most
rigorous pains and tortures, if such were His will.

I never made any solicitation either for Father La Combe or myself,
though charged with that among other things. Willing to owe everything
to God, I have no dependence on any creature. I would not have it said
that any but God had made Abraham rich. Gen. 14:23. To lose all for Him
is my best gain; and to gain all without Him would be my worst loss.
Although at this time so general an outcry was raised against me, God
did not fail to make use of me to gain many souls to Himself. The more
persecution raged against me the more children were given me, on whom
the Lord conferred great favors through His handmaid.

One must not judge of the servants of God by what their enemies say of
them, nor by their being oppressed under calumnies without any
resource. Jesus Christ expired under pangs. God uses the like conduct
toward His dearest servants, to render them conformable to His Son, in
whom He is always well pleased. But few place that conformity where it
ought to be. It is not in voluntary pains or austerities, but in those
which are suffered in a submission ever equal to the will of God, in a
renunciation of our whole selves, to the end that God may be our all in
all, conducting us according to His views, and not our own, which are
generally opposite to His. All perfection consists in this entire
conformity with Jesus Christ, not in shining things which men esteem.
It will only be seen in eternity who are the true friends of God.
Nothing pleases Him but Jesus Christ, and that which bears His mark or
character.

They were continually pressing me to flee, though the Archbishop had
spoken to myself, and bidden me not to leave Paris. But they wanted to
give the appearance of criminality both to me and to Father La Combe by
my flight. They knew not how to make me fall into the hands of the
official. If they accused me of crimes, it must be before other judges.
Any other judge would have seen my innocence; the false witnesses would
have run the risk of suffering for it. They continually spread stories
of horrible crimes; but the official assured me that he had heard no
mention of any. He was afraid lest I should retire out of his
jurisdiction. They then made the king believe that I was an heretic,
that I carried on a literary correspondence with Molinos (I, who never
knew there was a Molinos in the world, till the Gazette had told me of
it) that I had written a dangerou