I have not yet either in words or thoughts come up near to the excellence of that joy prepared for thy chosen. In short, their joy shall be equal to their love, and their love equal to their knowledge of thee and certainly the perfection of their love and knowledge of thee in the next life, must needs exceed all that ever eye hath seen, or ear heard, or the heart of man conceived.

Grant me then, even me, my dearest Lord, to know thee, and love thee, and 'rejoice in thee. And, if I cannot do these perfectly in this life, let me at least advance to higher degrees every day, till I can come to do them in perfection. Let the knowledge of thee increase in me here, that it may be full hereafter. Let the love of thee grow every day more and more here, that it may be perfect hereafter; that my joy may be great in itself, and full in thee. I know, O Lord, that thou art a God of truth, O make good thy gracious promises to me, that my joy may be full. And till it be so, let my mind meditate, my tongue speak, my heart desire and love, my soul hunger, my flesh thirst after it, and my whole nature gasp and pant most earnestly, till I actually enter into the joy of my Lord, there to remain for ever and ever, Amen.

The End of the Manual.

St. Anselm's

MEDITATIONS

CONCERNING THE

REDEMPTION OF MANKIND.

BOOK V.

t.

CHAP. I.·

CHRISTIAN soul, raised from the worst of deaths, redeemed and released from the most wretched of all slaveries, by the blood of Christ, lift up thyself, remember thy spiritual resurrection, congratulate thy own freedom and deliverance. Consider what and where the power of thy salvation is; dwell upon this subject, and delight thyself in the thankful contemplation of it. Shake off thy spiritual inappetence, commit a holy violence upon thy heart, and engage it to taste thy Saviour's goodness, and to be inflamed with his love. Suck those words which are sweeter than honey, and chew upon that food which is not only pleasant to thy taste, but wholesome for thy health and sustenance: for then dost thou suck this honeycomb, then dost thou swallow and chew upon this food, when thou studiest, and understandest, and lovest, and rejoicest in the gracious declarations of what God hath in mercy done for thy salvation.

U

Where then and what is the mighty power of thy Saviour? Christ is thy resurrection and thy life: (John xi. 25.) This is the good Samaritan who pitied thy distress, covered thy nakedness, and healed thy wounds: (Luke x. 33.) this is the kind friend, who hath delivered thee at the expense of his own life. And therefore the power of thy salvation is the power of Christ. This is he that had horns coming out of his hands, and there was the hiding of his power. (Hab. iii. 4.) For his hands were nailed to the cross; and yet, what strength was there in that weakness? what exaltation in that humility? what respect due to that ignominy and contempt? His power was hid indeed, when veiled by such an appearance of weakness, his glory under a humility that stooped so low, and submitted to such insolence and injurious treatment.

But still how wondrous was this power! For a man hanging upon a tree to execute that eternal death, to which mankind were liable, and nail to his own cross that very wickedness which crucified him! For one condemned to die with thieves, to save sinners, condemned to be tormented with devils; and when lifted up from the earth in this infamous manner, to draw all the world to him. (John xii. 32.) For one expiring in agonies unspeakable to release wretches innumerable from the pains of hell; and by undergoing the death of the body, to take away and destroy the death of so many souls.

Be

CHAP. II.

UT what my merciful, and most mighty Redeemer, what was the reason of thy choosing to conceal such glory and power under so much humility and contempt? It could not be with a design to keep the devil or the world in igno

rance, with an intent to deceive. He who is truth itself cannot conceive deceit, and though he may be said sometimes to hinder men from knowing the truth, yet such expressions mean no more, than that he suffers them to coutinue ignorant, who through their own fault know no better. But it is plain, thou didst not take the human nature to keep thyself altogether unknown, but to reveal what was not known before; thou didst declare thyself to be very God and very man, and by thy doings and sufferings didst evidently demonstrate thyself to be both.

The mystery indeed was of its own nature dark, but it was not made industriously so: nor was its obscurity contrived to hide it from the world, but necessary for the accomplishment of those great ends, by methods which God saw most agreeable to his wise purposes. And when we read of this mystery being hid, we are only to understand, that it was not made manifest to all. For though truth do not fully discover itself to every body, yet it does not shun or deny access to any body. Thou didst not therefore thus order the matter, either with an intention to deceive, or that any might thereby deceive himself; but didst bear constant testimony to the truth, that this gracious dispensation might be complete in all its parts. If therefore men were led into error, the fault was not in thee, but themselves; not in thy truth, but in their own love of falsehood. Could the devil allege any thing against God or man, which might oblige God to alter his measures, and deal with him as a fair and open enemy? No, it was just that he who had contrived to put so holy and innocent a person to an unjust death, should lose that power which he had before, of bringing the guilty to the death they justly deserved.

It is certain there was nothing due to the devil

from God but punishment, nor from man but resistance and conquest. So that, as man had suffered himself to be conquered by this enemy before, when he was seduced into sin; he might afterwards conquer him in return, by the human nature persevering in unblemished righteousness even unto death. And this too was a debt which man owed to no other but God: for in sinning he did not offend against the devil, but against God; nor was he of right a subject of the devil's, but both he and the devil were subjects of God, and under his dominion. The mischiefs and temptations by which man's destruction was attempted, did not proceed from any zeal for goodness, but purely from wickedness and malice: God did not command, but only permit those attempts upon his creatures: nor was this permission upon any other consideration, than because the justice of God required it. So that God was under no obligations, but perfectly free to chuse his own methods and his own time, and to save mankind when and how he pleaseth.

B High

CHAP. III.

UT was there any necessity that the Most should humble himself so low, and that Omnipotence, which can do every thing at ease, should be at so much pains to compass any of its designs? No, every thing that we call necessary or impossible, is entirely at the free disposal of the Divine will. Whatever he decrees must of necessity be; and what he will not have done, cannot possibly be. All we can say then in the point is only this, that it was his will it should be so. And because he always wills that which is good, we may safely infer, that it was fit