and delightes drawe me to thee with a greedy hart The more I consider thee the more doe I languish with thy loue and with a vehement desire of thee and I am extreamely delighted with the sweete remembrance of thee I am therfore resolued I am resolued to cast vp myne eyes to thee to erect the state of my minde and to conforme the affections of my will to thee I am resolued to talke of thee to heare speake of thee to write of thee to conferr with others of thee daily to read somewhat of thy felicity glory when I shall haue redd it to reuolue it very often in my hart that at least by this meanes I may passe on from the burninge heats and dangers toyling labours of this mortall dying life to the sweete refreshing of that vitall aire of thyne and that I may proceede at last when I shall lay my selfe downe to sleepe to repose my head a little in that bosome of thyne To this end I enter now and then into those sweete feilds of thy holy Scriptures and whilest I am turninge ouer those leaues I gather the fresh flowers of sentences from thence By reading them I eate by frequenting them I ruminate and by gathering them vp at last I lodge them in the deepe receptacle of my memory that by this meanes haueing taken a taste of thy sweetnes I may feele the biteernes of this most miserable life so much the lesse O thou most happy life O Kingdome which art truely blessed free from death and farr from haueing an end to which noe tymes shall euer succeede where that day which is still continued without night admitts of noe Tyme where the conquering souldiers being associated to those chantinge quires of Angells sing that Canticle of the Canticles of Syon to Almighty God without ceasinge the garland of triumph imbraceinge their glorious heads that for euer I would to Christe that my sinns beinge once forgiuen me and then this burden beinge layd downe I might be assigned to eternall rest might enter into thy ioyes within those excellent and beautifull walls of thy Citty receiuinge the crowne of glory from the hand of my Lord. That I might be present with those most holy Quires of Angells That together with those blessed Spiritts I might concurre to glorify our Creator that I might veiwe the present face of Christe our Lord that I might for euer behold that supreame vnspeakable vncircumscribed light and that so not being subiect to any feare of death I might for euer reioyce in the euerlastinge endowment of incorruption CHAP. XXIII Of the felicity of that holy soule which departeth hence HAppy is that soule which beinge discharged from this body of earth goes freely vp to heauen and is in peace safetie not fearing either any enemy or death it selfe For it will then haue present and shall for euer behold that most beautifull Lord whom it hath serued and whom it hath loued and to whom at length it arriueth all full of glory and ioy This glory of so great beatitude noe tyme shall diminish nor wicked enemy be able to bereeue vs of The Daughter of Syon saw this soule and did publish it to be most happy The queenes and the concubines sawe it sayinge Who is this which goeth forward like a riseinge morninge faire like the Moone bright like the Sunn and terrible like a pitched feild of armed men How ioyfully doth she goe forth make haste and runn when with astonished eares she hears her spouse say thus Rise vp and make haste O thou my freind and my beautifull creature and come with me for now the Winter is ouer-past the Storme is gone and hath hidd it selfe the flowers haue appeared in our Land the tyme of pruninge is now come the voice of the turtle hath beene heard in our land The figg tree hath brought forth her younge fruite the vines are in flower and send forth theire odour Rise vp maKe haste O thou my freind my faire Creature my doue in the holes of the RocKe in the lowes places of the wall Shew me that face of thyne let thy voice sound forth in my ears for thy uoice is sweete and thy face is full of comlinesse and grace Come my elected and my beautifull Creature my doue my immaculate my Spouse Come and I will place my throne in thee because I haue had a greedy desire of thy beauty Come that thou maist reioyce in my presence with my Angells whose society I haue promissed thee Come after many dangers and labours and enter into the ioy of thy Lord which none shal be able to take from thee CHAP. XXIV A prayer to the sanites to secure vs in our dangers HAppy are all you O Saynts of God who now haue passed through the sea of this mortality and haue obteyned to arriue at the gate of eternall quietnesse security peace your selues beinge peacefull and secure and perpetually full of triumph and ioy I beseeche you by your owne Charity you who are secure concerninge your selues be yet solicitous concerning vs. You are secure concerninge your owne incorruptible glory be you solicitous of our manifold misery By him I beseech you who chused you who made you what you are in the fruition of whose beauty you are satiated by whose immortality you are now immortalized by whose most blessed vision yow are continually in ioy be you also continually mindfull of vs. Helpe vs miserable creatures who in the salt waters of this life are tossed with stormes rounde about vs. You are those most beautifull gates who haue beene erected to a huge altitude O giue some helpe to vs who are noe better then a base pauement lying so farr vnderneath you Stretch forth your hand raise vs vp vpon our feete that we recouering out of our infirmity may become strong and fitt for warr Interceede pray with constancy and perseuerance for vs miserable and most negligent sinners that by your Prayers we maybe ioyned to your holy society for otherwise we shall not be saued For we are extreamely frayle and of no strength or vertue miserable base wretches beasts who care but for the belly the slaues of flesh blood in whome the very shadow of goodnes doth scarce appeare And yet not withstandinge beinge placed vnder the confession of Christe our Lord we are borne vp by the wood of his Crosse whilest we saile through this great and spatious sea where there are creepinge creatures without number where there are wilde beasts great and small where there is á most cruell dragon euer ready to deuour vs where there are places full of dangers as Scylla and Charybdis and innumerable others where carelesse persons and they who are of a waueringe faith suffer shipwracke Pray you to our Lord pray O you who are full of pitty pray all you troopes of Saintes and all you compagnies of blessed Spiritts that beinge assisted by your Prayers and meritts we may with our shipp
the one and indiuiduall essence of the supreme Trinity For to see the face of the liueing God is to possesse the soueraigne good It is the ioy of the Angells and of all the Saints the reward of eternall life the glory of spirites the eternall Ioy the crowne of beauty the prize of felicity the rich repose the beauty of peace the internall and externall Ioy the celestiall Ierusalem the Paradise of God the happy life the fullnes of felicity the delight of eternity the peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding This is that full beatitude and that totall glorification of man to see the face of his God to see him who made heauen and earth to see God who made him who saued him and who glorifyed him He shall see him by knoweing him he shall apply himselfe to him by loueing hym and he shall praise him by possessing him For he is the inheritance of his people of the people of Saints of the people which he redeemed He is the possession of they re felicity he is the reward recompence of they re expectation I will sayth he be a great and excessiue reward to thee For great things become great persons Indeed O Lord my God thou art excessiuely great beyond all Gods and thy reward is excessiuely greate For it cannot be true that thy self should be great and thy reward litle but as thou art great so thy reward is great for thy reward and thy self are not two seuerall things But thou thy self artexcessiuely great and thou thy self art that reward which is soe excessiuely great Thou thy self art he who crowneth vs who art the crowne thou thy self art he who maketh the promise and who art that very promise it selfe Thou art he who bestowest the guift and who art the guift it self Thou thy self art the rewarder and thou art the reward of eternall felicity Thou art therefore he who crowneth and thou O my God art the crowne and diademe of my hope which is ad orned with glory Thou art that recreatiue brightnes that reuiuing light that gracefull beauty thou art my great hope the desire of the harte of thy Saints and desired by them Thy vision therefore is the totall pay the totall reward the totall Ioy which wee expect For this is eternall life this I say is thy wisedome This is eternall life that wee may knowe thee onely true God and Iesus Christ whome thou hast sent VVhen therefore wee shall see thee the only God the true God the God liuing Omnipotent simple inuisible incomprehensible not to be circumcribed and thy onely begotten Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord who is consubstantiall and coeternall with thee whome thou hast sent into the world for our saluation in the vertue and power of the Holy Ghost they being Trine in persons and one in essence one onely Holy God besides whome there is noe God Then wee shall enioy what now wee seeke which is eternall life and euerlasting glory which thou preparest for them who loue thee and hidest vp for them who feare thee and wilt impart to them who seeke thee them who seeke thy face for euer And thou O Lord my God who framedst mee in the wombe of my mother who recommended mee ouer to thy hand do not permit mee any longer to be distracted into many thinges from thee who art one But gather mee vp from exteriour obiects into my self and then take mee from my self into thee that my hart may be euer saying to thee my face hath sougt thee O Lord I will seeke thy face The face of our Lord power wherein alone of the totall eternall glory of blessed soules doth consist the vision whereof is the eternall life euerlasting glory of the SS t s Let therefore my hart reioyce that it may feare thy name let the hart of such as doe but euen seeke our Lord reioyce but much more let them reioyce who finde him For if Ioy be taken in the search of him what ioy will that be which is felt in findeing him Therfore I will be euer seeking thy face ardently and without giueing ouer to see if once at length that doore and gate of Iustice may perhaps bee opened vnto mee that I may enter into the Ioy of my Lord. This is the gate of our Lord and the Iust shall enter into it CHAP. XXXVII A prayer to the blessed Trinity O You three coequall and coeternall persons who are one true God the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost thou who alone dwellest in eternity and inaccessible light Who hast layd the foundations of the earth with thy power and who gouernest the world with thy wisedome Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth terrible and powerfull Iust and mercifull admireable laudable and amiable One God three persons one essence power wisedome one onely vndeuided Trinity Open thou the gates of Iustice to mee who am crying out after them and being once entered by them I will confesse to thee O Lord. Behold I who am a poore begger doe knocke at thy doore O thou who art the soueraigne Master of the house command that it may be opened to me thou who say dest knocke and it shall be opened to you For the desires of my bowells which do euen roare againe and the cryes of the teares of myne eyes are they who knocke at thy gate O most mercifull Father Before thee is my whole desire and my groanes are not hidden from thee And thou O Lord turne thy face noe longer away from mee and decline not in thy wrath from thy seruaunt O thou Father of mercyes hearken to the loud crye of thy poore childe and reach forth thy best helping hand that it may drawe me out of the profound pitts of water and out of the lake of misery and out of the durt and dregs that I may not perish whilest the mercy of thyne eyes is beholding mee and the charity of thy bowells is lookeing on But enable mee to escape to thee who art my Lord and my God that I may see the riches of thy kingdome and may behold thy face for euer and may sing prayse to thy holy name O Lord thou who workest wonderfull things thou who makest my hart ioyfull by the memory of thee and who illuminatest my youth doe not despise my old age but fill my bones full of ioy and renew my grey heires as that of an eagle is renued All glory all prayse all strength all power all magnificence all beatitude all mercy be ascribed to God the Father and the Sonne and the Holy Ghost Amen The end of the Soliloquia Deo gratias THE MANVALL OF S. AVGVSTINE THE FIRST CHAPTER Of the wonderfull essence of God THov O Lord dost fill heauen earth carrying all things and yet they are no burthen to thee Thou fillest all thinges without being shut vp by them Thou art euer working yet euer quiet gathering togeather yet thou needest nothing seeking yet wanting nothing louing yet
haste brought me to the vnderstanding of truthe casting away the darknes of ignorance and whereby thou haste drawen me out of the foolish bitternes of this world and so accompanyinge it with the sweetnes of thy charity thou haste made it delightfull and deer to me I doe with a lowde voice inuoke thee O blessed Trinity with that sincere loue which groweth out of Faith which Faith thou haueing nourished euen from my cradle did'dst inspire by the illustration of thy grace and which thou hast encreased and confirmed in me by the documents of my Mother the Church I inuoke thee O holy and blessed and glorious Trinity in Vnity the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghoste our God our Lord and our Paraclete Charity Grace and Communication the Father the Sonne and the Illuminator the Fountayne the Riuer and the Irrigation or wateringe All things by one and all things in one from whome by whome in whome all things The liuing life the life proceeding from the liuing life the life liuing One from himselfe One from one and One from two One being from himselfe One being from another and One being from two other The Father is true the Sonne is Truth and the Holy Ghoste is Truth Therfore the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghoste are one essence one power one goodnes one beatitude from whome by whome and in whome all things are happie what things soeuer are happie CHAP. XXXII That God is the true and souuereigne life O God the true and Souuereigne life from whome by whome and in whome all things doe liue which haue any true and happy life O God who art that goodnesse and that beauty from whome by whome and in whome all things are faire and good which haue any beauty or goodnesse in them O God whose faith doth excite vs whose hope doth erect vs and whose charity doth vnite vs O God who requirest that we seeke thee and who makest vs finde thee and who openest to vs when we knocke O God from whome to be auerted is to faâ—l and to whom to be conuerted is to rise and in whom to remayne is to be immoueable O God whome noe man looseth but he who is deceaued no man seeketh but he who is admonished and noe man findeth but he who is purged O God whome to know is to liue whome to serue is to reigne whome to praise is the ioy and saluation of the soule I praise thee I blesse thee and I adore thee with my lipps with my hart and with all the whole power I haue And I present my humblest thanks to thy mercy and goodnes for all thy benefitts and I sing this Hymn of glory to thee Holy Holy Holy I inuoke thee O blessed Trinity beseechinge that thou wilt come into me and make me worthy to be the Temple of thy glory I begge of the Father by the Sonne I begge of the Sonne by the Father I begge of the Holy Ghoste by the Father and the Sonne that all vice may be farr remoued from me and that all holy vertue may be planted in me O Immense God from whome all things by whome all things in whome all things both visible and inuisible are made Thou who doste inuiron thy workes without and fillest them within who dost couer them from aboue and dost susteyne them from belowe keepe me who am the worke of thy hands and who hope in thee and who onely confide in thy mercy Keepe me I beseech thee here and euery where now and euer within and without before me behinde me aboue and belowe and round about that no place at all may be left for the treacherous attempts of my enemies against me Thou art the Omnipotent God the keeper and the Protector of all such as hope in thee without whome noe man is safe none freed from danger Thou art God and there is noe other God but thou neyther in heauen aboue nor on earth belowe Thou whoe performest workes of prowess and so many wonderfull and vnscrutable things which exceed all number Praise is due to thee honor is due to thee and to thee Hymns of glory are due To thee doe all the Angells the heaueÌ„s all the power therof sing Hymns and praises without ceaseing and all creatures and euery spiritt doth praise thee the holy and indiuiduall Trinity as it becomes the creatures there Creator the slaues their Lord and the souldiers their King CHAP. XXXIII The praises of men and Angells TO thee doe all the Saintes and they who are humble of hart to thee doe the spiritts and soules of iust persons to thee doe all the Cittizens of heauen and all those orders of blessed spiritts sing the hymn of honor and glory adoreinge thee humbly without end All the Cittizens of heauen doe praise thee O Lord after a most honorable and magnificent manner and man who is an eminent parte of thy Creatures doth also praise thee Yea and I wretched sinner and miserable Creature that I am doe yet labour with an extreame desire to praise thee and wish that I could loue thee with excessiue loue O my God my life my strength and my praise vouchsafe to lett me praise thee Grant me light in my hart putt thou the word into my mouth that my hart may thinke vpon thy glory and my toÌ„gue may singe thy praises all the day longe But because it is noe hansome praise which proceeds out of the mouth of a sinner And because I am a man of polluted lipps Clense thou my hart I beseeche thee from all spotts sanctify me O thou Omnipotent sanctifier both within and without and make me worthy to sett forth thy praise Receaue with benignity and acceptation from the hand of my hart which is the affection of my soule receiue I say the sacrifice of my lipps and make it acceptable in thy sight and make it ascend vp to thee in the odour of sweetnes Let thy holy memory and thy most diuine sweetnes possesse my whole soule and draw it vp at full speed to the loue of inuisible things Let it passe from the visible to the inuisible from the earthly to the heauenly from the temporall to the eternall and lett it passe on so farr as to see that admirable vision O eternall Verity O true Charity O deer Eternity thou art my God to thee doe I sigh day and night to thee doe I pant at thee doe I ayme to thee doe I desire to arriue He who knowes thee knowes Truth and he knowes Eternity Thou O Truth dost preside ouer all things We shall see thee as thou art when this blind and mortall life is spent wherein it is said to vs where is now thy God And I also said to thee Where art thou O my God In thee am I refreshed a little when I power out my soule towards thee by the voice of my exultation and confessioÌ„ which is as the sounde of a man who is bankquetting end celebratinge some great festiuity And
my selfe in the most secret corner of my hart that doe I not conceale from thy paternall eares Thou art rich in thy mercy and liberall in thy rewards grant me some of thy good guifts that therby I may doe seruice to thee For we cannot serue nor please thee by any other meanes then of thy guift Strick through I beseech thee this flesh of mine with thy feare Let my hart reioyce that it may feare thy name O that my sinfull soule might so feare thee as that holy Man did who said I haue allwayes feared God like the waues of a Sea which were flowing ouer me O God thou giuer of all good things grant me whilest I am celebratinge thy praises a fountayne of tears together with purity of hart and ioy of minde that loueing thee perfectly and praiseinge thee worthily I may feele and taste and sauour with the very palate of my soule how sweete delicious thou art O Lord accordinge to that which is written Taste and see how sweete our Lord is Blessed is the man who hopes in him Blessed is the people which vnderstandeth this ioy Blessed is the man whose helpe is from thee He hath disposed of certayne degrees whereby to rise vp in his hart in this valley of tears in the place which he hath appointed Blessed are the cleane of hart for they be the men who shall see God Blessed are they who dwell in thy house O Lord for they shall praise thee for euer for euer CHAP. XXXV A prayer which greatly moueth the hart to Deuotion and to Diuine loue O Iesus our Redemption our Desire and our Loue thou God of God giue helpe to me who am thy seruant I inuoKe thee I call vpon thee with a mighty crye and with my whole hart I inuoke thee into my soule enter into it make it fitt for thy selfe that thou maist possesse it without spott and wrinckle For to a most pure Lord a most pure habitation is due Sanctify me therfore who am the vessell which thou hast made Euacuate me of malice and fill me with grace and still keepe me full that I may be made a Temple worthy to be inhabited by thee both here and in the other euerlasting world O thou most sweete most benigne most loueing most deer most powerfull most desireable most pretious most amiable most beautifull God thou who art more sweete then hony more white then any milk or snow more delicious then Nectar more pretious then gold or jewells and more deere to me then all the riches and honors of the earth But what doe I say O my God O thou my onely hope and my so abundant mercy What doe I say O thou my happy and secure sweetnes What doe I say when I vtter such things as these I say what I can but I doe not say what I should O that I could say such things as those Quires of Angells doe vtter in those celestiall Hymns O how willingly would I euen spend powre out my whole selfe vpon thy praises O how faine would I most deuoutly and most indefatigablie proclaime those Hymns of celestiall melody in the middest of thy Church to the praise and glory of thy Name But because I am not able to doe these things compleatly shall I therefore hold my peace woe be to them who hold their peace of thee who loosest the tongues of dumm persons and makest the tongues of children eloquent Woe woe be to them who hold their peace of thee for euen they who speak most may be accompted to be but dumbe when they doe not speake thy praise But now who shal be able worthily to prayse thee O thou vnspeakable Wisdome of the Father But yet although I finde noe wordes whereby I may sufficiently vnfold thee who art the Omnipotent and Omniscient Word I will yet in thy meane tyme say what I can till thou biddest me come to thee where I may say that of thee which is fitt and which I am bound to say And therefore I humbly pray that thou wilt not haue an eye so much to that which I say now in deed as to that which I say in my desire For I desire and that with a great desire to say that of thee which is fitt and iust because it is fitt that thou be praised and celebrated and all honor is due to thee Thou seest therefore O God thou who knowest of all secrett things that thou art more deer to me not onely then the earth and all that is therein but that thou art more acceptable and amiable to me then heauen it selfe and all that it conteynes For I loue thee more then heauen and earth and all those other things which are in them Nay these transitory things are without doubt not to be beloued at all if it weare not for the loue of thy Name I loue thee O my God with a greate loue and I desire to loue thee yet more Giue me grace that I may euer loue thee as much as I desire and as much as I ought that thou alone maist be all my intention and all my meditation Let me consider thee all the day long without ceasinge let me feele thee euen when I am sleeping by night let my spiritt speake to thee lett my minde conuerse with thee let my hart be illustrated with the light of thy holy vision that thou being my Director and my Captayne I may walke on from vertue to vertue and that at last I may see thee the God of Gods in Syon Now as in a glasse or in a cloude but then face to face where I shall knowe thee as I am knowen Blessed are the cleane of hart for they are the men who shall see God Blessed are they who dwell in thy howse O Lord for euer and for euer shall they praise thee I beseech thee therefore O Lord by all thy mercyes whereby we are freed from eternall death mollyfy my hart which is hard stony and rocky and steely with thy powerfull and most sacred vnction and grant that by the fire of contrition I may become a liueing sacrifice before thee in euery moment of my life Make me euer to haue a contrite and humbled hart in thy presence with abundance of tears Grant that through my great desire of thee I may be vtterly deade to this world and that I may forgett these transitory things through the greatnes of my loue and feare of thee and this so farr forth as that I may neuer reioyce nor mourne nor feare any thinge which is temporall and that I may not loue them least so I be eyther corrupted by prosperity or deiected by aduersity And because the loue of thee is strōg as death I beseech thee that the fiery and mellifluous force of thy loue may suck vp and deuoure my whole minde from all those things which are vnder heauen that I may in heare to thee alone and be fedd with the memory of thy onely sweetnes O Lord
the power of a man to will that which he hath power to doe or to doe that which he cann will or to knowe what he cann will and doe but rather the paces of men are directed by thee the paces of them I meane who confesse themselues to be directed by thee and not by themselues Wee beseech thee therefore O Lord by the bowells of thy mercy be pleased to saue that which thou hast created For if thou wilt thou canst saue vs and the strength of our saluation consisteth in the pleasure of thy will CHAP. XXVI Of the auncient benefits of Almighty God CAll to mynde thy auncient mercy whereby thou diddest preuent vs from the beginning in those benedictions of thy sweetenes For before I was borne I who am the sonne of thy handmayde O Lord who hast bene my hope euen from the brests of my mother thou diddest preuent mee by preparing those wayes for mee wherein I might walke and whereby I was to arriue to the glory of thy house Before thou framedst mee in my mothers wombe thou knewest mee and before I parted from her wombe thou diddest praeordayne concerning mee whatsoeuer was pleasing to thy selfe What things are contayned and written in thy booke concerning mee in that secret of thy Consistory I for my parte doe not knowe and there vpon I am in extreme feare but it is well knowen to thee For that which I might expect to happen in successe of dayes and tymes betweene this and a thousand yeares hence all that is already done in the sight of thy eternity and that which is future is finished already there Now therefore whilest I liue in this darke night and whilest I am ignorant of these things feare and trembling come vpon mee since I see on all sides that many dangers doe sett vpon mee close at hand and that I am hunted by many enemyes and hemmed in by innumerable miseryes in this life And vnles I had thy helpe in the middest of so great calamityes I should despaire But still I haue a strong hope in thee O thou most meeke Prince and my God And the consideration of the multitude of those mercy which thou hast shewed to mee doth ease my minde the fore-running signes of thy mercyes which preuented mee before I was borne and doe now shine particularly towards mee doe sollicite me to haue good hope concerning those future better more perfect guifts of thy benignity which thou reseruest for thy freinds That soe I may reioyce O Lord my God with that liuely and holy ioy whereby thou dost euer recreate my youth CHAP. XXVII Of the Angels which are deputed to the custody of man FOr thou hast loued me O thou onely Loue of myne before I loued thee and thou hast created mee after thine owne Image and thou hast preferred me before all thy creatures Which dignity I keepe now also hauing knowen thee for whome thou hast made mee Thou hast also made thy Spirits Angels for my benefitt and thou hast commaunded them to keepe me in all my wayes lest els perhaps I might hurte my foote against a stone For these are the Guard which stands vpon the walls of the Citty of thy new Ierusalem and these are those Mountaynes which are sayd to stand in the circuit thereof keeping watch by night ouer thy flocke least at any time the Lyon should snatch away our soules whilest none were by to deliuer them that auncient serpent I say our aduersary the deuill who is euer walkeing the round seekeing whom he may deuowre These are those happy Citizens of Ierusalem that supernall Citty that mother of ours which is aboue and they are sent in ministery to them who are to take hold of the inheritance of saluation that they may deliuer them from theyr enemyes and guard them in all theyr wayes that they may comfort and admonish thy children and offer vp theyr prayers in the sight of the glory of thy Maiestie For they loue theyr fellow-Cittizens by whose society they expect that the ruine of the Schisme which was made by the rebellious Angells may be repayred They doe therefore assist vs with greate care and watchfull endeauour at all tymes and in all places succouring vs and making prouision against our necessityes and passeing with great sollicitude betweene vs and thee O Lord presenting our sighes and sobs to thee that they may obtayne for vs an easy pardon from thy mercy and may bring downe from thee the desired benediction of thy grace For they walke with vs in all our wayes they goe in and out with vs considering with greate attention how vertuously and piously wee conuerse in the middest of a wicked nation with great endeauour and desire we seeke the Kingdome of God and the iustice thereof with how greate feare and trembling wee serue thee and how also wee exult towards thee in the ioy of our harts They helpe such as are takeing paynes they protect such as are at rest they encourage such as fight they crowne such as conquer they reioyce with such as ioy I meane such as ioy in thee and they suffer with such as suffer I meane such as are in sufferance for thee They haue a mighty care of vs. Great is the ardour of theyr affection towards vs and all this for the honour they beare to that inestimable charity where-with thou louest vs For they loue them whom thou louest they keepe them whom thou keepest and they forsake them whom thou forsakest Nor doe they loue the workers of wickednes because thou hatest all the workers of iniquity and destroys all them who speake lyes As often as wee doe well the Angels ioy and the Deuills grieue But as often as wee swarue from vertue wee make the Deuill glad and wee depriue the Angels of theyr ioy For they haue ioy by one sinner doeing pennance but the Deuill hath ioy when pennance is giuen ouer by a good man Graunt them therefore O Father graunt that they may euer reioyce concerning vs and that thou mayest euer be praysed by them in vs and that both they and wee may be brought into one the same sheepfoulde that together wee may confesse to thy Holy Name O thou Creatour both of men and Angels Whilest I am calling these things to minde before thee I confesse to thee with prayse that these are greate benefits whereby thou hast honoured vs whilest thou giuest thy Spirits for Angels to assist vs. Thou haddest already bestowed whatsoeuer was contayned vnder the vaut of heauen yea and thou reputest that as but little which is contayned vnder heauen vnles thou mayest also add those things which are aboue the heauens Lett all thy Angels prayse thee also for this O Lord Let all thy workes also confesse to thee and let all thy Saints themselues blesse thee for it O thou our Supreame honour thou hast too highly honored vs and thou hast beautifyed and enriched vs with many guifts Thy Name O Lord is admireable ouer