to make your meditation that day upon the subject of death exercise ones self more particularly in good works in the practice of mortification other vertues You must also take notice that thô there be many acts noted in this exercise 't is onely to facilitate the practice of them to those who for want of being habituated in them ' would otherwise find great difficulty to perform them for the best are those that love produces in our heart We have added at the end of this discourse the recommendation of the soul in English for those who having the devotion thereby in a holy manner to anticipate their death to joyn these to the foresaid devotions do not understand them in Latin in this case one ought to change the termes that concern another to ones self as in stead of saying pray for him or her or receive this soul say pray for me receive my soul so in other places reserving the conclusion of this exercise till after your last prayer Now the fruit which one ought to draw from hence as shall be noted in the following meditation is the contempt of the world a weaning ones self from creatures the renouncing of ones self the amendment of ones faults which are the true means to obtain the grace to die a deatâ— that hshall be the beginning of a most happy blessed lâ—fe If we make this exercâ—se with care during our lives t is not to be conceived how profitable we shall find it at our death where we may repeat the same or cause it to be read to us You may make the meditation in the morning after your prayer before you go out The first part part of the exercise for death may be made in the Curch before Communion or during mass the other part in the evening towards four or five a clock A MEDITATION DISPOSITIONS FOR A happy death Put your self in to the presence of God beg of him his divine inspiration FOr the ground of this meditation one must be well possest of this truth That life is onely a gage given us by God in trust wherefore iâ— follows if we be not always prepared and disposed to give it back we refuse him the right of soveraignty which he has upon our beings It is appointed for all men once to die after that to be judged Says the great Apostle to the Heb Chap. 9. COnsidering this truth That one dies bur once that an ill death can never be repair'd throughout the whole vast extent of Eternity we may easily perceive how necessary it is not to be surprised but to be always upon our guard as that servant of whom the Gospell speaks which waits for the coming of his master in the 12. Chap of S. Luke I. POINT Since we must necessarily dye it behooves us much to conceive well this truth That death is certain the hour of death uncertain that all the prudence of a Christian consists in preparing ones self well for it that we may not faile in an affair which in truth is the affair of affairs and the sole onely one we have to do in this world since we come into it onely to save our souls in loosing them we lose all For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loose his own soul Says our Soveraign master Jesus Christ iâ— the 8. Chap of S Mark. O my God how great is the blindness of the most part of mankind who not thinking on this great truth live onely an earthly sensuall brutish life never elevating their minds to heavenly things fix their affections so fast to this mortall life that they prefer it before the eternal He that loves his life Says our saviour shall loose it 〈◊〉 he that hates it in this world shall gain for it life everlasting in the next in the 12 Chap of S. Iohn O my God â—is noâ— therefore to love our lives â— to have to â— great a fondness for them siâ—ce this fondness for a emâ—orall life proceeding from an irreguâ—ar love of our selves â— puts us in danger of loosing an everlasting one that you assure me o my divine Jesus that if any one comes to you does not hate this sensuall life even his own soul he cannot be your disciple Give me o Lord a holy hatred of this mortall life which may make me continually tend pretend to the eternall one where I may love you for ever II POINT The death of Saints is precious in Gods sight says the Psalmist in the 118. Psalm If we will dye the death of Saints we must live their lives 1. by keeping our affections always as much weaned from the things of this world as if we were to dye every moment because there is no moment in which death may not surprise us in which we ought not to be prepared to receive it if we will not hazard our salvation 2. by overcoming the naturall fear which we have of death by faith by the confidence which we ought to have that Jesus Christ in whose hands are the keys of life death who loves us infinitely more then we love our selves will send it us at such a time in such a manner as in the order of his divine providence he foresees best for us Has he not created us for life everlasting do not we believe that life better then this mortall life we lead if we are not of this beliefe we want faith by consequence have no hope because we cannot obtain that happiness he has promised in the other life but by death But what charity also can an interessed soul have which loves its own life more then the will of God has a greater fear to dye then to see unite it self to him Perfect charity says the holy Scripture in S. Johnâ— Gospell chap 24. excludes fear And as we ought to shew our love which we have for God by our hatred to sin what hatred do we express to it when for all we know we cannot live without committing every day some yet we are so much affraid of death O if we had a true love with what joy should we embrace death that we might be in a state in which we could no more offend his infinite goodness Since the least sin as the Doctours of the Church affirm is so more to be feared then death III. POINT Should God give us the choice of of the time the hour the manner of our death could we make a better choice then he who ordains it by his infinite wisdome power goodness who having created us for himself redeemed us with his blood accordingly desires nothing more then to save to bring us to the enjoyment of that happy end And since faith teacheth us this verity why do not we entirely abandon the care of our lives deathes to him what can there
him be illuminated with Eternall light â„£ Lord deliver his soul â„Ÿ From the gates of hell â„£ Let him repose in peace â„Ÿ Amen â„£ Lord hear my prayer â„Ÿ And let my cry come unto thee THE PRAYER O God we recommend to you the soul of your seruant that having passed this life he may live onely to you that the sins he has committed in this life out of humane frailty may be pardoned by the infinite bounty and mercy and by the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A COMPENDIUM OF the aforesaid Exercise to prepare ones self well for death Which one may make every night before one goes to bed MY heart is prepared o my God my heart is prepared your will be done my God not mine I abandon my self entirely to receive death at what time in what manner you please to send it to me 2 I most humbly beg of you pardon for all the sins I have committed against your Soveraign goodness I repent me of them with all my heart 3. I believe firmly all that the Roman Catholick Church believes teaches and I will dye in this belief 4. I hope to possess eternall life by your mercy by the merits of my Sauiour Jesus Christ 5. O my God I desire to love you above all creatures to the contempt of all creatures as my Soveraingn good my neighbour as my self pardoning him from the bottom of my heart 6. O my divine Jesus what an extreme desire have I to receive yoâ—r sacred body to do it spiritually unite my self to all the communions that shall be made throughout the whole Church to the end of the world particularly at the hour of my death 7. Afford me the grace o my divine Saviour to blot out all the sins I have committed by my senses by applying to my self the unction of thy precious blood 8. Holy Virgin mother of my God defend me from my enemies present me to your son 9. Great S. Michael my holy Angell Guardian my holy Protectours pray assist me in this last passage 10. O my God I renounce all the temptations of the Enemy generally all that may displease you I adore receive your divine judgements upon my soul as most just equitable I abandon my self to them with entire submission 11. O Jesus my divine Jesus be to me Jesus O my God retiring with an humble confidence into thy sacred wounds I commit my soul into thy divine hands receive it into the bosome of thy mercy Amen AN EXERCISE OF DEATH FOR THE last day of the month IN THE MORNING OFfer al the actions sufferings of that day to our Saviour by the hands of S. Joseph which you shall take for your Protectour to obtain a happy death make some of these Acts noted in the beginning of this Exercise then make a resolution so to live that day as if it were to be the last of your life DVRING THE DAY 1. Beg every hour of S. Joseph a good death say to your soul if we were to dye this moment are we prepared to appear before God 2. Before you begin any action or in conversation often call to mind this thought Would I have done or said this at the hour of my death 3. Communicate really or spiritually in manner of Viatick making the acts affections marked in this Exercise or contenting your self to remain with a simple view of faith in silence abandonment in the arms of Jesus to expire in him by love and confidence 4 Go from Communion with a resolution to live no longer to your self to perform no action of your life purely after a naturall humane manner calliâ—g often to mind in the day time the advertissement of the Apostle you are dead your life is hiddem in God With Iesus Christ 5. Make your meditation upon death either as it is in your ordinary booK of meditations or as it is in this Exercise read the thoughts of death in the book called Pensées Chrêtiennes or Christian thoughts IN THE EVERNING 1. BEfore you go to bed make a short review in your Examen of all the sins of the last month take notice chiefly of those you commit out of custom think with sorrow of your abuse of Gods graces favours of the ill use you have made of the crosses which God has sent you Then putting your self in the presence of Jesus Christ your Soveraign Judge immaginaing your self to be before the tribunall of his justice beg pardon for your sins with all the resentment confusion you are able Alas what sorrow would you have for them if this night you were to dye to appeare before him Then impose upon your self some pennance for the following month faile not to rise at the appointed hour to give somthing to thle poor as often as you speak in choler out of humour 2. After Examen make the same Acts that dying persons are wont to make which are noted in this Exercise or content your self to make 1 An act of faith proptesting that you firmly belieue that you shall on day dye 2. An act of confidence hoping thot our Saviour at your death will have mercy upon you pardon all your sins 3. An act of love begging him rather to Send you death then permit you to offend him at least voluntarily 4. An act of abandonment putting your life your soul your salvation into the hands of God. In fine kiss the ground to render homage to the Soveraignty justice of God which has ordained that your body should one day be reduced to dust Look upon your bed as your grave as you are going into it say three times JESVS MARIA IOSEPH Adding O my God grant that I may repose and sleep in peace with you Amen Pious thoughts to recollect ones self in God. 1. For riseing 1. O My God I am intirly yours be you all in me be you all things to me and let all things else be nothing to me 2. Lord let me do and suffer all by you in you and for you let me forthwith dye to my self and let me live and allways remain in you 3. O the God of my hart and my Portion for eternity be you the beginning and end of all my actions let me plunge and loose my self intirely in you 2. FOR PRAYER In the state of Desolation 1. O Justice of my God content your self be you pleased without contenting me 2. You are all my God and I am nothing before you I am content that all joy and consolation be yours and that nothing and the privation of all comforts be myne O contentment joy and happyness of my God you are dearer to me then my owne satisfaction 3. My God! how good are you to suffer me to be in the miserable state I am in Permit that I sacrifice the satisfaction of my hart to that of yours
thanks for me 2. I adore you my Jesus as my Creatour who gave me my life as my Saviour who has deliver'd me from death as a God of glory who has designed me for Paradise 3. Pause here in silence look upon â—esâ—s Christ as your Saviour with confidence as your Judge with fear as your most loving and lovely God with love 4. Beg of him to apply himself to your senses to your mind to your heart to cure your infirmities to purifie them fill them with his love A GENERAL PRACTICE FOR THE VERTUE OF THE MONTH Together with the manner whereby you ought to honour a Saint every month 1. One ought to form a high Idea of this vertue conceive a fervent desire to practise it for this reason it were good to make a meditation of it in the beginning in the middle in the end of the month 2. One ought to receive it from ones Directour as from God himself who inspires him therewith who will exact an account of it ar the day of Judgment it is good to beg it often of God by the intercession of the holy Patron recommended to your choice particularly in the morning at noon at night saying for this end a Pater Ave. 3. The practice of the vertue of the month ought to be in this manner 1. you must offer the first communion of the month to obtain it 2 in the morning when you rise make a firm resolution to practise it that day forecasting to your self the occasions you may have to exercise it 4. Before dinner recollect your self the space of a Pater Ave to consider how you have practised it to see whether that morning you have exercised any acts of it or fallen into the contrary vice if you find you have ask pardon of God purpose to be more faithfull the following part of the day 5. In your examen at night make the same review compare with diligence the faults you have committed after dinner with those committed in the morning noting the number upon a paper or with knots upon a piece of thred to see if your fidelity was greater after dinner then in the morning 6. Take care every dal especially in the morning to make there acts of the month the same after dinner for exteriour acts take care to keep a watch over your self that you fall not upon occasion into the vice contrary to it 7. If you happen to fail impose upon your self immediately some mortification if occasion permits that may be contrary to the fault you committed for example if you have for your vertue to say nothing out of humour or inclination or the mortification of your tongue after you have failed hinder your self from speaking when you have never so much mind to it if it be nothing but unprofitable discourse or keep a greater silence then ordinary by retiring your self the like you may do in respect of other vertues 8. Give an exact account to your Directour of your care or negligence in the practice of the vertue of the month be afraid that God should withdraw his particular grace of which you have great need if you neglect this particular care because God will treat you as you do him 9. Perswade your self that all your spirituall advancement depends upon your practice of this vertue which if you neglect you will never profit in it Remember also to offer some of your alms mortifications to our Lord to obtain this vertue present them to him by the hands of your Directour 10. Honour your monthly Patron invoking him three times a day saying for this end a Pater Ave 2. Have recourse to him in your occurring difficulties 3. Give thanks to our Lord for the graces bestowed upon him 4. Communicate upon his feast 5. Make a Letanie of all the Saints you have every month say them every day AN EXERCISE VERY PROFITABLE TO prepare ones self to die well A prayer to Iesus Christ SAviour of the world word incarnate life of the dying death of the living life of the dying by the glory you bestow upon them purchased by your precious blood death of the living by the grace which you give them to dye to the flesh to live to the spirit animate this exercise with your holy dove to the end that by the â—ractice of it we may find our selves so prepared for death that after this life we maâ— live with you eternally in heaven there to bless praise love you with the Father holy Ghost Amen Ever praised be the most holy Sacrament of the Altar ADVICE FOR THE PRACTICE of this Exercise SInce t is a truth of which we have daily but too great an experience which yet for all that we too easily forget that we must dye that a suddain death may perhaps surprise us unawares as we see happens often to those that think least of it or that the extreme pains of our sickness may deprive us of the liberty to make those acts that are necessary for this last hour the hour of all hours most important the hour after which there remains no more hours the hour that decides our Eternall happiness or misery 't is necessary every month to prepare our selves by the exercises of a death in imagination to those which we must really practise when we come actually to dye Watch prepare your selves because the son of man will come at the hour you think least of Says our Saviour in the 13. of S. Mark 's Gospell in the 12. of Ecclesiastes we are warned that where the tree falls there it lyes As near as you can either the day before or upon the day you exercise this devotion make your Sacramentall confession which will not hinder you from making your spirituall confession to Jesus Christ either before or after the sacramentall one according to each ones devotion After confession make a sacramental communion by way of Viaticum as if it were your last in case you actually communicate endeavour to have by you some meddal to which the Pope has applyed a plenary Indulgence to gain one Upon the day of your devotion if possible hear mass to unite your self more particularly in this holy sacrifice which is a reall representation of that upon the cross to Jesus Christ dying offering him to the eternall father together with all the sacrifices which shall be offer'd to the end of the world to obtain the grace of a happy death It will be very profitable to make choice of the last day of every month for this exercise if one be not minded to make it altogether one may begin the first point in the morning the second at some other hour that day or otherwise perform it in two days then one should repeat over again the acts of contrition of faith of hope of charity conteined in the first point observing
Angell the Saints your Patrons entring your chamber to give you with his own hands his sacred body has he did to his Apostles in his last supper that he says to you as he did to them Take eat this is my body which was delivered to death to give you life Having adored him with all your heart Salute him with the following words O my God since you have said that he who eats you shall live eternally shall not dye Grant me the grace that by the reception of your sacred body I may live onely in you by you for you that quitting this mortall life I may by the force vertue of this divine bread arrive to heaven where I may for ever see enjoy your divine majesty Alas from whence comes this happiness to me that my God should come to visit me Lord I am not worthy that you should enter into my soul speak onely but a word it shall be healed Having received him entertain your self amorously with him make all your senses appear before him all your faculties to make him as it were an oath of allegiance renew the vows promisses you have made conjure him never more to leave you say to him as the disciples going to Emmaus did Stay with me o Lord for it is late the evening of my life approacheth Or with Simeon Let now o Lord thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen the authour of my salvation Or with David Althô I walk in the middle of the shadow of death I will feare no evill because you are with me O my God put your self as a seal upon my heart to the end that all earthly things may find no more entrance thereinto Unite this Communion to that which this divine Saviour made before his death to all those which the most holy Virgin the Saints made during their lives also to all those which shall be made to the end of the world to supply the imperfections you have committed in receiving this divine Sacrament Return God thanks for the favour of receiving it for all those other graces which he has so liberally bestowed upon you invite all creatures to bless praise thank him for you Reciting the. 117. Psalm Laudate Dominum omnes gentes c. or the Canticle Benedicite omnia opera c. THE 2. PART Spirituall extreamunction I Imagine that Jesus Christ having assisted at your communion as has been said enters also into your chamber bringing the holy oyles composed of his precious blood to apply the holy unctions with his own sacred hand Make acts of contrition in receiving them to blot out all the sins committed by each sense IN THE APPLICATION to the Eyes O my Jesus my God I demand most humbly pardon for all the sins I have committed by so many irregular looks or casts of my eyes so many unprofitable tears to blot out these sins apply to me those your amorous looKs upon the cross upon your Crucifiers the tears you shed for my salvation TO THE EARS Pardon me also the sins I have committed in taking pleasure to hearken to so many ill discourses to make satisfaction for them apply to my foul the merit of that patience humility with which you heard so many blasphemies injuries calumnies uttered against you TO THE NOSTRILLS I beg pardon also o my God for having too much sought perfumes good smells for having taken too much pleasure in them having been too delicate nice in avoiding ill ones for the satisfaction of these faults apply to me the merit of those ill sents you suffered in the stable upon mount Calvary TO THE MOVTH O my Saviour Jesus Christ pardon me the infinite number of sins that I have committed in words all my irregularities in eating drinking blot them out by applying to my soul the merits of your divine prayers preachings your holy fasts TO THE HANDS Pardon me my divine Jesus all the many unprofitable evill actions that I have committed for having so delicately treated my body for this end apply to me the merit of those holy actions divine miracles wrought by your sacred hands which were nailed upon the hard wood of the Cross for my sake by my sins TO THE FEET O my God with my whole heart I beg pardon for all the steps that I have made unprofitably or for any ill end Apply to me for the satisfaction of these faults the merit of those sacred steps you made barefoot with so much toil for the salvation of mankind especially in carrying your cross After Extrem unction make the sollowing Acts with a penitent mind O my God to satisfie as much as I am able your divine Justice to make you a due satisfaction for my sins I accept death with my whole heart I rejoyce at the separation of my soul from my body in punishment of the sins I have committed by following rather my irregular inclinations then your holy will 2. And that my body in punishment of its pride ambition shall be buried under the earth trodden under foot 3. And for that inordinate love I have born it the too great care I have taken for its ease pleasure I rejoyce that that it returns to corruption becomes the food of worms 4. And for the affection I have had for riches for creatures the abuse I have made of them I am glad to be separated from deprived of them 5. And for the forgetfullness I have had of you my God during my life I accept the forgetfulness that all will have of me after my death 6. And for having made use of all my senses to offend you I accept offer in satisfaction the privation loss of them all 7. And in punishment of my having vainly searched to please creatures I am glad that by death I shall become an object of their hatred horrour contempt For the Approaehes of Death Hearken to your good Angell speaking to you as to the Virgins in the Gospell BEhold your Spouse is coming Go forth meet him And preparing your self for his coming with the burning lamp of charity in your hands say with David I rejoyce at the good news they tell me let us enter into the house of our Lord. O Lord God of strength how amiable are thy tabernacles my soul faints with desire of them My soul thirsts after God the source of life when shall I come appear before his presence As the thirsty Hart desires the fountain so my sovl desires thee ô my God. O how do I desire to be delivered out of this mortall body to be with Christ Vnion with CHRIST JESUS dying O my divine Jesus granr me your grace that my sorrows may be united to yours my agony my death sanctified by yours that I may partake of those sacred
in conversation and if sometimes it happens that we find some relish of these truths or penetrate a little deeper then ordinary into them we look on our selves as already great proficients in spirit rest there without passing on to any practice thereof T is enough at present for a devout person to have by him the Treatise called the Interiour Christian now and then to read in it to believe himself a very spirituall person much advanced in perfection We see many souls much addicted to read the latter end of this book where it treats of the most high sublime degrees of prayer but we see very few who exercise themselves in the practice of the love of contempt mortification and suffering whereof the Authour treats in the beginning For my part I am perswaded that we have more need of having our hearts touched then our minds enlightened and that we stand more in need to be animated to practice what is good then to have bare desires of it wherfore I thought it very profitable to instruct good and devout souls how to perform all their exteriour actions with an interiour spirit not to follow their own humour custome or sensuality but to render their actions as I may say full of god and to animate them with the spirit of his grace In effect all who know what belongs to true devotion christian perfection agree that it consists in doing the will of god and that in such manner as he will have it done and that this is the sanctity to which god calls all christians of what condition soever Now it is in the ordinary actions which every one in his state performs that the will of god is marked out to us and therefore all our perfection consists in doing them well All persons are not capable of high and elevated prayer and if they be not called to it they will not at the day of Judgement be accountable for it wherefore 't is not necessary to them to Know the severall degrees of prayer and all that is got by such notions is either vanity if they flatter themselves with a belief that they are carried by those sublime wayes or else discouragement if they find themselves uncapable of them but there are none of how mean a capacity soever they be who are not able to perform their actions with an interiour spirit and therefore 't is not only profitable but necessary to Know how to animate them with it because we shall be examined and judged upon this point and the first head of our examination will be whether we have acted as christians and not as Pagans or barely as men I add that it is very hard to very many souls to penetrate or even to conceive the great maximes of abnegation of relinquishing all humane things of interiour silence of the passive state of the death to all that is sensible of the loss consummation of a soul in god But there is no soul how little soever it be enlightened by god which may not easily learn to perform these ordinary actions with christian sentiments and regulate the conduct of it's life according to the maximes of the Gospel wherefore I here lay down an easy way or method whereby all devout christian souls may arrive to an eminent degree of vertue fulfill the perfection of their state please god in all things they do act in all things according to the spirit of grace and not according to the sentiments of nature gather together in a short time great treasures of merits fly not onely idleness the ordinary fault of the world but the unprofitable passing of their life the common errour even of vertuous persons perform from morning to night the will of god without straying one moment from this way become as David was persons according to gods own heart in fine render themselves by an exact fidelity very great Saints and this by doing nothing else but their ordinary daily actions For my part when I consider that god has annexed our perfection to the exact performance of our daily actions that 't is of these he will require an account at the day of judgement that it is to animate us to perform these that he gives us his graces and that when we have any one of them to do all that he requires of us is nothing but our fidelity in performing it I am surprised to see so few apply themselves to a holy and exact performance of them and that they seek vertue and perfection in things which god requires not at their hands Let us therefore endeavour to make a firm resolution to do all our ordinary actions of the day well and place our perfection in this practice let us avoid all things in them which may be displeasing to god take care to omit nothing in their performance which may be pleasing to him let us perform them after such a manner as that god may be the soul of all our actions and endeavours and that there may be nothing human or unprofitable in all that we do so that we may never be one moment without meriting and tending towards god that Jesus-Christ may live in us as the Apostle says and that the spirit of his grace may animate all our thoughts all our words and all our works I know very well that souls who are after an extraordinary manner carried to prayer ought not to tie themselves to particular motives or reflections for the right performance of their actions and that they ought to content themselves in following with fidelity the impulse of gods grace and to suffer themselves to be led to the performance of them by the spirit which animates them and which will make them avoid the imperfections which are ordinarily committed in such performances even when they do not foresee them But since there are very few such souls and that they as well as others will be able to find in the advice that I give the sources of retirement and recollection that is to say such thoughts as will maKe them enter into themselves even in the midst of their distractive Imployments there are therefore few persons or to say better none who may not reap profit out of these exercises But that they may be able to do so I would councell them to read them often till such time as having so fixed in their minds all these sentiments they may upon all occasions use them as a rule whereby to perform all their actions in an holy manner and it would be good also to run them ouer at the end of the weeK or month thereby to discover and taKe a view of all their faults In the beginning they may also content themselves with the practice of the rules relating to the performance of some particular action as of Masse for example and afterwards endeavour to perfect themselves in the rest For I cannot but affirm that we have not any means more sure easy and
efficacious of making our selves Saints arriving to an eminent degree of vertue then by doing all our actions with an interiour spirit this is that we ought to apply our selves to all the days of our life and we may assure our selves that to die in this exercise is to die the death of Saints THE Daily exercises of a Christian life OR The interiour Spirit with which we ought to animate our actions all the day long I. RISING THE holiness of life and death depending on our passing ouer the day in an holy manner the passing of it well consisting chiefly in a good beginning of it I dare affirm that the action which one ought to perform with the greatest fervour is that of rising in the morning wherefore taKe care to rise every day at a constant and regulated hour and if you find any difficulty in it think of Jesus-Christ hanging upon his crosse to which the love of you fixed him much faster then the nails from whence he reproaches you with your delicacy and sloath and you will be ashamed to give this ease to your body seeing your saviours body torn his blood exhausted for the loue of you You may also sometimes if you please think of that which a soul in Purgatory suffers for the sloath it had in rising whilst it liued and entertaining your self with these good thoughts get up with fervour having first consecrated to god your heart and soul put him into possession of your self You may rise ordinarilie in Summer at five of the clock and at six in the winter When you are up the first thing you are to perform is prayer which consists chiefly in four acts By the first you adore God as present and give him thanKs for having had the goodness to preserve you that night from suddain death By the second you offer to him all your thoughts words and deeds and all your sufferings together with your self in union with the thoughts words deeds sufferings of Jesus Christ praying him to act in you and to animate you to suffer and to Keep you all that day intimately united to him by a faithfull imitation of his life in all that you do By the third act you asK pardon of God for your past sins making a firm resolution of avoiding all mortall veniall sin particularly to take tcare of that imperfection you find your self most subject to and to practice that vertue which you have undertaken that month to practice asking for this end the assistance of that Saint whom you have for your patron protectour By the fourth act you must commit resign your self first to the bounty goodness of God in order to all the graces which he shall please to bestow that day upon you then to his Justice in order to all the pains afflictions which he shall please to send you welcoming them as from his hand accepting them with resignation lastly to his prouidence in order to all the good bad success which he shall permit in what you undertaKe or perform After these Acts say a Pater Ave Creed together with the Confiteor and if you please the Litanies of Jesus three times Gloria Patri c. in honour of the blessed Trinity In fine pray to the blessed Virgin your good Angell Patron to assist and preserve you offer up the Masses that shall be said that day throughout the whole world to obtain of God fidelity to concurr with his grace as also an happy death II. DRESSING HAlf an hour past five or past six according to the time of your rising dress your self 1. with modesty without any satisfaction or complacence in your cloaths remembering that God looks upon you that this body you take so much pains to dress adorn may perhaps the same day become the food of worms consider also that Jesus Christ would die naKed upon the cross to satisfy for the vanity which we take in our cloaths to punish it in himself 2. It will be also good to devest your self of this vanity gratefully to acknowledge the goodness of your dying Jesus in reducing himself to this poor condition for your sake by depriving your self from time to time of some little ornament that pleases you most thô it were but of a riband which you may sacrifice unto him or you may forbear to wear that day some better sute of cloaths or gown for his sake all which will be very pleasing to him 3. Aboue all look not in your glass but for meer necessity that so you may avoid such satisfactions complacences as may happen in that action consider that your soul is as disagreable in the sight of god as naKed of the ornaments of vertue as your dressings ornaments are agreable in your own 4. ◠Employ no more time in dressing then is purely necessary remembring that you must give an account to god for the time unnecessarily spent in it After this give order for such things as are to be done about your house III. PRAYER AT seven of the clock or half an hour past it according to the time necessarily required for your dressing and ordering the affaires of your houshold maKe your prayer for the space of half an hour retiring your self in to a Closet if you are not alone in your chamber or if you cannot perform it with convenient recollection at home you may go to the Church but it would be much more to the purpose to maKe it before you quite dress your self if you maKe it at home In prayer follow the advice of your directour without consulting others and aboue all remember to observe three things first often to renew the presence of God sweetly and familiarly entertain your self with him concerning the truths you meditate of to the end you may always remain with due respect and more easily avoid distractions Secondly receive with patience such aridities disgusts distractions or wandrings of the imagination as God permits to happen to you in prayer looking on this as the best way to profit much in a short time in the pure loue of god which is so remote from whatsoever is sensible Moreouer in this condition you ought to do nothing else save onely 1 to humble and annihilate your self before the divine Majesty of God looKing on your self as unworthy to speaK unto him 2. offer up your disabilities and weaKnesses to God resigning your self to his will protesting that you seeK or desire nothing but purely to please him 3. raise your self by frequent elevations of your heart to God chiefly by acts of faith hope charity humility and resignation not troubling your self if you do not this with sweetness or facility being throughly perswaded that the more violence you use towards your self the more pleasing you are to Almighty God. ◠in fine you ought in this condition to continue on your Knees with fidelity during the whole
be better for us in heaven or earth in life or death then to accomplish his most just most holy will And because we ought necessarily to submit to its orders is it not better to do it freely by an humble submission to filiall confidence in his divine goodness then to do it by constraint as the Devills do by that resistance render this action rather worthy of punishment then recompence If the fear of our sins makes us apprehend death desire onely to live to do pennance for them what better pennance can we perform that is more agreable to God then perfectly to conform our selves to his will undergo the sentence of death to render him the obedience a creature owes to his creatour thereby to shew him that we preferr the honour of pleasing him before our own lives If actions so much the harder they be to perform so much the more meritorious they be esteemed what can there be harder then to renonce life what greater pennance can we perform then frankly freely to give up our lives to God because by giving them to him we give not onely all we can give but all that is dearest to us No one has greater charity then he who gives up his life says our Saviour in the 13 of S. Johns Gospell And if a God would dye so painfull ignominious a death for us and give his life upon the cross for our salvation can we refuse him ours Is our life more precious or necessary then his O my soul had we never so llittle love for God or gratitude for this great favour of his we ought to desire a thousand lives to lay them all down for his sake What have we that is not his O my God since I am nothing but by you I will be nothing but what you would have me I care not whether I live or dye Affections Resolutions SInce that upon the moment of my death depends my eternal life Grant o my God that by a true hatred of sin by a perfect contempt of the world of its vain honours pleasures riches by an entire renouncing of my self I may always keep my felf prepared for this last hour that I may never let my self forget death least permitting the lamp of charity to be extinguished the oyl of good works to be wanting in my soul you may surprise me in this condition reproach me with the same terrible words you did the foolish virgins in the 25. Chap of S. Iohns Gospell I know you not but that keeping my self always ready for your coming I may merit to enter with you into that eternall nuptiall feast Where neither eye has seen ear heard nor has it enterd into the heart of man to conceive what you have prepared for those that love you Give me o my God the light of your holy Spirit to the end I may not suffer my self to be deceived nor seduced by my senses to take what is false for true that I may not esteem the things of this mortall life good or bad but as they lead me to or withdraw me from my last end CONCLVSION LEt us conclude this meditation with this truth that if we will dye the death of the just we must live the lives of the just since the way to obtain a good death is to live a good life as there is nothing more precious nor more to be desired then a good death so there is nothing more unhappy nor that we ought more to fear then an ill death the best means of securing our selves in an affair of so great an importance as this is daily to live as if it were to be the last day of our lives keeping our affections as perfectly weaned from the things of the world as if we were ready to leave it where all things that be not of God will appear as smoak that either is scattered it self or at best covers but a fleeting shadow A MOST PROFITABLE EXERCISE TO PREPARE our selves for death VPON THIS MOMENT depends Eternity The day you intend to make this exercise enter into the thoughts of death look upon that day as the last of your life THE FIRST PART IMagine your self lying sick upon your death-bed that your good Angell is sent by God to give you notice of the irrevocable decree of your death that he says to you as Esaye did to Ezechias Isa 38. Dispose of your affairs because you shall dye shall no longer live Prostrating your self as at the foot of your Crucifix or before the blessed Sacrament beg with all your heart the grace light of the holy Ghost the help succour of the blessed Virgin of the Saints your Patrons of your good Angell to maKe the following acts AN ACT OF RESIGNATION MY heart is prepared my God my heart is prepared that your will not mine be done in me by me now for all eternity 1. O God eternall immense infinite who are sufficient in your self stand in need of none of your creatures how little does it import whether I live or die so I may accomplish your holy will in which alone true life consists therefore let it not be as I will but as you please An acknowledgement of our nothingness 2. To acknowledge the dependance that I have of you my soveraign Creatour openly to confess before heaven earth that you alone are he that is that I misetable creature am he that is not I embrace with an humble submission the destruction of this corruptible being consent that by death it should return to its first nothing out of which you took it A restitution of our being into the hands of God. 3. O my Soveraign Creatour will restore you the being you have given me for this end I accept of death in the manner that shall be most pleasing to you be most to your glory Dispose therefore of your creature destroy this body of sin in punishment of the offences it has committed against your divine majesty That this body may return to the earth from whence it came but that my soul created after thy image may return to your bosome An acknowledgement of Gods soveraig◠dominion over us 4. O my God thô my death be of it self a thing of necessity yet I am resolved for love of you as far as possible to make it a will-offering I rejoice that by it I shall be out of a state condition any more to resist your Soveraign dominion over me as Liege Lord of all creatures I accept it as a just punishment of the ill use I have made of my free will which you have given me How to receive death as a just punishment of sin 5. Since death O my God is the punishment you have ordained for sin 't is with an humble submissive heart to the decree of your justice that I accept
it in the spirit of pennance with all the pains humiliations privations which follow it in satisfaction of all the sins I have committed An offering of our Life to God. 6. Receive ô my Saviour the sacrifice that I make to your divine Majesty of my bo dy my life which I offer as a victime sacrificed to your self Unite it to that you offer'd for me upon the cross consume it with the fire of your divine love A desire to render to Iesus Christ Death for Death 7. O my divine Jesus since that your love to me made you dye upon the cross for my salvation is it not just that with a good will I accept death for love of you in counter-change as far as I am able of that you indured for me O why have I not a thousand lives to give them all for this end to acknowledge therby that you are my God! Spiritual confession With profound humility at the feet of Iesus Christ as if he were present in his sacred humanity accuse your self to him of all your sins taking a short review of them at the end of which excite your soul to a lively tender sorrow for them AN ACT OF CONTRITION O my God prostrate before your soveraign majesty I most humbly beg pardon for the great contempt abuse I have made of your holy graces of all the sins I have committed from my birth in thought word or deed I retract disavow them with my whole heart Yes o my God 't is from my whole heart that I detest disavow them wish I had never committed them not for fear of the punishment they deserve but onely because I have by them offended your infinite goodness which deserves to be loved above all things honoured by all creatures O why is not my heart capable too of an infinit sorrow to blot out their guilt But accept o my God in satisfaction of that sorrow which is wanting in me that which my Saviour had in the garden of Olives upon the cross for the sins of the whole world in generall for mine in particular Accept also for this effect that sorrow contrition which all the Saints have ever had Purifiy me from my secret sins pardon those I have committed by others despise not o my God an humble contrite heart which hopes onely for pardon of its sins from your infinit mercy In the 50. Psalm you have promised that when a sinner laments his sins you will no longer remember his iniquities And if you please o my God to prolong my life I make a firm purpose by the assistance of your holy grace to amend particularly such such faults thereby endeavour to repaire what is past Having made these Acts receive as an absolution that which Jesus Christ the soveraign priest gives you spiritually applying to your self his divine merits after which imagine you hear him say to you as he did to S. Mary Magdelen Your sins are forgiven you go in peace Say the 50. Psalm Miserere mei c in the spirit of pennance Aspirations to the three divine persons O father Eternall since you so loved the world as to give your onely son for its redemption I dare presume to hope from your mercy the salvation of my soul since you gave him not to condemn us but to save us for that end imposed upon him the holy name of Iesus Luk. 1. O divine Jesus be you my Jesus remembcr your own words that you came not for the just but for sinners Luk. 5. O my God you will not the death of a sinner but that he be converted live EZech. 18. Convert me therefore to your self that I may live an Eternall life Come divine spirit repose in my soul with your 7. gifts for to purify justify sanctify it consume in it by the fire of your holy love all that is yet earthly therein fortify it in this its last passage against all the temptations of its enemies An act of Faith. I protest my God before heaven earth that I will dye in the faith union of the holy Catholick church I believe firmly all that it believes teaches because you my God who are the Eternall truth have said revealed it that you are an infinite goodness holiness that cannot deceive any one an infinite wisdom that cannot erre are moreover omnipotent And from this very moment I disavow and detest all temptations contrary to it which the Enemy may suggest in the last moments of my life I return you thanks with my whole heart for the great grace which you have done me in making me of the numbe of the children of your holy Church Recite the Apostles Creed Credo in Deum c And making reflection upon every Article protest that you believe it An act of Hope O my God thô for the enormity inconceivable multitude of my offences I most justly merit hell yet confiding entirely in the merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ in the infinit greatness of your mercy which can pardon more sins then I can committ I cease not to hope for pardon for the grace to persevere in your love to which I consecrate the last moment of my life An act of Charity O my God when shall this soul of mine being separated from my body from all creatures be united perfectly to your self love you with that pure unchangeable affection with which the blessed in heaven love you O what is there I desire in haven or what is it I desire on earth butt you the God of my heart my God everlasting portion of my felicity I have regarded all things as nothing vile contemptible to gain Jesus Christ An act of Love towards our Neighbour O my God I beg of you grace mercy for all the creatures you have redeemed with your precious blood particularly for the true children of your holy Church for those from whom I have received any displeasure whom I pardon my God for love of you as I desire you should pardon me A desire to receive Iesus Christ O my God my Creatour redeemer my beginning my end the onely soveraign object of my heart O what a longing desire have I to receive you for to unite my self to you come then into my soul sanctify it replenish my heart with your graces take possession of all its affections to the end that all the moments of my life that are yet behind may entirely be consecrad to your love The Spirituall communion for the Viatick or the Sacramentall one if permitted to receive it Hearken to your good Angell who invites you to eat the bread of life speaks to you as that of Elias did to him Arise eat because you have a great journey still to make 3. Kings c. 19. Imagine that Jesus Christ accompanied with the blessed Virgin your good
there receiued you make it your delight to remain in it oh come my IESVS come presently into it I burn with a desire to receive you there and to make you the God of my hart Come thither to receive yourself and to love your self there for I of my self am nothing and can do nothing so I leave all to you and will remain in my nothing in your presence 3. O yee Seraphins that I had your respect O Mary that I had your love O my hart what can you desire love and breath after but your IESVS I will live no longer to my self I ought to be nothing to all things and IESVS ought to be all to me 4. O my love enter into my hart to reign there absolutly to possesse it alone and to animate it with your self let all within me give place to IESVS humour satisfaction pleasure vanity self love let all give place to IESVS he is master here he is the God of my hart 5. Remain at the feet of IESVS as a Magdalen in silence and as it were retired into thy own nothing let him give thanks and honour his Father in you let him consummat in your hart the holocauste of his love to which he will joyne yours O love ô lover ô God of love live reign triumph distroy sacrifice in me all that is not your self 6. When your state consists of pure faith in darknesse and aridity remain in peace in it and content your self to have JESVS within you it is enough it is sufficient for you to have him seeke not a great many thoughts nor many acts to make known your gratitude and love to him let him do what he pleases in you My God and my all let me only live for you by you and in you 8. Going from communion remember that IESVS ought to act speake and suffer in you and by you O tongue dyed with the blood of a God. O hart full of the Majesty of God. O sense ô mind ô body animated with the purity of a God can you tye your selves any longer to a creature FOR EXAMEN AND CONFESSION 1. AFTER having examin'd for some time the voluntary imperfections that you have fallen into contrary to the light which God gave you as also all the unprofitable thoughts and reflections the eagernesses and promtitudes of your hart the impatiences of your tongue and the negligences of your actions employ your self in some of the insuing thoughts 2. Is it possible ô my God that I should have displeased you That I should have the confusion to have prefered a bauble before you How sorry am I to have provoked your anger against me O my IESVS punish me as you please but pardon me I desire to satisfy your justice but I cannot suffer the sight of your anger against me 3. Ah my JESUS what blood and teares have my infidelitys cost you And how litle have they cost me You dyed in pain to blot out my sinns and I will not use the least violence to my self to overcome them No my IESUS I will not afflict or torment you any more by my sinns what pain soever I vndergo 4. O Goodnesse of my God how long have you sought me O patience of my God how long have you waited for me How long shall I continually contemn your calls your allurements and your love O sins ô infidelity ô basenesse I detest you because you injure my God. 5. Shall I allways be vnfaithfull to so many graces which you bestow vpon me What allways receive a thousand benefits from you and allways render you a thousand ingratitudes Oh my IESVS pardon me I dye with griefe to have given you so great and so just a displeasure 6. Is it possible that for a nothing I have so offended you ô my dear IESVS How have I preferred a small satisfaction of my own to that of your hart Yes so long as I content my self in this effusion of hart in this promptitude in this humoursome word in this detraction this resentment this liberty and remissnesse you behold me my IESVS say to me in my hart is it because you have a mind to displease me to offend me and to draw me from you is it that I am not better then this pleasure which moves you to sinn And I make answere by my actions my IESVS yes I love to content my self rather then to please you O love ô goodnesse contemned ô hart of my IESVS I deserve not that you should receive me But I hope all things of your mercy and I protest that you shall be all to me and all things else shall be nothing 7. Mortall sinn mak's us loose gods favour veniall sinn cools it and diâ—ves us from him imperfection and the life of nature stops and hinders vs from going to him it renders his graces his blood his love uselesse to our salvation O sinn either grievous or light I have a greater horrour of you then of death because you offend my God I will hence forth live a life altogether supernaturall and quite contrary to my owne inclinations 8. Remember that you reflect not to much vpon your sinns and take care not to disquiet your self for them A simple and amourous return towards God within you is sufficient is it possible my God that I should have displeased you Behold this is what I can only do of my self but it is that which I will endeavour by the assistance of your grace to do no more This suffices then forget all and loose your self in God. 9. Make your confession after the clearest and shortest manner you are able and receive absolution with an interiour sense of confusion griefe and love without designing to tast any sensibility 10. Go from confession throuly penetrated with the goodnesse of a God who presently pardons and of your ingratitude who continually offend him and remaining in his presence and in him with a respectfull silence let him take possession of you abandoning your self intirely to him O bounty of my God possesse my hart ô Justice of my God satisfy and content your self upon me For the employment and exteriour occupations of the day 1. ENDEAVOVR to performe all your actions in the presence of God to content God and without contenting your self Follow allways the will of God and the motions of his grace and never incline to your owne humour to the end God may live in you and that he may act by you 2. Be faithfull by continually dying to all unprofitable reflections of your mind to hasty words your humour and the impatience of your tongue to the propensions vivacity of your nature and be persuaded that the more faithfull you shall be in this the more you will advance in your state so that all your application thrô out the day is to possess your self to be of an equall temper and to refrain in occasions what ever you shall perceive lesse perfect 3. This fidelity of dying and of denying your self
dispositâ—ons which your holy soul had at the last moment of your life to which I unite my self with all my heart to supply those which I want I abandon my self entirely to you to suffer for your love the pains of death as long many as you please I renounce disavow all the impatience evill thar their force may cause me unwillingly to committ Have recourse to the blessed Virgin the Saints O holy Virgin mother of my God refuge of Sinners be now my Advocate grant I may feel the effects of your power with the blessed Trinity O Mary mother of grace mother of mercy receive me at the houâ— of my death defend me from my Enemies Shew that you are my mother obtain that he who for our salvation was willing to become your son be born of you may receive me by your intercession O all yee Saints blessed spirits interceed now for my soul in this extremity that I may obtain the victory over my enemies Great S. Joseph you all my holy patrons Protectours assist me Great S. Michael fight for me Charitable Angell my dear Guardian defend me from the ambushes of my Enemies and forsake me not in this last passage Eternal father look upon me in your dear son Jesus Christ who has shed his blood for my salvation Have pitty upon me according to the greatness of your mercies pardon my sins for the glory of your holy name Enter not into judgement with me o my God for in thy sight no one living can justify himself My divine Jesus put your cross your passion between your judgement and my soul My God my destiny is in your hands save me I beseech you O Lord in you have I trusted therefore I shall not be eternally confounded An act of adoration to the most holy Trinity O most holy most adorable Trinity I adore you with my whole heart I unite my self both for the present for eternity to all the adorations praises which the most holie humanity of my Saviour Jesus Christ his most holy mother together with all the Saints and Angels do or have renderd you or shall eternally render you in heaven I offer you all the sacrifices of this most holy humanity which are now offerd or shall be daily offerd to the day of judgement all the world over in satisfaction of all my sins in thanksgiving for all your divine benefits bestowed upon me If the Recommendation of the soul be said observe to say at the end this conclusion afterwards say the Responsory Subvenite Sancti c. Conclusion of this Exercise Act of abandonment resignation O my God I abandon my self without reserve to that divine judgement you shall pronounce upon my soul I submit my self to it with all my heart I adore reverence it as most just equitable now for Eternity A Spirituall Expiring Holding your cross in your hand Say these words Behold o my God my Creatour my Redeemer that I come unto you because you call me receive me in the bosome of your mercy And amorously kissing the wounds of your Crucifix pronounce the holy namas of Jesus Mary at each wound then repeating the last words of our Saviour My God into your hands I yeeld up my Spirit expire in the sacred wound of the side of Jesus chose it for your grave hide your self in his sacred heart After this Exercise we must look upon our selves as dead to the world to our selves accordingly we should often repeat those words of S. Paul I live yet not I but Iesus Christ that lives in me my life is hid with Iesus Christ in God. THE RECOMMENDATION of the soul which ought to begin with these little Letanies the following prayers are to be said in time of agony these may serve for those that are about the dying person LOrd have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Holy Mary prayer for him Holy Angells pray for him Holy Abel pray for him Quire of all the just pray for him S. Abraham pray for him S John Baptist pray for him Holy Patriarchs Prophets pray for him S. Peter pray for him S. Paul pray for him S. Andrew pray for him S. Johne pray for him Holy Apostles Evangelists pray for him Holy Disciples of our Lord pray for him Holy Innocents pray for him S. Stephen pray for him S. Laurence pray for him Holy Martyrs pray for him S. Silvester pray for him S. Gregory pray for him S. Austin pray for him Holy Bishops Confessors pray for him S. Bennet pray for him S. Francis pray for him Holy Monks Hermits pray for him S. Mary Magdalen pray for him S. Lucy pray for him Holy Virgins Widdows pray for him Saints of God of both sexes interceed for him Lord be mercifull unto him pardon all his sins Lord be mercifull to him deliver him O Lord deliver him from your wrath Deliver him from the danger of death Deliver him from an evill death Deliver him from the pains of hell Deliver him from all evill Deliver him from the power of the devil Deliver him by your holy Nativity Deliver him by your holy cross passion Deliver him by your holy death burial Deliver him by your glorious resurrection Deliver him by your admirable ascension Deliver him by the grace of the holy Ghost the Comforter Deliver him in the day of judgement Lord we beseech thee to hear us poor Sinners We beseech thee to hear us soe as to pardon him Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us THE PRAYER Proficiscere anima christiana CHristian soul leave this world in the name of the omnipotent Father who created thee in the name of his son Jesus Christ who redeemed thee in the name of the holy Ghost who diffused himself in thee in the name of the holy Angells Archangells Thrones Dominations Cherubins Seraphins in the name of the Patriarchs Prophets in the name of the Apostles evangelists of the holy Martyrs Confessors in the name of the holy Religious Anchorites of the holy Virgins of all the Saints of God that this day your habitation may be in peace your abode in the holy Sion by the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen THE PRAYER Deus clemens O God of goodness clemency who according to the infinite-greatness of your mercies blot out the sins of the penitent pardon their crimes sins past cast a propitious look upon your servant N hear his prayers for the remission of all his sins which he confesses with all his heart as much as he is able Renew in him o best of Fathers whatever may in time be either corrupted by the frailty of nature or depraved by the malice of the Devil unite to the body of your triumphant Church