Confessour who not onely stands between God and you to pray for you but hath the power of the Keys committed to him upon your true Repentance to Absolve you in Christ's Name from those sins which you have confessed to him II. You are to remember that you bring along with you to Confession not onely unfeigned Sorrow and Remorse of Conscience for sins past but setled Resolutions for the time to come never to offend in the same kinde again for without this Confession is but a mere Pageant and rather a mockery of God then any effectual means to reconcile you to him III. That having made choice of such a Confessor who is every way qualified that you may trust your Soul with him you are advised plainly and sincerely to open your heart to him and that laying aside all consideration of any personal weakness in him you are to look upon him onely as he is a Trustee from God and commissioned by him as his Ministerial Deputy to hear and judge and absolve you IV. That the Manner of your Confession be in an humble posture on your knees as being made to God rather then man and for the Matter of it let it be severe and serious but yet so as it may be without any inordinate Anxiety and unnecessary Scruples which serve onely to entangle the Soul and in stead of setting you free which is the benefit to be looked for by Confession perplex you the more V. That for the frequency of doing this you are to consult with your own necessities and as your Physician is not sent for upon every small distemper which your own care may rectifie so neither are you obliged upon every failing to be over-scrupulous or to think it a point of Necessity presently to confess it For the Confessor cannot be always present but your God is to whom if you apply your self with Praiers and Penitence confessing in his ears alone what-ever you have done amiss and stedfastly believing that through the merits of your Saviour they shall never be imputed to you you may be confident that your Absolution is at that time sealed in Heaven but the comfortable Declaration of it you are to look for from the Priest Advice concerning Devout Receiving the Holy and Blessed Sacrament I. YOu are first to consider seriously the Infinite Love of your Saviour who not onely offered himself for you as a Sacrifice upon the Cross but that this might never be forgotten by you left the blessed memory of it in his Holy Sacrament which as often as you devoutly and faithfully receive you are effectually made Partaker of all the Merits of his precious Death and Passion II. That for the frequency of doing this if your own Conscience doth not speak home to you you refer your self to your Spiritual Guide who knowing the Temper of your Soul and how you stand disposed may best direct you Onely I shall adde this that the oftner you apply your self to doe it your life will be the purer your heart the chearfuller and the better armed against all Temptations III. That three times in the year at least especially on those solemn Festivals observed by all Christians who have not utterly cast off Obedience to the Church and order in their Devotions you lay aside all excuses and every Sin that then besets you and seriously prepare your self for so great a Blessing IV. That assoon as you wake that Morning and the sooner you awake the better sign it is that your minde is set upon it you rouse your self up with a fervent expectation of Receiving that day the Bread that came from Heaven which whosoever is rightly partaker of shall not perish but have life everlasting V. As for the precedent daies of Preparation how many they should be or how they should be employed you are to refer your self to your Guide who may advise you not to be over-scrupulous of the Time for the Primitive Christians communicated every day and if your life be innocent from great offences you Prepartion need not be long Onely be sure you bring with you Faith and Charity clean hands and a penitent heart which if you do be confident the Master of the Feast will not finde fault with you for want of a wedding-Garment VI. That upon the blessed day of your Receiving you do more vigorously prepare your self by lifting up your Heart and Hands to God and offering up your private Praiers fitted for that purpose with all possible Devotion And that being done you may compose your self in quiet and in silence till the time of the Morning-Sacrifice be come when being called to a more Publick Oratory you may be the fitter to goe with an humble Confidence to meet your Saviour and with that Ardour and Affection as a chast Virgin goes to an holy Marriage VII That during the Celebration of this Holy Sacrament you attend earnestly to what is done by the Priest When he breaks the Bread imagine to your self that you see the Body of your dear Saviour torn and crucified and when he pours out the Wine consider that his Bloud was thus poured out upon the Altar of the Cross and last of all when he that consecrates shall stand before you ready in particular to apply it you may then think that you see Christ himself reaching out his own body and bloud to you to feed your Soul unto Eternal Life VIII That farther you are really to believe the words as they are spoken This is my Body This is my Bloud and not to doubt but that it is effectually made good to you in the Receiving without any dispute at all or scrupulous inquiring into the manner of it which neither Christ hath revealed and neither Men nor Angels are able to pry into IX That the Celebration of these Holy Mysteries being ended you are to retire with all Thankfulness of heart for having been admitted to that Heavenly Feast wherein your Saviour who gave himself for you on the Cross hath now more particularly given himself to you in the Sacrament never to depart from you unless you again wilfully offend him which you are the more earnestly to beware left by frequent Relaples the Sacrament it self prove not onely useless but dangerous to you and your latter end prove worse then your beginnning Advice concerning Fasting I. YOu are to consider Fasting either as a Duty enjoyned by the Church or as a voluntary undertaking of your own Your Obedience is required to the former in every particular as far as it is enjoyned unless the want of Health or some other Accidents may unavoidably hinder you wherein not onely the Bishop may dispense with you but he that hath the charge of your Soul especially if the Necessity be evident II. Besides the ordinary Fasts prescribed by the Church you are advised to set aside some Day either Weekly or at least Monthly wherein you may mourn in private not onely for your own sins and personal calamities but for
Insolent Rebel have not onely set up my own Will in opposition to thine but many times preferred it before thine and have listned more to the false Oracles of Flesh and Bloud then to all thy Holy Commandments But I Repent O my God I Repent I Accuse and Iudge and Condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner X. Wo Wo unto me O God that being made according to thine Image the greatest honour that could be done thy Creature I have dashed so many blurs and spots and foul sins upon it so defaced all the lines and features of it that unless the Holy Spirit please to renew that Image in me again I tremble to think what I must one day hear Depart from me I know you not But I Repent O my God I Repent I am ashamed and confounded at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XI Wo Wo unto me O God that having received a Rational Soul from thee to be a Moral Light and guide unto my actions I have been so brutish as to follow my sensual appetite in stead of it and have made no farther use of Reason then to find out vain excuses to cozen my own Soul into all the by-waies of Sin and Error But I Repent O my God I Repent I Accuse and Iudge and Condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XII Wo Wo unto me O God that being endowed with Memory to serve as a Magazine to treasure up thy Precepts and holy Counsels in I have stuft it so miserably full with the Ideas of former Vanities and Sin that I have left no room for thee at all But I Repent O my God I Repent I infinitely condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XIII Wo Wo unto me O God that having received a Heart from thee to be the seat of clean and holy affections and the onely Temple for thy holy Spirit to dwell in I have so unworthily abused and altered the property of it that it is now become a Den of Thieves and an unhandsome receptacle of all uncleanness But I Repent O my God I Repent I bate and loath and abhor my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XIV Wo Wo unto me O God that my wretched Heart being corrupted my Imagination hath run wildly after with a swarm of vain and sinfull Thoughts which like importunate Flies being driven away light again and again upon my distracted Soul and intermingle with the best of my Devotions But I Repent O my God I Repent I am infinitely troubled grieved for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XV. Wo Wo unto me O God that mine Eyes being greedy after Vanity have been upon all occasions as open windows to let in Sin but when by the same way they should have issued out Penitential Tears to wash away the stains those Sins had made there hath been no passage found for them But I Repent O my God I Repent I am inwardly grieved and deplore my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XVI Wo Wo unto me O my God that for the entertaining of vain conversation I have left mine Ears too often open to light and vain and sinfull discourses and in all my inquiries have hearkened more to what the world saith abroad then to what thy holy Spirit and my own Conscience saith within me But I Repent O my God I Repent I Accuse and Iudge and Condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XVII Wo Wo unto me O God that I have not resolved with thy servant David to take care of my waies that I offend not in my Tongue but have many times vainly and inconsiderately let it loose and either to please the Company or my self I have spoken words which might unhappily prove occasions of sin both to them and me without regard or remembring how great Flames such little Sparks might kindle But I Repent O my God I Repent I do infinitely condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XVIII Wo Wo unto me O God that all the parts and faculties of my Soul and Body have been abused and have not served the Laws of their Creator but have so eagerly and constantly pursued the corrupt desires of a seduced Heart that I have cause to fear that either my whole life may be looked upon as one continued sin or at least as having admitted so few inconsiderable Pauses that if thou shouldest enter into strict Judgment with me I should not have the confidence to say when or where or wherein I have been innocent But I Repent O my God I Repent I am confounded and astonished at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XIX Wo unto me O God that I have wretchedly failed even in my best endeavours that I have been cold in my Devotions weary of my Praiers inconstant to good purposes dull and heavy in the way to Heaven but quick and active in all the waies of sin having made it the whole business of my life rather to seem to be Religious then really to be so But I Repent O my God I Repent I Accuse and Iudge and Condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XX. Wo Wo unto me O God that I have not washed mine hands in Innocency when I have gone unto thine Altar nor made mine heart ready to receive the bread that came from Heaven but have failed in my Preparations and have not sufficiently considered either mine own unworthiness or the high secrets of so great a Mystery But I Repent O my God I Repent I am grieved and troubled at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XXI Wo Wo unto me O God that having so often received those inestimable Pledges of thy love the precious Body and Bloud of thy dear Son in the Holy Sacrament I have been so unwary as to admit my former sins under the same roof with thee and have unhappily done what lay in me to drive thee from me But I Repent O my God I Repent I am infinitely ashamed at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XXII Wo Wo unto me O God that my Repentance the onely plank left me in the Shipwreck of my Soul hath been so weak so slight and so unsteady that every small blast of a new Temptation hath been able to drive me from it and by frequent Relapses into sin gives me cause enough to repent even of my vain repentance But I Repent again O God again I Repent I hate and loath and abhor my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner XXIII Wo Wo unto me O God that having received my Life and Being and Preservation from thee with so many advantages to have made me happy in this world and blessed in the next I have been so abominably unthankfull that I have cast all these thy Blessings behind me
But for my sins against thee my God I must lay my hand upon my mouth for ever for I have nothing to return or answer But the comfort is and blessed shall be my Soul if rightly I lay hold on it that it is thou O my blessed Iesu who hast satisfied for me one drop of whose bloud is enough to satisfie for the sins of a thousand worlds And this being so will thy offended Father be so rigorous as to require the same paiment again Especially will he require it of me a poor a broken and a bankrupt Sinner Canst thou exact the utmost farthing of him who hath not a mite of his own to pay thee The Transition which the Penitent makes from the Acts of Contrition to the Acts of Resolution for amendment of life without which all sorrow for sin is in vain BUT because by thy infinite Mercy O my God thou hast satisfied for me already shall I therefore fold my Arms and sit down and doe nothing towards it Or which is worse shall I goe on Shall I continue in my Sins that Grace may abound Now God forbid No I here resolve rather to die the Death then ever wilfully to sin against thee more I do here resolve utterly to avoid the temptations and approaches towards those former sins which have hitherto so miserably betraied me I do here resolve thy holy Spirit assisting me upon all the duties of a new life to be hereafter more wary in my waies and more constant to good resolutions to love thee above all the pleasures and interests of this life and sadly to consider what an infinite loser I should be if to gain all that my corrupt heart desires I should lose thee If after all this I should be so miserably forgetfull both of my self and thee as shamefully to relapse into any of those sins which I have now repented of I do here once more resolve to abhor and loath my self for it and not to let my Conscience sleep or admit of any rest till I have with bitter Tears and a sharp reiterated Repentance obtained my pardon Having thus far made his Resolution the Penitent betakes himself to Praier AND now O thou great searcher of all Hearts who seest that I am of my self weak and mutable and no better then a Reed shaken with the winde O shew thy strength in my weakness fasten and confirm me in these good purposes and so binde them with Cords unto thine Altar that â— may never start from thee more or be any longer of that Herd whose good resolutions are as a dream in the night or if they last longer they are but as the next morning dew and as soon vanish away O give me the Resolution of thy Servant Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. O give me the Heart of thy Servant David who so passionately makes his Protestations I will take no wicked thing in hand I hate the sins of unfaithfulness there shall no such cleave unto me I will walk in my house with a perfect heart I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments Lord I am not able to think one of these good thoughts without thee much less to resolve upon them But I who without thee am able to doe nothing may venture to say as thine Apostle did that in thee I am able to doe all things Lord give me the strength to doe what thou requirest and then require of me what thou pleasest Amen After these Resolutions the Penitent prepares himself with an humble Soul and bended knees to beg Pardon O The God of my life and the unexhausted Fountain of Mercy which can never be drawn dry I have now by the assistence of thy holy Spirit gone through though with weak and trembling steps the whole exercise of Repentance for I have confessed my sins and thou hast promised upon my confession of them not to impute them to me I have gone one step farther for I have repented of my sins and thou hast promised again that upon my repentance thou wilt remember them no more and because thy Holy Word hath taught me that a new life is the onely life of a true Repentance I have this day in thy fight and in the presence of all the holy Angels that attend thee in the Conversion of a Sinner made my firm resolution never to fall again into the sins which I have repented of And now what remains for a poor Penitent to doe more but humbly and earnestly to beg thy Pardon The Penitent's Praier O God the Father who canst not be thought so cruell as to make me onely to destroy me Have mercy on me O God the Son who knowing thy Father's Will didst make it thy business to come into the world to save me Have mercy on me O God the Holy Ghost who to the same end didst sanctifie me in my Baptism and haft so often since breathed holy thoughts and motions on me Have mercy on me O Holy and Blessed and Glorious Trinity whom in three Persons I adore as my one and onely true God Have mercy on me Hear me O Lord. Help me O Lord. Save me or else I perish Lord carest thou not that I perish Thou that wouldest have all men saved Thou who wouldest have none to perish And wilt thou now shew thine anger against a Worm against a Leaf against a Vapour that vanisheth before thee O remember how short my time is and deliver not my Soul into the Power of Hell For alas what profit is there in my Bloud or who shall ever give thee thanks in that bottomless pit No let me live in thy sight let me live O my God that my Soul may praise thee Forget me as I have been disobedient provoking thee to anger and regard me as I am distressed crying out to thee for help Look not upon me as I am a Sinner but consider me as I am thy Creature A Sinner I am I confess a Sinner of no ordinary strain but let not this hinder thee O my God for upon such Sinners thou gettest the greatest glory O remember for whose sake it was that thou camest from the bosome of thy Father and didst let thy self down so low as to be content to be born of thine own humble handmaid Remember for whom it was that thy tender Body was Torn and Scourged and Crucified and thy precious Bloud shed Was it not for the sins of the whole world and shall I be so narrow-hearted to my own Soul or so injurious to thy Glory as to think that in all this crowd thou hast particularly excepted me Or which is as great a dishonour to thee can I possibly imagine that thou diedst onely for Sinners of a lower kinde and leftest such as I am without remedy What had become then of him who filled Ierusalem with Bloud What of the noted Woman who had lived in a trade of Sin Nay what had become of thine own Disciple who