runs thro' all that Divine Book of Thomas à Kempis of the Imitation of Christ Lo here an Extract of one Chapter where Jesus Christ thus speaks to the Soul Son let not the fine and subtile Sayings of Men move thee for the Kingdom of God is not in Word but in Power Take heed to my Words which do enflame the Heart and enlighten the Mind which bring Compunction and procure various consolations Never read my Word for this End That thou may be esteem'd the more learned or the more wise but study the Mortification of thy Vices for that will profit thee more than many hard Questions When thou hast read and known much thou must still return to one Principle I am he who teaches Man Knowledge and gives to Little Ones a more clear Understanding than what he can be taught by Man He to whom I speak will soon be Wise and will profit much in Spirit Wo to them that enquire many curious things from Men and care little how to serve me I am he who elevates the humble Mind in a Moment that it may conceive more Reasons of the Eternal Truth than if one studied for Ten Years in the Schools I teach without the Noise of Words without the Confusion of Opinions without the Vanity of Honour without the Debate of Arguments I am he who teaches to despise earthly things to loath present things to seek and relish eternal things to flee Honours to suffer Reproaches to place all their Hope in me to desire nothing besides me and to love me ardently above all things For a certain Person by loving me dearly did learn Divine Things and spoke wonderful Things he profited more by forsaking all than by studying difficult things But to some I utter common things to some special ones to some I appear sweetly in Signs and Figures but to others I reveal Mysteries in much Light There is one Voice of Books but it does not equally instruct all for I am the Teacher of the Truth inwardly the Searcher of the Heart the Understander of the Thoughts the Furtherer of Actions distributing to every one as I shall judge worthy Now Writings whose chief Tendency is to lead us to so excellent a Master to learn in Christ's School and teach us how to labour for the Dispositions which he himself requires of us deserve to meet with some Regard by those who pretend to be his Disciples XXIII 8. Another remarkable Quality of those Writings is that they are so clear and plain and simple The Thoughts of the Studious and of the Learned are out of the common Road of the People and so are their Words and Language too and when they write they can hardly avoid the Terms of the Schools and all affect a certain Eloquence that darkens the Thoughts which we would express both because we have not clear Perceptions of those Truths and we still seek our selves and many who have pretended to Divine Inspiration have written so Mysteriously and under such dark Figures that they cannot be easily comprehended But those Writings are so clear that we may easily and distinctly perceive the Intent of them so plain that Children and the most illiterate People may easily understand them and so simple that there is nothing of humane Art or Varnish to be seen in them XXIV 9. It is no less remarkable that there is a convincing Force and Efficacy in those Writings which does sensibly touch the Hearts of those that read them their Consciences bears them witness of the Truth of things as to themselves and they are convinced of all not that all are so who read any of them no more than all who heard Jesus Christ himself were affected with his Words tho' he spoke as one that had Authority and not as the Scribes tho' never Man spoke like him yet the Pharisees said he had a Devil but others who heard him felt that he had the Words of Eternal Life So some call this Virgin a Devil and Enchantress a mad whimsical Woman Others are so convinced of the Truths of the Gospel contained in her Writings that they are ready to answer she is not mad but speaks the Words of Truth and Soberness Many I know can bear me Witness that upon the reading of her Writings they have felt a deeper Sense of Divine things and their Hearts and Consciences have been more touched than by most of other Writings which they have seen And this can be testified by Persons of different Parties and Perswasions by Learned and Unlearned and it deserves the more Consideration that they are not written in a Way to move the Passions in Flights of Devotion as some would have them pass for but in a simple naked Declaration of Divine Truths All Writings carry along with them certain Impressions of the Spirit with which they are written which we are apt to discern and accordingly to be affected by them If Self be the chief Mover it will be seen thro all the Disguises of the Writer There 's a certain Driness and Deadness in most of Writings and Sermons now adays about Divine Things that they do not at all touch the Heart and even the best of them savour more of the Head of than the Heart of the Spirit of Man than of the Spirit of God and so they cannot rise higher than their Original they may strike and please our Fancy but they cannot move the Divine Faculties of the Soul I cannot give a better Account of this than A. B. does when she complains that tho' there was never more Preaching than in this Age yet never a greater spiritual Famine that they do not give Nourishment to Souls which every Day wax leaner and leaner in Vertue and colder in Charity She says The Word of the Preachers cannot be God's Word for then certainly it would produce its Effects in well-disposed Souls for the Word of God is powerful It would possess the inseparable Qualities of God Righteousness and Goodness and Truth If one of these be wanting it is not the Word of God they may use the Terms and Expressions which Jesus Christ and his Apostles used yet that is not the Word of God They are not called by God but carried to the Ministry by Ambition or some worldly and human Interest Their Sermons are nothing else but Apish Mummeries If an Ape saw an excellent Painter drawing a curious Picture and if in his Absence it should take the Pencils and Colours and so scratch upon the same Table it would entirely Daub all tho' it made Use of the same Pencils and Colours because it wanted the Painter's Spirit this Defect marrs all even what was beautiful there before the Ape touch'd it This is the true Emblem of most of the Preachers and Writers now adays in Religion They have the Scripture as the Pallet wherein are distinguish'd the fine Colours of Vertues with which Jesus Christ began the excellent Portraiture of the Holy Church They
Nothingness and to leave all these things which seem disputable to the Wisdom of God reckoning our selves unworthy to be able to comprehend what he is how he does his Works and by what means he saves Men relying on the Faith that shews us that he does all things in Goodness Righteousness and Truth without amusing our selves with any other thing but to put in practice the things which he has openly declar'd to us by his Gospel which are necessary for our Salvation such as Humility of Heart Self-denial the Love of God and the Love of our Neighbour It is better to exercise our selves in these solid Doctrines than to break our Heads in disputing and desiring to comprehend what is in God or how he governs Men Better let our selves be govern'd by him as little Children than to be inform'd how he will govern us It is to this says he that I exhort all the World knowing well that all the rest is nothing but Vanity and Amusement of Spirit For all the Learning and Curiosities of all the Men in the World cannot save us on the contrary their Doctrines Learning and Sentiments do rather withdraw us from God and our Salvation They either furnish us with means of Self-presumption or they slacken our Care to work out our Salvation Those words of Scripture which seem to say that God reprobates or damns Men cannot be understood but by the Signification of them which cannot be known but by the Light of Faith for if we take these words according to our Sense we should speak Evil of God and believe that he is Furious or Evil which cannot be for he is all Goodness all Peace and Tranquility and therefore he who would not utter Slanders against God ought not to stick to the Terms of the Scripture but in so far as they lead us to love and adore God or to the knowledge of our own Nothingness and Charity to our Neighbour for God has neither said nor taught to us but the things which tend to these Truths Thus when we believe that all Grace and Salvation comes immediately from God as it is true because we are Nothings then we honour God and acknowledge his Almighty Power in making so great things by his Grace of nothing and we must needs love him also by this Consideration and beg that he will continue and encrease this Grace and when we believe that God is so Gracious towards us that as soon as a sinner shall repent and turn unto him he will have Mercy on him this reinforces our Love to him in consideration of the Love he bears us so mercifully to Pardon us In these two Senses we may hold different Opinions about Grace and believe that it comes entirely from God and believe also that Men may have it when they will since God never rejects a penitent Sinner But whether we hold the one or the other of these in terms which do not tend to humble us and to acknowledge the Greatness of God that we may love and adore him it is an evil thing and it is a great rashness for Man to interpret and corrupt the Scriptures by Terms which authorize a Remissness in Vertue For they who will Gloss on the Scripture Words might say that God spoke not truly when he said to Jonas yet Forty Days and Ninevah shall be destroyed for the thing did not fall out according to the Terms which were not conditional but absolute Yet notwithstanding we ought not to surprize God in his Words or in the Scripture Terms but we ought to draw profit to our Souls from them conformably to his Designs who speaks only for our Profit He says absolutely that Ninevah shall be destroyed because the Inhabitants merited this Sentence the Justice of God condemn'd their Injustice but how soon they repented and embraced Penitence his Goodness and Mercy did also pardon them We must not therefore say that God did not speak truly but that he judg'd them justly and that he afterwards mercifully pardon'd them without being nice or grumbling about the Form of his Words or Expressions which are design'd only to make us grosly to understand the things according to our Capacity and Weakness These are certainly most excellent Cautions as to the expounding and understanding of the Holy Scriptures where the most necessary Duties are most plainly set down and obscure things cannot be discovered by human Wisdom but by Divine Faith and by the same Spirit that endited them where we ought not to quibble about Words and Phâ—ases but so to consider them as may tend most to the Love of God and Charity to our Neighbours and a deep Sense of our own Nothingness This is the excellent Rule given by S. Augustine hereafter to be mentioned this is the Method which the holy Fathers observed in interpreting the Holy Scriptures which makes their Writings so full of Unction and how desirable a Blessing is it that they who write Commentaries now adays may be acted by the same Spirit but this is thought too mean and simple for the Learning and Criticks of this Age. XXVII 12. The Clearing of Difficulties about Divine Truths in a few Words is likewise a singular Quality of those Writings The Learned we see still wrangle about them to Eternity writing huge Volumes and confounding rather than clearing them by a Multitude of Words and Distinctions The Doctrines about Grace Predestination and the Free-will of Man have been toss'd unsatisfactorily thro' many Ages Multitudes of Volumes written concerning them and yet the greatest Difficulties still left unresolved both Sides having a Mixture of Truth and Error the one that they might give all to God taking from Man what he had irrevocably given him and the other that they might reserve this to Man taking from God and subjecting to the Caprice of Man that which belongs to the pure Grace of God and from both there do follow Consequences most injurious to God and most prejudicial to the Salvation of Men tho' disclaimed by the most Now in two or three Sheets of Paper of those Writings there is more said for the clearing of those Difficulties than in whole Libraries of Volumes This in the â— and 2. Chap. of the 1. Part of Academ des Scavans Theologiens written upon Occasion of Conferences with and at the Desire of a learned and pious Divine Mr. Peter Noels Canon at Maline a Jansenist who had been Secretary to the famous Jansâ—nius Yprensis and had a great Veneration for this Virgin and her Writings to his Death I shall mention another Instance of this Nature of Mr. Gilleman's Canon and Arch-Priest at Gaunt famous there for some Writings who having ask'd her Judgment of the Doctrine of the Casuists then much talk'd of viz. That a Man may be sav'd by Attrition without Contrition by Sorrow for his Sins without the Love of God telling her that he had writ a large Volume against this false Doctrine she told him
a Christian being a Man full of Zeal and of great Learning and hearing that there were Persons risen up who would destroy the Law and seduce the Simple and that they worshipped the first of these Impostors who was hanged on a Tree and that these new Upstarts were but a Rabble bigotted with that new kind of Folly which was like to hazard the Law of God and this being told him by all his Masters and Teachers the Priests the People his Kinsfolks and Friends instead of informing himself without Prejudice of those Men their Doctrine their Behaviour which would have prevented many false Steps he is carried to reproach and hate and persecute them that he may maintain the Truth of God and cut off Error and Heresie and the Seduction of the People Now what has fallen out in former Times may fall out in this and the most innocent Persons and Writings may meet with the most universal Reproaches and Prejudices It is certainly the Devil's Interest that it should be so and we see how successful his Attempts have been in former Ages He still made it his Business to get on his side those who set up to be the Guides and Leaders of the People and by this means always to oppress blacken and discredit Truth and Innocence II. Now the Person and Writings of A. B. have been loaded with as many Reproaches and Prejudices as any in this Age and that both in her Life time and since her Death Where-ever she went the Church-men of the respective Parties breath'd nothing but Fire and Faggot against her in their Pamphlets and Pulpits made her to pass for the worst of Hereticks and her Writings for a Sink of all Heresies and Blasphemies and thus it was easie to inspire People with Rage and Fury so that if they could have had her to have ston'd her to Death they would have thought they had done good Service and no sooner is one of her Writings translated into English for the spiritual Good of well-disposed Souls but immediately some are pleas'd to sound the Trumpet and to cry out Heresie and Blasphemy Errors and Delusions and this is enough to frighten a whole Island from looking into these Writings and to breed an Aversion against those who esteem and value them because of the Truths of God contain'd in them It was a remarkable Providence that she met with such Opposition from all Parties while she lived whereby as she discovered impartially the Evils of the respective Sects and Parties into which Christendom is divided so also she clearly vindicated her self from being guilty of the Errors and Heresies of which they accus'd her discovered the Impudence of their Calumnies and Slanders and remov'd from well-dispos'd Persons the Prejudices which had been given them against her We need only then give a short Account of what was laid to her Charge and her own Vindication of herself by which her Sincerity her Innocency her distinct and most rational Knowledge of the Truths of Religion her Orthodoxy and the Subservency of her Writings to the great Ends of Christianity will I hope appear to all unbiass'd Readers III. But first let us premise the Complaint she makes in general of the unjust Measures of her Adversaries how void they were of true Charity and Equity What ever Good or Truth was incontestably in her Writings they conceal'd it they lessen'd it whatever was capable of being turn'd to an Evil Sence they perverted it they pick'd out half Sentences here and there throughout her Writings and on these they put a Sence which she never intended concealing in the mean time what went before or after that might serve to clear the true sence and meaning of the Expression Any Doctrine of Christianity that was not so fully exprest in one Place they were ready to accuse her of denying it tho' she most clearly asserted it in another They were ready to catch at her Words and to interpret them according to the Niceness of the Schools not considering the simplicity and plainness with which she wrote she being intent to make known the Truth to all sincere and well-disposed Souls without regarding that nice and captious Wits would be ready to carp and quibble upon this or the other Word and not allow her to explain her self In short the great End of Christianity being to bring Men to the Love of God and the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and Self-will and this being the Butt of all her Writings as is most evident to any who pleases to read them she makes appear that her Adversaries cannot be Lovers of the Truth or of God that their Aim is not to maintain the Truth and oppose Error else they would rejoice to see this great End of Religion to be the Butt and Substance of so many Writings and that there are uncontestably contain'd in them so great a number of Divine Truths all tending to this End They would own and acknowledge this they would wish to meet with the Truth every where even in the things which seem'd to them obscure and disagreeable to it they would see if these were more clearly explain'd in other Places and if they might well bear a Sence that were agreeable to this great End of Religion or if even the Errors which they thought were contain'd there were no ways destructive of the true Love of God and so for the sake of them the whole Writings need not be forbidden and discredited IV. They may be convinced of the Injustice of the Measure by considering only how hard they would think it to have their own Writings so treated how odd it would seem to them if one should deal with the Sacred Scriptures after that Method and what wretched Conclusions an Enemy of Christianity might thereby draw from them and that if it had been their Luck to have been bred up at the Feet of Gamaliel among the Jewish Rabbies or with Porphyr among the Philosophers the Spirit and Measures by which they judge of Persons Sentiments and Writings would have animated them as much against Jesus Christ himself and had they come but Sixteen Hundred Years sooner into the World and been leaven'd with the same Spirit they should have been listed among the Philo-Judaeus's and the Porphyrs and overlooking the Substance of the Doctrine and Life of Jesus Christ would have pick'd out a half Sentence here and a Word or two there and some Passages of his Life that prejudiced Minds would be readiest to judge hardly of and wrest them to such a Sence and give all such a Turn as might make him pas for a Blasphemer a Seducer a Subverter of the Law of God a Teacher of Doctrines that would turn the World upside down one Self-conceited who spoke well of himself and ill of others who were more learn'd and pious than himself in a word give such a Character and Narrative of him patch'd up of some shreds of the Story of his Life and
or where he spoke more mysteriously as well knowing that he had the Words of Eternal Life They who come then to consider these Writings with a single Eye with a sincere Desire to understand the Truth and to do the same shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether she speaks of her self V. In writing this Apology we shall give 1st An Abstract of her Sentiments and Character of her Writings 2d Some of the most remarkable Prejudices raised against her and her Answers to them 3d. The Evidences she gives of her being led by the Spirit of God with her Answers to the Prejudices opposed thereunto most of the Prejudices of late raised against her being such as were objected to her in her own Life-time I chose to give her own Defences which upon many Accounts I judge will be more acceptable than what I might offer to say for her 4th An Abstract of her Life Vnto which shall be subjoined some of her Letters which will both serve farther to vindicate her from the Calumnies raised against her and may be of great use to these who do sincerely love the Truth and desire the Salvation of their Souls To all such I hope this will not be unacceptable there being nothing aim'd at but to make us all lay to Heart this great Truth Civitates duas fecerunt amores duo Civitatem mundi quae Babilonia dicitur amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei Civitatem Dei quae Jerusalem dicitur amor Dei usque ad contemptum sui August de Civ Dei ERRATA PAge 6. line 26. for had read has p. 7. l. 4. for do r. diâ— ibid. l. 25. and 26. into r. in p. 9. l. 42. the r. them p. 15. l. 23. love r. live p. 16. l. 20. there r. the. p. 24. l. 39. dele to p. 28. l. 20. after People r. taught ibid. l. 28 blot out be p. 29. l. 8 after not r. from p. 35 l. 37. he r. she p. 39. l. 15. him r. them p. 41 l. 29. since after r. thereafter ibid. blot out had p. 45. l. 42. after with r. an p. 46. l. 28. after them r. and that p. 51. l. 38. his by r. by his p. 56. l. 3. as r. 〈◊〉 p 64. l. 6. not r. none ibid l 28 after makes r. appear p. 68 l. 14. converted r. covered p. 69. l. 25. there r. then p. 73. l. 9. and r. of p. 74. l. 30. there r. their p. 78. l. 23. after it r. is ibid. l 27. tho' r. that p. 80. l. 39. after done r. God p. 84 l. 21. that r. but p. 101 l. â—6 〈◊〉 to it p. 1â—2 l. 33. blot out only p. 1. 3. l. 18 â— minuendam ibid. l. 35. nutri r. neutri p. 1â—8 l. 19. 2. presence r. prescience p. 113. l. 32 r. fatereris 〈◊〉 34. r. Nocendum ibid. 43. r. divinitus p. 114. l. 〈◊〉 iruendum p. 120. l. 27. after these r. says she p. 120. l. 〈◊〉 great r. so p. 13. l. 31 after and r. lay p. 134. l. 2â— after â—ccasion r. to shew p. 135. l. 18. for that O! r. O! that p. 38. l. 8. after withdraw r. from p. 144 l. 13. of r. if p. 152. l. 12. Consultations r. Conclusious l. 19. loving r. living l. 37 object r. objects p. 190. l. 1. he r. they ibid. l. 39. dele upon p. 192 l. 18. his r. this l. 40. his r. this p. 217. l. 41. Spiri r. Spirit p. 213. l. 5. inferiour r. Superiour p. 230. l. 36. blot out or Conditions p. 239. l. 6. Epaphirus r. Epaphroditus ibid. â—mar for Tit. 4. 20 r. 2. Tim. 4. 20 p. 244. l. 39 such r. how p. 247. l. 31. has r. have p. 256. l. 33. declare r. declare p. 257. l. 37. for had r. has p. 271. l. 39. ye r. yet p. 273. l. 9. plea'd r. pleas'd ibid. l. 11. Smoke r. Smoak p. 277. l. 9. blot out to p. 279. l. 42. substance r. subsistance p. 292. l. 28. alie r. ally p. 295. l. 9. Coriathe r. Coriache p. 296. l. 29. Rufus r. Refuse p. 307 l. 39. liquitale r. liquidate p. 317. l. 19 fundamentally r. fraudulently p. 325. l. 32. after to r. be p. 327. l. 25. with it r. it with p. 3â—9 l. 35. after she r. did p. 331. l. 33 Dâ—ustâ—uction r. Destraction p. 334. l. 27. in r. thro' p. 336. l. 21 after consider r. them p. 352. l. 35. blot our to p. 353. l. 4 Men all r. all Men. p. 355. l. 23. pussiman r. pijssimam p. 358 l. 14 Narrater r. Narrator p. 361 l. 11. for r. far p. 374. l. 4 of his r. of this p. 379. l. 12. and r. of p 383. l 24. so tho' l. so that p. 384 l. 23 and 24 Corinthus r. Cerinthus p. 39 l 31. insecti r infecti ibid. l. 34. initi r. miti p. 394. l. 24. Flaterings â— flatering l. 28. for being almost brought in o â— bending almost into Advertisement TWo of Mrs. A. B's Treatises done into English viz. Solid Vertue and the Light of the World maybe had at the same Places where this is AN APOLOGY FOR M. A. BOVRIGNON PART I. An Abstract of her Sentiments and Character of her Writings I. MEN are generally led to take an estimate of Sentiments and Writings from the Opinion they have conceived of the Persons who communicate them and that grounded upon Circumstances which have no necessary connexion with Truth or Error The Poor Man's Wisdom is despis'd and his Words are not heard The Words and Works of Jesus Christ if they had come from a Scribe or Pharisee his Countrymen would have receiv'd both him and them but because they knew his Extract the Meanness of his Education that he had no Learning and that the Learned had no regard for him therefore they despiss'd him Have any of the Scribes and Pharisees believ'd on him Is not this the Carpenter's Son Is not his Mother call'd Mary and his Brethren and his Sisters are they not all with us Whence then hath this Man all these things and they were offended in him II. Thus had the Sentiments of A. B. been the Product of some of the Ancient Philosophers or of the Holy Fathers or even of some learned Head in this Age they would have met with regard But because they come from a Woman void of all Humane Learning and declaring that she is taught of God they are entertain'd with Contempt and Scorn and instead of weighing the Sentiments themselves Prejudices are first heap'd together to disparage her Person and thereby to breed an Aversion against any thing she can say tho' never so true and useful This is very far from the excellent Advice given us by Tho. a Kemp. Of the Imitation of Christ Book 1. Chap. 5. Sect. 2. which I wish we may all follow Let not says he the Authority of the Writer offend thee whether his Learning be
Actions of Men and it is so pure and excellent that her greatest Enemies have been forc'd to acknowledge it to be so that they might be the less suspected when they blame her in other things XI This Account of the Essentials of Religion I have given in her own Words she having summ'd them up in several Parts of her Writings sometimes under fewer Heads and sometimes under more tho' as to their Substance they are still the same And all her Writings have no other Tendency but to awaken in Mens Hearts a Sense of those Divine Truths and to convince them how far they are from them in their Practice She aims at nothing but to perswade Men that they cannot be saved without the Love of God that their corrupt Nature now leads them only to love themselves and the Creatures which is inconsistent with the Love of God that they cannot return to it without denying and mortifying this corrupt Nature which Jesus Christ by his Merits and Intercession has obtained Grace for them to do and this can be done only by obeying his Gospel-Law and following his Example which no body truly does This is the Substance of all her Writings These Truths she inculcates a hundred and a hundred times This is the constant Burthen of her Song Some other Sentiments which she calls Accessory Truths she mentions perhaps but three or four times in all her Writings And because every Palate does not relish them shall therefore those Books be despised and thrown away which do so lively represent the Essential Truths of the Gospel Would we throw away a Box of Pearls because some conceited Friend snatch'd at something amongst them and squeezing it hard at our Nose made it smell as Dung and then cry'd out Fie all is Filth throw all away Sure if these be the Great and Essential Truths of Religion they who love the Religion of Jesus Christ more than Prejudice or Party will greatly value and esteem the Writings of which those Truths are the Marrow the Substance and the All and will no more be scandaliz'd at them because of the Snarling of some than they would despise Pearls because Swine trample on the or Holy Things because Dogs bark at them XII Now that these are the Great and Essential Truths of Christianity will I think be readily granted by all The Holy Scriptures declare unto us that God is Love that they who dwell in Love dwell in God and God in them that there is none Good but God that the Sum of his Law is to love him with all our Hearts and our Neighbour as our selves that while we love the World the Love of the Father is not in us that Jesus Christ became Sin for us who knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him that Jesus Christ is come to bless us in turning every one of us from our Iniquities that unless we repent we shall certainly perish that in his Life and Death he was given us an Example that we should follow his Steps that by Nature we are the Children of Wrath that we cannot be his Disciples unless we deny our selves take up our Cross and follow him that if we be risen with Christ we will set our Affections on those things that are above and not on those things that are beneath that they who are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof that Knowledge puffs up but Charity edifieth that all Knowledge and all Faith without Charity profits us nothing XIII Thus S. Augustine in his Writings and particularly in his excellent Treatise De Doctrina Christiana Lib. 1. makes a Summary of the same Nature Of the Essentials of Christianity He considered all Beings under Three distinct Ranks and Orders Some which are to be enioy'd others which are to be used and others in the middle between these and they formed to enjoy and to use those other Beings The Things to be enjoy'd are those which make us happy The Things to be used are those which help us to attain to that which makes us happy and to cleave to it We who are to enjoy and use those things being plac'd between both if we give our selves to Enjoy the things which we should only use we are stopp'd in our Course and come short of our Happiness being entangl'd with the Love of things below To enjoy is by Love to cleave to something for its self To use a thing is to employ it as a Mean to attain to that which we love as Strangers travelling to their Native Country make use of Horses by Land or Ships by Sea to bring them thither That which is to be enjoy'd is only God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Infinite and Unchangeable Good We ought to love nothing for it self but God and all other things only in and for God Other things are to be used or avoided as they are Helps or Hinderances of the Love of God All who are capable of Enjoying God as we are that is all our Neighbours we ought to love them as our selves that is to desire or endeavour that they be brought with us to love and enjoy God All Sin and Evil consists in the Loving and Enjoying what we ought only to use the Creatures and their Perfections and the Using what we ought to Enjoy Vtendis frui Fruendis uti This has so darkned and corrupted our Minds that we are not capable of loving and enjoying this infinite Good In order to this they must be cleansed and purified which is as it were a Travelling and Voyaging to our Country This could not have been if Wisdom it self had not stoop'd to our Infirmity and cloath'd himself with our Flesh to obtain Pardon and Grace for Sinners and to give them an Example in their own infirm Nature And as to convey our Thoughts to others we must cloath them with Words tho' thereby they are not defil'd nor chang'd so the Eternal and Unchangeable Word became Flesh and dwelt among us the Truth and the Life became the Way and brought us the wholsom Physick that is necessary to cure the Maladies of our Souls Remedies for every Disease The Sum of all is that the Fulness and End of all the Holy Scriptures is the Love of God and our Neighbours the Being that is to be enjoy'd and those Beings which are capable of enjoying him with us And that we might know and be able to do this the Providence of God has order'd the whole Temporal Dispensation for our Salvation which we ought to use not with an abiding Love but a transient one as we would love a Way or a Chariot that we may love those things in which we are carried for the sake of that to which we are going This is the Substance of that Excellent Book XIV It is true A. B. mentions other Sentiments which are not of the Essence of Religion but then she declares they are not
have also the Pencil which is the Word with which Jesus Christ and his Apostles laid on these fine Colours of Vertues in Souls but they want as that Ape the Spirit of that excellent Master which is Jesus Christ They have on Paper the same Words which the Holy Spirit dictated but they have not the same Holy Spirit to apply them in Practice to their own Souls and far less to the Souls of their Hearers XXV 10. Those Writings give us such just and clear Representations of the Truths of Christianity as tend to take us off from Self and from the Creatures and to make us turn unto and depend wholly upon God such as does not favour us in the least Sin and yet encourages the greatest Sinner to turn to God such as leads us to ascribe nothing to our selves but Evil and nothing to God but Good Such as lets us see that nothing can excuse us from obeying the Commands of the Gospel and following the Example of Jesus Christ without which by him tâ—ere is no Salvation It is true of Doctrines as well as Men By their Fruits ye shall know them Such Doctrines as tend to sooth Mens Corrupt Inclinations to teach them how to love God and the World too to gratifie their Appetites here and yet hope to enjoy God hereafter I do not mean in so many express Words but in their natural Tendency such certainly are not of God Now the Doctrines contained in those Writings have quite another Tendency as has been said There we have such true and lively Representations of God as shews us that he is altogether Lovely of his Design in creating Man only to be enjoy'd and lov'd by him without any decree or purpose of damning the greatest part of Mankind as may stir us up to comply with so tender a Love with so generous a Design of the horrid Degeneracy and Corruption of Man now both in Soul and Body as may make us abhor our selves of our Sins their being purely our own deed without any the least Predetermination or Concurrence of God but the contrary as may keep us from excusing our selves or laying the blame on God of the Merits Satisfaction and Intercession of Jesus Christ as may convince us that Pardon and Reconciliation with God and Grace and Means to return to God is to be obtain'd and that only by him of the Necessity and Nature of the preventing concurring and renewing Grace of God as may make us continually seek to him for it and yield up our selves to be guided by it of the Nature and Corruption of our Will as shews the absolute necessity of denying it and yielding it up to God of the Doctrine and Example of Jesus Christ as may convince us that our Corrupt Nature cannot be overcome and we cannot return to the Love of God without obeying his Precepts and following his Example Now Writings of such a Tendency ought not to be despis'd and ridicul'd by the Professors and Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ and that they have this Tendency I appeal to any who have read any of them without an Evil Eye XXVI 11. Those Writings do contain also many Divine Explications of the Holy Scripture not after the way of criticizing and reckoning up the several meanings and acceptions of a Word or the various Sences of Inpreters which a Man may be well vers'd in and yet be altogether ignorant of the true sence and meaning of the Holy Scripture where he pretends to Interpret it We see all Sciences have a certain Light by which they are discerned a certain Disposition of Faculties which makes us capable to understand them certain Principles which lead to the Knowledge of them and when these are wanting we grope in the Dark Children and Boys may understand all the Words of a Book of Philosophy of the Propositions in Euclid and yet understand nothing of the Truths contain'd there To understand the Holy Scriptures and the things of God we had need to be endued with the same Spirit and to be in the same Disposition with those who wrote them Now if any will be pleas'd to compare the Expositions given in those Writings of some places of Holy Scripture with the learned Comments of the Interpreters and Criticks of the Age I am perswaded that if they be not greatly prejudic'd they will be convinc'd that her Expositions come from a more Divine Original than than the most of the other that they give a clearer Light more worthy of God and more suitable to the great Ends of Religion that in this the Truth of our Saviour's words is manifest that God hides these things from the Wise and Prudent and reveals them unto Babes and that with great reason she blest God who preserv'd her from drinking in Humane Learning Of all these I shall instance one which deserves a particular Consideration and that is her Exposition of the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew set down in the First Part of La Lumiere nee on Tenebres It is too long to offer to transcribe it here they who are desirous to see it need not want Occasions To this I cannot but subjoin the just Cautions she gives and the excellent Rules for the Interpreting of the Holy Scriptures She makes appear how rash Men are in glossing the Holy Scriptures since the things which concern our Salvation are so plainly set down in them that they need no Glosses and the obscure things cannot be understood but by the same Spirit who endited them and not by Humane Wisdom which is directly opposite to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which descends only into humble Souls That they who will needs interpret the Scriptures by Humane Wisdom fall into great Mistakes and understand the Terms quite othewise than the Spirit of God intended Thus it is said that God hardened Pharaoh's Heart the meaning cannot be that he hardens Mens Hearts by making them obstinate in Evil for God can never co-operate to any Evil being the Fountain of all Good But he speaks thus to make us know that he leaves a wicked Man to go on in his Wickedness when he will not be restrain'd But on his part he uses always Goodness towards them that he may convert them both by good Inspirations Admonitions and other proper Means But when their Free-wills are willful to persist in Evil he leaves them to themselves The main Difficulty there is in understanding of the Scriptures arises from this that we do not know the Qualities of God and we are ready to attribute to him such as Men have imagining that he has a Love for some and a Hatred for others And thus every one is wedded to his own Sence and Opinions and will maintain them as the Truths of God But the best Course is still to take the Holy Scriptures in that Sence that draws us more and more to the Love of God and to the Knowledge of our own
her Thoughts and withal that she had written her Thoughts lately on the same Matter which he having obtain'd the Sight of after Importunity and with a Promise to restore it within three Days he read it with Feeling and Admiration and returning it said You have said more things and more forcible on this Subject in one Sheet than I have done in all my Book which has cost me so much Time Pains and Expences and therefore I condemn it never to see the Light It is the 4th Chapter of the fore-cited Book XXVIII 13. Those Writings are worthy of our Regard in that they tend to discourage and remove out of the Christian World the Disputing and Controversal Divinity and to take Men off from the Spirit of Controversie which has banished the Life and Spirit of Christianity from among Men. Some are ready to say that her Writings tend rather to multiply Controversies than to remove them in that they advance so many new Doctrines and Opinios which were never formerly heard of But these need give no Occasion of Dispute she declares they are not Matters of Faith are not necessary to Salvation they who are perswaded of the Truth of them and find them helpful to increase their Love and Admiration of God will receive them without disputing about them and they who are not perswaded of the Truth of them may let them alone and so there needs no Dispute and no Body will contend with them about them But those Writings tend to take Men off from this Spirit they make so clear a Difference between the Essentials and the Accessories of Religion so plainly describe the first that all cannot but be convinc'd of them and they shew that the last ought not to be any Subject of Debate and Contention They make appear that the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is to be learn'd by Simplicity and humble Prayer and not by Controversie and Debate and that none are more capable of understanding it than they who are led by the Spirit they shew that there is nothing more contrary to the Spirit and Great End of Christianity than the Spirit of Controversie That they who are led by it cannot endure that others should differ from them in some Sentiments about Religion even tho' they agree in the Essentials and Fundamentals of it but presently they prosecute him with all the Spite and Rancour they are capaple of as the Enemies of God and Religion and do all they can to inspire the same Spite and Aversion against them in all on whom they have Influence They assix on them hateful Names accuse them of Crimes they were never guilty of Blasphemy Idolatry c. they treat them with Contempt and Scorn make them pass for mad and distracted the Good in them or the Truth that appears in their Writings they conceal and are griev'd at it and make it pass for what they call in Scorn Flights of Devotion or the Effects of a warm Imagination and they rejoice when they meet with any thing that can expose them or make them hateful they cannot easily believe any thing that is Good in them but very readily Evil they do not consider the great Tendency of their Life and Writings but cull out some Instances and Passages of both which may separately seem hâ—rsh and they assix on them the hardest Sence they are capable of and from these draw Consequences and form odious Pictures of them from them they can endure no hard Words without Rage and Displeasure but against them they insult and triumph In a Word this Spirit is the compleat Reverse of that Charity which S. Paul describes It suffers little is unkind envious rash puffed up behaves it self unseemly seeks it self is easily provoked thinketh Evil rejoiceth in Iniquity but rejoiceth not in the Truth bears with nothing believes nothing hopes nothing endures nothing Now all things being diffusive of themselves this Evil exerting it self in the Writings and Discourses of Men spreads like a Contagion and our corrupt Nature being more susceptible of Evil than Good is soon seized with the Malignity Hence cometh that Hatred Variance Strife Evil-speaking those Revilings Calumnies Sects Schisms Wars Fightings Persecutions c. which have made the Christian World so much the Sport of the Devil and the By-word of the rest of Mankind Now one would think that by this time Men might be so generally out of Love with the Humour of Controversie so offended with the Trickâ— of laying the Stress of Christianity on things wherein it does not consist and so sensible of the Mischiefs that both have done to Religion throughout all Christendom that those Writings would be generally acceptable which tend to sweeâ—en Mens Minds towards one another to lessen a Concern for Sects and Parties to give a clear View of the Essentials of Christianity and plainly to distinguish them from the Accessories and Circumstantials and to lead Men to the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and the Recovery of the Love of God as those Writings most certainly do XXIX 14. The Manner after which those Writings were composed is something singular and extraordinary It cannot be denied but that they are writ with much Clearness Solidity and Force in all the things that may be useful for the Salvation of Man yet they are not the Effect of Study and the reading of other Books for she read none and did not derive her Knowledge either from learned Men or Books reckoning their Learning a Straying from the right Way and that as the Writing-Master would needs have a Double hire from those who had learn'd to write an ill Hand to wit one hire for unteaching them so ill a Habit and another to teach them to write well because he must be at more Pains with such than with those who had learn'd none at all so she was with the Learned who came to learn from her in Christ's School she had a double Labour one to unteach them the imaginary Wisdom which they had embraced join'd with Presumption and Rashness and the other to make them receive the true Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Humility and the Lowness and Simplicity of a Child And as her Writings were not the Result of Study and human Learning so neither were they the Effect of Meditation and human Reasoning We must think before we write and take Time to order our Thoughts and consider our Words we must blot out and mend and add to our first Draughts But when she put Pen to Paper she wrote as fast as her Hand could guide the Pen and what was once written was witten without blotting out or Change And when she returned to any Writings that she had laid by unfinish'd tho' for some Months or Years she did not apply her self to read them over but having read only five or six of the last Lines to see how the Period ended she immediately wrote on with her former Swiftness her Sentiments flowing from her as Water
them believe they are good Christians tho' really in their Hearts they have not one of the Qualities of the Spirit of Jesus Christ For instead of loving Poverty they love the Wealth of this World instead of loving Sufferings they love their Pleasures their Ease and their Contentments and instead of being willing to be despised they desire to be honoured and so of all the rest And in L'Antichrist Decouvert A. B. has made appear beyond all Exception that the Spirit of Antichrist prevails among all the Parties of Christendom and that thereby the Devil has with more Cunning and more irreclaimably possest Men with his Spirit and especially the Well-meaning so that the Harlots and openly Wicked will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than they because their Wickedness being manifest they are by the Grace of God more readily converted whereas in these the Spirit of the Devil being converted with the Mask of Jesus Christ he still makes them believe that they are guided by the Spirit of God when they are really acted by the Spirit of Antichrist 12. That the Degeneracy of Christendom proceeds from the Degeneracy of its Guides and Pastors is but too evident to be denied and the Evil is more sad and irremedible that they cannot endure to have it told them The Corruption of the other States of Christendom may be spoken of without exciting so much of Mens Indignation but if the Corruption of the Pastors be touch'd a Man must look for nothing but Rage and Resentment This cannot be spoken of but presently it is a Combination against the Priesthood as our Lord was accused as designing to destroy the Law because he exposed the Corruption of the Scribes and Pharisees All Protestants do generally grant that the Degeneracy of Christendom before the Reformation was chiefly owing to the Degeneracy of its Clergy and we being as far from True Christianity now as formerly there is Ground to think the Matter is not much mended We see what a strange Change the Holy Lives and Doctrine of a few simple Men wrought in the Conversion of many Thousands to the Faith and Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Primitive Church and how little is to be seen of this now The reason of this Difference is not because of their working Miracles for these serve only to confirm the Truth of a Doctrine which being once confirmed there is no more need of them but they are as effectual in all After-ages to those who are firmly perswaded of them so that to such as think they would be bettered if they saw such Miracles is applicable that of Jesus Christ If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one should rise from the Dead Neither can this Difference be imputed to the greater Prevalence of Wickedness now the World being highly corrupted also at that time and that to no small Degree It is to be attributed then to the Difference of the Spirit by which they were animated from that by which the Pastors of the Church are now generally led The things of God are not known but by the Spirit of God and where God finds pure and self-denied Souls he delights to communicate himself to them and to make them the Organs of conveying his Light and Spirit unto others who are not capable of receiving it immediately themselves Mens Minds are generally so extraverted and turned towards sensible things that they cannot be affected with the things of the Spirit of God unless they be conveyed to them by means that may affect their Senses and this is the reason of the great Necessity and Usefulness of the Pastoral Office For this Cause the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among Men full of Grace and Truth And when he ascended into Heaven he sent the Comforter who led his Apostles into all Truth and by their means conveyed the same Light and the same Spirit into others and they were filled with the Holy Ghost so that it was not so much they who spoke and acted as the Spirit of God by them and there their Doctrine and Lives had a wonderful effect in the Converting of others even as one Flame kindles another they had a living not a dead and barren Knowledge of Divine Things their fervent Charity did animate all their Words and Actions and there was nothing impossible to such a Faith and such a Charity this made them pray fervently to God for his Divine Grace to others and he would not deny the Requests of such ardent Charity And his holy Spirit encreasing the Vertue and Efficacy of their Prayers and Labours did inseparably join his powerful Operations to awaken convert and purifie the Hearts of others This made St. Paul say When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth as the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ manifested by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart This wrought the Conversion at one time of 3000 and again of 5000 at one Sermon of St. Peter This made the Officers who were sent to apprehend Jesus Christ say Never Man spoke like this and the Evangelists of our Lord 's preaching That he taught as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and they were astonish'd at his Doctrine For his Word was with Power or to speak with St. Paul in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit and of the Power of God that is they made the Operations of the Spirit of God to be felt in the Heart Moreover they taught Men by their Deeds as well as their Words the Holiness of their Lives and their Abstraction from all earthly things did procure Belief to all they said and let the World see that they bid others do nothing but what they firmly believed and heartily set about themselves So that the whole Body of the Church was sound when to be a Minister of Jesus Christ it was required only to embrace an Evangelical Life and to give Evidence of the sincere Love they bear unto Jesus Christ and of being led by his Spirit But wicked and worldly Men crept into the Church and their number increasing they got themselves in to be the Pastors of it then under an outward Cover of Piety and Religion Men were turned away from an Evangelical Life and led to Damnation Then the Pastoral Office was turned into a Trade whereby Men might gain Honour or Greatness or Wealth in the World or at least their Living Then Men fitted themselves for the Pastoral Office not by Humility and Purity of Heart but by Study and Learning then the Pastors becoming generally void of the Spirit of God were deprived of the true and living Knowledge of the things of God and
retained only the outside and the Letter and varnished it over with their Learning and Human Doctrines and so the Blind led the Blind Then instead of the Gospel Simplicity Schools and Universities were multiplied and there was nothing to be seen but Disputes and Controversies Then the Pastors being void of true Charity and of the Spirit of Jesus Christ their preaching could have no Divine Force more than the Motions of Puppets or the Words of Parrots Then they learned to preach the Gospel by Study and Human Learning committing the Idea's of it to their Brain as Men learn other Trades and varnish over their Sermons with the same Words and Expressions that Jesus Christ and his Apostles used without comprehending or conveying to others the Divine Sence of them and what came from the Brain could go no farther than the Brain nothing can rise higher than its Original Then the great Business of Religion is turned upon the Pastor's side into an Art of Preaching where on a Theatre he displays his Learning and Eloquence and on the Peoples side into the work of Hearing and when they have continued daily in those pious Exercises for 20 30 40 or 50 Years they are for the most part no more truly Vertuous than when they began whereas where the Word of the Lord is there is Power Then the Pastors being proud and ambitious and envious and worldly and sensual and selfish they seek their own things under a Cover of seeking the things of Jesus Christ their Actions belie their Words and for their own Credit they so gloss and explain the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as to perswade People they may be good Christians and good Ministers of Jesus Christ and yet gratifie their Appetites and Inclinations Then being void of true Faith and true Charity they place Religion in a System of Opinions and Rites and tho' they agree in the common Principles yet differing in other things of lesser moment they thereupon divide dispute and quarrel form Parties draw all they can to their Side out of a Pretence to the Glory of God inspire them with Hatred and Fury against those that differ from them sooth and flatter the corrupt Inclinations of those of their own Party or the Great and those on whom they depend and stir up Magistrates and Princes to War and Bloodshed to persecute those who differ from them And as they make War against one another by their Disputes so they make Princes and secular Persons to do it by their Swords Thus instead of the Charity Peace and Concord which Jesus Christ left his Disciples they beget Hatred Strife and Envy among them and such is their Influence upon the People that they head their Passions and what they hate and call Heresie so do they Instead of the Self-denial and Mortification to the World which Jesus Christ and the first Pastors practised and taught they teach by their Example how to gratifie Self and love the World and yet seem greatly to honour Jesus Christ and to be Champions for his Religion And if the Salt have lost its savour wherewith shall the Flesh be salted And if they who should be the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth are thus become Darkness and without Savour how great is that Corruption And how great is that Darkness Those of every Party do plainly discern this Evil in the Guides and Leaders of the opposite Parties but our Self-love blinds and hinders us from considering it in our selves This is not to be understood but that there are Pastors of good Inclinations and right Intentions amongst the several Perswasions and therefore what is said ought not to be applied to them but that this corrupt Spirit of Pride Vain-glory 〈…〉 Avarice the Love of Money 〈…〉 Politicks the pleasing of the 〈…〉 Aversion to the Humility Simplicity 〈…〉 and Cross of Christ prevails 〈…〉 in all Parties under a Cover of 〈…〉 Opinions and so serves still to 〈…〉 the more is a sad Truth that cannot be 〈◊〉 13. That we are in the last Times that the Wickedness of Men is as great and universal as in the Days of Noah that the Abomination of Desolation is in the Holy Place that we are now in the time of the last Judgments of God by which he will sweep the Wicked off the Earth and which shall be more dreadful and terrible than any that ever were A. B. does so sensibly make appear in her Writings particularly in the Light of the World That they are real Enemies to Mens Souls who scoâ—â— at them and divert People from laying them to Heart She makes appear that Iniquity is so great and universal that there is no 〈◊〉 Faith nor Law among Men. People study nothing but to deceive their Neighbours the Father cannot trust his Son nor the Son his Father the Brother 〈◊〉 up against his Brother Friendship is only feigned 〈◊〉 is full of Deceit and Fraud nothing but Pride and Ambition reigning in the Hearts of all Men. Judges are without Equity Priests without Sincerity Cloisters filled with Avarice and the Devout full of Malice which has been at all times in some particular Persons but is at present so multiplied that it possesses almost all 〈◊〉 And Charity is not only wakâ—d cold but altogather frozen and dead in the Hearts of Men. That the Signs of the last Times are all fully accomplish'd particularly those in 2 Tim. 3. 1. c. and Matt. 24. That Mens Lives are the open Book in which these Truths are written and the Holy Scriptures are the equitable Judge which pronounces the Sentence That People scoff at this and no Body will believe it is a most certain Evidence of it For Jesus Christ says that it shall be as in the Days of Noah they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in Marriage and knew not until the Flood came and took them all away c. She makes appear how the Abomination and Desolation is in the Holy Place if Envy were lost it might be recovered in Cloisters if Avarice were dead it would be revived by the Priests Vain-glory and Pride is no where so prevailing as among the Clergy In a word Simonies and all other Sins abound in that Place which ought to be Holy That these are the Stars which fall every Day from Righteousness and Truth for some worldly Interest or humane Respects She makes appear that Men do not now embrace Penitence nor desire Amendment that they rather grow every Day worse and cannot suffer that their Faults should be truly shewn them That at all times there have been wicked Persons but when all in general do forget him it is to be believed that assuredly we are in the last Times and that the Judgment is given out because the Measure is full That God cannot suffer an universal Evil without an universal Chastisement and now Men having generally all of them abandoned their God have in doing this given Sentence of the
to his Image we must suffer with him if we would reign with him His was meritorious and expiatory and exemplary ours is absolutely necessary for our Purification By his he obtain'd Pardon and Grace for us and chang'd the Eternal Punishment we deserved into a Temporal Penitence for our Purification and Recovery and to say we cannot undergo this Penitence is to have no Faith in his Merits to believe that it is enough that he did undergo this for us is the greatest Indignity done him and the greatest Cheat that we can put upon our Souls it is to belie and be false to our Surety and our Pledge It is like Bankrupts to swagger and rant it out with our Creditor's Goods because our Surety has paid the Debt for us It is to make Jesus our Slave to suffer all manner of Afflictions Poverty Reproach and Pain for us that we may go to Heaven in the pleasant and broad Way of Honours Wealth and Pleasures It is to be well pleas'd that the Physician has provided wholsome and necessary Physick for our Recovery and has taken it himself for our Direction and Encouragement but tho' we be sick to Death we will not taste it our selves because of the Bitterness of it believing that we shall Recover nevertheless because the Physician has taken it Jesus Christ led this Life of Penitence for us in his visible and mortal Body that he might shew us how ready he is still to undergo it in every one of us by his Spirit 8. God has no need of this our Penitence but we stand in need of it to recover the Love of God He does not covet our Wealth or Honours or Friends or Ease in that he requires of us to be poor in Spirit to deny our selves to take up our Cross and follow Christ to forsake all things since he created all things for Man and would be well pleased he could enjoy them still But Man is become so miserable that he cannot enjoy these things without setting his Heart upon them and turning it away from God and therefore Jesus Christ has given this his Gospel-Law without which no body can recover the Love of God It is a sad Mistake then to think that there is no necessity of good Works but only by way of Gratitude and Thankfulness to God as if he had need of our Acknowledgments or as if we could make him Presents of our Good Works to thank him which cannot be said but in Contempt of the Riches of God who possesses all in himself and seeks nothing without himself and needs not that we should give him any thing all the good Works that Men can do are for no other End but to resist and overcome the Evils of their Corruption And they are as necessary for our Salvation as Bread is for the Life of the Body for we cannot be saved without subduing our Corruption and no Body can do this but by the means of such good Works and such Penitence as stifles and mortifies the Vices and Sins which this Corruption has brought into the Soul 9. It is a Pride to glory in our Penitence since it is enjoined us for our Sins it ought rather to fill us with Humility and Confusion for in the Beginning it was not so God created us to live in all sorts of Delights without any Pain All this beautiful World was created to serve for Pleasures to the Body of Man and God himself was the Delight of his Soul But Sin only has changed that excellent Order and made Man subject to that over which he ought to rule because he had withdrawn his Subjection from God Our Sins have occasioned the Law of Penitence which Jesus Christ came to teach us by Word and Deed. This Penitence does not consist in Undergoing Pennances chosen by our selves and after our Fancy by which the Devil would drive us headlong and excite us to Vain-glory and which usually make Men presumptuous believing themselves to be better than others and that God is obliged to them for their good Works as the Pharisee All this proceeds from Self-love but true Penitence consists in taking patiently whatsoever God permits to befall us either to our Body Estate or Mind and willingly to suffer it in the Spirit of Penitence to satisfie for our Sins for every Moment there falls out Occasions of Suffering and and Submission so that we need not seek for them It is necessary that we practise this Resignation of our Will to God for accomplishing the saving Penitence which he has enjoined us and for the Exercise of all sort of Vertues 10. Since then the Justice of God could not permit that Pardon and Grace should be given to sinful Man but upon Condition that he turn away from Sin to God and in order to that live a Life of Penitence and co-operate with the Spirit of Suffering Self-denial and Mortification which God will communicate to him if he sincerely desire to be saved it is necessary that Man satisfie this Duty which is so just before God and which the Justice of God requires as well as the Nature of the thing it self This is that which she calls Man's Satisfying God's Justice on his Part this is that from which the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ does not procure us a Dispensation for then he had neither been just to God nor us but he merited the Acceptance of it at God's Hands and Grace and Strength for us to perform it and taught us how to undergo it If People are nice and captious and will needs carp at Words and Expressions as Satisfaction and the Satisfying the Justice of God while they understand what is meant by them no body will contend with them about them provided they grant the Truth and Reality of the thing that no body will be saved by the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ without the Mortification of their corrupt Nature and the Recovery of the Love of God It is good Consideration which is now generally assigned why God thought not fit as Governour of the World to pardon Rebellious Man without the Intervention of an expiatory Sacrifice in the Life and Death of Jesus Christ that Men might thereby see the Evil of Sin and God's infinite Hatred and Abhorrence of it and so might be diverted from continuing in it or returning to it It is for the very same Reason that God thought not fit to pardon Man for the Sufferings of Jesus Christ unless he also follow him in a Life of Penitence and Sufferings for we are not so sensible of what others suffer neither does it breed in us such an Abhorrence of that which has occasioned their Sufferings as when we suffer the like Pains and Evils our selves without which we have as superficial a Sense of them as of the Actings on a Theatre And therefore to give us the more lively Sense of the Sufferings of Jesus Christ and to enflame our Love to him
it not to ascribe vitious Passion to God to say that he reprobated Man because of the foresight of the Sins which he would commit after his Creation and that he predestinated him to Salvation foreseeing his future Merits Had God need of Man's Merits to save him Can all Men together with all their Merits bring one Ray of Glory to God Is not this to go over to their side who say that Men shall be elected and saved by their good Works and not by Grace only in which they make God a Liar who has promised as they grant that he will save us by Grace To say that God did not create Man for Damnation but reprobated Man after Adam's Sin which had undone them all is most absurd For as all Men were created in Adam so they were also all alike fallen in Adam and all in general reprobated by the same Sin of Adam for he could not have a divided Will one part of it sound and another damn'd there being but one Man only and he had but one Will in which was included the Will of all Men that should ever arise from him And if God had left Adam in the reprobated State wherein he fell all Men had equally remained so And when Adam received the Pardon of his Sin and was admitted to Penitence all Men were still in him and consequently all were restored to Favour upon Condition of performing the Penitence that God enjoyn'd in Adam So that God could not leave one part of Men in the Curse without dividing Adam and appointing one part of his Body for Salvation and another for Reprobation since there was but one Man If there had been two it might have been said of Men what is said of Angels that one part of the Angels was damn'd and another confirm'd in Grace but that of one Soul and one Body there should proceed reprobated and saved by the Predestination of God this is odious They who say that God did not predestinate to Damnation but only left one part of Men who were in Adam in Damnation and did elect another part to Salvation do directly contradict the Scriptures for the Scripture says expresly that with God there is no respect of Persons How could he then predestinate one part of Men to Salvation and leave the other part into the Damnation into which they were all equally plung'd since all had equally sinn'd in Adam and one no more than another How then can it be that God who is no Respecter of Persons can damn one part and save another of the same Mass of Persons which have equally contracted the same Sin without Injustice which cannot be in God And tho' he be almighty to save one and damn another as those Casuists say yet he will never do it for he will never do any Injustice For my part says she I would not commit the least Injustice against my Enemies not against the Devil himself How much less would God who is incomprehensibly more Just than I do such an Injustice as to damn one and save another of the Persons who have committed the same Fault even tho it were in his Power They say may not a Man do with his own Goods what he will how much more may God dispose of Man as he pleases who absolutely belongs to him and none can ask him why he saves one and lets another perish This says she seems a weak Argument even in the Comparison for it is not true that a Man can do with his Goods what he pleases he ought to use them according to Justice and Reason and if he do otherwise he will bear his Punishment before God who will not suffer Injustice nor us to abuse our Goods without calling us to an Account at the Day of Judgment How much more will God dispose of Men justly even tho' they belong to him How much less can he commit this Injustice of damning one and saving another of those who have fallen into the same Fault and are equally Guilty It is true God is Almighty and can do what he will but he can never will to do any thing unjustly as this would be which could not be without respect of Persons and this cannot be in God To say that he expresly predestinated one part of them to Damnation is to say that he had not so much Righteousness in himself as that which he requires of Men for he says to them Love your Enemies do good to them that hate you This Counsel would have had no Authority if he himself had reprobated those who are become his Enemies This absolute Reprobation would not be Good but the greatest Evil that could be imagin'd How could he command Men to do Good to their Enemies when he himself would do so great and eternal an Evil for the Fault they had committed against him and that while they were yet in a State of Penitence as they are during this Life where Reprobation shall never have place since till the very last Instant they may find Mercy and Pardon This Reprobation can only have place after Death and not during this Life Because this is the Time of Penitence in which if Men were certainly reprobated they could have no part and it would be a very rigorous and unjust thing to oblige those to Penitence whom he absolutely resolves to damn Men it seems confound the Times when they speak of Predestination and take the present for the time to come For at the Judgment God will separate two masses the one of Elect the other of Reprobates who shall then assuredly be damned because the Time of Penitence will then be past but during this Life there can be no predestinated Reprobates If God has reprobated the Wicked to Damnation he would not give them so many secret and inward Warnings to turn them unto him as all Sinners may know by experience that even when by Sin they have turn'd away from God they feel how oft he recals them by many Occasions and by Checks of Conscience All the Souls who are damned have been often admonished by God both inwardly and outwardly as may be seen in the Holy Scriptures How often did he admonish Pharoah and other wicked Men If it were true that God had reprobated them he would not have been sincere in giving them so many Admonitions to turn them from their Wickedness or at least they were all vain Admonitions since being predestinated to Evil it was impossible for them to do Good Must God tempt Men or render them more guilty than otherwise they would have been of themselves God has declared that as he Lives he has no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but that the wicked Man turn from his way and live and that he is not willing that any should Perish God then should not be sincere in his words if he had predestinated some Souls to Damnation which cannot be said of God who is Truth it self always faithful in his Promises
Profession of this new Worship and are joined to those Persons and their Opinions Now she establish'd no new Worship nor new Exercises nor Laws nor Rules that savour of a Sect but only by her Life and Writings call'd on People to return to the Love of God and to imitate the Life of Jesus Christ in which State they were not and without which they could not be saved In her Letter to M. Reinboth Superintendant in Holstein I am very far says she from making a new Church as some maliciously slander me for I bring no new thing and Novelties are very displeasing to me I am careful therefore not to introduce any but I labour to advance in a Gospel-Life and to practise it And all my Writings and all I said formerly to well-disposed Persons aimed only at this and I forbear now to speak to them because I found it was unprofitable Your Preachers wrong me greatly when they cry out that I draw their People from them for in the ten Months I have been in Holstein I have not made Acquaintance with so much as one Person not so much as with my Landlady so that I give them no ground to say or think that I strive to draw People to form a new Church or teach a new Doctrine seeing that which Jesus Christ left us is the most perfect and the last that God will send unto Men. No new thing needs be invented but we should labour to perfect our selves in it and to put it truly in Practice instead of Disputing about it for all these Disputes are raised by the Devil to bring Hatred Divisions and Discords amongst Christians whereas the Church of God should be united in Peace and Love in the meek Spirit of Jesus Christ and it is now divided in as many Parties as there are different Sects which is lamentable and disturbs the Peace of Christian Souls and makes that they do not love one another tho' Jesus Christ has so earnestly recommended to them to love one another They are all partial and only love the Party which they have undertaken to stand by or defend This proceeds from an Antichristian Spirit and not from the Spirit of Christ XX. They libell'd her that she despised Sermons Sacraments Pastours Priesthood and all Government which were all most horrid Calumnies This says she in her Letter to Dr. Nieman Superintendant in Holstein is a gross Calumny for I wish with all my Heart that both Church and State may continue in Vigour for otherwise there would be no Knowledge of God in the Land nor Commonwealths maintained Seeing Preachings and Sacraments preserve amongst Men the Memory of sacred things and States keep their People in their Duty by Justice or else there would be nothing but Confusion and the Good would be destroyed by the Wicked if there were no Government and Magistrates to rule and govern them I indeed despise the Abuse of Churches and Sermons and Sacraments but not the Use of them nor the Essence of these which are established by God as is also Government and Magistracy And there is a great Difference between the despising a thing in it self and the Abuse that is made of it For it is one thing to say that every Sect abuses the Holy Scriptures and another to say that the Scripture is of no Worth or to despise it because many abuse it Now it seems Buchardus would make People believe that I despise all these Holy Things when I despise only the Abuse of them as true Christians ought to do who lay to Heart God's Honour They ought to lament when they see Men to degenerate as to the Love of God that they seem to hold meerly to the Bark of the things ordained by God without squaring their Lives by them They say I despise the Sacraments and other Offices of Piety while I believe there is no body that esteems them more than I do For the Quakers accused me by their defamatory Treatise That I had an abominable Doctrine sending Persons to Churches Sermons or Sacraments or other outward Solemnities desiring to infer from this that I had not the Spirit of God since I still esteemed those outward Devotions and also incited others to make use of them as Means to approach unto God Your Preachers may read what I have written in that Advertisement upon this Head so that I need not enlarge my self farther here but will satisfie them as to what they say That in effect I despise the Sacraments and other outward Devotions because I do not go my self to the Church nor to the Sacraments and they will needs reject all that I say in the Praise of Holy Things because I do not observe them my self to give an Example to others and would infer from thence That I speak with Dissimulation in praise of Holy Things and not sincerely as I think in my Heart This convinces me that they no ways know me For if they only knew me outwardly they would sufficiently see that I am sincere and not at all feigned or dissembled so that if I had in my Heart a Contempt for the Sacraments and other outward Devotions I would openly declare it by Word and Writ for I have overcome the World and am not afraid to tell the Truth of what I know I have indeed written against the Abuse of the Sacraments and other outward Solemnities but I never spoke against the things themselves seeing they are good and have often serv'd me as Means of Union with God But if I do not go now to the Church or Sacraments it is not out of Contempt of Holy Things but because I have no longer so great need of outward Means of Union with God as I had formerly when the Conversation of Men and the Diversion of the Cares of temporal Affairs did divert my Attention from God I retired then to Churches and approached the Sacraments that I might be the more recollected and united to God But since God has given me the Grace to find this Recollection in my little Chamber and to entertain my self in Spirit with God in Solitude I have not thought it so necessary to use these outward Ceremonies which sometimes would serve me for a Distraction to my inward Recollection This is partly the Reason why I have left them off but this is not all For if I had the Freedom to go to Church I would go to it on the Days commanded and would receive the Sacrament at the Times appointed Since I am under the Ordinances of the Roman Church Jesus Christ teaches me to obey the Laws both of God and Men as he himself did on Earth obeying Caesar and other Superiours tho' they were sometimes evil but their Ordinances good as I have particularly shewn in the said Advertisement But I cannot go to Church without hazard of my Life and it is not lawful for me to expose my self to so evident Dangers and Necessity has no Law There are Persons in the
things which are despis'd yea and things which are not to bring to nought things that are that no Flesh should glory in his Presence And thus he destroys the Wisdom of the Wise and brings to nothing the Understanding of the Prudent so that it shall be said where is the Wise Where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this World This they will acknowledge was the way of God's Dealing in former Times and why would they have him to alter it now when the Pastors Doctors and Teachers the Learned the Scribes and the Disputers of the Age are as full of their own Wisdom of their humane Studies and Learning as ever the Scribes and Pharisees the Wisemen and Philosophers were when God rais'd up Publicans and Fishermen to confound their Wisdom and Learning by the Simplicity of their Words That it is not St. Paul's Meaning that God may not thus communicate his Light and Truth to a Woman as well as Men for the Good of others is evident from the Sayings themselves In his time when the Faithful met together it was not as now when a Man who has his Head full of Learning declaims an Hour or two alone very often with Conceitedness enough to the People who must take for good Coin all that he says is such and which he stamps with Passages of Holy Scripture But then there were mutual Conferences where each of the Faithful were allow'd to tell their Sentiment or ask that of his Brethren and Elders but that all might be done in Order St. Paul ordains that their Women might not be of the number of the Interlocutors either by telling their own Thoughts or asking those of others but that they should do this at Home and even there should not pretend to teach their Husbands but learn of them It is evident then he speaks of ordinary Women married and encumbred with the Cares of their House who have need to learn and yet would be thought very Knowing and it is a Rule of Decency to avoid Confusion But at present they would have St. Paul's Meaning to be that Women enlightned by God in a free State always employed about Divine things should I do not say abstain from speaking publickly but even not write in secret in their own Houses the saving Light that God communicates to them and commands them and that when there is no fear of Confusion since such being very rare it is not to be fear'd that their number will bring Confusion This is as far from his Opinion as Falshood from Truth who a little before allows a Women to Prophesie if she have the Gift of it provided she be vail'd who knew that Anna spoke in the Temple and had seen Four Virgins Prophesie which were the Daughters of Philip the Evangelist Thus those envious Usurpers of the Key of Knowledge and Instruction are they become such absolute Masters of it as to oblige God to give it to no Body but to them A Passage of the Life of Tâ—resâ— is remarkable to this purpose as they spoke to her one Day of those Words of St. Paul and she thought on them God said to her Tell them not to be directed by one single Passage of Scripture but let them consider other Places and ask them if they will bind up my Hands XXIII They accused her of intolerable and blasphemous Pride in speaking well of her self in pretending to know the Accomplishment of the Holy Scriptures yea and to understand them better than they who wrote them that she calls her self a Mother of True Believers and that she exalts her self above the Prophets Apostles the Virgin Mary yea above God himself It is easie to give an ill turn to ones Words but Charity thinks no Evil and interprets them by the whole Tenour of their Life Spirit and Sentiments 1. That she exalted her self more than the Prophets Apostles the Virgin Mary c. she said was an impudent Lie for I know very well says she that I am a simple humane Creature as all other Men come of the corrupt mass of Adam And I do not say that I am either Prophet or Apostle or Virgin Mary or God himself as this Bucchardus says but I declare I am a frail Creature as all others to whom nevertheless God has sent his Light of Truth to communicate it to Men. Did they believe truly that there is a living God they durst not treat so ill the things which are declared from God and cause to be burnt by the Hangman the Books which the Holy Spirit has dictated of which they may have Evidence both from God and Men for they who see me write know very well that I do it without any humane Speculation or Study and that this flows from my Spirit as a River of Water flows from its Fountain and that I only lend my Hand and my Spirit to another Power than mine Many Persons are Witnesses of this God also has given me a more sure Testimony by imparting to me his Righteousness his Truth and his Charity for these things cannot come from Nature which being corrupt cannot produce any Good nor any Divine Vertues because I am come from the corrupt mass of Adam as all the rest of Men there could not be in me any Righteousness Truth or Charity which are all Divine and Supernatural Vertues which come not into the Souls of Men but by the work of the Holy Spirit for none but God only is perfectly Just and True And no Body can glory in the Righteousness Truth and Charity that he possesses without having a disordered Mind because these Vertues are no ways in the Person but in God alone who imparts them to whom he pleases And he who has receiv'd any of these Vertues ought to glorifie God and not to glory in himself for them as by the Grace of God I do not glory in my self And I do not fear that any Body can prove that I ascribe any Perfection or Vertue any manner of way to my self for God has given me too much of the Light of Truth to do this having made me see clearly that all Good comes from God and all Evil from Man and from the Devil which two Creatures being equally withdrawn from God the Fountain of all Good are fallen into all sort of Evil. And therefore nothing can proceed from the corrupt Nature of Man but Evil and Sin for this cause a Man can have no occasion of glorying in himself for his Vertues which are not his nor at his disposal And therefore Bucchardus has said most injuriously in his Book that I esteem my self more than the Prophets Apostles c. of whom I do not know to what Degrees of Grace they arriv'd that I should compare them to the Graces that God has imparted to me I know well that I am a poor Creature subject to many Miseries and Infirmities which makes me often humble my self before God and Man But I well know also
they are regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ tho' all their Actions be quite contrary to those of Jesus Christ and his Spirit for tho' they speak humbly and have an humble Shew and Gestures yet they have a very proud Heart and then they would have it believed that they are regenerated and would take it in ill part if I would say they are not They do not perceive that it is a greater Pride in them to say that they are regenerated than in me to say that I am a Mother of true Believers for he who is regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives no longer but Jesus Christ lives in him And a Mother of True Believers is nothing but a frail Creature who may yet sin and undo her self It is a small matter to be a Mother or Father of True Believers as to our own Perfection this gives us no more If God give us sufficient Light for the Conduct of our own Life in particular or if he give us of it in Abundance to enlighten others also this will not add one Degree of Glory to our Soul but in as far as we have been faithful Dispensers of the Graces of God For to be only the matter of a Father or Mother of True Believers a Statue or Image of Wood or Stone would serve as well as a living Person for as much as God is not tied to any thing he can as well speak by the Organ of a Statue of Wood or Stone as he did heretofore by Clouds by a burning Bush by Thunder all these matters cannot boast themselves because God operates by them for he has equally Power over all things and makes use of such Instruments as he pleases If he will beget True Believers by my Mouth he can do it as well as by an Image carv'd out of Wood. The Mennonists therefore are very unjust to take Scandal at the Works of God after I had explain'd to them what I meant by that Word a Mother of True Believers that I understood that all those whom God shall make use of for the Conversion of others shall be the True Fathers and Mothers of those who shall become True Believers by their means and that it is after this manner that St. Paul said I have begotten you The Apostle knew well that he had not Power to beget Children to God but he perceived well that God gave him Light in his Understanding and Words in his Mouth and Charity in his Heart and that by all these things many would be regenerated by becoming True Children of God and dying to the Flesh to live to the Spirit I have explain'd this Word of Mother of True Believers by saying that God by my Organ will give his Light to Men by which they shall see their Darkness and receive the Understanding of the Truth This Light with which he will produce True Believers is not mine tho' he produce them by my Mouth my Hand or my Spirit but it is God's even as our Bodies are not our Parents but of God for they cannot make one Hair of our Head yet God calls them Fathers and Mothers and commands to obey them under pain of Damnation This one Instance of an Expression so highly exaggerated formerly and of late which I think she vindicates as to the true Sence and Meaning to the Satisfaction of all equitable Readers upon the supposition of her being endued with Light by God for the Good of others this Instance I say may serve for a Sample to shew how unjust Men are in forming Characters of Persons from shreds of Expressions gathered here and there and put altogether without letting the World see the Contexts of them the main Scope of them or the Sence and Meaning given of them by the Persons concern'd and how highly thereby they sin against the Truth murther the Reputation of such impose upon the rest of Mankind and beget and become real Fathers of Hatred and Aversion in their Minds and Spirits Lord open their Eyes and lay not this Sin to their Charge As we are very apt to take up with false Vertues our selves so we are ready to judge rashly of others and to accuse them of Pride of which we our selves are more guilty Thus the Jews treated Jesus Christ Abraham say they is dead and the Propthes and thou sayest If a man keep my Saying he shall never taste of Death Art thou greater than our Father Abraham which is dead and the Prophets are dead whom makest thou thy self We see the Saints have often spoke well of themselves and yet with the Spirit of Humility Thus David says of himself I have more Vnderstanding than all my Teachers I understand more than the Ancients Thus S. Paul throughout all his Epistles speaks often well of himself proposes himself and his Vertue for a Pattern and Example So that you see one may speak well of themselves and not from a Spirit of Pride or Self-glorying as our Lord Jesus Christ David S. Paul and other Saints have done False Humility speaks meanly of ones self to cover its secret Pride and to get the Reputation of being humble True Humility speaks the Truth in Simplicity whether of ones self or others without regarding that the World will Censure it as an Effect of Pride and Vain-glory. By this Spirit the Saints were acted from this Principle A. B. spoke thus of herself and that I dare say with less Pride and Vain-glory than others have written against her XXIV Some accuse her of great Injustice in affixing Doctrines Sentiments and Opinions upon Parties and Persons which they do not own She say they makes Men more guilty than they are she imputes to particular Persons to Doctors and even to whole Parties Sentiments Vices and Sins which they have not and of which all think them innocent With this also the Enemies of Jesus Christ did reproach him that he falsly imputed to them Evils of which they were innocent as Murther Thou hast a Devil who seeks to kill thee Jesus Christ tells that we must not judge according to Appearance but righteous Judgment In an unregenerate State Men do not know themselves but they think they are what they are not and what they truly are that they will not believe and they wholly disclaim it The Jews not doubt were astonish'd when the Prophets imputed to them atheistical profane and Epicurean Sentiments as the Denying of Divine Providence and the Immortality of the Soul and making their chief Happiness to consist in being wicked No doubt they would cry out against them as Calumniators and imputing to them Sentiments quite contrary to what they had It is like this was not their Doctrine nor the Sentiments according to which they reasoned far less the Subject of their publick Instructions And yet God by his Prophets reproaches them with it as if they had taught it in express Terms Ezekiel says of them They say the Lord seeth not
Esay accuses them that they had said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we must die we have made a Covenant with Death and with Hell we are at Agreement for we have made Lies our Refuge and under Falshood have we hid our selves Malachy It is in vain for us to serve the Lord we will call the Proud Happy c. This was not true in the Sight of Men but it was true in the Sight of God who saw that there were no living Impressions in their Hearts of the Divine Providence of a happy or miserable Eternity of the great Happiness of Vertue c. There are generally two sorts of Principles and Sentiments in Men which do widely differ from one another one by which they reason and discourse and preach and write Books and teach Doctrines and this is their speculative Principle The other is that by which a Man acts and governs both his inward Affections and his Life This last only is a Man's true Sentiments and Principle tho' for the most part this is unknown to the Man himself S. Paul before his Conversion and e'er he was enlightned by the Holy Ghost would have been highly offended with any that should have call'd him a Blasphemer a Persecuter of God and good Men and the Chief of Sinners as imputing to him Crimes and Sentiments of which he not only thought himself innocent but that those very things were Vertues in the Sight of God tho' when God opened his Eyes he found he had been truly such So strange is the Blindness of corrupt Man Therefore when God would deliver Men from Death he stops not at the outward Appearance and what Men say and at their dead Reasonings and Sentiments who may tell him We teach Vertue we preach good Works we recommend Mortification of the Old Man we detest Security and Presumption c. while in effect their Lives are regulated by quite contrary Principles and their Hearts live in another Element and therefore he warns them of that which is hid within them and which they do not yet perceive and tells them that tho' they profess to know him yet by their Works they deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good Work reprobate Now it is according to this Measure that A. B. speaks of Men and Parties and of their Sentiments When a whole Society lives according to Principles the contrary of which they affirm with their Mouths it is certain this may be imputed to that Society When the greatest part of particular Persons in that Society have certain Sentiments as to flatter themselves that they are in the State of Grace or predestinated to Salvation it is certain that the Society in the gross may be said to have these Sentiments If while they live in a worldly and carnal Manner yet they commonly believe they shall be saved by the Use of the Ceremonies and Sacraments this is to be reckoned the real Sentiment of the Society in gross tho' the Speculations of some particular Persons and Doctors do not say so It is the People that makes the Church and not a small Number of learned Heads It is the living and inward Principles Inclinations and Dispositions of the Spirits and Hearts of the People that makes the Sentiments of the Church and not some vain Theories of the Learned which are oft-times dead and barren in their own Hearts When in a Society some particular Persons teach expresly evil Doctrines as the Justifying of horrid Murthers or that we may be saved without the Love of God and direct Souls according to these Doctrines if the whole Body of such a Church knowing this do not openly and loudly extirpate such a Doctrine by their Councils or other proper Means undoubtedly such a Society and particularly they who preside in it are reckoned by God as if they themselves authoritatively taught and maintained these detestable Maxims Now if what A. B. says as to the Principles Sentiments and Evils of Parties or Persons be examined by these Rules it will appear that she imputes nothing to them falsly XXV Another Accusation brought against A. B. is that she gives wrong Explications of several Passages in the Holy Scripture as her applying that of S. Paul We know in part c. to a greater Degree of Knowledge and Illumination than God will give in this last Age of the World Her understanding the Words of our Saviour Joh. 12. 23. of his glorious Appearing in the End of the World when the Context shews it is meant of his Death and Sufferings her singular Exposition of the Lord's Prayer as containing things that we are to obtain only in Perfection when Christ comes to reign in Glory We see what Expositions the Apostles give of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the Fathers of both the Old and New which oft-times seem very different from the Sence that naturally offers S. Augustin's Rule already mentioned has Place here That whosoever gives such a Sence of the Scripture as serves to promote the Love of God and our Neighbours which is the great End tho' it cannot be made appear that the Pen-man of the Scripture did so understand it in that particular Place he does not err damnably nor does he make a Lye But that other remarkable Rule he gives serves fully to remove this Accusation That as to all the Sences that are given of the Holy Scripture which are not repugnant to the Truth it is to be believed they were intended by the Holy Spirit That when many Sences are given of the same Words if it appear from other Places of the Scripture that they are agreeable to the Truth and to Faith there is no Danger For perhaps the Author of those Writings did perceive the same Sence of them and certainly the Spirit of God who wrought by him foresaw without doubt that this would occur to the Reader and the Hearer yea took care that it should occur For what more liberal and bountiful Provision could be made by God in the Divine Oracles than that the same Words should be understood in many Sences all which the other no less Divine Writings might confirm Agreeable to this we have a Divine Maxim of a pious Writer of the last Age That according to the State that Man is in so he understands the Holy Scripture if he be as yet in the State of Nature he explains it of Natural Things if he have ascended higher he understands it of more sublime Things and the higher State he is advanced to he still finds so much the more sublime Testimonies of things in the Scripture Inferiour things are the Image and Similitude of the superiour If a Man therefore be in the lowest Degree the Scripture proposes low things to him but if he be placed in superiour Degrees it points out to him higher things When Paul says Not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness c. Rom. 13. 19. this concerns
a Man according to the different State of this Life either literally or spiritually If he live carnally it is to be understood of the visible Flesh If he lives spiritually it denotes also the Flesh but a more subtile Flesh to which he must likewise die But before he die to it he must first live to it but he cannot live to it until he be first dead to the more gross Carnality It is impossible that a Man can conceive this sublime Way of Dying until he have attained to that Degree but if any attain it rather in the Contemplation than as to the true Essence of things there is great Hazard of Erring The carnal Life spiritually understood is most clearly express'd in that rich Man who was cloathed in Purple and fared sumptuously while on the other hand Lazarus was lying poor and hungry and naked and full of Sores But what 's the Event Riches are reduced into the extreamest Poverty and extream Poverty is exchanged for the greatest Riches We ought to consider that the Holy Scriptures are dispensed by the Spirit of God to afford Life and Nourishment for Mens Souls according to all the different States of Men and all the several Ages of the Church to the end of the World and as the same Holy Spirit that endited them gives the true Understanding of them only to humble and simple Souls so he gives them different Degrees of Light and Notices from them according to the different States they are advanced to when it is for their own spiritual Profit only or according to the different States of the Church when it is for the spiritual Good of the rest of Mankind and when he is to accomplish the things he has foretold and all these Sences are intended by the Holy Spirit one of them always being not only true in it self but also a. Figure and Similitude of what is to follow and the full Sence of them cannot be had till the Perfection and Completion of all things We see an Image of this in Natural Things Thus the Buds of Fruit-trees in the Winter-season are very small to Appearance and seem nothing but a little dry Excrescence but when the Spring comes first the Leaves break forth and after them the Flowers and Blossoms and last of all the Fruit which by Degrees advances to Ripeness and Perfection all which are not new form'd but were originally in the Bud even in the Winter-season and were discoverable by magnifying Glasses so they are only an Evolution and Displaying of what was all formerly shut up in the Bud according to the different Seasons Thus from the small Eggs of Insects there break out first Caterpillars and small Worms which afterwards casting Skins put on another Shape and at last break forth into Butterflies or Flies of their respective Kinds which is no Transformation but an Evolution of Parts which were formerly wrapp'd up within the Caterpillar as it were in Swaddling-cloaths as Dr. Swammerdam most ingeniously discovers and were no doubt also originally within the little Egg. So the same Seed of the Word of God which to the natural Man seems dry and insipid does by the Warmth and Operation of God's Spirit display different Degrees of Light and Truth according to the different Degrees by which the Soul advances towards God or the Periods of Time in which things are to be accomplished the Displaying of one Degree still making Way for another Thus God in his Word has prohibited Idolatry when all the Heathen Nations were given to the Worshipping of Idols and the Grossness and Rudeness of the Jewish Nation was such that they were easily led to imitate them the Commandment was understood no farther But when afterwards in our Saviour's Days they had a sufficient Aversion from the worshipping of outward Idols in Groves or Temples but in the mean time their Hearts were set upon Riches and this Worlds Goods the Commandment was farther explained and they were told that that was Idolatry and that they could not serve God and Mammon And as the Soul is weaned from this Idol and advances to another State the Spirit of God does there also discover to it other more spiritual things which it is ready to worship instead of God and so the Sence of God's Law is displayed to it far beyond what could be at first conceived So true is that of the Psalmist I have seen an end of all Perfections but thy Commandments is exceeding broad This with those who are not disposed to cavil will serve to clear A. B. as to this Accusation form'd against her And as to the Passages mentioned as 1 Cor. 13. 8. c. tho' ultimately it is to be understood of the Life to come yet it is no Absurdity to say that it may imply also a more plentiful Light and Communication of God's Spirit in after-times S. Augustin we see gives an Interpretation of it relating even to this present Life They says he who have Faith Hope and Charity and do firmly cleave to them do not need the Scriptures except for Instructing others And therefore many live by these Three in the Desart without Books Whence I think that Saying is already fulfilled in them Whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away As to Job 12. 32. I think it will be granted that the full Completion of it is not yet come to pass but is that we look for As for her Exposition of the Lord's Prayer no Body who loves not to carp will be scandaliz'd at it She says That in it is comprehended all that we can ever ask of God for his Honour and our Salvation all the Adorations we owe to God all the Thanksgivings we can render him all that we may or ought to ask of him for our selves or for all others And therefore tho it contain all the things that relate to our Pilgrimage in our way to Eternal Bliss and so may be understood in that Sence likewise as she does so interpret it in other Places yet since it contains all that we ought to ask of God and nothing in Perfection is granted here and God will not make us ask the things which he has no Mind to grant it is most reasonable to conclude that this most excellent Prayer in its compleat and perfect Sence refers to a future State which he would have us always to long after as the Jews did Jerusalem when they were by the Rivers of Babylon and in which we shall obtain in Perfection the effect of our Requests XXVI Some are greatly disgusted because they think her Writings are full of Tautologies and Repetitions and without exactness of Order and Method Had she put her Thoughts in an orderly System as the Learned do they might have look'd into them but when the same things are said over and over again this passes in their Stile for Cant and they nauseate
to pure and well-disposed Souls both under the Old and New Testament and that the Scriptures are a second Remedy which God makes use of because of the Blindness and Impurity of Mens Hearts Thus St. Augustin likewise makes appear that the Scriptures and all the outward Dispensations of the Gospel do lead us to this and that a pure Heart and a good Life are necessary Dispositions for it St. John says that In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men and the Light shineth in Darkness and the Darkness comprehended it not That was the true Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth And our Saviour says He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him And when one of his Disciples ask'd how he would manifest himself to them and not to the World Jesus said If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him And the Apostle assures us that the things of God cannot be known but by the Spirit of God and that the natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness to him neither can they know them because he are spiritually discerned He tells us likewise that they who are in Christ Jesus the Spirit of God dwells in them and that if they have not the Spirit of Christ they are none of his and that being led by God's Spirit they are his Sons So that all who are truly regenerated are led by the Spirit of God V. They whom God employs for the Good and Salvation of others he not only endues them with the Light and Grace necessary for their own Conduct and Salvation but also with Divine Light and Wisdom that may make them fit Organs and Instruments to communicate the same Blessing to others This is evident from the Holy Scriptures VI. Such is the infinite Goodness of God towards Man that when he has given Men his Law and made known to them their whole Duty yet when they have generally strayed from it and both Priest and People have corrupted their Ways God has been pleas'd to raise up extraordinary Prophets to let them see how grosly they had mistaken and perverted Gods Law to awaken and call them to Repentance and to warn them of God's approaching Judgments VII The Instruments that God made use of on such Occasions were generally Persons who had no worldly nor humane Advantages to recommend them were neither Learned nor Great nor Rich nor Honourable nor Wise in the World's esteem but he chose the weak and the foolish things of the World to confound the Wise and the Mighty Elisha a Labourer of the Ground Amos a Herdsman David a Shepherd John and James Peter and Andrew Fishermen Mathew a Publican Simplicity and humility of Heart were the chief Qualities which recommended them to his Choice They were generally despis'd rejected and condemn'd by the People of the Age wherein they lived Above all they were persecuted by the Pastours and Priests who had the Dexterity by their Learning and Subtilty to wrest and criticize upon their Words and Writings and turn them into Heresies and Blasphemies that they might make the People abhor and persecute them and it was in the following Ages after their Death that Men began generally to esteem and honour them VIII The Holy Persons thus inspir'd by God were far from despising his Word and the Holy Scriptures these they could not contradict for the Spirit of God cannot contradict himself but they shew People how greatly they strayed from them in their Life and Practice They did not contemn his Ordinances but they made appear how Temple and all was an Abomination to God so long as they who profess'd to be his People and to worship him by them did live wickedly and neglect the weightier Matters of the Law They were far from making any Schism or setting up a New Sect and Party but they plainly told both the People and the Priests and Pastours their Sins and Degeneracy and warn'd them to flee from the Wrath to come IX There were not wanting at the same time false Prophets to oppose and destroy the Credit of the true and they wrought Signs and Wonders to procure Belief but the Truth and Sincerity of the one was still discernable from the Paint and Falshood of the other by such as were truly sincere themselves And he that did the Will of God would know of the Doctrine whether it were of God or whether Men spoke of themselves They who were truly led by the Spirit of God liv'd as they spake they required not of others what they did not first themselves they did not flatter the People in their Vices nor promise them Peace Peace when sudden Destruction was near nor did they seek themselves X. As God did thus immediately enlighten by his Holy Spirit some pure and well-disposed Souls before the Coming of Jesus Christ and after his Ascension so it is neither impossible nor improbable that our infinitely Good God should shew the same Mercy in after Ages It is not against his Nature no more than it is against the Nature of the Sun to send his Light and Heath through all where Clouds and Walls do not shut them out for his Delight is to be with the Children of Men. Neither has he declar'd any where that he will not do it as for the Curse denounc'd Revel 22. 18. against those that shall add to the things contain'd therein upon which some understand as such a Declaration from God as it relates only to that Prophesie so it lays a restraint on Men only and not on God as appears by comparing it with that of Deut. 4. 2. 12. 32. If it be said that no immediate Revelation for the Instruction of Mankind is to be expected after the Days of the Apostles because the Will of God and the Way of Salvation were clearly and fully declar'd by Jesus Christ if this Argument were good it would follow that the Doctrine of the Apostles is not to be received as a Divine Revelation but in so far as it contains a Relation of that which was delivered to them by Jesus Christ whereas it is certain they delivered to the Church many other things immediately taught them by the Spirit of God Wherefore from the Fulness Clearness and Perfection of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ we may well infer that there shall be no Revelation of a New Doctrine or a New Religion
is unchangeable always consistent with himself and no Body can be mistaken in following what is conformable to the Gospel even to tho' it were declar'd by a wicked Person yea by the Devil himself But if some one declare some particular thing respecting the Salvation or Damnation of any they must see from whence this Knowledge comes If such have it by the Light of the Holy Spirit they must believe it as the Scripture or else they be in Hazard of being forsaken by God for despising the Warnings which he often gives us by some one of his Friends whom he makes use of to declare his Will to those who would not hear it so particularly themselves As he did to David by the Prophet Nathan to declare his Sin to him of which he was become insensible and so many others whom he has withdrawn from the way to Hell by the Warnings of some Souls enlightned by him as he does sometimes yet at present A True Prophet never seeks himself desires not to please Men aims at nothing but to satisfie the Will of God tho' it cost him his Life He speaks of his Commission without fear or respect of any He has no soft Words that flatter the Ears but hard ones that pierce Hearts He declares the Truths that reprove Men more willingly than those which commend them A True Prophet rejoyces more to be hated than lov'd because he sees then he is more conformable to his Master who in doing Good was hated and persecuted by Men. There is not a more certain Mark than the Reproach and Contradictions of Men whereby to discern a True Prophet from a False for Falshood always flatters and so is loved by the People who are willingly flattered The Holy Spirit can have no regard to what pleases or displeases but to what is pure Truth without respect of Persons And if there remain any doubt if it is the Holy Spirit who speaks by a Person who says so we must try if that Person possess the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit his Seven Gifts and the Eight Beatitudes so you shall see visibly in them the Holy Spirit by his infallible Operations Thus you see what excellent and true Marks and Characters she gives whereby we may try whether any be truly endued with the Spirit of God or not and the more her Doctrine Life and Spirit are enquir'd into by the Lovers of Sincerity and Truth the more they will abide this Touchstone And it will still the more clearly appear that her Doctrine is the same in Substance with the Gospel her Life and Spirit a Transcript of it that the Law of God was written in her Heart from whence her Doctrine came as from a Fountain of Living Water springing up to Everlasting Life and was not derived from the broken Cisterns of humane Learning Conversation Study and Books And that her Words are sharp and piercing searching into the Heart and Conscience and far from soothing and flattering the Corruptions of Men. XVIII M. Pascal has given it as a distinguishing Mark and Character of the Christian Religion in Contradiction to all other Religions of the World as an Argument of its Divine Authority and Original that it makes Charity or the Love of God its principal End and Man's chief Duty which no other Religion does And I think it may be given as a distinguishing Character of the Doctrine of A. B. its being a true Representation of Christianity in Contradiction to most of the Systems of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which have been advanc'd in this last Age of the World that she makes Charity or the Love of God the great End of that Religion and the Precepts and Life of Jesus Christ the necessary Means to bring us to that End and when this is so clearly discovered and represented to us by an illiterate Child without the use of any humane Helps and our false Glosses whereby we have perverted the Doctrine of Jesus Christ are laid open to us to ascribe this to Natural Judgment Heat of Fancy any Humane or Diabolical Means or to think to confound it with our Buffoonry and Criticks is a Spiritual Infatuation like that of the Scribes and Pharisees XIX Now all that has been or can be opposed to those Evidences of A. B. her being led by the Spirit of God come under these Two Heads viz. it is either affirm'd that these Marks and Characters are not sufficient Evidences even tho' she had them or that they do not all belong to her I shall give you then her own Vindication of her self in answering some Prejudices relating to these Heads First then they objected that there could be no sufficient Evidence of her being led by the Spirit of God unless she were endued with the Power of working Miracles In Answer to which she says It is a great Ignorance to desire to see Miracles that we may believe that a Soul is possest with the Holy Spirit for the Devil at this time can easily do Wonders Jesus Christ has assur'd us that in the last Times many false Prophets will arise that shall do great Signs and Wonders And we live now in the Reign of Antichrist They who ask now for Miracles deserve to be seduc'd by Satan for what need is there of them since God is not to send into the World a New Doctrine The Gospel Law is the last and most perfect of all Laws Nothing New will come to instruct Men except the fulfilling of the Gospel Law which was sufficiently confirm'd by Jesus Christ and his Apostles who needed then for the Hardness of Mens Hearts to work outward Miracles because of their Unbelief For those Persons Signs were wrought that were visible to their Senses But now Men are sufficiently confirm'd in the Gospel Law There are no Christians incredulous in this Point And therefore Miracles would serve to no purpose now since nothing is taught but what Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught and this is believed both by good and bad Christians I think you have not the true Touchstone to discern if a Person has the Spirit of God when you would try him by Miracles for the Spirit of Satan may do great Signs and Wonders in the Persons where he dwells I have seen Persons possest with that unclean Spirit who would have done admirable things Some were Blind for some Years and recovered their Sight in an Instant others were Dumb and recovered their Speech by supernatural Means others did hang and flee visibly in the Air before all the People others were without Pulse and Motion for some Nights and Days and in an Instant would arise and walk chearfully Are not here the Dead raised the Sick healed the Blind recovered to their Sight the Dumb to their Speech and Bodies suspended in the Air by the Power of the Devil How could you judge then by Miracles if a Person be led by the Spirit of God or of the Devil You
from the Natural Spirit that cloaks it self with the Spirit of God for this Divine Spirit never tends but to Divine Things If you had observed Sir that that fine Spirit which you attribute to me had been applied to get Wealth or to gain Praise or to Conversation to take Pleasure with Men you would have had some Reason to say that I had nothing but a natural Spirit or if you had discovered in my Words any Ornament of Language to make me be esteemed Eloquent or in my Writing any Affectation of speaking well that I might be praised these would be all Marks of a human Spirit I would gladly ask you Sir if you have ever seen me acted by this natural Spirit First if I have ever done any thing to gain Money Or if I have desir'd any sensual Pleasures or fed my self with Praises or lov'd the Conversation of Men Have you not rather perceiv'd that I ask nothing of any Body For I can say in Truth that if they would give me Riches I would not accept of them for my own Goods are a burthen to me and the two things I hate in the World are Honour and Sin the Conversations and Divertisements of the World are a Weariness to me and if I affected to be prais'd for my Words or Writings I would study to speak well to write well and to spell well whereas I have nothing but a simple vulgar Language nakedly to signifie my Thoughts without Curiosity or any Circumspection And for my Writings do you not see they are without any Study or Ornament full of Faults of Writing and Orthography without any human Regard or Reflection Do you think I have not enough of Spirit to correct all these Faults and to learn in a little time to write and spell perfectly that Men might see my Skill I am far from these Sentiments for I would never learn any thing of Men because I desired not to be prais'd by them One would have freely taught me Orthography another Poesy another the Mathematicks another the Latin Tongue and I despis'd all this to content my self with writing on my Knees on a little piece of Board the things that God sheds into my Spirit without desiring to make any Reflection to see if I wrote well or ill or if what I say will please one or displease another whether they will be well receiv'd and approved or despis'd or censur'd I have no other aim in Speaking or Writing but eternal things without caring for temporal and earthly things having no Pretensions upon Earth but only that of pleasing God and stirring up my Neighbour to his Love This cannot proceed from a Natural Spirit which is confin'd to earthly things and cannot aim to please God nor at eternal things for Nature cannot find its Pleasure and Satisfaction in a God which it does not see and feel What is beyond Sense is not Food agreeable to Nature more than precious Stones can be Food for Horses for neither of these are Aliments proportioned to the Nature of either For the Natural Senses will no more be filled with God and things Eternal than a Horse will be satisfied with Jewels for his Food but he loves the Grass and Hay far better as Food more sutable to his Nature Even so it is of the Natural Spirit and Senses they do far more esteem things earthly and sensual than God who is an Invisible Spirit or things Eternal which they do not perceive and feel with their Senses Whence we may draw a sure Consequence that he who does not seek or desire the Goods and Pleasures which tickle our Senses has the Spirit of God and lives supernaturally and he who seeks nothing but God and things Eternal cannot have this from a Natural Spirit and when you will needs say that my Writings proceed from a Natural Spirit you must prove that they aim at some Profit Pleasure or Praise from Men. If I desired to Profit by them I would endeavour to please them and to gain their Friendship and if I desired to take Pleasure among them I would draw them to me as you do and if I desired their Praises I would speak that which they would willingly hear and would not say that they are not true Christians For if I would say that all who have visited me are vertuous Souls and true Christians undoubtedly every one would esteem me and greatly praise me but when I do the quite contrary I shew it is the Spirit of God who acts in my Writings since they aim at nothing but to make known the Truth of God which alone can guide Souls to eternal Life and that the same Writings speak nothing but of despising earthly and temporal things There cannot be a more evident mark of Distinction between the actings of the Spiri of God and that of Nature than what is assign'd by her the last tending only to things Temporal and the other to things Eternal and that the Spirit she was guided by had this constant Tendency to God and Eternity and not to Honour Praise Wealth or Pleasure or any Temporal and Earthly things appears by the whole Course of her Life and Conversation XXII 4. It was alledged as another Presumption that she could not be led by the Spirit of God but by her own wild Imagination that they say she was ready to ascribe to the Spirit of God even all her Mistakes in writing or citing of Passages of Scripture naming Peter for Paul or the like and for an Evidence of this they cite the Story concerning M. Noel a Divine in Flanders who when he first read some of her Writings they being full of Faults of Orthography and Language and not so methodically ordered and the same things often repeated in different places tho' after a different manner he offered to put them in a better Order and Stile without changing the Essence of the Truth but when she ask'd Counsel of God it was said to her What rashness is it for Men to offer to Correct the Works of God All this may be very true and yet it does not follow that she ascribes all her Mistakes to the Dictates of the Spirit of God yea she plainly affirms the contrary and that all the Mistakes and Errors she falls into are from her self and not from God When you ask says she If there be any thing humane in my Motions Words and Deeds This Question seems to me Ridiculous Since being a humane Creature as well as others I must have natural Motions and Faculties as others have otherwise I should be an Angel or a Statue of Wood Stone or Metal which Instruments God never makes use of for declaring his Truths to Men. But the Devil has oft spoken by such Oracles But God spake by his Holy Prophets Natural Persons as others are who through their natural Frailty did often commit very great Faults yea sometimes gross Sins Must we doubt if Moses had the Spirit of God and
Words yea these Niceties of the precise Truth of Terms are things on Earth esteemed by vain Men who seek Praise and Curiosities more than the Essence of the Means of their Salvation and the Holy Spirit will not encourage these Niceties but inspires always Simplicity For this Cause I do not reflect upon the Mistake that I oft times commit of naming Peter for Paul or Wood for Stone It is enough to me that I make the Substance of the thing be understood that Men may return to the Love of God And he having permitted me to cause to be printed all my Writings has not appointed in what Time by what Person in what Place or by what Means I might do it I must therefore apply my natural Spirit to find out these Means I have writ of it to my Friends and advertised them that it was the Will of God that this should be done for his Glâ—â—â— And if I had not acted naturally in this these Persons could not know this express Will of God because they are not yet so disengaged that they may hear the Voice of God Ought I therefore to hold my Peace and not to write because the Holy Spirit does not dictate to me all the Words and because I make use of those which I speak in my homely vulgar Language And must I prove otherwise than by my Words that it is the Holy Spirit who acts in me They who consider this without an evil Eye will I am perswaded be convinc'd that she is far from attributing her Mistakes and Defects to the Dictates of the Spirit of God and that yet it might be very well said to him who was desirous to reduce her Writings to a greater Exactness free of all Mistakes What Rashness is it for Men to offer to correct the Works of God For God thinks fit to chuse weak and foolish things to confound the wise and mighty and to make his strength appear in their weakness that when we see the great and substantial Truths of God declared by one of such Simplicity without Disguise and Affectation without all Human Learning and the Artifices and Exactness whereby we recommend our Writings to the World we may clearly see that it is not her own Natural Spirit that by its Industry and Application searches out and discovers those Divine Truths tho' its Defects and Weakness appear in applying to declare them to the World but that it is the Spirit of God And as they who are very intent upon the cultivating of their Minds with Human Learning are very unconcern'd as to fine Cloaths and other outward things about which others are very nice and ready to laugh at their unfashionableness so one who is wholly taken up with the great and substantial Truths of God and Eternity and intent to impress them on the Hearts of others has no regard to niceness of Words and Terms is not curious to avoid little Mistakes about lesser and accidental Matters but earnest only to inculcate to them the great things of Eternity And that this was the Disposition of A. B's Spirit appears thro' all her Writings It may be Joshuah knew not whether it was the Sun or Earth that stood still and Esay thought that Hezekiah would undoubtedly die of his Disease and S. Matthew that Jeremy had written that which Zachary had said and that there were two Thieves who upâ—raided Jesus Christ on the Cross tho' S. Luke tells it was but one of them and Jesus Christ himself that there were Figs on a Fig-Tree when there were none But what will some say is not this to take from the divine Writers their Authority and Force This is as ridiculous as if a Man dying for Hunger would not take the Bread offer'd him under a Pretext that he who offer'd it was mistaken in some Words when he offered it as that he said it was bak'd such a Day whereas it was on another Day or that it came from Peter's House whereas it came from John's or that the Corn it was made of came from France when it was from Germany from whence the poor famish'd Man would fancy that the Bread could not nourish him that it was not good that they who were mistaken in this might be mistaken in taking it may be Poison or Tares for Corn or Arsnick for Meal But what ought such Mistakes to be imputed to the Holy Spirit God forbid they belong only to the Creature And when it pleases the Holy Spirit for so saving Ends as to recommend Simplicity the study of Purification the cleaving to the one thing needful to teach those who desire to be enlightned by God that they must leave off the ways of humane Exactness and Speculation and of confounding the Understanding with a Thousand barren and needless Curiosities which certainly devour much precious time without making us well-pleasing to God or advancing one step in his Love but have rather turn'd us away from it and occupied and blown us up with these useless Vanities That the Holy Spirit I say should permit for so saving an Advantage some Mistakes which regard Accidental Foreign and Accessory things to remain some time in the Instruments which he makes use of most certainly and infallibly in the things that concern the way to Heaven What is there in all this that derogates from the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls or the Divine Authority of those sent by God to guide Man without fail to this supream End The Difference that is observed amongst Persons inspired by God and sometimes of the same Person from himself comes from this that they have not the same Gifts by Nature or are not equally enlightned or the same Person is not so much at one time as at another even touching Divine Things when they are Accessories Thus the Apostles knew not from the Beginning that the Gentiles would be called to the Gospel and therefore at first they lived exactly after the Manner of the Jews But when God gave and encreased this Light they acted and spoke otherwise must we conclude from this that they were first deceived or that the Holy Spirit did not inspire them or did not inspire them aright Not at all But that at first it was not necessary it should be made known to them till the saving Doctrine of the Gospel were established among the Jews So that we must hence conclude only that the Holy Spirit gives and encreases his Light as he sees it expedient for Men's Salvation Thus A. B. in her younger Years had not received the Light which respects the glorious State in which Adam was created before Eve and therefore spake of Adam then according to the common Opinion but afterwards in a more sublime Manner XXIII 5. It was again objected to her that she contradicted both the Holy Scriptures and her self and therefore could not be led by the Spirit of God To this she replied That this cannot be true indeed if her Writings be endited
by the Spirit of God who cannot contradict himself for God is Yesterday and to day the same unchangeable and always equal to himself from whom no Variableness nor Contradiction can proceed But if her Adversary would examine all the Holy Scripture after the Manner he had done her Writings he would find many more such seeming Contradictions in the Bible For indeed there are many more according to the narrow Apprehension and shallow Judgment of Men who being earthly and carnal cannot understand spiritual things or those endited by the Holy Spirit and they forge in their little Brains Errours out of most solid Truths and Contradictions out of the greatest Conformities From hence have sprung so many Errours Schisms and Divisions in the Church of God because every one would understand the Scripture after their own Mode they have invented so many different Religions and each says This is founded on the Holy Scripture tho' very often they have different Sentiments and contradict one another in the same Truths while every one thinks he understands them aright Tho' they are uncapable of understanding Divine Things for the same Spirit that endited the Holy Scriptures gives the Understanding of them and when the Spirit of Man undertakes to do it he still falls from one Errour into another and loses himself in that great Ocean of Divine Wisdom which he cannot understand nor comprehend It does not trouble me that there appears to be Contradictions in my Writings to the Judgments of Men since they will hardly find two Prophets speak the same Words upon the same Matter and the four Evangelists do not relate the same Things after the same Manner Must it therefore be said that there are Contradictions in the Holy Scriptures as this Benjamin Furly says there are in my Writings God commands to honour Father and Mother and Jesus Christ says we must hate Father and Mother adding that he who does not forsake Father and Mother and all things cannot be his Disciple How will this Benjamin reconcile these two Passages For to honour Father and Mother is a thing quite contrary to the hating and forsaking them And Jesus Christ says that he is not come to bring Peace upon Earth but War between Father and Son c. And elsewhere he says my Peace I give you In one Place he says Drunkards and Gluttons shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and elsewhere he says that that which enters into the Mouth does not defile the Soul Truth is invincible and does not change for all that may be thundered against it but it is the more established when it is opposed and contradicted by ignorant Persons as this Benjamin who cannot discern Truth from Lying and from Contradictions He confounds one time with another and will needs give general Rules for all sorts of Occasions and when these Rules are not punctually observed at all times he thinks that Persons do change or contradict themselves And if he had been an Apostle of Jesus Christ when he lived upon Earth he would have often reproved him as at present he does me For when Jesus Christ was afraid of his Enemies he bids his Apostles buy Swords and if they wanted money to do it that they should sell their Garments and a little after he commands to put up the Sword and threatens that he who strikes with the Sword shall be strucken by it If this Benjamin had been in S. Peter's Place when he cut off Malchus's Ear he would certainly have been displeased at Jesus Christ and blamed him for Inconstancy and Contradiction because he could not discern the time when he ought to strike and when he ought to forbear He reproaches me that I have written somewhere that I might say something that is not true without lying or sinning He does not consider that there are material Lies which are not Sins He would have Words precisely spoken which are true according to his Caprice for it is a chief Article of the Quakers to justifie themselves before Men for they study precise Words that they may not commit a material Lie and they dare not call a Christian by that Name without adding as they call them fearing to Lie by calling him a Christian when he is not truly such For my part I am far from these Maxims for I never regard the pronunciation of Words but the Essence of the Truth of the things which I advance If I express them in this or that Term it is all one to me provided I deceive no Body and that I make the things to be understood which I would signifie But there is this difference between the Spirit that guides me and the Spirit that guides that Sect that they would be esteem'd by Men for good Men and for the People of God whereas I am not concern'd how they esteem me for I am content with the Testimony of my own Conscience and seek not the Approbation of Men far less will I say any Words to the end they may think that I am Just and guided by God It suffices me that I know it and God knows it for it is written He who would please Men is not the Servant of Jesus Christ Therefore I will freely speak a material Lie when I believe the thing is true for Example I have often said that I was Two Years younger than I find I am since I caus'd one to search the Register of my Baptism I grant I have thus made many material Lies yet without sinning thereby or lying since a Lie is a Deceit or Falseness of the Heart that kills the Soul which I could not do by saying that I was Two Years younger for I aim'd not thereby to deceive any Body nor to speak against the Truth I have uttered many such material Lies I love rather to possess the Essence of Truth in the bottom of my Soul than to speak verbally true Words through Hypocrisie For what else is it to call Men by the Name of Christians and to add to it as they call them than Hypocrisie and Contempt of the Truth such as the Jews had when they said to Pilate that he ought to write on the Cross of Jesus Christ that he was King of the Jews by adding to it as he said which Pilate would not add saying only What is written is written as I also answer to this Benjamin when he would teach me to speak Words which are true before Men For I know well that all whom I call Christians are not truly Christians before God yet I will not learn from the Quakers to add to the Name of Christian as they call them since this seems to me superfluous and I have no other Intention in calling them simply Christians but to make it be understood of whom I speak to wit that I speak not of the Jews or Heathens but of those only whom I call Christians yet without design to maintain that they are true Christians Since I declare elsewhere that I
If God has declared in different Ages of the World that all Flesh has corrupted his Ways that there was none that did Good no not one that the good Man is perished out of the Earth and there is none Vpright among Men And at the same time there might have been some few who sought God with all their Hearts God's Saying was not to damn but to rescue from Damnation Why may not the same be now declared if the World be in as bad a State I am sure the Vncharitableness and Damning lies on the other side If any pleases to read the entire Passages out of which the Author has cull'd his half Sentences it is like they will have other Impressions of her Spirit than what he would give them She shews what is the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ And therefore says she I fear there shall be so few Souls at present saved because few or none follow indeed this Doctrine of Jesus Christ and there is nothing more true than that without doing this we cannot be saved as you also acknowledge It were better as she says for every on◠to search their own Hearts and to discover if they really possess the Qualities which the Spirit of Jesus Christ has than to dispute whether there be yet any True Christians upon Earth seeing this touches no Body in general but every one for himself ought to labour to become a true Christian without being so curious to know whether his Neighbour be so or not since though all the Men of the World were so and I were not this would avail me nothing The Design of such Words is not that we may nicely and critically quibble upon the Words but that we may impartially search our own Hearts and see what Truth there is in them as to our selves VIII One could hardly have imagined that the Author could have formed his fourth Accusation of her misrepresenting the Design and Import of the Gospel and founded it upon the Passages he cites She says the Design of the Gospel is to recover Men to the Love of God and that the Laws and the Life of Jesus Christ are the necessary means to that End She never understood it that all use of Riches was forbidden or that Riches without any more were an infallible Sign of not being a Christian but that we ought to be poor in Spirit even when we have Riches and if they prove an Impediment to that rather to abandon them than not to aspire to the other The first Passage the Author cites to prove his Charge is a Saying of hers when a Child of Four Years occasioned by the difference she then observed betwixt the Lives of them about her and the Character she had then learned of Jesus Christ which taking her own Sence of them do not in the least differ from the true Design and Import of the Gospel This says she is an Eternal Truth that the Spirit of God loves and desires nothing but things Eternal and the natural Spirit only loves and seeks after things Temporal This was clearly shewn me from my Childhood and therefore at the Age of Four Years I was desirous to go and find out the Country where the Christians lived reasoning with my little Judgment that those could not be True Christians who seek after or desire the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this World but that they ought only to seek after things Eternal In the other Place she is speaking against the excessive Pomp of the Church of Rome The Practice of those says she who are Members of Rome does sufficiently evidence to me That the Holy Spirit cannot be the Author of those things which are contrary to the Practice of Jesus Christ We see the Prelates attended with Servants and Coaches and Trains like to Secular Princes their Houses and Furniture do surpass them this the Author leaves out if they had Faith to believe that God being Man was poor and despised they would blush for Shame as all other Christians to make themselves thus to be honoured All which might have been said without so harsh a Censure from a Protestant Minister as that she had mistaken the whole Design and Import of the Gospel I thought still that to desire and love and make one self to be honoured had been Pride and Ambition as well as to desire Riches is Covetousness and that it had been inconsistent with the Spirit of the Gospel in Churchmen as well as in others Our Author in the next Impression of his Preface by his way of Reasoning may bring in our Saviour mistaking the Design of his own Gospel when he says Woe to you that are Rich how hard it is for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Woe to you that are full Woe to you that laugh Woe to you Pharisees for you love the uppermost Seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the Markets and to go in long Cloathing and to have the uppermost Rooms at Feasts he may as consequentially infer that the Rich and such as live Plentifully and make themselves to be honoured are acccording to Christ's Doctrine in a State of Damnation as that according to A. B's Doctrine all Prelates and all Christians who have Servants or Coaches or make themselves to be honoured do all run blindly to Damnation But if he can put such a Sence upon our Saviour's Words as is consistent with the Use of Riches and giving honour to whom it is due why may not he candidly construct her Words without inferring that she destroys all Relations among Men. The Author's Friend it seems hath no regard to Truth when he makes him inconsiderately publish so many Falshoods The Jesuits never cheated A. B. of any of her Estate she left not M. Poiret a Penny and he always was and still is as sound and sober in his Mind and Reason as the Author IX But the most grievous Accusation and that in which he most triumphs is the 5th that she miserably perverts the Doctrine of the Gospel falling in with the vile Socinian Heresies and even outdoing them and that she absolutely denies and disputes against any Satisfaction made by the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ From this her own Writings fully vindicate 〈◊〉 as is made appear in the Apology The Socinians its known deny the Foundation of all Merit in Jesus Christ his Divinity and Personal Union with the Godhead they deny the very saving Means and Remedies that flow from his Merits viz. the inward renewing and sanctifying Grace and Operations of Jesus Christ purifying the Soul they deny the Disease it self that needs these Remedies viz. the vast and unspeakable Corruption of our whole Natures both inward and outward derived upon us by Adam and greatly encreas'd by us All this A. B. utterly abhors and declares on the Contrary that Jesus Christ is true Eternal God and true Man that he is the Mediator between God and Man the Saviour and
the Judgment of others who think well of them that there are many things in them which appear unto us wild and uninrelligible God may reveal things under most mysterious Figures altogether dark and hidden from us and yet before the Consummation of all things may make them plain and evident as we see in Ezekiel Daniel and the Revelations We must not therefore despise them because we have unquestionable Evidences of those Persons their being inspired by the Spirit of God So rather than with the Doctor to speak Evil of the things which I do not know I will conclude Quae intellexi optima sunt puto item quae non intellexi XXX I have detained you so long upon the Doctor 's first Narrative that I shall need to say little of the second for what answers the first serves for an Answer to the second also where he has done nothing toward the satisfying Peoples Expectations which he rais'd by his big Promises I shall let it pass with three or four Remarks only 1. He continues still to give false Representations of her It is not true that she pretends to a Sanctity above the Prophets or the Apostoles a Sanctity next to that of God nor to a comprehensive Knowledge Natural and Divine and all manner of speculative Truths nor to the Knowledge of all matters of Fact at what distance of Time and Place or how secret sover nor that she contradicts her self as if she asserted sometimes that both the Divine Truths which she declares and all the Words by which she utters them were inspired by the Spirit of God and sometimes the first only nor that she makes Jesus Christ a Type of her nor that she is the Mother of all that shall be converted unto God her Sayings import no such thing when they are considered without Prejudice in her own Writings as is made appear already 2. Notwithstanding of the Narrator's great Sincerity and that he intends to set down her own Pretences in her own Words without adding to or diminishing from or curtailing any Passage which may be necessary to qualifie the Meaning of them yet so earnest is he to make her odious that he forgets himselfe and either by truly curtailing the Passages or by his Comments on them he makes her speak quite otherwise than she intended So that they who would not judge rashly may please to read them in her own Writings without the Doctor 's Curtailings and Glosses Thus as to his false Glosses when he says My Thoughts Words and Actions must have the Three Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth else I should be as a sounding Brass c. Does this infer that she arrogates to her self a Sanctity above the Prophets and Apostles and next to God himself Souls truly regenerate are Partakers of the Divine Nature Christ lives in them Piety cannot be true as he himself grants without a Perfection of Parts tho' not of Degrees without an Universal Conformity to the Will of God so that their Thoughts Words and Actions must be both Just Good and True now as one Star differs from another in Glory so do regenerate Souls Her Words then imply no more but that God had truly renewed and regenerated her by his Holy Spirit and not that she exceeded all others in Sanctity as his malicious Gloss would have it Thus when she says I do not remember I ever committed any Faults but when I believed the Counsel of Men. It is far from her Meaning that she was born without Sin or that Original Corruption was perfectly cured in her as appears by all her Writings and by that very Place cited but that as Plants and Trees seem all Dead and without Life in the Winter-Season till the warm Spring make them all bud anew and discover the Life and Spirit that was in the Root so Mens natural Corruption which seems dead and mortified is awakened and exerts it self according to the diffirent outward Occasions conformable to the Variety and Difference of People's Inclinations and that this was her weak side by which her Self-love and Vanity did exert it self Again when she gives a convincing Reason for what she says or speaks of her self with the greatest Humility or limits general Sayings so as to confine them to her true Sense and Meaning all this he very cautiously keeps out and conceals as appears in the Citations out of the Light of the World in the 9 11 17 20 and 21st p. of the Narrative Thus where she wonderfully Illustrates how the Holy Spirit communicates to pure Souls such a comprehensive Divine Light and Knowledge as cannot be express'd by many Words the Doctor industriously skips it over and joins the foregoing and following Senâ—ences together I have need says she to express my self by humane Reasons and Comparisons because otherwise they could not understand me for the Holy Spirit speaks so succinctly that one Word makes me comprehend many things He gives Subtility to the Understanding to conceive great things by one of his small Motions It is just as if one were in a fine Room well adorned with Variety of Furniture and Rarities but there were no Light in it whereby to see all these things In such a Case it would need a great many Words to make him who had never seen them understand in particular all the fine Things and Furniture that were in the Room telling him here be such and such Pictures such Tables such Seats and such like things and yet we could not make him comprehend well the Beauty of this Furniture and Rarities But if a Light were brought into the Room tho' it were but that of a Candle in a Moment it would give more Knowledge of all the things that are in the Room than all the Discourses that were uttered to make them known So it is with the Light of the Holy Spirit when it enters into a Soul it makes it know and comprehend all things very clearly Nevertheless these things cannot be seen by Souls who are yet in the Darkness and Obscurity of their own Passions many Words and Discourses must be used to make them understand the Rarities that are in the Works of God So far A. B. All this is left out by the Doctor except only the first and last two Lines the rest did not serve his turn he design'd to confound and darken all and they gave too distinct and convincing a Light They who shall be pleased to peruse that whole Conference will see how little Ground there is for his scurrilous â—ests if we consider the thing in Thesi without relation to A. B. that when the Spirit of God does immediately enlighten a Soul he does not endite all the precise Words that it ought to make use of in explaining that Light and Truth to others only that he brings along with him the Gift of Wisdom to express it self so as to make the Divine Truths to be understood It cannot be mistaken
Ass but his Spirit is still to be regarded through all she is but the Organ the Instrument and the Conduit but the Spirit Life and Power the living Waters and the pure Truth come from Jesus Christ 3. Tho' there were no more but this one Expression in the Comparison it were enough to shew how far she is from making a Parallel as to what relates to her self The Child Jesus says she gathered Disciples after him the second also will draw a great number of persons to be Disciples of the first 4. There are few serious Christians who do not believe that there will be a renewing of the Church of God before the End of the World and that Jesus Christ will live in her by his Light and Spirit Now there being a great Analogy in the Works of God through the several Ages of the World a prudent serious Christian will not scoff at the making a Comparison betwixt the Renovation of his Gospel Spirit in the World and the first establishing of it 7. As to what he says in his Tenth Article her own Defences are already given in the Apology As I shall never desire to mock at and speak evil of things that I do not know so had the Doctor lived among the Pharisees at the time of the Birth of Jesus Christ he would have made it as much the subject of his Scorn and Raillery that it was said a Virgin betroth'd to a Husband had conceived a Son only by the power of the Holy Ghost as now he diverts himself and others with his light and foolish lests in relation to this Virgin To turn an innocent Raillery in Conversation which had nothing in it of any impure Idea and uttered 30 years ago by a Person of known Gravity who never staid with A. B. tho' he greatly esteem'd her and with whom her other Friends had never any Acquaintance to turn this I say into an impure Jest and fix it upon her and her Friends as their ordinary Conversation shews only how impure as well as malicious the Imaginations of some are who catch at all occasions to turn the most innocent things that way Turpe est Doctori c. 8. It is a dangerous thing it seems to come near the Narrator when he is in his Majesty for then he lays furiously about him The Author of The State of the Philadelphian Society had a modest Reflection upon the Doctor 's boasting that he would overturn the Quakers Philadelphians Quietists and Pietists as well as the Bourignianists all at one blow The Doctor treats him with a great deal of Insolence and Scorn tho' what he said stands good after all that the Doctor hath yet replied The Doctor says that the Church of England and the Presbyterians do not stand upon the same Foundation nor resolve their Faith by the same Rule yet themselves say they do it viz. by the divine Authority of the Scriptures and the Practice of the purest Ages of the Church which was all the Postscript affirmed What that Author said of the internal Light of the Spirit of God being so rationally stated in the Treatise it self in opposition to all Enthusiastical Delusion and Imposture and made appear to be ownd by all the Reformed Churches and particularly by the Church of England I am sorry that the Doctor shews himself such an Enemy to the Grace and Spirit of God as to flout at it and to scoff at Authors and Writings which he does not know There are many who look upon the Writings of A. B. as excellently representing the Essentials of Christianity yet they do not believe her other particular Sentiments but commend her Discretion in the manner of their delivery Now he who that Author hopes may undertake to give a true Character of her may be of that number and so the Doctor might have spared all his Declamations about his Vtopias and Hennepins The Doctor concludes with an uncommon strain of disdainful and boasting words If he persist to amuse Men with his Narratives as he has already given a proof with how little Caâ—dour he manages them and confounds and â—â—akens the Truth instead of clearing it so he may be disappointed of his Designs and miss his Aim come short of the Glory and Name he aspires after and make the Writings of M. A. B. to be more valued and esteemed in the World in which I am sorry he should think himself unhappy for the more narrowly they are enquired into by sincere and serious Persons their Worth will the more appear and they who clearly see the great and essential truths of Jesus Christ contained in these Writings will never be shaken by his Narratives and let him calumniate as he will it will still more and more appear that God has chosen the weak base and foolish things of the World to confound the Wise the Learned and the Mighty and the Writings of that despised and pious Virgin M. Aâ—t Boâ—â— ignon will be admired and esteemed when it will be quite forgotten that ever there were such Writings in the World as the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourign Detected It may please God to open his Eyes and to let him see what Mistakes his Passions and his rash and hasty judging of things have made him run into and what mischief he does unto the true interest of Christianity how he entertains and diverts the Scoffers and the Profane and lays a stumbling-block in the way before many serious Persons to turn them away from that by which they might reap unspeakable spiritual profit to their Souls by his giving such Characters of Persons and Writings which aim at nothing but to perswade People to the Love of God and for that end to follow the Example of our Lord Jesus Christ in a Life of Penitence and Mortification of our corrupt Nature which desire none to sollow the Instrument of these Writings but Jesus Christ only nor believe any thing upon her Authority but upon his only and as it is conformable to his Gospel nor to have any regard for her particular Sentiments as not being necessary to Salvation and which do not at all tend to make a new Sect or divide Christians or separate them from their lawful Pastors but to unite us all in the Spirit of Jesus Christ If he seriously pursue this great Design himself in the true Fear of God his Prejudices will vanish as a Mist before the Sun That God may grant him this Grace and that he may instantly ask it of him with a sincere and humble heart is the earnest and daily Prayer of SIR c. POSTSCRIPT HAving seen a Letter of M Poiret's to a Friend I here send you an Extract out of it by which you will see with what a Christian Spirit he considers the Doctor 's unworthy Usage of him Nil moror quod in me ita debacchetur Narrator dicta in sensus horridos blasphemos interpretetur aversionem suam
summumque odium testetur adversus me qui hominem incognitum resque ejus tetigi nunquam Quaestio mihi suit cum aliis circa rem quae ipsum non concernit Contendebant nonnulli licet veritates egregiae donaque non vulgaria in A. B. ejusque scriptis essent eam tamen non esse audiendam siquidem è Scripturis non pateat Deum velle homines per sominam docere provocabantque uti hoc ostenderetur provocatus qui alias tacuissem ostendere conatus sum Deum in Scripturis declarasse quod placeat ipsi in ultimis temporibus soemina aliqua sive foemineo sexu uti tanquam instrumento quo lumen Christi di inâ—sque veritates evangelii multis efficaciter communicet ad unam Dei gloriâ—m hominumque salutem atque hoc est meum illud crimen qâ—od omni haeresi ac insaniae anteponit ob quod ipsemet ad rabiem usque videtur in M. A. B. in me insanire Si mens ille Theologa esset aut Christiana diligeret me quamvis inimicum ex Christiana indole omnia in meliorem partem tentaret interpretari quae in bonum utcunque capi possunt licet incommode enunciata charitate sua tegeret si qui errores defectus non possâ—nt à charitate sua excusari misericordia moveret eum pro errante Deum deprecari ut per Gratiae lumen mihi subveniret tum homines caeteros ad eandem erga me charitatem commovere memor ipse propriae suae infirmitatis timensque ne si in eos qui opinione sua ceciderunt insolentius insurgat permittat Dominus superbae insolentiae osor eum profundius cadere quam ab ullo alio factum sit Verum nil simile in ejus scriptis in quibus è contra tantum demonstrat coram omnibus sibi animum essâ— malevolum de inventione mali gaudere quaerentem quaevis aliis bene dicta depravantem irrisorem bonorum adversarium ut omnes istis qualitatibus infecti sint efficere gestientem quod sane doleo licet non invito animo hanc amplector occasionem osorem ac inimicum mâ—um dilectione benedictione prosequendi rogans Deum ex animo ut ipsi sit propitius eum è malis suis eripiat donetque luminoso miti ac humili spiritu servatoris nostri cujus misericordia ego quoque summe indigeo A Second LETTER CONTAINING Some short REMARKS upon Bourignianism Detected Second Narrative and the Author's Letter to his Friend SIR I. THo' I am sensible that I have very good Reason to be diffident of my self and to entertain always a profound Sense of the weakness and fallibility of my Understanding and of my unfitness to pass a Judgment on the Performances of great and learned Men yet since you have put that Honour upon me as to desire once and again that I should give you my Sense of the Reverend Dr. Cockburn's 2d Narrative and the Letter annexed I might justly challenge my self Guilty of a piece of Rudeness if I deny'd your Request and therefore I resolv'd not to decline doing that which perhaps might afford you a little innocent Divertisement I have always I think own'd to you that I am an impartial Enquirer after Truth and I hope if my Heart deceive me not I shall through the Divine Grace be ready to embrace it and rejoice in it where-ever I find it And it is my humble Petition to the Father of Mercies the God of Light and Truth that he would never suffer me to espouse the Interests of any Persons or Parties any farther than they have Truth and Goodness on their side A general Verdict on the whole of the Doctor 's Performance might be dispatch'd in a few Lines but I suppose this would not be Satisfying and therefore I conclude that giving you my Thoughts together with the Reasons of them in some particular Instances will be more agreeable and more fully answer your Expectations II. The perusal of the Doctor 's Letter to his Friend gave me Ground to make the following Reflections which I shall impart to you with all the Succinctness that is possible for me and you may judge of the Justice and Reasonableness of them 1. Whatever Comments Enthusiasts may make on providential Events yet they whom the Doctor calls M. B's Admirers and Followers who do not pretend to be inspired Persons are not very forward to interpret the Language of these Dispensations However I find the Doctor himself notwithstanding the Censure he passes on the bold and temerarious Pretences of Enthusiasts to know the secret Reasons of providencial Occurrences scruples not to fall a guessing and even determining of the Intent and Meaning of that Dispensation which hath lately befallen himself He is very suspicious that A. B.'s Disciples may have entertain'd some secret Triumphs in their Bosoms on the Account of his being forced to retreat to Holland and is at some pains to abate the Joy of these imaginary Jo Poeans But for any thing I know he is out in his Conjecture and might have spared himself the Trouble of what he wrote on that head I very much doubt if our being put in more advantagious Circumstances for accomplishing the Designs that we are very 〈◊〉 and intent upon and which we may fancy to be very useful be a good Assurance to us of the Countenance and peculiar Interposal of Divine Providence in our Favours 2. The Doctor in these Passages where he tells us what are and what are not the Grounds of his appearing against A. B. hath several very pretty and just Reflections Such generals go well away with every Party It is the Justice of their Application that will be disputed Yet I question the Truth of some of his general Maxims such as for Instance that true Piety like Gold is current every where and at all times I am sure it was not so in the Days of our Saviour and his Apostles The great thing that hath engaged his Zeal in this Attack is his supposed Discovery of Errors Heresies and Delusions The mutual Charge of pernicious Doctrines is what hath set the several Sects by the Ears The Doctor indeed advances his Charge against A. B. to a very great height affirming that the whole Scheme of her Principles hath a Tendency contrary to the Christian Constitution This Assertion I know will oblige some to tell him that it would seem he had not yet well digested his Thoughts on that Matter However if he solidly evince this he will do a great Kindness to many who for the Present think that they are not wholly ignorant of the Designs and Tendency of the Christian Constitution In the mean time the Doctor modestly acknowledges that he is not infallible 3. In the preceding Narrative the Doctor had asserted that neither the Virgin nor any other Saint was so much honoured by the Roman Church as A. B. is by her Followers Now I presume
own Favours both from Scripture and Reason and argues against the Philadelphian in that View I think moreover that when the Doctor in the heat of his Opposition against Pretences to Inspiration argues thus as if it were impossible or unheard of for one to be deluded and yet not to be sensible of it or to exclaim against a thing of which he himself is as guilty as any puts a Sword in the Hand of the Deists whereof they may very dexterously turn the Edge against such as were unquestionably inspired since they who truly bore that Character did very much cry out against false Prophets and many of them I believe did not justifie their Pretences to Inspiration by working Miracles In fine I think the Doctor needed not have made such a Bustle about the Import of neither a Friend nor an Adversary since it seems obvious that the Philadelphian meant no more than one who is neither a fond Friend nor a fierce Enemy III. I proceed next to glance at some things in the Doctor 's Second Narrative He introduces it with a very fair Promise assuring us that he will set down her own Pretences in her own Words without adding to them or diminishing from them or courtailing any Passages which may be necessary to qualifie the Meaning of them This if he keeps to it is a very honest and candid Resolution And indeed could he assure also that he will put no other Meaning on her Words but her own nor distort them to a Sense that she never intended he might then very plausibly invite his Readers to depend on his Citations without needing to consult her Writings But I much doubt if this can be expected from one who examines in the View and with the Design that the Doctor doth We know that a great many who pretend to make free and impartial Enquiries gloss or rather pervert the Holy Scriptures themselves in favour of their own Prejudices That I be not uneasie to you I shall only touch on a very few things and by my Animadversions on them you may judge if the Doctor be as Candid and Impartial as he pretends to be or hath kept his Promise 1. He charges A. B. as arrogating to her self a Sanctity above the Prophets and Apostles without the Alloy of humane Passions or Infirmities a Sanctity which is next to it or rather the same with that of God himself Now let any free and disinteressed Spirit determine if the Passages which the Doctor adduces will amount to this Assertion I would ask him Is it not our Duty to have Truth Righteousness and Goodness in all our Thoughts Words and Actions And if so is it not attainable by the Grace of God And if A. B. by this Grace attained to some singular Measures of them ought that to have been made her Crime and Reproach Doth she arrogate any Truth Righteousness or Goodness to her self as the Cause and Author Where doth she say That she arrived at these Heights of Sanctity that the Blessed are possessed of For I think that to pretend to these were to assume to ones self a Sanctity without the Alloy of humane Passions or Infirmities But why doth the Doctor assert That a Sanctity without this Alloy is the same with that of God Is not the Sanctity of Angels without it Shall we then say that theirs is the same with that of God Further are not the Actions of such as are made Partakers of the Divine Nature in the Apostle's Phrase more than humane that is Do they not come from a higher and more noble Principle than what is meerly Natural And when a Soul hath attain'd to this Bliss when Christ is formed in him when he is the Master and Guide and Inspirer of his inward Man must it be accounted Blasphemy or a Rivaling the Deity to say that his Actions are not Humane This is certainly all that is meant by that Passage which so scandalized the Doctor A. B. owns indeed that by the Divine Grace she arrived at great Measures of Sanctity but yet such as others might attain to by a faithful Dependance on that same Grace and she encouraged all that conversed with her generously to aspire after it What if she had delivered her self in the Words of the Psalmist I am undefiled in the Way I keep God's Testimonies I seek him with my whole Heart I also do no Iniquity I walk in his Ways Would the Doctor have quarrelled it Is not this the Character of every truly Righteous Person The Doctor p. 5. after a scornful Preamble brings an injurious Aspersion upon A. B. he will have it that either she was born without Sin or that Original Corruption was perfectly cured in her and so that she was not as others liable to Sin without external Temptations How is this proved Why because she says For my part I can say in in Truth that I do not remember I ever committed any Faults but when I believed the Counsel of Men Now if I have any Sense this Passage overturns what the Doctor would establish by it For does not our yielding to outward Temptations evidently suppose that there is something within us that complies with them and what is that but our Original Corruption For I think it is very plain that if Original Corruption were perfectly cured in us there would be nothing within us on which outward Temptations or evil Counsel could get hold Achan's taking the goodly Babylonish Garment which he saw among the Spoils and Judas's complying with the Offer of Thirty Pieces of Silver did discover the covetous Dispositions of their Hearts When I believe and listen to the evil Counsels of another and thereupon commit Faults this seems clearly to demonstrate that there is something within me that likes and agrees to the wicked Suggestions that are made to me which plainly implies a Depravation Very often it comes to pass that outward Temptations do awaken and discover some latent and hidden Corruption or wicked Inclination that the Person was not sensible of before Doubtless St. Peter did not know that latent Cowardice and Infidelity that were in his Heart till the outward Temptation gave him the Discovery of them so that tho' it were true that one did never actually sin but by means of outward Temptations yet it will not therefore follow that he hath no internal Corruption or that he is exempt from that Degeneracy of Nature that is common to all the fallen Posterity of Adam The Doctor for all that he talks here since he reads A. B's Books could not be Ignorant that she frequently acknowledges the Degeneracy of her Nature and that she was of the same Make and Frame with the rest of lapsed Mankind Take this one Passage for the Proof of it If I had not known says she that my own Will was Evil and Corrupt I should never have learned to resist it since there is not any thing more agreeable to our
Disposition to Cavil he would not have put a Gloss on this Passagess that it cannot bear without doing it open Violence nor omitted what was so evidently necessary to qualifie the Meaning of it Neither can I divine what but this could have moved him to imagine that the Passage which he here cites do import that A. B. asserted some kind of unaccountable Union between God and her I can see no Union that she can pretend to but to be taught guided and influenced by his Spirit And will he call this an uncouth thing How can he digest that Passage of St. Paul He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit Such an invidious Tour he gives the Passage that follows as if A. B. disdained that her Doctrines should be published as from one of a prophetical Spirit that was too mean saith the Doctor Now the Perusal of the very first Period of it even as it is curtail'd by himself will sufficiently discover the Fallacy I am not saith she Prophetical as the Ancient Prophets were who spoke of very obscure things Whence it is plain that the Reason why she denies her self to be Prophetical was not because she declined that Character as too mean for her but whereas the Prophets delivered themselves in dark and obscure Terms God she pretends enabled her to speak of Divine Things more clearly and more distinctly and that this is her Meaning the last Clause of the Passage abundantly evinces There is no need saith she to say that I have a prophetick Spirit when God gives Reasons and Comparisons to explain it after the manner of Men. 7. When the Doctor affirms * that the Reason of this singular Grace to A. B. is because by the Eternal Purposes of God's Counsel she was design'd to be the Organ of the Holy Ghost he bewrays that he hath not as yet digested well her Principles for she owns not any personal Decrees to have been made from all Eternity neither is the least Ground given him from the Passages he here cites for asserting them with Regard to her self The Doctor 's Inferences from many Passages of the Writings of A. B. are very often as wide as his was who would needs prove that there must be a Pope because in the Beginning of Genesis it is said Ia Principio But here I must stop my Circumstances will not allow me to employ my Thoughts any more at present on this Subject I intended indeed to have gone through the whole and particularly to have animadverted on the Improvements which he makes on two or three Passages which as he represents them look somewhat Frightful but the Preparations that I am obliged to make in order to take my Staff in my Hand as himself speaks keep me so hurried that I have little time for sedate Thoughts tho' if I understand that the Prosecution of this Matter would do you a Pleasure and can have so much leisure I may yet perhaps resume the Design IV. But that I may give you my Sense of the Doctor 's Performance in brief there are some things that to the best of my Thoughts he excessively aggravates some he palpably misrepresents and in other some he is down right mistaken He charges A. B. with a great many ill things he imagines that he hath evinced the Truth of the Charge and upon this Supposition which I must needs say is precarious he heats himself into a Transport and falls a pelting of her with the most opprobrious Language that an angry Zeal is wont to inspire He satisfies himself that to justifie the Rudeness of this Treatment it is sufficient to tell his Readers briskly Who should hinder the thrusting back with Contempt and Scorn an overforward and blasphemous Arrogancy one who without any Reason without any Warrant Divine or Humane demands a Place above Prophets or Apostles and all who were truly inspired nay who insults over Jesus Christ himself assumes the Honour and Power that he has been in Possession of from the Beginning of the World and who pretends to be more competent to carry on a Victory over the Devil and his Train If the Grounds on which the Doctor builds these Assertions be not yet solidly established I think he begins his Triumph too soon and if he believes really that they are then in my Opinion he needs not be at the pains of writting any more Narratives for enough is already done to beget in the Hearts of all honest Christians an eternal Horror and Dislike of A. B. It is beyond Contradiction plain that no Body can adopt these Positions without an open and bare-fac'd Renounciation of Christianity The Doctor indeed acts a very pretty Play but it ends tragically enough to some A. B. and such as favour her are brought on the Stage as formally disclaiming the Redeemer of the World as divesting him of his unquestionable Prerogatives and cloathing a mad Woman a Visionary with them Certainly this is the most bloody and criminal Charge that can be laid at the Door of such as profess the Christian Religion this is to represent them as having turned downright Apostates from it as trampling under foot and crucifying afresh the Divine and Adorable Author of it But then if this dreadful Accusation be false and illgrounded if they against whom it is brought do infinitely detest such an abominable Villany if they set no Person on the same Level with the Son of God but would appear against such sacrilegious Pretences with as much Zeal as the Doctor himself if they own that no Victories can be obtain'd over the Devil and his Train but only by the Almighty Grace and Power of Jesus Christ and that he alone and none other is competent to triumph over the Powers of Darkness and in fine if they adhere to the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets and to Jesus Christ the chief Corner Stone and disclaim as false and unsound what is not built thereupon and conform thereto I say if these things be so as most certainly they are How can the Author and Spreader of such injurious Calumnies excuse himself from a Degree of Uncharitableness that cannot be well parallelled To act the Scene in a Corner had not look'd so very ill natur'd but to act it publickly before the Face of the whole World and thereby to expose these he levell'd at as much as in him lay not only to Contempt and Derision but also to Hatred and Persecution is such a Flight of Zeal as in my Judgment cannot pretend to the Qualities of peaceable and gentle easie and impartial But did not the Doctor engage to give us A. B's Pretences in her own Words Where then doth she pretend to be more Competent to carry on a Victory over the Devil than Christ himself Where doth she assume to her self his Honour and Power or claim a Place above the Apostles and Prophets and all truly inspired Persons Must he conclude Men irrecoverable because