who approacheth to this divine banquet First that he examen well himselfe as S. Paul doth exhort that he come prepared and fittingly disposed on his part For which purpose these fowre dispositions are principally required The first a firme faith to beleeve Christs owne word and his Churches doctrine teaching that the words of consecration being pronounced what was bread before is changed by divine vertue into the true reall and substantiall body and blood of Jesus Christ and that although the colour figure taste and other accidents of breade remayne yet the substance is converted into the body of Jesus Christ which being now living glorious and immortall it can receive no division nor indignity but is united to his blood soule and divinity The second disposition required is a great purity principally from all mortall sin as also from all voluntary and deliberate affection to either mortall or venial And besides this purity of conscience purity also of intention is requisit for he would be greatly blamable who should approach to this divine table for vaine humaine respect to be esteemed devout or to gaine the good opinion of Men. But his intention must be purely to please God to be more closely united to him and to be made more capable therby to glorify to love and to serve his heavenly Majesty The third disposition is profound humility to which the Christian may strongly be mooved he well considering on the one side Gods greatnesse and infinit sanctity and his owne origen from nothing brought by sin to so despicable a state on the other Which very thought ought to give great confusion to a penitent sinner now ready to approach to this God of all glory and Majesty before whom the Angels Seraphins and Cherubins doe tremble with respect and feare Finally the fourth disposition is love and ardent charity towards this our divine Redeemer who gives himselfe to us with so excessive good nesse with graces and benedictions from the superabundant fountaine of this divine Sacrament flowing copiously into an open and loving hart And therfore undoubtedly the most excellent disposition which a Christian can bring to the holy Communion is to excite himselfe interiorly to the fervent acts of love towards Jesus Christ with strong resolutions wholy to consecrate himselfe to please and love him to serve and glorify him by his whole life and actions But although these dispositions regarding our soule be both the principall and most necessary yet such as concerne the body must not be neglected As first that the communicant present himselfe to this divine banquet with fitting decency in apparell With modest and reverent comportment yet all within the bounds of decent modesty and without all superfluous affectation He must also be fasting and have swallowed nothing from the midnight before his communion Who being now to approach to this heavenly table it must be with great modesty and devout humility saying the Confiteor with true harty sorrow for having offended so great and so good a God And the Priest saying Domine non sum dignus c. Let him humble his hart before God acknowledging his great unworthinesse to receive so divine a guifte The sacred Host being presented unto him he must receive it with all humble respect his eyes bending downwards and opning moderately his mouth without stirring his head or body or moving his lipps with words Let the tongue touch the side of the lipp not too much put fourth that it may conveniently receive the holy Host which there moistned with decent motion may be let downe into the stomack for it is not to be chewed with the teeth nor to be brought to the rouse of the mouth Let the whole body be erected and quiet without any motion sighing groning knocking of the breast exclamations vocall prayers or the like which would be unfitting and inconvenient Having communicated he must be carefull for one quarter of an houre not to spit but if forced to it be carefull it be with respect and where it be not trod upon or more decently to take it with his handkercher Let him retyre to some convenient place where for the space of a quarter of an houre at the least he ought to recollect his soule in thankes giving considering whom he hath received and with the eys of fervent faith there to behould within his breast his loving Saviour and God of all Majesty and with great attention and devout acknowledgment of humble thankes for that inestimable benefit received there offering sacrificing and intirely consecrating himselfe his soule his body and all the powers and actions of them both to his divine honour and glory for all Eternity When you actually receiue the sacred Hoste conceive your selfe as S. Theresia did as if behoulding with her corporal eyes Jesus Christ to enter into your poore habitation and stirr up thor at your faith laying aside all mortall objects whatsoever and as if entring in with him procure there to recollect all the powers of your soule to attend upon that so divine a guest to doe him all adoration and homage so that they neyther distract nor hinder your soule from a quiet and entire enjoyment of him There represent your selfe as at his feet deploring with repentant Magdalen your many sins And although we should have no other devotion but this alone yet faith would perswade us that we were both well and very happy there to speake with our divine and loving Saviour so present to give care to the propositions of all our necessities at least whilst the sacramentall species remaine uncorrupted with us And therfore we must not loose one moment of this so precious tyme of his true reall and substantiall presence with us but to spend it in all true fervent devotion with so mercifull and powerfull a Lord and guest For this is a most profitable practise after communion which that seraphical 8. Theresa did usually excercise with great comfort and profit to her soule And now finally that the vertuous soule may the better comply with her duty in this divine action as well before the holy communion as also after the same let her reade much rather with hart then with mouth these following prayers shee framing in her soule the interiour acts which are but exteriorly framed in words A prayer to be said before the holy Communion O MOST benigne Lord Jesus I a sinner presuming nothing on my owne merits but wholy trusting on thy mercy and goodnesse doe feare and tremble to have accesse unto the table of thy most sweet banquet For I have a hart and bodie spotted with many crymes a minde and tongue not warily gwarded Therefore o benigne Deity o dreadfull Majesty I a wretch holden in these streights have recourse unto thee the fountaine of mercy I hasten to thee to be healed I fly under thy protection and he whom I cannot endure a Judge I hope to have a Saviour To thee o Lord I shew my wounds to thee I
Masse 2. To keepe fast and abstinence certaine dayes appointed 3. To pay tithes to the Pastor of the Church 4. To Confesse to their Pastor at least once a yeare or to an other with his licence 5. To receive the blessed Sacrament at Easter or there about To which many doe adjoyne not to marry at certaine tymes forbidden nor within certaine degrees nor privately without witnesse The workes of mercy corporall 1. To feed the hungry 2. To give drinke to the thirsty 3. To cloathe the naked 4. To visit and ransome the Captives 5. To harbour the harbourlesse 6. To visit the sicke 7. To bury the dead The workes of mercy spirituall 1. To correct the sinner 2. To instruct the Ignorant 3. To counsel the doubtfull 4. To comfort the sorrowfull 5. To beare patiently injuries 6. To forgive all wrongs 7. To pray both for the quicke and the dead The eight Beatitudes 1. Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven 2. Blessed are the meeke for they shall possesse the Land 3. Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted 4. Blessed are they that hungar and thirst for righteousnesse for they shall be filled 5. Blessed are the mercifull for they shall finde mercy 6. Blessed are the cleane of hart for they shall see God 7. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God 8. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven The 5. senses of the body 1. Sight 2. Smelling 3. Hearing 4. Tasting 5. Touching The 3. faculties of the soule 1. Memory 2. Understanding 3. and Will The office of Christian justice To decline from evill or sin and to doe good or the duty of Justice Of sin Sin is double Originall or Actuall Mortal or Venial 7 Capitall sins commonly called mortal or deadly sins 1. Pride 2. Coueteousnesse 3. Lechery 4. Wrath 5. Gluttony 6. Envy 7. Sloath. The 7 contrary vertues 1. Humility 2. Liberality 3. Chastitv 4. Meeknesse 5. Astinence 6. Patience 7. Devotion 6 Sins against the Holy Ghost 1. Presumption of Gods Mercy 2. despaire 3. Impugning truth more freely to sin 4. Enuiing an other mans spirituall good 5. Obstination in sin To dye in final Impenitency 4. Things crying to Heaven for vengeance 1. Wilful murther 2. Sin of Sodome 3. Oppression of the poore Widowes and fatherlesse 4. Defrauding Labourers of their wages 9. Wayes of being accessory to an other mans sin 1. By Counsaile 2. by commandement 3. by Consent 4. by Provocation or Leading others 5. by praise or flattery 6 by concealing the faulty 7. by partaking 8. by holding our peace and not speaking unto such as be Under our charge 9. by dissembling or not finding fault or hindring when we may or have charge 3. Kinds of good workes 1. Almes deeds or workes of mercy 2. Praying 3. Fasting 3. Evangelicall Counsels 1. Voluntary poverty 2. perpetual Chastity 3. Entire Obedience The 4. Last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Hell 4. Heaven THE LITTLE MANUEL OF THE POORE MANS DAILY DEVOTION Contayning severall exercises of piety as time and fit occasion may require An exhortation to prayer ST Thomas gives this solid reason for the great necessity of prayer that God by his Divine order and Providence from all Eternity hath determin'd to bestow upon soules what in tyme he affords them by prayer as also that therby he hath measured the salvation the conversion and perfection of soules For even as he hath disposed that by plowing and cultivating the ground he affords us abundance both of bread and wyne and other necessaries for the life of Man so hath his Divine disposition ordayned to communicate his graces and heavenly guifts to our soules by this good meanes of holy prayer For to receive of him he first requires that we should aske Math. 7. to find that we should seeke and that we knock before the dore be opened to let us in So that prayer is the proper meanes and conduit wherby God supplies our necessities releeves our poverty and replenisheth us with grace and benefits By this we see our great necessity of betaking our selves unto prayer which is compared by the holy Fathers to Jacobs Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven Gen. 28. and the Angells descending and ascending therby S. Augustin calls prayer the key of Paradise which opens to all the treasure of God oratio justi clavis est coeli ascendit precatio descendit Dei miseratio Yea prayer is to the soule as is bread to the body saith he all men have as much need of prayer saith S. Chysost as plants have of water nor is it possible for us to bring forth the fruits of piety saith this great saint unlesse our harts be well watered with prayer A Morning exercise of holy prayer YOU awakeing in the morning endeavour to raise up your first thoughts to God with thankes giving for preserving you that night and affording you the good beginning of a new day wherin to labour for his glory and for your owne salvation by the amendment of your life and better serving his Divine Majesty You having now taken sufficient rest and your usvall repose being hindred by no just cause nor indisposition but if it be meere sloth and slugishnesse which would robb you of precious tyme whereof for every moment we must give exact accompt to God then endeavour to surmount all sinfull sloth by offering that act of mortification to God as your first fruits of that new day most justly due to him and immediately raising up your selfe makeing the signe of the holy crosse say In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ crucifi'd I doe rise he blesse me governe me and confirme me in all good workes this day and ever more And after this mortall life bring me to life everlasting Amen Here make to God a morning oblation of all your thoughts words and deeds of that day And in particular resolve carefully to avoyde that sin to which you finde your selfe daily most subject to fall into You being now made ready and kneeling downe devoutly in your place of prayer before a Crucifix or some devout picture therby the better to fix your thoughts upon piety there humbly adore the Divine presence of God acknowledge your owne vilenesse and render him most humble thankes for all his gracious benefits Crave humbly his grace to preserve you that day from all sin and to enlighten your Vnderstanding to knowe his blessed will and his divine help to performe the same Come holy Ghost replenish the harts of the faithfull and kindel the fire of thy divine love in them Illuminate our mindes o Lord we beseech thee with the light of thy cleerenesse that we may see what we ought to doe and have power to accomplish those things which be rigtfull through Christ our Lord. Amen Prevent we beseech thee o Lord our actions by thy holy spirit assisting and
merits of Christs holy passion for the healing of his sinfull soule found therby his perfect and speedy cure let us by the gratefull sacrifice of a contrite and humble hart dispose our soules to true repentance and knock our breast as did that humble Publican with vnfeined sorrow for all our sins saying with him God be mercifull to me a wretched sinner That at the houre of our death we may happily heare pronounced by our Saviour that joyfull sentence this day thou shalst be with me in Paradise At the severall Crosses made upon the holy Host and Chalice THe frequent making of this holy signe as wel after as before the consecration doth repre sent to us the severall sorts of cruell torments which Jesus Christ endured in his bitter passion by his flagellation coronation bearing his heavy Crosse his crucifixion derisions scornes blasphemies and the like The three Crosses which the Priest makes saying Per ipsum c put us in minde of the three houres which he suffered upon the Crosse The other two which he makes saying Deo Patri omnipotenti c. represent to us the water and blood which camefourth of that sacred wound of his side And that elevation of the Host and Chalice and immediately deposing them againe upon the corporall represents the taking downe of his blessed body from the Crosse All which are strong motives to draw from us a feeling compassion of those his great sufferings for our sake and to offer to him a resigned hart with true conformity to his blessed will for what soever his heavenly providence hath desined for us living or dying for tyme or Eternity At the Pater noster WE may make here our humble supplication unto the Eternall Father with great confidence to obtayne what we shall justly and rightly demaunde by this petition taught us by his divine ad beloved sōne And there fore with much confidence we may here make our humble petition to him for that in partilar for which we principally intended to offer up that holy and impetratory sacrifice of the Masse At the division of the Host into 3. parts wherof one is put into the Chalice THis division of the holy Host signifies the separation of the body and soule of Jesus Christ And the particle put into the Chalice mingling therby together the consecrated species of bread and wyne represents to us the reunion of his body and soule at his glorious resurrection By which is also represented to us the horrour of à mortall sin which separating Gods grace from our soule doth kill the same never more to be revived but by the merits of Jesus Christ applyed by true repentance for our sins which therfore we ought carefully to fly and most hartely to detest At Agnus Dei c. WHat greater comfort can mans hart conceive then to heare this joyfull repetition that it is the lambe of God which taketh away the sins of the world for should not he be engaged for this great debt which we owe for sin our case would be desperate since that all creatures joyned together could never make satisfaction to his divine justice for the least venial sin Isalae c. 53. v 5. but the was wounded for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed Agnus Dei is thrice repeated to put us in mind to make 3. acts of Contrition answerable to our 3. usuall sorts of sin by thought word and deed against God against our neighbour and our selves At Domine non sum dignus and the holy Communion THe Priest thus disposed and producing fervent acts of faith and love of humility and true contrition he takes the holy Communion protesting with the humble Publican his great unwor thinesse and Knocking thrice his breast at Domine non sum dignus he makes the signe of the Crosse with the holy Host as if taking Christs heavenly benediction he beseecheth him to consecrate his hart a cleane and pure sepulcher fitt to receive his most precious body and that it may never be made unpleasing to him by any grievous sin At the Ablution WE are put in mind by this Ablution which the Priest takes to purify his fingars and Chalice that we must cleanse our soules from the remainder of all vicious habits from all ill affections and disordinate passions or inclinations to sin which defile our soule that ought to be the pure and undefiled temple of God Craue here humbly such vertues as may adorne and make it a pleasing habitation for the holy Ghost At remooving the book againe to the other side of the Altar HEre adore the great goodenesse of God and his infinit patience who not withstanding the Jewes long obstinate contempt of all his graces profered them wil yet vouchsafe finally and towards the end of the world to receive thē to his mercy and heavenly blesse by their true profession of his holy faith Let us be carefull not to neglect the grace of his divine inspirations wher-upon our endlesse felicity doth soe greatly depende At the Postcommunion THe great benefit received by this holy sacrifice as likewise the innumerable other gracious favours which are so continually communicated unto us from the bountifull and loving hand of God doe justly oblidge us to this due gratefull thankfulnesse which the Priest here makes to his divine Majesty aswell in his own behalfe as for the people in saying the Postcommunion as also the ensuing prayer for the selfe same end At the next Dominus vobiscum THis Dominus vobiscum is to put us in minde of our Saviours appearing to his Disciples and conforting them with his blessed presence after his glorious resurrection But now as this apparition only was so great à comfort to the Disciples o how much more may it well be to us not only to behould him really and truly in the Masse but so frequently also to receive him personnaly into our breasts Where he remaines with us in person so long as the Sacramentall species shall continew and with his grace till he be most ungratefully expelled by mortal sin At the last Collect or prayer BY this prayer we make gratefull acknowledgment of all Gods innumerable benefits and to stirr up much sorrow for having so greatly abused them by the small amendment of our habituall vices Which may justly render us unworthy of his future graces unlesse we be more constant to our good purposes and pious resolutions Of the last Dominus vobiscum THe Priest saluting the people with this Dominus vobiscum doth represent to us our B. Saviours Ascention in the sight of all his Apostles and Disciples Drawing doubtlesse all their harts with him Upon whom both their loue thoughts and whole desires were firmely fixed Wheras our unhappy engagement to vaine worldly contents doe so depresse our soules as we are rendred uncapable of celestiall thougths and remayne euen as buried in meere humane and transitory affaires And wholly made captives to flesh and blood Of Ite Missa est and
justly we have deserved to suffer much more whithout comparaison and that eternally And finally we ought each morning to foresee what sufferance or vexation may that day be likely ro befall us and to offer it to God resolving patiently to suffer the same for his sake The practise of Gods divine Presence A Principall and divine fundamentall verity mainly conducing to mans salvation is to keepe in our memory the divine presence of God Gen. 17 Walke in Gods presence and bee perfect For he is more intimately present to us then is our very soule The memory of this divine presence is able to rule our disorderd passions and to onercome the strongest temptations of our ghostly enemies Chast Joseph and Susanna had no other buckler but this to defend themselves from so great assaults against their purity The frequent Acts by faith of Gods divine presence in all places in all our actions words and thougts would be a speciall preservative against all sin Who shall be faithfull to this holy practife in all his chief actions may hope by Gods grace to frustrate the dangerous snares of all his ghostly enemies Still calling the holy proverb to minde Prov. 15.3 that in all places the eyes of our lord beholdeth both the Good and badd Of true purity of intention THe greatest secret for Christian perfection is the right rectifying our intention in all we shal doe It being the intention which gives them their price and valew If it be Good the action will be meritorious if vicious the act will be nolesse give you à thousand pound in almes yet with some bad intention or out of the motive of vanity all that almes is not only lost to your soule but is also sinfull and deserving punishment from God wheras one penny given for his love will merit eternalle reward And therfore whither we eate or drinke or what else soever we doe lett us doe it with a pure intention for the glory of God This was the perfect practife of Jesus Christ Cor 101 Who had no other end nor intention in all he either did or said but purely his eternall Fathers glory And have we then not great reason to frame all our actions upon so divine a modle Of good purposes and pious Resolutions TO confesse our sins without a firme purpose to amende were but by sacrilege to abuse the Sacrament and à meere mocking of God A true good purpose wihch is pleasing to God must be with a firme resolution to practife vertue and not an in efficacious defire of a sloathfull soule described by the holy Ghost Saying that the sloathfull man will and he will not Hell is full of such fruitlesse desires which those wretched soules yet living in this world had sometymes to embrace Gods holy inspirations and wish they had been faithfull to those good purposes which by their neglect and infidelity they now well perceive with enraiged griefe to be brought to eternall misery All serving at present but as tormenting wormes to gripe and to knaw their guilty consciences and ought to be a sufficient warniing to us yet in good tyme to be more constant and faithfull to our pious resolutions reflecting what shame and great confusion it would be unto us to have so very often promissed without performance but to a mortall man as we have done by our good purposes to Almighty God without all care shame or industry to performe what we have so often promissed to his divine and dreadfull Majesty OF CONFESSION If we Confesse our sins he is faithfull and just for to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity 1. Joan. 1. Advertisments before Confession SAthan our mortall enemy useth all industry to deterre us from this holy Sacrament of Penance or at least to put such impediments as may much hinder the happy fruits thereof well knowing that by a true contrite confession he looseth what in much tyme he had labored to gaine before Conceale nothing in your Confession for God you cannot deceive but your selfe you may For one mortall sin wilfully concealed renders your confession a sin of sacrilege and your selfe incapable of absolution Conceive not your Ghostly Father to disesteeme you for your sins for confesse but with sorrow and full purpose to amend and although you approached a great sinner yet he regards you by repentance to returne a Saint Prepare your selfe to Confession as if it were to be your last and at the hower of death and endevour to put your selfe in the same condition as you would desire to be found at that last dreadfull moment by stirring up fervent acts of faith of hope of charity and true contrition for your sins Crave divine light of God to call to minde your offences and that you may now behould them as they would appeare to you at your death and with the same enormity that you may abhorr them and accuse your selfe of them with firme purpose to amende and to doe due penance and satisfaction for the same Consider how often you have deserved eternall damnation from which God hath of his meere mercy so often preserved you as you have offended him by mortall sin which is as great a mercy as to have so often reduced you from that infernall pit of endlesse misery Know also that a good Confession requires a good purpose of amendment a right good purpose requires a true intention to avoyde the occasions of our sin for to doe other wayes would be like to him who would not have the plague but would not avoyde infected houses for such a mans purposes would be but a mockery and in vaine To your good purpose of amendment adde also harty sorrow and detestation of your sin The want wherof may be the cause of your small amendment and of so frequent relapses into your former faults Our confession must be sincere and true accusing our selves freely telling the doubtfull things as doubfull and the certaine as certaine without artifice or excuse covering or diminishing our Confession being to God who allready well knowes how farr we are guilty Lastly recommende your selfe to the sacred Virgin mother of God to your good Angel and to the intercession of all Gods blessed Saints to obtaine for you a true repentant hart detesting all your sins with a firme purpose to avoyde them here after and the occasions therof Confiding in the mercy of God and in the sacred merits of Jesus Christ apply'd by the ministry of the Priest in this holy sacrament unto our soules for the remission of our sins for it is not absurd saith S. Cyril that they forgive sin who have the holy Ghost for when they remit or retayne the holy Ghost remits or retaynes in them and that they doe two wayes first in baptisme and then in Penance Cyril lib. 12. c. 56. in Joan. Let every one my brethren J beseech you confesse his sins whiles he is yet aliue whiles his Confession may be admitted whilst
say with a devout and repentant hart this following prayer A devout Prayer after Confession O Soueraine Creator of all things I a most vile and ungratfull sinner prostrate before thy sacred feet in true griefe and harty sorrow for all may haynous Trespasses wher with I have so grievously offended my Lord and Maker and for which thou hast vouchsafed to endure so cruell torments upon the Crosse I confesse my great ingratitude deare Lord for all thy innumerable benefits and for having thus mercifully spared me so long persisting in my sinfull courses and contempt of thy divine commandements and blessed will for which in stead of casting me into Hel as I most justly deserved thy boundlesse goodnesse hath expected me to penance and amendment of my life For which o how often hast thou knockd at the dore of my hart by thy heavenly inspirations how often hast thou prevented me with blessings allured me with comforts drawne me with favours Yea forced me many tymes by crosses and afflictions to seeke unto thee and yet neither hath my flinty hart been mollifid ther with nor my will reclaymed But behould now at last o my ungratfull soule the grievousness of this thy sin and pierce my obdurate hart o divine Redeemer with contrition and detestation of the foulness of all my detestable offences for which unworthy I am to be called thy creature or whom the earth should beare much lesse afford so plentifully all conveniences for humane life to me upon whom even nature it selfe ought rather to take just vengance of my great contempt and odious sin O mercifull Father how many by thy righteous judgment are now burning in the eternall flames of Hel for a lesse number of sins then those of myne who might have been Saints in Heaven had they received so great a measure of thy gracious mercies as I have donne But now o mercifull Father of all pittie and compassion in unfeyned sorrow and remonse of conscience for all my misdeeds I prostra to at thy feet most humbly beseech thy pardon looke on me o loving Lord a wretched sinner with the eye of mercy as thou didst on the pentitent Publican the repentant Magdalen and the Apostle who thrice denied thee vouchsase once more to admit me againe unto thy gracious favour Lord worke that speedily in me for which cause thou hast so long spared me and to which from all Eternity thou hast ordayned me But woe is me who have refused to bestow my hart on thee who wouldst have made it a temple and habitation for thy owne aboad which I have sacrilegiously defiled with so much impiety and made it but as a stew of unpure thoughts But I confesse all this my grievous wickednesse to thee my God of all piety and therefore will not dispaire but throw my selfe into the sea of thy infinit mercy for as my sins be numberlesse so are thy mercies endlesse O Most loving Father if thou wilst thou canst make me cleane heale the wounds of my soule Remember sweet Lord thy comfortable promisse to us pronunced by thy Prophet thou hast committed folly with many lovers yet returne thou againe to me and I will receive thee Great confidence this gives me O Lord and with my whole hart I returne to thee I am that defiled soule that prodigall child that unfaithfull servant who have separated my selfe from thee I have forsaken thee o fountaine of living waters and diged to my selfe cisterns which will hould no water I have fedd upon empty husks with the swyne which could not satiate my hunger But what is past let it be cancelled o gracious Lord and forgot I bessech thee and for the tyme to come let there be an eternal covenant betwixt us that thou wilt vouchsafe to be my mercifull Father and that I againe may be for everthy obedient and faithfull child I aske deare Lord neither riches honours nor long life but this one only thing alone which I will never cease to crave that from this present instant untill the dreadfull houre of my death I may never more offend thy heavenly Majesty nor defile my conscience with any mortall sin Grant me this my humble suite for the merits and bitter death and Passion of thy only and dearely beloued sonne Jesus my divine Redeemer to whom with thee and the holy Ghost three persons and one euer living God be all honour and glory now and for evermore Amen I beseech thee Lord Jesu let this my Confession be gratefull and acceptable to thee by the merits of the blessed Virgin thy Mother and all thy glorious Saints and whatsoever hath been wanting unto me now and at other tymes of the sufficiency of Contrition of the purity and integrity of Confession let thy piety and mercy supply and according to the same vouchsafe to accompt me more fully and perfectly absolved in Heaven who liuest and raignest world without end Amen A Reflection IT may here finally be observed as it happens ofentymes that the sick man dies because he makes not use of the Phisition concealing his disease and not following his order and davise so many a soule doth perish for not making use of his spirituall phisition by the holy Sacrament of Confession The great benefit whereof were it but well considered we should not so much neglect the incomporable benefits which are to be reaped thereby For being duly frequented it expiats the guilt of all sin and changeth the eternall paine which was due to mortall sin into temporall It purifies our soules and renders them gratefull to God By infusion of grace and guifts of the holy Ghost It greatly strengthens as against all evill temptations and gives great quiet to our couscience All which but scriously considered who will neglect frequently to make vse of so souveraine a good For is there any that had he but a plant in his garden of so rare a vertue as if but weekely taken should cure all diseases and preserve him in perfect he alth would he neglect to make use therof undoubtedly he would not Let us then for the eternall health of our soule doe what we ould most diligently performe for the meere temporall health of our body OF THE HOLY COMMVNION Come ye to him and be illuminated and your faces shall not be counfounded Psal 35.6 A preparatory instruction disposing to the holy Communion IF it be requisit that a Chrifstian come well prepared and with due disposition to any Sacrament it ought to be doubtlesse with greatest care and diligence to this of the holy Eucharist it contayning the divine Author himselfe both of all Sacraments and grace And therfore to be received with all purity and devotion to receive the great fruit and benediction therby For as he who receives it worthely becomes the habitation and temple of God who replenisheth him with all abundance of grace so who receives him unworthely receives according to the Apostle his owne damnation and judgment It doth therfore greatly import him
of hart simplicity of spirit and sincere purity of body and soule O sweet and most mercifull Jesu mortify in me all vices and disordered motions and unruly passions take away from me whatsoever is unlawfull inordinate or unpleasing in thy sight and give me a hart according to thyne owne right simple pure and godly and deliver and keepe me from all sin O most loving Jesu I offer unto thee my body my senses and all the powers of my soule and whatsoever I am to be moderated kept governed and possest by thee O good Jesu preserve me from all vicious vaine and proud cogitations unchast affections grant that I may sincerely seeke thee alone and that in thee only I may take my rest Amen A Prayer to our good Angel O Blessed Angel who art my keeper deefnd aide and guard me from all invasions and assaults of the devil wheresoever I be either wakeing or sleeping drive away from me all the temptations of Sathan and thou by thy prayers obtayne at the hands of the Almighty that he may have no place in me Amen A briefe examen of Conscience before going to bed FIrst place your selfe in the presence of God Crave his grace that you may call to minde such sins as you have committed that day 2. Examen wherin you have offended God from whom you have received so many gracious benefits 3. Detest your sin and be hartely sorry for having offended so good and so loving a God 4. Make a full and firme purpose to sin so no more with hope in Gods mercy and Christs merits to obtayne pardon resolving to confesse and to doe your pennance for the same Finally we must endeavour to put our selves in that state wherein we would gladly be found at the houre of our death by producing the holy acts of Faith of Hope of Charity and of true Contrition for all our sins by this or some such like act of true harty Contrition as followeth An Act of Contrition MY God my Saviour and my Judge I repent with my whole hart and soule for having offended thee who art infinitly good and souverainly loving and amiable therefore hencefourth I will love and honour thee above all things whatsoever and most firmely purpose thy holy grace assisting me never mortally to offend thee but to confesse and performe my imposed penance confiding in thy infinit mercy and in the sacred merits of the bitter death and Passion of thy dearely beloved sonne Jesus my divine Redeemer that thou wilst graciously forgive me These 7. Penitential Psalmes of David are not placed here as part of the evening prayer before bed But that after the act of contrition you may take one or more of them most moveing you to repentance for sin according to each ones leasure and devotion Antiph Remember not Lord our or our parents sins neither take vengence of our offences King David his seaven penitentiall Psalmes shewing his great griefe and sorrow after he had sinned with Bersabee Psal 6. LOrd rebuke me not in thy fury nor chastise me in thy wrath Have mercy on me O Lord because I am weake heale me Lord because my bones be troubled And my soule is disquieted exceedingly but thou O Lord how long Turne thee O Lord and deliver my soule save me for thy mercy Because there is not in death that is mindfull of thee and in hell who shall confesse to thee I have labored in my mourning I will every night wash my bed I will water my couch with teares Myne eye is troubled for fury I have waxen old among all myne enemies Depart from me allyee that worke iniquities because our Lord hath hard the voyce of my weeping Our Lord hath hard my petition our Lord hath received my prayer Let all my enemies be asshamed and very sore troubled let them be converted and asshamed very speedily Glory be to the Father and to the Sonne c. Psalme 31. BLessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins be covered Blessed is the man to whom our Lord hath not imputed sin neither is there guile in his spirit Because I held my peace my bones are inveterated whilst I cryed all the day Because day and night thy hand is made heavy upon me I am turned in my anguish while the thorne is fastned I have made my sin knowne to thee and my injustice I have not hid I said I will confesse against me my injustice to our Lord and thou hast forgiven the impiety of my sin For this shall every holy one pray to thee in tyme convenient But yet in the overflow of many waters they shall not approach to him Thou art my refuge from tribulation which hath compassed me my joy deliver me from them that compasse me I will give thee understanding and will instruct thee in the way that thou shalst goe I will fasten myne eyes upon thee Doe not become as a horse and mule which have no understanding In bit and bridle bind fast their jawes that approch not to thee Many are the scourges of a sinner but mercy shal compasse him that hopeth in our Lord. Be joyfull in our Lord and rejoyce yee just and glory all yee right of hart Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 37. LOrd rebuke me not in thy fury nor chastise me in thy wrath Because thy arrowes are fastned in me and thou hast confirmed thy hand upon me There is no health in my flesh in respect of thy wrath my bones have no peace in respect of my sins Because myne iniquities are gone over my head and as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me My scarres are putrid and corrupted because of my foolishnesse I am become miserable and made crooked even to the end I went sorrowfull all the day Because my loynes are filled with illusions and there is no health in my flesh I am afflicted and am humbled exceedingly I rored for the groning of my hart Lord before thee is all my desire and my groning is not hid from thee My hart is troubled my stength hath forsaken me and the light of mine eyes and the same is not with me My friends and my neighbours have approached and stood against me And they that were neere me stood farr of and they did violence who sought my soule And they that sought me evils spake vanities and meditated guiles all the day But I as deafe did not heare as one dumbe not opening his mouth And I became as a man not hearing and not having reprehension in his mouth Because in thee O Lord have I hoped thou shalst heare me O Lord my God For I have said least sometymes my ennemies rejoyce over me and whilst my feete are moved they speake great things upon me Because I am ready for scourges and my sorrow is in my sight alwayes Because I will declare my iniquity and wil thinke for my sin But mine enemies live and are confirmed over me and they are multipli'd that hate me vnjustly
They that repay evil things for good did back bite me because I followed goodnesse Forsake me not O Lord my God depart not from me Incline unto my helpe O Lord God of my salvation Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 50. HAve mercy on me O God according to thy great mercy And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquities Wash me hencefourth from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Because I doe know my iniquity and my sin is alwayes against me To thee only have I sinned and have donne evill before thee that thou maist be justified in thy words and maist overcome when thou art judged For behould I was conceived in iniquities and my mother conceived me in sin For behould thou hast loved truth the uncertaine and hidden things of thy wisdome thou hast made manifest to me Thou shalt sprincle me with hysope and I shall be cleansed thou shalst wash me and I shall be made whiter then snow To my hearing thou shalst give joy and gladnesse and humbled harts shall rejoyce Turne away thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities Create a cleane hart in me O God and renew a right spirit in my bowels Cast me not away from thy face and thy holy spirit take not away from me Render unto me the joy of thy salvation and confirme me with a principall spirit I will teach the unjust thy wayes and the impious shall be converted unto thee Deliver me from blouds O God the God of my salvation and my tongue shall exalt thy justice Thou O Lord shalt open my lips and my mouth shall declare thy praise Because if thou wouldest have had sacrifice I had verily given it with whole-burnt-offerings thou wilt not be delighted A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit a contrite and humble hart O God thou wilst not dispise Deale favorably O Lord in thy good will with Syon and let the walls of Hierusalem be built up Then shalt thou accept sacrifice of justice oblations and whole-burnt-offerings then shall they lay calves upon thine altar Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 101. O Lord heare my prayer and let my cry come unto thee Turne not away thy face from me in what day soever I am in tribulation incline thine eare to me In what day soever I shal call upon thee heare me speedily For my dayes have vanished as smoke and my bones are withered as a dry-burnt fire-brand I am smitten as grasse and my hart is withered for I have forgotten to eate my bread For the voyce of my groning my bonne hath cleaved to my flesh I am become like a pelican of the wildernesse I am become as a night raven in the house I have watched and am become as a sparow solitary in the house toppe All the day did my ennemies upbraide me and they that praised me sware against me For I did eate ashes as bread and mingled my drink with weeping At the face of the wrath of thy indignation for that lifting me up thou hast throwne me downe My dayes have declined as a shadow I am withered as grasse But thou O Lord endurest for ever and thy memoriall in generation and generation Thou rising up shalt have mercy on Syon for the tyme is come Because the stones thereof have pleased thy servants and they shall have pitty on the earth thereof And the Gentils shall feare thy name O Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory For our Lord hath builded Syon and he shall be seene in his glory He hath had respect to the prayer of the humble and he hath not dispised their petition Let these things be written in an other generation and the people that shall be created shall praise our lord Because he hath looked fourth from his high holy place our Lord from Heaven hath looked upon the earth That he might heare the gronings of the fettered that he might loose the children of them that are flayne That they may shew fourth the name of our Lord in Syon and his prayse in Hierusalem In the assembling of the people togeather in one and kings to serve our Lord. He answered him in the way of his strength shew me the fewnesse of my dayes Call me not back in the halfe of my dayes thy yeares are unto generation and generation In the beginning O Lord thou hast founded the earth and the Heavens are the workes of thy hands They shall perish but thou art permanent and they shall all wax old as a garment And as a vesture thou shalst change them and they shall be changed but thou art the selfe same and thy yeares shall not faile The children of thy servants shall inhabit and their seede shall be directed for ever Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 129. FRom the depthes I have cryed to thee O Lord Lord heare my cry Let thine eares be intent to the voyce of my petition If thou shalt observe iniquities O Lord Lord who shall sustayne it Because with thee there is propitiation and for thy law I have expected thee O Lord. My soule hath expected in his word my soule hath hoped in our Lord. From the morning watch even until night let Israel hope in our Lord. Because with our Lord there is mercy and with him plentifull redemption And he shall redeeme Israel from all his iniquities Glory be to the Father c. Psalem 142. LOrd heare my prayer with thine eares receive my petition in thy truth heare me in thy justice And enter not into judgment with thy servant because no man living shall be justifi'd in thy sight Because the enemie hath persecuted my soule he hath humbled my life in the Earth He hath set me in obscure places as the dead of the world and my spirit is in anguish upon me with in me my hart is troubled I was mindfull of old dayes I have meditated in all thy workes in the facts of thy hands did I meditate I have stretched forth my hand to thee my soule is as earth without water unto thee Heare me quickly O Lord my spirit hath fainted Turne not away thy face from me and I shall be like to them that descend into the lake Make me heare thy mercy in the morning because I have hoped in thee Make the way knowne to me wherein I may walke because I have lifted up my soule to thee Deliver me from mine enemies O Lord to thee I have fled teach me to doe thy will because thou art my God Thy good spirit will conduct me into the right way for thy names sake O Lord thou wilt quicken me in thy equity Thou wilst bring forth my soule out of tribulation and in thy mercy thou wilst destroy mine enemies And thou wilst destroy all that afflict my soule because I am thy servant Glory be to the Father c. The Antiphone Remenber not O Lord our or our Parents offences Neither take
not answer to what purpose remayned they in the world but with the insipid salt are to be cast forth as saith Jesus Christ upon the dunghill And so likewise if we correspond not to our end what can we justly expect but our owne destruction But dost thou my soule now act according to the end of thy creation are all thy actions directed to the glory of God ô how farr am I from it and therefore how fruitlesly doe I employ both my tyme and labour and what a reproach will it be to me an other day for so shamefull a sin unlesse I doe speedily amend The due gratitude which in justice we owe unto Iesus Christ YOV are not your own saith the great Apostle for you are bought with a deare price which was no lesse then the precious blood of Jesus Christ by which he so mercifully hath redeemed us from the eternall captivity of Sathan And therefore most duly as redeemed slaves we ought both in justice and true gratitude to consecrate with a pure intention to his greater glory all our actions and service which not doing we doe robb most unjustly Jesus Christ of his right Which well considered ô what confusion will it be at our appearing before his dreadfull tribunall when after 40. 50. or 60. yeares as in proper quality of his redeemed slaves we shall not be able to shew one day perhaps employed faithfully in his service or true gratitude If I give but a dog an unprofitable bone he faunes and shewes me love yea and renders me much service wheras we shew neither loue nor gratitude to Jesus Christ who hath given us his life his infinit merits so many severall great graces and divine inspirations and finally purchaced Heaven for our Beatitude and we remayne insensible O horrid ingratitude the dog will be our shamefull reproach unlesse touched by his example we amend Our maine great affaire in this World is to save our soules O Strange and stupide folley of man to spare no cost paines nor diligence for meere worldly vanity and to want courage and resolution to labour for eternall salvation for which least care or industry is taken All losse whatsoever doth trouble us and we are insensible of loosing our owne dearest soule We finde upon our accompts great expences for our bodily commodities so much for apparel so much for feasting and curiosity in dyet so much in pleasure and gaming so much to gaine or to preserve some temporall interest so much to Phisitions and Apothecaries for our corporal health but little or nothing for the spiritual health of our infirme and much diseased soule which in some manner and unchristian like might seeme least of all to belong to us or as if it were to dye and end as doth the soule of a beast O what true brutality is this in vaine worldly and voluptuous men thus to preferre Earth before Heaven misery before beatitude their corruptible body before theire immortal soules and this uncertaine moment before an Eternity of blisse and never ending happinesse A serious reflection upon so great a folley ought to give us warning that whilst it is the acceptable tyme and the dayes of health we ought to prevent our crernall misery Of the divine presence of God WHo is a Christian must both be leeve and religiously adore Almighty God as truly present and really acting at the very botome of our soule for him we both live and moove in all we doe and therfore much greater confusion a thousand tymes needs must it be to us that our many and great desloyalties should lye more open to his divine view then were they exposed upon a publique stage to the eyes of all the kings and people of the world And yet O senslesse and wretched man to feare and be so much asshamed to committ in the sight of a mortall man that which he most impudently feares not to doe in the sight of God who immediately in most just revenge may command the Earth to open and swallow him downe alive both body and soule into the eternall tormenting flames of Hell which if we desire to avoyde let us deepely imprint this Christian verity in our soules by a serious and frequent reflection of this overseeing divine presence of God in all both our actions and thoughts whereof we are to give to him an exact accompt even to the least idle words And hereafter to receive an everlasting reward or punishment according to due desert Use often this holy practise whilst the tyme of health and the dayes acceptable are afforded you and feare to offend How we ought to distrust our selves NO enemy is so dangerous to damne us as our selves and therfore the best meanes to avoyde sin is to distrust our owne great frailty and carefully to watch over that badd humour and vicious propension to which we find our corrupt nature most inclined to draw us to offend which being well observed we shall easily perceive that all our sin and misery springs from that infected fountaine in following our disordinate humour and naturall inclination quite contrary to the internall holy motion of grace well verifying that mans domestick enemies are most dangerous We ought therefore seriously to examen what is our predominant and most vicious inclination against which we must earnestly crave Gods grace to resist and to stand watchfully upon our garde to suppresse and oppose the same But to gett a perfect victory over this dangerous enemy we must resolve to oppose it by the practise of that vertue which is most opposit thereunto as who is inclind to covetousnesse must practise the vertue of liberality if to vaine glory and pride the vertue of humility must be opposed If to cholere and passion the mildnesse and meeknesse of Jesus Christ and soe of all the rest Who shall practise this will not faile to bee happy Against detraction and Calumny THe holy proverb and S. Paul doe both agree that the detractor is odious both to God and Man Proverb 24.9 Rom 1.30 and yet no fault is so frequently committed in conversation as is this cursed sin of backbiting and calumny which sends more to Hell saith S. Benard then any other vice whatsoever for as the Divill possesseth the tongue of the detractor so doth he also the eare of him who willingly harkneth there unto and of-the two who committeth the greater sin S. Bernard confesseth jugenuously he could not easily determine A good expedient in hearing detraction to avoyde the danger of offending God will be to answere as did our B. Saviour to the accusing Pharisies he who amongst you is free from sin let him cast the first stone at her We must also abstaine from speaking of other mens faults in their absence nor willingly harken to them who shall doe it as being a thing from which no good can be likely to procede but rather breach of charity and much harme Wherefore if any shall presse you to give eare to them in
any such backbiting discourse imitate the excellent practise of a holy servant of God who used to desire them who made any such discourse that they much rather would tell him of some fault of his owne whereof he had many for therby said he you will doe me great charity for which I will both hartely thanke you and also endevour to amende Thinke well upon this holy practise for it is of great importance to avoyd much sin to practice true charity towards our neighbour and finally to procure peace and happy quiet to our owne minde therby Of flying the occasion of sin WHo loves danger shall porish therein saith the wise man and who is most carefull to shun the occasion Eccles 1.17 he doubtlesse will least offende for as who stops the fountaine will certainly dry up the brooke so likewise who flyes the occasion will preserve himselfe from sin For as taking away the cause one wil hinder the effect so in the combat with vice no way is so secure to gaine the victory as by flight The holy Ghost assures us that as we cannot touch pitch without being defiled so is it also as difficult to stay voluntarily in the occasion of sin without a defiled conscience The common proverb saith very well that the occasion makes a Thiefe which is but too truly verifi'd in makeing adrunkard a detractor a Luxurious man and the like And who but reflecteth upon his most offending God will finde that his neglect of avoyding the occasion was still the chiefest cause of his sin Salomon David and Sampson did all greatly offend by exposing themselves to the occasion let us take good warning by them who are much inferiour to their perfections To avoyde therfore sin we must beware of all ill company for they serve but as alluring baites to draw soules to offende We must greatly mistrust our owne frailty and place our whole confidence in God craving humbly his celestiall grace to strengthen us against all the dangerous temptations of our three mortall ennemies the world the flesh and the devill The small number of the Elect. THis thruth is exceeding terrible Math. 7. grounded upon the words of Jesus Christ saying that the gate is wide and the way broad which leadeth to death and many walke therein but the gate unto life is narrow and few doe find it many ate cal'd but few are chosen God himselfe hath said it and therefore it must be true The figures of this divine truth doe well confirme it and by the holy Fathers they are soe expounded As that infinit number perishing in the deluge and but eight persons only escaping it in the Arke And secondly of eighteene hundred thousand Israelits who went out of Egipt two only of them lived to goe into the land of promise These are esteemed by the holy Fathers true figures to represent to us the small number of the Elect which ought not to seeme incredible considering the small number of Christians in comparaison of all the rest And secondly amongst the Christians how few are truly vertuous or love God as they ought or live according to their calling This wel considered what horrid feare ought we to have least our unhappy lot should fall out of this little blessed compagnie of the Elect. Phill. 2.21 Which to prevent by S. Pauls advise whorke in feare and trembling your salvation O what would not a damned soule now wish to have donne wherby to have escaped those eternall flames let us doe now what at the houre of our death we should undoubtedly wish to have done And according to S. Peter lett us imploy all our sollicitude and labour to secure our salvation by good workes Let us frequently renew the promise and protestation which we made in Baptisme â—et 1. to renounce the devil and all his workes the pompes and vanities of the world to follow our Christian maxims and to imitate the holy vertues of Jesus Christ Who suffer persecution for justice sake Math. 5. are beatifi'd by Iesus Christ himselfe THe souldier seekes no priviledge above is Prince or General nor is the servant more then his Maister now our divine Redeemer having led us the way through all manner of perfection why should we despicable wormes and criminel offenders be troubled or refuse cheerefully to follow him through so much easier a combat of suffering and persecution in comparison of what this great Lord of glory and inÌ„ocent laÌ„be of God hath suffered for our sakes for are our persecutors more cruel barbarous or inhumane then were his have they so greatly injured moked scorned or affronted us as they did him have they spitt or struck on our faces as they did on his have they by false calumny taken away our honour and sought our death and destruction as they did his O no not such outrageous injuries have been offered us and therfore it would be most unworthey for the member of so suffering a head to be so very nice and delicate or much troubled at smale and little injuries Finally what other perswasion need we to suffer with all cheerefulnesse then is the very conclusion of this Beatitude Math. 5 in these words exult yee and rojoyce because your reward is very copious in Heaven this reward being the beatificall vision of God for all Eternity To what multitude of miseries Mans life is subject MAns life though but short and very uncertaine yet it is replenisht with a multitude of miseries aswell of body as of soule the holy wiseman calls it a heavy yoake imposed vpon the children of Adam Ecc. 40.1 from the day of their birth till the day of their death and buriall These miseries now being so very great may wel make our life seeme long to us though but short in it selfe by reason of the sad and tedious accidents to which our fraile nature is so subject by feare by paine by griefe by necessity and want which to prevent and to grow rich what paines and industry doe Men use in crossing the dangerous seas undertakeing long painfull journies enduring great distempers of opposit clymats for gayning wealth And having at last quite spent tyred and worne out themselves how properly may that their great toyle and industry be compared to the spinning but à poore spiders webb consuming their whole life and labour as doth that little creature by drawing out the substance of their very bowels to weave their little nett to catch some contemptible fly Which lively represents meere worldly men whose thoughts and industry both day and nigth are to contrive the obtayning wealth honour or some small sensvall pleasure which by a right understanding and vertuous soule ought to be esteemed as vnworthey the occupation of his life and whole industry as is the catching of a silly fly The premisses well considered we must adore the great goodnesse of God who therfore hath mixed these many miseries with this present life therby to compell us to hate
it and to drawe vs to aspire to life everlasting which is so free from all these afflicting miseries For if being thus even overwhelmed with so many daily sufferings we are yet notwhithstanding so unwilling to depart from this wretched world what then would become of us if we enjoyed all here at great case and to our harts full content S. Augustin proves mans life to be a continual misery Li. Con. fes 10 ch 28. because in adversity saith he we desire prosperity and in prosperity we feare adversity nor are we ever quiet or free from the one of these tormenting passions either of desire of what we want or of feare to loose the prosperity which we enjoy Wo be therfore saith he to the prosperity of this life for the feare wherin we are of adversity and for that our joy may be quickly at an end and wo be to the adversity of this life through the desire which we have of prosperity and because adversity is of it selfe a thing hard to be endured And is not therfore the life of Man upon Earth a meere temptation saith S. Augustin without any kinde of intermission and voyde of all true happinesse or content Reflections upon the dreadfull word of Aeternity ONe good consideration of Aeternity makes all temporal felicity but contemptible saith S. Greg. yea that very thought of Aeternity gives courage to beare patiently all persecution and the afflictions of this miserable life and with S. Augustin it will make us say here cutt here burne here doe not spare me Lord so that thou spare me eternally A serious reflection upon Aeternity is a souverainne remedy against all sin for who would presume to offend God if he wel considered that by his sin he forfeits an Aeternity of all beatitude and engageth himselfe to the endlesse torments of Hel. A good reflection upon Aeternity is capable to make us to admire to adore and love Gods mercy as also to dread his justice in rewarding so little service done him in this world with everlasting recompence in the other and for one mortal sin committed by thought or deed to punish eternally in hell O that this wholsome thought of Aeternity could take so deepe a roote in our soules as never to be plucked from our thought For what is Aeternity but the measure of a present and perpetuall during without end Imagin a thousand millions of yeares yea as many milions of yeares as there have been moments from the beginning of the world and shal be till the end therof and then you may truly say how all that is nothing in comparaison of Aetetnity which is to dure so long as God is God and so long shall the just be blest with glory in Paraidse and the wicked remayne no lesse in the tormenting flames of hell alwayes for ever and for Aeternity and this for their foolish choyce here to enjoy but one uncertaine moment of vaine and deluding pleasure O Aeternity Aeternity how is it possible that thou shouldst be no more considered by men he doubtlesse needs must want both faith and all true judgment who doth not tremble at the serious true reflection upon Aeternity Whereupon to make good profit by this wholsome thought of Aeternity consider by an act of faith this certaine truth that you are to be either happy or most miserable for all Eternity and that the last moment of your life is to determine this great affaire and therefore when you finde your selfe solicited to any sin detest that motion which for a moment of false content doth intice you most tray terously unto endlesse misery Which to avoyde resolve with a courageous resolution to suffer both persecution and all affliction whatsoever much rather then to hazard the torments of Hell for all Eternity Fly sin with great horrour much more then death it selfe and from the occasions thereof as the most dangerous serpent it being only which can destroy you eternally In sine he must either want faith or be a foole who is not toucht nor drawes profit by this wholsome thought of Eternity for can we judge him lesse then frantick and quite out of his witts who will venture by committing one mortall sin to expose himselfe to damnation for all Aeternity Here followeth a briefe signification of the Priestly ornaments at Masse as also a short declaration of the other Ceremonies and holy mysteries of that divine sacrifice for the instruction and comfort of the poore and lesse learned people for whom this little manuel is principally intended though not unwelcome I hope to any behoulding so cleerly thereby how perfectly the bitter death and Passion of our divne Redeemer is represented to our memory wherby to stirr us up to love and gratitude for what so loving a Saviour hath suffered to pay our debt And by this meanes to moove us also for his sake and for the expiation of our grievous sins to suffer the afflictions which his blessed order and heavenly providence hath mercifully disposed for us to undergoe in this world therby to avoyde the eternall torments in the other And now as for these ceremonies ordayned for the more solemne celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Masse whereby the peoples devotion is much encreaced God is more glorifi'd and our soules are instructed and drawne unto his love therefore great impiety it is proceeding chieffy from ignorance in such as doe so irreligiously dispise those holy Ceremonies inspired by the holy Ghost into his beloved spouse the Catholik Church for the increace of devotion and greater Majesty in Gods divine service and worship Yet here it is to be observed that we doe not place any true perfection in these holy Ceremonies but only use them as meanes wherby we are induced to true perfection of the love of God à Ceremonie being only an outward religious act no further piously laudable then it is exercis'd for Gods honour and glory by its pious signification And like as we know that chastity and poverty are not true perfection themselves because they may and also often tymes doe happen to be without it yet none can deny them to be good meanes to obtayne contempt of the world and the love of God wherein only true perfection doth consist And as the children of Israel by behoulding the stones which their Fathers had brought with them when they passed dryfoot over the red sea were put in mind of Gods great miracles in their protection and were also mooved by that meanes greatly to love and honour God for it so likewise holy Ceremonies put us in mind of their pious significations and are like savoury sauce which giveth a pleasing relish to the meate although of it selfe it be but of little substance Or as the leaves and barke which although they beare no fruit yet are both ornaments and a needfull defence to preserve the pleasing fruit The poles in the vineyard beare no grapes yet they sustayne and preserve the same So likewise although the
Ceremonies of the Church be neither the substance nor the perfection of Religion yet they preserve and doe also begett and stirr up in us the reverance and gratefull memory of the holy mysteries of our faith and are an excellent and needfull ornament to religion Yea S. Aug. against Faustus the Manichean heretick li. 19. saith that without externall Ceremonies it is impossible to preserve Religion This supposed and as I hope you will find truly verifi'd by what doth follow that now which in the next place I am to recommend to you is that you having payed due honour and homage to God by your morning prayer then apply your selfe to such employments as the obligation of your present calling and condition may require of you But if afterward good leasure and oportunity be permitted you to heare the divine sacrifice of the Masse omitt not to be present at that supreame act of our Christian religion wherby we give to God the highest honour of sacrifice which is proper to him alone there being offered to him that most gratefull Host of the law of grace which is the sacred body and blood of Jesus Christ that most pure and immaculate lambe of God which though but once only offered in a visible and bloody manner for us upon the Crosse as a sacrifice of Redemption for all the sins of the world yet that very self same sacred Host and victime now daily is offered upon the holy Altar by the hands of the Priest in an unbloody and invisible forme not as a new price or payment for our sins that being here only applyed in the Masse which was already payed upon the Crosse Like as it is also applyd unto our soules both by faith by Baptisme and the other Sacraments and therefore is here in the Masse but only as the reall true sacrifice of application of the very selfsame victime not in a bloody and visible manner but in an unbloody and invisible under the sacramentall formes of bread and wyne And how avayleable now it is to all who devoutly assist at this holy sacrifice much and vith great authority might here be said but my designe ayming at brevity take only what that divinely devout Thomas a Kempis tells us in his imitation of Christ chap. 7. lib. 4. There is no oblation more worthy saith he no satisfaction greater for the washing away of sin then to offer up our selves to God purely with the oblation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Masse and holy communion Now that this holy sacrifice of the Masse is a most true and lively representation of the life and death of Jesus Christ he who shall observe either the ornaments of the Priest or the ceremonies and holy mysteries in the Masse will be forced to confesse that to be most true as it will manifestly appeare to any who reade but our Catholick Authors that explicate the primitive institution of the same And to begin with the holy Altar of the Altar and vvhat it signifies he shall finde that it hath relation to sacrifice which must necessarily be offered to God in the Church where his true faith is professd And therfore this name of Altar is given to us by S. Paul Hebr. 13.10 we have an Altar whereof they have not power to cate whoserve the Tabernacle And 1. cor 9.24 and S. Math. 5.24 all which is abundantly sufficient warrant for us to use this name of Altar Which represents the table wheron our divine Redeemer did celebrate the last supper with his Disciples 〈…〉 the night before his bitter death and passion The linning for the altar or the altar cloathes are to bee very pure and white they representing the purity of our blessed Saviours humanity from all stayne of sin or disordered passion That linning is also to be blest to signify the great sanctity of Jesus Christ his life which we must endeavour of the lighted candles upon the altar the best we can to imitate The lighted candles upon the altar admonish us according to S. Luke to be ready in imitation of the wise Virgins with the oyle of good workes in our lampe of true faith and to expect at the pronouncing those sacred and operative words of consecration the reall and true substantiall presence of that our divine and heavenly spouse who requires the light of our good workes so to shine before men as therby they may be mooved to glorify their Father who is in Heaven The two candels signify the two testaments of holy scripture the old and new They also signify the light of fatih revealed to the Jew and Gentill And they advertise us of the great splendor both of faith of good life and workes required in the celebrating of so heigh and dreadfull a mystery of the Crosse and Crucifix The Crosse or Crucifix is the principall ornament upon the Altar which ought never to be wanting at the celebration of the Masse It betokens our B Redemers victory over death and is placed at the midst of the altar most in view to represent to our minde the death and passion of Jesus Christ which is there chiefly to be considered and piously meditated in that holy sacrifice The Chalice doth represent the cup wherin our B. saviour did consecrate his most precious blood Math. 26. of the chalice And it puts us in minde of his sacred passion our B. saviour himselfe so calling it the Chalice of his passion The Paten serveth for the use of the consecrated body of our Lord of the Paten as the Chalice doth for his most precious blood And as it doth cover the topp of the Chalice it represents the stone which was rouled against the dore of the holy sepulcher Mark 15. The white linnen corporall upon which is consecrated the most precious body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ of the corporall doth represent to us that white and pure syndon wherein Joseph ab Aremathia involued his most sacred corps before it was buried The cleane and bright purity wherof doth aptly admonish all such as by the holy communion receive and harbour within their breasts this sacred and most precious body of Jesus Christ to be chast and cleane both of body and soule and endued with true purity of intention The Vaile doth cover both Paten and Chalice all round about of the vaile And it represents to us the handkercher wherwith our saviour's most sacred head was covered when he was layd in the sepulcher Wherof mention is made Luke 24. S. Peter having discovered it in the sepulcher and he there beheld the linnen lying apart and the handkercher which had been wrapped about his head Of the severall colours which the Church useth for her ornaments and the meaning of them THe Propht Ezechiel in his 6. chap. speaking of the splendor of the Church seemes to place a great part of her glory in the various colours of her beutifull robes Which
tyme to heare Masse represent to your selfe that you are called to accompany the B. Virgin S. Jo. Evangelist and holy Magdalen to mount Calvary there to assist at that dreadfull sacrifice which this doth so truly represent and that togeather with the Priest you now are going to offer it upon the Altar to the Eternall Father for the whole cath Church as also for your owne necessities and for all others both living and dead for whom you are bound to pray The Priest ascending up to the Altar with that great crosse upon the back of the vestment may renew in us a lively memory of that heavie Crosse which Jesus Christ did beare upon his wounded shoulders to mount Calvary there to pay that deare and painfull ransome for our sin And the crowne or tonsure of the Priest may represent to us that crowne of sharp thornes which was beaten upon our Saviours head Admire here his infinit love and mercy to ungratefull Man The exteriour and interiour disposition required to assist at the holy sacrifice of the Masse THe Priest now approaching to the Altar we must procure a right interiour disposition by stirring up in our harts an actuall sorrow and contrition for our sins and renouncing all affection to them therby to purify our soules from that foule blemish which might render our devotion unpleasing to God 2. We ought there to behave our selves with all exteriour reverence and very carrefully to avoyde all needlesse words and lookes still keeping the eyes of our soule firmely fixed upon the Altar and our minds wholy busied with devout attention upon those holy mysteries of the life and death of Jesus Christ which in this sacrifice of the Masse is so truly represented unto us A forme of directing our intention before Masse in forme of prayer O Sacred Trinity accept this holy sacrifice of the most precious body and blood of our Lord Jes Chr. in union of that most holy sacrifice which our divine Redeemer offered in his last supper and upon the Crosse I offer it to thee by the hands of the Priest First to the honour and eternall glory of thy divine Majesty In acknowledgment of thy supreame excellency and dominion over us and our subjection and dependance upon thee as also in perpetuall commemoration of the death and passion of our most mercifull Redeemer Jesus Christ 2. in honour and increase of glory to all the B. spirits in the Church triumphant And for the suffering soules in Purgatory And in particular for the soules of N. N. 3. In eternal gratitude for all thy gracious benefits bestow'd on me thy ungratefull creature and in satisfaction for my sins and for those of all the faithfull as well living as dead And finally for the obtayning of such or such a grace And in particular for N. N. And for all those for whom I am wont and bound to pray To obtayne rest to the dead and to the living grace to know to love and to glorify thee perfectly in this world and happily to enioy thee in the other for all Eternity Amen An advertisment WHat finally I doe here recommend to all is that with devout attention they religiously accompany the Priest and make serious reflection upon each my stery in order yet very briefly endevoring to stirr up some fervent and pious affection or holy aspiration wherby to move their harts to a divine and ardent love of so mercifull a God and to detest all sin which so very highly offends him A DEVOUT EXERCISE FOR HEARING MASSE BOTH WITH TRUE PIETY AND MUCH INSTRUCTION From the rising of the sunne leven to the going downe in every place there is sacrificing and there is offered in my name a cleane oblation Malach. 1. cap. ver 11. A prayer before Masse O Most clement Father of mercy who hast bestowd not only once thy dearly beloved sonne to dye upon a Crosse for Mans Redemption but wouldest that his oblation so infinitly acceptable unto thee should daily be renued in thy Church to increace in us the fruit therof Grant us we beseech thee so attentively and reverently to be present at this so adorable a mystery of thy piety that we may be able to ataine the participation therof through Christ Jesus our Lord and only Redeemer Amen At the Priest's ascending to the Altar and there opening the booke THe Priest ascending to the Altar and having placed the Chalice he openeth the booke To signify that the mysteries of our faith lay shutt up in dark shadowes and obscure figures in the old law till Jesus Christ there represented by the Priest layd them open to us in their true substance and verity Rejoyce with gratitude for our enjoying the law of grace and stirr up a firme beleefe of all those holy mysteries of Mans Redemption by Christs bitter death and Passion which are here to be represented to us in the holy Masse At the Priests descending to the lowest stepp and beginning with the signe of the Crosse and saying the Confiteor c. THe Priest descends to the lowest stepp and there begins in making the signe of the Crosse To shew that we had no other hope nor remedy for our reconciliation to God but by the merits and sacred passion of Jesus Christ who died for us upon the Crosse At the Confiteor stirr up true sorrow and detestation for your sins as a preparation to appeare with more purity and profound humility in Gods divine presence at all those sacred mysteries represented there to us at the holy sacrifice of the Masse At the Priests ascending and kissing the Altar THe Priest ascending he kisseth the Altar as a symbole of reconciliation and peace made betwixt God and Man by the precious blood and bitter passion of Jesus Christ For which indevour to stirr up due love and gratitude At the Introite and Kyrie elysons THe Introite is so called because at high Masse it is sung whilst the Priest is comming to the Altar It represents the sighs and longing desires of the Patriarckes for the Messias comming As also doe the Kyrie and Christe elysons At which let us humbly crave the needfull visit of Gods grace for our soules as also his mercy and gracious pardon of all our sins Of Gloria in excelsis Dominus vobiscum and the prayer JOy here at our divine Redeemers birth and at his choyce of so poore so meane and so suffering a manner We must learne to contemne all worldly pompe and vanity and that the only true way to beatitude is that of mortification humility and proper abjection The Priest salutes the people with Dominus vobiscum to stirr up their attention before he begins the prayer to the end that their petitions therin may be more gratefull to God And he saith Oremus before the prayer to desire the people to joyne their prayers and intentions with his to obtayne those necessities which our holy mother the Church recommends to be prayd for therby At the Epistle and
therby and arive by Gods grace to great perfection in his state and calling Pious Reflections aswell for the embracing and practise of vertue as for the flying of vice Which may also be used for the subject of so many profitable meditations IT is you know the custome for such as being to frequent pestiferous places and have care to preserve themselves from that dangerous infection to carry with them some preservative to which they smelling or which they tasting in tyme of danger doe fortify therby their spirits to resist the contagious ayre It is spiritually the like case with Man whose frail nature is exposed to continuall danger of infection with sin unlesse he make use of some spiritual preservative wherby to prevent his will from the pernicious tainter of consent Against which I have here proposed these following Reflections wherof you daily makeing use of some one of them by way of a morning meditation to be still borne in your minde in all occasions of temptations in that day your soule will therby be greatly strengthned to resist the dangerous infection of sin and be preserved in the spirituall health of Gods grace to practise holy vertues and devotion which are like unto litle children who though they give great content in their mothers armes yet in bringing them fourth they cause them much paine even so the production and first bringing fourth of all vertue is laborious and painfull but the enjoyment and good fruit therof is exceeding gustfull and gives great delight as by the practise of these following devotions I doubt not but you will experience to be true Of the vertue of Charity THis great Queene of vertues Charity and the love of God consits not in the tender affection only of the hart which may procede from à tender and sensible complection as well as from divine grace wherin many are greatly mistaken And much lesse doth it consist in words But the true marke of Charitiy and of the love of God consists in deeds for the tryall of love is the perfomance of deeds saith S. Greg. Yea our B. Saviour demands this proofe of it if you love me keepe my commandements And therfore there is no truer marke of our loving God Ioan. 14. then to be in all things conformable to his blessed will in body and minde in health in sicknesse in disgrace in persecution in life or in death c. our continuall prayer being ever thy wil be donne Of the love of our neighbour BEare yee one an others burthens Galat. 64. and soe yee shall fulfill the law of Christ By thes burthens the Apostle understands our unpleasing humours our ill governed passions imperfections and antipathies in our neigbours nature and actions wherin we must mutually beatre one with an other if we will comply with the law of Christ by which we are all strictly obliged and commanded to love our neighbour as our sulfs and if not being able to shew it by any other deeds we ought at least to suffer and quietly to endure his imperfections as he undoubtedly must also doe many of ours And can we conceive any reason that God should be more indulgent loving and mercifull in suffering with so great patience our innumerable offences against his divine Majesty then we should be in bearing with so few and small faults and imperfections of our neighbours against us o shamefull confusion to man God suffers all ingratitude sin and injury from us and yet powers he downe incessantly his great blissings and favours whilst we seeke deepe revenge for but trifling injuries O infinit goodnesse of God to our just confusion and shame Wherin consists the enjoyment of a true and happy peace TRue peace is what we all desire but few take the right way to finde it and therfore cannot enjoy it The meanes therfore to purchace this happy peace with a vertuous repose of minde is by establishing a firme and holy peace with God with our neighbour and with our selves for which take this holy practise to obtayne it First to procure our peace with God mildnesse and humility of hart is required learne yee of me who am mild and humble of hart and you shall find rest to your soules 2. to enjoy true peace with our neighbour we must dispise injuries we must beare with their imperfections and doe them what good we can And finally to be at true peace and tranquility of mind interiourly with our selves that must be gayned by an intyre and perfect renouncing our owne proper wills by vertuous patience and true conformity to the will of God for in your patience you shall possesse your soules Lu. 19.21 Saith Jesus Christ Of Christian Patience AN injury patiently suffered for Jesus Christ is much to be preferd before an act of great austerity which may be omitted without sin but to fall into impatience you cannot without offending God which ought not to be done to save all the world Many fancy in their minds to suffer cruell martyrdome for Jesus Christ who yet have not the patience to be Crossed nor to endure the least word of injury or of comtempt They frame to their fancy to doe great matters a farre off which are never likely to happen but they loose all patience at the least offence the divill on set purpose busiing their thoughs in unprofitable fancies of things which will never arrive therby to hinder them from what much more imports them to doe and by that meanes to hinder them both of merit and grace Infine no vertue is more necessary then is Patience we being almost continually in occasion for the practise of it and by the help therof we surmount the greatest difficulties Of true obedient submission to the will of God GOd hath no need of his creatures for the execution of his designe and therfore we ought not to be troubled at our owne insufficiency he can doe what he pleaseth without our help and if it be for him that thou laborest call wel to minde that he needeth no creature to lend him help It happens frequently to be much better for you to mortify some disordered appetite then to preach many well studied sermons or to doe divers rigorous penances And if God deprive you of health he gives you but therby occasion to augment your merit Serve not God according to your owne desire but as it is his blessed will It would little availe à servant to take great paines if it be not according to his Maisters good likeing for at the end of his labour he will only have gayned his Maistens ill will and anger If therfore by infirmity thou beest hindred to doe penance be assured that obedience is better then sacrifice and that there is much more merit to submitt with holy patience then doe great abstinence and other austerities according to your owne inclination Perswade not your selfe to become a saint after an other manner then God hath ordayned for you nor to be more holy
then he doth require of you That fall is not hurtfull which preserves you from a much more dangerous precipice lett but your former fault make you more humble and you have greatly profited therby for in true humility it is that God will have you to take deepe roote Of Prayer SEeke not the sublimest prayer but rather what is most profitable for that prayer doubtlesse is best which produceth most patience most humility mortification and contempt of this world and not that which gives most gust content and satisfaction to the minde Be assured that if you leave your prayer for some just exteriour imployment your motive for it being charity or necessity you doe but follow Gods order and execute therby his will Seeke God much rather in your prayer then his divine guifts and cherishments Nor leave of your prayer for any drynesse or barennesse therein Serve God purely without seeking your owne interest for farr greater falls have hapened by much pleasure from spirituall gusts and tendernesse in devotion then from the drynesse and greatest sterility therin Suffer patiently to be deprived of all sensible and tender devotion and consolation in your prayer for you using but diligence on your part and humbly and willingly submitting the rest to Gods divine pleasure the constant continuance in those your accustomed devotions are most gratefull and will merit his divine benediction Of the vertue of Mortification MOrtification and payer have the same mutuall connection as have the two wings of a bird supporting her to fly if you deprive her of the one the other can not support her but of necessity shee must fall It is the like with prayer and mortification for the soule which forsakes the one shall never enioy the other sith they doe mutually support themselves as experience makes it manifest Yea mortification is the true nursing mother to all other vertues for without it no vertue can either prosper or long continew for that our corrupt and depraved nature by sin doth so oppose all vertue as should it not be supported by the helpe of Mortification it would soone decay as well appeares not only in prayer but also in patience in humility obedience temperance and in all the rest which would but languish and fall to ruyn should they not be preserved by the practise of Mortification as experience will force us to confesse And therforit ought to be very carefully practised Confidence in God and griefe for sin must goe rightly tempered together MOst just it is that we conceive due griefe and sorow with true repentance for having offended so great and good à God yet so as not to loose our confidence in his mercy Nor must we permit that therfore melancholy and vicious vexation possesse our harts For Judas sorely grieved and was sorrowfull for his cryme but in dispairing for pardon he excluded all remedy by his greater sin Consider wel therfore your offence on the one side which is great and repent but remember Gods infinit mercy on the other which farr exceds it and is much more powerfull to give you consolation then should the other be to cause dispaire For he is not inclin'd to revenge who is all goodnesse mercy and compassion Have therfore horrour of the least sin against so good à God but hope for pardon of the greatest Feare all sin whatsoever before it be committed as doubting of pardon but being now guilty fly to God as a prodigall child to his compassionate Father with all humble confidence and firme hope to receive pardon and grace Approching to him with à contrite and humble hart which he will never dispise How to draw profit from sin BE you greatly humbled considering your sin and misery nor differre to amend with a quiet and peacible spirit without fretting or vexing your mind Faile not to have this confidence in God that although you should fall a thousand tymes in the day he would be ready to lend you his hand two thowsand times to raise you because with our lord there is mercy and with him plentuous redemption for well he knowes our weakenesse and great misery Serve God therfore with more fervour then before and learne by your fall to know both his goodness and your owne misery much better then before for therby you will maister your enimy with his owne weapen wherwith hee intended to wound you for to serve God withouth all sin that only is to be found in Heaven Be you therfore assured whilst breath remaines in your body never to be exempt from temptation be alwayes prepared for the combat wherby not only to defend your selfe from harme but also to get victory therin and glory You feeling temptation to assault you approch nearer to God by prayer and humbling your selfe before his divine Majesty call to mind his innumerable benefits and thinke seriously upon the fowre last things to happen and you will reape much profit by the temptation Of distrust in our owne selves NO enimy is so dangerous to our salvation as our owne selves and the chiefest meanes to avoyd sin is to distrust greatly our frailty and carefully to watch over our chief naturall inclination which being subject of it selfe to great corruption it usually disorders all our actions And this being but well observed we shall easily perceive that all our sin and misery springs from that infected fountaine by following our disordered affection and naturall bent quite contrary to Gods inspirations and internall motions of his grace We ought therfore diligently to examen what is our most predominant vicious inclination which having discovered we must crave Gods grace and use all diligent industry to oppose and roote that disorder out of our soule Against presumption in our owne endevours SPeter above all the rest did most presume of his fidelity promissing that though all should abandon their Lord yet he would never deny him who notwithstanding but few houres after was made thrice both to deny and forsweare him through the feare only of a poore silly maide wheras had he more humbly mistrusted himselfe and craved constancy by holy prayer it is likely he would have prevented so shamefull a fall but when he should haue pray'd as his divine Lord had commanded him therby to have armed himselfe against the approching temptation he was still found floathfully asleep and therfore not having demanded divine help from above hee soone did experience his owne great faulty and weaknesse Are we not now as frailty herein by our great infidelity to so many good purposes and pious resolutions wherin we most shamfully doe faile for want of demanding grace by prayer to put them in execution But we presuming too much in our owne endeavours we proove unconstant and most unfaithfull to God The least sins are carefully to be avoyded WE can give no better proofe of our love to God then to be exact in the smallest mafters which concerne his divine honour and glory For therby we plainly manifest the
great esteeme which we make of his holy will and commande we having no other motive nor respect to draw us thereunto 2. because those small occasions being very frequent they give much practice for vertue and therby to obtayne great grace and many favours from God Let vs therfore make this good use of the least occasion to testify our love and true fidelity to him and therby to encreace his grace in our soules to which in Heaven is answerable eternall glory And who on the contrary shall be negligtfull therin will experience that the holy Ghost hath most truly fore tould us Eccl. 1◠that who contemneth small thins shall fali by little and little Reason ought to be the Rule of all our actions and affections MAns nature is to live according to reason but passion blinding us we weigh not all things by the just weight of their worth but rather by our deceiptfull affections and disorderly appetits the affection which we have for one person makeing all his actions to seeme gratefull and good and our aversion to the other but unpleasing and badd wheras he notwithstanding may wel have what is worthy of praise and the other what may deserve much blame Have not a double hart the one for your selfe and the other for your neighbour it being reason which ought to be the Rule and guide of our will Esteeme not things accordding only as they seeme pleasing to you and in appearence but according to their worth and valour Be not troubled that others seeke their owne conveniences seeing that they are not offended to let you procure yours Doe as you would be donne to and deale with others in the same manner as God dealeth with you who although he suffereth much at your hands yet he refuseth not to bestow blessings and great favours daily upon you Nor be you much troubled if men deale ungratefully with you you being so very ungratefull to God The examen of spirits according to their different feeling in the hart GUsts and interiour feelings must be examined to try whither such as are thought to be spirituall spring not from flesh and blood that devotion is not spirituall which hath its roote meerely frome sense and which is grounded on this foundation can not be solid and stable yea the greatest fervours and most violent ardor in the love of God is frequently discipated like unto watery froth That devotion as true which proceeds from the purest love of God and is best knowne by a generous resolution wherby the soule doth unite her selfe inviolably to his divine will and pleasure through the greatest difficulties and contradictions to nature not having regard neither to gaine nor losse not to sensible consolation in prayer nor to the greatest dereliction and barrenness therin but only and purely to the honour and glory of God And who build not upon this foundation will little advance in perfection but rather whil be still to begin so long as nature beares such a sway The right spirituall gusts and the true holy motions from the spirit of God are that we greatly humble our selves that we renounce our owne will conquering nature and its reluctance to suffering neglecting all interest and that we have no other ayme nor end but purely to please and to serve Almighty God How to draw profit from afflictions and painfull sufferings ARe you in painfull sufferance either by bodily affliction or by some desolation in minde comfort your selfe in that by patience your gaine will be without comparison farr greater then can be your harme For if none can shew greater charity then he who giveth his life for a frend what then may besaid of him who suffers for the love of God that which he both dreads and feares much more then he doth death it selfe I meane derelection and privation of all spirituall consolation temptations scrupules and other afflictions of soule Feare fin and not paine nor doe you abhorr what God gusteth with pleasure nor be you discontent at what is very pleasing to him It is now the very proper tyme of suffering and yet self love makes any paine to be to you extreamely troublesome Yea so weake is the love of God in you as you most unwillingly doe suffer that which even for your owne greatest good he most fatherly ordaynes for you Can he who hopes to enjoy God for alle Eternity feare to suffer one little moment for his sake Force nature but à little to beare Christs holy Crosse and therby your peine will much be lightned for nothing doth so greatly augment our sufferance as doth our owne proper will And if we doe so greatly love and reverence the Crosse of Christ for its being sanctified hy his continuing fastned three or fower houres ther upon why should we not love esteeme and honour laborious and painfull sufferings which he endured three and thirty whole yeares continuing the whole space of his life The reason wherefore all men naturally seekeing happinesse so few doe find it OUr divine Redeemer declaring to his diseiples wherin beatitude and true happinesse in this life did consist hee disabuseth them of the false opinion of worldly people who though they naturally seek happinesse and labour for that end yet they spending their labour to pourchace worldly vaine honour and deluding pleasurs or sordid wealth according to the pernicious false principle of the world they wholy neglect what their divine Maister Jesus Christ hath taught vs both by word and example wherby to leade us the way to true beatitude beatifying the poore of spirit The meeke and humble Who weepe and mourne Who hunger and thirst The mercifull The pure and cleane of hart The peace makers And finally the persecuted and afflicted persons for justice All these our divine Redeemer declares to be blessed and that the kingdome of Heaven belongs to them whom yet the deceived world according to their false maxime doe judge to be but miserable and most unhappy Nor is it a wonder that what Jesus Christ proposed here as happines seemes rather misery to the delued eyes of men whose thoughts not going beyond this present life which being but truly misery in it selfe it can no other wise make us happy but as it serves to help us to gaine that other of endlesse blisse Of sloath and idlenesse THis mother of vice is contrary to nature it being the proper nature of man to labour as for a bird to fly nor hath he à greater enemy then is sloath and idlenesse Which is a sin quite contrary to the nature of man the very institution of his first creation being properly to worke God placed Adam in Paradise Gen. 1◠that he should worke And after his fall it was appointed him in punishment of his sin it being pronounced against him and all his progeny Gen 3.19 that in the sueate of his hrowes he should eate his bread And therefore idlenesse is both unnaturall to Man and unpleasing to God Math.
25 cast out the idle servant And the barren figtree was commanded to be cut downe and cast into the fire For wherefore hath God given us a body with all its members and senses and a soule with all its noble faculties but that we should employ them as a talent lent us for his glory Let us therefore be more carefull not to loose our precious tyme which is but lent us here to labour for eternity for the night of death will suddainly surprise us in our sinfull floath and then no more tyme will be afforded us to repaire our former idlenesse and neglect of tyme. Of the sin of scandal MOst justly hath our blissed Saviour given so dreadfull a curse against this wicked sin Math. 18 which so truly represents the sin of Lucifer who by the scandal of his ambitious pride did draw with him à third part of those unhappy Angels unto the low pit of Hell Yea like to the pestiferous plague one scandalous person is capable by his ill example to communicate the infection of his sin to a whole towne and country But finally be we most certainly assured that alle such as by our scandal were brought to their endlesse perdition they at the dreadfull day of judgment will cry vengence against us and will require that wee be eternally punished for that their irreparable harme which by scandall we caused to them by our provocation to sin Of Choller and Anger THe holy Ghost disswads us from harboring anger in our breasts Eccles 7 least it place us in the ranke of fooles assuring us also that who is soone mooved to anger is much inclined to sin Prov. 25. The usuall attendants of this pernicious vice is Pride Contumely Indignation Oathes Blasphemies Quarrels Murthers and the like This vice is not only hurtfull to the Author but soe insupportable to others Prou. 22 as the holy Ghost peaswads us to fly their company who are subject unto it and well it is to be observed that whilst we strive by anger to maister our enemy we are most shamfully overcome by our selves This pernicious vice obscures reason and precipitats the will into dangerous actions sur future repentance for who is blinded with the fumes of this passion is neither capable of right reason nor counsell Wherfore seeing that it is a vice so prejudiciall to our selves so injurious to our neighbour and so greatly detested by God let us resolve to resist the first motions of this unruly passion and by craving Gods grace and imitating the mildnesse and meeknesse of Jesus Christ to over come the same Of Rash judgment THe holy Church though particularly assisted by the holy Ghost yet shee judgeth not of inward things and shall a particular ignorant Man vicious and passionate take the liberty to judge what only lyeth open to God O unsupportable pride and presumption We must therfore judge ever the best of the intention of others it being a secret which belongs only to God the true scarcher of the harts of men Yea it is a sacrilegious usurpation to trench upon that which is Gods owne due and it makes us truly to resemble those hypocrits of the Gospel who espying a moate in their brothers eye perceive not the beame which remaynes in their owne S. Bernards advise herein is singularly good exhorting us that when we perceive in an other some fault which displeaseth us amend it saith he in thy selfe but behoulding in him what is vertuous and good examenwhither thoupossessest the same and if not then labour to obtayne for thds doing thou wilt make prosit of all Of the vertue of mildnesse and meekenesse THe reason wherefore this vertue is often recommended by Jesus Christ and that they are called blessed who are gentle and milde is for that God being the God of peace he loves to rest in a mild and gentle hart factus est in pace locus eius Psal â—6 2. it makes us to enjoy true solid content of minde they shall be delighted in abundance of peace It is the motive which our Saviour gives us to practice the same learne of me who am mild c. and you shall finde rest to your soules for as no quarrel can be fixt upon a cheerefull minde and plesant countenance so also courteous and frendly language will conquer the greatest enemy The conversation of such a man is grattefull and welcome to all company nor is any more offensive and displeasing then is a froward angry and impatient person We must therefore as S. Paul doth admonish us shew mildnesse and meekenesse to all Tit. 32 which is the true meanes to gaine love both of God and and Man Eccl 3 19 Sonne doe thy workes in meeknes and thou shalt be belovod above the glory of Men. Of true humility of hart THere are two sortes of humility The one of spirit and understanding and the other of the hart and will That of the spirit makes us to know and to acknowlege that of our selves we are pure nothing nor can doe any thing but meerely from God Tat we are borne in sin and inclind to all evil All which but well considered how can we be proud or vaine glorious But this humility of spirit will little availle us without the humility of hart and of wil for the devils know well their owne great abjection and indignity but they have not humility of hart and of will which consists in being glad and willing to be despised and in flying the praise of men wherin consists true Christian humility of hart and of will For it consists not in certaine little ceremonies or composed humble termes or actions but in reall deeds acknowledging that all the good which we either enjoy or doe is from God to whom we are to render all glory and gratitude and nothing but contempt and all abjection to our selves for our great and grievious sins A 2. Reflection upon holy patience NO vertue is more necessary then this we being almost continually in occasion for the practife of it and by the helpe therof we surmount the greatest difficulties nor doth any thing more edify our neighbour or confund yea caven conquer an enemy as doth holy patience wheras impatience doth all quite to the contrary 2. the impatient man refuseth sinfully to submit to Gods decree who is the Author of all our sufferings which in that they cannot be resisted the impatient Man is most unreasonable and by that meanes he begins his Hell even in this world And as that man is of all others the most happy who is of all others the most patient so on the contrary he is most miserable who is most impatien Nowe the best meanes to obtayne this so necessary a vertue is to reflect upon Gods great patience in suffering all our perverse greate sins and most enormious offences done aginst him 2. That this life is but very short and uncertaine our peine cannot be long 3. to reflect how
satisfaction and remission made by a Priest is acceptable before God S. Cypr. de lapsis nu 11. These premisses supposed place your selfe in the presence of God and with a due reflection upon all his innumerable great blissings bestowed upon you examen with great confusion your abominable ingratitude unto so loving and mercifull à God beseeching him to reduce unto your memory all your grievous sins wherby you have offended him as also the spirit of perfect penance confession and contrition and from all odious sin to purge you A table of sins helping the memory for a generall Confession by method to examen our conscience wherin we may have offended Almighty God NOT loved God above all things of the first commandement of honouring God above all things Doubted or staggered in matters of faith If continued in heresy more out of humain respect then ignorance Ignorant of the chief mysteries of the Christian faith If murmured against God in adversity If distrusted in Gods goodnesse or mercy If presumed of his goodnesse to sin If gon to witches or sorcerers for counsell If hindred any ones conversion to the faith or good life If blasphemed God or cursed creatures If exposed himselfe to the danger of mortal fin Or taken delight in any sin donne in tyme past If procured by way of lots to find out any theft or some secret thing of the ◠commandemnt of not taking Gods name in vaine If sworne what was false knowing or doubting it so to bee If sworne to doe some unlawfull thing Or had not then intention to performe it If been cause that any did sweare false or not to observe the lawfull oath which he swore If sworne to doe evill Or not to doe a thing which was good If sworne false in judgment Or induced others to doe the like If he have had a custome of sweering often without consideration or care whither it were true or false If not faithfull or if negligent in performing a vow If not observed sunday The 3. commandement and holy dayes But either donne or commanded some servill worke of sanctifying the sabaoth day If omitted to heare masse without a lawfull cause Or if voluntarily distracted some notable part thereof on dayes of obligation If not gon to confession at least once a yeare Or not procured others of his charge to doe it If gon to confession without necessary examen of conscience or purpose of leaving his sin If concealed any mortall sin in former confession If fasted lent vigils and ember dayes being bound therunto If eaten or drunk with much prejudice to his health Or if voluntarily drunk If done any injury or irreverence to any sacred thing If for sloath or negligence he hath left undon any good work to which he was bound If undutifull The 4. cammandement or irreverent to parents by word or deed If cursed or spoke ill of them honour thy Father and mother If not obeyd parents and superiours in just commands If not succoured Parents in necessity to their power If deliberatly desidered their death that he might have the inheritance If not fulfilled their last will and Testament If not observed the just lawes and decrees of Superiours If detracted or spoken ill of Superiours temporall or spirituall If not succoured the poore in their grat necessity well being able If Parents have cursed or wished ill to their children If they have not brought them up in the feare of God and due Christian instruction If Maisters of families have the same care of their servants And that they observe the Commandements of God and the Curch If borne hatred towards some person The 5. commandement Thou shalt not kill desiring to be revenged And how long he hath stayd therin If desired any mans death or some great evil or damage to his body or good name If been angry with some person with intention to doe him harme or to be revenged of him If struken wounded or killed Or commanded or consented to doe the same Or given aide or counsel or favour therunto If having offended others he refused to aske pardon or reconciliation or not sufficiently satisfi'd for the offence If refused to pardon injuries If for hatred he have refused to speake unto or salute others and scandalizd his neighbour therby If in adversity or misfortune he have desired death or in fury or anger cursed himselfe or mentioned the divel If cursed others If sowed discord or caused enmity between others If for hatred or envie he hath been greatly sorie for the prosperity and good of others temporall or spirituall Or hath rejoyced at any harme of others If in anger he hath offended others with injurious and contumelious words If flattered others praysing them for some sinfull act If with ill example counsel or praysing that which was evil or blaming what was good he hath been cause that one hath left some good woke Or if induced therby to some sin or to perseverance therein If omitted to correct or admonish one of a sin when probably he hoped therby that the other would amend If given receipt vnto outlawes and murtherers or with his counsel or favour or otherwise assisted them If spoke ill of his neighbour manifesting any secret fault of his to discredit him or cause him some other harme If strucken injuriously any Ecclesiasticall or religious person wherin there is also excommunication If given consent to any carnall temptation The 6. and 9. commandements Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not covet thy neigh hours vvife If taken delight deliberately in any filthie cogitation If negligent in casting away evil cogitations when he feeleth himselfe in danger to give consent or deliberately to take delight in them If spoken or harkned to vnchast words If sent letters or messages to dishonest ends If used unchast lookes beheaveour gesture or opparel to any evil end If used unchast touching kissing or embracing c. If actually committed any carnal sin with à secular or religious person Married or unmarried or of neare kindred If not avoyded the dangerous temptations to fin If corrupted a Virgin by salfe and deluding promisses If taken any thing from an other of the 7 and ◠commandements Thou shalt not steale Thou shalt not desirethy neighbours goods by deceipt or violence to what valew and if any sacred thing If retayning any thing of an other person without his consent or restores it not presently if he be able If for not paying of his debts when able his creditors have sustayned any damage If finding any thing or other wise it falling into his hands he hath not endevoured to have it restored to the owner If in buying or selling he hath used any deceipt in the ware price measure or weight If bought of such persons as could not sell as of children under age suspected persons and like not to have come well by what they would sell If he have had a resolution to
retayne an other mans goods if he could or to gaine or encrease his wealth by right or by wrong If committed any sort of usury or made any usurarious contract If having wages or pay for any work or office he hath not done it well and faithfully If defrauded servants or workmen of their hire or differed their payment to their harme and prejudice If mooved any suite in law against justice or if in just suits he hath used any fraud or deceipt to preuaile If in gaming he hath used fraud that he might prevaile and hath wonn by deceipt or played with persons who could not alienate as children under age and the like If defrauded any just impost or toles If committed simony in what sort soever Or if defrauded the Church of what was due as are tithes c. If by unlawfull meanes and ill information he hath obtayned what was not due to him Or hath unjustly hindred others from the obtayning some benefit or commodity If given help or counsel or in any other manner abetted such as have taken other mens goods or being able or bound the runto hath not discovered or hindred any theft If borne false witnesse in judgment The 8. commandement Thou shalt not beare salfe vvitnesse or out of judgment or induced others to doe the like If spoken any untruth with notable prejudice or hurt to our neighbour If detracted from the good name of others imposing falsly upon them some sin or exaggerating their defects If murmured in weighty matters against an other mans life and conversation especially of qualified persons as Princes Prelats Religious and persons of good name If willingly given eare to detractions and murmurings against others If disclosed some secret sin of others causing their infamy Which though true yet unlawfull to be published to the blemishing my neighbours good name If uttered a secret committed to him or which secretly he came to know in that case he is bound to restore the damage hapned by so revealing If opened other mens letters unlawfully or for any ill end If judged rashly the deeds or words of his neighbour what might have been well interpreted or condemning in his hart of mortall sin If not observed a just promisse without due cause and if for want of observing it our neighbour is notably prejudiced it is a mortall sin If not acknowledged all blessings both of nature of grace of the seaven deadly sins of the sin of Pride and of fortune to be from the meere bounty of God but rather ungratefully accompts them due to his owne desert not giving to God the glory and praise of all If vaine glorious and boasting of some vertue which he hath not Or seeking to be esteemed more then he deserves despising others as if farr inferior to himselfe If proud and vaine glorious of some sin As of revenge drinking lust c. If ambitious too earnestly coueting honour and promotion c. If out of pride and self-esteeme he hath despised others doing something to their disgrace and contempt If he will rather offend God of covetousnesse then parte with his goods when charity and just cause doth require it If over earnest and greedy in gathering wealth and too neere and miserable in spending it If hard harted and unpittifull to the poore and needy If not contended with his owne estate but ever coveting for more Of Luxury See the 6. Commandement of Luxury If angry of Anger impatient overhasty furious disdainfull wayward fretfull quarelsome immoderate in grieving of Gluttony too severe in correcting If intemperate in eating ad drinking If overcurious in dyet and seeking to please the pallate if too much bending his thought upon good cheere If not observed the fasts of holy Church If made your selfe sicke by over much eating or drinking if envied or grieved at others prosperity of Envie or to heare them wel spoke of If rejoyced at their harme if made the worst of all their actions If drousy heavy of Sloath and unwilling to devotion If idle and wholy given to take our owne ease If inconstant in good purposes If not labored to resist the loathing and teadiousnesse which we finde in our prayer and exercise of vertue If spent our tyme wholy unprofibly If not employed our labours and guifts which God hath given vs to his glory and our souls good If negligent in preparing our selves to the holy sacrament of Confession and Communion Of the many fins of omission thorough sloath and negligence If carelesse to amend our daily and most habituall sins Of all idle and ill spent tyme lent us by God to be employd for his honour and our souls good which we have abused by sin to his dishonour and our soules harme Want of gratitud to God for all his great blessings And for neglect of his divine inspirations Finally let each one examen his conscience according to the offences most subject to each ones particular profession state and degree and according to their senerall obligations And it is also to be observed that in all these above numbred sins one may not only sin by his owne committing them but also by being accessory and the cause of an other mans sin by commanding by counselling by consenting by receiving by partaking by not reprehending And finally by ill example flattering and applauding ill doers You having diligently examined your conscience according to the articles above and carefully observed wherin you find your selfe to be guilty of any offence aske humbly pardon of God with harty contrition and firmely resolue by the helpe of his grace humbly and truly to confesse them with sorrowfull repentance and firme purpose never more to commit them againe And you having humbly confessed all the sins which you can remember conclude and say For all these and for all my secret sins and all the rest committed from my first instant of reason wherby I have offended my most mercifull God by thought word or deed or by omission I am most hartely sorry for them I detest them and most humbly crave his heavenly grace that I may never fall into them againe And I desire you my Ghostly Father to give me pennance and absolution for the same Your diligent examen of conscience being made You are next to stirr up harty sorrow and true contrition for all your sins with a firme purpose and true resolution by Gods grace to be very carefull to commit them no more Both which are necessarily required for a fruitfull confession For to what other end doe we confesse and accuse our faults but to testify therby true sorrow for having offended so powerfull and so good a God from whom we continually receive so great and innumerable benefits Which harty sorrow and true purpose of amendment may best be performed by this or the like true act of contrition as followeth O my great God An act of contritiō my loving Redeemer and my dreadfull Iudge I
repent with my whole hart and soule for having so grievously offended thee whom I truly love above all things what soever I constantly resolue by thy helping grace carrefully to avoyde all occasions of my grevious sins ād from the bottome of my hart I blisse and adore thy great goodnesse for affording me so happy and secure à meanes by this holy Sacrement to make my blessed peace and reconciliation by grace and pardon againe with thee who hath so long and often tymes preserved me from Hell For which I having nothing wherby to shew in gratitude I offer to thee O Eternall Father the bitter death and Passion with all the sacred merits of thy divine sonne Jesus of his immaculate Virgin Mother and of all the blissed Saints and Angels of Heaven to praise and magnify thy mercy and great goodnesse unto me for all Eternity A prayer before Confession REceive my Confession O most benigne and clement lord Jesus the only hope for the salvation of my soule give unto me I beseech thee contrition of hart and teares to my eyes that both day and night I may bewaile all my negligences with humility and purity of hart Let my prayer o lord approach neere in thy sight If thou shalt be angry against me what helper may I seeke who will have mercy on my iniquities remember me o Lord who didst call the woman of Canaan and Publican to repentance and didst receive Peter weeping O Lord my God accept my prayers O good Jesu Saviour of the world who gavest thy selfe to the death of the Crosse that thou mightest save sinners regard me a wretched offender calling upon thy name and take not such heed to my wickednesse that thou forget thy mercy And though I have committed wherby thou maist condemne me yet thou hast not lost that wherby thou art wont to save us Spare me therfore O Lord my Saviour and have mercy on my sinfull soule loose the bands therof heale the wounds Lord Jesu I most humbly beseech thee Shew me thy face and I shall be safe Send fourth therfore o most loving Lord through the merits of the most pure and ever Virgin Mary thy immaculate mother and of all thy blessed Saints and Angels send fourth thy light into my soule which may shew unto me truly all my defects which it behooveth me to confesse and which may help and teach me to expresse them fully and with a contrite hart who with the Father and the holy Ghost liveth and rayneth one everlasting God Amen This done next goe and cast your selfe upon your knees with a reverent and humble hart as if at the feet of Jesus Christ in the person of his Vicar the Priest there conceiving your selfe as a criminel before your judge and as wholy depending upon Gods mercy not having any thing to alleage in your owne behalfe but a guilty conscience deserving eternall punishment raise all your hope in an humble confidence of his mercy and sacred merits of Jesus Christ detest your sin wherby you have offended so good and so gracious a God and crave humbly grace to amende You having asked your ghostly Fathers benediction and said your Confiteor til mea culpa c. then accuse your selfe plainly humbly and intirely and with all confidence and freedome endevour to lay open to him wherinsoever you can conceive or doubt to have greevously offended God for this freedome in confession takes away all scruple of conscience and gives a great peace and tranquility to the soule which is farr to be preferd before the greatest felicity in the world Finally you having confest all and said the rest of your Confiteor Then harken attentively to what the Priest shall say to you without any further searching into your conscience but take with humble submission the advertisments which he shall then give you as there the substitute of Jesus Christ And performe faithfully what he shall ordaine you either by way of counsel or penance This done retyre your selfe with a recollected mind to give humble thankes unto God and with feeling piety and devotion say this followinge prayer after your Confession A prayer out of F. Granada exciting in the soule compunction and sorrow for our sins O only sonne of God how great and ineffable are the blessings I have receiud ' from thee thou hast produced me of the dust and slime me of the earth thou hast created my soule out of nothing according to thy image and likenesse thou hast endued me with understanding memory and will thou hast given me a free will togeather with all my members and senses to the end that by their meanes I might know and love thee Thou hast conserved me in the narrow prison of my mothers wombe to the end I might not dye without the saving water of holy baptisme After so many sins as I have multiplid against thee thou hast had long patience with me even to this houre whilst many others lesse guilty then my selfe whom thou hast not so long expected to repentance are peradventure at present tormented in Hell Besides this o my Lord thou hast vouchsafed to make thy selfe Man and to converse amongst Men for my sake For me thou wouldest suffer grievous afflictions a bitter agony sorrow of soule and a bloody sweate Thou wouldst be apprehended bound struck spit upon injured blaspheamd ' buffeted thou wouldst be clad at one tyme in a white robe at an other in a red one in mockery For me thou wouldst be beaten scourgd crownd with thorns struck with a reede upon thy sacred head thou wouldst be blindfoulded condemned to death and dragged to the place of execution with a heavy crosse upon thy back to which crosse thou wouldst be fastned with hard and-ruged nailes thou wouldst be placed betweene two theeves and numbred amongst the wicked Call and vinagar was presented to thee for thy last draught and finally thou wouldst loose thy life by a most cruell death In this manner o my Lord and with these sufferings hast thou redeemed me and yet I most ungratefull for so great benefits have many tymes crucified thee againe by my sins wherby I have merited that all thy Creatures should rise up against me and in thy name take revenge upon me for these injuries Moreover what shall I say of the fearefull abuse I have made of thy Sacraments those blessed remedies which thou hast ordaynd ' me with thy most precious blood Thou hast washt and receiud me in holy Baptisme as one belonging to thy selfe there thou hast adopted me thy sonne there thou hast consecrated me as thy temple Thou hast anointed me as a Priest as a King and as a souldier who ought incessantly to fight against thy enemy There thou hast espoused my soule to thy selfe and adorn'd her with all the ornaments requisite to so high a dignity What have I done with all these jewels What care have I taken to conserve such immense riches thou hast adopted me thy sonne and I have rendred
discover my shame I know my sins to be many and great and withoot number Looke downe upon me with the eyes of thy mercy O Lord Jesus the eternall King God and Man and Crucifi'd for Men. Heare me graciously hoping in thee have mercy upon me full of sin and wretchednesse thou that wilt never restraine the fountaine of thy pitty to flow All hayle healthfull sacrifice offered upon the tree of the Crosse for me and for all Mankinde All hayle o noble and precious blood gushing out of the wounds of my Lord Jesus Christ crucifi'd and washing away the sins of the whole world Remember o Lord thy Creature which thou hast redeemed with thy blood It repenteth me that I have sinned I desire to amend what I have done amisse Take then away from me o most clement Father all myne iniquities and offences that purifi'd in mind and body I may deserve worthely to tast the holy of holies And grant that this holy tasting of thy precious body and blood which I most unworthy intend to receive may be the remission of my sins perfect purgation of my crymes driving away of filthy cogitations an a begetting of good thoughts and holesome efficacy of workes pleasing to thee and withall a sirme protection of soule and body against the dangerous wiles of my Ghostly enemy Amen An other payer of S. Tho. of Aquine before receiving the holy Communion ALmighty and eternall God behold I comme to the Sacrament of thy only begotten sonne our Lord Jesus Christ I repaire as one being sick unto the Phisition of life As one uncleane unto the fountaine of mercy As one poore and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth I beseech therfore the aboundance of thy infinit bounty that thou wouldest wouchsafe to cure my infirmity to wash my filth to lighten my blindnesse to enrich my poverty to cloath my nakednesse that I may receive thee the bread of Angels King of Kings Lord of Lords with so great reverence and humility with so great contrition ad dovotion with so great purity and faith with such good purpose and intent as is expediēt for the health of my soule Grant me I beseech thee not only to receive the Sacrement of our Lords body and blood but the thing and vertue therof O God most meeke grant me so to take the body of thy only begotten sonne our Lord Jesus Christ which he tooke of the Virgin Mary that I may deserve to be incorporated into his mysticall body and accompted amongst the members therof O most loving Father grant me for ever with open face to behold thy beloved sonne whom now covered in this way-fare I intend to receive Who together with thee the holy ghost three persons and one only God liveth world without end Amen A preparatory meditation disposing our soules before the holy Communion to approach with due disposition to receive not only the Sacrament but also the grace and great vertue therof Approach yee with faith with feare and with love S. Greg. Dial. li. 2. THese words were antiently pronunced in the Church with a loud voyce by the Deacon to all such as intended to communicate To which holy action for a more fitt disposition foure things are required For like as to a solemne banquet it is necessary first that our hands face and linning be pure well washt and cleane 2. that we come decently and well apparelld 3. that we bring a rigthly prepared stomack and good appetite And 4. we must not sit downe to a feast with a hart charged with anger gall or enuy for that would hinder both the content and benefitt which otherwise we should or might have received therby So in like manner our soule must come pure clean and well washt from the foule stayne of sine and as a neate vessel to receive the grace of this holy Sacrament Math. 5.3 For blessed are the clean of hart c. 2. It must come clad with the nuptiall garment of vertue and good purposes Friend wher fore entredst thou hither without a nuptiall garment Math. 22. 3. with hungar and a true desire to please God and to serve him with fidelity the best we can Matth. 5. For blessed are they who hungar and thirst after justice c. And lastly as the holy Ghost commands we must depose all enmity and ill will against our neighbour and embrace all in love and charity Math. 5.24 Leave thy offering before the Altar and goe first to be reconciled to thy brother c. And as truth convinceth all this to be most just and reasonable so ought we to practise it with due fidelity so that neither blindnesse of passion nor frailty of nature may leade us out of this true path or rightly loving serving and enjoying this our loving Lord and Saviour Grant me thy grace deare Jesu to receive thee in this divine Sacrament with firme faith of thy presence with true purity and contrition of hart with dreadfull feare of thy Majesty which makes all the celestiall spirits with reverentiall feare to tremble and to receive thee with a hart enflamed with divine and ardent love of soe mercifull and bountifull a loving Lord who in this divine Eucharist gives vs thyselfe wholy and intirely body and soule divinity humanity thy graces and merits and therefore I give thee my loving great God wholy and intirely my selfe in perfect oblation my soule and body life and death tyme and Eternity And finally I most humbly crave such necessities as I most need for thy glory and my owne souls heath Of Thankes giving after the holy Communion IT is the practise of most pious persons to make best use of the most precious tyme whilst this divivine gueste remaines with us under the consecrated species vniting there their harts and all the faculties of their soules in doing homage and adoration unto their great Lord and God craving humbly pardon for their sins force to overcome their passions and temptations grace to obtayne the vertues of humility of patience conformity charity perseverance and the like then also making good purposes and firme resolutions to amend our most habituall vices And that day in tankes-giving and for his honour to resolue and practise as occasion shall be offered that vertue which is most opposit to the vice which is in us predominant Or to exercise some worke of mercy with that prious intention This done you may continue your devotion by these flollowing prayers A Prayer after the holy Communion O My divine Recdemer I humbly beseech thy unspeakable mercy that this Sacrament of thy precious body and blood which I most unworthey have received may be to me a purging of offences a fortitude against frailties a fortititude against the perils of the world and obtayning of pardon an establishment of grace a medicin of life a memory of thy passion a nourishment against weakenesse and a happy viaticum of this my pilgrimage Let it guide me going reduce me
they meane Acts of the love of God WHo am I my Souveraine Creator and who art thou who thus imposest so expresly on me a commande to love thee was it not sufficient for thee my God to permit me so to doe and was it not thy abundant goodnesse to permit thy selfe to be belou'd by so poore and so wretched a hart as mine and with thy grace ther unto to enable me Wherfore seeing that is thy commande my God I will obey and though a wretch and unworthy sinner I here in thy presence protest that I will love thee with my whole hart and with my soule and force And from hencefourth I chuse thee for ever to be the chiefe and Souveraine object af all the purest affections of my hart the accomplishment of whose blessed will I preferr before all that is in Heaven or Earth yea and my dearest life I would hold most gladly employd to testify this my love and due homage vnto thee O deare Jesu king of eternall beauty and heavenly glory I will no other inheritance but the O divine keeper of my soule take thou possession of this my hart wich was created for thee and pierce it with a thousand wounds of pure love that I may sweetly languish with wholsome sorrow for my having so much offended thee Acts of Faith OOmnipotent and Eternall God who hast given me an understanding to knowe thee and a wil to love thee I here protest before thy souveraine Majesty that with a firme faith I doe beleeve what thy holy Church inspired by the holy Ghost proposeth to be beleeved to which I intirely submit as being reveled to her by thee which therfore I embrace professe and by thy grace shall persever in it untill my dying day And I doe utterly disclayme and disavow what thy beloued spouse the holy Catholik Church condemns This is the faith which I professe and wherin I desire to be found at the hour of my death and at that dreadfull day of dome to be judgd by it accordingly Acts of Hope ALl my hope and considence is in thy mercy my loving God and in the sacred merits of my divine Redeemer Iesus by whom I hope for remission of my sins and humbly trust in his great goodnesse to continue in thy grace to my lives end and to praise and glorify him with thee o eternall Father and with the holy Ghost for all Eternity this my hope is laid up in my bosome Iob. 19. And although through humane fralty I daily offende thee yet I hope most gracious Lord by thy divine assistance to amende and to gaine more strength and constancy against my ghostly enemies O Lord of infinit mercy to whom a sorrowfull ād repentinge hart is alwayes a greatefull sacrifice although the multitude of my fins and great ingratitude might tempt me to despaire yet certaine I am my mercifull God that a contrite and humble hart thou wilt not dispise Psal 50. Acts of Adoration WIth the profundest and most humble respect of my soule prostrate both in hart and body before thy souveraine Majesty ô Omnipotent and eternall God I adore and acknowledge thee my souveraine Lord both of my life and beeing who can againe reduce me to that nothing out of which thou first createdst me and who by thy meere boundlesse goodnesse hast preserved me from it till this present day I render thee ô Lord all adoration and homage as thy submissive and humble creature depending intirely upon thy blessed will and pleasure And considering that what honour I am able to render to the merit of thy infinit Deity is so inconsiderable to supply that great defect I offer to thee the adoration which eternally thy Saints and Angels shall ever render to thee and my great desire is that all the creatures of Heaven and Earth may blesse adore and glorify thee with endlesse praise for all Eternity Acts of thankes giving and gratitude I Have merited nothing accordinge to the effect of thy great liberality to me ô my great God nor is there any thing in me which could move thee to bestow so great and many benefits both of body and soule on me who am so farr vncapable to render thee due thankes for having created redeemed preserved and calld me to the happy way for my salvation Thou hast given me o Lord reason both to know and serve thee and what daily favours hast thou conferd on me from how many perils of body and soule hast thou carefully by thy fatherly providence preserud me how great spirituall benefits hast thou bestowd on me by the merits of the bitter death and passion of my most loving Redeemer Jesus how often hast thou nourisht my soule at the sacred table with the bread of Angels wherby to give true force and grace to serve thee O how often hast thou awaked me from the mortall drousinesse of sin by thy heavenly grace and prevented me by thy holy inspirations from grievously offending thee Accept o heavenly Father in stead of my defect all the acceptable workes which Jesus Christ my loving Saviour hath offered to thee for me take this in my acknowledgment of due gratitude for these thy gracious benefits bestow'd on me and grant that all my life may be a continuall thankes giving to thy divine Maiesty to whom only is due all honour glory praise and benediction for ever and ever without end Acts of Love towards our Enemies THou hast taught me o God of all love both by thy word and example to love my enemies yea the whole practise of thy divine life well appears to have been a continuall exercise of doing good for evill as also was thy death the souveraine sacrifice to expiate their sins O grant me grace I beseech thee herein to imitate thy charity and to observe this thy holy commande Forgive therfore sweet Jesus I beseech thee all those that persecute and doe me any injury grant them finall repentance of all their sin̄es and after a happy persevetance in thy grace to enjoy thee in eternall blisse Acts of Humility I Acknowledge and before thee my God doe confesse that of my selfe I am a pure nothing neyther any thing could I doe My extraction is from nothing and my inheritame and proper share is only weackenesse sin and misery It is thou o Lord who hast drawne me from my nothing wherrin without thy meere goodnesse I had continued for all Eternity and thither should I againe returne wer 't not thy powerfull hand which continually preserves me from it All this I now acknowledging for truth what greater follye can ther be then to flatter my selfe with vaine esteeme nay lett me but passe yet one stepp further onn and consider my innumerable sins committed against this souveraine Majesty ought not I then to confesse my ill deserving the least of these thy so gracious benefits I doe acknowledge to my great confusion and thy glory that I neither have deserved thy consolation nor from thy creatures
any assistance att all yea should they by thy just order all quite abandon me I could have no cause to make my complaint to thee O when I consider but what it is to have offended my God of all glory and Majesty I must avow that the least of my sins against thee makes me justly deserve not only that every creature should treade on me but even to be over whelmed also with all sorts of punishments and miseryes Wouchsafe o Lord so deepely to grave this feeling and true humble knowledge of my selfe into my hart as it may never weare out but rather serve me as a secure antidote against all vaine glory and selfe esteeme wherby to be disposed ever to enjoy the Spirit of true Humility and to render all honour and glory to whom only it is due for tyme and all Eernity Acts of true dread and feare IF I make but good reflection on those thywords O Souveraine Judge of Men that we are to render thee an accompt of the least idle word and that according to the talent given us of thy grace we must render fruit in due proportion and receive our iudgement proportionably there unto I should be very senslesse if I should not be strucke with horrour and great feare considering not only the infinity of my idle words but also of my grevious sins committed against thee as also the multitude of thy graces bestow'd on me wherof I have made so very ill employment O my God what shall I say when thou shalst come to judge and question me what answer shall I make to thee And were I now to appeare at that tribunal of thy most dreadfull judgment in what state art thou my soule art thou in gracious favour wih thy God or no art thou now worthy of his love or rather art thou not in his just disgrace and hatred But this whilest here I live I cannot know Nay should I with bloody teares deplore my sins what certaine assurance could I have that thou hast pardond me nay more though thou thy selfe affirme it yet should I be still uncertaine in this life of my perseverance And have I not therfore just cause both to tremble and feare considering this great uncertainty of my salvation the many perilous dangers which on all sides inviron me the multitude of conspiring enemies who seeke continually to destroy me by all art and industry drawing me to consent to sin and all iniquity O my Souveraine Lord inspire my soule with this wholsome terror and pierce my hart and rule my disordered affections with the sharp piercing naile of thy feare to the end that I never more rebell against thy holy law Cause by thy grace that this apprehension and wholsome feare of thy judgment may separate my hart from what soever may displease thee and lett it dedicate and consecrate to thee entirely all its actions and affections forthy eternall glory Acts for the exercise of the vertue of Penance WHen I consider thy infinit Majesty o God who art goodnesse it selfe and on my part behould my ungratefull rebellion so often committed against thee it seemes to me a wonder how I durst so impudently offend so mighty a power and so good a God O what penance can be proportionable to the enormity of these my crymes what satisfaction can I make for these my faults alas should I powre out as many bloody teares as are the dropps of rayne from all the clouds or should I expose my body to as many torments as all the blessed Martyres have endured all this according to true justice could not be able for to expiate one mortall sin which committed against a God of infinit Majesty no due reparation can be made for it but by a pennance of infinit satisfaction It is then to thee alone my divine Redeemer Jesus to whom I must recurr that thou wilst vouchsafe by thy satisfactions which are infinit to supply the want of myne But seeing that so thy justice doth require it that I being the offender should also on my part make such satisfaction as I can although not as I ought I therfore with a contrite and humble hart grieve and lament for that by my wicked sin I have so grievously offended thee my deare and loving God whome I love above all things eyther in heaven or in earth I firmely purpose by thy divine grace rather to dye then so to offende againe but to confesse and doe due penance for my sins committed confiding in thy infinit mercy and in the sacred merits of Jesus Christ to obtaine thy pardon and to blesse adore and praise thee in Eternity And now in expiation of my sin and some reparation of thy honour so grievously offended therby I here renounce all pleasures which displease thee I renounce all friendship which may hinder me from truly loving thee and I renounce all occasions which may expose me to the danger of loosing thy holy grace Grant me loving and mercifull Lord the succour of this thy so necessary grace that by so heavenly a succour these my good resolutions may be made so hapily efficacious as to produce the fruits worthy of true penance which may be gratefull to thee and enable also me to magnify thy infinit goodnesse and Eternall Majesty togeather with all thy celestiall happy spirits in Beatitude An act of submission and Resignation to the will of God in all encounters whatsoever MErcifull Jesu thy divine will be now and ever more fulfi'ld for whatsoever doth thence proceed must needs be Good though flesh and blood may not accord Wherfore I denying my understanding sense will appetite and desires yea disclayming all interest and propriety in my selfe doe commend into thy gracious hands my soule and body together with all guists of nature and grace which thou of thy goodnes hast bestow'd on me being resolved hence forward not to seeke my owne consolation my ease credit or commodity but to endevour that in me thy will be donne in all things according as thou my Lord and Saviour hast appointed And therfore he it thy pleasure to send me sicknesse or health honour or contempt prosperity or adversity liberty or restraint life ordeath welcome for thy names sake be they and for that thou hast so ordayned them Only grant deare Lord that I may be partaker of thy grace and continue thy servant for ever But for so much as the holy Ghost hath pronounced that the hart of Man is deceiptfull and therfore hath reseru'd the search thereof unto himselfe if then in any corner of my breast there remaine any self-will self-likeing or secret reservation contrary to this my expresse and absolute Act of Resignation let it be thy mercifull worke so to roote out the same as that I may truly though not in the like degree of perfection say as thou my Lord and Saviour didst to thy Eternall Father in the garden the night before thy passion not as I will but as thou wilst not my will
but thine be done Grant sweet Jesus even for thy bitter passion's sake that I may performe what by thy grace I have thus resolved humbly fervently faithfully constantly that my ghostly enemy may never have any just cause to reproach me for my infidelity therein Amen Acts to be made in tyme of affliction or of trouble either in body or minde O Father of mercy and God of all consolation it being now the houre ordayned by thy divine pleasure that I should suffer I blesse and adore thy holy name desiring to persevere in that due fidelity which I owe thee I most humbly submit my selfe to the divine order of thy holy will as well in all griefe and paine as in my consolation and joy I acknowledge and doe freely confesse that the least sin which I have committed against thee deserves farr greater punishment And therfore I most humbly thanke thee O mercifull Lord for thy so lovingly and so very favorably chastising me And notwithstanding all the repugnance nature feeles herein with a most willing hart I accept thy correction and most willingly submit to it in what manner soever it shall please thee to dispose of me and I will alwayes sincerely say with my divine Redeemer thy will be done not myne Grant me the patience O heavenly Father by the sacred merits of thy deare sonne Jesus which shall be necessary for my well suffering and then accomplish in me what shall be to thee most pleasing For to thee I doe intirely abandon my body my soule my goods my life yea all I have into the hands of thy fatherly providence to the end that both for tyme and Eternity thou dispose of me according to thy blessed will and pleasuro Acts of mildenesse and meeknesse THou O my Lord who art the true peace thou lovest to rest in a quiet mild and gentle hart Grant me I beseech thee this thy beloved vertue wherby I may truly banish from my hart all disquiet and impatience therby to enjoy true solid content of mind for the meeke shall delight in abundance of peace Vouchsafe O Lord that I may learne this lesson of thee who commandest me to be milde and humble of hart therby to find true rest unto my soule for as no quarrel can be fixt upon a pleasant countenance and cheerefull minde so also courteous language and gentle hehaviour will conque the greatest enemy the conversation of such a Man is gratfull to every company and yealds both comfort and content to all for nothing is more pleasing then is a sweet milde and peacible humour nor is there any thing more offensive and displeasing then is a froward peevish and impatient nature Acts of Mortification THou knowest right well my God that such is the corrupt inclination of Man that it incits him continually to sin and keeps him as tossed with the contrary waves of unruly passions unlesse by needfull mortification he make vertuous resistance thereunto Grant therfore to me a true mortifi'd spirit wherby to subject the flesh to the spirit my passions to reason and my reason intirely unto thee But oh how farr am I from enjoying this holy vertue who give so great scope to my unruly passions to my disordered affections as also to my proper judgment and will Grant me Lord Jesu that I may shew this vertue unto others much rather by practise then by faire promissing words and that I may put a carefull watch both over my senses affections and passions of hatred chollar feare or love c. and finally to mortify my unruly will and to submitt my judgment in all things to thy divine will and pleasure Acts of the vertue of Patience NO vertue is more necessary then holy Patience we being almost continually in occasions for the practise of it and by the helpe therof we surmount the greatest difficulties wheras an impatient Man refusing sinfully to submit to Gods decrees who is the Author of all our sufferings in as much as they cannot be resisted he is most unreasonnable and by that meanes he begins his Hell even in this present world And as that Man is of all others living the most happy who is of all others the most patient so on the contrary he is most miserable who is most impatient Thy heavenly grace therefore O loving God enable me to practise this so great a vertue and to avoyde the contrary which is so dangerous a vice Vouchsafe O gracious Lord that I may but well reslect upon thy long great patience in suffering my perverse and many sins against thee And secondly conceave how justly I have deserved to suffer farr greater evils without comparison and them too eternally And therefore what afflictions soever shall befall me I resolve by thy holy grace to suffer patiently for thy sake and in hopefull expiation for my sin Acts of Perseverance IT is upon Perseverance my God on which depends the assurance of salvation all former resolutions and good purposes whatsoever without it were but lost labour and in vaine for he only that persevers shall be crowned with victory and will save his soule which is a reward indeed sufficient to encourage us to give the present moment of an uncertaine life for so never-ending a Blisse O happy perseverance which winns such a glorious crowne and without it to small purpose it would be with Judas well to begin the holy practise of vertue unlesse by the help of mortification we shall persever to the end Yea our damnation would be much the greater for our neglect of Gods holy grace Strengthen my soule O my souveraine Redeemer with this happy vertue of perseverance in holy patience and conformity in all adversity as well as in prosperity in sicknesse as in health in poverty as in wealth in contempt and calumny as in prosperity and praise or heighest favours from Men. For our beginning well is the effect of Gods grace but our not persevering is sinfull neglect and deeply deserveth punishment O what cause of horrour and just feare have I to conceive for my so great inconstancy in persevering in so many good purposes and pious resolutions which thy great goodnesse my loving God hath vouchsafed so frequently to inspire me with I falling from luke warme to be key-cold and thence unto totall neglect of what I was bound to doe But thou my mercifull Lord although thy great mercy hath thus long expected me with much patience for my amendment yet further presumption may justly draw upon me thy wrath and my endlesse punishment which he prevent who hath payd with his most precious blood soe deare a ransome to satisfy the justice of his Eternall Father with whom and the holy Ghost three divine persons and one living God be benediction and glory and wisdome and thankes-giving honour and power and strength for ever and ever Amen A Collection of some few holy maximes pronounced by the sacred mouth of Iesus Christ wherby the vertuous soule may see how different they
without prayer be able to bring fourth the fruit of true vertue and piety The necessity of this holy vertue of prayer is such as our divine Redeemer tells us that it behoveth alvayes to pray Luke 18.1 1. Thess 5. and not to be weary Yea without intermission pray saith S. Paul which is not to be understood by continuall vocall prayer for that is impossible but that with a pure intention we alwayes praise God and direct all our actions to his glory whatsoever we doe Finally to pray fruitfully and as it may be most gratefull to God we must consider with whom we treate and who we are that treate with him and greatly to humble our selves thereat with feare Secondly consider that he is our Creator our Redeemer and our judge Now as he is our God adore him as he is infinitly good and bountifull love him as he is just feare him in regard of his benefits blesse and be thankfull to him And lastly as our Father let us recurr to him for all our necessities with much hope and humble confidence in all our wants and necessities Before prayer â—les 18 prepare thy soule and be not as a Man that tempteth God A prayer to the most sacred and Blessed Trinity OEternall Father by all Creatures to be adored I a most wretched sinner doe offer unto thee for my innumerable offences and for the sins of all the world the bitter death and passion of thy divine sonne our mercifull Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I offer to thee his labours his fastings all his toylsome wearisomnesse his watchings his prayers his teares his humility his patience and his charity I offer to thee his suffered contumelies his paines his stripes and dolorous wounds I offer all the dropps of his most precious blood I offer also here the merits of his ever imaculate and pure Virgin-Mother and of all the holy Saints in Heaven O blessed Jesus my loving Saviour I render thee most humble thankes for thy innumerable benefits bestowed on me though most unworthey For thy miraculous incarnation and chastly pure Byrth for thy holy life and conversation for thy most ignominious death and passion Make me I beseech thee partaker of thy sacred merits and vouchsafe that by the imitation of thy vertues I may be found a living branch in thee who art the true vine of everlasting life O Holy Ghost my comforter I commende to thee my soule and body the beginning and ending of my life grant me grace and true repentance for all my sins wherby and by thy infinit mercy to be purifi'd from them all before I depart from my mortall body To thee O Lord I wholy commit my soule and body my life and death my tyme and my Eternity defend and keepe me thy unworthey servant from all evill illuminate my understanding guide my will strengthen my spirit against pusillanimity and keepe in me an humble hart that it fall not into pride or presumption give me true faith firme hope with sincere and perfect charity that I may wholy delight in thee that with my whole hart and soule I may love thee and every way fulfill thy most blessed will and pleasure O holy and blessed Trinity God omnipotent to thee I most humbly commende all my affaires both Spirituall and corporall I commend unto thee my benefactors my kindred friends and enemies and all for whome I ought to pray or who have desired me to pray for them I commend unto thee the whole Catholick Church renewe in it I beseech thee purity of life Nourish and keepe amongst the true members therof mutuall charity that with their whole harts and soules they may love thee Such as doe erre call backe to the way of truth extinguish all heresics confort and releeve all troubled minds and consciences as also such as are oppressed either with internall temptations or corporall calamities Amen A devout forme of thankes giving with an humble craving of all requisite vertues BE mercifull unto me O God according to they great mercy and according to the multitude of thy mercies blot out all my offences I a most wretched sinner doe hartely desire in all humility to adove and worship thee to render unto thee immortall praise and tankes-giving for all thy blessings especially for that unspeakable charity wherin thou didst send downe thy only begotten sonne into this vale of teares for the worke of our redemption O mercifull Father I the least of all thy servants doe magnify and praise thy ever glorious name for his holy Incarnation and Nativity for his pouerty and familiar conversation for his heavenly doctrine and miracles for his death and Passion for his Resurrection and Ascention I yeald unto thee all possible thanks for that divine mystery of his precious body and blood in the venetable Sacrament of the Eucharist wherewith we are spiritually and strongly nourished we are cleansed and sanctifi'd and our soules made partakers of all heavenly grace and benedictions I give thee harty thanks that me a handfull of dust of no value thou hast vouchsafed first to wash with the laver of baptisine to remission of my original sin and after convenient tyme thou brought me by the light of thy holy grace to the profession of the only true saving faith I humbly thanke thee that from my cradle thou hast nourisht cloathed and cherished me supplying all things necessary for the reliefe and maintenance of this my present life I evermore extoll and magnify thy holy name that in great mercy thou hast hitherto spared me albeit from my youth I have wantonly ryoted in manifould excesses thou patiently expecting till by thy grace I might be awaked from the sleepe of sin and reclaimed from my vanities and wicked life For hadst thou dealt with me according to my demerits my soule long ere this oppressed with innumerable sins had been plunged into the bottomelesse gulfe of Hell In respect of all which thy mercies graces and blessings I desire that my hart may be enlarged to render thee a more ample tribute of praise and thankes-giving then hitherto I have done And now for those things wherof I stand in need and most desire to obtayne at thy hands First O my God never leave me I beseech thee unto my selfe but let the bit of thy chast feare be ever in my jawes to curbe and keepe me within the compase of thy obedience that I may dread nothing so much as in the least sort to offend and displease thee for which cause let thy holy love so temper all tryals and temptations which happen unto me that I may profit by them Thou my Creator knowest how fraile I am and that my strength of my felfe is nothing Moreouer O heavenly Father even for the venerable and profound humility of thine only sonne Jesus I beseech thee that thou wouldst keepe farr from thy servant all pride and hautinesse of mind all selfe-love and vaine glory all obstinacy and disobedience all craft and hurtfull
which I was created and be therby united with thee here by grace and by glory in Eternity Amen A prayer before the B. Sacrament or before Communion I Adore thee O true bread of Angels the God of life the eternal Fathers spendor and Heavens beauty Behould one here present before thee full both of feare and confidence I approach by thy command in true simplicity of hart and firme beleefe truly confessing that thou art both God and Man here present in this most holy sacrament to which I approach O lord as an infirme to the phisition of life as one defiled to the fountaine of mercy as one blind unto eternal light and as in great want and needs to the Monarch of heaven and earth O my hope my only health my glory and all my content vouchsafe to rejoyce the hart of thy poore servant which burnes with desire to receive thee into my poore and unworthey habitation yet please to blisse it as thou didst that of little Zachee Alas my Lord it is most unworthy as being so very uncleane yet thou comming for the salvation of sinners into this world disdaynedst not to be borne in a stable amongst brute beasts vouch safe now likewise I beseech thee and for my salvation sake dispise not the uncleane manger of my soule full of brutall and vnbridled passions returne once more to foule leapers and converse againe with Publicans as thou didst in this world or rather O my omnipotent God descend once more into Hell for so alas I ought to call my darke my miserable and tormented soule But seeing that such is thy mercy as whersoever thou vouchsafest to enter thou never failest there to leave markes of thy grace and much benediction I confide my loving Lord that thou wilst doe the like to me Enter therfore vnder this my poore roofe and render it worthy of thy presence purge it of all impurities discipate the obscurity of its darkenesse replenish it with thy divine light and adorne it with the guifts of the holy Ghost Thou knowst well deare Lord my want as one poore and naked before thee much press'd with great hungar and misery but thou being the bread of life comfort my sighing sobbs dismisse me not fasting from thy delicious table least I faint in this my pilgrimage but rather graunt that fortifi'd by thee I may with holy Elias arrive to the mountaine of eternal felicity I most humbly beseech thee my mercifull and clement God and by this thy incomparable charity wherof thou givest so great a testimony by thy loving institution of this most blessed Sacrament I beseech thee to grant me grace to receive it with true contrition and sorrow for all my sins with feare and due reverence with devotion and faith fervour love and convenient purity to so sublime a mystery and grant also I beseech thee that I may receive not only the Sacrament of this thy precious body but therewithal the grace and vertue of the Sacrament for the supporting my weakenesse for the healing my infirmities for the confirming my hope for the suppressing my passions for the fortifying my faith for the inflaming my love to enlighten my understanding to be my companie in banishment and spirituall nourishment to my soule and finally to the end that by the help of this celestiall food of my soule I may be united transformed and made all one in will and desire with thee who livest and raignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen A prayer to obtayne a fervent love towards God our neighbour and our enemies O Mercifull and divine Redeemer Jesus who hast washt us with thy precious blood and given thy selfe to death for us thou hast been reputed with the wicked and most cruelly wounded for our iniquities breused and abused for our offences and by thy stripes hast made us whole I beseech thee O Lord for this thy ineffable mercy and charity to powre into my hart the unquenchable heate of thy heavenly grace so that the fire of thy charity may perpetually burne and worke within me and that there may alwayes grow in me such a continuall chast and nover failing affection of pitty benevolence and piety as extendeth it self to all creatures through the love and contemplation of thee Fill O Lord I beseech thee my soule my senses and desires with fervent and perpetuall charity that in all things and above all I may most hartely love thee and that according to thy good will and pleasure I may love my neighbour in thee and for thee Grant me grace I humbly beseech thee that with all my hart I may to thy glory love search and advance the salvation profit and commodity of every one Grant me O Lord to love mine enemies with sincerity both in word and truth take from me all bitternesse of mind wrath anger disdayne envie and whatsoever is against or contrary to pure and sincere charity so that in all sincere simplicity of hart I may have a good opinion of all may judge no Man rashly but love every one in thee with holy and harty affection and that I may shew them both in words and workes all sweetnesse all clemency and true love A prayer that we may receive the B. Sacrament before our death O Almighty and most merciful Lord I praise and give thee most humble thankes for having so graciously made me severall tymes partaker of that divinly great mistery of thy holy Sacrament and therby to be fortifi'd and greatly comforted with thy blessed presence O heavenly Father let every tongue blesse thee let every creature laud thee for this souveraine guift of thy divine bounty for which with them I also offer and present to thee my God all the praises of the Angels and of all the Elect which alreadie doe or ever shall enjoy thee in Eternity And I beseech the Ordeare Jesu the gracious Redeemer of my soule that at the houre of my death thou wilst vouchsafe to visit me with this thy gracious presence in this most blessed Sacrament and by thy grance prepare my soule I beseech thee by a faithfull and contrite confession wherby to make it a pleasing habitation for thee true God and Man my loving Saviour Forgive my former many trespasses by the sacred merits of thy bitter death and passion and that I may end this my mortall life in the finall perseverance of thy grace O God omnipotent have mercy on me for the love of thy deare sonne Jesus the life of all that shall be saved O Jesu equal God with the Father and the holy Ghost conserve and keepe me in thy grace suffer me not to be drawne from thee through any subtile persuasion of my ghostly enemy O Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Sonne the comforter of the elect and inspirer of all good guifts replenish my hart with all charitable desires and heavenly inspirations necessary for my salvation Grant this O holy Trinity for the bitter
faithful diligence and to keep defend and protect me this day from all evil visible and invisible Amen A Prayer in sicknesse LEt my request enter into thy fight O Lord and let thy hand stretch forth to make me whole Behould I am the Man that comming downe from Jerico was forely wounded by theeves and left halfe dead Doe thou assist me O merciful Samaritan I have grievously sinned in thy sight and so full is my soule of those deadly wounds as hadst thou not died for me my soule would have dwelt in Hell I am sweet Jesus a part of that deare purchace for me tho didst shed thy precious blood cast me not away I am the sheep that went astray seeke me O good shiphard and put me in thy flock that thou maist be justified in thy word for thou didst make me a promise that at what houre soever a sinner should repent him of his sins and turne to thee he should he pardoned I repent O Lord and bewaile my sins I acknowledge my iniquities I am not worthy to be cal'd thy sonne for I have sinned against Heaven and before thee But turne away O Lord thy face from my offences blot out my iniquities according to thy great mercy cast me not away from thy sight deale not with me according to my sins nor reward me after the desert of my iniquities but help me O Lord my God and Saviour and for the glory of thy name deliver me that I may prayse thee for ever more with all thy glorious elect in thy celestial kingdome of Beatitude for all Eternit A Prayer to obtayne a blessed ending O Blessed Jesu wel-spring of pitty and fountaine of endlesse mercy I humbly beseech thee to give me grace so to spend this my transitory life in vertuous and godly exercises that when the day of my death shall come though I feele paine in my body yet I may finde comfort in my soule and with faithful hope of thy mercy in due love towards thee and charity towards all others I may through thy grace depart hence out of this vaile of misery and hasten me to that glorious country wherin thou hast bought us an inheritance for ever with thy most precious blood there to praise and glorify thee with the Father and the holy Ghost three persons and one living God world without end Amen A Prayer when we begin our actions PRevent we beseech thee O Lord our actions by thy spirit assisting us and in helping forward prosecute them that all our prayers and workes may begin alwayes from thee and begun by thee may be ended through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen An Evening Prayer ALmighty and everlasting God I yeald thee most harty thankes for that thou hast vouchafed of thy great mercy and goodnes to preserve me this day from all evil and I doe also beseech thee for thy bitter death and passion most mercifully to forgive me wretched sinner all my offences that this day I have committed by thought word and deed and hereafter to preserve and keepe me from all danger both of body and soule to the end I may rise againe in health to praise thy glorious name and joyfully to serve thee in thankes giving with a chast body and a cleane hart and so for ever after behave my selfe according to thy blessed will by casting away the workes of darknesse and putting on the armour of light which Men behoulding may be provoked to glorify thee my heavenly Father who with thy only begotten sonne our only Saviour and the Holy Ghost livest and raygnest one true and everlasting God A Prayer for the sicke O Almighty and everlasting God the eternal health of them that beleeve in thee heare us for thy sicke servant for whom we humbly crave the help of thy mercy that health being restored unto him he may yeald thankes giving to thee in thy Church through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Prayers to obtayne the grace of the Holy Ghost O God to whom each hart is open and each will doth speake and from whom no fecret lyeth hid purify by the inspiration of the holy Ghost the agitations of our hart that we may deserve perfectly to love thee and worthily to praise thee through our Lord true God Amen To obtayne the same grace for our friends O God who hast powred the guifs of charity by the grace of the holy Ghost into the harts of thy faithfull grant unto thy servants for whom we crave thy clemency health of minde and body that they may love thee with all their strength and accomplish with all love what things are pleasing unto thee through Christ our Lord. Amen To obtayne the same grace for our enemies O God the lover and keeper of peace and charity give unto all our enemies peace and true charity and grant uto them remission of all their sins and powerfully deliver us from all their deceipts through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen A Prayer to repel wicked thoughts O Almighty and mild God mercifully regard our Prayers and deliver our harts from the temptations of evil thoughts that we may deserve to be made a worthy dwelling for the holy Ghost through the same Lord Jesus Amen A Prayer to require charity O God who maketh all things to profit them that love thee grant unto our harts an inviolable desire of thy charity that the desires conceived by thy inspirations may by no temptation be altered through the same Lord Jesus Amen A Prayer to begg Patience O God who hast broken the pride of the old enemy by the patience of thy only begotten Sonne grant unto us we beseech thee worthely to call to mind what he so meekely suffered for us and by his example quietly to endure the adverse changes falling upon us through Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer to require the suffrages of Saints WE beseech the O Lord defend us from all perils of body and mind and the glorious Virgin Mary mother of God praying for us togeather with the blessed Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul blessed S. Joseph Saint c. and all the glorious Saints and Angels thou being benigne grant unto us salvation and peace that adversities and all errours being destroyd thy Church may serve thee in secure liberty through Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer to require continency KIndle with the fire of the holy Ghost our raines and our harts O Lord that with chast bodies we may serve thee and with pure harts please thee through our Lord and only Saviour Jesus Amen A Prayer in tyme of warre O God who dissolveth warres and by the power of thy protection dost vanquish the impugners of them that trust in thee help thy servants earnestly craving thy mercy that the cruelty of all their enemies being depressed we may praise thee with incessant thankes-giving through our Lord Jesus Amen A Prayer for peace O God from whom are all holy desires rightfull counselles and just workes give unto thy servants that peace
which the world cannot give that our harts being disposed to keepe thy Commandements and the feare of enemies being taken away the tymes through thy protection may be peacible by the merits of thy deare sonne Jesus Amen A Prayer in tyme of famine and Pestilence GRant unto us we beseech thee O Lord the effect of our prayers and by thy mercie turne away from us pestilence and famine that the harts of Men may know that such scourges proceed from thy indignation and cease by thy mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer for raine O God in whom we live are mooved and have our beeing grant unto us competent raine that sufficiently releeved by thy present aide we may more confidently desire things everlasting through our Lord Jesus Amen A prayer for faire weather HEare us O Lord crying unto thee and grant unto us making humble supplications faire weather that we who justly are afflicted for our sins may by thy grace preventing find mercy through our Lord Amen A prayer in any tribulation A Lmighty God despise not thy people crying unto thee in affliction but for the glory of thy name thou being pacifi'd succour the afflicted through our Lord Amen A Prayer for forgivenes of sins O God who rejecteth none but art pacifi'd by mercifull pitty through penance even towards the greatest sinners thou being merciful respect the prayers of our humility enlighten our harts that we may be able to fulfill thy commandements through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer for such as are in a journey HArken to our supplication O Lord and dispose the way of thy safegard that among all varieties of this passage and life they may ever be protected by thy ayde through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer to be said at the conclusion of our usvall prayers ACcept O most clement God by the prayers and merits of the blessed and ever Virgin Mary and of all thy glorious Saints the office of our service and if we have done any thing worthy of praise thou being mercifull regard it and what is donne negligently mercifully pardon it who livest and raignest one God in perfect Trinity world without end Amen A blessing to be used at the end of all our daily prayers The Imperiall Majesty of God blesse me The Regal Divinity protect me The everlasting Deity keepe me The glorious unity comfort me The incomprehensible Trinity defend me The inestimable goodnesse direct me The power of the Father governe me The wisdome of the sonne quicken me The vertue of the holy Ghost illuminate me and be with me Amen O souveraine and my most mercifull God let this blessing be unto me all health and safty both of body and soule against all myne enemies visible and invisible now and for ever more Amen Of Aspirations and jaculatory Prayers A jaculatory prayer is a briefe elevation of our mind and hart to God as meditation is the same at large They are a speciall great meanes to all spiritual progresse and vertue yea they are as the vital spirits and the very nerves of prayer and are to be used both in tyme of prayer and also very often at other tymes They are a great support a cherishing and a very powerfull invitation to the soule in the tyme of drynesse and desolation to raise her affection unto God This kind of prayer is very briefe easie and very fruitfull It is to be made with fervent affection devotion and true tendernes of hart as king David usually did practise it and by this holy exercise we may be enabled to obtayne that guift commended to us by our blessed Saviour Luke 18.1 Thest 5. it behooves continually to praye and never to give over pray without ceasing saith S. Paul These jaculatory prayers are often in the day to be repeated according to the diversity of occasions and oportunities either vocally or only mentally What fruit they bring and how efficacious they are to gaine perfection and to transport the mind from earthly cogitation unto celestial the experience of innumerable vertuous soules have made good proofe and wil better teach then words can expresse They are called jaculatory as darting prayers because in a moment they pierce the heavens and present our requests to Almighty God testifying the ardent desires and holy affections of a soule seeking and thirsting after the fountaine of all perfection goodnesse and sanctity Say with S. Austin O my Lord and God that I but knew thee and knew my selfe O grant me perseverance in thy graces and true contrition for all my offences Forgive me Lord the multitude of my sins and have mercy on me O my great and loving God o that I had never offended thee O that I could obtaine the right practise of true humility and patice Grant me O Lord the grace that I may hate nothing but sin and my selfe and love nothing but thee and my neighbour in thee and for thee O that thou my deare Lord may be the beginning the progresse and the end of all my actions Not my will O Lord but thyne be donne Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Let al transitory things O Lord become vile unto me and let all things that are thine be deare unto me and thou O God above all Forsake me not O Lord my God depart not from me attend unto my help Psal 37. O Lord the God of my salvation To thee O Lord Psal 24. I have raised my soule my God in thee is all my confidence Create a cleane hart in me O God and renew a right spirit in my bowels Psal 50. The practise of Aspirations upon the affection of the imitation of our divine Redeemer Iesus Christ AMongst all sortes of Affections that above all others is most profitable which mouveth us to imitate that most perfect example of all divine vertues our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ stirring up our affection and desire to embrace and to imitate his holy vertues by the practise of these or the like holy and fervent aspirations Most mild most loving and patient Jesus the perfect example to be imitated grant me the grace to imitate thy mildnesse meekness patience and thy profound humility Ah grant me O most powerfull Lord in all things to be conformable unto thy heavenly will and pleasure O the true owner of my soule endowe me with thy love for which thou hat created me and nothing else can give it true rest and satisfaction but that alone O most profound humility correct my pride O invincible patience when shall I by thy example be truly patient bestow on me thy benignity to correct my cholerick passion and great impatience I beseech thee O my benigne and powerfull Lord when wilt thou bestow on me the grace to make me humble patient devout and conformable to thy holy will The practise of Aspirations upon the affection of admiration of our divine Redeemers love to Man O my God who art thou
that suffered and for whom O my great God and should my sin cause thee to endure such torments such injuries and so reporachfull a death O love thou art exceeding powerfull thou overcommest him whom none but thy selfe alone can overcome Hamel who will grant it me that I may dye for thee Ah that the love of all Creatures were now united in my hart to make a present of it unto thee The practise of aspirations upon the affection of Compassion of our blessed Redeemers many dolorous sufferings for ungrateful Men. O From whence so strong a chaine as to draw thee from the throne of glory to be stretched forth upon a most reproachfull Crosse O Mercifull and most loving Jesu what is it that I ought not to suffer for thee who hast most willingly endured so much for me Whence is it my deare Lord who art the comfort of Angels that thou shouldst to subject thy selfe to be replenisht with griefe and desolation O Jesus what is it that I ought not to suffer for the love of thee who hast most willingly endured so bitter a death and passion for me O mercifull Redeemer how thy very posture upon the holy Crosse invites me to cast my selfe into thy open stretched armes to receive the happy embracement of hy peace which by repentance of my fins in vertue of thy sacred passion is communicated unto me The practise of aspirations vpon the affection of love When shall I perfectly love thee O the onely Souveraine goodnesse above all and without whom no good is to be found Ah! when shall I truly love thee with all my hart with all my soule and powers with all my actions and affections and that they all be wholy employ'd in thy true love and service Ah! when shall my soule be so happy as that it may love all things in thee and nothing else without thee O when shall my corrupt affection desire nothing but the perfect accomplishment of thy blessed pleasure in me and by me in all things and in all tymes in prosperity or adversity O my God that I could serve and love thee as thy Saints and Angels doe in Heaven and remember that thou art alwayes truly present with me Ah! that I may once truly say what is it to me in Heaven and besids thee my God what would I upon Earth O true and happy center of all happy rest make all my thoughts my words and deeds to tend to seeke out and finally to rest in none but only in the love of thee The pratise of aspirations for the obtayning of certaine vertues O My God and when wilt thou replenish me with thy divine love O that I could but truly love thee above all other things and after that my neighbour as my selfe When shall I in all my adversity have only recourse unto thee and rest contentedly in the holy disposition of thy most holy providence yea praise and magnify thee in all my greatest tribulations Place thy confidence in God my soule and let him be thy love and thy feare O when shall this great tepidity and coldnesse of my soule be thaw'd and melted by the enflamed heate of true charity and the true love of thee Ah! when shell I perfectly dye to my felfe in my affection to all wordly creatures When shall I renounce my owne vicious and corrupt unruly will O blessed Jesu when wilt thou make me to be in all things gratefull and trully pleasing un to thee The practise of aspirations wherby to free our selves from some certaine sins and imperfections HElas my deare God when wilt thou give me grace to mortify such or such a passion or disordinate affection which so greatly disquiets the peace and happy repoe of my soule How long O Lord shall I runn headlong still into this pervere and wicked imperfection Ayde my frailty thou O God of all pitty with thy holy grace for with my whole hart I desire to leave the same O my good God and when shall I conquer and subdue such or such a passion my will is good but the frailty and corruption of my infirme nature hath need of thy grace which I most humbly now crave of thee O my Almighty God and shall I then never obtayne the practise of true humility O help me for thy great mercies sake to subdue by thy grace such or such a vice which greatly molesteth me O when shall I truly practise a vertuous contempt of my selfe and seeke a perfect conformity unto thy blessed will O my mercifull God I now unfeynedly desire to resist and perfectly to subdue this vice or that passion grant me thy gracious helpe and succour me An advertisment ANd in the self same manner as in the former aspirations so likewise you may proceed to practise any other Aspirations when you perceive your selfe moved by pious affection to some certaine vertue or to fly some vice presenting the same unto our Lord and Saviour by some such fervent jaculatory aspiration as above to the end that he may vouchsafe to give his divine ayde to performe the same Of Meditation PRayer is usually devided into vocal and mental Vocal is that which is articulated by the tongue But Mental prayer is made by the minde or soule therby to raise it selfe unto God be it by meditation that is by attentive pondering some divine mystery wherin the understanding is employ'd by discourse therby to draw out some good affection by which to exercise the will upon good resolutions to piety which is properly called Meditation and consists in a devout cordial and affectuous consideration of holy things which may move us to love and to blesse Almighty God and to imitate the vertues of our blessed Saviour and of his Saints to embrace good and all vertue and to fly all evill and vice and it doth powerfully stirr us up and puts us on fervently to recurr unto God in all our necessities Neither are the simple and unlearned people to think that this mental prayer is too high a practise for often tymes the simple people speed best therein as God himselfe hath testifyd by the mouth of the sacred Virgin Mother in her Magnificat saying Luke 1. the hungry he hath filled with good things and the rich he sent away empty Yea and the holy Ghost in his proverbes 3.32 doth playnly verify the same in these expresse words and his communication is with the simple with such as in a sincere and devout intention so love God to contemne themselves and to seeke in simplicity to accomplish his blessed will much rather then to spend his thoughts doctor-like in learned and high speculative discourses which is rather a true studie and not à devout meditation and therfore it produceth but small spirituall fruit Wheras the lesse learned applying their thoughts only to profit their soules by drawing from their meditation affections of the love of God of embracing such vermes of hating such a vice as the subject of their
Meditation suggests to them they become by their meditation more humble more patient and conformable to Gods blessed wil and pleasure in all which is the certaine marke of a holy and fruitfull Medication how dry or barren soever it seemed to them and deprived of all sensible or self-satisfaction or forced fervours whilst learneder persons with all high speculations producing no great affections nor resolutions for the practise of vertue all proves but vanity in their owne imagination which produceth no fruit at all But now that the lesse learned people are not uncapable to practise this prositable prayer of Meditation it may be fitly expressed by this familiar example of a pervere and wicked Meditation made by a sinner of whome King David speakes saying and they who sought me evils speakes vanities and mediate evils all the day For the revengfull man pondering and musing with him felfe of some disgrace or injury by memory he calls to mind the disgrace or wrong offered him Then with his understanding he considers the nature and weight of such an injury and therby he provokes his will to hatred to envie to malice and to secke revenge upon the party from whom he received it This now is a most wicked Meditation wholy interiour and all without one word of the mouth Even so in like manner and quite to the contrary a good Man calling to minde his sin and injuries therby which he hath offered unto God he ponders considers and examens the greatnes therof the enormity causes effects and the properties of sin whence he makes a firme resolution out of the hatred therunto to banish the like hereafter and to avoyde all future occasions and this is an interiour and a holy Meditation of sin This briefly in general Here now followes a short meditation for each day in the weeke wherby the vertuous soule may put in practise this holy exercise and it may also serve as a little methode inducing her to make more use of this profitable devotion according to leasure and other helpes for the same Matter of Meditation for ever day in the weeke Sunday of Gods benefits unto mankind FIrst place yourselfe in the presece of God with a profound adoration therof The Preparation and beseech him to inspire you with his grace Which serves as the generall preparation for all the ensuing Meditations 1. Consider the benefit of thy Creation that when thou wast nothing Considerations the Almighty created thee not a stock or a brute beast but a reasonable creature endued with understanding will memory and capable of all vertue 2. Consider the end for which thou wast created namely the service of God and that after a short tyme spent therin thou mightest be partaker of those celestiall joyes which be prepared for thee in the Kingdome of Heaven 3. Consider that all other creatures and what soever thy God hath bestowed upon thee is for the attainement of thy foresaid end and so accordingly to be employed by thee 4. Consider the benefit of thy Redemption of thy Vocation unto the catholike faith such also as concerne thine owne estate in particular For which Affections and all others as wel knowne as unknowne labour to be thankfull Admire with great confusion and be truly sorry for your great ingratitude considering Gods infinit love to so unworthey a creature abusing those his innumerable blissings Resolue to be more carrefull for the future Resolutions preparing your mind with all indifferency to possesse or to be deprived be it of health or sicknesse plenty or want esteeme or contempt so it be conformable to gods blessed will let it be welcome Munday of sin and the grieviousnesse thereof COnsider how odious sin is unto God Which may appeare by the greatness of the punishment First in the Angels Secondly in our first Parents who for eating the forbidden fruit were deprived of that happy estate wherin thy were created in Paradise yea not only they but wee and all their posterity doe beare the burden therof for so much as all the miseries of this life and the next doe spring from that bitter root Consider the malice of sin which in a sort is infinit being against the infinit goodnesse of God And therfore Jefus Christ God and Man was only found worthy and able to accomplish the worke of our Redemption whose actions being of infinit merit were answerable to infinit justice Consider the lamentable effects therof 1. of Gods grace wherof we are deprived 2. of the evils which we incurre as the wrath of God torment of conscience the servitude of sathan and the guilt of eternall damnation Astection All this considered ought not the very name of sin be more horrible to us then is Hell it selfe and yet ô how great is our senslesse carelesnesse in committing it as also Gods infinit mercy to most ungreatefull Man in suffering his wicked bouldnesse in offending so great and so good a God! Resolue therfore and crave his grace Resolutions that thou maist rather dye then offend him mortally recurt to him for mercy as a prodigall child and detest all thy former sins and resolue to fly all dangerous occasions of falling into them againe Tuesday of the miseries of this life 1. COnsider the great frailty of Mans nature subject to so many dangers as no glasse is halfe so brittle and therfore in the holy scripture it is compared to a buble in the water to flowers to grasse to a shadow c. As for the soule so many snares and ginns are laid by the world the flesh and the divel to ruyn it as S. Antony seeing them in a vision cryed out ô Lord who shall be able to avoyde all these nets 2. Consider in respect of temporall things what a misery it is that scarce any one is contented with his owne estate seeme he to others never so prosperous for that in this life we are like unto sick men who tumble and tosse in their beds not considering the cause of their discontent to be their inward infirmity of vexing in minde 3. Consider that for so much as this life is so uncertaine and so fraught with miseries there is no greater madnesse in the world then to set out harts and affections thereupon and with such diligence to cast about for the things therof and so little or not at all to labour for those which concerne our eternal felicity Adore and greatly admire the great goodnesse of God Affections who therfore hath mixed those many miseries with this present life therby to compel us to hate it and to draw us by it to aspire unto our Beatitude Resolution Resolue hereafter to withdraw your hart from such vaine and deceiptful contentments of the world and fix your mind upon what is eternall Wednesday of the houre of death I Magin thy selfe to lie upon thy death bed having a hallowed candle in thy hand a crucifix upon thy breast thy ghostly Father calling
At the nostrills I also most humbly crave pardon O my God for the excessive pleasure I have sought and taken in perfumes and sweet odours and for my too much nicenesse and impatience in ill ones which I have so sensually avoyded To satisfy for this vouchsafe to apply to me the merit of those ill odours which thou didst daigne to smell in the Stable and upon mount Calvary At the Mouth O My Saviour Jesus Christ pardon me the infinit number of fins which I have committed both in words and in excesse of eating and drinking expiate them O my God by applying to me the merit of thy divine prayers preaching and holy fastings At the hands Pardon me my divine Jesus so many evill and unprofitable actions which I have done and all the pleasure and delight I have sought to satisfy my sense of feeling and to this end apply to me the merit of those holy actions and divine miracles which thou hast wrought with those sacred hands which were nayld to the hard wood of the Crosse At the feete O My God from the bottome of my hart I beseech thee to pardon all the stepps I have employ'd either unpromably or with evill intentions apply to me in satisfaction for these faults the merit of those sacred stepps which thou hast trodden barefoot with so much wearinesse especially in carrying the Crosse After Extreame unction we may make these following acts in a spirit of penance 1. O my God to the end to satisfy thy divine justice as farre as I am able and with my whole being to make reparation for my faults I accept death with all my hart and rejoyce that my soule shall be separated from my body in punishment of the sins I have committed in preferring my corrupt inclinations before thy holy will 2. And that this body in punishment for its pride and ambition shall be hidden in the earth and trodden under foote 3. And that in satisfaction for the inordinate love I have borne it and the excessive care I have had to give it ease and pleasure it shall returne to corruption and become the nourishment of wormes 4. And for the inordinate affection I have borne to the Creatures and the abuse I have made of them I am glad to be depriu'd and separated from them 5. And for my forgetfulnesse of thee O my God during my life I accept that which will be had of me after my death 6. And for having used all my senses to offend thee I accept and effer thee the privation I must now suffer of the use of them 7. And in punishment for all the vaine complacence I have had for the creatures I submit my selfe by death to be the object of their hatred and horrour The approach of death LEt us heare our Good Angel saying to us Math. 15 as to the Virgins in the Gospel Behould the Bridegroome is comming goe fourth to meete him Preparing our selves comming with the burning lampe of charity in our hands we may say with David I Was glad when it was said to me we will goe into the house of our Lord. O my Lord God of Hosts how amiable are thy tabernacles my soule longs after them My soule thirsts after the fountaine of life when shall I come and appeare before thy face As the thirsty hart longs after the fountains of water so ô my God my soule longs after thee O how ardent is my desire to be delivered from this body to the end to be with Jesus Christ Vnion to Iesus Christ dying O my divine Jesus grant that my paines may be united to thyne that my agony and death may be sanctifi'd by thyne and that I may partake of those holy dispositions wherein thy sacred soule was in the last moment of thy life to which with my whole hart I unite my selfe to supply those which are wanting in me I abandon my selfe to thee to the end to suffer for thy love the paines of death even as great and as long as thou shalst please And I disavow all the imperfections which the violence of my sicknesse may cause me to commit Recourse to the B. Virgin and the Saintes O Holy Virgin Mother of my Lord and Saviour refuge of sinners be now my Advocate employ thy power for me to the most holy Trinity O Mary Mother of grace Mother of mercy receive me at the houre of my death and defend me from the enemy Shew thy selfe to be a mother and obtayne that he who for my salvation would vouchsafe to be thy sonne and be borne of thee may also receive me by thee O all yee Saints and Blessod spirits intercede now for my soule and assist me in this extremity to the end I may obtayne victory over my enemies Great S. Joseph and my holy Patrons and Protectors assist me Blessed S. Michael fight for me O glorious Angel my deare gardian defend me from the ambushes of my enemies and forsake me not in this last passadge Then addressing our sselves to God we may say FTernall Father looke upon me in the face of thy deere sonne Jesus Christ who has spilt his blood for my salvation Have pitty on me according to thy great mercy and pardon my sins for the glory of thy name O my God enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight no Man living can be justifi'd O my divine Jesus interpose thy Crosse and Passion betwixt thy iudgment and my soule My God my Lot is in thy hands save me O my Lord I have hoped in thee I shall not be confounded for ever An act of Adoration to the most holy Trinity O Most holy and individed Trinity I adore thee with my whole hart and now and for all Eternity unite my selfe to all those adorations and praises which the most holy humanity of my Saviour Jesus christ his most glorious Mother and all the Saints and blessed spirits render thee and shall render thee eternally in Heaven I offer thee all the sacrifices of this most sacred humanity which are already offerd and which shall be offerd even to the day of judgment upon all the Altars in the world in satisfaction for my sins and in gratitude for all thy divine benefits Those who make use of the Recommendation of the soule may remember to make this conclusion after it And then may be said Subvenite Sancti Conclusion of this exercise An act of entire resignation or abandon of our selves to God O My God I abandon my soule entirely and without reservation to thy divine judgments I submit my selfe to them from the bottome of my hart I adore and reverence them now and in all Eternity as most just and equitable Spirituall expiration Houlding the Crucifix in our hand we may say these words MY God my Creator and my Redeemer behould I come to thee because thou callest me receive me into the bosome of thy mercy And kissing with tender affection the wounds of the Crucifix we may at
passions and therfore we must not rest only in our prayer as in the end of our work for perfection consists not in much consolation or sweetnesse or sensible gust in our prayer but in that perfect victory over our selfe over our passions and unruly affections as is said nor in the sublimest prayer but in that which with a pure intention doth syncerely seeke the encreace in Gods divine love our owne aduanement in vertu with true resignation to the wil of God and a perfect contempt and abnegation of our selves renouncing all curiosity of Spirit and self satisfaction by it for otherwise we seeke not God so much as our selves and our owne interest and therfore no marvaile if we doe not finde him The certaine markes and most evident signes of false and meere counterfeit prayer THe first marke If our manners and conversation be nothing amended 2. If there be great levity and vanity in our actions 3. If great remisnesse in obligations of piety 4. If our care and diligence be small to avoyde evill occasions and the causes of our most habituall sin 5. If we presume to be now arrived to a high degree of prayer or aspire to visions revelations or extaces c. Or to the like favours in the passive way 6. If passions beare sway in vs. 7. If mortification seeme harsh and vnpleasant 8. If our senses be petulant and wanton 9. If to temptations we make but a weake and carelesse resistance 10. If labour and employment be ircksome to vs. 11. If the yoake of Gods law seemes heavy and his counsels unsupportable 12. If we finde our selves lasie and listlesse to all spirituall affaires 13. If worldly puntillios of honour and temporall respects goe nearest to our hart and affection 14. If holy Crosses patience and obedience seeme bitter and unpleasing 15. If we neglect and misregard or not respect nor esteeme the advise of our superiour and ghostly Fathers 16. If finally we carry our selves carelesly and negligently in the amendment and correction of such faults as apparently are knowne to us for such These are all evident markes and most assured signes of evill counterfeit and false devotion and naughty prayer which we ought with all speed and industry resolutely to amende and change The Litany of our Lord and divine Saviour Iesus LOrd have merecy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Jesus heare us Lord Jesus graciously heare us God the Father of Heaven Have mercy upon us God the sonne Redemer of the world Have mercy c. God the holy ghost proceeding from the Father and the sonne Have Holy and glorious Trinity three persons and one God Have mercy Jesus sonne of the living God have Jesus splendor of the Father Jesus brightnesse of Eternal light Jesus king of glory Have mercy Jesus the sunne of justice Jesus sonne of the Virgin Mary Jesus whose name is called wonderfull Have mercy upon us Jesus the mighty God Jesus the Father of the world to come Have mercy upon us Jesus the Angel of the great counsel Jesus most powerfull Jesus most patient Jesus most obdient Have mercy Jesus milde and humble of hart Jesus lover of chastity Jesus our Love Jesus the God of peace Jesus the Author of life Jesus the example of vertues Jesus the zealous seeker of soules Jesus our God Have mercy upon us Jesus our Refuge Jesus the Father of the poore Jesus the Treasore of the faithfull Jesus the good shiphard Jesus the true light Jesus the Eternall wisdome Jesus all-infinite goodnesse Jesus the way the truth and the life Jesus the ioy of Angels Have c. Jesus Maister of the Apostles Jesus the teacher of the Evangelists Jesus the strength of Martyrs Jesus the light of Confessors Jesus the purity of Virgins Jesus the Crowne of all Saints Have mercy upon us Be propitious unto us Speare us Lord Jesu Be propitious unto us Spare c From all sinne Lord Jesu deliver us From thy anger From the deceipts and snaires of the Divel From the spirit of fornication From perpetuall death From all neglect of thy holy inspirations Lord Jesus deliver us By the mystery of thy most holy incarnation By thy Nativity Lord Jes deliv us By thy Infancy By thy divine life By thy labours and trauells By thy Agony and Passion By thy Crosse and dereliction By thy unspeackable paines and languishings Lord Jesus c. By thy death and buriall By thy glorious Resurrection By thy Assention into Heaven By thy incomparable joyes By thy Eternall glory Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Spare us Lord Jesu Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Haue mercy c. Jesu heare us Lord Jesu graciously heare us Let us pray O Lord Jesus Christ who hast said unto us aske and you shall receive seeke and you shall find knock and it shall be opned unto you grant we beseech thee upon this our most humble petition the effect of thy divine love that we may love thee with our whole hart and never cease from thy praises nor from glorifying thy holy name O most loving and our divine Redeemer Jesus worke in us the perpetuall love to geather with the feare of thy sacred Humanity which thou hast annointed and sanctifi'd by the vnion of thy Deity that we may be evermore subiect and obedient to thee since thou doest never leave those destitute of thy grace whom thou hast establisht in the solidity of thy love who with the Father and the Holy ghost liveth and rayneth God world without end Amen The Litany of our B. Lady of Loretto LOrd have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Christ heare us Christ graciously heare us God the Father of Heaven Have mercy upon us God the sonne Redeemer of the world Haue mercy upon us God the Holy ghost Holy Trinity one God Have mercy upon us Holy Mary Pray for us Holy Mother of God Holy Virgin of Virgins Mother of Christ Mother of Divine grace Most pure Mother Most chast Mother Undefiled Mother Untouched Mother Lovely Mother Pray Glorious Mother Mother of our Creatour Mother of our Saviour Most prudent Virgin Venerable Virgin Renowned Virgin Powerfull Virgin Mild and meeke Virgin Faithfull Virgin Pray Myrrour of Justice Seate of Wisdome Cause of our joy Spirituall vessel Honorable Vessel Vessel of devotion Pray Mysticall Rose Strong Tower of David Solid Tower of ivory Goulden habitation Arke of Covenant Gate of Heaven Morning starr Pray Health of the sick Refuge of Sinners Confortresse of the afflicted The Helpe of Christians Queene of Angels Queene of Patriarkes Queene of Prophets Queene of Apostles Queene of Martyrs pray Queene of Confessors Queene of Virgins Queene of all Saints Lambe of God who taketh away the sins of the world Spare us o Lord. Lambe of God who taketh away the sins of the world Heare us o