', THE LIGHT of the WORLD DIVINITY SCHOOL TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY THE LIGHT'*/ the WORLD A MOST TRUE RELATION OF A PILGRIMESS TRAVELLING TOWARDS ETERNITY. Reprinted (verbatim) from the Edition of 1696. 'SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO. 47, LUDGATE HILL. 1S63. London : S. Clay, Son, and Taylor, Printers, Bread Street Hill. m>i WLlstt at tfte WBovVti: A most True Relation of a PILGRIM ESS, M. Antonia Bourignon, Travelling towards Eternity. Published by Mr. Christ/ an de Cort, Late Director of the Isle of Noordstrand, Superior of the Oratory, and Pastor of S. John at Mechlin. Divided into Three PARTS. Which deserve to be Read, Understood, and Considered by all who desire to be Saved. Written originally in French, and faithfully Translated into English. To which is added, A Preface to the English READER. * L O N DON : Printed in the Year 1696. Isaiah ix. 2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light : They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. TO THE ENGLISH READER, OF WHATSOEVER Party or Persuasion. # 'pHE Degeneracy of the Christian World in all its Sects and Parties, from the true Spirit of Christianity and the primi tive Institution of Jesus Christ, is the general observation of all Men ; and the Regret of those who are truly sober and serious. And as the Corruption of the best things is always the most vile and abominable, witness Devils and Men ; so that of the Christians is a By-word and a Scandal among the Jews, Turks and Heathens ; and they may rise up in Judg ment at the last Day, and condemn us,|we being sunk further below the common Principles of Human Nature, as well as Religion, than themselves. The Moral Virtues of Justice, Temperance, &c. are banished further from the Minds and Conversation of Christians, than they are from the Turks and Heathens jj and we are so far removed from the Spirit, Life, and Doctrine of Jesus Christ, that our* 'may be truly termed Antichristian. ¦/-:<-£»-} i ?iv • , He denied himself in all things ; and we deny ourselves in nothing : He never did his own Will, but the Will of him that vi To the Engtish Reader. sent him ; and we ever do our own, and not the Will of God : He was perfectly dead to the Honours and Riches, and Plea sures, and Learning of, this World ; and we only live to them : He had a toilsome and laborious Life, far from Ease, and full of Crosses, of Contempt, Reproaches, and Contradictions from Men ; and we still seek our Ease where we can have it, will force others to bear the Cross rather than take it up ourselves, and would rather be contemned by God, than even for Right eousness' sake endure Reproaches and Contempt from Men : He was meek and lowly in heart, and with great Meekness suffered the Contradiction of Men; and Pride and Haughti ness is the Spirit we are acted by, even when we most dis claim it, and we cannot bear with Contradictions from any without inward Resentment and Displeasure : Whatever he did was always accompanied with Righteousness, and Good ness, and Truth; and whatever we do has one or all of the contrary Qualities, Injustice, Malice or Hypocrisy :) In short, Charity was the living Principle of his Heart and Life, and all his Actions were continual Streamings and Effects of the Love of God and of all Men ; and Self-love, even to a contempt of God and Hatred of Men, when they shock us in anything, is the secret Spring by which we are always acted. The Lives of Christians are as flat a Contradiction to his Commands as to his Life and Spirit : He bids us seek the lowest Place ; and we are never at rest, but climb as high as others will let us : He bids us, take the Beam out of our own Eyes, and we are still spying the Motes in our Neighbours' : He would not have us lay up for ourselves Treasures upon Earth ; and all our Care is about earthly things : He would have us, seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof; and that is the last and least of our Endeavours, except in Word only : He bids us, deny ourselves and take up our Cross daily ; and in everything we seek ourselves, and rather than take up the Cross, will stick at no Injustice to avoid it : He com mands us to love one another ; and for a Trifle we bite and devour one another. Now one would think strange how the Professors of Christi- To the English Reader. vii anity can reconcile their Practice with the Hopes of Heaven, while their Lives are so contrary to the Gospel. But, as the comparing the Lives and Temper of the Christian World at present, with the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ, does plainly show their Contrariety to his : So if we shall inquire into the several sorts of Corruption and Degeneracy of the Age wherein he lived, recorded in the Gospel, and which he did chiefly set himself against, and upon what Grounds they nevertheless did presume of God's Favour, and of being his Children, and shall compare them with ours ; we still find the same Leaven spreads still ; and though we have other Names, yet we have still the same Corruptions and the same Spirit. It is not in one Age or one party that these Corruptions do prevail, but more or less in all Ages and among all Parties ; and though Names and Faces change, yet in every Age Men's Natures and Dispositions are for the main the same. It was not needful therefore that Jesus Christ should appear in every Age to make known their Vices and Corruptions ; the Reproof of the Age wherein he lived, is the Reproof of all, and what he said to the several Sects among the Jews, he says to us, and we may read our Faults and Judgment in theirs. There are three sorts of Persons especially spoken of in the Gospel, the Publicans and Sinners, the Sadducees, and the Scribes and Pharisees. The first were gross and scandalous Sinners, known for such by all, their Company avoided for that Reason, and they self-condemned, as acting against the Light and Checks of their own Consciences. The second were the Wits and Sparks, and mighty Men of Reason of that Age. | They could not believe a Resurrection, nor the being of Angels and Spirits, these seemed not consistent with their Reason, nor with the Ideas they had of this present World, and therefore they denied them ; even as if blind Men should deny the being of Light and Colours, because they cannot feel them with their Hands, nor touch them as they do other Bodies, with the End of their Staff. The third were the most. Religious People of the Age, wherein they lived ; they were had in great Veneration by all ; they were not guilty of the viii To the English Reader. scandalous Vices of the Publicans, they abhorred them so much that they would not eat with them ; they read and studied the Scriptures . much ; they were much in Devotion, and made long Prayers, they were exact Observers of the Sab bath day, would reprove a Man that came to be healed, or that plucked an Ear of Corn on it ; they were very exact and scrupulous in little things, so afraid of breaking the Command of paying Tithes of all their Increase, that they would not omit even their Mint, Anise and Cummin : But, in the meantime they despised the weighty Matters of the Law, Righteousness, Mercy and the Love of God ; they were proud, and covetous, and worldly-minded ; they did all to be • seen of Men ; they sought the praise of Men more than that of God ;I they de voured Widows' Houses, but had still a Religious Pretence for it; they would learn People to despise their Parents, but it was on the account of Corban ; they would hate and persecute others even to Death, but it was to do God Service ;)they were mighty zealous to propagate their Religion, and would com pass Sea and Land to gain Proselytes, but then our Saviour tells us, They were twofold more the Children of the Devil than themselves. Now, it is observable, That our Saviour's Reproofs are levelled mostly against these two last sort of -Persons: The former he treats with such Pity and Compassion, that his Enemies tax him for a Friend of Publicans and Sinners. . He tells them, There is joy in Heaven over one Sinner that re pents, more than ninety and nine just Persons, that need no Repentance : And that he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance. But for the other two, he warns his Disciples to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. He calls them a Generation of Vipers, whited Sepulchres, fair and beautiful without, but within full of Cor ruption and Rottenness; he terms them the Children of the Devil, and asks, How they can escape the Damnation of Hell? To judge according to Appearance one would think they deserved a milder Treatment, and that the other ought to have been most Lashed ; and this is the Course and Prac- To the English Reader. ix '4> tice of the World: But that which seems Righteous before Men is an Abomination in the Sight of God. Our Saviour's Conduct in this, we may be sure, was the ; effect of Divine Equity and Wisdom. The Publicans and Sinners were not only looked on as such by all others, but also were self-condemned ; they knew they were doing what they ought not to have done, their Conscience could not but often smite them, and the Divine Grace exciting them, and outward Afflictions chastising them might one time or other bring them to Repentance ; and the Sense of the greatness of their Sins might awaken in them an answerable Sense of the Divine Goodness ; so that where Sin had abounded Grace should so much the more abound, and they who saw there was so much forgiven them, would love much. But the Pharisees and Sadducees were not so capable of Conviction: their Sores were skinned over with a fair Show of Reason and Re ligion ; their Sins were -mostly Spiritual ; they had no Remorse for them ; the World arid they themselves did approve them in what they did ; they thought they were doing God Service ; and they had formed to themselves such a Righteousness of their own as made it next to impossible to bring them to Repentance, or to seek after the Righteousness of God byj Faith. There was no such Hazard that sincere and well-meaning Persons, should be seduced by open and scandalous Sinners. Their gross Sins and the ill Character they went under, were as Beacons to warn others to beware of them. But it was not so easy to avoid the Leaven of one of the other two; they, compassed Sea and Land to gain Proselytes ; and the specious , Reasons of the one, and the seeming Piety, Zeal and Devotion j of the other, with such a plausible Representation of Religion, as might encourage them to hope for Heaven, though they! loved the World and followed their own Wills here, were Snares which it was not easy to escape. j Publicans and Sinners were more capable of receiving the] Truth, they were convinced of all ; and even when they were not resolved to follow it, yet the inward Conviction of their x To the English Reader. Consciences would keep them from maligning or persecuting the Publishers of it : But the other two resisted it with all their Force, stuck at nothing that might suppress it, did calumniate and defame it; persecuted its Author and Followers to the Death, and thought that in all they did God Service. Jesus Christ then foreseeing the Effects of the Malice, and Subtilty of the Devil, how forward he would be to slip into his Church, to profess himself his Disciple, and pervert his Design and Doctrine, under Colour of owning and promoting it ; and knowing well the Corruption of Men's Hearts, how naturally the Love of themselves and of the World would make them take up with Shadows of Religion, instead of the Life and Sub stance of it ; he takes Care not only to show them plainly by his Life and Doctrine, wherein it truly consists ; viz. in true Charity as its End, and in a constant denial of ourselves, as to our own Wills, and as to the Honours, Riches and Pleasures of this World, as the effectual and necessary Means of attaining to this End : But he also lets them see the false Religion that Self-love takes up with, and the main .Branches into which it divides itself, in the different Pictures of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the one making an Idol of their corrupt Reason, and worshipping it for their God ; and the other teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men, making the Command ments of God of none effect, either through their own Glosses, or the Traditions of their Elders, being more zealous for these than the plain and simple Word of God ; and both of them establishing a Righteousness of their own, a Righteousness founded on Self-love, Self-will, and the Love of Temporal Things, and making void the Righteousness of God, being void of Charity, and the love of things Eternal. And that the Disciples of Jesus Christ had need of such Warnings, the fatal Experience of all following Ages has but too evidently testified ; and, as it seems in our Saviour's Days, in the last Age of the Jewish State, these Corruptions among them were come to their height ; so in this last Age of the degenerate Christian State, this twofold Leaven seems to have spread through all Parties, and leavened the whole Lump. To the English Reader. xi The World is now full of those who set up for great Masters of Reason| and measure every divine Truth by Mathematical Principles and Demonstrations, and what will not bear that Test is ridiculed by them, and though a Truth be never so plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures, yet if it do not suit their way of Reasoning, and if they think it lies fair to be pelted by their Witticisms, they are sure to treat it in Derision, and to start Questions about it, as their Predecessors did to our Saviour about the Resurrection of the Woman who had been married to seven husbands, that were Brethren, viz. Whose Wife she should be of the seven at the Resurrection 1 And though they meet daily with as inexplicable Difficulties in the visible World, in Bodies, the being of which they cannot deny ; and if they had lived all their Days in an Island among People where the manner of the Propagation of Men and Beasts was never heard of, when they had been told of it, would have thought it as ridiculous and impossible a thing as any Truth delivered in the Holy Scriptures ; and though they have lived to see the Prin- j ciples of the greatest Philosophers, who thought they established all things by unerring Rules of ^Equations, hissed out of Doors ; yet this will not keep them from making Idols of their own Ideas, and worshipping their own Reason, and Christ and his Sacred Doctrine must be despised if he will not fall down before it and worship it : And how strangely this Spirit spreads now in the World, he that runs may read. There is no Delusion more dangerous, and which leads to more irrecoverable Blindness than this of making our wretched Reason and the Ideas it forms to itself the Measure and Stan dard of Truth. The Eyes of our Mind are like those of our Body, we may turn them to any Side we please, but can discern nothing aright, unless the Light shine upon them, and let them see the Objects round about them. So our minds may form to themselves many Ideas and Imaginations, but none of them conformable to the nature of things, without a suitable Light to discover and direct them. In the Material and visible World, from the general Notions of Matter and Motion, and the Com bination of variously moved, and figured Bodies, Men form to xii To the English Reader. themselves such and such Systems of the Universe ; which they strongly fancy to be the true Model of it ; but when we come to consider more nearly the things themselves, we find them as far different as Light is from Darkness. Our Minds must receive due and suitable Impressions from the Objects them selves, else they can have no right sentiment of them. A blind Man can never conceive aright what Light and Colours, the Sun and this visible World are, unless his Eyes be opened and he receive the Light. The Light surrounds him, and he com prehends it not ; we may by many Words and Similitudes give him general and dark Notions of the Excellency of Light and Colours, and the Beauty of this visible World ; but one Glance of the Light itself will discover more to him than a thousand Descriptions made by us. It is the same of Divine and Spiritual Things. The Natural Man perceives not the Things of God, but they are foolishness to him. No Man knows the Things of God, but by the Spirit of God. A Divine Light and Illumina tion is necessary to make us understand and relish Divine Things. And if we think to comprehend and judge of them by our Reason and Natural Ideas, we do as foolishly and unreasonably as a blind Man that would judge of Light and Colours, by the Ideas he has gathered from his Touch and other Senses. And as the seeing and enjoying the Light, and the receiving the other Impressions of this visible World are quite another thing than the Ideas we retain and form of these things to ourselves in the Light's absence ; for these notional Ideas can never enliven, and warm, and cheer our Bodies, and make us enjoy all this visible World, as the other does, no more than the Picture of the Sun can give us Light and Heat, as the Sun himself does (for these are but the. Pictures of the Things themselves) : So the true Light and Impression of Divine Things upon the Mind is as far beyond the notional Ideas that we may form of them (even though they were the true Pictures of them) ; and as a blind Man ought to submit to the Judg ment and Conduct of those who enjoy the Light, and of whose Sincerity he has no reason to doubt, and in the meantime to strive, if possible, to enjoy himself; so ought we to submit our To the English Reader. xiii Understanding and our Will to the Divine Revelation of the Will of God made to others, and by them declared to us, and in the meantime so to yield up ourselves to God as that the Eyes of pur Understanding being enlightened we may come to comprehend what the good and acceptable, and perfect Will of God is. But Ithe Leaven of the Pharisees has yet more universally overspread Christendom than that of the Sadducees. Upon this is;founded the Difference of the several Sects and Parties that are in the Christian World, and the Hatred and Animosity wherewith they prosecute one another, one crying, Lo here is Christ ; another, Lo he is there. The same Leaven runs through all Parties, though it put on different outward Forms, according to the different Interests and Engagements of the respective Parties. Some are very zealous for particular Doc trines and Opinions which are uncertain as to their Truth, and of no Necessity for Salvation : Some set up for particular! Forms and Rites of Worship, which may be either used or let alone, without hazard of Salvation : And others are as zealously bent against them. Some for such and such forms of Discipline and Government, and others for overturning them. And though most of the Things, for or against which they bend all their Zeal, be of little Moment either for Promoting or Hindrance of Salvation ; yet they seem to lay the whole Stress of Religion upon them ; and having drawn them up into positive or nega tive Confessions of Faith, Creeds, Articles, Canons of Councils, and Acts of General Assemblies, they baptize them into the Sacred Names of The Truths of God, the Cause of Jesus Christ, the Interests of his Church, the setting the Crown upon Christ's Head ; they teach for Doctrines the Commandments of Men, and are more zealous for their Forms and Systems of Doctrines, drawn up by themselves or their Predecessors, than for the Simplicity and Plainness of the Holy Scriptures ; and though a Man embrace from his Heart the Divine Writings, and endea vour to square his Life by the Rules set down in them, yet if he do not receive their Systems, and be not zealous for or, against such outward Forms and Rites as they embrace or! xiv To the English Reader. dislike, he is to them as a Heathen and a Publican. And while they have a Zeal for the outside of Religion, they neglect Righteousness, Mercy and the Love of God ; while they avoid the Scandalous and Carnal Vices that would make them hateful in the World, their Hearts are full of the Spiritual ones, which are as hateful to God. In short, the Apostle gives us a plain Character of them, 2 Tim. iii. 1 — 5. warning us, That in the last days perilous Times shall come ; for Men shall be Lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, boasters, blas phemers, disobedient to Parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural Affection, Truce-Breakers, false Accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are goodj traitorous, heady, high- minded, lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God, having a Form of Godliness, but denying the Power thereof. It is strange to see how wilfully Men mistake the Nature of Christianity, and place it in that which it does not consist, and what it truly is they despise and trample upon. Christianity may be either considered in its End, or in the Means it directs us to, for the attainment of that End. Its End is Charitv, to love God with all our Heart and our Neighbour as ourselves. To love God is to love his Nature, his Righteousness, his Goodness, his Truth, and to be transformed into the same Image ; to love him with all our Hearts is to love him only for himself, and all other things only in and for God, and entirely to depend upon him. To love our Neighbours as ourselves is to love them as his Images, as being capable to be transformed into his Nature, and to endeavour to bring them, with ourselves, to the Love and Enjoyment of God. This is the Essence of Religion, and the indispensable Duty that God requires of Man in all Estates, whether that of Innocence, or of his Reparation since his Fall ; and as our Saviour tells us, Matt. xxii. 40, On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Had man continued in the Integrity in which he was created, no other Duty had been required of him. But he turning away his Love from God, and setting it on himself, and on the Creatures, making him self his last End, and the Creatures his chief Happiness, To the English Reader. xv Means are proposed to Man to bring him back to the Love of God, and to remove the Hindrances of it ; and he having forfeited the Friendship and Love of God, Hopes are given him of Recovering his Love and Favour ; for obtaining of which the Intercession of a Mediator was needful, who by his Merits and Favour with God might obtain it ; and the main ' Hindrances of the Love of God being Self-love, and the Love of the Creatures, he is directed to the Use of such Means as may effectually mortify and subdue these in him; and Man being a wayward Patient, unwilling to take the Physic provided for him, as being bitter and unpleasant, the Physician takes Man's Nature on him, and takes the Remedies first himself, flies the Ease, the Honours, the Riches, the Pleasures, and the Sciences of this World, embraces Poverty, Reproaches, Troubles and Pains, and denies himself and his own Will in everything, that he might do the Will of him that sent him. So the essentially necessary and effectual means to recover the Love of God, is Faith in God through Jesus Christ, with unfeigned Repentance, a constant denial of ourselves, and forsaking of everything that hinders us to love God ; and for this End the taking up our Cross daily, and following of Christ. The Holy Scriptures are the Sacred Records wherein God's Love to Mankind, the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ, and the Precepts he has given for the mortifying of our corrupt Nature, and returning to the Love of God, are plainly mani fested to us ; and, in this respect they are necessary to make us wise unto Salvation, as the written Counsels of a Physician, would be for the Recovery of his Patient's Health. ) Sermons, religious Offices, Sacraments, sacred Assemblies, Pastors, Church-Government, &c. are more remote means for bringing Men to Salvation, and, if rightly used may be very helpful to direct them in the Practice of the necessary and effectual means for returning to an entire Dependance upon God : But if the first be wholly neglected, and these be rested on, and if we think we are religious because zealous about these things, and in the meantime are still Lovers of our own selves, self- willed, self-conceited, worldly-minded, envious, malicious, our xvi To the English Reader. Actions void of Righteousness, Goodness, Truth, &cfl our Religion is the Leaven of the Pharisees, it is but a Form of Godliness, we are alienated from the Life of God, it is a Righteousness of our own, and we are as mad and foolish as sick Men would be, who should run about among Apothe caries and Surgeons, and be very greedy to hear the Receipts of Cures for their Maladies, daily read and explained to them, should fight and quarrel, and hate, and destroy one another, in contending which were the best Explanations of the Re ceipts, and which Company of Apothecaries and Surgeons, had the best Form of Government ; and, in the meantime, both Directors and Patients were sick unto Death, yet neither would apply, themselves to take those Remedies which by all were granted to be necessary and effectual for their Recovery, and without which they must inevitably perish. Now the Writings of the Author of this following Treatise, containing such bright Illustrations of the Truths of God, revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and discovering so plainly in what manner they are perverted by the false Glosses of the Professors of Christianity in their respective Parties, I hope it will be no ill service done to the Christian Religion, and to this Island in particular, to make them more generally known to this part of the World ; of which Design this is an Essay. The Author was a Virgin called Antonia Bourignon, born in the Town of Lisle, in Flanders, in the Year 1616, the Daughter of a rich Man there, and Baptized and Bred up by her Parents in the Communion of the Church of Rome. Being taught to read in her Childhood, and having read the Gospels, and being told of the Life of Jesus Christ, how poor, and mean, and despised, and self-denied he was, and seeing all People live very unlike to him, in Ease and abundance, and Pleasures, and Honours, she asked her Parents, Where are the Christians? Let us go to the Country where the Christians live? And though her Parents derided her for this, yet this Impression ever remained with her ; and it was her constant Theme to let the World see what a true Christian is, and that none such are to be found. To the English Reader. xvn From her very Childhood she had inward Conversation with God, and gave herself to Prayer and Divine Retirement ; but this Retirement being looked on, by the Suggestions of her , elder Sister, to her Companions, as the effect of Stupidity and Sottishness, and she despised therefore, to avoid this, she applied herself to take part in their Recreations and Diver- tisements, and she quickly gained their Esteem and Favour above her Sister, but lost her Conversation with God. Yet he did not cease now and then to awaken her, even in the midst of her Divertisements ; but Company and these Amusements still got the Ascendant. Then God tried her with more severe means, filling her Mind with fearful Ideas of Death, Judgment and Hell, whereby she came to herself again, and saw the Vanity of all earthly things, which would end at Death, and leave the Soul empty of true Good, and full of real Evils. This made her abhor her present Life, all worldly Advantages, the Body, and the Caring for it. And because the Solicitations of earthly things were' apt to return again, she took Care to have this deeply engraven upon her Spirit ; she went oft to Charnel-houses, to view the Bones of the Dead, saying, See what thou art within a little while ? thou shalt be like this, and yet more horrible. ( She handled them to overcome her natural Horror for them, and to make the Thoughts of Death familiar to her. JJFor six Months she begged no other thing of God but the Remembrance of Death, and obtained it. It was about the fifteenth or sixteenth Year of her Age that these Combats began with her, and towards the eighteenth that she came to a full Resolution of yielding up her Will wholly to God, and of abandoning the World. For seven Years after the Tears and Sorrows of her Peni tence did continue, which she accompanied with great Austerity and Mortification, wearing a Shirt of Horse-hair next her Body Night and Day, sleeping only on a Deal-board, and that no longer than three Hours each Night, passing the rest on her Knees in Prayers, giving the Sheets of her Bed and her other Linen to the Poor, and still bringing them back to be washed with those of the Family, without the Knowledge of the b xviii To the English Reader. Servants. She eat no more than what might preserve her Life, and would mingle Earth and Ashes w'ith what she did eat, to avoid the Pleasure that might tempt her. v Her Peni tence and Mortifications were not the effects of a Melancholy Humour, nor did they produce it, she being of a most cheerful Disposition, even till Death. But she punished herself, with an inward Contentment, out of a Principle of Justice, being convinced there was nothing more just, than to regrate the Sin of having ceased to love so lovely a God. God has no need of our Mortifications, but our Flesh and Corruption have great need of them. Timothy was so sensible of this, that he stood in need of a Caution from the Apostle Paul, to look also to his Health. No doubt there may sometimes be Excess in these Mortifications, of which M. Bourignon was so sen sible, that she could never advise Anybody in this to follow her Example, but to resign themselves to God, and to take up cheerfully the daily Crosses and Mortifications which his Providence shall appoint for them. This so few are unwilling to do, that undoubtedly God loves more the readiness of those who mortify themselves too much, than the Sloth of those who do it too little, or not at all. | She would have continued this Austerity still, if at the Age of twenty-five Years God had not commanded her to leave off all this, and to lead an ordinary Life. When she remembered how she had lost God, whom for merly she enjoyed ; she would pass whole Nights in crying out, My God ! my God ! where art thou ? my God ! what shall I do ? what must I do to find thee again ? what wouldst thou have me to do to be well-pleasing in thy Sight ? what shall I do to fulfil thy Will? After much Time, many Prayers, Watchings and Tears, God was pleased inwardly to manifest himself anew. And the first Answer she received to the Peti tion she had so often made, was this Divine Doctrine, which contains the whole substance of the Gospel : Forsake all Earthly Things : Free thyself from the Love of the Creatures : Deny thyself. This was about the twentieth Year of her Age. These were the Words which stuck ever with her, and upon these she laid the Foundations of a Christian Life. To the English Reader. xix She forsook all earthly things for the Love of God, and to give herself wholly to him, and yielded up herself entirely to his Conduct, doing nothing without his Direction. She thought to have met with true Christians in the Monasteries, and was resolved to have shut up herself into one of them : But there she found them as full of the Love of the World, and of Self- love, as elsewhere. God made known to her, That the Society of Christians, which she had been seeking for in vain, was to be re-established in the World by her means. This seemed impossible to her, because of her Sex, her Weakness, her Ignorance, her Meanness, and having never read nor been taught by any what the Gospel Life was. And having laid this before God, she had this Answer. Behold these Trees in the Churchyard ; they seem dry. Wood, without Leaves or Fruit, or any appearance ; nevertheless, when the Season comes, they shall bring forth Leaves, Flowers and in abundance, without Anybody's touching them : So shall it be of my Work. The manner how ehe was trained up by God for this is remark able, j That she might acquire Divine Light, she was not senL to Study, nor Reading, nor Speculations, nor to fill her Head with the Knowledge of Spiritual Things : But she resigned herself in. Simplicity to God, avoiding Sin, needless Distrac tions, and the Activity of her own Reason ;j without desiring to know more than what was needful for her to know in the moment in which she was, referring all the rest to God, who gave her Knowledge and Light according to the Occasions wherein she needed them, whether for her own Conduct, or that of others, for the 'Discovery of Truth, or the Refutation of Error. When she had learned from God his Designs in general, she did not immediately, with haste and precipitation set about the Execution of them, as many rash Persons would have done with much Zeal : She had still this Rule, That it was riot enough that- God inspired good Designs, but we must also wait up'on him till he open the Way, and direct all our Steps in the Execution of them; that the Spirit of God acts leisurely, yea slowly, but steadily, and what he produces in so. leisurely and imperceptible a manner, has afterwards a lasting b 2 xx To the English Reader. and solid Subsistence : Whereas the Spirit of the Devil moves all at first, makes a great Noise and a great deal ado, but in process of time all slackens and vanishes into Smoke and Nothing. She moved always by this Rule. She made several Attempts to bring others to lead a truly Christian Life : Some Nuns were inclined to follow her Directions ; some Bishops and Priests were convinced of the total Degeneracy of Christendom, and that the Spring of all the Corruption was in the Clergy ; but Human Respects and Worldly Considerations kept them from prosecuting what their Inward Convictions prompted them to. She was pre vailed with to take the Charge of an Hospital of young Maids, and to educate them in the Fear of God, and the Spirit of the Gospel : But after nine Years' Labour, though to outward Appearance they seemed most modest and virtuous, yet, to her great Grief, she found them in Heart to be led captive by the Devil, at his Will. She was afterwards moved by God to set down in Writing the Divine Truths communicated to her ; and having asked of God, If she should keep these Writings secret or publish them ? He said to her, Yes, publish them ; for by them the Gospel shall be preached through all the World. The writing of this Treatise, The Light of the World, was occasioned by M. Christian de Cort, Superior of the Fathers of the Oratory at Mechlin in Flanders, a Man full of Zeal for God and Charity for his Neighbour, and void of self-seeking. He no sooner discovered that God had hid in her the Trea sures of his Divine Wisdom, than he took all occasions to be instructed by her in the Truth ; and when alone, set down in Writing the Sum of what had passed in their Conversation, but this briefly and without Order. He acquainted her with his Resolution to publish this to the World, thinking himself obliged in Conscience to undeceive others, as by these Divine Truths he was undeceived himself. But when she had seen his Papers, and read a little of them, she told him, they would be useful for himself, but not for others, because they often answered the Thoughts of his own Mind, which Nobody per ceived but himself; and being solicited by him to compose To the English Reader. xxi this Work anew, returning him his Papers, she herself wrote by way of Conference, the things which God brought into her Memorvyin fhe'same manner as they are now published in the three Parts of The Light of the World. She .went. -to Holland at the Solicitation of M. de Cort, in order to the Printing of this Book. To this she had some Repugnance at first, having never been formerly in any Place without the Dependance of the Church of Rome, and being made- believe that all the Heretics, as they called them, were monstrous and Infectious. But having recommended this Affair to God, she was told, That these common Differences of Religion do not bring Salvation, but the Love of God only and Virtue, which we ought to Love in all Persons who aspire to it, without regarding the outward Religion they pro fess ; that she ought to do good to all, and communicate to all the Light of the Divine Truth, of what Religion soever, they be. This wrought in her Soul so perfect an Impartiality, that she never afterwards inquired of what Religion one was, provided only he loved to put in practice the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, and to recover the Love of God. This impartiality of Spirit, and her equal Concern for the good of all, and the Freedom she took to manifest the Corrup tion of all Parties, and how far they were from the Spirit of true Christianity, made her to be hated and persecuted on all sides. The Jesuits, the Jansenists, the Lutheran and Calvinist Ministers, the Anabaptists, the Quakers, the Labadists, did re spectively prosecute her, either with their Tongue or Pen, or by exciting the Civil Power, where she stayed, or animating the Fury of the Rabble against her. They made her pass for a Visionarist, a Person of a wicked Life, suspected of Sorcery, a Blasphemer, the worst of Heretics, one who did propagate the most damnable Opinions ; but Wisdom is justified of her Children. The Innocence and Purity of her Life, and the perfect Conformity of it to the Christian Doctrine of her Writings was made appear by Evidences beyond all Exception. The public "Confession which she made of her Faith, and the Agreement of her writings therewith show the Falsehood of xxii To the English Reader. their Calumnies as to her Doctrine ; and the Writings pub lished against her gave her occasion the more to clear and manifest the Truth : so that what they were apt to except against in some of her Writings she more fully explained in others ; as appears, for Instance, in her Advertisement against the Quakers, where she speaks more expressly of the Respect due to Pastors, and the Sacraments. She deplored greatly the unhappy Schisms which have divided Christendom into so many Factions, disapproved all that savours of the Spirit of a Party, of Disputes and Partiali ties ; protested a thousand times against the establishing a new one, but aimed to persuade all to observe the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, without changing from one party to another ; so that she even dissuaded some Protestants of her Acquaintance from turning over to the Church of Rome, as they had been solicited by others, but to obey the Doctrine of Jesus Christ in the Communion wherein they were, such Changes being but the effect of Vanity. | Shey-said, the Difference of Sects and Parties among Christians-was founded upon their Neglect of the Essentials of Christianity, and their Zeal 'for some of the Accessories and Externals of it ; and comparing the first to a Sword, and the other to its Sheath, the great Debate among the respective Parties was^which has. the best Sheath, and in the meantime the Devil robbed us of the Sword. She was desirous to know the Will of God, even as to the ordering of outward things, and received from him the follow ing Rules r i. Do all in good order, and in season ; for I am a God of order : And Disorder comes from the Devil, and from Sin. 2. Never be eager in Temporal Affairs ; but apply your mind to do well what you do, in quietness ; for the wandering of the mind, and disquiet spoils all. 3. Take care of making a good use of everything, that nothing be spoiled or lost ; for what is lost by your negligence, will be required of you ; and what you have no need of, may be useful for another. 4. Keep yourself still employed in things useful, saving, or To the English Reader. xxiii necessary. For idleness is the Mother of all Evils, and the Devil lodges in an idle Soul. 5. Labour, that you may accomplish your Penitence ; and not that you may please Men, or gain Money, or satisfy your self, for all the Labours that you go about for any other end than to please me, are lost Labour ; and you have your reward in what you sought for, whether it be complaisance of Men, or the Money you have gained, or your own satisfaction. 6. Apply your mind to look well to everything, that nothing perish through your negligence ; and what you observe to be amiss, help it as soon as you can, by repairing as much as is possible for you all the faults that you have committed. 7. Do the same as to the good of your Neighbour, that you may fulfil that Command of loving your Neighbour as yourself. They who were with her to whom she had recommended these Rules, being unwilling to be so exact in the smallest matters which while they were conversant in the World seemed to them of no moment, and she having asked Counsel of God thereupon ;.she had this Answer : All that Men have to do in this World are but trifles and of little moment, and if they will not obey me in so small and easy matters, how will they do in great and difficult ones ? Not that I have need of them for myself ; nothing can profit or hurt me : But you have great need to observe exactly all these things that I teach you : For being made up of a Soul and Body, both which have need of entertainment, if you do not carefully order Temporal things, your Body will fall into a thousand sorts of Miseries, Anxieties, Maladies, Disquiets, Confusion, Poverty and Want : which at last will become insupportable to you : And all this, because of your little foresight, your disorder or negligence. Therefore I instruct you how you ought to carry on all things, even to the least of your Actions, that you may be happy even in this miserable Life. Not that I have need that you be Rich or Poor, in Health or Sickness, in good Order or in Confusion, neat or unclean outwardly : all this does not touch me nor offend me, so long as your Souls abide in my Love, and in the keeping of my Commandments. But the love I bear you, and xxiv To the English Reader. the care I have for you, makes me giye you these instructions for your own good. But the full story of her Life is to be had in the Account of it written by herself, and the continuation of it by the R. P. P. I know People will be possessed with many prejudices, against the Writings of this Person. The plain representation which she gives of the Gospel Life and Spirit, and the contrariety of the lives of Christians thereunto, of the universal Corruption of all parties, and their taking up with the shadow instead of the substance of Religion, will provoke many to disparage and discredit them by all means ; and the Craftsmen that live by those Silver Shrines, will stir up the multitude against them ; and from the circumstances of her Person, and the singularity of some of her Sentiments they will take occasion to fill People's minds with prejudices, so as not once to allow her a fair hearing. 1 1 shall not offer to remove the particular exceptions which may be made against them. I shall only take the free dom to say something as to three or four general Prejudices, which are most obvious. They are ready to except against her for pretending to Divine inspiration, and that the Doctrine she declareth is im mediately and inwardly communicated to her by the Spirit of God. That God may immediately inspire Souls with his Divine Light and Truth, • cannot be denied : That he has tied himself never to do it after the Apostle's days, and the Consignation of the Gospel in writing cannot be made evident : That there are many false pretenders to Divine inspiration, and who thus highly take the name of God in vain, is but too evident, espe cially in the Age wherein we live : That we ought not to believe every Spirit, but try the Spirits whether they are of God or not. The Spirit of God has already warned us, that the surest Test whereby to try them is the conformity of the Doctrine with the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ (which is suffi ciently confirmed already) and its tendency is to take us off from all Earthly things and from ourselves, and to bring us to God, and the entire correspondence of the Person's Life and Spirit therewith in all things, will I think be readily granted by many. To the English Reader. xxv Now M. A. B. desires to be put to this fair Trial, if her Doctrine be not the same with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and if the constant tract of her Life and Spirit be not answerable there unto, and the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit (which he ever brings along with him wherever he resides) were not to be seen in her. It is just then to give her a fair hearing -. And if you peruse her Writings impartially, it is like you will meet with many remarkable Characters that are not ordinarily to be found in many Writings. A clear and distinct account of the essen tial Truths of Christianity, with a constant urging of them as the one thing necessary, and distinguishing them from the ac cessory Truths which are not necessary to Salvation : An inimitable simplicity of expression, which a Child may under stand with as singular a sublimity of thoughts ; a convincing power and force going along with them ; a plain unfolding in a few Lines the difficulties about which the Learned write many volumes ; a constant harmony and uniformity of sentiments in the Writings of a course of forty Years (from about the 23d to the 65th year of her Age in which she died) ; with an evidence and clearness to the conviction of our natural Reason ; and all this by one who never read any Books, never conversed with the Learned to be instructed by them, never premeditated what she wrote, never blotted out nor mended what was once written ; but being attentive unto the love of God in' the calm and in ward recollection of her Spirit, wrote as fast as her hand could guide the Pen ; and when some writings were laid by unfinished for some years, returned to them and finished them after the same manner, without reading any more of what had been written than some few of the immediately foregoing Lines to make a due Connexion : And innumerable instances more. But above all the exact and constant purity of her Life, being a perfect pattern and living exemplar of the Spirit and Doctrine of the Gospel are things that deserve consideration. If there were a Race and Nation of People born blind, who had never , seen the light, but knew their Houses, their Furniture, their Fields, &c, only by the touch. If some stranger should come in among them pretending to see the Light, they would not xxvi To the English Reader. readily take it on their word, having no Idea of any such thing : But if those strangers at their very first entry, should describe their Houses, (where they had never formerly been) their Dishes, their Seats, their Bulk, Places and Shape, and going out should tell them on a sudden the Neighbouring Hills, Valleys, Rivers and Villages, their situation and distances, which the Inhabitants themselves could not learn but by long use, and by going from place to place, and feeling them with their hands or staff; they would certainly be convinced that these were endued with some more ready and perfect faculty and mean of knowing all these things than ever they experienced. So for those who pretend to Divine Inspiration and to be led by the Spirit of God, and give no evidence for it but their bare assertion, in dulging their corrupt Nature, and being as much Lovers of their own selves and of Earthly things as others, there is no reason to take it on their word, but rather to look on them as deceivers. But if any professing an inward illumination from God and a lively sense of Divine things, should despise the Ease, the Honours, the Wealth and Pleasures of this World, oppose constantly the desires of corrupt Nature, deny their own Will, mortify their outward senses, have their minds ever turned to wards God, being always resigned to his Will; and withal without Study, Reading, Learning or Meditation, should give a more clear, full, plain and consonant representation of Divine Truths even to the conviction of our natural reason, than we are able to do after much Study, Learning and Conversation ; we have reason to think that such are endued with a more clear effectual and enlightening sense and knowledge of the Divine Truths, than our notional knowledge can pretend to. It is by this Test that M. A. B. desires to be Tried. It being objected to her that since she declared only the Truths contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there was no need of any new Revelation of them, they being revealed already. To this she replied that as the Law of God of old was so cor rupted by the glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees that they had . made the Commandments of God of no effect thereby, and therefore God was pleased to rescue his Law from their cor- To the English Reader. xxvii ruptions by the Divine Explanations of it in the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; so the Doctrine of the Gospel is so corrupted by the glosses of men and these countenanced by the Learning and Wisdom of the World that men do not think themselves obliged to obey the Gospel according to the Letter, and there fore God has thought fit by the Divine simplicity of his Light through the Organ of a silly Maid to rescue it from their corrupt glosses and to confound their Learning even to their own Conviction. They pretend to expose her also for advancing new Senti ments and Doctrines and thereby giving occasion to more Disputes and Controversies instead of lessening them. But never any did more abhor the Spirit of Dispute and Con troversy than she ; and her proposing of these particular sen timents are far from giving occasion to them ; for as she makes a clear difference between the essential and the accessory Truths of Christianity, so she proposes these sentiments only as accessory ones, which may be helpful to some to make them the more admire and love God and despise this present World, but not as necessary to be believed by all, and she has often said that People need not believe them, and that for this they will neither be more nor less pleasing to God ; that they even ought to abstain from inquiring about them out of a Spirit of curiosity, for such inquiries would beget distraction, presumption and pride of heart ; that they ought to study only Jesus Christ crucified, to imitate him, and to deny themselves, without which the Devil and sin would mingle themselves in all their inquiries. And upon this head she refused often to explain herself upon these Subjects : Saying ; wherefore serves it to distract yourselves unprofitably, to neglect the main thing ? Endeavour to deny yourselves and to imitate Jesus Christ, and you shall know one day what there is of these things ; other wise .you shall deprive yourselves of them and Damn yourselves by your own curiosity and presumption. Speak no more to me of them ; but hold to the one necessary, substantial and fundamental thing Jesus Christ Crucified, out of whom S. Paul would know nothing beside. Besides it is very observable, xxviii To the English Reader. that these sentiments are not only very agreeable to the Holy Scriptures, but do also explain a thousand passages of them and the whole System of the Works of God in such a clear manner as could not be hitherto comprehended. Many are ready also to pick out some passages of her Writings which separately seem harsh, and from them take occasion to accuse her of Heterodoxy and of denying the essential mysteries of the Christian Faith, and particularly that of the sacred Trinity. There are no Writings which by this measure may not be represented as full of Heterodoxies. This usage she protests against herself and desires they may not treat her Writings as they do the Sacred Scriptures, single out and. expose some passages without comparing them with the whole tenor of the rest : And for the mystery of the Sacred Trinity, she not only declares her belief of it in express terms, owns it in her confession of Faith, but having used many similitudes to illustrate it as the Fathers and Schoolmen have done, she declares in the 24th Conf. of the 1st Part of the Light of the World, that this unspeakable, most real, most beautiful, most good, most great, most glorious mystery is above all that we can make or say of it, that nothing is able to express it, and that all that can be said of it, detracts from it instead of coming near it. What she says in the 2d Conf. of the 2d Part of the same Book, ought not to be understood, as if she despised Baptism in itself, or condemned the right use of Infant Baptism. She wrote so favourably and with so much respect of the Sacra ments, that the Quakers thought her guilty of a Criminal excess, as it appears by the Apologetical Treatise she published in Answer to their Accusations. But notwithstanding the high esteem she expressed for the right use of the Sacraments, she was no less zealous in condemning the abuse of them, especially when it appeared to be universal. And it is in my opinion a general and uncontroverted Rule that when ill-disposed Persons make use of the most sacred things out of a principle Of Self-love to flatter and increase their own and other Men's corruptions, their practice and proceedings in this case can To the English Reader. xxix only proceed from a Wicked and Depraved Spirit. Now in those places where M. Bourignon disapproves the Baptism of Infants before they have attained the use of their reason, and ascribes it to an ill principle, it appears manifestly from the Text itself, that she speaks only of the present use or rather abuse of it among wicked and ill-disposed Christians. She speaks plainly (pp. 236, 237) of the Baptism of Infants, whose Parents have not Faith themselves, and cannot teach them to follow the Doctrine of Jesus, since they themselves will not do it. On the contrary, they teach them to follow the World and its Pomps ; and that the Godfathers and Godmothers, never think more on what they have promised in the Child's name ;' far less do they acquaint him with it when he is grown up, to the end the Child may remember the promise which he made at Baptism. She speaks of Christians in parade and not in effect, for they have no sooner renounced in Baptism the World and its Pomps, than they think of nothing but to follow and to love it. And nevertheless (p. 238) when they are outwardly Baptized, they believe they are sufficiently assured of their Salvation ; and everybody thinks himself a good Christian, if so be he have been outwardly Baptized. This is her true meaning in these passages, and it is with respect to those, who are in that state or disposition, and are habitually inclined to act after that manner, that she affirms it would be more expedient to put off Baptism till they be of Age and in a good disposition of mind, without which it would have been better for them that they had never been Baptized. Agreeably to this, the Holy Scriptures intimate clearly, that it is the Devil who entices men to make use of the Sacraments, while they are in an ill disposition of mind, and that their haste and precipitancy in this case proceeds from the instigation of Satan and is an abomination to God, as it appears by the 1st and 66th Chap, of the Prophet Isaiah. S. Peter tells us plainly, that it was, by the instigation of the Devil that Simon Magus desired to be Baptized, while he was in the bonds of iniquity. And when S. Paul says, that those who receive the Lord's Supper unworthily, eat and drink their own condemna- xxx To the English Reader. tion, does he not xlearly give us to understand, that it is the enemy of our Salvation who incites men to make a bad and rash use of Sacred things, to the destruction of their Souls ? M. Bourignon has made it appear in so many passages of her Works, that she speaks only against those, who make use of the Sacraments while they continue and proceed in a corrupt state, that it would be tedious to insert in this place : See the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st Numb, of the 1st Part of " Antichrist Revealed," and the first Letter of the 3d Part of the " Tomb of false Divinity," where she is so far from condemning true Christians for Consecrating their little Children to God in Baptism, that she declares expressly that Infant Baptism would be of good use, if Parents would take care to educate their Children in the true faith, arid put them in mind after they are of Age, of the promise they made in their name at Baptism, . namely that they should be Christ's Disciples, and renounce the Devil, the World, and all its Vanities. And though she believed (according to the opinion of several Learned Men) that adult Persons were only Baptized in the primitive Church, and preferred that custom as being less subject to abuses, yet she did not think, that this rule or practice was then so generally received, but that it might admit of just exceptions. And therefore in another part of her Writings, after she has declared, speaking to an Anabaptist, that we must not amuse ourselves with disputing about the external forms of Baptism, while the Soul is not willing to die to the corruptions of the flesh, that it might live again to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. She adds, That since the Scripture informs us that in the days of the Apostles whole Families were Baptized at once, it is pro bable that there were young Children as well as old Persons in them. In short, These things may be done either out of a good or bad Principle ; but usually, and at present generally, these things were done out of a bad Principle ; and this is what she reproves and condemns with so much reason and justice. As for that Question, whether we ought to condemn the Repetition of Baptism, when it was not duly performed at first. If that Repetition may serve to promote a true conver- To the English Reader. xxxi sion to God and his love, it is plain it cannot be disapproved, but by a Spirit that prefers external things before God and his love, which cannot be ascribed to the Spirit of God. Thus the Scripture furnisheth us with instances of this Repetition of Baptism, when it may serve as a mean to receive the Spirit of God. See Acts xix. 2, &c. Some will be apt to take up a prejudice against her, because in some places she speaks with some sharpness against the Protestants, the Reformation made by them, and the first Reformers. But they who consider with what severity she treats the Church of Rome in whose communion she was, looking on her as the great Whore that sits on many waters, how plainly she represents the corruption of all Parties, and how ready every side is to be wedded to the little interest of their respective Parties, will rather admire and love the Impar tiality and Ingenuity of her Spirit than be prejudiced against her upon that head. CGod dwells not in Temples made with men's hands, and the human and political constitutions of Churches, with their respective Acts, Articles, Covenants, and Schemes of Government have hitherto proved but the occasion of mutual hatred and contention, and not being Cemented with Charity, of all these buildings one stone is not like to be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. When the Temple was built, all the stones were hewn and squared in the Wilderness, and there was neither Hammer, nor Axe, nor any Tool of Iron heard in the House, while it was in Building. And that God may thus rear up the living Temple of his Church will be the prayer of all serious Persons. _ J, But for a full satisfaction to the exceptions that may be made against her, I refer to her own Writings and to the Apologe- tical Preface written by the R. P. P. and prefixed to her Life. In the meantime as her Writings seem designed for the common good of all Mankind, and for reviving the true Spirit of Christianity in the World, so I heartily wish they may be made universally useful, and that the communicating them to the World in their respective Languages may have its due effect. That the Heathen may see how by Nature they are alienated xxxii To the English Reader. from the life of God, and how desirous God is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth: That the Mahometans may admire and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whom they Honour for a great Prophet, and against whose Religion the greatest prejudice is the ill repre sentation made of it by the Lives and Practices of those who profess it : That the Jews may be convinced that Jesus is the true Messiah whom they look for, who is to come again in Glory upon Earth, and who having kept them for so many Ages scattered among other Nations in a state of contempt and reproach, is thereby preparing them for a more exalted state when they shall be grafted in again, and made the head who are now the tail : That the Professors of Christianity may learn ^ what it is indeed, and how far they are from it, and that their eyes being open they may see they are greater Idolaters than the Heathens, while these through ignorance and in the sim plicity of their hearts bow their bodies before the Sun or their < Idols ; but those in the midst of light, with the bent of their hearts, their Love, their Affections, and endeavours do Worship Gold and Silver, and Meat and Drink, and Clothes, and Men, and Honours, and their own Wills and Passions ; that while they profess to abhor Idols they -may cease to be the greatest Idolaters themselves : That the several parties of Christendom may be convinced that they have lost Christianity and are fighting for its shadow, and while its Essence is Righteousness, Goodness, and Truth, the Devil has shed among them his contrary Antichristian Qualities of Injustice, Malice, and Hy pocrisy, under an outward cover of Masses, Prayers, Preachings, Communions, Sacraments, Sabbaths, Holy-Days, Fasts, &c, which when the essence of Christianity is gone, are an abomi nation unto God : That the Learned may learn not to be puffed up with their knowledge and become so humble as to be willing to learn something from a simple Maid, that perhaps may be of more use to them than all their Learning ; and that they may be sensible that Divine Light and Knowledge does as far transcend their Notional Learning, as the enjoying and beholding the Sun, the Light, and all this visible World does To the English Reader. xxxiii the looking upon their Pictures : |That her own Sex may admire ; the goodness of God, in choosing a Virgin for his. Mother, and a Virgin to be the Organ of his Light and Spirit in this last Age of the World, that they may see they are capable of more excellent endowments than those in which the other Sex pre tend to excel them, in which God seems to give them the preference to confound the Wisdom and the Learning of the World, that they may strive rather to be well pleasing to God than men, that fleeing all earthly loves which prove bitterness in the end, they may give their hearts wholly to him, who is altogether lovely, whose love is unchangeable, who will not disappoint them but will reward their Love with infinite Light, and Joy, and Love : That they who pretend to be led by the Spirit of God may beware of taking God's name in vain, and of vouching God's Spirit, for all their Dreams and Imagina^, tions ; for where the Spirit of God resides, there^risfruits are, and the Soul that possesses him has its Affections wholly re moved from Temporal and Earthly things, and set upon those Which are Spiritual and Eternal :^hat the Pastors of the~\ Church may see at whose doors the Guilt of the universal Evils .of Christendom are like mostly to be laid, that they may fear i and tremble when they hear that Salt which has lost its Savour is good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot ; of Men ; that by the grace of God they themselves may be j taught true Humility, Self-denial, and a contempt of all Earthly things, without which Spirit they are no more capable of Teach ing others, however they repeat the Words of Christ and his Apostles, than an Ape can make a good Picture, though he take up and use the Painter's Pencils and Colours. .In one f. Word, that all may be brought to deny themselves and to ', follow Jesus Christ in the true Love of God' and of one \ another; and that the judgments of God being now abroad upon the Earth, the Inhabitants of the World may learn Right eousness. " For a further Vindication of these Writings and the Sen- " timents contained in them ; I shall here Subjoin the protes- " tation made by P. P. after his having Answered the Calumnies xxxiv To the English Reader. " and Reproaches which some had published against them, " in the V. Sect, of ' La paix des bonnes Ames,' pp. 278 — " 280. " But says he, if all that is said does not satisfy, I will make, " and do at present make this Protestation before God and " before all Men, that is, " That M. B. her Friends and I, never had, have not yet, " and shall never have, by the Grace of God other Sentiments " or Designs than to believe and live as true Christians, pro- " fessing by word and deed all that is Fundamental in true " Christianity, and which is comprehended in the Apostles' " Creed. " That we receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New " Testament as Divine and Infallible, and reject all that is " contrary thereunto. " That we believe and adore the adorable and incompre- " hensible Trinity, the Father, the Word or the Son, and the " Holy Spirit, God three and one eternally Blessed, the inward " distinctions of which (by what name soever they be called, " Real, Relative, Hypostatical, Personal, Substantial) are as " true, as they are truly incomprehensible by the mind of Man. " That we hold Jesus Christ to' be true Eternal God and true " Man, to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World, to be " the Mediator between God and Men, who by his Merits, by " his Satisfaction, by his Righteousness, by his Life, and by his " Death, is the Author of Salvation to all those who imitate " him, or to speak with the Apostle, to all those who obey " him. " That we ascribe the Glory of all Good purely to the grace " of God, and all Evil purely to the fault of Man and of the " Devil. " That we make the essence and perfection of true Christi- " anity to consist in Self-denial, in continual Prayer, in the Love " of God, and of our Neighbour, and in the imitation of our " Saviour. " That we consider all other speculations as accessory, for " which it is good not to condemn anybody but to leave every To the English Reader. xxxv t " one at liberty to embrace or lay them aside as they find them " helpful for the advancement of the essential part. " That the true Key whereby to come to the Knowledge of " Divine things is Humility and Prayer, and not the forced " speculations of Human Reason. " That all States, the Ecclesiastical, the Political, the Eco- '" nomical, are Established by God, and that the Honour and " Submission which is measured out to them, and regulated by " the word of God is respectively due to them. " That when evil is reproved, this does not concern those " States directly, nor good men in them who are free of it, but " only the abuse and the ill behaviour of the wicked. " That if in the writings of M. B. or of her Friends, there " be anything that is obscure, or that seems contrary to what " has been said, we offer to clear and reconcile it, or to dis- " avow it, in case it can be made appear that it cannot be " well explained, and that it is not a mistake of words. " We protest against aU that may be cited from her writings, " or objected by way of consequence against what I have said ; " as against so many shameful Manglings, Malicious Interpre- " tations, deceitful Calumnies, injurious Consequences, in which " God will do us Justice, if Men are not just to us. " I protest also against all those who offer to pass hard " Censures upon what concerns M. B. her Friends, or myself, " without having read the principal of her writings or my " system, as against unjust and unreasonable Judges, at least " as against Persons very inconsiderate and unworthy of Credit. " In short, I believe I have reason to require that they who " shall be convinced to have laid to our charge a hundred " falsehoods, and others who shall believe them without reason, " may not again be admitted, the one in the Quality of Ac- " cusers, and the other in that of Judges, but rejected, the one " as notorious Impostors, and the other as wilfully stupid." c 2 AN ' ADMONITION TO THE READER. Dear Reader, — CINCE it is my earnest desire that the perusal of this Divine Work, of which this is the first Part may be profitable and advantageous to you, I cannot forbear wishing that you may give no place in your mind to certain prejudices, with which the most part of the World suffer themselves to be so miserably deluded, that they would believe themselves deceived if they did not follow them. Permit me to speak to you a word or two of some of those pernicious and deceitful prejudices, which you must either banish out of your mind or forbear the reading of this Book, as you would not bring upon you your own Condemnation by retaining those things which may cause you to make an ill use of it. In the first place I advise you not to regard the appearance, state, or quality of Persons, nor anything that is purely external, and so consequently can neither add nor subtract from the Truth, which has1 no dependance on things of that Nature. Let the speaker be a Man or a Woman, let instructions come from this or that place, let the persons who are reproved be great or small, Turks or Christians, many or few ; you must not be surprised at any of these circumstances. Truth and Falsehood may be found in either of these cases : And it is that only we ought to examine without regulating our judg- An Admonition. xxxvii ments according to the differences we observe between the persons that speak to us. For 1 in Jesus Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, Roman, or no Roman, Male nor Female. It is here a Maid that speaks to you, none of those great Men who are so frequently reproved. Do not verify by your experience that saying of the Scripture,2 When the rich and mighty speak, all hold their peace, and what he says they extol to the heavens; but when the mean man speaks, they say, who is this ! even though he offer wise things they would not yield to him. If there be any valuable prejudice it should certainly be in favour of the meanest, weakest and most con temptible persons, since God himself has declared, it is his pleasure to make use of them, and Jesus Christ was so rejoiced at that choice, that he says to his Father,3 I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and from the learned, and hast revealed them unto Babes : even so Father, since so it seemed good unto thee ! Is there anything meaner, weaker and more con temptible in the esteem of the World, in the matters of Doctrine than a Maid ? And can anything be more proper to verify that declaration of the choice of God? He has also promised the pouring out of his Spirit in the last times upon Daughters 4 as one of the most signal marks of his power. And certainly the weakness of the instrument is an evident sign of him who employs it. It is plain that such an extraordinary effect must proceed from a cause, that is extraordinarily power ful ; and that cause must be God himself, when the effect is gOod and useful. Secondly in Divine things you must have no regard to the natural qualities of the mind, or rather to the human means by which it is cultivated, such as Sciences, Study, Reading ; and the like. Divine truth is so far from depending on such things, that it is rather obscured by them. It may be justly reckoned a prodigy if such unnatural methods should be attended with success, when men endeavour to derive into ill prepared 1 Gal. iii. 28. 2 Ecclus. xiii. 28—30. 3 Matt. xi. 25, 26. 4 Joel ii. 8. xxxviii .An Admonition. Vessels by the exercise of their corrupt faculties, things that are altogether independent upon them, and are freely infused by a calm insinuation into Souls that are at rest from their own tumults. Truly we might be astonished if the Learned should find solid truth by pursuing such methods as would certainly banish it out of their minds if they were already possessed of it. Man having lost, saith Solomon,1 by much reasoning, the uprightness in which God created him. But when God speaks to us by simple and unlearned laics, we cannot suspect them, as we would suspect the Learned, that they feed us with their studied speculations or the prejudices they have drunk in at Schools and drawn from the works of Men ; and repeat to us the songs their Teachers have taught them to sing. The Person who speaks here is without study, even without reading and which is more, without meditation : Search a little to find out the source of this fountain, and to understand well what Master could have instructed her; it could neither be Man, the Devil nor Nature. But the thing which you ought most to observe, that you have no regard to the conduct of Men. I mean that you do not imagine that the Truth, much less Salvation depends upon them, their Opinions, Orders, Directions, Submission, or that it is tied to them by a necessary bond, since it has no essential union but with God alone, and may be forsaken by all men, if they will, as any man may, and too many actually do. This unhappy prejudice has ruined the Christian Church, who imagined that she could not possibly fall after she had esta blished herself upon the authority of certain particular Persons.; human Successions, outward Assemblies, and other Circum stances that are not at all inconsistent with the Spirit of Error. It is certain there are few Christians and even few Catholics, who do not see that the Church is extremely fallen away and corrupted. But the Learned have found out a distinction to charm this evil. They say, that though the Church may fall into a moral corruption and be guilty of backsliding from the practice of a Christian life, she is still infallible and incor- 1 Eccles. vii. 29. An Admonition, xxxix ruptible in matters of Faith. It is much to be feared, that this distinction serves rather to flatter the Spirit of pride than promote that of Humility, which is the Spirit of the Gospel, and that it proceeds rather from human interest, which pre possesses and darkens even the best minds, than from an enlightened charity which designs to excuse the evils of the Church as far as Truth permits. May not those who have made this distinction perceive they are so far from excusing the Church or lessening the guilt of her fall, that they render her guilty of the fall of Devils ; whereas her Adversaries pretend only to hold her fallible after a manner conformable to human infirmity 1 It seems they contradict themselves in this distraction, for can that which has no faith be incor ruptible as to faith 1 and that which is not only destitute of the works of Faith, but whose works are corrupted and conse quently opposite to those of Faith, can that have Faith?1 Show me, says the Apostle, Show me the faith of which thou boastest without thy works, and I will show thee the faith, which I possess by my works : Treating the Man as 2 vain and empty, who would give way to such thoughts : What then would he have said of those who maintain that one may be not only destitute of works, but that even his works may be evil, and. habitually evil, or which is the same thing, that his Manners may be corrupted, and that nevertheless he might be infallibly possessed with the purity of the true Faith ! But it may be they understand by Faith, Speculations, Notions, the knowledge of Spiritual Things ; but S. James reckons those things when they are alone and barren to be a diabolical Faith, since he expressly ascribes it 3 to the Devil. And how can this diminish or cover the evil of the Church, that though her Manners are corrupted, she has nevertheless with an in fallible certainty the knowledge of Divine things, and the discerning of Truth and Falsehood, of good and evil : This would be rather to make her fall equal to that of the Devil, to make her sin with knowledge in the midst of her light and against it. 1 Jas. ii. 1 8. 2 Jas. ii. 20. 3 Jas. ii. 19. xl An Admonition. Those who assert this Opinion, represent her without con science, render her more odious to God and Men, more devilish, and condemn her to a place in Hell far below the Infidels, rather than if they should say, that her Morals are or have been Corrupted, for her being mistaken in her Know ledge, and believing that to be good and true which is not really so ; since it is certainly a less evil, and a less fall to sin through ignorance and error, than to do it against the know ledge of the truth. To pretend to infallibility in the knowledge of the Truth, while at the same time it appears by her actions and her own confession that she is corrupted in the practice of a Christian life, would be to make a profession of sinning against the Holy Ghost, and renouncing of conscience ; which S. Paul says, cannot be done without making shipwreck of the faith.1 So that by this excuse they equally prove that she is fallen into a greater estrangement from God than that which they would excuse, and that at the same time she is destitute of true Faith and the knowledge of the Truth, and seized with a malady of presumption, which puts me in mind of that for which S. Paul assures the Roman Church, in the Epistle which he wrote to her 2 that she shall be cut off, if she suffer herself to be led into it. In the meantime it is through this prejudice that they shut their Ears against the Truth that reproves them, and that they reject the remedies though they are not ignorant of their disease, putting themselves in a condition, that re sembles the state of Babylon, of which the Prophet speaks,3 we would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed ; forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country : for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even unto the sky. Do not you likewise render yourself incurable, dear Reader, by admitting of such prejudices, and suffering them to blind you so far as to make you reject the Heavenly remedies, which God offers you at present by the hand »t