desire. It is God himself that I need, and that I seek; and to thee only, O my God, do I address myself, that I may obtain thee. Open my heart, Lord. Enter this rebel place, where sin has reigned. Sin holds it in subjection. Enter as into the house of a strong man; but first bind the strong and mighty enemy who ruled it, and then take possession of the treasures which are there. O Lord, regain those affections which the world has stolen. Seize this treasure thyself, or rather resume it; for it belongs to thee as a tribute that I owe thee, as stamped by thine own image. Thou hast imprinted it at the moment of my baptism, which was my second birth; but it is all effaced. The image of the world is graven there so deeply, that thine is scarcely cognizable. Thou only couldst create my soul; thou only canst create it anew. Thou only couldst impress there thine image; thou only canst reform it, and refresh the lineaments of thy obliterated likeness; that is, Jesus Christ my Saviour, who is thine image, and the very character of thy subsistence.

5. O my God, how happy is a heart that can love so lovely an object, with an honourable and a beneficial love! I feel that I cannot love the world without displeasing thee, without injuring and dishonouring myself; and yet the world is still the object of my delight. O my God, how happy is the soul who finds his delight in thee, since he may abandon himself to thy love, not only without scruple, but with commendation. How firm and lasting is his happiness, since his hope cannot be disappointed, because thou wilt never be destroyed, and neither life nor death shall separate him from the object of his desires; and that the same moment which overwhelms the wicked and their idols in one common ruin, shall unita

the just with thee in one common glory; and that as the one shall perish with the perishable objects to which they were attached; the others, shall subsist eternally in the eternal and self-existent object to which they were so strictly united. Blessed are they, who, with perfect freedom, and an invincible bias of their will, love perfectly and freely, that which they are incessantly constrained to love.

6. Perfect, O my God, the holy emotions that thou hast given me. Be their end, as thou art their beginning. Crown thine own gifts; for thine I admit them to be. Yes, O my God, far from assuming that my prayers have any merit, which could constrain thee to answer them, I most humbly confess, that having given to the creature that heart, which thou didst form for thyself only, and not for the world, nor for myself, I could look for no blessing but to thy mercy; since I have nothing in me which could deserve it; and that all the natural emotions of my heart, inclining towards the creatures or myself, can only anger thee. I thank thee, then, O my God, for the holy emotions that thou hast given me, and even for that disposition which thou hast also given me to feel thankful.

7. Touch my heart with repentance for its faults; for without this inward grief, the outward evils with which thou hast smitten my body, will be but a new occasion of sin. Make me to know that the diseases of my body are only the chastening, and the emblem of the diseases of my soul. But grant, Lord, also, that they may be the remedy, by making me consider, amidst these pains that I do feel, the evil which I did not previously perceive in my soul,

though totally diseased and covered with putrifying sores. For, O Lord, the greatest of its evils is that insensibility, and that extreme weakness which has deprived it of all consciousness of its own miseries. Make me then to feel them deeply; and let the remainder of my life be a continued penitence, to bewail the sins which I have committed.

8. O Lord, though my life past has been exempt from gross crimes, from the temptations to which thou hast preserved me; it has been very hateful in thy sight, from my continual negligence, my misuse of thy holy sacraments, my contempt of thy word, and of thy holy influence, by the listlessness and uselessness of my actions and thoughts, by the total loss of that time which thou hast given me for thy worship, to seek, in all my ways, the means of pleasing thee, and to repent of the sins which I daily commit; sins from which, even the most righteous are not exempt; so that even their life had need be a continual penitence, or they run the risk of falling from their stedfastness. In this way, O my God, I have ever been rebellious against thee.

9. Yes, Lord, up to this hour I have been ever deaf to thy inspirations; I have despised thy oracles; I have judged contrary to what thou judgest; I have contradicted those holy precepts which thou didst bring into the world, from the bosom of thy eternal Father, and by which thou wilt judge the world. Thou sayest, Blessed are they that mourn, and woe to them that are comforted; and I have said, Wretched are those that mourn, and blessed are those who are comforted. I have said, Happy are they who enjoy a fortunate lot, a splendid reputation,

and robust health. And why have I thought them happy, except that all these advantages furnished them an ample facility for enjoying the creature, that is, for offending thee. Yes, Lord, I confess that I have esteemed health a blessing, not because it was a ready means of serving thee usefully, by devoting more care and watchfulness to thy service, and by the ready assistance of my neighbour; but that, by its aid, I could abandon myself, with less restraint, to the abounding delights of life, and taste more freely its deadly pleasures. Graciously, O Lord, reform my corrupted reason, and conform my principles to thine. Grant that I may count myself happy in affliction, and that in this inability for external action, my thoughts may be so purified, as no longer to be repugnant to thine; and that in this way, I may find thee within me, when from my weakness I cannot go forth to seek thee. For, Lord, thy kingdom is within thy be lieving people; and I shall find it within myself, if I discover there thy Spirit and thy precepts.

10. But, Lord, what shall I do to constrain thee to pour forth thy Spirit upon this wretched earth? All that I am is hateful in thy sight; and I find nothing in me which can please thee. I see nothing there, Lord, except my griefs which bear some faint resemblance to thine. Consider then the ills that I suffer, and those which threaten me. Look with an eye of pity on the wounds which thy hand hath made. O my Saviour, who didst love thy sufferings even in death; O my God, who didst become man, only to suffer more than any man, for man's salvation; O God, who didst become incarnate after the sin of men, and who didst take a body only to suffer in it all that our sins deserved; O God, who lovest so much

the suffering bodies of men, that thou didst choose for thyself the most afflicted body that ever was in the world; graciously accept my body, not for its own sake, nor for any thing in it,-for all deserves thine indignation,-but for the miseries which it endures, which only can be worthy of thy love. Kindly regard my sufferings, O Lord, and let my distresses invite thee to visit me. But to complete the sanctification of thy dwelling, grant, 0 my Saviour, that if my body is admitted to the common privilege with thine, that it suffers for my offences, my soul also may have this in common with thy soul, that it may be in bitterness for them also; and that thus, I may suffer with thee, and like thee, both in my body and my soul, for the sins which I have committed.

11. Graciously, O Lord, impart thy consolations during my sufferings, that I may suffer as a Christian. I ask not exemption from distress; for this is the reward of the saints: but I pray not to be given up to the agonies of suffering nature, without the consolations of thy Spirit; for this is the curse of Jews and heathens. I ask not a fulness of consolation, without any suffering; for that is the life of glory. I ask not a full cup of sorrow, without alleviation, for that is the present state of Judaism. But I ask, Lord, to feel, at the same time, both the pangs of nature for my sins, and the consolations of thy Spirit through grace; for this is true Christianity. Let me not experience pain, without consolation; but let me feel pains and consolations at the same time, so that ultimately I may experience consolation only, free from all suffering. For formerly, Lord, before the advent of thy Son, thou didst leave the world to languish without com fort under natural sufferings: now thou dost consol