Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	doctrine_n	rome_n	2,813	5	6.6425	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33542	Bourignianism detected, or, The delusions and errors of Antonia Bourignon, and her growing sect which may also serve for a discovery of all other enthusiastical impostures / by John Cockburn.	Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.	1698 (1698)	Wing C4804; ESTC R17688	48,522	82

Agreement of Sentiments both with her Self and Scripture It must indeed be acknowledged that this Woman does speak and write more plainly and intelligibly than any of the Mystick Sect and is somewhat more upon the Moral than others of that Gang who feed too much upon curious Speculations nor is she behind any in her attempts to penetrate into all the Mysteries of Nature and Religion and is as positive as any Philosopher can be which inconsiderate Persons take for plain Evidence Her Spirit was not common and she often takes high flights but they are flights for which her Fancy is to be admired rather than her Judgment She indeed soars above Dull Sober Thinking Souls who cannot rise higher than Reason and Meditation will permit the last of which they say she was never clogg'd with and the first very seldom I do not deny that her Notions are sublime and if that be a good reason for giving to her extraordinary Honour we ought also to honour no less many a Bedlamite whose Notions are and have been as much surprizing But who will not preferr Common Sense and a Sound Head to the most sublime Conceits if they either proceed from or be attended with Madness Truth is of more value than Sublimity and Useful Knowledge is to be studied rather than Curious Many are presumptuous to thrust themselves within the Veil whither they are forbidden they search farther into Secrets and Mysteries than they are allowed and they obtrude upon the World Relations which are not plain and evident and for that very cause they ought not to be admitted nor received with credit whatever sublimity be in them As to the consistency of her Notions and their agreement with Scripture if this was true 't would prove something But it is so far from being true that I dare venture my Reputation to prove that the Notions of Antonia Bourignon do neither hang well together nor are they consonant to the Scriptures Which with God's assistance shall appear to the satisfaction of all unbyass'd Persons in the following Narratives when I come to examine her particular Tenets and Opinions A Fifth Inducement to the receiving Antonia Bourignon as one Divinely Inspired is The Super-natural means by which she came to the Knowledge of all things viz. without reading without consulting Men or Books and even without Meditation Her Knowledge as they say was not acquired like other Mens by the fatigue of Reading and Study or the trouble of Thinking but all was immediately inspired into her And indeed it must be owned that she consulted Men and Books very little for she had both in great contempt nay the Sacred Scriptures themselves were not considered by her for she threw them aside as unworthy of her study saying That she could easily write such Books her self And yet after all there is no great reason to flourish so much in the commendation of her Knowledge and sublime Thoughts for unless they be solid and true 't is not much matter how she came by them and besides they were suggested by her Conversation with others by the Sermons which she heard by Conferences with Confessors Priests and learned Men. They had said something if they had made her to be born and bred up in an Island by her self like ABN YOKOAN whose History Dr. Pocock translates from the Arabick and as it is fabled of him too if immediately upon her first coming forth without instruction or the least suggestion from any she had been able to speak upon all Points both common and extraordinary It was visible that the Apostles were Inspired when without Education without being acquainted with Letters when after so many years drudgery in their particular Trades they were capable to speak all Languages to reason with Priests Scribes and Philosophers about the highest Points of Religion to instruct the fulfilling of dark Prophecies and to unfold the hardest Texts of Scripture But what wonder is it that one of Spirit and quick Imagination given to Contemplation and Retirement should talk of things that were the common subject of those she conversed with especially when she misses the Mark as often as she hits it and runs her self and others into gross Mistakes This Account they give of Antonia Bourignon and the magnifying her so much for it brings to my remembrance two mean Persons one of them lived within the first Parish that I had under my charge the other border'd upon it This last could read and was a contemplative Person he did not much value the World and follow'd no Trade except sometimes to teach the Children of his Neighbours to read he had not the opportunity of Books and yet he studied the high Points of Predestination Election Free-will and its consistency with Divine Prescience and Providence of the state of departed Souls and the manner of their Resurrection and I have often been surprized with his Notions The Metaphysical Head of Monsieur Poiret would have been much delighted with him and if he had known him he had certainly coupled him with Antonia Bourignon The other was a common Weaver by his Trade and followed it who could neither read nor write but he had a Head capable of Knowledge and did actually know both the Historical and Doctrinal part of Scripture and did point out the particular Chapter and Verse where any Passage was as well as those who could read he could give some Account of the Primitive Church the Doctrine Discipline Heresies and Councils of the first Centuries and understood pretty well the modern Controversies with the Church of Rome Quakers Anabaptists and others and all this merely by his careful attention to Sermons and by getting some or other to read to him such Books as he could find while he was at work for himself and Family but which was best in this Man he was not vain nor self-conceited he did not despise the Publick Ordinances nor set himself up above the Teaching of his lawful Pastors None was more ready to receive Instruction and I have several times employed him to teach and prepare some of his Neighbours especially the Servants and Youth for their Publick Examinations that they might be capable to receive the Sacrament The last Reason given for having Madamoiselle Bourignon in so high esteem is The Appearance of a a Comet when she was born when she first began to write and at her death This I think hardly worth the considering for 't will have but little weight with Persons of Sense and Judgment For though I am far from slighting the Signs Wonders and Extraordinary Appearances which God is sometimes pleased to give in those Regions above yet the Inferences are not much to be regarded which fanciful and cunning Men draw from them to amuse unthinking People and to dispose them to favour their Humour Interest and Passions Eclipses were sometimes as formidable as Comets and though Comets be not yet so well understood because they appear seldom nevertheless some Skilful