that the latter Christians shall live in greater Perfection than those of the Primitive Church did That he will send his Holy Spirit to lay before us those means of Salvation which Jesus Christ taught us while on Earth that we may clearly see how far we are estranged from them and to give us the Light of the Truth that we may see the way to return and to take up again the same Gospel-Means and recover the Dependance of our Will on God without which none can be saved And God will give the full Understanding of all that has been delivered in his Name from the Beginning of the World both by the Holy Prophets and by Jesus Christ and his Apostles or other Saints his Disciples 2. The Original Design of God in the creating of Man being to take his Delight with him for which End he not only made Man after his own likeness but he also became Man that he might live with him in perfect Resemblance to all Eternity and this being now suspended unto Man because of his Sin until that he have accomplished his Penitence to which he is subjected by Sin yet since God does not change nor will ever alter his Designs this time of Penitence being finished Man will enter again into Communion with God as if he had never offended him He will speak to God Face to Face by his Humanity which will be rendred immortal as well as is that of Jesus Christ that they may delight themselves perfectly together upon Earth which will then be rendred Paradice by the lovely Presence of God who for this End became Man and in the End of the World will come in Glory upon Earth to Live and Reign for ever with Men which is as it were The Sum of all the Designs that God has over Men and the Alliance he has often promised to make with Man 3. All the Works of God are Eternal and nothing that he has made shall ever perish And in the End of this World at the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory all things shall be renewed and restored into that primitive Integrity in which they were at first created All the Evil that is in the Creatures the Fruit of Man's Sins shall be wholly taken away All Nature shall then put off the Corruption Darkness and all the Disorders with which it had been tainted since Adam's Sin All shall become Bright Glorious and Luminous all Corruption shall be removed from the Body of Man and it shall be re-establish'd in that glorious perfect State in which it was at first created And the Soul become perfectly pure shall take its Delights with God and the Body with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God created them for those Ends and for no other thing that Man might have his full perfect Contentment of Body and Mind in that Life Eternal wherein Jesus Christ shall reign always in Body and Soul with the Bodies and Souls of the Blessed who shall be united in Spirit unto God and in Body unto the Body of Jesus Christ 4. After the Judgment when God shall take all Malignity from the Earth and from all the Creatures the Venom from Serpents Scorpions and other poysonous Beasts Maladies and Infirmities from the Bodies of Men and Beasts and Weaknesses from Spirits All this shall be reduced into some corner of the Earth all in a mass that these Malignities may act together upon the Bodies of the damned and that the Works of their hands be rendered unto them For God never made any of all these Evils He created all things Good Men only by their Wickedness have given Malignity unto all created things and therefore it ought to appertain to them and to be rendered to them by the Right of Justice which will come to pass at the Judgment when the Bodies of the Wicked shall rise also that none of the Works of God may perish and shall be sent into that miserable Corner with all the Evils which shall be removed from the Blessed and from the Earth from Plants Beasts and all the Elements that all these things may serve them only for Delight and Pleasure without being able to do any more Evil as they were in the Beginning of their Creation and all their Malignities which they have contracted by the Sins of Men shall be rendered unto their Authors 5. God having at the First Creation endued all living Creatures with a Power of producing their like and Man in his perfect State being endued with the same Power of producing his like without the help of another he shall be re-establish'd into the same State again So that in the Kingdom of Heaven there will be eternal Propagation but altogether Holy altogether Pure and Deified without concupiscible Appetite but by pure Acts of Love to God which will extend it self to the Production of New Creatures to the Glory of their Creator There there is not Male and Female they neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels in Heaven XXXVIII This as a Sum of her Accessory Sentiments and they who shall consider them without prejudice will hardly think that for them she deserves to be treated either as an Heritick or as a Mad Whimsical Woman It has been already said that she does not propose them as Articles of Faith necessary to be believed by all that according to St. Augustine these only are damnable Doctrines which tend to destroy Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour which it is evident those Sentiments do not and it were easie to make appear that many other Doctrines and Practices do which pass among many for very Christian XXXIX Besides it is evident that these Sentiments tend to clear and confirm all the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity and to endear them to us They shew us the great Designs of God's Love in the Creation of Man the excellent State in which he made him and the Happiness to which he design'd him They make appear evidently that all our Evil is from our selves and all our Good from God They shew us the Ground and Reason why Man's Redemption was set about and not the fallen Angels why Jesus Christ took such Interest in Man became Intercessor and Surety for him and why his Mediation was accepted by God his Father and why after other means essay'd he at last cloath'd himself with Man's Mortality why the following of his Counsels and Example is indispensibly necessary to Salvation They represent to us the horrid Corruption that Man is fallen into by Sin both as to Soul and Body and all the Creation by him and how mad we are to gratifie our corrupt Inclinations and to love this present World They direct us to a right use of the Rods and Judgments of God and awaken us to a sence of our present State wherein all the World lies in Wickedness They give us a prospect
and to work in us the greater Detestation of Sin and of our corrupt Nature God thinks fit that we should feel in our Souls the Evil and the Bitterness of Forsaking him without which they can never be purified nor come to see God IX There is another Prejudice which has some Affinity to this and which the generality of Protestants are prepossessed with and that is because she affirms that there is a State of Purification after this Life for such Souls as are truly converted unto God and yet are not wholly purified from their Corruption and so are not immediately capable of enjoying God All corrupt Doctrine has generally some Fond of Truth with which they mingle many other things that tend to promote Men's worldly Interests the Wealth of the Clergy and the Dependance of the People Thus in the Church of Rome they have founded a Purgatory in a Place near to Hell where Souls are tormented by a material Fire from whence they are delivered by some Soul-Masses some superstitious Ceremonies the dying in a Cordelier's Habit and a thousand Fopperies of this Nature But that Souls which die truly converted unto God and yet have not attained to such a State of Purity as to be capable of enjoying him shall undergo a State of Purification before they can see God is more than probable The Sum of her Sentiments as to this are 1. That is evident none can enjoy God who are not in a State of so perfect Purity that there remains in them no Degree of Corruption neither Actual nor Habitual For no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven There is no Fellowship between Light and Darkness And they are only the pure in Heart who shall see God 2. It is certain that they who are truly converted unto God are in a State of Grace and Salvation tho' Sin be yet in him and the Old Adam is not yet dead If a Person full of Sins and evil Habits be in his Heart and Desires truly turned unto God he receives him into his Grace tho' his habitual Sins are not yet rooted out much more him who is greatly advanced in the Mortification of his corrupt Nature but has not yet attained to a State of perfect Purity 3. It is as certain that Conversion and Regeneration are not one and the same thing The first being the turning away from Evil to Good from Sin to God the second being the Renovation of the whole Man after the Image of God a Creature altogether new whose Will is wholly resigned to God who lives no longer but Christ lives in it 4. It is in Grace and spiritual things as it is in Nature and bodily things All things advance to their Perfection by Degrees and not in an Instant God does all things in Order in Number Weight and Measure and conformably to the Nature of the Beings he has formed We are first Children before we are Men and we advance by Degrees to the Stature and Wisdom of Men and put away Childish Things But if the Child come forth of the Womb void of the bodily Life it remains so still We are told of Children and Youth and Men in Christ Jesus and we must not think that all these States are attain'd to in an Instant in the spiritual Life no more than in the bodily 5. It cannot be denied but that many who are saved do go out of this World truly converted unto God but yet not throughly renewed and purified and as on the one hand God will not reject and cast away such Souls as seek him with all their Heart so on the other hand in this State of Impurity they are not capable of enjoying him And therefore God in his infinite Goodness Truth and Righteousness will place them in such a State as whereby all their evil Habits may be wholly rooted out all their Corruption subdued all their Filthiness cleansed and they purified as God is pure 6. This so great and so extraordinary a Change cannot be supposed to be wrought in an Instant nor yet without most sensible Pain and Labour to the Soul in whom this Change is wrought The Soul is of a most sensible Nature and when freed of this mortal Body that stupifies it its Sensibilities must be infinitely more lively and piercing and therefore the Sentiment of being deprived of the glorious Presence of God which it ardently thirsts after and of having within it Dispositions repugnant to this Enjoyment which a Ray from God manifests it to cannot but give it unspeakable Pain and Anguish We see here no sensible Being that is in Disorder can be restored to its right State without Pain and Trouble a broken Leg a disjointed Member a Part of the Body ulcer'd corrupt Humours cannot be rectified without Pain and Trouble It all the Parts and all the Members of a Body were dislocated corrupted and disordered the Pain and Trouble that would be felt in the restoring of that Body would be unspeakably greater All this is but a faint Image of the State of the Soul all its Faculties are more corrupted and disordered than it is possible for the Body to be the Restitution of which by the Operation of the Divine Grace cannot be perform'd even in this State of Stupidity without much Pain and Anguish but after this Life when the Soul is fully awakened it is supported by the Divine Grace to undergo this Change but with Dolours beyond Comparison greater No living thing can pass from one State to another without great Sensibility can enter into a new Element unto which it is not entirely conformable without suffering its Impressions with Pain weak and sickly Eyes cannot endure great Light without Pain nor a weak Body strong Nourishment without Trouble So a Soul falling into the Element of Eternity of the Divine Light and of the Fire of the Divinâ— Love if it be yet weak and ill â—sposed if iâ— have yet many contrary Disâ—â—sitions many things to be consumed many Habits to 〈…〉 out this cannot be done without great Sufferings Not that God chastises in Wrath nor that he deâ—â—â—nts to torment the Soul but that the Soul full of contrary Dispâ—sitions full of Darkness cannot receive his Light nor feel the 〈◊〉 of his Love without most sensible and dolorous Sentiments till by the Force and Continuance of these Impressions they have banish'd out all that is contrary to his Divine Light and Love which then transforms the Soul wholly into its own Nature It is unreasonable to oppose that Passage of Scripture that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Sins for the Meaning of it is not that because Jesus Christ has shed his Blood we ought to be cleansed from our Sins without Mortifications and sufferings but the quite contrary for the Blood of Jesus Christ is the Grace that he has merited by his Blood whereby we may be purified from our Sins by Sufferings and by a Conformity to his Sorrows and Death And
damn'd For this is but a Testimony of the Faith which the faithful Christian has in his Soul which he declares to all Men by the means of the Water of outward Baptism but if this living Faith is not in the Man's Soul this outward Baptism will serve him for nothing This is the Reason why Anabaptists will not baptize Children but they themselves seem to have no more Faith when they are grown up than when they were Children for the Scripture says He who believes in Jesus Christ does the Works that he did which they do not which shews they do not believe in him tho' they are not baptiz'd till they come to the use of Reason So the Soul of Man cannot receive Salvation by the means of outward Baptism when he has not in him living Faith or his Parents for him if he be in Childhood The Catholicks then have no ground to believe that all Children who are baptized shall be saved and that they who die without Baptism shall be damn'd since this depends upon the Free-will of their Parents who offering willingly their Children to God to become true Christians they are accepted of God by the Will of their Parents and will assuredly be saved if they die before the use of Reason And if others by their Parents are offered to the Devil and to Sin and die in their Nonage they will be damned by the Evil will of their Parents even tho' outwardly they receive the Baptism of Water which without Faith is null and Faith without Baptism in diverse cases does save We see with what strength of Reason she declares this Sentiment and tho' there were nothing else but the Consideration of our case in Adam it serves to confirm it for there is no partiality in God no respect of Persons he acts by the same Measures and the same Rules with Creatures of the same Kind and Qualities The Offence we take at this proceeds from our Ignorance of God and his Works and the Desire we have to extenuate the Guilt and damnable Effects of our Unchristian Care of our Children When God created things at first he did not establish them in the Disorder in which we now see them but all good and excellent in their respective kinds When he establish'd the Propagation of Man to come from Man it was not that they might communicate Imperfections to one another but the Perfections he had given them and God's wise and admirable Conduct in this is thus in some measure represented When he created free and intelligent Beings it was not possible but that at first they must be frail and capable of falling away for then they had no Habits to Good which consisting in frequently repeated Acts and being acquired thereby intelligent Creatures at first were not strengthned in Good and thro' their weakness they might abuse their Liberty and fall away God having seen this come to pass in an infinite Number of Angels and desiring to settle other Creatures in their room thought how he might place others who from their Birth or Being might have Habits to Good and so being thus establish'd in it might not so easily fall away If then all those Creatures should come from one Source that were habitually Good then they who came of them should be born all with an habitual strength to Good and they encreasing and strengthning their good Habits those who descended from them should be yet much more establish'd and invincible in Goodness and so on by a continual Gradation But to accomplish this charitable Design the first Creature of that kind must be produc'd in the common Lot without an habitual Firmness but in a State actually Good and such care taken to prevent his Fall as that God bodily converses with him If therefore Man do not correspond to this Care it is purely his own fault who of his Free-will has chang'd into a Source of Misery that which ought to have been a Source of Communication of Good Now the same Reason for which Men were to come of one another by Propagation is the Reason also why the Lot of Children is the same with that of the Parents so long as they have not the use of their Liberty If Parents had remain'd in the Perfection in which God plac'd them and encreas'd in it according to his Establishment this had been a great Happiness for their Children who had thus been Partakers of habitual Good even from their Original but if the contrary did afterwards happen this is neither from the Decree nor Design of God but purely the fault of Man with which God's Decree has no concern Now suppose that God has appointed that Men should descend of one another by Propagation it follows immediately and naturally without the intervention of a New Decree that the Lot and Liberty of the Children should be bound up in the Parents so long as they are not in a State to make use of it freely themselves As long as an Effect is in its Cause it is one and the same with its Cause And as long as it is not like to its Cause and is not Independent on it it is also in it for it goes out from it but according as it has it self apart the natural and necessary Faculties and Functions for its own Constitution and for its individual Government as its Cause has to be naturally compleat If therefore it have not as yet the free conduct of it self being found to be a free Agent it is as yet in regard of that in its Cause or in its Parents Not that for some Years after a Child is born his Free-will is yet in an inherent manner in his Parents and that it must flow from them into the Child when he is farther advanc'd in Age. But that the Parents produce a Body and a Soul in a State imperfect enough so as yet to need their Care and Operation so to speak for some Years before the Subject which hitherto is imperfect become perfect And so long as it is not it belongs yet naturally to the producing Cause which is obliged to have a care of it as a part of it self as in effect it is Hence also comes the Right which Fathers and Mothers have of educating their Children which is not a Right that is positive or may be dispenc'd with or which simply regards the Body but a natural indispensible Right which much more respects the Soul than the Body XVIII Another great Prejudice rais'd against her was that she spoke so meanly of Reason did not look on it as the surpeam Faculty of the Soul nor the Exercise of it as the best Employment and thought there were such dangerous Fruits of Sciences and humane Learning and the means of acquiring them In the Thoughts of M. Pascal there are I remember excellent Reflections about the Three different sorts of Grandeur which have their different Empires Dignities Honours c. and may be call'd Divine Rational and Earthly
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
necessary to Salvation and that we may let them alone and suspend our Belief of them if we see no Clearness and Evidence in them and that she aims at nothing but to perswade Men to the Love of God and to observe the Laws of the Gospel as the necessary Means to recover it It is best to hear her speak for her self in this Matter I protest says she before God and Men that I aim at nothing by all my Words and Writings but to perswade Men to return to the Love of God from whence they are fallen by the Glosses Explications or new Inventions of deceitful Men who do falsly promise Salvation to those who live and die in their Self-love and despise the Practice of a Gospel-Life Seeing such shall never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven when they despise the Designs of God and the Means and Graces which he gives them that they may rise again and deliver themselves from this Damnation These are the Practice of the Gospel-Law which only can save them because of the Frailty of Man's Nature They will never save themselves from Damnation if they do not embrace the Gospel-Law which is the last and most perfect of all the Laws that God has given or ever will give to Men And I do not pretend to teach any other neither do I teach Errors as these Adversaries of the Truth of God do affirm for God will never change and Jesus Christ brings it to us in the last Hour We must not look for any other nor for New Prophets for he has prophesied all and taught what Men ought to do and avoid even to the End of the World T is true indeed I speak of several things in my Writings which are not in so many Words in the Gospel but these are not things which every one is obliged to believe or the belief of which is necessary to Salvation I write them out of abundance and to reinforce the Courage of those who understand and relish them But they who do not relish or understand them may let them alone Their belief or unbelief of these things neither adds nor takes any things from me I have obtain'd all my Design when I have shewn clearly that no Body shall be saved but they who shall take up the Practice of a Gospel Life as God has reveal'd to me leaving every one free to do it if he will since God forces no Body neither do I. I have spoken several times in my Writings of the Creation of the World of the Glorious Estate in which Adam was created how Jesus Christ was born of him in his State of Innocence with many Divine Mysteries unheard of by Men. But this is but a Cluster of Grapes of the Garden of Eternal Life as those sent from the Children of Israel brought a Cluster of the Grapes of the Land of Promise to make them comprehend the Abundance and the Fruitfulness of it even so I have spoken of those high Secret Mysteries which God has reveal'd to me that I might give a Sample of that which God has prepared for those who observe his Gospel Law But I do not positively teach those unknown Wonders as Articles of Faith I declare them only for to strengthen my own Soul and those who sincerely desire to become True Christians teaching them also many things which no body has taught hitherto because the time was not come to know them since we read in the ancient Prophets that God says to Daniel Seal up these Words until the last Times and in the Revelations there is spoken of a Book closed sealed with Seven Seals which none could open but the Lamb slain All these things with many others do sufficiently testifie that God would conceal from Men many Secret and Divine Mysteries till the last Times for God has done nothing for Men which he does not make known to them before the World end And if now I declare unto them things which they have not as yet heard they ought so much the more to esteem them and enquire narrowly that they may discover whether they be true or profitable for the Salvation of Souls and not reject or despise them blindly as Fools do who condemn all that they do not understand uttering Reproaches against those who speak to them for their Good And if these Preachers did this out of Ignorance they would be in some manner excusable but it must needs be out of pure Malice that they condemn the Essential Truths of the Doctrine of the Gospel which I teach substantially through all my Writings bringing only all other things by way of Comparison or to make my self be the better understood that People may by divers means recover the Love of God which all have lost and even also his Fear And that every one may find in my Writings divers means sutable to their Dispositions I speak much of the Judgments of God of his Rods and Chastisements which we are to look for that if some are touch'd with Threatnings and disposed to return to God by Fear and Trembling they may embrace these Warnings of the last Judgments And if others are rather drawn unto God by Promises and the Glory that God has prepared for them after Death such may meditate seriously upon them that by those Considerations they may be inflam'd with the Love of a God so bountiful to his Creatures And if others are dispos'd to return to God by discovering the Falshoods and Errors which are now in Christendom I speak of them abundantly in my Writings So that nothing is wanting there for him who truly desires to search he has certainly the Occasion to find by the reading of my Writings seeing there are there means in abundance for all sorts of Dispositions But the whole Butt or the White at which I draw in declaring so many Marvels of God is no other but to shew Men that they will not be saved but by taking up anew the Practise of a Gospel Life as the Christians of the Primitive Church did for God is Yesterday and to Day the same and Jesus Christ that Divine Physician has brought the last Receipt of his Gospel-Law which we must take and swallow until the last Day of Judgment if we desire to be saved XV. Thus she declares that she aims at nothing in all her Writings but to perswade Men to return to the Love of God and to put in practice the Laws of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only essential and necessary means thereunto and whatsoever else is contain'd in them is only to bring Men to the practice of those great Duties they being differently mov'd according to their different Dispositions and these things they may either embrace or let alone according as they find them helpful or not to the Practise of the great Duties of the Gospel and the Truth of this appears by the constant Tenour of all her Writings But some are apt to say This is what is done
does from a Fountain She needed not it seems the Buckets of Study and Meditation wherewith to draw out of the broken Cisterns of others but she had within her a Fountain of living Water still springing up to everlasting Life As this is attested by those who were of her particular Acquaintance and all her Manuscripts are still extant written with her own Hand so a particular Account is given given of this by Mr. Francken Merchant at Amsterdam in his Testimony concerning her where among other things he tells That a learned Man of Amsterdam a Doctor of Law said to him one Day that he could not believe but it was some learned Man who had writ these Letters and publish'd them under the Name of A. B. as not being willing to be known and Mr. Francken assur'd him of the contrary but however he not having had long time to converse with her he would take care to inform himself more narrowly so as to be able to convince him as it fell out for some time since after he had told him he had often found her in her little Chamber with a Piece of Deal Board on her Knees writing without any other Thing but the Paper on which she wrote and the Pen and Ink which she made use of and she leaving off to write upon her Discovering that he was in the Room and because she never wrote but with Attention to the Voice of God in the inward Silence and Recollection of her Spirit he would take up the Paper with her Permission to read it and found it was writ so swiftly that there would be yet ten or twelve Lines fresh and wet Having made this Trial of it his Friend he says was perswaded of it as much as if he had seen it himself having full Confidence in his Sincerity from long Experience and Familiarity XXX 15. That which ought greatly to recommend her Writings to us is the Conformity of her Life and Practice It is the general Complaint concerning those who recommend Vertue and a truly Christian Life to others that they do not practice it themselves that they speak by one Principle and live by another and so their Words have little Force and they destroy Christianity one way more than it is possible for them to build it up another I know some have made an ill Use of the Elogies which have been given of her Life and Spirit by those who were Eye-witnesses of all like Spiders sucking Poison from the Flowers where the Bees gather Honey they exaggerate some of their Expressions far beyond the Intent of them and in Opposition to the Testimonies of those who were living Witnesses of her Life they some eighteen Years after she is dead will needs draw a Picture of her that may represent her very ugly with what Equity and Candour will appear in its due Place However any who shall read impartially the Story of her Life and the Testimonies given of her throughout all the Periods of it â— will conceive better Thoughts of her than what the New Narratives would give of them They will see that she liv'd constantly as one travelling towards Eternity and therein studying in all things to conform her Life to that of Jesus Christ in these and such-like Instances She convers'd always with God and no more with Men than her Duty and Charity requir'd she led a Life of continual Penitence mortifying her corrupt Nature and never gratifying her sensual Appetites in any thing Tho' she might have enjoy'd the Pleasures of her Senses the Delights of her Taste and of her other Senses yet she voluntarily depriv'd herself of them to please God Tho' she had lawfully acquir'd Riches yet would never use them but for pure Necessity Tho' she might have been conveniently serv'd and honour'd according to her Condition yet she despis'd these Honours and Services to imitate Jesus Christ loving rather to live unknown and serve herself than to be serv'd There was nothing observ'd in her Actions contrary to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God but they appear'd still to be accompanied with those three Qualities deriv'd from the Spirit of God She never recommended to any the Practice of a Vertue which she did not most exemplarily practice herself She was most humble and self-denied always ready to serve others rather than be serv'd by them and to take to her self the meanest and the least of every thing She did not affect to be thought humble by humble Words Gestures Habits c. nor did she distinguish her self from the rest of the World by any singular indifferent Thing but as to Habit Diet c. conform'd her self to the Customs of the Places where she happen'd to be So great was her Charity that she brought up some hundreds of Girls maintaining fifty of them at a time for the space of seven Years on her own Charges what was allow'd by the Founder being only for ten employing her Time Wealth Strength of Body and Mind in Training them up in all Vertuous Exercises and distinguishing herself in nothing from them as to Diet Bread Apparel c. Such was her Love to Men's Souls that she spared nothing to perswade them to the Love of God and to Imitate Jesus Christ and employ'd her Time and Wealth in writing and publishing the Truths of God for that End She suffer'd patiently all manner of Reproaches and Persecutions for the Sake of Jesus Christ She had an invincible Firmness and Constancy in what was Truth Nothing could shake or alter her She did nothing to please Men She had a constant Equality of Mind in all Conditions She discover'd a wonderful Prudence on all Occasions Let any body but read the Testimonies given of her by those who knew her in her Youth in her old Age and in all States of her Life as they are set down in Recucil des Temoignages and particularly that of Mr. Francken Merchant of Amsterdam and they will see how closely she was a Follower of Jesus Christ in Humility and Poverty of Spirit in a Contempt of all earthly Things in a Life of Labour and Penitence and in the true Love of God and the Souls of Men. Now Writings whose Substance and Essence contains such excellent Truths as those I have mention'd in the Account of the Essentials of Christianity and which have such remarkable Qualities and penn'd by one who liv'd so her self ought certainly to meet with some Regard and not to be immediately thrown away and People frighted from looking into them because there are in them some Sentiments which do not relish and seem to us Extravagant XXXI But perhaps it will be said that those Doctrines which she calls Accessories may be dangerous Opinions and damnable Doctrines and that what she seems to build with the one Hand she pulls down with the other that she makes a Mahumetan Paradise Eating and Drinking and Generation in the Kingdom of Heaven How easie a thing is it
not interpos'd and become a Mediator between God and them who being touch'd with a deep fence of the wretched State into which Man had plung'd himself he ardently prays and interceeds with his Heavenly Father that he would have pity on those his wretched rebellious Creatures and his Brethren that he would be pleas'd to pardon them grant them his Grace tho' most unworthy of it and â—llow them yet a Time of Trial becoming Surety for them that they should detest and abhor their Corruption deny themselves and return to the Love of God His Mediation is accepted and upon the account of his Merits and Intercession Man is pardoned Grace is given him of new and a Time of Trial allow'd him in which he must lead a Life of Penitence and thereby mortifie his Corrupt Nature and return to the Love of God 2. The Time of Trial given to Man at first was a State of Pleasure and Delights but since the Fall of Man the Time of Trial assign'd him is a State of Labour and Toil and therefore God thrust Man out of a delightful Paradice and suffered the Malediction and Curse of his Sin to fall upon the Creatures in a great measure that they all might afford him Vexation instead of Pleasure and so he might have occasion of doing Penitence because he had turn'd away his Heart and Affections from God and set them on the Creature 3. The Son of God having undertaken the Recovery of Mankind out of pure Love and Compassion he provides means and remedies according to the different states of their Maladies The First Command he gives Man as a necessary mean of his Recovery is a Life of Penitence and Labour to eat his Meat in the sweat of his Face but Men multiplying their Sins he multiplied his Commands as so many means to turn them from their Sins and gave them variety of Precepts to make them think upon God in all their Actions and Words so that their Hearts might be in a continual Elevation to him But they cleave to the Letter of the Law without comprehending the Sence of it and turn'd away yet more from the Love of God placing their Affections on the Creatures the Riches Pleasures and Honours of this Life pleasing themselves with the outside of their Rites and Ceremonies 4. When all other means prov'd unsuccessful Jesus Christ tries the last Remedy Men were not capable in their Mortal State of being taught by him in his Glorious Body He had obtain'd of his Father to give them in Spirit good Thoughts and Motions yea Divine and Supernatural Light but all this was not capable to convert them or to make them sensible they were in a State of Damnation because of each one 's inveterate habit to follow their brutish Nature There was need of a Mean visible and sensible to their Corruption to move their Hearts otherwise they had all been lost without a sence of their own Misery all perishing without perceiving it by a damnable Imitation of one another thus all running in the Broad Way to Hell Having therefore obtain'd from his Father Mercy and Pardon for them upon their Repentance Jesus Christ resolves to become a Mortal Man He therefore cloaths himself with our Mortality and bringing along with him his Divine Light to enlighten them and his Divine Love to enflame them he becomes in all things like to Corrupt Man yet without Sin he teaches them by his Word and his by Example how they should mortifie their Corrupt Nature do Penitence and recover the Love of God he charges himself with the miseries and frailty that Sin has brought upon Humane Nature taking on himself all their Maledictions and the Punishments due to their Sins which he did bear and suffer as if he had been the greatest of all Sinners living a Life of extream Poverty Labour Contempt and Pain undergoing a shameful painful and accursed Death and so obtaining Pardon for all who should thus follow his Steps 5. God made his Will known to good Men to the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets by the Organ of the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ But since Men were taught by Jesus Christ in his Mortal Body there is no need to see or understand by his Glorious Body They have received the Light of Truth so that they need not bodily Visions to understand the Will of God Jesus Christ speaks now to them in Spirit and in Truth enlightning Souls with his Divine Light inwardly by his Holy Spirit which operates in Souls disengag'd from themselves and from all earthly Affections acting in them sweetly and powerfully when the Soul is in Peace and Tranquility of Mind It hears then as a soft Wind which surrounding it with Joy makes it see what it ought to do and avoid both for its own Conduct and for that of other well-dispos'd People 4. As to the Present State of the World the Summ of her Accessory Sentiments are 1. THAT all Men have corrupted their Ways and that there are no True Christians in the World truly mortified to corrupt Nature and regenerated in the Love of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ 2. That the present State of Christendom is a perfect Babel our Language being confounded and the Builders do not understand one another 3. That we have glossed away the Laws and Doctrine of Jesus Christ by our Expositions as much as the Scribes and Pharisees did Moses's Law by their Traditions 4. That we live presently in the Reign of Antichrist and that he rules in Spirit through all the Earth by his Three Antichristian Qualities which he sheds into Man's Nature Injustice Malice and Hypocrisie under a cover of Religion in Opposition to the Three Divine Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth which Jesus Christ came to plant in the Hearts and Lives of all his Disciples That Men seduce one another under fair Appearances That Sin is mask'd with Holiness and cover'd with Hypocrisie 5. That the Source of all the Evils in the Church is in the Corruption of the Pastors and Churchmen and that the Abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary That all the Degeneracy of Christians comes from the Degeneracy of their Guides 6. That the Wickedness of Man now being Universal and come to a height greater than in the Days of Noah the Sentence of Gods last Judgments is irrevocably past and the Plagues are begun and will continue till that by War Famine Pestilence and other grievous Judgments all the Wicked be consumed from off the Face of the Earth but this shall be done slowly and in a Course of many Years that many may thereby be awakened and brought to Repentance 5. As to the State of Things to come her Sentiments are 1. THAT God will yet once renew his Gospel-Spirit upon Earth and will fill well-disposed Souls with the Spirit that Jesus Christ had while upon Earth and
of the World and of all the Creation worthy of God They let us see the Wisdom and Goodness of God in bringing about his great Designs tho' thwarted by the Perversness and Rebellion of Man They give us some glimpse of the unspeakable Glory to which Man is designed to partake of the Joys of God being united to him in Body and Spirit and to receive the Delights of all his Works They shew us that Almighty God design'd this World and all the Creation for some great End more worthy of him than to serve Devils and Wicked Men as a Theatre and Fewel of their Lusts and Instrument of their dishonouring him It is usual for the Learned to form Theories and Systems of Divinity whereby to give a clear Account of the Doctrines of Faith If Men will be pleased to consider these Sentiments in this View only and compare them with the Systems given us by the Divines of all Parties they may come to be convinc'd that they have a greater Tendency to promote True Christianity XL. And as they are very sutable to the known Articles of Faith so they do not contradict the Holy Scriptures but seem to be insinuated and pointed out in them and to serve to clear Thousands of Passages there which otherwise cannot be conceived as A. B. her self makes appear in several Instances 1. That all things were created Good and Beautiful at first without any Deformity appears both from the Nature of God and from his Word He is Perfect and therefore cannot make any thing Imperfect He is all Good and can make nothing Evil All things therefore have been made by him perfectly Good and Beautiful for the Workman is known by his Works A rare Painter or Writer is known by his Pictures or Writings tho' we do not know his Person much more is God known by his Works for he can never fail or commit a Fault in them which the most accomplish'd Spirits amongst Men may do This is then an Eternal Truth that God created all things Beautiful and Good which the Scripture also verifies when it is said that God saw all that he had made and behold it was very Good Which could not be if there were any Evil in it as a thing cannot be Beautiful if it have any Deformity But we see all his Works now are not Good and Beautiful in the Air are Tempests Whirlwinds c. destroying Men by Sea or Land In it is obscure Darkness nothing to be seen through it if it be not favoured with the Rays of the Sun or Stars The Earth has a filthy colour that sullies all that touches it and is of such gross Obscurity that we can see nothing in it and to make it bring forth Fruit Men must employ the sweat of their Body and after all it brings forth often nothing but corrupt Fruit and if it be not cultivated only Thorns and Thistles The Water often swallows and suffocates Men its greatest Masses are salt or filthy The Fire has in it a black Smoak ready to stifle Men if they were not succoured by the Air it spoils the Eyes of those who steadily look on it and consumes Men Beasts and all other things These things cannot be created by God as we see and feel them because they are neither Good nor Beautiful By a clear Consequence then we must believe that the Air has been created clear sweet and agreeable without these Tempests and so of the rest 2. It is as evident that our Bodies have not been created in the State they are now in in which there is nothing good and beautiful no more than in our Minds and that they have been form'd at first in a glorious State appears by this that it being generally acknowledged that Jesus Christ is to restore Man to that primitive Perfection both of Body and Mind in which he was created and the Scriptures telling us That we look from Heaven for our Lord Jesus Christ to change our vile Bodies and to make them like to his Glorious Body and we being told that when at his first Transfiguration on the Mount he was pleased to give his three Disciples some Prospect of that Glory and to let some Rays of his Glorious Body stream forth thro' his Mortality it is said his Countenance did shine as Lightning and his Raiment was white as Snow We may think how glorious the Body of Man was before his Fall and shall be when this Mortal shall put on Immortality and this Corruption Incorruption and Death shall be swallowed up in Victory 3. That Man in his first Creation was endued with a Power of producing his Kind appears in that at the Creation of Man it is expresly said that God created Man Male and Female and bid him be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and tho' it be in the Original he created them in the Plural and not in the Singular he created him Male and Female yet that does not change the true Sence since God created in Adam all Men who were to proceed from him they were all originally in him And Eve was not as yet formed and he had rested from all his Works before he proceeded to the Formation of her how long after it is not known This seems most evident from the Story of the Creation for the Account of the six Days Works is contained in the first Chapter of Genesis and that God saw that all he made was very good but before the Formation of Eve out of Adam we are told of God's resting on the seventh Day from all his Works which he had made of his planting a Garden and there making to grow out of the Ground every Tree that is pleasant to the Sight and good for Food his placing Man there to dress and keep it his bringing all the Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air before Man and Adam's giving each of them a Name his finding it now not good that Man should be alone tho' before he saw all that he had made and behold it was very good his Resolution therefore to make a Help meet for him and therefore he caused a deep Sleep to fall upon Adam and took one Principle out of him called in the Scripture-stile one of his Ribs and so formed the Woman As from all this it seems evident that the Formation of the Woman cannot be supposed to have been upon the sixth Day without a great Straining of the History so it appears that Adam was at first created in such a State of Perfection as to need no Help for the Production of his Kind and that the Formation of the Woman from him was upon his beginning to decline from his God and to delight himself in the Creatures without referring all to God It is therefore said It is not good for Man to be alone tho' before God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good It
say he is our Pledge and by his Sufferings has paid the Penalty due to our Sins having died to redeem us while we will suffer nothing nor share in his Pains being well pleased to have our Debts paid with the Goods of another It is on the other hand a great Boldness in those who think they shall be saved by their own Merits without the Merits of Jesus Christ For if Jesus Christ had not merited for them the Grace to do well they were not capable of having so much as one good Thought or Desire of doing one good Work So that all the Grace they have of doing any Good comes from the Merits of Jesus Christ tho' by Ignorance they despise it as poor blinded ones who can discern nothing thro' the Weakness of their Sight For if Jesus Christ had not come to bring Light to the World no body would have perceived his own miserable State and if he had not interceded with his Father no body would have had the Grace to receive his Light so that without Jesus Christ all Men would have remained lost thro' their Blindness and would never have been able to comprehend by what Means they ought to return to God if Jesus Christ had not come to teach them by Word and Deed. And if he had only taught them by Word as the other Prophets no body would have followed him since they believe even yet that it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ and to follow the Evangelical Life But he himself has put it in Practice before Mens Eyes that after his Example they must endeavour to satisfie the Justice of God by the Union of his Sufferings and of his Charity which are Sacrifices more agreeable to God his Father than our unclean Offerings and our Works defiled with Sin If one had mortally offended his Equal he durst not of himself procure Peace and the Pardon of his Offence but he would interpose some Mediator who were a Friend of the offended Person to satisfie his just Wrath. But they who would be saved by their good Works have too much Pride to take Jesus Christ as Mediator but with an up-lifted Head they address to God whom they have so often offended that they rather draw down his avenging Hand upon their Heads than the Pardon of their Sins for God resists the Proud and gives his Heart to the Humble If they join'd their good Works to the Humility of Jesus Christ they might peradventure receive the Mercy of God by his Son Jesus Christ but standing up as the Pharisee who thanked God for his good Works they shall no more be justified than he was when he went out of the Temple Because he who is not cloathed with Jesus Christ is not admitted to his Father since before his Coming into the World all Men were Enemies to God So that he who is not cloathed with Jesus Christ cannot be acknowledged for his Friend far less for his Son seeing the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the only Son in which he takes Pleasure and not in another He therefore who thinks to go to God without the Mediation of Jesus Christ will be rejected as unworthy and rash because Jesus Christ is the only Door of Salvation They are Thieves who would enter by the Windows into the Kingdom of Heaven for that only belongs to the Disciples of Jesus Christ In which those greatly deceive themselves who believe that they may enter into it while they despise him or reject his Merits which have opened the Door to all those who will follow and imitate him Yet not to those who esteem Jesus Christ and his Merits but with all this will not embrace Penitence under a Pretext that Jesus Christ has satisfi'd wholly for their Sins comprehending even those which they shall commit in time to come as well as those which they have committed in time past In which Error are the most part of those who are called Christians yea amongst others the most perfect We hear nothing more ordinary in their pious Discourses than to say God is Good he will save us and Jesus Christ died to give us Entry into Paradise And with these fine Discourses every one thinks they are sure of Paradise even tho' they live and die in their natural Motions and Sentiments which is a great Mistake for God tho' he be good will save no body but him who shall satisfie his Divine Justice The Merits of the Death and Suffering of Jesus Christ will never be applied but to Souls which are regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ For he has not suffered but for those who from a natural Life shall enter into a spiritual one For Jesus Christ says that all Righteousness must be fulfilled Now it were not just that they who have forsaken a Dependance upon God to depend upon their own Wills should enjoy the Merits of Jesus Christ without being converted and embracing his Spirit since he came not but to bring Sinners to Repentance and he who continues to persevere in his natural Life cannot repent and so cannot enjoy the Merits of Jesus Christ since it is not for those that he has suffered or merited but only for those who by Ignorance or Frailty have quitted their Dependance upon God and delight themselves in the Creatures without thinking they ought to delight themselves in God alone They lived in the Darkness of Death without knowing it Therefore Christ had Compassion on them and offered himself to his Father promising unto him that they should be converted and do Penitence provided he brought them the Light of Truth by which they might get out of their Darkness and their Errors In this Jesus Christ was our Pledge and answered for our Penitence with which we must be saved and not otherwise Therefore they form to themselves imaginary Ways in the Air who think that Jesus Christ is come to save us in speculative Way or by some incomprehensible Mysteries seeing our Redemption is accommodated to our Capacity But the Devil to divert us from taking the straight Way thro' which Jesus Christ walked blinds our Eyes with imaginary Things that we may never come to the Knowledge of the straight Truth making some believe that they cannot be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ and others that his Merits will save them even though they use no Endeavours to imitate and follow him Many other Passages might I bring out of her Writings but these may shew her Sentiments in this Matter The Sum of her Sentiments comes to this That Man turning away his Heart and his Affections from God thereby all Communion between God and Man ceas'd and so Man was plung'd into an irrecoverable State of Sin and Misery as well as the fallen Angels if there had been none to interpose for him with God for whose Sake he should shew him Mercy there being nothing now in Man that could move God to have any Regard for him That Jesus Christ true God and
shall consume them as Bread God will not defend them and he is with us therefore let us not fear them Thus we ought to animate all well-disposed Persons and let them see that the Ways and the End of Christianity are very possible with the Grace of God If this Method had been taken the Doctrine of Christian Perfection and its Practice would not have been so strange and so rare a thing XV. I shall here mention another Accusation as having Relation to this from which she clearly vindicates her self and that is That they said she believed herself impeccable and that her Friends did so at least that she never actually sinned no not in Thought and that she derived no Guilt and Corruption from Adam She vindicates herself from this Accusation in a Letter to Serrarius In the eighth Place you accuse me says she very falsely in saying that I say or that I believe I am impeccable and cannot fall any more for in Effect I have no other Fear but that of not abiding faithful to my God and I cannot endure those who say or believe that there is a State of Perfection in this World in which Persons are impeccable I look on this as a great Errour and Self-presumption Is it possible that I should hold my self what I blame so much in others I say God ought to be served with Fear and Trembling and I never demand of others what I do not first my self If I say that God ought to be served with Fear I still do it first and I am sure if God did withdraw his Grace from me I should fall presently You have been present several times when I related to many how I fell after that I had been from my Youth prevented by the Grace of God yet being grown up I let my self be carried away to follow the Vanities of the World and resisted the Inspiration of God which drew me to the contrary and because of this Resistance I deserved that God should withdraw from me and I began to please my self in the Pleasures and Divertisements of the World and the Praises of Men so that this Fall was the Cause that I gave my self to great Mortifications of Body to Watchings Tears and Prayers for the Space of about 7 Years This Story was told many times to your Disciples and in your Presence Now if I relate so freely how I fell so basely from so exalted a State of Grace in which God had put me how could I say or believe that I could not fâ—ll any more or think my self impeccable since what a Person has done once they may do many times The State of Integrity in which I was before my Fall might rather have rendred me impeccable than that in which I live after it I do not believe that ever any Creature on Earth can be impeccable during this miserable Life where there are so many Stones of Stumbling a S. Peter the Apostle a David according to God's own Heart a Solomon filled with the Holy Spirit with so many others have committed gross Faults and great Faults after having received great Grace from God Should I be so Ignorant as to believe that I could not fall any more or fail of the Grace of God I may do it assuredly every Moment if I should withdraw my Conversation with God to converse with my Senses for God forces no Body having given to all Men Free-will with which they shall act to all Eternity and as long as this Will abides fix'd in God it is impossible that the Person fall but if this Will withdraw it self from a Dependance on its God it falls easily even tho' it had been exalted as high as a Seraphim For this Cause I said I have no other Fear in the World but that of not abiding faithful to God because I know that so long as I shall be united to him I cannot fall but if I withdraw my self from him I shall fall at the first Step as an Infant that cannot walk And yet you dare say that I call my self impeccable and when I ask where I have said or written such things You tell you draw it from my Writings by Consequences But I would gladly ask you if in case I had drawn by Consequences out of your Letters or Words that you are a wicked Man would it be lawful for me to go and publish it from Town to Town as you do the ill and abusive Consequences that you say you draw from my Writings without letting me know where how in what Place and by what Words I may have given Matter for drawing of such Consequences directly contrary to the true Sentiments that I profess I know not with what Conscience you can do this and say that it is for Good that you may warn Persons that I believe my self impeccable and that I exalt my self and so forth but tho' indeed there were in me any such thing it would neither be good nor necessary to advertise so many Persons of it For First my Imperfections cannot defile them it is I that must account for them to God and my Words cannot wound them because all those whom you sent to me are Persons who have their Five Senses and a good enough Judgment to discern if what I say be Good or Evil and to take only that that may serve them for Good lâ—tting the rest alone so that it is not necessary for you to go tell them the Faults which your Fancy has imagin'd Your procedure is very contrary to that of Jesus Christ who said to the People speaking of the Pharisees Hypocrites do what they bid you but do not as they do You will grant I say very good things as the Truth is but you would annihilate that Good by the Evil that you untruly say is mine The Evil that was in these Pharisees was not powerful enough to discredit the Good that was in their Words but you make my imaginary Sins mount to so high a degree that they are capable of discrediting all the Good even that which you confess to be there If you were Just you would make a right Judgment of what you ought to do and leave and if you had Goodness you would procure to all those Persons the Good that they might receive by the Light which God gives me and if you had Truth you would not perswade them to believe a Lie in this that I say I am impeccable Thus as on the one hand she evidently shews the Duty and Possibility of obeying the Commands of God and of tending to Perfection by his Grace only so she as plainly shews her Abhorrence of the Presumption of being impeccable in whatsoever state in this World XVI Another Sentiment which gave no small Offence was that she says When Jesus Christ took on him our Mortality his inferiour Will or Self-will was Evil so that he behov'd never to follow but always to resist it This they cry out on as a Blasphemy
beware of her said she was guided by an evil Spirit that one such was plague enough in a Community And told her self that the Devil conâ—ducted her that he transform'd himself into an Angel of Light that there needed no other proof than her living without a Director and she would ruine her self if she did not submit to their Direction They pressâ—d her by so many Reasons that she doubted in might be true She had recourse to God but her Spirit being toâ—t with divers Passions she discern'd nothing being wholly in Darkness She went to the Archbishop who being perswaded she was guided by the Holy Spirit thought she ought not to take the Direction of Men. Pere du Bois confirm'd the same She rested upon this yet begg'd leave of the Archbishop to read the New Testament that she might discover her Errors by confronting her Sentiments with the Gospel She no sooner began to read attentively the Gospels than she perceived such a Conformity with her inward Sentiments that if she were to set them down in Writing she should write such a Book in Substance as the Gospel She left off to read more because God taught her inwardly all that she needed and that his Conduct and the Gospel were the same thing XXVI The Archbishop with the Consent of his Council judging the Undertaking to be from God gave her his Blessing and Permission to begin such a Society at Blatton where a Widow-Woman had offered a piece of Ground for which she afterwards paid her and there was a House begun but not finish'd because of the Death of the Pastor G. de Lisle and the Churchmen applied with all Vigour to stop it as they did He ask'd her Whereupon they would live She said upon their little Garden and God would provide for the rest That he never fail'd those who serv'd him truly and if they serv'd him ill far better that all be dissolved than to deceive the World by Hypocrisie He ask'd If she would make Vows She said None He said Each ones Love was not so strong as to make them persevere freely She said They who have it not will not come And if they lose the Love of God when they are there it is far better they return to the World than to disorder others or make them lukewarm XXVII She had communicated to Pere du Bois upon his importunity a Writing wherein she represented that God had made known to her that all the Evils of the Church came from the Churchmen and that they must amend if they would turn away God's Wrath. This Paper was quickly spread abroad of which she complain'd to Pere du Bois who said he was oblig'd in Conscience to do it All the Churchmen and Religious Orders were so far from amending there Faults thereby that it fill'd them with Hatred and Revenge against her uttering many Reproaches some of them declaring that if they could have her they would drown her XXVIII The Jesuits learning the Design she had of re-establishing a Christian Life in a Community set on the Archbishop with so much Earnestness and so many Calumnies against her that they entirely chang'd him and he retracted his Permission She remonstrated to him his Sin in being so easily perswaded by Men to change his Resolutions and to oppose what he knew came from God and forewarn'd him that for a Punishment he should die very shortly as he did about Six Months thereafter Pere du Bois perswaded her to go to Liege where she would obtain her desire but before she return'd the Jesuits had constrain'd the poor Maids to promise by Oath not to follow her and even not to speak to her Two of the best of them Mary Malapert and La Barre the younger died shortly after through the Anguish and Affliction of Spirit in which they put them A. B. says of Mary Malapert that she was the purest Soul that ever she knew and the only Person she ever knew in the World in a State of compleat Regeneration and Union with God which she enjoyed without knowing it well her self not but that when she enjoyed actual Conversation with God she was then most certain of it but when she return'd to her Directors they knew so well to distract her by outward things by constrain'd Rules and clouds of foreign Thoughts that she knew not where she was nor the true State of her Soul And one of the three things for which A. B. always bless'd God was that he had preserv'd her from the Direction of Men. XXIX Having after this staid for some time at Blatton and then by Pere du Bois's Advice with the Countess of Wallerwal who living in Caelibacy and designing to employ her Wealth to the Glory of God desired to see her where she met with nothing but Distraction she was call'd back to Lisle by the Sickness of her Mother who long'd to see her before she died She found her sick to Death who bless'd God that he had granted her desire and foretold her what grievous Afflictions were to befal her After her Mother's Death she resolving to retire again her Father and Friends urge her that all the Laws both of God and Man do oblige her though she had been in a Desart or a Cloyster to come and assist her aged Father in his Affairs She was perswaded so to do and so ordered her Hours of Recollection and the Times of managing his Affairs that she did all to his Contentment Yet tho' Sixty Years of Age he would needs marry without his Childrens knowledge a poor Maid for his Fancy without either Wit or Vertue A. B. staid with them four Months to acquaint her with the Affairs in which time she suffered grievously by her She resolvâ—d to retire and desired of her Father some of her Mother's Goods for her Substance which he utterly refused It is well known that the Laws and Customs of the Low-Coâ—ntries are quite different from those of England or Scotland particularly in this Matter of the Goods of Husband and Wife for the Goods of the Wife being either the Portion given her or any other Goods given her or purchas'd by her self the Husband has nothing but the Use and Profit of the Portion during the Wife's Life and she may dispose of and trade with her other Goods as she pleases and at her Death the Propriety and Profit also of her Portion and all her Goods do belong to her Children or other Heirs and none of them to the Husband A. B. related to her Sister what had past and that their Father said all their Motherâ—s Goods belong'd to him Upon which her Sister's Husband resolvâ—d to oblige him by Law and accordingly presented a Bill to the Magistrate But he being a Man of Wit and Credit drew them into a Process in which they could not get Justice for during it her Brother-in-Law fell sick and died upon which she desisted from that pursuit and retir'd to a little
their Purity notwithstanding their Contradiction to Mens Lives in whose hands they are to be a standing Miracle and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to be the last and most perfect Doctrine that is to come into the World and the Standard by which all others are to be examin'd and tried and desires no body may receive her Sentiments but in so far as they are agreeable thereunto and condemns the Practice of the Roman Church in with-holding the Use of the Scriptures from the People as a heinous Injustice and Impiety Tho' she does not think that God has bound up himself only to this way of communicating his Light but may when he pleases immediately communicate the same to any Person without the Use of the Holy Scriptures and such Persons may forbear the reading of them as she did without despising them as one needs not be taken up with reading his Friend's Letter when he is immediately conversing with him And for an Evidence of it she appeals to the Truths which she declares are communicated to her by God if they are not the same in Substance with those contained in the Holy Scriptures XI The Author comes next to some of her Opinions which she her self has often declared are not necessary to be believed and which if Men please they may count them Dreams and Fancies He calls them wild and barbarous and indeed as he conceives and represents them he would make some of them appear Extravagant enough tho' a candid Interpretation of them will render them both amiable and useful Thus what Wildness or Barbarity is there in Asserting that Jesus Christ and his Church are one that it is his Spirit internally animating influencing and informing the Souls of Men that makes them Members of his Mystical Body which is the Church or in Asserting that the last Judgment by which she means the Universal Plagues by which God will in a Course of many Years destroy the Wicked from off the Earth is at hand Few who seriously consider the State of the World will think this a wild and barbarous Notion but the Scoffers who walk after their own Lusts and say Where is the Promise of his coming She maintains no Mahumeâ—an Paradise but such a one as Man would have enjoy'd in the State of Innocence when as yet he had no Lust or Concupiscence Vnto the Pure all things are Pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing Pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled She says with our Saviour That the Saints after the Resurrection neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels in Heaven She condemns human Learning no farther than it fosters Pride Amusement Self-conceit and the Lust of the Eye or Curiosity and destroys Charity and the Love of God There is no greater Absurdity in saying that Jesus Christ thought fit to appear in our human Nature void of human Learning no Mathematician no Philosopher nor Critick than to say that he appear'd poor and despised of all not having where to lay his Head since he thought fit to deny himself of all that we make the Object of our Vanity and Concupiscence XII What the Author is pleas'd to say of M. Poiret that he was craz'd and is still so reputed being utterly false can do him no Hurt with such as are either acquainted with himself or his Writings but it shews that Mens Passions will make them rashly utter false and extravagant Things which they themselves do not believe For the Author himself in the next Page reckons him among the Men of Sence and Learning who have written in Defence of A. B. abroad It is no wonder then that some in Britain admire his Books for he is no superficial rambling Writer as they discover more than an ordinary Degree of Sence and Learning so they direct to the solid Knowledge and Practice of true Christianity Freed from the false Glosses of Parties and the Disguises of Self-Love and corrupt Nature the Charge of his denying the Divine Prescience is clear'd in the Apology * They do also endeavour to make him odious by publishing an Expression which they say he used in a private Conversation with two Gentlemen of their Acquaintance M. Poiret himself says it is not easie for him to remember the Conversations he hath with all who come to see him nor if he had such an Expression to any but that if he had those Gentlemen may think he had Reason for what he spoke and he is well pleased that all the World know it that as he is fully perswaded that God is so he is perswaded that A. B. was illuminated and inspired by his Holy Spirit Both these are Truths but it does not follow that he looks upon both as of equal Moment or that he believes them upon equal Grounds XIII After the Author has formed so grievous and unjust a Charge laying aside a Christian Temper he proceeds in his 8. Sect. to sound the Trumpet and excite others to Fury and Indignation and in his late Book of the History of Sin and Heresie p. 33. he repeats over the same Charge with all the hard Words that Spite and Fury could invent and insinuates his Fears of a Growing Sect and Party It is strange to see Men more alarm'd and enrag'd against Enemies created by their own Fancy than they are against real ones If the Author of the Preface were once out of the Heat that his Imagination has put him in it were easie I should think to convince him that these he calls Bourignianists are no such Enemies as he has fansied to himself I can assure him they do heartily own that our Reconciliation with God is obtain'd only by the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ That the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures is the Standard by which we are to try and examine all Doctrines That no Inspiration can come from God that does not fill the Soul with Humility and Charity or That instills under the Sheeps Clothing of Devotion and Piety any Heresie or any thing that tends to Schism or to withdraw Obedience from their lawful Bishop or to set up new Sects and that Corruptions in the Church are better amended by living in the Communion of it and there by good Example to reclaim than by open Desertion to set up opposite Factions which heightens Animosities embitters Spirits renders them deaf to one anothers Advices and often proceeds to Blood and Slaughter as the Author of the Preface does so rationally conclude it in the Marks he gives to distinguish between Inspirations from God and Diabolical Enthusiasm And if there be any thing in the Writings of A. B. contrary to these or to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ they do openly disown and disclaim the same and stand up for them no farther than they tend to promote the great Interests of Christianity Truth Holiness and Peace XIV I come now to
excuses himself that he offers to judge and censure her Actions If he satisfie himself I shall excuse him but can find no excuse for his Misrepresentations and giving these as the greatest Proofs of Sanctity adduced by her Friends which neither she nor they reckon to be such viz. Affected Solitude and Retirement Celibacy Fastings Watchings Humiliations wearing of Sackcloth a contempt of the common Ornaments of her Sex with such like Austerities and great Raptures and Extasies in Devotion and declaring that he perceives no singular Instance of Sanctity mention'd by them beside those For it was easie to observe from the Accounts given of her that she lived as one constantly travelling towards Eternity and as such studied in all things to conform her Life to that of Jesus Christ I shall not here recount the many Instances of this which aâ—e to be seen in the First Part of the Apology and in the Character given of her in the end of the Apology but shall refer the Doctor to the Places cited on the Margent in which Places he will see some Instances of true Sanctity which he did not think fit to notice how observable soever they be in her own Writings and in the Accounts that are given of her by those who knew her in her Youth and Old Age and in all the Stages of her Life in the Temoign de la Verite and particularly in that by Mr. Franken Merchant in Amsterdam In the Eighteenth Article he speaks as if A. B. and others in comparing her Life with that of Jesus Christ thought that there were an Equality without giving any Evidence for it the thing is utterly false both she and they affirm only that she was a Follower of Jesus Christ she makes the Essence of Christianity to consist in the Imitation of Jesus Christ and in all her Writings lays before us his Life and Spirit for our Imitation in a way more divine and forcible than the general way of sermonizing And if her Vertues were truly Transcripts of the Life of Jesus it is very Just that they be represented to the World as such that so it may appear that it is the Devil and our corrupt Nature only that makes us believe that he is not imitable and that by such an Instance we may be stirred up to be true Followers of Jesus Christ In the next Article he hath a long Discourse upon Solitude Because he says it is recommended as a special Act of Sanctity by the Example and Sentiments of A. B. and because it has been much debated by Heathens and Christians by Ancients and Modern yet few says he have offered a just Decision of the Matter I was in good Hopes this should have been done by him yet at last he will not determine which of the States the Active or the Contemplative is fittest but then he thinks A mixt State the happiest which is plainly every Bodies State and gives his Reasons for it and corrects a vulgar Error concerning the Clergy as if they all ought to be Men of Study and Retirement which he says is a great Mistake since they are to shew the Possibility of the Divine Laws by their Practice and he who can hear himself prais'd without Vanity and accused without Wrath can accept of good things when they are offered without a brutal Joy and yet never be out of Humour when are they wanting Such a one prosecutes the End of his Calling better and his Conversation does more good c. A. B. considers and determines this Matter upon other Principles and by another Spirit It is not which of the States makes a Man a Drone or a Drudge in which a Man may enjoy himself best or do most good acquire Knowledge and Experience give himself to Study or to Business Which are the Measures by which the Doctor determines But she says we are all travelling to Eternity and our great Business both as Men and Christians is to give our whole Love to God and to keep our selves unspotted from the World that every one is obliged sincerely to examine their own Hearts and Consciences and whatever they find to be a Hindrance to the Love of God by all means to avoid it and whatever they find to be to them a necessary Help to it to embrace it that the Corruptions abounding in the World make it very hard for some to converse with it and not become Partakers of their Sin that many are so weak or so easie to be surprized by the Temptations it offers that they find it for their Safety as much as they can to avoid them by Solitude and Retirement that Babylon is presently over all and God calls to all his Children to come out of her least they be Partakers of her Sins and so of her Plagues also That nevertheless God has different Ways of bringing Souls unto himself and therefore what Method one follows and finds for his Eternal good he is not to impose upon others nor are others to despise him XXIII In the 20th Article the Doctor brings as he thinks certain Proofs that she had no Sactnity 1. That till the 18th Year of her Age she ran into a vain and light Conversation by which she lost her Conversation with God where in his Judgement he shews a flat Contradiction in the Preface to the English Reader of the Light of the World because a few Lines before he had affirmed this he had said that from her Childhood she had inward Conversation with God as if any could lose a thing they never had or never lose it because they had it from their Childhood However this he thinks proves That she could not be anointed by the Spirit of God to declare his Will for if it had been so it is no ways likely he would have left her so soon to her self or suffered her to be corrupted whom he had appointed to be so great a Light especially when that which tempted her was but the Censures and Misconstructions of other Men What could not the Spirit of God break through this Temptation Was her Grace too weak to resist it Must so Holy a Person do Evil merely to pass for a Wit The Doctor reasons upon other Principles different from those of the rest of Mankind when he comes to speak of A. B. Were not David and Solomon separated from the Womb Did not their Graces and Sanctity appear early Did they not fall into grievous Sins Is this a Proof that God did not anoint them to declare his Will Could not the Spirit of God break through their Temptations c. But moreover it is to be considered that it was no gross and scandalous Sin by which she lost her Conversation with God and yet notwithstanding she lived a Life of great Mortification for it for several Years 2. His next Proof is that even after this which is pretended to be the Time of her Conversation She did not determine the great State of her