CHAPTER XVI.

The physician of whom I have spoken, was disposed
to lay open his heart to me like a child. Our Lord
gave him through me all that was necessary for him;
for though disposed to the spiritual life, yet for want
of courage and fidelity he had not duly advanced
in it

He had occasion to bring to me some of his com¬
panions who were friars; and the Lord took hold of
them all It was at the very same time, that the
others of the same order were making all the ravages I
have mentioned, and opposing with all their might the
holy Spirit of the Lord. I could not but admire to
see how the Lord was pleased to make amends for
former damages, by the pouring out his Spirit in
abundance on these men, while the others were labor¬
ing vehemently against it, doing all they could to
destroy its dominion and efficacy in their fellow-mor¬
tals. But those good souls instead of being staggered
by persecutions, grew the stronger by it. The Super¬
ior, and the master of the novices of the house in
which this doctor was, declared against me, without
knowing me; and were grievously chagrined that a
woman, as they said, should be so much flocked to,
and so much sought after. Looking at things as they
were in themselves, and not as they were in the Lord,
who does whatever pleases him, they had contempt for
the gift which was lodged in so mean an instrument,

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instead of esteeming the Lord and his grace. Yet this
good brother at length got the superior to come to see
me, and thank me for the good which he said I had
done them. Our Lord so ordered, that he found some¬
thing in my conversation which reached and took hold
of him. At length he was completely brought over.
And he it was, who some time after, being visitor, dis¬
persed such a number of those books, bought at their
own charge, which the others had tried utterly to
destroy. Oh, how wonderful art thou, my God ! In
all thy ways how wise, in all thy conduct how full of
love ! How well thou canst frustrate all the false wis¬
dom of men, and triumph over their vain preten¬
tions !

There were in this noviciate many novices. The
eldest of them grew so very uneasy under his vocation,
that he knew not what to do. So great was his trouble
that he could neither read, study, pray, nor do scarcely
any of his duties. His companion brought him to me.
We spoke awhile together, and the Lord discovered to
me both the cause of his disorder and its remedy. I
told it to him; and he began to practice prayer, even
that of the heart He was on a sudden wonderfully
changed, and the Lord highly favored him. As I spoke
to him grace wrought in his heart, and his soul drank
it in, as the parched ground does the gentle rain. He
felt himself relieved of his pain before he left the room.
He then readily, joyfully, and perfectly performed all
his exercises, which before were done with reluctance
and disgust He now both studied and prayed easily,
and discharged all his duties, in such a manner, that he
was scarce known to himself or others. What aston¬
ished him most was a remarkable gift of prayer. He

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saw that there was readily given him what he could
never have before, whatever pains he took for it. This
enlivening gift was the principle which made him act,
gave him grace for his employments, and an inward
fruition of the grace of God, which brought all good
with it. He gradually brought me all the novices, all
of whom partook of the effects of grace, though differ¬
ently, according to their different temperaments.
Never was there a more flourishing noviciate.

The master and superior could not forbear admir¬
ing so great a change in their novices, though they did
not know the cause of it. One day, as they were speak¬
ing of it to the collector, for they esteemed him highly
on account of his virtue, and telling him, they were
surprised at the change in the novices, and the blessing
the Lord had bestowed on the noviciate, he said to
them, “ My fathers, if you will permit me, I will tell
you the reason of it. It is the lady against whom you
have exclaimed so much without knowing her, whom
God has made use of for all this.” They were very
much surprised; and both the master, though advanced
in age, and his superior then submitted humbly to
practice prayer, after the manner taught by a little
book, which the Lord inspired me to write, and of
which I shall say more hereafter. They reaped such
benefit from it, that the superior said to me, “I am
become quite a new man. I could not practice prayer
before, because my reasoning faculty was grown dull
and exhausted; but now I do it as often as I will, with
ease, with much fruit, and a quite different sensation
of the presence of God.” And the master said, “I
have been a friar these forty years, and can truly say
that I never knew how to pray, nor have I ever known

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or tasted of God, as I have done since I read that little
book.”

Many others were gained to God, whom I looked on
to be my true children. He gave me three famous
friars, of an order by which I have been, and still am,
very much persecuted. He made me also of service to
a great number of nuns, of virtuous young women, and
even men of the world; among the rest a young man of
quality, who had quitted the order of the knights of
Malta, to take that of the priesthood. He was the rela¬
tion of a bishop near him, who had other designs of
preferment for him. He has been much favored of the
Lord, and is constant in prayer. I could not describe
the great number of souls which were then given me,
as well maids as wives, priests and friars. But there
were three curates, one canon, and one grand-vicar,
who were more particularly given me. There was one
priest very intimately given me, for whom I suffered
much, through his not being willing to die to himself,
and loving himself too much. With a sad regret I saw
him decaying, falling away till he was quite snatched
from me. As for the others there are some of them
who have continued stedfast and immoveable, and some
whom the tempest has shaken a little, but not tom
away. Though these start aside, yet they still return-
But those who are snatched quite away return no
more.

There was one true daughter given me, whom our
Lord made use of to gain many others to him. She
was in a strange state of death when I first saw her,
and by me he gave her life and peace. She afterwards
fell extremely ill. The doctors said she would die;
but I had an assurance of the contrary, and that God

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would make use of her, as he has done, to gain souls.
There was in a monastery a young woman confined in
a state of distraction. I saw her, knew her case, and
that it was not what they thought it was. As soon as
I had spoken to her she recovered. But the prioress
did not like that I should tell her my thoughts of it,
because the person who had brought her thither was
her friend. They plagued her more than before, and
threw her back again into her distraction.

A sister of another monastery had been for eight
years in a deep melancholy, unrelieved by anyone.
Her director increased it, by practicing remedies con¬
trary to her disorder. I had never been in that mon¬
astery; for I did not go into such places, unless I was
sent for, as I did not think it right to intrude, but left
myself to be conducted of Providence. I was very
much surprised that at eight o’clock at night one came
for me from the prioress. It was in the long days of
summer, and being near it, I went. I met with a sister
who told me her case. She had gone to such excess,
that seeing no remedy for it, she had taken a knife to
kill herself; but the knife fell out of her hand; and a
person coming to see her had advised her to speak to
me. Our Lord made me know at first what the matter
was; and that he required her to resign herself to him,
instead of resisting him as they had made her do for
eight years. I was instrumental to draw her into such
a resignation, that she entered at once into a peace of
paradise; all her pains and troubles were instantly
banished; and never returned again. She has the
greatest capacity of any in the house. She was pre¬
sently so changed as to be the admiration of the whole
community. Our Lord gave her a very great gift of

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prayer and his continual presence, -with a faculty and
readiness for everything. A domestic also, who had
troubled her for twenty-two years past, was delivered
from her troubles, and is become a very religious
woman. That produced a close tie of friendship
between the prioress and me, as the wonderful change
and the peace of this sister surprised her, she having
so often seen her in her terrible sorrow. I also con¬
tracted other such ties in this monastery, where there
are souls under the Lord’s special regard, whom he
drew to himself by the means he had been pleased to
make choice of.

I was specially moved to read the Holy Scriptures.
When I began I was impelled to write the passage, and
instantly its explication was given me, which I also
wrote, going on with inconceivable expedition, light
being poured in upon me in such a manner, that I
found I had in myself latent treasures of wisdom and
knowledge which I had not yet known of. Before I
wrote I knew not what I was going to write. And
after I had written, I remembered nothing of what I
had penned; nor could I make use of any part of it
for the help of souls; but the Lord gave me, at the
time I spoke to them; without any study or reflection
of mine, all that was necessary for them. Thus the
Lord made me go on with an explanation of the holy
internal sense of the Scriptures. I had no other book
but the Bible, nor ever made use of any but that, and
without even seeking for any. When, in writing on the
Old Testament, I made use of passages of the New, to
support what I had said, it was without seeking them,
they were given me along with the explication; and in
writing on the New Testament, and therein making use

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of passages of the Old, they were given me in like man¬
ner without my seeking anything. I had scarce any
time for writing but in the night, allowing only one or
two hours to sleep. The Lord made me write with so
much purity, that I was obliged to leave off or begin
again, as he was pleased to order. He proved me
everyway herein. When I wrote by day, often sud¬
denly interrupted, I left the word unfinished, and he
afterwards gave me what he pleased. If I gave way
to reflection I was punished for it, and could not pro¬
ceed. And yet sometimes I was not duly attentive to
the divine Spirit, thinking I did well to continue when
I had time, even without feeling his immediate impulse
or enhghtning influence, from whence it is easy to see
some places clear and consistent, and others which have
neither taste nor unction; such is the difference of the
Spirit of God from the human and natural spirit,
although they are left just as I wrote them, yet I am
ready, if ordered, to adjust them according to my pre¬
sent light. Didst thou not, O my God, turn me a hun¬
dred ways, to prove whether I was without any reserve,
through every kind of trial, or whether I had not yet
some little interest for myself? My soul became here¬
by readily pliable to every discovery of the divine will,
and whatever kind of humiliations attended me to
counterbalance my Lord’s favors, till everything, high
or low, was rendered alike to me.

Me thinks the Lord acts with his dearest friends as
the sea with its waves. Sometimes it pushes them
against the rocks where they break in pieces, some¬
times it rolls them on the sand, or dashes them on the
mire, then instantly it retakes them into the depths of
its own bosom, where they are absorbed with the same

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rapidity that they were first ejected. Even among the
good the far greater part are souls only of mercy; and
surely that is well; but to appertain to divine justice,
oh, how rare and yet how great ! Mercy is all distribu¬
tive in favor of the creature, but justice destroys every¬
thing of the creature, without sparing anything.

The lady, who was my particular friend, began to
conceive some jealousy on the applause given me, God
so permitting it for the farther purification of her soul,
through this weakness, and the pain it caused her.
Also some confessors began to be uneasy, saying, “ It
was none of my business to invade their province, and
to meddle in the help of souls; and that there were
some of the penitents which had a great affection for
me.” It was easy for me to observe the difference
between those confessors who, in their conducting of
souls, seek nothing but God, and those who seek them¬
selves therein; for the first came to see me, and rejoiced
greatly at the grace of God bestowed on their peni¬
tents, without fixing their attention on the instrument.
The others, on the contrary, tried underhand to stir up
the town against me. I saw that they would be in the
right to oppose me, if I had intruded cl myself; but I
could do nothing but what the Lord made me do. At
times there came some to dispute and op>pose me. Two
friars came, one of them a man of profound learning
and a great preacher. They came separately, after
having studied a number of difficult things to propose
to me. But though they were matters far out of my
reach, the Lord made me answer as justly as if I had
studied them all my life; after which I spoke to them
as he inspired me. They went away not only con¬
vinced and satisfied, but affected with the love of God.

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291

I still continued writing with a prodigious swift¬
ness; for the hand could scarcely follow fast enough the
Spirit which dictated, and through the whole progress
of so long a work I never altered my manner nor made
use of any other book than the Bible itself. The trans¬
criber, whatever diligence he used, could not copy in
five days what I wrote in one night. Whatever is good
in it comes from God only. Whatever is otherwise
from myself; I mean from the mixture which I have
made, without duly attending to it, of my own impurity
with his pure and chaste doctrine. In the day I had
scarcely time to eat, by reason of the vast numbers of
people which came thronging to me. I wrote the can¬
ticles in a day and a half, and received several visits
besides.

Here I may add to what I have said about my
writings, that a consider** ole part of the book of Judges
happened by some means to be lost. Being desired to
render that book complete, I wrote over again the
places lost. Afterwards when the people were about
leaving the house, they were found. My former and
latter explications, on comparison, were found to be
perfectly conformable to each other, which greatly sur¬
prised persons of knowledge and merit, who attested
the truth of it.

There came to see me a counsellor of the parliament,
a servant of God, who finding on my table a tract on
prayer, which I had written long before, desired me to
lend it. Having read it and liked it much, he lent it to
some friends, to whom he thought it might be of ser¬
vice. Everyone wanted copies of it. He resolved
therefore to have it printed. The impression was
begun, and proper approbations given to it. They

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requested me to write a preface, which I did, and thus
was that little book printed, which has since made so
much noise, and been the pretence for the several per¬
secutions. This counsellor was one of my intimate
friends, and a pattern of piety. The book has already
passed through five or six editions; and our Lord has
given a very great benediction to it. Those good friars
took fifteen hundred of them. The devil became so
enraged against me on account of the conquest which
God made by me, that I was assured he was going to
stir up against me a violent persecution. All that gave
me no trouble. Let him stir up against me ever so
strange persecutions. I know they will all serve to the
glory of my God.

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