VII. A Commemoration of our Sins, for which our Conscience doth reproach us, and whereby we have lost all these things.
St. Anselm The Devotions of Saint Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury sittest on Thy throne in heaven, exalted above the Angels. That is Thy word, that is Thy promise.
Thou hast promised, saying: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.93
Draw therefore now in Thy mighty exaltation him whom Thou didst draw to Thee in Thy merciful humiliation. Thou hast gone up on high; let me believe it: Thou reignest over all things; let me acknowledge it. Do I not acknowledge that Thou reignest? Surely I acknowledge it, and give Thee thanks. But do Thou grant that I may acknowledge with the acknowledgment of a perfect love that which I acknowledge by a devout faith concerning Thee. Bind the desires of my heart to Thee with the indissoluble bonds of love, since the first-fruits of my spirit are already with Thee. Vouchsafe that we, whom Thy love in redeeming us did knit to Thee, may have fellowship with Thee in the unity of the same love. For Thou hast loved me, Thou didst give Thyself for me; may therefore my heart and mind be with Thee continually in heaven, and Thy protection with me continually on earth. Help him when he burneth with longing after Thy love, to whom Thou didst show love when he despised it. Give to him when he asketh, to whom Thou givest Thyself when he knew Thee not.
Receive him when he returneth to Thee, O Thou who didst call him back to Thee when he fled from Thee. I will love Thee that I may be loved of Thee; nay rather, because I am loved of Thee,
I will love Thee more and more that I may be loved the more. May my thoughts be knit to Thee, may my heart be wholly made one with Thee, where our nature, which Thou hast in mercy taken upon Thyself, reigneth with Thee in bliss. Grant that I may cleave to Thee without parting, worship
Thee without wearying, serve Thee without failing, faithfully seek Thee, happily find Thee, for ever possess Thee.
Addressing God in these words, O my soul, do thou kindle thyself, do thou burn, do thou break forth into flames, and strive to become wholly on fire with longing after Him.
VII A Commemoration of our Sins, for which our Conscience doth reproach us, and whereby we have lost all these things.
BUT when thou considerest to what good things and to how great thou hast been by His grace advanced, remember also what good things and how great thou hast lost through thy fault, into how evil a state thou hast by thy sins been cast down. Consider with sighing the evil that thou hast done in thy wickedness; think with groaning upon the good things which thou for that evil's sake hast miserably lost. For what good thing did thy most excellent Creator out of His goodness bestow upon thee; what evil didst thou not render Him, thou that wast nurtured in detestable unrighteousness?
John xii. 32.
St. Anselm The Devotions of Saint Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury By losing the good thou hast deserved the evil, nay by casting away the good thou hast chosen the evil; and losing or rather rejecting the grace of thy Maker, thou hast to thy misery increased His anger. Nor canst thou prove thyself guiltless, when the multitude of thy sins, like a mighty army, encompasseth thee about; here casting in thy teeth the reproach of thy wicked deeds; there bringing forth a store exceeding great of idle and (which deserve a greater condemnation) harmful words spoken by thee; there again displaying the vast mass of thine evil thoughts.
These are those things for whose sake thou hast lost things good beyond all price; for the sake of these hast thou endured to be without the grace of Him that made thee. Groan as thou thinkest upon them, renounce them as thou groanest, condemn them as thou renouncest them, renounce them by changing thy life for a better. Strive inwardly with thyself, lest anon, even for a moment, thou assent to some vanity, whether in heart or in tongue or, what hath the greatest condemnation, even in deed. Let there be in thy mind a daily, nay, a continual warfare, lest thou keep any league with thy sins. Strictly examine thyself always, search out the secrets of thy heart, and whatsoever thou findest in thy self that is reprobate, smite it with severe reproofs, throw it down, crush it, root it out, cast it forth, destroy it altogether. Spare not thyself, be not gentle with thyself, but in the morning (that is, in the contemplation of the Last Judgment, for the Last Judgment followeth like the morning light upon the night of this present life) destroy all the ungodly that are in the land
(that is, the offences and sins of a worldly conversation) that thou mayest root out from the city of the Lord (which thou oughtest to build within thyself) all wicked doers (that is, all suggestions of the devil, all delights that God hateth, all deadly consentings, all perverse deeds).94 From all such thou shouldest, as a city of God, be purified, that thy Creator may find and take in possession and continually hold a habitation within thee, wherein He may have pleasure. Be not of those whose obstinacy God Himself seems to lament, saying: There is no man layeth it to heart and saith, What
have I done?95 If they are rejected, because they refused to be ashamed for the evil which they have done, and to reprove themselves, wilt thou not take care, in order that thou mayest come soon into the number of the elect, to call thyself to account, to judge thyself, to correct thyself with severe discipline? Consider then diligently in thy meditations the benefits which thy Creator hath bestowed upon thee, wherewith without any merits of thine He hath exalted thee; and call to mind the innumerable evil thoughts words and deeds, wherewith thine unrighteousness unworthily recompensed His kindness, and conceiving great sorrow in thyself, cry aloud, What have I done?
I have vexed God, I have provoked my Creator to wrath, I have recompensed His innumerable benefits with innumerable sins.
Ps. ci. 11. The Vulgate has in the morning (A.V. early) for the soon of the Prayer-book version.
The quotation is a composite one, from Isa. lvii. 1, and Jer. viii. 6.