e edification of those
around. God may allow such corrupt men as Balaam, and such rascals as
Albicerius, to have some knowledge of the future, and secret things,
and even of the hidden thoughts of men; but he never permits their
criminality to remain unrevealed to the end, and so become a
stumbling-block for simple or worthy people. The malice of these
hypocritical and corrupt men will be made manifest sooner or later by
some means; their malice and depravity will be found out, by which it
will be judged, either that they are inspired only by the evil spirit,
or that the Holy Spirit makes use of their agency to foretell some
truth, as he prophesied by Balaam, and by Caiphas. Their morals and
their conduct will throw discredit on them, and oblige us to be
careful in discerning between their true predictions and their bad
example. We have seen hypocrites who died with the reputation of being
worthy people, and who at bottom were scoundrels--as for instance,
that cure, the director of the nuns of Louviers, whose possession was
so much talked of.

Jesus Christ, in the Gospel, tells us to be on our guard against
wolves in sheep's clothing; and, elsewhere, he tells us that there
will be false Christs and false prophets, who will prophesy in his
name, and perform wonders capable of deceiving the very elect
themselves, were it possible. But he refers us to their works to
distinguish them.

To apply all these things to the possessed nuns of Loudun, and to
Mademoiselle de Ranfaing, even to that girl whose hypocrisy was
unmasked by Mademoiselle Acarie, I appeal to their works, and their
conduct both before and after.

* * * * *

God will not allow those who sincerely seek the truth to be deceived.

A juggler will guess which card you have touched, or even simply
thought of; but it is known that there is nothing supernatural in
that, and that it is done by the combination of the cards according to
mathematical rules. We have seen a deaf man who understood what they
wished to say to him by simply observing the motion of the lips of
those who spoke. There is nothing more miraculous in this than in two
persons conversing together by signs upon which they have agreed.

Footnotes:

[263] See the letter of the Bishop of Senez, printed at Utrecht, in
1736, and the works that he therein cites and refutes.

[264] Erasm. Orat. de laudibus Medicinae.

[265] Le Loyer, lib. de Spec. cap. ii. p. 288.