Brief night and quiet couch A sea without a wave,- Rest for the thought-worn brow, Rest for the fever'd brain, Rest for the throbbing eye; Through these parch'd lips of thine no more Soon shall the trump of God Give out the welcome sound, That shakes thy silent chamber-walls, Awake! come forth and sing; 'Twas sown in weakness here, "Twill then be raised in power; That which was sown an earthly seed NOTICE. WE have, from time to time, received letters asking us why we did not review this or that book? Our answer is, that we review all books that are sent; but it is too much to expect us to buy every book on prophecy that may be published. If the authors or publishers do not send them, we are certainly not responsible for not reviewing them. Several of the hymns which appear at the close of our Numbers have been reprinted by others without any permission asked. We should not, however, have complained of this, had it not been that these anonymous parties have taken upon them to alter these hymns. Against this we protest. No one is at liberty to mangle the hymns of another, and yet publish them as if they were genuine. We have observed this practice carried on to a most discreditable extent in some Hymn-Books of late years. We are at a loss to reconcile it with the principles of brotherly fairness. It is certainly not dealing with our brother as we should wish him to deal with us. The sooner that this evil practice is put an end to the better. NOTICE. All readers of this Journal are most earnestly besought to give it room in their prayers; that by means of it God may be honoured and His truth advanced; also, that it may be conducted in faith and love, with sobriety of judgment and discernment of the truth, in nothing carried away into error, or hasty speech, or sharp unbrotherly disputation. BALLANTYNE AND CO., PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF PROPHECY. OCTOBER 1856. ART. I.-MADAME BOURIGNON. It is useful to step aside at times from our own company, in order to watch the wanderings of those who have perverted the truth. It does good to Calvinists to study occasionally the abuse of the doctrine of predestination, as it appears in the fatalism of false philosophy, and in the practical indolence of multitudes who excuse themselves by referring to God's decrees which have arranged our lot. Such a review does not tend to make us doubt ascertained truth, any more than the discovery of quicksands and shoals and sunken rocks cause the seaman to doubt the possibility of steering his vessel through the deep. If hypocrisy be rightly described as "the homage which vice pays to virtue," with equal justice we may say that distortions of a great truth, like the caricatures of great men, are involuntary testimonies to its magnitude. And we recognise, besides, the snare of the fowler here-the artifice of Satan to throw discredit on that which, in its simple, unperverted form, is fitted to bring glory to the Lord-a foul attempt of hell to represent great and glorious principles as disputable and dangerous, by pushing them to extremes. The case stands thus with the blessed doctrines of Christ's Personal Reign, and the First Resurrection. Satan has often tried to bring discredit on these doctrines by opening the lips of enthusiasts to maintain them, thinking, no doubt, by placing the treasure in the hands of enemies, to succeed in making friends disregard and suspect its value. But as the Ark of the Covenant was the real Ark of the Lord still, though in the hands of Philistines, and though the altars of Baal and Dagon stood in front of it instead of Jehovah's altar and laver; even so is it with these glorious doctrines. Who does not know that the doctrines of necessity and the bondage of the will have been so taught as to subvert human responsibility? But the effect of such perversion has been to stir up the sound and orthodox supporters of the truth to vindicate it from such illegal and unwarranted applications. An envious painter has sometimes had it in his power to set a rival's picture in a bad light, thus making it appear a work of inferior merit and worth; but a change of position has won for it the fame it deserved. Analogies like these truly exhibit the case of the much maligned doctrines of Christ's Personal Reign and the First Resurrection. It is with this thought in our mind that we wish to narrate the history of an enthusiast, famous in her day, and whose works in French are to be found in libraries in nineteen octavo volumes. Her career was important enough to find a place in Mosheim's Church History, and Hagenbach's History of Doctrines; and at one period, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland thought it needful to warn all under their care of her errors and heresies. 66 In giving her history, we shall quote largely from Corrodi's History of Chiliasm," but at the same time repairing to other sources of information also; for Corrodi has confined his sketch of her and her system almost entirely to what bears on her prophetic views. Antoinette Bourignon de la Porte was born at Lisle (or Ryssel, in Flemish), a town of Flanders, in 1616. From her earliest childhood she was devout, and exhibited dislike to sociality, inclining to solitariness in her religious practice. The common accounts of her are not followed by Corrodi, but they may be noticed. It is said that she was deformed from infancy, and an object of disgust to her mother on this account; but this can hardly be reconciled with the stories of her being the object of even intense admiration to many around her-first a peasant's son, then a French merchant, and then the son of an ecclesiastic at Lisle-even taking into account her superior understanding, and her considerable fortune after her father's death. It is further said, that the unhappiness she witnessed in the domestic life of her father and mother led her to resolve against marriage. May God grant," said she, in refusing one of those who sought her, "that I may never marry! Give me, Lord, the grace to become thy spouse."" According to these writers, it was this peculiarity of her youth that originated her fanaticism; and they accuse her of covetousness, moroseness, and an unforgiving 66 spirit, combined with masculine zeal for her own tenets. But let us return to Corrodi's more dispassionate and impartial account.* The infallible consequence of her solitary disposition was, at first, love to the monastic life. Her parents insisted on her remaining in the world, and wished her to marry: she as stubbornly opposed their wishes, and would have gone to a cloister secretly, if she had had money. In her sleepingchamber she kept a small altar and a crucifix, before which she lay the most part of the night. Once while thus employed, her overheated fancy presented to her the vision of the heavens opened. Out of the bright opening appeared one in the goldembroidered vermilion dress of a bishop, a man of majestic mien, with yellow beard and hair, who said to her, "Thou shalt set up again my order as completely as thou wishest." This was St Augustine, whom she did not recognise, because usually he was painted with a long black beard; but it was he, and having said, "When thou nourishest this vine, it shall then bear fruit like this," he vanished. In his place appeared a beautiful vine, which covered over the walls of her chamber, while she herself was by some secret hand clothed in a gray robe with a black mantle. She concluded forthwith that it was the Lord's will she should go to an Augustinian monastery. Again, however, her want of money was an obstacle; they refused to receive her, and she lost her good opinion of that order. Determined, nevertheless, to forsake the world, she put on a hermit's dress, and left her father's house; but various unpleasant risks which she encountered led her to return. Her mother died, and she was necessitated to attend to her father's housekeeping. Ere long her father and her sisters, too, were dead, leaving her in possession of her mother's property, and the half of her father's. And now she seemed to herself called on to obey the vision. A wily man, originally a peasant, named St Saulieu, persuaded her to begin by founding an hospital for girls, in which she adopted the rules of the Augustinian order, herself putting on the dress of an Augustinian nun. Fifty girls were educated here. Madame Bourignon had no great esteem for the Jesuits, and so preferred the Capuchins to the Jesuits in selecting teachers for her institution,-a circumstance that bore upon her after history. Meanwhile, St Saulieu, having set up * Hagenbach (Hist. of Doctrines, ii. 186) refers to the memoir of her, published at Amsterdam, 1683, and to an article in the "Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1837." Mosheim refers to "Bayle's Dictionnaire ;" to "Molleri Cimbria Literata," ii. 149; and Arnold's "Hist. Eccles. et Hæretic." vol. ii. a similar establishment for boys, appropriated to his own use funds gathered for its support, and tried to induce Madame Bourignon to marry him, and join her funds to his. His proposal she rejected with the utmost decision. The refusal embittered him, and led him to plot her ruin, which he so far effected by means of the Jesuits. His plot was well laid and well wrought out; and it is believed that the phenomena which were evolved in the course of these events, turned Madame Bourignon's attention to some of her peculiar views regarding the kingdom of Satan on earth, and the reign of Christ. In the seventh year of her institution, a girl of fourteen, who had been imprisoned, made her escape, and this escape was attributed to the devil by the girl, she giving an account of her interviews with Satan on other occasions since she was ten years old. Besides this case, Madame Bourignon soon after discovered symptoms of witchcraft prevailing extensively among her pupils, and the fact became noised abroad. Magical books were found in their possession, and magical globes; they spoke of the witches'-sabbath, and used magical powder, and the like. But now the plot began to appear; for the girls acknowledged that St Saulieu had taught them these arts, and meant to poison their matron. Of course, the Church stepped in to inquire; the devils were exorcised; and the Jesuits saw the prey within their grasp. They insisted on the institution being placed in their hands; Madame Bourignon was fetched away from it by violence, and examined; but by a timely flight escaped from further persecution. St Saulieu and the Jesuits had gained their end. Looking back on these occurrences, Madame Bourignon was led to infer that the most part of the world gave themselves up willingly to Satan—that there is a fearful multitude of sorcerers and witches in the world-and that the number is ever on the increase. Ere the end of the world, which is now near, this curse will become universal. The majority of even Christian nations, as well as Jews, Turks, and heathens, are in covenant with Satan. It would be an act of mercy to extirpate such; for they cannot undo their covenant with Satan so long as they are alive, while, on the other hand, God may shew pity to them at the judgment-seat. Meanwhile, frequent visions were vouchsafed to her, and much divine teaching. At least so she thought, and so thought many at Mecklenburg, (or Mechlin), where she had taken refuge, especially Christian Bartholomew de Cort, or Cordt, superior of the Jansenist Oratory, who intended to make her his heir, and in 1696 published an account of her, entitled, "Light of the World; or, A most true Relation of a Pilgrimess Travelling towards Eternity." |