Book IT.

which things Being fo made pure are moft apt to receive the influences of the divine virtue. We muft alfo obferve that at the end of any con- fecration after the prayer is rightly performed, as we have mentioned; the- operator ought to blefs the thing' confecrated, by Breathing out fome fentence with divine virtue and power of the prefent confecration, with a commemoration of his virtue and authority, that fo it may be the more duly performed, and with an earned: and attentive mind. Now I fhall mention here fome examples, that, by thefe, a path may be made to the whole perfection thereof.
The Confecration o/" Water.
SO in the confecration of water, we muft commemorate that God has placed the firmament in the midft: of the .waters, and likewife that God placed the fountain of waters in the earthly pa radife, from whence fprang four holy rivers that watered the whole earth ; likewife we are to remember that God caufed the waters to be an inftrument of his juftice in deftroying the giants, by bringing on the deluge which covered the face of the whole earth and in the overthrow of the hoft of Pharoah in the Red Sea, and that God led the children of Ifrael through on dry land, and through the midft: of the river Jordan, and likewife his marvelloufly drawing water out of the ftony rock in the wildernefs; and that, at the prayer of Samfon, he caufed water to flow out of the jaw-bone of an afs ; and likewife that God has made water the inftrument of his mercy and lalvation for the expiation of original fin ; alfo that Chrift: was baptized in the river Jordan, and hath thereby fandtified and cleanfed the waters. Likewife certain divine names are to be invocated which are conformable hereto; as, that God is a living fountain, living water, the fountain of mercy, and names of the like fort.
Confecration