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
life were with incomparable Purity Evidence Clearness and Solidity in that Soul which thou didst sanctifie and are yet in her holy Writings In truth the way that is there recommended as necessary to Salvation is the only and the true way there is no danger to abandon our selves wholly and entirely in it for it is the very Truth it is the Truth it self It is the pure Truth There is none Lord there can be none other in Heaven nor in Earth There is none other way unto eternal life than that which thou hast put into the Mouth in the Writings and in the Life of thy most holy hand-maid Antonia Bourignon I praise and bless and thank thee O my God that thou gave me to know the same and hast opened and enclined the ear of my heart thereto Give me Grace to love to observe and to maintain that heavenly Truth unto Death Happy he that should lose a thousand lives for so worthy a subject Happy he who shall never for any consideration leave the practice of it Let me by thy divine Grace be of that number that after this short life of Tryal that most certain and most infallible mean make me enjoy my soveraign End which is to have the happiness ever to adore and praise thy great Majesty O Jesus eternal God Creator Saviour and redeemer of the World while with the Father and holy Spirit thou shalt reign Gloriously in all eternity Amen Revelation Ch. 3. He that hath Ears to hear Let him hear THE PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER THis Treatise consists of two parts whereof the one may be called Extructive which builds or establishes and the other Destructive which destroys or everts For the first ten Letters are adapted to the planting of Virtue and all the rest to evert and root out what may hinder its increase To recommend Virtue is taken the precept of him who is the Master and Example of it by which is made an introduction shewing what Virtues we must in the first place embrace and by what meanstend to them which is by Obedience and renouncing our own will unto the Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart of Iesus Christ see Let. 1 2 3. the Nature of which Humility is explained and the means conducing to the attainment of it viz the knowledge of our Corruption and the Miseries which our Bodys and Souls ly under Let. 4 5 6. Which ought to produce in us the effect of renouncing our natural senses and being content with what is of meer necessity we should flee all Pleasure and proper Satisfaction Let. 7 8. which emptying of our selves will be accompanied with the Love of God which incontinently possesses the Heart from which vitious affections are expelled because of the near relation and sympathy between them as between the Creature and its natural Element In which Love consists the Essence and Complement of all Virtue and all Good Let. 8 9 10. Concerning the overturning and resisting the Impediments and Tentations of Satan is treated Let. 11. whether they be offered to our Imagination or Sensibility even spiritual Let. 12 13. or to the Understanding making us rest in the naked knowledge of the Truth Let. 14. Or exciting us to external acting or internal with Vain Glory or by Dejecting us through immoderate mortifications or in unseasonable good works spiritual or corporal toward our Neighbour Let. 15 16. Or in regard of the Devil accusing him too much or too little of our sins Let. 17 18. Whether these Tentations affect the will whose godly fervour Satan would extinguish by Grief Spiritual Negligence and Self-love as shew Let. 19 20 and to the end There is briefly represente the whole subject handled in this divine Treatise which is more specially noted at the beginning of each Letter that you may kind Reader view as in a Table and beter retain in your memory the divine Instructions therein delivered Moreover you may with us well admire the infamous audacity of some as the Church-men in Holsatia whereby some years ago they caused that these so wholsome instructions while under the Press in the German and Low Dutch Tongues were taken away by force and violence and rent While I consider these obscure enemies of the truth that Scripture offers it self to me that Every one that Doth and will do evil hateth the Light and cometh not to the Light lest his deeds be reproved and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men Love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil. It is far otherwise with him who doth and will do the Truth for he cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest because they are wrought in God Joh. Ch. 3. I pray the God of Truth that he graciously please to instruct and lead you in the way of Truth that you never refuse to come to the Light Farewell TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Cannot abstain from imparting unto you these twenty four letters which I have written to one of my particular Friends where I shew him what Solid Virtue is because it is a matter so necessary for the present time when we see false virtue reign or such as is only apparent to the eyes of men and while so many persons deceive themselves perswading themselves that they have true Virtue whereas they have nothing but fine Speculations They think themselves Humble when they can talk well of Humility and think they have the Love of God when they desire to have it notwithstanding they have in effect only the Love of themselves and it is but Deceit and Falshood when they say they have the Love of God They do not so much as know the corruption of their Nature seeing they think they may follow that corruption without sinning provided they do no evil reproveable before men and have a will to do well and love God Which notwithstanding is not sufficient to be saved for good desires without effect are nothing before God They are indeed Foundation stones serving to the building of true Virtue For without good Desires we cannot do good Works We must first have the desire and after put it in execution which is wanting to many persons of a good will who content themselves to be of a good will and hope with that all shall go well without considering that the holy Scripture says to all in general Depart from evil and do Good Now the Evil is in our corrupt nature which no person ought to ignore yet few depart from that corruption and most love and follow it thinking they do well which is a great abuse and presumption of spirit for we cannot do good except we depart from evil and he that does not resist that corrupt Nature and renounce it cannot acquire true Virtue which few persons comprehend and thence is it that they have only apparent Virtues and no real ones Therefore is it that I have resolved to cause print these twenty four
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
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
Clouds agitated by the wind and representing such figures to our eyes It is even so with mens Sciences who fancy themselves wise when they are very ignorant For I do not believe that they have yet truly discovered one science even natural and how can they then in mystical or spiritual things That is what Jesus Christ said to his disciples He that seeth me seeth my father but you know neither me nor the father Notwithstanding we will often search curiously the profound Mysteries and divine Secrets and we know not natural things which we see and handle One will vaunt in being a Doctor of Medicine another in Theology another will be an Astronomer and so of other sciences although they be all alike ignorant of what they profess and think they know well And that proceeds from that airy Pride which the Devil hath inspired in to their Spirit perswading them that they are wise and worthy of honour and esteem though they be in effect ignorant and worthy of contempt We see that Physicians esteem themselves wise because they have read Medicinal Authors and these Authors are often as ignorant as they that read and follow them because all they have written is but vanishing figures which waver in the air of their imaginations and what the ancients have written is followed by their posterity And so they think to cure the sick by remedies coined in the air of mans imagination who seem to have divers Sciences and Remedies while they do but guess and hazard the lives of the sick and I believe the Physicians have killed many more than they 've cured to reckon the most common and ordinary and that because they have not discovered the Secrets of Nature and know not the constitution of man's body nor the origin of his diseases and consequently cannot exhibit proper remedies for them but often give what proves poison to kill men instead of curing them And therefore there is no subject of glorying for being called a Doctor in Medicine but rather of abasement and confusion for their great ignorance to the hurt of the Patient they take care of And as that ignorance is great in regard of bodily medicine it is yet greater in regard of the spiritual which is Theology for it kills many more souls than medicine does bodies and so th' one hath not subject of glorying of his skill more than th' other being they are equally ignorant which do not add nor pare the one from the other having each great ground of humility If Astrologers also knew how far short they are of the knowledge of the heavens they would be ashamed to bear the name and would acknowledge all their wisdom in that to be but folly and fancies of men who have not attained to the truth of that Science and what they have written are but imaginary suppositions far from being truths And upon like imaginations are founded also all other human Sciences which they learn by reading and study For when they are not founded 〈◊〉 the Truth of God they are altogether vain and false and are only fit to deceive men who by them deceive one another and hinder each other to come to the knowledge of the Truth of God and Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which is the only true wisdom and before which all the wisdom of men is but folly to blind our spirits that they should not come to the knowledge of themselves In which consists True Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ says we must learn of him which to do she prays you who loves the perfection of your soul Your Well-affectioned in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON In Holstein near Gottorp Castle Jan. 18. 1672. St. Vel. THE V. LETTER Humility is acquired by the Knowledge of ones Self To the same showing him that the true Knowledge even of things most esteemed by men ought to serve to humble them such as the Honours Riches and Pleasures of this life That all these are vain disquieting unsatisfying and hurtful My dear Child YOu have seen by my last what Humility is where I have shown you that it consists in the knowledge of our selves and that no person can ever be proud but for lack of knowing himself for in knowing themselves they will find subject enough to humble themselves by seeing their infirmities and miseries both of soul and body for he who will reflect seriously upon himself he shall not only discover his own nothingness but will judge himself much worse than nothing and consequently will be far from esteeming and magnifying himself unless he be altogether a fool and void of all reason and understanding For if he judge by an upright judgment what he is he shall see nothing but misery and infirmities in his nature and ignorance and Disorder in his spirit for a Beast knows more than he for the conduct of its life and is more moderate in eating and drinking and other natural things than man and we see him frequently exceed in these things which Beasts do not Thence is it that man is much more subject to diseases than the Beasts because they commit more excesses and Intemperances than they And when man finds himself more disorderly and foolish in the conduct of his life than the Beasts ought he not to humble himself before God and men as worthy of all confusion seeing God hath given him a Spirit more perfect than any Beast and yet he knows not to apply it to rule his passions and appetites which often causes to him great evils and sometimes death Which ought to be a great subject of humility and Contempt of himself he can never knowing that magnify and esteem himself if it is not because he is void of judgment and reason which he looses as soon as he gives entry to the vanities which the devil inspires into his spirit to esteem himself Then he goes from one error to another because fallen from the Light of the Truth and knows nothing but falshood which that evil Spirit makes him believe and inspires into his Spirit that he is worthy of Honour for his Wisdom or Riches or Virtue though he be contemptible even in all these very respects For his Wisdom is but folly before God and his riches are but weighty charges painful to be born and cause trouble and disquiet to preserve them and his Virtue cannot be other than feigned seeing it is not founded on the knowledge of his nothingness and truth of his miseries And Therefore vain-glory and esteem of our selves can never be other than meer folly which Satan inspires and foists into mens spirits seeing there is in them nothing esteemable as to the corrupted nature but aboundance of miseries worthy of Contempt and Scorn So that we may truly call a proud man a very Fool because he glories of his Miseries and judges his Ignorance Wisdom and his Troubles Riches For such are temporal Riches which create continual troubles and disquiet with a thousand cares both to acquire
they would willingly be great and rich that they may have Means to please their Senses and these Pleasures ruin Soul and Body For since Nature was corrupted by sin all the senses of man are become brutish and insolent and know no more what is good or evil for them intemperate without order or measure and therefore the Scripture says that the Eye is never satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing to show how our senses are disordered and insatiable the more the eye sees the more it would see and so the ear hear and they are never satisfied It is the same with the Feeling Smelling and Taste the other three senses For whenever a man gives himself to satisfie his senses he is never fully satisfied nor content For in every place he may find something that smells unpleasantly and though he carry about Musk and Civet that will not hinder that he breath not in the bad Exhalations and Vapours of the Air caused by the corruption and filth of the bodies of Men and Beasts although he had but the stink of his own body since all that proceeds out of it is nasty and putrid which cannot satisfie his smell which desires always good smells and agreeable and in loving that we can never be content nor satisfied And yet less can we satisfie the sense of feeling it being insatiable They would have fine Linnen Silks soft Beds smooth Coverings and other things agreeable to the touch which is not content with things that are sufficient But the sense of Taste exceeds all the others in disorder and intemperance For he that will satisfie his taste and delicacy renders himself miserable and in continual dissatisfaction For when he hath one food that is good he desires another as better the Wine is too sharp or stale for him the Beer is too sweet for his delicate taste he longs always for what he hath not and what he cannot get so insolent are mans natural senses that they often tyrannize over the spirit with a thousand tortures of Desires Intemperances Lusts Excess and Gluttony which bring Diseases Poverty and Death And yet they call him happy who hath the means to satisfie his senses without discovering that they are corrupted by sin and therefore they beget all sorts of Evils which she prays you to discover who wisheth your good Holstein near Gottorp Castle 15. Febr. 1672. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE VI LETTER Humility is attained by Knowing our selves To the same who is admonished to learn Humility by knowing the truth of our Corruption and Sin which is the disorder of our natural senses My Dear Child I Cannot entertain you too much of the Corruption of man and the Miseries to which he is subject during this miserable life to prevent your ever placing your affections on it but that you may learn the Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ teaches which will follow upon the knowledge of your self but you shall never attain it unless you examin in retail the miseries and infirmities of your body and spirit since it is that knowledge which should teach you the Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ requires For if you remain in the general ignorance of men you shall never attain to it you will always think you deserve Honour and Esteem seeing others like your self honoured and esteemed and that they also take their pleasures and sensualities more than you do But trust me my Dear Child that conduct proceeds from the blindness of their minds and from the profound darkness in which they are without perceiving it and they blind one another still more by their practice for one thinks he is as good as the other and that he may do what another doth and so one follows another blindfoldly and thinks he doth but what is suitable for an honest man to do But however great the number of blind are that will not help you in particular and that broad way will always lead to perdition tho many tread it The great number of miserables will not lessen your condemnation on the contrary it will augment your pains and miseries far from any ways mitigating them Therefore is it that you must not regard if others be blind and know not themselves esteeming themselves and following their sensualities for you shall not give an accompt for them There shall only your own works follow you at Death and according to them shall you be judged God affords you now the occasion of Discovering the truth of all things beware of neglecting it but bless the Lord for it is a great mercy he shows you beyond so many thousands of persons who perish for want of knowing themselves and for having never discovered the truth of things as they are before God They amuse themselves to look one to another without penetrating into the state of man and what he is whence he is and whither he tends though it is a thing of so great import on which our eternal salvation depends Therefore I exhort you to lay to heart the knowledge of your self seeing that must rule all your actions and make you become humble of heart as Jesus Christ teaches us to be The truth of all things should deliver you from all evil that is also the mistress of virtues for if you possess the Truth of God that shall teach you all virtues and deliver you from all vice for the cause why man is vicious and not virtuous is because he knows not the truth of things and takes the Shadow for the Body the Bark for the Wood and so goes from evil to worse For if he knew truly what sin is and what virtue he would deliver himself from the one to attain the other since he would see clearly that sin is a meer Tyrant which tortures Soul and Body and that virtue is beautiful good sweet and pleasant And so he could not retain himself from hating sin and loving virtue seeing that is good and equitable but for lack of knowledge of things they love what they should hate and hate what is lovely and to show you what sin is know that in it self it is nothing but a disorder of corrupted nature For when God created man he was well ordered temperate and regular in all his natural functions and he might enjoy the pleasure of all his senses without doing evil because all that God made was good and he created beautiful things to please his sight and all the melodies of Beasts Men and all melodious things to afford pleasure to the hearing and all Flowers and pleasant smells for his smelling and all smooth and agreeable things for his feeling and all good and savory things to afford pleasure to his Taste so that he could allowably enjoy the Pleasures of all his five natural senses because all the other Creatures were created for the pleasure and recreation of Man who was so perfect that he used all these things only for his recreation with just order weight and measure
himself and search the means for his own satisfaction Now God had given man five natural Senses that he might prove all that God had created for him provided he praised and thanked the Creator for so many good things but he began to use his senses to please himself and attribute to himself the Favours and Graces God had bestowed on him as if they had been his own and he the Soveraign independent on God for he pleased himself to see so many beautiful creatures and attributed them to himself and also to hear the pleasant Melody which God produced in nature pleasing himself in hearing them without referring them to God the same did he in smelling taking his contentment in all the good Odours which God had made to show unto man his liberality giving him not only the things neeful for the sustenance of his being but also Delectable things to procure him pleasure as are the objects of Sight Hearing and Smell and man could well have subsisted without the pleasures of these but God would oblige him to love him by excess of benefits and so created so many good and beautiful Creatures only for pleasure to man having created all sorts of delicious fruits for his nourishment and so many other creatures to satisfie his feeling that he might lack nothing for sustenance and pleasures which he could use at pleasure provided he blessed the Lord who had made them for him But ingrate man falls from that acknowledgment of his God and takes all his gifts for his proper satisfaction and so he left the Love of God and hath turned to love himself which hath necessarily rendred him an enemy to God for such ingratitude is insupportable though it were but committed by one man to another For what man would be satisfied to have desired the friendship and fidelity of another having with that aim bestowed his goods on him in abandance and procured him all sorts of pleasures and recreations that he might faithfully keep friendship if that ingrate Wretch forsook his Benefactor to take his pleasure in these same goods which he had so freely received how much more then should God resent the ingratitude of man while he places his love and affection in the things which God hath so liberally bestowed on him to oblige him to love him and yet man hath forsaken him and pleases himself only in self-love That you ought to consider well My Child that you render not your self guilty before that great Majesty and Discover if you be not obliged to embrace voluntarily Adam's penitence since you have fallen so often in the same sin in quitting the love and Dependance of your God to love your self and Depend on your proper will So resolve to renounce your five natural senses which are assuredly actuated by the devil for since he got power over Adam's spirit he hath after had it over that of all men and will have it so long as they continue to live in their corrupt nature from which I pray God Deliver you and I remain forever Your Well-wisher in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 18. Febr. 1672. St. vet THE VIII LETTER It is easier to love God than any other Thing To the same to whom is shown that we must renounce the evil use of our senses and that the right use of them ought to be referred to God also that it is possible equitable reasonable and necessary to love God with all our heart My Son I Will not believe that you are one of those evil advised persons who say there is little evil in following the motions of corrupt nature God created Nature say they and cannot be offended that we follow it Several of my Aquaintance have been of that mind they were given to Lasciviousness and told me That God would not punish them for that seeing himself had given them such a Nature and that it was needful to use it to multiply the world So flattering themselves in their Sins to satisfie their senses and more say they God hath given all these to man and we cannot be without Seeing Hearing Smelling Feeling and Tasting That 's all true but they had not light enough to discern the miserable state into which man is fallen by Sin from that happy one into which God had created him For then in that state man could enjoy the Pleasures of his five Senses provided he loved and blessed God But since he hath fallen into sin he can no more enjoy them without offending God because all the pleasure he now takes in his five Senses is only to satisfie himself for his own Glory and Advantage but before sin was the satisfaction of his Senses served only to bless praise and glorify the Lord for the Benefits and Mercies he received of him So that he no sooner saw these beautiful things but his heart was elevated to praise God who had given him these beautiful Objects these Melodies fragrant Odours delicious Tastes and Feelings So that whatever he saw or perceived good or pleasant was to him matter of blessing God and magnifying him for his Benefits But since man is fallen into sin the same things are to him matter of offending God for if he sees any beautiful thing he covets it to satisfie himself and that Self-love retires him from the Love of God and that is it which makes sin seeing he hath commanded us to love him with all our heart so that we cannot love these beautiful things without infringing that Command seeing all our heart cannot be in the Love of God when a part of it is upon beautiful things fine odours melodies delights of the taste and feeling For that 's a heart divided into as many parts as there are Different things it loves and consequently far from being intire in the Love of God as he hath commanded us But men are so blind and do so blind one another that every one perswades himself that he loves God while he loves only himself It is as if they thought to please God with words in saying with their mouth that they love him but they deceive themselves for as long as they will satisfie their five natural senses they will not love God seeing these being corrupt will engender all sorts of sin and consequently the Death of the Soul Notwithstanding no man values these evils and they think it is allowable to satisfie their senses and so follow them often as much as they can without believing they do evil and not apprehending that there is nothing more Deceitful than the Heart of Man which often flatters it self to its own destruction But you my Child be more wise learn the truth of things without yielding your self to be Deceived by false appearances Never believe that it is allowable to take any pleasure out of God and far less that there is no evil in following your five natural senses since that cannot be without sin for though we give our affections but for an
will not promise that you shall have in his service sensual Pleasure or worldly Riches and vain Contentment but I promise you assuredly Quiet of Conscience Tranquillity of Spirit an inward Peace and contentment in your Soul Which are things far more estimable than the vain Pleasures and impure Contentments and aboundance of the Riches of this world which can never satisfie our souls being they are spiritual and cannot consequently be satisfied with material things Therefore is it that there was never any man perfectly content and satisfied in this world unless he loved God with his whole heart There is no other but such an one who can be entirely content for only the Love of God is capable fully to satisfie our souls for they are little divinities which cannot be fully contented out of God from whom they proceeded Therefore must you my Child labour to attain to that love for when you have truely found it you shall have all things and you shall reign over all the world having in contempt all that is not God And you have no violence to use with God to obtain his love seeing he gives it liberally and freely to all that desire and ask it and even compels men by an express Command which he hath given them but you must do a little violence to your self to obtain that love because your affections are carried to other things than him so you must reclaim them and constrain them to return to their God and in that you shall have so many combats as you have habitudes to love other things than God If you be then strongly addicted to self-love or Love of other Creatures your combats shall be so much the greater But the business deserves suffering well seeing after we shall enjoy so great Good temporal and eternal we should spare nothing to gain such a Treasure the Pain shall pass swiftly and the Joy endure eternally And therefore you must suffer willingly to retire your affections from earthly things and place them in God alone I have sufficiently shown you in my last that that is good pleasant honourable and profitable It remains for you now to put it in practice Examin once what it is that you love beside God and then detest that love and withdraw from it your heart If you love objects without your self flee from them as the enemies of your good loose from them your heart and desire no more to see them And if your Affections be occupied in Self-love remove them from an object so little lovely to place them in God who only merits your affections and nothing else Protest then against that natural inclination of Self-love and yield no more any thing to that nature but things purely necessary for it is your greatest enemy to which you must not furnish Arms to fight against you the better You must know that corrupt nature wars against the Love of God as far as you yield to it So give it the least satisfaction you can even till you have overcome it withdraw then from it your Affections you must restrain it as a Horse with Bridle that it kick not nor attempt but to serve the master you love Behold the means to render you free to love God with your whole heart for as soon as your affections are retired from all Creatures they will be assuredly carryed to love God their Creator because the Love of God is the element of our Soul in which only it can live recreate and repose it self That Love of God is the true center of our Souls whither they fall of themselves so soon as they are disengaged of other affections which are all vain It is as with a Stone thrown into the Air which will not rest till it fall on the Earth which is its center unless it be retained with bonds or other thing It is the very same with man's Soul which is thrown into the air of the Vanities of this world It cannot find rest there if we did not retain it by Force by Baits and Allurements of Affection for earthly things doubtless it would presently fall into the Love of God which is its center and element where it can rest and recreate it self to satisfaction because the Soul hath nothing more suitable to its nature than God from whom it proceeded and it can never repose till it be returned to him and when it is compelled to remain out of its element it is as a Fish which by Nets and Lines is forced out of the water which is to it very disagreeable and causes to it Death if it be not quickly returned into the water The same happens to the Soul when it suffers it self to be entangled in the nets of earthly Affections it must quickly die because it cannot find there an element suitable to its divine nature and so it languishes withers and dies an eternal death unless it break the nets of earthly Affections to return to its element which is the Love of God You must my Son labour that you may break all the bonds of earthly Affections and so soon as you feel affection for any thing that is not God rescind it quickly for it is a chain which retains you out of your element and though it should be painful for you to loose your heart from any thing to which it enclines these Pains shall quickly change into Consolations for you shall no sooner be returned into the Love of God but you shall bathe in ease and pleasure as fish newly returned to the water which is its element It is for that Jesus Christ says that his yoak is easie and his Burthen Light He calls a Yoak our natural inclinations because we must constrain and retain them and they are troublesom and grievous to bear For if we follow them we precipitate our selves into a thousand Evils seeing nature being corrupted by sin enclines always to evil And these evils are often troublesom and weighty to bear I know well that to us it seems grievous that we may not in any thing follow our natural inclinations but if we take on that Yoak for the Love of God it will become light and easie to us as Jesus Christ hath taught No person can dispence or excuse himself from bearing it since our first Father Adam laid it on the shoulders of all his Posterity all men in general and every one in particular are charged with the miseries which sin brought upon human nature They are all subject to Heat Cold Intemperance of the Air Hunger Thirst Infirmities and Diseases of the Body to Ignorance and Inconstancy of Spirit and the disorderly motions of Passions for sin hath brought all these things upon man's nature which God created altogether perfect but since all men have pertaken of Adam's Sin they are also subject to his Penitence That is the Yoak which God hath given man to satisfie his divine Justice So that all men coming into the world must bear that Yoak will they or not
Nothing which we call evil And that evil is in its essence in the Devil as Good is in God without mixture for there can be no Evil in God and there can be no Good in the Devil But we find a mixture in the other Creatures which have partaken of Good from God and evil from the Devil and so they can be mixed of these two things and are good or evil in proportion as they partake of the one or the other God gave unto man all sorts of Goods in aboundance since he had the power to give them And the devil that impotence hath given nothing to man but so much evil as he hath obtained consent from the free will of man and no more for he is nothing but miserable impotence And to know that the Malice of the Devil and the Sin of Man are but nothings you need but consider what we see and touch in nature For we see assuredly that Hunger and Thirst is but the want of Meat and Drink Cold is but the privation of Heat and Death the privation of life and so is it with all other sorts of evils which befal man which are only the privation of the Goods which he needs for his sustenance temporal and eternal For though we say that there are in Hell pains and Torments Fire Ice Sadness Bitterness and all sorts of Pains All these are nothing in effect but the privation of the goods which man should have had to be happy viz. all sorts of Contentments in God all Pleasure all Satisfaction and Delight Refreshment Peace and Joy eternal But the privation of all these things makes the Torments and Sufferings of Hell without need that there should be material Fire Ice or Famin. It is enough that the soul of man be deprived of all good to suffer all sorts of evil We may see that yet more clearly in a new born Infant if it be left without the good of assistance it is reduced to all sorts of evil and will die without our touching it to do it any evil for we deprive it of life in depriving it of assistance It is the same with the malice of the Devil and the Sin of man They are only privations of Good which notwithstanding cause Pains and Torments incomprehensible to mans soul And all that is represented to us by fire Hunger and other Torments of Hell which is nothing in regard of the reality of the Pains and Torments which a soul suffers that is deprived of the Grace of God For that soul is not only fallen into the Cold of Ice and Heat of Fire but also into all other sorts of Torments because the privation of the Grace of God is the possession of all sorts of evil and seeing that Grace causes us all sorts of Good its privation must needs throw us into all evil Now whatsoever lives in nature generates always because there is in it a bent and inclination to produce its like Herbs and Plants yield their seeds and sprigs or branches nothing remains unfruitful that lives in nature every kind produces its like to its power Beasts produce after their kinds men produce human Creatures spirits spirits every one according to their nature The good spirits which are the Angels of God produce always good spirits the evil which are the Devils produce evil The one and th' other of these spirits attempt to produce in the souls of men their own sort And as men are the noblest of all the Creatures there is neither Angel nor Devil hath power over him but so far as man gives them The good Angels always incite men to good the evil who are the Devils to evil And that by the desire that each of these spirits hath to render men like to themselves the Devil endeavours to render the souls of men devilish and the good Angels to render them Angelical Man in the mean while remains free to yield himself to be begotten unto good or evil for none of these spirits can force man they can but incite him Every one attempts to render him of his own party but since the Devil hath corrupted man's nature he hath also more power over it than the good Angel which hath not advanced it to good as the Devil to evil All the good in man comes from God only and not from the Angel who being a pure spirit hath not power but over the spirit of man in representing to him good things but the Devil as a subtil spirit hath insinuated himself into the spirit of man by means of the human nature And as the vital spirits in man are in his blood dispersed throw his whole body so does the spirit of the Devil mix and disperse it self with the vital spirits of man and works much more upon his nature than the good Angel who cannot joyn with the corruption of that nature because he is a spirit altogether pure but the Devil is impure and accords well with the impurity of our corrupted nature And therefore he is always more united with us than the good Angel who does not delight but in the pure spirit of man For he finds nothing conform to his Angelick nature but the spirit of man because our human nature is too gross and earthly to be united with the Angelick Nature But the Devil as an impure Beast wallows freely in the flesh and blood that he may gain the soul of man He so mixes himself with the blood of man that he easily moves all the parts of his body to do evil but man knows not that it is the Devil For he is so united to corrupt nature that though we feel his motions we think that they proceed but from our own nature Which is because man cannot comprehend that the Devil should so mix with flesh and blood since he is only a Spirit without Body as he is truely but the Devil hath that subtilty to joyn himself to the vital spirits of man to move the flesh to Luxury Wrath and other vicious Passions You may see that my Son by your proper experience For if you mark well the disposition of your sentiments you shall find that you have been often carryed away with vicious passions even against your will and that you have perceived them with regret which cannot proceed from your self for your will cannot contradict it self If you had naturally a will to the pleasure of the flesh it would not displease you but contrariwise you would take pleasure in it and be glad that you might effectuate it But when that carnal thought or desire displeases you and you regret it that is a token that it comes from a spirit which is without you and yet is in you without that you know how he is there Yet you see well by the operations which he does there that that proceeds not from your own will which cannot desire what displeases it but it complains with St. Paul where he says the Good that I would I do not
of Corruption which the great one hath engendered there And when it obeys that Corruption it obeys the Devil himself For the Corruption of Nature and the malice of the Devil are the same thing even as a man's Child is another man Men are grosly ignorant in that they think they are not tempted of the Devil when they do not feel in themselves preter-natural evils and they call the Malice of their Nature a Fragility without having ever seriously considered whence that natural wickedness comes to them God never created evil but he made man altogether perfect and with an inclination and will to Good without knowing any thing of evil and therefore of necessity the wickedness and inclination to evil which man feels in his nature must come from the Devil and it self may be called a Devil seeing there is no other evil but him as there is no other good but God So that they that follow the inclinations of their corrupt Nature march quietly to eternal Damnation And the Devil does not drive such with tentations but stands afar off to see them go on knowing well that they shall become dayly worse if they but follow simply the inclinations of their corrupt nature Which few are aware of but they will find themselves deceived at Death for during their life they think it is no evil to follow their natural inclinations yea say some God created Nature and cannot be offended that we follow it That is one of the greatest Tentations and is a sentiment which opens a door to all sorts of evils It is true God created nature and wills that man use it but the Devil hath so corrupted Nature that man can no more use and follow it without sinning since it is corrupted Man cannot even do any natural function now without sinning against God and that as long as he hath not overcome the corruption of his nature For if the natural man eat and drink he does it with affection now that affection ought to be carryed to God alone so he sins when he turns it elsewhere and when he gives his affection to see hear smell taste or feel he loves something else than God But he ought to love him with all his heart and not place his affections on other things beside him alone and so long as man puts his affection on eating drinking cloathing or lying c. he is turned from all good which is God and turned to all evil which is the privation of all good It is the same if we love our Riches Honours and Pleasures for we are turned from God unto the love of our selves when we love the Pleasures of the flesh and not those of the spirit and that exchange of affection causes us to fall into all evil seeing it deprives us of all good If then we will depart from all evil and possess all good we must of necessity resist and overcome the inclinations of corrupt nature otherwise we shall insensibly fall into all sorts of sin For it is enough to carry us to Hell to follow corrupt nature And therefore my Son you must die to your self first if you would arrive at true Virtue seeing as long as corrupt nature is not entirely mortified in you you cannot live in the spirit of Jesus Christ because for that you must become a new creature and detest that old corruption which the Devil hath intruded into the Works of God for it s that is our Enemy and causes us all sorts of Evil. Notwithstanding the ignorant think it a happiness when they can follow their natural inclinations although it is in effect the source of all Evils Which you may well see by the reasons which I have formerly deduced For although God hath created Nature and ordained that it should be sustained by aliments and also re-produce it self by generation yet he would always have the Heart and Affections of man to himself entirely without parting God willingly permits that man eat and drink and generate and use his five natural Senses for his necessity but he will also that we place not our Affections and Heart on these which he requires to be preserved for himself only indivisibly We may then well use all these things but not fasten our heart on 'em For when in the beginning man was created in Grace he did eat drink generate and use his five natural senses because he could do all that with thanksgiving to God When he tasted of good things he praised God who had made them so savoury for him when he saw beautiful things he praised their Author in admiring those Beauties If he smelled good Odours or heard pleasant Melody or touched smooth and pleasant things he rejoiced in God blessing him in that he had not only given him the things necessary for entertaining his life but also for Pleasure and Delight All these things then served man only to bless their Creator and glorifie him in his Creatures And man desired not Generation but to encrease the Praises and thanksgiving which they owed unto God Behold how man used all these things well before the devil had corrupted his Nature but since he is turned from God to carry his affections to himself as he does at present he desires not generation but for his own satisfaction and not for augmenting the Glory of God but to wallow in concupiscence for they have more inclination to enjoy the Pleasures of the Flesh than to produce Children to glorifie God And when men enjoy the pleasures of their senses and use the beautiful and good creatures it is more to satisfie themselves than to bless and magnifie God who gives them So esteeming more the gift than the giver From all which we see that what served unto man for blessing when he was in Grace serves now as a means of sinning and losing the Grace of God Yet we find men so blinded with self-love that they perswade themselves they can see hear smell taste and feel all that is good and pleasant and praise God in the mean while which is but falshood For since man's Nature was corrupted it no more refers any thing to God but in all these things pleases it self and uses them as if it were worthy of them as it was before sin But that is a gross Error for corrupt nature cannot seek the Glory of God it seeks only its own and hath no intention to bless and praise God for what it posesses This desire of satisfying the five senses is common to all that live according to corrupt nature none excepted Therefore those that say that they know to use good and pleasant things in praising God do but flatter themselves For to do that they must have overcome corrupt nature which they have not yet done since we see them search after good and pleasant things for their satisfaction But if they had overcome corrupt Nature they would no more satisfie it in any thing For that corruption is never so mortified in this life
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
encline to and you shall follow assuredly the Spirit of God So shall you carry the victory over that evil spirit who troubles you now Ply and submit your understanding under the Holy Spirit and never believe your self wiser than him in any thing For men are now abandoned to the spirit of error and their best Sciences are but Ignorance their Wisdom Folly And although you think sometimes to have reason to contradict me do it not And after you shall see that your reason cannot be better than mine which you may experiment while I remain Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle May. 19. 1672 St. vet THE XX. LETTER Spiritual Diligence is necessary to Salvation To the same to whom is shewn a Fourteenth snare of the Devil more pernicious than the rest viz. Spiritual Negligence He is moved to Spiritual Diligence by consideration of the diligence usually bestowed on temporal things which the Children of this World administer with more Care and Prudence than the Children of Light do Spiritual Things My Son I Perceive it appears some what difficult to you to watch continually so narrowly over all your Words and Actions But believe me if you do it not the Devil will assuredly surprise you in every thing And you shall obey him without knowing it For he is a most cunning spirit who watches always without rest And therefore it is necessary despising all difficulties to resolve absolutely for the combat if you will obtain salvation and tend to true Virtue For without fighting there is no Victory and except you apply your spirit to watch diligently over all your actions and words you shall fall into all sorts of evil And therefore is it that they call Negligence a mortal or capital sin Now Negligence is not understood to be a mortal sin as signifying the want of bodily travail and labour for many persons are not oblieged to bodily labour having other occupations of Body and Spirit more profitable and necessary sometimes than bodily Labour And when they apply themselves to those good and useful things they fall not into that sin of Negligence which is called mortal for every one ought to occupy himself in different things according to his condition or disposition A sick person cannot labour bodily and sometimes also not in Spirit neither because of his Infirmity and so he falls not into the mortal sin of Negligence for he may by acting resignation to the will of God be more diligent than one that labours both in Spirit and Body A good Master of a Family labours often more in eying and watching over his Servants than he that delves the Ground An Artist labours more by ordering well the Building of a House than the Workman that builds it And so with other persons who perform their duty every one in his state and vocation So that we must not believe that that sin of Negligence is committed by them that labour not corporally but by all them that neglect to watch over their souls and to discover the tentation of the Devil Seeing such neglect their eternal Happiness and consent tacitly to the tentation of the Devil which is certainly a mortal sin and causes Eternal Damnation that is it wherefore this Negligence is accounted among capital sins and ought to be called Mortal since it causes Death to the Soul For he that through Negligence does not resist the Devil he leaves his soul a prey to him And he that searches not all means to find true Virtue shall never obtain it but dying without it shall never come to eternal Happiness And therefore you must of necessity have spiritual Diligence if you would be saved For it were but flattering of your self to think that God will receive your Excuses when you shall say I did not know that the Devil had so much Subtilty and Power over us to tempt us or if you should think to excuse your self before God by your Frailty and Weakness you could not abstain from sin and could not attain to true Virtue because you could not find the way For all these Excuses and false Reasons God will not accept because he searches the Reins and tryes the Consciences and sees the least motions of our wills And he knows without needing witnesses what Diligence we have given to watch over our Souls and what Diligence to evite sin and follow true Virtue For God is not as men who amuse one another by the false Philosophy which they 've learnt in the Schools which serves only to maintain wickedness and excuse the malice of their likes They invent smooth words to make wickedness appear Truth and please themselves with these fine words and suffer themselves to be perswaded that Falshood is Truth when adorned with the fine terms and words of their false Philosophy But God regards the Essence and Reality of the thing and sees even to the bottom of our Souls and so he knows if we have done all Diligence in earnest to discover the deceits of the Devil and find the means to arrive at true Virtue and finding that we have done neither the one nor th' other we are condemned without place for Excuses And so my Child you must not be deceived Think not to find Excuses before God when you have lived in spiritual Negligence for he will not accept them He hath given you a Body and Spirit and that to apply them both diligently to eschew evil and follow good But the misery is that men now adays are fallen into so profound an ignorance that they employ body and soul in Care and Diligence to acquire the things of the earth and render themselves by that means incapable of having spiritual Diligence for when a Vessel is filled with dung there can be nothing that is good put in it Alas what are all the Cares of the business and affairs of the world other than Dung which hath filled your Spirit You were a diligent Merchant and your care and diligence hath heaped up money to you but now what will you do with that money you cannot expend it for Meat and Drink and Cloathing nor can you carry it with you at Death and if you leave it to your Relations they shall thereby become more vicious and proud So that every way you must acknowledge that your spirit hath been always filled with the dung of cares and diligence for earthly things And it is no wonder that so you could not discover the wiles of the Devil nor the means which advance unto true Virtue because your Diligence was employed about other things But now when the Goodness of God hath discovered to you the truth of these things you must endeavour to use that Diligence to discover the tentations of the Devil and the means to arrive at Virtue which formerly you used in your temporal affairs I believe you would not then let slip any occasion wherein you saw any profit without accepting it and that you suffered
or temporal or for the good and edification of our Neighbour In all such cases the Devil will play the dumb and keep us silent when we should speak At another time hee 'l play the Orator making us speak and discourse what we ought to be silent of and so will draw from our words great sin For both good and evil persons are often offended at our words If we speak the Truth they are not capable to hear it For it is as a two-edged sword and so even pious persons themselves cannot support it while it reproves since correction is never agreeable in the time when it is administred but if we speak falshood or say any thing to please men the wicked as well as the good shall be thereby stumbled For our example will fortifie the wicked in their wickedness and falshood and the good shall be offended that we who profess Virtue are not true in every thing and will yet please the world and worldlings So that on every hand we give advantage to the Devil in speaking or keeping silence And that as long as we have not obtained spiritual Diligence to watch over all our words and actions For if you will my Child reflect upon your self you shall experience that you do or say nothing without sinning But because the Devil holds you yet in Spiritual negligence you perceive it not but by chance For he obscures your memory that you should not remember what 's necessary and represents to your mind what you ought to forget And by that makes you do his will as well in Spiritual as in temporal concerns for it is indifferent to him by what he ensnares you But he will be loath to tempt by evil actions such as seek to become Jesus Christ's Disciples He tempts them but by Omissions knowing that they will not follow his suggestions in evil things though readily in omissions and so he makes them forget or neglect the things that are for the Glory of God and the Salvation of their Souls or that of others Now he gains much more with good persons by these Omissions than he could do by actions seeing evil actions displease welmeaning persons and are reprehensible before men And therefore they would not commit them although the Devil did tempt them if it were only for avoiding a bad example or scandalizing their Neighbour But sins of omission are more secret and difficult to discover and consequently more dangerous for souls which have not spiritual diligence For they fall insensibly and without perceiving it in spiritual negligence And when they are fallen therein they often know not that they have sinned Attributing that neglect to the weakness of their Memory or infirmity of their Understanding without perceiving that the Devil occasions the forgetting of things necessary for the soul and body of man which is a subtil Snare of Satan So my Son you must watch well lest he surprise you ignorantly For it will not be enough before God to say I thought not of it or I forgot Seeing we are always bound to think of and remember the things that are necessary and salutary hence is the proverb He that sins ignorantly goes ignorantly to Hell And it is said somewhere That Ignorance does not excuse Sin To shew that spiritual Diligence is especially necessary for him that would work out his Salvation and that God admits no excuses in what man is oblieged to do I believe among men every one will be ready to justifie and excuse himself for being all frail and imperfect they flatter and excuse also such as are like themselves when they love them Then they attribute to fragility what proceeds from spiritual negligence but God who tryes the Reins and searches the Consciences makes another judgment of our actions and omissions He will condemn for sin whatever we have neglected to do for his glory and our Salvation or for the Salvation of others when it was in our power It will not be enough to say to God I have not found if you have not done necessary duty to search There are persons so imprudent to believe that God will not take an accompt of them for what they have not known In which they shall find themselves far deceived at Death For we are always oblieged to search what we need to find And we should absolutely know the means by which we may arrive at Salvation as are the Commandments of God and the Gospel Precepts And he that performs not what is there ordained cannot be saved It will not be enough for him to say I did not know what God required nor the Gospel-law seeing he is oblieged to know both and to do all possible diligence to learn them that he may do them If then we have not that spiritual Diligence for our Salvation we shall never obtain it For we are oblieged to know what is necessary to Salvation and the ignorance of these things will not excuse the sin So much the rather because Jesus Christ says Seek and you shall find pray and you shall receive knock and it shall be opened to you Which is not to say as many ignorants alledge that Jesus Christ hath satisfyed all for us seeing he exhorts us to seek the Kingdom of Heaven to pray to knock and to do all that we can to obtain it Teaching thereby that that spiritual diligence is necessary to Salvation And these perswade themselves that they shall obtain it by the diligence of another Which is but a flattery to Destroy us while the Apostle admonishes us so much To watch and pray that we enter not into Tentation For if the merits of Jesus Christ had satisfied all what need had we to watch and pray we needed but to remain in ease and quiet in expecting that Jesus Christ had satisfied all for us Then we needed not to do any thing For it should be in vain to knock pray and search if all were found and obtained by the merits of Jesus Christ Which may well let you see my Son that men are at present given up to a Spirit of Error and that they know not the truth of things for they make one another believe Falshoods for Truths and would by their glosses annul the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and his Apostles But that Doctrine excites always unto Spiritual Diligence for Jesus Christ says We must pray always and without ceasing That is to say that we must always be diligent to watch over all our words and actions Otherwise we shall not speak one word without committing sin nor do any action that shall not be defiled so long as we remain and live in corrupt nature wherein we are born For that corruption loving it self turns to its own glory and profit all that we do or say Which is a continual sin which we cannot evite but by Spiritual Diligence or continual Prayer which is the same thing For being continually attacqued by sin we must continually combat it or yield and
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