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CHAPTER VI.

OF HIS FERVENT PRAYERS AND RAPTURES, AND OF HIS SPIRIT OF PROPHECY.

Almighty God was always present with him, and he with God. His soul was like a fiery furnace, made hot with the fuel of the cross of Christ. It was not in his own power to contain himself, but what thing soever he either saw, or heard, which might delight his beloved Jesus, though it were but afar off, his heart-strings would begin to tremble, and his vital spirits leave him, and frequently fall into extacy. He was accustomed for a whole hour together, to say his prayers with his arms stretched out in the manner of a cross, sighing and weeping, till at last he would be beside himself, elevated from the ground, and united only to his God. He was oftentimes in this manner rapt, when he was in the choir at matins. But his devotion was much more augmented at the altar, when he celebrated the dreadful sacrifice, then would rivers of tears gush in abundance from his venerable eyes, that would move the most stony and obdurate heart of any of the standers by unto compunction. After mass he would withdraw himself into his cell, where he hath been often