to supplant my neighbours full of jealousies and suspition scornfull and censorious burdensome to my friends ingratefull to my benefactors imperious to my inferious boasting to have said what I said not to have seen what I saw not to have done what I did not and have both said and seen and done what I ought not provoking thy divine Majesty with a continuall course of sinne and vanity And yet O Lord thou hast spared me all this while and hast not taken away my life in the midst of my sinnes which is a mercy so admirable and of so vast a kindnesse as no heart or tongue can think or speak If thou hadst dealt with me according as I had deserved and might justly have expected I had been now now at this instant seal'd up to an eternity of torments hopelessely miserable fearing the revelation of thy day with an insupportable amazement and now under the sweet influences of thy mercies J am praying to thee confessing my sinnes with shame indeed at my basenesse and ingratitude but with a full hope and confidence in thy mercy O turne the eyes of thy divine clemency with a gracious aspect upon a wretched sinner open the bowels of thy mercy and receive me into favour O my dear God let thy grace speedily worke that in me for which thou so long hast spared me and to which thou didst designe me in thy holy purposes and mercies of eternity even a true faith and a holy life conformable to thy will and in order to eternall blessednesse I remember O Lord the many fatherly expressions and examples of thy mercies to repenting sinners thy delight in our conversion thy unwillingnesse to destroy us thy earnest invitation of us to grace and life thy displeasure at our dangers and miseries the infinite variety of meanes thou usest to bring us from the gates of death and to make us happy to eternity These mercies O Lord are so essentiall to thee that thou canst not but be infinitly pleased in demonstrations of them Remember not O Lord how we have despised thy mercies sleighted thy judgements neglected thy Commandments but now at length establish in us great contrition for our sinnes leade us on to humble confession and dereliction of them and let thy grace make us bring forth fruits meet for repentance fruits of justice of hope of charity of religion and devotion that we may be what thou delightest in holy and just and mercifull vessels prepared for honour temples of the holy Ghost and instruments of thy praises to all eternity O blessed Iesu who livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen O Lord Jesu Christ Son of the eternall God interpose thy holy Death thy Crosse and Passion between thy judgement and my soule now and in the houre of my death granting unto me grace and mercy to all faithfull people pardon and peace to the Church unity and amity and to all sinners repentance and amendment to us all life and glory everlasting who livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen A Forme of thankesgiving with a particular enumeration of Gods blessings MOst glorious Lord God infinite in mercy full of compassion long suffering and of great goodnesse I adore and praise and glorifie thy holy Name worshipping thee with the lowliest devotions of my soule and body and give thee thankes for all the benefits thou hast done unto me for whatsoever I am or have or know or desire as I ought it is all from thee thou art the Fountain of being and blessing of sanctity and pardon of life and glory Praise the Lord O my soule and all that is within me praise his holy Name Thou O God of thine infinite goodnesse hast created me of nothing and hast given me a degree of essence next to Angels imprinting thine Image on me enduing me with reasonable faculties of will and understanding to know and chuse good and to refuse evill and hast put me into a capacity of a blessed immortality O praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his Name together Thou O God of thy great mercy hast given me a comely body a good understanding streight limbes a ready and unloosed tongue whereas with justice thou mightest have made me crooked and deformed sottish and slow of apprehension imperfect and impedite in all my faculties O give thankes unto the God of Heaven for his mercy endureth for ever Thou O God of thy glorious mercies hast caused me to be borne of Christian parents and didst not suffer me to be strangled in the wombe but gavest me opportunity of holy Baptisme and hast ever since blessed me with education in Christian Religion Thy way O God is holy who is so great a God as our God Thou O God out of thine abundant kindnesse hast made admirable variety of creatures to minister to my use to serve my necessity to preserve and restore my health to be an ornament to my body to be representations of thy power and of thy mercy Vnto thee O God will I pay my vowes unto thee will I give thankes Thou O God of thine admirable and glorious mercy hast made thine Angels ministring spirits for my protection and defence against all the hostilities of the Devill thou hast set a hedge about me and such a guard as all the power of hell and earth cannot overcome thou hast preserved me by thy holy providence and the ministery of Angels from drowning from burning from precipice from deformities from fracture of bones and all the snares of evill and the great violations of health which many of my betters suffer I will give thankes unto thee O Lord with my whole heart even before the gods will I sing praise unto thee Thou O most mercifull God hast fed me and clothed me hast raised me up friends and blessed them hast preserved me in dangers hast rescued me from the fury of the sword from the rage of pestilence from perishing in publike distemperatures and diseases epidemicall from terrours and affrightments of the night from illusions of the Devill and sad apparitions thou hast been my guide in my journies my refreshment in sadnesses my hope and my confidence in all my griefes and desolations O give thankes unto the Lord of lords for his mercy endureth for ever But above all mercies it was not lesse than infinite whereby thou lovedst me and all mankinde when we were lost and dead and rebells against thy Divine Majesty thou gavest thine owne begotten Son to seek us when we went astray to restore us to life when we were dead in trespasses and sinnes and to reconcile us to thy selfe by the mercies and the atonement of an everlasting covenant He is our God even the God of whom commeth salvation God is the Lord by whom we escape death O most blessed Iesu I praise adore thine infinite mercies humility and condescension that for my sake thou wouldest descend from the bosome of thy heavenly Father into the
Sacrament that it may be unto me life and pleasantnesse and holy nourishment and that I may be firmely and indissolubly united to thy mysticall Body and may at last see clearly and without a vaile thy face in glory everlasting who livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen II. I Adore and blesse thy glorious Majesty O blessed Iesu for this great dignation and vouchsafing to me that thou art pleased for all the infinite multiplication of my sinnes and innumerable violations of thy holy Law still to give thy selfe unto me to convey health and grace and life and hopes of glory in the most blessed Sacrament I adore thee O most righteous Redeemer that thou art pleased under the visible signes of Bread and Wine to convey unto our soules thy holy Body and Bloud and all the benefits of thy bitter Passion O my God I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roofe but let thy holy Spirit with his purities prepare for thee a lodging in my soule Thou hast knocked often O blessed Iesu at the doore of my heart and wouldest willingly have entred behold O Lord my heart is ready to receive thee cast out of it all worldly desires all lusts and carnall appetites and then enter in and there love to inhabit that the Devill may never returne to a place that is so swept and garnished to fill me full of all iniquity O thou lover of soules grant that this holy Sacrament may be a light unto mine eyes a guide to my understanding and a joy to my soule that by its strength I may subdue and mortifie the whole body of sin in me and that it may produce in me constancy in Faith fulnesse of wisedome perfection and accomplishment of all thy righteous commandments and such a blessed union with thee that I may never more live unto my selfe or to the world but to thee onely and by the refreshment of an holy hope I may be lead through the pathes of a good life and persevering piety to the communion and possession of thy Kingdome O blessed Iesu who livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen III. O Lord God who hast made all things of nought producing great degrees of esâ—ence out of nothing make me a new creature and of a sinfull man make me holy and just and mercifull that I may receive thy precious Body devoutly reverently with meeknesse contrition and great affection with spirituall comfort and gladnesse at thy mysticall presence Feed my soule with Bread from Heaven fill me with charity conform me to thy wil in all things save me from all dangers bodily and ghostly assist and guide me in all doubts and feares prepare and strengthen me against all surreptions and sudden incursion of temptations cleanse me from all staines of sin and suffer nothing to abide in me but thy selfe onely who art the Life of soules the Food of the Elect and the joy of Angels Give me such a gust and holy relish in this Divine nutriment that nothing may ever hereafter please me but what savours of thee and thy miraculous sweetnesse Teach me to loath all the pleasures and beauties of this life and let my soule be so inebriated with the pleasures of thy Table that I may be comprehended and swallowed up with thy love and sweetnesse let me thinke nothing but thee covet nothing but thee enjoy nothing but thee nothing in comparison with thee and neither do nor possesse any thing but what leades to thee and is in order to the performance of thy will and the fruition of thy glories Transfixe my soule O blessed Jesu with so great love to thee so great devotion in receiving the holy Sacrament that I may be transformed to the Fellowship of thy sufferings and admitted to a participation of all the benefits of thy Passion and to a communion of thy graces and thy glories I desire to be with thee dissolve all the chaines of my sin and then come Lord Jesus come quickly Let my soule feed on thee greedily for thou art the spring of light and life the Fountaine of wisedome and health a torrent of divine pleasure and tranquillity the Authour of peace and comfort enter into me sweet Jesu take thou possession of my soule and be thou Lord over me and all my faculties and preserve me with great mercy and tendernesse that no doubting or infidelity no impenitence or remanent affection to a sin no impurity or irreverence may make me unworthy and uncapable of thy glorious approach Let not my sinnes crucifie the Lord of life again let it not be said concerning me the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table that this holy Communion may not be unto me an occasion of death but a blessed peace-offering for my sinnes and a gate of life and glory Grant this O blessed God for his sake who is both Sacrifice and Priest the Master of the Feast and the Feast it selfe even Iesus Christ to whom with thee O Father and the holy Spirit be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen A Prayer after receiving the consecrated Bread I Give thankes unto thee Almighty and eternall God that thou hast not rejected me from thy holy Table but hast refreshed my soule with the salutary refection of the Body of thy Son Iesus Christ Lord if I had lived innocently and had kept all thy Commandments I could have had no proportion of merit to so transcendent a mercy but since I have lived in all manner of sin and multiplied provocations against thy Divine Majesty thy mercy is so glorious and infinite that I am amased at the consideration of its immensity Go on O my deare God to finish so blessed a redemption and now that thou hast begun to celebrate a marriage and holy union between thy selfe and my soule let me never throw off the wedding garment or stain it with the pollutions of deadly sin nor seek after other lovers but let me for ever and ever be united unto thee being transformed into thy will in this life and to the likenesse of thy glories in the life to come who livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen After receiving the Cup O Iust and deare God who out of the unmeasurable abysses of wisedome and mercy hast redeemed us and offered life and grace and salvation to us by the reall exhibition of thy Son Iesus Christ in the sacrifice of his Death upon the altar of the Crosse and by commemoration of his bitter agonies in the holy Sacrament Grant that that great and venerable sacrifice which we now commemorate sacramentally may procure of thee for thy whole Church mercy and great assistance in all trials deliverance from all heresies schismes sacriledge and persecutions to all sicke people health and salvation redemption for captives competency of living to the indigent and necessitous comfort to the afflicted reliefe to the oppressed repentance to all sinners softnesse of
spirit and a tender conscience to the obstinate conversion to the Iewes Turkes and remedy to all that are in any trouble or adversity And grant to us O Lord that this blessed Sacrament and sacrifice of commemorâ—tion in vertue of that dreadfull and proper Sacrifice upon the Crosse may obtain for me and for us all who have communicated this day pardon and peace and that we may derive from thee by this ministery grace to expell all our sinnes to mortifie all our lusts to exterminate all concupiscence to crucifie all inordination and irregularity to produce in us humility and chastity and obedience and meeknesse of spirit and charity and may become our Defence and Armour against the violences and invasions of all our ghostly enemies and temporall disadvantages and give us this grace and favour that we may not die in the guilt and commission of a sin without repentance nor without receiving the blessed Sacrament but that we may so live and die that we may at last rest in thy bosome and be imbraced with the comprehensions of thy eternall charity who livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen All blessing and praise and honour be unto thee O blessed Redeemer to thee we the banished and miserable sonnes of Adam do call for mercy and defence to thee we sigh and cry in this valley of teares O dearest Advocate turne those thy mercifull eyes towards us shew us thy glorious face in thy Kingdome where no teares or sighing or feares or sadnesses can approach Amen sweetest Iesu Amen Prayers preparatory to death I. A Prayer for a blessed ending to be said in time of health or sicknesse O Blessed Iesu Fountaine of eternall mercy the Life of the soule and glorious Conquerour over Death and sin I humbly beseech thee to give me grace so to spend this transitory life in vertuous and holy exercises that when the day of my death shall come in the midst of all my paines I may feel the sweet refreshings of thy holy spirit comforting my soul sustaining my infirmities and releeving all my spirituall necessities and grant that in the Vnity of the holy Catholique Church and in the integrity of Christian faith with confidence and hope of thy mercy in great love towards thee in peace with my Neighbours and in charity with all the world I may through thy grace depart hence out of this vale of misery and go unto that glorious country where thou hast purchased an inheritance for us with the price of thy most precious bloud and raignest in it gloriously in the Vnity of thy Father and ours of thy holy Spirit and our Ghostly Comforter ever one God world without end Amen II. A Prayer to be said at the beginning of a sicknesse O Lord my God who chastisest every one whom thou receivest and with thy Fatherly correction smitest all those whom thou consignest to the inheritance of sonnes write my soul in the book of life and number me amongst thy Children whom thou hast smitten with the rod of sicknesse and by thy chastisements hast brought me into the Lot of the righteous Thou O Blessed Iesu art a helper in the needfull time of trouble lay no more upon me then thou shalt enable me to beare and let thy gentle correction in this life prevent the insupportable stripes of thy vengeance in the life to come Smite me now that thou mayest spare me to all eternity and yet O blessed High Priest who art touched with a sense of our infirmities smite me friendly and reproove me with such a tendernesse as thou bearest unto thy Children to whom thou conveyest suppletory comforts greater then the paines of chastisement and in due time restore me to health and to thy solemne assemblies again and to the joy of thy Countenance Give me patience and humility and the grace of repentance and an absolute dereliction of my selfe and a resignation to thy pleasures and providence with a power to do thy will in all things and then do what thou pleasest to me only in health or sicknesse in life or death let me feel thy comforts refreshing my soul and let thy grace pardon all my sinnes Grant this O Blessed Iesu for my trust is in thee onely thou art my God and my mercifull Saviour and Redeemer Amen III. A Prayer to be said in the progresse of a sicknesse O Lord my God Blessed Iesu who by thy bitter death and passion hast sweetned the cup of death to us taking away it's bitternesse and sting and making it an entrance to life and glory have pitty upon me thy servant who have so deep a share in sinne that I cannot shake off the terrors of death but that my nature with it 's hereditary corruption still would preserve it selfe in a disunion from the joyes of thy Kingdom Lord I acknowledge my own infirmities and begge thy pitty It is better for me to be with thee but the remembrance of my sinnes doth so depresse my growing confidence that I am in a great streight between my feares and hopes betwen the infirmities of my Nature and the better desires of conforming to thy holy will and pleasure O my Deare Redeemer wean my soul and all my desires from the flatteries of this world pardon all my sinnes and consigne so great a favour by the comforts and attestation of thy divinest Spirit that my own feares being masterd my sinnes pardoned my desires rectified as the Hart thirsts after the springs of water so my soul may long after thee O God and to enter into thy Courts Heavenly Father if it may be for thy glory and my ghostly good to have the dayes of my pilgrimage prolonged I begge of thee health and life but if it be not pleasing to thee to have this cup passe from me thy will be done my Saviour hath drunk off all the bitternesse Behold O Lord I am in thine hands do with me as seemeth good in thine eyes though I walke through the vally of the shadow of death I will fear no evill for thou art with me thy rod and thy staffe comfort me I will lay me downe in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only who shalt make me to dwell in everlasting safety and to partake of the joyes of thy Kingdom who livest and raignest eternall God world without end Amen IV. A Prayer for a sick Person in danger of death O Lord Iesus Christ our health and life our hope and our resurrection from the dead I resigne my self up to thy holy will and pleasure either to life that I may live longer to thy service and my amendment or to death to the perpetuall enjoyment of thy presence and of thy glories Into thy hands I commend my spirit for I know O Lord that nothing can perish which is committed to thy mercies J believe O Lord that I shall receive my body again at the resurrection of the just I relinquish all care of that only I
beg of thee mercy for my soul strengthen it with thy grace against all temptations let thy loving kindnesse defend it as with a shield against all the violences and hostile assaults of Sathan let the same mercy be my guard and defence which protected thy Martyrs crowning them with victory in the midst of flames horrid torments and most cruell deaths There is no help in me O Lord I cannot by my own power give a minutes rest to my wearied body but my trust is in thy sure mercies I call to mind to my unspeakable comfort that thou wert hungry and thirsty and wearied whipt and crown'd with Thornes and mock'd crucified for me O let that mercy which made thee suffer so much make thee do that for which thou sufferedst so much pardon me and save me Let thy merits answer for my impieties let thy righteousnesse cover my sinnes thy bloud wash away my staines and thy comforts refresh my soul As my body growes weak let thy grace be stronger let not my faith doubt nor my hope tremble nor my charity grow cold nor my soul be affrighted with the terrors of death but let the light of thy countenance enlighten mine eyes that I sleep not in death eternall and when my tongue failes let thy spirit teach my heart to pray with strong cryings and groanes that are unutterable O Let not the enemy do me any violence but let thy holy mercies and thy Angels repell and defeat his malice and fraud that my soul may by thy strength triumph in the joyes of eternity in the fruition of thee my life my joy my hope my exceeding great reward my Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Amen V. For a dying Person in or neare the agonies of death MOst mercifull and Blessed Saviour have mercy upon the soule of this thy servant remember not his ignorances nor the sins of his youth but according to thy great mercy remember him in the mercies and glories of thy Kingdome Thou O Lord hast open'd the Kingdom of Heaven to all beleivers let the everlasting gates be open'd and receive his Soul let the Angells who rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner triumph and be exalted in his deliverance and salvation Make him partaker of the benefits of thy holy incarnation life and sanctity passion and death resurrection and ascension and of all the prayers of the Church of the joy of the elect and all the fruits of the blessed communion of Saints and dayly adde to the number of thy beatified servants such as shall be saved that thy comming may be hastned and the expectation of the Saints may be fulfilled and the glory of thee our Lord Iesu be advanced all the whole Church singing prayses to the Honour of thy name who livest and raignest ever one God world without end Amen VI O Most mercifull Iesu who didst dye to reredeem us from death and damnation have mercy upon this thy servant whom thy hand hath visited with sicknesse of thy goodnesse be pleased to forgive him all his sinnes and seal his hopes of glory with the refreshments of thy holy Spirit Lord give him strength and confidence in thee asswage his pain repell the assaults of his Ghostly enemies by thy mercies and a guard of holy Angels preserve him in the unity of the Church keep his senses intire his understanding right give him great measure of contrition true faith a well grounded hope and abundant charity give him a quiet and a joyfull departure let thy ministring spirits convey his soule to the mansions of peace and rest there with certainty to expect a joyfull resurrection to the fulnesse of joy at thy right hand where there is pleasure for evermore Amen VII A Prayer for the joyes of Heaven O Most glorious Iesu who art the portion and exceeding great reward of all faithfull people thou hast beautified humane Nature with glorious immortality and hast carried the same above all Heavens above the seat of Angels beyond the Cherubims and Seraphims placing it on the right hand of thy heavenly Father grant to us all the issues of thy abundant charity that we may live in thy feare and die in thy favour Prepare our soules with heavenly vertues for heavenly joyes making us righteous here that we may be beautified hereafter Amen A MORNING PRAYER In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Our Father which art in Heaven c. I. O Eternall son of righteousnes who camest from the bosome of thy Father the Fountain of my glorious light to enlighten the darknesses of the world I praise thy Name that thou hast preserved me from the dangers of this night and hast continued to me still the opportunities of serving thee and advancing my hopes of a blessed eternity Let thy mercies shine brightly upon me and dissipate the clouds and darknesses of my spirit and understanding rectifie my affections and purifie my will and all my actions that whatsoever I shall do or suffer this day or in my whole life my words and purposes my thoughts and my intentions may be sanctified and be acceptable to thy divine Majesty Amen II. GRant that my understanding may know thee my heart may love thee and all my faculties and powers may give thee due obedience and serve thee Preserve me this day from all sin and danger from all violences and snares of mine enemies visible and invisible let thy holy feare be as a bridle to my distemperatures and thy love so enkindle and actuate all mine endeavours that no pleasure or allurements of the world may draw me from thy service nor any difficulty or temptation may be my hinderance let the profound humility and innocence of my blessed Saviour keep from me all pride and haughtinesse of minde all selfe-love and vain-glory all obstinacy and disobedience all fraudulency and hurtfull dissimulation and let the graces of the holy Ghost take so absolute possession and seizure of my soule and all it's faculties that I may tread down and cast out the spirit of intemperance and uncleannesse of malice and envy of idlenesse and disdaine that I may never despise any of thy creatures but my selfe that so being little in mine own sight I may be great in thine Amen III. CLoth my soule with the wedding garment the habits of supernaturall Faith and Charity that I may believe all thy holy promises and revelations without all wavering and love thee my God with so great devotions and affections that neither life nor death prosperity nor adversity temptations within nor without may ever disunite me from the love of thee but that I may have the most intimate adhesion to thy glories and perfections of which my condition in this world is capable Make me to choose vertue with the same freenes of election entertaine it with as little reluctancy keep it with as much complacency actuate it with as many faculties serve it with as much industry as I have in time