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
be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article IV. THe sweet JESUS was presented in the Temple and was redeemed with the sacrifice of the poor He fled into Aegypt and there endured the incommodities of Poverty with Mary and Joseph He was subject and obedient to the same Mary and Joseph In his sacred Infancy Childhood and Youth he suffered very many necessities and tribulations for my salvation To him be praise honour glory for ever Amen Article V. THe sweet JESUS when he was thirty years old humbly received Baptism from his servant John He fasted forty daies and forty nights dwelling with the Beasts in the desert The maker of the World the King of Angels the Omnipotent God did not disdain to be tempted by the Devil for my sake To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article VI. THe sweet JESUS was wearied with journeys watchings and labours for my salvation He preached wrought miracles bestowed favours He suffered hunger and thirst cold and heat He endured with a most meek heart three and thirty years innumerable grievances and innumerable persecutions and at length came to Jerusalem that he might dy for me To him be praise honour glory for ever Amen Article VII THe sweet JESUS the King of Kings and Lord of the highest majesty girt about him a linnen cloath and powred water into a Basin and kneeling down humbly washed the feet of his Disciples and wiped them with a towell O what an example did my Lord God give me To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article VIII THe sweet JESUS out of the immense Love with which he most tenderly loves us instituted the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist by a stupendious liberality and a most sweet charity giving and leaving to us himself in it To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article IX THe sweet JESUS coming into the Garden of Olivet he began to fear and to be sad so that he said My Soul is sad even unto death he humbly bended his knees upon the ground and falling upon his face he prayed to his Father three times for my sake being excessively afflicted he most fully resign'd himself to his Father saying Father not my will but thine be done Out of the vehemency of the anguishes with which his most meek heart was oppressed he swet Blood all over his Body so that the drops ran down upon the earth To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article X. THe sweet JESUS burning with an earnest desire of redeeming me and suffering for me went out to meet his Enemies and most courteously spoke to them He refused not to receive a kiss from the traytor Judas and ignominiously to be apprehended and bound as a thief by wicked men that I might be absolved from the Bonds of my Sins To him be Praise Honor and Glory for ever Amen Article XI THe sweet JESUS bound as a Malefactor was led with disgrace to the house of Annas and thence to the house of Caiphas the high Priest My gracious and sweet Lord was dragg'd pushed on beaten and blasphem'd by the Ministers of the Devil but he bore all those grievous and unworthy things most patiently for the love of me To him be Praise Honor and Glory for ever Amen Article XII THe sweet JESUS Lord of Lords endured most modestly for my Salvation a reproachful and cruel box on the ear most unjustly given by a servant of the High Priest And how shall not I hereafter in return for his Love patiently endure the affronts that are done me I beg I wish I desire to be strengthened and confirmed by his Grace To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XIII THe sweet JESUS was falsly accused in the house of Caiphas he was unjustly condemned He was fowly spit upon and received horrible blows and buffets he was scornfully blindfolded the wicked smiting him and in scorn saying Prophecy unto us O Christ who it was that struck thee Ah! that royal and amiable face of his for me was defiled with filthy spittle the most meek Lamb in the mean while did not complain but teaching us Patience he was dumb and opened not his mouth he bore in silence for my sake revilings contumelies reproaches and all sorts of injuries O how ill and how unworthily was he handled that night To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XIV THe sweet JESUS the Holy of Holys and King of Angels defiled with spittle and bound in the morning was led to Pilate and stood before him with a loving countenance and his eyes down And when he was falsly accus'd by the Jewes he humbly held his peace answering nothing To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XV. THe sweet JESUS bound as a Thief was sent from Pilate to Herod who seeing him silent to his own idle questions and to the false accusations of the Jewes he despised him and clothed him in a white and ridiculous Coat as a Fool and so sent him back to Pilate The amiable Lord at the pleasure of his Enemies went backward and forward without contradiction permitting them to do with him whatsoever they would O how humble was the Obedience and Patience of the Eternal King To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XVI THe sweet JESUS was ignominiously stript in the Pretors Hall he was inhumanly tyed to a Pillar he was most cruelly torn with whips for me his delicate and Virginall Flesh was all deformed with blewness and wounds and out of it ran down on all sides upon the ground streams of precious Blood O sharp dolours O sad spectacle Indeed he was wounded for my iniquities he was bruised for my sins and by his wounds I was healed To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XVII THe sweet JESUS for his greater ignominy was clothed with a Purple Cloak a Crown of Thorns was pressed upon his venerable head and so his head being grievously wounded most pure Blood abundantly flowed down upon his face and neck A Reed was put into his hand and he was scoffingly saluted and adored by the wicked deriding him and saying Hail King of the Jewes he was smitten with a Reed he was spit upon and received cruel buffets for my sake To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XVIII THe sweet JESUS was brought forth by Pilate and shown to the furious Jewes wearing a Crown of Thorns and a Purple Vestment But they ask'd with loud clamours that he might be crucified His head surrounded with thorns his face stained with blood and defiled with spittle his body cut with whips his humble and pleasant Aspect did not move them to pitty I pray God they may move me to a most inward Compassion and ardent Love of him To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XIX THe sweet JESUS was condemned to dye by
Pilate and delivered up to the will of the Jewes Wherefore they forthwith laid hands on him and loaded with the Beam of his Cross they drew him out of the City The sweet Lord carrying his Cross on his rent shoulders was pushed forward beaten forced to make haste the amiable Redeemer made the reproach of men and disdain of the people humbly went forwards to the place of Calvary O how much did the weight of his Cross load and afflict him but more the weight of my sins But he for my salvations sake willingly bore all Labour and Dolor and all Confusion To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XX. THe sweet JESUS being come weary and out of breath to Mount Calvary he refused not to taste Wine mixed with Myrrhe and Gall which was offered unto him that by this bitter drink he might expiate the faults which I have contracted by eating and drinking intemperately O what a kind of refection was that of my Lord To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XXI THe sweet JESUS was disgracefully stript upon Mount Calvary and by the pulling off of his Clothes his wounds were renewed the mild and innocent Lamb of God was unmercifully stretched out upon the Cross by cruel men his delicate hands and undefiled feet were cruelly bored through with bloody Nails the joynts of his most holy Members were miserably loosed Purple Blood abundantly flowed out of his sacred wounds as out of so many Fountains O how hard a bed had the Spouse of my soul extended on his Cross and nailed to it for my sake To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XXII THe sweet JESUS hanging naked upon the ignominious Gibbet of his Cross in the middle betwixt two Thieves with his hands and feet transfixed powred out most precious Blood and suffered most bitter dolours for my sake he was scoffed at he was reviled with Blasphemies but in the mean time he prayed for those who blasphemed him he prayed for his Crucifiers saying Father forgive them for they know not what they do To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XXIII THe sweet JESUS hanging upon the Cross despised and wounded graciously promised Paradise to the penitent Thief he tenderly compassionated his Virgin-Mother standing by the Cross transpierced with the sword of grief and commended her to his Disciple St. John and to the same St. John and to us all he gave her to be a Mother To him be praise honor and glory for ever Amen Article XXIV THe sweet JESUS when he had for me endured immense torments for three hours upon the Cross and his sacred blood being powred out was most vehemently a thirst he had Vinegar given him to drink which having tasted he the Author of Life to all things commending himself to his Father and bowing his venerable head gave up the Ghost To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article XXV THe sweet JESUS as soon as he was dead upon the Cross forthwith descended according to his soul out of exceeding Charity into Hell and delivered the Fathers detained in Lymbus for they at the coming of his soul instantly were filled with the Light of Glory and saw the most Blessed Trinity saw clearly the Divine Essence And this was that spiritual Paradise of which our Lord said to the Thief To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article XXVI THe sweet JESUS the good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep And the right side of his dead body was opened with a Spear whence did flow forth to us blood and water his amorous heart was wounded for me O may this most sweet heart this pleasant treasury of happiness be salvation and comfort to me in my death that after death I may be united to Jesus and contemplate him for all Eternity To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article XXVII THe sweet JESUS dyed for me whose immaculate body when it was taken down from the Cross his most blessed Mother received it into her Lap kist it and wept over it then Joseph and Nicodemus wrapped it in a clean winding sheet and laid it in a Sepulchre so that Jesus the immarcessible Flower of humane dignity was buried for me To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article XXVIII THe sweet JESUS coming the third day victorious out of his closed and sealed Sepulchre by a noble triumph arose from the dead and the clarity of his most pleasant countenance being restored he first exhilarated with a new joy his most dear Mother the Virgin Mary then Mary Magdalen and his other friends To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article XXIX THe sweet JESUS on the Fourtieth day after his Resurrection in the presence of his Disciples filled with ineffable joy gloriously ascended into Heaven and afterwards sent them the Holy Ghost He sits in Heaven at the right hand of his Father and thence is to come in Majesty to Judge the living and the dead To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Thirteen short Precepts necessary for one who aspires to a perfect Life Precept I. FOr the love of Jesus Christ who suffered very sharp things for thy sake renounce the pleasures of thy senses When thou hast a mind and desires to see hear smell taste touch or speak any thing remember that thou must not obey thy sensuality inciting of thee but Reason and God speaking in thee Yea even be ready to want spiritual delights according to Gods good pleasure and ordination And when thou art recreated with inward comfort and sweetness have a care thou do not rest in it nor abuse it to thy own proper pleasure Precept II. KEep very diligently thy sight hearing and tongue that they do not decline to unlawful vain and unprofitable things It behoves thee to be vigilant and very wary in thy speech that thou speak not more words nor otherwise than is convenient Let thy speech be succinct plain and quiet Carefully rule and contain in good order all the Parts of thy Body Avoid immoderate Laughter and all lightness of behaviour Precept III. DO not adhere to any Creature by inordinate affection but dye to all perishable things and keep thy heart free from them for in such a death and in such a liberty does lye hid the most true and most pleasant life Precept IV. BY an entire abnegation of thy self and resignation diligently destroy in thee vitious passions and affections and thy own will and self-seeking But love dearly and only the Divine will and ever wish it and submit thy self wholly unto it so that whatsoever God wills do thou also will Every where seek rather the praise and honour of God than thy own profit Precept V. IN all things which happen wisely regard the providence of God and securely commit thy self and all thy concerns