he was a continued Series of God's Word and Discourse with her and of hers with him And again She had so often those Communications with God which he reckons up in the Second Classis that they were very common with her by which God communicated to her the intimate Knowledge of Things Divine and Humane Matters of Right and Fact Things Speculative and Practical Things Mystical Things appertaining to Faith and Morality Things Future and Prophetick such as are the Last Things of which she has often spoken Finally He makes a kind of Union between God and her Soul and says That they spoke to one another as two Friends use to do and that the Discourse which she had with God as well as that which He had with her proceeded not from her self but from the motion of God which prompted her to speak and that her Books are filled with such Divine Conferences The Prophets and Apostles were Men of like Passions and Infirmities with others and several instances of their frailty are upon Record at the Direction and Inspiration of the infinite Wisdom of God But this Anonymous Advocate for Antonia Bourignon as well as the other above mentioned who continued and enlarged the History of her Life begun by her self I say he will not allow her to be guilty of any slip or inadvertency or failing in Word or Deed unworthy of the Spirit of God it self As it is in the Leipsick Transactions Tantâ cum Religione veneratur ut Soloecismos ejus in stylo errata dictamini divino tribuat He justifies all she said or did by Parallels from the Prophets from Christ and the Apostles and confidently asserts That the Opposition she meets with the Prejudices and Out-cries against her or her Doctrine proceed from the same Spirit and Principles which persecuted them For to give you his Sentiments in short She was the Purest the most Dis-interested and Self-denied Soul and the most resigned to God that ever was upon Earth The World and all that is in the World was of no Value to her she was perfectly denied to all Sense and to every thing that depended upon Imagination In her Divine Conferences that is her conversation with God she used neither Ideas nor Meditations but was in an admirable vacuity of all Desire of knowing either this or that having no will of her own nor any Inclination nor Fondness for any Sentiment no not the most intimate and most divine but a total perfect and most accomplished Resignation for receiving what it would please God to communicate to her and no other thing with an absolute Resolution to execute whatever would please God tho' in doing it it behoved to combat the World and Hell and lose a Thousand Lives In this Habitual and Invariable State where she continued from the Eighteenth year of her Age to the last moment of her Life None but God alone could act in the Fund of her Soul in all those several ways mentioned And the whole Conduct of such a Person could not be but Divine seeing she was united to God by a perfect Resignation Now that the Reputation of Antonia Bourignon may not stand upon the Credit of two obscure and unknown Authors who were afraid to expose their Names that what hath been said may not be thought their particular Rhapsodies I will confirm the same by Instances from some who have publickly owned it and do glory in it I will begin with Monsieur de Cort one of her first Disciples who was Superiour of the Oratory and Pastor of Saint Iohn at Mechlin and who as it is said lost his Life in her Cause This Man in a Letter to the Vicar-General of the Archbishoprick of Mechlin after having told him how he had happened to read that Passage 2 Kings xxii about Hilkiah's finding the Book of the Law of the Lord and sending to Huldah the Prophetess to enquire about it he writes That having made a very serious Reflection upon all this he was touched with a sensible Grief considering that we have here an Excellent Woman a Friend of God the Favourite of Jesus the Organ of the Holy Ghost who is greater than Huldah to whom God has communicated himself extraordinarily and to whom he has discovered all his Secrets She never yet deceived any person was always faithful firm constant immoveable She possesseth the Holy Ghost with his Gifts of Wisdom Understanding Knowledge Piety Courage Counsel fear of God and together with these she possesses the Twelve Fruits of the same Spirit Charity Joy Peace Patience Longanimity Goodness and the rest The Eight Beatitudes do also shine in her she lives not to her self but altogether to God she speaks as she lives and she lives as she speaks Her words are Lively Efficacious and Operative they are conform to the Gospel and the other Scriptures Her Life is altogether miraculous And I do remember that which your Reverence hath often said to me how that she was an admirable Maid that there was never found her like we are happy to have such a Treasure and truly she hath the Holy Ghost Moreover I remember how I have brought Letters to her in which you have earnestly desired her Prayers for your self and for your Friends recommending to her many particular Affairs and â—ow as concerning the Publick in the time of Universal Scourges in all these Dangers no body consults her no body makes Prayers to her no body employs her These Thoughts have touched my Heart very sensibly As for me I have thanked you and do still thank you infinitely because God inspired you to send me to this Creature I never received neither from Arch-Bishop nor from Bishops nor from Pastors nor from my Directors and Superiours nor from Saints nor from God himself immediately more good than from her by God only I beseech you for the Honour of God for the Good of the Church for your own private good and for the good of all those who are under your Charge to consult her and to believe her as to that which she shall tell you from God concerning these deplorable Times St. Ierome says That Deuteronomium est secunda Lex Evangelicae legis praefiguratio that is Deuteronomy or the Book that was found in the time of Huldah is the Second Law or the Second Establishment of the Law of God and that it is a Figure of what shall be under the Evangelical Law Now I am of the Mind that the Evangelical Law which was first Established and afterwards forgotten and lost shall be renewed and re-established as Deuteronomy was a Second time under the Ministry of this New Huldah This Letter is prefixed to the Treatise which bears the Title of The Word of God or the interiour Life of Madamoiselle Bourignon Where also there are Extracts of some Letters of the same Vicar-General bearing a Testimony unto her Here we have had one bearing witness to Antonia Bourignon not upon
secret Thoughts of Men's Hearts and Things to come and did not foretell them by way of Supposition or related them as if she had dreamt them We found also diverse times that she could tell what past in her absence and how our Souls behaved themselves towards God In short This Divine Soul told us so many Secrets of the Mystical and Inward Life that all our Theology was too short and insufficient to answer her to so high Questions not only in Matters of Theology but also in all other Matters according to the various Rencounters and Occurrences which fell out so that one would have thought that though a Man had perused all sorts of Histories and grown old in the study of all sorts of Sciences he could not know with such Understanding all the things which this Pilgrimess told us It is impossible to write in particular the admirable things which we have heard of this Pilgrimess so that We may say of her Discourses what St. Paul said of his Rapture That he had seen and heard things which eyes had not seen nor ear heard and that it has not entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for his elect Now lest any should think that this extraordinary Knowledge came to her by Natural Means or that it was the effect of some Art and Industry which others had not the happiness to know neither were capable to undergo we are told That she never read nor learn'd of any body That she was without Study even without Reading and which is more without Meditation Years and Experience make others Wise and Knowing but she had her vast Knowledge from the beginning she was not wiser in her Old Age than in her Youth for she was infallible in both neither was there any occasion for correcting or amending that which she spoke or wrote in her first years For if you peruse her Writings impartially you will meet with many remarkable Characters that are not ordinarily to be found in many Writings A clear and distinct Account of the Essential Truths of Christianity with a constant urging of them as the one thing necessary and distinguishing them from the accessory Truths which are not necessary to Salvation an inimitable simplicity of Expression which a Child may understand with as singular a sublimity of Thoughts a convincing power and force going along with them a plain unfolding in a few Lines the Difficulties about which the Learned write many Volumes a constant harmony and uniformity of Sentiments in the Writings of a course of forty years from about the Twenty third to the Sixty fifth year of her age in which she died with an evidence and clearness to the conviction of our Natural Reason And all this by one who never read any Books never conversed with the Learned to be instructed by them never premeditated what she wrote never blotted out nor mended what was once written but being attentive to the Love of God in the calm and inward recollection of her Spirit wrote as fast as her hand could guide the Pen and when some Writings were laid by unfinish'd for some years returned to them and finish'd them after the same manner without reading any more of what had been written than some few of the immediately foregoing Lines to make a due connexion Thus Memory and those Rational discussive Faculties which help others to the knowledge of Truth were of no use to her because they make her to have had an immediate intuition of all things in God with whom she had inward Conversation from her Childhood She neither did nor would learn any thing from the Scriptures though they were given by Inspiration and were designed to make every Man of God perfect and throughly instructed to every good word and work She would take nothing from the second-hand but would have all things immediately from God himself and therefore she asked Him Questions and received Answers from Him about the smallest matters In a word the design of these three Prefaces is to prove That all her Words and Thoughts are God's and that the Spirit was not given to her by measure no more than it was to Iesus Christ and that there was the same reason for both For as God had chosen a Virgin for his Mother so he had chosen another Virgin to be the Organ of his Light and Spirit by whom he designed to renew his Church and to give the last Blow and Overthrow to Satan's Kingdom for which cause she is called the Light of the World and these words of Isaiah are applied unto her The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined And upon this account Monsieur de Cort says I look upon her Acquaintance as a greater favour than all the Graces and Favours which God hath bestowed on me in this World yea even than my Creation it self for that would serve me in little stead without the working out of my Salvation which would have been in great danger if I had not attained to the knowledge of my self and of the Designs and Marvels of God which I have learned and discovered by the means of this Creature and she has certainly been sent me as the only Means of the Perfection of my Soul and of all those who will profit by the recital of this Narrative which I find my self obliged to publish for the profit of many This is the true treasure hid in the earth he who shall find it ought to sell all that he has to by this Ground to the end he may find and discover this Treasure and take it up with Joy as the most precious thing in the World I have insisted the longer upon the Character of Madamoiselle Bourignon her personal Endowments and Qualifications her Divine Mission and Authority as they are declared and set forth by her Disciples because they are Material Points in our Enquiry about her And for the same reason I have chose to give these things in their own words that it may appear to all that I do not charge them with things which they do not neither will own And now I may have liberty to add That if Madamoiselle Bourignon deserves the Character which is here given to her if it be true what these Authors I have quoted do say of her if their Commendations and Praises are not rash and groundless but built upon a solid Foundation then she is not only a very Singular and Extraordinary Person but without exception the greatest that ever was Born of a Woman She is above all the Ancient Patriarchs she is to be preferred to Moses and the Prophets to Iohn the Baptist and the Apostles and at least she ought to be honoured equally with Jesus Christ who is said to be God blessed for ever She was as much without Sin as he was and her Body was of
we close with this or that Method of Salvation otherwise we are shamefully lazy negligent and easie in things which do most concern us 'T is true the generality of the World practise the contrary they take these things upon trust and are satisfied with that which is first proposed and which lie nearest them But this is a Reproach to Mankind nor can there be a greater instance of the Corruption of Humane Nature than this that Men use their Reason least in things of greatest moment However we are not to consider what is commonly done but what should be done what is fit to be done by wise and good Men by such as would build their present Peace and Comfort and their eternal Interest not upon Sand but upon a Rock which can hold out against Storms and Tempests Now if in such cases a reasonable Conviction a satisfying Evidence be necessary then to receive Madamoiselle Bourignon as one so highly dignified by God and her Scheme of Religion and System of Opinions as Divine and absolutely necessary to be followed we ought to have something more than the Authority and Testimony of those Men formerly quoted for whatever their Morals be they are fallible as others if they will not wilfully deceive yet they are liable to be deceived and if they have been imposed upon where are we if we follow them The Testimony of Men is only valuable so far as they are competent Judges of the things which they declare It is unjust to deny the Testimony of sincere honest Men when they bear witness only to Matters of Fact to things which they have heard and seen but when it comes to Opinions Perswasions and Sentiments both good and wise Men ought to be submitted to a Tryal and Examination whether there be Reasons for their Belief Now the Case before us is of the Nature of the last that is It is not a Matter of Fact but a Matter of Faith and Opinion and therefore we must be allowed to judge the Validity of the Reasons of these Mens Sentiments of Antonia Bourignon before we can or ought to be of their Side And I am confident that if their Reasons be weighed in the Balance if they be put into just and equal Scales they will be found light and wanting Weight to make them pass for the Value which is put upon them I will not conceal any of their Reasons nor will I misrepresent them I do not remember to have met with any besides those which follow which have been suggested and which may be gathered from what has been said above 1. An Early and Extraordinary Sanctity 2. The secret Knowledge of Mens Thoughts 3. Foretelling things to come 4. A Sublime and Wonderful Knowledge of Divine Mysteries with an Uniformity and Agreement of Sentiments both with her self and Scripture 5. The Supernatural Means and Method of her coming to the Knowledge of all these things viz. without Reading without consulting Men or Books and without Meditation 6. The apparition of Comets at her Birth when she began to Write and at her Death From these Reasons they conclude that she was Divinely Inspired and sent to the World upon some great Design and for these Reasons they make her the Woman in the Revelation who was cloathed with the Sun and had the Moon under her Feet they call her the Spouse of Christ and give her that large Character which we have seen above I intend to consider these Reasons calmly and impartially First whether supposing them true the Consequence drawn from them be just and necessary and then what truth is in them I begin with the First viz. her Early and Extraordinary Sanctity And I do acknowledge that true Sanctity is only from God It is not the work of Nature but of Grace No Man can be perfectly Holy of himself nor can the Devil either intend or effectuate such a thing if therefore any have the Gift of Sanctity they have it from above God certainly is the Author of it whose Spirit only can subdue our Natural Corruption and raise us to a Conformity to the Divine Nature And as this Gift is of God so it is more valuable than the Gift of Miracles Prophecies speaking with divers Tongues and such like for it is a greater sign of the love of God and does better secure an Interest in him When our Lord bestowed the Power of Miracles and of casting out Devils upon the Seventy Disciples that they might not overvalue this Special Privilege or boast too highly of it be said unto them Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Now all who are truly holy have their Names written there Many who have Prophesied and cast out Devils and done many wonderful Works shall be disowned in the great Day of the Lord they shall be commanded to Depart from Christ our Saviour but they who are truly sanctified will never be separated from him theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven for ever But though Sanctity be a great and most desirable token of God's Love and Favour yet it is not always attended with extraordinary Illuminations and Inspirations It may be without these and these may be separated from it Good and Holy Persons in the other World shall have a full and clear Vision of all things then they shall understand the Intricacies of Providence and the Secrets of the Divine Counsel then they shall see God as he is and know even as they are known But at present the best and most Holy see as through a Glass darkly and are ignorant of many things as well as others nay persons very good and holy and very dear to God may not know so much as some that are wicked and unsanctified What St. Paul supposeth may be proved by several Instances that one may have the Gift of Prophecy and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and yet be without Holiness for if they may want Charity they want a special part of Holiness Wherefore suppose we should grant Sanctity to Antonia Bourignon suppose her to be truly and extraordinarily Holy yet she is not therefore to be reckoned Infallible nor endued with all Knowledge nor are her Doctrines to be received Implicitly Let her Sanctity be never so great yet that alone doth not raise her to the Station and Dignity of a Prophet at whose Mouth the Church and all particular Persons should receive the Law and Will of God for though Holiness doth certainly not only dispose Persons to receive special Influences of the Spirit of God but also give a deeper Sence of Divine Truths than Reading even as Practice in any Art doth make one Wiser and more Skilful than Speculation yet every Holy Person must not pretend a Revelation of all particulars or to know the Mind of God in every thing Wherefore we find St. Paul distinguishing warily what was his own Judgment from what he had
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