spiritual or imaginary as they would sometimes make us believe why would Jesus Christ have made us to ask so many different things If Paradise were not accompanied with the Earth and with all the Creatures which we see and with our Body with all its Functions why must we pray to have our daily Bread when there will be no need of Eating Why should we pray that the Name of God may be Hallowed seeing all the Blessed have always Hallowed it and will never cease to do it tho' we should not pray for it Must there not be in this a Sense which we have not as yet discovered and that this Hallowing of the Name of God ought to be underderstood that all the Men who are upon Earth may Hallow his Name for it cannot be done fully by Angels by the Blessed and by some particular Souls living upon Earth But this Name must be Hallowed generally by all Men in Body and in Soul Which will be when this Kingdom shall come wherein the Will of God shall be done upon Earth as the Angels and the Blessed do it in Heaven and wherein shall be given us also our daily Bread that is every day in particular Graces in abundance for our Souls and all sort of delights to satisfie our Bodies wherein we shall pardon our Brethren their Sins as we shall see that God has pardoned us in giving us besides Pardon Eternal Happiness wherein there shall be no Temptations of the Enemy nor of our Nature for it will not any longer feel any vicious Inclinations where in short there can never enter any Evil but all sort of Happiness of Joy and of Contentments Perfect and Compleat Incomprehensibly Delightful This is what S. Paul saw when he said That they had never entred into the Mind of Man the things which God had prepared for his Elect. All the Holy Scriptures are full of this Kingdom which is to come to us This is the Feast signified by the Parable of the King Who made a Marriage for his Son This Son is Jesus Christ who is Allied with the Human Creature His Nativity in Flesh was but the betrothing wherein he has indeed promised unto Man an Alliance as he had done before to Abraham which will be accomplish'd and consummated only at the coming of Jesus upon Earth in Glory when he shall be perfectly United to Man Body and Soul with the Divinity all together This is that also which is signified unto us by the Parable Of the Master who went into a far Country giving Talents to his Servants to every one according to his Ability and at his return he demanded of each of them an account to give them their Wages Jesus Christ having given his Graces and Talents by his Gospel has ascended unto his Father which is the Long Journey But he will return in his Glory to demand an account of every one of all the Graces received in this time and to place his faithful Servants over great things and make them enter into the Joy of their Lord. This is also the Parable Of the Master who made a Feast and sent his Servants to call those that were bidden who all excused themselves One had bought Oxen another a Field another had taken a Wife The Birth of Jesus Christ was the time when he came to invite Men to the Feast which God would make that he might take his delight with Men and as soon as the day shall come that all shall be ready upon Earth for receiving the Son of Man in his Glory those who were invited by his Evangelical Doctrin will excuse themselves One will say I have been a Merchant I must wait upon my Merchandise I cannot attend it Another will say I have been a Labourer I must take care of my Labours I cannot attend it Another will say I have been Married I must satisfie my Wife and Family I cannot attend it And when Jesus Christ will swear that none of those who were called shall taste of his Banquet That is that all they who have received the Gospel and have not obeyed it shall never enter into his Kingdom For no State or Condition ought to hinder the observing of the Doctrin of the Gospel For Jesus Christ has not brought it from Heaven for the Monks or Religious only seeing there were none such then but he has brought it for all Christians in general whom he has particularly invited to make this Alliance with them And they who would not observe this Holy Doctrin shall never taste the Delights of that Marriage Feast All the other Parables speak of nothing but this Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth when he compares this Kingdom of Heaven to A Grain of Mustard he signifies that it will be only the Little and the Humble who shall inherit this Kingdom and when they shall be mortified upon Earth they will grow so strongly that the Angels of Heaven shall come to rest in their Branches And when this Kingdom of Heaven is compared To a Treasure hid in the ground that he who has found it ought to sell All that he has to buy this ground that he may have this Treasure That is that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ is hid from the Judgment of the Wise being as it were sunk in the ground till the time appointed and then it shall be found by the Simple who labour in this Life to find the Kingdom of Heaven and when they shall discover it they will sell all that they have that they may follow this Evangelical Life In short Sir time would fail me to relate to you in particular all the Parables with all the Passages of Holy Scripture which treat of this Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth because it treats of nothing so much as this as well in the Old as in the New Testament The Song of Zaohary is that he saw by a Prophetical Spirit the Re-establishment of the People of God in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ The Song of the Virgin Mary speaks of no other thing For what ground would she have had to rejoyce in the Lord since all his Life was a train of Sadness and Sorrow What ground would she have had to Sing his Magnificence since she saw him so Poor and Despised in the Stable of Bethlehem and pursued to Death in his Tender Infancy as he was all the rest of his Life What ground of rejoycing to see him Imprisoned and Accused as a Malefactor The Sword of Sorrow had always pierc'd her Heart to see her Son God and Man Beaten Torn and at last Hang'd upon a Cross in her presence It must needs be that her Joy proceeded from a Prophetick Spirit in seeing that one day he would be upon Earth in Glory wherein all Generations would call her Blessed which has never been done For none Praise her but a small number of Christians amidst so many Nations And that sometimes in such a
Heaven and the rest shall be given you this also will not come to pass in this Life For the Servants themselves who seek the Kingdom of Jesus have suffered many Necessities and Lazarus at the the Rich Man's Feet could not obtain a crum of Bread tho' he did not cease to ask it If the Promise which Jesus Christ has made of giving the rest to those who shall seek his Kingdom were to be understood of this present Life none if the Friends of God would stand in need of any thing tho' they should not ask of any it would be needful that God accomplish what he has promised them And if the Kingdom of Heaven were only spiritual as People do imagine there would be no need of any rest or other things after having obtain'd this Kingdom which would suffice fully Do you not see Sir that this promise of Jesus Christ is to be understood of his Kingdom upon Earth where he will give besides his Glory all material things for the delights of our Body Which he calls The Rest and makes us understand that we shall not need to seek and labour to have them but that he will give them freely as an excess of Blessedness And when Jesus Christ says He who shall leave Father Mother Brethren Sisters Lands or any other thing for his Name shall have a hundred fold in this World neither can this be understood of this present Life for the Apostles and so many other Saints who abandon'd all to follow him had not an hundred fold in Earth Mother Brethren Sisters Houses or Lands but on the contrary had need of many things after having abandon'd them Jesus Christ himself after having abandoned the delights of Heaven says That he had not in this Life a stone where to rest his Head How then should his Promises be true that he would render a hundred fold in this Life Jesus Christ can he lie and make all who have abandon'd all for his sake to be afterward in want of things necessary which would be very far from having the hundred fold of them We see the Wicked have ordinarily more Prosperity in Earthly Goods than the Just Jesus Christ would be a deceiver to falsifie his Promise which he has made unto all those who shall forsake all for his sake This cannot be thought But he promised to those who shall have left Father Mother or any other thing for his sake that they shall possess Life Eternal which shall be in that World when Jesus Christ shall come to dwell with his Creatures where he shall render the hundred-fold of all the things which they shall have forsaken for his sake for one Father they shall find an hundred because all those Blessed Ones shall have the Hearts of a Father and Mother toward their Neighbour All shall be Brethren and Sisters under the government of one and the same Father And the Earth being purg'd from all the Wicked shall suffice to give unto the Just an hundred times as much as they shall have abandoned in this miserable Life Lo thus the Promises of Jesus Christ shall be accomplish'd in a perfect sense in his Kingdom which can in no wise be accomplish'd in a perfect sense elsewhere no more in the Empireal Heaven as is imagined than in this time of Penitence There would need years of time to relate unto you Sir all the passages of Holy Scripture which verifie these Truths for when Gabriel says of Jesus Christ that he shall be great and be called the Son of the most High he cannot speak of his coming in the Stable of Bethlehem for he was but a little Infant abandoned and neglected of Men where his Grandeur did consist of Poverty and Miseries And when he began to be known and to speak in publick they call him the Son of the Carpenter and of Mary amongst the common People Which is very far from being call'd the Son of the most High and how should he lift up his Horn seeing he was wrapt up in Swadling-cloths and bound with Swathing-bands And it seems he had not strength to resist King Herod and the Pharisees who pursued him to death before whom he fled instead of resisting Do you not see Sir that nothing has in this World its perfect Sense Nevertheless all that is spoken by the Holy Spirit must be intirely fulfilled And if we hope that this accomplishment ought to come to pass in this time of Penitence we deceive our selves for the more it shall continue the more will Men mistake the greatness of God and the less will they call him the Son of the Most High and the less will he make his strength appear that he may give place to Man to use his Free-will But as soon as the time of the Reign of Jesus Christ shall come he will exalt his Horn to exercise his Power and condemn the Wicked and he shall be known of all Men for the Son of the Most High For he will come in Majesty and Power to rule over all things Whereas in the Empireal Aether there will be no need of exalting his Horn and shewing his Power seeing all submit to him by Love It is therefore of the day when he shall come to reign upon the Earth that Zacharias speaks by his Prophetical Spirit when he saw the Glory of Jesus Christ upon Earth And when he himself says If I be lifted up I will draw all unto me he does not speak but of this Kingdom to come For he has not drawn all unto him by his death upon the Cross because the most part of Men has since voluntarily yielded themselves unto the Devil The Twenty ninth Conference Of the Marks to know that we are fallen into the last Times and that the World is Judged to wit That Men are without Righteousness Truth and Goodness before God and that the execution of the Plagues makes it already effectually to appear I said to her That I understood sufficiently what she meant by this Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth that I would apply my self to discover it more intreating her to tell me the Marks whereby to know that we were in the last times and that the Judgments were at present begun She said Sir observe well the deportment of Men and you will see clearly that it must needs be that they are Condemned for therein you do not perceive any Penitence nor desire of amendment On the contrary they grow every day worse and cannot so much as suffer that the truth of their faults should be shewn them and reckon themselves more secure in evil-doing than the Good have ever been in well-doing For the Saints themselves have feared God and dreaded Death Whereas Men at present have lost the fear of God and fear only Men and instead of dreading the passage of Death they dread only the day in which they must lose their Life which they love more than God Every one lyes
come to tell you that this is the Will of God you will never do it for God has no Will to make you leave it more than he had any to make you undertake it It concerns every one to examine what Mean will be most proper for him to facilitate his Salvation One may sufficiently perceive in his Conscience without consulting any Body whether Offices Estates and Benefices have been to us the means of more Union with God than if we had not possess'd them and if they have made us draw others to the same Union If we do not find this it is to be feared that our Offices and Benefices have not been sought for or possest for the Love of God but for some Human Accommodation which respects nothing but the Earth This being discover'd it is in your Will to resolve if now you desire to labour for Heaven or rather for the Earth I said to her That I would not pretend any longer to any thing upon Earth that I was very sorry that I had had some Pretensions thereto but that I durst not quickly abandon all without the Advice of some learn'd Person fearing that I might do evil She replyed Sir You are yet far from the Kingdom of Heaven when you will needs advise with Men if you shall follow Jesus Christ Has not he said He who leaves not Father and Mother and his own self cannot be his Disciple Now would you go to ask Counsel of any Man when Jesus Christ has given you his Where could you find better Men are all interested in their own Judgment and will never advise but what they judge most advantagious for Men they having no Light to perceive any other thing They are Flesh and judge according to the Flesh Would you refer what concerns the Salvation and Perfection of your own Soul to their Judgments You must needs perish with them For the Wisdom of Man is foolishness before God All the Evils of the World do proceed from this That Men are govern'd and advised by one another Is it not said somewhere Wo to the Man that puts his Confidence in Man I have also told you That if the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch For my part I can say in Truth That I do not remember that I ever committed any Faults but when I believ'd the Counsel of Men. We ought to go to the Source Sir and let alone the Streams The Gospel is left us in Writing for our Eternal Rule If the Apostles and other Disciples of Jesus Christ had gone to ask Counsel of Men they would never have follow'd him For Men would have call'd it a Folly to abandon all as they do yet to this Day For being of the Earth they respect nothing but the Earth and are blind in the things of the Spirit We can never do ill to follow the Counsels of the Gospel but indeed we may in following the Counsels of Men how learn'd soever For their Doctrines are of this World and that of Jesus Christ is of God The Seventeenth Conference How to discern whether the Motions which do press us to leave the Outward Hindrances to Divine Communion be from God or not That there are likewise Inward Hindrances and that one ought not to be wedded even to good Means I Said to her That I had not Light enough to be sure of my own Motions and to discern whether they are from God or from the Devil or from my self She said That it was good to discern them that the Motions from God do incite always to humble things which the Devil and Nature do oppose because they are things despised by Men and therefore these Enemies do abhor them What comes from God incites to Sufferings and to Patience the things which come from the Devil and from Nature do incite to seek our Ease and Pleasures without desiring to suffer any thing The things of God do lead to Poverty and Self-denial the Devil and the Flesh do desire Riches and seek to be esteem'd and praised In fine Sir says she what comes from God is always conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ For God cannot be contrary to himself Therefore the Light which you have receiv'd that moves you not to seek any longer for any thing upon Earth is but too sufficient to assure you that this Motion comes from God because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever rid themselves of their Pretensions upon each For they cannot profit by any other thing Nature could not sin any more without aiming at earthly things and the Devils could have no hold of a Soul which did not aim any longer at any thing upon Earth We might walk surely on such a Resolution without waiting for Counsel from Men who with their Wisdom do often quench the Lights of the Holy Spirit It were far better to consult the Gospel I was constrained to yield to such Truths I said to her that I would abandon all and would follow her all the Days of my Life She said with Joy Sir How happy will you be to abandon all Your Soul will be at liberty to fly unto God Your Spirit will be calm and your Body better disposed You will experience thereby both Bodily and Spiritual Good But I intreat you do not resolve to follow me always for as for my self I am willing to die alone and as for your concern it will be a greater Perfection that you be disingaged from all Creatures to the end you may wait upon God alone All Company how perfect soever it be is not God He requires our Heart so pure that he does not suffer that it should be divided So long as I can be helpful to you I love indeed to discourse with you But I wish rather that you may speak with God who is the Fountain of all Light He can teach you more in one Moment than all the Men of the World would do in a thousand Years So soon as you shall have found his Conversation you will not be able to take Pleasure any longer in any other Speak to him always Sir until that he answer you He will do it assuredly According as you shall separate your self from the Creatures accordingly you draw the nearer unto God There needs but to remove the Hindrances and this Divine Sun will shine fully into our Souls warming them with his Love He has infinitely more Desire and Affection to receive us than we have to seek him even tho' we be great Sinners he rejects no body he rather embraces them as the Father did his Prodigal Son You are his Child and the Work of his Hands Go to your Father with great Confidence He loves you He seeks you and calls you Do not delay any longer Go forward seek no longer for any other thing but him alone With extream Joy did I hear this Discourse asking her by what means I might find this Communion with God
and what I ought to do to attain to so great a Happiness She replyed Sir There are very few things to be done but there are many things to be left and parted with It is a great Point to quit Honours Offices and Dignities but these are all things without us There are also within us which hinder the Operation of God such as the coveting of all that pleases our Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life If we could part with these things we would presently find God For if our Soul had no hindrances it would fall into him even as a Stone cast from on high falls into its Centre which is below Our Soul has God for its Centre it can never repose it self but in him Therefore we can find no Rest nor Satisfaction in the things of this World which do only pull us out of our Centre which is God But if we could part with that Covetousness that Concupiscence and that Pride which we have in our Heart we would find our selves swallowed up in God without knowing how There is no need of doing much to find God because he offers himself always of himself But we must labour to remove the Hindrances which our Vicous Affections do give him In this the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence for we cannot without Violence quit our evil Habits God in the mean time does well deserve that we should force our selves to find him so much the more that by our Wickedness we have so basely forsaken him for things of so small Continuance For all that can be coveted in this World passes away like the Smoak And what can the Lust of the Flesh give us but Pains and Corruption The Pride of our Heart is nothing but a meer Blast of Wind which puts nothing within us And these so inconsiderable things do nevertheless oppose themselves to God building as it were a strong Wall between our Soul and him which hinders us from hearing his Voice and his Word There are no other means but to break it down by Force of Combat I ask'd her To what Place I should retire since she would not that I should follow her She said to me Sir You will be well enough in any Place provided you be with God There is no Part nor Place that can sanctifie you but rather a Disingagement from your self The World is great and God is every-where It is not meet to affect a particular Place It were better to roul from one Place to another since we are Pilgrims upon Earth let us walk always towards our Centre without considering in what Place we are lodg'd for the so small Time that our Life is to continue Jesus Christ had no house of his own yea not a Stone whereon to rest his Head So much the more as we are disingag'd so much the more shall we be united unto God And this is the only Reason why I do not desire your Company because I am nothing but a mere Creature as you are not a God from whom you ought to look for all things I said to her That her Company had done me great good That I had reason to desire it as the true mean of attaining to Vnion with God She said to me Sir So long as you rest upon any Means you will never arrive at the End Means are good to be made use of as we would make use of a Way to travel to some Place but they are not good to be relied upon Many Souls are deceived in this who have stopt in the midst of the Race and never found God because they rested upon the Means How Holy and Perfect soever the Means may be they are never God and we ought not to rest but upon him alone The Devil has likewise so many Holds when he finds us wedded to any thing He makes Mercury of every Wood. But when we are free of Matter and adhere to God only he cannot take Hold of us on any Side The Eighteenth Conference How we may attain to Perfection and to Communion with God resigning our selves wholly to him quitting both Human Learning and the being Taught of others for a Time Christians uncapable of being taught They will be more desolate than the Jews I Entreated That before I parted with her she would tell me in particular all that I ought to do to have Communion always with God That she ought to give me all Saving Instructions She says Sir God sufficeth you and Jesus Christ is your Master seek no other Means He is the Way the Truth and the Life He has omitted nothing in his Gospel for the Teaching us all things His Word is the Bread which is come down from Heaven for the Nourishment of our Souls Do not seek any other Pasture because there are now so many wild Herbs which are poysonous Feed only upon the Words which give Life and you shall never die If your Soul be entertaining itself with God he will make it see all that it ought to do and avoid more clearly than we perceive sensible Objects Resign your self to him and he will always guide you aright Be not careful any longer for any thing when you forsake all you shall find all I have thus experienc'd it According as I disingag'd my self from earthly things at the same Time God replenish'd my Soul with Light and with Consolation I can give you no other Instructions but those which I have experienc'd I doubt not but you know much more than I but your Wisdom is Human. When you govern'd it was but by Human and Natural Principles All that Wisdom must now be forsaken since Jesus Christ says That he will destroy it and as a Child you must embrace the Gospel-Simplicity for he says If we be not converted and become as little Children we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Leave therefore all your Studies Sir and hear what God will teach you and follow him Hereby you will be the most wise in the World For if you continue your Studies they will serve you for great Hindrances If you have resolved to quit your Benefices quit also your Sciences For they have not made you to know God nor yet your self Therefore you have no reason to love them but rather to abandon them I ask'd her If I ought not to preach any more nor to teach any Person seeing I might now do it with more Perfection than I had done it formerly for I had receiv'd by her Discourse much Light of the Truth and of Falshood She says Sir Do not teach any Body until you have found Communion with God For how can you give to another what you do not possess your self You have made so many useless Sermons and so many Teachings without Profit for your self or others There is Time enough lost you ought now to employ it well You believe that you can do it with more
they have retain'd the Name after having lost the Spirit and their Souls being void of Faith God takes no longer Pleasure in them but they are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error Not that God on his part leaves the Church to err but these Men having forsaken their God have form'd a Church of Flesh which cannot be the true Church which is a pure Spirit as God who is not visible but by his Works so the Church is not visible but by the Bodies of those who possess this Spirit It appears sufficiently that what they now call the Church is not govern'd by Divine Principles but by Human and Natural I ask'd her Whether the Pope the Cardinals the Bishops Prelates Pastors Priests Monks and other Persons making Profession of the Catholick Faith were not the Church And if all these Members together do not make up a Church She said No Sir all these Persons tho' met and assembled in one and the same Place do not make the true Church so long as they do not possess the Doctrine of Jesus Christ It is nothing but an Assembly of Flesh subject to Corruption Every one acts there according to his own Sense There they propose and resolve according to Human Arguments not according to the Spirit of God who is not to be found where things are manag'd only by Civil and Politick Measures which do not regard the Glory of God but human Accommodations The holy Spirit does not animate so vile Subjects Nevertheless he governs always the true Church in what Place soever it be He never abandons it But who can discover it It is so hid and unknown that no Body discerns it It is a Treasure hid under the Earth of which Jesus Christ has spoken by Parable saying That the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Treasure hid in the Earth and that he who has discover'd it must sell all that he has to buy this Ground that he may find this Treasure There is no Kingdom of Heaven but in the Church that is to say There is no Salvation out of the Church and not knowing where to find it who can look for Salvation It it no wonder Sir that I said unto you heretofore That Paradise was shut forasmuch as I cannot see where the Church is and consequently where Salvation may be had It is a Vine which is cut even by the Root and Ground We see indeed its Branches extended far enough But they are nothing but dead Wood being cut off from the Root no Fruit can be any longer expected from them The Members which at present they call the Church are cut off from the Root which is Jesus Christ which brought forth great Branches But since they have been cut off from their Root they are fit for nothing but to be cast into the Fire which you will see very shortly Sir in case God give you yet some little Time to live The Twenty First Conference Where the true Church is Where God is How he speaks to the Soul and the Soul to him and how we ought to dispose our selves for this Divine Conversation I Ask'd her If there was no fix'd Place where we might find the Church That for my part I would search for her because I would seek to be saved She said to me Sir The Church is everywhere where there are Souls possessing the Doctrine of Jesus Christ There are no other Places proper or destin'd for the true Church to reside in All those Persons who are call'd Churchmen are as so many Stones with which they have built a material Church which serves now for the Offering of Sacrifice and it may be shortly will serve for a Stable for Horses These Stones and other Materials are not the Church tho' they serve to the Structure of a Building which may be both for Holy and Prophane Uses Therefore Sir the Church is not to be sought for in any fixt Place which is material but in Spiritual Souls who also cannot be found because they are oblig'd to keep themselves hid as the Body of Jesus Christ did before his Passion For they would do them no less Evil than they did to him because the Envy of the Prelates is now far greater than was ever that of the Pharisees who put Jesus Christ to Death God gives you a holy Desire of seeking the Church for he has said Seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the rest shall be added to you This is a Sign that the Church is not tied to any material Place for then there were no need to seek it but to go to the Place where it is For Example If the Church were at Rome there were no need to seek it We would know assuredly where it wâ—re Since Jesus Christ says it must be sought this is indeed a Sign that it is hid and unknown And likewise all they who seek Rome do not for this receive all the rest in Gift since so many things are wanting to them even after they are Romanists Which would not befal a true Christian who would be content with what were purely necessary with which God would always infallibly provide him I said to her That I was not truly satisfied for the Good of my own Soul That I would willingly know where I might find the True Church that I might have Salvation She replyed Sir The Church is within you If you seek the Kingdom of Heaven only let Jesus Christ reign in your Soul by his Doctrine then the Kingdom of Heaven will be in your Soul God being there He reigns always where he is He would reign in all the Souls of Men if they did not put Hindrances thereto The Centre of our Souls is God who being Salvation and Life we ought not to seek without us the Church nor the Kingdom of Heaven For he is not an Earthly and Temporal God but Celestial and Eternal The Church being the Word of God it is in us since he cannot be without his Word as we are always in the Place where we speak He is not Earthly for Jesus Christ says That his Kingdom is not of this World It is therefore a heavenly Kingdom which is in us because God is there whose Kingdom is Celestial and Eternal Where then would you seek the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven but in the Centre of your Soul That is the certain Place of its Residence We may be deceiv'd in all other things but not in this infallible Truth If every one had sought the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven in the Centre of his Soul there would not have been so many Persons deceiv'd Since they have sought God without themselves in so many divers means they have gone astray from him by the same means by which they ought to find him and whilst they sought for the Church in so many Masters Doctors and Directors they have stray'd from that which is Holy to follow a
begun and will continue yea and will encrease even to the end of the wicked World I begg'd She would yet tell me one thing upon this Head Whether Jesus Christ would come upon Earth before these Plagues or in the time of them or after them She replied He will not come before these Plagues Sir since they are already begun nor in the time of them for that will be the remnant of the Reign of Anti-christ whom Jesus Christ will overthrow by the breath of his Mouth His coming will be the end of that incarnate Devil who will be confin'd for all Eternity into Hell as he shall deserve but the Plagues will go before the coming of Jesus Christ by which the Servants of God shall be tried as Gold in the Furnace They must drink the Cup of Penitence before they enter into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ This is what he enquired of the two Sons of Zebedee if they were able to drink this Cup that is to suffer Tribulations that they might enter into his Kingdom For they will be so great that the like hath never been since the Creation of the World The Plagues are as the Forerunner of Jesus Christ who Preached Penitence and said in Figuring these last Times I Baptize with Water but there cometh one after me who shall Baptize with the Spirit The Water represents Penitence which must prepare us to receive the Holy Spirit which Jesus Christ will bring upon the Earth to Baptize in Spirit all those who shall be washed with the water of Penitence Jesus Christ therefore will come upon Earth in Glory toward the end of the Plagues and at the end of the reign of Anti-christ and he will judge the Quick and the Dead that is the Good and the Bad who shall then remain upon the Earth and will draw the Wicked apart saying unto them Go ye Cursed depart from me into everlasting Fire And to the Good he will say Cowe blessed of my Father Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World In sending the Wicked away from him he sends them into Hell For Hell is the privation of the Presence of God as Paradise is the enjoyment of that Presence So that to give Paradise unto the Good he does not send them into Heaven or some particular place but only says Come unto me and you shall Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven By which he shews that this Kingdom is his Presence I entreated her to tell me how Souls shall Perish since she had said heretofore that never any of the Works of God shall perish Now Souls are the Works that he has made those of the Wicked as well as those of the Good for Body and Soul are his Workmanship She said Sir The Souls of the Wicked shall not perish but shall only be deprived of all sort of Good and shall live for ever in all sort of Evil. It would be a far less evil unto them to Perish and be Annihilated because thereby their evils would be at an end But because they are the works of God they will never end but will have a miserable Eternity Being banished from the presence of God they will be sent into the Abyss of endless Miseries as the Good will be preserved in the Abyss of endless Happiness by the presence of God which comprehends all Good Therefore it cannot be found any where else for All is in God And according as they are estrang'd from Happiness they are plung'd into Evil being no other thing but the privation of Good Once contrary from it is always contrary from it In like manner Hell is not Sir what People imagin it to be there needs no material Fire to burn the Devils nor the Souls of the Wicked for they are but Spirits upon which Matter has no power as being a far less thing The Hell of Devils and damned Souls is no other thing but a separation from God who is all Good and in the privation of him consists All Evil For nothing can be Good but the privation of all Evil and nothing can be Evil but the privation of all Good which the Devils and damned Souls do possess when once they have abandoned God who alone contains all Good Wicked Souls who live yet upon Earth have not altogether abandoned God for they have yet some hope in him notwithstanding their Wickedness and therefore they are not as yet fallen into all sort of Evils for they have not forsaken all Good But these Souls which have past the time of their Saving Penitence are Desperate for they cannot any more approach to any Good which consists all in God alone whom they have forsaken of their own will and consequently are abandoned to all sorts of Evil. I said unto her That I had read some Authors of good Note who affirm that there is material Fire in the Hell of Devils and damned Souls She said Sir These Authors may indeed have had some Light that there will be material Fire in Hell as well as things hurtful to Man even Naturally But they have confounded one Time with another not knowing to discern the works of God neither in regard of the joy of Blessed Souls nor of the pains of the Miserable and therefore they have committed great faults in desiring to know things before the time that God would reveal them There will therefore be truly Sir material Fire in the Hell of the Devils and the Damned and likewise Darkness Poyson Thunders and Lightnings bitings of Beasts tempests of Water storms of Wind gnawings of Worms prickings of Flies and Thorns and all things that are hurtful will be materially in Hell Even so blindness of Eyes deafness of Ears leprosie of Body with all other sorts of Maladies and natural Infirmities But this will be only after the Judgment when God shall take away all Malignity from the Earth and from all the other Elements when he shall take away the Venom from Serpents Scorpions and other venomous Beasts and even Maladies and infirmities from the Bodies of Men and Beasts yea weaknesses and imbecilities from Spirits All this shall be reduc'd unto 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 may be rendred unto them For God has 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 rendred them by 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 whole Earth from Plants Beasts and all the Elements that all these things
may hinder this our Conversation with God even tho it were our own Eye which we ought to pluck out if it hinder us The Twenty eighth Conference How we ought to Pray and to understand the Lord's Prayer in its perfect Sense which regards the Dispositions and Graces that shall be bestowed on us in the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ of which there are here Marvellous things spoken I Asked her How I ought to Pray to the end I might attain to this continual Communion She said to me Sir This Conversation is true Prayer which consists in the elevation of ones Spirit unto God And as long as we converse with God we are still in Prayer whether we adore him for his Almighty Power or bless him for his Favours or beg of him his Light and that which is necessary for us This is to Pray always as long as our Spirit is elevated unto God I know no other method of Praying If you ask of me words for Praying I will tell you what Jesus Christ told his Disciples when they intreated him that he would teach them to Pray as St. John did his Disciples Say Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name and the rest of the Lord's Prayer in which is comprehended all that we can ever ask of God for his Honour and our Salvation In these words are comprehended all the Adorations which we owe to God all the Thanksgivings which we can render him and all that we may or ought to ask of him for our selves and for all others This is the Prayer which Jesus Christ himself did compose and the only one which he taught his Disciples of which we ought to make more reckoning than of all the Prayers in the World Many Persons give themselves to divers Vocal Prayers composed by some Saints or to a number of Beads saying a great many Paters and Aves without reflection so that if we should enquire of these Petitioners what they ask'd of God by so long Prayers it may be it would be hard for them to tell because all passes in many words without much attention Others who seem more Pious and advanced in Virtue give themselves to some mental Prayers and pass many hours in silence on a design to pray to God But at the upshot of all there does not proceed any fruits from all these Prayers for we see them as imperfect at the end of twenty Years of their Prayers as the first day that they began them Yea very often they break their Head and crack their Brains by the force of multiplied Conceptions one Petition only of the Lord's Prayer well understood is of more worth than all these I said to her That I did not well understand the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer entreating her that she would explain them to me She said to me Sir you ask a thing which a long time ago I judged necessary for all People For I think no body does yet well understand that Prayer But we will need a little time to rest to declare it to you in particular Let us sit down here and I will tell it you First when we say Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name We acknowledge That God is our Father that it is he who has Created and Formed us Who art in the Heavens That is higher than all things We use the word Heaven because we know nothing by our Humane Understanding which is higher than the Heavens and when we would say that God is above all things we say he is in the Heavens to make our Sentiments in a certain manner to be understood And when we say His Name be Hallowed this is to wish that all Creatures may adore and bless him which has never yet come to pass on Earth where Men themselves do Blaspheme his Holy Name on all occasions by Word and Deed. God could not have formed this Petition for us if he were not one day to grant it to us For he could not make us ask a thing which he would not give And whereas all his Works will be perfect it cannot suffice that some particular Souls do hallow his Name It must be in a perfect sense that all Men in general with all other Creatures do hallow him which will not be untill Jesus Christ Reign in his Glory upon Earth Then all things will hallow the Name of God but never before And when we say Thy Kingdom come This is no other thing but to Pray that we may arrive at that blessed Kingdom wherein Jesus Christ shall reign over all the Souls and Bodies of the Blessed and over all Creatures For we have never had this Happiness that God should Reign entirely even in our own Souls Having always given hindrances thereunto by our corrupt Nature yea even in the Souls of the Apostles and other Saints God has never compleatly reigned having always there met with some hindrances or rebellions of their own Will against his He can never reign perfectly in us until he have rooted out all our Evils and Miseries that we may Reign with him Which we have never as yet done tho' we have desired to be wholly unto God we have never reigned over all our Passions and Affections so as that we might reign fully with God But we hope that after the Judgment this Kingdom of God will come unto us This is the hope of our Prayers Thy Kingdom come And when we say Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven We beg also the same Kingdom For in our present state we cannot obtain that the Will of God be fulfilled in us and in others as it is fulfilled in God who is always without any contradiction No body can perceive his own Will to be so united unto the Will of God as that of the Blessed who are dead in the Lord On the contrary many do directly resist his Will and the most Perfect follow it at some distance and not as the Angels and the Blessed do in Heaven For where God is all his Will is accomplished and where he is not all is there contradicted Therefore in this Life we never do the compleat Will of God as we shall do it in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ where Earth and Heaven will be the same thing Then his Will shall be fulfilled in Earth as it is in Heaven which we must always pray for untill we have obtain'd it as also That He give us daily Bread That is what we stand in need of daily for the Soul and for the Body Now likewise we cannot obtain these two things during this Life For he who would have bodily aliment ought always to labour and take pains and be sollicitous both in Body and Mind to obtain his aliment and when we receive it it is but in form of a reward because of our Cares and Labours For otherwise we must dye for want if we did not labour both in Body and
forgiven that People providing that Abraham had found but ten in it he would not have consum'd them And when Jesus Christ himself came upon Earth all was corrupted having made void the Law of God by the Traditions of Men as he reproach'd the Jews with it who were then his People And now Sir since we have had the Doctrin of the Gospel what a small number of Persons do you see who have remain'd constant in it And on the contrary how many wicked Christians are there besides the Turks Jews Heathens and so many other Sects who are Enemies of God Should it not be said that God had created the Earth and so many reasonable Creatures only for the glory of the Devil and his adherents if he did not renew the Earth and make it bring forth fruit for his glory This would be an evil thing which God can never do And that the Creation of Men may be good of necessity there must be a time in which they may glorifie their God And if there were no Generation in the Kingdom of God a very small number would bless him even tho you should sum up the Prophets the Apostles and other Saints this could not suffice to give glory to God for the least favour that he had bestowed upon Men. It must needs be that the Generation of the Blessed multiply eternally as the Generation of the Miserable does multiply temporally from the beginning of the World or otherwise God would not be just I said to her That some Writers had spoken of this reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth but that the Roman Church had condemn'd it as Heresie She said Sir No body can have spoke truly of this Kingdom of Jesus Christ because it is the hidden Treasure which has not yet been discovered nor revealed to any They may well have said something of it according to the Speculation of Men But they could never understand it for the time was notcome to discover it This is the Master-piece of all the Works of God and the accomplishment of all the Holy Scripture Whether the Roman Church approve it or disapprove it that makes nothing Truth continues always Truth Tho all the World should disapprove it it will never change That which is true cannot become a Lie by the approbation or reprobation of Men. There can be no Heresie in that which the Holy Spirit has spoken by the Mourh of the holy Prophets of Abraham David Solomon the Apostles and Jesus Christ himself who have all largely spoken of this Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth as well by Prophecy as Parables and other ways tho the full understanding of it has been reserved for the last Times in which we live at present All the Revelation of St. John speaks of no other thing If they would have received any understanding of it this could not be but by application and not in a perfect Sense And they who said they understood nothing of it have been the most wise because till this time none has understood any thing of it In short Sir the Kingdom of Jesus Christ are the Treasures of God Which he has reserved unto Men of which S. Paul has said That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor has entred into the Heart of Man what God hath laid up for his Servants It were also better to adore all these Mysteries than to dive into them out of Curiosity For the great and the wise of this World do understand nothing of them They will be revealed unto the little ones for such is the will of God For which Jesus Christ blesses his Father That he had hid these things from the great Men and the Wise to reveal them unto Babes I said to her That I was very desirous to know when this Kingdom shall come and how it shall begin She said Sir I do not know the day but that this indeed will be as soon as the wickedness of Men shall be so multiplied that in Justice they will draw upon them his universal Plagues which will purge away all Iniquity Then shall the Son of Man appear in his Glory and Majesty to render unto every one according to his Works In that day the remnant of all Nations shall appear before him for the most part shall be dead with distress and fears and then he will judge them And those who shall be found dead unto his Grace he will banish into eternal Fire But those who shall be found living in his Grace shall be confirm'd in it to live in Body and in Soul eternally with him of whom shall begin the eternal Generation as it began in Adam and Eve our first Parents Then all malediction shall be removod from the Earth and it shall be again blessed All malignity shall be removed from the Elements and every Creature especially the Reasonable ones who shall live without any Maladies or Infirmities either of the Body or of Spirit and Soul Too much heat or cold shall not any more incommode them no evils shall touch them They shall handle fire without being burnt and Serpents without being Stinged Our Passions shall be well regulated there being no longer Lusts there neither of the Eyes nor of the Flesh nor of the Spirit No more Sorrows Griefs or Groanings no more of Love that heats no more of Desire that makes thirsty no more Terror no more Fear no more Forgetfulness no more Sloth no more Pusilanimity no more Cares and Anxieties In short no more of any thing that can hurt shall be found upon the Earth But all things shall serve for the recreation of Men who shall love one another in a perfect unity in Christ Jesus being not only re-establish'd into the Estate of Innocence wherein Adam was before his Sin but with a thousand times more Perfections Man shall possess all things in the glorious presence of Jesus Christ who will wipe away all Tears from his Servants giving them Glories in time to come for their Sufferings by a streight Justice each what they shall have merited in this Valley of Tears for he is the Restorer of all things Ought not Sir all these things to be re-established How many Innocents are there here accused as Guilty How many of these Persecuted wrongfully How many Injustices done to the Just How many sufferings do the Good endure Does not all this cry to God for Vengeance â— Must he not render it and how could he render it in a Spiritual Paradise as they make us believe The Body has here suffered with the Soul Is it not just that it should rejoyce also with it The Body of Jesus Christ which has received so many affronts and sufferings should it not be seen glorious in this World as it has been seen suffering What reparation can be made of all material things in a spiritual Heaven I wish for this glorious Reign that all the World may soe
Darkness he knows not whither he goes Learning has led Men into great Presumption and Pride which estranges them from God So that they shall never know the Truth but by becoming Children re-entering into the Womb of their Mother which is the Original and the State of their Creation They must re-take their first Aims if they would discover the Secrets of God's Grace the Power of Free-will the Qualities of God the Love that he bears to Men and the way how he Rules and governs them Nothing of all this has been known hitherto I said to her That we had been for a long time in Errour that it was a wonder God had permitted such Ignorance in his Church She said Sir God never permits Evil on his part but he will not hinder Man to use his Free-will to do evil or good according to his desire If Ignorance entred into the Church it is not he that brought it in because he rear'd it up in Light and Divine Wisdom which if it had followed it could never have fallen into Errour Because the Wisdom of God is all beautiful and without Spot but Men who ought to receive and follow it have withdrawn themselves from it and embraced the Spirit of Errour which has still encreast to a greater Darkness to such a degree as that no Body knows now where he walks and they take False for Real and Lying for Truth and which is worse they love their Darkness and Errours rather than Light Though it be so agreeable yet nevertheless it is despised by Men now who do so cleave to their own Wisdom that they despise the Truth that is presented to them esteeming more their acquired Sciences than the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit which is the only Mother that can nourish our Divine Souls which is at present despised by the Learned of this Age. Yea not only despised but even shock'd and persecuted For it is ordinary for the Wicked to persecute those who do not follow their Iniquities and for Fools to despise what they understand not or what they cannot comprehend The Wise of this World will never comprehend the Wisdom of God till they believe themselves to be ignorant as they truly are and till they shall become Children not that they must become Fools nor yet weak in Judgment as a Little Child is but till they shall submit their Wills to God as a Little Child submits himself to his Nurse who takes him up and lays him down and gives him his Nourishment according as she judges it to be needful without the Child's opposing himself thereto And though he cry sometimes when his Nurse handles him yet nevertheless she ceases not to do those necessary Things about him Even so would God do with our Will if it were resigned to him But when we will needs rule it our selves he lets us erre and be ignorant of what we are obliged to know Because he resists the Proud The Twentieth and Sixth Conference Declares the necessity there is of becoming Children that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all worldly Wisdom and all Humane Abuses I asked her How it was possible for a Man to quit all the Sciences acquired after the manner of Men that he may become a Child when he is come to Age She said Sir If you do it not you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus Christ tells this And he cannot lye But he presses this necessity of becoming a Child by threatning that otherwise we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which would be the greatest evil that could befal a Man It were better never to be born than not to be saved And since we cannot be saved without becoming Children we ought to become so at what Price soever Would you Sir esteem more the Honour of the World or your acquired Sciences than the Kingdom of Heaven This would be very lamentable since all the Things of this World pass away like a Bird that cleaves the Air and leaves no Mark of its Way So when we shall have past through this World nothing shall remain to us of our Sciences and Learning nor yet of our Honour and Reputation All ends with us and if some retain still an esteem of our Wisdom after Death we are insensible of it If we pleased our selves while we lived here the suffering for these Complacencies wait for us in the other World And our having been wise here is so sar from making us happy that 't is a great unhappiness to have lost the Kingdom of Heaven by this Wisdom Lay aside Sir all these Humane Considerations and become a Child though you be aged You have need to make the more haste for fear lest Time and Life fail you Never advise with Flesh and Blood for they deceive and corrupt us Let us only consult with our Divine Soul which is reasonable and it will tell you that there is nothing better or more reasonable than to resign our Free-will to God who gave us it and to submit it to his government as a Little Child That on this our Eternal Happiness depends and that nothing else can save us because without this Dependance there is no Salvation I said to her That I perceived this Truth most clearly that there was no Salvation without a Dependance upon God asking how I might now become ignorant of the Sciences which I had heretofore acquired since I could not make my self not to have them She said Sir Nothing can hurt you if all be subjected to God You cannot be ignorant of what you know by means of your Studies But you can submit all these Sciences to God and look upon them as Ignorances as in effect they are Do not apply your Mind any longer to the Study of Sciences and believe that they are all vain in respect of the Wisdom of God You shall know that you are resigned to his Will when you seek no longer for any thing upon Earth neither Learning nor Wisdom nor a desire to know any other thing but what may render you well pleasing to God For he who is resigned to him without guile is not moved with any thing but what concerns his Glory No other thing touches him Whether he be learned or ignorant is all one to him He makes use of Learning in what respects God's Glory and not at all to rule on the Earth knowing well that he who is resigned to God without Learning is as great as he who is so with much Learning And even as one may be poor in Spirit though he possesses Riches so he may have much Learning and yet for all this be simple in Spirit When he submits all his Learning to God he makes use of it as seems good to him But as long as we think to profit by it we are not yet become Children to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And since God makes appear to you
are so degenerate in this Age that they are enclined more to dispute than to discover the Essence of that which is necessary for their Salvation If this were not the Unhappiness of Men now no Body would call in question whether Man ought to resign his Will to that of God if he desire to be saved Because there is nothing more reasonable nor better nor more just than that a Creature resign himself to the Will of its Creatour and depend upon him from whom it has received All. I said to her That there was no debate to be made about so certain Truths That every one ought to submit their Judgment to this Dependance upon God which assuredly was necessary in all Ages and under all Laws She said Sir Man has nothing in him that is worthy of God but his Divine Soul which consists in Reason and Free-will And if we do not yield it up to the Will of God what is it that we can offer or give Him He has no need of Gold or Silver or Land or Flesh or any Thing that is Natural Because his Being is wholly Divine He could not therefore demand any other thing of Man but this Reason and Free-will As in effect he has not demanded and will not demand any other thing When he said in his Commandments that we must not Kill nor Steal and so forth this was only to draw Man from his Self-love which led him to all these Things And when He taught so particularly by the Gospel what we ought to do and avoid it was because Man followed his own Will in so many divers things It was needful to point out to him every particular wherein he went astray and that for this End only that he might return to this Dependance upon the Will of God For otherwise many Things that Man had were not evil in themselves as Father Mother Brother Sisters Lands Houses Riches all which Things might be very well possest if there were a Dependance of his Will upon that of God For God did not forbid them by the Ten Commandments because Men were not then so absolutely Masters of their own Wills as they became since for they are not satisfied now to use and follow their own Wills during some Passion of Anger or Swearing or the like but they follow them in all Things loving Father Mother and the rest out of pure Self-love For if this were not Self-love Jesus Christ would draw no Body from it since he sayes That we ought to love our Neighbour as our selves And several other times he exhorts that we love one another By which it appears evidently that he would only hinder us from following our Self-will in all these Things because all sorts of Sins consist in the following our own Wills as all Vertue consists in resigning our Will to that of God These are the Two Things which can Save and Damn us Though they be explained all at length by the Doctrine of the Gospel yet they are all abridged by the resigning of our own Will to God or by the following our own Will In this all Good and Evil does consist Of which we are free to make a Choice and to follow the one or the other For there is no Salvation without resigning our Will to God and no Damnation without following our own Will Let them grow old in Study and turn over all the Books of the World and let them treasure up all the Sciences they can never find a Truth more clear than That all Vertues and Salvation consist in the Resignation of our Will to that of God and that All Sins and Damnation consist in following our own Will This is an Eternal Truth which will never change Every one should lay it to Heart because it concerns him For it is a general Rule that respects every one Rich Poor Learned Ignorant Let us Work and Fast and Pray and do all that we can if withal we follow our own Will assuredly we shall be damned And on the other hand Let us take rest and Eat and Drink and do every other thing in a Dependance upon the Will of God we shall certainly be saved For God has nothing to do with the Offerings of Metals but that of our Free-will which he has reserved for himself Of which he gave a Figure by the forbidding Adam to eat of One Tree only Jesus Christ gave us this Conclusion also when after so many Instructions he said I came not to do mine own Will but the Will of him that sent me If Jesus Christ himself who was the Word of God lays down his own Will and sayes that he came not into this World to follow it but that of his Father what then ought to be done and said by the Reasonable Creature who desires to save its Soul since it is the Will of God that it should be saved Nevertheless it will not be saved without this Self-RESIGNATION I said to her That I wish'd from the Bottom of my Soul that never any Body had taught any other thing but the Dependance that we owe to God since in truth all is comprehended in it She said Sir I hope your Wish shall very shortly be accomplished because Jesus Christ promised it by a Parable where it is said That the Kingdom of Heaven is like to Leaven which a Woman took and put into Three Measures of Meal till the whole was leavened And because now we are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven God makes us to understand all that he said in former Times by Parables for then the Time was not come to make these Things be manifestly understood because the World who then liv'd did not see the Things signified by all these Parables But at present we are arrived at the end of the Last Times and shall see the Things fulfilled which are uttered by Similitudes He sayes first That the Kingdom of Heaven is like to Leaven which a Woman took as if he had said The Kingdom of Heaven will be proclaimed by a Woman who taking the Old the First and only Essential Commandment OF RESIGNING OUR WILL to that of God she will put it in the Law of Nature and in the Written Law and in the Evangelical Law which are the Three Measures of Meal and that God sent his Word these Three several Times to serve for Bread and Nourishment to our Souls And it seems this Word though sent after different wayes has not been converted into Bread because so few have nourished their Souls by it and this Food has remained in the Meal even till now Very few resigned themselves to God during the Law of Nature since at the Time of the Deluge Noah only with his Family were saved and only Eight Persons of all the World escaped the Flood And in the Written Law how few also were abandoned to God Since Moses so suddenly broke the Stone because he saw that few would observe the
The Light of the World A most True Relation of a PILGRIMESS M. Antonia Bourignon Travelling towards ETERNITY Published by Mr. CHRISTIAN de CORT Late Director of the Isle of Noordstrand Superior of the Oratory and Pastor of S. John at Mechlin Divided into Three PARTS Which deserve to be Read Understood and Consider'd by all who desire to be Sav'd Written Originally in French and faithfully Translated into English To which is added A Preface to the English READER LONDON Printed in the Year 1696. ISAIAH ix 2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined TO THE ENGLISH READER Of whatsoever Party or Perswasion THE Degeneracy of the Christian World in all its Sects and Parties from the true Spirit of Christianity and the primitive Institution of Jesus Christ is the general observation of all Men and the Regret of those who are truly sober and serious And as the Corruption of the best things is always the most vile and abominable witness Devils and Men so that of the Christians is a By-word and a Scandal among the Jews Turks and Heathens and they may rise up in Judgment at the last Day and condemn us we being sunk farther below the common Principles of Human Nature as well as Religion than themselves The Moral Vertues of Justice Temperance c. are banished farther from the Minds and Conversation of Christians than they are from among the Turks and Heathens and we are so far removed from the Spirit Life and Doctrin of Jesus Christ that ours may be truly term'd Antichristian He denied himself in all things and we deny our selves in nothing He never did his own Will but the Will of Him that sent him and we ever do our own and not the Will of God He was perfectly dead to the Honours and Riches and Pleasures and Learning of this World and we only live to them He had a toilsom and laborious Life far from Ease and full of Crosses of Contempt Reproaches and Contradictions from Men and we still seek our Ease where we can have it will force others to bear the Cross rather than take it up our selves and would rather be contemned by God than even for Righteousness-sake endure Reproaches and Contempt from Men He was meek and lowly in Heart and with great meekness suffer'd the Contradiction of Men and Pride and Haughtiness is the Spirit we are acted by even when we most disclaim it and we cannot bear with Contradictions from any without inward Resentment and Displeasure Whatever he did was always accompanied with Righteousness and Goodness and Truth and whatever we do has one or all of the contrary Qualities Injustice Malice or Hypocrisie In short Charity was the living Principle of his Heart and Life and all his Actions were continual Streamings and Effects of the Love of God and of all Men and Self-love even to a Contempt of God and Hatred of Men when they shock us in any thing is the secret Spring by which we are always acted The Lives of Christians are as flat a Contradiction to his Commands as to his Life and Spirit He bids us seek the lowest Place and we are never at rest but climb as high as others will let us He bids us take the Beam out of our own Eyes and we are still spying the Motes in our Neighbours He would not have us lay up for our selves Treasures upon Earth and all our Care is about earthly things He would have us seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and that is the last and least of our Endeavours except in Word only He bids us deny our selves and take up our Cross daily and in every thing we seek our selves and rather than take up the Cross will stick at no Injustice to avoid it He commands us to love one another and for a Trifle we bite and devour one another Now one would think strange how the Professors of Christianity can reconcile their Practice with the Hopes of Heaven while their Lives are so contrary to the Gospel But as the comparing the Lives and Temper of the Christian World at present with the Life and Doctrin of Jesus Christ does plainly shew their Contrariety to his So if we shall enquire into the several sorts of Corruption and Degeneracy of the Age wherein he lived recorded in the Gospel and which he did chiefly set himself against and upon what Grounds they nevertheless did presume of God's Favour and of being his Children and shall compare them with ours we still find the same Leaven spreads still and tho we have other Names yet we have still the same Corruptions and the same Spirit It is not in one Age or one party that these Corruptions do prevail but more or less in all Ages and among all Parties and tho' Names and Faces change yet in every Age Men's Natures and Dispositions are for the main the same It was not needful therefore that Jesus Christ should appear in every Age to make known their Vices and Corruptions the Reproof of the Age wherein he liv'd is the Reproof of all and what he said to the several Sects among the Jews he says to us and we may read our Faults and Judgment in theirs There are three sorts of Persons especially spoken of in the Gospel the Publicans and Sinners the Sadducees and the Scribes and Pharisees The first were gross and scandalous sinners known for such by all their Company avoided for that Reason and they self-condemn'd as acting against the Light and Checks of their own Consciences The second were the Wits and Sparks and mighty Men of Reason of that Age. They could not believe a Resurrection nor the being of Angels and Spirits these seem'd not consistent with their Reason nor with the Ideas they had of this present World and therefore they deny'd them even as if blind Men should deny the being of Light and Colours because they cannot feel them with their Hands nor touch them as they do other Bodies with the End of their Staff The third were the most Religious People of the Age wherein they liv'd they were had in great Veneration by all they were not guilty of the scandalous Vices of the Publicans they abhorr'd them so much that they would not eat with them they read and studied the Scriptures much they were much in Devotion and made long Prayers they were exact Observers of the Sabbath-day would reprove a Man that came to be heal'd or that pluck'd an Ear of Corn on it they were very exact and scrupulous in little things so afraid of breaking the Command of Paying Tithes of all their Increase that they would not omit even their Mint Anise and Cummin But in the mean time they despis'd the weighty Matters of the Law Righteousness Mercy and the Love of God they were Proud and covetous and wordly-minded they did all to be
have done 29. The Fifth Conference Of Antichrist and how he reigns over all in Spirit 31. The sixth Conference How outward Worship towards God and the outward Works of Charity towards ones Neighbour are corrupted by the Devil And from whence this power does proceed 36. The seventh Conference That God has not abandon'd Men but Men have abandon'd God and resisted his Grace in the distribution of which he is not partial 39. The eighth Conference Of the Grace of God How it is given unto us And of the difficulty of being Converted 41. The ninth Conference What the Church is and of its corruption 45. The tenth Conference Of the Remission of Sins Of Confession and how it is abused 48. The eleventh Conference Outward Devotions imposed by Men are not of true Faith Of the true Church which cannot err in what it ordains The Doctrins of Jesus Christ and those of Men. True Prayer 52. The Twelfth Conference That the Conversion of Men is now desperate as in the time of Noah and wherefore 59. The thirteenth Conference Of true Faith according to the tenour of the Creed Of the knowledge of God and of our selves by the consideration of his works 63. The fourteenth Conference How God forsakes us and how we forsake him by distraction of Mind by which the Devil does subdue Men withdrawing them from the Love and Gratitude which they owe to God who discovers himself most sensibly in all things alone Lovely 70. The fifteenth Conference That God has never given unto Man but only one essential Commandment which is that of his Love which is most easie and most agreeable and that of every other thing most vain 77. The sixteenth Conference Of continual Prayer and constant Communion with God for which we were created and how we are distracted from it by the business of this World and by the enjoyment of frail Creatures 82. The seventeenth Conference How to discern whether the motions which press us to leave the outward hindrances to Divine Communion be from God or not That there are also inward obstacles and that we must not be wedded even to good means 92. The eighteenth Conference How we may attain to perfection and to Communion with God resigning our selves wholly unto him quitting both humane Wisdom and the Instructions of others for a time Christians uncapable of being taught They will be more desolate than the Jews 96. The ninteenth Conference That all Christians ought to read the Holy Scripture Whether the Church can err Where it is Where not 101. The Twentieth Conference Of the reading of the Holy Scripture and of the prohibition â—fâ—t How the Church cannot fail And what she is and is not 104. The Twenty first Conference Where the true Church is Where God is How he speaks unto the Soul and how we ought to be disposed for this Divine Conversation 109. The Twenty second Conference That there can be no true contentment but in God alone How to return thither Of Gifts and of those which are made to Churches which shall perish 116. The Twenty third Conference Of the destruction of the Church and of the uprightness of God in his Judgments and in all that he does 121. The Twenty fourth Conference Of the enquiry about the most Holy Trinity and of Grace and that even the Saints themselves are therein mistaken none being infalliable 125. The Twenty fifth Conference That the Holy Spirit sends always new influences and that his Light ought not to be bounded nor the interpretation of the Scriptures unto that which the Holy Fathers have had in past times 128. The Twenty sixth Conference How and wherefore the Holy Scripture has in nothing as yet been understood in a perfect Sense which is shewn by new Explications concerning the Creation of Man his Fall the coming of Jesus Christ in Reproach and that in Glory upon Earth there to reign eternally Of the Glorification of the Creatures both Animate and Inanimate what makes Paradise and Hell and that all these things shall be preceeded by universal Rods and Scourges 131. The Twenty seventh Conference That the care of withdrawing ones self from Chastisements is yet a Self-Love and that the Communion of the Soul with God sufficeth in all places 157. The Twenty eighth Conference How we ought to pray and understand the Lords Prayer in a perfect sense which respects the Dispositions and Graces which shall be granted us in the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ of which there are here Marvellous things spoken 160. The Twenty ninth Conference Of the signs whereby we may know that we are fallen in the last Times and that the World is Judged viz. that Men are without Righteousness Truth and Goodness before God and that the execution of his Plagues do already appear effectually 178. The Thirtieth Conference How God permits that Men should be abandoned to to the Spirit of Error 191. The End of the Table of the Conferences of this first Part. THE LIGHT of the WORLD The First Part. The First Conference Of Gods dealing with A. B particularly how he instructed her immediately from her Infancy the opposition of men of Christian perfection and of the deplorable state of Christian AS we advanc'd in our journey still travelling towards the Sun rising being already more than half way we perceiv'd at a distance one walking before us not knowing at first who it was because of the distance we remark'd only that it was a person alone who desir'd no Company but retir'd aside assoon as any body approach'd and hid herself until we mending our pace had come nearer and when we beheld this person we perceived she was a Maid who appear'd young enough and tho she was simply apparelled she had notwithstanding a grave and majestick Mien We saw in her face the marks and the joy of a serene and contented soul Her gate was always of an equal pace neither flow nor hasty her looks gave both joy and fear she did not refuse to speak to us in our Language tho it was not natural to her and having ask'd her whither she was going she said In Pilgrimage for penitence for her own sins and those of others And having ask'd her from whence she came she said From afar for she had travell'd many years and was harrass'd by the way and discolour'd by the Sun We ask'd what she design'd by so long and troublesome voyages dangerous for a Maid alone remonstrating to her that there were many other means to do penitence in her own Country without being in danger of hunger thirst unhappy rencounters and many other inconveniencies which may fall out in travelling alone and that at least she ought to take some Company To which she answer'd That she was oblig'd to travel alone for she had found no body that would accompany her and that many had indeed gone along with her for some time but upon the first temptation hunger or incommodity they had staid behind not knowing how to endure
believ'd that they would be shortly ruin'd She said Sir I believe that God will very shortly grant this great Mercy to the World which is very desirable seeing that he cannot be known so long as this Lustre of Honour and Riches rules in the Church She will never be holy till after the Destruction of all these visible and magnificent Things which have chas'd away the Holy Spirit and have rendred it the Babylon of Confusion God can never be glorified in the same Place where Men do attribute all the Glory to themselves and the Church cannot subsist but by the Virtue and Holiness in which its lawful Bridegroom Jesus Christ did establish it If she be joyned and allied with Honour and Riches she has play'd the Adultress and deserves to be rejected by her lawful Husband who has for so long a Time born with her Whoredoms that they are come to a heighth being become unsupportable to those who have fully discover'd them How much more must they be so to the clear-sighted Eyes of her lawful Husband We ought to wait for yea to wish and desire those Ruins which will discover where the true Christians are This Mask of Hypocrisy being taken off we will see them with open Face Which will be a far less Evil because there will be far less of Deceit in it It is now as in a Comedy where the Servant acts the Part of a King and so soon as it is finish'd we will see indeed that the King was nothing but the Servant Those who reign at present in the Church being stript of their Apparel it will then appear whether they are Prelates for God or for Mony and Honour The Twenty Third Conference Of the Destruction of the Church and of the Vprightness of God in his Judgments and in all that he does I ask'd her If there was no way to appease God by Prayer or Penances that this total Ruin of the Church might be prevented which is replenish'd with so great a Number of Persons as well of Priests as Religious which make some say that the Church was never so numerous nor in so fine Order as now She reply'd Sir There were never so many Religious and so little of Religion It is of this great Diversity that Jesus Christ said Do you see all these things I tell you there shall not be be left one Stone upon another that shall not be overthrown The Temple of Jerusalem was only the Figure of the Church of which Jesus Christ spoke in a perfect Sense saying That all these Orders all these Priests all these Religious Persons and Zealots which compose the Church with all other Christians should be destroy'd after such a manner that two should not abide together So that all shall be destroyed and displac'd These things must needs come to pass because all study to be Priests and Religious and no Body to be a true Christian Jesus Christ cannot reign in all these things He must needs demolish them and cast down the mighty from their Seats and abolish the Wisdom of the Wise and then he shall reign Would you Sir Pray and do Penance that Jesus Christ may not reign If his Kingdom be inseparable from his Gospel-Spirit it must be establish'd that he may reign there and it cannot be establish'd if Riches Power and Honours be not banish'd out of the Church For tho indeed he should come bodily into the World as he did in the time of the Jews he would not be received by the Church She would rather Murther him a thousand times than either hear or follow him for she will Rule and not Submit and will persevere in the Glory and Wealth of the World and contempt of the humility and poverty of Spirit wherein Jesus Christ has placed her Therefore of necessity all these Riches Grandeurs and Honours must be destroyed before Jesus Christ can reign in his Church He has no need of that great number of Priests nor of the multitude of Monks But he cherishes Souls humbled and despised for his Word All that splendor and that order which appears beautiful in Men's Eyes is defective before the Lord who has chosen Contempt and Reproach for our Example I said to her Seeing the wrath of God was so great that it will not be appeased we must resolve to suffer but it was very hard to see the total ruin of the Church in which among others there might be yet a great many good men who would suffer innocently She said Sir you do not know God yet since you imagin that he is angry and will not be appeased and that he does hard things in his universal Chastisements yea that he seems cruel in making the Innocent to suffer with the Guilty Believe me Sir all these Sentiments are Blasphemies which you utter against God without knowing it for want of not considering sufficiently that God is a Being All-just All-good and All-powerful If he be All-just he can never commit Injustice if he be All-good he can never do an evil thing if he be All-powerful nothing can be wanting to him nor fail him How say you that his Wrath cannot be appeased since an infinite Goodness cannot have Wrath. And if he could not be appeased he were not Merciful If he did a hard thing this would likewise offend his Goodness And if he should make the Innocent suffer with the Guilty he would act against his Justice All which things can never be done by God But our narrow mind not comprehending that Almighty Power Goodness and Righteousness judgeth rashly of God We imagin that he is in anger when he does not pardon any more And if we would fix our minds to consider the reasons why he does not Pardon we would easily perceive that he cannot in justice pardon any longer because our sins are very numerous and without repentance We love them and we will not part with them Must he then not chastise them if he love Righteousness and instead of perceiving that they constrain God to this chastisement we see nothing but that God is greatly in wrath as if he were subject to vicious Passions like to ours We judge likewise that he will not be appeased when he chastiseth notwithstanding our Prayers but we do not see that these Prayers are not effectual because they are not accompanied with regret and resolution of amendment We pray that God may pardon us and not chastise us that we may the more peaceably continue in our Sins which peace and prosperity do nourish Would God be merciful if he should pardon us or be appeased in such a case He would rather be unmerciful in being appeased and in giving us time and means to sin the more Who does not see that our judgments are deceived and that we would by them blame God for our own faults as when we say that it is a hard thing to have universal Chastisements when we believe there are
Evangelical Counsels for observing it aright He is despis'd and rejected by the Great Men of this World He is also Reproach'd Buffeted held for a Wicked One To shew that the Praises of Men are not to be sought for but their Reproaches rather to be endur'd for the Love of God At last he is put to Death for the Truth enduring all with Patience To teach us to suffer patiently even to Death And all that he has endur'd has been to give us an Example I ask'd her In case Men had not come to so great Extremity of Evil whether she believ'd that Jesus Christ would have come so soon to take Human Flesh She Replied No Sir he would not have come till the end of the World to judge and condemn Men in abolishing Evil He would have come in the glory of all his Majesty with all his Angels not in Contempt and Sufferings He would have come to Reign not to undergo an infamous Death If you read attentively the Prophets Sir you will find that they speak far more of this coming in Glory than of that in Reproach For the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory is as it were THE SUM OF THE DESIGNS WHICH GOD HAS OVER MEN And the coming in Reproach is as it were the Accident of the said Designs Therefore there will be much more spoken of through all the Holy Scriptures Read Sir attentively all the said Scriptures from the creation of the World you will find that they all will aim at this Kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth with Men for this is the end of their Creation God can never reign fully in Men until the time of this coming in Glory because that they living yet in the liberty of doing evil do not yet give full possession to God to reign in their Souls for very often or at least by accident Sins do rule there Which we have seen in the greatest Saints of the World A David a Solomon all the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ yea all those who have since been esteemed Saints have all in general fallen into Trespasses and have strayed from God for some time By which he could not find in them his perfect reign as he will do after his glorious Coming For then all will be Deify'd Bodies as well as Souls And there will be an end of all Evil. God will then have his full dominion over all Flesh which has never been For the most part of Men in all times have Blasphemed and Despised him tho all were created by him to love him and to adore him They have yielded their honour and love to the Creatures instead of the Creator Is it not fit Sir that these things be one day repaired and that God be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth by his Creatures I said to her That assuredly God would after that manner be adored in Heaven but that I could not comprehend how he could be so here upon Earth She said I perceive Sir that you take for Heaven and Paradise some precise place or some particular part which ferves for a Residence to God And for my part I cannot believe that there is any thing capable of containing God for he is greater than all things and cannot be contain'd by any thing less than himself The Heaven is but his Creature which we say is on high and God has neither high nor low for he contains all Heaven and Paradise is always in him for there can be no other but his Presence and he who is in his Presence is in Heaven and Paradise For my part I know no other They tell us many imaginary things of God and of Paradise which have very little relation to what they are It seems God is like an earthly King who is lodged in some Palace of Wood or Stone These are all Speculations of Men as earthly as their Affections For God cannot have any fixt place for his Residence seeing he comprehends all things When I say that God will be upon Earth reigning with Men the Earth will then be Paradise for in all Places where he is there is always Paradise If God were in Hell Hell would then be Paradise there being no other but the presence of God That makes in all places where it is Heaven and Paradise When this presence is in our Soul our Soul is Heaven How can you not comprehend Sir that God could be truly adored in Spirit and in Truth upon Earth seeing he has so often promised to make an Alliance with Men Must not this Alliance be made upon Earth God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station but Man having a Body has need of some Place to contain him The Earth was created for this necessity that it might contain the Bodies of Men. Why then should not God come upon Earth to dwell with them seeing they cannot go where God is in that purity of Spirit Of necessity he must either come upon Earth or indeed they could not be entirely united together I asked her When Jesus Christ shall come to reign upon Earth and to Allie himself with Men She said As sooon as the Plagues shall have rooted out all the Wicked or the greatest part of them then He will appear in the Clouds and all the World shall see him You may indeed live till then Sir if God please For my part I hope to see him and to reign with him Eternally In this all my hopes and my joy do consist For this Life is too miserable to take any contentment in it without the hope of this time to come I say it will be very shortly for I see the Measure full and Mens sins are come to the height They cannot be more numerous And if there were not some small Veil of Human respect they would Murther Rob commit Adultery and do all sorts of Abomination publickly as well as they do them before God But Pride keeps these things yet concealed that they may not be despised by Men And as for what passeth only before God or a few Persons they make no more reckoning of it It seems all is lawful provided it be not discovered What greater Evil can be expected The abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary Tho Christians be the People of God they have denied his Faith and have abandoned it to become Idolaters of one another Every one has his proper Idol one worships his own Body another his own Spirit another his Learning another his Riches another his Honours another his Children or other Creatures In short none adore God but with their Lips Is it a wonder that the Judgment is near when we see that all Men have abandoned their God Is it not time that he likewise abandon them which he cannot do but according as Man withdraws himself from God by the same consequence God is withdrawn from Man for two things cannot stay together when the one withdraws it self
the one withdrawing makes a separation as if they both withdrew So that God is as much remov'd from Man as Man has remov'd himself from him And having thus abandoned God what can we expect but universal Plagues which our universal Evils have drawn down upon our guilty Heads Which Plagues having purg'd our Crimes and burnt the Tares the good Grain will then be gathered into the Granary of God which is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I ask'd her Whether this Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall remain upon Earth for ever She saith yes Sir It will be Eternal and never end If you believe in Life Eternal which is an Article of our Creed you believe in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth I have also told you that there is no other Paradise but the Presence of God And whereas Jesus Christ is God as my word is me his Body must have some Station as also all the other Bodies of the blessed God being a pure Spirit has no need of any Station nor yet our Soul which is also a Spirit A Spirit is through all and comprehends what is at a distance as well as that which is near As our Thoughts have no need of a way to go to Jerusalem They go thither in the twinkling of an eye for they do not stay in any place Even so God has no need of Heaven nor of Earth to stay in being a pure Spirit nor yet our Souls which are in Paradise when they are united unto God But our Body has need of Heaven and Earth and of all the other things which God has created for it because it is material it must also stay upon material things suitable unto its nature Therefore God has created all this World with all that is in it that Man may have his full delights as well in his Body as in his Soul For God makes nothing imperfect but all his Works shall have their compleat Perfections And resolving to create Man a kind of Creature Spiritual and Bodily both together he gives himself to him for to satisfie his Soul which is a Spirit he will give him likewise all created things to satisfie his Body So that the Soul shall take its delights with God and the Body its delights with Heaven and Earth and all the other Creatures For God has 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 will 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 Behold the alliance which God promised unto Abraham which he did not see but very far of and we see it now very near Do you not think Sir that this Kingdom of Jesus Christ must be upon Earth seeing that he has taken a Human Body like unto ours A spiritual thing cannot support but that which is spiritual But a material must have a stay agreeable to its Nature which is also material Who can or would change that Excellent Order which God has establish'd in all his Works so just and so perfect which alone are worthy of Admiration as the Author is of Adoration Can you yet doubt Sir that Jesus Christ shall reign upon Earth seeing it is a just and necessary thing Would you believe that God should create all this beautiful World only for this miserable Life of Penitence and that at the end of it he should abolish this great Work of his Hands or that he should consume by Fire the whole Universe This would not be a just thing that he had made all these things only for our Miseries This would be as much as to say that God had had little Wisdom I was ravish'd out of my self to hear things so unheard of so admirable and so charming And that I might understand a little more I ask'd her if the Earth and the World would abide for ever She said Yes Sir the Earth and all the rest that God has created will abide for ever in the State in which he established them at their Creation For the whole works of God are all Everlasting Therefore he has created all things with Seeds for to spring and to engender Eternally All which Generations must be made for the delight of Man without Pain or Labour All things would have brought forth their Kind according to their Species in a good and delightful manner x The Sun would have given his light and heat in measure without any Excess the Air without Storms the Sea without Tempests The Fire could not have burn'd us nor the Water drowned us nor the Earth brought forth Thorns nor the Beasts bitten and poyson'd us but all sort of things would have served us for Delight and Recreation So many little Beasts which are upon the Earth and in the Air which seâ—ems useless to us were created to the end that even the least of our Senses might be Recreated Even the diversity of Flies and many other sorts of Animals Herbs Trees and Flowers all these were created not only for the necessities of Men but also for their Delights Which things had nothing but Goodness and Perfection without Sharpness Prickings or Bitings How much more ought Man to be Good and Perfect seeing all these other things which were subjected to him had so much Goodness and Perfection You might ask me from whence it comes that all these Creatures are become Evil seeing they were created so good and perfect I will answer you That the sin of Man has caused all these Disorders and with Justice For all the Creatures of God ought to rise up against Man and take vengeance of his Ingratitude according to their power because he had merited that all that was given him for Joy should serve him for Grief Seeing he who ought to have serv'd for a delight z unto his God turns away from him to offend him his Justice would require that all the Creatures should do the same toward him since he had done it toward his God who had infinitely benefitted him more than any other Creatures which might well offend Man and become his Enemy when he was become the Enemy of God who tho he could not render his Creatures Evil because he is the source of all Goodness from whence nothing that is evil can ever proceed yet he might well permit that his Justice should be exercised by those inferior Creatures when Man had so justly deserved it I asked her If all those Creatures Animate and Inanimate would have an eternal Being She said Yes Sir nothing will perish of all that God hasmade But the evil that is in all these Creatures shall be taken away because it does not come from him and all that comes from Men shall Perish For Example That the Sun burns us and dazles the eyes which look upon him This
manner that very often instead of calling her Blessed they offend her by those Idolatries which they give to her Image and Jesus Christ himself would not suffer that they should call her Blessed for having born him in her Womb and suckled him with her Breasts By which it appears that it is not in this Life that all Generations call her Blessed that it must needs be that She saw in her Spirit that Kingdom of her Son in Glory wherein her Joy shall be accomplished and her Spirit Shall rejoyce in God her Saviour It will be then that he shall Cast down the Mighty from their Seats and Exalt the Humble Which as yet has never been done For the Mighty have greatly Exalted themselves since the coming of Jesus Christ and the Humble have been as they are yet despised and rejected The Holy Virgin could not lie in her Song called the Magnificat but she spoke of the time to come which she saw as present in her Spirit Which made her rejoyce and utter all the things which must come to pass in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in which all Generations will call her Blessed and all Souls will Magnifie this Glory where the Humble will be Exalted and the Mighty Abased and Humbled I was quite Transported beside my self to hear things so Admirable which had never been heard of and I saw them so clearly in my Vnderstanding that I could not but say within my self It is so these are clear Truths I nevertheless said to her that many of these things are understood of the Empyreal Heaven which is the Divine Place where the Souls of the Blessed will live Eternally with God where the Body and the Soul shall have four Qualities Agility Splendor Impassibility Subtility which being like Spirits will have no longer need of any thing but the presence of God She said Sir these are Speculations of Men who not having the gift of Understanding would nevertheless conceive something of what they do not understand If these Bodies of the Blessed had need of nothing wherefore should God create so many beautiful Creatures to serve only for Man's Misery For Gold Silver Precious Stones and so many other things not very necessary for the maintenance of his Life would then have been created only for his Mischief since they did not serve but for this Life where the most part of Men do Destroy and Damn themselves for Mony Wherefore then would God have created so many fine Fruits and other things for the nourishment of Man only for so short a time of Penitence as this livfe Would it have been worth the pains to have made the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the Elements that they might remain for so small a time Would God amuse himself for a little profit No Sir this will not go as People imagin for all the Works of God are eternal and will never Perish as I have told you heretofore all things will continue in their kinds eternally to serve and rejoyce the Body of Man made Blessed after he shall have finished his short Penitence Gold and the other Metals will serve to build his Houses and the precious Stones to adorn them They will not be Buildings made by Men's hands with the sweat of their Faces but wrought by the power of God who has form'd the Body and will likewise form the abode of the same Body And when the Holy Spirit speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem that its Gates shall be of precious Stones and its Walls of Gold This is not only in a mystical and spiritual Sense but also in a material Sense as all things must be perfect and accomplish'd in their time Spiritually Corporeally and Materially For God cannot do any thing Imperfectly I ask'd her If they should eat and drink in the Kingdom of Heaven She said Yes Sir Do you not see in the Gospel a that Jesus Christ says a little before his Death That he will eat no more of the fruit of the Vine until he shall drink it with his Disciples in the Kingdom of his Father This is applied to the Mystical sense because they know no other thing But it will be also in a Material sense that they shall drink delicious Wine with Jesus Christ besides the Mystical Wine of the admiration of his Glory which will inebriate Souls They shall eat also at the Table of the Lord where Jesus Christ himself says That he will come forth and serve us And when he says Woe to you that are rich that are full for you shall be hungry He adds Blesled are they that hunger and thirst for they shall be satisfied Read Sir the Holy Scripture you will find there in many places that of necessity it must be understood that we shall drink and eat Bodily in the Kingdom of Heaven with all sort of felicity Bodily as well as Spiritual For our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost in which he will dwell eternally When the Children of Israel were brought out of Aegypt they eat and drank with Delight Their Cloaths and Shoes did not wax old and they increased with their Bodies even their Nails had no need of being cut So particularly did God provide for their Necessities This nevertheless was but the Figure of eternal Life If he provided for them Cloaths Meat and all things which were even delicious without their care or labour tho they still offended him how will he not provide the delights of the Bodies of the Blessed who will bless him always I ak'd her If there would be likewise human Propagation in this Kingdom of Heaven She said Yes Sir there will be Propagation eternally but altogether Holy altogether pure and Deify'd It will be produced more leisurely than in this World because God by his Mercy has here abridged our days to abridge our Penitence But that Kingdom being of eternal duration will give time and leisure to Propagate stayedly without Pain or Sorrow or concupiscible Appetite but by pure union of Charity in God which will extend it self to the production of new Creatures to the glory of their Creator which is very reasonable For since this World was created few Men have been brought forth who have glorified their God On the contrary in all Times and Ages the Devil has derived his Glory from Men for when there were yet but two Persons upon Earth they yielded to the Devil and followed his Suggestions in abandoning their God And when the World was fully replenish'd Men gave themselves to yet greater Evils For at the time of the Deluge eight Persons only of all that great Universe were found obedient to the Word of God And in time of the Children of Israel when they were brought out of Aegypt to go into the promised Land two Persons only did enter into it In the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah Lâ—t alone with his Family did fear God And when God would have
and acknowledge the Justice of God which will leave nothing of all our good deeds without a recompence no more than our evil deeds without a punishment which every one shall receive by the just ballance of his Righteousness To accomplish which we must in this World have reparation of all the wrongs which have been done us and the falshood must be discovered the Mask must be taken off from all Men that their deceits and their hypocrisies may be known How they have dealt fraudulently with the Innocent All must be discovered at the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and all things even material which have served for our reproach must serve for our glory As to S. Lawrence's his Grid-Iron and to S. Andrew his Cross And so of all the other Martyrs and chiefly the Instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ which will shine in his glory like precious Stones and that materially for otherwise there could not be had a perfect and compleat reparation if we looked but for a spirtual Paradise because we suffer here in Body and Spirit both together This Kingdom approaches Sir for the Plagues are already begun I said unto her That no body believ'd that the last Plagues were begun nor the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon Earth She said Sir The incredulous will go with Sorcerers For he who has no belief of this Kingdom can never well suffer the Plagues which go before it There is nothing but k this hope alone that can give force to sustain those so great Persecutions that there never were any like unto them It is therefore to be feared that these incredulous will perish with the Wicked For if we do not believe that we are fallen into the last times and that the Plagues are begun we will assuredly be deceived by that pernicious one Antichrist who reigns in Persons in Authority whom we take sometimes for Holy and Vertuous and believe that we do well to let our selves be guided and govern'd by them if we lay aside the doubt or belief that we are fallen into that dangerous time foretold by Jesus Christ wherein Evil is covered with Piety And if we do not believe that the Plagues which are begun are the beginnings of Sorrows with which God will purge the Earth we shall easily be brought to Murmour against him Yea we shall fall it may be into Despair in seeing the best Christians Persecuted by Persons who seem worse than our selves yea Churches ruined the Religious banished and all that they call a Church overturn'd and opprest in its source All this will give occasion to Blaspheme against God in case we do not know the wickedness of Men which had drawn down these Plagues upon our Heads We will commit a thousand sins of Murmurs against our Enemies and also against the disorders of those who ought to govern us Setting our selves to seek Human Succours which will sometimes do us more harm than our Enemies and thus we should suffer miserably as do Thieves and Murtherers Whereas did we believe that we are fallen into the last times and that the Plagues are begun we would return to God by Penitence taking all from his Hand as well the Rod as the Bread For all these things must come to pass and by Sufferings we must enter into his Glory as Jesus Christ has pav'd the way I said unto her That I my self could hardly believe that the last plagues were begun and also that Jesus Christ would come to reign upon the Earth were it not that she gave me the view and understanding of these things She said Sir this proceeds partly from want of Application of Spirit and partly because the Devil has bewitched the Spirits of all Men that they may not discover the truth of their Happiness nor of their Misery For if this were known many Persons would get out of Darkness and would follow the Light of Truth Whereas by that infatuation of Spirit the Good perish with the Wicked And thus he gains all to himself To give you a firm belief that Jesus Christ will come to reign upon Earth Sir apply your mind seriously to the reading of the Holy Scriptures You shall find through all that they declare this glorious coming and all that Man shall receive thereby This has been figured from the beginning of the World and by all that has past in it since all has been nothing but the Figures of this glorious Reign of Jesus Christ You have now a little prospect of this by what I have declar'd unto you Search into the matter you will find the thing more true than all the other mysteries of our Faith There is no more obscurity in it for the time is come for the understanding of it What the Fathers in past times have explain'd with so much pains and so imperfectly will be easie to you and in a perfect sense No body will be able to doubt or be ignorant of it who will submit his Spirit unto God with Humility of Heart All that Jesus Christ and the Apostles have said has been fulfilled but in part But you will find the accomplishment and the perfect sense in this glorious Reign of Jesus Christ By discovering assuredly that all which they thought fit to declare cannot be understood of any other thing but of this Reign Remark all the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer which I have elsewhere explained to you No body can imagine that all that we ask in that Prayer can be obtained during this miserable Life and it must needs be granted that we pray for another Life which we do not yet know and that this Life also must be material as well as spiritual For if it were only divine we would not ask for daily Bread nor that the will of God should be done there or that his Name should be Hallowed For all these things are done always in the Empyreal Heaven where no body has need of material Bread Spirits being filled with the presence of God There is nothing there likewise to be forgiven for no body there offends his Brother Temptations are banish'd from thence and Evils cannot enter there The blessed Life that we look for must needs be material as well as spiritual in which we shall have need of all the things which we ask in the Lord's Prayer since they cannot be obtain'd in this present Life and Jesus Christ could not have made us ask for unprofitable things or for those which he would not give This could not be done by a God who can do and know all things For it would be altogether unprofitable to ask what we cannot obtain here and it would be a superfluous thing to ask that of which we would have no need in the Empyreal Heaven as they imagine Paradise to be all the other Doctrins of Jesus Christ are also like to the petitions of that Prayer For when he says seek the Kingdom of
Man must be his own Enemy or of an effeminate Heart if he have not the Courage to leave his own Country that he may avoid his Tyranny and Severity and live in Repose and Tranquillity I said to her That this Comparison was not sutable and that I had not found the Roman Church Tyrannical She said Sir that is because you have always submitted to her Laws without considering whether they were good or evil and the good Impression they cunningly gave you of her Merits made her Burthens tho' very weighty seem light to you If you have done it in Innocence God will pardon you because you perceived no other thing at that time But at present when God sends you his Divine Light that you may discover the Dangers in which you have walk'd amidst your Darkness do not resist it by Doubts or Scruples which the Devil will put into your Mind which have no other Foundation but a Pusillanimity and Softness of Heart which more regards Natural Sensibility than the Perfection of the Soul to which if you would attain you must hear what God teaches and commands you without amusing your self with so many other different things which Men propose to you who are not to be trusted But God can never deceive you no more than he can suffer any Mutation or Change He is our lawful King who has always governed us by Fatherly Affection and Love And even when Men had offended him thro' Excess of Wickedness he sent them his Word cloathed with our Humane Nature that he might bring us to acknowledge our Fault that we may return to him by Love and not by Force For the whole Doctrine of Jesus Christ is filled with the Light of Counsels and Admonitions not with forc'd Commands or violent Drawings but gentle and willing making no Change to the first Law of God but ouly an Explanation and Illustration of it For Jesus Christ gives us no new Commandment by his Gospel but enlarged the Means by which we may the better observe the first Commandment of God declaring to us what we ought to do and to avoid for this End But this Church which succeeded him has indeed chang'd the Government For instead of preserving the Spirit of a most gentle Father she has taken that of a real Tyrant and wicked one I ask'd her If she held the Roman Church to be that which succeeded Jesus Christ and his Apostles She said Yes Sir the Roman Church was in her Beginning the true Spouse of Jesus Christ who had received all the Riches of the Gospel the true Word of God and the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost But since she left that she has fallen into the Misery into which Adam fell when he would quit his Dependance on God and become his Enemy that he might depend on none but himself Adam was the same Person after his Sin that he was before it but he was not cloathed with the same Graces nor with the same Spirit For he was ashamed and confounded subject to all sorts of Miseries bodily and spiritual ignorant inconstant and malicious with all the other Miseries under which we now groan Even so is it of the Roman Church which was established with all the Graces of the Holy Spirit but since she would needs depend upon her self and establish her own Authority she has lost the Grace of God with all the spiritual Gifts with which she was adorned and has consented to the Suggestions of the Devil as Adam did and has ever since been estranged from God and encreased in Wickedness as Man did after Sin Tho' he was the same by Nature he was not the same by Grace For by his Free-Will he had denuded himself thereof and cloathed himself with Wickedness The same has befallen the Roman Church Since she changed the Order in which God had set her and would needs give Orders and Praecepts to her self after her own Way â— and according to her own Inclinations she is fallen from the Grace of God and sunk into all sort of Miseries Tho' Jesus Christ had chosen her for his true Spouse she has falsified her Faith and the Fidelity she ow'd to her lawful Bridegoom to go joyn her self to the Kings of the Earth whereas Jesus Christ has had so carefully warned her That his Kingdom was not of this World yet she would needs reign heâ—e and rule over all Earthly Powers whereas her dear Husband would only suffer and be despised Thus she has withdrawn from him to her Loss to commit Adultery with the Honours Grandeurs and Riches of the World and therefore has deserved to be called THE GREAT WHORE in the Revelation I said to her That Jesus Christ had promised to his Church that he would never leave her asking how this could be that she was now abandon'd to so sad a State She said Sir Jesus Christ will never be wanting in his Promise and has never left his Church no more than a Man ceases to be espoused to a Wife tho' she falsifie her Faith to him She continues always his Wife but he may both by Divine and Humane Right repudiate her and with just Reason when she will needs continue in her Whoredoms he ought in good Conscience to reject her and thrust her away as unworthy of his Company Even so God cannot abandon his true Church He will still uphold her tho' she were but in one Soul only She shall never perish For she shall be always united to the Spirit of her Husband who is God Immortal and Unchangeable who cannot change nor forsake any thing but when those Men who represent the Church do falsifie their Faith to him and will needs take their Pleasure in worldly Riches Grandeurs and Honours they withdraw from and forsake their lawful Husband for this Earthly Trash and instead of continuing the faithful heavenly Spouse they become Harlots by cleaving to earthly Honours and Pleasures By which you may see Sir that Jesus Christ has not left his Church but has only repudiated the Harlots whom he has discovered in it who are not such by Faults or Falls that are casual of which she repents or desires to amend but by so long inveterate Habits that she will never change from them but by Death Therefore there is nothing to be looked for but the Destruction of that BABYLON and the Fall of that GREAT WHORE who is spoken of in the Revelation For she will never leave her Whoredoms but by a total Falland Ruine which shall be irrecoverable I ask'd her How it came that God had not preserved his Church in the same Place where he had established her tho' it were but in one Person only That this would be a great Happiness to find it in the Colledge of Rome She said Sir God hath no Respect of Persons and has no fix'd Place being universally in all things Even so is it
their Imaginations It is not enough to trust to these weak Stays we must take another Aim and direct our Selves towards that Morning Star which appears to our Eyes that we may follow it till we have found this Holy Spirit who must teach us all things The Tenth Conference That the Time is come that Man shall receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness and what hinders them to receive him I Ask'd her How I might find the Holy Spirit For I could not meet with an Assembly of Apostles nor pray with them Forty Days that I might receive him She said Sir you shall receive the Holy Spirit without being in the Company of the Apostles For even they did not receive him in Fulness but in part only and the Promise that Jesus Christ made to send us the Holy Ghost who shall teach us all things had not its full Accomplishment For there were many things which the Apostles knew not and there were also several Faults committed by them after having receiv'd the Holy Spirit It is in these last times that the Holy Spirit comes who shall teach us all things If your Soul were wholy resign'd to the Will of God it wou'd be prepared to receive the Holy Spirit in Fulness For his time is now come Do you not even now feel some Rays of his Light by so many different things which I have told you in our so frequent Conversation Do you not see that many of these things have not been known nor discovered in former times Can you doubt that there is at present a Treasure hid in the Earth which begins to be discovered From whence otherwise shou'd these precious Stones of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ come the so fragrant Roses of true Vertue and so many new Notices which appear in our Eyes as Buds of Paradise Wou'd you have a Holy Spirit visible and carnal Men since the Apostles Days have more Understanding of spiritual things Therefore God has multiplied their Knowledge and refin'd their Understandings that they may conceive the Light of the Holy Spirit by lively Reasons and solid Truths not by material Forms and Figures which were given only for outward Signs capable of being seen by the Eyes of Flesh which did not yet perceive those things of the Spirit For the Holy Spirit not a Dove nor Wind nor Tongues of Fire but an intelligible Spirit who makes us know God and our selves and brings always along with him his twelve Fruits and his seven Gifts all which are spiritual and cannot be seen no more than their Author but by their Operations This is the Holy Spirit which you ought to desire Sir and not a visible and material one Resign your self to God and you shall certainly receive him For his Time is come He is born upon the Earth in Spirit as he was born in Flesh in the Stable of Bethlehem I said to her There were yet many Souls in the World as well as I who earnestly desired to receive the Holy Spirit She said Sir every one will say that he wou'd receive him but I know no body yet who wou'd effectually resign his Will to God's and let himself be ruled and governed by him We still wish for this and that according to our Bent and Inclinations We are sorry for Adversities We do not willingly suffer Tribulations and Crosses We complain of Wrong and Affronts done us We desire to be honour'd serv'd and lov'd and to have our Ease In one Word all our Life is a constant Tract of Self-love and yet we say we are resign'd to God and if this were true we wou'd have no longer self-will but that of God wou'd be our Rule and our Contentment as well in Troubles Adversities and Derelictions as in all sort of Prosperity and Abundance For regarding nothing but the Will of God we wou'd receive all things with Joy But as long as the one 's too sweet and the other too salt to our Taste it 's a sign we yet live to our selves and are not resign'd to God nor ready to follow his Will and so are not dispos'd to receive the Holy Spirit because our self-will hinders him For he cannot operate in a Soul which is not disengag'd from its own Will which still opposes the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit and directly hinders his Operations It 's thus that I say I know no body yet who 'll be resign'd to the Will of God except in Words but not in Deed. Indeed we wou'd do God's Will as long as 't is conformable to ours but as soon as it opposes that there 's no more Submission We give God our Will as long as all goes right according to our Desires and Wishes but as soon as the contrary falls out we take back this given Will to dispose of it our selves and thus we continue always full of self-love and yet we wou'd receive forsooth the Holy Spirit to joyn him with our Filth and Imperfections to make a very unsutable Marriage as that wou'd be of God with Sin which are two incompatible things as Heat and Cold which can never dwell together Yea truly tho' there were nothing but the Sin of self-love it is a mortal Wound against the Commandment of loving one God alone The Eleventh Conference How Man must resign himself to God I Said to her That I would very willingly resign my self to God and yield myself to be entirely governed by him and to follow all that I shall know to be his Will She said Sir this Resignation has some Exception yet and is not wholly disengag'd For if you wait till an Angel from Heaven come to make known to you what the Will of God is you 'll no ways be resign'd to him but you must take all that befalls you for his Will great or small things all comes from him without excepting any thing For if you are resign'd to him you 'll have no longer Desires of your own and will no longer seek any thing Therefore all that shall befal you shall come by his Order when you take it from his Hand you can never fail even tho' it were the Devil himself or some wicked Creature did it he 'll never permit them to hurt you but in so far as it shall be his Will 'T is true a wicked Man has his Liberty to do what Evil he pleases but God has Power also to preserve us that their Evils do not touch us Or if he permit them to touch us gives us Strength to suffer them and that with Joy and so they can't wound us For all worldly Good and Evil are for the most part but imaginary things and when our Mind is brought to take Afflictions joyfully they seem to us Contentments and no longer Afflictions This depends so strongly upon our Imagination that our Happiness and Misery seems to depend upon it If we imagine that Riches are a Burden Poverty will be a Repose
they say it daily Or they imagine that this Coming shall be so suddenly as if the Judgment were to be by Way of Enchantment and that it were to paâ—s in an Instant or in one Day These are foolish Speculations For the Judgment is already begun and I know not how many Years it shall last only at the End Jesus Christ shall appear upon the Earth in Glory and Majesty and so shall converse with Men who shall be all made happy with his glorious Presence which shall fill them with Glory and shall wipe away all their Tears and Griefs to bring them into Joy that shall never end They who will not believe this are Enemies of their own Good because there is nothing in the World that can give them more Constancy to suffer than the Hopes they have that in the End they shall see the glorious Coming of Jesus Christ upon Earth All sorts of Consolations are comprehended in this I said to her That the Jews look for the Coming of their Messias in Glory that he would come to reign and abide with them but that the Christians look'd for him only to come and judge the World and to go away again carrying along with him all the Blessed She said Sir the Jews shall not be disappointed of their Expectation They shall see their Messiah in Glory who will govern them upon Earth conversing eating and drinking with them For he himself says that he will make his Friends sit down at his Table and that he will rise up and serve them now in this Paradise which the Christians imagine there shall be no need of sitting at a Table nor eating nor being served And also when Jesus Christ said to his Disciples that he would drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till he drank it new in the Kingdom of his Father he means certainly of the Earth which shall be the Kingdom that God will give to the Body of Jesus Christ Because in the Divine Kingdom there can be no Planting of Vines nor making of Presses to drink Wine there Truly Sir the Christians are superstitious in many things and they judge rashly of all that they do not comprehend They may clearly see by the holy Scriptures that Jesus Christ shall have a glorious Reign and that he will be the Restorer of all things and also the Saviour of Men Because all the Prophets with the Apostles and other Saints have sufficiently spoken of these things which shall certainly come to pass For the Scripture cannot err or fail But because they have not received the compleat Knowledge of them to explain all the Christians Fancy in their Speculations that this shall come to pass in a divine and incomprehensible Paradise without reflecting that the divine Kingdom cou'd not be promised to Jesus Christ because as God he always possess'd it and has no need of being promised what he possesses For Possession is always greater than Promise for that is wholly accomplished by Possession Therefore the Promise of Jesus Christ must be on Earth where he shall reign over all Men shall save them and re-establish all things because in the divine Heaven there is nothing to be re-established For nothing was ever spoiled there Nor any to be saved because all that are there have Salvation and whither can they imagine that God shou'd carry the Blessed with him since he comprehends all things and cannot be contain'd by any thing They speak of God as if he had a Closet somewhere for his Retirement I said to her That the Jews had look'd a long time for the Messias but that the Christians did not expect him till the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead She said Sir the Jews have done well always to wait for their Messiah For a Thing is then more loved when it is long desired It is a constant Faith that makes them persevere in this Expectation which shall be recompensed with a great Joy when they shall receive the Fruit of their Hope For it is not vain but very well founded on all the Holy Scriptures which is the most solid Foundation in the whole World since it is the Word of an all-wise all-good and all-mighty God But when the Christians look for their Saviour only on a certain Day they are not so diligent to prepare for his Coming which they imagine to be yet far from them They confound divers things together which have no Relation to one another and they make but one Day of the Plagues the Judgment the Resurrection of the Dead and the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory as if all these things were to be done together But they are greatly deceived we have not a God of Confusion who surprises Persons at unawares confounding them by precipitating things On the contrary all his Ways are so well regulated and ordered that there is not a Devil in Hell that cou'd say in truth that God gave him the least Surprize or that he could find in all his Works the least Injustice or Want of Goodness and Truth This being so how cou'd it be that God shou'd send all his Plagues in one Day that no body might have Leisure to be converted being surprised so suddenly with so many different Evils as to be chastised judged raised again saved or damned all in one Day If God has been just good and true from all Eternity wou'd he become impious at the last Day This cannot be But Men mistake him and every one judges of him according to their Fancy For if they wou'd judge uprightly they wou'd not dare to say that God cou'd surprise Men to judge and chastize them so suddenly I wou'd gladly ask Christians where they find it Written how long the Judgment shall last I said to her That no body had distinguished these Times and that all Christians believed that the Judgment the Chastisement the Resurrection of the Dead and the Coming of Jesus in Glory were but one and the same thing and that they should come to pass all together She said Sir They are very much deceived For these are all divers things which must come to pass at different Times For first of all the Judgment is when God saw the universal Iniquity of all the Men of the World and that not so much as one knew and lov'd him he by streight Justice judged and condemned the World And that he might not surprise any he delays the Execution of his Sentence that Men might discover by Experience that the World is judged seeing the Evils to encrease and Peoples Amendment desperate This is the greatest Evidence to verifie that the Sentence is irrevocable God does this that Men remarking these Truths may quake for Fear and be converted unto him that they may obtain his Mercy at least every one for their own particular I believe Sir that these thirty Years the World is judged and condemned and that now the
real For the Devil is pure Spirit and has not the Power of forming to himself a Body unless it be a fantastical one or else by the Seed of some Sorcerer which is abominable I said to her It was not to be doubted that we live certainly in the time when Antichrist Reigns by his Doctrine and his Operations because Men in the general have all or the greatest part of them the qualities of the Devil She said Sir there is no reckoning to be made of any other thing but what concerns the Salvation of Souls for if the Devil be followed in his Doctrine and in his Works he needs no more to make himself Master of our Souls He 'll do no more hurt to men by his Body than he does by his Spirit and if it were not to Ape God he would never take a Natural Body for he knows well enough how to make a body of Air or some other matter to deceive Sorcerers whose imagination he so blinds that they believe they see and feel some real body tho it be only Phantastical By this he prevails with them to commit all sorts of Evil pretending to dwell with them that he may still prophane the works which God has introduc'd for an Holy end So that the Natural Body of the Devil is not so much to hurt men as to bring Glory to the Devil when he shall be discovered and shall be corporally Honoured and follow'd by all his Adherents as Jesus Christ was by his Disciples And that he may leave none of the works of Jesus Christ unimitated that he may pervert them he must also take a body of Flesh that he may likewise Reign Bodily thereby to consummate his wretched Kingdom which began as soon as God became man and has still encreast even till this present time without being known or revealed And since God has the goodness to Reveal him at present he should be discovered if it were possible to all the world that he may no longer deceive any body under the mask of Vertue and that those who will needs follow him may know what they do For the Body of Jesus Christ went not thro' all the world in order to the forming of his Church but he has herein only introduc'd his Doctrine which sanctifies the Souls of those that follow it tho they have never seen his body 't is the same as to the Doctrine of the Devil which corrupts Souls tho they should never see his Body They are as Diabolical in following the works of the Devil as others are holy in imitating the actions of Jesus Christ whose Body they never saw I said to her It was a great Loss that these Truths could not be publish'd to all the world for all are ignorant of them and believe there is no Antichrist until he appear in his humane Body She said Sir 't is lamentable that these things so prejudicial to so many Souls must be conceal'd and that the Marvels of God which are so important cannot be discover'd The last Times are come Antichrist Reigns over all And Jesus Christ will come quickly to Reign here in glory The forerunning plagues of Judgment are begun and no body will believe any thing of all this because we cannot speak of them openly You are the first Sir to whom I have declared these secrets Make a good use of them I shall reckon it a gain tho none but your Soul alone should receive the Light of them The world is deceived and will be while they do not open their Eyes to the Truths I have told you They are nevertheless from God and cannot fail if all the world will needs ruin themselves Sir save your self For tho none of these things should fall out in your Life-time and you should not see the utmost extremities of the Plagues nor the Body of Antichrist nor yet the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory yet it will be most expedient for you that you believe all these things which will open your eyes to discover your particular faults and the dangers in which you live and will give you prudence to avoid the deceits in which we live at present Make use of the occasion Sir without contending out of curiosity about words and the times of every thing because the Judgment still falls out when we die and it will never be recall'd Tho even there were not a general Judgment yet there is always our particular Judgment which precisely respects us and if all the People of the world perisht by the Deluge excepting eight persons it was thro' their unbelief for if they had believed the words of Noah they would have been sav'd in his Ark Even so now those shall Perish who will not believe the Truths that I tell you from God They shall certainly Perish in the Ship-wrack because they will not save themselves in time it will be in vain for them to ascend into their Houses of Honour and Glory that they might avoid the Plagues which will follow them every where I said to her That I could not doubt any longer of the things she told me because of the Operation of her words in my Soul which could not but come from God But I wish'd earnestly that many might enjoy the same effects She said Sir Your desire will be fulfilled for many will receive this Light tho very few among the Christians because they are so obstinately wedded to a presumption of their Salvation being falsely perswaded that they shall be Saved by their frivolous Devotions These will resist the Truth and believe they are Holy and Perfect till they shall see themselves swallowed up of the Plagues and when it shall be too late they will cry for Mercy without any hope of succour no more than in the days of Noah for it is not written that he took so much as one into the Ark after the Deluge was begun Those who had not formerly gone into it did all perish even as those shall do who will not now believe that we live in the days of Antichrist They must of necessity be deceived by him and Perish What remedy can there be for their evils since they seek not to be healed because they are insensible of them as they would be of a Leprosie We must flee from them that we may not contract such a dangerous malady as this blindness because they shall be destroyed before they know it It shall be with them says Jesus Christ as it was in the days of Noah They Ate they Drank they Married without any apprehension Even so tho they see and feel the beginnings of sorrows by Wars they do not apprehend them to be the last Plagues they endeavour to escape and avoid them by Human means going from one place to another without remembring what Christ says That two shall be grinding at one Mill the one shall be taken the other left or even two in
divers other Cases we are guilty of the sins which others commit by not hindring them when we might have done it The Ninth and Last is That we do not tell the Evils that we know of others to those who might put a stop to them as in not telling the Faults of Children Scholars or Servants to Fathers Superiours or Masters who might prevent them Silence in this respect does as much Evil as the Faults which are committed without the knowledge of the Superiours because if they were known to them they might hinder or correct them which they not doing being ignorant of them the fault and blame falls upon those who conceal them whether to please the Evil doers or upon any other pretext whatsover because by their silence in some manner they co-operate to the sin Nevertheless there are very few who are apprehensive of these kinds of sins and much less do they repent of them for they imagine they are not guilty of them because they have not committed them effectively in their own Persons yet they will be all imputed to them as well as if they had personally committed them and they cannot be excused through ignorance because all Christians are obliged to know what they ought to do or avoid for Jesus Christ and his Apostles have set down all for him who will take the pains to search for it But the darkness is so great that they perceive not the things that are necessary and they live in such a negligence of their Salvation as if they were assur'd of it though they be very far from it because no unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Those who enter there must be holy None can otherwise draw near to God the Source of all Purity and Holiness In which many are deceiv'd who believe that Holiness belongs only to the Perfect whom they imagine to be some singular Persons And yet without Holiness no Man shall ever be saved I said to her That very few Persons consider'd these things and scarce any look on themselves as guilty of those sins which they commit in another no more than of those which they commit against the Holy Ghost because they perceive not that they are guilty of them though notwithstanding I see clearly that those who are esteemed holy or perfect are tainted both with the one and the other of the said sins She said Sir I am well pleased that you begin to discover that by which the World is condemn'd that you may not need to believe it blindly for if you perceive clearly that the Holy and the Perfect now are polluted with the sins which they commit in another and with those against the Holy Ghost those whom they call Wicked are visibly defiled with divers kinds of Actual Sins Which is known to all the World Of whose Salvation then can you hope for The Wicked bring their Condemnation upon them through their obstinacy in a wicked Life and the Good draw it on by the sins which they commit in another and those against the Holy Ghost which they will not know and much less amend because they presume upon the certainty of their Salvation without all these Circumspections whereby they might discover the state of their Souls or the Sins with which they may be defiled which are Spiritual and of which through blindness they are insensible Hereby the Proof is just of the World 's being universally judged because the sins are universal which sins do judge and condemn Souls For God judges no Body He only fulfils all Righteousness and those who shall be condemned shall be so always by their own sins and never otherwise And if Sins condemn then all they who live in them do bear their Condemnation And since we see that in this Age neither the Good nor the Wicked are free from sins we cannot but see and confess that the whole World is judg'd and condemn'd and that we are arriv'd at the general Judgment seeing generally sin rules and bears sway We must not look for any other cordemnation but that of our own sins known to Gods Justice which condemns always all that 's unjust without hatred and without favour The Righteous Ballance of this Divine Justice being still kept steady by a Hand that never shakes does always condemn Unrighteousness I said to her That I was wholly convinc'd by so clear and true Arguments That I acknowledg'd without doubt the World was generally judg'd by its general Sins asking her if while this Sentence was putting in execution there were not means whereby a Man might be converted She said Yes Sir there are means of Conversion as long as we have life There is place for Repentance till Jesus Christ shall come upon the Earth and root out all Evil yea even when he shall come there will be yet hopes of Pardon Therefore he says That Sinners and Harlots shall inherit the Kingdom and the Children thereof shall be cast out because these wicked Persons may be yet converted and acknowledge their sins whereas those Children of the Kingdom who esteem themselves holy and religious continuing obstinate in the presumption of their Salvation will be cast out though they be called the Children of God and of his Kingdom There are therefore means of Conversion for those who will repent and change their manner of Life even though they were the greatest Sinners of the World yea even for those who are full of the sins against the Holy Ghost or of the sins committed in another provided they get out of their darkness and receive the Truth For these ends God puts his last Sentence in execution slowly and sends his Plagues one after another that he may give time and leisure to all those who desire to be converted to do penitence In which he still exercises the Effects of his Almighty Goodness and Mercy not willing that a sinner should perish but that he live and be converted The sins against the Holy Ghost will be forgiven as well as other sins provided they repent of them which they not doing they shall no more be pardoned when Jesus Christ shall come upon the Earth than at present For where there is no Repentance there can be no pardon for this cause the sins against the Holy Ghost will be very rarely pardoned because they are very seldom repented of and amended The Tenth Conference Shews what Souls shall be happy and explains the Eight Beatitudes I asked her By what means we might know or discover those who are truly converted to God She said Sir Take the Eight Beatitudes which Jesus Christ has declared and see if those who say they are converted do possess them For these only shall be blessed and no others Many say by word that they would be converted and be wholly for God and notwithstanding there are no appearances of it These are nothing but wouldings without effect with which we deceive the World and our selves and