my loue my sonne my God behold thy mother washt in teares Thy bloudy wounds be made a rod to chasten these my latter yeares You cruell Iewes come worke your ire vpon this worthlesse flesh of mine And kindle not eternall fire by wounding him which is diuine Thou messenger that didst impart his first descent into my wombe Come helpe me now to cleaue my heart that there I may my sonne intombe You Angels all that present were to shew his birth with harmonie Why are you not now readie here to make a mourning symphony The cause I know you waile alone and shed your teares in secrecie Lest I should moued be to mone by force of heauie companie But waile my soule thy comfort dies my wofull wombe lament thy fruit My heart giue teares vnto mine eyes let sorrow string my heauie lute An holy Hymne PRaise O Sion praise thy Sauiour Praise thy captaine thy pastour With hymnes and solemne harmony What power affords performe indeed His workes all praises farre exceede No praise can reach his dignity A speciall theame of praise is read A liuing and life giuing bread Is on this day exhibited Within the Supper of our Lord To twelue disciples at his bord As doubtlesse t was deliuered Let our praise be lou'd and free Full of ioy and decent glee With minds and voices melody For now solemnize we that day Which doth with ioy to vs display The secret of this mystery At this boord of our new ruler Of old law and Pascall order The ancient right abolisheth Old decrees by new annil'd Shadowes are in truth fulfil'd Day former darknesse finisheth That at supper Christ performed To be done he straightly charged For his eternall memorie Guided by his sacred orders Bread and wine vpon our alters To sauing host we sanctifie Christians are by faith assured That by faith flesh is receiued And Christ his bloud most precious That no wit no sense conceiueth Firme and grounded faith beleeueth In strange effects not curious As staffe of bread thy heart sustaines And chearefull wine thy strength regaines By power and vertue naturall So doth this consecrated food Them symbole of Christ flesh bloud By vertue supernaturall The ruines of thy soule repaire Banish sinne horrour and despaire And feed faith by faith receiued Angels bread made Pilgrims feeding Truely bread for childrens eating To dogs not to be offered Sign'd by Isack on the altar By the Lambe and pascall Supper And in the Manna figured Iesu food and feeder of vs Here with mercie feed and friend vs Then graunt in heauen felicitie Lord of all whom here thou feedest Fellow heires guests with thy dearest Make vs in thy heauenly citie S. Peters afflicted mind IF that the sicke may grone Or Orphane mourne his losse If wounded wretch may rue his harmes Or caitife shew his crosse If heart consum'd with care May vtter signe of paine Then may my breast be sorrowes home And tongue with cause complaine My maladie is sinne And languor of the mind My body but a lazars couch Wherein my soule is pinde The care of heauenly kinde Is dead to my reliefe Forlorne and left like orphan child With sighes I feed my griefe My wounds with mortall smart My dying soule torment And prisoner to mine owne mishaps My follies I repent My heart is but the haunt Where all dislikes do keepe And who can blame so lost a wretch Though teares of bloud he weepe S. Peters remorse REmorse vpbraids my faults Selfe blaming conscience cries Sin claimes the hoast of hūbled thoughts And streames of weeping eyes Let penance Lord preuaile Let sorrow sue release Let loue be vmpier in my cause And passe the doome of peace If doome go by desert My least desert is death That robs from soule immortall ioyes From body mortall breath But in so high a God So base a wormes annoy Can adde no praise vnto thy power No blisse vnto thy ioy Well may I frie in flames Due fuell to hell-fire But on a wretch to wreake thy wrath Can not be worth thine ire Yet sith so vile a worme Hath wrought his greatest spite Of highest treason well thou maist In rigor him indite But mercy may relent And temper iustice rod For mercy doth as much belong As iustice to a God If former time or place More right to mercy winne Thou first wert author of my selfe Then vmpier of my sinne Did mercy spin the thread To weaue in iustice loome Wert thou a father to conclude With dreadfull Iudges doome It is a small reliefe To say I was thy child If as an ill deseruing foe From grace I am exilde I was I had I could All words importing want They are but dust of dead supplies Where needfull helpes are scant Once to haue beene in blisse That hardly can returne Doth not bewray from whence I fell And wherefore now I mourne All thoughts of passed hopes Increase my present crosse Like ruines of decayed ioyes They still vpbraid my losse O milde and mighty Lord Amend that is amisse My sinne my sore thy loue my salue Thy cure my comfort is Confirme thy former deeds Reforme that is defild I was I am I will remaine Thy charge thy choise thy child Man to the wound in Christs side O Pleasant sport ô place of rest O royal rift ô worthy wound Come harbour me a weary guest That in the world no case haue found I lie lamenting at thy gate Yet dare I not aduenture in I beare with me a troublous mate And combred am with heape of sinne Discharge me of this heauy load That easier passage I may find Within this bowre to make aboad And in this glorious tombe be shrin'd Here must I liue here must I die Here would I vtter all my griefe Here would I all those paines descrie Which here did meet for my reliefe Here would I view that bloudy sore Which dint of spitefull speare did breed The bloudy wounds laid there in store Would force a stony heart to bleed Here is the spring of trickling teares The mirrour of all mourning wights With dolefull tunes for dumpish eares And solemne shewes for sorrowed sights O happie soule that flies so hie As to attaine this sacred caue Lord send me wings that I may flie And in this harbour quiet haue Vpon the Image of death BEfore my face the picture hangs That daily should put me in mind Of those cold names and bitter pangs That shortly I am like to find But yet alas full little I Do thinke hereon that I must die I often looke vpon a face Most vgly grisly bare and thinne I often view the hollow place Where eyes and nose had somtimes bin I see the bones acrosse that lie Yet little thinke that I must die I reade the Labell vnderneath That telleth me whereto I must I see the sentence eke that saith Remember man thou art dust But yet alas but seldome I Do thinke indeed that I must die Continually at my beds head An
embrace Yet all this waight of sweat drew not a drop Ne made thee bow much lesse fall on thy face But now thou hast a load so heauie found That makes thee bow yea fall flat to the ground O sinne how huge and heauie is thy waight That waighest more then all the world beside Of which when Christ hath taken in his fraight The poyse thereof his flesh could not abide Alas if God himselfe sinke vnder sinne What will become of man that dyes therein First flat thou fell'st when earth did thee receiue In closet pure of Maries virgine breast And now thou fall'st of earth to take thy leaue Thou kissest it as cause of thy vnrest O louing Lord that so doest loue thy fo As thus to kisse the ground where he doth go Thou minded in thy heauen our earth to weare Do'st prostrate now thy heauen our earth to blisse As God to earth thou often wert seuere As man thou call'st a peace with bleeding kisse For as of soules thou common Father art So is she Mother of mans other part She shortly was to drinke thy dearest bloud And yeeld the soule a way to Satans caue She shortly was thy corse in tombe to shrowd And with them all thy Deitie to haue Now then in me thou ioyntly yeeldest all That seuerally to earth should shortly fall O prostrate Christ erect my crooked mind Lord let thy fall my flight from Earth obtaine Or if I needs must still in Earth be shrin'd Then Lord on Earth come fall yet once againe And either yeeld in Earth with me to lye Or else with thee to take me to the skie Iosephs Amazement WHen Christ by growth disclosed his descent Into the pure receipt of Maries breast Poore Ioseph stranger yet to Gods intent With doubts of iealous thoughts was sore opprest And wrought with diuers fits of feare and loue He neither can her free nor faulty proue Now since the wakefull spy of iealous minde By strong coniectures deemeth her defil'd But loue in doome of things best loued blinde Thinkes rather sense deceiu'd then her with child Yet proofes so pregnant were that no pretence Could cloake a thing so cleare and plaine to sense Then Ioseph daunted with a deadly wound Let loose the reines of vndeserued griefe His heart did throb his eyes in teares were drownd His life a losse death seem'd his best reliefe The pleasing rellish of his former loue In gaulish thoughts to bitter tast doth proue One foot he often setteth out of dore But t'other loath vncertaine wayes to tread He takes his fardell for his needfull store He casts his Inne where first he meanes to bed But still ere he can frame his feet to go Loue winneth time till all conclude in no. Sometimes griefe adding force he doth depart He will against his will keepe on his pase But straight remorse so rackes his raging heart That hasting thoughts yeeld to a pawsing pase Then mightie reasons presse him to remaine She whom he flyes doth winne him home againe But when his thought by sight of his aboad Presents the signe of misesteemed shame Repenting euery step that backe he troad Teares done the guide the tong the feet do blame Thus warring with himselfe a field he fights Where euery wound vpon the giuer lights And was quoth he my loue so lightly pris'd Or was our sacred league so soone forgot Could vowes be void could vertues be despis'd Could such a spouse be stain'd with such a spot O wretched Ioseph that hath liu'd so long Of faithfull loue to reape so grieuous wrong Could such a worme breed in so sweet a Wood Could in so chast demeanure lurke vntruth Could vice lye hid where Vertues image stood Where hoarie sagenesse graced tender youth Where can affiance rest to rest secure In vertues fairest seat faith is not sure All proofes did promise hope a pledge of grace Whose good might haue repay'd the deepest ill Sweet signes of purest thoughts in Saintly face Assur'd the eye of her vnstained will Yet in this seeming lustre seeme to lye Such crimes for which the Law condemnes to dye But Iosephs word shall neuer worke her wo I wish her leaue to liue not doome to dye Though Fortune mine yet am I not her fo She to her selfe lesse louing is then I. The most I will the least I can is this Sith none may salue to shun that is amisse Exile my home the wildes shall be my walke Complaint my ioy my Musicke mourning layes With pensiue griefes in silence will I talke Sad thoughts shall be my guides in sorrowes wayes This course best sutes the care of carelesse minde That seekes to lose what most it ioy'd to finde Like stocked tree whose branches all do fade Whose leaues do fall and perisht fruit decay Like hearbe that growes in cold and barren shade Where darknesse driues all quickning heat away So dye must I cut from my root of ioy And throwne in darkest shades of deepe annoy But who can flye from that his heart doth feele What change of place can change implanted paine Remouing moues no hardnesse from the steele Sicke hearts that shift no fits shift roomes in vaine Where thought can see what helpes the closed eye Where heart pursues what gaines the foot to fly Yet did I tread a maze of doubtfull end I go I come she drawes she driues away She wounds she heales she doth both marre and mend She makes me seeke and shun depart and stay She is a friend to loue a fo to lothe And in suspence I hang betweene them both New Prince new Pompe BEhold a silly tender Babe In freezing Winter night In homely Manger trembling lies Alas a piteous sight The Innes are full no man will yeeld This little Pilgrime bed But forc't he is with silly beasts In Crib to shrowd his head Despise him not for lying there First what he is enquire An orient pearle is often found In depth of dirtie mire Waigh not his Crib his woodden dish Nor beasts that by him feed Waigh not his Mothers poore attire Nor Iosephs simple weed This Stable is a Princes Court The Crib his chaire of State The Beasts are parcell of his Pompe The wooden dish his plate The persons in that poore attire His royall liueries weare The Prince himselfe is come from heauen This pompe is prized there With ioy approach O Christian wight Do homage to thy King And highly praise his humble Pompe Which he from Heauen doth bring The burning Babe AS I in hoarie Winters night stood shiuering in the snow Surpris'd I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow And lifting vp a fearefull eye to view what fire was neare A prettie Babe all burning bright did in the ayre appeare Who scorched with excessiue heate such flouds of teares did shed As though his flouds should quench his flames which with his teares were bred Alas quoth he but newly borne in fierie heates I frie Yet none approach to warme their
hearse doth hang which doth me tell That I ere morning may be dead Though now I feele my selfe ful well But yet alas for all this I Haue little mind that I must die The gowne which I do vse to weare The knife wherewith I cut my meate And eke that old and ancient chaire Which is my onely vsuall seate All these do tell me I must die And yet my life amend not I. My ancestors are turnd to clay And many of my mates are gone My yongers daily drop away And can I thinke to scape alone No no I know that I must die And yet my life amend not I. Not Salomon for all his wit Nor Sampson though he were so strong No king nor person euer yet Could scape but death laid him along Wherefore I know that I must die And yet my life amend not I. Though all the East did quake to heare Of Alexanders dreadfull name And all the West did likewise feare To heare of Iulius Caesars fame Yet both by death in dust now lie Who then can scape but he must die If none can scape deaths dreadfull dart If rich and poore his becke obey If strong if wise if all do smart then I to scape shall haue no way Oh grant me grace O God that I My life may mend sith I must die A vale of teares A Vale there is enwrapt with dreadfull shades Which thicke of mourning pines shrowds from the Sunne Where hanging cliffes yeeld short and dumpish glades And snowy flouds with broken streames do runne Where eye-roome is from rocke to cloudie skie From thence to dales which stormy ruines shrowd Then to the crushed waters frothie frie Which tumbleth from the tops where snow is show'd Where eares of other sound can haue no choice But various blustring of the stubburne wind In trees in caues in straits with diuers noise Which now doth hisse now howle now roare by kind Where waters wrastle with encountring stones That breake their streames and turne them into foame The hollow clouds ful fraught with thundering groanes With hideous thumps discharge their pregnant wombe And in the horror of this fearefull quier Consists the musicke of this dolefull place All pleasant birds their tunes from thence retire Where none but heauy notes haue any grace Resort there is of none but pilgrime wights That passe with trembling foote and panting heart With terrour cast in cold and shuddring frights And all the place to terror fram'd by art Yet natures worke it is of arte vntoucht So strait indeed so vast vnto the eye With such disordred order strangely coucht And so with pleasing horror low and hie That who it viewes must needs remaine agast Much at the worke more at the makers might And muse how Nature such a plot could cast Where nothing seemed wrong yet nothing right A place for mated minds an onely bower Where euerie thing doth sooth a dumpish mood Earth lies forlorne the cloudie skie doth lower The wind here weepes her sighes her cries aloud The strugling floud betweene the marble grones Then roaring beates vpon the craggie sides A little off amidst the pibble stones With bubling streames a purling noise it glides The pines thicke set high growne and euer greene Still cloath the place with shade and mourning vaile Here gaping cliffes there mosse growne plaine is seene Here hope doth spring and there againe doth quaile Huge massie stones that hang by tickle stay Still threaten foule and seeme to hang in feare Some withered trees asham'd of their decay Beset with greene and forc'd gray coates to weare Here christall springs crept out of secret vaine Straite findes some enuious hole that hides their graine Here seared tufts lament the wants of g ace There thunder wracke giues terror to the place All pangs and heauie passions here may find A thousand motiues suting to their griefes To feed the sorrowes of their troubled mind And chase away dame pleasures vaine reliefes To plaining thoughts this vale a rest may be To which from worldly toyes they may retire Where sorrow springs from water stone and tree Where euerie thing with mourners doth conspire Sit here my soule mourne streames of teares aflote Here all thy sinfull foyles alone recount Of solemne tunes make thou the dolefulst note That to thy ditties dolor may amount When Eccho doth repeate thy painefull cries Thinke that the very stones thy sinnes bewray And now accuse thee with their sad replies As heauen and earth shall in the latter day Let former faults be fuell of the fire For griefe in Limbeck e of thy heart to still Thy pensiue thoughts and dumps of thy desire And vapour teares vp to thy eyes at will Let teares to tunes and paines to plaints be prest And let this be the burthen to thy song Come deepe remorse possesse my sinfull breast Delights adue I harboured you too long The prodigall childs soule-wracke DIsankerd from a blisfull shore and lancht into the maine of cares Grewne rich in vice in vertue poore from freedome falne in fatall snares I found my selfe on euerie side enwrapped in the waues of wo And tossed with a toilesome tide could to no port for refuge go The wrastling winds with raging blasts still hold me in a cruell chace They breake my anchors saile and masts permitting no reposing place The boistrous seas with swelling flouds on euerie side did worke their spight Heauen ouercast with stormy clouds denide the Planets guiding light The hellish furies lay in wait to winne my soule into their power To make me bite at euery baite wherein my bane I might deuoure Thus heauen and hell thus sea and land thus stormes and tempests did conspire With iust reuenge of scourging hand to witnesse Gods deserued ire I plonged in this heauie plight found in my faults iust cause to feare My darknesse taught to know my light the losse thereof enforced teares I felt my inward bleeding sores my festred wounds began to smart Stept far within deaths fatall dores the pangs thereof went neare my heart I cried truce I craued peace a league with death I would conclude But vaine it was to sue release subdue I must or be subdude Death and deceit had picht their snares and out their wonted proofes in vre To sinke me in despairing cares or make me stoope to pleasures lure They sought by their bewitching charmes so to enchant my erring sense That whē they sought my greatest harmes I might neglect my best defence My dazled eyes could take no view no heed of their deceiuing shifts So often did they alter hew and practise new deuised drifts With Syrens songs they fed mine eares till luld asleepe on errors lap I found their tunes turnd into teares and short delights to long mishap For I enticed to their lore and soothed with their idle toyes Was trained to their prison doore the end of all such flying ioyes Where chaind in sinne I lay in thrall next to the dungeon of despaire Till mercy rais'd
my sute is more than halfe a graunt If many drops soften the hardest stones why should not many teares supple the most stony hearts What anger so fiery that may not be quenched with eye-water sith a weeping suppliant â—ebateth the edge of more than a Lyons furie My sute it selfe would sue for me and so dolefull a coarse would quicken pitty in the most yron hearts But suppose that by touching a ranckled sore my touch should anger it and my petition at the first incense him that heard it he would percase reuile me in words and theâ— his owne iniurie would recoyle with remorse and be vnto me a patron to proceede in my request And if he should accompanie his words with blowes and his blowes with wounds it may be my stripes would smart in his guiltie minde and his conscience bleed in my bleeding wounds and my innocent bloud so entender his Adamant heart that his owne inward feelings would pleade my cause and peraduenture obtaine my sute But if through extremity of spite he should happen to kil me his offence might easily redound to my felicitie For he would be as carefull to hide whom he had vniustly murthered as him whom hee had felloniously stolen and so it is like that he would hide me in the same place where he had layd my Lord. And as he hated vs both for one cause him for challenging and me for acknowledging that he was the Messias so would he vse vs both after one manner And thus what comfort my body wanted my soule should enioy in seeing a part of my selfe partner of my Maisters misery with whom to be miserable I reckon an higher fortune than without him to be most happy And if no other meane would serue to recouer him but force I see no reason why it might not very well become me None will barre me from defending my life which the least worme in the right nature hath leaue to preserue And sith he is to me so deare a life that without him all life is death nature authoriseth my feeble forces to employ their vttermost in so necessary an attempt Necessitie addeth abilitie and loue doubleth necessitie and it often happeneth that nature armed with loue and pressed with neede exceedeth it selfe in might and surmounteth all hope in successe And as the equitie of the cause doth breath courage into the defenders making them the mote willing to fight and the lesse vnwilling to dye so guiltie consciences are euer timorous still starting with sodaine frightts and afraid of their own suspitions ready to yeeld before the assault vpon distresse of their cause and despaire of their defence Sith therefore to rescue an innocent to recouer a right to redresse so deepe a wrong is so iust a quarrell nature will enable me loue encourage me grace confirme me and the iudge of all iustice fight in my behalfe And if it seeme vnfitting to my sexe in talke much more in practise to deale with materiall affaires yet when such a cause happeneth as neuer had patterne such effects must follow as are without example There was neuer any body of a God but one neither such a body stolne but now neuer such a stealth vnreuenged but this Sith therefore the Angels neglect it and men forgeâ— O Iudith lend me thy prowesse for I am bound to regard it But suppose that my force were vnable to winne him by an open enterprise what scruple should keepe me from seeking him by secret meanes yea and by plaine stealth it will be thought a sinne and condemned for a theft O sweet sinne why was not I the first that did commit thee Why did I suffer any other sinner to preuent me For stealing from God his honour I was called a sinner and vnder that title was spread my infamie But for stealing God from a false owner I was not worthy to be called a sinner because it had bene too high a glory If this be so great a sinneâ— and so haynous a theft let others make choise of what titles they will but for my part I would refuse to be an Angell I would not wish to be a Saint I would neuer be esteemed either iust or true and I should be best contented if I might but liue and die such a sinner and be condemned for such a theft When I heard my Lord make so comfortable a promise to the theefe vpon the Crosse that he should that day be with him in Paradise I had halfe an enuie at that theeues good fortune wished my selfe in the theefes place so I might haue enioyed the fruit of his promise But if I could be so happy a theefe as to commit this theft if that wish had taken effect I would now vnwish it againe and scorne to be any other theefe than my selfe sith my booty could make me happier than any other theefes felicitie And what though my fellonie should be called in question in what respect should I need to feare They would say that I loued him too well but that were soone disproued sith where the worthinesse is infinite no loue can be enough They would obiect that I stole anothers goods and as for that many sure titles of my interest would auerre him to be mine and his dead coarse would rather speak than witnesses should faile to depose so certaine a truth And if I had not a speciall right vnto him what should moue me to venture my life for him No no if I were so happy a fellon I should feare no temporall arraignment I should rather feare that the Angels would cite me to my answere for preuenting them in the theft sith not the highest Seraphin in heauen but would deem it a higher stile than his owne to be the theefe that had committed so glorious a robberie But alas thus stand I now deuising what I would do if I knew any thing of him and in the meane time I neither know who hath him nor where they haue bestowed him and still I am forced to dwell in this answer that they haue taken away my Lord and I know not where they haue put him While Mary thus lost her selfe in a Labyrinth of doubts watering her words with teares and warming them with sighes seeing the Angels with a kinde of reuerence rise as though they had done honour to one behind her She turned backe and she saw Iesus standing but that it was Iesus she knew not O Mary is it possible that thou hast forgotten Iesus Faith hath written him in thy vnderstanding loue in thy will both feare and hope in thy memory and how can all these Registers be so cancelled that so plainely seeing thou shouldest not know the contents For him onely thou tirest thy feet thou bendest thy knees thou wringest thy handes For him thy heart throbbeth thy breast sigheth thy tongue complaineth For him thine eye weepeth thy thought sorroweth thy whole body fainteth and thy soule languisheth In summe there is no part in thee but is
me and redeemed me in whom all things are possible vnto me and without whom I am able to do nothing thou seest who I am that here prostrate my prayers and poure out my heart vnto thee What I would haue and what is fit for me thou knowest My soule is buried in flesh and bloud and would faine be dissolued and come vnto thee I am vrged against my will and violently drawne to thinke that which from my heart I detest and to haue in mind the poyson and bane of my soule O Lord thou knowest my mould and making for thy hands haue framed me and with flesh and skin thou hast cloathed me And lo this flesh which thou hast giuen me draweth me to my ruine and fighteth against the spirit If thou helpe not ô gracious aide I am ouercome and vanquished If thou forsakest me I must needs faint with all discouragement Why doest thou set me contrary vnto thee and makest me grieuous and a burthen to my selfe Didst thou create me to cast me away Didst thou redeeme me to damne me for euer It had bene good for me neuer to haue bene borne if I were borne to perish Oh most mercifull father where are thy old and wonted mercies where is thy gracious sweetnesse and loue How long shall mine enemies reioyce ouer me and humble my life vpon earth and place me in darknesse like the dead of the world What am I ô Lord that thou settest me to fight alone against so mightie subtill and cruell enemies that neuer ceasse to bid me a perpetuall battaile O Lord why doest thou shew thy might against a leafe that is tossed with euery winde and persecutest a drie stubble Wilt thou therefore damne the work of thy hands Wilt thou throw me from thy face and take thy holy spirit from me Alas ô Lord whither shall I go from thy face or whither shall I fly from thy spirit whither shall I flie from thee incensed but to thee appeased whither from thee as iust but vnto thee as mercifull Do with me Lord that which is good in thine eyes for thou wilt do all things in righteous iudgement onely remember that I am flesh and bloud fraile of my selfe and impotent to resist Shew thy selfe a Sauiour vnto me and either take away mine enemies or graunt me such a supplie of thy grace to enable my defects that without wound or fault by thee and with thee I may ouercome them sweet Iesus Amen A godly deuout prayer O Gracious Lord and sweete Sauiour giue me a pure intention a cleane heart and a regard to thy glory in all my actions Possesse my mind with thy presence and rauish it with thy loue that my delight may be to be imbraced in the armes of thy protection Be thou light vnto mine eyes musicke to mine ears sweetnesse to my tast and contentment to my heart O Iesu I giue thee my body my soule my substance my fame my friends my libertie and life dispose of me and all that is mine as shall be most to thy glory I am not mine but thine therefore claime me as thy right keepe me as thy charge loue me as thy child fight for me when I am assaulted heale me when I am wounded reuiue me when I am spiritually killed receiue me when I flie and let me neuer be quite confounded giue me patience in trouble humility in comfort constancie in temptations and victorie against my ghostly enemies graunt me good Father modestie in countenance grauitie in my behauiour deliberation in my speeches puritie in my thoughts and righteousnesse in mine actions Be my sunshine in the day my foode at the table my repose in the night my clothing in nakednesse and my succour in all needes Let thy bloud runne in my minde as a water of life to cleanse the filth of my sinnes and to bring forth the fruite of life euerlasting Stay mine inclinations from beating downe my soule bridle mine appetites with thy grace and quench in me the fire of all vnlawfull desires Make my will pliable to thy pleasure and resigned wholly to thy prouidence and graunt me perfect contentment in that which thou allottest Strengthen me against occasions of sinne and make me stedfast in not yeelding to euill yea rather to die then to offend thee Lord make me ready to pleasure all loth to offend any louing to my friends and charitable to mine enemies Forsake me not lest I perish leaue me not to mine owne weakenesse lest I fall without recouerie Graunt me an earnest desire to amend my faults to renew my good purposes and to performe my good intentions Make me humble to my superiours friendly to my equals charitable to my inferiors and carefull to yeeld due respect to all sortes Lastly graunt me sorrow for my sinnes thankfulnesse for thy benefits feare of thy iudgements loue of thy mercies and mindfulnesse of thy presence Amen Considerations to settle the mind in the course of Vertue THe first consideration How waightie a thing the businesse of mans soule is Whosoeuer being desirous to take due care of his soule commencing a spirituall course must consider that he hath taken such a businesse in hand that for importance necessity and profit summoneth all other traffickes and affaires of the world yea and to which onely all other businesse ought to be addressed for herein our menage is about the saluation of our soule our chiefe iewell and treasure of which if in the short passage of our brittle and vncertaine life we take not the due care that we ought for a whole eternity after we shall euermore repent and be sorrie for it and yet neuer haue the like oportunitie againe to helpe it Secondly the better to conceiue the moment and waight of this businesse let vs consider what men vse to do for their bodily health for we see they make so principall a reckoning of it they spare no cost nor toyle nor leaue any thing vnattempted that may auaile them to attaine it They suffer themselues to be launced wounded pined burnt with red hot irons besides diuerse other extreame torments onely for this end How much greater miseries ought we to endure how much greater paines and diligence ought we to employ for this health of our soule which is to suruiue when the body is dead rotten and deuoured with wormes And to suruiue in such sort that it must be perpetually tormented in hell with intollerable torments or enioy endlesse felicitie in heauen And therefore of how much greater worth and waight we thinke the soule and the eternall saluation or damnation thereof then the momentarie health or sicknesse of our bodies so much greater account and esteeme ought we to make of the businesse of our soule then of any other worldly or bodily affaire whatsoeuer For what auaileth it a man saith Christ to gaine the whole world and make wracke of his soule If therefore we keepe diuers men for diuers offices about our bodie and many thousands do liue