directed unto all men who were to come of Adam because he held in his power the free will of all his posterity Therefore God spoke to all men when he spoke to our first Father The Prohibition which he gave him m not to eat of the fruit of a tree was nothing but an outward sign of the dependance which he ow'd unto God even as a Superior reserves to himself some yearly rent in the Donation which he makes of his Lands or Mannors to the end that always these goods or lands may be oblig'd yearly to acknowledge the Superiour upon whom they depend God had bestow'd on man all this beautiful world which we behold with all that is in it but he would have him still to acknowledge the dependance that he had upon his God and Lord that the knowledge of this might oblige them to love such a Benefactor who had given them all these created things which they might enjoy provided always they did acknowledge and love the God who had so freely bestow'd them He forbad them to eat of one Tree only permitting them to eat of all the rest to shew that he permitted man to enjoy all the fruits of the earth provided he preserve always the obligation that he has to God He requires for a Testimony of this that he abstain from eating of this forbidden fruit to the end he might never forget the love and the obedience which he ow'd unto the Lord from whom he had receiv'd all things This Prohibition is no other thing but a Command to love him which being done man might do all that he desird This Commandment was also given unto man when God requir'd Sacrifices from him not that God had need of beasts or other things but he demands this outward testimony in confirmation of the inward acknowledgment and love which they bear unto God the giver of all things The Law he gave to Moses contain'd also no other thing but this love and gratitude which we owe unto our God Tho these Commandments are divided into ten yet they are all comprehended in that of loving and acknowledging God for all the rest are but prohibitions not to do the things which would hinder this love and gratitude because he who takes the name of God in vain or he who steals or covets his Neighbors goods or commits Fornication and so of the rest does not love nor acknowledge God And to make this love and acknowledgment easie to him God forbids him to commit these things as being contrary to this love But as to the summ of these Commandments it consists in one only to wit in the love and acknowledgment of God when he commands to keep holy the Feasts and to honour Father and Mother all this depends upon the love of God which we ought to testify also outwardly in sanctifying the days which are dedicated unto him The honour which we owe to Fathers and Mothers signifies only an acknewledgment that we owe unto our Benefactors of whom God is the principal yea even the giver of all things but because our Parents do us good in nourishing helping caring for us and teaching us during our weakness he commands us to honour them as little Gods for the small good things which they do us to the end that by this outward acknowledgment we may be mindful of our acknowledgments which we owe to God in proportion to the benefits which we receive from him Behold how God has many times forbidden us not to love the creatures since by so many diverse ways he commands us to love him to the exclusion of all things Which Jesus Christ himself has well exprest to us when he says that we must love God with all our heart with all our strength and with all our thoughts There could not be more express terms to shew that our heart is created for God only and for nothing else I receiv'd such light by these reasonings that it was my delight to hear them And to make her speak the more I said to her that there were some Authors who maintain'd that it was impossible to love God with all our hearts and to keep his Commandments She was mov'd with anger saying What injury do they to God by such sentiments I swear to you Sir these persons know neither God nor themselves when they assert such things They are insupportable to me What well dispos'd Soul could suffer that they should say of God that he has given Commandments to man which it is impossible for him to observe This is to desire to make him pass for a Tyrant and also for an Ignorant For to lay on a heavier burthen than our shoulders could bear would be a Cruelty and to damn men for not having done that which was impossible for them a Tyranny Could God give insupportable Laws without being unjust Could he overcharge men without cruelty He who made men could he be ignorant of their strength and capacity that he did not give them laws according to their weakness or infirmities What Blasphemies do they commit against the supream Wisdom which knows all things What injury to that straight Righteousness What contempt to make him ignorant of the strength and capacity of men He who knows the most secret thoughts of the heart and all things past and to come as well as the present O ingrate creature If thou knewest thy self thou would'st perceive but too much that thou art capable of loving God with all thy heart For there is nothing more natural to man than love and there is nothing which does more oblige to love than the benefits receiv'd without having merited them What is wanting to you therefore to be able to love with all your heart Is there any thing more lovely than he all-beautiful all-good all-wife all-perfect in short the accomplishment of all perfections Our heart which cannot live without love could it find any object more lovely or any greater subject of acknowledgment for so many benefits received from him I said to her That it was truth and that no objects could be found so worthy of our affection as God is but the evil came from this that we did not see nor feel God as we do the creatures which are material and sensible to our senses She said to me It is true Sir God being a pure Spirit is not visible nor sensible to our natural senses But believe me he is more visible and sensible to our understanding by his works than are all the creatures together and he does us also much more good than all that is created in heaven and in earth For this cause we ought to love him alone more than all other things together for if our understanding would apply its self to the consideration of the wonderful works of God it would find more ground to love God than any thing how lovely soever it might be even according to the natural senses All
begun and will continue yea and will encrease even to the end of the wicked World I begg'd She would yet tell me one thing upon this Head Whether Jesus Christ would come upon Earth before these Plagues or in the time of them or after them She replied He will not come before these Plagues Sir since they are already begun nor in the time of them for that will be the remnant of the Reign of Anti-christ whom Jesus Christ will overthrow by the breath of his Mouth His coming will be the end of that incarnate Devil who will be confin'd for all Eternity into Hell as he shall deserve but the Plagues will go before the coming of Jesus Christ by which the Servants of God shall be tried as Gold in the Furnace They must drink the Cup of Penitence before they enter into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ This is what he enquired of the two Sons of Zebedee if they were able to drink this Cup that is to suffer Tribulations that they might enter into his Kingdom For they will be so great that the like hath never been since the Creation of the World The Plagues are as the Forerunner of Jesus Christ who Preached Penitence and said in Figuring these last Times I Baptize with Water but there cometh one after me who shall Baptize with the Spirit The Water represents Penitence which must prepare us to receive the Holy Spirit which Jesus Christ will bring upon the Earth to Baptize in Spirit all those who shall be washed with the water of Penitence Jesus Christ therefore will come upon Earth in Glory toward the end of the Plagues and at the end of the reign of Anti-christ and he will judge the Quick and the Dead that is the Good and the Bad who shall then remain upon the Earth and will draw the Wicked apart saying unto them Go ye Cursed depart from me into everlasting Fire And to the Good he will say Cowe blessed of my Father Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World In sending the Wicked away from him he sends them into Hell For Hell is the privation of the Presence of God as Paradise is the enjoyment of that Presence So that to give Paradise unto the Good he does not send them into Heaven or some particular place but only says Come unto me and you shall Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven By which he shews that this Kingdom is his Presence I entreated her to tell me how Souls shall Perish since she had said heretofore that never any of the Works of God shall perish Now Souls are the Works that he has made those of the Wicked as well as those of the Good for Body and Soul are his Workmanship She said Sir The Souls of the Wicked shall not perish but shall only be deprived of all sort of Good and shall live for ever in all sort of Evil. It would be a far less evil unto them to Perish and be Annihilated because thereby their evils would be at an end But because they are the works of God they will never end but will have a miserable Eternity Being banished from the presence of God they will be sent into the Abyss of endless Miseries as the Good will be preserved in the Abyss of endless Happiness by the presence of God which comprehends all Good Therefore it cannot be found any where else for All is in God And according as they are estrang'd from Happiness they are plung'd into Evil being no other thing but the privation of Good Once contrary from it is always contrary from it In like manner Hell is not Sir what People imagin it to be there needs no material Fire to burn the Devils nor the Souls of the Wicked for they are but Spirits upon which Matter has no power as being a far less thing The Hell of Devils and damned Souls is no other thing but a separation from God who is all Good and in the privation of him consists All Evil For nothing can be Good but the privation of all Evil and nothing can be Evil but the privation of all Good which the Devils and damned Souls do possess when once they have abandoned God who alone contains all Good Wicked Souls who live yet upon Earth have not altogether abandoned God for they have yet some hope in him notwithstanding their Wickedness and therefore they are not as yet fallen into all sort of Evils for they have not forsaken all Good But these Souls which have past the time of their Saving Penitence are Desperate for they cannot any more approach to any Good which consists all in God alone whom they have forsaken of their own will and consequently are abandoned to all sorts of Evil. I said unto her That I had read some Authors of good Note who affirm that there is material Fire in the Hell of Devils and damned Souls She said Sir These Authors may indeed have had some Light that there will be material Fire in Hell as well as things hurtful to Man even Naturally But they have confounded one Time with another not knowing to discern the works of God neither in regard of the joy of Blessed Souls nor of the pains of the Miserable and therefore they have committed great faults in desiring to know things before the time that God would reveal them There will therefore be truly Sir material Fire in the Hell of the Devils and the Damned and likewise Darkness Poyson Thunders and Lightnings bitings of Beasts tempests of Water storms of Wind gnawings of Worms prickings of Flies and Thorns and all things that are hurtful will be materially in Hell Even so blindness of Eyes deafness of Ears leprosie of Body with all other sorts of Maladies and natural Infirmities But this will be only after the Judgment when God shall take away all Malignity from the Earth and from all the other Elements when he shall take away the Venom from Serpents Scorpions and other venomous Beasts and even Maladies and infirmities from the Bodies of Men and Beasts yea weaknesses and imbecilities from Spirits All this shall be reduc'd unto some corner of the Earth all in a Mass that these Malignities may act together upon the Bodies of the Damned and that the works of their hands may be rendred unto them For God has never made any of all these evils He created all things Good Men only by their Wickedness have given Malignity unto all Created things and therefore it ought to appertain to them and to be rendred them by right of Justice which will come to pass at the Judgment when the Bodies of the Wicked shall rise also that none of the works of God may Perish and shall be sent into that miserable Corner with all the Evils which shall be removed from the Blessed and from the whole Earth from Plants Beasts and all the Elements that all these things
said Sir This Submission is the Preparation required For if you set up for the Doctour or for the knowing Man you will oppose the Light of the Holy Spirit the Source of all Wisdom It must alwayes be believed and acknowledged that he is wiseâ— than all the Doctours that ever were in â—he World and that we learn more by a small â—ay of his Light than by a Hundred Years of very assiduous Study Therefore reckon all your Learning Ignorance and become as a Child newly born again that you may receive these new Notices which will give you more Light than all the Fathers had together Because they never discovered the hid Treasures for the Time was not yet come Every one spoke of it according to his Conceit and not according to what it really was For it was a Sealed Book that none was worthy to open but Jesus Christ himself after he was put to death and Crucified To this very Time there is nothing in all the Holy Scripture fulfilled but this Death which will make way for the Wonders of God that have remained hid till now and begin to be revealed to those who shall be humble in Heart But the Wise shall perish with their Wisdom Therefore I exhort you Sir to Simplicity and Submission that you may be worthy to receive the Light which breaks forth in our Days and to behold the New Jerusalem descend from Heaven adorned as a Bride in the Day of her Espousals The Alliance of God with Men will then be accomplished The Earth will then be renewed All Creatures will quit their Malignity which shall be confined to the Center of the Earth to torment the Bodies and Souls of all those who would not submit their Wills to God They shall receive Pains and Anguish according to the Measure of their Sins being overwhelmed with the Malignities which were caused by these Sins The Eighteenth Conference Speaks of Hell and of the Damned which shall be they who have followed their own Will which is the cause of all Evil and that few are disposed to quit it that they may resign themselves to God and receive the Divine Truth I asked her If all Men who will not submit their Will to God shall be confined to Hell She said Yes Sir assuredly they shall None shall escape Hell who have followed their own Will And this most righteously For God cannot save him who withdraws from him and who with his full Reason and the Consent of his Will will independently follow his own Inclinations as if he were Soveraign and without a Creatour We know well enough we cannot save our selves and that our Salvation depends upon God and yet we hope to be saved though we have quitted our Dependance upon God and adhere to our selves This is a false Perswasion which the Devil and the World set before us to make us insensible of our Misery For God will never save him who will not depend upon him If through Frailty we commit some Acts of Independence upon God and afterwards repent of them we may yet hope for Pardon But when we see that all Men live and dye in following their own Wills and will not leave it off being readier to murmur against God than to yield up their Wills to him he must of necessity render to them according to their Works God made no Malignity in the Elements nor in any other Creatures having created all good and perfect But Sin and the Self-will of Man has brought a Malignity into all Things And therefore it belongs to him as being the Work of his Hands And if it be just to render to each one what belongs to him it is necessary that Man have for his Portion the Malignity of all the Creatures to all Eternity as being the Works of his Hands that the Fire burn him the Water swallow him up the Wind bluster the Earth be Thorns to prick him the Dogs bite him the Wolf devour him the Lion tear him the Serpent poyson him and all the other Creatures shall spue out their Malignity upon Man who brought it upon them by forsaking his Dependance upon God I said to her That upon this Supposition all shall be damned Because none resign their Will to God since every one enjoyes it as much as is possible for them She replied Sir I have told you long ago that Paradise was shut and that none did any longer enter into it Because no Body resigns his Will to that of God The Maximes of the Church have so blinded Mens Spirits by so many different wayes of Salvation that none consider the Obligation that lies on them to resign their Wills to God They think to be saved by going to Church frequenting the Sacraments c. though nevertheless they follow their own Will in every Thing This ruines all the World and has caused the general Judgment For God having beheld all the Earth found not one who was resigned to him nor so much as one that did good All having forsaken God to follow their own Wills And this general Evil has caused the general Sentence which is irrevocable Because there is Time no longer If any desires to be converted he must make haste For the Last Times are near their End They began when Jesus Christ became Man and by Grace have continued till now to give Man a full Measure and abundance of Time for his Conversion Time is come to its End Yet a little Suffering and the Judgment will end and the Wicked shall go to the Abyss of all Evils and the Converted to the Enjoyment of all Good which shall never end and that not only spiritual but also bodily and material For all the Creatures will render their Duty to Man as soon as he shall pay his Duty to God They were created to serve for the Delight of Man as he was created to serve for the Delight of God And as soon as he shall be converted and enter into a Dependance upon his God he shall experience that the Beasts and Elements shall submit also to the Will of Man For for this they were all created And if we see the Beasts and Elements rebel against Man this is for no other reason but because he rebels against his God For else all inferiour Things would be entirely subject to Man if he were entirely subject to God even though it were in this Miserable Life We have Examples of this in the Life of many Saints who because they resigned their Wills to God had in this Time of Penitence the Power to command the Elements and to be familiar with the Wild Beasts One carried Fire without being burnt by it Another stay'd the Sun And several have tam'd Wild Beasts and commanded the Wind and Tempests of the Sea with so many other Wonders playing with Serpents and recreating themselves with Birds which assembled by
be found in either of these cases And 't is that only we ought to examine without regulating our judgments according to the differences we observe between the persons that speak to us For in Jesus Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek Roman or no Roman Male nor Female It is here a Maid that speaks to you none of those great Men who are so frequently reprov'd Do not verify by your experience that saying of the Scripture When the rich and mighty speak all hold their peace and what he says they extol to the heavens but when the mean man speaks they say who is this even tho' he offer wise things they would not yield to him If there be any valuable prejudice it should certainly be in favour of the meanest weakest and most contemptible persons since God himself has declared 't is his pleasure to make use of them and Jesus Christ was so rejoyced at that choice that he says to his Father I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and from the learned and hast revealed them unto Babes even so Father since so it seemed good unto thee Is there any thing meaner weaker and more contemptible in the esteem of the World in the matters of Doctrin than a Maid And can any thing be more proper to verify that declaration of the choice of God He has also promis'd the pouring out of his Spirit in the last times upon Daughters as one of the most signal marks of his power And certainly the weakness of the instrument is an evident sign of him who employs it It is plain that such an extraordinary effect must proceed from a cause that is extraordinarily powerful and that cause must be God himflef when the effect is good and useful Secondly in Divine things you must have no regard to the natural qualities of the mind or rather to the human means by which 't is cultivated such as Sciences Study Reading and the like Divine truth is so far from depending on such things that 't is rather obscur'd by them It may be justly reckon'd a prodigy if such unnatural methods should be attended with success when men endeavour to derive into ill prepared Vessels by the exercise of ther corrupt faculties things that are altogether independent upon them and are freely infus'd by a calm insinuation into Souls that are at rest from their own tumults Truly we might be astonish'd if the Learned should find solid truth by persuing such methods as would certainly banish it out of their minds if they were already possess'd of it Man having lost saith Solomon by much reasoning the uprightness in which God created him But when God speaks to us by simple and unlearned laiks we cannot suspect them as we would suspect the Learned that they feed us with their studied speculations or the prejudices they have drunk in at Schools and drawn from the works of Men and repeat to us the songs their Teachers have taught them to sing The Person who speaks here is without study even without reading and which is more without meditation Search a little to find out the source of this fountain and to understand well what Master could have instructed her it could neither be Man the Devil nor Nature But the thing which you ought most to observe that you have no regard to the conduct of Men. I mean that you do not imagine that the Truth much less Salvation depends upon them their Opinions Orders Directions Submission or that it is tied to them by a necessary bond since it has no essential union but with God alone and may be forsaken by all men if they will as any man may and too many actually do This unhappy prejudice has ruined the Christian Church who imagin'd that she could not possibly fall after she had establish'd her self upon the authority of certain particular Persons human Successions outward Assemblies and other Circumstances that are not at all inconsistent with the Spirit of Error It is certain there are few Christians and even few Catholicks who do not see that the Church is extreamly fallen away and corrupted But the Learned have found out a distinction to charm this evil They say that tho' the Church may fall into a moral corruption and be guilty of back sliding from the practice of a Christian life she is still infallible and incorruptible in matters of Faith It is much to be feared that this distinction serves rather to flatter the Spirit of pride than promote that of Humility which is the Spirit of the Gospel and that it proceeds rather from human interest which prepossesses and darkens even the best minds than from an enlightned charity which designs to excuse the evils of the Church as far as Truth permits May not those who have made this distinction perceive they are so far from excusing the Church or lessening the guilt of her fall that they render her guilty of the fall of Devils whereas her Adversaries pretend only to hold her fallible after a manner conformable to human infirmity It seems they contradict themselves in this distraction for can that which has no faith be incorruptible as to faith and that which is not only destitute of the works of Faith but whose works are corrupted and consequently opposite to those of Faith can that have Faith Shew me says the Apostle Shew me the faith of which thou boastest without thy works and I will shew thee the faith which I possess by my works Treating the Man as vain and empty who would give way to such thoughts What then would he have said of those who maintain that one may be not only destitute of works but that even his works may be evil and habitually evil or which is the same thing that his Manners may be corrupted and that nevertheless he might be infallibly possessed with the purity of the true Faith But it may be they understand by Faith Speculations Notions the knowledge of spiritual Things but St. James reckons those things when they are alone and barren to be a diobolical Faith since he expresly ascribes it to the Devil And how can this diminish or cover the evil of the Church that tho' her Manners are corrupted she has nevertheless with an infallible certainty the knowledge of Divine things and the decerning of Truth and Falshood of good and evil This would be rather to make her fall equal to that of the Devil to make her sin with knowledge in the midst of her light and against it Those who assert this Opinion represent her without conscience render her more odious to God and Men more devilish and condemn her to a place in Hell far below the Infidels rather than if they should say that her Morals are or have been Corrupted for her being mistaken in her Knowledge and believing that to be good and true which is not really so
the one withdrawing makes a separation as if they both withdrew So that God is as much remov'd from Man as Man has remov'd himself from him And having thus abandoned God what can we expect but universal Plagues which our universal Evils have drawn down upon our guilty Heads Which Plagues having purg'd our Crimes and burnt the Tares the good Grain will then be gathered into the Granary of God which is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I ask'd her Whether this Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall remain upon Earth for ever She saith yes Sir It will be Eternal and never end If you believe in Life Eternal which is an Article of our Creed you believe in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth I have also told you that there is no other Paradise but the Presence of God And whereas Jesus Christ is God as my word is me his Body must have some Station as also all the other Bodies of the blessed God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station nor yet our Soul which is also a Spirit A Spirit is through all and comprehends what is at a distance as well as that which is near As our Thoughts have no need of a way to go to Jerusalem They go thither in the twinkling of an eye for they do not stay in any place Even so God has no need of Heaven nor of Earth to stay in being a pure Spirit nor yet our Souls which are in Paradise when they are united unto God But our Body has need of Heaven and Earth and of all the other things which God has created for it because it is material it must also stay upon material things suitable unto its nature Therefore God has created all this World with all that is in it that Man may have his full delights as well in his Body as in his Soul For God makes nothing imperfect but all his Works shall have their compleat Perfections And resolving to create Man a kind of Creature Spiritual and Bodily both together he gives himself to him for to satisfie his Soul which is a Spirit he will give him likewise all created things to satisfie his Body So that the Soul shall take its delights with God and the Body its delights with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God has created them for those ends and for no other thing that Man might have his full perfect contentment of Body and Mind in that Life Eternal wherein Jesus Christ will reign always in Body and Soul with the Bodies and Souls of the Blessed who shall be united in Spirit unto God and in Body unto the Body of Jesus Christ Behold the alliance which God promised unto Abraham which he did not see but very far of and we see it now very near Do you not think Sir that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ must be upon Earth seeing that he has taken a Human Body like unto ours A spiritual thing cannot support but that which is spiritual But a material must have a stay agreeable to its Nature which is also material Who can or would change that Excellent Order which God has establish'd in all his Works so just and so perfect which alone are worthy of Admiration as the Author is of Adoration Can you yet doubt Sir that Jesus Christ shall reign upon Earth seeing it is a just and necessary thing Would you believe that God should create all this beautiful World only for this miserable Life of Penitence and that at the end of it he should abolish this great Work of his Hands or that he should consume by Fire the whole Universe This would not be a just thing that he had made all these things only for our Miseries This would be as much as to say that God had had little Wisdom I was ravish'd out of my self to hear things so unheard of so admirable and so charming And that I might understand a little more I ask'd her if the Earth and the World would abide for ever She said Yes Sir the Earth and all the rest that God has created will abide for ever in the State in which he established them at their Creation For the whole works of God are all Everlasting Therefore he has created all things with Seeds for to spring and to engender Eternally All which Generations must be made for the delight of Man without Pain or Labour All things would have brought forth their Kind according to their Species in a good and delightful manner x The Sun would have given his light and heat in measure without any Excess the Air without Storms the Sea without Tempests The Fire could not have burn'd us nor the Water drowned us nor the Earth brought forth Thorns nor the Beasts bitten and poyson'd us but all sort of things would have served us for Delight and Recreation So many little Beasts which are upon the Earth and in the Air which seâ—ems useless to us were created to the end that even the least of our Senses might be Recreated Even the diversity of Flies and many other sorts of Animals Herbs Trees and Flowers all these were created not only for the necessities of Men but also for their Delights Which things had nothing but Goodness and Perfection without Sharpness Prickings or Bitings How much more ought Man to be Good and Perfect seeing all these other things which were subjected to him had so much Goodness and Perfection You might ask me from whence it comes that all these Creatures are become Evil seeing they were created so good and perfect I will answer you That the sin of Man has caused all these Disorders and with Justice For all the Creatures of God ought to rise up against Man and take vengeance of his Ingratitude according to their power because he had merited that all that was given him for Joy should serve him for Grief Seeing he who ought to have serv'd for a delight z unto his God turns away from him to offend him his Justice would require that all the Creatures should do the same toward him since he had done it toward his God who had infinitely benefitted him more than any other Creatures which might well offend Man and become his Enemy when he was become the Enemy of God who tho he could not render his Creatures Evil because he is the source of all Goodness from whence nothing that is evil can ever proceed yet he might well permit that his Justice should be exercised by those inferior Creatures when Man had so justly deserved it I asked her If all those Creatures Animate and Inanimate would have an eternal Being She said Yes Sir nothing will perish of all that God hasmade But the evil that is in all these Creatures shall be taken away because it does not come from him and all that comes from Men shall Perish For Example That the Sun burns us and dazles the eyes which look upon him This
stray to see and hear the other vicious Creatures and commit the Sins that we see in others with the Consent of our own Will which withdrawing it self from God puts Obstacles and Hindrances to his Divine Grace by which it is impossible that we should feel the Effects of it not that we are ever rendered unable to do good for want of the Grace of God which always waits that we may make use of it but it is because of the small Endeavours that we use on our Part to remove that which hinders this Grace that freely offers it self to us so that we cannot say truly that we are rendred unable to do good since the Sin of Adam which cannot extend it self farther over us than till we are arriv'd at the Use of Reason Then we are restored to the liberty of doing Good and Evil tho' all Good comes from God he never denies his Graces to him who seeks and desires them For he loves us always as the Work of his own Hand even tho' we be wicked and if we feel some inability to Good this can never be but thro' the Opposition that we will needs make to the Grace of God who desires to give it us more than we desire to have it This is but to flatter our selves to say that the Sin of Adam has rendred us unable to do good For 't is nothing but our perverse Habits and our Self-will that can give us this Inability We ascribe it also sometimes to the Devil thro' the same Spirit of Flattery for the Devil cannot hurt us in any thing without our own Consent He can only represent evil things to us our Will being free to follow or reject them as also our natural Inclination cannot commit Evil without the Consent of our free Will Sir Slanders and Blasphemies ought no longer to be uttered against God for he is All-good All-just and All-true and can never do any thing that is evil or unjust or against Truth I ask'd her If Man after having sin'd of his own free Will could indeed recover again and return of himself to God She said Sir it seems you would use the School Terms which have occasion'd so many unprofitable Disputes For to say that Man could recover again of himself would be the desiring to shew that he had no need of God's Grace and that his Conversion depended only upon his own Will This would be an Atheism not to acknowledge that all Grace comes from God For there is no Good but what comes from him as being the only Source of all Good If therefore Man forsakes his Sin and returns to God this can only be thro' his Grace but this Grace is always given and never denied to those who seek and desire it and even God prevents us before we ask it Sir let us leave these Terms of Schoolmen and use our own Experience We know well enough how many Graces God has given us even while we have offended him and withdrawn from him how many times has he call'd us back by Remorse of Conscience by inward Light by Adversities by inward Reproofs and so many other Means which God has made use of to draw us to himself after that we have forsaken him by our Sins are not all these preventing Graces If the greatest Sinner in the World would tell the Truth of what he has experienc'd in himself he would tell to his Confusion that God has never been wanting to give him his Grace but he has strongly resisted it Every one may make this Trial on himself Why should we amuse our selves with scholastick Terms which are nothing but forg'd Words We must come to the Essence of the Thing that is that God gives always his Grace to Man how wicked soever he be and when this Grace is not operative it is still thro' the Hindrances which the free Will of Man gives it For God does not give his Graces imperfectly but they have less or more of Efficacy according as Man contributes thereto by his Consent or Co-operation I might answer to your Question if Man can of himself arise again from Sin by saying yes and no For he cannot recover himself without the Grace of God but he will obtain it always even to his last Gasp if he will by his free Will co-operate therewith That so many Sinners cannot get rid of their Sins the Fault is not that the Grace of God is not effectually given them but only that they cleave so closely to their Sins that their Will has not effectual Desires to forsake them S. Austin was one of this kind of Sinners for the Habit of Sin made him believe that it was impossible for him to forsake them But no sooner was his Will effectual than he abundantly experienc'd the help of God's Grace which attended him I ask'd her what she meant by saying that having the Vse of Reason we pass out of the free Will of our Parents and enter into our own She said Sir I mean that our Parents hold our Will united to theirs as long as our Understanding is not capable of making full use of its Reason in that time they may give us to God or to the Devil by their free Will because nothing can continue void neither in Grace nor in Nature it must needs still subsist in something Now free Will cannot subsist in an Infant for it is not yet capable of it neither can it 1ubsist in God since he has given it to Man in creating him He cannot retake what he has once given for a thing given is no more his who gives it Of Necessity therefore this free Will must continue united to that of our Parents till we have arriv'd at the Use of Reason and are capable of being able to use it our selves as the free Will of all Men remained in that of our first Father Adam and this by an equitable Justice because God gave to all Men free Will in the Creation of the first so that Adam was free to save or damn all Men who died before the Use of Reason but having lived till they attain to the Use of it every Man enters into the same Liberty of saving or damning himself into which Adam was created For God has created all Men in Adam and has not since taken from or added any thing to them because he maintains eternally what he has once done never changing it All his Creatures will be upheld in their kinds to all Eternity and none of the Works of God shall be altered from the State in which he has plac'd and order'd them so that we are born and abide in the Will of our Parents as we were and abode in the Will of our first Father Adam but as soon as we attain to the Use of Reason we are put in Possession of our own free Will I said to her If it be so that our free Will remains in the Power of our Parents
of all honour which then all the world will render to him and just to render compleat Justice to every one There are so many innocent persons afflicted and Saints unknown and despised on the other hand there are so many wicked men honour'd rais'd to places and Honours and even held for Saints All these being Dead and the Truth as to them undiscover'd must not God avenge the quarrel of the Good and make appear the wickedness of the wicked that he may be Just Good and True I said to her That every one look'd for these Reparations in the day of the general Judgment which must be done in a little time or suddenly where every one shall be recompenc'd in Heaven according to his Merits or Sufferings She said Sir They will make God a God of Confusion What appearance is there that this Judgment can pass in a day or suddenly since the whole world must appear there It should be necessary that all the men in the world should after the manner of an Enchantment be Transported to the same place in an instant who could hear in that croud the Justification of the Righteous If it were to be done only by word they would not hear one by reason of another and if every one in particular must be spoke to to declare his good or evil Deeds it would need a long time before all were repair'd Years would not suffice to Judg so many men as have been upon the Earth Truly Sir all the speculations of men are nothing in respect of the Truth but Chimera's in the Air. God took six days to Create the World deliberately and in order as he has done all his works by weight and measure without any disorder or confusion He made Noah prepare an hundred years before the Deluge and when it came it began to Rain which Rain lasted forty days The Plagues are now begun and will follow in order even to their end and the Judgment will also go on in order so deliberately that there shall not be the least confusion in it for that can come only from men and not from God who does all in Order Neither is there any imaginary Heaven as people fancy it where every one shall be Rewarded or Restored for Heaven is no other but the presence of God who contains all things and can't be contain'd by any because he is greater than all things We are in Heaven when we are resign'd to him whether we live or die we are still in Heaven when we are in God Now being thus Divinely in God we do not notwithstanding receive the material and bodily reparation of the sufferings which we have materially and bodily endur'd And as God has given us both a Body and Soul he has also given us a Paradise both of Body and Soul For this cause God would have become Man even tho man had never sin'd for God makes all his works perfect and compleat The Soul can indeed have its compleat Paradise by the Presence of God because it is a Spirit like to him but the Body can have no Paradise but a Material and Bodily one like it self because it is of a Material Nature it cannot have a perfect happiness by a Spirit or Divinity Lo this is the reason why Man that he may be happy must of necessity have his Paradise in the world which was Created by God for no other end but to serve for a Paradise to Man whom he was pleas'd to Create of a Bodily and Spiritual Nature both together and he has also prepar'd for him both a Bodily and Spiritual Blessedness which are the Presence of God as to the Spiritual and for the Corporeal the Earth and the World and all that therein is By which you may see Sir the truth of the coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth to Reign with Men that their eternal Blessedness may be compleated and that every one may have a Reparation by fulfilling all Righteousness not in a speculative or imaginary way or of a short continuance but a Real Divine and Corporeal Reparation which will last for ever For God's Recompences are not Temporal and Finite but Eternal as coming from an Eternal God who can't give finite or imperfect gifts Consider Sir all these Truths and you will perceive sensibly why Christ must come to Reign upon Earth and that he has not taken an human Body to Reign in the Empyreal Heaven which is Divine but only to Reign on Earth for this Divinity has no need of any Body but this body has need of and must of necessity have some material place to contain it such as the Earth is And if to repair an injury done to any it be needful to make the reparation in the same place and before the same persons where the injury was done why should not God repair upon Earth the injuries received there On Earth they shall be repaired as on Earth they have been committed The Eighth Conference Shews that M. Anthoinette Bourignon is sent from God to declare the Truth to Men. I said to her that I was now convinc'd of all that I must confess before all the world that she possest the Holy Spirit for a humane Spirit could never give so clear an understanding of all the marvels of God She Said Sir you are not deceived in believing that I possess the Holy Spirit because he lives in me and teaches me all that I have told you for I have never learn'd any thing from any man neither would I learn of them because they are in darkness and do not know the Truth in any thing They believe they are very Learned and they are nothing but ignorants being turn'd away from the Truth by so many Novelties which they have made them believe They will needs maintain the Roman Church to be holy and own her Councils as acted by the Holy Spirit while neither the one nor the other is true For the Church is the Babylon of confusion and the Councils are the means by which the Devil has withdrawn Christians from the Law of God they having Ordain'd so many outward things that the inward may be forgotten and that thro so many Natural things People may think no more of the Spiritual Their Commands their Sacraments their Indulgences are all diversions from Salvation to obtain which there is nothing needful for all persons even those who are without God's Grace and straying from the way of Salvation but the observing the Commands of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel for God will never give any other Commands and Jesus Christ will never give any other Counsels than those he has given us by his Doctrine of the Gospel He says That he is not come for the Righteous but for sinners This being so all sinners who desire to be converted must take up this Gospel-Life by which they shall certainly attain to Salvation since Jesus Christ is
one abounds in their own Sense and will not submit themselves to the Truth without which Submission no Body can attain to this Resignation The necessity of this Dependance must be known or else they will not subject themselves to it For if they see not the necessity of doing this every one will believe he is in a State of Salvation in whatsoever Condition he be and thus every one will insensibly perish and my Company could not save them And since God has given me Liberty wherefore should I continue a Slave to Men when I cannot be profitable to them for the Glory of God I said to her That God was pleased to undergo the Slavery of our humane Nature for the Salvation of his Creatures and that she ought to be furnished with the same Spirit that Jesus Christ had She said Sir By his Grace I am so and I do so earnestly desire to see all Men saved that I would willingly dye for every one of them if I had as many Lives But I am well assured that my Conversation my Words and my Life cannot save them if they do not resign themselves of their own free Will to the Will of God Though all the Saints both Angels and Men pray together they will never procure the Salvation of so much as one Soul unless it resign its Will to God For this is a necessary Thing The Saints may indeed pray and the Angels solicite and all Men help any who has withdrawn from God to obtain this Dependance upon him But all this will avail him nothing if he do not of his own Free-will truly yield up his Will to God and deny his Self-will Very few comprehend this Nevertheless this is an Eternal Truth that will never change For God created Man only for this I said to her That I my self did not well comprehend this Necessity of Depending upon God entreating that she would explain it to me She said Sir Be attentive and consider my Discourse well Perhaps it will give you some Light in this Matter Consider first that God said Let us make Man after our Image and Likeness This was not said in vain but it had its full effect and Man was made after the Image and Likeness of God Consider a little Sir wherein you shall find the Likeness of God in Man It is not in his Natural Body For God is a pure Spirit and has nothing that resembles a Body Neither can this Likeness to God be found in the Animal Soul of Man because this Animal Soul has no more than the Beasts so far is it from resembling God for it extends no farther than to give Life to the Body for a certain Time whereas the Life of God is Eternal without Beginning and without End and a Temporal Thing cannot resemble an Eternal Therefore this Likeness of Man to God cannot be found in the Animal Soul of Man no more than in his Body And if one would seek for it in the Faculties of the Soul which are the Memory the Understanding the Will we shall find that these Three Faculties have no resemblance to God For they are imperfect and limited Which God cannot be Our Memory is very frail and sometimes does not remember on the Morrow what we did the preceding Day Our Understanding is in like manner subject to great defects taking False Things often for True And our Will is sometimes so insolent that if it were not bridled by Reason it would often precipitate us into irreparable Mischeifs All which Things are in nothing like to God since he is without any Imperfections or Defects perfect in all Things and without Bounds or Limits whereas the Faculties of our Soul are all limited as the Faculties of the Souls of Beasts are who have sometimes a better Memory than Men For if a Dog or a Horse be ill used in any Place he will remember it for a long time They have also a Will to do and to leave what they are naturally enclined to though it be bounded and limited as well as that of Man for neither the one nor the other can put their Will in Execution because they have not the power to do all that they can desire Which God can do in all Things By which we see that Man is not in any of these Things like to God For his Understanding is not capable of comprehending any thing but what he sees or hears as are the Beasts also So that by the Faculties of the Soul of Man we cannot perceive that he is like to God since he has an Eternal Memory an unlimited Understanding and an unchangeable Will To which the Faculties of the Souls of Men are not at all to be compared Wherein then can it be said that God has made Man like to himself Search into it with me Sir You will find that he is like to God in nothing but in his Free-will And as God has this Free Power over all Things so he gave to Man this Free Power over his own Will that he might dispose of it as it should please him in this alone he is the Image of God Because this Liberty is to him Eternal and Independent As God is Soveraign independent from all Things So Man is Soveraign of his own Free-will independent from all Things except that he acknowledge that this Liberty is given him of God that he neither has nor holds it of himself As God has and holds all Things of himself Otherwise Man is a Deity by his Free-will for by it he can do and leave any thing For God never retakes what he has once given neither will he ever retake the Free-will of Man but will let them enjoy it to all Eternity as being an Eternal Gift It will never end as long as God shall be God Man shall have his free Will both during this Life and also in the other in Paradise or Hell He shall have through all this Divine Quality of a Free-will which God gave him when he created him He shall not take it from him in Paradise because this is the only quality that Man has whereby he is capable of being united to God all the rest being only bounded and natural are not at all-capable of approaching a supream Deity The One and Twentieth Conference Speaks of the Free-will of Man in which alone he is like to God That God has given it to Man for ever That he has annexed to it all his future Graces And that never any Good nor any Evil will befal any Body in Time or in Eternity but by Free-will according as we shall yield it up or not to a Dependance upon and Resignation to God I said to her That we had been taught That Man had indeed Free-will when he was created But that by Sin it was so lost that he could not use it any longer to do good She said Sir Free-will shall never be diminished but will continue alwayes such as it was
given to the first Man in his Creation For God can never repent of the Works that he has made If Man feel that he is unable to do good this is not the defect of his Free-will which remains to him still entire but the defect is that his Sins have taken from him the power to do good by the Blindness they have brought into his Soul which hinders the Discovery of the Means how to depart from evil and to do good The Soul being blinded by its Sin lost the Light of Truth and in this darkness cannot find the way to return to good This she attributed to the Weakness of her Free-will flattering her self to excuse her own Wickedness or indirectly to accuse God that he does not give her sufficient Grace to do well Which is a great Calumny against God who never bestowed so many Graces upon any Creature as he did on Man having made him alone a depending Deity because he would have one kind of Creature with whom he might take his delight Therefore he endued him with this Divine Liberty that his Delight might be compleat on the side of both the Lovers This is not a small Grace which would be sufficient to enable a Man to do well For if all Men whatsoever would return to a Dependance upon God they would certainly recover the same Grace and Liberty that Adam had before his Sin Because God continues still in the same Will to take his Delight with Men that he had when he created them Because he never changes For he is immutable And if Man do well or ill it is for himself but God will never deny his Graces because he is alwayes good tho' Man be wicked I admired this Discourse That God would grant to any Man whatsoever the same Graces that he gave to Adam in his Creation provided he resigned his Will to that of God asking her how this was possible since the Curse of Sin She said Sir It ought not to be doubted He is the same God and we are the same Creatures come from Adam and reputed as if we were he If of our own free choice we would yeild up the Free-will that God has given us in our power he would at the same instant put us again in the state of Innocence and would govern us till we departed again from a Dependance on him In which we would still be free Because God never keeps any Body by force letting our Free-will still Act as to good or evil as we will dispose of it For if God did Act upon us independently from our Will he would certainly save all Men and would not permit so much as one to be damned Because he created them all for Salvation and he will never take from any Body the Graces which he gave to Adam If they abuse them it will be their Unhappiness and their own Fault and not that of Grace For it shall still be given to the good and to the wicked even to the last Day of Judgment God will alwayes be with Men by his Grace But then the season of Grace shall be past Therefore will he say to the wicked Go ye Câ—â—sed depart from me If he had not been with them till then he could not have thrust them away from him since they would have been so from the Time they became wicked God should have no occasion to have thrust them from him this Last Day if they had been separated from his Grace during all the time they lived in their Sins It is said indeed that the Grace of God is lost by sinning Not that this Grace is taken from Man on Gods part but only that Man of his Free-will will not subject himself to God but will be at his own disposal And by this Mean he falls into all sort of Evils from which he should be delivered if he would yield up to God this Free-will repenting that he himself had used it If you please Sir to look into the Lives of the Saints you will find that many of them walked on the Waters went over burning Coals for an Evidence that God gives to those who resigns themselves to his Will the same Graces he gave to Adam when he created him and that the Elements render their Duty to Man when he renders his Duty to God that the Fire only enlightens and warms him without blackening or burning him Because the Malignity that is in those Elements as in other Things did never cleave to them till Man would no longer acknowledge a DEPENDANCE upon God All the Elements with the other Creatures subjected to Man were obliged by Right of Justice to quit also the Dependance they had upon Man since he had quitted the Dependance that he had upon his God and not to submit themselves any longer to Man but by force since he would not submit but by force â—â—to God Which is a brutish Obedience Though these new Casuists call the Resignation in some Sufferings which befal Man Vertue and Merit In which there can be no more Merit than the giving Oats to Horses when they have rid well by Prick of Spur So the Man who has no other Vertue but to resign his Will to that of God when he cannot escape Sufferings and is forced to fall into some Misfortune can merit no other thing but the Temporal Repose and Quiet which his Resignation will give him Because it does not proceed from this that he will depend upon God but from the necessity he is in to suffer them by force The Spirits of Men are strangely blinded now for they bring so many Means to cleave to God that they know not which to pitch upon as the best One sayes the Churches and Sacraments must be frequented and another that the Body must be mortified another bids subject the Will to some Man or enter into a Religious Order and a Thousand other such Things Nevertheless there is but one Thing only necessary which is to Resign OUR WILL to THAT OF GOD By which we have fulfilled all For God having the disposal of our Will he will guide it in all that is most perfect and accomplished I asked her If God could not lead our Will in things that are good without our delivering up our selves to him since all belongs to him and all good comes immediately from him She said It is true Sir all good comes from God and there can be no other good but he All the good that Men can do must come from him but know this that since the first Graces which he gave Man in creating him he will give him no other but as far as Man of his Free-will shall depend upon his God and no farther If he will wholly depend upon him he shall have Graces in abundance and if he will onely in part depend upon God he shall still have Graces in part in proportion to his Dependance For Example One will depend
the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the Heavens he must confess that the Authour of all these Things is perfect and looking on the Earth the Trees the Plants and Elements he must discover an incomprehensible Divinity who had the Skill to make all these admirable Things Which obliges all that are Reasonable to Love him And when Man considers himself and sees the Art there is in the Fabrick of his Body in the Faculties of his Soul in the Subtilty of his Spirit he must confess that there is a God the Authour of all this to whom all Things ought to be ascribed Because no Creature is able to do any such thing By all which things a Man comes more perfectly to the Knowledge of God than by Sciences and the Expositions of all the Doctors of the World who have nothing but Limited Sciences The Twentieth and Third Conference Shews That it is by Faith only that we can be Saved which coming from God works still Resignation Even among the Heathens c. I said to her That all this Knowledge of God was nothing but the Faith of a Heathen that it was not capable to work Salvation that to be saved we must have a Divine Faith She said Sir You are ignorant yet of a great many Things For that Faith which you call Heathen is Divine because it comes immediately from God who has imprinted in the Soul of all Men this Divine Light that leads them to the Knowledge of the true God This is a Grace infused without the Concurrence of any Men which is much more perfect then the Faith we give to the Things they propose to be believed by us in the Roman Church many of which are very absurd and neither respect the Glory of God nor our Salvation They give us for an Article of Faith That there are Three Persons in God Though nevertheless no Creature can comprehend what is in God but by his Operations which we see with our Eyes as that he is Almighty that he is All just all Good and True Because all that we see he operates in us and in other Creatures bear these Three Qualities But to know if there be Three Divine Persons in God this surpasses our Capacity Because God is an incomprehensible Being and was never discovered by any so as to know what there is in his Divinity They propose also to us many Things for Articles of Faith which are not of its true Essence seeing no Body can be saved without Faith and they continually propose to us new Things for Articles of this Faith which our Forefathers never believed as such And if we cannot have true Faith now without believing them it were to be feared that our Forefathers were not Saved since they did not believe those new Things which are now proposed to us as Articles of Faith They never believed that the Virgin Mary was conceived without Original Sin and now they would make this Belief to pass for an Article of Faith Though nevertheless there is no appearance of Truth in it For the Virgin came out of the Masse of Adam as all the rest of Men And she did also undergo the Penitence common to all the Children of Adam having gained her Bread by Bodily Labour and suffered the Malignity of all the Elements and her Son Jesus himself shiver'd for Cold in the Stable of Bethelem shewing that he was a real Man descended from Adam subjecting himself to the same Penitence that our First Father had received and accepted from God in the Remission of his Sin Why should they now lay it before us as an Article of Faith that the Virgin was conceived without Sin since all Humane Creatures which are born of Parents who live under the Dependance of God having accepted the Penitence that God enjoyn'd Adam are all born in the Indulgence that God gave to Adam Wherefore should there be a particular Article of Faith for the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin as also for the Infallibility of the Pope seeing all these Things have no respect to the true Faith which must work out our Salvation For if the Virgins Conception was Immaculate or if the Pope be infallible this makes nothing for our Salvation nor as to the Knowledge we ought to have of a God upon whom all Things depend This Light infused in my Soul is true Faith and the Dependance that I desire to have upon the same God is the Work of my Faith What need is there to add yet to this the believing that the Pope is infallible since I have the same Light of Faith that tells me No Man can be infallible Since Adam created in Innocence and endued with all the Grace and Holiness that can be met with in any Man did fall and by failing so grosly shew that he was not infallible may not a Man who is a Sinner fail or err All these Faiths and Beliefs are not divinely infused by God into our Soul as that Faith is which makes us know a God above all Things All good All-just All-mighty but Incomprehensible This Faith Sir which you call Heathen is the True Faith which is able to work Salvation in all those who in consequence of it do through Love resign themselves to the same God I asked her If she believed the Heathens would be saved since they are not baptized She said Yes Sir All the Heathens who knew God by his Works and resigned their Will to him shall assuredly be saved For they had operating Faith True Faith in believing that there is One Almighty God who created the Heaven the Earth and all Things and they had the Works of Faith when they were resign'd to the Will of the same God Which appeared in all those who despised the Things of this Life for that which is to come They could not have done this but by a Divine Light that God infused into their Souls Because the Brutish Senses cannot despise the Pleasures of this Life For they know no other and Nature cannot betray it self by despising what is good for it to choose what is evil for it When we see one who may have Honours Riches and Pleasures in this Life and who yet quits them to be dispised poor and afflicted we may well believe that he has the Light of Faith infused by God into his Soul Because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever induce him to do such Things For no Body hates his own Flesh and the Devil incites alwayes to satisfie Nature And if we see one whom we call a Heathen quit the Conversation of Men and retire into a Solitude we may well believe that he has the true Light of Faith which makes Nature break off conversing with its like For Society is a most Lovely Thing Man is a Sociable Creature above all the other Animals and if the Beasts are sad when they are alone how much more must Man be so when he Lives according to Nature unless it
be some half-broken spirit who through Melancholly loves rather to be alone to give the more Liberty to its Black Humours This is not to be found in those who despise Conversation the better to wait on God and to be delivered from the Troubles they have to live among those who know not God but offend him every Moment How could I believe Sir that these Souls so excelling in Vertue should not be saved even though they are not Baptized since Baptism is only an outward Sign of the INWARD RESIGNATION which they have made of their Will to that of God That God who tries the Reins would he not save them for not having observed this outward Formality which is done in the sight of Men We have not a Political God who has need of the Testimony of Men when he sees the Essence of Faith living in our Inward Parts I reckon such Heathens to be more SAINTS than many of those who are Canonized by the Roman Church and wish Sir that you had attained to their solid Vertues that you had a perfect Contempt of this Life aspiring after another which will deliver us from so many Miseries and also an entire Resignation of your Will to that of God in which alone our Salvation consists and not in so many sorts of Means which they set before us as necessary Things or a Blind Faith of Things which often respect neither God nor our Salvation For though indeed it be Faith to believe that which we do not see nevertheless that is not to say that we must blindly believe all that they would perswade us For God has given us an Understanding to comprehend what is comprehensible of the Works of our Faith For Example We must believe in God Almighty who created the Heaven and the Earth We do not so see this God in whom we believe but nevertheless we see evidently that there must be an Almighty God when we consider the Works that he has done by his Almighty Power and therefore our Faith is not blind since it gives Light to see the Works of him in whom we believe But diverse of these Things which they propose to us as Articles of Faith are without any appearance of Truth as is the Infallibility of the Pope I asked her If one might be saved without believing all the Articles of Faith in particular She said Yes Sir we may be saved by the General Belief that there is one only God the Creatour of all Things provided that this Belief beget in us the resigning of our Will to God in whom we believe Because in this all Things are comprehended since by being resigned to God we fulfil all the Articles of Faith all the Commandments of the Law and the Evangelical Counsels And whereas it is said that all Christians are obliged to Learn the chief Points of our Belief nevertheless this is not that they must Learn this by Rote or by Words For it is enough to know the substance of them that we may observe them for this observing of them is more than to be able to tell them by Rote it is the same as to all the Articles of our Faith in particular It is of little moment that we have a particular Belief of so many Points if we do not observe them all in general by the resigning of our Will to that of God We have no need of doing any other thing to work out our salvation for if we had not quitted this Dependance upon God we should never have had the other Commandments nor the other Articles of Faith Our sins alone have occasioned all these Articles and all these Commandments and other Means And sin ceasing we should have no need of other Laws So that our sins alone have engendered the Law and the Articles of Faith which were given us only to reduce our Understanding to a DEPENDANCE upon God The first thing that God did to bring back Adam to this Dependance from whence he had withdrawn himself while he would needs become wise in himself he asks him Adam where are thou Not that God could be ignorant where Adam was since he knows all things But it was to recal his Understanding to the Consideration of what he had done in disobeying God that he might consider the miserable state to which he had brought himself while he would needs depend upon himself The first Precept that God gave Man was to make him know the state of his Soul asking him Where art thou To make him re-enter into himself and recollect his Senses that he might see whither he had strayed from a Dependance upon his God in which if he had continued there would have been no need of asking where he was since he would have been still in his presence But since he had withdrawn himself it was needful that God should call him back again by asking him where he was But as soon as Adam acknowledged his fault and offered himself to God saying Here am I Lord all confused and trembling not daring to appear before him but hiding himself as a Criminal before the face of his Judge then God gives him the second Precept saying That he should Till the Ground and gain his Bread in the sweat of his Face This was the Penitence enjoyned to satisfie for his sin which being through Grace remitted to him he ought nevertheless to suffer some temporal Punishments and this in Justice For God had not only bestowed on Man a Divine and Reasonable Soul and a Free-will to love him but also many Natural and material Graces Therefore it was not enough for Man that God had granted him the Remission of his Trespasses against him in restoring him by a second Grace his Reason and his Free-will but he ought also to satisfie for the Natural and material Graces which things have not essentially the goodness of God to pardon this Injury received from Man God who is good pardons him the Offence he had committed against his Majesty and even makes him a garment to cover his Nakedness that he might lessen his Confusion he takes care also to thrust him out of Paradise for fear he should come to eat of the Tree of Life and by this means live alwayes miserable All these Favours come from the Divine Goodness But the Elements the Earth and the other Creatures not having in them this goodness set themselves against Man and make him suffer that by Penitence he might pay for the Rebellion he had committed against their Creator This the Justice of God own'd by ordaining Adam to undergo the Pains that all these Earthly Creatures should give him Because they are justly irritated against Man who was constituted their Lord to whom they ought to be subject and to obey But since he was a Rebel against his God they ought in like manner to rebel against him and being Creatures uncapable of Mercy of necessity Man must satisfie them by a corporeal and