heart, " and having shut the door" of thy senses, " pray to thy heavenly Father in secret; and thy Father who" is there, and " seeth in secret, will repay thee," [1] that is, will give you what you ask.
This truth of the presence of God within me and round about me wheresoever lam praying, I am much to quicken, that it may move me to reverence, confidence and due attention. And if with this consideration I perceive myself moved to these and other like affections of devotion, I may well detain myself to enjoy this taste that God gives me, for the time it will last; for this already is a prayer, and a very good one. But the ordinary rule will be to detain myself in this thought during a Pater-noster, although in all the time of my meditation I must not lose out of sight the presence of God, according to that of David: " The meditation of my heart is always in Thy sight:" [2] but in the time of my petitions and colloquies I must renew it with more fervour, " pouring out," as David says, " my prayer," in the u sight" of our Lord. [3]
2. Secondly, this done, I must make a great and profound reverence to the Majesty of God, bending before Him the knees of my heart, [4] and of my body, once, twice, and three times, as they do that enter into the presence of kings. I am to adore him in spirit, acknowledging Him for my God and my Lord, the Father of immense Majesty, and the King most worthy of infinite reverence; and with my body to humble myself, even to the fastening my mouth to the ground; and yet more, to prostrate myself, as did our Lord Jesus Christ in the prayer of the garden, of whom St. Paul says, that He " was heard" by the Eternal Father, for the great " reverence" [5] He bare Him; giving us to under-
