I am content to suffer here, in hopes that my momentary pains and sufferings will be soon changed into an eternity of happiness and comfort. Let the flesh suffer and perish, so that the spirit may be safe. Scourge and afflict my body; and spare my soul for all eternity. Here wound me, here burn me, here cut me asunder; but spare me at my last hour. My whole confidence, either of living or dying well, is grounded on the infinite merits of my Redeemer's death and passion, and the blood he hath shed for my sins. Receive, O eternal Father, his precious merits, in full satisfaction for all my offences. O let me never be separated from thee. Wound my heart with thy love, that it may relish nothing that is earthly. Take off my thoughts from this mortal life, that all my comfort may be placed in thee alone. Dispose of my soul that it may be prepared at thy call to go forth and meet thee, and become thy habitation for ever. To thee I resign my heart, and bequeath my soul. O do not cast me off amongst the reprobate; but make me fit to appear in thy sight. O happy hour! when shall I behold thee? O sweet Jesus! when shall I appear before thy face? When shall I be disengaged from this earthly habitation, that I may come to the enjoyment of thee? When shall I be released from this prison, this miserable Babylon, this place of banishment, that I may bless thy name, and join with thy angels and saints in thy everlasting praise? {285} When shall I lay down this cumbrous weight of flesh, and be delivered from this body of death, which I have loved too well? Thou hast in thy justice decreed that I should die. I most humbly submit to the sentence, and readily accept it in the spirit of penance, in order to honour thee by the sacrifice of my life, and to give a proof of my obedience to thy orders. I am content to die for thy glory, and to testify that I love thee better than myself. I am content to die, that I may no longer offend thee, but that I may love thee, possess thee, praise thee, bless thee, and glorify thee for ever in heaven. I am content to die, to expiate by my death and suffering, all the sins which I have committed since I came into the world. I am ready and willing to be deprived of every thing I have loved upon earth. I renounce all the vanities of the world, and now willingly bid farewell to this vale of tears and miseries. Heaven is my happier home. Paradise is much more pleasant and agreeable, and death is the path that leads to it. O happy news of my departure! I hope I shall soon hear the choirs of angels sing forth the immortal praise of my God. To dwell one day in his holy palace, in the company of the blessed, is better than to be a thousand years in the tabernacle of sinners. {286} Let slow death then hasten on, that dying I may be no longer exposed to the dangerous occasions of sin, but that I may see and enjoy thee, my God, in paradise, and love thee eternally in the regions of bliss and immortality.