ments will be very grievous, and of so long a continuance as to be eternal. Seeing, also, that chastisements, when beheld very far distant, terrify but little, I will imagine that this book of God's justice comes flying very swiftly upon the house of my soul: and it may be that it is already very near, and that it will this day light upon it, death or chastisement seizing suddenly upon it. For if I hasten to sin, God will likewise hasten His punishments, and make desolate my body, soul, honour, wealth, and all that I have. With this wholesome apprehension, I will beseech our Lord to illuminate my soul that I may know the sins that are written in this book, and the chastisements that I have deserved, aiding me with His grace to bewail them bitterly, that by my penance I may blot out my sins, and that His mercy may likewise blot out the maledictions that He had written against them.
ii. This being premised, I will begin the meditation discoursing upon the ten commandments of the divine law, remembering that the commandments of God have, as Cassian says, [1] two senses, the one literal and the other spiritual. The first serves for ordinary people, that intend no more than to save themselves; the second for those that desire greater perfection, who are not content to avoid only mortal and venial sin, but whatsoever imperfection is contrary to the end of the precept. And, according to the second end, I will declare in what manner we sin against every commandment
POINT I.
1. First, I shall consider what Almighty God commands and prohibits [2] in His holy law; and in what manner we sin against it, running through the ten commandments, and through that which, they spiritually include in them.
