ed what things? They would not tell me. I said then that I
would suffer as long and as much as it should please God; that this
affair was begun on forgeries against me, and so continued. That God
was witness of everything. The doctor told me, that to take God for a
witness in such a thing was a crime. I replied nothing in the world
could hinder me from having recourse to God. I was then shut up more
closely than at first, until I was absolutely at the point of death,
being thrown into a violent fever, and almost stifled with the
closeness of the place, and not permitted to have any assistance.

In the time of the ancient law, there were several of the Lord's
martyrs who suffered for asserting and trusting in the one true God. In
the primitive church of Christ the martyrs shed their blood, for
maintaining the truth of Jesus Christ crucified. Now there are martyrs
of the Holy Ghost, who suffer for their dependence on Him, for
maintaining His reign in souls and for being victims of the Divine
will.

It is this Spirit which is to be poured out on all flesh, as saith the
prophet Joel. The martyrs of Jesus Christ have been glorious martyrs,
He having drunk up the confusion of that martyrdom; but the martyrs of
the Holy Spirit are martyrs of reproach and ignominy. The Devil no more
exercises his power against their faith or belief, but directly attacks
the dominion of the Holy Spirit, opposing His celestial motion in
souls, and discharging his hatred on the bodies of those whose minds he
cannot hurt. Oh, Holy Spirit, a Spirit of love, let me ever be
subjected to Thy will, and, as a leaf is moved before the wind, so let
me be moved by Thy Divine breath. As the impetuous wind breaks all that
resists it, so break thou all that opposes Thy empire.

Although I have been obliged to describe the procedure of those who
persecute me, I have not done it out of resentment, since I love them
at my heart, and pray for them, leaving to God the care of defending
me, and delivering me out of their hands, without making any movement
of my own for it. I have apprehended and believed that God would have
me write everything sincerely, that His name may be glorified; that the
things done in secret against His servants should one day be published
on the housetops; for the more they strive to conceal them from the
eyes of men, the more will God in His own time make them all manifest.

August 22, 1688, it was thought I was about coming out of pris