made to God Every one lives according to his Inclinations Religious Vows are as it were a second Baptism or a Confirmation of it because they enter into a Religious Life that they may renounce the World its Pomps and Vanities as they had promised in Baptism And when they have taken the Habit and made Vows they love the World more than they did before There is often greater Pomp and Vanity under the mean Habit of a Religious Person than under the Purple of a King Who does not perceive the Heart of those Persons puffed up because they have the Name of Saints or vertuous Ones It seems all the World shou'd do them Honour and Reverence because of their mean Habits which People kiss kneeling with more Reverence than they worship God They get the Titles of Venerable Reverences most illustrious In short Sir it cannot he true that these Persons have renounced the World since they desire to be lov'd honour'd and esteem'd by it On the contrary in their Religious State they do often require more worldly Honour than wou'd have belonged to them if they had remained Seculars Does it not hereby appear that there are no where any true Christians and that all Christianity now consists only in outward Idea's For no body renounces the Devil the World and its Pomps tho' all have promised it in Baptism And tho' they have confirmed these Promises by Religious Vows yet they are not more careful of one Obligation than the other This may be concluded even from the Deeds and Practices of all those Religious Votaries I said to her That at least the Religious did follow Jesus Christ at a distance She said She knew not one thing in which they follow'd Jesus Christ For all their Practices were contrary to him For he said Learn of me who am meek and lowly in Heart and these are proud and arrogant He was poor throughout his whole Life and these desire to be rich He had not where to lay his Head whereas these have all sorts of Conveniences building Houses as if they were to dwell here for ever Jesus Christ did still labour sweat toil and suffer in this Life whereas these Monks will live at ease without labouring or suffering any thing Jesus Christ chose Reproach Contempt and Confusion whereas these make themselves to be honour'd by all taking to themselves the first Place chusing still the finest and the best whereas Jesus Christ did always chuse the least tho' he was the Lord and Creator of all things He chose a poor Mother Apostles from among the Common-People a Stable to be born in and a Gibbet to die upon Do you think Sir that there is any Resemblance between the Life of the Monks and that which Jesus Christ taught us by his Example For my part I can't perceive any thing in which they follow Jesus Christ neither closely nor at a distance For even all their Outside is directly contrary to him The pompous Ornaments of their Houses and Churches do shew the Vanity of their Hearts For he who is not vain seeks nothing but what is necessary These Superfluities are real Evidences of it For he who is not luxurious or loves not Luxuries will never heap up Treasures upon Earth All that Gold Silver Silk and those other Ornaments are all worldly Pomps which they renounced in Baptism and since in making Religious Vows Nevertheless every one endeavours to heap up more Is not this to mock God to make false Promises to him which we have no Mind to keep For those who at present enter into a Religious Life have no Design to follow Jesus Christ But on the contrary many enter therein that they may be provided and have their Conveniencies and Pleasures or that they may be free of the Cares and Troubles of maintaining their Families if they shou'd live in the World or for some Reasons which are for their Profit All which nevertheless are covered with a Pretence of following Jesus Christ tho' they will or desire nothing less than this I said to her That some of them did sincerely enter into a Religious state being persuaded that hereby they shall more really imitate Jesus Christ She said I bewail these Sir who go thither upon so good Designs because they cannot put them in Execution in these Societies at present who are established more for their own Profit than according to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ How many have entered into them who have been dissinteressed from worldly things and they have learned them to cover and seek them If a Monk know not the way to bring the Water to their Mill they will cast him off as unprofitable for the Good of Religion So that to observe his Vows aright he must study to be covetous rather than poor I doubt not but there are yet several particular Persons among the Religious Orders who have a sincere Intention to please God but they are so blinded with the Reasons and Arguments of others that they follow their Vices insensibly without perceiving it because these Vices are changed as to their Name and they call them Vertues For the Pride Luxury and Avarice of these Persons are called by the Name of Charity Their Hearts will be full of these three Vices and to make them pass with others for Vertues they will persuade them that they ought to procure to themselves Honour as being the Servants of God or Priests consecrated to him and that therefore all Honour is due to them that God may be honour'd by them Those well-meaning Persons believe this to be true and follow others blindly without reflecting upon the Behaviour of Jesus Christ his Apostles and Disciples who were despised by the World For Jesus Christ says that he is the Reproach of Men and when they wou'd have honour'd the Apostles for the great Miracles they wrought upon the Sick they said see that you do it not for we are Men like to your selves we do these Wonders in the Name of Jesus Christ who ought to be honoured and glorified and not we who can do nothing Now these at present ascribe all Honour to themselves making the World believe that it is Charity to give them Goods wherewith to maintain their Luxury as well in their Movables and Buildings as in the Ornaments of the Altars under Colour that 't is the House of God which deserves all good and fine things as if God were honoured by their Luxury and Superfluities which are so well masqu'd that the most Pious follow them without considering that neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles did ever build magnificent Temples or Houses but followed a plain Simplicity Can God be honoured by the Sins of Luxury and Excess He who being in the World did chuse Poverty and Misery Thus he wou'd be indeed a changing God if he shou'd now glory in the Magnificence of Temples Houses and Ornaments who wou'd neither have the one nor the other tho' he was Lord and
the Fattest Prebendaries thirsting still insatiably for more Honour Pleasures and Riches that they may Rule in this World instead of Enduring and Suffering in it in Imitation of their Master and Captain Jesus Christ who says so clearly to them I have done all to give you an Example and Be ye Followers of me But those Persons at present do directly the contrary despising Lowliness and Humility abhorring Poverty and avoiding Sufferings as much as they can Are not these Adulterers who falsifie their Faith promised to Jesus Christ in Baptism to renounce the Devil the World and its Pomps And after their Oaths they go and take up what they have renounced conforming themselves to the World and its Pomps and Vanities as much as they can And in the mean time they will still bear the Name of Christians which signifies the Spouse of Jesus Christ As in effect those Persons really were if they had continued in his Spirit and the Imitation of Him From which they being fallen they are nothing now but unfaithful Whoremongers and Adulterers worthy to be cast off by their Lawful Husband as they infallibly shall be for He cannot acknowledge them for Christians when He sees them in their Manners wholly Antichristian It must not be imagined that this Evil is only in the Roman Church as all the Reformed would perswade themselves calling the Roman Church commonly The great Whore in the Revelation since all and every one of these Reformed are more Whores than their Mother the Roman Church from which they have separated not to Reform her but to Deform her the more by rendring her a greater Beast than she was in her self For we see these Reformed live much more licentiously than those who continue in the Roman Church who being under Discipline are regulated and restrained in their Manners whereas the Reformed being subject to none live as Beasts every one following his own Will and the Inclination of their corrupt Natures This is that which made all these Reformers to depart from the Roman Church that they might make New Institutions accommodated to their Looseness For since they were resolved to give the Reins to their Brutish Senses they could not abide any longer under the Obedience of a Superiour and being inclined to follow Carnal Pleasures they must depart out of the Roman Obedience where they had taken Vows and Oaths of Chastity for else they had been cast into Prison as perjured and impious And that they might have Money enough to satisfie the Pleasures of their Taste they must be followed by Rich Persons who might furnish them with Money in abundance For this Cause they made Schisms in the Roman Church and they Established New Churches every one after his own Fashion who contradicted one another and understood one another no more than the Builders of the Tower of Babel and in this they were followed by many Honourable Persons who thought there was some Good Thing in the Reformed and so much the rather that they were agreeable to Corrupt Nature which they flattered and nourished in its Vices For these Reformers did not bid the People separate from the Roman Communion that they might live in Gluttony and Whoredom This would have been too infamous and reproachful among Good Men but they told them the Abuses of the Roman Church proposing to reform them Though in Truth it was but that they might lead a Licentious Life shake off Piety and Truth and give Loose Reins to the Motions of their Corrupt Nature and let it follow its Desires and Inclinations without constraint For if they had designed a Pious Reformation they would not have despised the Good Things that were in the Roman Church and would only have resisted the Evil which they judged to be there and Reformed that Evil first in themselves that by their good Example they might have led others to Reform themselves too since Example is an Effectual Preaching But these Reformers proceeded after quite another manner and rejected the Good with the Bad without distinction Because if they had maintained what was Good in the Roman Church they would have been obliged to observe it them themselves This they had no mind to do being resolved to lead a Licentious Life and to give Loose Reins to all their Brutish Senses They could not subject the People to the Obedience of a Superiour since they themselves would not at all depend upon one Therefore first of all they perswaded the People to shake off a Dependance on the Pope and other Superiours that they might live every one after their own Way as the Beasts who have neither Fears nor Cares but eat and drink well This is against all Decency since no Country no Common wealth no Family can be well ordered and governed without a Head a Superiour or a Father of the Family to whom the rest are subject And I pray you FRIENDLY READER what would a City or a Province be if it had no Magistrate no Superiour No other thing but a Den of Thieves Robbers and other Malefactours who would hinder all Good Men from dwelling there And though Superiority be so good useful and necessary even in the Civil State yet these Reformers reject it as an Evil Thing and will depend on none but themselves and live independently that they may the more follow the Swinge of their Brutish Senses whose Motions they let loose without Restraint These Reformers did not only cast off Obedience by their Reformation but also the Confession of Sins in particular For they would not declare to another the Luxury and the Excess which they had a mind to perpetrate and they could not enjoyn others what they would not do themselves Therefore they rejected and even despised this Confession though the Scripture sayes expresly Confess your Faults to one another And Confession in its self is Good and Holy humbling the Heart and serving for a Bridle and Restraint to Sin in Time coming All this sort of Good these Reformers rejected together with the pretended Errours they said they had discovered forgetting that the Scripture says Try all things and hold that which is good I will not excuse the Errours and Abuses which have crept in among these Auricular Confessions since I blame them more than these Reformers themselves did as may be seen in this LIGHT OF THE WORLD But they ought not to pluck up the good Grain with the Tares That belongs to the Lord to separate them in the Day of Harvest and not to these Reformers to come before the Time and pluck out of the Holy Church the good Things which Christ had planted there Such as Fasting and Abstinence are which these Reformers have so absolutely rejected and despised though in the Scripture Fasting is recommended for the Apostle sayes Be ye sober and watch And elsewhere it is said Sanctifie your Fast And Jesus Christ speaking to his Apostles of one possest sayes to them This kind goeth not out but by Fasting and
with doing the outward Ceremonies without considering what is done Baptism is an outward Sign to shew that he who is baptized gives up and consecrates himself to the Service of God and will live in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ renouncing the Devil the World and its Pomps This is what he ought to do in the inward of his Soul who desires to be baptized and then to come publickly to the Font of Baptism to confirm the Vows and Promises that he has made to God in his Heart that they may be publickly known and own'd by the Church But in the Baptism of new born Infants nothing of this can concurr For the Infant being weak has not yet the Will to give it self to the Service of God or to follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ nor yet to renounce the Devil and the World and its Pomps For it has no Sense nor Understanding more than a silly Beast and the most Part of Parents who ought to supply the Defect of the Infant have not Faith themselves and cannot teach them to follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ since they themselves will not do it On the contrary so soon as their Children begin to have any little Judgment they teach them to follow the World and its Pomps which is very far from minding them that they have renounced it by Baptism What Effect therefore can this outward Sign have when nothing is effectuated in the Heart of him who receives it neither by himself nor by his Parents And when Godfathers and Godmothers speak in the Name of the Infant they lye For they say that he desires to be baptized and the Infant cannot have this Desire They say that he renounces the Devil the World and its Pomps and as soon as these outward Ceremonies are ended they never think more on what they have promised in the Child's Name far less do they acquaint him with it when he is grown up to the end the Child may remember the Promise which he made at Baptism For in doing this they would give a Reproof to themselves because neither Father nor Mother nor Godfather nor Godmother nor any Body at present observes the Doctrine of Jesus Christ tho' all Christians are outwardly baptiz'd They would count him a Fool or a very Precisian who should affirm that we are oblig'd to keep and observe the Evangelical Life because it is not any longer in use They would even be ashamed to renounce the World and its Pomps because the most wise and the most holy follow the World and its Pomps The Wise say that one must live civilly and maintain himself in Honour and the Saints at present say that a Man must accommodate himself to the World that we cannot make a World by our selves We see the most Reformed Monks study to please the World desiring to be lov'd and honour'd by it and would be very sorry to be hated by the World as Jesus Christ foretold his Servants should be On the contrary every one seeks to draw the World to himself and to have its Friendship to the end that having gain'd the Heart he may likewise gain the Purse Are not these fine Christians in Parade and not in Effect For they have no sooner renounc'd in Baptism the World and its Pomps than they think of nothing but to follow and to love it as if their Promise were nothing but a Formality of Words They do with God as they would do with a Fool promising him a great many things to please him without having any Desire to give him them Baptism ought not to be received but by him who resolves in himself to consecrate himself to God and to follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which he ought to know before he be baptized and resolve of his own Free-Will that he will follow it quitting the Maxims of Men which are all contrary to those of Jesus Christ The Christians of old did so No body was made Christian but they who of their deliberate Will would consecrate themselves to God and follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but at present they force every one to be baptized before they have the Use of Reason without knowing what they do or what they promise I said to her That the Custom of baptizing Children in their Infancy was Instituted on good Grounds to the end no Christians might die before they were baptized that all those who died in their Childhood might assuredly be saved She said Sir I believe rather that the Devil invented this to the end no Christian might be saved as it falls out that very few shall be saved of those who are baptized in their Infancy because when they are outwardly baptized they believe they are sufficiently assured of their Salvation which is the greatest Mistake in the World For Baptism operates nothing in our Souls no more than the other Sacraments but according to their Disposition How can a Child without Judgment have the Dispositions requisite for receiving Baptism If their Baptism were delayed till they had their full Reason we would certainly yet find true Christians for they who had no Mind to follow Jesus Christ would not be baptized unless it were out of Hypocrisie But at present every body thinks himself a good Christian if so be he have been outwardly baptized without considering that this Sign gives nothing to our Souls if we have not suitable Dispositions If they were not baptized in their Infancy all those who desire to be saved would study to know what is necessary for becoming true Christians and would have no Rest till they had obtained this Happiness but at present every one rests satisfied with this outward Baptism not considering that to be Christians they must follow the Instructions of Jesus Christ without which it had been better they had never been baptized It is just the same as if a Servant should go hire out himself to serve some Prince or Lord and as soon as he had got on his Livery should quit his Master to give himself to Robbery setting himself to steal and rob in the same Habit which would serve him the better to catch his Prey For the Merchant who should see him clothed with some Prince's or Lord's Livery would not be aware that he were a Robber till he saw the Effects of it But if this Robber were some Day seiz'd by Justice he would be more severely punish'd for having committed his Thefts and Robberies in some Prince's Livery than if it had been in his own Habit. Even so it is when a Person is baptized and immediately abandons himself to the Vanities of the World he deceives God and the World and renders himself subject to greater Chastisements than if he were not baptized because this outward Sign which should serve him to obtain Grace serves for his greater Condemnation as the Liverty serves the Robber We see the Devil has found out this Invention to baptize young Children knowing well that
Creator of all things If the Glory of his Father had consisted in Churches and sumptuous Ornaments wou'd not he to whom all appertains have pitch'd upon them and built them What Dotages do Men now publish that God is honoured by great Buildings and rich Ornaments So our Dung shou'd be his Honour For all that is fair and good in the Sight of Men is nothing but Dung before God We have renounced the Pomps of the World that we might become the Children of God and by the same Pomps we wou'd honour him in his Churches It is not fit to renounce the Pomps of the World to become Christians since these give Glory to God It had been better to encrease these since they honour God that by the Encrease of them God might receive Encrease of Glory What Blindness of Mind is it Sir that makes Men believe that God is honoured by worldly Pomps when they are applied to Church-Walls If they displease God in the Souls of Christians how much more shou'd they displease him in Churches and Places that are peculiarly dedicated unto him for Prayer since this does still require Attention and these pompous and magnificent Ornaments serve for nothing but to distract and divert the Mind by regarding these Pomps and Ornaments of Churches which do certainly distract the Mind of all those who regard them and can serve for nothing but to satisfie the Avarice of those who covet them Nevertheless they call those charitable who afford them Money wherewith to provide all these Pomps and Ornaments of Churches Every one praises and esteems them as if God were a vain God who wou'd be adorn'd with fine Garments If he wou'd have a rich Temple in Solomon's time it was because People were then so gross that they cou'd comprehend nothing of God or of his Majesty but by gross and material things But now that we have the Doctrine of Jesus Christ we have received Light enough to know that God is a Spirit and Life and not bodily or material So that they who go to Cloysters or Religious Orders that they may follow Jesus are greatly deceived because there he is not at all followed but opposed For which they ought rather to be called the Cloysters of Antichist than of Christ because the things wherein they contradict him are more than those wherein they follow him I ask'd If those would not be saved who should enter into a Religious state with a good Intention and being in it should endeavour to live well according to their Language She said Sir these are all Impostors in the Sight of God For they promise Poverty and they observe it not because they yet covet worldly Goods and do all they can to please Men that they may give them of their Goods These Vows oblige them not to desire Riches and they do their best to have them If they cannot desire them much less can they posses or receive them They vow Chastity also and very often they are content only by Force and for want of Occasions God who tries the Reins sees well if their Hearts and their Thoughts are chaste since so many things contrary thereto are heard of them They vow Obedience and they are full of self-will So far are they from obeying God that they do not so much as hearken to him and are subject only to their own Wills and Desires without any other Submission By what means would you have these Persons saved who falsifie their Faith to God since those cannot be sav'd who falsifie their Faith to Men Some falsifie their Faith to God out of Malice and Hypocrisie and others falsifie it out of Ignorance being directed in their Faith more according to what others do persuade them than according to their real Practice They make them believe that Poverty is observed when they possess nothing in particular and in the mean time since the Kings and the great Men of the World do ordinarily profess nothing in particular having People and Officers under them who govern their Revenues Even as these Votaries of Poverty have who wou'd not by it be depriv'd of a Glass of Wine or any the least thing They are in this more happy than secular Persons who are oblig'd to care and labour for necessary things whereas these Monks have all at their Wish without Pain or Labour and if they be depriv'd of a Wife they are free also of the Labours which Marriage brings along with it So that their Chastity is more sensual than the being joyned with some Person of a froward or contrary Humour which is more irksome than Continence So that these Monks who are called Penitents do far less of Petence in their Monasteries than they wou'd do if they were out of them For their Vows of Obedience do constrain them only to what they have a Mind to do They have no sooner pass'd their Novitiate but they are absolute Lords and taking the Will of their Superiours for that of God they make them easily to condescend to theirs else they wou'd become rebellious and chagrin or Disturbers of others And nevertheless they will think they have kept their three Vows and believe that for this Cause they shall go to Paradise tho' indeed all their Vertues be nothing but imaginary ones or Apish Tricks And tho' they shou'd live well according to their Knowledge yet they perish because Ignorance does not excuse Sin To be saved we must of Necessity have the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God these for the most part have none of these Vertues For that cannot be true Righteousness to quit their own Wealth to go afterwards and beg that of others who very often have need of it themselves and yet dare not refuse these whom they esteem to be the Servants of God neither is it just to live upon Alms when the Body and Mind is sound for Labour neither is it just to leave their own Goods to their Kinsmen to enrich them and they themselves go live at the Charge of a Common-Wealth For my part Sir I perceive in my interiour that all these things are Unrighteousnesses before God however they cover them with Perfections and Vertues Neither do I see the Goodness of God reign in these Souls because its Property is to do good to all and to do evil to none But we see these Religious Persons do good only to themselves or those who are associated with them studying to do Mischief to all those who will not follow them And as for the Truth of God it is yet less observed by them than the two other Vertues For all their Works are nothing but external far from the real Truth of God which appears always to be what it is and these Monks make a shew of the Holiness and Vertues which they do not possess but are truly Hypocrites I said to her That many of these Monks were Saints and did Miracles She said They became not Saints Sir by that manner
Christ speaks only of those who are upon Earth who are obliged to have these Beatitudes if they would be saved and come to the possession of the Promises made to each of the said Beatitudes which are the certain Marks whereby to discover if we live in a state of Salvation or not Nevertheless no body examines himself upon this Head to see if he have those Beatitudes no more than if they were not proclaimed for us We say them as a Litany and not as things that we are oblig'd to put in practice In which we deceive our selves for no body will attain to the state of Blessedness but he who in this World shall put these Eight Beatitudes in practice And as far as Men are estranged from them they are as far from their Salvation I asked her What Remedy there was for such general Evils in which no body could be saved She said Sir I told you long ago that Paradise was shut My meaning was that no Body now at Death attains to Bliss because in their Life-time they make no Preparation for it but they are every way estranged from God For it is not now known what is Sin nor yet what is Vertue They imagine they are Vertuous when they do something that 's good in appearance and that they are not guilty of sin when they do not commit wicked Actions This is the most crafty delusion of the Devil by which he certainly gains all the good through this blindness of Mind This is an universal Evil which makes me afraid that not one Person shall be saved because none do perceive their Evil but grosse Sinners who live in Actual sins As for others every Moment they take the Name of God in vain One will say I trust in God another God will help us another God will shew us Mercy and thus on a Thousand other occasions the Name of God is still in their Mouth calling on him to co-operate in their sins For when they say they trust in God while the Soul wallows in sin is to desire that God would do Injustice Wherefore they may wait long in this sort of confidence and shall never obtain their Desire For God cannot help those who go on in sin without being unjust which he will never be And he who says that God will help him while he lives as People do at present says that God will help him to sin which he cannot do For he cannot contribute directly or indirectly to any Sin and if he assisted us in the way we live he should contribute to many sins which we commit For if he assisted us to preserve our Temporal Goods we would continue yea encrease our Pride our Excesses and Vanities and if he delivered us from Wars Peace would give us occasions to forget God and to abandon our selves the more to bodily Pleasures and Sensualities and if he delivered us from our Miseries of whatsoever kind we would certainly be led to greater Evils For Ease and Sloth engender all sort of Sins And when we say God will have Mercy on us and nevertheless we go on in a state of sin this is to blaspheme against the Righteousness of God Because he can never have Mercy but upon penitent Sinners Which the Godly now a days are very far from for they encourage themselves in their Sins as if they were Vertues and even call them by the Name of Vertues For the Avarice of the Cloisters and of the Religious is call'd Charity done them and the Adorning of Altars building of Houses and Magnificent Churches is call'd the Honour of God though these be but Vanities and Superfluities by which God is greatly offended For if at Baptism we have renounc'd the World and its Pomps to become Christians how can we adorn Churches which we call the Temples of God with the same Pomps and Vanities which Christians are not permitted to seek after in their own Persons nor in what belongs to them How can it be allowed to use them in Places particularly dedicated to God without tacitely Insinuating that God is served with our sins and Impurities as are all sort of Pomps and Vanities which are so common in Churches as well as in other places Nevertheless all this is covered with an Appearance of Vertue and Holiness This renders all the World impenitent For every one amuses himself with the belief of being sav'd in a state of Sin and Damnation Which is truly a desperate state because he who believes he is good will never repent and much less will he do Penitence and consequently he shall never obtain Pardon For God cannot pardon without Repentance All the Remedy that I see in this is a perfect Conversion unto God and a New Birth as if till now we had never been in the World For all that we have done hitherto has been evil and blame-worthy in the sight of God though to us all seem to be good through the Blindness of our Spirits in which we have been so sunk that no Body has seen whither he was going more than we do in a very dark Night Therefore Jesus Christ has said That a man must be born again and become as a little Child else he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He speaks to those of the present Age For if one do not re-enter into the Womb of the Rising Church he cannot be sav'd The Eleventh Conference Shews how a Man must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And that he must return to a Dependance upon God which is the only thing that he essentially requires of Man I asked her How this New Birth could be in those who are already advanc'd in Years and Learning She said Sir We must take up a Life wholly new as if to day we were newly born Because all the good that we think we have done heretofore is all evil or at least good for this Life onely For all our good Works have still been attended with Self-love or Humane Respects which can never be recompenc'd in Eternity because we have here had their Reward What we do out of Self-love is recompenc'd by our Satisfaction and what we do out of Humane respects is recompenc'd by the complacency of Men So that we can never in Justice pretend to any other thing for we are fully satisfied in this World according to the Pretensions or Ends we had in doing our good Works Though they have been covered with a pretence of the Glory of God or Charity to our Neighbours yet in effect all this has been but Vanity-Therefore he who desires to be converted must take up a Life wholly new and believe assuredly that he has never done so much as one Action purely for the Love of God Which we may abundantly perceive by considering all the Sins against the Holy Ghost and those which we commit by another with the Eight Beatitudes and the other solid Vertues Every one may see thereby
her Works that she speaks only against those who make use of the Sacraments while they continue and proceed in a corrupt state that it would be tedious to insert in this place See the 28 29 30 and 31. Numb of the 1st p. of Antichrist Reveal'd and the 1st Letter of the 3 p. of the Tomb of false Divinty where she is so far from condemning true Christians for Consecrating their little Children to God in Baptism that she declares expresly that Infant Baptism would be of good use if Parents would take care to educate their Children in the true faith and put them in mind after they are of Age of the promise they made in their name at Baptism namely that they should be Christs Disciples and renounce the Devil the World and all its Vanities And tho' she believ'd according to the opinion of several Learned Men that adult Persons were only Baptiz'd in the primitive Church and preferr'd that custom as being less subject to abuses yet she did not think that this rule or practice was then so generally receiv'd but that it might admit of just exceptions And therefore in an other part of her Writings after she has declar'd speaking to an Anabaptist that we must not amuse our selves with disputing about the external forms of Baptism while the Soul is not willing to die to the corruptions of the flesh that it might live again to the Spirit of Jesus Christ She adds That since the Scripture informs us that in the days of the Apostles whole Families were Baptiz'd at once it is probable that there were young Children as well as old Persons in them In short These things may be done either out of a good or bad Principle but usually and at present generally these things were done out of a bad Principle and this is what she reproves and condemns with so much reason and justice As for that Question whether we ought to condemn the Repitition of Baptism when it was not duly perform'd at first If that Repitition may serve to promote a true conversion to God and his love it 's plain it cannot be disapprov'd but by a Spirit that prefers external things before God and his love which cannot be ascrib'd to the Spirit of God Thus the Scripture furnisheth us with instances of this Repitition of Baptism when it may serve as a mean to receive the Spirit of God See Act. 19. 2 c. Some will be apt to take up a prejudice against her because in some places she speaks with some sharpness against the Protestants the Reformation made by them and the first Reformers But they who consider with what severity she treats the Church of Rome in whose communion she was looking on her as the great Whore that sits on many waters how plainly she represents the corruption of all Parties and how ready every side is to be wedded to the little interest of their rispective Parties will rather admire and love the Impartiality and Ingenuity of her Spirit than be prejudic'd against her upon that head God dwells not in Temples made with mens hands and the human and political constitutions of Churches with their respective Acts Articles Covenants and Schemes of Government have hitherto prov'd but the occasion of mutual hatred and contention and not being Cemented with CHARITY of all these buildings one stone is not like to be left upon another that shall not be thrown down When the Temple was built all the stones were hewn and squar'd in the Wilderness and there was neither Hammer nor Ax nor any Tool of Iron heard in the House while it was in Building And that God may thus rear up the living Temple of his Church will be the prayer of all serious Persons But for a full satisfaction to the exceptions that may be made against her I refer to her own Writings and to the Apologetical Preface written by the R. P. P. and prefixt to her Life In the mean time as her Writings seem design'd for the common good of all Mankind and for reviving the true Spirit of Christianity in the World so I heartily wish they may be made universally useful and that the communicating them to the World in their respective Languages may have its due effect That the Heathen may see how by Nature they are alienated from the life of God and how desirous God is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth That the Mahomitans may admire and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ whom they Honour for a great Prophet and against whose Religion the greatest prejudice is the ill representation made of it by the Lives and Practices of those who profess it That the Jews may be convinc'd that Jesus is the true Messiah whom they look for who is to come again in Glory upon Earth and who having kept them for so many Ages scatter'd among other Nations in a state of contempt and reproach is thereby preparing them for a more exalted state when they shall be graffed in again and made the head who are now the tail That the Professors of Christianity may learn what it is indeed and how far they are from it and that their eyes being open they may see they are greater Idolaters than the Heathens while these thro' ignorance and in the simplicity of their hearts bow their bodies before the Sun or their Idols but those in the midst of light with the bent of their hearts their Love their Affections and endeavours do Worship Gold and Silver and Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Men and Honours and their own Wills and Passions that while they profess to abhor Idols they may cease to be the greatest Idolaters themselves That the several parties of Christendom may be convinced that they have lost Christianity and are fighting for its shadow and while its Essence is Righteousness Goodness and Truth the Devil has shed among them his contrary Antichristian Qualities of Injustice Malice and Hypocrisy under an outward cover of Masses Prayers Preachings Communions Sacraments Sabbaths Holy-Days Fasts c. which when the essence of Christianity is gone are an abomination unto God That the Learned may learn not to be puff'd up with their knowledge and become so humble as to be willing to learn something from a simple Maid that perhaps may be of more use to them than all their Learning and that they may be sensible that Divine Light and Knowledge does as far transcend their Notional Learning as the enjoying and beholding the Sun the Light and all this visible World does the looking upon their Pictures That her own Sex may admire the goodness of God in chusing a Virgin for his Mother and a Virgin to be the Organ of his Light and Spirit in this last Age of the World that they may see they are capable of more excellent endowments than those in which the other Sects pretend to excel them in which God seems to give them the preference to
most on the contrary we regard often what does most delight our senses or rather what is most for our advantage and thus we render our love vain or please the vanity of those who love us For this cause I have found it more sure to avoid all persons who would love me Nature does often flatter us in this point perswading us that we love the soul of the person when we love only the body and its endowments or our own delectation and advantage And having ask'd her why she would not stay in one fixt place since she was out of her own Country and why she would not be known She answered Tho I am a Stranger yet I may be taken notice of by staying long in one place which I do not desire for men are full of vain curiosity they would hinder my inward repose and quiet without any profit therefore I love rather to travel and continue unknown for men cannot give me any thing nor I them And having replied unto her that men might instruct her in the matter of perfection or that she her self might also instruct some others She answer'd I never learn'd any thing from any man and as to the teaching of them they have too much presumption of their own knowledge to hearken to a Child as I am I choose rather to leave them in their Ignorance than to speak to them to be pursued and persecuted by them I ask'd her if she was not afraid of being wanting in Charity to her Neighbours while she would not teach them or believ'd that they would persecute her in well-doing She said Sir if I had not made the experiment I durst not say so but believe me I have search'd in diverse places for persons who were esteem'd good men to declare my sentiments to them and to manifest the blindness that is now in Christendom and I have not found any body who has followed my sayings on the contrary some have reproach'd and persecuted me so that I have been constrain'd to withdraw out of their reach for they would have treated me hardly and even imprison'd me because I told them the truth which they will not learn because it reproves 'em They oppose themselves and are alarm'd against this truth more than against the Devil himself at this time it is put out of credit those who possess it are oblig'd to hold their peace and to conceal themselves I have experienc'd this in divers Countries where I have every where met with this opposition by which I sufficiently perceive that the darkness is universal thro all the world I cannot be wanting in charity in this point for I have often expos'd my Life for the salvation of my Neighbour and I would do it yet if I found matter dispos'd which failing I am resolv'd to continue alone tho with regret seeing all the world perish while they will have no help and will not know their blindness I do not believe that God will reckon with me as being wanting on my part to my Neighbour in what was in my power I ask'd her from whence she deriv'd her sentiments and what Books she made use of for her spiritual reading She said She had never taken any thing out of Books that she made no use of them nor carried any with her on the way but a small one in which were written the WORDS OF JESVS CHRIST which she carried instead of a Box of Reliques not to read it but out of devotion esteeming those words more than all the Reliques of the world and as for her sentiments that they came to her without her knowing how that in her Childhood she had been instructed in the principles of the Catholick Faith and that coming after wards to the use of reason she found her self replenish'd with the Doctrines of Jesus Christ and entertain'd her spirit with the consideration of the life of the first Christians These thoughts inflam'd her with a desire of imitating and following them therefore she said to her parents and friends Let us go into the Conntry where the Christiaus live whom Jesus Christ has taught And when they answer'd her Here is the Land of the Christians Jesus Christ has taught us She thought within her self that this could not be true that the life which she and all other persons led was not conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ nor to that of the first Christians She always ask'd again Where was the Land of the Christians till every one derided her as if she had been a Fool assuring her that she liv'd in the Land of Christians and that they had the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which she could not comprehend saying I see here Coffers full of Silver costly Furniture and sine Houses whereas Jesus Christ was poor and born in a Stable How can we be Christians I cannot believe this At last she resolv'd not to speak any more of it thinking in the mean time how she might find the way and the opportunity of coming one day into the Land of Christians While she consider'd all the actions and deportment of men she found them always more contrary to her sentiments which made her often weep when she was alone and she made her complaint to Jesus Christ and ask'd him how she might live as a Christian and be his Spouse It seems says she Sir that God had pity on my tender tears for a little after I receiv'd a secret advertisement as if some one had spoken within me and answered my demands This gave me so much consolation that childish plays and pleasures were no more agreeable to me I could find no other contentment but in entertaining my self with these secret thoughts that taught me all the sentiments I still retain not but tho thro my wickedness I lost this conversation for a time when inclining to follow the pleasures of the world and to give my self to the vanities of youth earthly sentiments began to possess my spirit But the great mercy of God has since recall'd me and restor'd the same inward delights with more solidity and light I never acquir'd sciences any other way than by recollection I have no need either of Books or Masters to teach me on the contrary they would be a great hindrance to me if I should make use of them even an Angel from Heaven if visible would hinder me This I could hardly understand saying to her if an Angel from Heaven would be a hindrance to you how dare we speak to you any more to hinder you She said Do not mistake me Sir I mean that an Angel from Heaven can teach me no more than I learn by my inward conversation therefore he would be unprofitable to me but you cannot hinder me so long as you profit by my words my Charity
Roman Catholicks tho' this they hold for an Article of Faith that none can be saved out of her Communion This is very ill conceiv'd since God is universal and he 's to be found every where by those who seek and worship him For he 's not fix'd to any material Body All Souls who take their Delight in him are his Spouses call them by what Name or Religion you please For all these different Names or Opinions do not make a Christian but only the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ makes a Christian And all those who put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel are Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ even tho' they were Turks or Heathens Of which Professions I believe several condemn and judge the nominal and professing Christians since God has no Respect of Persons and will judge all Men according to their Works This the Scripture confirms saying by your Works you shall be judged and by your Works you shall be condemn'd And Jesus Christ himself taught the Truth of God his Father to the Samaritan Woman and to many other Nations who were not Jews saying to his Apostles Go teach all Nations He that believes shall be saved He even ate and conversed with Sinners to see if any of them would receive the Truths of his Father and put them in Practice and tho' at first he rejected the Canaanitish Woman as a Dog yet he shew'd her Grace and Mercy by her Conversion and persevering Humility For the same Reason he says to Christians that Publicans and Sinners shall enter into the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out which still farther confirms this Truth That Religion does not save a Man but the Love of God that sanctisies him This made me get over all Humane Respects and declare the Truth of the things which were ask'd me by so many different Conferences all about the Roman Church For at that time I knew no other Religions and with Compassion I booked upon all those who died out of the Romanâ— Church as damn'd as our Divines taught So that being ask'd by a Romish Priest I answered plainly to all his Questions Vpon which many took Occasion to say that I had chang'd my Religion and was become an Enemy of the Roman Church which is not true since being born in it I will live and die therein without changing Name or Religion but only my Manners and Life And will endeavour to be regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and to follow and imitate him even to Death letting Ignorant Men say and judge of me as they please In the mean time I offer this LIGHT OF THE WORLD to all good Souls who seek the Truth and desire to become true Christians that they may truly discern Reality from Appearance For this prevails now through all the World among all sorts of Sects and Religions where every one cleaves to the Bark and does not touch the Wood fancying that Vertue consists in having a fine Religious Name of that of the Reformed the Evangelicks the Catholicks Yea that they are persons guided by the Holy Spirit of which the Quakers boast though all these sorts of Names are false and not at all suitable to the Life and Manners of those who call themselves so For if they who are called Reformed were truly so we would see the Reformation in their Life and Manners Whereas we find they all live according to Flesh and Blood which the Scripture says shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They are neither reformed in their Moveables nor their Apparel nor in their Eating or Drinking They seek in all the finest and the best They labour and trade diligently that they may have wherewith to maintain themselves in Pomp Excess or Plenty as much as they can without bridling their fleshly Appetites or their Sensualities in any thing still coveting more that they may give it as much Satisfaction as they can that in this World they may have Ease Honours and Pleasure Thus they are called Reformed though in Effect they will not reform themselves in the least thing for the Kingdom of Heaven By which we see that they who call themselves Reformed bear a false Name that makes them Hypocrites and Deceivers of others and of themselves As those also are deceived who call themselves the Evangelicks For in all their Works and Practices there is nothing conformable to the Gospel but all directly opposite to it For they do not observe so much as one Point of the Evangelical Councils For instead of loving voluntary Poverty they love the Abundance and Riches of this World unsatiably and they who ought to be the Guides to those Evangelical Perfections are the farthest remov'd from them abandoning their Flocks and Churches to find others that afford them more temporal Profit They are far from imitating the Apostles who said freely I have received and freely I give thee since these modern Evangelicks give at the greatest Price and to him that bids most And therefore they do not justly bear the Name of Evangelicks since they neither teach nor Practise so much as one Council of the Gospel and have nothing but false Names and Parades that they may appear to be in the Sight of Men what they are not at all in the Sight of God No more than those are Catholicks who bear the Name since to call one a Catholick is to say he is a Person joyn'd in the Communion of Saints which these are not who call themselves Catholicks since we perceive not any Holiness in their Lives but much Vice and Injustice accompanied with Hypocrisie and seeming Vertue without any Reality or Sanctification They boast that they are Abraham's Children without doing the Works of Abraham or that they are Christians without observing the Commands of Christ They content themselves to be called Catholicks without conforming their Lives to those who liv'd holily upon the Earth whose Lives and Histories they read without endeavouring to become holy as they were whose Feast s they solemnize tho' they shall never be in their Communion nor truly Catholicks till in their Lives they follow their Vertues and walk in the streight Way that leads to Life So that this Name of Catholick will condemn them rather than justifie them whereas they presume to be preferr'd by God to all other Religions because they are of the most Holy and Perfect Religion according to the Name of Catholick which they bear This would really be if their Souls were united to Jesus Christ in the Communion of Saints which only and no other thing makes a Catholick By which we see that these Persons bear a false Name since they presume of their Salvation because of the Name Catholick and be-believe they are in the true Church out of which they say there is no Salvation This would be true if the Roman Church were the only Communion of Saints But because
resigned to God nor yet the who loves his Father his Countrey or even his own Life By reason therefore of the Blindness of Men it was needful that he should manifest to them in particular what they ought to forsake that they may be resigned to God For if Jesus Christ had only said simply that a Man must be resigned to God every one would have said or imagined that they lived in this Resignation because they have not Faith but in Speculation for they imagine they are resigned to God when they live in a Dependance on their own Will or that of some Person to whom they submit And since Jesus Christ came to bring Light into the World it was necessary that he should open our Eyes by all the Means contain'd in his Gospel that he might make us see how many Obstacles we put to this DEPENDANCE I said to her She had declared to me many things besides those which are contained in the Gospel And since Dependance only upon God was sufficient for Salvation I might very well have remained ignorant of the Sins of Men the poor Estate of the Church the Dominion of Antichrist with so many other things which do not concern my Salvation She said Sir You imagine that these Things do not concern your Salvation because they do not respect it directly but indirectly They respect it in such a manner as I believe it would be impossible for you to obtain it if you were ignorant of the truth of so many dangerous Evils You would build your Salvation upon falfe Suppositions of being resigned to God when there were no such thing and if you have not the knowledge of Evil you cannot avoid it but will be deceived to your Loss For the Wickedness of Men is now so covered over with Vertue that 't is hard to distinguish the one from the other If you perceive not that Men are deceitful they will deceive you every Moment and if you believe not that they have forsaken God you will imitate them believing that they do well This pious Opinion of your Neighbour will make you follow Evil insensibly Thus we must not walk blindly in the matter of our Salvation For you have more need to discover Evil that you may avoid it than Good to imitate it Because if your Will were resigned to God without knowing the Wickedness of Men now they would certainly draw you back from this Resignation to make you take your own Will And this under pious Pretexts For they will reckon you to be deceived if you do not follow their wayes of Acting and if you be resigned to God you will contract his Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth Which Men will not at all acknowledge but will take your Righteousness to be Selfpreciseness and your Goodness to be Silliness and want of Wit and your Truth will be reckoned Detraction as soon as by it you shall discover their Evils And all this they shall do so dexterously that you shall be puzled to know whether you will not do better to follow their Sentiments than the Direction of God Therefore it is so necessary that you know the Wickedness of Men that you be not deceived by it And if I have declared to you the poor Condition in which the Roman Church is now I have done it more out of Charity than to make known to you the Works of God Because so long as you believe that this Roman Church is the Holy Church you will take up with a Dependance upon Her instead of depending upon God and will indirectly follow the Devil while you believe you follow God And if I had not declared to you that we are now in the Reign of Antichrist you would certainly be deceived because he Acts his greatest Villanies under the Cloak of Holiness and introduces his Adherents into the most Eminent Preferments and Dignities of the Church That he may seduce the very-Elect if it were possible For now more than Three Fourths of People are bound to the Devil by express Covenant And if you be ignorant of all these Truths by what Means shall you avoid their Snares As long as the Devil shall tempt you by evil Thoughts you will not be in danger of following his Suggestions but when he has on his Side the Priests and the Religious the Bishops and other Prelats of the Church you will easily let your self be governed by them thinking that they are guided by this Spirit of God though in effect by that of the Devil By all which Things you may sufficiently discover the need you have to be informed of all these Evils when you desire to resign your self to God or else your Resignation will not last Because Men the Church and Antichrist would very shortly find the Means to draw you back as they do almost all well-disposed Persons perswadeing them that it is fit still to have a good Opinion of our Neighbour and that we must also depend upon the Church and that the Priests and the Religious are true Members of it Though in the Sight of God there is no such thing For all Men together are as a Deluge of Vices and the Roman Church is the Babylon of Confusion and many of her Pillars are the Members of Antichrist This being supposed Sir do you not think I had reason to declare to you all these things in particular that you may not be deceived by so great an Abyss of Evils which would be but too sufficient to hinder you from this RESIGNATION TO THE WILL OF GOD which is the only thing necessary for Salvation to which you can never attain without discovering and removing all the Hindrances which out of great Charity I have manifested unto you The Seventeenth Conference Is a Recapitulation of all the preceding Matters their Scope and Vse I thanked her greatly for the Goodness she had shewn me in telling me so many things so profitable for my Salvation promising to observe them as much as I can She said Sir In this Practice consists your Salvation For it matters little to know all the Conduct of the World and all its Sciences and Secrets If all this serve not as Means to work out your Salvation all is Vanity and Amusement Even Knowledge will serve for our greater Condemnation when we do not put in practice what we know to be good and do not avoid and hate what we know to be evil I would not have enlarged in declaring to you so many things of good and evil if I had not observed in you a desire to put them in practice For to know the Essence of Vertue without practising it is nothing else but vain Speculation and to know Evil without avoiding it is a worse Curiosity which fills our Understanding without any Fruit. I have spoken of true Vertue that you may follow it rather than what is false and also of the Roman Church that you may not follow her as if she were
and his Heart is hardned because he has cast himself into the devouring Fire of this Justice The Twentieth and Fifth Conference Shews That all the Wisdom of Men is nothing but Ignorance in respect of the Divine Light and that God will destroy this Humane Wisdom to give place to that of his Holy Spirit I said to her That she overturned all the Wisdom of the Learned and that there was no more place for Study She said I told you long ago Sir that the Time is come wherein God will abolish the Wisdom of the Wise 'T is not only the worldly Wise or Humane Wisdom that he speaks of for that will perish of its self but it is of the Wisdom of those who believe they are wise in the Works of God or in Theologie This Wisdom will be destroyed through the Goodness and Mercy of God Because many of these are Men of good Inclinations but they perish through Ignorance For they maintain the Sentiments of Men which have been given them for infallible Truths And you may easily perceive Sir that they are not such nor founded upon the Wisdom of God which is alwayes the same If you consider those who have spoken of the Grace and Works of God you will find them different in Sentiments though divers of them were Saints This may be an Evidence to you that their Wisdom was not Divine and that their Learning has darkned the Light of Truth which can never change nor contradict it self in any thing And because this Learning is a Hindrance to the Holy Spirit who comes now to illuminate the Souls of Men of good Will of necessity this Learning must be destroyed in them This the Goodness of God will do perfecting Praise by the Mouth of Sucklings and Infants The Wisdom of God is our Mother from which we ought to draw all our Substance which Wise Men cannot do before their Wisdom be destroyed This the Goodness of God will do in our Time destroying the Wisdom of the Wise and abolishing the Prudence of the Prudent and they will be asked very shortly where is the Wise the Scribe and the Disputer of this World For they shall not be found any longer since God will abolish all their Prudence and Wisdom by the Mouth of Infants I wish Sir you were the first and that I might say to you with the Spouse Who will give me my Brother sucking the Breasts of my Mother that I might find him without and might kisse him The Wisdom of God is the Common Mother of all those who are resigned to him Suck its Breasts boldly they will fill you with Delights And as soon as I shall find you void of all your Sciences I will salute you in the Unity of Divine Wisdom Quit Sir all other Wisdom and depart from your own Wisdom and Prudence It is an Instance of God's Goodness that he comes to deprive you of them Do not believe as the Wise of the World do that your Happiness consists in your Wisdom Since it must be destroyed before you receive the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit and you confess to me that I overthrow the Wisdom of the Wise and judge that it is not fit to Study any longer walk while this Light lasts fearing lest you be surprized with Darkness which is now spread through all the World Get out of it for all is corrupted there Keep your self solitary for the World at present is a Temporal Hell wherein nothing is to be seen but Objects which incite to evil God is not any longer known nor loved there Nothing is to be heard there but Blasphemies The most Holy will say that they have not the Grace to do well and that God has predestinated whom he pleased that all these Decrees will come to pass do what they will with many other Calumnies which they utter against God And as his Name is blasphemed in the Eternal Hell so is it in this World which is a Temporal Hell where St. John has well said in his Revelation That the Whore was full of Names of Blasphemies And if the best do thus blaspheme the Name of God how much more must the Wicked do so who deny him by Word or Deed by denying him their own Wills saying they are their own Masters and that they may dispose of all that belongs to them or sometimes what belongs to others when it is entrusted to them So that he who would take Sanctuary from the Perils of his Salvation must retire from the World where Salvation is no longer to be had For all have forsaken God and no Body knows him any longer Every one having made an Idol of his own Imagination or to say better Every one makes a God after his own fashion One sayes that he damns another that he forsakes another that he permits evil and that he rejects many though God can never reject any seeing he is greater than all Things and comprehends all in himself and can never do evil and never ceases to do good All the Qualities of God are unknown to Men For none possesses true Wisdom because none will resign their Will to his Every one follows his own I said to her That I was altogether convinced and that I perceived very clearly that all the Wise were greatly ignorant of the Wisdom of God that all Studies and Disputes were founded only upon Terms and Words or upon the Sentiments of Men. She said I bless God Sir that he gives you these Lights Do not look back any longer For Men are deceived and do deceive one another They have long agoe quitted the Light of Truth and the more they thought to find it by Humane Reasons or Arguments the farther they have been removed from it Because the same Wisdom is needful for understanding the Holy Scriptures that did at first dictate them and the Men who are wise in this World are very seldome humble and God resists the Proud and gives his Wisdom to the Humble and the Little Ones Therefore the Wise continue ignorant of the Wisdom of God and are only Wise in themselves and such Wisdom is Foolishness before God for it is of no use for the knowledge of Eternal Things and the World pass will away with all its Sciences so that all the Wisdom of Men is nothing but Vanity upon which we ought never to build our Salvation since it is written Wo to the Man that puts his confidence in Man Which nevertheless all Men almost do now For it seems for a Man to be sure of his Salvation it is enough to follow the Sentiment of some Author or some Saint though all Men may err and fail even though they were canonized for Saints This is not a solid Bottom whereupon to found our Belielf and Salvation because there is but one only Truth which is God and he who is not united to this Truth is in Errour and Lies and still walking in