and watchings, in hot tears and sober sorrow, as soldiers in the
field with death before their eyes, in meekness and gentleness,
in silence of the lips, in poverty and want, in chastity and
temperance, in humbleness and quietude of mind, in perfect
charity toward God and their neighbour, carrying their present
life down to the grave, and becoming Angels in their ways.
Wherefore God hath graced them with miracles, signs and various
virtues and made the voice of their marvellous life to be sounded
forth to the ends of the world. If I open my mouth to declare in
every point the life of one of them who is said to have been the
founder of the monastic life, Antony by name, by this one tree
thou shalt assuredly know the sweet fruits of other trees of the
like kind and form, and shalt know what a foundation of religious
life that great man laid, and what a roof he built, and what
gifts he merited to receive from the Saviour. After him many
fought the like fight and won like crowns and guerdons.

"Blessed, yea, thrice blessed, are they that have loved God, and,
for his love's sake, have counted every thing as nothing worth.
For they wept and mourned, day and night, that they might gain
everlasting comfort: they humbled themselves willingly, that
there they might be exalted: they afflicted the flesh with hunger
and thirst and vigil, that there they might come to the pleasures
and joys of Paradise. By their purity of heart they became a
tabernacle of the Holy Ghost, as it is written, `I will dwell in
them and walk in them.' They crucified themselves unto the
world, that they might stand at the right hand of the Crucified:
they girt their loins with truth, and alway had their lamps
ready, looking for the coming of the immortal bridegroom. The
eye of their mind being enlightened, they continually looked