your works in this life is to serve Almighty God with purity and sanctity, and the final end to which they are ordained is, to obtain life everlasting.
Upon this truth the understanding is to form its reasonings to bring to light what is comprehended therein, considering thus: — Who created me, and ordained me to this end, and for what cause ? How sovereign an end this is I How ill I have pursued it in my past life, and in what peril I have been of losing it ! What heavy losses I sustain by losing it, and how great benefits ensue if I obtain it ! and how great reason there is that from this day forward I should vigilantly seek to obtain it! With every one of these considerations I will move the will to the affections and acts it requires in this manner : —
1. First I am to consider how the infinite majesty of Almighty God, who hath no need of His creatures, not for my merits but of His mere goodness created me to His image and likeness; not that I should live at random to follow my own lusts, nor that I should seek honours or dignities, riches or delicacies, or any other thing created, but only that I should reverence and praise Him, that I should love and obey Him in this mortal life, and afterwards obtain life everlasting. And although it had been sufficient to give me for my end that which my nature required, yet Almighty God was not contented with this, but of His mere mercy ordained and raised me to another more high and sovereign end, which is to see Him manifestly, to enjoy Him, and to be happy and blessed as are the angels, or as God is Himself, according to that of St. John: "We shall see Him as He is."[1]
Colloquy. — O immense charity of our sovereign God! What is this, O Lord, thou dost? A creature so miserable as this little silly worm — man, dost Thou
- ↑ 1 John iii. 2.
