The Book of Privy Counseling – Take the good gracious God just as he is, as plain as a common poultice, and lay him to your sick self, just as you are.1 Or, if I may put it another way, lift up your sick self, just as you are, and let your desire reach out to touch the good, gracious God, just as he is, for to touch him is eternal health. The woman in the Gospel testifies to this when she says: “If I but touch the hem of his garment I shall be healed.”2 She was healed physically; but even more shall you be healed of your spiritual illness by this lofty, sublime work in which your desire reaches out to touch the very being of God, beloved in himself.mythoughts, thoughtsofgod, thoughts of God, David Reese