her Thoughts and withal that she had written her Thoughts lately on the same Matter which he having obtain'd the Sight of after Importunity and with a Promise to restore it within three Days he read it with Feeling and Admiration and returning it said You have said more things and more forcible on this Subject in one Sheet than I have done in all my Book which has cost me so much Time Pains and Expences and therefore I condemn it never to see the Light It is the 4th Chapter of the fore-cited Book XXVIII 13. Those Writings are worthy of our Regard in that they tend to discourage and remove out of the Christian World the Disputing and Controversal Divinity and to take Men off from the Spirit of Controversie which has banished the Life and Spirit of Christianity from among Men. Some are ready to say that her Writings tend rather to multiply Controversies than to remove them in that they advance so many new Doctrines and Opinios which were never formerly heard of But these need give no Occasion of Dispute she declares they are not Matters of Faith are not necessary to Salvation they who are perswaded of the Truth of them and find them helpful to increase their Love and Admiration of God will receive them without disputing about them and they who are not perswaded of the Truth of them may let them alone and so there needs no Dispute and no Body will contend with them about them But those Writings tend to take Men off from this Spirit they make so clear a Difference between the Essentials and the Accessories of Religion so plainly describe the first that all cannot but be convinc'd of them and they shew that the last ought not to be any Subject of Debate and Contention They make appear that the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is to be learn'd by Simplicity and humble Prayer and not by Controversie and Debate and that none are more capable of understanding it than they who are led by the Spirit they shew that there is nothing more contrary to the Spirit and Great End of Christianity than the Spirit of Controversie That they who are led by it cannot endure that others should differ from them in some Sentiments about Religion even tho' they agree in the Essentials and Fundamentals of it but presently they prosecute him with all the Spite and Rancour they are capaple of as the Enemies of God and Religion and do all they can to inspire the same Spite and Aversion against them in all on whom they have Influence They assix on them hateful Names accuse them of Crimes they were never guilty of Blasphemy Idolatry c. they treat them with Contempt and Scorn make them pass for mad and distracted the Good in them or the Truth that appears in their Writings they conceal and are griev'd at it and make it pass for what they call in Scorn Flights of Devotion or the Effects of a warm Imagination and they rejoice when they meet with any thing that can expose them or make them hateful they cannot easily believe any thing that is Good in them but very readily Evil they do not consider the great Tendency of their Life and Writings but cull out some Instances and Passages of both which may separately seem hâ—rsh and they assix on them the hardest Sence they are capable of and from these draw Consequences and form odious Pictures of them from them they can endure no hard Words without Rage and Displeasure but against them they insult and triumph In a Word this Spirit is the compleat Reverse of that Charity which S. Paul describes It suffers little is unkind envious rash puffed up behaves it self unseemly seeks it self is easily provoked thinketh Evil rejoiceth in Iniquity but rejoiceth not in the Truth bears with nothing believes nothing hopes nothing endures nothing Now all things being diffusive of themselves this Evil exerting it self in the Writings and Discourses of Men spreads like a Contagion and our corrupt Nature being more susceptible of Evil than Good is soon seized with the Malignity Hence cometh that Hatred Variance Strife Evil-speaking those Revilings Calumnies Sects Schisms Wars Fightings Persecutions c. which have made the Christian World so much the Sport of the Devil and the By-word of the rest of Mankind Now one would think that by this time Men might be so generally out of Love with the Humour of Controversie so offended with the Trickâ— of laying the Stress of Christianity on things wherein it does not consist and so sensible of the Mischiefs that both have done to Religion throughout all Christendom that those Writings would be generally acceptable which tend to sweeâ—en Mens Minds towards one another to lessen a Concern for Sects and Parties to give a clear View of the Essentials of Christianity and plainly to distinguish them from the Accessories and Circumstantials and to lead Men to the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and the Recovery of the Love of God as those Writings most certainly do XXIX 14. The Manner after which those Writings were composed is something singular and extraordinary It cannot be denied but that they are writ with much Clearness Solidity and Force in all the things that may be useful for the Salvation of Man yet they are not the Effect of Study and the reading of other Books for she read none and did not derive her Knowledge either from learned Men or Books reckoning their Learning a Straying from the right Way and that as the Writing-Master would needs have a Double hire from those who had learn'd to write an ill Hand to wit one hire for unteaching them so ill a Habit and another to teach them to write well because he must be at more Pains with such than with those who had learn'd none at all so she was with the Learned who came to learn from her in Christ's School she had a double Labour one to unteach them the imaginary Wisdom which they had embraced join'd with Presumption and Rashness and the other to make them receive the true Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Humility and the Lowness and Simplicity of a Child And as her Writings were not the Result of Study and human Learning so neither were they the Effect of Meditation and human Reasoning We must think before we write and take Time to order our Thoughts and consider our Words we must blot out and mend and add to our first Draughts But when she put Pen to Paper she wrote as fast as her Hand could guide the Pen and what was once written was witten without blotting out or Change And when she returned to any Writings that she had laid by unfinish'd tho' for some Months or Years she did not apply her self to read them over but having read only five or six of the last Lines to see how the Period ended she immediately wrote on with her former Swiftness her Sentiments flowing from her as Water
to all the World by a great many Elogies of all Sorts that Men all might extol her and adhere to her for the Making up of a New Sect. In the Second he gives this Idea of herself as if her great Design was to boast that she was endued with all Sort of Prerogatives that she might draw Souls to follow her as if she aim'd to be the Head of a Party in Religion and to draw Disciples after her Now there is nothing more false than all this for the Friends of A. B. had no other Aim but to seek after the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus 2. And having found the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ most purely and savingly represented in the Writings and Conversation of A. B. they do highly valuâ— them and endeavour to conform their Hearts and Livâ— unto them 3. They desire that these Truths in 〈◊〉 Purity and Force may be communicated unto others 〈◊〉 the Glory of God and the Salvation of their Souls 4. And therefore thought themselves obliged to vindicate the Author from the many Aspersions Calumnies and Reproachâ—â— cast upon her at the Instigation of Satan by wicked and malicious Men by declaring what they had seen and known for many Years of this Virgin that so the Weak migâ—t 〈◊〉 be frighted away from the Truth by the malicious 〈◊〉 of Slanderers As for A. B. herself the bent of her 〈◊〉 was to live retir'd with God and to conceal rather 〈◊〉 publish his Graces to her Soul and thus she did for 〈◊〉 than fifty Years and would have done so still had 〈◊〉 God commanded and Providence order'd her such 〈◊〉 sions as oblig'd her to publish these Truths 1. 〈◊〉 present there are no true Christians upon Earth 2. 〈◊〉 what Means the Spirit of true Christianity is to be 〈◊〉 according to the true Precepts of the Gospel which 〈◊〉 disguised by the Glosses of Men. 3. That they who 〈◊〉 not sincerely labour after this would be shortly 〈…〉 by the just Judgments of God The various 〈…〉 and Objections that were brought against her 〈…〉 to declare several other Truths in Vindication of 〈…〉 and Doctrine and thus she is obliged to declare to 〈◊〉 that God who makes Use of weak and simple Me 〈◊〉 confound the Wise had sent her to make know◠〈◊〉 Truths of Jesus Christ to others that by the 〈…〉 God those Things are done in her from the doing of which they excuse themselves as if they were impossible to others she was obligâ—d to speak of God's Mission his Call to teach others and the Gifts and Capacities he bestows for that End and that there might be no Obstacle in her to hinder others from embracing the Truths of Jesus Christ she clears herself from the reproachful Calumnies and Lies form'd against her by the contrary Vertues and Favours which God had bestow'd on her and by the unquestionable Evidences and Testimonies of those to whom she was well known This is true Matter of Fact and these were the Occasions and Reasons which led both her and her Friends to speak of the Graces of God bestowed on her XIX The Doctor 's first Narrative contains his Character of A. B. taken as he says from her Friends with his Inferences from it and then his Collection of the Reasons why they have such Sentiments of her with his Censure of them In the First there is not one Instance of a fair and ingenuous Narration but many of great Injustice Disingenuity and foul Dealing most unbecoming a Writer of Narratives For XX. 1. The Method he follows palpably discovers that his great Aim was to blacken her If one designed to make a beautiful Person appear ugly he could not do it more effectually than if he should first deprive her of all Life and Spirit then take off the Skin of the Body and dismember it all in Pieces and quite invert the Order of its Parts and take withal only some Bits of it to set them together and at last bespatter all with Filth and Spittle crying Here is the Woman And such is the Doctor 's singular Way of making Characters They who have reaped great spiritual Advantages from the Writings and Conversation of any Person do speak of such a Person with more Esteem and Admiration than others who not having had such Experiences will think their Expressions extravagant especially when half Sentences are taken out by themselves and pieced with others at a great Distance from them and yet this is the Doctor 's Way of making up the Character of A. B. skipping from one Book to another from one Chapter to another to pick out the half Sentences that might be serviceable to his evil Design In the rest of his Narrative he takes out little Passages of her Life here and there without narrating ingenuously the true Circumstances of them he dresses them up with his fine Reflexions and so exposes them to the World as a Character of her Life The Answer he gives to this in his Letter to his Friend at London Art XIV is frivolous and needs no Reply it shews only how willing he is to say any thing rather than ingenuously confess a real and a heinous Sin 2. The Doctor 's foul Dealing appears farther in making up this Character by borrowing Pieces of it not from her own or her Friends Writings but from those of hers and their avowed Enemies as the next Day some of the Doctor 's Temper and Acquaintance will it may be take her Character as given by her Friends upon his Word and so fill it with horrid Untruths Thus he takes a Part of their Character of her from the Author of the Leipsick Transactions which Part is shewn to be a most abominable Falshood in the Monitum ad Acta Erudit Leips and what Regard is to be had to the Testimony and Judgment of the Collector of the Leipsick Acts in this Matter appears by the Account of a Friend of his who speaks thus of that Subject Firmiter persuasus sum fuisse Bourignoniam Virginem pussimam c. I am firmly perswaded that the Virgin A. Bourignon was most pious and her Heart the Temple of the Holy Spirit her Doctrine as to the main is holy and sound and her Books most worthy to be perused by the Serious As to her Sentiments concerning some Mysteries she wrote no doubt according to her Perswasion and it savours nothing of Folly or Enthusiasm if you shall read her Writings without Prejudice â—and a sectarian Infallibility even tho' you be of another Opinion your self I impute it to human Weakness if she thought that no Body would be saved but they who embraced her Sentiments yet she herself uses to distinguish between the Sentiments about the Mysteries of Religion and the Doctrine of Godliness The Collectors of the Leipsick Acts have pass'd a severe Censure against her and our Author M. Poiret Yet I knew the Author of that severe Censure wrote
runs thro' all that Divine Book of Thomas à Kempis of the Imitation of Christ Lo here an Extract of one Chapter where Jesus Christ thus speaks to the Soul Son let not the fine and subtile Sayings of Men move thee for the Kingdom of God is not in Word but in Power Take heed to my Words which do enflame the Heart and enlighten the Mind which bring Compunction and procure various consolations Never read my Word for this End That thou may be esteem'd the more learned or the more wise but study the Mortification of thy Vices for that will profit thee more than many hard Questions When thou hast read and known much thou must still return to one Principle I am he who teaches Man Knowledge and gives to Little Ones a more clear Understanding than what he can be taught by Man He to whom I speak will soon be Wise and will profit much in Spirit Wo to them that enquire many curious things from Men and care little how to serve me I am he who elevates the humble Mind in a Moment that it may conceive more Reasons of the Eternal Truth than if one studied for Ten Years in the Schools I teach without the Noise of Words without the Confusion of Opinions without the Vanity of Honour without the Debate of Arguments I am he who teaches to despise earthly things to loath present things to seek and relish eternal things to flee Honours to suffer Reproaches to place all their Hope in me to desire nothing besides me and to love me ardently above all things For a certain Person by loving me dearly did learn Divine Things and spoke wonderful Things he profited more by forsaking all than by studying difficult things But to some I utter common things to some special ones to some I appear sweetly in Signs and Figures but to others I reveal Mysteries in much Light There is one Voice of Books but it does not equally instruct all for I am the Teacher of the Truth inwardly the Searcher of the Heart the Understander of the Thoughts the Furtherer of Actions distributing to every one as I shall judge worthy Now Writings whose chief Tendency is to lead us to so excellent a Master to learn in Christ's School and teach us how to labour for the Dispositions which he himself requires of us deserve to meet with some Regard by those who pretend to be his Disciples XXIII 8. Another remarkable Quality of those Writings is that they are so clear and plain and simple The Thoughts of the Studious and of the Learned are out of the common Road of the People and so are their Words and Language too and when they write they can hardly avoid the Terms of the Schools and all affect a certain Eloquence that darkens the Thoughts which we would express both because we have not clear Perceptions of those Truths and we still seek our selves and many who have pretended to Divine Inspiration have written so Mysteriously and under such dark Figures that they cannot be easily comprehended But those Writings are so clear that we may easily and distinctly perceive the Intent of them so plain that Children and the most illiterate People may easily understand them and so simple that there is nothing of humane Art or Varnish to be seen in them XXIV 9. It is no less remarkable that there is a convincing Force and Efficacy in those Writings which does sensibly touch the Hearts of those that read them their Consciences bears them witness of the Truth of things as to themselves and they are convinced of all not that all are so who read any of them no more than all who heard Jesus Christ himself were affected with his Words tho' he spoke as one that had Authority and not as the Scribes tho' never Man spoke like him yet the Pharisees said he had a Devil but others who heard him felt that he had the Words of Eternal Life So some call this Virgin a Devil and Enchantress a mad whimsical Woman Others are so convinced of the Truths of the Gospel contained in her Writings that they are ready to answer she is not mad but speaks the Words of Truth and Soberness Many I know can bear me Witness that upon the reading of her Writings they have felt a deeper Sense of Divine things and their Hearts and Consciences have been more touched than by most of other Writings which they have seen And this can be testified by Persons of different Parties and Perswasions by Learned and Unlearned and it deserves the more Consideration that they are not written in a Way to move the Passions in Flights of Devotion as some would have them pass for but in a simple naked Declaration of Divine Truths All Writings carry along with them certain Impressions of the Spirit with which they are written which we are apt to discern and accordingly to be affected by them If Self be the chief Mover it will be seen thro all the Disguises of the Writer There 's a certain Driness and Deadness in most of Writings and Sermons now adays about Divine Things that they do not at all touch the Heart and even the best of them savour more of the Head of than the Heart of the Spirit of Man than of the Spirit of God and so they cannot rise higher than their Original they may strike and please our Fancy but they cannot move the Divine Faculties of the Soul I cannot give a better Account of this than A. B. does when she complains that tho' there was never more Preaching than in this Age yet never a greater spiritual Famine that they do not give Nourishment to Souls which every Day wax leaner and leaner in Vertue and colder in Charity She says The Word of the Preachers cannot be God's Word for then certainly it would produce its Effects in well-disposed Souls for the Word of God is powerful It would possess the inseparable Qualities of God Righteousness and Goodness and Truth If one of these be wanting it is not the Word of God they may use the Terms and Expressions which Jesus Christ and his Apostles used yet that is not the Word of God They are not called by God but carried to the Ministry by Ambition or some worldly and human Interest Their Sermons are nothing else but Apish Mummeries If an Ape saw an excellent Painter drawing a curious Picture and if in his Absence it should take the Pencils and Colours and so scratch upon the same Table it would entirely Daub all tho' it made Use of the same Pencils and Colours because it wanted the Painter's Spirit this Defect marrs all even what was beautiful there before the Ape touch'd it This is the true Emblem of most of the Preachers and Writers now adays in Religion They have the Scripture as the Pallet wherein are distinguish'd the fine Colours of Vertues with which Jesus Christ began the excellent Portraiture of the Holy Church They
have also the Pencil which is the Word with which Jesus Christ and his Apostles laid on these fine Colours of Vertues in Souls but they want as that Ape the Spirit of that excellent Master which is Jesus Christ They have on Paper the same Words which the Holy Spirit dictated but they have not the same Holy Spirit to apply them in Practice to their own Souls and far less to the Souls of their Hearers XXV 10. Those Writings give us such just and clear Representations of the Truths of Christianity as tend to take us off from Self and from the Creatures and to make us turn unto and depend wholly upon God such as does not favour us in the least Sin and yet encourages the greatest Sinner to turn to God such as leads us to ascribe nothing to our selves but Evil and nothing to God but Good Such as lets us see that nothing can excuse us from obeying the Commands of the Gospel and following the Example of Jesus Christ without which by him tâ—ere is no Salvation It is true of Doctrines as well as Men By their Fruits ye shall know them Such Doctrines as tend to sooth Mens Corrupt Inclinations to teach them how to love God and the World too to gratifie their Appetites here and yet hope to enjoy God hereafter I do not mean in so many express Words but in their natural Tendency such certainly are not of God Now the Doctrines contained in those Writings have quite another Tendency as has been said There we have such true and lively Representations of God as shews us that he is altogether Lovely of his Design in creating Man only to be enjoy'd and lov'd by him without any decree or purpose of damning the greatest part of Mankind as may stir us up to comply with so tender a Love with so generous a Design of the horrid Degeneracy and Corruption of Man now both in Soul and Body as may make us abhor our selves of our Sins their being purely our own deed without any the least Predetermination or Concurrence of God but the contrary as may keep us from excusing our selves or laying the blame on God of the Merits Satisfaction and Intercession of Jesus Christ as may convince us that Pardon and Reconciliation with God and Grace and Means to return to God is to be obtain'd and that only by him of the Necessity and Nature of the preventing concurring and renewing Grace of God as may make us continually seek to him for it and yield up our selves to be guided by it of the Nature and Corruption of our Will as shews the absolute necessity of denying it and yielding it up to God of the Doctrine and Example of Jesus Christ as may convince us that our Corrupt Nature cannot be overcome and we cannot return to the Love of God without obeying his Precepts and following his Example Now Writings of such a Tendency ought not to be despis'd and ridicul'd by the Professors and Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ and that they have this Tendency I appeal to any who have read any of them without an Evil Eye XXVI 11. Those Writings do contain also many Divine Explications of the Holy Scripture not after the way of criticizing and reckoning up the several meanings and acceptions of a Word or the various Sences of Inpreters which a Man may be well vers'd in and yet be altogether ignorant of the true sence and meaning of the Holy Scripture where he pretends to Interpret it We see all Sciences have a certain Light by which they are discerned a certain Disposition of Faculties which makes us capable to understand them certain Principles which lead to the Knowledge of them and when these are wanting we grope in the Dark Children and Boys may understand all the Words of a Book of Philosophy of the Propositions in Euclid and yet understand nothing of the Truths contain'd there To understand the Holy Scriptures and the things of God we had need to be endued with the same Spirit and to be in the same Disposition with those who wrote them Now if any will be pleas'd to compare the Expositions given in those Writings of some places of Holy Scripture with the learned Comments of the Interpreters and Criticks of the Age I am perswaded that if they be not greatly prejudic'd they will be convinc'd that her Expositions come from a more Divine Original than than the most of the other that they give a clearer Light more worthy of God and more suitable to the great Ends of Religion that in this the Truth of our Saviour's words is manifest that God hides these things from the Wise and Prudent and reveals them unto Babes and that with great reason she blest God who preserv'd her from drinking in Humane Learning Of all these I shall instance one which deserves a particular Consideration and that is her Exposition of the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew set down in the First Part of La Lumiere nee on Tenebres It is too long to offer to transcribe it here they who are desirous to see it need not want Occasions To this I cannot but subjoin the just Cautions she gives and the excellent Rules for the Interpreting of the Holy Scriptures She makes appear how rash Men are in glossing the Holy Scriptures since the things which concern our Salvation are so plainly set down in them that they need no Glosses and the obscure things cannot be understood but by the same Spirit who endited them and not by Humane Wisdom which is directly opposite to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which descends only into humble Souls That they who will needs interpret the Scriptures by Humane Wisdom fall into great Mistakes and understand the Terms quite othewise than the Spirit of God intended Thus it is said that God hardened Pharaoh's Heart the meaning cannot be that he hardens Mens Hearts by making them obstinate in Evil for God can never co-operate to any Evil being the Fountain of all Good But he speaks thus to make us know that he leaves a wicked Man to go on in his Wickedness when he will not be restrain'd But on his part he uses always Goodness towards them that he may convert them both by good Inspirations Admonitions and other proper Means But when their Free-wills are willful to persist in Evil he leaves them to themselves The main Difficulty there is in understanding of the Scriptures arises from this that we do not know the Qualities of God and we are ready to attribute to him such as Men have imagining that he has a Love for some and a Hatred for others And thus every one is wedded to his own Sence and Opinions and will maintain them as the Truths of God But the best Course is still to take the Holy Scriptures in that Sence that draws us more and more to the Love of God and to the Knowledge of our own
Nothingness and to leave all these things which seem disputable to the Wisdom of God reckoning our selves unworthy to be able to comprehend what he is how he does his Works and by what means he saves Men relying on the Faith that shews us that he does all things in Goodness Righteousness and Truth without amusing our selves with any other thing but to put in practice the things which he has openly declar'd to us by his Gospel which are necessary for our Salvation such as Humility of Heart Self-denial the Love of God and the Love of our Neighbour It is better to exercise our selves in these solid Doctrines than to break our Heads in disputing and desiring to comprehend what is in God or how he governs Men Better let our selves be govern'd by him as little Children than to be inform'd how he will govern us It is to this says he that I exhort all the World knowing well that all the rest is nothing but Vanity and Amusement of Spirit For all the Learning and Curiosities of all the Men in the World cannot save us on the contrary their Doctrines Learning and Sentiments do rather withdraw us from God and our Salvation They either furnish us with means of Self-presumption or they slacken our Care to work out our Salvation Those words of Scripture which seem to say that God reprobates or damns Men cannot be understood but by the Signification of them which cannot be known but by the Light of Faith for if we take these words according to our Sense we should speak Evil of God and believe that he is Furious or Evil which cannot be for he is all Goodness all Peace and Tranquility and therefore he who would not utter Slanders against God ought not to stick to the Terms of the Scripture but in so far as they lead us to love and adore God or to the knowledge of our own Nothingness and Charity to our Neighbour for God has neither said nor taught to us but the things which tend to these Truths Thus when we believe that all Grace and Salvation comes immediately from God as it is true because we are Nothings then we honour God and acknowledge his Almighty Power in making so great things by his Grace of nothing and we must needs love him also by this Consideration and beg that he will continue and encrease this Grace and when we believe that God is so Gracious towards us that as soon as a sinner shall repent and turn unto him he will have Mercy on him this reinforces our Love to him in consideration of the Love he bears us so mercifully to Pardon us In these two Senses we may hold different Opinions about Grace and believe that it comes entirely from God and believe also that Men may have it when they will since God never rejects a penitent Sinner But whether we hold the one or the other of these in terms which do not tend to humble us and to acknowledge the Greatness of God that we may love and adore him it is an evil thing and it is a great rashness for Man to interpret and corrupt the Scriptures by Terms which authorize a Remissness in Vertue For they who will Gloss on the Scripture Words might say that God spoke not truly when he said to Jonas yet Forty Days and Ninevah shall be destroyed for the thing did not fall out according to the Terms which were not conditional but absolute Yet notwithstanding we ought not to surprize God in his Words or in the Scripture Terms but we ought to draw profit to our Souls from them conformably to his Designs who speaks only for our Profit He says absolutely that Ninevah shall be destroyed because the Inhabitants merited this Sentence the Justice of God condemn'd their Injustice but how soon they repented and embraced Penitence his Goodness and Mercy did also pardon them We must not therefore say that God did not speak truly but that he judg'd them justly and that he afterwards mercifully pardon'd them without being nice or grumbling about the Form of his Words or Expressions which are design'd only to make us grosly to understand the things according to our Capacity and Weakness These are certainly most excellent Cautions as to the expounding and understanding of the Holy Scriptures where the most necessary Duties are most plainly set down and obscure things cannot be discovered by human Wisdom but by Divine Faith and by the same Spirit that endited them where we ought not to quibble about Words and Phâ—ases but so to consider them as may tend most to the Love of God and Charity to our Neighbours and a deep Sense of our own Nothingness This is the excellent Rule given by S. Augustine hereafter to be mentioned this is the Method which the holy Fathers observed in interpreting the Holy Scriptures which makes their Writings so full of Unction and how desirable a Blessing is it that they who write Commentaries now adays may be acted by the same Spirit but this is thought too mean and simple for the Learning and Criticks of this Age. XXVII 12. The Clearing of Difficulties about Divine Truths in a few Words is likewise a singular Quality of those Writings The Learned we see still wrangle about them to Eternity writing huge Volumes and confounding rather than clearing them by a Multitude of Words and Distinctions The Doctrines about Grace Predestination and the Free-will of Man have been toss'd unsatisfactorily thro' many Ages Multitudes of Volumes written concerning them and yet the greatest Difficulties still left unresolved both Sides having a Mixture of Truth and Error the one that they might give all to God taking from Man what he had irrevocably given him and the other that they might reserve this to Man taking from God and subjecting to the Caprice of Man that which belongs to the pure Grace of God and from both there do follow Consequences most injurious to God and most prejudicial to the Salvation of Men tho' disclaimed by the most Now in two or three Sheets of Paper of those Writings there is more said for the clearing of those Difficulties than in whole Libraries of Volumes This in the â— and 2. Chap. of the 1. Part of Academ des Scavans Theologiens written upon Occasion of Conferences with and at the Desire of a learned and pious Divine Mr. Peter Noels Canon at Maline a Jansenist who had been Secretary to the famous Jansâ—nius Yprensis and had a great Veneration for this Virgin and her Writings to his Death I shall mention another Instance of this Nature of Mr. Gilleman's Canon and Arch-Priest at Gaunt famous there for some Writings who having ask'd her Judgment of the Doctrine of the Casuists then much talk'd of viz. That a Man may be sav'd by Attrition without Contrition by Sorrow for his Sins without the Love of God telling her that he had writ a large Volume against this false Doctrine she told him
they will become no less for this Saying and if there are none at least some will be awakened out of their Security and endeavour to become so If A. B. had said that God by an unchangeable Decree from all Eternity had predestinated the greatest part of the World to Damnation it might then indeed be said that she is void of Charity to God and Man But when she declares that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance and yet that all Men were living in a Contradiction to the Life and Spirit of Jesus Christ she could not do them a more charitable Office than to warn them of their Danger Will they say the Psalmist was uncharitable and damn'd all the World because he tells us the Lord look'd down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God they are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doeth Good no not one Every Man ought to weigh the Truth or Falshood of this Saying as to himself and see if he can make this particular Exception to the general Saying There is no True Christians upon Earth let him set at the Foot of it Except I my self And if his Conscience dare not write down this Exception he has reason to thank the Charity that put him to the Trial without regard whether it be true or false as to others which will avail him nothing so long as it holds as to himself And as to the other part of the Prejudice that God will make her and her Writings the Mean of the Renovation of the Gospel Spirit She says It is God who enlightens Understandings who warms Wills with his Love who produces Charity in Souls in short who is the only Giver of all Good without any Creatures being able to cause to be born in the Soul of another the Spirit of Regeneration which is to live again to God and to die to ones self This is a Masterpiece of the Works of God much more rare and precious than the Body of Man and nevertheless he will not do it but by the means of Creatures who shall be subject to him and will hear his Voice who will make others Partakers of the Light which God communicates to them that by it they may be enlightned and know their Errors and the Way to become True Believers The Understanding the Speech and the Hand of such spiritual Mothers is the Matter with which God will beget his True Children making them comprehend his Truths by the Words Writings and Actions of those who shall receive the Word of God immediately who are few in number because Men are now so diverted in the Affairs and Business of this World that they cannot hear the Voice of God tho' he speak continually to their Heart And to supply their Weakness and the Wandrings of their Spirit his great Goodness causes to speak and write by sensible and visible Objects the things which may render all those True Believers who truly desire to become so And that her Writings are of this Nature full of Divine and Saving Truths Simple and Solid Milk for Babes and Meat for strong Men suted for all Capacities and all Ages they manifest themselves as the Light does to those who are not Blind And as to their reproaching her that being a Woman yet she would presume to instruct the World when St. Paul would not suffer a Woman to speak in the Church and therefore calling her in Contempt and Old Wife she said That for her being a Woman she could not hinder it since no Body forms themselves they must ask God if they would know why he created her a Woman and not a Man that she her self had been displeas'd at it but since God made her know it was his Pleasure she was content for she lov'd rather to be a little Atom in the Will of God than a whole World in her own Will And when she began to teach by her Writings it was by an express Command of God which she long resisted for which she begs Pardon for she could not resolve on this because she was a Woman who has never so much Authority in matter of Doctrine as a Man But she came over all humane Respects and expos'd her self to all their Mockeries She says If the Truths of God must be rejected because they are dictated by a Woman all the Great and Learned that ever were in the World ought also to be rejected seeing all are equally come of a Woman Why should they then despise their Origin since God does not despise it but makes use of them to operate his greatest Marvels and always Figures the Church his Spouse by a Woman Women are as capable of receiving the Graces of God as Men there being no difference between their Souls and the bodily difference respecting Nature only in which even Woman ought to be more regarded than Men seeing when God would needs become Man he would have a Woman for his Mother but not a Man for his Father and he has done his greatest Wonders by the means of Women What Triumphant Victory did Judith obtain against Holofernes and Esther in the Deliverance of God's People And whereas it is said it is not permitted Women to teach the Apostle she says ordains the aged Women to teach the younger and to instruct their Children and Family in the fear of God and both in the Old and New Testament we read of many Women-Prophetesses foretelling things to come And the Apostle says it is an honour to a Woman to prophesie with her Head covered She says they ought to let God speâ—k by a Woman if it be his Pleasure since he spoke in former Times to a Prophet by a Beast that he bestows his Graces and Wisdom on whom he pleases and Man ought not to ask him why he does so That before God it is not Man or Woman that signifies any thing but the Spirit of Righteousness and Truth That they ought not to regard whether she be Man or Woman but whether what she says be Just and True That she writes by an express Command of God doing this as secretly as she can shut up in her Chamber That Men are now less dispos'd to receive his Divine Light than Women since their Hearts are blown up with Pride to apply all Glory and Authority to themselves instead of referring it to God and cannot endure that a simple Woman as she should speak of Divine Things least their Learning should be less esteem'd So those Great Philosophers will not let God do his Marvels by the means of a Virgin but will oblige him to operate by Great Divines not remembring that he has said * He has chosen the weak things of the World to confound the things that are mighty and the foolish things of the World to confound the wise and base things of the World and
it I take Cant for a multitude of Words without any True and Divine Sence and not flowing from an inward Life and Spirit and of this there is but too much in the World But the Writings of A. B. are of another Temper and no Body will nauseate them upon this Head but they who have a secret Disgust for the Holy Scriptures God's Ways are not as our ways When we write we seek our selves we strive to discover our Reason and our Learning and study what may please the Curiosity the Fancy and the Niceness of others The Holy Writings are most unlike to ours both as to Matter and Manner and Method and Stile they are not written to please the Learned the Orator the Philosopher the Critick the Curious but to bring down every lofty Imagination and to mortifie our Self-conceit to Comfort the Humble and the Afflicted to give Light and Knowledge to the Poor and Simple and to send the Rich away empty They repeat again and again the great and necessary things of God's Law to mortifie our Niceness and Curiosity and to beat them in upon us by all means while we think it enough to know these things tho' we are not so happy as to do them Now Writings that partake so much of this Spirit will not be despis'd on this Head by any sincere Christian XXVII Some endeavour to render her Sentiments ridiculous concerning the State of the Blessed in the Life to come and they say she establishes a Mahumetan Paradise Eating and Drinking and Generation in the Kingdom of Heaven making the Earth to become that Heaven and that it shall be a Place of all sensitive Delights Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled I would gladly ask such if Adam had continued always in the State of Innocence perfectly Pure and Holy whether they would have called his State a Mahumetan Paradise and a sensual Life If there were no Concupiscence in Man's Nature but a most ardent pure and habitual Love of God the Beauties and Delights of all the Creatures would serve to enflame the Soul still the more with the Love of God There needs no more but to understand her Sentiments to be convinced of the impudent Falshood of their Reproaches She says then That the Earth and all this visible World being wholly renewed and restored to that glorious State in which it was at first formed of which in the First Part shall be the Seat of the Kingdom of God with Men for ever where Jesus Christ God-Man will reign with the Blessed both as to his Divinity and Humanity That Heaven as to the Soul is the Presence of God and we are in Heaven when we are in God and God is in Heaven as he is in the Souls of his Saints as Augustin interprets Our Father which art in the Heavens but as God has given us both a Body and Soul he has given us also a Paradise of both the Soul can have its compleat Paradise in the Presence of God but the Body must have a material and bodily one like it self For this end the Earth and all this visible World and all that therein is were created and for the same Reason God would have become Man tho' Man had never sinn'd that he might live with him both bodily and spiritually and to make his Happiness compleat And therefore he being unchangeable in his infinitely Wise and Good Designs he will certainly make not an imaginary but a real divine and corporeal Reparation of all things to last for ever for his Recompences are Eternal and will purge away from all the Creatures the Malignity and Corruption that Sin has brought upon them And in this State every individual Saint being restored in Body and Soul to the State in which Adam was in his greatest purity before the Woman was formed out of him shall produce his like of himself alone through all Eternity from a Principle of the Love of God and by an ardent Desire that there may be still more Creatures to love and praise the Divine Majesty This then shall not be a corrupt lustful and shameful Propagation like to that of this corrupt World but altogether Pure Holy and Glorious as we see in a manner an earthly Figure of it still in all the Plants and Trees In the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God in Heaven Now what is there in all this unworthy of God or unsutable to the State of the Blessed or contrary to the Holy Scriptures or to the Nature of things It is certain none of the Works of God shall perish but all shall be restored to their primitive Perfection The Scripture tells us there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth Whose Habitation would the Earth have been if Man had never sinn'd and if the Earth had never been accursed And whose Habitation shall it be when it is renewed and made a new Earth When Men fancied all the Works of God to be shut up as it were in a round Sphere and the Earth to be its Centre and the Planetary and Starry Heavens so many firm and solid Orbs moving round about it and the Empyreal Heaven above all this Sentiment about the Earth might have been thought absurd But in the Age we live in wherein is made known the vastness of the Universe and that all the fix'd Stars are probably Suns and Centres of different Systems of the whole and all the other Planets as well as our Earth among which it moves replenish'd no doubt with variety of living and intelligent Beings we have reason to admire the Providence of God in giving Discoveries to a simple unlearned Woman of the State and Habitation of the Blessed sutable to what is now known of the Frame of the Universe which is also fully confirmed from the Holy Scriptures as was shewn in the First Part and does so clearly demonstrate the unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness of God who having created Man in a Pure and Happy State and the Delights and Beauties of this World for his Accessory Felicity and the Devil by his Craft and Subtilty having perverted both and made this Earth for many Ages nothing but Scenes of Wickedness and Misery yet God by his infinitely Wise Conduct and Providence brings about at last the perfect Renovation of Man and of his Habitation the Earth and of all the Creatures and makes it an Eternal Paradise of unspotted Purity and Bliss Whereas on the other Hand it is most unaccountable how infinite Wisdom and Goodness who changes not after he had form'd Man and this World in so excellent a State and both are corrupted by the Devils should continue the Earth for so many Ages to be the Theatre of their Wickedness and then entirely destroy it Might it not then be said as she expresses it That God
Words yea these Niceties of the precise Truth of Terms are things on Earth esteemed by vain Men who seek Praise and Curiosities more than the Essence of the Means of their Salvation and the Holy Spirit will not encourage these Niceties but inspires always Simplicity For this Cause I do not reflect upon the Mistake that I oft times commit of naming Peter for Paul or Wood for Stone It is enough to me that I make the Substance of the thing be understood that Men may return to the Love of God And he having permitted me to cause to be printed all my Writings has not appointed in what Time by what Person in what Place or by what Means I might do it I must therefore apply my natural Spirit to find out these Means I have writ of it to my Friends and advertised them that it was the Will of God that this should be done for his Glâ—â—â— And if I had not acted naturally in this these Persons could not know this express Will of God because they are not yet so disengaged that they may hear the Voice of God Ought I therefore to hold my Peace and not to write because the Holy Spirit does not dictate to me all the Words and because I make use of those which I speak in my homely vulgar Language And must I prove otherwise than by my Words that it is the Holy Spirit who acts in me They who consider this without an evil Eye will I am perswaded be convinc'd that she is far from attributing her Mistakes and Defects to the Dictates of the Spirit of God and that yet it might be very well said to him who was desirous to reduce her Writings to a greater Exactness free of all Mistakes What Rashness is it for Men to offer to correct the Works of God For God thinks fit to chuse weak and foolish things to confound the wise and mighty and to make his strength appear in their weakness that when we see the great and substantial Truths of God declared by one of such Simplicity without Disguise and Affectation without all Human Learning and the Artifices and Exactness whereby we recommend our Writings to the World we may clearly see that it is not her own Natural Spirit that by its Industry and Application searches out and discovers those Divine Truths tho' its Defects and Weakness appear in applying to declare them to the World but that it is the Spirit of God And as they who are very intent upon the cultivating of their Minds with Human Learning are very unconcern'd as to fine Cloaths and other outward things about which others are very nice and ready to laugh at their unfashionableness so one who is wholly taken up with the great and substantial Truths of God and Eternity and intent to impress them on the Hearts of others has no regard to niceness of Words and Terms is not curious to avoid little Mistakes about lesser and accidental Matters but earnest only to inculcate to them the great things of Eternity And that this was the Disposition of A. B's Spirit appears thro' all her Writings It may be Joshuah knew not whether it was the Sun or Earth that stood still and Esay thought that Hezekiah would undoubtedly die of his Disease and S. Matthew that Jeremy had written that which Zachary had said and that there were two Thieves who upâ—raided Jesus Christ on the Cross tho' S. Luke tells it was but one of them and Jesus Christ himself that there were Figs on a Fig-Tree when there were none But what will some say is not this to take from the divine Writers their Authority and Force This is as ridiculous as if a Man dying for Hunger would not take the Bread offer'd him under a Pretext that he who offer'd it was mistaken in some Words when he offered it as that he said it was bak'd such a Day whereas it was on another Day or that it came from Peter's House whereas it came from John's or that the Corn it was made of came from France when it was from Germany from whence the poor famish'd Man would fancy that the Bread could not nourish him that it was not good that they who were mistaken in this might be mistaken in taking it may be Poison or Tares for Corn or Arsnick for Meal But what ought such Mistakes to be imputed to the Holy Spirit God forbid they belong only to the Creature And when it pleases the Holy Spirit for so saving Ends as to recommend Simplicity the study of Purification the cleaving to the one thing needful to teach those who desire to be enlightned by God that they must leave off the ways of humane Exactness and Speculation and of confounding the Understanding with a Thousand barren and needless Curiosities which certainly devour much precious time without making us well-pleasing to God or advancing one step in his Love but have rather turn'd us away from it and occupied and blown us up with these useless Vanities That the Holy Spirit I say should permit for so saving an Advantage some Mistakes which regard Accidental Foreign and Accessory things to remain some time in the Instruments which he makes use of most certainly and infallibly in the things that concern the way to Heaven What is there in all this that derogates from the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls or the Divine Authority of those sent by God to guide Man without fail to this supream End The Difference that is observed amongst Persons inspired by God and sometimes of the same Person from himself comes from this that they have not the same Gifts by Nature or are not equally enlightned or the same Person is not so much at one time as at another even touching Divine Things when they are Accessories Thus the Apostles knew not from the Beginning that the Gentiles would be called to the Gospel and therefore at first they lived exactly after the Manner of the Jews But when God gave and encreased this Light they acted and spoke otherwise must we conclude from this that they were first deceived or that the Holy Spirit did not inspire them or did not inspire them aright Not at all But that at first it was not necessary it should be made known to them till the saving Doctrine of the Gospel were established among the Jews So that we must hence conclude only that the Holy Spirit gives and encreases his Light as he sees it expedient for Men's Salvation Thus A. B. in her younger Years had not received the Light which respects the glorious State in which Adam was created before Eve and therefore spake of Adam then according to the common Opinion but afterwards in a more sublime Manner XXIII 5. It was again objected to her that she contradicted both the Holy Scriptures and her self and therefore could not be led by the Spirit of God To this she replied That this cannot be true indeed if her Writings be endited
that by this Word the inward Thoughts of his Heart are made manifest and laid open he is forced to fall down upon his Face and to acknowledge that it is God who speaks unto him This one Mark is sufficient to prove the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture and it is so clear that it may be understood by the most simple moreover it is most certain and infallible To this many other Marks might be added which for brevity's sake I pass over and so much the rather that they are to be had abundantly from those Writers who have designedly treated of the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures XXII Now that this may be applied to the Writings of Antonia Bourignon both I my self and many Persons of Probity have experienced and do daily experience that those Writings do as clearly lay before us our inward State as if God were immediately speaking unto us Moreover they do so clearly and so lively set before our Eyes the Vanity and Nothingness of all Earthly and Temporal things and the Glory of Heavenly and Eternal things that we are forced unless we would do Violence to our Conscience to love and seek after these last things only and absolutely to forsake and avoid the other And there is no doubt but that all they who sincerely desire to do the Will of God and to embrace and practice the Truth which they know shall experience in themselves the same Effects from the reading of those Writings and give Testimony that they are endited by the Spirit of God XXIII Moreover the Writings of Antonia Bourignon are so consonant to the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that from hence it appears more clearly than the Sun at Noon-day that the same Spirit has endited both Yea the Writings of Antonia Bourignon are as a Key whereby the Sacred Scriptures are opened and expounded So that the great Mysteries hitherto understood by none are expounded by these Writings and the Difficulties which hitherto have been most intricate are resolved It is also most worthy of Observation that a Virgin so simple as Antonia Bourignon should without Study or Meditation commit to Writing the most solid clear and saving Truths Being moved to write against her natural Inclination only for promoting the Glory of God and the Good of her Neighbour without the prospect of any temporal Advantage but on the contrary foreseeing that she must suffer much because of these Writings as the Event did confirm for because she did so clearly and efficaciously declare the saving Truth the Churchmen and the Learned of all Sects and Parties did prosecute her with Hatred Calumnies and Persecution even to her Death XXIV We judge therefore that we have abundance of Reasons and Arguments to conclude that A. B. was moved by the Spirit of God to write for the enlightning of others The End of the Third Part. An Advertisement to the Reader THEY who esteem the Writings and Sentiments of A. B. will no doubt be desirous to know the History of her Life and they who make it their Business to traduce and defame her to the World do make it necessary to be known thereby to prevent or remove the Prejudices which they may breed in the Minds of well-disposed Persons against Writings which would be so helpful to them in the way to Eternal Life The inward Sentiments of others cannot be known but from themselves or by the Spirit of God and their Sincerity may appear from the constant Tenour of their Actions in the whole course of their Lives and the Story of their Life and Actions may be had both from themselves and from those who have been Eye-Witnesses of their Conversation both Friends and indifferent Persons The Testimony of Enemies in bespattering and defaming them is no more to be regarded than that of false Witnesses when there are unquestionable Evidences to the contrary It is easie also for those who consider things with an evil Eye to give such a turn to the Actions of the Best as may make them hateful and ridiculous witness the Author of Dictionaire Historique Critique in his Character of the King and Prophet David The inward Life of A. B. and the outward likewise for a Course of many Years is written by her self and the Continuation of it to her Death by a Person of known Integrity who was with her for some of the last Years of her Life and was helped in it by her own Memorials and those of her Friends and often led her to relate unto him her whole Life Besides there are some sixty Testimonies some private others publick before Judges Magistrates upon Oath of Persons to whom she was well known which do refer to a good part of the most remarkable Events of her Life From these Originals then I have drawn the following Summary of her Life the fuller Account being to be had from those Writings themselves I know there are many who sit in the Seat of the Scornful and will turn all this into Ridicule at which we need not wonder when even the Penmen of the Sacred Scriptures dâ—es not escape their Lash God's ways are so different froâ— Man's that the natural Man perceiveth not the things that are of God but they seem Foolishness to him We have strong Attachments to Parents Friends Wife Children to our Guides the Learned the Eloquent the Great to Study and Learning and worldly Accommodations and therein gratifie and cherish the corrupt Inclinations of our Hearts God will have Iâ—struments form'd upon different Molds Our Lord would not let them go take leave of their Friends or go bury their Father He engages them to forsake their Wives and Children or if they be free not to be bound God makes Men forsake their Country and their Friends and go they know not where upon his Word only He chooses Children Persons without Learning forbidding them to study or to follow the Conduct and Wisdom of Men. He chooses them Wâ—â—k and Simple without Authority or Power without a Following or Applause keeps them for the most part in Solitude either that they may converse with God or to preserve them from the Persecutions of Men of those especially who call themselves the Church and People of God and when he draws them out of it he lets them be chas'd from one Place to another and at last die in Assliction and Misery How impertinent does this Conduct seem to the Wisdom of humane Reason and yet by these Rules God has form'd Men for his Service in all Ages Abraham Jacob Moses David Elisha Jeremiah Ames â—ohn Baptist â—esus Christ himself all the Apostles and the true Saints who have followed him When Men then are so wise in their own Eyes as to condemn this in the Person of A. B. they must know that they condemn the Conduct of God himself in his Saints who will thereby have their Hearts and Wills wholly disengag'd from self and all worldly
does from a Fountain She needed not it seems the Buckets of Study and Meditation wherewith to draw out of the broken Cisterns of others but she had within her a Fountain of living Water still springing up to everlasting Life As this is attested by those who were of her particular Acquaintance and all her Manuscripts are still extant written with her own Hand so a particular Account is given given of this by Mr. Francken Merchant at Amsterdam in his Testimony concerning her where among other things he tells That a learned Man of Amsterdam a Doctor of Law said to him one Day that he could not believe but it was some learned Man who had writ these Letters and publish'd them under the Name of A. B. as not being willing to be known and Mr. Francken assur'd him of the contrary but however he not having had long time to converse with her he would take care to inform himself more narrowly so as to be able to convince him as it fell out for some time since after he had told him he had often found her in her little Chamber with a Piece of Deal Board on her Knees writing without any other Thing but the Paper on which she wrote and the Pen and Ink which she made use of and she leaving off to write upon her Discovering that he was in the Room and because she never wrote but with Attention to the Voice of God in the inward Silence and Recollection of her Spirit he would take up the Paper with her Permission to read it and found it was writ so swiftly that there would be yet ten or twelve Lines fresh and wet Having made this Trial of it his Friend he says was perswaded of it as much as if he had seen it himself having full Confidence in his Sincerity from long Experience and Familiarity XXX 15. That which ought greatly to recommend her Writings to us is the Conformity of her Life and Practice It is the general Complaint concerning those who recommend Vertue and a truly Christian Life to others that they do not practice it themselves that they speak by one Principle and live by another and so their Words have little Force and they destroy Christianity one way more than it is possible for them to build it up another I know some have made an ill Use of the Elogies which have been given of her Life and Spirit by those who were Eye-witnesses of all like Spiders sucking Poison from the Flowers where the Bees gather Honey they exaggerate some of their Expressions far beyond the Intent of them and in Opposition to the Testimonies of those who were living Witnesses of her Life they some eighteen Years after she is dead will needs draw a Picture of her that may represent her very ugly with what Equity and Candour will appear in its due Place However any who shall read impartially the Story of her Life and the Testimonies given of her throughout all the Periods of it â— will conceive better Thoughts of her than what the New Narratives would give of them They will see that she liv'd constantly as one travelling towards Eternity and therein studying in all things to conform her Life to that of Jesus Christ in these and such-like Instances She convers'd always with God and no more with Men than her Duty and Charity requir'd she led a Life of continual Penitence mortifying her corrupt Nature and never gratifying her sensual Appetites in any thing Tho' she might have enjoy'd the Pleasures of her Senses the Delights of her Taste and of her other Senses yet she voluntarily depriv'd herself of them to please God Tho' she had lawfully acquir'd Riches yet would never use them but for pure Necessity Tho' she might have been conveniently serv'd and honour'd according to her Condition yet she despis'd these Honours and Services to imitate Jesus Christ loving rather to live unknown and serve herself than to be serv'd There was nothing observ'd in her Actions contrary to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God but they appear'd still to be accompanied with those three Qualities deriv'd from the Spirit of God She never recommended to any the Practice of a Vertue which she did not most exemplarily practice herself She was most humble and self-denied always ready to serve others rather than be serv'd by them and to take to her self the meanest and the least of every thing She did not affect to be thought humble by humble Words Gestures Habits c. nor did she distinguish her self from the rest of the World by any singular indifferent Thing but as to Habit Diet c. conform'd her self to the Customs of the Places where she happen'd to be So great was her Charity that she brought up some hundreds of Girls maintaining fifty of them at a time for the space of seven Years on her own Charges what was allow'd by the Founder being only for ten employing her Time Wealth Strength of Body and Mind in Training them up in all Vertuous Exercises and distinguishing herself in nothing from them as to Diet Bread Apparel c. Such was her Love to Men's Souls that she spared nothing to perswade them to the Love of God and to Imitate Jesus Christ and employ'd her Time and Wealth in writing and publishing the Truths of God for that End She suffer'd patiently all manner of Reproaches and Persecutions for the Sake of Jesus Christ She had an invincible Firmness and Constancy in what was Truth Nothing could shake or alter her She did nothing to please Men She had a constant Equality of Mind in all Conditions She discover'd a wonderful Prudence on all Occasions Let any body but read the Testimonies given of her by those who knew her in her Youth in her old Age and in all States of her Life as they are set down in Recucil des Temoignages and particularly that of Mr. Francken Merchant of Amsterdam and they will see how closely she was a Follower of Jesus Christ in Humility and Poverty of Spirit in a Contempt of all earthly Things in a Life of Labour and Penitence and in the true Love of God and the Souls of Men. Now Writings whose Substance and Essence contains such excellent Truths as those I have mention'd in the Account of the Essentials of Christianity and which have such remarkable Qualities and penn'd by one who liv'd so her self ought certainly to meet with some Regard and not to be immediately thrown away and People frighted from looking into them because there are in them some Sentiments which do not relish and seem to us Extravagant XXXI But perhaps it will be said that those Doctrines which she calls Accessories may be dangerous Opinions and damnable Doctrines and that what she seems to build with the one Hand she pulls down with the other that she makes a Mahumetan Paradise Eating and Drinking and Generation in the Kingdom of Heaven How easie a thing is it
Profession of this new Worship and are joined to those Persons and their Opinions Now she establish'd no new Worship nor new Exercises nor Laws nor Rules that savour of a Sect but only by her Life and Writings call'd on People to return to the Love of God and to imitate the Life of Jesus Christ in which State they were not and without which they could not be saved In her Letter to M. Reinboth Superintendant in Holstein I am very far says she from making a new Church as some maliciously slander me for I bring no new thing and Novelties are very displeasing to me I am careful therefore not to introduce any but I labour to advance in a Gospel-Life and to practise it And all my Writings and all I said formerly to well-disposed Persons aimed only at this and I forbear now to speak to them because I found it was unprofitable Your Preachers wrong me greatly when they cry out that I draw their People from them for in the ten Months I have been in Holstein I have not made Acquaintance with so much as one Person not so much as with my Landlady so that I give them no ground to say or think that I strive to draw People to form a new Church or teach a new Doctrine seeing that which Jesus Christ left us is the most perfect and the last that God will send unto Men. No new thing needs be invented but we should labour to perfect our selves in it and to put it truly in Practice instead of Disputing about it for all these Disputes are raised by the Devil to bring Hatred Divisions and Discords amongst Christians whereas the Church of God should be united in Peace and Love in the meek Spirit of Jesus Christ and it is now divided in as many Parties as there are different Sects which is lamentable and disturbs the Peace of Christian Souls and makes that they do not love one another tho' Jesus Christ has so earnestly recommended to them to love one another They are all partial and only love the Party which they have undertaken to stand by or defend This proceeds from an Antichristian Spirit and not from the Spirit of Christ XX. They libell'd her that she despised Sermons Sacraments Pastours Priesthood and all Government which were all most horrid Calumnies This says she in her Letter to Dr. Nieman Superintendant in Holstein is a gross Calumny for I wish with all my Heart that both Church and State may continue in Vigour for otherwise there would be no Knowledge of God in the Land nor Commonwealths maintained Seeing Preachings and Sacraments preserve amongst Men the Memory of sacred things and States keep their People in their Duty by Justice or else there would be nothing but Confusion and the Good would be destroyed by the Wicked if there were no Government and Magistrates to rule and govern them I indeed despise the Abuse of Churches and Sermons and Sacraments but not the Use of them nor the Essence of these which are established by God as is also Government and Magistracy And there is a great Difference between the despising a thing in it self and the Abuse that is made of it For it is one thing to say that every Sect abuses the Holy Scriptures and another to say that the Scripture is of no Worth or to despise it because many abuse it Now it seems Buchardus would make People believe that I despise all these Holy Things when I despise only the Abuse of them as true Christians ought to do who lay to Heart God's Honour They ought to lament when they see Men to degenerate as to the Love of God that they seem to hold meerly to the Bark of the things ordained by God without squaring their Lives by them They say I despise the Sacraments and other Offices of Piety while I believe there is no body that esteems them more than I do For the Quakers accused me by their defamatory Treatise That I had an abominable Doctrine sending Persons to Churches Sermons or Sacraments or other outward Solemnities desiring to infer from this that I had not the Spirit of God since I still esteemed those outward Devotions and also incited others to make use of them as Means to approach unto God Your Preachers may read what I have written in that Advertisement upon this Head so that I need not enlarge my self farther here but will satisfie them as to what they say That in effect I despise the Sacraments and other outward Devotions because I do not go my self to the Church nor to the Sacraments and they will needs reject all that I say in the Praise of Holy Things because I do not observe them my self to give an Example to others and would infer from thence That I speak with Dissimulation in praise of Holy Things and not sincerely as I think in my Heart This convinces me that they no ways know me For if they only knew me outwardly they would sufficiently see that I am sincere and not at all feigned or dissembled so that if I had in my Heart a Contempt for the Sacraments and other outward Devotions I would openly declare it by Word and Writ for I have overcome the World and am not afraid to tell the Truth of what I know I have indeed written against the Abuse of the Sacraments and other outward Solemnities but I never spoke against the things themselves seeing they are good and have often serv'd me as Means of Union with God But if I do not go now to the Church or Sacraments it is not out of Contempt of Holy Things but because I have no longer so great need of outward Means of Union with God as I had formerly when the Conversation of Men and the Diversion of the Cares of temporal Affairs did divert my Attention from God I retired then to Churches and approached the Sacraments that I might be the more recollected and united to God But since God has given me the Grace to find this Recollection in my little Chamber and to entertain my self in Spirit with God in Solitude I have not thought it so necessary to use these outward Ceremonies which sometimes would serve me for a Distraction to my inward Recollection This is partly the Reason why I have left them off but this is not all For if I had the Freedom to go to Church I would go to it on the Days commanded and would receive the Sacrament at the Times appointed Since I am under the Ordinances of the Roman Church Jesus Christ teaches me to obey the Laws both of God and Men as he himself did on Earth obeying Caesar and other Superiours tho' they were sometimes evil but their Ordinances good as I have particularly shewn in the said Advertisement But I cannot go to Church without hazard of my Life and it is not lawful for me to expose my self to so evident Dangers and Necessity has no Law There are Persons in the
Places This says she is the greatest Falshood of all for I said from the Beginning that if my Life and Words are not conformable to the said Scriptures they ought not to believe me This I have often repeated since and say it over again now and on all fit Occasions I tell every one that the Sence of the Scriptures is the Nourishment of Souls It seems to me says she a very ill thing to forbid Christians the Reading of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue since it must teach us all that we ought to do and forsake c. The only Good says she that remains in the World is that the Text of Scripture remains in its Integrity that the Devil has never had Power to change and falsifie it but to oppose it only by the Glosses and Inventions of Men who endeavour to accommodate it to the modern Corruption but in vain they cannot change it since they who will follow Jesus Christ may yet find it entire and draw in its Fountain all that is written by the Apostles Prophets and other Souls filled with the Holy Spirit In this the Promise of Jesus Christ is fulfilled That Hell shall never be able to pluck it out of the Hands of the Christians that it may serve for Food and Nourishment to all true Believers who not stopping at the broken Cisterns of human Learning shall draw out of the Fountain of living Water to the End of the World In a Word thro' all her Writings she recommends the Reading of the Holy Scriptures looks on it as one of the greatest Miracles of Providence that they have been preserved uncorrupted and entire to be a standing Testimony against the Professors of Christianity while their Lives are a flat Contradiction to them That the Doctrine of Jesus Christ contained in the Gospels is the last Doctrine that is to come into the World and fully directs us the Way to eternal Life and desires that her Life and Doctrine may be examined thereby and no Regard had to it but in so far as it is conformable thereunto and that she aims at nothing but to perswade People to embrace in their Life and Spirit the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ contained in the Gospel It is true she did not give her self to reading of the Holy Scriptures being immediately and inwardly taught by God the same Truths which are contained in them Every one says she ought to use the Means that lead them best to the Love of God because the Ways to this Love are divers some attain to it by the Means of reading seriously the Holy Scriptures others by humble assiduous Prayers others by Solitude and retiring from human Conversation and so of many others It is of small Moment to know by what Means others have attained to this Love of God provided we take the Means that are most fit for us to attain to it also There are divers Ways as there are divers Sins which are Hindrances in those Ways which every one ought to oppose according as he knows them to be in himself without offering to make one general Law and Rule whereby to lead all to God for he who is not immediately instructed by the Holy Spirit would do very ill if he should not make use of the reading of the Holy Scripture or if he should not search for those who speak by the Holy Spirit for this would be to tempt God to Will that he should instruct all Men immediately while they are so taken up with or wedded to the Affairs of this World And on the contrary it would be very ill done if one should make use of Reading or other outward Means when he has withdrawn from all Creatures and finds the immediate Conduct of God Such a Soul would oppose the Holy Spirit and would hinder the operation of his Graces if it should make use of Reading or other outward Means because in this State it ought not any longer to act but to be passive and follow the Spirit who guides it it without operating any more it self In doing this she is far from despising or rejecting the Holy Scriptures when I am with a Friend and converse with him by Word of Mouth and he answers me after the same manner we will not then make use of Writing or Letters and yet it cannot be concluded from thence that I reject or despise his Letters this way of Communication by Letters is most agreeable but it is for the Absent They who see and converse with one another make no use of Writing but they do not despise it they have a more speedy and delightful way of communicating their Thoughts Thus A. B. having inward and immediate Conversation with God had no need of the Scripture for to know his Will she learned it from his own Mouth and enjoy'd his Presence but they who have not recovered that Divine Conversation must have Recourse to the Scriptures and other outward Means according as they find them helpful to bring them nearer to God till they attain to the Enjoyment of himself And this is very agreeable to St. Augustin's Doctrine in his excellent Treatise de Doctrina Christiana He therefore who is establish'd in Faith Hope and Charity and inviolably retains them needs not the Scriptures unless it be to instruct others Therefore many live in the Desart by these Three without Books Hence I think that in them is already fulfill'd that which is said whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away XXII That she declared so positively that there are no True Christians at present upon Earth and that God would make her the Instrument of renewing the Spirit of the Gospel is another grievous Prejudice against her this was often objected to her and is answered by her in many Places of her Writings It was not Uncharitableness but great Charity to Men's Souls that mov'd her to declare this to all the World She was perswaded that none were True Christians but they in whom the Spirit of Christ did live whose Affections and Desires were set only on things Eternal and not on things Temporal that one could not be a True Christian by serving God and Mammon both by joining the Love of God and Self-love seeking to please Men and to please God too She met with many of good Inclinations but none who were truly Regenerated She did well as she says to tell this and she had done a great Evil in saying the contrary for to have said so to others could not have profited them even tho' it had been true it could not encrease their Holiness but rather give them occasion of Vain-glory Nature being tickled with little But when we are told that we are not True Christians we have reason to use the means to become so and to humble our selves before God that we may obtain his Grace If there are True Christians
things which are despis'd yea and things which are not to bring to nought things that are that no Flesh should glory in his Presence And thus he destroys the Wisdom of the Wise and brings to nothing the Understanding of the Prudent so that it shall be said where is the Wise Where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this World This they will acknowledge was the way of God's Dealing in former Times and why would they have him to alter it now when the Pastors Doctors and Teachers the Learned the Scribes and the Disputers of the Age are as full of their own Wisdom of their humane Studies and Learning as ever the Scribes and Pharisees the Wisemen and Philosophers were when God rais'd up Publicans and Fishermen to confound their Wisdom and Learning by the Simplicity of their Words That it is not St. Paul's Meaning that God may not thus communicate his Light and Truth to a Woman as well as Men for the Good of others is evident from the Sayings themselves In his time when the Faithful met together it was not as now when a Man who has his Head full of Learning declaims an Hour or two alone very often with Conceitedness enough to the People who must take for good Coin all that he says is such and which he stamps with Passages of Holy Scripture But then there were mutual Conferences where each of the Faithful were allow'd to tell their Sentiment or ask that of his Brethren and Elders but that all might be done in Order St. Paul ordains that their Women might not be of the number of the Interlocutors either by telling their own Thoughts or asking those of others but that they should do this at Home and even there should not pretend to teach their Husbands but learn of them It is evident then he speaks of ordinary Women married and encumbred with the Cares of their House who have need to learn and yet would be thought very Knowing and it is a Rule of Decency to avoid Confusion But at present they would have St. Paul's Meaning to be that Women enlightned by God in a free State always employed about Divine things should I do not say abstain from speaking publickly but even not write in secret in their own Houses the saving Light that God communicates to them and commands them and that when there is no fear of Confusion since such being very rare it is not to be fear'd that their number will bring Confusion This is as far from his Opinion as Falshood from Truth who a little before allows a Women to Prophesie if she have the Gift of it provided she be vail'd who knew that Anna spoke in the Temple and had seen Four Virgins Prophesie which were the Daughters of Philip the Evangelist Thus those envious Usurpers of the Key of Knowledge and Instruction are they become such absolute Masters of it as to oblige God to give it to no Body but to them A Passage of the Life of Tâ—resâ— is remarkable to this purpose as they spoke to her one Day of those Words of St. Paul and she thought on them God said to her Tell them not to be directed by one single Passage of Scripture but let them consider other Places and ask them if they will bind up my Hands XXIII They accused her of intolerable and blasphemous Pride in speaking well of her self in pretending to know the Accomplishment of the Holy Scriptures yea and to understand them better than they who wrote them that she calls her self a Mother of True Believers and that she exalts her self above the Prophets Apostles the Virgin Mary yea above God himself It is easie to give an ill turn to ones Words but Charity thinks no Evil and interprets them by the whole Tenour of their Life Spirit and Sentiments 1. That she exalted her self more than the Prophets Apostles the Virgin Mary c. she said was an impudent Lie for I know very well says she that I am a simple humane Creature as all other Men come of the corrupt mass of Adam And I do not say that I am either Prophet or Apostle or Virgin Mary or God himself as this Bucchardus says but I declare I am a frail Creature as all others to whom nevertheless God has sent his Light of Truth to communicate it to Men. Did they believe truly that there is a living God they durst not treat so ill the things which are declared from God and cause to be burnt by the Hangman the Books which the Holy Spirit has dictated of which they may have Evidence both from God and Men for they who see me write know very well that I do it without any humane Speculation or Study and that this flows from my Spirit as a River of Water flows from its Fountain and that I only lend my Hand and my Spirit to another Power than mine Many Persons are Witnesses of this God also has given me a more sure Testimony by imparting to me his Righteousness his Truth and his Charity for these things cannot come from Nature which being corrupt cannot produce any Good nor any Divine Vertues because I am come from the corrupt mass of Adam as all the rest of Men there could not be in me any Righteousness Truth or Charity which are all Divine and Supernatural Vertues which come not into the Souls of Men but by the work of the Holy Spirit for none but God only is perfectly Just and True And no Body can glory in the Righteousness Truth and Charity that he possesses without having a disordered Mind because these Vertues are no ways in the Person but in God alone who imparts them to whom he pleases And he who has receiv'd any of these Vertues ought to glorifie God and not to glory in himself for them as by the Grace of God I do not glory in my self And I do not fear that any Body can prove that I ascribe any Perfection or Vertue any manner of way to my self for God has given me too much of the Light of Truth to do this having made me see clearly that all Good comes from God and all Evil from Man and from the Devil which two Creatures being equally withdrawn from God the Fountain of all Good are fallen into all sort of Evil. And therefore nothing can proceed from the corrupt Nature of Man but Evil and Sin for this cause a Man can have no occasion of glorying in himself for his Vertues which are not his nor at his disposal And therefore Bucchardus has said most injuriously in his Book that I esteem my self more than the Prophets Apostles c. of whom I do not know to what Degrees of Grace they arriv'd that I should compare them to the Graces that God has imparted to me I know well that I am a poor Creature subject to many Miseries and Infirmities which makes me often humble my self before God and Man But I well know also
they are regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ tho' all their Actions be quite contrary to those of Jesus Christ and his Spirit for tho' they speak humbly and have an humble Shew and Gestures yet they have a very proud Heart and then they would have it believed that they are regenerated and would take it in ill part if I would say they are not They do not perceive that it is a greater Pride in them to say that they are regenerated than in me to say that I am a Mother of true Believers for he who is regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives no longer but Jesus Christ lives in him And a Mother of True Believers is nothing but a frail Creature who may yet sin and undo her self It is a small matter to be a Mother or Father of True Believers as to our own Perfection this gives us no more If God give us sufficient Light for the Conduct of our own Life in particular or if he give us of it in Abundance to enlighten others also this will not add one Degree of Glory to our Soul but in as far as we have been faithful Dispensers of the Graces of God For to be only the matter of a Father or Mother of True Believers a Statue or Image of Wood or Stone would serve as well as a living Person for as much as God is not tied to any thing he can as well speak by the Organ of a Statue of Wood or Stone as he did heretofore by Clouds by a burning Bush by Thunder all these matters cannot boast themselves because God operates by them for he has equally Power over all things and makes use of such Instruments as he pleases If he will beget True Believers by my Mouth he can do it as well as by an Image carv'd out of Wood. The Mennonists therefore are very unjust to take Scandal at the Works of God after I had explain'd to them what I meant by that Word a Mother of True Believers that I understood that all those whom God shall make use of for the Conversion of others shall be the True Fathers and Mothers of those who shall become True Believers by their means and that it is after this manner that St. Paul said I have begotten you The Apostle knew well that he had not Power to beget Children to God but he perceived well that God gave him Light in his Understanding and Words in his Mouth and Charity in his Heart and that by all these things many would be regenerated by becoming True Children of God and dying to the Flesh to live to the Spirit I have explain'd this Word of Mother of True Believers by saying that God by my Organ will give his Light to Men by which they shall see their Darkness and receive the Understanding of the Truth This Light with which he will produce True Believers is not mine tho' he produce them by my Mouth my Hand or my Spirit but it is God's even as our Bodies are not our Parents but of God for they cannot make one Hair of our Head yet God calls them Fathers and Mothers and commands to obey them under pain of Damnation This one Instance of an Expression so highly exaggerated formerly and of late which I think she vindicates as to the true Sence and Meaning to the Satisfaction of all equitable Readers upon the supposition of her being endued with Light by God for the Good of others this Instance I say may serve for a Sample to shew how unjust Men are in forming Characters of Persons from shreds of Expressions gathered here and there and put altogether without letting the World see the Contexts of them the main Scope of them or the Sence and Meaning given of them by the Persons concern'd and how highly thereby they sin against the Truth murther the Reputation of such impose upon the rest of Mankind and beget and become real Fathers of Hatred and Aversion in their Minds and Spirits Lord open their Eyes and lay not this Sin to their Charge As we are very apt to take up with false Vertues our selves so we are ready to judge rashly of others and to accuse them of Pride of which we our selves are more guilty Thus the Jews treated Jesus Christ Abraham say they is dead and the Propthes and thou sayest If a man keep my Saying he shall never taste of Death Art thou greater than our Father Abraham which is dead and the Prophets are dead whom makest thou thy self We see the Saints have often spoke well of themselves and yet with the Spirit of Humility Thus David says of himself I have more Vnderstanding than all my Teachers I understand more than the Ancients Thus S. Paul throughout all his Epistles speaks often well of himself proposes himself and his Vertue for a Pattern and Example So that you see one may speak well of themselves and not from a Spirit of Pride or Self-glorying as our Lord Jesus Christ David S. Paul and other Saints have done False Humility speaks meanly of ones self to cover its secret Pride and to get the Reputation of being humble True Humility speaks the Truth in Simplicity whether of ones self or others without regarding that the World will Censure it as an Effect of Pride and Vain-glory. By this Spirit the Saints were acted from this Principle A. B. spoke thus of herself and that I dare say with less Pride and Vain-glory than others have written against her XXIV Some accuse her of great Injustice in affixing Doctrines Sentiments and Opinions upon Parties and Persons which they do not own She say they makes Men more guilty than they are she imputes to particular Persons to Doctors and even to whole Parties Sentiments Vices and Sins which they have not and of which all think them innocent With this also the Enemies of Jesus Christ did reproach him that he falsly imputed to them Evils of which they were innocent as Murther Thou hast a Devil who seeks to kill thee Jesus Christ tells that we must not judge according to Appearance but righteous Judgment In an unregenerate State Men do not know themselves but they think they are what they are not and what they truly are that they will not believe and they wholly disclaim it The Jews not doubt were astonish'd when the Prophets imputed to them atheistical profane and Epicurean Sentiments as the Denying of Divine Providence and the Immortality of the Soul and making their chief Happiness to consist in being wicked No doubt they would cry out against them as Calumniators and imputing to them Sentiments quite contrary to what they had It is like this was not their Doctrine nor the Sentiments according to which they reasoned far less the Subject of their publick Instructions And yet God by his Prophets reproaches them with it as if they had taught it in express Terms Ezekiel says of them They say the Lord seeth not
render the Scriptures useless to give way to a Private Spirit and to all manner of Confusion and Imposture 3. And both these are the more confirm'd in their Sentiments by seeing the many false Pretenders to Divine Inspiration which have been in the World The Devil studies always to ape and counteract God and since he can easily transform himself into an Angel of Light he most effectually undermines the True Religion of Jesus Christ by appearing to be for it and under a Cover of Religion he insinuates into Mens Minds his Infernal Qualities of Pride Hypocrisie and Unrighteousness and one of the Disguises under which he acts is that of a Pretence to Divine Inspiration and the being led by the Spirit of God And this he has done in all Ages both before and since the Coming of Jesus Christ He rais'd up among the Jews false Prophets and that especially when there were any truly inspir'd by God that those last might be discredited and despised because of the Impostures of the other And this is also one of the Artifices he had used among Christians through all the Ages of the Church and particularly in this last Age setting up whole Orders and Societies of Persons who pretend to be immediately enlightned and guided by the Spirit of God tho' the quite contrary appear by their Life and Spirit And thereby he not only infatuates some but makes them also such a Stumbling-Block to others as to make some of them to despise all Revelation from God and to look upon it as an Imposture and others to be altogether prejudic'd against any who may be truly inspir'd by God in this present Age tho' the Evidences were never so Uncontestable and Convincing however they own the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because the Convincing Reasons which prove it have not the Prejudices of a contrary Education to withstand them And thus the Devil is become most successful in Disparaging and putting out of Credit with the Wise the Rational and the Learned all immediate Inspiration by the Spirit of God in this Age of the World tho' it were ever so clear and evident III. As for those who are Enemies to all Divine Revelation it is a folly to think of Convincing them that God has been pleas'd to communicate to any in this Age the immediate Knowledge of his Will by the Light of his Holy Spirit for if they believe not Moses and the Prophets Jesus Christ and his Apostles neither will they be perswaded tho' one should rise from the Dead Yet if they were sincerely and truly rational and not fantastically so it would certainly astonish them and awaken their Consideration to see a Chain of Sentiments so well connected so agreeable to True Reason so worthy of God so sutable to his Divine Perfections so clearly pointing out the Nature and Duty of Man the great End of his Being and the true way to prosecute it so plainly unfolding the Mysteries of Providence and the past present and future State of the World so far beyond all that ever any or all of the Philosophers have said of former or later Ages and that declared by an illiterate Woman void of all Study and Learning without conversing with Men or Books but living retir'd from the World in a continual Dependance upon God and Elevation of her Spirit to him and in a Conformity of her Heart and Life to those Sentiments And if they are not greatly partial and prejudic'd they must needs acknowledge that here is the Finger of God But they who 〈◊〉 the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God and that the Penmen of them were inspir'd by the Holy Spirit that Holy Men of God spake of old time as they were mov'd by the Holy Ghost tho' there were then false Prophets among the People as there shall be now false Teachers among Christians they can neither think it impossible nor improbable that God should even in this Age immediately enlighten and guide by his Holy Spirit Souls truly denied to the World and to themselves and wholly resign'd to him IV. For God having created Man after his own Image to love and to enjoy his Maker and that he might take his Delight with Man his Soul was originally design'd for God's Temple and Dwelling-place that he might reside in it and fill it with his Light and Love And tho' Man by turning away from God did wilfully deprive himself of this Happiness yet through the Merits and Intercession of Jesus Christ God has pity on him and continues to prosecute his first Design of taking his Delight with him And this is the End of all his outward Dispensations toward Man Therefore says St. Chrysostom We ought in all things to lead so pure a Life as that we should no ways need the help of Letters but instead of them should use the Grace of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit might write upon the Table of our Hearts as they write upon Paper But since we have thrust this Grace from us let us at least make use of the second Mercy But that the first was far more sublime God makes appear both by his Words and Deeds For he spoke to Noah and Abraham and his Posterity and to Joseph and Moses not by Scripture but by himself because he found their Hearts Pure But when all the People of Israel did degenerate into the Sink of Vices then Scripture and Tables were given them by which they were warn'd And we see this happened not only to the Holy Men of the Old Testament but also of the New For Christ did not deliver any Writing to the Apostles but instead of Scripture promised to give them the Grace of the Holy Spirit He says he will teach you all things And that you may know that this is far better than the other hear what the Lord says by the Prophet And I saith the Lord will make a New Covenant with you I will put my Laws in your Minds and write them in your Hearts and they shall be all taught of God St. Paul also to shew the Excellency of this says he had receiv'd the Law not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart But because in process of time many had stray'd from the right way they needed therefore again that Warning that is given by Scripture Consider then what a Degree of Madness it is that when we ought to lead a Life of such Integrity and Perfection as not to need Scripture but should yield up our Hearts to the Holy Spirit for Paper to be writ upon how is it I say if when we have lost this first Dignity and stand in need of the lesser yet we will not use aright even this second Remedy for our Salvation Thus he begins the Preface to his Homilies on St. Matt. shewing that if Mens Hearts were pure God would speak inwardly to them by his Holy Spirit that he has done so
is unchangeable always consistent with himself and no Body can be mistaken in following what is conformable to the Gospel even to tho' it were declar'd by a wicked Person yea by the Devil himself But if some one declare some particular thing respecting the Salvation or Damnation of any they must see from whence this Knowledge comes If such have it by the Light of the Holy Spirit they must believe it as the Scripture or else they be in Hazard of being forsaken by God for despising the Warnings which he often gives us by some one of his Friends whom he makes use of to declare his Will to those who would not hear it so particularly themselves As he did to David by the Prophet Nathan to declare his Sin to him of which he was become insensible and so many others whom he has withdrawn from the way to Hell by the Warnings of some Souls enlightned by him as he does sometimes yet at present A True Prophet never seeks himself desires not to please Men aims at nothing but to satisfie the Will of God tho' it cost him his Life He speaks of his Commission without fear or respect of any He has no soft Words that flatter the Ears but hard ones that pierce Hearts He declares the Truths that reprove Men more willingly than those which commend them A True Prophet rejoyces more to be hated than lov'd because he sees then he is more conformable to his Master who in doing Good was hated and persecuted by Men. There is not a more certain Mark than the Reproach and Contradictions of Men whereby to discern a True Prophet from a False for Falshood always flatters and so is loved by the People who are willingly flattered The Holy Spirit can have no regard to what pleases or displeases but to what is pure Truth without respect of Persons And if there remain any doubt if it is the Holy Spirit who speaks by a Person who says so we must try if that Person possess the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit his Seven Gifts and the Eight Beatitudes so you shall see visibly in them the Holy Spirit by his infallible Operations Thus you see what excellent and true Marks and Characters she gives whereby we may try whether any be truly endued with the Spirit of God or not and the more her Doctrine Life and Spirit are enquir'd into by the Lovers of Sincerity and Truth the more they will abide this Touchstone And it will still the more clearly appear that her Doctrine is the same in Substance with the Gospel her Life and Spirit a Transcript of it that the Law of God was written in her Heart from whence her Doctrine came as from a Fountain of Living Water springing up to Everlasting Life and was not derived from the broken Cisterns of humane Learning Conversation Study and Books And that her Words are sharp and piercing searching into the Heart and Conscience and far from soothing and flattering the Corruptions of Men. XVIII M. Pascal has given it as a distinguishing Mark and Character of the Christian Religion in Contradiction to all other Religions of the World as an Argument of its Divine Authority and Original that it makes Charity or the Love of God its principal End and Man's chief Duty which no other Religion does And I think it may be given as a distinguishing Character of the Doctrine of A. B. its being a true Representation of Christianity in Contradiction to most of the Systems of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which have been advanc'd in this last Age of the World that she makes Charity or the Love of God the great End of that Religion and the Precepts and Life of Jesus Christ the necessary Means to bring us to that End and when this is so clearly discovered and represented to us by an illiterate Child without the use of any humane Helps and our false Glosses whereby we have perverted the Doctrine of Jesus Christ are laid open to us to ascribe this to Natural Judgment Heat of Fancy any Humane or Diabolical Means or to think to confound it with our Buffoonry and Criticks is a Spiritual Infatuation like that of the Scribes and Pharisees XIX Now all that has been or can be opposed to those Evidences of A. B. her being led by the Spirit of God come under these Two Heads viz. it is either affirm'd that these Marks and Characters are not sufficient Evidences even tho' she had them or that they do not all belong to her I shall give you then her own Vindication of her self in answering some Prejudices relating to these Heads First then they objected that there could be no sufficient Evidence of her being led by the Spirit of God unless she were endued with the Power of working Miracles In Answer to which she says It is a great Ignorance to desire to see Miracles that we may believe that a Soul is possest with the Holy Spirit for the Devil at this time can easily do Wonders Jesus Christ has assur'd us that in the last Times many false Prophets will arise that shall do great Signs and Wonders And we live now in the Reign of Antichrist They who ask now for Miracles deserve to be seduc'd by Satan for what need is there of them since God is not to send into the World a New Doctrine The Gospel Law is the last and most perfect of all Laws Nothing New will come to instruct Men except the fulfilling of the Gospel Law which was sufficiently confirm'd by Jesus Christ and his Apostles who needed then for the Hardness of Mens Hearts to work outward Miracles because of their Unbelief For those Persons Signs were wrought that were visible to their Senses But now Men are sufficiently confirm'd in the Gospel Law There are no Christians incredulous in this Point And therefore Miracles would serve to no purpose now since nothing is taught but what Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught and this is believed both by good and bad Christians I think you have not the true Touchstone to discern if a Person has the Spirit of God when you would try him by Miracles for the Spirit of Satan may do great Signs and Wonders in the Persons where he dwells I have seen Persons possest with that unclean Spirit who would have done admirable things Some were Blind for some Years and recovered their Sight in an Instant others were Dumb and recovered their Speech by supernatural Means others did hang and flee visibly in the Air before all the People others were without Pulse and Motion for some Nights and Days and in an Instant would arise and walk chearfully Are not here the Dead raised the Sick healed the Blind recovered to their Sight the Dumb to their Speech and Bodies suspended in the Air by the Power of the Devil How could you judge then by Miracles if a Person be led by the Spirit of God or of the Devil You
will tell me that you would try the Spirit of God by true Miracles and not by such as come by the Intervention of the Devil I ask by what means you shall discern between these so long as you have not that Holy Spirit which would learn you all Truth Then you would discern all things and would not need to ask Miracles to know if another be guided by that true Spirit For Faith alone would give you Evidence enough When the Pharisees ask'd Miracles of Christ and he had done some they said presently he had a Devil and that he cast out Devils by the Power of Beelzebub who was more Powerful than the inferiour Devils Do you not think that the same would happen now and if I also wrought Miracles would they not undoubtedly say that I were a Sorceress which were even to be feared since now there is no more need of Miracles except to bewitch Mens Spirits with Admiration our Faith being sufficiently confirm'd and the Gospel Law verified There is nothing wanting but that it is not put in practice and there is no need of Miracles to assure all Christians that they cannot be sav'd without the practice of it since Jesus Christ and his Apostles have so strongly affirm'd it One must deny the Gospel to believe that he can be saved without imitating Jesus Christ seeing he says that he is the way and that he who enters by him shall be saved that he also is the Door and that we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but by him What Miracles will you require Sir from one who does no other thing but repeat the same Words which Jesus Christ and his Apostles pronounc'd and says no other thing but that to be a Christian we must have the Spirit of Jesus Christ I have done no ill to any Body nor said any other thing in Substance but that Men are fallen from the Faith and that they have by their Sins drawn down the Judgments of God upon their Heads that of necessity we must be converted to God and take up the Spirit of the Christians of the Primitive Church or otherwise we are not True Christians All these Truths are so clear that all Men ought to become silent and confounded by them silent in that they cannot bely the Truth and confounded to see that they are so far from God and the practice of True Christians But being unwilling to yield to this Truth and to be asham'd that their Degeneracy is laid open they will not be silent but strive to reproach those who tell this Truth and tempt them with Foreign Questions and Arguments even demanding of them outward Signs and Miracles as if they were of the Essence of Vertue while they cannot give the least Ray of Vertue to him who works them for True Miracles come from God and not from the Person that does them who is only his Instrument to shew to Men that which God operates So that you cannot be assured that a Person has the Holy Spirit even tho' he should work outward Miracles since Judas did them as well as the other Apostles and yet was a Devil We need another Touchstone to know the Spirit of God for St. Paul says tho' we could remove Mountains and had the Gift of Prophecy all this would be nothing without Charity It is a great Blindness to seek for Miracles and outward Signs that we may believe that a Soul is guided by the Holy Spirit It were better to search in the Scriptures what Gifts and Fruits the Holy Spirit brings always along with him and observe if they who say they are endued with the Holy Spirit have in them those Gifts and Fruits for then it is certain they are possest with the Holy Spirit for all these things are Supernatural and Divine Not that I would exclude True Miracles from Souls that love God for they would certainly do them in this present Time as much as the Apostles did them in their Days if it were necessary for God's Glory who will always do the Will of those who love him in all Times and Places But I have said all this to make appear to you that this is the least Favour that God does in this World to a faithful Soul that it has the Gift of Prophecy or of doing Miracles and that these things ought not to be valued in respect of Faith and Charity which unite Souls to God These are True Miracles with respect to the Souls of their Neighbour they restore to them Sight Health and Life and with those Philosophers Stones of Living Faith and Charity they change earthly Souls into the pure Gold of Divine Charity These are the True Miracles which shall be done in this Fulness of Time to prove the force of the Holy Spirit by the Cure of Souls more worthy beyond Comparison than Mortal Bodies The Summ of what she says on this Head is this That it is not necessary that every one who is immediately taught by the Spirit of God should prove the same by outward Miracles that they are necessary only for the Confirmation of a New Doctrine That she declares no other Doctrine than the Gospel of Jesus Christ which our Lord and his Apostles have sufficiently confirm'd already That to demand Miracles now is to tempt God and to expose our selves to be deluded by the Devil who we are told will in these last Times by his false Prophets do Signs and Lying Wonders which without the Spirit of God cannot easily be distinguished from true Ones That they are not the surest Touchstones of one's being guided and taught by the Spirit of God but the Gifts and Fruits of the Spirit particularly Living Faith and Charity and that by these the Spirit of God does greater Miracles in converting and healing the Souls of others than all outward Miracles on Bodies would amount to And that in these last Times God will manifest the Power of his Spirit by working these Miracles on Souls by turning them away from things Earthly and Temporal to things Heavenly and Eternal There were many of the ancient Prophets of whom we do not read that they wrought Miracles and their Prophesies were generally for After-times and not fulfilled in their own Days yet the People were bound to receive them as sent from God and there were sufficient Evidences for it in their Doctrine and Lives Besides it was no less than a Miracle and beyond the Power of Nature that she knew the Thoughts of other Mens Hearts and their inward Dispositions not that she always did so but when God thought fit to discover them to her either for her own Safety or for the Good of others This is oft-times declared and Instances given of it not only by her self but also by M. de Cort Poiret Tiellens Francken and many others The manner also of having so clear and comprehensive a Knowledge of Divine Things without Study Conferences Meditation or Books is no less strange
truly purified and the Communications of God's Spirit are to the inferiour Understanding without the use of the Imagination or Senses or the imprinting on them Images Visions or Voices there neither the Devil nor Man's Imagination can have any hold that the Devil cannot work on the Imagination of such as he does on Wicked and Brain sick Persons That when Visions Voices and sensible Raptures are communicated to such that they may be assured that they are from God they ought to apply to him in that inward way in which he is pleas'd to communicate himself the Soul being delivered from the agitation of its Passions and the Imagination That the Spirit of God brings along with him Peace and Tranquility of Soul and his Divine Qualities of Goodness Righteousness and Truth and his Operations are both good and abiding but the Spirit of the Devil disturbs the Understanding robs it of Tranquility and Rest and that which proceeds from that Spirit carries always with it the Qualities of the Devil Injustice Malice Hypocrisie These are the distinguishing Evidences for ones self And for others that they may not be impos'd upon by any pretending to be led by the Spirit of God when it may be they are guided by the Illusions of the Devil or their own Fancy that there is no Hazard of being mistaken if we follow that only which is conformable to the Gospel tho' it were declared by a wicked Person or the Devil himself that there cannot be a surer Testimony that one is led by the Spirit of God than if he produce in them his Fruits and Gifts and impart to them the Divine Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Charity and by their means produce the same good Effects in others That the evil Spirit may sometimes move to do a good thing to draw Evil out of it but can never do that that is Just and Good and True altogether which comes from God only and tho' the Devil cover his Wickedness at first with seeming Vertues yet the End of all his Operations shew from whom they come Thus A. B. lays no stress on Visions Extasies Raptures or other Sensibilities to which the Imagination contributes and where the Devil and Fancy may impose but upon the immediate Notices of God to the Understanding and for the Truth of this and her Sincerity in it appeals to the Fruits of God's Spirit and the Divine Qualities which he had implanted in her Soul and by which she constantly steer'd all her Actions And that no Body may be deceived by her declaring things as Truths from God which are not she desires they may receive them only in so far as they are conformable to the Gospel and then there is no Hazard of being deceived those Truths being so well confirm'd already and so necessary for all who would be saved and in so far as they lead us to a more strict Union with God and Denial of ones self And these are always Good tho' the Devil should declare them we cannot be deceived in believing them XXI 3. It was said that she was a Woman of a fine natural Spirit of a clear and piercing Judgment and a lively Imagination and being retir'd and thoughtful it was no wonder tho' she had clear and extraordinary Thoughts and Sentiments beyond others all this might be the Effect of the excellency of her Natural Spirit and not from the Spirit of God This Thought always readily occurs to those who upon the reading of her Writings are convinced of the excellency of her Sentiments and it was objected to her self I shall here set down her own Answer You ought to have more Charity for me than to call me Wise and of a good Natural Judgment when you judge that I am Proud for your saying serves only to make me more so I have always said that I am nothing but a simple Child and now I hear Divines and the Learned say that I have a great Natural Spirit which makes me say and write things which so many Persons do admire I have always referr'd them to the Spirit of God who produces them immediately in me and now you would have me so Presumptuous as to believe that all this comes from my self or from my Natural Judgment I should be a wise Girl indeed if I had found out so many excellent Truths without School or Study without Books and without Masters I believe it is Ignorance that makes you speak so and that you know not what the Spirit of God is nor what a Natural Spirit is and cannot distinguish that which comes from Nature from that which comes from Grace as not being sufficiently advanced in the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit I am afraid my Judgment may offend you but I will make it appear to you that it is most true and that you have not yet penetrated nor discovered how the Spirit of God acts and how the Spirit of Nature acts and not having this Touchstone which discovers fine Gold from the Counterfeit you easily take the one for the other You will needs hold the rank of Masters whereas it were your Happiness to be good Scholars To shew that I have more Charity for your Soul than you have Ill-will for mine I will declare what the Spirit of God is and what the Natural Spirit is that you may no longer be mistaken I will tell you what Operations proceed from both these Spirits and how they must be animated The thing is clear and certain easie to be understood by those who will use their Reason and they who do not use it are Beasts for nothing distinguishes a Man from a Beast but Faith and Reason I set down therefore for the chief Mark and Ground of discerning Spirits that the Spirit of God has this Quality that he never acts and operates but for things Divine and Eternal or tending to Eternity and that the Natural Spirit never acts nor aims but for things Earthly and Temporal For all that is from Nature tends to its Centre which is the Earth and Time where Nature is bounded to delight it self without knowing or tending to any other thing but what is conformable to Nature When you would know then if it be Nature that directs the Actions of a Person remark only if by what they say or do they aim only at things earthly and transitory in this case you may well judge that they have but a Natural Spirit and not the Spirit of God since this never acts but for Divine things tending to Eternity So that when you see Persons labour to gain Money or to have Pleasure and Satisfaction in this World it may be absolutely said they have but Natural Spirits and cannot thereby find God nor Life Eternal for tho' they flatter themselves and say that they trade only to make a right use of their Wealth and study that they may make a right use of their Learning all this is but for Time and earthly Things proceeding only
from the Natural Spirit that cloaks it self with the Spirit of God for this Divine Spirit never tends but to Divine Things If you had observed Sir that that fine Spirit which you attribute to me had been applied to get Wealth or to gain Praise or to Conversation to take Pleasure with Men you would have had some Reason to say that I had nothing but a natural Spirit or if you had discovered in my Words any Ornament of Language to make me be esteemed Eloquent or in my Writing any Affectation of speaking well that I might be praised these would be all Marks of a human Spirit I would gladly ask you Sir if you have ever seen me acted by this natural Spirit First if I have ever done any thing to gain Money Or if I have desir'd any sensual Pleasures or fed my self with Praises or lov'd the Conversation of Men Have you not rather perceiv'd that I ask nothing of any Body For I can say in Truth that if they would give me Riches I would not accept of them for my own Goods are a burthen to me and the two things I hate in the World are Honour and Sin the Conversations and Divertisements of the World are a Weariness to me and if I affected to be prais'd for my Words or Writings I would study to speak well to write well and to spell well whereas I have nothing but a simple vulgar Language nakedly to signifie my Thoughts without Curiosity or any Circumspection And for my Writings do you not see they are without any Study or Ornament full of Faults of Writing and Orthography without any human Regard or Reflection Do you think I have not enough of Spirit to correct all these Faults and to learn in a little time to write and spell perfectly that Men might see my Skill I am far from these Sentiments for I would never learn any thing of Men because I desired not to be prais'd by them One would have freely taught me Orthography another Poesy another the Mathematicks another the Latin Tongue and I despis'd all this to content my self with writing on my Knees on a little piece of Board the things that God sheds into my Spirit without desiring to make any Reflection to see if I wrote well or ill or if what I say will please one or displease another whether they will be well receiv'd and approved or despis'd or censur'd I have no other aim in Speaking or Writing but eternal things without caring for temporal and earthly things having no Pretensions upon Earth but only that of pleasing God and stirring up my Neighbour to his Love This cannot proceed from a Natural Spirit which is confin'd to earthly things and cannot aim to please God nor at eternal things for Nature cannot find its Pleasure and Satisfaction in a God which it does not see and feel What is beyond Sense is not Food agreeable to Nature more than precious Stones can be Food for Horses for neither of these are Aliments proportioned to the Nature of either For the Natural Senses will no more be filled with God and things Eternal than a Horse will be satisfied with Jewels for his Food but he loves the Grass and Hay far better as Food more sutable to his Nature Even so it is of the Natural Spirit and Senses they do far more esteem things earthly and sensual than God who is an Invisible Spirit or things Eternal which they do not perceive and feel with their Senses Whence we may draw a sure Consequence that he who does not seek or desire the Goods and Pleasures which tickle our Senses has the Spirit of God and lives supernaturally and he who seeks nothing but God and things Eternal cannot have this from a Natural Spirit and when you will needs say that my Writings proceed from a Natural Spirit you must prove that they aim at some Profit Pleasure or Praise from Men. If I desired to Profit by them I would endeavour to please them and to gain their Friendship and if I desired to take Pleasure among them I would draw them to me as you do and if I desired their Praises I would speak that which they would willingly hear and would not say that they are not true Christians For if I would say that all who have visited me are vertuous Souls and true Christians undoubtedly every one would esteem me and greatly praise me but when I do the quite contrary I shew it is the Spirit of God who acts in my Writings since they aim at nothing but to make known the Truth of God which alone can guide Souls to eternal Life and that the same Writings speak nothing but of despising earthly and temporal things There cannot be a more evident mark of Distinction between the actings of the Spiri of God and that of Nature than what is assign'd by her the last tending only to things Temporal and the other to things Eternal and that the Spirit she was guided by had this constant Tendency to God and Eternity and not to Honour Praise Wealth or Pleasure or any Temporal and Earthly things appears by the whole Course of her Life and Conversation XXII 4. It was alledged as another Presumption that she could not be led by the Spirit of God but by her own wild Imagination that they say she was ready to ascribe to the Spirit of God even all her Mistakes in writing or citing of Passages of Scripture naming Peter for Paul or the like and for an Evidence of this they cite the Story concerning M. Noel a Divine in Flanders who when he first read some of her Writings they being full of Faults of Orthography and Language and not so methodically ordered and the same things often repeated in different places tho' after a different manner he offered to put them in a better Order and Stile without changing the Essence of the Truth but when she ask'd Counsel of God it was said to her What rashness is it for Men to offer to Correct the Works of God All this may be very true and yet it does not follow that she ascribes all her Mistakes to the Dictates of the Spirit of God yea she plainly affirms the contrary and that all the Mistakes and Errors she falls into are from her self and not from God When you ask says she If there be any thing humane in my Motions Words and Deeds This Question seems to me Ridiculous Since being a humane Creature as well as others I must have natural Motions and Faculties as others have otherwise I should be an Angel or a Statue of Wood Stone or Metal which Instruments God never makes use of for declaring his Truths to Men. But the Devil has oft spoken by such Oracles But God spake by his Holy Prophets Natural Persons as others are who through their natural Frailty did often commit very great Faults yea sometimes gross Sins Must we doubt if Moses had the Spirit of God and
that he spake to his People by him because he was incredulous and rendred himself unworthy of entring into the promis'd Land Must we not believe the Holy Scripture endited by Solomon because â—e fell into Idolatry Or ought we to doubt if David had the Spirit of God because he fell into Adultery and other Sins Truly this would be very extravagant and render all the Works of God suspected and doubtful because of the Trailty of Men. For in the New Testament does not the Apostle make this Distinction of his own Spirit from the Spirit of God When he says It is I who says or does this and elsewhere It is the Spirit of God who says it Even Jesus Christ had he not the Spirit of God in him and the Natural Spirit both When he prays to his Father that his own Will might not be done If he had not had a Natural Will he would not have prayed thus And it could not be the Spirit of God that made him say If it be possible let this Cup pass from me Nor which made him doubt that he was forsaken of his Father in the very brink of Death of necessity these were simply natural Motions which mov'd him to all these things and not at all the Motions of the Holy Spirit Why would they then have me of another Stuff than the Prophets Apostles and Jesus Christ himself and hinder that my natural Motions should not act any more in me after that I have received the Holy Spirit Must I become immoveable in Body and Spirit that I may move no longer naturally Must the Spirit of God make all the Functions of my Spirit and Body to cease that he alone may operate in them Truly God would make use of a strange Figure against his Ordinary since he always makes use of humane Creatures to speak to Men and to make known his Will to them by Organs of those like themselves And for this Cause Jesus Christ took a truly humane Body that by means palpable to their Humanity he might make himself to be understood and obeyed And the Body and Spirit of Jesus Christ did act humanly And the Apostles acted in many things according to their natural Motions and in many things were mistaken for we read that the Apostles being one night assembled after that they had received the Holy Spirit when St. Peter was in Prison from whence being come out miraculously he knock'd at the Gate where they were assembled and the Maid Roda told them he was at the Gate they thought with one common Judgment that the Maid dream'd saying to her that she was a Fool. All the Motions which this Holy Assembly had could not come but from Nature Must we conclude from thence that they had not received the Holy Spirit or that they had lost him because of such Mistakes or because they acted according to their natural Passions or Functions in this Opinion I think we should commit a great Sin to believe any such thing or to suspect the Holy Spirit in them because they are mistaken in some things for these Faults and Mistakes are annexed to humane Nature since Sin which has so blinded Man's Understanding that he is oft-times mistaken in that which he sees before his Eyes But the Holy Spirit can never be mistaken in any thing nor inspire things that are not true And it would be an abominable thing to believe it or to judge that a Person were not guided by the Holy Spirit because he is mistaken in some indifferent things For the Holy Spirit does not teach the Soul that he possesses all the Circumstances of that which it ought to do and say but he teaches it the essential things of Righteousness Goodness and Truth in all that it ought to do or avoid And it is the Business of the Understanding to comprehend and search out the means to attain to these Ends whetting its Spirit and all the Faculties of its Soul that it may rightly accomplish in all things Righteousness Goodness and Truth And if those natural Functions were made to cease acting after this manner the Holy Spirit could do nothing by the Person who is the visible and sensible Organ an Instrument of God without which Instrument he cannot make gross and natural Men to understand him Therefore the Angels themselves have sometimes taken humane Bodies to make themselves be seen and perceived by Men according to their natural Sight and Sentiments Now it is true that God has given me his Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ which teaches me all Truth but yet it is not true that he teaches me in particular all the Words that proceed out of my Mouth nor all the Letters or Syllables that I write far less all the Motions of my Body for this is done humanly by my own Spirit or my visible Body For if the Holy Spirit did dictate to me all the Words that I must pronounce or all the Words that I must write I could never commit Faults in Speaking or Writing which I do often commit not knowing sometimes where to find Words to express my self well nor Orthography to write well which I have declared in my printed Writings saying It is the Spirit that teaches me the Doctrine which I write but as for the Faults which are in the Pen or the Words it is I who commits them and not the Holy Spirit which may satisfie all captious Spirits who seek to discredit the Wisdom of God by the Faults that I might have done Naturally Since the Proverb says that all Men do fail and mistake themselves and the Perfect are in Heaven because there are no Perfections but in God alone And it would be to tempt him to require of a human Creature the Perfection of all things since this appertains to God only and not to Men who have only a limited Perfection every one his Talent one the Perfection of speaking well another of writing well another of singing well with other natural Gifts which do not come immediately from the Holy Spirit tho' he makes use of all those Gifts when they may serve for the Glory of God and when the Person offers and resigns them up to his Government For Example God has given me an Ability to compose my Writings and it is his Will that I do it for his Glory and the Good of Souls These things come in Substance from the Holy Spirit but it is my natural Hand that writes it and my natural Spirit that conceives it which may commit accidental or material Faults but there can be no Faults in the thing it self every one may assuredly believe and follow that without amusing himself whether I have any Defect in the Manner or if there be any thing of natural mingled with it since God makes use of Nature and even of its Defects to teach Men to seek those things that are above and not the things that are upon the Earth For all that fine Learning and studied
know no true Christians it cannot be understood that I know them for true Christians because I call them by that Name but I conform my self in this to the Disposition of those who hear me and not to the Truth of what they are Which if I would follow I behov'd sometimes to call those nominal Christians Atheists or Antichristians which scarce any Man would understand therefore to make my self be understood I must use common and ordinary Terms and pronounce them as briefly as I can since we must give an account of every idle Word I ought not to add uselesly to the Name of Christians as they call them since it is understood well enough of it self without pronouncing those Words as the Quakers do To make appear how fully she clears her self as to Contradictions which they were ready to impute to her I shall here adduce one Instance I understand says she by yours that my Writings have had some good Operation in your Soul but withal that you have found as it seems to you some Contradiction in them in that I say absolutely that to be a true Christian one must abandon all that he possesses and nevertheless you find in one of my Letters that a Man must keep his Goods for his Necessities since the World is now without Charity and they would leave the Just without help in his need Both these things are most true and do not at all contradict one another for a Man must absolutely abandon the Love of earthly Goods if he would become a true Christian Jesus Christ has very often affirm'd this Truth in his Gospel and said that he who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be his Disciple I bring no Novelties when through all my Writings I press this Necessity of forsaking all things to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ since Jesus Christ his Apostles and all who have received the Holy Spirit say the same thing and there is but one Truth which is God which says through all the same thing So that they who speak otherwise are Liars and Seducers of the People who flatter Men to destroy them under the Pretext of Glosses and false Reasons which they draw from the Holy Scriptures without any Ground This I have declar'd sufficiently in my Writings as you have well observ'd and approved as you say seeing I very much blam'd a Woman of Friesland who was yet careful what she should eat and drink and wherewithal she should be cloathed after she had resolved to become a true Christian as you have remarked in the Second Letter of the Fourth Part of La lum née en tenebres And I am still of the same Sentiment that when one relies upon temporal things and will not voluntarily abandon them to follow Jesus Christ he cannot be his Disciple and that Woman will never be one so long as she is not disengag'd from temporal Goods Tho' she be now gone out of her Country with a design to embrace a Gospel Life she cannot attain to it because of the Affection she has still for her Ease and Conveniences which proceeds from Self-love being anxious for the temporal Part and fearing Want And I can assure all those who are still in that Disposition that they are not true Christians But when I wrote to one of my Friends in the 24th Letter of the Fourth Part of La lum née en tenebr as you alledge that he â—ought to keep his Goods for his own Necessities or that of others without leaving them to his Friends or giving them to the Poor now adays I had reason to do it because this Man was more disengag'd in his Soul from temporal Wealth than that Woman and had already resolv'd to abandon them all so that his Heart was free to possess them as if he did not possess them which a Person wedded to them could not do tho' it seems to him he could and he will say so with his Mouth for there is nothing more deceitful than the Heart of Man which none knows but God and he to whom God reveals it And I had reason to advise this Man to keep his Goods and that Woman that she should not care for the Morrow without any Contradiction in my Advices but in the Disposition of those Two Persons whom you mention Since the one was free to possess Wealth without sinning and not the other and a good Physician ought always to consider the Original of his Patient's Disease if he would heal him For if he ordain the same Physick for all sorts of Maladies he would kill more than all the Executioners together So you must not think that there is a Contradiction in my Two Letters mentioned by you but that there are Two divers Remedies for Two different Diseases to wit one Remedy against the Love or Desire of earthly things and another against too great Liberality or Indiscretion Again A. B. says somewhere That no Body ever was or can be saved but by the Merits of Jesus Christ and some Pages after in the same Treatise she says that no Body can be saved by the Merits of another This seems contradictory as well as those Two Propositions the one of St. Paul and the other of St. James Man is justified by Faith without the Works of the Law and Man is justified by Works and not by Faith only This last Contradiction â—s reconciled by saying that St. Paul understands that the Principle which admits in us that true Righteousness which God places there is Faith and that Works are not that Principle But St. James means that that Principle which admits in us the Righteousness of God is Faith but that Faith is not destitute of Works for if Faith were without Works it were a dead Faith which would justifie no Body Thus these have no Contradiction and yet are harder to reconcile than any Passages of the Writings of A. B. Thus as to the forecited Passage when she says that no Body is saved but by the Merits of Jesus Christ her meaning is that Jesus Christ is the Author and meritorious Cause of the Salvation of Men who will accept of this Salvation by the ways that God teaches them and when she says that no Body can be saved by the Merits of another this signifies that none who will not co-operate to their Salvation by the ways that God preâ—cribes them câ—n be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ or that the Merits of Jesus Christ will not save those who will not follow the way of Salvation Thus you see how easie it is for critical and captious Spirits to find Contradictions where there are none that the Holy Scriptures themselves have many seeming Contradictions tho none in Truth that they who are led by the Spirit of God write in great Simplicity regarding the Essence and Substance of divine Truths and not the niceness of Terms and how captious Spirits may misinterpret them and divine Truths had need to be read and
lead a Pious and Holy Life 2. If she was moved by the Spirit of God to write for the enlightning of others I. THAT we may know if A. B. did lead a Pious and Holy Life we must first understand wherein true Holiness and Piety does consist to wit in the Love of God only and of those things which are Eternal And seeing two Contraries cannot be lov'd at the same time and the Love of the Creatures and things Temporal is opposite to the Love of the Creator and of things Eternal it is from hence more clear than the Sun at Noon-Day that he who loves God cannot love the Creatures Our Saviour having taught us that no Man can serve two Masters but he must needs hate the one and love the other St. Paul says expresly If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above and set not your Affections upon those things which are on Earth And St. John warns us That we love not the World nor the things which are in the World for if we do so the Love of the Father is not in us II. This is likewise confirm'd by the Example of all the Holy Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles as he who reads the Holy Scriptures will find through all so that there is no need to produce Testimonies here But seeing this Love of God and of things Eternal is hidden in the Heart and the Heart is known by God only it is therefore difficult to know if any truly love God This Difficulty is so much the greater that Hypocrites and wicked Persons can so craftily counterfeit the outward Actions which are the Signs and Fruits of this Love that it is hard to distinguish them That this Difficulty may be removed it is to be observed and considered 1. That there are nevertheless sure Signs by which one may be convinc'd of the Holiness of another and that he is endued with the Love of God For we affirm that Abraham Isaac Jacob and the other Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles were Holy and that with so much Assurance that we look upon it as an Example which we ought to imitate But 2. it is to be considered that we cannot know but by Divine Light and not at all by Natural Reason if one be Holy and a Lover of God And this is bestowed on those only who are Holy themselves or at least endeavour in Sincerity of Heart to become so To such God reveals his Secrets in so far as it is fit for them to know them for their own Conduct or that of others as for others who are not in that State but care for and seek after earthly things they really cannot know if any be truly Holy and a Lover of God or not Nevertheless they take upon them to judge magisterially of all things as if they only did possess all divine and humane Wisdom tho' in the mean time they are ignorant of the Essence of things and content themselves with their outside and surface So that their Testimony as to Holiness and the Love of God even of the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles is founded meerly upon their own Advantage For they judge that to be Good and Holy which advances this but on the other hand they account that to be Evil and Prophane which brings them in no temporal Gain III. It is just of this Matter as it is of the Light of which a Blind Man cannot judge neither can he form the Idea of it because his Eyes by which alone the material Light is perceived are ill disposed for it Yet this does not hinder but that he whose Eyes are well-disposed may be certain that he sees the Light because when he opens his Eyes he discovers many things round about him which without this Light could not be discern'd and withal he can walk and do other Works which would be impossible for him if he were depriv'd of that Light And when he sees other Men walk resolutely and steddily and do their Works by sure Rules he has reason to conclude that these Men do also enjoy the Light This may be easily applied to Spiritual things For tho' the natural Man turning his closed Eyes towards the Divine Light is Blind in Spiritual things neither can he know if one be Holy and have the Love of God yet this does not hinder but that he who has the Eyes of his Mind opened may be assured that he himself and others like unto him are illuminated by God for when the inward State of his Soul is discovered to him and the work of God in his Soul and the means that are to be made use of for the preserving and strengthning of that Work he justly concludes from hence that he enjoys the Divine Light and he walking in that Light and abandoning all the Creatures that he may love the Creator only may be certain that he loves God and is Holy And observing the like in others he concludes that they also do truly love God and are Holy Upon such Grounds is founded that Knowledge by which Holy Men do understand their own State and the State of other Holy Men. And after this manner are they perswaded that the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles were Holy Men. IV. Some perhaps may reply to all this Altho' Good and Holy Men may mutually know their own and others State yet it is not so with those who has not as yet attain'd to Holiness and the Love of God I answer such imperfect Persons may be of two sorts to wit some know that they are Blind and therefore are desirous of the means whereby they may see and be enlightned others altho' they be more Blind than Moles yet they do not desire to see either because they imagine that they are enlightned and see sufficiently or for that they are so sunk into and carried away by the Love of the Creatures that they have no thought of the Creator and of things Eternal Those of this second kind are so far from being able to know their own State or that of others that they cannot form any Idea of it more than a Blind Man can judge of Light and Colours Hence it would be to no purpose to endeavour to demostrate to such that one is Holy and in the Love of God But as for those of the first sort who know they are Blind and desire the Light they according to our Saviour's Promise shall see And as they are conscious of their own Blindness and anxious about it so God will reveal unto them the Holiness and Illumination of his beloved ones in so far as that may be a Mean of recovering them out of Darkness into Light and from Sin to Holiness So St. Paul was instructed by Ananias Cornclius the Centurion by St. Peter And God in all times has employ'd Holy Men for the enlightning of others and for guiding them by their Examples Words and Writings into the way of Holiness This is the Ground and
that A. B. was Holy and in the Love of God and that to such a Degree that this Love seem'd to flow from her into them and other well-disposed Souls because many are brought by her to abandon their own Wills and the Creatures that they may Love God only and subject themselves wholly to his Will And I am perswaded that her Writings will have such Operations in all those who shall read them with a sincere and hearty desire to find the saving Truth and to endeavour to walk in it in so far as they know it Unless they be so far possest with Prejudices as that they will admit of nothing for Truth but what is consonant to their formerly receiv'd Opinions looking upon every thing that differs from them or seems contrary unto them as Lies and Error This is as if one looking always through a coloured Glass by which all Bodies would appear to him of the same Colour should imagine and affirm that other Men who look with the naked and single Eye are perfectly mistaken when they say that they see clearly that every Body has its own distinct Colour XVIII Unto these Four Evidences of the Sanctity of A. B. this Fifth ought to be added to wit the wonderful Works that A. B. did and the extraordinary Divine Lights that God communicated to her To reckon up all these we behov'd to narrate her whole Life and to adduce all her Writings which are full of such wonderful Works and Light Therefore let every one that loves the Truth apply to these Writings and which soever he shall be pleas'd to peruse he will by them be sufficiently convinc'd of this matter But that some Instance of this may be given it is to be considered that this ought to be look'd upon as a great Miracle in A. B. that she so generously fought against her corrupt Nature that she wholly subdued it not by her own Strength which could do nothing but Evil but by the Grace of God through which the weakest can do all things This Miracle ought to be more esteemed than raising the Dead giving Sight to the Blind and such like which serve only for this present Life and therefore may be performed by Men who are not Holy But to overcome corrupt Nature is an infallible mark of Holiness for the obtaining of which all other Miracles ought to be done otherwise they avail nothing but on the contrary do much hurt Among the innumerable Divine Lights communicated to Antonia Bourignon this is the chief that she had explain'd the Truths of the Gospel more clearly and efficaciously than any has done hitherto demonstrating that an Obedience to them is absolutely necessary for Salvation and rescuing them from the Glosses and false Expositions by which the Learned have so perverted the Truths of the Gospel that almost every Christian promises Salvation to himself although he do not walk according to these Truths XIX Since then it seems to appear sufficiently from what has been said that A. B. was Holy and in the Love of God it will be now fit to consider the Second Question proposed to wit If she was moved by the Spirit of God to write and to enlighten others For answer to this Question there needs nothing be adduc'd but what has been said as to the First Question For it A. B. was Holy and in the Love of God she would not have committed so great a Sin as to pretend that she was moved to write by the Spirit of God if it was false or if she was not certain that it was most true But that I may answer something in particular to this Second Question it is to be considered how we may be assured that any Writing is endited by God In order to this let us enquire how it appears that the Holy Scriptures were written by Men led by the Spirit of God as all Christians do believe XX. That we may proceed aright in this Enquiry it is to be remarked that God gives unto Men Breath and Life and all Things for in him we live and move and have our Being Nevertheless he has given to all Creatures the Faculty whereby to continue in their Being or to exist For God is Eternal and his Gifts are without Repentance therefore his Works do never perish besides they are endued with a Power of multiplying themselves and producing their like It is true many things perish but these are not the Works of God but Corruption and Vanity brought into the World and yet coming into it by Sin and Lust But besides these Faculties of preserving themselves and producing their like God gave to Man the Liberty of turning himself to God that he might be govern'd and ruled by him or of acting by the Strength already given him without asking new Strength from God If he do so he departs from God the Author of all Light and Good and then such a Man of necessity becomes Miserable and is sunk in Darkness as appear'd in the Fall of Adam and is to be seen daily in those who follow their own Wills that is who act by the Strength once given them and will not ask new Strength from God nor yield up themselves to be govern'd by him But if a Man yield up himself to God and ask help from him in every thing he goes about he will find God ready to help him Even as one in a very close Chamber is in the Day-time immediately enlightned by the Sun how soon he permits the Windows of the Chamber to be opened and the more Windows there are opened he receives the greater Light XXI From what has been said it appears that when we say that the Holy Scripture is endited by God we understand thereby that the Holy Men who committed it to Writing did so wholly deny their own Strength whether innate unto them or acquired by Diligence Learning and Meditation that they willingly acknowledged that thereby they could do no good nor any thing that was acceptable to God but did so entirely yield up themselves to be govern'd by God that they no longer lived to themselves but God did live and operate in them Now that we may be assured that the Holy Scriptures were penned by such Men we must examine what Operation the Holy Scriptures have in our Souls When then we experience that the Thoughts of our Hearts are manifested by them which can be done by none but God who alone knows the Heart and if this Holy Scripture be a powerful Mean for loosing our Hearts from the Love of Temporal things and drawing them to the Love of God and of things Eternal For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any Two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit the Joynts and Marrow and is a discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart overthrowing every Imagination and Thought that exalts it self against God So that an Unbeliever perceiving
XLVII She retir'd to Gaunt and from thence to Mechlin and form'd a Process before the King's Council at Brusselâ— against the Magistrates at Lisle for the Recovery of the Hospital and tho' it did appear most evidently that she was Innocent and that they had acted against her with inexcusable Violence yet they would not venture to give Sentence for her against a Party so Powerful and far more Considerable before Men than was the Innocence of a simple private Maid So the Process remains undecided to this Day and she could no longer abide in Safety in Lisle unless in secret XLVIII She staid Four Years in Flanders at Gaunt and Mechlin after she had left the Hospital and many well-dispos'd Persons made Acquaintance with her The first she spoke with at Mechlin was one Mr. Coriathe an Archdeacon who became afterwards Vicar General At his Request she wrote the first Treatise of her Life call'd La Parole de Dieu She wrote to him also many Letters which are printed in the First and Second Parts of La lum nèe en tenebr She had also there in the number of her Friends a Learned and Pious Divine M. Peter Noel Licentiate in Divinity Priest and Canon who had been Secretary of the Famous Cornelius Jansenius Bishop of Ypres This Man being of the Sentiments of Augustin engag'd her in Conferences concerning Grace where she unravell'd in an admirable manner all the Difficulties which have hitherto been inexplicable by Mens Spirits This gave occasion to her writing the Treatise call'd Academie des Sâ—avans Theologiens because of the great Contests which were then between the Jansenists and Molinists concerning Grace and the great Noise that was made about the Doctrine of the Casuists concerning Attrition Contrition Probability and their Morals wherein her Friends being all Jansenists discours'd to her often of the Excess of their Adversaries which she could hardly believe till she went and heard some of their Preachers who vented sometimes their sine Morality She was touch'd with Compassion for the Blind that were led and with Indignation at the Blind Leaders It pitied her to see the general Abuse among the Churchmen the Religious and the People who rested on Trifles and a meer Outside which the Blindness of some Guides recommended as a sure way to Salvation tho' they never thought of being purified from their inward and secret Sins nor of returning to the Love of God In this Treatise all these things are handled with great Penetration Clearness and Solidity Monsieur Noel was perswaded that she was full of the Holy Spirit but on the other hand it troubled him to see that the Holy Fathers had not still the same Light with her in Theological Matters or as to divers Places of the Holy Scripture She wrote to him several Letters on this and other Subjects which are in La Lum neé en tenebres Another of her Acquaintances was M. Gillemans Canon and Archpriest of Gaunt who one Day asking her Opinion of the Doctrine of the Casuists that one might be saved by Attrition without Contrition and telling her he had written a great Volume against the Jesuits upon that Subject she told him her Thoughts and that she had lately put them into Writing After having oft solicited for this Paper he obtain'd a sight of it for some Days which he read with such Admiration that when he return'd it he said You have said more things and more convinciâ—g on this Subject in these Three Leaves than I have done in all my Book which has cost me so much Time Labour and Expences and therefore I condemn my Book never to see the Light This Writing is the Fifth Chapter of the First Part of Academie des Sçavans Theologiens She return'd to Lisle May 1664. where she staid privately for some Months about her Affairs for the most part in the House of her Pastor Monsieur Lamberti where she wrote the Explication of the 24th and 25th Chapters of St. Matthew which are in La Lum nec en tenebres To him she wrote many Letters after her first Return to Lisle in the 23d and 24th Years of her Age which was the first of all her Writings and it is call'd L'Appel de Dieu le Rufus des Hommes Part I. XLIX But the most faithful and constant Friend she had in Flanders was M. Christian de Cort Pastor of the chief Church at Mechlin and Superiour of the Fathers of The Oratory there A Man full of Zeal for God and Charity for his Neighbour and void of all Self-seeking From the first time that A. B. spoke to him he was so touch'd enlightn'd and enflam'd by God that immediately he resolv'd absolutely to follow Jesus Christ even to Death in the abandoning all Honour Pleasures and Wealth of this World which he promis'd a little after to A. B. and perform'd with an inviolable Fidelity He no sooner discovered that God had hid in her the Treasures of his Divine Wisdom than he took all Occasions to be instructed by her and when alone set down in Writing the Summ of what had past in their Conversation but briefly and without order He acquainted her with his Resolution to publish this to the World thinking himself oblig'd in Conscience to undeceive others as by those Divine Truths he was undeceiv'd himself But when she had seen his Papers and read a little of them she told him they would be useful for himself but not for others because they often answer'd the Thoughts of his own Mind which no Body perceived but himself and being solicited by him to compose this Work anew returning him his Papers she her self wrote by way of Conference the things which God brought into her Memory in the same manner as they are now publish'd in the Three Parts Of the Light of the World L. In September 1667. she went for Holland at the Solicitation of M. de Cort in order to the printing of this Book her Friends having assur'd her that she would not be permitted to do it in Brabant and she propos'd to retire from thence to the Isle of Noordstrand where she had bought a Farm from M. de Cort the Director of it She had Debates with her self before she could resolve to go to Holland having never been in any Place without the Dependance of the Church of Rome and being made believe that all the Hereticks as they call'd them were monstrous and infectious But having recommended this Affair to God she was told That these common Differences of Religion do not bring Salvation but the Love of God only and Vertue which we ought to love in all Persons who aspire to it without regarding what outward Religion they profess that she ought to do Good to all and to communicate to all the Light of the Divine Truth of what Religion soever they be This wrought in her Soul such a perfect Impartiality that she never afterwards enquired of what Religion one was provided
only he desired to put in practice the Doctrine of Jesus Chrik and to recover the Love of God LI. When they came to Amsterdam she chose a little House in a very private Place to live solitarily in Conformity to the Private Poor and Mean State of Jesus Christ but a dangerous Sickness seizing her she permitted M. de Cort to bring to her a Physician of his Acquaintance who could not forbear speaking of her to others so that in a little time her Fame went through all the Country and People of all sorts desired to speak with her She thought that God might perhaps by this means open the Eyes of some make them see the miserable State of the World and dispose them to embrace a Christian Life And indeed many were mov'd to this so far as to encline to resolve upon it But it was as in the Days of Jesus Christ one Day one would follow him and a little after withdraw from him without thinking any more on him unless it were it may be to defame him or stone him or cry Crucifie him Every one had Business and Excuses which hindred them from Corresponding with the Calls of God The Anabaptists or Mennonists came to her and seem'd greatly to esteem the Graces of God in her but she no sooner discover'd the Nature and Properties of Hypocrisie and the generality of the Corruption even in the most Holy but finding themselves included they all declared against her She look'd on them as a Set of Persons who under modest and humble Words Cloaths and Gestures did conceal proud worldly and unregenerate Hearts Of them she writes in La Lum neé en tenebres Part 2. Serrarius Famous enough for his Writings and Correspondence at first highly esteem'd her proclaim'd her as a living Gospel And all the time he found her Thoughts agree with his as to the last Plagues the Conversion of the Jews Re-establishment of the Church and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth all went well but when he found that she was not for the Re-establishment of a certain Levitical Worship which he fancied nor made any reckoning of an Impostor among the Jews who was risen up in the East he declared against her and studied to effice every where the good Impressions he had given of her She clears her self by a publick Print Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 2. Letter 14. At that time Labadie and his Disciples had as much Esteem for her and her Writings as afterwards they conceiv'd an Aversion for both They endeavour'd to bring her over to them by M. de Cort offering great Summs of Money to buy Noordstradt and to go with them but to no purpose She found he had no other Light but what Reading barren Speculations and some Acts of his own Understanding gave him and for a Motive of his Conduct some strong Conceits and Motions of his corrupt Passions without being any ways enlightned by the Spirit of God or govern'd by the calm Motions of the Divine Inspiration Therefore he and his fail'd not to blacken her on all Occasions the most piously and cunningly they could that the People might reckon her to be an Instrument of Satan and abhor her as the Devil himself M. Commenius so Famous among the Learned being then acquainted with her had quite other Thoughts But his Knowledge had not puff'd him up tho' it gave him some Prejudices which made him propose some Difficulties in which she satisfied him On his Death-Bed he bid tell her to give him the last Visit saying O the Holy Maid Where is she May I have the Happiness to see her yet once before I die All the Knowledge and Sciences I have had are nothing but Productions of Reason and of the Mind of Man but she has a Wisdom and Light that comes from none but God alone immediately by the Holy Spirit A. B. said often of him that she never knew a Learned Man who had a better and more humble Heart than he I was visited also says she by the Socinians who do altogether despise Jesus Christ saying that it is Idolatry to worship him And they ask'd me one Day If I believed also in a created God as Jesus Christ was I did not much reason with them because such impertinent Questions deserv'd no Answer telling them only that they ought not to come to me with such impertinent Discourse so they withdrew themselves Yet some affirm that I am of their Sentiments from which I pray God preserve me Many false Prophets and Prophetesses came to visit her One shewing her his Sword half drawn said he was going to behead all the Kings of the Earth and would begin at England and so entring into a little Bark it is not known what became of him Another John Roth had made ready Standards for the Twelve Tribes of Israel whom he was to re establish and some well-meaning People followed him In some Visits he made her she easily discovereded the Illusion and warn'd her Friends to beware of him being expresly told by God that he was a presumptuous Man over whom the Devil had much Power God gave her the same Sentiments of those of his Cabal particularly of one Quirin Kuhlman The Quakers also would try if they could draw her over to their Sect but they soon gave over their Hopes and one wrote against her upon which afterwards when in Holstein she wrote the Advertisement contre les Trembleurs Thus it seems the Devil design'd to distract or seduce her by all these sorts of Persons But God would thereby exercise her and make her know by experience to what height the Folly and Presumption of Man can go when joyn'd with the Illusions of the Devil never letting her be deceived by them He design'd also thereby to let the World see the vast difference between the false Lights of the Devil or the Imagination and the true Light that God sends in a way so solid so clear and so little capable of being suspected since she by whom he communicates it seeks to draw no body after her aiming at nothing but a simple retir'd solitary Life disengag'd from all Pleasures Riches and Honours imitating Jesus Christ without obliging any body to believe any other thing as necessary for Salvation but the Love of God and the denying of ones self looking on all other Knowledge and even things of Revelation as not necessary for those who have not yet Light and Grace enough necessary to receive them In which it is absolutely impossible that Seduction should mingle it self God made her also see how far the best cultivated humane Spirits are blinded and remov'd from the Kingdom of God by some Conversations she had with the Cartesians both Divines and Philosophers particularly with the Professors Heydanus and Burmannus upon which occasion she wrote the Twelfth Letter of the First Part of Tomb. de la fausse Theol. The Philosophers would perswade her that in spiritual things she
which his Highness had granted to the Partners of that Isle that she had nothing to do with the Pastours of Holstein her Enemies that she and 〈◊〉 would let them and their Hearers do and say what â—â—ey pleased that while they gave Offence to no body but liv'd honestly and justly and even brought temporal Advantage to the Inhabitants of the Country and had nothing but just Designs they ought not to oppose them fearing thereby to oppose God That otherwise God would take Vengeance on them and that she was much afraid that he might punish the Country and the Inhabitants in the same Manner that she had been and might yet be treated by them It is like the Discourses of the Pastours made all this vanish but they could not put off what follow'd some Months after However she resolv'd to wait with Patience to see if they would grant her just Requests She applied herself to take a particular Care of forming the Souls of those who were with her according to the Will of God both as to spiritual and temporal She wrote for their spiritual Direction besides many particular Letters one common to them all which is the Second Part of The Renovation of the Evangelical Spirit and for their outward Behaviour began to write the Treatise called Sound Advices and also The Rules of Christians which last is joined to the Treatise called The Stones of the New Jerusalem As she prescrib'd them nothing of herself she ask'd God his Will as to the Government of outward Things for which he gave her particular Rules which are already put into English in the Preface to The Light of the World p. 19. Shortly after this the Court was forc'd to remove the King of Denmark and his Troops passed over all the Country and the President being then secur'd the Pastours applied to the King's Council who then took the Government of the Country to cause her to be seiz'd she immediately after went for Hambourg with one Maid leaving her Friends in the House which she had bought but some Weeks before and the King's Armies came into the Country and ravaged every where and they who would not tolerate a Servant of God who could do them nothing but Good both for Body and Soul were forc'd to suffer private and publick Hardships which were long and severe enough LXXIV She came to Hambourg the last of March 1676. where there was Appearance she might live long enough retiredly in a Place whose Freedom Greatness and Trade keeps them from taking exact Notice of Strangers and private Persons that live there The first Traverse she met with was that she could find no where a free Chamber where she might live retir'd so that after having waited all Day she was forc'd to go lodge in a Soldier 's House who offer'd her a little Chamber where she staid fifteen Months for want of a Retreat elsewhere In the Spring time she applied herself to make a little Garden of a Court which was useless to the Lodging and accommodated it very well and profitably She repaired and whiten'd her Chamber and a Part of the Lodging wash'd her own Linen and serv'd herself in every thing except the Buying of Provisions not daring to go abroad lest she should meet with some of her Acquaintaince She was most exact in all the outward things which Necessity and good Order required and said this pleased God more than the most sublime Contemplations which often gratifies Self-love and thereafter gives Occasion of Disorder and Displeasure to the Soul by the Confusion that Negligence has brought in outward things Whereas outward Labour even in the meanest things humbles the Heart simplifies it begets an entire and exact Submission to God a laudable Charity and Care for our Neighbour and a certain Repose and Contentment of Soul which did more satisfie S. Joseph in being a Carpenter than were the Doctors of the Law in preaching in Moses's Chair She told how S. Terese having begun to write one of her sublimest Works and having interrupted it for to Spin when her Religious Nuns begg'd she would continue to write she answered them that she must first have done with her Distaff This A. B. told sometimes smiling to those who would perswade her not to employ her self in outward Labours that she might bestow all her Time in writing spiritual Things LXXV She wrote then the Second Part of Solid Vertue and the excellent Preface to The Renovation of the Evangelical Spirit and the Preface before The Blindness of Men now adays for she resolv'd to prepare all her Writings to be published after that God had made known to her that such was his Will for by them the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached thro' all the World There were several Persons who came to her at this time from several Parts and being convinced of the Truth offered her all the Services they were capable of And she offered them always unto God that she might know how to behave with them She was again surrounded with Afflictions on all sides In Sleswick her Friends were robb'd beaten and wounded by the Soldiers and Rabble and forc'd to leave the Lodging and flee into the Woods and from thence thro the Snow into the Town of Kiel In Noordstrand the Peasants stole the Beast and other Goods she had bought with her Money her Friends there neglecting to sue after them She herself at Hambourg was seized with some Fits of Sickness which brought her very low And perceiving that some Friends who were then with her were troubled with the Thoughts of her being to be taken from them shortly by Death she said Why do you make such Reckoning of me I am nothing but a human Creature Fix upon God and cleave to him From him you must call for Help him you must strive to please You are to have no Concern at all for me as to my Person It is to God only and to his Spirit that you must cleave If I come to die what matters it You must not for this leave off in the least to cleave unto God and continue faithful unto him If you trust in me you will deceive your selves I may die as any other Person And if God did not still preserve my Life as by a Miracle amidst so much Weakness and Perils I should have been dead already a thousand times They were so perswaded of this particular Protection of God that it made them too confident that God would yet preserve her Life for a long time One of them said to her I do not believe that you can die so soon whatever Evil befall you And I says she do certainly believe I may die even at this Moment What reason have you to believe the contrary Because replied he God has given you Promises which are not yet fulfilled and we are sure that God will not be wanting in his Word He has promised that you shall have Children who shall imitate you
upon some extraordinary Accident or some great Fault committed by others yet it was soon â—ver and she no sooner entred into her Chamber or her Solitude but she returned again with great Tranquility She usually said That she hated nothing but Honour and Sin 15. Her Patience and Resignation was singular in the Sicknesses Pains and other Adversities which beâ—el her and her bearing with the Faults and Infirmities of those who were with her tho' upon Occasions her Zeal and Fervour made her rebuke them earnestly especially when they sinned wilfully and maliciously For they who were of good Inclinations and sinned through Infirmity or Ignorance she bear with them or corrected them with great Mildness and Lenity but if any who had been often admonished did sin wilfully and maliciously she did rebuke them vehemently and being moved with a lively Zeal set her self against their Iniquity and we see it was usual for the most Holy to do so Moses Paul and others yea and Jesus Christ himself 16. Her Faith in God did uphold her on all Occasions never doubting of the Truth of his Word waiting his Time for the fulfilling of it and looking still to the things which are not seen and which are eternal 17. Her admirable Knowledge in Divine Things appears by all her Writings and the manner of acquiring it was no less Admirable not by the means of Books Schools or Men as was evident to all who convers'd with her and appears from all her Writings But all my Books says she and Library consist in the Conversation of my Spirit with God and my School is to learn to purge my Soul from Sin and to withdraw its Affections from all earthly things that it may love only those which are Eternal The manner also of composing her Writings as has been already mentioned was no less singular and extraordinary Her Knowledge was singular also in other things as there was occasion for it particularly in the Law in the Matters of Right and Justice so that the greatest Lawyer could not have more distinctly deduced an Affair nor urged it with stronger Reasons as appears in the Affairs of M. de Cort and of Noordstrand 18. Her Humility and Lowliness did shine forth in her Actions so that they who conversed with her do declare they could not observe in her any thing of Pride or Self-esteem Yet this was not express'd by artificial humble Words and Gestures which affect the Reputation of being thought so and cover the greatest Pride but by an unaffected Poverty of Spirit and giving the Glory of all Good to God And the very things which her Enemies adduce as Instances of Pride were great Evidences of the contrary 19. Simplicity and Sincerity of Heart were her nature there was no Guile in her Spirit she not only would not deceive Men but also would not deceive her self and because of this single Eye her whole Body was full of Light for God makes wise the Simple 20. She often bless'd God for three Things 1. That he never let her drink in the Doctrine of Men for this she said would have made her uncapable of receiving that of the Holy Spirit 2. That he had not engaged her in a married State for then she would have lost the Liberty of cleaving to God only 3. That he gave her Peace and Tranquility of Mind in all Rencounters for otherwise she would have oft times stumbled or fallen in the so many different Accidents and Miseries to which she was exposed 21. Her Life was a continual Prayer her Spirit being always turned towards God whether she was writing or working or eating or walking or in her Chamber or travelling every thing gave her Occasion of begging his Help or to bless him for his Favours or to adore and celebrate his Perfections 22. As she heartily regrated the Divisions of Christendom so she advised those of her Friends who had withdrawn themselves from the World to lead a Christian Life not to make new spiritual Assemblies and Meetings She said Christians ought always to entertain one another with spiritual Things and that all their Words and Works should be Sermons for edifying and animating one another to Vertue and to the Perfection of their Souls She bid them purge their Souls from Sin and labour to acquire true Vertue and to preach to themselves and others by their Life Not but that she thought publick Assemblies were necessary for those who were still taken up about Worldly Affairs and who would apply the whole time of their Life in temporal Affairs if there were not some Times appointed for Prayer or some Places for hearing Instruction Nor did she think publick Assemblies unlawful when they sincerely sought the Glory of God Nor that they who were truly regenerated themselves and endu'd with Divine Light to instruct others ought not to teach them But she gave this Counsel to her Friends both that they might avoid the Scandal of Forming a new Sect and the drawing upon themselves unnecessary Persecutions and Hatred in Places where such Assemblies were not tolerated and that they might not be tempted to Vain-glory Curiosity and Destruction by offering to teach others before they were well taught themselves for their own Perfection or by desiring to learn from others that which they did not practice 23. Being ask'd concerning the Eucharist if she held Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation or a figurative Representation only She said These were all unprofitable Speculations about which Men dispute to no purpose and yet none of them can tell how this Mystery is Neither is it necessary for Salvation nor for the Fruit of true Communicating As for me says she I never apply my self to these Formalities but in Simplicity I lift up my Heart and Spirit unto God and place my self always as in his Presence and I communicate uniting my Design and my Intention with that of Jesus Christ and in his Spirit without troubling my self with other Particularities provided my Spirit be united to his and in a true Disposition of conforming my self to him and of following him 24. Tho' she had the Liberty to Converse with many Yet she said she saw it not fit since Men now are so accustomed to see affected Gestures and counterfeit Vertues that they cannot receive True Vertue says she unless it be accompanied with that Surliness and those Hypocritical Gestures which I abhor for God will not lead me by these Ways He gives me a Tranquility of Mind and a Joy in my Soul that even appears outwardly I have no insolent Laughters but a continual Joy that oftentimes chears those who converse with me when they know that my Joy does not proceed from any human Satisfaction but from my Conversation with God But they who do not understand these things do imagine that one who has received the Holy Spirit should be still melancholy sad and serious to the utmost Degree thinking that he ought not to do or speak the least thing
in the Preface to the Light of the World not to affix such a Sence to any single Expressions or Passages of A. B â—s Writings as runs contrary to the whole Tenour of them and to a Protestation concerning the Summary of her Sentiments with Respect to the Essentials of Christianity there inserted for thus the best Authors may be traduced by the most shameful Manglings malicious Interpretations deceitful Calumnies injurious Consequences c. One would have thought that after all this he should not have followed these Measures himself and yet we find him palpably forming the high Charge of 1. Blasphemous Pride 2. Overturning all Priest hood and Ordinances of the Gospel 3. Vncharitableness and damning all the World 4. The misrepresenting the Design and Import of the Gospel 5. The perverting the Doctrine of the Gospel 6. A Contempt of the Holy Scriptures and lastly of wild and barbarous Notions against her upon the same False and Disingenuous Proceedings and not abstaining from the Furious and Spiteful Words Cloven Foot the Devil of a Saint Mad Craz'd Bigotted How false this Charge is how ill founded how contrary to the Temper of her Spirit and the strain of her Writings the Author might have observed from her own Writings if he had considered without Prejudice or Passion and may now further see in the Apology I need not fully resume the Particulars but only touch upon and direct him to the Places where he may have Satisfaction concerning them V. She is vindicated from the 1. of Blasphemous Pride in the Second Part of the Apology p. 166 c. where it appears that she is far from exalting her self above the Prophets or Apostles or Fathers far less above Jesus Christ himself that she acknowledges her self a poor frail Creature of the corrupt mass of Adam subject to Sins and Infirmities who greatly straied from God in her younger Years that of her self she has nothing but Evil and that all Good comes from God and that since it may please God in the latter Ages of the World by some of his Servants more clearly to explain and unfold the hidden Prophecies and Parables of the Old and New Testament when the time of their Accomplishment draws near it will not be found that those to whom God shall please to make such Discoveries are thereby exalted above the Prophets or Jesus Christ himself or that they by owning and declaring them do exalt themselves Thus A. B. when she speaks of God's Graces to her does it with the greatest Humility as is evident from these very Places cited by the Author whence he culls his half Sentences where she assumes to her self no Prerogative above the most Wicked of all Creatures or even a Stone or Wood wherewith she declares God might have served himself in declaring of his Marvels if it had been his Pleasure whom yet she cannot resist since he pleases to declare his Marvels by her and that he may damn her if she has merited it in the End being absolute Lord of all things to this Purpose her own Words in the 136 and 137 p. of the Light of the World are fully cited in the 169 p. of the Apology And thus also p. 132 of the Light of the World I would be very presumptuous says she to believe that these so clear Interpretations come from my self Yea on the other hand it should pass for an Instance of great Self-denial and humble Resignation unto the Will of God in any who will even by the Command of God declare themselves to be the Organ of his Spirit for more clear Explications of those things that have been formerly express'd in dark Similitudes and Parables when they know assuredly that they will meet with nothing but Scorn and Reproach from Men upon that Account And if this be the Case of A. B. as the Thrid Part of the Apology gives strong Presumptions for it and many are perswaded it is then her Declaration of the Truth of this is no Instance of Pride or that she exalts her self above others but a great Instance of Self-denial and humble Resignation To this Purpose she expresseth her self I must not says she because of the Reproach and Confusion I may meet with conceal that which God will have published and observed It does not become a poor Worm of the Earth to give Laws of God He knows by whom and how he will operate without regard to out Meanness and Unworthiness As to that other Proof of her Blasphemous Pride taken from the high Characters given her by others whom he calls her Bigotted Disciples some of them twenty Years after her Death as that in the English Preface to the Light of the World it is a new way of Reasoning owing I think purely to the Author Yet there she is not preferred to the Blessed Virgin for tho' to be the Organ of the Light and Spirit of God is more than to be the Organ or Mother of his humane Body yet to be the Organ both of Spirit and Body is more than to be the Organ of any one of them and this is not denied to the Blessed Virgin When because of the high Characters given her by some while she lived it was objected to her that she affected the Praise of Men and suffered M. de Cort and others highly to extol the inward Graces that God imparted to her She said That if such had felt the Operations of God in their Souls by her means as M. de Cort and some others had done they would have said the same that they did not praise her Person in which there was nothing praise worthy but the Light and Truth of God which they saw and heard by her means This she said did not puff her up since the Works of God which she remarked did humble her Heart the more she discovered them for I discern says she the Spirit of God from that of Nature and see clearly that all that comes from God is Good and all that comes from my self is Evil so that I have no Ground to glory in my Evil and I know no Good out of God this Rule keeps me steady from fallâ—ng into Vainâ—glory It is no wonder that some judge that I please my self with the Praises of Men in suffering that Preface to be published when they will needs measure me by themselves they cannot judge otherways but that I take Pleasure to hear my own Praises feeling in themselves that they could not hear their own Praises without vain Complacency and measuring every one by themselves every one thinks another is as he himself is A Thief trusts no Body thinking that another is as much Thief as himself A lewd Person cannot believe that another would live in Continence when he has a fair Occasion to satisfie his Lust and so a proud Person cannot believe that one would hear their own Praises without having their Heart puff'd up with Pride because he himself cannot hear his Praises
Age of Eighteen she voluntarily abandoned all that she might have possessed with rich Parents and when afterward she had an express Command from God to assume her Goods she took them only as a great Charge and Burthen to her not knowing how to employ them according to the Will of God that she was herself satisfied with simple Necessaries and employâ—d all in the Glory of God and in Charity to her Neighbour that she spent herself and Goods and Cares in training up young Girls sometimes Fifty at a Time providing both for their Souls and for their Bodies c. She afterwards adds That he Benjamin Furly wrongfully accuses me that I seek worldly Goods and that I possess my own Goods in Coâ—etousness and also those of others viz. thâ—se of the deceas'd M de Cort. I know not what this Covetousness would serve for since I have resolved to live soberly without all Attendance or Service which I have no more desired since I possessed my own Goods than I did before and would not do even tho' I should possess Noordstrand yea tho' I should possess a whole Kingdom Because the Resolution I have to imitate the Lowness of Jesus Christ is more valuable in mâ— judgment than all the Wealth Pleasures and Commoâ—â—â—â—es in the World Which Resolution I will never alter and therefore I have no need to covet this World's Goods to make my self Great or to take my Delights here for I look for them after Death and when it shall be lawful to enjoy all sorts of Contentments but it is not lawful in this Valley of Tears which is the time of Penitence XXIV The Doctor 's 5th Instance to disprove her Sanctity is considered already And now since the Doctor is an intimate Acquaintance of Mr. 〈◊〉 and well versâ— in his Dictionaire Histor Critique he being one of his great Vouchers whom it seems he approves in his 〈◊〉 of treating Divine Things and Persons he still 〈…〉 honourably of him tho' Men of another Character 〈◊〉 as Dr. Tillotson and Dr. 〈◊〉 how far soever they seem to be out of his Road cannot escape his laâ—h I would entreat him to compare his own Character of A. B. with Mr. Bayle's of the Royal Prophet and Psalmist 〈◊〉 and he will find that tho' he has been very solicitous in drawing of her Picture not to render her very Lovely yet if he compare it with his Friend's Picture of 〈◊〉 it will be found that what appeared to him as he says 〈◊〉 ugly Scabs and Ulcers are really Marks of Beauty 〈◊〉 taken in his own Sense in Respect of the Lineaments his Friend gives the other There is hardly any Crime or Vice wherein he does not make him exceed the worst King of his Age and that throughout all his Life and yet he says it cannot be deny'd that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit because he wrote the Psalms If the Doctor approve of his Critique he confounds his own if not how can he pretend Zeal for God and the Authority of his Holy Word and yet make him one of his most familiar and most intimate Friends cite the Authority of his Book on all Occasions to justifie his Narratives which good Men are ashamed to say they have look'd into as well because of the Impudicity of it as of his impious Undermining of the Sacred Scriptures by studying with the most malicious Art utterly to discredit the Writers of them as Men void of All True Vertue XXV In the XXI Article the Doctor very weakly disproves her Knowledge of secret Thoughts by denying the thing as being asserted only by M. de Cort Whereas there be several Instances given of it by Mr. Franken Mr. Van de Velde Tiellens and others in Temoignage de la Verite It is true God is the only Searcher of Hearts but it is neither against Reason nor Scripture that one should know the Thoughts and Heart of another when God is pleas'd to reveal it to him and that the Thoughts and Dispositions of the Hearts of some were made known by God to Mrs. A. B. and declared by her is more than once testified both in her Life and in the Temoign de la Verite XXVI As to the XXII Article as the foretelling of things to come is no infallible Sign of Divine Inspiration unless it be joined with the real Holiness of the Person and the Purity of the Doctrine So that things do not immediately come to pass in the time and after the manner that we think they have been foretold is no sufficient Proof that they who foretold them are false Prophets as appears in the Third Part of the Apology Jonah foretold that Ninevah should be destroyed within Forty Days and yet it was not destroyed And tho' he says she told things very positively which are not yet come to pass yet that does not infer that she was not inspired by God her Meaning as to the last Judgments is touched upon already and is mistaken by the Doctor Besides we are to consider that those inspired by God have their Minds so filled with the Representations of Divine and Future Things that they appear to them near even at the Door So St. Paul speaks of the last Judgments and of Christ's Coming in the Clouds and of their being to be changed who were then upon the Earth at his Coming as if all were to be accomplished in his own Days It is much that has obliged the Doctor to say one good Word of her sure the Matter must be very notorious that he had not the Confidence to pass it by and conceal it He says Article XXIII It must be acknowledged that she speaks and writes more plainly and intelligibly than any of the Mystick Sect and is somewhat more on the Moral than others of that Gang. But as if it were against the grain to say any thing that might seem in the least to commend her he dashes all again by telling That her high Flights were effects of Fancy rather than Judgment as not having much Reason and Meditation That her Notions are Sublime but so are a Bedlamites Well A. B. will not quarrel with any who distinguishing the Accessories from the Essentials of Christianity in her Writings do firmly adhere to and practice the first tho' they look upon the last as Dreams or metaphysical Whimsies For she requires no Body to believe them if they see no Clearness in them she lays no Stress upon them He undertakes to prove that her Notions do neither hang well together nor are consonant to the Scriptures and pawns his Reputation for the Performance But he did not well to hazard what he so highly values where the Probability of losing was so great XXVII In the XXIV Article He is at a stand what Reply to give to the Account of the Supernatural Means by which she came to her Knowledge without Reading without consulting Men and Books and even without Meditation He says It
expresly bear that were needful to be known for her own and others Conduct and therefore not of such as would tend only to gratifie Pride and vain Curiosity and carnal Interests of Men and consequently tho' we should suppose that A. B. had the Spirit of God yet it will not follow that she would be useful to the Doctor for easing the Minds of curious Girls by shewing them what was written in the Book of Fate as he very piously jests pag. 18. He falls very foul on M. P. ◠Narrat p. 49. as if he and others descended to the light and wanton Railleries of the Profane for relating a much more innocent Jest tho' I think his half Page looks liker that sort of Wit The Doctor seldom narrates any thing A. B. said or did or was said of her but he pushes it to an Excess and carries it to a height that was never intended However I suppose he will not neither indeed can he deny the possibility of the thing since the Holy Scriptures furnish us with a great many Instances of God's having discovered the secret Dispositions of the Souls of Men and other matters of fact to illuminated Persons All then he can aim at must be to evince the Nullity of this Pretence as to A. B. 5. To say* that A. B. requires the same Respect to her Sayings as to the Scripture is in my opinion to do her very great Injustice for since very plainly and frequently she acknowledges and asserts that the Sacred Writings are the Standard and Rule by which all other Doctrines must be tried and examined it is evident that in so doing she owns a peculiar Respect and Deference to be due to the Holy Scriptures which neither hers nor any others Sayings ought to pretend to Look says she with a suspicious eye upon any thing I declare unto you as coming from God in case you find my Doctrine not entirely agreeing with the Holy Scripture Whence it is plain that she would have her Sayings to be tried by the Holy Scriptures and that the value of what she says is to be determined by its Conformity to them This one would think is not to put the Scriptures and her Sayings in the same ballance or to require an equal respect to be paid to both The Doctor now that he peruses A. B's Writings could not but remark this and a great many more Passages to the same purpose How comes it then to pass that he brings not in these into his Accounts of A. B. Why this would spoil the design that he hath conceived of exposing her to the World altogether in black and horrid shapes But says the Doctor what she delivered must be of the same Authority with the Holy Scriptures because God is the Author of it But tho' we should suppose A. B. to be truly inspired yet his Consequence will not follow and the Reason is because as one very pertinently expresses it Quae à Deo procedunt ejusdem sunt veritatis c. Things that proceed from God are of equal Truth but not of equal Authority for tho' some things may be of God yet if any Person do not know or doubt if they be such they have not the same Authority nor Right to such a Persons Obedience as those things whose divine Origin is allowed by universal Consent altho' when it is evident to any person that any thing is revealed to them by God they are bound to pay the same Obedience to things thus revealed as to God himself Several Books that are now universally received into the Canon of Scripture were for some time doubted of in the Primitive Church it is certain that the questioned Books tho' really of Divine Original were not of the same Authority with these that were by unanimous Consent acknowledged to be Divine 6. If the Doctor can hit on any Period in A. B.'s Books that can give the least Colour to an invidious Consequence he is sure to make it serve his turn but without any Regard to that Candor that might be expected from him Of this we have a remarkable Instance pag. 32. n. 7. I shall give you the whole Passage to which he refers as it is If saith she I should say any thing contrary to the Gospel do not believe me for you ought not to believe any thing because I say it to you but because it is really true And if you knew me you should also know God because he is one and the same Spirit in all things so far as you shall discern Righteousness Goodness and Truth in any Person so far shall you discern God living in them and no farther So that its never good to follow Persons for themselves but to follow the Righteousness Goodness and Truth which you shall discover to abide in them Now to discover the Vanity of that Improvement which the Doctor makes of this Passage let it be considered that when things which import Excellency are attributed both to Jesus Christ and to Christians his Followers it is undeniable that we must alter our Idea's of these things according as we differently apply them either to him or them Our Lord calls himself the Light of the World and he is so in a Supernatural manner because he is the Divine Source and Original of all spiritual Light he in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge This same very Title he gives all his faithful Followers But will any Body imagine that it is applied to them in that same Sence in which it is understood of him No sure for we conceive of them only as subordinate Luminaries which receive all their Light and Heat from the Son of Righteousness And when St. Paul assures Timothy that by doing what he recommended to him he would save both himself and those that heard him we must not entertain the same Idea of Saving when we apply it to Timothy that we have when we attribute it to Jesus Christ Just so tho' our Lord uses concerning himself Words to the same Purpose with these which A. B. hath in this Period yet we must not imagine that they are of the same Import or that she intended they should Indeed the very Scope of the Passage plainly enough determines that she meant no more but this if you were acquainted with me and saw my Life and Practise you would see that I imitate and transcribe in my Conversation the Divine Qualities of Truth Righteousness and Goodness for God who by his Holy Spirit works uniformly in all his Children imprints these Characters of himself on them all and as much of these as you discern in me so far do you discern God in me and your seeing me exemplifie them before you in a lively manner will be an Inducement to you to imitate them and so to know God truly for then we truly know God when we imitate his Perfections If the Doctor had not been visibly in a