unto God for any mercies received c. God being pleased with nothing that we can render unto him but only in his Son so often iterated Matt. 3.17 17.5 12.18 and in what is offered unto him by and through and upon the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God through whom be all praise and thanks to God for ever Heb. 13.12.15 Levit. 3.5 Col. 3.17 §. 156. The danger and loss inneglecting the use of these Holy Mysteries Digr I. Of the great danger and loss of infinite benefits by neglecting the use of these holy Mysteries Numb 9.13 Act. 20.27 Which being the Holy Sacrament and instrument of the most intimate union between Christ and the Soul many times the devout Soul is replenished with an extraordinary sence and ravishing delight of this union at the time of the using them Digr Recommendation of frequentation 2. Using the help and seeking the benefit of this holy mystery upon any special occasion and with relation to some particular end As for remission of your sin for obtaining a remedy of some infirmity deliverance out of some affliction for receiving some grace and benefit for a thanksgiving for some benefit received for the helping your neighbour in some necessity for the increasing the Spirit and the love of God in you 1. Cor. 12 13. 3. Seting apart an hour or some good space of time immediately after your Communion to abide with and entertain our Lord in Prayer now entred in Person into your house and present to the Soul in so extraordinary a manner Using the acts of Mary Magdalen in lamenting your self to him and kissing his feet and attentively hearkning what then he shall say to you For this seems the least duty and observance you can pay to so divine a Guest to stay with him in your devotions and shut out all other thoughts and business for so small a season 4. Often examining your self concerning the fruits which only can be wanting by your default of your having so many times received it §. 157. The danger of using them unworthily Digr 2. Of the great danger of using them without due preparation 2. Chron. 30.20 Exod. 12.3.6 Jo. 15.5 1. Cor. 11.28 29. 1. Sam. 11.4 Matt. 22.12 Digr That the conditions and preparations required to make us partakers of the benefit of Christ's death and passion are also required to make us partakers of the benefit of this Sacrament Thus much of our diligent practising all Christian Duties whether towards God our Neighbor or our Selves Or doing good and what Actions are required of us §. 158. Of the Four Sufferings Now in the last place concerning our passive duty and suffering Evils 1. Exercising Christian Patience 1. Sanctifying with our willingness and concurrence with God's pleasure all those sufferings and judgments for our sins which we undergo upon necessity Levit. 26.41 As being all sent by God much greater than these deserved by us effective instruments and inducements to God's pardoning our former offences and averting his eternal wrath from us All redounding if it be not our fault to our further benefit and to God's greater Glory in and by us Heb. 12.11 Lastly in all ability being given us to endure according to the intenseness of the sufferings Dum auget Dolorem auget patientiam Offering them up unto God to be accepted through the more perfect sufferings of Christ This was Job's patience so much celebrated 2. Since God useth out of Evil to bring some greater good especially for those who fear and serve him when any cross and afflictive Accident happens to you considering presently what greater good may possibly come to you from it which thing will set your heart much at rest and facilitate your due correspondence with the Divine good pleasure As also the imagining that God sends every cross whoever is the instrument thereof on purpose to try your patience and behaviour in receiving it will suddenly change your anger against such instrument into thanksgiving and the practice of this virtue For indeed Crosses are great favours if well-husbanded 3. Not complaining nor bemoaning your self of them This being a lesser degree of impatience 4. Patiently undergoing any natural infirmities or defects and the shame that accompanies them according to which being not in our power God and his Angels whose praise only we ought to look after make no estimate of us but according to our virtues which by their growing out of infirmity become so much more praise-worthy Meanwhile our defects being the best preservers of humility 5. Patiently undergoing and not disquieting your self for any shame coming from some otherwise harmless deficiencies or also avoidable faults As some ignorances fooleries and incivilities undiscreet words or actions Separating as it were the shame from the defect and whilst you implore God's pardon and endeavour to redress and to prevent for the future the one accepting and thanking God and pardoning your self for the other Contrary to the custome of men who are angry at themselves only in respect of the shame not the fault or no less for the shame where they are not all faulty But know that all such anger and impatience proceeds from some degree of pride Digr Of all mens some or other infirmities which may make us more contented with our own 6. Chiefly arming your self with patience against such Crosses which no honor accompanies but shame and infamy and that with good men for honorable calamity any one can endure as disgraces contempts c either for your natural infirmities or also misdeserts Whoever hath perfectly quitted the solicitude of worldly reputation hath took away the sting of the most of mishaps 7. Not too solicitously avoiding and striving to remove afflictions incumbent both for the former considerations Numb 12.14 and also because that many times by humane wisdome avoiding one tolerable by God's judgment we fall into another worse 8. Advices concerning Sickness the most common and ordinarily the greatest and the last of all evils that happen to men §. 159. 1. For your behaviour before sickness in preparing for it Often premeditating of it which makes all Evils easier and not surprizing Often making your will and disposing of your temporals in which special care to be taken of dedicating some particular proportion thereof for the poor and setting in order your affairs in your intention at least as if you were then warned like Aaron or Moses or Hezekiah to leave the world And doing these not only That being in perfect health and use of faculties you may better perform this great duty of your stewardship in disposing more wisely of your Master's Goods for which disposal you must be called to account or That you may be eased of such a trouble in your sickness when most unfit for it and then may be wholly vacant for spiritual affairs But also undertaking it as an exercise most beneficial for quenching worldly cares Quantulumcunque ut relicturus satis habet minding you of your being a stranger here as
Governour and the Holy Ghost ever illuminating and sanctifying the members thereof With which Church was always established the same Covenant of Grace in Christ the same Sacraments for the substance the same way of Salvation under the same precepts through the like obedience and sufferings upon the same promises and threats of the same rewards and punishments See Heb. 11. Hence ever since the fall we find in the sacred Story as one Generation the Children of Works and born after the flesh as Cain Lamech Cam Canaan Aegypt Babylon c. so another the Children of Faith first Abel Martyr then Seth Father of the whole Race Enos Enoch Noah Shem Abraham to whom the Gospel was more fully preached and the Covenant of Faith published 430 years before the promulgation of the Law c. See all these things prosecuted at large in the forementioned Discourse §. 185. The Love and Power of the Father and the Son VII HEADS for Meditation on the several Offices and Benefits to MANKIND of the HOLY-GHOST The Holy-Ghost the Eternal Spirit of God The intimate Communion and Love of the Father and the Son the Finger of God the Strength and Power of the Father as the Son is the Wisdome of the Father the omnipotent worker of all that which the Father decrees and which the Son the word of the Father commands §. 186. The Spirit of Promise The Holy-Ghost the Holy Spirit of Promise who as the Son was a long time the Promise of the Father to this lower world so after the exhibition of our Saviour this Holy Spirit was a further promise unto it both of the Father and of the Son and at last upon the departure of the Son came down from heaven to abide and dwell with us here on earth in our Lord's absence until his second coming who as the Son was sent by the Father into the world to glorify the Father and to teach men what he had received and heard from the Father so the Holy Spirit descended to glorify the Son and to teach and bring to our remembrance to confirm and bear witness here on earth to all things that were taught and heard and received from the Son who was here pleased not only to be cohabitant with us but an inhabitant within us and vouchsafed to lodge in our persons as the Son did before to dwell in our nature making these our Bodies now the Temples of the Holy-Ghost By whom also both the Father and the Son do dwell with us and in us who put the last hand unto the great affair of our Salvation finishing the internal work thereof upon us in our Sanctification as our Saviour did before the external for us in our Redemption §. 187. The Spirit of Regeneration The Holy Ghost the Spirit of Regeneration who by his unspeakable power doth work the strange work of our second Nativity who is the seed of God by whom we are new Creatures by whom we are begotten and born again born of God and made partakers of the Divine Nature and Sons of God who is the heavenly principle derived into us from the second Adam Lord from Heaven conveying into our Soul Holiness and into our Body Immortality and Life as the flesh we received from the first Adam conveyed unto us sin and death Who being the same Spirit in us that also is in Christ is the bond of that mystical union between Jesus the Head and us the members and between us and all other fellow-members making all Christians but one and the same Body of the same temper of the same inclinations of one heart and one mind amongst our selves and with the head as being all actuated and moved by one and the same Spirit §. 188. The Spirit of Illumination The Holy-Ghost conveying its gracious Influences and Effects both into our Souls and into our Bodies Into our Souls both in our Vnderstanding and Memory and in our Will and Affections In our Vnderstanding and Memory The Spirit of Illumination who being the Spirit of God and knowing all the deep things of God as a man's Spirit doth the things of a man when as we by Adam's fall do remain miserably blinded and darkned in our Vnderstanding doth reveal unto us all the supernatural mysteries of our Redemption and Salvation and produceth in us a lively faith and credence of things not seen who beareth witness within us to all the doctrine of Christ to the truth of the Gospel and to all the promises and threats thereof by whom it is that we call Jesus Lord who is the Spirit of Truth to guide us into all Truth by whose unction we know all things beneficial to us and are every one taught of God from whom those who are his more diligent and worthy servants receive manifold revelations visions illuminations both in things of spiritual and temporal concernment both for their own edification and the edification of others knowledge of the mysteries of Religion and of the deeper sence of the word of God knowledge of things to come of the secrets of the heart of things done in absence and at the remotest distance The word of Wisdome and Counsel the gift of Eloquence and powerful perswasion Wisdome in Offices and Governments The Holy Spirit distributing unto men these several Gifts as seemeth good unto him and fit for the work wherein he imploys them And all our science being much perfecter and directed to nobler ends when this conferred by the Holy Spirit §. 189. The Spirit of Love Toward God The Holy Ghost in our Will and Affections the Spirit of Love Of Love first toward God and also towards our Neighbour Towards God who doth inflame us with an impatient love of God and things Divine who according to the promise under the Gospel writeth all God's laws in our heart and inclineth our will to obey his Commandments no more out of constraint and fear but out of choice and affection who dictateth to us all our acceptable prayers to and acceptable praises of God and leadeth the greater proficients in God's service into a perfect contemplation of and union with him Elevating them with rapts and extasies and consuming the Soul with the flames of Divine Love §. 190. Towards our Brethren The Holy-Ghost the Spirit of love to our Neighbour Who doth enflame us with a most ardent love towards our Brethren whose blessed fruits are love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness by whom the Saints are rendred kind not envying not vaunting themselves above others not seeking their own not easily provoked thinking no evil bearing all things believing all things hoping all things enduring all things Who teacheth us to keep our Saviour's new Commandment of Love and bestoweth on us this most excellent gift of Charity §. 191. The Spirit of Corporal Parity and Mortification The Holy-Ghost conferring its gracious effects and influences as on the Soul so on the Body In it The Spirit of Mortification and Chastity Who continually warreth against
passion Deliver us O Lord. By thy glorious resurrection and ascension by thy coming to judgment by thy coeternal glory with the Father Deliver us O Lord. We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That we may learn of thee who wast meek and humble in heart that we may deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow thee We beseech thee to hear us That we lay not up treasures for our selves on earth but in heaven that we may lose our lives in this world that we may preserve them to eternal life and fear not those that can kill the body only but him that can throw both Body and Soul into hell-fire We sinners beseech c. That we freely and willingly take up thy easy yoke and light burthen that with all diligence we put out to usury our talents we receive from thee and receiving thy word into honest and good hearts may bring forth much fruit with patience We sinners beseech Thee c. That whatsoever we would that men should do unto us we do so unto them that we judge none rashly but love one another and do good to those that hate us We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That being uncertain of the hour of death and thy coming to judgment we endeavour to watch and be always ready that we seriously provide to give up the account of our Stewardship We sinners beseech Thee c. That persevering thro thy grace unto the end we may be saved We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That asking the Father in thy name we may be worthy to be heard according to thy promise We sinners c. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Spare us c. Hear us c. Have mercy upon us Every day will we repeat thy perfections O glorious Jesus that every day we may grow in esteem of thee every day will we attentively reckon over thy mercies that every day we may still increase in thy love We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. All that we have and are we received from thy grace All we desire and hope we expect in thy glory O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplication come unto thee Let us pray ALmighty God and most merciful Saviour the light of this world and glory of the next vouchsafe we beseech thee to illuminate our understandings enflame our Wills and sanctify all the faculties of our Souls that whilst with our lips we recite thy praises we may inwardly with our hearts adore thy person and admire thy goodness and conform our lives to thy holy example till at length by frequent meditation on the bliss thou hast prepared for us hereafter we break off our affections from all irregular adherence to this world and place them intirely on the enjoyment of thee who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest one God world without end Amen See the other Litany and Commemorations below LITANIES to God the Holy Spirit O God the Father of heaven Have mercy on us O God the Son Redeemer of the world Have mercy on us O God the Holy Ghost Perfecter of the Elect Have mercy on us O Sacred Trinity one God Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son who art the intimate love communion and complacency of the Father and the Son Have mercy on us Who art the finger strength and power of God the omnipotent worker of what the Father decrees and the Son the Word of God commands Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit by whose inspiration the holy men of God formerly spake Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit by whose admirable vertue the Incarnation of our Lord was wrought in the Virgins womb and who descendedst in the likeness of a Dove upon our Blessed Saviour Have mercy on us O Blessed Spirit who at Pentecost appearedst resting upon the Disciples in cloven tongues of fire and with whom the Apostles being replenished boldly confessed and preached our Saviour Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit the Promise of the Father and the Son who descendedst to abide with us and in us here on earth in the absence of our Lord until his second coming Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who having cast out the strong one Satan and possessed his house vouchsafest to inhabit in our persons as the Son of God in our nature and to make us thy Temples Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who finishest the internal work of our Salvation by our Sanctification as the Son of God did the external by our Redemption Have mercy on us Who descendedst to glorify our Lord to bring to our remembrance testify and confirm all his heavenly doctrine to us Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit the Paraclete abiding with us for ever our Intercessor and Advocate here on earth within us to the Father as the Son now is for us in heaven Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who art the Seed of God in us by whom we are born again and made new creatures partakers of the Divine nature and Sons of God Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit the earnest and first fruits and pledge of our future inheritance the foretast of the good word and promise of God and of the power of Christ's Kingdome and of the World to come Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit the Spirit of Adoption by whom we cry Abba Father bearing witness to our Spirits that we are the Sons of God and by whom we are sealed to the day of Redemption Have mercy on us O Blessed Spirit the Seed of Immortality in our corruptible bodies by whose vertue and power after sown in dishonour they shall be raised again in glory Have mercy on us O Blessed Spirit who guidest and preservest the Church of God in all truth illuminating its Doctors strengthening its Martyrs and perfecting its Saints Have mercy c. O Holy Spirit the bond of the mystical union between Christ our Head and us his Members and between all the fellow-members making them all of one heart and one soul as being all actuated by one and the same Spirit Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who enlightenest and leadest us into all truth by whom the Charity of God is poured forth in our hearts who writest the laws of God within us and inclinest our wills not out of servile fear but love and choice to obey his commands Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who helpest our infirmities we not knowing what to pray for as we ought and makest intercession for us with groans that cannot be uttered Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who knowest all the hidden things of God and makest intercession according to his will and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth there the mind of the Spirit Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who revealest the mysteries of Religion the secrets of men's hearts and things to come Have mercy on us
O Holy Spirit the Comforter in all afflictions and sufferings giving ability to bear them internal peace and spiritual joy in them and who art the author of a constant lively hope and confidence in God Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who distributest and dividest thy gifts and graces variously to every one according to thy good pleasure Have mercy on us The Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of knowledge and truth the Spirit of counsel and fortitude Have mercy on us The Spirit of sobriety chastity and temperance the Spirit of modesty patience and prayer Have mercy on us The Spirit of humility benignity and meekness the Spirit of compunction sanctification and the fear of God the Spirit of peace and love Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart and reproving the World of sin of justice and of judgment Have mercy on us Be merciful and spare us O Holy Spirit Be merciful and hear us O Holy Spirit From all temptations and deceits of the Devil from all sin and every evil Spirit Deliver us O Holy Spirit From all filthiness and uncleanness of soul and body from the Spirit of fornication from the Spirit of anger strife contention and envy and all uncharitableness Deliver us O holy Spirit From all presumption and despair from opposing the known truth from hardness of heart and final impenitency Deliver us O holy Spirit By thy eternal procession from the Father and the Son by the miraculous conception of the Son of God by thy operation by thy descent upon our Saviour at his Baptisme and by thy sitting upon his Apostles Deliver us O holy Spirit In the day of Judgment Deliver us O holy Spirit We Sinners beseech Thee to hear us O holy Spirit That thou would'st spare us That thou wouldst keep us from blaspheming thee O Holy Ghost and from doing any contumely to the Spirit of Grace We sinners beseech Thee c. That we may never quench grieve or neglect this Holy Spirit but may prepare our hearts for thy holy inspirations and may diligently hearken to discover and obey thy godly motions which lead us to all perfection We sinners beseech Thee c. That remembring how we are the Temples of the Holy Ghost we may take heed of violating them and that as we live by the Spirit we may walk in the Spirit and fulfil no more the lusts of the flesh but by the Spirit mortify the deeds thereof so that sowing in the Spirit we may of the Spirit reap life eternal We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou wouldst vouchsafe to stir up and cherish in us poverty of Spirit and enkindle in us a hunger and thirst after Justice that we may be peaceable and worthy to be called the Sons of God We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou wouldest infuse into us perfect charity and mercy and that we may constantly and manfully endure persecution for Justice sake We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou would'st vouchasafe us to continue unto the end in faith hope and charity and that we may be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit that is in all thy servants in the bond of peace We sinners beseech Thee c. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Pour on us the holy Spirit O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Send us the promised Spirit from the Father O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Grant us the Spirit of Peace Our Father which art Heaven c. Create in us clean hearts O God And renew right Spirits in our Bowels Cast us not away from thy face O Lord And take not thy holy Spirit from us Restore unto us the joy of thy Salvation And confirm us with thy principal Spirit The Grace of thy Holy Spirit Enlighten our senses and hearts O Lord hear our Prayers And let our cry come unto thee Let us pray O Holy Ghost the Comforter we commend to thee our souls and bodies the beginning and the end of our lives give us grace to be heartily sorry for our sins for the love of God and to do true penance for them that we may be perfectly purified from them before we depart hence out of this mortal body Of our selves O Lord we are corrupt and blind in our affections and desires if we rely on our own judgments easily seduced into error easily overcome by temptation Wherefore to thee O Holy Spirit we wholly offer and commit the guidance of our Souls defend and keep us thy servants from all evil teach and illuminate our minds strengthen our weak Spirits against inordinate pusillanimity and superfluous scruples of conscience and keep us humble that we fall not into presumption Give us a right faith unmovable hope and perfect charity that we may sweetly delight in thee and every-where fulfil thy will and pleasure who livest and reignest with the Father and Son one God world without end Amen O Eternal God who didst send thy Holy Spirit upon thy Church and didst promise that he should abide with it for ever let the same Spirit lead us to all truth defend us from all sin enrich us with his gifts refresh us with his comforts and rule in our hearts for ever And grant O bountiful Lord the Doner of every good and perfect gift that we may prepare our hearts for his holy inspirations may diligently hearken to clearly discover believe and obey his godly motions may never quench never grieve this Holy Spirit but living in him may by him be sealed to the day of redemption through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth world without end Amen O Blessed Spirit the Almighty Paraclete the communication bond and union of the Father and Son the conduit conveying to us all that we receive from the Father and the Son The dear pledge and token of our absent Lord until his blessed return by whose power all things are enlivened which do truly live and whose delight is to reside and converse in the hearts of the simple which thou vouchsafest to consecrate as Temples to thy self Come gracious Spirit have mercy upon us descend from heaven into our hearts waiting for thy comfort and so fit us for thine own self that through the multitude of thy compassions our meanness may be accepted of thy greatness and our weakness of thy strength Sanctify the temples of our bodies and consecrate them for thy own habitation Make glad with thy presence our Souls that long after thee make ready a mansion fit for thy self adorn thy bride-chamber furnish thy resting place with the variety of thy own gifts and graces drive out from thence whatsoever is old and fading renew in us thy own workman-ship with beauty incorruptible for ever convey into us heavenly light heat and motion that having tasted of the heavenly gift and the powers of the
fervore labora Sic erit lora brevis labor ille levis 26. Therefore always entertaining besides Prayer another continual and daily employment for as no vocation may be entertained that very much or wholly hinders our devotions so neither are our devotions amongst so many other Christian duties and interests to be made our whole vocation §. 119. Ejaculations in the Intervals of Prayer 27. In the intervals of set times using continually short versicles of Devotion pious ejaculations and aspirations to God for one is always thinking on what he most loves and these ejaculations belonging to any part of Prayer i. e. thanking or praising or confessing or petitioning c. And let these oblations continually ascend from the Altar of your Soul even whilst you follow your worldly affairs stealing as it were from them into the temple of your heart to worship God and to fan and keep in there the fire of your Devotion 28. Taking occasion from any thing that occurs to your senses to bless God and to use those called occasional meditations See Introd Part. 2.13 cap. Digr A Collection of some Exemplary Forms §. 120. Reciting of Psalms 29. Committing to memory Psalms altered to your purpose or other Hymns which may be continually ready to be offered to God in your Soul now the temple of his Spirit as God required concerning the law Deut. 6.7 when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way when you lye down and when you rise up and when you put on your cloaths when in impertiment company when at meals c. to prevent evil thoughts vain discourse or attention to it intemperate eating to divert any temptation to recover your self out of a passion c. Eph. 5.19 20. Col. 3.16 Jam. 5.13 the saying of which will put the mind into devotion when they find it not so 30. Many times the Soul is more affected with them when sung or used in verse 31. At a set time of the day saying such a Psalm fitted for your purpose which needs to take up no time almost from your employment and will renew in you the Spirit 32. For better fitting them for your purose Omitting transposing some verses Joyning some parts of several Psalms into one Changing David's professions into petitions As for I love Let me love c. Changing the present or preter tense into the future and è contra Making universals every where particulars as for we our us I me my Using your praises c rather in the second than third person and discoursing not only of God but with him as O Lord thou art rather than the Lord is which causeth to you more reverence and attention to what you say and minds you more of God's presence Applying to Christ and the Church and their triumphs or troubles all said of David and Sion And to your and the Church's spiritual enemies flesh or its lusts world and devil all his deprecations against his foes doing this also in your mind whenever you hear them read Furthering your self with some of a several devotion according to the several parts of Prayer i. e. for Confession for Thanksgiving for Doxology for Aspiration c. §. 121. Length of Prayer 33. As tasking your self to set times so at every of these times to a large proportion thereof measured by a glass clock or watch indispensably to be bestowed on this holy exercise This time of Prayer being the chief and most proper season of all good thoughts and holy inspirations and strong resolutions to Piety 34. And this set and large proportion of time Both because so all festination and sudden riddance of a set form which most are liable-to in this so burthensome-accounted duty may be prevented And also because much hesitancy dulness unpreparedness coldness evagation of thoughts hardly yet diuerted from our last employments do accompany the beginning of Prayer but much tenderness and consolation and complacency and incalescence of holy affections arise from the continuance of it long meditation of God as it were irresistibly kindling and then inflaming our passions towards him For which reason it is said motto pict vale il fin d'oratione ch'il principio So that who makes hast to end their Prayers entertain only the pain and toil but forbear to tast the sweetness and benefit thereof See several ways for enlarging Prayer below §. 122. Digr 1. Of the exceeding small number of those minutes of the day which are ordinarily spent in this negotiation of our Salvation and intercourse with Heaven And of the gross abuse of that text Matt. 6 7. urged in general by slothful and carnal Christians against all repetitions and long Prayers notwithstanding the known contrary practice of our Saviour who continued whole nights in Prayer and rose a great while before day to pray c. and of the Saints See Luk. 6.12 Mark 1.35 Luk. 2.37 1. Tim. 5.5 Act. 12.12 comp 6. Eph. 6.18 1. Thess 5.17 c. Digr 2. That Holy men have recommended an hours time to be spent in it the half of which seems the least that may be for those of less practise herein to perform them with any considerable devotion It being observed that any extraordinary visitations and consolations of the Spirit happen not but after long time of Prayer unless only to those who have a long time exercised themselves in this divine duty Digr 3. That to those in whom the love of God is perfectly formed Prayer is the chiefest pleasure of their life nor do they force themselves to lengthen but to restrain the time spent therein nor to heighten their passions therein but to abate them And the vehement desire of this perpetual converse with God makes company eating the necessary exercises and recreations of the Body c. that hinder them from it very painful to them §. 123. 35. One long time of Prayer better than many short ones 36. A short time better spent in some one head of Prayer than in hastily running through all for devotions continually flitting are frigid and languishing and so often changing of the fewel hinders the enkindling of the passions nor have they that earnestness and importunity with them which is required in this wrestling with God Yet where is a sterility in thinking on any subject there is a necessity to change it 37. Avoiding taedium and wearisomeness of mind if any happen before our time expired by change of our meditations and of our posture or by spending part of our time in meditation recitation of Psalms c. part in prayer or part in a set form and part in mental prayer and abiding in that wherein we are most affected §. 124. Repetitions 38. Often using Repetition especially in set forms of Prayer by which if we passed over any thing slightly the first time we may better remind it the second or if at first any thing said do much move us we may the longer continue the same passion A great help
obtain pardon and forgiveness of all our sins We sinners c. That the receiving thy Body and Blood may not be to us to judgment and condemnation but to life and salvation and that worthily receiving thy Body and Blood we hunger nor thirst any more nor dy eternally We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That through the worthy participation of thy Body and Blood thou in us and we in thee may abide for ever and that as many as eat of this Bread may be made one in peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That in innocence we may compass thine Altar O Lord and together with thy unspotted Sacrifice offer up our selves a living holy and acceptable Sacrifice to God We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That whom we believe to be in this holy Mystery really present tho veiled under the external elements we may behold at length with open face in everlasting glory We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. Son of God who takest away the sins of the world Hear us good Lord. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Have mercy on us He gave us food from heaven Man did eat Angels Bread Our Father which art Heaven c. O Lord hear our Prayers And let our cry come unto thee Let us pray WE adore thee O Lord Jesus with a true and lively faith in the Sacrament of the Altar with thy body and soul thy flesh and blood by the ineffable power of thy wisdome and goodness really present who at thy departure out of this world to the Father left us this Sacrament as a pledge of thy love that by a new and admirable way thou mightst still remain with us whose delight is to be with the Sons of men Cleanse our souls we beseech thee from all our sins and infirmities and feed them with the crums which fall from thy table that we may be filled with the marrow and fatness of thy heavenly blessings Come unto us dear Saviour and heal our sinful souls feed the hungry and refresh the weak Deliver us from all evil make us always adhere to thy commandements and never suffer us to be separated from thee Who livest and reignest one God world without end Amen O God who in this admirable Sacrament hast left us a memorial of thy Passion grant us we beseech thee so worthily to reverence the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood that we may daily find in us the fruit of thy Redemption Who livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen WE adore thee O Saviour of our Souls eternal word of the Father true Sacrifice offered for the sins of the whole world O most precious treasure replenished with all delight the resting place of pure and clean hearts O Angelical viand O Celestial bread O Eternal word of the Father which art for us made flesh and yet remainest God in the self same person We confess Thee most undoubtedly true God and Man consecrated in a most miraculous manner on our Altars to be there given to us and offered to thy Father for us Thou art the assured hope and only Salvation of sinners Thou art the Sovereign restorative of those that languish and the inexhaustible treasure of the poor distressed Pilgrims Hallowed be thy name O most sweet Saviour Jesus Christ may all thy Creatures sing forth praises and thanksgivings unto thee for the love wherewith thou tendrest our welfare by descending from heaven and offering up thy pure and innocent Body on the Cross for our Redemption Hallowed be thy name most blessed Jesus that after thy Resurrection and Ascension since thou wast to ascend into heaven there to sit at the right hand of the Father thou vouchsafest to leave us the self same immortal Body as a memorial of thy departure and a pledge of thy infinite love thou bearest us O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy on us and grant us thy peace refresh our Souls with this spiritual and heavenly food and comfort us continually with thy graces that neither in life nor death we may depart from thee nor be deprived at any time of thy celestial benedictions who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost in all Eternity Amen O Most loving Father who sparedst not thy own Son but deliveredst him to death for us all who if we ask thee Bread will not give us a Stone or for an Egg a Scorpion Behold we offer up unto thee Eternal Father this Lamb thy only Son and the infinite merits of his Sacrifice performed on the Cross and beseech thee to give us this day our daily bread bread for the body and all necessaries for this present life whereby we may be the better enabled to serve thee but especially the bread of our Souls the gifts and graces of thy Holy Spirit and whatsoever is necessary to strengthen them lest we faint in the way that we are walking in toward our heavenly country where we shall be abundantly satisfied with the pleasures of thy heavenly table who livest and reignest with the Son and the Holy Ghost one God for ever and ever Amen O Most bountiful Father who givest us from heaven the corn of thine Elect and bread of Life who hast sowed them on earth and laid them up in the Granary of thy Church for the feeding of thy children Grant us frequently to be refreshed with this bread yea spiritually at least to receive it daily which is so useful for us every day and that we may be sustained by this heavenly Viaticum in this our Pilgrimage that in the strength of that food we may travel on to the Mount of God by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen O Father of Mercies and God of all Consolation who in the abundance of thy infinite Charity hath given us thy only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but inherit eternal Life and that our necessities may be relieved out of the immense treasure of his Merits Behold me a wretched Sinner tho called by thy mercy into the Society of your Son now also partaking of his Body and Blood and therefore at this instant embracing him in my Breast and possessing him as my very self and what 's intimately united to me And as such in union of that love wherewith heretofore He gave himself for us on the Altar of the Cross and now communicates himself to us in the Sacrament of the Altar I offer Him to thee with all his merits and virtues to thine everlasting praise and glory that thou may'st be perfectly pleased in him and that we who by no action of our own can by the merits and patronage of thy most beloved Son may be compleatly acceptable to thee I present thee O Holy Father with that entire Charity Religion Humility Meekness