rendet our selves its Slaves And though there were no other Devil but the Corruption of mans Nature we behoved notwithstanding to combat it continually seeing that Corruption is as much an Enemy of our Salvation as the Devil If you will my Son examin well your own self you shall find by experience that you do not one single action which though good in it self is not defiled with self-love and self-seeking and that you speak not one word which you aim not for your own advantage or praise or to excuse and justifie your self For Self-love searches always his own ease and satisfaction and will not have the blame in any thing Yea it would appear innocent in the most manifest faults it commits It speaks to excuse them reasons to maintain its opinions or what it hath fancyed or undertaken to maintain In fine it employs all the forces of body and spirit to disown its guilt So proud is that corrupt nature that it will not be blamed in any thing if it can evite it Now all these things are manifest sins which rob our heart of the Love and Honour of God to make us love and esteem our selves And so infring the Command To Love God with all our Heart while we love our own glory and esteem our selves with all our heart I have often declared that the ressence of sin consists in that man retires his affections from God to place them in any thing else beside him So we must conclude that man falls so often into sin as he turns to love himself And he falls so often into the love of himself as he will justifie or excuse himself since there is nothing just or excuseable in his corrupt nature It is by sin become altogether evil and cannot of it self do any Good spiritual or temporal But is filled with all sorts of evils from which no good can proceed That is a truth to which all the world would readily acquiesce if they were disengaged of self-love for then should they see that they are slow to all good and bent to all evil That they are ignorant impotent and in short all that we do in this life is only to be esteemed or to evite the contempt and humiliations that may befal us Which proceeds from that Pride of Life which sin hath planted in the bottom of the hearts of all men that come into the world They bring with them that pride which makes them live in continual sins if they do not resist it continually by Spiritual Diligence and watch not over all their Words and Actions to limit and regulate them by the Law and Will of God Which cannot be done without that Spiritual Diligence which ought to rule all our words and actions if we would attain to Salvation Which she wishes you who loves your soul ANTONIA BOURIGNON Husum Jan. 27. 1674. THE XXII LETTER Spiritual Diligence is necessary to Salvation To the same Exhorting him to Spiritual Diligence because without it none can persevere in the Service of God nor overcome his Corrupt Nature and Self-love My Son I Cannot over much explain the worth and necessity of Spiritual Diligence since it does occasion your eternal Salvation and all the good things we attain in this life and that which is to come Consider well that necessity that you may apprehend it and put it into practice since thereupon depends your eternal happiness For though you had acquired several other Virtues yet the Devil could easily ensnare you by Spiritual Negligence and suffer you to do well for a time that he might ensnare you after He hath not been able to hinder you to forsake the world to give your self to the Service of God seeing that was your absolute resolution Neither could he hinder that you have detested sin and undertaken to follow true Virtue But he attends you in the passage that he may stop your course and hinder your perseverance by divers tentations and by occasions which he will excite to withdraw you from your good purpose He will excite men of good will to render your resolution suspect even upon pious pretext Hee 'l make you sometimes doubt if you should not do better to remain in the world and make your Light to shine to others to enlighten them again he will represent to you if you had not better yet merchandise that you might assist your Neigbour out of your superfluity or by your good Example For the Devil tempts by all sorts of means and when he cannot bring us to evil actions he insinuates himself into our good works yea even into our good intentions and mixes therein some of his venom a little when he cannot much He gives sometimes a weariness in the way of Virtue and makes appear burthensom what is in it self light giving the Soul a backwardness or difficulty in well doing or in overcoming it self Also he takes away the Hope of surmounting our imperfections and arriving at true Virtue that he may render our souls slack and lazy because they see not the means whereby to arrive at true Virtue So that he confounds our spirits that they may not discover the truth of things as they are before God but that they should occupy themselves always with apparent Virtues and curious Speculations And therefore is it we have need of continual Prayer and spiritual Diligence if we would persevere in the service of God otherwise the Devil would gain us by the one or other way Let us then watch always that he make not our first Fervour cool and slacken our good resolution of embracing solid Virtue He will attempt even when we have obtained true Virtue to lead us into Spiritual Negligence perswading us that we may well rest at ease seeing we have acquired it and that we cannot advance further I have known such persons as said to me That they were arrived at the highest degree of perfection to which they could attain And they said so because they had read all they could read And so they judged that to read more was but to repeat what they had already read and understood Which was to me a great Pride and a Spiritual Negligence which the Devil had planted in their heart to make them perish by that Negligence For not to advance in Virtue is to fall back and recoil seeing man never attains that perfection that he ought It is written in the holy Scripture Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect To teach us that we should tend to the perfection of God and never rest in the way of Virtue but always tend to a higher degree of perfection even to the last moment of our life to follow the nearer the perfection of our heavenly father But the Devil envious of our happiness endeavours to his power to divert us He serves himself of spiritual Negligence when he cannot prevail by evil desires and actions It is alike to him by what means he ensnare our souls provided he can in the
which it loves and would follow if it can escape the obligation of resisting it and so perswades it self that it does not know the will of God in every thing to do it The heart of man is even so deceitful that it perswades its proper understanding that we know not the will of God and consequently cannot follow it in every thing But that is a deceit invented by Satan to amuse us by false reasons and fine appearances of truth which are in effect but wicked falsities For all Christians can know the will of God if they take pains to inform themselves but for the most part they are willing to be ignorant of it because they have not a mind to accomplish it when they do know it And they do certainly beyond doubt know it but the love they bear to themselves and the little love they bear to God makes them say that they know not his will sometimes they have the confidence to say lying they would do it if they knew it For that is false but mans heart deceives sometimes it self so that it self does not know the deceit and gives it self to believe that its falshoods are truth which causes several to live in quiet believing themselves assured in the midst of perils of their Salvation Therefore we may well desire to discover the truth in a matter of so great concern on which depends our eternal happiness and never sleep upon a false bolster of Deceiving suppositions for he that sins ignorantly goes ignorantly to hell Seeing all Christians are obliged to know the will of God which is also clearly manifested to them by his commands and yet more particularly by the doctrine of J. Ch. for there be few Christians that know not that God hath commanded men to love him with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves and there are yet fewer that observe these commands and with that they say If I knew the will of God I would follow it and so they lie to God and to themselves perswading themselves they speak truth so great is the darkness in which men live at this day in regard of their Salvation We may truly say that it is at this day that they are abandoned to the Spirit of error and wickness and that the Scripture says with good reason that all men are liars seeing they now lie to themselves to the prejudice of their eternal salvation and that sometimes without knowing it For in that they say if they knew the will of God they would follow it is falshood both in the well-intentioned and in the wicked since we see in effect that neither the one nor the other do it in the first command viz. to love God with all our heart and our neighbour as our selves For to love God with all our heart we must love nothing else but him only otherwise our heart were divided and parted instead of being whole in the love of one God so that if we love riches and the pleasures of this life and honour c. we do not love God with all our heart though we know that to be his will And when we envy the happiness of our neighbour and do not assist him in his need we do not love him as our selves and we often do to him what we would not should be done to our selves Wherein we do not the will of God though we know assuredly that his will is that we love our neighbour as our selves and so we do not practice the will of God which we know but we seek beside that so clearly revealed a more particular will in things little needful and neglect to do his will in that which regards our eternal Salvation It is therefore much to be feared that we would not do the will of God in small things though we did know it seeing we do it not in things so great and so advantagious to our eternal salvation So that it were to tempt God to ask what is his will in all things while we do not fulfil it in the principal things as are his express commands and saving ordinances I hear sometimes said that it is a very sweet thing and great happiness to have the will of God discovered in every thing esteeming that a particular grace and extraordinary happiness And yet if that mercy were given them it is to be feared it would turn to their greater condemnation for he that knows the father's will and does it not shall be beaten with many stripes And the reason why God does not communicate himself to all Christians is because they are not ready nor disposed to perform his will when it shall be contrary to their own And therefore every one ought to endeavour to fulfil the will of God which he knows by his commands rather than go to and demand of God particular things so long as he does not perform the principal things as are the commands of God or the counsels of J. Ch. and these counsels explain yet more particularly the will of God than did the commands in general For J. Ch. deduces particularly all what we ought to do and leave to fulfil that command of loving God with all our heart and our neighbour as our selves Saying Learn of me for I am meek and Lowly which teaches the love of God and of our neighbour for the meekness signifies love of the goodness of God and lowliness the Love of our neighbour Meekness or goodness is one of the essential qualities of God which seems to surpass his other qualities it is like oyl among other liquors which swims always above for we see in aâ—l Gods works his goodness superabound over his other qualities though that goodness be never seperated from his justice and truth yet it excels over them For we see in many things where God hath stayed his wrath to give place to his mercy when men would turn as he did to the people of Nineveh who by their sins had justly merited that Gods justice should be executed against them Yea and the truth of God had foretold their destruction within forty days but as soon as that people returned to repentance the goodness of God gets uppermost and swims above his justice and truth and pardons them by his great meekness and goodness So that we may with truth say that the goodness of God is over his other qualities And seeing J. Ch. exhorts us to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect we must labour particularly for that virtue of meekness and lowliness which Jesus Christ teaches to learn of him that we may tend to that perfection of our heavenly father and when we have in the bottom of our soul justice and truth for a foundation to Christian perfection we must build upon that meekness and gentleness seeing that virtue will make us fulfil the command of Loving God with all our heart and our neighbour as our selves wherein the scripture says all the law and the Prophets are contained and
they would willingly be great and rich that they may have Means to please their Senses and these Pleasures ruin Soul and Body For since Nature was corrupted by sin all the senses of man are become brutish and insolent and know no more what is good or evil for them intemperate without order or measure and therefore the Scripture says that the Eye is never satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing to show how our senses are disordered and insatiable the more the eye sees the more it would see and so the ear hear and they are never satisfied It is the same with the Feeling Smelling and Taste the other three senses For whenever a man gives himself to satisfie his senses he is never fully satisfied nor content For in every place he may find something that smells unpleasantly and though he carry about Musk and Civet that will not hinder that he breath not in the bad Exhalations and Vapours of the Air caused by the corruption and filth of the bodies of Men and Beasts although he had but the stink of his own body since all that proceeds out of it is nasty and putrid which cannot satisfie his smell which desires always good smells and agreeable and in loving that we can never be content nor satisfied And yet less can we satisfie the sense of feeling it being insatiable They would have fine Linnen Silks soft Beds smooth Coverings and other things agreeable to the touch which is not content with things that are sufficient But the sense of Taste exceeds all the others in disorder and intemperance For he that will satisfie his taste and delicacy renders himself miserable and in continual dissatisfaction For when he hath one food that is good he desires another as better the Wine is too sharp or stale for him the Beer is too sweet for his delicate taste he longs always for what he hath not and what he cannot get so insolent are mans natural senses that they often tyrannize over the spirit with a thousand tortures of Desires Intemperances Lusts Excess and Gluttony which bring Diseases Poverty and Death And yet they call him happy who hath the means to satisfie his senses without discovering that they are corrupted by sin and therefore they beget all sorts of Evils which she prays you to discover who wisheth your good Holstein near Gottorp Castle 15. Febr. 1672. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE VI LETTER Humility is attained by Knowing our selves To the same who is admonished to learn Humility by knowing the truth of our Corruption and Sin which is the disorder of our natural senses My Dear Child I Cannot entertain you too much of the Corruption of man and the Miseries to which he is subject during this miserable life to prevent your ever placing your affections on it but that you may learn the Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ teaches which will follow upon the knowledge of your self but you shall never attain it unless you examin in retail the miseries and infirmities of your body and spirit since it is that knowledge which should teach you the Humility of Heart which Jesus Christ requires For if you remain in the general ignorance of men you shall never attain to it you will always think you deserve Honour and Esteem seeing others like your self honoured and esteemed and that they also take their pleasures and sensualities more than you do But trust me my Dear Child that conduct proceeds from the blindness of their minds and from the profound darkness in which they are without perceiving it and they blind one another still more by their practice for one thinks he is as good as the other and that he may do what another doth and so one follows another blindfoldly and thinks he doth but what is suitable for an honest man to do But however great the number of blind are that will not help you in particular and that broad way will always lead to perdition tho many tread it The great number of miserables will not lessen your condemnation on the contrary it will augment your pains and miseries far from any ways mitigating them Therefore is it that you must not regard if others be blind and know not themselves esteeming themselves and following their sensualities for you shall not give an accompt for them There shall only your own works follow you at Death and according to them shall you be judged God affords you now the occasion of Discovering the truth of all things beware of neglecting it but bless the Lord for it is a great mercy he shows you beyond so many thousands of persons who perish for want of knowing themselves and for having never discovered the truth of things as they are before God They amuse themselves to look one to another without penetrating into the state of man and what he is whence he is and whither he tends though it is a thing of so great import on which our eternal salvation depends Therefore I exhort you to lay to heart the knowledge of your self seeing that must rule all your actions and make you become humble of heart as Jesus Christ teaches us to be The truth of all things should deliver you from all evil that is also the mistress of virtues for if you possess the Truth of God that shall teach you all virtues and deliver you from all vice for the cause why man is vicious and not virtuous is because he knows not the truth of things and takes the Shadow for the Body the Bark for the Wood and so goes from evil to worse For if he knew truly what sin is and what virtue he would deliver himself from the one to attain the other since he would see clearly that sin is a meer Tyrant which tortures Soul and Body and that virtue is beautiful good sweet and pleasant And so he could not retain himself from hating sin and loving virtue seeing that is good and equitable but for lack of knowledge of things they love what they should hate and hate what is lovely and to show you what sin is know that in it self it is nothing but a disorder of corrupted nature For when God created man he was well ordered temperate and regular in all his natural functions and he might enjoy the pleasure of all his senses without doing evil because all that God made was good and he created beautiful things to please his sight and all the melodies of Beasts Men and all melodious things to afford pleasure to the hearing and all Flowers and pleasant smells for his smelling and all smooth and agreeable things for his feeling and all good and savory things to afford pleasure to his Taste so that he could allowably enjoy the Pleasures of all his five natural senses because all the other Creatures were created for the pleasure and recreation of Man who was so perfect that he used all these things only for his recreation with just order weight and measure
in praising his and their God and in that state he could not be disagreeable to him But after that he would abandon his dependance on God and become wise in himself he hath overturned all that beautiful order establish't by God and hath brought into his nature all sorts of evil disorder and corruption and that is called sin which is nothing else but a disorder of the five senses which man can no more satisfie without sinning they being corrupted and disordered for if the eye please it self now in looking on beautiful and pleasant things it is only to satisfie it self and not to refer them to God their Author as he did before sin and if he hears melodious Sounds and Harmonies it is only to delight and recreate himself and that in this valley of miseries where he ought rather to mourn in embracing the chastisements of God because of sin and if he will satisfie his Smell by good odours it is to repel the putridity which sin hath brought upon nature and if he will satisfie his Feeling it is but to defile his Soul by unlawful pleasures which he takes in feeling for it is not allowable for him to take pleasure in any of his senses after by sin he hath overturned the order which God established And if he will satisfie his Taste he will fall into all sorts of evils for giving up himself to his palate that brings Intemperance Gluttony Poverty Sickness and Death as also Avarice Deceit Riot and other Sins which proceed from the pleasure in Taste which is as a Mother which engenders all sorts of evil For a glutton must needs covet Riches to satisfie his appetite and if he hath them not of his own he endeavours to get them by any means he can if it should be Falsehood or Robbery For the Taste is insatiable and is not content with a few things I have known persons addicted to the pleasure of Taste who spent upon dainties great Riches which they possessed and yet were never content but continually desired what they had not and having gotten what they desired perhaps would not taste it but send again to seek some other thing and so consumed and ended their life in poverty and without satisfaction I have known others that would come that length to take the goods of others to satisfie their delicacies and said to me That their Tongues could not be deprived of the pleasures of Taste and they must needs satisfie it I suppose there are more such though not known by me for the appetite of Taste is so bound up with the flesh that it is hardly overcome having once got entrance and being accustomed to please their taste And this pleasing the Taste begets Lust also by the affinity of the Belly with the genital parts which are stimulated according as the Belly is well pack't Moreover the Appetite breeds Gluttony for when it find's food agreeable it devours to excess and intemperance which causes several diseases and sometimes Death For we see by experience that several have become sick and even died by too much eating or drinking or gluttonously eating things contrary to their health which falls out but too frequently And notwithstanding all this we see so many follow this sense of taste which begets so many evils in prejudice of soul and body and that because they know not the truth of things and have imagined a pleasure and contentment where there is nothing but displeasure and miseries For if they knew truly what is in the five natural senses of man they would see nothing there but vanity and misery since they were corrupted by sin and consequently would never follow them but resist them in every thing seeing they are truly vain which they may see that will examin them narrowly for what is in the sense of seeing but a pleasure which is past in a moment If for example looking on a beautiful thing you shut your eyes in that instant you see it no more and in your regard it is no more and if after by opening your eyes you see it again that sight adds nothing to your soul or body which cannot be nourisht by sights if you should continue them from morning till evening all that cannot nourish nor fill us nor give any thing but an airy pleasure to our eyes which also will not be refresht by these sights for the more they see the more they would see Wherefore the Scripture says The Eye is never wearied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing for these two senses are insatiable and never satisfied for the hearing is as vain as the sight and seems even of less consideration because it hath less impression upon the mind and passes as a blast of wind which we neither see nor feel more when it is gone It is even so with Harmony and Sounds for it is but a body of wind formed in the air and dissipated in it and leaves nothing in him that hath heard it No more does also the sense of Smell yielding only a small satisfaction to the Nostrils and flys away with the wind without leaving any thing in him that felt it who is as ready to be filled again with stink as he was with perfume So that we may see by experience that the five senses are truly vain and unworthy to be followed and affected by persons of judgment and that would come to the knowledge of the truth for one must be a fool and blind to place his affections in things so unworthy of man as are the pleasures of his senses which pass like smoak and cause so great evils to them that follow them both spiritual and temporal for he that will give his senses their pleasure wounds body and soul and renders himself miserable in all his life for he cannot have satisfaction and compleat contentment by all the world and he wasts his goods to please his senses wounding his health by intemperance and killing his soul by sin which is the disorder of his natural senses For since they were corrupted they have engendred death bodily and spiritually in man who cannot love his sensualities without turning away from God and consequently deprive themselves of all good and subject themselves to all sorts of evil for there can be no good without God but all sorts of evil And it is that my Child which I entreat you to consider that you may never place your affections but in God and may renounce your senses seeing they are corrupted and contrary to the will of God and in themselves evil and vanity For what is in feeling but a sensual softness which adds nothing to man and is so mean and unworthy of a man that he would never seek pleasure therein if the devil did not perswade him that there is something in it it is so frail and contemptible that it is not worthy a man's notice or that he should account it pleasure since it is but imaginary not real The sense of taste
seems to have some pleasure in it seeing there are persons that have no greater pleasure in the world than to eat and drink well and that sense adds somewhat to mans body Yet it is more replenisht with miseries than the other four because it hurts more both the soul and body of man seeing it causes so many diseases and even death by its excesses and also so many souls damn themselves in striving to satisfie the pleasure of Taste which leads them to several other sins and withdraws them assuredly from the love of God who requires to have our affections alone For he is a jealous God and notwithstanding we place them in things vile and corruptible as are meat and drink For what is more naughty than meat and drink They have scarce past the throat but they become putrid and corrupt and especially the more fine and delicate corrupt more than the courser And for all that people love them bestowing pains and travail to attain them which is a gross blindness of mind from which I pray God preserve you that your love may remain in God only and you may know the truth of all salutary things in the desire whereof I remain Your Well-wisher in Jesus Christ ANTONIO BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 17. Febr. 1672. St. vet THE VII LETTER He that serves the Lusts of his Senses by that same Renounces the Love of God To the same exhorting him to the effects of Humility by the Renouncing of his senses showing him that no man can follow them unless thereby he renounce the Love of God which is the end of our Creation and the essence of true Virtue My Dear Child I Deduced to you in my last how vain and miserable are the Pleasures of the Senses and have shewed you the truth of several things that you might arrive to the Humility of heart which Jesus Christ requires It is much to understand well these things but also you must set about the practice and embrace in good earnest the mortification of your senses following the truths you have known otherways it s a small matter to know the Truth if you put it not in practice knowledge is very good for you cannot practise what you know not but if that knowledge be not fruitful it cannot serve for our Salvation We must needs put to our hand and war against our corrupt nature otherways we must die the eternal Death after the temporal Which may easily be conceived since mans nature is corrupted by Adams sin and hath quitted dependance on God to depend of it self It must then of necessity remain in that corruption and sin until every man for his own particular have overcome that corruption and disobedience which he hath contracted against God or else he abideth in death and dies damned eternally For although Adam had not sinned all men in general and every one in particular could have sinned and corrupted his way by leaving dependance on his God and that because all the men that were or shall be are all created free and can continue in the dependance of God and also recede from it if they please for God forces no person So that he that is arrived to the use of Reason hath the same liberty to sin and retire from dependance on God that Adam had before his sin yet with this difference that Adam at the beginning had not in his nature that frailty and inclination to sin and evil which men have who proceeded from him after his sin for they have contracted that frailty and inclination to evil from their first father and also the infirmities of body which we see in all men and feel in our selves for no person is exempt from the evils which sin hath caused in man's nature Though it is free to all men to follow that inclination to evil which they feel in themselves as also they can by the Grace of God overcome their infirmities and the corruption of their five senses in not following them but fighting against them And it is in that that Jesus Christ says we must take the Kingdom of Heaven by Force and the Violent take it so That is not that we should fight by force to gain the Kingdom for God created it for us and he gives it us freely but it is that we must resist with force the corruption of our nature that we may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and so that we approve not in us the sin which Adam committed and do not of our own proper will retire from dependance on God Therefore it is the Scripture says Our Life is a continual Warfare For we must continually combat the corruption of our senses without that we can never return to dependance on God from which Adam's sin hath withdrawn us seeing our senses being corrupted beget all sorts of evil and there needs no more but to follow them and their inclination to turn us away from God and remain in the way of damnation For no sooner loose we the reins to our Sight but it pleases it self to behold beautiful or curious things and no sooner have we considered them but we covet them And if we yield to the sense of Hearing the Heart delights in it and the Affection is drawn to it It is even so with Smelling where the sensitive part takes pleasure And if we please our selves in Taste all our care and study are put to search means to satisfie it and that sense is more insatiable than any other and precipitates into all sorts of sins Moreover it excites the sense of feeling for he that pleases his taste seeks also to satisfie his feeling with pleasure and satisfaction Even all the five senses are moved only by the love we carry to our selves and desire of affording our selves pleasure All these things with-draw us assuredly from God and dependance on him and he hath commanded us to love him with all our heart So that he wills not that we fix our heart on things so frail and vile as are the Sight Hearing Smelling Taste and Feeling For it is unworthy of a divine Soul which God hath given us capable of loving an eternal God who desires and commands that we love him with all our heart So that the man that hath affection for his senses quits voluntarily the dependance of God seeing he does not submit himself to his will who demands that we should love him with all our heart And that is from the disorder which the devil hath caused in man's nature when he made it turn the affection upon the creatures which is due to God alone In which consisted the first sin which man committed and thence all other sins draw their origin For nothing can be evil or sin but what is committed against the will of God and there is nothing but that can be evil as nothing can be good but what is done by his will So the Devil laboured violently from the beginning of the world to pervert
for Righteousness sake And by consequence the Doctrine of the learned now adays is altogether Antichristian that is to say contrary to that of Jesus Christ Not that their words are dissonant for they read the same Gospel which Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught but they gloss and explain so the words of the Gospel that they bring forth a quite perverse sence Notwithstanding they live in quiet though all their actions manners and desires be quite contrary to the Gospel Doctrine For every one now idolizes his own proper will And Jesus Christ said That we must renounce it Methinks all Christendom is become at present the people of Ephesus which adored the great Diana with this difference that Christians now adays adore the Corruption of the flesh whereas those adored a Statue of gold or Silver For we see these learned strive who can best find out subtil Inventions by which they may flatter men in their sins or perswade them that they may well follow the motions of their corrupt nature and withall attain to Salvation So that every one follows that Doctrine without perceiving that it is evil That is the reason why every one adores that Diana of corrupt nature as a Goddess And so they bestow all their time and goods to nourish honour and satisfie corrupted nature And more they think there is no evil in so doing while the ministers and learned do the same and promise Salvation to the people that live in that Idolatry But they ought to teach in effect the mortification of their senses the corruption of their natures how much it is ruined by sin and finally the necessity of denying our selves to be saved as Jesus Christ taught by word and works But these savage Pastors will not teach so unto their flocks and will yet less put it in practice themselves Yea nor will not suffer another to teach these Christian Truths It is for that they pursue me every where and would gladly exterminate me because I have written of true Virtue The same befel St. Paul by them of Ephesus who would exterminate him when he taught the truth Saying one to another That they should lose their gain if they suffered Paul to continue preaching Jesus Christ That he would ruin the worship of the great Diana and cause that the Goldsmiths should gain no more in the Workmanship of the Image of Diana It goes just so with these learned ones who are as the masters of the great Diana of corrupt nature which every one adores for his own particular But the Learned are the Masters to gain Money by the worship and adoration of corrupt nature So they speak and teach the people such things as please their corruption and endeavour to please men that they may receive advantages of them which they will not lose When then I begin to speak of true Virtue they are all allarmed against me as they of Ephesus were against St. Paul But these learned take also the Judges to their assistance and persecute me that I should be banisht or be discharged to write or speak of true Virtue Some wish me dead others burnt others that I were thrown in the midst of the Sea that I might speak no more of solid Virtue and so their gain and trade be not diminisht and their shops become unfrequented that is that they sell no more their frivolous Discourses to please men It is that which at last allarm'd them so at Flensburg whither I had gone about some business for the Ministers no sooner had any suspicion that I was in their Town but they preached in divers Churches that I am an arrant and pernicious person that I have a devilish Doctrine and finally no person should lodge me So that I behoved to come out secretly lest I should be massacreed by the Rable and Children whom the preachings of the Ministers had animated against me For they had spoken of me with great spite and horrours proclaming publickly that my Doctrine is worse than that of the Jews Adding beside that my doctrine is a mass of all the old Heresies that ever were in the world Yet I will not teach any thing by my Writings or Discourse but what Jesus Christ taught And if there is any thing contrary to that in them I detest and revoke it as I have often offered to revoke all that they would shew me to be contrary to the holy Scripture But it is not for Errors they persecute me or any evil in my Writings seeing they can shew me nothing such therein They persecute me then because I declare truely what is true Virtue and how a true Christian should live to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ I know well they mask these things saying that there are Errors in my Writings But no person shews me these errors They know not what to say to contemn the truths which I maintain For the Learned said first that I bring nothing of new and that they taught and preached tho same things twenty years agot But when they saw in the Book entituled The testimony of the Truth particulars and truths more clear in divine Mysteries than those they learnt in the Schools they say presently that they are Errors and that never any person wrote such things So that it behoved that God should regulate all according to their studies And should not give any new Graces to men now adays But that he should measure his Light by the rule of their scholastique doctrine and should not send the Holy spirit promised by Jesus Christ who shall teach all Truths Men then resist that Holy spirit and will not hear of other Truths but those they have learnt in the Schools It is every lamentable to see men such enemies of their eternal Happiness in rejecting the Light of the Truth which comes in this last time as the Prophets of God have fore-told That he will pour out his Spirit on all flesh and that your Sons and Daughters shall prophecy and the Old Men see Visions Now because I repeat the same things with many others from God they would kill me as was done to the ancient Prophets they think to hinder by that that true Virtue should be known and far more practised But though they should kill me the Spirit of God shall not die for that And rhe Truth shall always be true For if I should not speak it the Dead would speak or the Stones to declare it unto men And tho these Ministers put me to death God hath yet more than a hunderd millions of persons whom he can use to declare the same Truths which I advance And therefore my Son I exhort you to retain them well and put them in practice for though I were not in the world you must nevertheless save your own soul cost what it will if you will enjoy God to all eternity Which she wishes you with all her heart who loves your Happiness Husum Febr. 5. 1684. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON The
that because justice and truth respects God but meekness and goodness respects also our neighbour And although one were just and true before God he must also be meek and good otherways he loves not his neighbour as himself seeing he gives not that testimony of his love which that command requires And because only God knows the heart it is not enough that goodness be in any it must also be testified outwardly by gentleness or else our neighbour should not be edifyed thereby and therefore is it that J. Ch. says we must learn of him meekness and lowliness or gentleness he spoke no superfluous word in distinguishing meekness and gentleness but he gives us to understand that it is not enough to have goodness within us but we must also testify it outwardly by meekness and gentleness toward our neighbour Therefore My Child exercise your self in that virtue and pray to God that you may attain meekness and gentleness he will never be wanting on his part to give you his grace to practise them if you will not be wanting on yours It is one of his commands and he will never fail to afford grace to obey in what he hath commanded otherwise J. Ch. would not bid us Learn of him to be Meek Lowly if he knew not very well that God will surely give these virtues to them that seek and desire them and if you do not feel them yet in your soul it is a token you have not yet enough demanded and desired them And it is perhaps because you have not till now discovered that they are necessary to salvation and contained in the commandments of God and so have not laboured to your power to acquire them but you have simply followed the motions of your nature which does not encline to meekness and gentleness but to harshness and fretting But our nature is as a horse to which sometimes you must use a Bridle sometimes Spurs to make it turn and march where it is needful And though it have repugnance to act contrary to its motions and inclinations we must not for that give it free bridle to go where it pleases because our proper will is always evil since it was corrupted by sin and is no more capable to make one good determination but it ought to be kept in with a bridle and governed by reason as they do a horse with a bridle otherwise it would precipitate our souls into hell Now your reason can easily perceive that you must keep the commandments of God to be saved and follow the counsels of J. Ch. to be a Christian It is then the duty of that reason to bridle and lead your nature into the way of Salvation and sure path of the gospel law seeing you would be a Christian and save your soul You must not then obey the motions and inclinations of your nature but God who hath shown us particularly what is his will by the gospel advices which J. Ch. hath given us saying learn of me for I am meek and lowly and humble of heart he could not better express what God requires of us than by these express terms of meekness and lowliness and humility of heart For every one can understand by these terms what is the will of God and what he requires of all Christians Endeavour first of all to acquire these virtues and after if you need other particular knowledge to discover his will without doubt he will reveal them to you in due time and will never be wanting to reveal to us what we have a desire to obey no more than he will be wanting to give his graces necessary to attain to Christian perfection For he desires our perfection more than our selves do and so is far from refusing his graces that we may arrive at it if we will but ask them with humility of heart For without humility of heart no prayers are acceptable to God and our meekness and gentleness cannot be good if it is not accompanied with humility of heart For one may be meek and gentle by nature dissimulation or hypocricy which is often sin before God in lieu of virtue For that apparent and pharisaticall lowliness is not praise-worthy but before men and J Ch tells us except our righteousness exceed that of the pharisees we shall not enter into the kingdom of God That we might understand that no moral virtues that proceed not from the bottom of our heart and ingendred there by a divine faith can have an eternal recompense and are recompensed only by the praise of men who being material judge by appearance but God searches the hearts and tryes the consciences And therefore it is that Jesus Christ says we must have humility of heart with meekness and lowliness as being three things knit together which cannot be separated one from the other no more than the three qualities of justice goodness and truth which correspond to the three persons in the Trinity and are always joyn'd inseparably in all his works whereof if one were wanting his work would not be perfect Even so meekness and lowlyness should be imperfect if they were separated from humility of heart which should beget infallibly true meekness and lowlyness for an humble heart is always meek and lowly See My Child by that Touch-stone if you are arrived at that humility of heart and endeavour to obtain it of God and then you shall assuredly be meek and lowly which is the desire of Holstein near Gottorp Castle 9 Feb. 1672. stile vel ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE IV. LETTER Humility is acquired by the knowledge of our selves To the same showing him what Humility of Heart is what are the marks of it and how we should endeavour to attain it by the knowledge of the Infirmities and Miseries of our Souls and bodies and the blindness of our Minds My Dear Child I Exhorted you by my last to Humility of Heart but I know not if you understand well what that humility of heart is wherein it consists and by what means you may discover if you have it or not and therefore I have resolved to speak very particularly to you that you may discern in every thing true Virtue from false and only apparent Virtue and to lay in your soul a good foundation of solid virtue without amusing you as do now adays so many persons of good-will with apparent or imaginary virtues which before God are of little or no value You have now sufficiently heard what is that meekness and lowliness which Jesus Christ teaches we must learn of him Endeavour now to discover what is that Humility of Heart which he teaches in that same counsel For I shall show you particularly what it is what need we have to possess it and what profit it brings to our souls that you want it not through ignorance Humility then is the foundation and accomplishment of all virtues and ought to be esteemed above others and so we ought to labour more to attain it