confound the Wisdom and the Learning of the World that they may strive rather to be well pleasing to God than men that fleeing all earthly loves which prove bitterness in the end they may give their hearts wholly to him who is altogether lovely whose love is unchangeable who will not disappoint them but will reward their Love with infinite Light and Joy and Love That they who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God may beware of taking God's name in vain and of vouching God's Spirit for all their Dreams and Imaginations for where the Spirit of God resides there his fruits are and the Soul that posses him has it's Affections wholly remov'd from Temporal and Earthly things and set upon those which are Spiritual and Eternal That the Pastors of the Church may see at whose Doors the Guilt of the universal Evils of Christendom are like mostly to be laid that they may fear and tremble when they hear that Salt which has lost it's Savour is good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot of Men that by the grace of God they themselves may be taught true Humility Self-denial and a contempt of all Earthly things without which Spirit they are no more capable of Teaching others however they repeat the Words of Christ and his Apostles than an Ape can make a good Picture tho' he take up and use the Painters Pencils and Colours In one Word that all may be brought to deny themselves and to follow Jesus Christ in the true Love of God and of one another and that the Judgments of God being now abroad upon the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn Righteousness For a further Vindication of these Writings and the Sentiments contain'd in them I shall here Subjoyn the protestation made by P. P. after his having Answered the Calumnies and Reproaches which some had publish'd against them in the V. Sect. of La paix des bonnes Ames pag. 278 279 280. But says he if all that said does not satisfy I will make and do at present make this PROTESTATION before God and before all Men that is That M. B. her Friends and I never had have not yet and shall never have by the Grace of God other Sentiments or Designs than to believe and live as true Christians professing by word and deed all that is Fundamental in true Christianity and which is comprehended in the Apostles Creed That we receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as Divine and Infallible and reject all that is contrary thereunto That we believe and adore the adorable and incomprehensible Trinity the Father the Word or the Son and the Holy Spirit God three and one eternaly Blessed the inward distinctions of which by what name soever they be call'd Real Relative Hipostatical Personal Substantial are as true as they are truly incomprehensible by the mind of Man That we hold Jesus Christ to be true Eternal God and true Man to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World to be the Mediatour beetween God and Men who by his Merits by his Satisfaction by his Righteousness by his Life and by his Death is the Author of Salvation to all those who imitate him or to speak with the Apostle to all those who obey him That we ascribe the Glory of all Good purely to the grace of God and all Evil purely to the fault of Man and of the Devil That we make the essence and perfection of true Christianity to consist in Self-denyal in continual Prayer in the Love of God and of our Neighbour and in the imitation of our Saviour That we consider all other speculations as accessory for which it is good not to condemn any body but to leave every one at liberty to embrace or lay them aside as they find them helpful for the advancement of the essential part That the true Key whereby to come to the Knowledge of Divine things is Humility and Prayer and not the forc'd speculations of Human Reason That all States the Ecclesiastical the Political the Oeconomical are Establish'd by God and that the Honour and Submission which is measured out to them and regulated by the word of God is respectively due to them That when evil is reproved this does not concern those States directly nor good men in them who are free of it but only the abuse and the ill behaviour of the wicked That if in the Writings of M. B. or of her Friends there be any thing that is obscure or that seems contrary to what has been said we offer to clear and reconcile it or to disavow it in case it cannot be made appear that it cannot be well explain'd and that it is not a mistake of words We protest against all that may be cited from her writings or objected by way of consequence against what I have said as against so many shameful Manglings Malicious Interpretations deceitful Calumnies injurious Consequences in which God will do us Justice if Men are not just to us I protest also against all those who offer to pass hard Censures upon what concerns M. B. her Friends or my self without having read the principal of her writings or my system as against unjust and unreasonable Judges at least as against Persons very inconsiderate and unworthy of Credit In short I believe I have reason to require that they who shall be convinc'd to have laid to our charge a hundred falshoods and others who shall believe them without reason may not again be admitted the one in the Quality of Accusers and the other in that of Judges but rejected the one as notorious Impostours and the other as wilfully stupid AN ADMONITION TO THE READER Dear Reader SInce 't is my earnest desire that the perusal of this Divine Work of which this is the first Part may be profitable and advantageous to you I cannot forbear wishing that you may give no place in your mind to certain prejudices with which the most part of the World suffer themselves to be so miserably deluded that they would believe themselves deceived if they did not follow them Permit me to speak to you a word or two of some of those pernicious and deceitful prejudices which you must either banish out of your mind or forbear the reading of this Book as you would not bring upon you your own Condemnation by retaining those things which may cause you to make an ill use of it In the first place I advise you not to regard the appearance state or quality of Persons nor any thing that is purely external and so consequently can neither add nor substract from the Truth which has no dependance on things of that Nature Let the speaker be a Man or a Woman let instructions come from this or that place let the persons who are reproved be great or small Turks or Christians many or few you must not be surpriz'd at any of these circumstances Truth and Falshod may
have done 29. The Fifth Conference Of Antichrist and how he reigns over all in Spirit 31. The sixth Conference How outward Worship towards God and the outward Works of Charity towards ones Neighbour are corrupted by the Devil And from whence this power does proceed 36. The seventh Conference That God has not abandon'd Men but Men have abandon'd God and resisted his Grace in the distribution of which he is not partial 39. The eighth Conference Of the Grace of God How it is given unto us And of the difficulty of being Converted 41. The ninth Conference What the Church is and of its corruption 45. The tenth Conference Of the Remission of Sins Of Confession and how it is abused 48. The eleventh Conference Outward Devotions imposed by Men are not of true Faith Of the true Church which cannot err in what it ordains The Doctrins of Jesus Christ and those of Men. True Prayer 52. The Twelfth Conference That the Conversion of Men is now desperate as in the time of Noah and wherefore 59. The thirteenth Conference Of true Faith according to the tenour of the Creed Of the knowledge of God and of our selves by the consideration of his works 63. The fourteenth Conference How God forsakes us and how we forsake him by distraction of Mind by which the Devil does subdue Men withdrawing them from the Love and Gratitude which they owe to God who discovers himself most sensibly in all things alone Lovely 70. The fifteenth Conference That God has never given unto Man but only one essential Commandment which is that of his Love which is most easie and most agreeable and that of every other thing most vain 77. The sixteenth Conference Of continual Prayer and constant Communion with God for which we were created and how we are distracted from it by the business of this World and by the enjoyment of frail Creatures 82. The seventeenth Conference How to discern whether the motions which press us to leave the outward hindrances to Divine Communion be from God or not That there are also inward obstacles and that we must not be wedded even to good means 92. The eighteenth Conference How we may attain to perfection and to Communion with God resigning our selves wholly unto him quitting both humane Wisdom and the Instructions of others for a time Christians uncapable of being taught They will be more desolate than the Jews 96. The ninteenth Conference That all Christians ought to read the Holy Scripture Whether the Church can err Where it is Where not 101. The Twentieth Conference Of the reading of the Holy Scripture and of the prohibition â—fâ—t How the Church cannot fail And what she is and is not 104. The Twenty first Conference Where the true Church is Where God is How he speaks unto the Soul and how we ought to be disposed for this Divine Conversation 109. The Twenty second Conference That there can be no true contentment but in God alone How to return thither Of Gifts and of those which are made to Churches which shall perish 116. The Twenty third Conference Of the destruction of the Church and of the uprightness of God in his Judgments and in all that he does 121. The Twenty fourth Conference Of the enquiry about the most Holy Trinity and of Grace and that even the Saints themselves are therein mistaken none being infalliable 125. The Twenty fifth Conference That the Holy Spirit sends always new influences and that his Light ought not to be bounded nor the interpretation of the Scriptures unto that which the Holy Fathers have had in past times 128. The Twenty sixth Conference How and wherefore the Holy Scripture has in nothing as yet been understood in a perfect Sense which is shewn by new Explications concerning the Creation of Man his Fall the coming of Jesus Christ in Reproach and that in Glory upon Earth there to reign eternally Of the Glorification of the Creatures both Animate and Inanimate what makes Paradise and Hell and that all these things shall be preceeded by universal Rods and Scourges 131. The Twenty seventh Conference That the care of withdrawing ones self from Chastisements is yet a self-Self-Love and that the Communion of the Soul with God sufficeth in all places 157. The Twenty eighth Conference How we ought to pray and understand the Lords Prayer in a perfect sense which respects the Dispositions and Graces which shall be granted us in the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ of which there are here Marvellous things spoken 160. The Twenty ninth Conference Of the signs whereby we may know that we are fallen in the last Times and that the World is Judged viz. that Men are without Righteousness Truth and Goodness before God and that the execution of his Plagues do already appear effectually 178. The Thirtieth Conference How God permits that Men should be abandoned to to the Spirit of Error 191. The End of the Table of the Conferences of this first Part. THE LIGHT of the WORLD The First Part. The First Conference Of Gods dealing with A. B particularly how he instructed her immediately from her Infancy the opposition of men of Christian perfection and of the deplorable state of Christian AS we advanc'd in our journey still travelling towards the Sun rising being already more than half way we perceiv'd at a distance one walking before us not knowing at first who it was because of the distance we remark'd only that it was a person alone who desir'd no Company but retir'd aside assoon as any body approach'd and hid herself until we mending our pace had come nearer and when we beheld this person we perceived she was a Maid who appear'd young enough and tho she was simply apparelled she had notwithstanding a grave and majestick Mien We saw in her face the marks and the joy of a serene and contented soul Her gate was always of an equal pace neither flow nor hasty her looks gave both joy and fear she did not refuse to speak to us in our Language tho it was not natural to her and having ask'd her whither she was going she said In Pilgrimage for penitence for her own sins and those of others And having ask'd her from whence she came she said From afar for she had travell'd many years and was harrass'd by the way and discolour'd by the Sun We ask'd what she design'd by so long and troublesome voyages dangerous for a Maid alone remonstrating to her that there were many other means to do penitence in her own Country without being in danger of hunger thirst unhappy rencounters and many other inconveniencies which may fall out in travelling alone and that at least she ought to take some Company To which she answer'd That she was oblig'd to travel alone for she had found no body that would accompany her and that many had indeed gone along with her for some time but upon the first temptation hunger or incommodity they had staid behind not knowing how to endure
wisdom the original of all goodness and incomprehensible power In short the Church is God himself who cannot fail or err therefore Jesus Christ says he that hears you hears me because the word of God is God as our word is us our heart must be where we speak and also our understanding even so where the word of God is which is his Church there the holy spirit is which is his understanding and the almighty power which is his heart From whence it appears that the holy Trinity composes the Church which is no other but the power of the Father the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and the good will of the Son All these things are found united in the Church for God having a design to make man after his likeness he transferr'd to him his own qualities therefore he gives to his Church the power to pardon sins goodness by the communication of his word and his wisdom by the understanding of that word Jesus Christ who took human flesh has brought us the word of God which has taught us his wisdom and shewn us his love even as by our word we express what is in our understanding and the affections of our heart which God also did to us when he sent us his word upon earth by the organ of the humanity of Jesus Christ He made this alhance with men that he might have them after his likeness Therefore he has call'd them his Spouse and his Church which is altogether divine and spiritual But men would indeed disguise it and render it material sensual and carnal in giving the name of Church to men who do not possess this word without which they cannot be the Church nor have the power the wisdom nor the love which God gave to his lawful Spouse Therefore they may greatly err and fail in appointing and approving of rules for Christians And whereas you ask Whether all these outward Devotions which are now in use in Christendom be good and saving I doubt it very much for Jesus Christ taught not such varieties of devotion as we see now adays but he taught solid and inward vertues as Faith Hope and Charity Faith to believe in an Almighty God of whom we hold all things Hope to hope in him only without putting our confidence in any other thing and Charity to love him alone without placing our affection on any created thing whether in heaven or in earth These are the instructions of Jesus Christ but those at present who are call'd Church-men teach no other thing but to resort to Churches to frequent the Sacraments and to say a great many vocal prayers by rote and number With these outward things they make men believe that they are true Christians which cannot be since Christianity consists in a spiritual and inward life for it is divine and not humane If these outward devotions had been means proper for us to become good Christians we may be perswaded that Jesus Christ would have taught us them for he had more wisdom to foresee our need and weakness than these guides of souls can have and likewise more love to take care that nothing should be wanting to us for the time to come He left only his word to serve for the nourishment of our souls saying that it is the bread come down from heaven and that whosoever shall eat it shall not die whereas these persons give us only the Eucharist for nourishment in which the promise of Jesus Christ cannot be accomplisht for the host does not descend from heaven as his word does and they who eat it do not all live for ever For we see abominable souls even Sorcerers do communicate frequently and thereafter die in their sins We see also Bigots communicate very often who never attain to true faith nor the knowledge of the truth without which they cannot live for evel How then should the word of Jesus Christ be fulfill'd that they who eat this bread shall not die since all those die eternally after having so often eaten the Eucharist Jesus Christ cannot lie for he who incorporates his word shall never die because it gives life and nourishment to the soul and makes it live eternally I said to her This being suppos'd we must needs be in a time of great darkness in which there are many errors and many more erroneous who run blindly to damnation because the most pious hold Rome and all her Council for the Church She said Sir the Devil upon a false supposition finds matter enough to raise fine edifices I have no particular knowledge of Rome nor of her Council but I tell you in truth if the Pope with all his Council would say any thing to me which was contrary to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I should not be oblig'd to believe him nor yet are any other Christians The Bark should never be taken for the Wood because it can never beat Fruit as the Tree would do tho it had little Bark The true Church where-ever it is brings forth always holy Fruits and if the Tree be known by its fruit we will know the Church by what it brings forth The practice of those who are Members of Rome doth sufficiently evidence to me that the holy spirit cannot be the Author of those things which are contrary to the practice of Jesus Christ We see the Prelates attended with Servants Coaches and Trains like to secular Princes their Furniture and Houses do surpass them Iâ— they had faith to believe that God being man was poor and despisd they would blush for shame as all other Christians to make themselves thus to be honoured Their faith being dead they run blindly to damnation This vail which is put before their eyes to make them believe that the Church ought to be upheld by worldly honours serves for nothing but to flatter them and to render them insensible of their misery For if the Church had had need of temporal wealth and honour Jesus Christ would have provided it sufficiently for all appertains to him being King and Creator of all things He knew all the revolutions of time he would surely have foretold them that it should be permitted them at a certain time to make themselves be honour'd and serv'd but on the contrary he foretels that God will cast down the mighty from their seats that he will resist the proud and will exalt the humble and there is nothing which he says more expresly than that we ought to learn of him to be meek and lowly in heart to which Lesson the arrogance and the pride of Christians now are directly opposite and they who may be called by their proper names Antichristians because they are thus oppos'd to Christ for these only are Christians who put in practice this doctrine of Jesus Christ all others who bear this name without doing it are nothing but rotten Members of the Church and it were better they were cut off
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-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
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
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
penitence because they had too much love for themselves and too little affection to seek God esteeming their ease more than the contentment there is in the loving and following of him for this cause they had left her And as for Dangers God preserv'd her she having past thro many dangers without being hurt that her confidence was in him alone who has all power in heaven and in earth that he never forsakes them who put their confidence in him that she reckon'd it a happiness to suffer hunger thirst and other troublesome things since Christ had chosen such sufferings to give us an example and to the end we might follow him and that she had no other intention in this undertaking but to abandon the world to deny her self and to imitate Jesus Christ which she could not so well do in her own Country since the care of temporal wealth the love of friends and the pleasures there are in being honour'd and esteem'd are all things which withdraw from God and hinder the resigning of our selves to him that penitences chosen after our mode are full of self-love but that those which God permits to befal us are pure that the length of the way was not troublesome to her for she had no desire of ever staying in one fixt place because there she found too many distractions by the importunity of the conversation of men who would have disturb'd her inward repose and that she desir'd very much to live unknown We admir'd all this answer for it seem'd not to proceed from human sence since Nature takes no part in so pious a resolution and one must live supernaturally to despise ease friends and honours and to love sufferings and fatigues and flee the conversation of men seeing they are all sociable Creatures delighting themselves among their equals and rejoycing to converse with their like It gave us sentiments of confusion saying one to another what Confusion shall we have in the day of Judgment when simple Girls do such things to please God and we amidst all our Learning and Studies are so far remov'd from such sentiments Truly this Child will condemn us We resolv'd to accompany her and to examine her more narrowly seeing there was something peculiar in her above the spirit and capacity of the female sex for her discourses were firm constant and full of judgment and of divine wisdom tho no ways artificial nor polite but simple and true and in every thing admirable We ask'd her if it was therefore necessary that every one should leave their Country to be sav'd To which she answer'd No for God is to be found every where and in all places that those who are not wedded to any thing have no need of doing it but as for her the removing from her native Country serv'd her as a powerful means to love God alone since before her withdrawing from it her affection was set upon her City her House her Parents her Friends as all appertaining to her but that having done violence to her nature to abandon them she had acquir'd a great liberty of spirit to flie unto God But for other persons who feel no affection to those things which belong to them they may indeed work out their salvation in every place saying that every one ought to examine themselves in this matter as in all others and to remove or avoid all things which hinder them from resigning themselves wholly to God without doing of which there is no salvation And having ask'd her if to be sav'd one must suffer hunger and thirst and all other things troublesome to the body She said That a man ought not to seek nor affect these things but when it pleases God to send them by any accident he ought to suffer them willingly and to rejoyce that he makes us worthy to follow him and to imitate his sufferings Having ask'd her if poverty was necessary to salvation She said That temporal Goods were not evil in themselves but that poverty of spirit was necessary to salvation because a soul who loves and desires temporal goods cannot love God with all his heart nor fulfil the first and the greatest Commandment that riches were a great burthen that they occasion'd great distractions and disquiet that the most secure way was to rid ones self of them unless they serve as means to advance the Glory of God or succour our Neighbour in his necessity that many deceiv'd themselves believing they possest them without affection to them while they would be much troubled to abandon them that we may indeed use them but not love them that many will be damn'd for having lov'd riches and that a great many are stopt in the mid way of Vertue by the cares and desires of riches And asking her if one might not receive honour or suffer to be belov'd by men She said That he who makes himself be honour'd robs the honour which is due to God only and if it be fit to suffer honour for any estate or dignity it ought to be suffer'd with regret as a thing perillous to the infirmity of our corrupt nature which willingly delights in honour which ordinarily tickles the sense and blows up the heart making the soul to perish forasmuch as the honours which we receive without referring them to God are all sins for there is none but God alone who deserves honour and man how great and exalted soever he may be can never merit any thing but contempt and confusion for he being nothing but a silly worm of the earth has notwithstanding rebell'd against his God and Creator And as to the desire of being lov'd by men that this proceeds from self love that our nature affects always to be lov'd to receive some effect of good will from those who love it but that all which is of nature is not of Grace that he who acts spiritually and seeks the perfection of his soul ought to regret and be troubled to see that man who is created only to love God should amuse himself in loving such a creature as he who has no power to better the object which he loves and that it is loss of time and the turning of ones self away from God to love men or to desire to be lov'd by them We may indeed desire that they love God in us for we are all his Images and we may also love them as the Images of God since he commands us to love our Neighbours as our selves for asmuch as both are the Images of the same God but this love ought to be so purely for God that we should have no respect of persons rich poor friends and enemies kindred or strangers and which is very rare to see that in our love we should affect those in whom God lives and operates
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
the marks and signs of the last times fulfill'd and perfectly accomplisht The life of men is the open book in which these truths are written and the holy Scriptures are the equitable Judge which pronounces this sentence Read Sir with attention they will deliver you from the difficulty you find in believing this for tho indeed they do not determine precisely the day of judgment yet they will make you see sufficiently that the cheif signs which must precede it do already appear That no body will believe this is a most certain evidence of it for Jesus Christ says that it shall be as in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and knew not until the flood came and took them all away Even so is it at present they take their recreations and pleasures heaping up earthly treasures building houses and temples as if they were to remain here to eternity while all must very shortly perish And no body will believe it according to the prediction of Jesus Christ when he compares these last times with those of the universal deluge He says in St. Math. 24. it will be as in the days of Noah adding when you shall see the abomination of desolation to be in the holy place flee away Do you not think Sir that this abomination is now in the holy place if Envy were lost it might be recover'd in the Cloisters if Avarice were dead it would be reviv'd by the Priests Vain-glory and Pride is no where so prevailing as among the Clergy in one word Simonies and all other sins abound in the place which ought to be holy What more sure marks would you have than those which Jesus Christ himself has declar'd to us should precede the Judgment if you desire to see the Stars fall from Heaven the Sun to be darken'd the Moon not to give her Light all these are nothing but material signs which can do no harm to Souls but serve only for outward evidences of the wrath of God and to the end that even insensible things may feel the terrors of that great day as the Rocks did when they were rent at the death of Jesus Christ This added nothing to his passion nor render'd those who put him to death more criminal for they were nothing but insensible rocks without souls or reason Even so will it be as to the Stars and the other celestial bodies if they change colour or suffer any other alteration this will not be hurtful to our souls which are spiritual and cannot receive any punishment by these visible and material Stars so much the rather that these signs and Stars cannot be understood but spiritually For how could the Stars fall from Heaven since the Mathematicians tell us that one Star alone is seven times greater than all the Earth so great a thing cannot fall into one so small for it would not be capable to contain it And if we take the mystical sense calling by the name of Stars persons luminous in Doctrine the Doctors and Guides Prelates Bishops and all those who are plac'd in Dignities to whom the name of Stars may be appropriated as being the Lights of the world this sign would also have at present its sense accomplisht for we see every day such persons fall from righteousness and truth who for some worldly interest or humane respects fall from the truth of the Gospel which is the true heaven of Souls and wallow in the earth among its riches and pleasures as secular persons do In former times how many of those were seen who had their hearts and spirits continually towards heaven their lives and manners did enlighten all the world as the Stars of the Firmament but at present they are fallen into the mire of earthly affections So that it may be truly said that the Stars are fallen from Heaven and that the Sun also is become without light For Truth which is the true Sun of Righteousness cannot any longer appear openly it is become black and hateful to all the world who desiring to be flatter'd and prais'd cannot hear the truth because it reproves the falshood which now prevails These two signs of the Sun and of the Stars appear at present in their full accomplishment in the mystical and inward sense which is much more than if they did appear in the literal and material sense for the reasons above-mentioned and if the Moon be not as yet without light it will be so very shortly in the mystical and perfect sense The Moon is all transitory things which after the manner of the Moon do encrease or diminish according to good or bad fortune These things will lose their light so soon as Wars shall have destroy'd and ruin'd temporal wealth Then all that pomp and magnificence which shines in the Sanctuary will lose its splendor and will no longer yeild any thing but blood Since for Gold and Silver they will cut the throats of those who are plac'd in the highest dignities so that what shines and glisters to day in the Church will wholly lose its lustre and light and by this means this Moon will be darken'd I entreat you to read attentively the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew it speaks of the present time All the Parables do the same I wish I had time and leisure to explain them to you you would see as well as I that the Judgment approaches for all the forerunning signs are already come People do not perceive them for want of reflecting seriously enough on the holy Scriptures or upon the inward life of men now adays they amuse themselves with regarding only their outward piety imagining that there are yet a great many good men because they appear such but before God all are corrupted They resemble the Apples of Sodom which appear beautiful without and have nothing within but rottenness This is the true symbole of the life of Christians now which God makes me perceive abundantly by his inward light This fill'd me with astonishment and desiring to understand her more clearly I ask'd her whether there were not any good men or true Christians in our days She said to me No Sir THERE ARE NO TRVE CHRISTIANS VPON EARTH There are indeed diverse persons who seem to be good men and are really so in comparison of the wicked they may indeed pass for Saints before men but before God they are not true Christians for tho they do not act wickedly but frequent the Sacraments and other exercises of Devotion yet nevertheless they have not the LOVE OF GOD nor Charity for their Neighbour in their hearts much less a hatred of themselves or a desire to embrace the Cross Sufferings and Persecutions to follow Jesus Christ On the contrary they so love themselves that all their designs aim at nothing but their own satisfaction even in the most pious things You would be astonisht Sir to see what difference there is between the sight
of God and that of men I have been often deceiv'd my self by these seeming vertues being perswaded that there were yet many true Christians but having seen them tried by tribulations and contempt they were consum'd as the chaff in the fire and if they had been GOLD in Charity Persecution would have render'd them more bright Many souls will be deceiv'd at death who in their life time presum'd they were true Christians while in the sight of God they will be worse than Heathens Such is the blindness wherein we live at present in which no body makes a right judgment of himself or of others every one presuming to be sav'd without good works whereas no works can be good if they do not proceed from Charity which is at present banisht from the hearts of all men for which cause there are no more perfect Christians upon earth for the Christian life is all Charity and the Love of God which is no longer in use I ask'd her How long she believ'd it is since there was no more Charity nor true Christians upon Earth She answer'd There has been no longer Charity upon earth Sir since Christians left the Gospel simplicity from that time Charity began to wax cold and when the Church would â—eeds establish herself in pomp riches and magnificence this outward splendor has utterly destroy'd the spirit of the Gospel Studies have banisht the holy spirit and the learning of men has stifled the wisdom of God so that the evil has always encreast till by the traditions of men they have annull'd the Law of God and extinguisht Charity which is no longer known and much less practiced in our dangerous and woful times the danger being so much the more to be fear'd the less it is known because no body apprehends those truths which God himself has reveal'd They content themselves with the judgment of men founding their Salvation upon the doctrine of the learned who are far estrang'd from the wisdom of the holy Spirit to which even they will not yeild themselves they lean so much upon their own Judgment These are blind who lead the blind and both together shall fall into the ditch according to the saying of Jesus Christ Who with just reason has call'd these last times dangerous because under a pretext of Piety and Religion men are led to damnation Simple People believing that they hear God when they hear those Guides who do very often teach the doctrine of Devils For if you observe what questions and disputes are now form'd in the Church you will find that they make debates of things which humane malice could not raise They must needs have come from the bottom of Hell They maintain that it is almost lawful to commit all sorts of sins without offending God that one may swear falsly without sinning and so of the rest which you may better know than I for I am struck with so much horror when I hear such things that I was never desirous to be acquainted with these black villanies they are grown to such a height that they maintain no body is oblig'd to love God which overturns the first and the greatest Commandment and is repugnant to nature itself which carries in it this obligation of loving a God of whom it holds its being and all things Do you not think Sir that this Doctrine is of Antichrist since it contradicts the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the Commandment which God gave to man from the beginning of the world and in all times and all ages Nevertheless they preach this publickly with many other abominations and many believe that these are truths because they are advanc'd by learned persons and such as are plac'd in Ecclesiastical Authority and Dignities who ought to be the true Members of the holy Church Pardon me Sir that I digress from the answer which I should have made to your demand It is because a sensible regret transports me and makes me exceed when I think upon the reasons why there are no more true Christians The Third Conference The Means by which Christianity began to decay from the Time of the Apostles and has continu'd so to do to such a degree that at present there are no true Christians upon Earth viz. 1. The Admission of false Brethren 2. Appropriation 3. Debates 4. Partialities 5. Men of Learning 6. Disputes 7. The Victory of the Devil I Reply'd to her That she could not offend me in this On the contrary I was very curious to understand more clearly the causes and reasons why there were no longer any true Christians on Earth She said Sir let us sit down here I will give you a particular account of the original progress and end of this calamity Assoon as the first Christians began to grow remiss the Devil like a strange Shepherd slipt into the Sheep told of J. Christ where he led astray many of his Sheep who by little and little forsook their true Shepherd turning away from Righteousness and Truth to follow Iniquity and Lies The Evangelical Poverty is contemn'd by them sufferings are become insupportable to them humility is disdain'd In fine they would no longer hear the voice of their lawful Shepherd whose word serv'd for the nourishment of their souls from that time Antichrist began his Reign and has ever since augmented his Power He could not endure that Jesus Christ had brought the word unto men by following of which they might be to all Eternity in the Glory of the blessed from which he had been chac'd and banisht for all Eternity Therefore he endeavours to make war against this word that he might efface it out of the memory of men and might thereby hinder their coming to the Kingdom of Heaven He did not tempt them by evil deeds or by wicked actions but by tricks and slights covering his malice under the cloak of piety and reason First he incites the wicked his Adherents to list themselves into the Christian Life that Tares might be sown among the good grain He thrusts in many false brethren among the true that he might by them do his work covertly and under a pretext of piety for otherwise he would not have been able to gain any thing upon the hearts of those first Christians who being fill'd with the holy Spirit and burning with the fire of the Love of God he could not have catcht them with evil things or such as had an appearance of evil He multiples therefore first the number of Christians so exceedingly that every one judg'd it was impossible to live any more in common He moves by humane reason the hearts of the most perfect to yield to a separation and to consent that every one should possess his own particular wealth without forgetting in the mean time Charity which every one should preserve in his heart to supply the necessities of their brethren Thus this old Serpent has always colour'd his inventions with piety
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
and if he would search narrowly his Conscience he will find that he has resisted and oppos'd grace Some say My grace is not strong enough to make me abstain from sin and another will say If God would give me his grace I should be holy All this is spoken to lay the blame on God of our sins and miseries and to excuse our selves and thus to make God pass for unjust and a partial respecter of those to whom he gives his grace and also cruel in denying it to whom he pleases Thus they look upon God as a person subject to diverse passions of love and hatred of good or ill will Truly Sir I bewail so great a blindness among men How can they make a right judgment of their own concupiscence or of their Neighbour when they make such unjust ones of God himself and notwithstanding think they judge rightly because the learned judge so yea they would even think they sinned or did evil in believing the contrary because this invisible Antichrist has instill'd these sentiments into the mind of the learned that they may never attain to the knowledge of the Righteousness Goodness and Mercy of God and that they may amuse themselves in disputing about questions which are not necessary to our Salvation but serve rather to offend him making our selves Judges of his works debating about his designs This is one of the reasons for which I blame all those studies in the Church of God being perswaded that they have brought many errors into it and wishing always that it had continu'd in the Gospel simplicity as in the times of the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ The Eighth Conference Of the Grace of Ged how it is given us and of the Difficulty of Conversion HAving observ'd that she spoke of the matters of Grace concerning which there had arisen so many Controversies in the Church of which she had hinted something already in the former Conferences I ask'd her what she believ'd concerning Grace and if the opinion of St. Augustin and his Suecessors was not better in holding that all Grace comes from and depends upon God alone than the opinion of some others who hold that Man may have Grace as often as he desires it To which she reply'd I fear Sir I shall not say the things wnich are most agreeable to you for it seems to me you have some interest in this dispute But since I have promis'd to answer all your questions I shall do it truly and in simplicity according to my measure of light without respect of persons confiding in your goodness that you will pardon the freedom which I must use in this discourse As to the first Question Whether the opinion of St. Augustin and his Followers is better than that of his Adversaries in this matter I hold comparing the one with the other that that of St. Augustin is the better or to speak more properly the less dangerous because the design of it seems to be to perswade us that all grace comes immediately from God that we may presume nothing of our selves whereas the contrary opinion rather incites man to attribute grace to himself as if it depended on his own will which would not excite in us so much humility as the first perswasion which for this reason is less dangerous But I believe the minds of neither of these Doctors were sufficiently purifyd to perceive clearly the truth of this question and that their Understandings were not free of the Ideas of their acquired Learning for receiving of this Light of Grace which is not receiv'd but by the same Grace which is obseured when our own sense is in the least mixt with it It is necessary that all the faculties of our soul should be still that we may receive the pure light of the holy Spirit And to answer as to what I believe concerning Grace I will tell you Sir it comes immediately from God without any merit or co-operation of ours for we cannot merit nor co-operate before we have a being Nothing is not capable of being able to desire or co-operate with Grace It must needs be given us thro the sole mercy of God as it was in creating us and drawing us out of Nothing It was his will and pleasure to create us after his own Image and Likeness and to make us Deities depending upon him that he might take his delight with us The Center of our Soul being the place of his Residence He has adorned us with all the Graces that might make us love him and whereas Love cannot be perfect and accomplisht unless the beloved give their free consent to the Lover therefore he created us altogether free to consent to that Love for he would not have our consent thro force nor out of necessity but thro a pure desire of good will on his side Therefore he created us a kind of creatures wholly free and gave us all the graces requisite for his Love and this out of his sole goodness and mercy without any co-operation of ours But instead of applying so many graces so freely bestow'd upon us to love him we have made use of them to offend him Nevertheless this was not capable of making God change the Love which he bare to his creatures or to take from them the Graces which he had already bestow'd upon them He continues unchangeable in his benefits and could not repent of having adorn'd man with so many Graces which he continues to give even after his sin Seeing they were not bestow'd on him for his merits neither are they taken away from him for his demerits for God has no need of man if he be righteous or wicked it is for himself but God respecting always himself imparts still the influences of grace to the wicked as the Sun sends his Beams on the Dunghil as well as on the Diamond these different objects not being able to alter or change him Even so man receives always grace from God on his part but it is not always operative because of the hinderances which sin raises against it for if God did not continually give his grace to man he could not subsist We see by experience that the wicked has all things necessary for his life as well as the righteous tho the one employs them to bless God and the other to curse him The Sun shines upon the wicked as well as upon the good without exception of persons The grace of God is given to every one tho they use it differently Nevertheless we cannot attribute to God the want of his grace but to our own wickedness which opposes it Grace therefore comes immediately from God and nothing comes from man but sin only which hinders the operation of this grace and renders him unable to co-operate with it not being able to enjoy grace and sin both together I ask'd her If sinners might recover Grace as
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
in a desperate Estate without knowing it and far less fearing it God has reason to say of Christians now My People has forsaken me because no body knows God any longer Every one lives as if there were no God and yet they would have Prosperity and Salvation as if God were our Servant obliged to serve us by force We have changed the Order that he gave us of doing Penitence here and we would here take our pleasures and rest at ease and instead of labouring and suffering we would rule and rejoice God ordain'd that the Earth bring forth Thorns and Thistles and we would gather nothing from it but Roses without Thorns He said to the Woman that she shall bring forth her fruit with Sorrow and she will needs conceive in Delight in which she would also bring forth if it were in her power So that no body acquiesces in the Ordinances of God but by force and instead of embracing the Penitence which he ordain'd us we resist it with all our power for we seek nothing but ease and repose in the time in which we ought to labour watch and be at pains Thus we resist God and all the designs that he has about us This is the most assured Mark to discover that all Men have forsaken God and that no body fears nor knows him any longer It is very true that in all times there have been wicked Persons and such as did not know God But when all in general do forget him it is to be believed that we are assuredly in the last times and that the Judgment is given out because the Measure is full and the Evil cannot be greater than generally it is and without hope of remedy I said to her That to me it seem'd there were yet many good Men mingled among the People that all had not forsaken God She said Sir there are many good Men in appearance but none who are such before God They are good Men in respect of those who outwardly do more evil but I do not know if they do less evil inwardly in their Souls because presumption possesses them and hypocrisie blinds them The Example of the Publican and the Pharisee who prayed in the Temple ought to make us fear that these outwardly good Men will be rather Condemned than the ill-Livers outwardly because they condemn themselves for Sinners and smite their Breasts with Humility whereas the others rely upon their own Righteousness and become Impenitent I do not see that either the one or the other are good Men at present For no Sinners smite their Breasts through Penitence far less do we see them change their Life or forsake their Sins And the Righteous in appearance do live and die in the presumption of their Salvation not desiring to change a manner of Life which they esteem to be good tho all have abandoned God to follow their Passions If some follow them in Wrath or in Luxury or even in Robbery they become the enemies of God But others who are of more mild Complexions follow their Passions in Jealousie or in self-Self-love or in the esteem of their own Virtues Is not all this before God reckoned the same evil Is it not enough that we have forsaken him to cleave to our selves and are become Idolaters of our own Inclinations Tho even they were not Vicious before Men yet they are sufficient to Destroy and Damn us because unless we be wholly resigned to God we can never be Saved Therefore if God should say to me as he did to Abraham that he would pardon the World provided there were yet Ten righteous Persons in it I would not hope for this of being able to deliver it from the Plagues or to revoke the Sentence by which the World in general is Condemned because I cannot find so much as one which I must say with great regret I said to her That I knew divers of my Friends who seem'd to me to be truly Just and Pious fearing God She said Sir if you were in union with God you would partake of his Righteousness of his Goodness and of his Truth And then you would perceive well that the Righteousness of Men now is not true and that their goodness is but Natural and their Truths are Lies because all the Virtues which you believe you see in them are nothing but Moral Virtues which do oppose those of God Their RIGHTEOUSNESS is only Human. They would not do wrong to any Body because Injustice and Cheating is blamable in all Men of Honour and he who desires to preserve his Reputation will beware of deceiving or cheating any Body and you will esteem such a Person Just because he renders unto every one what appertains to him Believe me Sir this Righteousness is nothing but a Moral Virtue which is recompenced by the good Reputation they acquire among Men. It must not at all be expected that God will recompence in the other World what has been done for this A Man gives satisfaction to every one that he may have the reputation of being a just Man which being obtain'd he is fully satisfied Even so is it of GOODNESS wherein divers Persons are Born their natural temper being enclined to sweetness renders them lovely to every body This goodness makes them takea ll in good part Even â—vil things they desire to believe they are good If the evil of one were told which might grieve them they would reject this Truth as evil and would say I will not believe ill of my Neighbour And even tho they knew the evil openly they are too good to resist it or oppose it This is the disposition of the good Men of the World who love rather to be deceived with evil than to believe it that they may avoid it All this goodness is but natural and is recompenced with the contentment they have of being good They even endure Injustice without having the force to resist it And upon this it will be said of such a Person that he is patient and good Not discerning that this Patience and Goodness proceeds from an effeminacy of Heart which makes them presume upon a false goodness and patience which is nothing but Human Hypocritical and Deceitful Even so is it of Moral VERITY which before God is Falshood One will say I am your Servant and he will deny his Brother the least Service One will say I am a great Sinner while in the mean time he presumes that he is a good Man for if he did believe himself truly to be a Sinner he would seek the means to be converted One will say I am not worthy of drawing near to God and he will receive every day the Sacrament and will say that it is to receive Grace which is nothing but a Cloak to the former Lie For Men experience sufficiently that they have not received Grace by receiving it so often One will say I am for the Service of God
and he is as careful to have Honours and Riches as Secular Persons One says that he loves God and he loves nothing but himself One says I am retired from the World nevertheless he has as much affection for it as before and studies to satisfie himself In Short Sir there is nothing but Lies and deceit among all Men even those whom you esteem to be good Men they have nothing but apparent Vertues which are very displeasing to God and draw down his avenging hand upon our criminal Heads Because no body fears God any longer but by word and they who fear their Damnation perswade themselves that they fear God while out of pure self-self-love they fear the evil due to their Sins that they may continue in them and they place their Piety in outward Devotions with which they do more distract their Understanding from God than fix it upon him And yet they believe they are Just and Pious fearing God tho in the mean time they have neither the one nor the other of these Virtues Thus you are deceived with thousands of others who are in the good Opinion that there are yet many good Persons upon Earth I ask'd her How we might know the true Righteousness nd Virtues of Men She said Sir no body can know it as to others but they who possess it themselves Therefore I told you that union with God is needful for to know true Virtue This union makes us partake of the Virtues of God so that he who is in God partakes of his Righteousness of his Goodness and of his Truth The RIGHTEOUSNESS of God is always just doing justly to all as well to our Enemies as to our Friends not enduring any Injustice no more in our selves than in others neither in small matters nor in great Our Works are always accompanied with this Righteousness and also our Words our Counsels our Business and even our good Works Knowing well that without this divine Righteousness nothing can be good And even as God never does any thing without this Righteousness So we do all things righteously so much as we draw near to God we are as much Righteous and no more and he who partakes of this divine Righteousness discerns and knows very easily the Righteousness and Unrighteousness of others For if their Righteousness be of God it will always be conform to that which we partake of the same God and if it be not it will directly oppose it There are some who would believe that one had the art of Divination when he can discover false things which appear true to the eyes of Men But this does not proceed from any Divination but only from the Righteousness of God When it refides in a Soul it perceives immediately that these apparent Righteousnesses do resist and are contrary unto the Righteousness of God For Example a Judge will give good Justice to a Party because he is recommended to him by some of his Friends This is nothing but an Human Justice because it has had respect to Men For to be Divine it ought to have respect only to good Right which is not observed in the present time wherein the Proverb says He who has good Right has need of good Help It is the same as to Piety and Devotion If they go to Church to the Mass and the frequenting of the Sacraments out of natural custom or inclination or because it is good and laudable This Righteousness is not of God because it respects our selves or Men. And if you partake of the GOODNESS of God Sir you will do good to all Creatures indifferently as he does without wishing good to your Friends and hating your Enemies or not helping them in their need But when our good deeds are partial respecting our Kindred our Allies our Friends and Neighbours then our goodness is nothing but Human. This is easie to be observed by him who partakes of the goodness of God who loves nothing but that wihch is good and conformable to Righteousness and Truth Whereas Human goodness respects nothing but that which is sensible to Nature leaving sometimes Righteousness and Innocence without help to succour its Friends yea even to excuse or cover their Iniquities These are all goodnesses without Fruit having received in this World the reward of such good Works For if we do good to our Friends they will do the like to us and so we shall be payed without having right to pretend any other recompence therefore in Heaven Jesus Christ has advertis'd us of this saying When you make Feasts do not call the Rich lest they bid you also and thereby you receive no reward And if you partake of the TRUTH of God Sir you will very easily discover Lying because this strait Truth does always oppose that which is contrary thereunto There needs but to walk Strait to overturn that which is Crooked The Spirit of Truth is incompatible with that of Error There needs but to speak the Truth simply to reprove Lying Many Persons are troubled to understand the Truth who if they were not in Lies could not be troubled at it because it is always desirable and enlightens the Understanding Truth being God ought to be loved and received by every one and as much as it is now out of credit it is so much an evidence that all have abandoned God in abandoning Truth Righteousness and Goodness There is no other God but he who is the source of these three Vertues of which Men now have not retain'd any foot-steps and at present those are esteemed Saints who have but human Righteousness natural Goodness and political Truth and yet they will not believe that we are in the last Times and that the World is Judged What more certain Marks can we have Outward Signs are a very small matter in respect of seeing that all Men have Abandon'd their God Draw near to God Sir and you will discover it as well as I. I said to her That if it were needful to exercise the very same Righteousness Goodness and Truth of which she spoke to me that all the World would Perish and no body should be saved For all Men are very far from it She said It is true Sir all the Wicked will perish among whom notwithstanding there will be yet some sav'd because they are so thro' Ignorance These indeed will yet receive the Light of Truth with which they will discover the Lyes which have been taught them For many have entred into the Spirit of Error thinking they did well and if they had been taught there is no Salvation but for those who resign themselves wholly to God and unite their Wills to his they would assuredly force themselves to find this Unity of their Wills with God and would have resign'd themselves to him far more easily than they have done to follow so many different Exercises of Devotion For one has taken the Order of S. Francis and goes bare-footed without wearing Linnen
always to aspire to that which will be eternal But on the contrary we would be content to lose it the Eternal provided we might live here always All Men almost are in this Error by which they draw down the Plague of Pestilence to put an End to Desires so impious which have made them abandon their God This Life must needs be taken away from us since it serves as a mean to withdraw us from God The Plague of Pestilence is justly sent upon us to give Death to those who love their Lives more than God As is also that of Famine because so many Men have abandon'd their God for the Pleasures of the Mouth How many are there who love Meat and Drink more than Spiritual Delights Provided the Mouth and the Belly be satisfied they care very little for God Is it not fit that they endure Hunger who think of nothing but of filling themselves This evil is so general that in the best Assemblies of Christians now-a-days they speak for the most part of Eating and Drinking to keep themselves chearful Is it not fit that this should be chastised with Justice by an universal Hunger since this Sensual Appetite has caused an universal Sin by almost all the Men of the World From whence I draw the certainty that all are judg'd and that the Sentence is irrevocable Because no Body repents of these three Sins which form the last Plagues and God cannot defer longer to send them I ask'd her how we could believe that the last Plagues were begun She said Sir Do you not perceive that we are abandon'd to the Spirit of Error That Lying prevails and that Truth is opprest That Men promise themselves Peace and Security in the midst of such evident Perils That there is no longer Righteousness nor Sincerity or Fidelity among Men That Evils are conceiv'd without Fear and brought forth without Reprehension That the Just is punish'd as guilty and the Guilty supported and defended That there is no longer neither Faith nor Law among Christians and that they live in a Neglect of God and of their Salvation Are not these the greatest Plagues that could ever befal the World They are more to be dreaded than Fire Pestilence War and bodily Famine which can but kill Bodies Whereas these Spiritual Plagues kill the Soul which is an Eternal Spirit Behold Sir with the Eyes of Truth and you will see that all Souls perish without perceiving it Which is the greatest Punishment that God can ever permit to befal Men. Many say blindly We are at the End of the World for Wickedness abounds in all places There is no Trust to be given to any They deceive one another without Faith or Honesty In saying this they speak the Truth without knowing it far less apprehending it Many Signs have appear'd in Heaven in the Sun in the Stars fearful Comets menacing great Evils which did affright some at first but so soon as the Devil had Leisure to make his Adherents study to find out Reasons shewing that these were but natural things engendred in the Air he made the Fear of those threatnings of God sent as the Forerunners of his Justice to evanish out of their Minds The Sea has yielded blood And as soon as this has ceas'd the Memory of it has been effac'd Fire has burnt many Cities and they have presently found out some Invention to cover all these Warnings which God gives us saying That these are Casual and Natural Things As also the swallowing up of several Towns and Cities caus'd by Earthquakes They attribute all these Things to future and to natural Causes saying That these Countries situate toward the Sea are subject to Earthquakes In short Sir they make all the Threatnings and Warnings of God to evanish out of Men's Minds that no Body may enter into himself to be converted unto him through Fear and Trembling Some Stroaks of Thunder us'd sometimes to shake intire Cities where the People ran to Confession to prepare themselves for Death But now when they see so many several Effects of the Justice of God by Men's being abandon'd to all sorts of Sins and also by all those outward Sings in Heaven and Earth which have appear'd in our Time and to our Eyes no body is converted unto God for this Far less do they Imbrace the Spirit of Penitence It seems they mock at God's Warnings saying These are Natural Things But I would willingly demand of these Ear-flatterers If God ought not to send his Plagues but by supernatural Things and to make Chimera's in the Air He who has created all the Elements must not he make Use of them to chastise the Offences which we commit against him Is there not need of Natural Things to make our Body suffer which are likewise Natural If the Bodies of the damn'd shall indeed be punish'd with Natural Things why should not in like manner our Bodies which are yet living upon Earth Since they are not sensible but of Natural Things they must needs have Subjects conformable to their Nature The Deluge was made by a Natural Rain And the last Plagues will be made by Pestilence War Famine and Fire all Natural Things because the Heaven the Earth and all the Elements ought to rise up against us to avenge the Offence that we do against their Creator and ours If the Fire shall kindle by some accident or the Earth quake by the Tossings of the Sea and overturn Cities would this be accidental unto God who says that to him the Hairs of our Heads are numbred Would he thus let such grievous Accidents fall out Without his Permission this cannot be true But the Devil to divert us from believing that these things are the beginnings of the last Plagues makes it be said by his Adherents that these are Natural Things that no Body may turn to Repentance The Thirtieth Conference How God permits Man to be abandon'd to the Spirit of Error I Ask'd her How God permits that we should be thus abandon'd to the Spirit of Error She said Sir God permits it by his Justice because we have left his Spirit of Truth to hearken unto and follow Lyes He compels no Body leaving every one in the Liberty wherein he created them If Man therewith will needs abandon his God and adhere unto the Devil he lets him for he will not take away again the Free-Will which he has once given him which God will never take back again for he is unchangeable in all his Doings And having once found it good that Man should be a kind of Creature altogether free he cannot afteward find it evil but will leave him this absolute Liberty unto all Eternity If he will use it to love God he will follow the End for which it has been given him and if he will use it to do evil and to withdraw himself from God he is free God will not
Souls who are not sanctified are not truly Catholick neither will they be saved for their Religion since no Religion saves unless the Heart be truly Religious or truly Catholick In which also those who are called Quakers do greatly deceive themselves who through a foolish Imagination fancy that they are guided by the Holy Spirit as soon as they have begun to conform themselves to this Sect as if it had more Force to sanctifie Men than all the other Religions together even the most perfect none of which can save so much as one Soul For there is nothing that saves but the LOVE OF GOD and not a Religion Every one ought to hold the Religion that serves him as a Mean to attain to this LOVE without taking his Religion for the End of his Salvation if they would not be greatly deceived at Death thinking to plead their Religion which they imagine to be the best as the Quakers believe they have the Holy Spirit and so take the Name of Quakers tho they have him only by Imagination and false Persuasions and the Devil makes them believe they are better than all the rest of Men because they have quitted outwardly the gross Sins of Drunkenness Theft Lying and the like tho' in their Manners they be as vicious as others presuming that they have the Holy Spirit which they have not living in an Esteem of themselves and a Contempt of others calling themselves spiritual while they remain carnal despising all the Means of Piety and Devotion to adhere to their own Caprices and they imagine they are illuminated by the Holy Spirit when they are mov'd only by their own disorderly Passions which do often precipitate them into fruitless Sufferings and Persecutions with the Scandal of their Neighbour So that no body has Ground to believe that he shall be saved for being of the Quakers Opinion no more than the being of any other Sect or Religion since all these Names do nothing to the Salvation of Souls But to be sav'd of Necessity we must be renewed in the Life of God And the Scripture says Obedience is better than Sacrifice This shews that it 's better to be resigned entirely to the Will of God to be ruled thereby than to profess any Religion how good and holy soever we think it to be These material Bodies do not save the Soul but the Love that it bears to its God will save it and nothing else In which Men deceive themselves when they lay the Stress of their Salvation upon some means which they make use of to be saved How good soever these outward things be they give nothing to the Essence of the Soul which is wholly divine and spiritual and cannot attain to Salvation if it be not united to its God who created it for this End tho' the Blindness that Sin has brought upon Man's Spirit does not often persuade him that he shall be saved by other Means as by going oft to Church frequenting the Sacraments hearing many Preachings or spiritual Books or in being able to discourse of these things in giving to the Poor out of his Abundance in making long Prayers and so many other Actions which they call pious as if God to save us had need of these things Which is a great Delusion For it is only our Infirmity and Weakness that has need of these outward Things For it is written that the true Worshippers shall worship God in Spirit and in Truth and not in the Temple nor on the Mountain That is to say not in material Temples nor in Mountains of high Speculations but the Spirit and the Heart must be truly possest with the Love of God without which no body will be saved Not that I would reject or despise all these pious Means or good outward Works as these Reformed do blindly reject all sorts of good Works as evil since these good Works may serve as effectual Means to attain to this Love of God seeing the covetous Man mortifies his Avarice by giving his Goods to the Poor and he who cannot pray to God in his House for the Distraction of his Affairs does well to go to Church that he may be the more recollected Or he who feels more Compunction and Piety in his Soul in frequenting the Sacraments or has more inward and saving Light by going to Sermons or reading the Scripture or some other spiritual Book he is oblig'd to use all the Means which lead him to the Love of God without despising the least Mean that may help his Weakness in raising him to the Love of God since every one is oblig'd to seek the Means of his Perfections I blame only the Abuse that is made of these things in taking them for the End of Salvation whereas they are only Means to assist Humane Weakness which forgets easily Eternal and invisible things if she be not often put in Remembrance of them by outward things But I blame those who are so ignorant as to believe that they shall be saved for being of some Religion or for using the Sacraments and doing some good Work since these things do not sanctifie us being of themselves dead Works which cannot give Life to our divine Souls and the Devil himself might do all these outward things tho' he shall never be sav'd I believe indeed some captious Spirits will take Occasion to say that I am not truly Catholick in speaking against the Vse of the Sacraments and other Ceremonies of the Roman Church but I cannot preserve my self from the Calumny of partial Persons who love their Darkness rather than the Light that I offer them from God who has given me his Holy Spirit promis'd by Jesus Christ which teaches me all Truth since Jesus Christ himself could not avoid the being calumniated imprison'd persecuted and at last put to Death by means of the Jewish Priests who said they were in God's stead and sate in Moses's Chair as the Priests of all Religions say now While in the mean time they outragiously persecute the Truths which I learn immediately from God without Study without Meditation Discourse Reading or any other Means which would rather prove a Hindrance to me than an Illustration of the Light of the Holy Spirit who endites to me all things necessary for the Salvation of Souls and gives me also his Gift of Strength to bear joyfully those Persecutions and Outrages which these more than Pharisaical Priests exercise against me For they will not suffer that the Truth of God should come to light by any but themselves tho' they 've rendred themselves most unworthy of it because they will not apply themselves to the Imitation of Jesus Christ nor to the Sanctification of their Souls and if these be wanting they shall never understand the inward Voice of God 'T would be a great Vertue in them if at least they would suffer another to understand it But they can't attain to this Christian Vertue of rejoycing in the Good of another They
to revive the true Spirit of Christianity with more Ease than all that they would joyn to it since which things have been the Cause that many have withdrawn themselves from the Church to forge Heresies according to their Fansies For they judg'd they were as learn'd as those who would oblige them to their Laws I said to her I could not comprehend how the Commands of the Church had deformed the Doctrine of Jesus Christ since they were only added as more express Means to make it be well observ'd She said Sir you do not reach to the Bottom of this Affair For if you remark it more nearly you shall find direct Contradictions because these Councils would have by force what Jesus Christ would not have but by Love He never press'd any body to follow his Doctrine On the contrary when any of his Disciples left him he ask'd his Apostles if they would leave him also leaving always every one to his own Free-Will whereas these damn the Souls and oppress the Bodies of those who will not obey them They condemn as guilty of mortal Sin all those who will not observe their Commandments and even imprison their Bodies banish them from their Country yea for this they sometimes put them to death This Spirit of Rigour does it not destroy the Form of that sweet Gospel-Law which was so perfectly formed by the greatest Artist that ever was or shall be that is by Jesus Christ who was God and Man Could there be any thing to be added to the excellent Work of such a Master For there can nothing be added more than taken away without altering the first Form If one take from a Picture the sweet Draughts of some Figure by adding to it some rude ones the Figure ceases to be what it was before For it is impossible that two contrary things should abide together in the same Subject Cou'd Rigour be introduc'd into the Church to make Meekness be observed there These Arguments which you lay down Sir are without Foundation but you do it to excuse what you have once espoused as I have done also Notwithstanding I cannot cover its Deformities so well known to the Eyes of my Saviour who will very shortly make them known to all the World tho' they strive so earnestly to cover them I said to her I should be very sorry if I should aim to cover what displeased God but that it was the common Sentiment of all Christians to own and follow as a good thing what the Church assembled in a Body had ordain'd and determin'd For we say in our Creed That we believe in the Holy Catholick Church She said Sir you would have reason if you did not take the Bark for the Wood and a Humane Church for the Divine The Holy Church cannot err as I have told you divers times because it is the same thing with God If it be Holy it is Apostolick Now the Apostles never commanded the going once a Year to Confession upon Pain of Sin nor even taught it to any as a Vertue On the contrary Jesus Christ said to all those whose Sins he remitted Go and sin no more This was far from commanding them to go once a Year to Confession For this would be tacitly or indirectly to command them to sin once a Year because Confession always supposes Sin yea they even teach us that he who receives Absolution without Matter of Sin commits a Sacrilege as he does also who gives it Therefore of Necessity a Man must sin every Year that he may confess every Year if he would not commit a Sacrilege Do you not see Sir that the Holy Spirit cannot have instituted such things This must come from elsewhere as many other things ordain'd and resolv'd upon by this Church collegiately assembled tho' it be in use amongst Christians to referr to it and believe it This can be nothing but a blind Submission For if we had good Eyes we would still look whether what they command or ordain us be truly good and conformable to the Gospel before we follow it They tell us indeed that Faith ought to be blind because it consists in believing what we do not see But this Faith does not extend so far as to believe what Men say to us but only what God himself has told us by the Holy Prophets and Apostles or by Jesus Christ himself who has foretold us a great many things which we do not see because they are not yet come to pass In this we must use Faith because God cannot lye nor fail in making good his Promises But our Faith does not stand in that which Men say to us or command us For they themselves are often fallen from the true Faith while they ordain us things contrary thereunto I ask'd her If she judg'd the Commandments of the Church to be evil things She said No Sir there are divers things which of themselves are good as fasting in Lent in imitation of Jesus Christ who fasted forty Days in the Desart and also the communicating at Easter in Memory of the Supper which Jesus Christ made with his Apostles at that time and also the Sanctifying the Days dedicated unto God because he himself has commanded it All these things are good in themselves But this Constraint under Pain of Damnation or civil or bodily Punishment is most evil because good Works done with regret cannot please God who has no need of our Fasts or Sacrifices but he regards our Heart and our Will If this do not concurr to our good Works he will throw them as Dung into our Faces For nothing can please him but what is offered him by Love Therefore he says in so many Places He that WILL come after me or he that WILL follow me In all things he requires our affectionate Will and nothing by Force or Violence This belongs but to cruel Men who are not of God seeing he is ALL LOVE and has given us no other Laws but that of Love whereas these Persons come with a great many Commandments under Pain of Damnation and other Temporal Punishments Have you ever read Sir that Jesus Christ his Apostles or Disciples did at any time imprison any or impose Fines on any for not obeying their Ordinances as these Councils do who deforming this beautiful Law of Meekness and Love do forge troublesome and constraining ones Does not God deserve that we sanctifie the Days which are dedicated to him out of Love Is not the Desire that we have to follow and imitate Jesus Christ powerful enough to make us fast the Lent and communicate once a Year without the being oblig'd to it by force He who does it not out of Love must do it with regret or in Hypocrisie Were it not better not to be constrain'd to it than to do things so troublesome without meriting any thing and to die the Devil's Martyr which this violent and forcing Command does occasion For a true
of his Church which is united to him she has no fix'd Place Therefore she is call'd Catholick or common and universal For she is to be found in all Places indifferently For otherwise none should have the Liberty to be of the Church but they who remain'd in this fix'd Place No Sir this cannot be so because God has given Liberty to all Men in the World without having limited them to any particular Nation or Country but to all in general The Church consequently may be as well among the Jews Turks and Heathens as among the Church of Rome For she does not consist but of Souls who possess the Law of God or the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is all the same thing because this Doctrine is no other thing but the Explication of the proper Means for observing aright this Law So that he who among the Heathens should live in an entire Dependance upon God having his Will conformable to him in all things Such a Person would be the Church even tho' he knew no other Precept or Doctrine Because all that is written in the Law of Moses and even in the Gospel are no other thing but Means to attain to this Dependance upon and Conformity to the Will of God So that he who is in this needs no other Command or Precept to be assured of Eternal Bliss because all is comprehended and contain'd in this Dependance upon God All other things are but for enlarging and explaining wherein this Dependance on God consists Therefore the Gospel says deny your selves to make us understand that as long as we live to our selves we are not resigned to God For if we rejoyce in Prosperity and are grieved in Adversity it is a Sign that we are not yet resigned to God but that we live to our own Desires and Wills not to those of God who will never permit any thing to befall us but what is good and wholesome But when we live to our selves we will have this and that according to our own Judgments which are blind as to Eternal Things For this Cause Jesus Christ has taken the Pains to teach us so many divers things that he may make us know what hinders us from coming to this Dependance on God and also what makes it easie to us But if we find this Dependance without these Means we have fulfilled the whole Law and are the Church I said to her That we hold in the Roman Church that out of it there is no Salvation She replied And I doubt Sir if one can be saved in it since she is not governed by the Spirit of God how can she guide any to Salvation If the Devil sit in her Throne is it to be believed that he will saye us His Malice encreases as his Authority augments I cannot believe that one truly Christian wholly resigned to the Will of God can remain in the College of Rome For they would not suffer a Spirit so contrary to that which rules them These Reproofs would be insupportable to them God himself could not preserve his Church among them tho' it were but in one Person only They would certainly destroy it and that without Delay If they teach that none can be saved out of their Dependance it is because they would fain rule over the World and be as great as God as the Devil had this Ambition since his Creation and retained it hitherto with a great deal of Success because he holds at present almost all Men under his Authority For to say that there is no Salvation out of the Dominion of Rome is to contradict the Gospel For the Apostle having told Jesus Christ that some taught the Gospel who notwithstanding did not follow Jesus Christ nor his Disciples he says to them Let them alone for they who are not against us are with us Should the Pope be a greater Judge to condemn those who observ'd the Law of God because they did not depend on him This could not be true even tho' the Roman Church were as yet guided by the Holy Spirit She could not notwithstanding make void the Salvation of those who did not follow her since Jesus Christ has not done it in his Gospel which is their Rule and that which they ought to follow The Apostles never condemned John's Disciples who followed not them and did otherwise than theirs There was a Complaint indeed that they fasted not as St. John's Disciples did and Jesus Christ excuses them Each Apostle had his Disciples apart and all the Churches were also separate That of Peter was not the Church of Paul or of the other Apostles Every one had his Church and his Disciple separately and none of them said that those who did not follow them were damned It sufficed that all had the Gospel for their Rule without making any Difference whether one was of James or of Philip S. Paul even severely reproves those who said I am of Paul or of Apollos asking them If they were not all of Christ who died for them But at present they will have none to be saved but those who are under one Man only whereas then all were saved who were under Jesus Christ Have we gotten another God or rather another Law since the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that these Men will needs damn all those who will not follow this Pope For my Part I would rather upon Pain of my own Damnation assure all those of Salvation who shall observe the Commandments of God in whatsoever Place and Condition they may be For Jesus Christ said to the young Man in the Gospel who ask'd him What he should do to be saved Keep the Commandments without any other thing because all is comprehended in this A Man must not go by four Ways when he knows one that is streight and sure What ever Men would make us to believe the Truth that is of God is always the most certain I begg'd She would explain to me how God could not preserve his Church in the College of Rome even tho' it were but one Person only seeing he is Almighty She said Sir the Almighty Power of God will never extend it self beyond his Righteousness and his Goodness He has given to Man a Free-Will to use it at his Pleasure by which he has made him partake in the Deity which is the greatest good he could ever do to Man For by this Free-Will he renders him capable of taking his Delights with him or otherwise there would not have been any Correspondence of God with Man since Likeness begets Love and Love is always bent to love its like If Man had not had Liberty of using his Will he would not have been like to God in any thing For a Creature bounded and constrain'd has no relation to an Almighty God It was necessary that the Power of using his Free-Will should be given him that God might take his Delight with that which in some manner was like unto
to us And thus it is of every other thing Take confidently all that shall befal you for the Will of God for otherwise that wou'd be but like a forc'd Resignation which wou'd require to know precisely on every Occasion if this were the Will of God or not This Study or Application of Mind is an Hindrance to a perfect Resignation I said to her That I would take all from God's Hand and that I had often told her that I yield my Will to him She said 'T is true Sir you have often said it but I doubt you have notdone it because I observe often yet Oppositions in your Will He that has gain'd a Place does not fight against it any longer Far better be a Conquerour than a Combatant If your Will were given up to God as you think you wou'd not have it any longer For a thing given does not any longer belong to us How cou'd your Will make Opposition then if it truly belong'd to God You cou'd not feel any Combats of that which you had not any longer For if I had not a Hand I could not suffer any Evil in it We often say and think some Things that are not true Reflect but a little seriously Sir upon all your Actions and see if you 'll not find that they are done by your own Will Yea even your own pious Exercises Consider a little if it wou'd not be a trouble to you to change or leave them by reason of some Accident which God shou'd permit to befal you This is a Sign that they proceed from your own Will For if they did proceed from the Will of God the abstaining from them wou'd be as agreeable to you as the doing of them For there is little on Earth the Want of which does not give as much Honour to God as the Enjoyment of it and a Will resign'd to God does no longer feel Self-contradiction So that if such a Soul were depriv'd of all sort of Spiritual and Christian Exercises by some Accident of War Sickness or other Inconveniencies which might happen 't wou'd not so much as regret that it cou'd not perform them because God's Will wou'd be more dear to it than all the Contentment it might receive in the Performance of all its pious Duties Yea it wou'd think it self in a more happy State because the Practices of Vertue brings along with them some Self-satisfactions and Pleasures which lessens their Merits For having receiv'd a Recompence in this World we ought not to look for it in the other Thus Sir you may see and observe if it be true that you are resign'd to God not only in Spiritual things but in all temporal Affairs I believe you will not find one that is delivered from Self-Love or natural Inclinations I ask'd her How I could perfectly make this entire Resignation to God without ever revoking it She said Sir resign your self to God in such a manner as that you no longer follow your own Will in any thing For He who is faithful in a few things will be set over great things Every Moment and on all Occasions you may make a Sacrifice of your own Will For it acts always It will see hear walk and do many other things that are not needful and always for the Glory of God In all this you must deny it the Satisfaction of executing these sort of Wills which are unprofitable and robb us of our time that is so dear and precious And if we must render an Account of every idle Word much more of idle Actions And it shou'd never be said that these are but small things For God takes notice of small things since he says that h the Hairs of our Head are numbered and that the Leaf of a Tree shall not fall without his Permission It is because God has given us this limited Time to do Penitence in that he will exact an Account of it from us even to a Moment that it may appear wherein we employ it and if we employ it in unprofitable Actions according to our own Will we are certainly to blame because we do not accomplish the Penitence enjoyn'd us and we apply the time allotted for it in idle and unprofitable Actions We ought Sir on this Occasion to deny our Will by way of Penitence and to remember that we have given it to God and that we our selves ought not any longer to dispose of it and by combating it thus we shall certainly overcome it For our Will is like a Horse which the Bridle turns whither we would lead him If we yield it up to the good Will of God we must constrain it to follow him in small things as well as great or otherwise it will endeavour to escape in Perils and Dangers and from unprofitable things will fall into evil things The best Curb is to put the Reins into God's Hands that he may guide as it shall seem good to him and never take them back again because we our selves have not enough of Wisdom and Force to govern it But he alone must guide it to it s blessed End I ask'd her How I might accomplish my Penitence and how I might put in practice this Resignation to God She said Sir we must chuse no other Penance but that which God gives us When we endure the Cold and Heat the Hunger Thirst Weariness Infirmities and Diseases that it pleases God to send us we must suffer them in the Spirit of Penitence because all wou'd not come upon us if it were not for Penance for Sin For before it nothing troubled us All our Miseries and Corruptions come by Sin even the Vermine of our Body the Lice and all the other Beasts engendered by Corruption are produc'd by Sin and therefore we must suffer them willingly since this is the Penance which God has in Justice permitted to befal us instead of the Punishments due to our Sins We ought not to invent Penances according to our Fancy since God has enjoyn'd those which he thinks fit that is to gain our Bread with the Sweat of our Face so that all our Travels Pains and Labours both of Body and Mind are all fatisfactory Penances enjoyn'd us by God himself But the Penances chosen after our Fancy are often invented by the Devil who wou'd thereby drive us headlong or at least excite us to vain Glory because ordinarily those who fast or wear Sackcloth are chagrin and presumptuous believing themselves to be better than others and that God is oblig'd to them for their good Works as the Pharisee who thanked God for his Righteousness All this proceeds from self-Self-love But true Penitence consists in taking patiently whatsoever God permits to befal us either to our Body Estate or Mind and willingly to suffer it in the Spirit of Penitence to satisfie for our Sins This is the true Practice of the RESIGNATION of our Will to God For every Moment there falls out Occasions of Suffering
are not to be found among the Votaries in Cloysters On the contrary we see they are rather guilty of six Sins against the same Holy Spirit which are so ordinary in these Votaries that it may be said they are inseparable from them For we find in them always a Presumption of being saved without good Works because being full of self-self-love they can never be good They oppose also the known Truth because the real Truth reproves them Therefore they will not hearken to it chusing rather to perish in their Darkness and to lay the Stress of their Salvation upon the Opinion or Discourse of Men. So that we need not enter into Monasteries to discover clearly that they are not become Saints by their Vows and the Constraint of their Rules nor yet have quitted all Commerce with Men since we see they desire as much their Conversation as secular Persons do And what will it serve for the Perfection of Souls to have their Wills bound by Vows and even their Bodies shut fast up when the Spirit is yet curious to know what passes in the World as the Practice is in the enclosed Cloysters For if one would learn all sort of News he may go into one of their Parlours and if our Will were bound to God when it is bound to the Will of Men there wou'd not be such Contradictions in the Cloysters where as many Persons as there are there are almost as many contrary Wills All this does sufficiently make appear that the Rules and Vows do not make the Person holy or depending upon the Will of God On the contrary they rather estrange him from it For as soon as they have fulfill'd their Obedience to their Superiour they believe they have wholly satisfied God whereas very often they offend him for these Superiours are often estranged from the Spirit of God neither is it to be accounted a great Vertue that we acquiesce in the Will of some Person whom we love This is purely natural and not from the Holy Spirit I said to her That we have sometimes heard that Miracles have been wrought by this Obedience to Men. She said Sir these cannot have been true Miracles if they had their Rise from Obedience to Men. There are so many things to be distinguished in the matter of Miracles that the Devil may easily work such as the World wou'd admire And I believe he has already deceived many pious Persons by false Miracles For he can dazle Mens Spirits and make them take nothing for something He can also trouble the Humours of the Body and cause Diseases which he can afterwards remove because it is done by Charms and by the same Charms it may be undone again Besides that he has so many who are bound to him by precise Covenant who do his Will by whom he can work many Malefices which might seem real Miracles tho' they be only all Tricks of the Devil Therefore I will not believe that those Stories which they tell us of Miracles fallen out by this Obedience to Men are true nevertheless I do not reject the Approbation that God has sometimes given of the Submission rendered to his Servants who possess his Spirit and spread it by teaching it to others in obeying of whom they obey God himself because they are not moved but by him So that those who obey them do indirectly obey God In this manner I believe that God may work true Miracles to confirm that it was his true Spirit which dwelt in these Superiours As he wrought Miracles to confirm that the Apostles did possess his Spirit because he did not remain in the Flesh to converse with Men and teach them He taught them by his Servants Therefore he said He that hears you hears me But he says not this to all bodily Superiours as it is now taken because it is to be feared that many of these do directly follow the Devil's Will and consequently teach others to do the same at least indirectly By which we may fear the Hazard there is in this Submission to Men and may learn also the Deceit there is in what they teach Christians now and particularly those who wou'd serve God in Perfection I said to her That the Vows were approved by the Church as a perfect thing and that all the World did look on them as good things She said And for my part Sir I look upon them as evil things for all Persons For he who resolves to be resign'd to God with all his Heart has no need to be constrain'd to this by Men because the Love he bears him is still strong enough to tie him to God without needing that Men shou'd interpose in it and he who has not this resolute Will of resigning himself to be governed by God cannot make Vows in any Order except in Hypocrisie Because Vows cannot constrain his Will but his Body and when the Body is constrain'd to do good against the Desire of the Will he is then the real Martyr of the Devil because he suffers much and merits nothing And thus Vows cannot be good neither for the Wicked nor yet for the Good who if they are so truly have no need to be forc'd to do good by the Constraint of Men if these Holy Founders have instituted Vows which I do not believe this must have been only out of humane Respect or Persuasion or for want of divine Light and if the Church approves them it is to keep these Persons in a precise Dependence upon her from which if these Vows were laid aside many would deliver themselves which is to be desired and it were far better that all these Persons in Vows had their Liberty than to continue cloyster'd to the Damnation of their own Souls and the deceiving of others who look upon those under Vows as Saints submitting to their Council and Government tho' very often they are governed by the Devil and he by their Means gains the most Pious who could not be gain'd any other way but by this Cover of Religion which all the World esteems to be good and holy By this the Devil gets into the Throne of God that he may deceive by false Appearances If he had remain'd among the Turks Jews or Heathens he could not have become Antichrist seeing one cannot shock an Enemy at a distance unless he approach him So the Devil could not stock the Doctrine of Jesus Christ if he had not insinuated into the Church it self and among those in it who make a Profession of Vertue as the Monks and Religious Persons and he having slipt in among these draws all the World after him and yet they do not discover him neither dare they believe that he dwells in these Persons who in Appearance and in the Esteem of all the World are holy because he has on his side the 〈…〉 earned I said to her That they who had enter'd upon a vertuous Course of Life went into the Cloysters that they might learn it better
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-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-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
will not be reformed loving rather to perish in their Blindness than to receive the Light and this of their deliberate Will Whereas those Jews are still looking for and aspiring after the Coming of their Saviour in Glory Tho' in many things they err Nevertheless they persevere in this Hope which will infallibly come to pass to them provided they acknowledge the Fault they committed in putting Jesus Christ to Death I ask'd her Whether there was any Sect or Nation more capable of receiving the Truth than the Jews who were a People rejected by all Nations and despised by every body as unworthy of the Conversation of all good Men She said Sir I know not precisely what the Jews are but as a Friend I can tell you that they are yet the People who love God more than any other Their being rejected and despised by every body shall perhaps serve for a Satisfaction to God for the Sins which they committed in putting him to death Because this is God's Way to chuse always the Things that are most vile and most contemned by the World I do not at all doubt but the Jews will be the first in the Kingdom of Heaven because they have been so humbled and despised in this World in which they have imitated Jesus Christ more than the Christians who honour themselves more than God and every one esteems them as the People of God and Jesus Christ has told us by the Mouth of his Mother that he will put down the Mighty from their Seats and will exalt the Humble This makes me believe that this People of the Jews so humbled through all the World shall be exalted above all others and that the Roman Church which is placed in the highest Chair on Earth shall be cast down from all her Power Because God has said that he who exalts himself shall be abased and he who humbles himself shall be exalted It must needs be Sir that all the Words of God be fulfilled in all Respects The Jews having been the most humbled People among Men ought to be according to the Justice and Truth of God the most Exalted as it shall come to pass For as soon as they shall receive the Truth which I commit to you they shall be converted and receive the Holy Spirit by whom they shall discover all things see their Errors and the Truth and embracing it shall arrive at the Time so often desired by them in which they will see the true Messiah and Saviour of the World come in Glory who will receive them into his Kingdom from whence the Children of it shall be shut out These are the Christians who shall never taste of his Feast tho' they were invited and called unto it But the Jews and Heathens shall sit down there and the Christians shall be thrust out because they would not obey God's Call who having called them to Christianity they would not conform themselves unto it Therefore they shall never taste of his Dainties because this is the last Mercy of God who will bring to his Table the Sick rather than the Whole who resist his Will as the Christians do now I ask'd her If I might declare to the Jews all the things she had told me as coming from God by a Prophetical Spirit She said Sir I am not Prophetical as the Ancient Prophets were who spoke of very obscure things So that many times neither the People nor they themselves understood well what they signified because the Time was not yet come to give the full Understanding of them But at present in this Fulness of Time God declares his Secrets very manifestly that every one may understand them So that you must not say Sir that you are sent in the Name of some Prophet because the Things that I have told you are such plain and lively Truths that no body of a good Judgment can doubt but the Holy Spirit must have inspired them For if they believe that God is Truth my Words are so sensibly inseparable from it that all Nations both great and small must confess that in all my Discourses the Truth is in its Source And this Truth being God it is therefore God assuredly who declares these Truths For the Devil is the Father of Lyes and Nature finds out still Excuses either in its own Sins or in those it loves By which you may see evidently that Truth comes immediately from God tho' it shou'd come out of an Ass as once it did Therefore you need not so much stay to judge whether I have the Spirit of Prophesie as you ought to examine very narrowly whether I speak the Truth For that is always God The Prophesies of the Ancient Prophets will all of them very shortly be fulfilled There is no Need of any longer having obscure Prophesies because we are fallen into the last Times wherein all the Prophesies shall cease and we shall see them all entirely accomplished and we shall not receive any more new ones Because the King of all the Prophets will himself govern his People and will give an entire Accomplishment to all that has been prophesied of him So that Sir you shall not need to say that you hold these Truths from a Prophet because the Work does always bear Witness who its Workman has been Even so when the Truth is lively declared it gives sufficient Evidence by what Master it is formed I cannot conceal that I derive all my Wisdom from God because I never learned any thing from Men But there is no Need to say that I have a Prophetick Spirit when God gives Reasons and Comparisons to explain it after the Manner of Men. I said to her That in many of her Discourses she spoke of the Future and of the Time to come and that as to those we could not know yet whether they were true or not She said Sir what is to come is as true as what I have already experienced Receive all with Humility of Heart and you shall see in its Time as clear as the Sun that all shall be accomplished For God cannot lye The holy Scriptures must say the same things that I say Because all proceeds from one and the same Spirit and the Jews will understand me yet better than you do because they are more vers'd in the holy Scriptures I think if I spoke to them their Hearts would be over-joy'd and ravish'd with Pleasure to know that so great a Happiness is to befal them as to become the People of God and to suffer for his Love till they shall see him come in Glory with his Angels to render to every one according to his Works The Christians have this in their Creed which contains the twelve Articles of Faith that Jesus Christ who is ascended into Heaven shall come again to judge the Quick and the Dead And notwithstanding they will not believe it tho'
ill he shall have no other Judge 'T is a very small matter for us to yield to God the free will that he has so freely given us since 't is his Property and he has entrusted it in our Hands only for our Benefit Shall we procure our own Misery with the greatest Present that God has ever given us Since we have so often experienc'd that we always abuse this Free-will employing it rather for our Damnation than for our Salvation Let us acknowledge Sir our weakness and resign our Free-will into the Hands of God that he may dispose of it at his Pleasure during this short Life He will give it back to us in the other with such Perfections that we shall not be able to abuse it any more Do not delay longer Sir so much as one day to make this transferring of your Free-will to God For in this consists all Perfection all the Law and the Prophets and Life everlasting For all Vertues the Old Law and the New are no other but true means to attain to this Resignation of our Free-will to that of God in doing this we fullfil all things we need not be sollicitous for any more I said to her I was greatly comforted to understand that to fullfil the whole Law we need only resign our own VVill to that of God and that I heartily resigned it She said Sir it is most certain that God has never demanded any other thing of Man but the resignation of his Will to his and only gave him Laws and Precepts when he saw Man withdraw himself from him to follow his own Will by which he is Fallen into all sorts of Sins and Miseries and fearing lest through Ignorance and Inadvertence he should dye and perish in his Sins God gave him Laws and Precepts that Man might know Sins and abstain from committing them Otherwise Man would never have needed any Laws in case he had continued in a dependance on the Will of God He might have done all that he pleased and enjoyed all things Created for his Use and that even with delight By which you may see Sir that it is sufficient for Man to resign himself to the Will of God tho' he should not follow any means appointed for the Attainment of these Ends as the Commandments of the Church are he will assuredly be saved yea though he were a Turk or a Heathen or of any Sect or Nation whatsoever Because God has never given any other Law to Man but the DEPENDANCE that he ought always to have upon his God And all the Laws are occasioned by Sin and their Goodness consists in the discovery of it that this knowledge may withdraw Man from it and remove from him all these Sins which prove hindrances of this Resignation to God For if Man had no Sins which turn him away from God he would certainly be resigned to him For he is created for this that God may take Delight in him without any resistance and that he may accomplish all his Will in Man with his free Consent and Will which is the most perfect thing of all that can be imagined for if Man were united in Will to God he would partake of all his Qualities and as God is the Fountain of all Good Man would be also all Good and all Just because united to the true Righteousness and also all true being conformable to the Eternal Truth and consequently he would fullfil all the Laws by this sole Resignation to God without his needing to learn or follow them in particular they being all comprehended and summ'd up in the inseparable DEPENDANCE of our Will on that of God I said to her That my Soul was ravished with Pleasure to understand that God demands no other thing of Man but the submission of his VVill to that of his God and that by this means I hoped many would yet be Saved whereas according to her Discourses I had sometimes despaired of all and of my self also She said You had reason for that despair because we see no body in our times who has his Will resigned to that of God except in Words which perform nothing in effect but it is most certain that if a Heathen who never heard of God nor of his Laws should consider by his natural Judgment that there is a God who governs all things and if he should resign himself to this God unknown to him taking from his Hands all that befalls him acknowledging him the Author of all Good resolving with the consent of his Will to yield himself to be ruled and governed by him such a Heathen would be a Saint though he should not observe any of the Commands in particular because he would observe them all in general without knowing it for he who is resign'd to the Government of God can never do Evil nor commit Sin unless he withdraw himself from this Government to follow his own Will I would believe that there are yet some Persons scattered up and down the World who have resigned their Wills to the Will of God but taking the generality of the World and considering how men govern themselves it is manifest enough that no body resigns his Will to that of God for we see nothing but self-will reigns every where From thence it comes that so many Sins are committed We see the self-will of all Men bear sway in all things with the same affectation for they esteem nothing more than their own Will they seek and follow it as much as is possible for them in eating and drinking and in all other bodily things in Sciences and in the choice of Estates and Dignities and in all things that give Contentment to the Mind yea even in pious and spiritual Exercises they are done according to the desire and inclination of Self-will and no otherwise for if our Will were resigned to God it would not seek it self in any thing neither in small things nor in great For one who is truly resign'd does not any more possess himself He takes and receives all that God is pleased to give him and is most content with what he thinks fit to deprive him of This is very far from the practice of Men now who would willingly set themselves against the Will of God if it were possible for them in all that he permits to befall them against their own Will yea even though they be Persons consecrated to God by solemn Vows we discover and find them to be so wedded to their own Wills and Inclinations that all their Actions as well good as bad are nothing but a constant course of self-Self-Love which never ends till Death and even sometimes follows them after it by Legacies or Testaments made according to this Self-will and nevertheless they believe and all the World owns that they are the Servants of God entirely dedicated to him without observing what Jesus Christ says that to be his Disciple
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
be to cast Roses before Swine Offer them only to those who will take pleasure to smell them and not to these who will cast them into the Dunghil All good Men will feel in the Bottom of their Souls that this cannot come from the Devil For he is the Father of Lyes and never incites to Self-denial because he is too proud Nor to the Love of God because he hates him And yet less to resign our Will to that of God for he catches all Men by their Self-will All my Discourses have for their Scope all that is contrary to the Devil who is never contrary to himself The Ninteenth Conference Sheweth That the Spirit of Antichrist hinders Men from discovering the saving Truth and that the Heathens are more resigned to God than the Christians at present I said to her That I thought no Body in the World could resist so clear Truths without betraying his own Conscience That all the Things she had told me did speak forth themselves and were attended with such solid Foundations and such firm Reasons that the Learned and Vnlearned might comprehend them and that the Scope of all was the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls and that there was nothing in them that savoured of the Earth She said If we were not fallen into the Reign of Antichrist no Body could resist so clear Truths All the World would feel them and would discover his Deceits every one would flie to the Desert to do Penitence bewailing his past Life and the Errours wherein he had lived for so long a time But the Michief is that this Antichrist has so great a number of Adherents who take up his Quarrel and resist the Truth that the good themselves have difficulty to receive it For they disfigure it and make it pass for Lyes and Heresies telling those who advance it that they would seduce the People as they said of Jesus Christ when he brought Light into the World calling him a Seducer of the People or one that had a Devil The Power of Darkness is much encreast since the Time that he was upon Earth and nothing is to be look'd for but Outrages from all the Devil's Adherents In this case a Man must count it a Happiness to suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake and believe that there is no more blessed Death than to dye a Martyr for the Truth But he must beware of Men and use the Wisdom of the Serpent and rather part with his Skin than lose his Soul You will find more Welcome Sir among the Jews and Heathens than among the Catholicks who condemn others to Authorize their own Customs despising the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who sayes Judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned These Catholicks condemn all those who do not follow them This is the cause why they are judged and condemned first to be rooted out They condemn so many holy Heathens who will go before them in the Day of Judgment because they were faithful to God though they had not any Laws or Institutions to know Him Nevertheless many resigned their Wills to that of God and obeyed the Truth in their Lives whereas these Christians follow Lyes of which the Devil is the Father and none of them will resign themselves to God nor take notice of the Truth which discovers the shortness of this miserable Life and the certainty of one that shall be Eternal These Heathens knew a God to whom they resigned themselves and seeing the Misery of this Life they bewailed it they laughed when they considered the Stupidity of Men who took pleasure in this Life and judg'd that they ought not to be called Men because they did not use their Reason to discover the Truth of Things For he who went through the City of Athens with his Lantern seeking for a Man in the midst of so many Thousands as were in the Market-place could not be ignorant that they who were about him were all Men But seeing they were all occupied in buying and selling and Trading for the Earth he could not acknowledge them to be Reasonable Men Because he who has Reason ought to use it for his Eternal Happiness else he is nothing but a Beast For Reason only makes a Man without which he does not differ from the Brute Beasts for they are unreasonable Animals and Men are reasonable ones Laying aside which they are as much Brutes as the Beasts This made the Philosopher search for a Man among so great a Number and could not find one because all spent their Lives in Worldly Business instead of employing them in the Study of the Knowledge of God and of the Truth which is the same God And they condemn those Heathens as damned and for my part I look upon them as SAINTS and believe they will come to Reign with Jesus Christ upon Earth to condemn the Christians who besides the Light of the Heathens had Lawes and Commandments from God with the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which obliged them to a farther Knowledge of God and the Immortality of their Souls the Shortness and Misery of this Life that they might despise it and the Vanity of perishing Goods that they might abandon them Nevertheless not one of these Christians does any of these Things I asked her If it was indeed possible that not so much as one Christian should be resigned to God nor have the Vertues of the Heathens She said Yes Sir This is most true that not so much as one Christian is resigned to God nor understands true Vertue as much as the Heathens did Because none apply themselves to it Since they became Idolaters of Men they have left off to know God and abondoned themselves to the Will of their Idols instead of the Will of God They Preach and Teach through all Christendom That we must depend upon Men whom they call the Fathers of the Church That we must believe and follow them even with a blind Obedience In which they prefer themselves to God who demands only of Man that he obey him in what he shall make known to him having given him Eyes to discover this Beautiful Universe that when he sees the Heavens the Earth the Sun the Stars and all the Elements with so many different Creatures so marvellous and so well ordered he might clearly perceive that all those Things must proceed from a God since Men and Nature can make nothing like them Moreover when Man considers himself he discovers evidently by his Understanding that his Soul his Memory his Understanding cannot come but from a God for no such Thing can come from Nature no more than his Body since all the Industry of Men is not capable to make so much as one Hair of our Head This obliges us to acknowledge a God by so many different Operations without being put to know God blindly no more than to love
or follow him blindly as these Christians say we must obey and follow Men blindly For when we consider all the Works of God and observe what he has done for us it is impossible we should cease to love and follow such a Benefactour If we had but the Light of a Heathen we would not readily yield this blind Submission to Men Because they are not our Creatours nor our Saviours and our Dependance ought to be upon the Lord who created all Things But not on frail Man like our selves who can give us nothing but Promises without Effects for they deceive us when they promise us Salvation since they cannot give it to themselves And yet all the World believes they shall save all Christians of whom I know not so much as one that is in the way of Salvation because they neither know God nor true Vertue but have their Understandings blinded by the Discourses of Men who desire to love and be loved by their like and instead of leading them to the knowledge of the true God to love and follow him they draw them to love themselves And by this blind conduct every one runs to Perdition while many believe that they are in the way of Salvation So that I might well travel through all Christendom with a Lantern to find out so much as one Man as the Philosophers did through the City of Athens Because no Body any longer uses his Reason to see the Obligation that we have to depend upon the Will of God nor yet to consider the Misery and Shortness of this Life nor the Vanity of transitory Things but are in all this as if they were void of Understanding and follow one another blindly without considering any other Thing For if Man did only use his Reason he would see clearly that he is obliged to depend upon his God since he has received all from him and can pretend to nothing but from him His Natural Instinct does sufficiently encline him to this Dependance Though they call this a Heathen Light this is not that it is simply Natural but it is an Impression that God makes on our Understanding which leads us to know God and to submit our selves to him Which if we do we are happy in whatsoever Nation we be For God never demanded any other thing of Men but this Resignation to his Will and if he has since appointed Laws this was but by reason of Mens Frailty having never formerly subjected them to any Laws but that of depending upon him As he would not yet provided we would submit to him This our Christians do not though they hope to be saved I said to her That it troubled me much to hear that not so much as one Christian was resigned to God She said Sir That you may not believe this blindly recal to mind a little the Persons whom you have held for good Men and consider narrowly all their Behaviour that you may see whether they are not guided by their own Wills even in their pious Works whether they are not done from their own Inclinations You will find that this has always been at the Helm to govern all and that if it were not to please our selves many good Works would be left undone For my part I have remarked this in all the Persons whom I have known and I never knew but one Maid who was resigned to God Nevertheless I have met with those who had the greatest Reputation for Vertue and I alwayes perceived that their Actions though good were mingled with self-Self-love Which hinders a Resignation to God For as long as our Self-will will bear Rule God cannot have our Submission These are all dead Works which shall be recompenced only in this World and not at all in the other I have seen Persons given to Fasting Watching and Prayer diligent in going to Church and in relieving the Poor and yet notwithstanding of this they subjected not their Wills to that of God But followed their own as much as they could imagining that they did all for God while there was no such thing For if God had govern'd their Wills they would have done all their Actions both small and great in the Righteousness Goodness and Truth of God From which they were very far estranged and if they had been capable of it I would have made appear to them that their best Actions were very blameable and accompanied with Presumption and Self-satisfaction In this many deceive themselves and believe they are in a State of Salvation though they be very far from it You must not be troubled Sir to hear it said That there is not so much as one Christian in the way of Salvation Since it is true and none are resigned to God But we ought to bewail their Blindness and desire and pray that they may be converted for the Time to come since there is Time for Repentance and Leisure to return to God even to the last Moment of our Life If I should say that all Christians are in a State of Salvation as all these false Prophets do their Salvation would certainly be desperate Because every one would rest on such a dangerous Estate It were far better to tell the Truth by declaring that they are not in the way of Salvation that they may strive to recover it than to flatter them with false Words And it should be more acceptable to them to hear that they are not resigned to God if it be most true than to hear that dreadful Sentence Go ye cursed into Everlasting Fire when they should have thought to hear Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom For it will be too late at Death to return to a Dependance upon God And it is not so now By which you may see Sir that there is more reason to be troubled when we hear them say that Christians are in the way of Salvation than when they say they are in that of Damnation when it is true as it is because of their Blindness For if I did not most evidently perceive this I would not affirm such unpleasant Things But I should be without Charity if I should not declare so important Truths while we are yet living in the Time of Penitence For I perceive inwardly in my Soul that the Thoughts Words and Actions of Men are not at all directed by God For they partake not of his Righteousness Goodness and Truth but on the contrary they are all full of Self-interest Self-honour or Pleasures And notwithstanding no Body will willingly be reproved Every one desires to continue as he is without knowing his Fault and much less amending it covering and palliating his Miseries and excusing them as much as he can So that I see no good that can be done for the Conversion of Christians for they trust too much to the false Perswasion of their Salvation Therefore I will retire and bid you Adieu Not that I am displeased to be among Men to
upon God as to his Health and assuredly he will suffer his Infirmities and Diseases with Patience Which will be the Grace he has merited by yielding up his Will to God as to his Health Another will submit to God as to Temporal Goods and he shall have the Grace of Poverty of Spirit Another will submit to God in the Matter of his Honour and he shall have the Grace to suffer Contempt willing And so of the rest Since God gave the first Graces to Adam he will not encrease them to him but so far as his Free-will shall be subjected to God and no farther Because he has shewn the effect of his Goodness and Almighty Power towards Man in creating him so full of Graces and Prerogatives taking him out of Nothing where he could have merited nothing God having absolute Dominion over this Nothing bestows on him all the Graces that he pleased because he found no resistance and so he lead his Will to good having engraven in his Soul a good Inclination and a reasonable Understanding to know the Dependance he had upon God from whom he saw he had received Being and all Things An Instinct to good and the Love of his God were engraven in the Marrow of his Bones These are the Qualities that God gave Man before he was capable of resisting God But since he resisted so many Graces and would retake to himself the Free-will that God had given him to use it independently from God he has lost his Graces and obliged him not to bestow more upon him but as far as he will yield up his own Will to God having by this Mean bounded the Grace of God at his Will Not that Man is capable of regulating or bounding the Graces of God who is still absolute Soveraign of all Things but because it was his absolute Desire to give to Man his Free-will which alone renders him capable of being united to God And if he had received only a Limited Will he would have had no Divine Quality for God to take his Delight with him For that Two Things may find Contentment together there must still be a Proportion or Sympathy between them A Horse cannot be contented or pleased with a piece of Iron nor a Dog with Marble nor a Swine with a Precious Stone Because all these Things are disproportioned to the Nature of these Beasts who cannot Love nor take Pleasure in Objects so unlike their Natures Even so God cannot take his Delight with any Creature of a bounded Will he being an infinite God There must be in Man some infinite Quality by which he may unite himself to God And if he had not given him this Will eternally Free Man should have had nothing in him sympathetical with God who nevertheless would make a Creature with whom he might take his pleasure Therefore he gave him this Divine and Reasonable Soul with an Eternal Liberty which shall never be taken from him do Man what he pleases Because God never changes his Decrees and if he forced Man to good after he had given him this Liberty he should constrain that which he would have to be free and should renverse the Order that he had so wisely Established and should take from Man the most Precious Thing he had received For laying aside this Free-will he would be but like the Beasts Therefore God will never direct our Will but when we shall yield it up to him though he be Almighty I entreated her to tell me How our Will shall be eternal and if we shall even be free to do evil in Paradise or good in Hell She said No Sir we can never do evil in Paradise Because there we shall enjoy the continual Presence of God during which we can never sin though it were even in this Miserable Life As long as our Soul abides there in the Presence of God it can no more sin than if it had no Liberty And if some Saints have fallen into Sins this has certainly been when they have strayed from this Presence of God and during this wandering they might sin Because the Objects of Evil were yet present with them and they resting on them might easily fall But in Paradise our Spirit can no more wander or be distracted from God because he shall be continually and eternally with us sensibly and visibly without any interruption neither can we be diverted by evil Objects because all that shall be in Paradise shall be holy and all the Blessed shall visibly and sensibly possess God so that we shall see God in every one of them All these Things will render us impeccable and though we shall still have Free-will yet it shall never be led to evil in the midst of such Good and God to whom we shall entirely yield it up will straitly unite it to his own so that it can no more be led to evil than that of God is for it shall be united to his in so indissoluble a Bond of Love that it will be impossible to separate it for so much as one Moment they being no longer but one and the same Thing Thus shall our Free-will rule in Paradise Even so in Hell our Will shall never be bounded because God having given it free it shall eternally persist in its Liberty But whereas this Will would not submit to God in this Life but was led to evil of our own Will and since Death remains in the same desire of doing evil we continue in these desires to all Eternity without ever having the Will to do good Because we are farther removed than ever from all sorts of good Objects but joyned and attended with all sorts evils The continual Presence of Devils prompts our Wills continually and without intermission to do Evil and the Company of so great a number of damned Souls who use their Free-will to do all manner of evil doth continually draw us to imitate and follow them So that having never any thought towards good we can never have the Will to do good even as the Devils cannot who have also retained their Free-will which serves continually to encrease their Evils their Will being engaged to persist in doing all the evil they can For this cause they tempt Men so strongly that they may have them in their damnable Company Not that they hope the number of the Damned will ease their Pains on the contrary they well know that it will encrase them the more but because their Free-will is bent to evil and this Free-will being eternal is eternally bent to do evil For a free Quality such as Free-will is will always act in good or evil according to the Object towards which it bends And their Evils are so far from being bounded by Damnation that they encrease eternally because of their eternal Will which cannot be bounded This Free-will which is bent to evil has given a Malignity to all the Creatures which Malignity shall remain also eternally
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