such vices? What temptations withstood'st thou this day? in what art
thou meeker than thou wast? in what more chaste, more sober, more
patient, more temperate, more loving thy GOD in thy brother, or more
liking in GOD hast thou than thou hadst? Hast left that sin that thou,
through habit, fallest into so oft? and other many vices that thou hast
done and pleased the fiend with: and grieved thy good GOD, and hast
barred thyself against the grace that should help thee. And then, with a
repenting of those sins that bite thy conscience, knock on thy breast
and say a _Pater noster_ with _Ave Maria_, on thy knees, and soon in the
morning shrive thee of those sins. And if thou doest thus, I hope the
fiend shall be afeared to tempt thee, for thou art under GOD'S ward,
whilst thou bearest thee thus. After this reckoning, where-through thy
soul is raised to a blessed hope to the Father of mercy, and thy flesh
waxes heavy, go to thy rest: for if thou hinderest thy flesh of its
necessity, and work it beyond its might, faintly will it help thee, or
hinder thee withal. And or ever thou goest to rest commit thyself and
thy friends into GOD'S hands, who for us was nailed to the tree, and
beseech Him, for His mercy, that He guard thee from all perils of body
and soul, and arm thee with the token of the cross; for where the fiend
sees this mark soon he flies. Of this mark, it is written in the life of
S. Edmund: that as he went one time alone, a child appeared to him who
was wonderfully fair, and said, "Hail, my friend, whom I love in GOD."
S. Edmund was surprised at this greeting, and the child said to him,
"knowest thou me not?" And S. Edmund said to the child, "How should I
know thee? I never saw thee before." And the child said to him, "When
thou didst learn in school, I sat ever by thy side; and ever since I
have been with thee, wheresoever thou hast dwelt; for so my Lord has
fastened me to thee, that I might never part from thee, such is my
Lord's will. But behold on my forehead, and read what thou seest there."
He looked as he told him, and with heavenly letters, these four words,
he saw there written, _JESUS Nazarenus Rex iudeorum_. Then said the
child, "This is my Lord's name, thou seest thus written. This name I
will that thou have in mind, and print it in thy soul, and cross thy
front with this name; before thou goest to sleep; and from harassings of
the fiend, it shall protect thee that night, and from sudden death, and
all who