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
hear-say or any uncertain Report but from his own Experience There is another still alive who knew her was intimately acquainted with her and who gives her a Character above what either Man or Woman besides Jesus Christ ever deserved It is Monsieur Poiret who may be called the Chief Disciple or First Apostle of Antonia Bourignon he having spread her Fame and propagated her Opinions more studiously and with more Zeal and Fervour than any other As St. Paul desired to know nothing save Iesus Christ and him crucified so this Man seems to desire to know nothing but Madamoiselle Bourignon He does not believe a God more firmly than that this Woman was divinely inspired His words were to some of my Acquaintance who visited him Tam certus sum eam Virginem inspiratam esse quam Deum existere She is ever in his Mouth and on all occasions he recommends her Books as having Light and Instruction and all desirable Advantages above all the Books in the World without excepting the Scriptures Some few Years after her Death he sent a Memorial to Monsieur Bale to be inserted in the Novelles de la Republique de la Lettre that all the learned World might have the Knowledge of this wonderful Woman And because Monsieur Bale had dropt something which did not savour of that respect which is due to Madamoiselle Bourignon he again expostulated with him and corrected him by another Memorial both which may be seen in the Ninth Articles for the Months of April and May for the Year 1685. All which Monsieur Poiret writes now is upon the Principles of this Woman Her Doctrine is the Foundation of his Oeconomy Divine in which he imagines that he has explained all the Mysteries both of Nature and Religion cleared all Difficulties either in Philosophy or Divinity and revealed the secret Purposes of the Counsel of God both in respect of what is past and of what is to come All these great things he hath done by the Light which his Beloved Mistress afforded him Take his own words for it I ought to acknowledge that these Principles and many other things are not of my own Invention but that I have been led to them by the Divine Writings and by the Instruction of one of Unknown Worth I should never have come to the knowledge of these Truths of my self if the Light which God communicated to one of his Saints had not Administred the Occasion She is a Person whose Writings have led me into the Knowledge of the solid Principles of all things Madamoiselle Bourignon hath received from God such certain and particular Light as without which I neither could have seen nor been sensible in this manner of these Divine Truths how palpably soever the Text of Scripture may seem to lead the attentive Reader unto them God hath drawn me forth not by the force and subtilty of my wretched Reason nor by Study or by Reading the Books of Learned Men but by the Writings of a Woman through which God has touched and illuminated my Heart making me see a perfect Light in all these Matters and Difficulties as well as almost in all other things whether Divine or Humane Natural or Supernatural Behold a great and notable Truth and a Key of an infinite number of admirable Lights for explaining a Thousand Passages of Divine Scripture and of the charitable and adorable Conduct of God towards Men Nothing is wanting to make this rare and incomparable Truth to be received of Men but that its Discovery and the Explication of these Passages of Scripture which point it out have not been communicated by some Ancient Father or by some great Doctor but by an unlearned Woman to whom God has been pleased to manifest himself so far notwithstanding of the contrary Judgment of some bearded Animals Whosoever would see these things in the most sensible and most Divine Light that can be desired have no more to do but to consult the Works of Madamoiselle Bourignon particularly these Three or Four The renewing of the Gospel-Spirit Antichrist Discovered The Light of the World and the Touchstone For I do acknowledge That I have not perceived that God since the beginning of the World did ever discover more clearly more sensibly more strongly more plainly the greatness of Man's Corruption as he hath done in our Days by that excellent Organ of the Holy Ghost And nothing but the Discovery of this Evil has offended all wilfully wicked Persons at her their Proud Heart would not humble it self nor be covered with Confusion nor can they be induced to hate and renounce themselves The Devil also their good Friend who dwells in their corrupt Hearts not enduring to be thus exposed has resolved to employ by his Diabolical Slaves against this Divine Light and this Holy Soul which declares it his two ordinary Machines Lying and Violence which he hath inspired abundantly into the Hearts of many wicked Persons both Learned and Idiots who have not been wanting hitherto to labour in this as it becomes them in favour of their Master and King the Murtherer the Persecutor the Lyar the Calumniator from the Beginning who will one Day give them his common Pay if they do not defeat the Work which they have Diabolically made for him against the most Divine the most Splendid and the most Solid Truth which ever yet appeared Thus far Monsieur Poiret But that I may not be thought to impose upon the English Reader by Quotations from foreign Books which are little known and in few hands I will justifie this high Character of Antonia Bourignon by Passages of a parallel strain out of the Prefaces to her Treatise of The Light of the World which is now rendred into English to be read understood and considered by all who desire to be saved as the Title-page bears There her eminent Sanctity is declared and set forth in words which were never applicable to any Creature before for none but Iesus Christ was ever said to be perfect and without sin But the Purity of Antonia Bourignon's Life was exact and constant she was a perfect Pattern and living Exemplar of the Spirit and Doctrine of the Gospel In short We may all truly affirm That we never observed in her any Vice Sin or any Weakness of Spirit but a perfect and solid Vertue surpassing Natural and Humane Strength which made us say That her Life was altogether Miraculous as if Adam had never sinned in her And as to her Knowledge and Understanding it is made Infinite for there were hid in her the Treasures of Divine Wisdom which enabled her to utter things unheard of so marvellous and sublime that we often remained quite lost with Admiration for we had never heard such things She explained likewise the Holy Scriptures so perfectly that none of the holy Fathers have ever so done nor any body since the Creation of the World She knew the
a better Frame and Temper for his was so much wasted by his Travels and the fatigues of his Ministry that he seemed to be Fifty while he was not much above Thirty Whereas Antonia Bourignon did not appear to be Forty years old when she was Sixty and odd And though I cannot pretend that they do assert in express terms that she was personally united to the God head yet I do think it is a clear Consequence from what they say for I cannot understand how otherwise she could know all Truths the deepest Mysteries of Nature and Religion things hidden from the Wisest in all Ages nor how she could on all Occasions speak and write about both small and great Matters certainly clearly and infallibly as well as live up to the highest Perfection of an Universal Piety and all this without consulting either Men or Books without previous Reflection and Meditation I say I cannot understand how all this could be done by a meer Creature and therefore she must either have been always personally united to the Deity and so to be esteemed God-Woman or else as some Ancient Hereticks said of Jesus Christ her Body and Humane Nature were not real but a meer Phantome and Apparition by which God was pleased to declare his Mind and Will unto Men. And which soever of these be held or whatever way God acted in her and by her all her Words and Writings are Sacred as Scripture they are of the same Authority and do deserve the same respect and ought to be read publickly for the Honour of God and the Edification of Men. Finally there ought to be a Commemoration of Antonia Bourignon in the Publick Liturgies as well as of Jesus Christ and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles And as the Church has always used to give unto God Names and Titles from the Signal Manifestations of himself and as the latter took always place of the former because more honourable and glorious thus the God of Abraham the fear of Isaac he that brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt and delivered them from their Captivity which were God's Names in former times have been laid aside to give way to that of the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ So this and all these should now give place to the God of Antonia Bourignon to the Spirit who spoke by her because she has brought a greater a clearer and a fuller Light into the World and has made greater Discoveries of the Wisdom and Power and Goodness of God than what came by Jesus Christ himself These things follow naturally and clearly from what was formerly delivered concerning Antonia Bourignon but then they are of that importance that none but Madmen and Fools will admit either the Premisses or Consequence without sufficient Evidence and Authority For if the things that are said be not true if there be more ascribed to Madamoiselle Bourignon than what ought to be then to pay her such Honour Respect and Esteem would be abominable Idolatry and horrid Blasphemy If she require it she is an Impostor a Messenger from Satan the Organ and Instrument of the Devil whereby he designs to seduce the Simple and Unwary She is not the true Light to be followed but an Ignis fatuus a false and dangerous appearance to be carefully avoided by all who love and seek their own safety and they who proclaim such high things of her are false Prophets if they believe sincerely what they say they are sadly infatuated and deluded and if otherwise they are monstrously and egregiously Wicked if they be right we cannot so much as give this Woman one Contradiction without betraying our Conscience as M. de Cort speaks But if they do not speak the Truth then if we hearken unto them we receive those who speak in the Name of the Lord falsely and we shall provoke God's Wrath and Jealousie by the grievous offence of giving Divine Honour to another It therefore highly concerns us what part we ought to take in this Matter whether we ought to admit these Men and their Testimony or if we should reject them And indeed whatever respect be due to these Gentlemen I crave leave to say that the Matter in hand is of greater weight than to be supported merely by their Authority nor can their Testimony be judged sufficient to receive Antonia Bourignon for such a Woman as they have described her I will not reflect upon their Honesty nor will I deny Integrity to some of them Nay I will easily grant that all of them may speak as they think and that they have written these things of this Woman from no other Motive than the sincerity of their own Perswasions But what then This cannot reasonably decide the case Nor can we without a most culpable rashness join issue with them until we examine the Grounds of their Belief and see their Reasons why they come to be so and so perswaded Every one that is Honest is not also Wise and Knowing Nor are all infallible who may be numbered amongst the Wise and Learned Good Men may be mistaken nor are well meaning Persons secure from being deceived and imposed upon Nay not only the Simple and Ignorant are liable to be seduced but also Men of Understanding Learning and Knowledge of which many Instances may be brought both out of Ancient and Modern Histories Tertullian was carried away by the Error of Montanus Neither all the first nor yet all the present followers of Mahomet ought to be reckoned Dunces or Designing Men Nor were it Just to deprive all the Disciples of George Fox of Understanding and Sincerity and yet he would not act wisely nor conscientiously who should plead for these Impostors and justifie their Errors and Delusions because some in other things of Sence and Judgment have taken part with them None indeed but wicked Men and Villains will study a Cheat and endeavour to impose upon the World that which they know and believe to be false But how often have we seen and known Persons seduced and drawn into such hellish Designs who ought not to be branded with such odious Characters though at the same time I cannot but say that whatever reason there may be to excuse their Sincerity there is all the reason in the World to censure their Judgment Discretion and Conduct for who does not act wisely and cautiously can never be said to act innocently though he may not be so culpable as others As no Man loves to be cheated in any thing so no Man should suffer himself to be cheated in Religion and Messages from Heaven for they are Matters of the highest Importance and therefore our Sentiments about them should be built upon some sure Foundation without some reasonable Conviction without some Evidence which may satisfie Sober Men and which may be defended when required and called in Question we ought not to receive Doctrines nor embrace particular Systems of Religion nor should