yet many good Men among others who are wicked and do not perceive that the evil is universal when the punishments are so The sacred History of the Scripture makes appear to us that God would have pardoned all that were in Sodom if there had been but ten Righteous within it We believe there are a great many good men according to our judgment whereas it may be before God there are none and even tho there were divers yet it is a good thing that the Righteous be tried by Tribulation for they testifie by it the fidelity they have toward God in continuing constantly faithful to him in adversity as well as in prosperity and likewise they thereby try themselves For many are deceived who thought they were faithful to God in Prosperity and yet Adversities have made them stumble in the midst of their Race or they have perish'd at the first essay of Temptation So that God manifests always great Righteousness and great Mercy chiefly in sending universal Rods in chastning the Wicked and in trying the Righteous if there be any who never suffer for the Guilty but for their own Perfection and Merit Universal Chastisements being much more profitable to the Good than to the Evil because they purifie them and render them more perfect whereas the wicked become worse by them I was obliged to confess That I had done a great wrong in speaking thus of God according to my Sentiment I asked her how I ought to behave my self that I may not any more fall into the like faults and that I might make a right judgment of God She said Sir never judge according to what you see outwardly but give always time to your Spirit to examin the works of God and you will discover that all that he does and permits is accompanied with Righteousness Goodness and Power which are his Qualities without which he does nothing Men do deceive themselves and the most wise err in this point when they will censure the works of God In which they are real Ignorants for if they had any small Light they would admire and adore them only without making any judgments of them for of necessity what they make is unjust injurious or rash because no human Spirits are capable of fathoming the works of God for they are all incomprehensible We can only see that in them there is all sort of Goodness Righteousness and Power If we consider only a grain of Corn we shall find in it these three things Power is in its frame because no man is able to make a grain of Corn how Great and Learned soever he be We percieve also in this grain the goodness of God who gives so liberally to the Good and to the Wicked their necessary Food We will there likewise find Righteousness because having made Man subject to be nourished with this grain he provides it for him even tho he be his Enemy that he may find no injustice in God to have subjected him to a thing which afterwards should be denied him He wills that we may comprehend aright that all his works are Just and Good and Powerful tho we be ignorant how he makes them The Twenty fourth Conference Of the Enquiry about the most Holy Trinity and concerning Grace and that the Saints themselves are mistaken therein none being Infallible I Said to her That I had committed a great many faults in this matter that often I would needs dive into the works of God even his highest Mysteries such as that of Grace and the Trinity and that many holy Doctors had pass'd all their Life in such Studies to declare how God begets his Word or how God bestows Grace differently She replied Sir It is very ill done for a silly Worm of the Earth to seek to comprehend that which a God does It is enough always for a Servant to know what is agreeable to his Master in the matter of the duty of his Service without its being permitted him to enquire into his most secret particular Affairs He has performed his Duty when he has done that which is commanded and ordain'd him by his Master Much more blame worthy is it that a Creature should inform it self how God begets his Word or how he distributes his Graces unto Men This is beyond our Duty We ought to reckon our selves very happy to learn that God has so much Goodness that he always imparts to us Grace sufficient to enable us to love and serve him Every one may find this in his own Conscience and Experience which is the Mistress of all Scienc can testifie that every one has received Grace from God even tho he be a great Sinner What need is there after this to inform our selves how God gives these Graces Or if he give more to one than to another If this be not to seek matter to condemn God of Partiality or to make him have respect of Persons and so to render him less Lovely There is yet less ground to inform our selves what the Holy Trinity is for no body is capable of comprehending it nor yet how the Father begets the Son so much the rather that to render unto God agreeable Service there is no need of knowing any other thing than what he commands and ordains us What is more is unprofitable or evil for all that we should be able to say or know of the Trinity cannot but greatly lessen the glory of his Being which is above all that is most Beautiful most Good and most Great There is nothing that can be compared to God neither are there any words that can give us the least signification of the Being of God who comprehends all things If God were Man we would say that his Heart is the Father His Mouth the Son and his Understanding the Holy Spirit because the Heart of Man is the feat of Love his Mouth is the Channel by which this love is communicated and his Understanding is the Garden wherein the Conceptions do grow to make his Love be comprehended These three things are but one Person tho it have these three diverse Operations The Holy Trinity is but one God who is all Love he loves Man incomprehensibly We may call this Love the Father Now no Being is perfect if it be not communicated The Word has communicated unto Man this Love therefore it may be call'd the Son And this Word cannot be comprehended without Understanding which has likewise been given unto Man to comprehend this Love which understanding may be call'd the Holy Spirit All three together are but that sole Love which is God There is not in the Holy Trinity a Man a Child nor a Dove as they paint it unto us but these are all Figures to make us conceive something of God who nevertheless is unconceivable And all that they can say to us of him are but contempts or reproaches which we commit against God for
catch us in this Strait Must not one be very ill advised to amuse himself with these Nothings and lose those things of so great Value We may indeed look upon all these earthly things at a Distance even with Contentment and taste them according as we have need of them for they are created for us while we receive them with Thanksgiving but we ought never to fasten our Affections on them else we shall never arrive at the LOVE OF GOD For our heart cannot be divided between two so different Objects He will have all our Heart or none of it And it can never be fill'd nor fully satisfied but with him alone I said to her That there must always be in the World Persons plac'd in States and Dignities tho' it were but to keep the People in good Discipline That all the World could not abandon their Offices and that I my self was charg'd with one troublesom enough That I thought I held it of God for that I did not seek for it She said Sir I bewail you with all those who are at present in Charge For it is very hard for them to keep themselves right in it I cannot believe that God will place therein any of his Friends because nothing is done any longer for his Glory and the Evil is so far advanc'd that it cannot be resisted any longer so prevalent is it that the Good are obliged to give Place and yield to it by Force So that a good Man now in Office must ruin himself or give way to Evil For he is too weak to resist the Force of the Wicked who are so numerous Therefore I said heretofore that the Good serve the Devil as his Slaves because they are oblig'd to acquiesce to Evil through Force In which nevertheless they do not cease to sin by one of the nine Ways by which we commit it on another and these Sins are imputed to them because they tolerate the Evil. It is not enough that they cannot hinder it For in not hindring it if they could they would commit likewise another of the said Sins which are committed in another there being nine ways by which the Sins of another are laid to our Charge At least those who are now in Offices do commit that of Tolerating Evil and cannot escape to do this if they do not abandon their Offices wherereby they would shew that they love God more than their Offices and that it was he who had plac'd them in them but to believe that God has created or call'd us to any State these are but Fopperies Because he has created us for no other thing but to love him as I have so often repeated States are our own Choice God forces no Body to be a Pope Bishop Prebend Pastor or Priest nor yet to be an Attorney Advocate Counsellor President Governour or of any other such Office and Benefice whatsoever Every one is diligent enough to seek for them It is not as in the former Times when a S. Nicholas and so others did hide themselves that they might not be Bishops or receive other Dignities These were not in the Darkness and Ignorance in which we live at present while we prefer Honours and Wealth to our Salvation and that with so fine Pretences that all the World judges we do very right in continuing in States Offices and Benefices believing the World would be much worse if all these good Men should abandon their Stations And for my part I believe it would be much better Because they would have more Leisure to attend upon their own Salvation and the Perversness of the Wicked would discover it self sooner Which remaining hid for a longer Time does more Harm because an Evil known is easier avoided I said to her It was very evident that God had call'd some to Employments He said to Peter That he was the Rock upon which he would build his Church She said 'T is true Sir S. Peter was call'd to the Building of the Church by Jesus Christ but he would have first a Testimony of him to know if he lov'd him He ask'd him three times The first to know if it was true that he lov'd him in the Sight of God the second if he lov'd him by the Testimony of his own Conscience and the third if he lov'd him by the Testimony of Men to teach us that these Conditions are needful to be capable of Ruling well to wit the Testimony of God that he say of us as he said of his Servant Job That we are his Servants our own Testimony to search if our Conscience reprove us in nothing and that of our Neighbour if our Actions are such as may make them judge that we truly love God These are the Conditions whereby to judge if God calls us to the Government of his Flock In confirmation of which he gives all the Graces requisite to govern well according to his Spirit But when we perceive that we have neither the Love of God as to his Regard of us nor as to a Testimony in our own Conscience nor yet in our Works for the Edification of our Neighbour we ought never to presume that we are call'd of God for any State or Office It is rather to be believed that we are push'd to it of our selves through Presumption and when we do not govern by the Direction of God we fall from one Fault into another without knowing it Our Natural Instinct makes us to govern all by Human Principles That of the Devil makes us to act according to his Principles And thus we commit threefold Evils when we do not govern purely by the Principles of Jesus Christ It were better to be Pastors of Sheep than of Souls and to be Subjects than Lords for he who is in Imployments Offices or Benefices will not only render an account of his own Soul but also of those whom he has under his Charge A Pilgrim is well pleased to have no Burthens He travels the more lightly when he has nothing but his own Body to bear and accomplishes his Journey the sooner Even so it is as to the present Times in which nothing can be done any longer for the Glory of God It were better for a Man to work out his own Salvation than to charge himself with Offices or Benefices which if we remark narrowly are sought for either for our Honour or our Pleasure or our Interest all which are vain and earthly Ends unworthy of a true Christian who ought only to seek the Kingdom of Heaven since Jesus Christ has promised to give him the rest which is but a contemptible thing I said to her That I was wholly prepar'd to quit all Offices and Benefices if I knew that it were the Will of God That I would desire rather to save my self than to possess all the Wealth in the World She said This is a good Design Sir but if you wait till an Angel from Heaven
with his Resolution to publish this to the World thinking himself oblig'd in Conscience to undeceive others as by these Divine Truths he was undeceiv'd himself But when she had seen his Papers and read a little of them she told him they would be useful for himself but not for others because they often answer'd the Thoughts of his own Mind which no Body perceiv'd but himself and being sollicited by him to compose this Work anew returning him his Papers she her self wrote by way of Conference the things which God brought into her Memory in the same manner as they are now publish'd in the three parts of The Light of the World She went to Holland at the Sollicitation of M. de Cort in order to the Printing of this Book To this she had some Repugnance at first having never been formerly in any Place without the Dependance of the Church of Rome and being made believe that all the Hereticks as they call'd them were monstrous and Infectious But having recommended this Affair to God she was told That these common Differences of Religion do not bring Salvation but the Love of God only and Vertue which we ought to love in all Persons who aspire to it without regarding the outward Religion they profess that she ought to do good to all and communicate to all the Light of the Divine Truth of what Religion soever they be This wrought in her Soul so perfect an Impartiality that she never afterwards enquir'd of what Religion one was provided only he lov'd to put in practice the Doctrin of Jesus Christ and to recover the Love of God This impartiality of Spirit and her equal Concern for the good of all and the Freedom she took to manifest the Corruption of all Parties and how far they were from the Spirit of true Christianity made her to be hated and persecuted on all sides The Jesuits the Jansenists the Lutheran and Calvinist Ministers the Anabaptists the Quakers the Labadists did respectively prosecute her either with their Tongue or Pen or by exciting the Civil Power where she staid or animating the Fury of the Rabble against her They made her pass for a Visionarist a Person of a wicked Life suspected of Sorcery a Blasphemer the worst of Hereticks one who did propagate the most damnable Opinions but Wisdom is justified of her Children The Innocence and Purity of her Life and the perfect Conformity of it to the Christian Doctrin of her Writings was made appear by Evidences beyond all Exception The publick Confession which she made of her Faith and the Agreement of her Writings therewith shew the Falshood of their Calumnies as to her Doctrin and the Writings publish'd against her gave her occasion the more to clear and manifest the Truth so that what they were apt to except against in some of her Writings she more fully explain'd in others as appears for Instance in her Advertisement against the Quakers where she speaks more expressly of the Respect due to Pastors and the Sacraments She deplor'd greatly the unhappy Schisms which have divided Christendom into so many Factions disapprov'd all that savours of the Spirit of a Party of Disputes and Partialities protested a thousand times against the establishing a new one but aim'd to perswade all to observe the Doctrin of Jesus Christ without changing from one party to another so that she even disswaded some Protestants of her Acquaintance from turning over to the Church of Rome as they had been sollicited by others but to obey the Doctrin of Jesus Christ in the Communion wherein they were such Changes being but the effect of Vanity She said the Difference of Sects and Parties among Christians was founded upon their Neglect of the Essentials of Christianity and their Zeal for some of the Accessories and Externals of it and comparing the first to a Sword and the other to its Sheath the great Debate among the respective Parties was which had the best Sheath and in the mean time the Devil robb'd us of the Sword She was desirous to know the Will of God even as to the ordering of outward things and receiv'd from him the following Rules 1. Do all in good order and in season for I am a God of order And Disorder comes from the Devil and from Sin 2. Never be eager in Temporal Affairs but apply your mind to do well what you do in quietness for the wandring of the mind and disquiet spoils all 3. Take care of making a good use of every thing that nothing be spoil'd or lost for what is lost by your negligence will be required of you and what you have no need of may be useful for another 4. Keep your self still imploy'd in things useful saving or necessary For idleness is the Mother of all Evils and the Devil lodges in an idle Soul 5. Labour that you may accomplish your Penitence and not that you may please Men or gain Mony or satifie your self for all the Labours that you go about for any other end than to please me are lost Labour and you have your reward in what you sought for whether it be complaisance of Men or the Mony you have gain'd or your own satisfaction 6. Apply your mind to look well to every thing that nothing perish thro' your negligence and what you observe to be amiss help it as soon as you can by repairing as much as is possible for you all the faults that you have committed 7. Do the same as to the good of your Neighbour that you may fufill that Command of loving your Neighbour as your self They who were with her to whom she had recommended these Rules being unwilling to be so exact in the smalest matters which while they were conversant in the World seem'd to them of no moment and she having ask'd Counsel of God thereupon she had this Answer All that Men have to do in this World are but trifles and of little moment and if they will not obey me in so small and easie matters how will they do in great and difficult ones Not that I have need of them for my self nothing can profit or hurt me But you have great need to observe exactly all these things that I teach you For being made up of a Soul and Body both which have need of entertainment if you do not carefully order Temporal things your Body will fall into a thousand sorts of Miseries Anxieties Maladies Disquiets Confusion Poverty and Want which at last will become unsupportable to you And all this because of your little foresight your disorder or negligence Therefore I instruct you how you ought to carry on all things even to the least of your Actions that you may be happy even in this miserable Life Not that I have need that you be Rich or Poor in Health or Sickness in good Order or in Confusion neat or unclean outwardly all this does not touch me nor offend me so long as your Souls abide in my Love
come to tell you that this is the Will of God you will never do it for God has no Will to make you leave it more than he had any to make you undertake it It concerns every one to examine what Mean will be most proper for him to facilitate his Salvation One may sufficiently perceive in his Conscience without consulting any Body whether Offices Estates and Benefices have been to us the means of more Union with God than if we had not possess'd them and if they have made us draw others to the same Union If we do not find this it is to be feared that our Offices and Benefices have not been sought for or possest for the Love of God but for some Human Accommodation which respects nothing but the Earth This being discover'd it is in your Will to resolve if now you desire to labour for Heaven or rather for the Earth I said to her That I would not pretend any longer to any thing upon Earth that I was very sorry that I had had some Pretensions thereto but that I durst not quickly abandon all without the Advice of some learn'd Person fearing that I might do evil She replyed Sir You are yet far from the Kingdom of Heaven when you will needs advise with Men if you shall follow Jesus Christ Has not he said He who leaves not Father and Mother and his own self cannot be his Disciple Now would you go to ask Counsel of any Man when Jesus Christ has given you his Where could you find better Men are all interested in their own Judgment and will never advise but what they judge most advantagious for Men they having no Light to perceive any other thing They are Flesh and judge according to the Flesh Would you refer what concerns the Salvation and Perfection of your own Soul to their Judgments You must needs perish with them For the Wisdom of Man is foolishness before God All the Evils of the World do proceed from this That Men are govern'd and advised by one another Is it not said somewhere Wo to the Man that puts his Confidence in Man I have also told you That if the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch For my part I can say in Truth That I do not remember that I ever committed any Faults but when I believ'd the Counsel of Men. We ought to go to the Source Sir and let alone the Streams The Gospel is left us in Writing for our Eternal Rule If the Apostles and other Disciples of Jesus Christ had gone to ask Counsel of Men they would never have follow'd him For Men would have call'd it a Folly to abandon all as they do yet to this Day For being of the Earth they respect nothing but the Earth and are blind in the things of the Spirit We can never do ill to follow the Counsels of the Gospel but indeed we may in following the Counsels of Men how learn'd soever For their Doctrines are of this World and that of Jesus Christ is of God The Seventeenth Conference How to discern whether the Motions which do press us to leave the Outward Hindrances to Divine Communion be from God or not That there are likewise Inward Hindrances and that one ought not to be wedded even to good Means I Said to her That I had not Light enough to be sure of my own Motions and to discern whether they are from God or from the Devil or from my self She said That it was good to discern them that the Motions from God do incite always to humble things which the Devil and Nature do oppose because they are things despised by Men and therefore these Enemies do abhor them What comes from God incites to Sufferings and to Patience the things which come from the Devil and from Nature do incite to seek our Ease and Pleasures without desiring to suffer any thing The things of God do lead to Poverty and Self-denial the Devil and the Flesh do desire Riches and seek to be esteem'd and praised In fine Sir says she what comes from God is always conformable to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ For God cannot be contrary to himself Therefore the Light which you have receiv'd that moves you not to seek any longer for any thing upon Earth is but too sufficient to assure you that this Motion comes from God because neither the Devil nor Nature would ever rid themselves of their Pretensions upon each For they cannot profit by any other thing Nature could not sin any more without aiming at earthly things and the Devils could have no hold of a Soul which did not aim any longer at any thing upon Earth We might walk surely on such a Resolution without waiting for Counsel from Men who with their Wisdom do often quench the Lights of the Holy Spirit It were far better to consult the Gospel I was constrained to yield to such Truths I said to her that I would abandon all and would follow her all the Days of my Life She said with Joy Sir How happy will you be to abandon all Your Soul will be at liberty to fly unto God Your Spirit will be calm and your Body better disposed You will experience thereby both Bodily and Spiritual Good But I intreat you do not resolve to follow me always for as for my self I am willing to die alone and as for your concern it will be a greater Perfection that you be disingaged from all Creatures to the end you may wait upon God alone All Company how perfect soever it be is not God He requires our Heart so pure that he does not suffer that it should be divided So long as I can be helpful to you I love indeed to discourse with you But I wish rather that you may speak with God who is the Fountain of all Light He can teach you more in one Moment than all the Men of the World would do in a thousand Years So soon as you shall have found his Conversation you will not be able to take Pleasure any longer in any other Speak to him always Sir until that he answer you He will do it assuredly According as you shall separate your self from the Creatures accordingly you draw the nearer unto God There needs but to remove the Hindrances and this Divine Sun will shine fully into our Souls warming them with his Love He has infinitely more Desire and Affection to receive us than we have to seek him even tho' we be great Sinners he rejects no body he rather embraces them as the Father did his Prodigal Son You are his Child and the Work of his Hands Go to your Father with great Confidence He loves you He seeks you and calls you Do not delay any longer Go forward seek no longer for any other thing but him alone With extream Joy did I hear this Discourse asking her by what means I might find this Communion with God
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