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 than thee. In thee alone, and in none other than thee, would I trust, and I should more certainly hope for mercy at thy hand than from my best and dearest friend. For if I had sinned as often and as grievously against any one of my friends as I have against thee, I am most sure that I could not hope for pardon, even from the most tender and compassionate of mothers. Yea, had I been so rebellious and so unloving to my own mother as I have been to thee, she would have cast me off for ever. But thou, notwithstanding all the many and grievous insults I have heaped upon thee, and notwithstanding all my many and grievous negligences in thy service, dost still cherish and sustain me.

And dost thou think, O most loving Father, that I have the smallest doubt that I shall attain to everlasting bliss? Do thou thyself forbid. For my hope of attaining that bliss rests not on my own merits, but on the faithful promise of thy Only-begotten, and on his most abundant and exuberant merits, which he has communicated and made over to his elect. And hence I abound with so great joy and consolation, because I seem already to possess that for which I so eagerly long. For thy Son,who has promised me salvation and his merits, which are its title and its price, is most faithful, nor can any word which has