dog which it is loathsome to behold; or as a body buried in the grave and full of worms, which lies consuming and turning into dust. For all which I should contemn myself, and judge myself worthy to be despised of all.
Colloquy. — This, then, being so, to what further point can my folly reach, than with my own will to offend the majesty of Almighty God? If I be nothing of myself, how dare I offend Him that is being itself} And wherefore do I abase myself so much as to make myself less than nothing — unworthy of the being I have? If I am subject to so many calamities as may come to my soul, why do I not appease Him that may deliver me from them? O God of my soul, have regard to that which Thou createdst out of nothing; draw it from this nothing, which is sin, and join it to Thee; that by Thee it may have the essence and life of grace, and may obtain the blessed being of glory. Amen.
POINT III.
1. Thirdly, I will consider the littleness of my being, and of all the good that I have in comparison of God, proceeding by degrees, and beholding, i. What I am in comparison of all men joined together; ii. What I am in comparison of men and angels; iii. What all creatures are in comparison of God, before whom, as Isaias says, " the nations are" " as if they had no being at all, and are counted to Him as nothing and vanity;" [1] they areas "a drop" of water, or "as the morning dew that falls down upon the earth," [2] and can hardly be seen. Then what shall I alone be before Almighty God? As the stars appear not in the presence of the sun, and are as if they were not, so I, how great good soever I have, am as if I were not at all in the presence of God, and much less than a little worm in comparison of the whole world.
