First Meditation

OF THE DIGNITY AND THE WOE OF MAN’S ESTATE

Section IV

All of us who have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.

Rouse thyself, my soul; rouse thyself, and let the fire of a love from heaven blaze in thy inmost parts, and learn thou carefully the dignity bestowed on thee by thy Lord God; and learning, love; and loving, revere with the addresses of a holy practice. Does not He who has assigned thee a dwelling in Himself, and has deigned to dwell in thee, does not He clothe thee, deck thee, and adorn thee with Himself? “As many of you,” says the Apostle, “as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. iii. 27). What worthy meed of praise, then, and of thanks wilt thou pay Him who has invested thee with such grace and exalted thee to so great dignity, as that with thy heart’s happiest outburst of joy thou mayest well exclaim, “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice He hath covered me” (Is. lxi. 10)? To the angels of God, to gaze on Christ is supremest joy; and, lo, of His infinite condescension He has bent Himself to thee so low as to will thee to be clothed with Himself. What sort of clothing can it be, but that of which the Apostle glories when he says, “Christ . . . is made unto us of God wisdom and justice and sanctification” (1 Cor. i. 30)? And with what stately robes could He have more richly decked thee than with the amice of wisdom, the apparel of justice, the fair covering of sanctification?