angels in heaven, and to all the men upon earth, and to the insensible creatures that know not how to thank Him, and even for those He has done to the devils themselves, and to the damned, that have no will to be thankful unto Him.
With these four affections we may speak to our Lord in prayer, to the end of glorifying Him, endeavouring (as St. Paul says), that the Holy Spirit be the beginning of our interior speeches, Christ Jesus our Saviour be the middle or mediator, and the Father everlasting the end and person to whom they be directed, although, as has been said, they may likewise be directed to all the three Persons.
2. The second end why we are to speak to God our Lord, is to require of Him new celestial gifts and graces, ordained to our own salvation and perfection and to His glory. These petitions and colloquies may be made in many forms, according to the particular disposition of him that prays and speaks to God.
Sometimes we must speak to Him as a son speaks to his father, asking of Him all such things as a good son may and ought to ask of a good father, with the spirit of love and confidence. And in this manner we speak to God in that prayer of our Pater-noster, where Christ our Lord declares what things we are to ask, as we shall see in the meditation which will be made upon that prayer in the third part.
Sometimes we must speak to God as a poor wretch does to a rich and merciful man, begging of him an alms. With this spirit prayed David very often, calling himself " poor " and " a beggar," [1] begging a spiritual alms of God, who, as St. Paul says, " is rich unto all that call upon Him." [2]
Sometimes we may speak to God as a sick man speaks to a physician, declaring to him his infirmities, and desiring remedy of them; or as a man that has a suit, or as one
