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
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
is most true and if I could say in truth the contrary I would be lov'd and follow'd by all those who believe they are in a state of Grace But because I can't speak a Lie every one leaves me that they may flatter themselves with fine Hopes Truth seeming to them more hard than Damnation though the one be much more lovely than the other Because Truth enlightens alwayes the Understanding though it be sometimes hard to Sense yet it can lead us to Salvation and make us happy to all Eternity whereas Damnation renders us for ever miserable 'T is a trouble to us to be told that we are out of the way of Salvation and we ought rather to be grieved for being ignorant of the truth in those Things which concern our Eternal Happiness The ignorance of this occasions our Damnation Therefore Sir never be troubled any more to hear me tell the Truth in evil Things for it is much more useful than to have it declared in good Things For if I should say to you that you are in a state of Salvation your Soul should receive no advantage thereby On the contrary it might be tainted thereby with Vain-glory or contract a sloth in that which is good And iâ— I should say to you that the Roman Church is Holy and guided by the Holy Spirit it would be of no advantage to you since you obey her as much already as if she were really Holy You could not gain any thing by my saying so So that to know the Truth of Good is much less profitable than to know the Truth of Evil from which one cannot preserve himself without knowing it This the Devil knowing he has found the way to introduce into the Church a Maxim That we ought never to speak evil of any though it were true They call this the Sin of Detraction that her Evil may be still concealed and none may dare to discover it for fear of committing a sin It were good we knew in what place the Holy Spirit has declared That to tell the Truth of Evil is a sin For if this were true Jesus Christ would have committed many sins when he publickly called the Priests and Pharisees Hypocrites Generation of Vipers and so many other Names discovering their Wickedness and Falsehood saying That they were whited Sepulchers fair without but within full of dead mens bones and that they made clean the out side leaving the in-side full of uncleanness Could all these Truths discovered by Jesus Christ be sins of Detraction as they have perswaded all those which declare such Truths since all that Jesus Christ did while he was upon Earth was to give us an Example Is it not evident enough Sir that the calling that sin to declare the Truth of another mans Evil has been invented by the Devil to cover his filthiness and that all sort of sins and Evils might be cherished by the privacy of them For the most part of good men endeavour to excuse and cover them believing they do well in it though notwithstanding it be a very ill thing because it is hurtful Three several ways First to him that does evil who will not amend so easily while his evil is conceal'd as if it were discovered Secondly It is very prejudicial to him to whom the evil is done because it is very hard to avoid or guard against an unknown Evil And Thirdly To the Person who conceals anothers Evil who co-operates to the Evil of him that does it and of him that receives it and nevertheless they call that great Good of declaring the Truth of Evil the Sin of Detraction This unhappy Silence makes all sort of Abominations daily to encrease in the sight of God because they having lost his Fear they lose also that of Men since their sins cannot be discovered without offending God This is also a Doctrine which the Devil hath invented with so many others to the end that every one may follow Antichrist while they think they are doing well For if it were a sin to declare the Truth of Evil Jesus Christ would not have done it of his Apostles themselves calling St. Peter publickly Satan and reproving him in all his Faults as the Apostles afterwards did their Disciples But these new Masters teach That it is a sin to declare the Truth of Evil without any other ground but that of covering their Wickedness that their Evils may not be discovered and they may commit them the more by continuing in the Reputation of being good Men though they be wicked If they had considered well the Nine ways by which we may sin in another they would find that 't is a sin to conceal the Truth of Evil whereas they teach that 't is one to discover it I entreated she would explain to me the meaning of these sins which we commit in another and if we are guilty of them that I might guard against them She said Sir We are as guilty of the sins we commit in another as of those which we our selves commit for God regards not so much the Action as the Intention Sins being Spiritual Things have no need of Material Acts. God searches the Heart and the Reins and not so much the Feet or the Hands These inward Sins are so much the more dangerous than the outward because we take less heed of them for they are not so manifest and known though notwithstanding they be mortal and damnable sins Every one excuses himself of them before Men Which he cannot do before God for Ignorance never excuses sin If we are very careful and diligent to know and discover what is necessary and profitable for our Body we are obliged to be much more so as to our Soul 'T is not enough that one says he knows not these sins because every one is obliged to know them and our Salvation or Damnation depends upon them For he who sins ignorantly goes ignorantly to Hell We are created for no other end but for Salvation This is the only Affair of Importance that concerns us most nearly for setting aside Salvation all is perishing For this cause we must study to discover what Sin is Therefore to satisfie your Demand I will explain the Nine Ways by which we offend God in another First We commit sin in counselling to do evil How many are there who are guilty of this sin without perceiving it If you have a Friend affronted you will say to him I would not suffer this Affront without revenging my self Or you will tell him You would not have the Heart to suffer it and such like things Or if we give any Counsel that is not according to the Righteousness Goodness or Truth of God or if we counsel any to do evil for our pleasure or profit or otherwise These Counsels are as many Sins as the wicked Actions which those commit whom we have counsel'd to do them whether they be in Word or Deed because our
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
they have retain'd the Name after having lost the Spirit and their Souls being void of Faith God takes no longer Pleasure in them but they are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error Not that God on his part leaves the Church to err but these Men having forsaken their God have form'd a Church of Flesh which cannot be the true Church which is a pure Spirit as God who is not visible but by his Works so the Church is not visible but by the Bodies of those who possess this Spirit It appears sufficiently that what they now call the Church is not govern'd by Divine Principles but by Human and Natural I ask'd her Whether the Pope the Cardinals the Bishops Prelates Pastors Priests Monks and other Persons making Profession of the Catholick Faith were not the Church And if all these Members together do not make up a Church She said No Sir all these Persons tho' met and assembled in one and the same Place do not make the true Church so long as they do not possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ It is nothing but an Assembly of Flesh subject to Corruption Every one acts there according to his own Sense There they propose and resolve according to Human Arguments not according to the Spirit of God who is not to be found where things are manag'd only by Civil and Politick Measures which do not regard the Glory of God but human Accommodations The holy Spirit does not animate so vile Subjects Nevertheless he governs always the true Church in what Place soever it be He never abandons it But who can discover it It is so hid and unknown that no Body discerns it It is a Treasure hid under the Earth of which Jesus Christ has spoken by Parable saying That the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Treasure hid in the Earth and that he who has discover'd it must sell all that he has to buy this Ground that he may find this Treasure There is no Kingdom of Heaven but in the Church that is to say There is no Salvation out of the Church and not knowing where to find it who can look for Salvation It it no wonder Sir that I said unto you heretofore That Paradise was shut forasmuch as I cannot see where the Church is and consequently where Salvation may be had It is a Vine which is cut even by the Root and Ground We see indeed its Branches extended far enough But they are nothing but dead Wood being cut off from the Root no Fruit can be any longer expected from them The Members which at present they call the Church are cut off from the Root which is Jesus Christ which brought forth great Branches But since they have been cut off from their Root they are fit for nothing but to be cast into the Fire which you will see very shortly Sir in case God give you yet some little Time to live The Twenty First Conference Where the true Church is Where God is How he speaks to the Soul and the Soul to him and how we ought to dispose our selves for this Divine Conversation I Ask'd her If there was no fix'd Place where we might find the Church That for my part I would search for her because I would seek to be saved She said to me Sir The Church is everywhere where there are Souls possessing the Doctrine of Jesus Christ There are no other Places proper or destin'd for the true Church to reside in All those Persons who are call'd Churchmen are as so many Stones with which they have built a material Church which serves now for the Offering of Sacrifice and it may be shortly will serve for a Stable for Horses These Stones and other Materials are not the Church tho' they serve to the Structure of a Building which may be both for Holy and Prophane Uses Therefore Sir the Church is not to be sought for in any fixt Place which is material but in Spiritual Souls who also cannot be found because they are oblig'd to keep themselves hid as the Body of Jesus Christ did before his Passion For they would do them no less Evil than they did to him because the Envy of the Prelates is now far greater than was ever that of the Pharisees who put Jesus Christ to Death God gives you a holy Desire of seeking the Church for he has said Seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the rest shall be added to you This is a Sign that the Church is not tied to any material Place for then there were no need to seek it but to go to the Place where it is For Example If the Church were at Rome there were no need to seek it We would know assuredly where it wâ—re Since Jesus Christ says it must be sought this is indeed a Sign that it is hid and unknown And likewise all they who seek Rome do not for this receive all the rest in Gift since so many things are wanting to them even after they are Romanists Which would not befal a true Christian who would be content with what were purely necessary with which God would always infallibly provide him I said to her That I was not truly satisfied for the Good of my own Soul That I would willingly know where I might find the True Church that I might have Salvation She replyed Sir The Church is within you If you seek the Kingdom of Heaven only let Jesus Christ reign in your Soul by his Doctrine then the Kingdom of Heaven will be in your Soul God being there He reigns always where he is He would reign in all the Souls of Men if they did not put Hindrances thereto The Centre of our Souls is God who being Salvation and Life we ought not to seek without us the Church nor the Kingdom of Heaven For he is not an Earthly and Temporal God but Celestial and Eternal The Church being the Word of God it is in us since he cannot be without his Word as we are always in the Place where we speak He is not Earthly for Jesus Christ says That his Kingdom is not of this World It is therefore a heavenly Kingdom which is in us because God is there whose Kingdom is Celestial and Eternal Where then would you seek the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven but in the Centre of your Soul That is the certain Place of its Residence We may be deceiv'd in all other things but not in this infallible Truth If every one had sought the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven in the Centre of his Soul there would not have been so many Persons deceiv'd Since they have sought God without themselves in so many divers means they have gone astray from him by the same means by which they ought to find him and whilst they sought for the Church in so many Masters Doctors and Directors they have stray'd from that which is Holy to follow a
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
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
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
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
of all honour which then all the world will render to him and just to render compleat Justice to every one There are so many innocent persons afflicted and Saints unknown and despised on the other hand there are so many wicked men honour'd rais'd to places and Honours and even held for Saints All these being Dead and the Truth as to them undiscover'd must not God avenge the quarrel of the Good and make appear the wickedness of the wicked that he may be Just Good and True I said to her That every one look'd for these Reparations in the day of the general Judgment which must be done in a little time or suddenly where every one shall be recompenc'd in Heaven according to his Merits or Sufferings She said Sir They will make God a God of Confusion What appearance is there that this Judgment can pass in a day or suddenly since the whole world must appear there It should be necessary that all the men in the world should after the manner of an Enchantment be Transported to the same place in an instant who could hear in that croud the Justification of the Righteous If it were to be done only by word they would not hear one by reason of another and if every one in particular must be spoke to to declare his good or evil Deeds it would need a long time before all were repair'd Years would not suffice to Judg so many men as have been upon the Earth Truly Sir all the speculations of men are nothing in respect of the Truth but Chimera's in the Air. God took six days to Create the World deliberately and in order as he has done all his works by weight and measure without any disorder or confusion He made Noah prepare an hundred years before the Deluge and when it came it began to Rain which Rain lasted forty days The Plagues are now begun and will follow in order even to their end and the Judgment will also go on in order so deliberately that there shall not be the least confusion in it for that can come only from men and not from God who does all in Order Neither is there any imaginary Heaven as people fancy it where every one shall be Rewarded or Restored for Heaven is no other but the presence of God who contains all things and can't be contain'd by any because he is greater than all things We are in Heaven when we are resign'd to him whether we live or die we are still in Heaven when we are in God Now being thus Divinely in God we do not notwithstanding receive the material and bodily reparation of the sufferings which we have materially and bodily endur'd And as God has given us both a Body and Soul he has also given us a Paradise both of Body and Soul For this cause God would have become Man even tho man had never sin'd for God makes all his works perfect and compleat The Soul can indeed have its compleat Paradise by the Presence of God because it is a Spirit like to him but the Body can have no Paradise but a Material and Bodily one like it self because it is of a Material Nature it cannot have a perfect happiness by a Spirit or Divinity Lo this is the reason why Man that he may be happy must of necessity have his Paradise in the world which was Created by God for no other end but to serve for a Paradise to Man whom he was pleas'd to Create of a Bodily and Spiritual Nature both together and he has also prepar'd for him both a Bodily and Spiritual Blessedness which are the Presence of God as to the Spiritual and for the Corporeal the Earth and the World and all that therein is By which you may see Sir the truth of the coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth to Reign with Men that their eternal Blessedness may be compleated and that every one may have a Reparation by fulfilling all Righteousness not in a speculative or imaginary way or of a short continuance but a Real Divine and Corporeal Reparation which will last for ever For God's Recompences are not Temporal and Finite but Eternal as coming from an Eternal God who can't give finite or imperfect gifts Consider Sir all these Truths and you will perceive sensibly why Christ must come to Reign upon Earth and that he has not taken an human Body to Reign in the Empyreal Heaven which is Divine but only to Reign on Earth for this Divinity has no need of any Body but this body has need of and must of necessity have some material place to contain it such as the Earth is And if to repair an injury done to any it be needful to make the reparation in the same place and before the same persons where the injury was done why should not God repair upon Earth the injuries received there On Earth they shall be repaired as on Earth they have been committed The Eighth Conference Shews that M. Anthoinette Bourignon is sent from God to declare the Truth to Men. I said to her that I was now convinc'd of all that I must confess before all the world that she possest the Holy Spirit for a humane Spirit could never give so clear an understanding of all the marvels of God She Said Sir you are not deceived in believing that I possess the Holy Spirit because he lives in me and teaches me all that I have told you for I have never learn'd any thing from any man neither would I learn of them because they are in darkness and do not know the Truth in any thing They believe they are very Learned and they are nothing but ignorants being turn'd away from the Truth by so many Novelties which they have made them believe They will needs maintain the Roman Church to be holy and own her Councils as acted by the Holy Spirit while neither the one nor the other is true For the Church is the Babylon of confusion and the Councils are the means by which the Devil has withdrawn Christians from the Law of God they having Ordain'd so many outward things that the inward may be forgotten and that thro so many Natural things People may think no more of the Spiritual Their Commands their Sacraments their Indulgences are all diversions from Salvation to obtain which there is nothing needful for all persons even those who are without God's Grace and straying from the way of Salvation but the observing the Commands of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel for God will never give any other Commands and Jesus Christ will never give any other Counsels than those he has given us by his Doctrine of the Gospel He says That he is not come for the Righteous but for sinners This being so all sinners who desire to be converted must take up this Gospel-Life by which they shall certainly attain to Salvation since Jesus Christ is
this Life who would not resign themselves to God but have followed their own Wills are so habituated to evil that they cannot have the Will to do well but with great endeavours and much force and violence to pull themselves out of the occasions of their Evils With this difference nevertheless that Sinners may yet in this World obtain Gods Grace and the Remission of their Sins Which damned Souls can never do Because their Sins have brought on the Sentence of their Eternal Reprobation Men are ignorant of many Things through the Presumption of their Wisdom If they would become Children and be converted to God they would be far more wise For God reveals his Secrets to Little ones and hides them from the Great and the Wise I wish all the Books about these Disputes were burnt and that every one would return into the primitive Dependance upon God which comprehends all Divine Sciences For he who is resigned to God is more Learned than all the Doctours of the World What can be ascribed to the Creature since it has nothing that it has not received of God There was a Time when it was not and when it came to be it 's God who gave it being and all the Powers of Soul and Body The Instinct to do well and the Liberty to love God come also of his Free Gift if the Creature has a good Thought it comes from him What can be ascribed to the Creature since it is come of nothing and can do no good thing without God If he gave it that Inclination to good or that good Thought when he created it or if he gives them as yet is it not still the same Giver or the same God who works Salvation in his Creature Where is their place for disputing to know whether Man can save himself since he is nothing and has nothing that he has not received And this is an Eternal Truth that Salvation and all other good comes from God and that all Evil and Damnation comes from Man and he who is saved cleaves to the Grace of God and he who is damned resists it What Argument will they bring yet in the Dispute about Grace after so clear and convincing Reasons If Man may save himself when he will it is alwayes by the Grace of God who created him for Salvation and imprinted in him this Inclination to good and this desire to be saved How can they attribute any thing to the Creature even though it should be said that he may save himself when he will since this Will was given him by God He cannot ascribe it to himself Whether it was given him in his Creation or at the Hour that he is Converted this should not cause so many Disputes so little profitable either to the one or the other Party Because he who holds that his Salvation depends upon the Predestination of God does certainly conceive a Sloth to Good being perswaded that his Salvation is decreed do what he will and on the contrary he who believes he may save himself when he pleases would not be at much trouble to advance in Vertue since he believes his Salvation depends on his own Will he will imagine that he shall come still in time to be saved though it should be at the end of his Llife And hereby these Disputes instead of bringing any good to Souls do cause them great Mischiefs of Sloth and Negligence as to Salvation and Mistakes of God For the more we will needs know him by Arguments the more we sink into Darkness I said to her That all the Schools then ought to be overturned since the Disputes which they reckon the most saving make us to mistake God and to neglect our Salvation She said Truly Sir this is very desirable that Men would abandon all their Studies that they might resign themselves to the Will of God since this is the one thing necessary upon which our Salvation depends To what purpose is it to make so many Books so many Studies so many Disputes since all Perfection the Law and Salvation consist in the RESIGNING of our Will to that of God! All other Things are vain or useless For we are created for no other thing but for ever to take our Delight with God For what end should we amuse our selves with so many different Things and fill our Minds with Studies Sciences and Disputes which are only for this transient Life and in the mean time give great Hindrances to the RESIGNATION that we ought to make of our Will to that of God For as long as Man is busied in Studies Sciences and Disputes he acts alwayes by his own Motion Because those who are resigned to God do nothing but receive from him and while they do not affect any Sciences they possess more of them than all they can Learn in the Schools which are alwayes full of many Defects because every one is alwayes concern'd in his own Opinion which can be only Humane Limited and Ignorant And all these so imperfect Things hinder the Light of the Holy Spirit which only enlightens Souls according as they are emptied of all Earthly Objects of which Studies and Disputes are the most Lively to fill the Faculties of the Soul This has occasioned the Holy Doctours to continne in many Errours touching God's Dealings Because the Pre-occupation of their Studies has hindred the Light of the Holy Spirit by which they might discover all Things if the disturbance of their Humane Learning had been removed For this hindered them from seeing the simple Purity of Divine Things and the one thing needful for our Salvation which is the RESIGNATION of our selves to GOD. I said to her That at least Divines would be needful to expound the Scriptures to the People and to teach them saving Truths Since we are born in ignorance we cannot know but what is taught us She said These Doctours of the Law put to death Jesus Christ and those who have followed them have taught many Errours to the People So that I believe if many of them had been Heathens or brought up in unhabited Deserts without being instructed by any they would have attained to a greater Knowledge of God than what they have acquired by the Instruction of all these Doctors who have often taught the Doctrines of Men instead of that of God And if these Persons were not full of these Doctrines they would certainly be at more Liberty to resign themselves to God So many Laws and Means which they have taught them are so many Ropes and Chains which withdraw them from it For it is certain that one who has been taught nothing will still have a natural Bent and Inclination to Good Because all that is Good is Lovely and if he shall apply himself never so little to consider the Works of God he must of necessity be brought to Love him For he would see that all that he made is Good By seeing
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
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