nce I do that, shall I not, _Lord, lift
up my face without spot, and be steadfast, and not fear_?[193] Even my
spots belong to thy Son's body, and are part of that which he came down
to this earth to fetch, and challenge, and assume to himself. When I
open my spots I do but present him with that which is his; and till I do
so, I detain and withhold his right. When therefore thou seest them upon
me, as his, and seest them by this way of confession, they shall not
appear to me as the pinches of death, to decline my fear to hell (for
thou hast not left thy holy one in hell, thy Son is not there); but
these spots upon my breast, and upon my soul, shall appear to me as the
constellations of the firmament, to direct my contemplation to that
place where thy Son is, thy right hand.

XIII. PRAYER.

O eternal and most gracious God, who as thou givest all for nothing, if
we consider any precedent merit in us, so givest nothing for nothing, if
we consider the acknowledgment and thankfulness which thou lookest for
after, accept my humble thanks, both for thy mercy, and for this
particular mercy, that in thy judgment I can discern thy mercy, and find
comfort in thy corrections. I know, O Lord, the ordinary discomfort that
accompanies that phrase, that the house is visited, and that, that thy
marks and thy tokens are upon the patient; but what a wretched and
disconsolate hermitage is that house which is not visited by thee, and
what a waif and stray is that man that hath not thy marks upon him?
These heats, O Lord, which thou hast brought upon this body, are but thy
chafing of the wax, that thou mightst seal me to thee: these spots are
but the letters in which thou hast written thine own name and conveyed
thyself to me; whether for a present possession, by taking me now, or
for a future reversion, by glorifying thyself in my stay here, I limit
not, I condition not, I choose not, I wish not, no more than the house
or land that passeth by any civil conveyance. Only be thou ever present
to me, O my God, and this bedchamber and thy bedchamber shall be all one
room, and the closing of these bodily eyes here, and the opening of the
eyes of my soul there, all one act.

FOOTNOTES:

[182] Psalm xci. 13.

[183] Ezek. vii. 16.

[184] Ezek. xxxvii. 3.

[185] Cant. iv. 7.

[186] Jude, 23.

[187] Job, ix. 30

[188] Eph. v. 29

[189] Josh. xxii. 17

[190] Wisd. xiii. 14

[191] Gen. xxx. 33

[192] Matt. ix. 12

[193] Job, xi.