tion of that most mysterious of all the divine books.
It begins: Solomon inspiratus: It is not what his erudition might have
suggested, but what love inspired him with in his last mordents, when
his pure soul was hastening to break the chains of mortality, and drown
itself in the ocean of God's immensity, and in the delights of
eternity.[13] The holy doctor at last finding himself too weak to
dictate any more, begged the religious to withdraw, recommending himself
to their prayers, and desiring their leave to employ the few precious
moments he had to live with God alone. He accordingly spent them in
fervent acts of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, humility, and
repentance. He made a general confession of his whole life to F.
Reynold, with abundance of tears for his imperfections and sins of
frailty; for in the judgment of those to whom he had manifested his
interior, he had never offended God by any mortal sin. And he said to F.
Reynold, before his death, that he thanked God with his whole heart for
having prevented him with his grace, and always conducted him as it were
by the hand, and preserved him from any known sin that destroys charity
in the soul; adding, that this was purely God's mercy to which he was
indebted for his preservation from every sin which he had not
committed.[14] Having received absolution in the sentiments of the most
perfect penitent, he desired the Viaticum. While the abbot and community
were preparing to bring it, he begged to be taken off his bed, and laid
upon ashes spread upon the floor. Thus lying on the ground, weak in body
but vigorous in mind, he waited for the priest with tears of the most
tender devotion. When he saw the host in the priest's hand, he said: "I
firmly believe that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is present in
this august sacrament. I adore you, my God and my Redeemer: I receive
You, the price of my redemption, the Viaticum of my pilgrimage; for
whose honor I have studied, labored, preached, and taught. I hope I
never advanced any tenet as your word, which I had not learned from you.
If through ignorance I have done otherwise, I revoke every thing of that
kind, and submit all my writing, to the judgment of the holy Roman
church." Then recollecting himself, after other acts of faith,
adoration, and love, he received the holy Viaticum; but remained on the
ashes till he had finished his thanksgiving. Growing still weaker, amid
his transports of love, he desired extreme u