but that is only an excuse for their sin 'T is true the Devil can tempt man against his will but cannot make him sin against his will he may trouble his spirit and make him remember what he should forget And forget what he ought to mind But if the person be well upon his guard and will not do evil he shall discover easily that that comes from the Devil being against his will and so will betake himself to continual Prayer to God which Jesus Christ hath so much recommended to us as most necessary for our salvation Since we have continually an Enemy to combat we must continually have Arms to defend us and that will be necessary all the days of our life That is it which the Apostle counsels us To pray always without ceasing Because we have always need of divine succour and help against the continual Assaults which the Devil gives us For it is his business and employ to do the most evil he can And as a Merchant accounts himself happy to gain much Money by his Trafick or an Artist by his Labours so also the Devil accounts himself happy in gaining many souls to himself that he may exercise on them his Cruelty and Malice And therefore he never ceases for his part to labour and invent new snares to catch the soul of man And when we shut the door of our heart to him on one side he attempts to enter by some window on the other So that all human wisdom is not able to discover all the Subtilties of Satan who being a most subtil spirit surpasses in subtilty the capacity of man's spirit And therefore is it that he must of absolute necessity use continual Prayer to discover the tentations of the Devil which he cannot know without a divine Light and yet less hath he power to resist them without the assistance of God Whom he ought continually to invocate and call for help without intermission Seeing the Devil never sleeps and watches over us when we rest But the strength of Faith and Hope in God can make us overcome the Devil and despise him as but miserable impotence Seeing he can never make us fall into any sins without the consent of our own will which refusing him he can in no wise hurt man although he should tempt him with all his might during all his life These tentations serve only for greater and true virtues to the man because he passes the time of his tryal in testifying his faithfulness to God while he does not consent to the tentations the devil offers And I account it a much happier state to be tempted than not to be so while we resist the tentations seeing they purge our souls and satisfie the Justice of God who hath in Justice enjoyned penitence for our sins which we must needs accomplish during the time of our tryal which God hath limitted since the creation of man And if we will not voluntarily suffer the tentations of the Devil now we must suffer aboundantly more sensible pains after our death when the soul being separated from this mortal body feels more vividly the separation from his God than it does when joyned with its mortal body which diverts the sense of that separation by its five natural senses which seeing hearing tasting smelling and feeling gross and earthly things are suspended and amused that he cannot feel so lively the separation of his soul from God and so charms his great misery with the amusements of earthly things Which are nothing but truely Charms and Bewitchings for though we see by experience that never any person in the world was fully satisfied and content with earthly things although enjoying all they could demand of them so love we them and that love ruins us from the Love of God without that we feel the pain of it But after death all these gross and earthly things being ended as to us thence shall we feel vividly the absence of God because not diverted more with other things and that shall endure until the time of our tryal shall be past which God alone knows how long it shall endure But it is most certain that he that will not voluntarily endure the tentations of the Devil in this present mortal life shall assuredly suffer them more sensibly after death seeing no evil shall remain unpunished and no good without recompense And he that does the good of resisting the Devil in not following his tentations must expect an everlasting Reward and therefore methinks not to be tempted in this mortal life is the greatest of all tentations Since it deprives us of the good of satisfying the Justice of God and oblieges us to suffer afterward more sensible pains And therefore my Son be not offended to feel the tentation of the Devil but resist it valiently for the Glory is in the combat and not in Idleness and Rest seeing while we feel not tentation it is a sign that the Devil holds us in a lethargique sleep to cause us to die an eternal death insensibly and without pain But when he combats us with all his forces it is a sign that he does not hold us and that he fears to lose us Therefore take courage and pray God with an humble heart that he may give you strength to overcome the Enemy But never say it is the Devil makes you do evil but smite on your Breast and confess your guilt since the Devil cannot compel you to do evil but only your perverse will when it consents to his tentations For if the Devil could speak when you say that it is he made you do evil and sin he would give you the lie and say that it was not he that made you sin but that it was your own will without the consent of which you cannot sin You may well sin without the Devil for his malice hath entered into us by Adam's first sin but the Devil cannot bring forth sin in us without our consent You are always free to do evil though the Devil do not tempt or compel you because your nature was corrupted by the first sin and thence all men from Adam bring with them in their nativity that corruption and inclination to evil But when man is arrived to the use of reason he ought thereby to discern good from evil and choose which he will follow Yea he hath a natural instinct which makes him discern evil from good for we see often a Child without any Discretion be ashamed for having done evil and his countenance testifies sufficiently that he knows when he commits evil And therefore we ought never to believe that we cannot discern good from evil to make choise for that is but to flatter our selves For lo the wickedest man in the world however blinded in his sins knows assuredly well enough when he does evil but he hath no will to change his wickedness into good or he hath not the courage to resist the Devil and that because he hath given him so
light more and more divine and saving mysteries which ript up all his hellish Heresies and Mysteries of Iniquity to the gnawing of his malicious spirit and all the like instruments of his fury while the Bread of Life was aboundantly dispensed to hungry souls whom it shall nourish unto Eternal Life when all the Wicked shall be cut off and the Meek shall inherit the Earth For the more particular Account of her divine Pilgrimage see the History of her Life and take here a short Bill of that heavenly chear now dispensed in her Writings that took up the spare hours of her many diversions at Amsterdam The funerall of false Theologie in the first part of which she shews the Confusion the Ignorance Corruption Insensibility and foundamental Errors of Christians and even of Conductors and modern Divines In the second their Presumption Envy Pride Obstinacy and Head strongness In the third that all their Theorie and Practices are no more but Pharisaical without divine Faith In the fourth that the Devil has great power over men over the wicked and even over the best whom by these other he turns away from following God and engages them to co-operate to the Evil of others and makes them draw back after they have abandoned the World That is a work of singular efficacy and profit Scarce did ever man read it without being touched in his soul even the most wicked who became pale and as struck dead with it Upon occasion of some converse she had with some Cartesian Philosophers she composed The Holy Perspective wherein she shews that Men and particularly Christians have lost the Light of God which is true and divine Faith to be led by corrupt Reason and by a false or most faint Light they draw from nature so perverse brutish carnal and gross as it is become by sin that this is it that has destroyed all Christian-religion and brought it to the Blindness and Darkness wherein it is immersed and that God may restore it its first state there is no other way but to abandon that false Guide of Reason and to resign our selves to God that he may himself revive in us that divine Light of Faith which we have extinguished The New Heaven and New Earth in which is shewn in what Glory the World and Man were created how they have miserably faild from it how they entertain and even encrease their Misery and by what means they ought to return into the disposition God requires to restore them to their first Glory and renew all the world God showed her in Spirit the Glory and Beauty of the first World not supportable by corporal Eyes All was bright transparent shining with Light and unspeakable Glory God's last Mercy in which by a reason enlightened by Faith not perverted by human Studies and Prejudices she leads every man of good judgment to a conviction of the spiritual things which Faith discovers and unto which every man's Reason when conducted by a person that is illuminated by Faith renders so convincing Testimonies that they who will yield themselves to its Touch are moved and pressed to ask of God a saving and divine Knowledge of them by the Light of Faith With all these are intermixed many other divine Lights and profound Mysteries which God had reserved to this end of the last hour able to enlighten to quicken to inflame to strengthen to encourage and to ravish any that have not renounced all interest in heavenly things If any find difficulties in her Writings consider that she having no further human Learning than that having learnt it she did once read the New Testament and finding it the same with what God spake in her Soul she closed the Book to apply seriously to the doing of it seeking no more reading meditation conferring or other study than that of purifying her soul from earthly Affections and sins in following Jesus Christs Doctrine and Example She could not speak after the Rules and with the Cautions of human Literature far less by the pedantry of the Schools it were then most cruel injustice to judge her by them Again we must not suppose when she treats of a matter what she does not mention in that place that she denies it nor require her to treat so fully more than her scope there requires as the Scholastiques who handling a matter at their tour adduce all they can relating to it In the Third place to understand her Writings as all others divinely inspired the Key is a good Will Humility and Prayer to a Malign a Corrupt Proud Self-wise and Self-powerful Reader no entry in them no favour from them but that of Death And the center end and aim of these Writings being the Love of God by renouncing our selves the Creatures and sin the Devil the World and the Flesh the farther we are from this the greater discord and contradiction between these Writings and our corrupt hearts and blind spirits and if ever we will be reconciled it must be by valuing loving esteeming and submitting to them as they are conducive to these ends and the difficulties will all quickly evanish this way the Disciples of Christ of Prophets and Apostles entered into their Masters Doctrine To conclude with the zealous and sincere Author of her Life LOrd thou hast yet manifested the words of eternal Life in these last days and our ears have heard and our hands have handled the word of life which thou hast put into her these words of Life which are originally in thee we have seen and heard them and we bear testimony that thou hast manifested them to us and our testimonie is most true before thee and before whosoever will open the eyes of his Conscience to consider it in thy divine Presence Yes Lord my God Creator and Inspector of my Heart who hast given me to love thy divine Truth more than the Sciences and the Advantages of Egypt thou knowest that I hate lying and falshood and that I would not for any consideration recommend untruth I cannot deny that I have obtained of thy Grace to discern the Truth from Falsehood and that I have done it in this Work thou knowest O Lord. Thou knowest my God that if after all possible application of spirit I could find in the intentions in the end the Writings and the Practice of Antonia Bourignon thy Creature any thing contrary to thy Glory that rendered thee less worthy of the infinite and eternal Adoration Love and Praises due unto thee if any thing favouring Corruption and Sin and that might contradict thy holy Image and the Doctrine and Life of thy Christ if any thing dangerous for mens Salvation thou knowest I would abhor that that I would detest it that I would curse it Is it not true O Searcher and Judge of my Thoughts that this disposition is most really in the bottom of my Soul Is it not in the deepest and final sincerity of my heart that I protest openly that the words of eternal
2d. place you must endeavour to remove all impediments which retard that peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit these impediments are in our corrupt nature for from sin men are falâ— into a continual trouble war and disquiet and our passions being disordered breed all these and they cannot be governed ordered and kept in peace except we have resisted and overcome them and also altogether renounced our natural inclinations and then is it that we find peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit and not before Behold wherefore it is that J. Ch. says we must Deny our selves if we would be his Disciples for that renouncing of our passions alone is the true means to attain to that peace quiet and tranquillity of Spirit For since sin came our passions bereave us of these which before sin were well regulated and temperate bringing joy peace and tranquility to our souls whereas now we feel the quite contrary For if we suffer our passions to rule they will lead us to intemperance sadness and disquiet of Spirit So that it is impossible for one that lives according to his natural senses to learn the Meekness and Gentleness which J. Ch. teaches us And it is for that he adds the gospel doctrine That we must Deny our selves For th' one cannot be without the other if we will be meek and lowly as J. Ch teaches we must of necessity deny our selves seeing our nature hath nothing but harshness and fretting which causes trouble of Spirit and disquiet in the will and contention with our neighbour for he that has not meekness in himself cannot have peace with his neighbour except it be a Dissembled or civil peace which yields not inward quiet nor tranquillity of Spirit As I believe My Child you feel in yourself for though you have a quiet of conscience because you have abandoned the world and the occasions of sin yet you have not that inward peace which would render your Spirit tranquile and peaceable For you act yet with Disturbance which proceeds from corrupted and distempered passions So if you knew to vanquish that and calm these unprofitable agitations it were your great advantage and you would easily obtain the meekness which Jesus Christ teaches as also lowliness and gentleness seeing these two are knit together meekness of heart engenders gentleness toward our neighbour for he that is tranquile and peaceable in himself will not trouble his neighbour nor give any occasion of fretting seeing the meekness of the good quenches the wrath of the wicked And though one that has learnt the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ were surrounded with troubles of all sorts he will yet keep a tranquile Spirit Because he does no more follow the motions of his corrupt nature and so retains peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit where it is obtained by the meekness and gentleness of J. Chr. My Child if you would also learn that Lesson endeavour to Deny your self and not follow your own will in any thing For Since it was corrupted by sin it always enclines to evil suspect whatever proceeds from your own will and follow it in nothing it is it which bereaves you of the meekness and gentleness which Jesus Christ teaches and we have no greater enemy in the world than our proper will If you could well comprehend that truth doubtless you would not follow it in any thing and you would Distrust even your Good Wills and intentions and suspect them but because you know not yet well that your proper will is so evil you do not distrust it Notwithstanding is betrays you often and it leads you to do evil often when you would do good your bottom and inward intention is good but your proper will opposes your good desires and makes you often do the contrary of what you have well resolved If I were in your place I would not follow my own will in any thing and hold all my own best wills for evil seeing there can never come good out of what is altogether corrupt as our will is become through sin so that no good can proceed from it Whatever is good must proceed from God And whatever is evil from the Devil and the corrupted will of man It is as a fire which kindles in our nature luxury anger and all sorts of intemperance it is insatiable never satisfied ever desiring what it hath not restless in its desires turbulent in its searches ever panting and never refreshed nor content in the end our proper will creates us more evil than the Devil himself who could in no wise hurt us if our proper will did not consent thereto So that when we have overcome our own will we have overcome the devil also For he can never make us sin but in moving our will to submit to him It is for that that I said man can never have a greater enemy than his proper will and consequently every one in particular and all men in general ought to make war with their proper wills yet how few esteem it their enemy and a great many idolize it esteeming themselves happy that they can follow it in every thing without considering that it brings death to the soul and hinders the will of God to be fulfilled in us For he that follows his own will is not subject to the will of God seeing these two are always contrary So that he who will accomplish the will of God must of necessity renounce his own will and who will learn of J. Christ meekness and lowliness must refuse every thing to his proper will and so be shall possess in his soul peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit which I pray God grant you by renouncing your proper will which is the only means to make you happy in this world and to all eternity as wishes she that desires your Salvation Holstein near Gottorp Castle 5 Feb. 1672. ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE III. LETTER Men can sufficiently know the will of God if they would perform it To the same shewing him while he perswaded himself that the will of God is not sufficiently manifest in every thing that we might accomplish it denying our own that the will of God may be known and is sufficiently manifested in the commands of God which Jesus Christ proposeth so Clearly Saying Learn of me for I am meek and Lowly and humble of heart My Child I Believe you understand sufficiently by my former what that meekness and lowliness is which we must learn of J. Ch. how it is pleasant to obey how mans proper will is corrupted by sin and how we must now fight with and overcome it if we will find peace in our souls quiet of conscience and tranquility in our Spirit But you cannot comprehend how you may so know the will of God in every thing to follow it in quitting your proper will Believe me that scruple proceeds from your corrupt nature which would willingly be dispensed or excused from being obliged to renounce your proper will
than any other virtue seeing it begets of it self several others and banishes several vices which cannot abide in an humble heart as Pride Presumption Avarice Pomps and Vain Glory and many other sins which proceed from Pride of Heart but when it becomes humble then are all these vices banisht And to know what that Humility of Heart is essentially you are to believe that it is a perfect knowledge of ones self For he that knows himself well can never be proud nor have an esteem of himself He will not glory in the Praises and Honours of Men He will not desire Riches to be adorned or served for an humble heart believes that it deserves nothing and the least things content and satisfie it An humble Heart is not in wrath for being abased or despised because he seeth in knowing himself that he deserves nothing but is worthy of all contempt And whereas that is not practised among men it is because they know not themselves and so esteem themselves worthy of Esteem and Honour Riches and service and that makes them Proud For if they observed well whence they are what they are and what shall become of them it were impossible that they should in the least esteem themselves on the contrary they would see that they deserve all sort of Contempt because they are as to the Spirit frail ignorant and unconstant and as to the body full of Miseries Infirmities and Diseases liable to death and corruption All these things should not Give matter of exalting himself to man's understanding or to make him esteem himself in any wise but rather ground to humble and abase himself before God and Men because of his infirmities and miseries and yet we see they make themselves great are arrogant esteem much of themselves and in fine believe themselves worthy of all sorts of Honours Pleasures Riches and services every one advancing himself with all his power all that proceeds from thence that men know not themselves for if they did they would be ashamed to glory in their miseries folly and ignorance For man hath nothing else in himself and all these defaults are annexed to his corrupt nature If you open but the eyes of your understanding you shall see abundantly the miseries of your spirit and how it is agitated by divers motions and intemperate passions Also as soon as you open the eyes of the body you see the bodily miseries under which all men lye and if you reflect whence the body of man proceeds and of what substance it is formed you shall find that he proceeds of an unclean and putrid matter and from those members of his parents bodys which are the most shameful And thence he hath no subject to glory or esteem himself in his origin seeing it is from so vile and base things which ought to give him occasion of confusion and humility And even beasts have more estimable qualities than men as to the body For he would presently be stifled in the filth accompanying his nativity if he were not delivered by the assistance of others and he would presently starve with hunger and other necessities if care were not taken to sustain him whereas the beasts can help themselves so soon as they come into the world And if man will look forward into his life he shall find that it is but a mass of miseries linked one to another What feebleness is in man's body He can endure neither too much heat nor too much cold a little over in exercise and he is wearied he must rest and sleep or he looses his strength and health he must be cloathed and alimented cleaned and cherished whereby his understanding is occupied in care travail and disquiet all the days of his life to relieve the infirmities of his body And how many sorts of diseases afflict the body of man They are almost innumerable and they say thaâ— the Eye alone is liable to fifty sorts what then oâ— all the other members When every one hath its particular ones beside the disordered motions of thâ— passions as of Fear Terror Sadness Melancholy Anger Jealousie and such other sorts of evils to which man is subject during this miserable life where he hath no subject of glorying and esteeming himself but great reason to abase himself in the view of so many miseries to which his sin hath reduced him which gives him good cause of submission and humility before God and Men feeling himself miserable and infirm both in soul and body for the Spirit hath its diseases as well as the body for do but take heed to yourself and you shall find your spirit agitated by various superfluous desires and useless thoughts which carry it away often against its intention as the Apostle testifies that it is not in the power of man to order his thoughts which every one may feel For when we would fix our heart on prayer or other good exercise it wavers here and there that we cannot retain it So that we may truly say that it is not in man's power to contain his thoughts So infirm is his Spirit that his Reason hath not the force to stay the course of his thoughts which often sway the reason whither it would not So that man's Spirit is captivated under the tiranny of his disordered passions which often lead him into great evils even contrary to his will whereof the Apostle says I approve not what I do because what I would not that I do and what I would that I do not To prove how many evils the spirit of man is subject as well as his body and that there is no subject of glorying in the one or th' other seeing they are equally infirm and miserable changeable and inconstant For what mutations feel we not in our spirit the variety and changing in one day of Joy Sadness Hopes Displeasures and Desires are scarce numerable how many diverse thoughts we love at one time what we hate at another what we desire one day dissatisfies us another so that we know not our selves sometimes what we would be at and are often afflicted for having what we had desired And if one should write all the thoughts and desires which pass in the spirit of a man himself would be ashamed of his inconstancy and instability and would be far from haughtiness for the qualities of his spirit no more than for those of his body but would see ground of humility for his miseries for there is nothing can elevate the heart of man in an esteem of himself but a blast of wind which the Devil inspires into his spirit to precipitate him into the sin of Pride by sottish imaginations which proceed from that air which is in effect nothing wherewith he is filled For even all the sciences of man's understanding are but figures formed of that wind as we see figures in the air by the Clouds appearing sometimes as if we saw Mountains moving or Houses and Armies all which notwithstanding are but
in praising his and their God and in that state he could not be disagreeable to him But after that he would abandon his dependance on God and become wise in himself he hath overturned all that beautiful order establish't by God and hath brought into his nature all sorts of evil disorder and corruption and that is called sin which is nothing else but a disorder of the five senses which man can no more satisfie without sinning they being corrupted and disordered for if the eye please it self now in looking on beautiful and pleasant things it is only to satisfie it self and not to refer them to God their Author as he did before sin and if he hears melodious Sounds and Harmonies it is only to delight and recreate himself and that in this valley of miseries where he ought rather to mourn in embracing the chastisements of God because of sin and if he will satisfie his Smell by good odours it is to repel the putridity which sin hath brought upon nature and if he will satisfie his Feeling it is but to defile his Soul by unlawful pleasures which he takes in feeling for it is not allowable for him to take pleasure in any of his senses after by sin he hath overturned the order which God established And if he will satisfie his Taste he will fall into all sorts of evils for giving up himself to his palate that brings Intemperance Gluttony Poverty Sickness and Death as also Avarice Deceit Riot and other Sins which proceed from the pleasure in Taste which is as a Mother which engenders all sorts of evil For a glutton must needs covet Riches to satisfie his appetite and if he hath them not of his own he endeavours to get them by any means he can if it should be Falsehood or Robbery For the Taste is insatiable and is not content with a few things I have known persons addicted to the pleasure of Taste who spent upon dainties great Riches which they possessed and yet were never content but continually desired what they had not and having gotten what they desired perhaps would not taste it but send again to seek some other thing and so consumed and ended their life in poverty and without satisfaction I have known others that would come that length to take the goods of others to satisfie their delicacies and said to me That their Tongues could not be deprived of the pleasures of Taste and they must needs satisfie it I suppose there are more such though not known by me for the appetite of Taste is so bound up with the flesh that it is hardly overcome having once got entrance and being accustomed to please their taste And this pleasing the Taste begets Lust also by the affinity of the Belly with the genital parts which are stimulated according as the Belly is well pack't Moreover the Appetite breeds Gluttony for when it find's food agreeable it devours to excess and intemperance which causes several diseases and sometimes Death For we see by experience that several have become sick and even died by too much eating or drinking or gluttonously eating things contrary to their health which falls out but too frequently And notwithstanding all this we see so many follow this sense of taste which begets so many evils in prejudice of soul and body and that because they know not the truth of things and have imagined a pleasure and contentment where there is nothing but displeasure and miseries For if they knew truly what is in the five natural senses of man they would see nothing there but vanity and misery since they were corrupted by sin and consequently would never follow them but resist them in every thing seeing they are truly vain which they may see that will examin them narrowly for what is in the sense of seeing but a pleasure which is past in a moment If for example looking on a beautiful thing you shut your eyes in that instant you see it no more and in your regard it is no more and if after by opening your eyes you see it again that sight adds nothing to your soul or body which cannot be nourisht by sights if you should continue them from morning till evening all that cannot nourish nor fill us nor give any thing but an airy pleasure to our eyes which also will not be refresht by these sights for the more they see the more they would see Wherefore the Scripture says The Eye is never wearied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing for these two senses are insatiable and never satisfied for the hearing is as vain as the sight and seems even of less consideration because it hath less impression upon the mind and passes as a blast of wind which we neither see nor feel more when it is gone It is even so with Harmony and Sounds for it is but a body of wind formed in the air and dissipated in it and leaves nothing in him that hath heard it No more does also the sense of Smell yielding only a small satisfaction to the Nostrils and flys away with the wind without leaving any thing in him that felt it who is as ready to be filled again with stink as he was with perfume So that we may see by experience that the five senses are truly vain and unworthy to be followed and affected by persons of judgment and that would come to the knowledge of the truth for one must be a fool and blind to place his affections in things so unworthy of man as are the pleasures of his senses which pass like smoak and cause so great evils to them that follow them both spiritual and temporal for he that will give his senses their pleasure wounds body and soul and renders himself miserable in all his life for he cannot have satisfaction and compleat contentment by all the world and he wasts his goods to please his senses wounding his health by intemperance and killing his soul by sin which is the disorder of his natural senses For since they were corrupted they have engendred death bodily and spiritually in man who cannot love his sensualities without turning away from God and consequently deprive themselves of all good and subject themselves to all sorts of evil for there can be no good without God but all sorts of evil And it is that my Child which I entreat you to consider that you may never place your affections but in God and may renounce your senses seeing they are corrupted and contrary to the will of God and in themselves evil and vanity For what is in feeling but a sensual softness which adds nothing to man and is so mean and unworthy of a man that he would never seek pleasure therein if the devil did not perswade him that there is something in it it is so frail and contemptible that it is not worthy a man's notice or that he should account it pleasure since it is but imaginary not real The sense of taste
seems to have some pleasure in it seeing there are persons that have no greater pleasure in the world than to eat and drink well and that sense adds somewhat to mans body Yet it is more replenisht with miseries than the other four because it hurts more both the soul and body of man seeing it causes so many diseases and even death by its excesses and also so many souls damn themselves in striving to satisfie the pleasure of Taste which leads them to several other sins and withdraws them assuredly from the love of God who requires to have our affections alone For he is a jealous God and notwithstanding we place them in things vile and corruptible as are meat and drink For what is more naughty than meat and drink They have scarce past the throat but they become putrid and corrupt and especially the more fine and delicate corrupt more than the courser And for all that people love them bestowing pains and travail to attain them which is a gross blindness of mind from which I pray God preserve you that your love may remain in God only and you may know the truth of all salutary things in the desire whereof I remain Your Well-wisher in Jesus Christ ANTONIO BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 17. Febr. 1672. St. vet THE VII LETTER He that serves the Lusts of his Senses by that same Renounces the Love of God To the same exhorting him to the effects of Humility by the Renouncing of his senses showing him that no man can follow them unless thereby he renounce the Love of God which is the end of our Creation and the essence of true Virtue My Dear Child I Deduced to you in my last how vain and miserable are the Pleasures of the Senses and have shewed you the truth of several things that you might arrive to the Humility of heart which Jesus Christ requires It is much to understand well these things but also you must set about the practice and embrace in good earnest the mortification of your senses following the truths you have known otherways it s a small matter to know the Truth if you put it not in practice knowledge is very good for you cannot practise what you know not but if that knowledge be not fruitful it cannot serve for our Salvation We must needs put to our hand and war against our corrupt nature otherways we must die the eternal Death after the temporal Which may easily be conceived since mans nature is corrupted by Adams sin and hath quitted dependance on God to depend of it self It must then of necessity remain in that corruption and sin until every man for his own particular have overcome that corruption and disobedience which he hath contracted against God or else he abideth in death and dies damned eternally For although Adam had not sinned all men in general and every one in particular could have sinned and corrupted his way by leaving dependance on his God and that because all the men that were or shall be are all created free and can continue in the dependance of God and also recede from it if they please for God forces no person So that he that is arrived to the use of Reason hath the same liberty to sin and retire from dependance on God that Adam had before his sin yet with this difference that Adam at the beginning had not in his nature that frailty and inclination to sin and evil which men have who proceeded from him after his sin for they have contracted that frailty and inclination to evil from their first father and also the infirmities of body which we see in all men and feel in our selves for no person is exempt from the evils which sin hath caused in man's nature Though it is free to all men to follow that inclination to evil which they feel in themselves as also they can by the Grace of God overcome their infirmities and the corruption of their five senses in not following them but fighting against them And it is in that that Jesus Christ says we must take the Kingdom of Heaven by Force and the Violent take it so That is not that we should fight by force to gain the Kingdom for God created it for us and he gives it us freely but it is that we must resist with force the corruption of our nature that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and so that we approve not in us the sin which Adam committed and do not of our own proper will retire from dependance on God Therefore it is the Scripture says Our Life is a continual Warfare For we must continually combat the corruption of our senses without that we can never return to dependance on God from which Adam's sin hath withdrawn us seeing our senses being corrupted beget all sorts of evil and there needs no more but to follow them and their inclination to turn us away from God and remain in the way of damnation For no sooner loose we the reins to our Sight but it pleases it self to behold beautiful or curious things and no sooner have we considered them but we covet them And if we yield to the sense of Hearing the Heart delights in it and the Affection is drawn to it It is even so with Smelling where the sensitive part takes pleasure And if we please our selves in Taste all our care and study are put to search means to satisfie it and that sense is more insatiable than any other and precipitates into all sorts of sins Moreover it excites the sense of feeling for he that pleases his taste seeks also to satisfie his feeling with pleasure and satisfaction Even all the five senses are moved only by the love we carry to our selves and desire of affording our selves pleasure All these things with-draw us assuredly from God and dependance on him and he hath commanded us to love him with all our heart So that he wills not that we fix our heart on things so frail and vile as are the Sight Hearing Smelling Taste and Feeling For it is unworthy of a divine Soul which God hath given us capable of loving an eternal God who desires and commands that we love him with all our heart So that the man that hath affection for his senses quits voluntarily the dependance of God seeing he does not submit himself to his will who demands that we should love him with all our heart And that is from the disorder which the devil hath caused in man's nature when he made it turn the affection upon the creatures which is due to God alone In which consisted the first sin which man committed and thence all other sins draw their origin For nothing can be evil or sin but what is committed against the will of God and there is nothing but that can be evil as nothing can be good but what is done by his will So the Devil laboured violently from the beginning of the world to pervert
not have being nor existence For although man be above all the other creatures yet he cannot give light nor heat to the sun nor sustain the Waters in the firmament nor fructtifie the earth All that must needs be from a supreme cause whom he may know by his operations his understanding can see clearly even by his bodily eyes in contemplating the beautiful order which is in all nature we need but consider the distinction of Seasons the production of Herbs Plants Beasts and of men And though we cannot see the author of all these things yet we can see his works palpably and visibly The savage Pagans did both know and confess that there is a God Author of Nature and there are Christians at present so unnatural that they dare say they know not God because they see him not with their fleshly eyes And from that they will argue that they cannot love him because they know him not They render themselves in that like to the Beasts which have no spirit to perceive other than natural things and see them as though they subsisted by themselves But men having a spirit more noble than beasts comprehend even by their natural spirit that there is a God Author of Nature which engaged some Pagans to set up Altars to the Unknow God Some other of them at the Death of our saviour Jesus Christ said Either nature is a dissolving or the God of Nature suffers These things ought to make the Christians of this time blush for shame who say They cannot love God whom they see not So they shall be more punished in Hell than the Pagans that have applyed their spirit to know God by nature Whereas on the contrary these Christians do not at all study to know him neither by Nature nor by Grace which they have received in the Evangelical Law beside that which God gave to Moses These brutish Christians must neither believe nature nor the Law of God to say they cannot love God with all their heart whom they do not know For though they knew not God by his works which yet they see and touch they should at least know him by the Law of God which would not enjoin to love God if he were not Seeing then there is a God there is consequently an Object amiable above all things and man being full of love ought to be easily carryed to love him for love is always carryed to good and beautiful things so that nothing should be more easie to him than to love God who is the source of all Good and Beauty But all the difficulty man finds now to love him with all his heart comes hence that he doth not apply his spirit to discover and meditate the works and marvelous things of God and so cannot know nor love him but he gives himself to regard the earthly creatures in themselves and attributes to themselves the little of good and beauty that is in them and by that means carrys his affections to love the gross Objects which are visible and sensible to his stupid senses It is difficult for such persons to love God they cannot love heavenly Objects while they regard only earthly ones as they cannot comprehend eternal things because they contemplate only transitory And that is not because of their incapacity seeing God hath made them capable of loving him but because by their free will they choose to love the vile creatures more than him and it is that vitious choise makes them say that it is impossible to love God and themselves make that impossibility They are like persons who staying in a valley full of Snow complain that they are cold and that they cannot be warmed among that Snow which is very true but if they would walk a little to get out of that Snow and get up to the Mountain they should well feel that it is full easie to become warm where the sun bestows his rays It is even so with earthly men who please themselves in the Snow of worldly lustres they say and think it is impossible to be warmed by the Love of God which is also very true so long as they remain in the affections of the pleasures of this valley of tears For nothing can warm them in the love of God while there all is but Snow which cools them He that hath his pleasures in carnal things cannot have them in spiritual and he that puts his affections in perishing goods cannot have them in eternal ones and he that takes his pleasures here in sensualities cannot have them in spiritual things seeing all these things are contraries which can never abide together So long then as a man feels himself cold in the Love of God it is a token that he lives yet in affection to the things of this valley of Snow which are quenchers of the Love of God He cannot then feel in himself other than an impossibility or at least great difficulty to love God with his whole heart But if they would quit their affection to this valley of misery and mount up to the consideration of eternal things they should soon feel the Sun of Righteousness warm our Soul and the Love of God fill our heart which would not only find Facility therein but also Sweetness Pleasure Honour and Profit seeing in effect there is nothing more pleasant than to love God For me I have experienced that all love to the Creatures is bitter and that the Love of God only is sweet and pleasant for when I loved Riches they gave me aboundance of trouble to preserve them when I loved Honours I found there many bitter and piercing displeasures when I was not esteem'd or honour'd as I wished so that sometimes one Sleight caused me more pain than a hunderd Honours had given me contentment When I loved the pleasures and delights of this life I found there great bitterness because there is none of these pleasures that carry not its own pain with it for the pleasures of the taste breed poverty and diseases and are insatiable they never satisfie no more than those of the flesh which resemble Salt-water the more one drinks the more drought I have remarked that in several carnal persons who after having ruined their Body and Health in satisfying their concupiscence used all means to cure their infirmities and that to the end they might wallow yet more in their nasty pleasures And when I have loved any human Creature it was always painful for me to satisfie and please them and the fear of offending or loosing them was unto me a continual anxiety So that there is nothing but God alone whom it is easie and sweet to love Nothing is more pleasant for all other Loves have Grief mixed with their greatest Pleasures we see young people marry with joy there is nothing but mirth Plays and Dances but the Wedding is scarce over and sometimes sooner when we see them sad and afflicted pensive and melancholy Diseases attacque them the Care of
still worse if the Law of God had not been given him as a Voice to reclaim him and to ask him as to Adam where art thou for without that Law he had not known his sin It is given him as a Light in the midst of his darkness and as a Medicine for his Evils But men now adays call these mercies weighty Charges yea insupportable to their frailty which is a gross ingratitude and deserves to be punisht and that God should withdraw his Mercies from these ingrate and stupid persons seeing they overturn the benefits of the Law of God and the sweet and light Yoak of the Evangelical Law into Chastisements and insupportable Burthens saying that it is impossible to observe them and so they belie the word of Jesus Christ viz. That his Yoak is easie and his Burthen Light Believe your Saviour my Son and hear not these lying men that say the contrary Abandon your self to God embrace the Evangelical Law and you shall know by experience that his Yoak is easie and his burthen light Which she assures you of who remains Your Well-affectioned in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle April 20. 1672. St. Vet. THE XI LETTER We must always Advance in Virtue whatever Impediments come in the way To the same who is encouragad in the way of true virtue although the beginning be difficult because of the temptations with which the Devil vexed them that have resolved to embrace true Virtue My Son NEver weary in the Service of God the beginning of it is the difficultest You know that Rose-bushes bear thorns before they bear Roses it is the same with true Virtue It begins with Thorns a little pricking to corrupt nature but beautiful Roses will come in their season True virtue hath nothing pricking in it no more than the Rose for it is altogether sweet beautiful and fragrant nothing is sweeter than virtue It gives Peace and pleasure to the Soul for Peace and Joy are fruits of the Holy Spirit O what Peace and Contentment hath a virtuous Soul it seeks nothing fears nothing nor hopes nothing but in the promises of its God It acquiesces in his providence It yields it self to be conducted sweetly at the will and pleasure of the Lord. It is not disquieted nor straitned by any thing but in peace expects what God will dispose It affects nothing precipitates nothing knowing that patience and Long-suffering are the fruits of the Holy Spirit It is meek in it self and toward its Neighbour for Goodness Meekness and gentleness are also fruits of the Holy Spirit which he produces outward in the soul he possesses A virtuous soul is always modest and moderate in all its actions chaste continent and full of charity because the Holy Spirit who produces in it true virtue produces also his twelve fruits which are sweet and agreeable to God and Men. So that true Virtue is desirable for the sweetness it carries in it self It is desirable for its Beauty for nothing is more agreeable and beautiful than true Virtue for all good persons esteem and honour it seeing it is more estimable and honourable than all created things It can well abide a narrow search and near view for the neavrer we approach it the more we discover its beauty It is also fragrant as the Rose for true Virtue relishes in the nostrils of every one even of the Wicked who often are engaged to esteem it although they will not follow it And if we hear sometimes well inclined persons despise true Virtue it is because they know it not and have been often deceived with apparent Virtues wherewith the men of this time are filled which causes that the true is not so relished as it should but though it be not known nor esteemed among men yet it is sweet pleasant and savoury unto God who loves true Virtue as his Spouse because it is united inseparably with him And therefore my Child you must endeavour to acquire that beautiful Rose of true Virtue although you should feel the pricking of Thorns in the plucking it These pains will quickly pass but the beautiful Rose of Virtue will never fade It shall be eternally beautiful and of a good savour before God so you must spare nothing to acquire true Virtue If you feel pains therein they shall change into repose if you feel Grief it shall turn to Joy if Repugnance it shall be changed into Contentment for there is only the beginning which is difficult in the acquest of true Virtue The reason is because it is then the Devil uses all means to divert us from it He knows well that he can gain nothing upon us when we have acquired it and so he uses all his forces at the beginning to hinder us from arriving at it that is the reason why the Scripture says My Son if thou wilt embrace true virtue prepare your Heart for Temptation But the Devil leaves them in quietness who have only apparent virtues or those that have only good desires because he can ensnare them at his pleasure The first by presumption of their salvation because of apparent Virtues and the others in precipitating them unto death before they have brought their good desires to effect knowing well that Hell is paved with Good-wills which men had in this world without putting them in practice And therefore he leaves all such persons in peace as well as the Worldlings knowing well that he shall not miss them at one time or other and so he leads them softly to Hell with a silken rope without vexing or tempting them much But such as have truely resolved to follow Jesus Christ and embrace true Virtue he labours night and day to tempt them and by all means because he knows that he needs not pretend more to it when they have arrived at true Virtue Then they shall laugh at him and all his assaults and so he attempts to shake them at the beginning and to make them lose heart in considering the difficulty there is in acquiring true Virtue First he shows them the Pains and Thorns which they shall find in the mortification of their senses After he represents an impossibility to attain to so great perfection He shows them also the example of other persons whom they esteem good persons and tending to true Virtue For it is enough to them to make a morally good outside without being at the trouble to mortifie their five natural senses nor to renounce themselves and the Devil perswades them that that is not necessary for their salvation but he is but a Deceiver and Seducer of Souls that he may in the end render them partakers of his Miseries Keep your self My Son from his deceipts and give no ear to his suggestions nor to the Infirmities of your Nature For neither the one nor the other can hinder you to arrive at true Perfection provided you have a firm Resolution God will assist you and give you all that you need if
you remain faithful to him And after you shall see that through God you can do all things and shall say with David With my God I leap over walls For so great is the power of true Virtue that it makes appear light the things that are most grievous to nature That is it which Jesus Christ intended by the comparison If you had Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed you should remove Mountains It was not so marvelous a thing to remove Mountains of Sand and Stone seeing that would add nothing to our soul but he speaks of Mountains of difficulties which we find in the acquisition of true Virtue It appears at the beginning as an inhabitable Mountain whither one can never arrive But if the Soul persevere faithfully in its good Resolution it will revive by Faith in the Promises of God and with it will remove all these Mountains of imaginary difficulties since in effect there is no difficulty in the acquiring of true Virtue We have no sooner abandoned earthly Affections but we mount with ease unto true perfection for all the difficulties we apprehend are but false visages which the Devil hath placed as Vizards to frighten them that begin in true virtue But we need not fear for the Mask being taken off we find true Virtue which is sweet pleasant and agreeable And he that hath once discovered and known it finds no difficulty in it afterward but on the contrary much Quiet and consolation Though the Devil will never cease to tempt and pursue us He tempted Jesus Christ and pursued him even to the Desart whither he had gone by the conduct of the Spirit of God Therefore we must not be shaken by the Tentations which the Devil makes us but we must despise him as an Enemy of God and who hath no power over man but what himself gives him otherways the Devil is in his nature meer impotence who could not lift a pile of straw from the ground if man do not permit him So man when he is in the Grace of God may well mock at the Devil seeing then he cannot hurt him He waits and goes about him indeed who is in the Grace of God but cannot hurt him unless he fall from that grace or that he consent to the Tentations and Suggestions of the Devil It is nothing to feel Tentations though they should continue all the days of our lives provided we do not consent to them It is but a smoak which dissipates in the air It is not very agreeable but it cannot hurt him that does not approach it even so is it with the Tentation of the Devil it vanishes if we do not follow it It is the Devil's work to tempt but man's to resist thereto Therefore says St. Peter My Brethren watch and be sober for your enemy the Devil goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour Resist him therefore continuing firm in the Faith He says so to teach us that we must not sleep in the Service of God nor give up to follow our Appetites but that we must be sober and watch with perseverance for we have an Enemy who never sleeps We must overcome him by the strength of faith which is able to transport the greatest Mountains of difficulties that can ever present to our understanding And if the Devil should tempt us night and day he cannot hurt our Soul provided it remain in faith which begets Hope in the promises of God He hath said Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest He excepts none but calls all men in general and every one in particular saying they must come to him if they be heavy laden and he promises to ease us What surer caution would we have we have there the Promise of God himself for he says That he will comfort us if we go to him in need I am willing to believe my Son that you are burthened with Tentations of the Devil for he sees that you seek after true Virtue and so he will not fail to attacque you in the beginning and so much the more as you have given him advantage over your Soul by your former sins He will not quit that fortress but by force seeing he hath so long been Ruler and Governour there You must now then chase him by force it is in that only that the Kingdom of heaven suffers Violence and the Violent take it by Force For we are the Children of God and consequently Heirs of his Kingdom so we have no need to take that Kingdom by force It is given us freely of God But we must use great force to resist the Devil and our corrupt Nature which are the two Enemies of our Salvation who would rob our souls of that Kingdom though it belongs to us as the inheritance of our heavenly Father and that is the reason why he says that the Violent ravish it and that we must take it by force It is not that we must fight with Weapons of Iron to gain that Kingdom for all the bodily force of Nature together could do nothing to the gaining it but we must fight our enemies with spiritual Weapons of which the chief is faith seeing it begets Love and Hope toward God the two Bucklers to defend us against all sorts of Enemies For he that loves God fears nothing seeing Love is strong as Death and he that putteth his trust in God shall never be confounded So that the Devil shall never have power over him that resists him by faith So my son fear nothing persevere in the good resolution of attaining true Virtue Give all your affections to love God and you shall be strong as Death Place your Hope in God alone and you shall never be confounded nor deceived For having these Arms you need not fear the Assaults of your Enemy the Devil He is as a chained Dog and can go no farther than goes the Chain of man's consent If he come to vex you in the night during sleep that cannot hurt you seeing man does not use his free will while he sleeps and so cannot consent to the Tentation of the Devil which he knows full well but he comes to vex man in sleep that he may get him to consent when awakened to evil suggestions which he excited in his spirit while asleep for a man asleep sins not But be prompt to evelate your spirit unto God as soon as you awake and then the tentation shall vanish as smoak But if you begin to agitate in your spirit the things which you dreamed by the Tentation of the Devil and give your consent thereto or take pleasure in it then you fall into sin and shall consent to the Devil who is never more overcome than when we despise him Therefore I advise you never to regard Dreams or Evil thoughts which he represents to you asleep nay nor those which he offers when you are awake because you cannot sin so long as you do not take
cleared that the Devil cannot draw man to sin nor do him any hurt except man give his own Consent My Son IN my former I set before your eyes how the Devil tempts men many ways and insinuates himself into Virtue it self that he may direct our good works to his own honour and glory which very often comes to pass But I fear lest by yet another sort of tentation he catch you which you could not discover if you were not forewarned of it To wit when you have well considered the power and wiles of the Devil and find in your experience that it is he who incites you to do evil It is to be feared that you will lay the blame upon the Devil because sometimes you do evil against your will For mans heart is so proud that he will not confess his fault and so seeks for the cause of his sins without himself Which you may the rather do because I have deduced to you at length that all evils come from the Devil and all good from God but though that be most true we must not therefore imagin that the Devil of himself can ever force us to do evil For he is a miserable impotency who hath no power over our souls hearts and wills but so much as we give him The Devil may well represent evil to our spirit and incite our wills to follow it and incite our corrupt nature but he can never force us so long as our will remains firmly resolved not to consent to evil The Devil is as a chained Dog who can go no further than his Chain permits him and God will give him no more power than the will of man desires For though he permitted him to tempt Job by the loss of his Goods Children Friends and Health he did not permit him to cause him to fall into sin And although Job cursed the day of his Nativity he did not herein offend God nor fall into any sin For he cursed only the malediction which sin brought into human nature which all men have reason to do in feeling the pains and sufferings which sin hath caused to us For before sin man was not subject to any Evil and he enjoyed all Good without mixture of evil He was not annoyed with hunger or thirst heat or cold he had no labour to weary him he needed no sleep nor had any alteration in soul or body was not subject to diseases nor death So that man had enjoyed all sorts of delights in this world and the time of tryal being over confirmed in Grace he had lived eternally happy and blessed But sin hath deprived him of all that happiness and hath reduced him to all sorts of suffering and misery Which Job considering in the midst of his miseries he had reason to curse the day of his birth when he saw himself in inevitable miseries You must consider that Job did not curse the day that God created him in on the contrary he blessed him for all because he was his faithful Servant and so he desired to satisfie divine Justice for all his sins which he had committed Now because he so desired God permitted the Devil to tempt him in divers manners that Job's faithfulness might be manifest before all men and the Devil himself But they that understand not the way of God judge that Job was impatient which is false For his soul rejoyced in that God pleased to use him as a mirrour of patience to confound the Devil who could never make him fall into sin though he essayed it so many several ways God knew that Job's heart was submitted to his holy will and that he offered himself continually to him to be proved in what manner it pleased him And because of these wishes God permitted that the Devil might tempt him Now if the Devil had had power over man he had not needed to ask God's permission to tempt Job for he would have done it of himself without any permission But he hath no power over man save what he by his own free will gives him Besides God can never do any evil to man nor permit that it befall him without the consent of his free will So if we commit sin it is of our own free will as also when we damn our selves for God can never damn any person without doing the greatest evil that ever was which cannot proceed from God who can never do any evil But it is our sins that damn us and not God for if there were no sin there should be no damnation and sin depending on man's free will we must not attribute our damnation either to God or to the Devil seeing God gives us always Grace in aboundance to save us and the Devil hath no power to damn us So that man alone is truly blameable for the sins which he commits and ought never to attribute the fault to the Devil because he cannot wrong us if we will not He may well bark as the chained Dogs but he cannot bite us unless we approach him And therefore my Son you ought never to believe that the Devil is the cause of your evil doing though all evils come from him he cannot effect them in us without our consent He may well afflict our Body or Spirit when we desire to purge our Souls by suffering Then God suffers him to tempt us by the most salutary things As he may permit the Devil to bring to poverty a Good Man when he sees that he would forget himself by Worldly Goods God loving his Soul so takes away his Riches as the occasion of the Damnation of his Soul Sometimes also he takes away his Honour or his Health lest these should hinder the perfection of his Soul And it is not always directly mans will that these things should be taken away from him for he complains sometimes of it but when God takes them away it is always with the indirect will and consent of man For example the person does not desire to be poor afflicted or sick but desires that God send him every thing that is necessary for his salvation And God regarding that good will removes from him whatever might hinder the advancement of the desired Salvation And that is a fatherly Love which God bears to Man and not a Punishment as the natural sense takes it and complains of it But it is truely what the person desired in the bottom of his soul viz salutary things And the Prophet even prays God That he would constrain his rebellious will By which we may see that God never afflicts a person without his will and consent direct or indirect Because he created him altogether free he cannot be touched to good or evil no more by God than by the Devil who can never cause man to sin against his will direct or indirect But man does not always know the indirect will he hath to sin and for that says or believes that it is the Devil that makes him sin against his will
Which yet is not so though it mix it self with the Devil's motion It is his custom to follow every ones natural inclination to cover himself the better that he be not known And by that Device he remains unknown each attributing his fault to his nature one would be supported in his Anger Another in his Sadness and Morosity Another in his Lust Saying often I cannot help these things it is my Nature That is a language the Devil hears gladly because so he lurks unknown and makes us go from evil to worse unto death But they that have esteemed the Malice and Wickedness of the Devil natural Weakness and infirmities shall see clearly at death that it is Devilish Malice which mixes it self with every ones natural inclination And the Devil labours always to discover these natural inclinations that he may the better play his part and remain unknown under that covert of natural infirmities And so he amuses many that they never think it is the Devil because he is so straitly united with their natures and that is his subtility He knows well he should not be so much obeyed if he gave tentations contrary to ones natural inclinations and so he follows always every ones Nature and augments the inclinations which he finds there If he meets with a Cholerique person he stirs him up the more to Anger If a Luxurious or Sad person he augments their Luxury or Sadness to gain them all on the weakest side he does as an Enemy that would attacque a City he will not assault where it is fortified but where it is weakest if he find some corner of the wall broken he attempts to break it more that by it he may enter the Town being the most advantagious entry for him And the Devil our Town Enemy does the very same he cannot surprise us in things wherein we are on our guard so he attacques us where we do not expect it and by that means he gains easily our will and makes it obey him in what we have inclination to We must then always make a serious reflection on all our words and actions and then we shall easily discover what comes from the devil seeing it hath always his qualities and produces within us the fruits of Envy Trouble Impatience Sadness and others which I marked above We may also remark enough the qualities of the things the Devil causes us to do For if you will examin your self narrowly you shall always find something in your words untrue or dissembled or spoke by vain complacency to please men which makes that there is not always Justice in your words For he that speaks by the good Spirit is true in the bottom and never speaks any thing to please or flatter men but declares natively the truth of things as well what is contrary to himself as what is advantagious seeing he seeks only to please God alone To know if our actions are excited by the Devil or not you need but mark if they be done for the Glory of God or for your own and if you seek not your self therein For the Devil will always incite us to seek our selves in all that we do He knows well that Self-love mars the Love of God And so he excites our understanding to consider if what we do or say shall be advantagious to us if it shall give us Pleasure Honour or Profit and when we observe none of these advantages in it he slackens our courage that we do not accomplish our undertaking nor prosecute our work The good Spirit on the contrary incites always to labour for the Glory of God and Assistance of our Neighbour And so he that is guided thereby does nothing for his own proper interest but endeavours to his power to assist his Neighbour in need because the Charity which that good spirit carries in it attends more the common good than his own particular By that my Son you may observe all your words and actions to know if they are excited by the good or evil Spirit For these are infallible marks to discern the spirits if from God or the Devil without amusing you to Speculate or seek to discover the Devil in himself since he is an invisible spirit and incomprehensible to your understanding but you shall always discover him infallibly by his qualities and the fruits which he produces in your soul and your inward disposition will tell you it Which she assures you of who is Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 15. May 1672. St. vet THE XIX LETTER We cannot in this Life be Free from Tentations To the same who was grieved for that the Devil hath power to tempt us so variously A Thirteenth Artifice of the Devil is shown him wherein he breaks the firmness of the mind by Sadness That Tentations are necessary and profitable to try and purifie us My Son I See you are grieved in Spirit because the Devil hath power to tempt men so many divers ways but you should rejoyce while you learn the truth of every thing For if you knew it not the Devil would seduce you by ignorance as he hath done so many thousands who have obeyed him because they did not know it they thought to follow the will of God while they followed certainly that of the Devil and so have perished insensibly For before God Ignorance does not excuse sin every one is oblieged to know what he ought to do and omit to attain to Salvation We need not think to say to God after death Lord I knew not this or that or I thought not I did evil in that for all excuses will be uncurrent coyn which will not be received nor approved of him seeing we have aboundantly the means to find if we have the desire to seek What should we say to see a man poor and miserable overcharged with his enemies when he will not be at the pains to labour or seek a better way of living and would needs sleep and rest at his ease though he knew himself to be surrounded by his Enemies we should certainly say that man were the cause of his own miseries and of all the evil that may befal him And why will you not judge also that he who neglects to search the means of his salvation and to discover the wiles of the Devil his Enemy is the cause of his own Damnation for it can be imputed only to our selves seeing we have aboundantly the means to find if we had a true desire to seek Tell me I pray you what cause of ignorance can a Christian pretend who reads and hears the Gospel and the Teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles to which he gives credit and accords that they teach that there is a Devil who is our Enemy and who seeks to Devour us that our life is a continual combat that we must watch and pray that we enter not into tentation Notwithstanding men will not do either the one nor the
commits it upon all occasions But he that would evite these Perils should have spiritual Diligence to watch over all his words and actions to resist the corruption which sin hath brought unto human nature which is so corrupted by sin that it can produce no more any good temporal or spiritual since retired from the Love of God wherein is all good it is fallen into Self-love wherein is all evil which produces always its like So that whatever we do by our natural motion it is altogether evil and sin And if you could well comprehend that Truth as it is you should always distrust your self and never dare to do or undertake any thing if you would not do evil and fall into sin But man's rashness and ignorance renders him bold to undertake things spiritual and temporal As if he were wise and free of corruption which often precipitates him into great faults and sins which they do not perceive until after they are committed and so cannot be helpt I believe my Son that you have often experienced that in your self without knowing whence these faults proceeded seeing your will was to do all well believe me they proceed all from spiritual negligence and because you know not yet sufficiently the corruption of your nature which you have followed while in the world you thought your self full wise when you could order your temporal affairs to your profit You have not perceived that the Devil could well help you in that that by procuring you prosperity he might detain you always in the affection of earthly things and that you should neglect eternal ones as other Merchants of your profession do yet Who instead of labouring for the Gospel-pearl labour to follow the will of the Devil the Enemy of their souls without perceiving it Yea they think it a Blessing of God that they prosper in temporal Affairs but it is often a Curse seeing God gives his Friends temporal Adversities and reserves for them eternal Joys But to men that have done some temporal good in this world but have not overcome the corruption of their corrupt natures God recompences the temporal good they have done in this world with temporal prosperities because God leaves no Good without Recompence nor Evil without Punishment Wherefore I pray you my Son to watch over your soul with spiritual Diligence that you let not one word or action escape that proceeds from your corrupted nature seeing it produces all sorts of sins which would finally lead you to eternal damnation But labour to resist manfully the corruption of your nature by a Spiritual Diligence So you must always watch over your words and actions that the Devil gain you not by spiritual Negligence which she wishes you who loves your soul Husum Febr. 1. 1674. S. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE XXIII LETTER Spiritual Diligence is necessary to Salvation To the same To whom is shewn the Necessity of Spiritual Diligence to watch over all the actions of our corrupt nature and proper will and to acquire the Knowledge of our selves Moreover that Spiritual Negligence is a Fountain of all Evils and is alone sufficient to damn us because it renders our soul rude and like to a cursed ground which bears only Thorns and Thistles and so is far from Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart My Son I Have entertained you largely of the Necessity of Spiritual Diligence which we must have in this perilouslife I have shewn you how necessary it is unto Salvation and that without it none can be saved because of the many enemies we have to war against I must now shew you all the Evils which Spiritual Negligence causes It is a Pest in the good Air of Virtue for although you had acquired a great number of Virtues they could not subsist in your soul without Spiritual Diligence seeing in this world we cannot be free of enemies who attacque us continually We might well be for some time in repose in Virtue but that repose should be the most dangerous combat of our souls which thinking to take rest as did the rich man in the Gospel who had his Granderies filled but it was said unto him thou Fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee and whose shall then these things be The same shall be said to them who think they have acquired so many Virtues and yet have not Spiritual Diligence For they shall find themselves deceived at Death because they have not watched over their Virtues having suffered the corruption of their nature to reign For if you be not Diligent in Virtue to watch and be aware that Vain-glory insinuate not it self it will take away all the force and merit of your Virtue Seeing God says Sacrificespb So he hath no need of our virtue when it is accompanied with esteem of our selves or with Vain-glory as when we artribute any good unto our selves seeing we are truely filled with all evils where is no good For man's nature is so corrupted by sin that there remains to him no good spiritual or temporal So that we may with truth say that there remained nothing in man after sin but ignorance malice and power to do evil I know my Son You have to oppose that man by his nature can do some good as we see the wicked do in regard of their temporal affairs They gain Money and assist their Neighbour One can Write well another make Accompts one can Paint well another is a good Carpenter or other Mechanique which is good and necessary for the present life How then can we say with truth that man can do no good even in temporals It appears necessary that I should explain my self that I be not argued of falshood I know that all men in general and every one in particular believe that they have something good in themselves and that they can do well according to their knowledge Which is also true in regard of some even imperfect before God such are they that have the skill to exercise some Art or Trade which they have learnt I experienced that in the Girles of my Hospital at Lisle for they did very well what I had taught them Though otherways I knew that they had given their souls to the Devil and were joyned to him by explicite compact That did not hinder that they should learn well to sew cleanse spinn read and write and manage Housholdrey and several other things which they did very well So that it would appear not to be true which I averred viz. That man hath nothing good in him and can do no good For we see they do several goods things even to the view of men But you must know that all the good they do proceeds not from them but from God who hath bestowed it on them by particular Grace and Mercy or else they have learnt it of other men For it is a certain truth that man hath not of himself any thing but sin and that he can do no good
spiritual or temporal since all good comes from God and all evil from man and the Devil But when one hath learnt any good from God he can teach it to his Neigbour But he cannot have that good of himself because sin hath filled him with all evil and deprived him of all good And we cannot bring out of a thing what is not in it For if the Fire were not latent in the Flink it would not come out by striking on the Iron and if Virtue were not in a soul it would not appear upon occasion So as it appeared in Job in the midst of so many tentations For he blessed God saying when he was informed of the Death of his Children God gave them and God hath taken them blessed he his holy Name Which was a Grace which he had received of God It was planted in his Soul and so produced fruit in its reason But he that lives yet in the corruption of his nature can produce nothing but sins and evil since he hath nothing but that in him and no good can proceed out of his soul because there is none in it Therefore man is sottish to believe that he can do good temporal or spiritual seeing in effect he ruins whatever he touches and can do no good but by the particular Grace of God But because man does not sufficiently study spiritual Diligence that he may come to know himself he easily perswades himself that he is wise to do things spiritual and temporal without noticing that his nature is altogether corrupted by sin He speaks works and acts of himself as if he knew to do any good though all that proceeds from the corruption of our nature is evil Man then ought always to have that distrust of himself that he never follow his own proper will for whatever proceeds from it is evil and he that believes not that Truth shall fall into many excesses and sins Therefore is it that Jesus Christ hath taught Christians to deny themselves and more he gives himself an example of that denial Saying I am not come to do my own Will but the Will of him that sent me Now if there could in all the human nature be a good will it was assuredly that of Jesus Christ and we learn in the Gospel that he renounced altogether his own will Saying to his Father Not my Will but thine be done And he said so because he knew that the wills of all men were corrupted by Adam's Sin and consequently cannot be followed without doing evil And therefore Jesus Christ himself would not follow his own Will knowing well that as to his mortal nature his own proper will was evil as are those of all other men unto whom he would make himself like when he put on our Mortality Now if Jesus Christ prays his Father that his proper will be not done how much more ought man corrupted by his own sins beside the corruption of Adam's sin which all men have contracted from him It is thence that their wills are become evil and so produce all sorts of sins which we cannot evite but by a spiritual Diligence watching continually over the motions of our proper will that we may resist sin For if we fall into spiritual Negligence our own will shall always have the upperhand and govern all our words and actions which shall be always evil and so we shall commit continual sins without perceiving it and it is by that spiritual negligence alone that souls perish insensibly and from which all sorts of evil proceed We may see that Truth in temporal and corporal things for when they are neglected they catch always hurt If we neglect a new born Infant it must of necessity die for lack of vigilance If we take not care after to teach it in speaking walking and labouring it shall grow up like a Beast and when it is come to the use of reason it must labour trade or study if it would subsist and have necessary aliment So that all sorts of evils should befal it by that negligence in things corporal and it would even rot and be eaten of Vermin if neglected to be cleansed What evils does not negligence bring in civil matters Countreys and Citties are ruined by want of fore-seeing for if a Lord or Governour of a Countrey be not diligent to watch over what he hath in charge his Enemies will surprise him and he will lose his Honout and Goods while asleep And if the magistrate of a City be not diligent to watch over his Citizens they shall forget their duty and introduce into the Republique evils which after they cannot remedy and that because they have by their Negligence suffered them too long The same is it with the Master of a House or Society If he neglect to watch over his Subjects he shall find himself oppressed with confusion which he cannot redress afterward Negligence in business empoverishes many and loses their Honour by infamous Banquerupts Also by Negligence are lost the Grain and Fruit of the Earth when we do not sow and reap them in due season It destroys the Houshold Provision brings Rust on the Iron Moths in Cloaths and Rotting in Linnens and in fine negligence brings many Rich Men to Poverty Disgraces those that were in Honour and Reputation it brings damage and evil unto every thing even to the smallest things For if but one stitch in your Stockings slip and you neglect to mend it that stitch will quiekly become a great hole and in the end rent the whole stocking which your Diligence might have preserved for some years It is even so with many other things which diligence preserves in good order whereas by negligence they are destroyed and brought to confusion yea it often causes death For if a Disease were well attended at the beginning it were often easily cured but negligence renders it difficult and sometimes incurable as if a Pleuritique be let blood too late he must die and if the nature of the sick be not known to apply timely suitable remedies for his indisposition he must die That is the reason that men now adays live so short a while in regard of Adam and his successors who lived to several hunderds of years because they knew the disposition of nature better each knew what was good and needful for himself on every occasion but now while men are ignorant of Nature they take often Remedies contrary to their evils and neglect such as might cure them But this corporal or civil Negligence though it causes so many evils is nothing in regard of spirituall Negligence Seeing the first causes only temporal and transitory evils and the other eternal ones It deprives man of all sorts of good and subjects him to all sorts of evil which is eternal damnation For he that hath not Spiritual Diligence to watch against the Enemies of his Soul and for the means he should embrace to his Salvation he must perish by that only Negligence
reign from our proper Will and nothing else For our diseases are often caused by our intemperance in Eating and Drinking or other Excesses of the body which we commit to satisfie our proper Will which precipitates us sometimes into some state that causeth us a thousand Pains or some Employment or Traffique which lead us into great Troubles of Processes Quarrels Disquiets or other Poverties and Miseries And all that proceeds from that we would not submit our Will unto that of God who would have ruled us as a good Father his Child having loved rather to follow our own Will and undergo all manner of Calamities in this world and be in peril of suffering after greater ones which shall never end because he that will not be guided by God can never be saved seeing our proper conduct shall lead us into abyses of all manner of Evils temporal and eternal because our proper Will is ignorant precipitant never satiated nor satisfied not staying for any sorts of Evils although it discover its Miseries it does not amend them but attributes them unto another to Adam or else to God and so flattering themselves always in their own Will they persist therein until Death which gives beginning unto eternity of Misery because no person can be saved of himself and if they will not give their Will unto God from whom can they expect Salvation It is great blindness Sir not to know these Truths which are so evident seeing we feel our impotency and know that we have received all from God and cannot hope for any thing but from him And with all these considerations we will not abandon our Will into his loving rather to be miserable and perish in the end by following our own We are ingrate unto God and cruel unto our selves For it is very great ingratitude to refuse God the only thing that he requires of our proper Will having given us all the rest and great Cruelty unto our selves in withdrawing from the Dependance of God to subject our selves unto so many sorts of Evils I asked her How it was possible that men should refuse God their proper Will seeing all belonged unto him She said Sir all the world does that by effect and I know not one only person upon Earth who will depend on the will of God because every one will follow his own proper will great and small none excepted will not abandon their will unto that of God but will all depend upon their own Is it any wonder that I have said unto you formerly that none can be saved in the manner that they live at present It is an infallible Truth which none have yet discovered because of the universal Darkness which is at present in the world Every one imagins to himself that he will abandon himself unto God when there is nothing like it for if that were true we should not see men so earnest to negociate or traffique nor run through Cities and Countrys to gather Money nor also to solicit for offices states or benefices because every one remitting himself into the Dependance of God would labour to have only his necessities and no more knowing well that this life is short and that the necessity sufficeth unto a Sojourner who will be loath to burthen himself with things useless or superfluous unto his Voyage which would be a burthen to him All mens Cares Goings Comings or pretensions for things present are as many Witnesses which affirm that they will not abandon their will unto God but will follow their own proper will leaving the penitence which God hath enjoyned to exalt themselves into States Honours and Dignities seeking to live at our ease instead of labouring to fulfil the Penitence due unto our sins We act directly contrary unto the Will of God because we cannot be ignorant that he requires that Submission and Penitence of us And with all that we say by word that we are abandoned unto God and look upon it as a thing impossible that we should refuse him our will which discovers always the more our blindness I said unto her That there was truely horrible darkness over the universal World and that I my self was environed with them in believing that I would be abandoned unto God while I had yet many cares for this life She said Sir you see well that your abandon is not true so long as there are yet cares for this life It were to have great distrust of God that after we were abandoned unto his governing we should yet have Cares for temporal things God who hath created all things for man can he refuse him his necessities when he were abandoned unto him If he nourisheth the Birds of Heaven who labour not should he not nourish men in labouring We are exceeding full of false perswasions which flatter us to our ruin For it is assured that he who hath resolved to abandon himself unto God seeks no more earthly things but those which are eternal God makes him see sufficiently that what is here below are but transitory things which the Servant of God should not touch but with the extremity of his foot because they are unworthy of a Soul dedicated unto God which regards no more any thing but to please him And if you Sir have other Cares believe assuredly that you are not yet abandoned unto him because that abandon consists in a cessation from every thing to receive from God only and the less self acts the more we receive There needs no more but TO CEASE AND TO RECEIVE For all our Cares and Disquiets or activity for the things of this life are all Impediments which extinguish the operations which God would produce in our Soul We must cease and rest to let the Holy Spirit act alone If our will be abandoned unto God he will rule it wisely Let us yield our souls unto his Government and let us labour for accomplishing the penitence due unto our Sins that we may have things necessary for the entertainment of our body and then we may truely say that we are abandoned unto God not before because the States Cares and Affairs of the World are all Impediments unto that Abandon yea even so many divers means of devotion as men practise at present are all great Impediments since there is only that Abandon alone necessary I said unto her That that little word Abandon comprehended great things that it was nevertheless the Philosophers Stone to discover the eternal Treasures unto which I aspired She said Sir that word of ABANDON UNTO GOD comprehendeth all things for he that is abandoned unto him knows him and loves him and knows also true Virtue to follow it and the falsity of Vices to evite them because God abandons himself unto the Soul which is abandoned unto him and the Holy Spirit lives in it and remaining with it replenisheth it with his Gifts to know every thing and with his fruits to entertain it so that all our happiness depends