magnifies our sins, and exaggerates the rigour of God's injustice against them. He will tell me that he that lived evil must not die well; and that he that laid not hold on God's mercy must fall into the hands of His justice. " And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear V [1] And as he is a liar, and the father of lies, and a false accuser of men, if Almighty God tie not his hands and limit not his power he will set before me a thousand false imaginations and accusations, with illusions and horrid spectres, to trouble me, and to make me sweat with agony and endure greater anguish than that of death itself.
3. These are the fears that in that last passage will afflict me, if I provide me not in time to hinder their vehemence, which I should do by entering into myself, and considering, if death should now attack me, what it is that would give me greatest terror, and devising how to remedy it in time. And if I would not that death should seize upon me in my present state, I must endeavour instantly to get out of it; for it is neither lawful nor secure to live in a state in which I would not die.
4. I will conclude this meditation, setting before my eyes Christ our Lord, naked and nailed to the cross at the instant of giving up the ghost, and I will with great fervour beseech Him, that by His death He grant me a good death, and that if the devil come to my death (as he came to His) that He would deliver me from him, and grant me so assured a confidence that, like Himself, I may say in that hour:
Colloquy. — " Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." O merciful Father, " my soul is" as yet " in my hands" [2] but ready to fly out of them, and in danger of falling into the hands of her enemies! Oh,
