though we deserve it not who hast given us a Being when we were not 12. A Prayer for the Conversion of Hereticks and Infidels ALmighty and all merciful God! who seekest and desirest the salvation of all Souls Take pity we beseech thee upon such as are seduced with pestiferous Errors and segregated from the unity of thy sacred Church Pardon them O Lord for they perceive not what they do Illuminate the Eyes of their understanding O true Light of all Spirits that they may see their own Blindness and seeing it may speedily abandon it And that so becomming sincerely reconciled to thee the Supreme Shepherd and to thy Church the only safe Sheepfold they may joyfully praise and magnify thy Mercies together with us thy faithful Children for evermore 13. A Prayer for a sick person O Soveraign Lord God the Author of our Health and our Comforter in Sickness in the Watch of whose Divine Providence run all the Moments of our lives earthly Pilgrimage Hear we beseech thee the humble Petitions which we present to thy throne of mercy for N. thy infirm but faithful Servant and mercifully restore him to his former welfare that he may henceforth walk more worthy his Calling and make greater progress in vertue and Piety But if it is thy pleasure O Supream Lord of Life and Death to call him hence to Eternity let thy most just Will O Heavenly Father be accomplished in this and in all things whatsoever only let Death find him well prepared and rightly disposed Let him humbly kiss thy Paternal Rod which chastiseth him and patiently submit to the Cross which thy loving Hand hath layd upon his Shoulders Let him behave himself during the remaining time of his Infirmity as befits a faithful and devout Christian free from Pusillanimity and Despair full of Hope and filial confidence And finally being strengthned with the Sacraments reconciled to his Enemies and setled in thy Grace and Favour let him cheerfully expect and joyfully embrace Deaths summons and quietly pass from this place of Banishment to his happy home in thy Heavenly Paradise 14. Prayers in Time of the Plague 1. The Anthem Remember thy Covenant O Merciful Creator and say to the smiting Angel Now hold thy Hand that the Earth may not become desolate and every living Soul destroyed Ver. Lord let thy Anger cease from thy People Ans And from thy City Let us Pray HEar we most humbly beseech thee O Compassionate Lord God! the Prayers of thy distressed people and as we acknowledg our selves to be justly punished for our offences so be thou pleased in mercy to free us for the glory of thy own sacred Name 2. O God! who well know'st that our human frailty cannot subsist amidst so many and so great Dangers without the support of thy Divine favour and assistance Give us we most humbly beseech thee Health of mind and body and grant that we may overcome by thy help and mercy what we deservedly suffer for our own Sins and Impieties 3. Lord lend a gracious Eare to the petitions of thy poor Servants grant us the desired effect of our faithful Supplications and avert from us the fury of the raging Pestilence that we may humbly and gratefully acknowledg these Scourges to proceed from thy just Anger and Indignation and to cease through thy boundless Mercy and Goodness 4. A Prayer to the sacred Virgin-Mother call'd the Myraculous Prayer against the Plague THe Star of Heaven whose snowy Breast Did suckle our sweet Lord supprest The Plague of Death whose Origen Was from the very first of Men May that clear Star at present daign Those Constellations to restrain Whose Wars deprive men of their Breath By the destructive wounds of Death Repeat thrice these four ensuing Verses Bright Star o' th' Sea ' gainst Plague thy help afford Nothing 's deny'd thee by thy Son our Lord Who honours thee Blest-Maid Sweet Jesu save Them by thy power for whom she daigns to crave Let us Pray O God of Mercy God of Compassion God of Pardon who in time past taking pity upon thy afflicted people commandedst the striking Angel to with-hold his Hand from further punishing them We most humbly beseech thee for the love of that glorious Star whose sacred Breasts gave thee suck to preserve us from all Plaguy Infection to deliver us from an unprovided Death and to defend us from all destructive Accidents and Incursions 15. Prayers for a happy Death 1. O Dear Lord Jesu I most humbly beseech thee by those bitter Pains and Pangs which thou suffredst for me in thy bitter Passion and particularly in the hour wherein thy Divine Soul passed forth of thy blessed Body take pity upon my poor and sinful Soul in her last Agony and in her passage to Eternity 2. T is thou O Soveraign Goodness who art the prime Source and dayly Preserver of my Life and 't is from thee alone that I can expect the Grace of a happy Death Thou O Lord didst not make this Death which separates Soul and Body 't was Sin which brought it into the World had not man strayed from thy sacred Precept he had not been subject to this severe Punishment But yet thy Divine Son by enduring the Sting of Death hath chang'd its harsh Nature and through his means and merits it may now be made a Sacrifice most pleasing to thy Majesty For precious in thy sight is the just mans Death which is only a glorious passage from Time to Eternity This is the Death I here most humbly demand of thy Divine bounty as the Crown of all thy Mercies for thou O Lord lookest not so much upon the first beginnings of thy Children as upon their final End and Consummation and the Eternity of their Glory or Misery depend's upon the last moment of their Life Then it is that the Tempter tries all wayes to prevaile over the weakness of our spirit when 't is beaten down by the Bodies sickness either to swell it up into a dangerous Presumption or deject it into a more dangerous Despair Then it is that all the sinful passages of our life come swarming into our Memories to strike us with a sad resentment of what 't is too late to remedy Then it is that the poor Soul overwhelmed with a flood of sorrow cannot without thy strengthing Grace exercise the functions of her Reason and Religion Give me therefore O my gracious Lord God! in this passage which is so full of peril and of so great importance all those Christian dispositions which thy wonted Clemency give 's to thy elected and beloved Children that I may well perform this last duty of life Let me consider Death as the just punishment of Sin and so most willingly receive it to obey the Law which comprehend's all his race by whom it was introduced into the World Let me look upon my Body as a parcel of old Adam deserving to return into dust and only fit for corruption Let me render to thy Majesty
most hearty thanks for vouchsafing by Death to deliver my spirit from the Law of these corporal Members which kept it so long enslaved under the Law of Sin Let me freely offer up to thee my life in Sacrifice and let thy love be the Fire not only to purifie but also to ennoble this my oblation which of it self is so mean and contemptible Finally O Soveraign Lord of life and death I resignedly leave to the conduct of thy sacred Providence all that concerns my poor Soul's departure out of this her pilgrimage as to the Time the Place the Assistants the Consolations the Derelictions and whatsoever other Circumstance I only beg that thy holy Grace may not then abandon me when all human helps must of necessity become useless unto me In the mean space let Death O my God! be my continual Looking-glass to keep me from wilfully offending thy Divine Majesty to check my immoderate Affection to this life which is so uncertain in its permanency and so certain in its misery and to mind me that each Moment of time I live may be the last wherein I must appear before thy dread tribunal to render an account of my actions and to receive accordingly a definitive sentence which must remain irrevocable for all Eternity 3. The Prayer of S. Vincent to our Lord Jesus for the same end that is to obtain the grace of Dying well O My Soveraign Lord Jesu who dyedst for the salvation of the whole World and desirest not that any one should perish to whom I never present my Prayers with out hopes of Mercy relying upon thy own gracious Promise That whatsoever shall be ask'd in thy Name shall be granted I beseech thee by that sweet and sacred Name that in the Article of my Death thou wilt be pleased to give me perfect integrity of my Senses true Contrition for my Sins a lively Faith a firm Hope and a perfect Charity that I may then say unto thee with a pure and clean Heart into thy Hands O my Saviour Jesu I commend my Spirit 16. A most Devout and Efficacious Prayer to our Blessed Redeemer in the honour of his bitter Passion Which whosoever shall humbly Recite before the Image of a Crucifix with a pure Intention and perfect Resignation several Days together may confidently Hope to obtain of the Divine Mercy a full Grant of their lawful Demands O Dear Jesu My blessed Saviour and Redeemer The sweet Comforter of all sad desolate and distressed Souls Behold thy poor Servant humbly prostrate at the foot of thy holy Cross deploring his Misery imploring thy Mercy and beseeching thee to take pity and compassion upon him in this his present and pressing Affliction Infirmity Poverty Temptation Trouble or whatsoever other Spiritual or Corporal Necessity Hear my Prayers O assured Refuge of all afflicted wretches behold my Tears consider my Sorrows and remedy my Distresses for finding my self encompassed with grievous Calamities by reason of my great Crimes I know not whether to fly for Succour or to whom I may make my Moan but to thee my meek and merciful Saviour with a full hope and confidence that thou O my loving Reedemer wilt vouchsafe to lend the Ears of thy ordinary piety and accustomed clemency to the humble Petition of thy poor Child And By that sweetness which thy blessed Soul resented at the time of thy Alliance with our Human nature when resolving with the Father and the Holy Ghost to Unite thy Divine Person to Mortal Flesh for Mans salvation thou sent'st thy Angel to the holy Virgin Mary with those happy tidings and cloathing thy self with our Humanity in her chast Entralls remainedst true God and true Man for the space of nine Months in her sacred Womb By the Anguish thou enduredst when the time of thy designed Passion drawing nigh thou prayedst to thy Eternal Father That if it might stand with his Divine Providence thou desiredst that bitter Chalice might pass away from thee yet concluding with a most perfect act of Resignation Not my Will O Heavenly Father but thine be fulfilled By the outragious Injuries scornful Disgraces cruel Blows contumelious Blasphemies forg'd Witnesses false Accusations and unjust Judgments which thou Innocent Lamb patiently enduredst By the Shackles which fettered thy Limbs the Tears which flow'd from thy Eyes the Blood which trickled from thy whole Body By the Fears Sorrows and Sadnesses of thy Heart and by the Shame thou receivedst in being stripp'd of thy Garments to hang naked on the Cross in the sight of thy sorrowful Mother and in the presence of all the People By thy Royal Head crowned with Thorns and smitten with a Reed By thy Thirst quench'd with Vineger and Gall By thy Side open'd with a Spear and issuing forth Blood and Water to refresh our Souls with that living Fountain of thy Love and Mercy By the sharp Nails wherewith thy tender Hands and Feet were cruelly pierced and fastned to the Cross By the Recommendation of thy departing Soul to thy Heavenly Father saying Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit By thy praying for thy Enemies saying O Father forgive them for they grow not what they do By thy giving up the Ghost when thou cryedst out with a lowd Voyce My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and then bowing down thy blessed Head to reach us the Kiss of Peace sayd'st All is finished By the great Mercy thou shewd'st towards the good Theif saying This day thou shalt be with me in Paridise By thy Descent into Limbus and the Joy thou communicated'st to the just Souls there detained By the Glory of thy triumphant Resurrection and the comfortable Apparitions thou frequently madst for forty days space to thy sacred Virgin Mother to thy Apostles and to thy other chosen Friends and Servants By thy admirable Ascension when in the sight of thy Mother and thy Apostles thou wert elevated into Heaven By the Myraculous comming down of the Holy Ghost in form of Fiery Tongues whereby thou replenishedst the hearts of thy Disciples with thy Love and gav'st them Strength and Courage to plant thy Faith in the whole World By the dreadful day of General Judgment in which thou art to give Sentence upon all-Mankind By all these Sorrows Joys Passions Compassions and whatsoever else is near and dear to thee in Heaven and upon Earth take pity on me O compassionat Redeemer hear my Prayer and grant me that for which I now most humbly and heartily Petition thee Mention here the thing you desire or reflect mentally upon it Give me O gracious Saviour a speedy and efficacious feeling of thy Divine Succour and Comfort who according to the accustomed Sweetness of thy tender Heart art wont to grant the Requests of them who fear and love thee even to their own Souls desire and satisfaction Bestow on me also O my Blessed Lord Jesu a constant Faith a confident Hope a perfect Charity a cordial Contrition a sincere Confession a competent Satisfaction a diligent
your Soul to what you intend you may add these affective Considerations 1. If my sweet Saviour were now personally present and asked what I should do in such a case what Counsel would he give me I will attentively listen to his words cordially answer his Inspirations and effectually follow his Directions 2. If some dear friend should demand my advice in this matter What would I answer him My soul shall relish now the same Food which it would then chew for another 3. Why was I Created and Redeemed Call'd to Gods faith and service Why have I time still lent me I will be an Impartial Judg Condemn Punish Resolve Amen 4. What doth most trouble and hinder my holy Design This inordinate affection this creature this pleasure this thing which withholds me from my God Is it better than he is More worthy to be loved More beneficial to me Shall my soul be ever satisfi'd or quieted with it At the hour of my death will it plead for me or protect me from my Creators wrath and judgment Is it capable to make me now Holy or eternally Happy If not what a strange Blindness and Madness is it for me to leave God and adhere to it Resolve accordingly General Rules to be observed in all Prayer In all your practises of Prayer and duties of Devotion Let these generall Rules be carefully and constantly observed 1. BEgin your Prayers with quietness and liberty of Spirit that is endeavour to have your heart disinteressed from all business and all creatures Thinking whither you go and what to do 2. Be sure to bring with you to Prayer either in Book or Mind these two things 1. The points or at least the ground work of your Prayer or Meditation 2. What you intend to obtain this Prayer 3. In the progress of your Prayer be carefull to avoid these two Extremities 1. An indiscreet tying and bending your Brain and Mind to Attention 2. A negligent giving of liberty to wandring imaginations 4. If you find your Heart troubled confounded or dispersed Reduce it sweetly and encourage it to talk with its only Lord and Love about the important affairs of Eternity Thus quietly checking your self and recalling your imagination Where are we What do we Whom seek we God Angels Saints are present and am I not present to my self 5. When your darknrss dryness dulness temptations or distractions will permit you to do as it were nothing in Prayer You are not therefore to be dismay'd or desist from keeping on in your course at set and ordinary seasons But call to mind these three points with faithful diligence resignation and indifferency First what was your intention in now coming to your Prayers and fall presently to the practise thereof Secondly assure your self That to suffer for God being absent and to enjoy him being present are of equal Perfection And one of these you may always do by-being to either of them indifferent Thirdly That you came to your Prayers for two ends 1. To Adore your divine Maker To cast your self at his feet To be disposed of at his pleasure To know his holy Will To receive his sacred Commands 2. To lay open to him your Wants To discover to him your Wounds To present to him your Petitions to seek relief receive redress beg an Alms. Now the first of these Ends which is Noblest and Purest is always in your own power to perform and therefore That alone gives a sufficient value and merit to your Devotions A Direction of our intention at the beginning of our Devotions OPen my mouth O my Lord and Maker to bless and praise thy divine Majesty Cleanse my heart from all curious noxious and distractive thoughts Enlighten my understanding recollect my memory inflame my will purifie my intention settle my attention excite my devotion elevate my affection curb and compose all my interiour and exteriour senses That I may worthily reverently and religiously perform this Morning Evening Sacrifice of Prayer and that in union and vertue of those most pure and perfect Prayers and Praises which thou O Jesu my Redeemer living upon Earth offeredst up to thy Eternal Father Mine may be now acceptable in thy fight profitable to the Living and Dead and Honourable to thee and thy Saints At the end of our Devotions REceive O merciful Creator this my Morning Evening Sacrifice which I have offered up and intended to the Glory of thy Name the Honour of thy Saints the Good of my own Soul the Reduction of all sinners and the benefit of all the faithfull living and departed Accept O pious Father my poor endeavours Pardon O merciful Redeemer all my Defects and Negligences Give me O good Holy Ghost efficacious Grace to put in due practise my now made purposes and resolutions Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost For the benefits of my Creation Redemption Sanctification As it was in the beginning when the Morning Stars praised thee Is now in the Church Militant And shall be world without end in the Church Triumphant Amen ¶ III. Practical Exercises dilated with Acts Affections and Elevations upon the chief Christian Virtues The First Exercise Of Virtue in General Divided into seven Points 1. A generous Resolution to practise all Virtues BEhold O sacred and undivided Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost an unworthy wretched weak and wounded Soul groaning under the burden of her own abyssal misery terrified with the consideration of thy inscrutable judgments confounded at the memory of her former sin sensuality disloyalty and ingratitude all covered with shame and encompassed with sorrow humbly prostrates her self before the Throne of thy dread Majesty and presents her petition to thy infinite Mercy Thou hast been pleased O benign and bountiful Lord and Lover whose mercy is above all thy wonderful works to expect her hitherto most patiently How long shall I suffer you Thou hast most piercingly enticed her Why will you perish As I live I desire not the death of a sinner Thou hast most piously invited her Come to me all you that labour and are loaden and I will receive you release you relieve you revive you Thou hast efficaciously touch'd and terrifi'd her with thy threats Sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee Thou hast powerfully drawn her with thy promises No eye hath seen nor ear heard nor heart conceived what I have prepar'd for them that love me Thou hast confirm'd her in a lively Confidence of thy goodness It is I fear nothing And finally Thou O my all merciful Lord God! hast put Contrition into my heart Confession into my mouth Satisfaction into my hands and unfeigned Resolutions of a total reformation into my whol man This is the change of thy right hand O powerful Creator the great and glorious gift of thy grace and the effect of thy only goodness and to thee therefore alone be ascribed all honour and praise for evermore My now unfetter'd Soul aims at a higher
lost thy life for me and can I imagin thou wilt ever leave me unless I first leave to love thee O love capable to cure all sickness able to give life to the dead Ah my heart How canst thou choose but be softned to compunction and hightned to confidence with these efficacious comforts and sweetnesses Thou hast not only delivered me from sin but call'd me to sanctity with thy holy Vocation giving me thy grace in Baptism continually repairing it with thy other Sacraments separating me from the vast multitude of infidels and hereticks which are out of the Church-way to beatitude not only permitting me to possess a place amongst thy faithful Christians but fetting me in an high and honorable condition wherein I may make use of all aids all helps all means to farther me in virtue and goodness in this life and to purchase glory in the next O loving Lord how greatly do all these endearings demonstrate the earnest desire thou hast to save me If thou art further called to the more perfect state of Priesthood or Religion O how highly doth it inforce this motive of thy Hope O my God! how infinite is thy goodness how manifold thy blessings how innumerable thy benefits corporal and spiritual general and particular performed and promised And can I suspect that thou who hast done so much for me wilt not accomplish what is yet behind O my Lord my life my love I put my whole confidence in thee and expect from thy bounty all the benefits thou hast promised me because I know thou art truth it self which never can deceive nor be deceived but thy Word is infallible and thy Work immutable 4. Fear is also to be joyned with our Hope because God is terrible in his works in his chastisements and in his Counsels YEt least Hope without Fear may make me insolent and negligent in providing for my Salvation crucifie my flesh with thy Fear O my Lord for I tremble at thy Judgments O give me a chast and filial apprehension of thee my loving Father that I may reverently and incessantly honor thy infinite Mercy and never dare displease thy dread Majesty Give me that Fear which is Hopes daughter and begotten by thy pure Love in my soul that my continual care may be to please thee purely and perfectly for thine own sake not servilely for mine own interest 'T is true O my Lord my Sins are many and grievous I confess it and am confounded and affrighted at the memory of them But is there any blemish so foul which my Redeemers blood cannot cure Thy mercies and merits dear Saviour are so immense that should my only conscience be burden'd with all offenses of all mankind I would not despair of thy pardon I will therefore remember thy sacred Wounds O Jesu and there will I confidently hide my self till my iniquities be pass'd over Thou say'st O eternal Lover As I live I desire not the death of a sinner but rather that he return to me and live And I also cordially hopefully and confidently answer As I live I desire rather to die than to commit a deadly sin and I beseech thee to take my soul out of my body before thou tak'st thy love and this resolution out of my soul O generous Resolution O the infinite mercy of my blessed Creator And canst thou any longer doubt my Soul but the same divine goodness hath eternally chosen and predestinated thee to his glory which hath now thus graciously endued thee with these heroick thoughts so befitting thy duty What dreadest thou O thou of little Faith He hath blessed thee with spiritual blessings chosen thee before the foundation of the world predestinated thee into the adoption of a child through Jesus Christ according to the resolution of his good pleasure O my Lord blessed be thy eternal Love and ever praised be thy infinite Mercy how happy art thou my poor Soul and how much obliged to thy dear and dread Soveraign who hath vouchsafed a favourable glance of his eye upon thee from all Eternity Lord I will henceforth love thee as an obedient child doth his loving Father I will serve thee couragiously cordially and cheerfully for thine own infinite goodness sake which hath given me such hopes of my being enroll'd amongst thy adopted children and of having a blessed portion alloted me in thy heavenly inheritance 5. The Sins contrary to Hope are Despair Presumption and too much Confidence in Creatures Despair is a certain aversion from Beatitude or rather a leaving off from looking after it under a false colour of impossibility to attain to it GRant yet furthermore O most gracious Lord God! that I may not so dread thy Judgments as to despair of thy Goodness O let me never be seized with the least disgust against piety or distrust of thy promised Beatitude Let me at no time desist from patiently pursuing it upon any pretence of impossibility to purchase it No my Lord my Love my Life my Strength my Mercy my Refuge to thy power all things are possible I acknowledg thee to be the most undrainable source of all sanctity the bountiful giver of all grace the encourager comforter and raiser up of sinners I hear thee speaking to my dejected Spirit It is I fear nothing I am thy protector whereof art thou apprehensive I came to call sinners to cure the sickly to comfort the sorrowful O my God! what sweet and ravishing Words are these to my sad and sinful soul Art thou so good to the most wicked O how gracious wilt thou be to them that devoutly seek thee desire to please thee and are unwilling to offend thee O ever blessed be thy infinite bounty and benignity Let the most depraved in the world leave off their sinfulness and look on thy sweetness and they may confidently hope in thy Goodness and let the most holy ones incessantly and eternally praise the immensity of thy Mercies 6. Presumption is a disordered expectation of good things from the divine Bounty LEt me also ground all these my Hopes of happiness purely in thy power O my Soveraign Lord and maker and upon thy promises let me expect nothing from thy mercy disorderly nor from my own merits presumptuously O my poor soul What folly what frenzy what vanity is it for thee to hope in thy own goodness unsupported by the divine grace to think of scaling heaven without heavenly help to dream that in doing or living contrary to thy own knowledg and conscience thou shalt gain so great a good as is an eternity of glory As though thou my Supream Creator didst so highly prize this caitif Creature as not to punish him according to his wilful wickedness or never deprive him of those felicities which thou hast laid up for thy faithful friends and favourites No Lord Thou hast disposs'd all things in their due number weight and measure thou hast set certain limits to thy creature which are impossible to be pass'd and thou hast
imposed upon him by his Ghostly Father he is absolutely obliged to accomplish it Yet if it be a light Penance as three Paters and Aves or that he omits some small parts of it such an omission is only Venial by reason of the littleness of the matter 11. That when the Confessor limits no time for the accomplishment of the Penance imposed by him and accepted by the Penitent in Confession It is requisite it be performed at the first opportunity because it is probable he so intended it to the end the Penitent might speedily satisfy for his Offences and carefully preserve himself from future falling 12. That such an Omission of accomplishing the Penance speedily is no Mortal Sin unless it be a notable negligence and in some dangerous circumstance the judgement whereof depends upon the Conâ—essors Prudence ¶ 5. Particular Directions and Practical Devotions for Confession BEFORE CONFESSION THe Penitent who resolves by Gods Grace to make a good Confession must according as opportunity shall suffer and Devotion serve perform three things before he presents himself to his Ghostly Father to wit He must Consider He must Examine He must Pray First consider That the discussion of your Conscience and the Confession of your sins is a soveraign remedy against blindness of heart and weigh with your self how dangerous a thing it is to defer your Conversion to linger out in wickedness to make bad Confessions since you know not but that such wilful malice may cause God in Justice to leave you in final Blindness and Impenitency This needs no explication but Application If one should tell you This year you shall be drowned would you not beware of Water Do so of Sins and their occasions Why will you still heap up wrath against the day of wrath There is nothing surely that doth more harden the Hearts and blind the Understanding than the abuse of the Sacraments and the wilful resistance or neglect of Gods call and inspirations 2. Consider How easily a Blind man is deceived how dangerously he walketh what comfort he wanteth Apply the same to your soul blinded with sin and ponder well these places of Holy Writ Run whilst you have light least the darkness of death should overtake you I have sought after thee and thou wouldst not be found now thou shalt seek me and thou shalt not find me but you shall die in your sins 3. Consider how a blind man is led 1. by a Dog 2. by a Child 3. by a Staff so a blind Soul is led 1. By Custome in sin to which it returns as a dog to his vomit 2. By Affection to creatures as a doting Mother thinks her black Child beautiful 3. By Passion for then having a staff you will strike friend or foe Beware in time and permit your self to be ruled and directed 4. Consider what a madness it were for you to kill your self with that Weapon which is deliver'd into your hands for the defence of your Life And is it not a far greater phrensie to procure your spiritual death by that which is provided for your souls life and preservation Is not Confession the Sacrament of grace and reconciliation O! Let it not prove your bane and damnation 5. Blessed are the clean-hearted for they shall see God Without some degree of Purity 't is impossible to see enjoy and possess him who is Purity it self Consider then seriously what you must do and which is the readiest and surest means to get this Puritie 6. Think what will most affright your Soul and make its case desperate at the hour of death Bad Confessions And what will then most comfort it Good Confessions that is To have done your dutie and used your best endeavour in the exact and faithful performance of this most important business which is all God requires at your hands Prevent therefore and provide in time Do it even now for there is danger in delay 2 Examine INvocate the divine Light to see God and your self his goodness and your naughtiness that you may praise him for the one and obtain pardon for the other Saying briefly thus A Prayer befre the Examinatin of your Conscience O Father of light and God of love grant me true light true love and true wisdome that I may impartially discern what doth please and displease thy divine Majesty in my Soul For I most earnestly desire to detest and deface the one and to embrace and increase the other Illuminate the eyes of my Understanding that I may truly see my sins and imperfections enable my Memory that I may duly confess them strengthen my Will that I may resolutely amend them and change my Whole man that I may sleep no longer in death and deadly sin O my soul Give up an account of thy stewardship since thou hast not long to hold it Fool This very night thy soul shall be taken from thee and what then will all these impure and impertinent thoughts desires words affections and actions profit thee To what purpose gainest thou even the whole World if thou losest thy own Soul O Martha O N. Thou art troubled about many things when as there is but one only thing which is absolutely necessary Return therefore into thy self and turn to God Lament Repent Amend A form of Examination for such as Confess often AMongst the many forms of Examination of Conscience make use of some one that seems to you the clearest easiest fullest and most suitable to your gust devotion and condition as thus 1. How long is it since my last Confession 2. Where and with whom have I since that time conversed 3. What Employments have chiefly taken up my time 4. What Sins and imperfections am I most inclinable to 5. What is the charg and duty to which my Vocation obliges me 6. With what Intention have I done my actions A form of Examination for proficients and Religious persons Or thus 1. WHerein have I offended my good God in Works of disobedience propriety immodesty indevotion c. 2. In Words of murmuration detraction dishonesty untruth pride passion c. 3. In Thoughts of curiosity vanity sensuality impurity disdainfulness spitefulness c. 4. In Affections and desires and intentions against Charity Chastity Humility Or thus 1. WHat sensuality in meat drink sleep talk company 2. What curiosity of eyes ears tongue heart 3. What vanity pride complacency 4. What Tepidity distraction negligence in Office prayers recollection devotion 5. What uncharitableness in words censures judgments 6. How impatient disobedient soon disquieted for every toy 7. How partial in my own case in defending my own opinions in point of propriety Or thus 1. I Have been very irreverent indevout distracted through my own fault in performing the divine Office and other prayers of obligation especially twice or thrice 2. I have been defective in charity towards others externally or internally especially in speaking or judging ill of them or in such a manner upon such motives and so often 3. I
Whilst your Spiritual Father pronounces your Absolution produce either with heart or mouth some of these short Acts following 1. Of Sorrow O God be merciful to me a sinner 2. Of Humility Not unto me Lord but to thy Name be given all praise and glory 3. Of Love and Confidence My God and my All My comfort and my content my secure rest and sole refuge Remain with me sweet Jesus and it is sufficient 4. Of Spiritual joy and alacrity Take courage my poor dejected desolate Soul Jesus is our guide and we are going to Heaven what matters it whether we get or lose in this World have friends or foes sink or swim live or die upon earth If Jesus loves us and we Him it is enough Live the Cross and my crucified Redeemer Adieu world Farewel Self-love Heaven is my Home Jesus is my Hope and Happiness Also At the time of Absolution Imagine you feel Christs sacred Blood distilling into your Soul and that you hear those his sweet words directed unto your ears Go in peace thy Sins are forgiven thee now sin no more lest some worse thing befal thee O words full of sweetness and comfort After Confession REtire your self a while 1. To give God thanks 2. To say your Penance 3. To renew your good purposes and resolutions 4. To offer up your self and all your actions with whatsoever you are and have to be hereafter employed for your sweet Saviours honour love and service 5. To beg of him who died on the Cross with his Eyes full of Tears Body full of Wounds and Heart full of Mercy for the salvation of your Soul to supply all defects which may have occurred in this or any other your Confessions Then ejaculate sweetly some of these Sentences CLeanse me O Lord from my secret sins from my vitious customs inclinations and affections and permit me not to participate with others in their offences nor to be involved in their crimes by my consent and connivency Return my Soul into thy rest for thy Lord hath done well for thee What have I in heaven and what would I have on earth O my God! thou art the God of my heart my part my portion and my inheritance for ever I desire to be dissolved and to be with thee my Lord and Saviour But who will free me from the body of this death I would gladly be separated not only from Sin and the occasions thereof but even from this body of Sin which I can bear about me That so being absolved and dissolved my departing soul might unspottedly ascend to her eternal rest in the very Act of this vehement and amorous Contrition Yes my good and gracious Creator I would willingly be sequestred from my self and all creatures that I might be totally united to thy self my first beginning my final end my hope my happiness my All. It is good for me to stick fast to my Lord to place my confidence in God my Saviour Let others seek other contents I and my house will serve thee our Lord and Maker A Prayer after Confession O Merciful Redeemer of my Soul what praise love and thanks shall I return to thee for having made a Bath of thy Bloud a Garment of thy Grace to cleanse and cloath my defiled and naked Soul in the Sacrament of Penance Let my Body Soul and all that is within me bless thee eternally and let Heaven Earth and all that is within them say Amen Alleluja Receive I beseech thee O my dear Lord Jesu by the bowels of thy Mercy by the breasts of thy Mother and by the merits of all thy blessed Saints this my Confession Let it be pleasing to thy sacred Majesty and profitable to my own Soul Let thy infinite sweetness of love and bitterness of sorrow supply all its defects whether it be want of Contrition or of Integrity or of Humility or of Clarity or of Simplicity or of a true sense and feeling of my Sins heynousness or of a full Resolution of amendment or any other Circumstance Negligence or Error whatsoever Forget and forgive all the crimes ingratitudes impurities of my life past and in particular whatsoever through my own carelesness may have escap'd my memory whatsoever the common Enemy may accuse me of at the hour of my death and whatsoever thou my dread Judg maist in the rigour of thy Justice lay to my charge at the day of thy dreadful Judgement I repenr me heartily for all that I have done amiss I renounce all that is opposite to thy perfect love and liking I resolve to amend all and to avoid all sinful occasions I resign body soul all to do Penance make all possible Satisfaction And lastly for thine own sake sweet Jesu I beseech thee to pardon all relying upon thy goodness confiding in thy mercy rejoicing at what thou art to wit so loving and so worthy of all love so good in thy self so good to all others so good to me the least and worst of all others Let all creatures joyn with my soul to love honour serve and praise thee her glorious Creator her gracious Redeemer her liberal Sanctifier this day and for all eternity And now my Lord Jesu I here again lay down the whole burrhen of my Sins at thy sacred Feet and take up thy Cross in exchange Resolving by thy gracious assistance to pass on my lives pilgrimage in the perpetual practise of Penance Patience and Purity abandoning Body Soul Goods Limbs Life all to thy service Accept my offer O dear Lord Jesu and admit me henceforth for one of thy meanest Bond-slaves Let me live and dy in the performance of this my promised duty obedience and submission to thy holy Will and Precepts Let me never more offend thee but loath and abhor the very name and shadow of Sin more than Death or Hell it self Teach me O Lord how to persevere in thy love and to correspond to my vocation with a zealous fervor joyned with prudence and discretion That serving thee my Soveraign Lord and Master during my abode in this prison of Mortality with fidelity simplicity sincerity I may at the end of my lives course be received into immortality with security and that as I here justly sing forth thy Mercies for having used such sweet and efficacious means to bring my sinking Bark into the safe Haven so I may there joyfully intone eternal Canticles of thy Divine praises in thy Kingdom of glory Amen ¶ 6. An easie and necessary method of Examining the Conscience for the making of a General Confession General Advertisements concerning General Confessions 1. THe motive which obliges all Christians who are desirous to perform their Duty and settle their souls in the state of Grace to make a General Confession is only this When upon just and rational Grounds and not out of an erroneous or scrupulous Understanding they doubt of the Validity of any of their former Confessions by reason-of some essential Defect which accompanied them The
to introversion and compunction so full of imperfections and immortifications 6. So little confidence in my Saviours mercy so little patience in my misery and almost no performance of my good purposes 7. So curious to censure others so careless to keep my self and curb my own senses Finally all is self-love self-will self-conceit self-seeking pride propriety partiality which are my daily and dangerous diseases O Father of Mercies and only Phisician of my Soul Thou art Almighty and All-bounty these are my wounds and impurities and if thou wilt thou canst both cure and cleanse me and if thou wilt not I will remain content as I am I am willing to continue weak so I be not wicked to be wearied and wounded so I be not utterly tired overturned defeated lose the victory Cut kill crucifie O Lord only spare me for eternity 2. Our Wants for we are not only needy but naked not only poor but beggers who neither know how to deserve an alms nor how to desire it O My poor Soul What do we want nay what do we not want 1. True light true liberty true love true life 2. A setled attention a simple intention a serious introversion a sincere conversion 3. Humility of heart conformity of will purity of soul indifferency of spirit 4. Wisdom to know Gods Will strength to execute it patience to persevere in it 5. Resolution to suffer for our Saviour devotion to sigh after him diligence to find him constancy to remain with him 6. Courage to endure all Faith to forgo all Hope to expect all Charity to give all and Confidence to gain all Finally we want all we should have Yet our loving Lord is ready to bestow on us all that he hath O my God and all Thou art all that I want give me thy self and all my wants and wishes will be at an end Thou art all my safety and my only security all my refuge and my only center until I can return unto thee or wholly turn into thee let thy Cross be my Purgatory and thy Will my Paradise for other heaven upon earth I can never hope to find Until then I must be content to sweat and sigh under the burden of this mortal life to sit like Job upon a dunghil forlorn and forsaken by all full of sores and sorrows to remain a perpetual and pitiful patient scarcely feeling patience in my self and finding no compassion in others 3. Our Wishes and desires What can a wounded wretch wish but to be cared for and cured What can a naked begger desire but to be cloathed and comforted with some few rags and crums What can a blind and cold person ask but light and love THis O my Soveraign and sweet Lord is the sum and substance of all my wishes and requests O that I could go out of my self and get into thee O that I were dissolv'd from my loathed body to the end I might dilate my heart in thy love contemplate thy divine face in perfect liberty and please and praise thee eternally for in this prison of flesh and vale of tears I faint under the weight of temptations I fall under the burden of my troubles and I continually fail in the prosecution of my pious purposes Oh! that thy Will did so rule me and reign over me that it were a torment to decline never so little from it O that thy Love did so freely and fully possess my heart that there were no room at all remaining for any bastard or base love of things created Good Jesu how truly happy and holy should I be if I could clearly behold my own nothing in thy All If I could embrace crosses as Crowns and swallow down all contempts and confusions as milk and hony O when shall I be so elevated in spirit above my self by extasie of love as to be able and willing to humble my self under all creatures without repugnancy Alas Shall I never be content to forsake all and be forsaken by all Yea having lost and left all for One to be left by that One who is my All and so remain quiet in my own nothing How long shall I lie wallowing in flesh and bloud how long shall I delay and dally in false loves How long shall I sigh and not enjoy Seek and not find live and not love Come my Lord and Love Lord Jesu come quickly Let the fire of thy sweet love so consume in me all dross of self-love and so transform my spirit into thee that I may take all from thee indifferently give all to thee liberally and rest and repose in thee eternally Lord Let me be thine or nothing Love or not live The third Part is the Conclusion which consists also of three Acts. 1. Contrition which is a hearty and humble Sorrow for our Sins Ingratitudes Disloyalties Tepidities c. O My God! How little did I love thee when I so carelesly offended thy divine Majesty Oh! that I had never sinned mortally though it had cost me my life immediatly O that I were sure never more to swerve from thy Sacred Will and Commandments Let me henceforth endure dear Jesu a thousand deaths of my body rather than admit one deadly sin again into my soul O pity and pardon my past follies and frailties and prevent me with thy gracious blessings against future failings How great O Lord is my obligation to serve and please thee were it but for thy favours conferred thy benefits bestowed and thy love powred out upon me and yet ungrateful wretch that I am how poorly have I corresponded Oh! that I had so deep a sense of my Sins that my Heart might break with sorrow Hide not O Lord thy face from me shut not up thy Mercy gates against me for though I have most grievously gone astray yet I am resolved upon an entire amendment correction reformation of my whole man this strong Resolution which is thy gracious gift grounds my hope in thy goodness emboldens my confidence in thy mercy and gives me courage and comfort in thy love 2. Resignation in all our Wants Wishes Desolations and Distresses to the divine Will and pleasure I Am indifferent O my dear Lord to sickness and health to light and darkness to delight and desolation I am thine sweet Jesu put me where thou wilt do with me as thou wilt send me what thou wilt I am content not only to have nothing but to be nothing so thou O my Lord be all things unto me I acknowledg my self unworthy to beg and less worthy to obtain and therefore I resign my self still to beg and yet still to want even that which I most wish which is all Light all Liberty all Love all Comfort all Content yea even all Virtue Peace Perfection so long as it shall please thee O Father I am thine ever thine all thine body and soul for time and eternity Live Jesus only 3. Complacence and Confidence the first that our God is what he is the next
dive into my own baseness weakness misery nothing that knowing what I truly am I may really loath hate distrust despise and deny my self and all my own proceedings sincerely love thee only trust and hope in thee and rely wholly upon thy divine Providence and Protection I am not only content O my Lord God! but even willing and desirous that all thy creatures should take me and treat me according to my true condition and unworthiness And I am resolved by thy grace to humble my self not only under thy mighty hand but also under all their feet as their servant and slave to be troden on abhorred avoided and detested by them all as a sink of sin and filthiness I will be desirous to be esteemed and used as Dross among Metals Chaff among Grain a Wolf among Sheep and as Satan amongst the Children of God I acknowledg my self unworthy of all grace and comfort from God or man and worthy of all pain punishment crosses contradiction confusion desolation death damnation I will be henceforth ashamed to complain of any aggrievances and be content to suffer whatsoever the World the Devil and Hell it self can inflict upon me 2. A rational consideration of what we are were and shall be ANd to strengthen this my resolution I will rationally consider before thee O my Lord what I really am what I was and what will become of me both touching my body my soul and my whole being Ay me I have a body all clay a soul all sin a life all frailty a substance all nothing And this is all I have to vaunt of in thy presence O my Lord and my Maker My material part is but slime of the earth the very worst part of the unworthiest Element Ah poor man and canst thou look so big who cam'st from so base an extraction Be asham'd to lift up thy head vile mud and dirt since thy pedigree is so well known and the ingredients of thy being are so mean and contemptible And when I consider what this my body was in the womb how it was conceiv'd in concupiscence nourish'd with filthiness and brought up in darkness I am asham'd to own my own beginning which is so horrid and loathsome and who then can justly boast of state strength beauty or nobility since the groundwork of all is but a little dung and corruption Ah poor worm what a dismal prison wert thou detained in for nine months space of thy time What nasty and poysonous food was thy diet how wretched was thy birth how weak and woful thy infancy and what art thou in thy best and most flourishing condition in the world but a clog and cage to thy inthrall'd soul a painted sack or pargetted sepulcher full of filth froth and ordure O my Lord give me grace to frame an impartial judgment of what I am and then how soon shall I check all risings of pride and presumption 3. We deplore our own misery and implore Gods mercy I Came into this world O my Lord with groans and tears I live in it with griefs cares I shall go out of it with pangs and fears and lastly I must become a horrour to the eyes of my dearest friends a prey of vermin and a companion of rottenness Ah! how canst thou be proud of thy perfections poor clay ashes why should'st thou look to be so highly priz'd and so daintily pamper'd thou stinking puddle Dust thou art and to dust thou must return Hast thou not always before thine eyes these ashes for thy glass and death for thy mistress why then dost thou suffer so many sparkles of vanity to arise from this thy caitiff condition And thou my poor soul the spiritual part of my composition O what shall I say of thee to thy great Lord and Maker What thou hast hitherto been I well know wretched wicked sinful What thou now art I know not being uncertain of Gods grace love What thou shalt be hereafter I am altogether ignorant because doubtful of thy correspondency with grace and fearful of thy perseverance in goodness Ah sad condition I came O my Lord into this world in original sin I am bred up in actual sin and if death and deadly sin meet together I shall feel the smart of them both eternally O how much need have I then of thy grace O merciful Lord God! to avoid Sin since I cannot eschew Death O let me rather admit a deadly wound than commit a deadly Sin 4. A deep Consideration of our own Nothing WHat art thou then O my whole man consisting of body and soul What wert thou O. N. from all eternity before thy conception in the womb and birth into the world Nothing Ah poor no thing what is less than nothing where dwels this nothing who can describe a nothing which more differs from the least atome in the Sun than Gods infinit greatness from the least of his creatures O proud nothing What hast thou that thou hast not receiv'd Nothing Why then art thou puffed up with it as if thou hadst not received it I acknowledg my whole being to be from thy only bounty O my great good and glorious Maker and since I possess nothing but what I have from thee since I shall also necessarily fade away into my first nothing if thou withdrawest from me thy conserving hand but a moment I will no longer glory in that which is none of mine but I will here lay the foundation of my spiritual edifice upon this sure and solid ground of thy All and my own nothing I will endeavour to frame a true conceit of my own misery frailty insufficiency and nothing that so I may fully speedily and solidly come to this desired self-knowledg and humility I will run over my lesson repeat my questions learn my answers and strive to grow skilful in this necessary and sacred science What have I received that I have not abused Nothing Body Soul Will Judgment Memory Understanding Affection Senses Meat Drink Company Habit books Prayer Sacraments all Creatures Can I then be proud of Sin Filthiness rottenness labour grief infirmity blindness obstinacy corruption death and damnation which are worse than nothing Shall I boast of thy gifts O my God! which are not mine or of my own abuses and ingratitudes The one is to rob thee of thy honour the other is to be honoured for thy dishonour 5. A serious Reflection upon Gods gifts and graces and our strange Ingratitude WHat creature ever sinned so grievously as I have done and yet sorrowed so little and suffered less Who ever forsook so great and good a God for so little and vain a toy as I have done What sinful soul is there now in hell that would not have been a glorious Saint in Heaven if it had had the helps favours feelings and visits which I have both had and abused Who ever received so many mercies so sweet comforts and so great graces from thee O bountiful Lord God! and made so
right And I must must now either give my self to thee or thou must take me unto thy self Not that I aspire to those excellent prerogatives of thy dearest servants No my Lord it sufficeth me to be in the out-rank of thy meanest slaves to be stamp'd with thy mark and link'd fast in thy chains that I may never more have the power to fly from thee O grant me this favour most merciful Father Which thy dear Son hath purchased for me by the price of his death and Passion 3. We Sin of our selves but cannot arise from it without the Divin assistance I Am fall'n without thee by my own frailty but can never hope to rise but by thy mercy O my Lord and only support I am sick without thee but cannot be cured without thee O my heavenly Physician I am dead without thee but can never be reviv'd but by thee O Life of my Soul So true it is that to make me come to thee thou O most gracious Lord God! must first come to me O the admirable goodness of my loving Lord Even this little I am doing is rather thine own work than mine 'T is thou O my Lord who puttest Repentance into my soul Desires into my heart Sighs into my breast Confession into my mouth Prayer into my lips Remorse into my memory Resolution of amendment into my will 'T is thou O gracious God! who chiefly actest all this good in me by me and for me O my All do then all in me what thou desirest And particularly overwhelm I beseech thee my whol interiour with perfect Contrition not coming from a slavish and servil fear but from a faithful and filial love Grant me a true and intire grief for having offended thee not because of thy Promises or Threats but because thou art in thy self good amiable adorable and worthy all love and honour 4. How great an Evil it is to destroy Gods Grace in our Souls by Sin OR if mercenary interest do yet more move thee as surely it seems to bear the greatest sway with thee my sensual and sinful Soul For how hainously dost thou take a small injury how deeply dost thou resent a little disgrace the loss of a dear friend of health of honour or the like temporal and perishable commodities O whence is it then that thou so little apprehendest thy loss of Grace and thy eminent imminent danger of eternal Damnation Is it a small matter to be Gods Enemy To lose the good will of Heaven To destroy Gods Image To cut up life root branch To side with the accursed Devils thy Creators sworn Enemies To hatch Treason and enter Conspiracie with the damned Yea and to kill as much as in thee lies him who by his own death gave thee life O brutal and unnatural ingratitude Surely the annihilating of Heaven Earth Angels Men and all Nature cannot be compar'd with this malicious evil and wilfull destruction of thy grace O Lord in my Soul Since the least degree of a higher order surpasses the highest degree of the lower order O eternal God! What a Monster have I been in Grace what a prodigie in Nature who have so little car'd to commit such enormous Crimes But O my Lord I will even now change my life I here detest all Sin I make a firm purpose of amendment I have a full confidence in thee my Creator a good will to do satisfaction and a total resignation to thy Divine pleasure 5. The root and source of all our Sins is our perverted Will. I Am the woful Criminal O just Judg of my Soul and I will be also the accuser and witness the Advocate and Executioner in this Tribunal I summon you therefore O detestable Pride O abominable Envy O execrable Avarice O beastly Lubricity and all you accursed crew of Sins how long will you reign on earth how long will ye dispeople Gods inheritance who brought you in amongst Gods Children 'T is the perverted Will of man O dread Soveraign which hath don all these mischiefs Rectifie O my Lord I beseech thee this my crooked Will and murther these horrible monsters in me and grant that I may henceforth rather expose my body to a thousand Deaths than my Soul to deadly Sin Thy Saints will rejoice O God! at my amendment and thy Angels will make a Feast but thy own resentment of joy will be infinite because thy love is infinite which goes hand in hand with thy Essence and comprehends all Love in supream eminency I will therefore expect from thee O heavenly Father the exact remembrance from thee my Redeemer the perfect knowledg from thee O holy Spirit a true repentance and from thee O Sacred Trininity an intire Absolution and plenary Indulgence from all my Iniquities 6. Our greatest Sorrow is not equivalent to the greatness of our Sins THe grief I feel for my past Offences the hatred I have against each Sin at this present and the resolution I make to avoid all iniquity for the future are not equivalent in me to their enormity and hainousness I therefore humbly crave O holy Lord God! that thou wilt accept thy own hatred against Sin for that which I should and would have and instead of the Sorrow I want I offer that of thy Son my sweet Redeemer with the Sacrifice of his immaculate Life and innocent death And since I cannot be impeccable by Nature O my Lord nor dare presume to ask to be so by Grace give me leave to prostrate my self before thy infinite bounty and clemency and to beg by the merits of Jesus Christ thy dear Son and by the desires of thy essential love the blessed holy Ghost that though I may not be impeccable yet I may never sin more and if I must somtimes Sin through my frailty yet I may never Sin mortally This I desire O Lord this thou demandest this thou commandest O give me what thou commandest and command me what thou pleasest 7. An Act of perfect Contrition which is elsewhere repeated as being of great efficacy O My good Lord Jesu who art the Lord of my Life and shouldst be the love of my Soul did I not like an ungracious and ungrateful wretch give my heart sell my affection to fond frail filthy and fading Creatures and comforts which are so far from affording me either quiet of Mind peace of Conscience purity of Soul or perfection of Spirit which my obligation and vocation require of me that they leave me nothing but trouble confusion and remorse with a world of dismal and desperate thoughts violent passions and vicious inclinations Amidst all which disorders I find no other refuge nor remedy than to return to thee my true Center to convert my self to thee my Soverain Creator To cast my self at thy sacred feet my sweet Lord Jesu and there with an humble and contrite spirit to sue for Mercy Remission Reconciliation O Heavenly Father I confess and acknowledg my ingratitude treachery rebellion And I am
Enter freely possess all fully dispose universally and command absolutly Put me where thou wilt give me what thou wilt treat me as thou wilt thine I am O my Lord my Love and my All for time and Eternity The Sixth Exercise Of Mortification and perfect Abnegation 1. If we will be Christ's true Disciples we must renounce all deny our selves take up our crosses and follow him O Eternal and ever blessed Lord God! thou hast framed me of soul and body and fitted me with faculties proportionable to attain the end of my creation which is to love thee intirely and to live with thee eternally But alas how far am I from observing this thy blessed and beautiful order Thou O Lord gavest me a Soul to bear all the sway in my body Reason to have the chief regency in my Soul thy Law to be the guide of my Reason and thy self to be the sole mover and governour of my whole man But oh how have I wilfully cross'd thy sacred design contradicted thy intention and swarv'd from this perfection My body is all brutish my soul all animal and my reason all sensual I am all blindness self-love and immortification Yet I know well and thou O eternal verity hast expresly told me that unless I renounce all deny my self take up my Cross and follow thee I can never become thy true Disciple Ah harsh words to my carnal ears If thou wilt be my Disciple deny thy self If thou wilt be perfect sell all give away all reform all renounce all relinquish all If thou wilt possess life eternal contemn this life temporal If thou wilt be exalted in Heaven humble thy self in the world If thou wilt wear a Crown with me bear thy Cross with me But O my soul how wilt thou brook that more dismal sentence Depart from me thou accursed into eternal fire Wherefore O my Lord my Love and my All Since thou hast taught me these things by thy Sacred Word and shewed them by thy holy Example and thou art The Way the Truth and the life Grant O infallible Truth that I may couragiously walk in this perfect Way that so I may happily come to thee the only true and eternal life and love of my Soul 2. We must leave all things to finde one thing which is all in all WHat dreadest thou O my fearful and faithless Heart Behold Christ thy King and Captain is marched on before thee take up thy Cross and travel after him he leads thee to a Kingdem Heaven is worth thy pains O take courage to mortifie thy self deny thy self and dy to thy self that thou mayst live to Jesus and with Jesus eternally Learn O my soul this short and securing lesson Leave all things and thou shalt find one thing which is all in all Take courage and fight valiantly against thy own bad nature pray suffer stoop bear repugnances swallow down contradictions digest injuries The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence The end thou aimest at is Perfection the reward of thy Conquest is Eternal Love eternal Life eternal Happiness Behold O my Lord my strength and my Salvation I am fully resolved to lay the ax to the root of this wicked tree Help me I beseech thee with thy Grace from above that I may hew my self out of my self that I may kill crucifie and mortifie my inveigling sensuality cut off my evil inclinations rectifie my disorder'd passions and root out each thought or desire which tends not directly to thy honour will and love O my Lord and my God! 3. We can never love God unless we hate our Selves I Know Lord that it is bootless to study Perfection without the practice of Mortification I confess I can never love thee truly but in as much as I hate my self really such is the Antipathy between self-love and thy holy affection Ah! how can a spirit distracted with contrary inclinations be freely and fully vacant to thy divine contemplation Put therefore I beseech thee a sluce to my unmortified Passions put a bound to my distraught heart and powerfully keep back those innumerous concupiscences and corrupt imaginations violently succeding each other that my united affections may intend thee only the only object of all happiness Gather O my Lord the dispersed forces of my Soul from all multiplicity of worldly affections to the union of thy only love Keep I beseech thee my Understanding Will Memory Imagination and all my inward and outward Senses from roaming abroad that carefully attending and entertaining thy divine presence in my Soul I may attain true introversion simplification and union of my Spirit with thine Reform O my Lord all the natural corruptions of my outward man and redress all the spiritual infirmities of my inward man destroy and disperse all internal and external enemies and opposers of thy holy love possess me perfectly and dispose of me entirely according to thy Divin will and pleasure 4. A firm Resolution of mortifying our exteriour Sensuality TO this end O bless my weak endeavours al mighty and al-merciful Lord God! I will subtract all superfluities from my body and accustom it to all sorts of sufferings that so I may fit it up for thee O holy Spirit who dwellest not with them that are sensual and subject to Sin Alas I have not yet resisted to the effusion of my blood and should I spill each drop of blood in my body in this holy quarrel how little ought I to regard it in respect of the great good I expect I will therefore crucifie thee O my flesh with all thy concupiscences I will mortifie my outward Senses the windows by which death steals into my Soul the hinderers of my hearts tranquillity the destroyers of true devotion the dispersers of inward recollection and the utter ruiners of all the good desires which I conceive and kindle in my prayers Ah how soon is this divin fire cooled and quenched not only by Sin but also by the distracting images of outward Objects I will keep a special and strict watch over my Tongue on which depends my spiritual life or death and cherish thee O beloved Silence which art the key of piety the keeper of innocency and the preserver of purity I will trample down my inferiour Nature with all its evil affections and motions of love hatred joy sadness desire fear hope anger c. I will order dispose and direct it according to the Laws of reason and thy divine inspirations O my Lord and my God! Grant me courage I beseech thee to quell and curb this most dangerous my greatest enemy which is the source of all my miseries the Citadel from whence Sin assails me and Satan fetches his forces to fight against me Grant Good Lord that I may never yield to this wicked Eve perswading Adam my Superior Will to eat the forbidden fruit to consent to unlawful pleasures This is the chief exercise of Gods children not to be carried away with affections of flesh and blood but to conduct
if I had formerly hated thee and betrayed thee as Judas did I would now with penitent Magdalen run to thy blessed feet weep and bemoan my misery and hope to obtain thy mercy And finally O my Lord I absolutely entirely and irrevocably renounce my whole Will in all things and totally resign whatsoever any way concerns me to thy holy will and pleasure I offer up unto thee the full sacrifice both principal and accessory of all that by thy gift and grace I am have and can my self goods graces body soul senses heart will all I leave no right or title to any selfness in any thing whatsoever I am no more my self but thy slave O Lord Not my will but thine be don for time and eternity O let me will what thou wilt or not will at all Let all my desires be involuntary if they swerve never so little from thy divin pleasure Die Self-will Live Jesus my Lord my Love my All. The Seventh Exercise Of Conformity to Christ Crucified 1. Ardent Wishes and Desires of perfect Conformity to Christ our Saviour CRucified JESV Thou only Lord of my life life of my love and love of my soul O that I could reform my life deiform my love and conform my soul to thee the absolute pattern of all perfection O that I could imprint thy lively and lovely image in my Heart fasten all my affections and imperfections to thy sacred Cross drown all my desires and defects in thy dear Wounds put off my self totally and put thee on entirely O sacred humanity O my suffering Saviour O that I could perfectly imitate thee the pure exemplar of all Virtues that I could give up my whole self to thee by an Act of irrevocable donation as thou demandest and commandest But alas I am yet O my Jesu all self-love sin and sensuality I acknowledg O my Lord what I have and what I want I know what I desire and what I deserve I confess I am wounded I am wicked I am wretched and I tremblingly come to thee my heavenly Physician to be cured converted comforted O sweet Saviour for thy mercies sake and for thy passions sake Forget and forgive what I have been pitty what I am satisfie for what I deserve and supply what I desire 2. We cast our selves at our Saviours Feet where we beg Humility BEhold most merciful Jesu I first cast my self at thy sacred Feet pierced and fastned to the cruel Cross for my trangressions Pierce my flesh O my Lord with thy fear and fasten my soul to thy love O let not pride presumption nestle any longer in that Heart which thou O meek Saviour lovest so tenderly and hast redeemed at so dear a rate O my vain-glory and arrogancy what have I to do with you how much do I now detest you Wash off these stains O Jesu from my poor soul in these sweet streams flowing from thy wounded Feet O drown these my imperfections in these sacred Seas of piety Give me O gracious Lord such true humilty of Spirit that I may perfectly perceive the abyss of my own nothing and naughtiness and rightly conceive the immensity of thy greatness and goodness wherereby I may depress my self unfeignedly and exalt thee only in my soul Let me be content to be contemned by all Creatures desire to be despised be willing to be troden on as dirt and dust and the very outcast of the whole world O let me really hate all honour and humbly pronounce with mouth and mind I am nothing have nothing deserve nothing desire nothing but only to please thee perfectly my Jesu praise thee perpetually love thee purely and live with thee eternally 3. Before the same Wounds of our Saviours Feet we beg the virtues of Obedience Patience Silence GRant me also Good Jesu by the merits of these your Wounds the Virtue of perfect Obedience O let me never tire in trampling down self-will in forsaking my own sense in subduing Self-judgment in submiting my spirit inwardly to thy inspirations and outwardly not only to my Superiors injunctions but even to the commands of all thy Creatures O let me have no propriety affection or affectation in my own proceedings but wholy mind thy holy pleasure in all things Let me lay down all my desires at thy sacred Feet O my Jesu saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do so transforming my Will into thine by an absolute forsaking denying and annihilating my whol self Let me receive O my Saviour as from thy secret providence and permission not only patiently but thankfully all pain all poverty all shame all sickness and all sufferings whatsoever acknowledging that I truly deserve worse and desiring willingly to endure more that so I may have a more perfect resemblance with thee my crucified Lord Let me learn O my Lord by thy blessed example the holy lesson of discreet Silence not only from ill and idle talk but even from all needless and unprofitable discourses Let me rather edifie by the purity of my life and conversation than by multiplicity of words and conceptions O give me sweet Jesu a free and frequent access to thy sacred Feet during the whol course of my life and a sure comfort in them at the hour of my death 4. Petitions for several Virtues before the Right hand of our Crucified Redeemer FRom thy blessed Feet O my dear Lord I raise my humble devotion to thy all-holy Hands and beg leave to cast into the sweet Fountain issuing from thy powerful right Palm my manifold Sins of Malice and Injustice with all my faults of Hypocrisie and Ingratitude Falshood and Infidelity Rancor and Revenge Renew O Lord God! a right spirit within my bowels Let exact Justice be the square of all my actions Truth the touchstone of my words and Sincerity the subject of my thoughts Let me be punctual in performing my duty to thee zealous in punishing my self and charitable in compassionating my neighbour Let me ever yield first unto thy Sacred Majesty all honour and glory reverence and respect laud and love gratitude and obedience with my whol heart soul and strength next to my Superiours equals and inferiours and lastly to my own body soul and senses that which is my duty and each one of their respective dues O let me fully perform what I am bound to carefully eschew what is forbidden me and uprightly walk according to my calling O let me never presume to slight scorn suspect judg or condemn any person but sincerely serve succour and seek the temporal and spiritual good of all men whatsoever even of my profess'd and most peevish Enemies Lord Jesu give me grace to imitate thy Virtues to be grateful for thy Gifts and to make use of thy Goodness in order to my souls advancement in the way of thy dear love and desired union with thy divin Majesty 5. Other Petitions before the Left-hand ANd in the Sacred wound of thy Left-hand I humbly intomb all my offences of Negligence
In hope of which happiness all Sufferings shall seem sweet to me as proceeding from your paternal hands and I here disavow all expressions of complaint which the violence of my Disease may hereafter draw from my Tongue but not from my Heart which is wholly resign'd to my dear Lord's will and pleasure Nor will I care to be informed how long I must lie languishing in this my Infirmity or whether Death shall in this battle be defeated or become victorious over my life No my Lord I absolutely leave the disposal of my Body Soul and all that concerns me to thy divin Will and Pleasure and desire nothing as to my life and death but that the short remainder of my life may be spent in loving thee serving thee and suffering for thee and that whensoever thou shalt send death to cut its thread my Soul may be found ready prepared for her happy eternitie In the mean space it matters not whether I am cherished or contristated I will endeavour to be indifferent to either since I deserve not the one and my Sins render me worthy of the other Thy innocent Son O Eternal Father who suffered not as I do for his own Sins was deserted by his Disciples and even by thy self also and shall I after this example expect from men any assistance tenderness and compassion I only beg of thee my bountiful and compassionate Creator some small communication of that Spirit wherewith thy patient Son my sweet Saviour suffered that so uniting all my pains to his Passion they may acquire the dignity which their own nature denies them to be acceptable to thy divin Majesty Whose sacred Name be praised by me and all creatures for evermore Demands to a Sick Person at the receiving of the Viaticum or Extream Vnction or at other fit times 1. DO you firmly heartily and humbly believe all the Articles of Faith and all the Holy Scripture according to the sense of Catholick Doctors and Definitions of the Church 2. Do you detest all Superstitions Schisms and Heresies condemn'd by the Church 3. Are you glad and desirous to die a Member of this true Catholick Apostolick Roman Church in the Faith taught by our Lord Jesus and participation of the holy Sacraments 4. Do you acknowledg that you have grievously offended God your Creator who hath been so bountiful unto you and are you sorry for all your sins ingratitudes negligences omissions commissions lost time and opportunities rejected Inspirations 5. Do you ask pardon of the divin Majesty and all your Neighbours whom you have any way offended disedified contristated wronged or scandalized 6. Doth your Sorrow for all these things proceed not so much for fear of death hell and punishment as for the offence displeasure and dishonour of God whom you should have loved above all things 7. Are you fully resolved by Gods grace and assistance if you out live this sickness to amend your Life and rather to leave lose and suffer any thing than to offend God And do you desire life only to this effect that you may better serve him 8. Do you wish you could love God with as great sincerity as the blessed Saints do in Heaven and as the most perfect Souls do upon Earth 9. Have you perform'd such Penance made such Restitution done such Satisfaction to God and Man as your Confessor hath enjoyned you or are you content and ready to do it 10. Do you recommend your self to the Prayers of the blessed Virgin Mary of your special Patrons and in particular of your good Angel Guardian 11. Do you distrust disavow and renounce all your own merits vertues and perfections and trust to be saved by the Mercies of God and Merits of your dear Redeemer 12. Do you render hearty thanks to the divin Majesty for all his favours blessings and especially for that of your Conversion and Vocation to his true Church and Faith And also for all the Crosses he hath permitted to befal you and even for this your present Sickness in which you now languish 13. Do you absolutely and entirely resign your self to his sacred Will and Disposition for all time and eternity and are you indifferent to Sickness or Health to Life or Death to Comforts or Crosses and to whatsoever shall be conformable to the Divin liking and pleasure 14. If the Devil tempts you in matter of Faith What will you answer him I believe in God and his Church Or In matter of Despair 'T is true I am a great Sinner and deserve Hell yet my Saviour is my hope my pledge and my surety and when God ceases to be good and Jesus to be my Saviour then will I cease to hope for Mercy and not before 15. But if your Ghostly enemy continues to afflict affright and terrifie you with the memory of your Sins Gods Judgments and Hells torments what will you do I will say Live Jesus my Lord and my Love and I will put his Death and Passion betwixt me and them all 16. If through the suggestion of Satan or any self-frailty or surprisal you should chance to fall and swerve from any of these good purposes and resolutions I now declare it to be of no force for evermore and I will by Gods grace return speedily to him again Other Questions proposed to a Penitent languishing and loving Soul by her Confessor to dispose her to a happy Death with her Answers unto the same by way of a Dialogue between God and her This is proper for more Spiritual Persons GOD. My Child the last hour of thy mortal life runs now in the Watch of my divin Providence This is the moment on which depends thy Eternity Answer me therefore heartily conscionably and confidently to these points which I shall here propose unto thee Soul O my God! be thou blessed for evermore and thy sacred Will be done in me and in all thy Creatures Speak Lord for thy servant hears attentively and will answer sincerely as in thy presence who penetratest into the secrets of my heart And I most humbly beseech thy Divin Majesty that I may supply by my inward Will and Desires what I am unable to express by my outward Words and Gestures I confess and acknowledg my imperfection ignorance and unworthiness to speak to thee My Lord and my Maker or to be by thee remembred or regarded but hoping in thy gracious assistance I will humby obey thy commands 1. Art thou willing to dy a Member of my Church at this Time in this Place and Company O my God! I desire even from my very heart to die a true Child of thy holy Church believing all that the said Church teaches and am ready rather to lose my life than leave my Faith As for all other circumstances of my death I am altogether indifferent how when and where I shall live or die so it be in thy sweet favour and friendship and according to thy sacred Will and Pleasure 2. Doth not thy Soul
Distinctly not in an over high tone loud voyce or eager precipitation 3 Devoutly to move his affection 4. Deliberately and with certain pauses and interruptions staying upon such points and passages as may touch pierce and comfort him As for example ARe you desirous my dear Brother to entertain your departing Soul with the memory of your dying Redeemer Lift up then your Heart sweetly and quietly to your Saviour whilst I shall recite what he did said and suffered for your sake The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to S. Luke With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer Mark these ardent and affectionate expressions of your dear Redeemer He hath still for you the same love and desire and his Will is that you shall celebrate this Pasch with him eternally in his happy Paradise This is my body which I give for you If your blessed Saviour hath given you his Body give yours to him and be content in your sufferings I prepare for you a Kingdom that you may eat at my Table O comfortable sentence 'T is for you that this Kingdom is prepared Pass to it cheerfully couragiously confidently O my Lord I am ready to accompany you into Prison and unto Death O the admirable courage of St. Peter say you the same and you will dy resignedly Pray that you may not enter into temptation Reflect upon these words and since this is a time of temptation elevate to God your Heart that you may be delivered He prayed on bended Knees Behold a rare example Do you imitate it in desire and affection and permit not your spirit to be born down with the sufferings of your body O Father If you please let this Chalice pass away from me yet not my Will but yours be done O how comfortably should you repeat this prayer of your agonizing Saviour Speak it in your Heart and unite your thoughts to those of your sweet Jesus Being in his Agony he prayed more ardently Behold Jesus in the same condition with your self Pray then pray heartily ardently perseverantly And his Sweat became like drops of blood trickling down upon the earth This bloody Sweat will wash away your Sins sweeten your Pains and smooth your passage to Eternity Judas came up to Jesus and Jesus kissed him Comfort your self in Christs kissing Judas Ah! shall not you hope to obtain his kiss of peace in Heaven since you dy in quality of his faithful friend and favourite Jesus looked back upon Peter after he had denied him O sweet words and can you doubt but that Jesus beholds you lying now upon your Death-bed humbly adoring him heartily confessing him and ardently loving him These and the like devout and pithy Reflection and Applications may be made upon the reading of the Passion which surely cannot but afford much comfort to the agonizing person and edification to the assistants Holding the Crucifix before him ADore your dear Saviour dying on the Cross for you and trust in his infinit merits and mercies Kiss these sacred Wounds hide your self in these holes of the Rock and rest here secure against all your enemies deceits and stratagems Offer up the death of JESVS to his eternal Father and desire that yours being thereto united may become pleasing to his divin Majestie Say with the Publican O my God! be merciful to me a Sinner Cry out with the Blind man O Jesu thou Son of David take pity upon me Profess your Faith with S. Thomas O my Lord and my God Animate your Hope to say with me I hope I shall soon see Him in Heaven whom I now contemplate fastned to the Cross Excite your Charity with S. Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Address your self to the Eternal Father with the words of dying Jesus O my Father into your hands I commend my Spirit When the sick Person draws so near towards his Death that no further Applications can be made to him let the devout Assistants charitably pray for him in this or the like manner O Most compassionat Jesu Take pity upon him O Jesu the Redeemer Lover and Life of Christian Souls Have mercy upon him O Jesu the sweet Comforter of all desolate and distressed Sinners Comfort encourage and strengthen him O holy Mary the Refuge of Sinners Pray for him O Mother of Mercy Mother of Grace Mother of Jesus Mother of Power Pity him protect him defend him assist him in this his greatest extremity O glorious Saint Joseph the nursing Father of Jesus and Virginal Spouse of the Virgin Mary Pray for him O Angelical Spirit who have been hitherto his faithful Guardian Do not now abandon him but conduct his soul to its prepared place of eternal rest and happiness O all ye holy Saints and Angels and you St N. his special Patron receive him into your happy company O Jesu be you unto him a Jesus and save him A Prayer to God the Father O Father of Mercies and God of all Comfort we most humbly address our petitions to the Throne of thy divine Clemency in the behalf of this our languishing Brother beseeching thee by the immensity of thy Mercy and by the infinity of thy Sons merits to pardon his sins to mitigate his pains to arm him with patience to furnish him with perseverance in thy Grace and Love till his last Gasp and then to receive his departing Soul into thy paternal care and protection A Prayer to Christ Jesus O Lord Jesu Christ who wert mercifully pleas'd to suffer an ignominious death upon the Cross for the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind we most humbly beseech thee to interpose the Sweat of thy Agony and the Blood of thy Passion between the severe Justice of thy Eternal Father and the grievous Sins and offences of this thy poor servant And deliver him in this hour of his Death from all such pains and punishments as he may fear to have justly deserved A Prayer to the Blessed Virgin O Sacred Mother of Jesus By that sword of sorrow which pierced thy tender Heart when thou stoodest by thy dear Son hanging on the Cross heardst him uttering his last Words and beheldst him giving up his Ghost We beseech thee to assist also this thy dying Child with thy Prayers whom his Brother Jesus recommended then and there to thy peculiar care and custodie saying O Woman behold thy Son Turn thy Eyes of pitie and compassion towards him O Blessed Mother in this his extream misery and affliction and leave him not in this his last and greatest necessity O clement O pious O sweet Virgin Mary When the Agonizing person is ready to expire DEpart O Christian Soul Depart in peace out of this world In the name of God the Father who Created thee In the name of God the Son who Redeemed thee In the name of God the Holy Ghost who espoused thee In the name of the Angels Archangels Thrones Dominations Principalities Powers Cherubins and Seraphins In the
humble addresses to thee in behalf of this poor Soul suffering in the flames of Purgatory It burns with an ardent desire to enjoy God and to behold thee in thy heavenly Glory but the Decree of divine Justice detains it from this desired happiness be thou therefore pleased O Just man to interpose thy pious intercession for the cancelling or at least for the moderation of this severe Edict Thou formerly freedst Jesus and Mary from Herods cruelty free now this Child of Jesus and Mary from the pains of Purgatory and obtain for him a speedy deliverance that he may with thee and thy dear Spouse Mary praise honour and enjoy Jesus for all eternity The Sequens of Holy Church usually said in the Masses for the Dead Dies Irae dies illa c. 1. THat Day of Wrath that dreadful Day Shall all the World in Ashes lay As David and Sybilla say 2. How shall poor Mortals quake with fears When their impartial Judg appears Who all their Causes strictly hears 3. His Trumpet sounds a dreadful tone The noise through all the Graves is blown And calls the Dead before his Throne 4. Nature and Death shall stand at gaze When Creatures shall their Bodies raise And answer for their forespent Days 5. The fair-writ Book of Conscience shown Sins black Inditement shall be known And every Soul it's Guilt shall own 6. So when the Judg shall sit on high All hidden Sins shall open ly No Crime shall from due Vengeance fly 7. What Plea shall wretched I pretend What Patron move to stand my Friend When scarce the Just themselves defend 8. O dreadful God and glorious King Who dost the saved freely bring To Bliss save me O Mercies Spring 9. Pious Jesu call to minde Thy Travels for my good design'd Grant I may that day Mercy find 10. Thou sat'st down weary seeking me Thou climbd'st the Cross my Soul to free Let not such Labours fruitless be 11. Dread Judg whose Justice is severe My long black score of Sin make cleer E're the accounting Day appear 12. I as a guilty Person groan My faults are in my Blushes known Pity dear Lord thy Suppliants moan 13. Thy granting Magdalen relief And opening Heaven to the Thief Hath with sweet Hopes allay'd my grief 14. My worthless Pray'rs deserve no hire But thou mild Lord thy Grace inspire And save me from eternal Fire 15. Amongst thy Sheep grant I may stand Far from the Goats accursed band Securely plac'd at thy Right Hand 16. The taitif Troop being put to shame And pent in Hells n'ere dying flame Amongst the Blest enrol my Name 17. With bended Knee I make my Prayer And Heart contrite as Ashes are Of my last End dear Lord take care 18. That Day of Doom that Day of Tears When guilty Man awakes in Fears From Dust and fore his Judg appears 19. Jesu whose Breast our woes condoles Preserve him from Hells burning Coaks Give rest to all departed Souls Amen ¶ XII A most devout Exercise of Confession and Communion applied to the Souls suffering in Purgatory When your Charity towards your departed Brethren and Friends shall invite you O pious Christian to apply the fruit of your Communion in their favour You may do well to entertain your self during that whole day set apart for that holy purpose in such acts exercises and thoughts as are proper for that subject As for example At your awaking in the Morning IMagin you hear those poor restless and afflicted Souls making their moan to you and exciting you with their ordinary complaints Miseremini miseremini saltem vos Amici O Friends take compassion upon us And do you answer them with a Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine lux perpetua luceat eis O my God! who hast mercifully given me rest this night and light this morning give eternal rest and eternal light to these poor souls Being cloathed and placed on your knees to Adore the Divine Majesty you may thus pour forth your heart before him O Sacred Trinity I here most humbly prostrate my self and these poor Souls in thy presence Offering up for them to the Throne of thy mercy all my this days Actions and Devotions and particularly my Confession Communion and the Indulgence which through thy Mercy I hope to obtain uniting them to the merits of my dear Redeemer of his blessed Mother and of all the glorious Saints of Heaven And beseeching thy infinit goodness to accept of these my weak and unworthy endeavours for satisfaction of their punishments for solace of their sufferings and for their speedy admission to thy beatifying presence Going to Confession IMagin 1. That the Sacrament of Penance is the Purgatory of this world where thou art to cleanse thy Soul by the Fire of Contrition and Flames of Charity not only from its Sins but also in some measure from the Punishments which by its Sins it hath deserved that being thus pardoned and purified it may be more capable to assist those Souls which suffer in the Purgatory of the other world 2. That if it so pleased the Divine goodness as to lend one hour of time to the Souls in Purgatory wherein they might merit and do Penance how zealously would they make use of this blessed Remedy how sincerely would they Confess their Sins how faithfully would they perform their Duty 3. That many poor Souls suffer now most severe punishments in Purgatory and even in Hell it self for one only Sin and what doth thy self deserve for so many or what must thou expect unless thou endeavourest to make some timely satisfaction during this life Returning from Confession 1. ADmire the Divine favour mercy and goodness in your behalf which is so great that had he don the like to the damned before their departure out of this world they had been all Saints in Paradise 2. Perform your enjoyned Penance humbly punctually and with an ardent desire to satisfie the divine Justice for your offences Hearing Mass 1. AT the Entrance of the Priest to the Altar Think how all Purgatory begins to rejoyce in expectation of the fruits of this great Sacrifice Joyn your Heart Affection and Intention with his Offering up with him the same Sacrifice in memory of Christs Passion in Thanksgiving for his favour conferr'd upon the Souls of Purgatory in that they departed this life in his Grace and Love and in satisfaction for the punishment due to their sins At the Confiteor FOrm an Act of hearty Contrition and weigh how highly it grieves the faithful Souls departed that they ever offended the divin Goodness At the Kyrie-eleison CRy out for Mercy in their behalf by the same repeated petitions to the sacred Trinity At Gloria in excelsis O My God! That these poor Souls were now also conforted with thy Angelical Quires to chaunt forth with them these happy Canticles of thy eternal Glory At Credo MAke a profession of your Faith protesting you will never swerve one tittle from that belief wherein all
Custody of my self from future fallings an heroick Contempt of the world a compleat Conquest of my passions a zealous Imitation of thy exemplary life and conversation an entire Accomplishment of my Vows an absolute Mortification of my self-will a willing Readiness to dy for thy love and honour a final Perseverance in grace and good works a happy Departure of my Soul out of this World with my perfect Senses about me the holy Sacraments to strengthen me thy self O dear Jesu to comfort me thy sacred Virgin-Mother with the Saints my particular Patrons to pray for me and my good Angel to conduct me to Eternal rest Eternal Life Eternal happiness 17. A Prayer to our Good Angel O Holy and happy Spirit who by our Merciful Creators appointment hast been my faithful Keeper my friendly Comforter and my charitable Protector since the first instant of my Birth until this present Moment I humbly beseech thee to continue thy care and custody over me in all places in all company upon all occasions Preserve me O my Good Angel Defend me and deliver me both whilst I sleep and when I am awake from all Diabolical Incursions from all evil Temptations from all Dangers of Soul and Body and from a Sudain and Unprovided Death Be thou graciously pleased to represent my Wounds my Wants and my Wishes to our common Lord and Master and obtain for me thy poor Pupil Courage to overcome my Self and strength to get a compleat Victor over Sin Satan and Sensuality Especially if there lurks any secret Crime in my Conscience obtain for me Light to discern it a Will to detest it Time to confess it and Grace to amend it Abandon not my poor soul I beseech thee O blessed Spirit for the Love of sweet Jesus who hath not spared his dearest blood and Life to save it but remain constantly faithful favourable and friendly unto me all the moments of my life and take a special and particular care and charge of me in my Deaths last gasp and Agony Defend me then in that dreadful hour O powerful Guardian from the fury of my sworn enemy and convey my departing Soul into the bosome of my dearly beloved Lord and Maker there to praise him with thy self for evermore O my Good Guide I again and again iterate this my humble and earnest suit beseeching thee neither to forsake me during this transitory Life nor to forget me when all the world will leave me that through thy safe and secure Conduct I may so pass through the wearisom troubles of this earthly Pilgrimage as that I may find Eternal rest in the heavenly Paradise Amen The Conclusion of the whole Work Being an Epithalamium or nuptial Entertainment of the amorous Soul ravish'd in comtemptation of the reciporcal Affections Mercies and Benefits of her Bridegroom upon those words of the Canticles Dilectus meus mihi ego illi My beloved to me and I to him 1. O Lord of my love love of my life and life of my Soul How amiable art thou remaining in thy self within the boundless limits of thy own essential Perfections and how admirable art thou issuing forth of thy self to diffuse abroad thy goodness and communicate it to thy Creatures Witness this large and lovely Univers fram'd of norhing by thy Omnipotent Finger whose beauty and excellency more appears in Man alone than in all the rest of its united wonders and prodigies Man that miracle of the World and Master-peece of Nature in whose Creation thy love goodness and mercy can never be suffciently admired and magnified 2. And when this prime Creature had Alas soon after its first production lost its original Perfection by violating thy precept thou wert graciously pleas'd O great and glorious Soveraign out of the tenderness of thy Compassion towards man this poor Criminal to give him as it were a new birth a new being a new creation in a manner far different in a way much more admirable with an affection infinitly exceeding the former For thy self O prodigie of goodness becam'st man for his love and enchargedst thy own shoulders with all his sins pains and miseries to set him at his ease freedom and liberty Yes O my Lord and Lover thou becam'st man even like me in all things Sin only and ignorance excepted which were incompatible with thy goodness and wisdom and which thou camst to destroy and cancel thus ennobling my Nature by uniting it to thy Divinity sanctifying it with thy Justice enriching it with thy Grace instructing it with thy Doctrine strengthning it with thy Example rescuing it from servitude restoring it to its lost title of Gods Child and rendring it capable of Eternal Glory 3. O my God! how greatly do I feel my self obliged to love thee in consequence of this large liberal and signal favour T is a chain which so strictly tyes me to a reciprocal affection that it infinitly exceeds all the expressions of my ravish'd tongue heart For what had I poor wretch alas what had I O my glorious Creator and gracious Redeemer whereby to help my self and what have I yet whereby to prevail against my potent adversaries the World the Flesh and the Devil but only thy self and what thou hast freely given me who art my only strength support and succour 4. When therefore I look into the furnace of thy love O my Lord Jesu and behold thy personal descent from the Eternal Fathers bosom to cloath thy self upon earth with a parcel of our poor Humanity for the redemption and salvation of my Soul surely this only contemplation fills my extasi'd heart with unspeakable admiration and not only excites but inforces it to love thee most ardently and were it capable even infinitly and eternally 5. But if for one only effect of your amorous bounty I feel my self thus powerfully obliged to expand my Soul before thy sacred Majesty how much more should I do it in contemplation of all thy united gifts graces and benefits abundantly contain'd in thy blessed humanity whereby thou becamst our temporal Redemption and my eternal Salvation Should I not much more ardently pour forth my self before thee in respect of so many ravishing motives and yet much more and more in respect of thy Self O my sweet Lord and Lover than of all these amorous effects of thy Mercy who art now my All art to be my All in all for all Eternity in thy accomplish'd and consummated Beatitude when after the painful assaults languors of this life I shall remain in thee by thee for thee a happy and triumphant Conqueror over my self and all my enemies 6. Whence is it then O my Love and my Life that my Soul melts not away in the fires of thy sweet Affection How comes it to pass that my whole pleasure is not in loving thee intirely ardently indeficiently Why is not my uninterrupted thought song and saying My beloved to me and I to him since thou thus forcibly constriuest as it were and enchainest