Antich Decouv Part 2. p. 66 67. she says That Jesus Christ True Man is also True God that his Humanity is most strictly and inseparably united with his Divinity which is the True God and the Eternal Word that created all things and and saves in Christ In the Third Part p. 26 27. she tells how Antichrist has led some to deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ and not to pray to him and shews that he as God and Man can save us immediately if we will follow him that he is the True Eternal God who alone can save as being God and he is our Mediator our Master our Physician as Man who is become our Pledge and Surety to obtain our Deliverance so that they are wretched Creatures who say they will not pray to Jesus Christ since the Salvation of all Men depends on him and without him no Body can be sav'd VII They affirmed that she denied the Merits of Jesus Christ or any Satisfaction made by him for the Sins of Men and this Calumny they have of late renew'd affirming that she falls in with the vile Socinian Heresies and even outdoes them What Socinian has ever taught That Man by his Sin would have perishâ—d eternally and never have obtain'd Pardon had it not been for Jesus Christ true eternal God and true Man and for his Merits the Force and Dignity of which proceed from his Vnion with the Divinity and that he has also obtain'd for Men Time Grace and Means to enjoy this Pardon and the Effect of those Merits and that he cloath'd himself with our Mortality and satisfied for our Sins on his part that we in imitating him might enjoy the Pardon and Recovery which his Merits have purchas'd for us And yet this is the Substance of the Doctrine of A. B. upon this Head as appears through all her Writings as in Temoign de Verite Part 1. p. 201 202 she says Your Preachers say that I reject the Merits of Jesus Christ tho' in truth I esteem them more than any Body in the World I believe I cannot be sav'd but by the Merits of Jesus Christ yea that none was ever sav'd from the Beginning of the World but by the Merits of Jesus Christ for if Jesus Christ had not merited Pardon for all Men with God his Father after Adam had sinn'd all Men had remain'd in a Lost Estate as the Devils have done because they had no Intercessor with God to obtain Pardon for their Sins as Men have had who having Jesus Christ for their Brother obtain'd by his Means the Remission of their Sins I mean not that Jesus Christ has not also satisfied for the Sins of Men since Adam seeing for them expresly he cloath'd himself with our Mortality and came into the World to Redeem us from Eternal Death into which all Men had wilfully precipitated themselves and sunk themselves into a Forgetfulness of God living according to the Motions of corrupt Nature as the Beasts which Jesus Christ perceiving he came from the Bosom of his Father unto the Earth to recal them He comes to shew them the State in which they were and how they had abandon'd their God to delight in other things than in him and by what means they might recover the Grace of God to attain to Salvation And he himself does before them the Works that they ought to do after his Example And because they had turn'd away from the Love of God to love the Goods and Riches of this World Jesus Christ came in Poverty that Men might embrace it after his Example And because Men had forgotten God through the Esteem they had of themselves Jesus Christ came in all Humility and Sufferings to give them an Example And because Men had left off their Obedience to God to follow their own Wills Jesus Christ came to shew that he is Obedidient even to the Death of the Cross that he might teach Men how they ought to be subject and obedient even to Death And Jesus Christ has done all this with many other things for the Love he bear to Men and that by such Means he might draw them to his Father that he might live with them to all Eternity giving himself thus in Sacrifice for the Redemption of his Brethren But this Sacrifice was not offered for Men who do not believe in him and do not the Works that he did nor for those who will needs wilfully continue in their Sins after having known the Law of the Gospel c. And in Antichr decouv Part 2. p. 76. They have says she sometimes argued against me that I deny the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ But I believe this is because I do not hold that Jesus Christ has satisfi'd for Men after the Manner that they hold it to wit that Jesus Christ has satisfied for all Men and that they shall be saved by his Sufferings without being obliged to suffer themselves which is a great Error because the Sufferings of Jesus Christ will never be applied to any but those who shall follow his Life and Doctrine But because on the one hand Men are apt to pervert the Doctrine of the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ to encourage the Indulging of their corrupt Nature and others to despise it and think they can save themselves I think it will not be unacceptable to shew how she discovers the Evil of both as in many of her Writings so particularly in Antechr decouvert Part 3. p. 45 46 c. Those Persons says she she speaks of those who despise Jesus Christ and think they can save themselves without him perish thro' Pride as well as they who say that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them All of them fall into the same Sin of Pride and Ingratitude tho' by different Ways The one is proud to believe that he shall be saved by his own Works and he is also very unthankful that he will not acknowledge what Jesus Christ has done for him requiting his Benefits with Contempt and Irreverence And the others commit the same Sin of Pride in presuming that they are God's Elect and his Children to whom Salvation appertains tho they do not labour to obtain it and they â—â—ll also into the Sin of Ingratitude in that they will nor render unto Jesus Christ what he has paid for them They now that he was their Pledge and Surety yea that he effectively paid the Penalties due to their Sins yet they will not use any Endeavours to make Restitution to him Would it not be a great Ingratitude for a Person to say to him who had paid his Debt as his Pledge and Surety That knowing his Debt is paid he resolves to live in Idleness without taking Care to return the same Payment to him who had paid it for him Such a Person would be look'd upon by us as wicked and unthankful while we think our selves the Children of God in doing the same things to the Person of Jesus Christ We
blinded ones so often repeat that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for us and say that I reject his Merits by teaching that of necessity we must imitate him if we would be saved This might well surprize some weak Spirits who would think that they did Honour to Jesus Christ in saying that he had merited all for them and that they are too weak to endure any thing But this cannot surprize one of sound Judgment who will very clearly perceive that I esteem the Merits of Jesus Christ since to them I ascribe my eternal Happiness 11. For if Jesus Christ had not interposed with God his Father for our Reconciliation never any Man had been saved since every one of them would have turn'd away from God to cleave to their natural Sentiments of which they were become Idolaters to love them with all their heart as they were obliged to love God having chang'd the Love of God into that of our fleshly Sensualities Of necessity there behov'd to be a MEDIATOR between God and Man to make this RECONCILIATION and to obtain the PARDON of so great a Fault 12. We were all guilty of High Treason against God and justly condemn'd to eternal Punishment unable to deliver our selves from it having lost the Grace of God and become his Enemies There was nothing to be hop'd for on our part for obtaining Mercy for we even knew not our Miseries so far were we from having Strength to help them or Assurance to beg of God his Grace whose Enemies we had made our selves by our Sins There was no ground of hoping for Mercy by our selves therefore JESUS CHRIST as our Advocate undertook our Cause and procur'd this Pardon not as the Ddvocates at the Tribunals of this World who plead that they may gain Money but as a divine Advocate who aims at nothing but his Father's Glory He offers to pay himself the Penalties due to our Sins that his Father might in justice pardon the Guilt of them and take us again into his Favour which he has assuredly obtain'd for Light and Grace have been given us by Jesus Christ otherwise no body would see from whence he had strayed by Sin nor whether he had gone by the forgetting of God 13. It is the Light only which Jesus Christ brought upon Earth that has made us see both the one and the other for after that he had obtain'd the PARDON of our Sins as to the Guilt by his Merits only who was innocent and subjected himself to Sufferings and to Death that he might reconcile us with God and deliver us from the Power of the Devil to which we had voluntarily subjected our selves this bowed the heart of God to speak after our way and forc'd his Will unto Mercy towards us This Grace was grace was granted unto us by God only for the Merits of Jesus Christ of his Death and his Sufferings without our Intervention So that Jesus Christ may for this be truly call'd our Saviour for he alone has saved us from the death of Sin and recover'd us from eternal Damnation into which we had miserably fallen through our own Fault and our Sins for it was impossible for Man to recover himself from so grievous a Fall 14. He would have remain'd to all Eternity in his Damnation without remedy since he saw not the means by which he might be re-united to his God But Jesus Christ brought Light unto them when he came into the World and has made them see by his Deeds and Words the things which had withdrawn them from God and what things they must do that they may return unto him for he was not satisfied to have obtained Grace for them but he would also procure their Salvation which cannot be obtain'd without the co-operation of our own Will because we are created by God free Creatures He cannot take back that which he his once given So that tho' God was able to create us of nothing without our own Will before we had a Being yet we cannot be saved without the co-operation of this Free will which he has given us for Adam could not be saved after his Sin without his accepting of the Penitence due unto it even so Jesus Christ cannot save Men by the Merit of his Sufferings and of his Death if they will not take the Remedies for their Evils 15. He is indeed the Physician who prepares Physick for our Souls and takes it himself in our presence but if we will not swallow it our selves it will have no operation upon us This we ought well to consider if we would know how Jesus Christ has suffered for us and how his Merits will be applied unto us for to believe foolishly that the Merits of Jesus Christ will save us without our co-operation is a very dangerous Mistake seeing God could not pardon the Sin of Adam who had committed but one Disobedience without obliging him to so long a Penitence how could he save us who have committed so great a number of Sins unless we will embrace for them the Sufferings which Jesus Christ has taught us since the Scripture assures us by Jesus Christ that unless we do Penitence we shall all perish 16. How can we refute this Truth by saying That we are too frail to imitate Jesus Christ This is directly to reject his Merits since they have merited for us Pardon and Grace to amend our Sins and to do Penitence for them They who after so many Favours say that they are uncapable to imitate him despise his Merits and will not have them applied unto them rejecting them as insufficient to give them strength to do well which is false for there is nothing wanting to us on God's part He says Be faithful in few things and I will set you over many things We have received by Jesus Christ the Light of Truth which is not a small Grace since by it we can discern Good and Evil and in what state our Soul in 17. If we were faithful in this Grace of Knowledge we would obtain that of amending our Faults and resisting Vice and after being faithful to this Resistance we would obtain Grace to renounce all together the Inclinations of our Nature and to die unto the Old Adam that we might live unto the New which is Jesus Christ This is to have no Faith nor Belief in Jesus Christ for if we did believe that he has merited for us the Grace of God by his Death and Sufferings it would be impossible to say or believe that we are too frail to be able to imitate him 17. Your Friends reject my Sentiments as if I rejected the Merits of Jesus Christ and they do not see that it is they themselves who do indeed reject them while they say that they esteem them This cannot proceed but from a great blindness of Spirit that they do not sufficiently-discover it and in this they are much to be lamented since they cannot be saved in this Belief because Faith without
indifferent to God who is Self-sufficient and stands not in need of any thing besides himself God having created Man perfectly free in his Light and Love did foresee in the general all the possible ways how he might determine the Liberty of his Acts but would not determine them nor foresee them determined and far less determine or determinately foresee that Man would turn away from God and that by such Ways and Actions all determined and foreseen Now it cannot be said that God could not form a Man with such a Liberty This would be indeed to deny his Omnipotency there is no Contradiction in the Nature of the thing and therefore it was not impossible to God Now suppose that God determined so to do and actually did form Man in this Nature then his not foreseeing determinately how he would dispose of this Liberty is not a denial of the Omniscience of God Such a foresight is not an Object of Knowledge Our Concerns have no more relation to his absolute Perfections in himself than the dim Light of a Candle has to the Sun His Knowledge of us as well as his forming us is but the effect of his Arbitrary Will Besides if it be said that God cannot make a Contradiction to be true will we therefore affirm that such deny his Omnipotence Not at all for this is not the Object of it even so to say that the indeterminate Actions of free Agents are not determinately foreseen is not to deny Omniscience because this is not the Object of it yea to affirm the contrary is to ascribe to God a Knowledge that is not conformable to the Nature of things for to know a thing determinately that is in its own Nature 〈◊〉 ever till the free Agent determine himself is to know it contrary to its Nature and not as it is in its self The Divine Decrees being the pure effect of his Good Pleasure without any necessity in himself it was free for God either to decree from all Eternity all that he should bring to pass in all Events and all Circumstances in all Ages of the World Or otherwise having established his general Purposes in creating of the World to determine himself as to particular Events and Circumstances in effectuating and bringing about the same according to Occurrences in the Corresponding of free Agents throughout the series of Ages The former looks like the establishing a Fate to which not only all the Creatures but God himself is subjected and by which he has bound up his own Hands to all Eternity And it lays an eternal Restraint both upon his Liberty and Power If the other be granted which is most sutable to the Nature of an infinitely Free Wise Good and Powerful Being and is the greatest encouragement to Prayer and a continual Dependance upon God then all the rest of the First Objection falls to the Ground The Learned Dr. Henry More declares for this Sentiment upon the very same Reasons He shews that as no Body thinks the Omnipotency of God maimed because he cannot do those things that imply a Contradiction So if the certain Prescience of uncertain things imply a Contradiction it may be struck out of the Omniscience of God and yet God will nevertheless be as Omniscient as he is Omnipotent That this is no Impediment to his ordering the Affairs of the World for that eternal Mind that knows all things possible to be known comprehends all things and so has laid such Trains of Causes as shall most certainly meet every one in due time in Judgment and Righteousness let him take what way he will That the Perfection of Knowledge is to know things as they are in their Nature and therefore to know a free Agent which is undeterminate to either part to be so undeterminate and that he may choose which part he will is the most perfect Knowledge of such an Agent and of his Action till he be perfectly determinate and has made his Choice And therefore to know him determined before he be determined or while he is free is an Imperfection of Knowledge or rather no Knowledge at all but a Mistake and Error And indeed is a Contradiction to the Nature of God who can understand nothing but according to the distinct Idea's of things in his own Mind And the Idea of a free Agent is undeterminateness to one part before he has made his Choice Whence to foresee that a free Agent will pitch upon such a part in his Choice with Knowledge certain and infallible is to foresee a thing as certain even then when it is uncertain which is a plain Contradiction or gross Mistake And as to the Second Objection that this is inconsistent with Prophesies and Predictions of future Events he shews That there is still room enough for Millions of certain Predictions if God thought fit to communicate them so throughly to the World For tho' the Souls of Men are free yet there are infinite numbers of Actions wherein they are certainly determined Such are the Actions of all those that are deeply lapsed into Corruption and of those few that are grown up to a more heroical State of Goodness It is certainly foreknowable what they will do in such and such Circumstances Not to add says he That the Divine Decrees when they find not Men fitting Tools make them so where Prophecies are peremptory or unconditionate This he tells he proposes by way of Essay rather than that of Dogmatizing and when so worthy and pious a Member of the Church of England so rational a Defender of the Faith of Jesus Christ against the Socinians and Deists thought fit to offer this as an Essay for the clearing of those Mysteries it may teach others to be more Sober in their Characters and Censures But this matter of the Divine Prescience and of the certainty of Divine Predictions and Prophecies is at large and most distinctly treated of in M. Poiret's Oeconomie de la Providence Chap. 10. upon more Just and Divine Principles than those which make the Introduction of Sin and Wickedness into the World necessary for the Glory of God for accomplishing his great Designs on Mankind and for the Manifestation of his Wisdom Mercy Justice and other Glorious Attributes a most cursed and blasphemous Principle The former are most Just Representations of the Truth and Righteousness and Goodness of God the latter most contrary to all of them A distinct Account of the former Principles is to be had best from the Book it self and I am perswaded a sincere and impartial Enquirer into Truth will thank me for the Advertisement XIV Another Errour in her Doctrine they say is that she affirms That it is possible to keep the Commandments of God and to imitate Jesus Christ and to attain to a State of Perfection One would think this should nor be reckoned a Heresie amongst Christian who profess to believe the Scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ She says nothing but what
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
and a great Dishonour done to Jesus Christ but whosoever reads without Prejudice the Sixth Letter of the Second Part of Solid Vertue and the Accessory Letter in the end of that Part will see how rashly they condemn her There she says That Jesus Christ was united always to his Heavenly Father in his Superiour part is most true I have written that he never contracted Sin tho' he contracted all the Maledictions of Sin after he cloathed himself with our Mortality But he resolving to become a Mortal Man subjected himself to all the Miseries both of Body and Mind which Sin had brought into humane Nature and according to this he felt in his natural Will a Rebellion to the Will of God in Sentiment but never in Consent and resisted this Rebellion which he felt in his Corruption for he says I came not to do my own Will but the Will of him that sent me Now if his own natural Will had been so inseparably united to the Will of his Father to what purpose would he have distinguish'd these two Wills since they were but one For he gives us sufficiently to understand thereby that his own Will was Evil since he would not follow it but that of his Father which alone he knew to be Good for there is nothing Good but God and Jesus Christ himself had nothing Good in him but what God did operate there so that as he was God he was most Good most Wise and most Powerful but as Man he was every way frail as all other Men since he voluntarily cloathed himself with their Miseries in the Womb of the Virgin and became then truly Man of the corrupt Race of Adam And in this corrupt mass he felt a Rebellion of his Will against the Will of God which all Men feel in themselves And therefore he behov'd to resist his own Will and contradict it with so much Vehemence that he sweat Blood in the Garden where he says also to shew his wrestings my Soul is heavy even unto Death and to his Father Not my Will but thino be done after his own Will had pray'd If it be possible let this Cup pass from me and even being on the Cross he says My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Could he say in Truth that he was forsaken by his Father if he had not found in his Inferiour part the separation of his Will from that of God he could not believe nor say that he was forsaken of his eternal Father since his Superiour part was never divided from him one Moment For if it had been never so little separated he had certainly fallen into Sin as other Men whereas it may be said to the Praise of Jesus Christ exclusively of all other that he never sinn'd and that his Soul remain'd still pure and immaculate in the Frailty and Rebellion with which he charg'd himself for the Love he bare to us doing as a most faithful Brother who throws himself into a Sink of Uncleanness to draw out his Brother whom he sees perishing without Succour and Help For Jesus Christ according to his humane Nature is truly our Brother come of Adam our common Father and he saw in the Bosom of his Father that we were all lost in the Sink of our Self-will Therefore he would needs throw himself into it to draw us out and save us from those Dangers Would you think it a dishonour if your Brother should voluntarily throw himself into a Sink to get you out of it when without his Help we could not Recover but must perish for ever would you not rather be oblig'd to honour such a Benefactor and to esteem as Jewels the Filth that he had contracted to deliver you from Death How can you think that this is to dishonour Jesus Christ All those things are so clear that it is a wonder how Men find Difficulty in them but they judge of God and his Works as they would of their Equals and would attribute Honour to Christ by the Contempt they have for his Person Seeing he would not be so valuable in his humane Nature if he had not therein a Will rebellious to the Superiour part of his Soul for in that case he would have had nothing to fight against and consequently could not carry the Victory which belongs only to victorious Combatants and not to those who are in Quiet and without Enemies And if Jesus Christ had not charg'd himself with our corrupt Will he could not endure and suffer for in this case all his Sufferings would have been insensible by the inseparable Union with God who is Impassible as well as Immortal And of necessity this Divinity of Jesus Christ behov'd to be in some way separated from his Humanity for to work our Redemption For abiding in this perfect Union with the Divinity he could not satisfie for Man since Man himself owes this Satisfaction to the Divinity seeing he alone had done Evil against the Will of God he also ought to repair it but God ought not to satisfie himself for guilty Man since being Independent on all things he has no need of Men nor of their Satisfaction but Jesus Christ as Man being the true natural Brother of Men would needs for the Love he bare them charge himself with the Miseries and Sins into which they had wilfully plung'd themselves And I think Sir you will find in the Scripture that Jesus Christ was even made Sin for Men. Not that it is to be understood that Jesus Christ ever sinn'd or actually followed the rebellious Will of his humane Nature But the Inferiour and Mortal part gave him Combats and Assaults which Jesus Christ behov'd to resist Jesus Christ also could not in Justice say to Men as he does Be ye Followers of me if it had not been so since their rebellious Wills could not attain to the Perfection of a Will altogether holy and united with that of God And if God required of Men the Imitation of Jesus Christ in case he had not had Rebellion in his humane Nature he should have required of them impossible things as some erroneous Persons would maintain saying and preaching that it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God or the Law of the Gospel and tho' these are Blasphemies against God many believe them because this Doctrine flatters their Corruption and lets them live quietly in their Sins and Negligence on this false Supposition that they cannot keep the Commands of God nor imitate Jesus Christ The Will of Jesus Christ himself his Apostles and all Persons living in the World even tho' they were regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ have all of them their natural Evil-wills and all their Vertues and Perfections consist in resisting them manfully which they must do even till Death for tho' they have overcome their own Wills by force of Resistance yet it is but asleep or mortified and may be awakened or revive by diverse Accidents Therefore a regenerate Person
himself has still his Self will to fight against even to Death Wherefore the Apostle says Our Life is a continual Warfare and Jesus Christ makes appear sufficiently that he had his Self-will to resist even to Death when towards the end of Life he yet prays Not my Will but thy Will Father be done But if you cannot understand these things says she leave them for those who shall understand them take only of my Writings what is good and profitable for your Soul and suspend your Judgment as to the rest till God give you Light for there are many things in them which it is not necessary for the Salvation of many to understand And it is far better to know well how to love God than how to speak well of Vertue Thus it appears with what Force and Evidence she advances this Sentiment and yet how far she is from requiring a Belief of it from all as of necessity to Salvation how clearly she shews that it is so far from dishonouring Jesus Christ or being contrary to his Purity in that State of Trial and Temptations to which he voluntarily subjected himself that on the contrary it manifests the greatness and constancy of his Love to God the ardency of his Charity for Men the firmness of his Adherence to God amidst all Temptations the value of his Merits and Satisfaction for us and the encouragement he has given us by his Example to resist all Temptations and to follow his Steps and to depend on him for Succour and Compassion since we have not a High-Priest who cannot be touch'd with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all Points tempted like as we are yet without Sin In this Passage we see also how expresly she asserts our Redemption by Jesus Christ and his Satisfaction for our Sins They who desire this Matter handled at more length may find it in Oecon. Div. Part 5. p. 21 to 60. and in the Accessory Letter above-mention'd I shall here only add that we ought not to stumble at harsh Expressions when we know the main intent of them as St. Paul says Christ was made a Curse and Sin which seems most harsh There is an ambiguity in the Words Evil Corrupted and Corruption which may either signifie Sin it self or the Effects and Consequences of it So the Will signifies sometimes the Superiour Faculties of the Soul sometimes the Bent and Inclination of sensible Nature to please it self and in this last Sence one may have a Self-will evil and corrupted yet without sinning when he resists it So the Summ of her Sentiment is that Jesus Christ took on him not the act of Evil or Sin but the Impulsions the Inclinations the Temptations weaknesses of the Inferiour Will of sensible Nature not to consent to it in any thing but to resist it and to make all these die in himself by the Power of his Spirit and his Eternal Light and by means most contrary to the Inclinations of sensible Nature that he might the more help and encourage his Brethren to the same Fight and Victory XVII To some her Sentiments concerning the State of Children before they have attain'd the use of their Reason is no small stumbling to wit That the Will of Children is bound up in the Will of the Parents till they have attained the use of their Reason and can use their own Free-will themselves then they are free to choose Good or Evil and to be sav'd or damn themselves according to this Choice But before they come to the use of Reason this Choice is in the Power of their Parents who may save or damn them even as they can give them natural Life or Death because of the strict Union and Sympathy between the Body of the Mother and of the Child in the Womb. If she takes in Poyson the Child dies if Physick it is healed for these two Bodies are but one and the same Substance divided into two parts This is true also as to the Soul so that if a Mother give the Child in her Womb to the Devil it is his till being come to the use of Reason it resists the Devil renouncing him with its Free-will and abjuring its evil Inclinations to become the Child of God And if Fathers or Mothers were true Christians or Persons regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ undoubtedly they would produce also Christian Children in this Regeneration and till they had attain'd the use of their Reason they would always be God's by the Free-will of their Parents but if they become Wicked of their own Wills after this they are free to do it and their Parents cannot hinder them I know many doubt of a Child dying in Infancy can be damn'd but it is for want of Divine Light that they do not comprehend the Works of God with whom it is as Just to damn the Child of a wicked one as it is to save the Child of a just Man for he has united inseparably the Will of the Father to that of the Child as he has united the Body of the Child with that of the Mother And if they will condemn this for an Injustice they may as well hold it an Injustice that all Men are fallen in Adam which would be a Blasphemy against God He created at the Beginning all Men in Adam as he did all the Trees of one kind in the first Tree of that kind c. and all things with Seeds for to produce each one their like which will never change for the Works of God are Eternal being created by an Eternal God and Man not being capable of using this Free-will in his Childhood of necessity it must subsist somewhere to be preserv'd till it may reside in the Person for whom it was created As we see the Free-will of all Men was in the Free-will of Adam since all are Partakers of his Sin and Miseries that he brought upon Man for it is most certain that God could not have given to Man an inclination to Evil which he feels from his Birth nor the Miseries of Body and Mind in which he finds himself For God being all Good cannot do any Evil and we must of necessity conclude that the Free-wills of Men were in the Free-will of Adam when he sinn'd And since all Christians believe that all Men sinn'd in Adam why ought they not by the same Consequence to believe that Children sin in their Parents or are damn'd in them The Catholicks believe that all Children are sav'd provided they be baptized and that those Children shall be damn'd who shall die without Baptism but that they shall not endure the Pains of Hell as those who sin with their Free-will It is true as in Paradise there are diverse Degrees of Glory signified by those Words of Scripture which say In God's House there are many Mansions there are also diverse Punishments in Hell but it is not true that all Children dying without outward Baptism shall be
that he spake to his People by him because he was incredulous and rendred himself unworthy of entring into the promis'd Land Must we not believe the Holy Scripture endited by Solomon because â—e fell into Idolatry Or ought we to doubt if David had the Spirit of God because he fell into Adultery and other Sins Truly this would be very extravagant and render all the Works of God suspected and doubtful because of the Trailty of Men. For in the New Testament does not the Apostle make this Distinction of his own Spirit from the Spirit of God When he says It is I who says or does this and elsewhere It is the Spirit of God who says it Even Jesus Christ had he not the Spirit of God in him and the Natural Spirit both When he prays to his Father that his own Will might not be done If he had not had a Natural Will he would not have prayed thus And it could not be the Spirit of God that made him say If it be possible let this Cup pass from me Nor which made him doubt that he was forsaken of his Father in the very brink of Death of necessity these were simply natural Motions which mov'd him to all these things and not at all the Motions of the Holy Spirit Why would they then have me of another Stuff than the Prophets Apostles and Jesus Christ himself and hinder that my natural Motions should not act any more in me after that I have received the Holy Spirit Must I become immoveable in Body and Spirit that I may move no longer naturally Must the Spirit of God make all the Functions of my Spirit and Body to cease that he alone may operate in them Truly God would make use of a strange Figure against his Ordinary since he always makes use of humane Creatures to speak to Men and to make known his Will to them by Organs of those like themselves And for this Cause Jesus Christ took a truly humane Body that by means palpable to their Humanity he might make himself to be understood and obeyed And the Body and Spirit of Jesus Christ did act humanly And the Apostles acted in many things according to their natural Motions and in many things were mistaken for we read that the Apostles being one night assembled after that they had received the Holy Spirit when St. Peter was in Prison from whence being come out miraculously he knock'd at the Gate where they were assembled and the Maid Roda told them he was at the Gate they thought with one common Judgment that the Maid dream'd saying to her that she was a Fool. All the Motions which this Holy Assembly had could not come but from Nature Must we conclude from thence that they had not received the Holy Spirit or that they had lost him because of such Mistakes or because they acted according to their natural Passions or Functions in this Opinion I think we should commit a great Sin to believe any such thing or to suspect the Holy Spirit in them because they are mistaken in some things for these Faults and Mistakes are annexed to humane Nature since Sin which has so blinded Man's Understanding that he is oft-times mistaken in that which he sees before his Eyes But the Holy Spirit can never be mistaken in any thing nor inspire things that are not true And it would be an abominable thing to believe it or to judge that a Person were not guided by the Holy Spirit because he is mistaken in some indifferent things For the Holy Spirit does not teach the Soul that he possesses all the Circumstances of that which it ought to do and say but he teaches it the essential things of Righteousness Goodness and Truth in all that it ought to do or avoid And it is the Business of the Understanding to comprehend and search out the means to attain to these Ends whetting its Spirit and all the Faculties of its Soul that it may rightly accomplish in all things Righteousness Goodness and Truth And if those natural Functions were made to cease acting after this manner the Holy Spirit could do nothing by the Person who is the visible and sensible Organ an Instrument of God without which Instrument he cannot make gross and natural Men to understand him Therefore the Angels themselves have sometimes taken humane Bodies to make themselves be seen and perceived by Men according to their natural Sight and Sentiments Now it is true that God has given me his Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ which teaches me all Truth but yet it is not true that he teaches me in particular all the Words that proceed out of my Mouth nor all the Letters or Syllables that I write far less all the Motions of my Body for this is done humanly by my own Spirit or my visible Body For if the Holy Spirit did dictate to me all the Words that I must pronounce or all the Words that I must write I could never commit Faults in Speaking or Writing which I do often commit not knowing sometimes where to find Words to express my self well nor Orthography to write well which I have declared in my printed Writings saying It is the Spirit that teaches me the Doctrine which I write but as for the Faults which are in the Pen or the Words it is I who commits them and not the Holy Spirit which may satisfie all captious Spirits who seek to discredit the Wisdom of God by the Faults that I might have done Naturally Since the Proverb says that all Men do fail and mistake themselves and the Perfect are in Heaven because there are no Perfections but in God alone And it would be to tempt him to require of a human Creature the Perfection of all things since this appertains to God only and not to Men who have only a limited Perfection every one his Talent one the Perfection of speaking well another of writing well another of singing well with other natural Gifts which do not come immediately from the Holy Spirit tho' he makes use of all those Gifts when they may serve for the Glory of God and when the Person offers and resigns them up to his Government For Example God has given me an Ability to compose my Writings and it is his Will that I do it for his Glory and the Good of Souls These things come in Substance from the Holy Spirit but it is my natural Hand that writes it and my natural Spirit that conceives it which may commit accidental or material Faults but there can be no Faults in the thing it self every one may assuredly believe and follow that without amusing himself whether I have any Defect in the Manner or if there be any thing of natural mingled with it since God makes use of Nature and even of its Defects to teach Men to seek those things that are above and not the things that are upon the Earth For all that fine Learning and studied
the Magistrates and A. B. to cease the Process offering to make what Reparation she pleas'd So there was an Authentick Accord made and seal'd with the great Seal of the City the 17th of August 1658. Wherein he retracts the Slanders he had uttered against her obliging himself under a great Penalty never to come again into her Presence and paying all the Expences of the Process After this he debauch'd at Gaunt one of the Maids who had been with her who with Difficulty got him to marry her both of them afterwards leading a profligate Life and he stirring up all the Mischief he could against A. B. But at the end of Three Years he became mad and died in rage denying God and calling on the Devils to help him crying out that he felt the Pains of Hell and the Torments of Devils She afterwards often ask'd of God Why he permitted her to remain so long in Blindness as to that Man while she often knew the State of the Souls of others whom she never saw She was told It was to exercise her XL. To prevent the like Dangers A. B. would needs have her House shut up as a Cloyster that no Men might have occasion to come to her which was done by Order and under Protection of the Bishop of Tournay She was now greatly comforted and in quiet being out of the Hazard of the Conversation of Men. The Children also lived more satisfied learning all things more perfectly She applied more closely to teach them and to observe their Faults She endeavoured to her Power to perfect their Souls and to make them capable also to gain their Living they greatly lov'd and obey'd her and liv'd in great Concord tho' of different Countries and Tempers and every one thought those Children happy and that they were like little Angels as they outwardly appear'd XLI About Three Years after she was thus shut up one of the Girls of Fifteen Years having done some Fault was shut close up for a Pennance in the Prison of the House Within an Hour after she came into the Work-House where all the rest were tho' the Provisor had lock'd her up within Three Gates and was gone to the Market and had the Keys at her Girdle A. B. upon enquiry finding all this to be true ask'd her How she got out She said A Man had taken her out And after Dinner having call'd her to her and she giving the same Answer She ask'd If she knew him She said Very well it was the Devil At this A. B. trembled saying The Devil is a Spirit not a Man The Girl said He comes to me in the form of a Man and I calling him to help me when shut up he opened the Door and took me out A. B. ask'd if she had known this Man of a long time She said Yes all her Life that her Mother from her Childhood had carried her to the Sabbath of the Witches which is kept in the Night and that she being a little Child this Devil Man was then also a Young Boy and grew up as she did being always her Lover and caress'd her Day and Night A. B. could not conceive this for she had never heard of such things She immediately wrote for the Three Pastors the Overseers of the House to whom the Maid declared that she had given her Soul to the Devil and denied God and to confirm the Gift had received a Mark in her Foot which she did freely when Twelve Years of Age though long before this Lover had still entertain'd her and carried her to the Sabbaths of Sorcerers in great Castles where they met to eat drink dance sing and do a thousand other Insolencies She put her out of the House the same Day fearing least the other Girls should be corrupted It grieved her to see the Devil had such Power and yet she could not believe that this Bellotte for the Girl was so call'd was a Witch for she still thought they were filthy and deform'd Creatures as she had heard they transform'd themselves into Cats or other Animals She pray'd to God to discover her unknown Sins and continued in her pious Exercises believing she had purg'd the House of such Persons About Three Months after another Girl of Fifteen Years was going to be imprison'd for Stealing she said the Devil made her do it and she was immediately put out of the House that it might be purg'd of such But Three Months after another of Eleven Years was going to be whip'd for the same Fault and she said do it not and I will tell who made me do this Evil. And A. B. taking her to her Chamber she said it was the Devil that being Young and playing with the Girls of the Town they ask'd her if she would go with them to the Dedication that she should have good Cheer and a Lover how soon she was Content the Lover came on a little Horse and took her by the Hand asking if she would be his Mistress she consenting was carried through the Air with him and the other Girls into a great Castle where they had all sort of Feasting and Mirth that she has been there ever since Three or Four times a Week That at the Age of Ten Years she gave her Soul to the Devil renounc'd God and her Baptism and receiv'd a Mark in her Head which was afterwards found to be insensible for they put a Pin the length of ones Finger into her Head without her feeling any Pain The Pastors having examined this Girl thought not fit to put her out of the House till it were discovered from whence his Evil might arise She was kept in a Chamber apart and Peter Salmon Pastor of St. Sauvear undertook to examine her daily and to endeavour her Conversion and asking her one Day if there were any other in the House like to her she said there were Two who went with her daily to the Sabbath They being call'd and spoke with separately in private confest ingenuously that they were in Covenant with the Devil These Two said there were yet other Two in the House and being desired to name them each of them nam'd Two different Persons who being call'd confest each of these naming yet Two different Persons who were of the same Crew So that from Two to Four from Four to Eight it was discovered that all the Two and Thirty Girls which were then in the House were all in general and each one in particular bound to the Devil of their own Free-will having contracted it diversly some from their Fathers others from their Mothers some had learn'd it by little Girls in playing together as they declared both to A. B. and to the said Pastor who put in Writing all they said to him A. B. was in no little Perplexit to be shut up in a House from whence she could not get out with Thirty Two Persons who declar'd they had given their Souls to the Devil and that she must eat
their Purity notwithstanding their Contradiction to Mens Lives in whose hands they are to be a standing Miracle and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to be the last and most perfect Doctrine that is to come into the World and the Standard by which all others are to be examin'd and tried and desires no body may receive her Sentiments but in so far as they are agreeable thereunto and condemns the Practice of the Roman Church in with-holding the Use of the Scriptures from the People as a heinous Injustice and Impiety Tho' she does not think that God has bound up himself only to this way of communicating his Light but may when he pleases immediately communicate the same to any Person without the Use of the Holy Scriptures and such Persons may forbear the reading of them as she did without despising them as one needs not be taken up with reading his Friend's Letter when he is immediately conversing with him And for an Evidence of it she appeals to the Truths which she declares are communicated to her by God if they are not the same in Substance with those contained in the Holy Scriptures XI The Author comes next to some of her Opinions which she her self has often declared are not necessary to be believed and which if Men please they may count them Dreams and Fancies He calls them wild and barbarous and indeed as he conceives and represents them he would make some of them appear Extravagant enough tho' a candid Interpretation of them will render them both amiable and useful Thus what Wildness or Barbarity is there in Asserting that Jesus Christ and his Church are one that it is his Spirit internally animating influencing and informing the Souls of Men that makes them Members of his Mystical Body which is the Church or in Asserting that the last Judgment by which she means the Universal Plagues by which God will in a Course of many Years destroy the Wicked from off the Earth is at hand Few who seriously consider the State of the World will think this a wild and barbarous Notion but the Scoffers who walk after their own Lusts and say Where is the Promise of his coming She maintains no Mahumeâ—an Paradise but such a one as Man would have enjoy'd in the State of Innocence when as yet he had no Lust or Concupiscence Vnto the Pure all things are Pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing Pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled She says with our Saviour That the Saints after the Resurrection neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels in Heaven She condemns human Learning no farther than it fosters Pride Amusement Self-conceit and the Lust of the Eye or Curiosity and destroys Charity and the Love of God There is no greater Absurdity in saying that Jesus Christ thought fit to appear in our human Nature void of human Learning no Mathematician no Philosopher nor Critick than to say that he appear'd poor and despised of all not having where to lay his Head since he thought fit to deny himself of all that we make the Object of our Vanity and Concupiscence XII What the Author is pleas'd to say of M. Poiret that he was craz'd and is still so reputed being utterly false can do him no Hurt with such as are either acquainted with himself or his Writings but it shews that Mens Passions will make them rashly utter false and extravagant Things which they themselves do not believe For the Author himself in the next Page reckons him among the Men of Sence and Learning who have written in Defence of A. B. abroad It is no wonder then that some in Britain admire his Books for he is no superficial rambling Writer as they discover more than an ordinary Degree of Sence and Learning so they direct to the solid Knowledge and Practice of true Christianity Freed from the false Glosses of Parties and the Disguises of Self-Love and corrupt Nature the Charge of his denying the Divine Prescience is clear'd in the Apology * They do also endeavour to make him odious by publishing an Expression which they say he used in a private Conversation with two Gentlemen of their Acquaintance M. Poiret himself says it is not easie for him to remember the Conversations he hath with all who come to see him nor if he had such an Expression to any but that if he had those Gentlemen may think he had Reason for what he spoke and he is well pleased that all the World know it that as he is fully perswaded that God is so he is perswaded that A. B. was illuminated and inspired by his Holy Spirit Both these are Truths but it does not follow that he looks upon both as of equal Moment or that he believes them upon equal Grounds XIII After the Author has formed so grievous and unjust a Charge laying aside a Christian Temper he proceeds in his 8. Sect. to sound the Trumpet and excite others to Fury and Indignation and in his late Book of the History of Sin and Heresie p. 33. he repeats over the same Charge with all the hard Words that Spite and Fury could invent and insinuates his Fears of a Growing Sect and Party It is strange to see Men more alarm'd and enrag'd against Enemies created by their own Fancy than they are against real ones If the Author of the Preface were once out of the Heat that his Imagination has put him in it were easie I should think to convince him that these he calls Bourignianists are no such Enemies as he has fansied to himself I can assure him they do heartily own that our Reconciliation with God is obtain'd only by the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ That the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures is the Standard by which we are to try and examine all Doctrines That no Inspiration can come from God that does not fill the Soul with Humility and Charity or That instills under the Sheeps Clothing of Devotion and Piety any Heresie or any thing that tends to Schism or to withdraw Obedience from their lawful Bishop or to set up new Sects and that Corruptions in the Church are better amended by living in the Communion of it and there by good Example to reclaim than by open Desertion to set up opposite Factions which heightens Animosities embitters Spirits renders them deaf to one anothers Advices and often proceeds to Blood and Slaughter as the Author of the Preface does so rationally conclude it in the Marks he gives to distinguish between Inspirations from God and Diabolical Enthusiasm And if there be any thing in the Writings of A. B. contrary to these or to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ they do openly disown and disclaim the same and stand up for them no farther than they tend to promote the great Interests of Christianity Truth Holiness and Peace XIV I come now to
the Judgment of others who think well of them that there are many things in them which appear unto us wild and uninrelligible God may reveal things under most mysterious Figures altogether dark and hidden from us and yet before the Consummation of all things may make them plain and evident as we see in Ezekiel Daniel and the Revelations We must not therefore despise them because we have unquestionable Evidences of those Persons their being inspired by the Spirit of God So rather than with the Doctor to speak Evil of the things which I do not know I will conclude Quae intellexi optima sunt puto item quae non intellexi XXX I have detained you so long upon the Doctor 's first Narrative that I shall need to say little of the second for what answers the first serves for an Answer to the second also where he has done nothing toward the satisfying Peoples Expectations which he rais'd by his big Promises I shall let it pass with three or four Remarks only 1. He continues still to give false Representations of her It is not true that she pretends to a Sanctity above the Prophets or the Apostoles a Sanctity next to that of God nor to a comprehensive Knowledge Natural and Divine and all manner of speculative Truths nor to the Knowledge of all matters of Fact at what distance of Time and Place or how secret sover nor that she contradicts her self as if she asserted sometimes that both the Divine Truths which she declares and all the Words by which she utters them were inspired by the Spirit of God and sometimes the first only nor that she makes Jesus Christ a Type of her nor that she is the Mother of all that shall be converted unto God her Sayings import no such thing when they are considered without Prejudice in her own Writings as is made appear already 2. Notwithstanding of the Narrator's great Sincerity and that he intends to set down her own Pretences in her own Words without adding to or diminishing from or curtailing any Passage which may be necessary to qualifie the Meaning of them yet so earnest is he to make her odious that he forgets himselfe and either by truly curtailing the Passages or by his Comments on them he makes her speak quite otherwise than she intended So that they who would not judge rashly may please to read them in her own Writings without the Doctor 's Curtailings and Glosses Thus as to his false Glosses when he says My Thoughts Words and Actions must have the Three Qualities of Righteousness Goodness and Truth else I should be as a sounding Brass c. Does this infer that she arrogates to her self a Sanctity above the Prophets and Apostles and next to God himself Souls truly regenerate are Partakers of the Divine Nature Christ lives in them Piety cannot be true as he himself grants without a Perfection of Parts tho' not of Degrees without an Universal Conformity to the Will of God so that their Thoughts Words and Actions must be both Just Good and True now as one Star differs from another in Glory so do regenerate Souls Her Words then imply no more but that God had truly renewed and regenerated her by his Holy Spirit and not that she exceeded all others in Sanctity as his malicious Gloss would have it Thus when she says I do not remember I ever committed any Faults but when I believed the Counsel of Men. It is far from her Meaning that she was born without Sin or that Original Corruption was perfectly cured in her as appears by all her Writings and by that very Place cited but that as Plants and Trees seem all Dead and without Life in the Winter-Season till the warm Spring make them all bud anew and discover the Life and Spirit that was in the Root so Mens natural Corruption which seems dead and mortified is awakened and exerts it self according to the diffirent outward Occasions conformable to the Variety and Difference of People's Inclinations and that this was her weak side by which her Self-love and Vanity did exert it self Again when she gives a convincing Reason for what she says or speaks of her self with the greatest Humility or limits general Sayings so as to confine them to her true Sense and Meaning all this he very cautiously keeps out and conceals as appears in the Citations out of the Light of the World in the 9 11 17 20 and 21st p. of the Narrative Thus where she wonderfully Illustrates how the Holy Spirit communicates to pure Souls such a comprehensive Divine Light and Knowledge as cannot be express'd by many Words the Doctor industriously skips it over and joins the foregoing and following Senâ—ences together I have need says she to express my self by humane Reasons and Comparisons because otherwise they could not understand me for the Holy Spirit speaks so succinctly that one Word makes me comprehend many things He gives Subtility to the Understanding to conceive great things by one of his small Motions It is just as if one were in a fine Room well adorned with Variety of Furniture and Rarities but there were no Light in it whereby to see all these things In such a Case it would need a great many Words to make him who had never seen them understand in particular all the fine Things and Furniture that were in the Room telling him here be such and such Pictures such Tables such Seats and such like things and yet we could not make him comprehend well the Beauty of this Furniture and Rarities But if a Light were brought into the Room tho' it were but that of a Candle in a Moment it would give more Knowledge of all the things that are in the Room than all the Discourses that were uttered to make them known So it is with the Light of the Holy Spirit when it enters into a Soul it makes it know and comprehend all things very clearly Nevertheless these things cannot be seen by Souls who are yet in the Darkness and Obscurity of their own Passions many Words and Discourses must be used to make them understand the Rarities that are in the Works of God So far A. B. All this is left out by the Doctor except only the first and last two Lines the rest did not serve his turn he design'd to confound and darken all and they gave too distinct and convincing a Light They who shall be pleased to peruse that whole Conference will see how little Ground there is for his scurrilous â—ests if we consider the thing in Thesi without relation to A. B. that when the Spirit of God does immediately enlighten a Soul he does not endite all the precise Words that it ought to make use of in explaining that Light and Truth to others only that he brings along with him the Gift of Wisdom to express it self so as to make the Divine Truths to be understood It cannot be mistaken
Sin since which time it can produce nothing but all sort of Evil it being impossible for it to do any Good or to have one good Thought For this Cause Job had good Reason to curse the Day of his Birth for none of the Beasts would be so miserable in their Nature as is Man if he had not in him a Divine Nature 4. All must grant this and say with your Friends that it is impossible to imitate Jesus Christ seeing he lived supernaturally having subjected his Humane Part to his Divine and made his Flesh die that he might live to his Spirit and despised Temporal things that he might embrace Eternal But I would gladly ask all those Natural Persons if they desire to do the same things And if they have put to Death the old Adam in them that is the Inclinations of corrupt Flesh And if they have labour'd with all their Power to revive in them the Spirit of the new Adam which contradicts the Sensualities of the Flesh Which appears by the Person of Jesus Christ who overcame all Natural Sensualities 5. It may be they will say that it would be impossible for them to attain to such a Perfection as Jesus Christ had while they will not part with so much as one of the Affections which they have for their Pleasures or Sensualities that they might follow him at a distance For they do not so much as desire to imitate him far les to tend to his Perfection They believe indeed by an imaginary Speculation that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them and they will not believe by a Divine Truth that he has merited for them by his Sufferings the Grace and the Power to imitate him because they do not desire to do it for they love rather to remain in the Corruption of the old Adam than to be quickened into the new which is Jesus Christ 6. Thus it is that those poor Souls flatter themselves to their Ruine while they say that they cannot imitate Jesus Christ nor live without Sin because of their great Frailty This is as much as to say that they resolve not to be saved and they resolve to die in their Sins for there are only two ways the one of Salvation the other of Damnation and Jesus Christ is that which leads to Salvation He who will not walk in the same Way in which he walked cannot find Life but without all doubt shall die for ever Therefore my dear Child do not give way to the Discourses of those poor blinded ones who have fill'd their Understanding with Errors but walk according to the Light that God has given you and labour to be born again in the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Saviour Withdraw from the World since he says that he prays not for the World but for those whom his Father has given him out of the World Those who are of the World are they who love the transitory things of the World and will not part with them to imitate Jesus Christ They are rich in Will and proud in Heart loving their fleshly Sensualities while they flatter themselves by saying that it would be impossible for them to imitate Jesus Christ and to live without Sin because of their great Frailty which if they understood aright they would use means to overcome it and he who felt his Heart cleave to Riches would not possess them but would put them far away from him as some of the Heathens did who threw all their Money into the Sea fearing least it should deprive them of the Liberty of their Mind And if a Man found himself so frail as to fall into the Sin of Pride he would shun Offices Greatness and Honours that he might follow the Poverty and Lowliness of Jesus Christ and if hâ— found himself so frail as that he could not eat and drink delicate things without falling into the Sin of Gluttony he would take the coarsest Meats and Drink proportionably to support the Weakness and Frailty of Nature weaning it from all Sensuality or fleshly Apperite But Men do not feel themselves too frail to iudulge their Body in all its Appetites and Pleasures and they will needs make themselves believe that they are too frail to abstain from Sin or to imitate Jesus Christ 7. This Sentiment is so Erroneous that I would be ashun'd to refute it were it not that I see so many Souls possess'd with it especially among those of Calvin's Reformatiâ—on who live and die in this Belief that Jesus Christ has satisfied all for them that it is impossible for them to do good or to imitate Jesus Christ This it seems is inculcated unto them from the Cradle since in effect we see that all their practice is founded upon it while they live according to the Motions of corrupt Nature and with this believe that they shall be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ without striving to imitate him since they are taught that it is impossible to do this And tho' this is a false Theology yet every one follows after it leaning upon a broken Reed 8. For that Man of whom I spoke to you formerly said that it was impossible for him to do any good Work yea to say the Lord's Prayer with Attention no more than they with whom he convers'd whom he had often ask'd if they could say it with Attention and they all answered they could not It is to be remarked that they were Merchants of great Trade and Spirit who found out all sort of Inventions for gaining of Money with great Dexterity and Care and their Spirit was not disingag'd for saying the Lord's Prayer with Attention For where their Treasure was there was their Heart and the Attention cannot be perfect in two so contrary things at the same time but if they had purg'd their Souls from coveting earthly Goods and as carefully applied their Understanding to speak unto God and to hear him without doubt they might not only have said the Lord's Prayer with Attention but might also have attention seriously upon continual Prayer which Jesus Christ has so much recommended to us saying that we ought always to pray and never to cease 9. But those poor Ignorants think to please God with fair Words as they please Men by saying that they are too frail to do any Good far less can they imitate Jesus Christ for these Excuses will condemn them For if they were truly sensible of their Frailty they would avoid the Occasions of Sin and use the Means of Poverty Humility and Patience that they might imitate Jesus Christ for he did nothing when he was upon Earth but that which another would do that were animated with the same Spirit that he was For the same God has through all the same Power and can do by the Body and Spirit of other Men that which he did by that of Jesus Christ 10. For in as much as he is God his Power is not limited provided that Man give no â—indrance