Quakerism a-la-mode, or, A history of quietism particularly that of the Lord Arch-bishop of Cambray and Madam Guyone ... also an account of the management of that controversie (now depending at Rome) betwixt the Arch-bishop's book / writ by Messire Jacques Benignes Bossuel [sic] ... ; done into English from the original printed at Paris.

A HISTORY OF Quietism.

SEing my Lord Archbishop of Cambray de∣sires an answer to his demands so precisely, and that in this conjuncture, none of 'em are more important than those that regard our pro∣ceedings, which he endeavours by all means pos∣sible torender odious, whereas he himself pretends always to abound with Charity aud Meekness even to excess; If I should delay to satisfie 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 re∣lated them, and indeed it is fit to conceal the knowledge thereof from the Publick. Nothing

can be imagined more vigorous and extream 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 justifie him∣self 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 Peti∣tion 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 Publick touch∣ing his concern: But without expecting the con∣futation 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 Edi∣tions, the one wherein he alledges that matter of fact, and the other where it is suppressed; and the proof is demonstrative, that that Prelate, without remembring the facts he alledges, writes the most odious things that can come into his Head, and at the same time so false, that he him∣self is obliged to retract and suppress them in∣tirely.

2. This is enough to let the World see what a fine gloss he would put on his own Conduct; and in what frighful 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 imbittered 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 de∣plore my Condition, and rend me pretending to be∣wail 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 in∣direct and ambitious Censure contained in our De∣claration; redouble my blows upon him in particu∣lar: And adds, That when come to my self again I make use of smooth words to call him a second Mo∣linos; 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 Con∣sequences, though he has advanced all his princi∣ples. But here are more particular Accusations:

3. I do not comprehend at all, says he, the Con∣duct of Monsieur de Meaux: On one hand he in∣slames himself with indignation: (for to hear him speak I am never compos ment is) &c. Inflames himself, I say, with indignation, when any one

seems but to doubt whether there may not be some∣thing 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 at∣testation, without requiring any act from her whereby she may formally recant any Error: Whence then can so much severity and so much remisness 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 Superiours: So that it was not so much as in my power to exclude her from the Sacred Table: They gave her the Holy Sa∣craments in consideration of the frequent profes∣sion she made of an actual Submission and Obe∣dience. At Meaux I appointed her a Confessor, to whom I gave full permission to give her the Communion upon account of the intire Submissi∣on she exprest 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 sub∣scribed our Censures, wherein her Printed Books and her whole Doctrine are Condemned: And in the

last place she rejected by a special writing on pur∣pose, the Chief Propositions that formed 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 expresly enumerat∣ed, 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 remisness and rigour is cleared by those Acts, and the Ac∣cusation 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 alledges against a Brother, and intimate Friend such as I was? I readily grant to my Lord Arch-Bishop of Cambray, that if we have done him any wrong, he ought, as he re∣peats 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 Publick 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 Af∣fair, 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 my self and of my Brethren cannot be understood but by that means.

5. It cannot chuse 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 Liber∣tines, and an occasion of their accounting Piety Hypocrisie, 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 with∣out reason. My Lord of Cambray boasts of it every where that he was not the first that wrote, that he might thereby perswade the World he has right on his side, and lay us under an odium as be∣ing the unjust agressors: He directs those words to my self: Who was it that writ first? Who was it begun the Scandal? But is it lawful to dissem∣ble certain and publick matters of fact? Who is it really that appeared first in Print upon this Sub∣ject, 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 my self) which were made publick 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 ap∣plause. 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 Com∣mon 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 ex∣planing our principles, it appears that we are ac∣cused 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 then we are to do, is to examine whether the bottom of our cause be as good as we have demostrated 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 Publick therewith, seeing my Lord of Cambray himself urges us thereto, and that he has five hundred People at his beck all over Europe to eccho 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 concern'd for himself, for the Chruch, and for the Princes of France, whose Tutor he was, I often dis∣coursed him upon that Subject, and endeavour'd 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 my self 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 influ∣ence of Truth upon those that hearken to it, and I never doubted but the Abbot of Fenclon was at∣tentive to it. Yet I was somewhat uneasie 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 deliver'd 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 Judgment. 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 Senti∣ments 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 look'd 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 Me∣mory as the first day, and know them also by the Writings concerning them, I have in my Hands.

I am naturally afraid to incumber my self 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, desi∣ring 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 my self 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 Revela∣tions, and several other Books of Scripture. I took them with me to my Diocess, whether I was a∣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 my self to pronounce the Judgment 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 propos'd it to me, but only to de∣clare 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 begg'd, should be pleas'd 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 Dutchess once on a time perform'd that Office for her in that condition, they often laid her up∣on her Bed; and many times if they did but stay and sit by her, they receiv'd 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 lookt upon this immediately as haughty, new, and un∣heard 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 fulness 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 ex∣amin'd. 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; there∣fore 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 fulness. 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 si∣lence, 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 fulness as they did re∣ceive the grace around her, I felt my self, says she, to empty and be eas'd by degrees; every one receiv'd their grace according to their degree of prayer, and fel by being near me that fulness of grace brought by Jesus Christ: It was like a Sluce that over-runs with abundance: They did feel themselves filled, and for my part I felt my self to be emptied, and to be eas'd of my fulness: 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 her self in that fulness 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 her self: 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 uothing by which its fulness may be distinguished; but if a super∣abundance be added, it must either discharge it self or burst out: I never feel any thing for my self; but when they stir at any time that Fund which is inwardly full and calm, that causes the fulness to be felt with so much excess, that it gushes out upon the sense: It is, continues she, an over∣flowing of the fulness, a gushing out of a Well,

always full for such Souls as have need to draw the Waters of that fulness: 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 fulness, having some person about her, and a Woman said that she was fuller than usually; I told them, said she, I should die of fulness, and that my senses were so overwhelmed by it as I should burst: It was upon this occasion that the Dutchess she mentions, and whom I shall never discover, un∣leced 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 fulness. She eased her self by communicating of her fulness 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 re∣late, 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, seing 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 rea∣son still compels me to speak. We must forti∣fie 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 shewn 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 abus'd 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 hatch'd in her bosom.

8. Madam Guyon perceiving presently that I found many extarordinary things in her Life, she therupon prevented me by a Letter written and signed with her own Hand, thus, There are three sorts of extraordinary things that you may have ob∣served: The first which regards the inward Com∣munications 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 justifie that to you, either by some Let∣ters 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 al∣ready 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 Judgment 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 justifie them by a Writing she subjoyns to this Letter with this Title; The Lords Hand is not shortened: She alledges 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 arro∣gant fulnesses, 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, see∣ing they are to be tried and examined according to that principle of the Apostle, Try the Spirits whether they be of God; trie 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 burst∣ing of her Cloaths in two places by that frightful plenitude: I have her unsatisfactory Answer in a Letter writ with her own Hand, which serves to justifie the matter of fact. As for the examining of so strange a Communication, we may well per∣ceive 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 medling with directing of any body, as she used to do with an amazing Autho∣ty: For amongst other things in her Life, as ap∣pears also by her Printed Exposition upon the Canticles, that by an Apostolical Power and Mis∣sion wherewith she was endowed, and to which the Souls of such a pitch are raised; she not on∣ly saw clearly into the bottom of the Souls, but like wise received a [marvelous] Authority upon the Bodys and Souls 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 fulness)

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 burthensome to them.

10. Amidst the precautions I made use of a∣gainst 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 Pray∣er, 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 my self: 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 shewed me unto my self under the form of that Woman in the Revelations: You shewed me that Mystery; you made me to comprehend that Moon: My Soul was above vicissitude and changes. She remarks also her self and the Sun of Justice that surrounded her, and the Divine Vertues 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 Columny: The Earth would not swallow it up: It should fall by little and little: I should have Millions of Children: After the same man∣ner

she applies her self to the rest of the Pro∣phecy.

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 Enthusiastick fit, she shews the Consummati∣on of all things by the extent of that same Spirit over all the Earth. A little after she gives an Ac∣count that going to Versailles she saw the King a Hunting afar off: That she was taken up in a Divine Rapture with so intire a Possession that she was constrained to shut her Eyes: She had then an assurance that His Majesty would assist her in a par∣ticular manner, &c. 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 fa∣vours her very little, tho' she names her in two parts of her Life.

13. Every one may make their reflections up∣on 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 Enthusiastick fits upon the Wonders she appre∣hends 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 esta∣blish 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 [pour∣ed 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 loose shall be unloosed: I am that Stone fastned by the Holy Cross, rejected by the Builders; the rest I have read my self to the Abbot of Fenelon: He knows well who were pre∣sent 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 her self a Prophetick 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 chuse 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 after∣wards, O Mystery truer than the day that shines, you are now lookt upon as a story, as little Chil∣drens Tales, as diabolical things: The time shall come when all those things shall be lookt 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 spake. She insinuates in every place of her Life that they are inspired: She brings as a remarkable proof there∣of, the wonderful swiftness of her hand, and omits

nothing to shew 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 her self 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 Revelati∣ons, that it is written here shall be no more Bar∣barous nor Foreign.

16. Thus she entertains her Hearers, with hopes of wonderful things to come. I have tran∣scribed 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 pretend∣ed 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 De∣lusions 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 Inspi∣red 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 reprov∣ed 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 Sence, was not so to speak the Bride of all Brides: She always answer∣ed 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 purifie my Lips that are polluted by this Narrative though abso∣lutely 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 contra∣ry to the Catholick Doctrine: But the reason she gives of it is far more stange: It is not, says she, for the Bride, but for the Domesticks, 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, intirely 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 ones self by resigning up our selves to the Will of God how secret soever it be; in respect either of our Damnation or Salvation. This is the Reign∣ing Doctrine in all that Ladies Printed Books and Manuscripts; and upon which I examined her in a long Conference I had with her private∣ly, I shewed 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 her self. What, said I to her, can't you ask nothing for your self? No, answered she, I cannot. She was much per∣plexed 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 Pro∣position was Heretical. She promised me four or five times to receive instructions, and to sub∣mit 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 justifie by the Dates of the Letters re∣lating thereunto.

Soon after, this was followed by another more important Conference with the Abbot of Fenelon in his Appartment at Versailles; I entred into the same full of confidence, that by shewing 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 delu∣sion. 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 her self, 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 her self,—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 design'd 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 de∣lusions so palpable. The tears I poured out then in the sight of God, were none of those where∣with my Lord of Cambray upbraids me now; you shed tears for me, and you tear me in pieces. I design'd nothing else but to conceal what I saw, without opening my mind to any but to God alone; and hardly could I believe it my self: Nay, I wish'd I had been able to hide it from my self: I as it were felt my self 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 my self from the experience of so many great Spirits whom God hath humbled for a little while, to make them afterwards walk more sted∣fastly; and I applied my self 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 my self upon the difficulties just now mentioned; re∣serving some of them for a larger examination: I markt 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 fol∣lows upon it is very [submissive] and justifies all the matters of fact I have advanc'd as to the Con∣tents of the Books. She accepted my Advice to re∣tire, & 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 dis∣abusing the Abbot of Fenelon, as to a person whose Conduct was so strange.

Sect. 3. The second part of the Relation, contain∣ing what passed betwixt Mr. de Chaalons, and Mr. Tronson and my self.

1. VVHilst I was taken up with these thoughts, and labouring betwixt hope and fear, Madam Guyon turned the exami∣nation 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 Judgment upon her Life. The Copy she sent me of her Letter, & that which she joyned to it, shew 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, with∣out which they would enter upon the examinati∣on of her Doctrine with too much prejudice. But it is not so easie a matter to surprize an enlightned Piety. It was soon perceiv'd by the Mediatress she had chosen, that this Proposal of the Commis∣siners, besides other inconveniences, shot wide of the Mark, which was to begin by examining the Doctrines contained in her Wrirings they had in hand, and in the Books where with the Church was overflowed, and so the Proposal dropt off it self: 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 through∣ly canvass'd, and a sort of prayer so pernicious, abolished, if possible; I should be associated with Mr. de Chaalons, now Archbishop of Paris, and

Mr. Tronson superior General of the Congrega∣tion 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 my self. The last of 'em was unknown to me, except by his repu∣tation; But the Abbot of Fenelon and his Friends had a particular confidence in him. As for Mr. de Chaalons, 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 Collegues 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 main∣tain or to excuse them: The thing really in que∣stion was those Books, and they made the sole Sub∣ject of our Meetings. The silent prayer of Ma∣dam Guyon was, that M. de Fenelon was for, and perhaps 'twas his own in a particular manner. That Lady did not forget her self, and during seven or eight month that we applied our selves to so serious a discussion; she sent us fifteen or six∣teen big Bundles, (which I have still) to make a parallel betwixt her Books, the holy Fathers, Di∣vines,

and the Spiritual Authors. All this was at∣tended with proffers of entire submission. The Ab∣bot 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 pro∣tested they would refer all to our Judgment. Ma∣dam 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 dissention 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 read∣ing thereof might be. The long extracts I have by me shew what attention we gave to an Affair, wherein really the Church was so nearly concern∣ed; 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 Vertue, 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 perswade our selves 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 tho he surrendred himself entirely to those Gentle∣men: I must own here, that beside my being the President of the Conference, he semmed to ad∣dress 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 shew 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 comprized 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 for∣mal Complement, nor a trick to discover your senti∣ments; 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 Gods will that I may know the Truth. I am a Priest, I owe all to the Church, and nothing to my self, nor to my personal Reputa∣tion. I declare to you still my Lord, That I wont 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 rendred 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 my self and do Pennance the remaining part of my Days; after having abjured and recanted the Erronious Doctrine that has seduced me; But if my Doctrine be innocent, do not keep me in sus∣pence out of some Humane Respect. To you it ap∣pertains to instruct with Authority those that are scandalized, because they know not the Operations of God in the Soul: You know with what confi∣dence I have delivered my self to you, and applied my self without intermission, that you should not be Ignorant of my strongest perswasions. There re∣mains 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 your self, my simple and upright obedience shall—not deceive me; and I account it as no∣thing to mistake, when I do it with Ʋprightness 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 withou reserve, be pleased to put it to the proof with∣out spairing me. Although your mind is more enlightned 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 accept∣ed with joy the Prayer he made for me, that I might lose all my own Wisdom, which indeed I did not relie on; and I endeavoured to listen to nothing but Tradition.

Thus seeing the Abbot of Fenelon so well dis∣posed to submit, I look upon it as an injustice to entertain any doubt of his compliance. It never entred into my mind that the Errors wherein I saw him involv'd, tho' in themselves very impor∣tant 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, ought to be an obstacle to his Promotion. I do not speak thus to justifie my self: I only set down

the matter of fact, the judgment whereof I refer to those who consider it: If they will defer their Judgment 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 shewed. 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 Con∣ference 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 with∣out Arguments shall suffice. I hold only one thing which is simple obedience, so that my Con∣science 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 mo∣ment in the Error. I am ready to be silent, to recant, to accuse my self, and even to retire, if I have fail'd 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 Comple∣ments.

7. In another Letter, he said:

I have already besought you not to delay one mo∣ment, out of any respect to me, the deci∣sion 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 desir'd. I had as good, nay, rather recant to Day than to Morrow.

The rest was to the same purpose, and con∣cluded with these words:

Deal with me as with a School-boy, without minding ei∣ther 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 Er∣ror. 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 ac∣count.

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 draw∣ing up the Articles. Having read all the Writings, as well those of Madam Guyon, as of Monsieur Fenelon, wherein we com∣prised the Condemnation of all the Errors we found in t'one and t'other; 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 pleas∣to 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 your selves the trouble of entring upon that Discussion: Take the thing in gross, and begin by supposing that I have mistaken my self in my Cita∣tions. I forsake them all; I don't pre∣tend 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 Judg∣ment according to those, and give a De∣cision upon the essential Points; after which, the remaining part will be of little moment.

By this it may be perceiv∣ed, that we had declared our selves enough upon his Writings. He had explained him∣self therein so thoroughly, that we per∣fectly 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 u∣sual among Friends, without taking any ad∣vantage one of another; and so much the more, because we our selves, whom they took for Arbitrators, had no other Authority over the Abbot of Fenelon than what he himself gave us. It seem'd that God made his Heart sensible of the Way we were to follow, in order to re∣claim him gently, without offedning so fine and acute a Spirit. The Examinauion last∣ed long: It is true, the Necessities of our Diocesses caused some interruption to our Conferences. As to the Abbot of Fenelon, we had rather not to have given him a∣ny 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 supicious, and to subject them to Examination. The Abbot of Fen∣elon had reason indeed to tell us, That af∣ter all, we knew not his Opinions any o∣ther way but by himself. As he could have conceal'd them from us, so the freedom wherewith he discover'd them, was to us a mark of his docible temper; and we concealed them so much the more carefully, the more freely he discover'd 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 confess'd here, that the least whisper to the King, of the Abbot de Fenelon's favour∣ing M. Guyon and her Doctrine, would have produced strange effects in the Mind of a Prince so Religious, so nice as to mat∣tets of Faith, and so circumspect in fil∣ling up the great Places of the Church; and the least that this Abbot must have ex∣pected 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 Rea∣son, or prepossession; or if you will, through Error: (For I rather here make a publick Confession, than seek to defend my self) 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 there∣in.

10. I carried that Confidence to the high∣est pitch, as will be known by the fol∣lowing Discourse. It was the Will of God, perhaps to humble me: And perhaps also, I sin'd by putting too much confidence in the Knowledge I believ'd 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 surpas∣sed my Power: However we acted upon that ground, and as we were labouring to reclaim a Friend, so we applyed our selves 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 our selves 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 our selves, in order to avoid making him look like one that retracted, to have him sign with us as an Associate in our Delibera∣tions. We had no other design in any re∣spect, 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 Archbishoprick of Cambray. We applauded the Choice, as did every body else, and he continu'd nevertheless in that way of submission God put him in: The higher he was to be raised upon the Can∣dlestick, the more I thought he should at∣tain to that great splendor, 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 begg'd if of us with the same humility. The Four and Thirty Articles that were drawn up at Issy in our private Conferences, Mon∣siur de Chaalons 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 uneasie he was in reading it. We told him without disputing, with an Epis∣copal sincerity, how he ought to dispose of the Writings he had sent us in so great numbers; he said not a word; and not∣withstanding the reluctancy he had shew∣ed, he offer'd that very moment, to sign the Articles meerly 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 ra∣ther indeed overthrew the Foundation of the new way of Prayer; yet their Prin∣ciples being clear, we thought that the Ab∣bot 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 Dispo∣sitions God had then put him into. It has been seen by the Letters he wrote, during the time we were busie in drawing those Articles, that he begg'd 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 shewed him another way; which was, that he must obey without ex∣amining. 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 Ar∣ticles, (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 remember'd the disposition of Mind we were all in when we sign'd. Thus you have an Account of the little Mystery we

were put upon meerly in regard to his Advantage. I hear his Friends give out, that this was as a secret of Confession a∣mong us, which he would not discover, and that we have revealed it. Never any such thing came into our thoughts, nor did we imagin any other Secret but that only of having a regard to his Honour, and of his retractation under a more spe∣cious Title. If he had not declared him∣self too much in his Book, and then for∣ced our silence, that Secret should still have lain in Darkness.

We have seen how in one of his Let∣ters he offer'd to make a general Confes∣sion 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 call'd in question. The Arch∣bishop of Cambray insinuates in some of his Writings, that I made nice Exceptions to some of his Restrictions, and that the Arch∣bishop 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 una∣nimous, that we never had any occasion to perswade one another, and being wholly guided by the same Spirit of Tra∣dition, we were all the time of one and the same mind.

14. The Archbishop of Cambray continued so stedfast in the spirit of submission God had put him into, that, having desir'd 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 enter∣tain 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. de 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 praise-worthy Circumstance of his submission. After the signing of the Articles, and about the time of his Consecration, he desir'd 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 a∣ny other thing except my extracts for a memorandum of the Errors I was to con∣fute, 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 ow∣ing 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, be∣cause I had Consecrated the Author.

16. A little before the Publishing of that Book an Affair happen'd that gave me a great deal of Trouble. In my Pa∣storal Instructions of the 16th of April, 1695, I had promised a larger one to explain our Articl••s, and I desired the Archbishop of Cambray to join his Ap∣probation to that of M. de Chaalons, then promoted to the See of Paris, and to that

of M. de Chartres, for the Book I design'd 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 discover'd 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 sup∣port my self by his Authority, because for the good of our Province, he was be∣come the Chief of it. I thought also, it was for the publick 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 Excepti∣ons, and to correct my self according to his Advice: I found in my self, I thought, the same compliance for him that he had shewed to me before his Consecration: But about three Weeks after, his Appro∣bation 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 Cam∣bray, who was in his Diocese. Upon which I was given to understand, that that Pre∣late could not enter into the Approbati∣tion

of my Book, because I therein con∣demned Madam Guyon, whom he could not condemn.

17. It was in vain for me to repre∣sent unto that Friend the Incovenience that M. de Cambray would fall into. What! it will appear, said I, that to sustain M. Guy∣on, he disunites himself from his Brethren? then all the World will see that he is her Protector; the suspicion wherewith he was dis∣honoured abroad, will now be found a cer∣tainty? What becomes of those fine Discour∣ses 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 her self; that she had, before me, subscribed the Con∣demnation of them, together with the Evil Doctrine contained in them; would he counte∣nance them more than her felf? In what amazement will the World be, to find at the head of my Book, the Approbation of the Arch∣bishop 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 inti∣mate Friends? What Scandal, what Reproach to his Name? Of what Books would he be∣come

the Martyr? why would he bereave the People of the comfort of seeing in the Approbation of that Prelate, the solemn Testi∣mony of our unanimity? All these Reasons had no effect; my Manuscript was resto∣red to me again, having staid 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 Pre∣late, intimating to him my just Fears. I received an Answer that signifi'd 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, Supe∣rior of that Monastery. Seeing all her

Letters and Discourses breathed out no∣thing but submission, and a blind submis∣sion, we could not refuse her the use of the Holy Sacraments. I instructed her di∣ligently; she subcribed the Articles where she plainly saw they utterly condemn'd her Doctrine: I rejected her Explications, and her submission was pure and simple. A little after she subscribed the just Censure that M. de Chaalons and I published against her Books, and the Evil Doctrine con∣tain'd in them, condemning them with Heart and Mouth, as if each Proposition had been expresly utter'd. Some of the chief of 'em were specified that compri∣sed all the rest, and she renounced them in plain terms. The Books she condemn∣ed, 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 offer'd at every word to burn them all; but I thought that precaution needless, because of the Copies that re∣main'd. So I satisfi'd my self with for∣bidding her to communicate them, or to write of 'em to others; or to teach, dogmatise, or direct, condemning her to si∣lence, and retirement as she desired. I received the Declaration she made against the Abominations she was accused of, pre∣suming

her to be innocent, as long as she was not Convicted by a lawful Examina∣tion whereupon never enter'd. She asked me leave to go to the Waters of Bour∣bon; after her submissions she was free: She desired to be received after her re∣turn from the Waters into the same Mo∣nastery, where she kept her Apartment. I granted it one design to instruct, and tho∣roughly 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 bragg'd of abroad; but she never durst shew it, because I expresly 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 satisfi∣ed with her Conduct, and had continu'd her in the participation of the Holy Sa∣craments, wherein I found her. This At∣testation 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 her self; how she was taken again, and convicted of seve∣ral things contrary to what she had signed. What I cannot conceal is, that she set up always for a Prophetess; I have in her Wri∣tings sign'd 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 Predicti∣ons 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 a∣bout that lovely Prince, of the Discourses that have been made to him concerning it; but there are amongst all Parties, Peo∣ple of outragious tempers, who speak with∣out 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 frighten'd us, when he said to two or three of us together, that he had learnt more from her than from all the Doctors together; and at o∣ther 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 seek∣ing nothing else but to convince throughly of his Errors a Man of parts, by a me∣thod 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 con∣demnation 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 Per∣sons that envied the glory of M. de Cam∣bray;

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 Be∣lief amongst Men. Let the time at least be instanc'd when that madness seiz'd us. They might well have found fault that we spared him too much, shew'd 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 my self, that I carried my Confidence, the love of Peace, and that benign Charity which suspects no evil, too far; hitherto it re∣mains at least an uncontroverted Truth, That the Archbishop of Cambray disuni∣ted himself from his Brethren, to maintain Madam Guyon against them.

Sect. IV. M. de Cambray's Excu∣ses for refusing me his approbation.

1.That Prelate well fore∣saw 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 de desir'd 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 te∣stified to him with all imaginable tender∣ness, that I should be very glad to give that publick mark of my conformi∣ty in Opinion with a Prelate, whom I have lookt upon from my Youth up, as my Master in the Science of Religion. I of∣fer'd 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 Do∣ctrine. But that if he would attack Madam Guyon personally, I could not approve of it. This is what I have declar'd 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 examin'd; at the opening of the Packet, I found that they were full of per∣sonal Confutation: I presently acquainted My Lords of Paris and Chartres, and M. Tronson, with the hardship that M. de Me∣aux 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 her self. 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 my self 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 Ig∣norance of her Sex; there is no rustick 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 subtil con∣sequence, which might, contrary to her intention, be drawn from her speculative Principles, and from some of her Ex∣pressions; 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 it self with great Art from one end to the other. These are not ob∣scure Consequences that may have not been foreseen by the Author; but rather the formal and sole aim of all her Sy∣steme. 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 imperfecti∣on, all the explicite Faith of the Attri∣butes of the Divine Persons; of the Mysteries of Jesus Christ, and of his Hu∣manity: She would dispense with the sensible Worship of Christians, and with all distinct invocation of our only Me∣diator. 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 e∣very Thought of the Understanding, and every motion of the Will. She main∣tains, that when a Person has once done an Act of Faith, and of Love, that Act sub∣sists perpetually during the whole Life, without ever having need of being re∣newed; 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 e∣ternal 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 re∣sistance to the most abominable Temp∣tations:

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 her self, and her Followers, is not the common Inspiration of the Just, it is a Prophe∣tick one; it includes an Apostolick Au∣thority, above all the written Laws: She establishes a secret Tradition upon such a foundation as overthrows the u∣niversal Tradition of the Church. I main∣tain there is no ignorance how gross soe∣ver, that can excuse a Person who ad∣vances 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 A∣bomination of her Writings, renders her Person manifestly abominable; I cannot then separate her Person from her Wri∣tings.

6. The manner after which M. de Cam∣bray charges things here, he seems to have had a design to frighten himself, and to delude the Reader, without examining whe∣ther 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 consider'd. If we suppose that this Lady persists in her Errors what ever they be; it is true, that her Person is abomi∣nable: If on the contrary she humble her self; if she subscribe the Censures which reject that Doctrine, and her Books where∣in she owns it is contained; if she con∣demns her Book, there is then nothing but her Book that remains to be condemn∣ed; 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 sup∣posed penitent, and against whom I said not a word; and unless it be supposed that her Repentance was feign'd, and that she was return'd 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 severly.

As for me, continues he, if I believed what M. de Meaux believes, touching Madam Guyon's Book; and by a neces∣sary consequence of her Person, I should have thought, notwithstanding my friend∣ship 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 Se∣cular power should go farther; what is more worthy of the Flames than a Mon∣ster? who, under a specious spirituality, aims only at the establishing Fanaticism and Impurity? who overthrows the Di∣vine Law, who looks upon all Vir∣tues as so many imperfections; who turns into Proofs, and all Imperfections Vi∣ces; who leaves neither subordination, nor Rule in Humane Society; who by the Principle of the Secret authorises all manner of Hypocrisie and Lying; lastly, who leaves no certain Remedy against so may Evils? All Religion set

aside, the Civil Government alone is suf∣ficient to inflict the last punishment upon so pestiferous a Person. It is then certain, that if that Woman had a Design to esta∣blish that damnable System, she should have been burnt instead of being dismist; as it is manifest that M. de Meaux has done, after he had given her the Communion frequently, and an authentick attestation, without her having recanted her Errors.

If then she has recanted them, if she has repented, if she has detested the impuri∣ties, 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 authentick 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 Mi∣nistry? 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 Hea∣ven; 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 e∣nough 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? ought 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 indul∣gence in regard of her Person? One would really think you to be transported with Passi∣on, if you should carry your Zeal to that excess; and he is to be accounted so, who maintains that a Book must not be condemn∣ed without judging the Author of it wor∣thy of the Fire, even when the Author himself condemns his Book.

As for me, continues M. de Cambray, I could not ap∣prove of the Book wherein M. de Meaux ascribes to that Woman so horrible a System in all its parts, without defaming my self, and doing her an irreparable wrong. The Reason is thus: I have seen her often: I had her in esteem: I suf∣fer'd her to be esteemed by illustrious Per∣sons, whose Reputation was dear to the Church, and who had confidence in me. I neither could, not ought to have been

ignorant of her Writings; tho 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 examin her with all rigor. 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 occa∣sion, that she undestood them in a most innocent and most catholick Sense. I have also been willing to examin the particu∣lars 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 stroak towards her defama∣tion, 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 deter∣mine all this; that is, that they should, without hesitation, have approved in my

Book, the condemnation of those of Ma∣dam Guyon, if I took the sense of 'em well; and if I imposed upon her, M. de Cambray could not avoid entring 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 no∣thing to him but what was true, and there∣fore he continues in this manner:

That o∣thers 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 Publick, 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 Do∣ctrine had scandalized the whole Church: Rome her self 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. de Cambray, who had given them for a Rule to such as had confi∣dence in him, will not to this very Day retract them. And least he should condemn them, he breaks all measures with his Bre∣thren; and yet he is not willing we should see his bigotted 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 re∣putation is dear to the Church, and who had confidence in him. He adds: I neither could nor ought to have been ignorant of her Wri∣tings: It is then by her Writings, that he allows her to be esteemed of by Per∣sons 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,

then the Abbot de Fenelon: The method of Prayer he advised them to, was that which M. Guyon taught in her Book which he allow'd 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 Cam∣bray was obliged to disabuse those illustri∣ous Persons of the esteem he had given them (or allow'd 'em to have if you will) of Madam Guyon and her Books? the thing then in question is not at their Reputa∣tion, 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 Con∣duct: Whether he would not too much save the Approbation he had given of Books so pernicious, and dislik'd wherever they ap∣pear'd. This is what M. de Cambray can∣not excuse himself from, after his Confessi∣on just now mention'd. 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 my∣stical Language, when she has said in her Short Method, that the act of giving up one's self, being once perform'd, ought never to be reiterated: Is this a mystical Language, when she reduces to the inferior sort of Con∣templation, that of the particular Attri∣butes, and of the Divine Persons, without excepting Jesus Christ himself: Is that a mystical Language, to suppress all Desire, e∣ven 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 inter∣pretation 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 mysticks of our Days: Of Falconi, Molino's, and Malavals, all condem∣demned Authors; but not that of any appro∣ved Mystick. You see how M. de Cambray excuses the Books of M. Guyon. To take what has been just now recited, and whate∣ver is of the same nature in the literal Sense, and according to the Consequence of the Dis∣course, is in the Sense of that Prelate, rigo∣rous and severe, tho' it be the natural sense of 'em, and that which he endeavours to ex∣cuse, in order that those pernicious Books

might remain authorised, tho' he knows in his Conscience, that he is not able to justifie them; and therefore to save them, he has recourse to that absurd method of judging of the sense of a Book, by the particular Know∣ledge he has of the Sentiments of the Au∣thor, 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 direct∣ed. But lastly, this rigorous sense, as he calls it, is that which astonish'd and scanda∣liz'd 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 Senti∣ments 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 justi∣fied Madam Guyon by so false a Doctrine, as that we have just now heard, he should also make use of it to justifie himself. But let us come to what he adds upon decen∣cy

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 my self from my Youth to a continual Study of Doctrine, ought to have seen what is ma∣nifest. 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 up∣on that abominable Spirituality, where∣with, as they say, she has filled her Books, and which is the Soul of all her Discour∣ses. And in owning all these things by my Approbation, I render my self infinitely more unexcusable than M. Guyon. That which will appear at first sight to the Read∣er, is, that I have been constrain'd to sub∣scribe to the Defamation of my Friend, whose Monstrous System I could not be ig∣norant of, being manifest in all her Works, according to my own Confession. So that my Sentence should be pronounced and signed by my self, at the Head of M. de Meaux's Book; where that System is set off with all imaginable Horror. I main∣tain it, that such a Dash of my Pen given against my Conscienee, out of a base Policy, would for ever render me infamous and un∣worthy 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 se∣cure my Reputation, that they would have me sign, that my Friend deserves to be burnt with all her Writings, for a damna∣ble Spirituality, which is the sole Tye of our Friendship. But further, how must I explain my self 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 my self 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 contriv'd for my Ho∣nour. 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 an∣swers him? No, your Friend deserved not to be burnt with her Books, seeing she con∣demned them. Your Friend was not a Mon∣ster upon Earth, but an ignorant Woman, who being dazled with a specious pretext of Spirituality, deceived by her Directors, ap∣plauded by a Man of your Figure, has con∣demned her Error, when Care was taken to Instruct her. This Confession could not but

edifie the Church, and wean from her Books those that have been seduced by them: M. de Cambray had nothing else to do, but to ap∣prove so just a Conduct, had not an unrea∣sonable 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 Breathren did; and as eve∣ry Body else did that condemn'd 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, with∣out 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 re∣pair 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 Con∣duct is this? at Rome he is asham'd 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 con∣demned 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 her self of her own Accord, in or∣der 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 expresly, than by subscribing to their just and severe Cen∣sure? 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 Christen∣dom, and by the acknowledgment of M. Guyon, that her Spirituality ought to be condemn'd. It is certain, by the present Confession of M. de Cambray, that all his Correspondence with Madam Guyon, was about that Spiritu∣ality she her self had condemned, and that it made the only Tye 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 Cor∣respondence united by such Tye, 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 secur'd, 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 my self too chearfully, rather than the Church should be in Danger. She is a poor Wo∣man, confin'd, opprest 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 shew before the whole Church, the Consent of the Episcopacy against a Book really so pernicious? A Body is al∣ways afraid, says M. de Cambray: It is well seen: He would have no Body to meddle with that poor Captive, whose Fate he de∣plores, and that we should suffer a Party that has already too much over-run the World, to strengthen it self. 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 shews she is coming to her self again; unless once more you be assured that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Recantation is not sincere: Burn not 〈◊〉〈◊〉 own-self; save the Persons, condemn the Error, proscribe with your fellow Bi∣shops the pernicious Books that spread all over the World, and put an end to a Busi∣ness that disturbs the Church.

20.

After all, continues M. de Cam∣bray, which is most proper, either that I should revive in the World the remem∣brance of my past Intimacy with her, and acknowledge my self the most insipid Man living, for not having seen manifest Infa∣mies; or that I am execrable, for having tolerated them? or that I should keep to the last a profound Silence, as to the Wri∣tings 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 Lan∣guage of the Mysticks, upon the Experi∣ence 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 ob∣serve in one Word, that profound silence to the last, which M. de Cambray promises here; it will soon be seen, what Mischief such a deter∣mined

Silence causes to the Church. After this necessary Remark as to the Fact, let us go on with the Writing of that Pre∣late.

22.

They don't cease to tell us every day, that the Mystick Divines themselves, even the most approved of 'em, have much exagerated 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 exagerate? why must whatsoever she has said, tend to the forming of a System that makes a Body tremble? If she could exagerate 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 con∣vinced 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 my self with her? This Prelate declares himself more and more, the Terms of M. Guyon are but equivocal, the Bishops, and even the Pope have con∣demned her Book, only because they did not understand them well. We are, you see, brought again in her behalf, to those unhap∣py Disputes of the Question of Fact and Right; M. de 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 it self.

23. See how in this Condition he Tri∣umphs, saying without interruption,

Let my Conduct be closely observed. Was the bottom of the Doctrine the Question? I presently told M. de 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 Arch∣bishop 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 Busi∣ness tends to the defaming by a back-blow my Ministry and Person, by defaming M. Guyon and her Writings, they find I make an in∣vincible 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 re∣fuse now, out of Conceit, and from a fa∣ctious Principle, to approve the Book of M. de Meaux: They may judge of it by my readiness to sign the thirty four Pro∣positions. If I was head-strong, I should have been more especially so as to the Do∣ctrine of M. Guyon than as to her Person; I could not in my Bigottism, how ridicu∣lous and dangerous soever, care any thing for her Person; but so far as I could be¦lieve it necessary, for the promoting of he Doctrine. All this is plain enough by the Conduct I have Observ'd, she has been

condemned, confined, loaden with Infa∣my: I never spoke a Word to justifie her, to excuse her, to make her Condition easie. 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 ano∣ther, things which he had a hundred times re∣jected 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 Scholastick Doctors.

24.

As soon as the Doctrine was secured, without sparing the Errors of such as are led away by Delusions, were not concern'd 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 dis∣grace her utterly against my Conscience, nor dishonour my self, by charging her with Im∣pieties and Blasphemies, that reflect una∣voidably upon my self.

25. Thus you see all the Reasons M. de Cambray gives for not approving my Book, from thence result Facts of the greatest Con∣sequence, in order to know perfectly the Spi∣rit that Prelate was at first in, and the altera∣tion that hath happened in his Conduct, since he has been Arch-bishop. One may easily un∣derstand, what the Meaning of those thunder∣ing 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 Divisi∣ons which he ecchoes out so loud, altho' there never was the least Ground for it, between M. de Chaalons, who was constrained to make great Instances; and me, who resisted him, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 did not yield without force. Those Mat∣ter of Fact and others are of the greatest Con∣sequence, 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 Pro∣positions, I have declared upon all Occasions that offer'd 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 shewed to the Arch-bi∣shop of Paris, a most large and exact Ex∣plication of the whole System of the inward Ways, in the Margin of the thirty four Pro∣positions. That Prelate did not observe in it, the least Error or the least Excess. M. Tronson, to whom I also shewed 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 communi∣cated those Explications to me, of which truly I never heard any Body speak one Word.

28.

It is about six Months since, a Carme∣lite 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 examin'd by M. de Meaux. He proposed to me only to avoid a Word indifferent in it self, but which was by that Prelate observ'd, had been sometimes abused to ill Ends. I took it out presently, and added besides some Ex∣plications, full of preservatives against those Errors that he required not. The Suburb of St. James, that gave Birth to the most im∣placable Critick upon the Mystick Divines, had not one Word to say against that Letter. M. Pirot said boldly, it might be used as a cer∣tain Rule in those Matters. In effect, I have condemned therein all the Errors that have alarm'd 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 essen∣tial.

29. Yet I do not find it enough to dissipate the vain Umbrages, and think it necessary to to declare my self still in a more Authentick Manner. I have writ a Book, wherein I ex∣plain 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 Ap∣probation to the Book of M. de Meaux, the more Capital it is to declare my self at the same

time, in a more Emphatical and Express Man∣ner. 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 dye, than to present the Publick with so scan∣dalous 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 de∣sign to entrust the Arch-bishop of Paris and M. Tronson with it, as a great Secret of the high∣est degree; as soon as they have read it over, I will publish it according to their Correcti∣ons. They shall be the Judes of my Doctrine, and nothing but what is approved by them shall be printed. I should have the same Con∣fidence 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 My∣sticks that have errred in Doctrine, to own their Errors. I shall add, that such as have explained themselves ill, without falling in∣to any Error, are obliged in Conscience to condemn their Expressions without restricti∣on, never to use them any more, and to pre∣vent all Equivocating by a publick Explana∣tion of their real Sentiments. Can any bo∣dy go further to repress Error?

32. God alone knows to what degree I suf∣fer,

in making a Person suffer upon this oc∣casion, 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 Arch-bishop 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 sin∣cere Friends of M. de Cambray do truly suffer, to see him so strangely addicted to the De∣fence of that Book; that he had rather se∣parate 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 Me∣mory 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 shew'd only to the Arch-bishop of Paris and M. Tronson. They begun then from that time to Comment upon the Arti∣cles;

they turn'd them, they explain'd them after his way: He Conceal'd 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 shewed 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 una∣nimity, as has been saip? Why did he hide himself but from him, to whom, before his being Arch-bishop, and at the time of the Examination of the Articles, he referred all things as to God, without any further dis∣cussion, as a Child, as a School-boy? It is not for my advantage that I put him in mind of those words; it is to shew the laudible disposition of Humility and Obedience God then inspired M. de Cambray with. What has since happened, that should alter his Resolu∣tion? 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 inspir'd 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 Ar∣ticles, that he gives, unknown to me, a large Explanation of 'em to the Arch-bishop of Pa∣ris

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 Church-men? If that was his Design, what Conduct is this? if it was not, why does he hide himself from me, who breath∣ed 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 particu∣lar Instruction, than to the State of the Mat∣ter in General. But, what? he would make shew of some Remains of Confidence, for a Man that deserved an entire Confidence; whilst the Essential Part is concealed from him; and whilst M. de Cambray, in order to lessen the Number of the Witnesses, of the Va∣riations he was contriving, labours secretly to separate him from them to whom God had join'd him in this Work.

2.

I have writ a Book, wherein I fully explain the whole System of the Inward Wayes: The Work is now ready: They need not be afraid that I shall therein Con∣tradict M. de Meaux: I'd rather choose to dye, than to present the Publick with so Scandalous a Scene.

Without the Trouble of Dyeing, to avoid that Scandal, he should

have only Communicated that New Work to me, as all the others had been Commu∣nicated, and as I had Communicated that which I was Medirating. I take here Hea∣ven 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 am∣biguous 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 Dissentions 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 publish'd. 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 publish'd. Did he think to draw the Publick 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 assur'd, if I durst say so of my pacifick Tem∣per, he believed I would connive at every thing? did he not think that Discretion, Pa∣tience,

Compliance, especially in matters of the Faith, have bounds beyond which they must not be push'd? There was a surer Me∣thod to prevent so great a Mischief, which was to concert, and to endeavour to under∣stand one another, as I had given him Example. He shunned a way so fair and so natural, and thought to draw the Publick after him, but so far were they from suffering themselves to be drawn away, that he saw an universal Up∣roar 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 relye upon their Eloquence.

5. I don't presume to have this Work printed without consulting any body. He promises to con∣sult the Archbishop of Paris, and M. Tronson, and not to have any thing printed but what they ap∣prove. 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 Jealousie of excelling me, that I would hinder his Book from com∣ing 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,

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his Consecrator, who may well be accused of being too much possess'd with a good Opini∣on of his Compliance? If I had been as unrea∣sonable to shew so shamful a Jealousie, and to wrangle vainly with M. de Cambray, M. de Paris and M. de Tronson would have confound∣ed me? and because 'tis likely I should con∣tradict them upon this Conjecture and Ap∣pearance, he really exposes the Church to the greatest Scandal that could be rais'd.

6. But whence comes this change of Con∣duct? He to whom all was referred during the Discussion of the Matter, he, whose on∣ly Judgment was expected, with a Submissi∣on I did not abuse. In a word, he, to whom he was willing to refer all things without Dis∣cussion 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 Arch-bishop, I have given him a new Mark of Confidence in desiring his Approbation, and in submitting my Book to his Examination; but it happen'd, that he be∣ing raised to that sublime Dignity, would for some conceal'd ends, change the Articles he had signed, and he must since then have for∣got, what he had promised to one of the Ar∣bitrators he had chosen, and to whom he had shewed most Submission.

7. He was no less mistaken when he thought so, than when he thought he could impose upon the Publick; M. de Paris has refused him his Approbation, he has given his Approbation

O my Book. He attempted in vain, to dis∣unite those whom God, I dare say, had uni∣ted 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 Publick: M. de Cambray did so expose it, saying, he could not approve my Book with∣out betraying his Sentiments; to tell him, that he ought not to approve of his having so ex∣pos'd it, is the same thing as to Advise one not to sign the Confession of Faith, so long as he is not perswaded of it. It is exactly what M. Tronson had order'd to be told me: It is what he told me himself, he told me besides by several Persons, and to my self before un∣exceptionable Witnesses, that he believ'd M. de Cambray oblig'd 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 easie, 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 re∣fused to confer with me. It appears already by that Writing, that even before the Pub∣lication 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 dis∣unite those that it unites.

9. I shall exhort the Mystick Divines that have erred, continues M. de Cambray, to own their Errors; and they that have not explained them∣selves well, to condemn without restriction their Expressions: Can any one go further to repress Error? Who doubts but they may, and ought to go further? when he hath authorized an evil Book, a Book not only, suspected every where, but besides condemned at Rome alrea∣dy and elsewhere: When he has allowed it to be esteemed by illustrious Persons, and suffer'd her to make use of the Confidence they had in him to authorize that Book; and moreover, tho' they could not justifie it, but by recourse to secret Explications, which they to whom it was recommended, neither ought nor could divine: When he alledges for his chief De∣fence, that the reason of his excusing that Book was, only because he explains it better than it explained it self: Is that enough to exhort in general, Authors that have failen, to ac∣knowledge their Faults; and if they have spo∣ken in an ambiguous sense, to explain them∣selves? No, without doubt it is not enough: That is a meer Illusion, it is certainly one, to propose to make a Woman write, who never ought to have written, and who is condemn'd to perpetual Silence. He ought to clear him∣self before the Publick, 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 wed∣ded to M. Guyon's Book, tho' condemned by so many Censures, that he affects to excuse the Errors thereof, as a Mystick Language, and as Exagerations which he offers to maintain by those of some Mystick Di∣vines; 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 out-done 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 Memorie, that he will conti∣nue 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 extort∣ed from him.

13. In order to conclude his Observations upon the plain matters of Fact, we must fur∣ther observe the prodigious difference be∣twixt 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 offer'd to subscribe all that very moment, without exa∣mining 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 press'd by M. de Paris, then M. de Chaalons, 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 re∣peat it, and God knows that there never was the least Controversie between M. de Chaalons and me; we drew up the Articles with one Voice, without any thing like a Dispute, and we unanimously reject the subtle Interpretati∣ons of the Archbishop of Cambray, which tend∣ed 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 pur∣pose is this Discourse? the Question was about understanding them right. What is it that M. de Cambray submitted to our Judgment, 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 on∣ly a Decision to submit our selves thereto, without reserving to our selves the least Re∣ply? 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 happen'd since the time that M. de Cambray wrote those things, except that he being since made Archibishop of Cambray, would no lon∣ger

tye himself to the Doctrine he had volun∣tarily subscribed, that he would now vary from it; and Lastly, that he has forgot the Sub∣mission that God had then put into his Heart.

15.

They that have seen our Discussion, must own, continues 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 reject∣ed as most pernicious.

It was I then that taught an evil Doctrine, it was I to whom they must give Arbitrators; M. de Cambray who spoke only of Submission to our Senti∣ments, 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 your self to it? why would you desire it so earnest∣ly? 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 Thunder-claps 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 ano∣ther, to admit things that he rejected:

But who was it that saw that Discussion? who be∣sides us was admitted there? by what Wit∣nesses

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will he prove, that I have so much vari∣ed? but if I was to acknowledge so many faults, was M. de Cambray to acknowledge no∣thing? for me, I have produced his Letter, and a Memoire written with his own hand. It must be confess'd, 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. de 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 Judgment.

17. It was not, says he, the Person of M. Guyon, and her Writings, I was concern'd 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 arriv'd to an higher Degree, he would propose new Rules by his Explication, he repents 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 shou'd shew 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 rec∣kons 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 looke upon us as Men of sound and uncorrupt Do∣ctrine, to whom they would referr 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 lookt 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. de 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 Scholastick 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? Arbi∣trators 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 loose 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 call'd him thereunto, if not his own Con∣science, by which he knew, thàt if we Con∣demn'd the Books of Madam Guyon, which he had so much recommended, he would be there∣by Condemned himself? Why did he Com∣pose so many Writings? was it to accuse or ex∣cuse and defend those Books? that must then have been our Question; and yet if we be∣lieve 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 confor∣mable to the Doctrine of the Saints, and that if they were accused, it was because the Do∣ctors of the School, for the most part, were ignorant of that Doctrine which Madam Guy∣on 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 Ad∣vocate 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 entring 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 sub∣scribed the thirty four Propositions: He per∣sisted to submit all to the Arbitrators he had Chosen, and to whom he sent all his Wri∣tings: He received that Motion as a Motion from God, which he entertained even to the time of his Consecration: If he afterwards for∣gets 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 De∣signs, and taken another Method.

22. He makes wonderful Arguments upon his Conduct:

Is it that I was meek and fear∣ful when I signed the thirty four Propositi∣ons? they may judge of that by my pre∣sent 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 pur∣pose are his Arguments, when Matters of Fact speak? Those Matters of Fact shew a Rule, and a more simple and natural way to judge of his Change of Conduct: It is in a word to be Arch-bishop 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 Readi∣ness to suffer M. Guyon to be condemned, con∣fined,

fined, and loaden with Reproaches, without saying so much as one word to justifie 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. Guy∣on, by her ill Doctrine, and her rash Conduct, for it was not then throughly div'd into, was become so ridiculous and odious, that the Pru∣dence and Precaution of the Abbot de Fenelon, even since he was made Arch-bishop of Cam∣bray, 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 Wri∣tings, that he had secretly undertook to de∣fend her: Thus that he defends her to this very day, in maintaining the Book of the Maximes 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 mittigates it in some pla∣ces, that way of Teaching it is so much the more dangerous. In fine, we could not ex∣cuse him then but by his extream 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, ap∣peared at last on a sudden in February, 1697. without the least Mark of any such Approba∣tion. The Arch-bishop of Paris has explain'd himself to the Arch-bishop 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 my self wholly to what is publick on that Head, I shall only Observe, that not to find the Arch-bishop of Paris's Approbation at the Head of that Book, is the same in my Opinion as the Refusal of it, seeing, that ac∣cording 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 pro∣mised to explain. We must not forget that Authentick Promise in the Advertisement of M. de Cambray. There was publish'd a Book, that was to decide such Nice Matters, to di∣stinguish 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 Ap∣probation, 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 Cam∣bray 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 shewed in Writing, and Signed, especially when he of whom he takes it, is concerned in the Case, as the Arch-bishop of Paris was ma∣nifestly so in the New Book, seeing he pro∣mised in the Preface of his Book that he would explain his Doctrine.

3. So M. de Cambray ventured at &: He, that chose rather to dye, than to present the Publick with so scandalous a Scene as to con∣tradict me, exposes himself likewise to con∣tradict the Arch-bishop of Paris, and to set the whole Church in a Combustion. He had rather indeed expose himself, and did it ac∣cordingly, 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 Bi∣shops, 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 ex∣ception shewed 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 de∣cision, against the refinedness of the Expressi∣ons, the strangeness, unprofitableness, and the ambiguity of that unheard of Doctrine: It was then that the Publick Noise convey'd to the Sacred Ears of the King what he had so carefully conceal'd: He heard it from an hun∣dred 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 bo∣dy knows the just Reproaches we underwent from the Mouth of so good a Master, for ha∣ving concealed from him what we knew; with which you may be sure he charg'd our Con∣sciences: Yet M. de Cambray, in such a gene∣ral dissatisfaction only complained of us; and when we were constrained to excuse our selves for having served him too much, and that we must lastly begg 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 Publick? 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 Cre∣dit, but because I have always walk'd so as to obtain common Credit: All of a sudden I have conceived the bold Design of ruining by my Credit alone the Arch-bishop of Cam∣bray, 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 Pa∣pers and my Books, stirr'd up the whole Court, all Paris, all Europe, and Rome it self, where the universal Astonishment, not to say more; was carried as fast as the Publick News could convey it: What the most credited, and most absolute Potentates could not perform, and care not undertake; viz. to make Men con∣cur, as it were in an instant, in the same thoughts, I alone have done it without stir∣ing from my Closet.

6. Yet I wrote nothing; my Book that was finishing, and printing when that of M. de Cambray appeared, stay'd 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 diffe∣rent ways; and that I designed only to esta∣blish

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 Catholick Church; the Ap∣probation of M. de Paris, and that of M. de Cam∣bray, did add thereunto that Authority which the Holy Concurrence of Bishops gives natu∣rally 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 encreased the good Will he entertain'd for me: That brief Letter is publish'd 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 some∣what embroil'd. It is the ordinary Conduct of God against Errors. There happens at the very first Appearance of 'em an illustrious De∣claration of the Faith. It is as the first stroke of the Ancient Tradition, that repulses the No∣velties they design to introduce: A little af∣terwards a second Time follow'd, which I call the time of Temptation; the Cabals, the Fa∣ctions began to stir, Passion and Interest di∣vides

the World: Great Bodies, great Po∣tentates stir themselves, Eloquence dazzles the simple, the Dialecticks 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 meer∣ly 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 open∣ing the Book of M. de Cambray, was a mani∣fest affectation to excuse the Mysticks newly condemned, by cutting them off once, twice and thrice, from the List of the false Spiritu∣alists. Here we may discover him that had pro∣mised to keep silence to the last upon the Ac∣count of M. Guyon. We have shewed in ano∣ther place, that the short Method of that Wo∣man was nothing else but a more express Ex∣plication of Molinos's Guide, and especially as to indifference about Salvation, and that they had besides affected to transcribe into that small Book, the same Passages Molinos relyes upon in his Guide; among others a Letter of Father Falconi, which has been censur'd 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 expresly, that Heresrarcha in his

Letter to the Pope. But he spoke therein on∣ly of 68 Propositions of that Wretch, and af∣fected 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 Mysticks; 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 Di∣vinity. He adds, that this was the Subject of the Zeal of some Bishops, and of the 34 Pro∣positions; altho' those Propositions and Cen∣sures had no regard to any, but to M. Guyon and Molinos. There's the pretended Exage∣rations, 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 receiv∣ed it.

10. Here we may see the same Spirit of In∣dulgence 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 altoge∣ther before the Pope, he reduces the same Censures to some places, which taken in the sence that naturally offers at first, deserve to be con∣demned. He would seem thereby to condemn them, if we remember'd 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 sence, which he assures us never came into the Mind of their Author; by which it is but too plain, he reserved to himself the Li∣berty of excusing them, by this particular sense he pretends to find in the Book, not∣withstanding the Words of the Book it self.

11. In the mean while, how little soever he may have said of it, he is so afraid we should believe that he hath pass'd a Sentence of Con∣demnation upon the Books of M. Guyon, by so speaking in his Letter to the Pope of the Bi∣shops that have censured her, that he explains it in his Answer to the Declaration; where he says, that he does not relye at all upon their Censures, wherein he never had any part nei∣ther directly nor indirectly: Words chosen on purpose, to shew 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 Pro∣positions, that occasion'd him to be condemned? Yes without doubt, they seriously pretend it, see∣ing that these very Words confirm the perpe∣tual affectation of suppressing the Guide of that Author, and of touching only upon the 68 Propositions, as if they were the only Sub∣ject of the Condemnation of the Holy See, without comprizing 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 Cam∣bray, 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 publick. There is no Letter publick, 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 offer'd, 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, be∣cause 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 affectati∣on 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 Me∣thod, &c. with the Explication of the Song of Songs. But after the Liberty M. de Cam∣bray has taken, to say, that they have insert∣ed what they would in his Text, who shall hin∣der him from disowning a Marginal Note, the

Text whereof is insignificant? and whatsoe∣ver 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 satisfie the publick 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 publick, 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 Let∣ter to the Pope: It is for this reason that in the second Edition of his Answer, he has sup∣prest these Words, My Letter is made publick, and he would have recall'd the Edition where∣in they were, because we saw there very plain∣ly, that as to the Books of M. Guyon, he was meerly for shifting off, and never for explain∣ing himself.

16. He does more than keep silence. M. de Paris has demonstrated that his Book of the Maxims is only a faint Mittigation, a dexte∣rous 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 Per∣sons in pure Contemplation, and all the other Excesses of that Woman: It is visibly, her in∣terior Life, that this Prelate designed to de∣scribe, and that he would palliate her manifest Failings in his 39 Articles, it is what is found in her Life, where she speaks of her self in this manner; Souls of inferior degrees will often ap∣pear more perfect: Then they find themselves sore∣mote from the rest of Men, and they think so diffe∣rently from 'em, that their Neighbour becomes in∣supportable. 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 ten∣der Condescension, should hinder us from endu∣ring 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 nei∣ther 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 pre∣tend 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 design'd as Excuses for the Enormous Boast∣ings of a Woman, that gave out she was en∣dued with a Prophetick and Apostolick Spirit,

with Power to bind and unbind, so full of Grace as to over-flow, and with a perfection so eminent, that she could not endure the rest of Men? when such Excesses discover them∣selves, the Excuse is ready for it in the Book of M. de Cambray: M. Guyon spoke of her self, 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 her self constrain∣ed that it might evaporate, to tell him some∣times, O my Son, you are my beloved Son, in whom alone I am well pleased: God had notwithstand∣ing given her in her Prison, and as the Fruit of her Labours, another Man far more inti∣mate 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 conje∣cture any thing, I relate here only that of her Life, to shew that the false Mystery is conti∣nued, 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 Cir∣cumstances 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 publick 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 disco∣vered: I shall say nothing more of it, but shall content my self 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 adopt∣ed those words: Thence comes whatsoever we find in his Writings to lessen the Esteem of Vir∣tue, and thence comes in the last place his per∣petual forcing so many passages of St. Francis de Sales, which are to be understood more sim∣ply 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 expli∣cation, as M. de Cambray promised; but an evi∣dent

Depravation of our Sentiments and Prin∣ciples. In the as Article we spoke all upon the Conditions and Suppositions impossible: This was sufficient to verifie 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 suf∣ficient to excuse M. Guyon: So that to Con∣temn her, they were fain to invent the absolute Sacrifice never heard of before, and all the Circumstances that have been often remarkt, 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 ac∣quiescence 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 expresly, when he says that our Business is not, neither to argue with those Souls that are incapable of all rea∣soning, nor to represent unto them the Good∣ness

of God in general. We must then de∣prive 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 de∣prave our Principles? Did we say any thing like this in our Articles?

SECT. VII.

On the Arch-bishop 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 Cam∣bray 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 Natu∣ral 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 Arch-bishop of Paris has lately demonstrated, that the acquiescing to the Loss of that natu∣ral

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 him∣self, this is one of the 'greatest, to be depri∣ved 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 Ex∣plications, 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 chang'd it, in the very last Letter he address'd 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 acknow∣ledge 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 him∣self to deserve Eternal Punishment. But this new Answer is not better than the rest, and the Arch-bishop of Cambray will find himself constrained to forsake it, as soon as he consi∣ders this short Reflection, It is not true, that to acknowledge ones self to deserve Eternal Punishment, is to acquiesce in his just Con∣demnation: For 'tis so far from acquiescing therein, which happens to Men in Despair, that we begg Pardon of the just Judge: We beseech him to change his Justice into Mercy, and not to deal with us according to our de∣serts,

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 contra∣ry to oppose his Mercy thereunto, which hin∣ders 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 Expli∣cations have been transmitted to us, will say what, according to his Prudence, he thinks fit: But I shall only take Notice of those pub∣lick Matters of Fact. The Letter to the Pope appeared a few Months after the Book, in or∣der to soften the Expressions thereof; with∣out mentioning therein either a Natural Love, or the New Sense of Motives. Soon after there came into our Hands by M. de Chartres, ano∣ther Explication, wherein that Prelate can testifie, no mention was made of Natural Love, and he gave Motive a Sense therein, quite con∣trary 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 publisht at Rome, and other places where he had a mind, the Latin Ver∣sion

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 there∣fore altered by this Change. It is a vain Ex∣cuse for M. de Cambray to say, that he thus understood it, seeing that in a Version one must simply translate the words, and not in∣sert any gloss.

6. He has also inserted every where the term of mercenary, without ever having defi∣ned it, and that he might have room to in∣sinuate 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 mo∣tive is translated by that of inward affection; ap∣petitus interior; against the natural significa∣tion of that word, which is that we ought to follow in a faithful Translation. It was nevertheless this Version that the Arch∣bishop of Cambray besought the Pope he would be pleased to advert to in order to judge of his Book: So that he would be judg∣ed upon a false Translation. He added there∣to 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 Versi∣on nor those Notes, may judge of it by his Pastoral Instruction. It has been shewed by so demonstrative Proofs, how little that In∣struction 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 uncertain∣ty 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 confin'd to himself, but that it tended to God as to the Supream 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 perceiv'd the Inconvenience of that Doctrine, and in the Letters he directed to me, he will not there have it, that his Natu∣ral Love is a Natural Love of God in it self, 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 a∣gainst

his Correction as against his first Dis∣course.

10. I bring only this Example, tho' there are a great many others of that Nature; be∣cause 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 Turn∣ings and Windings, seeing he adds some new Strokes to them continually.

11. Here's nevertheless another Proof of it, the Archbishop of Cambray, has publish'd at Rome, two Editions of his Answer to the De∣claration 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 Or∣der; which shews that he would have cover'd his Changeableness; and yet he wonders, that we should not join with him in such Variable Explications.

12. One weighty Reason that shews the In∣convenience of joyning with them is, that those Explications are often-times 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 explain'd elsewhere, and cannot be always repeated. M. de Cam∣bray being perplex'd 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 re∣ferred 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 re∣late unto God, in the same manner as the Act of the Venial Sin does: The second is, to make the Act of Venial Sin it self habitually relate unto God, which no Body ever did be∣fore 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 indefi∣nitely, from being referr'd unto God as the last End; but that the Act it self 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 observ'd it, that all the Acts of the Pagans are mortal sins, seeing that which hin∣ders 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 Trou∣ble of the Holy Soul of Jesus Christ; but it is clearer than the day, that in his last Wri∣tings he re-establishes that impious Doctrine: I have made a Demonstration of it, which I

don't repeat; that is to say, he walks with∣out 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 like∣wise evident, that we could not but reject the Book, nor be hindered from disowning publickly the Author, who had publickly 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 con∣sists in speaking the Truth: It is so opposing our selves 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 appeal'd 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 Declara∣tion. 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 Con∣sent? to Cite us in our own Names, and lastly to make us believe, that his Book, where we found so many Er∣rors, was but a more large Explication of our own Do∣ctrine? is he allowed to undertake whatever he pleases, and must we keep silent, tho' he goes on against us? These are not meer 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 Ho∣nour 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 Since∣rity

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 on∣ly; they tend only to this, to say that we had a mind to ruine M. de Cambray: God knows the contrary. But without calling so great a Witness, the thing speaks of of it self. Before his Book appeared, we conceal'd his Errors, so far as to endure the Reproaches you have heard of already: When the Books appear'd, he had already ruined himself enough: If we have been willing to ruine 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 com∣mon 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 sup∣presses 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 publick in his Ad∣vertisement in the Book of the Maxims of the Saints. He had reiterated it without asking 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 publickly, as we had been appeal'd to as Witnesses of it. In the third place we made no question of the Falshood of his Do∣ctrine: We held it determinately to be evil, and not to be countenanced: This was not a particular Affair be∣tween M. de Cambray and us: It was the Cause of the Truth, and the Concern of the Church, which we could not take upon our selves alone, nor treat it as a private Quar∣rel, which M. de Cambray would have been at. Then sup∣pose he persisted invincibly, as he has done to impu••e un∣to us his Thoughts, and would never retract it. We should not save our selves, but by declaring our Sentiments to all the World. This Declaration remained naturally sub∣mitted

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 discharg'd our Consci∣ence, and as much as we could, we rejected the Errors which our Silence might have confirm'd.

SECTION VIII.

Ʋpon Gentle Methods and Amicable Conferences.

IF it be said that we should have tried all ways of Mild∣ness, before we had come to a Solemn Declaration; this we did also. The Arch-bishop of Paris has demon∣strated 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 tedi∣ous 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 our selves 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 my self 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 re∣spectful. As for what he seemed to fear my quickness, as he called it, I alledged 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 plac'd my hope in another thing; I conceiv'd 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 en¦gaged my self 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 disintangle, 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 Confe∣rence, 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 Wit∣nesses for it, and they earnestly desired to have us confer together. I refused no Conditions; a Clergy-man of Note being moved, as every Body else was, with the cha∣ritable desire of re-uniting the Bishops, oblig'd 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 my self 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 re∣prehends 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.

Ʋpon the Declaration of the three Bishops, and the Summa Doctrinae.

1. THey complain it is too severe, but the Arch-bi∣shop of Park has truly affirmed, that the Arch∣bishop 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, where∣in 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 it self, that teaches this readiness: That Disposition without bounds, to all the practices laid upon them, and that u∣niversal forgetfulness of their Experiences, of their Readings, of the Persons they have formerly consulted with confidence: Lastly, We there kept under silence the Possessions, the Ob∣sessions, 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 teach∣es, 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 him∣self more expresly 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 Excep∣tions: The Truth is more simple, and that which must be so often modified, discovers naturally an ill Founda∣tion: He had nothing to do, but to explain himself sim∣ply, 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 en∣crease the evil; for instance, the dangerous Corrective of the Perswasion, not inward but apparent, which serves only to excuse the Language of Molinos, as has been shewed 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. Cam∣bray condemns the false Mystical Divines, the Arch-bishop of Paris has discovered the Subtilty 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 Er∣ror. What* 1.1 Quietism has ever consented to hate God eternally, nor to hate himself with a real hatred, so that we cease to love in our selves the Work of God,* 1.2 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 impi∣ous 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 satisfie the just aversion of the faithful against Quietism, by giv∣ing 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 Arch-bishop 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, Entituled, Observatious of a Doctor of the

Sorbonne, which says, that the Jansenists have joyned with the Bishop of Meaux against M. de Cambray, and that the other Bishops have united against him, as against another Su∣sanna, because he would not come into their Cabal, and joyn in their mischievous Designs. The same Writing magnssies M. de Cambray, as a Necessary Person to maintain the Authori∣ty of the Holy See against the Bishops, and therefore it behooveth her not to suffer such an able advocate to be opprest. In other places we are called Enemies to the Monks, whose Pro∣tector M. de Cambray is. We may see by this, what En∣gines 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 it self by Lies, and as for the Monks, in what Diocesses 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 consi∣derably 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 Ef∣fect upon certain Persons: And whether Justice and Truth require not a more Express and more Authentick Declaration.

2. They boast mightily in those Writings of the great Number of Bishops and Doctors that favour the Senti∣ments of the Arch-bishop 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 Arch-bishop 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 treat∣ed: As if it were not known, that these Hereticks 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 am∣biguous

Submission; but to speak sincerely and in Con∣science, can any Man be content with the Demand which that Prelate, notwithstanding his former Submis∣sions, would make of the Pope, to determine the man∣ner in which he was to pronounce Judgment, as he de∣clares 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 pro∣mise 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 with∣out Restriction. Without that then the Restriction is un∣avoidable: But this is to put the Pope and the Church upon impossiblities. There should never have been any Decision, if this Church must have foreseen all the Sen∣ses which the vitious fertility of subtle Wits could have produced: At this rate we should neither have had the Homousion 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 undeter∣minable 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 Suspition too far: But in the mean time I only repeat the words of the two printed Let∣ters, which M. de Cambray denyes not: However I pray to God that he may keep to the general Terms of his Submission; and altho' the Truth compels me to re∣mark what ill things he publishes, I will hope always with St. Paul, for better, tho I so speak: Confidimus me∣liora, tametsi it a loquimur.

SECT. XI.

CONCLƲSION.

1. WE have been Oblig'd 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 Dis∣courses: 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 fill'd: The Mysterious Woman of the Revelations, it is with this Child she is bigg: The Work of this Woman is not fi∣nised; we are come to the Times which she calls Times of Persecution, when the Martyrs, as she says, of the Ho∣ly Ghost shall suffer. The time shall come, and accor∣ding to her we are at the brink of it, when the Reign of the Holy Ghost and of Prayer, whereby she under∣stands her own, which is that of Molinos, shall be esta∣blished 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 Condem∣nation both of her Books, and of the Doctrine contain∣ed 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 Arch-bishop of Cambray, a Man of that Dignity, is fallen into that unhappy My∣stery, and has made himself the Defender, tho' by indi∣rect ways, of that Woman and her Books.

2. He will not say, that he knew not that prodigious

and non-sensical Communication of Graces, nor so many pretended Prophecies, nor the pretended apostolical Mission of that Woman, when he has suffer'd her, ac∣cording to his own Confession, to be esteemed by so ma∣ny great Persons who put a Confidence in him as to Mat∣ters of Conscience. He had then suffer'd 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 De∣fence of her Books.

3. It was to defend them that he wrote so many Me∣moirs 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 hid∣den sense, which that Woman has discover'd 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 Sese: It is but a rigorous Sense, which he assures us she never thought on; so that to un∣derstand them well, we must read the thoughts of their Author; we must guess what is known to M. of Cambray only, and judge of Words by Words by Sentiments, and not of Sen∣timents by Words: The most non-sensical in the Books of that Woman is a Mystical Language, for which the Prelate is our Security; that her Errors are meer Equivocations, her Excesses are innocent Exagerations, like unto those of the Fathers, and of approved Mysticks.

5. These are the Thoughts of this great Prelate, touch∣ing the Books of M. Guyon, after having, if we may beleive him, examin'd them unto the utmost rigor; this is what he has writ with his own hand, some time before the pub∣lishing of his Book; and after so many Censures we have not for all that, been able to draw from him a real Con∣demnation 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 Mittigations 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 Ig∣norant and Enthusiastical Woman, and that of M. de Cam∣bray, have manifestly one and the same Design; I shall say no more after all, but what appears of it self.

7. I shall not say it, but after having tried to the ut∣most, what Meekness and Charity could do, we us'd no Tricks as to the Submission of M. Guyon: We admitted them with a well-meaning 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 Arch-bishop of Cambray, we have but too well justified our selves by the undeniable matters of Fact contain'd in this Relation; as to my own particular, I am justify'd 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 mat∣ter 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 our selves 'till the Extremity. Where will he fix the Jealousie he accuses us of without Proof, and if we must clear our selves of so mean a Passion, what were we jealous of in the New Book of that Arch-bishop? Did we envy him the Ho∣nour of defending and setting forth M. Guyon and Moli∣nos with fine Colours? Did we bear an Envy to the Style of an ambiguous Book, or to the Credit it gave to its Au∣thor, 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 provok'd 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 per∣mitted, 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 in∣vincible 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, disco∣vers 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 Hand-writing, 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 prophe∣sies, and who proposes to her self 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 scandalized; if the Libertines triumph; if they say, without enquiring into the Source of the mischief, that the Quarrels of Bi∣shops 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 mat∣ters of Faith are never to be accomodated. We can suffer every thing, but cannot endure any Evasions or Shifts, how little soever, upon the Principles of Reli∣gion. 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 busi∣ness of importance, I should think my self 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 your selves as well as you can: As tho' he said, Fight amongst your selves 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, with∣out Gallio's taking the least Notice of it. This is a De∣scription of the Politick World, and of worldly Men up∣on Disputes of Religion; which holding as of no conse∣quence, 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 Con∣tempt; 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 pra∣ctised by his august Predecessors, and all Christian Prin∣ces, 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 Arch∣bishop of Cambray acknowledge at least the Unprofitable∣ness 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 Do∣ctrine of a Woman of that sort. As for the Interpre∣tation 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 Names the Fathers, and some other Clergy-men, 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 extra∣ordinary 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 Logick, of extravagant Metaphysicks, and of a vain Philosophy, which St. Paul has condemned. We hear every day his best Friends bewailing him, that he should have shewed 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 weakning the Motives capahle of softning or enflaming them? The vain Subtleties wherewith he da∣zles the World, have alwayes been the Subject of the Churches 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 upbraid∣ed (tho' 'tis true in another Subject) with vain Philoso∣phy, wherein he alledged that Religion and Piety con∣sisted. 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 authorizing empty Visions; aniles Fabulas; in refining upon Spirituality; and to speak with those Fathers, it composing high relish'd Devotions, which render'd the Purity of the Faith loath 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 Judg¦ment of the Church: The Church of Rome Loves to b•• prevented in this manner; and seeing she is always go¦vern'd in the Sentences she pronounces, by Tradition one may in a certain Sence be said to hear her before she speaks.

FINIS.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Max. Art 2. faux p. 31, 32.
• * 1.2

  Art 12. faux.