to do so even with great Conviction and Sbame that God hath replenished my spirit with several most rare Graces and unknown Lights which will render me so much the more damnable before him if he have not Mercy on me I own that all the knowledges which God hath for so many years and does continue dayly to pour into my Soul as that of the new Jerusalem of the conversion of Jews and Pagans of the destruction of Antichrist of Satan reigning in all States and Conditions Sects and Religions under the name of Christ the vanity of human literature or that which they call Theologie whether studying or composing Books which I see by the Light of Faith to be meer delusions of Satan and so many other secrets which God speaks often in the ear of my Soul are all nothing in respect of the holiness it must be filled with that it may see God And that if it have not the last though it did divinely possess all these others Satan might well entertain it therein and even teach it more provided he might keep it always captive under one or more sins It was upon that very foundation that I did passionatly love and study human Literature in which Satan would willingly have nourished me and entertained my spirit all my life in detaining me thereby from the search and from the true adoration of God in the Soul So I was already in the profession of the Ministry even for some years that I had not any true knowledge of God and most ignorant of true Religion These things could get no entry into my Vnderstanding finding it so full of prejudices in favour of the reformed religion and against all other Sects as also addicted to Books and worldly Sciences This is it that made me leave the Romish Church in which I was born and lived to the age of 22. or 23. years apprehending that I should perish if I died in it believing also that the Reformed Church was altogether holy I was abused or imposed on therein From one Babylon which I left I 'm come into another If I were yet in that of my Nativity I would no more leave it but with my Soul and Spirit and would sanctifie my self there as well as in so many other Sects which I perceive now to be all but works or Idols of mens hands So many Pantings Prayers Studies and other things which I have employed to attain to the quality of Minister I had employed them to the sanctifying of my soul Also I know that the charge of Pastor which I have exercised more than these ten years is a charge meerly politique and human and that has nothing Divine nor of God but vain in the persons exercising it and in them that yield themselves the subjects of it And although for some years I have preached Truths unknown unto me and also which men cannot nor will not know to wit that God is a Spirit and that he is to be worshipped as such Yet I find it is a subtil Deceit to pretend to sanctifie men without being holy our selves and that these good wills do not always come from the holy Spirit hence I am perswaded that as long as Ministers are not holy God will not work any thing by them and that I do firmly believe that God hath at present in his Anger cursed the Ministers and Ministry of the Reformed Churches I say farther that it is impossible for a good man to exercise it after God without partaking with mens sins This is one of the reasons that oblige me to write to you and because I believe you give no counsel but after God's mind I desire your advice herein and wish God give me Grace to follow it namely the Ministry being both in me and in others such as I have just now described it if I should continue in it or not that is I desire to know by you what is Gods will concerning me many reasons oblige me to leave it off and I cannot tell what other points of conscience do yet retain me in it If it were God's will that I should forsake it it would be in the desire of coming as near unto you as I could especially if I were assured to be in the least usefull to aid you as much in the glorifying of God I mean in carrying that new and everlasting Gospel unto the World as I should hope you would be unto me for my souls welfare Another reason obliging me to write to you is that notwithstanding so many Graces that God hath put into my Soul yet I am not satisfied in my Conscience I am yet wrathful and am carnal in Marriage These two sins have very sore and often afflicted my Soul even I dare not promise unto God that I will not commit them any more for I have promised too often to him and have fallen therein too too often again My Soul has been in great sorrow for it and has learnt thereby to put it self below all gross sinners also God would so humble me thereby that I never reprove sin or sinners nor ever speak of them but I fall into greater my self It is in this and in other things that you shall judge proper that I desire you would give me some rules to lead my Life after God in the things of God and in the things of the World would to God it may be to my Salvation But there is enough said and asked for the first time I am in the bottom of my Soul and desire to be yet more Mrs Your most Humble most Obedient and most Obliged Servant ANTONI GRELLOT Minister of the French Church of Outreberg At Outreberg in the Electoral Palatine the 6-16 Novemb. 1677. She received a Letter from a Gentleman of London the stile and genius giving reason to expound the R. B. that subscribes it to be the famous and honourable Robert Boyle A Vowing her writings most praise-worthy and of so sweet an odour that he caused translate them into English with design to cause print them in that Language and signifying his most ardent desires to know of her State and her other writings so far as God should encline her heart and so rejoyce extremely his spirit because with her a Lover of the holy Truth and of the life of which she gives testimony unto others and to him wishing her all good and loving her in the Love which is life it self R. B. The Inscription To the most noble Virgin Antonia Bourignon in her Lodging Amsterdam See the veneration with bleeding regret of that just penetrating Spirit Sir George Makenzie Late Lord Avocat to his Majesty in a Treatise De imbellicitate ratiocinationis humanae published last year by Grevius at Vtrecht page 49. having said that we should employ our reason in warring against Vice and in attaining to Virtue and that there is nothing more just adds TAnta est ratiocinationis hujus efficacia ut etiam in aetatis diluculo infantes
for Righteousness sake And by consequence the Doctrine of the learned now adays is altogether Antichristian that is to say contrary to that of Jesus Christ Not that their words are dissonant for they read the same Gospel which Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught but they gloss and explain so the words of the Gospel that they bring forth a quite perverse sence Notwithstanding they live in quiet though all their actions manners and desires be quite contrary to the Gospel Doctrine For every one now idolizes his own proper will And Jesus Christ said That we must renounce it Methinks all Christendom is become at present the people of Ephesus which adored the great Diana with this difference that Christians now adays adore the Corruption of the flesh whereas those adored a Statue of gold or Silver For we see these learned strive who can best find out subtil Inventions by which they may flatter men in their sins or perswade them that they may well follow the motions of their corrupt nature and withall attain to Salvation So that every one follows that Doctrine without perceiving that it is evil That is the reason why every one adores that Diana of corrupt nature as a Goddess And so they bestow all their time and goods to nourish honour and satisfie corrupted nature And more they think there is no evil in so doing while the ministers and learned do the same and promise Salvation to the people that live in that Idolatry But they ought to teach in effect the mortification of their senses the corruption of their natures how much it is ruined by sin and finally the necessity of denying our selves to be saved as Jesus Christ taught by word and works But these savage Pastors will not teach so unto their flocks and will yet less put it in practice themselves Yea nor will not suffer another to teach these Christian Truths It is for that they pursue me every where and would gladly exterminate me because I have written of true Virtue The same befel St. Paul by them of Ephesus who would exterminate him when he taught the truth Saying one to another That they should lose their gain if they suffered Paul to continue preaching Jesus Christ That he would ruin the worship of the great Diana and cause that the Goldsmiths should gain no more in the Workmanship of the Image of Diana It goes just so with these learned ones who are as the masters of the great Diana of corrupt nature which every one adores for his own particular But the Learned are the Masters to gain Money by the worship and adoration of corrupt nature So they speak and teach the people such things as please their corruption and endeavour to please men that they may receive advantages of them which they will not lose When then I begin to speak of true Virtue they are all allarmed against me as they of Ephesus were against St. Paul But these learned take also the Judges to their assistance and persecute me that I should be banisht or be discharged to write or speak of true Virtue Some wish me dead others burnt others that I were thrown in the midst of the Sea that I might speak no more of solid Virtue and so their gain and trade be not diminisht and their shops become unfrequented that is that they sell no more their frivolous Discourses to please men It is that which at last allarm'd them so at Flensburg whither I had gone about some business for the Ministers no sooner had any suspicion that I was in their Town but they preached in divers Churches that I am an arrant and pernicious person that I have a devilish Doctrine and finally no person should lodge me So that I behoved to come out secretly lest I should be massacreed by the Rable and Children whom the preachings of the Ministers had animated against me For they had spoken of me with great spite and horrours proclaming publickly that my Doctrine is worse than that of the Jews Adding beside that my doctrine is a mass of all the old Heresies that ever were in the world Yet I will not teach any thing by my Writings or Discourse but what Jesus Christ taught And if there is any thing contrary to that in them I detest and revoke it as I have often offered to revoke all that they would shew me to be contrary to the holy Scripture But it is not for Errors they persecute me or any evil in my Writings seeing they can shew me nothing such therein They persecute me then because I declare truely what is true Virtue and how a true Christian should live to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ I know well they mask these things saying that there are Errors in my Writings But no person shews me these errors They know not what to say to contemn the truths which I maintain For the Learned said first that I bring nothing of new and that they taught and preached tho same things twenty years agot But when they saw in the Book entituled The testimony of the Truth particulars and truths more clear in divine Mysteries than those they learnt in the Schools they say presently that they are Errors and that never any person wrote such things So that it behoved that God should regulate all according to their studies And should not give any new Graces to men now adays But that he should measure his Light by the rule of their scholastique doctrine and should not send the Holy spirit promised by Jesus Christ who shall teach all Truths Men then resist that Holy spirit and will not hear of other Truths but those they have learnt in the Schools It is every lamentable to see men such enemies of their eternal Happiness in rejecting the Light of the Truth which comes in this last time as the Prophets of God have fore-told That he will pour out his Spirit on all flesh and that your Sons and Daughters shall prophecy and the Old Men see Visions Now because I repeat the same things with many others from God they would kill me as was done to the ancient Prophets they think to hinder by that that true Virtue should be known and far more practised But though they should kill me the Spirit of God shall not die for that And rhe Truth shall always be true For if I should not speak it the Dead would speak or the Stones to declare it unto men And tho these Ministers put me to death God hath yet more than a hunderd millions of persons whom he can use to declare the same Truths which I advance And therefore my Son I exhort you to retain them well and put them in practice for though I were not in the world you must nevertheless save your own soul cost what it will if you will enjoy God to all eternity Which she wishes you with all her heart who loves your Happiness Husum Febr. 5. 1684. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON The
End of the First Part of the Treatise of Solid Virtue EXTRACTS OF SOME OF THE WORKS OF Mrs ANTONIA BOURIGNON Belonging to some Most Essential MATTERS of Christianism and Health LETTER I. Of Toleration That it ought never to go the length of communicating with Sin directly or indirectly Of the Essential and of the Perfection of Christianity Of Religions Worships and Ceremonies and their use This Letter was written to one of her Intimate's Mr. Van de Velde and is the second of Light arising in Darkness 3. part Sir 1. I Know you seek the Perfection of your Soul and that you aspire after God I know also that he hath imparted of his Grace to you and particularly taught you his will in some things but I know also that you have not yet received the Holy Spirit which should teach us all Truths seeing you discern not yet well Evil from good and love all indifferently by a natural goodness as did Adam who knew very well the Consolation and Quiet which a Soul finds in entertaining it self with God but knew not what Evil was because he had never proved it He was created in Pleasures and Delights and conversed with his God in peace without apprehending the Evil which might come upon him in abandoning God to please himself with the Creatures And therefore did he so easily fall into sin before he perceived the Mischiefs and Miseries it would cause him 2. And almost the same is befallen you my dear Brother for when you enjoyed sweet entertainment with God you remained in the sensualities of corrupted nature by which you have insensibly lost commerce with God because so soon as he sees one take pleasure in any thing else but himself he retires by little and little and leaves the Soul to live to it self which precipitates it self often into divers Evils because our proper will engenders death since it was corrupted by sin 3. You did love Good and do yet love it but you have not enough hated Evil because you did not well know it perswading your self that you did well enough when you supported it in others not perceiving that we can sin in another nine ways the First is in Consenting thereto 2d in Councelling it 3d. in Tolerating it 4th in Assisting it 5th in Defending Evil 6th in Commanding it 7th in Partaking with it 8th in not Hindering it when in our power 9th in Hiding it from him that would hinder it 4. All these are not enough considered and we easily fall into them without considering it Although we desire to please God the Devil often surprises us by sins without us when he perceives that he cannot prevail to get us to commit them in our selves for he hath as much power over us by the sins which we commit in another as by them we commit in our selves seeing they shall both alike be imputed to us and if I did not advertise you of it you might easily fall into them without perceiving it For example you converse with persons that are avaritious proud or stained with any other sins they ate subject and inferiour to you as your Wife and Children or your Men or Maid-servants or Hirelings or whoever they be over whom you have authority notwithstanding lest you should displease them or lose their friendship you consent to their committing of sin without Daring or willing to resist it All these sins which are committed with your consent shall assuredly be imputed as if you had committed them your self To councel to do evil that you will not so long as you fear God but for suffering it in others I doubt you do it sometimes because you have not enough of hatred to sin as when you see one deceive in selling to or labouring for you and yet continue to buy of him or employ him in labour that is assuredly to suffer the evil which he commits 5. It were better to be in necessity without dealing with them that sell or labour by Avarice Fraude or Deceit for the Soul is more precious than the Body which ought rather to endure its necessities than to supply them to the prejudice of its soul which is assuredly defiled by suffering the sins of another and yet more by assisting and helping evil as he that would give goods to one that is Avaricious Gluttonous Proud Slothful or a Drunkard would assist him to go on in his sins and commit more with the Gifs and assistances he affords him and if we defend or excuse the Evil of another we also become guilty of the same for we ought never to excuse or defend it lest we so maintain the Evil-doer in his sins to commit which our corrupt Nature needs no encouragment and whoever affords it is partaker of the sin of the other Although it is commonly said That we should excuse the Faults of other and assist Sinners that is a false Theologie very hurtful to the Upright who are often deceived by Evil for lack of knowing it 6. Also you are not in hazard to command Evil so long as you fear God neither would you ever partake with manifest sin as with Robbery for God hath delivered you by his Grace from Avarice Yet you must take care to hinder evil when in your power or else the omission would render you partaker of the Evil committed and even so when you do not declare it to them that would hinder it All these sins or part of them may be committed by good men who aspire after Perfection particularly when they are of a good disposition naturally they take all in good part I have sometimes slipt into some such Faults by too much natural goodness or human regard but after God shewed me clearly these sins which we commit in another which I impart to you because I love your perfection as much as my own by a true Christian Charity seeing that you aspire unto its perfection which I will also shew wherein it consists for the darkness of this world is at present so great that the souls that are well enclined know nor whither they walk in regard of perfection taking often the false for true and imperfect for perfect and that because they have now taught so many divers means to perfection that one knows not which to take for the surest One says we must go frequently to Church and frequent the Sacraments Another places Christian Perfection in entering into some Religious Fraternity or Convent Others in fastings and Macerating the Body All these things were Good if well used but these are not the end nor that wherein Christian perfection consists For these may be performed by them that shall never attain to salvation because no external thing perfects the soul nor can they defile it They are only the means whereby we more easily attain to virtue or by abuse fall more easily into sin 8. Every Soul in particular ought to use the external means which excites them most to Christian Virtue and evite also things
receiveth every thing which human wisdom hath diverted having found so many Studies and Arguments to favour our proper will that all men believe it to be lawful to follow it without offending him who pleased to reserve it for himself Sir these are all blind who lead the blind and all fall into the ditch Be you never of that band but believe in the Light which God sheweth you I have spoken TRUTH unto you not affecting to be believed or followed but only to tend and aim at your Salvation All that I have told you is necessary for you if you will use it well because we cannot love God without knowing him nor follow Virtue without comprehending it we cannot also evite the Deceit without discovering it nor escape the Paws of the Devil without turning away therefrom make good use of all these things and you shall be happy in this world and in the other I doubt not but my manner of speech may have given you pain and difficulty because they do not accord with your Philosophy Theology or other Scholastique Sciences But believe that I have never made profession of any human Sciences I love rather to be ignorant of than to know them and if I could learn in a quarter of an hour all the Sciences of the Schools I would not employ so little time thereto because I know that human Sciences are great Impediments unto the Holy Spirit and also that the time is come when God shall destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and bring to nothing the Prudence of the Prudent and so I cannot use fine Discourses but such only as make known the native Truth the words the terms may well be debated and controlled but never the true sense which is true I will not dispute with the Wise seeing God shall shortly overcome them by the effects of my words nor also polish my Language because the simple nativeness pleaseth God more than the rhetorical Eloquences subject unto vanity for he that speaks that he may speak elegantly is filled with vain-glory willing to renounce which I seek only simple words that may express my conceptions I believe Sir that you have sufficiently understood me and that I can say no more to you to co-operate unto your Salvation there remains no more but to put it in practice Which you shall do more easily in solitude or the desert than elsewhere because of the corruption of men which are great letts unto us and also the power which the Devil hath at present over their spirits to bewitch them that are yet sound and entire Flee then Sir that you may evite all these dangers lest you might be diverted from your good proposal and should look back as Lot's Wife who was changed into a Statue of Salt Yet a little Penitence and after God will deliver you to enter into the joy which shall never end That is it I wish unto you in giving you Adiew I was grieved to hear that she would leave me praying her not to withdraw seeing I would follow what she had taught me which was nothing else but Self-denial and Dependance upon God She said unto me Sir it shall be more pure that you remain alone for I am only a Creature as you are and we must cleave unto the Creator alone without interruption he shall conduct you at his pleasure provided you be abandoned unto his will you need no more instructions of any person I have told you more than sufficient to conduct you unto union with God It should be hereafter only repetitions of things foresaid which should bereave your time and mine which it is better to employ in the practice than in repetitions Leave me in my liberty and take you also yours God hath not created us together He shall save us though separated in body True Union consists in a conformity of will with God and not in particular Conferences I must confess I have often distracted my self from entertainments with God to speak to you of so many divers things but I judged them necessary for your Salvation therefore have they not been grievous unto me but now when you know the truth of many things it is not necessary to speak more unto you God shall always teach you enough provided you continue faithful unto him He hath never refused what men ask for their Salvation You must have no more any other pretensions Let the World be overturned Let the Romish Church perish Let the Elements be moved against sinners all that cannot touch you provided you keep you firmly united with God Leave willingly every thing to find that union If I be with you or not it is a small matter provided you be with God that should suffice because he alone can save you and none else There is always mixture when a Creature cleaves to its like I have often despised them who hold themselves addicted to persons although it were under some pious pretext I will not do my self what I despise in others I said unto her That she had promised to explain to me the 24. Chapter of St. Matthew that she should at least give me it before she left me She said Sir I do not willingly fail of my Promise give me the text of that Chapter and I shall explain it unto you word by word wishing that all men of good-will might see it that they might discover that it is of this present time that that chapter speaks Every one reads it without understanding it notwithstanding there are pleasant advertisments to beware of this dangerous time wherein we live at present These are not Fables made at pleasure but Truths proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus Christ himself which every one ought well to apprehend and follow the councels which he gives They are most salutary and most proper for escaping the evils to come which hang over our heads I must give it in writing for an eternal remembrance that men may observe if all that it contains shall not be effected in our time Do not oppose what you shall find contrary to your studies or old impressions because the Holy Spirit shall give perfect and unheard of intelligences of the Holy Scriptures because we are arrived in the fulness of time If you will receive them with Humility of Heart you shall understand all things in perfection but you must become a Child and cease from being a Wise Man because God reveals his secrets only unto little ones and hides them from the great and wise of the earth We must not resist the Holy Spirit and say such a Father explaineth it so or otherwise because the fulness is always more than a part You shall find what I say more clear than whatever the Holy Fathers have said because the time of the fulfilling of every thing is come but we must render simple our understanding as little Children or otherwise we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I brought unto
life were with incomparable Purity Evidence Clearness and Solidity in that Soul which thou didst sanctifie and are yet in her holy Writings In truth the way that is there recommended as necessary to Salvation is the only and the true way there is no danger to abandon our selves wholly and entirely in it for it is the very Truth it is the Truth it self It is the pure Truth There is none Lord there can be none other in Heaven nor in Earth There is none other way unto eternal life than that which thou hast put into the Mouth in the Writings and in the Life of thy most holy hand-maid Antonia Bourignon I praise and bless and thank thee O my God that thou gave me to know the same and hast opened and enclined the ear of my heart thereto Give me Grace to love to observe and to maintain that heavenly Truth unto Death Happy he that should lose a thousand lives for so worthy a subject Happy he who shall never for any consideration leave the practice of it Let me by thy divine Grace be of that number that after this short life of Tryal that most certain and most infallible mean make me enjoy my soveraign End which is to have the happiness ever to adore and praise thy great Majesty O Jesus eternal God Creator Saviour and redeemer of the World while with the Father and holy Spirit thou shalt reign Gloriously in all eternity Amen Revelation Ch. 3. He that hath Ears to hear Let him hear THE PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER THis Treatise consists of two parts whereof the one may be called Extructive which builds or establishes and the other Destructive which destroys or everts For the first ten Letters are adapted to the planting of Virtue and all the rest to evert and root out what may hinder its increase To recommend Virtue is taken the precept of him who is the Master and Example of it by which is made an introduction shewing what Virtues we must in the first place embrace and by what meanstend to them which is by Obedience and renouncing our own will unto the Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart of Iesus Christ see Let. 1 2 3. the Nature of which Humility is explained and the means conducing to the attainment of it viz the knowledge of our Corruption and the Miseries which our Bodys and Souls ly under Let. 4 5 6. Which ought to produce in us the effect of renouncing our natural senses and being content with what is of meer necessity we should flee all Pleasure and proper Satisfaction Let. 7 8. which emptying of our selves will be accompanied with the Love of God which incontinently possesses the Heart from which vitious affections are expelled because of the near relation and sympathy between them as between the Creature and its natural Element In which Love consists the Essence and Complement of all Virtue and all Good Let. 8 9 10. Concerning the overturning and resisting the Impediments and Tentations of Satan is treated Let. 11. whether they be offered to our Imagination or Sensibility even spiritual Let. 12 13. or to the Understanding making us rest in the naked knowledge of the Truth Let. 14. Or exciting us to external acting or internal with Vain Glory or by Dejecting us through immoderate mortifications or in unseasonable good works spiritual or corporal toward our Neighbour Let. 15 16. Or in regard of the Devil accusing him too much or too little of our sins Let. 17 18. Whether these Tentations affect the will whose godly fervour Satan would extinguish by Grief Spiritual Negligence and Self-love as shew Let. 19 20 and to the end There is briefly represente the whole subject handled in this divine Treatise which is more specially noted at the beginning of each Letter that you may kind Reader view as in a Table and beter retain in your memory the divine Instructions therein delivered Moreover you may with us well admire the infamous audacity of some as the Church-men in Holsatia whereby some years ago they caused that these so wholsome instructions while under the Press in the German and Low Dutch Tongues were taken away by force and violence and rent While I consider these obscure enemies of the truth that Scripture offers it self to me that Every one that Doth and will do evil hateth the Light and cometh not to the Light lest his deeds be reproved and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men Love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil. It is far otherwise with him who doth and will do the Truth for he cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest because they are wrought in God Joh. Ch. 3. I pray the God of Truth that he graciously please to instruct and lead you in the way of Truth that you never refuse to come to the Light Farewell TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Cannot abstain from imparting unto you these twenty four letters which I have written to one of my particular Friends where I shew him what Solid Virtue is because it is a matter so necessary for the present time when we see false virtue reign or such as is only apparent to the eyes of men and while so many persons deceive themselves perswading themselves that they have true Virtue whereas they have nothing but fine Speculations They think themselves Humble when they can talk well of Humility and think they have the Love of God when they desire to have it notwithstanding they have in effect only the Love of themselves and it is but Deceit and Falshood when they say they have the Love of God They do not so much as know the corruption of their Nature seeing they think they may follow that corruption without sinning provided they do no evil reproveable before men and have a will to do well and love God Which notwithstanding is not sufficient to be saved for good desires without effect are nothing before God They are indeed Foundation stones serving to the building of true Virtue For without good Desires we cannot do good Works We must first have the desire and after put it in execution which is wanting to many persons of a good will who content themselves to be of a good will and hope with that all shall go well without considering that the holy Scripture says to all in general Depart from evil and do Good Now the Evil is in our corrupt nature which no person ought to ignore yet few depart from that corruption and most love and follow it thinking they do well which is a great abuse and presumption of spirit for we cannot do good except we depart from evil and he that does not resist that corrupt Nature and renounce it cannot acquire true Virtue which few persons comprehend and thence is it that they have only apparent Virtues and no real ones Therefore is it that I have resolved to cause print these twenty four
Vices if he does not of himself entreat us to counsel and admonish him when he fails For one man ought never to go to compel another in what regards his perfection since God hath created us free and will not that we should be Slaves but wills that our souls should be his Spouses to yield themselves voluntarily to his Love But all Constraint is Slavery So we must never use rashness to force men to do well or constrain him to forsake his sins God will have us free during the time of our tryal which is this short life And it is the Pride and Presumption of our selves to go to instruct or correct our Neighbour by authority who is sometimes better before God than our selves though he have not so many moral Virtues or outward Appearance of Good which we often learn and observe that we may be agreeable to men who despise always what is reprehensible before them That is the reason of politique persons abstaining easily from gross and external sins that they may appear good which is often less virtue than that of such as speak rudely and commit open evil The best is to teach and preach to our selves and to have Piety and Charity for others when we think they do evil and we cannot hinder them It belongs to Judges to repress external Malifices to preserve good Policy But you who are a free person take not the charge of others but labour to learn well true Virtue and to put it in practice for the Devil cannot deceive you there as he can easily in the exercise of external Works of Mercy bodily or spiritual which you would do but he insinuates himself more easily in the bodily than spiritual being more sensible and visible and so more praised and applauded of men who esteem nothing more than liberality When then they see one that feeds the hungry gives drink to the thirsty cloaths the naked lodges strangers visits the sick and buries the dead They hold him for a Saint But it is rare to find such now adays in the miserable age wherein we live For generally men are filled with Avarice and Covetousness and seek only their own proper interests without troubling themselves with the necessities of their Neighbour Charity is cold in mens hearts and they esteem him virtuous who gives a little out of his superfluities to the poor or does any other outward merciful work Now the Devil easily furrs himself into all these things and if we discover not his subtilties we may do many works of corporal mercy which shall turn to his honour For he that does these things to be esteemed of men is a Hypocrite as were the Pharisees to whom Jesus Christ so often upbraided their Vice They did truely many works of mercy spiritual and corporal but those did not save them For Jesus Christ despised them calling them so often Hypocrites notwithstanding all their good works And even though we do them not to be seen and praised of men yet the Devil can find his advantage therein by the vain complacency which we take from them within our selves For it is always more honourable to give than to receive And there are some so naturally given to liberality that they will readily give what they have need of themselves only to satisfie their natural inclination Others are so disposed naturally to action that they will willingly incommode themselves to give Meat and Drink to the Hungry and Thirsty to lodge Strangers cloath the Naked visit the Sick and bury the Dead And that by a natural inclination they have to do so And therefore my Son you ought well to discern the Spirit which moves you to do Works of Mercy as well spiritual as corporal For the Devil often moves our hearts to multiply them and do them to excess to distract us from inward entertainment and to hinder us that we may never attain to true virtue And that so we may rest upon Virtues which men esteem such as are external works of Mercy which are generally praised without discernment But they can well be Sins instead of Virtues From such My Son you must keep you well that the Devil deceive you not Which you are advertised of by Your Well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle May 5. 1672. St. Vet. THE XVI LETTER The Devil Corrupts our Good Works To the same shewing him a Tenth Artifice of the Devil in our Corporal Good Works taward our Neighbour which he often brings about to his Honour Yet we must not therefore cease from them but joyn Moderation in them and put away human Considerations and Pride which attacque us in this time of Tryal My Son I Believe it surprises you that I said in my last that Works of Mercy are often done to the Honour of the Devil Yet it is most true but for want of thoroughly considering the matter that offends the tender-conscienced and them that by a natural easiness accounts all good they believe blindly that all that 's called Good is so and that all sort of good works are agreeable to God which is false For the Devil insinuates himself into our best actions to render them evil And he hath done so from the beginning of the world bringing evil into all the Works of God which were all created good We may find that in our selves for though God created Man altogether good and perfect yet we feel that he is now evil and imperfect He was created to honour God and most men honour the Devil and obey him in every thing instead of obeying their Creator All judicious persons see that in the conduct of men now adays to be true And yet they will not believe that mens good works are done to the honour of the Devil and so they there that they esteem more their good works than those of God For man though created of God altogether holy and perfect serves to the honour of the Devil And wherefore should we not believe that men's good works serve thereto So such persons though otherways judicious here fail grosly But that is not strange seeing the Devil blinds their understanding that they should not see the truth of things but be led by their own inclinations and simplicity For it is much more agreeable to nature to believe that we do good than to think that we do evil and that our good works serve to the Honour of God and not to that of the Devil For man feels in himself a satisfaction when he does well and he hath an ambition to tend to do what is most estimable Then being more honourable to serve God than the Devil men perswade always themselves that they serve God especially when they apply themselves to Works of Mercy Notwithstanding the Devil reaps often the glory more than God So when the Devil sees any turn from sin and keep himself from evil doing to which he can no more engage him he induces him ordinarily to do many
entertain himself with his heavenly Father free from all distraction And nothing more pure than the intentions of our Saviour He says He came not into the world to accomplish his own Will but the Will of him that sent him Notwithstanding the Devil had the impudence to go to tempt him several times by Vain-glory in presenting to him the Kingdoms of the World as also the Stones to convert into Bread for his Hunger He tempted him also by the Scripture saying That be should throw himself down from the pinacle of the Temple because it is written that the angel shall preserve us c. Are not these full cunning wiles of the Devil while he uses the most holy things to tempt Jesus Christ He attempts to catch him by his Fasts his confidence in God and by glory in presenting him all the kingdoms of the World How then should he leave untempted frail and imperfect Creatures like us For what is man there that must not confess himself far short of the least of Jesus Christ his perfections Who is he that retires to the Desert to give himself to entertainment with God out of the Dangers and Divertisments of the world Who refuses the kingdoms and Riches of the Earth Who is he among the spirituals that does not tempt God by his Temerity and Presumption For they no sooner receive any particular Light or Grace from God but they Glory and esteem themselves beyond others And no sooner do they forsake sin to give themselves to Works of Mercy but they think God is beholding to them and that every body should esteem them Which happens to all that begin to serve God and follow true Virtue excepting none because of the corruption of our nature He that says or believes the contrary is deceived and walks not in rhe Truth and the knowledge of himself For all men in general and every particular brings these natural inclinations with him coming into the world they are all proud presumptuous covetous of honour riches and pleasures Always prefer themselves to others and esteem themselves worthy of all goods and honour Yea they think God oblieged to them for the least good action they do because the Devil hath furred into mans nature that pride of life which inflames the heart of man and hinders him to abase himself and acknowledge his faults We see that even Adam did not humble himself after his sin but endeavoured to excuse it saying The Woman which thou gavest me tempted me to eat of the Apple and she said The Serpent beguiled me All which proceeded from the pride which the Devil had already planted in the heart of our first Parents and consequently in the hearts of all men that were to proceed from them For all are stained with that sin of Pride and so they will not acknowledge their faults but defend them to their power Which also remains with them till death unless they overcome that corruption of nature by true Virtue And when they arrive at that they overcome the Devil For he hath no power but over his own works or the corruption which he hath caused in our nature That being once overcome we revive in the strength of the grace wherein Adam was created And when man finds himself united to God by the love he hath to him then he scorns at the Devil and becomes a new creature And so will no more have any fellowship with that corruption wherein he was born Yet such an one must be upon his guard for the Devil who seduced our first parents when in the state of Grace may well seduce a man that is regenerated in it so long as he lives in his time of tryal which is this miserable life for God will prove mans fidelity to him He created him free that liberty then must needs be proved otherwise it should be constraint For if God had willed absolutely to constrain him to love him he had been happy as Gods slave But he would honour man much more in creating him free that he might entertain himself with him He would then choose the soul of man for his Spouse and not his Slave And therefore it must have a time of proof or advisement to resolve if it would joyn and unite with its God or not Now this time of tryal was this present life in which Adam should have given testimony of his fidelity to his God Notwithstanding he was so imprudent as to break the fidelity he owed to the Spouse of his Soul would go joyn himself to creatures unworthy of his love And so he interrupted the covenant and fellowship which God would make with his Soul even until his sin and infidelity were purged by repentance That is the reason why his time of tryal was turned into one of penitence which Adam underwent faithfully all the time of his life But the pride which his first sin hath planted in our hearts makes us often depise him and wish evil to him because of the hurt he caused us As if he were the cause of our damnation which is a great error For although Adam had never sinned yet other men might always have damned themselves by their own sins during their time of tryal For each one for himself should in this time have given testimony of his fidelity to God since all men and every one in particular were of the same nature and condition and also in the same state with Adam before his sin And there is at present no other difference betwixt the state of man now and that of Adam but that since sin came men are born with an inclination to Evil whereas Adam had inclination to Good only when he was created With that exception we are of the same condition with Adam and created for the same end that our souls should be spouses to God provided we remain faithful to him during the time of our tryal and penitence which we must attend in this life which is full short in regard of that of Adam But if we knew the truth of things and discovered the snares of the Devil to shun and evite them in our good actions we might hope to attain again to an eternal union with God For Adam's sin cannot damn us if our own sins do it not seeing God hath pardoned Adam's sin in case he fulfilled his repentance And he hath also pardoned all other men upon the same condition but the misery of men now adays is that they know not those things and will here enjoy instead of suffering Which is a false perswasion of the Devil who insinuates himself into the holiest things while we perceive it not Which is a truth she exhorts you to believe who is careful of your Soul Holstein near Gottorp Castle May. 8 1672. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE XVII LETTER Sin proceeds from Man's Freewill To the same shewing him an Eleventh sort of Tentation whereby we lay the blame of our sins upon the Devil to free our selves where is