faithfully and with their whole heart, I am more open and ready to bestow my assistance and grace upon those whose cause the saints, who are my intimate friends, have undertaken, as patrons and intercessors, to plead before me. For the Church triumphant is united to the militant in the bond of charity; and the article of the communion of saints, which you profess daily in the creed, reminds you how profitable it is to you to implore and to honour the saints, whom I have honoured so highly. How often have I withdrawn from a people my scourges! How often have I spared kingdoms, provinces, and states for my servants’ and elect’s sake, who have stood crying to me to turn away my anger! And if the prayer of the just prevailed so greatly when they lived in the flesh exposed to so many miseries and failings, what will it not effect, when, placed far beyond all corruption of nature, they live happy with me, as my friends and associates, in my kingdom? There, in fact, they are so much the more inclined to pity, as they have been brought so much nearer to the very fountain of pity, and have a truer knowledge of your sorrows. For that happy home has not lessened, but enlarged their charity. They are, indeed, already in harbour, but they see you tossing and suffering shipwreck on the sea. Then, when you invoke them, they instantly have recourse to me to help you, nor is it just that I should shame them, or refuse them any request.
Man. Thy words are sweet, O Lord, for I, a sinner, unworthy, but needing help, often know not whither to fly, when, for the many sins I am stained with, I dare not appear in thy presence. But now I will come more boldly, under the shadow of those whom thou lovest, that, by the merits and prayers of them that please thee, I may obtain what I cannot by my own. Oh, that I were partaker with all that fear thee, and that keep thy commandments!
III. Imitation of the Saints.
Christ. But know, my son, that it is in vain for one to praise and invoke the saints who takes no pains to be like them. For the life of the saints is the rule for thee and the rest of my faithful servants to live by. You are running the same race, why not, then, hold the same course? Is it possible that you are seeking life, yet going the way whose end leads to death? Oh, how many there are among those who bear my name and my badge, whose practice it is to clothe themselves, with the rich man,
