end of the world This is the greatest miracle that God has done upon earth after men have invented so many glosses and opinions to contradict it and the life and manners even of those who are call'd the People of God are so different from this Doctrine that yet notwithstanding it subsists in its integrity in the hands and power of those who raze out and efface it by their manners and actions If it were not upheld by miracles how often would it have been stifled by the wisdom of the learned who if it were in their power would never suffer a Doctrine which so directly reproves their lives and manners In which God shews his almighty power that all men who shall be born upon the earth may have their recourse to this fountain of living water which is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and that no body may pretend ignorance under pretext that there are different or new doctrines and errors for he who has a desire to search has also the means to find the real truth written in the holy Gospel or the rest of the holy Scriptures It was not therefore necessary to maintain it by so many disputes which Jesus Christ never taught us either by word or by deed Men could not destroy that which God would build It had been more expedient to strengthen and comfort the faithful than to dispute against the erroneous who were raised up only by the Devil they would have perished of themselves for all that is nor built by God shall be destroyed A small number of faithful Believers were far better than so great a multitude of Christians in appearance who do nothing but debate and dispute without possessing true living faith The rotten members corrupt those which are yet sound The Devil is never sooner overcome than by despising him for then he knows not how to take hold of the good but disputes and debates furnish him with diverse weapons to attack and overcome them The Fourth Conference Of the qualities and ways of acting which ought to have been in the Guides of the Church to maintain it in its good estate against all Enemies and that they might not make way for the Spirit of Anti-christ as they have done I Admired all this so powerful discourse desiring always to hear more I ask'd her how she conceiv'd that the Saints were thrust from the Government of the Church when the learned undertook it since many learned and great Doctors have been canoniz'd Saints and held for such She said Sir it is very rare to find a learned Saint or at least one who becomes holy by learning for all humane wisdom is foolishness before God All the Saints are certainly wise but few learned men are Saints I do not mean that there have not been some Saints who were engag'd in the Government of the Church as St. Ambrose St. Augustin and others but I cannot believe that a body is sound when it hath the Leprosy in any of its members The whole body of the Church was sound when to be an Apostle or Minister of the Church 't was only requir'd to embrace an evangelical life for all the rotten members were cut off from it or corrected or indeed they withdrew of themselves not being able to endure so great a sanctity that reprov'd them in all their manners St. Paul forbids Christians so much as to eat with sinners behold how he cuts off the rotten members and elsewhere it is said If thy brother will not believe the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen In many places of Scripture you will find this rejection St. Peter makes Ananias and Saphira fall dead at his feet for their lying St. Paul delivers over to the Devil the Corinthian besides so many others who have been chastized for not having continu'd faithful observers of the Law of the Gospel Others have withdrawn of themselves as Judas to go and hang himself and a great many others who withdrawing themselves gave occasion to Jesus Christ to ask the other Disciples If they would go also to which they reply'd and whither shall we go Lord thou hast the words of eternal life These three means were capable of upholding the holy Church in its Integrity and Holiness as Jesus Christ had establisht it and did himself observe these rules that is that the erroneous should be rejected and despis'd or else corrected for their errors or otherwise permitted to go out and withdraw themselves but these new Doctors have found out as a more perfect mean for the upholding of the Church to admit only the wise and learned to the government of it that the erroneous might be oppos'd and overcome by disputes Is the invention and wise foresight of these men more perfect than the ordinance and doing of God Can that eternal wisdom be ignorant that Learning was necessary for the government of his Church Was it necessary that men should change reform or perfect what Jesus Christ had establisht to wit that the government of his Church should appertain to those who have given evidence of the love they bear him for this cause he puts the question to St. Peter thrice to know if he lov'd him before he made him head of his Church On the contrary men are more inquisitive to know if any Minister of the Church be great and learned than if he love God This is a renversement of spirit which has seiz'd upon men since they would needs be govern'd by the wise of the world and they have despis'd the holy simplicity of the Gospel This mischief could not be brought in by humane frailty it must needs proceed from the malice of the Devil Man indeed thro frailty might backslide and follow Jesus Christ at a little farther distance than he had taught him but could not arrive to such an excess of wickedness as directly to oppose and despise his doctrine and practice This must needs come from that spirit of error who from the beginning entred into the the Church to oppose Christ and is therefore justly called ANTICHRIST He has so cunningly masqu'd and disguis'd his errors with piety and reason that they have been follow'd notwithstanding there have been at diverse times holy persons in the government of the Church The Fifth Conference Of Antichrist and how he rules every where in Spirit I Begg'd she would tell me whom she understood to be Antichrist and how he could introduce himself into the Church in its beginning since it appears from the holy Scriptures that he is to come only towards the end of the world and is called the man of sin the son of perdition and is not to reign but three years and a half She said I perceive Sir that you take for Antichrist a humane body which is to be born by the operation of the Devil I believe that this will fall out at the end of the world yea that he is already born
directed unto all men who were to come of Adam because he held in his power the free will of all his posterity Therefore God spoke to all men when he spoke to our first Father The Prohibition which he gave him m not to eat of the fruit of a tree was nothing but an outward sign of the dependance which he ow'd unto God even as a Superior reserves to himself some yearly rent in the Donation which he makes of his Lands or Mannors to the end that always these goods or lands may be oblig'd yearly to acknowledge the Superiour upon whom they depend God had bestow'd on man all this beautiful world which we behold with all that is in it but he would have him still to acknowledge the dependance that he had upon his God and Lord that the knowledge of this might oblige them to love such a Benefactor who had given them all these created things which they might enjoy provided always they did acknowledge and love the God who had so freely bestow'd them He forbad them to eat of one Tree only permitting them to eat of all the rest to shew that he permitted man to enjoy all the fruits of the earth provided he preserve always the obligation that he has to God He requires for a Testimony of this that he abstain from eating of this forbidden fruit to the end he might never forget the love and the obedience which he ow'd unto the Lord from whom he had receiv'd all things This Prohibition is no other thing but a Command to love him which being done man might do all that he desird This Commandment was also given unto man when God requir'd Sacrifices from him not that God had need of beasts or other things but he demands this outward testimony in confirmation of the inward acknowledgment and love which they bear unto God the giver of all things The Law he gave to Moses contain'd also no other thing but this love and gratitude which we owe unto our God Tho these Commandments are divided into ten yet they are all comprehended in that of loving and acknowledging God for all the rest are but prohibitions not to do the things which would hinder this love and gratitude because he who takes the name of God in vain or he who steals or covets his Neighbors goods or commits Fornication and so of the rest does not love nor acknowledge God And to make this love and acknowledgment easie to him God forbids him to commit these things as being contrary to this love But as to the summ of these Commandments it consists in one only to wit in the love and acknowledgment of God when he commands to keep holy the Feasts and to honour Father and Mother all this depends upon the love of God which we ought to testify also outwardly in sanctifying the days which are dedicated unto him The honour which we owe to Fathers and Mothers signifies only an acknewledgment that we owe unto our Benefactors of whom God is the principal yea even the giver of all things but because our Parents do us good in nourishing helping caring for us and teaching us during our weakness he commands us to honour them as little Gods for the small good things which they do us to the end that by this outward acknowledgment we may be mindful of our acknowledgments which we owe to God in proportion to the benefits which we receive from him Behold how God has many times forbidden us not to love the creatures since by so many diverse ways he commands us to love him to the exclusion of all things Which Jesus Christ himself has well exprest to us when he says that we must love God with all our heart with all our strength and with all our thoughts There could not be more express terms to shew that our heart is created for God only and for nothing else I receiv'd such light by these reasonings that it was my delight to hear them And to make her speak the more I said to her that there were some Authors who maintain'd that it was impossible to love God with all our hearts and to keep his Commandments She was mov'd with anger saying What injury do they to God by such sentiments I swear to you Sir these persons know neither God nor themselves when they assert such things They are insupportable to me What well dispos'd Soul could suffer that they should say of God that he has given Commandments to man which it is impossible for him to observe This is to desire to make him pass for a Tyrant and also for an Ignorant For to lay on a heavier burthen than our shoulders could bear would be a Cruelty and to damn men for not having done that which was impossible for them a Tyranny Could God give insupportable Laws without being unjust Could he overcharge men without cruelty He who made men could he be ignorant of their strength and capacity that he did not give them laws according to their weakness or infirmities What Blasphemies do they commit against the supream Wisdom which knows all things What injury to that straight Righteousness What contempt to make him ignorant of the strength and capacity of men He who knows the most secret thoughts of the heart and all things past and to come as well as the present O ingrate creature If thou knewest thy self thou would'st perceive but too much that thou art capable of loving God with all thy heart For there is nothing more natural to man than love and there is nothing which does more oblige to love than the benefits receiv'd without having merited them What is wanting to you therefore to be able to love with all your heart Is there any thing more lovely than he all-beautiful all-good all-wife all-perfect in short the accomplishment of all perfections Our heart which cannot live without love could it find any object more lovely or any greater subject of acknowledgment for so many benefits received from him I said to her That it was truth and that no objects could be found so worthy of our affection as God is but the evil came from this that we did not see nor feel God as we do the creatures which are material and sensible to our senses She said to me It is true Sir God being a pure Spirit is not visible nor sensible to our natural senses But believe me he is more visible and sensible to our understanding by his works than are all the creatures together and he does us also much more good than all that is created in heaven and in earth For this cause we ought to love him alone more than all other things together for if our understanding would apply its self to the consideration of the wonderful works of God it would find more ground to love God than any thing how lovely soever it might be even according to the natural senses All
flows from God the Fountain of all Joy and Pleasures An Human Life is a Life of Constraint The Life of Sinners is a Life of Slavery There is none but the Life of a true Christian that is fill'd with Delights The Human Life must force it self for to maintain it self aright in State and Honour and constrain its Nature and its Inclinations to yield unto and please Men fearing to offend or disoblige them therefore we are often constrained to bow as a Reed under the Power of the Great or those in Authority having no more Liberty than the Good or Bad Opinion of Men gives us The Life of a Sinner is a real Slavery for he is tortur'd with his own Passions which do often serve as an Executioner both to Body and Soul destroying both the one and the other What Pain is there in doing Evil What Displeasures and Remorse when the Evil is done How is a Sinner hated by others and a Burthen to himself He has not sometimes the Freedom to speak or lift up his Head for fear his Sin be discovered Is it not therefore more easie to abandon all and to entertain our selves only with God than to undergo the Yoke of a Human or of a Sinful Life Seeing he who is resign'd to God lives as a Child without Care who is carried in the Arms of his Father He fears nothing being under the Guard of the Almighty he desires nothing more for he has found all He can seek nothing because all things are found in God Riches Beauty Honour Pleasure all are there in abundance The Soul is joyful the Heart content and the Body in Repose How can you find Difficulty Sir in a thing agreeable and full of all Good It should rather be found in the Life which you lead Tho it be honest yet it is subject to a thousand Disquiets and Cares to maintain you aright and to please every Body To quit all things is to quit very little for to find the All. And not to think but upon God is to do that which naturally we would do upon the ceasing of the eagerness of our Imagination which frames to it self some imaginary Pleasure in the Conversation of Men which is nevertheless interwoven with a great many Displeasures and Discontents All this may be overcome by retiring our Spirit with God I said to her That I wish'd nothing more than to find my self in so happy a State which would yield me Communion with God That for this cause I would willingly abandon a thousand Worlds Begging she would tell me in order what I ought to do for the first She said Sir After that you shall have wholly abandon'd the World present your self before God as the Prodigal Son acknowledging that you have wasted so many Graces which he had imparted to you that you might love him and that you have applied them to please Men. Tell him plainly that you have sinned against him and Heaven And then he will give you the first Robe of Innocence in imbracing you as his Son Resign your self wholly to him as a Child newly born again and then he will govern you in all your Ways learning you to speak to walk to eat and all the rest that hitherto you did not know how to do aright for if you walk'd it has been to seek Temporal Things and if you have eaten it was but for the Maintenance of your Body and if you spoke it was only to please or satisfie Men All which things are Vain and Unworthy of a true Child of God Quit therefore Sir all your old Habits and suffer your self now to be conducted by God who is your true Father Receive from him what shall befal you If Prosperities come upon you bless him if Adversities receive them with Joy for he had no other things whilst in this World but Tribulations Esteem your self happy to imitate him Seek no longer any other thing but what God shall permit to befal you and then you will find that the Lord is good and gracious Tho' Tribulations seem sometimes bitter yet they are made sweet by the Conformity of the Life of Jesus Christ Pains suffered with Jesus Christ are rendred agreeable This Resignation to God is the first part of Blessedness which draws along with it all the rest When you shall be resigned to his Government you will have no longer need of Masters or any other Helps For he alone is your Protector in this Valley of Miseries which will not last but for a Moment in respect of Eternity Let us suffer with him if we would reign with him I ask'd What I should do with my temporal Goods if I should distribute them to the Poor or to Churches or rather to religious Convents She said Sir Keep your Temporal Goods for your Entertainment For he who has not wherewith to maintain himself now-a-days when Charity is dead would have Vexations to seek and find it So much the more that Justice requires rather to retain what we have lawfully acquired for our own Nourishment than to give it away and to be oblig'd afterwards to ask of others This Pretext of Voluntary Poverty hath introduc'd among the Religious great Avarice for after having abandon'd their own they seek with more Greediness the Wealth of Others than ever they did their own Which obliges them to flatter People and often to give way to evil that they may have where withal to live and they are unsatiable to augment and increase it It is a kind of Robbery to take the Goods of others by way of Alms when we have the Means to live upon our own But if you have more than suffices for your Entertainment distribute it to Christian Brethren who have need of it as the first Christians did so that no Body among them had need of any thing because the Rich did impart to the Poor what was necessary for them There being then no Proposal of Building so many Churches and Monasteries as at present which are built more for the Commodity and Pleasures of Monks than for the Glory of God which does not consist in material Temples as it does in the Living Temples of the Souls of true Christians These are the true Temples of God where he will reside to all Eternity But not in these Machines of Stone or Wood which will perish very shortly with their Builder who will be oblig'd to suffer Poverty by Force since they would not suffer it voluntarily according to the Vows and Promises which they make publickly of it If at present you do not find true Christians to whom to give of your Abundance keep it for the Love of God until you shall know them His Mercy will very shortly form a great number of them For to give to the Wicked is to co-operate to their Vices Having remark'd that she spoke of the Destruction of Churches and Monasteries I ask'd her If she
Age that these Combats began with her and towards the eighteenth that she came to a full Resolution of yielding up her Will wholly to God and of abandoning the World For seven Years after the Tears and Sorrows of her Penitence did continue which she accompanied with great Austerity and Mortification wearing a Shirt of Horse-hair next her Body Night and Day sleeping only on a Deal-board and that no longer than three Hours each Night passing the rest on her Knees in Prayers giving the Sheets of her Bed and her other Linnen to the Poor and still bringing them back to be wash'd with those of the Family without the Knowledge of the Servants She eat no more than what might preserve her Life and would mingle Earth and Ashes with what she did eat to avoid the Pleasure that might tempt her Her Penitence and Mortifications were not the effects of a Melancholy Humor nor did they produce it she being of a most chearful Disposition even till Death But she punish'd herself with an inward Contentment out of a Principle of Justice being convinc'd there was nothing more just than to regrate the Sin of having ceas'd to love so lovely a God God has no need of our Mortifications but our Flesh and Corruption have great need of them Timothy was so sensible of this that he stood in need of a Caution from the Apostle Paul to look also to his Health No doubt there may sometimes be Excess in these Mortifications of which M. Bourignon was so sensible that she could never advise any Body in this to follow her Example but to resign themselves to God and to take up chearfully the daily Crosses and Mortifications which his Providence shall appoint for them This so few are unwilling to do that undoubtedly God loves more the readiness of those who mortifie themselves too much than the Sloth of those who do it too little or not at all She would have continued this Austerity still if at the Age of twenty five Years God had not commanded her to leave off all this and to lead an ordinary Life When she remembred how she had lost God whom formerly she enjoy'd she would pass whole Nights in crying out My God! my God! where art thou my God! what shall I do what must I do to find thee again what would'st thou have me to do to be well-pleasing in thy Sight what shall I do to fulfil thy Will After much Time many Prayers Watchings and Tears God was pleas'd inwardly to manifest himself to her anew And the first Answer she receiv'd to the Petition she had so often made was this Divine Doctrin which contains the whole substance of the Gospel Forsake all Earthly Things Free thy self from the Love of the Creatures Deny thy self This was about the twentieth Year of her Age. These were the Words which stuck ever with her and upon these she laid the Foundations of a Christian Life She forsook all earthly things for the Love of God and to give her self wholly to him and yielded up her self entirely to his Conduct doing nothing without his Direction She thought to have met with true Christians in the Monasteries and was resolv'd to have shut up her self into one of them But there she found them as full of the Love of the World and of self-Self-love as elswhere God made known to her That the Society of Christians which she had been seeking for in vain was to be re-establish'd in the World by her means This seem'd impossible to her because of her Sex her Weakness her Ignorance her Meanness and having never read nor been taught by any what the Gospel-Life was And having laid this before God she had this Answer Behold these Trees in the Church-yard they seem dry Wood without Leaves or Fruit or any Appearance nevertheless when the Season comes they shall bring forth Leaves Flowers and in abundance without any Body's touching them So shall it be of my Work The manner how she was train'd up by God for this is remarkable That she might acquire Divine Light she was not sent to Study nor Reading nor Speculations nor to fill her Head with the Knowledge of Spiritual Things But she resign'd her self in Simplicity to God avoiding Sin needless Distractions and the Activity of her own Reason without desiring to know more than what was needful for her to know in the moment in which she was referring all the rest to God who gave her Knowledge and Light according to the Occasions wherein she needed them whether for her own Conduct or that of others for the Discovery of Truth or the Refutation of Error When she had learn'd from God his Designs in general she did not immediately with haste and precipitation set about the Execution of them as many rash Persons would have done with much Zeal She had still this Rule That it was not enough that God inspir'd good Designs but we must also wait upon him till he open the Way and direct all our Steps in the Execution of them that the Spirit of God acts leisurely yea slowly but steadily and what he produces in so leisurely and imperceptible a manner has afterwards a lasting and solid Subsistence Whereas the Spirit of the Devil moves all at first makes a great Noise and a great deal ado but in process of time all slackens and vanishes into Smoak and Nothing She mov'd always by this Rule She made several Attempts to bring others to lead a truly Christian Life Some Nuns were enclin'd to follow her Directions some Bishops and Priests were convinc'd of the total Degeneracy of Christendom and that the Spring of all the Corruption was in the Clergy but Human Respects and Worldly Considerations kept them from prosecuting what their Inward Convictions prompted them to She was prevail'd with to take the Charge of an Hospital of young Maids and to educate them in the Fear of God and the Spirit of the Gospel But after nine Years Labour tho' to outward Appearance they seem'd most modest and vertuous yet to her great Grief she found them in Heart to be led captive by the Devil at his Will She was afterwards mov'd by God to set down in Writing the Divine Truths communicated to her and having ask'd of God If she should keep these Writings secret or publish them He said to her Yes puhlish them for by them the Gospel shall be preach'd thro' all the World The writing of this Treatise The Light of the World was occasion'd by M. Christian de Cort Superior of the Fathers of the Oratory at Mechlin in Flanders a Man full of Zeal for God and Charity for his Neighbour and void of self-seeking He no sooner discover'd that God had hid in her the Treasures of his Divine Wisdom than he took all occasions to be instructed by her in the Truth and when alone set down in Writing the Sum of what had past in their Conversation but this briefly and without Order He acquainted her
obliges me to leave my own Contentment of being with God to draw my Neighbour thither I feel indeed that your soul receives its light in speaking to me and that you profit much in hearing me therefore ask what you please and I will answer you as far as it shall please God to permit I am well pleas'd to shew Charity to my Neighbour I find my God always but not always souls dispos'd to receive his instructions He teaches me to prefer Charity to his Consolations and the sensible pleasures which he gives me I felt in my Soul such Consolation as I cannot express in hearing things so admirable Her words pierc'd my Soul I would have done her honour She says to me Beware of that Sir for I hate two things viz. honour and sin You are a Priest to whom honour is due for your dignity I am nothing but a simple Child If God impart to you his Graces by me it is to him you owe the acknowledgment and not to me for I am nothing and if he should withdraw his Graces from me I should be worse than nothing being inclin'd to evil which nothing cannot be We observed in her a profound humility of heart accompanied with great righteousness and truth She did not affect humble discourses but held always the exact truth in every thing saying what was to her praise as well as what was to her contempt telling us that under humble words and countenances the highest Pride was conceal'd that he who affects to be esteem'd humble presumes to bear the name and the appearance of the most perfect vertue because this humility is the foundation of all perfection without which nothing is to be esteem'd for watchings discipline and other mortifications of the body are nothing but vanity without humility Even prayer y without humility is nothing but hypocrisie For God resists the proud and gives his grace to the humble We ask'd her wherein true Humility consists She said In the knowledge of ones self for he who knows himself truly can never attribute to himself any Good either Natural or Spiritual for he will truly perceive that he has not power to make one hâ—â— grow upon his head nor to give himself one day of health or one moment of Life he will see that he is in his nature more miserable than any living creature upon earth depending upon another in every thing which will keep him voluntarily pliant and submissive to others because of the need he has to depend upon another for the maintenance of his body and as to his mind he who knows himself will judge truly that there is nothing more frail and unconstant than the mind of man which changes every moment and cannot know its true Good since we are all born in Ignorance and Weakness there being nothing to be found more miserable than a person subjected to his own passions and will he is in a perpetual slavery without rest or contentment And as to the superiour and divine part what weakness to do Good what bent and inclination to evil what violence to overcome vice in one word man is the abridgment and the abstract of all sorts of miseries This is that which Job so bitterly lamented But whosoever attains to this knowledge of himself he must needs be humble of heart and subject to the Government and Will of God upon whom he knows that he entirely depends Behold wherein true Humility consists pride proceeding from no other thing but from the Ignorance of our selves and from a not depending upon God attributing foolishly some authority and power to our selves desiring to depend upon our own will which is altogether deprav'd and enclin'd to all sort of evil our heart being puff'd up with our very miseries for there is no other thing in us but miseries for which alone we esteem ourselves to be something tho in effect we are worse than nothing which doth no evil By which we abundantly see that humility cannot consist in humble words and gestures but only in the knowledge of our nothingness and that humble actions do often serve as matter for our pride for to desire to appear humble is to be proud We ought to be truly humble before God but not desire to appear such before men We ask'd her wherein true Perfection did consist She said in the LOVE OF GOD For that he who loves God cannot sin nor offend him whom he loves that this love is a law and rule to all our actions that S. Augustin said well in saying Love and do what you will because he who loves God cannot do evil while all that he does centers in this love which he bears to God This love likewise cannot remain idle it must needs produce all sorts of vertues principally Charity which is inseparable from the love of God for since we cannot see or touch God we do it in part in our Neighbour who is the true Image of God This begets in our will a desire of good will toward our Neighbour wishing and procuring him the same temporal and spiritual good things which we wish and pretend to for our selves because of the love we bear to God whom our Neighbour represents from whence all sort of perfections do proceed without which there can be no true perfection since that is all summ'd up and contain'd in the love of God and of our Neighbour for he who loves God will exercise himself in the practice of all sorts of vertues to the end he may render himself agreeable to him whom he loves if he sees that his God has been little he will never desire to be great or that his God has been poor he will never desire to be rich or despis'd he will never desire to be honour'd and so of the rest And if he love his Neighbour out of Charity he will yield to him and serve him in his need wishing him no other evil than he would wish to himself he will willingly bear with his infirmities procuring on all occasions his good and advantage as his own So that all Perfection consists in this LOVE OF GOD AND OF OVR NEIGHBOVR FOR GOD. All the rest are nothing but amusements and lies When we place perfection in any other subject we deceive our selves These answers did ravish us with astonishment being obliged to acknowledge that they were most true in the most perfect and accomplish'd sense Having ask'd her By what means we might attain to this LOVE OF GOD which is true Charity since we are all born in such misery and that God has subjected us to so many evils bodily and spiritual and that our Nature has more need of help and succour than any other Creature To this she answer'd gravely Softly Sir do not blaspheme against God for it is not he who has subjected us to so many
degree that it can come to and the Devil has gain'd an inward dominion over the hearts of all men not that wickedness is manifestly at the highest degree in the judgment of men for it will appear more clearly when they shall commit all sort of sins publickly without being afraid of any the evil will seem then greater but it will be less in the sight of God for it will then be no more accompanied and disguised with Hypocrisie as it is at present The Devil having gain'd the hearts of ill men will remain no longer conceal'd He is desirous to reign publickly and openly assoon as he can for his greater Glory As long as there were here and there some good Souls he kept himself hid to the end he might gain them but at present he can so well disguise his malice that all serve him the wicked with good will as his hired Servants and the good serve him by constraint as his Slaves From hence I infer that the time of his Reign is come and that he will appear very shortly visibly in the flesh And to satisfy the second doubt proposed viz. how there shall be Martyrs of Jesus Christ and of those who shall obtain Salvation by the Perfecutions of this discover'd Antichrist this shall be an effect of the last Mercy of God who will yet once send his light into the world according to his promise That the light shall arise in darkness and that the darkness shall be as noon day That is to say that in this time of darkness in which we live at present wherein the Truth is not any longer discern'd from Lies Faithfulness from Deceit nor Righteousness from Iniquity that God will make his Light to arise in this Darkness and that these who shall receive it shall open their eyes and see the blindness of their understanding and reject the spirit of errour into which they were fallen thro the false perswasions of this invisible Antichrist and shall embrace the spirit of truth which is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and by this means dispose themselves to Martyrdom and to saving sufferings in the Quarrel of Jesus Christ for many are now detain'd the Slaves of the Devil thro ignorance and inadvertency believing even that they follow Jesus Christ when they follow this strange Shepherd thro his delusions I thought it impossible to believe that the Devil had dominion over the hearts of all men because I knew many who make profession of being good men who in effect are observ'd to addict themselves to pious and religious works exercising themselves in both publick and private Devotions employing themselves according to their Callings in succouring their Neighbour and owning the quarrel of good men in making peace and agreement between those who have quarrels and debates She said Sir it is by these works which seem good and pious that the Devil deceives the good and renders them his Slaves making them to do his will without their perceiving it It is for this reason our times may well be called dangerous because the darkness is so thick as that good is not any longer discern'd from evil Those are esteem'd good men who do often frequent the Churches and Sacraments and are present at the publick Solemnities and they who do so believe themselves to be good men and to live well but believe me Sir if this be not done in the true Spirit of Christianity these are all but amusements for the life of a Christian is an inward and spiritual Life consisting in the LOVE and Respect we owe to God and CHARITY to our Neighbour for God This Love is an inward Passion of our Soul which is known to none but God himself as also this Charity for our Neighbour These inward passions are sometimes discover'd outwardly by external operations as to suffer willingly for him whom we love to be subject in all things to his will to honour him with all our power by these solid vertues it is discover'd if we be good men not by making a profession of being so for this profession of being good proceeds often from a presumption of our Salvation which is a sin against the Holy Ghost A sinner who knows his sin is often a better man than this presumptuous person The Sixth Conference How the outward worship of God and the outward works of Charity towards our Neighbour are corrupted by the Devil And from whence this Power proceeds I Desir'd to be satisfy'd concerning all these points of good works which I had observ'd to be yet in use among those who profess to be good men to see whither the Devil would produce such operations in his Adherents I ask'd her first If it was not a good work to go often to the Church or to its Solemnities She answer'd It is very good to go to Church to hear the Word of God since Jesus Christ himself went thither to teach it for there is distributed or at least ought to be that word which gives food or nourishment to the souls of the faithful But I pray you Sir says she reflect a little seriously with me on the way of going to Church and of teaching the Word of God there which is now observ'd and see if you will not be oblig'd to confess that by what is now done in Churches the Devil receives much more honour than God therefore he incites his Adherents to go thither often and the Ministers to perform the Solemnities there frequently They go to Church out of custom and being there they behave themselves even as they do in profane places The Solemnities there are so vain that they serve rather to satisfie the senses than to move devotion Among a thousand persons who follow Processions you will scarce find one who has his heart lifted up to God! Sermons are made more out of vanity and heard more out of curiosity than to profit by them Behold the Theater of the World at present judge now whither all these things can pass for good works in the sight of God and if the Devil has not ground to excite them to these actions from whence he derives so much his advantages When once he could perswade men that a Christian Life consists in outward actions he perverted all the good so that they do rather follow him than Jesus Christ because these visible and outward things make a stronger impression on the natural senses than those spiritual things which Jesus Christ has taught and commanded us I felt in my soul that this was true but desiring to learn more I said to her that for those who apply themselves to their Neighbours as to visit the poor and the sick to own the quarrel of the good to quiet and appease strife and contentions that these works could not come from the suggestion of the Devil She reply'd All these things are good if they were done in the spirit of Charity and purely for the Love of God but that this was so
the mischief proceeds from this that our senses are distracted from the works of God and that we apply them to know and to love earthly objects which are below us and unworthy of being lov'd by us for they can give us no other thing but divertisement of mind and amusement of our senses without any profit since all is but vanity passing away in a moment without leaving any thing in our souls but vexations and regrets at death Behold the height of all the happiness we can ever hope for in loving any creatures whatsoever A mans mind must be infatuated if he do not find in the works of God and in his operations which we experience in our selves all sorts of occasions to love and to follow him For who can consider the beauty of the Sun and of the Stars of Heaven the good and fertility of the Flowers and Fruits of the Earth without being ravish'd with admiration in considering what beauty and goodness he must have who gives them to all these things We amuse our selves sometimes in loving a stone a flower or a humane creature for its beauty and we do not raise our understandings to love the fountain and the giver of all these beauties which is God! most durably beautiful who cannot fade as do all these other beauties which are nothing but phantastical and changeable If God had not the perfection of all beauties how could he give it to so many diverse things for one can never give that which he himself has not Who can say therefore that we do not see nor feel God as we do the creatures since he shews himself and lets himself be felt by his operations which are sensible to our senses Who can say that he does not continually perceive God operating in him and doing him infinite good That we have a being is by the good will of God That we see or speak or hear are the gifts of God That we reason with our understanding that we enjoy our five natural Senses these are all gifts of God which no body can give unto himself and which cannot be acquired by Gold and Silver or Freinds let them be who they will The daily food of our body does it not all come from God For what man can make a grain of Corn or a Strawberry to grow All these things with a thousand others do they not afford us sensible enough subjects to know and to love God Can we say in truth that we do not see him nor feel him since he makes himself to be seen and felt every moment by so many benefits which our Soul and our Body do receive in so great abundance which cannot come from any other but from God himself It would be more true to say that we could not love the creatures than that we cannot love God for they can give us nothing and God gives us all that we see by our natural senses and that this impossibility of loving God and of fulfilling his Commandments is apply'd to a contrary sense and that it is more impossible to love the creatures with all our heart because they can never fill our soul for it is spiritual and they are material and therefore no congruity in them to be loved with all our heart which cannot be filled but with God alone The Fifteenth Conference That God has never given to Man but one only essential Command which is that of his LOVE which is most easie and most agreeable and the Love of all other things most vain I Said unto her That she confounded the Ten Commands of God into one and that they who say it is impossible to keep his Commands speak of all not only of the first She reply'd Sir the first is the only Commandment to which God would have us subjected He has never laid any other burthen upon our shoulders but this gentle Yoke of LOVE All the other Laws and Commands are occasioned by our sins and are ordain'd by God for no other end but that we may know them and beware of them He perceiv'd that men from the beginning of the world began to appropriate to themselves Beasts and other earthly goods as things depending upon themselves which led to a forgetfulness of and an ingratitude to God Therefore he appointed the Sacrifices of Beasts and the other First Fruits that by these outward signs they might always preserve in their heart the remembrance that all which they possest came from God It was his will also that they should build him a rich Temple for the same reason that all men might always acknowledge that all their treasures riches and magnificences came from God and did belong to him Therefore he requires that they build him a magnificent Temple Not that God has need of Temples of Riches or Treasures being All in himself But he requires that man retain this acknowledgment of God that by the remembrance of so many benefits he may be oblig'd to love him and to fulfil this first Commandment That he gave to Moses ten Commands written in stone was when men began to multiply their wickedness giving themselves to swear rob bear false witness commit fornication and the rest the goodness of God forbids all these things fearing lest the ignorance of these evil deeds might be the cause of their damnation By these Commands he shews them their sins forbidding them to commit them any longer because all these things were hinderances of loving God as he had commanded them The Law of Circumcision aim'd also at the same to make man acknowledge that he held his life of God and for an outward sign of this acknowledgment he requir'd that he should shed of his blood Not that he had need either of the blood of men or beasts but it is his will that all things should acknowledge that they receiv'd all their being from God that this acknowledgment might oblige them always to love their Creator Even the Evangelical Law consists in no other thing but in this first Command of loving God with all our heart The counsel of poverty chastity and the rest of the Evangelical counsels are given us only for means to attain to this LOVE because he who loves riches luxury himself or other things cannot love God with all his heart nor fulfil this first Commaadment By which you may perceive evidently Sir that all the Commands of God are comprehended in the first and that all the rest are only prohibitions to do what would hinder this love that God has never given us any other Law but that of loving him and that the pity which he has to see us perish made him give all those prohibitions contain'd in his Commandments Can this be evil or impossible to be observed as you have affirm'd to me Is it impossible to be in the world without killing robbing committing adultery and the rest It is rather impossible for him who has common sense to do
this for all these evil things are repugnant to good sense and the love of God delights comforts and edifies How then should it be impossible to do a thing so good and to omit things so evil this is most good useful and reasonable most easie even to our natural inclination which cannot be without loving something and cannot find an object more good more wise more powerful and more worthy to be lov'd than God and from which we can derive greater advantages both temporal and eternal than from him I told her That she rendered the love of God easie and agreeable that no man could have any thing to say against truths so clear and solid but I would gladly know from whence it comes that we find them so difficult and the love of the creatures so easie She said Sir it proceeds from this that we keep our mind distracted and diverted from God and that we apply it only to the view of the creatures by this means our understanding is filled with these earthly objects which darken our reason and render it uncapable of discerning aright the things which we see and feel For if our reason were not darkned it were impossible that we could love the creatures in themselves because they are so frail so impotent and of so short continuance which are all qualities very little lovely in respect of the Creator of them who by his works makes appear unto us his omnipotence his stability and constancy and his eternal duration The creatures themselves do discover to us this truth when we behold the Sun continue his carreer since the beginning of the world the day still to succeed the night the fountains to give their waters without ceasing the earth to bring forth its fruit continually the air its birds the sea its fishes nature its beasts and men What mighty arm must it be that governs all these things What power that upholds and maintains them What immobility that makes them always persist in an equal pace Is there any reason how little soever it be that is not led to love a God so lovely as he renders himself by the sole government of his creatures How much more must he be so in himself and nevertheless we turn away our understanding from these considerations to turn it towards the creature which is so frail of its self that it merits no other thing but to be despis'd by us For what can there be of lovely in the creatures of what kind soever they may be when we consider them only in themselves they are pure Nothings which have neither strength nor beauty nor goodness nor perfections nor duration All that is beautiful and good in them comes from God and all sorts of evil come from themselves If God did not uphold the Sun and all the Stars in the bounds and limits wherein he has plac'd them they would assuredly consume all the earth The creatures may greatly hurt us and no ways benefit us We are hurtful to our selves and if we had not stray'd from sense and lost our reason it were impossible that we would be led to love the creatures and not to love the Creator I told her That there were creatures so lovely that one must be insensible not to love them and that we cannot hate or despise that which does so strongly tickle our senses as a most fair humane creature would do and likewise so many other different beanties which God has created She said Sir I perceive well that you are yet earthly and that your understanding is not as yet raised from all things to the Lord since you do not well comprehend my saying I do not mean but that we may love all the beauties and goodness in the world for God has created them all for men especially for his elect who may use and enjoy them at their wish provided they take them in God who is their fountain but I blame only the love which is carry'd to the creatures for themselves for else we must love the beauties and goodness of the creatures if we love God because we cannot see the beauty and goodness of God but by his creatures He being an invisible and incomprehensible spirit renders himself visible and comprehensible in his creatures so that he who sees a fair or good thing sees God for there is nothing beautiful and good but he alone He is all beauty and all goodness and nothing can be beautiful and good without deriving it from God But all that is blameable herein is that our understanding is not apply'd to the consideration of the beauties of God in considering these earthly beauties We do not raise our mind higher than these material beauties which do debase us to the love of the earth in diverting us from that which we ought to have for God alone For example if you regrrd the beauty of a flower and love it because it tickles your Curiosity you commit a Folly because there is nothing lovely in this Flower but the Art of the Workman who made it For it it can give you no other but a vain Contentment to the Sight or Smell which are things that pass in a Moment for if you wait but one Day you will see what you lov'd turned to Dung and its sweet Smell chang'd into Stink I have seen Flowers bought for three thousand Florins with a too vehement Ray of the Sun has withered in one Day or a little Rain rotted in the same Time And which is more an Earth-worm has kill'd its Root in one Night Do you not see Objects not very lovely to be lov'd by reasonable Creatures capable of loving a God Must not a Man be come to the highest degree of Folly to set his Affections on things so frail as to be in one Day reduc'd into the Dung-Hill All the Creatures are no other thing in themselves He who sets his Affections on the Beasts sees them dye to his Regret He who places them in Riches sees them perish by a renverse of Fortune He who places them in Honours sees them perish by some Disgrace If he place them in Sciences and in Learning all this perishes by a small Defluxion falling upon the Brain Let him place his Affection on any Human Beauty it passes as quickly as a Flower and is reduc'd to Corruption Even so are the Pleasures of the Mouth and of the Body which afford nothing but great Putrefaction In short if we love our selves in whatsoever it be we render our selves miserable for we cannot be reduc'd to a greater Slavery than to be subject to our Passions which are sometimes so insolent that they render the most perfect Men miserable By which we see that all that is not God is nothing but Misery and Vexation of Spirit and that there is no Happiness in the Love of all these Creatures when they are not regarded in their Fountain which is God whom if we did regard all these Creatures
subject to all sorts of Miseries than we are in our selves nothing more changing nothing more weak nothing more perishing Is this capable of our Love An Abridgment of all sorts of Miseries more infirm than any Animals and the things which are without us are yet of far less consideration 〈◊〉 we love Meat and Drink is there any thing more 〈◊〉 for as soon as we have swallow'd them they are corrupted and chang'd into Putrefaction If we love the Pleasures of the Sight this is a thing that passes in a Moment and cannot give Satisfaction The more we would satisfie our Senses the more they thirst for the Eye is never satisfied with seeing no more than the Ear with hearing Even so of the Lust of the Flesh These are all insatiable things of the nature of Salt-Water the more we drink of it the more we thirst And as for the Pride of Life what does it put in us but a Blast of Wind For if a Woman bow or a Man be discovered in our Presence what does that give us These are all but imaginary Goods which put nothing in him that loves them If we would search into these Truths it would be very easie to strip us of our selves and of all created Things For they are not at all lovely but to those who have lost their Wits Our Soul is created for things more great It ought not to debase its self to Objects so unworthy of its Love It is very easie to forsake our selves and all things when we enter into the Consideration of things that are everlasting All our Amusements proceed from this that we come not to the Knowledge of God and our selves For if we knew God we could not any longer love any other thing and if we knew our selves we would hate our selves and all things because we have nothing in our selves which is not hateful Thus all the Love which we bear to our selves and to other things proceeds from pure Ignorance and the want of Serious Reflection on our selves and on all created Things I ask'd her How I might make this Serious Reflection and discover the Nothingness of all created Things And said That I must acknowledge her Saying was true that there is nothing worthy of our Love But I could not discover the cause of the Blindness of my Mind in this since I had a Desire to discover the Truth and to be taken up entirely with God She said Sir the Fault of your Straying as that of all the World proceeds from this That Men amuse themselves with the speculation of visible and sensible things by which they forget the invisible and spiritual And thus they go on always in a Forgetfulness of God and of their own Salvation Men do even serve for a Hindrance to one another For being all full of these Distractions and Wandrings of Mind they speak almost of no other thing One speaks of his Health another of his Meat another of that which seems fair and good to him And thus they fill one another's Minds with earthly Idea's and they neglect the consideration of heavenly things upon which alone their Happiness depends That Application of Spirit which we give to our selves to others to our Affairs Business or other things which respect only this present Life do rob us of that Time and Attention which appertains to God For we are not created for this present Life but only to live for ever with God If we are oblig'd to remain here for some space of Time this is only to satisfie the Justice of God who being offended by us has destin'd this short Life for the time of our Penitence which being finish'd he will pardon us and restore us into our true Country which is his Presence We ought continually to aspire after it without pleasing our selves in our Exile and Prison What Folly to take Pleasure in Sufferings The Riches the Honours and the Pleasures of this World are all troublesome and painful things and we reckon them for Happiness We glory even in our Chains and Fetters Our Sin has discovered our Nakedness and its Shame has oblig'd us to cover our Body and this same Covering which ought to serve us as matter of continual Confusion serves us on the contrary for Vain-Glory which is altogether foolish since our Habits are the Marks of Sin and we wear them to glory in them If you desire Sir to discover these Truths and to be entirely taken up with God fix your Understanding on the Consideration of all the things which are not God and you will find them all Vain and Transitory even your Life it self It passes every Moment and ought rather to be call'd Death than Life for we die daily And from thence ascend to the Consideration of God and of our Soul which are things Solid and Eternal You will by this Mean be oblig'd to love the one and forsake the other But you can never make these serious Remarks if you do not quit the Commerce of Men and abstain from all that is unprofitable and what does not avail for the Glory of God By the means of these Omissions you will acquire a clear Understanding of the Truth and a continual Communion with God For the Cause of our Blindness of Mind proceeds from this that we divert our selves always with Men or the other Creatures who do distract us from the Knowledge of God and of our selves For all that is not God is nothing The Twenty Second Conference That no true Contentment can be had but in God alone How to return thither Of Gifts And of those which are made to Churches which will perish I Receiv'd a great deal of Light by such firm Reasonings to which all Men of the World must needs yield I said to her That I found only a Difficulty to withdraw my self from all things and to think of God only because our Spirit does easily wander She said Sir all the Difficulty there is in doing this is only in our Imagination for in the Practice there is great Contentment For he who entertains himself always with God is in a continual Feast more pleasant even to the Senses than the most sumptuous earthly Banquet would be For the Soul having full Satisfaction the Spirit is in Peace and the Body at rest all the Senses having a Satiety and Contentment whereas in the Commerce of Men none of them can find full Satisfaction for as long as the Soul does not repose in its God it is like a Stone in the Air which never rests until it have found its Centre or like a Fish that is out of the Water which remains without Vigour dries up and dies if it be not put into it again Even so a Soul which is out of God dries up and dies not being able to find true Contentment even as to the Body out of him There is nothing but a Life truly Christian that is free and pleasant for it
he is not to be compar'd to any thing We must force our selves to love him not to comprehend him The Saints themselves committed great faults while they would needs embark into these Studies I believe the Devil has raised Disputes thereupon to amuse Men in useless things rather than profitable and to seek to comprehend what ought to be adored I ask'd her if the holy Doctors could indeed have committed such faults since we held that they had the Holy Spirit She said Yes Sir they committed many others through Ignorance They err'd in many things The Holy Spirit did not always guide their Pen nor their Understandings They were always frail Men so long as they lived upon Earth They might always fail and err for Jesus Christ says that He who says he is without Sin is a Liar I believe I have also told you heretofore Sir that none is Infallible but God Men who have the Holy Spirit are not always so disengaged from themselves that the Holy Spirit has that absolute dominion over them Their own sense of things gives them frequent hindrances and as long as they act naturally they stray from the Holy Spirit and do often commit in these wandrings great faults as David did tho God says that He was a Man according to his own Heart And Solomon who had received the Spirit in fulness did notwithstanding Sin greatly against the Faith it self and against the Commandments of God You must not wonder therefore that the Holy Fathers have committed faults in the Church the Apostles themselves committed them though they had visibly received the Holy Spirit We must never build on a Foundation so weak as Men are They may all err tho they were Saints and have erred in many things in upholding the Church For as soon as they perceived that it failed in the Souls of Christians and that its Honour and Authority was fallen they would needs redress it by worldly Honours and Riches and even defend it by Disputes and by Arms all which things are Buildings made with Mens hands which shall be ruined For that which God has not built shall be Destroyed Jesus Christ knew far better the means that were proper to uphold his Church He saw the time to come as well as the present He has not ordain'd that it should be maintain'd by Silver Authority Arms or Disputes but by Holiness The Twenty fifth Conference That the Holy Spirit sends always new Influences and that we must not bound his Lights nor the Interpretation of the Scriptures to that which the Holy Fathers have formerly had I Could not resist so clear Truths perceiving well that all Men are Fallible But because every one had always received the Opinions of the Holy Fathers as things certain I said to her that I had sworn to receive no other Explications of the Holy Scriptures but those of the Holy Fathers and that the Church did oblige all Persons plac'd in Dignities to do the same So that in all Benefices received they still take this Oath before they enter in possession of them She said Sir the Church can oblige no body to resist the Holy Spirit Your Oath is not obligatory in this case If God favour you or some other Person of your Acquaintance with any new Light must you reject it to obey Men Jesus Christ did not forbid this On the contrary he has said Receive the Holy Spirit And When he shall come he will teach you all things He speaks to the Apostles and to all Christians in them This Holy Spirit is never idle He operates always new Graces in those who receive him and gives still more clear Interpretations of the Holy Scriptures according as the end of the World approaches we shall every day understand them more clearly We see the figure of this in the Sciences of Natural things There is at present more knowledge of them than ever and Men now do know much more of Natural things which those who are gone before us were ignorant of yea understood them in a sense quite contrary to the truth They taught that the Sun goes round about the Earth Now they teach that the Earth turns and that the Sun is fixt which is more to be believed And thus in many Natural things they have discovered many Secrets since Sciences were encreas'd The Figure is never so accomplish'd as the thing figured Wherefore then should the Light of the Holy Spirit or the understanding of the Holy Scriptures be bounded to what the holy Fathers understood of them Every one of them had Discoveries according to his Talent and no more I believe Sir that if you examin them narrowly you will find that they do not accord in all things yea even that they sometimes contradict one another which cannot come from God for there is never any contradiction in him Each of the Fathers saw as far as his view reached and no more God does always farther discover his Secrets Can Men cause others to swear or can they swear themselves that they shall not receive any other Discoveries but that which the holy Fathers have received without opposing the Grace and Light of God This would be to speak after our way to clip the wings of the Holy Spirit that he might not flie farther than Men had marked out to him Truly Sir there are great Errors in all things It seems Men would take from God Power and Authority to attribute it to themselves giving him Laws and forbidding Men to obey him The holy Fathers could not be so rash as to believe that no body could understand the Holy Scriptures farther than they for they affirm that there are depths of hidden Treasure which they cannot comprehend In effect I believe that nothing has been yet understood in a perfect sense of all the Holy Scripture even till now and that likewise there is nothing accomplished but the Death of Jesus Christ Nevertheless all must be understood and accomplish'd in a perfect Sense before the end of the World God has not said or done any thing in vain He will give to Men the full understanding of all that he has said by his holy Prophets from the beginning of the World and nothing is so hid but it shall be discovered before the World end Why then should they forbid to receive other Interpretations than those which the holy Fathers in past times have received It were better to command to Pray continually for greater Light that we may know the better the Mysteries of our Faith that we may the better observe and follow them for we can never have so much love for a thing unknown as for that which we know I said to her that this Oath was not ordained to oppose directly the Holy Spirit but rather to hinder every one from Interpreting the Scriptures after his own way from which many Errors might proceed if there were not an uniform Belief among all Christians
may serve them only for Delight and Pleasure without being able to do any more evil as they were in the beginning of their Creation and all the Malignities which they have contracted by the Sins of Men shall be rendred unto their Authors The Fire of Hell will not be like that which we see because it is now a mixture of the works of God with the malignity of the works of Men as all other things are God has given unto Fire a sweet and agreeable Light and Heat and Sin has given it blackness and to burn These two evils shall be removed and confin'd to Hell that it may burn and blacken the Bodies of Men who have thus spoil'd the works of God by their Rebellion There will not be in Hell Elements or Beasts or other things as God has made them but only the malignity which every one of all these Creatures has contracted by sins For Example the Venom will be removed from Serpents and other creeping things and will be reserved for Hell As also the fury from Lions and Bulls that they may converse with the Blessed with Meekness and Gentleness and that nothing may be able any longer to give them pain that Fire may give heat and light without burning that the Air may surround them without being troubled that the Water may refresh and recreate them without being moved that the Lyons Serpents and all other wild Beasts may sport with Men for their Delight and Recreation and that all things may remain on the Earth to render the Body of Man happy that with his Soul it may have a perfect eternal contentment seeing that the Body has born with the Soul the saving Penitence which God had ordain'd it Whereas on the contrary the Bodies of the Wicked have rebelled against this Penitence and desiring to take their Delights instead of Sufferings To which the miserable Soul acquiescing they have justly merited to suffer joyntly in Hell which will likewise be Material and upon Earth that it may act upon Bodies as well as Souls which was not necessary before the Judgment since that Devils and Damned Souls had no need of a material Place for their being Tormented for all the evil of Souls consists in the privation of the Presence of God The Twenty seventh Conference That a care to withdraw from the Plagues is even a self Love and than the Conversation of our Souls with God suffices us in all Places I Said to her That I saw evidently we drew near to the end of the World because God gave these Discoveries of many things which never any body had understood That her Light was not Human And I entreated her for the love of God to tell me where that little corner of the Earth might be which God would reserve for his Servants that I might save my self during the Plagues She said to me Sir be not curious to know where this material Place will be which God will reserve for his Friends I my self durst not ask him fearing to seek my self or my own repose We are yet in the time of Penitence If we would withdraw that we may not suffer this would be but self-Love We shall be every where in security when our Soul shall be united with God and even tho our Body should feel the Plagues our Soul shall be comforted in the midst of Sorrows as S. Lawrence was in the midst of burning Coals and so many other holy Martyrs Let us rather think of conversing always with God than of putting our Body in a place of Security because it will be always secure in conversing with God If there be a danger which he would not have us suffer he will warn us of it always in time as he did Noah Lot and so many others of Friends He will not permit any thing to befall us but that in which he would try or purge us Do not so much desire to know the place where you may retire as to know the place where God resides to converse with him For in this alone consists all our safety both Bodily and Spiritual You might indeed withdraw bodily into some place of Security where your Souls notwithstanding would not be sure of being Saved And if this were it would be but a poor Safety for our Life is so miserable that to lose it is more desirable than to preserve it were it not the fear of not having yet accomplish'd the Penitence due for our Sins Otherwise Death is pleasant and this Life grievous were it not that it may have God to converse with Without this there is nothing but Miseries I asked her In what place I might find this continual Conversation with God that I might be every where in Security and not fear Death She said Sir You must not go out of your self for God is the Centre of your Soul You must not seek him among the publick Places of the City as the Spouse in the Canticles did who was beaten by the Soldiers But re-enter into your self and you will find him He is no where more particularly than in the Souls of Men. These are his real living Temples where he rests at Noon that is in his most clear Light There entertain your Spirit with him and he will entertain himself with you He is more desirous to hear us than we are to speak to him neither going out nor in nor any other affairs whatsover can hinder this inward Conversation On the contrary it perfects all things So soon as our Affections are taken off from all other Objects and set upon God alone we will find him every where and he will never cease to give us his Graces to accomplish perfectly all our Enterprizes how little so ever they be for his Spirit was the true Wisdom which is not ignorant of any thing no more of Temporal things than of Spiritual This Spirit perfects all sort of things There is no place or condition be what it will that can divert us from this Conversation when our Affections are carried toward it Make a little Experience of it Sir and you will find what I say to be true You could not any longer fear Death in possessing the Author of Life for whether we live or die we will be always in the Earthly Paradise in which nevertheless we may indeed sin as Adam did because there are yet in this miserable Life so many things which may divert us from God that without great violence we cannot remain in this Spiritual Conversation but if Nature must do so great violence to it self at Death to separate from the Soul why may it not do a less to separate it self from that which hinders our union with God It is in this that Jesus Christ says if your Eye your Foot or any other Members of your Body do offend you cut them off pluck them out and cast them from you To shew that we must force our selves to part with all that
Roman Catholicks tho' this they hold for an Article of Faith that none can be saved out of her Communion This is very ill conceiv'd since God is universal and he 's to be found every where by those who seek and worship him For he 's not fix'd to any material Body All Souls who take their Delight in him are his Spouses call them by what Name or Religion you please For all these different Names or Opinions do not make a Christian but only the Practice of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ makes a Christian And all those who put in Practice the Doctrine of the Gospel are Christians and Disciples of Jesus Christ even tho' they were Turks or Heathens Of which Professions I believe several condemn and judge the nominal and professing Christians since God has no Respect of Persons and will judge all Men according to their Works This the Scripture confirms saying by your Works you shall be judged and by your Works you shall be condemn'd And Jesus Christ himself taught the Truth of God his Father to the Samaritan Woman and to many other Nations who were not Jews saying to his Apostles Go teach all Nations He that believes shall be saved He even ate and conversed with Sinners to see if any of them would receive the Truths of his Father and put them in Practice and tho' at first he rejected the Canaanitish Woman as a Dog yet he shew'd her Grace and Mercy by her Conversion and persevering Humility For the same Reason he says to Christians that Publicans and Sinners shall enter into the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out which still farther confirms this Truth That Religion does not save a Man but the Love of God that sanctisies him This made me get over all Humane Respects and declare the Truth of the things which were ask'd me by so many different Conferences all about the Roman Church For at that time I knew no other Religions and with Compassion I booked upon all those who died out of the Romanâ— Church as damn'd as our Divines taught So that being ask'd by a Romish Priest I answered plainly to all his Questions Vpon which many took Occasion to say that I had chang'd my Religion and was become an Enemy of the Roman Church which is not true since being born in it I will live and die therein without changing Name or Religion but only my Manners and Life And will endeavour to be regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and to follow and imitate him even to Death letting Ignorant Men say and judge of me as they please In the mean time I offer this LIGHT OF THE WORLD to all good Souls who seek the Truth and desire to become true Christians that they may truly discern Reality from Appearance For this prevails now through all the World among all sorts of Sects and Religions where every one cleaves to the Bark and does not touch the Wood fancying that Vertue consists in having a fine Religious Name of that of the Reformed the Evangelicks the Catholicks Yea that they are persons guided by the Holy Spirit of which the Quakers boast though all these sorts of Names are false and not at all suitable to the Life and Manners of those who call themselves so For if they who are called Reformed were truly so we would see the Reformation in their Life and Manners Whereas we find they all live according to Flesh and Blood which the Scripture says shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They are neither reformed in their Moveables nor their Apparel nor in their Eating or Drinking They seek in all the finest and the best They labour and trade diligently that they may have wherewith to maintain themselves in Pomp Excess or Plenty as much as they can without bridling their fleshly Appetites or their Sensualities in any thing still coveting more that they may give it as much Satisfaction as they can that in this World they may have Ease Honours and Pleasure Thus they are called Reformed though in Effect they will not reform themselves in the least thing for the Kingdom of Heaven By which we see that they who call themselves Reformed bear a false Name that makes them Hypocrites and Deceivers of others and of themselves As those also are deceived who call themselves the Evangelicks For in all their Works and Practices there is nothing conformable to the Gospel but all directly opposite to it For they do not observe so much as one Point of the Evangelical Councils For instead of loving voluntary Poverty they love the Abundance and Riches of this World unsatiably and they who ought to be the Guides to those Evangelical Perfections are the farthest remov'd from them abandoning their Flocks and Churches to find others that afford them more temporal Profit They are far from imitating the Apostles who said freely I have received and freely I give thee since these modern Evangelicks give at the greatest Price and to him that bids most And therefore they do not justly bear the Name of Evangelicks since they neither teach nor Practise so much as one Council of the Gospel and have nothing but false Names and Parades that they may appear to be in the Sight of Men what they are not at all in the Sight of God No more than those are Catholicks who bear the Name since to call one a Catholick is to say he is a Person joyn'd in the Communion of Saints which these are not who call themselves Catholicks since we perceive not any Holiness in their Lives but much Vice and Injustice accompanied with Hypocrisie and seeming Vertue without any Reality or Sanctification They boast that they are Abraham's Children without doing the Works of Abraham or that they are Christians without observing the Commands of Christ They content themselves to be called Catholicks without conforming their Lives to those who liv'd holily upon the Earth whose Lives and Histories they read without endeavouring to become holy as they were whose Feast s they solemnize tho' they shall never be in their Communion nor truly Catholicks till in their Lives they follow their Vertues and walk in the streight Way that leads to Life So that this Name of Catholick will condemn them rather than justifie them whereas they presume to be preferr'd by God to all other Religions because they are of the most Holy and Perfect Religion according to the Name of Catholick which they bear This would really be if their Souls were united to Jesus Christ in the Communion of Saints which only and no other thing makes a Catholick By which we see that these Persons bear a false Name since they presume of their Salvation because of the Name Catholick and be-believe they are in the true Church out of which they say there is no Salvation This would be true if the Roman Church were the only Communion of Saints But because
till we have attained to the Vse of Reason where can the free Will of Children remain who lose Father and Mother in their Infancy or as soon as they are born She replied Those Sir abide in the Will which their Parents had in their Conception and Production or as they leave them when they die In whatsoever Will they leave their Children when they die these abide in it till they have attained the Use of Reason for then they are always put in possession of their own Will whether they have been till then given to God or to the Devil they can nevertheless choose the one and leave the other But the Child who has been given by his Parents to the Devil shall have much more Difficulty of returning to God than he who by his Parents has been given to God because of the Bent to Evil which he has already contracted He must do a far greater Violence to his Nature than he that has been habituated to Good from his Infancy because Custom is another Nature so that it is very hard for a Child train'd up in Evil even till the Use of Reason to forsake or change it afterwards Therefore he who is born of good Parents fearing God has great Advantages beyond him who is born of Mahometans Jews or evil Catholicks who must use great Efforts before he overcomes the Evils acquired during his Weakness and Childhood Nevertheless God will never be wanting to give him Grace to do this if he hath an effectual Desire and Will for it for he created Man for no other end but to serve him and he can deny him nothing that is necessary for his Salvation On the contrary he affords him on his Part all Occasions and Means of Salvation even tho' he be born of evil Parents or Sorcerers They have no more Power over their Children after they are come to the Use of their own Reason if so be they will apply it to know and love God For they are put in such a State as if they were beginning to be born except as to the evil or good Habits contracted in their Childhood I said to her That we see two Children sometimes begotten of the same Father and Mother and yet the one enclined to Good and the other to Evil. She said This may very well be Sir because Fathers and Mothers are not always in the State of Grace sometimes they fall from it and afterwards they recover it The same befalls their Children as long as they have the free Will of these Infants in their Power it is still united to theirs and while the Father and Mother live they may put the Souls of their Children being yet in Childhood in Favour or Disgrace with God Therefore one may be enclined to Good and another to Evil according to the divers Dispositions and Desires of the Parents who at one time give one of their Children to God and at another time give another to the Devil They may indeed give their Blessing to one of these Children of the same Womb and their Malediction to another which will operate in their Children so long as they are not yet arriv'd at the Use of Reason because their free Will is united to that of their Fathers and Mothers From this Ground has proceeded the use of giving a Blessing which Use has past beyond Father and Mother to the Priests as being the spiritual Fathers of Christians tho' they have not the same Power that the natural Fathers have for they have not co-operated to the Formation of their Body nor yet very often to the Instruction of their Souls which Fathers and Mothers ought to do under Pain of their own Damnation We have seen Examples enough of the Power which Parents have over their Children for many have received the Devil in their Body by some evil Wish of their Fathers Jacob prospered and was bless'd by the blessing of his Father tho' he was not his eldest Son Many Curses have befallen some Children for the Sins of their Fathers and this is just because the free Will of the Child remains always depending on that of the Father till he hath received full Judgment to be able to use it himself Therefore the People cried at the Condemnation of Jesus Christ His Blood be upon us and on our Children I said to her That it fell out often that good Fathers and Mothers had evil Children and on the contrary those who were very evil have had very good Children She said This falls out Sir when the Children of good Parents have attain'd to the Use of Reason being put in Possession of their own free Will they forsake the good Instructions of their Parents and contract evil Habits by bad Conversation or by other Means which turn them away from their Parents Benediction to follow their own perverse Will over which the Father has no more Power since they are emancipated from the Power of their Fathers Will. In like manner when the Child of an evil Father becomes good and lives well this is still after he has acquired the Use of Reason and that then opening the Eyes of his Understanding to consider his evil Life he returns to do good by his Liberty and his free Will in which the Conversation of good Men does greatly help him But as long as he continu'd in the Power of his Fathers free Will he must of necessity be damned or saved according to the Disposition of his said Father and this by an equitable Justice because of the great Sympathy there is between the Father and the Child as being Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bones And as the Child who is in its Mothers Belly receives no other Nourishment but that of the Mother who may by her Food give Life or Death to her Infant which is in her Power so long as she bears it in her Womb even so is it of the Soul by the great Sympathy there is between the free Will of the Father and that of his Child Tho' they be two Souls they are nevertheless dependant upon that which has its full Reason as the Body of the Infant and of the Mother do both of them depend upon the Food which the Mother takes because she alone is capable of receiving it to make it pass to her Infant so that these two Bodies are reputed but one till the Infant be brought to Light and become capable of receiving its own Food Then the Mother is no longer capable of causing Life or Death to it except with what the Child may take of it self God acts ordinarily as to our Soul the same way that he does as to our Body at least by Similitude I said to her That she gave me very profound Thoughts that never any Body had searched so far into this Matter but that all they whose Spirits were perplexed about the Reasons why God damn'd one Infant and saved another did still referr to the Power
Conference That the Roman Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ but that she has falsified her Faith to her lawyul Husband I Said to her That she gave a deal of Light in divers things for which I did infinitely bless God but I could not deny it troubled me a little to hear that the Roman Church was thus fallen from the Spirit of true Christianity She said Sir it is more expedient for the Salvation of your Soul that you know the Misery into which the Church has fallen than if you knew the highest Mysteries of the Trinity or the greatest Good of all Men together Because an Evil known is easie to be avoided But as long as 't is unknown and hid from us it is always dangerous and may greatly hurt us without our being aware of it Therefore you ought to give the more Attention and to apply your Understanding more to understand and comprehend the Truth which I tell you of Evil than to discover the Good For if I told you the Good of all Men this would only give you some little Contentment or sensual Satisfaction which would add nothing to your Soul But by knowing the Evil as it is you may prudently beware of it that it do not touch or harm you For all these Evils which I said were introduc'd into the Church even while it was yet Holy are all covered with Appearances of Good and Piety and Reason because the Devil could never have gained so many Souls as have followed him but under this Colour or Mantle of Good And he will yet gain many by their Ignorance of these Evils or by their Unbelief of them For as long as they take Evil for Good they will still blindly follow it and Ignorance will not excuse the Sin For God having given us an Understanding to comprehend and a Spirit to discern we ought particularly to apply them to what concerns our Salvation and when the Truth is set before our Eyes and we will not open them to consider it we resist it and may look for the Condemnation of the Holy Spirit who says that Vnbelievers shall have their Portion with Sorcerers I said to her I would not be incredulous but believe the Truth But that I felt an inward Opposition when it thus overturn'd the Church in the chief Points of Belief which we owe to it in case it were the Holy Church She said Sir I believe in the Holy Church and if I had a thousand Lives I would voluntarily expose them for its Defence and would think my self happy to spend the last Drop of my Blood for such a Cause But when God makes me see clearly that She is not Holy nor that which Jesus Christ established but that She is the Whore which is spoken of in the Revelation I cannot resist so clear Truths which do not only lie secret in my Soul but God gives me also Terms and Words whereby to explain them to you that you may likwise receive the Knowledge of them for your Salvation For which I have often bless'd God who bestows on us so many particular Favours hoping he will do it also to others But I intreat you doubt not what I tell you of the Miseries into which Men are fallen For they are yet greater than I have told you But persuade your self assuredly if they were not true I would not have engag'd my self in Discourses so melancholly and disagreeable to your Sentiments It would be more pleasant to me to tell you that the Roman Church is Holy and Perfect and that those who obey and follow her are holy This would recreate both my Heart and yours and the Hearts of all who could hear it I should be very light-headed or void of Understanding to please my self with things which displease all the World and which oblige me still to hold my Peace and to conceal my self Because I know very well if they should hear me declare those Truths all the Romanists would rise up against me and even the most Pious would think they made a Sacrifice to God in killing me For they are ignorant of these Truths and are wedded to their Church as if she were Holy knowing no better because the great Darkness that is now throughout the whole World wherein the Devil has bewitch'd all Minds with Errours they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth which every one withstands even thinking they do well in it I ask'd her If I might not suspend my Belief of those things which were contrary to the Church and believe only what concern'd Vertue and the Love of God She said Sir you can never follow Good without departing from Evil nor adhere perfectly to God without abandoning that which is contrary to him Have you not remark'd in how many things this Roman Church is contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ How therefore can you adhere to her and follow Vertue and the Love of God so long as they are really contrary Jesus Christ says that We cannot serve two Masters without being unfaithful to the one or the other You must chuse which you love best Good can never profit you without the Knowledge of Evil because while you do not know and believe it you will insensibly fall into it yea you will often take Evil for Good For the Evil of this Church is still covered with the Sanctity of pious Reasons and Arguments And if Antichrist did not cover his Wickedness with Vertue he could gain none but the Wicked but with pious Pretexts he gains all the Good who would even make a Scruple not to follow him as you do Sir by your Demand For if you do believe and follow Vertue and the Love of God you will certainly hate all that is contrary thereunto I think I have already told you enough to let you see that the Rules the Commands and Ordinances of this Church are not conformable to those of God who when he created Man gave him full Liberty to use his Will wheras those constrain it in all Points and will not only subject it by Councils or Advices but by Force and Violence both bodily and spiritual So that as much as in them lies they destroy the Law and the Ordinances of God to establish their own Authority and to bind the Souls of Christians by so many Constraints that 't is impossible for them to satisfie them without displeasing God tho' there were no other thing but the forbidding Priests to labour and making them swear never to explain the Holy Scriptures otherwise than the ancient Fathers have done Do you not see Sir that all their Laws are nothing but political and made to maintain their State and Authority If a Prince or a King to whom you were subject did become a Tyrant would you make any Scruple to abandon him when it were in your Power to do it tho' he were the lawful Son of your King and gracious Father who had preceded him A
to this your Neighbour and also to your self in case you have need of what you have given him For Charity well order'd begins always at ones self and he who should give his Goods to another and leave his own Debts unpaid wou'd commit Robbery by taking from him to whom 't is due to give it to another out of tender Compassion Therefore I say we must always observe whether our Works be accompanied with Righteousness remarking whether this necessitous Person wou'd do any saving Good with our Gifts whether they would draw him out of spiritual and bodily Miseries whether he shall not abuse them by employing them to do evil Then the Giving him will be accompanied with the Righteousness of God provided you have what is superfluous to give him But when you have only pure Necessaries 't is not just to give them to others unless they be in some Extremity of Want Then you must succour your Neighbour as much as you are able yet without casting your self into the Extremity from whence you wou'd bring another For this wou'd neither be just nor good For a Man shou'd never ruine himself voluntarily This is to do an ill thing and against the Goodness of God To do therefore a Work of Charity that has the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God stamp'd upon it we must firstsee if it be true that the Person whom we wou'd assist is really poor This is the Truth of God For there are now so many Cheats and Lyes that the most part of the Poor are so thro' their own Fault because they will not work or they are prodigal and Cheats or they will not manage but are careless of the Goods that God has bestowed on them In all these Cases the Person is not truly poor and therefore we cannot find the Truth of God in our Alms neither can we therein find his Goodness because it would be ill for the Salvation of him to whom we give it Neither would it have his Righteousness for it would not be just to feed by Alms any in their Sloth or in other Sins of Gluttony or Carelesness You see clearly Sir that it is necessary to remark always by what Spirit we do our Actions or else we shall commit great Faults without perceiving them If you find some Difficulty in this serious Reflection yet this should not make you omit it For our Salvation and that of our Neighbour does well deserve all this Trouble If so many Men of Wit and Quality do so earnestly study to render themselves honest civil and accomplish'd in the Eyes and Judgment of Men how much more ought you to do to renderyour self such in the Sight of God This Difficulty will be well rewarded by your Salvation and that of so many others Whereas these Persons are often obliged to bow their Wills as Reeds at the Will of those whom they honour who nevertheless can give them nothing but perishing Things either some Breath of Honour or transient Pleasures or some Riches that perish by a Turn of Fortune and yet for this they force and torment themselves exceedingly Sir let other Mens Folly make you wise Study as much to gain the Favour of God as they do to have that of Men For your eternal Happiness depends upon it You can never follow God if you do not embrace his Truth Without it all your Works are vain and temporal ending with your self I told her That I would absolutely study from benceforth to become agreeable to God but that I never yet had Light enough to discern in all my Actions whether the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God was to be found in them She said Sir this comes from no other thing but Inconsideration of Mind For if it would apply it self it would certainly know all that it ought to do and omit more clearly than your Eyes perceive sensible Objects Apply only the Understanding that God has given you for the Perfection of your Soul and you shall learn all things As soon as you shall firmly resolve to seek no longer for any thing upon Earth but only to seek the Glory of God you shall obtain the Light of the Holy Spirit which will teach you all things There is nothing to be feared on this Occasion but the Bent that we have to the Earth which if we follow we should soon lose the Star which shou'd guide us to the Place where God dwells Therefore I exhort you never more to look behind you nor to aim at any thing on Earth For all that we can see or hope for here are but Chains and Bands to withdraw us from God our alone Saviour Therefore Sir forsake your self and all things For they are Enemies of your true Good The Love we bear to Men hinders us from the Love of God and the Love of our selves renders us his Enemies which Things stifle in our Soul the Light of the Holy Spirit But if we are resolved to seek and love no longer any thing but the Glory of God we shall soon perceive if what we speak think or do be for this Glory or not by the least Diligence or Care to do it Only you must be firm in your Resolution that you will do nothing but what shall be for this Glory and thrust far from you all other things as unworthy of your Pretensions Then shall we walk with a steady Pace and shall no longer do any thing but what shall have these three Qualities of the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God For all that is for his Glory brings still these Conditions along with it his Glory being inseparable from his Essence his Essence from his Righteousness Goodness and Truth nothing can be wanting there any longer The Thirteenth Conference That Persons illuminated by God may serve as powerful Means for Salvation but it 's God only who can give it and that now the Company of Men is dangerous I Said to her That all these things were true but that my Soul was not yet purified enough to discover them so precisely and that her Company was necessary for me that I might learn to practise that Righteousness Goodness and Truth She said Sir I believe indeed my Company may serve you as a Mean to preserve you on Occasions but it is not necessary for this For God alone is sufficient who'll guide you thro' all provided you continue firmly faithful to him For you know not me yet and if you knew me you wou'd see in my Practice all the things that I tell you by Word My Thoughts Words and Deeds must have the three Qualities of which I have spoken to you else I shou'd be like the Brass that sounds outwards and has nothing within it self I have remarked that you have not yet discovered these Truths and therefore my Conversation would be useless to you and a great Hindrance to me For you not perceiving God in my Words and Works would not follow them and
Infallible and to use his Almighty Power As also to receive Honour appertains to God only and he who seeks and desires it is a Robber and receives what does not belong to him Moreover if you refer yourself in all things to the Church she will oblige you to things against God and your Conscience and make you to acknowledge that some Saints are Hereticks as if the knew of me she wou'd condemn me for such tho' I act only by the Holy Spirit and all the Books that handle the pure Truth are condemned and forbidden by this Church There is no longer any thing but Lying that triumphs in her For she even teaches that we may have the Pardon of our Sins without a precise Love of God which overturns all the Law and the Prophets For they are established and have spoken for no other End but to teach this Love which Man owes to God And now there are Glosses and Arguments found out to disguise this Love and to give it the Mantle of self-self-love with which they promise us Salvation that they may make us perish insensibly without knowing it For all they who do not precisely love God go to the Devil Say the Church what it please it cannot change the Ordinance that God made from the Beginning of the World I see nothing there but Tricks and Distractions For instead of saying to us what Jesus Christ said to the Young Man in the Gospel If thou wouldest enter into the Kingdom of Heaven keep my Commandments For the obtaining of this Kingdom she teaches us a thousand Fopperies which Jesus Christ never taught us by Indulgencies Confraternities Cords Girdles or Scapularies and Devotions to Images All this to me seems so far from the Spirit of Christianity that I am pain'd at the Heart when I think on 't I believe all these things serve only to dazle Mens Spirits that they may never come to the Knowledge of the Truth and to amuse us as they do the Children with Rattles to charm our Miseries I said to her I would fain discover where the Holy Spirit was that I might follow him She said Sir he is now come in the World You shall know him by Truth Righteousness and Goodness For he is the same with God There are not in God three Persons as People imagine because all that we can say of God is only that he is perfect Love all-just all-good and all-true Behold Sir all that we can know of God in this present Life and when we are told that there are three Persons in God it is to be understood that there are three Powers that Love is his Essence that his Word communicates this Love and that his Understanding makes Man to comprehend it This Love being the Essence of God never beginning and also will never end which Love was communicated to Man from the Creation But seeing he understood it not sufficiently God made his Word to become Flesh that it might be the better understood by an Organ sutable to our Senses Jesus Christ therefore is no other thing but the Word which communicates to Man this Love that is in God and the Holy Spirit is the Wisdom ' that gives the Understanding to comprehend this Love Behold the three Persons that must be known in God these are the LOVE the WORD that declares this Love and the VNDERSTANDING that comprehends it Now the Essence of Love was from all Eterniry But Men cou'd not know it but since the Creation and even then imperfectly Therefore the Goodness of God found out the Means to make it known by this humane Body which he took for this end when he came to treat familiarly with Men he becoming Man to make them see manifestly how much he lov'd them And not being yet satisfied with this to communicate this Love so sensibly he moreover sends his Holy Spirit to teach them all things You shall know him Sir by the principal Qualities of God which are Righteousness Goodness and Truth which are always inseparable from the Spirit of God Remark well if what is told you be still accompanied with these three Qualities I ask'd her If the Holy Spirit comes into the World in Flesh as Jesus Christ did at his Birth She said No Sir there is no need of his coming in the Flesh to communicate himself to Men as Jesus Christ did because he comes not to shew them any new thing for working out their Salvation Jesus Christ having sufficiently taught them all things tho' Men have not comprehended it and now the Holy Spirit comes to give unto the Mind the Understanding of the same things which Jesus Christ taught while he was on Earth Even as Jesus Christ came not to destroy the Law of God but to perfect it so the Holy Spirit comes not now to destroy the Doctrine of Jesus Christ but to perfect it and to give the perfect Understanding of it to all those who will receive it 'T is not Needful that for this end he take a Humane Body because he brings no new Words but new Notices that may be conceived by Mens Spirits These Notices being spiritual have no need of a natural Body that they may be communicated to the Spirits of Men. If you wou'd receive him Sir you must become a Child and submit your self wholly to God and then you will find the Effects But never let your self be deceived by false Appearances For there are now many false Prophets that come in God's Name and are of the Synagogue of Satan as I told you formerly Try always if they who speak to you do possess these three Qualities of God Thereby you shall assuredly discover them For if you let your self be amused with good Words or even by the Gifts of Prophesies or Miracles the Devil can counterfeit enough to deceive you Reject also all those who praise or flatter you Because the Devil does ordinarily use these Means to deceive those whom he desires to gain to himself The Spirit of God is always firm and true full of Righteousness and Goodness There is no need that he make himself visible to the Eyes of the Flesh he shall be sufficiently felt by the Sentiments of the Soul and the Eyes of the Spirit He shall illuminate all Flesh and enlighten the Spirits of all those who will hear and follow him But there must be an humble Heart and a Spirit entirely yielded up to God The Sixteenth Conference How we must beware of false Christs and false Prophets which seduce all the World and are so much followed at present How to discern true Prophets from the false and that it would be to no purpose at present to aim at the Conversion of Christians by preaching the Truth to them I Ask'd her How it was possible to beware of these false Prophets since there were so many of them and that they were disguised with Vertue and Holiness She said
Christ speaks only of those who are upon Earth who are obliged to have these Beatitudes if they would be saved and come to the possession of the Promises made to each of the said Beatitudes which are the certain Marks whereby to discover if we live in a state of Salvation or not Nevertheless no body examines himself upon this Head to see if he have those Beatitudes no more than if they were not proclaimed for us We say them as a Litany and not as things that we are oblig'd to put in practice In which we deceive our selves for no body will attain to the state of Blessedness but he who in this World shall put these Eight Beatitudes in practice And as far as Men are estranged from them they are as far from their Salvation I asked her What Remedy there was for such general Evils in which no body could be saved She said Sir I told you long ago that Paradise was shut My meaning was that no Body now at Death attains to Bliss because in their Life-time they make no Preparation for it but they are every way estranged from God For it is not now known what is Sin nor yet what is Vertue They imagine they are Vertuous when they do something that 's good in appearance and that they are not guilty of sin when they do not commit wicked Actions This is the most crafty delusion of the Devil by which he certainly gains all the good through this blindness of Mind This is an universal Evil which makes me afraid that not one Person shall be saved because none do perceive their Evil but grosse Sinners who live in Actual sins As for others every Moment they take the Name of God in vain One will say I trust in God another God will help us another God will shew us Mercy and thus on a Thousand other occasions the Name of God is still in their Mouth calling on him to co-operate in their sins For when they say they trust in God while the Soul wallows in sin is to desire that God would do Injustice Wherefore they may wait long in this sort of confidence and shall never obtain their Desire For God cannot help those who go on in sin without being unjust which he will never be And he who says that God will help him while he lives as People do at present says that God will help him to sin which he cannot do For he cannot contribute directly or indirectly to any Sin and if he assisted us in the way we live he should contribute to many sins which we commit For if he assisted us to preserve our Temporal Goods we would continue yea encrease our Pride our Excesses and Vanities and if he delivered us from Wars Peace would give us occasions to forget God and to abandon our selves the more to bodily Pleasures and Sensualities and if he delivered us from our Miseries of whatsoever kind we would certainly be led to greater Evils For Ease and Sloth engender all sort of Sins And when we say God will have Mercy on us and nevertheless we go on in a state of sin this is to blaspheme against the Righteousness of God Because he can never have Mercy but upon penitent Sinners Which the Godly now a days are very far from for they encourage themselves in their Sins as if they were Vertues and even call them by the Name of Vertues For the Avarice of the Cloisters and of the Religious is call'd Charity done them and the Adorning of Altars building of Houses and Magnificent Churches is call'd the Honour of God though these be but Vanities and Superfluities by which God is greatly offended For if at Baptism we have renounc'd the World and its Pomps to become Christians how can we adorn Churches which we call the Temples of God with the same Pomps and Vanities which Christians are not permitted to seek after in their own Persons nor in what belongs to them How can it be allowed to use them in Places particularly dedicated to God without tacitely Insinuating that God is served with our sins and Impurities as are all sort of Pomps and Vanities which are so common in Churches as well as in other places Nevertheless all this is covered with an Appearance of Vertue and Holiness This renders all the World impenitent For every one amuses himself with the belief of being sav'd in a state of Sin and Damnation Which is truly a desperate state because he who believes he is good will never repent and much less will he do Penitence and consequently he shall never obtain Pardon For God cannot pardon without Repentance All the Remedy that I see in this is a perfect Conversion unto God and a New Birth as if till now we had never been in the World For all that we have done hitherto has been evil and blame-worthy in the sight of God though to us all seem to be good through the Blindness of our Spirits in which we have been so sunk that no Body has seen whither he was going more than we do in a very dark Night Therefore Jesus Christ has said That a man must be born again and become as a little Child else he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He speaks to those of the present Age For if one do not re-enter into the Womb of the Rising Church he cannot be sav'd The Eleventh Conference Shews how a Man must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And that he must return to a Dependance upon God which is the only thing that he essentially requires of Man I asked her How this New Birth could be in those who are already advanc'd in Years and Learning She said Sir We must take up a Life wholly new as if to day we were newly born Because all the good that we think we have done heretofore is all evil or at least good for this Life onely For all our good Works have still been attended with self-Self-love or Humane Respects which can never be recompenc'd in Eternity because we have here had their Reward What we do out of Self-love is recompenc'd by our Satisfaction and what we do out of Humane respects is recompenc'd by the complacency of Men So that we can never in Justice pretend to any other thing for we are fully satisfied in this World according to the Pretensions or Ends we had in doing our good Works Though they have been covered with a pretence of the Glory of God or Charity to our Neighbours yet in effect all this has been but Vanity-Therefore he who desires to be converted must take up a Life wholly new and believe assuredly that he has never done so much as one Action purely for the Love of God Which we may abundantly perceive by considering all the Sins against the Holy Ghost and those which we commit by another with the Eight Beatitudes and the other solid Vertues Every one may see thereby
understood of all the Holy Scripture for even they who pronounc'd it understood it not in its perfect Sense but in part only But now that the Holy Spirit is come upon Earth to give the full Knowledge of them he needs not for this End a Body of Flesh but only to give Men Spiritual Understanding that they may know the Powers of God the Love he bears to Man the End for which he created him and may have the knowledge of True Vertue and of that which is False All these Things shall be known by the Understanding of those Men who will receive the Light of Truth which the Holy Spirit brings now into the World HE IS BORN in the midst of its Universal Darkness in which no Body knows the Truth of any Thing all being falsified or not known The Holy Spirit comes to clear this by Spiritual Notices I blest my good Fortune and the Day in which I met with this Pilgrimess for my Vnderstanding received such Light by her Discourses that I must confess my Soul had perish'd without this Rencounter I asked her How her Words could have such strong Operations on me She said Sir This proceeds from the Holy Spirit who begins to visit your Soul by his Light Receive it with Humility of Heart and he will enlighten you more For he is come to fill the Souls of all those who shall receive the Truth It is by the Operations that you feel that he is born in Souls He is a Spirit and he works in the Spirit of all who seek and desire him We must not any longer seek for visible and material Means For all these things are Hindrances to him Let us only open our Heart and Spirit to receive the Truth and it will teach us all Things For nothing but Lies has undone the whole World The Darkness that Men are in and their forgetfulness of God have come by Lying which has seiz'd on all the World For none are now in the Truth The false Perswasions which they have imprinted on Mens Hearts have made them mistake God and the State of their own Souls There is therefore great reason to bless the Goodness of God who in so miserable a Time sends us his Holy Spirit to enlighten all those who will receive him I believe Sir you are the first but a great Number will follow you For as soon as the delusion shall be discovered the Eyes of many will be opened and their Heads lifted up to return to God abhorring their Errours and the Deceit of their blind Guides They will see that all that they have taught them as Means of bringing them to God have estrang'd them from him and the Sacraments and other Ceremonies of the Church instead of procuring them the Grace of God to love him and to acquire true Vertue have given them rather a Contempt of God and a false hypocritical Vertue This being discovered many will seek the Truth abhorring Lying which has put their Salvation in so great hazard I asked her If the Holy Spirit would not become visible She said No Sir He will not be visible but by the Operations which he will make in Souls whom you shall see disingaged from the Earth and cleaving to God alone We shall see them possess Joy Peace and Patience with the other Fruits and Gifts which will be sure Evidences that the Holy Spirit will dwell in their Souls who notwithstanding shall not be seen by the Eyes of the Body in any Material Form or Figure For the Time is come that God will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and no longer in Figures which shall all cease because of the Accomplishment of all Things And all that was figured in the Old Law shall be accomplished in full perfection by the Holy Spirit For the Time is come that all the Promises which God made to Men from the Beginning of the World shall be fulfilled the Alliance that God has promis'd to make with Men shall have its perfect Accomplishment For they shall be his People and he will be their God This has not come to pass as yet Though Men were created to be God's People nevertheless they did not continue so on the contrary they committed so many Infidelities that he was oblig'd to destroy them by a General Deluge and though the Children of Israel were God's peculiar People they forsook him notwithstanding and gave themselves to Idolatry The Jews who were as precisely God's People denied him also and would not acknowledge him when he became Man but revil'd him and hang'd him on a Cross And now the Christians who ought more perfectly to be Gods People despise him in his Sufferings and in his Doctrine So that the Alliance that God promis'd to make with Man could not hitherto be accomplish'd Of necessity the Holy Spirit must come upon Earth to enlighten Men that they may have the Faithfulness requisite for this Alliance of God with Men For a Marriage cannot be compleat if the Spouse be not faithful as the Husband is The Fourteenth Conference Speaks of the Alliance that God will make with Men and of the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory and that to have a Share in it we must of necessity resign our Will to God and return to a Dependance upon him I entreated her to tell me How and when and wherein this Alliance of God with Men shall be made She said This Will be made by the Holy Spirit who will illuminate Souls make them know their Errours and also the End for which they were created which is nothing less than to be joyn'd and united to God who will take his Delight with Men And they perceiving this shall separate themselves from all Earthly Pretensions and resign themselves to the Will of God desiring no longer to use their own Wills because they have entirely renounc'd them Then shall they have such Dispositions as will invite God down to the Earth to Ally himself visibly and bodily with Men by an inseparable and indissoluble Tye. This is the End for which God cloath'd himself with a Humane Body to make himself like to Man that the Alliance he designed to make with him might be wholly perfect and compleat both in Body and Spirit What God promis'd of Old to Abraham could never be accomplish'd because Men were never resign'd to God as they ought having still us'd their own Free-will without depending upon God This did separate and divorce them from the Alliance which he promis'd them But in this Fulness of Time wherein we live the Holy Spirit is come down to teach us all Things and whosoever shall hear him shall enjoy the promis'd Alliance For Jesus Christ will come very shortly upon the Earth in Glory to Joyn and Allie himself with all those who shall resign themselves to him I cannot precisely tell the Day Sir but that it will be towards the End of the Plagues which are now
the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the Heavens he must confess that the Authour of all these Things is perfect and looking on the Earth the Trees the Plants and Elements he must discover an incomprehensible Divinity who had the Skill to make all these admirable Things Which obliges all that are Reasonable to Love him And when Man considers himself and sees the Art there is in the Fabrick of his Body in the Faculties of his Soul in the Subtilty of his Spirit he must confess that there is a God the Authour of all this to whom all Things ought to be ascribed Because no Creature is able to do any such thing By all which things a Man comes more perfectly to the Knowledge of God than by Sciences and the Expositions of all the Doctors of the World who have nothing but Limited Sciences The Twentieth and Third Conference Shews That it is by Faith only that we can be Saved which coming from God works still Resignation Even among the Heathens c. I said to her That all this Knowledge of God was nothing but the Faith of a Heathen that it was not capable to work Salvation that to be saved we must have a Divine Faith She said Sir You are ignorant yet of a great many Things For that Faith which you call Heathen is Divine because it comes immediately from God who has imprinted in the Soul of all Men this Divine Light that leads them to the Knowledge of the true God This is a Grace infused without the Concurrence of any Men which is much more perfect then the Faith we give to the Things they propose to be believed by us in the Roman Church many of which are very absurd and neither respect the Glory of God nor our Salvation They give us for an Article of Faith That there are Three Persons in God Though nevertheless no Creature can comprehend what is in God but by his Operations which we see with our Eyes as that he is Almighty that he is All just all Good and True Because all that we see he operates in us and in other Creatures bear these Three Qualities But to know if there be Three Divine Persons in God this surpasses our Capacity Because God is an incomprehensible Being and was never discovered by any so as to know what there is in his Divinity They propose also to us many Things for Articles of Faith which are not of its true Essence seeing no Body can be saved without Faith and they continually propose to us new Things for Articles of this Faith which our Forefathers never believed as such And if we cannot have true Faith now without believing them it were to be feared that our Forefathers were not Saved since they did not believe those new Things which are now proposed to us as Articles of Faith They never believed that the Virgin Mary was conceived without Original Sin and now they would make this Belief to pass for an Article of Faith Though nevertheless there is no appearance of Truth in it For the Virgin came out of the Masse of Adam as all the rest of Men And she did also undergo the Penitence common to all the Children of Adam having gained her Bread by Bodily Labour and suffered the Malignity of all the Elements and her Son Jesus himself shiver'd for Cold in the Stable of Bethelem shewing that he was a real Man descended from Adam subjecting himself to the same Penitence that our First Father had received and accepted from God in the Remission of his Sin Why should they now lay it before us as an Article of Faith that the Virgin was conceived without Sin since all Humane Creatures which are born of Parents who live under the Dependance of God having accepted the Penitence that God enjoyn'd Adam are all born in the Indulgence that God gave to Adam Wherefore should there be a particular Article of Faith for the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin as also for the Infallibility of the Pope seeing all these Things have no respect to the true Faith which must work out our Salvation For if the Virgins Conception was Immaculate or if the Pope be infallible this makes nothing for our Salvation nor as to the Knowledge we ought to have of a God upon whom all Things depend This Light infused in my Soul is true Faith and the Dependance that I desire to have upon the same God is the Work of my Faith What need is there to add yet to this the believing that the Pope is infallible since I have the same Light of Faith that tells me No Man can be infallible Since Adam created in Innocence and endued with all the Grace and Holiness that can be met with in any Man did fall and by failing so grosly shew that he was not infallible may not a Man who is a Sinner fail or err All these Faiths and Beliefs are not divinely infused by God into our Soul as that Faith is which makes us know a God above all Things All good All-just All-mighty but Incomprehensible This Faith Sir which you call Heathen is the True Faith which is able to work Salvation in all those who in consequence of it do through Love resign themselves to the same God I asked her If she believed the Heathens would be saved since they are not baptized She said Yes Sir All the Heathens who knew God by his Works and resigned their Will to him shall assuredly be saved For they had operating Faith True Faith in believing that there is One Almighty God who created the Heaven the Earth and all Things and they had the Works of Faith when they were resign'd to the Will of the same God Which appeared in all those who despised the Things of this Life for that which is to come They could not have done this but by a Divine Light that God infused into their Souls Because the Brutish Senses cannot despise the Pleasures of this Life For they know no other and Nature cannot betray it self by despising what is good for it to choose what is evil for it When we see one who may have Honours Riches and Pleasures in this Life and who yet quits them to be dispised poor and afflicted we may well believe that he has the Light of Faith infused by God into his Soul Because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever induce him to do such Things For no Body hates his own Flesh and the Devil incites alwayes to satisfie Nature And if we see one whom we call a Heathen quit the Conversation of Men and retire into a Solitude we may well believe that he has the true Light of Faith which makes Nature break off conversing with its like For Society is a most Lovely Thing Man is a Sociable Creature above all the other Animals and if the Beasts are sad when they are alone how much more must Man be so when he Lives according to Nature unless it
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