resolved to put their
countryman Jeremiah to death, to prevent him from prophesying in the
name of the Lord. To what persecutions were not himself and Baruch his
disciple exposed for having spoken in the name of the Lord? Did not
King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, throw the book of Baruch into the
fire,[708] after having hacked it with a penknife, in hatred of the
truths which it announced to him?

The Jews sometimes went so far as to insult them in their dwellings,
and even to say to them,[709] _Ubi est verbum Domini? veniat_; and
elsewhere, "Let us plot against Jeremiah; for the priests will not
fail to cite the law, and the prophets will not fail to allege the
words of the Lord: come, let us attack him with derision, and pay no
regard to his discourse."

Isaiah did not endure less vexation and insult, the libertine Jews
having gone even into his house, and said to him insolently[710]--_Manda,
remanda; expecta, re-expecta; modicum ibi, et modicum ibi_, as if to
mock at his threats.

But all that has not prevailed, nor ever will prevail, against the
truth and word of God; the faithful and exact execution of the threats
of the Lord has justified, and ever will justify, the predictions and
visions of the prophets. The gates of hell will not prevail against
the Christian church, and the word of God will triumph over the malice
of hell, the artifice of corrupt men, of libertines, and over all the
subtlety of pretended freethinkers. True and real visions,
revelations, and apparitions will always bear in themselves a
character of truth, and will serve to destroy those which are false,
and proceed from the spirit of error and delusion. And coming now to
what regards myself in particular, M. du Frenoy says, that the public
have been surprised that instead of placing my proofs before the
circumstances of my apparitions, I have given them afterwards, and
that I have not entered fully enough into the subject of these proofs.

I am going to give the public an account of my method and design.
Having proposed to myself to prove the truth, the reality, and
consequently the possibility of apparitions, I have related a great
many authentic instances, derived from the Old and New Testament,
which forms a complete proof of my opinion, for the certainty of the
facts carries with it here the certainty of the dogma.

After that I have related instances and opinions taken from the
Hebrews, Mahometans, Greeks, and Latins, to assure the sam