me many times over, "When I stand well with "GOD, I find I am well with you: When I am "otherwise with him, I then find myself to be so "with you too." Thus he saw clearly that when GOD received him into his bosom, it was always in uniting him to me, as if he would accept of nothing from him but in this union.

WHILE he was at Turin, a widow who was a good servant of God, all in the brightness of sensibility, came to him to confess. She uttered wonderful things of her state. I was then at the other side of the confessional. He told me, “He had met with a soul given up to God, that "it was she who was present, that he was very “much edified by her; that he was far from "finding the like in me; that I operated nothing "but death upon his soul." At first I rejoiced at his having met with such a holy soul, as it ever gives me the highest joy to see my GoD glorified, As I was returning, the LORD shewed me clearly the state of that soul, as only a beginning of devotion mixt with affection and a little silence, filled with a new sensation. This and me, as it was set before me, I was obliged to write to him upon it. On his first reading of my letter he discovered the stamp of truth in it; but soon after, letting in again his old reflections, he viewed all I wrote in the light of pride for he still had in his mind the ordinary rules of humility conceived and comprized after our manner. As to me, I let myself be led as a child, who says and does, without distinction, whatever it is made. to say and do. I left myself to be led wheresoever my heavenly Father pleased, high or low; all was alike good to me.

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He wrote to me, that, at his first reading of my letter, there appeared in it something of truth, but that on reading it over again, he found it to be full of pride, and of a preference of my own discernment to that of others. I knew the moment when he opened my letter, and entered into the truth of it. When the maid, by whom I sent it, who was that maid which our LORD had brought me, was returned, I told her this; and she assured me that it was the very time when he had read my letter. Sometime after he was more enlightened hereupon, and in regard to the state I was in. He then said to me, "Continue to believe "as you have done; I encourage and exhort you "to do it." Upon which I began to respire, to recover new life and an enlargement of soul. "Let nobody (said I to myself as I was return"ing) speak to me any more of humility. The "ideas which people generally have of virtues are "not for me. There is nothing else for me but "that one thing, viz. ever singly to obey my "GOD." Some time after he sufficiently discovered, by that person's manner of acting, that she was very far from what he had thought of her. I give this only as one instance. I might give many others nearly like it; but this may suffice.

ONE

CHAP. XVI.

NE night in a dream our LORD shewed me, that he would also purify the maid whom he had given me, and make her truly enter into death to herself. I then freely resolved to suffer for her, as I did for Father La Combe. As she resisted God much more than he, and was much more under the power of self-love, she had more

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to be purified from. For this maid I have borne much, during three whole years. Our LORD caused me incessantly to do miracles on her ac-count. It seemed as if he gave me an absolute power over both her body and soul. How much soever she was indisposed, as soon as I said to her, "Be healed," she was so: And for her pain, I bore the most of it. It seems as if our LORD had given me some share of experience for her, of what he himself had suffered for men. Surely a small part thereof would have consumed ten thousand worlds. He shewed me, in a dream, her resistances, under the figure of sundry animals, coming out of her body, whose outsides appeared pure, bright and transparent as glass, but all unclean within. Hereby I knew that she had passed through the first purification, or cleansing of the outside, for which reason she had passed in the world for a saint, but far from being inwardly purified. While on that account I suffered, I saw those animals destroy one another, till there remained only one, which devoured all the rest; yet itself appeared to have all the iniquity of the others in it. What I could not tolerate in her was her regard for herself. I saw clearly that the devil cannot hurt us, but so far as we retain some fondness for this corrupt self. This sight was from GOD, who gave me the discerning of spirits, which would ever accept what was from him, or reject what was not; and that not from any common methods of judging, not from any outward information, but by an inward principle which is his gift alone.

THAT this point be not mistaken, it is needful to mention here that souls which are yet in themselves, whatever degree of light and ardour they

have attained, are unqualified for it. They often think they have this discernment, when it is no thing else but sympathy or antipathy of nature, Our LORD had destroyed in me every sort of natural antipathy. The soul must be very pure, and depending on GoD alone, that all these things may be experienced in him. In proportion as this maid became inwardly purified my pain abated, till the LORD let me know her state was going to be changed, which soon happily ensued. In comparison of inward pains for souls, outward persecutions, though ever so violent, scarce gave me any. The Bishop of Geneva wrote to different kinds of persons: He wrote in my favour to such as he thought would shew me his letters, and quite the contrary in the letters which he thought I should never see, It was so ordered that these persons, having shewed each other their letters received from him, were struck with indignation to see in him so shameful a duplicity. They sent me those letters that I might take proper precautions. I kept them two years, and then burnt them, not to hurt the prelate by them. The strongest battery he raised against me was what he did with the secretary of state, who held that post in conjunction with the Marchioness of Prunai's brother. He used all imaginable endeavours to render me odious, and to cry me down, He employed certain Abbots for that purpose, insomuch that, though I appeared very little abroad, I was well known by the descriptions this Bishop had given of me. This did not make so much impression as it would have done, if he had ap peared in a better light at Court: Some letters of his, which her royal highness found, after the Prince's death, which he had wrote to him against her, had that effect on the Princess, that, (instead

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of taking any notice of what he now wrote against me) she shewed me great respect, and sent her request to me to come to see her. Accordingly I waited on her. She assured me of her protection, and that she was glad of my being in her dominions.

* OUR LORD discovered to me in a dream, that he called me, in order that I should help my neighbour. Of all the mysterious dreams I have had, there never was any which made more impression on me than this, and whose unction of grace continued longer. It seemed to me that, being with one of my intimates, we went up a steep mountain, at the foot of which was a stormy sea, full of dangerous shoals, which one must have crossed before coming to this mountain, which was all covered with cypresses. When we had got up to the top of it, we there found another mountain inclosed with fragrant hedges all round, having a gate for entrance, which was locked. We knocked at it, but my companion descended back again, or stayed at the gate; for she entered not with me. The master came and opened the gate to me, and immediately closed it again. Taking me by the hand, he led me into the wood, which was of cedars. This mountain was called Lebanon. In this wood there was a lodge, and in it two beds. Hither he brought me. I asked him, " For whom are these?" He answered me, "One for my mother, and the "other for thee, my spouse.' " In this chamber were animals naturally wild, and enemies to one another, all changed in their natures, all living together in a delightful and admirable concord; the cat and the bird, the wolf and the lamb, all sporting