hast done Him an infinite affront and after a certain manner hast Crucified CHRIST again Who notwithstanding has alwayes most bountifully done thee good and preserved thee Pondering well this thy pride perversness and ingratitude humble cast down and put thy self beneath all the men in the world yea beneath all Creatures esteeming thy self the vilest of all and unworthy whom the earth should sustain but worthy whom hell should swallow up unless the Mercy of God hindered 5. Ponder how much God detests and punishes Sins so that by His terrible and just Judgment He has damned eternally very many for one single Mortal Sin as is manifest in Lucifer and in the Angels who consented to him It is manifest also how much God was offended by one only Transgression which our First Parents Adam and Eve committed Now What ought to have been done with thee who hast so often offended the most holy King of Glory Deeply considering these things accuse and judge thy self lest afterwards thou be judged by our Lord. Admire greatly that all the Elements and all Creatures have not risen up against thee to revenge upon thee the Injury of their Maker Be astonished that the Earth has not opened it self to swallow thee up alive and has not transmitted thee into Hell how the holy Angels also have been able to endure thy iniquities 6. Finally grieving with thy very Soul or desiring to have Grief and eyeing attentively JESUS crucified and His bloody Wounds cry out from thy heart and say these or such like words Alas O most pittiful Lord Jesus Christ my Creator Redeemer and Benefactor I most unhappy have so and so offended Thee and contemned Thee those and those Iniquities I have so often repeated I have been so disobedient and ungrateful unto thee But pardon me I beseech thee for thy immense Goodness and Charity with which thou didst sustain for me thy most bitter Passion When thou shalt with humility have said these or such like words by no means despair but resuming a full and amorous Confidence in God purpose firmly by his Grace to mend thy self and to avoid as much as shall be in thy power all Sins not only Mortal but also Venial and the least Meditation II. Of Death Division 1. TO think on Death before-hand and diligently to prepare ones self for it is true wisdom And thou shalt be happy if alwayes and every where expecting the Hour of Death thou shalt so watch as thou permittest nothing to reside in thy Conscience which might cause thee anxiously to fear although thou wert just now to dye It shall be well with thee if considering how vile thy Flesh shall be thou art not proud nor dost not follow Carnal delights For How miserable I pray thee is thy Flesh in this Life How frail how full of Filthes which continually flow with an intollerable stench through all the passages although outwardly it appear fair and neat So that thy Body at present may rightly be called a sack of dung and all kind of filth but shortly it shall be an abject corrupted and putrid Carcass and Worms meat 2. Think therefore that thou must shortly dye yea perhaps to day and must go hence into another unknown region and must leave here riches glory honours pomps pleasures friends vanities and all other transitory and perishable things which thou inordinatly lovest or in which thou art now delighted And indeed every day every hour and every moment thou approaches near thy death and the last hour of thy life Therefore compose thy self as if thou wert now to dy Think thy countenance to wax pale thy mouth to be contracted thy sight to be darkned thy breath to fail and the sweat of death to be now present which testifies nature to be overcome 3. Think I pray thee how great a trembling and horror will then seize thee and how much thou wilt grieve if thou shalt be unprovided because thou hast not vigorously mended thy self O how short will the time of thy life seem to thee For it will appear like a dream and a shadow when thou shalt reflect that eternity is at hand which shall never end Perhaps thou wilt desire one little hour to correct thy self but it is uncertain whether thou shalt obtain it What will thy pride profit thee what will it profit thee if thou shalt now have followed thy own will and the vitious passions of thy mind O how sad wilt thou be when thou shalt have lost thy precious time or spent it unprofitably How wilt thou be vexed that thou hast lived so wickedly negligently remissly That thou wast so greedy to see hear and talk vain things That thou hast not more manfully contemned the Allurements of thy Flesh and Senses that thou hast been so slack to the mortification of thy self and to follow true humility and charity and to gather together all spiritual good things Now therefore whilst thou hast yet Time amend thy self and study to live better and more holily 4. Think when thy Soul galled with the sharp prickings of death shall cease to see the light of this world and shall begin with its inward eyes to behold the state of the other Life and those things which before it would not believe Cruel Beasts and horrible troops of Devils will present themselves by divers means endeavouring to ensnare thy same Soul and exspecting it to make a prey of it if it shall have departed here without true Repentance It is therefore good and healthful to Salvation now to provide for ones self to cut off bad and unprofitable desires to leave vain and worldly things and to convert ones self wholly to love and seek after Celestial and Eternal Goods 5. Consider how that thy Soul being gone out of thy Body it shall immediately be presented before the Tribunal of a Terrible Judge who cannot judge thee otherwise than thy works deserve seeing that He is the Supreme and immutable Justice In this particular Judgment thou must render a most exact Account of thy whole Life of all thy Time spent unprofitably of all thy Bad Works of all the Good thou hast omitted of all thy Idle Words and of all thy Thoughts and inordinate Affections The Devils shall propose all thy sins and all thy negligences which have not been blotted out by Repentance Finally a Sentence shall be pronounced by the Just Judge concerning thy Soul which shall never be recalled for all eternity For where the Tree shall fall whether towards the South or towards the North there it shall for ever remain and shall belong either to eternal Salvation or Damnation 6. It is profitable for thee often to think on these things that thou may'st with diligence Correct thy Life and make thy Peace with God before that thou shalt be called hence This thou wilt do if thou be'est wise For our Lord God is very merciful and receives most courteously all those who timely return unto Him by true Repentance Because He
wills not the death of a sinner but rather that the sinner should be Converted and Live Ezek. c. 18. 33. Meditation III. Of the Vniversal and Last Judgment Division 1. NOthing can be imagined more dreadful than that strict and terrible Judgment by which God will judge all men in the Last Day Very terrible Signs shall go before this Universal Judgment to wit a stupendious violence of Winds tumultuous Risings of the Sea unusual Workings of its Waves vast Earthquakes Fallings of Buildings knocking together of Mountains breaking of Rocks claps of Thunder obscuration of the Sun Moon and Stars sad roaring and bellowing of Beasts miserable withering of Men for fear c. The Day of Judgment being now at hand the world shall be set on Fire by the Divine Power and so the Fire shall destroy and consume all brute Animals and all Men which it shall find Alive But the Supreme Judge will come in His Majesty and with intollerable Anger That dreadful Judg shall come in the Clouds of Heaven with the Elders of the People and with thousands of Angels with the whole Celestial Host Deservedly therefore the Prophet Sophonias considering that great and bitter Day of our Lord Sophon 1. sayes That Day is a Day of Anger a Day of Tribulation and Straits a Day of Calamity and Misery a Day of Darkness and Gloominess a Day of Clouds and Tempestuousness a Day of a Trumpet and Noise And blessed Hierom sayes Whether I eat or drink or whatsoever else I do the Noise of that dreadful Trumpet always sounds in the ears of my mind Arise ye dead come to Judgment 2. Then all Men in a moment having received their Bodies shall Rise again and our Lord shall come down to Judge them And the Elect indeed agil beautiful strong splendid rejoycing and secure shall meet the Judge and being Raised from the Earth shall stand in the Air on his right hand But the Reprobate shall stand upon the Earth heavier than Lead infirm deformed stinking vile obscure and miserably trembling and shall be on his left hand O! what horrid and unimaginable straits shall they sustain With how unutterable a Terror and Fear shall they be strucken when they shall see above them an Angry and an Inflexible Judge beneath them the Pit of Hell open and gaping for them about them the World on Fire beside them a multitude of Devils Accusing them within them a guilty and gnawing Conscience All their Sins and all the Secrets of their Hearts shall be manifest as well to Men as Angels The Wicked shall seek to turn away their Face from the angry Countenance of the Judge but shall not be able Who also beholding the glory of the Just Shall be troubled with a horrid fear and sighing for anguish of Spirit shall say These are they whom sometimes we had in derision we fools deemed their Life a madness and their End without honour Lo how they are reckoned amongst the Sons of God and their Lot is amongst the Saints Wised 5. 3. Christ our Lord will show to all his Wounds shining with an ineffable Comliness which truly shall bring to the Just a most sweet consolation but to the Wicked a dreadful confusion Christ himself shall then terribly reproach to all the Reprobate and Ungrateful the benefits of his Incarnation and Passion And they with unconceivable grief shall acknowledge Him whom they chose rather to slight and despise than to fear and worship 4. No Evil shall then remain undiscussed or unrevenged but a strict Examen shall be made of all thy works words thoughts and affections The Justice of the Judge is not less than his Mercy both is infinite Wherefore thou must render an account of all the time granted to thee of spiritual Gifts neglected of temporal Goods ill expended of Meat Drink and Alms unworthily consumed Thou shalt render an Account not only for thy self but also for those to whom thou hast at any time set a bad example and hast given an occasion of doing ill As also for all Sinners and Pagans perhaps a grievous account shall be exacted of thee for that thou hast not faithfully prayed for their Conversion But chiefly thou shalt give an account for those who were specially committed to thy care Innumerable sins which thou dost not take notice of nor acknowledge shall then break out against thee as it were out of ambush and shall be objected unto thee The least thoughts and very minute words which thou slighted and reputed as nothing shall then be discussed Hence the Psalmist prays From my hidden faults cleanse me O Lord. Psal 18. Attend now that most hard and irrevocable Sontence of the just and angry Judge For when he shall have said to those who shall be on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father c. He shall say to those who shall be on his left hand Go ye cursed into eternal fire O sharp word O word full of all horror and bitterness This Sentence of eternal Damnation being pronounced immediately the Earth with a terrible crack shall swallow up the wicked and that fire with which the world shall burn involving them with darkness and with all the filth and stench of the whole world shall thurst them down into Hell there to be for ever tormented But these falling down into the depth of Hell the Elect shall go up gloriously into Heaven the same Reprobate beholding that very thing and to their greater Calamity and Misery never forgetting it O Despisers of the Law of God! think seriously I beseech you how sharp it will be to be in this manner separated from the society of God and the B. Virgin Mary and all the Citizens of Heaven When Hell shall have received the wicked damned Wretches it shall be shut and stopped at the top like a pot and no Devil or Man shall ever come forth thence 6. Thou therefore that thou mayst be able to avoid this unexpressible misery confusion horror and strait whilst the time of Mercy lasts study to appease God and to please Him Bewail and humbly and sincerely confess thy Sins Do not hide now from the Vicar of Christ the Priest what thou desirest should be hidden in that dreadful Judgment Correct thy Life with all thy forces Depart from evil and do good Psal 36. Spend thy time profitably Fly vain and foolish joyes Mortify as much as thou canst the vicious Passions and Affections of thy Mind Now wisely fear that thou mayst be then happily secure Meditation IV. Of the Pains of Hell Division 1. AS the Happiness of the Saints in Heaven is unutterable so the Calamity of the Reprobate in Hell is ineffable and incomprehensible Do thou now imagin a place under ground and a horrible Gulf Behold a vast Furnace all on Fire with Sulphur and Pitch terribly burning dark smoking stinking full of men and devils There is everlasting Horror and never ending Despair there 's Gnashing of Teeth and great Howling and
most familiar and perpetual society with Christ and his most Lovely and most Gracious Mother Mary and with all the Blessed Assuredly all the joys of the world Compared with the least joy of Heaven are meer bitterness The vast Ocean does not so much exceed in quantity one single drop of water as the least pleasure of the Blessed does exceed all the delight and pleasure that ever was in the world And the joys of Heaven shall never be ended nor ever be diminished Nor be interrupted for one single moment for all eternity 5. Besides when thy Soul in the Resurrection shall have received thy glorious body what joy shall it thence receive For thy very body shall be most splendid and much more bright than the Sun it shall be most sound most firm most beautiful most pure odoriferous incorruptible impassible most subtil and very agil Whence thy soul with its glorified body can be wheresoever it will in a very short space of time nothing can hinder it nothing put a stop or impediment unto it Thou shalt also after the Resurrection conceive exceeding great Joy from the happy renovation of this visible World which shall be of a far more elegant form than now it is For whatsoever is now in the World unclean whatsoever is obscure and shady in the Earth whatsoever is cold in the Waters and whatsoever has power of burning in the Fire all that shall go down into Hell The Sun and Moon and Starres shall be seven times more bright than they are now Henceforth there shall be no Clouds nor Hail nor Rain nor Winds nor Lightning nor Thunder Night shall cease to be a perpetual Day and Clarity succeeding as well on Earth as in the Heavens The Air shall have more light than it has now the Water shall be purer than it is now The Earth shall be fair as Gold and pellucid as Crystal and plain as the palm of your hand 6. Such things God has prepared for those who love him O how unhappy are they who for the most base pleasures delights and vanities of this World deprive themselves of so great joyes But thou who readest these things aspire and make haste to that never-fading Glory Detest and fly all Sin as much as thou canst contemn all transitory things love God love all Men and spend the time profitably which is allotted thee The Conclusion Admonitions concerning the Practice of these Meditations 1. HE who exercises himself in the foregoing Meditations may nay ought in some of them to wit in those which are more fruitful stay more than three daies especially during the first Exercise which Exercise precedes the repetition of the same Meditations 2. It will be profitable when he is to begin any Exercise our Meditation that he read first the last division of the same Meditation for in it commonly are put some things conducing to the right and profitable performance of the same Meditation 3. If whilst he is exercising himself he be overcharged with sleep let him rise and standing or walking continue the Exercise He must diligently weigh with himself all the points and members of the Divisions and freely stay in them 4. Moreover when he shall perceive himself to be solicited or allured to follow his vitious passions Concupiscences and inclinations if holy love do not restrain him from evil he must forthwith call to mind death judgment and hell that at least profitable fear may restrain him 5. He must very Carefully contain and bridle his tongue and senses for otherwise he will never make any progress in true vertues 6. That he may more speedily attain to a contempt of himself and true humility without which no Vertue is of any value he must very often exercise himself in an attentive and amorous consideration of the greatness of God and of his Fidelity and Charity towards himself and on the contrary in the consideration of his own littleness and of his unfaithfulness and ingratitude towards God he shall say to God these or such like things O Lord who art thou and who am I Thou art the Lord of highest majesty nobility and dignity Thou art the Creator of Heaven and Earth Thou art the Immense God the Omnipopotent God But I am a most vile worme I am unworthy whom the Earth should sustain I am nothing I can do nothing Thou hast been ever most faithful to me loving me most purely and bestowing upon me innumerable benefits but I alas have been most unfaithful and too ungrateful to thee and am so still He must perform the foresaid exercise purely to the honour of God He must in his heart prefer every man how wicked soever before himself and deem him better than himself 7. He must accustom himself frequently to recall and elevate his mind to God and he must do this even amidst conversation and when he is exercised in external works least his mind wandering and forgetful of his purpose and too estranged from God lose its inward purity and antient grace He must piously attend the amiable presence of God knowing that he alwaies beholds all his thoughts words and actions He must aspire after the spouse of his soul Jesus Christ and maintain sweet colloquies of love with him By this means he shall both pass this life with pleasure and after the death of the body he shall come to eternal joyes of immortal life Amen A short Commemoration of the Life of Christ divided into Articles Article I. THe sweet JESUS the Son of the living God the most high God the Creator of Heaven and Earth for the exceeding Charity wherewith he loved me would be conceived by the Holy Ghost and incarnate in the most chast womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary in which also he dwelt nine months My God emptied himself and taking the form of a servant was made my Brother that he might reduce me to his Heavenly Kingdom O Ineffable Piety and inestimable Favor what shall I return to my Lord I offer and resign my self wholly to his good pleasure To him be praise honour and glory for ever and ever Amen Article II. THe sweet JESUS the King of glory the cause of my salvation was born a Tender Infant in a poor stable winter sharply raging He was wrapp'd in clouts He was reposed in the Crib of Beasts He lay upon hay and straw He was suckled by the breasts of a poor mother The Son of God endured so great Poverty for my sake To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article III. The sweet JESUS was circumcised on the eighth day from his Birth his Mother sadly condoling with him He was circumcised and shed his most pure Blood for me a most vile wretch and he would be called Jesus that is a Saviour for my comfort Then he was revealed to the Gentiles when the Sages guided by a star to Bethlehem to adore the little Infant and with joy and reverence offered to him gifts gold frankincense and myrrhe To him