it were into a most spacious theatre. Lastly, why thou wert redeemed by so many labours of my whole life; and provided, moreover, with so many sacraments and aids of heavenly grace.
For can it be that I have made for nought all the children of men? For what, then, have I bestowed upon them so many gifts of mind and body? Was it that they might strive to heap up riches? to seek reputation and glory? to build largely and magnificently, as if they were to live here for ever; to join house to house, and lay field to field; to be engaged with farms and yokes of oxen; to be clothed, in purple and fine linen, and feast sumptuously every day; to spend their time in pleasure, comfort, plays, and amusements; to eat and drink, and pass their lives in enjoyment, imagining this to be their portion? Away with a thought that is so impious and disproportionate to my bounty; for I created man, and redeemed him, for a much higher and nobler end.
Man. Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise thee, O Lord, as long as I live. For, since thou needest not anything, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or why hast thou set thy heart towards him? Didst thou, then, create us for any need that thou hast of our goods? Yet what have we that we have not received? Thine, is the world, with all its fulness. Thou hast created us only to display in us the riches of thy goodness and glory. For since thy nature is goodness supreme, it desires nothing more than to communicate and diffuse itself around. Who, O Lord, can tell the wonders of thy power, wisdom, and goodness? What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me? My soul, bless the Lord, and forget not all his benefits. Let my tongue cleave to my laws, if I remember not my Creator.
Christ. Oh, that thou wouldst be wise and understand, and know how to estimate rightly thy end, and the gift of thy creation! Hear, therefore, and understand. I gave thee understanding, and fixed my eyes upon thee, that thou mightest not be like the horse and mule, which have no understanding to know God their creator; I gave thee, I say, understanding, that thou mightst own me for thy Lord and thy God; a will, that thou mightst love me, and desire only heavenly things; memory, that thou mightst be mindful of me and of my gifts; a tongue, that thou mightst praise me; and lastly, all thy senses and faculties, both of body and soul, that thou mightst employ them all to the glory of my name; and when thou shalt have faith-
