The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please…

Oh the wonderful disposition of heavenly grace! Oh the unmeasurable measure of divine mercy! the wicked transgresseth & the just is punished; the guilty is let escape, and the innocent is arraigned; the malefactor is acquitted, and the harmless condemned: what the evil man deserveth, the good man suffereth; the servant doth the fault, the master endures the strokes. What shall I say? Man sinneth, and God dieth. O Son of God! who can sufficiently express thy love, or commend thy pity, or extol thy praise? I was ⟨p. 463⟩proud, & thou art humbled; I was disobedient, and thou becamest obedient; I did eat the forbidden fruit, & thou didst hang on the cursed tree; I plaid the glutton, and thou didst fast, evil concupiscence drew me to eat the pleasa•• apple, and perfect charity led thee to drink of the bitter cup; I assayed the sweetness of the fruit, and thou didst taste the bitterness of the gall. Foolish Eve smiled when I laughed; but blessed Mary wept when thy heart bled & died O my God, here I see thy goodness and my badness, thy justice and my injustice, the impiety of my flesh, and the piety of thy nature. And now, O blessed Lord, thou hast endured all this for my sake; what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits bestowed upon me a sinful soul? Indeed, Lord, I acknowledge, that I owe thee already for my creation more than I am able to pay: for I am in that respect bound, with all my powers and affections to love and adore thee. If I owed my self unto thee for giving me my self in my creation, what shall I now render to thee for giving thy self for me to so cruel a death, to procure my Redemption? Great was the benefit that thou wouldest create me of nothing: but what tongue can express the greatness of this grace, that thou didst redeem me with so dear a price when I was worse than nothing? Surely, Lord, if I cannot pay the thanks I owe thee (and who can pay thee, who bestowest thy graces without respect of merit or regard of measure?) it is the abundance of thy blessings that makes me such a bankrupt, that I am so ⟨p. 464⟩far unable to pay the principal, that I cannot possibly pay so much as the interest of thy love.

Oh the wonderful disposition of heavenly grace! Oh the unmeasurable measure of divine mercy! the wicked transgresseth & the just is punished; the guilty is let escape, and the innocent is arraigned; the malefactor is acquitted, and the harmless condemned: what the evil man deserveth, the good man suffereth; the servant doth the fault, the master endures the strokes. What shall I say? Man sinneth, and God dieth. O Son of God! who can sufficiently express thy love, or commend thy pity, or extol thy praise? I was