in his Spirit that he dwelling in our Hearts by Faith may communicate himself to us with all his Graces and Merits It is in the former Sence only that A. B. declares against the common Doctrine Of the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ as if it were a Substitution of total Discharge dispensing with the Obligation that lies on us to live a Life of Penitence and not at all in the Second They who read the Writings of A. B. will see that this is the Summ and Substance of her Sentiments on this Head and that any simple Expressions which seem harsh by themselves are to be interpreted by this Measure And they who consider by what Principles the Generality of the Christian World do I do not say speculate and talk but live and act and what Encouragement the Doctrine and Glosses of Men has given thereunto and how tho' they live in a perfect Contradiction to the Life and Spirit of Jesus Christ yet they hope and believe they shall be saved by his Merits will see how necessary and how seasonable it is to inculcate those Truths upon the Hearts of Men. VIII But because it gives great Offence to some that she says Tho' Christ has satisfied all for us on his part yet that the Merits of his Satisfaction will not be applied to us unless we our selves do satisfie the Justice of God for our Sins and in order to our Purification I shall set down her Sentiment more particularly in this Matter We sometimes stumble at Words and Terms when we grant the thing it self upon the matter and it is like this is the case with many here 1. Then she says That no Man could merit Eternal Life tho' Adam had never sinn'd for all our good Works are but Temporal and bear no proportion to eternal Happiness Heaven and eternal Life is the free Gift of God which he prepared for Man before he created him and so he could not merit it He does not therefore bestow it for our Merits but for his great Mercy and for the Love he bears us He is no Merchant and will not sell his Paradise at any price but will give it freely and he has no need of our good Works or Penitence but because of our Corruption and Infirmity we have great need of them without which we must perish 2. That we having forfeited God's Favour and eternal Life Jesus Christ has merited for us Pardon Grace and Life Eternal upon Condition that we receive and correspond with the Pardon and Grace offered and turn again to God with all our Hearts and embrace the Means that are necessary for this End without which in Justice Pardon and Grace could not be demanded for Man and for our Performance of this Jesus Christ becomes our Pledge and Surety 3. As such he cloaths himself with our Mortality and undergoes all the Parts of this Penitence himself that he might merit Grace and Pardon for Man and might strengthen and direct him how to embrace this Penitence and to follow his Example 4. Upon his Intercession and obtaining of Grace and Pardon for Man the Love of God is not immediatly conferr'd upon Man but the Grace of doing Penitence by which he might recover it And this was a greate Mercy to Man than if God had simply pardon'd him and restor'd him to his Love without suffering the Earth to be accursed or all to be corrupted by Sin since it is to be fear'd Man would have quickly fallen back again into new Sins finding himself as before in all sorts of Delights such as Adam had For we see how Men now turn away their Hearts from God to love the Creatures and themselves even when they see they are so wretched weak and imperfect subject to all sorts of Maladies and to Death and that all the Creatures now do them mischief whereas formerly they honour'd and obey'd them as their Lord and tho' they see themselves and all the Creatures so filthy corrupt and miserable yet they cannot abstain from loving them to the Prejudice of the Love they owe to God How much more would Man have done so in case he had remained as beautiful and perfect after his Sin and all the other Creatures had continued as lovely as before It is to be fear'd he would not have remained in the Love of God if he had recovered it after his Sin by the pure Mercy of God without out the Condition of doing Penitence or without all the other Creatures their being accursed in him since we see Men do yet love this Life that is so miserable and the Creatures that are so wretched and Man feels in himself Contradictions Griefs Displeasures and all sorts of vicious Passions which he cannot govern by his Reason and yet his Spirit is become so brutish that it loves those Miseries and Imperfections tho' he find nothing in himself or the other Creatures but what is worthy of Contempt and Hatred Yet he loves and esteems them to the Contempt of the Love of his God who knowing the Baseness of Man's Heart has given him Penitence as a necessary Mean to withdraw his Affections from this wretched Life that he may turn them to his God who will have Man to love him only And for the same Reason he has permitted all the Creatures which were subject to Man to contract with him the Malediction of Sin that by this Mean occasion might be given to Man to return to the Love of his God the only lovely Object 5. Since this Penitence contains the necessary Means to recover the Love of God and we cannot do this so long as we love Self and the Creatures and this corrupt Love cannot be mortified so long as we gratifie our Senses and our Appetites and enjoy a Paradise here and our Lusts cannot be subdued without feeling the Bitterness Anguish Griefs and Pains of them to extinguish the Sence of the unlawful Pleasure and Delight we took in them Penitence therefore is 1. The turning away our Hearts and Affections from every thing that hinders the Love of God Love not the World c. 2. And in order to this the avoiding all the Occasions that may foster the Love of other things and continually striving against and doing Violence to Self-love Self-will and Corrupt Nature He that will come after me saith our Lord let him deny himself And 3. The embracing willingly the Anguish Bitterness and Pains the Afflictions both inward and outward that must be endured for the purifying of our Hearts and bringing us to the Love of God and let him take up his Cross 6. Jesus Christ has taught us how to undergo this Penitence by his Doctrine and by his Example and follow me 7. It is most unreasonable to think that we are discharg'd from this Penitence because Jesus Christ did thus live and suffer for us for we must have the Spirit of Christ our Old Man must be crucified with him we must be conformed
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
a rich Merchant And that she might avoid that Stroke she separated her self from the World and from all Creatures and about the Eighteenth Year of her Age having put on the Habit of a Hermit she left her Father's House without taking with her so much as a Penny forsaking Wealth Accommodations Delights and all temporal Things only for the Love of God The abandoning of all which was so well-pleasing to God that he wonderfully guided and preserved her and delivered her out of the Hands of wicked Men and committed her to the Care of such as were truly Good who were ready to be helpful to her in all things XIV That I may not be too tedious as to the Testimony which others give concerning the Piety and Sanctity of Antonia Bourignon I shall only propose some Remarks as to those Three principal Vertues 1. Faith 2. Charity 3. Hope For if there can be sufficient Evidences brought whereby it can be made appear that A. B. did possess these there can be then no doubt but that she was Holy and Pious That this may be made appear it is not needful to examine each of these Vertues particularly by it self because they always go together There is no doubt then yea we may be assured of it that he who possesses one of these Vertues does possess them all Faith then is the Subsistence of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen Or Faith is that Divine Light infus'd by God into Man at his Creation by which he conceives things Divine and Eternal which by the natural Understanding are unconceivable In this Sense Faith is communicated unto all Men for it is that true Light that enlightens every Man that comes into the World But this Light is so darkned and hindred to encrease by the Love of the Creatures and of temporal Things in which Sin consists that Faith being without Life and Spirit becomes dead and ineffectual To make appear therefore that any has Faith it is not enough that he is endued with this first innate Light because in that Sense all Men have Faith while in the mean time all are not Holy But here we speak of the Faith which all have not but they only who do not resist this Divine Light nor strive to quench it and who they are that follow it and walk in it and whose Faith worketh by Love must and ought to be made evident by their Works that it may appear to be living and not dead This was the Faith in Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Moses and the rest of the Holy Men spoken of Heb. 11. who seeing the invisible God contemned all visible Things suffering all manner of Reproaches Persecutions and Torments that they might ever see and enjoy him and this with so great Resolution as the whole World could not divert them from their purpose or separate them from the Love of God because they knew certainly that the Hope they had would never make them ashamed XV. Now that in A. B. Faith did thus work by Love with an assured Hope of enjoying God appears by all her Life as has been already shewn And that we may have the greater Evidence of this we need read only the Account of her Life given both by her self and others Among innumerable Instances it is very remarkable that A. B. took upon her the Care of governing educating and instructing in the Christian Religion many poor Orphan Girls in an Hospital and that without any Tie or Obligation or any other End but the Hope she had of bringing up these Orphins in the Fear of God and of forming them to be true Christians employing in this Office all her Industry her Goods and the Strength both of her Body and Mind In which Work of Charity she continued for Nine Years confiding so firmly in God that tho' she was toss'd with infinite Afflictions her Refuge was in him alone and that with such an assured Hope that she was never confounded nor frustrated of her End In such Works of Charity A. B. continued even to Death but with this Caution afterwards that having found by Experience that most of the Poor and other Men also did abuse Alms and the other Offices of Charity to encourage themselves the more in their Sins she did dispence the Gifts of Charity more warily enquiring first if they might promote the Salvation of her Neighbour which ought to be our great aim and being once perswaded of this she spar'd neither Money nor Travel nor her own Life where she could contribute for the Salvation of others But where she saw that her good Works could contribute nothing to this she endeavoured to live in as much Retiredness and Quiet with God as was possible that she might work out her own Salvation with fear and trembling being thus truly helpful to all when a few had rejected her Help The Malicious therefore have no reason to accuse A. B. of Avarice or Cruelty because she did not distribute her Goods indifferently to all the Poor for this did not spring from so evil an Original but from true Charity that she might not concur by the Poors abusing of her Alms to the multiplying of their Sins and so to the aggravating of their Damnation This proceeded also from the Care she had that the Goods which God had committed unto her as to a Steward might be faithfully distributed XVI It was premised in the third place that we ought to admit the fore-mentioned Evidences for proving a Person to be Holy and a Lover of God as good and valid so long as the contrary is not made appear Now as to the Holiness of Antonia Bourignon and her Love to God that the contrary is not yet made appear is evident from this that no body could ever yet discover that her Life and Actions were at any time blameworthy even then when to follow the Vanity of the World she lived for some time distracted from God But from hence we ought not to conclude as some malicious Persons have done that Ant. Bourignon and her Friends do affirm that she neither sinn'd in Adam nor in her self which is most false For A. B. declares in many places that she as well as other Men was born of the corrupt mass of Adam and did sin in him And not only so but that turning aside from God unto the World she sinn'd in her self tho' she never did any thing that is blame worthy before Men. For she was fully perswaded that every turning aside from God unto the Cretures is a Sin that deserves Damnation XVII The Fourth Evidence to wit that of our Conscience as to the Sanctity of A. B. is most abundant for many Persons of all Parties of Christians of all sorts of Ranks and those most Pious do decalre that they have felt such Operations in their Souls by the Presence the Words and Writings of Antonia Bourignon that they were sufficiently convinced in their Conscience
after his own Likeness to be his Spouse and not to be his Slave or constrain'd to do his Will for all the other Creatures were subjected under his Will but Man alone was created altogether Free like a little God Sovereign and Ruler over all the other Creatures which God had subjected to Man leaving him Free to use them well or ill according to his Will 3. So soon as Man turn'd away his Affections from God to love himself or the other Creatures he became the Enemy of his God and would not acquiesce in the Designs that God had for Man to take his Delight with him And by this means Man has damn'd himself and by ceasing to love God the Fountain of all Good he is fallen into all sort of Evil which consists in the Privation of all Good 4. Sin coming upon this Master-piece of the Works of God has rendred Man so miserable so infirm ignorant weak that all things over which he ought to rule do master and mischief him 5. Men are now born Children of Wrath and Perdition and are therefore assuredly damn'd by Nature and nothing but the Grace of God can save or deliver them from this Damnation into which they have voluntarily precipitated themselves 6. After that miserable Man had thus destroy'd himself â—esus Christ true Eternal God and true Man comes to intercede for him with his Eternal Father and by his Merits and Intercession has obtain'd for this ingrate Creature the Remission of his Sin and the Grace to do Penitence for it and a time and state of Trial for that End that by a perfect Repentance he may obtain the Favour of God to the End he may return to his Love which he had lost thro' his own Fault since Man was created free to continue eternally in the Love of God without ever falling from it 7. Whereas Man ought to recover this Love of God by his own Choice and his own free Will he must therefore testifie by his Contrition and Penitence the Regret he had to have lost this Love and effectually make use of the Grace obtain'd for him by Jesus Christ employing all the time of his Trial which is this Mortal Life to bewail his Sins and do Penitence for them since by the great Mercy of God he has obtain'd the Grace to do it and has the Means in his hand to fulfil this Penitence in the Curse that the Earth had receiv'd by his Sin so that it must be cultivated and Man must gain his Bread in the Sweat of his Face 8. Man was so corrupted by Sin that he can do no good of himself more than the Devils But Man by the Mediation of Jesus Christ has received this Mercy from God that he may be converted But as long as he follows the Corruption of his Nature he remains in his Devilish State and cannot be saved 9. Man has fallen by withdrawing his Affections from God to place them on the Creatures And no body will be saved but he who returns to the Love of God for which he was created and they who do without this Love do perish eternally 10. Jesus Christ having interceeded with his Eternal Father for Mercy and Pardon to Man became his Pledge and Surety that if his Father would yet allow Man a Time of Trial and Grace he should do Penitence for his Sins renounce his corrupt Nature and return to the Love of God And as Man's Pledge and Surety he took on him our Mortality and voluntarily cloathed himself with our Miseries he bore our Griefs and taking the Form of a Sinner underwent all the Pains due to our Sins as if he himself had been the greatest Sinner and bound to do Penitence tho he was never guilty of the least Sin that by his Merits and Sufferings he might merit for us with his Father the Spirit of Penitence and Conversion which being united to his Sufferings and his Charity which are Sacrifices more agreeable to God than our unclean Offerings and our Works defiled with Sin might be accepted of him 11. Jesus Christ took our Mortality out of the pure Love he bore to Men his natural Brethren that he might withdraw them from Sin and the Way of Predition into which they all walked He became a mortal Man to give us an Example and to teach us by what Means we may recover the Love and Grace of God he did take an infirm Body subject to all sort of Miseries and Death like to ours that he might teach and encourage us to do the Works that he had done in his mortal Body and that we imitating him might enjoy the Pardon and Recovery which his Merits have purchased for us 12. Jesus Christ by his Merits and Intercession has obtain'd Pardon for Man and the Grace of God for all who shall voluntarily embrace his Gospel Law and for no other and therefore none can ever be saved but by the Merits and Intercession of Jesus Christ which will never be applied to any but to his Disciples and Followers 13. Man stands in need of keeping the Commandments of Jesus Christ and the Gospel-Law because of his Frail y and because these are all Remedies of his Evils and by embracing these Remedies he shall recover the Love of God which he had lost thro' his own Fault 14. God is the only Fountain of all Good from whom never any Evil can proceed and Man is the only Fountain of all Evil from whom never any Good can come 15. The only Essential Command is a constant Dependence upon God and the Resignation of our Wills to him and all the other Commands teach us only the Means to attain to this Resignation and how to remove the Hinderances of it 16. The Essence of true Vertue consists in the Love of God and the Essence of Sin in the Love of our selves and of the Creatures 17 All the Actions of God do partake of his three Divine Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth and nothing we do can be well pleasing in the Sight of God if it do not partake of the same if it be not just and good and true 18. It is not necessary to Salvation to comprehend in particular the Theory of the Divine Mysteries far less to be wedded to one certain Party rather than another but that denying our selves and turning away our Liberty from the Love of the Creatures and from earthly Things we resign it and all our Faculties into the Hands of God that he may enlighten renew and govern them by his Spirit after which he will produce in the Soul the Light and Graces that he sees necessary for its Salvation This is a Summary of the Essentials of Christianity as they are represented by her and her Morality is a particular Deduction and Application of these Principles to the Hearts and
of the World and of all the Creation worthy of God They let us see the Wisdom and Goodness of God in bringing about his great Designs tho' thwarted by the Perversness and Rebellion of Man They give us some glimpse of the unspeakable Glory to which Man is designed to partake of the Joys of God being united to him in Body and Spirit and to receive the Delights of all his Works They shew us that Almighty God design'd this World and all the Creation for some great End more worthy of him than to serve Devils and Wicked Men as a Theatre and Fewel of their Lusts and Instrument of their dishonouring him It is usual for the Learned to form Theories and Systems of Divinity whereby to give a clear Account of the Doctrines of Faith If Men will be pleased to consider these Sentiments in this View only and compare them with the Systems given us by the Divines of all Parties they may come to be convinc'd that they have a greater Tendency to promote True Christianity XL. And as they are very sutable to the known Articles of Faith so they do not contradict the Holy Scriptures but seem to be insinuated and pointed out in them and to serve to clear Thousands of Passages there which otherwise cannot be conceived as A. B. her self makes appear in several Instances 1. That all things were created Good and Beautiful at first without any Deformity appears both from the Nature of God and from his Word He is Perfect and therefore cannot make any thing Imperfect He is all Good and can make nothing Evil All things therefore have been made by him perfectly Good and Beautiful for the Workman is known by his Works A rare Painter or Writer is known by his Pictures or Writings tho' we do not know his Person much more is God known by his Works for he can never fail or commit a Fault in them which the most accomplish'd Spirits amongst Men may do This is then an Eternal Truth that God created all things Beautiful and Good which the Scripture also verifies when it is said that God saw all that he had made and behold it was very Good Which could not be if there were any Evil in it as a thing cannot be Beautiful if it have any Deformity But we see all his Works now are not Good and Beautiful in the Air are Tempests Whirlwinds c. destroying Men by Sea or Land In it is obscure Darkness nothing to be seen through it if it be not favoured with the Rays of the Sun or Stars The Earth has a filthy colour that sullies all that touches it and is of such gross Obscurity that we can see nothing in it and to make it bring forth Fruit Men must employ the sweat of their Body and after all it brings forth often nothing but corrupt Fruit and if it be not cultivated only Thorns and Thistles The Water often swallows and suffocates Men its greatest Masses are salt or filthy The Fire has in it a black Smoak ready to stifle Men if they were not succoured by the Air it spoils the Eyes of those who steadily look on it and consumes Men Beasts and all other things These things cannot be created by God as we see and feel them because they are neither Good nor Beautiful By a clear Consequence then we must believe that the Air has been created clear sweet and agreeable without these Tempests and so of the rest 2. It is as evident that our Bodies have not been created in the State they are now in in which there is nothing good and beautiful no more than in our Minds and that they have been form'd at first in a glorious State appears by this that it being generally acknowledged that Jesus Christ is to restore Man to that primitive Perfection both of Body and Mind in which he was created and the Scriptures telling us That we look from Heaven for our Lord Jesus Christ to change our vile Bodies and to make them like to his Glorious Body and we being told that when at his first Transfiguration on the Mount he was pleased to give his three Disciples some Prospect of that Glory and to let some Rays of his Glorious Body stream forth thro' his Mortality it is said his Countenance did shine as Lightning and his Raiment was white as Snow We may think how glorious the Body of Man was before his Fall and shall be when this Mortal shall put on Immortality and this Corruption Incorruption and Death shall be swallowed up in Victory 3. That Man in his first Creation was endued with a Power of producing his Kind appears in that at the Creation of Man it is expresly said that God created Man Male and Female and bid him be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and tho' it be in the Original he created them in the Plural and not in the Singular he created him Male and Female yet that does not change the true Sence since God created in Adam all Men who were to proceed from him they were all originally in him And Eve was not as yet formed and he had rested from all his Works before he proceeded to the Formation of her how long after it is not known This seems most evident from the Story of the Creation for the Account of the six Days Works is contained in the first Chapter of Genesis and that God saw that all he made was very good but before the Formation of Eve out of Adam we are told of God's resting on the seventh Day from all his Works which he had made of his planting a Garden and there making to grow out of the Ground every Tree that is pleasant to the Sight and good for Food his placing Man there to dress and keep it his bringing all the Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air before Man and Adam's giving each of them a Name his finding it now not good that Man should be alone tho' before he saw all that he had made and behold it was very good his Resolution therefore to make a Help meet for him and therefore he caused a deep Sleep to fall upon Adam and took one Principle out of him called in the Scripture-stile one of his Ribs and so formed the Woman As from all this it seems evident that the Formation of the Woman cannot be supposed to have been upon the sixth Day without a great Straining of the History so it appears that Adam was at first created in such a State of Perfection as to need no Help for the Production of his Kind and that the Formation of the Woman from him was upon his beginning to decline from his God and to delight himself in the Creatures without referring all to God It is therefore said It is not good for Man to be alone tho' before God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good It
general Destruction of the World which shall not be recalled because the Will of Man is not inclin'd to return to God but rather to be the more estrang'd from him if the Plagues should yet be delayed That therefore the irrevocable Sentence is given to purge the whole World by divers Plagues of War Pestilence and Famine which are framed of the Three Means which have caused Men to abandon God Their Want of True Love to one another their Love of this present Life and their being addicted to their sensual Appetites the Pleasures of the Mouth and Belly She shews that many Signs have appeared in the Heavens fearful Comets menacing great Evils Fire has burnt many Cities many have been swallowed up by Earthquakes That these did affright some at first but so soon as the Devil had leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were Natural things he has made the fear of all these Threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of Mens Minds so that no Body is converted to God nor embraces the Spirit of Penitence but they mock at God's Warnings saying These are but Natural things She asks these Ear-flatterers If God ought not to send his Plagues but by Supernatural things and to make Chimera's in the Air He who has created alâ— the Elements must he not make use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural things to make our Bodies suffer which are likewise Natural The Deludge was made by a Natural Rain and the last Plagues will be made Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural things because the Heaven the Earth and all the Elements ought to rise up against us to avenge the Offence that we do against their Creator and ours c. I have transcrib'd all this because I think the present Age ought to lay these things deeply to Heart It is a most Remarkable Providence that a simple illiterate Maid should give Warning to the World of the Approaching of the last general and dreadful Judgments of God and give such clear Grounds for it from the Word of God and the State of the World and declare that she is commanded by God so to do and that now since her Removal both the Wickedness of Men and the Signs and Judgments of God have been still encreasing There have been such signal and dreadful Earthquakes in many Places swallowing up many Thousands such universal Wars destroying there Hundreds of Thousands the Fire of which seems only to be covered a while to break out into a greater Flame such pestilential Diseases in many Places particularly in France Scotland America sweeping off vast Numbers and now most grievous Dearth and Famine which for One Year scourged France but for these Three last Years has most signally visited Scotland and now this present Year being the Fourth is like to come to so great a heighth as to threaten an utter Desolation Mens Hearts failing them for fear all observe such a general Change of Seasons that the Heavens the Air the Earth and all the Elements do frown upon us and deny their wonted kindly Influences and Means of Life so that this last Plague threatens to visit other Nations likewise yet the rest of Men which are not killed of these Plagues do not repent of the Works of their Hands so that we have just ground to apprehend that these are but the beginnings of Sorrows It is high time for us then to awake out of our Stupidity to repent and do works meet for Repentance that we may not be found among the Scoffers in the last Days who say Where is the promise of his coming For tho' these were not the last Plagues and Judgments yet as A. B. says as if I remember rightly Vincentius of Terrara preached in his time to one City That within a few Years the last Judgment would be and tho' it was not yet many thereby were led to Repentance so tho' these were not the last general Judgments yet they will be the last particular Judgments to many Thousands and it is a good Office to awaken Men thereby to Repentance 14. That the Works of God shall not perish but endure for ever and shall be wholly renew'd and freed from all Corruption is expresly declared in the Holy Scriptures where we are told that the Creature itself also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of Gâ—d And that according to his Promise we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And it is said I John saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away And we are told that the Heavens must receive Jesus Christ until the time â— the Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by he Mouth of all his holy Prophets since the World began See Is 65. 17. 66. 22. 15. That Jesus Christ will come and Reign in Glory with the Saints and Blessed for ever upon Earth appears from many express Testimonies of Holy Scripture Thus David invites all Creatures to rejoice and be glad before the Lord for he comes to judge the Earth the World shall be established that it shall not be removed with Righteousness shall he judge the World and the People with his Truth Thus it is said that the Kingdom and Dominion and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Thus it is said The Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with him And it shall come to pass in that Day that the Light shall not be clear nor dark But it shall be one Day which shall be known to the Lord not Day nor Night And the Lord shall be King over all the Earth In that day shall there be one Lord and his Name one Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth And The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever And I John saw the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband and I heard a great Voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God c. see all that and the next Chapter And there shall be no Night there and they need no Candle neither Light of the Sun for the Lord
say he is our Pledge and by his Sufferings has paid the Penalty due to our Sins having died to redeem us while we will suffer nothing nor share in his Pains being well pleased to have our Debts paid with the Goods of another It is on the other hand a great Boldness in those who think they shall be saved by their own Merits without the Merits of Jesus Christ For if Jesus Christ had not merited for them the Grace to do well they were not capable of having so much as one good Thought or Desire of doing one good Work So that all the Grace they have of doing any Good comes from the Merits of Jesus Christ tho' by Ignorance they despise it as poor blinded ones who can discern nothing thro' the Weakness of their Sight For if Jesus Christ had not come to bring Light to the World no body would have perceived his own miserable State and if he had not interceded with his Father no body would have had the Grace to receive his Light so that without Jesus Christ all Men would have remained lost thro' their Blindness and would never have been able to comprehend by what Means they ought to return to God if Jesus Christ had not come to teach them by Word and Deed. And if he had only taught them by Word as the other Prophets no body would have followed him since they believe even yet that it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ and to follow the Evangelical Life But he himself has put it in Practice before Mens Eyes that after his Example they must endeavour to satisfie the Justice of God by the Union of his Sufferings and of his Charity which are Sacrifices more agreeable to God his Father than our unclean Offerings and our Works defiled with Sin If one had mortally offended his Equal he durst not of himself procure Peace and the Pardon of his Offence but he would interpose some Mediator who were a Friend of the offended Person to satisfie his just Wrath. But they who would be saved by their good Works have too much Pride to take Jesus Christ as Mediator but with an up-lifted Head they address to God whom they have so often offended that they rather draw down his avenging Hand upon their Heads than the Pardon of their Sins for God resists the Proud and gives his Heart to the Humble If they join'd their good Works to the Humility of Jesus Christ they might peradventure receive the Mercy of God by his Son Jesus Christ but standing up as the Pharisee who thanked God for his good Works they shall no more be justified than he was when he went out of the Temple Because he who is not cloathed with Jesus Christ is not admitted to his Father since before his Coming into the World all Men were Enemies to God So that he who is not cloathed with Jesus Christ cannot be acknowledged for his Friend far less for his Son seeing the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the only Son in which he takes Pleasure and not in another He therefore who thinks to go to God without the Mediation of Jesus Christ will be rejected as unworthy and rash because Jesus Christ is the only Door of Salvation They are Thieves who would enter by the Windows into the Kingdom of Heaven for that only belongs to the Disciples of Jesus Christ In which those greatly deceive themselves who believe that they may enter into it while they despise him or reject his Merits which have opened the Door to all those who will follow and imitate him Yet not to those who esteem Jesus Christ and his Merits but with all this will not embrace Penitence under a Pretext that Jesus Christ has satisfi'd wholly for their Sins comprehending even those which they shall commit in time to come as well as those which they have committed in time past In which Error are the most part of those who are called Christians yea amongst others the most perfect We hear nothing more ordinary in their pious Discourses than to say God is Good he will save us and Jesus Christ died to give us Entry into Paradise And with these fine Discourses every one thinks they are sure of Paradise even tho' they live and die in their natural Motions and Sentiments which is a great Mistake for God tho' he be good will save no body but him who shall satisfie his Divine Justice The Merits of the Death and Suffering of Jesus Christ will never be applied but to Souls which are regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ For he has not suffered but for those who from a natural Life shall enter into a spiritual one For Jesus Christ says that all Righteousness must be fulfilled Now it were not just that they who have forsaken a Dependance upon God to depend upon their own Wills should enjoy the Merits of Jesus Christ without being converted and embracing his Spirit since he came not but to bring Sinners to Repentance and he who continues to persevere in his natural Life cannot repent and so cannot enjoy the Merits of Jesus Christ since it is not for those that he has suffered or merited but only for those who by Ignorance or Frailty have quitted their Dependance upon God and delight themselves in the Creatures without thinking they ought to delight themselves in God alone They lived in the Darkness of Death without knowing it Therefore Christ had Compassion on them and offered himself to his Father promising unto him that they should be converted and do Penitence provided he brought them the Light of Truth by which they might get out of their Darkness and their Errors In this Jesus Christ was our Pledge and answered for our Penitence with which we must be saved and not otherwise Therefore they form to themselves imaginary Ways in the Air who think that Jesus Christ is come to save us in speculative Way or by some incomprehensible Mysteries seeing our Redemption is accommodated to our Capacity But the Devil to divert us from taking the straight Way thro' which Jesus Christ walked blinds our Eyes with imaginary Things that we may never come to the Knowledge of the straight Truth making some believe that they cannot be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ and others that his Merits will save them even though they use no Endeavours to imitate and follow him Many other Passages might I bring out of her Writings but these may shew her Sentiments in this Matter The Sum of her Sentiments comes to this That Man turning away his Heart and his Affections from God thereby all Communion between God and Man ceas'd and so Man was plung'd into an irrecoverable State of Sin and Misery as well as the fallen Angels if there had been none to interpose for him with God for whose Sake he should shew him Mercy there being nothing now in Man that could move God to have any Regard for him That Jesus Christ true God and
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
acts any thing that is base or filthy with them If you should see any without Feet you would confess there is much wanting to the Perfection of the Body yet you would not deny but that he who should use them either to hurt any one or to his own Dishonour makes an ill Use of his Feet With our Eyes we see the Light and discern the Forms of Bodies Yet many act Evil with their Eyes and make them the Instruments of Lust Yet you see what a Defect there is in the Face without the Eyes Now where these are entire who is the Giver of them but God the Giver of all Good Wherefore as you approve of those in the Body and without regarding those that misuse them give Praise to God that gave them So it is necessary that the Free-will without which no one can order his Life aright must be both Good and also the Gift of God And you must confess that those rather are to be condemn'd that make ill Use of this Good than that he should be Impeached who gave it Since then in the Body you grant the Eye to be a Good which yet if it were wanting there would be no Hinderance to our living well How can that seem to you no Good without which none can live aright For there is nothing that I do so firmly and intimately feel as that I have a Will and that by it I am moved to do this or that And I see not why I should call it mine if the Will wherewith with I do will and not will is not mine Wherefore to whom must it be attributed if I commit Evil thereby but to my self For since God hath made me and I cannot do any thing well but by the Will it doth thence sufficiently appear that the Will was given rather for this End by the good God And unless that Motion were voluntary and in our Power whereby the Will is turned hither and thither Man would be neither worthy of Praise when he lifteth it up to Things above nor of Blame when he wresteth aside as it were a certain cardinal Point of the Will to Things below Neither were he to be admonished that neglecting these temporal he should seek to gain Eternal Things and that he should refuse to live ill and chuse to live Well But whosoever thinks that Man is not to be admonished to this ought not to be suffered among Men. XII But if Man have Free-will can be do Good of himself without the Grace of God or if he turn away from God can he recover again without God's Grace or is God partial in his Grace denying it absolutely to some and bâ—stâ—wing it on others In all this these are her Sentiments As to the first God is the Author of all Good and Man can never do any Good of himself but by the Grace of God with which God requires that Man by his Free will should co-operate that he may give him more Grace To conceive how God gives his Grace to Man and how he must co-operate therewith we need but consider the Order that he has placed in Nature as to the human Body It is he who forms it independantly from the Creatures so that Parents cannot add one Hair to the Head of their Infant Yet he brings no Men into the World but by the Co-operation of two Persons who are so united as that two Bodies are made one Flesh as Hearts and Wills ought to be one in Christ Jesus for the Forming of the Holy Church God might have created all Men of the Dust of the Earth as he did Adam or made them generate as Fishes but he wills this Conjugal Co-operation to maintain his Charity among his Creatures and produces no Men by any other Way tho' he be Almighty Even so he gives his Grace to Man that he may love him and work out his Sâ—lvation It is he alone who gives this Grace and Man contributes nothing to it nor has ever merired it Nevertheless this Grace liberally given will never produce its â—â—â—ect without the Consent of the Free-will of Man and his Co-operation tho' he can add nothing to Grace which comes immediately from God as does also the Generation of Men. But the Ordinance of God will still stand and Man ought not to ask the Reason of it or to say that the Grace of God ought to operate alone or which is worse to say that Man can do Good of himself These are Sayings as rash as presumptuous whereby Men would give Laws to God and would have his Grace to operate alone And to attribute to Man the Power of doing Good without being prevented by his Grace is a Pride surpassing that of Lucifer who would only equal himself to God whereas Man who would do Good of himself preferrs himself to him and will not take him for the Co-operator of his Good but will assume the Power of doing it by himself That we may conceive how all Good comes from God and that Man can do no good of himself we are to consider that Man being created to enjoy God and to enjoy all his Works is made up of many several Faculties Capacities or Vessels as it were fitted for receiving and being filled with their respective Goods from God and the Creatures and is endued with a Free-will whereby he may turn these Faculties to their respective Objects or turn them away from them as he pleases We may conceive this as to spiritual things by considering the Case as to bodily things Thus his Eyes are formed to receive the Light and all the Objects which it presents The Light surrounds him he opens his Eyes and receives it or he shuts them and keeps it out and walks in Darkness or he encompasses himself with a thick Wall that he may not behold the Light or he does that which makes them blind and so his Darkness comprehends it not Has he reason to boast himself because he opens his Eyes and beholds the Light as if he were the Author of it or had given himself the Power to behold it or to accuse the Light when he shuts his Eyes against it or makes himself Blind The Delight and Good he receives is not from himself but from the Light nor yet the Power of beholding it and the Evil or Privation of it is purely owing to himself Even so God's Delight is with the Soul as the Light is to shine into the Eyes if it turn to him he fills it with Good if it turn away from him it is all Misery and Darkness As to the second if Man now by his own Free-will can in his corrupt State do Good and turn to God she says There is no Good but what comes from God and no Good can proceed from corrupt Man more than pure Wine can come out of a filthy Vessel full of Uncleanness The Scripture tell us a Man takes out of the Treasure of his Heart that which is in it
to wit from an evil Heart evil Things For the Heart possess'd with Self-love cleaving to its Corruption is filled only with evil Things from whence nothing but Sin and Evil can proceed It is a great Errour to think that Man by his Free-will may save himself since he was corrupted by Sin as well as when he was in the State of Innocence This is a great Self-presumption for Men to boast of a Grace and Vertue which they have basely lost by their Wickedness and Sin which has fill'd them with all Evil and depriv'd them of all Good seeing Sin having separated them from God the Fountain of all Good has plung'd them into all sort of Evil which is the Privation of all Good And he can of himself no more recover God than he that walks in gross Darkness can see the Light And being corrupted in all his Faculties he can no more Love God than a blind Man can enjoy the Light and being enclined and habituated to Evil his Free-will of it self will not desist nor change from it So that without the Grace of God Man can do nothing but sin which he does of himself for God does not retract the Liberty that he gave him in Creating him which being now bent to Evil can freely do Evil against the Will of God and without his Concurrence of Permission But he can in no wise do Good without the Grace of God not only that which he received aâ— his Creation but also Grace concurring effectually in all our Actions So that it is Grace alone that works in us all our good Works and our Salvation For Man has nothing of himself but the Liberty to adhere to Good which he received at his Creation and which will never be taken from him Yet this Grace is not sufficient to work out his Salvation if God do not continually give him new Grace For having once resisted the first Grace he would never more recover it having voluntarily abandon'd it and his Case would have been like that of the rebellious Angels whom God justly abandon'd and suspended his Graces upon the first Rebellion of their Will which he might as justly have done to Man if the Love he bare him had not far surpass'd that to the Angels which appears by the Graces he has imparted to him since his Sin for instead of reprobating and condemning him to Hell he gives him new Grace that he may recover again As to the third They do not know the Love that God has for Man who say that their Reprobation proceeds from the Want of his Grace for it is never wanting on God's Part even towards the most Wicked and if it do not produce its Operations it is because the Sin and Wickedness of Man resists it Even as the Sun by his Nature darts his Rays as brightly on the Dunghil as on a Diamond yet the one receives more Splendour than the other because of the Difference of the Objects which receive them the same Sun makes the Dunghil to stink and the Diamond to sparkle yet he gives no more of himself to the one than the other The Property of God is to give continually new Grace to Man to the Sinner and to the Just yet if it do not operate on the Wicked his Sin hinders it the same Grace that makes the Just to shine makes the Wicked more filthy he making Use of it to sin the more It is impossible for him to perceive this because of the Opposition which his Sin makes rendring him insensible of it even as a thick Cloud before the Sun will neither let us see his Light nor feel his Heat The Sun never ceases to shine and give heat in all Seasons and God does not cease always to give his Grace but our Opposition hinders the Operations and Effects of it in our Soul purely thro' our own Fault for if we were faithful in little things he would place us over great things He created Adam in a Grace as bright as the Sun at Noon-Day his Soul beheld and tasted his God But after that by his Rebellion he opposed his Will this Sin set it self against the Grace of God as a thick Wall before the Sun which hindred the Seeing and Feeling its favourable Influences God did not cease to give his Grace to Adam after this Sin as before but the Wall that this Sin had built up between God and him keeps him from seeing God any more or receiving his Grace to operate as before So long as this Sin is between God and our Soul its Eyes are blinded and its Understanding darkned as to Good and it knows not whither it goes and therefore it was said Adam where art thou after he had sinned For having lost the Light of Grace no body knows where he is nor can find the Way to recover it tho' Grace is not wanting on God's part no more than the Sun is wanting in Light tho' he who has a thick Wall between him and it has no more Benefit than if it did not shine It is only by the help of a Candle that he can discern the Objects that are about him so it is only sensible Lights and Grace such as are to be perceived by the Senses that can make him discern inward Good his Heart is so fix'd to the Earth by his Sin that he cannot perceive Divine things but by the help of Material ones And if his Free-will do not choose the Good which he may know by this Mean he can never work out his Salvation Thus the Sinner has always some sensible Grace sufficient to raise him again as Displeasure for his Sin the Disquiet it brings Remorse of Conscience or the Fear of his Damnation which are so many sensible Graces that God gives him whereby to call him back again making him see as it were by the help of a Candle the Miseries that his Sin has brought upon him with a desire to rise again and to recover the Grace of God Those sensible Graces are more than sufficient to work out Man's Salvation after a great many Sins provided his Free-will be effectualy resolved to detest and abandon his Sins with a strong Resistance which breaks down at least some Stones of the Wall that is oppos'd to Grace that he may perceive as it were by a chink some small Ray of that enlightning and warming Grace lost by Sin which will give him new force to break down more and more of this Opposition to Grace if so be the Soul be faithful and force it self according as the Light manifests it self It is thus that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers Violence and that the Violent take it by force for if the Will do not Violence to it self to forsake its Sins when Reason makes it see the Evil they bring and it feels Vexation of Spirit with the fear of Damnation all which are sensible Graces which Sin never deprives him of no more than of his Free will to effectuate
in the way of Salvation How many diverse Accidents have fallen out as to Neighbours which have mov'd him to Contrition as sudden Deaths Slaughters Plagues Fire and other things which no Man can avoid Nevertheless all these Graces and Drawings have met with no Correspondence from Man's Will on the contrary they turning away from the Creator have turn'd to the Creature to love it more than God And which is more they will lay the Blame of all their Damnation upon him for want of his Grace a horrible and insuppertable Abuse That Man is not satisfied to abuse the Grace of God but he will also make him guilty of his Damnation It is an unspeakable Pride when we feel that we resist his Grace every Moment and yet say our Damnation comes from the want of this Grace instead of giving Sentence against our Baseness and Wickedness which we may so sensibly perceive and feel It were better to smite the Breast and condemn our selves than to argue about the Grace of God since our own Conscience is an irrefragable Witness that Grace has been still given us yea even in the midst of our Sins How many amorous pulls has God given our Hearts to withdraw them from Damnation How many new Graces for our corresponding with some small Grace always when we have cast an Eye to God and lifted up our Hands yea a Finger has he not drawn us strongly to himself and forgiven our Sins What Effort did we ever make to resist Sin without feeling immediately his Help and his Grace Who ever call'd on him without being help'd or sought him without finding him No Body can say it without a Lie for he always delights to do us Good Our Prayers are agreeable to him and our Complaints are pleasant He wills not the Death of a Sinner but that he be converted and live If we do not always feel the Effects of his Mercy it is because our Conversion is not sincere and we seek some other thing than God and often think we love him when we love our selves And it is no wonder then that we do not find Grace for we have nothing and can give nothing either to our selves or others God being the only True Good and all that is not God is nothing We are often sorry that we have sinn'd without regarding God but our selves considering the Sins as Evil or disagreeable to Men and this makes us sorry to have committed them on the other side we look on Vertue as beautiful pleasant and honourable this makes us desire it for Good is always Lovely of it self But in these we do not respect God to oblige him to give us his Grace It is rather a Self-love that makes us desire it Yet our Wickedness has the Impudence to say that we seek God and do not find him Is it a wonder if such a Soul feels not the Influence of his God so long as it voluntarily Delights in the Creatures in Contempt of the Creator I cannot express the Resentment I have that we would attribute to God the Cause of our Damnation or that it is for the want of his Grace since I have found that God has often prevented and recall'd me even when I would have forsaken him And if he had not prevented me I would have thrust my self into all the ways that lead to Damnation being gone so far as to say to his inward Admonitions I will never have pleasure in thinking always upon this I would have withdrawn from God and he call'd upon me again inwardly to make me remember him and so soon as I return'd to him he receiv'd me lovingly giving me stronger Grace to withstand all that would divert me from him All Men will find this if they would enter into themselves that God has still prevented them with his Grace even tho' they have been most wicked Why then to Men say when they live ill That they have not the Grace of God if he never fail to give it They ought to say It is my Fault for I have certainly resisted his Grace instead of obliging him to give me more by my Correspondence It is true God gives all the Will to do good and to be saved comes from him as also the Courage and Constancy to persevere in it It is God who does all in us Sin only is our Work All Good comes from God who is pleas'd to give it us If we think we have Good of our selves we fall yet into a greater Error than the former for tho' God should not give us Grace he is not obliged to it by us for he has no need of us But to say that we can do Good and work out our Salvation of our selves is most false For how can a Nothing do any thing that 's Good Man in his Nothing was Nothing If he be since Something it is by the Grace of God He who is all Good out of whom there is no Good will not communicate himself to the Soul but with its Consent he first shews it its Good he gives it the desire to desire it thereafter he offers it If the Soul accepts it it enjoys him if it refuse it it remains depriv'd of it For God never gives his Graces by force nor without the Consent of the Soul unless it yield up it self entirely unto him God deals with the Soul as an honest Lover who designs to espouse his Mistress he serves her he courts her he caresses her and by all means endeavours to gain her Friendship If his Love be agreeable to her she loves him reciprocally and fully enjoys his Person and all his Goods If she disdain this Love and all his Offices of Good-will he withdraws and leaves her tho' with regret having employed in vain to the utmost all sort of means to oblige her to love him He endeavours then to forget her and to efface her out of his Memory not that his Love changes or that he is unconstant on his part but because there is no Correspondence or Agreement on the part of his Mistress God loves the Soul as a perfect faithful Lover he shews her the excellency of his Love by Rays of inward Light which do sometimes warm the Soul with Love to him He excites her by good Motions he draws her by some sweet inward Consolation he gives her Desires to love him he prevents her with many Favours shewing her that he seeks her and would give himself to her by the Vexations that she meets with in every other thing that she would love But if after a long course of so many Favours the Soul comes to reject them and to disdain the Friendship of her God to wed her self to some other thing whether the Love of her self or any Creatures God then withdraws from her and leaves her not that on his part his Love changes or can changes but because the Soul disdains his Friendship to which he would have her to correspond that the love he bears
they will become no less for this Saying and if there are none at least some will be awakened out of their Security and endeavour to become so If A. B. had said that God by an unchangeable Decree from all Eternity had predestinated the greatest part of the World to Damnation it might then indeed be said that she is void of Charity to God and Man But when she declares that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance and yet that all Men were living in a Contradiction to the Life and Spirit of Jesus Christ she could not do them a more charitable Office than to warn them of their Danger Will they say the Psalmist was uncharitable and damn'd all the World because he tells us the Lord look'd down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God they are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doeth Good no not one Every Man ought to weigh the Truth or Falshood of this Saying as to himself and see if he can make this particular Exception to the general Saying There is no True Christians upon Earth let him set at the Foot of it Except I my self And if his Conscience dare not write down this Exception he has reason to thank the Charity that put him to the Trial without regard whether it be true or false as to others which will avail him nothing so long as it holds as to himself And as to the other part of the Prejudice that God will make her and her Writings the Mean of the Renovation of the Gospel Spirit She says It is God who enlightens Understandings who warms Wills with his Love who produces Charity in Souls in short who is the only Giver of all Good without any Creatures being able to cause to be born in the Soul of another the Spirit of Regeneration which is to live again to God and to die to ones self This is a Masterpiece of the Works of God much more rare and precious than the Body of Man and nevertheless he will not do it but by the means of Creatures who shall be subject to him and will hear his Voice who will make others Partakers of the Light which God communicates to them that by it they may be enlightned and know their Errors and the Way to become True Believers The Understanding the Speech and the Hand of such spiritual Mothers is the Matter with which God will beget his True Children making them comprehend his Truths by the Words Writings and Actions of those who shall receive the Word of God immediately who are few in number because Men are now so diverted in the Affairs and Business of this World that they cannot hear the Voice of God tho' he speak continually to their Heart And to supply their Weakness and the Wandrings of their Spirit his great Goodness causes to speak and write by sensible and visible Objects the things which may render all those True Believers who truly desire to become so And that her Writings are of this Nature full of Divine and Saving Truths Simple and Solid Milk for Babes and Meat for strong Men suted for all Capacities and all Ages they manifest themselves as the Light does to those who are not Blind And as to their reproaching her that being a Woman yet she would presume to instruct the World when St. Paul would not suffer a Woman to speak in the Church and therefore calling her in Contempt and Old Wife she said That for her being a Woman she could not hinder it since no Body forms themselves they must ask God if they would know why he created her a Woman and not a Man that she her self had been displeas'd at it but since God made her know it was his Pleasure she was content for she lov'd rather to be a little Atom in the Will of God than a whole World in her own Will And when she began to teach by her Writings it was by an express Command of God which she long resisted for which she begs Pardon for she could not resolve on this because she was a Woman who has never so much Authority in matter of Doctrine as a Man But she came over all humane Respects and expos'd her self to all their Mockeries She says If the Truths of God must be rejected because they are dictated by a Woman all the Great and Learned that ever were in the World ought also to be rejected seeing all are equally come of a Woman Why should they then despise their Origin since God does not despise it but makes use of them to operate his greatest Marvels and always Figures the Church his Spouse by a Woman Women are as capable of receiving the Graces of God as Men there being no difference between their Souls and the bodily difference respecting Nature only in which even Woman ought to be more regarded than Men seeing when God would needs become Man he would have a Woman for his Mother but not a Man for his Father and he has done his greatest Wonders by the means of Women What Triumphant Victory did Judith obtain against Holofernes and Esther in the Deliverance of God's People And whereas it is said it is not permitted Women to teach the Apostle she says ordains the aged Women to teach the younger and to instruct their Children and Family in the fear of God and both in the Old and New Testament we read of many Women-Prophetesses foretelling things to come And the Apostle says it is an honour to a Woman to prophesie with her Head covered She says they ought to let God speâ—k by a Woman if it be his Pleasure since he spoke in former Times to a Prophet by a Beast that he bestows his Graces and Wisdom on whom he pleases and Man ought not to ask him why he does so That before God it is not Man or Woman that signifies any thing but the Spirit of Righteousness and Truth That they ought not to regard whether she be Man or Woman but whether what she says be Just and True That she writes by an express Command of God doing this as secretly as she can shut up in her Chamber That Men are now less dispos'd to receive his Divine Light than Women since their Hearts are blown up with Pride to apply all Glory and Authority to themselves instead of referring it to God and cannot endure that a simple Woman as she should speak of Divine Things least their Learning should be less esteem'd So those Great Philosophers will not let God do his Marvels by the means of a Virgin but will oblige him to operate by Great Divines not remembring that he has said * He has chosen the weak things of the World to confound the things that are mighty and the foolish things of the World to confound the wise and base things of the World and
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
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
promises that if our Eye be Single our whole Body shall be full of Light and if it be Evil it will be full of Darkness For tho' a Soul have not in it self the Holy Spirit yet it shall have the Understanding enlightned to discover him in others provided it behold them with a single Eye without Dissimulation or Surprize but in the Simplicity of a Child as Jesus Christ says we must be in if we would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They who see me write know well that I do it without any Study or humane Speculation and that it flows from my Spirit as Water flows from its Fountain and that I do nothing but lend my Hand and my Spirit to another Power than mine And God gives yet a more sure Testimony by imparting to me his Righteousness Truth and Charity For these things cannot come from Nature which being corrupted can produce no Good nor any Divine Vertues because I am come of the Corrupt Mass of Adam as all the rest of Men there could not be in me any Righteousness Truth and Charity which are all Divine and Supernatural Vertues which cannot enter into the Soul of Men but by the Work of the Holy Spirit This gives me a sufficient Testimony that I am led by God since the Devil and Nature have nothing of those Vertues And therefore we cannot find a surer Evidence that a Soul is led by the Holy Spirit than when it is possest of the Righteousness Truth and Charity of God For if we desire to see Miracles for a Proof we may be deceived since the Devil can do Miracles or things which seem Supernatural but he can never have in him the Righteousness Truth and Love of God The Good Spirit and the Evil may be known by the Qualities which they have The Spirit of God has in him a Peace and Sweetness that comforts the Soul and draws it to an inward Quiet But the Spirit of the Devil disturbs the Understanding disquiets it and robs it of Tranquility and Rest The Spirit of God acts sweetly and strongly in Peace and Tranquility of Mind All that comes from the Spirit of God is always accompanied with the Qualities of God which are Goodness Righteousness and Truth And that which comes from the Spirit of the Devil carries always the Qualities of the Devil which are Malice Injustice and Lying The Evil Spirit may sometimes move to do a good thing to draw Evil out of it but that seeming Goodness can never be accompanied with Righteousness and Truth which are the inseparable Qualities of God which the Devil may sometimes separately make use of to deceive Men aping the Works of God but he can never do a thing that is Good Just and True altogether since this appertains to God only who cannot be divided in any of these Qualities God does not speak to me by Voices Thundrings and Lightnings as he did of Old to the Prophets or as he spake to Tobit by Angels in the Likeness of Young Men or as he spoke to Jacob in the Vision of a Ladder upon which Angels did ascend and descend or as he spoke to Joseph in a Dream saying to him Take the Child and the Mother and flee into Egypt For I durst not rely upon all these things in which the Devil and the Fancy of Man may mingle themselves and make such things be seen and heard as if they came from the Spirit of God But I fix on the solid Truth of God on his Righteousness and on his Love because in such things the Devil can have no hold I have sometimes had Dreams and Visions coming from God as I may afterwards make appear by Experience but I do not rely on these Dreams and Visions unless the same things that I have seen and dream'd be confirm'd unto me by a secret Notice Intelligence after the manner that I converse ordinarily with God For so soon as the Soul is free of all Image and delivered from the agitation of its Passions and the Imagination ceases to operate then I hear the Voice of God and his Reasoning not with my Ears but with my Understanding And after this manner he makes me see and hear all that I need to know both for my own Conduct and that of others which many have experienc'd and found that I have told them the most secret things of their Hearts which neither Men nor Devils could know Never amuse your self with Discourses Visions or Revelations made to you or others if you do not perceive assuredly that they are accompanied with the Qualities of the Good Spirit of God or otherwise you will be easily deceived Remark always if what you say or do be accompanied with the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God and then you shall assuredly hear God speak to your Soul For if you walk in these Qualities you will be in God and the Devil can deceive you no longer by Illusions or false Imaginations as he will easily do so long as you do not possess those essential Vertues of the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God in which you ought always to walk if you would not be seduced by Satan The Devil can give Visions Ravishments or supernatural Extasies to Sorcerers yea make them foretel things to come being a subtile Spirit and foreseeing afar and by conjectures what will come to pass and he may make them fall out by the means of his Sorcerers who being powerful and numerous may by their Power and Authority bring about what has been Fore told Therefore it is fit to receive nothing for Truth but the things which lead us to a more strict Union with God and Denial of our selves These things are always Good even tho' they should come from the Devil himself we cannot be deceived in believing them I can never have the least doubt as if it were an evil Spirit that communicates himself to my Understanding for the evil Spirit could not in my Judgment produce so good and so constant Operations such as the Love of God and the Hatred of ones Self Moreover he could not separate the Soul from the Pleasures of this Life nor remove from it the coveting the Riches and Honours of the World nor give it a full Contentment in the want of all humane Consolation nor yet Joy in Hardships and Contempt All these things cannot come from the Devil for he is too opposite to all these Vertues and leads ordinarily to all sort of Evil tho' at first he cover them with Vertues The End of his Operations make appear sufficiently the Deeds of the Author and make known the Workman by his Works Thus you see how certain Marks she gives whereby to distinguish true from false Enthusiasm the Conduct and Inspiration of the Spirit of God from the Illusions of the Devil or Ones own Imagination and how Men may preserve themselves from being impos'd upon by the last That where a Soul is
House at the Church of St. 〈◊〉 near Lisle XXX There she liv'd alone wrought to gain her living was mâ—re conâ—â—ted than ever being rid of the Affairs of the World and convers'd with no body A poor Maid brought her Food once a Week and very often the Door was not opened till she came again The Consolations she received from God in that Place were unexpressible full of spiritual Delights So that she often past whole Days without eating or drinking not knowing it was Night She was so transported with them that she ask'd of God if there was any thing beyond them in Life Eternal He answered Infinitely more beyond Comparison You ought not during this Life to delight your self in such Sensibilities The least sensible Motions of the Soul are the most perfect and of which the Devil can take no hold as he does in the sensible ones Thus he delivered her from all corporâ—al Sensibilities to which she was no more subject and â—he afterward walked surely in Spirit and in Truth And whereas she would fix her Residence in that Place of Delights he said to her Thou shalt walk yet in the World and be persecuted and reproached Thou shalt fly into the Desart through rugged Ways Prefer my Glory to thy Contentment I had no Repose upon Earth XXXI She was troubled there for some time by the pursuit of a foolish Youth Nephew to the Pastor there who having seen her became desperately in Love with her and still haunted about her House She complain'd to his Uncle who having threatned to put him away if he should not desist he chang'd his Love into Fury and several times shot a Fuzee through her Chamber and at last gave out he had married her and in less than an Hour all Lisle was full of it every one spoke of her with Contempt she knowing nothing of it till her Confessor sent to ask her and the Preachers publish'd the Falshood of it to the People XXXII After Four Years stay in this Retreat she was forc'd to flee in haste the French coming into this Village to surprize Lisle She retir'd into the Town in the House of a poor devout Maid who gave her a Corner in a Garret where in the Winter she suffered great Cold being oft covered with Snow in the Morning when she awak'd The Countess of Willerwall wrote to her earnestly to return to her which she did and staid with her about a Year till she was call'd to Lisle her Father being a dying XXXIII Having done the last Offices to her Father and her Sister being dead Childless and she remaining the sole Heiress of her Mother she was doubtful whether she should meddle with the Succession She considered on the one hand that after having forsaken all worldly Goods to follow the Poverty of Jesus Christ she ought not to take them up again on the other side she knew not to whom to leave it fearing to do Evil and to partake in the Sins of those who should possess it Her Mother-in-Law had wasted those Goods more than a half for the Five Years she had liv'd with him and tho' at his Marriage he had 20000 Florins in Cash yet she had not only spent that but great Revenues of his own Goods and of his first Wife 's besides the Revenues of his Office capable of maintaining honourably all his Family so that at his Death there was not wherewith to bury him She would not be guilty therefore of leaving them to one who would make no other use of them but to offend God In this Perplexity she advis'd with her Confessor who thought that she ought to take what belong'd to her and dispose of it in Alms remitting her nevertheless to be determined by God After some Days of earnest Prayers to God that he would direct her what to do in this matter he said to her Pursue your Right take your Goods you shall have need of them for my Glory She claim'd then the half of the Goods due to her by Law and Custom as the sole Heiress of her Mother leaving the other for the Children of the second Marriage and was tost with many Troubles before that Process was at an end XXXIV Some are ready to interpret this as a hankering after the World as she foresaw they would and that her Declaration that it was the Will of God that she should possess her Rights was purely her own Invention to cover this We are still apt to measure others by our selves and to think tht their Actions cannot proceed from another Spirit and Principle than what we are conscious ours would flow from in the same Circumstances But they who consider the whole tract of her Life will not be so rash in their Judgment Worldly Goods are not Evil in themselves the only Evil is that when we possess them we are not as tho' we possest them not but our Hearts are set on them and therefore God commands either the forsaking or keeping of them and we ought either to abandon or possess them according as our Hearts are apt to be set upon them or are wholly mortified to them A. B. had been habituated to a State of Mortification to the World and all earthly things by an actual abandoning of it in a course of many Years God having thus tried her as he did Abraham in relation to his Son Isaac and this was become her Delight and Element And when she came to possess them again it appears through all her Life that she did it as tho' she possest them not looking on her self only as a Steward of them to employ them for her Master's Use and they as a weighty Charge to her which she would gladly have been rid of employing them wholly for many Years in the bringing up of Orphans and never throughout all her Life taking to her self but simple Necessaries no more than if she had been in the greatest Poverty XXXV Being one Day in the Street about her Affairs a Man whom she knew not accosted her and afterwards came to her Lodging telling her there were multitudes of poor Infants made Orphans by the Wars in great Want both as to Body and Soul and that she might remedy this great Evil God having given her Talents and Commodities to undertake so good a Work and prayâ—d her to recommend this Proposition to God who would make known his Will to her thereabout The Man had a great Appearance of Piety and spoke so divinely of spiritual Things that she thought he was taught by the Holy Spirit He told her He was call'd John S. Saulieu born near Dorway that he had never studied Letters but for his own Perfection that he had still convers'd with Vertuous Persons and staid some time with an Hermit and had now for his Director the Pastor of St. Stephens at Lisle and a Character being ask'd of him he said he was a Man of an Apostolick Zeal He walk'd on the Streets
Sin since which time it can produce nothing but all sort of Evil it being impossible for it to do any Good or to have one good Thought For this Cause Job had good Reason to curse the Day of his Birth for none of the Beasts would be so miserable in their Nature as is Man if he had not in him a Divine Nature 4. All must grant this and say with your Friends that it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ seeing he lived supernaturally having subjected his Humane Part to his Divine and made his Flesh die that he might live to his Spirit and despised Temporal things that he might embrace Eternal But I would gladly ask all those Natural Persons if they desire to do the same things And if they have put to Death the old Adam in them that is the Inclinations of corrupt Flesh And if they have labour'd with all their Power to revive in them the Spirit of the new Adam which contradicts the Sensualities of the Flesh Which appears by the Person of Jesus Christ who overcame all Natural Sensualities 5. It may be they will say that it would be impossible for them to attain to such a Perfection as Jesus Christ had while they will not part with so much as one of the Affections which they have for their Pleasures or Sensualities that they might follow him at a distance For they do not so much as desire to imitate him far les to tend to his Perfection They believe indeed by an imaginary Speculation that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them and they will not believe by a Divine Truth that he has merited for them by his Sufferings the Grace and the Power to imitate him because they do not desire to do it for they love rather to remain in the Corruption of the old Adam than to be quickened into the new which is Jesus Christ 6. Thus it is that those poor Souls flatter themselves to their Ruine while they say that they cannot imitate Jesus Christ nor live without Sin because of their great Frailty This is as much as to say that they resolve not to be saved and they resolve to die in their Sins for there are only two ways the one of Salvation the other of Damnation and Jesus Christ is that which leads to Salvation He who will not walk in the same Way in which he walked cannot find Life but without all doubt shall die for ever Therefore my dear Child do not give way to the Discourses of those poor blinded ones who have fill'd their Understanding with Errors but walk according to the Light that God has given you and labour to be born again in the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Saviour Withdraw from the World since he says that he prays not for the World but for those whom his Father has given him out of the World Those who are of the World are they who love the transitory things of the World and will not part with them to imitate Jesus Christ They are rich in Will and proud in Heart loving their fleshly Sensualities while they flatter themselves by saying that it would be impossible for them to imitate Jesus Christ and to live without Sin because of their great Frailty which if they understood aright they would use means to overcome it and he who felt his Heart cleave to Riches would not possess them but would put them far away from him as some of the Heathens did who threw all their Money into the Sea fearing least it should deprive them of the Liberty of their Mind And if a Man found himself so frail as to fall into the Sin of Pride he would shun Offices Greatness and Honours that he might follow the Poverty and Lowliness of Jesus Christ and if hâ— found himself so frail as that he could not eat and drink delicate things without falling into the Sin of Gluttony he would take the coarsest Meats and Drink proportionably to support the Weakness and Frailty of Nature weaning it from all Sensuality or fleshly Apperite But Men do not feel themselves too frail to iudulge their Body in all its Appetites and Pleasures and they will needs make themselves believe that they are too frail to abstain from Sin or to imitate Jesus Christ 7. This Sentiment is so Erroneous that I would be ashun'd to refute it were it not that I see so many Souls possess'd with it especially among those of Calvin's Reformatiâ—on who live and die in this Belief that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them that it is impossible for them to do good or to imitate Jesus Christ This it seems is inculcated unto them from the Cradle since in effect we see that all their practice is founded upon it while they live according to the Motions of corrupt Nature and with this believe that they shall be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ without striving to imitate him since they are taught that it is impossible to do this And tho' this is a false Theology yet every one follows after it leaning upon a broken Reed 8. For that Man of whom I spoke to you formerly said that it was impossible for him to do any good Work yea to say the Lord's Prayer with Attention no more than they with whom he convers'd whom he had often ask'd if they could say it with Attention and they all answered they could not It is to be remarked that they were Merchants of great Trade and Spirit who found out all sort of Inventions for gaining of Money with great Dexterity and Care and their Spirit was not disingag'd for saying the Lord's Prayer with Attention For where their Treasure was there was their Heart and the Attention cannot be perfect in two so contrary things at the same time but if they had purg'd their Souls from coveting earthly Goods and as carefully applied their Understanding to speak unto God and to hear him without doubt they might not only have said the Lord's Prayer with Attention but might also have attention seriously upon continual Prayer which Jesus Christ has so much recommended to us saying that we ought always to pray and never to cease 9. But those poor Ignorants think to please God with fair Words as they please Men by saying that they are too frail to do any Good far less can they imitate Jesus Christ for these Excuses will condemn them For if they were truly sensible of their Frailty they would avoid the Occasions of Sin and use the Means of Poverty Humility and Patience that they might imitate Jesus Christ for he did nothing when he was upon Earth but that which another would do that were animated with the same Spirit that he was For the same God has through all the same Power and can do by the Body and Spirit of other Men that which he did by that of Jesus Christ 10. For in as much as he is God his Power is not limited provided that Man give no â—indrance
Works is a dead Faith in which while they remain they will never obtain Salvation seeing a living and operative Faith is necessary which cannot be recovered but in the imitation of Jesus Christ for otherwise no body can recover the Grace of God which he has merited for us for those only who will embrace the Gospel Law for it only teaches us how to return to God and points out all the things which have withdrawn us from him 18. If the Gospel Law did not tell me that I must be poor in Spirit I would never have known that the Goods of the World could withdraw me from God and if the same Law did not tell me that I must be humble in Heart I would have remained in the Pride in which Nature begot me and if the same Law did not teach me that I must deny my self take up my Cross and follow Jesus Christ I would never have known that the Love of my self drew me away from the Love of God or that my natural Inclinations did incline me to Sin I would never have done Violence to them that I might take the Kingdom of Heaven by force but having learned in the School of Jesus Christ the Truth of my Duties I will follow them and walk in the Light that he has purchas'd for me by his Sufferings and will not lean upon the Opinions of blinded Men who take Lies for Truth for I know well that for me the Gospel Law was made and that without the observing of it I cannot be among those whom the Father has given unto Jesus Christ and for whom he prays unto his Father I hope you also will be of that number my dear Child that having been in this World united in the Spirit of Jesus Christ we may be united together with him for ever Which she wisheth who remains Yours wholly in God A. B. Amsterdam Jul. 15. 1670. LETTER V. A Traveller to Eternity minds not earthly things To a Child of God who did not sufficiently comprehend that the Cares of this Life were an Hindrance to the Perfection of the Soul and was troubled to hear me say that it behoved me to tarvel alone to Eternal Life seeing he was desirous tobear me Company Shewing him that all the things of this World are vain and when we make it our Business to acquire them or to please Men we are not to look for an Eternal Reward This is the Twelfth of La lum née en tenebr Part iv My dear Child 1. I Know that you are troubled to hear me say that I am all alone in the World since you desire to accompany and follow me Your Desire is good in this but my Proposition is true that I am all alone in the way through which God leads me You ought not to be troubled to hear the Truth but rather to discover what must be done to accompany me I TRAVEL TOWARDS ETERNITY and I see all the World travelling towards the Land of their Banishment which is this miserable World after which every one aspires for I have not yet found one Person who seeks nothing but eternal things only 2. All Men of sound Judgment say that they aspire after things Eternal while their Thoughts Labour and Studies are taken up about what respects the Earth and Time Is it possible that they can have such a Blindness of Spirit as to believe that they desire eternal things when they despise them â—or â—e who seeks after the Goods of this World gives a sure Evidence that he despises Eternity Since it gives a full Satisfaction to the Man who desires it and he can no longer desire any other thing For all that is Temporal and Transitory seems to him Dung and Filth of which he makes use of the least â—e can and would flee in the Air towards Eternity without any wise touching the Earth if his Body were not of so 〈◊〉 Matter and obliged to take such gross Food for its 〈◊〉 But they who travel towards the World are still desirous of Silver and Gold that by this means they may make themselves to be served and honoured that they may take their Delight in Eating Drinking Walking commodious Apparel in adorning their Houses with fine Moveables and rich Ornaments that they may satisfie their Five Natural Senses of Sight Hearing Smell Taste and Feeling 3. So that it is no wonder that a Person who travels towards Eternity finds herself alone in the way since all the Men that we see now do so desire and seek after all these things studying and labouring with all their Power to obtain them and they will not despise or forsake them for all the Reasons that can be told them They would indeed have Eternity without resolving to forsake temporal things tho' Jesus Christ tells us That we cannot serve Two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other They wrest this Passage according to the Sensuality of their Inclinations and they will needs follow them and have eternal Life also which is impossible Therefore I do not understand Men now neither do they understand me and for this Cause we cannot stay together 4. I must indeed out of necessity be among Men But as soon as it shall be possible for me I will leave them to follow the way that God points out to me and leave them to follow those ways which they will needs choose for their Damnation I will not say my dear Child that you walk in this way of Damnation since you have an effectual Desire to be saved and to accompany me But you are yet travelling towards the World which is not as yet crucified in you you do not yet know how one must die to it in all things I am therefore troublesome to you in RESOLVING TO WALK ALONE and you give me more trouble to oblige me to follow you in travelling towards the Earth and Temporal things where I cannot accompany you without continual Strife and Debates for there is not a temporal Action or Word which is not blameworthy in this way that leads to Eternity For I should no sooner hear you speak of things which respect the Earth only but I would reprove you for them as idle Words and unprofitable for Eternity And if by your Actions you should labour for earthly things I would complain of your Employ and reckon your Labour to be vain 5. You see how I would be a Burthen to you and you would be insupportable to me And therefore our Journey would be melancholly and troublesome both for you and me and worse than that of two Persons who did not understand one another by Signs nor Words Nevertheless your Company does not offend me for I love it because of the good Desires which you have neither will I reprove you by way of Correction or Reproof but out of good Inclination for your Perfection which I love as my own But your Nature will feel Troubles thereby which perhaps would be insupportable to