CHAPTER I
☙ Devout thanksgivings for the whole Life of Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man: and firstly a prayer arousing the soul to the praise of God
LORD my God, I wish to praise
Thee; for I know that to praise
Thee was the end for which I was
created.
Open Thou my lips to praise Thee, that I may worthily magnify Thy name.
Lift up my heart to Thee; keep me from being weary; shed forth upon me Thy grace; kindle in my heart the fire of Thy love; that so I may be able to render to Thee the thanks that are Thy due. Take Thou away the iniquity of Thy servant; wash me from all uncleanness, whether of the flesh or of the spirit; that so I may be made worthy to open my lips to glorify Thy Name.
But who can worthily extol the depth of Thy infinite Majesty? All the powers of Heaven, all the Angelic hosts, can never praise Thee worthily: how then can frail man attain thereto, who is a thing of corruption, and a worm?
No creature, no thought, no tongue, no lan-
