Son our Lord. I Believe in the second Person of the sacred Trinity the Son whom the Father begot from all Eternity communicating to him all his own Essence Greatness Perfection who continuing God became Man for the Salvation of Sinners was nam'd Christ Jesus and is the Soveraign Lord and King of all Souls O divin word which descended from Heaven to Earth to deliver me from sin and Satan be you my Lord by Election as you are by Creation and Redemption I freely give and bequeath my self to you for your perpetuall Bondslave Live O Jesu and reign in my Soul as you do in the whol extent of this large Universe Who was conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary I Believe that Gods Son that he might become Man did vouchsafe to unite to his divin Person a Rationall soul and a human body which the Holy Ghost miraculously form'd in the chast bowels of the blessed Virgin Mary and of her proper and pure blood so that he was truly conceiv'd in her and truly born by her without any prejudice to her Virginity O Jesu the lover of Purity who chose the chastest woman of the World for your Mother by the Immaculate Purity of your Conception and Nativitie give me the gift and grace of purity of Life and Conversation Suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucify'd dead and buryed I Believe that the Son of God Incarnate endured very severe Torments in his humanity for the Worlds Redemption that he was adjudg'd to dy by the Prefident Pilate and that after his death he was buryed and laid in a Sepulchre O Jesu the Redeemer of my Soul your death is the only hope of my Life be you graciously pleas'd to apply to me one single drop of your sacred Bloud and I shall rest secure in this Life and be happy for all Eternitie He descended into Hell the third day he arose again from the Dead I Believe that in the death of my blessed Saviour his Soul was really seperated for a time from his Body to descend into that part of Hell which was call'd Limbus Patrum where all such souls as from the Worlds first beginning departed this life in a good estate were till then detaind I believe that he deliver'd them from that Dungeon and that upon the third day his Soul return'd to his buryed Body became reunited unto it and rays'd it up to Life and Immortality O most glorious Soul of Christ my Saviour which thus mercifully visited the Patriarchs lying in the sad Prison of Limbus vouchsafe to give me also a gracious vâ—sit that whil'st I live I may duly and devoutly love and honour you and when my Soul shall be call'd out of this imprisoning Body it may be rays'd up to Contemplate admire and prayse your greatness goodness and glorie for all Eternitie He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Allmightie I Believe that Jesus my Redeemer being by his own power resuscitated from death to life ascended up to Heaven by his own strength where he sits at the right hand of God his Father to whom he is every way equall as the chief of all the Blessed full of glory and felicity O Jesu my Redeemer how worthy are you thus to triumph to reign to be exalted above all creatures But O forget not in the state of your greatness the condition of your miserable Creature bought with the price of your precious Bloud O King of glory grant that all my thoughts words actions and desires may aym at nothing but your only honour From thence he shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead I Believe that Christ Jesus when he shall please to put a Period to time and all sublunary things will descend visibly from Heaven in his glorious Humanity to judg all Manking both the good and the bad and publickly to reward to punish every one according to their works Ah! just Judg of all consciences what shall I then do or what shall I answer when you shall question me concerning my whol lives transactions I believe in the Holy Ghost I Believe in the third person of the sacred Trinitie the Holy Ghost who joyntly proceeds both from the Father and from the Son and is to them equall in Greatness in Majestie in all things whatsoever O sacred Spirit the God of Infinit Love and Charity breath upon my flinty heart mollify it into meekness towards my Neighbour and melt it into the sweet affections of your pure and perfect Love I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints I Believe the Catholick Church to be the only Church of Christ that it is holy universall apostolical and infallible in things appertaining to Faith and that in this Church there are found many pious Souls pleasing to the divin Majesty which mutually help each other by their prayers and good works O my Lord and my God! I render you most humble and hearty thanks for having made me a child and member of this holy Church in which I have so great hopes and so many helps to save my soul give me your grace good Jesu that I may improve this signall favour and persever in this saving Faith that from it I may pass to the clear vision of your prepared glory The Forgiveness of Sins I Believe that God is both able and willing to forgive me my Sins and that he hath left power in his Church to remit them be they never so heynous and enormous and this especially by the Priests absolution in the Sacrament of Penance O God of Infinit goodness and mercy let all Creatures Eternally prayse and magnifie your sacred Name for having given such power to men and such comfort to poor sinners The Resurrection of the Flesh I Believe that the very body in which my Soul now lives and breaths and all human bodyes though after death they are redâ—c'd into dust in their graves shall at the end of the World and at the great day of generall Judgment be rays'd to lâ—fe by Gods omnipotent command and his Angells ministry to be then rejoyn'd to their same souls and to live for evermore O Dread Soveraign in whose hands are life and death and to whose beck all things are obedient Ingrave deeply in my heart and soul the hope of a happy Resurrection that the horrour of this temporall dissolution and death of my body may not over-terrify and dismay me And life everlasting Amen I Believe that the good shall live in Heavenly glory for all Eternitie and that the wicked shall live eternally in infernall torments O good God! grant that I may so live in your grace during this my short Pilgrimage that I my live with you in glorie in your Eternall Paradise Amen §. 3. Of the Pater Noster or our Lords Prayer The second part of the Rosary THe Pater Noster is the Prayer which our Lord Jesus taught his disciples informing them from his own sacred mouth
apply my self to you I will transfrom my self into you I lose my self and Abysm my self in you for you are my God and I am your Creature you are my Soveraign and I your vassall you are my Redeemer and I your Bondslave 14. A totall Reference and Oblation of our selv's to Jesus THese are your qualities and these my endeavours and duties I accept of them and entirely yeild up my self And I make an Oblation to you of my Obedience of my servitude and of my Absolute dependency upon you and this I offer up to you for evermore I render up and totally submit my self to the motion of your Spirit and to the efficacious conduct of your Grace establish'd on Earth in Heaven by the new Mysterie of your Incarnation And I will have no other repose upon earth than in your labours no other delight than in your Cross no other life than in your death no other solace than in your sufferings as it is your Will that I should in Heaven and in Eternity have life in your life felicity in your felicity Paradise in your Paradise fruition in your fruition and subsistency in your Divinity ELEVATIONS TO THE SACRED TRINITY UPON The Mysterie of the Incarnation TO ADORE the Supream Greatnesses of JESUS and to offer up our selv's unto him in the estate of humble servitude and absolute dependency which is due to him by reason of the ineffable union of the Divinity with the Humanity HOLY Divin and Adorable Trinity in the Unity of your Essence in the Society of your Persons in the fecundity of your Emanations I prayse and adore you in the sublimity of your Greatnesses and I Abysm my self in the profundity of your Councills and in the extent of your Mercies 1. God Created two Natures capable of himself upon one he exercises his Justice upon the other his Mercy YOU have created two Natures capable of your self That of the Angell and that of Man You will exercise upon one of them your Justice and upon the other your mercy I Adore you in this your will and I give you thanks for this your Councill which you held from all Eternity in the excess of your miserations Councill most sublime and most profound Councill most holy and most sacred to unite one day and for evermore human nature to your Divin Essence 2. The Mystery of the Incarnation is the head-work of Gods Love and Power And what is proper to the Person of thâ— Father in the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation O Eternall Father who do produce in your self an only Son equall to your self and do produce him out of your self by a second and new Nativity choosing him to unite in his person your nature and ours I prayse and bless you as God and as Father an ds God and Father of this only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. You beget him eternally and you bestow him as another your self in this unspeakable generation and since the Moment chosen by your wisdom you give him incessantly to this humanity derived from the Virgin Happy Moment which serv'd for the Beginning of this great work the head-work of your love and power O God and all-powerfull Father be you Eternally blessed in this moment in this work in this love Love by which you powre out of your self this Celestiaâ—l dew this divin substance this pretious gift which the World and the blessed Virgin receiv's and in her our nature Work wherein is accomplish'd the work of your works the mysterie of your mysteries the mysterie of the Incarnation Moment in which our nature receiv'd and that for an evermore the Person of your only Son for her peculiar Person and this by a tie so sacred so divin so inward and conjoyn'd to your Divinity 3. What is proper to the Person of the Son in these Mysteries O Only Son of God! who do give your Essence to the Holy Ghost and your Person to our Humanity by an ineffable and secret Power of your Love I prayse you contemplate you and adore you in your self and in these two different donations you eternally produce the Holy Ghost and give him the same essence which you have receiv'd of the Father you create and form a new man by a new effort of your grace and power and you give your self to him uniting his nature to your own Person nor do you ever cease in this union and divin donation you thus worthily and divinly exercise your love you conspire in unitie with the Father in these two great donations the one Eternall the other Temporall and you fill up with the one times fullness and with the other the fullness of Eternitie blessed be you in time and in Eternitie When you discoursed of your self to your most inward and familiar friends that is to your Apostles in the last hour of your life you then nam'd your self Life and so you are the Life and Originall of Life and of Love in the thrice sacred Trinity which Death cannot bereave you of but in the the excess of your love you would yet become a new Life and a new beginning of Life and Love in your humanity Blessed be you in this will and in this love Love depressing and exalting Love annihilating and deifying Love crucifying and glorifying for this Love elevates the humanity and depresseth the divinity this Love annihilates in a manner your nature and deifies ours this Love puts you on the Cross and placeth us â—n Glory and finally this Love transforms us into you not only by communication of qualities but even by communication of substance O Son of God! I love you and I adore you in this love in this annihilation in this powerfull transformation 4. What is proper to the Person of the Holy Ghost in these Mysteries FRom you I come to the Holy Ghost who proceeds from you as you proceed from the Father for in this way of Life and Love I trace the order of the divin Processions and sources of Life and after the Son I address my self to you O Fountain of Life O holy Spirit Spirit of Truth of Life and of Love and I adore you in your self for you are God in the unity which you have with the Father and the Son I adore you in your Emanation for you proceed from them and you are their Spirit their Tye their Love and I again adore you in the admirable operation which you exercise in the time ordain'd by the eternall wisdom for it is the highest and holyest Operation which can be terminated out of your self Operation which environs the worthiest person that ever shall be next to the divin Persons that is the Person of the Virgin Operation which depresses and exalts her depresses her even into the center of her nothing drawing from her these sacred words Behold our Lords hand-mayd and exalts her to the greatest dignity which shall ever be communicated either to her or to any other making her Mother of God
Joyfull Mysteries The first Joyfull Mystery branch'd into ten heads or points of Meditation with Affections Elevations Petitions 309 The second Joyfull Mystery 318 The third Joyfull Mystery 327 The fourth Joyfull Mystery 337 The fifth Joyfull Mystery 348 The second Part of the Rosary containing the five Dolorous Mysteries 359 The first Dolorous Mystery divided into ten heads or points of Meditation with Affections c. 360 The second Dolorous Mystery 372 The third Dolorous Mystery 381 An Anthem and Prayer in honour of the sacred Crown of Thorns 391 The fourth Dolorous Mystery 392 The Fifth Dolorous Mystery 400 The third Part of the Rosary containing the five Glorious Mysteries 410 The first Glorious Mystery drawn into ten heads or points of Meditation with Affections 411 The second Glorious Mystery 421 The third Glorious Mystery 431 The fourth Glorious Mystery 440 The fifth Glorious Mystery 450 The first Appendix JESUS or the Confraternity of the most Sacred Name of JESUS with Elevations sutable thereunto 462 The Author and origin of this Confraternity 463 The reason and end of its Institution 463 The five Rules of it 463 The plenary Indulgences omitting many partiall granted to it 465 The manner of reciting this Rosary of the Name of Jesus 467 A brief Declaration of the Crown of our Lord. 471 Its Author Origin Manner of reciting and Confirmation by Pope Leo the tenth 472 The Crown of our Lord consists of 33. Pater nosters and of 4. Ave Maria's with one Creed added for a Conclusion 473 The first Part Of Christs coming into the World consists of Ten Pater nosters and One Ave Maria with points of Meditation and Elevations upon each Pater noster 474 The second Part Of Christs Conversation amongst men consists likewise of Ten Pater nosters and One Ave Maria with points of Meditation and Elevations correspondent to this Decade 479 The third Part Of Christs bitter Death and Passion consists also of Ten Pater nosters and One Ave Maria with points of Meditation and Elevations as in the two precedent parts 483 The fourth Part Of Christs glorious Triumph after death consists only of Three Pater nosters and One Ave Maria with points of Meditation and Elevations correspondent 487 Thirty-three Elevations and Petitions to Jesus in honour of the Thirty-three years of his holy Life 490 An Advertisement to the Practisers of these sacred Devotions 493 Elevations to Jesus Christ our Lord on honour of his severall estates and of the singular Mysteries of his Life To adore the Supream Greatness of Jesus and offer our selves to him by way of humble servitude and absolute Dependencie which is due to him in consequence of the ineffable union of the Divinity with our Humanity 495 1. The Eternall Greatness of the Word Incarnate 496 2. The equality and consubstantiality of the Divin Persons in a perfect distinction is a wonder in God himself 497 3. God low's himself to us and makes himself one of us 498 4. Gods Son gives his Eternall Essence and substance to our nature 499 5. Jesus is born lives suffers dyes for us 500 6. Jesus adores his heights by his lownesses and raises up his lownesses by his greatnesses 501 7. His excessive Love in the effusion of his Blood for us thereby testifying the effusion of his greatness goodness also upon us 503 8. Jesus is all ours and we are all his yea we are in him we live in him we are parts of him 504 9. The perfection of a Christian requires That Jesus live in him and that he imprint in his Soul the spirit and life of his Estates and Mysteries 506 10. The principall mysteries of Jesus apply'd to our sanctification and his qualities and Offices referr'd to our use 508 11. By how many Titles we belong to Jesus and Jesus to us 509 12. Jesus is Gods gift unto us and what this gift demands of us with an explication of Christian Grace 510 13. Christian Grace is form'd upon the Mystery of the Incarnation which is its Modell and requires of us a particular manner of Oblation and donation to Jesus 512 14. A totall reference and oblation of our selves to Jesus 513 Elevations to the sacred Trinity upon the Mystery of the Incarnation To adore the Supream Greatnes of Jesus and offer up our selv's to him in the state of humble servitude and absolute Dependencie which is due to him by reason of the ineffable union of the Divinity with our Humanity 514 1. God creates two Natures capable of himself upon one he exercises his Justice upon the other his Mercie 515 2. The Mysterie of the Incarnation is the Head-work of Gods love and power And what is proper to the Person of the Father in the Mysteries of the TRINITY and Incarnation 516 3. What is proper to the Person of the Son in these Mysteries 517 4. What is proper to the person of the Holy Ghost in these Mysteries 519 5. Contemplations upon the Humanity of Jesus 520 6. Contemplation upon the associating of the B. Virgin in the Mystery of the Incarnation 521 7. An Oblation of humble servitude to Jesus and his Deifi'd Humanity 522 8. A larger expression of this servitude 523 9. The life of the Divinity in the Humanity 523 10. The denudation of Jesu's Human subsistencie is the cause that his Humanity and all its actions are appropriated to the Person of the Eternall Word by which it subsists 524 11. An Oblation of all that we are have and can to this sacred Humanity 525 12. Jesus is doubly in the state of a servant First by humbling his Divin Person to a created nature Secondly by dying on the Cross 526 13. An Oblation of our selves to Jesus in honour of this his double estate of being a servant 527 14. The continuance of this Oblation of servitude 528 15. A Confirmation of this our oblation of servitude 529 16. An ardent desire of an unseparable union with Christ 530 17. The Humanity of Jesus is the Temple of the Divinity 531 18. What great things are wrought in this Humanity 532 19. This Humanity is holy by the Divinity it self which is a substantiall sanctity flowing from him into himself and thence into us 533 20. And this sanctity sanctifies even that created Grace which is in himself 534 21. An humble yeilding submitting and dedicating of our whol selves to the Deifi'd Humanity of Jesus in the way of perpetuall Bondage 535 the second Appendix Maria or the Devotion call'd the Bondage of the Blessed Virgin MARY with Elevations sutable thereunto 538 1. The Author and Origin of the Bondage 539 2. An ancient and authentick example of the practise of this Bondage 539 3. Whereupon this Devotion of the Bondage is grounded 542 The B. Virgin made up the chain of her Bondage with the links of 12. vertues 543 4. The Rules of this Devotion of the Bondage 545 The Blessing of the Chains for the Bondage 546 The Prayer and Oblation of our selv's in Bondage to
the Son and to the Holy Ghost c. These Prayers Angelicall with bended knee c. Affections Elevations Petitions WHy weep you O sacred Virgin Why do you grieve and mourn O glorious Mother of Jesus your Son lives triumphs reigns He that was lately accounted the out-cast of the people is now the most happy of all mankind He that was crucifi'd dead and buried appears now cloathed with Clarity Agilitie Subtility Impassibilitie Behold the Man look up O Blessed Mary upon your beloved Jesus the lively Image of the Eternall Father the beauty and brightness of Heaven and Earth the Crown and ornament of Men and Angells Lo He here presents himself unto you to wipe all tears from your eyes and disperse all sorrows from your heart Hear him speaking unto you in his wonted tone and tearms of respect All Hail my most honoured Mother Peace and joy be with you 'T is I my self who am the comfortable Messenger of this happy exchange of yours and my sorrows into gladness and Jubilation both that you may with me incessantly prayse and bless my Eternall Father and also that you may take the first and best share of joy who have the greatest interest in me and had the greatest part with me in my passion of any mortall creature See and admire the power of the Almightyes right hand in the person of your Son The disgrac'd is glorifi'd the defam'd is justifi'd the condemn'd is absolv'd the crucifi'd is resuscitated Rejoyce then dear Mother together with you joyfull Son for whom you need not now fear any further miseries persecutions Crosses since he is above the reach of mans malice and the Devils power having put on the robes of glory impassibility immortality The short Winter of suffering is turn'd into a perpetuall Summer of consolation The stormy showers of blood into a sweet dew of blessings All my wounds are perfectly cur'd and the scarrs only remain as Rubies of my honour and badges of my victory O the excesses of Joy which transported your extasi'd heart and soul O sacred Virgin-Mother at the sight of your now again living and gloriously triumphing Son Jesus And O my soul If thou desirest a share in these Joys and gloryes of Jesus and Mary thou must also resolve to bear a part in their sorrows and sufferings Thou art much mistaken in thinking to triumph without trying for the Victory or to be crown'd without conquering No my delicate Soldier Christ thy King and Captain suffer'd before he entred into his glory Queen Maries heart was pierced with sorrow before it was replenish'd with comforts All the Saints combated before they were crown'd And refusest thou all sufferings all sorrows all combates all that thy flesh and blood cannot relish O dear Jesu What will you do with me who dare not encounter with the least difficulties How will you deal with me who bear the name of a Christian soldier and am indeed no better than a base and cowardly sensualist If I love the glory of your Crown why dislike I the ignominie of your Cross If I desire the reward of a Conqueror why do I not adventure into the field of the combat O why should your painfull death and passion so much affright me since your glorious Resurrection confirms me in the Hope and Faith of a future felicity why should I more dread in reflecting upon the difficulties occurring in my Pilgrimage than rejoyce in fixing my thoughts upon the pleasures of Paradise which is the end of my Pilgrimage O why am I not content to suffer with Jesus and for Jesus were there no reward to be expected for all my sufferings It being a sufficient glory to a faithfull Christian to be conformable to Christ his Captain Behold therefore I humbly prostrate my self here at your sacred feet O my victorious Redeemer imploring your pardon for my past pusillanimity and purposing to behave my self hereafter more manfully Come all sorts of crosses and losses all sorrows and sicknesses all punishments and persecutions all derelictions and desclations I will no more be daunted or dismay'd but animated by your example and assisted by your grace O Christ my King my Captain my glorious Conqueror I will either pass through them couragiously or pass by them patiently or pass over them victoriously Yes my Lord Jesu I will receive henceforth all afflictions from the hands of your divin providence as pledges of your paternall affection and most willingly joyfully resignedly embrace them as the happily offered occasions for the encrease of my merit the exercise of my vertu the perfection of my soul the expiation of my sins the crowning me with glory The second Glorious Mystery Ascends THE Ascension of our Lord Jesus into Heaven Mark 16. His great work don and his Commisons given In Glorious triumph he ascends to Heaven Our Father c. THE Glorious Virgin-Mother exceedingly rejoyced 1. At the Ascension of her Son Iesus in hers and his Disciples presence FOr upon the fortieth day after our Redeemers Resurrection his sacred Mother with the Apostles the seventy two Disciples and many more of his faithfull friends and followers met together by the divin instinct upon Mount Sion and march'd from thence proâ—essionally to the Mount Olivet distant a mile from Jerusalem to be spectators of this admirable catastrophe of their dear Saviour Christs humanity and to receive his last blessing before he left the Earth to ascend into Heaven Hail Mary 2. At his great Power shew'd in his Ascension FOr he elevated himself by his own strength and vertu nor could he need any forreign help or assistance whose inhabiting Divinity and glorifi'd soul could move his impassible and agile body as himself pleased Hail Mary 3. At the joyfull meeting and acclamation of the Angelicall spirits WHich undoubtedly descended all to accompany his humanity to congratulate his victory to echo forth the triumphs of his prayses Hail Mary 4. At his soaring above all the Heavens TO wit above the spheres of the seven Planets above the Christallin orbe above the starrie Firmament even to the Empyreall seat of the Divinity according to that sentence of the Apostle He ascended up far above all the Heavens that he might fulfill all things Hail Mary 5. At his ascending above the Angelicall quires and all creatures whatsoever ACcording to that expression of the same Apostle God the Father placed him his son Jesus far above all principalities and Powers and Dominations and every thing that is nam'd not only in this world but in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet Hail Mary 6. At his being seated on the right hand of his Eternall Father ACcording to that of S. Mark He was assumpted into Heaven and sits on his Fathers right hand And of S. Paul His Father set him on his own right hand in the heavenly places Which is a Metaphoricall expression signifying equality and society of Majesty honour power felicity c. Hail Mary 7.
down his holy Spirit upon his Apostles and the rest of his chosen children to instruct them in his will to encourage them in their duties to confirm them in their Faith to assist them in their preaching to strengthen them in their persecutions O Iesu send also your holy Spirit to cure cleanse and comfort my sick sinfull and sad soul adorn each corner of my interiour with your divin love and grace that you sacred Spirit may find there a sweet and gratefull habitation rule reign and remain in my heart O Iesu King of Glory for evermore Our Father O Sacred Virgin-Mother whose soul was dilated with such unspeakable joy and sweetness in the glorious Resurrection and admirable Ascention of your divin Son JESUS appease him I beseech you in my behalf by your powerfull Prayers and Intercession Hail Mary Conclude this holy Crown with that Apostles Creed saying I believe in God c. Thirty-three Elevations and Petitions to Jesus our blessed Redeemer in honour of the Thirty-three year 's of his holy Life 1. O Good Jesu the word of the Father convert me 2. O Good Jesu the lamb of God! puryfie me 3. O Good Jesu my Master teach me 4. O Good Jesu the Prince of Peace govern me 5. O Good Jesu the sure hope of penitent Sinners behold me 6. O Good Jesu my Refuge defend me 7. O Good Jesu my Instructor direct me 8. O Good Jesu my Patience comfort me 9. O good Jesu the chief Comforter of sad Souls refresh me 10. O good Jesu my Redeemer save me 11. O good Jesu my Lord and my God! possess me 12. O good Jesu the life the way and the truth enliven me 13. O good Jesu my firm Foundation strengthen me 14. O good Jesu the light of the world illuminate me 15. O good Jesu my Justice justifie me 16. O good Jesu my Mediator sanctifie me 17. O good Jesu the Physitian of my soul heal me 18. O good Jesu my Judg absolve me 19. O good Jesu the Son of Justice shine upon me 20. O good Jesu my King deliver me 21. O good Jesu Son of David pitty me 22. O good Jesu my sanctification cleanse me 23. O good Jesu the living bread descending from Heaven satiate me 24. O good Jesu the wine bringing forth Virgins inebriate me 25. O good Jesu my Father bless me 26. O good Iesu the only joy of my heart visit me 27. O good Iesu my Helper assist me 28. O good Iesu my Protector protect me 29. O good Iesu my Love transform me 30. O good Iesu my Propitiation hide me in your wounds 31. O good Iesu the faithfull Shepheard feed me 32. O good Iesu the eternal Life receive me into the number of your Elect. 33. O good Iesu my Glory gloryfie me An Advertisement to them of the sacred Confraternity of the holy name of IESUS AFter the recitall of the Rosary of Jesus or Crown of our Lord and these Thirty-three Petitions in honour of the Thirty-three years of his holy life you may make use of some of the following Elevations to Jesus Christ our Lord and to the holy Trinity according as your opportunity and devotion shall dictate unto you and not as any part belonging to the said Rosary of Iesus which contains nothing more than what is before prescribed and expressed for though they may be practis'd with very great spiritual profit by all faithful Christians as containing a most eminent sublime and heroick manner of offring up our selv's to the divin Majesty yet the frequent use thereof is especially proper to the members of this sacred Confraternity who above all others ought to adore Gods greatness admire his goodness extoll his mercies and dedicate themselv's to his perpetuall service by the continuall remembrance of the mysteries of his Life and Incarnation which is the end of their devout Confraternity and the drift of these divin Elevations ELEVATIONS TO JESVS CHRIST our Lord In honour of his severall Estates and of the singular Mysterries of his Life TO ADORE The supream greatness of JESUS And to offer our selv's to him in way of humble servitude and absolute dependency which is due to him in consequence of the ineffable Union of the Divinitie with our Humanity 1. The Eternall Greatness of the word Incarnate O IESU my Lord King of Angels Redeemer of Men Soveraign of the Universe only Son of God only Son of the Virgin Born from all Eternity in the Eternall Fathers bosom and in times fullness born of the Virgin Mary true God true Man I adore you in your eternall and your temporall Greatness in your divin and human Fullness in your created and uncreated Highness You are the second Person of the sacred Trinity but equall to the First and origin of the Third you are the Splendor and Glory of the eternall Father you are his power and his wisdom you are his lively Image and perfect resemblance you are his only Son and his eternall word you are God of God Light of Light 2. The Equality and Consubstantiality of the Divin Persons in a perfect distinction is a wonder in God himself YOU are in these Greatnesses by Birth Such a Birth which Equalls the Power and Paternity of him who is your Father and which is one and the same thing with the Divinity A wonder not in the world but in Eternity not in the created but uncreated Being and the Prime wonder of Eternity For you are the first Production of the Eternall Father and source of the last And by this wonderfull Birth you are Infinit as he is All-powerfull is he is God as he is Beginning and Originall of a Divin Person as he is Nor is there any other difference but that in one self-same Divinity in one equall Eternity in one semblable Majesty He is Father and you are Son you are Son but without inequality without posteriority you are Son yet of even antiquity of equall authority with him and Eternall God as he is You are Son but without diversity of Essence or of Power or of Wisdom having the unity of Essence with the diversity of Subsistency in which you are one only God with him you are adored as he is and you are the Creator Conserver and Commander of the whol world as he is 3. God low's himself to us and makes himself one of us THese Greatnesses dazle our souls we cannot look upon them from out our Earths obscurity They are to be adored not beheld and we must vail our faces in the presence of this divin object as did the Angells by Isay's relation in the sight of your Throne But you are willing to exercise you mercy's upon us you will cast a cover upon your self and render your self visible to our weak spirits and to our mortall aspects you will stoop down to us and become accessible and by a Councill which even ravishes us with wonder you will come neer us and make your self as one of us For O
the end Amen Ave Maria c. 4. The fourth Exercise may be to practice some particular devotion upon such day's as are dedicated to the blessed Virgins memory and honour which are all the Saturday's besides the rest of her annuall Festivities These devotions may be to visit her Altar to recite her Litanies to make use of some of these or the like prescribed forms c. 5. The fifth Exercise may be the paying of some Annuall Tribute as St. Peter Damian tearms it to the blessed Virgin how little soever it be in token of the homage and servitude due to her Soveraign Empire This Tribute may be tendred at some Altar dedicated to her honour together with the recitall of this Prayer Receive O Soveraign Empress this small Tribute which I here most humbly present to your sacred Majesty in acknowledgment of that supream Dominion you have next after God over my heart and to testifie the desire I have to live and dye your Bond-slave Permit not O sacred Virgin that I ever pay unto Sathan the World or my sensuality any Tribute of Sin and procure for me a happy passage from this my earthly Pilgrimage to the Heavenly Paradise there to offer up to your Son and You an Eternall Tribute of prayse and benediction Amen 6. The sixth Exercise may be that of Penance and Mortification by discreetly taking a Disciplin or wearing some harsh thing upon the bare skin c at certain times of the year according to each ones strength of body and the counsell of his Ghostly Father reciting upon such day 's seaven times the Salve Regina in memory of the blessed Virgins seven sorrows and adding this Prayer taken out of St. Peter Damian O my most glorious Lady the Mirror of purity and pattern of all vertu I wretched Sinner do most humbly acknowledg that I have higly offended your Son and You by the foolish and besotted liberty of my body and soul and therefore having now no other Refuge left me I here prostrate my heart before you O my compassionate Mother bequeathing my self unto you in quality of a Bond-slave and submitting my whol self to your holy Empire and command Curb I beseech you this rebellious body of mine receive this contumacious and stubborn heart and let not your Mercy reject me a sinner since your Immaculate Virginity brought forth the Author of all Piety 7. The seaventh Exercise may be these sublim Elevations following which may be divided into severall parts and recited according to each ones opportunity and devotion ELEVATIONS TO GOD AND ADORATIONS To the thrice holy Trinity In honour of the share he was pleas'd to give unto the Virgin Mary in the Mystery of the Incarnation effecting it in her and by her and to honour the most holy Virgin in that Dignity of being Gods Mother And to offer our selves to her in the state of Dependencie and servitude which is due unto her upon this title and to correspond by our inward devotion to the speciall Power which she hath over us by consequence of this her divin and admirable Maternitie 1. Adoration of the Sacred Trinity SAcred Trinity Adorable in your self and in your works I praise Admire and Adore you in the Unity of your Essence in the Equality of your Persons in the Profundity of your wisdom in the Extent of your Providence and in that your Work of Works which makes God Man and a Virgin Gods Mother 2. The Greatness of the Mystery of the Incarnation WORK Ineffable Admirable Incomprehensible Work only worthy the power and greatness of the Worker Work The chief of your works the Originall of your Mysteries the Sampler of your Greatnesses and the Sun of your Mervails Work which incloseth your Essence is terminated by one of your Persons and produces the most Eminent dignity which was ever brought forth into a Being out of the Divinity 3. Which is so Eminent a Work AND this Work so great so rare so Eminent was don in a Moment yet not for a Moment but for an Eternity This Work is done in time yet not for a time but for an ever and ever This Work is don in Nazareth yet not for Nazareth but for the whol universe This Work is don on Earth not in Heaven but 't is done both for Earth and for Heaven This Work is don amongst men but 't is done for Angells for Men and for the God of Gods For it gives a Mother to God a King to Angels and to Men a Saviour 4. And the chief work ad extra of the Divinity 'T IS the Head-work of your hands O Divin Admirable and Adorable Trinity which imitates and expresses the Life the Communication the Society which we Adore in the divin Persons For you who Work all things for your self and in contemplating your self would in this Work imprint an Idea of your self would in the honour of your own life and communication which is divin and eternall make a life and communication divin and temporall would enter into society and communication with your creatures to Imitate and honour the communication and Society which is in your persons would in a fair Resemblance seem to match the force of your inward love and internall communication in this outward effusion of love and externall communication out of your own Essence And making choice of your lowest creature would enter into league into communication into unity with men by singularly imparting your self and peculiarly associating your self to one human nature and to one human Person To one human nature by the Incarnation of one of your Persons To one human Person by the Operation of your three Persons who in the greatest of their Works would in a manner enter Society with the Virgin 5. The mystery of the Incarnation is divided between the sacred Trinity and the Virgin O Infinit condescendency The Three divin Persons living and acting in perfect unity eternally happy and compleatly content in their own mutuall Society will extend this Society to a new person and being to operate jointly the Head-work of their Power and Bounty will associate the Virgin to themselv's in this their greatest operation in that for the full accomplishment of their own glory love and greatness being to conjoyn the Created Being with the Being Increated in one of their Persons and to give it a new nature they would share the Glory of this great work between the Virgin and themselves and making choyce of her amongst all Creatures they made her worthy and capable to give together with themselv's this new Nature and to be Mother of the word Incarnate thus elevating a human Person to such a pitch of Power and to so high a Prerogative and conferring on it so great a part in so great a Mystery Blessed be you O sacred Trinity in this your divin will and holy Councill which makes the Son of God Mans Son and which makes a Virgin Gods Mother Highest Councill therfore worthy the
proper vertu and Power O Father O Son O Mother How great and glorious things ought to be spoken and thought of you The two Divin and Eternall Persons the Father and Son are divinly link'd together and for their link in their Eternity they have a divin Person to wit the Holy Ghost equally proceeding from them both in whose unity they are both Eternally joyn'd together And these two sacred Persons the Father who is in Heaven and the Mother who is upon Earth are also holily link'd together and have in like sort for the Tye of their sacred union a divin Person to wit One self-same only Son who proceeds from them both and who between them both is this indissoluble band whereby they are for an Eternity conjoyn'd together O union which hath Jesus for its Tye Jesus I say who is the Center if the Created and Increated Being Jesus in whom is holily and happily terminated the union of two natures the one human the other divin which establisheth the mystery of the Incarnation and the uniting of two Persons the one likewise divin the other human which also establisheth the Divin Maternity wherein the sacred Virgin is united to the Father by the production of Jesus wherein she is link'd to him with so neer a union so powerfull a union and so fertill a union that it hath not its like in the large extent of all created things O let 's be the Fathers let 's be the Sons let 's be the Mothers And let 's honour the Father and the Son in this Mother who is so nearly joyn'd unto them both and who in her Estate hath so close an alliance with the Father that she conceives his Son and brings forth so worthy a fruit so powerfull an effect so lively an Image of the Divine Paternity 9. The Eternall Word who is in Society with the Father and Holy Ghost before all time doth in time enter League and Society with the Virgin AND you O Eternall Word who being her God will also become her Son What shall I say what shall I do in honour of the Son and of the Mother You are in unity and in Society with the Father who produceth you and with the Holy Ghost whom you produce and yet you will besides these two divin and co-eternall Persons enter into so inward and honorable a band union and Society with a third Person with a human Person with a temporall Person you will be the Virgins Son as you are the Son of God and you will have her for Mother as you have God for Father And by your Power and Goodness you make her the worthy Mother of God by your humility you render Obedience to her and become subject to her during your life upon Earth and trowning your own handy-works by your love and wisdom you in Heaven confer upon her such glory as corresponds to this her sacred dignity and authority Be you eternally bless'd and prays'd O great God I will for ever Reverence both the Son and the Mother I will Reverence the Mother by reason of the Son and the Son in the Mother I will Reverence all that which the Virgin is to her Son and to her God and all that which her Son God is to her And I will honour all the mutual connexions which are unknown and ineffable between the Son of God and the sacred Virgin as secrets of which the Earth must remain ignorant and which are reserv'd to the glory to the love and to the light of Heaven 10. Oblation and Donation to the Son and to the Mother in quality of Bond-slave IN the sight and at the thought of these so great so high so holy things I offer up and submit my self I vow and dedicate my self to Christ Jesus my Lord and my Saviour in the state of perpetuall Servitude and also to his holy Mother the sacred Virgin Mary To the Eternall honour both of Mother and of Son I will be henceforth in the quality and condition of slavery in regard of her who is in the state and quality of the Mother of my God therby to honour more humbly and more holily this her so high and so divin qualâ—ty and condition And I bequeath my self to her as a perpetuall Bond-slave in the honour of that Donation which the â—…ernall word made to her of himself in quality of a Son by the mysterie of the Incarnation which he accomplish'd in her and by her 11. Enlargment and Explication of this Donation with the particulars thereof Renounce all my own power and liberty of disposing of my self and my actions yeilding up this power to the sacred Virgin and dismissing my self entirely into her hands in homage to her greatness in honour of that perfect demission which she made of her self to her Son Jesus I give to her that power which God gives me over my self to be hers and no longer my own to be in her power and tuition and no more in my own In honour of the power which Gods Son gave her over himself and of the humble dependency and subjection he was pleas'd to yeild unto her delivering up himself to her custody direction and tutelage during the whol time of this Infancy and child-hood I bequeath to her my Being and my Living during the whol remainder of my Pilgrimage upon Earth with all the conditions circumstances and appurtenances which accompany the same I yeild up all to her greatness as much as I can and dedicate all to her honour and glory for the fulfilling of all her wills and powers over me In this ardour of spirit and to this intention I humbly address my self to you O sacred Virgin and I make here unto you an entire absolute and irrevocable Oblation of all that I am by Gods mercy in the Being and in the order of Nature and Grace of all that thereon depends and of all the actions I shall ever perform For my will is that whatsoever is mine be absolutely yours and that the power and the grace which is bestow'd on me be employ'd in referring my self wholy with all that is in me to your honour And I here make choyce of you O holy Virgin and I will henceforth look upon you as the only object whereunto next after your Son and under your Son I shall make the reference of my soul and of my life both interiour and exteriour and generally of all that any way belongs unto me 12. This Oblation tends to the honour of the Virgins Elevation and Depression in the Mysterie of the Incarnation WHilst I am in these contemplations of you O holy Virgin I find that even in the day of your Greatness you humble your self even to the very center of nothing rendring your self then our lords servant when you are declared his Mother Wherfore I honour in you these two motions and these two different qualities I honour this Humiliation and this Exaltation both together I honour both your Servitude and also
your Mother-hood and I reverence you as pronouncing these sacred words Behold the handmaâ—d of our lord and as receiving the effect of his divin will by yielding your self his Mother at the same instant in which you render and profess your self to be his Servant and in honour of these two different estates and of this admirable disposition which thus depresseth and exalteth you I give up my self to be for ever your Bond-slave I put my life and my soul in an estate of Relation of Dependancy and of Servitude in respect of you My will is that my life of Nature and of Grace and all my actions be yours in this quality as things totally appertaining to you by reason of this my state and condition of Servitude towards you I offer unto you my whol life and all my actions in the honour of your life and of your actions towards your only Son and in honour of your Sons actions towards you And could I come to the knowledg of an Estate more humbling more subjecting and more corresponding to the excesses of your Greatness I would most willingly embrace it thereby to render you more homage and honour and my will is that in vertu of this my present Intention each moment of my life and each one of my actions belongs as much to you as if I made to you a particular tender thereof 13. In the Virgin all is Great and particularly her Maternity her Soveraignity her Sanctity I Offer up also unto you O Virgin and Mother of God! all that I am all that I have all that I can to render homage to all that you are For in you all is great all is holy all is worthy of singular Veneration and you are an abysmus of greatnesses and a world of wonders excellencies and rarities which ravish Heaven with their beauty and which the Earth neither knows nor can conceive In expectation of having these things manifested hereafter unto me I will stedfastly behold and singularly reverence your sacred Maternity your glorious Soveraignty your great Sanctity Your Maternity for it unites you to God by a conjunction appertaining to your self alone and gives you so eminent a degree of affinitie with him as no one durst have imagined Your Soveraignty for this admirable quality of being Gods Mother gives you not only an Eminency above all Creatures but also a Power and Dominion over them all as Mother of their Creator And are there any Spirits so little vers'd in the light of our christian mysteries and so insensible of your greatness O sacred Virg n as to find fault with this your Domination and contradict this sort of servitude which beholds and honours it in you let them get forth of their darkness and rayse up themselv's above the shallow reach of their sense let them contemplate God and his Creatures and by the light of the Creator they shall quickly discern that all Sanctity hath a certain degree of Greatness of Dignity and of Domination annexed unto it They shall perceive that the Creatures as Creatures are all born in servitude the slavery is as it were their naturall estate and condition and that they are at least far nearer unto bondage in their lowness than God in the Eminency of his Being was to the Maternity which he gave unto you and whereby he was pleas'd as it were to inclose and bound himself and yet he passes over this Infinit yea Infinit times Infinit distance which is between the Created Being and the Being Increated making himself a Son to one of his own Creatures acknowledging and respecting you as his Mother and giving you a sweet honourable and Motherly power over himself And can it then be conceiv'd unjust or unbeseeming that to honour this low-stooping of God unto his Creature and this high-raysing of the Creature unto God every Creature should bear impressed on it self the mark and badg of its servitude towards this supream Dignity Dignity which God in his wisdom equally adornes and accompanies with Power and with Sanctity with Power towards the Creatures with Sanctity towards God for if it be good that God in respect of us hath a Mother It is surely just that in respect of himself he should establish her in an estate of high Power and admirable Sanctity and that he should render due honour to himself in this dignity which so divinly incloses him and so highly concerns him Your sanctity also O Virgin-Mother is incomparable for the Holy of Holies who vouchsafes to make you his Mother forms also for you a New Holyness far surpassing all other degrees and orders of Holyness which he hath already or ever will produce to make you therby worthy of so high a preferment and of so holy an office and employment and to settle you in a glorious state answearable to so great a quality In the honour therfore of your Sanctity of your Maternity of your Soveraignty I dedicate and consecrate my self totally to you O Virgin of Virgins Saint of Saints Daughter and Spouse of God the Father Mother and Servant of God the Son Temple and Sanctuary of the Holy Ghost My will and desire is that you have a speciall power over my soul over my estate over my life and over my actions as over things belonging unto your self both by the title of your own Greatness and also by this new and particular right to wit in vertu of this choyce which I now make to depend hereafter entirely upon your Sanctity upon your Maternity upon your Soveraignty by reason of this my servitude which I now and for ever present unto you 14. It is a small matter that we make our selv's the Virgins Bond-staves and therefore we wish her to employ her power over us and that she would vouchsafe to make us truly so BUt yet all this neither sufficeth your Greatness and Dignity nor satisfies my affections and desires and therefore I make it my humble Petition to you O sacred Virgin and Soveraign Lady of all hearts and souls which are consecrated to Jesus that you will of your self vouchsafe to take upon you that power over me which I cannot give you and that you will render me your own Bond-slave in the way your self best knows and approv's and which I know not Inclose me I beseech you within your power and your priviledges and make me your own in a particular manner and grant that I may serve you not only by my actions but even by the state and condition of my very Being and of my whol Life both interiour and exteriour And generally I beseech you to take me and treat me in this World as your slave who abandons himself to all your wills and delivers up himself to all your powers and to all the effects of your Greatness and Soveraigntie And I beseech you also O Jesuâ— my Lord and my God! to consider me from henceforth as the Bond-slave of your blessed Mother in the honour of her being your Mother
condition O devout children of the Rosary as to any other secular Sodality or Confraternity whatsoever For though all well ordered Congregations and Societies marching under the Ensigns of Christianity and approved of by the Church Catholique the onely Royall seat of true Faith Religion and Devotion are highly praise-worthy and exceedingly pleasing to the divin Majesty since though their Lawes are different their ways divers their devotions distinct Yet they aym all at the same end steer their courses towards the same Haven breath the same zeal of Gods honour and glory seek with like ardour their own and their neighbours Perfection and Salvation Yet I may boldly say there are none more holy more honourable more happy than such as choose the glorious Virgin Mary the powerfull Empress of both worlds for their Protectress and Patroness And this in respect of her Dignity her Power her Perfection her Puritie and her other Attributes Priviledges and Prerogatives which prefer her before all other Creatures and which cannot without Heresy or Blasphemy be by any Christian denyed or doubted of For First she was appointed designed predestinated by the sacred Trinity from all Eternity to be the worthy Mother of the Word Incarnate Secondly her birth was not only prefigured promised prophecied but foretold by an Angell appearing to her barren Parents immediatly before her Conception Thirdly being born free from all sin she led a life so full of all Sanctity so singular in all Purity so excellent in all Perfection that she deserved yes She deserved says Saint Augustin by her Creators mercy the prime Author of this her Purity Innocency and Perfection to be chosen the Mother of Gods Son Fourthly a Mother yet remaining a Virgin a Mother of God which is an Attribute containing alone all that is great glorious excellent Fiftly an Attribute which constitutes her Queen of Angells Saints and Men for to which of them all says our St. Bernard hath God said You are my Mother This is the Priviledg of Mary an Attribute not communicable to any other creature A Dignity to which all other heights and excellencies yield homage reverence A Prerogative to be silently admired since it is impossible to be explicated And what marvell is it if whol multitudes of faithfull children have flocked to the protection of such a Mother What wonder that so many worthy Assemblies have desired to shelter themselves under her sacred wings in hope to sail securely over the dangerous Sea of this lives pilgrimage by her powerfull tutelage and direction This greatness therefore this glory this excellency of the Virgin Mary is the cause of so many holy Confraternities erected in her honour whereof some fixing upon the mysteries of her life have made choyce of the Annunciation or the Conception or the Nativity or the Purification or some other mysterie for their particular Motto and name of their pious Confraternities Others observing the places which she hath been pleased to make famous by her frequent miracles have entitled their devout Societies from Loretto in Italie from Mount-Serrat in Spain from Liesse in France from Hall and Sichem in Flanders Others admiring and honouring her in her effects and attributes have founded severall Congregations according to her severall properties qualities denominations And as she is the Lady Mother of Power which is the title of this our little Altar of Pity of Vertue of Grace of Comfort of Mercy of Deliverance So there are as many particular Assemblies distinguished from each other by these divers denominations but all concentring in the sacred Virgins honour all conspiring in their zeal and devotion to her service all desirous to testifie that though their choyce is different their statutes severall their wayes many yet their design is common their end and aim is one and the same To discourse here of all these devout Confraternities erected in her honour and dedicated to her service were as endless a project in it self as useless to my present design and purpose and therefore contenting my self to have given you these generall notions names and prayses of the most eminent and signall Orders Sodalities and Congregations I shall confine the residue of my discourse to declare that onely Confraternity which we our selves have happily made choyce of I mean the Arch-Confraternity of the sacred Rosary which contains all the other Societies under its generall name and title and communicates it self to their generall Subdivisions as the great Ocean the generall Magazin of waters discharges it self into many Sea-armes creeks and bosomes But before I lanch forth into this large Ocean I shall with the permission of your patience speak a word since it particularly concerns our Confraternity of our Lady Mothers title of Power the sirname of this our sacred Altar and consequently the Notion under which we have engaged our selves in the sacred Virgins service and Sodality A Title Most devout Rosarists truly Royall Noble Glorious A Quality capable to call invite and encourage all afflicted Souls to fly to her Patronage A Name which only pronounced cannot choose but afford present comfort Is there any one amongst you afflicted in mind perplexed in spirit over-tyrannized by your passions overswayed by your sensuality apprehensive of malicious enemies fearfull of threatned torments tribulations persecutions Have you not a powerfull Mother as ready as able to help you Are you sayling upon the boysterous Sea wafted to and fro with the tempestuous winds and billows bruised against the rocks run upon the quick-sands in eminent danger of utter ruin shipwrack and drowning Lift up your eyes hands and hearts to Heaven look for present help from Mary your Powerfull Mother Are you journying by land strai'd from your right path set upon by robbers surprized by nights darkness tyred troubled disconsolated with the inconveniencies of travell Think upon the Mother of Power who will pray for you and protect you Are you seized upon by sickness alarm'd with deaths summons thunder-stricken with the terrour of Gods severe Judgments the torments of Hell-fire the length of your doubtfull Eternity O despair not distrust not quit not your hopes and hold you have a mercifull Father to pardon you a Powerfull Mother to Patronize you Are you assaulted with sodain strong furious temptations shaken with secret suggestions violented by your lawless affections ready to give consent to mortall sin O resist manfully resolve valiantly fight confidently under your Powerfull Mothers ensigns visit this holy Altar with your thoughts and affections reflect upon the sacred Confraternity whereof you are a member Are you deprived by some accident of your fortunes fame friends reduced to poverty infamy extremity Remember your Mothers Power and Charity implore her prayer's and protection and doubt not to obtain either patience to support what so much troubles you or a speedy deliverance from it Finally in all dangers difficulties distresses think upon the Mother of Power call upon the Mother of Power let her not depart from your mouth let her
cause of the Cross and thou shalt easily quench the fires of all thy passions 6. It gives us hopes of our salvation For what may not he hope who beholds Christ dying on the Cross for his Redemption and who looks upon Christ more faithfully than he who frequently imprints his Cross upon his heart and forehead to which the Apostle alluding exhorts all Christians to remember at how dear a rate they are bought and to glorifie and carry God in their Bodyes 7. It inflames our souls in the divin love and charity For who can consider Christ expiring on the Cross for his sake and continue cold and tepid God commends his love towards us say's the Apostle In that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us 8. It a verts from us Gods indignation and revenge In which sense that saying of the Psalmist is understood by S. Gregory of Nice and by S. Hierom. Thou O Lord hast given a sign to them that fear thee that they may fly from before the Bow 9. It defends us from all our enemyes so the same Fathers explicate that other passage of the Psalmist shew some sign upon me for good that they who hate me may see it and be asham'd because thou O Lord hast holpen me and comforted me 10. It drives away the Devills Sign thy self says S. Cyril with the Cross in the forehead that the Devill perceiving the Kings character may be affrighted and fly from thee And again This sign says he is a comfort to Christians and a terrour to the Devills And the Martyr Ignatius The sign of the Cross is a Trophe against the power of the Prince of this world which hearing and beholding he fears and trembles Finally The sign of the Cross says S. Cyrill is the Seminary of all vertues and in it alone says S. Ambrose consists the prosperity of all Christians And if any shall question you O Christians says Tertullian whence this Ceremonie had its first rise and origin Answer them boldly Tradition hath taught it custom hath confirm'd it Faith hath practis'd it Since therefore this sign is of so great power and efficacie against the Devills so assured an Antidote against all sorts of dangers so undrayn a â—lea fountain of all desirable good and happiness as in these few words supported by the authority of such ancient and learned Fathers seems sufficiently declared Let us O devout Fellow-members of the sacred Rosary be carefull to arm our selves therewith upon all occasions at all times in all places and especially at the beginning and end of our Psalter remembring that we are spirituall Souldiers listed by Christ our Captain to fight under the banner of his blessed Cross against the World the Flesh and the Devill undoubtedly hoping by vertue thereof to overcom and vanquish them §. 2. Of the Apostles Creed which is The first part of the Rosary THe Apostolicall Symbol or Creed is so called for that it was made compil'd saith S. Clement by the twelve Apostles being yet together each one of them adding what was conceiv'd necessary to the end that when they were separated they might preach this Rule of Faith to all Nations which as S. Augustin largely declares is a Plain Short Compleat comprehension of our Faith that so its Plainness might correspond to the Hearers capacitie its Shortness to their memorie its Compleatness to the contained doctrin For that which in Greek is named Symbolum is called Collation in Latin because the Catholique doctrine is compendiously knit and collected together in this divin Symbol which signifies also Indicium a mark note or token whereby Orthodox Believers might be known and distinguished from all others Now some of the Reasons why this sacred Creed ought to be recited at the entrance upon our Rosary may be briefly these 1. Because order and Reason seem to require that after the solemn confession and Invocation of the Holy Trinity which is don as aforesaid by making the sign of the Cross We should in the next place make a profession of what we believe of the Trinity 2. Because Faith being the Foundation of Prayer as the Apostle expresly tells us He that comes to God must believe We do hereby most fitly at the begìnning of our Prayer renew excite and reduce our Faith from its habit to an act 3. Because the Church begins and ends the Canonicall Office with a Creed and the Rosary as hath been declared is an Imitation of the Davidicall Psalter and Church Psalmodie 4. Because the Fathers do most seriously recommend the frequent recitall of the Creed to all faithfull Christians Amongst whom S. Augustin some of whose many pithy expressions upon this point we shall only here produce to avoid unnecessary prolixity says thus Having learned your Creed recite it daily when you rise out of your bed when you compose your selv's to rest c. Let iâ— not seem irksome to repeat it Repetition is convenient to avoid oblivion Do not pretend that you said it yesterday that you said it this day that you have it fresh in your memory but express it again repeat it contemplate it let your Creed be your glass there consider your selv's and see whether you believe what you profess and rejoyce daily in your Faith Let your Faith be your richess and let your Creed be as it were the continuall cloathing of your interiour Do you not cloath your body when you rise out of your Bed So by reciting your Symboll you cloath your soul least forgetfulness should leave it naked c. An Exercise upon the Apostles Creed I Believe I Believe acknowledge and confess with heart and mouth all such Articles of Faith as the holy Church proposes to be believed because God who is the Truth it self hath revealed them In particular I believe all that is contain'd in the Apostles Creed whereof I here make my profession in the presence of God my Creator and all the Court of Heaven protesting and promising to live and dy in this Faith O Lord encrease my Faith I believe Lord help my unbelief I believe in God the Father Allmightie Creator of Heaven and Earth I Believe in the first Person of the sacred Trinitie the Eternall Father whom I acknowledg to be full of all possible and imaginable might and power and that he produc'd the Heaven the Earth and all Creatures both visible and invisible of nothing by his sole word and command and out of his own free-will and goodness O my Allmightie and Allmercifull Father you can as easily bring me back into the dark Abysmus of my first Nothing as you from thence powerfully drew me and gave me this present Being Behold I most humbly acknowledg the absolute and perpetuall dependancie which I have upon your divin Majesty I confess that of my self I am nothing have nothing can do nothing and that my whol Being breathing and motion proceeds from your bounty goodness and power And in Jesus Christ his only
Father How then do I see you panting fainting falling down through feebleness Are not you the supporting strength of this spacious Universe did not your power extend the Firmament encircling therewithall the celestiall Orb 's and fix the Earth upon the point of its own upholding center How then do I now behold you lying prostrate under the oppressing weight of this one single burthen O my Saviour you promise to lend men your helping hand and send them the assistance of your Angells to keep them from all harms in their fallings and your self falls here under your heavy Cross without admitting any succour from your own divin Person from your Angells or from Men in this your extream necessity O my soul how heynous are thy sins which ly so heavily upon thy Saviours shoulders And O my proud perverse spirit which refusest to submit thy stubborn neck to the sweet weight and light burthen of God and his Church Didst thou ever seriously contemplate thy Redeemer Christ Iesus groaning for thee under the burthen of his Cross How then dost thou still continue thy disobedience ingratitude impietie Or didst thou ever take into thy serious consideration thine own perchance nearly approaching passage out of this World to an eternity How then dost thou not apprehend what a heavy weight will oppress thy wicked heart at that dreadfull hour and how thou wilt be beaten down under the burthen of thy sins And alas who will then assist thee when thy angry Creator shall thunder his just judgments upon thy head which like formidable waves wil overflow and drown thy frail vesell What succour canst thou expect when a sad dispair seizing upon thee thou shalt vainly desire to ly cover'd in some cranny of the Rocks or to hide thy head in some hole of the Mountains or to be deep buryed in some Dungeon within the Earths bowels Who will then lend thee a charitable hand in this thy extream calamity or what can comfort a conscience thus cauteriz'd crucify'd oppress'd with so many crimes crying out against themselves for vengance O my soul Let 's not remit our conversion to that dismall hour but let 's now efficaciously do what we shall then fruitlesly desire to have done Leâ—… in the first place discharge our conscience of its deadly crimes whilst time and opportunity afford us leave and leasure Then let 's away with all these fardles of ill-gotten Goods cancell all unlawfull usurarie extortionous contracts cut off all our sinfull customs concupiscences sensualities and finally shake off the two long carryed and over-heavily charging yoake of the World the Flesh and the Devill This done let 's cheerfully receive the Cross of Penance and mortification from the sacred hands of suffering Jesus He carries it before us to encourage us to follow him his is weighty to make ours light and easie he fall under his that we may stand fast under ours and we shall neither want strength nor comfort in this our heroick enterprise of vertu and piety if we frequently cast our faithfull eyes upon our valiant Captain marching before us towards Mount Calvarie with his royall Standard on his shoulders The fifth Dolorous Mysterie Is kill'd Christ our Saviour is crucify'd and dy's on the cross John 19. Luke 23. Mark 15. Matth. 27. With nayles extended on the Cross he dy's Who 's God and Man for Man a sacrifice Our Father Our Blessed Saviour was put to excessive pain and torture 1. At the pulling off of his Garments FOr when by the help of a certain poor fellow call'd Simon he had train'd his heavy Cross to Golgotha His Executioners tear off his cloathes together with his skin and flesh to which they were in severall parts in a manner fast glued with the Blood flowing out of his wounds Hail Mary 2. At his there standing again naked in the sight of all the Spectators TO be hang'd up naked was the greatest disgrace they could put upon the most despicable person and don only to the worst sort of Malefactors Hail Mary 3. At the boysterous stretching out of his body on the Cross WHich they rack'd with such vioâ—ence by the help of ropes ty'd to his wrists and ankles that according to the Royall Prophets prediction all his dislocated Bones might have been numbred Hail Mary 4. At the Piercing of his hands and feet with nayls O Christ my Rock out of these sacred holes I may suck hony draw forth oyl and fully tast the sweetness of your affection Hail Mary 5. At the Erection of the Cross with Iesus upon it TO publish his Crucifixion and shew him to all the greedily expecting people What faithfull Christian will not be now rays'd to hopes of obtaining pardon When he considers his Redeemers arms thus extended to embrace him and his hands thus open'd to bestow benefits upon him Hail Mary 6. At the superscription of the Title of Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews WHich was written in a threefold language that no one might be ignorant of the cause of this his cruell usage but that all might conclude He was justly crucifi'd who had unjustly usurp'd a Kings title Hail Mary 7. At their continued calumnies whilst he hung on the Cross O Princes and People How implacable was your hatred how great your malice how insatiable your fury which could not forbear your abuses in his last Agony But he endur'd your peevishness and kept his own patience and though he descended not now from the Cross he soon after arose from the Sepulcher Hail Mary 8. At the sight of his compassionate Mother standing by his Cross O Sorrowfull Mother you see the Innocent Son of your chast womb wounded and cannot cure him weltring in blood and cannot wipe it off inclining and hanging down his weak and wearied head and cannot uphold it c. What tongue can express the compassion of your tender heart at the sight of these your Sons afflictions Or the grief of his tender heart at the sight of his thus afflicted Mother Hail Mary 9. At his Thirst upon the Cross GReat surely was the naturall thirst of his Body which was almost exhausted and drained dry of all his blood and moysture But far greater was his Souls spirituall thirst for the salvation of Mankind What do you thirst after O dear Redeemer says S. Augustin wine of the grape or water of the River your thirst is my salvation your drink my Redemption Be thou also thirsty O my dry Soul and drink thy fill of that blessed Fountain which thirsts thus after thee Hail Mary 10. At his giving up the Ghost and expiration on the Cross JESUS bowing down his head breath'd out his soul and deliver'd up his spirit freely voluntarily unconstrainedly into the hands of his eternall Father And so compleated and consummated the penall and afflictive part of the great Mystery of mans Redemption Hail Mary Glory be to the Father and to the Son c. These prayers Angelicall c. Affections Elevations
Petitions O My Soul would'st thou know where thou mayst assuredly find thy sweet Saviour Jesus the desired object of thy dearest affections It is upon Mount Calvary There he feeds upon Gall and Vineger There is his habitation upon the hard Cross There he reposes with extended leggs and stretched forth Arms to have his feet and hands pierced with horrid nayls There and thus he expects thy return from far O prodigall child ready to embrace thee with a Fatherly affection And dost thou see thy sweet Saviour hanging thus on the Cross for thy sake and yet solacest thy self in sinfull delights remainest still wallowing in the mudd and myre of thy wicked customs and not content thy self to commit sin and give scandall to others by thy bad example teachest them lessons of malice to draw them to thy unjust desires and their own utter damnation O sinful wretch Return now at least into thy self turn to thy sweet Saviour and run into the open'd arms and bosom of thy beloved Jesus calling thee alluring thee ready to receive thee He cry's out to thee from his Cross I thirst after thy conversion correction salvation He cry's aloud to awake thee excite thee hasten thee to accept of his proffer'd love before he renders up his life O when will the time come in which they who are buried in the Sepulchers of deadly sin and ly rotting in the graves of their inveterate crimes will hear the voyce of God's Son and hearing it will return to the life of grace if not at this present when he himself dyes to resuscitate them When will earthly souls full of terrestriall affection fear and tremble if they now remain unmoveable when will the Rocks of stony hearts be rent asunder with sorrow if they are now insensible When O my soul will the veil of thy vicious conscience be corn from the top to the bottom by a true confession of thy secret sins if shame and cowardise keeps it now cover'd when Jesus hangs naked on his Cross When will the Sun of thy Pride and vanity be obscured if it now shines when the glorious Sun of Justice shuts his eyes and becomes totally eclypsed O Jesu you call me And it is high time for me to answer to your summons you incline your sacred head towards me to give me a kiss of Peace and to whisper in the ears of my heart and Soul Behold I dy for thee I dy willingly for thee I dy purely for the love of thee And O my heart and Soul What answer do you make O my Jesu my sweet Saviour my dear Redeemer my soverarign Lord and Lover you dy and do I yet live O that I who have hitherto liv'd so little for you and so long for the world That I who have liv'd so long without you in negligence forgetfulness ingratitude That I who have liv'd so long against you in sin Impiety rebellion That I who have employ'd so small a portion of the time and talents you lent me faithfully and sincerely in your love and service O that I might now at least dy for you and with you Or if your providence will have my Pilgrimage yet prolong'd O Let me not live hereafter one moment but only for you and let me rather lose my life than your Love that living and dying I may be entirely yours for all succeeding time and Eternity Amen Then end this second part of the Rosary with the Creed sign of the Cross and Prayer To the sacred and undivided Trinity c. as before in the first part The third Part of the Rosary containing The five Glorious Mysteries Begin with the sign of the Cross Prayer and Creed as formerly The first Glorious Mystery Rises THE Resurrection of our Lord JESUS Mark 16. Our Saviour Rises reindu'd with breath Victorious over Hell and horrid Death These five Principall and common heads of the Glorious Mysteries may be also subdivided into many particular points of contemplation which according to our precedent method in the Joyfull and Dolorous we shall reduce to the number of Ten answerable to the Decades of this third part of the Rosary Our Father c. Our Blessed Redeemer and his sacred Mother exceedingly rejoyced 1. At his Bodyes cloathing with Immortalitie FOr by conquering death it was triumphantly rais'd up to a glorious immortall incorruptible life Hail Mary 2. At the joynt Glorification both of Body and Soul NOt that the Soul of our Blessed Saviour which was absolutly glorious from the first instant of his Conception receiv'd now any new encrease of glory but that the Miracle which retain'd his souls Glory from redounding into his Body did now cease upon this day of his Resurrection So that his Body receiv'd now its hitherto hindred Dowries of Claritie Agility Subtility Impassibility Hail Mary 3. At his exaltation above all creatures 1. THat in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow 2. That by no other means than his merits any one should be saved 3. That he should have all power in Heaven and Earth 4. That he was constituted the Judg of the living and dead All which he deserv'd by his exact obedience to his Eternall Father Hail Mary 4. At his entire victory over all his enemyes FIrst The Jews who having upbrayded him of Impotencie in not descending from the Cross were now utterly confounded at this far greater miracle of his Resurrection from Death 2. The Devill and all the Infernall Powers whose Pride he abated whose Kingdom he invaded whose spoyl's he divided c. Hail Mary 5. At his delivering the Holy Fathers out of Limbus TO wit Abraham Isaac Jacob Moyses David and the rest of the Patriarks Prophets and holy Persons whom he triumphantly led out of their long sustain'd captivity Hail Mary 6. At the now perfected Redemption of mankind FOr his and his mothers present joy and glory were commensurate to their former grief and sorrow undergon in his late cruell death and passion Hail Mary 7. At his being the true cause and perfect exemplar of the future Resurrection of all Mankind FOr as Christ is risen we also shall arise to wit to immortality c. Hail Mary 8. At the filling up the places of fall'n Angells THe Resurrection of our Saviour says S. Gregory was the festivity of the Angells for their number was to be compleated by his calling us to his heavenly Kingdom Hail Mary 9. At the corroboration consolation and confirmation of the Apostles ANd at the Reparation of their Faith Hope and Charity which were not only shaken but even lost and they exceedingly contristated and scandaliz'd at his death Hail Mary 10. At his frequent Apparitions for forty days space TO his dearely beloved Mther To the pious Magdalen and the rest of the devout Women To all his Disciples in generall To S. Thomas in particular wherby he manifested to them the reality of his glorious Resurrection and by them to the whol world Hail Mary Glory be to the Father and to
thought proceeds that it would much redound to the honour of Christ our Lord and Saviour and conduce to the encrease of devotion in the hearts of all pious Christians If as according to the very ancient institution and generally receiv'd custom severall godly people use to recite sixty three Angelicall Salutations with our Lords Prayer seven times interpos'd in honour of the most blessed Virgin Mary according to the number of years which she is esteem'd to have liv'd upon earth which kind of prayer is call'd the Virgins Crown so they would also inure themselv's to recite thirty three Lords Prayers interposing four Angâ—lical Salutations in the honour of our Redeemer for a commemoration of the years in which he convers'd upon earth amongst men which would be as it were our Lords Crown c. We whom it behoves to promote the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ as farr forth as he shall enable us and to add fewell to the devotion of his faithfull flock Do approve and confirm the aforesaid manner of Prayer invented by that ancient and recluded Hermit and will have it call'd the Crown of our Lord c. Given at Florence the 18 of Feb. in the year 1516. The same Rosary or Crown of our Lord was afterwards confirm'd by Pope Gregory the 13. and endow'd with more and greater Indulgences vide Augustinum Florentinum Lucam Eremitam Bucelinum in Annalibus Benedictinis c. The Crown therefore consisting of 33. Pater Nosters or Lords Prayers consonant to the number of years in which our dear Redeemer convers'd with men in his human flesh upon earth to merit for us a happy Crown of Glory in Heaven and of four Ave Maries or Angelical Salutations with one Creed added for a conclusion is divided into four parts whereof the three first parts are Decades or Tens there being in each of them a ten-times-repeated Lords Prayer and one Angelical Salutation and in the fourth part there is only a Thrice-repeated Lords Prayer with one Angelical Salutation and the Creed and may be recited as it is here distinctly set down with an additionall point of Meditation upon some of the pious Mysteries of our Saviours life and a short Aspiration which may easily be dilated with more affections and resolutions according to each ones Spirit of devotion The first Part of the Crown of our Lord. Of Christs coming into the World 1. OUr dear Redeemer descended from his royall Throne from his eternall Fathers Bosom from his happy Heaven into this vale of misery and cloath'd himself with human flesh in the holy Virgins Womb. O Jesu how excessive is your Mercy how infinit your affection how stupendious your condescendency to undeserving man Ah! that my heart were perfectly free from all that displeases you that so it might deserve perpetually to harbour you Our Father 2. HE being conceiv'd inspir'd his sacred Virgin Mother to take a journey into the Mountains of Judea there to visit salute and serve St. Elizabeth her Kinswoman O Jesu that my soul were alwaies pliable docible obedient to correspond to your sweet and sacred impulses motions and aspirations how cheerfully should I then serve your soveraign Majesty and how charitably should I assist my necessitous neighbour Our Father 3. AFter he had been carryed nine months in his Mothers chast entralls he was born in a cold Stable wrap'd in poor raggs cradled in a hard Cribb O Jesu make me in love with poverty humility and mortification which you have made so amiable by practising them in your own divin person Our Father 4. THe Angells congratulate his happy birth with their heavenly Canticles and the shepheards humbly joyfully and admiringly adore him O Jesu let my tongue incessantly sing forth your Prayses let my heart perpetually breath forth acts of gratitude for your Mercies and let my soul sweetly melt away in her reciprocall affections Our Father 5. UPon the eighth day after his Nativity he was circumcis'd and call'd Jesus O Jesu O sacred and sugred Name O Jesu be unto me a Jesus O that my tongue heart and hands with all my senses powers and faculties of body and soul were truly circumcis'd from all superfluous curious vitious inclinations passions and affections that so I might never more think speak or act any thing offensive to your divin will and liking Our Father 6. HE was diligently sought out by the Eastern Sages humbly ador'd by them and highly honoured by their royall Presents and Oblations O Iesu let me never leave seeking till I find you the only belov'd Object of all my affections and strengthen me sweet Iesu to make a totall Oblation Consecration and Resignation of my whol self to your holy will and pleasure entirely irrevocably eternally Our Father 7. HE was carryed to the Temple in his sacred Mothers arms to be presented as her first-born to his eternall Father shewing himself in all things subject to the Law O Iesu shall not I humble my self and submit to all men for your sake Our Father 8. HE to avoid Herods cruelty sustain'd a tedious banishment in his tender years O Jesu give me patience in all my persecutions temptarions and troubles and let not my grievous sins banish me from your sweet grace and presence Our Father 9. HE return'd from Egypt after his seven years sufferings O Jesu let your efficacious grace recall me from vice to vertu let me return into you my first Origin and let me repose in you my only center and security Our Father 10. HE dwelt with his Parents in t he City Nazareth O Jesu dwell in my soul here by your grace that my soul may dwell with you hereafter in your eternal glory Our Father O Sacred Virgin-Mother who having conceiv'd your divin Son without sin and brought him forth without sorrow serv'd him so diligently during the time of his minority appease him I beseech you in my behalf by your powerfull Prayers and intercession Hail Mary The second Part. Of Christs Conversation amongst men 1. OUr dear Redeemer being twelve years old went up with his Parents to Jerusalem to perform his devotions where he was lost sought and after three day's found in the Temple O Jesu replenish my heart with solid devotion that sincerely seeeking you I may happily find you and having found you I may faithfully keep you company in my interiour for evermore Our Father 2. HE return'd with his Parents to Nazareth and was subject unto them O Iesu break my rebellious will that I may promptly obey you and my Superiors according to your most perfect trample Our Father 3. HE being thirty years old was baptiz'd by St. Iohn in the river Iordan O Iesu permit not my sinfull soul to pass forth of my body till it be baptiz'd in a river of tears and restor'd to purity by the Sacrament of Penance Our Father 4. HE fasted forty dayes and nights in the Desert and was tempted by the Devill O Iesu give me courage to subdue all
favour in the world which makes me in the Order of Grace not only existent by you but existent in you So that by this manner of Grace proper to this Mystery and springing from it in the honour and Imitation of your Eternall Procession I am not only yours not only by you but I am in you I live in you I make a part of you I am bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh let me be then also spirit of your Spirit let me live by your life let me participate of the Interiour of the Grace of the Estate of the Spirit of your Mysteries let me appropriate my self to you let me appropriate them to my self let me appropriate my self to your Greatnesses and to your debasings your Cross and your Glory your Life and your Death 9. The Perfection of a Christian requires that Jesus live in him and that he imprint in his Soul the Spirit and life of his estates and Mysteries 'T Is my desire and my hope but it surpasseth my power and therfore I expect it from the new Grace of the new Man For this Grace joyns me to him and placeth me in a condition not only to work but further to receive and bear his sacred and divin Operations yea and tends to a more strict and inward Communication For this new Grace issuing out of the Incarnation and resembling its own originall and Prototypon tends to this that I be in Jesus and that Jesus be in me as he is in his Father and his Father is in him Be then in me O Jesu live in me work in me form and figure in me your Estates and your Mysteries your actions and your sufferings And as the Father expresseth and impresseth in you his substance as in his divin Character so imprint in my soul and in my life your inward and outward Conversation and make me a lively character bearing the impression of your Spirit of your estates of your holy and wholsom operations You are the Image of God make me the perfect picture of your self make me like to your self conforming me to your Mysteries as you have been pleasd to make your self like me conforming your self to my miseries and let me carry the effects and lineaments of your Grace and of your Glory of your Power and of your life which you led upon earth Let your Birth make me be new-born born Let your Infancy put me in the state of Innocency Let your flight into Egypt make me fly the world and sin let your Servitude render me your slave let your bonds unfetter me and infranchise me from my sins from my passions and from my self Let your hidden and unknown life hide me from the world and from vanity let your solitude entertain me let your temptations strengthen me let your labours solace me let your griefs cure me let your Agonyes comfort me and let your death make me live and be new-born in Eternity 10. The Principall Mysteries of Jesus apply'd to our sanctification And his qualities and offices referr'd to our use LEt me thus enter Commerce and communication with you O my Life and my Love O my God and my All Let the course and the Moments the Periods and the Estates of your Life upon earth be thus apply'd and appropriated to me and let your Qualities and Offices thus work in me and imprint in me their comfortable efforts You are the uncreated Wisdom I will adhere to your Maxims and follow your conduct you are the Doctor of Justice I will enter into your School and Disciplin you are the Holy and Health-bringer of God in you will I have Grace and Salvation you are the live I will live in you you are the way I will walk by you you are the God of Heaven and of Earth I will be yours 11. By how many titles we belong to Jesus and Jesus to us I Know I am yours and that by many titles For I am yours by your Greatness your Powerfulness your Priviledges I am yours by your Dignities your Merits your Benefits I am yours by the gift of your Father who gives me unto you in giving the whol Earths circumference to you I am yours by your own gift whereby you give your self to your Father for me And you are mine for your Father gives you to the world in the excess of his love and you are your Fathers gift you are Gods gift in divers and sundry significations And 't is your own self which thus qualifies your self telling the Samaritan woman Didst thou know Gods gift and who he is that talks wtth thee This was your discourse of your self to this poor stranger whom you happily made a Domestique of your Faith and of your word and vouchsaf'd your self to Catechize so familiarly 12. Jesus is Gods Gift unto us and what this Gift demands of us with an Explication of Christian Grace WHerefore being taught by your sacred mouth that this quality of being Gods Gift is proper unto you I adore you I behold you I receive you in this quality As by this you are mine I will be yours Nor shall it suffice me to be yours by your self and by your Father I will be yours by my self also and by choise of my own Free-will I give my self then to you O Jesu my Lord I give to you my self with my whol power and according to the full extent of your own power and will over me I give my self to the Grace of your Mysterie of the Incarnation Grace which tyes me unto you in a new manner Grace which separates me from my self unites and incorporates me in you Grace which makes me yours in so noble so intimate and so powerfull a fashion and renders me yours as a parcell of your self Grace of life and of death both together Grace of annihilating and also of establishing In the strength and vertue of this Grace which hath its origin in you and in your new estate of God-Man I annihilate my self in my own self to be in you and I will carry within my Soul a death to all things that I may live in you And I will that my Being be reduced to be nothing els than a pure Capacity of you fill'd up with you 13. This Christian Grace is form'd upon the Mysterie of the Incarnation which is its Modell And requires of us a particular manner of Oblation and Donation to Jesus ACcording to the Power efficacy of this Grace which is peculiar to your Mysterie of the Incarnation and which is form'd upon it as upon its Copy I bequeath my self to you O Jesu my Lord I give you my Being my life and my love I give you my time and my Eternity I give you my Body and my Soul I give you my senses and powers I render my self slave to your Greatnesses to your Cross and to you love I put into your hands the last hour of my life which is the decider of my Eternity I offer my self to you I
form And I consider and Adore you as holy and that not by any adjoyn'd and accidentall form of sanctity but by the Divinity it self which renders you holy by a substantiall holiness by an uncreated holiness by a primitive and radicall holiness By a holiness constituting the Order and admirable estate of the Hypostaticall union and by a holiness sanctifying even that grace which is in you and which flows from your self into your self and from you derives into us its created grace which is in you and which adorns your created essence and puissance finds you holy and not makes you holy as it doth us but it receives it self in you and by you an estate and manner of sanctity which it hath not in it self and which it cannot have but in you the which elevates it ennobles it and makes it capable of greater things than it could in it self do 20. And this sanctity sanctifies even that Created Grace which is in himself O Sanctity of JESUS O new Sanctity O admirable Sanctity O singular Sanctity O Sanctity source of all Sanctity O Sanctity Sanctifying and Deifying that very Grace which Sanctify's all things O the Greatness of JESUS and of Jesus's Humanity For as all is God in God all is holy all is great in Jesus and his Humanity remaining human is made divin in as much as it is elevated into the Throne of the Divinity it self by the Personall union Union so high and so singularly particular that it is unknown even in its possible Being to all light and intelligence of created nature 21. An humbling yeilding submitting and dedicating of our whol selv's to the Deifi'd Humanity of Jesus in the way of perpetuall Bondage WHat shall I do in the survey of these things so high and so great I must Abysm my self in this Ocean I must lose my self in these Greatnesses I will make a Collection of them all and will Reverence all the Excellencies reveal'd and not reveal'd which follow and accompany an Estate so sublim and elevated as that of the Personall union of this created nature to the uncreated Word I rayse up my self and unite my self to this nature and by it to the Eternall Word and by the Word to the Father who begot it and bequeath'd it to us I yeild up my self to the Soveraigntie which is supream and not communicable to the order of creatures which this nature possesses by its estate of divin filiation I submit my self to the power which this admirable Estate gives it over all created things I dedicate my self and consecrate all to this Deifi'd Humanity I deliver my self up to his power and leave my self to his conduct and love And my will is that it have a speciall sway over my Soul and my estate over my life and my actions as over a thing belonging to himself by a new peculiar and particular right in vertu of this present resolution which I here offer unto him to depend upon his greatnesses and namely upon the estate of filiation and soveraignty to which it is elevated Behold This is that I can do O Jesu my Lord yet this sufficeth neither my duty nor my desire my power is too small to fill the capacity of my Soul which hath its aspect on you and its reference to you and will be replenish'd and actuated with your Puissance and not with its own for you can with me that which I cannnot with my self O sacred and Deifi'd Soul of Jesus Act you in my Soul and daign to take upon your self that power over me which I cannot give you and constitute me your Slave in that manner which I know not and which your self well knows Make me to be yours and to serve you not only with my actions but even with the estate and condition of my being and of my interiour and exteriour life And I humbly entreat you to esteem and treat me upon earth as your Bondslave who totally abandons himself to all your desires who delivers up himself to all your powers and to all the effects of your Greatness and Soveraignty over those things which belong unto you And you O Virgin and Mother of Jesus To you I supplicate that you will conceive and consider me henceforth as your Sons bondslave and under this notion obtain for me a Share in his Eternall Mysteries and Mercyes THE SECOND APPENDIX MARIA OR The devotion call'd The Bondage of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Elevations sutable thereunto 1. The Author and Origin of the Bondage THis Devotion of the Bondage of the Blessed Virgin so much practis'd in these our dayes throughout all Spain says Father Anthony Yepes had its beginning in Hungary about the year 1010. by the means of S. Gerard a glorious Monk and Martyr of S. Bennets Order the Apostle of that Countrey and Bishop of Chanadin which is a City in the Confines of Moravia and Hungarie By whose Counsell and advice says Baronius the most holy King Stephen gave himself and his whol Kingdom by Vow and Oblation to the sacred Virgin Mother And the Hungarian Church says Bishop Cartuitius did so highly honour this Blessed Virgin that they celebrated the feast of her glorious Assumption which in their language they call'd by excellencie Diem Dominae the Ladies day with an equall Solemnitie to that of Christmas and Easter and styled themselves The Blessed Virgins Bondslaves 2. An ancient and Authentique Example of the practise of this Bondage SOon after S. Gerard liv'd our S. Peter Damian the learned Cardinall and Bishop of Ostia who gives us at large a rare example of his Bondage in his brother Marinus a devout servant of the Blessed Virgin n these words Marinus the brother of Peter Damian whilst he yet flourished with strength and health uncloathing himself of his garments and putting about his neck the Belt wherewith he was girded deliver'd up himself to the sacred Virgin before her Altar as a servil Bondslave and treating himself as such a one whipp'd himself in the same place before her saying O my glorious Lady the Myrrhor of virginall Purity and perfect Pattern of all vertues c. Behold I now give my self to you as a servant submitting the neck of my prostrate heart to the Empire of your power Bow me mollifie me receive me and let not your Pietie despise me a sinner whose Immaculate Virginity brought forth the Author of all Sanctity By this small gift I offer you the Tribut of my servitude and Bondage and henceforth so long as I shall live I promise to pay unto you this yearly Revenue And so laying a certain sum of money in Altaris crepidine upon the corner of the Altar he departed with a firm confidence to find the mercy which he had faithfully sought and humbly implor'd This holy Man continuing this Devotion during his life-time deserv'd to be particularly visited and comforted by the Blessed Virgin at the hour of his death To whom he spake in this sort Whence is it O
dignity Hail Mary 8. He was an Instrumentall Cooperator with God in his great design of mans Redemption Hail Mary 9. He was in some sort the Saver of his Saviour by sheltring him from his enemy's Tyranny Hail Mary 10. His life was a continued Contemplation Recollection and Extasy in the perpetuall presence of Gods Son and Gods Mother Hail Mary Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost c. These Prayers Angelicall c. The fourth Decade Of his return from Egypt and of his Death SAint JOSEPH inform'd by Angelicall Revelation of Herods death returns home with Jesus and Mary Our Father c. 1. He Jesus and Mary after their banishment dwell together in Nazareth Hail Mary 2. He conducted Jesus when he was twelve years old to the Temple in Jerusalem Hail Mary 3. He there lost Jesus to his unspeakable grief and sorrow Hail Mary 4. He retriv'd him after three days enquiry sitting amongst the Doctors Hail Mary 5. He reconducts him home to Nazareth where Jesus the great Monarch of both worlds was subject and obedient to Joseph's command Hail Mary 6. And as he had the Priviledg to enjoy the Innocent embraces of Jesus in his childhood so he had the honour to enjoy his holy entertainments in his riper years and his divin actions examples and instructions in his perfect age Hail Mary 7. He also had the honour to govern the sacred family of Jesus and Mary for thirty years space Hail Mary 8. He had the happiness to be assisted by Jesus and Mary in his last Agony Hail Mary 9. Having compleated the course of his Earthly Pilgrimage he chang'd this life for Eternity Hail Mary 10. He sweetly breath'd forth his soul in a high act of sigh and love in the sacred embraces of Jesus and Mary Hail Mary Glory be to the Father c. These Prayers Angelicall c. The fifth Decade Of his Glory SAint JOSEPH was elevated to Heaven upon the day of his Son 's triumphant Resurrection Our Father c. 1. He is inthron'd there above next to Jesus and Mary as he was here below neerest and dearest unto them Hail Mary 2. He is adorn'd with a Garland of virginity for having preserv'd it unblemisht to his last breath Hail Mary 3. He is enobled with the Aureola of Doctorship for having instructed the ignorant and particularly the Egyptians in the time of his so journing amongst them Hail Mary 4. He is rewarded with a Crown of Martyrdom for having hazarded his life for his Sons preservation Hail Mary 5. He is a Powerfull Protector of all them who are particularly devoted unto him as having great credit with the All powerfull Jesus Hail Mary 6. He is the generall Patron of the Church Militant as being the speciall Favourite of its head Christ Jesus Hail Mary 7. He bears a singular affection to all that sincerely love Jesus and Mary as being so neerly allyed unto them Hail Mary 8. His Petitions are presented to the Throne of Mercy with a Fathers confidence and his Requests will not easily be rejected by Jesus in heaven who was so obedient to Joseph upon earth Hail Mary 9. He is the chief Patron of all Contemplatives Hail Mary 10. He is the great Master Guide and Directors of the Interiour hidden and spirituall life Hail Mary Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to Holy Ghost c. These Prayers Angelicall with bended knee c. Credo c. as in the great Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary Conclude this Rosary with these ensuing Elevations ELEVATIONS TO S. JOSEPH TO Honour God in him and him in God in his Dignity of being the reputed FATHER of the Word Incarnate and the BRIDEGROOM of the Blessed Virgin MARIE And to offer up our selv's to him in the state of dependencie which is due to him upon these titles and to correspond by our inward devotion to that power which he hath over us by consequence of the power he had over the Son and Mother of GOD. GReat and glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph The worthy Bridegroom of Mary and esteemed Father of Jesus In the honour of Gods beholding and electing you in the Councill of his Eternall Wisdom and of his placing you at the time appointed by his divin Providence in these two high and sublime estates In honour and union of all the singular graces prerogatives priviledges and perfections which he plentifully heap'd upon you in order to render you capable of these eminent offices and undertakings In honour and union of your souls extraordinary sanctity of your Bodies virginall Purity of your profound humilitie of your perfect Obedience of your voluntary Povertie and of all the rest of your consummated vertues In honour and union of your dear affection to Jesus and Mary of the continuall application of your spirit towards these two divin objects of the tenderness of your devotion unto them and of your silent solitarie retired recollected and contemplative life with them In honour and union of all the services you rendred to the Word Incarnate in the state and order of his hypostaticall postaticall union with our nature In honour and union of that last Act and sigh of love wherein you sweetly breath'd forth your faithfull soul in the embraces of Jesus and Mary your divin Son and dear Spouse In honour homage and union of all your other Greatnesses and especially of the right power and jurisdiction you had over Jesus and Mary in quality of Father and husband and of the subjection obedience and duty they rendred you Finally in acknowledgment of your having been establish'd the Head the Steward and the Director of Gods Family upon Earth The Father the Tutor and the Trainer up of Jesus the Bridegroom the Guardian and the Helper of the holy Virgin Mary I do now choose you O great and glorious Patriarch for my particular Patron for my powerfull Protector for my pious Father and for my chief Soveraign next after Jesus and Mary And upon this score I do here yeild and resign unto you all the power I have over my self desiring to become your servant and Bondslave willing to submit my self to you as my Saviour Jesus was subject unto you and begging your leave to place all the future transactions motions and passages of my life during this my earthly Pilgrimage under your sacred conduct government and protection Make me worthy O glorious Father by your merits to become with you a faithfull Member of Jesus and Maries Family and to be thereunto firmely and intimately united associated and incorporated by Grace and Sanctity And obtain for me by your powerfull intercession that I may never be separated from sweet Jesus and Mary in my life in my death in my Eternity Take also O powerfull Protector the last moment of my life that Moment which must decide my Eternity into your pious care and Custody Assist me then I beseech you in that harsh Passage
and obtain for me a happy death and departure out of this World in the Faith Favour and Affection of Jesus To whom be all honour prayse and glory for Evermore Amen ELEVATIONS TO THE SACRED TRINITY UPON EARTH Iesus Maria Ioseph In honour and homage to the Glorious Trinity in Heaven the Father Son and Holy Ghost O JESU Son of the living God and Saviour of the World O Mary Mother of Jesus and Mediatrix of Mankind O Joseph Bridegroom of Mary and esteemed Father of Jesus O sacred Trinity Jesus Maria Joseph I honour you reverence you admire you in your excellent eminent sublime Greatnesses in which you seem to be an express Image of the Incomprehensible Trinity and I adhere to you in union of the perfect homages which you rendred to the Father Son and holy Ghost by your high Estate and holy operations The deep Mystery of the divin Trinity is Invisible to our eyes Ineffable to our Tongues Incomprehensible to our Spirits And behold the poor Bethleem stable affoards us a human Trinity Jesus Maria Joseph uppon Earth which views adores and Imitates the Trinity of the Empireall Heaven the Father Son and Holy Ghost This is Increated that is both created and Increated in the Person of the God-Man Jesus This is divin and Eternall That is Deifi'd and temporall The one is Adorable the other honorable The one is admirable in its greatness The other amiable in its sweetness In the one is a unity of Essence in a Trinity of Persons In the other is a union of Love of Grace and of Spirit in a Trinity of Essence and of Persons In the Divin Trinity the Father begets his Son in Eternity In the other by a reverted order the Son gives Being in Time both to the Father and to the Mother In the first the Father and the Son and the Father by the Son produces the holy Ghost in unity of origin In the second Jesus and Mary and Jesus by Mary gives the Life and Being of Grace to Joseph in the unitie of spirit So that Mary hath an admirable resemblance to the Eternall Father the Son of Mary hath an express unity with himself and S. Joseph represents the Holy Ghost For the Father in Heaven is the only Parent without a Mother and Mary upon Earth is the only Parent without a Father And as nothing greater can be attributed to God than his being the Father of a God so nothing more sublime can befall a pure creature than to be the Mother of the same God whereof God is Father The Holy Ghost is the sacred knot and Tye of the divin Persons And Joseph hath a union with Mary as his Spouse and with Jesus as his Father The Holy Ghost form'd Jesus in the Virginall Cloyster of Maryes Womb And Joseph fed him educated him and preserv'd for us far more fortunately than the ancient Joseph of Egypt â— this Bread of the Elect this blessed pledg of our future happiness this Eternall Bliss of Men and Angells Wherfore O Jesu We acknowledg honour and adore you in your Eternall heights and greatnesses we prayse bless and love you in your temporall humiliations sweetnesses we contemplate you in Heaven with the Eye of Faith betwen the Father and the holy Ghost We admire you upon Earth between Mary and Joseph And I invite and conjure all Creatures to prayse bless and adore your divin Majesty in both these estates O Mary We also look upon you as upon Gods sacred Mother and in this supream dignity I salute reverence and honour you with the singular homage of Hyperdulia which is due to your Excellencies and Greatnesses O Joseph I likewise honour you as the reputed Father of Jesus and Bridegroom of Mary and in regard of these two Eminent qualities I subject my self to the power which is given you over my soul by consequence of the Jurisdiction you had over Jesus my Saviour I offer my self to you O Great Saint Joseph Father and Husband without Paragon to be by you presented to Mary I give my self to you O glorious Mary Virgin and Mother without Paralell to be by you addressed to Jesus I consecrat my self to you O Great-little-God-man Jesus as your servant and bondslave to become associated in this qualitie with the domestiques of your sacred Family O Jesu my King reign in my Soul and exercise the absolute power you have over my spirit O Mary my Soveraign Queen after my King Jesus possess my heart and my will to consign them over to your Son O Joseph My chief Prorector after Jesus and Mary take my Body and senses into your safe custody to be consecrated to Jesus O Jesu annihilate and absorp my soul in your affection O Mary Inflame my heart with the love of Jesus O Joseph Bless all my labours and endeavours and present them to Jesus and Mary Let the whol world be replenish'd O Jesu with your mercies be assisted O Mary with your favours be secured O Joseph under the shadow of your Protection For You O JESU are the Fountain issuing forth of the Terrestriall Paradise Mary's Virginall Womb is the Origin of all our happiness you O Mary are the Prime Bason of this Fountain and the pure Glebe from whence it proceeded And you O Joseph are the River who disperse abroad these waters of Life by your efficacious intercessions O Jesu you are the fruit of life O Mary you are the Paradise that bore it and the Tree that brought it forth And you O Joseph are the Cherubin appointed by God to guard it O Jesu You are the sacred Propitiatory of the world O Mary You are the Mysticall Ark of our Reconciliation And you O Joseph are the High Priest who alone are permitted to enter into this Holy of Holies to be the faithfull Coadjutor of Gods great Counsell in the world and the Feoffee in trust of his treasures and secrets In honour therefore of these three ineffable Tâ—es and unions between these admirable subjects which are the greatest under Gods command and Jurisdiction I most humbly beg of you O Jesu Mary and Joseph 1. A chast and filiall Fear of God that nothing either in life or death may separate me from his grace and friendship 2. A faithfull fervent and perseverant Love of God and my neighbour with a generous zeal of the divin honour and my own salvation 3. A good and happy end of my life consummated in the act and exercise of these sacred affections O JESU Be an Advocate for me your Bondslave to your Eternall Father O Mary intercede for me your servant to your Son O Joseph pray for me your child to Jesus and Mary O Jesu shew your wounds suffer'd for my sake O Mary discover your Breasts which suckled Gods Son O Joseph represent your hands which nourish'd the Word Incarnate O Jesu replenish my Soul with the abundance of your celestiall blessings by the effusion of efficacious grace upon it which may intimately
the Blessed Virgin 548 5. The Practises and Exercises of this Devotion of the Bondage being seven in number 550 Elevations to God and Adorations to the thrice Holy Trinity In honour of the Share he was pleased to give unto the sacred Virgin Mary in the Mystery of the Incarnation Effecting it in her and by her And to honour the most holy Virgin in that her high dignity of being Gods Mother and to offer our selv's to her in the state of Dependency and servitude which is due to her upon this title and to correspond by our Interiour Devotion to the speciall Power which she hath over us by consequence of this divin and admirable Maternity 560 1. Adoration of the Sacred Trinity 560 2. Greatness of the Mystery of the Incarnation 561 3. Which is so eminent a work 561 4. And the chief work ad extra of the Divinity 562 5. And it is divided between the Sacred Trinity and the Virgin 563 6. The Person of the Virgin next the Divin Persons is most worthy and greater than all human and angelicall Persons together 565 7. The Virgin constitutes an Order Empire and Vnivers apart 566 8. She is a singular work of Gods Power the Holyest that ever shall be created The Divin Paternity is the Samplar of this Divin Maternity The Eternall Father and the Son are tyed by the Person of the Holy Ghost and the Eternall Father and the Virgin are tyed by the Person of the Son 568 9. The Eternall Word who is in Society with the Father and Holy Ghost before all time doth in time enter league and Society with the Virgin 573 10. Oblation and Donation to the Son and the Mother in quality of Bondslaves 574 11. Enlargement and Explication of this Donation with the particulars thereof 575 12. This Oblation tends to the honour of the Virgins Elevation and Depressions in the Mystery of the Incarnation 577 13. In the Virgin all is great and particularly Her Maternity Her Soveraignty Her Sanctity 579 14. It is a small matter that we make our selv's the Virgins Bondslaves and therefore we desire her to employ her Power to make us truly so 583 A concluding Prayer to the sacred Virgin Mother upon the same subject 585 The third Appendix JOSEPH or Devotions to Saint Joseph the Glorious Husband of the Virgin MARY and reputed Father of CHRIST JESUS with Elevations unto him 588 Twelve Excellencies Priviledges and Prerogatives of S. JOSEPH related out of Josephus a Jesu Maria and Joannes a Carthagena who largely prove the same and many more by force of reasons and authority of the Fathers 589 A short Rosary in the honour of S. Joseph containing the principall Mysteries of his life distinguish'd into Five Tens or Decades whereof the first is of his Election 596 The second of his Place Office and dignity 599 The third of his Flight into Egypt 60â— The fourth of his return form Egypt and of his Death 60â— The fifth of his Glory 605 Elevations to S. Joseph to 〈◊〉 God in him and him in God in his â—…nity of being the reputed Faâ—… 〈…〉 Word Incarnate and the Bridegroom of the Blessed Virgin Mary 608 Elevations to the sacred Trinity upon Earth JESUS MARIA JOSEPH In honour and homage to the Glorious Trinity in Heaven The Father Son and Holy Ghost 612 The Fourth Appendix Stations or a Catalogue of the Plenary Indulgences of the Stations of Rome 620 First of the Stations in Advent Lent and other Moveable Feasts 621 Secondly of the Stations fix'd to the days of the year 625 with the Practicall manner of performing the said Stations 632 FINIS The Principall Errors of the Press are thus easily corrected with a Pen. PAge 3. line 13. his read this p. 25. l. 7. exculded r. excluded p. 35. l. 29. favourite r. favourits p. 37. l. 1. dow r. down p. 52. l. 30. must r. most p. 54. l. 14. Patoness r. Patroness p. 96. l. 7.27 r. 17. p. 96. l. 8. 1559. r. 1569. p. 96. l. 24. 1559. r. 1569. p. 101. l. 16. out to r. out of p. 118. l. 6. iminenâ— r. imminent p. 125. l. 28. gloriosi r. gloriosè p. 132. l. 2. remisnem r. remissionem p. 195. l. 4. aad r. and. pâ— 197. l. 14. and umiracle r. and miracle p. 211. l. 14. unknow r. unknown p. 237. l. 1. amd r. and. p. 255. l. 9. to will r. to his will p. 264. l. 2. Dialated r. Dilated p. 288. l. 30. wherewith r. where with p. 369. l. 24. shed r. shee l p. 372. l. 19. Caiaphas r. Caiphas p. 379. l. 23. shed r. shee l p. 390. l. 26. oodness r. goodness p. 437. l. 12. of of r. of p. 460. l. 30. evelasting r. everlasting p. 516. l. 13. an ds r. and as p. 598. l. 1. of Incarnation r. of the Incarnation p. 623. l. 30. soul of r. soul out of