by many others by many of the Practical Writers of Christianity and what needs so much adoe about the Writings of this Woman We ought not to deny to others their just Praise and I wish that not only many but all the Practical Writers of Christianity did breath the same Spirit But because other Writings are good and useful we ought not therefore to despise these if they be so too In things convenient for the Body the Providence of God affords not only what is simply necessary but Plenty and Abundance and what is distasteful to one Palate will relish with another and promote their Health And why should our Eye be Evil because God is Good If he be pleas'd to afford us Plenty and Variety of Spiritual Entertainment tending to mortifie our Corrupt Nature and to bring us to the Love of God and some of it does not please our Taste why should we be so peevish and ill natur'd as not only to throw all away that comes from that hand but decry it as rank Poison and forbid any to touch it as they would escape Damnation when it may be all the Evil lies in the Malady and Distemper within us which it comes to remove and what we will not use nor relish may prove very savoury and healthful to the Souls of others It is strange to see the Disposition of Men. The Poets and Plays both Ancient and Modern tho' they flow from and greatly tend to cherish the Corruption of Humane Nature yet the Learned do Study and Esteem them but Writings of this Nature whose only Aim is to perswade Men to love the Life of Jesus Christ in their respective Communions without setting up a New Sect or Party and to tell them they do it not meets with nothing but Reproach and Contempt upon a Pretence there are in them some Sentiments different from the ordinary tho' they are most consistent with the Essentials of Christianity and are declared not to be necessary to Salvation As if we would hate and persecute our best Friend because his Cloaths differed from ours in their Fashion Some peculiar Characters of her Writings and Sentiments XVI NOW as that which I have mentioned is the great Design of those Writings and for that Reason they ought to be as readily entertain'd as we do other good Practical Books so there are some things observable in them in the Prosecution of that great Design of the Renovation of a Gospel Spirit which in my Esteem do merit a particular Consideration I shall mention some of them And First that which has been already touch'd her making so clear a Distinction between the Essentials and Accessories of Religion and her laying so little Stress upon the last tho' she declares that she had particular Discoveries in them seems to me a particular Character of her Spirit They who set up for a peculiar Knowledge in Divine things or to reform the Corruptions of the Church or to be Guides and Directors of others they presently insert all their little Opinions and Doctrines into their Confessions of Faith make them Articles of their Creed Shibboleths of their Party so that none can be of their Communion who do not profess to believe them and they are more zealous for their particular Forms and Confessions than for the Gospel and Laws of Jesus Christ and are ready to esteem or despise others according to their Zeal or Coldness for these and thus tho' a Man be proud and covetous and malicious and his Spirit quite contrary to that of Jesus Christ yet if he be zealous for their peculiar Doctrines and Forms of such a Party he shall in his own and their Esteem pass for a good Christian they imagining that God lays as great a Stress on their Doctrines and Forms as they do themselves while they call them the Cause of Christ the Jewels of his Crown c. thus most heinously taking God's Name in Vain Others again who pretend to divine Revelation are still upon Mysteries and Visions But A. B. does most clearly and distinctly represent wherein the Essence of Christianlty consists makes that the Butt of all her Writings shews what are the Accessory Truths and tho' she pretends to particular Discoveries in them yet tells they are not Articles of Faith nor necessary to Salvation that they who see no Clearness in them nor Benefit by them may let them alone and tho' we should believe them never so firmly yet without a Gospel-Life and Spirit there was no Salvation XVII 2. The Writings of A. B. do clearly shew the Relation that the several Parts and Duties of Christianity have to one another and the Place that every one holds in Relation to the Whole and this is of no small moment to direct us aright in our Endeavours after a Christian Life and Spirit We may know many of the Parts and Duties of the Christian Religion and seem much Occupied about some of them and yet never make any Advances in a Christian Life all that is directed by Wisdom is done for a fit and proper End and fit and seasonable Means are employed for attaining of that End We see the Footsteps of infinite Wisdom even in the Motions of the brute Creatures The Birds in the Spring gather proper Materials and build their Nests and lay their Eggs and hatch their Young if they should be taken up only about gathering Sticks without putting them to any further Use the Wisdom of their Maker in the Forming of them would not thereby appear Now God has given Man an Understanding whereby he may discern a proper End for his Actions and suitable Means by which to accomplish it We see in all Trades and Arts they have their proper Ends and their peculiar Means to attain to them and if the respective Masters or Apprentices should be still occupied about some of the remoter Means of their Calling without ever directing them to the Attainment of the End of it or should think to attain the End without the Use of the necessary and immediate Means we would think they had lost their Wits If they who pretend to rebuild an House busie themselves only in providing some of the Materials and contriving Models and reading Books of Architecture and hearing Discourses about it and lay some Stones of it upon an old runious Foundation without ever doing more or if they think to get the House built without ever digging deep to lay a good Foundation or using the other consequent necessary Means of Building such but build Castlâ—s in the Air. Now tho' Men are not so absurd and unreasonable in other things yet they are so in Religion They are taken up with some of the remoter Duties of Religion without ever aiming at the End of it or they think to attain the End without using the necessary Means for the Attainment of it and become thereby so darkned in their Minds as not to perceive what Relation the Parts and Duties of
than any Degree of Life for whatsoever retains any Form has some Degree of Life The Body therefore is subject to Death and so approaches nearer to nothing wherefore that Life which delighting it self in the Pleasures of the Body neglects God inclines to nothing and this is Wickedness For it loves that which is less than Life because it is Body and because of this very Sin that which is lov'd becomes Corruptible that it by passing away may forsake its Lover because he by loving it had forsaken his God But that the Body of Man which before Sin was the most excellent in its kind is after Sin become so frail and subject to Death tho' it be a just Punishment of Sin yet it discovers more of the Clemency than the Severity of God For thereby we are perswaded that we ought to take off our Love from the Pleasures of the Body and to turn it to the Eternal Essence of Truth And herein the Beauty of Righteousness and the Favour of Good meet together that because we are deceived by the Sweetness of inferiour Goods we might be instructed by the Bitterness of the Punishments c. Thus it is evident that nothing comes positively from God as an efficient Cause but that which is positively from Good and all Evil and Malignity proceeds from Devils and Men which God does yet so moderate and restrain in this time of Man's Trial as many make Man by his Grace come to himself and return to his God and if there be no further hopes of Man he leaves him to himself and so punishes him no otherwise than a Physician does a Sick Man by leaving him to his own Folly and Intemperance when he will neither be ruled by him nor take the Physick he has prepared for him Man does properly damn himself and he receives only the Works of his own Hands O Israel thy Destruction is of thy self but in me is thy help When the Holy Scripture represents God as denouncing a Curse on the Earth the Pains of a Woman in Travail the Labour and Death of Man these are charitable Warnings of some of the natural Consequences of his Sin to dispose him for them and that he might make a right use of them And when the Scripture speaks of the Wrath of God and of the Punishments flowing from it all this is to be understood in a Sense agreeable to the Nature of God as we do those Passages which ascribe to him the bodily Parts and Passions of Men and as by thus interpreting those last Passages there is no wresting of the Scriptures but rather their true Sense exprest which either the clear Idea that we have of God or one or two plain Places of Scripture concerning him that he is a Spirit and unchangeable do sufficiently manifest so neither are the former wrested by giving them a Sense conformable to the Idea of the Divine Goodness and Perfections from whence no Evil Disorder nor Anxiety can proceed and to those Places of Scripture which affirm that God is Love and that Fury is not in him What unsutable and unlovely Representations some have given us of the Divine Nature and Operations and how unfit they are for inflaming Men with True Charity is but too evident from Men Writings and from Mens Lives XIX 4. Her Writings and Sentiments have a great Tendency to a Christian Vnion and Concord amongst the several Parties of Christendom We all seem to be sensible of the Evil and Mischiefs of Schisms and the Hatred Lying Evil-speakings Strifes Wars Fightings Persecutions Deaths which have followed upon them are but too fatal Proofs of it and therefore every Party strives to wipe off the Blame from themselves and to lay it on another But the most useful Thought is to consider how to heal them The Course followed by the respective Parties will never do it Those of every Party judge that Orthodoxy is only on their Side and therefore strive to reduce all to an Union by bringing them to be of their Party and thus their mutual Animosities and Divisions are still heightned But the Writings and Sentiments of A. B. do more naturally and more effectually tend to a Christian Union they teach Men to labour after the Spirit of true Christianity in the Use of the outward Forms and Rites which are consistent therewith of the respective Parties wherein they are without setting up a New Party or judging and condemning another because differing from them in those outward Rites and Forms She shews that the Differences of outward Religions of their Ceremonies and Opinions will neither save nor damn that they are not inseparable from the Essence of Christianity which consists in the denying of our selves the mortifying of our corrupt Nature and the following of Jesus Christ without which we cannot be saved that those other things are like the Cloaths and Garments which do not give Life but an outward Decency and Conveniency That the one is the Sword and these other things are the Sheath and that the Madness and Folly of the Christian World lies in Contending which of us has the best Sheath while the Devil robs us of the Sword the true Love of God and our Neighbour and laughs at us when we think to overcome him with the Sheath of our outward Religions as we would laugh at a Soldier who would needs fight his Enemy with the Sheath of his Sword And so little Regard had she to the Interest of a Party that when Lutherans and Calvinists came to be directed by her in the labouring after a Christian Life and Spirit she never enquired about their Opinions nor bid them abandon the Communion wherein they were On the contrary when the famous Dr. Swammerdam who was solicited by his Friend Steno to go over with him to the Church of Rome and to Italy did ask her Advice in it she did expresly forbid him telling him there was nothing but Vanity in the Change of Communions and that he might labour to be a true Christian in the Communion in which he was Did this Spirit prevail amongst the respective Parties how strangely would it sweeten our Minds towards one another our Animosities would quickly cease our Difference would fall of themselves we would be as far from imposing our Forms and Modes of Worship and Confessions of Faith on others or persecuting them who did not conform to them or hating and maligning such as differed from us in their Opinions and Parties as we would be from treating after this manner those who differed from us in the Fashion of their Garments or the Sheaths of their Swords We would find the Apostle's excellent Counsel most applicable in all theses Cases One believes that be may eat all things another who is weak 〈…〉 let not him that eateth despise him that eaâ—◠〈…〉 which eateth not judge him that 〈…〉 One Man esteemeth 〈…〉 Man esteemeth every Day 〈…〉 perswaded in his own Mind 〈…〉 regardeth
God giveth them Light and they shall reign for ever and ever see Isa 60. In a Word she makes appear that all the Holy Scriptures by Parables Figures and Prophecies do point out this Kingdom of Jesus Christ with Men This being the Sum of the Designs which God has over Men. And that this is a just and necessary thing it is unconceivable that God would have created this beautiful World only for this short Life of Penitence only for our Misery only to serve Devils and Men as Instruments of their Wickedness and Rebellion against him and then should abolish this great Work of his Hands That it is most just that all things be re-establish'd in their first State that all things be restored that Reparation be made of all the Injuries and Affronts done to his Humanity and to those who loved and followed him and that all that has been done unjustly be repaired both bodily and spiritually and that on the same Theatre that God having given Man both a Body and Soul there must be likewise a Paradise for both the Presence of God being the compleat Paradise of the one and all this visible World with all things in it freed from all Malignity and God dwelling visibly and bodily with Man therein the Paradise of the other which will endure for ever For God's Recompences are not temporal and finite but eternal as coming from an eternal God who cannot give finite or imperfect Gifts XLI These are the most singular of her Accessory Sentiments and by what has been said it appears that they are neither inconsistent with themselves nor with the Holy Scriptures nor with the necessary and essential Truths of Christianity that they serve to clear a thousand Passages of the Word of God that they tend to promote the Love of God and of all Men and lead us to mortifie our corrupt Nature and to despise this present World A. B. herself did not at first speak or write of these Sentiments but to some Friends and when they had shewn them to others she was troubled knowing that the Devil would take Advantage thereby to make them despise the other Truths necessary for their Salvation even as many of our Saviour's Disciples being offended at a hard Saying of his forsook him and walked no more with him And I would not have offered to give a Summary of those her Accessory Sentiments in this Apology but that they being now all publick in her printed Writings they who have set themselves to give an odious Character of her and her Sentiments to the World will be sure to dress them up in a Fool 's Coat to excite the People to cry out both of her and them Away with them Crucifie them And therefore I have chosen to give a simple and true Narrative of them even of those which seem most singular and extravagant All the Works of God are a Mystery and the most ordinary things the Formation of Man now and all the other Works would seem to us as strange if we were not accustomed to see them every Day Such things are not to be enquired into neither out of vain Curiosity nor from a disputing Humour which begets Presumption and Pride of Spirit for the Divine Mysteries are rather to be admir'd and ador'd than curiously search'd into by our blind Reason Let us make it our great Business to imitate Jesus Christ in Humility and Self-denial if we would be truly enlightned and delivered from all Blindness of Heart God walks with the Simple he reveals himself to the Humble he gives Understanding to little ones he opens his Meaning to pure Hearts and he hides his Grace from the Curious and the Proud Human Reason is weak and may be deceived but true Faith cannot be deceived See Psal 18. 118. XLII Now the Account I have given of the Sentiments of A. B. both as to the Essentials and Accessory Truths of Christianity is a just and true Representation which may be more fully and satisfyingly had from her own Writings And I shall leave it to all impartial Readers to consider whether the Character which some have been pleased to give of her Sentiments as heretical blasphemous ridiculous and extravagant be just and equal and if it be not the Result rather of their Mistakes and Prejudices than a plain and fair Account of her Doctrine and Sentiments The excellent Monsieur Paschal in his Pensees Chretiennes gives it as the most essential and distinguishing Mark and Character of true Religion that it makes its chief Precept and the great and essential Duty of Man to be To love God with all our Hearts and this he says is the peculiar and singular Character of the Christian Religion in Contradistinction to all others And if we shall impartially compare the Doctrine of Christianity as it represented in the Writings of A. B. with the Accounts of it delivered to us in the Systems of Divinity of the respective Parties in Christendom I think it will evidently appear that it is a most distinguishing Character of the former tho' it makes the Love of God the great End of Religion and all the other Duties of it means to bring us to that End and that the other tho' they cannot omit when they give an Account of Christianity to mention this as one of its great Precepts yet they so shuffle and confound Doctrines and give it such a Place in their Systems as may make People lay greater Stress on other things and give them Ground to hope they may be saved without it or without conforming our Lives to the Rules and Life of Jesus Christ which lead to it The End of the First Part. AN APOLOGY FOR M. ANT. BOVRIGNON PART II. An Answer to the Prejudices raised against her Sentiments and Writings I. THERE is nothing more ordinary than for People upon light and weak Grounds to take up Prejudices against the Persons and Sentiments of others and to judge rashly and inconsiderately of them and this is a Fault to which People of all Tempers are subject The Learned the Dogmatical and the Abettors of Parties cannot endure any thing that seems to lessen the Credit of their Sentiments or their Party they presently raise a Hue-and-Cry and do all they can to animate the People Thus the Scribes and Pharisees were full of Spite and Prejudice against our Lord Jesus Christ and inspir'd the People with the same Spirit The generality of Men see with other Mens Eyes and judge with other Mens Understandings they cannot be at the pains to weigh and consider things impartially themselves but they trust to the Skill and Sincerity of those who pretend to judge for them and such for the most part judging rashly and by their Passions lead the Multitude to do so too Yea even Persons of good Inclinations and who have a true Zeal for God and Divine things are apt to commit the same Fault Thus St. Paul before he was
is impossible to observe and then to damn us for not observing them that it is to indulge and gratifie our corrupt Nature in following our own Wills and Inclinations and taking our Ease and Pleasure here and yet to give us the false Hopes of eternal Life and Salvation hereafter because of some speculative Doctrines and Opinions and some fine Words and Complements that we give to God Whosoever impartially considers the ordinary Systems that are given of the Christian Religion and the Use that the Generality of People make of them in their Lives and Practice will easily see that they are exactly calculated for dispensing with a Man's following closely the Life and Laws of Jesus Christ and allowing him to gratifie his corrupt and sinful Inclinations in things that do not sound harsh in the World and are not hateful before Men without using the indispensably necessary Means of mortifying the Love of himself and the World and recovering the Love of God It will not be impertinent on this Occasion that the most pious Dr. Henry More in his Divine Dialogues having set down his Reasons of hoping for a glorious State of the Church and a Renovation of it approaching lays down some Principles the Practice of which he thinks would hasten and advance those excellent Times and his last and chief Principle is Faith in the Power of God and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ which he has promised to all Believers that by this Assistance we may get the Conquest over all our Sins and Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God that through the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us we are able to be reduced to that Rectitude of Life and Spirit which our Saviour sets out in his Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in the Gospels It is this Doctrine he says that must renew the World in Righteousness and bring on those glorious Times For what Doctrine but this says he can reach the Hypocrisie of Mens Hearts who under Colour of not being able to be rid of all their Sins will set themselves against none or but the least considerable or will be sure to spare their darling Sins and perpetually decline that Self-resignation which is indispensably required of every true Christian nay they will quit none of them under Pretence we must necessarily retain a gradual Imperfection throughout And they will be sure to pitch on that Degree that is most for their own Ease and the Satisfaction of their own Lusts It is this Faith he says in the Promise of the Assistance of the Spirit of Christ in the new Birth that must renew the World into the Living Image of God and make all the Nations of the Earth Blessed which must bring the new Jerusalem from Heaven and will call down God himself to pitch his Tabernacle amongst Men. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Much more to this purpose is said there by that excellent Person If this be a Doctrine so necessary for renewing the World and awakening Men out of their deadly bloth and Slumber in their Sins what need have all the Pastours of the Church to lay it to heart themselves and withal to inculcate it more earnestly on the People And tho' perhaps in some particular Churches their Sermons Confessions of Faith and Catechisms have propagated quite contrary Doctrine yet that O! they may not continue to sow Pillows to the Armholes of Sinners and blow them up with the false Hopes of Salvation Wo to the Watchmen that do so Let us remember that the Possibility of obeying the Commands of God and the Duty of tending always to Perfection thro' Faith in Jesus Christ is the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and also of the holy Fathers The Love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit in the Hearts of those who are truly justified And this begets the Love of our Neighbour and the fulfilling of the Law And this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him c. It is an impious thing to say the Commands of the Spirit are impossible Basil in verba Mos Attende tibi c. We detest says S. Augustin the Blasphemy of those who say that there is any thing impossible commanded by God to Man and that the Commands of God may not be observed by every Man This Doctrine has no dangerous Consequence provided 1. it be not founded on a Presumption of Man's Strength but only in the Power and Strength of the Holy Spirit 2. That they who have not attained to Perfection yet are not excluded from Salvation if they be in the Way to Perfection and tending to it 3. That it be not said that in that State there is not a Possibility of Sinning yea and of perishing 4. That it be acknowledged that this is not a Perfection of Degrees free of all Imperfection Yea the Scripture tells us of some that walked in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless But that the contrary Doctrine has mischievous and most damnable Consequences has been made appear Were it not better says one how imperfect so ever we are yet to hearken to those sincere and generous Souls that we may be animated by Hope and strengthened in God to become what we are not yet than to give ear to cowardly Seducers who as the guilty Spies in Moses's Time make the Peoples Hearts to melt and dispose them by their diabolical Lyes and Calumnies to rebel against God and to return into Egypt It is true say they the Land is a good Land flowing with Milk and Honey but the Cities are great and strong and there are mighty Giants there and a strong People we cannot overcome them for they are stronger than we It is true say they at present the State of Regeneration and of perfect Christianity is an excellent thing full of Divine Joy and Delight but it is of hard Access there are high Walls of Difficulties Sin and the Devil are strongly fortified in the Hearts of Men there are strong Passions and a profound Corruption there we can never overcome this which is stronger than we who being so frail cannot exactly do that which God has commanded us for that End These are the execrable Tongues and the living Interpreters of the Will of Satan whom they will curse to all Eternity who have been so unhappy as to hearken to them and to live in Sloth and be seduced by their Means Let us go up let us go up said Caleb and Joshua wisely let us go up boldly and possess this Land certainly we shall be stronger if we strive to please the Lord he will bring us into it and will give it to us Let us not rebel against the Lord let us not fear those Enemies we
is unchangeable always consistent with himself and no Body can be mistaken in following what is conformable to the Gospel even to tho' it were declar'd by a wicked Person yea by the Devil himself But if some one declare some particular thing respecting the Salvation or Damnation of any they must see from whence this Knowledge comes If such have it by the Light of the Holy Spirit they must believe it as the Scripture or else they be in Hazard of being forsaken by God for despising the Warnings which he often gives us by some one of his Friends whom he makes use of to declare his Will to those who would not hear it so particularly themselves As he did to David by the Prophet Nathan to declare his Sin to him of which he was become insensible and so many others whom he has withdrawn from the way to Hell by the Warnings of some Souls enlightned by him as he does sometimes yet at present A True Prophet never seeks himself desires not to please Men aims at nothing but to satisfie the Will of God tho' it cost him his Life He speaks of his Commission without fear or respect of any He has no soft Words that flatter the Ears but hard ones that pierce Hearts He declares the Truths that reprove Men more willingly than those which commend them A True Prophet rejoyces more to be hated than lov'd because he sees then he is more conformable to his Master who in doing Good was hated and persecuted by Men. There is not a more certain Mark than the Reproach and Contradictions of Men whereby to discern a True Prophet from a False for Falshood always flatters and so is loved by the People who are willingly flattered The Holy Spirit can have no regard to what pleases or displeases but to what is pure Truth without respect of Persons And if there remain any doubt if it is the Holy Spirit who speaks by a Person who says so we must try if that Person possess the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit his Seven Gifts and the Eight Beatitudes so you shall see visibly in them the Holy Spirit by his infallible Operations Thus you see what excellent and true Marks and Characters she gives whereby we may try whether any be truly endued with the Spirit of God or not and the more her Doctrine Life and Spirit are enquir'd into by the Lovers of Sincerity and Truth the more they will abide this Touchstone And it will still the more clearly appear that her Doctrine is the same in Substance with the Gospel her Life and Spirit a Transcript of it that the Law of God was written in her Heart from whence her Doctrine came as from a Fountain of Living Water springing up to Everlasting Life and was not derived from the broken Cisterns of humane Learning Conversation Study and Books And that her Words are sharp and piercing searching into the Heart and Conscience and far from soothing and flattering the Corruptions of Men. XVIII M. Pascal has given it as a distinguishing Mark and Character of the Christian Religion in Contradiction to all other Religions of the World as an Argument of its Divine Authority and Original that it makes Charity or the Love of God its principal End and Man's chief Duty which no other Religion does And I think it may be given as a distinguishing Character of the Doctrine of A. B. its being a true Representation of Christianity in Contradiction to most of the Systems of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which have been advanc'd in this last Age of the World that she makes Charity or the Love of God the great End of that Religion and the Precepts and Life of Jesus Christ the necessary Means to bring us to that End and when this is so clearly discovered and represented to us by an illiterate Child without the use of any humane Helps and our false Glosses whereby we have perverted the Doctrine of Jesus Christ are laid open to us to ascribe this to Natural Judgment Heat of Fancy any Humane or Diabolical Means or to think to confound it with our Buffoonry and Criticks is a Spiritual Infatuation like that of the Scribes and Pharisees XIX Now all that has been or can be opposed to those Evidences of A. B. her being led by the Spirit of God come under these Two Heads viz. it is either affirm'd that these Marks and Characters are not sufficient Evidences even tho' she had them or that they do not all belong to her I shall give you then her own Vindication of her self in answering some Prejudices relating to these Heads First then they objected that there could be no sufficient Evidence of her being led by the Spirit of God unless she were endued with the Power of working Miracles In Answer to which she says It is a great Ignorance to desire to see Miracles that we may believe that a Soul is possest with the Holy Spirit for the Devil at this time can easily do Wonders Jesus Christ has assur'd us that in the last Times many false Prophets will arise that shall do great Signs and Wonders And we live now in the Reign of Antichrist They who ask now for Miracles deserve to be seduc'd by Satan for what need is there of them since God is not to send into the World a New Doctrine The Gospel Law is the last and most perfect of all Laws Nothing New will come to instruct Men except the fulfilling of the Gospel Law which was sufficiently confirm'd by Jesus Christ and his Apostles who needed then for the Hardness of Mens Hearts to work outward Miracles because of their Unbelief For those Persons Signs were wrought that were visible to their Senses But now Men are sufficiently confirm'd in the Gospel Law There are no Christians incredulous in this Point And therefore Miracles would serve to no purpose now since nothing is taught but what Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught and this is believed both by good and bad Christians I think you have not the true Touchstone to discern if a Person has the Spirit of God when you would try him by Miracles for the Spirit of Satan may do great Signs and Wonders in the Persons where he dwells I have seen Persons possest with that unclean Spirit who would have done admirable things Some were Blind for some Years and recovered their Sight in an Instant others were Dumb and recovered their Speech by supernatural Means others did hang and flee visibly in the Air before all the People others were without Pulse and Motion for some Nights and Days and in an Instant would arise and walk chearfully Are not here the Dead raised the Sick healed the Blind recovered to their Sight the Dumb to their Speech and Bodies suspended in the Air by the Power of the Devil How could you judge then by Miracles if a Person be led by the Spirit of God or of the Devil You
a rich Merchant And that she might avoid that Stroke she separated her self from the World and from all Creatures and about the Eighteenth Year of her Age having put on the Habit of a Hermit she left her Father's House without taking with her so much as a Penny forsaking Wealth Accommodations Delights and all temporal Things only for the Love of God The abandoning of all which was so well-pleasing to God that he wonderfully guided and preserved her and delivered her out of the Hands of wicked Men and committed her to the Care of such as were truly Good who were ready to be helpful to her in all things XIV That I may not be too tedious as to the Testimony which others give concerning the Piety and Sanctity of Antonia Bourignon I shall only propose some Remarks as to those Three principal Vertues 1. Faith 2. Charity 3. Hope For if there can be sufficient Evidences brought whereby it can be made appear that A. B. did possess these there can be then no doubt but that she was Holy and Pious That this may be made appear it is not needful to examine each of these Vertues particularly by it self because they always go together There is no doubt then yea we may be assured of it that he who possesses one of these Vertues does possess them all Faith then is the Subsistence of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen Or Faith is that Divine Light infus'd by God into Man at his Creation by which he conceives things Divine and Eternal which by the natural Understanding are unconceivable In this Sense Faith is communicated unto all Men for it is that true Light that enlightens every Man that comes into the World But this Light is so darkned and hindred to encrease by the Love of the Creatures and of temporal Things in which Sin consists that Faith being without Life and Spirit becomes dead and ineffectual To make appear therefore that any has Faith it is not enough that he is endued with this first innate Light because in that Sense all Men have Faith while in the mean time all are not Holy But here we speak of the Faith which all have not but they only who do not resist this Divine Light nor strive to quench it and who they are that follow it and walk in it and whose Faith worketh by Love must and ought to be made evident by their Works that it may appear to be living and not dead This was the Faith in Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Moses and the rest of the Holy Men spoken of Heb. 11. who seeing the invisible God contemned all visible Things suffering all manner of Reproaches Persecutions and Torments that they might ever see and enjoy him and this with so great Resolution as the whole World could not divert them from their purpose or separate them from the Love of God because they knew certainly that the Hope they had would never make them ashamed XV. Now that in A. B. Faith did thus work by Love with an assured Hope of enjoying God appears by all her Life as has been already shewn And that we may have the greater Evidence of this we need read only the Account of her Life given both by her self and others Among innumerable Instances it is very remarkable that A. B. took upon her the Care of governing educating and instructing in the Christian Religion many poor Orphan Girls in an Hospital and that without any Tie or Obligation or any other End but the Hope she had of bringing up these Orphins in the Fear of God and of forming them to be true Christians employing in this Office all her Industry her Goods and the Strength both of her Body and Mind In which Work of Charity she continued for Nine Years confiding so firmly in God that tho' she was toss'd with infinite Afflictions her Refuge was in him alone and that with such an assured Hope that she was never confounded nor frustrated of her End In such Works of Charity A. B. continued even to Death but with this Caution afterwards that having found by Experience that most of the Poor and other Men also did abuse Alms and the other Offices of Charity to encourage themselves the more in their Sins she did dispence the Gifts of Charity more warily enquiring first if they might promote the Salvation of her Neighbour which ought to be our great aim and being once perswaded of this she spar'd neither Money nor Travel nor her own Life where she could contribute for the Salvation of others But where she saw that her good Works could contribute nothing to this she endeavoured to live in as much Retiredness and Quiet with God as was possible that she might work out her own Salvation with fear and trembling being thus truly helpful to all when a few had rejected her Help The Malicious therefore have no reason to accuse A. B. of Avarice or Cruelty because she did not distribute her Goods indifferently to all the Poor for this did not spring from so evil an Original but from true Charity that she might not concur by the Poors abusing of her Alms to the multiplying of their Sins and so to the aggravating of their Damnation This proceeded also from the Care she had that the Goods which God had committed unto her as to a Steward might be faithfully distributed XVI It was premised in the third place that we ought to admit the fore-mentioned Evidences for proving a Person to be Holy and a Lover of God as good and valid so long as the contrary is not made appear Now as to the Holiness of Antonia Bourignon and her Love to God that the contrary is not yet made appear is evident from this that no body could ever yet discover that her Life and Actions were at any time blameworthy even then when to follow the Vanity of the World she lived for some time distracted from God But from hence we ought not to conclude as some malicious Persons have done that Ant. Bourignon and her Friends do affirm that she neither sinn'd in Adam nor in her self which is most false For A. B. declares in many places that she as well as other Men was born of the corrupt mass of Adam and did sin in him And not only so but that turning aside from God unto the World she sinn'd in her self tho' she never did any thing that is blame worthy before Men. For she was fully perswaded that every turning aside from God unto the Cretures is a Sin that deserves Damnation XVII The Fourth Evidence to wit that of our Conscience as to the Sanctity of A. B. is most abundant for many Persons of all Parties of Christians of all sorts of Ranks and those most Pious do decalre that they have felt such Operations in their Souls by the Presence the Words and Writings of Antonia Bourignon that they were sufficiently convinced in their Conscience
in very exaggerating Terms tho' the Doctor affirms that in all this Passage there are no penitential Acknowledgments neither general nor particular And afterwards she adds Or si je raccount si librement comment c. Now if I so freely relate how grosly I fell from so exalted a State of Grace as that wherein God had placed me from my Infancy how can I be supposed to say or believe that I can no more fall since what one hath once done he may do many times And after having asserted that no Creature can be impeccable during this miserable Life where there are so many stones of stumbling and instanced in Peter David and Solomon she says Can I be so ignorant as to believe that â— can no more fall or decline from the Grace of God I am certain I may do it every moment if I would retire my self from my Intercourse with God and entertain my self with my Senses I know so long as I remain united with him I cannot fall but if I should break off this Communion I should fall the first step I made thereafter as a young Child that cannot go Doth she not here plainly own her Lability Weakness and Insufficiency that of her self she could not be without sinning no not for a moment that she as well as all others during this Life of Temptations is continually liable to Falls and that her only fear was lest she should discontinue her Fidelity to God But is this to arrogate to her self a Sanctity without the Alloy of humane Passions or Infirmities and which as the Doctor afterwards hath it is not exceeded but only equall'd by that of Jesus Christ It is his ordinary course all along in the Commentaries that he makes on A. B's words to run into intolerable Excesses In effect the Glosses he puts on them do in a great many places palpably destroy the Text and gives them a Meaning that she never intended I believe the Doctor would take it very ill to have his own Words so dealt by I must here take notice of a Passage of his Letter which sounds as highly at least as any that he quotes out of A. B. on the Head we are now considering Indeed saith he I was never so profane as to forget my Dependance on God Now it is certain that one never sins but when he forgets this Dependence and to say that Sin is the forgeting of our Dependance on God is a very proper Definition of it Here then the Doctor arrogates to himself an absolute Innocence I know he intended no such thing but yet you see the words very easily bear this Meaning I shall not now enter upon the Enquiry into what heights of Purity and Holiness God may by his Grace advance such as are truly regenerate and who continue faithful to him This I know will fall under the Doctor 's Disquisition more properly afterwards But whatever these heights may be they do not contradict that Passage of Holy Scripture he mentions nor supersede the use of the Lord's Prayer I thought fit to discuss this Section of the Doctor 's Second Narrative at some length because he frequently raises a great deal of Dust about what he insists on in it I shall touch on a few other Passages more passingly 2. A. B. does not pretend to have made by her Discoveries any Additions to the Essentials of the Christian Religion this she every where disclaims and affirms that the Holy Scriptures contain a full and perfect System of them She says indeed that the things which were revealed to the Authors of the Sacred Books more generally and more darkly are discovered to her more fully more clearly and more particularly but that they are such as do not strictly concern the Essence of Christianity tho' also she pretends to rescue even these things from the false and deluding Glosses which the self-flattery of Men hath put on them Now dato sed non concesso that this were so I do not see that her owning of it is as the Doctor alledges a preferring her self unto or setting her self above the Prophets and Apostles for it is certain that the Apostles had more clear and more full Revelations of the Christian Oeconomy made to them than were made to the old Prophets but I hope by their owning this they did not claim a preference to them This is an invidious stating of the matter all that can be justly inserred from such a Pretence is that it hath pleased God for great and wise Reasons to manifest himself more to one than to another but then the Instrument he makes use of hath no ground of boasting or self-exaltation as A. B. tells very often 3. She confidently asserts saith the Doctor that God hath given her the favour to sit in Moses's Chair and that she has more right to it than any of the Doctors or Pastors who now pretend to it Had the Doctor set down the Passage to which he here refers wholly as it is it would have look'd with a more acceptable Aspect than in the tour that he gives it In number 288 of the Book that he cites the Spirit of Burchardus is compared with that of Moses Moses saith she exhorted and taught the People to observe all the Commandments of God whereas Burchardus affirms that Men are too infirm to keep these Commandments and because I teach that we must keep them if we would be saved he is moved with Anger against me then follows the Passage which the Doctor notices By which it appears that I am more in Moses's Chair than is Burchardus with all his Promotion seeing he teaches the contrary to what Moses taught and I teach the same things Moses taught And all these Graces which God has imparted to me sufficiently evince that I am by him set in Moses's Chair by being in his Doctrine and Sentiments Where it is I think very evident that the Reason why she asserts her being in Moses's Chair is not a vain-glorious Affectation of or pretending to a Magisterial Superiority over others but because she taught Moses's Doctrine as to keeping the Commands of God And in effect all that she means by being in Moses's Chair as the perusal of the whole Section will convince any candid Reader is nothing else but having Moses's Spirit and Sentiments Nothing of all this appears in the Passage as it is curtail'd by the Doctor 4. A. B. does not pretend as the Doctor will have it pag. 14. num iv to the Knowledge of all manner of speculative Truths not to be sure of the nice and vain Subtilties of the Schools which are mostly but the Inventions of corrupt and airy Heads but only of these that are solid and useful and might tend to advance the Souls of Men in true Goodness Neither does she pretend to the Knowledge of all matters of fact but of these only as the Passages quoted * by himself do
they will not be reduced from their supposed Errors by Noise and Banter All to the best of my Understanding that A. B. pretends to is only to be an Instrument in Christ's Hands and that no otherwise than by publishing these Truths that he by his Spirit communicated to her and which his Power and Grace alone was afterwards to make effectual Now let it be supposed but not granted that it was so What Disparagement is it to our Redeemer to make use of a poor contemptible Creature in order to accomplish great Designs Was it any Dishonour to him that his Apostles in his Name and Power converted more to the Christian Religion and wrought more Miracles than he did himself when he dwelt in mortal Flesh V. Perhaps it may be thought I am byassed in Favours of A. B. and therefore not so capable to discern that Latet Anguis in Herba I am sure if I am so my Prejudices are of no old Date they are not yet so rooted but sober and just Reasonings might discuss them and reclaim me from my Mistakes neither I think can it be said that they have been fortified from any prospect of Reputation or worldly Interest But whatever my Prejudices may be I can sincerely declare that what determined me to have an Esteem for this Person 's Writings was a Conviction that they not only recommended the great and essential Duties of the Gospel distinguished them from the Accessories discovered the Mischief of Sects and Parties and the Vanity of laying Stress on nice and airy Speculations but also because they suggested solid Principles which might serve as an Antidote against the Infusions of Atheists and Deists Pelagians and Socinians Antinomians and Fatalists and false Pretences to Inspiration And tho' I met with some things in them that seem'd a little odd and startling yet I choosed rather to suspend my Judgment since even her self does not impose them on any than forego what appear'd to me so very solid and useful Some LETTERS OF M. ANT. BOVRIGNON Whereby her True Christian Spirit and Sentiments are farther justified and vindicated particularly as to the Doctrine of the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ as is to be seen in the Third and Fourth Letters All of them are most worthy to be perused by those who sincerely love and impartially seek after the Truth and the Salvation of their Souls LETTER I. Concerning the Love of God Written to a Pastor at Mechlin and is the 15th of La lum nec en tenebr Part I. SIR I. I Know not how one of sound Judgment can love any other thing but God seeing there is no created thing that is worthy of our Love as he is being the Fountain of all Good Wisdom the Giver of all Wisdom the Beauty that creates all Beauty the Righteousness of the Righteous the Goodness of all Goodness the Accomplishment of all Perfections in short the only Object worthy of our Love without whom nothing is Lovely neither in Heaven nor in Earth Nothing without him can satisfie our Soul nothing can content it nothing can give it Perfect Pleasure nothing can make it happy neither now nor hereafter It is he who created us it is he who preserves us it is he who will judge us If Good of its own Nature is always Lovely why then does not the Soul employ all its Powers to love the Original the Perfection and the Consummation of all Good which is God II. If Likeness beget Love how can your Soul which was made after the Similitude of God live without loving him What other Lovely Object can it find without God whom only it resembles What Original or Pattern is there among all perishing Things to this Divine and Immortal Soul which cannot find its like but in God himself III. If Benefits do oblige even Nature it self to love its Benefactors how ought the Soul to love its God when he has given it all that it posseseth and has promised infinite and eternal Goods beyond Comparison in the Life to come He has given the Soul which he created of nothing He not only made it after the Similitude of the Angels of Heaven but after the likeness of God himself so that all Souls are by Creation made little Gods Could this God of Love give unto Man greater Goods and Gifts to make himself be loved by him than this Divine Creation of his Soul Immortal as himself The Body which he formed to be the Keeper and Sheath of this Soul could it have more Perfections Is there any thing in Nature more Admirable than the Body of Man animated with all the Powers of the Soul with an Understanding to conceive with a Memory to remember with a Will to act so that the very Body is in some manner an Image or Resemblance of the HOLY TRINITY IV. Could God give unto Man more and greater Gifts than he has done to oblige him to love him For after having given him a Being and Life he upholds and maintains it with all necessary things which he has likewise created for the Entertainment of this Man to whom he has subjected so many Creatures under his Power having made him Superiour over all the living Creatures and given him Authority as the Master-piece of the Works of God the Earth for his Foot-stool the Air to breath in the Fire to warm him the Water to refresh him the Fruits to nourish him the Flowers to recreate him in short all the visible and material things that God created were only for the Body of Man What must he have laid up for his Soul which is beyond all Comparison more valuable as being Divine created after the Image of God If he has made so many admirable Things for the entertainment of the Body which must die and remain for so short a time upon Earth Should not all those Gifts all those Benefits oblige Man to love such a Benefactor Seeing he has not received and can never receive any true Good without this Giver of all Good V. How can he be without loving him when he considers his Love which was not satisfied with having freely imparted unto us so many Gifts but after that this ungrateful Man had abused so many favours by turning away from his Creator to join himself to the Creature valuing the Gifts more than the Giver presuming to merit yet more he rebels against his Orders will needs out of Ambition of Spirit know more than it pleas'd his Creator and breaks his Commandment that he might equal himself unto him This God of Love who in a Moment could have punished all these Ingratitudes by an eternal Damnation unto which he had banish'd the fallen Angels lov'd Man more than the Angels and having more regard to the Love he bear him than to his Disobedience he pardons his Sin and forgives his Fault upon Condition of a temporal Penitence VI. This Testimony of Affection from a God towards his Creature
not interpos'd and become a Mediator between God and them who being touch'd with a deep fence of the wretched State into which Man had plung'd himself he ardently prays and interceeds with his Heavenly Father that he would have pity on those his wretched rebellious Creatures and his Brethren that he would be pleas'd to pardon them grant them his Grace tho' most unworthy of it and â—llow them yet a Time of Trial becoming Surety for them that they should detest and abhor their Corruption deny themselves and return to the Love of God His Mediation is accepted and upon the account of his Merits and Intercession Man is pardoned Grace is given him of new and a Time of Trial allow'd him in which he must lead a Life of Penitence and thereby mortifie his Corrupt Nature and return to the Love of God 2. The Time of Trial given to Man at first was a State of Pleasure and Delights but since the Fall of Man the Time of Trial assign'd him is a State of Labour and Toil and therefore God thrust Man out of a delightful Paradice and suffered the Malediction and Curse of his Sin to fall upon the Creatures in a great measure that they all might afford him Vexation instead of Pleasure and so he might have occasion of doing Penitence because he had turn'd away his Heart and Affections from God and set them on the Creature 3. The Son of God having undertaken the Recovery of Mankind out of pure Love and Compassion he provides means and remedies according to the different states of their Maladies The First Command he gives Man as a necessary mean of his Recovery is a Life of Penitence and Labour to eat his Meat in the sweat of his Face but Men multiplying their Sins he multiplied his Commands as so many means to turn them from their Sins and gave them variety of Precepts to make them think upon God in all their Actions and Words so that their Hearts might be in a continual Elevation to him But they cleave to the Letter of the Law without comprehending the Sence of it and turn'd away yet more from the Love of God placing their Affections on the Creatures the Riches Pleasures and Honours of this Life pleasing themselves with the outside of their Rites and Ceremonies 4. When all other means prov'd unsuccessful Jesus Christ tries the last Remedy Men were not capable in their Mortal State of being taught by him in his Glorious Body He had obtain'd of his Father to give them in Spirit good Thoughts and Motions yea Divine and Supernatural Light but all this was not capable to convert them or to make them sensible they were in a State of Damnation because of each one 's inveterate habit to follow their brutish Nature There was need of a Mean visible and sensible to their Corruption to move their Hearts otherwise they had all been lost without a sence of their own Misery all perishing without perceiving it by a damnable Imitation of one another thus all running in the Broad Way to Hell Having therefore obtain'd from his Father Mercy and Pardon for them upon their Repentance Jesus Christ resolves to become a Mortal Man He therefore cloaths himself with our Mortality and bringing along with him his Divine Light to enlighten them and his Divine Love to enflame them he becomes in all things like to Corrupt Man yet without Sin he teaches them by his Word and his by Example how they should mortifie their Corrupt Nature do Penitence and recover the Love of God he charges himself with the miseries and frailty that Sin has brought upon Humane Nature taking on himself all their Maledictions and the Punishments due to their Sins which he did bear and suffer as if he had been the greatest of all Sinners living a Life of extream Poverty Labour Contempt and Pain undergoing a shameful painful and accursed Death and so obtaining Pardon for all who should thus follow his Steps 5. God made his Will known to good Men to the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets by the Organ of the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ But since Men were taught by Jesus Christ in his Mortal Body there is no need to see or understand by his Glorious Body They have received the Light of Truth so that they need not bodily Visions to understand the Will of God Jesus Christ speaks now to them in Spirit and in Truth enlightning Souls with his Divine Light inwardly by his Holy Spirit which operates in Souls disengag'd from themselves and from all earthly Affections acting in them sweetly and powerfully when the Soul is in Peace and Tranquility of Mind It hears then as a soft Wind which surrounding it with Joy makes it see what it ought to do and avoid both for its own Conduct and for that of other well-dispos'd People 4. As to the Present State of the World the Summ of her Accessory Sentiments are 1. THAT all Men have corrupted their Ways and that there are no True Christians in the World truly mortified to corrupt Nature and regenerated in the Love of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ 2. That the present State of Christendom is a perfect Babel our Language being confounded and the Builders do not understand one another 3. That we have glossed away the Laws and Doctrine of Jesus Christ by our Expositions as much as the Scribes and Pharisees did Moses's Law by their Traditions 4. That we live presently in the Reign of Antichrist and that he rules in Spirit through all the Earth by his Three Antichristian Qualities which he sheds into Man's Nature Injustice Malice and Hypocrisie under a cover of Religion in Opposition to the Three Divine Qualities Righteousness Goodness and Truth which Jesus Christ came to plant in the Hearts and Lives of all his Disciples That Men seduce one another under fair Appearances That Sin is mask'd with Holiness and cover'd with Hypocrisie 5. That the Source of all the Evils in the Church is in the Corruption of the Pastors and Churchmen and that the Abomination of Desolation is in the Sanctuary That all the Degeneracy of Christians comes from the Degeneracy of their Guides 6. That the Wickedness of Man now being Universal and come to a height greater than in the Days of Noah the Sentence of Gods last Judgments is irrevocably past and the Plagues are begun and will continue till that by War Famine Pestilence and other grievous Judgments all the Wicked be consumed from off the Face of the Earth but this shall be done slowly and in a Course of many Years that many may thereby be awakened and brought to Repentance 5. As to the State of Things to come her Sentiments are 1. THAT God will yet once renew his Gospel-Spirit upon Earth and will fill well-disposed Souls with the Spirit that Jesus Christ had while upon Earth and
them believe they are good Christians tho' really in their Hearts they have not one of the Qualities of the Spirit of Jesus Christ For instead of loving Poverty they love the Wealth of this World instead of loving Sufferings they love their Pleasures their Ease and their Contentments and instead of being willing to be despised they desire to be honoured and so of all the rest And in L'Antichrist Decouvert A. B. has made appear beyond all Exception that the Spirit of Antichrist prevails among all the Parties of Christendom and that thereby the Devil has with more Cunning and more irreclaimably possest Men with his Spirit and especially the Well-meaning so that the Harlots and openly Wicked will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than they because their Wickedness being manifest they are by the Grace of God more readily converted whereas in these the Spirit of the Devil being converted with the Mask of Jesus Christ he still makes them believe that they are guided by the Spirit of God when they are really acted by the Spirit of Antichrist 12. That the Degeneracy of Christendom proceeds from the Degeneracy of its Guides and Pastors is but too evident to be denied and the Evil is more sad and irremedible that they cannot endure to have it told them The Corruption of the other States of Christendom may be spoken of without exciting so much of Mens Indignation but if the Corruption of the Pastors be touch'd a Man must look for nothing but Rage and Resentment This cannot be spoken of but presently it is a Combination against the Priesthood as our Lord was accused as designing to destroy the Law because he exposed the Corruption of the Scribes and Pharisees All Protestants do generally grant that the Degeneracy of Christendom before the Reformation was chiefly owing to the Degeneracy of its Clergy and we being as far from True Christianity now as formerly there is Ground to think the Matter is not much mended We see what a strange Change the Holy Lives and Doctrine of a few simple Men wrought in the Conversion of many Thousands to the Faith and Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Primitive Church and how little is to be seen of this now The reason of this Difference is not because of their working Miracles for these serve only to confirm the Truth of a Doctrine which being once confirmed there is no more need of them but they are as effectual in all After-ages to those who are firmly perswaded of them so that to such as think they would be bettered if they saw such Miracles is applicable that of Jesus Christ If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one should rise from the Dead Neither can this Difference be imputed to the greater Prevalence of Wickedness now the World being highly corrupted also at that time and that to no small Degree It is to be attributed then to the Difference of the Spirit by which they were animated from that by which the Pastors of the Church are now generally led The things of God are not known but by the Spirit of God and where God finds pure and self-denied Souls he delights to communicate himself to them and to make them the Organs of conveying his Light and Spirit unto others who are not capable of receiving it immediately themselves Mens Minds are generally so extraverted and turned towards sensible things that they cannot be affected with the things of the Spirit of God unless they be conveyed to them by means that may affect their Senses and this is the reason of the great Necessity and Usefulness of the Pastoral Office For this Cause the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among Men full of Grace and Truth And when he ascended into Heaven he sent the Comforter who led his Apostles into all Truth and by their means conveyed the same Light and the same Spirit into others and they were filled with the Holy Ghost so that it was not so much they who spoke and acted as the Spirit of God by them and there their Doctrine and Lives had a wonderful effect in the Converting of others even as one Flame kindles another they had a living not a dead and barren Knowledge of Divine Things their fervent Charity did animate all their Words and Actions and there was nothing impossible to such a Faith and such a Charity this made them pray fervently to God for his Divine Grace to others and he would not deny the Requests of such ardent Charity And his holy Spirit encreasing the Vertue and Efficacy of their Prayers and Labours did inseparably join his powerful Operations to awaken convert and purifie the Hearts of others This made St. Paul say When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth as the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ manifested by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart This wrought the Conversion at one time of 3000 and again of 5000 at one Sermon of St. Peter This made the Officers who were sent to apprehend Jesus Christ say Never Man spoke like this and the Evangelists of our Lord 's preaching That he taught as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and they were astonish'd at his Doctrine For his Word was with Power or to speak with St. Paul in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit and of the Power of God that is they made the Operations of the Spirit of God to be felt in the Heart Moreover they taught Men by their Deeds as well as their Words the Holiness of their Lives and their Abstraction from all earthly things did procure Belief to all they said and let the World see that they bid others do nothing but what they firmly believed and heartily set about themselves So that the whole Body of the Church was sound when to be a Minister of Jesus Christ it was required only to embrace an Evangelical Life and to give Evidence of the sincere Love they bear unto Jesus Christ and of being led by his Spirit But wicked and worldly Men crept into the Church and their number increasing they got themselves in to be the Pastors of it then under an outward Cover of Piety and Religion Men were turned away from an Evangelical Life and led to Damnation Then the Pastoral Office was turned into a Trade whereby Men might gain Honour or Greatness or Wealth in the World or at least their Living Then Men fitted themselves for the Pastoral Office not by Humility and Purity of Heart but by Study and Learning then the Pastors becoming generally void of the Spirit of God were deprived of the true and living Knowledge of the things of God and
excuses himself that he offers to judge and censure her Actions If he satisfie himself I shall excuse him but can find no excuse for his Misrepresentations and giving these as the greatest Proofs of Sanctity adduced by her Friends which neither she nor they reckon to be such viz. Affected Solitude and Retirement Celibacy Fastings Watchings Humiliations wearing of Sackcloth a contempt of the common Ornaments of her Sex with such like Austerities and great Raptures and Extasies in Devotion and declaring that he perceives no singular Instance of Sanctity mention'd by them beside those For it was easie to observe from the Accounts given of her that she lived as one constantly travelling towards Eternity and as such studied in all things to conform her Life to that of Jesus Christ I shall not here recount the many Instances of this which aâ—e to be seen in the First Part of the Apology and in the Character given of her in the end of the Apology but shall refer the Doctor to the Places cited on the Margent in which Places he will see some Instances of true Sanctity which he did not think fit to notice how observable soever they be in her own Writings and in the Accounts that are given of her by those who knew her in her Youth and Old Age and in all the Stages of her Life in the Temoign de la Verite and particularly in that by Mr. Franken Merchant in Amsterdam In the Eighteenth Article he speaks as if A. B. and others in comparing her Life with that of Jesus Christ thought that there were an Equality without giving any Evidence for it the thing is utterly false both she and they affirm only that she was a Follower of Jesus Christ she makes the Essence of Christianity to consist in the Imitation of Jesus Christ and in all her Writings lays before us his Life and Spirit for our Imitation in a way more divine and forcible than the general way of sermonizing And if her Vertues were truly Transcripts of the Life of Jesus it is very Just that they be represented to the World as such that so it may appear that it is the Devil and our corrupt Nature only that makes us believe that he is not imitable and that by such an Instance we may be stirred up to be true Followers of Jesus Christ In the next Article he hath a long Discourse upon Solitude Because he says it is recommended as a special Act of Sanctity by the Example and Sentiments of A. B. and because it has been much debated by Heathens and Christians by Ancients and Modern yet few says he have offered a just Decision of the Matter I was in good Hopes this should have been done by him yet at last he will not determine which of the States the Active or the Contemplative is fittest but then he thinks A mixt State the happiest which is plainly every Bodies State and gives his Reasons for it and corrects a vulgar Error concerning the Clergy as if they all ought to be Men of Study and Retirement which he says is a great Mistake since they are to shew the Possibility of the Divine Laws by their Practice and he who can hear himself prais'd without Vanity and accused without Wrath can accept of good things when they are offered without a brutal Joy and yet never be out of Humour when are they wanting Such a one prosecutes the End of his Calling better and his Conversation does more good c. A. B. considers and determines this Matter upon other Principles and by another Spirit It is not which of the States makes a Man a Drone or a Drudge in which a Man may enjoy himself best or do most good acquire Knowledge and Experience give himself to Study or to Business Which are the Measures by which the Doctor determines But she says we are all travelling to Eternity and our great Business both as Men and Christians is to give our whole Love to God and to keep our selves unspotted from the World that every one is obliged sincerely to examine their own Hearts and Consciences and whatever they find to be a Hindrance to the Love of God by all means to avoid it and whatever they find to be to them a necessary Help to it to embrace it that the Corruptions abounding in the World make it very hard for some to converse with it and not become Partakers of their Sin that many are so weak or so easie to be surprized by the Temptations it offers that they find it for their Safety as much as they can to avoid them by Solitude and Retirement that Babylon is presently over all and God calls to all his Children to come out of her least they be Partakers of her Sins and so of her Plagues also That nevertheless God has different Ways of bringing Souls unto himself and therefore what Method one follows and finds for his Eternal good he is not to impose upon others nor are others to despise him XXIII In the 20th Article the Doctor brings as he thinks certain Proofs that she had no Sactnity 1. That till the 18th Year of her Age she ran into a vain and light Conversation by which she lost her Conversation with God where in his Judgement he shews a flat Contradiction in the Preface to the English Reader of the Light of the World because a few Lines before he had affirmed this he had said that from her Childhood she had inward Conversation with God as if any could lose a thing they never had or never lose it because they had it from their Childhood However this he thinks proves That she could not be anointed by the Spirit of God to declare his Will for if it had been so it is no ways likely he would have left her so soon to her self or suffered her to be corrupted whom he had appointed to be so great a Light especially when that which tempted her was but the Censures and Misconstructions of other Men What could not the Spirit of God break through this Temptation Was her Grace too weak to resist it Must so Holy a Person do Evil merely to pass for a Wit The Doctor reasons upon other Principles different from those of the rest of Mankind when he comes to speak of A. B. Were not David and Solomon separated from the Womb Did not their Graces and Sanctity appear early Did they not fall into grievous Sins Is this a Proof that God did not anoint them to declare his Will Could not the Spirit of God break through their Temptations c. But moreover it is to be considered that it was no gross and scandalous Sin by which she lost her Conversation with God and yet notwithstanding she lived a Life of great Mortification for it for several Years 2. His next Proof is that even after this which is pretended to be the Time of her Conversation She did not determine the great State of her
Life by Motives and Principles of Religion but by her own Humour she resolved upon a Celibate Life only because she would not be crost c. But the Doctor sets this in a false Light as he does every thing else that concerns her The true Case is this when she was a Child it troubled her to see her Father sometimes so rough to her Mother and when he was in Wrath she would run and embrace his Knees to appease him and then would retire and pray that God would never suffer her to marry but that he would take her for his Spouse This was before her turning aside from God to divert her self with the Vanities of the World In the 18th Year of her Age she was struck with a deep Remorse for her straying from God and led a Life of most severe Penitence for Seven Years so that other Considerations did then affect her and draw her to a State of Celibacy As for the Doctor 's immodest Insinuations upon this Occasion I shall leave it to his own Conscience to check him for them but for the other Reason he gives for her Celibacy That she undervalued all she saw and could find none of Merit enough to deserve her c. it s purely his own Invention without the least Ground given for it in her Life or Writings or any manner of way and will be judged by every enquiring Reader to be a malicious and wilful Calumny 3. A Third Evidence against her Sanctity is says he her Disobedience to her Parents contrary to whose express Commands she was importunate to go into a Cloyster and when that would not do stole away from her Father's House privately He exaggerates this matter greatly but is not aware of one Reason he brings which determines the Case clearly on her side If the Case had been says he about turning Christian she ouâ—ht to have done it even without a particular Revelation whether her Father would or not The Case was the very same with her and a particular Command from God to strengthen it She saw she could not become a true Christian without abandoning the World and that while she was in her Father's House she could not sufficiently disingage her self from it and therefore resolved to obey Jesus Christ who bids us forsake Father and Mother and all that we have for his sake Our Lord called James and John the Sons of Zebedee from waiting on their Father and they forsook all and followed him 4. The Doctor triumphs greatly in his Fourth Instance her suing her Father at Law to divide his Goods with her after his Second Marriage which does not agree he says with common Measures of Grace and good Nature because it proceeded from an inordinate Love of the World and could not be managed without great disrespect to her Father The Doctor 's Passions make him so disingenuous in every thing that relates to this Virgin that it will nor be thought strange to tell that he is manifestly so in this Instance Mr. Poiret's Reply to this being so full in the fore-mentioned Letter to a Friend I need only adduce it for her Vindication and this the rather because the Doctor thinks that the Reason why he who continued her Life takes no Notice of this Passage tho' she gives an Account of it herself was because he knew not how to justifie it It is not true says he M. Poiret that I had any Interest to defend the Life and Actions of Mrs. A. B. by a Legacy which she left me as the Narrator says she did not leave me in Legacy to the Value of a Penny But there is nothing more contrary to Truth as well as to Justice and Charity than what he says of the Law-Suits of Mrs. A. B. with her Father and Step Mother I pray God he may not have acted maliciously against his Knowledge in the Judgment that he would have the English and Scots to make of her Civil Actions whose Civil Laws are different from those of her Country It may be it would be a Crime in England or Scotland for a younger Daughter after her Mother's Death to require by Law of her Father the Goods of her deceas'd Mother But in France where among Citizens in the matter of Succession there is no Distinction between Son or Daughter elder or younger it is the Law and Custom in many Places That after the Decease of the Mother her Goods are takâ—n from the Administration of the Father and put under other Curators to be after equally divided amongst the Children And in Mrs. A B's Country the Law is That the Widow-Husband cannot marry again until he first divide with the Children of the first Marriage and give them their Mother's Goods and to refuse this is to violate Law and Justice now this is what the Father of A. B. did whose Injustice our Doctor thinks fit to justifie and for this end to suppress change and falâ—ifie the Circumstances of the Affair against the Truth of what he had read of it To render Mrs. A. B. faulty and impious against her Father he speaks nothing of the Laws or Customs of the Place tho' they were expresly mentioned in her Acâ—count of the Affair according to which the Father is the Breaker of them and the Daughter would have them observed He say the Father would have maintain'd her in his House but he does not tell that his new Wife whom he had taken clandestinly tho she was but a poor Girl without Wit or Vertue studied to waste and consume the Goods of A. B. persecuting her for the Four Months she staid with her Father in so continual and cruel a manner as cannot be expressed Mrs. A. B. saw and experienced that this was inconsistent with her Recollection and contrary to the will of God He says that Mrs. A. B. was picqued because her Father refused her Money but does not tell that her Father was then in a most plentiful Condition that as for her self she had not a Penny that she ask'd only what was necessary for her That he irritated by his Wife was so cruel as not to assist her with a Penny when she was dangerously Sick that for want of Convenience she was obliged to lie under a Roof when the Snow and Cold deprived her even of the Nights rest so that Strangers were mov'd to give her Alms. He would have it to be understood that she entered into a Law Sure against her Father of her own head and therefore says that her Sister was already dead and that her Brother-in-Law perswaded her to proceed hoping afterwards to wheedle her out of it all which is false Her Married Sister was yet living and lived Five Years thereafter and about Four Years after her Husband The half of the Mother's Goods belonging to the Sister and her Husband they resolved to require their Father to deliver them to whom they did not appertain and it was only by
Disposition to Cavil he would not have put a Gloss on this Passagess that it cannot bear without doing it open Violence nor omitted what was so evidently necessary to qualifie the Meaning of it Neither can I divine what but this could have moved him to imagine that the Passage which he here cites do import that A. B. asserted some kind of unaccountable Union between God and her I can see no Union that she can pretend to but to be taught guided and influenced by his Spirit And will he call this an uncouth thing How can he digest that Passage of St. Paul He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit Such an invidious Tour he gives the Passage that follows as if A. B. disdained that her Doctrines should be published as from one of a prophetical Spirit that was too mean saith the Doctor Now the Perusal of the very first Period of it even as it is curtail'd by himself will sufficiently discover the Fallacy I am not saith she Prophetical as the Ancient Prophets were who spoke of very obscure things Whence it is plain that the Reason why she denies her self to be Prophetical was not because she declined that Character as too mean for her but whereas the Prophets delivered themselves in dark and obscure Terms God she pretends enabled her to speak of Divine Things more clearly and more distinctly and that this is her Meaning the last Clause of the Passage abundantly evinces There is no need saith she to say that I have a prophetick Spirit when God gives Reasons and Comparisons to explain it after the manner of Men. 7. When the Doctor affirms * that the Reason of this singular Grace to A. B. is because by the Eternal Purposes of God's Counsel she was design'd to be the Organ of the Holy Ghost he bewrays that he hath not as yet digested well her Principles for she owns not any personal Decrees to have been made from all Eternity neither is the least Ground given him from the Passages he here cites for asserting them with Regard to her self The Doctor 's Inferences from many Passages of the Writings of A. B. are very often as wide as his was who would needs prove that there must be a Pope because in the Beginning of Genesis it is said Ia Principio But here I must stop my Circumstances will not allow me to employ my Thoughts any more at present on this Subject I intended indeed to have gone through the whole and particularly to have animadverted on the Improvements which he makes on two or three Passages which as he represents them look somewhat Frightful but the Preparations that I am obliged to make in order to take my Staff in my Hand as himself speaks keep me so hurried that I have little time for sedate Thoughts tho' if I understand that the Prosecution of this Matter would do you a Pleasure and can have so much leisure I may yet perhaps resume the Design IV. But that I may give you my Sense of the Doctor 's Performance in brief there are some things that to the best of my Thoughts he excessively aggravates some he palpably misrepresents and in other some he is down right mistaken He charges A. B. with a great many ill things he imagines that he hath evinced the Truth of the Charge and upon this Supposition which I must needs say is precarious he heats himself into a Transport and falls a pelting of her with the most opprobrious Language that an angry Zeal is wont to inspire He satisfies himself that to justifie the Rudeness of this Treatment it is sufficient to tell his Readers briskly Who should hinder the thrusting back with Contempt and Scorn an overforward and blasphemous Arrogancy one who without any Reason without any Warrant Divine or Humane demands a Place above Prophets or Apostles and all who were truly inspired nay who insults over Jesus Christ himself assumes the Honour and Power that he has been in Possession of from the Beginning of the World and who pretends to be more competent to carry on a Victory over the Devil and his Train If the Grounds on which the Doctor builds these Assertions be not yet solidly established I think he begins his Triumph too soon and if he believes really that they are then in my Opinion he needs not be at the pains of writting any more Narratives for enough is already done to beget in the Hearts of all honest Christians an eternal Horror and Dislike of A. B. It is beyond Contradiction plain that no Body can adopt these Positions without an open and bare-fac'd Renounciation of Christianity The Doctor indeed acts a very pretty Play but it ends tragically enough to some A. B. and such as favour her are brought on the Stage as formally disclaiming the Redeemer of the World as divesting him of his unquestionable Prerogatives and cloathing a mad Woman a Visionary with them Certainly this is the most bloody and criminal Charge that can be laid at the Door of such as profess the Christian Religion this is to represent them as having turned downright Apostates from it as trampling under foot and crucifying afresh the Divine and Adorable Author of it But then if this dreadful Accusation be false and illgrounded if they against whom it is brought do infinitely detest such an abominable Villany if they set no Person on the same Level with the Son of God but would appear against such sacrilegious Pretences with as much Zeal as the Doctor himself if they own that no Victories can be obtain'd over the Devil and his Train but only by the Almighty Grace and Power of Jesus Christ and that he alone and none other is competent to triumph over the Powers of Darkness and in fine if they adhere to the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets and to Jesus Christ the chief Corner Stone and disclaim as false and unsound what is not built thereupon and conform thereto I say if these things be so as most certainly they are How can the Author and Spreader of such injurious Calumnies excuse himself from a Degree of Uncharitableness that cannot be well parallelled To act the Scene in a Corner had not look'd so very ill natur'd but to act it publickly before the Face of the whole World and thereby to expose these he levell'd at as much as in him lay not only to Contempt and Derision but also to Hatred and Persecution is such a Flight of Zeal as in my Judgment cannot pretend to the Qualities of peaceable and gentle easie and impartial But did not the Doctor engage to give us A. B's Pretences in her own Words Where then doth she pretend to be more Competent to carry on a Victory over the Devil than Christ himself Where doth she assume to her self his Honour and Power or claim a Place above the Apostles and Prophets and all truly inspired Persons Must he conclude Men irrecoverable because
crudiamur S. Aug. de Vera Relig c. 15. IX Of a State of Purification after this Life L'Eroile du Matin Let. 25 26. Le Temoign de Verite p 1. n. 53 66. Gul. Forbesii Considerationes modestae purificae p. 266 267 X. Of Predestination Tomb. de la fauss Theol. Part 2. Let. 3. L'Acad des scav Theoi p. 1. ch 1. Le Nouv. Ciel p. 25 c. Le Temoign de Verite Part 1. n. 22 56 67 109. Light of the world Part 3. Conf. 22. XI Of Free-will Academ de Scav. Theol. p. 1. ch 1 2. Light of the World Part 3. Conf. 2 21 22. Le Nouv. Ciel p. 67. Renouv. de l'Espr Evang avantprop n. 11. 18 24 25 31. * Vides quantum boni desit Corpori cui desunt Manus tamen Manibus male utitur qui eis operatur vel saeva vel turpia Sine Pedibus aliquem si aspiceres fatereris de esse Integritati Corporis plurimum bonum tamen eum qui ad nocendam cuipiam vel seipsum dehonestandum Pedibus uteretur male uti Pedibus non negares Oculis hanc Lucem videmus Formasque internoscimus Corporum Oculis tamen plerique pleraque agunt turpiter eos militare cogunt Libidini Et vides quantum bonum desit in facie si Oculi desint Cum autem adsunt quis hos dedit nisi bonorum omnium Largitor Deus Quemadmodum ergo ista probas in Corpore non intuens eos qui male his utuntur laudas illum qui haec dedit bona Sic liberam voluntatem sine qua nemo potest recte vivere opportet bonum esse Divinitùs datum potius eos damnandos qui hoc bono male utuntur quam cum qui dederit dare non debuisse fatearis Cum in Corpore ergo Oculum concedas esse aliquod bonum quo amisso tamen ad recte vivendum non impeditur Voluntas libera tibi videtur nullum bonum sine qua recte Nemo vivit Non enim quicquam tam firme atque intime sentio quam me habere Voluntatem eaque me moveri ad aliquâ—d fruendum Quid autem meum dicam prorsus non invenio si Voluntas qua volo nolo non est mea quapropter cui tribuendum est siquid per illam Male facio nisi mihi Cum enim bonus Deus me fecerit nec bene aliquid faciam nisi per Voluntatem ad hoc potius datam esse a bono Deo satis apparet Motus autem quo huc atque illuc convertitur nisi esset voluntarius atque in nostra potius Potestate neque laudandus cum ad Superiora neque culpandus Homo esset cum ad inferiora detorquet quasi quendam cardinem Voluntatis Neque omnino monendus esset ut istis neglectis aeterna vellet adipisci atque ut male nollet vivere vellet autem bene Hoc autem monendum non esse Hominem quisquis existimat de Hominum numero exterminandus est S. August de Libero arbitr Lib. 2. c. 18. †Ibid. Lib. 3. c. 1. XII Of Grace Acad. de 〈◊〉 Theolâ—g p. 1. c. 1. Renouv. de l' Espr Ev. Pref. n. 22. Academ Theol. p. 1. c. 1. Light of the World part 1. Cons 8. Acad. de Theol. p. 1. c. 1 2. XIII Of the Divine Prescience L' Etoile du Matin p. 157 Divine Dialogues Part 1. p. 80 81 c. XIV Of the Possibility of keeping the Commands of God and of Perfection Renouv. de l' Esp Evang. avant prop. p. 18 19. Renoâ—v de l' Espr Ev. part 2. p. 66 67 68. Aveagiement des Hommes p. 60. The Summ of her Sentimentâ— as to the Commands of God Dr Henry More s divine Dialogues Dial. 5. â— p. 117. â— p. 422. a Rom. 5. 5. b Rom. 13. 10. c 1 Joh. 5 3 4. d 1 Joh. 3. 9. c. * Serm. 291. de temp * Luk. 1. 5 6. M. Poiret Oeconomie divine Tom. 6. p. 467 468 469 c. XV. Of Impeccability not to be attained in this Life Tomb. de f. Th. part 2. p. 115 116 c. XVI Of the Inferiour Will of Jesus Christ enclin'd to please it self Solid Vertue Part 2. Lett. 6. Acces Lett. The reasonableness of her Sentiment in this Heb. 4. 15. XVII Of the State of Infants L'Etoile du Matin p. 159 16â— c. The reasonableness of this Sentiment L'Oecon Divine Part 3. p. 299 300 c. XVIII Of Reason La Sainte Visiere Tomb. de la â—ausse Theol. Part 1 Let. 12. Appel de Dieu Part 2. p. 58 59. The Nature and Order of the Faculties of Man M. Poiret De Erud Solid supersic falsa XIX Of forming a new Sect. Le Temoign de Verite part 2. p. 45 46. XX. That she despised not Sermons Sacraments Pastours Le Temoign de Verite part 2. p. 199 200 c. Le Temoign de Verite Part 2. p. 74 75. XXI Nor rejected the Holy Scriptures Tomb. de la fausse Theol. part 2 p. 78 Light of the world part 1. p. 101. Lum nec en tenebr P. 2. p. 81. Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 1. p. 17 18. * Homâ— itaque flde spe Charitate Subnixuâ— eaque inconcusse retinens non indiget Scripturis nisi ad alios Instruendos itaque multi per hac tria in Solitudine sine Codicibus Vivunt unde in illis arbitror jam completum esse quod dictum est sive Prophetiae evacuabuntur sive Longuae cossabunt sive scientia destruetur c. Aug. de Doctr. Chr. Lib. 1. Cap. 36. XXII That there are no True Christians c. Tomb. de la fauss Theol. Part 2. p. 155. Psal 14. 2 3. That God would make her and her Writings the Mean of renewing the Spirit of the Gospel Tomb. de fauss Theol. Part 2. p 161 162. Temoign de verite Part 2. p. 43 44 61 62. 1 Cor. 1. 27 28. 1 Tim. 2. 11 12. 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. Preface Apologâ—t p. 21 2â— 23. XXIII The Accusation of Pride 1. That she exaâ—ted her self above Prophets Apostles Pierre de Touch. p. 257. Ibid. p. 209. 2. That she understood the Holy Scriptures without having read them c. Light of the World Part 1. p. 136 137. 3. That she calls herself a Mother of true Believers Tomb. de f. Theol. Part 2. P. 41 42 43. Ibid. p. 58. 4. That she extols her self as a Pattern Joh. 8. 52 53. Psal 119. 99 100. XXIV O her affixing Doctrines on others which they deny Joh. 7. 20. Ezek. 9. 9. Is 22. 13 28. 15. Mal. 3. 14. Vide pref apolog Le Temoign de Verite Part 1. p. 90. XXV Of wrong Explications of the Holy Scriptures Aug. de Doct. Chr. Lib. 3. c. 27 M. Weyeri Effata Eff. 1. Aug. de Doct Chr. L 1. c 39. Light of the world Conf. 28. XXVI Of Tautologies and Repetitions Sâ—e the Truth of Christian Religion By Abad P. 1. S.
3. c. 2. and 5. Oeconomie Divine p. 5. Preface XXVII Of her making a Mahumetan Paradise Matt. 2â— 30. XXVIII The Conclusion I. Pretence to Divine Inspiration a great Prejudice in this Age. II. For different Reasons 1. Some disbelieve all Revelation 2. Others Any since Christ and his Apostles 3. Both confirm'd from false Pretences to Divine Iâ—spiration III. No great Hopes of convincing the first tho' enough to awaken their Consideration if truly Rational The second cannot think it impossible or improbable IV. God created Man to communicate himself to him and the things of God cannot be understood but by the Spirit of God St. Chrys in Prefat ad Homil. in Matt. * Aug. de Doct. Chr. Lib. 1. c. 10. 11. a John 1. 1 4 5 9 14. b John 14 21 22 23. c 1 Cor. 2. 14. d Rom. 8. 9 14. V. Of which they whom he employs to save others must have a sutable Measure VI. He us'd to send such when Priest and People were corrupted VII Who had no outward Qualities to recommend them 1 Kings 19 19. 2 Kings 7. 1 2. Jer. 29. 26 27. Amos 7. 14. Matt. 11. 18. Joh 8. 48. VIII They despis'd not the Word and Ordinances of God but declar'd Peoples Abuse of them IX The Devil rais'd up false Prophets to oppose and discredie them X. It is neither impossible nor improbable that the Spirit of God should immediately enlighten Souls now as well as before the Coming of Jesus Christ XI There are strong Presumptions that he will do it a Joel 2. 28. b Act. 2. 16 17. c Act 2. 38 39. Jer. 31. 33 34. Isa 11. 9. XII There have been some such in all Ages XIII The present and future State of the World calls for it Is 11. 4 5 c. c. 12. 2 3 c. c. 60. 1 2 19. 21 22 c. c. 11. 9 11. c. 30. 26. c. 44. 3. Jer. 31. 31 33 34. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27. c. 39. 29. c. 47. 1 12. Zech. 12. 8. Matth. 11. 11. Rev. 11. 8 15. c. 21. 2 3 4 6 12 14 15 16 17. XIV Characters of the Spirit of Elias to come Dr. H. M. Divine Dialog Dial. 5. p. 355 359 a Mal. 3. 1 2. 3. b Is 40. 3 4. 5. c Mal. 4. 5. Rev. 16. 16. Matth. 17. 10 11. d Kings 18. 8 9 c. Matth. 3. 3 c. XV. We ought not to reject all Pretensions to Divine Revelation nor blindly to receive any but to try them XVI The Pretensions of A. B. deserve this Enquiry XVII A Summ of the Evidences she brings of being led by the Spirit of God Lum nee en tenebr Part 1. p. 2 3. Tomb. de la fauss Theol. Part 1. p. 77 78. Ibid. p. 76. 〈◊〉 Acad deâ— scav Part 2. p. 3. Ibid. p. 13. Ibid. p â—â— Ibid. p. 21. XXVIII M. Pascal's distinguishing Mark of the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion XIX The Prejudices against her being led by the Spirit of God proposed and cleared by her self 1. The want of Miracles answered Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 1. p. 11. Ibid. p. 13. 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. Ibid. p. 26 Ibid. p. 27. XX. 2. That all might have been from the Devil or her own Imagination answered La Lum nee en tenebr Part 1. Let. 1 Ibid. p. 8. Ibid. p. 53. â—cad de Sâ—av Theol. Part 2. p. 22 29. Pierre de Touch. p. 293. p. 295. Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 3. p. 49. Pierre de Touch. p. 299 300. Tomb. de la fausse Theol. Part 4. p. 57. Part 1. p. 69 70. Lum nee en tenebr Part 3. p. 184. XXI 3. That all might be the Effect of a great Natural Judgment answered Tomb de la fausse Theol. Part 2. p. 124 c. XXII 4. That she ascribed all her Mistakes to the Spirit of God answered La vie Continue p. 271. Iâ— Aveugâ—ement des Hom Part 2. p. 172. c. Acts 12. 12 13. c. XXIII 5. That she contradicted the holy Scriptures and her self answered Avertis contr le Trembl p. 8. Avis salut p. 84 85. c. XXIV 6 That the Predictions set down in her Writings did not come to pass answered Joh. a Cruce Ascensus Montis Carmeli Lib. 2. Cap. 19. 20. 2 Cor. 3. 6. Jer. 4. 10. Luke 24. 21. Acts 1. 6. John 11. 60. 1 Cor. 2. 14. Joh. 12. 16 1 Sam. 20. 38. Jer. 26. 6 7 8. Jon. 4. 2. Avertis contr le Trembl n. 96. XXV That she was imposed upon by Impostors is no Argument that she had not the Spirit of God a Acts 13. 20. 28. b Phil. 2. 27. Tit. 4. 20. 1. Tim. 5. 23. c Psa 55. 14 15. Jer. 11. 19. 1 Kings 13. 2 Tim. 4. XXVI The whole Evidence summ'd up XXVII What Weight the Testimony of others may have XXVIII The Importance of the Matter in those Writings XXIX That the accessory things need deter none Phil. 3. 15 16. I. What Holiness is Col. 3. 1. 1 Joh. 2. 15. II. To be discern'd by Divine Light only III. Illustrated by the material Light IV. Two sorts of spiritually Blind The 1. capable of seeing the 2. not V. Five Testimonies of Holiness in any VI. All these as to A. B. VII 1. Her verbal Testimony of her self valid and no sign of Pride VIII The Testimony of her Actions IX 2. The Testimony of others X. Her Solitude XI Her Selfâ—enial XII Her firm perseverance to Death XIII The purity of her Virgin State XIV Of Faith Hope and Charity Heb. 11. 1. XV. That these did live and operate in her XVI 3. The contraâ—y to those Evidences not made appear XVII 4. The Testimony of the Conscience of others XVIII The wonderful Works she did and the Divine Light given her XIX The Second Question answered by answering the First XX. Natural Gifts cannot make Happy without a continual Dependance upon God XXI How it appâ—ars the Holy Scriptures were endited by the Holy Spirit XXII That the Writings of A. B. were endâ—ted by the Holy Spirit XXIII They are consonant to the Holy Scriptures and a Key to them XXIV The Conclusion I. A. B. her Birth and Parentage II. Her Mothers Aversion to her and why III. The serious Thoughts of â—er Childhood IV. Her early Conversation with God V. She turns towards the World VI. God witâ— draws from her VII New Motions from God and her Combats thereupon VIII The thoughts of Death fix'd upon her Spirit IX Her Conversion and Peniâ—ence X. Instructions from God XI She would go into a Monastery XII God's Call XIII She leaves her Father's Hâ—use XIV Is discovered and delivered XV. The Pastor of Blatton's Esteem of her XVI His Life XVII Her Consolations when shut-up in the Church of Blatton XVIII The Archbishop of Cambray comes to see her XIX She returns home with her Parents XX. Her Confessor XXI The Reason of God's choice of her XXII She â—eaves again her Father's House XXIII Her
the Apostle says Of our selves we cannot think one good Thought but through Christ that strengthens us we are able to do all things It is true says she if we consider only the Miseries and Weakness of Man corrupted by Sin the Gospel-Law is impossible but not if we have regard to the Power of God's Grace This Jesus Christ intimated to his Apostles when he told as to a rich Man's entring into the Kingdom of Heaven that it was impossible with Men but not with God when a Man shall entirely yield up himself to him to be wholly governed by him God will easily operate in him a Gospel-Life and Jesus Christ has said if you who are evil know how to give good things to your Children how much more will your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that ask him It is false therefore to say that the Gospel-Law cannot be kept since it was given for no other End and Jesus Christ brought it from Heaven as the only Remedy of all our Evils and the only Means of our Salvation and has said I have done these things to give you an Example And God will never enjoyn Man to do any thing but what he will give him Grace to accomplish But such is Man's Wickedness that he would impute to God his own Faults and the Blame of his Damnation on him as if he were severe and cruel by laying on him Burthens of Commands that are insupportable that Man may thus be justified and God condemned tho' truly Man only is worthy of Condemnation For God still imparts his Graces to him and all those Laws are special Instances of his Love to Man that by them he might bring him back to the Love of his God for his eternal Salvation And in many Places of her Writings she shews the Possibility of Obeying God's Commands and the Blasphemy of the contrary Doctrine from the Design of them and the End for which God gave them Open your Eyes says she to see this Light of Truth That never any Body will be saved who dies without the Love of God and that no Body can love God if he do not hate himself These are the Sentences which God has often confirmed to me and given me Assurance that they are true and that all the Laws and Commands which God has given to Men are only so many Means to make them return to his Love Now the whole Doctrine of the Gospel is nothing else but so many Means to withdraw Man from Sin that he may recover the Love of God And when this Law teaches him Poverty of Spirit it is to shew him that Covetousness has withdrawn him from the Love of his God and that he cannot return to it without leaving off to covet earthly Goods And when it teaches him to be humble of Heart and to chuse the last Place it is because he had lost the Love of God by loving himself esteeming himself worthy of Honour and Glory tho' he be worthy of nothing but Shame and Confusion And he not knowing this stands in need of a Doctrine contrary to his Errours and Ignorance to make him return to the Love of God which he had lost by his Pride And when Jesus Christ declares that he came not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him it is to teach Men that to fulfil their own corrupt and perverse Wills they have left off to do the Will of God and to love him and that if they do not renounce their own Wills to follow the Will of God and thereby to return to his Love they cannot be saved Behold how Jesus Christ has brought Physick for our Diseases being desirous to cure them by Remedies contrary to our Infirmities and yet these Ignorants would gloss away the Gospel-Law as if it were impossible to observe it as they say it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God tho' both these Laws be nothing else but Remedies for our Diseases Christians she says are guilty of Ingratitude when they say they cannot keep the Commandments of God nor the Laws of the Gospel since all these are only true Means to recover the Love of God For all the Commandments are no other thing but Means to loose Mens Hearts from Self-Love and the evil Inclinations that Sin has brought into their Nature All the Commands import no other thing in Substance but that Man must always resist his Self-Love refusing its Desires because being corrupted by Sin it can desire nothing but what is Evil or tends to an evil End which because Men did not well know God would shew them in particular what they ought to do and forbear that they might recover his Love Now tho' he has given his Commands because of our Frailty yet Man is so ungrate as to say it is impossible for him to keep those Commands because of that very Frailty for the Help of which God has given his Commands as Supports to his Frailty He is Evil in that wherein God is Good and takes for Burthens the Helps that God has given him because of his Frailty For if he had not had any frailty God would never have given him any Laws since the Love he bare to God was a Law to it self and had no need of any other Guide or Directour The Summ of her Sentiments in this Matter is that all the Laws of God are given to Man as Helps of his Frailty as Warnings to shew him what Way he has stray'd from God and as indispensable and necessary Means to recover and bring him back again to the Love of God even as if a Father should give his Son who was become an habitual Drunkard or lewd Person strict Commands absolutely to forbear such Conversation and such Houses which would infallibly intangle and keep him still in his Sins that Jesus Christ has in his own Example as a Man shewn us both the Necessity of this and how possible and easie it is to observe them That no Man can observe them by his own Strength but only by the Grace of God that we are first Children before we are Men and our Falls and Stumbles ought not to discourage us but we must get up and go forward and depend upon God and he will be with us as the Child that is learning to walk must not be discouraged by its Falls but must get up and go forward and hold more closely by its Mother That they who are truly regenerated may live in Obedience to God without Sin but are not impeccable may fall from that State and yet recover it again by the Grace of God that to say the Commandments of God are impossible is to deny the Merits of Jesus Christ the Efficacy of his Intercession the Power of his Grace the Usefulness of his Example to assert the Force of the Devil and corrupt Nature beyond that of God to accuse God of the greatest Cruelty in giving us Laws which it