Life of Mary of Egypt

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Life of St. Mary of Egypt (English)

Edition: The life of St. Mary of Egypt. The example and model of a true penitent (1755). Source: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-life-of-st-mary-of-_1755 License: Public domain (US). Attribution: Traditional Vita associated with Sophronius of Jerusalem (authorship debated). Note: 18th-century OCR; long-s normalized; artifacts remain.

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HE Life I here present you, Chriftian Reader, is so much of the

marvellous Kind, that in our present Sceptic Age, which looks upon every Event as fabulous and romantic that 5 not appear in the common Light and within the ordinary Course of Providence, it may be Judged necessary to vindicate it from that Imputation. 1 have, therefore, in the Preamble to this wonderful Hiftory, prepared you for it, by endeavouring to make you sensible that the Ways of Almighty Go, in his Conduct of the Elect, are impenetrable ; and

the Operations of Grace above the Reach of human Under/landing. In the Close of the Life, IJ have produced unquestionable Precedents from the revealed Hitory, Holy Writ, parallel to whatsoever Event

you had met with of the surprising Nature, in what you had just read, to evince their Feafibility and

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To the Christian Reader,

And e the Memoir rs of the Saints, and of those who have been most conspicuous in their Fidelity and Correspondence with God's Graces, have been providentially preserved and handed down to us, not fo much to raise our Admiration of them, as for

our own Instruction, and to put us upon an Emulation of their Virtues ; I have shewn that the same Fruit may also be drawn from the Life we have Before us; and by annexing proper Reflections and Inferences from it, and bringing the Business home to ourselves, I have calculated it for every one's State and Condition, who having been Sinners like St. Maxy of Egypt, are defirous, like her, of becoming true and fincere Penitents.

May Go, in his infinite Mercy and Grodnes, | through the Intercession of our Saint, inspire every one, that reads her penitential Life, with these | salutary Resolutions. Amen.

528 E E Life I here present you with, 2 25, Christian Reader, is so much of the | LA N Marvellous, that, in our present 2 Sceptic Age, which looks upon every Event as fabulous and romantic that does not appear in the common Light and within the ordinary Course of Providence, it may be Judged necessary to vindicate it from that Imputation. 1 have, therefore, in the Preamble to this wonderful History, prepared you for it, by endeavouring to make you sensible that the Ways of Almighty Gop, in his Conduct of the Ele, are unsearchable ; and the Operations of Grace above the Reach of human Understanding. In the Close of the Story, I have produced unquestionable Precedents from Holy Writ, parallel to whatsoever Event you had met with of the surprising Nature, in what you had just read, to evince their Feasibility and Credibility.

To the Christian Reader.

TV Aud whereas the Memoirs of the Sainte, and of | ' be who have been most conspicuous in their Fidelity and Correspondence with Gop's Graces, have been providentially preserved and handed down to us, not fo much to raise our Admiration of them, as for our own Instruction, and to put us upon an Emulation of their Virtues ; I have shewn that the sam? Fruit may also be drawn from the Life we have 1 before us; and by annexing proper Reflections and nt ages it, and bringing the Bufinefs home 4 0 dursetves, J have calculated it for every Sin- NH, ner's State and Condition, who having unfortu- | nately sirayed out of the Paths of Virtue, like * St. Mary of Egypt, 2s defirous, like her, of | recovering his Steps by a true and sincere Repentance. It will, perhaps, still be said, that the Story of a Prostitute, even becoming a Penitent, does not at least seem to be a Subject so properly suted to the virtuous Part of the Sex, to'the Innocent, or to Persons of Rank and Cbaracter.— | Yes, while there is Joy before the Angels of | Gop on one Sinner doing Penance, [Luke c. x. v. 10.] there can, surely, be none upon Earth, hcwwever innocent their Lives may have been, however distinguished their Character, who can disdain to join with the Heavenly Choir in their Allelujahs

To the Christian Reader.

Satan; or that tan think either their Persons, their Sex, or their Charatter tifhonoured, by having an eminent Example of true Penitence sub-

mitted to their Admiration; offered as a Subject

proper to employ their contemplative Hours, and not wholly out of the Reach of therr Imitation. The Mercy of Gob, and the aftonishing Power of Divine Grace is, certainly, more conspicuous upon a Sinner becoming a Penitent, than in u virtuous, unspotted Soul retaining its primitive Beauty, and- preserving untai need its Innocence. And, therefore, tho the Repentance of St. Maxy of Egypt for Sins, the Innocent never had been guilty of, does not fall to their Spare; yet her

inflamed Love of Gon, after her Conversion ; hey

grateful thankfulness for the Divine Mercies fhewn ber ; her un Halen Fidelity, and close Attachment to her Duty, in a fieady Course of Virtue ; ber Ex-

ercises of Penance, and a total Affeckion td what

was good, with an utter Abhorrence of Evil, are Objects of every one's Imitation; of the Saint as well as the Sinner ; of. the Perfect and Imperfett. St. John Baptist, 750 sandtified in his Mother's Womb,

did not dispense himself with the Practice of any

Part of these V. irtues: And the Rule of all Virtue,

of Jubile o this Triumph of Grath over Sin and

To the Christian Reader.

danctity 7tself, our Blessed Lord, who tells us that He has set himself” as a Pattern to us, to do as he has. done, [St. John c. 13. v. 15.] was eminently Aistinguisbed in every Branch of the _ consum-

These then, Gentle Reader, are the Lessons of Christian Perfection the History of St. Many F Egypt furnishes us with; Courage to enter upon the Course of Virtue and Penance ; Fidelity and Constancy in the Practice of it; and what is to crown all our Labours at last, in our UL ritual Career, final Perseverance. May God, in his infinite Mercy and Goodness, through the Intercession of our Saint, inspire us with her generous Resolution ; Bless it here with his Grace of Perseverance, 0 reward it hereafter with |

The impenetrable Ms syftery of Almi whey Go D's Conduct, with respect to Bus Elect, accounts for every Thing that occurs in the Saints Lives of the Jurong or marvellous N, ature,

H E Glory of God is display d throughout all his Works , but &9 in a different Manner. In the 5 > Works of Nature he is visible and magnificent : The Heavens, says the Psalmist, proclaim the Glory 3

and his bee, conduct with 1 to . . Ek, he is invisible, but wonderful: Monderful, said the same Prophet, is Go in his Saints. [P/ 67. v. 36.] Here the Mystery of his Divine Counsels surpasses all Human Understanding, and is out of the Power of Man to unfold. Here St. Paul, that illuminated Apostle, who was caught up into Paradise, and was made privy to Secrets, which it is not granted to Man ta utter, [2 Cor. c. 12. v. 4.] when he came to speak of the Dispensations of Divine Grace,

found himself at a Plunge, and confessed that

he was unequal to the Task; crying out, in an Extasy of Admiration, h Altitudo ! that

this was a Secret kept from him, an Abyss he Was unable to fathom, a+ boundless Ocean

Jo wit, Almighty Gop brings about his merciful Defigns in regard to Man, his Operations, I fay, of Grace, from contrary Causes ; and even draws Good out of Evil: He trains up his Servants to Virtue by various Trials ; and through eross, intricate, and seemingly oppofite Paths, le ads them up to the Mount of rs Sox, for Instance, 1s Ginn with the Marks of his special Favour and Election from

the first Moment they receive their Being. Ju. cob as favoured with this distinctive Preference to his Brother Esau, when, they being yet un born, Gov faid of them, Jacob I lobe; Eu! have in abborrence. Malach. c. I. v. 4. Rom. c. 9. v. 11. 15. Virtue in these Favotfites of Heaven seems to be their natural Disposttlön, and thie Service of their Maker their Delight and whole Occupation. Fortunate Souls! who have here, as it were, a foretaste of the Reavenly Joys, and are exercifing themselves now int what will be their perpetual Employment, Aid constitute their essential TY for 4 an E. _ Otutxs,' on the ka are Good 106 _ painful Struggles and Conflicts with the Fla; the World and the Devil, fo long as ey tives and are necefsitated to wade to Heaven throtigh . the Waters of sundry Tribulations, ande almost unsurmountable Difficulties. 5 1 Turk is a third Class, entirely different ay from the two we have mention d, of fuch as suffer themselves to be hurried away at first, by the impetuosity of their Passions, into the Gulf of Vice ; falling — with the Stream,

till their patient Saviour, watching a favours able Opportunity, stops them in their Career, and brings them back to their Duty. Of such

as drink of the intoxicating Cups of Impiety and Vanity, even to a Surfeit, before they are

prevailed upon to look out for a Remedy to re-

cover themselves out of their loathsome State. Of those, infine, who sink fo deep into the

Maire and Filth of Sin, as to have Occasion for

_ a miraculous Power to drag them out of it:

But being, thro the gracious Mercy of Go,

once happily reclaimed from their evil Ways,

they become as eager in the pursuit of Virtue

as they had been before in the practice of Vice;

and even their Passions, and their natural Viva-

| city of Temper, are, by a happy Turn, made the Instruments to the Divine Grace in their

Sanctification and Perfection. Such was once St. Paul, of an enrag d Wolf, instantly

changed into a meek Lamb; of a virulent Per-

secutor of Christ's Disciples, made a zealous

Proselyte himfelf. Such, among many others,

was afterwards that great Light of the Church St, Aust ne; Who, from a professed Libertine, became a Teacher and Example of Virtue-; from a pertinacious Abettor of Error, a ftre-

muous Champion for Truth. Such also was St. Mary of Egypt, whose Life I attempt to give

a e Sketch of in the following Lines.

The $i of St. Mary of Egypt: Her ful Life in the World ; her miraculous Call to Repentance, and thorough Conversion.

' AINT Mary of Egypt, fo firnamed from the Country that gave her Birth, in the

fifth Century, was blessed with good natural Parts ; was of a quick, lively Temper, but wholly under the Government of her concupi-

scible Appetites, and a Slave to Sensuality. With these fervent, impetuous Dispositions, she

had not the Patience to brook the inevitable

Restraint laid upon her in her Parents House, from whose watchful Eyes no Part of her Conduct could be hid; and what was Irregular was sure to meet with its just Rebuke. Therefore, being but twelve Years old, (ripe for her Age, but riper in Malice) she, like the pro-

digal Child, privately withdrew from her pa-

ternal Home, renouncing all temporal Expecances she had there, and the Prospect of an

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honest and creditable Settlement; to go to a lexandria, a large and populous City-in Egyßt, where sne might give the Reins to her Passions without Check or Control. There she effec-

tually abandon'd herself up to all the Liberties

of a licentious and finful Life, satiating her own lustful Appetites, and becoming, at the same Time, the Agent and Minister to the criminal Pleasures of others; a Snare to the Innocent, and the Corrupter of Youth ; whom,

by every Artifice, she endeavour'd to debauch, and to make them a Party in her sinful Disorders: And, left the desire of Lnere should

be thought to influence her criminal Prostitutions, she affected to reject what her Gallants

voluntarily offer d her, maintaining herself by

Begging, or from the Work of her Hands; by this Means doubly obliging those who were as a+

bandon' d in Licentiousness as herself, and mak-

ing an easier Conquest of others, to whom the

fear of purchasing their Pleafures at too dear a Rate had been some Check on their vicious In-

In this habitude of Sin she had spent Givens teen Years, a public Scandal to Man, a Slave to che Devil, and the object of Gop's Hatred

and Aversion; when He, yet not forgeting the Prerogative of his Mercy, who being the Father of Mercies desires nothing more than hat the Sinner should turn from his evil Ways and live, and at whatsoever time he returns to him with the true Repentance of a fincere and contrite Heart is ready with open Arms to receive him to Mercy: This merciful Lord, I say, cast a compassionate Eye on this profligate Prostitute, and projected her Penitence and return to her Duty ; which he graciously brought about on the Occasion and by the Means following. ow MAR was now twenty-nine Years of Age, when, upon a Summer's Day, taking an Airing on the Sea Shore, the saw a Concourse of People flocking to a Vessel lying there at Anchor; she makes up to them, to enquire what was doing : She was told that they were about failing to Palestine, upon a Pilgrimage of Devotion, to celebrate the approaching annual Festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in Ferusalem, where the sacred Wood was kept and held in great Veneration. Mary's Heart was too much corrupted and captivated to Sin, at that Time, to enter into the holy Sentiments of this pious Association ; she entertained no

other Thoughts of it than that it was a favour. able Opportunity of making a Party of criminal Pleasure, and that out of so many People, young and old, she might be able to decoy some into her wicked Snares. But her gracious Go had, even then, while her Heart was wholly averse from him, merciful Designs upon her; and this Incident was the Prelude to her future Conversion. In the mean while, without further Demur, she joins with the Company and confidently boards the Vessel, tho' she had not wherewith to defray her Passage.

Tuxv no sooner set Sail than she began to put in Practice her customary deluding Artifices to debauch the Minds and Hearts of her fellow Travellers; and, if some had Virtue enough to baffle all her wicked Endeavours, there were others, whose heat of Youth and natural propensions to Vice, that had only lain smother'd, as it were, under the Ashes, were

now rekindled into a Flame, from the Incen-.

tives Mary subminister d to em by her alluring Words and sinful Example. Thus, while she continued on board, and during their Voyage, she pans all the Abominations the Cir-

eumstances of Time, Place and Persons, would BxixO come to Yerusalen she still pursued her customary evil Courses, heaping Sin upon Sin, Abomination on Abomination, and growing daily more harden'd in Evil and more profligate : Nor was she at a loss there, no more than in other great Towns, (where there are always found bad blended with the good) to find out Perfons of a libertine Disposition e to partake in her Disorders. Tur Day of the Exaltation of the Holy Gre was now arrived ; the fortunate Day for this wretched Sinner ; the Day on which Almighty | Gov, in his unerring Counsels, had decreed to rescue her out of the Power of Satan and make a Conquest of her Heart to himself. In the mean while she mixed with the People that in Crowds flock'd to the Church to venerate the sacred Instrument of our Redemption; tho', on her side, bare Curiosity, or more criminal Motives, were her Attractives. Having got, however, to the Church Porch, after several Attempts to enter, she felt herself repulsed by an invisible Force; and, while the rest of the People were successively crowding in, she found

that, in spite of every Effort she: made; she | could not advance. The extraordinariness of the Event startled her, and put her upon considering with herself what could be-the Cause of tt, and why she alone, among so many, bowls be precluded the Sight of the facred. Wood.

Ar that Instant she was illuminated with's a Mera Light, giving her to understand that her enormous Irregularities were the Ob. struction to her Entrance into the Sanctuary, and render'd her unworthy to see the H. Cross which she had fo often trampled upon, as it were, by her heinous Sins. - She, at the same Time, was seized with a falutary 'Trouble at. her deplorable State, and burst into a Flood of Tears; the Indication, as well as the Effect of a contrite Heart. Saul, of a Persecutor of Cpbrist, and an outrageous Impugner of his . Cause, was not more suddenly made a Vessel of Election, than Mary now, of a profligate Prostitute, became a perfect Penitent. LirTING up her Eyes she espied, fixed upon the Porch, a Picture or Image of the Blessed Virgin, and recollecting what she had often heard of her unspotted Purity, of the power-

ful Interest she had with her Blessed Son, and

that she. was the Refuge of Sinners and Mother of Mercy; with an entire Confidence in her Interceslion, the prostrated before the Figure ; and, by a fervent Prayer to this great Advocate of Sinners it represented, conjured her to be propitious to her in her present Distress and Desalation; to obtain for her the Forgiveness of her Sins, and, in Consequence to this Obftacle removed, the Divine Permission for her to enter into the Church, to see and reverence the sacred Instrument of her Redemption; promising, on her Part, to do all that should be required of her in oxder to appease and satisfy the Divine Justice. Having finished her Prayer, she returned with a pious Confidence of Success to the Church Door, and now made her Way in without any further Resistance. An awful Dread seized her, at first, upon her Entrance into the Sanctuary; she, however, approached the Holy Wed ; she reverently worshiped it, and at the same Moment found. her Soul replenished with an unexperienced Lightness of Heart, an assured Trust of God's gracious Pardon of her manifold Sins and Abominations, and an interior Consolation which she had never felt before. She returns to the Place where the blessed Vir-

gin's Picture was fixed; she a second Time prostrates before it, giving the Mother of Gon respectful and grateful Thanks for the Favour just obtained thro' her Intercession; and having found her already so efficacious an Advocate in her behalf, she entreated her to continue

her powerful Influence at the Throne of Mer-

cy, by letting her know the Divine Will, where and how she was to accomplish her promised Repentance. In the same Instant, as Saul, when he cried out Lord what wilt thou have me

to do, [ Acls c. 9. v. 6.] was directed by an unknown Voice to go to Damascus ; so Mary heard * Voice speaking to her as it were from some distac, saying to her, Go beyond the River Jor- : dan, where you shall find your Repose and Place

of Refidence. She received the Directions as an Order from Heaven, and without any Demur or Consultation about the Difficulty of the Undertaking, or how it was to be put in Execution, went straight out of Ferusalem, taking with her only three Loaves, which she purchased with an Alms a charitable Person had given her, for the Provision for her Journey

to her uncertain Place of Abode.

Tux fame Evening she arrived at the Banks of the River Jordan, where was a Church dedicated to St. ohn Baptist : Having, therefore, first washed her Feet and Face, already bedewed with Tears, in the Waters of that sanctified River, she spent all that Night in the Church awake in Prayer, bewailing her Sins; she confessed them penitently the next Morning, and received the Holy Eucharist as a better Viaticum for her Journey, as a fortifying Grace to confirm her in her generous Resolution, and as a Weapon and Buckler to defend her against the Attacks of her spiritual Enemy. She renews again her Addresses to the Blessed Virgin, humbly beseeching the Queen of Heaven not to desert the poor wretched Creature whom she had so manifestly taken under her Protection, but to be ever propitious to her Undertaking, which she had entered. upon by her Call and Direction. Havine thus discharged her Duty to Ges, and strengthened her Soul with the spiritual Food of Life; she next gives a small Refreshment to her Body which was Half of one of her Loaves, taking it upon the Bank of the River, and with the Water thereof, for her

Drink, washing it down: A poor Repast in itself, but yet a Dainty in Comparison of what she was to feed upon thereafter.

Tus fortified in Soul and Body she gets up, and courageously pursues her Journey, whither Providence, into whose Arms she had wholly abandoned herself, andthe Blessed Virgin, whom she had taken for her Guide, should direct her; fully confident within herself that being so safely escorted she could not miss her Road. With this Reliance on Heaven, and an unparallel'd Resolution on her own fide, she makes her Way into the Defart, till after long and painful Marches of several Days, having penetrateddeep into the Thickest of it, quite Remote from all seemingly poslible Commerce and Communication with her own Species, she conceived that this was the resting Place Gop had appointed for her: Here then she devoted herself anew and perpetually to his divine Service; here she fixed her abode, a voluntary Exile from the

World, and bidding adieu at once and for ever

Now, what was the angelical Life she led, and

the rigorous Penance she practised in this lonesome Solitude, the gave the first Account

thereof herself, short and general, to a pious Priest and Recluse, whom Almighty Gop providentially brought to her a little while before she died, as we shall see in the sequel of her Story; tho' even the very Circumstances of her Way of Life was such as to make it evident that it was something more than human. What we have learnt from her own Account is in Sub-

Hex Cloaths, which she took with her upon her Back, being in a short Time rotted and fallen to Pieces, she had no other Raiment than what Nature had given her ; in which Condition she was afterwards discovered, and thereby had incredible Hardships to support, as she confessed herself, from the inclemency of the Weather, and from Heat and Cold in the alteration of the Seasons. As to her Food; after she had consumed her remaining small Provision of Bread, which she made to hold out for a considerable Time, she had nothing else to subsist on but the wild Herbage which the Desart afforded. Bur the gr catest Difficulties she had to

struggle with, in the beginning of her fright-

ful Retirement, proceeded from the inward dreadful Combats she was engaged in from the tings of the Flesh, Temptations of Gluttony, and the Powers of Satan, who was become desperate from his Prey being snatched out of his Claws; one whom he had accounted to be surely his own ; not only as his Captive, and a Victim to Sin herself, but also as being subservient to his malignant Attempts upon others. The Loss was so considerable, that he set all his Engines to work in order to recover it, by frightening her at one Time with the seeming Impossibility of going on with the Undertaking she had engaged in; at others endeavouring to divert her from it, by enkindling in her the Flames of Concupiscence; by throwing before her the alluring Baits of sensual Pleasures, in which till then she had been wholly immersed, and to which she found herself now, as to a Load-Stone, almost irresistibly Attracted: The Images of her former Irregularities and amorous Dalliances were presented fresh to her Mind; and along Habit of Sin and Licentiousness was not to be shaken off at once, but with much Labour, Struggle-and Difficulty. The Passion of Love had hampered her fast in its Chains,

not to be easily broke ; she had long groaned under its Bondage, insensible of her Misery : For such is the Nature of this Passion, above all

others, treacherous and fatal to its Votaries ; it betrays while it caresses em; Serpent. like, 5

glides into their Bosom gently, concealing Poison in its Sting that gives certain Death, tho

insensibly ;_ t wit, insinuating at its first

Appearance, in Order to gain Admittance; a

Tyrant when in Possession; at the End Ruin

and Perdition. Where Love has made a Conquest, it claims an absolute Empire; it would rule without control; like Death, bearing all before it; it being said, Strong as Death is Love. [Cant. 8. 6.] Its Object, for being absent, is not

the less present to the Imagination: Love paints in the liveliest Colours, and oftentimes works

up Fancy to Delirium and Distraction,

No one could have more Experience of all

the dismal Effects of the Tyranny of Love than Mary; and no one, on her becoming a Penitent, 'could be more serious, determined and successful, in getting out of its cruel Thraldom. She flew into the Desart from its treacherous Embraces : She prayed incessantly to be delivered from its cheating Illusions ; and a rigor-

ous Penance was made to atone for a Life of Softness, Delicacy and Pleasure : Yet even so she was not exempt from Love's furious Assaults: It pursued her into her lonesome Solitude, and beset her with all its wily | Artifices, and the whole Strength of its Forces; but in vain : Mary stood her Ground, immoveable as a Rock ; nothing dismayed at the frightful Prospect of these many and trouble-

some Conflicts. Merciful, all-seeing Provi-

dence, that had appointed the Desart for her Field of Battle, in conducting her thither, was

her Comfort and her powerful Support. The

Remembrance of the Flames of Hell, to which she deemed herself, for her manifold Sins, the _ deserved Victim, contributed to stifle the Flames

of Concupiscence. In her greatest Difficulties ihe constantly flung herself at the Foot of her Crucifix, and sheltered herself within the Wounds of her suffering Saviour. She often called, in her Distress, upon her celestial Advocate, the Blessed Virgin, and never without Success: And Almighty Gop, who had inspir d her penitential Resolution, confirmed it with

Wiru this Buckler the felt, what the Apostle had experienced before, that she was enabled to

do all Things; to brave Dangers, to bid Defiance to the joint Confederacy of the Flesh, the

World, and diabolical Malice ; and to be en-

| terprizing in her Exercises of Penance and Vir-

tue. I can do all Things, says the Apostle, in

him who firengthens me. Phil. c. 4: v. 13.] And

on her Side an inviolable Fidelity and Concur-

rence with these divine Succours, by the Prac-

tice of the most heroic and unparallel'd Austerities, gave her at length a complete Victory over herself, at the same Time that it baffled and wholly defeated all the Attempts made upon her by the Powers of Darkness : A Fidelity, I say, not faint and fluctuating, but steady and constant ; a Virtue and Resolution not of

the vulgar Sort, creeping and dastardly, but

proportioned to the furious Assaults of her Spi-

ritual Enemies, and rifing higher from the

greatness of her Dangers : A Penitence, infine, and Mortification, not as if she was Beating the Air, but shewing her determined Resolution of taming her Passions at any Rate, and bringing the Flesh under Subjection. For, tho' she had an infinite Source of unavoidable Sufferings to

g0 through, from the very Nature and Condition of the Way of Life sne had entered upon,

vi. as I said before, from Hunger, Thirst, the

Inclemency of the Seasons, parching Heats in Summer, and pinching Colds in Winter, being

exposed naked to the open Air, without Cover or Shelter, which she supported with incredible

Patience, and a Courage more than human;

yet to these she added also all the voluntary

Mortifications the Horror of the Place furnisned her with Opportunities of Practising, or that

her pious Ingenuity, egged on by the Spirit of

Penance, could contrive and invent: To wit, She deemed herself to be her own greatest Enemy, in having been guilty of many heinous Sins, and her Body the Instrument of em; and

therefore waged a perpetual, irreconcilable War

Tavs, by taming her Flesh with Stripes, by

bearing with unwearied Patience the Rigours

and Austerities annexed to her Condition and

Place of Abode; by prostrating herself on

the Ground, beating her Breast; by Watchings

and Fastings that were continual; by raising her

Heart to Heaven in fervent Prayer and inflamed Aspirations, and by bewailing her past sinful

Life in Floods of Tears, she at length obtained a perfect Calm of Mind, and a Fulness of Spiritual-Comforts' and interior Consolations suc- * to e Temptations and Derel on

Her troutdential Discovery in the Desart, after seven and forty Years penitential Retirement, by Zosimus, a holy Abbot; to whom she gave an Account as well of her worldly as of her peni-

M4 RY had passed f seven and forty Years

in this rigid State of Penance, a voluntary Exile from all human Society, when Almighty ' Gop, not permitting such a rare Example of true Penitence, and of a faithful Correspondence with his Divine Grace, to lie any longer

concealed, disposed her Discovery in the follow- Turk was a holy Priest and Abbot, called | 2 o/imus, who had also led a penitential Life, retired from the World above fifty Vears, in a Monastery, when a Thought of Vanity entered into his Mind, that none living had arrived to that Perfection, in the Course of Virtue and Penance,

which he himself had attained to : But Almighty Gop graciously vouchsafed to rid him of this troublesome Temptation, by bringing him to the Sight and Knowledge of St. Mary of Egypt. It was customary for some of the pious

Recluses of those Days, at every Revolution of

the holy Season of Lent, to quit their own Cells and Monasteries, to look out for a stricter | Retirement, in order to give themselves up to a straiter Union with Gop in Prayer, Recollection and Penance ; and it pleased his infinite Goodness, for the Humiliation of Zosimus and Exaltation of Mary, on one of these Occasions, to direct his Course to the Desart beyond Jordan. Here, after wandering twenty Days, being at that Term about the sixth Hour in Prayer, he thought he saw something at a Distance move erect, like a human Body : It proved to be Mary! But fo disfigured with her long, lank Hairs, as white as Wool, falling below her Shoulders, her naked Flesh scorched with the Sun, and emaciated with forty-seven Years rigorous Penance, that he had a difficulty to discover it to be a human Figure: However, advancing by large Paces towards her, he began to suspe&t it might be some Servant of Gop;

but as he drew nearer she still retired, till conjuring her by loud Cries, in the Name of Gov, if she was his Servant, to let him approach: She upon this, having first got under some Kind of Cover, made a stop, and calling him by his

Name, faid to him: Why, oh! Abbot Z.

&« mus, are you so earnest to come to a wretched,

e finful Woman? But since such is your De- “ fire, fling me your Cloak; for you see I am « without Cloathing.” When the good old

Man heard her call him by his Name, which he was sure the could have from none but

| Gop himself, he was fatisfied she was his

Servant, and one highly favoured of Heaven. Having therefore readily flung his Cloak to her, they advanced to each other, both falling

on their Knees to beg one another's Blessing.

This she declined on her Side to give, alleging that he being a Priest, and offering daily

the immaculate Lamb of Gop upon the Al-

tar, and she only a sinful Woman, the Office of Blessing belonged to him. This further

| Knowledge of his Character, which she could

only have from Inspiration, raised still his Idea of her great Favour with Gop. He however entreated her to offer up a Prayer for

him to the Almighty, whom they mutually

served: This she consenting. to, retired; from

him a few Paces, when he beheld her in Prayer

elevated above a Cubit from the Ground. At this Sight, struck with a sacred Dread, he fell

prostrate on his Face, imagining. with himself that it was an angelic Spirit in human. Shape, and not a Woman; he had: met with : But she, returning to him, raised. him up, saying : *© What are these Fancies, Father Zofmus, you

ce entertain? I am not a Spirit, as you ima-

cc gine, but your fellow Creature, and a sinful Woman, as I have already told you.

Hz being, now, in no further Doubt concerning her Condition, assumed Courage, and

frankly entreated her to tell him what had in-

duced her to enter upon such an extraordinary Course of Penance ; and defired her to give him a Detail of her Life; conjuring her, in the sacred Name of Gop, to conceal nothing of it

from him. She, nevertheless, would willingly

have declined relating to him the sinful Part of it; telling him it had been fo abominable, that

the very Remembrance thereof gave her Shame

and Confusion ; that a mere Recital must strike him with Horror, and her Words infect the Air

thatenviron'd'em: However, for her own Humi-

| Hation, she at last acquiesced to his importunate Requests, telling him all the Particulars till her miraculous Call to Repentance, and her En-

trance at first into the Desart, as in Substance |

by us above narrated ; concluding, that the real Deformity of her Life had so far exceeded the Picture of it she had given him, that she could not recollect Almighty Gop's unwearied Patience with her, during her seventeen Years Prostitu-

tion, but with the utmost Confusion; that it

was through his great Mercy He withheld the

Hands of the Mariners from casting her over-

board at Sea ; that the Earth had not frequently opened to swallow her up, or the Elements,

and all the brutal Creation, had not confederated

| Havine brought her Narration to the Period of her sinful Life, and of Almighty Gop's merciful and miraculous Call of her to Repentance,

the good old Man was now {tl more earnest

to be informed of the Particulars of her penitential one; for it seemed to him, he said, Providence how brought them together that he might be acquainted with the whole State of

her Soul, to his own great Edification, and for

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Sufferings. To this she directly replied, That

the Instruction of many. And first, he was

curious to know whether the Alteration of her Condition of Life, from an Extream of Vice to

that of Penance, was not attended with Diffi»

culties internal as well as external; for he conceived the inward Conflicts of the Spirit could not be less troublesome to her than her outward-

indeed they had been so great, and so surpasling

human Weakness, but for the singular Grace of

Gop which supported her, that tho He had mer-

cifully brought her through em, and the Dangers were past, yet the bare Remembrance of em

made her shudder, and her Blood chill; that

from the Stings of the Flesh, and the Flames of Concupiscence, which were continual, she experienced what the Apostle had felt before, 4

Law in her Members fighting against the Law of ber Mind, | Rom. 7. v. 23. J which would allow her

no rest or quiet; that the Picture of her former dissolute Life, her criminal Amours in Words and Actions, and her sinful Dalliances, were painted in such lively Colours to her Imagina-

tion, as even the frightful Horror of her Solitude, joined to her Sighs, Prayers, Tears,

knocking her Breast and Prostrating upon the

Ground, were not able to efface; and if Almighty Gon now and then did give her a Flash of Respite, the Temptations presently redoubled upon her with greater Fury : That she wag often sollicited to seek her Repose by yielding to the Temptation, and to look out for a Refuge in the carnal Pleasures which she had renounced ; and that to be sure nothing else but the powerful Force of Divine Grace supported her under such rugged Trials, and rendered her sufficient to weather the raging Storms. That at other Times her spiritual Enemy, personating an Angel of Light, attempted to shake her Resolution by Suggestions of a more plausible Nature; insinuating to her that she was led out of the Way by a mistaken Virtue ; that. the State of Penance she had entered upon was extravagant and unprecedented ; that there were many holy Penitents living in the World, or in Religious Communities, to whom she might associate herself without Prejudice to her Devotion, in a Method of Life equally pleasing to Almighty Gop, and by their Example and under the Advice of prudent Directors, with more safety to her Soul, than by running head- 4 her own — and following the blind, {

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impetuous Impulses of a wild Imagination, in ling separate from all Commerce with the Wise, the Good and the Virtuous. But, thanks to Go, she faid, all the subtle Sophistry of the Enemy was too weak to over-rule his Divine Will, manifested to her in a miraculous Manner, directing her into the Desart, and plainly telling her that there she was to find her Place of Rest : That it was not able to stifle the inward Voice of Heaven, incessantly repeating to her that she should continue in that Solitude, removed from all Commerce with the World. That, however, it did not please Gop to deliver her from these furious ; Temptations and deluding Artifices of the Enemy, in a continual State of Aridity, Desolation and Dereliction, till she had gone through a seventeen Years Penance, in a perpetual Combat and State of Violence, to atone for her seventeen Years Dissolution. But since that Time his gracious Goodness, who is a bountiful Rewarder, had restored to her a perfect Calm, and replenished her Soul with a Joy beyond what she was able to express; and had, infine, given her an hundredfold here, as an Earnest of the

eternal Weight of Glory she was in expetta-

Maky would here have concluded 1 Story, but the good old Man was not to be contented till she had gone through the other Circumstances of her rigid Penance with respect to her Want of Apparel and Food. To this she replied, That, when the Cloaths she had brou ght on her Back had rotted off, she had much to suffer from Wind, Rain, Heat and Cold ; but that in Length of Time she found the Grace

and Virtue of Gop a sufficient Raiment and

Defence against all the Injuries of the Weather: That, as to her Food, she had for a considerable Time subsisted upon her Loaves, which be-

ing become as hard as Stones, she ground together into a Powder, afterwards living upon the wild Herbs the Desart afforded, but mostly on the Word of Gop : For Man, said she, does not | feed on Bread alone, but upon every Word that £omes from the Mouth of Gop. | Matth. c. 4. v. 4.] Zofunus exprefling here his Surprise at her having Scripture so familiar, she said, That indeed she was wholly unlearned ; and, having seen no Man since her Retirement, she could not from

thence have received any Instructions; but that

God was self-sufficient to teach us all Knowledge. She then imparted to him fame secret Informations which she could only have learnt from Divine Inspiration ; viz. that there were some Irregularities that had crept into a neigh- -bouring Monastery under the Direction of one Abbot John, which it behoved him to. admonish him of, and to bid him, on the Part of God, to correct em; and upon a Visitation the Abbot afterwards made of his Monastery, it proved to be according to the Advice the Saint had sent him. She alfo foretold Zofimus, That the Year ensuing he would be detained at home by Sickness from making his Excursion at the usual Time ; that nevertheless he would be in a Condition by the End of Lent to come as far as the River Jordan, to which Place she entreated him to bring with him the Blessed Eucharift on | Maunday-Thursday, where she would give him the Meeting, in order to partake of that divine Banquet, which the Circumstances of her fortyseven Years stri& Retirement had laid her under an insuperable Necessity of being debarred of all that Space of Time, since her last Communion in the Church of St. John, just at her En-

IT may here be expected we should vindicate our Saint from the Imputation of being. led a-

way by the Spirit of Illusion, in taking up with A2 Method of Life that deprived her of these

_ powerful Means of Grace, prescribed us by our Blessed Lord himself, for the Food of our Soul when hungry, for our Comfort when under Af-

fliction, and as an effectual Bulwark to defend

us Ae" ne the Storms of Temptation. | And to this no more, to be sure, can be said,

than that as Almighty Gop gratuitously bestows

his Gifts, so he may, if he pleases, take 'em from us, or suspend our Enjoyment of em; as is often the Case when Persons, by some invincible Impediment (as by Lunacy, or from an

Indisposition of Body, Almighty Gop so per-

mitting it) are rendered uncapable of approaching to the sacred Mysteries.

IN the like manner, so often as Almighty Go, in his unsearchable Wisdom, calls his Servants to a recluse Life, whether by inward Inspiration, as he called St. Paul the Hermit and others, or by an outward Voice, wherewith St. Mary of Egypt was favoured, putting it past all Doubt that such was his Divine Will and Pleasure, they being in these Circumstances removed from

Consolation : Mary transported, on her Side,

the Opportunities of partaking corporally of the

facred Food, it cannot be questioned but that Almighty Gop on one Side dispenses them with the Obligation; and bn the other will retrieve

their Loss, by assisting them with an extraordinary Overflow of his holy Grace towards a fer-

vent spiritual Communion in Affection and De-

fire, which can't fail of being highly acceptable to him and meritorious to themselves. Such, it may be presumed, were the inflamed Affec-

tions and Desires of Mary, which it pleased |

Almighty Gop to reward at the last, with affording her the Happiness of receiving not spiritually only, but also corporally her Blessed Lord before she died, as we are agoing to hear. Therefore, to resume the Thread of our Story, this great Point being gained, viz. a Promise

from Zosemus of bringing to her the Divine Ban-

quet, she next requires of him inviolable Secresy to all sne had just related to him, so long as

it should please Gop to detain her in this Prison

of her Body; and he in his Turn requesting her

Prayers for himself and the whole Church, they thus parted for the present, mutually comforted, and overwhelmed with interior Joy and

at the certain Prospect of receiving into her Breast her Blessed Lord in the Sacrament, whom she had faithfully served, ardently loved, and impatiently longed for during her forty- seven Years penitential Retirement; Zosimus equally comforted, edified and instructed, on his Part, by being favoured with the Sight of such an eminent Example of inimitable Penitence and consummate Virtue : And now thoroughly humbled and disabused of his vain Conceits of his own Merits, which he found to fall so many Degrees short of Mary's ; with these low Sentiments of himself, and admiration of Mary, so much favour'd and distinguished by Heaven, he sets out, making the best of his Way to his Monastery, wanting no further Subject for his Meditations, nor to rouse his Fervor, than what he had gather'd from his enn with this holy Penitent,

She receives the Holy Communion from Zosumus's Hands. Her Death and Burial.

ART now alfo retires within herself, to make due Preparations towards receiving

the eucharistical Blessing, which, what they were, is more than my Pen is able to describe : It may be faid that she redoubled, if it were pos-

sible, her Fervor, and enter'd, if it may be called so, on a new Life; that is, a Life still more spiritual and angelical. In the mean While, on the Revolution of the Year, Zofimus, tho detained at Home by Sickness all the

Lent, (as she had predicted) was well enough

to come out, according to Agreement, on Maunday-Thursday, bringing with him the H. Eucharist, as desired. Being arrived at the

Banks of the River Jordan, he was under some

Perplexity whether he should wait her coming, or whether she, perhaps, having already been there, he had not better seek a Passage over to go after her. Whilst he was in this Sus-

_ pence with himself how to proceed, he espied

her by the Moonshine, covered with the Cloak

he had lent her, on the other Side ; the Difficulty was yet how they should get to one another, when he sees her making the Sign of the Cross oh the Water, and confidently coming

towards him, walking upon it as if it had been

dry Land. At this Sight he would have pro-

{trated to beg her Prayers, but she would not permit him, reminding him of his own Cha-

racter, and the sacred Pledge he had about _ But first thanking him for his Charity, i

bringing to her the ineffable Blessing, she A him to join with her in Prayer to prepare for

it; then receiving her Blessed Lord, with a Faith, Respect, Fervor and Devotion proportioned to her enflamed Love and longing Desire of him, in an Extasy of Joy she breaks out into the Exclamation of holy Simeon, Now, O Lord, dismiss thy Servant, according to thy Mord,

in Peace; because mine Eyes have seen thy Salva

tion. [ Luke, c. 2. v. 29, 30.] Her Devotions

ended, and her Soul replenished with an accu-

mulation of Grace from the intimate Presence of her Saviour within her Breast, they joined in a mutual Thanksgiving for the great Favour conferred upon her. The good old Man would then fain have prevail d upon her to take a

small Present of Dates, Figs and Lentils he had brought with him for her corporal Refection; but she contented herself, not to reject entirely his Benevolence, with taking out of his Sack two or three Lentils, telling him, as she had the Vear before, that the Grace of God was a sufficient Raiment and Food to those that love SHE now takes leave of him for the second Time ; but, at parting, requests him to return once more the following Year to the Place in the Desart where he had first discovered her; telling him he should then find her in that State and Condition as would be agreeable to the Almighty; for that it was his Will and Pleasure she should continue and finish her Course in the Method of Life she had begun; insinuating by this obscure Hint, which he did not then rightly comprehend, that her End was near at Hand, as the Event afterwards proved ; and that therefore the Blessed Eucharist she had just received, was her Viaticum for that mortal Passage. She, then, making the Sign of the Cross upon the Water, passed over it dry-footed, as she had done before; Gop shew-

ing, by this sovereign Power he gave her over

the Element, the great Favour she was in with him. Zofimus also took his Rout homewards,

confirmed in the high Idea he had conceived of Mary's Sanctity, and greatly edified and inflam-

ed by her celestial Conversation ; but aMicted that, in these several Interviews, he had always forgot to ask her Name. However, he hoped to retrieve that Omission at the next Meeting,

and thought the Time long till he was to enjoy

a Repetition of that much-wish'd-for Happiness. Effectually the Vear was no sooner come about, but he set out from his Monastery, under the Appearance of looking out for his cus-

tomary Retirement, but in the Main to recover

5 the Treasure he had left behind him the Year before. He had been bewildered in the thickest of the Desart for several Days, with an impatient

but fruitless Search after the holy Penitent, when

on a sudden, being providentially conducted

near the Place, he saw it encompassed with a heavenly Glory, shining brighter than the Sun in

its Meridian on the clearest Day; and coming up,

he beheld the Corpse of the Saint lying prostrate and motionless on the Ground, her Face turned towards the East, with these Words written in

the Sand by her, - « Abbot Zofmus, bury here

5 7 De. ADA SESEGs.” 22 wr — W .-. CIENCY —

« the Body of sinful, miserable Mary ; render « to the Earth what belongs to it; put Dust to % Dust, and pray for her Soul, which departed «© hence the gth of April, the Day that our Lord * died for me.” By this Token he both learnt her Name, and understood that Almighty Gon had taken her to himself on Goog-Friday, the Day after she had communicated at his Hands, receiving her Blessed Lord sacramentally as a Preparation and Prelude to her Possessing him in Glory. And the holy Man recalling to Mind what she had hinted to him at parting the last Interview, tho' not then by him understood, was not greatly surprised to find her in that State; but falling on his Knees, he first kissed her Feet; then, ac. cording to the Custom of the Church, said the Office of the Dead over her, at the same Time recommending himself internally to her Prayers, whom, after a Life of such exemplar Penance, he could not doubt of being cleansed from all Stamm of Sin, and gone to receive her just Reward. But, as he was under some Perplexity How to make a Grave, in which to lay her Body, a Lion comes running up with great Speed, which immediately fell a licking the Feet of the Saint; by this Token Zo/imus con-

cluding that it was sent thither by Providence to assist him in the Discharge of the Funeral Duty, making the Sign of the Cross, and nothing daunted, he commanded the Animal to scrape a Hole to receive the Body ; it instantly obeyed his Orders; he decently put the Corpse into the Ground; and, having completed the rest of the

funeral Obsequies, the Animal scraped back the

Earth upon her, and tamely went its Way : And Zofimus taking up the shattered Cloak he had lent the holy Penitent at their first Meeting, which he ever after kept as a precious Relick for having been in the Saint's Use, he also return-

BIxcG got Home, he thought himself, now she was dead, fully disengaged from his Promise of Secresy to her, and rather under an Obligation of making public so rare an Exam-

ple of mimitable Penitence: He tells all he

had seen and learnt ; every one was astonished beyond Meafure, and, nothing doubting of her being in the State of Glory, they indicted an annual Festival in her Memory, under the Name of St. Mary the Egyptian Penitent.

SoPHRON1Us, Bifhop of Jerusalem presently

after, from Zec/mus's Memoirs wrote the Story

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of her Life, recorded by Nicephorus Call ifus in the seventeenth Book, fifth Chapter, of his History, translated by Paulus Diacomus, a Neapolitan. This Account of her Life is taken Notice of, and approved, in the fourth Act of the second Council of Nice, and by St. John Damascene in his third Oration de Imaginibus, and by the Martyrologies of the Latin Church. She died in the Time of Justinian the elder, Anno 520. The Roman Martyrology fixes her Feast on the second of April, the Greek Menologe on the first ; tho' her Death was, as we have seen above, on the ninth ; and Zofimus, from whom we have the original Account of our Saint, died himfelf in Odour and Reputation of Sanctity, and his Feast is fixed by the Church on the fourth of April. St. Mary of Egypt is also honourably mentioned, and the History of her wonderful Life, by the Authors aforesaid, referred to by the great Church-Historian Baronius, in his Annotations on the Martyrology, and in the seventh Tome of his

A Review of her wonderful Life, with Respett to

the Mercies and Favours of Gop to her; and

her own faithful Correspondence with them :

vils of Sceptics, and the Incredulous.

UCH, as we have seen, was the extra-

ordinary Life and Saint-like End of this illustrious Penitent ; in which there occurs great Matter of Instruction, much to imitate, and *

THE unwearied Patience * Almighty Gop

with her in the dissolute Part of her Life, when she abandoned herself, without Reserve, up to Sin and Licentiousness, grounds an Encouragement to every Sinner, how dissolute soever his own Life may have been, not to despair, if he do but return to Gop in due Time by a sincere

Repentance ; because he may be sure, from the

Mercy shewn to Mary, that the Bowels of Mercy

will be also open to him; for Gop faid, by the

Prophet Ezekiel, I will not the Death of the Sinner,

but that he be converted from his evil Ways, and live :

el. c. 33. v. II. ] And, as a further Heartening

With a Vindication of her Story from the Ca-

to miserable Delinquents to pluck up their Courage, and not to be cast down at the Sight of the Multitude and Enormity of their Tranfgressions, he adds by the Prophet Isaiah, That, cho their Sins be as Scarlet, they shall become white as Snow; tho they be red as Crimson, they shall be made white as Wool: ¶ Isaiah c. 1. v. 18.} to wit, The Treasury of his Graces are infinite and in- _ exhaustible, and their Power great, and (as it were) invincible; but it is only to those, who, by a prompt Return to their Duty, are willing to accept of his gracious Tender of Mercy; not to them who by presumptuous Delays abuse it, and therefore render themselves unworthy of Tunic fortunate Mary! to whom this Grace of Mercy was given, and who was enabled to say with the Apostle, hat it was not given in vain; when, in an Instant, her Heart, from being wholly carnal and worldly, was so changed, as to be quite spiritual and celestial; when from a profligate Prostitute, she became a perfect Penitent; and, from abandoning herself up to the profane Love of Creatures, she was suddenl7 enamoured of Gop alone, and entirely devoted to his divine Service. The Conversion of the

Thief on the Cross from a Blasphemer of Chrift to become his Encomiast, or of Saul from a Persecutor changed into a Professor of his Law and an Apostle, were not more sudden or effectual. But if Almighty Gop, on these Occasions, is seen to be fo prodigal in the Profusion of his extraordinary Graces upon his chosen Servants, they are also found in them not to have been fruitless : And, with regard to our holy Penitent in particular, we have heard her faithful

Correspondence with the celestial Illuminations; her heroic Courage and Resolution ; her great Compunction and Contrition for her Sins; her rigid Penance and final Perseverance. Grace and Mercy on the Part of the Creator, and Fidelity on the Part of the Creature, must necessarily be reciprocal and concurring in order to raise a perfect spiritual Edifice: For He, says St. Austin, that created us without our Aid, will not save us without our mutual Concurrence and Wn Endeavours. St. Aug. Conf.]

Bor the OEconomy of Blessed Mary's Penitence, and the Analogy or Resemblance it carried to her worldly Life, particularly deserve our Attention. Mary, after her Conversion,

was, thro' the powerful Influence of Divine

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Grace, so wonderfully changed, as to become

wholly a new Woman; but it was by correct. ing her Passions, and by giving them a new Frame and a different Direction, rather than by

giving them up entirely (if I may be allowed to

speak in this manner): For tho! the irregular and sinful Part of her Passions were by Grace certainly eradicated: out of her Soul, yet the Passions

themselves may, in some Degree, be said rather

to have changed their Object than to have left her. For Instance: The Passion of Love, implanted in her Soul, of sensual and terrene be-

came spiritual and divine ; from Creatures was

converted to the Creator. Her natural vivacity of Temper, which had made her bold and

daring in the Practice of Vice, was afterwards

concurring with Divine Grace to render her intrepid in her spiritual Warfare, heroic in her Enterprifes, undaunted at Difficulties, and

in her Resolutions inflexible. We have ob-

served her, for Example, in the beginning of Life hurried away by the liveliness of her I- magination, quitting her Father's House, going to a strange Place, there, in her impotent Infancy, as I may call it, to shift for herself, without Foresight, Consideration, or regard to

the Difficulties that were inevitably to attend the. chimerical Undertaking : And, when she was made a Convert to Almighty God by Grace, she, with an equal Unreservedness, throws herself into the Arms of Providence, and enters on a Scheme of Life unexperienced, and seemingly impracticable, with three Loaves, (the Provision for a few Days) beginning a Career which was to last many Years. In her sinful Life the love of Pleasure was her ruling and predominant Passion, to which Interest and every other Consideration gave way; and perpetual Dissipations, Company and Divertisements, which she immoderately sought after, were the Means she made use of to accomplish her inordinate Desires, on which she put no Check or Restraint ; but returning to Almighty Gop, she steer'd the opposite Course : Her Heart had heen before most violently set upon Creatures, now on her Creator ; in refiring into a lonesome Desart, by a voluntary Banishment from all human Society, she effectually parted with the Means and Occasions of gratifying her irregular Appetites; and, not to tire the Reader with an unnecessary Repetition of her many voluntary Austerities, it is certain that the very Method of Life the had enter'd upon

was inseparable from a continual Penance and Mortification, and thut the most rigid, and humanly insupportable. 8 Ax indeed this Consequence, supposing the Truth of the Premises, is fo uncontestable, and the whole Tenor of this holy Penitent's Life (as observed in the Advertisement) is so much of the marvellous, that it may be thought we have most Occasion to clear up her History from the Imputation of Fiction, and to support it's Credit against the Cavils of the Vits, Critics and the Incredulous ; for by Persons of this sceptic Way of Thinking, every Narrative rising above the vulgar Opinion, in setting forth Facts which move out of the common Track, is deemed fabulous and romantic. And very frivolous are the Pretences offer'd by them, to give the Colour of Reason for this incredu- THERE are a Set of Thomas Didymus s, who affect to disbelieve every Thing that does not come within the Ken of their Senses and their ocular Evidence, and therefore they can scarce prevail on themselves to look upon Facts of an extraordinary Nature, which had fallen out at distant Times, in any other Light than as

Apocryphal. But it is certain, were this Humour of judging of past Events to deserve any Regard, the Credit of History, prophane as well ad revealtd, would sink into Fable, and the Foundation both of Human and Divine Faith be supplanted. Our Belief refting also on this weak Basis; our own ocular Evidence, there is not a Consequence so absurd which would not ensue from it: We might question the being of such a Man as Julius Cæsar, or whether Rome had ever been Mistress of the World, as she 1s celebrated in History, fince there 'remain at present no Traces of her Power; the Race of it's People ts wholly extinct, and even their Language dead, and no where generally made use of. Such are the monstrous Consequences these Triflers lay themselves open to, through an over-weening fond Affectation of not appearing. too credulous ! =

THwxRE are Infidels of another Kind, who

are as difficult in giving their Assent to the

Divine Mysteries, because transcending Nature ; and to miraculous Oper ations, because acting contrary to it: And in this Conduct they, no doubt, offer Violence to the Divine Attributes, While they measure omnipotent

Power by human Weakness, and infinite, ins comprehensible Wisdom, by their limited, nar-

Bur to speak now, diredtly, to the Cause we have to maintain, there are some others of such a peculiar Humour as to be unwilling to relish Virtues of a superior Degree and Excellency, because they themselves are destitute of them : Therefore the Truth of Hiftories setting forth Matters of an extraordinary Kind, fuch as are the mortified Lives and exemplar Penitences of pious Recluses, are by them either called in Question, or turned into Rallery: They think their excessive Rigours | | irreconcilable to human Prudence, and there- | fore directly xplode them as fabulous and in-

credible ; but, in very Truth, the unparallel'd Resolution of these penitential Men, and unshaken F idelity in Almighty Gop's Service, rather become a Reproach to their own Tepidity, Pusillanimity and Irresolution. They are inclined to think hat impossible in others Which they have not the Heart to venture upon themselves; not considering the Power of Divine Grace which actuated the Saints, and car ricd them thro all their heroic Undertak-

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ings; and the Insufficiency of human Forces

divested of this extraordinary Aid.

Tur, therefore, this Method 71 adging by what. is, past, or of what is above ral is un-

; reasonable, must be confessed by every Man en-

dued with Reason. The only Test, then, by which Events, that are of the marvellous and surprising Nature, are to be tried, 18, to weigh well the Motives of Credibility accompanying the Integrity of the Evidences to the Facts, and the Authenticity of the Records which have transmitted them to us: And, in these Particulars, I will be bold to fay,. that the History of St. Mary of Egypt has been handed down to us so well attested as to be out of the Reach. of the most inflexible. Scepticism to doubt of the Truth of it, or of the most disingenuous Malice to cavil at it.

Tux first Account of our holy Penitent's wonderful Life and Actions was communicated to the World, as we have heard above, by a Person of that Holiness and Simplicity of Manners as placed him out of the reach of any possible Suspicion of Forgery, . Design or Confederacy to impose upon us; and whereas he declar ed he was Eye-witness of some Part of

* ay 3 „ 8 tv _ "RE 1 es os hn. EX rw wig ul oF Fs. 4 X a

EV a: ninth — a EE. ET one oe TO alt i, e 5 2

"his Relation, and had the rest from the Saint's own Mouth, there * be no Room to doubt Her Acts were presently after compiled into a regular History, by St. Sopbronius, Bishop of Ferufalem,” Cotemporary to the Events he wrote, or living soon after,

while they were fresh in every one's Memory. And Nicepburus Call Hitus, an early Greek Histo-

'rian, as we have just heard, mentions this Narrative given by che holy Bishop of Jerusalem as authentic, and of the Truth whereof no It had, moreover, the Sanction of a General Council's Approbation, and is

I honourably commemorated by a learned holy Father, in a Dissertation wrote professedly' in " Vindication of the Catholic Doctrine from the

Slanders of the Iconoclasis, the Impugners of it,

and anathematised Heretics of his Time. And

lastly, the exemplar Life of this renowned Penitent, thro all the future Ages of the Church, has been perpetually recommended to the Admiration and Imitation of her Children, and

the History of it, for this Purpose, carefully

preferved and faithfully translated into feveral

Bur if, still, the Nature of this holy Reeluse s course of Penance, her stri&t Retirement and excessive Austerities, are what give a Shock to the Faith of some squeamish Unbelievers, I beg leave to afk, What it is they can find to boggle at, or exceeding Credit therein, of

which there are not to be found parallel Examples , unquestionably attested, of latter as well as of early Days? For, to say nothing of a Paul, at Anthony, a Simon Stilytes, and innumerable other Confessors of ancient Times, who were Miracles of Penitence, to whose Histories, on Account of their Antiquity, they may yet object, as they do to the Acts of our Saint, for being Apocryphal; the Church of Chri/t has, thro' the Blessing of Gop, been always fruitful of Saints eminent for their en Virtues and exemplar Penance.

Tur learned and pious a of the Brifannia Sancta, to whom this Part of the Christian World is obliged for daily Tracts of E- dification and Instruction; and whose Reputation, for Judgment and good Sense, is too well establisned to be suspected of giving into an unreasonable Credulity; this worthy Writer, I say, has furnished us with as astonishing

Examples of Penitence, Self. abnegation, a and a total Retirement from the World, within these Islands, in a St. Goderich, St. Guthlake, St. Keyna a Royal Virgin, and many more, as any to be met with among the Anchorets of the Desarts of Egypt or Pale Nine. 4). ‚ οn MER

Ix INE, were we to recapitulate the whole Course and Tenor of St. Mary of Egypt s Life from the Beginning to the End: As to the earlier and irregular Part of it, we need not | have recourse to History to find it fully exem- Plified; and with respect to the penitential One, there i is nothing so wonderful in it but of which there are Inftances of the fame Kind convey'd to us thro' the Channels of Divine Revelation. For, first, I say Almighty God's unwearied Patience with her, during the sinful Part of her Life, is no more than what we are daily Witnesses of with regard to many other Sinners. Next, her miraculous Call to Repentance, by a Voice from Heaven, was -what St. Pau! had been favoured with ; was 'the Way by which that great Light of the Church, St. Austin, was called afterwards, and several others recorded in Divine and Ecclesiastical History, Thirdly, the amazing Power

and Efficacy of Divine Grace, in working her up to such a steady and inviolable Resolution, was what these Saints had happily experienced within themselves before. And lastly, as to the astonishing Rigour of her Life, her Want

of Raiment, and her continual Fasts, Holy Writ furnishes us with many Instances of the | Ike excessive Austerities and Abstinence. Elijah, in the Virtue of one Loaf of Bread miracu- Aously' convey'd to him, fasted forty Days in this same Desart where she pursued her Course of Penitence: Moses passed as many Days, without any Sustenance, on the Mount. The Fasts of St. Jobn Baptist in the Desart also, as recorded in the Gospels, were continual, and his Austerities excessive. To clench all these Proofs, we need only look back on the two first Sinners and first Penitents, and perhaps the greatest that ever were, Adam and Eve, whose Life, when drove out of Paradise, exposed to the Inclemency of all the Elements, which revolted against them as they had revolted against their Maker, could be no other than a Chain of Miseries and Affsictions, which they resignedly submitted to; and likely a perpetual rigorous Fast, not for forty Vears, but

for several Hundred, if not to their Death, 'and 2 continual State of the seyerest Penance, - If it be replied that Nature was then ih its Vigour, and able to bear more than now; I answer that Grace is above Nature; both one and the other equally the Gift of Cop, which! He can bestow when and where he pleases, as may be convenient for the bringing about the Execution of his Divine Counsels: And his Arm is not shortened. Yet if these revealed Instances of | pious Excesses are not fufficient to 5 wreft from our modern Sceptics a; confession of their being feasibile 3 If the particular Story of our Saint, as authentically attested as any other Relation from the Ecclesiastical Histery, does not render it to them credible; leaving them to their Incredulity, I'll address myself to those who may be disposed to give their pious - Assent to it, and to benefit from it. Many, by reading the Acts of Mary's penitential Life, have effectually been moved to change their own Lives, and to enter upon a State of Penance : "oY It had, with the Grace of Gop, such an exs traordinary Influence upon St. John Columbinus, a Gentleman of Siena, as to make him mal® N only become a true Penitent, but a F ounder of

a Religious Order called Jesuati, and himfetf also a great Saint. And the like Reflections maturely made by every one else, particularly can't fall, with the Help of Gop, which will never be wanting to us, of stirring up in their

S Mary of. E pt's api Peni Fence recom-

| mended | 70 the Imitation. of every habitual

4 : Sinner; since the Practice of Penance is com-

patible with every State of Life; is what

every ane Hands i in need of, 0 bree what . one cen be dispensed with.

= our inusttious Penitent thou ght it necessary to do so much as we have heard, i order to satisfy the Divine Justice for her Infidelity ; if, to atone for a dissolute Life of a few Years, she went through a voluntary | Penance of fo long a Time, will other Sinners be dispensed with it? Can those who have followed, 'and even, perhaps, outgone her in the Multitude and Heinoufness of their Transgrefsions, hope for F orgiveness, unless with

Her also they repent of em? Hearken to what our Blessed Lord told the Jews on this Subject; Perily, I ay unto you, unless you do Penance for your Sins, ye shall every one of you perish. | Luke, ch. x11. v. 3.] The Sinner must therefore fin» cerely repent of his Sins, if he ever expects to meet with Pardon Nothing more: certain. That is, he must have a thorough Compunction and Contrition for his Iniquities, a Detestation of his past Life, and a Purpose of Amendment: These are the essential Constitutes of true Penance, without which it will be infufficient and vain. With these, as we have seen, our Saint began her Repentance, when, being excluded the Entrance into the Church, she prostrated herself before the Picture of the Blessed Virgin, humbled herself, acknowledged her Guilt and Unworthiness, wept for her Sins, begged Mercy, and had Mercy immediately granted her, being permitted to go into the Sanctuary, and to venerate the sacred Instru-

To the essential Constitutes of 88 are also to be annexed certain Conditions, as inseparable from a true Repentance as Heat from Fire, or Moistness from what is Liquid; these

are, to fly. from the Occasions of sin, and to remove every Circumstance that leads to it. This our Saint effectually did by withdrawing

from the World, and from all human Society, in the Manner we have heard. I will not in-

deed say that it is incumbent on every Sinner

to do every Thing which she did: A manifest

Call from Heaven warranted her uncommon - Undertaking ; and without the like evident

Call from Heaven,. it would be Rashness and Presumption in any one else to enter upon the same Method of Life: Vet, to withdraw so far from the World, that is, from such Company

and such Circumstances as were experienced to

have been the next Step to a Relapse, and the immediate Cause of it, is not only adviseable, without a Voice from Heaven to call them

thereto, but practicable and even indispensable ;

and there will be no securing our Virtue upon any other Terms. Had St. Mary of Egypt

remained in the Occasions that had afforded her

the Means of, and Incentives to Sin, she had

likely, in spite of her Resolutions of Repentance and Amendment, continued on a Sinner and Impenitent. Pressing Temptations, in-

viting Objects and prompt Occasions, are no

otherwise to be chaded them by flying. Sampfon neglecting this salutary Precautien, by dallying with the Occasion, was betray'd into his Ruin. David, presumptuous, unwary and meconfiderate, became an Adulterer; and, in order to cover his Guilt, added the more heinous one of Murder. And the Wisdom of Solomon, from the fame Causes, degenerated into Folly, Infatuation and Apostacy. On the other Hand, Joseph preserved his Innocence, Susana her Chastity, by wresting themselves resolutely and briskly out of the Hands of their violent

Invaders. And the Alternative must also be the inevitable Consequence of the respective Deportment of every one else engaged in the like Circumftances ; viz. either to fall in the Danger, by rafhly running into the Mouth of it, or to triumph over it by flying from it. Therefore the first Prelude to a sincere Conversion from Sin is, * to shun its Oe-

Trrxe are also certain Marks of a Acer tance being sincere and real, by which Mary's Repentance was eminently distinguished ; and by the same is every Penitent to try and measure his own. Of these Marks « one is, that a Sm-

ner, seriously determined upon returning to his Duty to his great Creator, throws himself without Reserve into his Divine Arms, to be

formed by him into an interior and spiritual

Man, by a total Change of his Heart, by new

moulding his Paffions, and correcting their

Deformity and Irregularity ; because, as has

been observed above relatively to our holy Pe-

nitent, her Passions may, in some Manner, be said not fo much to have left her, as to have changed their Object: To wit, If the was impetuous and violent in her worldly Undertakings, the was not less fervent upon her Conversion in the Practices of Penance, when she abandoned herself up to Providence for her Guide: If Pleasures were before her Pursuit, Rigours and Mortification were adopted in their Stead: To make Amends for her Passion after Com- . she made Choice of an absolute Retire-

and an inflamed Love of Gop took

=_ 4 her Love of Creatures. And in these | Particulars every other Sinner is enabled to tread fo closely her Steps in the Paths of Virtue,

and to transcribe her Life of Penance into their

own, as they had copied her Dissolutions; and they are indispensably obliged to do it.

Bur the Punishment of Sin is to be deemed

the principal Mark of the Sincerity of our Re-

pentance, and is a Condition, without which

Penitence is seldom lasting; and is a Debt of Justice to Almighty Gov, which, if not volun-

tarily discharged by the Sinner in this Life, will

be demanded of him, with Interest, in the next; where, to his Sorrow, he will be sensible of the Difference betwixt one and the other. We are

apt to look upon St. Mary of Egypt s OEconomy -

of Penance as a pious Excess and Extravagance; yet, believe me, it comes infinitely

short of the least Punishment inflicted on the Souls in Hell, or even in Purgatory ; where, as

the pious Thomas a Kempis says, One Hour in

Torment is more than an hundred Years spent here. in the severest Penance. [ Tho. Kemp. J. 1. ch. 24.

However, I own, as I faid before, that our

Saint did execute this Act of Justice upon herself with so much Rigour, as would be Temerity

and Indiscretion in another to attempt the

same, without a lke miraculous Call to inspire his Resolution, and an extraordinary Help from Heaven to aid him to execute it. J do not, therefore, advise every Sinner to embrace her {tri&t Retirement, her continual

. and unavoidable Fasts, and miraculous Self. denials ;_ but every one, within his own State and Condition, has daily Means offered him

of making Atonement for his Sins to the Divine Justice, even exclusively of Works of Supererogation ; as married People in the

Government of their Family, in Rearing up

their Children, in bearing with Contradictions, inseparably annexed to their State:

Single, as well as married, in the many cross Accidents of Life, in Disappointments in their worldly Affairs, in Poverty, Sickness, and the Rest ; which, if accepted as coming from the Hands of Gop and the wise Dispositions of a

benign Providence, and bore with a due Re-

signation to the Divine Will and a Christian Patience, . may be more acceptable at the

Throne of Mercy than several Mortifications

undertaken of their own Head, and be an effectual Spunge to wipe off the Debts of their

Youth, mispent in Folly, Sin and Vanity, A- |

gain, an inviolable Observance of the Fasts and Regulations of the Church, where infirmity of Body and bad Health does not plead

for a Dispensation; and done in the true Spirit of the Church; as it reaps the Merit of Obe

dience, fo. is certainly fo far preferable to

Miortifications of our own chusing, and Works ;

not be agreeable to Almighty God, We” r others of Obligation are neglected.

of Supererogation, that, in Truth, rhese will

TurRkk is another Source of Merit, not the 7 least considerable, it a Public Life, which

even the State of Solitude Is debarred of;

the Mortifications, I mean, that ordinarily

occur, and are almost inevitable, from a Commerce with the World; viz, The Moroseness | and uncooth, disagreeable Behaviour of some ;

the Pride, Haughtiness and arbitrary Deport- -

ment of others; the Impertinences of many,

and the heterogeneal Humours of all. Here, I

say, the Anchoret can be no Ways concerned: For, as he has bid adieu to the World and it's

Pleasures, so he is out of the Opportunity of

being obnoxious to it's Contradictions and Im-

pertinences, which to those that are conversant

with the World, and live in the midst of it, subminister great Matter of Patience, and of much Merit, and cannot fail of becoming a satisfactory Atonement for their Sins.

LasTLY, that 1 Treafure of Grace, the Eucharistical Blessing, which it is in our Power to partake of as often as we please, by rendering ourselves not unworthy of it, is another Advantage we have over Anchorets,

witom nothing but the Orders of Gp: mani fested to them in à Manner, leaving no Doubt of their coming from Him, can justify their

debarring themselves this ineffable Help to, and Means of Salvation. I say, therefore, to

every Sinner, Repent, because Jou have the

Means, while you even continue in the World,

in every State and Condition, of doing it. Dv _ | Penance, or (you have heard our Blessed Saviour tell you, and not only you, Mat is, not the Sinner alone, but every one 11 you shall

all likewise perish. [Luke c. 13. v. 3. 5.] Our Blessed Lord, I say, addresses bimselk here indiscriminately to all, to the Innocent as well as to the Guilty; because while the One has Occafion for Penance to satisfy for Sins he has committed, the Other stands in need of it as a Preservative of his Virtue, and an Antidote to Sins he may commit. Our Blessed Lord him-

and Example: St. Mary of Egypt, who had sullied the first Part of her Life by an irregular

severe Penance: And, therefore, who can plead for an Exemption from it? No: Christ has

| self, who was free from all Sin, led a Life of 7 Penance : St. John Baptist, who was sanftified in his Mother's Womb, inculcated it by Word ©

Conduct, wiped off the Stain by a long and

led the Way ; ; he can t for shame refuse to

accept of him for his Guide : He is not more innocent than St. John Baptist; and if he has

been guilty of Sin, he can no more be excused making a satisfactory Atonement for it than St.

Bur tho there be many who have not copied .

the ignominious Part of her Life, and can't reproach themselves with her Transgressions of

a gross and shameful Nature; are they yet

wholly free from spiritual Vices, more heinous, Perhaps, in the Sight of Gop, and more fatal in

their Consequence than Mary's Disorders, tho' less glaring and infamous, and by themselves often undiscerned or disregarded. Pride, a Child of

Lucifer, a Monster begot indeed in Heaven,

but drove immediately thence and precipitated into the Abyss of Hell, its natural and fittest Residence ; yet broke it's Confinement there, and early made it's Way to the Earth: Here it breathed wide its pestilential Contagion, communicating it to Man; and who. can flatter himself that he has not caught the Infection? It creeps into Cloysters ; it vitiates the best of our Actions, and even shelters itself under the

Cover of its opposite Virtue. The haughty,

arbitrary Deportment of many, seated on the

Pinnacle of Honour, or intrusted with the Staff of Power; their scornful, supercilious Contempt of Inferiors and Dependents, Self- conceit, Overrating their own Merits, Undervaluing their Neighbour's, spring all from this venomous Source. An unforgiving Temper is another Offspring of Pride; carrying a Heart impatient of the least Affront, big with Resentment, and breathing Revenge. Secret Grudges and Animosities ; an illnatured Satisfaction at our Adversary's Misfortunes ; a gnawing Envy at their Prosperity and Well-doing, are also fpiritual Vices not more common, than entertained without Scruple or Remorse. Ambition of worldly Honours, Esteem and Applause; an immoderate Desire of Riches, sparing neither Fraud, Usary, nor scarce open Rapine to get at em, are become fashionable Passions. And can a Heart, inwardly cankered with this spiritual Rust, have less Need of the corrosive Remedy of Penance to wear it off, than Soul stained with Vices that reflect outward Shame and Ignominy, have occasion for Pe- ' nance to wipe off her Disgrace ? Among all the Woes and Menaces Christ thundered out against Sinners, the most dreadful were those He levelled at the Pharisees ; not because their

outward Demeanour was irregular, but for that under a plausible Appearance and a fair | Cover they concealed a depraved Heart and a cankered Mind : Like a painted Sepulchre, the Comparison our Blessed Lord made use of, beautiful on the Outside ; within, a Sink of Filth and Corruption. The Woman, caught in Adultery; being brought before him, [Fobn c. 8.] He did not proceed to her Condemnation, discharging her with this short salutary Advice; Go, and now fin no more: [ibid. v. 11.] But, turning to her Accusers, whose exorbitant Pride, and inward Malice of their Heart He intimately knew, challenged him that was without Fault to throw the first Stone. Moe to ye Pharisees! Woe to ye Hypocrates | was his constant Cry: And then concludes, Unless ye do Penance you sball all litewise perish. And fo will every one else who copies their Pride, Insincerity and Hypocrisy ; and certainly stands a worse Lay than the most abandoned Libertine becoming a thorough Penitent. Our Blefled Lord himself has shewn the Disparity of their Condition in the Parable of the Publican and Pharisee. [Luke c. 18. v. 10, Sc.] The Publican, conscious of his many Enormities, scarce dared to step within

the Doors of Temple, but humbly: kept at a Distance, not presuming to offer any other Prayer to the Almighty, but that He wou'd be propitious to him a Sinner, and have Mercy on him. The Pharisee, at the same Time, elated with his presumptuous Conceits of his own Justice, enumerated his pretended Deeds of Virtue; and, in particular, made a Merit of not being like the infamous Publican there present. But what was the different Success of their Prayer at the Divine Tribunal ? Our Blessed Saviour tells us: The Publican was heard, the Pharisee rejected; the Humility of the one turning to his Justification; the Pride

of the other to his Reprobation. Max, blessed with a happy W of Mind and a pious Education, are thereby not only secured from the Corruptions of the World, but removed also from the Occasions and even the Temptation; but yet, their Preservation being visibly providential, they have no Reason to think much of themselves on this Account; especially, if by leading an indolent Life, tho' otherwise harmless and inoffensive; by trifling it away immoderately upon Game and indifferent Pastimes, they become criminal, while they deem themselves innocent, For,

the Servant, who had: hid his Talent, Matt. c. 25. v. 25, Sc.] was therefore punished by his Master for not improving it. Loss of Time is an Abuse of it, and Amusements, innocent in themselves, may be criminal in their Excess. But tho', in the Whole, the Lives of such may not be liable to the Imputation of being sinful, how far will they still at least fall short of the Perfection even of those, who having strayed at first out of the Paths of Virtue, and returning late into 'em again, yet by taking larger Strides, make a speedier Advance towards it in a shorter Time? The Labourer in the Gospel, who came into the Vineyard at the eleventh Hour, ¶ Matt. c. 20. v. 9, Sc.] received the same Wages as he who began his Work at the First, and had gone thro' the Burden and Heat of the Day, because his Industry was superior to the other's, and he e earn d

So it is, Christian Reader, The Sinner, how notorious soever he may have been, is not to be contemned : Because, thro' the Grace of Gor, he may in an Instant become as great a Saint, The good Thief on the Cross was such. And how infamous soever may have been the first Part of the Sinner” s Life, he

may, with the Divine Helps. retrieve it by a

seasonable Repentance, and become such a

Pattern of consummate Virtue, as the most Innocent need not disdain to take for their Example and Model : Such was St. Mary of Egypt, whose Story you have just read.

Bur yet, after, all, whosoever you be, Peni-

tent or Innocent; whatsoever Gifts ye are endowed with, you have em not from your-

selves; they are the Effects of Gop's gratui-

tous Favour. By the Grace of Gop, said the

Apostle, Iam what Tam: And, therefore, when ye have done all that is, seemingly, i in your Power,

and all that you think Almighty Gop requires

of you, on your own Side, remember that

you are still unprofitable Servants, and that on Gop alone is to be your Reliance, on His

Goodness, on His Mercy, through Christ's infinite Merits and Sufferings. Within his facred Wounds you are to shelter yourself at last; hem you must present to the Divine Jer them He will not, He cannot refuse to accept of; and from them your own Good Works are to derive their Merit, and be render'd worthy of his Acceptance.

IN vOk r, next, the Blessed Virgin, and solli-

cit her to come to your Aid; entreat her, im-

portune her to rele her Interest 3 in yout Behalf :* It was never heard of any One's failing of Success, who, With an unfeigned Desire of Mercy, had Recourse to her Intercession. She is the Refuge of Sinners and Mother of Mercy ! and deligNts to be employ'd in the Axp then if, animated by our illustrious Penitent's Example, you have enter'd upon 4 penitential Life, take her also for your Patroness, and doubt not of her becoming a strenuous Advocate for you at the Throne of Mercy. LasTLY request, also, your Angel Guardian to join with the whole Heavenly Choir, in presenting your Tears, your Sighs, and your Petitions : He was Witness of your many Misdemeanours, Infidelities and enormous Ingratitudes, and was afflicted thereat ; and he will be now as much rejoiced at your sincere Repentance. There shall be Joy before the Angels of Gop, upon one Sinner doing Penance. | Lake, c. 15. v. 10.] Because the Sheep that was lost is found again. Lv. 6.] Because the Proargal Son, that was dead, is come to Life 2 gain; was lost and is found. 2 24.]

srer. I. The impenetrable Mystery of Almighty "Gov's Conduct, with Regard to his Elec, © accounts for every Thing that occurs in the Saints an Ld the Jurprifing or marvellous

Sect. II. Her. providential Discovery i in the De-

‹§ 2›

for ty after seven. and forty Pears _— Retirement, y Tosimus, ' « holy Abbot ; to bom she gave an Account as well of her 3 ly as of ber penitential Life. Pi. 25

Sor. IV. She es the Holy Gomatinien from" Zosimus s Hands, Her Death and Burial;

Sect. V. A Review as wonderful Ng with Repel? 70 the 1 and Faw: of Gop to

‹§ 5›

"the Cav: ls f 8 7 6 and the Incredulous,

SecT. VI. St. Mary of Egypt's an Penitence recommended to the Imitation of every ha- . Gitual Sinner; fince the Practice of Penance ; compatible with every State of Life, is what every One stands in need of, and therefore what

ܤ 6

no One can be dispensed witbz. pi. 59.

DAGE 15. 1. 3. for she prostrated before, r. she proftrated P herself pair, P. 43. I. 13. for shatter d Cloak, r.

tatter d Cloak. P. 60. J. 11, 23. for Constitutes, 7. Constitutives, P. 30. J. 20. There are a Set, r. there is a Set,

PAGE 3. 1.9. for, is certainly, v. are. P. 8. J. 24. for

* Austine, r. Austin. P. 15. l. 3. for she prostrated before, r. she prostrated herself before. P. 19. J. 6. for was such,

were such, P. 43. J. 13. for shatter d Cloak, r. tatter'd

Cloak. P. 50. J. 20. for There are a Set, r. there is a Set. P. 54. 1. 20. for future Ages, r. succeeding. P. 57. 1. 3. for was what, r. were. P. 60. J. 11. 23. for Constitutes, r. Constitutives. P. 65. J. 24. for does not plead, r. plead not.