take up All my Thoughts All my Life long To weigh the Greatness and Variety of Thy Mercies And may Nothing in the World have such Power as to make me pass by inconsiderately much less to forget the least The Tractus DEVOTION I Fall down before Thee O dear Father with Shame and great Confusion of Face calling to Mind Those Sins which I have committed particularly against the Precepts of thy Gospel which Gospel I though I refus'd not with the Jews but entertain'd it with Protestation to Live according to it and if need were to Die for It yet have violated frequently by Great and Enormous Crimes being so much less excusable than They into how much stricter an Oblation I enter'd into I have Cause enough to fear O my God that Thou shouldst Abandon Me too at last as Thou hast for saken Them because having contracted a deeper Guilt than They 't is but Reason I should be more severely punish'd To provide against such a mischief in Time I now beg of Thee The Spirit of Repentance which I beseech Thee to Give and continue to Me to my last gasp whereby to Expiate my grievous Faults and to put me again into the Quality of a True Christian For the Spirit of Repentance It is which is the very Beginning of Christianity and most Proper Condition of the New Law delivering us from the Sins and consequently from the sad Effects of the Old which is according to the Apostle the Law of Wrath and Death and working out of us by degrees still more what yet it finds in us as Relicks of the Flests of Judaism or of base Earthliness Vpon the removing the Book UPon this Action my Consideration is That The Jews refusing to Hear and understand aright the Prophets and Apostles were at length Neglected and the Apostles turn'd unto the Gentiles bringing The Gospel and the News of a Saviour to Them which is now represented by changing the place of the Book from the Right Hand of the Priest to the Left denoting that Christ had now left the Jews who before were the people of His Right-Hand and that in their stead The Heathens at His Left that is abandon'd heretofore to the Curse of God and not His people were now made his people and dearly Belov'd and That among Us it is that Jesus Christ now keeps Residence and Establishes His Church Here is made indeed No intimation at all that the Gospel was ever Preach'd to the Jews though to them it was Preach'd first and here is something betokening as if Christ had Preach'd It to the Gentiles which yet he never did But the Reason of Both is First That That is omitted because that Preaching of it to the Jews was so In-effectual and Fruitless as not considerable especially in respect what Glorious Entertainment It had afterward among the Gentiles in the full Explication and vigour of It as of a New Law And Secondly That This is solely insisted on Because though Christ Preach'd not Himself in person to the Gentiles but only by his Apostles Ministers yet was It in so wonderful Success and Communication of Grace and Benediction and Reformation of Manners the True Fruits of the Gospel that Now only among these seems He to have fully Exercis'd his Office of an Evangelical Preacher now only indeed to have promulgated the Law of Grace in the quickening Spirit as oppos'd to That of the Jews in the Killing Letter DEVOTION NEver O Lord take away The Grace thou hast Given from Me to Confer It on Another as in thy Justice Thou hast remov'd Thy Gospel from the Jew to the Gentile Let Thy Gifts in me be without Repentance as Thy Scripture speaks Make me ever Remember That saying of St. John * 3 Apoc. 11 a Figure of Thy Elect Take heed Hold fast That which Thou hast that no man take Thy Crown Let me not be Tempted to prize my self as more Worthy than such Offenders whom thou hast not favour'd as Thou hast done Me least I come under that Curse and Malediction wherewith Thy Apostle Threatens the Gentiles 11 Rom. 20 21 22. if they arrogantly insult over the Jews whom Thou hast rejected Transplant Me Out of those Countries of the World where Thou art not duly Worshipped into some Holy Land Exempt from its Malignity and Corruption where I may serve Thee more freely and more Faithfully Make me comprehend the force of those words of the Apostle Exhorting Vs to follow Thee On the Right-hand and on the Left that at all turns Of Adversity and Prosperity Health and Sickness Life and Death I may cleave to Thee unseparably The Gospel THe Book being remov'd to the Left-hand of the Priest To shew as I have said the publication of the Gospel of Jesus Christ now to those on his Left-hand That were his Enemies the Gentiles After some preparation by 1. Particular Prayers for Assistance 2. And Benediction 3. He Crosses the Book and Himself 4. And Names the part he intends to Read 5. The People stand up and Answer Gloria tibi Domine and in that posture continue during the Reading 6. Testify not only their readiness to Hear but also to put in Execution whatever is therein propos'd 7. The Gospel being read the people give again their Approbation 8. With Laus tibi Christe and the Priest saying 9. Per Evangelica Dicta c. Kisseth It. All testifying a high respect to the Gospel The Book continues in that same place almost to the end of the Mass Intimating thereby the continuation of the Gospel among the Gentiles only to almost the end of the World DEVOTION GIve me the Grace to understand and take the Words of Thy H. Gospel as one of thy Faithful Ones that is As a Man ready to do as It says and to practice suitably to what he Professes to Believe Make Me Stand always firm and Erected above All that otherwise might be Impediments to my Ready Obedience Hearing thy Voice as a Friend of the Bridegrooms and joying in nothing so much as rightly to Understand Thy Will and fully to Accomplish It. Let My Spirit Kiss Thee as at the End of the Gospel the Priest does the Book thereby in all Holy Reverence to Adore Thee after I have gotten a glimpse of Thee by that Light which thou hast Now been pleas'd to dart into Me from Thy Words Make me always keep thus Close unto Thee and continue in this Union with Thee which certainly I Owe unto Thee as to One that hath the Words of Eternal Life and Art the very Soul of the Gospel O whither should I go from Thee Never let any Occurrence in this Life never any danger that any Enemy of mine may engage me in be able to separate Me from my Obedience to Thee It is in This preparation of Heart for whatsoever Thou shalt Command Me be the Consequencce what It will that I desire to lay the Foundation of all my Piety and Devotion At the Credo
of this Sacrament which is a Sacrament of Vnion and Love And therefore as this Sacrament is the most Powerful means to work it in them who partake thereof Worthily so doth It prae-require It in Them as far as they by other means can procure It that they may Worthily pertake thereof by express Precept of the Son of God so often repeated and especially in that famous Text which Commands us to go 5 Mat. 24. and be Reconcil'd to our Brother before we Offer up our Gift at God's Altar DEVOTION I Now supplicate Thee O Lord for this First Preparatory Peace which is the necessary and best Disposition toward the receiving of that other which Thou desir'st to confer on Vs by this Holy Sacrament and Sacrifice for in the Gospel we learn Luc. 10.6 that Thy Peace cannot rest upon any but such as are First the Sons of Peace This Peace then not finding how to Repose It self upon me here in a perfect Aboliton of All Passions as It shall do hereafter in Heaven may It at least Possess me in a perfect Absolution from all my past Sins which let me Hate and Abolish perfectly by a True and Vnintermitted Penitence That so I may begin to receive now in the Communion of this Sacrament That Peace which consists in a total Ruine and Extirpation of Passions which are Calm'd and Cur'd more effectually by the Blessed Eucharist than by any other Remedy whatsoever Vpon the Fraction of the Host IT is worth the Noting here That after the Priest hath made Supplication for This Peace of God before He derive It by way of Blessing to the Church He first divides the Host into three parts representing the 3 several Estates and Portions of the Church for which He hath implor'd Peace And the part representing this Portion of the Church Now Militant here on Earth He laye down upon the Altar that which is for That other Portion Now Expectant in Purgatory He holds still in his Hand after he hath sever'd from It a third Part which he puts into the Chalice to signify both that third Portion of the Church Now Regnant and Triumphant and as it were imbib'd and absorpt into the Deity in Heaven And also Jesus Christ Himself as the First Born from the Dead and Re-uniting His Body and Blood and so entring into the Glory of God as the Head and Elder Brother of all the Saints Pax Domini ANd hence in the very joyning of this third part of the Hoste to the Chalice he wisheth the Peace to the People informing Us thereby that Jesus Christ rais'd again and Enter'd into Glory gives Peace to his Church and that This Peace is nothing else but an over-flowing of that Complaisant Tranquility which in His Glory himself infinitely abounds with and fully satisfies the Blessed in Heaven DEVOTION INcrease in me O my Father Faith and Charity That I may Believe as this Sacrament now lying upon the Altar is but one Bread only that came down from Heaven so That the whole Church together with Jesus Christ make but one Body and that the distinction and separation of Persons in It by distant places do no more hinder Its Unity than if They were all and always visibly to the Eye closely compact and joyn'd together even as this Hoste upon the Altar is still after its division into parts here representing the divers Members in the Church as truly and precisely one as it was before I beseech Thee Enable me to Love and Embrace Jesus Christ in Heaven and his Members where-ever dispers'd throughout the World with an Affection as True and with an Enamouredness as Great and Constant as if they were perpetually by me and I enjoyed their Personal Corporal Presence Thy Grace Vniting Me to those from whom I am absent and severing me in a Holy Abstraction even from those to whom I am most Present my very self and all to whom Thou hast any way joyn'd me in this World The Agnus Dei. TO Jesus Christ therefore in particular is this Address made for that Peace Praying Him three several times to vouchsafe It. Now to that part of his Church here yet remaining as at His Ascention he gave it there to them he left behind and as He Himself now enjoys It. and makes others enjoy It too His Fellow-Citizens in that Jerusalem above that City of Peace And all this enforc'd not only by an Ardent Affection imply'd in the Repetition but also by a Choice and most pertinent Compellation of of Him as of the Lamb of God just now lying upon the Altar to take away our Sins the Impediments and so making our full Reconciliation and Peace with the Father DEVOTION I Presume O God to Petition Thee for Thy Peace though it be indeed The greatest of all Thy Gifts since but the day before Thy Death thou left'st to Vs this Legacy in the Persons of Thy Apostles as the Close and Accomplishment of all the Rest and wert pleas'd to stile Vs Children of Peace But let It be Thy Peace not that of the World The Inward Peace of Thy Holy Spirit to at subsists un-impair'd in the midst of all pains and outward Conflicts to be sustain'd by Vs for Thy Service Let it be a Peace wholly proceeding from Thy Mercy The Result of a Conscience undefil'd and of Remission of all Sins The Crown of a Perfect Righteousness obtainable only by Thee who art That Lamb of God Sacrific'd to Reconcile Us unto Thy Father and to make Peace between Heaven and Earth which the Sin and Rebellion of Men and Angels had set at so great an Enmity I beg of Thee then That Peace which is settled upon the Full Forgiveness of Sin which caus'd that division between Thy Father and Vs that the Peace which I ought to have with Men may be the Natural Issue of what I have with God First and so be no Humane but a Divine Peace For as the Wisdom of men with Thee is but Folly so neither is Humane Peace any thing else than a War displeasing to Thee in so much that Thou hast profess'd to Persecute all those and disperse their Bones who so Combine together I am transported with a particular Joy and Consolation to hear it now Thrice Asserted that Thou art He who takest away Our Sins I were undone but for That Mercy and but for that farther Assurance which Faith gives me that Thou in bearing our Sins in Thy Body dost also Extinguish them The Lost Sheep upon Thy Shoulders being both Carry'd and Cur'd The Pax Tecum THen he gives the Pax to all present immediately after he hath ask'd It of Jesus Christ by the peculiar Prayer to Him for that purpose Domine Jesu Christe And after he hath as it were taken It from the Altar submissively by a Holy Kiss a Symbole of Peace But in the Mass for the Dead all this is omitted and only Their Rest Pray'd for because the Giving of the Pax among the Faithful
A Brief EXPLANATION Of several Mysteries of the HOLY MASS And of the Actions of the PRIEST Celebrating Very Necessary for all Roman CATHOLICS For the better Understanding thereof Together with Certain Reflections upon the APOSTLES CREED Touching the Blessed SACRAMENT AND ALSO Divers Meditations and Prayers both before and after Communion By T.G. Heretofore Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxon deceas'd LONDON Printed by Nat. Thompson For the Brother of the said T.G. 1686. THE THOUGHTS Wherewith Generally I use to Hear and to Assist AT MASS ✚ THe true end of the Mass is that which Christ set For his Remembrance And methinks the whole Body of Ceremonies consisting in several Actions Words Postures and Ornaments which make up the External Parts of the Mass do Represent to me as in a kind of Perspective not only the Several Things which Jesus Christ did and Suffer'd whilst he was here upon Earth * Durand's l. 4. c. 1. * 20 Acts 27. but also The whole Councel of God touching mans Salvation by him All what he hath already done or shall yet farther do to that purpose even from the beginning of the World to the very last day of Judgement is here set before me in Short-hand Whereby I am put in mind in the very entrance to my Devotions that That One great propitiatory Sacrifice made Once upon the Altar of the Cross was offer'd up as for all Mankind in general so particularly for every single Person that has been is or shall be from the Worlds beginning to its end according to that Expression in the Revelation 13 Revel 8.1 Pet. 1.19 20. Of the Lambs being slain from the beginning of the World And consequently that this Sacrifice in the Mass is the Commemorative one of that Perpetual Sacrifice which never hath nor ever shall cease to be Offer'd in some kind since the Fall of Adam For the Virtue of that Sacrifice on the Cross is diffâ—s'd throughout All Times both preceding and following the … on of Jesus Christ And by Iâ— are sav'd all that have or shall be sav'd In which sense it is call'd the General Perpetual Sacrifice of the whole Church ✚ Vpon the Priest 's Recess from the Altar and standing at a distvnce on the lowest degree thereof BEing thus Dispos'd and Figur'd by this Fundamental Notion I no sooner see the Priest in his Sacerdotal Habit or Vestment Ascending up to the Altar first and suddenly Descending again to the very lowest degree But it remembers me instantly of Man's Propinquity to God in Adam whilst he stood Innocent and then of his being thrust out of his Presence again quickly upon Adam's sin of which by being deriv'd from him we are every one Guilty and so not only driven out of Paradice but even debas'd down to the lowest degree that such a Creature could fall DEVOTION O My God! I am sensible of my present Condition that during This Life I am in a Banishment from Paradice caus'd by that sin which I committed in my first Parent Adam and that by That Original and many more Personal Transgressions whereof I stand Guilty before Thee I am fallen into the Lowest State that a poor Creature can likely be brought unto And I feel that by thy Grace which Thou art pleas'd to Afford me even in this miserable Condition of mine I do thereof Repent me and therefore Ought to range my self as I do among the Lowest of any that can pretend to be Thy Servants that is among the Penitents 'T is also by the same Grace that Thou put'st me in the Humble Posture of a Stranger and Wayfaring-man only in This World by causing me to Turn again by Little and Little as the Motions and Conduct of Thy Holy Spirit Guide me toward That Paradice out of which for my sins I was driven O keep me Thus Humbled I beseech Thee and never suffer me to forget either of these Low Conditions which are so proper to the state of a Sinner and so proper to the state of a Convert too Nor let me swell higher by the least proud Conceit That being It that ruin'd me at First Take out of my Spirit all Inclinations to Things of Greatness or Port and give Me a Holy Affection to Meanness as being most suitable to what indeed I am to the Example of my Saviour Jesus Christ as He liv'd here and especially to this present Cendescention of His in the Sacrament Humbling himself to be in such Ordinary and Despicable Elements and this at the Word of a poor frail Man The Confiteor THe Priest standing Thus at a distance yet still between Hope and Despair bethinking himself what to do 1. Bowing 2. Advancing the Cross of Christ 3. Calling on the Trinity In Nomine c. * Vt supra and encouraging himself towards God 4. By a Psalm of David's Judica c. 5. At last in an Humble Posture he acknowledgeth and Confesseth That he is unworthy to approach nearer to Him or so much as to His Altar And that Thus 't is with him most deservedly as for that Original sin wherein he was Conceiv'd and to which he Implicitly Assented so likewise for many other committed by him with a more express Will throughout the whole course of his Life And here I conceive that surely he maketh not this Confession for Himself only but for Every one Present yea for the whole Church for in Her Name he comes now to Offer the Sacrifice And hence it is that the Minister who represents the People makes a Confession with him in the same Words By It is the whole Assembly and every one of us in particular for whom he therefore speaks in the Singular Number Invited to put himself together with him in the Posture and State of a Penitent and to acknowledge before God our own unworthy Condition DEVOTION VOuchsafe me O my God! The Grace of Tenderness of Heart Seriously and deeply to resent my own vile and dangerous Condition so far at least that Presently without any longer delay I may lay open the worst of my Self and Confess to Thee together with the Priest and Own in Thy sight All my Faults by a Repentance so True and Real as may last and make it self ever hereafter appear to be so more and more in All the Actions of my Life to come Imprint in my Soul a Restless desire of Returning to Thee for Good and All Eternally to serve Thee Beginning this Service now in this World as I mean to continue it hereafter in the next without Interruption or Relaxation at least carrying it on so Evenly from this my last Penitence that so I may make Reparation in some sort for my Failings and Recidivations and Breaches of Faith and Promise since my First Conversion which I should have taken care not to have prov'd so false unto nor ever once to have violated Upon the Priest's Re-ascending to the Altar and Kissing It. Deus tu Conversus c. AFter this
what was proper and naturally Thine And what A simple Figure and Commemoration only of That can it ever have such a Power The Blood of the Heyfer sprinkled though the true and near Figure of that Blood shed upon the Cross yet serv'd only to the Purification of the Flesh No 't is the Proper Blood of God alone that purges Our Consciences from dead works to serve the Living God The Resurrection of the Body O Gracious Jesus When shall It be that in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump the Dead shall arise and the same Flesh of every One now crumbled into Dust and scatter'd a thousand ways shall be re-compacted again into an Incorruptible Immortal Consistency Good God the Miracle of Miracles This And yet I am contemplating one well nigh Equal That in a Moment too in the twinkling of an Eye at the Trumpet of thy Word that very Body of Thine Seated at the right Hand of thy Father in Heaven is in a certain manner Reproduc'd in this Sacrament in all places where-ever the Mystery of It is duly Celebrated But O my wonderful Saviour If a little Leaven can Leaven a great Lump of Dough If one Spark of Fire be enough to Enflame a whole House if one Grain of Corn put into the Earth there works so as out of that Earth to cause so many more to grow and shoot up How may I hope that Thy Blessed Body entring into mine will Greg. Nyssen cap. 37. in its due time ferment it so as to make It rise warm and heat and Enflame It so as to make It like Thy Glorious Body and cause it to come up Immortal Impassible Subtile Nimble Clear and Shineing with all the Radiant Qualities that belong to Its perfection and may be expected from so Divine a Seed This Efficacy I confess can never be in the Figures of thy Body It comes only from the true and Real Presence of thy Precious Body It Self being There The Life Everlasting And indeed what other Nourishment Blessed Saviour but thy dear Body alone can possibly give A Life Everlasting It must be Bread that Lives It Self or it cannot give Life Bread that comes down from Heaven to give a Heavenly Life Bread that is no other than Thine Own Self my Lord and my God to give an Immortal Eternal Everlasting Life The Manna which was a true Type and Figure of thy Body yet could not do That there is need of some Food to be had more Substantial and Solid and Spiritual for such a Life and what can that be but Thy Self who hast Life in Thy Self and Livest now and for evermore World without End Amen This you see if you have Read and Weigh'd it well that the Articles of Our CREED cannot be consider'd in that full heighth wherein they ought to be literally and expresly believ'd and profess'd by every good Christian but that withall they dispose the Soul to a Firm Faith of the Real Presence of the true Body and Blood of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament which Article thereby seems to carry a very Natural and congenious proportion to all the rest at least as the possibility I may add and probability of it which is enough for the first step The next step shall be to weigh the several Testimonies of the Fathers and Their various Expressions wherein they seem to Labour so to set down what they believ'd in this High Mystery as that it might not be mistaken by Others wherefore from Them it will further appear that the Faith of the greatest part of the Church in all Ages was as it is now of the Real Presence Lastly Shall the particular Exceptions Answers Limitations Distinctions Subterfuges of latter Dissenters as to those Testimonies be produc'd and brought into the Light One by One. All this if you receive not Satisfaction before and if not after I have no other way left to help you with but Prayer Jam hoc qui dicit Non meis Disputationibus Refellendus sed Sanctorum Orationibus Revocandus est Aug. Preparatory Prayers toward the due Receiving of the Blessed Sacrament Authoriz'd by the Church Ad Mensam Dulcissimi Convivii c. TO Thy Table O most Bountiful Lord Jesus Christ where with such Delicious and Heavenly Food Thou usest to Entertain and Feast Pure Souls I a sinner though not presuming on any Merit or Desert of Mine but solely on Thy Goodness and Gracious Invitation do yet Tremble and Fear to approach For I have a Heart still prone to evil and Treacherous evne to the deceiving of my Self A Mind unconstant in all good Purposes A Body enslav'd to sin and which hath been Tainted and render'd loathsome by Corruption Original and many Crimes committed in it Senses wholly depriv'd and by long Custom dispos'd to admit any sort of Temptation Members all retain'd for the Service of some Vice or other A Tongue especially an unruly Evil and under no Guard or Discipline It self a very World of Iniquity And therefore now in this Misery and great Perplexity what to do and how to carry my self in this Conjuncture of Thy Call and my own Wretchedness towards Thee a God of so much Benignity but of such a Frightning Majesty too I nevertheless am here come unto Thee But To Thee as the Fountain of Mercy To Thee as the sole Curer of all my Maladies and Distempers at Present and the best Preserver against all Ills to come And whom I dare not appear before as my Judge I humbly Sue to have for my Saviour To Thee O Lord as such I here unbind and lay open my Wounds and Sores To Thee I discover my shame I know my Sins are great and many and they cause this Fear in me but I hope in Thy Mercies which are without number or stint Look upon me Then with those tender Eyes of Thy Compassion O Merciful Jesus Eternal and most Munificent Saviour God and Man Crucify'd for Man Hail Saving Sacrifice Offer'd up on the Altar of the Cross for Me and all Mankind Hail Precious and Royal Blood pour'd forth of the Wounds of my Crucify'd Lord and Cleansing a whole World from Sin Remember Lord this Creature of Thine for whom Thou hast spilt that Blood I am sorry that I have Offended Thee I desire to Amend what is Amiss Take from me O most Indulgent Saviour all my Iniquities and Transgressions that so beset me and cleave so close to me that being Purg'd and Sanctify'd throughout in Spirit Soul and Body I may come Worthily to feed at Thy Table on the Holiest of all Things And Grant that this Sacred prae-libation and fore-taste of Thy Body and Blood which I now intend to take though most unworthy may be to me A full Remission of my sins A perfect Evacuation of all vitiated and peccant Humours A chacing out of my Mind all unseemly Cogitations A producing therein a Series of better Thoughts and Sentiments An Effectual and Active Principle of
Assembled together which was Antiently by a Kiss Oral as now by Kissing an Instrument as a Crucifix c. for that use was held as a Pledge of the Joy and Tranquility in Paradice and so thought less proper for the days of Sadness and Mourning for those who yet by their Sins were detain'd from Entrance into That Joy DEVOTION SO Cur'd I will take and Kiss the Pax which is given to Me on the Priest's part or rather in truth on Thine since He himself before He derives It to the People takes It from Thee in That Kiss given to the Altar which is in stead of Thee O make me keep always This Peace this Sacred Peace and let me never care for other as I am not taken with any thing call'd good unless it come from Thee And in this Preparation let me Approach to the Communion of Thy Blessed Body which as is said is the Earnest and beginning of That more Perfect Peace that we Hope to enjoy in Heaven intimated by Thy Prophet promising on Thy part A Peace that transcends all other Peace The Communion NExt the Priest having dispos'd Himself to Communicate by those two Prayers Domine Jesu Christi Fili Dei c. and Preceptio Corporis and protested His own great Unworthiness in those Words of the Centurion Domine non sum dignus c. thrice re-doubled after a little pause or Humble Examination Eates the Body and then Drinks the Blood in the Chalice After each adding a short Rapture or Meditation Then he proceeds to Communicate the Others that are dispos'd thereunto SHewing hereby that both Priest and People do partake of the same Sacrifice are fed with the same Spiritual Food from the same Table admitted to the same Pasture all in quality of being the Sheep of the same Shepheard And in this the Priest seems to Acknowledge First In Humility that in that Respect of being a Sheep of Christ's and to be fed by Him He is nothing at all different from the People Secondly In Charity that the dispensing the things of God to the People ought to proceed from the fulness which He hath received from God Himself and that He is to feed the Faithful out of his Store and that which remains over and above DEVOTION LOrd I am not worthy of the least of all Thy Mercies much less of the Greatest as is this Communion of Thine own Body and Blood by which Thou enterest into Me and in a most ineffable manner minglest Thy self with my very Substance transplanting into Me Thy Humanity Thy Divinity Thy Person nay together with It The whole Trinity so that I am not only their Temple as before but in some kind even one with Thee and It. This is a Favour so great and so incomprehensible that I may well look on my self as most unworthy of it not only because I no way deserve It but because I can no way Understand It since it surpasses all thoughts of Men or Angels Grant me that after a Communion and Union so Miraculous I be never any thing but Thine never any thing but Thee And that nothing be ever able to separate me in the least kind from Thee But that I may see all Creatures far remov'd from and Infinitely below Me who am in Thee and that as I am not to Live but In Thee so I may have no Affection neither No sense but for Thee Not coucern'd in any thing but so far as thou wilt have Me or as thou esteemest Thy self concern'd in It. Let this Food be my Everlasting Nourishment and let me so Relish It that it may make me loose the Taste of all things else and the gust of My self especially That remaining un-alter'd and Incorruptible in my Heart it may Consume all the Corruption in my Body and Soul and Sublimate them to a Being totally Spiritual and Incorruptible too partly Now but Perfectly at the Great Resurrection May it be within me a Head and Fountain of Life perpetually running into Actions and Increasing toward that Life wholly Divine and Immortal and retarding and putting off farther and farther the Encroachments of a Death which I still carry about Me In like manner as the Corporal Food which I take respites me from the Assaults of Death and helps to lengthen and prolong this Mortal Life of my Body let it be always at Hand since It ought always to be in my Heart And let the Remembrance and Respect wherewith I shall every Moment in a kind of Mastication and Chewing Honour and Adore It Innure me to Taste and Comprehend the Excellency thereof as far surpassing All Manna or what-ever other most Delicate Dainties which can never free Vs quite from Perishing but Perish themselves whereas This on the contrary hath an undecayable Life in It self and makes Vs to live everlastingly Let It be to me instead of all other Affecting me with all the Pleasures and Gusts that any Spiritual Refection is capable of as That Manna is said to give the Jews all the Delicious Relishes that were to be sound in any other repast of the Body Let is fully satisfy me and make me so Reflect upon this great Happiness of being fed now in this Life with the same Bread which so abundantly blesseth with all Felicities Men and Angels that I never Covet more Let this Sacred Body be the Soul of my Soul as my Soul is the Soul of my Body and let all my Thoughts and Affections all Energies Motions and Actions whatever I feel or do proceed from It as all my Natural Movement and Operations come from my Soul Let it be in me A Spring of all Graces streaming them out unto me every moment suitably to my Necessities That Well of Living Waters flowing up to Everlasting Life which it hath pleas'd God to open not only in the midst of His Church as in the middle of Paradice But also in the Middle and Heart of every Faithful Soul which is to Him no less a Paradice and a Church than the whole Vniversal Let this Divine Source quench the Thirst of my Soul Allay my Heats and Irregular Desires by Nourishing another Supernatural Heat of Grace and Divine Love which Dissipates those strange Inflamations and Carnal Feavers of Concupiscence and may that Love consume in me the very Seed of Sin as it Cherishes and makes take root that other Seed of Life and Immortality Let this Admirable Spring float my Soul higher and higher above all Creatures Visible and Invisible till it bring it up into my God from whom it self is fed it being natural to all Waters to raise themselves as high as their Beginnings and to Advance thither too whatever they carry Let this Food as soon as I have taken It give Proof of its Efficacy in making me Strong and Potent against those occasions of Sinning which before abus'd my Feebleness and were too prevalent over Me. Let it give me New Spirits and Light First to discover and discern and then to
Crush and destroy the least Reliques and Remains of any Sin into whatever part it is Retir'd or under what disguise soever It lurks and hides These being indeed the True Idols and Abominations which God hath commanded to put from Vs and utterly to annihilate if we mean to Receive and Conserve His Grace Lastly It is My Saviour Himself that is in This Sacrament O that I might Love according to His Example here Retirement Re-collection Abstraction and Separation from all Creatures as He continues still unmix'd with any now no less in within me than in the whole Church always In a Profound Silence under a Wonderful Humility leading here a Life perfectly Internal and absorpt in a Contemplation and Adoration perpetual of the Greatness and Incomprehensible Majesty of God his Father Upon the Priest's gathering up the Crums and lesser particles of the Hoste and sucking in the rest in the Chalice DEVOTION THe Fragments O Lord The least Crum that jalls from Thy Table the least Drop of Thy Wine no Remainder of Thy Honey Comb is so little but is enough for me as well as for that modest Canaanite and for Thy Apostles at that miraculous Entertainment in the Desart or at That Collation upon Thy Resurrection Indeed all the Graces that we are capable of in This Life are but Crums falling from That Thy Table above but few drops of that Inexhaustible Fountain with which Thy Blessed in Heaven are so abundantly Refresh'd but on Vs here are but sprinkled a little to relieve our Necessities and sustain Vs from fainting in our Passage through the Desart of This World Yet as Thou art no less whole and Entire in the pettyest Particle and Attom of these Symbols than in the biggest Portion so I avouch that there is force enough to Nourish me and to Strengthen me too against all mine Enemies in the Lightest Grain of Thy Grace because Thou art always All in It and With and By It dost uncessantly derive Thy Spirit into Our Hearts Which well considered should Oblige Vs everyone to live Contented in This Life as we shall do in the Next be the Gifts Great or Small that we receive from Thy Mercy Vpon the bringing back again of the Book to the Right-Hand IT is to shew that the Gospel which was remov'd from the Jews at first shall return to them again and be receiv'd towards the end of the World And then the whole Church consisting both of Jew and Gentile being United together The Priest Blesseth God for all the Favours shewn to it in order thereunto and particularly for the Present Communion by which he hath re-united so many beseeching Him that this Receiving of Him at this time may tend to His everlasting Honour DEVOTION I Admire and Adore O my God Thy Goodness and Insinite Patience who having been so long Oppos'd and Vilifi'd by the Jews wilt yet at last before the end of the World receive them again for all that and restore to them the Light of the Gospel before taken from them as is signifi'd by bringing back the Book before the Mass ends to the place It had at the beginning God forbid I should ever Despair of any Sinner how Great or Wretched and Harden'd soever he be as long as He yet Lives No let me rather in all Humility wait till Thy Mercy or Thy Justice declare it self toward Him in the Season that Thou hast appointed and the mean while Pray for Him Wishing Him Thy Grace with the same Charity wherewith Thy Church still implor'd It for the Jews her Enemies and first Persecutors though receive it they should not till after many Ages and at present are Harden'd and even Abandon'd by Thee after a manner most notoriously Hideous O let me so Intercede for a Mercy and a true Repentance for the worst of mine Enemies make me carry them always in my Heart though they little deserve It and have turn'd me out of theirs as Thou lodgest and bearest me in Thine without considering my unworthiness and wert willing to receive me even when I hated Thee and ran from Thee as fast and as far as I was able Sweeten me into a Benignity that as I have receiv'd Thy Grace without all merit so I may keep it without all Envy and be an earnest Suitor unto Thee that Thou wouldst vouchsafe it also to those who I am sure cannot less deserve it than I. Nay let it be to me a particular delight and joy when ever Thou shalt be pleas'd to indulge it to them in a greater abundance than Thou hast done to me that so even their abundance may be as truly mine and the â—â—ches of them supply what is wanting in me as Thy Apostle says At the last Benediction AFter this tender of Thanks in Conclusion of all the Priest turns to the People to Bless them as was us'd to be done in the Old Law after the Sacrifice and shall be more fully done hereafter by our Saviour Himself in that General Benediction of all the Elect at the end of the World Hence is it that he reads the Gospel of St. John treating particularly of the Eternal Generation of the Word and the Highest Mysteries of that His Deity To shew that immemediately after that Last Benediction we shall pass into Heaven there to be better acquainted with and Eternally Admire and Praise these Mysteries And that Jesus Christ having gather'd together all His chosen shall lead them in and place them in the Bosom of His Father where He is from all Eternity His Only Son and where He shall admit Us as His Brethren that where He is We may be also and this without any prejudice of His being still the Only because He shall make Us One with Him Amen DEVOTION I Beseech Thee O my God to make me so partaker of Thy Body and Blood and so to Order the rest of my Life that I may receive That great Benediction which Thou shalt give to Thy Servants at the Last day The which is now Represented unto Me by This which the Priest gives to the People in the end of the Mass In the Hope of This let me live and grow Invincibly strong against the rudest Assaults of the Enemy In the expectation of so great Comfort let my Heart be so Establish'd as to Dread nothing nor can the greatest Beauties or Pleasures in This World seem any thing to the sight of That last Glory or to the perception of That Blessing accumulative of all Blessings which then shall be receiv'd in the presence of Millions of Angels and of all Men which ever were or shall be The Blessing and St. John's Gospel DEVOTION ANd after that Solemn Benediction take me O my God with Thee into Heaven that Heaven of Heavens Where I may enjoy Thee in Thy Majesty in thy Beatitude and Life so Glorious A Scantling of which seems to be Represented to Vs by that Beginning of St. John 's Gospel which is said after the Mass Wherein