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religion with a good name. For as a good portal honours the house, and causes a desire to enter in to see what is within, so the modesty and composedness of the senses and exterior members is the most beautiful portal of virtue and religious life, making it so amiable that it excites a desire to enter in, [1] to enjoy what interiorly is inclosed within it; upon which St. Paul said, that our " modesty" should "be known to all men," for that "the Lord is nigh" [2] and present with us; and in the presence of so potent a king all we His servants ought to carry ourselves very modestly.

iv. Finally, the five senses shall receive in heaven, as afterwards will be seen, particular crowns of glory, with great pleasure in recompensing the mortification that they suffered on earth. And so, with the hope of all these benefits, I will encourage myself to mortify them with great fervour.

2. I will conclude this meditation with a sweet colloquy with our Lord Christ crucified, considering the mortification of His five senses which He suffered on the cross. This, on one hand, was most holy, casting forth resplendent rays of admirable virtues; and, on the other hand, was most painful, with the mixture of terrible agonies which He suffered for the sins that I have committed with my five senses. And considering how His eyes were obscured with spittle, His ears tormented with blasphemies, His smelling with the smell of Mount Calvary, His taste with gall and vinegar, and His feeling with whips, thorns and nails — compassionating all this, I will say to Him,

Colloquy. — It grieves me, O sweet Saviour, for the sins that I have committed with my five senses, for which Thine were so cruelly tormented! By the pains of which, pardon, I beseech Thee, the many sins of

  1. S. Ambr. lib. ii. de virginibus.
  2. Phil. iv. 5.