do not exercise them according to their own Will or as they please but they are resign'd to God that he may do in them and by them when and how he please For Example St. Paul had without doubt the Gift of Miracles he struck Elymas Blind raised the Young Man that fell down dead and healed others And yet nevertheless when he was taken he made none Blind that he might escape from his Persecutors neither did he miraculously heal Epaphirus Trophimus Timothy And even so when the Light of God the Gift of Knowledge c. is given unto the Saints they do not therefore discover all things in that Light and by that Gift according to their Will but being dead to their own Will and resign'd to the Will of God they discover in that Light of God those things only which he is pleased to manifest unto them in it so that if God in his Wisdom see it convenient for them that they be ignorant of the Evils of some with whom they converse whether to exercise them or that some external things may be done to them by these Hypocrites or for other Ends known to his infinite Wisdom then without any Prejudice to the Light of God or the Gift of Discerning of Spirits they shall not know these Hypocrites till God be pleas'd to bring that Gift into act as to that Matter which he uses to do when he sees it necessary either for their own Salvation or that of others or for the Glory of his Name It is a great Error then for us to think that the Gifts of God are managed by Mens Self-will or Self-wisdom and from hence to conclude that that Person to whom the inward Disposition of others was known for some time did not only want the Gift of Discerning Spirits but that also it is from hence evident that it cannot be known from such a Person 's Life and Doctrine that he was led by the Spirit of God since he did embrace in others that which was but Appearance and Imposture only for Truth For David Jeremy another true Prophet they who baptized Simon Magus Paul as to Demas have sometimes taken the Appearance or Imposture of some Hypocrites or Liars for Truth Does it from hence follow that it could not be known by their Life and Doctrine that they were led by the Spirit of God As if the stress of their whole Life and Doctrine were to be laid upon some one or other innocent Mistake Or as if rather from hence it ought not to be inferred that God in his Wisdom saw it expedient that they should be ignorant of the Hypocrisie of such Persons for some time and that the Gift of Discerning of Spirits should be differently directed and applied in those who are acted by the Spirit of God according to his Will who can truly say Not I live but Christ lives in me Thus I have given a plain and true Narrative of the Sentiments of Antonia Bourignon both as to the Essential and Accessory Truths And of the Prejudices generally raised against her and the just Defences she makes for her self by which she clears and removes them and of the Evidences she brings for her being led by the Spirit of God and not by that of the Devil or Nature or her own Imagination and the Answers given to what is oppos'd against it And tho' I might have contracted all into lesser Bounds yet I chose rather to give it in her own Words and to let her speak for her self And now after all I beg leave to summ up the Evidence XXVI If any pretend to be led by the Spirit of God and in the mean time are worldly or sensual or selfish or contradict the Doctrine of Jesus Christ it is evident they are not of God But if any publish to the World a Doctrine that is Pure and Holy tending only to mortifie Corrupt Nature and to recover the Love of God if it be wholly conformable unto and the same with the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and of his Gospel If they who publish it do still live conformably unto it and bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit of God in their whole Life and Practice despising all temporal things and tending only to things eternal and manifesting the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God in all their Actions if their Words be accompanied with a Force and Power which reaches the Heart and convinces the Conscience If they discover often the secret Thoughts of the Hearts of others and their Dispositions even sometimes tho' their Persons be unknown to them If they be Persons full of Simplicity and Sincerity having no worldly Aim doing nothing to please Men nor to gain their Esteem but declaring the Truth in Simplicity even in things which they know will be most unpleasing to Men and will bring upon them Hatred Contempt and Persecution from Men instead of their Favour and Esteem If they are altogether Illiterate and have acquired no Knowledge by the humane means of Study Reading Conversation and Meditation and yet manifest a clear distinct and comprehensive Knowledge of Divine Things far beyond the most Learned Divines If in declaring those Truths to the World by writing they flowed from them as Water does from a Fountain as fast as their Hand could guide the Pen without musing or meditating what to write or changing and correcting what they had once written or reading it over again and yet all as to the main is of a Thread most rational and clear and consistent and no real Contradiction either to the Holy Scriptures or amongst those Writings themselves as to the Essence and Substance of them And if such declare to the World that of themselves they are sinful Nothings of the corrupt Mass of Adam from whence nothing can come but Evil and that all the Good that is in them and all the Truths they communicate to the World is not from them but from God and the immediate Operation of his Holy Spirit who is pleased to make use of weak and simple Means to confound the Mighty and Wise If all these can be truly said of any these are certainly Evidences that will abide the Verdict of an impartial Jury even tho' there be no visible Miracles as John the Baptist and many of the ancient Prophets did none there being no New Doctrine publish'd but the pressing and clearing of that already declared and confirm'd by Jesus Christ and his Apostles Now this is the Summ of the Plea of Antonia Bourignon and for the Proof of it as to her Doctrine and Sentiments she refers to her Writings which any that please may consult as to her Life and Spirit to those who were daily Witnesses of it of which there are a Cloud of Testimonies made publick as also for the manner of composing her Writings As to the Force and Efficacy of them to those who by their Experience have found and do attest it And these are the
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
them believe they are good Christians tho' really in their Hearts they have not one of the Qualities of the Spirit of Jesus Christ For instead of loving Poverty they love the Wealth of this World instead of loving Sufferings they love their Pleasures their Ease and their Contentments and instead of being willing to be despised they desire to be honoured and so of all the rest And in L'Antichrist Decouvert A. B. has made appear beyond all Exception that the Spirit of Antichrist prevails among all the Parties of Christendom and that thereby the Devil has with more Cunning and more irreclaimably possest Men with his Spirit and especially the Well-meaning so that the Harlots and openly Wicked will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than they because their Wickedness being manifest they are by the Grace of God more readily converted whereas in these the Spirit of the Devil being converted with the Mask of Jesus Christ he still makes them believe that they are guided by the Spirit of God when they are really acted by the Spirit of Antichrist 12. That the Degeneracy of Christendom proceeds from the Degeneracy of its Guides and Pastors is but too evident to be denied and the Evil is more sad and irremedible that they cannot endure to have it told them The Corruption of the other States of Christendom may be spoken of without exciting so much of Mens Indignation but if the Corruption of the Pastors be touch'd a Man must look for nothing but Rage and Resentment This cannot be spoken of but presently it is a Combination against the Priesthood as our Lord was accused as designing to destroy the Law because he exposed the Corruption of the Scribes and Pharisees All Protestants do generally grant that the Degeneracy of Christendom before the Reformation was chiefly owing to the Degeneracy of its Clergy and we being as far from True Christianity now as formerly there is Ground to think the Matter is not much mended We see what a strange Change the Holy Lives and Doctrine of a few simple Men wrought in the Conversion of many Thousands to the Faith and Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Primitive Church and how little is to be seen of this now The reason of this Difference is not because of their working Miracles for these serve only to confirm the Truth of a Doctrine which being once confirmed there is no more need of them but they are as effectual in all After-ages to those who are firmly perswaded of them so that to such as think they would be bettered if they saw such Miracles is applicable that of Jesus Christ If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one should rise from the Dead Neither can this Difference be imputed to the greater Prevalence of Wickedness now the World being highly corrupted also at that time and that to no small Degree It is to be attributed then to the Difference of the Spirit by which they were animated from that by which the Pastors of the Church are now generally led The things of God are not known but by the Spirit of God and where God finds pure and self-denied Souls he delights to communicate himself to them and to make them the Organs of conveying his Light and Spirit unto others who are not capable of receiving it immediately themselves Mens Minds are generally so extraverted and turned towards sensible things that they cannot be affected with the things of the Spirit of God unless they be conveyed to them by means that may affect their Senses and this is the reason of the great Necessity and Usefulness of the Pastoral Office For this Cause the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among Men full of Grace and Truth And when he ascended into Heaven he sent the Comforter who led his Apostles into all Truth and by their means conveyed the same Light and the same Spirit into others and they were filled with the Holy Ghost so that it was not so much they who spoke and acted as the Spirit of God by them and there their Doctrine and Lives had a wonderful effect in the Converting of others even as one Flame kindles another they had a living not a dead and barren Knowledge of Divine Things their fervent Charity did animate all their Words and Actions and there was nothing impossible to such a Faith and such a Charity this made them pray fervently to God for his Divine Grace to others and he would not deny the Requests of such ardent Charity And his holy Spirit encreasing the Vertue and Efficacy of their Prayers and Labours did inseparably join his powerful Operations to awaken convert and purifie the Hearts of others This made St. Paul say When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth as the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ manifested by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart This wrought the Conversion at one time of 3000 and again of 5000 at one Sermon of St. Peter This made the Officers who were sent to apprehend Jesus Christ say Never Man spoke like this and the Evangelists of our Lord 's preaching That he taught as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and they were astonish'd at his Doctrine For his Word was with Power or to speak with St. Paul in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit and of the Power of God that is they made the Operations of the Spirit of God to be felt in the Heart Moreover they taught Men by their Deeds as well as their Words the Holiness of their Lives and their Abstraction from all earthly things did procure Belief to all they said and let the World see that they bid others do nothing but what they firmly believed and heartily set about themselves So that the whole Body of the Church was sound when to be a Minister of Jesus Christ it was required only to embrace an Evangelical Life and to give Evidence of the sincere Love they bear unto Jesus Christ and of being led by his Spirit But wicked and worldly Men crept into the Church and their number increasing they got themselves in to be the Pastors of it then under an outward Cover of Piety and Religion Men were turned away from an Evangelical Life and led to Damnation Then the Pastoral Office was turned into a Trade whereby Men might gain Honour or Greatness or Wealth in the World or at least their Living Then Men fitted themselves for the Pastoral Office not by Humility and Purity of Heart but by Study and Learning then the Pastors becoming generally void of the Spirit of God were deprived of the true and living Knowledge of the things of God and
promises that if our Eye be Single our whole Body shall be full of Light and if it be Evil it will be full of Darkness For tho' a Soul have not in it self the Holy Spirit yet it shall have the Understanding enlightned to discover him in others provided it behold them with a single Eye without Dissimulation or Surprize but in the Simplicity of a Child as Jesus Christ says we must be in if we would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They who see me write know well that I do it without any Study or humane Speculation and that it flows from my Spirit as Water flows from its Fountain and that I do nothing but lend my Hand and my Spirit to another Power than mine And God gives yet a more sure Testimony by imparting to me his Righteousness Truth and Charity For these things cannot come from Nature which being corrupted can produce no Good nor any Divine Vertues because I am come of the Corrupt Mass of Adam as all the rest of Men there could not be in me any Righteousness Truth and Charity which are all Divine and Supernatural Vertues which cannot enter into the Soul of Men but by the Work of the Holy Spirit This gives me a sufficient Testimony that I am led by God since the Devil and Nature have nothing of those Vertues And therefore we cannot find a surer Evidence that a Soul is led by the Holy Spirit than when it is possest of the Righteousness Truth and Charity of God For if we desire to see Miracles for a Proof we may be deceived since the Devil can do Miracles or things which seem Supernatural but he can never have in him the Righteousness Truth and Love of God The Good Spirit and the Evil may be known by the Qualities which they have The Spirit of God has in him a Peace and Sweetness that comforts the Soul and draws it to an inward Quiet But the Spirit of the Devil disturbs the Understanding disquiets it and robs it of Tranquility and Rest The Spirit of God acts sweetly and strongly in Peace and Tranquility of Mind All that comes from the Spirit of God is always accompanied with the Qualities of God which are Goodness Righteousness and Truth And that which comes from the Spirit of the Devil carries always the Qualities of the Devil which are Malice Injustice and Lying The Evil Spirit may sometimes move to do a good thing to draw Evil out of it but that seeming Goodness can never be accompanied with Righteousness and Truth which are the inseparable Qualities of God which the Devil may sometimes separately make use of to deceive Men aping the Works of God but he can never do a thing that is Good Just and True altogether since this appertains to God only who cannot be divided in any of these Qualities God does not speak to me by Voices Thundrings and Lightnings as he did of Old to the Prophets or as he spake to Tobit by Angels in the Likeness of Young Men or as he spoke to Jacob in the Vision of a Ladder upon which Angels did ascend and descend or as he spoke to Joseph in a Dream saying to him Take the Child and the Mother and flee into Egypt For I durst not rely upon all these things in which the Devil and the Fancy of Man may mingle themselves and make such things be seen and heard as if they came from the Spirit of God But I fix on the solid Truth of God on his Righteousness and on his Love because in such things the Devil can have no hold I have sometimes had Dreams and Visions coming from God as I may afterwards make appear by Experience but I do not rely on these Dreams and Visions unless the same things that I have seen and dream'd be confirm'd unto me by a secret Notice Intelligence after the manner that I converse ordinarily with God For so soon as the Soul is free of all Image and delivered from the agitation of its Passions and the Imagination ceases to operate then I hear the Voice of God and his Reasoning not with my Ears but with my Understanding And after this manner he makes me see and hear all that I need to know both for my own Conduct and that of others which many have experienc'd and found that I have told them the most secret things of their Hearts which neither Men nor Devils could know Never amuse your self with Discourses Visions or Revelations made to you or others if you do not perceive assuredly that they are accompanied with the Qualities of the Good Spirit of God or otherwise you will be easily deceived Remark always if what you say or do be accompanied with the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God and then you shall assuredly hear God speak to your Soul For if you walk in these Qualities you will be in God and the Devil can deceive you no longer by Illusions or false Imaginations as he will easily do so long as you do not possess those essential Vertues of the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God in which you ought always to walk if you would not be seduced by Satan The Devil can give Visions Ravishments or supernatural Extasies to Sorcerers yea make them foretel things to come being a subtile Spirit and foreseeing afar and by conjectures what will come to pass and he may make them fall out by the means of his Sorcerers who being powerful and numerous may by their Power and Authority bring about what has been Fore told Therefore it is fit to receive nothing for Truth but the things which lead us to a more strict Union with God and Denial of our selves These things are always Good even tho' they should come from the Devil himself we cannot be deceived in believing them I can never have the least doubt as if it were an evil Spirit that communicates himself to my Understanding for the evil Spirit could not in my Judgment produce so good and so constant Operations such as the Love of God and the Hatred of ones Self Moreover he could not separate the Soul from the Pleasures of this Life nor remove from it the coveting the Riches and Honours of the World nor give it a full Contentment in the want of all humane Consolation nor yet Joy in Hardships and Contempt All these things cannot come from the Devil for he is too opposite to all these Vertues and leads ordinarily to all sort of Evil tho' at first he cover them with Vertues The End of his Operations make appear sufficiently the Deeds of the Author and make known the Workman by his Works Thus you see how certain Marks she gives whereby to distinguish true from false Enthusiasm the Conduct and Inspiration of the Spirit of God from the Illusions of the Devil or Ones own Imagination and how Men may preserve themselves from being impos'd upon by the last That where a Soul is
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
by the Spirit of God who cannot contradict himself for God is Yesterday and to day the same unchangeable and always equal to himself from whom no Variableness nor Contradiction can proceed But if her Adversary would examine all the Holy Scripture after the Manner he had done her Writings he would find many more such seeming Contradictions in the Bible For indeed there are many more according to the narrow Apprehension and shallow Judgment of Men who being earthly and carnal cannot understand spiritual things or those endited by the Holy Spirit and they forge in their little Brains Errours out of most solid Truths and Contradictions out of the greatest Conformities From hence have sprung so many Errours Schisms and Divisions in the Church of God because every one would understand the Scripture after their own Mode they have invented so many different Religions and each says This is founded on the Holy Scripture tho' very often they have different Sentiments and contradict one another in the same Truths while every one thinks he understands them aright Tho' they are uncapable of understanding Divine Things for the same Spirit that endited the Holy Scriptures gives the Understanding of them and when the Spirit of Man undertakes to do it he still falls from one Errour into another and loses himself in that great Ocean of Divine Wisdom which he cannot understand nor comprehend It does not trouble me that there appears to be Contradictions in my Writings to the Judgments of Men since they will hardly find two Prophets speak the same Words upon the same Matter and the four Evangelists do not relate the same Things after the same Manner Must it therefore be said that there are Contradictions in the Holy Scriptures as this Benjamin Furly says there are in my Writings God commands to honour Father and Mother and Jesus Christ says we must hate Father and Mother adding that he who does not forsake Father and Mother and all things cannot be his Disciple How will this Benjamin reconcile these two Passages For to honour Father and Mother is a thing quite contrary to the hating and forsaking them And Jesus Christ says that he is not come to bring Peace upon Earth but War between Father and Son c. And elsewhere he says my Peace I give you In one Place he says Drunkards and Gluttons shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and elsewhere he says that that which enters into the Mouth does not defile the Soul Truth is invincible and does not change for all that may be thundered against it but it is the more established when it is opposed and contradicted by ignorant Persons as this Benjamin who cannot discern Truth from Lying and from Contradictions He confounds one time with another and will needs give general Rules for all sorts of Occasions and when these Rules are not punctually observed at all times he thinks that Persons do change or contradict themselves And if he had been an Apostle of Jesus Christ when he lived upon Earth he would have often reproved him as at present he does me For when Jesus Christ was afraid of his Enemies he bids his Apostles buy Swords and if they wanted money to do it that they should sell their Garments and a little after he commands to put up the Sword and threatens that he who strikes with the Sword shall be strucken by it If this Benjamin had been in S. Peter's Place when he cut off Malchus's Ear he would certainly have been displeased at Jesus Christ and blamed him for Inconstancy and Contradiction because he could not discern the time when he ought to strike and when he ought to forbear He reproaches me that I have written somewhere that I might say something that is not true without lying or sinning He does not consider that there are material Lies which are not Sins He would have Words precisely spoken which are true according to his Caprice for it is a chief Article of the Quakers to justifie themselves before Men for they study precise Words that they may not commit a material Lie and they dare not call a Christian by that Name without adding as they call them fearing to Lie by calling him a Christian when he is not truly such For my part I am far from these Maxims for I never regard the pronunciation of Words but the Essence of the Truth of the things which I advance If I express them in this or that Term it is all one to me provided I deceive no Body and that I make the things to be understood which I would signifie But there is this difference between the Spirit that guides me and the Spirit that guides that Sect that they would be esteem'd by Men for good Men and for the People of God whereas I am not concern'd how they esteem me for I am content with the Testimony of my own Conscience and seek not the Approbation of Men far less will I say any Words to the end they may think that I am Just and guided by God It suffices me that I know it and God knows it for it is written He who would please Men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ Therefore I will freely speak a material Lie when I believe the thing is true for Example I have often said that I was Two Years younger than I find I am since I caus'd one to search the Register of my Baptism I grant I have thus made many material Lies yet without sinning thereby or lying since a Lie is a Deceit or Falseness of the Heart that kills the Soul which I could not do by saying that I was Two Years younger for I aim'd not thereby to deceive any Body nor to speak against the Truth I have uttered many such material Lies I love rather to possess the Essence of Truth in the bottom of my Soul than to speak verbally true Words through Hypocrisie For what else is it to call Men by the Name of Christians and to add to it as they call them than Hypocrisie and Contempt of the Truth such as the Jews had when they said to Pilate that he ought to write on the Cross of Jesus Christ that he was King of the Jews by adding to it as he said which Pilate would not add saying only What is written is written as I also answer to this Benjamin when he would teach me to speak Words which are true before Men For I know well that all whom I call Christians are not truly Christians before God yet I will not learn from the Quakers to add to the Name of Christian as they call them since this seems to me superfluous and I have no other Intention in calling them simply Christians but to make it be understood of whom I speak to wit that I speak not of the Jews or Heathens but of those only whom I call Christians yet without design to maintain that they are true Christians Since I declare elsewhere that I
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
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
many vocal words others to Speculations or Meditations of the Spirit which they call Mental Prayers But believe me it is neither Words nor Speculation that makes Prayer But TRUE PRAYER consists in the Conversition of Spirit that Man has with his God when his heart speaks to him and asks the things that he has need of or blesses him and thanks him for his Favours or praises his Greatness Goodness Love and the other Qualities which Man observes in his God This Elevation of Spirit or Conversation that he has with God makes up true Prayer without which there can be no true Prayer tho' they call by this Name many divers things which it were impossible that Man could do continually as Jesus Christ has said that he must always pray and never faint 17. He could not have appointed Man to do impossible things as continual Prayer would be after the manner that they would understand it For if to pray a Man behov'd to be always in Churches all the other things necessary for the support of Life would perish and Man would die for want of them And if to pray he must be always on his Knees the Body could not suffer this continual Fatigue And if he behov'd always to meditate fine Speculations in his Spirit he would break his head or if he must speak Prayers continually he could neither sleep eat nor drink So that it is not to be believ'd that God demands of Man any other continual Prayer but that of the Conversation of his Spirit with God which may be done continually while working drinking eating writing yea even while sleeping seeing he who has entertain'd his Spirit with God all the day long does certainly rest with him while sleeping because the Spirit having walked with its God while awake it reposes it self likewise with him when sleeping And usually the vital Spirits are full of that which they love and that which has been seen and heard in the day time is represented unto the Spirit in Sleep So that he who converses with his Spirit elevated unto God by day loses very little of the same Conversation during the night and even sometimes God communicates himself unto him by Dreams 18. By which it appears that it is very possible to pray continually as Jesus Christ has taught us yea there is nothing more easie and agreeable For my part I could not live without this continual Prayer and Death would be more sweet to me than to be one hour out of it because all sorts of Pleasures without this Conversation are to me Vexations and mortal Afflictions For this cause I abide always in it and I do not think that you have seen me go out of this Conversation to delight in other things By which you may see that it is very possible to pray always and never to cease and that it is even good and pleasant seeing he who is in this continual Prayer is never melancholy which you may also have observed as to me amidst so many different Events and occasions of Grief 19. Give your self therefore to this Continual Prayer and by it you shall overcome both your inward and outward Enemies You shall have Joy and Peace in your self and you shall learn all that you have need to do and avoid Do not apply your self to contemlate the great Wonders of God or his Conduct towards Men nor the other Mysteries of God or of Religion but practise this Continual Prayer according to your need speaking to God continually If you are in Temptation beg his Assistance if you are in Ignorance beg Wisdom from him to fulfil his Will if you are weak Strength and if you receive his Graces bless him and thank him for this Favour done to you a Sinner And thus you shall have continual matter of having your Spirit lifted up to God in which TRUE PRAYER consists By this you shall habituate your self by degrees to speak unto God and to converse with him in Spirit and at last he will speak unto you and you shall be here united unto him looking for a perfect Unity in Eternity Which she wishes you who remains Your very affectionate in Jesus Christ A. B. From the place of my Retreat Apr. 7. 1671. LETTER III. That the Spirit cannot rule where the Flesh rules That to him who has mortified the old Adam in himself it is most easie to imitate Jesus Christ and that it is difficult only to him who would live according to his Natural Inclinations This is the 7th Letter of the Third Part of La lum nee on tenebr My dear Child 1. I Do not wonder that your Friends say It is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ so long as they live according to their Natural Inclinations for it is a certain Truth that a natural Man cannot live according to the Spirit of Jesus Christ He must be regenerated and the old Adam must die in him for the Spirit cannot reign where the Flesh reigns seeing they are two sworn Enemies and cannot agree together no more than Heat and Cold This it is that makes Thunders and Lightnings in the Air when the Cold and Heat meet together the same befalls Souls cold in Charity when they feel themselves touch'd by the Arrows of God's Love or the heat of his Anger 2. If it be said to a carnal Person that he ought to love God with all his Heart with all his Soul and with all his Strength you shall see him presently break out in Words and throw out as it were fiery Flames of Anger to maintain that he loves God while in effect he loves nothing but himself And if it be told him that he cannot love God while he loves himself and the transitory things of this World he well let fly like Claps of Thunder against him who lays before him this Truth because he neither knows nor conceives it and his natural Inclinations cannot take pleasure in loving that which they do not see nor feel such as God and eternal Things which are invisible to his Carnal Eyes 2. We must of necessity die to the Flesh that we may live to the Spirit otherwise we shall never comprehend Spiritual things There are two Natures in us the one is Divine and other Humane The Divine Nature loves things Eternal and the Humane Nature loves things Temporal The Divine respects nothing that is earthly and the Humane respects nothing that is heavenly because each of these tend always to their Centre The Divine part in Man aims and tends to Divine things and endeavours to serve God who is its Principle from whence it comes and the Humane Nature aims and tends always to Earth from whence it takes its Original and cannot be pleased in any other thing This is the Reason why they who live according to their Nature say That it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ which is most true as long as they will needs continue to live according to their Nature For it was corrupted by
Christians I 've sought from my Nativity I liv'd I wrote to shew how such to be Convinc'd the World of â—rrors sins abuses All hate me for 't each one my NAME traduces To death they persecute me every where How should I other Lot than JESUS bear AN APOLOGY FOR M. Antonia Bourignon In Four Parts I. An Abstract of her Sentiments and a Character of her Writings II. An Answer to the Prejudices raised against them III. The Evidences she brings of her being led by the Spirit of God with her Answers to the Prejudices opposed thereunto To which is added A Dissertation of Dr. De Heyde on the same Subject IV. An Abstract of her Life To which are added Two LETTERS from different Hands containing REMARKS on the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism Detected AS ALSO Some of her own Letters whereby her True Christian Spirit and Sentiments are farther justified and vindicated particularly as to the Doctrine of the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ Non multum Disputandum Nuda enim Veritas seipsam Validissime tutatur probé intellecta genuinâ suâ luce tenebras omnes Dispellit Rob. Leighton Archiep. Glasc Prelect Theol Paraenes p 199 LONDON Printed for D. Brown at the Black Swan without Temple Bar S. Manship at the Ship in Cornhil R. Parker at the Unicorn under the Piazza's of the Royal-Exchange and H Newman at the Grashopper in the Poultry 1699. THE PREFACE I. SVch and so universal are the Prejudices raised amongst all Parties against the Writings and Sentiments of A. B. that the Sight of the very Title Page of this Apology will make some perhaps throw it by which Disdain scorning to look into it others to take it up in Derision and ask What would this Babler say Others to pry into it with an evil Eye with a Design only to carp at it and to pick out here and there some Expressions or Sentiments which differ from the ordinary Systems and put them in such a Dress as may excite the Hatred and Derision of the People II. But being fully perswaded in my Conscience that those Writings do greatly tend to revive the Life and Spirit of Christianity which is acknowledg'd to be so much decay'd and lost amongst all the Parties of Christendom and knowing that there are many well-disposed Persons who are frightned from lookâ—ng into them because of the odious Representations made of them and the Prejudices given them against them who if these Prejudices were remov'd would certainly peruse them with Delight and Profit to their Souls and would sensibly â—eel that the True Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the only way to eternal Life chalk'd out in his Life and Sayings is there plainly and distinctly represâ—nted I shall therefore in all Sincerity without Respect of Parties or Persons write this Apology And I do earnestly beg of Almighty God the Father and Fountain of all Light and Love that he may be pleas'd so to illuminate my Mind with his Heavenly Light and warm my Heart with his Divine Love that I may utter nothing but what flows from or tends to both and that some Rays of both may stream through this Writing to touch the Hearts and Spirits of others III. To dispose Persons to hearken to and to make a right use of an Apology of this Nature it is fit to premise two things First That it needs not prejudice any against A. B. and her Writings so far as not to listen to an Apology for both that they know she is evil spoken of said to be an Enthusiast an Enchantress a Blasphemer a Seducer and the Devil of a Saint that her Writings are said to be full of Heresies Delusions and Errors and that by Persons of all Parties Papists Protestants Lutherans Calvinists Presbyterians Episcopal Persons Anabaptists Quakers and even by the Preachers and Writers and Learned Men of the respective Parties for there is nothing more ordinary than for the most Innocent and the most Vpright to be thus treated Woe to you when all Men shall speak well of you This was the Treatment that Innocence and Truth it self met with our Lord Jesus Christ He was made to pass for a Blasphemer a Sorcerer a Perverter of the Law of God The most Learned and the most Godly in his Age hated him They who in other things stood at the greatest Distance did agree in this Herod and Pilate the Pharisees and Sadducees the Jews and Samaritans So that this may be rather a favourable Prejudice on her behalf at least so far as to allow her a fair Hearing IV. 2. I shall entreat you may not come to read this Apology nor the Writings to which it invites you with an evil Eye They who come to consider Writings or Persons with this Disposition are not capable of understanding them aright themselves or of giving a true Representation of them to others I know no Person tho' never so innocent nor Truth tho' never so clear nor Book tho writ with never so much Plainness Sincerity and Consistency which they who consider with this Spirit may not mistake expose misrepresent and ridicule Nothing more true than our Saviour's Words nothing more confirm'd from daily Experience The Light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light but if thine Eye be Evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness It was from those different Dispositions that our Lord himself and his Doctrine met with such different Entertainment in the World They who were full of Self-love and Esteem and desir'd to love God and the World both to please Him and their Appâ—tites too to get and keep that Rank in the Esteem of Men which they thought they merited and hugg'd the Glosses and Sences they had put upon God's Law by which they had reconcil'd it with the following of their own corrupt Inclinations such look'd on all that Jesus said aud did with an evil Eye they never came to hear him but with a Design to catch him in his Words and they found out ways to put a hard Sence upon every thing The Miracles he wrought they said were done by the Power of the Devil they accus'd him of breaking the Sabbath Day and of countenancing it in his Disciples of Blasphemy in calling himself the Son of God of Pride in speaking well of himself of a Design to destroy the Law and seduce the People by his Doctrine and they made him an Enemy to Caesar in calling himself a King But the sincere and the single-hearted who came with a pure and upright Desire and Intention to understand and to follow the Truth did readily embrace the Doctrine of Jesus Christ the entrance of his Words gave them Light and Understanding and they were so fully satisfied of the great things of God's Law that they were not apt to wrest or mistake his Sayings or Actions in things of lesser moment
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
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
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 give a hateful Turn to ones Sentiments to make them pass for impious extravagant and ridiculous I shall therefore set down here a brief Summary of her Accessory Sentiments first premising some things that may dispose the Reader to consider them calmly and without prejudice 1. She declares they are reveal'd unto her by God and that now in the End of the World and near the Time of the Restitution of all things many things which were more darkly represented in the Holy Scriptures are now to be manifestly laid open when the Time of fulfilling all is at hand and that such things are now laid before us like a Clustre of Grapes of the Land of Promise to make us conceive something of the Beauty and Glory of the Heavenly Jerusalem 2. She declares as has been said that those Accessory Truths are not necessary to Salvation are not Articles of Faith ought not to be enquired into from a Spirit of Curiosity are not design'd for all but for those who being perswaded of them are thereby stirr'd up so much the more to the Love and Admiration of God and for others they maâ— let them alone XXXII 3. St. Augustin has given us an excellent Rule whereby to judge charitably of Sentiments and Interpretations of the Holy Scripture Whosoever says he so understands the Holy Scriptures or any part of them as that thereby he does not build up the twofold Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour he does not understand them aright But whosoever gives such a Sense of them as is profitable for advancing this Charity and yet what he says is not the particular Sense of the Writer in that place he does not err damnably neither does at all lie And if he err by a Sense which edifies Charity which is the End of the Commandment he so errs as if one by a mistake leaving the Highway should go streight over the Field to the Place whither the Way leads If these Accessory Sentiments then tend to promote the Great End of Religion the Love of God and our Neighbour tho' there were no Evidence for them from the Holy Scriptures they are neither hurtful nor damnable In giving an Account then of her Accessory Sentiments I shall consider them under these Heads Those which relat to 1. The State of the World before Man's Fall 2. The Fall of Man and its Consequences 3. The Methods taken for Man's Recovery by Jesus Christ 4. The Present State of the World 5. The Future State and the Restitution of all things And because the Series and Chain of those Accessory Sentiments cannot be well conceiv'd without some mention of the Essential Ones too I shall not scruple to do it where it is necessary to understand the Connexion of those Sentiments 1. As to the State of the World before Man's Fall the Summ of her Sentiments is as follows 1. VVHEN God created all things at First there was no Deformity in any of his Works all was Beautiful and Luminous no Grossness in the Earth no Whirlwinds and Hurricanes in the Air no Tempests in the Sea no Poison in the Herbs no Venom in Insects The Earth was all transparent throughout in it were to be seen the Plants the Stones and Metals all transparent likewise one might see thorouh it to its Center as easily as through the Air all the Beasts and Plants were all Beautiful in their respective kinds no Deformity in any of them and the Beauty of their Frame and Contrivance was to be seen throughout all being Transparent and Luminous All things were worthy of God and were Representations of his Greatness Magnificence Goodness Beauty Light and Fruitfulness in several ways and according to their different kinds 2. God having resolv'd to form a Creature that should love and enjoy him and in whose Love he would take Delight and Pleasure he creates Man after his own Image endues him with an immortal Soul breathed from himself with Understanding capable to receive him with a Heart to desire and thirst after him and cleave to him with a perfect Liberty and Free-will to do it heartily and freely and without the least Limitation or Constraint And to oblige him the more to love him his most Bountiful God and Lover gives him for an Accessory Felicity and Happiness the whole Creation subjects all his Works to him to be his Servants and to attend upon him puts all things under his Feet that he receiving the Homage and Delight of all the Creatures might return the Praise of all to God in the constant Love and Adoration of so Bountiful a God who would give himself to be lov'd and enjoy'd by him and would take his Delight with him and would give him such a world of beautiful Creatures to serve and attend upon him 3. That Man might partake of this Accessory Happiness and receive the Delight and Homage of all the Creatures and rule over them as their Lord and King he forms to him a Body as the Case and Organ of his Soul by which he might communicate with all the Creatures and rule over them and endues it with Faculties and Senses capable to give them Orders and to take in the Tribute of their Delights and Pleasures the Sense of Seeing to take in their Light and Beauty of Hearing to be entertain'd with their Melody and Musick Smelling to receive their odoriferous Steams and the Taste to relish their Sweetness and Delight the power of Moving of Speech and Gestures whereby to rule and govern them he might go to any place and make known his Will which all obeyed 4. This Body was not created by God after the manner that we see it at present but incomprehensibly more beautiful and more perfect as the Master-piece of all Nature clear subtile agile and transparent its Skin like Moscovy Glass its Flesh like Crystal its Veins like streams of Rubies its Waters like Diamonds its Nerves like the Hyacinth the Substance of the Fruits its Aliment that of all good Odours its Excrements all its Parts within and without its Bones Muscles Sinews Bowels all so bright fram'd with such Art that all the Beauties of the Universe were nothing to the least part of it The Quintessence of all Natural things was the Matter of which it was form'd and all Nature obey'd it If he design'd to go on the Waters they supported him if to the Center of the Earth it yielded to him if through the Air it was a Chariot to him The Sun the Stars the precious Stones and all the Beauties of the Earth were nothing if compar'd with the least Beauty of the Body of Man His Soul was wholly Divine his Understanding clear-sighted penetrating all the Secrets of Nature all things Divine and Supernatural 5. Man when he was created at First was endued with a Principle of Foecundity with a Power to produce his like without the help of another having within
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
a Christian being a Man full of Zeal and of great Learning and hearing that there were Persons risen up who would destroy the Law and seduce the Simple and that they worshipped the first of these Impostors who was hanged on a Tree and that these new Upstarts were but a Rabble bigotted with that new kind of Folly which was like to hazard the Law of God and this being told him by all his Masters and Teachers the Priests the People his Kinsfolks and Friends instead of informing himself without Prejudice of those Men their Doctrine their Behaviour which would have prevented many false Steps he is carried to reproach and hate and persecute them that he may maintain the Truth of God and cut off Error and Heresie and the Seduction of the People Now what has fallen out in former Times may fall out in this and the most innocent Persons and Writings may meet with the most universal Reproaches and Prejudices It is certainly the Devil's Interest that it should be so and we see how successful his Attempts have been in former Ages He still made it his Business to get on his side those who set up to be the Guides and Leaders of the People and by this means always to oppress blacken and discredit Truth and Innocence II. Now the Person and Writings of A. B. have been loaded with as many Reproaches and Prejudices as any in this Age and that both in her Life time and since her Death Where-ever she went the Church-men of the respective Parties breath'd nothing but Fire and Faggot against her in their Pamphlets and Pulpits made her to pass for the worst of Hereticks and her Writings for a Sink of all Heresies and Blasphemies and thus it was easie to inspire People with Rage and Fury so that if they could have had her to have ston'd her to Death they would have thought they had done good Service and no sooner is one of her Writings translated into English for the spiritual Good of well-disposed Souls but immediately some are pleas'd to sound the Trumpet and to cry out Heresie and Blasphemy Errors and Delusions and this is enough to frighten a whole Island from looking into these Writings and to breed an Aversion against those who esteem and value them because of the Truths of God contain'd in them It was a remarkable Providence that she met with such Opposition from all Parties while she lived whereby as she discovered impartially the Evils of the respective Sects and Parties into which Christendom is divided so also she clearly vindicated her self from being guilty of the Errors and Heresies of which they accus'd her discovered the Impudence of their Calumnies and Slanders and remov'd from well-dispos'd Persons the Prejudices which had been given them against her We need only then give a short Account of what was laid to her Charge and her own Vindication of herself by which her Sincerity her Innocency her distinct and most rational Knowledge of the Truths of Religion her Orthodoxy and the Subservency of her Writings to the great Ends of Christianity will I hope appear to all unbiass'd Readers III. But first let us premise the Complaint she makes in general of the unjust Measures of her Adversaries how void they were of true Charity and Equity What ever Good or Truth was incontestably in her Writings they conceal'd it they lessen'd it whatever was capable of being turn'd to an Evil Sence they perverted it they pick'd out half Sentences here and there throughout her Writings and on these they put a Sence which she never intended concealing in the mean time what went before or after that might serve to clear the true sence and meaning of the Expression Any Doctrine of Christianity that was not so fully exprest in one Place they were ready to accuse her of denying it tho' she most clearly asserted it in another They were ready to catch at her Words and to interpret them according to the Niceness of the Schools not considering the simplicity and plainness with which she wrote she being intent to make known the Truth to all sincere and well-disposed Souls without regarding that nice and captious Wits would be ready to carp and quibble upon this or the other Word and not allow her to explain her self In short the great End of Christianity being to bring Men to the Love of God and the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and Self-will and this being the Butt of all her Writings as is most evident to any who pleases to read them she makes appear that her Adversaries cannot be Lovers of the Truth or of God that their Aim is not to maintain the Truth and oppose Error else they would rejoice to see this great End of Religion to be the Butt and Substance of so many Writings and that there are uncontestably contain'd in them so great a number of Divine Truths all tending to this End They would own and acknowledge this they would wish to meet with the Truth every where even in the things which seem'd to them obscure and disagreeable to it they would see if these were more clearly explain'd in other Places and if they might well bear a Sence that were agreeable to this great End of Religion or if even the Errors which they thought were contain'd there were no ways destructive of the true Love of God and so for the sake of them the whole Writings need not be forbidden and discredited IV. They may be convinced of the Injustice of the Measure by considering only how hard they would think it to have their own Writings so treated how odd it would seem to them if one should deal with the Sacred Scriptures after that Method and what wretched Conclusions an Enemy of Christianity might thereby draw from them and that if it had been their Luck to have been bred up at the Feet of Gamaliel among the Jewish Rabbies or with Porphyr among the Philosophers the Spirit and Measures by which they judge of Persons Sentiments and Writings would have animated them as much against Jesus Christ himself and had they come but Sixteen Hundred Years sooner into the World and been leaven'd with the same Spirit they should have been listed among the Philo-Judaeus's and the Porphyrs and overlooking the Substance of the Doctrine and Life of Jesus Christ would have pick'd out a half Sentence here and a Word or two there and some Passages of his Life that prejudiced Minds would be readiest to judge hardly of and wrest them to such a Sence and give all such a Turn as might make him pas for a Blasphemer a Seducer a Subverter of the Law of God a Teacher of Doctrines that would turn the World upside down one Self-conceited who spoke well of himself and ill of others who were more learn'd and pious than himself in a word give such a Character and Narrative of him patch'd up of some shreds of the Story of his Life and
the Grandeur of Charity or the Love of God that of Reason and that of worldly Empire and Honour Alexander and others have excell'd in the last and seem Great to the Eyes of Flesh Archimedes and others have excell'd in the second and seem Great to the Eyes of Reason Jesus Christ appear'd in none of these Grandeurs had neither Learning nor worldly Greatness and was of no regard neither to the Eyes of the Flesh nor those of the Great Philosophers and of Reason but O! how Great was he in the Eyes of Charity how Meek and Humble and Patient and Self-denied in a Life of absolute Poverty Contempt and Pain for the Love of God and Men. Now all the Writings and Actions of A. B. tending to draw Men into this Kingdom of Charity and the Love of God which is of a quite distinct Rank and Order from that of humane Reason as well as of worldly Greatness it was no wonder that she put no great Value on the one more than the other they being both unspeakable Hindrances in the way to it and the second more than the third She shews that there is in the Soul a Principle for above humane Reason and that is Divine Faith which does not consist in believing only with the understanding the Twelve Articles of the Creed which may be done by a humane Faith as we believe the recital of some History when a Person worthy of Credit relates it this gives not to the Soul any Divine Vertues which God only can operate in us Faith is a Divine Light which God infuses in the Soul which makes us to know and desire Eternal things and despise Temporal It is not a natural Quality as our Reason but a Divine Quality which proceeds from God as the Beams do from the Sun as nothing can make us see the Sun but the Sun himself It was communicated to all Men at their Creation lost by their Fall renew'd by the Merits and Grace of Jesus Christ When it shines in our Souls it warms them with the Love of God and Men who bear his Image and Likeness and produces Charity And this Charity regulates all our Life and gives weight and measure to all our Actions For Divine Faith is always living and operating It partakes of all the Divine Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth So that he who has Faith in his Soul cannot be Unjust nor a Liar nor a Deceiver nor Wicked nor seek his own Interest his own Glory his own Pleasure or Satisfaction seeing all these respect time and earthly things Humane Reason is an Inferiour Principle that may indeed convince us that there is a God the Author of Nature who made and sustains all things but this cannot produce in our Souls Faith and Charity Vertues derived immediately from God and not from Nature or the Understanding of Man which is a frail Creature limited to Earth and Time And to think to know or comprehend God by the natural Understanding is a greater Folly than the Heathens committed in worshipping the Sun All Men being now void of humane Faith take up with a humane Belief and divide and dispute and quarrel and hate and despise one another without knowing wherefore and without perceiving that the Folly they have in themselves is more to be despised than what they require in their Brother The active Exercise of our Reason when depriv'd of the Light of Faith serves but the more to confound and darken us it keeps us in a vain Amusement makes us neglect the necessary means of obtaining Divine Faith blows up the Heart with Pride makes us despise the most Divine Truths when they do not accord with our Principles and value our selves beyond others tho' humble ignorant Persons are more to be regarded as being more disposed to receive the Light of Faith than those Learned who have drunk in the Doctrine of Men. She blesses God that preserv'd her from this for then she should have been uncapable of receiving that of the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ call'd the Simple and Ignorant to be his Disciples and Apostles it was they whom he train'd up to instruct and teach others the way to Salvation When a Learned Nicodemus came to him he told him that unless he became as a little Child he could not enter into the Kingdom of God He founded no Colleges nor Academies to train up his Followers in all sorts of Learning but taught them by Word and Deed to deny themselves in all earthly things and to take up their Cross and follow him True Religion is preserved or received by the same means by which it is at first instituted and established They who say in another case that Christ being more faithful than Mâ—ses in all the House of God who yet left not a Pin of the Tabernacle unmade and therefore he surely could not be wanting in ordering what was fit for his Church may examine their own Measures by this Rule She says The Schools and Doctrine of Men have corrupted the true Sence of the Scriptures and by their Learning authorize all sorts of Sins that it seems the Schools are expresly instituted to forge Cases of Conscience capable of leading Men to Hell For what need is there to Gloss the Gospel and the Life of Jesus Christ They are clear Truths which Jesus Christ taught by Word and Deed that we must be poor in Spirit humble in Heart desirous to suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake and to do to others as we would have them do to us but to corrupt all these things the Learned make Glosses that it is not against Poverty of Spirit to labour or trade that we may get Money and make some Fortune in the World and to flatter Men the better to their Ruine they add by Word that we must possess Riches as not possessing them which is a great Deceit for Men are not now so dispos'd as those of the Old Testament who receiv'd Temporal Goods from God as a Blessing to employ them to his Glory not having their Hearts any ways wedded to them as those of our Time who incessantly covet Riches desiring still more and more It is an infallible Truth that all who would be saved must love God with all their Heart And if we ask those Divines if it be not lawful for a Man to love his Father Mother Wife Children Kinsfolk Friends yea his Country Money House Honour Divertisements Meat Drink Cloaths and every other Creature they will answer yes because they love them themselves and yet imagine they fulfil the Command of God of loving him with all their Heart and to disguise this Lie the better they will say We must not love all these things inordinately giving us to understand thereby that our Hearts may be well divided into so many different Affections without sinning which has so authoriz'd the neglect of the Command of loving God with all our Heart that no Body thinks it is needful They live and die in
Roman Church who do as your Preachers and say that I am become a Heretick and therefore would think they did God good Service to take away my Life and have even watched divers Occasions to murther me which God discovered to me timously that I might avoid them and if I would yet go to their Churches I think I should not come out alive but they would stone me as they did S. Stephen for having spoke the Truth And being born and brought up in the Roman Church it is not permitted me to go to another without sinning mortally according to their Ordinances so that by Force I must stay in Solitude and not go to Church which I suffer willingly and comfort my self that so many Fathers Hermits were so agreeable to God while they lived in the Desarts and did not use the Sacraments nor other outward Solemnities And in her forecited Letter to Mr. Reinboth As to what you tell me says she that you wish I had not touched the Ecclesiastick State I could not omit it since for them particularly that Work was made The Light of the World and they ought all to thank God that he has permitted their Faults to be known that they may amend them while they are yet in this World But in order to this they must really desire to become true Christians such as I have described them for otherwise they will take God's Admonitions for the Reproofs of a Wife which they will not endure I pardon them for they do it out of Ignorance thinking these are Novelties tho' they be the ancient Truths of God but a little grievous to those who live according to the Motions of corrupt Nature For it would always bear Rule be praised and esteemed and cannot endure Reproof nor bear its Faults without taking the Alarm or avenging it self opposing still the Truth that reproves it and will not acknowledge its Fault This is the Way of a natural Man who has not yet overcome himself in which your Pastours seem yet to be fix'd since they would blame me for speaking the Truth of the Degeneracy of the Ecclesiastick State of which too much cannot be spoken and they themselves ought to publish it if they were free of Passions and regarded more the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls But impartial and disinterested Persons are no longer to be met with Every one looks to his own Advantage his own Glory and Profit and when they are in this State I need not wonder if your Pastours blame me since I bring them no Profit Advantage or Vain-glory. This is not that I will not honour or prefer Church-men in their Dignities since I esteem them as the Lieutenants of God of which I have spoken sufficiently in the Advertisement against the Quakers For I always distinguish the State from the Person I honour Priests Magistrates Judges and other Superiours because God has establish'd this Order upon Earth without which Men would be much more disorderly But I cannot honour the Faults of all those Persons who are plac'd in State and Dignity since they seem to me more heinous in such than in the Common People and I remark that Jesus Christ despised wicked Priests and Judges more than he did private Sinners for he dismissâ—d the Woman taken in Adultery saying only to her Go and sin no more He called an Usurer to be an Apostle he suffered a Magdalen a common Sinner to kiss and follow him But he does not so treat the Pharisaical Priests or Judges and Superiours but gives them publickly many Reproaches and Contempts calling them so often Hypocrites whited Sepulchers Generation of Vipers and saying they made clean the out-side of the Cup and Platter but within were full of Corruption and dead Mens Bones And if you had liv'd Sir in the Times of Jesus Christ and heard him thus despise and condemn the Priests and Superiours you would have taken Offence that he blamed so particularly the Ecclesiastick State since you take Offence now that I blame the Faults which God has made known to be universally in that State And if you believe there are amongst others some good Men who are not guilty of the Faults that I have marked in that Light of the World it is not of them that I speak since I will not blame the Office in it self seeing God has established it and Jesus Christ himself honour'd it even in wicked Persons whom he reproved for many Faults for after he had healed the Leper he commanded him to go shew himself to the Priest It is not to be believ'd that this was to a holy Priest since he was of the same Synagogue with those who out of Envy crucified Jesus Christ but he would teach the Respect and Honour that ought to be had to the Priestly Dignity tho' the Vices of the Persons placed in that Dignity are much more displeasing to God than the Vices of others and they will certainly be more punish'd in Hell for their Dignities and Offices which they have unworthily discharged Therefore I had more ground to touch the Ecclesiastick State than any other on that Occasion when I was conversing with Ecclesiastick Persons For it would not have touched them so nearly to have spoken to them of the deplorable State in which Lawyers Merchants Physicians and other secular Persons do now live since the Vices of others could not be corrected by those Church-men and they might well correct their own Vices which I discover'd to them to be crept into the Ecclesiastick State for they must account for this before the great Judge I never repented of having touched on that Occasion the Ecclesiastick State since this is the chief Cause of the Degeneracy of Christendom For if the Priests had continued true Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ undoubtedly they would yet draw to that State of Christianity a great Number of People after them But when we see the Heads of the Christian Church degenerate from that Spirit and that they will not so much as hear their Degeneracy spoken of what can be hoped for from the People but that they will become still worse as Experience makes appear c. Thus it appears how far she is from overturning or despising Priesthood and the outward Ordinances how plainly she distinguishes the Offices and Dignities from the Persons the Use of Divine things from the Abuse of them and that she as much honours the former as she exposes the Evils of the latter and why it is the Church-men on all sides raise such a Hue-and-Cry against her I designed once to have set down here her execellent Vindication of the Sacraments and outward Ordinances and the Dignity and Reverence of the Priesthood from the Reproaches of the Quakers in her Advertisement against them But lest it should make this Paper swell too much I have forborn it XXI They accused her that she rejected and despised the Holy Scriptures from which she vindicates her self in many
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
that God dwells in my Heart by his Righteousness Truth and Charity and that he makes me govern all my Actions by the square of these Vertues which is a sufficient Evidence to me that it is God who guides me since the Devil and Nature have nothing of these Vertues And therefore there cannot be a surer Testimony that a Soul is guided by the Holy Spirit than when it is possest with the Righteousness Truth and Charity of God I imagine if Bucchardus heard that I say I have the Truth Righteousness and Charity of Moses he will condemn me more than ever having done it so often thro' his Book tho' I had not there spoken openly of the Graces which God had given me But the being condemn'd by so imperfect a Man can do no hurt to my Soul For God knows it is he who commands me to do this and it matters little whether it please or displease Men it is enough to me when it pleases God Yet I will not say that I have the same Degrees of the Vertues Righteousness and Charity that Moses had For God has not reveal'd to me how much of them he imparted to him but I will only say that my Soul is possest in proportion with the same Charity Righteousness and Truth that Moses had but if he had a Pound of each of these Vertues and I an Ounce only I do not at all know neither will I ask for the Vertue of another does not concern me it is enough for me that I be faithful in what is committed to me If God has given me his Divine Love I must do all my Actions and form all my Intentions for this Love without seeking in any thing my own or the Satisfaction of Men and if God has given me his Righteousness I must exercise this Vertue equally in things great and little according to my Employ doing always justly to every one even to my Enemies And God has so planted this Righteousness in the bottom of my Soul that I cannot suffer Injustice towards the Beasts far less towards any Person And the Truth that God has imparted to me is so rooted in my Soul that I suffer for it all sort of Persecutions And tho' it be hard for me to suffer so much for having told the Truth which God commands me I cannot cease to do it For it is better to obey God than Man As to the Accusation of Pride for saying that she underderstood all the Holy Scriptures without having read them that it was enough for the Fathers that they understood what Men had need of then that God now reveals the Secrets which he would then have kept to be hid that the Prophets have indeed declar'd all that must come to pass but neither they themselves nor any others understood their Sayings that all this was spoken without blasphemous Pride appears by the rest of the Discourse and the comparing it with all her Writings That the Prophets had Visions of things to come which they themselves did not perfectly Understand cannot be denied that God may give a fuller understanding of them near the time of their Accomplishment is no absurd nor impossible thing that he has been pleas'd so to do to this Virgin all her Writings do testifie that she declares this without Pride as it appears in all her Writings so in that very place cited Where she says Yes Sir I may say it with Confusion that it has pleas'd God to communicate his Secrets to me which he has hid from the Wise and Great of the Earth If such has been his Will who can reprove it or find fault with that which he finds Good Is not he the absolute Lord of all things That which he will he can do without Man's being able to contradict it for no Body is capable of giving Law to him he is as Powerful as Just and Good let us only adore his Designs Tho' I were evâ—n the most wicked Creature in the World he might serve himself of me in what pleases him and then might damn me in the end if I have merited it All things being subject to him all must obey him the Infernal Powers as well as the Celestial and Terrestrial Nothing can resist his Almighty Arm I must submit if God will declare his Marvels by me I cannot hinder him If he will speak by a Stone or Wood he ought to be heard with respect And as to the Expression in one of her Letters wherein she calls her self a Mother of True Believers for which the Anabaptists or Mennonists accuse her of blasphemous Pride she unanswerably vindicates her self I do not wonder says she that those Mennonists are scandaliz'd at it for they do not know from what Fund it is taken and while they think I am led by the same Spirit with them they must needs be scandaliz'd at the simple Truth with which I express my Sentiments They think I would do better to study humble Words to speak soberly in what relates to me and that I ought not to tell so openly the things which God communicates to me for they practice the quite contrary to my Sentiments and yet think they possess the finest Vertues They have for a Maxim to learn to speak humbly and have for Rules to be simply apparel'd to be strictly united to their Party and not to converse nor drink or eat with those who are cut off from it and far less to assist them any manner of way And all these things are contrary to what God has planted in my Soul To study to speak humbly of ones self having a proud Heart is a great Pride accompanied with Deceit and Lying The Pride consists in desiring to be thought Humble before Men by speaking humbly the Lying consists in saying often that which is False for he who says he is Weak and has no Good in him is sometimes so proud at the Bottom that he cannot endure that another should have so mean Thoughts of him and would be ill content to hear some one say that he has not Vertue or that he is not in a State of Perfection Do you not remember Sir that some of those learned Persons ask'd you if I durst say that they are not regenerated in Jesus Christ while none of their Actions do discover this Regeneration For we see them as much wedded to earthly things as other Men for they are well pleas'd to be honoured and served and esteemed by every Body If they were regenerated all these Desires would be dead in them the Spirit of Poverty Sufferings Humility and Charity would effectually live in their Souls for Regeneration consists in dying to ones self to live to God and if they were dead to the World they wuold seek the things which are above and no longer those which are on Earth And yet they who are sunk into the Traffick of the World and gain as much as is possible for them would have it be believ'd that
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
Esay accuses them that they had said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we must die we have made a Covenant with Death and with Hell we are at Agreement for we have made Lies our Refuge and under Falshood have we hid our selves Malachy It is in vain for us to serve the Lord we will call the Proud Happy c. This was not true in the Sight of Men but it was true in the Sight of God who saw that there were no living Impressions in their Hearts of the Divine Providence of a happy or miserable Eternity of the great Happiness of Vertue c. There are generally two sorts of Principles and Sentiments in Men which do widely differ from one another one by which they reason and discourse and preach and write Books and teach Doctrines and this is their speculative Principle The other is that by which a Man acts and governs both his inward Affections and his Life This last only is a Man's true Sentiments and Principle tho' for the most part this is unknown to the Man himself S. Paul before his Conversion and e'er he was enlightned by the Holy Ghost would have been highly offended with any that should have call'd him a Blasphemer a Persecuter of God and good Men and the Chief of Sinners as imputing to him Crimes and Sentiments of which he not only thought himself innocent but that those very things were Vertues in the Sight of God tho' when God opened his Eyes he found he had been truly such So strange is the Blindness of corrupt Man Therefore when God would deliver Men from Death he stops not at the outward Appearance and what Men say and at their dead Reasonings and Sentiments who may tell him We teach Vertue we preach good Works we recommend Mortification of the Old Man we detest Security and Presumption c. while in effect their Lives are regulated by quite contrary Principles and their Hearts live in another Element and therefore he warns them of that which is hid within them and which they do not yet perceive and tells them that tho' they profess to know him yet by their Works they deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good Work reprobate Now it is according to this Measure that A. B. speaks of Men and Parties and of their Sentiments When a whole Society lives according to Principles the contrary of which they affirm with their Mouths it is certain this may be imputed to that Society When the greatest part of particular Persons in that Society have certain Sentiments as to flatter themselves that they are in the State of Grace or predestinated to Salvation it is certain that the Society in the gross may be said to have these Sentiments If while they live in a worldly and carnal Manner yet they commonly believe they shall be saved by the Use of the Ceremonies and Sacraments this is to be reckoned the real Sentiment of the Society in gross tho' the Speculations of some particular Persons and Doctors do not say so It is the People that makes the Church and not a small Number of learned Heads It is the living and inward Principles Inclinations and Dispositions of the Spirits and Hearts of the People that makes the Sentiments of the Church and not some vain Theories of the Learned which are oft-times dead and barren in their own Hearts When in a Society some particular Persons teach expresly evil Doctrines as the Justifying of horrid Murthers or that we may be saved without the Love of God and direct Souls according to these Doctrines if the whole Body of such a Church knowing this do not openly and loudly extirpate such a Doctrine by their Councils or other proper Means undoubtedly such a Society and particularly they who preside in it are reckoned by God as if they themselves authoritatively taught and maintained these detestable Maxims Now if what A. B. says as to the Principles Sentiments and Evils of Parties or Persons be examined by these Rules it will appear that she imputes nothing to them falsly XXV Another Accusation brought against A. B. is that she gives wrong Explications of several Passages in the Holy Scripture as her applying that of S. Paul We know in part c. to a greater Degree of Knowledge and Illumination than God will give in this last Age of the World Her understanding the Words of our Saviour Joh. 12. 23. of his glorious Appearing in the End of the World when the Context shews it is meant of his Death and Sufferings her singular Exposition of the Lord's Prayer as containing things that we are to obtain only in Perfection when Christ comes to reign in Glory We see what Expositions the Apostles give of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the Fathers of both the Old and New which oft-times seem very different from the Sence that naturally offers S. Augustin's Rule already mentioned has Place here That whosoever gives such a Sence of the Scripture as serves to promote the Love of God and our Neighbours which is the great End tho' it cannot be made appear that the Pen-man of the Scripture did so understand it in that particular Place he does not err damnably nor does he make a Lye But that other remarkable Rule he gives serves fully to remove this Accusation That as to all the Sences that are given of the Holy Scripture which are not repugnant to the Truth it is to be believed they were intended by the Holy Spirit That when many Sences are given of the same Words if it appear from other Places of the Scripture that they are agreeable to the Truth and to Faith there is no Danger For perhaps the Author of those Writings did perceive the same Sence of them and certainly the Spirit of God who wrought by him foresaw without doubt that this would occur to the Reader and the Hearer yea took care that it should occur For what more liberal and bountiful Provision could be made by God in the Divine Oracles than that the same Words should be understood in many Sences all which the other no less Divine Writings might confirm Agreeable to this we have a Divine Maxim of a pious Writer of the last Age That according to the State that Man is in so he understands the Holy Scripture if he be as yet in the State of Nature he explains it of Natural Things if he have ascended higher he understands it of more sublime Things and the higher State he is advanced to he still finds so much the more sublime Testimonies of things in the Scripture Inferiour things are the Image and Similitude of the superiour If a Man therefore be in the lowest Degree the Scripture proposes low things to him but if he be placed in superiour Degrees it points out to him higher things When Paul says Not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness c. Rom. 13. 19. this concerns
after it but nevertheless an immediate Revelation tending to explain and illustrate the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to vindicate it from the false Glosses of Corrupt Teachers and to awaken and excite Men to follow and obey it may be both useful and necessary The Jewish State did no more call for his Mercy than does ours Have we the whole Will of God and our Duty consign'd to us in Writ So had they Was it that from time to time their Faith and Hope might be strengthned and encouraged in the Approach of the Messiah the same need have we who are bidden hope and look for his Coming again in Glory and yet in these last Days there are Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his Coming Was it because of the great Degeneracy both of the Priest and People that they needed such extraordinary Messages and Warnings from God So do we Ought we to reject all who lay any Claim to Divine Inspiration without any farther Enquiry because there are in this Age many Impostours Enthusiasts who falsly pretend to be led by the Spirit of God and are not So might they Were they in Circumstances to discern those who were truly led by the Spirit of God from those who were acted by a Lying Spirit So may we So that from the Nature of God the Methods of his dealing with Men and the present State of the World and of Mankind this appears to be no impossible nor improbable thing XI Nay there are strong Presumptions on the other side that God will shew his Mercy to Mankind We are forbidden to believe every Spirit but are bidden try the Spirits whether they are of God or not If none are inspir'd by God what need is there to try any but to reject all We are told that in the last Days God will pour out of his Spirit upon all Flesh And when the Apostle S. Peter applies this Prophecy to the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the Day of Pentecost he meant not thereby to limit that Promise to that Time as if it had its full Completion but to shew that then it began to be fulfilled and that Jesus being now ascended to his Father and having received the Promise of the Holy Ghost had shed forth this upon them And it evidently appears that he did not limit it to that Time but shew that that was rather the first Fruits of it and that it was to be fulfilled and continued in all After-ages he saying expresly Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost For the Promise is unto you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Which was as it were a Preludium and first Fruits of what they might expect For it is not God's Manner to promise largely and liberally and to perform meanly and sparingly and the Number of Persons on whom the Gifts of the Spirit were poured out in those Days was too small to fill up the Extent of Joel's Prophecy especially if we compare it with and interpret it by other Prophecies of the same Nature it will appear that this is a Mercy which God designs to communicate in a higher Measure after the coming of Jesus Christ than formerly For he has promised that he will put his Law in their inward Parts and write it in their Hearts And they shall teach no more every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord. And we are told that the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea So that the Reason why this is so little experienced among Christians now adays is not because the Lord's Hand is shortned that he cannot do it or that this was a Mercy to be shewn only to the first Christians but because our Sins have separated between us and our God XII There have not been wanting in the several Ages of the Church some pure and holy Souls extraordinarily enlightned by the Spirit of God as Anthony and Paul the Hermit and many others of the Ancient Fathers of the Desart and in the later Ages Thaulerus Thomas a Kempis and some other extraordinary Persons as they who read their Lives or Writings without prejudice may see XIII It is generally believed by all Protestants that we are at present in the Reign of Antichrist and it is generally own'd by all That before the End of the World there will be a Destruction of the Antichristian State and a glorious State of the Church of Jesus Christ in Purity and Holiness without which the Conversion of the Jews and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles cannot be hoped for All the Prophecies both of the Old and New Testament do point at this and their Description of it is so great and magnificent that it were absurd to apply it to any Event has fallen out already for in Divine Things the Reality of them does vastly transcend the most magnificent Descriptions that can be given of them There is nothing more plain from the Holy Scriptures and the State of the World than that the glorious Times foretold by the Spirit of God are not yet come And considering the great Corruption of the World and how unlikely it is that by human Wisdom or Reason such a Change will be wrought since the World by Wisdom knows not God there is all Ground to believe and hope that God will by an extraordinary Effusion of his Spirit bring about so great a Change XIV There being a two-fold Coming of Jesus Christ and a double Completion of Prophecies in relation to both therefore as the Preaching of John the Baptist was the first Coming again of Elias so many judge the Prophecy imports a Second Coming not of his Person but of some in his Spirit to restore all things Jesus Christ telling us even after John was beheaded that Elias will come indeed and restore all things To this Purpose a very sincere Enquirer into the Prophetick Stile takes out of the Prophecies and History concerning Elias and John Baptist a Character of that Spirit of Elias that must renew the World That its Doctrine must be that of casting away all Corruption Insincerity and Hypocrisie Declaring against all Distortion or Perversion of the Simplicity of Christian Truth by proud or politick Persons which will be no sectarian Spirit to rend and tear but a reconciling Spirit to solder together the Affections of Men Which will neither abrogate what is authentick noâ— introduce what is new but be a Restorer only of what useful Truths and Practices may seem to have been lost in the long Delapse
of Ages And perhaps of such clear and plain Principles as may solve the most concerning Difficulties that human Reason is subject to be entangled with He is that Voice in the Wilderness Prepare ye the Way of the Lord and make his Paths straight that they shall be of a Spirit separate from the World and untainted and unsophisticated by the unwholsom Converse of Men That this Spirit will appear rough and rude to the World because it will so freely and impartially reprehend the World and declare the Truth in all Plainness and Simplicity of Heart with an holy Boldness and Vndauntedness of Courage to witness to the Truth and a raising of Men out of a false Security from external or carnal Respects as did the Baptists the Sadducees and Pharisees with a vehement Jealousie in behalf of the Purity of God's Worship against all Polytheism and Idolatry and using only the Power of the Spirit from on High to oppose all Weapons of any carnal Warfare Characters which one would think had been purposely design'd for the present Subject XV. Thus then we ought to be so far from looking on it as an absurd or impossible thing that any should be extraordinarily and immediately led by the Spirit of God in this last Age of the World that we have Ground rather to hope and look for it if God shall find Subjects capable of it We ought not therefore in Prudence indifferently to reject all that come to us as from God with a Thus saith the Lord in their Mouths for by so doing we may chance to repulse God's Messengers and refuse to hear from him that which may be of great Importance to our Salvation Nor ought we on the other hand to receive blindly all as such who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God since many false Prophets do and shall arise and deceive many but we ought to follow the Apostle's Advice and try the Spirits whether they are of God or not Yet this does not oblige us to go and find out and enquire into the Grounds of every Pretender which were an infinite Labour and Expence of Time in an Age that abounds with Multitudes of Pretenders We are dispensed from that when the Falshood of the Pretension discovers it self by some plain Mark or Sign as the wicked or even worldly Life of the Pretender his Disowning the Holy Scriptures or denying or opposing any essential Truth of Religion But when there are no such evident Marks of the Falshood of one's Pretensions to immediate Revelation but they are back'd with such Considerations and attended with such Circumstances as make the Truth of them probable we are concern'd in Prudence to give our selves the Trouble of Enquiring into them and tho' upon Tryal they be found empty we must not think our Pains lost because it is better to be at some Pains in Examining a false Pretension to Revelation than to reject a true one because we would not give our selves the Trouble to enquire into it XVI Seeing then the Pretensions of A. B. to Divine Inspiration are of this last Sort and that by the Testimony of one of her most furious Enemies There are Persons who have the Reputation of Sence Probity and Learning who look upon her as one immediately enlightned by the Spirit of God and seeing the Things that she declares to us are of the greatest Moment and do most nearly concern us we ought in Prudence to hear and weigh the Evidences brought to make appear that she is immediately led by the Spirit of God and see whether they be such as may belong to Impostours or to deluded Persons and what Marks are given whereby we may discern those who are truly inspired by God from Impostours false Prophets and such as either acted by the Spirit of the Devil or the Heat of their own Imaginations I shall set down those Marks and Evidences in her own Words XVII Suspect says she all that I say to you as from God in case that you observe my Life my Manners and my Actions are not all conformable to those of Jesus Christ and that my Doctrine is not entirely like to the Holy Scripture for if it is God that speaks to me he is unchangeable he never changes what he said to his Apostles and his Disciples is the same thing which he declares now inwardly to the Soul There can be no change in God Besides this the Word of God is Living and Operative The Operations that you feel inwardly of my Words ought to be a sure Evidence to you that it is God for it would be a kind of Idolatry to attribute That to the Creature which belongs to the Creator I am a pure Nothing but God is All in me he teaches me he acts he speaks in me without Nature's contributing any thing but as a simple Organ as a Pencil contributes to the Art of a fine Painter Your natural Spirit is capable of judging this for where should a little Girl learn all the Law of God which is imprinted in the Marrow of my Bones without Study and without Books If I perceive the most secret Thoughts of your Heart from whence can this come but from God only Consider always what Properties the Spirit of God has in himself and the Spirit of the Devil and do not believe every Spirit for this is the Time of the Reign of Anti-christ and he has great Dominion over the Spirits of Men now deceiving them with false Appearances under the Pretext of Goodness and Vertue and transforms himself into an Angel of Light to seduce the Well-meaning I intreat you to take good heed and remark rather the Life and Behaviour of the Person who says he has Communication with God than his Words for the Devil can speak well of Divine Secrets as when he was an Angel He has not lost his Lights but they serve him for a Hell therefore he tempts the best by Divine Lights but he cannot give them in Effect the Properties that the Spirit of God brings along with him Read them with Attention The Properties of God He is Truth He is the Way He is Life He who lives in God walks always in Truth He who lives in God is conformed to the Life of Jesus Christ He who lives in God walks in Sincerity of Spirit and Simplicity of Heart He who lives in God fears nothing He who lives in God seeks nothing He who lives in God hopes for nothing out of God for he finds all in him The Properties of the Devil He is the Father of Lies the Master of Inconstancy the Inventer of Hypocrisie He who is of the Devil deals in Lies He who is of the Devil is inconstant He who is of the Devil is dissembled counterfeit hypocritical He who does an unseemly thing hates the Light that his Deeds may not be known He who is of the Devil seeks Darkness for fear that he be discovered He who is of the
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
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
greatest Evidences that can be given to those who were not Eye-Witnesses nor have experienc'd that Efficacy of her Writings themselves XXVII And seeing by the Testimony of her greatest Enemies these Writings are valued and esteem'd by some who have the Reputation of being Men of Sense Learning and Probity and that there are others highly deserving that Character still alive who were Witnesses of her Life and Spirit and have found so much of the Divine Power accompanying those Writings as has made them abandon the Love and Care of all Temporal things to mind and prepare for Eternity And seeing they are known to be Men of no Hypochondriack nor Enthusiastick Spirit do not pretend to immediate Revelations themselves are not led by the heat of Fancy or Imagination but were addicted to all the sorts of rational Learing and to the mechanical Philosophy wherewith the World now abounds this may so far Counter-ballance the Prejudices raised by some other Men of Reputation for Learning and Parts who never read those Writings till they came to them with an evil Eye with a design to expose ridicule and confute them this I say may so far Counter-ballance that Prejudice as to encline People not to throw them away as unworthy of their notice but impartially to weigh and consider what they say XXVIII And I am the more bold and earnest to perswade this because they contain the matters of the greatest Importance in the World They encourage no New Sect nor Schism set up no New Creeds teach no Disobedience to Superiours Civil or Ecclesiastick no Contempt of the Holy Scriptures or Divine Ordinances they do not teach Men to distinguish themselves from the rest of the World by a Preciseness in Words Gestures Apparel or other outward indifferent things But they clearly manifest the horrid Corruption of our Nature the indispensable necessity of the Love of God to be saved the only means to recover it by following the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ how contrary all Men walk to this and yet flatter themselves with their false Glosses on Christ's Life and Doctrine and the great and universal Judgments that God is now to bring upon the World as he did in the Days of Noah its Wickedness being as Universal and at as great a Height With many other important Truths which I cannot now repeat And as they are of such Weight and Moment so they are so clearly and rationally represented as to convince our natural Reason XXIX It needs divert none from laying to Heart those great and necessary Truths because they may meet with other accessory things which they cannot relish they are told they may lay them aside suspend their belief of them they may be sav'd without them And whereas it is replied That they being declared to be revealed by the Spirit of God we ought to believe them It is answered That it is not necessary to Salvation to believe that those Writings are Divinely inspir'd many may believe the Divine Essential Truths contain'd in them because of their Agreement with the Holy Scripture and labour to form their Lives and Hearts accordingly and yet not be perswaded that she had immediate Revelation besides the same Spirit that declares even those accessory Truths declares also that they are not necessary to Salvation and that they who do not relish them and are not bettered by them may let them alone Even as God of his infinite Bounty has provided not only for the Necessities of Man's Life but also variety of Entertainment of which some is agreeable to some Palates and naufeous to others It is not needful that every Man should eat of all sorts of Food but it is fit he take that only which is most convenient for his Health not despising other Food because he cannot relish it for it may be very agreeable and healthful to others however he may let it alone God grant us all the Spirit of divine Charity and a sound Mind and that whereto we have already attain'd the Essential Truths we all acknowledge we may walk by the same Rule and mind the same things And then if in any thing we be otherwise minded God will reveal this unto us Advertisement IN Opposition to all the Prejudices rais'd against the Writings of A. B. this may be a favourable one for them that whereas her Enemies do all they can to frighten People from looking into them and would have them to know no further of them than what they think fit to put into their Narratives those on the other hand who give good Characters of them aim at nothing thereby but to perswade People impartially to read and consider the Writings themselves and not to trust them upon their Words no more than those who bespatter them even as we Protestants perswade the People to read the Holy Scriptures and those of the Roman Church do all they can to hinder them as being conscious that they make against them And as thus the Intention of these Witnesses is much more Candid and Just than the other so their Testimony will by all impartial Judges be esteem'd no less Weighty The one are Eye-Witnesses and the other only upon Conjecture Inferences or Hearsay and they who thrust in to be Evidences upon no better Grounds give occasion to suspect them as false Witnesses and to put them to the Oath of Calumny e'er they be admitted And as they had far the Advantage of knowing the Truth of what they declare beyond these others so their Ability to make a right Judgment and their Probity is unquestionable of these I shall instance only in two The one is the great Anatomist and Naturalist Dr. Swammerdam whose Writings are well known and esteem'd by all Enquirers into the History of Nature and it is certain that that Genius does not lead to a Brainsick Enthusiasm but after that he had seen some of the Writings of A. B. and convers'd with her he was fully perswaded in his Conscience that she was led by the Spirit of God and found the happy Effect of it upon own his Heart and Spirit The other is Dr. Ant. de Heyde known also to the World by some curious Enquiries and Observations in the History of Nature and in Physick who for many Years had no small Contempt and Aversion for A. B. and her Writings so that it was the force of Truth only and no favourable Prepossession that brought him to esteem them who has now abandon'd all earthly things to follow his Master Jesus Christ and such powerful a Mean they were for this End appears from this following Account which he permits to be communicated to the World being heartily desirous to contribute for the Good of those who labour under the same Indispositions A DISSERTATION OF Dr. Ant. de Heyde Famous Physician of Middleburg in Zealand CONCERNING The Sanctity and Divine Illumination of Antonia Bourignon Translated from the Original Latin M. S. Quest 1. If A. B. did
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
and God who had so much comforted her in Prayer all the time that she was despised now withdrew from her and her Prayers were without any fervour Her Conscience often check'd her when she did or said any thing to please the World but she had not the courage to withdraw from it But God had pity on her who had abandon'd him to turn to the Creatures She oft-times felt inward Motions from God and even in the midst of her Divertisements and Dancings she had sometimes secret Reproofs from him piercing her Heart with those inward Words Will you forsake me then for another Will you find a Lover more compleat and more faithful than I am But a little after Company and Divertisements got the Ascendant and even when she was excited by those inward Motions to abandon all she would reply Then I should never have Pleasure It is fit for one to take some Pleasure in their Youth VII Then God seeing that his gentle Motions avail'd nothing took more severe means to recover her and fill'd her Spirit with fearful Apprehensions of Death Judgment and Hell the hearing of the Deaths of others and Sermons about Death and Judgment did before that touch her but very little like the Stories of Foreign Countries and she would not let her self think that she was concern'd in them But when God was pleas'd to open her Eyes and let her see she must Die and appear at the great Judgment then unexpressible Apprehensions seiz'd her and all the Day long when she was alone she would say to her self Poor Creature What will become of thee Thou must die all the things of the World cannot save thee from this fearful Death thou caâ—st not escape it And what wilâ— thou say when that Hour shall come This she often repeated both in her Mind and by Word They with whom she convers'd observing her Sadness endeavour'd to chear and divert her but all in vain For then she had a disgust of all Recreations and earthly Pleasures And when she forc'd her self to take Contentment in any thing she thought it was said to her Heart To what purpose takest thou Pleasure since thou must die For what will this serve thee before God But the sensitive part of her Soul was very displeas'd to see it self thus afflicted and said in its mute Language Thou shalt never be well if thou put not these Fancies out of thy Head but will die very shortly if thou continue in such Apprehensions This made her leave oft for some time But as soon as she came to her self the superiour part said Forget Death as much as you will it shall not forget thee It is a folly to think to free thy self of it by shutting it out of thy Memory It will find thee every where and does not wait till thou be ready but comes at its time unlook'd for and when thou shalt think least of it And if the Idea of it only does so affright yea put thy Life in hazard how will the reality of it make thee afraid when thy Soul shall be in Danger Give place to those Truths without flattering thy self with any Reasons VIII These were the Debates which toss'd her Spirit without ceasing She resolv'd then to quit all the World and prepare for Death and prevent it since it followed her so hard But she found great Difficulty to do it being Young and in the midst of all worldly Advantages so that she might promise to her self as much of worldly Pleasures Honour and Wealth as any of her rank Nevertheless the thoughts of Death had yet greater force when she thought on the future State She said to her self It is very true Mirth is agreeable Pleasures are sweet and Wealth delightful but this lasts but for a little time Death will come and change all and all must be parted with with a lamentable regret and it may be an eternal Punishment for a good of so short continuance So that perceiving clearly this Truth she prayed earnestly to God to give her Grace to think always upon Death and never to let it be out of her Mind for any thing that might befall her which she obtain'd after a long perseverance in this Prayer And to fix it the more upon her Spirit she went oft to the Church-yard where looking on the Bones of the dead she said See my Body what will become of thee Thy own Head and thy own Hands will be very shortly thrown into this Company and she was afraid to look upon them and forc'd her self to approach them being naturally timorous and to handle them saving O miserable Creature Wilt thou have a Horror for thy self Draw near boldly Thou shalt be a Thousand times more vile when the Worms shall eat thee and this will be the greatest Honour that can befal thee to be ranked with these Bones here IX This gave her a great disgust for the Body which she formerly cherish'd and a hatred and severity against her self and after her Sister was married she retir'd from all sort of Company staid alone in her Chamber entered upon a very austere Life Lying hard Sleeping little Fasting much mingling what she did eat with Ashes to mortifie her Taste wearing hair cloath next to her Skin and afflicting her Body and praying and weeping the most part of her time for Grief that she had left the sweet Conversation she had with God to please her self in the Divertisements of the World She visited the Poor and Sick frequented the Churches and Sacraments not knowing by what means she could recover the Favour of God which she had lost through her own Fault She durst scarce sleep in the Night fearing to fall into Hell while asleep and that the Earth would not bear her So terrible were her Apprehensions of the Judgments of God that she durst not shut her Eyes because of her Sins which seem'd to her so great that none had ever committed the like not that she was guilty of any Crime or wicked Deed but because she had forsaken the sweet Conversation that her Soul had with God to please her self with the Divertisements of the World after having received so many Favours from God which deserved the Thanksgiving of her whole Life This appear'd to her so great a Sin that Hell was not sufficient to punish it She continued in those Austerities and Mortification for Seven Years and would have done so still if God had not commanded her when she was Twenty Five Years of Age to leave this and lead an ordinary Life Her Mortifications were not the Effect of a melancholy Humour nor accompanied with it for she was of the most serene and chearful Temper even to her Death But she chastis'd her self with an inward Contentment and Tranquillity out of a Principle of Justice And her Floods of Tears flowing from the Love of God whose Friendship she had lost through her own Fault were attended with a secret and most solid Pleasure
Stuffs Linens c. but the coursest and cheapest To these her Lodging and Accommodation were sutable a little Chamber a few old Chairs a little Table and sometimes a piece of Board upon her Knees to write upon her Bed and its Furnituee of the same kind yet all neat and cleanly She always served her self and was never served by others but in case of necessity but most ready to serve others whether Poor or Rich indifferently if this only could be of any Profit to the Soul or if any urgent Necessity called for Help no Service was then too mean for her and to spare others she would readily go and do the meanest Offices even to wash the Dishes scour the Pots take off the Ashes wash the Linen sweep and clean the House not excepting any Employ how low soever provided Health good Order or other Reasons did permit it 4. Yet in all these she never set to her self any particular Rules and advised her Friends never to amuse themselves with particular Rules of some outward Customs of humble Habits and pious Countenances which some Persons and Sects do observe to shew they are Devout and Spiritual as to wear their Apparel only of such a Fashion or such a Colour or such a Stuff or to choose particular Meats or the like whereby they distinguish themselves from the rest of the World as being more Holy and more Vertuous than they This she said begets in such an Esteem of themselves and a Contempt of others is real Hypocrisie and the greatest Pride and far from the Doctrine and Practice of Jesus Christ who could not be distinguish'd from his Disciples by his Enemies when they came to apprehend him without a Sign from Judas of his kissing him nor his Disciples from the rest of the People but when their Speech bewrayed them 5. She was most diligent in her Affairs did all things both for the Body and Soul with Foresight and good Order without letting any thing be spoiled but put all to some good use being always well employed in something and acting in all things with as much care as a faithful Steward and that in little things as well as great She would never undertake a thing hastily nor go about with it Precipitation not to have it soon done but to have it well done She took time first to recommend it to God and being once perswaded that it was agreeable to his Will she did it leisurely but with Perseverance as God she said did all his Works Doucement Fortement this she said was good both for Body and Soul and advanced any Affair better than too much Vehemence 6. She was so little concern'd for to be esteem'd and honoured by Men that their Praises and Reproaches did equally touch her as little as if she had never heard of them seeking nothing in the World but that God might be honoured and the Souls of Men saved Her Business and her Thoughts never aimed to procure Honour Ease Wealth or Pleasures for her self or others All her Pleasure was to delight in God in her Solitude out of the Conversation of Men and to bring to light what he gave her for the Salvatian of Souls This made her stay for the most part Solitary in her Chamber and even when she was taken up in sowing or any other Work she lov'd still to be alone to keep her Spirit always united to God and if the Salvation of her Neighbour had not required it she would certainly have broken off from all Society 7. Tho' Solitude was a thousand times more agreeable to her than any Company yet she would part with it and make her self as it were a State of continual Labours and Cares for the good of others purely for the Love of God and the Salvation of Souls So entire was her Resignation unto God that what she once knew to be his Will tho' contrary to her Inclinations and Quiet tho' she saw she would meet with nothing but Contempt Reproach and Persecution in it yet she made a Sacrifice of all to follow it 8. Her constant Rule was Righteousness not only to render to every one in outward things what appertain'd to them but it extended to all things to those of the Soul as well as of the Body She did not despise the Good that was in her Enemies nor excuse the Evil that was in her Friends She never judged according to Passions but according to Equity She would not be Partaker of other Mens Sins 9. Truth was the Rock on which she stood firm and to which she did adhere and cleave without Respect of Parties or Persons so that they who opposed it might well hurt themselves they could not shake her and tho' all the Learned in the World would have set themselves against her she would have regarded it no more than if they had been Children being so establish'd in the Truth So free was she from all humane and worldly Respects that she would not for all the Wealth Friendship or Terrors of the World omit to declare the Truth if the Glory of God required it 10. The Love of God was the Element in which she lived She delighted in him only despised all earthly things for him and adhered to him so strongly that she would do nothing without his Divine Will 11. All her Life was a constant Proof of her Charity to Men. From this Spirit she employed her Time Labour and Goods for many Years for the Good of the Souls and Bodies of a multitude of Orphans She took all care to communicate to the World even against Mens Will and endeavours to the contrary the Light that God gave her for the Good of their Souls denuding her self of all Accommodations and suâ—fering all manner of Reproaches and Harâ—ships that she might do them the greatest Good and bring them to God 12. And such was her Perseverance and Fortitude in this that all the Scorn and Contempt and Hardships and Persecutions that she met with in a Course of many Years did not shake nor alter her 13. She was so disinteress'd so far from seeking her self that she would never seek for any nor draw any Body over unto her Sentiments and would not let those who were with her strive any ways to draw in others even tho' they by this way had been able to bring over the most Powerful and the most Learned in the World and from whom she and hers might have received â—ore of outward Advantages and Support Her Rules for her self and Friends were Seek none let God operate in Souls otherwise all will be nothing but the Works of Mens hands which will perish As she had no other Butt but to send all to God so she would have no other thing for the Motive and Principle but the being moved by God 14. She had always a serenity and cheerfulness of Spirit a tranquility of Mind and Joy that even appeared outwardly And whatever Emotion she might be seiz'd with
that Men see or know painting out Vertue like to a hideous Old Wife wasted with Penitence tho' all these things may be done in Hypocrisie and a Study of Self-esteem But the Spirit of God gives Liberty to those whom he governs rendring them sincere affable and friendly without any Dissimulation to treat with an open Heart with the Friends of God without any Reserve or Windings but freely and openly tho' with Prudence towards the Wicked This is to be simple as Doves and wise as Serpents and to beware of Men as says the Scripture But her Character is to be had best from her Writings and from the Spirit that guided her The End of the Fourth Part. A LETTER CONCERNING The Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism detected SIR I. YOU tell me that you have seen a written Apology for A. B. and that you thought strange to find no Mention there of the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism detected Sir I am perswaded that the Writer of the Apology did that upon a good Design he saw how hard it was to reason with Men in Passion and not become angry too or inflame them the more He thought it was best not to answer and yet to answer them and by this Means to preserve the Quiet of his own Mind and yet give them a fair Occasion to reflect upon their own Mistakes Yet since you say that Zeal for the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Charity to Mens Souls especially those who may have conceived Prejudices from their Misrepresentations and to the Authors themselves in particular do require a more particular Application to these Writings I shall therefore freely and plainly tell my Sentiments of them with that Candour and Charity to the Persons concern'd that I hope they will take them for the Reproofs of a Friend and so count them better than the deceitful Kisses of Flatterers or the groundless Plaudites of unthinking Persons who are more taken with an Air of Confidence and a bold Way of Representing things than with Truth and Reality II. They who take upon them to write Narratives and to give the World Characters of the Sentiments Spirit and Writings of any Person as those two Authours do of A. B. the one in some Instances only the other more fully ought to have these Qualifications if they would do it aright 1. They ought throughly to be acquainted with the Writings and Sentiments before they can give a just and true Account of them things being cleared express'd and owned in one Place that are not so in another 2. They ought to consider the great Scope and Design of the Writer and the Means by which he prosecutes it and it both the one and the other be good and excellent to give his Words and Sentiments in other things as favourable an Interpretation as they will bear sutable to the main Scope and Substance of the Writings If they be Things wherein they have no Knowledge nor Experience they ought neither to judge nor censure them and if there be even Mistakes in lesser Things they ought not to aggravate nor ridicule them but to extenuate and cover them for the sake of the main things that are so excellent and praise-worthy This same Rule also is to be observed in â—udging of the Lives of Persons to consider the main Scope of them whether it be Time or Eternity and the Means by which they prosecute that great End and not rashly to judge or give a Character of them from some outward Actions which may be good or evil according to the inward Principle they proceed from 3. They ought to look upon the Sentiments and Actions they would judge of with a simple unprejudiced Eye otherwise they cannot judge aright they look in coloured Glasses and so deceive both themselves and others who listen to them 4. Narrators ought to be faithful and sincere not falsifying in the least nor singling out Pieces of Sentences or Purposes or some Circumstances of Actions studying thereby to blacken them and designedly concealing what would serve to clear and justifie them but faithfully and honestly narrating the whole III. Now I am sorry I must say that in this Affair those Authors have been greatly wanting as to these Requisites and so were very unfit for such an Undertaking 1. They were Strangers to the Life or Sentiments of A. B. the one neither knew nor had read any of her Writings but such as were done in English and the other had read few or none of them till he applied himself to confute them and tho' he never knew her himself will now Eighteen Years after her Death essay to blacken her by most horrid Imputations tho' her Innocence and Purity be sufficiently attested by Persons of unquestionable Credit and Integrity 2. In their Narratives they have neither regarded nor mentioned the great Scope of all her Writings which is to perswade Men to the Love of God and to convince them that they are estranged from it Nor the Means by which she prosecutes this End the leading Men to the Imitation of the Life of Jesus Christ in Mortifying their corrupt Nature and living a Life of Penitence And how she makes it appear they do it not Nor does the Doctor in the Character of her Life of represent the great Scope thereof the Travelling towards Eternity nor the Means she used in order thereto 3. It is visible That what they have read of her Writings has been with an evil Eye with a Design to carp at them to pick out such Expressions as might serve them to render her and her Writings hateful and ridiculous to the World They who compare their Narratives with her Writings will easily be convinc'd of this when they find them skipping over the most excellent Matters and fixing only upon such Things as they thought capable of being perverted and empoisoned by their false Turns and malicious Glosses while hundreds of indifferent Persons have acknowledged that they could not read any of her Writings without being touch'd with a serious Sense of Divine Things and that they see the practical Part of Christianity represented in them with a Clearness beyond any that is to be seen in most practical Writers And 4. It is no less evident that they have not been faithful and ingenuous but have either singled out some mangled Sentences concealing the Context that might clear them or tack'd together a Number of Passages of different Places to make them ridiculous or most untruly translated them of which I shall hereafter give some Instances IV. One would have thought that the Author of the Preface to the Snake in the Grass who exposes others for their furious spiteful and foul Language and gives a necessary Caution That in Answering his Book they should not after their usual Fashion carp at some Ward or Expression and neglect the whole Substance of the Matter and who had sufficient Caution given him
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
If God has declared in different Ages of the World that all Flesh has corrupted his Ways that there was none that did Good no not one that the good Man is perished out of the Earth and there is none Vpright among Men And at the same time there might have been some few who sought God with all their Hearts God's Saying was not to damn but to rescue from Damnation Why may not the same be now declared if the World be in as bad a State I am sure the Vncharitableness and Damning lies on the other side If any pleases to read the entire Passages out of which the Author has cull'd his half Sentences it is like they will have other Impressions of her Spirit than what he would give them She shews what is the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ And therefore says she I fear there shall be so few Souls at present saved because few or none follow indeed this Doctrine of Jesus Christ and there is nothing more true than that without doing this we cannot be saved as you also acknowledge It were better as she says for every on◠to search their own Hearts and to discover if they really possess the Qualities which the Spirit of Jesus Christ has than to dispute whether there be yet any True Christians upon Earth seeing this touches no Body in general but every one for himself ought to labour to become a true Christian without being so curious to know whether his Neighbour be so or not since though all the Men of the World were so and I were not this would avail me nothing The Design of such Words is not that we may nicely and critically quibble upon the Words but that we may impartially search our own Hearts and see what Truth there is in them as to our selves VIII One could hardly have imagined that the Author could have formed his fourth Accusation of her misrepresenting the Design and Import of the Gospel and founded it upon the Passages he cites She says the Design of the Gospel is to recover Men to the Love of God and that the Laws and the Life of Jesus Christ are the necessary means to that End She never understood it that all use of Riches was forbidden or that Riches without any more were an infallible Sign of not being a Christian but that we ought to be poor in Spirit even when we have Riches and if they prove an Impediment to that rather to abandon them than not to aspire to the other The first Passage the Author cites to prove his Charge is a Saying of hers when a Child of Four Years occasioned by the difference she then observed betwixt the Lives of them about her and the Character she had then learned of Jesus Christ which taking her own Sence of them do not in the least differ from the true Design and Import of the Gospel This says she is an Eternal Truth that the Spirit of God loves and desires nothing but things Eternal and the natural Spirit only loves and seeks after things Temporal This was clearly shewn me from my Childhood and therefore at the Age of Four Years I was desirous to go and find out the Country where the Christians lived reasoning with my little Judgment that those could not be True Christians who seek after or desire the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this World but that they ought only to seek after things Eternal In the other Place she is speaking against the excessive Pomp of the Church of Rome The Practice of those says she who are Members of Rome does sufficiently evidence to me That the Holy Spirit cannot be the Author of those things which are contrary to the Practice of Jesus Christ We see the Prelates attended with Servants and Coaches and Trains like to Secular Princes their Houses and Furniture do surpass them this the Author leaves out if they had Faith to believe that God being Man was poor and despised they would blush for Shame as all other Christians to make themselves thus to be honoured All which might have been said without so harsh a Censure from a Protestant Minister as that she had mistaken the whole Design and Import of the Gospel I thought still that to desire and love and make one self to be honoured had been Pride and Ambition as well as to desire Riches is Covetousness and that it had been inconsistent with the Spirit of the Gospel in Churchmen as well as in others Our Author in the next Impression of his Preface by his way of Reasoning may bring in our Saviour mistaking the Design of his own Gospel when he says Woe to you that are Rich how hard it is for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Woe to you that are full Woe to you that laugh Woe to you Pharisees for you love the uppermost Seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the Markets and to go in long Cloathing and to have the uppermost Rooms at Feasts he may as consequentially infer that the Rich and such as live Plentifully and make themselves to be honoured are acccording to Christ's Doctrine in a State of Damnation as that according to A. B's Doctrine all Prelates and all Christians who have Servants or Coaches or make themselves to be honoured do all run blindly to Damnation But if he can put such a Sence upon our Saviour's Words as is consistent with the Use of Riches and giving honour to whom it is due why may not he candidly construct her Words without inferring that she destroys all Relations among Men. The Author's Friend it seems hath no regard to Truth when he makes him inconsiderately publish so many Falshoods The Jesuits never cheated A. B. of any of her Estate she left not M. Poiret a Penny and he always was and still is as sound and sober in his Mind and Reason as the Author IX But the most grievous Accusation and that in which he most triumphs is the 5th that she miserably perverts the Doctrine of the Gospel falling in with the vile Socinian Heresies and even outdoing them and that she absolutely denies and disputes against any Satisfaction made by the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ From this her own Writings fully vindicate 〈◊〉 as is made appear in the Apology The Socinians its known deny the Foundation of all Merit in Jesus Christ his Divinity and Personal Union with the Godhead they deny the very saving Means and Remedies that flow from his Merits viz. the inward renewing and sanctifying Grace and Operations of Jesus Christ purifying the Soul they deny the Disease it self that needs these Remedies viz. the vast and unspeakable Corruption of our whole Natures both inward and outward derived upon us by Adam and greatly encreas'd by us All this A. B. utterly abhors and declares on the Contrary that Jesus Christ is true Eternal God and true Man that he is the Mediator between God and Man the Saviour and
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
and not him but her the last and highest Expression of God's Love to Mankind And that all her Words and Writings are Sacred as Scripture it self and ought to have the same Authority For these and such like Expressions he should have given us his Vouchers for the Places cited by him import no such thing but we are hopeful no impartial Reader will believe the Doctor in these upon his own bare Credit and Authority after the Sample he has given of his way of writing Narratives 5. It is against natural Equity as well as Christian Charity to draw hateful Consequences from or put Sences upon the Sayings and Writings of others which may load them with Reproach and Hatred Which the Sayings do not necessarily infer but are capable of a more benign Interpretation which are against their known Principles and openly and sincerely disclaimed by them But such is the Doctor 's way The Persons whom he traduces having a deep Sence of the Divine Truths of God and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ contain'd in the Writings and shining forth in the Life and Spirit of A. B. were perswaded that all who would peruse them with sincerity and simplicity of Heart would find great Profit to their Souls and therefore they recommended them with much concern to others but were far from intending to affirm those things to which the Doctor perverts their Words or the odious Consequences which he widely draws from them As that A. B. is the greatest that ever was born of a Woman above all the ancient Patriarchs to be preferred to Moses and the Prophets to John the Baptist and the Apostles and at least ought to be honoured equally with Jesus Christ who is said to be God Blessed for ever that she was as much without Sin as he and her Body of a better Frame That it is a clear Consequence from what they say That she must either have always been personally united to the Deity and so to be esteemed God-Woman or else that her Body and humane Nature were not real but a meer Phantome by which God was pleased to declare his Will to Man That all her Words and Writings are of the same Authority with the Sacred Scriptures That there ought to be a Commemoration of her in the publick Liturgies as well as of our Lord Jesus Christ and instead of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ now we should say the God of A. B. and the Spirit that spoke by her The Persons cited by the Doctor do abhor such Consequences their Words compared with the rest of their Writings will not bear them And in the Sence he puts on them they disclaim them as none of theirs Every Body can best explain their own Sense and Meaning and what is apt to be misunderstood in one Place Equity requires that we interpret it by another where a Man does more distinctly express and explain his Mind in relation to that very thing The Doctor knows how M. Poiret vindicates himself in his Answer to M. Juricu's Critique of him M. Jurieu says he is offended that I have an Esteem for A. B. tho' I have less Attachment to her than he has to Calvin and many of his Hearers have to him I have never regarded through all but the Wisdom and Truth of God and it was always indifferent to me by what means God would make it known to me by a Man or a Woman by one Learned or Unlearned by a Catholick a Calvinist a Lutheran c. I will approach to it not because of the Organ that God makes use of but because of the Truth that he communicates thereby It would be ridiculous to insult over a Person of Sense who goes to a Fountain as if he went thither out of Love to the Wooden Pipe Yet as to me this is the admirable Procedure of M. Juriâ—u c. Thus M. Poiret clears himself in his Answer to M. Jurieu and if the Doctor will accept of it I shall give him his Vindication of himself in a Letter to a Friend upon Occasion of the Doctor 's First Narrative As saith he I never recommended Mrs. A. B. for any oâ—her Reason but because she proposes the Doctrine of Jesus Christ with all Clearness and Purity and draws Souls to none but to him so it is against Truth and Equity what the Narrator says of me in Opposition to St. Paul who desired to know nothing but Jesus Christ Crucified that I it seemed desired to know nothing but M. A. B. To recommend an INstrument that leads to none but Jesus Christ is that to recommend this Instrument in Opposition to Christ or to him who recommends none but Christ By this Reasoning neither Saint 〈◊〉 nor any other ought to be recommended Beâ—â—â— I have published many Books wherein I have not 〈…〉 one Word of her as usually I do not speak of 〈…〉 any unless they speak of her to me first and 〈…〉 I gave of her were extorted by the 〈…〉 Slanders and Persecutions of her Adversaries 〈…〉 was very far from exalting her above Jesus 〈…〉 as he would insinuate against the Truth but sincâ— I saw that good Souls might be deprived of that sâ—ving Profit which they would reap from her Writings if they were diverted from them by the Evil Impressions of Defamers I only aimed simply to bring them to an even Ballance by this Consideration that there are other Persons convinced that she M. A. B. was quite another Person than she is represented to have been by her Defamers who never conversed with her â—â—ver knew her and whose Character of her while they decry one who had no other Design but to recommend the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is contrary to Righteousness and Charity Whereas the recommending of such Persons and the interpreting Candidly all they say is by St. Paul ascribed to Charity And as for any Personal Attachment to Mrs. A. B. I am so free from it as I have already publickly declared That if the Universal Defamation of her might serve to advance the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men I should be well pleas'd that she were calumniated every where without Reply Thus for M. Poiret XXI After the Doctor has patch'd up her Character and given his Comment upon it he is at great pains Artticle XII to prove that which no Body denies viz. That we ought not to receive A. B. as so highly dignified of God and her Scheme of Religion and System of Opinions as divine and absolutely necessary to be followed upon the bare Authority and Testimony of those Men whom he had formerly quoted For as to the embracing her System of Opinions as absolutely necessary they do not require any such thing A. B. her self does expresly declare That she does not require any to believe the Truths she writes because she says they are revealed to her by the Spirit of God but to examine if they be not the Truths
the Judgment of others who think well of them that there are many things in them which appear unto us wild and uninrelligible God may reveal things under most mysterious Figures altogether dark and hidden from us and yet before the Consummation of all things may make them plain and evident as we see in Ezekiel Daniel and the Revelations We must not therefore despise them because we have unquestionable Evidences of those Persons their being inspired by the Spirit of God So rather than with the Doctor to speak Evil of the things which I do not know I will conclude Quae intellexi optima sunt puto item quae non intellexi XXX I have detained you so long upon the Doctor 's first Narrative that I shall need to say little of the second for what answers the first serves for an Answer to the second also where he has done nothing toward the satisfying Peoples Expectations which he rais'd by his big Promises I shall let it pass with three or four Remarks only 1. He continues still to give false Representations of her It is not true that she pretends to a Sanctity above the Prophets or the Apostoles a Sanctity next to that of God nor to a comprehensive Knowledge Natural and Divine and all manner of speculative Truths nor to the Knowledge of all matters of Fact at what distance of Time and Place or how secret sover nor that she contradicts her self as if she asserted sometimes that both the Divine Truths which she declares and all the Words by which she utters them were inspired by the Spirit of God and sometimes the first only nor that she makes Jesus Christ a Type of her nor that she is the Mother of all that shall be converted unto God her Sayings import no such thing when they are considered without Prejudice in her own Writings as is made appear already 2. Notwithstanding of the Narrator's great Sincerity and that he intends to set down her own Pretences in her own Words without adding to or diminishing from or curtailing any Passage which may be necessary to qualifie the Meaning of them yet so earnest is he to make her odious that he forgets himselfe and either by truly curtailing the Passages or by his Comments on them he makes her speak quite otherwise than she intended So that they who would not judge rashly may please to read them in her own Writings without the Doctor 's Curtailings and Glosses Thus as to his false Glosses when he says My Thoughts Words and Actions must have the Three Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth else I should be as a sounding Brass c. Does this infer that she arrogates to her self a Sanctity above the Prophets and Apostles and next to God himself Souls truly regenerate are Partakers of the Divine Nature Christ lives in them Piety cannot be true as he himself grants without a Perfection of Parts tho' not of Degrees without an Universal Conformity to the Will of God so that their Thoughts Words and Actions must be both Just Good and True now as one Star differs from another in Glory so do regenerate Souls Her Words then imply no more but that God had truly renewed and regenerated her by his Holy Spirit and not that she exceeded all others in Sanctity as his malicious Gloss would have it Thus when she says I do not remember I ever committed any Faults but when I believed the Counsel of Men. It is far from her Meaning that she was born without Sin or that Original Corruption was perfectly cured in her as appears by all her Writings and by that very Place cited but that as Plants and Trees seem all Dead and without Life in the Winter-Season till the warm Spring make them all bud anew and discover the Life and Spirit that was in the Root so Mens natural Corruption which seems dead and mortified is awakened and exerts it self according to the diffirent outward Occasions conformable to the Variety and Difference of People's Inclinations and that this was her weak side by which her Self-love and Vanity did exert it self Again when she gives a convincing Reason for what she says or speaks of her self with the greatest Humility or limits general Sayings so as to confine them to her true Sense and Meaning all this he very cautiously keeps out and conceals as appears in the Citations out of the Light of the World in the 9 11 17 20 and 21st p. of the Narrative Thus where she wonderfully Illustrates how the Holy Spirit communicates to pure Souls such a comprehensive Divine Light and Knowledge as cannot be express'd by many Words the Doctor industriously skips it over and joins the foregoing and following Senâ—ences together I have need says she to express my self by humane Reasons and Comparisons because otherwise they could not understand me for the Holy Spirit speaks so succinctly that one Word makes me comprehend many things He gives Subtility to the Understanding to conceive great things by one of his small Motions It is just as if one were in a fine Room well adorned with Variety of Furniture and Rarities but there were no Light in it whereby to see all these things In such a Case it would need a great many Words to make him who had never seen them understand in particular all the fine Things and Furniture that were in the Room telling him here be such and such Pictures such Tables such Seats and such like things and yet we could not make him comprehend well the Beauty of this Furniture and Rarities But if a Light were brought into the Room tho' it were but that of a Candle in a Moment it would give more Knowledge of all the things that are in the Room than all the Discourses that were uttered to make them known So it is with the Light of the Holy Spirit when it enters into a Soul it makes it know and comprehend all things very clearly Nevertheless these things cannot be seen by Souls who are yet in the Darkness and Obscurity of their own Passions many Words and Discourses must be used to make them understand the Rarities that are in the Works of God So far A. B. All this is left out by the Doctor except only the first and last two Lines the rest did not serve his turn he design'd to confound and darken all and they gave too distinct and convincing a Light They who shall be pleased to peruse that whole Conference will see how little Ground there is for his scurrilous â—ests if we consider the thing in Thesi without relation to A. B. that when the Spirit of God does immediately enlighten a Soul he does not endite all the precise Words that it ought to make use of in explaining that Light and Truth to others only that he brings along with him the Gift of Wisdom to express it self so as to make the Divine Truths to be understood It cannot be mistaken
then as to the Substance and Essence of the Truths tho' it may be as to Faults of Speech through its own Weakness and Ignorance which Faults come from it self and not from the Holy Spirit And yet it is not the Will of God that it should be taken up about the Correcting of these Faults both because this would divert its immediate Attention from God and make it lose the Divine Light and withal his immediate Force and Power is seen in its Weakness Again in the 17th p. of his Narrative when he cites a part of this 18th Conference of the 2d Part of the Light of the World to prove that she pretended to know all matters of Fact whatsoever he leaves out that which serves to qualifie the Meaning of it All that is needful in this says she is to disingage our Soul from earthly Affections and to resign it to the Will of God then he goâ—verns and illuminates it in such sort as that it cannot be ignorant of any thing that it ought to know For as for simple Curiosities we ought never to ask or desire them but only that which is well-pleasing to God or profitable to our Neighbours the Knowledge of which things God does not deny to Souls who are faithfully dedicated to him Thus the Spirit of God made known to Peter the matter of Fact of Ananias and Saphira and to Elijah that of Gheazi where is there Occasion from this for all the Narrators idle Jests in the 19th and 20th p. of the Narrative 3. The Doctor starts a great many Questions upon a false Supposition p. 31. it being already told in the English Preface to the Light of the World that not M. de Cort but M. A. B. did write all the Conferences of the Light of the World which are now published 4. I am sorry that he seems to have drunk in the Hetetodox Sentiments of his new Friends and to declare himself so much Pelagian as to deny all kind of Vnion betwixt a regenerate Soul and God For one of the Articles of his Impeachment of A. B. seems to import no less for he accuses her because she asserts that there was some kind of Union betwixt her and God and that he dwelt with her in some ineffable and incomprehensible manner I thought that all God's Woorks had been incomprehensible and that if he dwell in any Soul it is in an ineffable manner And Jesus had said if any Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our Abode with him and St. Paul declares that Christ lived in him and that if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his I thought all this did import some kind of Union betwixt a regenerate Soul and God If any will please to read the half Sentence if you knew me you should also know God in the Original it self they will see how far she is from his Insinuations of Parallelling her self with Jesus Christ or making her self equal with God If says she I should say things contrary to the Gospel do not believe me For you ought not to believe any thing because I say it to you but only 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 The Doctor wilfully mistakes her Meaning in the other Passage he cites Light of the World Part 2. Conference 17. p. 128 129 and keeps out of the midst of it that which clears it most She makes not a Distinction betwixt a Doctrine as from of a prophetical Spirit and as immediately from God as he would insinuate but that what God thought fit to declare more darkly by the Prophets now about the time of their Accomplishment he declares them more manifestly with such Clearness and Reasons as bring along with them their own Evidence And that he communicates now a Light not of prophecying things to come but of shewing the approaching and present Accomplishment of what has been foretold already The Prophecies says she of the Antient Prophets will all of them very shortly be fulfilled there is no need of any longer having obscure Prophecies because we are fallen into the last Times wherein all the Prophecies shall cease and we shall see them all entirely accomplished and we shall not receive any more new ones because the King of all the Prophets will himself govern his People and will give an entire Accomplishment to all that has been prophesied of him so tho' Sir you shall not need to say that you hold these Truths from a Prophet because the Work does always bear witness who the Workman has been Thus A. B. in the midst of the Passage which the Doctor has cited No doubt when the Doctor began this Narrative he resolved to be Ingenuous and to curtail no Passage that might qualifie her Meaning But when he writes against A. B. it will not do with him Naturam expellas furcâ licet usque recurret 5. M. Poiret being still alive the Narrator should have dealt by him as a prudent Man and a Christian Pastor he should have pleased to tell him his Fault and endeavour'd to restore him in the Spirit of Meekness if there were any Defects and Errors I am perswaded he would have found him easily convinced of them for he is none of the crack'd whimsical bigotted Heterodox and Blasphemous Fouls which he and his Friend represent him to be He is a Protestant Minister whom Providence has discharged from the exercising of his Office by the Dissolution of his Congregation through the Miseries of Wars he has a sound Mind a solid Head a clear Understanding a penetrating Reason and Judgement a cheerful Temper and a sincere Mind He is not wedded to any Party or Person farther than they are united to the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus he values the Writings of A. B. because they contain the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ rescued from the false Glosses of corrupt Nature and because her Life and Spirit were conformable to her Writings he most firmly believes and adheres to all the Articles of the Christian Faith and labours to have them transcribed in his Heart and Life and values no other Sentiments nor Reasonings but as they tend to promote the Interests of Christ's Gospel The unjust and unaccountable Representations given of him by the Narrator and his Friend have made me give you this Character of him and that this is a true one his Writings are irrefragable Evidence which whosoever disparages betrays only the wrong set of his own Heart and Understanding As for that Letter which has given Occasion to the Doctor 's hasty Excommunication of him and made him inconsiderately rank him with Mahomet Ebion
and Corinthus it ought to be considered 1. That it was in a manner extorted from him by one who some time before had gone over to the Church of Rome and because his Change was disaproved by A. B. being enraged at her endeavour'd to divert well-meaning Persons from hearkning to the Truths of the Gospel contain'd in her Writings because it was not foretold in the Holy Scriptures that God would communicate his Graces to a Woman for the Renovation of his Gospel Spirit M. Poiret upon this Occasion applied himself to shew both the Absurdity and Falseness of the Exception which otherways it may be would never have entered into his Mind 2. That the Doctor here again falls into his ordinary Method of connecting very distinct Passages together and leaving out that which would put them into a right Light as is evident from the Letter it self and falsly translating some part of it as that Adam some time after his Creation had brutal Inclinations for there is no such Expression there 3. That M. P. considers the thing only in Thesi what Evidences the Scriptures give of God's purpose and design to make Womankind the Instrument of his Light and Spirit to the World when the other Sex Man through his Pride and Wisdom had rendred himself uncapable of it 4. That if the Narrator had been so just as to have shewn the Principles upon which M. Poiret proceeded I am sure no candid Reader would have subscribed the Doctor 's Sentence They are to be gather'd from Temoign des S. Ecrit That God is resolute in all his designs and will at last bring them to pass The counsel of the Lord stands for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations That God made Man for true Happiness in the Enjoyment of his God and that he persists in this design through all Generations That Adam beginning soon after his Creation to turn away from God to the Creatures God to prevent his total Fall resolved to give him a Help-meet for him a Woman in whom the divine Image should shine that his Soul might be thereby raised unto God That this first Eve thwarting his design by turning Man farther away from God yet he still persisted in his design resolving to put his divine Image in a Woman and by her as by a second Eve to reduce the Generality of Mankind and that accordingly he gives the Promise of the Enmity between the Seed of the Woman and that of the Serpent Gen 3. 15. That Jesus Christ coming in the Flesh is pointed out in this Prophecy by these words I will put for it is he who speaks in a glorious Body and shews that he will be the Source of the Enmity against the Devil and Sin that is the Author of Grace Sanctification and all divine Strength and Virtue that we need against the Enemy That the Serpent's Head not being yet bruised Jesus Christ must be supposed farther to fulfill this Prophecy by making a Woman his Organ or Instrument for exciting again and promoting among Men this Enmity against the Devil c. Now what is there in all this that deserves Excommunication as a Blasphemer and a vile Heretick not worthy to live Blasphemy is to speak Evil of God and Heresy pertinaciouslâ— to teach that which turns away from the Love of God and this is very far from either 5. The Doctor ought to treat others with Meekness and Charity and Equity lest he himself be tempted and fall into the same Condemnation with which he unjustly reproaches others When he considers the Reasons why God was pleased to permit Sin which is so disagreeable to himself and so pernicious to his Creatures he tells us God has not concealed from us the Reason of this Conduct his own Glory is the End of all and by Sin his Glory is exceedingly manifested As he manifested the Omnipotency of his Power by creating many things out of nothing so he demonstrates the infinity and vast wonderful reach of his Wisdom in that he can bring Good out of Evil. How could we have known God's wonderful Patience his Meekness Long suffering and Forbearance and his strict and severe Justice in distinguishing the merits of Persons and Things if Sin had not entred into the World What adorable Instances of Love Mercy and Goodness would have been wanting if Sin had not given occasion for them If Sin had not happened where would there have been place for the Mercy of God Who would have dream'd of the stupendious Love of God towards Mankind It might have been suspected without Sin that God and all other things were under some inevitable Fate but now it appears that he is free that he can do what he pleases and that all things are managed by his Wisdom If the Revelation of the Gospel be admitted God has had more Honour and been more glorified by the Fall of Angels and the Sin of Man than by the Creation of the World I have staid long says he upon this but it is pardonable seeing the importance and intricacy of the Subject required it and seeing some have written Volumes upon this alone which very few have cleared to Satisfaction And the sum you see of the Doctor 's Resolution is That God decreed and resolved to permit Sin and Wickedness in the World because by his way of managing it it would tend most to his Glory and his Perfections and Attributes would not have been so conspicuous without it Father forgive him for he knows not what he says I doubt not but the Doctor has written all this with a good Intention but upon the matter it is Blasphemy with a Witness and a very unfit Resolution for convincing of the Atheists and Deists Non ipsa peccata saith St. Augustin vel ipsa miseria perfectioni universitatis sunt necessaria sed animae in quantum animae sunt quae si velint peccant si peccaverint miserae fiunt A. B 's Writings which the Doctor so much despises do clear the Mysteries of Providence far more to the Honour and Glory of all the divine Attributes and to the Conviction of our Reason as many who do read them without prejudice are fully perswaded 6. But to return to the Narrative as to what he says of a Parallel drawn up by A. B. betwixt her and Jesus Christ his Misrepresentations and Mistakes lie in this That she calls it a Comparison not a Parallel there being a great difference between these two In how many publick Sermons have the Sufferings and Virtues of King Charles the Martyr been compared with those of his Master Jesus Christ Will it be said that the Preachers intended to make a Parallel betwixt them or to make Jesus Christ the Type of him 2. The Comparison is between the second Birth of Jesus Christ or the renewing of the Church and his first Birth and not betwixt him and A. B. He may speak as she says out of a Bush or out of an
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
they will not be reduced from their supposed Errors by Noise and Banter All to the best of my Understanding that A. B. pretends to is only to be an Instrument in Christ's Hands and that no otherwise than by publishing these Truths that he by his Spirit communicated to her and which his Power and Grace alone was afterwards to make effectual Now let it be supposed but not granted that it was so What Disparagement is it to our Redeemer to make use of a poor contemptible Creature in order to accomplish great Designs Was it any Dishonour to him that his Apostles in his Name and Power converted more to the Christian Religion and wrought more Miracles than he did himself when he dwelt in mortal Flesh V. Perhaps it may be thought I am byassed in Favours of A. B. and therefore not so capable to discern that Latet Anguis in Herba I am sure if I am so my Prejudices are of no old Date they are not yet so rooted but sober and just Reasonings might discuss them and reclaim me from my Mistakes neither I think can it be said that they have been fortified from any prospect of Reputation or worldly Interest But whatever my Prejudices may be I can sincerely declare that what determined me to have an Esteem for this Person 's Writings was a Conviction that they not only recommended the great and essential Duties of the Gospel distinguished them from the Accessories discovered the Mischief of Sects and Parties and the Vanity of laying Stress on nice and airy Speculations but also because they suggested solid Principles which might serve as an Antidote against the Infusions of Atheists and Deists Pelagians and Socinians Antinomians and Fatalists and false Pretences to Inspiration And tho' I met with some things in them that seem'd a little odd and startling yet I choosed rather to suspend my Judgment since even her self does not impose them on any than forego what appear'd to me so very solid and useful Some LETTERS OF M. ANT. BOVRIGNON Whereby her True Christian Spirit and Sentiments are farther justified and vindicated particularly as to the Doctrine of the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ as is to be seen in the Third and Fourth Letters All of them are most worthy to be perused by those who sincerely love and impartially seek after the Truth and the Salvation of their Souls LETTER I. Concerning the Love of God Written to a Pastor at Mechlin and is the 15th of La lum nec en tenebr Part I. SIR I. I Know not how one of sound Judgment can love any other thing but God seeing there is no created thing that is worthy of our Love as he is being the Fountain of all Good Wisdom the Giver of all Wisdom the Beauty that creates all Beauty the Righteousness of the Righteous the Goodness of all Goodness the Accomplishment of all Perfections in short the only Object worthy of our Love without whom nothing is Lovely neither in Heaven nor in Earth Nothing without him can satisfie our Soul nothing can content it nothing can give it Perfect Pleasure nothing can make it happy neither now nor hereafter It is he who created us it is he who preserves us it is he who will judge us If Good of its own Nature is always Lovely why then does not the Soul employ all its Powers to love the Original the Perfection and the Consummation of all Good which is God II. If Likeness beget Love how can your Soul which was made after the Similitude of God live without loving him What other Lovely Object can it find without God whom only it resembles What Original or Pattern is there among all perishing Things to this Divine and Immortal Soul which cannot find its like but in God himself III. If Benefits do oblige even Nature it self to love its Benefactors how ought the Soul to love its God when he has given it all that it posseseth and has promised infinite and eternal Goods beyond Comparison in the Life to come He has given the Soul which he created of nothing He not only made it after the Similitude of the Angels of Heaven but after the likeness of God himself so that all Souls are by Creation made little Gods Could this God of Love give unto Man greater Goods and Gifts to make himself be loved by him than this Divine Creation of his Soul Immortal as himself The Body which he formed to be the Keeper and Sheath of this Soul could it have more Perfections Is there any thing in Nature more Admirable than the Body of Man animated with all the Powers of the Soul with an Understanding to conceive with a Memory to remember with a Will to act so that the very Body is in some manner an Image or Resemblance of the HOLY TRINITY IV. Could God give unto Man more and greater Gifts than he has done to oblige him to love him For after having given him a Being and Life he upholds and maintains it with all necessary things which he has likewise created for the Entertainment of this Man to whom he has subjected so many Creatures under his Power having made him Superiour over all the living Creatures and given him Authority as the Master-piece of the Works of God the Earth for his Foot-stool the Air to breath in the Fire to warm him the Water to refresh him the Fruits to nourish him the Flowers to recreate him in short all the visible and material things that God created were only for the Body of Man What must he have laid up for his Soul which is beyond all Comparison more valuable as being Divine created after the Image of God If he has made so many admirable Things for the entertainment of the Body which must die and remain for so short a time upon Earth Should not all those Gifts all those Benefits oblige Man to love such a Benefactor Seeing he has not received and can never receive any true Good without this Giver of all Good V. How can he be without loving him when he considers his Love which was not satisfied with having freely imparted unto us so many Gifts but after that this ungrateful Man had abused so many favours by turning away from his Creator to join himself to the Creature valuing the Gifts more than the Giver presuming to merit yet more he rebels against his Orders will needs out of Ambition of Spirit know more than it pleas'd his Creator and breaks his Commandment that he might equal himself unto him This God of Love who in a Moment could have punished all these Ingratitudes by an eternal Damnation unto which he had banish'd the fallen Angels lov'd Man more than the Angels and having more regard to the Love he bear him than to his Disobedience he pardons his Sin and forgives his Fault upon Condition of a temporal Penitence VI. This Testimony of Affection from a God towards his Creature
to it by his Free-will So that if one at present did submit his Will to that of God as Jesus Christ did he would certainly feel the same Operations of Divine Vertues that he felt in his Soul and would likewise do the outward Miracles that he did if there were need for them for the Spirit of God is not lessened and his Power was not limited to the Person of Jesus Christ only seeing he says that his Delight is to be with the Children of Men. He does not speak of one singular Man but of all Men who submit their Wills to his and renounce the Corruption of the old Adam to be cloathed with the new which is Jesus Christ 11. Those will find sufficiently by Experience that it is very possible to imitate Jesus Christ yea that it is easie and agreeable when they are denuded of that old Adam For Jesus Christ himself says that his Yoke is easie and his Burthen light This Truth it self cannot lye that it should be true that it is impossible to bear this Yoke But carnal Persons do certainly lye while they say that it is impossible to imitate him since he did nothing as Man but that which another Man may do being posses'd with the Holy Spirit for Gâ—d is impassible and cannot have endur'd the Sufferings of 〈◊〉 Christ It was his Humanity only that suffered assiâ—â— by the Grace of God which will not be denied to thoâ—â— that ask it seeing God is the common Father of all Men and promises to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask it His Promises are infallible the Scripture assures us of this saying Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my Words shall not pass away bringing the Comparison of an evil Father who would not give his Son a Stone instead of Bread nor a Serpent for a high Fish asking them How then shall not your heaâ—â—â— Father give his Holy Spirit to him who asks him 12. Truly my dear Child I can scarce reason more to make appear those Truths which are so clear I have spoken of them several times and they still bring me new Arguments to maintain the Corruption of our miserable Times wherein Men have invented so much silly Stuff whereby to flatter such as themselves and to make them live and die in the Sentiments of corrupt Nature falsly perswading them that they cannot attain to the Perfection of Jesus Christ that they may not use any Endeavours to attain to it for it would be in vain to endeavour that which is impossible Therefore we see Men to the Eâ—â—y of one another give up themselves to Pastimes take their Pleasures and heap up Riches as if they were created for this looking for Salvation as it were in Recompence for their Sins Which is very sad and will make many to be deceiv'd at Death who in this Life think that they are good Christians because they have not committed the gross Sins of Theft Whoredom or Drunkenness and have frequented Churches and Sacraments prayer much and given much Alms All this will avail nothing before God if we are not animated with the Spirit of Jesus Christ 13. For God will know no Men but those who at Death shall be cloathed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is Charitable Humble poor in Spirit in short adorned with all his Vertues and to be a Christian one must imitate him as he himself has said For his Doctrine is not a History to be read or heard out of Curiosity but is all Lessons which we must retain to put them in practice else we shall falsly bear the Name of Christian which signifies no other thing but a Person dead to the Flesh to live unto the Spirit or one who has renounced the Corruption of the old Adam to live renewed into the Spirit of Jesus Christ 14. It is far more safe to believe that Jesus Christ by his Death and Sufferings has merited for us the Grace of dying to our selves that we may live unto him than to believe that he has satisfied all for us while we rest upon this false Pillow abiding in the Sentiments of our Nature eating drinking and doing all other things according to our Sensualities This is the broad Way that leads to Peâ—dition and many there are who walk in it but you my dear Child take the narrow Way that leads to Life even tho' there be few that walk in it Every one will bear his own Burthen If your Friends will not walk in it leave them rather than follow them seeing Jesus Christ says that we must can off the Member or pluck out the Eye that offends us and that he who leaves not Father and Mother Wife and Children for his Names sake is not worthy of him I do not require of you the Perfection that Jesus Christ had but that you tend to it and aspire after it as much as is possible for you In doing of which you will oblige her to love you who subscribes her self Yours wholly in God Antho. Bourignon Amsterdam July 1â—th 1670. LETTER IV. That God does not pardon Sin without Penitence To the same Wherein is declared that Men fall every Day of new into Adam's Sin turning away from God to love the Creature and that they can never be saved without being revived into the Spirit of Jesus Christ who has merited for us the Grace to imitate him This Letter is the Eighth of La lum nèe en tenebr Part iii. My dear Child 1. I Wonder how it is possible that your Friends should say that I reject the Merits of Jesus Christ and that I do not look upon them as the Means of our Salvation seeing that I do not look for Salvation for my self but by the Merits of Jesus Christ who came into the World to redeem us after that we had been all lost by Sin and by it sold and delivered up into the Power of the Devil 2. For Sin is no other thing but a turning away from God to turn towards the Creature The Angels did first thus turn away when they saw themselves so Beautiful and so Perfect they were pleased in themselves desiring to be like unto God And thus they became Devils Enemies of God and of all his Works looking on them with Envy and Jealousie labouring as much as was possible to destroy and corrupt them Therefore the Devil tempted Man as soon as he perceived his Creation that he might hinder the Designs which God had of taking his Delight with him and Man by the Instinct of the Devil turn'd away from his God to regard the Creatures in regarding of which he coveted and lov'd them against the Prohibition of his God thus withdrawing himself by his Will to cleave to the Satisfaction of his humane Nature which we do yet daily 3. And this turning away from God is call'd Sin which brought forth Death to the Soul of Adam and to all Men in him seeing Adam had in his Loins all the Men that are
these Stones with the same Spite against the Fellow Workmen and Fellow Stones which possest themselves and with great Fury should throw them at them and dash them to pieces against each other and so render them unfit for ever entring into the Building This would certainly be such a Babel as that nothing could exceed it The Parable is so plain it needs no Explication 10. To make appear that we have glossed away the Laws and Doctrines of Jesus Christ by our Explications of them as much as the Scribes and Pharisees did Mâ—ses's Law by their Traditions we need but consider that as the Pharisees tho' they retained still the Letter of the Law and were very zealous for it yet their Lives were contrary to it but they could so gloss and interpret it as to reconcile it to their Practice Even so tho' the Lives of Christians be in a far greater Contradiction to the Laws of Jesus Christ and they retain and honour the Letter of them still yet they have learned so to gloss and interpret them as to reconcile their Life with the Hopes of Heaven and the Favour of God and their Belief of their being Good Christians For if they had not put false Glosses on the Doctrine of Jesus Christ there is no Christian who desires to be saved that would live as they do at present for every one would see that he could not be sav'd after this manner and that the Lives of Christians now are quite contrary to those of the Primitive Church and the Institution of Jesus Christ His Words are plain and simple they need no Glosses He tells his Disciples they must not lay up Treasures upon Earth they must renounce all they Possess they must be poor in Spirit take the last Place and deny themselves Now if they employ all their Life in getting and keeping of worldly Goods if they seek after Places and Honours take their Delights and Ease follow their honest Inclinations and please themselves their Life would seem a plain Contradiction to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but we have learned to Gloss so as to reconcile them It is but the Love of all these that Jesus Christ forbids and we are ready to make our selves believe that our Hearts are not set upon them as if the Bent of a Man's Desires and Pursuit could be towards a thing all his Life-time and his Heart not set upon it Jesus Christ knows well our Weakness and Frailty that we cannot be immers'd in worldly things without loving them more than the Body can lie in Snow without being chill'd by it and that we know not how much our Heart is glew'd to a thing till we be separated from it which is the mean also to wean our Hearts and therefore that we might not put false Glosses on his Doctrine he has explained it by his own Life he himself lived in perfect Poverty Contempt and Affliction was Poor as to Wealth Friends Honour Reputation Learning Greatness denied himself in every thing that we Love and Value and embraced the things that we abhor and dread But this we say was as our Redeemer to suffer and satisfie the Justice of God for our Sins and to merit for us Mercy and Pardon It was so but withal it was to give us an Example that we should follow his Steps His whole Life and Death was a continual Sacrifice to God renouncing all things that sensible Nature takes Pleasure in that we might learn from him how to make thus a continual Sacrifice of our Will and Desires and Satisfaction to God Oh! but we think he knows our Frailty and that we cannot do this and we rejoice that he has suffered thus for us and we hope in his Merits for Mercy and Salvation There is no Salvation indeed but by his Merits but they are apply'd only to those who follow his Example for he tells us none can come after him but they who deny themselves and take up their Cross and follow him and he lived after this manner that he might merit Grace for us to follow his Example so that we have no True Faith in his Merits when we think this impracticable But we have another Gloss yet whereby to indulge and gratifie corrupt Nature Jesus Christ lived after this manner not that we should live a Life actually strip'd of all worldly things that gratifie Nature and Self as his was but to teach us to be as poor of them in Spirit If we have them outwardly in Possession not to have our Hearts set on them and if we be deprived of them to be contented and resigned to the Will of God Indeed Poverty of Spirit is that in which Jesus Christ would have us mainly to follow him and if we be poor in Spirit in the midst of the greatest Abundance we are truly his Disciples But he that is poor in Heart seeks not for Wealth nor Pleasures nor Honours and if he have them they are a charge and burden to him and he takes no more of them for himself than simply serves the Necessities of Nature and that of the least and meanest rather than the best and choicest But the reason why Jesus Christ has given us such an Example and counselled us to follow it is because of our Weakness and Frailty If we can be poor in Spirit in the midst of the greatest Abundance there is no hazard of Wealth no need to abandon it but our Lord knew how hard it was for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He himself could have remained poor in Spirit in the greatest Affluence of worldly things but he knew it was impossible for us to do so too and therefore in Consideration of our Frailty and to give us an Example he came into the World strip'd of all that pleases and gratifies corrupt Nature that he might teach us the safest and surest way to mortifie our Love to the World and to our selves and to become poor in Spirit And that all our Glosses and Explications on this Doctrine and Life of Jesus Christ are false appears by the Fruits of them in our Hearts and Lives 11. That the Reign of Antichrist prevails in the World at present few Protestants do deny that his Empire is more Universal than is generally believed appears from this that the Devil being properly the Antichrist by counter-acting the Designs of Jesus Christ under a Cover of his Religion and being for him and by infusing his Nature and Qualities into Men he has accordingly instead of the Divine Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth with which Jesus Christ came to inspire all his Disciples he has I say shed among the Professors of Christianity his contrary Evil Qualities of Injustice Malice and Hypocrisie under a Cover of Masses Communions Prayers Preachings and the other outward Forms of Christianity This is too evident a Truth to be denied And under this Cover keeps Men in a vain Amusement and makes
considered with the same Spirit that dictates them at least with a single Eye for to an evil Eye they look as the Cloud which guided the Israelites did appear to the Egyptians tho' it was all Light to the first yet to the last it was all Darkness and Confusion XXIV 6. It is farther objected If these Communications are from God how comes it that they have not their Accomplishment according as it was promâ—s'd to her The Apostle foretold that in the last Days there should come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were since the Beginning of the Creation For the removal of this Prejudice there is adduc'd an excellent Passage of a Devout Author which I shall transcribe here likewise since it gives so great Light in this Matter The Visions and Words of God says that Author tho' they are always true and certain in themselves yet are not always so after our way of understanding them and that for Two Reasons the one proceeds from the Imperfection of our way of understanding them and the other from the Reasons and Grounds upon which the divine Words and Visions are establish'd for oft-times they are Comminations and of a conditional Nature or Condition for Example that such shall amend such a thing shall be done tho' nevertheless the divine Word to take it in the Letter is absolute and does not express this Condition These two things I prove by Authorities of Holy Scripture First it is evident that the Word of God is not always and does not always come to pass after our way of understanding it because of the weakness and imperfection of our Understanding For God being Immense and Profound it is no wonder that in his Words and Revelations there is ordinarily a sense and meaning far beyond our common way of conceiving them and which shall be so much the more true and certain in themselves the less probability and certainty they seem to us to have We find very often in the Scripture that the Ancients found many of the Divine Words and Prophecies to fall out quite otherwise than they conceiv'd and hop'd for after their gross way of understanding them For Example God said to Abraham after he had led him into the Land of the Canaanites I will give thee this Land Gen. 13. 15 17. and he often repeats this to him nevertheless Abraham waxed Old and God did not give it to him therefore when God said to him the same Words once again Abraham seeing no effect of them ask'd him Lord whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it Gen 15. 7 8. Then God made known to him that it was not his Person that should possess that Land but his Children and Posterity and that not till after 400 Years Abraham thereby understood that God's Promise was most true in it self because God giving it to his Children and that out of Love to him this was to give it to himself Abraham was therefore mistaken in his way of conceiving it and if he had acted at first according to his way of understanding that Promise he might have really deceived himself the Promise not being expresly annext to that time And they who had seen Abraham die without possessing that Land after that God had promis'd it to him might have remain'd confounded and believed that it was false This also befell Jacob when Joseph made him come from Canaan to Egypt with all his House to save him from the general Famine God appear'd to him in the way and said to him Fear not Jacob go down into Egypt I will go with thee and I will surely bring thee up again Gen. 46. 3 4. Yet this came not to pass as we would have taken it after our way of conceiving things for we know Jacob died there It was in his Posterity that this was to be accomplish'd and it was long after that God brought back his Race Now he who had known whilst Jacob liv'd that God had made this Promise to him would without doubt have believ'd and thought that Jacob going down to Egypt in Life must by the Favour of God come out of it in Life also Yet he would have been mistaken and would have wonder'd to see him die in Egypt without seeing any Accomplishment of what he might have hoped for We may therefore be mistaken in the Words of God which yet are most true in themselves We read in the History of the Judges that all the Tribes of Israel being assembled to fight against Benjamin and to punish a Crime to which they had consented God having appointed who should fight first they were so perswaded of the Victory that having been defeated with the loss of 22000 of their Men they were greatly astonish'd at it and wept before the Lord till Midnight for they couldnot conceive how having look'd on the Victory as so certain they should be so greatly defeated And having ask'd if they should fight again And God having answered them Yes they reckon'd at this time the Victory to be altogether certain But being put to flight again with the loss of 18000 Men they were so amazed that they knew not what to think of it when they saw that with 40000 and withal the express Command of God they could not stand before 26000. But they were mistaken in their way of conceiving God's Word who would needs chastise and humble them by allowing them to fight yet without promising them the Victory except at the third time when they overcame but with much pains and a stratagem which they behov'd to make use of After this and many other ways it falls out that Souls deceive themselves as to the Revelations and Word of God taking it too literally God's main design when he speaks is to shew and give the Spirit which is contain'd and hid under these Words which Men after their way of conceiving do not so easily comprehend for it is much more ample than the Letter beyond its Bounds and Extraordinary So that whosoever will tie himself to the Letter of God's Word and to the Appearances of the divine Visions do what he will he cannot miss to be much mistaken and to come short of and be confounded as to the full and true meaning because he has followed his way of conceiving and has not given place to the Spirit emptying himself of his own Sentiment the Letter kills says St. Paul but the Spirit quickneth On this Occasion therefore we ought to loose our selves from the Letter and yield to a Faith which will make our Sentiments pass for Darkness For this Faith finds the Spirit which Sense cannot comprehend For this Cause the Sayings and Predictions of the Prophets did not succeed to many of the Children of Israel according to their Hope for they took them too much in the Letter and because they came not to pass as they
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ she would have Men take up the Spirit of the first Christians and let the good Seed of the Doctrine of the Gospel spring up in their Souls and not her Doctrine For she has no particular nor new Doctrine as to the Conduct of Mens Souls* and that when she adds any thing in her Writings that does not concern the Doctrine of the Gospel they ought to lay it aside till God give them a more clear Understanding of it And as to her Friend's Testimonies they were designed in some measure to ballance the bold and impudent Censures and Calumnies of her Enemies and to excite Men to examine and weigh her Writings impartially and not to suffer their Minds to be forestall'd by Prejudices or to judge rashly and inconsiâ—erately of things before they know them So the Doctor might have spared this Narrative and it may be all that is to follow for his only Business ought to have been to let the World see that what she calls the Doctrine of the Gospel and necessary to Salvation really iâ— not so or that her other Sentiments do destroy it for provided that Men be perswaded of the Truth of this that none can be saved without the Love of God and will follow the only way to come at this the mortifying corrupt Nature and following the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ she is content to undergo all reproach her self and that all her other Sentiments and Doctrines pass for Dreams and Romances If the Doctor say as he does in his Letter Artticle XV. that he finds nothing good in her Writings but what is common and handled in every Practical Treatise and the Subject of daily Sermons Well might not the Doctor have suffered her Books to pass among Practical Treatises and even to be preferred to most of them by such who see the Doctrine of Christ more clearly and purely represented in them than in others without the Glosses of corrupt Nature and feel a Divine Force Power and Spirit accompanying them who see in them the horrid Corruption of our Nature and of our Wills clearly laid before them the Christian Vertues most lively represented and most excellent Directions how to copy them out according to the great Original Jesus Christ XXII The other Part of the Doctor 's Narrative is spent in disproving the Reasons why A. B. is so much admired and said to be divinely inspired c. and I am sorry that his Passions or Prejudices do as much darken his Reason and with-hold him from candour and fair dealing here as in the former The Reasons which they bring are to be had more truly from her and their Writings and are set down in the Thrid Part of the Apology and some of those mentioned by the Doctor were never brought by them as Reasons why they thought her divinely inspir'd but upon other Grounds of which afterwards The first he considers is her Sanctity which he says is nor always attended with extraordinary Illuminations and then inferrs that suppose her to be truly and extraordinarily Holy she is not therefore to be reckon'd to know the Mind of God in all things by immediate Revelation all which is readily granted But make once the Doctor 's Supposition and then add that the Person so truly Holy declares that God is pleas'd to communicate his Light immediately unto her and that without all humane Helps and that upon trial it be found that what she declares is the same with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what God has already revealed by his Spirit this I think may be reckoned a weighty Evidence of Divine Inspiraration for a Person so truly Holy would not lye nor would God suffer such a one to be so deluded The Doctor singles out every Reason by it self and would prove that suppose it were true the Consequence is not just and so rejects the Consequence drawn from them altogether which is just as if one should reason that 2 and 4 and 6 do not make 12 because 2 makes not 12 and 4 makes it not nor yet 6 Ergo c. In the rest of this Article he has a long Discourse to shew How far Saints should keep their Distance and be cloathed with Humility and how others should beware of running into excess when they honour them not to exalt them to an equality with God nor near it we ought to honour those whom God hath honoured yet only so as to make them the subject Matter of honouring God A. B. and her Friends do perfectly join with the Dostor what goes beyond this they abhor it Where there is no Humility there is no Sanctity for that is the Foundation of this but we may be greatly mistaken to call that Humility which is the greatest Pride to speak meanly of our selves when it appears by all our Actions that we are not so in our Hearts the Saints may declare the Grace of God to themselves with the greatest Humility ascribing all to God and seeing the more their own Nothingness As David Paul c. and what A. B. says of her self may proceed from the same Spirit notwithstanding of all the Doctor 's Reasons That her Friends publish blasphemous Encomiums of her and are guilty of Idolatry as to her is a bold unjust and malicious Calumny which they utterly deny In the XV. Article he justifies his Zeal against her and them for exalting her above the present State and Capacity of humane Nature only that all her metaphysical Whimsies which M. Poiret is passionately fond of might be received for Divine Truths I have already replied to this that neither A. B. nor M. Poiret do bid any believe what he calls Whimsies to be Divine Truths but only entreat Men to be True Christians and if they please they may look upon all her other Thoughts that have no immediate relation to this to be really metaphysical Whimsies It is a wrong Imagination of his that that make her impeccable or at least never to have actually sinned She asserts the contrary her self and they believed no such thing as I have already shewn M. de Cort's Expression As if Adam had never sinned in her implies no such thing as the Doctor inferrs from it but that during the time he conversed with her he observed in her such a compleat and solid Vertue that he thinks she could not have been in a purer State tho' she had not been born of the corrupt mass of Adam as indeed she was So this is the Subject of another Consideration whether by the Grace of God a Person may be advanced to such a State of Vertue as not actually to commit any Sin neither in Heart nor Life tho' they be born of the corrupt mass of Adam are not impeccable and have been guilty of many Sins In the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Article he proceeds to shew That the things they instance in her are not certain Proofs of Sanctity and first