AN ADMIRABLE TREATISE OF SOLID VIRTUE Which the Men of this Generation know not seeing they take the Appearance of Virtue for True Virtue taught by JESUS CHRIST in these words Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and humble of heart as well as in the other Salutary Doctrines which he hath given for true Christians BY ANTONIA BOURIGNON Written in 24. Letters to a Young Man who sought after the Perfection of his Soul Teaching him that it Consists in the Knowledge of our selves and the Mortification of our Five Natural Senses Translated from the Original French At AMSTERDAM By HENRY WETSTEIN 1698. which Jesus saith both reveals and judges mens hearts How much of this divine Truth is in these Epistles the more upright the soul is it shall more discover and how much of this upright sincerity is in the soul the same Epistles will detect Here the most earnest hunger shall be adequately satiated and the most stupid inappetency unless it be voluntarily habitual and perversly obstinate may be awakened to an earnest search of that Virtue by the genuine representation of its inestimable value and ravishing beauty and the easie plain and sure means of attaining it here held forth But being a little may be by farr too much in the ordinary yea I had almost said universal way of talking much like a Perroquet of Virture without any living sence of it in the spirit its best not to divert the Reader from that Fountain where it flows living I mean that Speaker who can truely in a most ample sence say with David Credidi propter quod loquutus sum I believed and therefore I have spoken and with the master of Virtue Verba quae loquor non mea sunt sed patris qui me misit the words which I speak are not mine but the Fathers which hath sent me Only this being likely the first that hath appeared in our Language of the Writings of that extraordinary Organ of God's Spirit ANTONIA BOURIGNON it may be both suitable and acceptable to give the curious Searcher of solid Truth some entry into the unparalelled greatness of the thing by a brief recital of some memorable things of that person and of the thoughts of some few of them whose Souls that same Spirit touched by that Person and her Doctrine who was the Spring and Life of both To begin with the last Mr. Grellot an ancient Protestant Minister expresses the sense of his soul first to his friend Mr. P. and then to Mrs. A. B. her self In his to Mr. P. I Have long ago resolved for my self to endeavour to gain my living by the most abject and contemptible Works and Employs in the World and I have reason to lay my acount so for certainly if I preached in a Church where there were persons how ever little more knowing or of more worldly power than here I would never be suffered only because I manifest the deceipts that reign in Religion and in Sects I most willingly leave that precious Soul Mrs. Bourignon to sleep and rest in Jesus Christ therefore I dare not nor will not pray you to salute her in my Name I pray God only ratifie the Salutation and divine Benediction that you tell me she wishes to me I marvel not at what you write of the Spirit of God which is in Mrs. Bourignon that they who are with you will judge and think and cabal with the spirit of Zelots seeing I find no true Knowledge of God nor of his son nor of the Holy Spirit in men Seeing God shews the Mercy and Grace to you and to me to see and feel that the Spirit of God is in her pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter God give also Grace that it may be for the greater Glory of his Name and to our Souls Salvation Though before I said I durst not nor would not have you to salute that Child of God Mrs. Bourignon from me yet do it if you can conveniently I desire earnestly to see Mrs. Bourignon while she is yet alive for men are not worthy that she should be so long I know not what to make of the ministry I have long deplored the imprudence I had when I engaged in it His Letter to Mrs. BOURIGNON MISTRIS IT is now three years since Mr. P. began to address your Writings to me I had no sooner seen or read them but I judged you were of God I received the Truths of them the rather because God had already told me several like or near unto them Since that time I have been fully perswaded in my interiour and am so dayly more that you are wholly filled with the Holy Spirit and nothing is capable to make me believe the contrary although I were the only person in the world of that mind And I think not strange that you are wholy filled with it seeing you have employed so many years to attain it I mean that you practise Holiness and have given your self to the purifying of your soul and the other things that obtain it from God I see you possess alone all the Truths whereof all the other Sects and Religions of Christians have only a part and that you have them in your Soul and in your Books without any mixture of error whereas on the contrary I see no Sect that hath not more or less of Errors as their Authors did more or less come near to God internally You alone discover fully the false Piety wherein the devout of this World are deceived As I do firmly believe then that being filled with God he wills that you be a Chanel and Conduit through which he will flow into the Souls of them that are disposed and fitted to receive him I desire that he may flow from you into me and that being in me he put there the fruits of his Spirit Adducing the sense of his own abjectness and indignity the multitude of her Letters and Writings already dispersed the Grace and Spirit of God not restricted to particulars as retarding his writing to her he proceeds Yet Mr. P. my Friend among other things he wrote to me from you having saluted me in your name two different times I desired and prayed that these salutations might be ratified by God and thereupon I have resolved to represent unto you something for the good of my soul Which I do most humbly and before God I see also that many good Souls from divers places desire to become yet better some by your Letters and the rest by coming as near unto your Person as they can and that you have the Charity to stretch forth your arms unto all of them I hope also you will hold them forth to me the more willingly because I am afflicted with the sense of my sins and for my not having Love enough to my God and that there be yet many things to be amended in me if I may bear the Image of God or of Jesus as I desire I ought the rather
illustrare adultisque ad subtilia ineptis persuadere valeat Cujus exemplum paucis ab hinc annis nobis tulit Flandria in virguncula infante septimum aetatis annum nondum egressa quae cum vitam hanc spatio brevem curriculo miseram satis cerneret mortales tantopere ea capi obstupuit cum Jesum Christum vitam immortalem suis acquisivisse audivisset enixe continuo parentes rogavit ut se in Christianorum regiones ducerent cum autem ipsi Christum in Flandria coli responderent hoc incredibile exclamavit Christum enim paupertatem laudasse illis autem nummos numen esse illum dignitates sprevisse illos autem has ambire flendo arguebat et Quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis That is Such is the efficacy of this reasoning that it is able to illuminate infants in the dawning of their age and to perswade aged people that are not apt or disposed for subtil thoughts whereof Flanders hath a few years ago furnished us an example in an infant Girle not past the seventh year of her age who when she perceived well this life to be of a short continuance and miserable course was astonisht that mortals were so much taken with it and having heard that Jesus Christ had purchased Eternal Life for his Followers she earnestly and continually asked her Parents that they would take her into the country of the Christians and when they answered that Christ was worshipped in Flanders she rejected that as incredible and argued with tears Christ commanded Poverty but they loved money as their God he despised Honours but they coveted them and who could relate or speak of these things without weeping I add one A. de H. which may be something of a Directory to those in the like case with the Writer a renowned Phisitian in the Town of Middleburg in Zealand whose former Writings communicated to the world give testimony how just and penetrating his spirit is when he had well begun to make the matter in question the object of its consideration gives his rawest thoughts in a plain familiar Letter to Mr. P. thus Reverend SIR AFter by your counsel and recommendation I began to read Mrs. Antonia Bourignons Writings I felt as it were a fighting against them and they seemed to me not to deserve so much praise yet considering that your esteem must depend on a well-grounded knowledge because you knew the Gentle-woman you conversed with her and have accurately examined her writings Hence I began to read more attentively whence immediatly a sublim wisdom laying open man's interiour displayed it self The numerous difficulties that occurred in the beginning do evanish as my reading is with more attention Yet I cannot as yet assent unto all perhaps because I have read only few of them and have put fewer of them into practise without which these vritings seem not understandable as also the intelligence of Holy Scripture is promised only to them who obey the will of God That seems to me the greatest difficulty that practice may keep pace with knowledge which to overcome we must seek strength from the Father of Lights which is seldom done according to his will Our corrupt Nature lays many obstacles in the way and the seducing world strengthens it especially in the Art to which I have perhaps without God's conduct addicted my self in which a thousand distractions do dayly occur an Act so uncertain and so filled with Deceipts that I doubt if it may be exercised with a safe Conscience before I would demonstrate and amend its Errors but I know not the source of Errours Sin And in vain is the redress of Evil sought from him who is in Evil. I readily assent to Mrs. Antonia Bourignon that Christians must live otherwise than men do now adays Thoughts of this sort Sir have exercised me since I read your Divine Oeconomie and Mrs. Bourignons Writings and had given me occasion to speak with you if my intended Journey into Holland had succeeded but that being hitherto hindered I would give you these lines to the end you may give me counsel to the reading of these Writings with the greatest fruit and to overcome the corruption of my nature I willingly grant there are so many wholsome Counsels in them that it may seem superfluous to desire more If you think so I am content and recommending my self to your Prayers that God would perfect the work he has begun in me I shall remain Reverend SIR Yours in Christ A. de H His succeeding Letters so much breathed out conviction of Sin Righteousness and Judgment as might stumble worldling hearts But why it were a work beyond a Volum to alledge all that might be adduced of the mighty power and efficacy of her Writings in allarming the Consciences enlightening the Minds and inflaming the Desires to the overturning of the Works of Darkness and contempt of all worldly things to seek only eternal ones and all such as it were to attribute robbery to another power than that of the adorable Majesty of our God and that in all ranks and sorts of persons of different Countries Professions Capacities and Tempers and of all Religions and Sects and generally all that seek God in Truth and sincerity in whatever circumstances have to the measure of that Truth and Sincerity joyned hands embraced approved and acquiesced in the substantial essence of the words and way of Eternal Life here every where and only recommended many of which have been and are impartially speaking the most sound and profound Spirits of the age at least in the European World and as far as the Latin Tongue serves to propagate the communication of Thoughts and that as well in the general quality of a solid judgment and penetrating spirit as in the specification by determining the same to particulars Subjects and Studies whether Theologie or Law or Phisick or Philosophy in all of which some sufficiently attested to the literate World capable of its greatest attempts yet in them God hath reserved that Candour that they would not be disobedient to the heavenly Call but counted all loss and dung for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ though alas the number of such is lamentably small in all sorts In fine Let whosoever is weary and heaven loaden come resolutely absolutely and constantly hither and he shall assuredly by divine assistance find rest to his Soul and the peace which the world cannot give nor take away even amidst all outward Adversities yea and inward tentations beyond the reach of all the Rhetorique in the world yea and all the force and cunning of Earth and Hell to unstable the Foundation either means or end if he continue faithful under Christs Yoak To pass further to a Brief touch of a few of the many Memorable things in her Life from her own Manuscripts and from the faithful and judicious record of her Life continued ANtonia Bourignon was born in the City of Lisle in Flanders on the
light more and more divine and saving mysteries which ript up all his hellish Heresies and Mysteries of Iniquity to the gnawing of his malicious spirit and all the like instruments of his fury while the Bread of Life was aboundantly dispensed to hungry souls whom it shall nourish unto Eternal Life when all the Wicked shall be cut off and the Meek shall inherit the Earth For the more particular Account of her divine Pilgrimage see the History of her Life and take here a short Bill of that heavenly chear now dispensed in her Writings that took up the spare hours of her many diversions at Amsterdam The funerall of false Theologie in the first part of which she shews the Confusion the Ignorance Corruption Insensibility and foundamental Errors of Christians and even of Conductors and modern Divines In the second their Presumption Envy Pride Obstinacy and Head strongness In the third that all their Theorie and Practices are no more but Pharisaical without divine Faith In the fourth that the Devil has great power over men over the wicked and even over the best whom by these other he turns away from following God and engages them to co-operate to the Evil of others and makes them draw back after they have abandoned the World That is a work of singular efficacy and profit Scarce did ever man read it without being touched in his soul even the most wicked who became pale and as struck dead with it Upon occasion of some converse she had with some Cartesian Philosophers she composed The Holy Perspective wherein she shews that Men and particularly Christians have lost the Light of God which is true and divine Faith to be led by corrupt Reason and by a false or most faint Light they draw from nature so perverse brutish carnal and gross as it is become by sin that this is it that has destroyed all Christian-religion and brought it to the Blindness and Darkness wherein it is immersed and that God may restore it its first state there is no other way but to abandon that false Guide of Reason and to resign our selves to God that he may himself revive in us that divine Light of Faith which we have extinguished The New Heaven and New Earth in which is shewn in what Glory the World and Man were created how they have miserably faild from it how they entertain and even encrease their Misery and by what means they ought to return into the disposition God requires to restore them to their first Glory and renew all the world God showed her in Spirit the Glory and Beauty of the first World not supportable by corporal Eyes All was bright transparent shining with Light and unspeakable Glory God's last Mercy in which by a reason enlightened by Faith not perverted by human Studies and Prejudices she leads every man of good judgment to a conviction of the spiritual things which Faith discovers and unto which every man's Reason when conducted by a person that is illuminated by Faith renders so convincing Testimonies that they who will yield themselves to its Touch are moved and pressed to ask of God a saving and divine Knowledge of them by the Light of Faith With all these are intermixed many other divine Lights and profound Mysteries which God had reserved to this end of the last hour able to enlighten to quicken to inflame to strengthen to encourage and to ravish any that have not renounced all interest in heavenly things If any find difficulties in her Writings consider that she having no further human Learning than that having learnt it she did once read the New Testament and finding it the same with what God spake in her Soul she closed the Book to apply seriously to the doing of it seeking no more reading meditation conferring or other study than that of purifying her soul from earthly Affections and sins in following Jesus Christs Doctrine and Example She could not speak after the Rules and with the Cautions of human Literature far less by the pedantry of the Schools it were then most cruel injustice to judge her by them Again we must not suppose when she treats of a matter what she does not mention in that place that she denies it nor require her to treat so fully more than her scope there requires as the Scholastiques who handling a matter at their tour adduce all they can relating to it In the Third place to understand her Writings as all others divinely inspired the Key is a good Will Humility and Prayer to a Malign a Corrupt Proud Self-wise and Self-powerful Reader no entry in them no favour from them but that of Death And the center end and aim of these Writings being the Love of God by renouncing our selves the Creatures and sin the Devil the World and the Flesh the farther we are from this the greater discord and contradiction between these Writings and our corrupt hearts and blind spirits and if ever we will be reconciled it must be by valuing loving esteeming and submitting to them as they are conducive to these ends and the difficulties will all quickly evanish this way the Disciples of Christ of Prophets and Apostles entered into their Masters Doctrine To conclude with the zealous and sincere Author of her Life LOrd thou hast yet manifested the words of eternal Life in these last days and our ears have heard and our hands have handled the word of life which thou hast put into her these words of Life which are originally in thee we have seen and heard them and we bear testimony that thou hast manifested them to us and our testimonie is most true before thee and before whosoever will open the eyes of his Conscience to consider it in thy divine Presence Yes Lord my God Creator and Inspector of my Heart who hast given me to love thy divine Truth more than the Sciences and the Advantages of Egypt thou knowest that I hate lying and falshood and that I would not for any consideration recommend untruth I cannot deny that I have obtained of thy Grace to discern the Truth from Falsehood and that I have done it in this Work thou knowest O Lord. Thou knowest my God that if after all possible application of spirit I could find in the intentions in the end the Writings and the Practice of Antonia Bourignon thy Creature any thing contrary to thy Glory that rendered thee less worthy of the infinite and eternal Adoration Love and Praises due unto thee if any thing favouring Corruption and Sin and that might contradict thy holy Image and the Doctrine and Life of thy Christ if any thing dangerous for mens Salvation thou knowest I would abhor that that I would detest it that I would curse it Is it not true O Searcher and Judge of my Thoughts that this disposition is most really in the bottom of my Soul Is it not in the deepest and final sincerity of my heart that I protest openly that the words of eternal
13 th of January 1616. of honourable Parents As her Spirit and Tongue began to be loosed from the Sleep and silence of Infancy the first Expression she was capable to give of what impression her Soul received was a grain of admirable and divine Wisdom which fructified unto everlasting Life At the age of four years her Parents having instructed her piously in the Gospel and Life of Jesus Christ she asked still Where are the Christians Let us go to the place where Christians live Where are they whom Jesus Christ taught Take me to them that live as Jesus Christ O most profound and divine They in their worldly Wisdom would undeceive her saying that there in Flanders they were Christians and followed Christ She said That could not be for Christ commended Poverty they were altogether for Riches Christ despised honours and Pleasures choosing meanness and trouble but they were earnest for what he rejected and shunned his choice that they lived no ways like Christ O Great God! Out of the mouth of Babes and sucklings thou hast perfected Praise Thy Words and thy Entertainments enlighten and make wise even Little Children when great Doctors growing old in their Studies with all their Followers are in Darkness blind and naked without knowing it Lo a little Child her eyes and mouth scare opened discerning a worldly Life from a Christian and far beyond the old Philosophy Studied procedure seeking a man among men most natively tattling out where are the Christians amidst Christians men fight and dispute and write and preach and what not who shall have the best Religion and Christianity most pure and flourishing Lo God will bring them to agreement and how he sets a Girle of four years old amidst them and puts in her little Mouth these stammering words where are the Christians Let us go to the Country where Christians live words duely considered of a profound divine Wisdom of more saving light and profit than millions of lifeless Sermons and volums of rational Speculations and this is the Grain of Seed which fructified unto all the fruit of her life which was only a continued urging advancing pressing and increasing that first Thought and Desire It is true in the Old and New Testament that God will perfect his Praise out of the mouth of Babes but in the World we must expect the Truth and Praise of God from a mouth that can speak Latin or even Greek and Hebrew and for the more assurance there must be a great many of these wise Heads assembled to make a Synod or Council not to sleight our Theological Doctoralities and Masterships by giving heed to this babe So they laughed her iterated and earnest Demands to silence yet neither that nor the ruder treatment she met with as it encreased were so far from extinguishing that divine spark God had kindled in her that they served still to encrease its flame for this first repulse made her turn more in to God in her own heart detecting the Vanity of worldly things she sought of him the Grace to live as Christians did and even then every thing was to her occasion of turning to him with different prayers suitable to him who was her only Councellour and Companion until her sister much addicted to the Vanities of the World would needs have her follow she said to every body she had no spirit to converse and accommodate her self to others and by that artifice the Devil prevailed so far as to make her follow the company and mode of the Youth of the World only to please them to shew that she had spirit enough to appear brisk in which she succeeded so well or rather so ill that quickly she obscured her sister gaining the favour and goodliking of all and pleasing her Parents extreamly being of a meek humble affable and jovial Humour and a good Spirit that her Father employed her in his affairs which she managed with a great deal of dexterity and industrie But all this cost her the loss of that communion she had formerly with God as familiar as one Child with another Yet God had pity on that poor Creature wandring from him he gave her often inward invitations even amidst her divertisments and will you then leave me for another shall you find a Lover more perfect and faithful than I am This pierced her heart so as to make her flow into Tears but upon occasions she would charm her serious thoughts and the habit of Vanity and Tentations got the ascendant on her at length God sent more assistance to his call by filling her spirit with the terrible thoughts of Death Judgment and Eternity Sometimes she would regret rent her cloaths and detesting her vanity throw away all her Ornaments of Folly again she would yield to the tentation of company and Divertisments In these conflicts God fortified her she became pierced with so great fear of the Judgment of God that she durst not shut her eyes because of her sins which she thought were so great that no body ever had committed the like not that she had done any evil or unhonest thing after the world whose honesty is consistent with turning away from God and going to all the Devils provided regularly and in form with approbation and priviledge but because she had left her sweet Entertainments with God for worldly Divertisments after she had received so many Graces from him she saw that so great a sin that Hell and all the pains of Hell were not sufficient to punish her ingratitude God seeing her correspond to the tracts of his divine Mercy redoubled them on her that she was swallowed up of contrition passing the whole nights on her knees crying from the bottom of her Soul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Ah! Lord what shall I do that I may be acceptable to thee My God my God! where art thou what shall I do that I may find thee again After she had tasted long and deep of that bitter desolation wherein the soul finds it self as abandoned and rejected of God which they that have tasted call the Pains and Sorrows of Hell as Job and David and other Saints God began to heal The first return she had of God into her Soul was in answer to that continual Prayer Lord what wilt thou have me to do the whole of the Gospel these words Forsake all earthly things separate your self from the affection of the Creatures renounce and deny your self Her Vicissitudes of Desolation and Consolation succeeded until God purified her from all task or stain of her vain conversation and usually these inward piercing afflictions were preparatives to some particular Graces or favours of God And it is incredible what floods of Tears and of Contrition it cost her before she recovered her former Familiarity with God and her no less incredible strict severe Austerity in a mortifying Life which she continued many years by a principle of justice and its first mover was the love
life were with incomparable Purity Evidence Clearness and Solidity in that Soul which thou didst sanctifie and are yet in her holy Writings In truth the way that is there recommended as necessary to Salvation is the only and the true way there is no danger to abandon our selves wholly and entirely in it for it is the very Truth it is the Truth it self It is the pure Truth There is none Lord there can be none other in Heaven nor in Earth There is none other way unto eternal life than that which thou hast put into the Mouth in the Writings and in the Life of thy most holy hand-maid Antonia Bourignon I praise and bless and thank thee O my God that thou gave me to know the same and hast opened and enclined the ear of my heart thereto Give me Grace to love to observe and to maintain that heavenly Truth unto Death Happy he that should lose a thousand lives for so worthy a subject Happy he who shall never for any consideration leave the practice of it Let me by thy divine Grace be of that number that after this short life of Tryal that most certain and most infallible mean make me enjoy my soveraign End which is to have the happiness ever to adore and praise thy great Majesty O Jesus eternal God Creator Saviour and redeemer of the World while with the Father and holy Spirit thou shalt reign Gloriously in all eternity Amen Revelation Ch. 3. He that hath Ears to hear Let him hear THE PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER THis Treatise consists of two parts whereof the one may be called Extructive which builds or establishes and the other Destructive which destroys or everts For the first ten Letters are adapted to the planting of Virtue and all the rest to evert and root out what may hinder its increase To recommend Virtue is taken the precept of him who is the Master and Example of it by which is made an introduction shewing what Virtues we must in the first place embrace and by what meanstend to them which is by Obedience and renouncing our own will unto the Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart of Iesus Christ see Let. 1 2 3. the Nature of which Humility is explained and the means conducing to the attainment of it viz the knowledge of our Corruption and the Miseries which our Bodys and Souls ly under Let. 4 5 6. Which ought to produce in us the effect of renouncing our natural senses and being content with what is of meer necessity we should flee all Pleasure and proper Satisfaction Let. 7 8. which emptying of our selves will be accompanied with the Love of God which incontinently possesses the Heart from which vitious affections are expelled because of the near relation and sympathy between them as between the Creature and its natural Element In which Love consists the Essence and Complement of all Virtue and all Good Let. 8 9 10. Concerning the overturning and resisting the Impediments and Tentations of Satan is treated Let. 11. whether they be offered to our Imagination or Sensibility even spiritual Let. 12 13. or to the Understanding making us rest in the naked knowledge of the Truth Let. 14. Or exciting us to external acting or internal with Vain Glory or by Dejecting us through immoderate mortifications or in unseasonable good works spiritual or corporal toward our Neighbour Let. 15 16. Or in regard of the Devil accusing him too much or too little of our sins Let. 17 18. Whether these Tentations affect the will whose godly fervour Satan would extinguish by Grief Spiritual Negligence and Self-love as shew Let. 19 20 and to the end There is briefly represente the whole subject handled in this divine Treatise which is more specially noted at the beginning of each Letter that you may kind Reader view as in a Table and beter retain in your memory the divine Instructions therein delivered Moreover you may with us well admire the infamous audacity of some as the Church-men in Holsatia whereby some years ago they caused that these so wholsome instructions while under the Press in the German and Low Dutch Tongues were taken away by force and violence and rent While I consider these obscure enemies of the truth that Scripture offers it self to me that Every one that Doth and will do evil hateth the Light and cometh not to the Light lest his deeds be reproved and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men Love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil. It is far otherwise with him who doth and will do the Truth for he cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest because they are wrought in God Joh. Ch. 3. I pray the God of Truth that he graciously please to instruct and lead you in the way of Truth that you never refuse to come to the Light Farewell TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Cannot abstain from imparting unto you these twenty four letters which I have written to one of my particular Friends where I shew him what Solid Virtue is because it is a matter so necessary for the present time when we see false virtue reign or such as is only apparent to the eyes of men and while so many persons deceive themselves perswading themselves that they have true Virtue whereas they have nothing but fine Speculations They think themselves Humble when they can talk well of Humility and think they have the Love of God when they desire to have it notwithstanding they have in effect only the Love of themselves and it is but Deceit and Falshood when they say they have the Love of God They do not so much as know the corruption of their Nature seeing they think they may follow that corruption without sinning provided they do no evil reproveable before men and have a will to do well and love God Which notwithstanding is not sufficient to be saved for good desires without effect are nothing before God They are indeed Foundation stones serving to the building of true Virtue For without good Desires we cannot do good Works We must first have the desire and after put it in execution which is wanting to many persons of a good will who content themselves to be of a good will and hope with that all shall go well without considering that the holy Scripture says to all in general Depart from evil and do Good Now the Evil is in our corrupt nature which no person ought to ignore yet few depart from that corruption and most love and follow it thinking they do well which is a great abuse and presumption of spirit for we cannot do good except we depart from evil and he that does not resist that corrupt Nature and renounce it cannot acquire true Virtue which few persons comprehend and thence is it that they have only apparent Virtues and no real ones Therefore is it that I have resolved to cause print these twenty four
Letters which treat of Virtue that they who aspire unto it may see the state wherein they are and also if they have acquired any degrees of it or if their Virtues be only imaginary I do not present this matter of true Virtue to all in general since many should find it too difficult to be observed for such as yet love themselves or the things of the earth cannot have all their mind bent to acquire this Virtue nor tend to the spiritual diligence which it requires But I speak to the free and generous souls who have abandoned the world to follow Jesus Christ and such will easily understand me for none is better disposed to understand me than he that will practise true Virtue And others who have not that desire may content themselves to know the Commands of God in general seeing they aspire not to a greater perfection So I say to them as St. John to the soldiers Use no Violence nor fraud to any person and be content with your Wages He said so to them because he found them not disposed for greater perfection And every one is free to tend to what degree of perfection he will So St. John chooses of two Evils the least in councelling the Soldiers to be content with their Pay and do no Violence but if these Soldiers had tended unto Christian-perfection doubtless St. John had counselled them to cease from being Soldiers and to forsake all that they possessed as Jesus Christ did to the young man in the Gospel after he said he had kept the Commands of God I say the very same to them to whom I present this matter of true Virtue in these twenty four Letters which is but the beginning of my designs to shew wherein it consists in every thing To these namely who will follow it and to none other seeing that were to cast Pearls before Swine or the Childrens Bread unto Dogs Those are souls yet earthly and attached to the honours pleasures and goods of this life and consequently are not in a disposition to put true Virtue in practice It seems enough to them not to transgress grossly and externally the Commands of God because they know no other Evils but what are expressed in these Commands But the souls who have abandoned the world to follow Jesus Christ and to revive in his spirit must labour with all their force to acquire this true Virtue in renouncing the corruption of their nature And they may well be assured that they can never arrive at a truely Christian Life unless they have overcome the inclinations of that corrupt nature Therefore must we labour with diligence in the mortification of our senses that we may carry the Victory over that Corruption which sin hath brought unto human nature without that our Virtue is false or only apparent and in no wise Virtue before God For if you shew me a person sober and chast and upright in his business who imparts his Goods to the Poor who fasts at appointed times with many other good Deeds and yet follows the motions of corrupt nature I esteem nothing all these Virtues if there is not a renounciation of his corrupt nature and he hath not entirely renounced his own will for all these things together come not near the Victory which is in mastering the motions of corrupt nature And St. Paul names yet greater Virtues than these I have named when he says If I had the Gift of Prophecy and Faith that could remove Mountains and gave all my Goods to nourish the Poor I am nothing if I want Charity Now Charity is nothing else but the love of God which we cannot obtain but in renouncing self-love and hating the Corruption of our nature for we can never do good except we first depart from evil and all sorts of evil are contained in the corruption of our nature since it is fallen into sin So that we can never arrive at true Virtue but by renouncing that corruption nor at the Charity of which the Apostle speaks without having overcome it So I say with him unto all that would attain to true Virtue that all other good actions shall be nothing until we have surmounted and overcome the corruption which sin hath brought unto humane nature since all sorts of evil spring thence and therein can no good be found Though the blindness of men makes them presume that they can do all well yet they do altogether evil so long as they act according to the motions of corrupt nature And it is only arrogance and presumption of spirit that they think themselves wise and willing to do all good For if man were wise he would always distrust himself nor dare undertake any thing fearing to do evil since that is in him and there cannot proceed out of a vessel other than what is in it When Man was newly created by God in the state of innocence he was full of all good and all sorts of good proceeded from him but since he is fallen into sin he is filled with all evil and there can nothing proceed out of him but all evil That is a general rule and by it ought every one to regulate his life if he would be saved for there is no exception seeing all men have been corrupted by Adam's sin and consequently are filled with evils none excepted It is true mens natures differ in manners and conditions one is Meek another Harsh one is Proud another Humble but that is from their natural temperament because man being composed of four Elements Water Fire Earth and Air his Manners naturally are disposed with proportion to the element which predomines in him For every one hath in his nature divers dispositions He that in the forming of his body hath contracted more of Fire than of the other Elements will be more cholerique and luxurious because the Fire hath more power in him than the Air Water or Earth Another who in his formation hath contracted more of Water will be more dull in his Manners slow in comprehending any thing and less couragious He that in his formation hath received more of Earth than of other Elements shall be more heavy lazy and rude in his Manners Finally he that in his Formation hath contracted more of Air than other Elements will be in his manners more light and inconstant and more active in spirit and prompter to good or evil and by these natural temperaments all men are of divers complexions and different manners according as they have contracted of their Parents the intemperature of the Elements of which their body is formed But in respect of Grace they are all of a like nature and are by sin all fallen into the same corruption one as well as the other and so they all need to combate that corruption since they are all equally corrupted by sin which they must master if they would be saved without going to perswade that one is better than another because he hath in his nature a
2d. place you must endeavour to remove all impediments which retard that peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit these impediments are in our corrupt nature for from sin men are falâ— into a continual trouble war and disquiet and our passions being disordered breed all these and they cannot be governed ordered and kept in peace except we have resisted and overcome them and also altogether renounced our natural inclinations and then is it that we find peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit and not before Behold wherefore it is that J. Ch. says we must Deny our selves if we would be his Disciples for that renouncing of our passions alone is the true means to attain to that peace quiet and tranquillity of Spirit For since sin came our passions bereave us of these which before sin were well regulated and temperate bringing joy peace and tranquility to our souls whereas now we feel the quite contrary For if we suffer our passions to rule they will lead us to intemperance sadness and disquiet of Spirit So that it is impossible for one that lives according to his natural senses to learn the Meekness and Gentleness which J. Ch. teaches us And it is for that he adds the gospel doctrine That we must Deny our selves For th' one cannot be without the other if we will be meek and lowly as J. Ch teaches we must of necessity deny our selves seeing our nature hath nothing but harshness and fretting which causes trouble of Spirit and disquiet in the will and contention with our neighbour for he that has not meekness in himself cannot have peace with his neighbour except it be a Dissembled or civil peace which yields not inward quiet nor tranquillity of Spirit As I believe My Child you feel in yourself for though you have a quiet of conscience because you have abandoned the world and the occasions of sin yet you have not that inward peace which would render your Spirit tranquile and peaceable For you act yet with Disturbance which proceeds from corrupted and distempered passions So if you knew to vanquish that and calm these unprofitable agitations it were your great advantage and you would easily obtain the meekness which Jesus Christ teaches as also lowliness and gentleness seeing these two are knit together meekness of heart engenders gentleness toward our neighbour for he that is tranquile and peaceable in himself will not trouble his neighbour nor give any occasion of fretting seeing the meekness of the good quenches the wrath of the wicked And though one that has learnt the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ were surrounded with troubles of all sorts he will yet keep a tranquile Spirit Because he does no more follow the motions of his corrupt nature and so retains peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit where it is obtained by the meekness and gentleness of J. Chr. My Child if you would also learn that Lesson endeavour to Deny your self and not follow your own will in any thing For Since it was corrupted by sin it always enclines to evil suspect whatever proceeds from your own will and follow it in nothing it is it which bereaves you of the meekness and gentleness which Jesus Christ teaches and we have no greater enemy in the world than our proper will If you could well comprehend that truth doubtless you would not follow it in any thing and you would Distrust even your Good Wills and intentions and suspect them but because you know not yet well that your proper will is so evil you do not distrust it Notwithstanding is betrays you often and it leads you to do evil often when you would do good your bottom and inward intention is good but your proper will opposes your good desires and makes you often do the contrary of what you have well resolved If I were in your place I would not follow my own will in any thing and hold all my own best wills for evil seeing there can never come good out of what is altogether corrupt as our will is become through sin so that no good can proceed from it Whatever is good must proceed from God And whatever is evil from the Devil and the corrupted will of man It is as a fire which kindles in our nature luxury anger and all sorts of intemperance it is insatiable never satisfied ever desiring what it hath not restless in its desires turbulent in its searches ever panting and never refreshed nor content in the end our proper will creates us more evil than the Devil himself who could in no wise hurt us if our proper will did not consent thereto So that when we have overcome our own will we have overcome the devil also For he can never make us sin but in moving our will to submit to him It is for that that I said man can never have a greater enemy than his proper will and consequently every one in particular and all men in general ought to make war with their proper wills yet how few esteem it their enemy and a great many idolize it esteeming themselves happy that they can follow it in every thing without considering that it brings death to the soul and hinders the will of God to be fulfilled in us For he that follows his own will is not subject to the will of God seeing these two are always contrary So that he who will accomplish the will of God must of necessity renounce his own will and who will learn of J. Christ meekness and lowliness must refuse every thing to his proper will and so be shall possess in his soul peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit which I pray God grant you by renouncing your proper will which is the only means to make you happy in this world and to all eternity as wishes she that desires your Salvation Holstein near Gottorp Castle 5 Feb. 1672. ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE III. LETTER Men can sufficiently know the will of God if they would perform it To the same shewing him while he perswaded himself that the will of God is not sufficiently manifest in every thing that we might accomplish it denying our own that the will of God may be known and is sufficiently manifested in the commands of God which Jesus Christ proposeth so Clearly Saying Learn of me for I am meek and Lowly and humble of heart My Child I Believe you understand sufficiently by my former what that meekness and lowliness is which we must learn of J. Ch. how it is pleasant to obey how mans proper will is corrupted by sin and how we must now fight with and overcome it if we will find peace in our souls quiet of conscience and tranquility in our Spirit But you cannot comprehend how you may so know the will of God in every thing to follow it in quitting your proper will Believe me that scruple proceeds from your corrupt nature which would willingly be dispensed or excused from being obliged to renounce your proper will
them and to conserve them Some of the Pagans having discover'd that threw all their Gold and Money into the sea to be freed from the care and disquiet of keeping it and live with liberty of Spirit Which should confound the Christian who employs all the force of his body and industry of his mind to acquire Riches so burthensom to have and troublesome to keep when the Pagans by the Light of nature have had them in contempt and thrown them from them which they did because they had a true knowledge of themselves and of natural things And thence also did they despise the Honours and Pleasures of this life and seeing them so miserable and of so short continuance one counted it not worth the pains to build a House to lodge in being content with a barrel to defend him from Sun and Rain Another seeing that he could conveniently enough carry Water into his Mouth in the hollow of his Hand would no more use a Cup. So firmly have these Pagans despised this present life that they would not take any pleasure therein nor use created things but for urgent necessity and the least that might be rejecting what 's more And so they did because they knew that all the pleasures and Honours of this World are vain false and deceitful that they might obtain true ones which are eternal they longed therefore to be delivered from this miserable life which they esteemed a Prison a Valley of Tears as in truth it is But men now adays discover not that they esteem themselves happy in their Miseries and rich in their Poverty they delight in their Chains and Bonds by blindness of spirit and for want of knowing themselves and the things they so prise and so they esteem him happy who can take his pleasure in eating and drinking recreations and other carnal satisfactions Yet such are abundantly more miserable than those that live soberly and chastly and in poverty He that can content himself with little hath no need of much and is more joyful in his retiredness of spirit than if he were in the midst of pleasant and divertising company Beside he needs not use much labour or trafique to gain money Also he that lives soberly is better content with his course fare than they that follow their appetites which are insatiable by all their Dainties And he that lives chastly keeps his liberty and the repose of his Conscience And he that does not delight in company and divertisments does not fear displeasing men nor studies anxiously to be acceptable to them as others who take delight in them They must be cloathed and behave themselves after the fashion of the World and for that they must gain money that they may be well treated as others which requires a continual care to provide all that nothing be wanting that they may appear like others and that is a slavery from which we cannot be delivered but by quitting the World For he that will please the World hath lost his liliberty and cannot serve himself He is as a hired Servant subjected to all sorts of Vanities to the great ones and wise ones of the world whom he fears and respects more than God himself and withal that they reckon themselves happy to be so engaged and bound to the World and its vanities to which they willingly yield themselves Slaves For if they would retain their liberty they would disengage themselves from these human regards and withdraw from worldly creatures without yielding their spirit to be bewitched in thinking its Slavery to be a Liberty and its Fetters to be Chains of Gold for Ornament which is meer falshood and vanity for to serve God only is to reign and to serve the World is to be a Slave Which these wise Pagans knew well and therefore contemned the World and its honours and pleasures Yea some of them cared not to be visited by Kings and Emperors so that one of them desired and bid a King that came to visit him Stand by and be gone complaining That he kept from him what he could not give namely by interrupting from him the Sun-shine which he esteemed more valuable than all the Kingdoms of the World For which they had good reason for the greatest Charges afford also the greatest Troubles and he that is over others is servant of all for he must take care of them and rule and govern them as he will answer to God which may disquiet and vex him all the days of his life and puts in hazard his eternal Salvation For he must not only reckon for himself but also for all that have been under him and bear for and with them the punishment of all that they have done amiss by order sufferance or for want of instruction and correction according to the justice of God Therefore is it that a Superior is more miserable than another in time and in eternity which we may observe even in the Master of a Family who must take care and travail to entertain his Wife Children and servants while they are often without care knowing that their Master must feed and cloath them in due time that they want nothing in which they are much happier than their Masters for they have only one service to perform and their master is burthened with several Yet such is the blindness of men that every one desires Charges Estates Superiorities and Masterships which they could not desire if it were not by an air of pride which the Devil hath inspired into their minds otherways it were impossible that men should seek after Charges but do their utmost to evite them As several Saints have done formerly some lest they should be obliged to undertake the charge of Bishops that was offered to them retired privately to evite it and even one of the Popes considering the heavy burthen of his Charge exchanged his Popedom for a Desart So afflicting are Charges and Superiorities for them that have attained to know the truth of things and their own misery and frailty and so they have contemned them and thought it enough to see to themselves and desired not a Posterity to succeed to their Miseries which they knew too well to desire them for their Posterity They loved rather to live chastly than to procreate Children so miserable as themselves In which they were very wise being we see that in effect men wax worse every day and the Children are worse than their Fathers and Childrens Children yet worse because of the great corruption that is now among men which augments even visibly So that he that knows the Truth will be loath to multiply this perverse Generation but will expect that men resume a true Christian Life and so may multiply in the spirit of Jesus Christ a holy Generation Lo what they that are wise desire but the ignorant think it a happiness to produce Children Heirs of their Miseries because themselves do not know them and so glory in their shame without perceiving it
man from the will of God who had created him to delight himself with him and willed for that that he should love him with all his heart There cannot be delight but with what is beloved and therefore will God be loved of man with all his heart and that he place his affections in nothing else but in him only The Devil no sooner perceived that but he enticed him by the five natural senses which are as the five windows of our heart to withdraw his heart and affections from God and to place them on visible and sensible things The Devil then first moved Adam's heart to regard the beautiful Creatures which God had created for him he moved also his sense of hearing to give attention to the false perswasions of that old Serpent who made him believe that he should know Good and Evil if he did eat the fruit of the Tree which God had forbid him to eat of He moved him to put his Hand to touch that Apple his Smelling to smell it and his Taste to eat it and by that means the Devil carryed Adam's Heart and affection to the Creatures and turned him away from the Love he owed to God If the Devil could have drawn man's Heart directly to love him he had done it but because he is an invisible spirit he could not move the five natural Senses of man to love him And therefore he served himself of visible and sensible creatures to get himself indirectly loved by man that by moving man to self-love and to use all the other Creatures to satisfie his self-love and consequently withdraw him from the love of God which he hath done with too much success seeing he hath caused Adam and all that were to proceed from him to disobey against God and so made him abandon that dependance that he would no more depend but upon his own will and love nothing but himself Behold the miserable fall into which the Devil caused all men to fall into in Adam And they all in general are born in that misery and disobedience since the fall of Adam and come into the world with that evil inclination to love themselves and follow the corruption of their senses which breeds all sorts of sins because they are now moved by an evil spirit which is the Devil whence no good can proceed for the privation of all good is the possession of all evil So that he that hath rejected the love of God and would not renounce himself hath deprived himself of all sort of good seeing there is no other good but God and is fallen into all sorts of evil that is to say into the privation of all sorts of Good God never created any evil but man produced it when he deprived himself of the Love of God in which alone consists all sorts of Good And that is the thing they call sin which signifies to turn away and desert God who is all good and in the privation of him is all evil So that he that hath withdrawn his affections from God to place them in the love of himself or of any other creature hath abandoned all Good and embraced all sorts of Evil. For there can be no other evil but the privation of all good into which man engages himself when he carrys his love and affections to any thing else than God And what Adam did once by the instigation of the Devil men do it for their own particular as often as they set their affections on any thing beside God only Observe a little my Child how often you have fallen into the same sin with Adam and loved any other thing than God alone and also if you are not actually addicted to your self-love and retired from the love of your God but I am not surprised at it because you never knew that sin consisted in that and no person hath taught you it for the men of this time are ignorant of that truth as well as you and they that are esteemed the most virtuous are full of self-love though they think themselves free from sin so far does the heart of man deceive it self But for your part be wiser for though all men should go to perdition you must endeavour to save your own Soul The great number of damned would not diminish your torments if you should be damned with them but rather augment them by the augmentation of crys blasphemies and noysomeness of Fire and Brimstone which shall augment in Hell with proportion to the number of damned And therefore I counsel you to leave that common tract of the blindness of men which esteem nothing sin but the material things which they have prescribed one to another to be evil Things which God regards little seeing he is a pure Spirit whom not only these gross material things offend as they decifer sins as Drunkenness Robbery Whoredom and other material sins blameable before men but God is offended to see the heart of man cleave to and love things so vile since he created him to love his God only who will delight himself with him And yet man deserts God to delight himself in the satisfaction he takes in eating drinking and cloathing and recreation with any other creature Which hugely displeases God and man becomes his enemy by disobedience while he acts against the designs God had in creating him after his own image and likeness to take his delights with him notwithstanding man against the intention of God delights in himself and the Creatures that are less than himself For whatsoever is created under Heaven is much below man who is as the head and principal of all the works of God and was established over all the other inferiour works of God being made as a little God in his divine nature which is enclosed in his Humanity But the Devil envious of his happiness from the instant of his creation strove to make him lose that part of the divinity which God had bestowed on him he rendered him sensual and earthly to make him leave the love of divine and heavenly things which alone he ought to have loved and by that means he had enjoyed all the other creatures at pleasure as master and Lord of all that was subjected to him But the proud Devil could not suffer man in dominion over the other Creatures he being rejected and banisht from the friendship of God deprived of all good and replenisht of all evil so he by Rage and Envy attempted to destroy man with himself and make him companion of his miseries and seeing man composed of a body and a spirit he insinuated into his spirit endeavouring to unite himself with him under pretext of procuring good to him and so made him imagin that he should know all things as God if he would eat the fruit God had forbid him to eat of and these thoughts being entred into Adam's spirit gained his affection and made him forget the Love and Obedience which he owed to God beginning to love
but it would soon revive if they granted to their nature eases and pleasures But the soul that is regenerated in Jesus Christ knows well that Nature must be kept under subjection and restraint during this short life which is a time of penitence where we must suffer if we will enjoy after Which shews that those who say they may enjoy all beautiful and good things here praising God are very ignorant and deceived by the Devil For they think themselves to be regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is false seeing his Spirit doth not teach that we should taste the Pleasures of this life and use all that 's good and pleasant But he teaches penitence and renouncing our selves to be poor in Spirit to forsake all that we have to watch and be sober All that is not to enjoy whatever is good and pleasant For Jesus Christ teaches to take the least and to choose the lowest place If then these persons had but attained however little of the Spirit of Jesus Christ they would be far from saying that they have overcome the corruption of their nature and are renewed in the Spirit of Jesus Christ while they do things quite contrary to what he did and taught For if it were permitted to the Regenerate to take their pleasure and to enjoy whatever is good and pleasant in nature doubtless Jesus Christ would have done so seeing there was never any person regenerated and had overcome the corruption of Nature so perfectly as he And yet he speaks of nothing but suffering becoming poor bearing the Cross and denying our selves These imprudents must think themselves more perfect than he seeing they say they may well taste all what is good and pleasant in nature provided they thank God Notwithstanding our Lord deprived himself of all these things to give us example Do you not see my Son that it is a cunning device of Satan to deceive them that aspire unto Virtue For he fills their Spirit with presumption assoon as he hath got them to digest some curious speculations of the spiritual life They imagin that they are already regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ although they live altogether according to the corrupt nature of the old Adam Such persons are very far from true Virtue And it is to be feared that they shall never arrive at it seeing they think themselves in it already but they are far from it and they had better never have begun to be virtuous than to take up false Virtues These sins are worse than others because of their Hypocrisie They think themselves virtuous and they are yet full of Vices and Sins I despair more of these apparent devout persons than of the persons of the World who have any Fear of God for they have the beginning of Virtue which th'others have not who cannot fear God believing themselves regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ They fancy themselves to be in Assurance and they are in the midst of Perils and Dangers of losing their souls by Presumption and the Delusion of the Devil who attempts always to turn aside them that desire to follow true virtue He first by some inward Consolation and sweetness endeavours to fix them on it by self-love for corrupt nature loves to be comforted But the new Beginner no sooner takes his pleasure in these sensible Sweetness and Consolations but he falls The reason is that he will not mind his duty in resisting the corruption of his nature when he is fastned to these sensibilities But will think he hath already overcome it when he feels delight and consolation in Spiritual things whereas before he felt none but in natural things And that makes him believe that he is already at the height of Perfection though he be not yet at the first degree which is the Tears of Penitence and regret for offending God and the desire to walk henceforth in his Fear which is the beginning of all Virtue But the Devil diverts that Fear and perswades them that they are already virtuous because they desire to become so And so does the Devil amuse those that begin and he would willingly keep them all their life with Sweetness inward Consolations which the Devil can give and also man 's own Nature For as soon as they with-draw from the Vanity of the World they find great quiet since it is a Slavery to serve the World There they torture and rack their understanding by care to maintain themselves well in honour and reputation to be well cloathed and adorned and to be followed and esteemed What Diligence must not a Worldly Person use to please men What Fear of incurring Disgraces How must he dissemble and suffer to have mens Favour and keep it How much toil to gain sufficiently to maintain him honourably What Device and Cunning must he use to get Esteem and to avoid Contempt In fine he that serves the World hath nothing but toil and disquiet but he that hath resolved to quit it to serve God begins to be loosed from the weighty yoak of pleasing the World and to find himself in much more quiet and contentment Which is pleasant to nature but if it please and fix it self upon these Pleasures it will not advance in Virtue but live in self-love instead of the love of God And in that the Devil forwards Nature mightily in augmenting these sweetnesses and inward Consolations to fix the person the more to them God bestows also Sweetness and consolations upon them that begin to draw them the more easily from Earthly Affections to the Love of himself by sensible Consolations which the soul finds in his service But whencesoever they come we must never rest thereon nor take pleasure in any thing that is not God For all Sin came into the World by man's loving the Creatures and taking his pleasure in them And when we take pleasure in Inward Consolation we turn from God in loving that sensibility It is permitted to feel and perceive them since God gives them sometimes but we cannot addict our selves to them without sinning no more than to other things beside God For our whole heart ought to be employed in the Love of God only I know well the Devil attempts to turn us from that Love by all sorts of occasions and he no sooner sees one retire from the Love of the World Riches Honours and Pleasures but he attacques them by the affection of Virtue and inward consolations to with-draw their Hearts thereby from that pure Love of God Be then upon your guard my Son lest the Devil ensnare you under pretext of Virtue Which Care she wisheth you who remains Your Well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle May 3. 1672. st vet THE XIV LETTER The Devil Transforms himself into an Angel of Light To the same to whom is discovered a fifth and sixth Artifice of the Devil by which he causeth men to apply themselves to the knowledge of
understand that the Holy Spirit had not yet brought forth his fruits in his soul though he was accounted a Saint For then should he not have needed human Divertisments to be joyful by As for me I know by experience that I have more joy and contentment in my soul in Solitude and far from human divertisments than I have in mens conversation or amongst the most divertising Objects Which gives assurance that my joy proceeds from the Holy Spirit It must needs be that it comes not from human means for it were my Consolation never to come out of my Closet and to hear nothing but in my own heart and inner man But the Joy which proceeds from the evil Spirit terminates and ends always in Sadness and Melancholy with an earning after new Divertisments to divert that Sadness so that it is most easie to Discover if it is the good or evil spirit which dwells in our souls by the Dispositions and operations which we feel in them when we have the desire to do or say any thing we need not so much go to consider if it is in appearance good or indifferent to know if it comes from God as to examin the disposition which that desire brings into our soul to wit if it is in Peace and waits for the effect of its desires with Patience and Long-suffering For that is a sign the Spirit of God hath given us that desire and that it is his will that we effect it but if we perceive that that desire to do or say any thing marr our Peace and disturb our Spirit with impatience and attempt to precipitate us before the time of fulfilling our desires That is a sign that it comes from an evil spirit And if the desire or thing is good in it self it is a sign that the Devil would mix and insinuate himself into that good work to reap his Glory thence However we must not cease to do or speak what is good in it self but we must be on our guards that we suffer not the Devil to insinuate himself in it We must then use continual Prayer to have God's succour and Assistance and Strength to overcome the tentation which the Devil offers us while we are doing good We must never cease from doing Good Works because of the tentation of the Devil For he would gladly always hinder them if he could But we must examin well the inward disposition of our Souls to discover if the Devil does not insinuate himself therein that we may purifie our intentions and beware that the Devil find no advantage therein And if you will know my Son when it is God that inspires any thing to you remark always if it is accompanied with Goodness Benignity Faith Continence and Chastity For God never gives inspirations that are not accompanied with these conditions But the Devil often gives inclinations to do good with Fretting Malice Despite Dispair Inconstance Levity and Impurity I have seen sometimes persons that gave to the Poor by Despite and Fretting upbraiding and reproaching them without any faith of an eternal Reward I have seen others assist at publique Devotions with insolence and lightness And now adays almost all marry by incontinence and impurity All these things though good in themselves are induced and excited by the evil spirit since they tend to an evil end though good in appearance And therefore must we always be upon our guard and watch against so powerful an Enemy who attempts to surprise us in all our actions both good and indifferent that he may render them evil therefore we must study well to discern the good spirit from the evil Which we may do seeing there are assured marks to know them Never say then My son that you know not if it is God or the Devil who moves you to do or omit any thing but rather acknowledge with Humility of heart that you are not vigilant enough and diligent to discover that evil spirit who dazles your understanding that you should not know him For every word you speak or action you do you may discover if it comes of the Devil provided you make a serious reflection upon your self But the misery is that we are distracted and wandering and the Devil makes us forget what we should remember and puts in our mind what we should forget that he may bring confusion in all our behaviour Remark well that Advertisment and you shall find by experience that it is but too well grounded for since the Devil can no more make you fall into manifest sins he will always endeavour to make you contradict the holy spirit which you do not yet know well You have indeed resolved in general to obey him and follow him as you have done in abandoning the World in loosing your affections from earthly goods and desiring to follow Jesus Christ in his Lowness and Humility All that proceeds from the Spirit of God who hath governed you in the most important things and the Devil could not hinder it But now he attacques you in small things and of little import that he may hinder you to do the will of God in every thing and often he gains your will to make it contrary to the will of God in common and ordinary things For if you reflect upon your self you shall find there a certain opposition to whatever I propose to you which comes often even contrary to your will yea you are vexed that you should have so opposed or contradicted me Yet on the first occasion you do it again which cannot proceed of your self since you are displeased at it Now it is a firm and true Rule that whatever Evil we do against our will comes of the Devil and not of our selves I know that Spirit of contradiction which you have against what I desire comes not of your own will For you would gladly obey me in every thing seeing you know that I never desire any evil But you cannot in effect obey me in things good and salutary which comes assuredly of the Devil who is a spirit directly contrary to the Spirit of God which governs me For he moves as soon as I speak and brings some contradiction or opposition to what I propose he is troubled enraged and frets and would cause among us Thunder and Lightning as Heat and Cold do which occur in the air Which you do often and know not to help it because you have not sufficiently Discovered that it is the Devil does it in you against your will For you alledge sometimes reasons as if you would sustain his Quarrel and shew that you have reason to contradict me which you could not do if you believed that I have the Spirit of God from whom no evil can proceed But the Devil makes you forget that and excite in you a spirit of contradiction to which your nature is also enclined which is the cause you Discover not sufficiently that it is the Devil and attribute it to your natural inclination
encline to and you shall follow assuredly the Spirit of God So shall you carry the victory over that evil spirit who troubles you now Ply and submit your understanding under the Holy Spirit and never believe your self wiser than him in any thing For men are now abandoned to the spirit of error and their best Sciences are but Ignorance their Wisdom Folly And although you think sometimes to have reason to contradict me do it not And after you shall see that your reason cannot be better than mine which you may experiment while I remain Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle May. 19. 1672 St. vet THE XX. LETTER Spiritual Diligence is necessary to Salvation To the same to whom is shewn a Fourteenth snare of the Devil more pernicious than the rest viz. Spiritual Negligence He is moved to Spiritual Diligence by consideration of the diligence usually bestowed on temporal things which the Children of this World administer with more Care and Prudence than the Children of Light do Spiritual Things My Son I Perceive it appears some what difficult to you to watch continually so narrowly over all your Words and Actions But believe me if you do it not the Devil will assuredly surprise you in every thing And you shall obey him without knowing it For he is a most cunning spirit who watches always without rest And therefore it is necessary despising all difficulties to resolve absolutely for the combat if you will obtain salvation and tend to true Virtue For without fighting there is no Victory and except you apply your spirit to watch diligently over all your actions and words you shall fall into all sorts of evil And therefore is it that they call Negligence a mortal or capital sin Now Negligence is not understood to be a mortal sin as signifying the want of bodily travail and labour for many persons are not oblieged to bodily labour having other occupations of Body and Spirit more profitable and necessary sometimes than bodily Labour And when they apply themselves to those good and useful things they fall not into that sin of Negligence which is called mortal for every one ought to occupy himself in different things according to his condition or disposition A sick person cannot labour bodily and sometimes also not in Spirit neither because of his Infirmity and so he falls not into the mortal sin of Negligence for he may by acting resignation to the will of God be more diligent than one that labours both in Spirit and Body A good Master of a Family labours often more in eying and watching over his Servants than he that delves the Ground An Artist labours more by ordering well the Building of a House than the Workman that builds it And so with other persons who perform their duty every one in his state and vocation So that we must not believe that that sin of Negligence is committed by them that labour not corporally but by all them that neglect to watch over their souls and to discover the tentation of the Devil Seeing such neglect their eternal Happiness and consent tacitly to the tentation of the Devil which is certainly a mortal sin and causes Eternal Damnation that is it wherefore this Negligence is accounted among capital sins and ought to be called Mortal since it causes Death to the Soul For he that through Negligence does not resist the Devil he leaves his soul a prey to him And he that searches not all means to find true Virtue shall never obtain it but dying without it shall never come to eternal Happiness And therefore you must of necessity have spiritual Diligence if you would be saved For it were but flattering of your self to think that God will receive your Excuses when you shall say I did not know that the Devil had so much Subtilty and Power over us to tempt us or if you should think to excuse your self before God by your Frailty and Weakness you could not abstain from sin and could not attain to true Virtue because you could not find the way For all these Excuses and false Reasons God will not accept because he searches the Reins and tryes the Consciences and sees the least motions of our wills And he knows without needing witnesses what Diligence we have given to watch over our Souls and what Diligence to evite sin and follow true Virtue For God is not as men who amuse one another by the false Philosophy which they 've learnt in the Schools which serves only to maintain wickedness and excuse the malice of their likes They invent smooth words to make wickedness appear Truth and please themselves with these fine words and suffer themselves to be perswaded that Falshood is Truth when adorned with the fine terms and words of their false Philosophy But God regards the Essence and Reality of the thing and sees even to the bottom of our Souls and so he knows if we have done all Diligence in earnest to discover the deceits of the Devil and find the means to arrive at true Virtue and finding that we have done neither the one nor th' other we are condemned without place for Excuses And so my Child you must not be deceived Think not to find Excuses before God when you have lived in spiritual Negligence for he will not accept them He hath given you a Body and Spirit and that to apply them both diligently to eschew evil and follow good But the misery is that men now adays are fallen into so profound an ignorance that they employ body and soul in Care and Diligence to acquire the things of the earth and render themselves by that means incapable of having spiritual Diligence for when a Vessel is filled with dung there can be nothing that is good put in it Alas what are all the Cares of the business and affairs of the world other than Dung which hath filled your Spirit You were a diligent Merchant and your care and diligence hath heaped up money to you but now what will you do with that money you cannot expend it for Meat and Drink and Cloathing nor can you carry it with you at Death and if you leave it to your Relations they shall thereby become more vicious and proud So that every way you must acknowledge that your spirit hath been always filled with the dung of cares and diligence for earthly things And it is no wonder that so you could not discover the wiles of the Devil nor the means which advance unto true Virtue because your Diligence was employed about other things But now when the Goodness of God hath discovered to you the truth of these things you must endeavour to use that Diligence to discover the tentations of the Devil and the means to arrive at Virtue which formerly you used in your temporal affairs I believe you would not then let slip any occasion wherein you saw any profit without accepting it and that you suffered
not your self to be deceived when you could discover the Deceits they would put on you Now if you had such vigilance for the goods which pass away so swiftly and can give no help at death how can it now be difficult for you to use the same diligence to discover the Devil and the sure way of true Virtue that you may thereby gain Goods that shall never end Ought you not rather to double your Diligence Care and Study to acquire eternal Goods than to find difficulty in it which you found not to acquire the goods of this world Think you them more worthy than the eternal I do not think so of you seeing there is no comparison betwixt them For temporal goods afford nothing to our souls but care to preserve them and regret to leave them whereas vigilance to acquire eternal Goods brings an inward Joy Hope in God and repose in the Soul And beside we cannot live in spiritual Negligence without being in that mortal sin of sloath I know you desire not to live in sin but you have not sufficiently discovered in what that sin of Sloathfulness consists It appears to you a repose to live without tentations and without watching so precisely over your words and actions but that small Repose you might have in this life should cause you eternal Disquiet For we are not come into this world to rest but to be careful to watch and to labour for our Salvation ever until we have obtained it We must not then go to change the order of God He hath sent us into this world as unto a place of Banishment or into a Prison of Penitence to satisfie his divine Justice And we would yet live here in ease without Care or Diligence or watching against our Enemies Though worldly persons watch sometimes night and day to gain a little Money some vain and empty Honour or infamous Pleasure Believe me these Worldlings shall rise up against us in the day of judgment and confound us that they have watched laboured and cared more in the service of the world than you have done in the Service of God Apply your self then to the Diligence necessary for discovering the Wiles of the Devil your sworn Enemy for he will not cease to tempt you and endeavour to surprise you as long as you live in this world so you must not cease to watch over your actions and words that you may resist him always And that is the reason why the Scripture says Our Life is a continual Warfare Nor must you take that Spiritual Diligence for a difficult thing for it will become easie by use and it is most necessary useful and profitable far beyond that of things temporal and corporal As things durable and eternal are much more estimable than transitory and mortal ones And yet we see the men of the world take so much care for the present life which is of so short continuance For a Gentleman will take heed to all his words and actions that he do or say nothing against his Reputation He hath also always his spirit occupied to perceive if others carry that Respect and Honour to him which he desires and all his care is intent to perserve his reputation in this world neglecting no occasion to maintain it He exposes sometimes even his life for a point of Honour or takes away the life of another of whom he thinks he hath received some affront And what care study and fatigues do they take who would perfectionate themselves in some Sciences whether in Divinity Law or Medecine what frequenting of schools How many Books must they buy and how many Masters must they seek And care to observe things well to come to some reputation of a learned man Now though all such Honours be vain and perishing yet you know my Son how much care a Merchant must adhibit to order his affairs There are many who neglect often their eating and drinking and sleeping to attend constantly their profit How much care takes a Labourer or Tradesman to gain their food And God gives you yours so liberally without Care or Trouble that you may the better take care of your Salvation and labour the more for the perfection of your soul Is it then just that you should complain of a little difficulty you have to watch over all your words and actions to find true Virtue and discover the Snares of the Devil Methinks that is the least a Christian can do to attain to eternal life and happiness For man is created for no other end but that happiness and eternity If then he is capable as it appears that he is to watch be careful and labour for things temporal and transitory how much more ought he to do the same for eternal things we see that Merchants go by Sea and Land and put their life in hazard to gain a little Money We see Tradesmen pained and sweeting by excessive labour and that they do mean abject and nasty works to gain their poor nourishment We see hired Servants subject to the will of their Master and watch and attend with diligence the services they owe them and that to gain a small wage or fee. And a Christian will not do all these things to keep himself out of the Snares of his Enemy and to acquire true Virtue which conducts his soul to eternal life Were it not a great weakness to say that it is difficult to watch always over our words and actions to become agreeable to God While we see all men doing the same thing upon accounts that no way deserve it How much care takes a faithful Page to serve his Master Hee 'l study almost night and day to do what he knows is pleasing to him and performs with diligence what he knows to be his will And when he hath served him well and gained his friendship he obtains nothing but a pitiful temporary Wage I have heard a Story related of a Servant who had faithfully served a Prince so that he was well satisfied with him And for that promised that he would give him whatever he should demand It happened a long time after that promise that the Servant fell sick and was in great danger of death and when he felt himself at the extremity he entreated earnestly to be visited by his prince The Prince being come to his bed-side askt him what he would demand of him The Servant demanded that he might not die of that disease and that he might live yet some years The master Answered that it was not in his power and that he must demand of him something else After the servant demanded of him one years life or a Moneths or in end one days life But the Prince continued to answer that he could not do what he demanded since it was beyond his power and that he must demand of him things possible as Money Medecines or other Benefits that were in his power But the servant replied that he needed neither
on abandoning our Will unto that of God and not in many divers things as men imagin There needs no more but that abandon to be reunited in Grace and Favour with God entirely converted unto him and out of all sorts of dangers If you be guilty abandon your self unto God he shall presently receive you and convert you unto himself and if you be in fear of his Judgments and of this dangerous time abandon your self unto him he shall preserve you and save you There is nothing to be done but that alone to abandon your self unto God and remain under his dependance Is not that a thing most reasonable that a Creature remain under the Dependance of its Creator must there be Commandments and Constraints to oblige him unto a duty so just so good and so advantagious There is no right divine human nor civil that can dispense us from so just a thing Notwithstanding we rebel against all manner of rights to adhere unto our proper Will which is so wicked and insolent which percipitates us into so many sorts of evils for all the Miseries which we find in this life proceed from our proper Will and as the abandoning of it unto the Will of God is the accomplishment of all good so the possession of it is the consummation of all manner of Evils so that he who will be converted needs nothing else but to remit his will into the power of God In doing that he fulfilleth all the Law and the Prophets because they teach us nothing else but means to attain to that abandon I said unto her That being supposed as it is most true that in acknowledging always that we depend upon God in every thing we need no other Precept nor Commandment that it was a marvel that she had taught me so many means She said Sir I have spoken to you of the state of the World and of the Church that you refer no more thereto by pious Beliefs I have also told you that we are arrived in the reign of Antichrist lest you should be deceived and also that the world is judged that you flatter not your self by false hopes believing that it shall yet endure to continue in negligence I have also shewed you true Virtue that you be not deceived by that which is only apparent having also declared unto you the sins against the Holy Spirit and them which we commit in another that you might be ignorant of nothing that should hinder your abandoning unto God for the ignorance of Good and Evil would destroy us insensibly and as we are fallen in the time of universal Darkness the common Enemy might very easily deceive you as he doth all the world perswading you that you are abandoned unto God when you lived yet wholly unto your self For that have I explained so many things particularly to you that you might make a good discretion of the Truth from Falshood and that you might assuredly abandon your self unto God according to your desires And as you can never do Good without departing from Evil nor depart from it without knowing it I have therefore laboured to discover unto you the good and the evil which reigns at present in the world to give you the assured marks to know if you are abandoned unto God in truth or not and as the Commandments of God are given us to discover unto us what hinders us to be abandoned unto him and also the Evangelical Law that by means thereof we might remove all the impediments of our abandoning us unto God Voluntary Poverty being the means to disengage our proper Will from desiring perishing Goods Chastity to disengage the same Will from desiring the Pleasures of the Flesh and Obedience to disengage our desire from accomplishing our proper Will so all the other Evangelical Councels which teach us to omit the things that hinder our abandoning our selves unto God So I judged it necessary to declare unto you all the things which give let unto that abandon unto God and also them that may serve us as means to facilitate unto us that abandon which is the only thing essential which God requires of all them who will be saved I asked Her if it was sufficient to resolve absolutely that I will from henceforth absolutely depend upon God and no more use my own proper Will in any thing She said Sir that Resolution is a great beginning but it were to be feared that we should not effectually put it in practice through our evil habits so long inveterated Our proper will having always ruled how can it be entirely subjected unless by the means which Jesus Christ hath denoted us in his Gospel which are as so many degrees or steps to mount unto that abandon for otherwise we might yet make false suppositions as we have done heretofore until now But when we put in practice the Evangelical doctrine we shall thereby discover how far we are advanced in that abandon unto God for if our frailty had not needed these means God had not taken human flesh to come and teach us them because he can do nothing unprofitable You must then stay upon that Sir and take up simply that Evangelical Doctrine which shall teach us all things palpable unto our senses which following we shall assuredly arrive at that abandon for that is the true way the most short and most sure way Although God hath in divers times sent Prophets and holy Persons to tell men by what means they might recover that abandon unto God yet have they never done it in such perfection as Jesus Christ when he was upon Earth because he hath omitted nothing but hath taught all so punctually that men shall never need other instructions because that is the last Mercy which God will exercise toward men who must expect nothing after the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and what hath been taught before or since hath been nothing comparable unto that Evangelical Doctrine we must embrace and follow it if we will be saved because it teacheth us all the means of accomplishing the Law of God CONFERENCE XVII Is a Recollection of all the preceding Matters their End and Use I rendered her many thanks for the Goodness which she had to tell me so many things profitable unto my Salvation promising to practise them as much as it were possible for me SHe said Sir in the practise consists your Salvation for it is a very small matter to know all the Conduct of the World with all its Sciences and Secrets if all that do not serve you as means to work out your Salvation all is vanity and delusion yea Wisdom shall be unto our greater Condemnation when we do not put in practice the Good which we know and do not flee and hate what we know of Evil. I had not enlarged to declare to you so many things of Good and Evil if I had not remarked that you desire to put them in practise for to know the
her the text of the gospel with promise to submit my understanding unto the Light of the Holy Spirit entirely to my power She said Sir that Submission is the preparation requisit For if you would act the Doctor or wise learned man you should put opposition unto the Light of the Holy Spirit source of all Wisdom You must always believe and maintain that he is more wise than all the Doctors that ever were in the world and that we learn more by a little ray of his Light than by an hundred years of most assiduous study Therefore render all your Wisdom Ignorances and become as an Infant newly born again that you may receive these new Intelligences which shall give you more light than ever all the Old Fathers together have had because they have never discovered the hidden Treasures because the time was not yet come Every one spoke according to his thoughts and not as it was really because it was a closed Book which none was worthy to open but Jesus Christ himself since he was killed and put to death There is not hitherto any thing accomplished of all the Holy Scriptures but that death which shall disclose the marvellous things of God which have remained hidden until now and begin to be revealed unto them who shall be humble of heart but the wise shall perish with their wisdom Therefore do I exhort you Sir unto Simplicity and Submission that you may receive the Light which begins to soring in our time and see the new heavenly Jerusalem descend adorned as a Bride unto the day of her Nuptials The League and alliance of God with men shall then be accomplished The Earth shall then be renewed All Creatures shall leave their Malignities which shall be confined unto the center of the Earth to torment the Bodies and Souls of all them who would not submit their wills unto God They shall receive there pains according to their sins being over-whelmed with those Malignities which these sins have caused CONFERENCE XXVI Declareth the Necessity of becoming a Child to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all Worldly Wisdom and all Human Abuses I asked her How it were possible to leave all Sciences humanly acquired to become a Child when one is an Aged Man SHe said Sir except you do it you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is Jesus Christ who saith it and he cannot lie but he urgeth that necessity of becoming Children by Threatenings of not entering into the Kingdom of heaven which were the greatest evil that can befal man It were better never to be born than not to be saved and seeing we cannot be saved without becoming Children we must do it at any rate Would you Sir esteem more the Honour of the World or your acquired Science than the Kingdom of heaven That were very lamentable seeing all the things of this world do but pass as the Bird which cutteth the Air and leaveth no trace of its way after it so we when we shall be passed through this world there shall remain nothing of our Sciences or Studies nor of our Honour and Reputation all endeth with us and if there remain in the spirit of others any reputation that we were wise and learned that is insensible unto us after death If we have pleased our selves therein in our life the sufferings of these complacencies attend us in the other world and instead that it should be a happiness to us that we have been wise it is a great misery to us to have lost the Kingdom of Heaven by the same wisdom Forsake all these human Considerations Sir and become a Child though you be aged You must make the more haste lest time and life escape Never consult flesh and blood for they deceive and corrupt us Let us consult only our divine Soul which is reasonable and it shall tell you that nothing is better nor more reasonable than to abandon our free will unto God who hath given us it and to submit it unto his government as a little Child that on that depends our eternal Happiness and that nothing else can save us because without that Dependance there is no Salvation I said unto her That I knew most clearly that truth that there was no Salvation without the Dependance of God asking how I could now ignore Sciences formerly acquired seeing I could not make my self not to have them She said Sir nothing can hurt you if all be submitted unto God You cannot ignore what you know by means of your Studies but you can well submit all these Sciences unto God and account them as Ignorances as in effect they are Apply no more your spirit unto the study of Sciences and believe them to be all vain in respect of the Wisdom of God You shall know that you are abandoned unto his will when you seek no more any thing upon Earth neither Learning nor Wisdom nor desire to know any thing else but what may render you acceptable unto God For he that is abandoned unto him without Deceit moves himself no more but for what regards his Glory all the rest toucheth him no more If he is wise or ignorant it is indifferent unto him Wisdom serves him for what regards the Glory of God and in no wise to rule upon Earth knowing well that he who is abandoned unto God without Sciences is as great as he who is so with much Learning and even as we may well be Poor of Spirit in possessing Riches so can we possess much learning and withal be simple of Spirit when we have submitted all our Learning unto God he serves himself of it as he pleaseth but so long as we will rely on and make account of them we are not yet become Children to have entry into the Kingdom of Heaven And seeing God sheweth you Sir that there is no Salvation without dependance on him put your self promptly therein without considering if you have Sciences or any thing else For as the Proverb is God makes Mercury of all wood we must not regard our selves but his will who desires that all men of whatever conditions hold themselves under his Dependance remitting their free wills into his power without using the same themselves I said unto her That absolutely and irrevocably I abandoned my self unto God to be a true Child but that I had yet some repugnancy to renounce the Church She said Ha Sir you must never renounce the Holy Church but rather die but you must only renounce the abomination which is crept into the Romish Church of these days Do you not see that she hath falsified her faith unto her lawfull Husband Jesus Christ and hath not remained faithful unto him I should be glad that you could shew me one only point of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that she observes or one only thing that she practiseth that is not contrary to the Life and Doctrine of her
but that is only an excuse for their sin 'T is true the Devil can tempt man against his will but cannot make him sin against his will he may trouble his spirit and make him remember what he should forget And forget what he ought to mind But if the person be well upon his guard and will not do evil he shall discover easily that that comes from the Devil being against his will and so will betake himself to continual Prayer to God which Jesus Christ hath so much recommended to us as most necessary for our salvation Since we have continually an Enemy to combat we must continually have Arms to defend us and that will be necessary all the days of our life That is it which the Apostle counsels us To pray always without ceasing Because we have always need of divine succour and help against the continual Assaults which the Devil gives us For it is his business and employ to do the most evil he can And as a Merchant accounts himself happy to gain much Money by his Trafick or an Artist by his Labours so also the Devil accounts himself happy in gaining many souls to himself that he may exercise on them his Cruelty and Malice And therefore he never ceases for his part to labour and invent new snares to catch the soul of man And when we shut the door of our heart to him on one side he attempts to enter by some window on the other So that all human wisdom is not able to discover all the Subtilties of Satan who being a most subtil spirit surpasses in subtilty the capacity of man's spirit And therefore is it that he must of absolute necessity use continual Prayer to discover the tentations of the Devil which he cannot know without a divine Light and yet less hath he power to resist them without the assistance of God Whom he ought continually to invocate and call for help without intermission Seeing the Devil never sleeps and watches over us when we rest But the strength of Faith and Hope in God can make us overcome the Devil and despise him as but miserable impotence Seeing he can never make us fall into any sins without the consent of our own will which refusing him he can in no wise hurt man although he should tempt him with all his might during all his life These tentations serve only for greater and true virtues to the man because he passes the time of his tryal in testifying his faithfulness to God while he does not consent to the tentations the devil offers And I account it a much happier state to be tempted than not to be so while we resist the tentations seeing they purge our souls and satisfie the Justice of God who hath in Justice enjoyned penitence for our sins which we must needs accomplish during the time of our tryal which God hath limitted since the creation of man And if we will not voluntarily suffer the tentations of the Devil now we must suffer aboundantly more sensible pains after our death when the soul being separated from this mortal body feels more vividly the separation from his God than it does when joyned with its mortal body which diverts the sense of that separation by its five natural senses which seeing hearing tasting smelling and feeling gross and earthly things are suspended and amused that he cannot feel so lively the separation of his soul from God and so charms his great misery with the amusements of earthly things Which are nothing but truely Charms and Bewitchings for though we see by experience that never any person in the world was fully satisfied and content with earthly things although enjoying all they could demand of them so love we them and that love ruins us from the Love of God without that we feel the pain of it But after death all these gross and earthly things being ended as to us thence shall we feel vividly the absence of God because not diverted more with other things and that shall endure until the time of our tryal shall be past which God alone knows how long it shall endure But it is most certain that he that will not voluntarily endure the tentations of the Devil in this present mortal life shall assuredly suffer them more sensibly after death seeing no evil shall remain unpunished and no good without recompense And he that does the good of resisting the Devil in not following his tentations must expect an everlasting Reward and therefore methinks not to be tempted in this mortal life is the greatest of all tentations Since it deprives us of the good of satisfying the Justice of God and oblieges us to suffer afterward more sensible pains And therefore my Son be not offended to feel the tentation of the Devil but resist it valiently for the Glory is in the combat and not in Idleness and Rest seeing while we feel not tentation it is a sign that the Devil holds us in a lethargique sleep to cause us to die an eternal death insensibly and without pain But when he combats us with all his forces it is a sign that he does not hold us and that he fears to lose us Therefore take courage and pray God with an humble heart that he may give you strength to overcome the Enemy But never say it is the Devil makes you do evil but smite on your Breast and confess your guilt since the Devil cannot compel you to do evil but only your perverse will when it consents to his tentations For if the Devil could speak when you say that it is he made you do evil and sin he would give you the lie and say that it was not he that made you sin but that it was your own will without the consent of which you cannot sin You may well sin without the Devil for his malice hath entered into us by Adam's first sin but the Devil cannot bring forth sin in us without our consent You are always free to do evil though the Devil do not tempt or compel you because your nature was corrupted by the first sin and thence all men from Adam bring with them in their nativity that corruption and inclination to evil But when man is arrived to the use of reason he ought thereby to discern good from evil and choose which he will follow Yea he hath a natural instinct which makes him discern evil from good for we see often a Child without any Discretion be ashamed for having done evil and his countenance testifies sufficiently that he knows when he commits evil And therefore we ought never to believe that we cannot discern good from evil to make choise for that is but to flatter our selves For lo the wickedest man in the world however blinded in his sins knows assuredly well enough when he does evil but he hath no will to change his wickedness into good or he hath not the courage to resist the Devil and that because he hath given him so
much power over his spirit Otherwise man hath in him a good judgment beyond any other creature and by that judgment he can assuredly know and discern good from evil And it is free for him to choose the good and hate the evil by an absolute act of his will which the Devil cannot hinder And moreover he hath power to resist the Devil by faith and hope in God who never fails to come to the relief of a man who asks and desires it And therefore my Son you must never say that the Devil made you do any evil which were to make you his slave and testifie your subjection to him as are the Sorcerers who have given him their souls and promised to obey him For such have truely oblieged themselves to do all the evil he pleases and when they do it not he beats and abuses them But you being a Child of God and voluntarily subject to him you must nor fear that the Devil can constrain you to sin against your will and so never attribute to him the fault you commit your self It is true the Devil first incites good persons to sin but they should despise him and not follow him yea and mock at his tentations But we must always watch over his surprisals and never sleep in the way of true virtue Believe then the Apostle's counsel where he says My Brethren be sober and watch for that very reason because the Devil goes about us like a roaring Lion seeking to Devour us We must resist him couragiously and not say I was not thinking of the Devil when I fell into evil For he desires willingly that we do evil without thinking on it That is his best recreation For it does not fall out that good persons do evil but while they sleep and think not of evil Then is it that the Devil acts most in us and causes that we think not of it till after the evil is committed But our negligence or Sleepiness will not find excuse before God seeing we are oblieged to watch always if we would arrive at true Virtue To which she exhorts you who careth for your soul Holstein near Gottorp Castle May 13. 1672. St. Vet. ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE XVIII LETTER The Good and Evil Spirit are known by their Fruit. To the same giving him the signs to know whether it is the Good or Evil Spirit that moves us shewing also a twelfth Artifice of the Devil by which he causes us to impute our Vices to our natural propensions without suspecting him to lurk therein that he may remain unknown My Son I see yet one difficulty which occurs to your Spirit to wit How you should discover when the Devil insinuates himself into your good Actions and how you shall know that it is he that moves you to do good that he may catch you or to cause that what you do with a good intention turn to his Honour For you protest that you will not obey him nor follow his tentation in any thing when you discover and know that he tempts you Believe me my Son that is most easie to discern provided you have an absolute will to resist the Devil It is very good and most easie to discover if it is the good or evil spirit who moves us in all our actions and words to do or say any thing small or great because these two spirits have their qualities and conditions quite different and work in us quite contrary operations and dispositions So that you may as it were feel with your finger if it is a good or an evil spirit which moves you to say or do any thing by the dispositions you shall feel in your Soul For the good spirit produces in our souls Charity Joy Peace Patience Long-suffering Goodness Bounty Meekness Chastity Faith Continence and Modesty And the evil spirit on the contrary produces therein Self-love Sadness Trouble Impatience Rashness Wickedness Fretting Pride Despair Intemperance Inequality Unconstancy and Impurity which are all things contrary to the fruits of the good Spirit And as the tree is known by its fruit so may we know the evil spirit by the fruit he produces in our souls And therefore we must always examin if our enterprises or the will or intentions we have to do or leave undone any thing produce in our souls Charity Peace Faith Joy and the rest And then we may be assured that our enterprises and wills are from God seeing they bring unto us the fruits of his spirit But if on the contrary we feel in our souls Self-love Sadness Impatience and the rest we may well be assured that our desires and enterprises are excited by the Devil Which is a firm and sure rule We need not then amuse our selves at fine speculations to discover if we be moved by the Devil to do or leave undone any thing while we feel in our selves the effects of a good or an evil spirit For the Devil will never incite to Charity seeing it is a divine Quality which the Devil hath not in his power and which unites souls to God But he draws from self-love all manner of advantage and declines the soul from the love of God For he that loves himself covets Pleasures honour and Riches and all that is not God and so he is sad and is not in the capacity to acquire true Virtue for he hath not courage to resist the tentation of the Devil but suffers himself rather to be overcome by dark melancholy Thoughts But the good Spirit banishes these thoughts by the joy which it brings to the Soul And although there were all sorts of occasions of Sadness externally even for our sins that good Spirit comforts and rejoyces the bottom of the soul amidst the most sensible Troubles and Pains When we have then inward joy in the midst of sufferings it is an assured testimony that the holy Spirit dwells in us Which hath often rejoyced me in the midst of Suffering and Persecutions I felt therein a great joy in the bottom of my Soul in lamenting my sins and I thanked God that he gave me these Tears of Repentance But the Devil gives only counterfeit and external joys which afflict and grieve the heart when they are over that is the cause why we see worldly persons always search after new Recreations and Divertisements For th' one is no sooner gone but Melancholy and Sadness seises the heart who would so divert himself and for that he hunts insatiably after new divertisments without finding withal true Contentment which we cannot have but by the joy of the Holy Spirit and that joy is not to be found among the Divertisments of the World I was astonisht to hear one day of a person who would re-establish Israel that he searcht for a great House with a Garden to divert himself and walk therein as also that he must sometimes go to walk in the field or go in a Barque of Pleasure or Boat to divert himself which gave me enough to