Angell the Saints your Patrons entring your chamber to give you with his own hands his sacred body has he did to his Apostles in his last supper that he says to you as he did to them Take eat this is my body which was delivered to death to give you life Having adored him with all your heart Salute him with the following words O my God since you have said that he who eats you shall live eternally shall not dye Grant me the grace that by the reception of your sacred body I may live onely in you by you for you that quitting this mortall life I may by the force vertue of this divine bread arrive to heaven where I may for ever see enjoy your divine majesty Alas from whence comes this happiness to me that my God should come to visit me Lord I am not worthy that you should enter into my soul speak onely but a word it shall be healed Having received him entertain your self amorously with him make all your senses appear before him all your faculties to make him as it were an oath of allegiance renew the vows promisses you have made conjure him never more to leave you say to him as the disciples going to Emmaus did Stay with me o Lord for it is late the evening of my life approacheth Or with Simeon Let now o Lord thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen the authour of my salvation Or with David Althô I walk in the middle of the shadow of death I will feare no evill because you are with me O my God put your self as a seal upon my heart to the end that all earthly things may find no more entrance thereinto Unite this Communion to that which this divine Saviour made before his death to all those which the most holy Virgin the Saints made during their lives also to all those which shall be made to the end of the world to supply the imperfections you have committed in receiving this divine Sacrament Return God thanks for the favour of receiving it for all those other graces which he has so liberally bestowed upon you invite all creatures to bless praise thank him for you Reciting the. 117. Psalm Laudate Dominum omnes gentes c. or the Canticle Benedicite omnia opera c. THE 2. PART Spirituall extreamunction I Imagine that Jesus Christ having assisted at your communion as has been said enters also into your chamber bringing the holy oyles composed of his precious blood to apply the holy unctions with his own sacred hand Make acts of contrition in receiving them to blot out all the sins committed by each sense IN THE APPLICATION to the Eyes O my Jesus my God I demand most humbly pardon for all the sins I have committed by so many irregular looks or casts of my eyes so many unprofitable tears to blot out these sins apply to me those your amorous looKs upon the cross upon your Crucifiers the tears you shed for my salvation TO THE EARS Pardon me also the sins I have committed in taking pleasure to hearken to so many ill discourses to make satisfaction for them apply to my foul the merit of that patience humility with which you heard so many blasphemies injuries calumnies uttered against you TO THE NOSTRILLS I beg pardon also o my God for having too much sought perfumes good smells for having taken too much pleasure in them having been too delicate nice in avoiding ill ones for the satisfaction of these faults apply to me the merit of those ill sents you suffered in the stable upon mount Calvary TO THE MOVTH O my Saviour Jesus Christ pardon me the infinite number of sins that I have committed in words all my irregularities in eating drinking blot them out by applying to my soul the merits of your divine prayers preachings your holy fasts TO THE HANDS Pardon me my divine Jesus all the many unprofitable evill actions that I have committed for having so delicately treated my body for this end apply to me the merit of those holy actions divine miracles wrought by your sacred hands which were nailed upon the hard wood of the Cross for my sake by my sins TO THE FEET O my God with my whole heart I beg pardon for all the steps that I have made unprofitably or for any ill end Apply to me for the satisfaction of these faults the merit of those sacred steps you made barefoot with so much toil for the salvation of mankind especially in carrying your cross After Extrem unction make the sollowing Acts with a penitent mind O my God to satisfie as much as I am able your divine Justice to make you a due satisfaction for my sins I accept death with my whole heart I rejoyce at the separation of my soul from my body in punishment of the sins I have committed by following rather my irregular inclinations then your holy will 2. And that my body in punishment of its pride ambition shall be buried under the earth trodden under foot 3. And for that inordinate love I have born it the too great care I have taken for its ease pleasure I rejoyce that that it returns to corruption becomes the food of worms 4. And for the affection I have had for riches for creatures the abuse I have made of them I am glad to be separated from deprived of them 5. And for the forgetfullness I have had of you my God during my life I accept the forgetfulness that all will have of me after my death 6. And for having made use of all my senses to offend you I accept offer in satisfaction the privation loss of them all 7. And in punishment of my having vainly searched to please creatures I am glad that by death I shall become an object of their hatred horrour contempt For the Approaehes of Death Hearken to your good Angell speaking to you as to the Virgins in the Gospell BEhold your Spouse is coming Go forth meet him And preparing your self for his coming with the burning lamp of charity in your hands say with David I rejoyce at the good news they tell me let us enter into the house of our Lord. O Lord God of strength how amiable are thy tabernacles my soul faints with desire of them My soul thirsts after God the source of life when shall I come appear before his presence As the thirsty Hart desires the fountain so my sovl desires thee ô my God. O how do I desire to be delivered out of this mortall body to be with Christ Vnion with CHRIST JESUS dying O my divine Jesus granr me your grace that my sorrows may be united to yours my agony my death sanctified by yours that I may partake of those sacred
be better for us in heaven or earth in life or death then to accomplish his most just most holy will And because we ought necessarily to submit to its orders is it not better to do it freely by an humble submission to filiall confidence in his divine goodness then to do it by constraint as the Devills do by that resistance render this action rather worthy of punishment then recompence If the fear of our sins makes us apprehend death desire onely to live to do pennance for them what better pennance can we perform that is more agreable to God then perfectly to conform our selves to his will undergo the sentence of death to render him the obedience a creature owes to his creatour thereby to shew him that we preferr the honour of pleasing him before our own lives If actions so much the harder they be to perform so much the more meritorious they be esteemed what can there be harder then to renonce life what greater pennance can we perform then frankly freely to give up our lives to God because by giving them to him we give not onely all we can give but all that is dearest to us No one has greater charity then he who gives up his life says our Saviour in the 13 of S. Johns Gospell And if a God would dye so painfull ignominious a death for us and give his life upon the cross for our salvation can we refuse him ours Is our life more precious or necessary then his O my soul had we never so llittle love for God or gratitude for this great favour of his we ought to desire a thousand lives to lay them all down for his sake What have we that is not his O my God since I am nothing but by you I will be nothing but what you would have me I care not whether I live or dye Affections Resolutions SInce that upon the moment of my death depends my eternal life Grant o my God that by a true hatred of sin by a perfect contempt of the world of its vain honours pleasures riches by an entire renouncing of my self I may always keep my felf prepared for this last hour that I may never let my self forget death least permitting the lamp of charity to be extinguished the oyl of good works to be wanting in my soul you may surprise me in this condition reproach me with the same terrible words you did the foolish virgins in the 25. Chap of S. Iohns Gospell I know you not but that keeping my self always ready for your coming I may merit to enter with you into that eternall nuptiall feast Where neither eye has seen ear heard nor has it enterd into the heart of man to conceive what you have prepared for those that love you Give me o my God the light of your holy Spirit to the end I may not suffer my self to be deceived nor seduced by my senses to take what is false for true that I may not esteem the things of this mortall life good or bad but as they lead me to or withdraw me from my last end CONCLVSION LEt us conclude this meditation with this truth that if we will dye the death of the just we must live the lives of the just since the way to obtain a good death is to live a good life as there is nothing more precious nor more to be desired then a good death so there is nothing more unhappy nor that we ought more to fear then an ill death the best means of securing our selves in an affair of so great an importance as this is daily to live as if it were to be the last day of our lives keeping our affections as perfectly weaned from the things of the world as if we were ready to leave it where all things that be not of God will appear as smoak that either is scattered it self or at best covers but a fleeting shadow A MOST PROFITABLE EXERCISE TO PREPARE our selves for death VPON THIS MOMENT depends Eternity The day you intend to make this exercise enter into the thoughts of death look upon that day as the last of your life THE FIRST PART IMagine your self lying sick upon your death-bed that your good Angell is sent by God to give you notice of the irrevocable decree of your death that he says to you as Esaye did to Ezechias Isa 38. Dispose of your affairs because you shall dye shall no longer live Prostrating your self as at the foot of your Crucifix or before the blessed Sacrament beg with all your heart the grace light of the holy Ghost the help succour of the blessed Virgin of the Saints your Patrons of your good Angell to maKe the following acts AN ACT OF RESIGNATION MY heart is prepared my God my heart is prepared that your will not mine be done in me by me now for all eternity 1. O God eternall immense infinite who are sufficient in your self stand in need of none of your creatures how little does it import whether I live or die so I may accomplish your holy will in which alone true life consists therefore let it not be as I will but as you please An acknowledgement of our nothingness 2. To acknowledge the dependance that I have of you my soveraign Creatour openly to confess before heaven earth that you alone are he that is that I misetable creature am he that is not I embrace with an humble submission the destruction of this corruptible being consent that by death it should return to its first nothing out of which you took it A restitution of our being into the hands of God. 3. O my Soveraign Creatour will restore you the being you have given me for this end I accept of death in the manner that shall be most pleasing to you be most to your glory Dispose therefore of your creature destroy this body of sin in punishment of the offences it has committed against your divine majesty That this body may return to the earth from whence it came but that my soul created after thy image may return to your bosome An acknowledgement of Gods soveraig◠dominion over us 4. O my God thô my death be of it self a thing of necessity yet I am resolved for love of you as far as possible to make it a will-offering I rejoice that by it I shall be out of a state condition any more to resist your Soveraign dominion over me as Liege Lord of all creatures I accept it as a just punishment of the ill use I have made of my free will which you have given me How to receive death as a just punishment of sin 5. Since death O my God is the punishment you have ordained for sin 't is with an humble submissive heart to the decree of your justice that I accept
him be illuminated with Eternall light â„£ Lord deliver his soul â„Ÿ From the gates of hell â„£ Let him repose in peace â„Ÿ Amen â„£ Lord hear my prayer â„Ÿ And let my cry come unto thee THE PRAYER O God we recommend to you the soul of your seruant that having passed this life he may live onely to you that the sins he has committed in this life out of humane frailty may be pardoned by the infinite bounty and mercy and by the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A COMPENDIUM OF the aforesaid Exercise to prepare ones self well for death Which one may make every night before one goes to bed MY heart is prepared o my God my heart is prepared your will be done my God not mine I abandon my self entirely to receive death at what time in what manner you please to send it to me 2 I most humbly beg of you pardon for all the sins I have committed against your Soveraign goodness I repent me of them with all my heart 3. I believe firmly all that the Roman Catholick Church believes teaches and I will dye in this belief 4. I hope to possess eternall life by your mercy by the merits of my Sauiour Jesus Christ 5. O my God I desire to love you above all creatures to the contempt of all creatures as my Soveraingn good my neighbour as my self pardoning him from the bottom of my heart 6. O my divine Jesus what an extreme desire have I to receive yoâ—r sacred body to do it spiritually unite my self to all the communions that shall be made throughout the whole Church to the end of the world particularly at the hour of my death 7. Afford me the grace o my divine Saviour to blot out all the sins I have committed by my senses by applying to my self the unction of thy precious blood 8. Holy Virgin mother of my God defend me from my enemies present me to your son 9. Great S. Michael my holy Angell Guardian my holy Protectours pray assist me in this last passage 10. O my God I renounce all the temptations of the Enemy generally all that may displease you I adore receive your divine judgements upon my soul as most just equitable I abandon my self to them with entire submission 11. O Jesus my divine Jesus be to me Jesus O my God retiring with an humble confidence into thy sacred wounds I commit my soul into thy divine hands receive it into the bosome of thy mercy Amen AN EXERCISE OF DEATH FOR THE last day of the month IN THE MORNING OFfer al the actions sufferings of that day to our Saviour by the hands of S. Joseph which you shall take for your Protectour to obtain a happy death make some of these Acts noted in the beginning of this Exercise then make a resolution so to live that day as if it were to be the last of your life DVRING THE DAY 1. Beg every hour of S. Joseph a good death say to your soul if we were to dye this moment are we prepared to appear before God 2. Before you begin any action or in conversation often call to mind this thought Would I have done or said this at the hour of my death 3. Communicate really or spiritually in manner of Viatick making the acts affections marked in this Exercise or contenting your self to remain with a simple view of faith in silence abandonment in the arms of Jesus to expire in him by love and confidence 4 Go from Communion with a resolution to live no longer to your self to perform no action of your life purely after a naturall humane manner calliâ—g often to mind in the day time the advertissement of the Apostle you are dead your life is hiddem in God With Iesus Christ 5. Make your meditation upon death either as it is in your ordinary booK of meditations or as it is in this Exercise read the thoughts of death in the book called Pensées Chrêtiennes or Christian thoughts IN THE EVERNING 1. BEfore you go to bed make a short review in your Examen of all the sins of the last month take notice chiefly of those you commit out of custom think with sorrow of your abuse of Gods graces favours of the ill use you have made of the crosses which God has sent you Then putting your self in the presence of Jesus Christ your Soveraign Judge immaginaing your self to be before the tribunall of his justice beg pardon for your sins with all the resentment confusion you are able Alas what sorrow would you have for them if this night you were to dye to appeare before him Then impose upon your self some pennance for the following month faile not to rise at the appointed hour to give somthing to thle poor as often as you speak in choler out of humour 2. After Examen make the same Acts that dying persons are wont to make which are noted in this Exercise or content your self to make 1 An act of faith proptesting that you firmly belieue that you shall on day dye 2. An act of confidence hoping thot our Saviour at your death will have mercy upon you pardon all your sins 3. An act of love begging him rather to Send you death then permit you to offend him at least voluntarily 4. An act of abandonment putting your life your soul your salvation into the hands of God. In fine kiss the ground to render homage to the Soveraignty justice of God which has ordained that your body should one day be reduced to dust Look upon your bed as your grave as you are going into it say three times JESVS MARIA IOSEPH Adding O my God grant that I may repose and sleep in peace with you Amen Pious thoughts to recollect ones self in God. 1. For riseing 1. O My God I am intirly yours be you all in me be you all things to me and let all things else be nothing to me 2. Lord let me do and suffer all by you in you and for you let me forthwith dye to my self and let me live and allways remain in you 3. O the God of my hart and my Portion for eternity be you the beginning and end of all my actions let me plunge and loose my self intirely in you 2. FOR PRAYER In the state of Desolation 1. O Justice of my God content your self be you pleased without contenting me 2. You are all my God and I am nothing before you I am content that all joy and consolation be yours and that nothing and the privation of all comforts be myne O contentment joy and happyness of my God you are dearer to me then my owne satisfaction 3. My God! how good are you to suffer me to be in the miserable state I am in Permit that I sacrifice the satisfaction of my hart to that of yours
do good works with the spirit of Christianity IT would be convenient you should take one day in the week to visâ— the prisoners or the poor in thâ— Hospitall but take care aboue aâ— things not do to these holy action either out of custome without aâ— interiour spirit or out of custome without an interiour spirit or out oâ— a pure naturall compassion therefore before you beging these visits 1. Pass by some Church theâ— demand the benediction of our Saviour beg of him that he would animate you with the spirit with which he used himself to visit comfort afflicted persons at the same time offer to him the action you are going to perform go to the place you design to visit with modesty recollection 2. As soon as you are arrived there look upon the poor sick as the images of Iesus Christ salute their good Angells beg of them to inspire you with good thoughts so long as you shall be speaking with them 3. And since they are not onely often ignorant of what belongs to the duty of a Christian but always in affliction entertain them always with some word of instruction particularly concerning confession communion and likewise of consolation compassion letting them know that you take part in their sufferings giving them hoâ—es they shall one day receive a recompence for them in heaven 4. Accompany your almes with an actuall desire to please God to assist Jesus Christ in his members 5. Shun all vanity all reboundings of self-satisfaction that may spring from this action which you are to keep at secret as you can 6. Overcome generously all she repugnance that you may have in approaching the poor sick persons the better to overcome your self affect rather to approach the party for whom you find your self to have the greatest naturall horror provided his disease be not catching Salute the blessed Sacrament returning from your visit beg like a poor body of Iesus Christ a spirituall almes for your soul by the the particular tenderness he has for poor those that assist them 8. In sin eremember that the Almes done in this manner is an excellent means to please God to blot out your sins to purify your heart from all engagements to obtain for your selves suck particular favours as God imparts to his freinds to gain the heart of Iesus Christ to â—ppease the wrath of your Iudge to obtain the vertues you want to correct your imperfections Wherefore make a resolution never to deny any poor body since he procures far more for you towards the salvation of your soul then you give him for the relief of his body A practise for the Octave of the blessed Sacrament ONe must honour the state condition of Iesus Christ in the blessed Sacrament 1. In the morning by offering him your actions thereby to return him thanks for this great benefit 2. by making every hour some aspiration to Iesus Christ who is in the blessed Sacrament on the Altar with an ardent desire to unite himself to you 3. by reciting every day the Office of the blessed Sacrament performing our communions during this time with an extraordinary preparation of faith confidence humility loue in mortifying your tongue heart in thâ— sallys of your humour because botâ— the one the other have the honouâ— to receive Iesus Christ It is good every day to spend somâ— time extraordinary before the blessed Sacrament So that the first day you may visiâ— and honour him as a victim that sacrifices himself for you you may remain in his presence in the spiriâ— of a sacrifice begging of him to make you a victim of his loue that he would destroy in you what soever is displeasing to him The second day you may honour his annihilations in the Eucharist look upon him as a God humbled so low as to put himself under the form of a little bread for loue of you you may remain quite annihilated in his presence begging him to destroy in you all your pride that he would make you love a hidden life The third day you may honour his loue Which makes him give himself Wholly to you that he may intirely transform you into himself you may consecrate to him all the inclinations desires of your heart The fourth day you may honour him as your father that feeds your with his own proper substance remain before him in the spirit of confidence in his goodness The fifth day you may honour his life of consummation which obliges him his own self to loose his sacramentall life being to be destroyed to consummate our perfection in our souls beg of him to destroy in you all that is not God. The 6 7. 8. th days you may honour the vertues which he practises upon the Altar beg the imitation of them as of his exact obedience his humility his patience his prayers or continuall application to his father his charity for the salvation of souls his loue his solitude his mortificaiion endeavour each day to imitate some one of these vertues RULES OF FIDELITY to arrive to an eminent perfection I. Fidelity in the generall examen consists 1. IN avoiding the least sin or imperfection all things that either displease or at least do not please God. 2. In performing the least spiritual and indifferent actions with an interiour spirit not influenced by humour custom or vanity 3. In suffering all that gives pain to mind or body with resignation fidelity and love this is the matter or subject of the general examen II. Fidelity in the particular examen consists 1. IN observing the very least rules prescribed by obedience 2. In doing every thing in the moment prescribed by obedience 3. In overcoming the repugnance of our humour in all occasions even in the least things III. Fidelity in the continual examen or vigilance over ones self Which neither allows nor pardons in ones self any naturall satisfaction Whatever consists 1. IN watching over our senses to cut off thence all ill unprofitable human or even but meerly naturall satisfactions 2. In watching over our minds to annihilate all considerations or reflections that are human whether they proceed from vanity curiosity or impertinence 3. In watching over our hearts to stifle all human motions that is to say all over ardent or over eager desires of any thing whatsoever all immoderate joy or tenderness all fondness all relish or satisfaction which one may take in any thing one does all sensible pleasure that may cause a heart to live to its self T is in the fidelity of these three sorts of examens that consists a perfect self-deniall true devotion solid vertue all sanctity FROM THE ASCENSION to whitsontide I. ONe must enter into an exteriour retreat with the holy Virgin the Apostles casting off all unnecessary business visits or unprofitable discourses