the sharpness of pain, and seeing I drank the sweet wine of sensual pleasure I am forced to drink the bitterness of their " dregs." [1] Then shall be fulfilled what David says, " The sorrows of death surrounded me, and the torrents of iniquity troubled me; the sorrows of hell have encompassed me" on all sides, the " snares of death prevented me " [2] unawares. Oh, what bitter sorrows! Oh, what furious torrents! Oh, what pinching snares shall these be! from which my own powers are so far from being able to deliver me that I shall hardly know how to make any use of them; for the bitterness of these sorrows will induce me to distrust, the vehement fury of these rivers will trouble my judgment, and the tightness of these snares will strangle me, that I cannot ask pardon of my sins, the devil making use of all this that I may have no escape from them.
Colloquy. — O my soul, bewail and confess well thy sins in thy life that they may not disquiet nor torment thee in thy death! Say not, " I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me?" for thy joy shall soon pass away, and the stroke of sorrow shall come. " Be not without fear about sin," [3] which thou supposest to be pardoned, lest that sin bud out at thy death which thou bewailedst but imperfectly in thy life.
These and such other counsels which Ecclesiasticus notes in his fifth chapter I should collect from this consideration, with a resolved mind to begin presently to put them in practice.
2. Secondly, I will consider how at that instant I shall not only be tormented and afflicted with the remembrance of my sins, but also with the loss of the time that I had to negotiate a business so important as that of my salvation, and with letting slip many occasions Almighty God offered me to that end. Then shall I desire but one day of those
