that the latter Christians shall live in greater Perfection than those of the Primitive Church did That he will send his Holy Spirit to lay before us those means of Salvation which Jesus Christ taught us while on Earth that we may clearly see how far we are estranged from them and to give us the Light of the Truth that we may see the way to return and to take up again the same Gospel-Means and recover the Dependance of our Will on God without which none can be saved And God will give the full Understanding of all that has been delivered in his Name from the Beginning of the World both by the Holy Prophets and by Jesus Christ and his Apostles or other Saints his Disciples 2. The Original Design of God in the creating of Man being to take his Delight with him for which End he not only made Man after his own likeness but he also became Man that he might live with him in perfect Resemblance to all Eternity and this being now suspended unto Man because of his Sin until that he have accomplished his Penitence to which he is subjected by Sin yet since God does not change nor will ever alter his Designs this time of Penitence being finished Man will enter again into Communion with God as if he had never offended him He will speak to God Face to Face by his Humanity which will be rendred immortal as well as is that of Jesus Christ that they may delight themselves perfectly together upon Earth which will then be rendred Paradice by the lovely Presence of God who for this End became Man and in the End of the World will come in Glory upon Earth to Live and Reign for ever with Men which is as it were The Sum of all the Designs that God has over Men and the Alliance he has often promised to make with Man 3. All the Works of God are Eternal and nothing that he has made shall ever perish And in the End of this World at the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory all things shall be renewed and restored into that primitive Integrity in which they were at first created All the Evil that is in the Creatures the Fruit of Man's Sins shall be wholly taken away All Nature shall then put off the Corruption Darkness and all the Disorders with which it had been tainted since Adam's Sin All shall become Bright Glorious and Luminous all Corruption shall be removed from the Body of Man and it shall be re-establish'd in that glorious perfect State in which it was at first created And the Soul become perfectly pure shall take its Delights with God and the Body with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God created them for those Ends and for no other thing that Man might have his full perfect Contentment of Body and Mind in that Life Eternal wherein Jesus Christ shall reign always in Body and Soul with the Bodies and Souls of the Blessed who shall be united in Spirit unto God and in Body unto the Body of Jesus Christ 4. After the Judgment when God shall take all Malignity from the Earth and from all the Creatures the Venom from Serpents Scorpions and other poysonous Beasts Maladies and Infirmities from the Bodies of Men and Beasts and Weaknesses from Spirits All this shall be reduced into some corner of the Earth all in a mass that these Malignities may act together upon the Bodies of the damned and that the Works of their hands be rendered unto them For God never made any of all these Evils He created all things Good Men only by their Wickedness have given Malignity unto all created things and therefore it ought to appertain to them and to be rendered to them by the Right of Justice which will come to pass at the Judgment when the Bodies of the Wicked shall rise also that none of the Works of God may perish and shall be sent into that miserable Corner with all the Evils which shall be removed from the Blessed and from the Earth from Plants Beasts and all the Elements that all these things may serve them only for Delight and Pleasure without being able to do any more Evil as they were in the Beginning of their Creation and all their Malignities which they have contracted by the Sins of Men shall be rendered unto their Authors 5. God having at the First Creation endued all living Creatures with a Power of producing their like and Man in his perfect State being endued with the same Power of producing his like without the help of another he shall be re-establish'd into the same State again So that in the Kingdom of Heaven there will be eternal Propagation but altogether Holy altogether Pure and Deified without concupiscible Appetite but by pure Acts of Love to God which will extend it self to the Production of New Creatures to the Glory of their Creator There there is not Male and Female they neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels in Heaven XXXVIII This as a Sum of her Accessory Sentiments and they who shall consider them without prejudice will hardly think that for them she deserves to be treated either as an Heritick or as a Mad Whimsical Woman It has been already said that she does not propose them as Articles of Faith necessary to be believed by all that according to St. Augustine these only are damnable Doctrines which tend to destroy Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour which it is evident those Sentiments do not and it were easie to make appear that many other Doctrines and Practices do which pass among many for very Christian XXXIX Besides it is evident that these Sentiments tend to clear and confirm all the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity and to endear them to us They shew us the great Designs of God's Love in the Creation of Man the excellent State in which he made him and the Happiness to which he design'd him They make appear evidently that all our Evil is from our selves and all our Good from God They shew us the Ground and Reason why Man's Redemption was set about and not the fallen Angels why Jesus Christ took such Interest in Man became Intercessor and Surety for him and why his Mediation was accepted by God his Father and why after other means essay'd he at last cloath'd himself with Man's Mortality why the following of his Counsels and Example is indispensibly necessary to Salvation They represent to us the horrid Corruption that Man is fallen into by Sin both as to Soul and Body and all the Creation by him and how mad we are to gratifie our corrupt Inclinations and to love this present World They direct us to a right use of the Rods and Judgments of God and awaken us to a sence of our present State wherein all the World lies in Wickedness They give us a prospect
to it by his Free-will So that if one at present did submit his Will to that of God as Jesus Christ did he would certainly feel the same Operations of Divine Vertues that he felt in his Soul and would likewise do the outward Miracles that he did if there were need for them for the Spirit of God is not lessened and his Power was not limited to the Person of Jesus Christ only seeing he says that his Delight is to be with the Children of Men. He does not speak of one singular Man but of all Men who submit their Wills to his and renounce the Corruption of the old Adam to be cloathed with the new which is Jesus Christ 11. Those will find sufficiently by Experience that it is very possible to imitate Jesus Christ yea that it is easie and agreeable when they are denuded of that old Adam For Jesus Christ himself says that his Yoke is easie and his Burthen light This Truth it self cannot lye that it should be true that it is impossible to bear this Yoke But carnal Persons do certainly lye while they say that it is impossible to imitate him since he did nothing as Man but that which another Man may do being posses'd with the Holy Spirit for Gâ—d is impassible and cannot have endur'd the Sufferings of 〈◊〉 Christ It was his Humanity only that suffered assiâ—â— by the Grace of God which will not be denied to thoâ—â— that ask it seeing God is the common Father of all Men and promises to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask it His Promises are infallible the Scripture assures us of this saying Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my Words shall not pass away bringing the Comparison of an evil Father who would not give his Son a Stone instead of Bread nor a Serpent for a high Fish asking them How then shall not your heaâ—â—â— Father give his Holy Spirit to him who asks him 12. Truly my dear Child I can scarce reason more to make appear those Truths which are so clear I have spoken of them several times and they still bring me new Arguments to maintain the Corruption of our miserable Times wherein Men have invented so much silly Stuff whereby to flatter such as themselves and to make them live and die in the Sentiments of corrupt Nature falsly perswading them that they cannot attain to the Perfection of Jesus Christ that they may not use any Endeavours to attain to it for it would be in vain to endeavour that which is impossible Therefore we see Men to the Eâ—â—y of one another give up themselves to Pastimes take their Pleasures and heap up Riches as if they were created for this looking for Salvation as it were in Recompence for their Sins Which is very sad and will make many to be deceiv'd at Death who in this Life think that they are good Christians because they have not committed the gross Sins of Theft Whoredom or Drunkenness and have frequented Churches and Sacraments prayer much and given much Alms All this will avail nothing before God if we are not animated with the Spirit of Jesus Christ 13. For God will know no Men but those who at Death shall be cloathed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is Charitable Humble poor in Spirit in short adorned with all his Vertues and to be a Christian one must imitate him as he himself has said For his Doctrine is not a History to be read or heard out of Curiosity but is all Lessons which we must retain to put them in practice else we shall falsly bear the Name of Christian which signifies no other thing but a Person dead to the Flesh to live unto the Spirit or one who has renounced the Corruption of the old Adam to live renewed into the Spirit of Jesus Christ 14. It is far more safe to believe that Jesus Christ by his Death and Sufferings has merited for us the Grace of dying to our selves that we may live unto him than to believe that he has satisfied all for us while we rest upon this false Pillow abiding in the Sentiments of our Nature eating drinking and doing all other things according to our Sensualities This is the broad Way that leads to Peâ—dition and many there are who walk in it but you my dear Child take the narrow Way that leads to Life even tho' there be few that walk in it Every one will bear his own Burthen If your Friends will not walk in it leave them rather than follow them seeing Jesus Christ says that we must can off the Member or pluck out the Eye that offends us and that he who leaves not Father and Mother Wife and Children for his Names sake is not worthy of him I do not require of you the Perfection that Jesus Christ had but that you tend to it and aspire after it as much as is possible for you In doing of which you will oblige her to love you who subscribes her self Yours wholly in God Antho. Bourignon Amsterdam July 1â—th 1670. LETTER IV. That God does not pardon Sin without Penitence To the same Wherein is declared that Men fall every Day of new into Adam's Sin turning away from God to love the Creature and that they can never be saved without being revived into the Spirit of Jesus Christ who has merited for us the Grace to imitate him This Letter is the Eighth of La lum nèe en tenebr Part iii. My dear Child 1. I Wonder how it is possible that your Friends should say that I reject the Merits of Jesus Christ and that I do not look upon them as the Means of our Salvation seeing that I do not look for Salvation for my self but by the Merits of Jesus Christ who came into the World to redeem us after that we had been all lost by Sin and by it sold and delivered up into the Power of the Devil 2. For Sin is no other thing but a turning away from God to turn towards the Creature The Angels did first thus turn away when they saw themselves so Beautiful and so Perfect they were pleased in themselves desiring to be like unto God And thus they became Devils Enemies of God and of all his Works looking on them with Envy and Jealousie labouring as much as was possible to destroy and corrupt them Therefore the Devil tempted Man as soon as he perceived his Creation that he might hinder the Designs which God had of taking his Delight with him and Man by the Instinct of the Devil turn'd away from his God to regard the Creatures in regarding of which he coveted and lov'd them against the Prohibition of his God thus withdrawing himself by his Will to cleave to the Satisfaction of his humane Nature which we do yet daily 3. And this turning away from God is call'd Sin which brought forth Death to the Soul of Adam and to all Men in him seeing Adam had in his Loins all the Men that are
of the World and of all the Creation worthy of God They let us see the Wisdom and Goodness of God in bringing about his great Designs tho' thwarted by the Perversness and Rebellion of Man They give us some glimpse of the unspeakable Glory to which Man is designed to partake of the Joys of God being united to him in Body and Spirit and to receive the Delights of all his Works They shew us that Almighty God design'd this World and all the Creation for some great End more worthy of him than to serve Devils and Wicked Men as a Theatre and Fewel of their Lusts and Instrument of their dishonouring him It is usual for the Learned to form Theories and Systems of Divinity whereby to give a clear Account of the Doctrines of Faith If Men will be pleased to consider these Sentiments in this View only and compare them with the Systems given us by the Divines of all Parties they may come to be convinc'd that they have a greater Tendency to promote True Christianity XL. And as they are very sutable to the known Articles of Faith so they do not contradict the Holy Scriptures but seem to be insinuated and pointed out in them and to serve to clear Thousands of Passages there which otherwise cannot be conceived as A. B. her self makes appear in several Instances 1. That all things were created Good and Beautiful at first without any Deformity appears both from the Nature of God and from his Word He is Perfect and therefore cannot make any thing Imperfect He is all Good and can make nothing Evil All things therefore have been made by him perfectly Good and Beautiful for the Workman is known by his Works A rare Painter or Writer is known by his Pictures or Writings tho' we do not know his Person much more is God known by his Works for he can never fail or commit a Fault in them which the most accomplish'd Spirits amongst Men may do This is then an Eternal Truth that God created all things Beautiful and Good which the Scripture also verifies when it is said that God saw all that he had made and behold it was very Good Which could not be if there were any Evil in it as a thing cannot be Beautiful if it have any Deformity But we see all his Works now are not Good and Beautiful in the Air are Tempests Whirlwinds c. destroying Men by Sea or Land In it is obscure Darkness nothing to be seen through it if it be not favoured with the Rays of the Sun or Stars The Earth has a filthy colour that sullies all that touches it and is of such gross Obscurity that we can see nothing in it and to make it bring forth Fruit Men must employ the sweat of their Body and after all it brings forth often nothing but corrupt Fruit and if it be not cultivated only Thorns and Thistles The Water often swallows and suffocates Men its greatest Masses are salt or filthy The Fire has in it a black Smoak ready to stifle Men if they were not succoured by the Air it spoils the Eyes of those who steadily look on it and consumes Men Beasts and all other things These things cannot be created by God as we see and feel them because they are neither Good nor Beautiful By a clear Consequence then we must believe that the Air has been created clear sweet and agreeable without these Tempests and so of the rest 2. It is as evident that our Bodies have not been created in the State they are now in in which there is nothing good and beautiful no more than in our Minds and that they have been form'd at first in a glorious State appears by this that it being generally acknowledged that Jesus Christ is to restore Man to that primitive Perfection both of Body and Mind in which he was created and the Scriptures telling us That we look from Heaven for our Lord Jesus Christ to change our vile Bodies and to make them like to his Glorious Body and we being told that when at his first Transfiguration on the Mount he was pleased to give his three Disciples some Prospect of that Glory and to let some Rays of his Glorious Body stream forth thro' his Mortality it is said his Countenance did shine as Lightning and his Raiment was white as Snow We may think how glorious the Body of Man was before his Fall and shall be when this Mortal shall put on Immortality and this Corruption Incorruption and Death shall be swallowed up in Victory 3. That Man in his first Creation was endued with a Power of producing his Kind appears in that at the Creation of Man it is expresly said that God created Man Male and Female and bid him be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and tho' it be in the Original he created them in the Plural and not in the Singular he created him Male and Female yet that does not change the true Sence since God created in Adam all Men who were to proceed from him they were all originally in him And Eve was not as yet formed and he had rested from all his Works before he proceeded to the Formation of her how long after it is not known This seems most evident from the Story of the Creation for the Account of the six Days Works is contained in the first Chapter of Genesis and that God saw that all he made was very good but before the Formation of Eve out of Adam we are told of God's resting on the seventh Day from all his Works which he had made of his planting a Garden and there making to grow out of the Ground every Tree that is pleasant to the Sight and good for Food his placing Man there to dress and keep it his bringing all the Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air before Man and Adam's giving each of them a Name his finding it now not good that Man should be alone tho' before he saw all that he had made and behold it was very good his Resolution therefore to make a Help meet for him and therefore he caused a deep Sleep to fall upon Adam and took one Principle out of him called in the Scripture-stile one of his Ribs and so formed the Woman As from all this it seems evident that the Formation of the Woman cannot be supposed to have been upon the sixth Day without a great Straining of the History so it appears that Adam was at first created in such a State of Perfection as to need no Help for the Production of his Kind and that the Formation of the Woman from him was upon his beginning to decline from his God and to delight himself in the Creatures without referring all to God It is therefore said It is not good for Man to be alone tho' before God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good It
even the Learned as well as the Vulgar begin again to acknowledge to be somewhat else than meer Mechanism This Production all the Art of the World cannot imitate but it is derived down from the first of every Kind to the respective Series of Individuals of that Kind thro' all Generations That all Men do thus derive their Off-spring from Adam as to their Bodies no body will deny but the general Opinion of the Learned has been that our Souls are immediately created or infus'd by God into our Bodies and that we do not derive them from our Parents and so from Adam But as God has endued Man with a Power of producing the Bodies of his Off-spring so also it seems evident that he has endued Man's Soul united to his Body with a Power of producing Souls united to Bodies which receive also from their Constituents the same Power of producing other Souls united to Bodies and that altogether like themselves There is no Contradiction in the Nature of the Thing and the Blessing of Multiplying given to Man is as unlimited as that to the other Creatures and the Scripture speaks of the Children in the Parents Loins and by this we easily conceive how the Corruption of Man's Nature is communicated to his Posterity without any Blemish in the Holiness and Righteousness of God for he having created Man Holy and Righteous with a Power to produce his like had he continued so the Souls which proceeded from him had been so too but he being corrupted in his Nature he could derive no other to his Posterity For Propagation is redoubling of the same Being and of the same State in which it is But on the other Hand if Souls are not derived from the Parent but immediately created by God Children may be less said to be the Off-spring of their Parents than the Young of the other living Creatures are from them so that they all do more perfectly produce their Kinds than does Man But above all this will never satisfie as to the other great Truth That all Souls are now impure and corrupt from their Original and Children of Wrath by Nature as the Scripture says It were blasphemous to say That God creates Souls impure ignorant and corrupt and it is no less evil to think that God creating them pure and holy does immediately put them into Bodies where they no sooner are but immediately they are thereby reputed so corrupt and guilty as to merit an eternal Separation from God The devout and profound S. Augustine was so sensible of the Difficulties in this Matter that he was undetermined what Side to take and professed that he had seen nothing that cleared them and he was for bearing with one another as to a Difference of Sentiment in these Things It is absurd to conclude this Sentiment to be false because we cannot conceive how Souls should propagate Souls without communicating of themselves in whole or in part if the last they are divisible and not spiritual if the first they should cease to animate their former Bodies this is to reason about Souls from the Idea's we have of Bodies Do not we experience ten thousand things in the World tho' we cannot conceive how they are We see the Soul produces Thoughts and one Thought produces another and this in infinitum Now it is easie for God to make that in certain Circumstances the Divine productive Vertue of the Soul should beget a Thought which has in it a Principle of Activity as it self has and that this Principle after its Production should not depend any longer on the producing Soul but subsist by it self 8. It has been judged the greatest Uncharitableness for her to declare to the World that there are no True Christians whereas in Truth it is one of the greatest Acts of Charity If a number of Persons were desperately Sick and their Distempers had so craz'd the most of them that they were not sensible of their own Sickness and Dangers tho' they perceived sufficiently the Illness of their Neighbours would it be Uncharitableness to awaken them and tell them of their Danger and direct them to the true Remedies even tho' some of them were using the proper means and tending to recovery it were certainly a Kindness done them all She does not say that there are not among Christians who have good Purposes and good Desires and who are good in Comparison of the Wicked but none who are truly regenerately into the Spirit of Jesus Christ She says * To be a true Christian is to imitate the Actions of Jesus Christ and to obey his Instructions Thus Jesus Christ says To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven we must become as a little Child we must take the last Place we must do Penitence we must be poor in Spirit we must deny our Selves we must love our Neighbours as our selves we must take the Kingdom of Heaven by force we must pluck out the Eye or cut off the Hand that offends us we must leave our Offering to go and be reconciled to our Brother we must love our Enemies and do good to them that hate us that we cannot serve two Masters we must not care for the Morrow but lay up Treasures in Heaven we must enter by the strait Gate that a rich Man will hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that we must take up our Cross and follow him that we must give an Account of every idle Word that God hides his Secrets from the Wise and Prudent and reveals them to Babes that he came not to be served but to serve c. She appeals to Christians whether they be renewed into this Spirit and makes through all these Instances how far they are from it and how few there are who aspire after it And to make People believe otherwise is but cheating Men into Damnation 9. That the present State of Christendom is a Babel where the Language is confounded and the Builders do not understand one another is but too sad a Truth to be denied If a wise Master Builder design to build a glorious City and give particular Instructions how the inferiour Workmen shall be trained up for it and by what Marks they shall be chosen and what Measures they shall observe in squaring fitting and laying of the Stones and if the Workmen shall be trained up by quite different Measures and chosen for the Office by other Marks and if the Workmen do so far mistake their Measures Rules and Instructions as that some of them say he commanded one thing and others the quite contrary some that the Stones should be hewn after such a way and others after a quite different way and should live in a continual Debate and Scuffle each side contending that they were only in the right and striving to draw as many Stones as they could to themselves and then instead of carefully and wisely hewing them and fitting them for the Building should animate
these Stones with the same Spite against the Fellow Workmen and Fellow Stones which possest themselves and with great Fury should throw them at them and dash them to pieces against each other and so render them unfit for ever entring into the Building This would certainly be such a Babel as that nothing could exceed it The Parable is so plain it needs no Explication 10. To make appear that we have glossed away the Laws and Doctrines of Jesus Christ by our Explications of them as much as the Scribes and Pharisees did Mâ—ses's Law by their Traditions we need but consider that as the Pharisees tho' they retained still the Letter of the Law and were very zealous for it yet their Lives were contrary to it but they could so gloss and interpret it as to reconcile it to their Practice Even so tho' the Lives of Christians be in a far greater Contradiction to the Laws of Jesus Christ and they retain and honour the Letter of them still yet they have learned so to gloss and interpret them as to reconcile their Life with the Hopes of Heaven and the Favour of God and their Belief of their being Good Christians For if they had not put false Glosses on the Doctrine of Jesus Christ there is no Christian who desires to be saved that would live as they do at present for every one would see that he could not be sav'd after this manner and that the Lives of Christians now are quite contrary to those of the Primitive Church and the Institution of Jesus Christ His Words are plain and simple they need no Glosses He tells his Disciples they must not lay up Treasures upon Earth they must renounce all they Possess they must be poor in Spirit take the last Place and deny themselves Now if they employ all their Life in getting and keeping of worldly Goods if they seek after Places and Honours take their Delights and Ease follow their honest Inclinations and please themselves their Life would seem a plain Contradiction to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but we have learned to Gloss so as to reconcile them It is but the Love of all these that Jesus Christ forbids and we are ready to make our selves believe that our Hearts are not set upon them as if the Bent of a Man's Desires and Pursuit could be towards a thing all his Life-time and his Heart not set upon it Jesus Christ knows well our Weakness and Frailty that we cannot be immers'd in worldly things without loving them more than the Body can lie in Snow without being chill'd by it and that we know not how much our Heart is glew'd to a thing till we be separated from it which is the mean also to wean our Hearts and therefore that we might not put false Glosses on his Doctrine he has explained it by his own Life he himself lived in perfect Poverty Contempt and Affliction was Poor as to Wealth Friends Honour Reputation Learning Greatness denied himself in every thing that we Love and Value and embraced the things that we abhor and dread But this we say was as our Redeemer to suffer and satisfie the Justice of God for our Sins and to merit for us Mercy and Pardon It was so but withal it was to give us an Example that we should follow his Steps His whole Life and Death was a continual Sacrifice to God renouncing all things that sensible Nature takes Pleasure in that we might learn from him how to make thus a continual Sacrifice of our Will and Desires and Satisfaction to God Oh! but we think he knows our Frailty and that we cannot do this and we rejoice that he has suffered thus for us and we hope in his Merits for Mercy and Salvation There is no Salvation indeed but by his Merits but they are apply'd only to those who follow his Example for he tells us none can come after him but they who deny themselves and take up their Cross and follow him and he lived after this manner that he might merit Grace for us to follow his Example so that we have no True Faith in his Merits when we think this impracticable But we have another Gloss yet whereby to indulge and gratifie corrupt Nature Jesus Christ lived after this manner not that we should live a Life actually strip'd of all worldly things that gratifie Nature and Self as his was but to teach us to be as poor of them in Spirit If we have them outwardly in Possession not to have our Hearts set on them and if we be deprived of them to be contented and resigned to the Will of God Indeed Poverty of Spirit is that in which Jesus Christ would have us mainly to follow him and if we be poor in Spirit in the midst of the greatest Abundance we are truly his Disciples But he that is poor in Heart seeks not for Wealth nor Pleasures nor Honours and if he have them they are a charge and burden to him and he takes no more of them for himself than simply serves the Necessities of Nature and that of the least and meanest rather than the best and choicest But the reason why Jesus Christ has given us such an Example and counselled us to follow it is because of our Weakness and Frailty If we can be poor in Spirit in the midst of the greatest Abundance there is no hazard of Wealth no need to abandon it but our Lord knew how hard it was for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He himself could have remained poor in Spirit in the greatest Affluence of worldly things but he knew it was impossible for us to do so too and therefore in Consideration of our Frailty and to give us an Example he came into the World strip'd of all that pleases and gratifies corrupt Nature that he might teach us the safest and surest way to mortifie our Love to the World and to our selves and to become poor in Spirit And that all our Glosses and Explications on this Doctrine and Life of Jesus Christ are false appears by the Fruits of them in our Hearts and Lives 11. That the Reign of Antichrist prevails in the World at present few Protestants do deny that his Empire is more Universal than is generally believed appears from this that the Devil being properly the Antichrist by counter-acting the Designs of Jesus Christ under a Cover of his Religion and being for him and by infusing his Nature and Qualities into Men he has accordingly instead of the Divine Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth with which Jesus Christ came to inspire all his Disciples he has I say shed among the Professors of Christianity his contrary Evil Qualities of Injustice Malice and Hypocrisie under a Cover of Masses Communions Prayers Preachings and the other outward Forms of Christianity This is too evident a Truth to be denied And under this Cover keeps Men in a vain Amusement and makes
them believe they are good Christians tho' really in their Hearts they have not one of the Qualities of the Spirit of Jesus Christ For instead of loving Poverty they love the Wealth of this World instead of loving Sufferings they love their Pleasures their Ease and their Contentments and instead of being willing to be despised they desire to be honoured and so of all the rest And in L'Antichrist Decouvert A. B. has made appear beyond all Exception that the Spirit of Antichrist prevails among all the Parties of Christendom and that thereby the Devil has with more Cunning and more irreclaimably possest Men with his Spirit and especially the Well-meaning so that the Harlots and openly Wicked will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than they because their Wickedness being manifest they are by the Grace of God more readily converted whereas in these the Spirit of the Devil being converted with the Mask of Jesus Christ he still makes them believe that they are guided by the Spirit of God when they are really acted by the Spirit of Antichrist 12. That the Degeneracy of Christendom proceeds from the Degeneracy of its Guides and Pastors is but too evident to be denied and the Evil is more sad and irremedible that they cannot endure to have it told them The Corruption of the other States of Christendom may be spoken of without exciting so much of Mens Indignation but if the Corruption of the Pastors be touch'd a Man must look for nothing but Rage and Resentment This cannot be spoken of but presently it is a Combination against the Priesthood as our Lord was accused as designing to destroy the Law because he exposed the Corruption of the Scribes and Pharisees All Protestants do generally grant that the Degeneracy of Christendom before the Reformation was chiefly owing to the Degeneracy of its Clergy and we being as far from True Christianity now as formerly there is Ground to think the Matter is not much mended We see what a strange Change the Holy Lives and Doctrine of a few simple Men wrought in the Conversion of many Thousands to the Faith and Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Primitive Church and how little is to be seen of this now The reason of this Difference is not because of their working Miracles for these serve only to confirm the Truth of a Doctrine which being once confirmed there is no more need of them but they are as effectual in all After-ages to those who are firmly perswaded of them so that to such as think they would be bettered if they saw such Miracles is applicable that of Jesus Christ If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one should rise from the Dead Neither can this Difference be imputed to the greater Prevalence of Wickedness now the World being highly corrupted also at that time and that to no small Degree It is to be attributed then to the Difference of the Spirit by which they were animated from that by which the Pastors of the Church are now generally led The things of God are not known but by the Spirit of God and where God finds pure and self-denied Souls he delights to communicate himself to them and to make them the Organs of conveying his Light and Spirit unto others who are not capable of receiving it immediately themselves Mens Minds are generally so extraverted and turned towards sensible things that they cannot be affected with the things of the Spirit of God unless they be conveyed to them by means that may affect their Senses and this is the reason of the great Necessity and Usefulness of the Pastoral Office For this Cause the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among Men full of Grace and Truth And when he ascended into Heaven he sent the Comforter who led his Apostles into all Truth and by their means conveyed the same Light and the same Spirit into others and they were filled with the Holy Ghost so that it was not so much they who spoke and acted as the Spirit of God by them and there their Doctrine and Lives had a wonderful effect in the Converting of others even as one Flame kindles another they had a living not a dead and barren Knowledge of Divine Things their fervent Charity did animate all their Words and Actions and there was nothing impossible to such a Faith and such a Charity this made them pray fervently to God for his Divine Grace to others and he would not deny the Requests of such ardent Charity And his holy Spirit encreasing the Vertue and Efficacy of their Prayers and Labours did inseparably join his powerful Operations to awaken convert and purifie the Hearts of others This made St. Paul say When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth as the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ manifested by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart This wrought the Conversion at one time of 3000 and again of 5000 at one Sermon of St. Peter This made the Officers who were sent to apprehend Jesus Christ say Never Man spoke like this and the Evangelists of our Lord 's preaching That he taught as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and they were astonish'd at his Doctrine For his Word was with Power or to speak with St. Paul in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit and of the Power of God that is they made the Operations of the Spirit of God to be felt in the Heart Moreover they taught Men by their Deeds as well as their Words the Holiness of their Lives and their Abstraction from all earthly things did procure Belief to all they said and let the World see that they bid others do nothing but what they firmly believed and heartily set about themselves So that the whole Body of the Church was sound when to be a Minister of Jesus Christ it was required only to embrace an Evangelical Life and to give Evidence of the sincere Love they bear unto Jesus Christ and of being led by his Spirit But wicked and worldly Men crept into the Church and their number increasing they got themselves in to be the Pastors of it then under an outward Cover of Piety and Religion Men were turned away from an Evangelical Life and led to Damnation Then the Pastoral Office was turned into a Trade whereby Men might gain Honour or Greatness or Wealth in the World or at least their Living Then Men fitted themselves for the Pastoral Office not by Humility and Purity of Heart but by Study and Learning then the Pastors becoming generally void of the Spirit of God were deprived of the true and living Knowledge of the things of God and
general Destruction of the World which shall not be recalled because the Will of Man is not inclin'd to return to God but rather to be the more estrang'd from him if the Plagues should yet be delayed That therefore the irrevocable Sentence is given to purge the whole World by divers Plagues of War Pestilence and Famine which are framed of the Three Means which have caused Men to abandon God Their Want of True Love to one another their Love of this present Life and their being addicted to their sensual Appetites the Pleasures of the Mouth and Belly She shews that many Signs have appeared in the Heavens fearful Comets menacing great Evils Fire has burnt many Cities many have been swallowed up by Earthquakes That these did affright some at first but so soon as the Devil had leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were Natural things he has made the fear of all these Threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of Mens Minds so that no Body is converted to God nor embraces the Spirit of Penitence but they mock at God's Warnings saying These are but Natural things She asks these Ear-flatterers If God ought not to send his Plagues but by Supernatural things and to make Chimera's in the Air He who has created alâ— the Elements must he not make use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural things to make our Bodies suffer which are likewise Natural The Deludge was made by a Natural Rain and the last Plagues will be made Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural things because the Heaven the Earth and all the Elements ought to rise up against us to avenge the Offence that we do against their Creator and ours c. I have transcrib'd all this because I think the present Age ought to lay these things deeply to Heart It is a most Remarkable Providence that a simple illiterate Maid should give Warning to the World of the Approaching of the last general and dreadful Judgments of God and give such clear Grounds for it from the Word of God and the State of the World and declare that she is commanded by God so to do and that now since her Removal both the Wickedness of Men and the Signs and Judgments of God have been still encreasing There have been such signal and dreadful Earthquakes in many Places swallowing up many Thousands such universal Wars destroying there Hundreds of Thousands the Fire of which seems only to be covered a while to break out into a greater Flame such pestilential Diseases in many Places particularly in France Scotland America sweeping off vast Numbers and now most grievous Dearth and Famine which for One Year scourged France but for these Three last Years has most signally visited Scotland and now this present Year being the Fourth is like to come to so great a heighth as to threaten an utter Desolation Mens Hearts failing them for fear all observe such a general Change of Seasons that the Heavens the Air the Earth and all the Elements do frown upon us and deny their wonted kindly Influences and Means of Life so that this last Plague threatens to visit other Nations likewise yet the rest of Men which are not killed of these Plagues do not repent of the Works of their Hands so that we have just ground to apprehend that these are but the beginnings of Sorrows It is high time for us then to awake out of our Stupidity to repent and do works meet for Repentance that we may not be found among the Scoffers in the last Days who say Where is the promise of his coming For tho' these were not the last Plagues and Judgments yet as A. B. says as if I remember rightly Vincentius of Terrara preached in his time to one City That within a few Years the last Judgment would be and tho' it was not yet many thereby were led to Repentance so tho' these were not the last general Judgments yet they will be the last particular Judgments to many Thousands and it is a good Office to awaken Men thereby to Repentance 14. That the Works of God shall not perish but endure for ever and shall be wholly renew'd and freed from all Corruption is expresly declared in the Holy Scriptures where we are told that the Creature itself also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of Gâ—d And that according to his Promise we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And it is said I John saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away And we are told that the Heavens must receive Jesus Christ until the time â— the Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by he Mouth of all his holy Prophets since the World began See Is 65. 17. 66. 22. 15. That Jesus Christ will come and Reign in Glory with the Saints and Blessed for ever upon Earth appears from many express Testimonies of Holy Scripture Thus David invites all Creatures to rejoice and be glad before the Lord for he comes to judge the Earth the World shall be established that it shall not be removed with Righteousness shall he judge the World and the People with his Truth Thus it is said that the Kingdom and Dominion and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Thus it is said The Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with him And it shall come to pass in that Day that the Light shall not be clear nor dark But it shall be one Day which shall be known to the Lord not Day nor Night And the Lord shall be King over all the Earth In that day shall there be one Lord and his Name one Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth And The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever And I John saw the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband and I heard a great Voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God c. see all that and the next Chapter And there shall be no Night there and they need no Candle neither Light of the Sun for the Lord
when this is not fully done here it continues to be done in the other Life as the Soul is capable to admit it and its Indisposition requires This is a Doctrine very agreeable to the Tenour of the Holy Scriptures which tell us that God will render to every Man according to his Works that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that only the pure in Heart only shall see God The Sence of it seems to be imprinted in the Spirits of all Men from the Sence they have of the Purity and Righteousness of God and their Consciousness of their own Impurity The Heathens Jews Turks and Christians have been perswaded of it those of the Antient Church both Greek and Latin It is a Doctrine that most powerfully engages to lead a Life of Penitence here in which the Anguish and Pain of Purification is far less sensible and whereby a Soul may still acquire new Graces and Capacities of Attaining to a higher Degree of Glory whereas the Sufferings of Purification after Death are unspeakably more sensible and the Soul is not capable of advancing to a higher State It affords also great Consolation to truly sincere and pious Souls who seek God unfeignedly but are sensible of the greatness of their Corruption to know that God will not cast them off nor deny them his purifying Grace here and hereafter till he have made them fit Temples for himself to dwell in and will still so support them in the most dolorous Purification with a full Acquiescence in his righteous Will that they would not desire that it were otherwise but will say with Job Tho' he slay me yet will I trust in him I shall conclude this with a Passage of the most learned and pious Dr. William Forbes sometimes Bishop of Edinborough who disproving the Popish Purgatory and owning that the Greek Fathers and many of the Latins were for a State of Purification after this Life tho' he says without Pain he concludes thus Ad Contraversiam hanc tollendam vel saltem minnendam Romanenses Opinionem suam de Purgatorio punitivo quum nullis certis Fundamentis nec in Scripturis nec in primorum saeculorum Patribus nec in priscis Conciliis nitatur ut supra demonstratum est pro Fidei Articulo nec habeant ipsimet neque aliis obtrud in t Protestantes etiam quibus Opinio ista improbatur quidem Jure Meritoque Hereseos tamen aut Impietatis aperte eandem ne damnent Senientiae vero communi Graecorum atque etiam quorundam Virorum doctorum in Latina Ecclesia de Purgatorio expiatorio quod solum Purgatorii Nomen proprie loquendo meretur in quo sine Poenis Gehennalibus Animae Sanctorum quorum quasi media quaedam Conditio est in Coelis quidem sed in Coelorum Loco soli Deo noto magis magisque usque ad Diem Visionis Dei clarae fruentes Conspectu Consortio Humanitatis Christi sanctorum Angelorum perficiunt se in Dei Charitate per fervida amorosa Suspiria ut supra dictum est nutri pertinaciter obluctentur Sua enim atque ea quidem haud exigua probabilitate minime destituitur There are others who give unjust Representations of her Sentiments concerning Predestination Grace and Free-will I shall therefore give a just Account of them from her own Writings and in her own Words and no Reader needs think strange nor load her with Reproaches upon that Head if he find that in some things they differ from the Doctrine which he has been accustom'd to hear there are such differences of Sentiments upon these Subjects even among Persons of the same Communion X. As to the Doctrine of Predestination she says That God did certainly create all Men for Salvation and none for Damnation That God being infinitely Good without any mixture of Evil and his Nature Love nothing can come from him but what is Good but if he had created a Mass of absolutely reprobated he would have made Evil things That Predestination to Damnation could not come from God since the Damnation of â—oul is the greatest Evil in the World that this had been to give them occasion to curse him to all Eternity looking on him as very unjust toward them for having predestinated them for Damnation before they had received a Being without having merited or demerited any thing That in Truth and Justice such might have said Why didst thou not leave me into nothing rather than to have created me for an eternal Damnation What had I done before I had a Being to render me thus Miserable For it had been far better I had never been created than to have created me only for Damnation How cruel is it to hear that God should predestinate a Mass of Reprobates This is to proclaim God wicked in the Creation of Man For else he would not have created a Mass of Reprobates to be Miserable to all Eternity do what they will he could not create them for Damnation but out of pure Malice A greater Blasphemy cannot be uttered against God than this For it shocks all his Qualities of Goodness Righteousness and Truth without which he can never do any thing If he had created one part of Men for Damnation he should not have done a just thing since those Reproabates did not merit Damnation before they had a Being and could not in Justice be reprobated without having deserved it Neither could he exercise his Goodness in decreeing the Damnation of any thing since this Damnation is the greatest Evil in the World And how should he be true in reprobating those of whom he says that his Delight is to be with them since they are the Children of Men. This is inconsistent with the original Design of creating Man and the manner of his Formation He made him to take his Delight with him and that Man might love and enjoy his God he form'd him for that End after his own Image He created one Man only and in him all Men. Would he predestinate to Damnation a Creature whom he made to take his Delight with him before he had a Being whom he endued with such wonderful Perfections Was this only to damn him the more profoundly Were not all Men created in one Man for Grace and Salvation He took not two Masses of Earth to create the one of them for Salvation and the other for Damnation but one Mass only with which he created one Man only for Salvation creating in him all the Men that ever were or shall be he created them all in general in the State of Innocence and Salvation and for this End gave abundance of Graces both bodily and spiritual and that equally to all without Exception of any giving to all a Divine Soul and Free-will that they might be capable of all manner of Good And seeing he thus created all Men in Adam he could not have created any for Reprobation but all for Salvation Is
to wit from an evil Heart evil Things For the Heart possess'd with Self-love cleaving to its Corruption is filled only with evil Things from whence nothing but Sin and Evil can proceed It is a great Errour to think that Man by his Free-will may save himself since he was corrupted by Sin as well as when he was in the State of Innocence This is a great Self-presumption for Men to boast of a Grace and Vertue which they have basely lost by their Wickedness and Sin which has fill'd them with all Evil and depriv'd them of all Good seeing Sin having separated them from God the Fountain of all Good has plung'd them into all sort of Evil which is the Privation of all Good And he can of himself no more recover God than he that walks in gross Darkness can see the Light And being corrupted in all his Faculties he can no more Love God than a blind Man can enjoy the Light and being enclined and habituated to Evil his Free-will of it self will not desist nor change from it So that without the Grace of God Man can do nothing but sin which he does of himself for God does not retract the Liberty that he gave him in Creating him which being now bent to Evil can freely do Evil against the Will of God and without his Concurrence of Permission But he can in no wise do Good without the Grace of God not only that which he received aâ— his Creation but also Grace concurring effectually in all our Actions So that it is Grace alone that works in us all our good Works and our Salvation For Man has nothing of himself but the Liberty to adhere to Good which he received at his Creation and which will never be taken from him Yet this Grace is not sufficient to work out his Salvation if God do not continually give him new Grace For having once resisted the first Grace he would never more recover it having voluntarily abandon'd it and his Case would have been like that of the rebellious Angels whom God justly abandon'd and suspended his Graces upon the first Rebellion of their Will which he might as justly have done to Man if the Love he bare him had not far surpass'd that to the Angels which appears by the Graces he has imparted to him since his Sin for instead of reprobating and condemning him to Hell he gives him new Grace that he may recover again As to the third They do not know the Love that God has for Man who say that their Reprobation proceeds from the Want of his Grace for it is never wanting on God's Part even towards the most Wicked and if it do not produce its Operations it is because the Sin and Wickedness of Man resists it Even as the Sun by his Nature darts his Rays as brightly on the Dunghil as on a Diamond yet the one receives more Splendour than the other because of the Difference of the Objects which receive them the same Sun makes the Dunghil to stink and the Diamond to sparkle yet he gives no more of himself to the one than the other The Property of God is to give continually new Grace to Man to the Sinner and to the Just yet if it do not operate on the Wicked his Sin hinders it the same Grace that makes the Just to shine makes the Wicked more filthy he making Use of it to sin the more It is impossible for him to perceive this because of the Opposition which his Sin makes rendring him insensible of it even as a thick Cloud before the Sun will neither let us see his Light nor feel his Heat The Sun never ceases to shine and give heat in all Seasons and God does not cease always to give his Grace but our Opposition hinders the Operations and Effects of it in our Soul purely thro' our own Fault for if we were faithful in little things he would place us over great things He created Adam in a Grace as bright as the Sun at Noon-Day his Soul beheld and tasted his God But after that by his Rebellion he opposed his Will this Sin set it self against the Grace of God as a thick Wall before the Sun which hindred the Seeing and Feeling its favourable Influences God did not cease to give his Grace to Adam after this Sin as before but the Wall that this Sin had built up between God and him keeps him from seeing God any more or receiving his Grace to operate as before So long as this Sin is between God and our Soul its Eyes are blinded and its Understanding darkned as to Good and it knows not whither it goes and therefore it was said Adam where art thou after he had sinned For having lost the Light of Grace no body knows where he is nor can find the Way to recover it tho' Grace is not wanting on God's part no more than the Sun is wanting in Light tho' he who has a thick Wall between him and it has no more Benefit than if it did not shine It is only by the help of a Candle that he can discern the Objects that are about him so it is only sensible Lights and Grace such as are to be perceived by the Senses that can make him discern inward Good his Heart is so fix'd to the Earth by his Sin that he cannot perceive Divine things but by the help of Material ones And if his Free-will do not choose the Good which he may know by this Mean he can never work out his Salvation Thus the Sinner has always some sensible Grace sufficient to raise him again as Displeasure for his Sin the Disquiet it brings Remorse of Conscience or the Fear of his Damnation which are so many sensible Graces that God gives him whereby to call him back again making him see as it were by the help of a Candle the Miseries that his Sin has brought upon him with a desire to rise again and to recover the Grace of God Those sensible Graces are more than sufficient to work out Man's Salvation after a great many Sins provided his Free-will be effectualy resolved to detest and abandon his Sins with a strong Resistance which breaks down at least some Stones of the Wall that is oppos'd to Grace that he may perceive as it were by a chink some small Ray of that enlightning and warming Grace lost by Sin which will give him new force to break down more and more of this Opposition to Grace if so be the Soul be faithful and force it self according as the Light manifests it self It is thus that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers Violence and that the Violent take it by force for if the Will do not Violence to it self to forsake its Sins when Reason makes it see the Evil they bring and it feels Vexation of Spirit with the fear of Damnation all which are sensible Graces which Sin never deprives him of no more than of his Free will to effectuate
will tell me that you would try the Spirit of God by true Miracles and not by such as come by the Intervention of the Devil I ask by what means you shall discern between these so long as you have not that Holy Spirit which would learn you all Truth Then you would discern all things and would not need to ask Miracles to know if another be guided by that true Spirit For Faith alone would give you Evidence enough When the Pharisees ask'd Miracles of Christ and he had done some they said presently he had a Devil and that he cast out Devils by the Power of Beelzebub who was more Powerful than the inferiour Devils Do you not think that the same would happen now and if I also wrought Miracles would they not undoubtedly say that I were a Sorceress which were even to be feared since now there is no more need of Miracles except to bewitch Mens Spirits with Admiration our Faith being sufficiently confirm'd and the Gospel Law verified There is nothing wanting but that it is not put in practice and there is no need of Miracles to assure all Christians that they cannot be sav'd without the practice of it since Jesus Christ and his Apostles have so strongly affirm'd it One must deny the Gospel to believe that he can be saved without imitating Jesus Christ seeing he says that he is the way and that he who enters by him shall be saved that he also is the Door and that we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but by him What Miracles will you require Sir from one who does no other thing but repeat the same Words which Jesus Christ and his Apostles pronounc'd and says no other thing but that to be a Christian we must have the Spirit of Jesus Christ I have done no ill to any Body nor said any other thing in Substance but that Men are fallen from the Faith and that they have by their Sins drawn down the Judgments of God upon their Heads that of necessity we must be converted to God and take up the Spirit of the Christians of the Primitive Church or otherwise we are not True Christians All these Truths are so clear that all Men ought to become silent and confounded by them silent in that they cannot bely the Truth and confounded to see that they are so far from God and the practice of True Christians But being unwilling to yield to this Truth and to be asham'd that their Degeneracy is laid open they will not be silent but strive to reproach those who tell this Truth and tempt them with Foreign Questions and Arguments even demanding of them outward Signs and Miracles as if they were of the Essence of Vertue while they cannot give the least Ray of Vertue to him who works them for True Miracles come from God and not from the Person that does them who is only his Instrument to shew to Men that which God operates So that you cannot be assured that a Person has the Holy Spirit even tho' he should work outward Miracles since Judas did them as well as the other Apostles and yet was a Devil We need another Touchstone to know the Spirit of God for St. Paul says tho' we could remove Mountains and had the Gift of Prophecy all this would be nothing without Charity It is a great Blindness to seek for Miracles and outward Signs that we may believe that a Soul is guided by the Holy Spirit It were better to search in the Scriptures what Gifts and Fruits the Holy Spirit brings always along with him and observe if they who say they are endued with the Holy Spirit have in them those Gifts and Fruits for then it is certain they are possest with the Holy Spirit for all these things are Supernatural and Divine Not that I would exclude True Miracles from Souls that love God for they would certainly do them in this present Time as much as the Apostles did them in their Days if it were necessary for God's Glory who will always do the Will of those who love him in all Times and Places But I have said all this to make appear to you that this is the least Favour that God does in this World to a faithful Soul that it has the Gift of Prophecy or of doing Miracles and that these things ought not to be valued in respect of Faith and Charity which unite Souls to God These are True Miracles with respect to the Souls of their Neighbour they restore to them Sight Health and Life and with those Philosophers Stones of Living Faith and Charity they change earthly Souls into the pure Gold of Divine Charity These are the True Miracles which shall be done in this Fulness of Time to prove the force of the Holy Spirit by the Cure of Souls more worthy beyond Comparison than Mortal Bodies The Summ of what she says on this Head is this That it is not necessary that every one who is immediately taught by the Spirit of God should prove the same by outward Miracles that they are necessary only for the Confirmation of a New Doctrine That she declares no other Doctrine than the Gospel of Jesus Christ which our Lord and his Apostles have sufficiently confirm'd already That to demand Miracles now is to tempt God and to expose our selves to be deluded by the Devil who we are told will in these last Times by his false Prophets do Signs and Lying Wonders which without the Spirit of God cannot easily be distinguished from true Ones That they are not the surest Touchstones of one's being guided and taught by the Spirit of God but the Gifts and Fruits of the Spirit particularly Living Faith and Charity and that by these the Spirit of God does greater Miracles in converting and healing the Souls of others than all outward Miracles on Bodies would amount to And that in these last Times God will manifest the Power of his Spirit by working these Miracles on Souls by turning them away from things Earthly and Temporal to things Heavenly and Eternal There were many of the ancient Prophets of whom we do not read that they wrought Miracles and their Prophesies were generally for After-times and not fulfilled in their own Days yet the People were bound to receive them as sent from God and there were sufficient Evidences for it in their Doctrine and Lives Besides it was no less than a Miracle and beyond the Power of Nature that she knew the Thoughts of other Mens Hearts and their inward Dispositions not that she always did so but when God thought fit to discover them to her either for her own Safety or for the Good of others This is oft-times declared and Instances given of it not only by her self but also by M. de Cort Poiret Tiellens Francken and many others The manner also of having so clear and comprehensive a Knowledge of Divine Things without Study Conferences Meditation or Books is no less strange
promises that if our Eye be Single our whole Body shall be full of Light and if it be Evil it will be full of Darkness For tho' a Soul have not in it self the Holy Spirit yet it shall have the Understanding enlightned to discover him in others provided it behold them with a single Eye without Dissimulation or Surprize but in the Simplicity of a Child as Jesus Christ says we must be in if we would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They who see me write know well that I do it without any Study or humane Speculation and that it flows from my Spirit as Water flows from its Fountain and that I do nothing but lend my Hand and my Spirit to another Power than mine And God gives yet a more sure Testimony by imparting to me his Righteousness Truth and Charity For these things cannot come from Nature which being corrupted can produce no Good nor any Divine Vertues because I am come of the Corrupt Mass of Adam as all the rest of Men there could not be in me any Righteousness Truth and Charity which are all Divine and Supernatural Vertues which cannot enter into the Soul of Men but by the Work of the Holy Spirit This gives me a sufficient Testimony that I am led by God since the Devil and Nature have nothing of those Vertues And therefore we cannot find a surer Evidence that a Soul is led by the Holy Spirit than when it is possest of the Righteousness Truth and Charity of God For if we desire to see Miracles for a Proof we may be deceived since the Devil can do Miracles or things which seem Supernatural but he can never have in him the Righteousness Truth and Love of God The Good Spirit and the Evil may be known by the Qualities which they have The Spirit of God has in him a Peace and Sweetness that comforts the Soul and draws it to an inward Quiet But the Spirit of the Devil disturbs the Understanding disquiets it and robs it of Tranquility and Rest The Spirit of God acts sweetly and strongly in Peace and Tranquility of Mind All that comes from the Spirit of God is always accompanied with the Qualities of God which are Goodness Righteousness and Truth And that which comes from the Spirit of the Devil carries always the Qualities of the Devil which are Malice Injustice and Lying The Evil Spirit may sometimes move to do a good thing to draw Evil out of it but that seeming Goodness can never be accompanied with Righteousness and Truth which are the inseparable Qualities of God which the Devil may sometimes separately make use of to deceive Men aping the Works of God but he can never do a thing that is Good Just and True altogether since this appertains to God only who cannot be divided in any of these Qualities God does not speak to me by Voices Thundrings and Lightnings as he did of Old to the Prophets or as he spake to Tobit by Angels in the Likeness of Young Men or as he spoke to Jacob in the Vision of a Ladder upon which Angels did ascend and descend or as he spoke to Joseph in a Dream saying to him Take the Child and the Mother and flee into Egypt For I durst not rely upon all these things in which the Devil and the Fancy of Man may mingle themselves and make such things be seen and heard as if they came from the Spirit of God But I fix on the solid Truth of God on his Righteousness and on his Love because in such things the Devil can have no hold I have sometimes had Dreams and Visions coming from God as I may afterwards make appear by Experience but I do not rely on these Dreams and Visions unless the same things that I have seen and dream'd be confirm'd unto me by a secret Notice Intelligence after the manner that I converse ordinarily with God For so soon as the Soul is free of all Image and delivered from the agitation of its Passions and the Imagination ceases to operate then I hear the Voice of God and his Reasoning not with my Ears but with my Understanding And after this manner he makes me see and hear all that I need to know both for my own Conduct and that of others which many have experienc'd and found that I have told them the most secret things of their Hearts which neither Men nor Devils could know Never amuse your self with Discourses Visions or Revelations made to you or others if you do not perceive assuredly that they are accompanied with the Qualities of the Good Spirit of God or otherwise you will be easily deceived Remark always if what you say or do be accompanied with the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God and then you shall assuredly hear God speak to your Soul For if you walk in these Qualities you will be in God and the Devil can deceive you no longer by Illusions or false Imaginations as he will easily do so long as you do not possess those essential Vertues of the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God in which you ought always to walk if you would not be seduced by Satan The Devil can give Visions Ravishments or supernatural Extasies to Sorcerers yea make them foretel things to come being a subtile Spirit and foreseeing afar and by conjectures what will come to pass and he may make them fall out by the means of his Sorcerers who being powerful and numerous may by their Power and Authority bring about what has been Fore told Therefore it is fit to receive nothing for Truth but the things which lead us to a more strict Union with God and Denial of our selves These things are always Good even tho' they should come from the Devil himself we cannot be deceived in believing them I can never have the least doubt as if it were an evil Spirit that communicates himself to my Understanding for the evil Spirit could not in my Judgment produce so good and so constant Operations such as the Love of God and the Hatred of ones Self Moreover he could not separate the Soul from the Pleasures of this Life nor remove from it the coveting the Riches and Honours of the World nor give it a full Contentment in the want of all humane Consolation nor yet Joy in Hardships and Contempt All these things cannot come from the Devil for he is too opposite to all these Vertues and leads ordinarily to all sort of Evil tho' at first he cover them with Vertues The End of his Operations make appear sufficiently the Deeds of the Author and make known the Workman by his Works Thus you see how certain Marks she gives whereby to distinguish true from false Enthusiasm the Conduct and Inspiration of the Spirit of God from the Illusions of the Devil or Ones own Imagination and how Men may preserve themselves from being impos'd upon by the last That where a Soul is
understood them they afterwards despis'd them and would no longer believe them so as to mock and make a by-Word of what the Prophets said to them Even Jeremy himself thought he was much mistaken when he saw not the Effect of the good Promises that God had made to his People Ah! Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People and Jerusalem saying Ye shall have Peace whereas the Sword reacheth unto the Soul The same Difficulty of not being able to comprehend the Word of God according to our way of conceiving it befel the very Disciples of Jesus Christ who had convers'd with him they were mistaken and thought themselves deceived witness the two who after his Death going to Emmaus sad and without hope said We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel and beside all this to Day is the third Day since these things were done And even when Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven some ask'd him if at this time he would restore Israel The Holy Spirit makes many things be said in another Sense than Men understand it as in what he made Caiphas say concerning Jesus Christ that it was expedient that one Man should die that the whole People perish not which he spoke not of himself and understood in another manner and for a quite different end than that of the Holy Spirit Thus we see we may be easily mistaken by our way of understanding the Words and Revelations of God They are an Abyss and Depth of Spirit which our natural Sense cannot comprehend We must free our Mind from our way of conceiving things and place it in the Liberty of a Faith which may make it reckon its own ways of conceiving obscure and dark There we shall receive the Abundance of the Spirit Wisdom and Understanding proper for conceiving aright the Words of God which no Man that is not Spiritual can comprehend or judge of they being Divine He cannot judge even reasonably of them and if he judge of them according to the outside he is not Spiritual For tho' they be covered with this outside yet he cannot understand them as St. Paul says that the natural Man does not conceive the things which are of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are Spiritual But the spiritual Man discerns all things It is a rashness therefore to give our selves the Liberty to treat of Divine things by a way of comprehending them naturally when they require a Discerning that is Supernatural to Sense Let us conceive this also by some Examples Suppose a Holy Person sees he is persecuted by his Enemies and God says to him I will deliver thee from them all see Jer. 1. 19. this Prophecy may be true tho' his Enemies kill him as it happened to that Prophet therefore he who should understand this Prediction in a temporal way should be deceived for God might have spoken of the true and chief Deliverance and Victory which is Salvation by which the Soul is victorious and delivered from all its Enemies in a far more true and profitable way than the temporal and outward Deliverance And in this Sense that Prediction was more true and ample than the Man would have conceiv'd it to be if he understood it only for this temporal Life For the Words of God do comprehend always the principal and most useful Sense and Man may understand them after his way according to the less principal Sense and so be mistaken Add that if a Person to whom God has given such a Promise be the Head of a Family or Society bodily or spiritual the Promise may concern his Children or those associated with him bodily and may be fulfilled in them tho' as to the Death of the Head the Promise is annihilated Even so if a Soul desiring to die a Martyr for God receive this Word from him Thou shalt be a Martyr it may fall out that the Person shall not die a Martyr and yet the Promise remain true for it will be accomplish'd according to the principal and essential part God giving him the Love and Recompence of Martyrdom making him a Martyr of Love giving him a Martyrdom lengthned out in Labours the continuance of which will be more troublesome than Death In which he will accomplish both the desire of the Soul and his own Promise for the desire of the Soul was not simply that kind of Death which of it self would signifie nothing without God's Friendship but to render to God the Service and the Love of a Martyr The other because God will give most perfectly the Reality and Recompence of this tho' by other means God has promised to fulfil the Desire of the Righteous because their Desires are just and true If therefore God do not fulfil them during this temporal Life it is certain he will do it after this Life and in a most perfect manner so that the Promises do still remain most true The second Cause why divine Words and Visions tho' always true in themselves yet nevertheless are not always certain as to us is because of the Reasons Motives and Grounds upon which they are built since they may change the Effect does not follow We must therefore believe that these things will infallibly come to pass so long as that shall remain which moves and incites God for Example to punish as if God said Within a Year I will send such a Plague upon this Kingdom the Ground of this Threatning is a certain Transgression which they commit in this Kingdom against God If therefore the Transgression cease or vary the Punishment may also cease or be changed Nevertheless the Threatning was true forasmuch as it was founded on an actual Fault and it would have been executed if the Offence had continued This appears in what happened to the City of Ninevah whither God sent the Prophet Jonah to denounce from him Yet Forty Days and Ninevah shall be destroyed Which nevertheless was not fulfilled because the Cause of this Threatning ceas'd which was the Sins of the People who immediately repented otherwise this Denunciation from God would certainly have taken effect The same thing as to the matter of divine Threatning we see in King Ahab whom God threatned by the Prophet Elias with a great Judgment Him his House and Kingdom But because he rent his Garments with Grief covered himself with Sackcloth fasted and lay in Sackcloth and Ashes humbled and afflicted himself God immediately tells him by the same Prophet that he would not send that Evil in his Days Where we see because Ahab chang'd the Threatning and Sentence of God ceas'd also From hence we must conclude that tho' God reveal or speak affirmatively to a Soul any thing in Good or Evil concerning it self or others this may change more or less or none at all according to the Change of the Affection or Disposition of that or these Souls and according to
must be owned that she consulted Men and Books very little for she had both in great Contempt And yet within Eight Lines he says That her sublime Thoughts were suggested by her Conversation with others by Sermons which she heard and by Conferences with Confessors Priests and Learned Men. The Doctor who is so ready to fasten Contradictions upon others would do well to clear himself of them here he seems to contradict himself with his Pen in his Hand O but says he no matter how she came by them unless they be Solid and True But if they be both Solid and True it is certainly worth the while to consider both them and the Source of them His Calumny of her despising the Scriptures is already answered It had been good the Doctor had given us a Specimen of the fine Thoughts of the metaphysical mean Person of his Neighbour Parish he has been unkind to his Acquaintance there that he never let them know of this fine Wit he might have given a Narrative of him in Bourignianisin detected As for the Singular Talents of his Weaver he may meet with such in every Parish XXVIII One of his great Talents in his Narratives lies in making long Common Places and then giving such a turn to some Expression of A. B. or of her Friends as may amuse the Reader and make him think that they act or write contrary to the Vertues or Divine Truths about which he has been preaching or are guilty of the absurd things he has been exposing and when he comes to the Application he speaks not Truth in one Article but hâ—s the Art of darkning and confounding things instead of putting them in a true Light this appears in his XXV Article as well as in all the former It is not true that the Appearance of Comets is given as a Reason for having Mrs. A. B. in so high esteem for they were not mentionâ—d as Signs of her but as Presages of the approaching Judgments of God which she also declared concerning which the Author of the Vie continuè had good Reason to regret that the Devil should prevail so far as to get Books and Sermons published to efface our of Mens Hearts the Fear of God's Judgments which might arise from the Considerations of such wonderful Appearances by tâ—lling that Comets are Natural things and so there is no Reason to be apprehensive of them as if the greatest 〈◊〉 were not inflicted by natural Means as that Author there considers to excellent Purpose And as A. B. does in the Place cited on the Margent Many Signs says she have appeared in Heaven in the Sun in the Stars fearful Comets menacing great Evils which did affright some at first But so soon as the Devil had leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were but Natural things he made the Fear of these Threatnings of God sent as the Fore-runners of his Justice to evanish out of their Minds c. It seems Men mock now at God's Warnings calling them Natural things The Deluge was made by a Natural Rain and the last Plagues will be made by Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural things But the Devil to divert us from believing that these things are the Beginnings of the last Plagues makes it be said by his Adherents That these are Natural things that no Body may turn to Repentance So nothing could occur more naturally in the writing of the Life of such a Person giving warning of such approaching Judgments than to excite Men also to consider Gods Warnings from the Heavens From all which there was not the least Ground for the Doctor to make the Inferences which he does or to call his Brother Fool not fearing the Danger incurred by so doing But the Doctor with his Friend the Author of Pensces diverses sur les Cometes will tell us They are all the superstitious Observers of Comets who look upon them as Presages of Divine Wrath and that Eclipses were sometimes as formidable and Comets now come to be better understood And in all Appearance the better they are understood they will become the more dreadful and terrible not only as Presages and Warnings of God's Judgments but also as the most dreadful and immediate Instruments of them XXIX As the true Reasons for which A. B. and her Writings are esteemed by some are not at all weakened by the Doctor but rather confirmed so neither is the Testimony of M. de Cort and M. Poiret being Men led by Truth more than Passion or Fancy by all that he alledges to the contrary What she said at the Age of Four Years being so weighty a Truth and the Text of her whole Life is most deservedly laid before the Doctors and Teachers by the Author of her Life and the 〈◊〉 that every good Man will make of it will be to sâ—arch his own Heart and not to lesten the weight and due Impression of any of God's Calls even out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings What he says to disparage the Purity of her Soul as well as of her Life shews only the Disorder of his own Mind who from Spiritual things studies to excite in himself end others impute Imaginations Vnto the 〈◊〉 all things are pure The Contradiction he finds out in M. Poiret lies only in his own Fancy Jesus Christ the Saints the Holy Scriptures do certainly send forth an Odour of Truth Charity Holiness Chastity and of all Vertues but this is not perceptible but only by them who are rightly disposed and who truly seek God Whereas they who love Falshood and Impurity are so far from feeling those Impressons that their Passions are rather excited to the contrary as appears by the Enemies of the Gospel So the Writings and Conversation of A. B. might make Divine Impressions of Charity and Purity upon some and yet the Spite and Malice and evil Passions of others might be thereby the more enflamed and that this is neither a Falshood nor a Contradiction daily Experience does testifie As to the Passage cited out of the Preface to M. Poiret's Divine Aeconomie whosoever shall read it at length as it is in the Preface it self will find the Thought so just and so excellent that he will see the Doctor has bewrayed only the Weakness of his own Understanding in censuring of it We see the Art that is now most magnified for finding out the Truth and upon which the Mathematicians do so much value themseves and I hope the the Doctor is a Friend to the Mathematicks tho' not to the Metaphysicks is that of shutting out all Idea's foraign to the thing in Question that the Mind may search after the Truth without Respect to its former Conceptions of it upon which the Truth does not at all depend If there be unquestionable and sufficient Evidences of the Divine Illumination of a Person this is not a sufficient Ground to despise them or to disparage