run" Thy "way," [1] though it was very rough, grant me that health and alacrity of spirit that Thou gainedst for me, that I may in such manner run my way as to merit to gain an eternal crown! Amen.
MEDITATION XXV.
ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF THE DIVINE LAW. [2]
i. For the end of this meditation, it will much help to form in the imagination a figure like the vision which the prophet Zacharias [3] had, in which he " saw" " a volume" or parchment extended which was "ten cubits" in breadth and "twenty" in "length," in which were written the sins of him that steals, and " of him that sweareth falsely," and the malediction that shall therefore light upon him, which volume came flying to his house, and destroyed it, until it had consumed all "the timber" and "the stones." In the same manner I will imagine before me a great book or parchment, very broad and long, and on one side of it I will look at the oaths, thefts, murmurings, and all other sins that I have committed against the ten commandments of the law of God; for as I go on writing them in the book of my conscience, God goes on writing them in the book of His justice, to chastise them in His own time. And on the other side I will behold written all the maledictions and punishments that Almighty God threatens against such as break these ten commandments, or any of them, making comparison between the sins and the punishments, in grievousness and continuance. For if my sins are many the punishments will be many, if they be grievous the punish-
