IV. That all we, who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.
St. Anselm The Devotions of Saint Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury God is holy, saith the Apostle, which temple ye are.79 Do thou therefore follow earnestly after holiness without fainting, lest thou cease to be the temple of God. He Himself saith of His own, I will dwell in them and walk in them.80 Doubt not that wheresoever there are holy souls, He is in them. For if thou thyself too art everywhere wholly in thy members, to which thou givest life;81 how much more is God wholly every where, who created both thy self and thy body? Thus it is to be with all diligence considered with what great circumspection and reverence we ought to exercise our senses and the members of our body, over which the Godhead itself presideth. Let us therefore, as is right, give to so great a tenant the whole command of our body, so that nothing in us may be displeasing to Him, but that all our thoughts and motions of our will, all our words and works, may wait upon His pleasure, obey His will, and be ordered by His governance. For so we shall be in truth His kingdom, and He will abide in us, and we, abiding in Him, shall live well.
IV That all we, who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.
AWAKE, I beseech thee, O my soul, and let the fire of a heavenly love be kindled in thy heart, and wisely consider the beauty which Thy Lord God hath bestowed upon thee, and in considering love it, and in loving do it reverence with the service of a holy conversation. For doth not He who maketh thee to abide in Him, and hath condescended to dwell in thee, clothe thee, cover thee, adorn thee with Himself? As many of you, saith the Apostle, as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.82
What praise, what thanksgiving wilt thou rightly bestow upon Him, who hath clothed thee with so great beauty, exalted thee to so great honour, that thou canst say with all joy of heart, The Lord hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.83
It is the highest joy of the angels of God to contemplate Christ, and lo, of His boundless condescension He so far inclineth unto thee, as to be pleased to clothe thee with Himself. What
1 Cor. iii. 17.
2 Cor. vi. 16.
See Proslogion, ch. xiii.
Gal. iii. 27.
Isa. lxi. 10.