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
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
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
observed that there are two sorts of sensible devotion or consolation the one from God which is good the other dangerous and pernicious proceeding from nature or from our ghostly enemy Now the affections and passions of our soule are knowne by their fruits that hart is good from which proceeds pious affections good effects and holy actions If it make us more humble more patient and more charitable if more to mortify our unruly passions and affections more constant in good exercises more yealding and obedient to Superiours more plaine dealing with Christian syncerity in all our actions then doubtlesse these consolations are from God But if those consolations in devotion rest only in our selves or that we become more curious peewish captious impatient willfull obstinate fierce presomptuous uncharitable lesse subject to others direction then undoubtedly such spirituall tendernesse or consolation in prayer is false and pernicious for a good tree brings fourth good fruit We must not therefore much regard these spirituall tender consolations but carefully observe what good fruit they produce in us Thus that true director of all right and holy spirituall S. Fran. de Sales And by this we now plainly see that the good fruits or effects of prayer can only give a right iudgment of the goodnesse and true value thereof If therefore by prayer You find your self more humble desirous to be contemned lesse willfull more charitable c. No doubt but your prayer is Good and profitable if by it you grow more sincere lesse curious and willfull if it produce more vigour of affection to vertuous actions if finally you find your selfe more meeke and patient if mortification seeme pleasing to you for the love of God if modesty appeare in your gesture and conversation if vertu be pleasing to you and vice distastfull All these are secure signes of good and holy prayer and infallible markes of true and solide devotion An other secure marke that our prayer or meditation is true is when the soule regardeth not so much the consolation gust or sweetnesse which shee feeles therin as the effects which it causeth of the forces which it brings and endeves her withall to be therby more able to love to please and to serve God so that shee beareth very patiently the want of these cherishments yea even of her owne accord shee deprives herselfe therof for the least occasion offered to doe God the greater service or for her neighbours good to give satisfaction to any due obligation therby she kowing that true sanctity or perfection consists not in receiving such cherishments and delightsome favours but in the practice of true and solid vertues wherin we ought so much the more to exercise our selves by how much such cherishments and favours are bestowed upon vs in prayer which oblidgeth us to the greater perfection But now contrariwise when this contemplation is false and suggested from the evill Spirit then we are wholy bent and feed upon those gustfull contents if therfore the privation therof makes us impatient and discontent and for feare of loosing this pleasing sensible content we both relinquish our obligation and duty to which otherwise we were bound which they noewayes doe who receive the true visits of God but on the contrary they much more desire labour penance mortification and to beare their Crosse for the love of God with a pious hatred and contemp of their owne selves Wheras that which is false and counterfait encreaceth self love refuseth and shunneth any labour Crosses and mortification c. A third secure signe and good marke to examen and know whether our prayer be of God and his holy grace or of nature only therfore not solid but dangerous and deceiptfull is to observe our owne inclinations if we couet that our good deedes be made manifest it is an effect of nature wheras grace doth endevour to keepe them secret therby to avoyde the honour and worldly glory which nature doth greatly couet if againe we find our selves variable and unconstant it is nature that is working for grace remaynes constant and unvariable as well in adversitie as in prosperitie with humble resignation and mortification of our selves in all things according to the holy will of God with much content and joy finally if singularitie self esteeme and desire of humane glorie be the ayme of our hart know that nature rules since grace doth absolutly despise and hate them Lastly a true meanes to discover whether on s prayer begood and of God or whether badd and from the evill Spirit we must carrefully examen and observe whether we seeke the mortification of our owne will and inclinations of nature or contrariwise whether not much rather our owne satisfaction and desire which nature ever seekes alwayes excusing her selve and by no meanes will be troubled but by earnest contesting projects and labour yea even with violence she strives to preuaile and to obtayne her desire in all But Gods grace and all motions from the good Angel doth alwayes incite us to our owne abjection and pretends no excuse at all Againe the instinct from the holy Ghost and all motions from the grace of God and from the good Spirit doth both move and invite us unto submission and obedience and still directs and guides us from all vicious and sinfull extreames And to conclude most certaine it is that that prayer is not alwayes the best which is most inflamed by greatest feeling tendernesse but rather and most vndoubtedly that of which ensueth the best and holiest life most profoundest humility charity patience and perfection and that it have the power to make this happy change But if contrariwise our prayer have none of these good effects but that it leaves us in the same estate and imperfections wherin we were before then undoubtedly all our sensible devotion and tender feelings of seeming great vertu and perfection are but false and full of delusion and deceipt And therfore hence it is that the chiefe and principall matter to be regarded and well observed in prayer is that after the end therof our resolutions good purposes and pious feelings in the tyme therof be afterwards put by us in faithfull practice and ezecution Out of the premises is to be observed that the profit the end and true perfection of prayer consists in becomming therby more humble more resigned to God more charitable and affable towards our neighbours more obedient to superiours more patient in contradictions c. for such prayer best pleaseth God and is most profitable for our soules it doth most edify our neighbour and farre surpasseth the prayer although accompagned otherwise with illuminations and abundance of fervourous affections not effectuall and efficacious in producing that holy fruit of true vertue which is the only profit principall end of all true prayer and meditation prayer not being the end but only the meanes to be vsed for our advancement in perfection and to gaine therby the victory over our pereverse inclinations and
THE LITTLE MANVEL OF THE POORE MANS DAYLY DEVOTION Collected out of severall pious and approoved Authors By W. C. Piety is profitable for all things having promisse of the life that now is and of that to come 1. ad Titum 4.8 And are to be sold at Mr GONTIERS Libraire Juré before our B. Ladyes Church dore PRINTED AT PARIS By VINCENT DV MOVTIER M.DC.LXIX THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY DEARE Catholique Brethren who by Gods order and disposition are to gayne your livelyhood by honest labour and industry to you principally is this short method of devotion addressed for although they whome the Divine Providence has placed in a heigher condition in this world are more plentifully furmisht with bookes and other helpes for their instrucction yet the goodenesse of God is so great as to accept your faithfull endevors according to your capacity and so as you love and serve him Religiously in your severall vocations here upon earth your reward will be equall with theirs in Heaven Great are the prerogatives of the poore who was poorer then Lazarus who lay at the gate of the rich Glutton full of sores and ulcers suffering hungar cold and all kind of necessity Yet his patience and conformity to the Divine will in those his afflictions obtaynd him the glory to be canoniz'd by Iesus-Christ himselfe while the same presumptuous rich Man clad in purple garments and gloriing in his abundant wealth and temporall felicity was cast downe into those horrid flames where he shall never cease to be tormented Whoever will enter in at Heaven gate must stoope very low the greatest Princes if they pretend to Eternall riches must become like you poore upon Earth at least in affection Blessed are the poore of spirit for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven Yea the richest Emperors Carry no more with them out of the world then the poorest begger When S. Iohn Baptist sent his Disciples to our Blessed Lord to informe themselves whither he were the Messias or no one of the markes he gave them wherby to proove himselfe to be truly soe was that the poore receiu'd the Ghospell which shewed that his Divine goodnesse had the poore in recommendatiō Since then by these passages and many more which are found amongst the sacred oracles of our Divine Maister Yea since by his owne life and example we are taught how gratefull the poore are to him and with what difficulty the rich enter into the kingdome of Heaven you who are poore ought to comfort your selves in your poverty and rest assured that if God had foreseene that riches would have more conduc'd to your salvation he would have given you abundance since it was as easy to his infinit power to have made you the richest Princes as the poorest artisans Blesse then Gods goodnesse in your poverty love him fervently serve him faithfully beleeve that his designe in makeing you poore was to render your salvation more easy since those who have great possessions like the young man in the Gospell forsake them with as great anxiety Farewel and in your prayers remember Your truly affectionate and dearely well wishing Countryman W. C. AN ADVERTISMENT DEARE Christian Reader you are to observe that in this little Manuel of devotion besides vocale prayer you will find intermixed severall other pious exercises for the holy employement of a vertuous soule as spirituall cogitations where upon happily to busy her minde eyther by day or night as best occasion shall be offered Spirituall advises Pious reflections as well for the embracing vertue as for flying vice and may be used also for the subject of so many profitable meditations by such as have leasure and disposition for it An Exercise also for practising the acts of the most necessary vertues Holy Maxims pronounced by Jesus Christ and how different they are from the maxims of the world Aspirations and jaculatory prayers Brieffe Meditations for each day in the weeke And finally a profitable Exercise contayning a preparation to death with the Recommendation of the soule in english all which may serve for pious entertaynement of the vertuous soule with pleasing and profitable diversity of piously employing her solitary thoughts according as time and leasure shall give occasion respectively to make use of them for the greater encreace of true piety and devotion The sum̄e of the Christian Catholick faith I Beleeve in God the Father Almighty Creatour of Heaven and earth And in Jesus Christ his onely sonne our Lord. Who was conceived by the holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried He descended into Hell the third day he rose againe from the dead He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the deade I beleeve in the Holy Ghost The holy Catholick Church the communion of Saints The forgivenesse of sins The resurrection of the body And life everlasting Amen Our Lords Prayer OUR Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name Thy kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us And leade us not into temptation But deliver us from all evill Amen The Angelical salutation HAILE Marie full of grace our Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst woemen And blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Marie Mother of God pray for us sinners now and in the houre of our death Amen The ten Commandements J am the Lord thy God c. 1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not take the name of God in vaine 3. Remember to keepe holy the Sabboth day 4 Honour thy Father and thy Mother 5. Thou shalt not kill 6. Thou shalt not committ Adultery 7. Thou shalt not steale 8. Thou shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour 9. Thou shalt not desire thy neighbours wife 10. Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours goods The seaven Sacraments 1. Baltisme Math. 28. 2. Confirmation Iohn 7. 3. Eucharist Math. 29. 4. Penance Iohn 20. 5. Extreame Unction Iames 5. 6. Holy order Math. 26. 7. Matrimony Math. 29. Three Theological vertues 1. Faith 2. Hope 3. Charity Foure Cardenal vertues 1. Prudence 2. Justice 3. Temperance 4. Fortitude Seaven guifts of the holy Ghost 1. Wisdome 2. Understanding 3. Counsel 4. Fortitude 5. Knowledge 6. Godlinesse 7. The feare of our Lord. Twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost 1. Charity 2. Joy 3. Peace 4. Patience 5. Benignity 6. Goodnesse 7. Longanimity 8. Mildnesse 9. Faith 10. Modesty 11. Continency 12. Chastity The Precepts of Charity Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole hart and with thy whole soule and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy selfe The Commandements of the Church 1. To keepe certaine appointed dayes holy without servill works and hearing
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
vengence of our sins The Litanies of the Saints 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 Have mercy upon us God the Holy Ghost Have mercy upon us Holy Trinity one God Have mercy upon us Holy Mary Pray for us Holy Mother of God Holy Virgin of Virgins S. Michael Pray for us S. Gabriel S. Raphael All yee holy Angels and Archangels All yee holy Orders of blessed spirits S. John Baptist All yee holy Patriarcks Prophets S. Peter S. Paul S. Andrew S. James S. Philip. S. Bartholomew Pray for us S. Mathew S. Simon S. Thadey S. Mathias S. Barnabe S. Luke S. Marke All yee holy Apostles and Evāgelists All yee holy Disciples of our Lord. All yee holy Innocents S. Stephen S. Laurence Pray for us S. Vincent S. Fabian and Sebastian S. John and Paule S. Cosme and Damian S. Geryase and Protase All yee holy Martyrs S. Sylvester S. Gregory S. Ambrose Pray for us S. Augustin S. Hierosme S. Martin S. Nicolas All yee holy Bishops and Confessors All yee holy Doctors S. Antony S. Benet S. Bernard S. Dominick S. Francis All yee holy Priests and Levits All yee holy Monkes and Eremits S. Mary Magdalen S. Agatha S. Lucy S. Agnes Pray for us S. Cicily S. Chatherine S. Anastasia All yee holy Virgins and widowes All yee Men and Woemen Saints of God Make yee intercession for us Sonne of God We beseech thee to heare us Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Spare us O Lord. Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Heare us O Lord. Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Have mercy vpon us Christ heare us Christ graciously heare us Vouchsafe O Almighty God that we honouring the memory of thy blessed Saints thou grant us by their intercession the desired abundance of thy mercy through Christ Jesus our Lord Amen O God whose proper it is alwayes to have mercy and to spare receive our petition that the tender mercy of thy piety may mildly absolve us and all thy servants whom the chayne of sin doth binde Amen Heare we beseech thee O Lotd the prayers of thy supplicants and pardon the sins of them that confesse to thee that thou being unto us benigne maist in like manner give us pardon and peace Shew with clemency O Lord thy unspeakable mercy unto us that thou both acquit us of our sins and deliver us from the paines which for them we deserve O God who by sin art offended and by penance art pacified mercifully respect the prayers of thy people making supplication to thee and turne away the scourges of thy āger which for our sins we deserue Haue mercy on all sinners sweet Jesu I beseech thee turne their vices into vertues and make them true observers of thy law and lovers of thee bring them to blisse in everlasting glory Have mercy also on the soules in Purgatory for thy bitter passion sake I beseech thee and for thy glorious name Jesu O holy Trinity one true God have mercy on me Your prayer ended dispose your selfe in recollection of mind to bed and putting of your cloathes consider how fast the tyme is comming on and is perchaunce much neerer then you imagin when you shall be vncloathed of all but a poore winding sheet to be covered with earth which your bedcloathes covering you doe represent as also the ensving sleepe doth your death and your bed the grave where laying downe your selfe commende both your body and soule vnto God saying as did Iesus Christ upon the Crosse recommending your soule to the Eternall father in these sacred words Into thy hands O Lord I recommend my spirit In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I laye me downe to rest he blesse me defend me and bring me to life everlasting Amen Save us good Lord wakeing and keepe us sleeping that we may watch with Christ and rest in peace Amen God the Father blesse me Jesus Christ defende me the vertue of the holy Ghost illuminate and sanctify me this night and ever more Amen O Angel of God who art my keeper me by the supernal piety committed to thy charge keepe and defend this night from all peril of body and of soule Amen And lastely with a fervent aspiration to God conclude saying O deare Jesu the everlasting repose of thyne elect when will the happy houre come that my soule may without end receiue her rest in thy eternall glory And herevpon with an act of the love of God compose your selfe to sleepe When awakeing in the night IF you awake in the night endeavour to make an elevation of your hart to God by some ejaculatory prayer as O good Iesu be to me Iesus and save me or O deare Iesu that I may know thee and that J may know my selfe vpon which words S. Augustin was wont to spend whole nights in pious contemplation As also did S. Francis in these other not unlike O who art thou my divine Lord and who am I or say O Eternal God when shall I love thee with my whole hart and soule and if I were at this very instant now to dye am J in the state to obtayne thy gracious mercy or the like And then without any further application of mind compose your selfe againe to sleepe Holy cogitations wherof some one being chosen at the end of your evening or morning prayer may serve as a subject for a vertuous employment of your minde when either you cannot sleepe or for all the day following at such tymes as best leasure shall give occasion to make some good Reflection there upon Of the true end of Man MAn is made to love and to serve God and thereby to obtayne his owne Beaitude Our very hart assures us of this certaine truth which being made for God it findes no quiet rest but only in that its proper center thou hast created us O Lord for thy selfe saith S. Augustin and our hart is unquiet untill it repose in thee Yea plaine experience makes it manifest for neither could Alexander the great be content with his glorious conquest of the world togeather with all other temporall felicity nor Salomon with all which his soule could either possesse or desire for the full content both of his body and mind all which in the end he confessed to be but vanity and affliction of spirit And Alexander did no lesse who weeped when he was tould that there were no more worlds for him to conquer the satisfaction of what he had done gave him so smale content We being therfore made only for God let us be only his and give our selves entierly to him performing what according to our end we are made for For as the suune is made to give light the fier to heate and salt to season to which end should they
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
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
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
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
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
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
upon thee that though thou canst not speake yet to move thy hand in token of thy hope in the mercies of Jesus Christ Thus then disposed proceed to the points of meditation following Consider the certainty of death according to that of the Apostle it is appointed for all Men once to dye Hebr. 16 of which our Eternity depends but as for the houre when the place where or the manner how all this is most uncertaine save that we see death commonly to come when it is least expected 2. Consider what a trouble it wil be at that tyme not only to looke back to the things of the world which in a moment thou must forsake but especially when thou shalst looke before thee to what is to come finding thy selfe very uncertaine of thy salvation both by reason of the multitude of thy sins many whereof being utterly forgot then come fresh unto thy mind and such as before seemed smale shal then be thought heavy as also in regard of the suddainnesse and strictnesse of thy accompt the severity of the judg and the terrour of Hel c. Beg at Gods hands Affections that these points may be so imprinted in thy mind as thou maist alwayes have a care so to live as thou wouldst be found in the houre of death Resolutions We must therfore firmely resolue to doe presently what we are certaine we shal wish at that houre to have done as in particular to forsake such or such a vice to embrace and practise such or such a vertue To begin presently to live well according to our calling for he hardly dies well who lives ill and repentance made by a dying Man is exceeding dangerous and doubtfull And therfore resolue to watch for you know neither the day nor the houre which God will have to be unknowne to us to the end we should be allwayes ready and prepared Thursday of judgement 1. SO soone as our soule is separated from the body it appeares immediatly before the tribunal of Gods judgement there to render a most exact a severe and dreadfull accompt of all our thoughts words and deeds yea and for each moment of tyme since our first use of reason as also for all his gracious guifts bestowed on us either of grace fortune or nature to be employd for his glory and our owne soules health 2. Consider that this accompt is so much the more dreadful in that it is made to a judge to whose power none can resist to whose knowledge nothing can lye hid whose sentence is souveraine without appeale and the consequence of it concernes an Eternity of weale or woe and that to be put in execution immediately and to endure so long as God is God 3. All this considered O stupid carelesnesse of Man to thinke so little to be prepared for this uncertaine and most dreadfull houre Affections What steward would be so ill provided to make his reckning but to a temporal Prince although it only should concerne this present life wheras this is to God himself and concernes Eternity which as yet we have happy tyme to negotiate by the faithfull practise of these ensving necessary resolutions First to detest and fly all mortal sin above death it selfe Resolutions and to crave Gods grace to that end Secondly to frame our thoughts words and actions as if to be considered examined and sentenced now here immediaty by this our heavenly judge 3. To keepe a lively and perpetuall memory of our fowre last things death judgement Hell and Heaven and lastly to examin frequently our selves whither we are at present in that state as were fit to appeare if God should now immediaty call us to render that our last most dreadfull reckening wheron should depend our sentence of Eternity Friday of Hel. 1. HEl being the prison of Gods justice for his enemies as Heaven is the place of recompence for his friends so are they opposit in all and beyond expression the one for torment and the other for felicity and both to last eternally and comprehend all which can be either said or thought of both respectively in their several kind 2. Consider that the sinner here for a moment of seeming and deluding content forfeits his heavenly and eternal blisse for which he was made and it is most happily pourchaced by such as preferre the love of God and his blessed will before their owne corrupt sensuality cooperating with his holy grace for avoyding of sin This now being well ponder'd Affections have we not just cause to blesse and adore Gods love and goodnesse for having provided us of so many power full helps for our beatitude with no lesse persuasions to fly and avoyde those eternal torments of Hel and to preserve us from sin the only cause of that endlesse misery by Sacraments by instructions by holy inspirations by good exemples and by many other helps and powerfull motives to vertue and to detest all sin We must therfore resolue Resolutions whilst God here graciously doth lend us this acceptable tyme and the dayes for salvation to employ them much more carefully then formerly we have done for that happy end and to be firme and constant in faithfully observing the good resolutions with which God hath graciously inspired us for the amendment and avoiding our most habitual sins as also the chiefe occasions therunto whereby we are in most danger to offend Almighty God and to cast our soules into the eternall flames of Hel where they shall be cruciated day and night saith S. John for ever and ever Apoc. 10.10 Saturday of the joyes of Heaven 1. COnsider that this Beatitude consists in the most blessed vision of the glorious Trinity Father Sonne and Holy Ghost In the fellowship and society of Angels Cherubins Apostles Patriarchs Prophets Martyrs Virgins Confessors and generally of all the faithful departed this life and now crowned in the eternall glory of Heaven 2. Consider that in this celestial estate is not only the absence of all evil but the abundance of all good things according to that of the Apostle the eye of Man hath not seene nor the eare hath heard neither hath it entred into the hart of Man to conceive what God hath layd up for them that love him 1 Cor. 2 9. 3. Consider with your selfe by what steps and degrees the Saints and holy servants of God who now raigne in everlasting glory with him have obtayned the same and labour to imitate their examples O blesse inexplicable Affections those happy soules possesse God and God possesseth them God is their whole all in all He is their all in substance by communicating to them their final perfection and by elevating them to a beeing which is divine He will be their all to their understanding by cleerely manifesting himselfe unto them he will be their all to their will bestowing himselfe unto them by a most sweet intimate gust and savour drawing them by this blessed meanes
into an ocean of infinit joyes Let us therfore resolue to shake off this stupid dulnesse in neglecting our so happy land of promisse Resolutions for the love of which we ought to dispise all earthly pleasures and vaine contents as too base and abject for our higher and more noble thoughts and hopes which we expect in Heaven An advertisment THis following exercise made by a pious and approoved Author whose humility would not permit himselfe to be knowne I have judged both usefull and very necessary for all who desire to gaine their heavenly blisse by the happy art of dying wel which must be learnt by frequent practise of holy acts in tyme of health like as they are to be used at the tyme of death for who neglects them in health will diyng hardly performe them well weaknesse paine feare trouble and many impediments very hardly then permitting a dying Man to produce those acts wherof a former habit was not gain'd Which now notwithstanding by the practise of this holy exercise being made familiar in tyme of health may also produce both happy acts and such as are not soe hard to be exercisd in that extremity of sicknesse A most profitable exercise conteyning a preparation to death Togeither with the acts necessary to dispose the soule to this last passadge As also the Recommendations of the soule in English Blessed are the servants whom when our Lord comes he shall find watching To our blessed Lord Iesus Christ SAviour of the world word Incarnate thou who art the life of those who dye and the death of those who live the life I say of those who dye by the glory which thou givest them and which thou hast purchast for them with thy most precious blood the death of those who live by the grace thou givest them to dye to the flesh and live in Spirit quicken this exercise with thy divine love to the end that by the practise of it thou maist find us so well prepared for death that we may live eternally with thee in Heaven there to blesse prayse and love thee with the Father and the Holy Ghost Amen Advise for the due practise of this exercise SInce it is a most constant truth verifid by daily experience which neverthelesse we easily forget that we must dye and that peradventure we may either be surprised by a suddaine death as we see it happen to many when they least thinke of it or that the extreame paines or other accidents of our sicknesse may deprive us of the liberty and capacity to performe acts requisit in that last houre that houre I say which is the most important of all houres that houre after which we shall have no more houres that houre which must decide our happinesse or misery for all Eternity It will be most profitable to sett aside one day in every month wherin to prepare our selves by the exercises of a spirituall death to those we should really make when we come to dye actually Watch and keepe your selves prepared sayes our Lord for the sonne of Man Mark 13 will come when you expect him not and the wise man sayes wheresoever the tree falls there it shall remayne Eccles 11 If opportunity present it selfe we ought either upon the eve or the day which we designe for this exercise to make our Sacramental Confession to the Priest notwithstanding which for greater purity and more vest preparation we may make our spirituall Consession to Jeins Christ before or after the Sacramentall each one according to his devotion After Consession we are to communicate really or spiritually in forme of viaticum and to consider it as the last Communion of out life Vpon the day we perferme this exercise if we have convenienty we ought to heare Masse to the end that in his sacrifice which is a reall representation of that of the Crosse we may more neerely and particulary unite our selves to Jesus Christ dying offring as well this as all other sacrifices which shall be offred to the end of the world for obtayning the grace of a good and holy death It will be most profitable to fix one day in every month each one according to his leasure and devotion for this exercise and they who cannot performe it all at once may take the first point in the morning and the second at some other houre of the same day or make it in two dayes But in that case the acts of contrition saith hope and charity contayned in the first point must be repeted And besides that our Meditations and lectures of that day ought to be upon the subject of death We ought further to employ our selves more particularly in good workes and practises of mortification and vertue And it is to be noted that although there be many acts prescrib'd in this exercie neverthelesse it is not intended therby to oblidge any one precisely to those acts but only to facilitate the practise of them to such as have not yet attayned to a habit of such acts for the best are those which love produces At the end of this exercise are added the Recommandations of the foule in English for the consolation of such as for a boly prevention of their death having devotion to joyne them to this exercise may not peradventure understand them in latin And in this the termes which relate to an other must be changed and applyed to our selves as in steed of saying pray for him receive his sonic we must say pray for me recove my soule and so of the rest reserving the contlusion of this exercise till after the last prayer Now the principall fruits we ought to gather from this exercise as shall besaid in the following meditation are contempt of the world disesteeme of the creatures abnegation of our selves and amendment of our faults which are the true meanes to obtayne the grace of such a death as shall be the beginning of a happy life for ever Meditation to enter into the dispositions of making a good death Place your selfe in the presence of Gods beseech him to inspire you FOr a foundation of this Meditation we must well and throughly conceive and be fully satisfied of this truth that God hath given us our life only in trust from whence it followes that if we be not alwayes prepared and dispos'd to render it to him we deny him his right of Souverainety over our beeing It is ordayned that all Men shall dye once Heb. 9. and after death followes jndgment sayes the great Apostle Considering this truth that we can dye but once and that an ill death can never be repared in the whole extent of Eternity we see how necessary it is for prevention of a surprise to watch al wayes and to live like the servant mentioned in the Gospel Duke 12. who attends the comming of his Master The first point NOw since we must necessarily dye it highly concerns us throughly to comprchend this truth that death being most
the Altar Thou art my God and I will blesse thee thou art my God and I will exalt thee I will praise thee because thou hast heard me and art become my salvation O praise our Lord for he is good for his mercy endures for ever An abridgment of the Exercise of preparation to Death Which may be us'd every day MY hart is ready O God my hart is ready not my will but thyne be done O my Lord I resigne my selfe entirely to receive death at the tyme and in the manner it shall please thee to send it I most humbly aske pardon for all my sins com̄itted against thy soveraine goodnesse and repent me of them from the bottome of my hart 3. I firmely beleeve whatsoever the holy Catholique Church beleeves and teaches and by thy grace will dye in this beleife 4. I hope to possesse eternall life by thy infinite mercy and by the merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ 4. O my God I will love thee as my soveraigne good above all things yea even to a contempt of all things I will love my neighbour as my selfe and pardon him with all my hart 6. O my divine Jesus how ardent is my desire to receive thy sacred body and to the end to communicate spiritually I unite my selfe to all the communions which shall be made in thy holy Church even to the end of the world especially at the houre of my death 7 Grant me grace O my divine Saviour to expiate all the sins I have committed by my senses in applying to my selfe thy blessed merits the holy unction of thy precious bloud 8 Holy Virgin Mother of my God defend me from my enemies and present me to thy divine sonne 9. Glorious S. Michael my holy Angel gardian my B. Patrons interceede for me assist me in this my last dreadfull passage 10 O my God I renounce all temptations of the enemy and generally whatsoever may displease thee I adore and accept thy divine judgments upon my soule and most intirely abandon my selfe to them as most just and equitable O Jesus my divine Jesus be to me Jesus O my God hiding my selfe with an humble confidence in thy lovely wounds I render my soule into thy divine hands receive it into rhe bosome of thy mercy Amen An Appendix WHeras God almightie doth in some manner and by certaine conduits as it were descende to us so by prayer we ascend saith S. Franc. de Sales unto him prayer being properly according to S. Jo. Damascen an elevation of our minde unto God and therefore what ever it be that truly doth raise and devoutly stirr upp our harts to blesse to love and to adore Almighty God that properly is true gratefull and essentiall prayer be it but procured by a pure intention for the glory of God in whatever we doe whether by fervent ejaculations of divine love by pious considerations inducing us to the practise of vertu or to a vertuous preparation for a blessed death by holy maxims or finally by vocall prayor or mentall meditation so that we blesse and praise God in all that is the proper prayer which we are commanded to make continually and without intermission saith S. Paul which could not be performed in that crytick sense but must necessarily be understood of all the pious exercises mentioned in this Manuel conducing to raise our harts to the love and praise of God and therfore according to S. Jo Damascen they are true proper and essentiall prayer But because one may here justly demande how this true and holy prayer may best be knowne from that which is but false and counterfeit therfore I have judg'd it not unfitt to sett downe the proper markes and surest signes wherby rightly to understand and distinguish the one from the other which may serve as a true touchstone for the right tryall of true holy and profitable praye from what is but false and deceiptfull and it is principally intended for such as doe practise the more elevated prayer of meditation who if not rightly guided are more subject to illusion and deceipt then such as only use vocall prayer and the purgative way which the over speedy aspirers unto the unitive doe neglect before they have lay'd the first foundation to it in the purgative way by labouring to destroy and ruyne sin to roote out vice to correct evill habits or vnruly passions and disordered affectations the true and necessary preparation to that high prayer of holy contemplation wherby with a pure intention we must sincerely seeke the right end of true prayer without which it would be but vaine and fruitlesse Now the true and pure end of all good prayer is humbly therby to crave light from God to unsterstand his holy will and grace to performe the same with encreace in his love and advancement in vertu A touch-stone for right tryall of true and profitable prayer from what is but false and counterfait THe blessed Apostle counselleth us not to give credit to every spirit but to try if the spirit be of God often tymes the divel transformes himselfe into an Angel of light deceiving many and most dangerously of all under the pretence of sanctity be proposing to us his illusions for divine favours And therefore to prevent any danger to be deceived herein observe well these markes wherby to avoyde or to discouer them First be assured saith Molina as of a generall Rule that who will only give credit to himselfe in his spirituall affaires and will be governed by his owne judgment alone that man is utterly deceived and overthrowne be he never so seeming wise vertuous and accompagned which all the signes of goodnesse and sanctity because such a spirit not submitting his iudgment to any other man nor communicating with any for their advise may well be presumed naught and dangerous But some untimely contemplators will tell you that they have good and approved Authors for their practice I answere that the Authors which they pretend for themselves are pious and approved good but the practise which they frame thence according to their owne sense and private opinion is allowed by none of the approved and best spirituall directors of soules whose authority these over hasty contemplators ought farr to preferre before their owne For sectaries pretend many true texts of scripture for their false errours but they refusing the holy fathers and councells authority for the true understanding therof and takeing them obstinately according to their owne deceived sense and opinion they runn wilfully into errour and heresy to their endlesse perdition But they will reply to you that the effect of true prayer is to unite our soule to God wherby we are replenished with great consolation and comfort yea the very gust and tender consolation which God communicats to the vertuous thus devoutly serving him doth give both ioy and courage to love and serve him by this fervent kind of holy prayer For answere to this their reply it is to be here