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THIS prayer then though it seems to contain all the fulness of
perfection, as being what was originated and appointed by the Lord's own
authority, yet lifts those to whom it belongs to that still higher
condition of which we spoke above, and carries them on by a loftier stage
to that ardent prayer which is known and tried by but very few, and which
to speak more truly is ineffable; which transcends all human thoughts, and
is distinguished, I will not say by any sound of the voice, but by no
movement of the tongue, or utterance of words, but which the mind
enlightened by the infusion of that heavenly light describes in no human
and confined language, but pours forth richly as from copious fountain in
an accumulation of thoughts, and ineffably utters to God, expressing in the
shortest possible space of time such great things that the mind when it
returns to its usual condition cannot easily utter or relate. And this
condition our Lord also similarly prefigured by the form of those
supplications which, when he retired alone in the mountain He is said to
have poured forth in silence, and when being in an agony of prayer He shed
forth even drops of blood, as an example of a purpose which it is hard to
imitate.
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