_ 69 _ proceeds from ourselves; obedience is the captivity which encloses extreme liberty; who is free save he who is obedient? Poverty is true riches; who is rich if it is not the truly poor in spirit? Chastity is a mirror in which God sees himself in his creature; Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes; but the spouse admires simply with love and understanding. Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, the sister says virtues are like him. The last virtue is charity, the cloak of the majesty of God, which covers the multitude of sinners. That is enough about the country. From here we came to Muscat, another town in Arabia Felix, where I found many Portuguese rebels who have been here among the Moors for ten or eleven years without confession, so I preached twice, in an arbour, to the captain-in-chief of the coast and many other people. When the sermon was over, I was asked for confession by many desperate people who had committed murders, and there were so many confessions that at the request of the captain-in-chief and the people it was necessary to delay for a day the ship in which I was travelling. This land is a refuge where wives flee from their husbands and husbands from their wives. It was well for me that when I left Goa the bishop gave me (powers to absolve in all cases,
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