this heavenly food now received: Ah, hard and perverse heart of mine, how canst thou continue earthly, when thou art fed with the bread of heaven? When at length wilt thou become heavenly? How is it that thou dost remain sensual, and alienated from the Spirit, who art spiritually preserved? Is it because thou dost consist of earth? O Jesu, remember here what Thou hast elsewhere said, I come to send a fire, and what is my desire, but that it may be kindled? Let it be kindled in me, that I may be carried upwards, and seek the things which are above, where Thou sittest at the right hand of God: that though my body converse here on earth, my affections may be in Heaven, that from henceforth not so much I do live, as Thy grace may be said to live in me.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE ELEVENTH GENERAL MEDITATION, TO BE USED AFTER THE RECEIVING OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.

1. CONSIDER, with what labours and tears Adam, after He was cast out of Paradise, did eat the

8 Luke xii. 49.

bread of carefulness all the days of his life. But now man, received into the state of grace, is come to feed on the Bread of Life itself.

h

2. Consider, that Solomon would not let his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, an idolater, dwell in his house, because the Ark of God had been there. So we ought not to let sin reign in us after the receiving of the Holy Eucharist, because the Ark of His Covenant also hath been received of us.

3. Consider, that as the Israelites when they had eaten the Paschal Lamb, and were delivered from Pharaoh's bondage, made no stay in Egypt, but set forward forthwith towards the land of promise: so after this our Passover, wherein a mighty deliverance from the hands of our spiritual Pharaoh is obtained, we are to depart from the works of darkness to go forward without delay, from grace to grace, from virtue to virtue, until we come to our Heavenly Canaan.

4. Consider, how the wise men, when they had seen Christ at Bethlehem, and there done their homage, they returned not by ambitious and cruel Herod, nor by the troublesome Jerusalem, but per aiiam viam, another way. So we, having visited Christ at our Bethlehem, which signifieth the house of bread, and there offered our souls and bodies h I Kings vii. 8. I Matthew ii. 12.

a sacrifice unto Him, should return towards our own country, which is above, not by the ambitious and troublesome desires of the world, but pass along peaceably a better way, that we may at the last come unto our heavenly, that is, our proper country, there to abide for ever.

5. Consider, how just Noah was an hundred years together labouring to frame and build an ark to save him from the flood: and should not we endeavour for the time to come, to spend it wholly in framing a good conscience before God and man, which shall one day save us from a flood of miseries?

6. Consider, that a publican who before did exact by extremity from others, but having received Christ into his house, became beneficial unto others, and readily made restitution for all the wrong he had offered beforetime.

7. Consider the admonition and absolution that Christ gave unto him that was cured by the pool's side, “Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more!." 8. Consider how Saul, after he was preserved by God, became another man.

9. Consider, how God doth complain by His prophets, against the ingratitude of His people, and how He accepteth those who are thankful 1 John v. 14.

Luke xix. 8.

unto Him; "I have nourished children, and they have rebelled against Mem." Christ said unto the Samaritan, "Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole "."

10. Consider, that to make an apostasy from the calling to grace, were great indignity offered unto God, and hurt to ourselves.

II. Consider, how from henceforth we ought to keep a watch over all our senses, without which the soul is as a city without walls, exposed to the invasion of enemies, or as a vessel without a cover, which in the old law was impure.

12. Remember how the children of Israel, to avoid the punishment of the firstborn of the Egyptians, sprinkled their door-posts with the blood of the Lamb in like manner, to avoid the death of sin, let us sprinkle the posts of our hearts with the continual remembrance of Christ's Passion. I bear in my body the dying of Jesus, saith St. Paul.

13. Remember that "I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them° ?"

THE FRUIT OF THIS MEDITATION

Is, first, to acknowledge with all thankfulness, God's goodness towards us; secondly, to apply n Luke xvii. 19. • Canticles v. 3.

m Isaiah i. 2.

ourselves wholly for the time to come to serve Him in holiness and righteousness, that we may daily endeavour to appear before the God of gods in Zion P.

THE SOLILOQUY.

Remember, O my soul, that thou hast been fed with the food of Angels, and therefore shouldest not now turn to feed on the husks of swine, that is, sensual affections. Thou knowest that wise king Solomon would not that his own wife, who was Pharaoh's daughter, should dwell in the house where the Ark of God was; for he counted it wickedness, that a woman descending from the stock of the Gentiles, enemies unto God and His people, should inhabit so holy a place. How great wickedness, then, should it be to receive sin, where God Himself, the Lord of the Ark, is conversant. In the Ark were contained the Tables of the Law; in my heart let there be ever a desire of fulfilling Thy will. When the God of all power and majesty hath made thee His handmaid, is it not a sign of singular love and favour? Oughtest thou not to render Him again all service and duty? The Patriarch Jacob was content to serve seven years, and after that seven more, and all for Rachel; which time, 91 Kings vii. 8.

P Psalm lxxxiv. 7.