goodness, which, clearly seen, is thyself, O Lord, the sweetest and highest good!
5. Draw my soul to thyself, O perfect beauty, and bind it fast to thee by the indissoluble chain and bond of eternal love! What shall I seek and desire beyond thee, who art the fulness of all good, the source, the end, the sweetness, the strength, and marrow of all good! Farewell, all other things, that I may ever love and think of thee, praise and bless thee, and serve thee only, with all the powers of my soul, and for the whole of my life. Let all transitory things be to me worthless or precious, only as far as they agree with thy goodness. Perfect me according to thy most •excellent will in the thought and love of thee. Transform me completely into thyself, that I may become one spirit with thee, and live no longer to myself, but to thee. Amen.
1. O Lord my God, thou art called holy in many ways. 1. because thy essence is the first root and origin of all holiness and purity. 2. Because it is the object and measure of all holiness. In a word, thou art the efficient cause, the form, the pattern, and the end of all the brightness of holiness that is found in creatures. Thou art holy in thyself, in thy very essence; that is, with a formal, objective, and' fundamental holiness. So perfect is thy holiness, that nothing can possibly be added or taken from it, because it is a holiness that is essential and universal.
2. I greatly rejoice in thy holiness, the essential source of all beauty and purity, from which all intellectual creatures derive their holiness % and purity. This holiness thou hast set out for our imitation, but not thy power, nor thy wisdom, nor the height of thy majesty, when thou saidst. Be holy, because I am holy.1 Thou dost not, however, require of us such holiness as the height of thy own holiness demands; but only such an image of it as the weakness of our nature may be capable of by the assistance of thy grace.
3. I venerate, honour, admire, and love thy holiness and purity, because all love, honour, and reverence are due to thee. Thy presence sanctifies, and has sanctified the whole world; so that, whichever way I turn myself,
I see thee present, and I venerate, praise, honour, and bless thee, who art every-
- ↑ Kings ii. 2. ; Levit. xi. 44
