For I do not speak of my self and I tell only what the Spirit of God dictates to me Take good heed to my Words they proceed always from the Spirit of Truth who must teach all things He cannot deceive you as wou'd your Learning and Studies that you may have acquired by humane Means Be jealous of them For 't is so long since the Devil did insinuate himself into the Church of God to corrupt it that almost it cannot be told from what time it was corrupted Insomuch that even while Jesus Christ was yet upon Earth the Dvil listed himself as a Soldier of Jesus Christ on design to thwart his Doctrine and in the time of his Apostles he became a Captain because he had already gained many under his Power and in the time of their Disciples he had yet more and might then by just Title have born the Name of Colonel because he ruled many and after the Apostles Death he became a Governour by the Encrease of his Power But since they wou'd needs form this Body of the Roman Church the Devil is become General of it by which Government he has now conquered all the World and is universal Emperor especially over the Christians whom he holds under his particular Empire He is therefore justly called Antichrist because he has gainsaid the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which by him has been abolished and annihilated because under this Pretext of Christ he has infatuated Mens Minds to make them believe that what is contrary to Christ is Christ himself and that what is the Synagogue of Satan is the holy Church And thus by these false Persuasions he has deceived all the World and the most Religions believe they follow God when they follow the Devil because he is so masqu'd with the Veil of Piety and Devotion he cou'd have prevail'd with well-meaning Persons by teaching them Evil but under this Colour of Holiness and the Holy Church all the World do blindly follow him with such Fidelity that it wou'd be very hard to divert them from him Every one wou'd think he did ill to quit this Church which is so only in Appearance to follow the true one I only regret you and such as you Sir who sincerely intend to follow the real Truth and nevertheless fear to resist Lyes out of a frivolous Imagination that the Church will still continue in the material Place where Jesus Christ established it I said to her That when I should discover this Spirit of Errour I would never follow it That I would gladly abandon it and follow the Spirit of Truth She said Sir if you wou'd follow the Spirit of Truth quit then all these foolish Persuasions that Christians have now which are only invented by Antichrist that he may gain all the World to himself by apparent Holiness They wou'd persuade you that Rome is the Holy Church that you must obey her in all her Ordinances If you do this you shall be an Idolater ascribing to Men what belongs to God only as Honour Power and Infallibility Every one believes that this belongs to her tho' it belongs to none but God alone to be
Infallible and to use his Almighty Power As also to receive Honour appertains to God only and he who seeks and desires it is a Robber and receives what does not belong to him Moreover if you refer yourself in all things to the Church she will oblige you to things against God and your Conscience and make you to acknowledge that some Saints are Hereticks as if the knew of me she wou'd condemn me for such tho' I act only by the Holy Spirit and all the Books that handle the pure Truth are condemned and forbidden by this Church There is no longer any thing but Lying that triumphs in her For she even teaches that we may have the Pardon of our Sins without a precise Love of God which overturns all the Law and the Prophets For they are established and have spoken for no other End but to teach this Love which Man owes to God And now there are Glosses and Arguments found out to disguise this Love and to give it the Mantle of self-love with which they promise us Salvation that they may make us perish insensibly without knowing it For all they who do not precisely love God go to the Devil Say the Church what it please it cannot change the Ordinance that God made from the Beginning of the World I see nothing there but Tricks and Distractions For instead of saying to us what Jesus Christ said to the Young Man in the Gospel If thou wouldest enter into the Kingdom of Heaven keep my Commandments For the obtaining of this Kingdom she teaches us a thousand Fopperies which Jesus Christ never taught us by Indulgencies Confraternities Cords Girdles or Scapularies and Devotions to Images All this to me seems so far from the Spirit of Christianity that I am pain'd at the Heart when I think on 't I believe all these things serve only to dazle Mens Spirits that they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth and to amuse us as they do the Children with Rattles to charm our Miseries I said to her I would fain discover where the Holy Spirit was that I might follow him She said Sir he is now come in the World You shall know him by Truth Righteousness and Goodness For he is the same with God There are not in God three Persons as People imagine because all that we can say of God is only that he is perfect Love all-just all-good and all-true Behold Sir all that we can know of God in this present Life and when we are told that there are three Persons in God it is to be understood that there are three Powers that Love is his Essence that his Word communicates this Love and that his Understanding makes Man to comprehend it This Love being the Essence of God never beginning and also will never end which Love was communicated to Man from the Creation But seeing he understood it not sufficiently God made his Word to become Flesh that it might be the better understood by an Organ sutable to our Senses Jesus Christ therefore is no other thing but the Word which communicates to Man this Love that is in God and the Holy Spirit is the Wisdom ' that gives the Understanding to comprehend this Love Behold the three Persons that must be known in God these are the LOVE the WORD that declares this Love and the VNDERSTANDING that comprehends it Now the Essence of Love was from all Eterniry But Men cou'd not know it but since the Creation and even then imperfectly Therefore the Goodness of God found out the Means to make it known by this humane Body which he took for this end when he came to treat familiarly with Men he becoming Man to make them see manifestly how much he lov'd them And not being yet satisfied with this to communicate this Love so sensibly he moreover sends his Holy Spirit to teach them all things You shall know him Sir by the principal Qualities of God which are Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are always inseparable from the Spirit of God Remark well if what is told you be still accompanied with these three Qualities I ask'd her If the Holy Spirit comes into the World in Flesh as Jesus Christ did at his Birth She said No Sir there is no need of his coming in the Flesh to communicate himself to Men as Jesus Christ did because he comes not to shew them any new thing for working out their Salvation Jesus Christ having sufficiently taught them all things tho' Men have not comprehended it and now the Holy Spirit comes to give unto the Mind the Understanding of the same things which Jesus Christ taught while he was on Earth Even as Jesus Christ came not to destroy the Law of God but to perfect it so the Holy Spirit comes not now to destroy the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but to perfect it and to give the perfect Understanding of it to all those who will receive it 'T is not Needful that for this end he take a Humane Body because he brings no new Words but new Notices that may be conceived by Mens Spirits These Notices being spiritual have no need of a natural Body that they may be communicated to the Spirits of Men. If you wou'd receive him Sir you must become a Child and submit your self wholly to God and then you will find the Effects But never let your self be deceived by false Appearances For there are now many false Prophets that come in God's Name and are of the Synagogue of Satan as I told you formerly Try always if they who speak to you do possess these three Qualities of God Thereby you shall assuredly discover them For if you let your self be amused with good Words or even by the Gifts of Prophesies or Miracles the Devil can counterfeit enough to deceive you Reject also all those who praise or flatter you Because the Devil does ordinarily use these Means to deceive those whom he desires to gain to himself The Spirit of God is always firm and true full of Righteousness and Goodness There is no need that he make himself visible to the Eyes of the Flesh he shall be sufficiently felt by the Sentiments of the Soul and the Eyes of the Spirit He shall illuminate all Flesh and enlighten the Spirits of all those who will hear and follow him But there must be an humble Heart and a Spirit entirely yielded up to God The Sixteenth Conference How we must beware of false Christs and false Prophets which seduce all the World and are so much followed at present How to discern true Prophets from the false and that it would be to no purpose at present to aim at the Conversion of Christians by preaching the Truth to them I Ask'd her How it was possible to beware of these false Prophets since there were so many of them and that they were disguised with Vertue and Holiness She said
they think sometimes they wou'd do evil if they shou'd look on it as evil Therefore Jesus Christ has great Reason to say to us so often Beware of false Prophets that come in my Name and be not deceived by them and also to tell us that we must get out of Judaea that is out of the Church when we shall see the Abomination of Desolation For this Cause I think Sir it is now time to flee I ask'd her If it would not be better to abide in the Church and endeavour to make others like my self see the Deceit and Dangers in which they live than by flying out of her to abandon them to these Perils She said If you could illuminate them and make them see the Truth without destroying your self it would be better to remain in her tho' it shou'd cost your Life but there is no Appearance of prevailing with any because they are so obstinate in their Sins which they will not know For if you shou'd tell any benefic'd Person in the Church that he is not a true Christian and that the Church has fallen away and become more Pharisaical than ever the true Pharisees were they wou'd not believe you but persecute you and your best Friends the most Pious of them wou'd believe you were become an Heretick and that you wou'd also pervert them Because the Darkness is so great that they take Lies for Truth without perceiving it and they shou'd esteem that to be evil which were most good Therefore you wou'd do others no good and you wou'd do evil to your self and draw upon your self many Persecutions and bring your self in hazard of falling from the streight Truth thro' an Infatuation of Spirit with which the Devil directs every one and hinders them from knowing or discovering the Truth Therefore Jesus Christ said very well that we ought not to give Roses to Swine nor Childrens Bread to Dogs The Swine are Persons who wou'd make a Dunghil of the most fragrant Vertues and Dogs are they who wou'd tear the Truth by Reproaches and Calumnies It wou'd not therefore be adviseable at this time to remain in the Church when Jesus Christ advised to depart and flee out of her For there you shall not find Children who will receive the Word of God which is the Bread of our Soul but Masters and Mistresses who believe they are more wise and more just than the Holy Spirit I said to her That it seemed to me we were wanting in Charity when we minded only our own Salvation and that it was grievous also to follow God without any other Company She said Sir you will not act against Charity by withdrawing from Christians now because they are obstinate in their Courses to which they are habituated and in which they will die without Repentance and therefore it will avail nothing to preach to them And the Holy Spirit tells us somewhere that we must leave off to point out and speak that which does not profit and that the God of Peace will very shortly bruise Satan under our Feet I understand hereby that it is no longer seasonable to represent the Truth to Christians now because they will resist and quarrel the Truth even when we wou'd make it known to them It is to them we ought not to point out the Finger nor to speak because no Words how true soever will profit them any thing Yet for all this you shall not remain all alone in following God but a great many will follow him with you but you must go among the Jews where many will be converted and receive the Truth and will flee from the Spirit of Errour in which they have been detained for so long a time For of God's People they became his Enemies For this cause they were scattered and divided But by this Coming of the Holy Spirit they shall recover the Light and shall re-enter into the Sheep-fold of Jesus Christ and shall be his People and the Members of his true Church And because these are only guilty of the Sin against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven them whereas those Christians will sin now against the Holy Ghost Therefore they shall not be forgiven in this World nor in the other You need not then amuse your self any more about this Matter I have made Trials enough having accosted the Persons most renowned for Vertue among the Christians and I found not so much as one of them capable of receiving the Truth they are so pre-occupied with their Roman Church their Maxims and seeming Vertues that it may be said of them that as Jannes and Jambres resisted the Truth even so Christians do resist it in the same manner You are the first who has heard me tell the Truth For till now I cou'd not explain it to any body This did often trouble me and made me also resolve to quit the Conversation of all Men and travel so long till I shou'd find some one to whom I might declare the Truth Because FOR THIS I AM BORN I said to her That therefore she was obliged to declare the Truth to many since she was born for this end and she knew those who were capable to receive it She said Sir it is not my Business to enquire for Men because my Life consists in my Recollection from whence the Conversation of Men would withdraw me For I know by Experience that all Creatures are a Hindrance to me and loss of time I love rather to remain alone But if you will transmit to others the Truth which I have communicated to you you are free to do it or rather obliged to it Because God having permitted you to rencounter me and given me time and Place to tell you so many diverse things I shall believe he will require of you that you impart them to others But you must consider well to whom because every one is not capable of so great things and if you address to some that are in Covenant with the Devil of which there are so many at present they will use you hardly and consult with all these Followers of Satan to oppose and to stifle these Truths in their Cradle Therefore in this you must use the Wisdom of the Serpent and beware of Men For they will deliver you up to Governours and will persecute you or kill you because of the Truth which is God This bad Usage foretold by Jesus Christ will in this Age have its full Accomplishment This in the Beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ was but fulfilled in part because the Apostles only and some few others suffered for the Truth but at present many shall be put to death for this Truth The Father shall rise up against the Son and he against the Father and they shall deliver up one another to the Rulers to be put to Death because the Hour is come and the Power of Darkness which has so seiz'd
upon all the Earth that they who shall kill you for the Truth shall think they do God Service For Satan's Power is so great and universal that it has almost blinded all Men and their Spirits being infatuated they take that which is false to be real and esteem Lyes more than the Truth And all this is so well masqu'd with Vertue and Sanctity that even the best Men will think they do offer Sacrifice to God when they kill you Therefore take heed always Sir that you give not the Children's Bread to Dogs nor cast Pearl before Swine but try well before you speak to any if he hunger and thirst after Righteousness or some other of the eight Beatitudes which are the Marks that Jesus Christ gave whereby to discover those who shall be bless'd and shall receive the Spirit of Truth But as soon as you shall meet with Opposition to the Truth leave off to tell it and never move in that which will avail nothing For God has promised that he will shortly bruise Satan under your Feet Yet a little while the Devil has his Empire which encreases greatly and so soon as it shall be at an end God will bruise him under the Feet of his faithful Servants who shall triumph over all the Powers of Hell But they must yet suffer a little and continue faithful unto death The Seventeenth Conference That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected I Ask'd her If I would run the Risque of these Dangers by going among the Jews since according to her saying they were more disposed to receive the Truth She said Yes Sir there is Hazard there as well as elsewhere because the Devil has those who are in Covenant with him in every Place in every State in every Sect and under every Law For he has run to and fro thro' all the Earth and hath devoured many as well among the Jews as among others But I except the Good among the Jews and I know certainly that these are more disposed to receive the Truth than any others because they sin thro' Ignorance For they never knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and do not yet know it For they look for this Son of God in Glory and know not that he shall be the same who came already among them in Dishonour As soon as they shall discover this Truth they shall return from their Exile and re-enter into the Promise made to Abraham and shall return to be God's People in Exclusion of the Christians who having abused so many Privileges shall be cut off and the Jews settled again on their Ruins I ask'd her Wherefore the Christians could not be reformed that they might become the People of God as well as the Jews Converted to take away their Crown She said Sir the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians are For these sin out of pure Malicé and have forsaken God and his Laws This the Jews have not done They do yet fear and know God and the Christians do neither For they preach publickly that to obtain the Pardon of our Sins we are not obliged to love God that to save us from going to Hell it is enough to have self-love that this Fear of their Damnation is capable of procuring them the Pardon of their Sins and Salvation and they utter a thousand other Blasphemies against God in every thing This they can't do thro' Ignorance because besides the Law of God which they have received as well as the Jews They have moreover the Law of the Gospel and the Doctrine of the Apostles which was left them in Writing for an everlasting Memorial which all Christians ought still to follow The Christians have received Faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he came into the World where he suffered Pains Labours Poverty and Contempt was persecuted imprisoned scourged buffetted and at last put to Death on a Cross as a Malefactor and all this to give an Example to Christians that by following his Steps they might enter into his Glory They do believe all these things and also that the same Son of God is really in the Sacrament of the Altar with a great many other things contain'd in the Creed Nevertheless against their Belief they live directly contrary to what Jesus Christ taught them and what they believe by the Command of God If the Jews believed this that Jesus Christ is the Son of God they would mourn for the Sins which they committed against him and would follow his Example which shall very shortly come to pass whereas the Christians shall die obstinate in their Sins without Repentance By which you may judge Sir that the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Spirit of Truth so soon as it should be communicated to them than the Christians who oppose the known Truth They know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they shew him less Respect than a Servant would do to the meanest Master and eat and swallow him as a Piece of Bread How would you have these Persons to be reformed since they would reform all the World looking on themselves as Gods of the Earth and Children of the true God while they are led by the Devil This they will not acknowledge chusing rather to perish in their Darkness than to give ear to the Truth whereas those Jews would gladly hear what will enlighten them and would be bettered by knowing the Truth For many good Spirits among them aspire after it hungring and thirsting after Righteousness which when they see and know they will immediately embrace it because nothing but Ignorance hinders them from resigning themselves wholly to God Whereas the Christians thro' pure Obstinacy in their Sins will not do it So that if I should go to the College of Cardinals at Rome and tell them that I come from God to advertise them that they are not true Christians and that Jesus Christ taught another way of living than what they observe and that to be saved we must of Necessity follow Jesus they would presently seize on me as a Criminal and put me to death if I would not retract my Words tho' they knew well enough they were true even tho' they should evidently perceive that I had the holy Spirit they would oppose this Truth that they might maintain their Errours How then Sir would you have such Persons to be converted God will never force any body having given to all Men their Free-Will to use it according as they please If these Christians will acknowledge no other God but their own Authority they would deal hardly with God himself if he shou'd come to speak against it How cou'd God in Justice reform these Christians who
Time is come to put this Sentence in Execution It will begin with the Plague of War and then that of Pestilence and after of Famine that there may be time given to all Men of good Will to repent and to take these Plagues in Penitence for their Sins and by these Sufferings to find a Way to return to God with all their Heart and to rise from Death to Life that is to say from Sin to Grace as the Jews shall do by being converted first of all that the Lord may find them watching at his Coming and may say to them Well done good and faithful Servant because thou hast been faithful in a few things I will set thee over great things Enter into the Joy of thy Lord Which Joy shall be recovered at the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory who will overthrow all Evil by the Brightness of his Coming which shall be seen and understood by all the Men who shall then be remaining on the Earth Thus it is that God orders these last things with Weight and Measure that he may still exercise his Righteousness Goodness and Truth even to the End of the World waiting still for Sinners to Repentance being desirous that they shou'd be converted and live Whatever Men say God will never depart from his eternal Qualities and will not confound his last Works no more than he did his first For he continues still firm and constant in all his works If Men will not know this 't is their own Fault and the Effect of the straying of their Minds Nevertheless it is time to open their Eyes For the Plagues are begun I said to her That the Jews were wilfully obstinate not to believe that Jesus Christ was God which the Christians did believe assuredly and consequently they were nearer to be converted than the Jews She said Sir the Jews are less obstinate than the Christians because there is more Ground for their Unbelief than for that of the Christians who reject the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory tho' it be verified by all the Holy Prophets the Apostles and Jesus Christ himself who in so many divers Places declare his glorious Coming and very few speak of his Coming in Reproach This makes the Jews doubtful knowing that God never surprises any but often foretells the things that must come to pass and they finding so frequently in the Holy Scripture the Prophesie of his Coming in Glory and so seldom his Coming in Reproach they have some fundamental Reasons for which they cannot believe his Coming in Reproach But so soon as the Truth shall come to enlighten them they will yield to it because they love it Whereas the Christians do formally resist it and wilfully impugn it and will not believe what they read so often nor hearken to the Light that is offered them thereupon being desirous to continue obstinately in the Persuasions in which they have been trained and blindly to believe the Sentiments of Mens preferring them to the Truth of God So that the Jews will sooner believe that Jesus Christ is God than the Christians will believe that the same Jesus Christ shall come to reign in Glory upon Earth tho this Coming be much more to be desired and valued than that Coming in Sufferings and Reproaches For he who highly esteems God will be troubled to believe or see he shou'd be abased or despised and become the Reproach of Men he who deserves all Honours in Heaven and Earth Hereby the Jew's have more humane Ground not to believe the Coming of Jesus Christ in Sufferings than the Christians have not to believe his Coming in Glory which is more honourable pleasant and desirable tho' the Jews as well as the Christians do very ill not to believe both the Comings of Jesus Christ which are equally true both the one and the other I said to her That she seem'd to hold the Jews Part more than the Christians She said Pardon me Sir I am not partial and if I were I wou'd rather take the Christians Part among whom I am born than that of the Jews whom I never saw I hold only the Part of Truth without leaning to any Side because I have no Pretensions upon Earth Neither Jews nor Christians will give me any thing But God will judge me in Truth and Righteousness Therefore I will always observe it without Respect to any body If I knew not that the Jews are more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians I wou'd not speak to their Advantage But I cannot conceal the Truth when it is asked me If you address these Jews you will find my Saying true For I know nothing of my self All comes from a Source from whence no Lye can be drawn I am not enclined for the Jews nor for any other Sect in the World For I know none of them that are well pleasing to God But I love those best that are most disposed to receive the Truth and to be converted unto God and I remark this People of the Jews to be more disposed for this than any other Which in Trust I declare to you Not that I may be lov'd or despised but that I may simply declare the Truth as I know it Make a Trial of it Sir and of all the other Things which I have told you you will find them in their Time all true For I am not for telling things that are extravagant or without Necessity You will have Need after this to know all that I have declared unto you They will be very profitable for you and for those whom you shall judge capable of receiving them Doubt nothing of them Conceive and digest them all You shall receive from them great Light in your Understanding and Strength and Nourishment to your Soul and you shall still enter farther into the Knowledge of God and of your self which shall be an Everlasting Happiness for you Beware of being tempted to believe the Contrary Because the Devil will surprize you with false Appearances under a Pretext of scrupulous Piety and Justice The Eighteenth Conference How the Holy Spirit gives his Light to the Soul I Said to her That I would not doubt of her Words because I believed that they all came from the Holy Spirit She said Softly Sir all my Words come not from the Holy Spirit For he does not dictate to me all the Words that I must pronounce but the Substance of all that I say because I would never speak otherwise than by his Motion and no other Discourses are necessary for me For I have no Desire to please any and all that makes not for the Glory of God seems to me a superfluous and useless Thing Therefore I do not willingly utter any Discourse but these to which the Holy Spirit moves me But he does not dictate to me all my Words I have Need to express my self by Humane Reasons or Comparisons because otherwise they could not understand me For
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 unto God or profitable to our Neighbour The Knowledge of which Things God does not deny to Souls who are faithfully dedicated to him I wish Sir you may be one of them that you may learn in a Moment more things in these Matters than I cou'd tell you in a whole Day For one Word from God contains more than Ten Thousand Discourses of Men which are still accompanied with many Defects and Imperfections Whereas the Holy Spirit has a perfect Accomplishment in every Thing and enlarges himself according as the Soul is emptied of it self We have nothing else to do but to empty our selves because God being always in the Center of our Soul he wou'd enlighten it abundantly in case the Hindrances were removed For take them away and we receive Light The End of the Second Part. THE CONTENTS Conference I. How the Opinions of the Learned are injurious to God they being ignorant of his Works Of God's Presence and of his Grace Of the Liberty Power and Weakness of Man and of the State of Infants before the Vse of their Reason p. 1. Conf. II. Of the State of little Infants which come from good or evil Parents And of Baptism p. 11. Conf. III. How the Devil has crept into the Church as Antichrist and is there maintain'd and authoriz'd p. 19. Conf. IV. Of the Reformation of the Church of its Councils Commands and Ordinances p. 21. Conf. V. That all Men ought to labour to satisfie the Justice of God by this Penitence p. 31. Conf. VI. That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawful Husband p. 33. Conf. VII Of the Mass and of the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Functions p. 44. Conf VIII What are the Sins against the Holy Ghost and how much they prevail p. 50. Conf IX That no body can be saved but he who professes the Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God The World is at present without them but it shall be renewed The Danger that Men are in Secret Evil ought to be discovered p. 57. Conf. X. That the Time is come that Men shall receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness and what hinders them to receive him p. 66. Conf. XI How Man must resign himself to God p. 69. Conf. XII Of discerning the Motions of God from those of Nature which must be done by Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are three divine Qualities according to which all our Motions and all our Actions ought to be regulated with great Care p. 76. Conf. XIII That Persons illuminated by God may serve as powerful Means for Salvation but it 's God only who can give it and that now the Company of Men is dangerous p. 84. Conf. XIV That the Habit does not make the Monk and that Religions of themselves make none holy Of the Corruption of them and of the Church p. 86. Conf. XV. That the Time is come when the Holy Spirit will teach us all Truth How Christians do reject his Light and what Progress the Devil has made among them For what end how and to whom God communicates his Spirit p 105. Conf. XVI How we must beware of false Christs and false Prophets which seduce all the World and are so much followed at present How to discern true Prophets from the false and that it would be to no purpose at present to aim at the Conversion of Christians by preaching the Truth to them p. 114. Conf. XVII That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected p. 124. Conf. XVIII How the Holy Spirit gives his Light to the Soul p. 136. The End of the Contents THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD The Third and Last Part. CONTAINING The Last Conferences WHICH M. ANTONIA BOURIGNON HAD WITH The Deceast Mr. CHRISTIAN de CORT Priest Pastour of St. John's at Mechlin Superiour of the Fathers of the Oratory there and Directour of the Isle of Noorestrandt Which deserves to be Read Understood and Considered by all who desire to be Saved Written Originally in French LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVI Isaiah 58. 10. Thy Light shall arise in the midst of Darkness and thy Obscurity shall become as Noon-day To the READER HERE is FRIENDLY READER the Third Part of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD which is also the Last Conferences that I could have with this Zealous CHRISTIAN DE CORT Superiour of the Oratory and Pastour of the Church St. John at Mechâ—in in Brabant since to hinder him from having any more Conferences with me they poyson'd him and so murther'd him to hinder the Prosecution of the Pious Designes which he had to make known to the World the Truth of the Decay of CHRISTIANITY This Third Part shews yet more clearly than the Two foregoing how much the Church of God is fallen from her first Institution and how far she is remov'd from the Principles of the Apostles and the Life of the First Christians how many Errours and Corruptions have by little and little crept and slipt into Christianity what Appendages and Circumstances they have added to it How many New Laws and Ordinances for the Ornament of it which in effect have deform'd and disfigur'd it So that whereas Christendom was in its Beginning The True Spouse of Jesus Christ she is now become The great Whore which commits whoredom with the Kings of the Earth drinking in their Cups and eating of their Dainties which are the Ambition the Pleasures and covetous Desires of the Things of this World Which Things are now as common among the Churchmen as among the Kings of the Earth to say no more This is very far from the Lowliness of Jesus Christ and of his Disciples who lived in Humility of Heart in a Contempt of the Honours and Glory of the World and would take no other Delights but Labours Fatigues and Sufferings and dispised Gold and Silver as appears by the Offer that Simon the Sorcerer made to St. Peter of giving him Money to buy the Grace of God He curses him and his Money And when they asked Alms of him he says to the poor Man Silver and Gold have we none but the Power of God which will heal thee And elsewhere they say Freely we have received it and freely we give it And to shew the Poverty there was in the Colledge of the Apostles we need but remark that they had not wherewith to pay the Tribute since Jesus Christ sent them to catch a Fish in which they should find a Piece of Money to pay this Tax Consider now FRIENDLY READER if there be any Resemblance between the Church-men of our Time and the Colledge of the Apostles and if every one does not strive to come by
a Man must deny himself By which words he explains to us what this DEPENDANCE on God ought to be for the whole Law of the Gospel is nothing else but the Explication of the dependance that we ought to have on the VVill of God And when he says Deny your selves this is nothing else but to say Resign your selves to God because he who follows himself hinders God from ruling over him so all the other Precepts of Jesus Christ are but to point out to us the means by which we may attain to this Resignation of our Will to God's for when Jesus Christ says Renounce all that you possess This is not that God has need of Silver or other Possessions but because Man has so set his Affections on what he possesses in this World that he would not be content that God should take them from him and as long as he has a desire to possess them he cannot be resign'd to the Will of God for he has yet his own And when Jesus Christ says Take up your Cross and follow me this is also to lead us to this Resignation of our Will to that of God for being all good he cannot do Evil to any nor take Pleasure in making us suffer but he who will not endure the Pains and Crosses that shall befall him cannot be resign'd to God for he does not willingly suffer though his Sins have deserv'd it And when Jesus Christ says that we must cut off the Foot or pluck out the Eye that offends us It is not that God has need of any of the Members of our Body but to teach us that he who is resign'd to the Will of God ought willingly to lose his Foot or his Eye yea his Life when God shall permit it for he who has resign'd his Will to the Will of God has no more any Care of or respect to himself suffering himself to be entirely governed by God independently from his own Will And because we did not comprehend sufficiently how this dependance ought to be and were so far removed from it Jesus Christ came upon Earth to explain to us by what means we ought to recover it for all his Precepts are only means to attain to it I asked her how we might know when we are wholly refi n'd to God and that our Liberty and free-will is yielded up to his disposal She said Sir it is very easie to know this for he who has truly yielded up his Free-will to God will use it no more but deny all that it demands even to the least things he yields no longer to it in any thing but waits on God for all that he must have having no more to yield up to him but this Free-will he only receives from God without acting in any thing Such a Person performs all his Actions in dependance on God if he eats and drinks it is nothing but out of pure Necessity without regarding whether it be sweet or sowr all is good to him provided it be wholesome and sufficient for the maintenance of his Life He seeks neither Ease Pleasures Honours Riches nor any Earthly Contentment and if any of these things occur he takes them indifferently from God's Hand for he has no longer any desire of his own He neither desires Honour Estate Riches nor any thing that delights the Mind knowing well that it is not in this Life that one must take his Contentment no more than Jesus Christ did while he was on Earth On the contrary he finds in his Soul a willingness to suffer Reproaches Pain and Labour though contrary to his natural Inclination A Soul dead to it self and resign'd to the VVill of God neither seeks good nor even Vertues but those which God will give it and affects no means to obtain them but is well contented to be most ignorant and stript of all sorts of Sciences and means even of perfection In one word Sir a person who has yeilded up his free will to God desires no longer any thing on Earth and expects only what it shall please God to permit or send him receiving Prosperity and Adversity with an even mind without Joy or Grief since he believes That God will not permit any thing to befall him but what shall turn to his good All these are signs to know whether we be resign'd to God or not for we must not flatter our selves in saying that we are resign'd to God while we live wholly to our own wills and follow as much as we can our own inclinations I said to her That I never knew any on Earth who was so resigned to God as to take all from his hands and to have no self-will on occasions tho' many pretend that they will live wholly to God and do his will She said Sir Do you not see that these are all Cheats and that those who say they would please God and do his will deceive themselves in believing that God is pleas'd with their words without effect If you never knew any person who yeilded up to God the free will that he gave him you may well say that you know none in a state of salvation for no man can be saved who follows his own will For Adam committed no other sin to undo us but the following his own will The matter of eating an Apple was not sufficient to cause all the miseries under which we yet groan That which ruin'd the Children of Israel was nothing else but that they would not be contented with the Government and Will of God desiring rather to suffer the miseries of Egypt in doing their own wills than to enjoy the delights they had while they Resign'd themselves to God VVhen all the world-perish'd by an universal Deluge it was because every one was more bent to follow his own will than to submit to the word that God proclaimed by Noah And when the Jews were given up to the Spirit of Error it was for no other Reason but that they valued more their own will than the light that God sent them to receive and know His. By which we may see that in all Times and Ages God has always demanded the Submission of Man's Will to his own and has rejected all those who follow their own Will Do you believe Sir that it will not be thus with Christians and all the World now It is certainly the very same thing for God never changes What he required from Adam he certainly requires from all his Posterity We are mistaken if we think to deceive him now with formal Words and Discourses saying that we will be resigned to him and do his VVill when in effect we will only follow our own on all occasions This is one deceit among others which are crept into Christendom to make all the World Perish For no body knows what it is to be resign'd to God while every one says he is and on this false perswasion they insensibly destroy
think to deceive God which cannot be for he is too penetrating and is not amus'd with Words therefore he has told us the Marks that one must have of true Conversion and of a Right to Blessedness by which real Converts may be discern'd from Hypocrites First He calls those blessed who are poor in Spirit to shew that all they whose Heart or Will is yet bent to the desire of having Wealth and Temporal Riches are not converted nor blessed because he who yet desires Earthly Goods is not converted to Eternal Goods for these Two Affections cannot dwell together f However we say we are converted to God we lie so long as we are not poor in Desires and that we still covet Earthly Things Secondly Jesus Christ calls those blessed who are meek to shew that they who are converted to God do always partake of his Goodness and do good to all as they are able we hear People often say that they are wholly devoted to God while on occasions we see them chagrin angry froward at variance with their Neighbours quarrelling instead of bearing with them or doing them no good but by constraint Such are not converted no more than they who in this World seek their Pleasure and Contentment because Jesus Christ says Blessed are they that mourn and when we see that they will not endure or suffer any thing but seek their Ease Honour and Contentment that they may live in as much Mirth as they can these are not converted and do not willingly mourn under persecution Fourthly We know those that are converted to God when they hunger and thirst after Righteousness that is thirst earnestly to become righteous and seek the means and occasions to attain to this Righteousness These are not converted who content themselves with their own Righteousness and Vertue without aspiring to Gods Righteousness or thirsting after true Virtue but are more careful for Earthly Things than for those which are Eternal The Fifth Mark that Jesus Christ has given whereby to know those who are converted and shall be blessed is Mercy As long as we see Mens Hearts hardened without Charity for their Neighbour minding only their own Interest and not caring for the Troubles and Necessities of their Neighbour these are not converted because they have no Mercy which is a Mark of True Conversion The Sixth Mark is purity of Heart He who delights in dishonest Thoughts or Actions cannot be converted nor he who is subtil and not sincere in his dealings but deceitful and over-reaching bearing envy or ill-will to another None of these are of a pure and clean Heart and so are not converted to God nor blessed for a pure Heart is still upright simple and chast By which we may discover if it be converted to God As also if a Man be a Peace-maker and of a peaceable Disposition within himself and toward his Neighbour this is a Mark of Conversion to God For he who should say he were converted and nevertheless should live in trouble and disquiet within himself or in Debates and Quarrels with his Neighbours he would be a Liar for conversion to God brings along with it Peace and Tranquillity and Repose This the Children of God experience who alone can be called blessed and converted they having the Marks that Jesus Christ has given whereby to know them from the Children of the Devil That none may falsly perswade himself that he is converted he declares all the Conditions necessary for this Conversion that is the Eight Beatitudes the Eighth of which is to suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake Many believe they are happy when they are without sufferings nevertheless this is a sign that they are not faithful to God for he who faithfully serves him will certainly suffer because the Devil and wicked Men will persecute him for Righteousness and true Vertue which is still reprehended by them By this Touchstone true Converts may be known For he who does not willingly suffer Persecution for Well doing desires not to imitate Jesus Christ who is the true Pattern of all the Works which lead to Bliss and none can be happy or sav'd but they who follow his Steps And we falsly perswade our selves of being converted to God if we possess not the Eight Beatitudes which Christ has publickly taught us And as few as we see possess them there are as few converted unto him 'T is all amusement to believe that any will be saved without the possession of these Eight Beatitudes which Jesus Christ has given as Marks whereby to know his true Children from those who say they are and are not And that you may not be deceived Sir I have explain'd them all to you one by one that you may know what manner of Persons these ought to be who in these last Times and during the Plagues desire to be converted to God wherein many if they will may be converted And that their Conversion may be true they must still examine if they have these Eight Beatitudes and they may be perswaded that as long as they have them not they are not entirely converted for Jesus Christ has said nothing in vain and he has nam'd in particular all the Qualities the Blessed ordinarily have without which they cannot be so These are not the Speculations or Words of Men but the Warnings of Jesus Christ himself who cannot lie Men would indeed glosse and dispute to amuse the World but they can never change the Truth I said to her That the Behaviour of Men being well considered it seem'd there were none now in the Grace of God or in the Blessed Estate that Jesus Christ had marked out but rather that all did abound in sin She said Sir It seem'd strange to you formerly when I told you such things because you had not examin'd it narrowly enough and the darkness is so great that the truth is not any longer discerned The Devil has so blinded Mens Minds and distracted their Understandings that they look to nothing now but the Appearance of Things and not the reallity of them Every one believes he shall be happy though he have not so much as one of the Eight Beatitudes Either all the World must be deceived or Jesus Christ has not pointed out aright the signs of those who are in a state of Salvation For these Eight Beatitudes are not pronounced for those who are in Heaven because all those who are with God possess all the Beatitudes in perfection and also there is no more persecution nor Hunger or Thirst to be endured there for there they are in perfect peace and fully satisfied neither is there any thing to be bewailed there being in perfect joy neither can they have poverty of Spirit since they possess all things there also there is no more occasion of shewing Mercy to their Neighbour for none has need of any thing the least of the Blessed possess more than the worth of Ten Thousand Worlds By which it appears that Jesus
and also that the World is Judg'd that you may not flatter your self with false Hopes believing that it will last yet and so continue in sloth I have also shewn you true Vertue that you be not deceived by that which is so but in appearance having also declared to you the Sins against the Holy Ghost and those which we commit in another that you may not be ignorant of any thing that can hinder this Resignation to God For the Ignorance of Good and Evil would insensibly ruine us and whereas we are fallen into the Times of Universal Darkness the Common Enemy might very easily deceive you as he does all the World perswading you that you are resign'd to God when you live yet intirely to your self Therefore I have explained to you so many Things one by one that you might discern aright Truth from Lies and that you might certainly resign your self to God according to your desire And because you can never do good without departing from Evil nor depart from that without knowing it I have therefore endeavoured to discover to you the Good and Evil that Reigns at present in the World that I might give you the certain Marks whereby to know if you are truly resign'd to God or not and since the Commandments of God and also the Law of the Gospel are given us to discover what hinders us to be resign'd to him That by this means we may remove all the Hindrances of our Resignation to God Voluntary Poverty serving as a Mean to free our Self will from the desire of perishing Goods Chastity to free this Will from desiring Carnal Pleasures and Obedience to deliver us from the desire of fulfilling our own Will and so of all the other Evangelical Counsels which teach us to depart from that which hinders our Resignation to God Therefore I judg'd it necessary to declare to you all the Things that hinder this Resignation to God and those also which may serve as Means to facilitate this Resignation which is the only Essential Thing that God demands of all those who would be saved I asked her If it will be enough for me absolutely to resolve that henceforth I will depend upon God and no longer use my own Will in any thing She said This Resolution Sir is a great Beginning but 't is to be feared that we shall not put it effectually in Execution because of our inveterate Evil Habits Our Self-will having always born sway how can we entirely subdue it except by the Means that Jesus Christ has pointed out to us in his Gospel which are as so many Steps to ascend to this Resignation For otherwise we might make false Suppositions as we have done hitherto But when we shall put in practise the Doctrine of the Gospel we shall thereby discover how far we have advanced in this Resignation to God For if our Frailty had not needed these Means God would not have taken Humane Flesh to come and teach us them For he can do nothing that is useless We must therefore fix here Sir and receive this Doctrine of the Gospel in its plain Literal Sense which will teach us all things plainly to our Senses by following of which we shall certainly attain to this Resignation For this is the true the shortest and the most certain way Though indeed God sent at divers times Prophets and holy Persons to tell Men by what Means they might recover this Resignation to God yet none of them has done it so perfectly as Jesus Christ did when he was upon Earth For he has omitted nothing but has taught all so precisely that Men will never stand in need of any other Instructions For this is the last Mercy that God will shew to Men who must not look for any thing after the Doctrine of Jesus Christ And what was taught before or since is not at all comparable to this Doctrine of the Gospel If we would be sav'd we must embrace and follow it for it teaches us all the necessary Means for fulfilling the Law of God The Thirteenth Conference Shews That the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is the last that God will send into the World And that the Holy Spirit comes to give now the perfect Vnderstanding of it I asked her How this Doctrine of the Gospel could be the last Means that God would give to Men to bring them to Salvation since we look yet for the Holy Spirit who in these last Times must teach us all Things She said Sir The Last Times began when God became Man He brought along with him upon Earth his Last Mercy teaching Men by Word and Deed all that they ought to do and avoid without omitting any thing of all that shall be necessary for them even to the End of the World So that none have need of any thing else to be taught them It is true we shall have the Holy Spirit in the End of these Last Times into which we are now fallen and he is already born upon Earth But he comes not to bring us new Means of Salvation but only to lay before us those which Jesus Christ taught us when he was in the World that we may clearly see how far we are now estranged from them and to give us the Light of Truth that we may see the Way to return and re-take the same Gospel-means that we may recover the Dependance of our Will upon that of God which is his First and Onely Essential Command without which no Body can be saved For this is the least Thing that we owe him and if we do not fulfil it our Ingratitude is so great that we cannot in Justice be saved I asked her If the Holy Spirit was born in Flesh as Jesus Christ was in his Time And what things he would teach us more than Jesus Christ has done She said Sir The Holy Spirit is the same God with Jesus Christ who was the Word of God as the Holy Spirit is his Understanding There is but One God only but there are divers Powers And as our Understanding knows more than our Mouth speaks so the Holy Spirit will give more Light than did the Words of Jesus Christ though all comes from one and the same God and one and the same Source What Jesus Christ said was understood by Men only in part and the same Things shall be understood in a perfect and compleat Sense by this Wisdom of the Holy Spirit He needs not take a Body of Flesh to speak to Men For Jesus Christ did that sufficiently so that he needs speak no more But there is need of more Understanding For the Last Times are near their End And before the World end God will give the full Understanding of all that has been delivered in God's Name from the Beginning of the World both by the Holy Prophets and by Jesus Christ and his Apostles or other Saints his Disciples Nothing has been fully
understood of all the Holy Scripture for even they who pronounc'd it understood it not in its perfect Sense but in part only But now that the Holy Spirit is come upon Earth to give the full Knowledge of them he needs not for this End a Body of Flesh but only to give Men Spiritual Understanding that they may know the Powers of God the Love he bears to Man the End for which he created him and may have the knowledge of True Vertue and of that which is False All these Things shall be known by the Understanding of those Men who will receive the Light of Truth which the Holy Spirit brings now into the World HE IS BORN in the midst of its Universal Darkness in which no Body knows the Truth of any Thing all being falsified or not known The Holy Spirit comes to clear this by Spiritual Notices I blest my good Fortune and the Day in which I met with this Pilgrimess for my Vnderstanding received such Light by her Discourses that I must confess my Soul had perish'd without this Rencounter I asked her How her Words could have such strong Operations on me She said Sir This proceeds from the Holy Spirit who begins to visit your Soul by his Light Receive it with Humility of Heart and he will enlighten you more For he is come to fill the Souls of all those who shall receive the Truth It is by the Operations that you feel that he is born in Souls He is a Spirit and he works in the Spirit of all who seek and desire him We must not any longer seek for visible and material Means For all these things are Hindrances to him Let us only open our Heart and Spirit to receive the Truth and it will teach us all Things For nothing but Lies has undone the whole World The Darkness that Men are in and their forgetfulness of God have come by Lying which has seiz'd on all the World For none are now in the Truth The false Perswasions which they have imprinted on Mens Hearts have made them mistake God and the State of their own Souls There is therefore great reason to bless the Goodness of God who in so miserable a Time sends us his Holy Spirit to enlighten all those who will receive him I believe Sir you are the first but a great Number will follow you For as soon as the delusion shall be discovered the Eyes of many will be opened and their Heads lifted up to return to God abhorring their Errours and the Deceit of their blind Guides They will see that all that they have taught them as Means of bringing them to God have estrang'd them from him and the Sacraments and other Ceremonies of the Church instead of procuring them the Grace of God to love him and to acquire true Vertue have given them rather a Contempt of God and a false hypocritical Vertue This being discovered many will seek the Truth abhorring Lying which has put their Salvation in so great hazard I asked her If the Holy Spirit would not become visible She said No Sir He will not be visible but by the Operations which he will make in Souls whom you shall see disingaged from the Earth and cleaving to God alone We shall see them possess Joy Peace and Patience with the other Fruits and Gifts which will be sure Evidences that the Holy Spirit will dwell in their Souls who notwithstanding shall not be seen by the Eyes of the Body in any Material Form or Figure For the Time is come that God will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and no longer in Figures which shall all cease because of the Accomplishment of all Things And all that was figured in the Old Law shall be accomplished in full perfection by the Holy Spirit For the Time is come that all the Promises which God made to Men from the Beginning of the World shall be fulfilled the Alliance that God has promis'd to make with Men shall have its perfect Accomplishment For they shall be his People and he will be their God This has not come to pass as yet Though Men were created to be God's People nevertheless they did not continue so on the contrary they committed so many Infidelities that he was oblig'd to destroy them by a General Deluge and though the Children of Israel were God's peculiar People they forsook him notwithstanding and gave themselves to Idolatry The Jews who were as precisely God's People denied him also and would not acknowledge him when he became Man but revil'd him and hang'd him on a Cross And now the Christians who ought more perfectly to be Gods People despise him in his Sufferings and in his Doctrine So that the Alliance that God promis'd to make with Man could not hitherto be accomplish'd Of necessity the Holy Spirit must come upon Earth to enlighten Men that they may have the Faithfulness requisite for this Alliance of God with Men For a Marriage cannot be compleat if the Spouse be not faithful as the Husband is The Fourteenth Conference Speaks of the Alliance that God will make with Men and of the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and that to have a Share in it we must of necessity resign our Will to God and return to a Dependance upon him I entreated her to tell me How and when and wherein this Alliance of God with Men shall be made She said This Will be made by the Holy Spirit who will illuminate Souls make them know their Errours and also the End for which they were created which is nothing less than to be joyn'd and united to God who will take his Delight with Men And they perceiving this shall separate themselves from all Earthly Pretensions and resign themselves to the Will of God desiring no longer to use their own Wills because they have entirely renounc'd them Then shall they have such Dispositions as will invite God down to the Earth to Ally himself visibly and bodily with Men by an inseparable and indissoluble Tye. This is the End for which God cloath'd himself with a Humane Body to make himself like to Man that the Alliance he designed to make with him might be wholly perfect and compleat both in Body and Spirit What God promis'd of Old to Abraham could never be accomplish'd because Men were never resign'd to God as they ought having still us'd their own Free-will without depending upon God This did separate and divorce them from the Alliance which he promis'd them But in this Fulness of Time wherein we live the Holy Spirit is come down to teach us all Things and whosoever shall hear him shall enjoy the promis'd Alliance For Jesus Christ will come very shortly upon the Earth in Glory to Joyn and Allie himself with all those who shall resign themselves to him I cannot precisely tell the Day Sir but that it will be towards the End of the Plagues which are now
and his Heart is hardned because he has cast himself into the devouring Fire of this Justice The Twentieth and Fifth Conference Shews That all the Wisdom of Men is nothing but Ignorance in respect of the Divine Light and that God will destroy this Humane Wisdom to give place to that of his Holy Spirit I said to her That she overturned all the Wisdom of the Learned and that there was no more place for Study She said I told you long ago Sir that the Time is come wherein God will abolish the Wisdom of the Wise 'T is not only the worldly Wise or Humane Wisdom that he speaks of for that will perish of its self but it is of the Wisdom of those who believe they are wise in the Works of God or in Theologie This Wisdom will be destroyed through the Goodness and Mercy of God Because many of these are Men of good Inclinations but they perish through Ignorance For they maintain the Sentiments of Men which have been given them for infallible Truths And you may easily perceive Sir that they are not such nor founded upon the Wisdom of God which is alwayes the same If you consider those who have spoken of the Grace and Works of God you will find them different in Sentiments though divers of them were Saints This may be an Evidence to you that their Wisdom was not Divine and that their Learning has darkned the Light of Truth which can never change nor contradict it self in any thing And because this Learning is a Hindrance to the Holy Spirit who comes now to illuminate the Souls of Men of good Will of necessity this Learning must be destroyed in them This the Goodness of God will do perfecting Praise by the Mouth of Sucklings and Infants The Wisdom of God is our Mother from which we ought to draw all our Substance which Wise Men cannot do before their Wisdom be destroyed This the Goodness of God will do in our Time destroying the Wisdom of the Wise and abolishing the Prudence of the Prudent and they will be asked very shortly where is the Wise the Scribe and the Disputer of this World For they shall not be found any longer since God will abolish all their Prudence and Wisdom by the Mouth of Infants I wish Sir you were the first and that I might say to you with the Spouse Who will give me my Brother sucking the Breasts of my Mother that I might find him without and might kisse him The Wisdom of God is the Common Mother of all those who are resigned to him Suck its Breasts boldly they will fill you with Delights And as soon as I shall find you void of all your Sciences I will salute you in the Unity of Divine Wisdom Quit Sir all other Wisdom and depart from your own Wisdom and Prudence It is an Instance of God's Goodness that he comes to deprive you of them Do not believe as the Wise of the World do that your Happiness consists in your Wisdom Since it must be destroyed before you receive the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit and you confess to me that I overthrow the Wisdom of the Wise and judge that it is not fit to Study any longer walk while this Light lasts fearing lest you be surprized with Darkness which is now spread through all the World Get out of it for all is corrupted there Keep your self solitary for the World at present is a Temporal Hell wherein nothing is to be seen but Objects which incite to evil God is not any longer known nor loved there Nothing is to be heard there but Blasphemies The most Holy will say that they have not the Grace to do well and that God has predestinated whom he pleased that all these Decrees will come to pass do what they will with many other Calumnies which they utter against God And as his Name is blasphemed in the Eternal Hell so is it in this World which is a Temporal Hell where St. John has well said in his Revelation That the Whore was full of Names of Blasphemies And if the best do thus blaspheme the Name of God how much more must the Wicked do so who deny him by Word or Deed by denying him their own Wills saying they are their own Masters and that they may dispose of all that belongs to them or sometimes what belongs to others when it is entrusted to them So that he who would take Sanctuary from the Perils of his Salvation must retire from the World where Salvation is no longer to be had For all have forsaken God and no Body knows him any longer Every one having made an Idol of his own Imagination or to say better Every one makes a God after his own fashion One sayes that he damns another that he forsakes another that he permits evil and that he rejects many though God can never reject any seeing he is greater than all Things and comprehends all in himself and can never do evil and never ceases to do good All the Qualities of God are unknown to Men For none possesses true Wisdom because none will resign their Will to his Every one follows his own I said to her That I was altogether convinced and that I perceived very clearly that all the Wise were greatly ignorant of the Wisdom of God that all Studies and Disputes were founded only upon Terms and Words or upon the Sentiments of Men. She said I bless God Sir that he gives you these Lights Do not look back any longer For Men are deceived and do deceive one another They have long agoe quitted the Light of Truth and the more they thought to find it by Humane Reasons or Arguments the farther they have been removed from it Because the same Wisdom is needful for understanding the Holy Scriptures that did at first dictate them and the Men who are wise in this World are very seldome humble and God resists the Proud and gives his Wisdom to the Humble and the Little Ones Therefore the Wise continue ignorant of the Wisdom of God and are only Wise in themselves and such Wisdom is Foolishness before God for it is of no use for the knowledge of Eternal Things and the World pass will away with all its Sciences so that all the Wisdom of Men is nothing but Vanity upon which we ought never to build our Salvation since it is written Wo to the Man that puts his confidence in Man Which nevertheless all Men almost do now For it seems for a Man to be sure of his Salvation it is enough to follow the Sentiment of some Author or some Saint though all Men may err and fail even though they were canonized for Saints This is not a solid Bottom whereupon to found our Belielf and Salvation because there is but one only Truth which is God and he who is not united to this Truth is in Errour and Lies and still walking in
Sir that there is no Salvation without this Dependance let about it quickly without considering whether you have Sciences or any other thing Because God can make all work together for good A Man must not regard himself but the Will of God who desires that all Men of what condition soever keep themselves in a Dependance upon him yielding up their Free-wills under his Power without desiring to use them themselves I said to her That absolutely and irrevocably I resigned my self to God to be a true Child but that I found yet some difficulty to forsake the Church She said Soft soft Sir You must never renounce the Holy Church Rather die than do so You must only renounce the Abomination which is crept into the Roman Church now Do you not see that she has falsified her Faith to her Lawful Husband Jesus Christ and that she has not continued faithful to Him I would be well pleased if you could shew me so much as one Point that she observes of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ or so much as one thing that she practises which is not directly contrary to the Life and Doctrine of her Lawful Husband who came down from Heaven to Earth to teach her them both by Word and Deed All which Things are despised by her who ought to be his Spouse I have often spoke to you of her Excesses and her Adulteries Would you yet hold her for the Holy Church since the Devil has plac'd his Throne in her What Weakness of Spirit is it to feel a Repugnance to renounce a Thing so wicked under frivolous Perswasions that she is Holy When God gave us Understanding and Reason this was for no other end but to make us discern good from evil that we might not perish blindfold And now you would change the Designs of God by stifling your Reason and Understanding that you may follow evil blindly And when you see it so plainly evil you form some foolish Imagination that nevertheless it is good This must needs come from a pure Infatuation of Spirit For even Natural Reason discovers to us manifestly enough that the Roman Church now is not the Spouse of Jesus Christ because she does not follow her Husband in any thing and two so distant Things cannot make an Alliance How can you have a Repugnance to quit her who has abandoned her God If the Beasts and insensible Creatures and all the Elements did rise up against Man when he quitted his Dependance upon his God How should not Man who is so reasonable rise up against that Church who has quitted the Dependance upon her God because she will not depend any longer but upon her self One should rather have a Repugnancy to remain under her than to quit her Or else we have less Resentment of the Offence that is done our Creatour than the Elements and the Beasts or inanimate Things who have still resented the Wrong that was done their Creatour even at the Death of Jesus Christ the Rocks rent and the Sun was darkened Have you less affection Sir for your God than these Stones that you do not resent the continual Injuries which the Church does to God It a beautiful Angel became a Devil for having desired in his Heart to be equal to God what shall she become who prefers her self to the same God without desiring to give deference to him in any thing I do even bewail Sir your Blindness in this Point and I cannot believe that your Repugnancy proceeds from your Reasoning but from some Habitual Concern that you have for the Church For if you applied your Understanding to consider the Original of this Repugnancy you would see clearly that it proceeds from the pious affection that you have for the Church but that you do not take her where she is For we amuse our selves in this as in other Things with Terms and Expressions of Men And when we hear them call the Roman Church the Holy Church this Word begets in us an affection for her without discovering if it be she of whom they speak When they would beguile a Child and make him afraid of his Father they put his Cloak and Hat upon a Stick in some obscure Place which the Infant perceiving believes it is truly he and fears and respects him But if he draw nearer and take by the Cloak he perceives easily that he is beguiled and that what he took for his Father was but a Piece of Wood. Truly Sir in the Darkness in which we live at present they make us see just the like by covering Rome with the Cloak of the Holy Church and muffling her with the Head of Jesus Christ we Fear and Reverence her as if she were our True Mother the Holy Church Authorised by Jesus Christ and his Lawful Bride But when we approach nearer and lift up this Cloak we shall see clearly that 't is nothing but Wood instead of Holiness which can be of no use to us except to warm us in the Winter Season Truly Sir we ought not to be so much Children in what regards our Eternal Salvation We ought not to walk blindly in so important an Affair If Men apply their Minds wholly to make a Stocking or a Shoe why should not we apply them more to save our Souls It is good to have the Simplicity of the Dove with respect to God For he who is resigned to him ought to do nothing but let himself be guided by him as a Little Child But we must have the Prudence of the Serpent to take heed of Men who may deceive or be deceived And when they say Lo the Holy Church we must remark narrowly if she be truly so or if it be a Fagot covered with her Garment It is for this only that God gave us Understanding that we might still discern true Good from what is false precisely in the matter of our Salvation Because all other Things are vain and perishing unworthy of a serious Application of Spirit since it ought to apply it self only to Eternal Things for which we were created And our Misery arises from this that we make more serious Enquiries to discover the Turnings and Windings of the Affairs of the World than those of our Salvation In which the Scripture has reason to say that the Children of this World are wiser than the Children of the Kingdom Because before we engage in any Place Office or Traffick we still search narrowly if it is profitable and advantagious for us And we would take heed not to trust to Mens Words or to believe blindly that a Thing is good without having first made the Experiment of it If we have so much Foresight in what respects the Earth how much more ought we to have it for that which respects Heaven We trust our Salvation blindly to what they tell us that the Roman Church is our Mother the Holy Church and we do not dive into this Affair which concerns us so much
Commandments which were written in it And in the Gospel-Law how few have followed the Word of God Twelve Apostles Among whom one forsook it to go hang himself and some Disciples among whom divers also abandoned Jesus Christ So that this Divine Word has served for Nourishment for few Persons But in the Fulness of Time in which we enter at present this Divine Word shall have its full effect and the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon all Flesh Young and Old Great and Small so that all shall Prophesie and speak Languages and do more Wonders than Moses did with all the Antient Prophets who altogether were but Figures of the Things figured which we shall see very shortly come to pass which will be more perfect than all that the Apostles and their Disciples did yea even Jesus Christ himself because we are arrived at the Fulness of Time of which the Apostles says That they shall understand and prophesie in full perfection What they only did in part shall be in Fulness and Accomplishment because then all Men in general who shall remain on the Earth shall subject their Wills to that of God who will govern them according to his pleasure and without the contradiction of their own Wills Then there will be no longer need of Laws no more Constraint no more Commands no more Churches of Stone no more Sacraments no more Prayers no more Desires and Aspirations because the Souls of all Men shall be filled with the Will of God and shall have nothing more to ask Him by Prayer nor have any more need of the Sacraments to obtain his Graces which are all contained in the Accomplishment of his Will which will operate in them without having need to go to Church their Soul being the True Temple where the Will of God resides which has no need of Law or Commandment the Will of God being a Law to it self by Pure Love without any constraint Lo this is the Estate of Blessed Souls who shall enter into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ This is that Hidden Treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven and he that discovers it ought to sell all that he has to obtain it It is to be bought very easily There is no need of being Rich or of Noble Blood No need of Learning many Languages nor of passing the Degrees of the Schools and Universities No need to enter into Cloysters of strict Observance nor to crush the Body with hard Discipline Watchings Fastings and other Bodily Mortifications No need to learn to Read Write or any other Curious Art Nor yet is there need of perusing so many Spiritual Books with which the World is now full which Teach so many Methods of Perfection so many Steps to ascend to Vertue so many Means to find God No Sir all these Things are not necessary because there is but ONE THING ONLY so which is TO RESIGN OUR WILL TO THE WILL OF GOD. Lo this is the Leaven that leavens the whole Lump of the Law of Nature that of the Jews and that of the Gospel Because this Subjection of our Will to God comprehends all in it and gives us an Entry into the Kingdom of Heaven Lo this is all I have to say to you and bid you Adieu for ever Remaining your very Affectionate in a Dependance on the Will of God At Macklin Sept. 15. 1667. ANTHOINETTE BOVRIGNON Luke xxj 5. I will give you a Mouth and Wisdom which they who shall rise up against you shall not be able to gainsay nor resist Chap. x. 18. I beheld Satan falling from Heaven as Lightning THE END Of the Third and Last Part of The LIGHT of the World The TABLE of the Conferences of the Third Part of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD I. Conf. SHEWS That God never demanded any other thing of Man but the Dependance of his Will upon that of God and that all the other Laws are given him by accident and to discover to him his Sins pag. 1 II. Of Free-will That it is the only thing that represents in Man the Infinity and Liberty of God and that this is the greatest Gift that God gave to Man that he might love him freely and infinitely Which is the greatest Perfection in Grace and is Typified by that of Marriage in Nature p. 8 III. Speaks of the Perfection and Abuse of Marriage p. 15 IV. Of the Blindness of Men who amuse themselves with the outward Things which are delivered them without informing themselves of the Truth it self in its depth being charm'd and detained with the fear of displeasing those who are in Vogue p. 19 V. Of the Destruction of Christendom p. 24 VI. Shews the Marks by which it appears the World is judged and that Antichrist Reigns at present p. 29 VII Shews that Jesus Christ will come in Glory else he would not be the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD as he is and there would be no just Recompence of the Good and of the Wicked p. 39 VIII Shews That M. ANTHOINETTE BOURIGNON is sent from God to declare the Truth to Men. p. 44 IX Speaks of the Sins that we commit in another And that to declare the Truth of Evil is no sin p. 51 X. Shews what Souls shall be blessed and explains the Eight Beatitudes p. 61 XI Shews How we must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that we must return to a Dependance upon God which is the only thing that He does essentially require of Man p. 67 XII Shews that to be Saved there is One only thing to be done p. 72 XIII Shews That the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is the Last that God will send into the World and that the Holy Spirit comes now to give the perfect understanding of it p. 79 XIV Speaks of the Alliance that God will make with Men and of the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and that to have a share in it we must necessarily Resign our Will to God and re-enter into a Dependance upon him p. 83 XV. Shews how we must make use of all things to keep us in a Dependance upon God p. 88 XVI Shews how the Resignation of our Will to that of God is a continual Prayer that it supplies all particular Doctrines and Exercises and that the Gospel directs us only how to remove the Obstacles that hinder it the discovery of which is necessary p. 102 XVII Is a Recapitulation of all the foregoing Matters their Scope and Vse p. 108 XVIII Speaks of Hell and of the Damned which will be they who shall have followed their own VVill which is the cause of all Evil and that few were disposed to quit it that they may Resign themselves to God and receive the Divine Truth p. 116 XIX Shews that the Spirit of ANTICHRIST hinders Men from discovering the saving Truth and that Heathens are more Resigned to God than Christians at present p. 122 XX. Shews that very few among
the Christians will be converted unto God and return to a Dependance upon him and treats of the necessity of this Dependance p. 128 XXI Speaks of the Free-will of Man in which alone he is like to God That God gave it Man for ever that he annexed thereto all his future Graces and that never any Good or any Evil will befal any Person in Time or through Eternity but by their Free-will according as they will yield it up or not into a Dependance upon and Resignation unto God p. 137 XXII Speaks of the Disputes that are concerning Free-will and Predestination p. 149 XXIII Sayes That it is by Faith only that we can be saved which coming from God is still operating by Self-Resignation even among the Heathens p. 166 XXIV Shews why Men cannot resign themselves to a Dependance upon God p. 175 XXV Shews that all the VVisdom of Men is nothing but Ignorance in respect of the Divine Light and that God will destroy this Humane Wisdom to make way for that of his Holy Spirit p. 181 XXVI Shews the necessity of becoming Children that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all worldly VVisdom and all Humane Impostures p. 186 XXVII Shews the True Marks whereby to discover where the True Church is and that it concerns every one to examine it p. 191 XXVIII Shews that all the Laws as well that of Nature as that of Moses and of the Gospel are nothing but True Means to arrive at this Dependance of our Will upon that of God That this is the old Leaven which the VVoman took and put into the Three Measures of Meal which are those Three Laws given by God at several Times which Jesus Christ in his Parable compares to Three Measures of Meal and that now a Woman takes this old Leaven of Dependance upon God to put it into these Three Laws that the whole Lump may be leavened and Bread made of it for the Nourishment of God's Children p. 202 FINIS a Gal. 3. 28. b Eccl. 13. 28 29 30. c Matt. 11. 25 26. d Joâ—l 2. 28. e Eccl. 7. 29. f Jam. 2. 18. g Jam. 2. 20. h Jam. 2. 19. i Tim. 1. 9. k Rom. 9. 20 21 22. l Jer. 51. 9. m Jer. 7. 19. n Jer 1. 8. 19. o Isa 29. 13 14. p 18. 26. a 2 Tim. 4. 10. b Ps 34. 20. c Mat. 28. 18. d Ps 25. 3. e 2 Cor. 12. 10. f Heb. 12. 2. g 2 Pet. 2. 21. h Mat. 16. 24. i Ps 45. 11. k 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. l Colos 2. 22 23. m 1 Pet. 1. 6 7. n Ps 120. 5 7. o Ps 55. 7 8. p Act. 17. 27 28. r Joh. 4. 21 23. s Mark 9. 42. Mâ—â— 12. 37 38. Psal 45. 12. t Mat. 4. 7. u Job 1. 21. 2. 10. x Mat. 5. 3. y 6. 21. z 13. 22. 1 Tim. 6. 9 10 17 18. a Eccles 27. 1. b Ps 115. 1. d Prov. 16. 18. f Dan. 9. 7 8. g Ps 27. 7. h Lam. Jer. 3. 42. i Jam. 4. 4. Gal. 5. 26. Mat. 6. 13. k Joh. 3. 6. l Ps 119. 158. m Mat. 22. 37 39. o 146. 3 4. p 1 Joâ— 4. 7 8. 5. 2. p 1 Joâ— 4. 7 8. 5. 2. q Mat. 22. â—8 s Ps 101. 6. 119. 63. t Phil. 2. 21. u Gal. 4. 17. x Prov. 19. 4 6. y Eccles 1. 8. Ps 62. 10. Jam. 2. 8 9. z Gal. 1. 11 12. 1 Joh. 2. 27 a Joh. 9. 34. b Prov. 23. 9. c Jer. 6. 10. d Jer. 36. 19. 26. Joh. 9. 59. Joh. 10. 39. e Is 29. 21. 30. 9 10 11. Prov. 1. 24 25. f 2 Tâ—m 4. 3. g Is 40. 2. h Joh. 15. 13. i 1 Joh. 3. 16. k Jer. 9. 2â— 3. m Act 18. 6. l 51. 9. o 2 Cor. 12. 3. p Ps 71. 17. q Heb. 12. 1. 2 r Psal 1. 1. 84. 1. s 1 Joh. 2. 3 4. t 2 Joh. 9. u Ps 119 141. Jer. 20. 7. w Luc. 2. 7. x Jer. 20. 9. y Ps 119. 136. n Jo. 7. 15 16. z Ps 119. 9. Act 9. 5. a Ps 16. 7. b 35. 3. c Jer. 15. 16. d Ps 119. 174. e Cant. 5. 2 6. f 6. 13. g Ps 10â— 8. h Ps 119. 98 99 100. i Hab. 2. 20. k Cant. 8. 9. l 1 Joh. 2. â—7 m Phil. 1. 23 24. n Luk. 24. 32. o Rom. 15. 1 2 3. p Act 10. 25 26. q Rev. 22. 9. r Ps 39. 6. 2 Cor. 12. 11. s Micah 6. 16. t Math. 6. 8. Math. 11. 29. u Colos 2. 18 21 22. 23 z 1 Pet. 5. 5. a Math. 18. 13 b 1 Cor. 15. 10. c Joh. 10. 8 12. d Math. 5. 36. x Mat. 6. 5 6 7. e Jam. 1. 8. f Eph. 2. 3. 4. 17 19. g 2 Pet. 2. 19. h Is 57 20 21. i Gen. 8. 21. k Job 14. 1. l Rom. 1. 21 22 n ibid. o Mat. 22. 37 40. 1 Cor. 13. 13. p Job 14. 23. m Mat. 6. 28. q 1 Job 4. 11 12. r 1 Job 5. 1. 2. s 4. 17 t Phil 2 8. u 1 Cer. 13 3-8 x 1 Cor. 13. 1-4 y Jer. 5. 24 25. z Deut. 32. 4. a Gen. 1. 26 31. b 1 Cor. 12. 25. c Job 17. 22 27. d Jam. 1. 17. e Rev. 21. 4. f Rom. 5. 12. 1. 21. g Hos 13 9. h Job 14. 21. 1 Job 5. 3. i 1 Cor. 13. 1-5 l Job 6. 68. m 1 Cor. 13. 1. 5 n Job 14. 23 o 1 Cor. 16. 22. p Ps 18 1. 116. 1. Prov. 8 17. q Is 60. 2. r Is 1. 4 16. 58 2 3. s Luke 13 â—6 t Wisd 2. 21. 2 Cor. 4 4. u Eph. 4. 19. y 2 Cor. 13. 14. Is 5. 20. z 1 Cor. 13 1â—8 a Math. 12. 31 32. b Is 1. 18. c Rev 3. 17. 18. 7. e Math. 24. 35. f Jer. 2. 13. g Ps 14. 2-5 1 Cor. 15. 34. h 2 Pet. 2. 19 i Ps 146 3. l Prov. 8. 17. Mat 7 7. m 2 Pet. 2. 3. n Is 29. 10 13 14. 1 Thes 2. 10. 4 12. d 2 Tim. 3. 16. o Luk. 10. 16. p 2 Tim. 2. 15. q 1 Tim. 4. 6. r Mat. 10. 20. s 1 Cor. 3. 19 20. 2 Cor. 11. 3. t Ezek. 22. 26 28. Mal. 2. 8. Heb. 13. 8. x Jam 1. 17. y Luk. 14. 26. 27. z 1 Tit. 2. a 2 Pet. 3. 16 b 1 Cor. 2. 14. c Math. 24. 4. d 1 Cor. 10. 4. e Psal 12. 2 3 9. f Exod. 10. 22. 3. g Math. 24. 12. h Psal 119. 126. i Mic. 7. 2-6 l 2 Tim. 3. 1. 6. m Math. 24. 37 38 39. n Rev. 1. 20. o R. v. 6. 12. p 2 Tim. 4. 3. q Rev. 6. 12. s 2 Tim. 3. 2. t Prov. 16. 7. Luk. 16. 15. u 1 Cor. 13. 1â—4 r Ps 12. 2. Is 57. 1. 59. 16. Mich. 7. 2. x Math. 15. 3-9 y 1 Cor. 3. 18 19 20. z Math. 15. 14. a 2 Tim. 3. 1. b Math. 22. 37 38. c Math. 13. 24. d Act.