of God until God appointed her to return to an ordinary way of living while God's extraordinary divine communications to her flowed more and more during all her life like a stream still encreased until its ending a mighty River into the vast Ocean which in the same degree encreased in her soul that Constancy divine Love and all Virtues and Graces as not moved were more established by all the assaults which the craft and malice of Hell did eagerly spue out all her life while she pursued her first search of True Christians which when she could not find any true knowledge of a Christian Life and self-seeking among all the devout and Religious Persons whose earthly-mindedness she easily discovered through all their fair Pretexts she turned the more in to God in her Heart where he trained her in the true Christianity and told her She must not seek it in the World but in her own heart with God and in Solitude whereupon she did over the belly of all Opposition Tentations Allurements of Friends Riches and all worldly advantages most generously and constantly forsake all seeking that beloved solitude where she might enjoy God without disturbance God gave her a Spiritual solitude retiring her Heart and Soul from all that was not himself yet retained her from other to make her a Light to lead other good Souls out of the Egypt of this World into the same Wilderness of heavenly-mindedness The traverses she met with her constant Advance and all the steps of her conduct so signally disposed by the immediate hand and Councel of God as its unaccountable and vast so it is beyond the bounds and design of this short preliminary to insist on who desire a more satisfying Account may be satisfied by the History of her Life written partly by her self partly by a faithful and judicious eye and ear Witness Her desire was to be unknown and unnoticed yet many persons of good-will of several sorts came to her acquaintance who owed and owned unto her as the Instrument of Gods Spirit their Conversion their Enlightening their Inflaming in divine Love their Comforting and Strengthening and their Eternal Life testifying as they were living and standing Testimonies that her Words her Writings her Works and all her Life had an unutterable divine efficacy and power of converting and saving Souls that were well disposed infinitly beyond all the enervate and lifeless Means and Ordinances in the hands of the most elaborate and erudite heads exercising that trade for their dayly bread without the spirit of it under which alas its too visible and by all that have but the least spark of ingenuity confest and of sincerity regreted that we live most part so little or not at all moved from our earthly biass of self which declines us so much to Hell that if we get but a little survey of the Earth we never attain nor it may be seek any true glimpse of heavenly things which gives us to notice the same proportion of illuminating enlivening and invigorating force of painted Preachings to real ones as there is of the sun painted on a board to that in the Firmament Several who with good applause had long exercised the function of conducting and directing Souls as Ministers and Fathers in the Church not of the least erudition but of the most uprightness made it their happiness to learn at this illiterate Maid the empty Vanity of their former fruitless Labours and to begin again from the A B C of Solid Virtue under her direction owning more Solid Light and Divine Life from some few Rays of her Spirit than from all their Schools and Books Studies and Preachings Notice only one notable Matter in the way In an Hospital of poor Girles she charitably governed she discovered them all to be Witches in express compact with the Devil and that a vastly surprising greater part of the world than is usually by the innocent thought are such by evidences satisfying and convictive to the most doubting that will not be obstinate Passing from her first appearance in the World to her first publique appearance to the World On the second of December 1667. she departed from Mechline in Flanders and came to Amsterdam with design to satisfie the solicitation of her friends and God's will of having the Truth promulgate and known by the printing her Writings entituled The Light of the World and at the convenient season of sailing to go for Holstein where in the Isle of Nordstrand she had bought a Farm from Mr. de Cort the Director of the said Isle and Proprietor of most of it who was going with her In honour and imitation of the obscure mean Life of Jesus Christ that she might be unknown she hired a little House by the shore in a very retired place but falling soon into a sore and dangerous sickness she was obliged to yield to Mr. de Corts bringing a physitian of his acquaintance who with another he had told of her coming to know her could not abstain from telling others that quickly her fame was through all the Country and one of her Letters to the Dean of Lille which is the 5 th Letter in the second part of Light arisen in Darkness and is the first of all her Works that was printed coming out in the beginning of the year 1668. made her so famous that every one was earnest to see her and converse with her She seeing it God's will to manifest her resolved to give free entry and audience to all that pleased She was then visited for about a year and a half from all places by persons of all sorts of Professions Religions and Opinions by Theologues Phylosophe's Rabbins imaginary Prophets and all the most curious and expert in all Arts and Sciences Almost all did easily discover in her the divine Light whereby God would revive his love in their Souls with most sensible and convincing Touches and Motions of his spirit but they could not come to the Marriage of the Lamb for their Farms their Merchandises their Offices and Callings their Wives and Children and the Love of the World and the things of the World were in them and stiffled the Love of the Father and all the Protestations they had made to follow Christ forsaking all for him excepting two or three who forsook all and followed the Truth of God in her to death Of the many memorable things passed in these Visits you shall be diverted but with two or three Before she had any Acquaintance or Visits there Mr. de Cort told her that the Anabaptists were good and pious men having a great esteem of the Graces which God bestowed on her and that they protested if they might come to her it should be in Humility as little Children submitting to the Light of God She answered promptly That is not true these are great men who will hardly submit themselves to the truth and become little Children God revealing their disposition to her better than themselves
reign from our proper Will and nothing else For our diseases are often caused by our intemperance in Eating and Drinking or other Excesses of the body which we commit to satisfie our proper Will which precipitates us sometimes into some state that causeth us a thousand Pains or some Employment or Traffique which lead us into great Troubles of Processes Quarrels Disquiets or other Poverties and Miseries And all that proceeds from that we would not submit our Will unto that of God who would have ruled us as a good Father his Child having loved rather to follow our own Will and undergo all manner of Calamities in this world and be in peril of suffering after greater ones which shall never end because he that will not be guided by God can never be saved seeing our proper conduct shall lead us into abyses of all manner of Evils temporal and eternal because our proper Will is ignorant precipitant never satiated nor satisfied not staying for any sorts of Evils although it discover its Miseries it does not amend them but attributes them unto another to Adam or else to God and so flattering themselves always in their own Will they persist therein until Death which gives beginning unto eternity of Misery because no person can be saved of himself and if they will not give their Will unto God from whom can they expect Salvation It is great blindness Sir not to know these Truths which are so evident seeing we feel our impotency and know that we have received all from God and cannot hope for any thing but from him And with all these considerations we will not abandon our Will into his loving rather to be miserable and perish in the end by following our own We are ingrate unto God and cruel unto our selves For it is very great ingratitude to refuse God the only thing that he requires of our proper Will having given us all the rest and great Cruelty unto our selves in withdrawing from the Dependance of God to subject our selves unto so many sorts of Evils I asked her How it was possible that men should refuse God their proper Will seeing all belonged unto him She said Sir all the world does that by effect and I know not one only person upon Earth who will depend on the will of God because every one will follow his own proper will great and small none excepted will not abandon their will unto that of God but will all depend upon their own Is it any wonder that I have said unto you formerly that none can be saved in the manner that they live at present It is an infallible Truth which none have yet discovered because of the universal Darkness which is at present in the world Every one imagins to himself that he will abandon himself unto God when there is nothing like it for if that were true we should not see men so earnest to negociate or traffique nor run through Cities and Countrys to gather Money nor also to solicit for offices states or benefices because every one remitting himself into the Dependance of God would labour to have only his necessities and no more knowing well that this life is short and that the necessity sufficeth unto a Sojourner who will be loath to burthen himself with things useless or superfluous unto his Voyage which would be a burthen to him All mens Cares Goings Comings or pretensions for things present are as many Witnesses which affirm that they will not abandon their will unto God but will follow their own proper will leaving the penitence which God hath enjoyned to exalt themselves into States Honours and Dignities seeking to live at our ease instead of labouring to fulfil the Penitence due unto our sins We act directly contrary unto the Will of God because we cannot be ignorant that he requires that Submission and Penitence of us And with all that we say by word that we are abandoned unto God and look upon it as a thing impossible that we should refuse him our will which discovers always the more our blindness I said unto her That there was truely horrible darkness over the universal World and that I my self was environed with them in believing that I would be abandoned unto God while I had yet many cares for this life She said Sir you see well that your abandon is not true so long as there are yet cares for this life It were to have great distrust of God that after we were abandoned unto his governing we should yet have Cares for temporal things God who hath created all things for man can he refuse him his necessities when he were abandoned unto him If he nourisheth the Birds of Heaven who labour not should he not nourish men in labouring We are exceeding full of false perswasions which flatter us to our ruin For it is assured that he who hath resolved to abandon himself unto God seeks no more earthly things but those which are eternal God makes him see sufficiently that what is here below are but transitory things which the Servant of God should not touch but with the extremity of his foot because they are unworthy of a Soul dedicated unto God which regards no more any thing but to please him And if you Sir have other Cares believe assuredly that you are not yet abandoned unto him because that abandon consists in a cessation from every thing to receive from God only and the less self acts the more we receive There needs no more but TO CEASE AND TO RECEIVE For all our Cares and Disquiets or activity for the things of this life are all Impediments which extinguish the operations which God would produce in our Soul We must cease and rest to let the Holy Spirit act alone If our will be abandoned unto God he will rule it wisely Let us yield our souls unto his Government and let us labour for accomplishing the penitence due unto our Sins that we may have things necessary for the entertainment of our body and then we may truely say that we are abandoned unto God not before because the States Cares and Affairs of the World are all Impediments unto that Abandon yea even so many divers means of devotion as men practise at present are all great Impediments since there is only that Abandon alone necessary I said unto her That that little word Abandon comprehended great things that it was nevertheless the Philosophers Stone to discover the eternal Treasures unto which I aspired She said Sir that word of ABANDON UNTO GOD comprehendeth all things for he that is abandoned unto him knows him and loves him and knows also true Virtue to follow it and the falsity of Vices to evite them because God abandons himself unto the Soul which is abandoned unto him and the Holy Spirit lives in it and remaining with it replenisheth it with his Gifts to know every thing and with his fruits to entertain it so that all our happiness depends
AN ADMIRABLE TREATISE OF SOLID VIRTUE Which the Men of this Generation know not seeing they take the Appearance of Virtue for True Virtue taught by JESUS CHRIST in these words Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and humble of heart as well as in the other Salutary Doctrines which he hath given for true Christians BY ANTONIA BOURIGNON Written in 24. Letters to a Young Man who sought after the Perfection of his Soul Teaching him that it Consists in the Knowledge of our selves and the Mortification of our Five Natural Senses Translated from the Original French At AMSTERDAM By HENRY WETSTEIN 1698. which Jesus saith both reveals and judges mens hearts How much of this divine Truth is in these Epistles the more upright the soul is it shall more discover and how much of this upright sincerity is in the soul the same Epistles will detect Here the most earnest hunger shall be adequately satiated and the most stupid inappetency unless it be voluntarily habitual and perversly obstinate may be awakened to an earnest search of that Virtue by the genuine representation of its inestimable value and ravishing beauty and the easie plain and sure means of attaining it here held forth But being a little may be by farr too much in the ordinary yea I had almost said universal way of talking much like a Perroquet of Virture without any living sence of it in the spirit its best not to divert the Reader from that Fountain where it flows living I mean that Speaker who can truely in a most ample sence say with David Credidi propter quod loquutus sum I believed and therefore I have spoken and with the master of Virtue Verba quae loquor non mea sunt sed patris qui me misit the words which I speak are not mine but the Fathers which hath sent me Only this being likely the first that hath appeared in our Language of the Writings of that extraordinary Organ of God's Spirit ANTONIA BOURIGNON it may be both suitable and acceptable to give the curious Searcher of solid Truth some entry into the unparalelled greatness of the thing by a brief recital of some memorable things of that person and of the thoughts of some few of them whose Souls that same Spirit touched by that Person and her Doctrine who was the Spring and Life of both To begin with the last Mr. Grellot an ancient Protestant Minister expresses the sense of his soul first to his friend Mr. P. and then to Mrs. A. B. her self In his to Mr. P. I Have long ago resolved for my self to endeavour to gain my living by the most abject and contemptible Works and Employs in the World and I have reason to lay my acount so for certainly if I preached in a Church where there were persons how ever little more knowing or of more worldly power than here I would never be suffered only because I manifest the deceipts that reign in Religion and in Sects I most willingly leave that precious Soul Mrs. Bourignon to sleep and rest in Jesus Christ therefore I dare not nor will not pray you to salute her in my Name I pray God only ratifie the Salutation and divine Benediction that you tell me she wishes to me I marvel not at what you write of the Spirit of God which is in Mrs. Bourignon that they who are with you will judge and think and cabal with the spirit of Zelots seeing I find no true Knowledge of God nor of his son nor of the Holy Spirit in men Seeing God shews the Mercy and Grace to you and to me to see and feel that the Spirit of God is in her pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter God give also Grace that it may be for the greater Glory of his Name and to our Souls Salvation Though before I said I durst not nor would not have you to salute that Child of God Mrs. Bourignon from me yet do it if you can conveniently I desire earnestly to see Mrs. Bourignon while she is yet alive for men are not worthy that she should be so long I know not what to make of the ministry I have long deplored the imprudence I had when I engaged in it His Letter to Mrs. BOURIGNON MISTRIS IT is now three years since Mr. P. began to address your Writings to me I had no sooner seen or read them but I judged you were of God I received the Truths of them the rather because God had already told me several like or near unto them Since that time I have been fully perswaded in my interiour and am so dayly more that you are wholly filled with the Holy Spirit and nothing is capable to make me believe the contrary although I were the only person in the world of that mind And I think not strange that you are wholy filled with it seeing you have employed so many years to attain it I mean that you practise Holiness and have given your self to the purifying of your soul and the other things that obtain it from God I see you possess alone all the Truths whereof all the other Sects and Religions of Christians have only a part and that you have them in your Soul and in your Books without any mixture of error whereas on the contrary I see no Sect that hath not more or less of Errors as their Authors did more or less come near to God internally You alone discover fully the false Piety wherein the devout of this World are deceived As I do firmly believe then that being filled with God he wills that you be a Chanel and Conduit through which he will flow into the Souls of them that are disposed and fitted to receive him I desire that he may flow from you into me and that being in me he put there the fruits of his Spirit Adducing the sense of his own abjectness and indignity the multitude of her Letters and Writings already dispersed the Grace and Spirit of God not restricted to particulars as retarding his writing to her he proceeds Yet Mr. P. my Friend among other things he wrote to me from you having saluted me in your name two different times I desired and prayed that these salutations might be ratified by God and thereupon I have resolved to represent unto you something for the good of my soul Which I do most humbly and before God I see also that many good Souls from divers places desire to become yet better some by your Letters and the rest by coming as near unto your Person as they can and that you have the Charity to stretch forth your arms unto all of them I hope also you will hold them forth to me the more willingly because I am afflicted with the sense of my sins and for my not having Love enough to my God and that there be yet many things to be amended in me if I may bear the Image of God or of Jesus as I desire I ought the rather
to do so even with great Conviction and Sbame that God hath replenished my spirit with several most rare Graces and unknown Lights which will render me so much the more damnable before him if he have not Mercy on me I own that all the knowledges which God hath for so many years and does continue dayly to pour into my Soul as that of the new Jerusalem of the conversion of Jews and Pagans of the destruction of Antichrist of Satan reigning in all States and Conditions Sects and Religions under the name of Christ the vanity of human literature or that which they call Theologie whether studying or composing Books which I see by the Light of Faith to be meer delusions of Satan and so many other secrets which God speaks often in the ear of my Soul are all nothing in respect of the holiness it must be filled with that it may see God And that if it have not the last though it did divinely possess all these others Satan might well entertain it therein and even teach it more provided he might keep it always captive under one or more sins It was upon that very foundation that I did passionatly love and study human Literature in which Satan would willingly have nourished me and entertained my spirit all my life in detaining me thereby from the search and from the true adoration of God in the Soul So I was already in the profession of the Ministry even for some years that I had not any true knowledge of God and most ignorant of true Religion These things could get no entry into my Vnderstanding finding it so full of prejudices in favour of the reformed religion and against all other Sects as also addicted to Books and worldly Sciences This is it that made me leave the Romish Church in which I was born and lived to the age of 22. or 23. years apprehending that I should perish if I died in it believing also that the Reformed Church was altogether holy I was abused or imposed on therein From one Babylon which I left I 'm come into another If I were yet in that of my Nativity I would no more leave it but with my Soul and Spirit and would sanctifie my self there as well as in so many other Sects which I perceive now to be all but works or Idols of mens hands So many Pantings Prayers Studies and other things which I have employed to attain to the quality of Minister I had employed them to the sanctifying of my soul Also I know that the charge of Pastor which I have exercised more than these ten years is a charge meerly politique and human and that has nothing Divine nor of God but vain in the persons exercising it and in them that yield themselves the subjects of it And although for some years I have preached Truths unknown unto me and also which men cannot nor will not know to wit that God is a Spirit and that he is to be worshipped as such Yet I find it is a subtil Deceit to pretend to sanctifie men without being holy our selves and that these good wills do not always come from the holy Spirit hence I am perswaded that as long as Ministers are not holy God will not work any thing by them and that I do firmly believe that God hath at present in his Anger cursed the Ministers and Ministry of the Reformed Churches I say farther that it is impossible for a good man to exercise it after God without partaking with mens sins This is one of the reasons that oblige me to write to you and because I believe you give no counsel but after God's mind I desire your advice herein and wish God give me Grace to follow it namely the Ministry being both in me and in others such as I have just now described it if I should continue in it or not that is I desire to know by you what is Gods will concerning me many reasons oblige me to leave it off and I cannot tell what other points of conscience do yet retain me in it If it were God's will that I should forsake it it would be in the desire of coming as near unto you as I could especially if I were assured to be in the least usefull to aid you as much in the glorifying of God I mean in carrying that new and everlasting Gospel unto the World as I should hope you would be unto me for my souls welfare Another reason obliging me to write to you is that notwithstanding so many Graces that God hath put into my Soul yet I am not satisfied in my Conscience I am yet wrathful and am carnal in Marriage These two sins have very sore and often afflicted my Soul even I dare not promise unto God that I will not commit them any more for I have promised too often to him and have fallen therein too too often again My Soul has been in great sorrow for it and has learnt thereby to put it self below all gross sinners also God would so humble me thereby that I never reprove sin or sinners nor ever speak of them but I fall into greater my self It is in this and in other things that you shall judge proper that I desire you would give me some rules to lead my Life after God in the things of God and in the things of the World would to God it may be to my Salvation But there is enough said and asked for the first time I am in the bottom of my Soul and desire to be yet more Mrs Your most Humble most Obedient and most Obliged Servant ANTONI GRELLOT Minister of the French Church of Outreberg At Outreberg in the Electoral Palatine the 6-16 Novemb. 1677. She received a Letter from a Gentleman of London the stile and genius giving reason to expound the R. B. that subscribes it to be the famous and honourable Robert Boyle A Vowing her writings most praise-worthy and of so sweet an odour that he caused translate them into English with design to cause print them in that Language and signifying his most ardent desires to know of her State and her other writings so far as God should encline her heart and so rejoyce extremely his spirit because with her a Lover of the holy Truth and of the life of which she gives testimony unto others and to him wishing her all good and loving her in the Love which is life it self R. B. The Inscription To the most noble Virgin Antonia Bourignon in her Lodging Amsterdam See the veneration with bleeding regret of that just penetrating Spirit Sir George Makenzie Late Lord Avocat to his Majesty in a Treatise De imbellicitate ratiocinationis humanae published last year by Grevius at Vtrecht page 49. having said that we should employ our reason in warring against Vice and in attaining to Virtue and that there is nothing more just adds TAnta est ratiocinationis hujus efficacia ut etiam in aetatis diluculo infantes
Letters which treat of Virtue that they who aspire unto it may see the state wherein they are and also if they have acquired any degrees of it or if their Virtues be only imaginary I do not present this matter of true Virtue to all in general since many should find it too difficult to be observed for such as yet love themselves or the things of the earth cannot have all their mind bent to acquire this Virtue nor tend to the spiritual diligence which it requires But I speak to the free and generous souls who have abandoned the world to follow Jesus Christ and such will easily understand me for none is better disposed to understand me than he that will practise true Virtue And others who have not that desire may content themselves to know the Commands of God in general seeing they aspire not to a greater perfection So I say to them as St. John to the soldiers Use no Violence nor fraud to any person and be content with your Wages He said so to them because he found them not disposed for greater perfection And every one is free to tend to what degree of perfection he will So St. John chooses of two Evils the least in councelling the Soldiers to be content with their Pay and do no Violence but if these Soldiers had tended unto Christian-perfection doubtless St. John had counselled them to cease from being Soldiers and to forsake all that they possessed as Jesus Christ did to the young man in the Gospel after he said he had kept the Commands of God I say the very same to them to whom I present this matter of true Virtue in these twenty four Letters which is but the beginning of my designs to shew wherein it consists in every thing To these namely who will follow it and to none other seeing that were to cast Pearls before Swine or the Childrens Bread unto Dogs Those are souls yet earthly and attached to the honours pleasures and goods of this life and consequently are not in a disposition to put true Virtue in practice It seems enough to them not to transgress grossly and externally the Commands of God because they know no other Evils but what are expressed in these Commands But the souls who have abandoned the world to follow Jesus Christ and to revive in his spirit must labour with all their force to acquire this true Virtue in renouncing the corruption of their nature And they may well be assured that they can never arrive at a truely Christian Life unless they have overcome the inclinations of that corrupt nature Therefore must we labour with diligence in the mortification of our senses that we may carry the Victory over that Corruption which sin hath brought unto human nature without that our Virtue is false or only apparent and in no wise Virtue before God For if you shew me a person sober and chast and upright in his business who imparts his Goods to the Poor who fasts at appointed times with many other good Deeds and yet follows the motions of corrupt nature I esteem nothing all these Virtues if there is not a renounciation of his corrupt nature and he hath not entirely renounced his own will for all these things together come not near the Victory which is in mastering the motions of corrupt nature And St. Paul names yet greater Virtues than these I have named when he says If I had the Gift of Prophecy and Faith that could remove Mountains and gave all my Goods to nourish the Poor I am nothing if I want Charity Now Charity is nothing else but the love of God which we cannot obtain but in renouncing self-love and hating the Corruption of our nature for we can never do good except we first depart from evil and all sorts of evil are contained in the corruption of our nature since it is fallen into sin So that we can never arrive at true Virtue but by renouncing that corruption nor at the Charity of which the Apostle speaks without having overcome it So I say with him unto all that would attain to true Virtue that all other good actions shall be nothing until we have surmounted and overcome the corruption which sin hath brought unto humane nature since all sorts of evil spring thence and therein can no good be found Though the blindness of men makes them presume that they can do all well yet they do altogether evil so long as they act according to the motions of corrupt nature And it is only arrogance and presumption of spirit that they think themselves wise and willing to do all good For if man were wise he would always distrust himself nor dare undertake any thing fearing to do evil since that is in him and there cannot proceed out of a vessel other than what is in it When Man was newly created by God in the state of innocence he was full of all good and all sorts of good proceeded from him but since he is fallen into sin he is filled with all evil and there can nothing proceed out of him but all evil That is a general rule and by it ought every one to regulate his life if he would be saved for there is no exception seeing all men have been corrupted by Adam's sin and consequently are filled with evils none excepted It is true mens natures differ in manners and conditions one is Meek another Harsh one is Proud another Humble but that is from their natural temperament because man being composed of four Elements Water Fire Earth and Air his Manners naturally are disposed with proportion to the element which predomines in him For every one hath in his nature divers dispositions He that in the forming of his body hath contracted more of Fire than of the other Elements will be more cholerique and luxurious because the Fire hath more power in him than the Air Water or Earth Another who in his formation hath contracted more of Water will be more dull in his Manners slow in comprehending any thing and less couragious He that in his formation hath received more of Earth than of other Elements shall be more heavy lazy and rude in his Manners Finally he that in his Formation hath contracted more of Air than other Elements will be in his manners more light and inconstant and more active in spirit and prompter to good or evil and by these natural temperaments all men are of divers complexions and different manners according as they have contracted of their Parents the intemperature of the Elements of which their body is formed But in respect of Grace they are all of a like nature and are by sin all fallen into the same corruption one as well as the other and so they all need to combate that corruption since they are all equally corrupted by sin which they must master if they would be saved without going to perswade that one is better than another because he hath in his nature a
add nothing to our souls and cannot have the recompense of eternal life They may indeed be a mean to attain to true virtue when our design is to aspire and arrive at it but the misery is that many rest at these means and external virtues as if that were the end And so they think they have virtue indeed whereas they have it only in shadow not in reality And therefore is it that I teach you what true virtue is and particularly what is that meekness which J. Ch. says we must learn of him It is nothing else but a peace quiet and tranquillity of Spirit which resides in the bottom of our soul and all these are Spiritual qualities which cannot be seen or felt but by their outward operations But the essence of that virtue of meekness is a divine quality and you cannot judge by the outward actions if one possesses it for one may well learn to speak mildly without having the mildness which J. Ch. says we must learn of him We may learn meek words like a Perroquet and speak so perhaps for civility or by hypocricy for I have known persons that appeared most meek in their carriage who inwardly were wicked and arrogant And therefore we must not amuse our selves at that outward mildness which is often deceitful and but natural for there are persons so faint-hearted that they fear to speak a harsh word left it give themselves trouble by as harsh an answer and that Sillyness makes them mild and calm both to good and evil And yet such dare believe that they have the virtue of meekness when it is only a vice of sloath and injustice which makes them yield to the sin of others instead of resisting it with diligence and courage but they will not take so much trouble It is not then that false meekness which I exhort you unto my Child for so you should not learn that which J. Ch. teaches but I would gladly make you comprehend what is that true meekness that you might love and follow it It is then an inward peace a quiet of conscience and tranquillity of Spirit which dwells in the bottom of our soul behold what that meekness which J. Ch. recommends to learn of him contains Himself practiced that meekness all the time of his mortal life and you may observe from that if there be at present any souls possessed by his Spirit that is who have effectually those three qualities in their souls for otherways they cannot be possessed of the Holy Ghost Observe well in me If I have peace in my soul quiet of conscience and tranquillity in my Spirit And if you discover in me these qualities believe assuredly that you may obtain them also for God refuses not his graces to them that ask and desire them and he will be loath to refuse that of meekness when J. Ch. says that we must learn it of him for he will not command us to learn that which is impossible God is just and therefore he hath not taught us any thing by Jesus Christ but what he will readily give us That Spirit of meekness and gentleness is the Holy Spirit which J. Ch. says shall not be refused to any bringing us this comparison to the purpose who is he of you who when his son asks bread will give him a stone or if he demand fish will give him a serpent And he Draws this conclusion If you then being evil know to give good things to your children how much more shall not your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him All the evil consists in that we do not desire him and that desire cannot be great in us as long as we do not know him Many say that the Holy Spirit does not work in souls now adays as he did in the days of J. Christ rand his Apostles because they do not see him in form of a dove as he appeared at the baptism of J. Chr. or as tongues of fire as on the Apostles at Pentecost which is a very feeble argument For the Holy Ghost is not limited to times being an eternal God who gives his gifts and bears his fruits at all times and will do to all eternity seeing he can never be barren nor idle operating always in the souls that are disposed thereto and if we see not now these tongues of fire that dove or other external signs it is because we need them no more now the gospel law and the doctrine of Jesus Christ being sufficiently confirmed at least there is no Christian as I believe that calls it in question Moreover these external forms added nothing to the souls of those that received the Holy Ghost but served only to convince the hard-heartedness of the incredulous And therefore true believers have no need to see external figures to believe that the Holy Spirit dwells yet in the soul of him that is thereto disposed They can well examin it themselves knowing but what the Holy Spirit is what are his gifts what his graces and what his fruits of which the meekness we must learn of Jesus Christ is one And though it be declared in divers places of Scripture yet it is all the same thing For J. Ch. says Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and St. Paul puts among the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit goodness and benignity which is the same thing pronounced in different words and is in substance the peace quiet and tranquillity of Spirit residing in the soul that hath these three internal qualities These signs are assured testimonies of the habitation of the Holy Spirit For the natural Spirit cannot give true peace nor true quiet nor true tranquility of Spirit as give the meekness and lowliness which J. Christ says we must learn of him I suppose by these My Child you comprehend sufficiently what is that meekness and lowliness which J. Ch. teaches And also that you have remarked enough that I possess it in my soul seeing you see me in inward peace quiet of conscience and tranquility of Spirit without notable change but yet you know not how you may come to feel the effects of that meekness of J. Ch. in your soul I know certainly you love them so far as you know them but you know not how to attain to them Which I shall also teach you if you will give good attention and follow my counsel for it is very easie to obtain the meekness which J. Ch. teaches if you will empty your soul of what hinders it and absolutely become a disciple of J. Ch. and follow his doctrines And if you feel not in your soul true inward peace quiet of conscience and tranquility of Spirit you may believe you have not yet learnt of J. Ch. his meekness and lowliness and so you must embrace the means to attain to it The first and fundamental means is absolutely to will and desire it which I believe by the grace of God you do In the
2d. place you must endeavour to remove all impediments which retard that peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit these impediments are in our corrupt nature for from sin men are falâ— into a continual trouble war and disquiet and our passions being disordered breed all these and they cannot be governed ordered and kept in peace except we have resisted and overcome them and also altogether renounced our natural inclinations and then is it that we find peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit and not before Behold wherefore it is that J. Ch. says we must Deny our selves if we would be his Disciples for that renouncing of our passions alone is the true means to attain to that peace quiet and tranquillity of Spirit For since sin came our passions bereave us of these which before sin were well regulated and temperate bringing joy peace and tranquility to our souls whereas now we feel the quite contrary For if we suffer our passions to rule they will lead us to intemperance sadness and disquiet of Spirit So that it is impossible for one that lives according to his natural senses to learn the Meekness and Gentleness which J. Ch. teaches us And it is for that he adds the gospel doctrine That we must Deny our selves For th' one cannot be without the other if we will be meek and lowly as J. Ch teaches we must of necessity deny our selves seeing our nature hath nothing but harshness and fretting which causes trouble of Spirit and disquiet in the will and contention with our neighbour for he that has not meekness in himself cannot have peace with his neighbour except it be a Dissembled or civil peace which yields not inward quiet nor tranquillity of Spirit As I believe My Child you feel in yourself for though you have a quiet of conscience because you have abandoned the world and the occasions of sin yet you have not that inward peace which would render your Spirit tranquile and peaceable For you act yet with Disturbance which proceeds from corrupted and distempered passions So if you knew to vanquish that and calm these unprofitable agitations it were your great advantage and you would easily obtain the meekness which Jesus Christ teaches as also lowliness and gentleness seeing these two are knit together meekness of heart engenders gentleness toward our neighbour for he that is tranquile and peaceable in himself will not trouble his neighbour nor give any occasion of fretting seeing the meekness of the good quenches the wrath of the wicked And though one that has learnt the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ were surrounded with troubles of all sorts he will yet keep a tranquile Spirit Because he does no more follow the motions of his corrupt nature and so retains peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit where it is obtained by the meekness and gentleness of J. Chr. My Child if you would also learn that Lesson endeavour to Deny your self and not follow your own will in any thing For Since it was corrupted by sin it always enclines to evil suspect whatever proceeds from your own will and follow it in nothing it is it which bereaves you of the meekness and gentleness which Jesus Christ teaches and we have no greater enemy in the world than our proper will If you could well comprehend that truth doubtless you would not follow it in any thing and you would Distrust even your Good Wills and intentions and suspect them but because you know not yet well that your proper will is so evil you do not distrust it Notwithstanding is betrays you often and it leads you to do evil often when you would do good your bottom and inward intention is good but your proper will opposes your good desires and makes you often do the contrary of what you have well resolved If I were in your place I would not follow my own will in any thing and hold all my own best wills for evil seeing there can never come good out of what is altogether corrupt as our will is become through sin so that no good can proceed from it Whatever is good must proceed from God And whatever is evil from the Devil and the corrupted will of man It is as a fire which kindles in our nature luxury anger and all sorts of intemperance it is insatiable never satisfied ever desiring what it hath not restless in its desires turbulent in its searches ever panting and never refreshed nor content in the end our proper will creates us more evil than the Devil himself who could in no wise hurt us if our proper will did not consent thereto So that when we have overcome our own will we have overcome the devil also For he can never make us sin but in moving our will to submit to him It is for that that I said man can never have a greater enemy than his proper will and consequently every one in particular and all men in general ought to make war with their proper wills yet how few esteem it their enemy and a great many idolize it esteeming themselves happy that they can follow it in every thing without considering that it brings death to the soul and hinders the will of God to be fulfilled in us For he that follows his own will is not subject to the will of God seeing these two are always contrary So that he who will accomplish the will of God must of necessity renounce his own will and who will learn of J. Christ meekness and lowliness must refuse every thing to his proper will and so be shall possess in his soul peace quiet and tranquility of Spirit which I pray God grant you by renouncing your proper will which is the only means to make you happy in this world and to all eternity as wishes she that desires your Salvation Holstein near Gottorp Castle 5 Feb. 1672. ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE III. LETTER Men can sufficiently know the will of God if they would perform it To the same shewing him while he perswaded himself that the will of God is not sufficiently manifest in every thing that we might accomplish it denying our own that the will of God may be known and is sufficiently manifested in the commands of God which Jesus Christ proposeth so Clearly Saying Learn of me for I am meek and Lowly and humble of heart My Child I Believe you understand sufficiently by my former what that meekness and lowliness is which we must learn of J. Ch. how it is pleasant to obey how mans proper will is corrupted by sin and how we must now fight with and overcome it if we will find peace in our souls quiet of conscience and tranquility in our Spirit But you cannot comprehend how you may so know the will of God in every thing to follow it in quitting your proper will Believe me that scruple proceeds from your corrupt nature which would willingly be dispensed or excused from being obliged to renounce your proper will
than any other virtue seeing it begets of it self several others and banishes several vices which cannot abide in an humble heart as Pride Presumption Avarice Pomps and Vain Glory and many other sins which proceed from Pride of Heart but when it becomes humble then are all these vices banisht And to know what that Humility of Heart is essentially you are to believe that it is a perfect knowledge of ones self For he that knows himself well can never be proud nor have an esteem of himself He will not glory in the Praises and Honours of Men He will not desire Riches to be adorned or served for an humble heart believes that it deserves nothing and the least things content and satisfie it An humble Heart is not in wrath for being abased or despised because he seeth in knowing himself that he deserves nothing but is worthy of all contempt And whereas that is not practised among men it is because they know not themselves and so esteem themselves worthy of Esteem and Honour Riches and service and that makes them Proud For if they observed well whence they are what they are and what shall become of them it were impossible that they should in the least esteem themselves on the contrary they would see that they deserve all sort of Contempt because they are as to the Spirit frail ignorant and unconstant and as to the body full of Miseries Infirmities and Diseases liable to death and corruption All these things should not Give matter of exalting himself to man's understanding or to make him esteem himself in any wise but rather ground to humble and abase himself before God and Men because of his infirmities and miseries and yet we see they make themselves great are arrogant esteem much of themselves and in fine believe themselves worthy of all sorts of Honours Pleasures Riches and services every one advancing himself with all his power all that proceeds from thence that men know not themselves for if they did they would be ashamed to glory in their miseries folly and ignorance For man hath nothing else in himself and all these defaults are annexed to his corrupt nature If you open but the eyes of your understanding you shall see abundantly the miseries of your spirit and how it is agitated by divers motions and intemperate passions Also as soon as you open the eyes of the body you see the bodily miseries under which all men lye and if you reflect whence the body of man proceeds and of what substance it is formed you shall find that he proceeds of an unclean and putrid matter and from those members of his parents bodys which are the most shameful And thence he hath no subject to glory or esteem himself in his origin seeing it is from so vile and base things which ought to give him occasion of confusion and humility And even beasts have more estimable qualities than men as to the body For he would presently be stifled in the filth accompanying his nativity if he were not delivered by the assistance of others and he would presently starve with hunger and other necessities if care were not taken to sustain him whereas the beasts can help themselves so soon as they come into the world And if man will look forward into his life he shall find that it is but a mass of miseries linked one to another What feebleness is in man's body He can endure neither too much heat nor too much cold a little over in exercise and he is wearied he must rest and sleep or he looses his strength and health he must be cloathed and alimented cleaned and cherished whereby his understanding is occupied in care travail and disquiet all the days of his life to relieve the infirmities of his body And how many sorts of diseases afflict the body of man They are almost innumerable and they say thaâ— the Eye alone is liable to fifty sorts what then oâ— all the other members When every one hath its particular ones beside the disordered motions of thâ— passions as of Fear Terror Sadness Melancholy Anger Jealousie and such other sorts of evils to which man is subject during this miserable life where he hath no subject of glorying and esteeming himself but great reason to abase himself in the view of so many miseries to which his sin hath reduced him which gives him good cause of submission and humility before God and Men feeling himself miserable and infirm both in soul and body for the Spirit hath its diseases as well as the body for do but take heed to yourself and you shall find your spirit agitated by various superfluous desires and useless thoughts which carry it away often against its intention as the Apostle testifies that it is not in the power of man to order his thoughts which every one may feel For when we would fix our heart on prayer or other good exercise it wavers here and there that we cannot retain it So that we may truly say that it is not in man's power to contain his thoughts So infirm is his Spirit that his Reason hath not the force to stay the course of his thoughts which often sway the reason whither it would not So that man's Spirit is captivated under the tiranny of his disordered passions which often lead him into great evils even contrary to his will whereof the Apostle says I approve not what I do because what I would not that I do and what I would that I do not To prove how many evils the spirit of man is subject as well as his body and that there is no subject of glorying in the one or th' other seeing they are equally infirm and miserable changeable and inconstant For what mutations feel we not in our spirit the variety and changing in one day of Joy Sadness Hopes Displeasures and Desires are scarce numerable how many diverse thoughts we love at one time what we hate at another what we desire one day dissatisfies us another so that we know not our selves sometimes what we would be at and are often afflicted for having what we had desired And if one should write all the thoughts and desires which pass in the spirit of a man himself would be ashamed of his inconstancy and instability and would be far from haughtiness for the qualities of his spirit no more than for those of his body but would see ground of humility for his miseries for there is nothing can elevate the heart of man in an esteem of himself but a blast of wind which the Devil inspires into his spirit to precipitate him into the sin of Pride by sottish imaginations which proceed from that air which is in effect nothing wherewith he is filled For even all the sciences of man's understanding are but figures formed of that wind as we see figures in the air by the Clouds appearing sometimes as if we saw Mountains moving or Houses and Armies all which notwithstanding are but
defect Fire is good in that it warms and enlightens but evil in that it burns and smoaks Water is good in that it refreshes and quenches thirst but evil in that it is crude and cold the Air is good for respiration and to purge bad vapours but evil in that it hath tempests the Earth is good for producing fruits but evil in that it is miery and that it produces pricking Thorns and Thistles Gold Silver and other Metals are good in that they serve mens commodities but evil for their heaviness and obscurity all the Plants and Fruits of the Earth have something of good and something of evil and also all beasts of the Earth the Air and the Water and man especially is composed of Good and Evil So that there is nothing amiable but God alone since there can never be evil in him and out of him nothing good to be loved all being accompanied or mixt with evil Evil is not an object of Love nor worthy of our affection Man then is created to love and there 's nothing more natural to him than love He must needs love something For he may be as soon without life as without love for there 's nothing but death puts an end to the love of earthly things but the love which is in his nature can never end It is created of God who is eternal it shall also endure eternally but that love can have divers objects one loves good things another evil a-third things mixed of good and evil Now he that loves good things loves God since there is nothing good beside him and all the good that is in the Creatures comes from him He that loves evil things loves the Devil seeing there is nothing evil but what comes from him For God hath not created evil nor any thing evil it is the Devil alone who hath produced all evils in separating himself from all good and is by consequence fallen into all evil which is nothing else but the privation of all good And he that loves the creatures loves an object composed of good and evil for God created them all good but the Devil by his subtil malice hath insinuated the evil into the good when he gained man's will who consented to that mixture of good and evil For God had created man free so he would not hinder him to use that liberty which he had once given him And therefore man is free during this life which is his time of tryal where he may choose one of these three Objects viz if he will love God or the Devil or earthly Creatures Now there is no doubt but God is the most lovely Object who hath nothing of evil Wherefore then should it be impossible to love God with all our heart as he hath commanded there is nothing so lovely as him and beside that love brings us all sorts of good for God is as powerful as lovely and can render man happy in time and in eternity O what Quiet Joy and contentment even in this world hath a person that loveth God and how much shall these Goods be augmented in Eternity What disquiet Grief and Trouble inwardly hath a man that loves the Devil for let him do all the evil he can he is never pleased nor content his Conscience can never be in quiet and his joy can be only false and apparent because of the sadness which sin infallibly brings For evil blinds the Soul fills the Heart with dark and melancholy thoughts dulls the Spirit and tortures the Conscience as soon as the pleasure of the evil is over And after these temporal evils he must look for greater and eternal ones because he hath loved the devil who can give nothing but torments having nothing else in his power So that evil Object is as little profitable as lovely It is the same with the Creatures while we cannot love them without the evils which they carry mixed with the good which God had put in them And all the creatures of whatever nature have no power to render us happy neither in this life nor in that to come For if we love Riches which are so much loved now adays we are their Slaves because of the travail we must use to get them and the care and disquiet to preserve them nor can they afford us more than a little nourishment for our bodies and Cloaths to cover us which the poor can have also and with less trouble and if they think themselves happy because they can satisfie their taste in eating and drinking deliciously that is only a greater misery causing infirmities and diseases from which they that live soberly are free And if we love some human Creature we are yet more miserable seeing we so sell our liberty and become subject to the passions and inclinations of another So that there is no happiness for the man that loves the creatures seeing they have no power to make us happy in this world and far less in eternity And therefore there is nothing but the Love of God which is profitable and amiable for man and no other Object we must then conclude from thence that it is very possible to love him and beside that it is profitable and necessary both for our temporal and eternal happiness which I pray you to believe Your Well-affectioned in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON In Holstein near Gottorp Castle April 20. 1672. St. Vel. THE IX LETTER That it is easier to Love God than any thing else To the same to whom is shown that it is most Easie Profitable Honourable Sweet and Pleasant to Love God and keep his Commands for him that will deny himself It is Blasphemy to say that it is impossible to love God with all our heart My Dear Child NEver suffer your self to be perswaded that it is impossible to Love God with all our heart as these Ignorants falsly say for there is nothing more easie sweet pleasant honourable and profitable than to love God with all our heart First it is most easie seeing man is created to love Love is the strongest passion he hath in his nature so that he can no more be without love than without life consequently it is very easie to follow that natural inclination where there in no need to do any violence seeing the bent and inclination of man tends thither of it self and that its easie to follow a Love which is engraven in all both soul and body No person then need doubt that it is most easie for him to love But some doubt if it is easie to love God being he is an object invisible to nature and we cannot love what we Know not but with great difficulty That sentiment is altogether brutish and cannot be in the mind of a reasonable man who by his reason can see that there is a God Author of all things and that there is no creature that hath not its origine from a supreme cause who is its Author and Creator or else they could
Nothing which we call evil And that evil is in its essence in the Devil as Good is in God without mixture for there can be no Evil in God and there can be no Good in the Devil But we find a mixture in the other Creatures which have partaken of Good from God and evil from the Devil and so they can be mixed of these two things and are good or evil in proportion as they partake of the one or the other God gave unto man all sorts of Goods in aboundance since he had the power to give them And the devil that impotence hath given nothing to man but so much evil as he hath obtained consent from the free will of man and no more for he is nothing but miserable impotence And to know that the Malice of the Devil and the Sin of Man are but nothings you need but consider what we see and touch in nature For we see assuredly that Hunger and Thirst is but the want of Meat and Drink Cold is but the privation of Heat and Death the privation of life and so is it with all other sorts of evils which befal man which are only the privation of the Goods which he needs for his sustenance temporal and eternal For though we say that there are in Hell pains and Torments Fire Ice Sadness Bitterness and all sorts of Pains All these are nothing in effect but the privation of the goods which man should have had to be happy viz. all sorts of Contentments in God all Pleasure all Satisfaction and Delight Refreshment Peace and Joy eternal But the privation of all these things makes the Torments and Sufferings of Hell without need that there should be material Fire Ice or Famin. It is enough that the soul of man be deprived of all good to suffer all sorts of evil We may see that yet more clearly in a new born Infant if it be left without the good of assistance it is reduced to all sorts of evil and will die without our touching it to do it any evil for we deprive it of life in depriving it of assistance It is the same with the malice of the Devil and the Sin of man They are only privations of Good which notwithstanding cause Pains and Torments incomprehensible to mans soul And all that is represented to us by fire Hunger and other Torments of Hell which is nothing in regard of the reality of the Pains and Torments which a soul suffers that is deprived of the Grace of God For that soul is not only fallen into the Cold of Ice and Heat of Fire but also into all other sorts of Torments because the privation of the Grace of God is the possession of all sorts of evil and seeing that Grace causes us all sorts of Good its privation must needs throw us into all evil Now whatsoever lives in nature generates always because there is in it a bent and inclination to produce its like Herbs and Plants yield their seeds and sprigs or branches nothing remains unfruitful that lives in nature every kind produces its like to its power Beasts produce after their kinds men produce human Creatures spirits spirits every one according to their nature The good spirits which are the Angels of God produce always good spirits the evil which are the Devils produce evil The one and th' other of these spirits attempt to produce in the souls of men their own sort And as men are the noblest of all the Creatures there is neither Angel nor Devil hath power over him but so far as man gives them The good Angels always incite men to good the evil who are the Devils to evil And that by the desire that each of these spirits hath to render men like to themselves the Devil endeavours to render the souls of men devilish and the good Angels to render them Angelical Man in the mean while remains free to yield himself to be begotten unto good or evil for none of these spirits can force man they can but incite him Every one attempts to render him of his own party but since the Devil hath corrupted man's nature he hath also more power over it than the good Angel which hath not advanced it to good as the Devil to evil All the good in man comes from God only and not from the Angel who being a pure spirit hath not power but over the spirit of man in representing to him good things but the Devil as a subtil spirit hath insinuated himself into the spirit of man by means of the human nature And as the vital spirits in man are in his blood dispersed throw his whole body so does the spirit of the Devil mix and disperse it self with the vital spirits of man and works much more upon his nature than the good Angel who cannot joyn with the corruption of that nature because he is a spirit altogether pure but the Devil is impure and accords well with the impurity of our corrupted nature And therefore he is always more united with us than the good Angel who does not delight but in the pure spirit of man For he finds nothing conform to his Angelick nature but the spirit of man because our human nature is too gross and earthly to be united with the Angelick Nature But the Devil as an impure Beast wallows freely in the flesh and blood that he may gain the soul of man He so mixes himself with the blood of man that he easily moves all the parts of his body to do evil but man knows not that it is the Devil For he is so united to corrupt nature that though we feel his motions we think that they proceed but from our own nature Which is because man cannot comprehend that the Devil should so mix with flesh and blood since he is only a Spirit without Body as he is truely but the Devil hath that subtilty to joyn himself to the vital spirits of man to move the flesh to Luxury Wrath and other vicious Passions You may see that my Son by your proper experience For if you mark well the disposition of your sentiments you shall find that you have been often carryed away with vicious passions even against your will and that you have perceived them with regret which cannot proceed from your self for your will cannot contradict it self If you had naturally a will to the pleasure of the flesh it would not displease you but contrariwise you would take pleasure in it and be glad that you might effectuate it But when that carnal thought or desire displeases you and you regret it that is a token that it comes from a spirit which is without you and yet is in you without that you know how he is there Yet you see well by the operations which he does there that that proceeds not from your own will which cannot desire what displeases it but it complains with St. Paul where he says the Good that I would I do not
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
that engage them unto sin for it is written Whoso loveth hazard shall perish in it So that he that feels himself so weak in Chastity that he hath not the force to look upon Woman without lust he ought not to look upon one and he that drinks drunk when he hath Wine ought also to abstain from it and so of all other things though in themselves they be not evil because of our infirmity they cause Evil as others occasion Good and Virtue in our Soul when these means of perfection are used for their end 9. For example if you find by a true experience that you are more united to God in going to Church or frequenting the Sacraments you are obliged to use these means as much as possible For every one ought always to seek his own further perfection but if those means effect nothing in your soul you should not use them and if you return better into God in being shut up in your Closet you are obliged to remain there and not divert your self by going to Church and if your Soul feels more union with God in Solitude than when you seek that union by frequenting the Sacraments you ought to keep you solitary and there feast inwardly with your God for a Good Conscience is a Continual Feast where the soul reposes and recreates it self with his God And therefore it hath not always need of external means to excite it self to that Union 10. For often God prevents it with a spiritual joy and Contenrment without that it knows whence that Joy had its origin for God is a Spirit no ways tyed to material things neither to Time Places nor any means whatsoever he being a Spirit and the Soul a Spirit they comunicate in spirit and he that hath need to seek God in different Religions and Fellowships is not very far advanced in the Knowledge of God and knoweth not yet the place where he feedeth at Noon nor where he resteth at Night for if he knew that he would not run from one Religion to another to find God but would remain fixed in himself because the Center of our Hearts is the Palace of Honour where God rests and takes his delights All the Fraternities and Religions in the world cannot give that Union with God we must find it in our selves and though the perfectest Societies may well serve as means to lead us to Christian-perfection yet they cannot save us without the inward Virtues 11. One boasts that he is a Catholique another that he is Reformed others will be spiritual because in Orders or of the Reformation of Menno Truely my dear Brother all those things are not Good and can yield no perfection to our Souls to build our salvations upon any Religions is to deceive our selves seeing none of them can save us without having in our Souls true Christian perfection 12. If the Rules or Statutes of any Religion serve us as Means by which we experiment that they Unite us to God we are obliged to embrace and follow them for we must esteem the means as one would esteem the Sheath of a Sword of grear price but never esteem the Sheath so precious as the Sword which is within seeing it can never serve us to fight against our Enemies nor make them retire from us The Devil the World and the Flesh are our three sworn Enemies which continually attacque our Souls whom we must fight with the sword of Faith and the Buckler of Charity for if we think to overcome them with the outward Sheath of our Religions the Devil should laugh at us we should laugh at a Souldier who would fight his Enemy with the Sheath of his Sword It is yet more ridiculous to see how Christians would gain the Kingdom of Heaven by their Religions which cannot save them without the Love of God and Charity to their Neighbours 13. It is nothing but Amusements and Folly to fix themselves upon such an Order or such a Religion or to believe that they shall be saved for being enrolled in the most perfect Order or Religion in the world If you think to be saved for being of the Catholique Religion without a living Faith Hope in God and Charity to your Neighbour you are deceived for no person is truely Catholique but he that is in the communion of the Saints seeing to be Catholique is nothing else than to be UNITED in heart and will with all the souls that are UNITED in the Spirit of JESUS CHRIST Behold what makes the communion of Saints and the Assembly of Catholiques But if you see and feel that the rules of the Catholiques lead you unto God you must observe them faithfully and rather die than slip from them for as it is certain that he that loves peril shall perish therein so is it certain that he who embraces faithfully the means of his Perfection shall be perfected by reason of the infirmity of our nature it must always be aided and sustained by the means that can strengthen it 14. But if our souls were arrived at UNION with God they should no more need to use any means because then Love is a law unto it self and that union overcomes all the motions of corrupt nature to which we have then no more need to resist by Fastings or other Macerations of the Body which means are good for those that have given loose reins to their sensuality in eating and drinking or have allowed their Body other carnal Pleasures the habit of such ordinarily not yielding but by doing things quite contrary because our Nature is as an undaunted Horse which is not tamed but furious and unruly which we cannot tame after we have let him follow his liberty but by the bridle and spurs of Mortifications of the flesh 15. See there my dear Brother how you may learn to regulate well your Soul and discern wherein perfection consists that you take not apparent Virtue for real for ours is that dangerous time whereof Jesus Christ prophecyed saying that we must take heed and that many false Christs and false Prophets shall arise and shall do great Signs and Miracles I know you are fallen into evil insensibly and by little and little have lost entertainment with God by ignorance and for not having enough hated evil nor known the sins which you can commit in another but you must resume courage and begin anew considering more narrowly in what consists Christian perfection that as Adam did no more fall into sin after he knew the Evil it had brought on him so you fall no more into the sensualities of Nature but follow the conduct of the motions of the Holy Spirit as Adam did when he knew them for his whole life was a continual penitence and regret for having deserted Entertainment with God 16. And if you have that perfect regret it will be impossible for you to relapse again into natural sensualites seeing that they have interrupted yout Communion with God that regret will purge
light more and more divine and saving mysteries which ript up all his hellish Heresies and Mysteries of Iniquity to the gnawing of his malicious spirit and all the like instruments of his fury while the Bread of Life was aboundantly dispensed to hungry souls whom it shall nourish unto Eternal Life when all the Wicked shall be cut off and the Meek shall inherit the Earth For the more particular Account of her divine Pilgrimage see the History of her Life and take here a short Bill of that heavenly chear now dispensed in her Writings that took up the spare hours of her many diversions at Amsterdam The funerall of false Theologie in the first part of which she shews the Confusion the Ignorance Corruption Insensibility and foundamental Errors of Christians and even of Conductors and modern Divines In the second their Presumption Envy Pride Obstinacy and Head strongness In the third that all their Theorie and Practices are no more but Pharisaical without divine Faith In the fourth that the Devil has great power over men over the wicked and even over the best whom by these other he turns away from following God and engages them to co-operate to the Evil of others and makes them draw back after they have abandoned the World That is a work of singular efficacy and profit Scarce did ever man read it without being touched in his soul even the most wicked who became pale and as struck dead with it Upon occasion of some converse she had with some Cartesian Philosophers she composed The Holy Perspective wherein she shews that Men and particularly Christians have lost the Light of God which is true and divine Faith to be led by corrupt Reason and by a false or most faint Light they draw from nature so perverse brutish carnal and gross as it is become by sin that this is it that has destroyed all Christian-religion and brought it to the Blindness and Darkness wherein it is immersed and that God may restore it its first state there is no other way but to abandon that false Guide of Reason and to resign our selves to God that he may himself revive in us that divine Light of Faith which we have extinguished The New Heaven and New Earth in which is shewn in what Glory the World and Man were created how they have miserably faild from it how they entertain and even encrease their Misery and by what means they ought to return into the disposition God requires to restore them to their first Glory and renew all the world God showed her in Spirit the Glory and Beauty of the first World not supportable by corporal Eyes All was bright transparent shining with Light and unspeakable Glory God's last Mercy in which by a reason enlightened by Faith not perverted by human Studies and Prejudices she leads every man of good judgment to a conviction of the spiritual things which Faith discovers and unto which every man's Reason when conducted by a person that is illuminated by Faith renders so convincing Testimonies that they who will yield themselves to its Touch are moved and pressed to ask of God a saving and divine Knowledge of them by the Light of Faith With all these are intermixed many other divine Lights and profound Mysteries which God had reserved to this end of the last hour able to enlighten to quicken to inflame to strengthen to encourage and to ravish any that have not renounced all interest in heavenly things If any find difficulties in her Writings consider that she having no further human Learning than that having learnt it she did once read the New Testament and finding it the same with what God spake in her Soul she closed the Book to apply seriously to the doing of it seeking no more reading meditation conferring or other study than that of purifying her soul from earthly Affections and sins in following Jesus Christs Doctrine and Example She could not speak after the Rules and with the Cautions of human Literature far less by the pedantry of the Schools it were then most cruel injustice to judge her by them Again we must not suppose when she treats of a matter what she does not mention in that place that she denies it nor require her to treat so fully more than her scope there requires as the Scholastiques who handling a matter at their tour adduce all they can relating to it In the Third place to understand her Writings as all others divinely inspired the Key is a good Will Humility and Prayer to a Malign a Corrupt Proud Self-wise and Self-powerful Reader no entry in them no favour from them but that of Death And the center end and aim of these Writings being the Love of God by renouncing our selves the Creatures and sin the Devil the World and the Flesh the farther we are from this the greater discord and contradiction between these Writings and our corrupt hearts and blind spirits and if ever we will be reconciled it must be by valuing loving esteeming and submitting to them as they are conducive to these ends and the difficulties will all quickly evanish this way the Disciples of Christ of Prophets and Apostles entered into their Masters Doctrine To conclude with the zealous and sincere Author of her Life LOrd thou hast yet manifested the words of eternal Life in these last days and our ears have heard and our hands have handled the word of life which thou hast put into her these words of Life which are originally in thee we have seen and heard them and we bear testimony that thou hast manifested them to us and our testimonie is most true before thee and before whosoever will open the eyes of his Conscience to consider it in thy divine Presence Yes Lord my God Creator and Inspector of my Heart who hast given me to love thy divine Truth more than the Sciences and the Advantages of Egypt thou knowest that I hate lying and falshood and that I would not for any consideration recommend untruth I cannot deny that I have obtained of thy Grace to discern the Truth from Falsehood and that I have done it in this Work thou knowest O Lord. Thou knowest my God that if after all possible application of spirit I could find in the intentions in the end the Writings and the Practice of Antonia Bourignon thy Creature any thing contrary to thy Glory that rendered thee less worthy of the infinite and eternal Adoration Love and Praises due unto thee if any thing favouring Corruption and Sin and that might contradict thy holy Image and the Doctrine and Life of thy Christ if any thing dangerous for mens Salvation thou knowest I would abhor that that I would detest it that I would curse it Is it not true O Searcher and Judge of my Thoughts that this disposition is most really in the bottom of my Soul Is it not in the deepest and final sincerity of my heart that I protest openly that the words of eternal
life were with incomparable Purity Evidence Clearness and Solidity in that Soul which thou didst sanctifie and are yet in her holy Writings In truth the way that is there recommended as necessary to Salvation is the only and the true way there is no danger to abandon our selves wholly and entirely in it for it is the very Truth it is the Truth it self It is the pure Truth There is none Lord there can be none other in Heaven nor in Earth There is none other way unto eternal life than that which thou hast put into the Mouth in the Writings and in the Life of thy most holy hand-maid Antonia Bourignon I praise and bless and thank thee O my God that thou gave me to know the same and hast opened and enclined the ear of my heart thereto Give me Grace to love to observe and to maintain that heavenly Truth unto Death Happy he that should lose a thousand lives for so worthy a subject Happy he who shall never for any consideration leave the practice of it Let me by thy divine Grace be of that number that after this short life of Tryal that most certain and most infallible mean make me enjoy my soveraign End which is to have the happiness ever to adore and praise thy great Majesty O Jesus eternal God Creator Saviour and redeemer of the World while with the Father and holy Spirit thou shalt reign Gloriously in all eternity Amen Revelation Ch. 3. He that hath Ears to hear Let him hear THE PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER THis Treatise consists of two parts whereof the one may be called Extructive which builds or establishes and the other Destructive which destroys or everts For the first ten Letters are adapted to the planting of Virtue and all the rest to evert and root out what may hinder its increase To recommend Virtue is taken the precept of him who is the Master and Example of it by which is made an introduction shewing what Virtues we must in the first place embrace and by what meanstend to them which is by Obedience and renouncing our own will unto the Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart of Iesus Christ see Let. 1 2 3. the Nature of which Humility is explained and the means conducing to the attainment of it viz the knowledge of our Corruption and the Miseries which our Bodys and Souls ly under Let. 4 5 6. Which ought to produce in us the effect of renouncing our natural senses and being content with what is of meer necessity we should flee all Pleasure and proper Satisfaction Let. 7 8. which emptying of our selves will be accompanied with the Love of God which incontinently possesses the Heart from which vitious affections are expelled because of the near relation and sympathy between them as between the Creature and its natural Element In which Love consists the Essence and Complement of all Virtue and all Good Let. 8 9 10. Concerning the overturning and resisting the Impediments and Tentations of Satan is treated Let. 11. whether they be offered to our Imagination or Sensibility even spiritual Let. 12 13. or to the Understanding making us rest in the naked knowledge of the Truth Let. 14. Or exciting us to external acting or internal with Vain Glory or by Dejecting us through immoderate mortifications or in unseasonable good works spiritual or corporal toward our Neighbour Let. 15 16. Or in regard of the Devil accusing him too much or too little of our sins Let. 17 18. Whether these Tentations affect the will whose godly fervour Satan would extinguish by Grief Spiritual Negligence and Self-love as shew Let. 19 20 and to the end There is briefly represente the whole subject handled in this divine Treatise which is more specially noted at the beginning of each Letter that you may kind Reader view as in a Table and beter retain in your memory the divine Instructions therein delivered Moreover you may with us well admire the infamous audacity of some as the Church-men in Holsatia whereby some years ago they caused that these so wholsome instructions while under the Press in the German and Low Dutch Tongues were taken away by force and violence and rent While I consider these obscure enemies of the truth that Scripture offers it self to me that Every one that Doth and will do evil hateth the Light and cometh not to the Light lest his deeds be reproved and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men Love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil. It is far otherwise with him who doth and will do the Truth for he cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest because they are wrought in God Joh. Ch. 3. I pray the God of Truth that he graciously please to instruct and lead you in the way of Truth that you never refuse to come to the Light Farewell TO THE READER Friendly Reader I Cannot abstain from imparting unto you these twenty four letters which I have written to one of my particular Friends where I shew him what Solid Virtue is because it is a matter so necessary for the present time when we see false virtue reign or such as is only apparent to the eyes of men and while so many persons deceive themselves perswading themselves that they have true Virtue whereas they have nothing but fine Speculations They think themselves Humble when they can talk well of Humility and think they have the Love of God when they desire to have it notwithstanding they have in effect only the Love of themselves and it is but Deceit and Falshood when they say they have the Love of God They do not so much as know the corruption of their Nature seeing they think they may follow that corruption without sinning provided they do no evil reproveable before men and have a will to do well and love God Which notwithstanding is not sufficient to be saved for good desires without effect are nothing before God They are indeed Foundation stones serving to the building of true Virtue For without good Desires we cannot do good Works We must first have the desire and after put it in execution which is wanting to many persons of a good will who content themselves to be of a good will and hope with that all shall go well without considering that the holy Scripture says to all in general Depart from evil and do Good Now the Evil is in our corrupt nature which no person ought to ignore yet few depart from that corruption and most love and follow it thinking they do well which is a great abuse and presumption of spirit for we cannot do good except we depart from evil and he that does not resist that corrupt Nature and renounce it cannot acquire true Virtue which few persons comprehend and thence is it that they have only apparent Virtues and no real ones Therefore is it that I have resolved to cause print these twenty four
better temperament For that nature is nothing as to Grace and sometimes he that hath more of Fire will be more Virtuous then he that hath more of Water seeing in case he serve himself of that natural heat to love God he will love him so much the more and if he employ his Anger to defend Justice and Virtue he will do much more good than a phlegmatick person who ordinarily loves only his ease It is the same with them that in the intemperature of their nature have contracted more Air than other Elements for they will always be more subtil to discover Evil and more prompt to do good when they will apply themselves to the search of true Virtue As he that hath more of Earth then other Elements will be more posed and grave and if he apply himself to the service of God he will be more constant and persevering in it than the other three And so every one may be agreeable to God in the state and condition wherein he is produced provided he apply the Talent which he hath received to the Glory of God and the Salvation of his Soul Therefore says David Let all spirits praise the Lord. That â—s not as if he would say that the Devils and wicked men praise the Lord seeing these blaspheme him but he gives to understand that all spirits that will become true Christians praise the Lord though they be all of divers natural complexions seeing God is no Respecter of Persons and does not regard whether we have more of Fire or of Water or Earth or Air in our natures but with what affection every one will love and serve him Which I regard also in writing of Solid Virtue I mean not to make it heavy and difficult I would only make it known to them that will follow and practise it because I love such So I cannot leave them in ignorance nor let them perish amidst their good will for want of knowing wherein true Virtue consists That is it which hath engaged me to deduce that matter at length lest these souls which are so dear to me should perish by ignorance as many have already who thought they had acquired true Virtue while they had only apparent ones or curious Speculations of Virtue not knowing that it consists in the overcoming of corrupt nature in true Humility and voluntary Poverty Though Jesus Christ hath so much taught it by Word and Works yet it is not followed in the practice for want of good Explication and the Light of the Truth Which God having given me I will willingly impart it to others in sending to light this first part of true Virtue And with time and opportunity I shall present more to the Glory of God and the Salvation of souls who aspire after true Virtue and Perfection What I offer them at present is with good heart as a Present come from heaven which shall shew them the light of the Truth and manifest the deceits of false Virtue as also the means to arrive at that which is solid and true This First Part discovers amongst other things how the Devil attempts always to divert Souls from true Virtue by so many Wiles and different means And finally it is a School where you may learn To deny your self take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ As he hath taught unto all that would be his Disciples in the perfect sense and true explication Receive it therefore with as good heart as I present it you by Christian Charity Who remain Friendly Reader Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON INDEX Of the Contents of the First Part. Letter I. WE must learn of Jesus Christ Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart Written to one desirous of True Virtue also all the following are addressed to the same shewing that to attain thereto we must have submission and Obedience by which we may begin to learn Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart Page 1. II. We must learn of Jesus Christ Meekness Lowliness and Humility of Heart Showing wherein Meekness and Lowliness consists which are fruits of the holy spirit and cannot be obtained unless we renounce our own will submitting to the Will of God p. 10. III. Men can sufficiently know the Will of God if they would perform it Shewing him that perswaded himself that the Will of God is not manifest in every thing that we might accomplish it denying our own that it may be known and is sufficiently manifested in the Commands of God which Jesus Christ proposes so clearly saying Learn of me for I am Meek and Lowly and humble of Heart p. 18. IV. Humility is acquired by the knowledge of our selves Shewing what Humility of Heart is what the Marks of it and how we should endeavour to attain it by the knowledge of the Infirmities and Miseries of our Souls and Bodys and blindness of our Minds p. 25. V. Humility is acquired by knowing Ones self Shewing that the true Knowledge even of things most esteemed by men ought to serve to humble them such as the Honours Riches and Pleasures of this Life That all these are vain disquieting unsatisfying and hurtful p. 32. VI. Humility is acquired by knowing Ones self Admonishing to Learn Humility by knowing the Truth of our corruption and Sin which is the disorder of our Five Natural Senses p. 40. VII He that serves the Lusts of his Senses thereby actually renounces the Love of God Exhorting to the Effects of Humility the renouncing of our Senses shewing that none can follow them but he thereby renounces the Love of God which is the End of our Creation and the Essence of true Virtue p. 47. VIII It is Easier to Love God than any thing else Shewing that we must renounce the abuse of our Senses and that the right use of them should be referred to God that it is possible reasonable and necessary to love God with all our Heart p. 57. IX It is easier to Love God than any thing beside him Shewing that it is most easie sweet profitable and honourable to love God and keep his Commands for him that will deny himself but that it is Blasphemy to say That it is impossible to love God with all our Heart p. 65. X. The Love of God is easie and renders all things easie Shewing that the Love of God is in it self most easie to be acquired whence the difficulties proceed which we find them and how they should be removed That this love admirably makes the inconveniences of this life and the keeping of the Commands of God and the Councels of the Gospel easie and pleasant p. 74. XI We must always proceed in Virtue whatever Impediments occur Giving encouragement in the Way of Virtue although the beginning be difficult because of the Tentations by which the Devil vexes them that have resolved to embrace true Virtue p. 83. XII The Devil the Enemy of True Virtue opposes it by all manner of Devices That it is necessary to know the
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
their Affairs and Houshold disquiets them Fortune is against them and in the end their Pleasures terminate in divers Griefs the Pleasures of the Flesh in Pains those of the Pallate into Diseases Honour into Contempt and Slights even as Haman's Pleasure when invited to the Queens Banquet changed into Grief when he saw that Mordecai would not render him the honour he desired so do all earthly pleasures terminate in Displeasure and sadness So that we can find no other true pleasure in the world but to love God only which is full pleasant and also honourable for what Honour is man capable of approaching unto that of loving a God so mighty who created Heaven and Earth and all other things and sustains them by his almighty power and who can give unto men eternal Salvation If we count it Honour that we love a King a Prince or other Person in Authority how much ought we to think us honoured that we may love a God who is incomprehensibly good and wise and what Honour is it for a small Worm of the Earth such as man is that he may love God who desires to be loved of him and even commands him to love him with all his heart As if God delighted to honour man by requiring to be loved of him And the honour of loving God is so considerable that it passes all that man is capable of in heaven or on earth Moreover it is also Profitable for him seeing that love can render him happy in this world and to all eternity Whereas all the Creatures together cannot procure us the one nor the other What profit can we draw from the Creatures who are unable to give us a Day yea an hour or even a moments life What could they then to give us Eternal Life All the advantage men can Draw one from another is a little Money Honour or Pleasure which vanish and most part ends in pain and grief as I have before shown And therefore we cannot truely call Pleasures the Advantages and Profits that men cause one to another No more ought we to esteem Honours which are but a blast of wind which vanishes in the air of a small Disgrace and so leaves nothing in the person honoured but a piercing grief that he is no more honoured What profit is it for a man to get of his fellow a little more money It is only a more weighty charge to bear in this world where the richest are the most miserable for they can never have more of their Riches but a little necessary nourishment and cloathing to cover them all the rest is superfluous to them and should serve others seeing he must not take for himself but for pure necessity What 's over gives only the Disquiet Care and Trouble of Dispensing or bestowing it So that a Lacquey is happier than his Master he hath no care but for himself but the Master must care for himself and all under him and see that nothing be wanting to them or else his servants will upbraid or despise him Is not that a poor advantage a little money that men can afford and yet he that receives it is obliged to a thousand thanks and beside to take a more honourable state which brings him more Care and Disquiet than he had before he was so rich That testifies that nothing in this world can advantage man or give him true Honour Pleasure or Content And so there is nothing but God can render man happy in this life and that to come seeing all the advantages men reap one from another serve but for their damnation Their Pleasures retire the Soul from God their Honours cause them to fall into Pride and their Riches into Avarice which leads them to the broad way of damnation and notwithstanding they fancy themselves happy for having the good will of men which is cause of their eternal misery But so great is their blindness that they cannot see these miseries however evident They perswade themselves that they are Happinesses that their Disquiets are Peace and their Displeasures Contentments For how many persons are there in the world who study all the Days of their life to perfect themselves in some Science to be esteemed of men how many that labour travail and put themselves in several hazards to gain a little money and how many that expose riches and life too to preserve their honour Although all these things be vain yet they love and esteem them often more than they do God for we see them not do for him what they do for the Creatures they render to them painful and hard services and imagin to themselves that there is more difficulty to love God than to love the World Notwithstanding the Love of God is easie sweet pleasant honourable and profitable as I have shown but the love of the world is disquieting sad without repose honour or profit for time and for eternity Which you may remark my Child by the reasons I have above deduced to you which should open your eyes to discern Falshood from Truth that you may never give place to the false perswasions which the blinded Christians would establish They say it is impossible to love God with all our heart and so blaspheme against him For God could not command an impossibility but all that he commands is good easie and pleasant And if you consider narrowly his ten commands you shall find but two of action viz. That of loving God and the other to honour Father and Mother The other eight are but prohibitions to do evil as not to kill steal bear false witness and the rest Is it then impossible to abstain from committing these evils that these blinded minds say it is impossible to keep the Commands of God Believe not these falshoods but constrain your self to get out of that valley of Snow which is the Riches and Pleasures of this life and ascend to the Mount of Consideration of things eternal and you shall find it pleasant to love God to which you shall have the helping hand of her who is Your Well-affectioned in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle 25. April 1672. st vet THE X. LETTER The Love of God is easie and renders all things easie To the same to whom is shown that the Love of God is in its self most easie to attain whence proceed the difficulties that occur in it and how to be removed that this love wonderfully lightens the incommodities of this life and renders the observing the commands of God and the Gospel-advices easie My Dear Child BElieve firmly that the words of Jesus Christ are true viz. That his Yoak is easie and his Burthen is Light and take his counsel in taking his yoak which you shall feel to be such if you will take it on I experience it daily more and more believe that you shall experience it as I do if you continue in the resolution to follow Jesus Christ and become his true disciple I
still worse if the Law of God had not been given him as a Voice to reclaim him and to ask him as to Adam where art thou for without that Law he had not known his sin It is given him as a Light in the midst of his darkness and as a Medicine for his Evils But men now adays call these mercies weighty Charges yea insupportable to their frailty which is a gross ingratitude and deserves to be punisht and that God should withdraw his Mercies from these ingrate and stupid persons seeing they overturn the benefits of the Law of God and the sweet and light Yoak of the Evangelical Law into Chastisements and insupportable Burthens saying that it is impossible to observe them and so they belie the word of Jesus Christ viz. That his Yoak is easie and his Burthen Light Believe your Saviour my Son and hear not these lying men that say the contrary Abandon your self to God embrace the Evangelical Law and you shall know by experience that his Yoak is easie and his burthen light Which she assures you of who remains Your Well-affectioned in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle April 20. 1672. St. Vet. THE XI LETTER We must always Advance in Virtue whatever Impediments come in the way To the same who is encouragad in the way of true virtue although the beginning be difficult because of the temptations with which the Devil vexed them that have resolved to embrace true Virtue My Son NEver weary in the Service of God the beginning of it is the difficultest You know that Rose-bushes bear thorns before they bear Roses it is the same with true Virtue It begins with Thorns a little pricking to corrupt nature but beautiful Roses will come in their season True virtue hath nothing pricking in it no more than the Rose for it is altogether sweet beautiful and fragrant nothing is sweeter than virtue It gives Peace and pleasure to the Soul for Peace and Joy are fruits of the Holy Spirit O what Peace and Contentment hath a virtuous Soul it seeks nothing fears nothing nor hopes nothing but in the promises of its God It acquiesces in his providence It yields it self to be conducted sweetly at the will and pleasure of the Lord. It is not disquieted nor straitned by any thing but in peace expects what God will dispose It affects nothing precipitates nothing knowing that patience and Long-suffering are the fruits of the Holy Spirit It is meek in it self and toward its Neighbour for Goodness Meekness and gentleness are also fruits of the Holy Spirit which he produces outward in the soul he possesses A virtuous soul is always modest and moderate in all its actions chaste continent and full of charity because the Holy Spirit who produces in it true virtue produces also his twelve fruits which are sweet and agreeable to God and Men. So that true Virtue is desirable for the sweetness it carries in it self It is desirable for its Beauty for nothing is more agreeable and beautiful than true Virtue for all good persons esteem and honour it seeing it is more estimable and honourable than all created things It can well abide a narrow search and near view for the neavrer we approach it the more we discover its beauty It is also fragrant as the Rose for true Virtue relishes in the nostrils of every one even of the Wicked who often are engaged to esteem it although they will not follow it And if we hear sometimes well inclined persons despise true Virtue it is because they know it not and have been often deceived with apparent Virtues wherewith the men of this time are filled which causes that the true is not so relished as it should but though it be not known nor esteemed among men yet it is sweet pleasant and savoury unto God who loves true Virtue as his Spouse because it is united inseparably with him And therefore my Child you must endeavour to acquire that beautiful Rose of true Virtue although you should feel the pricking of Thorns in the plucking it These pains will quickly pass but the beautiful Rose of Virtue will never fade It shall be eternally beautiful and of a good savour before God so you must spare nothing to acquire true Virtue If you feel pains therein they shall change into repose if you feel Grief it shall turn to Joy if Repugnance it shall be changed into Contentment for there is only the beginning which is difficult in the acquest of true Virtue The reason is because it is then the Devil uses all means to divert us from it He knows well that he can gain nothing upon us when we have acquired it and so he uses all his forces at the beginning to hinder us from arriving at it that is the reason why the Scripture says My Son if thou wilt embrace true virtue prepare your Heart for Temptation But the Devil leaves them in quietness who have only apparent virtues or those that have only good desires because he can ensnare them at his pleasure The first by presumption of their salvation because of apparent Virtues and the others in precipitating them unto death before they have brought their good desires to effect knowing well that Hell is paved with Good-wills which men had in this world without putting them in practice And therefore he leaves all such persons in peace as well as the Worldlings knowing well that he shall not miss them at one time or other and so he leads them softly to Hell with a silken rope without vexing or tempting them much But such as have truely resolved to follow Jesus Christ and embrace true Virtue he labours night and day to tempt them and by all means because he knows that he needs not pretend more to it when they have arrived at true Virtue Then they shall laugh at him and all his assaults and so he attempts to shake them at the beginning and to make them lose heart in considering the difficulty there is in acquiring true Virtue First he shows them the Pains and Thorns which they shall find in the mortification of their senses After he represents an impossibility to attain to so great perfection He shows them also the example of other persons whom they esteem good persons and tending to true Virtue For it is enough to them to make a morally good outside without being at the trouble to mortifie their five natural senses nor to renounce themselves and the Devil perswades them that that is not necessary for their salvation but he is but a Deceiver and Seducer of Souls that he may in the end render them partakers of his Miseries Keep your self My Son from his deceipts and give no ear to his suggestions nor to the Infirmities of your Nature For neither the one nor the other can hinder you to arrive at true Perfection provided you have a firm Resolution God will assist you and give you all that you need if
have some Grace from God keep it hid until it be God's will that you should discover it otherwise you put your self in peril of committing several sins while you shall not perceive it For there can easily slip into your heart some Vain-glory when you have received any particular Grace and even when you have only the desire of forsaking the World the better to serve God that can give you to esteem your self more than another heware also of publishing it before you have done it It is best to do and be silent for to speak of these things gives satisfaction to your nature for it is much pleased to speak of good things so it is best not to give it matter of vain complacency but to suffer the good Seed which God hath cast into your Soul to spring up secretly until it bud and send forth branches outward springing from the root within and in the end bear fruit whereof every one may gather without your loss or hurt Which will come when you have overcome all human considerations and Vain-glory and then shall true Virtue appear sufficiently in all your works without needing to make your trade to teach others Then shall your actions teach them and works are much more effectual Sermons than Words For it happens often that they that speak well do evil And for that words effect nothing in the Souls of others though good unless they know that these words come from his heart that pronounces them and then they have more force to work in the Souls of others but to speak of divine things and of Virtue without the practising of them is as tinkling Brass sounding or as a Perroquet that speaks without reason and beside the uselesness of these words to others they endanger their own soul by Vain-glory. For the Ignorant esteem for Virtue virtuous words and praise them as if it were reality though they be not at all estimable for the Devil himself can speak well of divine things as sometimes persons whom he possessed have said unto me I heard a Story how one time the Devil took the form of a Human Body and a Religious Habit and in that equipage came and presented himself to a Monastery where there was kept a great Solemnity and because of the Feast a great concourse of people Now the preacher of the convent fell suddainly sick whereat the Prior was much vexed having no person to preach but at that instant it was that the Devil came in his Religious Habit and knokt at the Gate and asked liberty to lodge in the Convent and when he presented himself before the Prior to have his Blessing as do ordinarily the Religious Strangers he askt the reason of his sadness Who answered It was because of the suddain sickness befallen the Preacher that was to preach at that hour and that he feared the Murmur and Scandal which that might cause because there was no Preacher to supply the want The Devil answered That he would willingly make the Sermon which rejoyced much the Prior thinking God had sent him that Minister in his Necessity The Devil then going up unto the Chair preached so powerfully and so wisely of the judgment of God of the State of the Blessed and that of the Damned that most of the Hearers wept with compunction and were astonished to hear so clear a deduction of all these things But a simple Religious Person of that Convent had a Revelation from God that it was the Devil whereof he advertised the prior who having ended his Functions caused the preacher to come before him and conjured him by God to tell who he was He answered that he was the Devil The prior askt how it was possible that he could preach so beautiful Truths and so profitable for the salvation of Souls To which he answered I reap my advantage by that for those that have heard me speak these Truths can find no more cloak of ignorance I have declared to them the State of the Blessed and that of the Miserable and the just judgments of God and they were all moved But they are so addicted to self-love and the love of earthly things that they will not put into practice what I have taught them but on the contrary will follow their old Customs and forget the Truths which I have preached to them and after that he vanisht like smoak in presence of the Prior and some other of the Religious leaving a noysom Stink behind him This history shews enough that the Devil can well speak the truth and good things when he sees he can make his advantage of it and therefore should we not esteem it a Virtue to be able to talk well of good things Virtue consists only in the practice and so imagin not that you shall do well to study much that you may speak advantagiously of Virtue that would be but Vanity without Profit But endeavour to study well the knowledge of true Virtue to the end you may put it into practice and your practice shall teach others Never read any thing to learn to talk well but read the Books which teach the practice of Virtue such as is that of Thomas a Kempis or other such like For the high and difficult questions cannot make you holy but will inspire your heart with Vanity and Pride Now seeing we ought to evite even the shadow of evil we must consequently beware of reading Unprofitable things or elevating matters of Controversie and hidden Mysteries seeing all these things do no more but fill our Spirit with wind not bringing any profit to the soul but much hurt For as a Vessel filled with some liquor cannot receive any other thing without mixing with what is in it or spilling it over It is the same with our understanding when it is replenished with curious studies of whatever matter For then the light of the Holy Spirit cannot be poured into it pure It is mixed with our proper thoughts and so there is nothing but confusion And in that Confusion as in troubled water the Devil fishes and dissipates quite that Light And therefore it is that so few souls receive purely the light of the Holy Spirit They are not empty but filled with fine speculations of Mystique things Others have their minds filled with Medecine Others with Astrology and so of other studies They cannot comprehend why they should not have the Light of the Holy Spirit as well as some other particular souls which they see and know to possess it But they need not be astonisht at that for the Holy Spirit cannot enter into a soul filled with something else It must be altogether void of it 's own Curiosities before it can be disposed to receive the wisdom of the Holy Spirit It should then desire to know nothing beside what God wills that it should know and consequently should not apply it self to read any Book but such as enlightens the understanding in the knowledge of true Virtue Neither must
entertain himself with his heavenly Father free from all distraction And nothing more pure than the intentions of our Saviour He says He came not into the world to accomplish his own Will but the Will of him that sent him Notwithstanding the Devil had the impudence to go to tempt him several times by Vain-glory in presenting to him the Kingdoms of the World as also the Stones to convert into Bread for his Hunger He tempted him also by the Scripture saying That be should throw himself down from the pinacle of the Temple because it is written that the angel shall preserve us c. Are not these full cunning wiles of the Devil while he uses the most holy things to tempt Jesus Christ He attempts to catch him by his Fasts his confidence in God and by glory in presenting him all the kingdoms of the World How then should he leave untempted frail and imperfect Creatures like us For what is man there that must not confess himself far short of the least of Jesus Christ his perfections Who is he that retires to the Desert to give himself to entertainment with God out of the Dangers and Divertisments of the world Who refuses the kingdoms and Riches of the Earth Who is he among the spirituals that does not tempt God by his Temerity and Presumption For they no sooner receive any particular Light or Grace from God but they Glory and esteem themselves beyond others And no sooner do they forsake sin to give themselves to Works of Mercy but they think God is beholding to them and that every body should esteem them Which happens to all that begin to serve God and follow true Virtue excepting none because of the corruption of our nature He that says or believes the contrary is deceived and walks not in rhe Truth and the knowledge of himself For all men in general and every particular brings these natural inclinations with him coming into the world they are all proud presumptuous covetous of honour riches and pleasures Always prefer themselves to others and esteem themselves worthy of all goods and honour Yea they think God oblieged to them for the least good action they do because the Devil hath furred into mans nature that pride of life which inflames the heart of man and hinders him to abase himself and acknowledge his faults We see that even Adam did not humble himself after his sin but endeavoured to excuse it saying The Woman which thou gavest me tempted me to eat of the Apple and she said The Serpent beguiled me All which proceeded from the pride which the Devil had already planted in the heart of our first Parents and consequently in the hearts of all men that were to proceed from them For all are stained with that sin of Pride and so they will not acknowledge their faults but defend them to their power Which also remains with them till death unless they overcome that corruption of nature by true Virtue And when they arrive at that they overcome the Devil For he hath no power but over his own works or the corruption which he hath caused in our nature That being once overcome we revive in the strength of the grace wherein Adam was created And when man finds himself united to God by the love he hath to him then he scorns at the Devil and becomes a new creature And so will no more have any fellowship with that corruption wherein he was born Yet such an one must be upon his guard for the Devil who seduced our first parents when in the state of Grace may well seduce a man that is regenerated in it so long as he lives in his time of tryal which is this miserable life for God will prove mans fidelity to him He created him free that liberty then must needs be proved otherwise it should be constraint For if God had willed absolutely to constrain him to love him he had been happy as Gods slave But he would honour man much more in creating him free that he might entertain himself with him He would then choose the soul of man for his Spouse and not his Slave And therefore it must have a time of proof or advisement to resolve if it would joyn and unite with its God or not Now this time of tryal was this present life in which Adam should have given testimony of his fidelity to his God Notwithstanding he was so imprudent as to break the fidelity he owed to the Spouse of his Soul would go joyn himself to creatures unworthy of his love And so he interrupted the covenant and fellowship which God would make with his Soul even until his sin and infidelity were purged by repentance That is the reason why his time of tryal was turned into one of penitence which Adam underwent faithfully all the time of his life But the pride which his first sin hath planted in our hearts makes us often depise him and wish evil to him because of the hurt he caused us As if he were the cause of our damnation which is a great error For although Adam had never sinned yet other men might always have damned themselves by their own sins during their time of tryal For each one for himself should in this time have given testimony of his fidelity to God since all men and every one in particular were of the same nature and condition and also in the same state with Adam before his sin And there is at present no other difference betwixt the state of man now and that of Adam but that since sin came men are born with an inclination to Evil whereas Adam had inclination to Good only when he was created With that exception we are of the same condition with Adam and created for the same end that our souls should be spouses to God provided we remain faithful to him during the time of our tryal and penitence which we must attend in this life which is full short in regard of that of Adam But if we knew the truth of things and discovered the snares of the Devil to shun and evite them in our good actions we might hope to attain again to an eternal union with God For Adam's sin cannot damn us if our own sins do it not seeing God hath pardoned Adam's sin in case he fulfilled his repentance And he hath also pardoned all other men upon the same condition but the misery of men now adays is that they know not those things and will here enjoy instead of suffering Which is a false perswasion of the Devil who insinuates himself into the holiest things while we perceive it not Which is a truth she exhorts you to believe who is careful of your Soul Holstein near Gottorp Castle May. 8 1672. St. vet ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE XVII LETTER Sin proceeds from Man's Freewill To the same shewing him an Eleventh sort of Tentation whereby we lay the blame of our sins upon the Devil to free our selves where is
cleared that the Devil cannot draw man to sin nor do him any hurt except man give his own Consent My Son IN my former I set before your eyes how the Devil tempts men many ways and insinuates himself into Virtue it self that he may direct our good works to his own honour and glory which very often comes to pass But I fear lest by yet another sort of tentation he catch you which you could not discover if you were not forewarned of it To wit when you have well considered the power and wiles of the Devil and find in your experience that it is he who incites you to do evil It is to be feared that you will lay the blame upon the Devil because sometimes you do evil against your will For mans heart is so proud that he will not confess his fault and so seeks for the cause of his sins without himself Which you may the rather do because I have deduced to you at length that all evils come from the Devil and all good from God but though that be most true we must not therefore imagin that the Devil of himself can ever force us to do evil For he is a miserable impotency who hath no power over our souls hearts and wills but so much as we give him The Devil may well represent evil to our spirit and incite our wills to follow it and incite our corrupt nature but he can never force us so long as our will remains firmly resolved not to consent to evil The Devil is as a chained Dog who can go no further than his Chain permits him and God will give him no more power than the will of man desires For though he permitted him to tempt Job by the loss of his Goods Children Friends and Health he did not permit him to cause him to fall into sin And although Job cursed the day of his Nativity he did not herein offend God nor fall into any sin For he cursed only the malediction which sin brought into human nature which all men have reason to do in feeling the pains and sufferings which sin hath caused to us For before sin man was not subject to any Evil and he enjoyed all Good without mixture of evil He was not annoyed with hunger or thirst heat or cold he had no labour to weary him he needed no sleep nor had any alteration in soul or body was not subject to diseases nor death So that man had enjoyed all sorts of delights in this world and the time of tryal being over confirmed in Grace he had lived eternally happy and blessed But sin hath deprived him of all that happiness and hath reduced him to all sorts of suffering and misery Which Job considering in the midst of his miseries he had reason to curse the day of his birth when he saw himself in inevitable miseries You must consider that Job did not curse the day that God created him in on the contrary he blessed him for all because he was his faithful Servant and so he desired to satisfie divine Justice for all his sins which he had committed Now because he so desired God permitted the Devil to tempt him in divers manners that Job's faithfulness might be manifest before all men and the Devil himself But they that understand not the way of God judge that Job was impatient which is false For his soul rejoyced in that God pleased to use him as a mirrour of patience to confound the Devil who could never make him fall into sin though he essayed it so many several ways God knew that Job's heart was submitted to his holy will and that he offered himself continually to him to be proved in what manner it pleased him And because of these wishes God permitted that the Devil might tempt him Now if the Devil had had power over man he had not needed to ask God's permission to tempt Job for he would have done it of himself without any permission But he hath no power over man save what he by his own free will gives him Besides God can never do any evil to man nor permit that it befall him without the consent of his free will So if we commit sin it is of our own free will as also when we damn our selves for God can never damn any person without doing the greatest evil that ever was which cannot proceed from God who can never do any evil But it is our sins that damn us and not God for if there were no sin there should be no damnation and sin depending on man's free will we must not attribute our damnation either to God or to the Devil seeing God gives us always Grace in aboundance to save us and the Devil hath no power to damn us So that man alone is truly blameable for the sins which he commits and ought never to attribute the fault to the Devil because he cannot wrong us if we will not He may well bark as the chained Dogs but he cannot bite us unless we approach him And therefore my Son you ought never to believe that the Devil is the cause of your evil doing though all evils come from him he cannot effect them in us without our consent He may well afflict our Body or Spirit when we desire to purge our Souls by suffering Then God suffers him to tempt us by the most salutary things As he may permit the Devil to bring to poverty a Good Man when he sees that he would forget himself by Worldly Goods God loving his Soul so takes away his Riches as the occasion of the Damnation of his Soul Sometimes also he takes away his Honour or his Health lest these should hinder the perfection of his Soul And it is not always directly mans will that these things should be taken away from him for he complains sometimes of it but when God takes them away it is always with the indirect will and consent of man For example the person does not desire to be poor afflicted or sick but desires that God send him every thing that is necessary for his salvation And God regarding that good will removes from him whatever might hinder the advancement of the desired Salvation And that is a fatherly Love which God bears to Man and not a Punishment as the natural sense takes it and complains of it But it is truely what the person desired in the bottom of his soul viz salutary things And the Prophet even prays God That he would constrain his rebellious will By which we may see that God never afflicts a person without his will and consent direct or indirect Because he created him altogether free he cannot be touched to good or evil no more by God than by the Devil who can never cause man to sin against his will direct or indirect But man does not always know the indirect will he hath to sin and for that says or believes that it is the Devil that makes him sin against his will
but that is only an excuse for their sin 'T is true the Devil can tempt man against his will but cannot make him sin against his will he may trouble his spirit and make him remember what he should forget And forget what he ought to mind But if the person be well upon his guard and will not do evil he shall discover easily that that comes from the Devil being against his will and so will betake himself to continual Prayer to God which Jesus Christ hath so much recommended to us as most necessary for our salvation Since we have continually an Enemy to combat we must continually have Arms to defend us and that will be necessary all the days of our life That is it which the Apostle counsels us To pray always without ceasing Because we have always need of divine succour and help against the continual Assaults which the Devil gives us For it is his business and employ to do the most evil he can And as a Merchant accounts himself happy to gain much Money by his Trafick or an Artist by his Labours so also the Devil accounts himself happy in gaining many souls to himself that he may exercise on them his Cruelty and Malice And therefore he never ceases for his part to labour and invent new snares to catch the soul of man And when we shut the door of our heart to him on one side he attempts to enter by some window on the other So that all human wisdom is not able to discover all the Subtilties of Satan who being a most subtil spirit surpasses in subtilty the capacity of man's spirit And therefore is it that he must of absolute necessity use continual Prayer to discover the tentations of the Devil which he cannot know without a divine Light and yet less hath he power to resist them without the assistance of God Whom he ought continually to invocate and call for help without intermission Seeing the Devil never sleeps and watches over us when we rest But the strength of Faith and Hope in God can make us overcome the Devil and despise him as but miserable impotence Seeing he can never make us fall into any sins without the consent of our own will which refusing him he can in no wise hurt man although he should tempt him with all his might during all his life These tentations serve only for greater and true virtues to the man because he passes the time of his tryal in testifying his faithfulness to God while he does not consent to the tentations the devil offers And I account it a much happier state to be tempted than not to be so while we resist the tentations seeing they purge our souls and satisfie the Justice of God who hath in Justice enjoyned penitence for our sins which we must needs accomplish during the time of our tryal which God hath limitted since the creation of man And if we will not voluntarily suffer the tentations of the Devil now we must suffer aboundantly more sensible pains after our death when the soul being separated from this mortal body feels more vividly the separation from his God than it does when joyned with its mortal body which diverts the sense of that separation by its five natural senses which seeing hearing tasting smelling and feeling gross and earthly things are suspended and amused that he cannot feel so lively the separation of his soul from God and so charms his great misery with the amusements of earthly things Which are nothing but truely Charms and Bewitchings for though we see by experience that never any person in the world was fully satisfied and content with earthly things although enjoying all they could demand of them so love we them and that love ruins us from the Love of God without that we feel the pain of it But after death all these gross and earthly things being ended as to us thence shall we feel vividly the absence of God because not diverted more with other things and that shall endure until the time of our tryal shall be past which God alone knows how long it shall endure But it is most certain that he that will not voluntarily endure the tentations of the Devil in this present mortal life shall assuredly suffer them more sensibly after death seeing no evil shall remain unpunished and no good without recompense And he that does the good of resisting the Devil in not following his tentations must expect an everlasting Reward and therefore methinks not to be tempted in this mortal life is the greatest of all tentations Since it deprives us of the good of satisfying the Justice of God and oblieges us to suffer afterward more sensible pains And therefore my Son be not offended to feel the tentation of the Devil but resist it valiently for the Glory is in the combat and not in Idleness and Rest seeing while we feel not tentation it is a sign that the Devil holds us in a lethargique sleep to cause us to die an eternal death insensibly and without pain But when he combats us with all his forces it is a sign that he does not hold us and that he fears to lose us Therefore take courage and pray God with an humble heart that he may give you strength to overcome the Enemy But never say it is the Devil makes you do evil but smite on your Breast and confess your guilt since the Devil cannot compel you to do evil but only your perverse will when it consents to his tentations For if the Devil could speak when you say that it is he made you do evil and sin he would give you the lie and say that it was not he that made you sin but that it was your own will without the consent of which you cannot sin You may well sin without the Devil for his malice hath entered into us by Adam's first sin but the Devil cannot bring forth sin in us without our consent You are always free to do evil though the Devil do not tempt or compel you because your nature was corrupted by the first sin and thence all men from Adam bring with them in their nativity that corruption and inclination to evil But when man is arrived to the use of reason he ought thereby to discern good from evil and choose which he will follow Yea he hath a natural instinct which makes him discern evil from good for we see often a Child without any Discretion be ashamed for having done evil and his countenance testifies sufficiently that he knows when he commits evil And therefore we ought never to believe that we cannot discern good from evil to make choise for that is but to flatter our selves For lo the wickedest man in the world however blinded in his sins knows assuredly well enough when he does evil but he hath no will to change his wickedness into good or he hath not the courage to resist the Devil and that because he hath given him so
much power over his spirit Otherwise man hath in him a good judgment beyond any other creature and by that judgment he can assuredly know and discern good from evil And it is free for him to choose the good and hate the evil by an absolute act of his will which the Devil cannot hinder And moreover he hath power to resist the Devil by faith and hope in God who never fails to come to the relief of a man who asks and desires it And therefore my Son you must never say that the Devil made you do any evil which were to make you his slave and testifie your subjection to him as are the Sorcerers who have given him their souls and promised to obey him For such have truely oblieged themselves to do all the evil he pleases and when they do it not he beats and abuses them But you being a Child of God and voluntarily subject to him you must nor fear that the Devil can constrain you to sin against your will and so never attribute to him the fault you commit your self It is true the Devil first incites good persons to sin but they should despise him and not follow him yea and mock at his tentations But we must always watch over his surprisals and never sleep in the way of true virtue Believe then the Apostle's counsel where he says My Brethren be sober and watch for that very reason because the Devil goes about us like a roaring Lion seeking to Devour us We must resist him couragiously and not say I was not thinking of the Devil when I fell into evil For he desires willingly that we do evil without thinking on it That is his best recreation For it does not fall out that good persons do evil but while they sleep and think not of evil Then is it that the Devil acts most in us and causes that we think not of it till after the evil is committed But our negligence or Sleepiness will not find excuse before God seeing we are oblieged to watch always if we would arrive at true Virtue To which she exhorts you who careth for your soul Holstein near Gottorp Castle May 13. 1672. St. Vet. ANTONIA BOURIGNON THE XVIII LETTER The Good and Evil Spirit are known by their Fruit. To the same giving him the signs to know whether it is the Good or Evil Spirit that moves us shewing also a twelfth Artifice of the Devil by which he causes us to impute our Vices to our natural propensions without suspecting him to lurk therein that he may remain unknown My Son I see yet one difficulty which occurs to your Spirit to wit How you should discover when the Devil insinuates himself into your good Actions and how you shall know that it is he that moves you to do good that he may catch you or to cause that what you do with a good intention turn to his Honour For you protest that you will not obey him nor follow his tentation in any thing when you discover and know that he tempts you Believe me my Son that is most easie to discern provided you have an absolute will to resist the Devil It is very good and most easie to discover if it is the good or evil spirit who moves us in all our actions and words to do or say any thing small or great because these two spirits have their qualities and conditions quite different and work in us quite contrary operations and dispositions So that you may as it were feel with your finger if it is a good or an evil spirit which moves you to say or do any thing by the dispositions you shall feel in your Soul For the good spirit produces in our souls Charity Joy Peace Patience Long-suffering Goodness Bounty Meekness Chastity Faith Continence and Modesty And the evil spirit on the contrary produces therein Self-love Sadness Trouble Impatience Rashness Wickedness Fretting Pride Despair Intemperance Inequality Unconstancy and Impurity which are all things contrary to the fruits of the good Spirit And as the tree is known by its fruit so may we know the evil spirit by the fruit he produces in our souls And therefore we must always examin if our enterprises or the will or intentions we have to do or leave undone any thing produce in our souls Charity Peace Faith Joy and the rest And then we may be assured that our enterprises and wills are from God seeing they bring unto us the fruits of his spirit But if on the contrary we feel in our souls Self-love Sadness Impatience and the rest we may well be assured that our desires and enterprises are excited by the Devil Which is a firm and sure rule We need not then amuse our selves at fine speculations to discover if we be moved by the Devil to do or leave undone any thing while we feel in our selves the effects of a good or an evil spirit For the Devil will never incite to Charity seeing it is a divine Quality which the Devil hath not in his power and which unites souls to God But he draws from self-love all manner of advantage and declines the soul from the love of God For he that loves himself covets Pleasures honour and Riches and all that is not God and so he is sad and is not in the capacity to acquire true Virtue for he hath not courage to resist the tentation of the Devil but suffers himself rather to be overcome by dark melancholy Thoughts But the good Spirit banishes these thoughts by the joy which it brings to the Soul And although there were all sorts of occasions of Sadness externally even for our sins that good Spirit comforts and rejoyces the bottom of the soul amidst the most sensible Troubles and Pains When we have then inward joy in the midst of sufferings it is an assured testimony that the holy Spirit dwells in us Which hath often rejoyced me in the midst of Suffering and Persecutions I felt therein a great joy in the bottom of my Soul in lamenting my sins and I thanked God that he gave me these Tears of Repentance But the Devil gives only counterfeit and external joys which afflict and grieve the heart when they are over that is the cause why we see worldly persons always search after new Recreations and Divertisements For th' one is no sooner gone but Melancholy and Sadness seises the heart who would so divert himself and for that he hunts insatiably after new divertisments without finding withal true Contentment which we cannot have but by the joy of the Holy Spirit and that joy is not to be found among the Divertisments of the World I was astonisht to hear one day of a person who would re-establish Israel that he searcht for a great House with a Garden to divert himself and walk therein as also that he must sometimes go to walk in the field or go in a Barque of Pleasure or Boat to divert himself which gave me enough to
understand that the Holy Spirit had not yet brought forth his fruits in his soul though he was accounted a Saint For then should he not have needed human Divertisments to be joyful by As for me I know by experience that I have more joy and contentment in my soul in Solitude and far from human divertisments than I have in mens conversation or amongst the most divertising Objects Which gives assurance that my joy proceeds from the Holy Spirit It must needs be that it comes not from human means for it were my Consolation never to come out of my Closet and to hear nothing but in my own heart and inner man But the Joy which proceeds from the evil Spirit terminates and ends always in Sadness and Melancholy with an earning after new Divertisments to divert that Sadness so that it is most easie to Discover if it is the good or evil spirit which dwells in our souls by the Dispositions and operations which we feel in them when we have the desire to do or say any thing we need not so much go to consider if it is in appearance good or indifferent to know if it comes from God as to examin the disposition which that desire brings into our soul to wit if it is in Peace and waits for the effect of its desires with Patience and Long-suffering For that is a sign the Spirit of God hath given us that desire and that it is his will that we effect it but if we perceive that that desire to do or say any thing marr our Peace and disturb our Spirit with impatience and attempt to precipitate us before the time of fulfilling our desires That is a sign that it comes from an evil spirit And if the desire or thing is good in it self it is a sign that the Devil would mix and insinuate himself into that good work to reap his Glory thence However we must not cease to do or speak what is good in it self but we must be on our guards that we suffer not the Devil to insinuate himself in it We must then use continual Prayer to have God's succour and Assistance and Strength to overcome the tentation which the Devil offers us while we are doing good We must never cease from doing Good Works because of the tentation of the Devil For he would gladly always hinder them if he could But we must examin well the inward disposition of our Souls to discover if the Devil does not insinuate himself therein that we may purifie our intentions and beware that the Devil find no advantage therein And if you will know my Son when it is God that inspires any thing to you remark always if it is accompanied with Goodness Benignity Faith Continence and Chastity For God never gives inspirations that are not accompanied with these conditions But the Devil often gives inclinations to do good with Fretting Malice Despite Dispair Inconstance Levity and Impurity I have seen sometimes persons that gave to the Poor by Despite and Fretting upbraiding and reproaching them without any faith of an eternal Reward I have seen others assist at publique Devotions with insolence and lightness And now adays almost all marry by incontinence and impurity All these things though good in themselves are induced and excited by the evil spirit since they tend to an evil end though good in appearance And therefore must we always be upon our guard and watch against so powerful an Enemy who attempts to surprise us in all our actions both good and indifferent that he may render them evil therefore we must study well to discern the good spirit from the evil Which we may do seeing there are assured marks to know them Never say then My son that you know not if it is God or the Devil who moves you to do or omit any thing but rather acknowledge with Humility of heart that you are not vigilant enough and diligent to discover that evil spirit who dazles your understanding that you should not know him For every word you speak or action you do you may discover if it comes of the Devil provided you make a serious reflection upon your self But the misery is that we are distracted and wandering and the Devil makes us forget what we should remember and puts in our mind what we should forget that he may bring confusion in all our behaviour Remark well that Advertisment and you shall find by experience that it is but too well grounded for since the Devil can no more make you fall into manifest sins he will always endeavour to make you contradict the holy spirit which you do not yet know well You have indeed resolved in general to obey him and follow him as you have done in abandoning the World in loosing your affections from earthly goods and desiring to follow Jesus Christ in his Lowness and Humility All that proceeds from the Spirit of God who hath governed you in the most important things and the Devil could not hinder it But now he attacques you in small things and of little import that he may hinder you to do the will of God in every thing and often he gains your will to make it contrary to the will of God in common and ordinary things For if you reflect upon your self you shall find there a certain opposition to whatever I propose to you which comes often even contrary to your will yea you are vexed that you should have so opposed or contradicted me Yet on the first occasion you do it again which cannot proceed of your self since you are displeased at it Now it is a firm and true Rule that whatever Evil we do against our will comes of the Devil and not of our selves I know that Spirit of contradiction which you have against what I desire comes not of your own will For you would gladly obey me in every thing seeing you know that I never desire any evil But you cannot in effect obey me in things good and salutary which comes assuredly of the Devil who is a spirit directly contrary to the Spirit of God which governs me For he moves as soon as I speak and brings some contradiction or opposition to what I propose he is troubled enraged and frets and would cause among us Thunder and Lightning as Heat and Cold do which occur in the air Which you do often and know not to help it because you have not sufficiently Discovered that it is the Devil does it in you against your will For you alledge sometimes reasons as if you would sustain his Quarrel and shew that you have reason to contradict me which you could not do if you believed that I have the Spirit of God from whom no evil can proceed But the Devil makes you forget that and excite in you a spirit of contradiction to which your nature is also enclined which is the cause you Discover not sufficiently that it is the Devil and attribute it to your natural inclination
other but live at ease without fighting they remain in quiet amidst the danger of their Enemies And which is strange when any would waken them out of that Lethargique Sleep they are grieved and dissatisfied notwithstanding that Sleep will assuredly procure them eternal Death if they do not awake to fight their Enemies We cannot hinder that these Enemies assail us every where but they are unwilling to be discovered because an Enemy discovered is half vanquisht And therefore my Child you ought to rejoyce rather than be sorrowful that God permits that I now discover so many wiles of the Devil For you cannot make that he be not wicked and that all manner of malice proceeds not from him nor can you hinder that he tempt men since our first parents have given him that power and if they had not done it we give him dayly the same power over us which he got over them by the consent of our will to his tentation It being so we must fight or render to him which were lamentable For we were created true Children of God after his Image and Resemblance And we should become by our Sloath Children of the Devil which you must never suffer but endeavour to discover the evil and resist it to your power And bless God also that he sends you his Light that you may know it and beware of it without afflicting your self so much because the Devil hoth power to tempt men For tentations purifie the soul and render it agreeable to God He takes pleasure to see us fight his and our Enemies And he gives us strength and aid if we persevere constantly yea he hath prepared for us Triumphant Lawrels and Eternal Rewards of Victory Therefore you must not give place to that feebleness of spirit to languish because the Devil hath power to tempt men since it is not in you to take it from him he hath too long possessed it For since he made himself the Enemy of God he hath had power to do in himself all the evil he pleased although his evil cannot hurt man unless he consent For man hath full liberty to resist him as the Devil hath full liberty to tempt us If that were not true he could never have tempted Adam our first Father who was altogether holy and perfect at his Creation and had not in his beginning given any occasion to the Devil to tempt him But the Devil being created free as well as man he had power to do all the evil he pleased in himself For he would even be equal with God which is a greater evil than to tempt Adam in his innocence And that of tempting men now is yet far less seeing they are corrupted by the first Sin And it is yet less when he tempts them that have so often consented to him with deliberate will And therefore my Son you have no ground to fret because the Devil hath power to tempt you but you ought truely to regret that you have by your past sins given him so much power over your soul Resolve now to war against him with manly courage and hinder that he get more power over your soul by resisting his tentations for that is a holy and salutary Resolution But that Grief which you conceive because the Devil hath power to tempt you and others comes from him He makes us always desire things impossible and such as are not in our power that he may afflict and discourage us For he knows well that a grieved and discouraged person is not well fitted to resist his tentations and that in that state he can easily lead him from one evil to another And therefore he often causes vain griefs such as is that which proceeds from that the Devil hath so much power to tempt men and also the disturbing grief for our sins past which are no more in our power These are Extremities into which the Devil attempts always to precipitate us It is true we ought to regret that we have willingly given the Devil so much power over us and more lament our by past sins but we must not therefore rest in these griefs seeing they would mar the Graces of God in us It is better to go to God by love and amendment of life than by Melancholies which proceed from the Devil for before his entry there was nothing but all joy in the world and in the heart of man So that sadness is truely a quality of the Devil and so man ought to Despise it if he seeks after true virtue He ought indeed to have a sincere regret from his heart that he hath offended God and beg pardon of him as often as he remembers his sins but he ought never to suffer himself to be overcome of grief since what 's past is not in his power And though he should destroy himself he can never make that what is past should not be He ought then for penitence of his by-past sins endeavour a true conversion to God departing from evil to do good detesting sin to embrace true virtue Which is a true contrition much more solid than tears and immoderate sadness which the Devil ordinarily gives them that begin Of which you must beware my Child for God would be served with a ready and joyful heart And he says that he treats with the converted sinner as if he had never offended him You should then rejoyce for the Grace God hath given you to forsake the World and to turn from Vanity unto the Truth which you now discover and not afflict your self because the Devil hath so much power to tempt men seeing that power cannot be exercised but on those that give or have given him their full consent and that all things turn to good to them that fear God When the Devil tempts you remember that he cannot hurt you without your own consent and your resisting his tentation renders you agreeable to God For your soul must be proved as Gold in the Furnace which grows still the purer by continuing in the fire Even so is a soul purified by long tentation if it remain firm in resisting and nothing can hurt it but sin from which if it abstain it carries the victory over its enemies and all they can do against it are but false allarms which try its Fidelity and Vigilancy And therefore we must not desire that the devils power should be taken from him but earnestly pray to God for strength to resist him and fight until death For Jesus Christ in the prayer which he left to Christians hath not asked to be free from tentation but only not to be led to follow the tentation and to be delivered from evil And since there is no other evil but sin we pray only to be delivered from it and not from tentation which is often profitable and salutary for us yea sometimes necessary to our frailty For our nature is so feeble and corrupted that it could not remain faithful to God out of tribulations
forgetting ordinarily it self in too much Prosperity we see daily among men that he that prospers becomes proud and fixes in the world as in a place of abode and permanent And on the contrary that he that is in Adversity and tribulation becomes humble and hath his recourse to God I speak of such as are well-meaning and pious for to the wicked all turns to evil If they Prosper they offend God the more if they are in Adversity they blaspheme him and despair And all these things arrive in temporal Prosperities and Adversities so do they also to them that seek after true Virtue for not being tried by Tentations and sufferings they should not persevere in Virtue Although they were arrived at the profounest knowledge of divine Mysteries had the Gift of Prophecying and doing Miracles all that should vanish into smoak except they Pass through the furnace of Tentations and Afflictions For we cannot in this life arrive at that degree of Perfection in which Adam was at his Creation who yet fell full sordidly into sin against his God He forgot God and turned himself to the Creatures for he had all sorts of Prosperity Joy Content and Pleasure and knew not evil he could not imagin that his turning from God would render him so miserable having never felt any Misery But after he was tempted of the Devil and saw by experience that earthly Pleasures and Contentments had rendered him so miserable he was loath to stay longer in them and loved rather to embrace Sufferings and Patience as he did all the time of his life as to remain in the pleasures of an earthly Paradise which had made him forget his God by sensible Pleasures And if Adam a Creature so noble so holy and so perfect as God created him could not remain constant in the fidelity which he owed to his Creator before his tryal of tentations as he certainly did after them how should we contemptible and frail Creatures born with a propension to evil be able to remain faithful to God without being proved by tentation Our souls should be like wood silvered on the out-side which rusts with a little rain but we must endeavour to render them Silver or Gold purified by the fire of tentations and afflictions otherwise we can never arrive at true Virtue to which you my Son aspire And therefore rejoyce rather than afflict your self because the Devil hath power to tempt you for his tentations serve to perfect your soul and to acquire true Virtue at which you cannot arrive without passing through the furnace of Tribulations and Tentation of the Devil That Furnace is an Instrument most necessary for the perfection of your soul So Constrain your self to embrace them as St. Andrew embraced the Cross Saying O Good Cross Say also O blessed Tentation seeing by it I shall become more agreeable to God You have perhaps when in the World loved your mistresses Favours or Colours Shew now that you have chosen Jesus Christ for your Lover love and carry willingly his Colours and Livery esteem as love-favours all the Tentations which the Devil gives you because Jesus Christ was cloathed all the days of his life with Tentations and Sufferings both from Devils and Men. You must then wear his Livery if you will be his Servant Do you not feel my Son that the Devil tempts you every day yea every hour and moment and for that you have need to fight and resist continually if you would be saved It is a good sign that you perceive and feel the tentation for many feel it not at all and follow in every thing the tentation of the Devil Would you willingly be seised with that Lethargy and would you wish that the Devil should tempt you no more that were an evident sign that he held you as his own for ordinarily he tempts but little the persons that do his will easily He leaves such in quiet and they are well content not to be vexed with tentations They imagin themselves to be then in a good state though they be in effect in the greatest of all tentations But God hath delivered you from that danger in making you know and feel the tentation So you can no more be ignorant of it For I have shewed you it too plainly and you feel it also upon occasion I see by the eyes of the Spirit that the Devil moves your passions so soon as I open my mouth to speak to you and I feel that your inward motions are stirred up to oppose and contradict mine Which cannot proceed from your self for you have resolved assuredly to follow and hear me because you are convinced in your conscience that the spirit of God governs me And yet you cannot do it upon occasion and you feel fightings against what-ever I propose to you Now if you will not resist thereto you shall always follow the will of the Devil which you desire not to do You must then watch continually and be never weary to resist the Devil no more than he is to tempt you The greatest assault he gives you now is to make you contradict and oppose my will and desires And that because he sees that if you follow my will you follow assuredly the will of God seeing I have no other will but his And therefore it is that he acts continually in you to contradict me and your spirit strives against mine as Gabriel did with Lucifer You must resolve to which you will give the Victory If you will that the spirit which is in you have the Victory that shall be the Devils will But if you will that the spirit which is in me carry it you must combate your own and hold it suspect in every thing For from a spirit that is evil can nothing good proceed Now you cannot doubt but the spirit which is in you is evil seeing it opposes it self to mine and does the things which you would not of your own will do and that you have displeasure from the bottom of your soul that you contradict me and are not conformed to my will For your own will cannot be contrary to it self and cannot will that which it wills not And so we must conclude that it is the evil spirit who acts in you contrary to your own will and since you will not obey him you ought to be very glad that I resist him upon occasion For I hold him for my Enemy and will oppose him with all my power in every one in whom I perceive him all I do in you I am then sure that it is the Devil that evil spirit who gives and inspires in you these oppositions to my will For if it were not he that opposes you would follow all my will and desires with joy Resist then valiently all your proper inclinations and hold suspected all the motion of your corrupt nature to which the Devil is united and by these motions he acts in you But receive my sentiments and follow that which I
Money nor other Service nor Medecines which could not prolong his Life one day And so he demanded of him assurance of his Salvation since he could not prolong his life that if he must die he might do it with peace and in assurance to die happy and to be saved That demand afflicted much the Prince and made him answer that his Salvation depended upon the Grace and Mercy of God and consequently it was not in his power to promise and far less to give it him Which grieved the Servant so exceedingly that turning away from his Prince and turning his face to the wall he said O Miserable man that I am have I passed all the days of my life to serve and please a Master who is not able to assist me in my greatest need nor give me one hours life I will not henceforth serve so impotent a Master And in that resolution he made a vow to God That if he would restore him his health that he would forsake men and retire to the Desert to serve God alone and attend the perfection of his Soul and so give himself to a Lord that could give him Life and Salvation Which he did in effect for God having restored him to health he retired to the Desert and there lived a good life during some years and in the end died well Does not that History open your understanding to understand the blindness of men who spare nothing in the service of the world but bestow therein their care and labour without scruple to please men such as themselves or to gain a little earthly Goods For Although that Story were not true as I believe firmly that it is Yet we see dayly that every one cares and labours for a little Money or a little Favour which they expect from men though it is most certain that they can give us nothing that 's solid and that they leave us at death not having the power to give us an hour of life Ought we not to have shame and confusion to say or think that it is difficult to watch always over our Words and Actions to discover the Snares of the Devil and the means to attain true Virtue While thereon depends our eternal Happiness and there is nothing can concern us so nearly as that For the devil snatches all occasions to surprise us And if we are not well on our guard we shall not speak one word nor do one action whereby he will not cause us to sin although we do not perceive it For he will make us speak what we ought to keep in silence and be silent of what we ought to speak to draw thence his advantage and to bring disorder and confusion in all to make us sin or others by our means And therefore pray I you to be diligent and to watch over all your actions that you may overcome the Devil and arrive at true virtue Which she wishes you who loving your Salvation remains forever Your well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle June 1. 1672. St. vet THE XXI LETTER Spiritual Diligence necessary beyond all other Virtues To the same shewing him how necessary Spiritual Diligence is to confirm the mind in virtue And to remove yet two Impediments of the Devil Viz. 15 sins of Omission wherewith the Devil tempts good persons and 16 self-love which every-where mixes it self and is a continual sin My Son YOU must know that Spiritual Diligence is the most necessary of all the Virtues without which you cannot persevere in any Virtue and the Devil will always labour to cause you to lose them by degrees if you keep not firmly that of Spiritual Diligence For if he see you to have obtained the Virtue of Humility he will excite occasions of Pride as the Praises of men Prosperity in temporal Goods and such like to make you lose your Humility which you have already obtained by the Grace of God Be always on your guard then with Spiritual Diligence otherways you shall insensibly loose Humility before you be aware Which befel my self for after God had given me the Virtue of Humility I felt again Pride rise in my heart I felt a dissatisfaction when men gave me no Title of Honour or Respect but called me simply by my Name I even murmured at their incivility and though I testified nothing of it outwardly my Humility was notwithstanding weakened inwardly So that if God had not given me spiritual Diligence to watch continually over my Soul I had assuredly lost that comely Virtue of Humility as also that of Voluntary Poverty For after I was entirely freed from the Covetousness of this worlds Goods and had effectually forsaken them I felt covetous thoughts many years after For certain pious persons having demanded of me to put some Money in fellowship with them in their businesses which I did with intention to bestow all the Gain upon the Poor but after I had made that resolution I began to argue with my self If it was not enough to leave them the half of the Gain or some part of it and keep the rest for my self But examining my Conscience with Spiritual Diligence I discovered that the Devil intended by that to cause me to relapse into the Covetousness of the goods which by Virtue I had abandoned Which befel me also again after many years One time while I was at Malines about some business I conceived a desire to buy some Laces which are made there in aboundance with design to sell them dearer at Lisle and so save the expense of my Voyage Now after I had boughr them and saw appearance of gain I thought I might well keep that gain for my self though I was then in a house of poor which I had undertaken to govern for Charity and to employ thereon all my Labour and Industry for entertaining those Miserable Girles without seeking my own particular interest But the Devil endeavours always to surprise persons of a good will by most subtil snares unless they remain firmly fixed in spiritual Diligence and watch over all their words and actions For though it seemeth often that our actions are good reasonable and for a good end yet the Devil furs himself therein and attempts to get his advantage And when he cannot gain much he contents himself with little but yet brings always some hurt to the perfection of our souls or that of others So that we must be diligent that he may gain nothing For he cannot hurt us when we perceive it and have our wills fixed on God and a resolution to tend to true Virtue For when we discover the snares of the Devil we shall assuredly resist them but if we fall into spiritual negligence hee 'l ensnare us in all things and I believe we shall not speak a word from which he shall not draw some advantage against our souls or those of others For he will make us be silent of what we should speak for our advancement spiritual
End of the First Part of the Treatise of Solid Virtue EXTRACTS OF SOME OF THE WORKS OF Mrs ANTONIA BOURIGNON Belonging to some Most Essential MATTERS of Christianism and Health LETTER I. Of Toleration That it ought never to go the length of communicating with Sin directly or indirectly Of the Essential and of the Perfection of Christianity Of Religions Worships and Ceremonies and their use This Letter was written to one of her Intimate's Mr. Van de Velde and is the second of Light arising in Darkness 3. part Sir 1. I Know you seek the Perfection of your Soul and that you aspire after God I know also that he hath imparted of his Grace to you and particularly taught you his will in some things but I know also that you have not yet received the Holy Spirit which should teach us all Truths seeing you discern not yet well Evil from good and love all indifferently by a natural goodness as did Adam who knew very well the Consolation and Quiet which a Soul finds in entertaining it self with God but knew not what Evil was because he had never proved it He was created in Pleasures and Delights and conversed with his God in peace without apprehending the Evil which might come upon him in abandoning God to please himself with the Creatures And therefore did he so easily fall into sin before he perceived the Mischiefs and Miseries it would cause him 2. And almost the same is befallen you my dear Brother for when you enjoyed sweet entertainment with God you remained in the sensualities of corrupted nature by which you have insensibly lost commerce with God because so soon as he sees one take pleasure in any thing else but himself he retires by little and little and leaves the Soul to live to it self which precipitates it self often into divers Evils because our proper will engenders death since it was corrupted by sin 3. You did love Good and do yet love it but you have not enough hated Evil because you did not well know it perswading your self that you did well enough when you supported it in others not perceiving that we can sin in another nine ways the First is in Consenting thereto 2d in Councelling it 3d. in Tolerating it 4th in Assisting it 5th in Defending Evil 6th in Commanding it 7th in Partaking with it 8th in not Hindering it when in our power 9th in Hiding it from him that would hinder it 4. All these are not enough considered and we easily fall into them without considering it Although we desire to please God the Devil often surprises us by sins without us when he perceives that he cannot prevail to get us to commit them in our selves for he hath as much power over us by the sins which we commit in another as by them we commit in our selves seeing they shall both alike be imputed to us and if I did not advertise you of it you might easily fall into them without perceiving it For example you converse with persons that are avaritious proud or stained with any other sins they ate subject and inferiour to you as your Wife and Children or your Men or Maid-servants or Hirelings or whoever they be over whom you have authority notwithstanding lest you should displease them or lose their friendship you consent to their committing of sin without Daring or willing to resist it All these sins which are committed with your consent shall assuredly be imputed as if you had committed them your self To councel to do evil that you will not so long as you fear God but for suffering it in others I doubt you do it sometimes because you have not enough of hatred to sin as when you see one deceive in selling to or labouring for you and yet continue to buy of him or employ him in labour that is assuredly to suffer the evil which he commits 5. It were better to be in necessity without dealing with them that sell or labour by Avarice Fraude or Deceit for the Soul is more precious than the Body which ought rather to endure its necessities than to supply them to the prejudice of its soul which is assuredly defiled by suffering the sins of another and yet more by assisting and helping evil as he that would give goods to one that is Avaricious Gluttonous Proud Slothful or a Drunkard would assist him to go on in his sins and commit more with the Gifs and assistances he affords him and if we defend or excuse the Evil of another we also become guilty of the same for we ought never to excuse or defend it lest we so maintain the Evil-doer in his sins to commit which our corrupt Nature needs no encouragment and whoever affords it is partaker of the sin of the other Although it is commonly said That we should excuse the Faults of other and assist Sinners that is a false Theologie very hurtful to the Upright who are often deceived by Evil for lack of knowing it 6. Also you are not in hazard to command Evil so long as you fear God neither would you ever partake with manifest sin as with Robbery for God hath delivered you by his Grace from Avarice Yet you must take care to hinder evil when in your power or else the omission would render you partaker of the Evil committed and even so when you do not declare it to them that would hinder it All these sins or part of them may be committed by good men who aspire after Perfection particularly when they are of a good disposition naturally they take all in good part I have sometimes slipt into some such Faults by too much natural goodness or human regard but after God shewed me clearly these sins which we commit in another which I impart to you because I love your perfection as much as my own by a true Christian Charity seeing that you aspire unto its perfection which I will also shew wherein it consists for the darkness of this world is at present so great that the souls that are well enclined know nor whither they walk in regard of perfection taking often the false for true and imperfect for perfect and that because they have now taught so many divers means to perfection that one knows not which to take for the surest One says we must go frequently to Church and frequent the Sacraments Another places Christian Perfection in entering into some Religious Fraternity or Convent Others in fastings and Macerating the Body All these things were Good if well used but these are not the end nor that wherein Christian perfection consists For these may be performed by them that shall never attain to salvation because no external thing perfects the soul nor can they defile it They are only the means whereby we more easily attain to virtue or by abuse fall more easily into sin 8. Every Soul in particular ought to use the external means which excites them most to Christian Virtue and evite also things
your Soul and dispose it to recover that Union while I shall endeavour by mine that shall follow to shew you what true Virtue is and of whom you are to learn it that you be not deceived by any body and that you may discern truely between true and false Perfection in which many well-meaning Persons are deceived of themselves and others and your self has not yet gotten that light of true discerning to know things as they are before God taking them only as they appear to mens judgments who often deceive for it is written that all men are liars yea we lie often even to our selves perswading our selves that we know and understand mystique things while we are wholly ignorant of them Here follow some CONFERENCES Taken out of the THIRD PART Of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD CONFERENCE XI Declares how we must be regenerated to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that we must return into the Dependance of God which is the only thing which God requires essentially of Man I asked her How that Regeneration could be performed for persons already advanced in Age and Doctrine SHe said Sir we must take wholly a new Life as if we were newly born to day because all the Good which we esteem our selves to have done heretofore is evil or at least good for this life for all our good works have always been accompanied with Self-love or with human Considerations which can never be recompensed in eternity because we have here received their Reward What we do by Self-love is recompensed by our satisfaction and what we do by human Considerations is recompensed by the complacency of men so that we can never in justice pretend any thing else being fully satisfied in this World after the pretensions and ends which we have had in doing our good works Although they have been covered with the cloak of the Glory of God or Charity toward our Neighbour all hath been in effect but vanity Therefore is it that he who will be converted must assume a life wholly new and believe that he hath never done one only action purely for the Love of God Which he shall know sufficiently by examining all the sins against the Holy Spirit and them which we commit in another with the eight Beatitudes and the other solid Virtues Every one may thereby see how far he is alienated from the state of the Blessed which Jesus Christ hath declared in these eight Beatitudes and if he hath the will to acquire them how he must take up a wholly new life and become as a Child newly born who suffers himself to be governed by his heavenly Father Neither age nor learning can hinder that we abandon our selves unto God suffering our selves to be ruled as it pleaseth him because the more we are advanced in age the more must we make haste to recover our Salvation because we have but the small time that our life endures The conversion of persons in age should not be deferred one day lest their life escape and there be no more recovery because after death there is no more remission The Learned must also acknowledge that all their Wisdom is but Ignorance before God which is often an impediment unto his Graces and that the time is come when he will destroy the wisdom of the wise and abolish the prudence of the prudent that all may receive the Kingdom of Heaven as little children I said unto her That it was very desirable to be of the number of them who shall be converted and that I would be the first to abandon my self wholly unto God as a little Child She said Sir no person can be entirely converted if he do not know the sins and also the true vertues These two things are necessary For otherwise men should think they were converted while they were yet full of sins and had not yet acquired any solid Virtues Therefore is it that I have spoken unto you so particularly that you should not remain in the darkness which invirons all the men in the World There should yet be found many who would turn and be converted but very few who know their internal sins and yet fewer who know what true Virtue is All these would make conversions false before God for if they do not know their hidden sins they cannot amend them and if they do not know what true Virtue is they cannot practise it The ignorance of these two things hinders that they cannot be converted unto God nor yield themselves to be governed by him That then must be learned first of all to know the state of their Soul in what degree of sin it is and also in what degree of true Virtue If these things were known there should be yet many who would embrace the spirit of penitence and abandon themselves unto God as little Children but because they know not the state of their Conscience many perish insensibly not knowing their miseries If you will Sir be abandoned unto God as a Child think that all that you have done hitherto is of no value and cast your self in Gods Arms who is your Father as a Child who cannot speak that he may teach your every thing He shall do it assuredly For it is his desire that we be converted unto him when we withdraw from him by our sins he suffers it because he will not retract the free will which he hath once given us for he is immutable in all his works but so soon as we return unto him by penitence he receives us as the father did his prodigal Child accepts us for his Child and Heir of his Glory But if you think to continue in your proper wisdom you shall never receive the Holy Spirit You must become simple as a Child and not will any more to use your proper will remitting and reposing it wholly in Gods hands giving him the reins of your proper will that he may guide it and conduct it whither he pleaseth and that you may no more be able to abuse it as hitherto you have done which you must confess with regret for if our will had been ruled by God we had never come into such Extremities of all Evils I said unto her That I must confess that my will had not been ruled by God because I had not known as at present the manner of abandoning my self unto God She said Sir no man can ever be saved unless he know that he must be entirely abandoned unto God because that is the first and last Commandment which he hath given unto man and to speak better it is the only thing which God requires of man If we would absolutely depend upon God we should fulfil all the Law and the prophets That is the only thing necessary All that I can ever have said Sir is comprehended in the DEPENDANCE which we ought to have upon God because he hath never required any thing else of man and also shall
Essence of Virtue without practising it is nothing else but vain Speculations and to know the Evil without eviting it is a worse curiosity which fills our understanding without fruit I have spoken of True Virtue that you might follow it rather than the false and also of the Romish Church that you might not follow it as holy I have spoken unto you of the Reign of Antichrist that you be not deceived by its false appearances of piety declaring unto you that more then three fourth parts of the World are of his compact that you might work out your Salvation with fear and might not trust your self unto any person because the most Wicked are the greatest Hypocrites that they may the better deceive I have told you That we are in the judgment and that the last Plagues are begun that you might not refer your Salvation unto another time because that which remains unto us is short I have told you That Jesus Christ shall come upon Earth to judge the Good and the Wicked and shall there exterminate all Evils that you might aspire after that Felicity and depart from the Misery of them who shall be sent to Hell I have told you That Jesus Christ shall remain upon Earth to reign there with all the Righteous eternally that the expectation of that Glorious Coming might give you strength to sustain with Patience the Plagues and Tribulations which must shortly arrive the like whereof have not yet been seen I have told you That the world shall endure eternally and that none of the Creatures shall perish in their kinds that the hope of your Felicity might not be founded upon imaginary Goods and that we may in some manner comprehend what contentment the Souls and Bodies of the Blessed shall have when all malignity shall be removed from every thing that all the Elements and other Creatures shall then serve for Delights unto man who shall rule over all united unto Jesus Christ in Body and Spirit and that that you might contemn the Pleasures of this present Life by the hope of these to come I have told you that the Jews shall turn unto God and be his People and that the Catholiques shall be rejected and abandoned that you might never despise any person for the Jewish people the most contemned of all Nations shall be the most exalted and of Stones shall be made Children of Abraham and that you might willingly leave the Maxims of the Romish Church which shall for its Evil-doings be quickly extermined I have told you That Man is created for no other end but to take his delights with God that you may no more seek any thing upon Earth and contemn every thing to enjoy that Entertainment with God having also told you that this present Life is only a time of Penitence that all your Labours be performed in that Spirit of Penitence unto which God hath subjected all men for their Sins Finally Sir I have told you That all the Laws the Prophets and all Virtues consist in the abandon of our Will unto that of God that you be not distracted by so many other divers things but might pass your Life joyfully under that Dependance of God which is the least thing we could render unto God for so many Benefits which we have received of him which he permits us to enjoy provided we depend upon him in all things having also shewed you That so many divers means which the Priests Monks and Religious teach us as means to procure our Salvation are things that withdraw us therefrom by which we are seduced and deceived because they make us refer more to men than unto God which is an Idolatry that hath infected all Christendom in which none study to abandon their will unto the will of God but every one enjoys and disposes of it at his own pleasure as if every one were soveraign of himself One will be Great and another Rich one will rule over others and be followed and served one goes in a Chariot another upon Horseback finally every one will follow his solace and pleasures after his proper inclinations believing with all that to work out their salvation because the Priests and Religious promise it to them These are new Gods and new Saviours who have changed unto us the Order established by God our Father and Creator and the Practice which his Son Jesus came to teach us They conduct us by the way of Hell perswading us that it is that of Paradise with these perswasions every one suffers himself to be deceived and seduced there being no person in Christendom that believes that he cannot be saved without abandoning his will unto that of God which is nevertheless an eternal Truth which shall never change whatever man do if he do not acknowledge the Dependance which he hath upon God in every thing he shall never be saved and if he do not assume the Evangelical Councels as the true means taught by God for returning into that dependance he shall never be save because God teacheth nothing unprofitable but only things expressly necessary unto which all the world must yield which no person doth believing men more than God though the most part be ruled by the Devil who gains unto himself the most part of men by means of these savage Pastors who abandon the Sheep in the power of the infernal Wolf to make them perish with themselves eternally in retiring them from God to attract them to themselves I have also told you That there are no more any true Christians upon Earth that you might become one and should not suppose blindly to be such because there can be no Christians but they who follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ all others are deceived in believing it for God doth not change for the changing of men we are at present as much obliged to depend upon God as Adam the first man was and as much obliged to labour the Earth as he although we had done no other sin than that which he committed in us we must also now follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as did the first Christians because that Doctrine is immutable and shall never change so he that doth not follow it is not a true Christian and cannot be saved without becoming such No person must flatter himself in that point We must imitate Jesus Christ or perish eternally because we are all fallen into that sin of Ingratitude that we will not depend upon God as well by the will of Adam as of our own proper will and so we have need to assume that Evangelical Law that we might return into that Dependance upon God which is so just and reasonable Although God had never demanded it of man he ought by divine and human Right to render unto God that submission of his free will and he would assuredly do it if he were not diverted by men like himself because even natural reason obligeth him to depend upon him from whom he
her the text of the gospel with promise to submit my understanding unto the Light of the Holy Spirit entirely to my power She said Sir that Submission is the preparation requisit For if you would act the Doctor or wise learned man you should put opposition unto the Light of the Holy Spirit source of all Wisdom You must always believe and maintain that he is more wise than all the Doctors that ever were in the world and that we learn more by a little ray of his Light than by an hundred years of most assiduous study Therefore render all your Wisdom Ignorances and become as an Infant newly born again that you may receive these new Intelligences which shall give you more light than ever all the Old Fathers together have had because they have never discovered the hidden Treasures because the time was not yet come Every one spoke according to his thoughts and not as it was really because it was a closed Book which none was worthy to open but Jesus Christ himself since he was killed and put to death There is not hitherto any thing accomplished of all the Holy Scriptures but that death which shall disclose the marvellous things of God which have remained hidden until now and begin to be revealed unto them who shall be humble of heart but the wise shall perish with their wisdom Therefore do I exhort you Sir unto Simplicity and Submission that you may receive the Light which begins to soring in our time and see the new heavenly Jerusalem descend adorned as a Bride unto the day of her Nuptials The League and alliance of God with men shall then be accomplished The Earth shall then be renewed All Creatures shall leave their Malignities which shall be confined unto the center of the Earth to torment the Bodies and Souls of all them who would not submit their wills unto God They shall receive there pains according to their sins being over-whelmed with those Malignities which these sins have caused CONFERENCE XXVI Declareth the Necessity of becoming a Child to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven renouncing all Worldly Wisdom and all Human Abuses I asked her How it were possible to leave all Sciences humanly acquired to become a Child when one is an Aged Man SHe said Sir except you do it you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is Jesus Christ who saith it and he cannot lie but he urgeth that necessity of becoming Children by Threatenings of not entering into the Kingdom of heaven which were the greatest evil that can befal man It were better never to be born than not to be saved and seeing we cannot be saved without becoming Children we must do it at any rate Would you Sir esteem more the Honour of the World or your acquired Science than the Kingdom of heaven That were very lamentable seeing all the things of this world do but pass as the Bird which cutteth the Air and leaveth no trace of its way after it so we when we shall be passed through this world there shall remain nothing of our Sciences or Studies nor of our Honour and Reputation all endeth with us and if there remain in the spirit of others any reputation that we were wise and learned that is insensible unto us after death If we have pleased our selves therein in our life the sufferings of these complacencies attend us in the other world and instead that it should be a happiness to us that we have been wise it is a great misery to us to have lost the Kingdom of Heaven by the same wisdom Forsake all these human Considerations Sir and become a Child though you be aged You must make the more haste lest time and life escape Never consult flesh and blood for they deceive and corrupt us Let us consult only our divine Soul which is reasonable and it shall tell you that nothing is better nor more reasonable than to abandon our free will unto God who hath given us it and to submit it unto his government as a little Child that on that depends our eternal Happiness and that nothing else can save us because without that Dependance there is no Salvation I said unto her That I knew most clearly that truth that there was no Salvation without the Dependance of God asking how I could now ignore Sciences formerly acquired seeing I could not make my self not to have them She said Sir nothing can hurt you if all be submitted unto God You cannot ignore what you know by means of your Studies but you can well submit all these Sciences unto God and account them as Ignorances as in effect they are Apply no more your spirit unto the study of Sciences and believe them to be all vain in respect of the Wisdom of God You shall know that you are abandoned unto his will when you seek no more any thing upon Earth neither Learning nor Wisdom nor desire to know any thing else but what may render you acceptable unto God For he that is abandoned unto him without Deceit moves himself no more but for what regards his Glory all the rest toucheth him no more If he is wise or ignorant it is indifferent unto him Wisdom serves him for what regards the Glory of God and in no wise to rule upon Earth knowing well that he who is abandoned unto God without Sciences is as great as he who is so with much Learning and even as we may well be Poor of Spirit in possessing Riches so can we possess much learning and withal be simple of Spirit when we have submitted all our Learning unto God he serves himself of it as he pleaseth but so long as we will rely on and make account of them we are not yet become Children to have entry into the Kingdom of Heaven And seeing God sheweth you Sir that there is no Salvation without dependance on him put your self promptly therein without considering if you have Sciences or any thing else For as the Proverb is God makes Mercury of all wood we must not regard our selves but his will who desires that all men of whatever conditions hold themselves under his Dependance remitting their free wills into his power without using the same themselves I said unto her That absolutely and irrevocably I abandoned my self unto God to be a true Child but that I had yet some repugnancy to renounce the Church She said Ha Sir you must never renounce the Holy Church but rather die but you must only renounce the abomination which is crept into the Romish Church of these days Do you not see that she hath falsified her faith unto her lawfull Husband Jesus Christ and hath not remained faithful unto him I should be glad that you could shew me one only point of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that she observes or one only thing that she practiseth that is not contrary to the Life and Doctrine of her
illustrare adultisque ad subtilia ineptis persuadere valeat Cujus exemplum paucis ab hinc annis nobis tulit Flandria in virguncula infante septimum aetatis annum nondum egressa quae cum vitam hanc spatio brevem curriculo miseram satis cerneret mortales tantopere ea capi obstupuit cum Jesum Christum vitam immortalem suis acquisivisse audivisset enixe continuo parentes rogavit ut se in Christianorum regiones ducerent cum autem ipsi Christum in Flandria coli responderent hoc incredibile exclamavit Christum enim paupertatem laudasse illis autem nummos numen esse illum dignitates sprevisse illos autem has ambire flendo arguebat et Quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis That is Such is the efficacy of this reasoning that it is able to illuminate infants in the dawning of their age and to perswade aged people that are not apt or disposed for subtil thoughts whereof Flanders hath a few years ago furnished us an example in an infant Girle not past the seventh year of her age who when she perceived well this life to be of a short continuance and miserable course was astonisht that mortals were so much taken with it and having heard that Jesus Christ had purchased Eternal Life for his Followers she earnestly and continually asked her Parents that they would take her into the country of the Christians and when they answered that Christ was worshipped in Flanders she rejected that as incredible and argued with tears Christ commanded Poverty but they loved money as their God he despised Honours but they coveted them and who could relate or speak of these things without weeping I add one A. de H. which may be something of a Directory to those in the like case with the Writer a renowned Phisitian in the Town of Middleburg in Zealand whose former Writings communicated to the world give testimony how just and penetrating his spirit is when he had well begun to make the matter in question the object of its consideration gives his rawest thoughts in a plain familiar Letter to Mr. P. thus Reverend SIR AFter by your counsel and recommendation I began to read Mrs. Antonia Bourignons Writings I felt as it were a fighting against them and they seemed to me not to deserve so much praise yet considering that your esteem must depend on a well-grounded knowledge because you knew the Gentle-woman you conversed with her and have accurately examined her writings Hence I began to read more attentively whence immediatly a sublim wisdom laying open man's interiour displayed it self The numerous difficulties that occurred in the beginning do evanish as my reading is with more attention Yet I cannot as yet assent unto all perhaps because I have read only few of them and have put fewer of them into practise without which these vritings seem not understandable as also the intelligence of Holy Scripture is promised only to them who obey the will of God That seems to me the greatest difficulty that practice may keep pace with knowledge which to overcome we must seek strength from the Father of Lights which is seldom done according to his will Our corrupt Nature lays many obstacles in the way and the seducing world strengthens it especially in the Art to which I have perhaps without God's conduct addicted my self in which a thousand distractions do dayly occur an Act so uncertain and so filled with Deceipts that I doubt if it may be exercised with a safe Conscience before I would demonstrate and amend its Errors but I know not the source of Errours Sin And in vain is the redress of Evil sought from him who is in Evil. I readily assent to Mrs. Antonia Bourignon that Christians must live otherwise than men do now adays Thoughts of this sort Sir have exercised me since I read your Divine Oeconomie and Mrs. Bourignons Writings and had given me occasion to speak with you if my intended Journey into Holland had succeeded but that being hitherto hindered I would give you these lines to the end you may give me counsel to the reading of these Writings with the greatest fruit and to overcome the corruption of my nature I willingly grant there are so many wholsome Counsels in them that it may seem superfluous to desire more If you think so I am content and recommending my self to your Prayers that God would perfect the work he has begun in me I shall remain Reverend SIR Yours in Christ A. de H His succeeding Letters so much breathed out conviction of Sin Righteousness and Judgment as might stumble worldling hearts But why it were a work beyond a Volum to alledge all that might be adduced of the mighty power and efficacy of her Writings in allarming the Consciences enlightening the Minds and inflaming the Desires to the overturning of the Works of Darkness and contempt of all worldly things to seek only eternal ones and all such as it were to attribute robbery to another power than that of the adorable Majesty of our God and that in all ranks and sorts of persons of different Countries Professions Capacities and Tempers and of all Religions and Sects and generally all that seek God in Truth and sincerity in whatever circumstances have to the measure of that Truth and Sincerity joyned hands embraced approved and acquiesced in the substantial essence of the words and way of Eternal Life here every where and only recommended many of which have been and are impartially speaking the most sound and profound Spirits of the age at least in the European World and as far as the Latin Tongue serves to propagate the communication of Thoughts and that as well in the general quality of a solid judgment and penetrating spirit as in the specification by determining the same to particulars Subjects and Studies whether Theologie or Law or Phisick or Philosophy in all of which some sufficiently attested to the literate World capable of its greatest attempts yet in them God hath reserved that Candour that they would not be disobedient to the heavenly Call but counted all loss and dung for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ though alas the number of such is lamentably small in all sorts In fine Let whosoever is weary and heaven loaden come resolutely absolutely and constantly hither and he shall assuredly by divine assistance find rest to his Soul and the peace which the world cannot give nor take away even amidst all outward Adversities yea and inward tentations beyond the reach of all the Rhetorique in the world yea and all the force and cunning of Earth and Hell to unstable the Foundation either means or end if he continue faithful under Christs Yoak To pass further to a Brief touch of a few of the many Memorable things in her Life from her own Manuscripts and from the faithful and judicious record of her Life continued ANtonia Bourignon was born in the City of Lisle in Flanders on the
13 th of January 1616. of honourable Parents As her Spirit and Tongue began to be loosed from the Sleep and silence of Infancy the first Expression she was capable to give of what impression her Soul received was a grain of admirable and divine Wisdom which fructified unto everlasting Life At the age of four years her Parents having instructed her piously in the Gospel and Life of Jesus Christ she asked still Where are the Christians Let us go to the place where Christians live Where are they whom Jesus Christ taught Take me to them that live as Jesus Christ O most profound and divine They in their worldly Wisdom would undeceive her saying that there in Flanders they were Christians and followed Christ She said That could not be for Christ commended Poverty they were altogether for Riches Christ despised honours and Pleasures choosing meanness and trouble but they were earnest for what he rejected and shunned his choice that they lived no ways like Christ O Great God! Out of the mouth of Babes and sucklings thou hast perfected Praise Thy Words and thy Entertainments enlighten and make wise even Little Children when great Doctors growing old in their Studies with all their Followers are in Darkness blind and naked without knowing it Lo a little Child her eyes and mouth scare opened discerning a worldly Life from a Christian and far beyond the old Philosophy Studied procedure seeking a man among men most natively tattling out where are the Christians amidst Christians men fight and dispute and write and preach and what not who shall have the best Religion and Christianity most pure and flourishing Lo God will bring them to agreement and how he sets a Girle of four years old amidst them and puts in her little Mouth these stammering words where are the Christians Let us go to the Country where Christians live words duely considered of a profound divine Wisdom of more saving light and profit than millions of lifeless Sermons and volums of rational Speculations and this is the Grain of Seed which fructified unto all the fruit of her life which was only a continued urging advancing pressing and increasing that first Thought and Desire It is true in the Old and New Testament that God will perfect his Praise out of the mouth of Babes but in the World we must expect the Truth and Praise of God from a mouth that can speak Latin or even Greek and Hebrew and for the more assurance there must be a great many of these wise Heads assembled to make a Synod or Council not to sleight our Theological Doctoralities and Masterships by giving heed to this babe So they laughed her iterated and earnest Demands to silence yet neither that nor the ruder treatment she met with as it encreased were so far from extinguishing that divine spark God had kindled in her that they served still to encrease its flame for this first repulse made her turn more in to God in her own heart detecting the Vanity of worldly things she sought of him the Grace to live as Christians did and even then every thing was to her occasion of turning to him with different prayers suitable to him who was her only Councellour and Companion until her sister much addicted to the Vanities of the World would needs have her follow she said to every body she had no spirit to converse and accommodate her self to others and by that artifice the Devil prevailed so far as to make her follow the company and mode of the Youth of the World only to please them to shew that she had spirit enough to appear brisk in which she succeeded so well or rather so ill that quickly she obscured her sister gaining the favour and goodliking of all and pleasing her Parents extreamly being of a meek humble affable and jovial Humour and a good Spirit that her Father employed her in his affairs which she managed with a great deal of dexterity and industrie But all this cost her the loss of that communion she had formerly with God as familiar as one Child with another Yet God had pity on that poor Creature wandring from him he gave her often inward invitations even amidst her divertisments and will you then leave me for another shall you find a Lover more perfect and faithful than I am This pierced her heart so as to make her flow into Tears but upon occasions she would charm her serious thoughts and the habit of Vanity and Tentations got the ascendant on her at length God sent more assistance to his call by filling her spirit with the terrible thoughts of Death Judgment and Eternity Sometimes she would regret rent her cloaths and detesting her vanity throw away all her Ornaments of Folly again she would yield to the tentation of company and Divertisments In these conflicts God fortified her she became pierced with so great fear of the Judgment of God that she durst not shut her eyes because of her sins which she thought were so great that no body ever had committed the like not that she had done any evil or unhonest thing after the world whose honesty is consistent with turning away from God and going to all the Devils provided regularly and in form with approbation and priviledge but because she had left her sweet Entertainments with God for worldly Divertisments after she had received so many Graces from him she saw that so great a sin that Hell and all the pains of Hell were not sufficient to punish her ingratitude God seeing her correspond to the tracts of his divine Mercy redoubled them on her that she was swallowed up of contrition passing the whole nights on her knees crying from the bottom of her Soul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Ah! Lord what shall I do that I may be acceptable to thee My God my God! where art thou what shall I do that I may find thee again After she had tasted long and deep of that bitter desolation wherein the soul finds it self as abandoned and rejected of God which they that have tasted call the Pains and Sorrows of Hell as Job and David and other Saints God began to heal The first return she had of God into her Soul was in answer to that continual Prayer Lord what wilt thou have me to do the whole of the Gospel these words Forsake all earthly things separate your self from the affection of the Creatures renounce and deny your self Her Vicissitudes of Desolation and Consolation succeeded until God purified her from all task or stain of her vain conversation and usually these inward piercing afflictions were preparatives to some particular Graces or favours of God And it is incredible what floods of Tears and of Contrition it cost her before she recovered her former Familiarity with God and her no less incredible strict severe Austerity in a mortifying Life which she continued many years by a principle of justice and its first mover was the love
of Corruption which the great one hath engendered there And when it obeys that Corruption it obeys the Devil himself For the Corruption of Nature and the malice of the Devil are the same thing even as a man's Child is another man Men are grosly ignorant in that they think they are not tempted of the Devil when they do not feel in themselves preter-natural evils and they call the Malice of their Nature a Fragility without having ever seriously considered whence that natural wickedness comes to them God never created evil but he made man altogether perfect and with an inclination and will to Good without knowing any thing of evil and therefore of necessity the wickedness and inclination to evil which man feels in his nature must come from the Devil and it self may be called a Devil seeing there is no other evil but him as there is no other good but God So that they that follow the inclinations of their corrupt Nature march quietly to eternal Damnation And the Devil does not drive such with tentations but stands afar off to see them go on knowing well that they shall become dayly worse if they but follow simply the inclinations of their corrupt nature Which few are aware of but they will find themselves deceived at Death for during their life they think it is no evil to follow their natural inclinations yea say some God created Nature and cannot be offended that we follow it That is one of the greatest Tentations and is a sentiment which opens a door to all sorts of evils It is true God created nature and wills that man use it but the Devil hath so corrupted Nature that man can no more use and follow it without sinning since it is corrupted Man cannot even do any natural function now without sinning against God and that as long as he hath not overcome the corruption of his nature For if the natural man eat and drink he does it with affection now that affection ought to be carryed to God alone so he sins when he turns it elsewhere and when he gives his affection to see hear smell taste or feel he loves something else than God But he ought to love him with all his heart and not place his affections on other things beside him alone and so long as man puts his affection on eating drinking cloathing or lying c. he is turned from all good which is God and turned to all evil which is the privation of all good It is the same if we love our Riches Honours and Pleasures for we are turned from God unto the love of our selves when we love the Pleasures of the flesh and not those of the spirit and that exchange of affection causes us to fall into all evil seeing it deprives us of all good If then we will depart from all evil and possess all good we must of necessity resist and overcome the inclinations of corrupt nature otherwise we shall insensibly fall into all sorts of sin For it is enough to carry us to Hell to follow corrupt nature And therefore my Son you must die to your self first if you would arrive at true Virtue seeing as long as corrupt nature is not entirely mortified in you you cannot live in the spirit of Jesus Christ because for that you must become a new creature and detest that old corruption which the Devil hath intruded into the Works of God for it s that is our Enemy and causes us all sorts of Evil. Notwithstanding the ignorant think it a happiness when they can follow their natural inclinations although it is in effect the source of all Evils Which you may well see by the reasons which I have formerly deduced For although God hath created Nature and ordained that it should be sustained by aliments and also re-produce it self by generation yet he would always have the Heart and Affections of man to himself entirely without parting God willingly permits that man eat and drink and generate and use his five natural Senses for his necessity but he will also that we place not our Affections and Heart on these which he requires to be preserved for himself only indivisibly We may then well use all these things but not fasten our heart on 'em For when in the beginning man was created in Grace he did eat drink generate and use his five natural senses because he could do all that with thanksgiving to God When he tasted of good things he praised God who had made them so savoury for him when he saw beautiful things he praised their Author in admiring those Beauties If he smelled good Odours or heard pleasant Melody or touched smooth and pleasant things he rejoiced in God blessing him in that he had not only given him the things necessary for entertaining his life but also for Pleasure and Delight All these things then served man only to bless their Creator and glorifie him in his Creatures And man desired not Generation but to encrease the Praises and thanksgiving which they owed unto God Behold how man used all these things well before the devil had corrupted his Nature but since he is turned from God to carry his affections to himself as he does at present he desires not generation but for his own satisfaction and not for augmenting the Glory of God but to wallow in concupiscence for they have more inclination to enjoy the Pleasures of the Flesh than to produce Children to glorifie God And when men enjoy the pleasures of their senses and use the beautiful and good creatures it is more to satisfie themselves than to bless and magnifie God who gives them So esteeming more the gift than the giver From all which we see that what served unto man for blessing when he was in Grace serves now as a means of sinning and losing the Grace of God Yet we find men so blinded with self-love that they perswade themselves they can see hear smell taste and feel all that is good and pleasant and praise God in the mean while which is but falshood For since man's Nature was corrupted it no more refers any thing to God but in all these things pleases it self and uses them as if it were worthy of them as it was before sin But that is a gross Error for corrupt nature cannot seek the Glory of God it seeks only its own and hath no intention to bless and praise God for what it posesses This desire of satisfying the five senses is common to all that live according to corrupt nature none excepted Therefore those that say that they know to use good and pleasant things in praising God do but flatter themselves For to do that they must have overcome corrupt nature which they have not yet done since we see them search after good and pleasant things for their satisfaction But if they had overcome corrupt Nature they would no more satisfie it in any thing For that corruption is never so mortified in this life
but it would soon revive if they granted to their nature eases and pleasures But the soul that is regenerated in Jesus Christ knows well that Nature must be kept under subjection and restraint during this short life which is a time of penitence where we must suffer if we will enjoy after Which shews that those who say they may enjoy all beautiful and good things here praising God are very ignorant and deceived by the Devil For they think themselves to be regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is false seeing his Spirit doth not teach that we should taste the Pleasures of this life and use all that 's good and pleasant But he teaches penitence and renouncing our selves to be poor in Spirit to forsake all that we have to watch and be sober All that is not to enjoy whatever is good and pleasant For Jesus Christ teaches to take the least and to choose the lowest place If then these persons had but attained however little of the Spirit of Jesus Christ they would be far from saying that they have overcome the corruption of their nature and are renewed in the Spirit of Jesus Christ while they do things quite contrary to what he did and taught For if it were permitted to the Regenerate to take their pleasure and to enjoy whatever is good and pleasant in nature doubtless Jesus Christ would have done so seeing there was never any person regenerated and had overcome the corruption of Nature so perfectly as he And yet he speaks of nothing but suffering becoming poor bearing the Cross and denying our selves These imprudents must think themselves more perfect than he seeing they say they may well taste all what is good and pleasant in nature provided they thank God Notwithstanding our Lord deprived himself of all these things to give us example Do you not see my Son that it is a cunning device of Satan to deceive them that aspire unto Virtue For he fills their Spirit with presumption assoon as he hath got them to digest some curious speculations of the spiritual life They imagin that they are already regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ although they live altogether according to the corrupt nature of the old Adam Such persons are very far from true Virtue And it is to be feared that they shall never arrive at it seeing they think themselves in it already but they are far from it and they had better never have begun to be virtuous than to take up false Virtues These sins are worse than others because of their Hypocrisie They think themselves virtuous and they are yet full of Vices and Sins I despair more of these apparent devout persons than of the persons of the World who have any Fear of God for they have the beginning of Virtue which th'others have not who cannot fear God believing themselves regenerated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ They fancy themselves to be in Assurance and they are in the midst of Perils and Dangers of losing their souls by Presumption and the Delusion of the Devil who attempts always to turn aside them that desire to follow true virtue He first by some inward Consolation and sweetness endeavours to fix them on it by self-love for corrupt nature loves to be comforted But the new Beginner no sooner takes his pleasure in these sensible Sweetness and Consolations but he falls The reason is that he will not mind his duty in resisting the corruption of his nature when he is fastned to these sensibilities But will think he hath already overcome it when he feels delight and consolation in Spiritual things whereas before he felt none but in natural things And that makes him believe that he is already at the height of Perfection though he be not yet at the first degree which is the Tears of Penitence and regret for offending God and the desire to walk henceforth in his Fear which is the beginning of all Virtue But the Devil diverts that Fear and perswades them that they are already virtuous because they desire to become so And so does the Devil amuse those that begin and he would willingly keep them all their life with Sweetness inward Consolations which the Devil can give and also man 's own Nature For as soon as they with-draw from the Vanity of the World they find great quiet since it is a Slavery to serve the World There they torture and rack their understanding by care to maintain themselves well in honour and reputation to be well cloathed and adorned and to be followed and esteemed What Diligence must not a Worldly Person use to please men What Fear of incurring Disgraces How must he dissemble and suffer to have mens Favour and keep it How much toil to gain sufficiently to maintain him honourably What Device and Cunning must he use to get Esteem and to avoid Contempt In fine he that serves the World hath nothing but toil and disquiet but he that hath resolved to quit it to serve God begins to be loosed from the weighty yoak of pleasing the World and to find himself in much more quiet and contentment Which is pleasant to nature but if it please and fix it self upon these Pleasures it will not advance in Virtue but live in self-love instead of the love of God And in that the Devil forwards Nature mightily in augmenting these sweetnesses and inward Consolations to fix the person the more to them God bestows also Sweetness and consolations upon them that begin to draw them the more easily from Earthly Affections to the Love of himself by sensible Consolations which the soul finds in his service But whencesoever they come we must never rest thereon nor take pleasure in any thing that is not God For all Sin came into the World by man's loving the Creatures and taking his pleasure in them And when we take pleasure in Inward Consolation we turn from God in loving that sensibility It is permitted to feel and perceive them since God gives them sometimes but we cannot addict our selves to them without sinning no more than to other things beside God For our whole heart ought to be employed in the Love of God only I know well the Devil attempts to turn us from that Love by all sorts of occasions and he no sooner sees one retire from the Love of the World Riches Honours and Pleasures but he attacques them by the affection of Virtue and inward consolations to with-draw their Hearts thereby from that pure Love of God Be then upon your guard my Son lest the Devil ensnare you under pretext of Virtue Which Care she wisheth you who remains Your Well-affected in Jesus Christ ANTONIA BOURIGNON Holstein near Gottorp Castle May 3. 1672. st vet THE XIV LETTER The Devil Transforms himself into an Angel of Light To the same to whom is discovered a fifth and sixth Artifice of the Devil by which he causeth men to apply themselves to the knowledge of