eekness and gentleness, in silence of the
lips, in poverty and want, in chastity and temperance, in humbleness
and quietude of mind, in perfect charity toward God and their
neighbour, carrying their present life down to the grave, and becoming
Angels in their ways. Wherefore God hath graced them with miracles,
signs and various virtues and made the voice of their marvellous life
to be sounded forth to the ends of the world. If I open my mouth to
declare in every point the life of one of them who is said to have been
the founder of the monastic life, Antony by name, by this one tree thou
shalt assuredly know the sweet fruits of other trees of the like kind
and form, and shalt know what a foundation of religious life that great
man laid, and what a roof he built, and what gifts he merited to
receive from the Saviour. After him many fought the like fight and won
like crowns and guerdons.

"Blessed, yea, thrice blessed, are they that have loved God, and, for
his love's sake, have counted every thing as nothing worth. For they
wept and mourned, day and night, that they might gain everlasting
comfort: they humbled themselves willingly, that there they might be
exalted: they afflicted the flesh with hunger and thirst and vigil,
that there they might come to the pleasures and joys of Paradise. By
their purity of heart they became a tabernacle of the Holy Ghost, as it
is written, 'I will dwell in them and walk in them.' They crucified
themselves unto the world, that they might stand at the right hand of
the Crucified: they girt their loins with truth, and alway had their
lamps ready, looking for the coming of the immortal bridegroom. The
eye of their mind being enlightened, they continually looked forward to
that awful hour, and kept the contemplation of future happiness and
everlasting punishment immovable from their hearts, and pained
themselves to labour, that they might not lose eternal glory. They
became passionless as the Angels, and now they weave the dance in their
fellowship, whose lives also they imitated. Blessed, yea, thrice
blessed are they, because with sure spiritual vision they discerned the
vanity of this present world and the uncertainty and inconstancy of
mortal fortune, and cast it aside, and laid up for themselves
everlasting blessings, and laid hold of that life which never faileth,
nor is broken by death.

"These then are the marvellous holy men whose examples we, that are
poor and vile, strive to