exalt to so high an end as to see Thee apparently in Thy glory? What! was I not obliged to serve Thee freely and for nothing as Thy slave? then why dost Thou assign me so excellent a reward? Blessed be Thine infinite mercy, and let all the angels praise Thee for this sovereign benefit! What shall I return Thee, O Lord, for so great a reward? [1] I offer myself to serve Thee freely all my life, without desiring any other interest more than to serve Thee, for to serve God is to reign. And seeing Thou art my first beginning and my last end, give forthwith beginning to my new life, and aid me with Thy grace that I may attain to its final end. Amen.
2. This done, I will consider how ill I have pursued this end in my past life, living as if I had been created, not to serve God, but to serve my own lusts, and to seek honours, delicacies, and riches; committing for this cause innumerable sins, as if the end of my vocation had not been " sanctification," [2] but uncleanness; not " liberty" of the spirit, but liberty of "the flesh." [3]
Colloquy. — O wretch that I am, how blindly have I gone astray in that which it most imported me to know! O how ungrateful have I been to Him that created me to so high an end, and how evilly have I paid Him that did me so much good! O my Creator, that I had never offended Thee! Pardon, O Lord, my transgressions for Thine own sake, and help me to get out of them that I may lead the remainder of my life conformably to the end for which Thou hast given it me. Amen.
3. Then will I consider the great losses I sustain by losing this end; for what loss can be greater than to lose my soul, to lose God's divine grace, to lose the peace and alacrity of
