their innocence but if they did the same things when grown up it would be infamous because of the malignity of their thoughts A thing that is in it self the same is render'd good or evil by the wickedness of the Heart The sins that are committed in Marriage do not proceed from its being evil in its self for it is good but they are introduc'd there thro' the perverse will of men Even as the Church is holy in it self but man's perverse will has render'd it abominable in the sight of God for they have chang'd the Order into which God had established it And if men commit the greatest sins by the inclination they have to this natural conjunction this proceeds from nothing but the wickedness of the Heart since the thing in it self is good and holy If man is become so negligent as to abuse all the works of God is it not thro' his own wickedness that he perishes tho he lays the blame always on God For if he sin through Carnal Lust he will say wherefore has God given me this Natural Inclination by which I am led to sin And if men be chastised by any Rods they will say that God afflicts them or that he has forsaken them and so of all other things How great soever mens wickedness be they lay the blame always on God tho they do not say it by word yet they do it in deed while they neglect to discover that all his works are still accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth and that nothing that is evil can ever come from God who is the Source and Original of all Good still doing good to all without excepting any By which we see evidently that he is no longer known at present for they abuse all his Favours and blaspheme him in every thing and yet are not willing to confess it for every one of these Christians have it in their mouths that they love God and honour him while truly and in effect they disown and blaspheme him by their works The Fourth Conference Of the blindness of men who amuse themselves with the outward things which are delivered to them without searching into the depth of the Truth it self they are so infatuated and withheld thro' the fear of displeasing those who are in Reputation I Said to her That men were in horrible darkness and that the Truth was no longer known but every one had for saken it and taken a quite contrary way while in the mean time they think they are in the right way She said Sir This is what I bewail continually to see men so far from their salvation and yet they think they are in the right way to it This causes the Damnation of those who are esteem'd the best men for while they think they are good they will not endeavour after a Change but will live and die in a presumption of being sav'd without good works which shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the other and no body thinks on 't for the darkness is so thick that they cannot see whither they go Truth is always bright and discovers every thing but it is no longer known No body knows the Truth any more since the Devil spread this horrible Darkness on the Earth but every one walks in darkness and believes he is in the right way and while they are perishing they think to be saved Have you not observ'd Sir all that I have said to you that man knows not God any longer nor his works and that they understand them in a quite contrary sense and that in truth they observe nothing of what God has commanded and Jesus Christ taught and yet every one says that he desires to come to God Must there not be a lie in the one or the other of these two contrary things For what I say and what Men do are as distant from one another as heat is from cold Nevertheless truth cannot change it remains always true Let Men say what they please let them stray from it or approach it it abides still firm in its Integrity Who that understands me aright can doubt that I speak the Truth And if you are oblig'd to confess it will you not consequently be oblig'd to acknowledge that all the World is deceived and fallen from the Truth and in forsaking it they have forsaken God And if they have forsaken God who can uphold them any longer The World must certainly perish for its disease is at the height and the worst of all is that they do not know it for if they knew it there would yet be some among them who would open their Eyes and perceive the reality of Truth I ask'd her from whence this great blindness of Spirit and this so obscure darkness could proceed She said Sir this comes from the Devil since he crept into the Church and began to countermine the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and took the title of Antichrist he has labour'd so strongly in this that he has spread among them an universal Darkness and so confounded the Spirits of those Christians with so many different things that they are no longer capable of knowing the Truth Instead of it he has inspir'd them with a great many false Opinions that he might divert them from the pure Truth So that I do not believe there is any Sect or Nation in the World farther from it than the Christians of this Age because they discover it no longer in any thing whereas the Hereticks Jews or Heathens know the Truth in some things tho in others they are mistaken but these Christians are mistaken in all thro' the ill use they make of all things as I have formerly told you Sir that they know neither God nor any of his works judging of all in a quite contrary sense And because they could not have quiet without doing good things the Devil has furnish'd them with so many seemingly good works that they have no longer any leisure to think of the Truth and to examine whether these New Devotions be true or not but they blindly follow them without making any other Reflection but that they are the Ordinances of the Church without examining also whether this Church be holy or not they lay aside the Truth to receive that which is proposed to them supposing it to be a good thing Hence there is such blindness of spirit and such obscure darkness that there is scarce any way to make them see the Truth their understanding being so preoccupied and darkned with diverse things that they can no longer consider the Unity of Truth on the contrary they would think they did evil to follow this Truth and quit the New Practices introduc'd by men So that if we should advise a Christian now a-days to do nothing else in order to his salvation but to resign his will to that of God he would think we design'd to make him an Heretick and would cleave more firmly to the
the same bed To shew that it avails nothing for one to save his Body but he must endeavour to be united unto God or otherwise he shall be taken in what place soever he go to I said to her That I would follow her even to Death because she had the words of truth tho all the world should withstand it She said Sir There is no need that you follow my Person but my words keep them in your Heart and thereby you will attain to Salvation for they are saving Never turn away from them For the Devil has this invention to raise a great many distractions that he may divert us from following the Truth he sends sickness Troubles Affairs of Importance and a thousand other occasions to divert our good purposes that we may never bring them to effect If you were speaking Sir with all good men who are in publick Offices whether Civil or Ecclesiastick they would acknowledg to you that they were never so throng'd with Affairs or Business as now because the Devil being unable to gain them entirely to himself he endeavours at least to give them so much business as that they may not have leisure to think of their Salvation nor of the Dangers in which they live We must certainly discover his wiles or otherwise he will draw us along with him insensibly He has deceived so many by these means making them believe that their imployments were profitable for the Publick or their Neighbours when they serv'd for nothing but human accommodations without any advantage to the Glory of God or the Salvation of Souls And under this False Perswasion many have lost their own Salvation without procuring that of others It is not in these last times Sir that Places Offices or Imployments are saving it is much for a Man to save his own Soul for the times are too dangerous and the world too blind and obstinate If they perceived their blindness they would seek to find a remedy But while they believe they see clearly they cannot think of a remedy and they fall easily into eternal ruin But if you Sir for your own part would be saved remember the Truth and follow it for without it there can be no Salvation For it alone makes us to know God and the Devil and likewise the state of the World and that of our own Conscience Truth shews us also the certain way of Salvation and by it all the wonders of God are discovered It is the Light of the World and the sure harbour of Salvation without which nothing can be good or beautiful The seventh Conference Shews that Jesus Christ will come in Glory or else he should not be the Saviour of the World as he is and there would be no just Recompence for the Good and for the Wicked I said to her that I had sufficiently discovered the truth of this that we are in the last times that the VVorld is judged and Antichriso reigns and also that the Plagues are begun because there is no truth nor Righteousness among Men but that I did not yet see why Jesus Christ shall come to reign in Glory upon Earth She said This is the most evident truth and the greatest Goodness and Justice of God because Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World and the restorer of all things You see clearly by all the Truths that I have told you that very few will be saved of all those who live at present after the usual manner and if this miserable World should last yet longer there would still be fewer because every day it grows worse How therefore should Jesus Christ be the Saviour of the World if he did not restore all things No body could be Saved for the whole World perishes There must come a time that the whole World shall be saved that he may be fitly called the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD And this cannot be in Heaven as People imagine because all who enter there shall be Saved having received Salvation at the hour of Death and this respects only particular persons who by reason of their small number cannot well be called the WORLD because it consists in a Generality and not in some particular Persons 'T is a truth therefore that in a certain time Jesus Christ will save all the World in general This will be at his coming in Glory when he shall have judged the World and condemned the Wicked he will save the Good with all their Posterity who can never perish any more because of the continual Presence of Jesus Christ God and Man who will govern and lead them to Salvation This his coming in Glory is also necessary to restore all things because there has been no reparation yet of all the Injuries and Affronts that were done to his Humanity His low Condition has not been raised up his Poverty has not been enriched his Tears have not been wiped away his Humility has not been exalted neither have any other of his Contempts and Sufferings been repaired nor of those who have loved and followed him One has died as a Malefactor another as a Seducer a St. Andrew on the Cross a St. Lawrence on the Grid-iron and so many other holy Martyrs who have suffered Persecution and Death for Righteousness and Truth There has been no reparation of all this hitherto but by imaginary things as they say that Jesus Christ was exalted on the Cross which is an infamous reparation to dye on a Gibbet as a Malefactor If those who hold this Cross to be a reparation of Honour were hanged after this manner themselves they would not believe that their Honour were repaired by this How can they imagine that that of God was so It is not to be imagin'd that Honour should be repaired by Infamy it self But because his coming in Glory was unknown to them they have applied Infamy to Glory that they might say something of it The truth is Jesus Christ will come upon the Earth to repair all things for it would not be just that he should have suffered so innocently and after him so many other Saints and Martyrs who were free from Crimes and that they should continue dead without being repaired Spiritually and bodily for what they have suffered unjustly or for the Love of God and if People imagine that all these things must be repair'd in a Divine and imaginary Heaven they are deceived because this reparation cannot be perfectly made there for natural sufferings ought also to have suitable reparations unless God did as Charmers do who cure bodily wounds with spiritual rememedies or some artificial words No Sir this will not go after that manner because God does his works always in a perfection every way accomplish'd He will repair both bodily and spiritually all that has been done unjustly and the whole world shall thereby discover his Righteousness Goodness and Truth that every one may know that he is worthy and just worthy
Principles of the greatest Philosophers who thought they establish'd all things by unerring Rules of Aequations hiss'd out of Doors yet this will not keep them from making Idols of their own Ideas and worshipping their own Reason and Christ and his Sacred Doctrin must be despis'd if he will not fall down before it and worship it And how strangely this Spirit spreads now in the World he that runs may read There is no Delusion more dangerous and which leads to more irrecoverable Blindness than this of making our wretched Reason and the Ideas it forms to it self the Measure and Standard of Truth The Eyes of our Mind are like those of our Body we may turn them to any Side we please but can discern nothing aright unless the Light shine upon them and let them see the Objects round about them So our Minds may form to themselves many Ideas and Imaginations but none of them conformable to the nature of things without a suitable Light to discover and direct them In the Material and visible World from the general Notions of Matter and Motion and the Combination of variously mov'd and figur'd Bodies Men form to themselves such and such Systems of the Universe which they strongly fancy to be the true Model of it but when we come to consider more nearly the things themselves we find them as far different as Light is from Darkness Our Minds must receive due and suitable Impressions from the Objects themselves else they can have no right Sentiment of them A blind Man can never conceive aright what Light and Colours the Sun and this visible World are unless his Eyes be open'd and he receive the Light The Light surrounds him and he comprehends it not we may by many Words and Similitudes give him general and dark Notions of the Excellency of Light and Colours and the Beauty of this visible World but one Glance of the Light it self will discover more to him than a thousand Descriptions made by us It is the same of Divine and Spiritual Things The Natural Man perceives not the Things of God but they are foolishness to him No Man knows the Things of God but by the Spirit of God A Divine Light and Illumination is necessary to make us understand and relish Divine Things And if we think to comprehend and judge of them by our Reason and Natural Ideas we do as foolishly and unreasonably as a blind Man that would judge of Light and Colours by the Ideas he has gathered from his Touch and other Senses And as the seeing and enjoying the Light and the receiving the other Impressions of this visible World are quite another thing than the Ideas we retain and form of these things to our selves in the Light 's absence for these notional Ideas can never enliven and warm and chear our Bodies and make us enjoy all this visible World as the other does no more than the Picture of the Sun can give us Light and Heat as the Sun himself does for these are but the Pictures of the Things themselves So the true Light and Impression of Divine Things upon the Mind is as far beyond the notional Ideas that we may form of them even tho' they were the true Pictures of them and as a blind Man ought to submit to the Judgment and Conduct of those who enjoy the Light and of whose Sincerity he has no reason to doubt and in the mean Time to strive if possible to enjoy himself so ought we to submit our Understanding and our Will to the Divine Revelation of the Will of God made to others and by them declar'd to us and in the mean time so to yield up our selves to God as that the Eyes of our Understanding being enlightned we may come to comprehend what the good and acceptable and perfect Will of God is But the Leaven of the Pharisees has yet more universally overspread Christendom than that of the Sadducees Upon this is founded the Difference of the several Sects and Parties that are in the Christian World and the Hatred and Animosity wherewith they prosecute one another one crying Lo here is Christ another Lo he is there The same Leaven runs through all Parties tho' it put on different outward Forms according to the different Interests and Engagements of the respective Parties Some are very zealous for particular Doctrins and Opinions which are uncertain as to their Truth and of no Necessity for Salvation Some set up for particular Forms and Rites of Worship which may be either us'd or let alone without hazard of Salvation And others are as zealously bent against them Some for such and such Forms of Discipline and Government and others for overturning them And tho' most of the Things for or against which they bend all their Zeal be of little Moment either for Promoting or Hindrance of Salvation yet they seem to lay the whole Stress of Religion upon them and having drawn them up into positive or negative Confessions of Faith Creeds Articles Canons of Councils and Acts of General Assemblies they baptize them into the Sacred Names of The Truths of God the Cause of Jesus Christ the Interest of his Church the setting the Crown upon Christ's Head they teach for Doctrins the Commandments of Men and are more zealous for their Forms and Systems of Doctrins drawn up by themselves or their Predecessors than for the Simplicity and Plainness of the Holy Scriptures and tho a Man embrace from his Herrt the Divine Writings and endeavour to square his Life by the Rules set down in them yet if he do not receive their Systems and be not zealous for or against such outward Forms and Rites as they embrace or dislike he is to them as a Heathen and a Publican And while they have a Zeal for the outside of Religion they neglect Righteousness Mercy and the Love of God while they avoid the Scandalous and Carnal Vices that would make them hateful in the World their Hearts are full of the Spiritual ones which are as hateful to God In short the Apostle gives us a plain Character of them 2 Tim. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. warning us That in the last days perilous Times shall come for Men shall be Lovers of their own selves covetous proud boasters blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without natural Affection Truce-Breakers false Accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good trayterous heady high-minded lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof It is strange to see how wilfully Men mistake the Nature of Christianity and place it in that which it does not conconsist and what it truly is they despise and trample upon Christianity may be either consider'd in its End or in the Means it directs us to for the attainment of that End Its End is CHARITY to love God with all our Heart and our Neighbour as our selves To love God is to love his
from it that the true Christian might be known from the false and that we might no longer live amidst so many errors and in so great blindness and consequently in so great hazard of our salvation by adhering to mens Laws and despising Gods perswading our selves that we do well in following their errors inâ—tead of the true Light which has proceeded from Jesus Christ The great unhappiness of men is that they do not know these truths and that they fear they would do ill to believe them I said to her That it was very lamentable to live in so dangerous a time in which the most innocent might perish thro ignorance asking her if she knew a remedy for these evils She said The wickedness of men Sir has brought this ignorance upon the earth Since they forsook the love of the truth they are given up to the spirit of error The ignorance is very gross for every one who would enter into himself might well perceive in the bottom of his soul that he does not love God with all his heart nor his neighbour as himself which are the chief Commands of God without the keeping of which one cannot be saved But men suffer themselves to be amus'd with little Rattles even as they quiet Children which cannot at all cure the evil that presses them but only diverts their minds a little that they may not think upon nor be attentive to their pains These little outward Devotions are the Rattles which those Guides sound in our ears not to cure the wounds which the neglect of this Command of God has caus'd in our soul but rather to amuse our attention that it may not discover those eternal truths They breed up our souls with affections to their persons under a pretext that they stand in Gods stead They perswade us that we shall always receive grace by confessing frequently as if grace were given by the help of sins for confession can bring no other grace than pardon of sins and to receive this grace frequently there is need of sinning frequently What real childish amusements are they to make even those to confess frequently who they believe have nothing but imperfections to confess If they did receive grace as often as they go to confession with so much grace they would leave off their sins and would not be oblig'd to continue for so long time these confessions We may believe they do as those who take Physick out of appetite or custom which spoils and corrupts the health instead of preserving it These ordinary Penitents do wholly the same to their souls as they do to their bodies thus they suffer themselves to be amus'd by foolish perswasions as that also of going often to Church to pray to God as if it could not be done elsewhere Nevertheless Jesus Christ says that one ought always to pray and never to cease One had need therefore to abide night and day in the Church to fulfil this direction These are all errors and inventions of men for a Christian is oblig'd to pray always at all times and in all places without fainting not only when they are in the Church as these Guides perswade them who are no less mistaken in prefixing a certain number of Offices Prayers and Beads and other trifles which they call Prayers tho they do not know what Prayer is for it consists in an elevation of the spirit to God which may be done while we walk and work eat and drink and even while one is at rest for our spirit ought to be continually elevated unto God in acknowledgment of the continual favours which we receive from him yea even in sleeping our will ought to bless him always this is the continual prayer which God demands of us But we do the quite contrary for instead of having our spirit elevated to God continually we employ it in earthly cares and solicitudes about our wealth our family our business or houshold affairs So that even in the little time that we are at Church saying our Pater Nosters our Spirit runs frequently astray and is not elevated unto God for one moment in a day yea it may be has never been so for our whole life and we think we have prayed to God provided we go to Church or say Prayers by muttering over our Beads These are all new Doctrines which neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles ever taught which do often deprive us of the attention we ought to have to true prayer I will not blame the going to Church to pray to God This is very good when we find in the Church more means and a greater facility of elevating the spirit unto God than in the House or elsewhere but I blame all those novelties which divert us from God by amusing us with things that strike upon our senses for which I can see no remedy since these evils proceed from those who ought to redress them If I spoke to these Guides of the Church and told them these truths 't is to be fear'd they would stone me for they will not be reproved in their actions far less in their authority and tho they should clearly perceive the truth they would not receive it and if I should speak to those who are directed and govern'd by them they would think that I would deprive them of their Salvation and render them Hereticks in not obeying those who call themselves the Church for they are so far perswaded that they ought to believe and follow their directions that they would choose rather not to obey God than to despise the counsel of these men the blindness is so far gone that I look upon the evil as desperate which makes me say that the world is judg'd and the sentence is irrevocable because no body sees his misery and even will not see it they would be afraid to offend God by believing the truth of these things The Twelfth Conference That the Conversion of Men now is desperate as it was in the days of Noah and wherefore I Said to her that there were yet many souls in the world capable of receiving these truths and if they heard these things they would infallibly open their eyes and leave their errors requesting her that she would yet speak to others besides me She said Truly Sir I cannot do it for I see no hopes that I can profit by it The darkness is too great and the evil too inveterate As long as God shall not destroy the wisdom of the wise and the prudence of the prudent they will not receive the evangelical simplicity and If they be not converted and become as little Children they will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It would be in vain therefore to speak to them But if you know any one Sir whose understanding is bounded and his will subjected to God you may make the experiment For my part I desire to continue unknown that I may preserve my
subject to all sorts of Miseries than we are in our selves nothing more changing nothing more weak nothing more perishing Is this capable of our Love An Abridgment of all sorts of Miseries more infirm than any Animals and the things which are without us are yet of far less consideration 〈◊〉 we love Meat and Drink is there any thing more 〈◊〉 for as soon as we have swallow'd them they are corrupted and chang'd into Putrefaction If we love the Pleasures of the Sight this is a thing that passes in a Moment and cannot give Satisfaction The more we would satisfie our Senses the more they thirst for the Eye is never satisfied with seeing no more than the Ear with hearing Even so of the Lust of the Flesh These are all insatiable things of the nature of Salt-Water the more we drink of it the more we thirst And as for the Pride of Life what does it put in us but a Blast of Wind For if a Woman bow or a Man be discovered in our Presence what does that give us These are all but imaginary Goods which put nothing in him that loves them If we would search into these Truths it would be very easie to strip us of our selves and of all created Things For they are not at all lovely but to those who have lost their Wits Our Soul is created for things more great It ought not to debase its self to Objects so unworthy of its Love It is very easie to forsake our selves and all things when we enter into the Consideration of things that are everlasting All our Amusements proceed from this that we come not to the Knowledge of God and our selves For if we knew God we could not any longer love any other thing and if we knew our selves we would hate our selves and all things because we have nothing in our selves which is not hateful Thus all the Love which we bear to our selves and to other things proceeds from pure Ignorance and the want of Serious Reflection on our selves and on all created Things I ask'd her How I might make this Serious Reflection and discover the Nothingness of all created Things And said That I must acknowledge her Saying was true that there is nothing worthy of our Love But I could not discover the cause of the Blindness of my Mind in this since I had a Desire to discover the Truth and to be taken up entirely with God She said Sir the Fault of your Straying as that of all the World proceeds from this That Men amuse themselves with the speculation of visible and sensible things by which they forget the invisible and spiritual And thus they go on always in a Forgetfulness of God and of their own Salvation Men do even serve for a Hindrance to one another For being all full of these Distractions and Wandrings of Mind they speak almost of no other thing One speaks of his Health another of his Meat another of that which seems fair and good to him And thus they fill one another's Minds with earthly Idea's and they neglect the consideration of heavenly things upon which alone their Happiness depends That Application of Spirit which we give to our selves to others to our Affairs Business or other things which respect only this present Life do rob us of that Time and Attention which appertains to God For we are not created for this present Life but only to live for ever with God If we are oblig'd to remain here for some space of Time this is only to satisfie the Justice of God who being offended by us has destin'd this short Life for the time of our Penitence which being finish'd he will pardon us and restore us into our true Country which is his Presence We ought continually to aspire after it without pleasing our selves in our Exile and Prison What Folly to take Pleasure in Sufferings The Riches the Honours and the Pleasures of this World are all troublesome and painful things and we reckon them for Happiness We glory even in our Chains and Fetters Our Sin has discovered our Nakedness and its Shame has oblig'd us to cover our Body and this same Covering which ought to serve us as matter of continual Confusion serves us on the contrary for Vain-Glory which is altogether foolish since our Habits are the Marks of Sin and we wear them to glory in them If you desire Sir to discover these Truths and to be entirely taken up with God fix your Understanding on the Consideration of all the things which are not God and you will find them all Vain and Transitory even your Life it self It passes every Moment and ought rather to be call'd Death than Life for we die daily And from thence ascend to the Consideration of God and of our Soul which are things Solid and Eternal You will by this Mean be oblig'd to love the one and forsake the other But you can never make these serious Remarks if you do not quit the Commerce of Men and abstain from all that is unprofitable and what does not avail for the Glory of God By the means of these Omissions you will acquire a clear Understanding of the Truth and a continual Communion with God For the Cause of our Blindness of Mind proceeds from this that we divert our selves always with Men or the other Creatures who do distract us from the Knowledge of God and of our selves For all that is not God is nothing The Twenty Second Conference That no true Contentment can be had but in God alone How to return thither Of Gifts And of those which are made to Churches which will perish I Receiv'd a great deal of Light by such firm Reasonings to which all Men of the World must needs yield I said to her That I found only a Difficulty to withdraw my self from all things and to think of God only because our Spirit does easily wander She said Sir all the Difficulty there is in doing this is only in our Imagination for in the Practice there is great Contentment For he who entertains himself always with God is in a continual Feast more pleasant even to the Senses than the most sumptuous earthly Banquet would be For the Soul having full Satisfaction the Spirit is in Peace and the Body at rest all the Senses having a Satiety and Contentment whereas in the Commerce of Men none of them can find full Satisfaction for as long as the Soul does not repose in its God it is like a Stone in the Air which never rests until it have found its Centre or like a Fish that is out of the Water which remains without Vigour dries up and dies if it be not put into it again Even so a Soul which is out of God dries up and dies not being able to find true Contentment even as to the Body out of him There is nothing but a Life truly Christian that is free and pleasant for it
always to aspire to that which will be eternal But on the contrary we would be content to lose it the Eternal provided we might live here always All Men almost are in this Error by which they draw down the Plague of Pestilence to put an End to Desires so impious which have made them abandon their God This Life must needs be taken away from us since it serves as a mean to withdraw us from God The Plague of Pestilence is justly sent upon us to give Death to those who love their Lives more than God As is also that of Famine because so many Men have abandon'd their God for the Pleasures of the Mouth How many are there who love Meat and Drink more than Spiritual Delights Provided the Mouth and the Belly be satisfied they care very little for God Is it not fit that they endure Hunger who think of nothing but of filling themselves This evil is so general that in the best Assemblies of Christians now-a-days they speak for the most part of Eating and Drinking to keep themselves chearful Is it not fit that this should be chastised with Justice by an universal Hunger since this Sensual Appetite has caused an universal Sin by almost all the Men of the World From whence I draw the certainty that all are judg'd and that the Sentence is irrevocable Because no Body repents of these three Sins which form the last Plagues and God cannot defer longer to send them I ask'd her how we could believe that the last Plagues were begun She said Sir Do you not perceive that we are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error That Lying prevails and that Truth is opprest That Men promise themselves Peace and Security in the midst of such evident Perils That there is no longer Righteousness nor Sincerity or Fidelity among Men That Evils are conceiv'd without Fear and brought forth without Reprehension That the Just is punish'd as guilty and the Guilty supported and defended That there is no longer neither Faith nor Law among Christians and that they live in a Neglect of God and of their Salvation Are not these the greatest Plagues that could ever befal the World They are more to be dreaded than Fire Pestilence War and bodily Famine which can but kill Bodies Whereas these Spiritual Plagues kill the Soul which is an Eternal Spirit Behold Sir with the Eyes of Truth and you will see that all Souls perish without perceiving it Which is the greatest Punishment that God can ever permit to befal Men. Many say blindly We are at the End of the World for Wickedness abounds in all places There is no Trust to be given to any They deceive one another without Faith or Honesty In saying this they speak the Truth without knowing it far less apprehending it Many Signs have appear'd in Heaven in the Sun in the Stars fearful Comets menacing great Evils which did affright some at first but so soon as the Devil had Leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were but natural things engendred in the Air he made the Fear of those threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of their Minds The Sea has yielded blood And as soon as this has ceas'd the Memory of it has been effac'd Fire has burnt many Cities and they have presently found out some Invention to cover all these Warnings which God gives us saying That these are Casual and Natural Things As also the swallowing up of several Towns and Cities caus'd by Earthquakes They attribute all these Things to future and to natural Causes saying That these Countries situate toward the Sea are subject to Earthquakes In short Sir they make all the Threatnings and Warnings of God to evanish out of Men's Minds that no Body may enter into himself to be converted unto him through Fear and Trembling Some Stroaks of Thunder us'd sometimes to shake intire Cities where the People ran to Confession to prepare themselves for Death But now when they see so many several Effects of the Justice of God by Men's being abandon'd to all sorts of Sins and also by all those outward Sings in Heaven and Earth which have appear'd in our Time and to our Eyes no body is converted unto God for this Far less do they Imbrace the Spirit of Penitence It seems they mock at God's Warnings saying These are Natural Things But I would willingly demand of these Ear-flatterers If God ought not to send his Plagues but by supernatural Things and to make Chimera's in the Air He who has created all the Elements must not he make Use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural Things to make our Body suffer which are likewise Natural If the Bodies of the damn'd shall indeed be punish'd with Natural Things why should not in like manner our Bodies which are yet living upon Earth Since they are not sensible but of Natural Things they must needs have Subjects conformable to their Nature The Deluge was made by a Natural Rain And the last Plagues will be made by Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural Things because the Heaven the Earth and all the Elements ought to rise up against us to avenge the Offence that we do against their Creator and ours If the Fire shall kindle by some accident or the Earth quake by the Tossings of the Sea and overturn Cities would this be accidental unto God who says that to him the Hairs of our Heads are numbred Would he thus let such grievous Accidents fall out Without his Permission this cannot be true But the Devil to divert us from believing that these things are the beginnings of the last Plagues makes it be said by his Adherents that these are Natural Things that no Body may turn to Repentance The Thirtieth Conference How God permits Man to be abandon'd to the Spirit of Error I Ask'd her How God permits that we should be thus abandon'd to the Spirit of Error She said Sir God permits it by his Justice because we have left his Spirit of Truth to hearken unto and follow Lyes He compels no Body leaving every one in the Liberty wherein he created them If Man therewith will needs abandon his God and adhere unto the Devil he lets him for he will not take away again the Free-Will which he has once given him which God will never take back again for he is unchangeable in all his Doings And having once found it good that Man should be a kind of Creature altogether free he cannot afteward find it evil but will leave him this absolute Liberty unto all Eternity If he will use it to love God he will follow the End for which it has been given him and if he will use it to do evil and to withdraw himself from God he is free God will not
be mov'd for this remaining always Just Good and True Whatever Man does God remains always what he is in himself without being mov'd and without hindring Man to withdraw himself from him when he will needs do it by his own Free Will God can lose nothing even tho' all the Men of the World would follow the Devil They only wrong themselves God will never take away again the Free Will that he has given them for their evil Deeds but permits them still to use it as well to their Damnation as to their Salvation All the other Creatures do the Will of God of Necessity as a Servant does the Will of his Master by force for it is necessary to the other Creatures as well animate as inanimate to do the Will of God without their being able to resist it being bounded limitted and constrain'd not to pass over the Bounds and the Limits wherein God has plac'd them But Man alone who participates of the Deity has the Liberty to resist the Will of God which he will not oppose for he cannot repent of the Liberty that he has given unto Man Thus God permits Man to abandon himself unto the Spirit of Error and to forsake that of Truth For he would act against his Goodness to take back again that great Advantage which he has given unto Man of his Free Will with which he ought to rule over the Earth as a little God independent from every other thing which is not God And if he did not permit Man to follow the Spirit of Error when he will needs follow it he would render him a limited and forc'd Creature as all the rest which serve the Will of God by Force as Servants and Slaves Which would be contrary to the Designs of God who has chosen our Souls for his Spouses in making them partake of his Power to do that which shall be most agreeable unto them The End of the First Part. THE SECOND PART OF THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD Being a Continuation of the Conferences which Antonia Bourignon had with the deceast Mr. Christian de Cort which deserves to be read understood and considered by all who desire to be saved Written originally in French S. Paul to the Romans XI 19 c. Be not high minded but fear For if God spared not the natural Branches the Jews take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God on them which fell Severity but towards thee Goodness if thou continue in the State wherein his Goodness has plac'd you otherwise thou also shalt be cut off and they also if they bide not still in Vnbelief shall be grafted in For God is able to graft them in again LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVI TO THE READER Dear Reader IT is more than twelve Years since I had the following Conferences in this second Part of the Light of the World and those also which shall follow in the third Part which you may afterwards see when it shall please God that they be publish'd and I had no Inclinations to make them publick For all these Questions were propos'd to me by the deceast Mr. Christian de Cort when he was a Priest in the Roman Church Pastor of the Church of S. John in the City of Mechlin in Brabant and Superiour of the Congregation of the Fathers of the Oratory in that City who being desirous to understand the Matters relating to his Religion propos'd to me divers Theological Questions touching the Faith and Manners of Christians who aspire to the Perfection of their Souls To which I answered according to the Wisdom and Experience that God gave me This the deceast de Cort having exactly noted and set down in Writing he design'd to have printed it in the Year 1667. But it was afterwards delayed by the Advice of many of his Friends who knowing the Partiality and Jealousie of many Divines of the Roman Church were afraid that the said de Cort and I might be put into the Inquisition for having declar'd too openly the Faults and Corruptions which are crept into the Roman Church telling us that this would be insupportable to many Zealots of that Religion But the deceast de Cort being very earnest to make the plain Truth known to the People resolved to go to Holland and to print all these Conferences there judging it very necessary that they should be communicated to sincere Persons who he thought were perishing thro' Ignorance saying often I was deceived as to Matters of Faith and Manners And thro' this Blindness I have also deceived others by teaching them Shadows for Substances and I 'll never be at rest till I have communicated to them the Truths of God that you have declared to me And so by his Persuasions and many importunate Requests I resolved to go with him to Holland to cause him to print all these Conferences that we had had together for a long time I was much averse to this because I had not yet printed any of my Writings and also the Matters contain'd in these Conferences would greatly shock many who are in the Roman Church whom I lov'd tenderly and desired not to offend them esteeming them my Brethren and I had never yet convers'd with any nor had I been in any Place or Country without the Obedience of the Roman Church And I knew not what sort of People I might meet with elsewhere For I imagined I should find there People that were monstrous or of a different Shape from those of my own Country where they represent to Children those who are not Romanists a Wolves covered with Sheeps Skins that they may imprint on the tender Hearts of the Children a mortal Enmity against those who in all things have not the same Opinions that are profess'd in the Roman Church This made me afraid to go to Holland to cause these Conferences to be printed But after I had seriously recommended it to God I resolved to go on that Errand For God made me understand That 't is not Religion that saves the Soul but the Love of God that begets true Vertue And that I ought to love all and to do good to those of every Religion and to declare the Truth of God impartially And this inward Voice planted in my Soul an Impartiality towards all sorts of Religions indifferently without caring to inform my self of what Religion Persons were or the Places and Countries to which I was to go nor with whom I was to speak This has been my Practice ever since regarding only the Disposition of the Souls with whom I was to treat without considering what Religion they profess'd or what Party they were of as to outward Worship since in Effect in all Kinds of States Professions and Religions I 've met with Persons disposed to receive the Truth that comes from God Yea some of those that are without the Roman Church are more ready to receive it than they who call themselves
Conference That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawyul Husband I Said to her That she gave a deal of Light in divers things for which I did infinitely bless God but I could not deny it troubled me a little to hear that the Roman Church was thus fallen from the Spirit of true Christianity She said Sir it is more expedient for the Salvation of your Soul that you know the Misery into which the Church has fallen than if you knew the highest Mysteries of the Trinity or the greatest Good of all Men together Because an Evil known is easie to be avoided But as long as 't is unknown and hid from us it is always dangerous and may greatly hurt us without our being aware of it Therefore you ought to give the more Attention and to apply your Understanding more to understand and comprehend the Truth which I tell you of Evil than to discover the Good For if I told you the Good of all Men this would only give you some little Contentment or sensual Satisfaction which would add nothing to your Soul But by knowing the Evil as it is you may prudently beware of it that it do not touch or harm you For all these Evils which I said were introduc'd into the Church even while it was yet Holy are all covered with Appearances of Good and Piety and Reason because the Devil could never have gained so many Souls as have followed him but under this Colour or Mantle of Good And he will yet gain many by their Ignorance of these Evils or by their Unbelief of them For as long as they take Evil for Good they will still blindly follow it and Ignorance will not excuse the Sin For God having given us an Understanding to comprehend and a Spirit to discern we ought particularly to apply them to what concerns our Salvation and when the Truth is set before our Eyes and we will not open them to consider it we resist it and may look for the Condemnation of the Holy Spirit who says that Vnbelievers shall have their Portion with Sorcerers I said to her I would not be incredulous but believe the Truth But that I felt an inward Opposition when it thus overturn'd the Church in the chief Points of Belief which we owe to it in case it were the Holy Church She said Sir I believe in the Holy Church and if I had a thousand Lives I would voluntarily expose them for its Defence and would think my self happy to spend the last Drop of my Blood for such a Cause But when God makes me see clearly that She is not Holy nor that which Jesus Christ established but that She is the Whore which is spoken of in the Revelation I cannot resist so clear Truths which do not only lie secret in my Soul but God gives me also Terms and Words whereby to explain them to you that you may likwise receive the Knowledge of them for your Salvation For which I have often bless'd God who bestows on us so many particular Favours hoping he will do it also to others But I intreat you doubt not what I tell you of the Miseries into which Men are fallen For they are yet greater than I have told you But persuade your self assuredly if they were not true I would not have engag'd my self in Discourses so melancholly and disagreeable to your Sentiments It would be more pleasant to me to tell you that the Roman Church is Holy and Perfect and that those who obey and follow her are holy This would recreate both my Heart and yours and the Hearts of all who could hear it I should be very light-headed or void of Understanding to please my self with things which displease all the World and which oblige me still to hold my Peace and to conceal my self Because I know very well if they should hear me declare those Truths all the Romanists would rise up against me and even the most Pious would think they made a Sacrifice to God in killing me For they are ignorant of these Truths and are wedded to their Church as if she were Holy knowing no better because the great Darkness that is now throughout the whole World wherein the Devil has bewitch'd all Minds with Errours they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth which every one withstands even thinking they do well in it I ask'd her If I might not suspend my Belief of those things which were contrary to the Church and believe only what concern'd Vertue and the Love of God She said Sir you can never follow Good without departing from Evil nor adhere perfectly to God without abandoning that which is contrary to him Have you not remark'd in how many things this Roman Church is contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ How therefore can you adhere to her and follow Vertue and the Love of God so long as they are really contrary Jesus Christ says that We cannot serve two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other You must chuse which you love best Good can never profit you without the Knowledge of Evil because while you do not know and believe it you will insensibly fall into it yea you will often take Evil for Good For the Evil of this Church is still covered with the Sanctity of pious Reasons and Arguments And if Antichrist did not cover his Wickedness with Vertue he could gain none but the Wicked but with pious Pretexts he gains all the Good who would even make a Scruple not to follow him as you do Sir by your Demand For if you do believe and follow Vertue and the Love of God you will certainly hate all that is contrary thereunto I think I have already told you enough to let you see that the Rules the Commands and Ordinances of this Church are not conformable to those of God who when he created Man gave him full Liberty to use his Will wheras those constrain it in all Points and will not only subject it by Councils or Advices but by Force and Violence both bodily and spiritual So that as much as in them lies they destroy the Law and the Ordinances of God to establish their own Authority and to bind the Souls of Christians by so many Constraints that 't is impossible for them to satisfie them without displeasing God tho' there were no other thing but the forbidding Priests to labour and making them swear never to explain the Holy Scriptures otherwise than the ancient Fathers have done Do you not see Sir that all their Laws are nothing but political and made to maintain their State and Authority If a Prince or a King to whom you were subject did become a Tyrant would you make any Scruple to abandon him when it were in your Power to do it tho' he were the lawful Son of your King and gracious Father who had preceded him A
as we don't apprehend these things we will think we do well to adhere to the Sciences we have learned from Men and will not empty our selves of them that we may receive the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit especially when by it we shall discover things quite contrary to our Sentiments or those which our Masters taught us You are not more than any other Sir delivered from your own Wisdom which hinders the Holy Spirit and that even under a Colour of good For you wou'd make Scruple to believe the Holy Spirit when it shou'd tell you things contrary to the Councils held in the Roman Church as I perceived when I spoke of such things to you because you have been brought up in it and foster'd with a Belief that these Councils were directed by the Holy Spirit tho' this cannot be true it being your Resolution not to depart from her This will hinder you from submitting to the Light of the Holy Spirit which will have no Opposition nor Resistance but a simple Submission I said to her That I could not disown I had Difficulty to believe things contrary to the Councils Nevertheless I would follow the Light of the Holy Spirit She said Sir you cannot follow the one without quitting the other because indeed they are as far from one another as Truth is from Lyes For the Holy Spirit teaches only the Truth which makes for the Glory of God whereas these Councils teach only that which makes for their own Glory and Authority Take off a little Sir this Veil of Preoccupation of believing blindly that Rome is the Holy Church and submit to God that he may shew you what Truth is in this You will feel evidently in the Bottom of your Soul that God cannot change as these Persons have changed the Institutions of Jesus Christ We must not be so void of Judgment as blindly to lay the Foundation of our Eternal Salvation upon false Suppositions but we must fully open our Eyes and consider if what we have learned hitherto be more clear and solid than what is now discovered You will thereby perceive which of the two is farthest from the true Light But as long as you are partial and can hardly believe this or that your Soul is not free to receive this Truth If you believe things because Councils or others have told you them you are not established in the Truth of these things but only in the Opinion you have of those who tell you them And do you not know that the Holy Spirit says that all Men are Lyars Wherefore then will you believe things because Men say them I wou'd never have you to believe my Words because I say them but I wou'd indeed have you to believe them because they are true We ought always to follow and love the Truth wherever it is but never to believe and follow a Lye even tho' it shou'd come from the Mouth of a holy Person For otherwise we shall commit great and irreparable Faults as to the Salvation of our Souls especially in this dangerous time wherein the Devil is plac'd in God's Throne and teaches us Lyes instead of the Truth That God has given us an Understanding to comprehend is not for temporal and transient things but that we may understand and discern the Things that concern our Salvation and Eternal Life In this we ought to employ all the Force of our Spirit to discover if what they tell and teach us now in this Matter be true or not without adventuring upon a blind Belief as all Christians do at present I said to her That I would not lean to a blind Belief but to the streight Truth She said Sir if it be so you will have no trouble to believe what I tell you tho' it be contrary to the Councils For I do not speak of my self and I tell only what the Spirit of God dictates to me Take good heed to my Words they proceed always from the Spirit of Truth who must teach all things He cannot deceive you as wou'd your Learning and Studies that you may have acquired by humane Means Be jealous of them For 't is so long since the Devil did insinuate himself into the Church of God to corrupt it that almost it cannot be told from what time it was corrupted Insomuch that even while Jesus Christ was yet upon Earth the Dvil listed himself as a Soldier of Jesus Christ on design to thwart his Doctrine and in the time of his Apostles he became a Captain because he had already gained many under his Power and in the time of their Disciples he had yet more and might then by just Title have born the Name of Colonel because he ruled many and after the Apostles Death he became a Governour by the Encrease of his Power But since they wou'd needs form this Body of the Roman Church the Devil is become General of it by which Government he has now conquered all the World and is universal Emperor especially over the Christians whom he holds under his particular Empire He is therefore justly called Antichrist because he has gainsaid the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which by him has been abolished and annihilated because under this Pretext of Christ he has infatuated Mens Minds to make them believe that what is contrary to Christ is Christ himself and that what is the Synagogue of Satan is the holy Church And thus by these false Persuasions he has deceived all the World and the most Religions believe they follow God when they follow the Devil because he is so masqu'd with the Veil of Piety and Devotion he cou'd have prevail'd with well-meaning Persons by teaching them Evil but under this Colour of Holiness and the Holy Church all the World do blindly follow him with such Fidelity that it wou'd be very hard to divert them from him Every one wou'd think he did ill to quit this Church which is so only in Appearance to follow the true one I only regret you and such as you Sir who sincerely intend to follow the real Truth and nevertheless fear to resist Lyes out of a frivolous Imagination that the Church will still continue in the material Place where Jesus Christ established it I said to her That when I should discover this Spirit of Errour I would never follow it That I would gladly abandon it and follow the Spirit of Truth She said Sir if you wou'd follow the Spirit of Truth quit then all these foolish Persuasions that Christians have now which are only invented by Antichrist that he may gain all the World to himself by apparent Holiness They wou'd persuade you that Rome is the Holy Church that you must obey her in all her Ordinances If you do this you shall be an Idolater ascribing to Men what belongs to God only as Honour Power and Infallibility Every one believes that this belongs to her tho' it belongs to none but God alone to be
will not be reformed loving rather to perish in their Blindness than to receive the Light and this of their deliberate Will Whereas those Jews are still looking for and aspiring after the Coming of their Saviour in Glory Tho' in many things they err Nevertheless they persevere in this Hope which will infallibly come to pass to them provided they acknowledge the Fault they committed in putting Jesus Christ to Death I ask'd her Whether there was any Sect or Nation more capable of receiving the Truth than the Jews who were a People rejected by all Nations and despised by every body as unworthy of the Conversation of all good Men She said Sir I know not precisely what the Jews are but as a Friend I can tell you that they are yet the People who love God more than any other Their being rejected and despised by every body shall perhaps serve for a Satisfaction to God for the Sins which they committed in putting him to death Because this is God's Way to chuse always the Things that are most vile and most contemned by the World I do not at all doubt but the Jews will be the first in the Kingdom of Heaven because they have been so humbled and despised in this World in which they have imitated Jesus Christ more than the Christians who honour themselves more than God and every one esteems them as the People of God and Jesus Christ has told us by the Mouth of his Mother that he will put down the Mighty from their Seats and will exalt the Humble This makes me believe that this People of the Jews so humbled through all the World shall be exalted above all others and that the Roman Church which is placed in the highest Chair on Earth shall be cast down from all her Power Because God has said that he who exalts himself shall be abased and he who humbles himself shall be exalted It must needs be Sir that all the Words of God be fulfilled in all Respects The Jews having been the most humbled People among Men ought to be according to the Justice and Truth of God the most Exalted as it shall come to pass For as soon as they shall receive the Truth which I commit to you they shall be converted and receive the Holy Spirit by whom they shall discover all things see their Errors and the Truth and embracing it shall arrive at the Time so often desired by them in which they will see the true Messiah and Saviour of the World come in Glory who will receive them into his Kingdom from whence the Children of it shall be shut out These are the Christians who shall never taste of his Feast tho' they were invited and called unto it But the Jews and Heathens shall sit down there and the Christians shall be thrust out because they would not obey God's Call who having called them to Christianity they would not conform themselves unto it Therefore they shall never taste of his Dainties because this is the last Mercy of God who will bring to his Table the Sick rather than the Whole who resist his Will as the Christians do now I ask'd her If I might declare to the Jews all the things she had told me as coming from God by a Prophetical Spirit She said Sir I am not Prophetical as the Ancient Prophets were who spoke of very obscure things So that many times neither the People nor they themselves understood well what they signified because the Time was not yet come to give the full Understanding of them But at present in this Fulness of Time God declares his Secrets very manifestly that every one may understand them So that you must not say Sir that you are sent in the Name of some Prophet because the Things that I have told you are such plain and lively Truths that no body of a good Judgment can doubt but the Holy Spirit must have inspired them For if they believe that God is Truth my Words are so sensibly inseparable from it that all Nations both great and small must confess that in all my Discourses the Truth is in its Source And this Truth being God it is therefore God assuredly who declares these Truths For the Devil is the Father of Lyes and Nature finds out still Excuses either in its own Sins or in those it loves By which you may see evidently that Truth comes immediately from God tho' it shou'd come out of an Ass as once it did Therefore you need not so much stay to judge whether I have the Spirit of Prophesie as you ought to examine very narrowly whether I speak the Truth For that is always God The Prophesies of the Ancient Prophets will all of them very shortly be fulfilled There is no Need of any longer having obscure Prophesies because we are fallen into the last Times wherein all the Prophesies 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 that Sir you shall not need to say that you hold these Truths from a Prophet because the Work does always bear Witness who its Workman has been Even so when the Truth is lively declared it gives sufficient Evidence by what Master it is formed I cannot conceal that I derive all my Wisdom from God because I never learned any thing from Men But there is no Need to say that I have a Prophetick Spirit when God gives Reasons and Comparisons to explain it after the Manner of Men. I said to her That in many of her Discourses she spoke of the Future and of the Time to come and that as to those we could not know yet whether they were true or not She said Sir what is to come is as true as what I have already experienced Receive all with Humility of Heart and you shall see in its Time as clear as the Sun that all shall be accomplished For God cannot lye The holy Scriptures must say the same things that I say Because all proceeds from one and the same Spirit and the Jews will understand me yet better than you do because they are more vers'd in the holy Scriptures I think if I spoke to them their Hearts would be over-joy'd and ravish'd with Pleasure to know that so great a Happiness is to befal them as to become the People of God and to suffer for his Love till they shall see him come in Glory with his Angels to render to every one according to his Works The Christians have this in their Creed which contains the twelve Articles of Faith that Jesus Christ who is ascended into Heaven shall come again to judge the Quick and the Dead And notwithstanding they will not believe it tho'
the way to it But the Devil to divert men has introduc'd by these Councils so many diverse things that this Doctrine is destroyed To discover this Truth Sir you need but observe mens Behaviour This will give you certain Evidences of it for you will see that all trust on the Councils the Sacraments and the Ordinances of the Church and no body observes the Counsels of the Gospel which are so banish'd out of the minds of men now that they reckon them foolishness I intreated her to tell me if she was sent from God to delare the Truth to men She said Yes Sir I AM SENT FROM GOD TO BRING LIGHT TO THE WORLD AND TO BEAR WITNESS OF THE TRUTH as he does all his works in Righteousness Goodness and Truth and never surprizes any Body He has SENT me to tell That the Last Times are come That the World is Judged and the sentence is irrevocable That the Plagues are begun and will not cease till all evil be rooted out and that Jesus Christ will come shortly on the Earth to finish this and then he will continue to Reign with men of good will who shall enjoy Eternal Peace I AM SENT with a Commission to declare all these things to men to the end that peradventure some of them may be Converted and Repent that they may Reign with Jesus Christ in his Glory But wickedness is come to so great an height that the Truth can't be declar'd to Men at least they will not any more receive it They love nothing but Flattery and lies and reject the Truth because it agrees not with their way of Living for he who will continue in his Sins and Errors will say that we trouble him by Declaring the Truth to him and he who will not amend will say that we raise scruples to him by telling him the Truth that reproves him Thus all the World perishes without being desirous to be helped I AM CERTAINLY SENT FROM GOD to declare the Truth of every thing But no body will hear it but in so far as it is agreeable to them and does not reprove them Should I study Sir to please Men or God A Messenger ought not to receive either Good or Ill when he is but the Minister of good or ill News without having caus'd them I have lov'd the Roman Church for I was born and baptized under her and have punctually follow'd her Ordinances and the decisions of her Councils when I knew them But since God has made me see that she is unfaithful to him and has forsaken him to join herself to the Devil ought I not to declare these truths to my Christian Brethren who are ignorant of them that they may not perish in their ignorance They would be much to blame to render me evil for good and to persecute me for procuring their Salvation for I have no advantage by declaring these truths to them except the obedience I owe to God and the charity I have for their Souls for otherwise I should beware of speaking things that are so disagreeable to them I ask'd her What person on Earth could be so wicked as to persecute her for declaring simply the truth that comes from God without any passion She said Sir all good men will perceive abundantly by my words that I am not mov'd by any vicious passions but by a pure desire of declaring the truth because I neither seek nor pretend to any thing from any body The friendship and hatred of men is all one to me there is nothing but the pleasing or displeasing of God that touches me Notwithstanding the Devil having so great a number of his adherents who are in authority he will excite them to rise up against me because of the truth which discovers his wickedness He has for a long time ruled in the Church under a colour of Holiness by which means he has gain'd the most Pious to be his Followers without their perceiving it But as soon as the Truth shall be shewn them they will easily discover his deceits and will abhor them This will enrage him against me and he will pursue me with all his force But I do not fear that he shall be able to touch me for God is my defence I will not fear all those Enemies how Powerful soever they may be The Lord whom I serve is above all things I have never done Evil to any Body but all sort of good to all according to my Power Nevertheless I shall not fail to be pursu'd and Persecuted by all those who are the Devil's adherents because by my means his head will be bruised and he will gain none any longer but by force for his falshoods and deceits will be discovered and brought to Light for those who desire to see and know them God indeed never forces any Body but he sends his Light into the World that every one that pleases may receive it I AM CREATED FOR THIS and cannot be silent when it shall be time to speak I will speak both in publick and private when it shall please God but still the truth without straying from it I doubt not but at first they will suspect me to be a Heretick because the Roman Church condemns as such all those who do not yield to her sentiments and for my part I look on all those as Hereticks who are contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel among which those Romanists are the first But this is a maxim which the Devil ordinarily observes to lay the blame on others of all the evils which he does himself By this means they will find the way to declare me a Heretick because they have denied the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I said to her That the Roman Church would be a strong adversary for she has great power and authority and will yield to nothing that is not agreeable to her Doctrine * She said Sir the power of that Romish Church shall be very shortly taken away by the Lord of Hosts who will destroy her in such a manner that of all those magnificences there shall not be one stone left upon another All her members shall be disjoynted and dislocated and without power She must bear rule yet for a little time and exercise her villanies outwardly as she has done for this long time inwardly her murders and imprisonments are at the door to the end her evil may have its full accomplishment both inward and outward Till then God will let her go on because his justice never inflicts a perfect punishment till the evil be perfect and compleat in all respects for evil always begets punishment according to the greatness of the evil the punishment is measured out I have no apprehension of her power because he who has given it will take it from her She will not do so much evil in killing bodies as she does now in killing Souls for it will be the happiness of those who shall die for
or follow him blindly as these Christians say we must obey and follow Men blindly For when we consider all the Works of God and observe what he has done for us it is impossible we should cease to love and follow such a Benefactour If we had but the Light of a Heathen we would not readily yield this blind Submission to Men Because they are not our Creatours nor our Saviours and our Dependance ought to be upon the Lord who created all Things But not on frail Man like our selves who can give us nothing but Promises without Effects for they deceive us when they promise us Salvation since they cannot give it to themselves And yet all the World believes they shall save all Christians of whom I know not so much as one that is in the way of Salvation because they neither know God nor true Vertue but have their Understandings blinded by the Discourses of Men who desire to love and be loved by their like and instead of leading them to the knowledge of the true God to love and follow him they draw them to love themselves And by this blind conduct every one runs to Perdition while many believe that they are in the way of Salvation So that I might well travel through all Christendom with a Lantern to find out so much as one Man as the Philosophers did through the City of Athens Because no Body any longer uses his Reason to see the Obligation that we have to depend upon the Will of God nor yet to consider the Misery and Shortness of this Life nor the Vanity of transitory Things but are in all this as if they were void of Understanding and follow one another blindly without considering any other Thing For if Man did only use his Reason he would see clearly that he is obliged to depend upon his God since he has received all from him and can pretend to nothing but from him His Natural Instinct does sufficiently encline him to this Dependance Though they call this a Heathen Light this is not that it is simply Natural but it is an Impression that God makes on our Understanding which leads us to know God and to submit our selves to him Which if we do we are happy in whatsoever Nation we be For God never demanded any other thing of Men but this Resignation to his Will and if he has since appointed Laws this was but by reason of Mens Frailty having never formerly subjected them to any Laws but that of depending upon him As he would not yet provided we would submit to him This our Christians do not though they hope to be saved I said to her That it troubled me much to hear that not so much as one Christian was resigned to God She said Sir That you may not believe this blindly recal to mind a little the Persons whom you have held for good Men and consider narrowly all their Behaviour that you may see whether they are not guided by their own Wills even in their pious Works whether they are not done from their own Inclinations You will find that this has always been at the Helm to govern all and that if it were not to please our selves many good Works would be left undone For my part I have remarked this in all the Persons whom I have known and I never knew but one Maid who was resigned to God Nevertheless I have met with those who had the greatest Reputation for Vertue and I alwayes perceived that their Actions though good were mingled with Self-love Which hinders a Resignation to God For as long as our Self-will will bear Rule God cannot have our Submission These are all dead Works which shall be recompenced only in this World and not at all in the other I have seen Persons given to Fasting Watching and Prayer diligent in going to Church and in relieving the Poor and yet notwithstanding of this they subjected not their Wills to that of God But followed their own as much as they could imagining that they did all for God while there was no such thing For if God had govern'd their Wills they would have done all their Actions both small and great in the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God From which they were very far estranged and if they had been capable of it I would have made appear to them that their best Actions were very blameable and accompanied with Presumption and Self-satisfaction In this many deceive themselves and believe they are in a State of Salvation though they be very far from it You must not be troubled Sir to hear it said That there is not so much as one Christian in the way of Salvation Since it is true and none are resigned to God But we ought to bewail their Blindness and desire and pray that they may be converted for the Time to come since there is Time for Repentance and Leisure to return to God even to the last Moment of our Life If I should say that all Christians are in a State of Salvation as all these false Prophets do their Salvation would certainly be desperate Because every one would rest on such a dangerous Estate It were far better to tell the Truth by declaring that they are not in the way of Salvation that they may strive to recover it than to flatter them with false Words And it should be more acceptable to them to hear that they are not resigned to God if it be most true than to hear that dreadful Sentence Go ye cursed into Everlasting Fire when they should have thought to hear Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom For it will be too late at Death to return to a Dependance upon God And it is not so now By which you may see Sir that there is more reason to be troubled when we hear them say that Christians are in the way of Salvation than when they say they are in that of Damnation when it is true as it is because of their Blindness For if I did not most evidently perceive this I would not affirm such unpleasant Things But I should be without Charity if I should not declare so important Truths while we are yet living in the Time of Penitence For I perceive inwardly in my Soul that the Thoughts Words and Actions of Men are not at all directed by God For they partake not of his Righteousness Goodness and Truth but on the contrary they are all full of Self-interest Self-honour or Pleasures And notwithstanding no Body will willingly be reproved Every one desires to continue as he is without knowing his Fault and much less amending it covering and palliating his Miseries and excusing them as much as he can So that I see no good that can be done for the Conversion of Christians for they trust too much to the false Perswasion of their Salvation Therefore I will retire and bid you Adieu Not that I am displeased to be among Men to
given to the first Man in his Creation For God can never repent of the Works that he has made If Man feel that he is unable to do good this is not the defect of his Free-will which remains to him still entire but the defect is that his Sins have taken from him the power to do good by the Blindness they have brought into his Soul which hinders the Discovery of the Means how to depart from evil and to do good The Soul being blinded by its Sin lost the Light of Truth and in this darkness cannot find the way to return to good This she attributed to the Weakness of her Free-will flattering her self to excuse her own Wickedness or indirectly to accuse God that he does not give her sufficient Grace to do well Which is a great Calumny against God who never bestowed so many Graces upon any Creature as he did on Man having made him alone a depending Deity because he would have one kind of Creature with whom he might take his delight Therefore he endued him with this Divine Liberty that his Delight might be compleat on the side of both the Lovers This is not a small Grace which would be sufficient to enable a Man to do well For if all Men whatsoever would return to a Dependance upon God they would certainly recover the same Grace and Liberty that Adam had before his Sin Because God continues still in the same Will to take his Delight with Men that he had when he created them Because he never changes For he is immutable And if Man do well or ill it is for himself but God will never deny his Graces because he is alwayes good tho' Man be wicked I admired this Discourse That God would grant to any Man whatsoever the same Graces that he gave to Adam in his Creation provided he resigned his Will to that of God asking her how this was possible since the Curse of Sin She said Sir It ought not to be doubted He is the same God and we are the same Creatures come from Adam and reputed as if we were he If of our own free choice we would yeild up the Free-will that God has given us in our power he would at the same instant put us again in the state of Innocence and would govern us till we departed again from a Dependance on him In which we would still be free Because God never keeps any Body by force letting our Free-will still Act as to good or evil as we will dispose of it For if God did Act upon us independently from our Will he would certainly save all Men and would not permit so much as one to be damned Because he created them all for Salvation and he will never take from any Body the Graces which he gave to Adam If they abuse them it will be their Unhappiness and their own Fault and not that of Grace For it shall still be given to the good and to the wicked even to the last Day of Judgment God will alwayes be with Men by his Grace But then the season of Grace shall be past Therefore will he say to the wicked Go ye Câ—â—sed depart from me If he had not been with them till then he could not have thrust them away from him since they would have been so from the Time they became wicked God should have no occasion to have thrust them from him this Last Day if they had been separated from his Grace during all the time they lived in their Sins It is said indeed that the Grace of God is lost by sinning Not that this Grace is taken from Man on Gods part but only that Man of his Free-will will not subject himself to God but will be at his own disposal And by this Mean he falls into all sort of Evils from which he should be delivered if he would yield up to God this Free-will repenting that he himself had used it If you please Sir to look into the Lives of the Saints you will find that many of them walked on the Waters went over burning Coals for an Evidence that God gives to those who resigns themselves to his Will the same Graces he gave to Adam when he created him and that the Elements render their Duty to Man when he renders his Duty to God that the Fire only enlightens and warms him without blackening or burning him Because the Malignity that is in those Elements as in other Things did never cleave to them till Man would no longer acknowledge a DEPENDANCE upon God All the Elements with the other Creatures subjected to Man were obliged by Right of Justice to quit also the Dependance they had upon Man since he had quitted the Dependance that he had upon his God and not to submit themselves any longer to Man but by force since he would not submit but by force â—â—to God Which is a brutish Obedience Though these new Casuists call the Resignation in some Sufferings which befal Man Vertue and Merit In which there can be no more Merit than the giving Oats to Horses when they have rid well by Prick of Spur So the Man who has no other Vertue but to resign his Will to that of God when he cannot escape Sufferings and is forced to fall into some Misfortune can merit no other thing but the Temporal Repose and Quiet which his Resignation will give him Because it does not proceed from this that he will depend upon God but from the necessity he is in to suffer them by force The Spirits of Men are strangely blinded now for they bring so many Means to cleave to God that they know not which to pitch upon as the best One sayes the Churches and Sacraments must be frequented and another that the Body must be mortified another bids subject the Will to some Man or enter into a Religious Order and a Thousand other such Things Nevertheless there is but one Thing only necessary which is to Resign OUR WILL to THAT OF GOD By which we have fulfilled all For God having the disposal of our Will he will guide it in all that is most perfect and accomplished I asked her If God could not lead our Will in things that are good without our delivering up our selves to him since all belongs to him and all good comes immediately from him She said It is true Sir all good comes from God and there can be no other good but he All the good that Men can do must come from him but know this that since the first Graces which he gave Man in creating him he will give him no other but as far as Man of his Free-will shall depend upon his God and no farther If he will wholly depend upon him he shall have Graces in abundance and if he will onely in part depend upon God he shall still have Graces in part in proportion to his Dependance For Example One will depend
of Election and Reprobation and both necessarily so She said This is Sir because these Persons though well-meaning do not discover the Goodness and the Righteousness of God and they judge only according to the Appearance of Things and not according to the Reality For God can never Reprobate any after that he has created all for Salvation and he cannot damn them for Adam's Sin after he has pardoned it and Man has undertaken the Penitence that God enjoyned him on that occasion If there were any Reprobated for this Sin of Adam in strict Justice Adam ought to be first of all Reprobated since he first committed the Sin 'T is sad to see and hear how Men mistake the Qualities of God making him pass as unjust and evil like themselves I am sorry Sir that I must be so prolix in this Matter but the Thing requires it Because it is a most important Point that regards the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men and therefore I cannot speak too much of it Be not you more weary to hear than I am to speak of it I have still had strange Contradictions in my Spirit when I heard Persons of Sincerity aiming to maintain the Truth and yet notwithstanding very far from knowing it and taking the Sentiments of Men for infallible Truths though very often they persist in their Ignorance which is so great and so prejudicial to the Salvation of many For he who believes he is predestinated to Salvation will not be at the pains to procure it and though he fall into Sins he will not repent of them believing that he cannot be damned and that he shall one Day Repent though it were but the Last of his Life Consider a little Sir what sloth this occasions in those well-meaning Persons and in what hazard they put their Salvation For it is a Delusion to believe that we shall be Saved by God's Predestination Live as we please for God will never Save any since Adam's Sin but those who of their Free-will shall resign themselves to the Will of God Though his Goodness Sav'd all Men in creating them without any Co-operation of theirs yet he will Save none without it after they have their Free-wils to make choice of good or evil God could indeed Save them before they made Resistance and while he was absolute Lord of all Things But since he gave them this Free-will to govern themselves and so many other Things he cannot Save them without themselves Therefore no Body should flatter himself to believe that he shall be Saved if he be predestinated seeing this Predestination can have no more place since the Sin of Adam Every one must exercise himself to work out his Salvation Because no Body shall obtain it but he who of his own Free-will shall yield up into God's Hands the Free Liberty that he gave him These are the Elect Because they being yielded up unto God none can pluck them out of his Hands unless the Person himself should yet withdraw from God Which is almost impossible Because God still directing him his Will can no more be led to evil than that of God is unto which it is joyned and united The Goodness of God replenishes it with so many Graces that it is impossible not to follow them How could the same Goodness ordain that any should be Reprobated since nothing that is evil can proceed from it Must not the Reprobation of Men of necessity come from their evil Will Since it is impossible for God to do evil it is consequently impossible for him to Reprobate so much as one Soul If it be it is still its own Fault only and not at all a Predestination to Damnation Because God damns no Body not even at the Last Day of Judgment For they who shall be then absolute Reprobates shall condemn themselves when the Justice of God shall appear to them their Injustice will give Sentence against themselves and confine them to Hell as the just Merit of their Iniquities and not at all as the Decree of God I said to her It was very probable that God can damn no Body since he is all good and can do no Evil that notwithstanding of this we see according to our short Prospect of Effects as if Men were Predestinated to good and evil As in the Conversion of St. Paul and of Mary Magdalen and on the contrary in the Reprobation of Judas and of the wicked Thief She said Sir These different Accidents are not considered in their Source but only superficially gone over and judg'd according to Humane Sentiments which does not penetrate the Righteousness of God St. Paul was not only a Chosen Vessel on God's part but also on the part of his own Free will For after he had the use of Reason he was alwayes zealous of the Law of God and 't is very probable he had resigned his Free-will to God according to his Knowledge because all that moved him to persecute the Christians was only a desire to maintain his Law which he believed was more perfect as being given by God and imagining that the Christians aimed to destroy it he would maintain it and believe that by doing this he greatly pleased God who seeing this good Desire would needs draw him out of his Ignorance in an outward and extraordinary manner Because it is God's Property to abound in Grace and to prevent Men of good Will by such Means as whereby they may discover that he favours them Therefore he appeared visibly to St. Paul by some Light and made him blind asking him wherefore he persecured him Making him understand by these outward Signs the State of his Soul by the Light he shews him that he was in darkness by the Blindness of his Eyes the Blindness of his Mind which must be directed to some one who might make him see the Truth and by the Question Wherefore he persecuted him to shew him how much he was deceived in Prosecuting the Christians who were the People of God This he knew not all these Things fell out not because God had partially chosen St. Paul to be his Apostle But because he had of his own Free-will chosen to follow Good and to resign himself to God But whereas Men see only these outward Things they believe God acts by Passion as they do and that he prefers one of his Creatures to another Which he does not at all For he loves them all equally as being all his Children and nevertheless gives more Grace to those who are most resigned to him And this with Reason For a Son who does his Fathers Pleasure and is dedicated to his Will is more worthy of Favours than another who resists and despises the Will of the same Father Magdalen received also the Grace of Conversion though she was a Sinner But if we consider well her inward Disposition we shall clearly perceive that she was truly
her Works that she speaks only against those who make use of the Sacraments while they continue and proceed in a corrupt state that it would be tedious to insert in this place See the 28 29 30 and 31. Numb of the 1st p. of Antichrist Reveal'd and the 1st Letter of the 3 p. of the Tomb of false Divinty where she is so far from condemning true Christians for Consecrating their little Children to God in Baptism that she declares expresly that Infant Baptism would be of good use if Parents would take care to educate their Children in the true faith and put them in mind after they are of Age of the promise they made in their name at Baptism namely that they should be Christs Disciples and renounce the Devil the World and all its Vanities And tho' she believ'd according to the opinion of several Learned Men that adult Persons were only Baptiz'd in the primitive Church and preferr'd that custom as being less subject to abuses yet she did not think that this rule or practice was then so generally receiv'd but that it might admit of just exceptions And therefore in an other part of her Writings after she has declar'd speaking to an Anabaptist that we must not amuse our selves with disputing about the external forms of Baptism while the Soul is not willing to die to the corruptions of the flesh that it might live again to the Spirit of Jesus Christ She adds That since the Scripture informs us that in the days of the Apostles whole Families were Baptiz'd at once it is probable that there were young Children as well as old Persons in them In short These things may be done either out of a good or bad Principle but usually and at present generally these things were done out of a bad Principle and this is what she reproves and condemns with so much reason and justice As for that Question whether we ought to condemn the Repitition of Baptism when it was not duly perform'd at first If that Repitition may serve to promote a true conversion to God and his love it 's plain it cannot be disapprov'd but by a Spirit that prefers external things before God and his love which cannot be ascrib'd to the Spirit of God Thus the Scripture furnisheth us with instances of this Repitition of Baptism when it may serve as a mean to receive the Spirit of God See Act. 19. 2 c. Some will be apt to take up a prejudice against her because in some places she speaks with some sharpness against the Protestants the Reformation made by them and the first Reformers But they who consider with what severity she treats the Church of Rome in whose communion she was looking on her as the great Whore that sits on many waters how plainly she represents the corruption of all Parties and how ready every side is to be wedded to the little interest of their rispective Parties will rather admire and love the Impartiality and Ingenuity of her Spirit than be prejudic'd against her upon that head God dwells not in Temples made with mens hands and the human and political constitutions of Churches with their respective Acts Articles Covenants and Schemes of Government have hitherto prov'd but the occasion of mutual hatred and contention and not being Cemented with CHARITY of all these buildings one stone is not like to be left upon another that shall not be thrown down When the Temple was built all the stones were hewn and squar'd in the Wilderness and there was neither Hammer nor Ax nor any Tool of Iron heard in the House while it was in Building And that God may thus rear up the living Temple of his Church will be the prayer of all serious Persons But for a full satisfaction to the exceptions that may be made against her I refer to her own Writings and to the Apologetical Preface written by the R. P. P. and prefixt to her Life In the mean time as her Writings seem design'd for the common good of all Mankind and for reviving the true Spirit of Christianity in the World so I heartily wish they may be made universally useful and that the communicating them to the World in their respective Languages may have its due effect That the Heathen may see how by Nature they are alienated from the life of God and how desirous God is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth That the Mahomitans may admire and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ whom they Honour for a great Prophet and against whose Religion the greatest prejudice is the ill representation made of it by the Lives and Practices of those who profess it That the Jews may be convinc'd that Jesus is the true Messiah whom they look for who is to come again in Glory upon Earth and who having kept them for so many Ages scatter'd among other Nations in a state of contempt and reproach is thereby preparing them for a more exalted state when they shall be graffed in again and made the head who are now the tail That the Professors of Christianity may learn what it is indeed and how far they are from it and that their eyes being open they may see they are greater Idolaters than the Heathens while these thro' ignorance and in the simplicity of their hearts bow their bodies before the Sun or their Idols but those in the midst of light with the bent of their hearts their Love their Affections and endeavours do Worship Gold and Silver and Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Men and Honours and their own Wills and Passions that while they profess to abhor Idols they may cease to be the greatest Idolaters themselves That the several parties of Christendom may be convinced that they have lost Christianity and are fighting for its shadow and while its Essence is Righteousness Goodness and Truth the Devil has shed among them his contrary Antichristian Qualities of Injustice Malice and Hypocrisy under an outward cover of Masses Prayers Preachings Communions Sacraments Sabbaths Holy-Days Fasts c. which when the essence of Christianity is gone are an abomination unto God That the Learned may learn not to be puff'd up with their knowledge and become so humble as to be willing to learn something from a simple Maid that perhaps may be of more use to them than all their Learning and that they may be sensible that Divine Light and Knowledge does as far transcend their Notional Learning as the enjoying and beholding the Sun the Light and all this visible World does the looking upon their Pictures That her own Sex may admire the goodness of God in chusing a Virgin for his Mother and a Virgin to be the Organ of his Light and Spirit in this last Age of the World that they may see they are capable of more excellent endowments than those in which the other Sects pretend to excel them in which God seems to give them the preference to
confound the Wisdom and the Learning of the World that they may strive rather to be well pleasing to God than men that fleeing all earthly loves which prove bitterness in the end they may give their hearts wholly to him who is altogether lovely whose love is unchangeable who will not disappoint them but will reward their Love with infinite Light and Joy and Love That they who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God may beware of taking God's name in vain and of vouching God's Spirit for all their Dreams and Imaginations for where the Spirit of God resides there his fruits are and the Soul that posses him has it's Affections wholly remov'd from Temporal and Earthly things and set upon those which are Spiritual and Eternal That the Pastors of the Church may see at whose Doors the Guilt of the universal Evils of Christendom are like mostly to be laid that they may fear and tremble when they hear that Salt which has lost it's Savour is good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot of Men that by the grace of God they themselves may be taught true Humility Self-denial and a contempt of all Earthly things without which Spirit they are no more capable of Teaching others however they repeat the Words of Christ and his Apostles than an Ape can make a good Picture tho' he take up and use the Painters Pencils and Colours In one Word that all may be brought to deny themselves and to follow Jesus Christ in the true Love of God and of one another and that the Judgments of God being now abroad upon the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn Righteousness For a further Vindication of these Writings and the Sentiments contain'd in them I shall here Subjoyn the protestation made by P. P. after his having Answered the Calumnies and Reproaches which some had publish'd against them in the V. Sect. of La paix des bonnes Ames pag. 278 279 280. But says he if all that said does not satisfy I will make and do at present make this PROTESTATION before God and before all Men that is That M. B. her Friends and I never had have not yet and shall never have by the Grace of God other Sentiments or Designs than to believe and live as true Christians professing by word and deed all that is Fundamental in true Christianity and which is comprehended in the Apostles Creed That we receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as Divine and Infallible and reject all that is contrary thereunto That we believe and adore the adorable and incomprehensible Trinity the Father the Word or the Son and the Holy Spirit God three and one eternaly Blessed the inward distinctions of which by what name soever they be call'd Real Relative Hipostatical Personal Substantial are as true as they are truly incomprehensible by the mind of Man That we hold Jesus Christ to be true Eternal God and true Man to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World to be the Mediatour beetween God and Men who by his Merits by his Satisfaction by his Righteousness by his Life and by his Death is the Author of Salvation to all those who imitate him or to speak with the Apostle to all those who obey him That we ascribe the Glory of all Good purely to the grace of God and all Evil purely to the fault of Man and of the Devil That we make the essence and perfection of true Christianity to consist in Self-denyal in continual Prayer in the Love of God and of our Neighbour and in the imitation of our Saviour That we consider all other speculations as accessory for which it is good not to condemn any body but to leave every one at liberty to embrace or lay them aside as they find them helpful for the advancement of the essential part That the true Key whereby to come to the Knowledge of Divine things is Humility and Prayer and not the forc'd speculations of Human Reason That all States the Ecclesiastical the Political the Oeconomical are Establish'd by God and that the Honour and Submission which is measured out to them and regulated by the word of God is respectively due to them That when evil is reproved this does not concern those States directly nor good men in them who are free of it but only the abuse and the ill behaviour of the wicked That if in the Writings of M. B. or of her Friends there be any thing that is obscure or that seems contrary to what has been said we offer to clear and reconcile it or to disavow it in case it cannot be made appear that it cannot be well explain'd and that it is not a mistake of words We protest against all that may be cited from her writings or objected by way of consequence against what I have said as against so many shameful Manglings Malicious Interpretations deceitful Calumnies injurious Consequences in which God will do us Justice if Men are not just to us I protest also against all those who offer to pass hard Censures upon what concerns M. B. her Friends or my self without having read the principal of her writings or my system as against unjust and unreasonable Judges at least as against Persons very inconsiderate and unworthy of Credit In short I believe I have reason to require that they who shall be convinc'd to have laid to our charge a hundred falshoods and others who shall believe them without reason may not again be admitted the one in the Quality of Accusers and the other in that of Judges but rejected the one as notorious Impostours and the other as wilfully stupid AN ADMONITION TO THE READER Dear Reader SInce 't is my earnest desire that the perusal of this Divine Work of which this is the first Part may be profitable and advantageous to you I cannot forbear wishing that you may give no place in your mind to certain prejudices with which the most part of the World suffer themselves to be so miserably deluded that they would believe themselves deceived if they did not follow them Permit me to speak to you a word or two of some of those pernicious and deceitful prejudices which you must either banish out of your mind or forbear the reading of this Book as you would not bring upon you your own Condemnation by retaining those things which may cause you to make an ill use of it In the first place I advise you not to regard the appearance state or quality of Persons nor any thing that is purely external and so consequently can neither add nor substract from the Truth which has no dependance on things of that Nature Let the speaker be a Man or a Woman let instructions come from this or that place let the persons who are reproved be great or small Turks or Christians many or few you must not be surpriz'd at any of these circumstances Truth and Falshod may
of all Lights She told us Things unheard of so marvellous and sublime that we often remained quite lost with admiration for we had never heard such Things She explained likewise the Holy Scriptures so perfectly that none of the holy Fathers have ever so done nor any Body since the Creation of the World That which did most astonish us was That she told us she had never read nor learn'd them of any Body She knew also the secret Thoughts of the Hearts of many For a proof of which she told us Things so particular about our own inward State that neither Men nor Devils could ever know them Which befel us many times for she warned us of divers Mischiefs hid under a Mask of Piety saying That we were fallen into the dangerous Times foretold by Jesus Christ wherein many call themselves Christians and his Disciples who nevertheless are of the Synagogue of Satan who call themselves the Priests of God the Confessors and Guides of Souls while they adhere unto the Devil by express Covenant That these do seduce many by false appearances and that even those who have resolved to follow God are deceived by these false Prophets who deceive even the Elect under a colour of Holiness and Devotion that all the World was now full of such Guids Which at first did a little stumble us for we could not be enclined to believe that so many People in Christendom even Priests and religious Persons were bound unto the Devil by express Covenant We ask'd her for what reason we ought to believe a thing so abominable For it was always best to have a good Opinion of our Neighbour until the contrary were manifest She says Gentlemen it is meet in the general that you entertain in your Minds a pious Belief that every one is better than your selves but if you piously believe in particular that all the Persons with whom you converse are good you are undone It is more needful for you to discover the Evil which they have hid within them than their Good which will advantage you nothing but their Evil may greatly hurt you when it is unknown to you for you cannot beware of it while you do not know it or at least are in doubt of it It is with this pious Belief that the Good are entrapp'd by Satan who would never follow the Ill which is manifest But that which is hid under Good is much more dangerous You are free Gentlemen to believe of this what you please For my part I declare only what I learn in my inward Conversation with God I have many other Secrets to declare but methinks you are too scrupulous to hear them I will speak no more than you please I know very well how to hold my peace if my Words offend you or do not at all profit you Nevertheless I tell you in Truth that if these Evils be not made manifest to the World all Men are in danger of perishing For very shortly the Plagues of God will fall upon Christians and if Men will not believe that they have thus forsaken God to join themselves unto the Devil the most perfect will blaspheme against the same God who shall afflict them with divers Chastisements such as the like have never yet fallen out She said as in a Spirit of Fury God would be very unjust to exercise so much Rigour against the Christians if they were as good as you believe them or would think them to be It were better for us to separate for your Thoughts are altogether different from mine Go Gentlemen pursue your way For my part I love rather to walk alone and not to speak to you any more keeping my Secrets for my self I never spoke so openly of these Things This so rough and confident Answer did inflame our desire to speak to her the more that we might discover some other Thing knowing well that it is against the timerousness of the Feminine Sex to do and speak so positively to Persons of Learning and Authority as all of us were nevertheless like a strong Woman who would place her Confidence in God alone she answers us without fear making appear sufficiently that she neither desired our Friendship nor our Company no more than our Approbation but with a generous Contempt she walked without any humane Respect testifying abundantly that she sought for nothing upon Earth and that she feared no other Thing but God Which we remarked sufficiently during the whole time of our Voyage having never perceived her to baulk a word to please any Body keeping always to the strait Truth as well in small Things as in great Her Spirit was firm and constant always present to it self we never saw her wandring nor distracted She had a Judgment so just and equitable that she could not suffer the least Injustice tho' it had been in her own favour This streight Judgment was always blind without respecting either her Friends or Enemies her Honour or Reproach her Ease or Trouble her Hurt or Profit In fine we always discovered in her a perfect streightness on all sorts of Rencounters and a Truth so firm that never one Word did contradict another in so long a space of time and amidst so many different Discourses and Subjects She spoke very little unask'd and answer'd our Demands so effectually that often we remained mute and without Reply in very sublime Things being oblig'd to acknowledge that the Wisdom infused by God does far surpass all the Wisdom of Men. But it is no wonder that God did communicate himself to this Soul for she desired no other Communication nor Contentment but only what she found with her God For if we were about to tell her some News even of pious Matters she begg'd we would not speak of them to her saying that they were nothing but Distractions And when we entred into any strange Towns where she had never been she took no notice of any thing in them For having one Day entred into a Town and abode there for three Days after we came out of it I would needs speak of the fine Church that was there She said Is there a Church there Truly I did not see it Thus in whatsoever place she was she continued always in her Recollection We saw her often in Rencounters where she met with Affronts and Contempt and on other Occasions where she received Praises she never changed her Countenance receiving Contempt without Trouble and Praises without pleasure She shewed some Discontent when any Gift was offered her or when we would have rendered her any Service which she would never accept of except in case of Necessity or Sickness We perceived her always of a joyful Countenance but never to delight her self in any earthly Thing that might give her Joy In short we may all truly affirm that we never observed in her any Vice Sin or any weakness of Spirit but a perfect and solid Vertue surpassing natural and humane Strength which made us
say that her Life was altogether miraculous as if Adam had never sin'd in her This we do not speak lightly but after much proof and experience by so constant and familiar a Conversation of so long continuance travelling with her Night and Day amidst Ease and Trouble Want and Abundance and so many other Occasions which are to be met with in Traveling of observing a Person exactly in all her Manners where nothing can remain unknown or counterfeited coming under the Eye and Judgment of Persons of Learning and Judgment as this Pilgrimess has done who assuredly was sent to us from God to manifest us his Secrets and his Wonders This is an Instance of his great Mercy that in the midst of so gross universal Darkness as is at present in the World God has vouchsafed yet to send us such a Light capable of enlightning the whole World at least all those who will receive it For no Body can seriously read or hear the Discourses of this Pilgrimess without discovering the state of his own Conscience and also the poor Estate into which Christendom has now fallen the blindness of Men and the hazard of their Salvation She shews clearly that we live now in the last Times that this is the Reign of Antichrist that he has almost full Dominion over all Men that his Kingdom will very shortly be at an end She does not draw her Discourses from imaginary Things nor from fine Speculations invented by Philosophical or Poetical Reasonings but in a Reasoning so firm and constant that she seems to possess in her Nature the Abridgment of all the Sciences of Men together with Truths so convincing so clear and eloquent capable of engaging every good Understanding to an infallible Belief though her Stile is always simple and sincere She spoke Of Extasies and Ravishments which the Devout esteem Vertues as great Imperfections and Weaknesses for Souls establish'd in Vertue which consists only in Righteousness and Truth and Faith saying that all the rest were nothing but amusements on which a Soul establish'd in the Love of God will never rest She told us such high Mysteries of our Faith as never any has attain'd to so clear Understanding of them She spoke of Judgment quite after another manner than all the Authors who ever wrote upon this Subject and yet with such clearness that every Mind would be ravish'd at it with pleasure and astonishment She knew Things to come and did not foretel them but by way of supposition or related them as if she had dream'd them We found divers times that she could tell what past in her absence and how our Souls behav'd themselves towards God She made no reckoning of all these extraordinary Graces saying That they gave nothing to the Soul which possesses them that neither Miracles nor Gifts of Prophecy were necessary to our Salvation that one might have them and yet be damned that all our Happiness consists in possessing in our Souls the Love of God which is true Charity that other Gifts are accidental that the Wicked may indeed work Miracles and have the Gifts of Prophecy when it pleases God that the Devils themselves do frequently Things altogether miraculous and foretel likewise Things to come In short this illuminated Soul desired nothing but what was solid and perfect rejecting even a great many particularities which are mention'd in the Life of some Saints saying That either they had Imperfections among their Vertues or rather that they who wrote their Lives were not endowed with the holy Spirit to discern true Vertue from natural Weaknesses that God was not visible to the Eyes of the Body that our Imagination may frame many Visions of divers Figures and that the Devil mingles himself always in things sensible to our Gust and to our natural Senses that there are great Cheats among Persons who make Profession of a spiritual Life that the Devil slips in there as an Angel of Light and that he who does not force himself to overcome his natural Inclinations can never come to live Christianly that all that is of Nature is not of Grace that to live a Christian one must live supernaturally that our Soul is a Spirit that God does not communicate himself unto it but in Spirit and in Truth That there are none but Souls purified from themselves and from all earthly Objects who hear the Voice of God that the Cares of ones Health of his Honour and of his Wealth are great hindrances to the receiving of divine Notices which are formed by the sole motion of the Soul which receives and understands them according as it is stript of it self In short this divine Soul told us so many Secrets of the mystical and inward Life that all our Theology was too short and insufficient to answer her to so high Questions not only in Matters of Theology but also in all other Matters according to the various Rencounters and Occurrences which fell out in so long a Voyage so that one would have thought that tho' a Man had perused all sorts of Histories and grown old in the Study of all sorts of Sciences he could not know with such Understanding all the Things which this Pilgrimess told us Which she made very little reckoning of saying That all the Sciences which do not serve as means to love God are vain and frequently the occasion of our Damnation Her Conversation was always serious and when by chance we felt into any unprofitable or indifferent Discourse she was silent and calmly withdrew making appear sufficiently that it was not agreeable to her and sometimes she said Discourses which profit nothing do weary and oppress my Spirit I love my Solitude better in which it re-inforces it self and becomes vigorous And therefore I entreat you let me go alone as long as I profit you in nothing and you will do me a pleasure It is impossible to write in particular the admirable Things which we heard of this Pilgrimess She told us so great Marvels concerning the State of the World the just Vengeance that God would take of wicked Christians and the Mercy which he would shew unto the Good that the like were never heard of and it would be hard to believe them if this did not come from the Mouth of a Soul directly illuminated who spoke by the motion of the holy Spirit So that we may say of her Discourses what S. Paul said of his Rapture That he had seen and heard things which Eyes had not seen nor Ear heard and that is has not entred into the mind of Man what God has prepared for his Elect. What she said was to fall out in the last Time during the Judgment and after the Judgment was never before heard of nor conceived They are Things which do ravish all Men with Fear with Joy and with Astonishment For my part I can say as to my self that the meeting with this Pilgrimess has withdrawn me from all sort of Evil has given me a
evils He can never do evil All that comes from him is most good and perfect he created us in an altogether holy and perfect state with an immortal body and a divine soul subject to none but himself having given us a spirit enlighten'd to know him and a power to rule over all the creatures both terrestrial and infernal and if he has oblig'd us to aid and succour one another this is not that he had created us more infirm than any other living creature but only to the end he might afford us matter for entertaining mutual Charity and Union together one assisting his Brother out of love the other being led to love him by the assistance and benefits which he receives from him and thus perpetually to maintain this love by the aliment of the need that we have of one another to the end we might continue united together as Jesus Christ is united to his Father And even the manner of the Generation of men is ordain'd for no other reason but always to preserve this perfect unity of body and spirit Thus you see that God has done all things well tho it seems sometimes to our ignorance that many evil things come from God the only Author of all good and the Destroyer of all evil It is our sin which has caused all the miseries under which we continually groan the maladies and infirmities of body are engender'd in us by sin the weakness ignorance and inconstancy of our spirit do proceed from sin That all the creatures rise up against us and hurt us this is but to take just vengeance of the rebellion which we have committed against God by sin It is a blasphemy therefore to say That God has subjected us to so many evils since we our selves only are the Authors of them and he can never do evil no not to damn us if we do not damn our selves and to know how and by what means we may attain to the LOVE OF GOD which is true Charity we need only take the Gospel and there observe in particular the instructions which Jesus Christ and his Apostles have left us in writing and put them in practice Behold the sure means to attain to true Charity without which no body can be sav'd It is not necessary that we seek any other means than those which Jesus Christ has taught us by word and deed I said to her if to be sav'd one must have this perfect Charity few persons will attain to salvation for we do not observe now that the Charity of which she speaks does possess the hearts of men She answers This is to be bewail'd with tears of blood for no body shall be sav'd without it as St. Paul affirms that Tho we would bestow all our goods to feed the poor tho we could remove Mountains tho we had the Gift of Prophecy yea tho we would give our body to be burned yet all this would be nothing for our Salvation without Charity And if you will exactly run over all the holy Scriptures you shall find by the sayings of Jesus Christ of the Apostles and of all the holy Prophets that never any person shall be sav'd without this Charity which consists in the LOVE OF GOD and of our Neighbour for God In the mean time no body possesseth this Charity and almost all the world presumes to be sav'd There is now Sir so great darkness in the whole world that no body discerns truth from falshood since they have taught Christians that the means of living well and of being sav'd do consist in going to Church in praying morning and evening and in confessing and communicating often By these things they have annull'd the Law of God and stified Charity for this is no more in use among Christians it is not so much as known by them and they understand not what true CHARITY is because this name is now appropriated to the gifts which persons bestow on Monks religious persons the superfluous Ornaments and Buildings of Monasteries and Churches they have baptizd by the name of Charity all these Gifts Presents and Legacies And I in my inward conversation do find them to be sensual affections and call them Robbery and Avarice for he who receives Presents without necessity by way of Alms does certainly commit Robbery and robs the poor and necessitous who alone are capable of receiving alms So that he whosoever he be having necessaries for the support of his life being able to gain them by some trade or labour is oblig'd to restore all the gifts and presents which he receives by way of alms and that person commits the sin of avarice who covets more than what is simply necessary for the support of his life for it is a great folly for a Traveller to load himself with burthens which are not necessary to him for the accomplishing of his Voyage Thus no body can enrich himself or heap up earthly goods without the Lust of Avarice which sin as all others does blind souls rendring them insensible of their own hurt But because they have introduc'd the calling of these vices and sins by the name of Charity every one believes they have it while they co-operate to these vices by this the Devil has seiz'd on the Throne of God and reigns in the Sanctuary by falshood whereas God ought to reign there by truth Behold the deplorable state in which we live at present the danger is so much the greater that all the evils are cover'd with vertue and piety that good men may be the more deceiv'd who live and die in this horrible darkness not knowing what true Charity is far less do they possess it so that I despair of their Salvation If they do not perceive this truth of Charity they can never be sav'd since not knowing it they cannot love it nor endeavour to find it while they think it is enough to bear the name of charitable tho they neither know nor possess true Charity There are so many such errors now in Christendom that Christians are by them led insensibly into Hell while they believe that they are assuredly in the way of Paradice I ask'd her If the goodness of God would permit that so many persons should go to perdition while they believe that they do well and follow the counsel of learned men and such as are authoriz'd by the Church She said Truly Sir there will be more Christian Souls damn'd by these means than by gross visible and material sins because all those persons who think to be sav'd live and die in the sins against the Holy Ghost which will not be pardon'd neither in this world nor in the other Not that these sins are so enormous that they cannot be pardon'd but because they are inward and spiritual little known and far less feared The most devout persons are tainted with them and will
degree that it can come to and the Devil has gain'd an inward dominion over the hearts of all men not that wickedness is manifestly at the highest degree in the judgment of men for it will appear more clearly when they shall commit all sort of sins publickly without being afraid of any the evil will seem then greater but it will be less in the sight of God for it will then be no more accompanied and disguised with Hypocrisie as it is at present The Devil having gain'd the hearts of ill men will remain no longer conceal'd He is desirous to reign publickly and openly assoon as he can for his greater Glory As long as there were here and there some good Souls he kept himself hid to the end he might gain them but at present he can so well disguise his malice that all serve him the wicked with good will as his hired Servants and the good serve him by constraint as his Slaves From hence I infer that the time of his Reign is come and that he will appear very shortly visibly in the flesh And to satisfy the second doubt proposed viz. how there shall be Martyrs of Jesus Christ and of those who shall obtain Salvation by the Perfecutions of this discover'd Antichrist this shall be an effect of the last Mercy of God who will yet once send his light into the world according to his promise That the light shall arise in darkness and that the darkness shall be as noon day That is to say that in this time of darkness in which we live at present wherein the Truth is not any longer discern'd from Lies Faithfulness from Deceit nor Righteousness from Iniquity that God will make his Light to arise in this Darkness and that these who shall receive it shall open their eyes and see the blindness of their understanding and reject the spirit of errour into which they were fallen thro the false perswasions of this invisible Antichrist and shall embrace the spirit of truth which is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and by this means dispose themselves to Martyrdom and to saving sufferings in the Quarrel of Jesus Christ for many are now detain'd the Slaves of the Devil thro ignorance and inadvertency believing even that they follow Jesus Christ when they follow this strange Shepherd thro his delusions I thought it impossible to believe that the Devil had dominion over the hearts of all men because I knew many who make profession of being good men who in effect are observ'd to addict themselves to pious and religious works exercising themselves in both publick and private Devotions employing themselves according to their Callings in succouring their Neighbour and owning the quarrel of good men in making peace and agreement between those who have quarrels and debates She said Sir it is by these works which seem good and pious that the Devil deceives the good and renders them his Slaves making them to do his will without their perceiving it It is for this reason our times may well be called dangerous because the darkness is so thick as that good is not any longer discern'd from evil Those are esteem'd good men who do often frequent the Churches and Sacraments and are present at the publick Solemnities and they who do so believe themselves to be good men and to live well but believe me Sir if this be not done in the true Spirit of Christianity these are all but amusements for the life of a Christian is an inward and spiritual Life consisting in the LOVE and Respect we owe to God and CHARITY to our Neighbour for God This Love is an inward Passion of our Soul which is known to none but God himself as also this Charity for our Neighbour These inward passions are sometimes discover'd outwardly by external operations as to suffer willingly for him whom we love to be subject in all things to his will to honour him with all our power by these solid vertues it is discover'd if we be good men not by making a profession of being so for this profession of being good proceeds often from a presumption of our Salvation which is a sin against the Holy Ghost A sinner who knows his sin is often a better man than this presumptuous person The Sixth Conference How the outward worship of God and the outward works of Charity towards our Neighbour are corrupted by the Devil And from whence this Power proceeds I Desir'd to be satisfy'd concerning all these points of good works which I had observ'd to be yet in use among those who profess to be good men to see whither the Devil would produce such operations in his Adherents I ask'd her first If it was not a good work to go often to the Church or to its Solemnities She answer'd It is very good to go to Church to hear the Word of God since Jesus Christ himself went thither to teach it for there is distributed or at least ought to be that word which gives food or nourishment to the souls of the faithful But I pray you Sir says she reflect a little seriously with me on the way of going to Church and of teaching the Word of God there which is now observ'd and see if you will not be oblig'd to confess that by what is now done in Churches the Devil receives much more honour than God therefore he incites his Adherents to go thither often and the Ministers to perform the Solemnities there frequently They go to Church out of custom and being there they behave themselves even as they do in profane places The Solemnities there are so vain that they serve rather to satisfie the senses than to move devotion Among a thousand persons who follow Processions you will scarce find one who has his heart lifted up to God! Sermons are made more out of vanity and heard more out of curiosity than to profit by them Behold the Theater of the World at present judge now whither all these things can pass for good works in the sight of God and if the Devil has not ground to excite them to these actions from whence he derives so much his advantages When once he could perswade men that a Christian Life consists in outward actions he perverted all the good so that they do rather follow him than Jesus Christ because these visible and outward things make a stronger impression on the natural senses than those spiritual things which Jesus Christ has taught and commanded us I felt in my soul that this was true but desiring to learn more I said to her that for those who apply themselves to their Neighbours as to visit the poor and the sick to own the quarrel of the good to quiet and appease strife and contentions that these works could not come from the suggestion of the Devil She reply'd All these things are good if they were done in the spirit of Charity and purely for the Love of God but that this was so
the mischief proceeds from this that our senses are distracted from the works of God and that we apply them to know and to love earthly objects which are below us and unworthy of being lov'd by us for they can give us no other thing but divertisement of mind and amusement of our senses without any profit since all is but vanity passing away in a moment without leaving any thing in our souls but vexations and regrets at death Behold the height of all the happiness we can ever hope for in loving any creatures whatsoever A mans mind must be infatuated if he do not find in the works of God and in his operations which we experience in our selves all sorts of occasions to love and to follow him For who can consider the beauty of the Sun and of the Stars of Heaven the good and fertility of the Flowers and Fruits of the Earth without being ravish'd with admiration in considering what beauty and goodness he must have who gives them to all these things We amuse our selves sometimes in loving a stone a flower or a humane creature for its beauty and we do not raise our understandings to love the fountain and the giver of all these beauties which is God! most durably beautiful who cannot fade as do all these other beauties which are nothing but phantastical and changeable If God had not the perfection of all beauties how could he give it to so many diverse things for one can never give that which he himself has not Who can say therefore that we do not see nor feel God as we do the creatures since he shews himself and lets himself be felt by his operations which are sensible to our senses Who can say that he does not continually perceive God operating in him and doing him infinite good That we have a being is by the good will of God That we see or speak or hear are the gifts of God That we reason with our understanding that we enjoy our five natural Senses these are all gifts of God which no body can give unto himself and which cannot be acquired by Gold and Silver or Freinds let them be who they will The daily food of our body does it not all come from God For what man can make a grain of Corn or a Strawberry to grow All these things with a thousand others do they not afford us sensible enough subjects to know and to love God Can we say in truth that we do not see him nor feel him since he makes himself to be seen and felt every moment by so many benefits which our Soul and our Body do receive in so great abundance which cannot come from any other but from God himself It would be more true to say that we could not love the creatures than that we cannot love God for they can give us nothing and God gives us all that we see by our natural senses and that this impossibility of loving God and of fulfilling his Commandments is apply'd to a contrary sense and that it is more impossible to love the creatures with all our heart because they can never fill our soul for it is spiritual and they are material and therefore no congruity in them to be loved with all our heart which cannot be filled but with God alone The Fifteenth Conference That God has never given to Man but one only essential Command which is that of his LOVE which is most easie and most agreeable and the Love of all other things most vain I Said unto her That she confounded the Ten Commands of God into one and that they who say it is impossible to keep his Commands speak of all not only of the first She reply'd Sir the first is the only Commandment to which God would have us subjected He has never laid any other burthen upon our shoulders but this gentle Yoke of LOVE All the other Laws and Commands are occasioned by our sins and are ordain'd by God for no other end but that we may know them and beware of them He perceiv'd that men from the beginning of the world began to appropriate to themselves Beasts and other earthly goods as things depending upon themselves which led to a forgetfulness of and an ingratitude to God Therefore he appointed the Sacrifices of Beasts and the other First Fruits that by these outward signs they might always preserve in their heart the remembrance that all which they possest came from God It was his will also that they should build him a rich Temple for the same reason that all men might always acknowledge that all their treasures riches and magnificences came from God and did belong to him Therefore he requires that they build him a magnificent Temple Not that God has need of Temples of Riches or Treasures being All in himself But he requires that man retain this acknowledgment of God that by the remembrance of so many benefits he may be oblig'd to love him and to fulfil this first Commandment That he gave to Moses ten Commands written in stone was when men began to multiply their wickedness giving themselves to swear rob bear false witness commit fornication and the rest the goodness of God forbids all these things fearing lest the ignorance of these evil deeds might be the cause of their damnation By these Commands he shews them their sins forbidding them to commit them any longer because all these things were hinderances of loving God as he had commanded them The Law of Circumcision aim'd also at the same to make man acknowledge that he held his life of God and for an outward sign of this acknowledgment he requir'd that he should shed of his blood Not that he had need either of the blood of men or beasts but it is his will that all things should acknowledge that they receiv'd all their being from God that this acknowledgment might oblige them always to love their Creator Even the Evangelical Law consists in no other thing but in this first Command of loving God with all our heart The counsel of poverty chastity and the rest of the Evangelical counsels are given us only for means to attain to this LOVE because he who loves riches luxury himself or other things cannot love God with all his heart nor fulfil this first Commaadment By which you may perceive evidently Sir that all the Commands of God are comprehended in the first and that all the rest are only prohibitions to do what would hinder this love that God has never given us any other Law but that of loving him and that the pity which he has to see us perish made him give all those prohibitions contain'd in his Commandments Can this be evil or impossible to be observed as you have affirm'd to me Is it impossible to be in the world without killing robbing committing adultery and the rest It is rather impossible for him who has common sense to do
would not be capable of gaining our Affection For it is impossible to love them without being distracted and turned away from God For if we considered the Qualities of God and compared them with those of the Creatures we would see that those are but Dung compared with Gold Besides that all the Creatures together cannot save us nor give us so much as one Moment of Life We pass sometimes our whole Life in studying to render our selves accomplish'd among Men and they have no Power to make us happy even in this World for their Friendship is changeable and their Fortune unconstant Their Fidelity does often depend upon our Complaisance a small Word ill plac'd will render them your Enemies And tho' it were real and constant death can rob you of it in a Moment and you will never find them any more in your Need. Do you not see that all things are frail upon which there is no leaning no Ground to let our selves be charm'd or our Senses tickl'd if there were not a Disorder of Spirit and a Forgetfulness of God! And if this were remov'd it is impossible to love the Creatures in themselves and to cease to love God even tho he had never commanded us Even Natural Instinct leads us to his Love by the consideration of his wonderful Works and of his Benefits which we receive every Moment There needed no other Love to oblige us to love him with all our Heart and with all our Strength The Sixteenth Conference Of continual Prayer and constant Communion with God for which we were created And how we are distracted from it by the Business of this World and by the Enjoyment of frail Creatures I Perceiv'd most clearly that all this was true and moreover that all Men were very far from such Sentiments that every one of them spent their Life in the Affairs and Business of the World and thought not themselves obliged to keep Communion in Spirit with God fearing that this might rob them of the Time and Occasion of dispatching well their Affairs I ask'd her Whether every one was oblig'd to keep continual Communion with God If this was not the particular Business of the Monks the Religious or other Persons who make Profession of a Spiritual Life tending to Perfection She said Sir all Christians are Religious for there can be no other Religion but a Christian Life Every one who would be sav'd is obliged to entertain his Spirit continually with God therefore Jesus Christ says That we ought always to pray and never faint He speaks to Persons of all Conditions not to the Religious only for there were none in his Time who did wear disguised Habits as they do now but all Christians were religious as they are yet at present Neither the Habit nor the Cloyster do make Religion but the Observance of the Evangelical Counsels We are greatly mistaken if we think that God has a Regard to the States and Conditions of Persons He regards not whether we be Religious or Married but whether we observe his Commandments and his Doctrine Every one is free to chuse what State he will provided that in it he observe the Christian Doctrine There is not any State nor any Condition that can exempt a Person from keeping continual Communion with God For he invites us to this and we are created for no other Thing All other Affairs or Businesses are but accidental and of small importance whether they succeed or miscarry it matters little because all their Successes cannot serve us but for this short Life which stands not in need of much if we would content our selves with what is necessary only In which we would be more happy than all the Kings of the Earth for all that we possess beyond this Necessity is Affliction and Vexation of Spirit God created us to love him only and that he might take his Delight with us and we with him This is the only End of our Creation He had no need of us but he would create us to take his Pleasure with us This is that which we do least of all think of or apply our selves unto It seems we would change the Designs that God has concerning us while we will not follow his Ordinance of Praying always One thinks he is born to be a Lawyer an Advocote a Priest a Monk a Merchant or for any other State Office or Benefice to which he is advanc'd and they press hard to perfect themselves to increase and prosper in it as if they were created to do this And when they are arriv'd at the highest of their Pretensions Death comes which consumes all What a silly Business have we aim'd at What a poor Stay of all our Hopes Our Riches are perish'd Our Honours remain on the Earth All our Travels Cares and Labours have left us nothing but Ashes and Rottenness in Recompence of all our Acquests The Noble and the Ignoble the Prince and the Servant being all reduc'd to the same Estate all naked in the Grave the Poor and the Rich having an equal Portion Behold the End of all the Business and Affairs of the World for the Advancement of which we neglect Communion with God tho' this would advance them more if we were habituated to this Communion which would perfect all things I said to her That Men were very blind in not considering seriously these Truths and that she ought to pray to God that he would take from them the Vail which hindred them from seeing their so great Misery and that they might comprehend the Obligation they have to pray always which they were very far from doing To which she replyed Men Sir are as far from Salvation as they are far from this Knowledge For Jesus Christ has said nothing in vain To be saved we ought assuredly to pray always for as soon as we shall cease to have our Spirit lifted up to God we shall fall into many Evils from which we can very hardly recover our selves because Sin blinds the Soul and renders it often insensible of its Evils If this were not true how could it be that one should see every Day his Brother or his Neighbour die leaving behind him all upon the Earth without carrying away any thing and that he should not thereby discover his own Folly and his Blindness in labouring with so much Care to heap up earthly Goods which at Death serve for nothing What tho' I pray Sir God will never force their Wills he sends them occasions enough to open their Eyes But as long as they shall continue to have their Affections set on earthly Goods they cannot love God one of these Affections must go out to let the other in They can never dwell both together And for my part I can never pray for an unjust thing God makes no body blind but their Sins and the little desire they have to seek God has clos'd their Eyes He well
says That they shall live for ever He has said elswhere That neither Whoremongers nor Drunkards shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Neverthelss we see daily such Persons receive the Eucharist Can they live for ever without entring into the Kingdom of Heaven There would be a great Contradiction in the Words of Jesus Christ He cannot save those whom he condemns nor say to those who shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that they shall live for ever It is assuredly his Word which he calls his Flesh and his Blood For whosoever shall eat it that is to say incorporate it as the Nourishment of his Soul it must needs be that he live for ever for this Word gives Life Eternal and he who feeds upon it as on his daily Bread can never die this is the Tree of Life seeing it gave Life to all things This Word has created Heaven and Earth of nothing How should it not give Life unto the Soul which receives it And if it have the Force to translate Bread into the Body of Jesus Christ as they teach how shall it not change our Souls into the Spirit of Life Eternal if we receive and incorporate it as becomes Jesus Christ said These are my Mother my Sisters and my Brethren who hear my Word and do it To shew that he esteems more the Receiving of his Word than the having contributed to the Formation of his Human Body it being most certain that the Virgin Mary was more happy in receiving and doing his Word than in being his natural Mother I said to her That there were many Errors in the Church if the Sense that she proposed ought to be received That it was very clear and intelligible but it had never been understood after this manner She said Blessed be God Sir that he grants yet this Mercy to the World to send his Light amidst the so obscure Darkness into which it is brought at present All the highest Mysteries of our Faith are involved in this Obscurity nothing is understood in a perfect Sense and they do often apply Senses contrary to the Truth They have walk'd as groping even till Now. It is no Wonder if they fall from one Error into another insensibly It is a great Happiness that it has pleas'd God to let us live even until the Time that he comes to enlighten the World after that so great a number have perish'd through Ignorance We have no more deserv'd it than they Let us endeavour to apply it rightly unto our Salvation without letting the occasion slip which is now so freely offered us How many souls are there of such a tender Conscience that they dare not reject a Sentiment which comes from the Roman Church or any Decree of its College fearing to offend God because they look upon it and take it for the Holy Church I knew a Person of a very good Life a Doctor of Theology who said That if the Pope forbad him to read the Gospel he durst not read it any longer So much was he preoccupied with this Belief that Rome is the Holy Church Upon this Supposition all the most pious do follow that which is Evil without perceiving it because they have taught us that we owe a blind Obedience As if we were permitted to follow Evil blindfold which is a great Error For we are all oblig'd to discern whether what we follow be good or bad For Example This Doctor could not abstain from Reading of the Gospel without offending God highly tho' the Pope had forbidden him to read it because this Prohibition is contrary unto Jesus Christ who has brought his Word from Heaven to be the Rule of our Life and the Nourishment of our Souls and has said That it must abide in us for ever How could we cast it behind us because a Pope forbids it who cannot destroy what God has establish'd nor forbid what he has commanded without being Antichrist for all that is against Christ is assuredly Antichrist We may indeed believe and follow what the Pope and his Councils do ordain us when they are things conformable to the Law of God and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is no other thing but the Explication of the Law Tho' this were taught us by the Devil himself we could not do ill to follow it But the things which are contrary ought never to be blindly follow'd God has made us Reasonable Creatures to the End we may discern Good and Evil. All the Blindness that a true Christian ought to have is to captivate his Spirit under the incomprehensible Works of God not to captivate it to believe that that which is Evil is Good A man must have lost Sense and Spirit to abandon himself to such a blind Obedience which nevertheless the most part of pious Christians do who do yield in all things to the Ordinances of the Pope or of his Council If this Mischief be not shortly at an End and if the Truth be not discover'd in this Point all the World will perish Because many things will be determin'd which will be against God tho' it were nothing but the Infallibility of the Pope It contradicts directly the Truth because no Man can ever be infallible how holy soever he may be S. Peter the first Pope did expresly deny his Master and did really err in dissembling because of the Jews for which S. Paul reproves him Can it ever be said without Blasphemy that a Man is Infallible secing Infallibility appertains to God alone Neither the Pope nor any other can err or fail in following the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but in following their own Judgments or those like themselves they may fail and err greatly I ask'd her How it was possible that God should have left his Church for so long a Time in Errors She said Sir God has not left his Church in Errors she can never err nor fail for she is one and the same thing with God As the Bridegroom is but one Flesh with his Spouse even so the Church is but one Spirit with God Therefore she can never be left in Errors not for one Moment But the Errors which I discover to you Sir are in Men not in the Church for the Church is no where but in the Souls which possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who have never err'd so long as they abide in it The Church is a Spiritual and Invisible Spirit which renders it self visible by the Human Bodies which this Spirit animates So long as these Bodies are animated and possest with this Spirit of Jesus Christ they are all Members which make up this Church But if this Spirit withdraw himself they are no more but Members of Flesh not Members of the Church Errors therefore are insinuated into these Members of Flesh not into the Spirit of God But whereas these Members of Flesh did possess formerly the Spirit of the Church
Evangelical Counsels for observing it aright He is despis'd and rejected by the Great Men of this World He is also Reproach'd Buffeted held for a Wicked One To shew that the Praises of Men are not to be sought for but their Reproaches rather to be endur'd for the Love of God At last he is put to Death for the Truth enduring all with Patience To teach us to suffer patiently even to Death And all that he has endur'd has been to give us an Example I ask'd her In case Men had not come to so great Extremity of Evil whether she believ'd that Jesus Christ would have come so soon to take Human Flesh She Replied No Sir he would not have come till the end of the World to judge and condemn Men in abolishing Evil He would have come in the glory of all his Majesty with all his Angels not in Contempt and Sufferings He would have come to Reign not to undergo an infamous Death If you read attentively the Prophets Sir you will find that they speak far more of this coming in Glory than of that in Reproach For the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory is as it were THE SUM OF THE DESIGNS WHICH GOD HAS OVER MEN And the coming in Reproach is as it were the Accident of the said Designs Therefore there will be much more spoken of through all the Holy Scriptures Read Sir attentively all the said Scriptures from the creation of the World you will find that they all will aim at this Kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth with Men for this is the end of their Creation God can never reign fully in Men until the time of this coming in Glory because that they living yet in the liberty of doing evil do not yet give full possession to God to reign in their Souls for very often or at least by accident Sins do rule there Which we have seen in the greatest Saints of the World A David a Solomon all the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ yea all those who have since been esteemed Saints have all in general fallen into Trespasses and have strayed from God for some time By which he could not find in them his perfect reign as he will do after his glorious Coming For then all will be Deify'd Bodies as well as Souls And there will be an end of all Evil. God will then have his full dominion over all Flesh which has never been For the most part of Men in all times have Blasphemed and Despised him tho all were created by him to love him and to adore him They have yielded their honour and love to the Creatures instead of the Creator Is it not fit Sir that these things be one day repaired and that God be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth by his Creatures I said to her That assuredly God would after that manner be adored in Heaven but that I could not comprehend how he could be so here upon Earth She said I perceive Sir that you take for Heaven and Paradise some precise place or some particular part which ferves for a Residence to God And for my part I cannot believe that there is any thing capable of containing God for he is greater than all things and cannot be contain'd by any thing less than himself The Heaven is but his Creature which we say is on high and God has neither high nor low for he contains all Heaven and Paradise is always in him for there can be no other but his Presence and he who is in his Presence is in Heaven and Paradise For my part I know no other They tell us many imaginary things of God and of Paradise which have very little relation to what they are It seems God is like an earthly King who is lodged in some Palace of Wood or Stone These are all Speculations of Men as earthly as their Affections For God cannot have any fixt place for his Residence seeing he comprehends all things When I say that God will be upon Earth reigning with Men the Earth will then be Paradise for in all Places where he is there is always Paradise If God were in Hell Hell would then be Paradise there being no other but the presence of God That makes in all places where it is Heaven and Paradise When this presence is in our Soul our Soul is Heaven How can you not comprehend Sir that God could be truly adored in Spirit and in Truth upon Earth seeing he has so often promised to make an Alliance with Men Must not this Alliance be made upon Earth God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station but Man having a Body has need of some Place to contain him The Earth was created for this necessity that it might contain the Bodies of Men. Why then should not God come upon Earth to dwell with them seeing they cannot go where God is in that purity of Spirit Of necessity he must either come upon Earth or indeed they could not be entirely united together I asked her When Jesus Christ shall come to reign upon Earth and to Allie himself with Men She said As sooon as the Plagues shall have rooted out all the Wicked or the greatest part of them then He will appear in the Clouds and all the World shall see him You may indeed live till then Sir if God please For my part I hope to see him and to reign with him Eternally In this all my hopes and my joy do consist For this Life is too miserable to take any contentment in it without the hope of this time to come I say it will be very shortly for I see the Measure full and Mens sins are come to the height They cannot be more numerous And if there were not some small Veil of Human respect they would Murther Rob commit Adultery and do all sorts of Abomination publickly as well as they do them before God But Pride keeps these things yet concealed that they may not be despised by Men And as for what passeth only before God or a few Persons they make no more reckoning of it It seems all is lawful provided it be not discovered What greater Evil can be expected The abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary Tho Christians be the People of God they have denied his Faith and have abandoned it to become Idolaters of one another Every one has his proper Idol one worships his own Body another his own Spirit another his Learning another his Riches another his Honours another his Children or other Creatures In short none adore God but with their Lips Is it a wonder that the Judgment is near when we see that all Men have abandoned their God Is it not time that he likewise abandon them which he cannot do but according as Man withdraws himself from God by the same consequence God is withdrawn from Man for two things cannot stay together when the one withdraws it self
Heaven and the rest shall be given you this also will not come to pass in this Life For the Servants themselves who seek the Kingdom of Jesus have suffered many Necessities and Lazarus at the the Rich Man's Feet could not obtain a crum of Bread tho' he did not cease to ask it If the Promise which Jesus Christ has made of giving the rest to those who shall seek his Kingdom were to be understood of this present Life none if the Friends of God would stand in need of any thing tho' they should not ask of any it would be needful that God accomplish what he has promised them And if the Kingdom of Heaven were only spiritual as People do imagine there would be no need of any rest or other things after having obtain'd this Kingdom which would suffice fully Do you not see Sir that this promise of Jesus Christ is to be understood of his Kingdom upon Earth where he will give besides his Glory all material things for the delights of our Body Which he calls The Rest and makes us understand that we shall not need to seek and labour to have them but that he will give them freely as an excess of Blessedness And when Jesus Christ says He who shall leave Father Mother Brethren Sisters Lands or any other thing for his Name shall have a hundred fold in this World neither can this be understood of this present Life for the Apostles and so many other Saints who abandon'd all to follow him had not an hundred fold in Earth Mother Brethren Sisters Houses or Lands but on the contrary had need of many things after having abandon'd them Jesus Christ himself after having abandoned the delights of Heaven says That he had not in this Life a stone where to rest his Head How then should his Promises be true that he would render a hundred fold in this Life Jesus Christ can he lie and make all who have abandon'd all for his sake to be afterward in want of things necessary which would be very far from having the hundred fold of them We see the Wicked have ordinarily more Prosperity in Earthly Goods than the Just Jesus Christ would be a deceiver to falsifie his Promise which he has made unto all those who shall forsake all for his sake This cannot be thought But he promised to those who shall have left Father Mother or any other thing for his sake that they shall possess Life Eternal which shall be in that World when Jesus Christ shall come to dwell with his Creatures where he shall render the hundred-fold of all the things which they shall have forsaken for his sake for one Father they shall find an hundred because all those Blessed Ones shall have the Hearts of a Father and Mother toward their Neighbour All shall be Brethren and Sisters under the government of one and the same Father And the Earth being purg'd from all the Wicked shall suffice to give unto the Just an hundred times as much as they shall have abandoned in this miserable Life Lo thus the Promises of Jesus Christ shall be accomplish'd in a perfect sense in his Kingdom which can in no wise be accomplish'd in a perfect sense elsewhere no more in the Empireal Heaven as is imagined than in this time of Penitence There would need years of time to relate unto you Sir all the passages of Holy Scripture which verifie these Truths for when Gabriel says of Jesus Christ that he shall be great and be called the Son of the most High he cannot speak of his coming in the Stable of Bethlehem for he was but a little Infant abandoned and neglected of Men where his Grandeur did consist of Poverty and Miseries And when he began to be known and to speak in publick they call him the Son of the Carpenter and of Mary amongst the common People Which is very far from being call'd the Son of the most High and how should he lift up his Horn seeing he was wrapt up in Swadling-cloths and bound with Swathing-bands And it seems he had not strength to resist King Herod and the Pharisees who pursued him to death before whom he fled instead of resisting Do you not see Sir that nothing has in this World its perfect Sense Nevertheless all that is spoken by the Holy Spirit must be intirely fulfilled And if we hope that this accomplishment ought to come to pass in this time of Penitence we deceive our selves for the more it shall continue the more will Men mistake the greatness of God and the less will they call him the Son of the Most High and the less will he make his strength appear that he may give place to Man to use his Free-will But as soon as the time of the Reign of Jesus Christ shall come he will exalt his Horn to exercise his Power and condemn the Wicked and he shall be known of all Men for the Son of the Most High For he will come in Majesty and Power to rule over all things Whereas in the Empireal Aether there will be no need of exalting his Horn and shewing his Power seeing all submit to him by Love It is therefore of the day when he shall come to reign upon the Earth that Zacharias speaks by his Prophetical Spirit when he saw the Glory of Jesus Christ upon Earth And when he himself says If I be lifted up I will draw all unto me he does not speak but of this Kingdom to come For he has not drawn all unto him by his death upon the Cross because the most part of Men has since voluntarily yielded themselves unto the Devil The Twenty ninth Conference Of the Marks to know that we are fallen into the last Times and that the World is Judged to wit That Men are without Righteousness Truth and Goodness before God and that the execution of the Plagues makes it already effectually to appear I said to her That I understood sufficiently what she meant by this Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth that I would apply my self to discover it more intreating her to tell me the Marks whereby to know that we were in the last times and that the Judgments were at present begun She said Sir observe well the deportment of Men and you will see clearly that it must needs be that they are Condemned for therein you do not perceive any Penitence nor desire of amendment On the contrary they grow every day worse and cannot so much as suffer that the truth of their faults should be shewn them and reckon themselves more secure in evil-doing than the Good have ever been in well-doing For the Saints themselves have feared God and dreaded Death Whereas Men at present have lost the fear of God and fear only Men and instead of dreading the passage of Death they dread only the day in which they must lose their Life which they love more than God Every one lyes
and he is as careful to have Honours and Riches as Secular Persons One says that he loves God and he loves nothing but himself One says I am retired from the World nevertheless he has as much affection for it as before and studies to satisfie himself In Short Sir there is nothing but Lies and deceit among all Men even those whom you esteem to be good Men they have nothing but apparent Vertues which are very displeasing to God and draw down his avenging hand upon our criminal Heads Because no body fears God any longer but by word and they who fear their Damnation perswade themselves that they fear God while out of pure self-love they fear the evil due to their Sins that they may continue in them and they place their Piety in outward Devotions with which they do more distract their Understanding from God than fix it upon him And yet they believe they are Just and Pious fearing God tho in the mean time they have neither the one nor the other of these Virtues Thus you are deceived with thousands of others who are in the good Opinion that there are yet many good Persons upon Earth I ask'd her How we might know the true Righteousness nd Virtues of Men She said Sir no body can know it as to others but they who possess it themselves Therefore I told you that union with God is needful for to know true Virtue This union makes us partake of the Virtues of God so that he who is in God partakes of his Righteousness of his Goodness and of his Truth The RIGHTEOUSNESS of God is always just doing justly to all as well to our Enemies as to our Friends not enduring any Injustice no more in our selves than in others neither in small matters nor in great Our Works are always accompanied with this Righteousness and also our Words our Counsels our Business and even our good Works Knowing well that without this divine Righteousness nothing can be good And even as God never does any thing without this Righteousness So we do all things righteously so much as we draw near to God we are as much Righteous and no more and he who partakes of this divine Righteousness discerns and knows very easily the Righteousness and Unrighteousness of others For if their Righteousness be of God it will always be conform to that which we partake of the same God and if it be not it will directly oppose it There are some who would believe that one had the art of Divination when he can discover false things which appear true to the eyes of Men But this does not proceed from any Divination but only from the Righteousness of God When it refides in a Soul it perceives immediately that these apparent Righteousnesses do resist and are contrary unto the Righteousness of God For Example a Judge will give good Justice to a Party because he is recommended to him by some of his Friends This is nothing but an Human Justice because it has had respect to Men For to be Divine it ought to have respect only to good Right which is not observed in the present time wherein the Proverb says He who has good Right has need of good Help It is the same as to Piety and Devotion If they go to Church to the Mass and the frequenting of the Sacraments out of natural custom or inclination or because it is good and laudable This Righteousness is not of God because it respects our selves or Men. And if you partake of the GOODNESS of God Sir you will do good to all Creatures indifferently as he does without wishing good to your Friends and hating your Enemies or not helping them in their need But when our good deeds are partial respecting our Kindred our Allies our Friends and Neighbours then our goodness is nothing but Human. This is easie to be observed by him who partakes of the goodness of God who loves nothing but that wihch is good and conformable to Righteousness and Truth Whereas Human goodness respects nothing but that which is sensible to Nature leaving sometimes Righteousness and Innocence without help to succour its Friends yea even to excuse or cover their Iniquities These are all goodnesses without Fruit having received in this World the reward of such good Works For if we do good to our Friends they will do the like to us and so we shall be payed without having right to pretend any other recompence therefore in Heaven Jesus Christ has advertis'd us of this saying When you make Feasts do not call the Rich lest they bid you also and thereby you receive no reward And if you partake of the TRUTH of God Sir you will very easily discover Lying because this strait Truth does always oppose that which is contrary thereunto There needs but to walk Strait to overturn that which is Crooked The Spirit of Truth is incompatible with that of Error There needs but to speak the Truth simply to reprove Lying Many Persons are troubled to understand the Truth who if they were not in Lies could not be troubled at it because it is always desirable and enlightens the Understanding Truth being God ought to be loved and received by every one and as much as it is now out of credit it is so much an evidence that all have abandoned God in abandoning Truth Righteousness and Goodness There is no other God but he who is the source of these three Vertues of which Men now have not retain'd any foot-steps and at present those are esteemed Saints who have but human Righteousness natural Goodness and political Truth and yet they will not believe that we are in the last Times and that the World is Judged What more certain Marks can we have Outward Signs are a very small matter in respect of seeing that all Men have Abandon'd their God Draw near to God Sir and you will discover it as well as I. I said to her That if it were needful to exercise the very same Righteousness Goodness and Truth of which she spoke to me that all the World would Perish and no body should be saved For all Men are very far from it She said It is true Sir all the Wicked will perish among whom notwithstanding there will be yet some sav'd because they are so thro' Ignorance These indeed will yet receive the Light of Truth with which they will discover the Lyes which have been taught them For many have entred into the Spirit of Error thinking they did well and if they had been taught there is no Salvation but for those who resign themselves wholly to God and unite their Wills to his they would assuredly force themselves to find this Unity of their Wills with God and would have resign'd themselves to him far more easily than they have done to follow so many different Exercises of Devotion For one has taken the Order of S. Francis and goes bare-footed without wearing Linnen
may lose no Occasions of following the Designs of God and that you deceive no body in teaching them that they have done enough in going to Mass For tho' they should hear a hundred every Day this would avail them nothing if they have not Charity which is not now cherish'd amongst Christians tho' they assemble every Day to Mass because they are not taught for what it is instituted since these Romanists have turn'd all things to their greater Advantage If we would examine narrowly all the other Sacraments we would find all the same Mischiefs done to the Interest of Salvation by those new Inventions and Changes I said to her That it were better than that I did not exercise the Ecclesiastical Functions since there was so much Abuse and Hazard in them She said You would not do Ill Sir to abstain from them and to live as if you were no Priest were it not that not having as yet Light enough to discover the Evils which are hid in them you would by degrees fall into Scruples for leaving off all your pious Exercises Pray to God that he may let you see what you ought to do and he will shew you as he does me that all holy things are become prophane and that there is not any thing in this Roman Church which does not savour of its Corruption All People believe that having declared their Sins to the Priest and got Absolution from him they are pardoned tho' it is God only who can pardon Sins The Priest can indeed pray for the Penitent who humbles himself to declare his Sins as an Intercessour between God and the Penitent but he cannot pardon him by his own Authority He may indeed judge by the Word of God if the Penitent in Justice be disposed to have the Pardon of his Sins and may give him Ground to hope that he shall obtain it of God but not deceive him by making him believe that he himself will pardon them if so be he declare them to him for this Declaration will do nothing without a sincere and a firm Resolution of Amendment which God regards that he may pardon according to his straight Righteousness and not according to the Judgment of the Priest who may be mistaken as well as all other Men. How could God have so little Equity as to commit to some frail Men the Power of saving and damning others What Justice could there be that a Confessour for want of the Intention to absolve should by this means damn thousands of Persons who made their Confessions to him It must needs be an horrible Blasphemy against God for any to have such a Persuasion that a well-meaning Person truly penitent after having duly confess'd dying in this State should be damn'd because the Priest had not the Intention to absolve him If this were true it would be to render God a Tyrant because all our good Works would serve us for nothing in case our Salvation did depend upon a good or ill Absolution These Thoughts or this Belief would make us fall into Idolatry in taking Men for God who could save or damn according to their Fancies This God himself would never do because he can never depart from his Righteousness Goodness and Truth to judge us always according to them whereas Men full of Passion Injustice and Impiety could not but judge us according to these How little Wisdom should we attribute to God in believing that he would give Men Power to save and damn us He who has commanded us to worship none but one God alone he should give us Occasion of worshipping all these Confessors who would be the Saviours of all Christians Do you not palpably feel Sir what evident Perils there are in the Administration of those Sacraments after the manner they are used at present It were far better to be Idle than to do Evil. 'T is no Wonder that I doubt of the Salvation of Christians now when I see in their religious Functions so many things against the Righteousness the Goodness and the Truth of God Nevertheless I will not give you Advice in this You may with your own natural Judgment discern aright Truth from Lying and thereafter resolve to continue or leave off your Ecclesiastical Functions For God never constrains any body each one remaining free to chuse the Means which he perceives to be most expedient without believing any thing blindly no more what I say Sir than if another said it to you But enter into your self that you may judge uprightly of the pure Truth you will perceive and feel it if you be disengag'd from all the Discourses which these Romanists have forg'd to make their Authority valid Free your Spirit of all sorts of Imaginations and Arguments and come to the Center of the Truth to judge if God would in Justice put our Damnation or our Salvation into the Power of any Man unknown to us who might be a wicked Person or a Sorcerer in which Case he would damn as many Souls as he could to gratifie the Devil to whom he belong'd It must not be said in this God is Almighty or his Works are incomprehensible For he never exerts his Power without his Righteousness which is not incomprehensible but makes it self be seen and commprehended by all those who seriously consider it Because no Good is perfect if it be not communicated and known I said to her It was much to be fear'd I had committed many Faults thro' my blind Submission to this Roman Church enquiring of her the Means to repair them She said All that is past is no longer in your Power You must beg Pardon of God who is full of Mercy and does not so much reprove the Faults which are done with a good Meaning as those which are done thro' pure Wickedness Tho' Ignorance does not excuse Sin yet it lessens its Malignity because it has not the full Consent of the Will But now endeavour to search more to the Bottom the Things which concern your Salvation and Do not believe every Spirit but try if what you are to do or believe be of God or of Men or of the Devil For all that is not o God is evil and for want of discovering this Truth each one runs blindly to his own Perdition believing even that they do well in following so great a Number of great and wise Men who maintain this blind Submission which is not fit but for mean Spirits tho' so many of good Judgment have followed it for this long time by-gone which could not have been found without some Infatuation of the Understanding with which the Devil has possess'd all those who lean'd to their own Wisdom or Authority These having their Minds bewitch'd have insinuated their Errors or Ignorances into others and so the Devil by little and little gains all some by Malice and others by Ignorance So that I do not see any Remedy can be put to this but by the
Righteousness exceed not that of the Pharisees you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Nevertheless there are very few who attain to the Righteousness of the Pharisee and yet every one believes he shall be saved tho' he has neither Divine nor Humane Righteousness Must there not be many deceived at Death For to have the Goodness of God also a Man must do Good to all without respect of Persons and he must not do Evil For he who is evil in something ceases to be good and to partake of the Goodness of God who does always good and never does evil And to have the Truth of God a Man must be true in all things which Men are very far from For they lye in all things to God to themselves and to their Neighbour They lye to God in saying that they love him and are resigned to him while there is not so much as one Person in the World that is resigned to the Will of God Every one will needs depend on himself and follow his own Will or that of some other Peâ—soâ— he has chosen for these Ends and is not satisfied with the Will of God except in so far as it is conformable to his Inclinations We lye also to our selves persuading our selves that we are Christians tho' we do not in any of our Actions follow the Instructions of Jesus Christ We make our selves believe that we are just and vertuous that we would not offend God in any thing while we do it every Moment having nothing in the sight of God but an imaginary and hypocritical Righteousness and Perfection We lye also in respect of our Neighbour who looking upon our outward Works of Devotion or Habits or Words thinks that we are such before God as we appear but it is not so In fine we are as far remov'd from the Truth of God as Hell is from Heaven and also from his Righteousness and Goodness and yet we think to be saved What a great Presumption is this of Salvation without good Works which will never be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other For we will never repent because of unknown Blindness For he who shou'd know it wou'd endeavour to find out a Remedy or Cure and would say as the blind Man in the Gospel Lord that I may see But as long as we believe that we see clearly we take no care to search for Remedies to an evil that we will not know which causes the Damnation of all Men in the World because none are free of this horrible Darkness These last Words made me tremble being joyned to those she had said before that there was not so much as one Man in the World who was resigned to God I asked her how it was possible that God should create all Men to be damn'd She said Sir God hath created no body to be damn'd but all Men for Salvation For God can damn no body It must needs still be that Man damns himself of his own Free-Will otherwise God shou'd do an evil thing which he cannot do but does all good This being so Sir you must ask Men each one in particular how is it possible that they damn themselves But you must not ask God how is it possible that each one is damn'd For he wou'd answer it is because they 'll be so of their own Free-Will which shall never be taken from them Every one damn us himself for his own particular and all these particular Damnations being put together make this general Damnation which God cannot hinder For he cannot save so much as one Soul without the Consent of the Free-Will which he has once given it letting each one enjoy this Free-Will without any Constraint all Men in particular are free to damn themselves as they do because they will not resign themselves to the Will of God which Resignation wou'd assuredly save them rendring them happy both in this World and the other But since we will not continue in a Dependence on God but will follow and depend on our own Wills we render our selves miserable both in this World and to all Eternity The Sins of our first Parents ought to have made us wise For by forsaking this Dependence they brought on themselves all sorts of Miseries and we not satisfied to groan yet under these by participation do daily encrease them by our own proper Resolution that we will not be rul'd and govern'd by the same God who demands of us the same Dependence which he demanded of those our first Parents which we do constantly deny him and will needs depend on our own Will and follow it as much as we can without informing our selves of the Will of God Now every one doing this as to his own particular is it a Wonder that all in general perish since none in particular will resign himself to the Will of God without which no body shall be saved I ask'd If God could have created so beautiful a World with all that is within it only for Men who will damn themselves since all in general will needs depend on their own Wills and that no Person in the World is resigned to the Will of God She said God has not created this beautiful World Sir for these Men who shall be reprobated but for the Elect only and those who of their free Choice and Free-Will shall depend entirely on God and be ruled and governed wholly at his Pleasure renouncing altogether their own Will and Desires These shall enjoy to all Eternity this beautiful World with all that is within it in all Perfection as I have already told you Sir the World shall last always and none of the Works of God shall ever perish neither Men nor Beasts nor any other Creatures but each of them in their kind shall remain for ever for the Honour of God and the Delight of Men who shall live after the Extermination of all Evil. But if the Men who live now will not resign themselves to the Will of God but follow that of the Devil or their own These shall not possess the World but shall only sojourn in it for a little time and they shall go out of it without carrying any thing away but the Sins with which they have loaded themselves during so short a Voyage But all that is beautiful and good in the World shall remain for the Elect who shall enjoy it to all Eternity For if this were not we shou'd have indeed a mean God who had created the Sun the Moon the Stars all the Elements so many different Creatures as there are in the World and all this only for the Devil and for Men who will damn themselves as they do at present It wou'd follow that God shou'd have little Power to be thus frustrated of his Pretensions in having created so many excellent things if they shou'd serve only for the Use of the Reprobate and the Devil shou'd carry
and cannot suffer from any It is it that desires its Ease and Repose with many other things for our Advantage It is always our selfwill that Works in us without ceasing This being discovered there is nothing more to be done but to interdict and forbid it these Operations to the end it may let God work alone in us what it shall please him and then there will be nothing more to fear For when we shall attain to this so much desired Resignation there is nothing more to be feared For God who will rule us will give us all things Does this seem difficult to you Sir that you doubt you cannot attain to it There is nothing to do here but to cease For God does then all in us There is nothing necessary but to rest For this Resignation consists not in Actions but in Omissions The Practice of it is so sweet that there 's nothing more desirable All consists in taking care not to let our own Will act And so often as we perceive that it is enclin'd to any thing to Bridle it and to say to it Cease for God only ought to move thee Is not this a sweet Exercise upon which notwithstanding our Salvation depends For if it depended upon wearing Sackcloth taking Discipline to our selves Fasting Watching or other troublesome things we wou'd have ground to say and to fear that we cou'd not attain to it but when we must only resign our Will to God no body can excuse himself without Hazard of perishing The Twelfth Conference Of discerning the Motions of God from those of Nature wich must be done by Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are three divine Qualities according to which all our Motions and all our Actions ought be regulated with great Care I Ask'd her how I might know when my own Will acted that I might make it cease She said Sir as often as it is led to any thing that is evil or very unprofitable it is certainly always our self-will Because God cannot encline it to such things And when we seek our Honour Pleasure or Profit this also proceeds from our self-will For God will never give any such Desires Indeed he permits them sometimes to befal us but he will never make us seek or desire them Therefore if we have a serious Application of Spirit we will remark presently if it be God or our self-will that acts in us For God can never move it but to good or necessary things and will never make our Will act but what shall be for his Glory or for the saving Good of our Neighbour Nothing else can come from God but from our self-will which is wholly deprav'd and ought never to do any thing for it self for it spoils all It were better to make it cease without any more ado than to let it act alone and without God Because we presume often that we have done many good Works which will be found to be evil and condemned by God because our selfwill was corrupted from the Beginning of the World in Adam and is yet more corrupted by our own actual Sins so that it is not capable of moving it self but to Evil and not at all to Good This may be very easily observed For we feel always in our selves some Inclination to do Evil And if it were not restrain'd or bridled by Reason or Vertue we wou'd do nothing without Sin or which did not â—avour of its Corruption For if we speak it will be still with an Inclination to augment what is for our Liking or Advantage or to excuse our Faults so that naturally we wou'd never abide in the streight Truth And if we converse or do Business with our Neighbour it will be still with a Spirit of Covetousness either of Wealth Honour or Pleasure so that all our own Bents and Inclinations are carried always to Evil unless we be habituated by Vertue or good Breeding not to follow Lying Rapine or Deceit nor the Spirit of Covetousness I ask'd her By what means I might discover if it be God that moves my Will in all my daily Actions She said Sir there are certain Marks whereby to know when these Motions come from God because they are always accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth which Qualities are still inseparable from God's Spirit who never changes but abides always righteous good and true and therefore cannot move to any Actions Words or Thoughts but those which are accompanied with these three Conditions or Qualities Therefore when we feel our selves moved to undertake any thing whatsoever we must always bend our Mind to remark our Undertaking ' ere we begin it and see if it respect the Glory of God or the saving Good of our Neighbour And if so we may persue our Undertaking but by means that are just good and true For else we may be yet mistaken thinking that it was for the Glory of God and the Good of our Neighbour when it was only our own Will and Inclination For a Motion that comes from God is still accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth and if we must lye or be unjust or hurt our Neighbour that we may attain to our Pretensions however they may be good in themselves yet nevertheless they are not of God That we may follow the Motions of God we must always observe this Rule to remark in all our Actions whether small or great if they are accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth And if all these together are not to be found in them we must still reject them as evil things and produc'd by our self-will For God will never move to any thing how small soever it be if it be not just good and true This is the true Touch-stone whereby to discover when Motions come from God We need not consult Oracles but examine well if our Works be disinteressed from all our own Advantages and if they be just good and true I ask'd her If my self-will might not mingle with the Divine Motions She said Yes Sir our self-will does very readily mingle with the Motions from God By this many Saints have committed great Faults This falls out when we arenot wholly disengaged from our selves and Nature does yet live with Grace Notwithstanding it is easie to discover it when we are not precipitate in any thing and when we take time to examine narrowly what we do to see if it be just and good and true Then there 's nothing to be fear'd whether our own will mingle there or not It 's God always is just good and true Our Nature being transform'd in him does the same Functions of Righteousness Goodness and Truth Therefore St. Paul said It is no longer I that live but Jesus Christ lives in me because the Soul which is resigned to God does so habituate it self to his Will that it always becomes one and the same thing with it so that its own Will being purged from it self moves no longer but
to this your Neighbour and also to your self in case you have need of what you have given him For Charity well order'd begins always at ones self and he who should give his Goods to another and leave his own Debts unpaid wou'd commit Robbery by taking from him to whom 't is due to give it to another out of tender Compassion Therefore I say we must always observe whether our Works be accompanied with Righteousness remarking whether this necessitous Person wou'd do any saving Good with our Gifts whether they would draw him out of spiritual and bodily Miseries whether he shall not abuse them by employing them to do evil Then the Giving him will be accompanied with the Righteousness of God provided you have what is superfluous to give him But when you have only pure Necessaries 't is not just to give them to others unless they be in some Extremity of Want Then you must succour your Neighbour as much as you are able yet without casting your self into the Extremity from whence you wou'd bring another For this wou'd neither be just nor good For a Man shou'd never ruine himself voluntarily This is to do an ill thing and against the Goodness of God To do therefore a Work of Charity that has the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God stamp'd upon it we must firstsee if it be true that the Person whom we wou'd assist is really poor This is the Truth of God For there are now so many Cheats and Lyes that the most part of the Poor are so thro' their own Fault because they will not work or they are prodigal and Cheats or they will not manage but are careless of the Goods that God has bestowed on them In all these Cases the Person is not truly poor and therefore we cannot find the Truth of God in our Alms neither can we therein find his Goodness because it would be ill for the Salvation of him to whom we give it Neither would it have his Righteousness for it would not be just to feed by Alms any in their Sloth or in other Sins of Gluttony or Carelesness You see clearly Sir that it is necessary to remark always by what Spirit we do our Actions or else we shall commit great Faults without perceiving them If you find some Difficulty in this serious Reflection yet this should not make you omit it For our Salvation and that of our Neighbour does well deserve all this Trouble If so many Men of Wit and Quality do so earnestly study to render themselves honest civil and accomplish'd in the Eyes and Judgment of Men how much more ought you to do to renderyour self such in the Sight of God This Difficulty will be well rewarded by your Salvation and that of so many others Whereas these Persons are often obliged to bow their Wills as Reeds at the Will of those whom they honour who nevertheless can give them nothing but perishing Things either some Breath of Honour or transient Pleasures or some Riches that perish by a Turn of Fortune and yet for this they force and torment themselves exceedingly Sir let other Mens Folly make you wise Study as much to gain the Favour of God as they do to have that of Men For your eternal Happiness depends upon it You can never follow God if you do not embrace his Truth Without it all your Works are vain and temporal ending with your self I told her That I would absolutely study from benceforth to become agreeable to God but that I never yet had Light enough to discern in all my Actions whether the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God was to be found in them She said Sir this comes from no other thing but Inconsideration of Mind For if it would apply it self it would certainly know all that it ought to do and omit more clearly than your Eyes perceive sensible Objects Apply only the Understanding that God has given you for the Perfection of your Soul and you shall learn all things As soon as you shall firmly resolve to seek no longer for any thing upon Earth but only to seek the Glory of God you shall obtain the Light of the Holy Spirit which will teach you all things There is nothing to be feared on this Occasion but the Bent that we have to the Earth which if we follow we should soon lose the Star which shou'd guide us to the Place where God dwells Therefore I exhort you never more to look behind you nor to aim at any thing on Earth For all that we can see or hope for here are but Chains and Bands to withdraw us from God our alone Saviour Therefore Sir forsake your self and all things For they are Enemies of your true Good The Love we bear to Men hinders us from the Love of God and the Love of our selves renders us his Enemies which Things stifle in our Soul the Light of the Holy Spirit But if we are resolved to seek and love no longer any thing but the Glory of God we shall soon perceive if what we speak think or do be for this Glory or not by the least Diligence or Care to do it Only you must be firm in your Resolution that you will do nothing but what shall be for this Glory and thrust far from you all other things as unworthy of your Pretensions Then shall we walk with a steady Pace and shall no longer do any thing but what shall have these three Qualities of the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God For all that is for his Glory brings still these Conditions along with it his Glory being inseparable from his Essence his Essence from his Righteousness Goodness and Truth nothing can be wanting there any longer The Thirteenth Conference That Persons illuminated by God may serve as powerful Means for Salvation but it 's God only who can give it and that now the Company of Men is dangerous I Said to her That all these things were true but that my Soul was not yet purified enough to discover them so precisely and that her Company was necessary for me that I might learn to practise that Righteousness Goodness and Truth She said Sir I believe indeed my Company may serve you as a Mean to preserve you on Occasions but it is not necessary for this For God alone is sufficient who'll guide you thro' all provided you continue firmly faithful to him For you know not me yet and if you knew me you wou'd see in my Practice all the things that I tell you by Word My Thoughts Words and Deeds must have the three Qualities of which I have spoken to you else I shou'd be like the Brass that sounds outwards and has nothing within it self I have remarked that you have not yet discovered these Truths and therefore my Conversation would be useless to you and a great Hindrance to me For you not perceiving God in my Words and Works would not follow them and
of Life which is observed now in the Cloysters They must either have been Saints before they entered there or being there they must have resigned themselves to the Will of God and followed the Holy Spirit and if so they might be holy in any Place and in any State and Condition and not in the Cloyster only but these Monks extol their Sanctity for their Honour and Profit attributing it to the Perfection of their Rules tho' these have often prov'd Hindrances to those who were guided by the Holy Spirit who is always without Constraint whereas these Rules do fetter and bind Souls with so many Chains that they are more chain'd than Slaves in the Galleys This cannot but bring great Disturbance to truly Christian Souls whom these Constraints do not render holy but the Conformity of their Will to that of God because there can be no Holiness but what is derived from him and therefore no Saints but according as they partake of his Holiness Righteousness Goodness and Truth from which Mens Practices are very remote and if Men were not sitting in greater Darkness than that of Aegypt of old was they wou'd not reverence the Monks to day because there were Saints among them formerly Since their Lives were wholly different from the Lives which the Monks lead now and if they observe narrowly the Histories which they themselves write of them they will find them a Reproof to them in every thing For they write that those Holy Monks did greatly despise the World and these at present do love and seek it that those lov'd Poverty whereas these love and seek for Riches The first were humble and despised and these are self-conceited and will be honour'd Read Sir if you please the Lives of all the Holy Monks you will find them wholly contrary to what we see at present So that what ought to raise their Esteem confounds them I said to her That Saints had instituted these Orders and Rules and therefore they must be good She said Sir if these Orders and Rules had remained in the State in which their first Founders established them they might have been helpful for Sinners who wou'd reform their Vices because when Nature is left to its own Freedom it contracts such evil Habits as that it cannot afterwards be delivered from them but by Rigour and Constraint This is the Reason that mov'd those first Founders to observe bodily Mortifications and Austerities because the World was so addicted to all sorts of Sensualities that Men almost thought of nothing else but their bodily Ease and Pleasures To remedy which these Lovers of Souls introduc'd Ways of living that might resist such inveterate Vices appointed Fastings to subdue the Body Watchings to attend upon Prayer bodily Severities to resist Lust and so of all the other Means that were proper to withdraw Men from the Vices to which they were habituated All these things cannot be evil provided they be observed in the Spirit and Intention with which they were established because they may serve as powerful Helps for Sinners who desire to be converted but every one has no need of these Means to be holy because they cannot give Holiness but serve only to correct the Vices that might make the Soul still cleave to bodily Sensualities and shou'd hinder the Resignation they shou'd make of themselves to be dispos'd of by God But to believe that these Austerities can of themselves render us holy is a great Errour For even the Devil might observe them and continue a Devil still So also wicked Men may become Religious and observe their Rules and yet not change their Affection to their Vices since the same Means which might deliver them from them may plunge them farther into them as we see by Experience that they will sometimes study more Sensuality when they eat but Fish and Pulse than they wou'd do in eating Partridges and other good things and will have more Vanity in wearing a course Habit than in Silk and Purple We may also meet with more Avarice in a poor Man than in one who abounds in Wealth Therefore we can't judge the Vertue of the Soul by outward Exercises since both a good and ill Use may be made of them I said to her That Vows and the constraint Rules were Powerful Helps to regulate ones Life and that the Cloysters cut off many Occasions of offending God being out of the Hurry of the World She said Truly Sir I cannot believe that that Constraint of Vows and Rules have been established by the Holy Spirit because it is contrary to the Free-Will that God has so bountifully given us The same Spirit cannot give and take back the same thing He shou'd be subject to the Passion of changing as we are which cannot be in God He cannot hold that to be evil which he has once approv'd as good The greatest Favour which ever he bestowed on Man is the having given him his Free-Will which renders him a depending Deity and capable of conversing with God as with his like because he is pleased to make a Creature of such a Nature that it shou'd have this Free-Will to all Eternity And how is it possible that the same God shou'd change his eternal Designs and shou'd inspire the Saints to curb Men and to deprive them of this same Liberty wherewith when he created them he wou'd endue them to oblige them afterwards by Vows to follow or love him If God had these Designs no body shou'd be damn'd because the Goodness of God is so great that it wou'd by force constrain all Men to be saved No no Sir this cannot be true God can bind no body to Vows This must be the Invention of Men who having a good Will and Desire that many shou'd be saved thought it was good to constrain them by Vows and Ties that they might be bound to continue in pious Exercises This can come only from humane Prudence and not from the Holy Spirit tho' the Founders of Orders instituted it or the Church after them found it expedient by Vows to oblige the Religious that thereby they might be preserved in their first Resolution of serving God This cannot at all proceed from the Holy Spirit who will never act contrary to himself And to know whether Vows and Constraints were powerful enough Means for the well ordering of Mens Lives that they might cease to offend God and live as true Christians we need only come to experience which is still the Mistress of all Sciences How many thousand Persons in Christendom are now under Vows in Cloysters and Religious Orders and how few of them are there who do Miracles If these Vows and Rules came from the holy Spirit they would certainly be all Saints For the observing the Commands of the Holy Spirit does still produce Holiness so that all who wou'd be subject to the Vows which the Holy Spirit shou'd dictate to them wou'd receive all the Fruits and Gifts which
and excuse this Roman Church which you may easily perceive to be corrupted And the more she is drest up with Vertues and Sanctity she is the more capable of corrupting the Innocent who approach her thinking to find the Spouse of Jesus Christ without Blemish while in the mean time they contract nothing but the Corruption of an infamous Strumpet Thus the most Sound become diseased and will perish if their Maladies be not quickly laid open and dress'd as is meet by that divine Physician who comes upon the Earth to teach us all things according to the Promise that Jesus Christ gave us speaking to his Diciples saying that he wou'd send the holy Spirit who shou'd teach us all things He is now come Sir hear him The Fifteenth Conference That the Time is come when the Holy Spirit will teach us all Truth How Christians do reject his Light and what Progress the Devil has made among them For what end how and to whom God communicates his Spirit I Ask'd her Who this Physician might be who could cure such Sores and such Corruption She said It is the Holy Spirit Sir which Jesus Christ did promise us a little before his Death who will teach us all things This is that LIGHT which shall arise in the Darkness which the World will not receive but Love their Darkness rather than the Light Therefore is it known by so few because they will not receive it giving more Faith to their Darkness than to this Light which breaks forth as a new Day upon the Earth and comes to discover the Truth of all things But Men are become now so much Lovers of themselves that they will not learn the Truth except in things which are agreeable to them resisting the Truth that reproves them or is not conformable to their Liking and Inclinations In this they will give Laws to the Holy Spirit and make him speak what they encline to hear In these Times the Sins against the Holy Ghost are fully accomplished Therefore Jesus Christ calls them dangerous times because the Sins which are committed then will not be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other When Jesus Christ came into the World they committed many Sins against him Nevertheless all those shall be forgiven because the Jews never understood that he was the Son of God Neververtheless they have perceived and confessed that they did ill in putting him to Death and all the Sins of which we repent shall certainly be forgiven But this Sin which is now committed against this Holy Spirit will never be repented of and therefore will never be pardoned neither in this miserable World nor in that blessed one which is to come because they will never ask forgiveness for them since they will not acknowledge them and if they will not suffer the Physician to lay open and search into the Sores of a Patient how can they hope for a Remedy by his Cure Even so the Holy Spirit cannot heal the Wounds of our Souls if we will not let him discover them I said to her It was very desirable that these Wounds of our Souls were laid open that they might be healed She said Sir it is indeed a desirable thing but it is very little desired For all the World resists this Discovery and they think they do a very pious Action when they will hear nothing spoken of the Evils which have crept into the Church nor yet of the Monks and others who prosess to serve God The Holy Spirit it seems must accommodate himself to the Times if he would be heard and must praise the Vices and Sins that are at present committed against him For that String must not be touch'd to speak evil of those who desire to continue in Reputation or Authority in the Church even tho' they should commit all sort of Abominations and tho' they were Sorcerers and Devils They teach it as a Principle of Vertue that we ought to excuse their Sins and take our Garments to cover them that no body may perceive them This is very far from desiring that these Wounds may be laid open that they may be healed 'T is no wonder Sir that I have so often told you that I cannot see by what way there should be so much as one Person at present saved in Christendom because the greatest Part live as Atheists without acknowledging God any longer or thinking on him and the rest having the Reputation of good Men are so full of the Sins against the Holy Ghost that I know not what way they can be gained If it should be told a Priest Sir you are deceived in the Administration of the Sacraments They do not operate of themselves as you think he would think this Advertisement came from the Devil and would resist it as a very ill thing Or if it should be said to a Monk or any other devout Person that they were not true Christians they would presently take the Alarum and withstand the Person who should tell them this Truth as if he were an Enemy of God and a Liar because he who has no desire to amend will not be pleased to have his Faults discovered to him Thus every one continues in his Sins and desires not to leave them off or so much as discover them In this Men love Darkness rather than the Light which arises so graciously upon which depends the Salvation or Damnation of all the Men in the World For the Darkness is universal and there is no Sect or Nation whatsoever that is in the real Truth I said to her That she was obliged to discover these Truths that they would be of great use tho' it were but to my Soul She said Sir you are no more disposed than any other to receive the Light of the Holy Spirit unless your Heart be humble and your Spirit simplified This is what Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that he must become a Child and enter again into his Mother's Womb affirming elsewhere that l If we are not converted and become as little Children we shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven These very Words must now have their compleat and perfect Sense For he who shall not submit his Spirit in Simplicity as a little Child cannot receive the real Truth which the Holy Spirit brings into the World because the Doctrines of Men and their evil Customs have so blinded and darkned their Understandings that 't is impossible for them to receive the Light of Truth unless they be first stript of all their Sciences acquired by humane Means which prove Vails and Bandages to the Eyes of the Soul For these humane Maxims are all lying and deceitful teaching to honour Men and give Deference to them when they are in Place and Dignities not considering that Honour is due to God alone by his Commandment and that Deference ought to be given to the Truth only to which it is due and as long
body tho' they shou'd say I am Christ For Christ is not here and there but only in the Doctrine that he left us by his Word He who believes any other thing is deceived I said to her That if this were true many Souls would be deceived because all they who profess to serve God do follow the Counsel and Direction of some Man and if he be of those who belong to the Devil they may deliver many Souls to Satan She said Sir this is lamentable in our Days wherein they have introduc'd these Directions of Men by which so many are led to Damnation even tho they were not directed by some Sorcerer they are at least turned away from God to adhere to Men. This is a great Hindrance to Vertue and the Salvation of Souls For as long as we adhere to the Creatures we shall never find God The one must go out before the other enter and these Guides instead of leading Souls to God do withdraw them from him even tho' they were good Men because God is jealous and will not suffer a Rival nor our Hearts to be separated or divided If so many Souls be engag'd to the Devil by these Directions it is because they chose rather to be lov'd by Men than God This gives the Devil Power to gain them by the Means of these Directors who are much more lov'd and follow'd than God is For he is often forgotten that they may remember these Men. Wives esteem them more than their Husbands Daughters more than Father and Mother and Men take more of their Counsel than that of Jesus Christ Thus every one furnishes Matter for the Devil to be deceiv'd by him It is by this Door he enters to make himself universal Emperour of the whole World He had gain'd many before the Coming of Jesus Christ but since he slipt into the Church by these Directions he possesses all the Wicked with their own Will and the Good indirectly by the Conduct of his Adherents whom he has introduc'd into the Church For Jesus Christ did never establish such Directions in his Church nor yet his Apostles nor their Disciples If this had been an Institution of the Holy Spirit it wouâ—d have been observ'd by the Primitive Christians who had more Zeal to gain Souls to God than these new Directors have For they rather draw them to themselves than lead them to God This often makes the Guides and those who are led by them to perish and go both together to the Devil I ask'd her By what Means I might avoid the Seduction of these false Prophets since they had the chief Ranks in the Church how I might discover them from the true ones If the one be Priests and Religious Persons as well as the other She said It will be very hard for to discern them unless you read diligently the ancient Prophets There you will find how the true and how the false Prophets have spoken For both the one and the other are this Day guided by the same Spirits The holy Prophets were and still will be led by the Holy Spirit and the false ones were and still will be led and directed by the Devil as well at present as under the old Law There is only this difference of times that then there were many holy Prophets and now there are few or none because the Number of the False is so encreast that they have almost swallowed up the Good And as God is not visible by the Eyes of the Body neither is the Devil visible after that Manner both being invisible Spirits who nevertheless render themselves visible by their Operations For he who is guided by God will still speak o the Truth without regarding whether it please or displease Men On the contrary he who is led by the Devil will still speak as Men are willing to hear Remark well Sir in the holy Scripture you will find that all the false Prophets did then always tell good News and promised to every one Peace Prosperity and Assurance whereby they deceived all the World This is even practised at present For if you take notice of all these Priests and Religious Persons you shall hear them always promising Peace and Safety to every one and that even in temporal Affairs whether as to the State or as to particular Persons You hear them always telling good News and promising that all shall go well So that if you remark the Discourses of these false Prophets of the old Law and the Preachers and Confessors at present you shall hear them all speak almost the same Language For the most Pious now-a-days study to please Men and to tell them things agreeable to their Senses and hereby they destroy all the World For if they were in the Spirit of God they wou'd tell the Truth and wou'd preach to all the World that the Abomination is in the Sanctuary and that it is high time to turn to God That the Ax is laid to the Root to hew down the Tree and to break down that great Statue of the Church which Sin has rendered abominable in the sight of God and also that the Life of Christians is very far from true Christianity and that the best of them live in a Presumption of their Salvation and in other Sins against the Holy Ghost Which is most true But instead of doing this they praise and exalt the Church as if she were holy and they persuade People that they are Christians when they are baptized and tho' they do not at all live according to the Rules of true Christianity that yet nevertheless they shall be saved In which they deceive and seduce them For there are no true Christians but they who observe the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and no body can be saved but he who keeps the Commandments of God the first of which is to love God with all our Heart and our Neighbour as our selves which no body does Nevertheless all these false Prophets tell the People that they shall assuredly be saved and that all shall go well with them Is not this a sure Mark to discern false Prophets from the true because the False flatter us always for our Ruin and the True reprove us for our Salvation He that wou'd deliver himself from being deceived must diligently examine whether these Church-men speak to us according as they are willing to hear or if they truly reprove what is blame-worthy of which sort we shall find so very few that almost none will speak the Truth when it is displeasing to People especially to those who are in Places and Dignities For this cause our Times are justly called perilous Times since the Evil is so masqu'd with Vertue For if the Evil were manifest there wou'd be no danger because all good Men wou'd avoid it and so wou'd put themselves out of Hazard of being deceived whereas when it is covered over with Piety and Vertue
upon all the Earth that they who shall kill you for the Truth shall think they do God Service For Satan's Power is so great and universal that it has almost blinded all Men and their Spirits being infatuated they take that which is false to be real and esteem Lyes more than the Truth And all this is so well masqu'd with Vertue and Sanctity that even the best Men will think they do offer Sacrifice to God when they kill you Therefore take heed always Sir that you give not the Children's Bread to Dogs nor cast Pearl before Swine but try well before you speak to any if he hunger and thirst after Righteousness or some other of the eight Beatitudes which are the Marks that Jesus Christ gave whereby to discover those who shall be bless'd and shall receive the Spirit of Truth But as soon as you shall meet with Opposition to the Truth leave off to tell it and never move in that which will avail nothing For God has promised that he will shortly bruise Satan under your Feet Yet a little while the Devil has his Empire which encreases greatly and so soon as it shall be at an end God will bruise him under the Feet of his faithful Servants who shall triumph over all the Powers of Hell But they must yet suffer a little and continue faithful unto death The Seventeenth Conference That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected I Ask'd her If I would run the Risque of these Dangers by going among the Jews since according to her saying they were more disposed to receive the Truth She said Yes Sir there is Hazard there as well as elsewhere because the Devil has those who are in Covenant with him in every Place in every State in every Sect and under every Law For he has run to and fro thro' all the Earth and hath devoured many as well among the Jews as among others But I except the Good among the Jews and I know certainly that these are more disposed to receive the Truth than any others because they sin thro' Ignorance For they never knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and do not yet know it For they look for this Son of God in Glory and know not that he shall be the same who came already among them in Dishonour As soon as they shall discover this Truth they shall return from their Exile and re-enter into the Promise made to Abraham and shall return to be God's People in Exclusion of the Christians who having abused so many Privileges shall be cut off and the Jews settled again on their Ruins I ask'd her Wherefore the Christians could not be reformed that they might become the People of God as well as the Jews Converted to take away their Crown She said Sir the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians are For these sin out of pure Malicé and have forsaken God and his Laws This the Jews have not done They do yet fear and know God and the Christians do neither For they preach publickly that to obtain the Pardon of our Sins we are not obliged to love God that to save us from going to Hell it is enough to have self-love that this Fear of their Damnation is capable of procuring them the Pardon of their Sins and Salvation and they utter a thousand other Blasphemies against God in every thing This they can't do thro' Ignorance because besides the Law of God which they have received as well as the Jews They have moreover the Law of the Gospel and the Doctrine of the Apostles which was left them in Writing for an everlasting Memorial which all Christians ought still to follow The Christians have received Faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he came into the World where he suffered Pains Labours Poverty and Contempt was persecuted imprisoned scourged buffetted and at last put to Death on a Cross as a Malefactor and all this to give an Example to Christians that by following his Steps they might enter into his Glory They do believe all these things and also that the same Son of God is really in the Sacrament of the Altar with a great many other things contain'd in the Creed Nevertheless against their Belief they live directly contrary to what Jesus Christ taught them and what they believe by the Command of God If the Jews believed this that Jesus Christ is the Son of God they would mourn for the Sins which they committed against him and would follow his Example which shall very shortly come to pass whereas the Christians shall die obstinate in their Sins without Repentance By which you may judge Sir that the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Spirit of Truth so soon as it should be communicated to them than the Christians who oppose the known Truth They know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they shew him less Respect than a Servant would do to the meanest Master and eat and swallow him as a Piece of Bread How would you have these Persons to be reformed since they would reform all the World looking on themselves as Gods of the Earth and Children of the true God while they are led by the Devil This they will not acknowledge chusing rather to perish in their Darkness than to give ear to the Truth whereas those Jews would gladly hear what will enlighten them and would be bettered by knowing the Truth For many good Spirits among them aspire after it hungring and thirsting after Righteousness which when they see and know they will immediately embrace it because nothing but Ignorance hinders them from resigning themselves wholly to God Whereas the Christians thro' pure Obstinacy in their Sins will not do it So that if I should go to the College of Cardinals at Rome and tell them that I come from God to advertise them that they are not true Christians and that Jesus Christ taught another way of living than what they observe and that to be saved we must of Necessity follow Jesus they would presently seize on me as a Criminal and put me to death if I would not retract my Words tho' they knew well enough they were true even tho' they should evidently perceive that I had the holy Spirit they would oppose this Truth that they might maintain their Errours How then Sir would you have such Persons to be converted God will never force any body having given to all Men their Free-Will to use it according as they please If these Christians will acknowledge no other God but their own Authority they would deal hardly with God himself if he shou'd come to speak against it How cou'd God in Justice reform these Christians who
as that it cannot be ignorant of any thing that it ought to know For as for simple Curiosities we ought never to ask or desire them but only that which is well pleasing unto God or profitable to our Neighbour The Knowledge of which Things God does not deny to Souls who are faithfully dedicated to him I wish Sir you may be one of them that you may learn in a Moment more things in these Matters than I cou'd tell you in a whole Day For one Word from God contains more than Ten Thousand Discourses of Men which are still accompanied with many Defects and Imperfections Whereas the Holy Spirit has a perfect Accomplishment in every Thing and enlarges himself according as the Soul is emptied of it self We have nothing else to do but to empty our selves because God being always in the Center of our Soul he wou'd enlighten it abundantly in case the Hindrances were removed For take them away and we receive Light The End of the Second Part. THE CONTENTS Conference I. How the Opinions of the Learned are injurious to God they being ignorant of his Works Of God's Presence and of his Grace Of the Liberty Power and Weakness of Man and of the State of Infants before the Vse of their Reason p. 1. Conf. II. Of the State of little Infants which come from good or evil Parents And of Baptism p. 11. Conf. III. How the Devil has crept into the Church as Antichrist and is there maintain'd and authoriz'd p. 19. Conf. IV. Of the Reformation of the Church of its Councils Commands and Ordinances p. 21. Conf. V. That all Men ought to labour to satisfie the Justice of God by this Penitence p. 31. Conf. VI. That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawful Husband p. 33. Conf. VII Of the Mass and of the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Functions p. 44. Conf VIII What are the Sins against the Holy Ghost and how much they prevail p. 50. Conf IX That no body can be saved but he who professes the Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God The World is at present without them but it shall be renewed The Danger that Men are in Secret Evil ought to be discovered p. 57. Conf. X. That the Time is come that Men shall receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness and what hinders them to receive him p. 66. Conf. XI How Man must resign himself to God p. 69. Conf. XII Of discerning the Motions of God from those of Nature which must be done by Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are three divine Qualities according to which all our Motions and all our Actions ought to be regulated with great Care p. 76. Conf. XIII That Persons illuminated by God may serve as powerful Means for Salvation but it 's God only who can give it and that now the Company of Men is dangerous p. 84. Conf. XIV That the Habit does not make the Monk and that Religions of themselves make none holy Of the Corruption of them and of the Church p. 86. Conf. XV. That the Time is come when the Holy Spirit will teach us all Truth How Christians do reject his Light and what Progress the Devil has made among them For what end how and to whom God communicates his Spirit p 105. Conf. XVI How we must beware of false Christs and false Prophets which seduce all the World and are so much followed at present How to discern true Prophets from the false and that it would be to no purpose at present to aim at the Conversion of Christians by preaching the Truth to them p. 114. Conf. XVII That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected p. 124. Conf. XVIII How the Holy Spirit gives his Light to the Soul p. 136. The End of the Contents THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD The Third and Last Part. CONTAINING The Last Conferences WHICH M. ANTONIA BOURIGNON HAD WITH The Deceast Mr. CHRISTIAN de CORT Priest Pastour of St. John's at Mechlin Superiour of the Fathers of the Oratory there and Directour of the Isle of Noorestrandt Which deserves to be Read Understood and Considered by all who desire to be Saved Written Originally in French LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVI Isaiah 58. 10. Thy Light shall arise in the midst of Darkness and thy Obscurity shall become as Noon-day To the READER HERE is FRIENDLY READER the Third Part of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD which is also the Last Conferences that I could have with this Zealous CHRISTIAN DE CORT Superiour of the Oratory and Pastour of the Church St. John at Mechâ—in in Brabant since to hinder him from having any more Conferences with me they poyson'd him and so murther'd him to hinder the Prosecution of the Pious Designes which he had to make known to the World the Truth of the Decay of CHRISTIANITY This Third Part shews yet more clearly than the Two foregoing how much the Church of God is fallen from her first Institution and how far she is remov'd from the Principles of the Apostles and the Life of the First Christians how many Errours and Corruptions have by little and little crept and slipt into Christianity what Appendages and Circumstances they have added to it How many New Laws and Ordinances for the Ornament of it which in effect have deform'd and disfigur'd it So that whereas Christendom was in its Beginning The True Spouse of Jesus Christ she is now become The great Whore which commits whoredom with the Kings of the Earth drinking in their Cups and eating of their Dainties which are the Ambition the Pleasures and covetous Desires of the Things of this World Which Things are now as common among the Churchmen as among the Kings of the Earth to say no more This is very far from the Lowliness of Jesus Christ and of his Disciples who lived in Humility of Heart in a Contempt of the Honours and Glory of the World and would take no other Delights but Labours Fatigues and Sufferings and dispised Gold and Silver as appears by the Offer that Simon the Sorcerer made to St. Peter of giving him Money to buy the Grace of God He curses him and his Money And when they asked Alms of him he says to the poor Man Silver and Gold have we none but the Power of God which will heal thee And elsewhere they say Freely we have received it and freely we give it And to shew the Poverty there was in the Colledge of the Apostles we need but remark that they had not wherewith to pay the Tribute since Jesus Christ sent them to catch a Fish in which they should find a Piece of Money to pay this Tax Consider now FRIENDLY READER if there be any Resemblance between the Church-men of our Time and the Colledge of the Apostles and if every one does not strive to come by
Ordinances of the Church than to those of God I ask'd her Whether she was a Catholick and whether one could be sav'd out of the holy Church She said Yes Sir I am a Catholick and ready to die for the Faith and Doctrine of Jesus Christ because 't is necessary for me If I had remain'd in innocence without having contracted so many evil habits by the conversation of men I should not have needed the Law of God nor the Precepts of Jesus Christ but having departed from that innocence in which I ought to have resign'd my self wholly to God yielding up to him the free will that he gave me I have need now of this Law and those Evangelical Counsels as means to recover that innocence and that I may with singleness of heart resign my will to that of God as all other men also have need of them for every one has departed from that innocence and contracted many evil habits which hinder this resignation to God I embrace indeed the Apostolical Faith and Belief but I do not believe many things which those who call themselves the Christian Church lay before us because they are not true for he who should believe to be sav'd by going to Church and frequenting the Sacraments or such like things would at death find himself deceiv'd because no Prayers or Sacraments operate without an inward disposition And whereas we see people frequent the Churches and Sacraments without piety or devotion we may well judg that the world is deceived by such like things while they place the hopes of their salvation on outward things which are but the signification of the inward disposition of the mind You will say It may be Sir that the Church supposes this inward disposition which is a false supposition because we see evidently by experience that the inward disposition is very far from what appears outwardly and upon this supposition the Church could not appoint the baptising of new born Infants who are not at all capable of inward dispositions I doubt not but these Romanists would bring many Reasons and Arguments but I hold to the Truth of God and know no other Church but the souls which possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Lo this is the only true Church out of which there can be no salvation for every one has need of taking up these means that by them he may attain to a RESIGNATION to God I said to her That truly there must be some infatuation of Spirit that tied us to this Church for tho we see she does not at all possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ yet we are afraid to leave her as if she were the holy Church tho the truth makes it evidently appear that she is not She said Sir I bless God that he opens your Eyes to discover the truth in what concerns your salvation for as long as you do not discover evil you cannot avoid it but will still be in danger of being deceived by it If the Devil were not in this Church it is impossible that so many good spirits should thus blindly follow her 'T is certainly by an infatuation of the understanding for they see enough in the outside to judg assuredly that she is not guided by the holy spirit and that she follows not in any respect the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and nevertheless they continue so wedded to her thro' som panick or pusillanimous Fear that they dare not shake off her dependance fearing they should do evil in following the truth And if any person of a sound Judgment discovers her deceits and uncharms his Understanding so as to perceive her Errors yet out of respect to the Glory of the World he dare not forsake her because this Church is advanc'd to so great Honour and Authority that no body dares leave her for fear of being disgrac'd or persecuted by her as she would certainly do so long as it is in her power For this cause Jesus Christ speaking of the last Times in which we are fallen says That a man must get out of Judea and flee even without returning to his house to take his Cloaths Judea is the Church and the Sanctuary where the abomination of desolation is now so increas'd that it is at its heighth A man needs not glory in being a Son of the Church for the Children shall be cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Jews and Heathens shall be admitted into it for God can make of these stones Children of Abraham Lay aside therefore Sir all these Fears and Pusillanimities they proceed from a softness of spirit Keep close to the Truth and follow her without Fear for she will guide you to salvation If Glory or Interest do not hold you in a dependance on the Church leave her boldly for her Reign will be very shortly at an end and she will perish with all her Glory and Possessions 'T is better lose our Garments than our Life or even our Wealth and Honour than our souls The Fifth Conference Of the Destruction of Christendom I Said to her That I was not so afraid as she thought and that I had ask'd many things of her of which I made no doubt but I desir'd always to be further cleared and therefore propos'd many questions Yet on the contrary I had long suspected that the Church was the VVhore in the Revelations in which her behaviour had confirm'd me therefore would flee out of her Dependance She said 'T will be your best course for her time draws near in which she shall be raz'd and rooted out and her Children scatter'd and divided All the World shall bewail her and call her miserable fot her misery shall be great and all her Villanies shall be discover'd It would be then too late to forsake her for all those who shall be found drinking out of her Cup shall perish with her Therefore Jesus Christ has said That we must not wait till the winter or the Sabbath-day That is till the time of persecution and the Day of the coming of Jesus Christ in his glory for in her persecution there will be so great evils that the like were never seen Men shall pine away for Terror and Fear and be very uncapable of studying how to find the Truth Therefore you must not wait till the time of extremity but flee and get out of her before Neither must you wait till the Day when our Saviour shall come in his Glory because he will render to every one acecrding to his works the time of penitence shall be past it must be done presently or else we shall all perish For the Lord will overthrow all evil by the brightness of his coming which is to be looked for only in order to receive our last Judgment for which it is more than time to prepare our selves and to flee to the Mountains taking heed of men who have for so long deceived and
abused us to the prejudice of the salvation of our souls We must no longer trust in any body for all have left and forsaken their God tho some remain still in the Faith nevertheless they are not in the works of Faith for the Jews with Faith have not the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is the work of Faith and the Christians have no more Faith and shall not recover it since Jesus Christ says That at his coming he shall not find Faith in Israel They are of the House of Israel and the people of God who nevertheless have denied his Faith and given it to men only I ask'd her To what place I ought to flee since the whole world was judged and the Plagues would be universal That I might put my self in greater danger in the place to which I should flee than in that which I had left She said Flee first out of the Dominions of Rome Sir for that place will be first of all destroyed God ordering all his affairs with Judgment Weight and Measure He will visit first of all those who have most offended him Justice regulates all things and because Christians have more treacheroustly offended him than any others they have drawn on themselves the first Vengeance All others will follow the order of their iniquities as they grow worse in wickedness accordingly they shall be nearer their punishment It is fit always to retire into places where the abomination is less There the Chastisements will be less tho indeed no place shall be exempted from Plagues because all parts of the world have deserv'd them Nevertheless they shall be inflicted only according as every one has merited and deserved them and no further for sins beget miseries and they proceed not from God as they would make us believe because no Evils come from God who alone is the Author of all good So that all the good that we see and feel comes always from God and all the evil that we see and feel comes always from sin and as the goodness of God continually brings forth good things so the malignity of sin continually brings forth evil things and as sins increase evils increase the more Hence it comes that the Plagues are universal because the sins are so for as long as there were places where God was yet honour'd on Earth he bore with others waiting for their Repentance and the universal Plagues shall not fall out so long as there are any who have not deserv'd them For God is too just to afflict a righteous person or to chastise one that is innocent That is but the manner of unrighteous men but God always exercises Righteousnes both as to the good and to the evil However men imagine that God sends his Plagues they are deceived for nothing but sin can bring them on and produce them According as men Offend their Evils increase I said to her that these were most excellent Truths that no evil could come from God and that nevertheless nobody did comprehend this She said Sir the reason is Men do not know the Righteousness the Goodness and the Truth of God but they judg blindly of all they see according to their Passions If they knew the righteousness of God they could never think of praying that God would keep off his last Plagucs for they would see that they will never fall out but when sin shall be universal because God is perfectly Righteous but because we do not conceive this Righteousness we believe that there are yet many good men in the world because they seem so to us In this we give a tacite Reproof to God for if our belief were true that there were yet at present so many good men in the VVorld as we are perswaded there are God would be unjust to send on us so many different miseries as we feel at present If he would have forgiven them in Abraham's time provided he could have shewn him but ten righteous Persons yea even fewer how could he chastise the VVorld now if there were so great a number in it as we believe there are Is he not the same God still And has he not the same goodness since he cannot change Truly Sir men mistake God in every thing and through this mistake they utter reproaches against him and blaspheme against his Righteousness goodness and Truth particularly Christians who with their seeming Piety lay the blame on God of all their mis-deeds Is not this horrible darkness since they choose rather to charge God with their Faults than discover them by the Truth that they might repent of them Truly Sir the power of Darkness is great that it can so obscure all the Men of the VVorld that no body knows the Truth any longer and even the most part shut their Eyes that they may not discover it and in so doing they think they do well The Egyptian Darkness was far less dangerous for it was felt and they durst not stir out of the place for fear of falling but those Christians now do not perceive their Darkness or their Errours on the contrary they think they are in the Light and condemn others who see more clearly than themselves By what means should the Children of the Kingdom be saved when they take lying for Truth which they reject as an evil thing I said to her that nevertheless truth was a very lovely thing and as for my self I would follow it as far as I could discover it She said You will discover it sufficiently if you love it for the holy Spirit who is now born into the World will discover it to all those who shall search for it but there are few among the Christians who would receive it tho' it offer it self first of all to their Eyes because they are so full of Errors and Superstitions that they will not make way for this truth which is lovely They live in a presumption of their Salvation yea they condemn all the World to Damnation because it does not follow their Laws though in the mean time they be but humane and no ways divine Laws And whereas God says that he resists the proud and gives Grace to the humble he who is Truth will resist them even as they resist the Truth which is God But if for your part Sir you do it and will follow it you shall obtain the happiness of reigning with Jesus Christ in Glory But without Faith you cannot be saved for if you do not believe that the World is Judged you are not in the light of Truth because the deportment of Men is a certain Evidence of it since we see them without Repentance and Amendment and if you do not believe that we live now in the Reign of Antichrist you will assuredly be deceived For under the covert of Holiness he will deceive the Elect if it were possible and if you do not believe that Jesus Christ shall
come to reign on the Earth with Men to render Justice to every one and to root out all Evil and recompence the sufferings of the Righteous without this perswasion you can never support the Evils which hang over our Head for without knowing these Truths it will be impossible not to fall into despair or murmuring against God if we know not his Righteousness Goodness and Truth with which he does all things Thus we cannot besaved without Faith which discovers the Truth All these things are true of Judgment of Antichrist and of the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory but if you will not believe them you resist the known Truth which is a Sin against the Holy-Ghost that shall never be forgiven The Sixth Conference Discovers the Signs that the World is Judged and that ANTICHRIST Reigns now I said to her I would be very careful not to commit any Sin against the Holy Ghost though I knâ—w not yet the Truth in every thing entreating she would afford the means to discover the Truth of all the things she told me to wit the Judgment the Reign of Antichrist and the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory She said You would infallibly believe them if you would seriously remark what you may see with your Eyes and conceive with your Humane Understanding for these things are so far advanced that one may feel them provided his Mind be not infatuated For first as to the Judgment as I have already told you it is easy to see that the world is Judged because sins are universal and no body will Repent There is every where the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life of which no body Repents and Amends and there can be no forgiveness where there is no amendment and therefore of necessity the World is Judged because these evils are not among some particular persons as they have been in all times but they are generally among all men both small and great If you observe them narrowly you will find Sir that these three sins reign infallibly in the Hearts of all men of whatsoever condition those in whom you cannot discover them are very often the greatest Hypocrites who know better to dissemble and cover their sins And for the second The believing that we are now in the Reign of Antichrist you need only Remark narrowly by what Spirit Men are led because they who are led by God follow his Righteousness his Goodness and his Truth On the contrary they who are led by the Devil oppose themselves to this and if you Reflect upon the Actions of Men now you will find nothing in them but Injustice Malice and Lying which are three qualities of the Devil opposed to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God This is so common at present that there is nothing to be seen but Injustice Malice and affected Lies I said to her in my opinion there were some men who seemed to follow Righteousness and Truth tho it must be acknowledged the greatest part live in Injustice and Deceit She said Sir Judg righteously and examin everything to the bottom You grant already that the greatest part of men now live in Injustice and lies All the World finds this by experience And when the greatest part is for the Devil we may well fear that he will shortly have the whole for as rotten Apples spoil the sound ones so Men corrupted by the Devil are still corrupting and drawing in those who are yet sound If all men in general or almostall were on the Devils side the Reign of Antichrist would be at an end for he could gain no more he would be pleased to have all his Adherents with him to Hell for the reason why he keeps them in Life here and raises them to places and preferments is that they may serve him in corrupting others and in doing all the mischief to the good that may be Now there would be no need of this if all in general were dedicated to his service he could go no farther and God would not continue the World in being to wait for men's Conversion for those who are Dedicated to the Devil will not be converted as some other sinners would be who have not yet renounc'd God nor given their Souls to the Devil as his sworn Votaries or Sorcerers do who are precisely dedicated to the Devil of their own free will as the greatest part of men have done This may appear sufficiently by their Malice which is not only human but Devilish also for human Malice extends it self no farther than to that which is pleasant or profitable to the Malicious Person but at present we see men's Malice so black that he who acts it has neither pleasure nor profit by it and nevertheless they afflict the good and ruin sometimes the wealth and honour of their Neighbour without any profit to themselves And lies are so common tho frequently without any advantage that the truth is seldom or never spoken from whence it appears that it certainly comes from the Devil for men could not arrive at such a malice as that is which we see now reign in the World If I told you Sir that I had these truths by any particular Revelation from God you would entertain it may be some scrupulous doubts about it but I refer you to your own experience that you may know by human Reasons that we are fallen into the last times that the Judgment is past on the whole World And that this is now the Reign of Antichrist For as to the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory I cannot make it appear to you so precisely as the things that are already come to pass but if you read attentively the Holy Scriptvres they will plainly enough declare it to you for of all contain'd in them there is nothing more spoken of than of the coming of Jesus Christ on Earth in Glory From the beginning of the World we are told that Jesus Christ was to become man to Reign with men on Earth and tho he had not been man to suffer he had become man to Reign Because he would take and give to men a perfect contentment of Conversing together with them in Body and Soul Divinity and Humanity I cannot make you see this Sir by the Eyes of the Body because the time is not yet come Therefore I send you to the Holy Scriptures But as for the Judgment and the Reign of Antichrist you may see it with your Eyes and comprehend it with your Natural understanding For it is visible and comprehensible by him whose Spirit is not infatuated and who seeks to discover the Truth The thing is so manifest that it speaks out it self Many say blindly We are in the end of the VVorld and they perceive not that they speak truth Others say The Devil reigns over all and they see not that this is the Reign of Antichrist who Rules as
by him he might rule over all Things as a dependent Deity And for a Token of this Dependance he forbad him to eat of the Fruit of one Tree only permitting him to eat of all the rest The meaning of which was that Man might enjoy use and rule over all Things provided always he acknowledg'd his Dependance on the Supream Deity of whom he held all Things And if Adam had not forgotten himself by quitting this Dependance and desiring to depend upon himself he should never have received any other Command from God nor yet any Man after him But the Righteousness of God oblig'd him to lay other Commands on Man for the Pennance of his Disobedience He enjoyn'd him to till the Ground and to gain his Bread with the sweat of his Face which was the Second Command that God gave to Man which nevertheless was only Accidental through the Fall of Adam and not Essential by the Will of God who lov'd rather to see him free without being subjected to any other Thing but Himself alone And his giving the Commands to Moses for the Children of Israel was also Accidental For if they had not fallen into so many different Sins which took them off from their Dependance upon God he would never have given them divers Commandments But fearing lest his People should perish through Ignorance he still gave them new Commands that by the help of them they might know their Sins and amend them else God would never have constrain'd Man to any other thing but to acknowledge him as the Superiour of all Things For God created him to take his Delight with him in full liberty and without constraint and was not willing to subject him to any other Law but that of Love By which we see that all the other Commands are but Accidentally appointed because of the Sins that Men had committed at divers times who if they would now return to this Dependance upon God would have no need of any other Precept or Commandment for all the rest are only Means to bring us to this Dependance upon God and that we may see and discover all that hinders us from resigning our Will to God's and that discovering them by the Commands we may leave them and amend and so may be able to return to this Dependance which was first enjoyn'd us as the one thing necessary for Salvation And is still so now as well as then The Twelfth Conference Shews That there is one thing only to be done by us that we may be saved I said to her That it was very agreeable to hear that there was but one thing only to be done in order to Salvation And that I would gladly take that short way She said No Sir 'T is true there is but one thing only to be done that we may be saved But there are many things to be parted with which do greatly hinder and distract us We neglect to do that which is necessary to attain to this Dependance and we do that which alienates us from it The Penitence which God enjoyn'd Adam To gain his Bread with the Sweat of his Face is very little regarded among Men now Every Body would live without Labour and they esteem it a Happiness to have Riches that they may live in Ease This is indeed to thwart the Means that God has so savingly taught us After that Adam sin'd and all Men in him of his own free choice he left off this Dependance upon God that he might become wise of himself Thus he render'd himself miserable with all his Posterity Because all the Miseries that we suffer are procured by the following our own Wills We must not impute all our Miseries to Adam but only to the Sins that we our selves commit If we had no other but the Sin of Adam we should need nothing but the Pennance of Labour to gain our Bread and the enduring the Intemperance of the Elements But our own Sins bring upon us a Thousand other Sufferings If we would labour and suffer Cold and Heat or other Intemperances of the said Elements and return again to the Dependance of our Wills upon Gods we should be very quickly restored to the Blessed State wherein Adam was created For our Penitence should be accomplish'd in this short Life which by the Mercy of God is much shortned and then we should enjoy an Eternal Bliss which should never end But since our Actual Self will would not depend upon God but upon its self bending it self to follow its own Inclinations it has procured us a great Number of other Evils which we attribute to God or to Adam and if we consider them aright we will evidently perceive that they derive their dominion from our Self-will and not from any other thing For our Diseases are ordinarily procured by our Intemperance in Eating and Drinking or other Sensual Excesses which we commit to satisfie our own Will which oftimes drives us to some State that causes us a Thousand Sorrows or to some Employment or Trade that brings us into great trouble of Law-suits Quarrels Vexations or to Poverty and other Miseries And the Cause of all this is that we would not submit our Will to Gods who would have govern'd us as a good Father does his Son we having chosen rather to follow our own Will and to undergo all sort of Calamities in this World and run the hazard of suffering far greater hereafter which shall never end For he who will not be guided by God can never be saved since our own Conduct will lead us to the Abyss of all sort of Evils both Temporal and Eternal Because our own Will is ignorant and rash never content nor satisfied never stopping for any sort of Evil Even though it discover its Miseries it does not amend them but imputes them to another either to Adam or even to God And thus flattering our selves always in our own Will we persist therein even to death which gives beginning to a miserable Eternity For no Body can be saved by himself and if we do not yield up our Will to God from whom can we expect Salvation 'T is a great Blindness Sir not to see these Truths which are so evident since we feel our Weakness and know that we have receiv'd all from God and that we can hope for nothing but from him And notwithstanding of all these Considerations we will not resign our Will to his choosing rather to be miserable and to perish at last by following our own We are unthankful to God and cruel to our selves For indeed 't is a great Ingratitude to deny God the only thing he demands of us our own Will having given us all other things and 't is a great Cruelty to our selves to withdraw our Dependance upon God and subject our selves to so many sorts of Evils I asked her How it was possible that Men should deny the yielding up their Will to God since all appertains to him
understood of all the Holy Scripture for even they who pronounc'd it understood it not in its perfect Sense but in part only But now that the Holy Spirit is come upon Earth to give the full Knowledge of them he needs not for this End a Body of Flesh but only to give Men Spiritual Understanding that they may know the Powers of God the Love he bears to Man the End for which he created him and may have the knowledge of True Vertue and of that which is False All these Things shall be known by the Understanding of those Men who will receive the Light of Truth which the Holy Spirit brings now into the World HE IS BORN in the midst of its Universal Darkness in which no Body knows the Truth of any Thing all being falsified or not known The Holy Spirit comes to clear this by Spiritual Notices I blest my good Fortune and the Day in which I met with this Pilgrimess for my Vnderstanding received such Light by her Discourses that I must confess my Soul had perish'd without this Rencounter I asked her How her Words could have such strong Operations on me She said Sir This proceeds from the Holy Spirit who begins to visit your Soul by his Light Receive it with Humility of Heart and he will enlighten you more For he is come to fill the Souls of all those who shall receive the Truth It is by the Operations that you feel that he is born in Souls He is a Spirit and he works in the Spirit of all who seek and desire him We must not any longer seek for visible and material Means For all these things are Hindrances to him Let us only open our Heart and Spirit to receive the Truth and it will teach us all Things For nothing but Lies has undone the whole World The Darkness that Men are in and their forgetfulness of God have come by Lying which has seiz'd on all the World For none are now in the Truth The false Perswasions which they have imprinted on Mens Hearts have made them mistake God and the State of their own Souls There is therefore great reason to bless the Goodness of God who in so miserable a Time sends us his Holy Spirit to enlighten all those who will receive him I believe Sir you are the first but a great Number will follow you For as soon as the delusion shall be discovered the Eyes of many will be opened and their Heads lifted up to return to God abhorring their Errours and the Deceit of their blind Guides They will see that all that they have taught them as Means of bringing them to God have estrang'd them from him and the Sacraments and other Ceremonies of the Church instead of procuring them the Grace of God to love him and to acquire true Vertue have given them rather a Contempt of God and a false hypocritical Vertue This being discovered many will seek the Truth abhorring Lying which has put their Salvation in so great hazard I asked her If the Holy Spirit would not become visible She said No Sir He will not be visible but by the Operations which he will make in Souls whom you shall see disingaged from the Earth and cleaving to God alone We shall see them possess Joy Peace and Patience with the other Fruits and Gifts which will be sure Evidences that the Holy Spirit will dwell in their Souls who notwithstanding shall not be seen by the Eyes of the Body in any Material Form or Figure For the Time is come that God will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and no longer in Figures which shall all cease because of the Accomplishment of all Things And all that was figured in the Old Law shall be accomplished in full perfection by the Holy Spirit For the Time is come that all the Promises which God made to Men from the Beginning of the World shall be fulfilled the Alliance that God has promis'd to make with Men shall have its perfect Accomplishment For they shall be his People and he will be their God This has not come to pass as yet Though Men were created to be God's People nevertheless they did not continue so on the contrary they committed so many Infidelities that he was oblig'd to destroy them by a General Deluge and though the Children of Israel were God's peculiar People they forsook him notwithstanding and gave themselves to Idolatry The Jews who were as precisely God's People denied him also and would not acknowledge him when he became Man but revil'd him and hang'd him on a Cross And now the Christians who ought more perfectly to be Gods People despise him in his Sufferings and in his Doctrine So that the Alliance that God promis'd to make with Man could not hitherto be accomplish'd Of necessity the Holy Spirit must come upon Earth to enlighten Men that they may have the Faithfulness requisite for this Alliance of God with Men For a Marriage cannot be compleat if the Spouse be not faithful as the Husband is The Fourteenth Conference Speaks of the Alliance that God will make with Men and of the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and that to have a Share in it we must of necessity resign our Will to God and return to a Dependance upon him I entreated her to tell me How and when and wherein this Alliance of God with Men shall be made She said This Will be made by the Holy Spirit who will illuminate Souls make them know their Errours and also the End for which they were created which is nothing less than to be joyn'd and united to God who will take his Delight with Men And they perceiving this shall separate themselves from all Earthly Pretensions and resign themselves to the Will of God desiring no longer to use their own Wills because they have entirely renounc'd them Then shall they have such Dispositions as will invite God down to the Earth to Ally himself visibly and bodily with Men by an inseparable and indissoluble Tye. This is the End for which God cloath'd himself with a Humane Body to make himself like to Man that the Alliance he designed to make with him might be wholly perfect and compleat both in Body and Spirit What God promis'd of Old to Abraham could never be accomplish'd because Men were never resign'd to God as they ought having still us'd their own Free-will without depending upon God This did separate and divorce them from the Alliance which he promis'd them But in this Fulness of Time wherein we live the Holy Spirit is come down to teach us all Things and whosoever shall hear him shall enjoy the promis'd Alliance For Jesus Christ will come very shortly upon the Earth in Glory to Joyn and Allie himself with all those who shall resign themselves to him I cannot precisely tell the Day Sir but that it will be towards the End of the Plagues which are now
times to follow the Will of God He sasts alwayes when he never takes but what is simply necessary for him in which God directs him He is alwayes in the Church when he is continually in the presence of God He frequents also the Sacraments as long as his Spirit converses with God who comprehends in himself all that is Holy or Sacred He has the Remission and Indulgence of all his Sins by the Resignation that he makes of his Will to that of his God because he can never attain to this Resignation without forsaking all sort of Evil and this is true Repentance which obtains the Remission of all Sins He has no need of Images when his Eye and his Heart is fixt upon the Will of God which makes him remember whatsoever is good and just and he has no longer need of Intercessours for his Salvation since he is united to the Will of Him who only can give it I said to her That I saw clearly enough that all our Salvation and Happiness did depend upon this Resignation of our Will to that of God But that it was a Loss that this was not taught to all the World who believed they were sure of their Salvation by the Means of Devotions She said Sir It is a Lamentable thing that all the World should perish for want of knowing the Truth Secular Persons think they are good when they Trade and do their Business without Fraud though they never consider that they are sent into this World to lead a Life of Penitence and are created to be alwayes united in Will to God Churchmen or Religions Persons believe they shall be saved provided they go to Church and perform their customary Devotions without thinking that to be saved they must be resigned to the Will of God And thus both the one and the other perish through Ignorance because all in general are creared to be resigned in Will to the Will of God depending immediately upon him and not on other Things And though we are obliged to Labour in this Life yet this is but accidentally and to satisfie the Penitence due for our Sins not that God has created us for Labour but only ordain'd it for Penitence And instead of fulfilling it by our Labour we encrease our Sins by the same Means by which we ought to purge them glorying in our Chains and rejoycing in our Vallie of Tears And we will Act where we ought only to Suffer and Rule where we ought to be Subject This falls out through our Ignorance for we do not know the True way of Salvation and we imagine we shall find it by Means which divert us from it instead of bringing us to it They go sometimes to a Cloyster to find the sure Means of Salvation and in the mean time all the Exercises that must be performed are often Diversions from God For so many outward Rules and Gestures prove great Hindrances to the Conversation the Soul ought to have with its God and these Studied Devotions are often Hypocrisies If we bow the Knee to shew that we adore and pray to God while our Thoughts are far from him this is pure Hypocrisie If we give Honour or do Reverence to some Image without raising our Thoughts to that which it represents to us this is pure Idolatry If we pray to God with the Lips and the Heart is far from him it is a Contempt of God If we use Mortifications of the Body without the Spirit of Penitence it is the Pride of Life for we desire to be esteemed more than others because of our particular Pennances when God has appointed us all in general common Ones which would be much more for our Salvation For he who willingly suffers Heat Cold and other Incommodities of the Elements or of our Body does merit much more than he who chuses Fastings Watchings and other things according to his own desires Because these things are done by our own Will and will be recompenced only in this VVorld But the Pennances that are common to all Men are Ordained and Chosen of God for saving Penitences In which these Penitents do greatly deceive themselves in following their own VVill and often will not bear patiently with a VVord that contradicts their Behaviour The Blindness of Men now may truly be bewailed for in all Things they take Falshood for Truth and the way of Damnation for that of Salvation Which would be easie to make appear to all the World in case they would give Ear to it For there is but one only thing needful which is for Men to resign their Will to that of God But they are so preoccupied with so many different sorts of Means which they perswade them are good Things that they should think they did Evil in resigning their Will to that of God choosing rather to submit it to a Man subject to his Passions having forgotten that the Holy Spirit said Wo to the Man that puts his confidence in Man Take Sir this Lesson to your self and put not your Confidence in any but God For all Men are Lyars and cannot give Salvation to those to whom they promise it We have but one only Saviour who is Jesus Christ and one only Essential Commandment which is to DEPEND UPON GOD IN ALL THINGS If Men have taught so many different Things and filled the World with Books to shew that we must depend upon them do not believe them for one thing only is needful I asked her Why she had shewn me so many different things since we began our Conferences seeing there is one thing only needful as I am certainly perswaded She said Sir I never taught you any other Means of Salvation but the Doctrine of the Gospel which is sufficient to bring back the greatest Sinners in the World to a Dependance upon God Because that Doctrine teaches how to remove all that might hinder this Resignation to God And when it says that we must deny our selves it tells us that we must be resigned to God and in saying that we must take up our Cross it shews the Penitence that we are obliged to perform in this World and when we consider the whole Life of Jesus Christ we are thereby sufficiently taught that we must not rule in this World nor seek after Dignities Offices or Traffick nor build Cloisters or other Edifices nor lay up Riches here For his whole Life and Conversation was quite another thing and he has not at all taught us the Customs that are observed at present but Goodness Humility and Poverty These Things are the true Means to attain to this Dependance upon God because they remove the Hindrances of our Soul that thereafter it may resign it self the more easily and freely unto him Jesus Christ has taught that we are to forsake many Things which prove Hindrances of this Resignation to God For he who loves the Riches Honours Pleasures and Delights of this World cannot be
offending him who has reserved it for himself These Sir are all blind who lead the blind and both fall into the ditch See that you never be of that Crew but believe in the Light that God manifests unto you I have spoken TRUTH to you not out of an Affectation to be believed or followed but from a design and desire of your Salvation All that I have said is necessary for you if you will use it well Because we cannot Love God without knowing him nor follow Vertue without conceiving what it is In like manner we cannot avoid Delusion without discovering it nor escape the Snares of the Devil without turning away from them Make a good use of all these Things and you shall be happy both in this World and the other I doubt not but my way of speaking may be somewhat uneasie to you because it agrees not with your Philosophy Theology or other Scholastick Sciences But believe me I never professed any Humane Sciences I choose rather to be ignorant of them than know them and if I could learn in a Quarter of an Hour all the Learning of the Schools I would not employ even that Little Time about them Because I know that Humane Learning is a great Hindrance to the Holy Spirit and also the Time is come that God will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and abolish the Prudence of the Prudent And therefore I cannot use fine Discourses but such only as make the plain Truth be understood Words and Terms may be contended about but not the real Meaning which is true I will not dispute with the Learned because God will overcome them very shortly by the Effects of my Words nor will I polish my Language because simple Plainness pleases God more than the greatest Eloquence which is subject to Vanity For he that speaks that he may talk well is full of Vain-glory Renouncing which I seek nothing but plain Words that may express my Thoughts I believe Sir you have understood me well enough and I can tell you no more whereby I may co-operate to your Salvation There remains nothing but to put it in practice This you will do more easily in a Solitude or Desert than elsewhere because of the Corruption of Men who prove great Hindrances to us and also because of the Power the Devil has now over their Minds whereby he may infatuate all those who are yet sound and entire Flee therefore Sir to avoid these Dangers and be afraid lest you be diverted from your good Purpose and do not look back like Lot's Wife who was changed into a Pillar of Salt Yet a little Penitence and then God will deliver you from it to enter into the Joy that shall never end This is what I wish you and bid you Adieu I was troubled to hear that she would leave me entreating she would not withdraw from me since I resolved to follow what she had taught me which was nothing else but the denying of my self and a dependance upon God She said Sir It will be more for your purity to stay alone Because I am but a Creature as you are and we must cleave to the Creatour only without Interruption He will lead you at his pleasure provided you be resigned to his Will you need no more Instructions from any I have told you abundantly what may bring you to an Union with God To speak more would be henceforth but a Repetition of what is already said which would rob us both of our Time and that would be better employed in the Practice than in Repetitions Leave me to my Liberty and take also yours God did not create us together He will Save us though we be separate in Body True Union consists in a conformity of the Will with God and not in particular Conferences I must confess I have often withdrawn from conversing with God to speak to you of so many diverse Things But I judg'd them necessary for your Salvation and therefore they were not uneasie to me But now that you know the Truth of many Things it is not expedient to speak to you any longer God will still teach you sufficiently provided you continue faithful to him He never denied what Men ask of him for their Salvation You ought to have no other Designs Let the World be overturned Let the Roman Church perish Let the Elements be moved against Sinners all this cannot touch you provided you keep firmly united to God Quit all Things willingly to find this Union It matters little whether I am with you or not Provided you be with God He should suffice you For he only can save you and no Body else There is always a Mixture when the Creature cleaves to its like I often despised those who cleave to others even though it was under some pious Pretext I will not do my self what I despise in others I said to her She had promised to explain to me the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew That she ought at least to give me it before she leave me She said Sir I do not willingly fail in my Promise Give me the Text of that Chapter and I will explain it Word by Word and I wish that all sincere Persons may see it that they may discover that this Chapter speaks of the present Time Every one reads it without understanding it Nevertheless there are fair Advertisements to beware of this dangerous Time in which we live at present These are not Tales made at pleasure but Truths come from the Mouth of Jesus Christ himself which every one ought to Learn and follow the Counsels that he gives They are most saving 〈◊〉 for escaping the Evils to come which hang 〈◊〉 our Heads I must give it in Writing for an eternal Memorial that it may be observed whether all that is contained in it shall not come to pass in our Time Do not oppose what you shall find contrary to your Learning or old Impressions because the Holy Spirit will give the perfect Understanding of all the Holy Scriptures which has not been hitherto heard of For we are fallen into the Fulness of Time If you receive them with Humility of Heart you shall understand all Things perfectly But you must become an Infant and cease from your own Wisdom For God reveals c his Secrets to Babes and hides them from the Great and Wise of the Earth You must not control the Holy Spirit or say Such a Father explains this thus or otherwise Because Fulness is still more than a Portion You will find what I shall say more clear than all that the Holy Fathers ever said Because the Time is come of the Accomplishment of all Things But you must simplifie your Understanding as a little Child else you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I brought her the Text of the Gospel promising entirely to submit my Vnderstanding as much as was possible that I might receive the Light of the Holy Spirit She
be to cast Roses before Swine Offer them only to those who will take pleasure to smell them and not to these who will cast them into the Dunghil All good Men will feel in the Bottom of their Souls that this cannot come from the Devil For he is the Father of Lyes and never incites to Self-denial because he is too proud Nor to the Love of God because he hates him And yet less to resign our Will to that of God for he catches all Men by their Self-will All my Discourses have for their Scope all that is contrary to the Devil who is never contrary to himself The Ninteenth Conference Sheweth That the Spirit of Antichrist hinders Men from discovering the saving Truth and that the Heathens are more resigned to God than the Christians at present I said to her That I thought no Body in the World could resist so clear Truths without betraying his own Conscience That all the Things she had told me did speak forth themselves and were attended with such solid Foundations and such firm Reasons that the Learned and Vnlearned might comprehend them and that the Scope of all was the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls and that there was nothing in them that savoured of the Earth She said If we were not fallen into the Reign of Antichrist no Body could resist so clear Truths All the World would feel them and would discover his Deceits every one would flie to the Desert to do Penitence bewailing his past Life and the Errours wherein he had lived for so long a time But the Michief is that this Antichrist has so great a number of Adherents who take up his Quarrel and resist the Truth that the good themselves have difficulty to receive it For they disfigure it and make it pass for Lyes and Heresies telling those who advance it that they would seduce the People as they said of Jesus Christ when he brought Light into the World calling him a Seducer of the People or one that had a Devil The Power of Darkness is much encreast since the Time that he was upon Earth and nothing is to be look'd for but Outrages from all the Devil's Adherents In this case a Man must count it a Happiness to suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake and believe that there is no more blessed Death than to dye a Martyr for the Truth But he must beware of Men and use the Wisdom of the Serpent and rather part with his Skin than lose his Soul You will find more Welcome Sir among the Jews and Heathens than among the Catholicks who condemn others to Authorize their own Customs despising the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who sayes Judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned These Catholicks condemn all those who do not follow them This is the cause why they are judged and condemned first to be rooted out They condemn so many holy Heathens who will go before them in the Day of Judgment because they were faithful to God though they had not any Laws or Institutions to know Him Nevertheless many resigned their Wills to that of God and obeyed the Truth in their Lives whereas these Christians follow Lyes of which the Devil is the Father and none of them will resign themselves to God nor take notice of the Truth which discovers the shortness of this miserable Life and the certainty of one that shall be Eternal These Heathens knew a God to whom they resigned themselves and seeing the Misery of this Life they bewailed it they laughed when they considered the Stupidity of Men who took pleasure in this Life and judg'd that they ought not to be called Men because they did not use their Reason to discover the Truth of Things For he who went through the City of Athens with his Lantern seeking for a Man in the midst of so many Thousands as were in the Market-place could not be ignorant that they who were about him were all Men But seeing they were all occupied in buying and selling and Trading for the Earth he could not acknowledge them to be Reasonable Men Because he who has Reason ought to use it for his Eternal Happiness else he is nothing but a Beast For Reason only makes a Man without which he does not differ from the Brute Beasts for they are unreasonable Animals and Men are reasonable ones Laying aside which they are as much Brutes as the Beasts This made the Philosopher search for a Man among so great a Number and could not find one because all spent their Lives in Worldly Business instead of employing them in the Study of the Knowledge of God and of the Truth which is the same God And they condemn those Heathens as damned and for my part I look upon them as SAINTS and believe they will come to Reign with Jesus Christ upon Earth to condemn the Christians who besides the Light of the Heathens had Lawes and Commandments from God with the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which obliged them to a farther Knowledge of God and the Immortality of their Souls the Shortness and Misery of this Life that they might despise it and the Vanity of perishing Goods that they might abandon them Nevertheless not one of these Christians does any of these Things I asked her If it was indeed possible that not so much as one Christian should be resigned to God nor have the Vertues of the Heathens She said Yes Sir This is most true that not so much as one Christian is resigned to God nor understands true Vertue as much as the Heathens did Because none apply themselves to it Since they became Idolaters of Men they have left off to know God and abondoned themselves to the Will of their Idols instead of the Will of God They Preach and Teach through all Christendom That we must depend upon Men whom they call the Fathers of the Church That we must believe and follow them even with a blind Obedience In which they prefer themselves to God who demands only of Man that he obey him in what he shall make known to him having given him Eyes to discover this Beautiful Universe that when he sees the Heavens the Earth the Sun the Stars and all the Elements with so many different Creatures so marvellous and so well ordered he might clearly perceive that all those Things must proceed from a God since Men and Nature can make nothing like them Moreover when Man considers himself he discovers evidently by his Understanding that his Soul his Memory his Understanding cannot come but from a God for no such Thing can come from Nature no more than his Body since all the Industry of Men is not capable to make so much as one Hair of our Head This obliges us to acknowledge a God by so many different Operations without being put to know God blindly no more than to love
the Conscience and that all these outward Things are nothing but Grimaces when they are not done from an abundance of inward Sentiments and that it is said to such Persons This People worship me with their Lips and their Heart is far from me All Christendom is full of this Blindness and they believe that God is served by outward Things Nevertheless it is a certain Truth That God has no need of material Things but desires only the consent of our Will to take his pleasure in us Which he cannot do so long as we will take our pleasure with the Creatures or with any Earthly Things even though according to our Opinion they should be good Things Because he is jealous of our Heart and will not suffer a Corrival and he has reason For it appertains to him alone Because he created it without the Interposition of any other Notwithstanding Man is so unthankful that he denies him his Heart and his Will and would content him with Words and outward Gestures and will not open his Eyes to discover the Truths which would save him from Damnation My Heart is oppressed with Grief Sir to see all the World perish and I cannot help it because they will not receive the Truth I am very far from desiring to leave my Neighbour out of disdain But I am obliged to leave him because he will not be converted to the Truth and the Holy Spirit sayes We ought not to speak that which does not profit I see the Vice of all Men clear as the Sun and I do not think that one can be saved in the State in which they are at present And yet I cannot save them by my Conversation Because they make not a good use of it If I declare their Vices in particular they are ill satisfied or at least they would cover and excuse them Which is evidence enough that they will not amend them and if I point out the Vices indirectly or in general then no Body will take it to himself but will excuse himself by some Formality or Reasoning and if any one lay them to Heart for a Time Men and Business do quickly banish these good Purposes And so nothing is put in practice My Time is lost And my Words are rendered useless whereas I would be profiting something in conversing with God Behold these are the Causes and Reasons why I will remain alone not to conceal the Light For I would have it Lighted for all the World and I know not a more perfect Contentment in this Life than the Meeting and Society of many Hearts united in Jesus Christ as also I know nothing more uneasie than the Conjunction of Persons of contrary Wills For I cannot change for them and they will not change to follow me This is the Combat I said to her That at least some would change to follow her and to save their Souls She said Sir You would be greatly astonished to see the way the World would take to change Every one forsooth would resign his Will to God provided he govern it according to their own Inclinations God must accommodate himself to them and they will not accommodate themselves to God Even so many would indeed follow me it so be withal they may follow also their own Will Which cannot be done For he who follows it is the Enemy of God and if I am his Friend how could I dwell with those who are his Enemies without a continual Constraint Contradiction and Debate All their Actions proceeding from this Self-love would be blameable If I do not reprove them I am unfaithful to God and if I reprove them I become their Enemy and withal they will not amend but will become rather worse applying themselves to remark if they can find any defects in my Actions for a Revenge and if they do not find any they will endeavour at least to despise my Intentions by measuring them according to their Line and interpreting them according to their Sentiments And thus they will offend God and trouble my Repose without any profit Therefore I foreseeing this would do very ill to associate with any Body unless I had assurance before-hand that they would resign themselves truly to God For else this would be to render my self a Slave and others miserable without any Contentment And as God takes his delight and pleasure with Souls whose Wills are united to his so he thrusts behind him those who are not in the Unity of his Divine Will even so ought I to thrust away from me those who will not truly resign their Wills to that of God because it is a kind of Martyrdom to live together bodily being divided in Will As it would be a Paradise of Delights to live with Persons who have their Wills equally resigned to that of God Which makes the true Paradise and perfect Contentment For God and these Souls would be but one and the same Thing I said to her That she ought to associate her self with sincere Persons and that her Company would be of great Advantage to them for attaining to this Resignation to God She said It is true Sir in case their Will were truly good But all that I remark in these Persons who would follow me and be saved is nothing but Wouldings not absolute Wills They say they would be converted they would follow me and be resigned to God while in effect they do neither the one nor the other before God Because these Wouldings proceed only from their own Will They would be converted being afraid of Damnation they would follow me that they may be saved and resign themselves to God only in Word or as long as the Will of God goes along with theirs Lo this is the good Will that I have experienced in those who would follow me and even at present I know no other For I perceive very often that they aim yet at their own Interest Honour or Pleasures So that it they were with me I would reprove all their Actions none excepted Which would be very irksome to me and troublesom to them yea even insupportable For so long as they are not truly designed to God they live still according to their Natural Senses which will not suffer Reproofs and Nature is so Proud that it will not acknowledge its Fault nor suffer disesteem presuming to be more wise and accomplished than its equals so that all that I should do to these Persons would only be to disquiet and vex them because they are so in love with their Vices and Imperfections that they even despise those that do not follow them So that I should live in a continual Constraint among others for I could not speak according to my Sentiments For they are not capable of them and I could not shew them their Faults because they presume to be as wise as I neither could I be profitable in their Company when they will not follow the Spirit that guides me but every
sufficient to make Adam understand that he would do well to examine himself Just so it was not needful that he should say in express Words It is my Will that you submit your Will to mine This ought to be understood sufficiently when he sayes I forbid thee to eat of this Tree Man in himself had no other Fruit worthy of God but the Disposal of his Free-will for all his other Things were either Humane or Material This Free-will alone was Divine The use of which ought to be reserved for God alone Even though he had never declared that he would have it for himself yet Man was certainly obliged both by Divine and Humane Right voluntarily to offer it to him The Twentieth and Fourth Conference Shews Why Men cannot abandon themselves to a Dependance upon God I said to her There was nothing more reasonable nor more just or perfect than for Man to resign his Will to that of God asking her why Men had difficulty to do this She said Sir There is nothing better for Man than to resign his Will to that of God and we see nothing less practised than this Because no Body applies his Spirit to consider this Obligation One diverts himself by his Studies another by his Offices another by his Trade Just as if every one had been created only for such Employs They Rule on Earth as Little Gods without thinking on this DEPENDANCE and when God shall come at the Hour of our Death he will deride the Men who have lived thus as he did Adam when he cloathed him with a garment of Skins saying to him Behold Adam is become a God like us Men now may indeed at Death look for the like Reproaches Because God has placed them in this Valley of Misery to do Penitence and they will needs Rule and take their pleasures in it as in a Paradise forgetting that they ought to depend upon God and submit their Wills to his And instead of doing this they will needs govern themselves and follow their own Inclinations These evil Habits make it seem difficult for Men now to abandon their Wills to God because they have possessed them till this present Time And seeing all that has Life is in a continual Motion if we live to our Senses we advance alwayes in Brutishness And if we live to the Devil we advance alwayes in Malice but if we live to God we advance alwayes in the Divine Nature The difficulty that we find to resign our Will to that of God proceeds certainly from this that we are habituated not to depend on the Will of God and that we have debased this Divine Quality that he has given us even to the Earth or to Hell When we leave it to the power of the Devil to Rule over our Free-will we then render our Divine Souls Devils and when we let it be Ruled by our Brutish Passions we then render our Divine Soul Beastly What Injury does Man to himself that he will not yield up his Free-will into Gods Hand who would render it wholly Divine This is the One Thing necessary and we do not apprehend it Nevertheless we cannot be saved by any other Means since this is the only Way that leads to Salvation we must of necessity retake it or we shall all perish We must be born again and re-enter into the Original State in which God created us For he has changed nothing in Man by Sin no more than he has done in the Earth the Beasts and Elements except that all these Things have contracted some Malignity in themselves which Man must correct by resisting his own Will in which this Malignity resides For as long as we shall follow our own Will we shall still grow worse Because this Malignity that is in our Will encreases according as we follow it By which we may evidently see that he who will not yield up his own Will to God cannot be saved For this Divine Quality which is in us being become brutish produces all sorts of Evils even as the Devils since they applied their Divine Qualities to do evil have an insatiable appetite to Evil. But when this our Will is yielded up into Gods Hand it is in its Center and produces all sort of good Of necessity therefore we must retake our Original and the first essential Commandment that God gave us which is a DEPENDANCE upon his Will It is this that Jesus Christ sayes Except you repent you shall all perish The trouble that we shall have to resign our Will to God will purge our Souls and by this Violence we shall possess them I said to her That none had ever searched so deep into the necessity of this Dependance upon God as she had deduc'd it Which notwithstanding was so clear and true that no Body could doubt of it That Man owed all to God since he had received all from him She said Sir The cause why they do not penetrate the necessity of this Dependance upon God is the Blindness of Men who being diverted by their Worldly Affairs and Business do not apply themselves to that which concerns their Eternal Happiness contenting themselves with this to believe blindly what is laid before them that is the Reasons and Sentiments of Men without searching into the Essence of the Thing or the Truth of their Original It is in this that Jesus Christ said If the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch They teach in the Roman Church a great many Lawes and Commands Counsels Rules Means Cases of Conscience and a Thousand sorts of Inventions to please God which of themselves are not capable of saving so much as one Soul While in the mean time all the World build their Salvation upon these Things But they are deceived since nothing can obtain it but a DEPENDANCE UPON GOD And as near as we come to this Dependance we come as near to our Salvation and as far as we are estranged from it we are as near our Damnation We ought not to go by Four Ways when there is but one that is straight The taking so many different Methods to go to God are only By-ways since there is but One only that can unite us to him That is the DEPENDANCE of our Will upon his all being comprehended in it because this is the Essence of all Good Since nothing is good but God no good can come but from him alone who does alwayes well and never ill Nevertheless he will not act in us any good but in so far as our Free-will is resigned to him He does alwayes good where he meets with no opposition and he will never do it where our Will opposes it self Because it is he who gave this Liberty to the Soul and he will never repent of any of the Works that he has done If we could speak of God as we would do of a Man we would say that he is very sorry when Man
Commandments which were written in it And in the Gospel-Law how few have followed the Word of God Twelve Apostles Among whom one forsook it to go hang himself and some Disciples among whom divers also abandoned Jesus Christ So that this Divine Word has served for Nourishment for few Persons But in the Fulness of Time in which we enter at present this Divine Word shall have its full effect and the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon all Flesh Young and Old Great and Small so that all shall Prophesie and speak Languages and do more Wonders than Moses did with all the Antient Prophets who altogether were but Figures of the Things figured which we shall see very shortly come to pass which will be more perfect than all that the Apostles and their Disciples did yea even Jesus Christ himself because we are arrived at the Fulness of Time of which the Apostles says That they shall understand and prophesie in full perfection What they only did in part shall be in Fulness and Accomplishment because then all Men in general who shall remain on the Earth shall subject their Wills to that of God who will govern them according to his pleasure and without the contradiction of their own Wills Then there will be no longer need of Laws no more Constraint no more Commands no more Churches of Stone no more Sacraments no more Prayers no more Desires and Aspirations because the Souls of all Men shall be filled with the Will of God and shall have nothing more to ask Him by Prayer nor have any more need of the Sacraments to obtain his Graces which are all contained in the Accomplishment of his Will which will operate in them without having need to go to Church their Soul being the True Temple where the Will of God resides which has no need of Law or Commandment the Will of God being a Law to it self by Pure Love without any constraint Lo this is the Estate of Blessed Souls who shall enter into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ This is that Hidden Treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven and he that discovers it ought to sell all that he has to obtain it It is to be bought very easily There is no need of being Rich or of Noble Blood No need of Learning many Languages nor of passing the Degrees of the Schools and Universities No need to enter into Cloysters of strict Observance nor to crush the Body with hard Discipline Watchings Fastings and other Bodily Mortifications No need to learn to Read Write or any other Curious Art Nor yet is there need of perusing so many Spiritual Books with which the World is now full which Teach so many Methods of Perfection so many Steps to ascend to Vertue so many Means to find God No Sir all these Things are not necessary because there is but ONE THING ONLY so which is TO RESIGN OUR WILL TO THE WILL OF GOD. Lo this is the Leaven that leavens the whole Lump of the Law of Nature that of the Jews and that of the Gospel Because this Subjection of our Will to God comprehends all in it and gives us an Entry into the Kingdom of Heaven Lo this is all I have to say to you and bid you Adieu for ever Remaining your very Affectionate in a Dependance on the Will of God At Macklin Sept. 15. 1667. ANTHOINETTE BOVRIGNON Luke xxj 5. I will give you a Mouth and Wisdom which they who shall rise up against you shall not be able to gainsay nor resist Chap. x. 18. I beheld Satan falling from Heaven as Lightning THE END Of the Third and Last Part of The LIGHT of the World The TABLE of the Conferences of the Third Part of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD I. Conf. SHEWS That God never demanded any other thing of Man but the Dependance of his Will upon that of God and that all the other Laws are given him by accident and to discover to him his Sins pag. 1 II. Of Free-will That it is the only thing that represents in Man the Infinity and Liberty of God and that this is the greatest Gift that God gave to Man that he might love him freely and infinitely Which is the greatest Perfection in Grace and is Typified by that of Marriage in Nature p. 8 III. Speaks of the Perfection and Abuse of Marriage p. 15 IV. Of the Blindness of Men who amuse themselves with the outward Things which are delivered them without informing themselves of the Truth it self in its depth being charm'd and detained with the fear of displeasing those who are in Vogue p. 19 V. Of the Destruction of Christendom p. 24 VI. Shews the Marks by which it appears the World is judged and that Antichrist Reigns at present p. 29 VII Shews that Jesus Christ will come in Glory else he would not be the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD as he is and there would be no just Recompence of the Good and of the Wicked p. 39 VIII Shews That M. ANTHOINETTE BOURIGNON is sent from God to declare the Truth to Men. p. 44 IX Speaks of the Sins that we commit in another And that to declare the Truth of Evil is no sin p. 51 X. Shews what Souls shall be blessed and explains the Eight Beatitudes p. 61 XI Shews How we must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that we must return to a Dependance upon God which is the only thing that He does essentially require of Man p. 67 XII Shews that to be Saved there is One only thing to be done p. 72 XIII Shews That the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is the Last that God will send into the World and that the Holy Spirit comes now to give the perfect understanding of it p. 79 XIV Speaks of the Alliance that God will make with Men and of the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and that to have a share in it we must necessarily Resign our Will to God and re-enter into a Dependance upon him p. 83 XV. Shews how we must make use of all things to keep us in a Dependance upon God p. 88 XVI Shews how the Resignation of our Will to that of God is a continual Prayer that it supplies all particular Doctrines and Exercises and that the Gospel directs us only how to remove the Obstacles that hinder it the discovery of which is necessary p. 102 XVII Is a Recapitulation of all the foregoing Matters their Scope and Vse p. 108 XVIII Speaks of Hell and of the Damned which will be they who shall have followed their own VVill which is the cause of all Evil and that few were disposed to quit it that they may Resign themselves to God and receive the Divine Truth p. 116 XIX Shews that the Spirit of ANTICHRIST hinders Men from discovering the saving Truth and that Heathens are more Resigned to God than Christians at present p. 122 XX. Shews that very few among
seen of Men they sought the Praise of Men more than that of God they devour'd Widows Houses but had still a Religious Pretence for it they would learn People to despise their Parents but it was on the account of Corban they would hate and persecute others even to Death but it was to do God Service they were mighty zealous to propagate their Religion and would compass Sea and Land to gain Proselytes but then our Saviour tells us They were twofold more the Child of the Devil than themselves Now it is observable That our Saviour's Reproofs are levell'd mostly against these two last sort of Persons The former he treats with such Pity and Compassion that his Enemies tax him for a Friend of Publicans and Sinners He tells them There is joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repents more than ninety and nine just Persons that need no Repentance And that he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance But for the other two he warns his Disciples to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees He calls them a Generation of Vipers whited Sepulchres fair and beautiful without but within full of Corruption and Rottenness he terms them the Children of the Devil and asks How they can escape the Damnation of Hell To judge according to Appearance one would think they deserv'd a milder Treatment and that the other ought to have been most Lasht and this is the Course and Practice of the World But that which seems Righteous before Men is an Abomination in the Sight of God Our Saviour's Conduct in this we may be sure was the effect of Divine Equity and Wisdom The Publicans and Sinners were not only look'd on as such by all others but also were self-condemn'd they knew they were doing what they ought not to have done their Conscience could not but often smite them and the Divine Grace exciting them and outward Afflictions chastising them might one time or other bring them to Repentance and the Sense of the greatness of their Sins might awaken in them an answerable Sense of the Divine Goodness so that where Sin had abounded Grace should so much the more abound and they who saw there was so much forgiven them would love much But the Pharisees and Sadducces were not so capable of Conviction their Sores were skin'd over with a fair Shew of Reason and Religion their Sins were mostly Spiritual they had no Remorse for them the World and they themselves did approve them in what they did they thought they were doing God Service and they had form'd to themselves such a Righteousness of their own as made it next to impossible to bring them to Repentance or to seek after the Righteousness of God by Faith There was no such Hazard that sincere and well-meaning Persons should be seduc'd by open and scandalous Sinners Their gross Sins and the ill Character they went under were as Beacons to warn others to beware of them But it was not so easie to avoid the Leaven of one of the other two they compass'd Sea and Land to gain Proselytes and the specious Reasons of the one and the seeming Piety Zeal and Devotion of the other with such a plausible Representation of Religion as might encourage them to hope for Heaven tho' they lov'd the World and follow'd their own Wills here were Snares which it was not easie to escape Publicans and Sinners were more capable of receiving the Truth they were convinced of all and even when they were not resolv'd to follow it yet the inward Conviction of their Consciences would keep them from maligning or persecuting the Publishers of it But the other two resisted it with all their Force stuck at nothing that might suppress it did calumniate and defame it persecuted its Author and Followers to the Death and thought that in all they did God Service Jesus Christ then foreseeing the Effects of the Effects of the Malice and Subtilty of the Devil how forward he would be to slip into his Church to profess himself his Disciple and pervert his Design and Doctrin under Colour of owning and promoting it and knowing well the Corruption of Men's Hearts how naturally the Love of themselves and of the World would make them take up with Shadows of Religion instead of the Life and Substance of it he takes Care not only to shew them plainly by his Life and Doctrin wherein it truly consists viz. in true CHARITY as its End and in a constant denial of our selves as to our own Wills and as to the Honours Riches and Pleasures of this World as the effectual and necessary Means of attaining to this End But he also lets them see the false Religion that Self-love takes up with and the main Branches into which it divides itself in the different Pictures of the Pharisees and Sadducees the one making an Idol of their corrupt Reason and worshipping it for their God and the other teaching for Doctrins the Commandments of Men making the Commandments of God â—f none effect either through their own Glosses or the Traditions of their Elders being more zealous for these than the plain and simple Word of God and both of them establishing a Righteousness of their own a Righteousness founded on Self-love Self-will and the Love of Temporal Things and making void the Righteousness of God being void of Charity and the Love of things Eternal And that the Disciples of Jesus Christ had need of such Warnings the fatal Experience of all following Ages has but too evidently testified and as it seems in our Saviour's Days in the last Age of the Jewish State these Corruptions among them were come to their heighth so in this last Age of the degenerate Christian State this twofold Leaven seems to have spread through all Parties and leaven'd the whole Lump The World is now full of those who set up for great Masters of Reason and measure every divine Truth by Mathematical Principles and Demonstrations and what will not bear that Test is ridicul'd by them and tho' a Truth be never so plainly reveal'd in the Holy Scriptures yet if it do not suit their way of Reasoning and if they think it lies fair to be pelted by their Witticisms they are sure to treat it in Derision and to start Questions about it as their Predecessors did to our Saviour about the Resurrection of the Woman who had been married to seven Husbands that were Brethren viz. Whose Wife she should be of the seven at the Resurrection And tho' they meet daily with as inexplicable Difficulties in the visible World in Bodies the being of which they cannot deny and if they had liv'd all their Days in an Island among People where the manner of the Propagation of Men and Beasts was never heard of when they had been told of it would have thought it as ridiculous and impossible a thing as any Truth deliver'd in the Holy Scriptures and tho' they have liv'd to see the
and his Heart is hardned because he has cast himself into the devouring Fire of this Justice The Twentieth and Fifth Conference Shews That all the Wisdom of Men is nothing but Ignorance in respect of the Divine Light and that God will destroy this Humane Wisdom to give place to that of his Holy Spirit I said to her That she overturned all the Wisdom of the Learned and that there was no more place for Study She said I told you long ago Sir that the Time is come wherein God will abolish the Wisdom of the Wise 'T is not only the worldly Wise or Humane Wisdom that he speaks of for that will perish of its self but it is of the Wisdom of those who believe they are wise in the Works of God or in Theologie This Wisdom will be destroyed through the Goodness and Mercy of God Because many of these are Men of good Inclinations but they perish through Ignorance For they maintain the Sentiments of Men which have been given them for infallible Truths And you may easily perceive Sir that they are not such nor founded upon the Wisdom of God which is alwayes the same If you consider those who have spoken of the Grace and Works of God you will find them different in Sentiments though divers of them were Saints This may be an Evidence to you that their Wisdom was not Divine and that their Learning has darkned the Light of Truth which can never change nor contradict it self in any thing And because this Learning is a Hindrance to the Holy Spirit who comes now to illuminate the Souls of Men of good Will of necessity this Learning must be destroyed in them This the Goodness of God will do perfecting Praise by the Mouth of Sucklings and Infants The Wisdom of God is our Mother from which we ought to draw all our Substance which Wise Men cannot do before their Wisdom be destroyed This the Goodness of God will do in our Time destroying the Wisdom of the Wise and abolishing the Prudence of the Prudent and they will be asked very shortly where is the Wise the Scribe and the Disputer of this World For they shall not be found any longer since God will abolish all their Prudence and Wisdom by the Mouth of Infants I wish Sir you were the first and that I might say to you with the Spouse Who will give me my Brother sucking the Breasts of my Mother that I might find him without and might kisse him The Wisdom of God is the Common Mother of all those who are resigned to him Suck its Breasts boldly they will fill you with Delights And as soon as I shall find you void of all your Sciences I will salute you in the Unity of Divine Wisdom Quit Sir all other Wisdom and depart from your own Wisdom and Prudence It is an Instance of God's Goodness that he comes to deprive you of them Do not believe as the Wise of the World do that your Happiness consists in your Wisdom Since it must be destroyed before you receive the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit and you confess to me that I overthrow the Wisdom of the Wise and judge that it is not fit to Study any longer walk while this Light lasts fearing lest you be surprized with Darkness which is now spread through all the World Get out of it for all is corrupted there Keep your self solitary for the World at present is a Temporal Hell wherein nothing is to be seen but Objects which incite to evil God is not any longer known nor loved there Nothing is to be heard there but Blasphemies The most Holy will say that they have not the Grace to do well and that God has predestinated whom he pleased that all these Decrees will come to pass do what they will with many other Calumnies which they utter against God And as his Name is blasphemed in the Eternal Hell so is it in this World which is a Temporal Hell where St. John has well said in his Revelation That the Whore was full of Names of Blasphemies And if the best do thus blaspheme the Name of God how much more must the Wicked do so who deny him by Word or Deed by denying him their own Wills saying they are their own Masters and that they may dispose of all that belongs to them or sometimes what belongs to others when it is entrusted to them So that he who would take Sanctuary from the Perils of his Salvation must retire from the World where Salvation is no longer to be had For all have forsaken God and no Body knows him any longer Every one having made an Idol of his own Imagination or to say better Every one makes a God after his own fashion One sayes that he damns another that he forsakes another that he permits evil and that he rejects many though God can never reject any seeing he is greater than all Things and comprehends all in himself and can never do evil and never ceases to do good All the Qualities of God are unknown to Men For none possesses true Wisdom because none will resign their Will to his Every one follows his own I said to her That I was altogether convinced and that I perceived very clearly that all the Wise were greatly ignorant of the Wisdom of God that all Studies and Disputes were founded only upon Terms and Words or upon the Sentiments of Men. She said I bless God Sir that he gives you these Lights Do not look back any longer For Men are deceived and do deceive one another They have long agoe quitted the Light of Truth and the more they thought to find it by Humane Reasons or Arguments the farther they have been removed from it Because the same Wisdom is needful for understanding the Holy Scriptures that did at first dictate them and the Men who are wise in this World are very seldome humble and God resists the Proud and gives his Wisdom to the Humble and the Little Ones Therefore the Wise continue ignorant of the Wisdom of God and are only Wise in themselves and such Wisdom is Foolishness before God for it is of no use for the knowledge of Eternal Things and the World pass will away with all its Sciences so that all the Wisdom of Men is nothing but Vanity upon which we ought never to build our Salvation since it is written Wo to the Man that puts his confidence in Man Which nevertheless all Men almost do now For it seems for a Man to be sure of his Salvation it is enough to follow the Sentiment of some Author or some Saint though all Men may err and fail even though they were canonized for Saints This is not a solid Bottom whereupon to found our Belielf and Salvation because there is but one only Truth which is God and he who is not united to this Truth is in Errour and Lies and still walking in
Darkness he knows not whither he goes Learning has led Men into great Presumption and Pride which estranges them from God So that they shall never know the Truth but by becoming Children re-entering into the Womb of their Mother which is the Original and the State of their Creation They must re-take their first Aims if they would discover the Secrets of God's Grace the Power of Free-will the Qualities of God the Love that he bears to Men and the way how he Rules and governs them Nothing of all this has been known hitherto I said to her That we had been for a long time in Errour that it was a wonder God had permitted such Ignorance in his Church She said Sir God never permits Evil on his part but he will not hinder Man to use his Free-will to do evil or good according to his desire If Ignorance entred into the Church it is not he that brought it in because he rear'd it up in Light and Divine Wisdom which if it had followed it could never have fallen into Errour Because the Wisdom of God is all beautiful and without Spot but Men who ought to receive and follow it have withdrawn themselves from it and embraced the Spirit of Errour which has still encreast to a greater Darkness to such a degree as that no Body knows now where he walks and they take False for Real and Lying for Truth and which is worse they love their Darkness and Errours rather than Light Though it be so agreeable yet nevertheless it is despised by Men now who do so cleave to their own Wisdom that they despise the Truth that is presented to them esteeming more their acquired Sciences than the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which is the only Mother that can nourish our Divine Souls which is at present despised by the Learned of this Age. Yea not only despised but even shock'd and persecuted For it is ordinary for the Wicked to persecute those who do not follow their Iniquities and for Fools to despise what they understand not or what they cannot comprehend The Wise of this World will never comprehend the Wisdom of God till they believe themselves to be ignorant as they truly are and till they shall become Children not that they must become Fools nor yet weak in Judgment as a Little Child is but till they shall submit their Wills to God as a Little Child submits himself to his Nurse who takes him up and lays him down and gives him his Nourishment according as she judges it to be needful without the Child's opposing himself thereto And though he cry sometimes when his Nurse handles him yet nevertheless she ceases not to do those necessary Things about him Even so would God do with our Will if it were resigned to him But when we will needs rule it our selves he lets us erre and be ignorant of what we are obliged to know Because he resists the Proud The Twentieth and Sixth Conference Declares the necessity there is of becoming Children that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all worldly Wisdom and all Humane Abuses I asked her How it was possible for a Man to quit all the Sciences acquired after the manner of Men that he may become a Child when he is come to Age She said Sir If you do it not you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus Christ tells this And he cannot lye But he presses this necessity of becoming a Child by threatning that otherwise we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which would be the greatest evil that could befal a Man It were better never to be born than not to be saved And since we cannot be saved without becoming Children we ought to become so at what Price soever Would you Sir esteem more the Honour of the World or your acquired Sciences than the Kingdom of Heaven This would be very lamentable since all the Things of this World pass away like a Bird that cleaves the Air and leaves no Mark of its Way So when we shall have past through this World nothing shall remain to us of our Sciences and Learning nor yet of our Honour and Reputation All ends with us and if some retain still an esteem of our Wisdom after Death we are insensible of it If we pleased our selves while we lived here the suffering for these Complacencies wait for us in the other World And our having been wise here is so sar from making us happy that 't is a great unhappiness to have lost the Kingdom of Heaven by this Wisdom Lay aside Sir all these Humane Considerations and become a Child though you be aged You have need to make the more haste for fear lest Time and Life fail you Never advise with Flesh and Blood for they deceive and corrupt us Let us only consult with our Divine Soul which is reasonable and it will tell you that there is nothing better or more reasonable than to resign our Free-will to God who gave us it and to submit it to his government as a Little Child That on this our Eternal Happiness depends and that nothing else can save us because without this Dependance there is no Salvation I said to her That I perceived this Truth most clearly that there was no Salvation without a Dependance upon God asking how I might now become ignorant of the Sciences which I had heretofore acquired since I could not make my self not to have them She said Sir Nothing can hurt you if all be subjected to God You cannot be ignorant of what you know by means of your Studies But you can submit all these Sciences to God and look upon them as Ignorances as in effect they are Do not apply your Mind any longer to the Study of Sciences and believe that they are all vain in respect of the Wisdom of God You shall know that you are resigned to his Will when you seek no longer for any thing upon Earth neither Learning nor Wisdom nor a desire to know any other thing but what may render you well pleasing to God For he who is resigned to him without guile is not moved with any thing but what concerns his Glory No other thing touches him Whether he be learned or ignorant is all one to him He makes use of Learning in what respects God's Glory and not at all to rule on the Earth knowing well that he who is resigned to God without Learning is as great as he who is so with much Learning And even as one may be poor in Spirit though he possesses Riches so he may have much Learning and yet for all this be simple in Spirit When he submits all his Learning to God he makes use of it as seems good to him But as long as we think to profit by it we are not yet become Children to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And since God makes appear to you