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
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
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
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
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