Quakerism A-la-Mode: OR, A HISTORY OF Quietism, Particularly That of the Lord Archbishop of Cambray and Madam Guyone.  
CONTAINING An Account of her Life, her Prophecies and Visions, her way of Communicating Grace by Effusion to those about her at Silent Meetings, etc.  
ALSO An Account of the Management of that Controversy (now depending at Rome) betwixt the Archbishop of Cambray and the Bishop of Meaux, by way of Answer to the Archbishop's Book.  
Writ by Messire Jaques Bonignes Bossuel, Bishop of Meaux, one of the French King's Privy Council, and Published by his Majesty's Authority.  
Done into English from the Original printed at Paris.  
LONDON, Printed for J. Narris at the Harrow in Little Britain, and A. Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhill, near Stocks market. 1698. Price 1 s.   

THE PREFACE.  
THe Controversy of Quietism, which is the Subject of the following Book, having made a great Noise in the World; and taken up the Conclave of Rome for some Months, and nothing having as yet appeared in English, but on the side of the Defendant, the Arch bishop of Cambray: It is not at all doubted, but this Book, which is the Bishop of Meauxes History of that Heresy, and his Answer to the Archbishop of Cambray, will meet with a good Reception from the Public.  
The Church of Rome, who hath all along boasted so much of her Unity, must of Necessity forbear now to urge that Plea any more, when as it will appear by this Book, she is reduced to such a straight, that either she must condemn the Generality of the Clergy of France, or the Archbishop of Cambray, and divers Persons whom she has Canonised for Saints. It will also appear but too too evidently from this Treatise, that Quakerism owes its Origine to that Anti-christian Church, and that their Opinions are much favoured there at present, when such horrid Blasphemies as those the Bishop of Meaux charges upon M. Guyon, and her Champion, the Arch bishop of Cambray, from Letters and Manuscripts under their own Hands, continue so long without a Public Censure, whilst at the same time she foments a Raging Persecution against the Protestants in France, and hath raised a New One against those of Germany.   

A HISTORY OF Quietism.  
seeing my Lord Archbishop of Cambray desires an answer to his demands so precisely, and that in this conjuncture, none of 'em are more important than those that regard our proceedings, which he endeavours by all means possible torender odious, whereas he himself pretends always to abound with Charity and Meekness even to excess; If I should delay to satisfy him, he would reap too great an advantage from our silence. What does he not insinuate against us by these words of his answer to our Declaration? The proceedings of those Prelates of whom I have just cause to complain, have been such, that I have reason to think I should not be believed if I related them, and indeed it is fit to conceal the knowledge thereof from the Public. Nothing can be imagined more vigorous and extreme than what is included in this discourse, wherein by feigning a desire to keep silence, he says more than if he spoke out. That he may justify himself to be in the right, and make us appear to be in the wrong, this Prelate in the first Edition of his Answer lays down this important matter of Fact: That he had got it to be proposed to my Lord of Chartres that we should by consent Petition the Pope to order a new Edition of his Book to be regulated by his Divines at Rome; so that we should have nothing to do but to rely upon those Divines: And a little after, I demanded a speedy answer, but instead of that I received the Printed Declaration against me. We know nothing of this pretended matter of fact. My Lord of Chartres will inform the Public touching his concern: But without expecting the confutation of a fact of such importance: My Lord of Cambray retracts it himself, seeing he would have recalled that Edition, though published at Rome by his own order; and that in the other which he substitutes, in its place, he suppresses the whole Article. We have in our hands both Editions, the one wherein he alleges that matter of fact, and the other where it is suppressed; and the proof is demonstrative, that that Prelate, without remembering the facts he alleges, writes the most odious things that can come into his Head, and at the same time so false, that he himself is obliged to retract and suppress them entirely.  
2. This is enough to let the World see what a fine gloss he would put on his own Conduct; and in what frightful Colours he would set off ours. His chief aim is to defame me; and he is not satisfied to accuse me in all his Letters of a precipitant and embittered Zeal: It is to me that he writes those words: You never cease tearing me in pieces; and what is still more injurious, You every where deplore my Condition, and rend me pretending to bewail me. He adds, What can any one think of those Tears that serve only to give more Authority to the Accusations? in the same Letters he says, Passion hinders me from seeing what is before my Eyes; and the excess of my prejudice bereaves me of all exactness. I am, says he, the Author of the Accusation against his Book: I am that unmerciful Man, who not being able to glut my fury by the indirect and ambitious Censure contained in our Declaration; redouble my blows upon him in particular: And adds, That when come to myself again I make use of smooth words to call him a second Molinos; an expression that never came out of my Mouth, this Prelate knows himself, that I have always distinguished betwixt him and Molinos in their Conduct, and also in certain Consequences, though he has advanced all his principles. But here are more particular Accusations:  
3. I do not comprehend at all, says he, the Conduct of Monsieur de Meaux: On one hand he inflames himself with indignation: (for to hear him speak I am never compos meant is) etc. Inflames himself, I say, with indignation, when any one seems but to doubt whether there may not be something of Evidence in Md. Guyons System: On the other hand he gives her the Communion himself, he authorises her in the daily use of the Sacraments, and when she leaves Meaux he gives her a full attestation, without requiring any act from her whereby she may formally recant any Error: Whence then can so much severity and so much remissness proceed?  
4. These are the reproaches we have under the Hand of My Lord of Cambray, in a writing still extant. He knows well enough to whom he directed it, and we shall have occasion to speak of it hereafter: Every thing is untrue in the place just now mentioned: He would not be so just as to say that I gave the Communion (once only) to Madam Guyon, and to observe in the mean time that it was at Paris, where she was admitted to it by her Superiors: So that it was not so much as in my power to exclude her from the Sacred Table: They gave her the Holy Sacraments in consideration of the frequent profession she made of an actual Submission and Obedience. At Meaux I appointed her a Confessor, to whom I gave full permission to give her the Communion upon account of the entire Submission she expressed both by word and writing in the most expressive terms that could be conceived. She subscribed the Condemnation of her own Book, as containing ill Doctrine: She also subscribed our Censures, wherein her Printed Books and her whole Doctrine are Condemned: And in the last place she rejected by a special writing on purpose, the Chief Propositions that form her Systems. I have all these acts under her Hand, and I gave that Attestation which they call a full one, only in respect of those acts therein expressly enumerated, and with special prohibition that she should not Direct, Teach or Dogmatise; which she agreed to under her Hand in that same attestation. Thus that incomprehensible mixture of remissness and rigour is cleared by those Acts, and the Accusation of my Lord of Cambray manifestly proved to be false: Who does not then perceive by this, that no Credit ought to be given to the Facts which that Prelate alleges against a Brother, and intimate Friend such as I was? I readily grant to my Lord Archbishop of Cambray, that if we have done him any wrong, he ought, as he repeats without ceasing, to maintain the Honour of his offended Ministry; let him do us the same justice. I am then on the other hand bound to make the truth appear, upon the complaints he makes use of to exasperate the Public against me. We must then find out the source, and what may be the causes of those deceitful Tears, and of the Passion he accuses me of: We must look back as far as the Origine to see whether it be Charity or Passion that has guided me in that Affair, It has lasted above four years, and I am the first that was drawn into it. The connexion of the matters of fact does not allow me to separate them, and I am necessarily bound to relate all the particulars of that unpleasant History when the Conduct of myself and of my Brethren cannot be understood but by that means.  
5. It cannot choose but be very afflicting to see Bishops come to such disputes, even as to matters of fact; it is a subject of Triumph for the Libertines, and an occasion of their accounting Piety Hypocrisy, and of holding the astairs of the Church in derision: But if People won't be so just as to look to the Original, they must judge without reason. My Lord of Cambray boasts of it every where that he was not the first that wrote, that he might thereby persuade the World he has right on his side, and lay us under an odium as being the unjust aggressors: He directs those words to myself: Who was it that writ first? Who was it begun the Scandal? But is it lawful to dissemble certain and public matters of fact? Who is it really that appeared first in Print upon this Subject, I or my Lord of Cambray? Who was it that frst in an Advertisement at the beginning of an important work gave notice that he designed only to explain more at large the Principles of two Prelates, (my Lord of Paris and myself) which were made public to the world in four and twenty Propositions? Had we agreed together that he should explain our Principles? Had I so much as ever heard of his Explanation? My Lord of Cambray says many things of my Lord of Paris, which that Prelate hath confuted by unquestionable facts, and with general applause. But as to me, the excuses my Lord of Cambray makes have not the least ground, seeing it is certain that I never so much as heard of the explanation he had a mind to publish of our Common Principles. Did I deal with my Lord of Cambray in this manner? And when I was about to publish the Explanation I had promised of our Doctrine, did not I at first put the Manuscript into the hands of my Lord of Cambray in order to examine it? These are most certtain matters of facts, and such as are not to be denied. I am then plainly innocent of the differences that have happened between us; though I am accused as the Author of all the mischief: If instead of explaining our principles, it appears that we are accused of Capital Errors: If he fill a whole Book with the Notions of Molinos, and only gild them over with specious pretences, ought we to suffer it? The only thing than we are to do, is to examine whether the bottom of our cause be as good as we have demonstrated it else where: But in the mean time it is clear in the face of the Sun, and before God and Men that we are not the Aggressors; that our defence was lawful in as much as it was necessary, and that there was not the least shadow for controverting that part of the proceeding which is the ground work of all that followed.  
6. The rest is no less evident: But in order to acquaint the Public therewith, seeing my Lord of Cambray himself urges us thereto, and that he has five hundred People at his beck all over Europe to echo his Complaints every where; what else can we do, but repeat things again, from the very Original by a Narrative as plain on the one hand as true on the other, and maintained by certain Proofs.  
1. For a long time I heard it from Persons eminent for Piety and Prudence that the Abbot of Fenclon was favourable to the new way of Prayer, and I had proofs given me of it, that were not altogether to be rejected. Being concerned for himself, for the Church, and for the Princes of France, whose Tutor he was, I often discoursed him upon that Subject, and endeavoured to discover his Sentiments in hopes of bringing him back to the Truth, if he should a little swerve from it. I could not persuade myself that a Person of his Light, and of that docible Temper I took him to be, could fall into these Delusions; or at least continue in them, tho' he might perhaps be dazzled by them. I have always entertained a firm persuasion of the strong influence of Truth upon those that harken to it, and I never doubted but the Abbot of Fenclon was attentive to it. Yet I was somewhat uneasy to find he did not enter so frankly with me upon that matter, as he did upon others that we treated of ever day. At last God delivered me out of that uneasiness: And a Friend to us both, a Person of eminent Merit and Quality, came when I thought least on't, to declare to me that Madam Guyon and her Friends were willing to refer her way of Prayer and her Books to my Judgement. It was about September, 1693. when this was proposed to me. Now to divine why they imparted that Secret to me, whether it was one of those Sentiments of Trust God puts, when he pleases, into the Hearts of Men, to bring about his hidden Designs, or whether they only thought that in the present conjuncture, some protector or other, must be looked for amongst the Bishops: This, I say is beyond my reach. I won't use Arguments, I I design only to relate Matters of Fact, which, as in the sight of God, I have as fresh in my Memory as the first day, and know them also by the Writings concerning them, I have in my Hands.  
I am naturally afraid to encumber myself with Business to which I have not a manifest Call; What happens in the Flock committed to my Charge, notwithstanding my Unworthiness, does not give me much Trouble; I put confidence in the Holy Ministry, and the Divine Vocation. As for that time when they proposed to me to examine that Matter, they repeated so often, that it was the Will of God, and that Madam Guyon, desiring nothing else but to be taught, a Bishop in whom she trusted could not well refuse her the Instruction she demanded with so much Humility, that at last I yielded. I soon knew it was the Abbot of Fenclon who had given that Counsel; and I thought it a happiness to find such a natural occasion offer of explaining myself with him: God would have it so. I spoke to Madam Guyon; all her Books were delivered to me, and not only the Printed ones, but also the Manuscripts, as her Life, which she had written in a great Volume, some Commentaries upon Moses, Joshua, Judges, the Gospel, the Epistles of St. Paul, the Revelations, and several other Books of Scripture. I took them with me to my Diocese, whether I was going: I read them with attention: I made large Extracts of them as are usually made of a Subject, by one who is to judge of it; I wrote down at length with my own Hand her very words; and marked the pages, and in four or five months I fitted myself to pronounce the Judgement that was demanded of me.  
2. I never would take upon me neither to hear the Confession of that Lady, nor to direct her though she proposed it to me, but only to declare my sentiments of her of prayer, and of the Doctrine of her Books, making use in the mean time of the liberty she gave me to command or forbid her, in that matter, as God whose light I continually begged, should be pleased to inspire me.  
3. The first occasion I had to make use of that power was this: I met with an account in the Life of that Lady, that God did give her such abundance of grace, that she burst out with it in a Literal sense, so that they were fain to unlace her: She did not forget to take notice that a Duchess once on a time performed that Office for her in that condition, they often laid her upon her Bed; and many times if they did but stay and sit by her, they received the grave of which she was full, and that was the only way to ease her: She said moreover in express words, that those graces were not for her; that she had no need of them, being full of grace otherwise, and that this superabundance was for others. I looked upon this immediately as haughty, new, and unheard of, and therefore at least very suspicious, and my heart that had a continual loathing of the Doctrine of the Books I read, was not able to brook that manner of giving grace. For if you take it distinctly, it was neither by her prayers nor admonitions she gave it; there was no need of any thing else but to sit by her to receive an immediate effusion of that fullness of grace, being struck with so amazing a thing, I wrote from Meaux to Paris to that Lady, forbidding her, as God did by my mouth, to use that new way of communicating graces, until she were further examined. I was willing to proceed moderately in every thing, and to connemn nothing absolutely before I had seen all.  
4. That part of the Life of Md. Guyon is of too great consequence to be lest doubtful; therefore I shall give the explanation of it in her own words. Those, says she, that the Lord has given me; (this is the stile all over the Book) my true Children have a tendency to keep silence by me. I discover their need, and communicate to them in God what they want; they feel very well what they receive, and what is communicated to them with fullness. A little after, There's no more to be done but to sit by me in silence; Therefore that communication is called the communication in silence, without speaking and writing; it is the Language of the Angles, that of the Word which, is but an eternal silence: Such as sit thus by her are nourished, says she, inwardly by the grace which I communicate in fullness as they did receive the grace around her, I felt myself, says she, to empty and be eased by degrees; every one received their grace according to their degree of prayer, and fell by being near me that fullness of grace brought by Jesus Christ: It was like a Sluice that overruns with abundance: They did feel themselves filled, and for my part I felt myself to be emptied, and to be eased of my fullness: My Soul was represented to me like one of those torrents that fall from the Mountains with unconceivable swift.  
5. What she tells with particular care is, as has been said, that there is nothing for herself in that fullness of grace; she repeats every where that all was full; there was nothing empty in her: She was as a Nurse that bursts out with Milk, but takes none at all for herself: I am, Says she, for these many years, in a state that seems equally naked and empty; and for all that I am very full: A water that fills a Pool to the brink: as long as you see it keep within bounds, it affords vothing by which its fullness may be distinguished; but if a superabundance be added, it must either discharge itself or burst out: I never feel any thing for myself; but when they stir at any time that Fund which is inwardly full and calm, that causes the fullness to be felt with so much excess, that it gushes out upon the sense: It is, continueth she, an overflowing of the fullness, a gushing out of a Well, always full for such Souls as have need to draw the Waters of that fullness: It is the Divine Cistern whence the Children of Wisdom draw incessantly what they stand in need of.  
Being at a time in one of those excesses of fullness, having some person about her, and a Woman said that she was fuller than usually; I told them, said she, I should die of fullness, and that my senses were so overwhelmed by it as I should burst: It was upon this occasion that the Duchess she mentions, and whom I shall never discover, unleced me, says she, out of charity to ease me; which was not able to prevent my body from bursting on both sides, through the violence of the fullness. She eased herself by communicating of her fullness to a Confessor whom she describes, and to two other persons that I shall not name.  
It was after having seen those things, and many others of as great consequence which I shall relate, that my Lord of Cambray persists in his Defence of Madam Guyón in such terms as will be amazing, when we come to the Article where I must quote them, as written with his own hand. It will be then as clear as the Day; and by what is already perceived, that Madam Guyon is the ground of this business after all, and that his desire alone to maintain her, has separated that Prelate from his Brethren, seeing he attacks me, as has been seen, upon my procedure with Madam Guyon, as well as with himself, and that too in such a manner as might render my Ministry and my Conduct odious to the whole Church, he should have foreseen what his reproaches would constrain me at last to discover: But a higher reason still compels me to speak. We must fortify the minds of the Faithful against a seducing Doctrine, which still has a being: A Woman that can deceive Souls by such Delusions ought to be made known, especially when she meets with Ad●●●rers and Defenders; and has a great party for her with an expectation of new things as shall be shown hereafter. I confess this was really a a work of Darkness which we ought to wish might have been kept hidden, and I should have concealed it for ever, as I have done for above three years with an unpenetrable silence; had they not too excessively abused my discretion, and had not the thing come to such a point, that we must for the Service of the Church plainly lay open what she had privily hatched in her bosom.  
8. Madam Guyon perceiving presently that I found many extarordinary things in her Life, she thereupon prevented me by a Letter written and signed with her own Hand, thus, There are three sorts of extraordinary things that you may have observed: The first which regards the inward Communications in silence; this may be easily attested by a great number of persons of Merit and probity that have tried it: Those persons whom I shall have the Honour to name, when I have that of seeing you, are able to justifis it. As for the things that are to come, it is a thing that I don't much care any body should mind: This is not the essential point: But I have been obliged to write all. Our Friends may easily justify that to you, either by some Letters they have in their hands, written ten years ago, or by several things they have been witnesses of, the Idea of which I easily lose. As for the things that have respect to Miracles, I have writ them in the same plainness as the rest. You see then already that in her opinion she communicates Grace in that unheard of and prodigious manner just now mentioned: And besides, that she is a great Prophetess and a Worker of Miracles; she desires me thereupon to suspend my Judgement till I had seen and heard her; which I did as much as I could upon the last Heads.  
9 I shall leave for a little while the Miracles that I meet with in every page of her Life, and her Predictions which are either wavering, false, or a confused medley. As for the Communications in silence, she endeavours to justify them by a Writing she subjoins to this Letter with this Title; The Lord's Hand is not shortened: She alleges the Example of the Celestial Hierarchies which she does also in several places in her Life; that of the Saints who understand one another without speaking; that of Iron touched with the Load stone; that of loose Men who communicate one to another a Spiirit of Debauchery, that of St. Monica and of St. Austin in the Tenth Book of the the Confessions of that Father: Where 'tis true he speaks of the silence whereinto those two Souls were drawn, but without the least mention of those prodigious Communications, of those arrogant fullness, and of those overflowings just now spoken of. I don't speak of those Experiences I was referred to; nor yet of certain effects which possession, or if you will, a strong fancy, may operate. These are nothing else than proofs, seeing they are to be tried and examined according to that principle of the Apostle, Try the Spirits whether they be of God; try all things: And again, Hold fast that which is good. When in order to come to this Trial, I had begun by forbidding those absurd Communications; Madam Guyon endeavoured to excuse one part of it, as the bursting of her clothes in two places by that frightful plenitude: I have her unsatisfactory Answer in a Letter writ with her own Hand, which serves to justify the matter of fact. As for the examining of so strange a Communication, we may well perceive it is to no purpose; All that was good in the Answer was, that the Lady promised to obey and to write to no body; which I had required, to keep her from meddling with directing of any body, as she used to do with an amazing Authoty: For amongst other things in her Life, as appears also by her Printed Exposition upon the Canticles, that by an Apostolical Power and Mission wherewith she was endowed, and to which the Souls of such a pitch are raised; she not only saw clearly into the bottom of the Souls, but like wise received a [marvellous] Authority upon the bodies and Soul's of such as our Lord had given her. The inward state, says she, seems to be in my hand, (by the flowing out, as has been said, of that Grace communicated out of her fullness) without their knowing how, nor wherefore they could not forbear to call me their Mother; and when they had tasted of my direction all other conduct was burdensome to them.  
10. Amidst the precautions I made use of against the course of those Delusions, I continued my reading, and came to that place where she foretells the approaching Reign of the Holy Ghost over all the Earth: A terrible persecution against her method of Prayer was to precede it; I saw, says she, The Devil unbound against the said Prayer, and against me: That he was a going to raise a sad Persecution against the followers of that sort of Prayer: He was afraid to attack myself: He feared me too much: Sometimes I defied him: He was afraid to appear: I was as terrible to him as a Thunderbolt.  
11. One Night (says she to God) being throughly awake, You showed me unto myself under the form of that Woman in the Revelations: You showed me that Mystery; you made me to comprehend that Moon: My Soul was above vicissitude and changes. She remarks also herself and the Sun of Justice that surrounded her, and the Divine Virtues which made as it were a Crown about her Head: She was big with Fruit; that is, of that Spirit, Lord, said she, that you were willing to communicate to my Children: The Devil throws up a flood against me: It is Calumny: The Earth would not swallow it up: It should fall by little and little: I should have Millions of Children: After the same manner she applies herself to the rest of the Prophecy.  
12. Afterwards she sees the Victory of such as as she calls the Martyrs of the Holy Ghost. O God, says she, As an inspired Person, you do hold your peace: You will not always be silent. After this Enthusiastic fit, she shows the Consummation of all things by the extent of that same Spirit over all the Earth. A little after she gives an Account that going to Versailles she saw the King a Hunting afar off: That she was taken up in a Divine Rapture with so entire a Possession that she was constrained to shut her Eyes: She had then an assurance that His Majesty would assist her in a particular manner, etc. Says she, O that our Lord would permit I should speak to him: I write, goes she on, in order to conceal nothing; the matter finds little credit now because she is a cried down Person. But she had in the mean time an assurance that she should be delivered from Reproaches by means of a Female Protectress, who we know favours her very little, tho' she names her in two parts of her Life.  
13. Every one may make their reflections upon the Prophecies of that Lady as they please; as for me [I will insist only on matters of Fact:] This is a very considerable one; in one of her Enthusiastic fits upon the Wonders she apprehends God was about to work by her; it seems to me says she, as if God hath chosen me in this Age to overthrow Humane Reason: To establish the Wisdom of God by overthrowing the Wisdom of the World: He will Establish the Cords of his Empire in me, and the Nations will acknowledge his Power: His Spirit shall be [poured upon all Flesh:] They shall Sing the Song of the Lamb, as a Virgin, and they that will Sing it shall be utterly disapropriated: What I bind shall be bound, and what I lose shall be unloosed: I am that Stone fastened by the Holy Cross, rejected by the Builders; the rest I have read myself to the Abbot of Fenelon: He knows well who were present at the Conference, and it was himself alone whom I regarded, because it was he who ought as a Priest to teach others.  
14. Madam Guyon continues to assume to herself a Prophetic Air in her explanation of the revelations from whence I have extracted these words: The time is at hand; it is nearer than we think; for God will choose two particular Witnesses, whether it be those who are really living and are to give Testimony; or those just now spoken of (which are Faith and pure Love:) And afterwards, O Mystery truer than the day that shines, you are now looked upon as a story, as little children's Tales, as diabolical things: The time shall come when all those things shall be looked upon with respect, because they shall see then that they come from God; he himself will preserve them until the day he has appointed to have them declared.  
15. It is of her writings she thus spoke. She insinuates in every place of her Life that they are inspired: She brings as a remarkable proof thereof, the wonderful swiftness of her hand, and omits nothing to show that she is the Pen of that ready Writer spoken of by David. Her Disciples have boasted of this to me an Hundred times: She herself boasts that her Writings shall be preserved by Miracle; and one day it shall come to pass, says she, again, in her Exposition on the Revelations, that it is written here shall be no more Barbarous nor Foreign.  
16. Thus she entertains her Hearers, with hopes of wonderful things to come. I have transcribed with my own hand one of her Letters to Father la Combe; of which I shall speak in its place: I have given back the Original, which was given me from a sure hand, to take a Copy of it. Not to insist upon her Predictions, mixed with truth and falsehood, which she continually ventures at; I shall only remark, that therein she confirms her empty Visions upon the Woman Big with Child in the Revelations; and it is perhaps for this reason she inserts in her Life that pretended Prophetical Letter.  
17. I Collected every thing I thought useful to open the Eyes of the Abbot of Fenelon, whom I thought uncapable of being deceived by the Delusions of such a Prophetess when I should set them before him; but here are other Remarks besides that I made, for the same end.  
18. I know not how I shall do to explain the thing that offers first. For, says she, That Dream so seized me, and my Mind was so clean, that there remained in me neither distinction nor thought except what our Lord gave me. But what was that Dream then? And who is it that this Inspired Woman saw therein? A Mountain where she was received by Jesus Christ: A Room where she asks, for whom those two Beds were that she saw: There's one for my Mother, and the other for you my Spouse: And a little after, I have chosen you to be here with me. When I reproved Madam Guyon for so strange a Vision: When I represented to her that Bed for a Spouse separated from the bed of the Mother, as if the Mother of God in a Spiritual and Mystical Sense, was not so to speak the Bride of all Brides: She always answered me: It is a Dream. But, said I to her, it is a Dream that you give us a great Mystery, and as the ground of your manner of Prayer, or rather not of a Prayer, but of a State, of which nothing can be said because of its great Purity. But to pass over this, and you, O Lord, if I durst I would beg of you one of your Seraphims with the most burning of all its Coals to purify my Lips that are polluted by this Narrative though absolutely necessary.  
19 I shall with less trouble speak of another effect of the Title of Bride, I meet with in the Life of that Woman. It is thus; She came to a State wherein she could no more pray to the Saints nor even to the Holy Virgin, That is already a great evil to acknowledge such a State, so contrary to the Catholic Doctrine: But the reason she gives of it is far more strange: It is not, says she, for the Bride, but for the Domestics, to pray to others to pray for them; as if every pure Soul was not a Bride: Or that she were the only perfect one: Or as if the Blessed Souls we were to pray unto were not Brides more united to God than whatsoever is most Holy, and most united to him upon Earth.  
20. What we most frequently meet with in that Book, and in all her other Books; is, that this Lady was without Error. This is the mark she gives every where of her state, entirely united to God, and of her Apostleship; but though her Errors were infinite, that which I took notice of most, was, that which concerned the exclusion of all desires, and of all petitioning for one's self by resigning up ourselves to the Will of God how secret soever it be; in respect either of our Damnation or Salvation. This is the Reigning Doctrine in all that Ladies Printed Books and Manuscripts; and upon which I examined her in a long Conference I had with her privately, I showed her in her Writings and caused it to be repeated to her several times, That every Petition for ones self carried some interest along with it contrary to pure Love, and conformity to the will of God; and at last very precisely that she could not ask any thing for herself. What, said I to her, can't you ask nothing for yourself? No, answered she, I cannot. She was much perplexed about the Petitions of the Lords Prayer: I said to her: What, cannot you beg of God the remission of your Sins? No, replied she: Well, said I to her again immediately, I whom you make the Judge of your way of Prayer; I 〈◊〉 you, as God does by my Mouth, to say after me; Lord I beseech thee forgive me my Sins. I can, said she, well enough repeat those words; but to make the sentiment thereof enter into my Heart is against my way of silent Prayer. It was then that I declared to her that I could no more allow her the use of the Holy Sacraments whilst she entetained such Doctrine; and that her Proposition was Heretical. She promised me four or five times to receive instructions, and to submit to it; and this was the end of our Conference. It was h●ld in the beginning of the year 1694, as I can easily justify by the Dates of the Letters relating thereunto.  
Soon after, this was followed by another more important Conference with the Abbot of Fenelon in his Apartment at Versailles; I entered into the same full of confidence, that by showing him in Madam Guyons' Books all the Errors and Excesses just now mentioned, he would agree with me that she was deceived, and was in a state of delusion. All the answer I had was, that seeing she had submitted as to the Point of Doctrine, the Person must not be condemned: As for all the other Excuses, those prodigious communications of grace, as for what she said of herself, of the height of her graces, of the state of her eminent sanctity; that she was the Woman with Child in the Revelations, her to whom it was given to bind and to unbind, the Corner Stone, and the rest of that Nature; he told me that it was the practising what St. Paul says; Try the Spirits; as for the great things, she said of herself,— it was a magnanimity in her not inferior to that of S. Paul when he recounts all his gifts, and that it was that very thing that must be tried. God gave me quit other sentiments: Her submission did not render her form of silent prayer good; but gave us only hope that she should be brought back into the right way: The rest appeared to me manifest delusions, that there was no need of any other proof, but only a plain relation of the matter of fact. I intimated my Opinion with all imaginable freedom, but at the same time with all possible meekness, fearing nothing so much as to exasperate him whom I designed to bring again into the good way. I withdrew astonished to find a man of such fine wit, admiring a Woman whose light was so short, her merit so little, and her delusions so palpable. The tears I poured out then in the sight of God, were none of those wherewith my Lord of Cambray upbraids me now; you shed tears for me, and you tear me in pieces. I designed nothing else but to conceal what I saw, without opening my mind to any but to God alone; and hardly could I believe it myself: Nay, I wished I had been able to hide it from myself: I as it were felt myself trembling, and afraid at every step lest I should fall as well as a person of so much light; yet I did not lose courage, but comforted myself from the experience of so many great Spirits whom God hath humbled for a little while, to make them afterwards walk more steadfastly; and I applied myself so much the more to undeceive the Abbot of Fenelon, because they whom we had instructed were under his Charge.  
21. A little after this Conference, I wrote a long Letter to Madam Guyon, wherein I explained myself upon the difficulties just now mentioned; reserving some of them for a larger examination: I marked all my own Sentiments, as I have just now represented them; not forgetting those prodigious communications, nor the Authority of binding and unbinding; her Visions upon the Revelations, and the other things I have related. My Letter is of the 4th of March 1694. her Answer that follows upon it is very [submissive] and justifies all the matters of fact I have advanced as to the Contents of the Books. She accepted my Advice to retire, & neither to be seen or to write to any body otherwise than about her business: I did much esteem the docible Temper that appeared in her Letter; and I applied all my attention to the disabusing the Abbot of Fenelon, as to a person whose Conduct was so strange.  

Sect. 3. The second part of the Relation, containing what passed betwixt Mr. de chaalon's, and Mr. Tronson and myself.  
1. Whilst I was taken up with these thoughts, and labouring betwixt hope and fear, Madam Guyon turned the examination to quite another thing than what it was at first.  
She took it in her head to have the accusations brought against her Morals, and the disorders that were imputed to her, examined. Upon this she wrote to that future Protectress, whom she thought to have seen in her Prophecy, beseeching her to beg of the King that some Commissioners should be appointed, with power to inform themselves, & to pronounce Judgement upon her Life. The Copy she sent me of her Letter, & that which she joined to it, show by their Dates, that this happened in June 1694. This was a design to fulfil her Predictions, and for that end Mad. Guyon gave a specious turn to the thing, dexterously in sinuating that she must be cleared of the Crimes she was accused of, without which they would enter upon the examination of her Doctrine with too much prejudice. But it is not so easy a matter to surprise an enlightened Piety. It was soon perceived by the Mediatress she had chosen, that this Proposal of the Commissioners, besides other inconveniences, shot wide of the Mark, which was to begin by examining the Doctrines contained in her writings they had in hand, and in the Books where with the Church was overflowed, and so the Proposal dropped off itself: Madam Guyon yielded, and then demanded by her Friends the thing in the World that was most agreeable to me; viz. that to put an end to an examination of a thing of that importance, wherein the matter of Question must be throughly canvased, and a sort of prayer so pernicious, abolished, if possible; I should be associated with Mr. de chaalon's, now Archbishop of Paris, and Mr. Tronson superior General of the Congregation of St. Sulpice. The Letter by which Madam Guyon acquaints me with this step, makes out to the full all the reasons that induced her to submit to those two Gentlemen and to myself. The last of 'em was unknown to me, except by his reputation; But the Abbot of Fenelon and his Friends had a particular confidence in him. As for Mr. de chaalon's, it is known with what holy friendship he and I have always been united: He was also an intimate Friend to the Abbot of Fenelon. With such Colleagues I hoped to compass all things. The King was acquainted with the thing so far as it related to Madam Guyon only, and approved of it. The Archbishop of Paris has explained what was written to him upon that account, and what he answered. The Books I had seen were delivered to those persons: The Abbot of Fenelon begun then very privately to write upon that matter. The Writings he sent us augmented every day; and without naming in them Madam Guyon or her Books; every thing he wrote tended to maintain or to excuse them: The thing really in question was those Books, and they made the sole Subject of our Meetings. The silent prayer of Madam Guyon was, that M. de Fenelon was for, and perhaps 'twas his own in a particular manner. That Lady did not forget herself, and during seven or eight month that we applied ourselves to so serious a discussion; she sent us fifteen or sixteen big Bundles, (which I have still) to make a parallel betwixt her Books, the holy Fathers, Divines, and the Spiritual Authors. All this was attended with proffers of entire submission. The Abbot of Fenelon took the trouble with some of his Friends to come to Iby, a house belonging to the Seminary of Sr. Sulpice, where we were obliged to hold our Conference, because of the infirmities of Mr. Tronson. They all desired that we would enter upon that examination throughly, and protested they would refer all to our Judgement. Madam Guyon testified the same submission by Letters full of respect, and afterwards our only care was to terminate that Affair very privately, so as to prevent all suspicion of any dissension in the Church.  
2. We began to read, with more Prayers than Study, and with Groans, God knows, for all the Writing they sent us, especially those of the Abbot of Fenelon: To compare all the passages, and often to read over again whole Books how tedious and laborious soever the reading thereof might be. The long extracts I have by me show what attention we gave to an Affair, wherein really the Church was so nearly concerned; seeing the thing in question was no less than to hinder the revival of Quietism, which we saw again appearing in the Kingdom, by the Writings of Madam Guyon which were spread over all.  
3. We look upon it as the greatest misfortune of all, that she had the Abbot de Fenelon for her Defender: His Wit, his Eloquence, His Virtue, the place he filled, and those he was designed for. Engaged us to labour with utmost diligence to reclaim him. We could not despair of success; for although he wrote to us things that we must own made us afraid, the memory where of is as fresh to those persons as to me; he mixed them with so many testimonies of submission, that we could not persuade ourselves that God would deliver him up to a Spirit of Error. The Letters he wrote to me during the examination of this Book, and before we had come to a Final Resolution, breathed out nothing but obedience; and though he surrendered himself entirely to those Gentlemen: I must own here, that beside my being the Precedent of the Conference, he seemed to address himself to me with so particular a freedom, because we had been long used to treat together of the Theological matters in dispute: One of those Letters was conceived in the following terms.  
4. I receive my Lord with— great acknowledgement the kindness you show me. I can't but see that you are willing out of Charity to to settle my Heart in Peace: But I confess it seems to me, that you are somewhat afraid to give me a true and perfect security in my State. When ever you please I shall acquaint you as to my Confessor with whatever may be comprised in a General Confession of my whole Life, and of all that regards my inward State. When I besought you to tell me the truth, and not to spare me, it was neither formal Compliment, nor a trick to discover your sentiments; If I had a mind to use Art it should be in other things, and we should not have come to this pass. I never desired any thing, but what I will ever wish, that is, if it be God's will that I may know the Truth. I am a Priest, I owe all to the Church, and nothing to myself, nor to my personal Reputation. I declare to you still my Lord, That I want abide in Error one moment through my own fault; If I don't abandon it without delay I declare it is you who are the cause of it, seeing you determine nothing to me. I do not value my place, but I am ready to leave it if I am rendered unworthy of it by my my Errors. I summon you in the Name of God, and for the Love you have to the truth, to tell it me in the utmost severity. I shall go and hide myself and do Penance the remaining part of my Days; after having abjured and recanted the Erroneous Doctrine that has seduced me; But if my Doctrine be innocent, do not keep me in suspense out of some Humane Respect. To you it appertains to instruct with Authority those that are scandalised, because they know not the Operations of God in the Soul: You know with what confidence I have delivered myself to you, and applied myself without intermission, that you should not be Ignorant of my strongest persuasions. There remains nothing for me to do but to obey. For it is not the Man, or the most Grand Doctor that I esteem in you; it is God. And though you should mistake yourself, my simple and upright obedience shall— not deceive me; and I account it as nothing to mistake, when I do it with Uprightness and Humility under the hand of those who have Authority in the Church. Once more, my Lord, if you doubt never so little of my decible Temper without reserve, be pleased to put it to the proof without sparing me. Although your mind is more enlightened than that of any other Man. I pray to God, that he would be pleased to take away all your own Wisdom and to leave you none but that which is his.  
5. Thus, you have the whole Letter word by word. And may see by his Offers to leave all, and to make a Solemn Recantation of what consequence the matter was, and how far he was engaged therein: Though he had not as yet writ any Defence of the new way of Prayer. I accepted with joy the Prayer he made for me, that I might lose all my own Wisdom, which indeed I did not rely on; and I endeavoured to listen to nothing but Tradition.  
Thus seeing the Abbot of Fenelon so well disposed to submit, I look upon it as an injustice to entertain any doubt of his compliance. It never entered into my mind that the Errors wherein I saw him involved, tho' in themselves very important and pernicious, could ever do him any injury, or debar him from the dignities of the Church. They were not afraid in the fourth Age to make the famous Synesius a Bishop, tho' he confessed many Errors; they knew him so well disposed and so full of compliance, that they did not so much as think that those Errors, tho' Capital ones, aught to be an obstacle to his Promotion. I do not speak thus to justify myself: I only set down the matter of fact, the judgement whereof I refer to those who consider it: If they will defer their Judgement until they have seen the effect of the whole, they will do me a great favour. Every thing here depends upon what follows; so that 'tis not possible for me to conceal any thing from the Reader, without involving all in darkness. Moreover, the compliance of Synesius was no greater than that which the Abbot of Fenelon showed. Another of his Letters contain these words.  
6. I cannot forbear to ask you with a full submission, whether you have at present any thing to require of me. I conjure you in the Name of God, not to have any regard for me in any thing; and without expecting the Conference you promise me, if you now believe that I owe any thing to the Truth, and to the Church wherein I am a Priest, one word without Arguments shall suffice. I hold only one thing which is simple obedience, so that my Conscience is in yours. If I do amiss, it is you who make me to err for want of advising me. It is your part to answer for me if I continue one moment in the Error. I am ready to be silent, to recant, to accuse myself, and even to retire, if I have failed as to what I owe to the Church. In a word, regulate me in whatever you please; and if you do not believe me, take me at my word to entangle me. After such declaration I think I ought not to conclude with Compliments.  
7. In another Letter, he said: I have already besought you not to delay one moment, out of any respect to me, the decision that I beg of you. If you are resolved to condemn any part of the Doctrine I have exposed to you, out of obedience, I beseech you to do it with as much speed as you shall be desired. I had as good, nay, rather recant to Day than to Morrow. The rest was to the same purpose, and concluded with these words: Deal with me as with a Schoolboy, without minding either my place, or your ancient Kindnesses towards me. I shall be all my life full of Acknowledgement and Compliance, if you deliver me, as soon as possible, out of Error. God forbid I should propose this, to engage you into a precipitant Decision, to the disadvantage of Truth; I only wish you would not delay at all on my account.  
8. Those Letters were written to me by the Abbot of Fenclon, betwixt the 12th of December, 1694. and the 26th of January 1695. during which time we were drawing up the Articles. Having read all the Writings, as well those of Madam Guyon, as of Monsieur Fenelon, wherein we comprised the Condemnation of all the Errors we found in t'one and totherother; weighing all the Words, and endeavouring not only to resolve all the Difficulties that appeared, but also to prevent by Principles, those that might arise afterwards. We were at first, after the reading of the Writings, for Conversation by word of Mouth; but we feared lest by bringing things to a Dispute, we should sooner exasperate, than be able to instruct a Person whom God was pleasto lead into a better Way, which was that of an Absolute Submission. He wrote thus himself to us, in a Letter I have yet by me: Spare yourselves the trouble of entering upon that Discussion: Take the thing in gross, and begin by supposing that I have mistaken myself in my Citations. I forsake them all; I don't pretend either to understand Greek, or to make fine Arguments upon Passages: I insist only upon those that you think may deserve some regard: Pronounce my Judgement according to those, and give a Decision upon the essential Points; after which, the remaining part will be of little moment. By this it may be perceived, that we had declared ourselves enough upon his Writings. He had explained himself therein so thoroughly, that we perfectly comprehended his Sentiments. We met every day; we agreed so well on the Point, that there was no need of a long Discourse. Notwithstanding, we carefully collected what the Abbot of Fenelon had told us at the beginning, and what he spoke upon occasion. We dealt plainly, as is usual among Friends, without taking any advantage one of another; and so much the more, because we ourselves, whom they took for Arbitrators, had no other Authority over the Abbot of Fenelon than what he himself gave us. It seemed that God made his Heart sensible of the Way we were to follow, in order to reclaim him gently, without offedning so fine and acute a Spirit. The Examinavion lasted long: It is true, the Necessities of our Dioceses caused some interruption to our Conferences. As to the Abbot of Fenelon, we had rather not to have given him any trouble at all about his Opinions, than to seem to have condemned him rashly, and before we had heard all his defences. It was something of a Blow given to them, to hold them as suspicious, and to subject them to Examination. The Abbot of Fenelon had reason indeed to tell us, That after all, we knew not his Opinions any other way but by himself. As he could have concealed them from us, so the freedom wherewith he discovered them, was to us a mark of his docible temper; and we concealed them so much the more carefully, the more freely he discovered them to us.  
9 So that during all the time we three treated of that Affair with him, that is, for Eight or Ten Months, the Secret was no less impenetrable than it had been during the time that I alone was upon it. It must be confessed here, that the least whisper to the King, of the Abbot de Fenelon's favouring M. Guyon and her Doctrine, would have produced strange effects in the Mind of a Prince so Religious, so nice as to mattets of Faith, and so circumspect in filling up the great Places of the Church; and the least that this Abbot must have expected from it, had been an unavoidable exculsion from all Dignities. But we did not so much as suspect (at least for my part I own it) that any thing was to be feared from a Man, whose return was thought so sure, his Mind so docible, and his Intentions so upright; and whether it were by Reason, or prepossession; or if you will, through Error: (For I rather here make a public Confession, than seek to defend myself) I thought the Instruction of the Princes of France in too good a hand, not to do, on this occasion, whatever might conduce to the Keeping of so important a Trust therein.  
10. I carried that Confidence to the highest pitch, as will be known by the following Discourse. It was the Will of God, perhaps to humble me: And perhaps also, I sinned by putting too much confidence in the Knowledge I believed a Man endowed with; or else, that in reality, I thought I might put confidence in the strength of Truth, and power of Grace; I spoke with too much assurance of a thing that surpassed my Power: However we acted upon that ground, and as we were labouring to reclaim a Friend, so we applied ourselves with a scrupulous regard to manage his precious Reputation.  
11. It was this that inspired us with the Design you shall hear of presently. We thought ourselves obliged, in order to set bounds to his Thoughts, to restrict him by some thing under his hand; but, at the same time, we proposed to ourselves, in order to avoid making him look like one that retracted, to have him sign with us as an Associate in our Deliberations. We had no other design in any respect, but how to save such a Friend; and we were unanimously agreed for his Advantage.  
12. A little while after, he was named to the Archbishopric of Cambray. We applauded the Choice, as did every body else, and he continued nevertheless in that way of submission God put him in: The higher he was to be raised upon the Candlestick, the more I thought he should attain to that great splendour, and to the grace of the Episcopal State, through the humble compliance we saw in him. So we continued the forming of our Sentence; and he of his own accord begged if of us with the same humility. The Four and Thirty Articles that were drawn up at Issy in our private Conferences, Monsiur de chaalon's and I, presented to the new Prelate in my Apartment at Versailles. The Archbishop of Paris has expressed in his Answer to the Archhishop of Cambray, how uneasy he was in reading it. We told him without disputing, with an Episcopal sincerity, how he ought to dispose of the Writings he had sent us in so great numbers; he said not a word; and notwithstanding the reluctancy he had showed, he offered that very moment, to sign the Articles merely out of obedience. We thought it more fit to put them into his hands, that he might peruse them some time. Tho' they went to the quick, or rather indeed overthrew the Foundation of the new way of Prayer; yet their Principles being clear, we thought that the Abbot of Fenelon would not contradict them, when once he understood them. He brought us some restrictions to every Article, which eluded all the strength of them; and the ambiguity thereof did not only render them useless, but also dangerous; we did not think fit to admit them. My Lord of Cambray yielded, and the Articles were Signed at Issy, at M. Tronsons', the 10th of March, 1695.  
13. When the Archbishop of Cambray says in his Answer to our Declaration, that he drew up the Articles with us; I am sorry he has forgotten those holy Dispositions God had then put him into. It has been seen by the Letters he wrote, during the time we were busy in drawing those Articles, that he begged a Decision without Arguments. If we came to be of that Opinion. I desire those that read this, not to impute it to any haughtiness or disdian. God forbid! on any other occasion we would have accounted it an honour to deliberate with a Man of so much Light and Merit, who was moreover going to be received into our Episcopal Body, but at that time God showed him another way; which was, that he must obey without examining. Men must be led in the Path which it pleases God to open unto them, and by the Disposition his grace puts into their Hearts. Therefore the first time M. de Cambray spoke of our Thirty Four Articles, (which was in the Advertisement of the Book of the Maxims of the Saints) he mentions only two Prelates, Monsieur de Chaalous and I, that had drawn them up, without thinking then that he should name himself as one of the Authors. He remembered the disposition of Mind we were all in when we signed. Thus you have an Account of the little Mystery we were put upon merely in regard to his Advantage. I hear his Friends give out, that this was as a secret of Confession among us, which he would not discover, and that we have revealed it. Never any such thing came into our thoughts, nor did we imagine any other Secret but that only of having a regard to his Honour, and of his retractation under a more specious Title. If he had not declared himself too much in his Book, and then forced our silence, that Secret should still have lain in Darkness.  
We have seen how in one of his Letters he offered to make a general Confession to me; he well knows that I never accepted that offer. Whatever could have relation to Secrets of that nature, upon his inward disposition, is forgotten, and will never be called in question. The Archbishop of Cambray insinuates in some of his Writings, that I made nice Exceptions to some of his Restrictions, and that the Archbishop of Paris took me up sharply for it. We have then both of us forgotten it, since we have no Idea of it left in our Minds: We were all along so unanimous, that we never had any occasion to persuade one another, and being wholly guided by the same Spirit of Tradition, we were all the time of one and the same mind.  
14. The Archbishop of Cambray continued so steadfast in the spirit of submission God had put him into, that, having desired me to Consecrate him, two days before that divine Formality, kneeling and kissing the Hand that was to Consecrate him, he took it to witness that he would never entertain any other Doctrine but mine. I was cordial, and I dare say it, more at his Devotion than he was at mine. But I received that submission as I had done all others of the same nature, which are still to be seen in his Letters. My Age, my being older in Orders than he, the simplicity of my Sentiments conformable to those of the Church, and the Person I was to act, gave me that confidence. M. the Chaalons was desired to be one of the Assistants in the Ceremony, and we thought we should give the Church a Prelate, of the same mind with those that Consecrated him.  
15. I don't believe that M. de Cambray will forget this praiseworthy Circumstance of his submission. After the signing of the Articles, and about the time of his Consecration, he desired me to keep, at least some of his Writings, to serve as an Evidence against him, if ever he should stray from our Sentiments. I was far from that spirit of mistrust. No Sir, said I, I will never use any other precaution with you than to take your word. I gave back all the Papers as they were given me, not keeping so much as one, nor any other thing except my extracts for a memorandum of the Errors I was to confute, without naming the Author. As for the Letters that belonged to me, I kept some of them as has been seen, rather for my comfort, than that I believed I should ever have need of them, except perhaps for M. Cambray, to put him in mind of his holy Submissions, in case he should be tempted to forget them; that they are now published, is really owing to pure Necessity, which compelled me to speak more than I would. The protestation he made to me a little before his Consecration, should also have been kept in silence as well as the rest, if it had not come to the King's Ears, that advantage was made of it, and that they made as if I confirmed the Doctrine of the Book of the Maxims of the Saints, because I had Consecrated the Author.  
16. A little before the Publishing of that Book an Affair happened that gave me a great deal of Trouble. In my Pastoral Instructions of the 16th of April, 1695, I had promised a larger one to explain our Articles, and I desired the Archbishop of Cambray to join his Approbation to that of M. de chaalon's, then promoted to the See of Paris, and to that of M. de Chartres, for the Book I designed for that Explication. Seeing we are to name here the Bishop of Chartres, I must take notice he was the first of the Bishops of that neighbourhood, who discovered the evil Effects of the Books and Conduct of Madam Guyon. The Consequences of that Affair made us concur together in many things; as for the Archbishop of Paris, I was so much the more obliged to support myself by his Authority, because for the good of our Province, he was become the Chief of it. I thought also, it was for the public Edification, that our unanimity with M. de Cambray should be known more and more every where I put my Book, in Manuscript, into the Hands of that Bishop: I expected his Exceptions, and to correct myself according to his Advice: I found in myself, I thought, the same compliance for him that he had showed to me before his Consecration: But about three Weeks after, his Approbation was refused me, and that too for such a Reason as was far from my being able to foresee. A Friend to us both gave me, in the Gallery of Versailles, a Letter of Credentials from the Archbishop of Cambray, who was in his Diocese. Upon which I was given to understand, that that Prelate could not enter into the Approbatition of my Book, because I therein condemned Madam Guyon, whom he could not condemn.  
17. It was in vain for me to represent unto that Friend the Inconvenience that M. de Cambray would fall into. What! it will appear, said I, that to sustain M. Guyon, he disunites himself from his Brethren? then all the World will see that he is her Protector; the suspicion wherewith he was dishonoured abroad, will now be found a certainty? What becomes of those fine Discourses we so often had of M. de Cambray, and which he and his Friends spread abroad; as that he was so far from being concerned in the Books of that Woman, that he was ready to condemn them if it were necessary? Now that she had condemned them herself; that she had, before me, subscribed the Condemnation of them, together with the Evil Doctrine contained in them; would he countenance them more than her self? In what amazement will the World be, to find at the head of my Book, the Approbation of the Archbishop of Paris, and of the Bishop of Chartres, without his? Was not that the way to make the signs of his Division from his Brethren manifest? his Consecrators, his most intimate Friends? What Scandal, what Reproach to his Name? Of what Books would he become the Martyr? why would he bereave the People of the comfort of seeing in the Approbation of that Prelate, the solemn Testimony of our unanimity? All these Reasons had no effect; my Manuscript was restored to me again, having stayed three whole Weeks in the hands of M. de Cambray. The Friend that had taken upon him to give it me again, said he had kept it for most part of the time himself, and that M. de Cambray had it but few days, and gave it back without having read much of it. I wrote a few Lines to that Prelate, intimating to him my just Fears. I received an Answer that signified nothing, and then he had begun to prepare what you shall see afterwards.  
18. You would perhaps know beforehand what was become of M. Guyon. She had desired to be received into my Diocese, in order to be there instructed. She was six Months in the Holy Convent of the Damsels of St. Mary, upon condition she should have no communication with any person whosoever, either within or without, by Letter or otherwise, save only with the Confessor I appointed her according to her Desire, and with two Nuns I had chosen, one of whom was the venerable Mother le Picard, a most prudent Woman, Superior of that Monastery. Seeing all her Letters and Discourses breathed out nothing but submission, and a blind submission, we could not refuse her the use of the Holy Sacraments. I instructed her diligently; she subscribed the Articles where she plainly saw they utterly condemned her Doctrine: I rejected her Explications, and her submission was pure and simple. A little after she subscribed the just Censure that M. de chaalon's and I published against her Books, and the Evil Doctrine contained in them, condemning them with Heart and Mouth, as if each Proposition had been expressly uttered. Some of the chief of 'em were specified that comprised all the rest, and she renounced them in plain terms. The Books she condemned, were the Short Method, and the Song of Songs, which were the only Printed Books she owned: I would not meddle with the Manuscripts that were not known abroad: She offered at every word to burn them all; but I thought that precaution needless, because of the Copies that remained. So I satisfied myself with forbidding her to communicate them, or to write of 'em to others; or to teach, dogmatise, or direct, condemning her to silence, and retirement as she desired. I received the Declaration she made against the Abominations she was accused of, presuming her to be innocent, as long as she was not Convicted by a lawful Examination whereupon never entered. She asked me leave to go to the Waters of Bourbon; after her submissions she was free: She desired to be received after her return from the Waters into the same Monastery, where she kept her Apartment. I granted it one design to instruct, and thoroughly to convert her, without leaving her, if possible, not so much as the least tincture of the Visions and Delusions past. I gave her that attestation her Friends so much bragged of abroad; but she never durst show it, because I expressly specified therein, that Account of the Declarations and Submissions of M. Guyon, which we had by us, subscribed by her own Hand: and of the Prohibitions accepted by her with submission, neither to Write, Teach, nor Dogmatise in the Church, nor to spread abroad her Printed Books, or Manuscripts, nor to lead People into the way of her silent Prayer, or otherwise. I was satisfied with her Conduct, and had continued her in the participation of the Holy Sacraments, wherein I found her. This Attestation was dated the First of July, 1695. I set out the next day for Paris, where we were to advise what course we should take concerning her for the future: I shall not recount how she went off before the day I had fixed for her departure, nor how she since absconded herself; how she was taken again, and convicted of several things contrary to what she had signed. What I cannot conceal is, that she set up always for a Prophetess; I have in her Writings signed with her own hand, that God had put into her disposal the life of such as oppose themselves to her Visions: She has made Prelates and Archbishops, far different from those the Holy Ghost hath chosen: She has also made such Predictions as would strike horror into those that hear them. You have already seen what she had foretold as to the Protection of her Silent Prayer by the King himself: She has since given out, that after what she calls Persecution, her Prayers would spring up again under a Child: The Prophecy has been taken notice of to the August Infant, without making any Impression upon his Mind. God forbid I should accuse M. de Cambray, nor the wise Heads that are about that lovely Prince, of the Discourses that have been made to him concerning it; but there are amongst all Parties, People of outrageous tempers, who speak without measure or aim, and that sort of People spread Reports abroad, that the times will change, and thus they frighten the simple. You see then plainly, the Reasons I have to write those Circumstances: You see in whose presence it is I write them, and why, at last, I make a Woma nknown, who is at present a cause of Divisions in the Church.  
14. M. de Cambray, during the time of our examination, spoke of her in different manners; he has often frightened us, when he said to two or three of us together, that he had learned more from her than from all the Doctors together; and at other times he comforted us, saying, he was so far from approving her Books, that he was rather ready to condemn them, if it were thought necessary in the least; I doubted no more of his Conversion upon this point than upon the rest; and seeking nothing else but to convince throughly of his Errors a Man of parts, by a method so much the more sincere as it was meek, and without compulsion: I wished he might come, of his own accord, to himself again, as it were from a short fit of giddiness; and we thought fit to defer the proposing to him the express condemnation of the Books of that Woman, till such time as he could do it without reluctancy. Thus you have an Account of those unmerciful Men, and of those Persons that envied the glory of M. de Cambray; those that had a mind to ruin him; that have carried their severity so far, as it's impossible the relation of it can find Belief amongst Men. Let the time at least be instanced when that madness seized us. They might well have found fault that we spared him too much, showed him too much meekness, and were guilty of too much compliance: Let it be so, and I will own it; and, to speak only of myself, that I carried my Confidence, the love of Peace, and that benign Charity which suspects no evil, too far; hitherto it remains at least an uncontroverted Truth, That the Archbishop of Cambray disunited himself from his Brethren, to maintain Madam Guyon against them.   

Sect. IU. M. de Cambray's Excuses for refusing me his approbation.  
1. That Prelate well foresaw the inconvenience I had intimated to his Friend, to whom he gave the Charge of his credential Letter; and here I shall give you what he writ with his own hand, to the Person in the World before whom the desired most to clear himself: I shall relate the whole without retrenching one word: Let the Reader be attentive to it, and therein see the true cause of all the Troubles of the Church: The Writing begins thus.  
2. When M. de Meaux proposed to me, that I should approve of his Book, I testified to him with all imaginable tenderness, that I should be very glad to give that public mark of my conformity in Opinion with a Prelate, whom I have looked upon from my Youth up, as my Master in the Science of Religion. I offered to go to Germigny, to draw up with him my Approbation. I said, at the same time, to my Lords of Paris and Chartres, and to Monsieur Tronson, that I saw no shadow of difficulty between M. de Meaux and me, as to the Point of Doctrine. But that if he would attack Madam Guyon personally, I could not approve of it. This is what I have declared six Months ago. I never knew any thing of it more than what follows.  
3. M. de Meaux gave me lately a Book to be examined; at the opening of the Packet, I found that they were full of personal Confutation: I presently acquainted My Lords of Paris and Chartres, and M. Tronson, with the hardship that M. de Meaux put upon me.  
4. Let us explain whether he takes for personal Coufutation, the Condemnation of the Person: I did not so much as once think of condemning the Person of Madam Guyon, who had submitted herself. If he call the Confutation of her Book a personal Confutation, it was not then her Person, but her Book he has a mind to defend. He goes on,  
5. They did not fail to tell me, that I might condemn the Books of Madam Guyon, without defaming her Person, or doing myself an injury: But I conjure them that speak so, to weigh, as before God, the Reason I am about to present to them; the Errors imputed to Madam Guyon are not to be excused by the Ignorance of her Sex; there is no rustic Woman, tho' never so clownish, but would presently abhor what they will have her to have taught: The thing in question is not a remote and subtle consequence, which might, contrary to her intention, be drawn from her speculative Principles, and from some of her Expressions; but the question is, whether it be a diabolical Design, as they say, which is the Soul of all her Books; that it is a monstrous System which has a connexion in all its Parts, and which upholds itself with great Art from one end to the other. These are not obscure Consequences that may have not been foreseen by the Author; but rather the formal and sole aim of all her Systeme. It is clear, say they, and it would be want of sincerity in any body to deny it; that Madam Guyon hath writ only with a design to ruin, as an imperfection, all the explicit Faith of the Attributes of the Divine Persons; of the Mysteries of Jesus Christ, and of his Humanity: She would dispense with the sensible Worship of Christians, and with all distinct invocation of our only Mediator. She pretends to destroy in the Faithful all the interior Life, and all real Prayer, by suppressing all the distinct Acts which Christ and his Apostles have commanded, by bringing Souls for ever to an idle quietness, which shuts out every Thought of the Understanding, and every motion of the Will. She maintains, that when a Person has once done an Act of Faith, and of Love, that Act subsists perpetually during the whole Life, without ever having need of being renewed; that they are always in God, without thinking of him; and that they must take heed not to reiterate that Act. She leaves to Christians nothing but a brutish and impious indifferency betwixt Vice and Virtue, betwixt the eternal hatred of God and his eternal love, for which we ought to believe that every one of us has been created. She forbids, as unfaithfulness, all real resistance to the most abominable Temptations: She would have it believed, that in a certain state of Perfection, whereunto she speedily raises Souls, there is no Concupiscence, that they cannot sin, that they are infallible, and enjoy the same Peace that the Blessed do in Heaven: That, lastly, what one does without reflection, with facility, and by the inclination of the Heart, is done passively, and by pure Inspiration. This Inspiration which she ascribes to herself, and her Followers, is not the common Inspiration of the Just, it is a Prophetic one; it includes an Apostolic Authority, above all the written Laws: She establishes a secret Tradition upon such a foundation as overthrows the universal Tradition of the Church. I maintain there is no ignorance how gross soever, that can excuse a Person who advances so many monstrous Maxims: They assure us nevertheless, that Madam Guyon has written nothing but to raise the credit of that damnable spirituality, and to procure the practice thereof. This is the sole aim of her Works; take away that, you take away all: She could think on nothing else. Then the manifest Abomination of her Writings, renders her Person manifestly abominable; I cannot then separate her Person from her Writings.  
6. The manner after which M. de Cambray charges things here, he seems to have had a design to frighten himself, and to delude the Reader, without examining whether I impute all those Errors to Madam Guyon, or part only, and the rest to other Authors; there is but this one word to be considered. If we suppose that this Lady persists in her Errors what ever they be; it is true, that her Person is abominable: If on the contrary she humble herself; if she subscribe the Censures which reject that Doctrine, and her Books wherein she owns it is contained; if she condemns her Book, there is then nothing but her Book that remains to be condemned; and through her humility, if sincere, and that she persists therein, her Person is become innocent, and may even become holy through her Repentance. There was reason then, to tell M. de Cambray, that he might have approved of my Book, without blaming M. Guyon, whom I supposed penitent, and against whom I said not a word; and unless it be supposed that her Repentance was feigned, and that she was returned again to her Vomit, M. de Cambray was unjust to represent her Person as abominable by my Book, and to refuse his Approbation to it, upon that vain pretext.  
7. It is in this place that he recounts what has been transcribed before word by word; that he does not comprehend M. de Meaux, who on the one hand admits M. Guyon to receive the Communion, and on the other condemns her so severely. As for me, continueth he, if I believed what M. de Meaux believes, touching Madam Guyon's Book; and by a necessary consequence of her Person, I should have thought, notwithstanding my friendship to her, I was bound in Conscience to make her own, and formally recant in the face of the whole Church, the Errors she had so manifestly taught in all her Writings.  
8. Nay, I am of Opinion, that the Secular power should go farther; what is more worthy of the Flames than a Monster? who, under a specious spirituality, aims only at the establishing Fanaticism and Impurity? who overthrows the Divine Law, who looks upon all Virtues as so many imperfections; who turns into Proofs, and all Imperfections Vices; who leaves neither subordination, nor Rule in Humane Society; who by the Principle of the Secret authorises all manner of Hypocrisy and Lying; last, who leaves no certain Remedy against so may Evils? All Religion set aside, the Civil Government alone is sufficient to inflict the last punishment upon so pestiferous a Person. It is then certain, that if that Woman had a Design to establish that damnable System, she should have been burnt instead of being dismissed; as it is manifest that M. de Meaux has done, after he had given her the Communion frequently, and an authentic attestation, without her having recanted her Errors. If then she has recanted them, if she has repent, if she has detested the impurities, and several other Excesses you say they ascribe to her? If you falsely suppose that she is charged with them, there is not so much as a Design to accuse her? if she be reputed innocent of all what she is not found to be convicted of by Evidence? if they do not so much as think upon that Examination which was not then ripe, and which was not the question in hand, but only the Errors of which really she was lawfully convicted; and which she rejected by an authentic Act with the Books that contained them, would you deliver her into the hands of Justice? would you burn her? do you consider well what is required of the meekness of our Ministry? are we not the Servants of him that says; I desire not the death of the sinner? When St. John and St. James would have commanded Fire to come down from Heaven; is it not to us, that Jesus Christ speaks in the Persons of those two Apostles: Ye do not know of what Spirits ye are? Is it not enough to be unmerciful towards Errors, and to condemn the Books that contain them? but must we throw into despair, a Woman that condemns both her Errors and her Books? aught we not to presume that she is sincere, as long as there appears no Acts of her to the contrary? and did not her presumed sincerity deserve some indulgence in regard of her Person? One would really think you to be transported with Passion, if you should carry your Zeal to that excess; and he is to be accounted so, who maintains that a Book must not be condemned without judging the Author of it worthy of the Fire, even when the Author himself condemns his Book. As for me, continueth M. the Cambray, I could not approve of the Book wherein M. de Meaux ascribes to that Woman so horrible a System in all its parts, without defaming myself, and doing her an irreparable wrong. The Reason is thus: I have seen her often: I had her in esteem: I suffered her to be esteemed by illustrious Persons, whose Reputation was dear to the Church, and who had confidence in me. I neither could, not aught to have been ignorant of her Writings; though I have not examined them all at the time, at least I knew so much of them as induced me to suspect her, and to examine her with all rigour. I have done it more diligently than her Examinators could do it, for she was much more free, more in her natural disposition, more open with me in a time she had nothing to be afraid of: I made her often explain her Mind as to the things now in dispute. I have compelled her to explain to me the force of each Term of that mystical Language she used in her Writings. I saw plainly upon every occasion, that she understood them in a most innocent and most catholic Sense. I have also been willing to examine the particulars both of her Practice, and the Counsels she gave to the most ignorant and least suspicious Persons. I never met with any part of these Infernal Maxims imputed to her; could I then in conscience impute them to her by my approbation, and give her the last stroke towards her defamation, after having seen so narrowly and so plainly into her innocence.  
10. This is certainly to answer stoutly for Madam Guyon: Here's fine words, but very vain; for there is but one word to determine all this; that is, that they should, without hesitation, have approved in my Book, the condemnation of those of Madam Guyon, if I took the sense of 'em well; and if I imposed upon her, M. de Cambray could not avoid entering with me upon that Examination, unless he were, as it appears now he is, too much resolved to defend both that Woman and her Books, at what rate soever against his Brethren.  
11. Lèt us then speak the truth: He well knew in his Conscience that I imputed nothing to him but what was true, and therefore he continues in this manner: That others who only know her Writings, take them in a rigorous sense; let them do so, I do not defend nor excuse neither her Person nor her Writings; and is not this much to one that knows what I know? As for me I ought, in justice, to judge of the Sense of her Writings by her Sentiments, which I know to the full, and not of her Opinions by the rigorous sense they put upon her Expressions, and which never came into her mind; if I did otherwise, I should perfectly convince the Public, that she deserves to be burnt. Thus you see my Rule is for Justice and Truth; let us now come to decency.  
12. All that Rule of Justice is grounded upon this false Maxim, that she deserved the Fire, notwithstanding her having given an abhorrence in Writing of the Errors she was convinced of, and of such as followed from the natural sense of her words. Besides, it is very certain, that her Books and her Doctrine had scandalised the whole Church: Rome herself had declared her Sentiments, and so many Prelates in France and other Places, had followed her Example, that it was impossible to dissemble any longer the mischievous Effects of those Books, and the Scandal given thereby over all the World. Notwithstanding M. the Cambray, who had given them for a Rule to such as had confidence in him, will not to this very Day retract them. And lest he should condemn them, he breaks all measures with his Brethren; and yet he is not willing we should see his bigoted conceit of those Books: What follows will make it appear much better. At present it suffices to take notice of two things that result from his Discourse: The one is, That he suffers Madam Guyon to be esteemed by illustrious Persons, whose reputation is dear to the Church, and who had confidence in him. He adds: I neither could nor ought to have been ignorant of her Writings: It is then by her Writings, that he allows her to be esteemed of by Persons truly illustrious, who had confidence in him; in a word, whom he guided. They esteemed Madam Guyon and her Writings, with the approbation of M. de Cambray, than the Abbot de Fenelon: The method of Prayer he advised them to, was that which M. Guyon taught in her Book which he allowed them to esteem tegether with her Person. It is just, as he says, to preserve the Reputation of those Illustrious Persons, who are dear unto the Church, which we never so much as thought once to attack it. But who can deny that M. de Cambray was obliged to disabuse those illustrious Persons of the esteem he had given them (or allowed 'em to have if you will) of Madam Guyon and her Books? the thing then in question is not at their Reputation, which was protected by the authority of M. of Cambray: Our business is to know whether M. de Cambray himself would not too much preserve his own Reputation in their Minds, and in the Minds of so many others who knew how he recommended M. Guyon, to such as put confidence in his Conduct: Whether he would not too much save the Approbation he had given of Books so pernicious, and disliked wherever they appeared. This is what M. de Cambray cannot excuse himself from, after his Confession just now mentioned. Seeing by that in the second place, it now appears, That he endeavours to this day to maintain those Books, and that he finds nothing dubious in them, but that mystical Language Madam Guyon uses in her Writings. Is this a mystical Language, when she has said in her Short Method, that the act of giving up one's self, being once performed, ought never to be reiterated: Is this a mystical Language, when she reduces to the inferior sort of Contemplation, that of the particular Attributes, and of the Divine Persons, without excepting Jesus Christ himself: Is that a mystical Language, to suppress all Desire, even of our Salvation, and of Heavenly Joys, only out of a desire to rest upon the Will of God, either known or unknown, either for our own Salvation and that of others, or for our Damnation. What is afterwards drawn out of her Short Method, and interpretation of the Song in the Book of the sorts of Prayer, tho' it be no less pernicious, is, according to M. de C. a mystical Language.  
It is true indeed, but this mystical Language is that of the false mystics of our Days: Of Falconi, Molino's, and Malavals, all condemdemned Authors; but not that of any approved Mystick. You see how M. de Cambray excuses the Books of M. Guyon. To take what has been just now recited, and whatever is of the same nature in the literal Sense, and according to the Consequence of the Discourse, is in the Sense of that Prelate, rigorous and severe, tho' it be the natural sense of 'em, and that which he endeavours to excuse, in order that those pernicious Books might remain authorised, tho' he knows in his Conscience, that he is not able to justify them; and therefore to save them, he has recourse to that absurd method of judging of the sense of a Book, by the particular Knowledge he has of the Sentiments of the Author, and not of the Sentiments of an Author by the words of his Book, to this end are all the fine Excuses of M. de Cambray directed. But lastly, this rigorous sense, as he calls it, is that which astonished and scandalised all Christendom: And to Answer so boldly for Madam Guyon, that such things never came into her Thoughts, is another bold stroke of judging of her Words by her Thoughts, and not of her Thoughts by her Words; this is always to open the Door to the grossest of Equivocations, and to furnish Excuses for the most pernicious of Books.  
14. It is true indeed, that to this very day M. de Cambray makes use of this method; he would have us divine what were his Sentiments in his Book of Maxims, tho' he hath not so much as said one word of them; and we must not wonder that, after having justified Madam Guyon by so false a Doctrine, as that we have just now heard, he should also make use of it to justify himself. But let us come to what he adds upon decency  
15. I have known her: I could not be ignorant of her Writings, I ought certainly to know her Sentiments, I being a Priest, a Tutor to Princes, and having applied myself from my Youth to a continual Study of Doctrine, aught to have seen what is manifest. I must then, if it be so, have at least tolerated that impious System? which is the thing that makes me guilty of Error, and covers me with Eternal Confusion. All our Correspondence has also been held upon that abominable Spirituality, wherewith, as they say, she has filled her Books, and which is the Soul of all her Discourses. And in owning all these things by my Approbation, I render myself infinitely more unexcusable than M. Guyon. That which will appear at first sight to the Reader, is, that I have been constrained to subscribe to the Defamation of my Friend, whose Monstrous System I could not be ignorant of, being manifest in all her Works, according to my own Confession. So that my Sentence should be pronounced and signed by myself, at the Head of M. the Meauxes Book; where that System is set off with all imaginable Horror. I maintain it, that such a Dash of my Pen given against my Conscienee, out of a base Policy, would for ever render me infamous and unworthy of my Ministry.  
16. You see nevertheless, what these most wise and affectionate Persons towards me, have desired and prepared against me by a deep Contrivance. It is then to secure my Reputation, that they would have me sign, that my Friend deserves to be burnt with all her Writings, for a damnable Spirituality, which is the sole Tie of our Friendship. But further, how must I explain myself thereupon? Must it be freely according to my Thoughts, and in a Book wherein I shall have opportunity to speak at large? No, I must be treated like a Man that is dumb and confounded; they will hold my Pen, they will constrain me to explain myself in the Works of another Man; by a simple Approbation I must own, that my Friend is manifestly a Monster upon the Earth, and the Poison of her Writings, can proceed from no where but out of her Heart. Thus you see, what my best Friends have contrived for my Honour. If the most cruel Enemies would have set Snares to catch me, is not this exactly the thing that they should have demanded of me?  
17. What does he not think, that amidst his Excuses, every one that reads, them answers him? No, your Friend deserved not to be burnt with her Books, seeing she condemned them. Your Friend was not a Monster upon Earth, but an ignorant Woman, who being dazzled with a specious pretext of Spirituality, deceived by her Directors, applauded by a Man of your Figure, has condemned her Error, when Care was taken to Instruct her. This Confession could not but edify the Church, and wean from her Books those that have been seduced by them: M. de Cambray had nothing else to do, but to approve so just a Conduct, had not an unreasonable fear that he should defame his Friend and himself, stuck too much in his Stomach. What he calls a Defaming his Friend, is to understand her Books in their natural Meaning, as his Brothers did; and as every Body else did that condemned them. He would not have his Friends perceive, that he had put so bad a Book into their Hands; this is what he calls Defaming himself: And now we shall have cause of Wonder, to see him retreat so many Steps backwards, without being willing to own it; he fears too much, not to defame himself, but to own a Fault. This is not to defame himself, but on the contrary to honour himself, and repair his wounded Reputation. Was it so great a Misfortune, to have been deceived by a Female Friend? M. de Cambray is to this very day, careful to spread abroad at Rome, that he hardly knows M. Guyon: What Conduct is this? at Rome he is ashamed of this she Friend, in France he dares not say that she is unknown to him, and rather than suffer her Books to be blasted, he answers and gives Security for their Doctrine, tho' already condemned by their Author.  
18. What shall it be said then? that M. Guyon has subscribed her Condemnation by force? is that forcing her, when she willingly subscribed it in a Monastery, where she had confined herself of her own Accord, in order to be there instructed? Is that force, to yield to the Authority of the Bishops, whom she chose for her Teachers? But could we condemn those Books more expressly, than by subscribing to their just and severe Censure? but this, say they, is to constrain M. de Cambray to own too great a Mistake: What Remedy is there for it? It is certain, by the common Declaration of all Christendom, and by the acknowledgement of M. Guyon, that her Spirituality ought to be condemned. It is certain, by the present Confession of M. de Cambray, that all his Correspondence with Madam Guyon, was about that Spirituality she herself had condemned, and that it made the only Tie of that Friendship so much boasted of: What Answer can be given to so formal a Confession? what can we say to them who will Object, That this Correspondence united by such Tie, was either known or not known? if it was not, M. de Cambray had nothing to fear, in approving the Book of M. de Meaux; if it was known, that Prelate was so much the more obliged to declare himself; and there was nothing he had reason to fear, but holding either his Peace, or making Evasions upon that Subject.  
19 M. de Cambray seems to have foreseen that Objection, and therefore he continues in this manner; for I Omit none of his Words; They will be sure to tell me, that I ought to Love the Church more than my Friend, and more than my own self: As if the Church were in Danger, in an Affair wherein her Doctrine is secured, and where the thing relates to a Woman, whom I am ready to suffer should be defamed for ever; Provided I have no Hand in it, against my Conscience. Yea, I would burn my Friend with my own Hand, and myself too cheerfully, rather than the Church should be in Danger. She is a poor Woman, confined, oppressed with Grief and Reproaches; No body defends her, nor excuses her, and one is always afraid. Good God is that nothing to the Church, to Bless a Seducing Book, spread all over the Kingdom, and further? especially when he is suspected to approve it? Is it nothing to the Church, to observe to set in a true light to Confute the Errors of such a Book? this is what M. de Cambray won't hearken to. Why does he separate himself from his Brethren, and not show before the whole Church, the Consent of the Episcopacy against a Book really so pernicious? A Body is always afraid, says M. de Cambray: It is well seen: He would have no Body to meddle with that poor Captive, whose Fate he deplores, and that we should suffer a Party that has already too much overrun the World, to strengthen itself. To what purpose is it for him to say, Yea, I would burn my Friend wish my own Hands, I would burn my own self? Such as do burn after this manner, do it that they may burn nothing at all: These are Transported Zealots, who go beyond the Burt, to pass over the Essential Point. Burn not M. Guyon with your own Hand, you should be irregular in so doing: Burn not a Woman that shows she is coming to herself again; unless once more you be assured that 〈◊〉 Recantation is not sincere: Burn not 〈◊〉 ownself; save the Persons, condemn the Error, proscribe with your fellow Bishops the pernicious Books that spread all over the World, and put an end to a Business that disturbs the Church.  
20. After all, continueth M. de Cambray, which is most proper, either that I should revive in the World the remembrance of my past Intimacy with her, and acknowledge myself the most insipid Man living, for not having seen manifest Infamies; or that I am execrable, for having tolerated them? or that I should keep to the last a profound Silence, as to the Writings and Person of M. Guyon, as one that excuses her in his Heart, by reason she did not perhaps know the extent of each Expression, nor the severity wherewith they would afterwards examine the Language of the Mystics, upon the Experience of the Abuses that some Hypocrites have committed upon it? Tell me truly, which is the wisest part of these two?  
21. I have nothing to do here, but to observe in one Word, that profound silence to the last, which M. de Cambray promises here; it will soon be seen, what Mischief such a determined Silence causes to the Church. After this necessary Remark as to the Fact, let us go on with the Writing of that Prelate.  
22. They don't cease to tell us every day, that the Mystick Divines themselves, even the most approved of 'em, have much exaggerated Matters: Nay, they will have it, that St. Clement, and several of this chief Fathers, have spoken in terms that require abundance of Correction. Why do they expect that a Woman only could not exaggerate? why must whatsoever she has said, tend to the forming of a System that makes a Body tremble? If she could exaggerate innocently, if I have throughly known the Innocency of her Exagerations, if I know what she would say, better than her Books have explained it, if I am convinced of it by Proof as decisive, as the Terms they reprove in her Books are equivocal, can I defame her against my Conscience, and defame myself with her? This Prelate declares himself more and more, the Terms of M. Guyon are but equivocal, the Bishops, and even the Pope have condemned her Book, only because they did not understand them well. We are, you see, brought again in her behalf, to those unhappy Disputes of the Question of Fact and Right; M. the Cambray is the Author of it, and there is none but this Shift left him to defend M. Guyon against his Fellow Bishops, and against Rome itself.  
23. See how in this Condition he Triumphs, saying without interruption, Let my Conduct be closely observed. Was the bottom of the Doctrine the Question? I presently told M. the Meaux, that I would sign with my own Blood the thirty four Articles he had drawn up, so that he would explain certain things therein. The Archbishop of Paris made earnest instances to M. de Meaux upon such things as appeared to him just and necessary. M. de Meaux yielded, and I did not defer one Moment afterwards to sign. But now when the Business tends to the defaming by a backblow my Ministry and Person, by defaming M. Guyon and her Writings, they find I make an invincible Resistance. Whence comes that difference of Conduct? Is it that I was weak or timorous at the signing the thirty four Propositions? They may judge of it by my present Constancy. Is it that I refuse now, out of Conceit, and from a factious Principle, to approve the Book of M. de Meaux: They may judge of it by my readiness to sign the thirty four Propositions. If I was headstrong, I should have been more especially so as to the Doctrine of M. Guyon than as to her Person; I could not in my Bigottism, how ridiculous and dangerous soever, care any thing for her Person; but so far as I could believe it necessary, for the promoting of he Doctrine. All this is plain enough by the Conduct I have Observed, she has been condemned, confined, loaden with Infamy: I never spoke a Word to justify her, to excuse her, to make her Condition easy. As to the Matter of the Doctrine, I never ceased to write, and to quote the approved Authors of the Church. They that have seen our Discussion, must own that M. de Meaux, who was at first for thundering against all, has been constrained to admit one after another, things which he had a hundred times rejected as most pernicious. It was not then the Person of M. Guyon, and her Writings I was concerned for; it was the Doctrine of the Saints, but too much unknown to most of the Scholastic Doctors.  
24. As soon as the Doctrine was secured, without sparing the Errors of such as are led away by Delusions, were not concerned at M. Guyon's. Captivity and Disgrace. If I refuse now, to approve what M. de Meaux says of M. Guyon, it is because I won't disgrace her utterly against my Conscience, nor dishonour myself, by charging her with Impieties and Blasphemies, that reflect avoidable upon myself.  
25. Thus you see all the Reasons M. de Cambray gives for not approving my Book, from thence result Facts of the greatest Consequence, in order to know perfectly the Spirit that Prelate was at first in, and the alteration that hath happened in his Conduct, since he has been Archbishop. One may easily understand, what the Meaning of those thundering Airs is, that he begins to give me; of that profound Ignorance he ascribes to the Shool, the Authority whereof he now feigns himself to have a Mind to maintain; of those Divisions which he echoes out so loud, altho' there never was the least Ground for it, between M. de chaalon's, who was constrained to make great Instances; and me, who resisted him, 〈◊〉 did not yield without force. Those Matter of Fact and others are of the greatest Consequence, let the prudent Reader remember them: But in order to comprehend them the better, let us without Interruption go on with what follows of his Writing.  
26. Since I have signed the thirty four Propositions, I have declared upon all Occasions that offered themselves naturally, that I had signed them, and that I thought it was never to be allowed, that any should go beyond those Limits.  
27. I afterwards showed to the Archbishop of Paris, a most large and exact Explication of the whole System of the inward Ways, in the Margin of the thirty four Propositions. That Prelate did not observe in it, the least Error or the least Excess. M. Tronson, to whom I also showed that Work, did not correct any thing therein. Observe by the way, in the Matter of Fact, that there is no mention made here, of having communicated those Explications to me, of which truly I never heard any Body speak one Word.  
28. It is about six Months since, a Carmelite of the Suburb of St. James, desired of me some Instruction in that Matter; I wrote presently a long Letter to him, which I had examined by M. de Meaux. He proposed to me only to avoid a Word indifferent in itself, but which was by that Prelate observed, had been sometimes abused to ill Ends. I took it out presently, and added besides some Explications, full of preservatives against those Errors that he required not. The Suburb of St. James, that gave Birth to the most implacable Critic upon the Mystic Divines, had not one Word to say against that Letter. M. Pirot said boldly, it might be used as a certain Rule in those Matters. In effect, I have condemned therein all the Errors that have alarmed some good people in these latter times. By the way, it falls much short of it, and when all is done, we don't talk here of examining a particular Letter, the Nature of which I know only by a confused Recital. But here he begins to come to something more essential.  
29. Yet I do not find it enough to dissipate the vain Umbrages, and think it necessary to to declare myself still in a more Authentic Manner. I have writ a Book, wherein I explain to the bottom the whole System of the inward Ways, wherein I mark on one side whatsoever is conformable to the Faith, and grounded upon the Tradition of the Saints; and on the other whatsoever goes beyond, and which ought to be rigorously censured. The more I am under a necessity of refusing my Approbation to the Book of M. de Meaux, the more Capital it is to declare myself at the same time, in a more Emphatical and Express Manner. The Work is now ready. They have no cause to be afraid, that I should contradict there M. de Meaux. I would rather choose to die, than to present the Public with so scandalous a Scene. I shall not mention him, but to praising him, and making use of his words. I know perfectly his Thoughts, and I may promise, that he will be satisfied with my Work when he sees it published.  
30. Further, I won't presume to have it printed without Consulting any body. I design to entrust the Archbishop of Paris and M. Tronson with it, as a great Secret of the highest degree; as soon as they have read it over, I will publish it according to their Corrections. They shall be the Judes of my Doctrine, and nothing but what is approved by them shall be printed. I should have the same Confidence in M. de Meaux, were I not under a Necessity of Concealing from him a Work, the printing whereof, 'tis likely he would hinder, out of respect to his own.  
31. In this Work I shall exhort all the Mystics that have errred in Doctrine, to own their Errors. I shall add, that such as have explained themselves ill, without falling into any Error, are obliged in Conscience to condemn their Expressions without restriction, never to use them any more, and to prevent all Equivocating by a public Explanation of their real Sentiments. Can any body go further to repress Error?  
32. God alone knows to what degree I suffer, in making a Person suffer upon this occasion, for whom I have the most constant and most sincere Respect and Affection of any Person in the World.  
33. Thus the Memoire written by the Archbishop of Cambray concludes. We may easily understand, who the Person is, whose Suffering he is so sorry to occasion, and what the Subject of that Suffering is. All the sincere Friends of M. de Cambray do truly suffer, to see him so strangely addicted to the Defence of that Book; that he had rather separate himself from his Fellow-Bishops than Condemn it, than to unite himself to them by a common Approbation of my Book, to which he just now declares in this Memoire that the only Obstacle that hinders him, was his being unwilling to disapprove the Books of M. Guyon: But we leave these Reflections, and come to the Essential Facts contained in this Memoire.   

SECTION V.  
Of the Matter of Fact contained in that Memoir.  
1. LEt us begin at the last, whilst our Memory is yet fresh. There are two of 'em very important: The One of which is, That the Explications put on the Margin of the thirty four Propositions were concealed from me, and showed only to the Archbishop of Paris and M. Tronson. They begun then from that time to Comment upon the Articles; they turned them, they explained them after his way: He Concealed it from me; Why? because he knew in his Conscience that he departed from our first Sentiments. He will say, that M. de Paris and M. Tronson would have thought as I did: Who doubts of it? So they did; and M. de Paris has well showed it: But then every one has his own Eyes, and his own Conscience: One helps another: Why then did they separate me from those Gentlemen? seeing that they and I drew up those Articles with a perfect unanimity, as has been saip? Why did he hide himself but from him, to whom, before his being Archbishop, and at the time of the Examination of the Articles, he referred all things as to God, without any further discussion, as a Child, as a Schoolboy? It is not for my advantage that I put him in mind of those words; it is to show the laudable disposition of Humility and Obedience God then inspired M. the Cambray with. What has since happened, that should alter his Resolution? is it because I had Consecrated him? is it because he was not satisfied with his having Chosen me for that Work, when at that time he was more full than ever of the Sentiments God had inspired him with towards me, tho' unworthy, and renewed his Protestation, that he would never entertain other Opinions than mine, the Purity whereof he knew? It was, notwithstanding, after having Signed the Articles, that he gives, unknown to me, a large Explanation of 'em to the Archbishop of Paris and to M. Tronson. As for me, I should be satisfied with it; but as for M. de Cambray, would he separate and disunite Brethren and Unanimous Persons, that had laboured and concerted things so perfectly together, and as became Churchmen? If that was his Design, what Conduct is this? if it was not, why does he hide himself from me, who breathed out nothing but Unity and Concord? Was I become of a sudden morose, capricious and unmanageable, it had been much better to have Communicated to me what he was treating with the inseparable Fellows of my Labour, than a Letter to a Carmelite, which related nothing to our purpose, seeing that was writ rather with respect to his particular Instruction, than to the State of the Matter in General. But, what? he would make show of some Remains of Confidence, for a Man that deserved an entire Confidence; whilst the Essential Part is concealed from him; and whilst M. the Cambray, in order to lessen the Number of the Witnesses, of the Variations he was contriving, labours secretly to separate him from them to whom God had joined him in this Work.  
2. I have writ a Book, wherein I fully explain the whole System of the Inward Ways: The Work is now ready: They need not be afraid that I shall therein Contradict M. de Meaux: I'd rather choose to die, than to present the Public with so Scandalous a Scene. Without the Trouble of Dying, to avoid that Scandal, he should have only Communicated that New Work to me, as all the others had been Communicated, and as I had Communicated that which I was Medirating. I take here Heaven and Earth to Witness, that I never knew, even according to the Confession of M. de Cambray, what he was Contriving, and that I have my Hands free from the Scandalous Divisions that are thereupon happened.  
3. I shall not speak of M. de Meaux, but to praise him, and make use of his Words.  
Whom do they think to amuse by that ambiguous Discourse? to what purpose serves wavering Praise in a Book of Doctrine? Is it not common, to use the Words of an Author against himself, and to convince him? Thus M. de Cambray did not give the World any Assurance, against the Dissensions they had reason to fear from his Book, so that once more I am innocent.  
4. I know perfectly well the Thoughts of M. de Meaux, and I may venture to promise, that he will be satisfied when he shall see my Work published. What, he knows my Thoughts so well, that he won't do so much as ask them? I will be satisfied, He answers for it, so I see but his Book published. Did he think to draw the Public after him, and by their Authority to drag me also along? to make me believe, that in the Articles of Issy, I had thought of all that he would do, or that though he might be assured, if I durst say so of my pacific Temper, he believed I would connive at every thing? did he not think that Discretion, Patience, Compliance, especially in matters of the Faith, have bounds beyond which they must not be pushed? There was a surer Method to prevent so great a Mischief, which was to concert, and to endeavour to understand one another, as I had given him Example. He shunned a way so fair and so natural, and thought to draw the Public after him, but so far were they from suffering themselves to be drawn away, that he saw an universal Uproar against it, that the like will hardly be found exemplified. Thus God turns Men out of the way, when they neglect the certain and simple means they have in their Hands, and rely upon their Eloquence.  
5. I don't presume to have this Work printed without consulting any body. He promises to consult the Archbishop of Paris, and M. Tronson, and not to have any thing printed but what they approve. I would have, says he, the same confidence in M. de Meaux, were I not under the necessity of concealing from him a Work, the printing whereof 'tis likely he would hinder out of respect to his own: Why should I hinder it? Did he know in his Conscience, that by turning the Articles as he has done, our Books would be contrary to one another; and that he argued upon Principles opposite to those we had agreed upon? This is what he should have prevented. It was perhaps, out of Jealousy of excelling me, that I would hinder his Book from coming out? what Mark had I ever given of so mean a Disposition? why would he suspect such a thing of his Fellow-Bishop, his Friend, his Consecrator, who may well be accused of being too much possessed with a good Opinion of his Compliance? If I had been as unreasonable to show so shameful a Jealousy, and to wrangle vainly with M. de Cambray, M. de Paris and M. de Tronson would have confounded me? and because 'tis likely I should contradict them upon this Conjecture and Appearance, he really exposes the Church to the greatest Scandal that could be raised.  
6. But whence comes this change of Conduct? He to whom all was referred during the Discussion of the Matter, he, whose only Judgement was expected, with a Submission I did not abuse. In a word, he, to whom he was willing to refer all things without Discussion and Reservation, is now the only Man from whom he conceals himself: Why? no new thing is happened to me since M. de Cambray was made Archbishop, I have given him a new Mark of Confidence in desiring his Approbation, and in submitting my Book to his Examination; but it happened, that he being raised to that sublime Dignity, would for some concealed ends, change the Articles he had signed, and he must since then have forgot, what he had promised to one of the Arbitrators he had chosen, and to whom he had showed most Submission.  
7. He was no less mistaken when he thought so, than when he thought he could impose upon the Public; M. the Paris has refused him his Approbation, he has given his Approbation O my Book. He attempted in vain, to disunite those whom God, I dare say, had united by the common Faith, and by the Spirit of the Tradition that we had sought for in the same Fountains. It is true, M. de Tronson grants, that he did not oblige M. de Cambray to give me his Approbation; but when all is done, all depends upon the Exposing of it to the Public: M. de Cambray did so expose it, saying, he could not approve my Book without betraying his Sentiments; to tell him, that he ought not to approve of his having so exposed it, is the same thing as to Advise one not to sign the Confession of Faith, so long as he is not persuaded of it. It is exactly what M. Tronson had ordered to be told me: It is what he told me himself, he told me besides by several Persons, and to myself before unexceptionable Witnesses, that he believed M. the Cambray obliged in Conscience to condemn the Books of M. Guyon, and disown his own Book; then all would have been at an end if he had stood to his Advice: The Proof of this would he very easy, but it is better to stick close only to what is decisive.  
8. We may now see one of the Reasons, why M. de Cambray who still conferred with M. de Paris and M. de Chartres, constantly refused to confer with me. It appears already by that Writing, that even before the Publication of his Book, all his Care was to divide us; but the Truth is stronger than the Wiles of Men, and 'tis impossible for Man to disunite those that it unites.  
9 I shall exhort the Mystic Divines that have erred, continues M. de Cambray, to own their Errors; and they that have not explained themselves well, to condemn without restriction their Expressions: Can any one go further to repress Error? Who doubts but they may, and aught to go further? when he hath authorized an evil Book, a Book not only, suspected every where, but besides condemned at Rome already and elsewhere: When he has allowed it to be esteemed by illustrious Persons, and suffered her to make use of the Confidence they had in him to authorise that Book; and moreover, tho' they could not justify it, but by recourse to secret Explications, which they to whom it was recommended, neither ought nor could divine: When he alleges for his chief Defence, that the reason of his excusing that Book was, only because he explains it better than it explained itself: Is that enough to exhort in general, Authors that have failen, to acknowledge their Faults; and if they have spoken in an ambiguous sense, to explain themselves? No, without doubt it is not enough: That is a mere Illusion, it is certainly one, to propose to make a Woman write, who never ought to have written, and who is condemned to perpetual Silence. He ought to clear himself before the Public, and not to make use of a vain pretext to excuse himself of it.  
10. He is so deeply engaged in defending the Doctrine of that Woman, that he not only owns her to be his Friend, but also that all his Correspondence and Intimacy with her, was only grounded upon the Sprituality she professed.  
11. He is, I say, to this very day, so wedded to M. Guyon's Book, tho' condemned by so many Censures, that he affects to excuse the Errors thereof, as a Mystic Language, and as Exagerations which he offers to maintain by those of some Mystic Divines; Nay, even of some Fathers; without considering, that what we reprove in that Woman, is not only some Exagerations which may happen innocently, but also that she has sur passed in her Principles, all the Mystical Divines true or false; nay, has outdone the Book of Molinus himself.  
12. Yet once more, he remains so closely wedded to those ill Books, that he had declared just now in his Memory, that he will continue silent upon that Subject to the last. He is indeed silent to Extremity, seeing that to this very day, notwithstanding the danger he is in for endeavouring to excuse those Books, a clear Condemnation thereof cannot be extorted from him.  
13. In order to conclude his Observations upon the plain matters of Fact, we must further observe the prodigious difference betwixt what was really acted between us on the signing the Articles, and what is related thereof by M. de Cambray. If I say, that he offered to subscribe all that very moment, without examining any thing out of an entire and perfect Obedience, I should only repeat what is to be seen in all his Letters; it is he that taught us, it is he that laid upon us the Condition of the Signature: I was a severe, morose Man, and must be earnestly pressed by M. de Paris, then M. de chaalon's, in order to bring me to the Sentiments of M. de Cambray. I never refused to be taught by any of the lowest order of the Church; and much less by great Prelates: But as for this time, and this Mattèr, I do repeat it, and God knows that there never was the least Controversy between M. de chaalon's and me; we drew up the Articles with one Voice, without any thing like a Dispute, and we unanimously reject the subtle Interpretations of the Archbishop of Cambray, which tended to render all our Resolutions useless.  
14. As for the matter of Doctrine, says he, I did not cease to write, and to hearken to those approved by the Church. To what purpose is this Discourse? the Question was about understanding them right. What is it that M. de Cambray submitted to our Judgement, if it was not the Interpretation he gave to them? but now 'tis quite another thing: It is he that teaches us the Tradition, let us give Glory to God if it be so; but was it we that desired Arbitrators of our Doctrine? who desired only a Decision to submit ourselves thereto, without reserving to ourselves the least Reply? who so earnestly pressed that they would take us at our Word upon that Offer, and that they would try our Compliance? what is there happened since the time that M. de Cambray wrote those things, except that he being since made Archbishop of Cambray, would no longer tie himself to the Doctrine he had voluntarily subscribed, that he would now vary from it; and Lastly, that he has forgot the Submission that God had then put into his Heart.  
15. They that have seen our Discussion, must own, continueth he, that M. de Meaux, who at first would thunder against all, has been constrained to admit one after another, things which he had a hundred times rejected as most pernicious. It was I then that taught an evil Doctrine, it was I to whom they must give Arbitrators; M. the Cambray who spoke only of Submission to our Sentiments, really he that taught us: M. de Meaux was for thundering against all, but if he was altogether of so thundering a Disposition, and so unjust in the time of the Discussion, why would you expect his Decision to submit yourself to it? why would you desire it so earnestly? why would you hear in him, not only a Doctor whom you were pleased to call one of the greatest, but God himself? were these serious Words, or Flattery and Derision? were these the Thunderclaps that you respected, and a Man who thundered right or wrong, that you took for your Judge? and that you would hearken to as to God himself?  
16. Let us read once more the same words, They that have seen our Discussion, must own that M. de Meaux who was for thundering against all, was constrained, one after another, to admit things that he rejected: But who was it that saw that Discussion? who besides us was admitted there? by what Witnesses will he prove, that I have so much varied? but if I was to acknowledge so many faults, was M. de Cambray to acknowledge nothing? for me, I have produced his Letter, and a Memoire written with his own hand. It must be confessed, that he acts two very contrary Parts; let us read the Letters he wrote during the Discussion; he desired only a Judgement, after which he offered a Retraction at first, and to abandon all. Let us read the Memoire he makes after the same Discussion; M. the Cambray has not only no Sentiment he was to forsake, but it was we that were to forsake ours to embrace his, which we did nothing but thunder against, right or wrong, without Judgement.  
17. It was not, says he, the Person of M. Guyon, and her Writings, I was concerned for; but for the Doctrine of the Saints, which is but too little known to most part of the Scholasticks: We were those Scholasticks then, to whom the Doctrine of the Saints was so unknown, and it was M. de Cambray that taught us that Doctrine. During the Discussion he carried himself as a Scholar, but since he is arrived to an higher Degree, he would propose new Rules by his Explication, he reputes that he had so submitted, and he speaks now as tho' he was the Arbitrator of all.  
18. We are not infallible; No, without doubt; but yet he should show us wherein we had need of Instruction: What Errors did we teach? Did we except against some part of the Doctrine of the Saints? Did we desire Doctors and Arbitrators? Go, let us take heed not to glory, except it be in the Lord: Let us not speak of the deference we owe to one another; a Disciple of Jesus Christ reckons it his glory to learn every day, and that too of all Men: But yet we must not forget the part that we acted, M. de Chaalon, M. de Tronson, and I: Without doubt they look upon us as Men of sound and uncorrupt Doctrine, to whom they would refer all upon the Mysteries of Prayer and Pure Love, that is to say, upon most Essential Points of Faith. M. de Cambray himself proposed us, received us, and looked upon us as such, and now all of a sudden we are no more but a sort of Doctors to whom, as well as to the most part of the Scholasticks, the Doctrine of the Saints is utterly unknown.  
19 But whilst M. the Cambray ascribes to himself so much Authority and Light, God permits that he should discover to us his Changeableness. Now he boasts only of the School, and accuses us as being Opposers of the Scholastic Doctors, but then his Business was only to teach us the Doctrine of the Saints unknown, yea, most unknown, not to some, or to a small Number, but to most of the Doctors of the School.  
20. It is not the Person of M. Guyon and her Writings I was concerned for: What was the thing then in Question at that time? Who was it that proposed the Question? Why were Arbitrators chosen and desired? Arbitrators to whom all was submitted; was it not to Judge of the Prayer, and of the Books of M. Guyon? will he always forget and lose sight of the express Subject of the Dispute? M. de Cambray had not then published any thing upon that Matter: It was not he that was accused, it was M. Guyon and her Books: Why did he meddle so far in that Business? who called him thereunto, if not his own Conscience, by which he knew, thàt if we Condemned the Books of Madam Guyon, which he had so much recommended, he would be thereby Condemned himself? Why did he Compose so many Writings? was it to accuse or excuse and defend those Books? that must then have been our Question; and yet if we believe M. de Cambray, this was not the Matter he was concerned for; it was for the Doctrine of the Saints. What; For the Doctrine of the Saints in general, or in relation to those Books that were so mightily accused? He would then teach us, that those Books were conformable to the Doctrine of the Saints, and that if they were accused, it was because the Doctors of the School, for the most part, were ignorant of that Doctrine which Madam Guyon came to teach them?  
21. Let us tell the truth, as it results from the Matters of Fact, and from the Writings just now mentioned: Whilst she wrote before as the Party accused, the Abbot de Fenelon wrote also as much as she, either as her Advocate or Interpreter: However to hinder her Condemnation, the Matter in Question was not the Person who always spoke as having submitted, it was the Books and the Doctrine he had a mind to defend, and he had no other Reason or Title for entering upon that Cause: What he had begun when only M. de Fenelon, he continued it when made Arch bishop of Cambray; it is under this Title that he subscribed the thirty four Propositions: He persisted to submit all to the Arbitrators he had Chosen, and to whom he sent all his Writings: He received that Motion as a Motion from God, which he entertained even to the time of his Consecration: If he afterwards forgets all, what have we to say to it, but that he dissembled? or that being advanced as high as he could be, he had changed his Designs, and taken another Method.  
22. He makes wonderful Arguments upon his Conduct: Is it that I was meek and fearful when I signed the thirty four Propositions? they may judge of that by my present Resolution: Is it that I have refused out of Self-conceit, and a Factious Spirit to approve the Book of M. de Meaux? they may judge of that by my readiness to Sign the thirty four Propositions. To what purpose are his Arguments, when Matters of Fact speak? Those Matters of Fact show a Rule, and a more simple and natural way to judge of his Change of Conduct: It is in a word to be Archbishop or not; to observe Measures before his being made so, and to keep none when the Business is consummated.  
23. He Values himself much upon Readiness to suffer M. Guyon to be condemned, confined, fined, and loaden with Reproaches, without saying so much as one word to justify her, to excuse her, or to sweeten her Condition. We must not yet argue too much on this Point: It is naturally and plainly thus, that M. Guyon, by her ill Doctrine, and her rash Conduct, for it was not then throughly dived into, was become so ridiculous and odious, that the Prudence and Precaution of the Abbot de Fenelon, even since he was made Archbishop of Cambray, did not permit him to expose himself in vain: What, do I say to expose himself? to lose his good Name utterly by upholding her, and that there was no other way for one that would defend her, but to take indirect Methods.  
24. It is what appears to us in all his Writings, that he had secretly undertaken to defend her: Thus that he defends her to this very day, in maintaining the Book of the Maxims of the Saints: He lays down now, as he did then, all the Principles he can to uphold her: If, by his Knowledge he covers her Doctrine, if he mitigates it in some places, that way of Teaching it is so much the more dangerous. In fine, we could not excuse him then but by his extreme Submission, the Proof whereof we have been constrained to give by his own Letters, and we had not lost those Hopes of him but by the Publication of his Book, of which we must now speak.   

SECTION VI.  
Of the History of the Book.  
1. THat Book that ought to have been so well Concerted with my Lord of Paris and M. Tronson: (As for me, I was one to whom he would no more hearken:) That Book, I say, wherein he had engaged himself, as has been said, not to put any thing but what was Corrected, and approved by them, appeared at last on a sudden in February, 1697. without the least Mark of any such Approbation. The Archbishop of Paris has explained himself to the Archbishop of Cambray, how that Book appeared against his Advice, and against the formal Word M. de Cambray had given him. As for me, who restrict myself wholly to what is public on that Head, I shall only Observe, that not to find the Archbishop of Paris' Approbation at the Head of that Book, is the same in my Opinion as the Refusal of it, seeing, that according to the Obligations M. de Cambray had taken upon him, he ought to have demanded it: Let us not then any more speak of mine, which was no less necessary, seeing I was one of the two Prelates whose Principles he promised to explain. We must not forget that Authentic Promise in the Advertisement of M. de Cambray. There was published a Book, that was to decide such Nice Matters, to distinguish so exactly betwixt the true and the false; to take away all Equivocations, and to reduce the Expressions to the utmost rigour of the Theological Language, and by that means to serve as a Rule to all Spirituality. We saw, I say, that Book appear without any Approbation, not so much as of those from whom it was most Necessary, and whose Approbation he had promised to take.  
2. It is in vain to Answer, that M. de Cambray had, 'tis true, promised to speak nothing but what M. de Paris should approve of, but not to take his Approbation in Writing, for 'tis not the Custom to prove an Approbation by a Chimerical Matter of Fact: It must be showed in Writing, and Signed, especially when he of whom he takes it, is concerned in the Case, as the Archbishop of Paris was manifestly so in the New Book, seeing he promised in the Preface of his Book that he would explain his Doctrine.  
3. So M. de Cambray ventured at &: He, that chose rather to die, than to present the Public with so scandalous a Scene as to contradict me, exposes himself likewise to contradict the Archbishop of Paris, and to set the whole Church in a Combustion. He had rather indeed expose himself, and did it accordingly, than with his Friends, with his Fellow-Bishops, not to say with them he had Chosen for Arbitrators of his Doctrine, whilst on our part we offered to Concert all things with him, and did so accordingly, and put our Compositions into his Hands. He has broke all Union, out of an eager desire to give Laws to the Church, and to furnish Excuse to M. Guyon; nor can he endure to be told, that he alone is the Cause of Division among the Bishops, and of the Scandal of Christendom.  
4. He would have it forgot, how speedy and universal an Opposition was made to his Book: The Town, the Court, the Sorbonne, the Monasteries, the Learned, the Ignorant, Men, Women, yea, all Orders without exception showed their Indignation, not against the Proceedings, for they were known but to few, and indeed to no body throughly; but against the boldness of such an ambitious decision, against the refinedness of the Expressions, the strangeness, unprofitableness, and the ambiguity of that unheard of Doctrine: It was then that the Public Noise conveyed to the Sacred Ears of the King what he had so carefully concealed: He heard it from an hundred Persons, that M. Guyon had met with a Protector in his Court, in his Family, one that waited upon the Princes his Children: And with what Displeasure, we may judge by the Piety and the Prudence of that great Prince. We were the last that spoke of it, every body knows the just Reproaches we underwent from the Mouth of so good a Master, for having concealed from him what we knew; with which you may be sure he charged our Consciences: Yet M. de Cambray, in such a general dissatisfaction only complained of us; and when we were constrained to excuse ourselves for having served him too much, and that we must lastly beg Pardon for our Silence that hád saved him, he made and contrived the most strange Accusations that could be against us.  
5. Did I alone raise up the Public? what! my Cabal? my Emissaries? shall I dare to say so? I can say it with Confidence and before the Sun; the most simple of all Men, I would say the most incapable of all Cunning and of all Dissimulation, as one who never found Credit, but because I have always walked so as to obtain common Credit: All of a sudden I have conceived the bold Design of ruining by my Credit alone the Archbishop of Cambray, whom until then, I had always been willing to save at my own Peril: But that is nothing, I alone have by imperceptible springs, from a Corner of my Closet, amongst my Papers and my Books, stirred up the whole Court, all Paris, all Europe, and Rome itself, where the universal Astonishment, not to say more; was carried as fast as the Public News could convey it: What the most credited, and most absolute Potentates could not perform, and care not undertake; viz. to make Men concur, as it were in an instant, in the same thoughts, I alone have done it without stirring from my Closet.  
6. Yet I wrote nothing; my Book that was finishing, and printing when that of M. de Cambray appeared, stayed three Weeks longer in the Press; and when I published it, they sound therein 'tis true, Principles contrary to those of the Maxims of the Saints; (it could not be otherwise, seeing we took such different ways; and that I designed only to establish the Articles that M. de Cambray had a Mind to elude) but not one Word against that Prelate.  
7. I shall say nothing of my Book, but one well known and certain Matter of Fact: It passed without any seeming Contradiction, I had no Advantage of it, I therein taught the Doctrine of the Catholic Church; the Approbation of M. de Paris, and that of M. de Cambray, did add thereunto that Authority which the Holy Concurrence of Bishops gives naturally in Matters of Faith. The Pope himself did me the Honour to sènd me a Letter upon the Book I had laid at his Sacred Feet, and was pleased to express himself in brief, that my Volume had much increased the good Will he entertained for me: That brief Letter is published in my Second Edition. It appears also in the Letter to M. de Cambray, whether there be a Word of his Book: That difference regards not my Person: It is an Advantage from the Doctrine I taught, which is known all over the Earth, and which is authorized and always favoured by the Chair of St. Peter.  
8. Affairs seemed afterwards to be somewhat embroiled. It is the ordinary Conduct of God against Errors. There happens at the very first Appearance of 'em an illustrious Declaration of the Faith. It is as the first stroke of the Ancient Tradition, that repulses the Novelties they design to introduce: A little afterwards a second Time followed, which I call the time of Temptation; the Cabals, the Factions began to stir, Passion and Interest divides the World: Great Bodies, great Potentates stir themselves, Eloquence dazzles the simple, the dialectics lay Snares for them, Extravagant Metaphy sicks carries the Minds of Men into unknown Countries, many know no more what to believe, and hold all in Indifference, without Understanding or Distinction, they embrace their Party merely out of Humour. There's the Times I call Times of Temptation, if they will, Times of Darkness; we must wait in Faith for the last Time, when Truth shall triumph, and get the victory.  
9 The first thing that appeared upon opening the Book of M. de Cambray, was a manifest affectation to excuse the Mystics newly condemned, by cutting them off once, twice and thrice, from the List of the false Spiritualists. Here we may discover him that had promised to keep silence to the last upon the Account of M. Guyon. We have showed in another place, that the short Method of that Woman was nothing else but a more express Explication of Molinos' Guide, and especially as to indifference about Salvation, and that they had besides affected to transcribe into that small Book, the same Passages Molinos relies upon in his Guide; among others a Letter of Father Falconi, which has been censured at Rome. So that to save Madam Guyon, they must save Molinos; and for this reason M. de Cambray spared him in the Maxims of the Saints. It is true, that he durst not forbear condemning expressly, that Heresrarcha in his Letter to the Pope. But he spoke therein only of 68 Propositions of that Wretch, and affected to keep silence as to the Guide, which is the Original of the New Quietism, and of the short Method. As for this last Book, very far from condemning it, he excused it in the same Letter, by comprising his Author among the Mystics; Who, says he, carrying the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience, had favoured the Error by an excess of affectionate Piety, for want of precaution, the choice of terms, and through a pardonable Ignorance of the Principles of the Divinity. He adds, that this was the Subject of the Zeal of some Bishops, and of the 34 Propositions; altho' those Propositions and Censures had no regard to any, but to M. Guyon and Molinos. There's the pretended Exagerations, the pretended Equivocations, and in one Word, the pretended Mystical Language, which is plainly to be seen he prepared as a Refuge to that Woman; and he presented that Excuse to the Pope himself, to draw his Advantages from it, if he would have received it.  
10. Here we may see the same Spirit of Indulgence for the short Method, and M. Guyon's other Books, when speaking of the Censures of some Bishops against certain little Books, of which he durst not hold his Peace altogether before the Pope, he reduces the same Censures to some places, which taken in the sense that naturally offers at first, deserve to be condemned. He would seem thereby to condemn them, if we remembered not the particular sense he would have to be found in the same Books, notwithstanding their proper Words, and judges them to be condemnable only in a rigorous sense, which he assures us never came into the Mind of their Author; by which it is but too plain, he reserved to himself the Liberty of excusing them, by this particular sense he pretends to find in the Book, notwithstanding the Words of the Book itself.  
11. In the mean while, how little soever he may have said of it, he is so afraid we should believe that he hath passed a Sentence of Condemnation upon the Books of M. Guyon, by so speaking in his Letter to the Pope of the Bishops that have censured her, that he explains it in his Answer to the Declaration; where he says, that he does not rely at all upon their Censures, wherein he never had any part neither directly nor indirectly: Words chosen on purpose, to show that he was very far from approving them.  
12. What he answers upon the affected Omission of Molinos, and of M. Guyon, is no less estrange; Do they pretend, says he, seriously, that I would defend or excuse Molinos, when in all my Books I detest all the Errors of the 68 Propositions, that occasioned him to be condemned? Yes without doubt, they seriously pretend it, seeing that these very Words confirm the perpetual affectation of suppressing the Guide of that Author, and of touching only upon the 68 Propositions, as if they were the only Subject of the Condemnation of the Holy See, without comprising that Book therein.  
13. As for the person, adds he, whose Books the Prelates have censured, I have already given an Account to the Pope my Superior, of what I thought thereupon. Who does not see, that this is to shift off the essential point? is it in vain that St. Peter had said, That we must be ready to give an Account of our Faith, not only to a Superior, but to all those that desire it? What would it have been for M. de Cambray, to explain himself to the whole Church, without affecting to spare and uphold M. Guyon? But yet let us see, what Account he has given to the Pope, of his Sentiments upon the Books of that Woman. I do not repeat it, says he, my Letter being made public. There is no Letter public, but that wherein he says to the Pope, That there are some certain small Books censured by the Bishops, some places whereof, in the sense that naturally offered, were condemnable. You see all the Account he gives to the Pope of those Books that are pernicious throughout, and not to be countenanced in any sense, because what is read in them is pernicious, and what he conjectures is to be found in them, is forced and not sufficient.  
14. One may also observe here his affectation of naming to the Pope only Molinos, and not M. Guyon. It is true, he hath set down in the Margin of the Letter to the Pope the short Method, etc. with the Explication of the Song of Songs. But after the Liberty M. de Cambray has taken, to say, that they have inserted what they would in his Text, who shall hinder him from disowning a Marginal Note, the Text whereof is insignificant? and whatsoever happens, he will come off with condemning some places only in those Books, whilst he spares the bottom, which is wholly corrupted; and besides, he condemning them only in that pretended severe sense, for which he is surety that it never came into the Author's Mind.  
15. He does not satisfy the public any thing more in adding these Words: I shall do on this point as on all others, what the Pope will judge fit; for what was he to expect since the Centure of Rome in the Year 1689. do we not see that M. de Cambray, who has so long after defended that Book, designs still to shift off the Condemnation thereof by deferring it? So that Letter which he hath made public, does visibly say nothing at all; therefore M. de Cambray would fain have us to believe, that he has written a more secret and express Letter to the Pope: It is for this reason that in the second Edition of his Answer, he has suppressed these Words, My Letter is made public, and he would have recalled the Edition wherein they were, because we saw there very plainly, that as to the Books of M. Guyon, he was merely for shifting off, and never for explaining himself.  
16. He does more than keep silence. M. de Paris has demonstrated that his Book of the Maxims is only a faint Mitigation, a dexterous and artificial Justification of the Books of M. Guyon: M. de Cambray has only covered over with fine Colours the Exclusion of the Hope, and of the Desire of Salvation, with that of Jesus Christ, and of the Divine Persons in pure Contemplation, and all the other Excesses of that Woman: It is visibly, her interior Life, that this Prelate designed to describe, and that he would palliate her manifest Failings in his 39 Articles, it is what is found in her Life, where she speaks of herself in this manner; Souls of inferior degrees will often appear more perfect: Then they find themselves soremote from the rest of Men, and they think so differently from 'em, that their Neighbour becomes insupportable. Here's a new Wonder, to find themselves so much above other Men, that the Eminency of Perfection, which induces us to look upon our Neighbours with the most tender Condescension, should hinder us from enduring them: But the Wonder of Wonders is this, We feel, adds he, in the new Life, that We cover the exterior part by apparent Weaknesses: So that among the Failings which she can neither overcome nor cover, she flatters by those haughty Excuses the hidden Complaisance, that makes her to turn her Weakness into Pride, and by the same means M. de Cambray entertains the Admiration of the just that know her.  
17. What signifies these fine Discourses in the Maxims of the Saints, upon Souls that pretend to be perfect: They speak of themselves out of pure Obedience, simply well or ill, as they would speak of another: Who does not see, that they were designed as Excuses for the Enormous Boastings of a Woman, that gave out she was endued with a Prophetic and Apostolic Spirit, with Power to bind and unbind, so full of Grace as to overflow, and with a perfection so eminent, that she could not endure the rest of Men? when such Excesses discover themselves, the Excuse is ready for it in the Book of M. de Cambray: M. Guyon spoke of herself, as she would have spoke of another; she spoke out of Obedience to Father Lacombe her Director, to whom she addresses her Life, wherein are found all those things which have been related.  
18. Father Lacombe was he that was given her in a particular and wonderful manner; if he was become her spiritual Father, she had first been his Mother; it was he alone to whom she communicated Grace, tho' afar off; with all the tenderness that she represents in her Life to that degree as to feel herself constrained that it might evaporate, to tell him sometimes, O my Son, you are my beloved Son, in whom alone I am well pleased: God had notwithstanding given her in her Prison, and as the Fruit of her Labours, another Man far more intimate than Father Lacombe; and how great soever her Union might be with that Father, that she was to have with the latter was quite another thing. As to that, I will not conjecture any thing, I relate here only that of her Life, to show that the false Mystery is continued, and that we are not come to the end of the Delusions that we are to expect from that Woman.  
19 In the mean while that Father Lacombe is the Author of the Analysis condemned at Rome, and since by several Bishops. The Circumstances of his Intimacy with that Woman have been known of the late Bishop of Geneva, of holy Memory, John d' Aranthon: And the History thereof is become public in the Life of that holy Bishop, which the Learned and pious general of the Carthusians has published. The time is come, when the pleasure of God is, that this Union should be entirely discovered: I shall say nothing more of it, but shall content myself to describe the Person by whose Order M. Guyon wrote her Life.  
20. In every page of that Life she gives way to her Rapture, so far as to say, O let me hear no more of Humility! The Virtues are no longer for me! No, my God, let there be no more for me neither Virtue, nor Perfection, nor Holiness! And every where in her Life she says, Virtuous Manners are imperfect Manners: The Virtue Humility is a feigned Virtue, or at least affected and forced: It is there also that we find the Source of the New Language; where it is mentioned, that they will have no more Virtue as Virtue. M. de Cambray has adopted those words: Thence comes whatsoever we find in his Writings to lessen the Esteem of Virtue, and thence comes in the last place his perpetual forcing so many passages of St. Francis de Sales, which are to be understood more simply as that Saint did.  
21. We had said nothing like this in our Articles: Such Explications as are added in Favour of M. Guyon are not a more large explication, as M. de Cambray promised; but an evident Depravation of our Sentiments and Principles. In the as Article we spoke all upon the Conditions and Suppositions impossible: This was sufficient to verify what had been said of it by St. Chrysostom and other Saints, who would never introduce those Suppositions, but with the Expression of an impossible Case. But what was sufficient for the Saints, was not sufficient to excuse M. Guyon: So that to Contemn her, they were fain to invent the absolute Sacrifice never heard of before, and all the Circumstances that have been often remarked, all things added to our Articles, and unknown to all Authors, except to Molinos and M. Guyon.  
22. To speak a word of it by the by, and to bring the Reader a little back again to the Matter of Fact, was that an Expliction of our Principles, or his acquiescing to his just Condemnation, which one of our Articles has expressly condemned, that we must never suffer troubled Souls to acquiesee in their Despair, and apparent Damnation: On the contrary, M. de Cambray permits such as acquiescence by a Director; and to render it more voluntary, to ascribe it to the highest part of the Soul, he calls it a Sacrifice, and an absolute Sacrifice. We said in the same Article, that we must with S. Francis de Sales assure those Souls, that God will not forsake them: But far from approving that Article, M. de Cambray confutes it expressly, when he says that our Business is not, neither to argue with those Souls that are incapable of all reasoning, nor to represent unto them the Goodness of God in general. We must then deprive of Comfort those Souls we suppose to be holy, and bereave them with their Reason of the reasonable Service St. Paul teaches: We must deliver them up to their Cruel Thoughts, and to speak it in one word, to their Despair; was this to explain or to deprave our Principles? Did we say any thing like this in our Articles?   

SECT. VII.  
On the Archbishop of Cambray's Explications, and the Necessity of our Declaration.  
1. IF we must now come to the Explications of M. de Cambray, three Things are to be Observed in the Matter of Fact: The first is, that they were Explications we never heard one Word of, and that we were to own them as contained in the Articles of Issy, seeing it was those Articles which my Lord of Cambray would have had explained: The second was, that he changed them every day, so that they are not yet finished: And the third was, that they did visibly contain new Errors.  
2. What had we to do with his Natural Love, which never came into our Mind? and suppose we had admitted it, did it avail any thing towards solving the Difficulties? the chief of all was the acquiescing to his just Condemnation on the part of God: The Archbishop of Paris has lately demonstrated, that the acquiescing to the Loss of that natural Love, is so far from acquiescing to one's own Condemnation on the part of God, that it is on the contrary a receiving of Grace from it, seeing according to the Author himself, this is one of the ' greatest, to be deprived of a Love which they account the sole Obstacle to perfection? what could we have said to an Argument so clear? and was not this sufficient to hinder us from receiving Explications, which afford no help to the Book they would have us to excuse.  
3. On the other hand, that Explication is so bad, that M. de Cambray has lately changed it, in the very last Letter he addressed to me. In that last Letter, to acquiesce in one's own Condemnation, is no more to acquiesce in the Loss of Natural Love, as hitherto he would have us to understand it: To acquiesce in his just condemnation, is (for a Sinner) to acknowledge that he deserves Eternal Punishment: So the Natural Love is useless to that act; it is not out of a Natural Love that a Sinner owns himself to deserve Eternal Punishment. But this new Answer is not better than the rest, and the Archbishop of Cambray will find himself constrained to forsake it, as soon as he considers this short Reflection, It is not true, that to acknowledge one's self to deserve Eternal Punishment, is to acquiesce in his just Condemnation: For 'tis so far from acquiescing therein, which happens to Men in Despair, that we beg Pardon of the just Judge: We beseech him to change his Justice into Mercy, and not to deal with us according to our deserts, but to save us through Grace in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord; so far are they from Consenting by that Act to their own Condemnation, that it is on the contrary to oppose his Mercy thereunto, which hinders the Effect thereof.  
4. So, (and this is the Second Remark) those Explications changed every day: That which M. de Cambray seems to adhere to, is that of Natural Love, and of the terms of Motive, to which, as he grants, he now gives a new Sense different from that of the School. I do not touch upon that Matter, whereof the Bishop of Chartres, by whom the Explications have been transmitted to us, will say what, according to his Prudence, he thinks fit: But I shall only take Notice of those public Matters of Fact. The Letter to the Pope appeared a few Months after the Book, in order to soften the Expressions thereof; without mentioning therein either a Natural Love, or the New Sense of Motives. Soon after there came into our Hands by M. de Chartres, another Explication, wherein that Prelate can testify, no mention was made of Natural Love, and he gave Motive a Sense therein, quite contrary to that which has been proposed since. At last, the Natural Love which we had not yet heard of, is come out, and this is that same Explication which was set forth in the Pastoral Instruction.  
5. To draw all the Dispute on that Point, M. de Cambray published at Rome, and other places where he had a mind, the Latin Version of his Book. He altered it after a strange manner in the translating it: For almost in every place where, in the Book, the word proper Interest, Commodum proprium, is found, the Translator has inserted the word desire, and mercenary appetite, appetitionis mercenariae. But our own Interest is not a desire: Our own Interest is manifestly an Object without, and not an Affection within, nor an inward Principle of action: All the Book is therefore altered by this Change. It is a vain Excuse for M. de Cambray to say, that he thus understood it, seeing that in a Version one must simply translate the words, and not insert any gloss.  
6. He has also inserted every where the term of mercenary, without ever having defined it, and that he might have room to insinuate in the Book whatsoever he had a mind to, by a double Sense that reigns all over it.  
7. In the same Latin Version the word motive is translated by that of inward affection; appetitus interior; against the natural signification of that word, which is that we ought to follow in a faithful Translation. It was nevertheless this Version that the Archbishop of Cambray besought the Pope he would be pleased to advert to in order to judge of his Book: So that he would be judged upon a false Translation. He added thereto Latin Notes, which did no less disagree from his Book, and this he proposed, to shift off the Examination of the French Book, by Explications not only added to his Book, but also disagreeing from it.  
8. They that have neither seen that Version nor those Notes, may judge of it by his Pastoral Instruction. It has been showed by so demonstrative Proofs, how little that Instruction is conformable with the Book, that there is none but M. de Cambray who dares deny it: So much are his Explications visibly forced. But that which proves the uncertainty of those Explications is this, that their Author seems to be so little satisfied with it himself, that he cannot cease to give New Senses to his Pastoral Instruction. He had observed therein, as has been demonstrated in my Preface, That his Natural Love was not confined to himself, but that it tended to God as to the Supreme Good: That also those who are imperfect, who acted likewise by that Love, desired the same Objects, and that the difference was not on the part of the Object, but on the part of the Affection wherewith the Will desires it: But he perceived the Inconvenience of that Doctrine, and in the Letters he directed to me, he will not there have it, that his Natural Love is a Natural Love of God in itself, nor any thing else but the Natural Love of a Created Gift, which is the formal blessedness.  
9 But in that he mistakes still; we must not believe that because it is a Created Gift, the formal Blessedness, that is to say, the enjoying of God can be desired naturally, because that Created Gift is supernatural, and the Love of it is inspired by Grace only, as the Love of God; so that the Reason that obliged him to correct himself, does as strongly militate against his Correction as against his first Discourse.  
10. I bring only this Example, tho' there are a great many others of that Nature; because it is sufficient to let us see by a sensible Proof, that to engage in the Explications of M. de Cambray, was to enter into endless Turnings and Windings, seeing he adds some new Strokes to them continually.  
11. Here's nevertheless another Proof of it, the Archbishop of Cambray, has published at Rome, two Editions of his Answer to the Declaration of three Bishops: The one in 1697. without any Name either of Printer or of Town: The other is in 1698. at Bussels, by Eugen Henry Frix. Wherein the Additions or Restrictions are enough to fill 5 or 6 Pages, and when he presented it at Rome, he desired to have the other again, tho' given by his Order; which shows that he would have covered his Changeableness; and yet he wonders, that we should not join with him in such Variable Explications.  
12. One weighty Reason that shows the Inconvenience of joining with them is, that those Explications are oftentimes new Errors. I shall bring only one Example, but a very clear one, M. de Cambray does not know how to distinguish his Love of the fourth degree from the fifth, nor how to preserve to this last the Pre-eminence he would give it, seeing that the fourth Love as well as the fifth, Seeks God for the Love of himself, and prefers him to every thing without Exception; carrying also the Perfection and the Purity so far, as Not to seek its own Happiness, but with relation to God; which is so pure, as 'tis impossible for one to go beyond it, or to show less regard for our own Interest.  
13. I speak of these things only in short, because they are enough explained elsewhere, and cannot be always repeated. M. de Cambray being perplexed with this Remark, which overthrows his whole System, answers that the Love of the fourth degree, tho' it be justifying, (observe that Word) refers truly all things unto God, but habitually and not actually, as the fifth; as, says he, the Act of Venial Sin is referred unto God, according to St. Thomas, habitually and not actually.  
14. This Answer is hitherto a stranger to the Schools, and contains two Evident Errors: The first is, that he makes justifying Love relate unto God, in the same manner as the Act of the Venial Sin does: The second is, to make the Act of Venial Sin itself habitually relate unto God, which no Body ever did before M. de Cambray.  
15. The Error is enormous; for if the Act of Venial Sin is habitually referred unto God, it follows thence, that one may commit it for the sake of God, which takes away all the Malice of Venial Sin. One may then well say with St. Thomas, that Venial Sin hinders not, neither the Man nor the Humane Act indefinitely, from being referred unto God as the last End; but that the Act itself of Venial Sin, wherein is found that which we call Disorder, Inordinatio, should be referred habitually unto God, it is against the Nature of all Sin, and by consequence of Venial Sin.  
16. The Rule which M. de Cambray gives here is no less Erroneous: The Rule is, that Acts which have no relation at all to the last End, and which are not referred unto God, at least habitually, are mortal Sins; but thence it follows in the first Place, that all Sins are mortal, seeing that no sin can in any ways be referred unto God: And Secondly, As M. de Paris has observed it, that all the Acts of the Pagans are mortal sins, seeing that which hinders the Venial Sin from breaking in the just, that commits it, the Relation at least habitual unto God, is the Habit of Charity abiding in their Soul: Whence by a contrary Reason it follows, that a Pagan not having in him such a Principle of Habitual Charity, nor any thing that unites him to God, by the Rule of M. de Cambray, tho' he may do never so much, he always sinneth mortally.  
17. So the New Explications being side-ways, go off more and more from the Truth; to enter into them was to throw one's self into a Labyrinth of Errors, which is not yet finished. The Author writes no Books without producing some Novelty against sound Divinity: He seemed to have rejected the involuntary he had admitted, in the Trouble of the Holy Soul of Jesus Christ; but it is clearer than the day, that in his last Writings he re-establishes that impious Doctrine: I have made a Demonstration of it, which I don't repeat; that is to say, he walks without Rule and Principle, according as his present Occasions push him.  
18. It is evident by such Matters of Fact as these, that we could not receive his Explications: It is therefore likewise evident, that we could not but reject the Book, nor be hindered from disowning publicly the Author, who had publicly ascribed to us the Doctrine of it. For what could we do, or what could M. de Cambray advise us? to hold our Peace it is to consent: It is failing in an essential part of the Episcopal Function, all the Grace whereof consists in speaking the Truth: It is so opposing ourselves to the Sentence of Pope St. Hosmidas, Ipse impellet in Errorem qui non instruit ignorantes: He drives the Simple into Error, who does not Instruct them: Especially in such a Case wherein you are appealed to as a Witness, and your Name made use of to deceive them. What then shall we speak? it is what we have done with all simplicity in our Declaration. But, say they, it is an anticipated Censure: Not at all; it is a Necessary Declaration of our Sentiments, when we are forced to speak them out. What obliged M. de Cambray to explain our Articles without our Consent? to Cite us in our own Names, and lastly to make us believe, that his Book, where we found so many Errors, was but a more large Explication of our own Doctrine? is he allowed to undertake whatever he pleases, and must we keep silent, tho' he goes on against us? These are not mere Pretexts, they are Reasons clearer than the Sun. M. de Cambray is no less unjust, when he says, that we have denounced him: Sincerity would oblige him to acknowledge, that he denounced himself by his Letter to the Pope, when he desires him to judge of his Book: No Body had accused him, it is he who did himself the Honour to bring the Business before the Pope. We approved of his Submission, but we could not dissemble that it was without consenting to his Doctrine.  
19 Why, says he, did you send your Declaration to Rome? The answer is ready in every one's Mind. It is because his Book had been sent thither, that he himself had sent it thither, and that he wrote to the Pope, that this Book contained no other thing but our Doctrine: Does Sincerity allow any Man to dissemble in things so clear? but the thing is, he had a mind to complain, tho' he had no reason for it.  
20. These Complaints are confuted by one word only; they tend only to this, to say that we had a mind to ruin M. de Cambray: God knows the contrary. But without calling so great a Witness, the thing speaks of of itself. Before his Book appeared, we concealed his Errors, so far as to endure the Reproaches you have heard of already: When the Books appeared, he had already ruined himself enough: If we have been willing to ruin him, he concurred with us, by raising up all the World against him by his ambitious Decisions, and by filling his Book with Errors so palpable, and with so many unexcusable Excesses.  
21. When he upbraids us, and me in particular, as if he had proposed it to us, that we should by a common Letter beseech the Pope, to order our Question to be judged without Noise by his Divines, and in the mean time to keep silence: First, he tells a thing of which I never heard one Word, and so false that he himself suppresses the chief Circumstances, as has been seen from the beginning of this Relation. It is besides true, that the Proposal was impracticable: What he had imputed to us, as to his Doctrine, was made public in his Advertisement in the Book of the Maxims of the Saints. He had reiterated it without ask our Consent, as he owns it, and he repeated therein once or twice, that his Doctrine was conformable to ours: Therefore our Conscience obliged us to disown it as publicly, as we had been appealed to as Witnesses of it. In the third place we made no question of the Falsehood of his Doctrine: We held it determinately to be evil, and not to be countenanced: This was not a particular Affair between M. de Cambray and us: It was the Cause of the Truth, and the Concern of the Church, which we could not take upon ourselves alone, nor treat it as a private Quarrel, which M. de Cambray would have been at. Then suppose he persisted invincibly, as he has done to impu●e unto us his Thoughts, and would never retract it. We should not save ourselves, but by declaring our Sentiments to all the World. This Declaration remained naturally submitted to the Pope, as all Particulars in matters of Faith do; and presenting it to him was as much as to submit it to him, but in the mean time we discharged our Conscience, and as much as we could, we rejected the Errors which our Silence might have confirmed.   

SECTION VIII.  
Upon Gentle Methods and Amicable Conferences.  
IF it be said that we should have tried all ways of Mildness, before we had come to a Solemn Declaration; this we did also. The Archbishop of Paris has demonstrated it so clearly for himself, and for us, that I should have nothing to add upon that Fact, were it not for the particular Accusations whereby they attack me.  
2. But if any one has a Mind to be satisfied by his own Eyes, as to the fairness of my Conduct; let him but read the Writing I addressed to M. de Cambray, before the sending of our Declaration. If the Reader thinks it tedious to be referred to other Writings, and would find all in this; here's in short what I said: That after so many Writings, we must take a shorter way, and where also we may explain ourselves more precisely, which is a Conference Viva Voce; that this way was always used, and even by the Apostles, as the most efficacious and gentle, to agree about any thing, this being often proposed him, I did again propose it myself by writing, upon condition to put far away from me all manner of Contention, and to be declared an Enemy of Peace, if on my side it was not amicable and respectful. As for what he seemed to fear my quickness, as he called it, I alleged to him the Experience, not only of my Conferences with the Ministers, but also those we had sometimes together upon this Occasion, without having raised my Voice so much as half a Note higher.  
3. If there were any Expedients to be found, they could not but issue from such Conferences, but I placed my hope in another thing; I conceived hope I say, from the strength of Truth, and from a perfect Acquaintance with the Disposition of M. de Cambray, that I could bring him again to right Principles; God is my Witness, clearly and amicably, I durst say so, certainly and without reply; in a few Conferences, and perhaps in one only, and in loss than two hours' time.  
4. All that M. de Cambray objected was, that I had engaged myself to answer to 24 Demands in Writing▪ which I thought fit afterwards to defer, by reason said I, of the Equivocations of the 24 Demands, which would take too much time to disentangle, and by reason of the long time that must have been employed in writing the Consutations and Proofs: Adding notwithstanding, that I would readily write all the Proposition I should have advanced in the Conference, if desired; but that we were to begin at what was most short, most decisive, and most express, I added also most charitable; nothing being able to supply Verbal Conference, and a lively tho' plain Discourse on the presence of Jesus Christ in the midst of us, when we should be assembled in his Name to agree upon the Truth.  
5. Every body was amazed at the inflexible Refusal of M. de Cambray during six Weeks, we have undeniable Witnesses for it, and they earnestly desired to have us confer together. I refused no Conditions; a Clergyman of Note being moved, as every Body else was, with the charitable desire of reuniting the Bishops, obliged me to give my Word to agree to a Conference, where he should be. If he had told the Answer he brought me, to me alone; perhaps we should have left it with himself: It was in a word, that M. de Cambray would not have it said, that he changed any thing by the Advice of M. de Meaux. If this Prelate won't grant that this was his Answer, let him make such an one as he pleases; but we may see that he cannot make any that's good. However, I myself sent him the Writing, the Extracts whereof you have just now heard: It is not long, one may read it over in less than a quarter of an Hour, amongst those I have collected: M. de Cambray does not deny that he received it. Here's five great Letters he addresses to me, where he only reprehends me for having said in my Writing, that I bore him in my Bowels; he does not believe it possible for a Man to bear in his Bowels, such as he reproves for the sake of the Truth, nor to deplore their State, but by shedding artificial Tears to tear them the more in pieces. Why did he not come to the Conference, to try the Strength of such brotherly Tears and Discourses, which Charity, I dare say so, the Truth had inspired us with. We expected three Weeks the effect of that new Invitation, and the Declaration was not sent, till at last we had made use of all the mild ways imaginable, of which Declaration we must yet speak a Word.   

SECTION IX.  
Upon the Declaration of the three Bishops, and the Summa Doctrinae.  
1. THey complain it is too severe, but the Archbishop of Park has truly affirmed, that the Archbishop of Cambray has been very much spared therein. We have there kept under silence, those Temptations of a particular kind, which cannot be resisted, and of which we could not forbear to speak in another place, wherein we had kept nuder Silence those Compliances of Ingenuous Souls upon humbling things indefinitely, which should be commanded them: The Deprivation not only of all Comfort, but also of all Liberty; that readiness to forsake all, and the way itself, that teaches this readiness: That Disposition without bounds, to all the practices laid upon them, and that universal forgetfulness of their Experiences, of their Readins, of the Persons they have formerly consulted with confidence: Lastly, We there kept under silence the Possessions, the Obsessions, and other extraordinary things, which the Author had given us, as belonging to the interior ways: It is known what use the false Spiritualists make of it, as well as of other things just now mentioned. M. de Cambray himself insinuates it, and we receive little Comfort in hearing him say, that the way of pure Love and pure Faith that he teaches, is that wherein you shall see less of it than in others; as if nothing were to be done here, but to consider the more or the less, and that he ought not to have explained himself more expressly against such abominations.  
2. The Author objects continually, that we have not taken Notice of his Correctives, wherewith he will have his Book to be fuller than any other Book whatever; that is the very thing we complained of: We thought it an Unhappiness for a book of that Nature, to have so many Correctives, as it is for a Rule to need too many Exceptions: The Truth is more simple, and that which must be so often modified, discovers naturally an ill Foundation: He had nothing to do, but to explain himself simply, as he had promised: Whatsoever he hath said upon the absolute Sacrifice, has only afforded Difficulties in the Article of the impossible Suppositions, therefore he should have omitted those Correctives, which serve only to increase the evil; for instance, the dangerous Corrective of the Persuasion, not inward but apparent, which serves only to excuse the Language of Molinos, as has been showed elsewhere. All impartial Readers acknowledge, that these Correctives are but so many Perplexities, fit to make Men mad, and we have seen enough to make us sensible of the Snares, that ignorant People meet with in the obscurity of that Book, which promised so much plainness, and neatly to cut off all Equivocations.  
3. One of the things they cry up most as an excellent Corrective, is the false Articles, where 'tis true, M. Cambray condemns the false Mystical Divines, the Archbishop of Paris has discovered the Subtlety of it; a Man entangles himself naturally, when he will not condemn what he dares not defend openly. In another place he overstrains Quietism, the better to pass over the Error. What 
* Max. Art 2. faux p. 31, 32.  Quietism has ever consented to hate God eternally, nor to hate himself with a real hatred, so that we cease to love in ourselves the Work of God, 
Art 12. faux.  and his Image? Who has ever consented to hate himself with an absolute hatred, as supposing the work of the Creator not to be good? To carry the renouncing of one's self so far, by an impious hatred of our Soul, which suppose it to be evil in its nature, according to the principle of the Manichees? When we shoot at this rate, we shoot at random, we pass over the body, and after the manner of the Poets, endeavour to satisfy the just aversion of the faithful against Quietism, by giving them a Phantom to tear in pieces.   

SECTION X.  
Proceedings at Rome on the submission of M. de Cambray.  
1. THe Relation would be imperfect, if we omitted the Italian and Latin Writings published at Rome, in the Name of the Archbishop of Cambray, and are in the Hands of so many Persons, that some Copies of them are come as far as to us; one of those Latin Writings I have in my Hand, Entitled, Observatious of a Doctor of the Sorbonne, which says, that the Jansenists have joined with the Bishop of Meaux against M. de Cambray, and that the other Bishops have united against him, as against another Susanna, because he would not come into their Cabal, and join in their mischievous Designs. The same Writing magnssies M. de Cambray, as a Necessary Person to maintain the Authority of the Holy See against the Bishops, and therefore it behooveth her not to suffer such an able advocate to be oppressed. In other places we are called Enemies to the Monks, whose Protector M. de Cambray is. We may see by this, what Engines he has set on work. But the Pope who governs the Church of God, will not suffer any thing to lessen the Glory of the Clergy of France, who have been always so obedient to the Holy See. The Truth does not maintain itself by Lies, and as for the Monks, in what Dioceses of Christendom, are they more fatherly dealt with than in ours? Perhaps M. de Cambray will say, that all this is spoken without his Order; but I leave it to the prudent Reader to judge, whether in an Accusation so visibly false, which equally concerns Religion and the State, and the Reputation of the Bishops of France, that make so considerably a part of the Episcopacy, it would be enough simply to disown with his Mouth, suppose he had done it, such manifest Calumnies, after they have had their Effect upon certain Persons: And whether Justice and Truth require not a more Express and more Authentic Declaration.  
2. They boast mightily in those Writings of the great Number of Bishops and Doctors that favour the Sentiments of the Archbishop of Cambray, and that nothing but fear hinders them from declaring themselves; they should at least name one, but they dare not; the Bishops have not been infected, and M. de Cambray cannot cite for his Opinion any one Doctor of Note.  
3. Amongst other things, that the Archbishop seems to have most Reason to reproach me for, this is one, that he deserved not to be treated with, seeing he hath submitted after the same manner the Pelagians are treated: As if it were not known, that these Heretics have for a long time acted the part of such as had submitted, even to the Holy See. I wish nothing more than to see M. de Cambray separated from such as have made an ambiguous Submission; but to speak sincerely and in Conscience, can any Man be content with the Demand which that Prelate, notwithstanding his former Submissions, would make of the Pope, to determine the manner in which he was to pronounce Judgement, as he declares it in his Letter of the 3d. of August, 1697. It is true, that in a following Letter he speaks these words: God forbid I should prescribe a Law to my Superior: My promise of Subscribing, and to publish a Mandate conformable thereunto, is absolute and without Restriction. What meant then those words in the Letter of the 3d. of August? I shall only desire of the Pope, that he would be pleased to mark precisely the Errors he Condemns, and the Sense in which he Condemns them, to the end that my Subscription may be without Restriction. Without that then the Restriction is unavoidable: But this is to put the Pope and the Church upon impossibilities. There should never have been any Decision, if this Church must have foreseen all the Senses which the vicious fertility of subtle Wits could have produced: At this rate we should neither have had the Homoousion of Nice, nor the Theotows of Ephesus. We see then that the Moderate Wisdom of St. Paul is to be followed, otherwise we shall fall into vain and undeterminable Questions, forbid by that Apostle.  
4. They may say perhaps, that M. de Cambray retracts that absurd Proposition in his Second Letter: But it is not so; seeing he continues to demand, that the Pope should be pleased to Mark every Proposition worthy of Censure, with the precise Sense upon which the Censure is to fall. This is again to replunge himself into impossibilities, by which all Ecclesiastical Decisions are eluded. If M. de Cambray declares that he will submit, and that no body shall ever see him, whatever happens, neither write nor speak to evade the Condemnation of his Work: It is at the same time in declaring that he will Content himself to demand of the Pope a particular Instruction upon the Errors he is to reject. On that Condition he protests he will be quiet, both as to the Matter of Right and Fact: But it is after having before hand declared to the whole Universe, that he is so far from being quiet within, he will not cease to make instances to the Pope to make him say other things than what he decides.  
5. Some Complaisant Persons will perhaps say, tha● this is carrying the Suspicion too far: But in the mean time I only repeat the words of the two printed Letters, which M. de Cambray denies not: However I pray to God that he may keep to the general Terms of his Submission; and altho' the Truth compels me to remark what ill things he publishes, I will hope always with St. Paul, for better, though I so speak: Confidimus meliora, tametsi ita loquimur.   

SECT. XI.  
CONCLUSION.  
1. WE have been Obliged then in fine to reveal the false Mysteries of our days: Here you have it in short, such as it has appeared in the former Discourses: A New Prophetess has undertaken to raise up again the Guide of Molinos, and the Prayer which he teaches therein: It is with this Spirit she is filled: The Mysterious Woman of the Revelations, it is with this Child she is big: The Work of this Woman is not finished; we are come to the Times which she calls Times of Persecution, when the Martyrs, as she says, of the Holy Ghost shall suffer. The time shall come, and according to her we are at the brink of it, when the Reign of the Holy Ghost and of Prayer, whereby she understands her own, which is that of Molinos, shall be established with a Train of Wonders, that shall amaze the Universe: From thence comes that Communication of Graces; from thence comes it that a Woman has the power of binding and unbinding. It is evidently true, that she has forgot what she has Subscribed before me, and before others more considerable, upon the Condemnation both of her Books, and of the Doctrine contained therein. Every Bishop ought to give an Account in Convenient time, of what the Disposition of the Divine Providence has put in his Hand: Therefore I have been constrained to explain, that the Archbishop of Cambray, a Man of that Dignity, is fallen into that unhappy Mystery, and has made himself the Defender, tho' by indirect ways, of that Woman and her Books.  
2. He will not say, that he knew not that prodigious and nonsensical Communication of Graces, nor so many pretended Prophecies, nor the pretended apostolical Mission of that Woman, when he has suffered her, according to his own Confession, to be esteemed by so many great Persons who put a Confidence in him as to Matters of Conscience. He had then suffered a Woman to be esteemed, who Prophesied according to the Delusions of her Heart. His great Intimacy with that Woman, was grounded upon her Spirituality, and this was the only Bond of their Correspondence: This is what we have seen writ with his own Hand, after which we have no reason to be amazed at his having undertaken the Defence of her Books.  
3. It was to defend them that he wrote so many Memoirs before those that were chosen Arbitrators; nor is it necessary for me to represent the long Extracts of 'em I have yet by me, seeing the substance of 'em is to be found in the Book of the Maxims of the Saints.  
4. That he might have a Pretext for defending those pernicious Books, the Text whereof he himself thought could not be maintained, he must have recourse to a hidden sense, which that Woman has discovered to him; he must say, that he has explained those Books better than the Books explained themselves; the Sense that naturally offers, is not the true Seize: It is but a rigorous Sense, which he assures us she never thought on; so that to understand them well, we must read the thoughts of their Author; we must guests what is known to M. of Cambray only, and judge of Words by Words by Sentiments, and not of Sentiments by Words: The most nonsensical in the Books of that Woman is a Mystical Language, for which the Prelate is our Security; that her Errors are mere Equivocations, her Excesses are innocent Exagerations, like unto those of the Fathers, and of approved Mystics.  
5. These are the Thoughts of this great Prelate, touching the Books of M. Guyon, after having, if we may believe him, examined them unto the utmost rigour; this is what he has writ with his own hand, some time before the publishing of his Book; and after so many Censures we have not for all that, been able to draw from him a real Condemnation of those Evil Books: On the contrary, it was to save them, that he spared the Guide of Molinos, which is the Original of them.  
6. Yet notwithstanding all the Mitigations in the Book of the Maxims of the Saints, we may still find therein M. Guyon and Molinos too weakly dignified not to be known; and if I say further, that the Work of an Ignorant and Enthusiastical Woman, and that of M. de Cambray, have manifestly one and the same Design; I shall say no more after all, but what appears of itself.  
7. I shall not say it, but after having tried to the utmost, what Meekness and Charity could do, we used no Tricks as to the Submission of M. Guyon: We admitted them with a wellmeaning mind, (I shall make use of this Word) and presuming always on her Sincerity and Obedience, we consulted the Honour of her Name, of her Family, of her Friends, and of her Person, as much as was possible; nothing has been omitted to convert her, and nothing was censured but her Errors and ill Books.  
8. As for the Archbishop of Cambray, we have but too well justified ourselves by the undeniable matters of Fact contained in this Relation; as to my own particular, I am justified more than I wish I were: But in order to confute all the unjust Reproaches of that Prelate, we were under a Necessity, not only to discover part of the matter of Fact, but to have the whole, as far as the Source: By which, if I may say so, it appears from the beginning, that we have endeavoured to follow the motions of that Meek and Patient Charity, which neither suspects nor thinks any evil: Our Silence was insuperable, till M. de Cambray declared himself by his Book. Nay, we had Patience to the utmost, so that notwithstanding his obstinate Refusal of all Conference, we did not declare ourselves till the Extremity. Where will he fix the Jealousy he accuses us of without Proof, and if we must clear ourselves of so mean a Passion, what were we jealous of in the New Book of that Archbishop? Did we envy him the Honour of defending and setting forth M. Guyon and Molinos with fine Colours? Did we bear an Envy to the Style of an ambiguous Book, or to the Credit it gave to its Author, whose Glory on the contrary was thereby buried? I am ashamed for the Friends of M. de Cambray, who make Profession of Piety, and yet have, without any ground, published every where, and even as far as Rome, that some private Interest has set me at Work. How strong soever the Reasons be, which I could produce in my Defence; God puts no other Answer into my Heart, but that the Defenders of the Truth, as they ought to be free from all self-interest, they ought no less to be above the fear of that Reproach, to be accounted self-interested Persons. However, I am not against their believing, that Interest has provoked me against that Book, if so be that there is nothing worthy of Reproof in its Doctrine, nor any thing that may be favourable to the Woman, whose Delusions must be made manifest. God has permitted, that against my Will, they should put into my Hands those Books that are Evidences of it: God was willing that the Church should in the Person of a Bishop, a living Witness of that Prodigy of Error: It is only invincible Necessity obliges me to discover it, when they continue so wilfully blind in their Error, as to force me to declare all: When not being satisfied to triumph, they will needs insult: When God on the other hand, discovers so many things that were kept secret. I take great care, not to impute to M. de Cambray any other Design, but that which he has discovered by his Handwriting, by his Book, by his Answers, and by several undeniable matters of Fact: This is enough and too much, that he should be so open a Protector of a Woman that prophesies, and who proposes to herself the seducing of the whole Universe. If they say this is too hard against a Woman, whose Errors seem to be the effect of madness. I will grant it, if that madness be not a pure Fanaticism; and if the Spirit of Seducing did not work in that Woman, and if this Priscilla has not met her Montanus to defend her.  
9 If in the mean time the Weak are scandalised; if the Libertines triumph; if they say, without enquiring into the Source of the mischief, that the Quarrels of Bishops are implacable: It is true, if it be understood, that they are really points of revealed Doctrine. This is the Proof of the Truth of our Religion, and of the Divine Revelation which guides us, that Questions upon matters of Faith are never to be accommodated. We can suffer every thing, but cannot endure any Evasions or Shifts, how little soever, upon the Principles of Religion. If those Disputes be of no consequence, as Men of the World would have it, we must say with Gallio, Proconsul of Achaia, which was the highest Dignity of the Roman Empire in her Provinces: O Jews, if the thing in question was some Injustice, or some ill action, or some business of importance, I should think myself obliged to hear you Patiently: But this regards only to some Points of your Doctrine, and Disputes of Words, and touching your Law: Decide your Differences among yourselves as well as you can: As tho' he said, Fight amongst yourselves about this Matter as long as ye please, I won't be the Judge of it. And in effect the Jews beat Sostheneo even before the Tribunal, without Gallio's taking the least Notice of it. This is a Description of the Politic World, and of worldly Men upon Disputes of Religion; which holding as of no consequence, they think it enough to say, that the Heat of the Bishops is too great: But (a thing very different in all respects from Gallio) if a great King, full of Piety, won't become the Judge of those Matters, it is not out of Contempt; it is out of respect for the Church to whom God has given the Right to judge of it: Yet what is there New here, and which hath not been always practised by his august Predecessors, and all Christian Princes, to protect the Bishops who walk in a beaten Path, and according to the Solid and ancient Rule?  
10. We wish, and we hope speedily to see the Archbishop of Cambray acknowledge at least the Unprofitableness of his Speculations. It did not become him, the Title he bears, the part he acted in the World, nor his Reputation and his Wit, to defend the Books and the Doctrine of a Woman of that sort. As for the Interpretation he has invented, let him remember of his having agreed, that he finds none of them in the Scripture: He quotes not one passage of them for his New Doctrine: He Name's the Fathers, and some other Clergymen, whom he endeavours to draw after him by Consequence, but wherein he finds neither her absolute Sacrifice, nor her simple Acquiescency; nor her Contemplation from whence Jesus Christ is absent by Estate; nor her extraordinary Temptations that she must yield to; nor her actual Grace, which makes us to know the Will of good Pleasure on all Occasions and Events; nor her natural Charity, which is not the Theological Virtue; nor her Concupiscence, which without being Virtuous is the root of all Vices; nor her pure Concupiscence, which is, tho' Sacrilegious, the Preparation to Justice; nor her dangerous Separation of the two parts of the Soul, after the example of Jesus Christ involuntarily troubled; ●o● her unhappy return to that involuntary trouble; nor her Natural Love, which he reforms every day, instead of rejecting it wholly once for all, as equally useless and dangerous in the use he makes of it; nor her other Propositions which we have mentioned, they are the fruit of vain Logic, of extravagant Metaphysics, and of a vain Philosophy, which St. Paul has condemned. We hear every day his best Friends bewailing him, that he should have showed his Learning, and exercised his Eloquence upon Subjects of no Solidity at all. Does he not see, with his Abstractions he is so far from inspiring the Love of God into Men, that he does but dry up their Hearts, by weakening the Motives capahle of softening or enflaming them? The vain Subtleties wherewith he dazzles the World, have always been the Subject of the Church's groans. I will not enumerate to him all such as have been deceived by their fine Curious Wit; I shall Name him only one, in the Ninth Age, viz. one John Scot born at Aire, whom the Saints of his time upbraided (tho' 'tis true in another Subject) with vain Philosophy, wherein he alleged that Religion and Piety consisted. It was by reason of this that the Fathers of the Council of Valence said, that in those unhappy times he accumulated their Labours, he and his followers, in proposing frivolous Questions; ineptas questiunculas; in authorising empty Visions; aniles Fabulas; in refining upon Spirituality; and to speak with those Fathers, it composing high relished Devotions, which rendered the Purity of the Faith loathe some; Pultes puritati ●idei nau seam inferentes: They ought to have taken Care not to add to the Groans of the Church by their Superfluity seeing she had already too many other things to deplore Superfluis coe●um pie do●entium & ge●●e●●ium non onerer We do exhort M. de Cambray to employ his Eloquen Pen and his infruitful Wit upon Subjects more becoming him: Let him prevent, 'tis not yet past time, the Judgement of the Church: The Church of Rome Loves to b● prevented in this manner; and seeing she is always governed in the Sentences she pronounces, by Tradition one may in a certain Sense be said to hear her before she speaks.   
FINIS.