Souls who are not sanctified are not truly Catholick neither will they be saved for their Religion since no Religion saves unless the Heart be truly Religious or truly Catholick In which also those who are called Quakers do greatly deceive themselves who through a foolish Imagination fancy that they are guided by the Holy Spirit as soon as they have begun to conform themselves to this Sect as if it had more Force to sanctifie Men than all the other Religions together even the most perfect none of which can save so much as one Soul For there is nothing that saves but the LOVE OF GOD and not a Religion Every one ought to hold the Religion that serves him as a Mean to attain to this LOVE without taking his Religion for the End of his Salvation if they would not be greatly deceived at Death thinking to plead their Religion which they imagine to be the best as the Quakers believe they have the Holy Spirit and so take the Name of Quakers tho they have him only by Imagination and false Persuasions and the Devil makes them believe they are better than all the rest of Men because they have quitted outwardly the gross Sins of Drunkenness Theft Lying and the like tho' in their Manners they be as vicious as others presuming that they have the Holy Spirit which they have not living in an Esteem of themselves and a Contempt of others calling themselves spiritual while they remain carnal despising all the Means of Piety and Devotion to adhere to their own Caprices and they imagine they are illuminated by the Holy Spirit when they are mov'd only by their own disorderly Passions which do often precipitate them into fruitless Sufferings and Persecutions with the Scandal of their Neighbour So that no body has Ground to believe that he shall be saved for being of the Quakers Opinion no more than the being of any other Sect or Religion since all these Names do nothing to the Salvation of Souls But to be sav'd of Necessity we must be renewed in the Life of God And the Scripture says Obedience is better than Sacrifice This shews that it 's better to be resigned entirely to the Will of God to be ruled thereby than to profess any Religion how good and holy soever we think it to be These material Bodies do not save the Soul but the Love that it bears to its God will save it and nothing else In which Men deceive themselves when they lay the Stress of their Salvation upon some means which they make use of to be saved How good soever these outward things be they give nothing to the Essence of the Soul which is wholly divine and spiritual and cannot attain to Salvation if it be not united to its God who created it for this End tho' the Blindness that Sin has brought upon Man's Spirit does not often persuade him that he shall be saved by other Means as by going oft to Church frequenting the Sacraments hearing many Preachings or spiritual Books or in being able to discourse of these things in giving to the Poor out of his Abundance in making long Prayers and so many other Actions which they call pious as if God to save us had need of these things Which is a great Delusion For it is only our Infirmity and Weakness that has need of these outward Things For it is written that the true Worshippers shall worship God in Spirit and in Truth and not in the Temple nor on the Mountain That is to say not in material Temples nor in Mountains of high Speculations but the Spirit and the Heart must be truly possest with the Love of God without which no body will be saved Not that I would reject or despise all these pious Means or good outward Works as these Reformed do blindly reject all sorts of good Works as evil since these good Works may serve as effectual Means to attain to this Love of God seeing the covetous Man mortifies his Avarice by giving his Goods to the Poor and he who cannot pray to God in his House for the Distraction of his Affairs does well to go to Church that he may be the more recollected Or he who feels more Compunction and Piety in his Soul in frequenting the Sacraments or has more inward and saving Light by going to Sermons or reading the Scripture or some other spiritual Book he is oblig'd to use all the Means which lead him to the Love of God without despising the least Mean that may help his Weakness in raising him to the Love of God since every one is oblig'd to seek the Means of his Perfections I blame only the Abuse that is made of these things in taking them for the End of Salvation whereas they are only Means to assist Humane Weakness which forgets easily Eternal and invisible things if she be not often put in Remembrance of them by outward things But I blame those who are so ignorant as to believe that they shall be saved for being of some Religion or for using the Sacraments and doing some good Work since these things do not sanctifie us being of themselves dead Works which cannot give Life to our divine Souls and the Devil himself might do all these outward things tho' he shall never be sav'd I believe indeed some captious Spirits will take Occasion to say that I am not truly Catholick in speaking against the Vse of the Sacraments and other Ceremonies of the Roman Church but I cannot preserve my self from the Calumny of partial Persons who love their Darkness rather than the Light that I offer them from God who has given me his Holy Spirit promis'd by Jesus Christ which teaches me all Truth since Jesus Christ himself could not avoid the being calumniated imprison'd persecuted and at last put to Death by means of the Jewish Priests who said they were in God's stead and sate in Moses's Chair as the Priests of all Religions say now While in the mean time they outragiously persecute the Truths which I learn immediately from God without Study without Meditation Discourse Reading or any other Means which would rather prove a Hindrance to me than an Illustration of the Light of the Holy Spirit who endites to me all things necessary for the Salvation of Souls and gives me also his Gift of Strength to bear joyfully those Persecutions and Outrages which these more than Pharisaical Priests exercise against me For they will not suffer that the Truth of God should come to light by any but themselves tho' they 've rendred themselves most unworthy of it because they will not apply themselves to the Imitation of Jesus Christ nor to the Sanctification of their Souls and if these be wanting they shall never understand the inward Voice of God 'T would be a great Vertue in them if at least they would suffer another to understand it But they can't attain to this Christian Vertue of rejoycing in the Good of another They
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
Prayer He himself fasted Fourty Dayes in the Desert and was an hungred But these Reformers speak of nothing but filling their Belly well the better to excite their Lust Are not these who would Reform the Roman Church fine Zealots for the Glory of God We see also that all their Reformation has brought nothing but Schisms and Divisions among the Reformed themselves There is nothing there but Debates and Dissensions They wrote to me some while agoe that Two Preachers of the same Reformed Communion had fallen by the Ears together even in the Temple and the one had rent the others Garment from Head to Foot These are the Effects of their Reformation and of the Remedy they say they have provided for the Abuses of the Roman Church The Scripture sayes That the Tree is known by its Fruit. From whence we may infer how pernicious these Reformations must be which have caused such Mischiefs in Christendom having brought in nothing but Hatred among Christians though Jesus Christ did so much recommend to them To love one another By these Reformations they have despised hated and persecuted one another beat rob'd kill'd and murthered one another without compassion to maintain the Opinion that they have undertaken to believe though all their Opinions be equally bad the one erring one way and the other another So that to maintain the Errours of these Reformers these Christians kill'd and murther'd one another instead of loving one another according to the Counsel of Jesus Christ And these Enmities continue to this Day and they hate and despise one another upon the Account of their Religion though all of them signifie nothing and no Religions can save any Nothing but the Love of God brings Salvation and all these Persons love themselves only and live all according to the Motions of Corrupt Nature Their Religions consisting in nothing but Theory and vain Speculations not at all in Practice But to flatter them with some Piety and Devotion their Reformers have put the Bible in their Hands and some Songs to sing in the Temple since the Priests and Religious Romanists used to sing in the Temple and corrupt Nature has no Repugnance to Songs it rather delights in them as all these Reformers do at this Day who lift up their Voice as well as they can to make their good Voice be heard in the Temple where they sit at their own Ease with the Bible in their Hand on which they profess to read that they may learn to discourse of it though I have not known one Person who puts in practice so much as one Point of the Gospel Lo this is all the Service that these Reformers have learned their Disciples together with the Lords Supper that is performed without Devotion or Piety And notwithstanding of this they call themselves good Christians Evangelical Persons Predestinated or Regenerated Ones and other good Names Though they be as far from Salvation as Heaven is from Earth But these Reformers have known so well how to perswade them of an Imaginary Salvation by their Scholastick Reasons and Glosses that they have thereby so confounded their Spirit as that they receive Lyes for the Gospel That which is most to be admired is that among so many Persons of Vnderstanding who have followed these Reformers none have perceived the Cheat of these Sensual Reformers who teach a Life quite contrary to the Evangelical Life which speaks of nothing but denying a Mans Self bearing down his Flesh and doing Penitence with a Threatning that without this Mean we shall all perish It must indeed be said That from that time Men have been abandoned to the Spirit of Errour and Lying and that Mens Spirit has been quite blinded by Sin and is since still more blinded since yet in our Time we see Persons of a like Temper liâ—t up themselves above others and call themselves the Reformers and Restorers of Israel and separate from the rest of the Reformed that they may live separate from the World in greater Holiness than others Though in their Manners they be as sensual yea more than those whom they have forsaken For having no Accommodation of Worldly Goods and being unwilling to Work but desirous to be well Treated and Served they undertake Reformations drawing over to them Wealthy Persons that they may obtain their Aims and they make all their Goods common In which the Poor cannot but have Advantage and the Reformers Services and a good Time of it according to their Aim since in effect many follow them and give them all their Wealth with which they Eat and Drink and Marry as those did in the Dayes of Noah On which Terms they make them Preachings of Fine Studied Words and fitted for the Gust of the Hearers who are well pleased to have found out a way of Salvation so well accommodated to their Corrupt Natures since they make them believe that they are all ruled by King Jesus They are perswaded by their frivolous Discourses that this is true and thus Men are yet amused by Men as they were in former Times And I can see no other Remedy but that God overturn all these Churches made with Mens Hands that he may establish one made of Spirit and of Life where we shall worship God in Spirit and in Truth Which he makes me hope shall come to pass very shortly since he makes me declare so many Truths with the hazard of my Life to overturn Babel and revive True Christianity Blessed shall he be who shall receive them from God's Hand and shall not resist the Truth as Jannes and Jambres did since these are undone for ever But receive the saving Truth that God has communicated to me in this LIGHT OF THE WORLD which will Illuminate youâ— Soul In the mean time I remain Friendly Reader Your very Affectionate in Jesus Christ ANTHOINETTE BOURIGNON THE LIGHT of the WORLD The third Part. The first Conference Declares that God has never demanded any other thing of man but the dependance of his Will on Gods and that all other Laws are given him by Accident and to discover his Sins HAving been absent for some time from this illuminated Soul I went to find her again to entreat her to pray for me and to tell her I was resolved more than ever to resign my self wholly to God that I might receive his Divine Light She said Sir as soon as you shall make this Resignation of your self and shall deliver up into God's Hand the Freewill that he has given you you shall receive the Holy Spirit which will teach you all things But never turn back again to resume your own will otherwise the last Fault will be worse than the first Since you have now received more Light than formerly walk according to it and do not any more regard the World nor the Creatures for they cannot save you You must fall into the Hands of God whether you will or no No body can escape this whether he live well or
understood of all the Holy Scripture for even they who pronounc'd it understood it not in its perfect Sense but in part only But now that the Holy Spirit is come upon Earth to give the full Knowledge of them he needs not for this End a Body of Flesh but only to give Men Spiritual Understanding that they may know the Powers of God the Love he bears to Man the End for which he created him and may have the knowledge of True Vertue and of that which is False All these Things shall be known by the Understanding of those Men who will receive the Light of Truth which the Holy Spirit brings now into the World HE IS BORN in the midst of its Universal Darkness in which no Body knows the Truth of any Thing all being falsified or not known The Holy Spirit comes to clear this by Spiritual Notices I blest my good Fortune and the Day in which I met with this Pilgrimess for my Vnderstanding received such Light by her Discourses that I must confess my Soul had perish'd without this Rencounter I asked her How her Words could have such strong Operations on me She said Sir This proceeds from the Holy Spirit who begins to visit your Soul by his Light Receive it with Humility of Heart and he will enlighten you more For he is come to fill the Souls of all those who shall receive the Truth It is by the Operations that you feel that he is born in Souls He is a Spirit and he works in the Spirit of all who seek and desire him We must not any longer seek for visible and material Means For all these things are Hindrances to him Let us only open our Heart and Spirit to receive the Truth and it will teach us all Things For nothing but Lies has undone the whole World The Darkness that Men are in and their forgetfulness of God have come by Lying which has seiz'd on all the World For none are now in the Truth The false Perswasions which they have imprinted on Mens Hearts have made them mistake God and the State of their own Souls There is therefore great reason to bless the Goodness of God who in so miserable a Time sends us his Holy Spirit to enlighten all those who will receive him I believe Sir you are the first but a great Number will follow you For as soon as the delusion shall be discovered the Eyes of many will be opened and their Heads lifted up to return to God abhorring their Errours and the Deceit of their blind Guides They will see that all that they have taught them as Means of bringing them to God have estrang'd them from him and the Sacraments and other Ceremonies of the Church instead of procuring them the Grace of God to love him and to acquire true Vertue have given them rather a Contempt of God and a false hypocritical Vertue This being discovered many will seek the Truth abhorring Lying which has put their Salvation in so great hazard I asked her If the Holy Spirit would not become visible She said No Sir He will not be visible but by the Operations which he will make in Souls whom you shall see disingaged from the Earth and cleaving to God alone We shall see them possess Joy Peace and Patience with the other Fruits and Gifts which will be sure Evidences that the Holy Spirit will dwell in their Souls who notwithstanding shall not be seen by the Eyes of the Body in any Material Form or Figure For the Time is come that God will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and no longer in Figures which shall all cease because of the Accomplishment of all Things And all that was figured in the Old Law shall be accomplished in full perfection by the Holy Spirit For the Time is come that all the Promises which God made to Men from the Beginning of the World shall be fulfilled the Alliance that God has promis'd to make with Men shall have its perfect Accomplishment For they shall be his People and he will be their God This has not come to pass as yet Though Men were created to be God's People nevertheless they did not continue so on the contrary they committed so many Infidelities that he was oblig'd to destroy them by a General Deluge and though the Children of Israel were God's peculiar People they forsook him notwithstanding and gave themselves to Idolatry The Jews who were as precisely God's People denied him also and would not acknowledge him when he became Man but revil'd him and hang'd him on a Cross And now the Christians who ought more perfectly to be Gods People despise him in his Sufferings and in his Doctrine So that the Alliance that God promis'd to make with Man could not hitherto be accomplish'd Of necessity the Holy Spirit must come upon Earth to enlighten Men that they may have the Faithfulness requisite for this Alliance of God with Men For a Marriage cannot be compleat if the Spouse be not faithful as the Husband is The Fourteenth Conference Speaks of the Alliance that God will make with Men and of the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and that to have a Share in it we must of necessity resign our Will to God and return to a Dependance upon him I entreated her to tell me How and when and wherein this Alliance of God with Men shall be made She said This Will be made by the Holy Spirit who will illuminate Souls make them know their Errours and also the End for which they were created which is nothing less than to be joyn'd and united to God who will take his Delight with Men And they perceiving this shall separate themselves from all Earthly Pretensions and resign themselves to the Will of God desiring no longer to use their own Wills because they have entirely renounc'd them Then shall they have such Dispositions as will invite God down to the Earth to Ally himself visibly and bodily with Men by an inseparable and indissoluble Tye. This is the End for which God cloath'd himself with a Humane Body to make himself like to Man that the Alliance he designed to make with him might be wholly perfect and compleat both in Body and Spirit What God promis'd of Old to Abraham could never be accomplish'd because Men were never resign'd to God as they ought having still us'd their own Free-will without depending upon God This did separate and divorce them from the Alliance which he promis'd them But in this Fulness of Time wherein we live the Holy Spirit is come down to teach us all Things and whosoever shall hear him shall enjoy the promis'd Alliance For Jesus Christ will come very shortly upon the Earth in Glory to Joyn and Allie himself with all those who shall resign themselves to him I cannot precisely tell the Day Sir but that it will be towards the End of the Plagues which are now
The Light of the World A most True Relation of a PILGRIMESS M. Antonia Bourignon Travelling towards ETERNITY Published by Mr. CHRISTIAN de CORT Late Director of the Isle of Noordstrand Superior of the Oratory and Pastor of S. John at Mechlin Divided into Three PARTS Which deserve to be Read Understood and Consider'd by all who desire to be Sav'd Written Originally in French and faithfully Translated into English To which is added A Preface to the English READER LONDON Printed in the Year 1696. ISAIAH ix 2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined TO THE ENGLISH READER Of whatsoever Party or Perswasion THE Degeneracy of the Christian World in all its Sects and Parties from the true Spirit of Christianity and the primitive Institution of Jesus Christ is the general observation of all Men and the Regret of those who are truly sober and serious And as the Corruption of the best things is always the most vile and abominable witness Devils and Men so that of the Christians is a By-word and a Scandal among the Jews Turks and Heathens and they may rise up in Judgment at the last Day and condemn us we being sunk farther below the common Principles of Human Nature as well as Religion than themselves The Moral Vertues of Justice Temperance c. are banished farther from the Minds and Conversation of Christians than they are from among the Turks and Heathens and we are so far removed from the Spirit Life and Doctrin of Jesus Christ that ours may be truly term'd Antichristian He denied himself in all things and we deny our selves in nothing He never did his own Will but the Will of Him that sent him and we ever do our own and not the Will of God He was perfectly dead to the Honours and Riches and Pleasures and Learning of this World and we only live to them He had a toilsom and laborious Life far from Ease and full of Crosses of Contempt Reproaches and Contradictions from Men and we still seek our Ease where we can have it will force others to bear the Cross rather than take it up our selves and would rather be contemned by God than even for Righteousness-sake endure Reproaches and Contempt from Men He was meek and lowly in Heart and with great meekness suffer'd the Contradiction of Men and Pride and Haughtiness is the Spirit we are acted by even when we most disclaim it and we cannot bear with Contradictions from any without inward Resentment and Displeasure Whatever he did was always accompanied with Righteousness and Goodness and Truth and whatever we do has one or all of the contrary Qualities Injustice Malice or Hypocrisie In short Charity was the living Principle of his Heart and Life and all his Actions were continual Streamings and Effects of the Love of God and of all Men and Self-love even to a Contempt of God and Hatred of Men when they shock us in any thing is the secret Spring by which we are always acted The Lives of Christians are as flat a Contradiction to his Commands as to his Life and Spirit He bids us seek the lowest Place and we are never at rest but climb as high as others will let us He bids us take the Beam out of our own Eyes and we are still spying the Motes in our Neighbours He would not have us lay up for our selves Treasures upon Earth and all our Care is about earthly things He would have us seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and that is the last and least of our Endeavours except in Word only He bids us deny our selves and take up our Cross daily and in every thing we seek our selves and rather than take up the Cross will stick at no Injustice to avoid it He commands us to love one another and for a Trifle we bite and devour one another Now one would think strange how the Professors of Christianity can reconcile their Practice with the Hopes of Heaven while their Lives are so contrary to the Gospel But as the comparing the Lives and Temper of the Christian World at present with the Life and Doctrin of Jesus Christ does plainly shew their Contrariety to his So if we shall enquire into the several sorts of Corruption and Degeneracy of the Age wherein he lived recorded in the Gospel and which he did chiefly set himself against and upon what Grounds they nevertheless did presume of God's Favour and of being his Children and shall compare them with ours we still find the same Leaven spreads still and tho we have other Names yet we have still the same Corruptions and the same Spirit It is not in one Age or one party that these Corruptions do prevail but more or less in all Ages and among all Parties and tho' Names and Faces change yet in every Age Men's Natures and Dispositions are for the main the same It was not needful therefore that Jesus Christ should appear in every Age to make known their Vices and Corruptions the Reproof of the Age wherein he liv'd is the Reproof of all and what he said to the several Sects among the Jews he says to us and we may read our Faults and Judgment in theirs There are three sorts of Persons especially spoken of in the Gospel the Publicans and Sinners the Sadducees and the Scribes and Pharisees The first were gross and scandalous sinners known for such by all their Company avoided for that Reason and they self-condemn'd as acting against the Light and Checks of their own Consciences The second were the Wits and Sparks and mighty Men of Reason of that Age. They could not believe a Resurrection nor the being of Angels and Spirits these seem'd not consistent with their Reason nor with the Ideas they had of this present World and therefore they deny'd them even as if blind Men should deny the being of Light and Colours because they cannot feel them with their Hands nor touch them as they do other Bodies with the End of their Staff The third were the most Religious People of the Age wherein they liv'd they were had in great Veneration by all they were not guilty of the scandalous Vices of the Publicans they abhorr'd them so much that they would not eat with them they read and studied the Scriptures much they were much in Devotion and made long Prayers they were exact Observers of the Sabbath-day would reprove a Man that came to be heal'd or that pluck'd an Ear of Corn on it they were very exact and scrupulous in little things so afraid of breaking the Command of Paying Tithes of all their Increase that they would not omit even their Mint Anise and Cummin But in the mean time they despis'd the weighty Matters of the Law Righteousness Mercy and the Love of God they were Proud and covetous and wordly-minded they did all to be
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
and in the keeping of my Commandments But the love I bear you and the care I have for you makes me give you these instructions for your own good But the full story of her Life is to be had in the Account of it written by her self and the continuation of it by the R. P. P. I know People will be possest with many prejudices against the Writings of this Person The plain representation which she gives of the Gospel Life and Spirit and the contrariety of the lives of Christians thereunto of the universal Corruption of all parties and their taking up with the shadow instead of the substance of Religion will provoke many to disparage and discredit them by all means and the Craftsmen that live by those Silver Shrines will stir up the multitude against them and from the circumstances of her Person and the singularity of some of her Sentiments they will take occasion to fill Peoples minds with prejudices so as not once to allow her a fair hearing I shall not offer to remove the particular exceptions which may be made against them I shall only take the freedom to say something as to three or four general Prejudcies which are most obvious They are ready to except against her for pretending to Divine inspiration and that the Doctrin she declareth is immediately and inwardly communicated to her by the Spirit of God That God may immediately inspire Souls with his Divine Light and Truth cannot be denied That he has tied himself never to do it after the Apostle's days and the Consignation of the Gospel in writiting cannot be made evident That there are many false pretenders to Divine inspiration and who thus highly take the name of God in vain is but too evident especially in the Age wherein we live That we ought not to believe every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God or not The Spirit of God has already warn'd us that the surest Test wherby to try them is the conformity of the Doctrin with the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is sufficiently confirmed already and its tendency is to take us off from all Earthly things and from our selves and to bring us to God and the entire correspondence of the Persons Life and Spirit therewith in all things will I think be readily granted by many Now M. A. B. desires to be put to this fair Tryal if her Doctrin be not the same with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and if the constant tract of her Life and Spirit be not answerable thereunto and the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit which he ever brings along with him wherever he resides were not to be seen in her It is just then to give her a fair hearing And if you peruse her Writings impartially it is like you will meet with many remarkable Characters that are not ordinarily to be found in many Writings A clear and distinct account of the essential Truths of Christianity with a constant urging of them as the one thing necessary and distinguishing them from the accessory Truths which are not necessary to Salvation An unimitable simplicity of expression which a Child may understand with as singular a sublimity of thoughts a convincing power and force going along with them a plain unfolding in a few Lines the difficulties about which the Learned write many Volumes a constant harmony and uniformity of sentiments in the Writings of a course of forty Years from about the 23d to the 65th year of her Age in which she died with an evidence and clearness to the conviction of our natural Reason and all this by one who never read any Books never conversed with the Learned to be instructed by them never premeditated what she wrote never blotted out nor mended what was once written but being attentive unto the love of God in the calm and inward recollection of her Spirit wrote as fast as her hand could guide the Pen and when some writings were laid by unfinished for some years return'd to them and finish'd them after the same manner without reading any more of what had been written than some few of the immediately foregoing Lines to make a due Connexion And innumerable instances more But above all the exact and constant purity of her Life being a perfect pattern and living exemplar of the Spirit and Doctrin of the Gospel are things that deserve consideration If there were a Race and Nation of People born blind who had never seen the light but knew their Houses their Furniture their Fields c. only by the touch If some strangers should come in among them pretending to see the Light they would not readily take it on their word having no Idea of any such thing But if those strangers at their very first entry should describe their Houses where they had never formerly been their Dishes their Seats their Bulk Places and Shape and going out should tell them on a sudden the Neighbouring Hills Vallies Rivers and Villages their situation and distances which the Inhabitants themselves could not learn but by long use and by going from place to place and feeling them with their hands or staff they would certainly be convinced that these were endued with some more ready and perfect faculty and mean of knowing all these things than ever they experienc'd So for those who pretend to Divine Inspiration and to be led by the Spirit of God and give no evidence for it but their bare assertion indulging their corrupt Nature and being as much Lovers of their own selves and of Earthly things as others there is no reason to take it on their word but rather to look on them as deceivers But if any professing an inward illumination from God and a lively sense of Divine things should despise the Ease the Honours the Wealth and Pleasures of this World oppose constantly the desires of corrupt Nature deny their own Will mortify their outward senses have their minds ever turned towards God being always resign'd to his Will and withall without Study Reading Learning or Meditation should give a more clear full plain and consonant representation of Divine Truths even to the conviction of our natural reason than we are able to do after much Study Learning and Conversation we have reason to think that such are endued with a more clear effcttual and enlightning sense and knowledge of the Divine Truths than our notional knowledge can pretend to It is by this Test that M. A. B. desires to be Tryed It being objected to her that since she declared only the Truths contain'd in the Gospel of Jesus Christ there was no need of any new Revelation of them they being reveal'd already To this she replyed that as the Law of God of old was so corrupted by the glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees that they had made the Commandments of God of no effect thereby and therefore God was pleased to rescue his Law from their corruptions by the
Divine Explanations of it in the Gospel of Jesus Christ so the Doctrin of the Gospel is so corrupted by the glosses of men and these countenanc'd by the Learning and Wisdom of the World that men do not think themselves obliged to obey the Gospel according to the Letter and therefore God has thought fit by the Divine simplicity of his Light thro' the Organ of a silly Maid to rescue it from their corrupt glosses and to confound their Learning even to their own Conviction They pretend to expose her also for advancing new Sentiments and Doctrins and thereby giving occasion to more Disputes and Controversies instead of lessening them But never any did more abhor the Spirit of Dispute and Controversie than she and her proposing of these particular sentiments are far from giving occasion to them for as she makes a clear difference between the essential and the accessory Truths of Christianity so she proposes these sentiments only as accessorie ones which may be helpful to some to make them the more admire and love God and despise this present World but not as necessary to be believ'd by all and she has often said that People need not believe them and that for this they will neither be more nor less pleasing to God that they even ought to abstain from inquiring about them out of a Spirit of curiosity for such inquiries would beget distraction presumption and pride of heart that they ought to study only Jesus Christ crucified to imitate him and to deny themselves without which the Devil and sin would mingle themselves in all their enquiries And upon this head she refused often to explain her self upon these Subjects Saying wherefore serves it to distract your selves unprofitably to neglect the main thing Endeavour to deny your selves and to imitate Jesus Christ and you shall know one day what there is of these things otherwise you shall deprive your selves of them and Damn your selves by your own curiosity and presumption Speak no more to me of them but hold to the one necessary substantial and fundamental thing Jesus Christ Crucified out of whom S. Paul would know nothing beside Besides it is very observable that these sentiments are not only very agreable to the Holy Scriptures but do also explain a thousand passages of them and the whole System of the Works of God in such a clear manner as could not be hitherto comprehended Many are ready also to pick out some passages of her Writings which separately seem harsh and from them take occasion to accuse her of Heterodoxy and of denying the essential mysteries of the Christian Faith and particularly that of the sacred Trinity There are no Writings which by this measure may not be represented as full of Heterodoxies This usage she protests against her self and disires they may not treat her Writings as they do the Sacred Scriptures single out and expose some passages without comparing them with the whole tenour of the rest And for the mistery of the Sacred Trinity she not only declares her belief of it in express terms owns it in her confession of Faith but having us'd many similitudes to illustrate it as the Fathers and Schoolmen have done she declares in the 24th C. of the first Part of the Light of the World that this unspeakable most real most beautiful most good most great most glorious mistery is above all that we can make or say of it that nothing is able to express it and that all that can be said of it detracts from it instead of coming near it What she says in the 2. Conf. of the 2. Part of the same Book ought not to be understood as if she despis'd Baptism in it self or condemned the right use of Infant Baptism She wrote so favourably and with so much respect of the Sacraments that the Quakers thought her guilty of a Criminal excess as it appears by the Apologetical Treatise she publish'd in Answer to their Accusations But notwithstanding the high esteem she expressed for the right use of the Sacraments she was no less zealous in condemning the abuse of them especially when it appeared to be universal And it is in my opinion a general and uncontroverted Rule that when ill-disposed Persons make use of the most sacred things out of a principle of Self-love to flatter and encrease their own and other Mens corruptions their practice and proceedings in this case can only proceed from a Wicked and Deprav'd Spirit Now in those places where M. Bourignon disapproves the Baptism of Infants before they have attained the use of their reason and ascribes it to an ill principle it appears manifestly from the Text it self that she speaks only of the present use or rather abuse of it among wicked and ill-disposed Christians She speaks plainly p. 15. 16. of the Baptism of Infants whose Parents have not Faith themselves and cannot teach them to follow the Doctrin of Jesus since they themselves will not do it On the contrary they teach them to follow the World and its Pomps and that the Godfathers and Godmothers never think more on what they have promis'd in the Childs name far less do they acquaint him with it when he is grown up to the end the Child may remember the promise which he made at Baptism She speaks of Christians in parade and not in effect for they have no sooner renounc'd in Baptism the World and its Pomps than they think of nothing but to follow and to love it And nevertheless p. 17. when they are outwardly Baptiz'd they believe they are sufficiently assur'd of their Salvation and every body thinks himself a good Christian if so be he have been outwardly Baptiz'd This is her true meaning in these passages and it is with respect to those who are in that state or disposition and are habitually inclin'd to act after that manner that she affirms it would be more expedient to put off Baptism till they be of Age and in a good disposition of mind without which it would have been better for them that they had never been Baptiz'd Agreeably to this the Holy Scriptures intimate clearly that it 's the Devil who intices men to make use of the Sacraments while they are in an ill disposition of mind and that their hast and precipitancy in this case proceeds from the instigation of Satan and is an abomination to God as it appears by the 1. and 66. Chap. of the Prophet Isaiah St. Peter tells us plainly that it was by the instigation of the Devil that Simon Magus desir'd to be Baptiz'd while he was in the bonds of iniquity And when St. Paul says that those who receive the Lord's Supper unworthily eat and drink their own condemnation does he not clearly give us to understand that its the enemy of our Salvation who incites men to make a bad and rash use of Sacred things to the destruction of their Souls M. Bourignon has made it appear in so many passages of
be found in either of these cases And 't is that only we ought to examine without regulating our judgments according to the differences we observe between the persons that speak to us For in Jesus Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek Roman or no Roman Male nor Female It is here a Maid that speaks to you none of those great Men who are so frequently reprov'd Do not verify by your experience that saying of the Scripture When the rich and mighty speak all hold their peace and what he says they extol to the heavens but when the mean man speaks they say who is this even tho' he offer wise things they would not yield to him If there be any valuable prejudice it should certainly be in favour of the meanest weakest and most contemptible persons since God himself has declared 't is his pleasure to make use of them and Jesus Christ was so rejoyced at that choice that he says to his Father I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and from the learned and hast revealed them unto Babes even so Father since so it seemed good unto thee Is there any thing meaner weaker and more contemptible in the esteem of the World in the matters of Doctrin than a Maid And can any thing be more proper to verify that declaration of the choice of God He has also promis'd the pouring out of his Spirit in the last times upon Daughters as one of the most signal marks of his power And certainly the weakness of the instrument is an evident sign of him who employs it It is plain that such an extraordinary effect must proceed from a cause that is extraordinarily powerful and that cause must be God himflef when the effect is good and useful Secondly in Divine things you must have no regard to the natural qualities of the mind or rather to the human means by which 't is cultivated such as Sciences Study Reading and the like Divine truth is so far from depending on such things that 't is rather obscur'd by them It may be justly reckon'd a prodigy if such unnatural methods should be attended with success when men endeavour to derive into ill prepared Vessels by the exercise of ther corrupt faculties things that are altogether independent upon them and are freely infus'd by a calm insinuation into Souls that are at rest from their own tumults Truly we might be astonish'd if the Learned should find solid truth by persuing such methods as would certainly banish it out of their minds if they were already possess'd of it Man having lost saith Solomon by much reasoning the uprightness in which God created him But when God speaks to us by simple and unlearned laiks we cannot suspect them as we would suspect the Learned that they feed us with their studied speculations or the prejudices they have drunk in at Schools and drawn from the works of Men and repeat to us the songs their Teachers have taught them to sing The Person who speaks here is without study even without reading and which is more without meditation Search a little to find out the source of this fountain and to understand well what Master could have instructed her it could neither be Man the Devil nor Nature But the thing which you ought most to observe that you have no regard to the conduct of Men. I mean that you do not imagine that the Truth much less Salvation depends upon them their Opinions Orders Directions Submission or that it is tied to them by a necessary bond since it has no essential union but with God alone and may be forsaken by all men if they will as any man may and too many actually do This unhappy prejudice has ruined the Christian Church who imagin'd that she could not possibly fall after she had establish'd her self upon the authority of certain particular Persons human Successions outward Assemblies and other Circumstances that are not at all inconsistent with the Spirit of Error It is certain there are few Christians and even few Catholicks who do not see that the Church is extreamly fallen away and corrupted But the Learned have found out a distinction to charm this evil They say that tho' the Church may fall into a moral corruption and be guilty of back sliding from the practice of a Christian life she is still infallible and incorruptible in matters of Faith It is much to be feared that this distinction serves rather to flatter the Spirit of pride than promote that of Humility which is the Spirit of the Gospel and that it proceeds rather from human interest which prepossesses and darkens even the best minds than from an enlightned charity which designs to excuse the evils of the Church as far as Truth permits May not those who have made this distinction perceive they are so far from excusing the Church or lessening the guilt of her fall that they render her guilty of the fall of Devils whereas her Adversaries pretend only to hold her fallible after a manner conformable to human infirmity It seems they contradict themselves in this distraction for can that which has no faith be incorruptible as to faith and that which is not only destitute of the works of Faith but whose works are corrupted and consequently opposite to those of Faith can that have Faith Shew me says the Apostle Shew me the faith of which thou boastest without thy works and I will shew thee the faith which I possess by my works Treating the Man as vain and empty who would give way to such thoughts What then would he have said of those who maintain that one may be not only destitute of works but that even his works may be evil and habitually evil or which is the same thing that his Manners may be corrupted and that nevertheless he might be infallibly possessed with the purity of the true Faith But it may be they understand by Faith Speculations Notions the knowledge of spiritual Things but St. James reckons those things when they are alone and barren to be a diobolical Faith since he expresly ascribes it to the Devil And how can this diminish or cover the evil of the Church that tho' her Manners are corrupted she has nevertheless with an infallible certainty the knowledge of Divine things and the decerning of Truth and Falshood of good and evil This would be rather to make her fall equal to that of the Devil to make her sin with knowledge in the midst of her light and against it Those who assert this Opinion represent her without conscience render her more odious to God and Men more devilish and condemn her to a place in Hell far below the Infidels rather than if they should say that her Morals are or have been Corrupted for her being mistaken in her Knowledge and believing that to be good and true which is not really so
from the wise nor the word from the Prophet come and let us smite him with the Tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words But God has quite other Designs the Lord has said according to the declaration of an other Prophet Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me and their fear and worship of me is nothing but formality and taught by the precept of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid This is an unavoidable judgment which they must resolve to undergoe and their resistance will only serve to make them be more entirely crusht by the powerful hand of God This will be to the little ones and to the simple matter of joy and gladness and they shall sing praises unto the Spirit of God whom Jesus Christ shall send to possess the place of that human and diabodical Spirit which he will extripate blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. If you have a sincere desire to be of the Number of these little and simple ones you will easily perceive by the Divine Light that is communicated to you that God begins to fulfill his word as well as the desire that we profess to have in that Prayer of the Church come lovely Spirit and renew the Earth You will afterwards be more fully convinc'd of this Truth by other works of this nature This is faithfully and sincerely communicated to you according to the Manuscript of the late Mr. De Cort who nourisht his Soul with these Truths by which he had been regenerated to God and incited to renounce the Vanities of this World I have neither added nor substracted any thing from it except some words at the top of the Pages and before the Conferences to serve for an Abridgment of the matter and a help to the memory of the Reader I began also to quote the passages of the Holy Scripture to shew that their is an entire conformity not only of the Doctrin Words and Sentiments but even of the Life Conduct Actions and other Accidents of this Maid with those who were heretofore unquestionably enlightn'd and govern'd by the Holy Spirit But since the prosecution of that Design would have required a great deal of time and since it may be probably supposed that most Readers will not give themselves the trouble of searching and examining so great a number of passages it was thought sufficient to illustrate the first Conference with all the particular Quotations as a sample of that absolute uniformity with the Spirit of God and his direction which might have been easily carried on throughout the whole Work And in the remaining part of the Book you will only find the most necessary passages cited or those which have most manifest relation to the Text. God grant Beloved Reaader that you may reap from this Work an Advantage which may dispose thy Soul to become a Child of his Grace and to receive his Holy Spirit This is the hearty and earnest desire of P. P. P. THE PREFACE OF Monsieur de Cort TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Here present you with an Account of what befel me in a Voyage I made to a far Country to come to which I travelled above a Year accompanied with several of my own Country-men who with me were Eye-witnesses of our meeting by the way with a Pilgrimess who spoke to us admirable and amazing Things that are capable of converting unto God all those who shall read or hear the hidden Secrets of the Righteousness and Mercy of God and the Blindness of Men and the Power which the Devil at present has over them The Thing is as profitable as astonishing for it has never been conceived or comprehended by any humane Wit It must needs proceed from a divine Understanding and it must needs be a Celestial or Terrestrial Angel for neither Philosophy nor Theology could ever teach me the Things which this Pilgrimess taught me in the small time wherein I travelled with her but in a way so simple and so unaffected that all her Words did pierce my Heart and enlighten my Understanding working in my Soul Joy and Compunction together I was at first quite transported beside my self and I thought all my Understanding was renvers'd while I heard her first Discourses being of Opinion that the Words of Jesus Christ were fulfilled in that he says I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and abolish the Prudence of the Prudent for of necessity all Men how knowing and learned soever they be must be struck dumb and confounded by the simple Wisdom of this Pilgrimess and I took it for a singular Mercy of God that he was pleased yet to declare his Secrets to any of his Servants wishing for the Memory of an Angel that I might be able to declare all that I heard of this Pilgrimess since nothing proceeded from her Mouth which was not profitable and most enlightning very convincing and powerful capable of converting the most hardned Hearts and obstinate Sinners But I must yield to my Weakness not being able to declare any other thing but what my Memory shall furnish me with being helped by some Remarks which I made when I had the conveniency of Writing I entreat the Reader that in this Narrative he may not seek for Ornament of Language nor Philosophical Discourses but the naked simple Truth since God makes use of weak Things to confound the strong I will not at all disguise or adorn her Language fearing to oppose the Designs which God has to manifest to all the World that he reveals his Secrets to Babes and that he resists the mighty and the proud Ones of the Earth from whom he conceals and hides his Secrets and Wonders For this Reason we have ground to say with S. Augustin The Ignorant and the Vnlearned take Heaven by force and we with all our Sciences continue drown'd in earthly Affections Are we ashamed to follow them because they have out-run us We ought rather to be ashamed not to follow them And to add here also the Words which the Pilgrims of Emaus said one to another when they remembred what Jesus Christ had spoken to them by the way while he explained to them the Holy Scriptures to wit Was not our Heart on fire and did it not burn within us when he spoke to us in the way and opened unto us the Holy Scriptures This Pilgrimess in speaking to us must certainly be animated with the same Spirit with which our Saviour was for each of us felt his Heart to burn by her powerful Words which did gently beget in our Souls a Contempt of created Things and a Love of Things eternal enlightning our Understandings by Truths so clear that they could not proceed from any other than from the Father
say that her Life was altogether miraculous as if Adam had never sin'd in her This we do not speak lightly but after much proof and experience by so constant and familiar a Conversation of so long continuance travelling with her Night and Day amidst Ease and Trouble Want and Abundance and so many other Occasions which are to be met with in Traveling of observing a Person exactly in all her Manners where nothing can remain unknown or counterfeited coming under the Eye and Judgment of Persons of Learning and Judgment as this Pilgrimess has done who assuredly was sent to us from God to manifest us his Secrets and his Wonders This is an Instance of his great Mercy that in the midst of so gross universal Darkness as is at present in the World God has vouchsafed yet to send us such a Light capable of enlightning the whole World at least all those who will receive it For no Body can seriously read or hear the Discourses of this Pilgrimess without discovering the state of his own Conscience and also the poor Estate into which Christendom has now fallen the blindness of Men and the hazard of their Salvation She shews clearly that we live now in the last Times that this is the Reign of Antichrist that he has almost full Dominion over all Men that his Kingdom will very shortly be at an end She does not draw her Discourses from imaginary Things nor from fine Speculations invented by Philosophical or Poetical Reasonings but in a Reasoning so firm and constant that she seems to possess in her Nature the Abridgment of all the Sciences of Men together with Truths so convincing so clear and eloquent capable of engaging every good Understanding to an infallible Belief though her Stile is always simple and sincere She spoke Of Extasies and Ravishments which the Devout esteem Vertues as great Imperfections and Weaknesses for Souls establish'd in Vertue which consists only in Righteousness and Truth and Faith saying that all the rest were nothing but amusements on which a Soul establish'd in the Love of God will never rest She told us such high Mysteries of our Faith as never any has attain'd to so clear Understanding of them She spoke of Judgment quite after another manner than all the Authors who ever wrote upon this Subject and yet with such clearness that every Mind would be ravish'd at it with pleasure and astonishment She knew Things to come and did not foretel them but by way of supposition or related them as if she had dream'd them We found divers times that she could tell what past in her absence and how our Souls behav'd themselves towards God She made no reckoning of all these extraordinary Graces saying That they gave nothing to the Soul which possesses them that neither Miracles nor Gifts of Prophecy were necessary to our Salvation that one might have them and yet be damned that all our Happiness consists in possessing in our Souls the Love of God which is true Charity that other Gifts are accidental that the Wicked may indeed work Miracles and have the Gifts of Prophecy when it pleases God that the Devils themselves do frequently Things altogether miraculous and foretel likewise Things to come In short this illuminated Soul desired nothing but what was solid and perfect rejecting even a great many particularities which are mention'd in the Life of some Saints saying That either they had Imperfections among their Vertues or rather that they who wrote their Lives were not endowed with the holy Spirit to discern true Vertue from natural Weaknesses that God was not visible to the Eyes of the Body that our Imagination may frame many Visions of divers Figures and that the Devil mingles himself always in things sensible to our Gust and to our natural Senses that there are great Cheats among Persons who make Profession of a spiritual Life that the Devil slips in there as an Angel of Light and that he who does not force himself to overcome his natural Inclinations can never come to live Christianly that all that is of Nature is not of Grace that to live a Christian one must live supernaturally that our Soul is a Spirit that God does not communicate himself unto it but in Spirit and in Truth That there are none but Souls purified from themselves and from all earthly Objects who hear the Voice of God that the Cares of ones Health of his Honour and of his Wealth are great hindrances to the receiving of divine Notices which are formed by the sole motion of the Soul which receives and understands them according as it is stript of it self In short this divine Soul told us so many Secrets of the mystical and inward Life that all our Theology was too short and insufficient to answer her to so high Questions not only in Matters of Theology but also in all other Matters according to the various Rencounters and Occurrences which fell out in so long a Voyage so that one would have thought that tho' a Man had perused all sorts of Histories and grown old in the Study of all sorts of Sciences he could not know with such Understanding all the Things which this Pilgrimess told us Which she made very little reckoning of saying That all the Sciences which do not serve as means to love God are vain and frequently the occasion of our Damnation Her Conversation was always serious and when by chance we felt into any unprofitable or indifferent Discourse she was silent and calmly withdrew making appear sufficiently that it was not agreeable to her and sometimes she said Discourses which profit nothing do weary and oppress my Spirit I love my Solitude better in which it re-inforces it self and becomes vigorous And therefore I entreat you let me go alone as long as I profit you in nothing and you will do me a pleasure It is impossible to write in particular the admirable Things which we heard of this Pilgrimess She told us so great Marvels concerning the State of the World the just Vengeance that God would take of wicked Christians and the Mercy which he would shew unto the Good that the like were never heard of and it would be hard to believe them if this did not come from the Mouth of a Soul directly illuminated who spoke by the motion of the holy Spirit So that we may say of her Discourses what S. Paul said of his Rapture That he had seen and heard things which Eyes had not seen nor Ear heard and that is has not entred into the mind of Man what God has prepared for his Elect. What she said was to fall out in the last Time during the Judgment and after the Judgment was never before heard of nor conceived They are Things which do ravish all Men with Fear with Joy and with Astonishment For my part I can say as to my self that the meeting with this Pilgrimess has withdrawn me from all sort of Evil has given me a
great desire of Vertue and an absolute resolution of embracing an Evangelical Life having discovered sufficiently by her Discourses that without this no Body will be saved Her Words have so enlightened my Understanding that all the Learning I had acquired seems to me as Darkness and Ignorance in respect of that divine Wisdom which is so mercifully poured out upon the Earth by the Organ of a silly Maid I wish that every one had seen her and heard her as I have done and might receive thereby the same Operations which my Soul has felt for I look upon her Acquaintance as a greater favour than all the Graces and Favours which God has bestowed on me in this World yea even than my Creation it self for that would serve me in little stead without the working out of my Salvation which would have been in great danger if I had not attain'd to the knowledge of my Self and of the Designs and Marvels of God which I have learned and discovered by the means of this Creature and she has certainly been sent me as the only means of the perfection of my Soul and of all those who will profit by the recital of this Narrative which I find my self obliged to publish for the profit of many This is the true Treasure hid in the Earth He who shall find it ought to sell all that he has to buy this Ground to the end he may discover and find this Treasure and take it up with Joy as the most precious Thing of the World I cannot hinder some who wish Evil or are Enemies to the Truth from finding or pretending something that is not agreeable to them for the Light does always offend Blear-Eyes who cannot endure the Light and the Truth which reproves is never agreeable to our Senses But I would admonish them to beware of reprehending or making themselves Masters of the holy Spirit I behov'd for some time to suspend my Judgment as to the Belief of some Points of Doctrin for I had learn'd them from my Masters in another sense but since I have laid aside all these Authors who have written us their Sentiments and fix'd on the sacred Text of the holy Scriptures I have found so much Conformity in them with the Life Manners and Words of this Pilgrimess that no Doubts could come any longer into my Mind and I could not without betraying my Conscience give her so much as one Contradiction Since that gives me an infallible proof that this Soul is truly possest by the holy Spirit who has brought forth in her his Twelve Fruits his Seven Gifts and the Eight Beatitudes which Jesus Christ has taught I should believe I committed a great sin to think that any other Thing might proceed from such a Source than what is Divine so much the rather that I have always remarked that this Soul did act in nothing naturally but by supernatural Motives never being moved but by the motion of the holy Spirit In confirmation of which I would be ready to spend the last drop of my Blood to the end that none might reject this Light to love rather their Darkness as Jesus Christ has foretold that many would do but that every one may embrace it for Salvation to the end we may altogether enjoy the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which is here so particularly treated of with eternal Joy and Contentment Which is earnestly wisht you by Friendly Reader Your most affectionate in JESVS CHRIST Christian de Cort Superiour of the Oratory and Pastor of St. John at Mechlin At Mechlin the 10th of August 1667. M. A. B.'s Confession of Faith which she presented at the Court of Gottorp to oppose the Calumnies which the Church-men had spread that they might raise Suspicions of the Purity of her Faith I. I Am a Christian and I believe all that a true Christian ought to believe II. I was baptized in the Catholick Church in the Name of the Father in the Name of the Son in the Name of the Holy Ghost III. I believe the Twelve Articles of the Creed or the Apostles Symbol and I do not doubt of any one Article thereof IV. I believe that Jesus Christ is true God and that he is also true Man and that he is the Saviour and Redeemer of the World V. I believe in the Gospels the holy Prophets and all the holy Scripture both of the Old and New Testament And I will live and die in all the Points of this Belief which I protest before God and Men to all those whom it shall concern In Testimony whereof I have signed this my true Confession with my Hand and seal'd it with my Seal At Sleeswick the 11th of March 1675. Anthoniette Bourignon L. S. A Catalogue of the BOOKS written by M. A. B. born at L'Isle in Flanders 1. THE Life of M. Antonia Bourignon 2. God's Call and Men's Refusal in 2 parts 3. Light arisen in Darkness in 4 parts 4. The Grave of false Theology driven out by the true coming of the holy Spirit in 4 parts 5. An Advertisement against the Quakers 6. A Treatise of solid Vertue in 2 parts 7. The Light of the World in 3 parts 8. The Academy of learn'd Divines in 3 parts 9. The Testimony of the Truth in 2 parts 10. Innocence manifested and Truth discovered 11. The Touchstone 12. The Blindness of Men now in 2 parts 13. Antichrist discovered in 3 parts 14. The new Heaven and the new Earth 15. The holy Perspective 16. The last Mercy of God 17. The renewing of the Gospel Spirit in 3 parts 18. The Stones of the New Jerusalem 19. The Persecutions of the Just 20. The Morning Star 21. The Confusion of the Builders of Babel 22. Saving Instructions and Advices The most part of these Works are Translated from the French into the Dutch and High Dutch the first part of Solid Vertue the Touchstone and the first part of the renewing of the Gospel Spirit are also in Latin A Table of the Conferences of this first Part of the Light of the World The First Dialogue or Conference OF Gods dealing with A. B. particularly how he immediately instructed her from her Infancy The opposition of Men. Of Christian perfection and of the deplorable state of Christians Pag. 1. The second Conference Of the Judgment of God Of the last times and of the Men of the last times 17. The third Conference The methods by which Christianity has begun to decay from the times of the Apostles and has continued so to do to such a degree that at present there are no more true Christians upon Earth to wit 1. The admission of false Brethren 2. Appropriation 3. Debates 4. Partialities 5. Scholars 6. Disputes 7. The Victory of the Devil 23. The fourth Conference Of the Qualities and Manner of acting which ought to have been in the Guides of the Church to uphold it in its good Estate against all Enemies and not give way to the Spirit of Antichrist as they
never repent of them as long as they presume to be sav d according to the doctrine of the learned of this age This is not against the goodness and mercy of God because he has left us his doctrine in writing in his Gospel and the other holy Scriptures which will never perish according to the promise that heaven and earth shall pass away but his words shall not pass away Every one may have recourse thither without amusing himself with the new inventions of men Leaving the fountain of living waters to draw out of broken Cisterns which can hold no water Ignorance will not excuse sin We feel indeed in our Conscience that we do not follow the doctrine of Jesus Christ that our life and our manners are in nothing conformable to the life of the first Christians that our heart is not inflam'd with the LOVE OF GOD nor Charity to our Neighbour and nevertheless we would flatter our selves with the presumption of our salvation because men do promise it to us who have no power to give it to us no more than to themselves In this point our Ignorance is too gross and affected and will not serve to excuse us before God but will rather serve for our Condemnation for we might always find the truth if we had done our endeavour to seek it But because our Guides have taught us ways of salvation more pleasing to our senses and to our taste we have follow'd them rather than those which Jesus Christ has shewn by his deeds and taught by his word It is just that he abandon us to the spirit of errour since of our own free will we have more esteem'd Error than the Truth which alone leads to Salvation I ask'd her If she did not esteem the Priests and Guides of Souls and if to attain to Salvation we ought not to follow their Instructions She said Yes Sir I honour and esteem true Priests because they ought to be the Ambassadors of God to distribute to the ignorant the points of Faith and the doctrine of Jesus Christ which is the nourishment of all Christian Souls But I may say with a sensible regret that I know no true Priests who are simple Ministers of Jesus Christ only to declare and interpret his word because every one ofthem abounding in their own sense teach that which is most sutable to their inclinations They ought to be nothing but the Organs of the Holy Spirit and it seems they are become his Masters Humane Learning and Studies have depriv'd them of the Gospel simplicity they ascribing to themselves what appertains to God conducting Souls by their own measures not by the Rules of the Gospel forasmuch as they themselves do not follow them Some indeed speak the words of the Gospel but they do so gloze and disguise it that no body thinks himself obliged to put it in practice Which is very lamentable for Jesus Christ yesterday and to day is altogether the same and will be even to the end of the world without any change or mutation This being most true how is it possible that any can be sav'd while they do not follow in any thing what he has taught us He has said that he who does not deny himself cannot be his Disciple which no body does On the contrary every one loves himself and yet they call themselves the Disciples of Jesus Christ It must needs be that the one or the other is deceiv'd This impossibility which Jesus Christ has laid down is it render'd possible by the authority of those Guides who assure all the world of their Salvation while they love themselves This cannot be true for Jesus Christ cannot lie but men indeed may err especially in things wherein they have interest for if they taught simply that a man must deny himself and the other points of the Gospel they would give severe reproofs to themselves because their lives and manners are very far from this practice therefore they study to find out glosses reasons and exceptions to the end they may find means not to be oblig d to follow and practice this holy doctrine which is repugnant to their sences Thus every one lives in a presumption of his Salvation without any ground for these men are not Saviours and cannot save us but are rather Seducers of whom Jesus Christ foretold that they should come in the last times in which we are certainly fallen at present wherein the spirit of error does fully reign where truth is stifled and lying prevails The Second Conference Of the Judgment of God Of the Last Times and of the Men of the Last Times REmarking these last words I ask'd her if she sirmly believ'd that the last times were come and whither the Judgment approached She said to me Believe me Sir there is nothing more true we actually live in the last times and the judgment is so near that before three years I believe you will see the effects of it I could not be perswaded to believe this continuing pensive and silent which she perceiving said Sir the difficulty you find to believe these things proceeds from the universal darkness that is now upon the earth by which all the world is blinded and no body sees where he goes no more than they who liv'd during the Egyptian darkness which was so great that none could stir out of the place in which they were this was nothing but the outward figure of the inward darkness in which men walk at present We do not perceive that we are fallen into the last times nevertheless we may see by the lives of men now that all the signs are fallen out which Jesus Christ has foretold viz. that iniquity shall be multiplied and Charity in many shall wax cold and so of the rest Who can doubt that this is not at present when iniquity is so great and so universal that there is no more faith nor law among men People study nothing but to deceive their Neighbour the Father cannot trust his Son nor the Son his Father the Brother rises up against the Brother friendship is only feign'd business is full of deceit and fraud We see nothing but pride and ambition reigning in the hearts of all men Judges are without equity Priests without sincerity Cloysters fill'd with avarice and the devout full of malice which has been at all times in some particular persons but is at present so multiply'd that it possesses almost all men in general and charity is not only waxt cold but is altogether frozen and become dead in the hearts of men So that these signs of the last times are all fully accomplisht Read if you please the Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy where he says that in the last times there shall come men loving their own selves c. You will see more clearly than the Sun all
degree that it can come to and the Devil has gain'd an inward dominion over the hearts of all men not that wickedness is manifestly at the highest degree in the judgment of men for it will appear more clearly when they shall commit all sort of sins publickly without being afraid of any the evil will seem then greater but it will be less in the sight of God for it will then be no more accompanied and disguised with Hypocrisie as it is at present The Devil having gain'd the hearts of ill men will remain no longer conceal'd He is desirous to reign publickly and openly assoon as he can for his greater Glory As long as there were here and there some good Souls he kept himself hid to the end he might gain them but at present he can so well disguise his malice that all serve him the wicked with good will as his hired Servants and the good serve him by constraint as his Slaves From hence I infer that the time of his Reign is come and that he will appear very shortly visibly in the flesh And to satisfy the second doubt proposed viz. how there shall be Martyrs of Jesus Christ and of those who shall obtain Salvation by the Perfecutions of this discover'd Antichrist this shall be an effect of the last Mercy of God who will yet once send his light into the world according to his promise That the light shall arise in darkness and that the darkness shall be as noon day That is to say that in this time of darkness in which we live at present wherein the Truth is not any longer discern'd from Lies Faithfulness from Deceit nor Righteousness from Iniquity that God will make his Light to arise in this Darkness and that these who shall receive it shall open their eyes and see the blindness of their understanding and reject the spirit of errour into which they were fallen thro the false perswasions of this invisible Antichrist and shall embrace the spirit of truth which is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and by this means dispose themselves to Martyrdom and to saving sufferings in the Quarrel of Jesus Christ for many are now detain'd the Slaves of the Devil thro ignorance and inadvertency believing even that they follow Jesus Christ when they follow this strange Shepherd thro his delusions I thought it impossible to believe that the Devil had dominion over the hearts of all men because I knew many who make profession of being good men who in effect are observ'd to addict themselves to pious and religious works exercising themselves in both publick and private Devotions employing themselves according to their Callings in succouring their Neighbour and owning the quarrel of good men in making peace and agreement between those who have quarrels and debates She said Sir it is by these works which seem good and pious that the Devil deceives the good and renders them his Slaves making them to do his will without their perceiving it It is for this reason our times may well be called dangerous because the darkness is so thick as that good is not any longer discern'd from evil Those are esteem'd good men who do often frequent the Churches and Sacraments and are present at the publick Solemnities and they who do so believe themselves to be good men and to live well but believe me Sir if this be not done in the true Spirit of Christianity these are all but amusements for the life of a Christian is an inward and spiritual Life consisting in the LOVE and Respect we owe to God and CHARITY to our Neighbour for God This Love is an inward Passion of our Soul which is known to none but God himself as also this Charity for our Neighbour These inward passions are sometimes discover'd outwardly by external operations as to suffer willingly for him whom we love to be subject in all things to his will to honour him with all our power by these solid vertues it is discover'd if we be good men not by making a profession of being so for this profession of being good proceeds often from a presumption of our Salvation which is a sin against the Holy Ghost A sinner who knows his sin is often a better man than this presumptuous person The Sixth Conference How the outward worship of God and the outward works of Charity towards our Neighbour are corrupted by the Devil And from whence this Power proceeds I Desir'd to be satisfy'd concerning all these points of good works which I had observ'd to be yet in use among those who profess to be good men to see whither the Devil would produce such operations in his Adherents I ask'd her first If it was not a good work to go often to the Church or to its Solemnities She answer'd It is very good to go to Church to hear the Word of God since Jesus Christ himself went thither to teach it for there is distributed or at least ought to be that word which gives food or nourishment to the souls of the faithful But I pray you Sir says she reflect a little seriously with me on the way of going to Church and of teaching the Word of God there which is now observ'd and see if you will not be oblig'd to confess that by what is now done in Churches the Devil receives much more honour than God therefore he incites his Adherents to go thither often and the Ministers to perform the Solemnities there frequently They go to Church out of custom and being there they behave themselves even as they do in profane places The Solemnities there are so vain that they serve rather to satisfie the senses than to move devotion Among a thousand persons who follow Processions you will scarce find one who has his heart lifted up to God! Sermons are made more out of vanity and heard more out of curiosity than to profit by them Behold the Theater of the World at present judge now whither all these things can pass for good works in the sight of God and if the Devil has not ground to excite them to these actions from whence he derives so much his advantages When once he could perswade men that a Christian Life consists in outward actions he perverted all the good so that they do rather follow him than Jesus Christ because these visible and outward things make a stronger impression on the natural senses than those spiritual things which Jesus Christ has taught and commanded us I felt in my soul that this was true but desiring to learn more I said to her that for those who apply themselves to their Neighbours as to visit the poor and the sick to own the quarrel of the good to quiet and appease strife and contentions that these works could not come from the suggestion of the Devil She reply'd All these things are good if they were done in the spirit of Charity and purely for the Love of God but that this was so
come to tell you that this is the Will of God you will never do it for God has no Will to make you leave it more than he had any to make you undertake it It concerns every one to examine what Mean will be most proper for him to facilitate his Salvation One may sufficiently perceive in his Conscience without consulting any Body whether Offices Estates and Benefices have been to us the means of more Union with God than if we had not possess'd them and if they have made us draw others to the same Union If we do not find this it is to be feared that our Offices and Benefices have not been sought for or possest for the Love of God but for some Human Accommodation which respects nothing but the Earth This being discover'd it is in your Will to resolve if now you desire to labour for Heaven or rather for the Earth I said to her That I would not pretend any longer to any thing upon Earth that I was very sorry that I had had some Pretensions thereto but that I durst not quickly abandon all without the Advice of some learn'd Person fearing that I might do evil She replyed Sir You are yet far from the Kingdom of Heaven when you will needs advise with Men if you shall follow Jesus Christ Has not he said He who leaves not Father and Mother and his own self cannot be his Disciple Now would you go to ask Counsel of any Man when Jesus Christ has given you his Where could you find better Men are all interested in their own Judgment and will never advise but what they judge most advantagious for Men they having no Light to perceive any other thing They are Flesh and judge according to the Flesh Would you refer what concerns the Salvation and Perfection of your own Soul to their Judgments You must needs perish with them For the Wisdom of Man is foolishness before God All the Evils of the World do proceed from this That Men are govern'd and advised by one another Is it not said somewhere Wo to the Man that puts his Confidence in Man I have also told you That if the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch For my part I can say in Truth That I do not remember that I ever committed any Faults but when I believ'd the Counsel of Men. We ought to go to the Source Sir and let alone the Streams The Gospel is left us in Writing for our Eternal Rule If the Apostles and other Disciples of Jesus Christ had gone to ask Counsel of Men they would never have follow'd him For Men would have call'd it a Folly to abandon all as they do yet to this Day For being of the Earth they respect nothing but the Earth and are blind in the things of the Spirit We can never do ill to follow the Counsels of the Gospel but indeed we may in following the Counsels of Men how learn'd soever For their Doctrines are of this World and that of Jesus Christ is of God The Seventeenth Conference How to discern whether the Motions which do press us to leave the Outward Hindrances to Divine Communion be from God or not That there are likewise Inward Hindrances and that one ought not to be wedded even to good Means I Said to her That I had not Light enough to be sure of my own Motions and to discern whether they are from God or from the Devil or from my self She said That it was good to discern them that the Motions from God do incite always to humble things which the Devil and Nature do oppose because they are things despised by Men and therefore these Enemies do abhor them What comes from God incites to Sufferings and to Patience the things which come from the Devil and from Nature do incite to seek our Ease and Pleasures without desiring to suffer any thing The things of God do lead to Poverty and Self-denial the Devil and the Flesh do desire Riches and seek to be esteem'd and praised In fine Sir says she what comes from God is always conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ For God cannot be contrary to himself Therefore the Light which you have receiv'd that moves you not to seek any longer for any thing upon Earth is but too sufficient to assure you that this Motion comes from God because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever rid themselves of their Pretensions upon each For they cannot profit by any other thing Nature could not sin any more without aiming at earthly things and the Devils could have no hold of a Soul which did not aim any longer at any thing upon Earth We might walk surely on such a Resolution without waiting for Counsel from Men who with their Wisdom do often quench the Lights of the Holy Spirit It were far better to consult the Gospel I was constrained to yield to such Truths I said to her that I would abandon all and would follow her all the Days of my Life She said with Joy Sir How happy will you be to abandon all Your Soul will be at liberty to fly unto God Your Spirit will be calm and your Body better disposed You will experience thereby both Bodily and Spiritual Good But I intreat you do not resolve to follow me always for as for my self I am willing to die alone and as for your concern it will be a greater Perfection that you be disingaged from all Creatures to the end you may wait upon God alone All Company how perfect soever it be is not God He requires our Heart so pure that he does not suffer that it should be divided So long as I can be helpful to you I love indeed to discourse with you But I wish rather that you may speak with God who is the Fountain of all Light He can teach you more in one Moment than all the Men of the World would do in a thousand Years So soon as you shall have found his Conversation you will not be able to take Pleasure any longer in any other Speak to him always Sir until that he answer you He will do it assuredly According as you shall separate your self from the Creatures accordingly you draw the nearer unto God There needs but to remove the Hindrances and this Divine Sun will shine fully into our Souls warming them with his Love He has infinitely more Desire and Affection to receive us than we have to seek him even tho' we be great Sinners he rejects no body he rather embraces them as the Father did his Prodigal Son You are his Child and the Work of his Hands Go to your Father with great Confidence He loves you He seeks you and calls you Do not delay any longer Go forward seek no longer for any other thing but him alone With extream Joy did I hear this Discourse asking her by what means I might find this Communion with God
Perfection than formerly Which I doubt very much for if you think to teach the People the Evangelical Life and do not observe it your self this is worse than to hold your Peace because every one will have Ground to believe that it is nothing but a Formality which must be observ'd in declaring the Gospel and that there is no need to put it in Practice seeing they who teach it do not practise it themselves I think in this Case it were better to be ignorant of it than not to practise it when we know it At least it is a less Evil never to have understood it than to have known it and not to practise it tho' both are evil because all Christians are oblig'd to know the Gospel for we cannot without Guilt be ignorant of it but to hear it so often and for all this not to desire to follow it is a double evil because of the Ingratitudes which are committed in not practising what we know by the Grace of God It is a Grace to be caught and an Ingratitude not to follow Instructions Therefore you will do nothing but spend your self in Teaching and will not replenish others Besides that in Teaching there is always the Hazard of Vain-Glory because Flattery is the Ruine of our Souls and perswades us that we have that which they say we have I said unto her That infallibly many would put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel if they knew it as I do at present because these Truths are so clear that of necessity one must yield to them She said Sir Do not engage your self to declare the Truths which God now makes known to you For they will not be well receiv'd by the Learn'd You ought first to have overcome all Human Regards which you have not yet done Likewise you must have the Courage to expose your Life for this Truth For otherwise you will be opprest without any Profit because they would outragiously persecute you if you should declare the naked Truth of the State of the Church at present and if you teach that to be a true Christian one must observe the Doctrine of the Gospel they will altogether oppose you and will affirm That all they who are baptiz'd are Christians however Wicked they be Thus you will have much to suffer and will profit others nothing Because all that you might build up by Teaching of the Truth the Learn'd will destroy by their Arguments and will easily dissuade People from believing you even rejecting your Doctrine as Evil and Seditious for they study nothing so much as to flatter the World and speak as they are desirous to hear They have forgotten that Jesus Christ said by his Apostle That he who would please men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ There can be no Preaching any longer without Reproof but what flatters the Ear and is agreeable to the People for the Truth which reproves is so disapproven by Men that I believe Sir if you should speak publickly the Truths which I in confidence have told you they would cut you off from the Church declaring you an Heretick yea they would even pursue you to Death because they could not approve the Truth without condemning themselves their Lives being contrary thereto and no Body hates his own Soul Therefore they condemn others I ask'd her If I ought always to continue idle without doing any thing seeing I could not Teach nor Preach any more and that I had no other Employment for that I had passed all my Life-Time in Study and in the Direction of Souls She said Sir Labour first for your own Perfection until you be entirely united to God and then you will be capable of other things If there be no Profit to be reap'd among the Catholicks you may go among the Heathens and Hereticks who will be more disposed to receive the Truth than those who are under the Roman Church Because others sin through Ignorance and these Romanists through Malice Many Heathens would follow the Truth if they knew it and likewise divers Hereticks because they seek and ask it always Therefore we hear them dispute willingly to shew that they are not at Rest but seek and ask always after the Truth But the Catholicks do opinionately presume of their Salvation because they esteem themselves the People of God as they are truly even as the Jews were who are now abandon'd but shall be converted so soon as the Roman Church shall be overthrown Those will be truly capable of receiving the Spirit of Truth acknowledging their Errors and Ignorances Labour in the mean Time Sir for your own Perfection and you will very shortly see that the Harvest will be ripe and that there will be need of Workmen We approach so near that I fear your Soul will not have so soon acquir'd its own Perfection as these things will come to pass Therefore make haste fearing to be sent away as an unprofitable Servant Occupy the Talent which God has given you for he will come very shortly to demand an account of it Apply your self to your own Perfection with the same Earnestness wherewith you formerly applyed to the Perfection of others without any Profit I ask'd her If she believ'd that the Roman Church would be Destroy'd and Ruin'd and the Christians scatter'd as the Jews are at present She replyed Yes Sir and much more for the Jews have continued constantly in the Jewish Law tho' they be bodily scatter'd through all the World they are nevertheless united in an uniform Faith and Belief holding still the Law which God had given them But the Christians have denied their Faith tho' they be yet united Bodily How would they preserve it in Time of Persecution when all this Lustre and this Magnificence of the Church shall be destroy'd so that there shall not be one Stone upon another in its outward State no more than there is at present in its inward This must needs come to pass Sir else God would not be Just for the Jews might Reproach him with Reason That they never committed such an Infidelity against their God as the Christians do It is very true they kill'd the Body of Jesus Christ but that was through Ignorance The Christians do kill it a thousand times out of pure Malice They believe that the same Body of Jesus Christ is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they give it daily unto Whores Thieves Murtherers and Sorcerers and yet they make them believe that they shall thereby receive Graces The Jews never believ'd that they obtain'd Grace in putting Jesus Christ to death as these Christians do believe in receiving him unworthily For Pilate said that he found no Fault in him and was in great Fear to condemn him And the Christians go affrontedly to receive him with a Soul full of Sins believing in the mean Time that he is oblig'd to impart unto them his Graces in
says That they shall live for ever He has said elswhere That neither Whoremongers nor Drunkards shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Neverthelss we see daily such Persons receive the Eucharist Can they live for ever without entring into the Kingdom of Heaven There would be a great Contradiction in the Words of Jesus Christ He cannot save those whom he condemns nor say to those who shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that they shall live for ever It is assuredly his Word which he calls his Flesh and his Blood For whosoever shall eat it that is to say incorporate it as the Nourishment of his Soul it must needs be that he live for ever for this Word gives Life Eternal and he who feeds upon it as on his daily Bread can never die this is the Tree of Life seeing it gave Life to all things This Word has created Heaven and Earth of nothing How should it not give Life unto the Soul which receives it And if it have the Force to translate Bread into the Body of Jesus Christ as they teach how shall it not change our Souls into the Spirit of Life Eternal if we receive and incorporate it as becomes Jesus Christ said These are my Mother my Sisters and my Brethren who hear my Word and do it To shew that he esteems more the Receiving of his Word than the having contributed to the Formation of his Human Body it being most certain that the Virgin Mary was more happy in receiving and doing his Word than in being his natural Mother I said to her That there were many Errors in the Church if the Sense that she proposed ought to be received That it was very clear and intelligible but it had never been understood after this manner She said Blessed be God Sir that he grants yet this Mercy to the World to send his Light amidst the so obscure Darkness into which it is brought at present All the highest Mysteries of our Faith are involved in this Obscurity nothing is understood in a perfect Sense and they do often apply Senses contrary to the Truth They have walk'd as groping even till Now. It is no Wonder if they fall from one Error into another insensibly It is a great Happiness that it has pleas'd God to let us live even until the Time that he comes to enlighten the World after that so great a number have perish'd through Ignorance We have no more deserv'd it than they Let us endeavour to apply it rightly unto our Salvation without letting the occasion slip which is now so freely offered us How many souls are there of such a tender Conscience that they dare not reject a Sentiment which comes from the Roman Church or any Decree of its College fearing to offend God because they look upon it and take it for the Holy Church I knew a Person of a very good Life a Doctor of Theology who said That if the Pope forbad him to read the Gospel he durst not read it any longer So much was he preoccupied with this Belief that Rome is the Holy Church Upon this Supposition all the most pious do follow that which is Evil without perceiving it because they have taught us that we owe a blind Obedience As if we were permitted to follow Evil blindfold which is a great Error For we are all oblig'd to discern whether what we follow be good or bad For Example This Doctor could not abstain from Reading of the Gospel without offending God highly tho' the Pope had forbidden him to read it because this Prohibition is contrary unto Jesus Christ who has brought his Word from Heaven to be the Rule of our Life and the Nourishment of our Souls and has said That it must abide in us for ever How could we cast it behind us because a Pope forbids it who cannot destroy what God has establish'd nor forbid what he has commanded without being Antichrist for all that is against Christ is assuredly Antichrist We may indeed believe and follow what the Pope and his Councils do ordain us when they are things conformable to the Law of God and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is no other thing but the Explication of the Law Tho' this were taught us by the Devil himself we could not do ill to follow it But the things which are contrary ought never to be blindly follow'd God has made us Reasonable Creatures to the End we may discern Good and Evil. All the Blindness that a true Christian ought to have is to captivate his Spirit under the incomprehensible Works of God not to captivate it to believe that that which is Evil is Good A man must have lost Sense and Spirit to abandon himself to such a blind Obedience which nevertheless the most part of pious Christians do who do yield in all things to the Ordinances of the Pope or of his Council If this Mischief be not shortly at an End and if the Truth be not discover'd in this Point all the World will perish Because many things will be determin'd which will be against God tho' it were nothing but the Infallibility of the Pope It contradicts directly the Truth because no Man can ever be infallible how holy soever he may be S. Peter the first Pope did expresly deny his Master and did really err in dissembling because of the Jews for which S. Paul reproves him Can it ever be said without Blasphemy that a Man is Infallible secing Infallibility appertains to God alone Neither the Pope nor any other can err or fail in following the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but in following their own Judgments or those like themselves they may fail and err greatly I ask'd her How it was possible that God should have left his Church for so long a Time in Errors She said Sir God has not left his Church in Errors she can never err nor fail for she is one and the same thing with God As the Bridegroom is but one Flesh with his Spouse even so the Church is but one Spirit with God Therefore she can never be left in Errors not for one Moment But the Errors which I discover to you Sir are in Men not in the Church for the Church is no where but in the Souls which possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who have never err'd so long as they abide in it The Church is a Spiritual and Invisible Spirit which renders it self visible by the Human Bodies which this Spirit animates So long as these Bodies are animated and possest with this Spirit of Jesus Christ they are all Members which make up this Church But if this Spirit withdraw himself they are no more but Members of Flesh not Members of the Church Errors therefore are insinuated into these Members of Flesh not into the Spirit of God But whereas these Members of Flesh did possess formerly the Spirit of the Church
he is not to be compar'd to any thing We must force our selves to love him not to comprehend him The Saints themselves committed great faults while they would needs embark into these Studies I believe the Devil has raised Disputes thereupon to amuse Men in useless things rather than profitable and to seek to comprehend what ought to be adored I ask'd her if the holy Doctors could indeed have committed such faults since we held that they had the Holy Spirit She said Yes Sir they committed many others through Ignorance They err'd in many things The Holy Spirit did not always guide their Pen nor their Understandings They were always frail Men so long as they lived upon Earth They might always fail and err for Jesus Christ says that He who says he is without Sin is a Liar I believe I have also told you heretofore Sir that none is Infallible but God Men who have the Holy Spirit are not always so disengaged from themselves that the Holy Spirit has that absolute dominion over them Their own sense of things gives them frequent hindrances and as long as they act naturally they stray from the Holy Spirit and do often commit in these wandrings great faults as David did tho God says that He was a Man according to his own Heart And Solomon who had received the Spirit in fulness did notwithstanding Sin greatly against the Faith it self and against the Commandments of God You must not wonder therefore that the Holy Fathers have committed faults in the Church the Apostles themselves committed them though they had visibly received the Holy Spirit We must never build on a Foundation so weak as Men are They may all err tho they were Saints and have erred in many things in upholding the Church For as soon as they perceived that it failed in the Souls of Christians and that its Honour and Authority was fallen they would needs redress it by worldly Honours and Riches and even defend it by Disputes and by Arms all which things are Buildings made with Mens hands which shall be ruined For that which God has not built shall be Destroyed Jesus Christ knew far better the means that were proper to uphold his Church He saw the time to come as well as the present He has not ordain'd that it should be maintain'd by Silver Authority Arms or Disputes but by Holiness The Twenty fifth Conference That the Holy Spirit sends always new Influences and that we must not bound his Lights nor the Interpretation of the Scriptures to that which the Holy Fathers have formerly had I Could not resist so clear Truths perceiving well that all Men are Fallible But because every one had always received the Opinions of the Holy Fathers as things certain I said to her that I had sworn to receive no other Explications of the Holy Scriptures but those of the Holy Fathers and that the Church did oblige all Persons plac'd in Dignities to do the same So that in all Benefices received they still take this Oath before they enter in possession of them She said Sir the Church can oblige no body to resist the Holy Spirit Your Oath is not obligatory in this case If God favour you or some other Person of your Acquaintance with any new Light must you reject it to obey Men Jesus Christ did not forbid this On the contrary he has said Receive the Holy Spirit And When he shall come he will teach you all things He speaks to the Apostles and to all Christians in them This Holy Spirit is never idle He operates always new Graces in those who receive him and gives still more clear Interpretations of the Holy Scriptures according as the end of the World approaches we shall every day understand them more clearly We see the figure of this in the Sciences of Natural things There is at present more knowledge of them than ever and Men now do know much more of Natural things which those who are gone before us were ignorant of yea understood them in a sense quite contrary to the truth They taught that the Sun goes round about the Earth Now they teach that the Earth turns and that the Sun is fixt which is more to be believed And thus in many Natural things they have discovered many Secrets since Sciences were encreas'd The Figure is never so accomplish'd as the thing figured Wherefore then should the Light of the Holy Spirit or the understanding of the Holy Scriptures be bounded to what the holy Fathers understood of them Every one of them had Discoveries according to his Talent and no more I believe Sir that if you examin them narrowly you will find that they do not accord in all things yea even that they sometimes contradict one another which cannot come from God for there is never any contradiction in him Each of the Fathers saw as far as his view reached and no more God does always farther discover his Secrets Can Men cause others to swear or can they swear themselves that they shall not receive any other Discoveries but that which the holy Fathers have received without opposing the Grace and Light of God This would be to speak after our way to clip the wings of the Holy Spirit that he might not flie farther than Men had marked out to him Truly Sir there are great Errors in all things It seems Men would take from God Power and Authority to attribute it to themselves giving him Laws and forbidding Men to obey him The holy Fathers could not be so rash as to believe that no body could understand the Holy Scriptures farther than they for they affirm that there are depths of hidden Treasure which they cannot comprehend In effect I believe that nothing has been yet understood in a perfect sense of all the Holy Scripture even till now and that likewise there is nothing accomplished but the Death of Jesus Christ Nevertheless all must be understood and accomplish'd in a perfect Sense before the end of the World God has not said or done any thing in vain He will give to Men the full understanding of all that he has said by his holy Prophets from the beginning of the World and nothing is so hid but it shall be discovered before the World end Why then should they forbid to receive other Interpretations than those which the holy Fathers in past times have received It were better to command to Pray continually for greater Light that we may know the better the Mysteries of our Faith that we may the better observe and follow them for we can never have so much love for a thing unknown as for that which we know I said to her that this Oath was not ordained to oppose directly the Holy Spirit but rather to hinder every one from Interpreting the Scriptures after his own way from which many Errors might proceed if there were not an uniform Belief among all Christians
Truth will strongly resist it and practising Unrighteousness they will not suffer Righteousness in their presence because it would reprove them I can very well hold my Peace as I have done for so many Years by-gone But when God shall will that I speak I will cry to all the World without fearing those who can but kill the Body Death would be agreeable to me if with it I could enlighten my Christian Brethren and draw them out of Error I said to her That the Church did not put to death the Holy Fathers who had explain'd the Holy Scriptures But on the contrary had honour'd and esteem'd them That neither ought she to be afraid of being ill treated by them but rather receiv'd and approved in explaining the Scriptures She said to me Sir You would always excuse this Church because you have espous'd her as I have also done It proceeds from this that you do not yet distinguish what the true Church is tho' I have so often spoke to you of it The Church in a perfect and defin'd Sense is no other thing but the Souls which are united in Heart and Will wholly unto God These are his only Spouses He never had any others no more under the Old Testament than the New yea from the Beginning of the World and will never have even to the End yea throughout all Eternity Nothing can be the Church but that which is united wholly unto God No more than a Woman can be a Man's Spouse if she be not united to him For if she joyn herself to another she is an Adultress the same is it without Comparison in the Alliance which God makes with Souls If they withdraw from him and joyn themselves to any other thing they are Adultresses and worthy of being divorc'd If God permit a Man to forsake his Wife for Whoredom wherefore should not this Law be observ'd by himself If Rome with its College does remain united to God in the Spirit of Truth she is the Church and his Spouse But if she be separated from that Truth and Righteousness she is no more but a Civil and Political Assembly Make always this Distinction Sir or otherwise you will be deceiv'd taking Falshood for Truth If there were a thousand Popes with as many Counsellors assembled and if they did not possess the Spirit of God they are not the Church but if a simple Woman that spins on a Distaff do possess the Spirit of God she is the Church The Holy Fathers were not ill treated by Rome in expounding the Holy Scriptures because there were yet perhaps in their Time in those Assemblies some Souls which were Churches and who by confequence did defend the Truth But at present this Support is not to be expected but rather mortal Persecutions An evil thing Sir ought not to be maintain'd blindly as if it were good Therefore God has given you a good Judgment to make this Distinction for if you continue always fix'd in the Resolution to take this outward Body of the Roman Church for the Holy Church it is in vain for me to discover to you her Evil and the Infidelity she has committed toward her lawful Husband You would do as he who would permit his Wife to play the Adultress in dissembling it without being desirous to know or discover it The Sin is as great to tolerate it as to do it If God permit me to speak the Truth openly to that Church which you esteem you would see with Regret how ill she would treat me you could not deliver me from the Peril to which your pious Belief would expose me I said to her That for the Exposition of the Holy Scriptures she needed offend no Body That this was but what God had declar'd unto us That every one ought to desire to have still a more clear Vnderstanding of them yea even the Wicked themselves that this ought not to displease them I entreated her to write boldly She said When you shall read Sir the 24th Chapter which I have promised you it may be you will change your Opinion for the Word of God is like to a two-edged Sword Truth cuts all that it meets with in Opposition to it So that without respecting any Body we cut all sorts of Errors and Lies in following only the streight Truth blindly and without knowing it we do often wound those of whom we are not thinking If the Word of God were well explain'd it would offend all the Persons that live now in the World yea those who are esteem'd Holy and Perfect For as we do not see so many little Atoms flying in the Air when the Sun does not shine brightly as we do when he spreads his Beams clearly even so the Souls which are full of Sins and Imperfections do not perceive them so long as the clear Understanding of true Perfection is not given them They believe that they are very clean but so soon as this Divine Light shall give its Rays every one will see evidently that he is deceiv'd that he has no Righteousness and that he is no true Christian Therefore the Devil will hinder as much as he can this Light from being discover'd and will oppose himself thereunto even by those that have most Authority that very few may perceive their Blindness For if these Explications were maturely consider'd by every one all the World would be converted for there is nothing more charming than to consider that which God has done for Man from his Creation and continued even till now which is nothing but a continued Course of Benefits all corresponding to one another always in great Perfection The Creation the Law of Moses the Prophets the Gospels are all the same thing by an excellent Harmony I ask'd her Whether the Ancient Fathers had not discover'd these things aright and if they had not declar'd this to the World by so many Expositions and Books which they had written She said Sir It was not necessary that the Ancient Fathers should have the Understanding of all things It was enough that they understood that which Men had need of then but since we draw near to the Fulness of time it is expedient for Men now that they learn that which must fall out in their Time Therefore God now reveals the Secrets which he would then have to be kept hid When the Apostles ask'd Jesus Christ when these things which Jesus Christ had told them should come to pass He answer'd them That it was not for them to know the Times which the Father had in his own power To shew that unseasonable Light ought not to be desir'd and that to him alone appertains the knowing the Time and the Hour of all things Thus he thought fit to reserve the Understanding of the Scriptures till the necessary time which is at present The Holy Fathers could not know then what he would reserve till now and all that they declar'd of it by so many
and acknowledge the Justice of God which will leave nothing of all our good deeds without a recompence no more than our evil deeds without a punishment which every one shall receive by the just ballance of his Righteousness To accomplish which we must in this World have reparation of all the wrongs which have been done us and the falshood must be discovered the Mask must be taken off from all Men that their deceits and their hypocrisies may be known How they have dealt fraudulently with the Innocent All must be discovered at the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and all things even material which have served for our reproach must serve for our glory As to S. Lawrence's his Grid-Iron and to S. Andrew his Cross And so of all the other Martyrs and chiefly the Instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ which will shine in his glory like precious Stones and that materially for otherwise there could not be had a perfect and compleat reparation if we looked but for a spirtual Paradise because we suffer here in Body and Spirit both together This Kingdom approaches Sir for the Plagues are already begun I said unto her That no body believ'd that the last Plagues were begun nor the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth She said Sir The incredulous will go with Sorcerers For he who has no belief of this Kingdom can never well suffer the Plagues which go before it There is nothing but k this hope alone that can give force to sustain those so great Persecutions that there never were any like unto them It is therefore to be feared that these incredulous will perish with the Wicked For if we do not believe that we are fallen into the last times and that the Plagues are begun we will assuredly be deceived by that pernicious one Antichrist who reigns in Persons in Authority whom we take sometimes for Holy and Vertuous and believe that we do well to let our selves be guided and govern'd by them if we lay aside the doubt or belief that we are fallen into that dangerous time foretold by Jesus Christ wherein Evil is covered with Piety And if we do not believe that the Plagues which are begun are the beginnings of Sorrows with which God will purge the Earth we shall easily be brought to Murmour against him Yea we shall fall it may be into Despair in seeing the best Christians Persecuted by Persons who seem worse than our selves yea Churches ruined the Religious banished and all that they call a Church overturn'd and opprest in its source All this will give occasion to Blaspheme against God in case we do not know the wickedness of Men which had drawn down these Plagues upon our Heads We will commit a thousand sins of Murmurs against our Enemies and also against the disorders of those who ought to govern us Setting our selves to seek Human Succours which will sometimes do us more harm than our Enemies and thus we should suffer miserably as do Thieves and Murtherers Whereas did we believe that we are fallen into the last times and that the Plagues are begun we would return to God by Penitence taking all from his Hand as well the Rod as the Bread For all these things must come to pass and by Sufferings we must enter into his Glory as Jesus Christ has pav'd the way I said unto her That I my self could hardly believe that the last plagues were begun and also that Jesus Christ would come to reign upon the Earth were it not that she gave me the view and understanding of these things She said Sir this proceeds partly from want of Application of Spirit and partly because the Devil has bewitched the Spirits of all Men that they may not discover the truth of their Happiness nor of their Misery For if this were known many Persons would get out of Darkness and would follow the Light of Truth Whereas by that infatuation of Spirit the Good perish with the Wicked And thus he gains all to himself To give you a firm belief that Jesus Christ will come to reign upon Earth Sir apply your mind seriously to the reading of the Holy Scriptures You shall find through all that they declare this glorious coming and all that Man shall receive thereby This has been figured from the beginning of the World and by all that has past in it since all has been nothing but the Figures of this glorious Reign of Jesus Christ You have now a little prospect of this by what I have declar'd unto you Search into the matter you will find the thing more true than all the other mysteries of our Faith There is no more obscurity in it for the time is come for the understanding of it What the Fathers in past times have explain'd with so much pains and so imperfectly will be easie to you and in a perfect sense No body will be able to doubt or be ignorant of it who will submit his Spirit unto God with Humility of Heart All that Jesus Christ and the Apostles have said has been fulfilled but in part But you will find the accomplishment and the perfect sense in this glorious Reign of Jesus Christ By discovering assuredly that all which they thought fit to declare cannot be understood of any other thing but of this Reign Remark all the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer which I have elsewhere explained to you No body can imagine that all that we ask in that Prayer can be obtained during this miserable Life and it must needs be granted that we pray for another Life which we do not yet know and that this Life also must be material as well as spiritual For if it were only divine we would not ask for daily Bread nor that the will of God should be done there or that his Name should be Hallowed For all these things are done always in the Empyreal Heaven where no body has need of material Bread Spirits being filled with the presence of God There is nothing there likewise to be forgiven for no body there offends his Brother Temptations are banish'd from thence and Evils cannot enter there The blessed Life that we look for must needs be material as well as spiritual in which we shall have need of all the things which we ask in the Lord's Prayer since they cannot be obtain'd in this present Life and Jesus Christ could not have made us ask for unprofitable things or for those which he would not give This could not be done by a God who can do and know all things For it would be altogether unprofitable to ask what we cannot obtain here and it would be a superfluous thing to ask that of which we would have no need in the Empyreal Heaven as they imagine Paradise to be all the other Doctrins of Jesus Christ are also like to the petitions of that Prayer For when he says seek the Kingdom of
and he is as careful to have Honours and Riches as Secular Persons One says that he loves God and he loves nothing but himself One says I am retired from the World nevertheless he has as much affection for it as before and studies to satisfie himself In Short Sir there is nothing but Lies and deceit among all Men even those whom you esteem to be good Men they have nothing but apparent Vertues which are very displeasing to God and draw down his avenging hand upon our criminal Heads Because no body fears God any longer but by word and they who fear their Damnation perswade themselves that they fear God while out of pure self-love they fear the evil due to their Sins that they may continue in them and they place their Piety in outward Devotions with which they do more distract their Understanding from God than fix it upon him And yet they believe they are Just and Pious fearing God tho in the mean time they have neither the one nor the other of these Virtues Thus you are deceived with thousands of others who are in the good Opinion that there are yet many good Persons upon Earth I ask'd her How we might know the true Righteousness nd Virtues of Men She said Sir no body can know it as to others but they who possess it themselves Therefore I told you that union with God is needful for to know true Virtue This union makes us partake of the Virtues of God so that he who is in God partakes of his Righteousness of his Goodness and of his Truth The RIGHTEOUSNESS of God is always just doing justly to all as well to our Enemies as to our Friends not enduring any Injustice no more in our selves than in others neither in small matters nor in great Our Works are always accompanied with this Righteousness and also our Words our Counsels our Business and even our good Works Knowing well that without this divine Righteousness nothing can be good And even as God never does any thing without this Righteousness So we do all things righteously so much as we draw near to God we are as much Righteous and no more and he who partakes of this divine Righteousness discerns and knows very easily the Righteousness and Unrighteousness of others For if their Righteousness be of God it will always be conform to that which we partake of the same God and if it be not it will directly oppose it There are some who would believe that one had the art of Divination when he can discover false things which appear true to the eyes of Men But this does not proceed from any Divination but only from the Righteousness of God When it refides in a Soul it perceives immediately that these apparent Righteousnesses do resist and are contrary unto the Righteousness of God For Example a Judge will give good Justice to a Party because he is recommended to him by some of his Friends This is nothing but an Human Justice because it has had respect to Men For to be Divine it ought to have respect only to good Right which is not observed in the present time wherein the Proverb says He who has good Right has need of good Help It is the same as to Piety and Devotion If they go to Church to the Mass and the frequenting of the Sacraments out of natural custom or inclination or because it is good and laudable This Righteousness is not of God because it respects our selves or Men. And if you partake of the GOODNESS of God Sir you will do good to all Creatures indifferently as he does without wishing good to your Friends and hating your Enemies or not helping them in their need But when our good deeds are partial respecting our Kindred our Allies our Friends and Neighbours then our goodness is nothing but Human. This is easie to be observed by him who partakes of the goodness of God who loves nothing but that wihch is good and conformable to Righteousness and Truth Whereas Human goodness respects nothing but that which is sensible to Nature leaving sometimes Righteousness and Innocence without help to succour its Friends yea even to excuse or cover their Iniquities These are all goodnesses without Fruit having received in this World the reward of such good Works For if we do good to our Friends they will do the like to us and so we shall be payed without having right to pretend any other recompence therefore in Heaven Jesus Christ has advertis'd us of this saying When you make Feasts do not call the Rich lest they bid you also and thereby you receive no reward And if you partake of the TRUTH of God Sir you will very easily discover Lying because this strait Truth does always oppose that which is contrary thereunto There needs but to walk Strait to overturn that which is Crooked The Spirit of Truth is incompatible with that of Error There needs but to speak the Truth simply to reprove Lying Many Persons are troubled to understand the Truth who if they were not in Lies could not be troubled at it because it is always desirable and enlightens the Understanding Truth being God ought to be loved and received by every one and as much as it is now out of credit it is so much an evidence that all have abandoned God in abandoning Truth Righteousness and Goodness There is no other God but he who is the source of these three Vertues of which Men now have not retain'd any foot-steps and at present those are esteemed Saints who have but human Righteousness natural Goodness and political Truth and yet they will not believe that we are in the last Times and that the World is Judged What more certain Marks can we have Outward Signs are a very small matter in respect of seeing that all Men have Abandon'd their God Draw near to God Sir and you will discover it as well as I. I said to her That if it were needful to exercise the very same Righteousness Goodness and Truth of which she spoke to me that all the World would Perish and no body should be saved For all Men are very far from it She said It is true Sir all the Wicked will perish among whom notwithstanding there will be yet some sav'd because they are so thro' Ignorance These indeed will yet receive the Light of Truth with which they will discover the Lyes which have been taught them For many have entred into the Spirit of Error thinking they did well and if they had been taught there is no Salvation but for those who resign themselves wholly to God and unite their Wills to his they would assuredly force themselves to find this Unity of their Wills with God and would have resign'd themselves to him far more easily than they have done to follow so many different Exercises of Devotion For one has taken the Order of S. Francis and goes bare-footed without wearing Linnen
always to aspire to that which will be eternal But on the contrary we would be content to lose it the Eternal provided we might live here always All Men almost are in this Error by which they draw down the Plague of Pestilence to put an End to Desires so impious which have made them abandon their God This Life must needs be taken away from us since it serves as a mean to withdraw us from God The Plague of Pestilence is justly sent upon us to give Death to those who love their Lives more than God As is also that of Famine because so many Men have abandon'd their God for the Pleasures of the Mouth How many are there who love Meat and Drink more than Spiritual Delights Provided the Mouth and the Belly be satisfied they care very little for God Is it not fit that they endure Hunger who think of nothing but of filling themselves This evil is so general that in the best Assemblies of Christians now-a-days they speak for the most part of Eating and Drinking to keep themselves chearful Is it not fit that this should be chastised with Justice by an universal Hunger since this Sensual Appetite has caused an universal Sin by almost all the Men of the World From whence I draw the certainty that all are judg'd and that the Sentence is irrevocable Because no Body repents of these three Sins which form the last Plagues and God cannot defer longer to send them I ask'd her how we could believe that the last Plagues were begun She said Sir Do you not perceive that we are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error That Lying prevails and that Truth is opprest That Men promise themselves Peace and Security in the midst of such evident Perils That there is no longer Righteousness nor Sincerity or Fidelity among Men That Evils are conceiv'd without Fear and brought forth without Reprehension That the Just is punish'd as guilty and the Guilty supported and defended That there is no longer neither Faith nor Law among Christians and that they live in a Neglect of God and of their Salvation Are not these the greatest Plagues that could ever befal the World They are more to be dreaded than Fire Pestilence War and bodily Famine which can but kill Bodies Whereas these Spiritual Plagues kill the Soul which is an Eternal Spirit Behold Sir with the Eyes of Truth and you will see that all Souls perish without perceiving it Which is the greatest Punishment that God can ever permit to befal Men. Many say blindly We are at the End of the World for Wickedness abounds in all places There is no Trust to be given to any They deceive one another without Faith or Honesty In saying this they speak the Truth without knowing it far less apprehending it Many Signs have appear'd in Heaven in the Sun in the Stars fearful Comets menacing great Evils which did affright some at first but so soon as the Devil had Leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were but natural things engendred in the Air he made the Fear of those threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of their Minds The Sea has yielded blood And as soon as this has ceas'd the Memory of it has been effac'd Fire has burnt many Cities and they have presently found out some Invention to cover all these Warnings which God gives us saying That these are Casual and Natural Things As also the swallowing up of several Towns and Cities caus'd by Earthquakes They attribute all these Things to future and to natural Causes saying That these Countries situate toward the Sea are subject to Earthquakes In short Sir they make all the Threatnings and Warnings of God to evanish out of Men's Minds that no Body may enter into himself to be converted unto him through Fear and Trembling Some Stroaks of Thunder us'd sometimes to shake intire Cities where the People ran to Confession to prepare themselves for Death But now when they see so many several Effects of the Justice of God by Men's being abandon'd to all sorts of Sins and also by all those outward Sings in Heaven and Earth which have appear'd in our Time and to our Eyes no body is converted unto God for this Far less do they Imbrace the Spirit of Penitence It seems they mock at God's Warnings saying These are Natural Things But I would willingly demand of these Ear-flatterers If God ought not to send his Plagues but by supernatural Things and to make Chimera's in the Air He who has created all the Elements must not he make Use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural Things to make our Body suffer which are likewise Natural If the Bodies of the damn'd shall indeed be punish'd with Natural Things why should not in like manner our Bodies which are yet living upon Earth Since they are not sensible but of Natural Things they must needs have Subjects conformable to their Nature The Deluge was made by a Natural Rain And the last Plagues will be made by Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural Things because the Heaven the Earth and all the Elements ought to rise up against us to avenge the Offence that we do against their Creator and ours If the Fire shall kindle by some accident or the Earth quake by the Tossings of the Sea and overturn Cities would this be accidental unto God who says that to him the Hairs of our Heads are numbred Would he thus let such grievous Accidents fall out Without his Permission this cannot be true But the Devil to divert us from believing that these things are the beginnings of the last Plagues makes it be said by his Adherents that these are Natural Things that no Body may turn to Repentance The Thirtieth Conference How God permits Man to be abandon'd to the Spirit of Error I Ask'd her How God permits that we should be thus abandon'd to the Spirit of Error She said Sir God permits it by his Justice because we have left his Spirit of Truth to hearken unto and follow Lyes He compels no Body leaving every one in the Liberty wherein he created them If Man therewith will needs abandon his God and adhere unto the Devil he lets him for he will not take away again the Free-Will which he has once given him which God will never take back again for he is unchangeable in all his Doings And having once found it good that Man should be a kind of Creature altogether free he cannot afteward find it evil but will leave him this absolute Liberty unto all Eternity If he will use it to love God he will follow the End for which it has been given him and if he will use it to do evil and to withdraw himself from God he is free God will not
be mov'd for this remaining always Just Good and True Whatever Man does God remains always what he is in himself without being mov'd and without hindring Man to withdraw himself from him when he will needs do it by his own Free Will God can lose nothing even tho' all the Men of the World would follow the Devil They only wrong themselves God will never take away again the Free Will that he has given them for their evil Deeds but permits them still to use it as well to their Damnation as to their Salvation All the other Creatures do the Will of God of Necessity as a Servant does the Will of his Master by force for it is necessary to the other Creatures as well animate as inanimate to do the Will of God without their being able to resist it being bounded limitted and constrain'd not to pass over the Bounds and the Limits wherein God has plac'd them But Man alone who participates of the Deity has the Liberty to resist the Will of God which he will not oppose for he cannot repent of the Liberty that he has given unto Man Thus God permits Man to abandon himself unto the Spirit of Error and to forsake that of Truth For he would act against his Goodness to take back again that great Advantage which he has given unto Man of his Free Will with which he ought to rule over the Earth as a little God independent from every other thing which is not God And if he did not permit Man to follow the Spirit of Error when he will needs follow it he would render him a limited and forc'd Creature as all the rest which serve the Will of God by Force as Servants and Slaves Which would be contrary to the Designs of God who has chosen our Souls for his Spouses in making them partake of his Power to do that which shall be most agreeable unto them The End of the First Part. THE SECOND PART OF THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD Being a Continuation of the Conferences which Antonia Bourignon had with the deceast Mr. Christian de Cort which deserves to be read understood and considered by all who desire to be saved Written originally in French S. Paul to the Romans XI 19 c. Be not high minded but fear For if God spared not the natural Branches the Jews take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God on them which fell Severity but towards thee Goodness if thou continue in the State wherein his Goodness has plac'd you otherwise thou also shalt be cut off and they also if they bide not still in Vnbelief shall be grafted in For God is able to graft them in again LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVI TO THE READER Dear Reader IT is more than twelve Years since I had the following Conferences in this second Part of the Light of the World and those also which shall follow in the third Part which you may afterwards see when it shall please God that they be publish'd and I had no Inclinations to make them publick For all these Questions were propos'd to me by the deceast Mr. Christian de Cort when he was a Priest in the Roman Church Pastor of the Church of S. John in the City of Mechlin in Brabant and Superiour of the Congregation of the Fathers of the Oratory in that City who being desirous to understand the Matters relating to his Religion propos'd to me divers Theological Questions touching the Faith and Manners of Christians who aspire to the Perfection of their Souls To which I answered according to the Wisdom and Experience that God gave me This the deceast de Cort having exactly noted and set down in Writing he design'd to have printed it in the Year 1667. But it was afterwards delayed by the Advice of many of his Friends who knowing the Partiality and Jealousie of many Divines of the Roman Church were afraid that the said de Cort and I might be put into the Inquisition for having declar'd too openly the Faults and Corruptions which are crept into the Roman Church telling us that this would be insupportable to many Zealots of that Religion But the deceast de Cort being very earnest to make the plain Truth known to the People resolved to go to Holland and to print all these Conferences there judging it very necessary that they should be communicated to sincere Persons who he thought were perishing thro' Ignorance saying often I was deceived as to Matters of Faith and Manners And thro' this Blindness I have also deceived others by teaching them Shadows for Substances and I 'll never be at rest till I have communicated to them the Truths of God that you have declared to me And so by his Persuasions and many importunate Requests I resolved to go with him to Holland to cause him to print all these Conferences that we had had together for a long time I was much averse to this because I had not yet printed any of my Writings and also the Matters contain'd in these Conferences would greatly shock many who are in the Roman Church whom I lov'd tenderly and desired not to offend them esteeming them my Brethren and I had never yet convers'd with any nor had I been in any Place or Country without the Obedience of the Roman Church And I knew not what sort of People I might meet with elsewhere For I imagined I should find there People that were monstrous or of a different Shape from those of my own Country where they represent to Children those who are not Romanists a Wolves covered with Sheeps Skins that they may imprint on the tender Hearts of the Children a mortal Enmity against those who in all things have not the same Opinions that are profess'd in the Roman Church This made me afraid to go to Holland to cause these Conferences to be printed But after I had seriously recommended it to God I resolved to go on that Errand For God made me understand That 't is not Religion that saves the Soul but the Love of God that begets true Vertue And that I ought to love all and to do good to those of every Religion and to declare the Truth of God impartially And this inward Voice planted in my Soul an Impartiality towards all sorts of Religions indifferently without caring to inform my self of what Religion Persons were or the Places and Countries to which I was to go nor with whom I was to speak This has been my Practice ever since regarding only the Disposition of the Souls with whom I was to treat without considering what Religion they profess'd or what Party they were of as to outward Worship since in Effect in all Kinds of States Professions and Religions I 've met with Persons disposed to receive the Truth that comes from God Yea some of those that are without the Roman Church are more ready to receive it than they who call themselves
Roman Catholicks tho' this they hold for an Article of Faith that none can be saved out of her Communion This is very ill conceiv'd since God is universal and he 's to be found every where by those who seek and worship him For he 's not fix'd to any material Body All Souls who take their Delight in him are his Spouses call them by what Name or Religion you please For all these different Names or Opinions do not make a Christian but only the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ makes a Christian And all those who put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel are Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ even tho' they were Turks or Heathens Of which Professions I believe several condemn and judge the nominal and professing Christians since God has no Respect of Persons and will judge all Men according to their Works This the Scripture confirms saying by your Works you shall be judged and by your Works you shall be condemn'd And Jesus Christ himself taught the Truth of God his Father to the Samaritan Woman and to many other Nations who were not Jews saying to his Apostles Go teach all Nations He that believes shall be saved He even ate and conversed with Sinners to see if any of them would receive the Truths of his Father and put them in Practice and tho' at first he rejected the Canaanitish Woman as a Dog yet he shew'd her Grace and Mercy by her Conversion and persevering Humility For the same Reason he says to Christians that Publicans and Sinners shall enter into the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out which still farther confirms this Truth That Religion does not save a Man but the Love of God that sanctisies him This made me get over all Humane Respects and declare the Truth of the things which were ask'd me by so many different Conferences all about the Roman Church For at that time I knew no other Religions and with Compassion I booked upon all those who died out of the Romanâ— Church as damn'd as our Divines taught So that being ask'd by a Romish Priest I answered plainly to all his Questions Vpon which many took Occasion to say that I had chang'd my Religion and was become an Enemy of the Roman Church which is not true since being born in it I will live and die therein without changing Name or Religion but only my Manners and Life And will endeavour to be regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and to follow and imitate him even to Death letting Ignorant Men say and judge of me as they please In the mean time I offer this LIGHT OF THE WORLD to all good Souls who seek the Truth and desire to become true Christians that they may truly discern Reality from Appearance For this prevails now through all the World among all sorts of Sects and Religions where every one cleaves to the Bark and does not touch the Wood fancying that Vertue consists in having a fine Religious Name of that of the Reformed the Evangelicks the Catholicks Yea that they are persons guided by the Holy Spirit of which the Quakers boast though all these sorts of Names are false and not at all suitable to the Life and Manners of those who call themselves so For if they who are called Reformed were truly so we would see the Reformation in their Life and Manners Whereas we find they all live according to Flesh and Blood which the Scripture says shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They are neither reformed in their Moveables nor their Apparel nor in their Eating or Drinking They seek in all the finest and the best They labour and trade diligently that they may have wherewith to maintain themselves in Pomp Excess or Plenty as much as they can without bridling their fleshly Appetites or their Sensualities in any thing still coveting more that they may give it as much Satisfaction as they can that in this World they may have Ease Honours and Pleasure Thus they are called Reformed though in Effect they will not reform themselves in the least thing for the Kingdom of Heaven By which we see that they who call themselves Reformed bear a false Name that makes them Hypocrites and Deceivers of others and of themselves As those also are deceived who call themselves the Evangelicks For in all their Works and Practices there is nothing conformable to the Gospel but all directly opposite to it For they do not observe so much as one Point of the Evangelical Councils For instead of loving voluntary Poverty they love the Abundance and Riches of this World unsatiably and they who ought to be the Guides to those Evangelical Perfections are the farthest remov'd from them abandoning their Flocks and Churches to find others that afford them more temporal Profit They are far from imitating the Apostles who said freely I have received and freely I give thee since these modern Evangelicks give at the greatest Price and to him that bids most And therefore they do not justly bear the Name of Evangelicks since they neither teach nor Practise so much as one Council of the Gospel and have nothing but false Names and Parades that they may appear to be in the Sight of Men what they are not at all in the Sight of God No more than those are Catholicks who bear the Name since to call one a Catholick is to say he is a Person joyn'd in the Communion of Saints which these are not who call themselves Catholicks since we perceive not any Holiness in their Lives but much Vice and Injustice accompanied with Hypocrisie and seeming Vertue without any Reality or Sanctification They boast that they are Abraham's Children without doing the Works of Abraham or that they are Christians without observing the Commands of Christ They content themselves to be called Catholicks without conforming their Lives to those who liv'd holily upon the Earth whose Lives and Histories they read without endeavouring to become holy as they were whose Feast s they solemnize tho' they shall never be in their Communion nor truly Catholicks till in their Lives they follow their Vertues and walk in the streight Way that leads to Life So that this Name of Catholick will condemn them rather than justifie them whereas they presume to be preferr'd by God to all other Religions because they are of the most Holy and Perfect Religion according to the Name of Catholick which they bear This would really be if their Souls were united to Jesus Christ in the Communion of Saints which only and no other thing makes a Catholick By which we see that these Persons bear a false Name since they presume of their Salvation because of the Name Catholick and be-believe they are in the true Church out of which they say there is no Salvation This would be true if the Roman Church were the only Communion of Saints But because
cry out against me as the Jews cry'd out against Jesus Christ Away with him away with him Crucifie him And I believe if the Priests had me in their Power they would gladly cut me off and would have done it long ' ere now But God sav'd me from their Power that I might yet farther declare his Truths to good Souls who seek and desire them which in Obedience to God I 'll do even at the Peril of my Life since Jesus Christ expos'd his to teach me the Way of Salvation And I entreat the Reader to peruse with Attention this Second Part of the Light of the World waiting till the Third follows He shall therein find the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit the Truth of God and the Light of Truth which must teach all Truth The Truth of the Impartiality of Christian Charity and of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and particularly the discerning of true Vertue from that which is but apparent and the Errours crept into Holy Things more clearly than they 've ever yet been discover'd in the World Receive it therefore as a Present of great Value from her Hand who loves only the Salvation of your Soul and continues Friendly Reader Your very Affectionate in Jesus Christ Anthoinette Bourignon THE SECOND PART OF THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD The First Conference How the Opinions of the Learned are injurious to God they being ignorant of his Works Of God's Presence and of his Grace Of the Liberty Power and Weakness of Man and of the State of Infants before the Vse of their Reason I Said to her That never any Body had known so much of the Works of God and that many Disputes and Questions had been raised in the Church to discover such Secrets She said Sir I have often trembled upon the hearing so many Blasphemies as they thunder out against God by such Disputes One makes God the Author of Evil another makes him the Complice another unjust and partial some attribute to him the Cause of Mens Damnation others the Want of their Salvation every one judges of the Works of God according to his Fancy Liking and Inclinations The Learned do greatly deceive themselves while they will needs comprehend by humane Sentiments his Divine Works If any simple Woman of a humble Heart would seriously consider the Works that God does in her Interiour she might give a better Definition of all his Secrets than all the Doctors of the World wou'd ever do with their Learning They amuse themselves in contending about Words or some Terms that they lay down upon which to found their Disputes and thereon they raise great Buildings without any solid Foundation and the more they will dive into the Matter the more they trouble it because God hides his Secrets from the great and the wise of the World and reveals them to Babes and to the simple for he says Except you be converted and become as little Children you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven making appear sufficiently that it will not be by Philosophical Reasons or Disputes that we shall discover the Truth of his Works but by a dove-like Simplicity I said to her That many believed that Man has his full Liberty to do evil but that he is not so free to do well She said These are all Errours for Man has even more Advantage and Inclination to do good than evil if he did not go out of himself by diverting himself to hear the Discourses of Mens Inventions for God having created him for Salvation did consequently imprint in him the Instinct of doing good and the Will also because good is always agreeable and lovely Evil then must needs be contracted from without us for God being the Centre of our Soul cannot but lead it unto Good and if it followed its self it s Bent and Inclination it could not do Evil because Evil is without us we being led to it either by the Devil or some other Creatures without us who stir our Passions and the Powers of our Soul to pervert them to the Will of doing evil otherwise 't is far more easie for us to do good than evil And as the Ray cannot be separated from the Sun so the Soul cannot be separated from God the Fountain of all Good because it has the same Relation to him that the Ray has to the Sun If our free Will did not put a stop to the Rayes of Grace they would enlighten our Soul continually and could not cease from illuminating and warming it But Sins and vicious Affections do stifle and oppose this Light which being hindred cannot any longer shine into our Souls and then during this Darkness they fall from one Precipice into another The Fault is not that this divine Sun ceases to shine for one Moment but that our Sins put a stop to it which if they were removed this Divine Sun would as suddenly shed forth his Rays We must not labour as we think we ought to obtain the Grace of God but we must only labour to remove the Hindrances which we give to it because Grace always offers it self being inseparably fix'd in God who is the ter of our Soul He cannot leave it But our Sins hindring him keep us from enjoying the Effects of this Grace I said to her That Man indeed received Benefits from God in his Creation and his Graces did abound in him But since he fell into Sin he has lost these Graces and is become unable to do good She said Sir you wrong the Goodness of God to speak or believe so For God has not withdrawn from Man tho' he fell into Sin He contains in himself all things and cannot retire from any thing He is as much the Center of our Souls since Sin as he was before and can never go out of any Place because he comprehends all in himself This being so he does not deny his Graces to any Body For they are where-ever he is and being in the Center of our Souls his Graces consequently are there with him but it is our Fault only that they do not there perform Operations It is true if our first Parents had not sinned we had been born in the state of Innoceence and in coming into the World had not brought with us a Hindrance to Grace which we have contracted by our first Parents but by accomplishing the Penitence that God enjoyn'd them for the said Sins we enter again into the same Grace of our first Parents since God treats with us as if we had never offended him their Sins not being able to change the Grace of God but to subject us indeed to Penitence till we arrive at the Use of Reason and then being transplanted out of the free Will of our Parents we enter into our own If from that Instant our Will desires to reunite it self to that of God we shall receive the Effects of his Grace but the Mischief is we
Conference That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawyul Husband I Said to her That she gave a deal of Light in divers things for which I did infinitely bless God but I could not deny it troubled me a little to hear that the Roman Church was thus fallen from the Spirit of true Christianity She said Sir it is more expedient for the Salvation of your Soul that you know the Misery into which the Church has fallen than if you knew the highest Mysteries of the Trinity or the greatest Good of all Men together Because an Evil known is easie to be avoided But as long as 't is unknown and hid from us it is always dangerous and may greatly hurt us without our being aware of it Therefore you ought to give the more Attention and to apply your Understanding more to understand and comprehend the Truth which I tell you of Evil than to discover the Good For if I told you the Good of all Men this would only give you some little Contentment or sensual Satisfaction which would add nothing to your Soul But by knowing the Evil as it is you may prudently beware of it that it do not touch or harm you For all these Evils which I said were introduc'd into the Church even while it was yet Holy are all covered with Appearances of Good and Piety and Reason because the Devil could never have gained so many Souls as have followed him but under this Colour or Mantle of Good And he will yet gain many by their Ignorance of these Evils or by their Unbelief of them For as long as they take Evil for Good they will still blindly follow it and Ignorance will not excuse the Sin For God having given us an Understanding to comprehend and a Spirit to discern we ought particularly to apply them to what concerns our Salvation and when the Truth is set before our Eyes and we will not open them to consider it we resist it and may look for the Condemnation of the Holy Spirit who says that Vnbelievers shall have their Portion with Sorcerers I said to her I would not be incredulous but believe the Truth But that I felt an inward Opposition when it thus overturn'd the Church in the chief Points of Belief which we owe to it in case it were the Holy Church She said Sir I believe in the Holy Church and if I had a thousand Lives I would voluntarily expose them for its Defence and would think my self happy to spend the last Drop of my Blood for such a Cause But when God makes me see clearly that She is not Holy nor that which Jesus Christ established but that She is the Whore which is spoken of in the Revelation I cannot resist so clear Truths which do not only lie secret in my Soul but God gives me also Terms and Words whereby to explain them to you that you may likwise receive the Knowledge of them for your Salvation For which I have often bless'd God who bestows on us so many particular Favours hoping he will do it also to others But I intreat you doubt not what I tell you of the Miseries into which Men are fallen For they are yet greater than I have told you But persuade your self assuredly if they were not true I would not have engag'd my self in Discourses so melancholly and disagreeable to your Sentiments It would be more pleasant to me to tell you that the Roman Church is Holy and Perfect and that those who obey and follow her are holy This would recreate both my Heart and yours and the Hearts of all who could hear it I should be very light-headed or void of Understanding to please my self with things which displease all the World and which oblige me still to hold my Peace and to conceal my self Because I know very well if they should hear me declare those Truths all the Romanists would rise up against me and even the most Pious would think they made a Sacrifice to God in killing me For they are ignorant of these Truths and are wedded to their Church as if she were Holy knowing no better because the great Darkness that is now throughout the whole World wherein the Devil has bewitch'd all Minds with Errours they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth which every one withstands even thinking they do well in it I ask'd her If I might not suspend my Belief of those things which were contrary to the Church and believe only what concern'd Vertue and the Love of God She said Sir you can never follow Good without departing from Evil nor adhere perfectly to God without abandoning that which is contrary to him Have you not remark'd in how many things this Roman Church is contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ How therefore can you adhere to her and follow Vertue and the Love of God so long as they are really contrary Jesus Christ says that We cannot serve two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other You must chuse which you love best Good can never profit you without the Knowledge of Evil because while you do not know and believe it you will insensibly fall into it yea you will often take Evil for Good For the Evil of this Church is still covered with the Sanctity of pious Reasons and Arguments And if Antichrist did not cover his Wickedness with Vertue he could gain none but the Wicked but with pious Pretexts he gains all the Good who would even make a Scruple not to follow him as you do Sir by your Demand For if you do believe and follow Vertue and the Love of God you will certainly hate all that is contrary thereunto I think I have already told you enough to let you see that the Rules the Commands and Ordinances of this Church are not conformable to those of God who when he created Man gave him full Liberty to use his Will wheras those constrain it in all Points and will not only subject it by Councils or Advices but by Force and Violence both bodily and spiritual So that as much as in them lies they destroy the Law and the Ordinances of God to establish their own Authority and to bind the Souls of Christians by so many Constraints that 't is impossible for them to satisfie them without displeasing God tho' there were no other thing but the forbidding Priests to labour and making them swear never to explain the Holy Scriptures otherwise than the ancient Fathers have done Do you not see Sir that all their Laws are nothing but political and made to maintain their State and Authority If a Prince or a King to whom you were subject did become a Tyrant would you make any Scruple to abandon him when it were in your Power to do it tho' he were the lawful Son of your King and gracious Father who had preceded him A
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
the Law of LOVING ONE GOD ONLY because we cannot love him only when we love our selves and whereas Men did not understand well the Contents of this Law Jesus Christ is come to explain it to us so particularly by all the Precepts of his Gospel that no body can be ignorant any longer how he ought to keep the Law of God and consequently work out his Salvation because this Gospel Law does precisely mark out to us all that we ought to do and to avoid So that we must not look any longer from any neither from God nor Men for other Instructions in order to our Salvation because Jesus Christ has omitted nothing nor said any thing that is superfluous but shewn us all things necessary for obtaining eternal Life Now consider Sir if you know any living this Day in the World who have entirely resign'd their Wills to that of God and who love no other thing but him If you do not know any be firmly persuaded that none within your Knowledge is in a State of Salvation And fearing lest you be deceived by this general Persuasion as many are who persuade themselves that they are resign'd to God and love none but him remark particularly if they observe the Gospel Law For we cannot observe the one without practising the other For he who has entirely resign'd his Will to that of God lives no longer to himself but God lives in him and works there all that Jesus Christ has taught seeing the same Spirit lives in one resign'd to God which lived in the Body of Jesus Christ There can never be any difference here being in both the same unchangeable God I said to her That this being supposed I had good Ground to fear that all the World was in a State of Damnation and I likewise but that I would get out of this Darkness and receive the Light that God should give me that I might follow him She said Sir you 'll be happy in doing it For otherwise it is to be feared you may perish with others because all the World goes on blindly to Perdition but the Light is now arisen in Darkness Do not reject it to love your Darkness rather than the Light but rather walk according to it while the Day doth last that is to say our short Life which is nothing but a Day in Comparison with Eternity The Night of this Day is our Death after which there is nothing more to do In whatsoever State we die we shall abide in it Therefore we ought not to let the Occasion slip that is now offered us Let not your felf be gained by Flatteries nor by false Persuasions Seek always the Truth For they who flatter us ruine us Look on all those as Flatterers who speak to you according to their sensual Inclinations and hold those for Deceivers who persuade you that you are a good Christian and that you will be saved after the Way that you live at present For there are no true Christians but those who follow and imitate the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ and there is no Salvation to be hop'd for but in keeping the Law of God You must take up with these two Things Sir if you wou'd attain to Salvation the Law of God and the Doctrine of Jesus The Holy Spirit which is now come into the World brings no new Law nor new Explications of it because Jesus Christ has sufficiently explained it He comes only to make the Law appear and the Sins that are opposite to it to the end that we may embrace the one and reject the other You have wondred sometimes that I told you so many evil Things of the Church and of spiritual Persons Believe me this was not but by the Light of the Holy Spirit that you might avoid the Evil in order to the doing well since you cannot love the one without hating the other Truth must always discern the one from the other or otherwise you will be easily deceived as all the World at present is who take Vice for Vertue and apparent for true good Therefore receive the true Light that you may judge uprightly and not according to the Appearance of Things For the Devil is so covered with Virtue and cloathed with Hypocrisie that he deceives even those of the best Dispositions There are frequently so many false Goods in the World that we do not distinguish them from the true And that we may not come to discover them he puts some Scruples in the Minds of good Men that they may not believe the Truth of the Evil and makes his Adherents teach that 't is a Sin of Detraction to discover the Faults of Priests and of those who make a Profession of Vertue that their Sins remaining secret they may deceive the more and may commit them more honourably and they say that a Man should take his own Garments to cover the sins of the Priests That you may see that this Doctrine comes from the Devil you need but mark what Jesus Christ did in such Encounters whether he covered with his Garments the Sins of the Popes Bishops and Priests who were in his time We will find that he declared them openly before all the World calling them Hypocrites Generation of Vipers wicked Sepulchres and so many other Names to the end he might declare to People their Wickedness that they might beware of them For he says beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and of those who come to you in Sheeps Cloathing and inwardly are ravening Wolves All this with many other Evils Jesus Christ spoke of the Priests of his time and now they teach that we must honour them and speak well of them tho' they live ill Does not this Doctrine oppose that of Jesus Christ and therefore it is Antichristian Nevertheless you Sir with so many others think you commit a Sin to hear the Truth of Evil. 'T is by this false Piety that the Devil takes his Advantage For their Evils being conceal'd they commit them more than if they were discovered because Shame and Humane Respect wou'd with-hold them from Sin and also the Good and Pious wou'd not be so easily deceived as they are by the good Opinion of Evil which often draws in the Good by Ignorance who are persuaded that they who have the Reputation of being good wou'd not do Evil. How many thousand have been deceived after this manner Take heed that you never be one of these but stay yourself on the living Rock which is Jesus Christ He cannot deceive nor fail Take up with his Instructions Sir and follow them You 'll be sure of your Salvation which otherwise I cannot promise you Whatever Men say they are not our Saviours For it is written Wo to the Man that put his Confidence in Man He is truly miserable who grounds his Salvation on the Words and Sentiments of Men who can give us nothing but vain Hopes founded on
their Imaginations It is not enough to trust to these weak Stays we must take another Aim and direct our Selves towards that Morning Star which appears to our Eyes that we may follow it till we have found this Holy Spirit who must teach us all things The Tenth Conference That the Time is come that Man shall receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness and what hinders them to receive him I Ask'd her How I might find the Holy Spirit For I could not meet with an Assembly of Apostles nor pray with them Forty Days that I might receive him She said Sir you shall receive the Holy Spirit without being in the Company of the Apostles For even they did not receive him in Fulness but in part only and the Promise that Jesus Christ made to send us the Holy Ghost who shall teach us all things had not its full Accomplishment For there were many things which the Apostles knew not and there were also several Faults committed by them after having receiv'd the Holy Spirit It is in these last times that the Holy Spirit comes who shall teach us all things If your Soul were wholy resign'd to the Will of God it wou'd be prepared to receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness For his time is now come Do you not even now feel some Rays of his Light by so many different things which I have told you in our so frequent Conversation Do you not see that many of these things have not been known nor discovered in former times Can you doubt that there is at present a Treasure hid in the Earth which begins to be discovered From whence otherwise shou'd these precious Stones of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ come the so fragrant Roses of true Vertue and so many new Notices which appear in our Eyes as Buds of Paradise Wou'd you have a Holy Spirit visible and carnal Men since the Apostles Days have more Understanding of spiritual things Therefore God has multiplied their Knowledge and refin'd their Understandings that they may conceive the Light of the Holy Spirit by lively Reasons and solid Truths not by material Forms and Figures which were given only for outward Signs capable of being seen by the Eyes of Flesh which did not yet perceive those things of the Spirit For the Holy Spirit not a Dove nor Wind nor Tongues of Fire but an intelligible Spirit who makes us know God and our selves and brings always along with him his twelve Fruits and his seven Gifts all which are spiritual and cannot be seen no more than their Author but by their Operations This is the Holy Spirit which you ought to desire Sir and not a visible and material one Resign your self to God and you shall certainly receive him For his Time is come He is born upon the Earth in Spirit as he was born in Flesh in the Stable of Bethlehem I said to her There were yet many Souls in the World as well as I who earnestly desired to receive the Holy Spirit She said Sir every one will say that he wou'd receive him but I know no body yet who wou'd effectually resign his Will to God's and let himself be ruled and governed by him We still wish for this and that according to our Bent and Inclinations We are sorry for Adversities We do not willingly suffer Tribulations and Crosses We complain of Wrong and Affronts done us We desire to be honour'd serv'd and lov'd and to have our Ease In one Word all our Life is a constant Tract of Self-love and yet we say we are resign'd to God and if this were true we wou'd have no longer self-will but that of God wou'd be our Rule and our Contentment as well in Troubles Adversities and Derelictions as in all sort of Prosperity and Abundance For regarding nothing but the Will of God we wou'd receive all things with Joy But as long as the one 's too sweet and the other too salt to our Taste it 's a sign we yet live to our selves and are not resign'd to God nor ready to follow his Will and so are not dispos'd to receive the Holy Spirit because our self-will hinders him For he cannot operate in a Soul which is not disengag'd from its own Will which still opposes the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit and directly hinders his Operations It 's thus that I say I know no body yet who 'll be resign'd to the Will of God except in Words but not in Deed. Indeed we wou'd do God's Will as long as 't is conformable to ours but as soon as it opposes that there 's no more Submission We give God our Will as long as all goes right according to our Desires and Wishes but as soon as the contrary falls out we take back this given Will to dispose of it our selves and thus we continue always full of self-love and yet we wou'd receive forsooth the Holy Spirit to joyn him with our Filth and Imperfections to make a very unsutable Marriage as that wou'd be of God with Sin which are two incompatible things as Heat and Cold which can never dwell together Yea truly tho' there were nothing but the Sin of self-love it is a mortal Wound against the Commandment of loving one God alone The Eleventh Conference How Man must resign himself to God I Said to her That I would very willingly resign my self to God and yield myself to be entirely governed by him and to follow all that I shall know to be his Will She said Sir this Resignation has some Exception yet and is not wholly disengag'd For if you wait till an Angel from Heaven come to make known to you what the Will of God is you 'll no ways be resign'd to him but you must take all that befalls you for his Will great or small things all comes from him without excepting any thing For if you are resign'd to him you 'll have no longer Desires of your own and will no longer seek any thing Therefore all that shall befal you shall come by his Order when you take it from his Hand you can never fail even tho' it were the Devil himself or some wicked Creature did it he 'll never permit them to hurt you but in so far as it shall be his Will 'T is true a wicked Man has his Liberty to do what Evil he pleases but God has Power also to preserve us that their Evils do not touch us Or if he permit them to touch us gives us Strength to suffer them and that with Joy and so they can't wound us For all worldly Good and Evil are for the most part but imaginary things and when our Mind is brought to take Afflictions joyfully they seem to us Contentments and no longer Afflictions This depends so strongly upon our Imagination that our Happiness and Misery seems to depend upon it If we imagine that Riches are a Burden Poverty will be a Repose
and Submission so that we need not seek for them It is only necessary that we practise this Resignation of our Will to God for accomplishing the saving Penitence which he has enjoyn'd us and for the Exercise of all sort of Vertues For as soon as God shall be Master of our Will he 'll lead it to all good so that we shall do no longer Evil even in temporal things For God will govern all with his Spirit of Righteousness Goodness and Truth which can never fail in any thing Righteousness doing good to all and evil to none Truth giving Light to discern all things and so to bring all to a good End If you resolve Sir truly to resign your self to God you shall enjoy all this Happiness but as long as you act by your own Will you 'll spoil all and shall not be saved I said to her That this Way was so streight that one would be afraid to pass through it and that it would make one afraid that he could not be saved She said This Way is only a little streight at the Beginning but as soon as one has forc'd himself to depart from his own Will 't is then so large free and pleasant that there can he nothing more agreeable For the Soul which has resign'd its Will to God lives like a Child without Care and tho' Heaven and Earth shou'd be overturned she is still in Repose and without Fear knowing well that God who governs her is able to preserve her through all She seeks no longer after any thing knowing well that her God will still provide for her She has no more Desire after any thing for she finds in God a Satiety and perfect Satisfaction She places her Hope no longer in any thing but the Promises of God In short Sir this is a Life wholly delightful and pleasant full of solid Contentment which is not founded upon the Levity of Chances or Changes of Men but upon a permanent Stability Whereas on the contrary the Life of one who is governed after his own Will is very miserable and he walks continually upon the Briars and Thorns with which it is sown So that a Soul subject to to its own Passions furnish him with a kind of Martyrdom How many Vexations and Cares are there to satisfie this Self-will which often is unsatiable The more 't is satisfied the less 't is contented How often does our Self-will throw us into irreparable Mischiefs It 's ignorant inconstant insolent hasty and enclin'd to all sort of Evil so that he who follows it is oblig'd to lead a miserable Life and to end it in an unhappy Death It seems Sir you are afraid yet of resigning your self to God as if this Resignatination were a streight Way and troublesome Life when you see by so many Truths that 't is so sweet and agreeable and on the contrary that which seems so pleasant to you is so painful and dangerous All the Difficulty that you 'll find to make this Resignation is no other thing but a Shadow which appears something and in Effect is nothing As soon as you shall turn away your Eyes from your self to look towards God this Shadow of Apprehension will vanish and you shall see it no more I said to her That I was not so much afraid of resigning my self to God For I wou'd willingly do it but that in several Recounters she had given me Occasion to doubt of my Salvation She said Sir do you love flattering Discourses more than the Truth If it be so you may retire from me For I am settled in the Truth and I have no desire to depart from it I can make no Reflection whether it pleases or displeases my Hearers but I am resolved still to observe it tho' it wou'd cost me my Life For he who forsakes the Truth forsakes God which I will never do I love rather to lose the Favour of all the Men of the World than to omit the Truth when I am oblig'd to speak it But setting aside this Obligation I can very well hold my Peace because Jesus Christ has said that Pearls should not be cast before Swine If the Truths that I have told you beget Scruple in you 't is a sign that you are not resolved to be sav'd For otherwise you wou'd greatly rejoyce to understand the Truth Those who are called Swine in the Gospel are Men who make a Dunghil of the Roses of true Vertue or of the Pearls of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Those hidden Secrets are precious Stones and he makes a Dunghil of them who says that they are imaginary or contriv'd things or Heresies All these Sentiments make a Dunghil of the Pearls which are presented to them and according to the Counsel of Jesus Christ they ought not to be told to such but to those who value them as they merit And when yor tell me that I give you occasion to doubt of your Salvation by speaking of true and solid Vertue it seems you wou'd also make a Dunghil of its Roses I have told you the Truth That no body shall be saved but he who of his free Resolution resigns his Will to God's and denys his own You need not therefore doubt of your Salvation if so be you will do this Sir but if you will not doubt confidently of your Salvation For you shall never obtain it This Doubting is good if thereby you take a Resolution to search for the means of your Conversion For the Fear of God is the Beginning of true Wisdom If you be not in Fear as to your Salvation you will presume of it and therefore will be sure of your Damnation Because he who presumes to have it uses no Endeavours to obtain it but dies in a Sin against the Holy Ghost Therefore it is a great Advantage that I have made you doubt of your Salvation since this Doubt will certainly lead you to Salvation I said to her That I desired indeed to have the Fear of God and of my Salvation but that I saw my self so far from this perfect Resignation that it seem'd to me I could never attain to it She said Sir that is nothing but a panick Fear because there is no Ground to fear what we wou'd willingly do If you have been resolved in it for so long a time past suffer not the Devil to tempt you now For there is no more Difficulty at present than the first Day you had the Will to do it Be not carried away by imaginary things which are nothing but Amusements Fix on the Reality of the thing You perceive clearly that you have a Free Will and Choice and that by this you act in all things It is by it you go from one Place to another It is it that desires to see and hear It makes you covet or pretend to Wealth Places or Honours It is it also that desires Pleasures and Prosperities It is it likewise that wou'd rule over others
and cannot suffer from any It is it that desires its Ease and Repose with many other things for our Advantage It is always our selfwill that Works in us without ceasing This being discovered there is nothing more to be done but to interdict and forbid it these Operations to the end it may let God work alone in us what it shall please him and then there will be nothing more to fear For when we shall attain to this so much desired Resignation there is nothing more to be feared For God who will rule us will give us all things Does this seem difficult to you Sir that you doubt you cannot attain to it There is nothing to do here but to cease For God does then all in us There is nothing necessary but to rest For this Resignation consists not in Actions but in Omissions The Practice of it is so sweet that there 's nothing more desirable All consists in taking care not to let our own Will act And so often as we perceive that it is enclin'd to any thing to Bridle it and to say to it Cease for God only ought to move thee Is not this a sweet Exercise upon which notwithstanding our Salvation depends For if it depended upon wearing Sackcloth taking Discipline to our selves Fasting Watching or other troublesome things we wou'd have ground to say and to fear that we cou'd not attain to it but when we must only resign our Will to God no body can excuse himself without Hazard of perishing The Twelfth Conference Of discerning the Motions of God from those of Nature wich must be done by Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are three divine Qualities according to which all our Motions and all our Actions ought be regulated with great Care I Ask'd her how I might know when my own Will acted that I might make it cease She said Sir as often as it is led to any thing that is evil or very unprofitable it is certainly always our self-will Because God cannot encline it to such things And when we seek our Honour Pleasure or Profit this also proceeds from our self-will For God will never give any such Desires Indeed he permits them sometimes to befal us but he will never make us seek or desire them Therefore if we have a serious Application of Spirit we will remark presently if it be God or our self-will that acts in us For God can never move it but to good or necessary things and will never make our Will act but what shall be for his Glory or for the saving Good of our Neighbour Nothing else can come from God but from our self-will which is wholly deprav'd and ought never to do any thing for it self for it spoils all It were better to make it cease without any more ado than to let it act alone and without God Because we presume often that we have done many good Works which will be found to be evil and condemned by God because our selfwill was corrupted from the Beginning of the World in Adam and is yet more corrupted by our own actual Sins so that it is not capable of moving it self but to Evil and not at all to Good This may be very easily observed For we feel always in our selves some Inclination to do Evil And if it were not restrain'd or bridled by Reason or Vertue we wou'd do nothing without Sin or which did not â—avour of its Corruption For if we speak it will be still with an Inclination to augment what is for our Liking or Advantage or to excuse our Faults so that naturally we wou'd never abide in the streight Truth And if we converse or do Business with our Neighbour it will be still with a Spirit of Covetousness either of Wealth Honour or Pleasure so that all our own Bents and Inclinations are carried always to Evil unless we be habituated by Vertue or good Breeding not to follow Lying Rapine or Deceit nor the Spirit of Covetousness I ask'd her By what means I might discover if it be God that moves my Will in all my daily Actions She said Sir there are certain Marks whereby to know when these Motions come from God because they are always accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth which Qualities are still inseparable from God's Spirit who never changes but abides always righteous good and true and therefore cannot move to any Actions Words or Thoughts but those which are accompanied with these three Conditions or Qualities Therefore when we feel our selves moved to undertake any thing whatsoever we must always bend our Mind to remark our Undertaking ' ere we begin it and see if it respect the Glory of God or the saving Good of our Neighbour And if so we may persue our Undertaking but by means that are just good and true For else we may be yet mistaken thinking that it was for the Glory of God and the Good of our Neighbour when it was only our own Will and Inclination For a Motion that comes from God is still accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth and if we must lye or be unjust or hurt our Neighbour that we may attain to our Pretensions however they may be good in themselves yet nevertheless they are not of God That we may follow the Motions of God we must always observe this Rule to remark in all our Actions whether small or great if they are accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth And if all these together are not to be found in them we must still reject them as evil things and produc'd by our self-will For God will never move to any thing how small soever it be if it be not just good and true This is the true Touch-stone whereby to discover when Motions come from God We need not consult Oracles but examine well if our Works be disinteressed from all our own Advantages and if they be just good and true I ask'd her If my self-will might not mingle with the Divine Motions She said Yes Sir our self-will does very readily mingle with the Motions from God By this many Saints have committed great Faults This falls out when we arenot wholly disengaged from our selves and Nature does yet live with Grace Notwithstanding it is easie to discover it when we are not precipitate in any thing and when we take time to examine narrowly what we do to see if it be just and good and true Then there 's nothing to be fear'd whether our own will mingle there or not It 's God always is just good and true Our Nature being transform'd in him does the same Functions of Righteousness Goodness and Truth Therefore St. Paul said It is no longer I that live but Jesus Christ lives in me because the Soul which is resigned to God does so habituate it self to his Will that it always becomes one and the same thing with it so that its own Will being purged from it self moves no longer but
you would hinder me from hearing God perfectly It is true you do me no hurt when you look upon my Actions as Humane but you cannot profit by them It were much better that you sought God purely and leave me alone to enjoy him more particularly Because the least Unprofitableness does always darken the Soul I have spoken to you of many different Things which may give you Light into the Secrets of God and your own Salvation and particular Perfection There remains only to put them in Practice Read the Holy Scriptures they will confirm you in all that I have told you and give Credit to nothing but the Truth of the Gospel be he who he will that speaks to you For all Men are Lyars And if I shou'd say things contrary to the Gospel do not believe me For you ought not to believe any thing because I say it to you but only because it is really true And if you knew me you should also know God because he is one and the same Spirit in all things So far as you shall discern Righteousness Goodness and Truth in any Person so far shall you discern God living in them and no farther So that it 's never good to follow Persons for themselves but to follow the Righteousness Goodness and Truth which you shall discover to abide in them Therefore it 's not needful to have their bodily Presence it 's enough to accompany them with Spirit and Will in their Righteousness I said to her That she ought not to deprive me of her Company since it gave me so much Light and good Purposes and that I heard her Discourses as proceeding from the Holy Spirit but that I had not as yet strength enough to put them in Practice that I would be constrained to accompany some other Person because I could not stay alone She said Sir if you do this you are undone For now you 'll meet with no body in the World that possesses these three Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth and consequently you seek in vain among Men what you will certainly find with God from whom Men will divert you and fill your Mind with their own Idea's and Imaginations enticing you to follow them Tho' they are not in the Truth yet they think they are and willingly draw over every one to their Errours while they even believe they are doing well Be on your Guard Sir for we are fallen into the dangerous Times foretold by Jesus Christ wherein Many false Prophets shall arise and shall deceive many Obey these Warnings and let not your self be deceived For many come in the Name of Jesus Christ who are in League with Satan and do deceive many Remember still that we live now in the Reign of Antichrist and that God at his Coming finds no more Faith in Israel that is among his People For all have denied him Faith consists in the Belief of the Promises and Word of God Who is there now a-days that hears his Word and acts according to it The Christians are the People of God nevertheless none of them has Faith For if they did believe in one only God they wou'd not make so many Idols that each one has his particular Idol One makes an Idol of his Wealth another of his Honour another of his Wisdom and so of all other things which they adore and esteem So that none has any longer Faith to believe that there is but one only true God whom we ought to worship nor yet the other things which God taught us by his holy Prophets his Apostles and Jesus Christ himself The Church has no longer Faith to believe that all these things must be practised in order to Salvation These seem to be but Stories of the ancient Times and that it 's not necessary now to put them in Practice So that the word is now fulfilled which says that when the Lord shall come he shall not find Faith in Israel He is come and he finds no Faith in his People Therefore take good heed Sir of applying to any body because there is no Faith now among Christians but many Deceivers and Seducers Continue rather alone or follow me yet a little The Fourteenth Conference That the Habit does not make the Monk and that Religions of themselves make none holy Of the Corruption of them and of the Church I Asked her How it was possible that there should be no longer Faith in Israel and yet so great a Number profess the true Faith and in particular so many devote themselves to God in Cloysters and Monasteries that they may the better observe the Word of God and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ She said It 's true Sir a great many profess to be Christians but notwithstanding they are not so While you conversed in the World did you observe any that followed the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that denied himself that chose the last Place or the least when he might have a better and so many other things taught and observed by Jesus Christ I know indeed you will answer me No And I ask you if there can be other Christians than those which follow his Doctrine They call none a Calvinist but he who follows the Doctrine of Calvin nor a Lutheran but he who follows the Doctrine of Luther And why wou'd they reckon those to be Christians who don 't follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ They bear the Title falsly and they lye to the Holy Ghost For they are not Christians before God if they do not observe the Doctrine of the Gospel They but flatter themselves to believe it and deceive themselves to doubt it Do you need any other Evidence Sir than your own Understanding which sees and comprehends clearly enough that these who are now called Christians do not follow Jesus Christ neither in his Doctrine nor in his Works and that they are not Christians but in Word and in Picture having nothing of true Christianity neither following Christ at a distance nor near at hand On the contrary their Lives and Manners are directly opposite to the Life and Manners which Jesus Christ laid before us for an Example when he lived upon Earth Nevertheless you ask me if it be possible to believe that there is no longer Faith in Israel And I ask How is it possible to believe that there are yet Christians upon Earth I said to her That they who retire from the World to become Religious or enter into Cloysters ought precisely to follow Jesus Christ since they make solemn and particular Vows She said Sir do you not see that these Vows are not well observ'd They vow Chastity Poverty and Obedience Remark if this be observed in the Cloysters or among the Monks These are only outward things which seem as little obligatory as Baptism seems For neither the one nor the other is observed and after the outward Ceremonies are performed they do not think any longer on the Promises they 've
are not to be found among the Votaries in Cloysters On the contrary we see they are rather guilty of six Sins against the same Holy Spirit which are so ordinary in these Votaries that it may be said they are inseparable from them For we find in them always a Presumption of being saved without good Works because being full of self-love they can never be good They oppose also the known Truth because the real Truth reproves them Therefore they will not hearken to it chusing rather to perish in their Darkness and to lay the Stress of their Salvation upon the Opinion or Discourse of Men. So that we need not enter into Monasteries to discover clearly that they are not become Saints by their Vows and the Constraint of their Rules nor yet have quitted all Commerce with Men since we see they desire as much their Conversation as secular Persons do And what will it serve for the Perfection of Souls to have their Wills bound by Vows and even their Bodies shut fast up when the Spirit is yet curious to know what passes in the World as the Practice is in the enclosed Cloysters For if one would learn all sort of News he may go into one of their Parlours and if our Will were bound to God when it is bound to the Will of Men there wou'd not be such Contradictions in the Cloysters where as many Persons as there are there are almost as many contrary Wills All this does sufficiently make appear that the Rules and Vows do not make the Person holy or depending upon the Will of God On the contrary they rather estrange him from it For as soon as they have fulfill'd their Obedience to their Superiour they believe they have wholly satisfied God whereas very often they offend him for these Superiours are often estranged from the Spirit of God neither is it to be accounted a great Vertue that we acquiesce in the Will of some Person whom we love This is purely natural and not from the Holy Spirit I said to her That we have sometimes heard that Miracles have been wrought by this Obedience to Men. She said Sir these cannot have been true Miracles if they had their Rise from Obedience to Men. There are so many things to be distinguished in the matter of Miracles that the Devil may easily work such as the World wou'd admire And I believe he has already deceived many pious Persons by false Miracles For he can dazle Mens Spirits and make them take nothing for something He can also trouble the Humours of the Body and cause Diseases which he can afterwards remove because it is done by Charms and by the same Charms it may be undone again Besides that he has so many who are bound to him by precise Covenant who do his Will by whom he can work many Malefices which might seem real Miracles tho' they be only all Tricks of the Devil Therefore I will not believe that those Stories which they tell us of Miracles fallen out by this Obedience to Men are true nevertheless I do not reject the Approbation that God has sometimes given of the Submission rendered to his Servants who possess his Spirit and spread it by teaching it to others in obeying of whom they obey God himself because they are not moved but by him So that those who obey them do indirectly obey God In this manner I believe that God may work true Miracles to confirm that it was his true Spirit which dwelt in these Superiours As he wrought Miracles to confirm that the Apostles did possess his Spirit because he did not remain in the Flesh to converse with Men and teach them He taught them by his Servants Therefore he said He that hears you hears me But he says not this to all bodily Superiours as it is now taken because it is to be feared that many of these do directly follow the Devil's Will and consequently teach others to do the same at least indirectly By which we may fear the Hazard there is in this Submission to Men and may learn also the Deceit there is in what they teach Christians now and particularly those who wou'd serve God in Perfection I said to her That the Vows were approved by the Church as a perfect thing and that all the World did look on them as good things She said And for my part Sir I look upon them as evil things for all Persons For he who resolves to be resign'd to God with all his Heart has no need to be constrain'd to this by Men because the Love he bears him is still strong enough to tie him to God without needing that Men shou'd interpose in it and he who has not this resolute Will of resigning himself to be governed by God cannot make Vows in any Order except in Hypocrisie Because Vows cannot constrain his Will but his Body and when the Body is constrain'd to do good against the Desire of the Will he is then the real Martyr of the Devil because he suffers much and merits nothing And thus Vows cannot be good neither for the Wicked nor yet for the Good who if they are so truly have no need to be forc'd to do good by the Constraint of Men if these Holy Founders have instituted Vows which I do not believe this must have been only out of humane Respect or Persuasion or for want of divine Light and if the Church approves them it is to keep these Persons in a precise Dependence upon her from which if these Vows were laid aside many would deliver themselves which is to be desired and it were far better that all these Persons in Vows had their Liberty than to continue cloyster'd to the Damnation of their own Souls and the deceiving of others who look upon those under Vows as Saints submitting to their Council and Government tho' very often they are governed by the Devil and he by their Means gains the most Pious who could not be gain'd any other way but by this Cover of Religion which all the World esteems to be good and holy By this the Devil gets into the Throne of God that he may deceive by false Appearances If he had remain'd among the Turks Jews or Heathens he could not have become Antichrist seeing one cannot shock an Enemy at a distance unless he approach him So the Devil could not stock the Doctrine of Jesus Christ if he had not insinuated into the Church it self and among those in it who make a Profession of Vertue as the Monks and Religious Persons and he having slipt in among these draws all the World after him and yet they do not discover him neither dare they believe that he dwells in these Persons who in Appearance and in the Esteem of all the World are holy because he has on his side the 〈…〉 earned I said to her That they who had enter'd upon a vertuous Course of Life went into the Cloysters that they might learn it better
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
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
Infallible and to use his Almighty Power As also to receive Honour appertains to God only and he who seeks and desires it is a Robber and receives what does not belong to him Moreover if you refer yourself in all things to the Church she will oblige you to things against God and your Conscience and make you to acknowledge that some Saints are Hereticks as if the knew of me she wou'd condemn me for such tho' I act only by the Holy Spirit and all the Books that handle the pure Truth are condemned and forbidden by this Church There is no longer any thing but Lying that triumphs in her For she even teaches that we may have the Pardon of our Sins without a precise Love of God which overturns all the Law and the Prophets For they are established and have spoken for no other End but to teach this Love which Man owes to God And now there are Glosses and Arguments found out to disguise this Love and to give it the Mantle of self-love with which they promise us Salvation that they may make us perish insensibly without knowing it For all they who do not precisely love God go to the Devil Say the Church what it please it cannot change the Ordinance that God made from the Beginning of the World I see nothing there but Tricks and Distractions For instead of saying to us what Jesus Christ said to the Young Man in the Gospel If thou wouldest enter into the Kingdom of Heaven keep my Commandments For the obtaining of this Kingdom she teaches us a thousand Fopperies which Jesus Christ never taught us by Indulgencies Confraternities Cords Girdles or Scapularies and Devotions to Images All this to me seems so far from the Spirit of Christianity that I am pain'd at the Heart when I think on 't I believe all these things serve only to dazle Mens Spirits that they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth and to amuse us as they do the Children with Rattles to charm our Miseries I said to her I would fain discover where the Holy Spirit was that I might follow him She said Sir he is now come in the World You shall know him by Truth Righteousness and Goodness For he is the same with God There are not in God three Persons as People imagine because all that we can say of God is only that he is perfect Love all-just all-good and all-true Behold Sir all that we can know of God in this present Life and when we are told that there are three Persons in God it is to be understood that there are three Powers that Love is his Essence that his Word communicates this Love and that his Understanding makes Man to comprehend it This Love being the Essence of God never beginning and also will never end which Love was communicated to Man from the Creation But seeing he understood it not sufficiently God made his Word to become Flesh that it might be the better understood by an Organ sutable to our Senses Jesus Christ therefore is no other thing but the Word which communicates to Man this Love that is in God and the Holy Spirit is the Wisdom ' that gives the Understanding to comprehend this Love Behold the three Persons that must be known in God these are the LOVE the WORD that declares this Love and the VNDERSTANDING that comprehends it Now the Essence of Love was from all Eterniry But Men cou'd not know it but since the Creation and even then imperfectly Therefore the Goodness of God found out the Means to make it known by this humane Body which he took for this end when he came to treat familiarly with Men he becoming Man to make them see manifestly how much he lov'd them And not being yet satisfied with this to communicate this Love so sensibly he moreover sends his Holy Spirit to teach them all things You shall know him Sir by the principal Qualities of God which are Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are always inseparable from the Spirit of God Remark well if what is told you be still accompanied with these three Qualities I ask'd her If the Holy Spirit comes into the World in Flesh as Jesus Christ did at his Birth She said No Sir there is no need of his coming in the Flesh to communicate himself to Men as Jesus Christ did because he comes not to shew them any new thing for working out their Salvation Jesus Christ having sufficiently taught them all things tho' Men have not comprehended it and now the Holy Spirit comes to give unto the Mind the Understanding of the same things which Jesus Christ taught while he was on Earth Even as Jesus Christ came not to destroy the Law of God but to perfect it so the Holy Spirit comes not now to destroy the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but to perfect it and to give the perfect Understanding of it to all those who will receive it 'T is not Needful that for this end he take a Humane Body because he brings no new Words but new Notices that may be conceived by Mens Spirits These Notices being spiritual have no need of a natural Body that they may be communicated to the Spirits of Men. If you wou'd receive him Sir you must become a Child and submit your self wholly to God and then you will find the Effects But never let your self be deceived by false Appearances For there are now many false Prophets that come in God's Name and are of the Synagogue of Satan as I told you formerly Try always if they who speak to you do possess these three Qualities of God Thereby you shall assuredly discover them For if you let your self be amused with good Words or even by the Gifts of Prophesies or Miracles the Devil can counterfeit enough to deceive you Reject also all those who praise or flatter you Because the Devil does ordinarily use these Means to deceive those whom he desires to gain to himself The Spirit of God is always firm and true full of Righteousness and Goodness There is no need that he make himself visible to the Eyes of the Flesh he shall be sufficiently felt by the Sentiments of the Soul and the Eyes of the Spirit He shall illuminate all Flesh and enlighten the Spirits of all those who will hear and follow him But there must be an humble Heart and a Spirit entirely yielded up to God The Sixteenth Conference How we must beware of false Christs and false Prophets which seduce all the World and are so much followed at present How to discern true Prophets from the false and that it would be to no purpose at present to aim at the Conversion of Christians by preaching the Truth to them I Ask'd her How it was possible to beware of these false Prophets since there were so many of them and that they were disguised with Vertue and Holiness She said
Be upon your Guard Sir For it is in this Age that we ought to be sober and watch continually because the Devil goes about us on design to devour and destroy us If we have not Faith to believe all that Jesus Christ has foretold us we could not resist him because he is so disguised with Sanctity and cover'd with Hypocrisie that the most Pious will blindly believe and follow him Resist him strongly Sir because of the warning that Jesus Christ so often gave us to beware of false Christs and false Prophets that they will seduce and deceive many It is not as to Turks Heathens or Hereticks that Jesus Christ bids us be so much upon our Guard but false Christians who sit in the Throne of God He who has not Faith to believe that this is the time now wherein the Abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary cannot resist the Devil because he resists the known Truth and so commits a Sin against the Holy Ghost For this Abomination is so true and manifest that no body can be ignorant of it but they who are obstinate in Sin and will die without Penitence blindly presuming of their Salvation without desiring to discover the Truth which is now set before their Eyes The Holy Spirit who is now come to bring into the World the Light of Truth clearly discovers all things and shall make manifest the Lyes and Defects of those who are believed to be the Church if the People will only give ear to the Truth and not continue obstinately in the Persuasions which they blindly received For such shall be destroyed with Sorcerers not that they shall commit the same Sins with those Sorcerers which poison others but because of their Unbelief they shall persist to believe and follow these false Prophets who shall lead them into the Depth of their own Miseries and this by the just Judgment of God because they loved the Darkness more than the Truth which God sends so liberally for enlightning the World and those who will not receive it resist the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot be forgiven neither in this World nor in the other and consequently they shall be obliged to continue with the Sorcerers whom they wou'd not leave in this Life reckoning themselves to be more holy than the Holy Spirit For they wou'd not believe the Truth of the Evil hid under a Colour of Vertue and Sanctity and resisted the Truth as an evil thing I ask'd her How I might avoid these false Bretheren with whom I must daily converse and if I ought to have an ill Opinion of all She said Sir trust no body unless you see clearly that the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God lives in them or at least that in the whole Course of their Actions they strive to attain to these three Vertues For otherwise you will be easily deceived because you are of easie Belief You shall think you treat with a Servant of God when you shall be treating with a Sorcerer There are so many of them thro' all the World that they make up more than three parts of it and the most Wicked have the Appearance of Vertue and Holiness and by this Hypocrisie they deceive good Men who wou'd scruple to have an ill Opinion of their Neighbour You must not be of the Opinion that all your Friends are Sorcerers thereby to hate and condemn them but you must distrust every one that you may not be deceiv'd by them not to shock them thro' Malice but to beware of them thro' Prudence till you know assuredly that they strive for these three Vertues of God because the Devil can never possess them but in Appearance and 't is easie to discover when they are false For the Qualities of the Devil are Lying Inconstancy Hypocrisie and those who are of the Devil deal usually in Lyes and are inconstant and changeable disguised and dissembled hating the Light fearing lest their Works shou'd be known and made manifest He who is of the Devil is always haughty and proud and affects Honour and will not willingly yield to any body On the contrary he who is of God or seeks him has ordinarily these Qualities he is true sincere and single in Heart and endeavours to conform him self to the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ and neither seeks nor fears nor hopes for any thing without him All these Marks Sir will make you easily discern with what Spirit those are led with whom you must converse that you may not let your self be advised by any erroneous Spirits who are now so numerous and in the highest Places and Dignities Because the Devil being so powerful he still prefers his own to Honours and Offices that by these Means he may gain the more Followers Therefore I advised you heretofore to abandon all that you may not continue in so great Perils as there are now in conversing with Men. I said to her That I had a long time agoe quitted the Conversation of worldly and evil Men but as for those who seem'd to me to be good Men I had never a hard Thought of them and I could hardly believe that they belonged to the Devil She said If none but Worldlings and wicked Men cou'd deceive us Jesus Christ wou'd not have so often said Beware of those who come to you in my Name and deceive many yeae even if it were possible the very Elect. These Words make appear sufficiently that it is not Worldlings and wicked Men of whom Jesus Christ says so often Be not deceived because all good Men do abhor these Worldlings and wicked Men They are therefore out of Hazard of being deceived by them But these devout Persons or who wear Religious Habits being nevertheless in the Devil's Service may deceive many under these false Appearances It is with just Reason that Jesus Christ calls our Times dangerous wherein the Dangers are so cover'd and disguis'd with great Advantages that the one can scarcely be discerned from the other We will esteem it a great Happiness to have some Friend a Priest or a Religious Person or plac'd in some Dignity who being a Man of Honour and Learning will give us his Advice and Counsel both as to our spiritual and temporal Good Nevertheless this Person shall sometimes be engaged to the Devil to do all the Mischief he can Is not this a very dangerous thing For we take their Counsel as if it came from God himself and it comes directly from the Devil who makes us follow his Will under the Pretence of its being the Will of God Was it not needful Sir that Jesus Christ shou'd so often and so precisely warn us to take heed of these Dangers to which no Perils neither from the Wicked nor from visible Devils are to be compar'd because all good Men will always resist them But these false Bretheren who come in Christ's Name wou'd deceive the very Elect Therefore Sir trust no
body tho' they shou'd say I am Christ For Christ is not here and there but only in the Doctrine that he left us by his Word He who believes any other thing is deceived I said to her That if this were true many Souls would be deceived because all they who profess to serve God do follow the Counsel and Direction of some Man and if he be of those who belong to the Devil they may deliver many Souls to Satan She said Sir this is lamentable in our Days wherein they have introduc'd these Directions of Men by which so many are led to Damnation even tho they were not directed by some Sorcerer they are at least turned away from God to adhere to Men. This is a great Hindrance to Vertue and the Salvation of Souls For as long as we adhere to the Creatures we shall never find God The one must go out before the other enter and these Guides instead of leading Souls to God do withdraw them from him even tho' they were good Men because God is jealous and will not suffer a Rival nor our Hearts to be separated or divided If so many Souls be engag'd to the Devil by these Directions it is because they chose rather to be lov'd by Men than God This gives the Devil Power to gain them by the Means of these Directors who are much more lov'd and follow'd than God is For he is often forgotten that they may remember these Men. Wives esteem them more than their Husbands Daughters more than Father and Mother and Men take more of their Counsel than that of Jesus Christ Thus every one furnishes Matter for the Devil to be deceiv'd by him It is by this Door he enters to make himself universal Emperour of the whole World He had gain'd many before the Coming of Jesus Christ but since he slipt into the Church by these Directions he possesses all the Wicked with their own Will and the Good indirectly by the Conduct of his Adherents whom he has introduc'd into the Church For Jesus Christ did never establish such Directions in his Church nor yet his Apostles nor their Disciples If this had been an Institution of the Holy Spirit it wouâ—d have been observ'd by the Primitive Christians who had more Zeal to gain Souls to God than these new Directors have For they rather draw them to themselves than lead them to God This often makes the Guides and those who are led by them to perish and go both together to the Devil I ask'd her By what Means I might avoid the Seduction of these false Prophets since they had the chief Ranks in the Church how I might discover them from the true ones If the one be Priests and Religious Persons as well as the other She said It will be very hard for to discern them unless you read diligently the ancient Prophets There you will find how the true and how the false Prophets have spoken For both the one and the other are this Day guided by the same Spirits The holy Prophets were and still will be led by the Holy Spirit and the false ones were and still will be led and directed by the Devil as well at present as under the old Law There is only this difference of times that then there were many holy Prophets and now there are few or none because the Number of the False is so encreast that they have almost swallowed up the Good And as God is not visible by the Eyes of the Body neither is the Devil visible after that Manner both being invisible Spirits who nevertheless render themselves visible by their Operations For he who is guided by God will still speak o the Truth without regarding whether it please or displease Men On the contrary he who is led by the Devil will still speak as Men are willing to hear Remark well Sir in the holy Scripture you will find that all the false Prophets did then always tell good News and promised to every one Peace Prosperity and Assurance whereby they deceived all the World This is even practised at present For if you take notice of all these Priests and Religious Persons you shall hear them always promising Peace and Safety to every one and that even in temporal Affairs whether as to the State or as to particular Persons You hear them always telling good News and promising that all shall go well So that if you remark the Discourses of these false Prophets of the old Law and the Preachers and Confessors at present you shall hear them all speak almost the same Language For the most Pious now-a-days study to please Men and to tell them things agreeable to their Senses and hereby they destroy all the World For if they were in the Spirit of God they wou'd tell the Truth and wou'd preach to all the World that the Abomination is in the Sanctuary and that it is high time to turn to God That the Ax is laid to the Root to hew down the Tree and to break down that great Statue of the Church which Sin has rendered abominable in the sight of God and also that the Life of Christians is very far from true Christianity and that the best of them live in a Presumption of their Salvation and in other Sins against the Holy Ghost Which is most true But instead of doing this they praise and exalt the Church as if she were holy and they persuade People that they are Christians when they are baptized and tho' they do not at all live according to the Rules of true Christianity that yet nevertheless they shall be saved In which they deceive and seduce them For there are no true Christians but they who observe the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and no body can be saved but he who keeps the Commandments of God the first of which is to love God with all our Heart and our Neighbour as our selves which no body does Nevertheless all these false Prophets tell the People that they shall assuredly be saved and that all shall go well with them Is not this a sure Mark to discern false Prophets from the true because the False flatter us always for our Ruin and the True reprove us for our Salvation He that wou'd deliver himself from being deceived must diligently examine whether these Church-men speak to us according as they are willing to hear or if they truly reprove what is blame-worthy of which sort we shall find so very few that almost none will speak the Truth when it is displeasing to People especially to those who are in Places and Dignities For this cause our Times are justly called perilous Times since the Evil is so masqu'd with Vertue For if the Evil were manifest there wou'd be no danger because all good Men wou'd avoid it and so wou'd put themselves out of Hazard of being deceived whereas when it is covered over with Piety and Vertue
they think sometimes they wou'd do evil if they shou'd look on it as evil Therefore Jesus Christ has great Reason to say to us so often Beware of false Prophets that come in my Name and be not deceived by them and also to tell us that we must get out of Judaea that is out of the Church when we shall see the Abomination of Desolation For this Cause I think Sir it is now time to flee I ask'd her If it would not be better to abide in the Church and endeavour to make others like my self see the Deceit and Dangers in which they live than by flying out of her to abandon them to these Perils She said If you could illuminate them and make them see the Truth without destroying your self it would be better to remain in her tho' it shou'd cost your Life but there is no Appearance of prevailing with any because they are so obstinate in their Sins which they will not know For if you shou'd tell any benefic'd Person in the Church that he is not a true Christian and that the Church has fallen away and become more Pharisaical than ever the true Pharisees were they wou'd not believe you but persecute you and your best Friends the most Pious of them wou'd believe you were become an Heretick and that you wou'd also pervert them Because the Darkness is so great that they take Lies for Truth without perceiving it and they shou'd esteem that to be evil which were most good Therefore you wou'd do others no good and you wou'd do evil to your self and draw upon your self many Persecutions and bring your self in hazard of falling from the streight Truth thro' an Infatuation of Spirit with which the Devil directs every one and hinders them from knowing or discovering the Truth Therefore Jesus Christ said very well that we ought not to give Roses to Swine nor Childrens Bread to Dogs The Swine are Persons who wou'd make a Dunghil of the most fragrant Vertues and Dogs are they who wou'd tear the Truth by Reproaches and Calumnies It wou'd not therefore be adviseable at this time to remain in the Church when Jesus Christ advised to depart and flee out of her For there you shall not find Children who will receive the Word of God which is the Bread of our Soul but Masters and Mistresses who believe they are more wise and more just than the Holy Spirit I said to her That it seemed to me we were wanting in Charity when we minded only our own Salvation and that it was grievous also to follow God without any other Company She said Sir you will not act against Charity by withdrawing from Christians now because they are obstinate in their Courses to which they are habituated and in which they will die without Repentance and therefore it will avail nothing to preach to them And the Holy Spirit tells us somewhere that we must leave off to point out and speak that which does not profit and that the God of Peace will very shortly bruise Satan under our Feet I understand hereby that it is no longer seasonable to represent the Truth to Christians now because they will resist and quarrel the Truth even when we wou'd make it known to them It is to them we ought not to point out the Finger nor to speak because no Words how true soever will profit them any thing Yet for all this you shall not remain all alone in following God but a great many will follow him with you but you must go among the Jews where many will be converted and receive the Truth and will flee from the Spirit of Errour in which they have been detained for so long a time For of God's People they became his Enemies For this cause they were scattered and divided But by this Coming of the Holy Spirit they shall recover the Light and shall re-enter into the Sheep-fold of Jesus Christ and shall be his People and the Members of his true Church And because these are only guilty of the Sin against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven them whereas those Christians will sin now against the Holy Ghost Therefore they shall not be forgiven in this World nor in the other You need not then amuse your self any more about this Matter I have made Trials enough having accosted the Persons most renowned for Vertue among the Christians and I found not so much as one of them capable of receiving the Truth they are so pre-occupied with their Roman Church their Maxims and seeming Vertues that it may be said of them that as Jannes and Jambres resisted the Truth even so Christians do resist it in the same manner You are the first who has heard me tell the Truth For till now I cou'd not explain it to any body This did often trouble me and made me also resolve to quit the Conversation of all Men and travel so long till I shou'd find some one to whom I might declare the Truth Because FOR THIS I AM BORN I said to her That therefore she was obliged to declare the Truth to many since she was born for this end and she knew those who were capable to receive it She said Sir it is not my Business to enquire for Men because my Life consists in my Recollection from whence the Conversation of Men would withdraw me For I know by Experience that all Creatures are a Hindrance to me and loss of time I love rather to remain alone But if you will transmit to others the Truth which I have communicated to you you are free to do it or rather obliged to it Because God having permitted you to rencounter me and given me time and Place to tell you so many diverse things I shall believe he will require of you that you impart them to others But you must consider well to whom because every one is not capable of so great things and if you address to some that are in Covenant with the Devil of which there are so many at present they will use you hardly and consult with all these Followers of Satan to oppose and to stifle these Truths in their Cradle Therefore in this you must use the Wisdom of the Serpent and beware of Men For they will deliver you up to Governours and will persecute you or kill you because of the Truth which is God This bad Usage foretold by Jesus Christ will in this Age have its full Accomplishment This in the Beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ was but fulfilled in part because the Apostles only and some few others suffered for the Truth but at present many shall be put to death for this Truth The Father shall rise up against the Son and he against the Father and they shall deliver up one another to the Rulers to be put to Death because the Hour is come and the Power of Darkness which has so seiz'd
upon all the Earth that they who shall kill you for the Truth shall think they do God Service For Satan's Power is so great and universal that it has almost blinded all Men and their Spirits being infatuated they take that which is false to be real and esteem Lyes more than the Truth And all this is so well masqu'd with Vertue and Sanctity that even the best Men will think they do offer Sacrifice to God when they kill you Therefore take heed always Sir that you give not the Children's Bread to Dogs nor cast Pearl before Swine but try well before you speak to any if he hunger and thirst after Righteousness or some other of the eight Beatitudes which are the Marks that Jesus Christ gave whereby to discover those who shall be bless'd and shall receive the Spirit of Truth But as soon as you shall meet with Opposition to the Truth leave off to tell it and never move in that which will avail nothing For God has promised that he will shortly bruise Satan under your Feet Yet a little while the Devil has his Empire which encreases greatly and so soon as it shall be at an end God will bruise him under the Feet of his faithful Servants who shall triumph over all the Powers of Hell But they must yet suffer a little and continue faithful unto death The Seventeenth Conference That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected I Ask'd her If I would run the Risque of these Dangers by going among the Jews since according to her saying they were more disposed to receive the Truth She said Yes Sir there is Hazard there as well as elsewhere because the Devil has those who are in Covenant with him in every Place in every State in every Sect and under every Law For he has run to and fro thro' all the Earth and hath devoured many as well among the Jews as among others But I except the Good among the Jews and I know certainly that these are more disposed to receive the Truth than any others because they sin thro' Ignorance For they never knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and do not yet know it For they look for this Son of God in Glory and know not that he shall be the same who came already among them in Dishonour As soon as they shall discover this Truth they shall return from their Exile and re-enter into the Promise made to Abraham and shall return to be God's People in Exclusion of the Christians who having abused so many Privileges shall be cut off and the Jews settled again on their Ruins I ask'd her Wherefore the Christians could not be reformed that they might become the People of God as well as the Jews Converted to take away their Crown She said Sir the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Truth than the Christians are For these sin out of pure Malicé and have forsaken God and his Laws This the Jews have not done They do yet fear and know God and the Christians do neither For they preach publickly that to obtain the Pardon of our Sins we are not obliged to love God that to save us from going to Hell it is enough to have self-love that this Fear of their Damnation is capable of procuring them the Pardon of their Sins and Salvation and they utter a thousand other Blasphemies against God in every thing This they can't do thro' Ignorance because besides the Law of God which they have received as well as the Jews They have moreover the Law of the Gospel and the Doctrine of the Apostles which was left them in Writing for an everlasting Memorial which all Christians ought still to follow The Christians have received Faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he came into the World where he suffered Pains Labours Poverty and Contempt was persecuted imprisoned scourged buffetted and at last put to Death on a Cross as a Malefactor and all this to give an Example to Christians that by following his Steps they might enter into his Glory They do believe all these things and also that the same Son of God is really in the Sacrament of the Altar with a great many other things contain'd in the Creed Nevertheless against their Belief they live directly contrary to what Jesus Christ taught them and what they believe by the Command of God If the Jews believed this that Jesus Christ is the Son of God they would mourn for the Sins which they committed against him and would follow his Example which shall very shortly come to pass whereas the Christians shall die obstinate in their Sins without Repentance By which you may judge Sir that the Jews are much more disposed to receive the Spirit of Truth so soon as it should be communicated to them than the Christians who oppose the known Truth They know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is in the Sacrament of the Altar and they shew him less Respect than a Servant would do to the meanest Master and eat and swallow him as a Piece of Bread How would you have these Persons to be reformed since they would reform all the World looking on themselves as Gods of the Earth and Children of the true God while they are led by the Devil This they will not acknowledge chusing rather to perish in their Darkness than to give ear to the Truth whereas those Jews would gladly hear what will enlighten them and would be bettered by knowing the Truth For many good Spirits among them aspire after it hungring and thirsting after Righteousness which when they see and know they will immediately embrace it because nothing but Ignorance hinders them from resigning themselves wholly to God Whereas the Christians thro' pure Obstinacy in their Sins will not do it So that if I should go to the College of Cardinals at Rome and tell them that I come from God to advertise them that they are not true Christians and that Jesus Christ taught another way of living than what they observe and that to be saved we must of Necessity follow Jesus they would presently seize on me as a Criminal and put me to death if I would not retract my Words tho' they knew well enough they were true even tho' they should evidently perceive that I had the holy Spirit they would oppose this Truth that they might maintain their Errours How then Sir would you have such Persons to be converted God will never force any body having given to all Men their Free-Will to use it according as they please If these Christians will acknowledge no other God but their own Authority they would deal hardly with God himself if he shou'd come to speak against it How cou'd God in Justice reform these Christians who
will not be reformed loving rather to perish in their Blindness than to receive the Light and this of their deliberate Will Whereas those Jews are still looking for and aspiring after the Coming of their Saviour in Glory Tho' in many things they err Nevertheless they persevere in this Hope which will infallibly come to pass to them provided they acknowledge the Fault they committed in putting Jesus Christ to Death I ask'd her Whether there was any Sect or Nation more capable of receiving the Truth than the Jews who were a People rejected by all Nations and despised by every body as unworthy of the Conversation of all good Men She said Sir I know not precisely what the Jews are but as a Friend I can tell you that they are yet the People who love God more than any other Their being rejected and despised by every body shall perhaps serve for a Satisfaction to God for the Sins which they committed in putting him to death Because this is God's Way to chuse always the Things that are most vile and most contemned by the World I do not at all doubt but the Jews will be the first in the Kingdom of Heaven because they have been so humbled and despised in this World in which they have imitated Jesus Christ more than the Christians who honour themselves more than God and every one esteems them as the People of God and Jesus Christ has told us by the Mouth of his Mother that he will put down the Mighty from their Seats and will exalt the Humble This makes me believe that this People of the Jews so humbled through all the World shall be exalted above all others and that the Roman Church which is placed in the highest Chair on Earth shall be cast down from all her Power Because God has said that he who exalts himself shall be abased and he who humbles himself shall be exalted It must needs be Sir that all the Words of God be fulfilled in all Respects The Jews having been the most humbled People among Men ought to be according to the Justice and Truth of God the most Exalted as it shall come to pass For as soon as they shall receive the Truth which I commit to you they shall be converted and receive the Holy Spirit by whom they shall discover all things see their Errors and the Truth and embracing it shall arrive at the Time so often desired by them in which they will see the true Messiah and Saviour of the World come in Glory who will receive them into his Kingdom from whence the Children of it shall be shut out These are the Christians who shall never taste of his Feast tho' they were invited and called unto it But the Jews and Heathens shall sit down there and the Christians shall be thrust out because they would not obey God's Call who having called them to Christianity they would not conform themselves unto it Therefore they shall never taste of his Dainties because this is the last Mercy of God who will bring to his Table the Sick rather than the Whole who resist his Will as the Christians do now I ask'd her If I might declare to the Jews all the things she had told me as coming from God by a Prophetical Spirit She said Sir I am not Prophetical as the Ancient Prophets were who spoke of very obscure things So that many times neither the People nor they themselves understood well what they signified because the Time was not yet come to give the full Understanding of them But at present in this Fulness of Time God declares his Secrets very manifestly that every one may understand them So that you must not say Sir that you are sent in the Name of some Prophet because the Things that I have told you are such plain and lively Truths that no body of a good Judgment can doubt but the Holy Spirit must have inspired them For if they believe that God is Truth my Words are so sensibly inseparable from it that all Nations both great and small must confess that in all my Discourses the Truth is in its Source And this Truth being God it is therefore God assuredly who declares these Truths For the Devil is the Father of Lyes and Nature finds out still Excuses either in its own Sins or in those it loves By which you may see evidently that Truth comes immediately from God tho' it shou'd come out of an Ass as once it did Therefore you need not so much stay to judge whether I have the Spirit of Prophesie as you ought to examine very narrowly whether I speak the Truth For that is always God The Prophesies of the Ancient Prophets will all of them very shortly be fulfilled There is no Need of any longer having obscure Prophesies because we are fallen into the last Times wherein all the Prophesies shall cease and we shall see them all entirely accomplished and we shall not receive any more new ones Because the King of all the Prophets will himself govern his People and will give an entire Accomplishment to all that has been prophesied of him So that Sir you shall not need to say that you hold these Truths from a Prophet because the Work does always bear Witness who its Workman has been Even so when the Truth is lively declared it gives sufficient Evidence by what Master it is formed I cannot conceal that I derive all my Wisdom from God because I never learned any thing from Men But there is no Need to say that I have a Prophetick Spirit when God gives Reasons and Comparisons to explain it after the Manner of Men. I said to her That in many of her Discourses she spoke of the Future and of the Time to come and that as to those we could not know yet whether they were true or not She said Sir what is to come is as true as what I have already experienced Receive all with Humility of Heart and you shall see in its Time as clear as the Sun that all shall be accomplished For God cannot lye The holy Scriptures must say the same things that I say Because all proceeds from one and the same Spirit and the Jews will understand me yet better than you do because they are more vers'd in the holy Scriptures I think if I spoke to them their Hearts would be over-joy'd and ravish'd with Pleasure to know that so great a Happiness is to befal them as to become the People of God and to suffer for his Love till they shall see him come in Glory with his Angels to render to every one according to his Works The Christians have this in their Creed which contains the twelve Articles of Faith that Jesus Christ who is ascended into Heaven shall come again to judge the Quick and the Dead And notwithstanding they will not believe it tho'
the Holy Spirit speaks so succinctly that one Word makes me comprehend many things He gives Subtilty to the Understanding to conceive great Things by one of his small Motions It is just as if one were in a fine Room well adorned with divers Furnitures and Rarities But there were no Light in it whereby to see all these things In such a Case it wou'd require a great many Words to make him who had never seen them understand in particular all the fine things and Furniture that were in the Room telling him here are such and such Pictures such Tables such Seats and such like Things and yet we could not make him comprehend well the Beauty of this Furniture and Rarities But if a Light were brought into the Room tho it were but that of a Candle in a Moment it would give more Knowledge of all the Things that are in the Room than all the Discourses that were uttered to make them known So it is with the Light of the Holy Spirit when it enters into a Soul it makes it know and comprehend all things very clearly Nevertheless these things cannot be seen by Souls who are yet in the Darkness and Obscurity of their own Passions Many Words and Discourses must be used to make them understand the Rarities that are in the Works of God It is thus Sir that I tell you all my Words do not come immediately from the Holy Spirit But indeed all the Substance of what I say Because I never had any other Master nor any other Study but that of purging my Soul from Earthly Affections By this I received the Light of all the things of which I have spoken to you with many more which nevertheless I could not make you understand but by Words and Discourses accommodated to your Capacity which are not all precisely endited by the Holy Spirit Word for Word except that in general they are produced by the Gift of Wisdom which the Holy Spirit always brings along with him into the Soul where he resides giving it the Skill to express it self and to make Divine Things be understood by those who are in Darkness Therefore Sir you are not deceived in believing that my Words come from the Holy Spirit For it is true if you take them in Substance But if you would maintain a precise enditing of Words the Enemies of the Truth might surprize you in some Terms not well express'd or some Word of a contrary Signification or other Faults of my Language which come from my Weakness or Ignorance For the Holy Spirit can commit no Faults He always gives his Light perfect and compleat to the Soul that is purified from it self But he does not always give precise Words and Terms to make it be understood by others because it does not remain always precisely hearkning to the Enditing of the Holy Spirit being often distracted by Earthly Objects which divert it sometimes without its being aware and in this Diversion it may commit many Faults even tho' it had received the Holy Spirit For this Cause our Life is always dangerous and we ought still to watch that we be not surprized by our Enemies I asked her How she could see by the Light of the Holy Spirit things which consist in Matter of Fact as the Deportment of the Jews and Christians and others She said Sir this is manifested to my Understanding even as Divine Things are without any Distinction except that the Soul receives more Contentment in conceiving and understanding the Things of God than those which respect Men tho' all come from the same Source nevertheless they have different Effects For when God shews to the Soul his straight Righteousness his universal Goodness his pure Truth it is filled with Wisdom and solid Vertue by those which it remarks in God and when he makes it see his Glory Majesty and his Almighty Power the Soul is filled with Joy Honour and Strength in Consideration of the Qualities of its God But he no sooner makes appear to it the deplorable State to which Men are reduced now than the Soul is afflicted and thirsts with a Desire to see them converted unto God who also shews unto it all the necessary Means for this Conversion And as a Physician cannot rightly cure a sick Person or Patient without seeing first the Cause of the Disease or laying open the Sores of his Evil even so does God towards a charitable Soul that is touched with a sensible Regret to see its Neighbour perish and with a Desire to succour him with all its Power Then God makes it see the Sores that is the Faults and Sins of his People more distinctly than if it conversed daily with them even though it has never seen them by the Eyes of the Body Nevertheless it knows them better than they who converse daily with them Because the Light of God pierces to the Bottom of Souls and the Sight of Men perceives only outward things Therefore many are often deceived and take what is false for true But God judges always with an upright Judgment And when the Soul has Bowels of Charity to help its Neighbour God shews it the State in which he lives and also the Means by which he may rise again from his Fall This is the Reason why God makes Matters of Fact which respect our Neigbour to be as well perceived as divine Things and that by the Light of the Holy Spirit which is so much the brighter the farther it is removed from Humane Light and Natural Knowledge For this Cause Sir I retire so much from Men and will learn nothing from them because their Wisdom hinders and obscures the Light of the Holy Spirit and according as I am removed from them accordingly I approach to true Knowledge For sometimes I wou'd tell you better what passes among the Turks or other remote Places than what is done in my Presence For my Eyes may deceive me But the Holy Spirit cannot deceive me I asked her How this Light had its Original If the Holy Spirit did immediately declare things to the Soul or if the Soul did propose them first She said Sir this is done differently For sometimes the Holy Spirit gives Notices of the Things which the Soul never saw nor thought of At other times he makes it understand something which it saw or understood imperfectly But for the most Part the Light is demanded by the Soul when it prays for it or for somewhat else Then if it be well recollected it receives the Understanding of what it asked either God grants it or makes it see wherefore he denies it or else what it ought to do or forsake to co-operate with the Designs of God and to obtain its Request Behold how the Lights of the Holy Spirit have their Rise All that is needful in this is to disengage our Soul from Earthly Affections and to resign it to the Will of God Then he governs and illuminates it in such sort
as that it cannot be ignorant of any thing that it ought to know For as for simple Curiosities we ought never to ask or desire them but only that which is well pleasing unto God or profitable to our Neighbour The Knowledge of which Things God does not deny to Souls who are faithfully dedicated to him I wish Sir you may be one of them that you may learn in a Moment more things in these Matters than I cou'd tell you in a whole Day For one Word from God contains more than Ten Thousand Discourses of Men which are still accompanied with many Defects and Imperfections Whereas the Holy Spirit has a perfect Accomplishment in every Thing and enlarges himself according as the Soul is emptied of it self We have nothing else to do but to empty our selves because God being always in the Center of our Soul he wou'd enlighten it abundantly in case the Hindrances were removed For take them away and we receive Light The End of the Second Part. THE CONTENTS Conference I. How the Opinions of the Learned are injurious to God they being ignorant of his Works Of God's Presence and of his Grace Of the Liberty Power and Weakness of Man and of the State of Infants before the Vse of their Reason p. 1. Conf. II. Of the State of little Infants which come from good or evil Parents And of Baptism p. 11. Conf. III. How the Devil has crept into the Church as Antichrist and is there maintain'd and authoriz'd p. 19. Conf. IV. Of the Reformation of the Church of its Councils Commands and Ordinances p. 21. Conf. V. That all Men ought to labour to satisfie the Justice of God by this Penitence p. 31. Conf. VI. That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawful Husband p. 33. Conf. VII Of the Mass and of the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Functions p. 44. Conf VIII What are the Sins against the Holy Ghost and how much they prevail p. 50. Conf IX That no body can be saved but he who professes the Goodness Righteousness and Truth of God The World is at present without them but it shall be renewed The Danger that Men are in Secret Evil ought to be discovered p. 57. Conf. X. That the Time is come that Men shall receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness and what hinders them to receive him p. 66. Conf. XI How Man must resign himself to God p. 69. Conf. XII Of discerning the Motions of God from those of Nature which must be done by Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are three divine Qualities according to which all our Motions and all our Actions ought to be regulated with great Care p. 76. Conf. XIII That Persons illuminated by God may serve as powerful Means for Salvation but it 's God only who can give it and that now the Company of Men is dangerous p. 84. Conf. XIV That the Habit does not make the Monk and that Religions of themselves make none holy Of the Corruption of them and of the Church p. 86. Conf. XV. That the Time is come when the Holy Spirit will teach us all Truth How Christians do reject his Light and what Progress the Devil has made among them For what end how and to whom God communicates his Spirit p 105. Conf. XVI How we must beware of false Christs and false Prophets which seduce all the World and are so much followed at present How to discern true Prophets from the false and that it would be to no purpose at present to aim at the Conversion of Christians by preaching the Truth to them p. 114. Conf. XVII That the Jews and Heathens are better disposed to be converted unto God than the Christians and that the Jews shall be restored and the Christians rejected p. 124. Conf. XVIII How the Holy Spirit gives his Light to the Soul p. 136. The End of the Contents THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD The Third and Last Part. CONTAINING The Last Conferences WHICH M. ANTONIA BOURIGNON HAD WITH The Deceast Mr. CHRISTIAN de CORT Priest Pastour of St. John's at Mechlin Superiour of the Fathers of the Oratory there and Directour of the Isle of Noorestrandt Which deserves to be Read Understood and Considered by all who desire to be Saved Written Originally in French LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVI Isaiah 58. 10. Thy Light shall arise in the midst of Darkness and thy Obscurity shall become as Noon-day To the READER HERE is FRIENDLY READER the Third Part of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD which is also the Last Conferences that I could have with this Zealous CHRISTIAN DE CORT Superiour of the Oratory and Pastour of the Church St. John at Mechâ—in in Brabant since to hinder him from having any more Conferences with me they poyson'd him and so murther'd him to hinder the Prosecution of the Pious Designes which he had to make known to the World the Truth of the Decay of CHRISTIANITY This Third Part shews yet more clearly than the Two foregoing how much the Church of God is fallen from her first Institution and how far she is remov'd from the Principles of the Apostles and the Life of the First Christians how many Errours and Corruptions have by little and little crept and slipt into Christianity what Appendages and Circumstances they have added to it How many New Laws and Ordinances for the Ornament of it which in effect have deform'd and disfigur'd it So that whereas Christendom was in its Beginning The True Spouse of Jesus Christ she is now become The great Whore which commits whoredom with the Kings of the Earth drinking in their Cups and eating of their Dainties which are the Ambition the Pleasures and covetous Desires of the Things of this World Which Things are now as common among the Churchmen as among the Kings of the Earth to say no more This is very far from the Lowliness of Jesus Christ and of his Disciples who lived in Humility of Heart in a Contempt of the Honours and Glory of the World and would take no other Delights but Labours Fatigues and Sufferings and dispised Gold and Silver as appears by the Offer that Simon the Sorcerer made to St. Peter of giving him Money to buy the Grace of God He curses him and his Money And when they asked Alms of him he says to the poor Man Silver and Gold have we none but the Power of God which will heal thee And elsewhere they say Freely we have received it and freely we give it And to shew the Poverty there was in the Colledge of the Apostles we need but remark that they had not wherewith to pay the Tribute since Jesus Christ sent them to catch a Fish in which they should find a Piece of Money to pay this Tax Consider now FRIENDLY READER if there be any Resemblance between the Church-men of our Time and the Colledge of the Apostles and if every one does not strive to come by
their innocence but if they did the same things when grown up it would be infamous because of the malignity of their thoughts A thing that is in it self the same is render'd good or evil by the wickedness of the Heart The sins that are committed in Marriage do not proceed from its being evil in its self for it is good but they are introduc'd there thro' the perverse will of men Even as the Church is holy in it self but man's perverse will has render'd it abominable in the sight of God for they have chang'd the Order into which God had established it And if men commit the greatest sins by the inclination they have to this natural conjunction this proceeds from nothing but the wickedness of the Heart since the thing in it self is good and holy If man is become so negligent as to abuse all the works of God is it not thro' his own wickedness that he perishes tho he lays the blame always on God For if he sin through Carnal Lust he will say wherefore has God given me this Natural Inclination by which I am led to sin And if men be chastised by any Rods they will say that God afflicts them or that he has forsaken them and so of all other things How great soever mens wickedness be they lay the blame always on God tho they do not say it by word yet they do it in deed while they neglect to discover that all his works are still accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth and that nothing that is evil can ever come from God who is the Source and Original of all Good still doing good to all without excepting any By which we see evidently that he is no longer known at present for they abuse all his Favours and blaspheme him in every thing and yet are not willing to confess it for every one of these Christians have it in their mouths that they love God and honour him while truly and in effect they disown and blaspheme him by their works The Fourth Conference Of the blindness of men who amuse themselves with the outward things which are delivered to them without searching into the depth of the Truth it self they are so infatuated and withheld thro' the fear of displeasing those who are in Reputation I Said to her That men were in horrible darkness and that the Truth was no longer known but every one had for saken it and taken a quite contrary way while in the mean time they think they are in the right way She said Sir This is what I bewail continually to see men so far from their salvation and yet they think they are in the right way to it This causes the Damnation of those who are esteem'd the best men for while they think they are good they will not endeavour after a Change but will live and die in a presumption of being sav'd without good works which shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the other and no body thinks on 't for the darkness is so thick that they cannot see whither they go Truth is always bright and discovers every thing but it is no longer known No body knows the Truth any more since the Devil spread this horrible Darkness on the Earth but every one walks in darkness and believes he is in the right way and while they are perishing they think to be saved Have you not observ'd Sir all that I have said to you that man knows not God any longer nor his works and that they understand them in a quite contrary sense and that in truth they observe nothing of what God has commanded and Jesus Christ taught and yet every one says that he desires to come to God Must there not be a lie in the one or the other of these two contrary things For what I say and what Men do are as distant from one another as heat is from cold Nevertheless truth cannot change it remains always true Let Men say what they please let them stray from it or approach it it abides still firm in its Integrity Who that understands me aright can doubt that I speak the Truth And if you are oblig'd to confess it will you not consequently be oblig'd to acknowledge that all the World is deceived and fallen from the Truth and in forsaking it they have forsaken God And if they have forsaken God who can uphold them any longer The World must certainly perish for its disease is at the height and the worst of all is that they do not know it for if they knew it there would yet be some among them who would open their Eyes and perceive the reality of Truth I ask'd her from whence this great blindness of Spirit and this so obscure darkness could proceed She said Sir this comes from the Devil since he crept into the Church and began to countermine the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and took the title of Antichrist he has labour'd so strongly in this that he has spread among them an universal Darkness and so confounded the Spirits of those Christians with so many different things that they are no longer capable of knowing the Truth Instead of it he has inspir'd them with a great many false Opinions that he might divert them from the pure Truth So that I do not believe there is any Sect or Nation in the World farther from it than the Christians of this Age because they discover it no longer in any thing whereas the Hereticks Jews or Heathens know the Truth in some things tho in others they are mistaken but these Christians are mistaken in all thro' the ill use they make of all things as I have formerly told you Sir that they know neither God nor any of his works judging of all in a quite contrary sense And because they could not have quiet without doing good things the Devil has furnish'd them with so many seemingly good works that they have no longer any leisure to think of the Truth and to examine whether these New Devotions be true or not but they blindly follow them without making any other Reflection but that they are the Ordinances of the Church without examining also whether this Church be holy or not they lay aside the Truth to receive that which is proposed to them supposing it to be a good thing Hence there is such blindness of spirit and such obscure darkness that there is scarce any way to make them see the Truth their understanding being so preoccupied and darkned with diverse things that they can no longer consider the Unity of Truth on the contrary they would think they did evil to follow this Truth and quit the New Practices introduc'd by men So that if we should advise a Christian now a-days to do nothing else in order to his salvation but to resign his will to that of God he would think we design'd to make him an Heretick and would cleave more firmly to the
Ordinances of the Church than to those of God I ask'd her Whether she was a Catholick and whether one could be sav'd out of the holy Church She said Yes Sir I am a Catholick and ready to die for the Faith and Doctrine of Jesus Christ because 't is necessary for me If I had remain'd in innocence without having contracted so many evil habits by the conversation of men I should not have needed the Law of God nor the Precepts of Jesus Christ but having departed from that innocence in which I ought to have resign'd my self wholly to God yielding up to him the free will that he gave me I have need now of this Law and those Evangelical Counsels as means to recover that innocence and that I may with singleness of heart resign my will to that of God as all other men also have need of them for every one has departed from that innocence and contracted many evil habits which hinder this resignation to God I embrace indeed the Apostolical Faith and Belief but I do not believe many things which those who call themselves the Christian Church lay before us because they are not true for he who should believe to be sav'd by going to Church and frequenting the Sacraments or such like things would at death find himself deceiv'd because no Prayers or Sacraments operate without an inward disposition And whereas we see people frequent the Churches and Sacraments without piety or devotion we may well judg that the world is deceived by such like things while they place the hopes of their salvation on outward things which are but the signification of the inward disposition of the mind You will say It may be Sir that the Church supposes this inward disposition which is a false supposition because we see evidently by experience that the inward disposition is very far from what appears outwardly and upon this supposition the Church could not appoint the baptising of new born Infants who are not at all capable of inward dispositions I doubt not but these Romanists would bring many Reasons and Arguments but I hold to the Truth of God and know no other Church but the souls which possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Lo this is the only true Church out of which there can be no salvation for every one has need of taking up these means that by them he may attain to a RESIGNATION to God I said to her That truly there must be some infatuation of Spirit that tied us to this Church for tho we see she does not at all possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ yet we are afraid to leave her as if she were the holy Church tho the truth makes it evidently appear that she is not She said Sir I bless God that he opens your Eyes to discover the truth in what concerns your salvation for as long as you do not discover evil you cannot avoid it but will still be in danger of being deceived by it If the Devil were not in this Church it is impossible that so many good spirits should thus blindly follow her 'T is certainly by an infatuation of the understanding for they see enough in the outside to judg assuredly that she is not guided by the holy spirit and that she follows not in any respect the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and nevertheless they continue so wedded to her thro' som panick or pusillanimous Fear that they dare not shake off her dependance fearing they should do evil in following the truth And if any person of a sound Judgment discovers her deceits and uncharms his Understanding so as to perceive her Errors yet out of respect to the Glory of the World he dare not forsake her because this Church is advanc'd to so great Honour and Authority that no body dares leave her for fear of being disgrac'd or persecuted by her as she would certainly do so long as it is in her power For this cause Jesus Christ speaking of the last Times in which we are fallen says That a man must get out of Judea and flee even without returning to his house to take his Cloaths Judea is the Church and the Sanctuary where the abomination of desolation is now so increas'd that it is at its heighth A man needs not glory in being a Son of the Church for the Children shall be cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Jews and Heathens shall be admitted into it for God can make of these stones Children of Abraham Lay aside therefore Sir all these Fears and Pusillanimities they proceed from a softness of spirit Keep close to the Truth and follow her without Fear for she will guide you to salvation If Glory or Interest do not hold you in a dependance on the Church leave her boldly for her Reign will be very shortly at an end and she will perish with all her Glory and Possessions 'T is better lose our Garments than our Life or even our Wealth and Honour than our souls The Fifth Conference Of the Destruction of Christendom I Said to her That I was not so afraid as she thought and that I had ask'd many things of her of which I made no doubt but I desir'd always to be further cleared and therefore propos'd many questions Yet on the contrary I had long suspected that the Church was the VVhore in the Revelations in which her behaviour had confirm'd me therefore would flee out of her Dependance She said 'T will be your best course for her time draws near in which she shall be raz'd and rooted out and her Children scatter'd and divided All the World shall bewail her and call her miserable fot her misery shall be great and all her Villanies shall be discover'd It would be then too late to forsake her for all those who shall be found drinking out of her Cup shall perish with her Therefore Jesus Christ has said That we must not wait till the winter or the Sabbath-day That is till the time of persecution and the Day of the coming of Jesus Christ in his glory for in her persecution there will be so great evils that the like were never seen Men shall pine away for Terror and Fear and be very uncapable of studying how to find the Truth Therefore you must not wait till the time of extremity but flee and get out of her before Neither must you wait till the Day when our Saviour shall come in his Glory because he will render to every one acecrding to his works the time of penitence shall be past it must be done presently or else we shall all perish For the Lord will overthrow all evil by the brightness of his coming which is to be looked for only in order to receive our last Judgment for which it is more than time to prepare our selves and to flee to the Mountains taking heed of men who have for so long deceived and
come to reign on the Earth with Men to render Justice to every one and to root out all Evil and recompence the sufferings of the Righteous without this perswasion you can never support the Evils which hang over our Head for without knowing these Truths it will be impossible not to fall into despair or murmuring against God if we know not his Righteousness Goodness and Truth with which he does all things Thus we cannot besaved without Faith which discovers the Truth All these things are true of Judgment of Antichrist and of the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory but if you will not believe them you resist the known Truth which is a Sin against the Holy-Ghost that shall never be forgiven The Sixth Conference Discovers the Signs that the World is Judged and that ANTICHRIST Reigns now I said to her I would be very careful not to commit any Sin against the Holy Ghost though I knâ—w not yet the Truth in every thing entreating she would afford the means to discover the Truth of all the things she told me to wit the Judgment the Reign of Antichrist and the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory She said You would infallibly believe them if you would seriously remark what you may see with your Eyes and conceive with your Humane Understanding for these things are so far advanced that one may feel them provided his Mind be not infatuated For first as to the Judgment as I have already told you it is easy to see that the world is Judged because sins are universal and no body will Repent There is every where the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life of which no body Repents and Amends and there can be no forgiveness where there is no amendment and therefore of necessity the World is Judged because these evils are not among some particular persons as they have been in all times but they are generally among all men both small and great If you observe them narrowly you will find Sir that these three sins reign infallibly in the Hearts of all men of whatsoever condition those in whom you cannot discover them are very often the greatest Hypocrites who know better to dissemble and cover their sins And for the second The believing that we are now in the Reign of Antichrist you need only Remark narrowly by what Spirit Men are led because they who are led by God follow his Righteousness his Goodness and his Truth On the contrary they who are led by the Devil oppose themselves to this and if you Reflect upon the Actions of Men now you will find nothing in them but Injustice Malice and Lying which are three qualities of the Devil opposed to the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God This is so common at present that there is nothing to be seen but Injustice Malice and affected Lies I said to her in my opinion there were some men who seemed to follow Righteousness and Truth tho it must be acknowledged the greatest part live in Injustice and Deceit She said Sir Judg righteously and examin everything to the bottom You grant already that the greatest part of men now live in Injustice and lies All the World finds this by experience And when the greatest part is for the Devil we may well fear that he will shortly have the whole for as rotten Apples spoil the sound ones so Men corrupted by the Devil are still corrupting and drawing in those who are yet sound If all men in general or almostall were on the Devils side the Reign of Antichrist would be at an end for he could gain no more he would be pleased to have all his Adherents with him to Hell for the reason why he keeps them in Life here and raises them to places and preferments is that they may serve him in corrupting others and in doing all the mischief to the good that may be Now there would be no need of this if all in general were dedicated to his service he could go no farther and God would not continue the World in being to wait for men's Conversion for those who are Dedicated to the Devil will not be converted as some other sinners would be who have not yet renounc'd God nor given their Souls to the Devil as his sworn Votaries or Sorcerers do who are precisely dedicated to the Devil of their own free will as the greatest part of men have done This may appear sufficiently by their Malice which is not only human but Devilish also for human Malice extends it self no farther than to that which is pleasant or profitable to the Malicious Person but at present we see men's Malice so black that he who acts it has neither pleasure nor profit by it and nevertheless they afflict the good and ruin sometimes the wealth and honour of their Neighbour without any profit to themselves And lies are so common tho frequently without any advantage that the truth is seldom or never spoken from whence it appears that it certainly comes from the Devil for men could not arrive at such a malice as that is which we see now reign in the World If I told you Sir that I had these truths by any particular Revelation from God you would entertain it may be some scrupulous doubts about it but I refer you to your own experience that you may know by human Reasons that we are fallen into the last times that the Judgment is past on the whole World And that this is now the Reign of Antichrist For as to the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory I cannot make it appear to you so precisely as the things that are already come to pass but if you read attentively the Holy Scriptvres they will plainly enough declare it to you for of all contain'd in them there is nothing more spoken of than of the coming of Jesus Christ on Earth in Glory From the beginning of the World we are told that Jesus Christ was to become man to Reign with men on Earth and tho he had not been man to suffer he had become man to Reign Because he would take and give to men a perfect contentment of Conversing together with them in Body and Soul Divinity and Humanity I cannot make you see this Sir by the Eyes of the Body because the time is not yet come Therefore I send you to the Holy Scriptures But as for the Judgment and the Reign of Antichrist you may see it with your Eyes and comprehend it with your Natural understanding For it is visible and comprehensible by him whose Spirit is not infatuated and who seeks to discover the Truth The thing is so manifest that it speaks out it self Many say blindly We are in the end of the VVorld and they perceive not that they speak truth Others say The Devil reigns over all and they see not that this is the Reign of Antichrist who Rules as
Universal Emperour of the whole world They Judg by the effects without searching into the cause The Devil hinders this for he well knows that if the cause were discovered many would be Converted therefore he darkens their minds that they may never come to the Knowledg of the Truth because it would confound him I said to her I perceived clearly enough that the world was Judged because sin abounds in it and no body will be Converted But that we were in the Reign of Antichrist I did not perceive so clearly for we have always been taught that he shall be a Visible and corporal man * She said Sir it is well that you see the World is Judged You shall perceive the rest sufficiently for the Reign of Antichrist is yet more manifest Antichrist that is to say against Christ He whose understanding is not dark'ned may easily see if men follow Christ or if they go in a way contrary to what he walked in while he was on Earth And you see that Christians now adays live a quite other Life than what Jesus Christ led and they not only do not follow him at a distance but are directly opposite to him for there Pride Reigns instead of Humility and Avarice instead of Poverty and instead of Charity there is nothing but Envy and so of all the other things which Christ Jesus Taught us They act wholly in opposition to him and they do not consider that all that is contrary to Christ is Assuredly Antichrist The time is come wherein men would fain have a God and Devil Visible to their Eyes that might go before them This is great and thick darkness because neither God nor the Devil are visible For they are Spirits who cannot be known but by their Operations when they are good or evil according to the Spirit that Animates them Hereby we shall know by what Spirit the World is animated at present For the Spirit of God is always Just Good and True and that of the Devil is always evil without Righteousness and without Truth By these real Signs we may certainly discern if Christ rules the World or Antichrist We need not go to consult Oracles to make this Discovery for all Men of good judgment may make a sufficient trial and see it with their Eyes and feel it with their Hands by taking the Marks which discover the solid truth For if they will needs make this discovery by the signs of apparent Vertues they will remain in their Darkness because the Devil has so disguised and coloured his wickedness with outward Devotions and Piety that he thereby deceives all the World We must come to the Essence of Vertue to see if it be God or the Devil who animates these outward Devotions for if they be of God they will always be accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Truth But we see but too much the contrary for the most part of those Devout Persons at present are without Righteousness or Equity There was never seen so much going to Church receiving the Sacraments and so little Fidelity so many Pater nosters and so little Truth so many good Words and so little true Charity Do you not see Sir that all order of Justice is renvers'd and that there is more regard of doing Justly before Men than before God And yet these are the best now who do justly before Men for the most part deceive and deal unfaithfully as well before Men as before God For Iniquity is become so common that now almost they are not ashamed to commit it publickly If a man go to Church and frequent the Sacraments he passes for a good Man though he be no ways just If we consider well all the Qualities of the Devil we shall see them all practis'd in the behaviour of Men now he is a Liar an Hypocrite and Unconstant a Deceiver and Unfaithful abounds in all kind of Malice Proud Arrogant Envious Contentious without Faith or Honesty Obstinate in Malice and in a desperate Rage These Qualities are but too much practis'd by the most part of Christians and yet we perceive not that this is now the Reign of Antichrist Men must be extreamly blinded that they do not see this more clear than the Day because the evil is too manifest But many Minds are so infatuated that they cannot believe what they perceive so manifestly by their Understandings but they wait to believe this Antichrist till they shall see him in a Humane Form Which is a very small matter in respect of his Doctrine for that Body can never cause Damnation to our Souls as his Doctrine will do which being contrary to Christ leads us to Perdition Since Jesus Christ is the way we can never attain to Salvation but by him contrary ways lead to Damnation it matters little whether we are led into them by a Body or by a Spirit since we are undone as to Salvation I ask'd her If we ought not to believe that this Antichrist will be sometime corporeally visible in a Humane Form She said Yes Sir I believe this will be toward the end of his Reign for he has set himself to counterfeit all the Actions of Jesus Christ and to ape what he sees he has done And perceiving that Christ became a Natural Man he also will move his Sorcerers to produce Men by the operation of the Devil which is done many times for there are certainly many of these Antichrists born already in the World who make great Havock in the Church and have in their Train those who are most in Authority and as the Apostles of Jesus Christ laboured to introduce Truth into the World these incarnate Devils labour to introduce Lies into it and to sow Tares as they did good Grain I doubt not also but they have a Head of their Iniquity who will appear openly when his wickedness shall be discover'd and when he cannot deceive any longer under the Cloak of Holiness he will deceive then by pure Wickedness and will exercise cruelty towards all those who will not be his Followers That time Sir will not be so dangerous as the present is because he shall be known for the Devil and now they follow him as if he were God Therefore he keeps himself so long concealed and does not appear bodily for he could not do so much prejudice to Souls if he were known He has spread Darkness through all the World that no body may discover him exercising all his wickedness UNDER PRETEXT OF GOOD THINGS OR OF NATURAL OR CASUAL THINGS that no body may believe that all the evils which we see do come from this Antichrist and that no body may be on his guard because he does not appear yet in human Flesh This blinds all the World for tho they see all the qualities of the Devil rule in men yet they will not believe these so solid marks as they would do if they saw him bodily which bodily appearance is not
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
the real truth if they receive it For hitherto it has not been yet discover'd nothing of the Holy Scripture has been explain'd in its perfect sense every one has drawn conjectures from it according to his Light not according to what is in it in effect thus they might well die for holding some opinion which was not the real truth but the opinion of some Author for which they might die indeed without being for this the Martyrs of Jesus Christ For to be such a man must die for the Defence of the Law of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel or otherwise he cannot be a Martyr before God however men call many others by this name this shews that there is obscurity and darkness through all even in the most holy things Every one walks in the dark not discerning the pure Truth Even many who have the best Maxims would judge indeed that I were an Heretick in speaking against the Decrees of the Councils of Rome out of a pious belief that they have been all held by the Co-operation of the Holy Spirit Which is a false Supposition For the Holy Spirit never changes With what he inspir'd the Apostles he inspires also at present those who hear him They are always the same things I said to her That the Holy Spirit did sometimes inspire diverse Means for the attainment of the same End She said 'T is true Sir if the Means which those Councils set before us did all aim at the keeping of the Commands of God and at his Doctrine of the Gospel I should believe that they came from the Holy Spirit but when they aim at a quite contrary sense I may well judge that they come not from thence because God never contradicts himself He has commanded that we love him with all our Heart and these Councils say that to get the Pardon of our Sins and obtain Salvation it suffices that we have a sorrow for sin out of fear of Hell Can these two contrary senses come from the same God And there are so many other things which are variously oppos'd to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as I have told you formerly as the baptizing little Infants and a Thousand other things which are directly contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I know indeed that they deny this Truth saying that they have ordain'd nothing contrary to the Law of God For with studied Words and Terms they cover all their Faults and I am neither a Philosopher nor Divine to answer their artificial Arguments or studied Words but I say in truth that they do in effect directly contrary to the Law of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel Not that they say so but they do it And Deeds are more than Words I doubt not but they would surprize me by my Words For the Devil has nothing but Subtilties wherewith to cover his Malice But they cannot surprize me in the matter of the Essential Truth which abides always true They might say indeed the Councils do not say that we ought not to love God with all our Heart but only that Attrition is sufficient for Salvation Is not that enough to teach indirectly that we are not obliged to love God And is not this indirect Doctrine much worse than the direct which no good Men would follow I asked If the Light which she received from the Holy Spirit was contrary to what the Councils had ordained She said Yes Sir the Decrees which the Councils have made so far as I know them are all directly contrary to what the Holy Spirit dictates to me And you your self may perceive it Though there were nothing but the forbidding to read the Gospels and the holy Bible in the Vulgar Tongue is not this contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who has given his Word rather to the vulgar and simple People than to the Learned And if it had not been his Will they should read it after his Death he would not have left it them in Writing This is the Nourishment of the Children of God And these Councils would make them die for hunger Is not also the forbidding Priests to labour against the Commandment of God who ordained Adam the most holy of all Men to labour in penitence for his Sin And the Oath which they cause the Priests to take not to receive any other Explications of the Holy Scriptures but those approved by the Church is it not also against the Holy Spirit who offers every Moment to give new Light which these Councils do not approve because it would reprovâ— them For all that comes from the Holy Spirit reproves Evil. There are also many other things which these Councils have ordained that are contrary to the Light that God gives me which is wholly conformable to the Law of God and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I have no need to read any Books to know if they be endited by the Holy Spirit because the Sentiment of my Soul gives me still evidence enough of them When I understand only the substance of a thing I perceive certainly whether it come from the Holy Spirit or not You may easily see Sir by all that I have already told you that this Church and her Councils are not guided by the Holy Spirit but by the Spirit of Errour which deceives all the World under this false Masque of the Holy Church and Holy Councils whereby the most Innocent let themselves be ruled by the Devil at his pleasure while they believe that they follow the Truth which is God The Ninth Conference Speaks of the Sins which we commit in another and that to declare the Truth of Evil is not Sin I said to her I was more certain that she was guided by the Holy Spirit than that the Church and her Councils were so and therefore she must tell me what I ought to do She said Sir You may indeed lean to my Sayings because I speak nothing of my self It is true it seem'd somewhat hard to you that I overturn the Church and her Councils and also when I say that the Devil rules them But I know this by the Light of the Holy Spirit which obliges me to declare it perhaps for the enlightning of others that they may be converted or to give them a full Measure that no body may pretend Ignorance For if I were not prest in my Conscience I would beware to speak of such Evils as one trembles to hear them It were more pleasant and agreeable if I could say in truth that the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit and that Rome is the Church of God This Discourse would comfort my Soul and give content to all those who are under her Obedience But this not being true I should flatter them to their destruction Whereas the true knowledge of Things may save them You have been also troubled sometimes to hear me say that all men now are in a state of Damnation which notwithstanding
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
offending him who has reserved it for himself These Sir are all blind who lead the blind and both fall into the ditch See that you never be of that Crew but believe in the Light that God manifests unto you I have spoken TRUTH to you not out of an Affectation to be believed or followed but from a design and desire of your Salvation All that I have said is necessary for you if you will use it well Because we cannot Love God without knowing him nor follow Vertue without conceiving what it is In like manner we cannot avoid Delusion without discovering it nor escape the Snares of the Devil without turning away from them Make a good use of all these Things and you shall be happy both in this World and the other I doubt not but my way of speaking may be somewhat uneasie to you because it agrees not with your Philosophy Theology or other Scholastick Sciences But believe me I never professed any Humane Sciences I choose rather to be ignorant of them than know them and if I could learn in a Quarter of an Hour all the Learning of the Schools I would not employ even that Little Time about them Because I know that Humane Learning is a great Hindrance to the Holy Spirit and also the Time is come that God will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and abolish the Prudence of the Prudent And therefore I cannot use fine Discourses but such only as make the plain Truth be understood Words and Terms may be contended about but not the real Meaning which is true I will not dispute with the Learned because God will overcome them very shortly by the Effects of my Words nor will I polish my Language because simple Plainness pleases God more than the greatest Eloquence which is subject to Vanity For he that speaks that he may talk well is full of Vain-glory Renouncing which I seek nothing but plain Words that may express my Thoughts I believe Sir you have understood me well enough and I can tell you no more whereby I may co-operate to your Salvation There remains nothing but to put it in practice This you will do more easily in a Solitude or Desert than elsewhere because of the Corruption of Men who prove great Hindrances to us and also because of the Power the Devil has now over their Minds whereby he may infatuate all those who are yet sound and entire Flee therefore Sir to avoid these Dangers and be afraid lest you be diverted from your good Purpose and do not look back like Lot's Wife who was changed into a Pillar of Salt Yet a little Penitence and then God will deliver you from it to enter into the Joy that shall never end This is what I wish you and bid you Adieu I was troubled to hear that she would leave me entreating she would not withdraw from me since I resolved to follow what she had taught me which was nothing else but the denying of my self and a dependance upon God She said Sir It will be more for your purity to stay alone Because I am but a Creature as you are and we must cleave to the Creatour only without Interruption He will lead you at his pleasure provided you be resigned to his Will you need no more Instructions from any I have told you abundantly what may bring you to an Union with God To speak more would be henceforth but a Repetition of what is already said which would rob us both of our Time and that would be better employed in the Practice than in Repetitions Leave me to my Liberty and take also yours God did not create us together He will Save us though we be separate in Body True Union consists in a conformity of the Will with God and not in particular Conferences I must confess I have often withdrawn from conversing with God to speak to you of so many diverse Things But I judg'd them necessary for your Salvation and therefore they were not uneasie to me But now that you know the Truth of many Things it is not expedient to speak to you any longer God will still teach you sufficiently provided you continue faithful to him He never denied what Men ask of him for their Salvation You ought to have no other Designs Let the World be overturned Let the Roman Church perish Let the Elements be moved against Sinners all this cannot touch you provided you keep firmly united to God Quit all Things willingly to find this Union It matters little whether I am with you or not Provided you be with God He should suffice you For he only can save you and no Body else There is always a Mixture when the Creature cleaves to its like I often despised those who cleave to others even though it was under some pious Pretext I will not do my self what I despise in others I said to her She had promised to explain to me the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew That she ought at least to give me it before she leave me She said Sir I do not willingly fail in my Promise Give me the Text of that Chapter and I will explain it Word by Word and I wish that all sincere Persons may see it that they may discover that this Chapter speaks of the present Time Every one reads it without understanding it Nevertheless there are fair Advertisements to beware of this dangerous Time in which we live at present These are not Tales made at pleasure but Truths come from the Mouth of Jesus Christ himself which every one ought to Learn and follow the Counsels that he gives They are most saving 〈◊〉 for escaping the Evils to come which hang 〈◊〉 our Heads I must give it in Writing for an eternal Memorial that it may be observed whether all that is contained in it shall not come to pass in our Time Do not oppose what you shall find contrary to your Learning or old Impressions because the Holy Spirit will give the perfect Understanding of all the Holy Scriptures which has not been hitherto heard of For we are fallen into the Fulness of Time If you receive them with Humility of Heart you shall understand all Things perfectly But you must become an Infant and cease from your own Wisdom For God reveals c his Secrets to Babes and hides them from the Great and Wise of the Earth You must not control the Holy Spirit or say Such a Father explains this thus or otherwise Because Fulness is still more than a Portion You will find what I shall say more clear than all that the Holy Fathers ever said Because the Time is come of the Accomplishment of all Things But you must simplifie your Understanding as a little Child else you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I brought her the Text of the Gospel promising entirely to submit my Vnderstanding as much as was possible that I might receive the Light of the Holy Spirit She
the Command of some Servants of God This is a certain Proof that it is Sin only that gives all the Malignity to every Thing and that nothing but the Rebellion that Man has raised against his God renders all the Elements and other Creatures Rebels against him If we would from this time yield up our Will into God's Hands and submit our selves entirely to him we should immediately find that all Things would subject themselves to us without any constraint How greatly does Man wrong himself when he will needs dispose of his own Will He makes himself miserable in this World and far more in that to come Whereas by being willing to depend upon God he has all under his Power together with Eternal Bliss What Infatuation of Spirit is it that we will not do a Thing so good so just and so reasonable as to resign our Will to that of God! If Men were taught this as they are other frivolous Devotions it would be impossible that any would deny God so profitable a Submission But they let themselves be amused by the Discourses of Men who propose a Salvation without being able to give it These are those false Christs and false Prophets of whom Jesus Christ has so often told that we must take heed of them who have deceived all the World so that none think any longer of resigning themselves to God or of doing saving Penitence I said to her There were yet divers Persons who desired to be resigned to God and also to do Pennance which cannot be avoided in this World She said Sir You take the Bark often for the Wood For those who say they will be resigned to God have nothing but outward Words For if they were truly so they would be governed by God and would no longer labour for the Earth but only for Heaven Even the Labour that is necessary for the support of Life would be done only to fulfil their Penitence appointed by God But when we see them aim at Places Honours and Dignities or Deal and Traffick to acquire Riches or Pleasures that one would be a Priest another a Religious one build Cloysters another Houses as if he were to abide in them for ever All these Things with a Thousand others are infallible Evidences that God does not govern our Will For he could not move us to make Tabernacles here since he has sent us hither only to undergo a short Penitence He could not incite us to build what must be so quickly destroyed Neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles and Disciples built Temples or Houses being contented with what was simply necessary In which the Heathens will rise up against us in the Day of Judgment who did so despise the shortness of this Life that they would not build Houses contenting themselves with a Tub to cover them from the Injuries of the Season Others threw their Mony into the Sea not judging it necessary for so short a Life though since that Time ours is much shortned Neither can it be true that we are willing to do Pennance because every one avoids Sufferings as much as he can and to do saving Pennance it must be voluntary and suffered for fulfilling the Will of God For else we may suffer much without Meriting as Robbers and Thieves do I said to her That this ought to be preached through all the World that they who would perish through Ignorance might hear the Truth and be converted She said Sir You may do as you please As for me I retire For I am not sent to preach but simply to declare the Truth as I have done to you You may have sufficiently remarked in all my Discourses and my Life if there were any Affectations or Passions which should move me to tell you these Things I am perswaded in the sight of God that I have no Self-Interest in it nor any desire to please or displease Men nor to affect the speaking new or marvellous Things No Sir I am not led by that Spirit but by that of Jesus Christ who had such Compassion for Men that for them he endured a bitter Passion and the Death of the Cross If you preach these Things to Men of good Judgment and who thirst after the Truth they will gladly hear you and yield themselves and return to God For they will easily see that here is no Flattery for any Body nor yet Contempt or sensual Animosity but pure solid Truths which none can resist but they who are in League with Satan and love Lyes and resist the Truth Those will very hardly receive Truths that are so opposite to them they will induce effeminate Spirits to reject these Things as evil perceiving that the knowledge of these will take from their Master the Devil the Power to deceive by Falshood and Hypocrisie and that he will be forced very quickly to discover his Mischievous Reign Because he shall not be able to catch Souls any longer under the colour of Piety and Holiness as he has done hitherto And his furious Reign shall be far less dangerous For so soon as he shall be known for the Devil no Body will follow him any longer except they who wilfully yield up themselves to him Whereas at present every one follows him blindly But so soon as his Malice shall be discovered he shall have no longer Power over Innocent Souls Tell the Truth boldly Sir to all good Men in Confidence But beware of the Adherents of the Enemy and of those who let themselves be governed by his Spirit though they be not precisely in Covenant with the Devil Because these will do you much Mischief when they think they are doing well For they who have their Minds infatuated do serve the Devil as well as Sorcerers themselves The one directly and the other indirectly You will still discover them by the resistance which they will make to the Truth for they will not so much as hear it Because they know very well they cannot change the Truth They endeavour at least to reject and despise it that no Body may receve it This will be the Devils last Effort For as soon as the Truth shall be known it will strongly resist him and at last will break his Head Observe still Sir the Disposition of those to whom you would declare these Truths And when you find opposition from them leave off speaking to them For those who shall be disposed to profit by the Truth will give Ear to it willingly and with Hungry Desires will search even to the Bottom that they may discover the Essence of it For no good Men can resist the Truth nor the Things which are proposed to them without having examined whether they be Good or Evil But the Wicked will resist it before they know it And if they can catch a Word different from their School Terms they will take it in a quite contrary Sence Therefore Sir do not amuse your self with Questions and Disputes For this would
be to cast Roses before Swine Offer them only to those who will take pleasure to smell them and not to these who will cast them into the Dunghil All good Men will feel in the Bottom of their Souls that this cannot come from the Devil For he is the Father of Lyes and never incites to Self-denial because he is too proud Nor to the Love of God because he hates him And yet less to resign our Will to that of God for he catches all Men by their Self-will All my Discourses have for their Scope all that is contrary to the Devil who is never contrary to himself The Ninteenth Conference Sheweth That the Spirit of Antichrist hinders Men from discovering the saving Truth and that the Heathens are more resigned to God than the Christians at present I said to her That I thought no Body in the World could resist so clear Truths without betraying his own Conscience That all the Things she had told me did speak forth themselves and were attended with such solid Foundations and such firm Reasons that the Learned and Vnlearned might comprehend them and that the Scope of all was the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls and that there was nothing in them that savoured of the Earth She said If we were not fallen into the Reign of Antichrist no Body could resist so clear Truths All the World would feel them and would discover his Deceits every one would flie to the Desert to do Penitence bewailing his past Life and the Errours wherein he had lived for so long a time But the Michief is that this Antichrist has so great a number of Adherents who take up his Quarrel and resist the Truth that the good themselves have difficulty to receive it For they disfigure it and make it pass for Lyes and Heresies telling those who advance it that they would seduce the People as they said of Jesus Christ when he brought Light into the World calling him a Seducer of the People or one that had a Devil The Power of Darkness is much encreast since the Time that he was upon Earth and nothing is to be look'd for but Outrages from all the Devil's Adherents In this case a Man must count it a Happiness to suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake and believe that there is no more blessed Death than to dye a Martyr for the Truth But he must beware of Men and use the Wisdom of the Serpent and rather part with his Skin than lose his Soul You will find more Welcome Sir among the Jews and Heathens than among the Catholicks who condemn others to Authorize their own Customs despising the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who sayes Judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned These Catholicks condemn all those who do not follow them This is the cause why they are judged and condemned first to be rooted out They condemn so many holy Heathens who will go before them in the Day of Judgment because they were faithful to God though they had not any Laws or Institutions to know Him Nevertheless many resigned their Wills to that of God and obeyed the Truth in their Lives whereas these Christians follow Lyes of which the Devil is the Father and none of them will resign themselves to God nor take notice of the Truth which discovers the shortness of this miserable Life and the certainty of one that shall be Eternal These Heathens knew a God to whom they resigned themselves and seeing the Misery of this Life they bewailed it they laughed when they considered the Stupidity of Men who took pleasure in this Life and judg'd that they ought not to be called Men because they did not use their Reason to discover the Truth of Things For he who went through the City of Athens with his Lantern seeking for a Man in the midst of so many Thousands as were in the Market-place could not be ignorant that they who were about him were all Men But seeing they were all occupied in buying and selling and Trading for the Earth he could not acknowledge them to be Reasonable Men Because he who has Reason ought to use it for his Eternal Happiness else he is nothing but a Beast For Reason only makes a Man without which he does not differ from the Brute Beasts for they are unreasonable Animals and Men are reasonable ones Laying aside which they are as much Brutes as the Beasts This made the Philosopher search for a Man among so great a Number and could not find one because all spent their Lives in Worldly Business instead of employing them in the Study of the Knowledge of God and of the Truth which is the same God And they condemn those Heathens as damned and for my part I look upon them as SAINTS and believe they will come to Reign with Jesus Christ upon Earth to condemn the Christians who besides the Light of the Heathens had Lawes and Commandments from God with the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which obliged them to a farther Knowledge of God and the Immortality of their Souls the Shortness and Misery of this Life that they might despise it and the Vanity of perishing Goods that they might abandon them Nevertheless not one of these Christians does any of these Things I asked her If it was indeed possible that not so much as one Christian should be resigned to God nor have the Vertues of the Heathens She said Yes Sir This is most true that not so much as one Christian is resigned to God nor understands true Vertue as much as the Heathens did Because none apply themselves to it Since they became Idolaters of Men they have left off to know God and abondoned themselves to the Will of their Idols instead of the Will of God They Preach and Teach through all Christendom That we must depend upon Men whom they call the Fathers of the Church That we must believe and follow them even with a blind Obedience In which they prefer themselves to God who demands only of Man that he obey him in what he shall make known to him having given him Eyes to discover this Beautiful Universe that when he sees the Heavens the Earth the Sun the Stars and all the Elements with so many different Creatures so marvellous and so well ordered he might clearly perceive that all those Things must proceed from a God since Men and Nature can make nothing like them Moreover when Man considers himself he discovers evidently by his Understanding that his Soul his Memory his Understanding cannot come but from a God for no such Thing can come from Nature no more than his Body since all the Industry of Men is not capable to make so much as one Hair of our Head This obliges us to acknowledge a God by so many different Operations without being put to know God blindly no more than to love
of Election and Reprobation and both necessarily so She said This is Sir because these Persons though well-meaning do not discover the Goodness and the Righteousness of God and they judge only according to the Appearance of Things and not according to the Reality For God can never Reprobate any after that he has created all for Salvation and he cannot damn them for Adam's Sin after he has pardoned it and Man has undertaken the Penitence that God enjoyned him on that occasion If there were any Reprobated for this Sin of Adam in strict Justice Adam ought to be first of all Reprobated since he first committed the Sin 'T is sad to see and hear how Men mistake the Qualities of God making him pass as unjust and evil like themselves I am sorry Sir that I must be so prolix in this Matter but the Thing requires it Because it is a most important Point that regards the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men and therefore I cannot speak too much of it Be not you more weary to hear than I am to speak of it I have still had strange Contradictions in my Spirit when I heard Persons of Sincerity aiming to maintain the Truth and yet notwithstanding very far from knowing it and taking the Sentiments of Men for infallible Truths though very often they persist in their Ignorance which is so great and so prejudicial to the Salvation of many For he who believes he is predestinated to Salvation will not be at the pains to procure it and though he fall into Sins he will not repent of them believing that he cannot be damned and that he shall one Day Repent though it were but the Last of his Life Consider a little Sir what sloth this occasions in those well-meaning Persons and in what hazard they put their Salvation For it is a Delusion to believe that we shall be Saved by God's Predestination Live as we please for God will never Save any since Adam's Sin but those who of their Free-will shall resign themselves to the Will of God Though his Goodness Sav'd all Men in creating them without any Co-operation of theirs yet he will Save none without it after they have their Free-wils to make choice of good or evil God could indeed Save them before they made Resistance and while he was absolute Lord of all Things But since he gave them this Free-will to govern themselves and so many other Things he cannot Save them without themselves Therefore no Body should flatter himself to believe that he shall be Saved if he be predestinated seeing this Predestination can have no more place since the Sin of Adam Every one must exercise himself to work out his Salvation Because no Body shall obtain it but he who of his own Free-will shall yield up into God's Hands the Free Liberty that he gave him These are the Elect Because they being yielded up unto God none can pluck them out of his Hands unless the Person himself should yet withdraw from God Which is almost impossible Because God still directing him his Will can no more be led to evil than that of God is unto which it is joyned and united The Goodness of God replenishes it with so many Graces that it is impossible not to follow them How could the same Goodness ordain that any should be Reprobated since nothing that is evil can proceed from it Must not the Reprobation of Men of necessity come from their evil Will Since it is impossible for God to do evil it is consequently impossible for him to Reprobate so much as one Soul If it be it is still its own Fault only and not at all a Predestination to Damnation Because God damns no Body not even at the Last Day of Judgment For they who shall be then absolute Reprobates shall condemn themselves when the Justice of God shall appear to them their Injustice will give Sentence against themselves and confine them to Hell as the just Merit of their Iniquities and not at all as the Decree of God I said to her It was very probable that God can damn no Body since he is all good and can do no Evil that notwithstanding of this we see according to our short Prospect of Effects as if Men were Predestinated to good and evil As in the Conversion of St. Paul and of Mary Magdalen and on the contrary in the Reprobation of Judas and of the wicked Thief She said Sir These different Accidents are not considered in their Source but only superficially gone over and judg'd according to Humane Sentiments which does not penetrate the Righteousness of God St. Paul was not only a Chosen Vessel on God's part but also on the part of his own Free will For after he had the use of Reason he was alwayes zealous of the Law of God and 't is very probable he had resigned his Free-will to God according to his Knowledge because all that moved him to persecute the Christians was only a desire to maintain his Law which he believed was more perfect as being given by God and imagining that the Christians aimed to destroy it he would maintain it and believe that by doing this he greatly pleased God who seeing this good Desire would needs draw him out of his Ignorance in an outward and extraordinary manner Because it is God's Property to abound in Grace and to prevent Men of good Will by such Means as whereby they may discover that he favours them Therefore he appeared visibly to St. Paul by some Light and made him blind asking him wherefore he persecured him Making him understand by these outward Signs the State of his Soul by the Light he shews him that he was in darkness by the Blindness of his Eyes the Blindness of his Mind which must be directed to some one who might make him see the Truth and by the Question Wherefore he persecuted him to shew him how much he was deceived in Prosecuting the Christians who were the People of God This he knew not all these Things fell out not because God had partially chosen St. Paul to be his Apostle But because he had of his own Free-will chosen to follow Good and to resign himself to God But whereas Men see only these outward Things they believe God acts by Passion as they do and that he prefers one of his Creatures to another Which he does not at all For he loves them all equally as being all his Children and nevertheless gives more Grace to those who are most resigned to him And this with Reason For a Son who does his Fathers Pleasure and is dedicated to his Will is more worthy of Favours than another who resists and despises the Will of the same Father Magdalen received also the Grace of Conversion though she was a Sinner But if we consider well her inward Disposition we shall clearly perceive that she was truly
Darkness he knows not whither he goes Learning has led Men into great Presumption and Pride which estranges them from God So that they shall never know the Truth but by becoming Children re-entering into the Womb of their Mother which is the Original and the State of their Creation They must re-take their first Aims if they would discover the Secrets of God's Grace the Power of Free-will the Qualities of God the Love that he bears to Men and the way how he Rules and governs them Nothing of all this has been known hitherto I said to her That we had been for a long time in Errour that it was a wonder God had permitted such Ignorance in his Church She said Sir God never permits Evil on his part but he will not hinder Man to use his Free-will to do evil or good according to his desire If Ignorance entred into the Church it is not he that brought it in because he rear'd it up in Light and Divine Wisdom which if it had followed it could never have fallen into Errour Because the Wisdom of God is all beautiful and without Spot but Men who ought to receive and follow it have withdrawn themselves from it and embraced the Spirit of Errour which has still encreast to a greater Darkness to such a degree as that no Body knows now where he walks and they take False for Real and Lying for Truth and which is worse they love their Darkness and Errours rather than Light Though it be so agreeable yet nevertheless it is despised by Men now who do so cleave to their own Wisdom that they despise the Truth that is presented to them esteeming more their acquired Sciences than the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which is the only Mother that can nourish our Divine Souls which is at present despised by the Learned of this Age. Yea not only despised but even shock'd and persecuted For it is ordinary for the Wicked to persecute those who do not follow their Iniquities and for Fools to despise what they understand not or what they cannot comprehend The Wise of this World will never comprehend the Wisdom of God till they believe themselves to be ignorant as they truly are and till they shall become Children not that they must become Fools nor yet weak in Judgment as a Little Child is but till they shall submit their Wills to God as a Little Child submits himself to his Nurse who takes him up and lays him down and gives him his Nourishment according as she judges it to be needful without the Child's opposing himself thereto And though he cry sometimes when his Nurse handles him yet nevertheless she ceases not to do those necessary Things about him Even so would God do with our Will if it were resigned to him But when we will needs rule it our selves he lets us erre and be ignorant of what we are obliged to know Because he resists the Proud The Twentieth and Sixth Conference Declares the necessity there is of becoming Children that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all worldly Wisdom and all Humane Abuses I asked her How it was possible for a Man to quit all the Sciences acquired after the manner of Men that he may become a Child when he is come to Age She said Sir If you do it not you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus Christ tells this And he cannot lye But he presses this necessity of becoming a Child by threatning that otherwise we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which would be the greatest evil that could befal a Man It were better never to be born than not to be saved And since we cannot be saved without becoming Children we ought to become so at what Price soever Would you Sir esteem more the Honour of the World or your acquired Sciences than the Kingdom of Heaven This would be very lamentable since all the Things of this World pass away like a Bird that cleaves the Air and leaves no Mark of its Way So when we shall have past through this World nothing shall remain to us of our Sciences and Learning nor yet of our Honour and Reputation All ends with us and if some retain still an esteem of our Wisdom after Death we are insensible of it If we pleased our selves while we lived here the suffering for these Complacencies wait for us in the other World And our having been wise here is so sar from making us happy that 't is a great unhappiness to have lost the Kingdom of Heaven by this Wisdom Lay aside Sir all these Humane Considerations and become a Child though you be aged You have need to make the more haste for fear lest Time and Life fail you Never advise with Flesh and Blood for they deceive and corrupt us Let us only consult with our Divine Soul which is reasonable and it will tell you that there is nothing better or more reasonable than to resign our Free-will to God who gave us it and to submit it to his government as a Little Child That on this our Eternal Happiness depends and that nothing else can save us because without this Dependance there is no Salvation I said to her That I perceived this Truth most clearly that there was no Salvation without a Dependance upon God asking how I might now become ignorant of the Sciences which I had heretofore acquired since I could not make my self not to have them She said Sir Nothing can hurt you if all be subjected to God You cannot be ignorant of what you know by means of your Studies But you can submit all these Sciences to God and look upon them as Ignorances as in effect they are Do not apply your Mind any longer to the Study of Sciences and believe that they are all vain in respect of the Wisdom of God You shall know that you are resigned to his Will when you seek no longer for any thing upon Earth neither Learning nor Wisdom nor a desire to know any other thing but what may render you well pleasing to God For he who is resigned to him without guile is not moved with any thing but what concerns his Glory No other thing touches him Whether he be learned or ignorant is all one to him He makes use of Learning in what respects God's Glory and not at all to rule on the Earth knowing well that he who is resigned to God without Learning is as great as he who is so with much Learning And even as one may be poor in Spirit though he possesses Riches so he may have much Learning and yet for all this be simple in Spirit When he submits all his Learning to God he makes use of it as seems good to him But as long as we think to profit by it we are not yet become Children to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And since God makes appear to you
Commandments which were written in it And in the Gospel-Law how few have followed the Word of God Twelve Apostles Among whom one forsook it to go hang himself and some Disciples among whom divers also abandoned Jesus Christ So that this Divine Word has served for Nourishment for few Persons But in the Fulness of Time in which we enter at present this Divine Word shall have its full effect and the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon all Flesh Young and Old Great and Small so that all shall Prophesie and speak Languages and do more Wonders than Moses did with all the Antient Prophets who altogether were but Figures of the Things figured which we shall see very shortly come to pass which will be more perfect than all that the Apostles and their Disciples did yea even Jesus Christ himself because we are arrived at the Fulness of Time of which the Apostles says That they shall understand and prophesie in full perfection What they only did in part shall be in Fulness and Accomplishment because then all Men in general who shall remain on the Earth shall subject their Wills to that of God who will govern them according to his pleasure and without the contradiction of their own Wills Then there will be no longer need of Laws no more Constraint no more Commands no more Churches of Stone no more Sacraments no more Prayers no more Desires and Aspirations because the Souls of all Men shall be filled with the Will of God and shall have nothing more to ask Him by Prayer nor have any more need of the Sacraments to obtain his Graces which are all contained in the Accomplishment of his Will which will operate in them without having need to go to Church their Soul being the True Temple where the Will of God resides which has no need of Law or Commandment the Will of God being a Law to it self by Pure Love without any constraint Lo this is the Estate of Blessed Souls who shall enter into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ This is that Hidden Treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven and he that discovers it ought to sell all that he has to obtain it It is to be bought very easily There is no need of being Rich or of Noble Blood No need of Learning many Languages nor of passing the Degrees of the Schools and Universities No need to enter into Cloysters of strict Observance nor to crush the Body with hard Discipline Watchings Fastings and other Bodily Mortifications No need to learn to Read Write or any other Curious Art Nor yet is there need of perusing so many Spiritual Books with which the World is now full which Teach so many Methods of Perfection so many Steps to ascend to Vertue so many Means to find God No Sir all these Things are not necessary because there is but ONE THING ONLY so which is TO RESIGN OUR WILL TO THE WILL OF GOD. Lo this is the Leaven that leavens the whole Lump of the Law of Nature that of the Jews and that of the Gospel Because this Subjection of our Will to God comprehends all in it and gives us an Entry into the Kingdom of Heaven Lo this is all I have to say to you and bid you Adieu for ever Remaining your very Affectionate in a Dependance on the Will of God At Macklin Sept. 15. 1667. ANTHOINETTE BOVRIGNON Luke xxj 5. I will give you a Mouth and Wisdom which they who shall rise up against you shall not be able to gainsay nor resist Chap. x. 18. I beheld Satan falling from Heaven as Lightning THE END Of the Third and Last Part of The LIGHT of the World The TABLE of the Conferences of the Third Part of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD I. Conf. SHEWS That God never demanded any other thing of Man but the Dependance of his Will upon that of God and that all the other Laws are given him by accident and to discover to him his Sins pag. 1 II. Of Free-will That it is the only thing that represents in Man the Infinity and Liberty of God and that this is the greatest Gift that God gave to Man that he might love him freely and infinitely Which is the greatest Perfection in Grace and is Typified by that of Marriage in Nature p. 8 III. Speaks of the Perfection and Abuse of Marriage p. 15 IV. Of the Blindness of Men who amuse themselves with the outward Things which are delivered them without informing themselves of the Truth it self in its depth being charm'd and detained with the fear of displeasing those who are in Vogue p. 19 V. Of the Destruction of Christendom p. 24 VI. Shews the Marks by which it appears the World is judged and that Antichrist Reigns at present p. 29 VII Shews that Jesus Christ will come in Glory else he would not be the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD as he is and there would be no just Recompence of the Good and of the Wicked p. 39 VIII Shews That M. ANTHOINETTE BOURIGNON is sent from God to declare the Truth to Men. p. 44 IX Speaks of the Sins that we commit in another And that to declare the Truth of Evil is no sin p. 51 X. Shews what Souls shall be blessed and explains the Eight Beatitudes p. 61 XI Shews How we must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that we must return to a Dependance upon God which is the only thing that He does essentially require of Man p. 67 XII Shews that to be Saved there is One only thing to be done p. 72 XIII Shews That the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is the Last that God will send into the World and that the Holy Spirit comes now to give the perfect understanding of it p. 79 XIV Speaks of the Alliance that God will make with Men and of the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and that to have a share in it we must necessarily Resign our Will to God and re-enter into a Dependance upon him p. 83 XV. Shews how we must make use of all things to keep us in a Dependance upon God p. 88 XVI Shews how the Resignation of our Will to that of God is a continual Prayer that it supplies all particular Doctrines and Exercises and that the Gospel directs us only how to remove the Obstacles that hinder it the discovery of which is necessary p. 102 XVII Is a Recapitulation of all the foregoing Matters their Scope and Vse p. 108 XVIII Speaks of Hell and of the Damned which will be they who shall have followed their own VVill which is the cause of all Evil and that few were disposed to quit it that they may Resign themselves to God and receive the Divine Truth p. 116 XIX Shews that the Spirit of ANTICHRIST hinders Men from discovering the saving Truth and that Heathens are more Resigned to God than Christians at present p. 122 XX. Shews that very few among
the Conscience and that all these outward Things are nothing but Grimaces when they are not done from an abundance of inward Sentiments and that it is said to such Persons This People worship me with their Lips and their Heart is far from me All Christendom is full of this Blindness and they believe that God is served by outward Things Nevertheless it is a certain Truth That God has no need of material Things but desires only the consent of our Will to take his pleasure in us Which he cannot do so long as we will take our pleasure with the Creatures or with any Earthly Things even though according to our Opinion they should be good Things Because he is jealous of our Heart and will not suffer a Corrival and he has reason For it appertains to him alone Because he created it without the Interposition of any other Notwithstanding Man is so unthankful that he denies him his Heart and his Will and would content him with Words and outward Gestures and will not open his Eyes to discover the Truths which would save him from Damnation My Heart is oppressed with Grief Sir to see all the World perish and I cannot help it because they will not receive the Truth I am very far from desiring to leave my Neighbour out of disdain But I am obliged to leave him because he will not be converted to the Truth and the Holy Spirit sayes We ought not to speak that which does not profit I see the Vice of all Men clear as the Sun and I do not think that one can be saved in the State in which they are at present And yet I cannot save them by my Conversation Because they make not a good use of it If I declare their Vices in particular they are ill satisfied or at least they would cover and excuse them Which is evidence enough that they will not amend them and if I point out the Vices indirectly or in general then no Body will take it to himself but will excuse himself by some Formality or Reasoning and if any one lay them to Heart for a Time Men and Business do quickly banish these good Purposes And so nothing is put in practice My Time is lost And my Words are rendered useless whereas I would be profiting something in conversing with God Behold these are the Causes and Reasons why I will remain alone not to conceal the Light For I would have it Lighted for all the World and I know not a more perfect Contentment in this Life than the Meeting and Society of many Hearts united in Jesus Christ as also I know nothing more uneasie than the Conjunction of Persons of contrary Wills For I cannot change for them and they will not change to follow me This is the Combat I said to her That at least some would change to follow her and to save their Souls She said Sir You would be greatly astonished to see the way the World would take to change Every one forsooth would resign his Will to God provided he govern it according to their own Inclinations God must accommodate himself to them and they will not accommodate themselves to God Even so many would indeed follow me it so be withal they may follow also their own Will Which cannot be done For he who follows it is the Enemy of God and if I am his Friend how could I dwell with those who are his Enemies without a continual Constraint Contradiction and Debate All their Actions proceeding from this Self-love would be blameable If I do not reprove them I am unfaithful to God and if I reprove them I become their Enemy and withal they will not amend but will become rather worse applying themselves to remark if they can find any defects in my Actions for a Revenge and if they do not find any they will endeavour at least to despise my Intentions by measuring them according to their Line and interpreting them according to their Sentiments And thus they will offend God and trouble my Repose without any profit Therefore I foreseeing this would do very ill to associate with any Body unless I had assurance before-hand that they would resign themselves truly to God For else this would be to render my self a Slave and others miserable without any Contentment And as God takes his delight and pleasure with Souls whose Wills are united to his so he thrusts behind him those who are not in the Unity of his Divine Will even so ought I to thrust away from me those who will not truly resign their Wills to that of God because it is a kind of Martyrdom to live together bodily being divided in Will As it would be a Paradise of Delights to live with Persons who have their Wills equally resigned to that of God Which makes the true Paradise and perfect Contentment For God and these Souls would be but one and the same Thing I said to her That she ought to associate her self with sincere Persons and that her Company would be of great Advantage to them for attaining to this Resignation to God She said It is true Sir in case their Will were truly good But all that I remark in these Persons who would follow me and be saved is nothing but Wouldings not absolute Wills They say they would be converted they would follow me and be resigned to God while in effect they do neither the one nor the other before God Because these Wouldings proceed only from their own Will They would be converted being afraid of Damnation they would follow me that they may be saved and resign themselves to God only in Word or as long as the Will of God goes along with theirs Lo this is the good Will that I have experienced in those who would follow me and even at present I know no other For I perceive very often that they aim yet at their own Interest Honour or Pleasures So that it they were with me I would reprove all their Actions none excepted Which would be very irksome to me and troublesom to them yea even insupportable For so long as they are not truly designed to God they live still according to their Natural Senses which will not suffer Reproofs and Nature is so Proud that it will not acknowledge its Fault nor suffer disesteem presuming to be more wise and accomplished than its equals so that all that I should do to these Persons would only be to disquiet and vex them because they are so in love with their Vices and Imperfections that they even despise those that do not follow them So that I should live in a continual Constraint among others for I could not speak according to my Sentiments For they are not capable of them and I could not shew them their Faults because they presume to be as wise as I neither could I be profitable in their Company when they will not follow the Spirit that guides me but every
one abounds in their own Sense and will not submit themselves to the Truth without which Submission no Body can attain to this Resignation The necessity of this Dependance must be known or else they will not subject themselves to it For if they see not the necessity of doing this every one will believe he is in a State of Salvation in whatsoever Condition he be and thus every one will insensibly perish and my Company could not save them And since God has given me Liberty wherefore should I continue a Slave to Men when I cannot be profitable to them for the Glory of God I said to her That God was pleased to undergo the Slavery of our humane Nature for the Salvation of his Creatures and that she ought to be furnished with the same Spirit that Jesus Christ had She said Sir By his Grace I am so and I do so earnestly desire to see all Men saved that I would willingly dye for every one of them if I had as many Lives But I am well assured that my Conversation my Words and my Life cannot save them if they do not resign themselves of their own free Will to the Will of God Though all the Saints both Angels and Men pray together they will never procure the Salvation of so much as one Soul unless it resign its Will to God For this is a necessary Thing The Saints may indeed pray and the Angels solicite and all Men help any who has withdrawn from God to obtain this Dependance upon him But all this will avail him nothing if he do not of his own Free-will truly yield up his Will to God and deny his Self-will Very few comprehend this Nevertheless this is an Eternal Truth that will never change For God created Man only for this I said to her That I my self did not well comprehend this Necessity of Depending upon God entreating that she would explain it to me She said Sir Be attentive and consider my Discourse well Perhaps it will give you some Light in this Matter Consider first that God said Let us make Man after our Image and Likeness This was not said in vain but it had its full effect and Man was made after the Image and Likeness of God Consider a little Sir wherein you shall find the Likeness of God in Man It is not in his Natural Body For God is a pure Spirit and has nothing that resembles a Body Neither can this Likeness to God be found in the Animal Soul of Man because this Animal Soul has no more than the Beasts so far is it from resembling God for it extends no farther than to give Life to the Body for a certain Time whereas the Life of God is Eternal without Beginning and without End and a Temporal Thing cannot resemble an Eternal Therefore this Likeness of Man to God cannot be found in the Animal Soul of Man no more than in his Body And if one would seek for it in the Faculties of the Soul which are the Memory the Understanding the Will we shall find that these Three Faculties have no resemblance to God For they are imperfect and limited Which God cannot be Our Memory is very frail and sometimes does not remember on the Morrow what we did the preceding Day Our Understanding is in like manner subject to great defects taking False Things often for True And our Will is sometimes so insolent that if it were not bridled by Reason it would often precipitate us into irreparable Mischeifs All which Things are in nothing like to God since he is without any Imperfections or Defects perfect in all Things and without Bounds or Limits whereas the Faculties of our Soul are all limited as the Faculties of the Souls of Beasts are who have sometimes a better Memory than Men For if a Dog or a Horse be ill used in any Place he will remember it for a long time They have also a Will to do and to leave what they are naturally enclined to though it be bounded and limited as well as that of Man for neither the one nor the other can put their Will in Execution because they have not the power to do all that they can desire Which God can do in all Things By which we see that Man is not in any of these Things like to God For his Understanding is not capable of comprehending any thing but what he sees or hears as are the Beasts also So that by the Faculties of the Soul of Man we cannot perceive that he is like to God since he has an Eternal Memory an unlimited Understanding and an unchangeable Will To which the Faculties of the Souls of Men are not at all to be compared Wherein then can it be said that God has made Man like to himself Search into it with me Sir You will find that he is like to God in nothing but in his Free-will And as God has this Free Power over all Things so he gave to Man this Free Power over his own Will that he might dispose of it as it should please him in this alone he is the Image of God Because this Liberty is to him Eternal and Independent As God is Soveraign independent from all Things So Man is Soveraign of his own Free-will independent from all Things except that he acknowledge that this Liberty is given him of God that he neither has nor holds it of himself As God has and holds all Things of himself Otherwise Man is a Deity by his Free-will for by it he can do and leave any thing For God never retakes what he has once given neither will he ever retake the Free-will of Man but will let them enjoy it to all Eternity as being an Eternal Gift It will never end as long as God shall be God Man shall have his free Will both during this Life and also in the other in Paradise or Hell He shall have through all this Divine Quality of a Free-will which God gave him when he created him He shall not take it from him in Paradise because this is the only quality that Man has whereby he is capable of being united to God all the rest being only bounded and natural are not at all-capable of approaching a supream Deity The One and Twentieth Conference Speaks of the Free-will of Man in which alone he is like to God That God has given it to Man for ever That he has annexed to it all his future Graces And that never any Good nor any Evil will befal any Body in Time or in Eternity but by Free-will according as we shall yield it up or not to a Dependance upon and Resignation to God I said to her That we had been taught That Man had indeed Free-will when he was created But that by Sin it was so lost that he could not use it any longer to do good She said Sir Free-will shall never be diminished but will continue alwayes such as it was