The pomander of prayer, newly madeThe pomaunder of prayer, newly made

O my God my life, thou didst say with thy holy & blessed mouth, If any man thirst, let him cum unto me and drink. O well of life, grant unto my thirsty soul alway to drink of thee, that according to thy holy and true pro mice, waters of life may flow out of my belly. O well of life replenish and fill my mind full of the river of thy pleasure. Make my hart to be drunken as it were in thy love, that after the manner of the that be drunken with wine, which forget all things save the cup: so I may forget all vain and earthly things, and continually have nothing else in my remembrance ⟨p. 109⟩but the only, according as it is written, I remembered God and was delighted. Give me the holy Ghost whom those waters did signify, which thou didst promise to give to them that thirsted after thee. Grant I beseech thee) that I may assay to goo with my hole desire and all my study toward that place unto the which, we believe thou didst ascend the forty day after thy resurrection, that in this present misery I may be only in body: but in thought and desire, always with thee: that my hart may be there where as thou art which art my treasure worthy to be coveted, and much ⟨image 112⟩to be loved, wherewith no treasure is worthy to be compared. In this great flood of this life, where as we are tossed with storms on every side, there is no steadfast standing or place high enough above the waters, no not for the foot of a dove to rest upon in this (I say) there is no safe or quiet peace: nowhere any sure rest: every where battle and strife: every where enemies and fightings without doors, & fear at home within doors. And forasmuch as the one part of us is heavenly, and the other earthly: our body which is corrupted, doth laden and is burdenous ⟨p. 110⟩unto the soul. Therefore my mind which is my fellow and friend, being weary with wandering forth of the way, is sick and lieth all to torn and rent of those things which it hath passed by. It hungereth and thirsteth greatly after vanities, & I have nothing to set afore it, because I am poor and a beggar. Thou (O Lord) my God, art rich in all good things, and the most plenteous giver of the dainties of heavenly satiety: give meat unto the weary, not such as it lusteth after, but such as is convenient for it: gather together the disper sed: renew and refresh the corn, ⟨image 113⟩