complish what I offer to Thee, changing my fortitude in such manner that with great fervour I may walk, run, and fly like a renewed eagle, [1] until I obtain the eternal crown of Thy glory! Amen.
After this manner we may make other canticles of praise, inviting those saints that were great sinners to glorify Almighty God in return for having pardoned my sins.
POINT III.
Finally, in order to the third act of thanksgiving, I am to do three things.
1. First, to confirm myself much in my intentions of amendment, imagining that Christ our Lord says to me, as He said to that other sick man in the Temple, who was giving thanks for the health that he had received, " Ecce sanus factus es, jam noli peccare, ne tibi aliquid deterius contingat;" " Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, "lest some other worse thing happen to thee;" [2] the relapse is usually worse than the fall. But if "as a dog" I return to eat the " vomit," [3] after this eating the first devil will enter with a seven other spirits more wicked than himself;" and this second entrance shall be much " worse than the first." [4] And, at least, I am much to be afraid of falling soon after my confession. For if the same day I fall into the same sins, it will be a sign that my conversion was cold and imperfect, though it were true; and that of Ecclesiasticus may be said to me, "He that washeth himself after touching the dead, if he toucheth him again what doth his washing avail?" And so a man that fasteth for his sins, and doth the same again, what doth his " humbling himself profit him? who will hear his prayer?" [5] But this I am to consider to move me to fear, not to dis-
