shall lift up his Heart to God and profoundly humbling himself in Spirit and offering up all his Prayers Thoughts and Words to his Glory in Honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary St. Francis Xaverius and to all the Angels and Saints of Heaven he shall make the Sign of the Cross and say the following Prayer O Lord Jesus Christ true God and Man my Creator and Redeemer for thy sake alone and because I love thee above all things I am sorry from the Bottom of my Heart for having offended thee and I do firmly purpose never to fall into Sin again to shun all Occasions of offending thee to Confess my Sins and perform the Penance that shall be enjoyn'd me and to make Restitution and Satisfaction wherever it shall be due from me For the Love of thee I forgive all my Enemies to thee I offer up my Life Actions and Sufferings in Satisfaction for my Sins and since I humbly beg it of thee I trust in thy Goodness and infinite Mercy that thou wilt forgive me them through the Merits of thy precious Blood and Passion and wilt give me Grace to amend my Life and to persever in thy Service unto my Death Amen MOst Glorious St. Francis Xaverius Apostle of the Indies if it be for the Glory of God and to thy Honour that I obtain what I desire and beg by performing this Novena do thou obtain me this Grace of our Lord if not do thou guide my Petition and beg of our Lord for me that which is most proper for his Glory and the benefit of my Soul O God and Lord of the Angels whom thou dost intrust with the Guardianship of Men I make thee an Offering of all the Merits of these Heavenly Spirits and of those of thy Servant St. Francis Xaverius who was call'd an Angel for his Purity and because he preserved Men from many Spiritual and Corporal Dangers I beseech thee grant me that Purity of Soul and Body which thou didst confer on this thy holy Apostle and that particular Grace which I beg in this Novena to thy greater Honour and Glory Amen Here say three Pater Nosters and three Ave Maries and then the following Prayer to St. Francis Xaverius MOst Holy Father Francis Xaverius who receivedst thy Praises from the Mouth of innocent Children I most humbly implore thy bountiful Charity for the Sake of the most precious Blood of Jesus and of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lady Mother of God to the end thou may'st obtain of God's infinite Goodness that at the Approach of my last Hour my Heart may be separated and withdrawn from all wordly Thoughts and Distractions and be fixed in the most ardent Love of him and a vehement Desire of an happy Eternity so that laying aside the multiplicity of earthly things which hitherto have perplexed me I may most diligently seek and perfectly find that one thing which is necessary which is to Die and rest in Peace under the Protection of the most Holy Virgin Mary in the Wounds of Jesus her most Blessed Son in the sweet Embraces of my God and in thy Presence Holy Saint through whose Intercession I hope to obtain this Mercy But yet whilst it shall please the Divine Providence to preserve my Life I beseech thee my most loving Protector and most affectionate Father to obtain for me of his Divine Majesty that I may Live â—s one that is to Die and as I would wish to have lived at the Hour of my Death ever imitating thy Virtues and fulfilling the most Holy Will of God that so my temporal Death may be to me a Passage into Life Everlasting I also beseech thee to obtain for me that which I ask in this Novena if it be for the Glory of God and Good of my Soul Amen In the next Place you are to ask of St. Francis Xaverius the particular Favour you desire to obtain heightning as much as in you is your Confidence in him with such Words as your affectionate Thoughts shall suggest or with such Aspirations as your Devotions shall dictate Then the more to please this Holy Apostle in Imitation of him say that Prayer which he himself composed and used to say every Day for the Conversion of Infidels which is as follows ETernal God Creator of all things remember that thou alone didst create the Souls of Infidels framing them to thy own Image and Likeness Behold O Lord how to thy Dishonour Hell daily is replenished with them Remember O Lord thy only Son Jesus Christ who suffered for them most bountifully shedding his precious Blood Suffer not O Lord thy Son and our Lord to be any longer despised by the Infidels but rather being appeased by the Intreaties and Prayers of thy Elect the Saints and of the Church the most Blessed Spouse of thy Son vouchsafe to be mindful of thy Mercy and forgeting their Idolatry and Infidelity cause them also to know him thou didst send Jesus Christ thy Son and our Lord who is our Health Life and Resurrection through whom we are made free and saved to whom be all Glory forever â—â—en Then conclude with the Prayer proper to this Saint Antiph Well fare thee good and faithful Servant because thou hast been faithful over a few things I will place the over many things Enter into the Joy of thy Lord. Vers Our Lord hath guided the just Man by right Ways Resp And hath shewed him the Kingdom of God The Prayer O God who wert pleased to reduce to the Bosom of thy Church the Nations of the Indies thro' the Preaching and Miracles of S. Francis Xaverius mercifully grant us that we may imitate his Vertues whose glorious Merits we hold in Veneration Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Commemoration of St. Ignatius de Loyola Antiph This man despising the World and triumphing over Earthly things heaped up Riches in Heaven by Word and Work Vers Our Lord hath guided the just Man by right Ways Resp And hath shewn him the Kingdom of God The Prayer O God who for the Propagation of the greater Glory of thy Name hast by Blessed Ignatius strengthen'd the Church Militant with new Auxiliaries graciously vouchsafe that we by his Assistance and Imitation solicitously combating upon Earth may obtain with him an everlasting Crown in Heaven A Commemoration of St. Gregory the Great Apostle of England Antiph O most excellent Doctor Light of the Holy Church Blessed Gregory Lover of God's Law supplicate the Son of God for us Vers Our Lord hath as above The Prayer O God who hast bestowed the Rewards of Eternal Blessedness on the Soul of thy Servant Gregory Grant mercifully that we who are deprest with the Weight of our Sins may by his Prayers be delivered Through our Lord. The Second Day Lord Jesus Christ true God and Man c. as before on the First Day Most Glorious St. Francis Xaverius c. as the First Day and so on all the following Days A Prayer for this
he was always ready to do it for them which did so mollifie and win their Hearts that it is incredible how many thro' this only Motive did embrace the Christian Faith whereupon Father Melchior Nugnez then Superior of the Indies a Man of rare Prudence and no less Vertue said that converting Infidels to Christ in St. Francis Xaverius did not seem a Gift infused or a Vertue got by Habit but a natural Inclination So bent was he upon that only Work that he could not live nor take any Satisfaction in any other Employment than the Instructing and bringing Souls to the Knowledge and Love of the only true God This perpetual Motion of Charity was his only Respite this Exercise his only Repose Nothing will be better able to shew the Greatness of this his Charity and zealous Assiduity therein then the Number of those he Baptized with his own Hand which amounted to a Million and two hundred thousand Persons As for what belongs to the temporal Assistance of his Neighbour who can reckon up the Deeds of Charity he shewed to every one as well poor as rich nor was there any Work of Mercy that he did not practice either in his own Person or when he could not himself by using others Help for the succouring the poor and needy His tender Care of the sick will be a sufficient Proof of his boundless Charity He was to them a Father Mother Brother Physician and a Nurse in the meanest Offices in private Houses and in publick Hospitals if any died he washed and layed them out with his own Hands digged their Graves and buried them himself God seeming to second these Heroick Desires of St. Francis so much bent upon serving his Neighbour endowed him in a particular manner with that divine Gift of Curing the Sick For in the Deeds of his Canonization you will find the wonderful Cures of all Diseases wrought by the Power of this great Xaverius to be innumerable The Blind received the Benefit of their Eyes the Lame the use of their Limbs the Lepers were cleansed the Dumb restored to Speech the Deaf to their Hearing Possessed Persons freed from Malignant Spirits that Tormented them To be short so many were these Prodigious Cures that in and about the City of Naples only there are sufficient to fill a whole Book Yet these Cures of Diseases are nothing if compared to those he raised from Death to Life which amount according to the Authentick Transactions of the Saints Canonization to above Five and Twenty What has been here said is but an Abridgement and only helps to frame some conceit or Idea of the Saints great Charity to his Neighbour referring you to the Writers of his Life to see the innumerable other Graces and Favours through his means and Intercession confered upon all sorts of Persons as Seamen Merchants Barren Women or in Childbed Soldiers c. We may gather two Fruits from what has been said The First a Holy Confusion in our selves for helping and furthering so little the good of our Neighbour either Spiritual or Temporal Who of us is troubled or concerned to see him offend God Who is there that either hinders him from falling or gives his helping hand to raise him again from Sin Which of us grieves at his losses or suffers any thing to Promote his Good Do we Visit him in the Hospitals and Prisons Are we Charitable unto him Do we relieve his Wants with Alms Or rather do we not spend that on Beasts that only serve for Sport and Pastime which ought to be employ'd in Succouring and Assisting our Neigbour the very Image of God himself The Second Fruit is a lively confidence of being assisted by this Holy Apostle in our Necessities as well Corporal as Spiritual if we apply our selves unto him as we ought The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To obtain a true Love of our Neighbour I Know too too well O most zealous Apostle the Coldness of my Heart towards my Neighbour I own and condemn my self for the small Charity I shew in succouring his Necessities either Temporal or Spiritual and I am ashamed and totally confounded considering your admirable Zeal and Concern for his Good Obtain for me O true Lover of your Neighbour the least Spark of that great Fire that consumed your Heart which may kindle in my Soul a true Zeal and Love of others Good that grieving at their Misfortunes and equally compassionating them in mind comforting them in Words and helping them in Deeds I may the better imitate you in this Vertue of Charity which is so properly termed yours The CONSIDERATION For the Ninth FRIDAY Upon St. Francis Xaverius's great Desire to Dye for Christ THE Consideration of this Day is far different from the former for tho' in some you have seen Devout Reader the Desire this Saint had to suffer for Christ yet we have not spoken of what belongs to the dying for him and giving testimony of his holy Faith by the Shedding of his Blood and becoming a Martyr Saint Francis had this Desire in the greatest excess imaginable that he could with reason say with St. Paul Quotidie morior I dye daily by always desiring to dye and because I never am so happy as to die and give my Life for my God And tho' Almighty God preserving him alive for his greater Honour and Glory would not grant him the Favour of a Martyrdom consummated by Death yet he tryed his Constancy by several Combats not inferior to those of Martyrs and above all permitted him to survive to that languishing desire of dying that he might at least live a Martyr tho' he could not die one He was apprehended twice in Japony sent to Sea arid delivered over to Murtherers to be dispatched who upon the point of Executing their cruel Design were so terrified and frightned by a sudden Tempest that they spared his Life He was also twice led to the common place of Execution by the furious incensed People Twice stoned by the Moors Often beaten several times shot at with Arrows and as often presented with Poyson Upon the Sea Coast of Piscaria the Idolatrous Badagi sought to kill him The Mahometans persecuted him with no less Malice and Rage And because their own Children whom the Saint had Baptized stood often Centinels to defend him from their Parents Fury and sometimes found ways for the Saint to escape their cruel Hands they set fire to the Houses where they suspected him to lye hid Whence a grave and learned Doctor Martino Navarra reflecting upon the Life of St. Francis Xaverius always exposed to Danger of Death sticks not to call it a perpetual Martyrdom All I have touched upon here and more that I omit is nothing to the real Desire he had to dye for so honourable a cause as the Faith of Christ And certainly he endured more Anguish in his Mind by always tho' in vain desiring to lose his Life then he could have suffered in his Body
Confidence Seamen had in his Presence that the oldest and most shivered Ships were reckon'd the most safe and Infidels themselves for more Security loaded all their Goods upon them tho' with double Charges and Expences whom he assisted even after his Death for carrying his Body in a very tottered unsafe and ill-rigged Ship and running upon a Rock the Seamen betook themselves to invoke the Saint's Aid and presently the Rock split in two and opened a Passage for the Ship Whereupon now at Sea he is the Patron of Mariners even amongst Infidels He was eminent for the Gift of Government and directing Souls with no less Satisfaction of Seculars than Religious Grateful always to the People dear to Kings and Princes winning the Hearts of all St. Ignatius would have made him General of his whole Order The King of Portugal reverenced his Words as Commands as did also the King of Bongo and Amangucci The King of Travancor called the great King put out an Edict commanding all should obey the great Father so he called St. Francis as the great King He converted the King of Tanor and several others Pope Paul the III. admired his Sanctity Marcellus the II. desiring to see him sent for him from the Indies to come to Rome so much did he win the Hearts of all far and near The Gentils reverenced him and even erected a Church in his Honour where some wicked Fellows out of Contempt having often stole the Oyl from the Lamp and poured Water in its place enraged to see the Week yet burn and themselves deluded put it quite out which as often lighted of it self to their greater Confusion and Christians greater Comfort Another time being all alone he met a whole Army of Enemies that were Heathens whom he frighted and put to flight with his bare Authority To conclude his Gift of Tongues is no less wonderful than the former They spoke in those Countries a hundred different Languages which St. Francis spoke not only well but also with great Facility and Eloquence yet with these two Privileges The first That preaching to Men of different Nations he was perfectly understoad by every one The second that with one and the same Word and Answer he satisfied the Doubts and Questions of many together although concerning things both hard and of different Matters These and many other things we read of him in Historians and in the Process of his Canonization They add moreover that he was not so well known or so much called by the Name of Francis as sometimes of Angel or Prophet sometimes Raiser of the Dead now by that of Holy Father other times of Great Father but always and by all with the Approbation of the Pope and Applause of the whole World he was called by the Name of Apostle To whose Holy Intercession and Patronage by the Assistance of your Prayers I commend my self hoping you 'll find his Holy Aid and Assistance in all your Necessities if for the good of your Souls as you have seen others before you Observe moreover as it has been more exactly noted in these our latter Days that none with Faith and Devotion ever recommended themselves unto him that missed of their Aim or at least did not receive something more beneficial to themselves and their Souls Good which was and is his only Scope in conferring Benefits Let us comfort our selves with what he told F. Marcellus Mastrilli at Naples when appearing to him he miraculously cured him Non parum se posse in Paradiso That his Power was great in the Court of Heaven AN Advertisement Of the AUTHOR To the Devout Reader SAint Francis Xaverius is always ready to help those that devoutly implore his Aid in all their Necessities of what kind soever and even to obtain of God most miraculous Favours for them as all Christendom can testifie and for this reson he is called the new Thaumaturgus that is Worker of Miracles which are sufficient to fill whole Volumes and we here in short will touch upon the Heads only of some few to animate the Reader to have recourse to this great Saint Peter Veglio a Portuguese Merchant of a very loose Life by means of an Alms he had once given in Necessity deserved God's Mercy through the Saint's Intercession and was brought to Repentance and relieved in all other Corporal Necessities by the same Saint Francis who likewise foretold him the Hour of his Death which accordingly happened He appeared to a Woman that had been a long time sick in Malavar and promising to send her one that should hear her Confession advised her of her Death A Youth in the Hospital of Mozambichi raving through the Sharpness of his Distemper by only the Touch of the Saint was cured both in Body and Soul An Indian by Profession a Schoolmaster by Life a most lewd debauch'd Wretch was converted by the Saint's appearing to him and obeyed that gracious Call of God to a better Life Being desired by a Christian Lady to dispossess a Youth that was tormented by the Devil as soon as he entred the House the wicked Spirit quitted his Habitation and the Youth before ready to die was thereupon restored to perfect Health of Body An Indian Poet that had accidentally lost his Eyes by Gun-powder after many Years applying himself to the Saint recovered his Sight better than before which Miracle he published in Verse over all India He healed a Leper with washing his Sores and drinking that filthy Mixture of Matter and Water An Idolatrous Woman that was barren at the Intercession of St. Francis was blessed by God with a Son who soon after dying was restored to Life again by the Saint He raised another that was drowned in a Well and a third that died of the Plague In the Kingdom of Travancor he raised one that had been buried and another in Murar as he was carried to his Grave In Malaca he brought to Life a Child that had been dead three Days and in the same place the Son of one that was devoted to him In Japony he gave Life to a Daughter of an Idolater To two others in Manapar and to several elsewhere as all the World can testifie and the Transactions of his Canonization do authentically evidence He restored to a Seaman his Son that had been lost six Days at Sea He filled a whole Sea with Fish where none scarce could be found before and with his Blessing turned the salt Water of the Sea into fresh He obtained Rain to free a King from his Enemies that surrounded him A desperate Gamester that had lost all he had in the World encouraged by the Saint to try to mend his Condition recovered his Losses and withall obtained the Conversion of his Soul which was the Saint's only Aim He saved several Ships from perishing in Tempests and Storms He was in several places at once The very Children whom he taught the Christian Doctrine with the Beads and Medals of St. Francis cast out Devils
O most Holy Trinity O my Jesus O Sweet Jesus O Jesus of my Heart These shew us that altho' he was in Body on Earth yet in his Mind he was in Heaven A second Daniel who in Babylon that is amongst Idolatrous Barbarians and a Thousand Hindrances and Distractions was in a continual and most perfect Prayer Our Saviour enriched this Prayer of his Servant with many Favours First of most high Contemplation which seemed so natural unto him that he used it at his Pleasure in Uniting himself with God Then of most Divine Wisdom and Prudence in knowing the Will of God and Executing it to his greater Glory The Third was a most admirable Gift of Prophesie not only in seeing things afar of and foretelling things to come but even Penetrating into the Secrets of Mans Heart Several of these Prophesies are Famous as that of the Death of John Arausio at Amboinum Two Hundred and Seventy Miles distant from the Place where St. Francis was that at Malaca of the Victory of the Portuguese against the Acenians When he promised to James Pereira continual Prosperity which he ever after enjoyed When he acquainted Peter Veglio of his Death after a most Peaceable and happy Life which accordingly happened of the destruction of the City of Tolo of the Misery of Alvarez Ataide who endeavoured to stop his journey to China and innumerable others in so much that in the process of his Canonization the Holy Inquisition of Rome approved and allowed of a Hundred and Fifty most evident and manifest Prophesies I perceive Devout Soul you are desirous of these Favours and would willingly betake your self to such Prayer were you to reap such Fruit But confider a little with your self and see what time you allow for Prayer Ah! I am ashamed to tell what is too true It is but little or none and that the worst part of the day If you have any time to spare and know not what to do with it that you give to God And yet how is that spent too As for your Exteriour carriage and comportment is it fit to appear before that God with whom you treat For your inward attention and affection I fear it is so Poor and Weak that you easily admit distractions or at least are very negligent in putting them away And do you think God will bestow his Favours on a Soul so ill prepared to receive them You are deceived Do then what is requisite on your part and correct your defects and then God will not be wanting on his The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To obtain the Grace of Prayer I Aspire not O Holy Apostle to those admirable Favours God enriched your Prayer with No! those were properly yours and peculiar to that great Soul to which God did in so singular a manner communicate himself I am contented with the more solid part of Prayer and do humbly beg you to obtain of God for me a true Love and Affection to it Attention in it and Fruit out of it Such a Love of it as never to omit it or assign the worst part of the day for it Such an Attention to it that I may neâ—â—â— be voluntarily distracted in it Such Fruit from it as may correct my Defects and Manners and encrease the Vertues most requisite for my State and Calling This is what I beg of you O most glorious Apostle and for this end I make a purpose to use such Means as are requisite The CONSIDERATION For the Sixth FRIDAY Upon the Magnanimity and Generosity of St. Francis Xaverius GEnerosity is a Vertue that so emboldens the Mind as not to be daunted at hard Enterprises that usually deter it from vertuous Actions This Vertue and Disposition of Mind was but necessary to this Holy Apostle to strengthen him against so many Difficulties Oppositions and Dangers which were not the easier and less to be feared because necessarily annexed to his Office of Apostle Dangers at Sea at Land from treacherous Companians Strangers Thieves and Cut-throats both in publick and in private were no less inseparable Companions of St. Francis than of St. Paul The Difficulties he encountred as we read in his Life were such that nothing but a most Heroick Courage could have overcome them He crossed from the Indies to Japony the most dangerous Tract of all those Seas by reason of the raging South Winds and that in a little Boat the Seamen being all Pirates and the Master both Idolater and Pirate running continual risque of either being drowned at Sea or cast upon some desert Island there necessarily to have starved In his Journey from Meliapor to the Molucche crossing from one Island to another he suffered thrice Shipwrack and once lighting upon a Plank of a Ship tossed three Days and three Nights by the tempestuous Waves was at last rather dead than alive cast ashore His Dangers at Land were no less than at Sea For tho' he was generally esteemed by Vice-Roys Governors and other Officers yet he wanted not most strong Oppositions as in the Shore of Piscaâ—ia in Travancor and in Goa Most obstinate was that of Alvarez Ataide then Governour of Malaca who neither by Entreaties nor Threats could be brought to allow of James Periera's sailing to China with whom Saint Francis intended to go to convert that great Empire He went to the Islands of Molacche and Moro famous for its barbarous Cruelty against the Consent of all his Friends and in spite of all the Threats of the Devils In Amangucci the Bonzi with armed men continually sought to kill him In the most Heroick Enterprise he framed in his Soul of the Conversion of China Death was the least Danger he apprehended Fearing not a World of Dangers to free another from the Tyranny of the Devil Whoever you are Dear Soul that reads these generous Acts of Saint Francis Xaverius reflect with yourself and see how you carry yourself in the Service of God I am afraid the very Shadow of Difficulties do quite dishearten and deter you from all good Works If it be so be confounded at your own Weakness and beg of the Saint a noble Heart that may not only not yield but even surpass at least ordinary and small Hindrances in the Service of God The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To obtain a Generous Heart BEhold at your Feet O most generous Apostle a Soul that most shamefully neglects all things belonging to the Service of God I fear I confess the least thing that either seems difficult or any ways terrible and by this my inordinate Pusillanimity I fly back and quit many a noble Action that otherwise might very much encrease the Glory of God O Holy Apostle grant me but one Spark of your great Courage wherewith you underwent such Difficulties Animate and strengthen my Pusilanimity that frightned by no Opposition I may most manfully and readily fulfil God's Holy Will Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Seventh FRIDAY Upon his great Love of God and Power over
by once dying a Martyr Through the excess of these ardent Wishes he was forced to cry out Amplius Domine Amplius More Lord more when in his Sleep he seemed to carry upon his Back a heavy Moor and in him the new World of the Indies Out of the same inflamed Desire he bore a holy Envy to the Fathers of the Society who were in future Ages to convert all the Islands of Moro hoping withal as he said that those Islands would come to change their Names and be called the Islands of Martyrs To one that endeavour'd to dissuade him with the Apprehensions of Death from those his heroick Enterprizes he answered with no less Humility than Generosity that it was what he so much desired but he knew himself unworthy of such a signal Favour What he writ to a Friend of his sheweth most clearly what were the Desires of his Great and Noble Soul I says he sometimes do abhor even Life it self and covet rather to die than to see God so much offended without being able to hinder it as I desire So that the Acts of his Canonization say with reason of this Glorious Apostle Varia infidelium loca peragravit non minus ut pro Christi fide sanguinem profunderet quam ut fidei lucem gentibus inferret That he travalled over so many Countries of the Infidels with no less desire to shed his Blood for the Faith of Christ than to enlighten the Gentils with the Light of the true Faith Reflect weak Soul upon what has been said and be ashamed of your Carriage so little resembling this great Pattern and Example and ask your self this Question Was not Xaverius of Flesh and Blood as I am Was not he a Man a Son and Child of Adam as my self and yet how comes it to pass that he is so much enflamed with the Divine Love and I so little And you 'll find the Origin of his so singular Perfection to have been a total Abnegation of him self and Alienation from all Self love whereby being transformed into God he desired to dye to the World that he might live to him alone Ah! if you could but once resolve to dye to Self Love then assure your self the Holy Love of God would abundantly encrease in your Soul The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To beg the Grace to dye to Self-love YOU bad reason to say Holy Xaverius with St. Paul * Gal. 2.20 I live now not I but Christ liveth in me who kindled in your Soul those great Desires of dying once to Flesh and Blood that so by Death you might be united to your Spirit which was Christ But I unhappy Wretch live still to my self I live to my own Flesh to my Body and to Self-love And what wonder if I desire not to dye for Christ thereby to be united to him What Wonder if I love him not as my Life Beg of Almighty God for me Dear Saint that I may dye to Self-love to the end that every day so dying I may become wholly dead thereunto and begin to live to Christ that then I may likewise with truth say with St. Paul and you Glorious Saint I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Tenth FRIDAY Upon the perfections of St. Francis Xaverius ST Francis Xaverius was an Apostle sent by Jesus Christ by command of his Vicar Paul the third with the title of Nuncius Apostolicus to Preach the Gospel to the Indians and Convert them to our Holy Faith Whereof he Converted many hundred Thousands amongst whom were several Kings Queens Princes and Great Men. His Sister a Holy Woman Abbess of the Poor Clares at Gandia foretold he should be such an one for desiring her Father to let him Study Divinity she said he should prove a Great Apostle of the Indies He was a Prophet and in such a manner that a most Vertuous and Wise Man sticked not to say that in some the Spirit of Prophecy was by fits but in St. Xaverius it seemed a constant Habit. He was not only Master of Human Philosophy at Paris but of the Divine also in the East where to all sorts of People he Preached the Gospel and Instructed them in what belonged to our Holy Faith He Confuted many Masters of the Idolaters in several Disputes the Brachmans of the Indians and Carizi of the Moors and the Bonzi of the Japonians He was endowed with all manner of Vertues whether you mean Power of Working Miracles as you have seen in the former Considerations or Vertuous Habits that adorn the Soul as Humility Chastity Patience Charity c. He had the Gift of Curing Diseases as we have shewn you by several wonderful examples He had the Gift of Helping the Needy in so much that he never refused his Aid to any if conducing to their Eternal Salvation He governed all with rare Prudence as well Seculars as Religious which Talent made him esteemed by the greatest Princes The King of Portugal Reverenced him as an Oracle receiving and following his Directions as Commands The King of Travancor called the Great King published an Edict commanding every one to obey the Great Father St. Xaverius as the Great King St. Ignatious resolved to make him General of the Society of Jesus Lastly he had the Gift of Tongues In those Countries they speak above a Hundred several Languages Thirty whereof are quite different yet St. Francis when he entered those parts did not only understand the Natives but spoke the very same Languages most Elegantly yet with these two privileges first of being understood tho' Preaching to an Auditory of different Nations by every one in their Mother Tongue secondly of Satisfying with one only answer the demands of several proposed to him at the same time tho' relating to different matters Hereby we see that God by a special Favour seems to have Endowed St. Francis with all those Gifts St. Paul speakes of to have been divided amongst several in the Primitive Church * 1 Cor. 12.28 Some God hath placed in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Doctors next Miracles then the graces of Curing Diseases Helps Governing kinds of Tongues All these gifts and graces were requisite for that great Enterprise of Converting the New World to the Faith of Christ for which God had Designed his great Servant St. Francis Xaverius These things mentioned in short ought Devout Reader to stir up in you a lively Confidence and Devotion to this great Saint so much beloved by God and for his Extraordinary Sanctity enriched with such singular and rare Graces and Favours by the hand of his so Bountiful Creator Seeing therefore the nature of love is to change him that loves into him that is beloved and to create such a likeness in their Lives and Actions that they seem to live in one another you ought to endeavour to liken your self according to your state and condition in all your Actions to St. Xaverius that