certaine and the houre of it most uncertaine all Christian wisdome consists in a good and holy preparation for that moment to the end we neglect not a businesse which is in truth to us the businesse of businesses and the sole and only businesse we have to doe in this world since we are here only to save our soule and loosing it we loose all for what shall it prefit a Man to gaine the whole world Mar. 2. if he loose his owne soule sayes our souveraine Master Jesus Christ O God how great is the blindnesse of the most part of Men who never reflecting upon this so divine and important a truth lead only an earthly sensual and animal life and never elevating their spirit to heavenly things settle their affections so firmely upon this mortal life as to preferre it before that which is eternal Iohn 10. Whosoever loves his life saies our B. Lord shall loose it and whosoever hates it in this world shall gaine it in Eternity O my God we doe not then love our life as we ought when we adhere too close to it since this adherence to our temporal life proceeding from an inordinate love of our selves putts us in danger to loose that which is eternall Since also thou thy selfe asseurest us Luke 14 that whosoever comes to thee and hateth not his owne life can not be thy disciple Grant me such a holy hatred of this mortal life as may cause me continually to aspire and pretend to that which is eternal there to live with thee world without end 2. Point PRecious in the sight of our Lord is the death of his Saints saies the Psalmist Psal 15. If we will dye their life keeping alwayes our affections alienated from the creatures as if we were to dye every moment since there is no moment wherein we may not be surprised by death and wherein we ought not to be prepared to receive it if we will not hazard our salvation We ought to surmont the natural feare we have of it by faith and by a confidence we should have that Jesus Christ who keepes the keyes of life and death and who loves us infinitly more then we love our selves will send it us in such a tyme and manner as in his divine providence he has forseene to be most convenient for us Has he not created us for life eternal Doe we not beleeve that life to be more happy then this which is mortal if we live not in this beleefe we have no faith and consequently no hope since we cannot arrive at this happy life which he has promissed us but by the way of death But what charity can that interessed soule have who loves her owne life more then the will of God and whose feare of dying exceeds her desire of seeing and uniting herselfe to him Ioh. 4. Perfect charity sayes the holy Evangelist drives fourth feare And if we ought to testify our love to God by our hatred of sin where is the hatred we beare it since knowing that we cannot live without daily relapsing into it we have neverthelesse an extreame apprehension of death O if we truly lou'd God with what joy would we embrace death to the end we might be in a state never more to be able to offend his infinite goodnesse since the least sin as the Doctors say is more to be dreaded thendeath if selfe 3. Point IF God should leave the tyme houre and manner of our death to our choyse could we make a better then he himselfe who ordaynes it by his infinite wisedome power and goodnesse and who having made us for himselfe and redeemed us with his blood desires nothing so much as to save us and conduct us to our last end Since our faith teaches us this truth why doe we not entirely abandon the care of our life and death to him What can be more advantageous to us in Heaven in Earth in life and in death then to accomplish his most just and holy will And since we must necessarily undergoe the ordees of his divine will were it not better to doe it meritoriously by an humble submission and filial confidence in his divine goodnesse then to execute it by force like the divels and by our resistance to render this action more worthy of punishment then reward If the feare of our sins cause us to apprchand death and desire prolongation of life to the end to doe penance for them what penance can be more efficacious and acceptable to God then our perfect conformity to his holy will and our entyre submission to the sentence of our death to the end to render him the obedience due from a creature to its Creator and to testify to him that we preferre the honour of pleasing him before our owne life if the merit of our acts beare proportion with the difficulty we find in their execution what can be more difficult then to renounce our life and what better penance can we performe then to give it with a good hart to God since in makeing him this present we not only give him all we are able to give but also all which is most deare and precious to us no Man hath greater charity then he who layes downe his life sayes our divine Saviour and if a God would vouchsafe for us to dye so painfull and grievous a death and loose his life upon a crosse for our salvation shall we dare to refuse him ours shall we esteeme our life more precious or more necessary then his O my soule if we lou'd God ifwe had a true sense and acknowledgment of this soveraine benefit would we not desire to have a thousand lives to give him O my God since I am nothing but by thee I will be nothing but for thee and so as I be what thou desirest I should be it imports me very little whither I live or dye Affections and Resolutions SInce that upon the moment of my death depends my eternall salvation grant me grace O my God to keepe my selfe prepared for this last houre by a true hatred of sin by a perfect contempt of the world with its vaine honours pleasures and riches and by a perfect abnegation of my selfe suffer me not to sleepe in the forgetfulnesse of death least the lampe of chrity being extinguisht and the oyle of good workes spent thou surprise me in this state and pronounce against me as heretofore against those foolish Virgins that dreadfull word I know you not but keeping my selfe alwayes in expection of thy com̄ing grant that I may merit to enter with thee to that eternall marriage where neyther eye has seene nor care hath heard nor the hart of Man comprehended what thou hast prepared for those who love thee Give me O Lord the light of thy holy spirit to the end I suffer not my selfe to be deceived and seduced by my senses in mistaking falshood for truth nor esteeme the things of this mortall life good or evill but
passions and therfore we must not rest only in our prayer as in the end of our work for perfection consists not in much consolation or sweetnesse or sensible gust in our prayer but in that perfect victory over our selfe over our passions and unruly affections as is said nor in the sublimest prayer but in that which with a pure intention doth syncerely seeke the encreace in Gods divine love our owne aduanement in vertu with true resignation to the wil of God and a perfect contempt and abnegation of our selves renouncing all curiosity of Spirit and self satisfaction by it for otherwise we seeke not God so much as our selves and our owne interest and therfore no marvaile if we doe not finde him The certaine markes and most evident signes of false and meere counterfeit prayer THe first marke If our manners and conversation be nothing amended 2. If there be great levity and vanity in our actions 3. If great remisnesse in obligations of piety 4. If our care and diligence be small to avoyde evill occasions and the causes of our most habituall sin 5. If we presume to be now arrived to a high degree of prayer or aspire to visions revelations or extaces c. Or to the like favours in the passive way 6. If passions beare sway in vs. 7. If mortification seeme harsh and vnpleasant 8. If our senses be petulant and wanton 9. If to temptations we make but a weake and carelesse resistance 10. If labour and employment be ircksome to vs. 11. If the yoake of Gods law seemes heavy and his counsels unsupportable 12. If we finde our selves lasie and listlesse to all spirituall affaires 13. If worldly puntillios of honour and temporall respects goe nearest to our hart and affection 14. If holy Crosses patience and obedience seeme bitter and unpleasing 15. If we neglect and misregard or not respect nor esteeme the advise of our superiour and ghostly Fathers 16. If finally we carry our selves carelesly and negligently in the amendment and correction of such faults as apparently are knowne to us for such These are all evident markes and most assured signes of evill counterfeit and false devotion and naughty prayer which we ought with all speed and industry resolutely to amende and change The Litany of our Lord and divine Saviour Iesus LOrd have merecy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Jesus heare us Lord Jesus graciously heare us God the Father of Heaven Have mercy upon us God the sonne Redemer of the world Have mercy c. God the holy ghost proceeding from the Father and the sonne Have Holy and glorious Trinity three persons and one God Have mercy Jesus sonne of the living God have Jesus splendor of the Father Jesus brightnesse of Eternal light Jesus king of glory Have mercy Jesus the sunne of justice Jesus sonne of the Virgin Mary Jesus whose name is called wonderfull Have mercy upon us Jesus the mighty God Jesus the Father of the world to come Have mercy upon us Jesus the Angel of the great counsel Jesus most powerfull Jesus most patient Jesus most obdient Have mercy Jesus milde and humble of hart Jesus lover of chastity Jesus our Love Jesus the God of peace Jesus the Author of life Jesus the example of vertues Jesus the zealous seeker of soules Jesus our God Have mercy upon us Jesus our Refuge Jesus the Father of the poore Jesus the Treasore of the faithfull Jesus the good shiphard Jesus the true light Jesus the Eternall wisdome Jesus all-infinite goodnesse Jesus the way the truth and the life Jesus the ioy of Angels Have c. Jesus Maister of the Apostles Jesus the teacher of the Evangelists Jesus the strength of Martyrs Jesus the light of Confessors Jesus the purity of Virgins Jesus the Crowne of all Saints Have mercy upon us Be propitious unto us Speare us Lord Jesu Be propitious unto us Spare c From all sinne Lord Jesu deliver us From thy anger From the deceipts and snaires of the Divel From the spirit of fornication From perpetuall death From all neglect of thy holy inspirations Lord Jesus deliver us By the mystery of thy most holy incarnation By thy Nativity Lord Jes deliv us By thy Infancy By thy divine life By thy labours and trauells By thy Agony and Passion By thy Crosse and dereliction By thy unspeackable paines and languishings Lord Jesus c. By thy death and buriall By thy glorious Resurrection By thy Assention into Heaven By thy incomparable joyes By thy Eternall glory Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Spare us Lord Jesu Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world Haue mercy c. Jesu heare us Lord Jesu graciously heare us Let us pray O Lord Jesus Christ who hast said unto us aske and you shall receive seeke and you shall find knock and it shall be opned unto you grant we beseech thee upon this our most humble petition the effect of thy divine love that we may love thee with our whole hart and never cease from thy praises nor from glorifying thy holy name O most loving and our divine Redeemer Jesus worke in us the perpetuall love to geather with the feare of thy sacred Humanity which thou hast annointed and sanctifi'd by the vnion of thy Deity that we may be evermore subiect and obedient to thee since thou doest never leave those destitute of thy grace whom thou hast establisht in the solidity of thy love who with the Father and the Holy ghost liveth and rayneth God world without end Amen The Litany of our B. Lady of Loretto LOrd have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Christ heare us Christ graciously heare us God the Father of Heaven Have mercy upon us God the sonne Redeemer of the world Haue mercy upon us God the Holy ghost Holy Trinity one God Have mercy upon us Holy Mary Pray for us Holy Mother of God Holy Virgin of Virgins Mother of Christ Mother of Divine grace Most pure Mother Most chast Mother Undefiled Mother Untouched Mother Lovely Mother Pray Glorious Mother Mother of our Creatour Mother of our Saviour Most prudent Virgin Venerable Virgin Renowned Virgin Powerfull Virgin Mild and meeke Virgin Faithfull Virgin Pray Myrrour of Justice Seate of Wisdome Cause of our joy Spirituall vessel Honorable Vessel Vessel of devotion Pray Mysticall Rose Strong Tower of David Solid Tower of ivory Goulden habitation Arke of Covenant Gate of Heaven Morning starr Pray Health of the sick Refuge of Sinners Confortresse of the afflicted The Helpe of Christians Queene of Angels Queene of Patriarkes Queene of Prophets Queene of Apostles Queene of Martyrs pray Queene of Confessors Queene of Virgins Queene of all Saints Lambe of God who taketh away the sins of the world Spare us o Lord. Lambe of God who taketh away the sins of the world Heare us o
our forefathers to Abraham and his seede for ever Glory be to the Father c. The himne of S. Ambrose and S. Augustin in praise and thankes giving to God at his Conversion WE praise thee God we confesse thee our Lord. Thee the everlasting Father all the earth doth worship To thee all Angels to thee the Heavens and universall powers To thee Cherubin and Seraphin doe cry out with incessant voyce Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Full are the Heavens and the Earth of the Majesty of thy glory Thee the glorious Quire of the Apostles Thee the laudable number of Prophets Thee the white cloathed army of Martyrs doth praise Thee the holy Church throughout the world doth confesse The Father of infinit Majesty The venerable true and only sonne Also the Holy Ghost the comforter Thou O Christ the King of Glory Thou art the everlasting sonne of the Father Thou willing to take upon thee to deliver Man didst nor abhorre the Virgins wombe The sting of death being overcome thou hast opened the kingdome of Heaven to all beleevers Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father Thou art beleeved to be the judge that shall come We therfore beseech thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood Make us to be rewarded with thy Saints with eternall glory O Lord make safe thy people and blesse thy inheritage And governe them and extoll them even for ever Every day we doe blesse thee And we praise thy name for ever and for ever and ever Vouchsafe o Lord this day to keepe us without sin Have mercy upon us o Lord have mercy upon us Let thy mercy o Lord be upon us even as we have hoped in thee In thee o Lord have I hoped let me not be confounded for ever Psalme 148. wherein all creatures spirituall and corporall are invited to praise God their Creator and conserver PRaise yee our Lord from the Heavens praise yee him in the high places Praise yee him all his Angels praise yee him all his Hostes Praise yee him sunne and moone praise yee him all yee starres and light Praise him yee heavens of heavens and the waters that are above the heavens let them praise the name of our Lord. Because he said and they were made he commanded and they were created He establisht them for ever and for ever and ever he put the precept and it shall not passe Praise yee our Lord from the earth yee dragons and all the depthes Fyre haile snow ice spirit of stormes which doe his word Mountaines and all little hilles trees that beare fruit and all Ceders Beastes and all cattle serpents and fethered foules Kinges of the earth and people Princes and all judges of the earth Young Men and Virgins old with young let them praise the name of our Lord because his name alone is exalted The confession of him above heaven and earth and he hath exalted the horne of his people An himne to all his Saints to the children of Israel people approaching unto him Alleluya praise yee our Lord. A MEDITATION of thankes giving after the holy Communion What shall I render to our Lord for all things that he hath rendred to me Psal 15.3 IT may well be accompted an exorbitant neglect and sacrilegious irreverence having been visited by so souveraine a Majesty to use so small respect in leaving him so immediatly after his vouchsafing to visit us by turning to entertayne our selves with frivolous thoughts and needlesse businesses more slighting this our heavenly Guest therby then we would an ordinary friend whom civility would oblidge us to give much longer and more respectfull entertainement This is the cause that we reape so little spirituall profit by that divine presence And moreover it cannot chuse but give much scandall to the people to see the Communicant leave the Church almost so soone as he doth the Altar Scarce giving any sitt leasure or decency for his acknowledgment of thankes and leaving therby an ill example to others to doe the like and to conceive lesse esteeme of that divine and holy mystery A practise for this thankes giving may be after the usuall prayers of the Church for that purpose to produce some acts of severall vertues as of faith of hope of charity humility confusion adoration conformity patience and the like Others consider Gods divine attributes as his goodnesse his justice his wisdome his power his immensity his sanctity and the like and this with comparison to our contrary defects in all Let us finally conclude with humble thankes for all his benefits craving humbly his grace for the chiefe necessities of our soules and finally to consecrate to him all our actions and sufferings beseeching him that we may sooner be struck dead then to give a deliberate consent to any mortall sin This is a true Christian and profitable practise for thankes giving either after Masse or communion to preserve our soules and bodies also true to God all the day after he having vouchsafed to take possession of his habitation therein And when negligent in this holy practise they must not marvaile that after so many holy Communions they remaine with out fruit and all progresse in vertue they neither aporoaching with fitt disposition nor yet using due thanksgiving afterwards Let us therfore resolue seriously to amende this sinfull ingratitude and to entertaine our divine and souveraine Lord one good quarter of an houre at least in that so precious and very advantageous a tyme wherin to heare him speake to our harts and for us to propose to him our greatest spirituall necessities and to beg grace to overcome the temptations of all our ghostly enemies An exercise for practising the Acts of the most necessary vertues ALthough it be the holy Ghost which tells us that by walking from vertue to vertue we must obtayne everlasting life and that so many virtuous actions as the just shall practise in this life are so many stepps by which they raise themselves to mount unto Paradise yet how great is the number of Christians who faile exceedingly in this point and paradventure in all their life scarce rightly frame in their harts one act of true vertue contenting themselves to recite but vocally some certaine prayers with otheroutward religious duties which are ordinarily voyde of that inward feeling which ought to accompany the same And therfore you have here a forme for makeing Acts of the most necessary vertues to assist such persons as have most need of this instruction to forme them rightly in their harts they beinge made for the greater facility in the forme of prayer Which because in few words they expresse the acts of those excellent vertues it will not be sufficient that they only recite them with their lipps unlesse therwithall they joyne a diligent attention and that in pronouncing the words they also well conceive what they signify framing in their harts the true sense and feeling of what
dissimulation that I may cast downe and tread under my feet the Spirit of gluttony and lechery the spirit of slouth and dulnesse the spirit of malice and enuy the spirit of hatred and disdayne that I may never dispise nor contemne any of thy creatures nor preferre my selfe before others but ever little in my owne eyes think the best of others and deeme and judge the worst of my selfe Invest me holy Father with the wedding garment of thy beloved sonne the supernaturall vertue of heavenly charity that I may love thee my Lord God with all my hart with all my soule and with all my strength that neither life nor death prosperity nor adversity nor any thing else may separate me from thy love Grant that all inordinate affection to the transitory things of this world may daily decay and dye in me that thou alone maist be tastfull pleasant and savoury to my soule O most gracious God give unto thy servant an humble contrite and obedient hart and understanding alwayes occupied in honest vertuous cogitations a will tractable and ever prone to the better affections alwayes calme and moderate a watchfull custody of my senses that by those windowes no sin may enter into my soule a perfect government of my tongue that no corrupt or unseemely language may proceed from my lipps that I may not busy my selfe in the faults and imperfections of others but rather attend to the amending of my owne And finally so long as I am detayned in this prison of my body and exiled from my heavenly country let this be my portion and the comfort of my banishement that free from all immoderate wordly cares and pensive sollicitude of this present life wholy devoted to thy service I may attend only to thee I may cleave unto thee I may rest my soule in thee and sitting in silence I may give way and entertainement to thy heavenly doctrine to the good motions and inspirations of thy holy spirit In these sweet exercicises let me passe the solitary houres of my teadious pilgrimage with patience expecting the shutting up of my dayes and a happy end of this my miserable life And grant O thou lover of mankind my lord and my God that when this my carthly tabernacle shall be dissolved being found free from all pollution of sin as after baptisme I may be numbered amongst those blessed soules who through the merits and passion of thy deare sonne are held worthey to raigne with thee and to enjoy the glorious presence of the blessed Trinity Father Sonne and holy Ghost to whome by all creatures in Heaven and Earth be rendred praise and thankes-giving world without end Amen A prayer to the blessed Virgin as also to the holy Saints and Angels O Blessed Virgin mother of my divine Redeemer have pitty on me a most wretched sinner I devoutly salute and honour thee O glorious Queene of heaven and powerfull advocate of all distressed soules obtayne for me I beseech thee of thy deare sonne Jesus the remission of all my great offences obtayne for me perfect charity and profound humility true mortificatiō and forsaking of my selfe obtayne for me constant patience refrayning and temperance of my tongue and senses obtayne for me purity simplicity and sincerity of mind and that I may be one according to the harts desire of thy divine sonne my loving Saviour All haile O immaculate Virgin of whom Christ Jesus the brightnesse of his Fathers glory would be borne and whome with thy precious milke thou didst feed and nourish O blessed mother of true compassion assist my weakenesse in all my temptations and necessities in all my perils of sin and in the houre of my death that by thy powerfull intercession I may be protected against the dangerous assaults of my ghostly enemies and obtayne the needfull help to dye in the happy perseverance of Gods holy grace O ye Angelical blessed spirits pray for me and thou especially my holy Angel the faithfull keeper of my soule and body have thou faithfull care over me O all ye holy faints of God who have passed over the troubles and vexations of this exile and attayned most happily the secure resting port of your celestial beatitude I most humbly crave your protection help me with your powerfull intercession both now and in the houre of my death Amen An other prayer to the B. Virgin REmember O most pious Virgin Marie Mother of all consolation never yet was it kowne that any who in tribulation made their recourse for succour by the happy assistance of thy gratefull prayers and powerfull credit with thy deare sonne Jesus was ever refused or forsaken by thee Wherefore in this assured and humble confidence I a most sinfull soule make my recourse unto thee O mother of true pitty with sighs and repentant teares from a devoted hart I doe earnestly cry and humbly crave thy help Refuse not therfore with wonted compassion to behould my weeping hart and to give eare to my instant cry that by thy celestial favour I may be forgiven by thy divine sonne Jesus my mercifull and only Redeemer Amen An other prayer to the same O Glorious and incomparable Virgin most truly mother of God and Queene both of heaven and Earth although thy glory exceeds without comparison what honour soever we are able to render thee yet that excellency which most excells in thee consists in true conformity unto the will of God who is thy Father thy spouse and thy only dearest sonne from whence it proceeds that nothing is refused thee for thou demandest nothing but what is pleasing unto him whom nothing can resist Be pleased therfore O Mother of pitty and after God my only hope to make powerfull intercession for me for my friends kindred benefactors and enemies and for all sinners whatsoever to the end that we may behould thee in that celestiall habitation there with thee to praise and glorify the most sacred Trinity for all Eternity Amen An other prayer to the same O Glorious Virgin Mother of God most pleasing temple of the Divinity the sacred vestry wherin the second person of the blessed Trinity was invested by the holy Ghost with our humanity the gate of Heaven and my second hope I beseech thee O glorious Virgin that in thankes-giving for the love which God hath sheud to thee as to his Mother daughter and beloved spouse thou wilst vouchsafe to take me this day and for the whole course of my life into thy singular protection procure that my actions words and intentions be alwayes pleasing to thy divine sonne Jesus that I may live to him and dye for him Amen A prayer to the Holy Ghost O holy Ghost our heavenly comforter we humbly beseech thee by that straite union or much rather unity which is betwixt thee and the two other divine persons unite so happily by thy celestial help my will in all things most perfectly unto thine that by this happy subordination I may obtayne that blessed end for
passion of our divine Redeemer Jesus and by the merits and intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary and of all the blessed Saints and Angels Amen A prayer to demand heavenly vertues and good life GRant vnto me O mercifull God ardently to desire such things as are pleasing unto thee prudently to accomplish them to the praise and glory of thy namne Grant me O Lord my God that I taâ—le not betwixt prosperity and adversity that in the former I be not too much puffed up nor in the latter too much dejected that I may joy or sorrow at nothing but at what leadeth unto thee or draweth away from thee that I covet to please none nor feare to displease any but only thee Let all transitory things O Lord become vile unto me and let all that is pleasing to thee be for thy sake most deare into me Let that joy be but teadious to me which is without thee and let me desire nothing out of thee Let that labour delight me O Lord which is for thee and let all ease be unpleasing to me which is without thee Make me O Lord obedient without contradiction poore without murmuring chast without corruption patient without repining humble without basenesse merry without dissolution sad without dejection quick without levity fearefull without despaire true without presumption to correct with discretion to edify without dissimulation Grant me O Lord my God an understanding knowing thee a diligence seeking thee a wisdome that may finde thee out a conversation pleasing to thee a perseverance faithfully expecting thee and a confidence finally embracing thee to be pearced with thy paines through penance to make use of thy benefits to thy glory and my owne souls good and at length by thy grace to enjoy thy glory there to praise and magnify thee for ever and ever Amen A prayer of praise of thankesgiving and of magnifying God ALmighty and most mercifull Father unto thee all the heavenly company of the celestial citty doe incessanty with due reverence sing continually glory and everlasting praise Thee O Lord al Saints and holy soules doe laud and magnify with condigne honour and as to whom all praise and glory is most due nor is there any creature that can sufficiently according to thy worthlinesse give sufficient praise to thee For thou art that unspeakable incomprehensible and everlasting goodnesse Thou O Lord hast made me and by the merits of the bitter passion of thy most blessed sonne which he vouchsafed to suffer for mans salvation restored me to grace and favour To thee only is due all laud and honour O souveraine Lord I miserable wretch a creature of thy making a silly worme of the earth have a good will to praise and magnify thee with all my hart and soule but without thy speciall grace I am but faint and wonderfull weak Wherfore I come to thee my God my life my strength my hope and only comfort to crave thy mercy and grace to give me power to praise and honour thee and that all I doe may be pleasing and acceptable unto thee Grant me the light of thy grace that my mouth may speake and my hart studie thy glory and my tongue may only be employd in the song of land and praise to thee But because all praise in a sinners mouth is base and vile and that I manifouldly have offended with my lips thou therfore cleanse ô divine Jesu my hart from the foule silth of sin sanctify me most powerfull Lord and Saviour and make me worthy to magnify thee Let thy divine sweetnesse wholy possesse my mind and feed my soule with the delight of relestiall cogitations Separate it O Lord from the love of all visible things and incline it to the studie and meditation of invisible O Almighty God inspire thou my hart that I may continually give thankes and honour unto thee Grant me grace that in this pilgrimage and vale of misery I may so praise thee that through thy grace and mercy I may be associated to their blessed Fellowship who see thee everlastingly and singe praises to thee world without end Amen A prayer of thankes-giving and of craving divine favour O Most mercifull Lord Jesus in remembrance of thy blessed Jncarnation death passion wounds sorrowes griefes teares and drops of thy most precious blood and in remembrance of thy infinit love to Man and in the union of that oblation and holy sacrifice by which thou didst offer thy selfe on the Altar of the Crosse I doe offer my selfe to thy praise and glory humbly beseeching thee to give to the living grace to the deceased mercy and rest and to us all the true spirit of repentance and life everlasting And I commend unto thee O Lord my souleand body most humbly beseeching thee to have mercy on me and upon all those for whom either by nature friendship or by gratitude I am bound to pray and in particular for N. N. c. I most humbly render to thee due thankes O my Lord God and mercifull Father for that thou didst vouchsafe to send thy only deare soune Jesus into this world to dye for Man the reproachfull death of the Crosse to the end that he might offer himselfe to thee a most pure holy and acceptable sacrifice of our sins and purge therby our conscience fro all its foule staynes of impiety By this thy excessive and infinit love and by those most cruell torments of thy owne sonne our Saviour we most humbly beseech thee to preserve in us continually those divine fruits of our Redemption and make us also daily to die with him to the world and to be crucifid to the lusts and desires of the flesh and to live to thee only all our life so that finally we may raigne with him eternally where thou with the Holy Gost livest one true and eternal God for ever and ever Amen A prayer to all the Saints ALI haile yee holy and most glorious Saints of God who now have past the dangerous sea of this mortality and have attaind to the secure haven of everlasting rest and security and deserved to be made now fellowes and partakers of the heavenly joyes being now without care for your selves be yee carefull for us Whouchsafe to be our advocats and governours Pray unto God for us that by your intercession and merits we may in this life obtayne grace and at the houre of death our soules departing in the happy state of grace may arrive at the safe port of eternall glory where you with the glorious Trinity doe raigne world without end Amen A prayer to all the Angels Al haile yee blessed Angelical spirits who with celestial melody doe praise and glorify our omnipotent Lord and in his glorious presence doe continually rejoyce have compassion on me a poore wretch And tho especially O holy Angel the keeper and guardien of my soule and body unto whom by Gods special commandement I am committed I beseech thee to discharge that office towards me with
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
to this end hast thou impos'd upon him the most holy name of Jesus O divine Jesus be to me Jesus Remember what thou hast said that thou camest not for the just but for sinners O my God thou desirest not the death of a sinner but that he should be converted and live Convert me then to thee that I may live eternally Come O divine Spirit repose in my soule with thy seaven guifts to the end to purify quicken and sanctify her Consume with the fire of thy holy love all earthly inclinations yet remayning in her and strengthen her in the last passage against all the temptations of her enemies An act of Faith I Protest O my God before Heaven and Earth that I will dye in the faith and union of the holy Catholique Apostolique and Roman Church I firmely beleeve what shee beleeves and teaches because thou O God who art the eternall truth hast said and revealed it Thou art that infinit goodnesse and sanctity which cannot deceive that infinit wisedome which cannot erre From hencefourth I renounce all temptations which the enemy may suggest to me in the last moments of my life contrary to this my protestation and I render thee thankes from the bottome of my hart for the immense favour thou hast done me in placing me amongst the children of thy holy Church Recite here the Apostles Creed and make reflection upon every Article of it protest to beleeve them all An act of Hope O My God although for the multitude and enormity of my sins I most justly deserve Hel neverthelesse confiding entirely in the merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ and in the greatnesse of thy mercy which can pardon more then I can effend I will hope for remission of all my transgressions and grace to persevere in thy holy love to which I especially consecrate the last moment of my life An act of Charity O My God when shall the tyme come that my soule being separated from this mortal body and from all Creatures it shall be perfectly united to thee to live thee with that pure and invariable love wherwith the Saints in Heaven love the What doe I desire in Heaven or in Earth besids thee the God of my hart my God and my eternal portion I esseeme al things as dung and silthynesse to gayne Jesus Christ An act of Charity towards our neighbour O My Lord I begg grace and salvation for all the Creatures whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood especially for the children of thy holy Church and more particularly for those who have any way offended me I pardon them O my God from the bottome of my hart as I desire thou shouldst pardon me Desire to receive Iesus Christ O My God my Creator and my Redeemer my beginning and my end my only satiety and Beatitude I ardently desire to receive thee to the end to unite my selfe to thee Come then into my soule sanctify and replenish all her faculties come into my body and purify all its senses come into my hart and possesse all its affections to the end that every moment in the remainder of my life my be entirely consecrated to thy love A spirituall Communion by way of Viaticum I Et us heare our good Angel who invites us to eate of this bread of life and who speakes to us as heretofore to the Prophet Elias rise and eate for thou hast yet a great way to goe We may represent to our selves Jesus Christ accompanied by the B. Virgin our good Angel and holy Patrons entring into our Chamber to the end to administer to us with his owne divine hands his most sacred body as he did heretofore to his Apostles in the last supper and saying to us take and eate this is my body which shal be delivered to death to the end to give thee life Having adored him with all our hart we may say to him these words O my God since thou hast said that he who eates thee shall live eternally grant me this grace that by receiving thy holy body I may never more live but in thee by thee and for thee and that when I shal leave this mortall life I may by the force and vertue of this divine bread attaine to an union and sight of thy divine Majesty in Heaven O whence comes this happinesse to me that my God should vouchsafe to visit me O Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come unto my soule but say onely the word and it shall be heald Having receivd him we must discourse lovingly with him calling before him all our senses and faculties to the end to sweare fidelity to him let us renew all our vowes and promisses to him and conjure him never to forsake us saying with the Disciples who were going to Emaus stay with us O Lord for it is late the evening of my life is come And with S. Simeon O Lord let now my soule depart in peace since shee hath seene thy salvation And with David ALthough I walke in the midst of the shadow of death I will feare no evill because thou art with me O God put thy selfe as a divine seale upon my hart to the end that no earthly thing may find entrance there Let us unit our Communion to that which our divine Saviour made before his death and to all other which the B. Virgin and all the Saintes have made to all those also which shall be made even to the end of the world therby to supply the defects we have committed in receiving this divine Sacrament Let us render thankes as well for the grace of the Communion as for all others which he has so liberally bestow'd upon us inviting all creaturs to blesse praise and magnify him with us by the psalme Laudate Dominum omnes gerues or the Canticle Benedicite omnia apera c. 2. Point Spirituall Extreame unction WE may represent to our sselves Jesus Christ emering into our Chamber accompanied as before in the article of Communion bringing with him the holy only compos'd of his precious blood to the end to apply to us these sacred unctions with his owne divine hands and in receiving them we may make these acts of Contrition for our sins committed by each of our senses At the unction of the eyes O Jesus my Saviour and my God I most humbly begg pardon for all my sins committed by so many inordinate lookes and teares unprofitably shed for the effacing of which vouchsafe to apply to me the merit of those amorous lookes which from the Crosse thou wert pleased to cast upon those who crucisi'd thee and of the teares thou hast shed for my salvation Of the Eares PArdon me also the sins I have committed in hearing with pleasure so many evill discourses and in satisfaction for them vouchsafe to apply to me the merit of that patience and humility wherewith thou wert pleased to heare all their blasphemies iniuries and calumnies which have been uttered against thee
each of them pronounce the holy names of Jesus and Marie and then having repeted these last words of our Saviour Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit We may expire in the sacred wound of the side of sweet Jesus and chusing that for our toumbe we may hide our selves in his divine hart Then after a little recollection we may say the prayers which are to be rehears'd after death Subvenite SUecour spedily o yee Saintes of God c. The rest of these prayers are plac'd at the end of the Recommendations of the soule After this exercise we ought to consider our selves as dead to the world and our selves In consequence wherof we ought often to say with S. Paul I live new no more J but Iesus Christ lives in me my life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God The recommendation of the soule which ought to begin with the little Litanies and the following prayers are to be said during the agony LOrd have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Holy Marie pray for him All yee holy Angels and Archangels pray for Holy Abel pray for All yee quires of the just pray ye Holy Abraham S. John Baptist S. Peter S. Paul pray S. Andrew S. John Al yee holy Apostles and Evangelists Al yee holy Disciples of our Lord. Al yee holy Innocents S. Steven S. Laurence pray Al yee holy Martyrs pray ye S. Silvester S. Gregory pray S. Augustin Al yee holy Bishops and Confessors pray ye S. Benet S. Francis pray All yee holy Monkes and Heremits pray ye S. Mary Magdalen S Lucy pray All yee holy Virgins and Widowes pray ye All ye Saintes of God Intercede for us O Lord be favorable to him and pardon him his sins O Lord be gracious to him and deliver him From thy wrath O Lord deliver him From the danger of death O Lord deliver him From the paines of Hel. O Lord deliver him From the power of the devil O Lord deliver him By thy holy Nativity O Lord deliver him By thy Crosse and Passion O Lord deliver him By thy death and burial O Lord deliver him By thy glorious Resurrection O Lord deliver him By thy admirable Ascention O Lord deliver him By the grace of the holy Ghost our souveraine Comforter O Lord deliver him In the day of judgment O Lord deliver him O Lord we miscrable sinners pray thee to heare us That thou maist spare him O Lord heare us Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us The Prayers Proficiscere anima Christiana GOe fourth of this world O Christian soule in the name of the Father almighty who created thee in the name of his son̄e Jesus Ch. who redeemed thee in the name of the holy Ghost who infus'd himselfe into thee in the name of the holy Angels and Archangels in the names of the Thrones and Dominations in the names of the Principalites and Powers in the name of the Cherubins and Seraphins in the name of the Patriarches and Prophets in the name of the holy Apostles and Evangelists in the name of the holy Martyrs and Confessors in the name of the holy Monkes and Herimits in the name of the holy Virgins and of all Gods Saintes let thy dwelling be this day in peace and thy habitation in holy Syon by the Merits of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Deus misericors Deus clemens O God of mercy and clemency who according to the multitude of thy mercies forgettest the sins of such as are penitent and by pardon abolishest the guilt of their past crymes looke graciously upon thy servant N. who with a sincere confession of his hart implores remission of all his sins and mercifully heare him Repaire in him o most indulgent Fasher whatsoever is corrupted by earthly fraitly or ruind by the malice of the devil and unite this member of thy Redemption to the body of thy Church Let his sighes O Lord moove thee to pitty let his teares excite thee to compassion and receive him into the favour of thy reconciliation who confides in nothing but thy pure mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Commendo te I Commend thee deare brother to God almighty and remitt thee into the hands of him whose creature thou art to the end that when by death thou shalt have payd the debt of humane nature thou maist returne to thy Creator who form'd thee of the slyme of the earth Let the splendid quires of Angels come fourth to receive thee let the maiestical senat of the Apostles meete thee let the tryumphant Host of Martyrs accompany thee Let the glorious assembly of bright Confessors encompasse thee let the shining troupe of reioycing Virgins congratulate thee Let the embraces of a happy repose transport thee into the bosome of the Patriaches let the mild and gracious countenance of sweet Jesus appeare to thee and ordayne thee place amongst those who never cease to serve him Maist thou never know the horror of Hell the tortures of its flames nor the cruelty of its eternal torments let not wicked Sathan with his hydeous band presume to touch thee let him tremble to see thee arrive in company of the Blessed Angels and let him fly into the dreadfull confusion of eternall darknesse let God arise and let his enemies be scattered let those who hate him fly before him let them vanish like smoake and as wax melts before the fire so let sinners perish before the face of God and let the iust feast and reioyce in his sight let then all the infernall legions blush and be confounded and let not the ministers of Sathan dare to hinder thy passage let Christ who was orncifi'd for thee deliver thee from torments let Christ who vouchsafed to dye for thee save thee from eternal death let Christ the sonne of the living God place thee in the florishing pleasures of his paradise and let that true Pastor acknowledge thee for one of his flock and having absolud thee from all thy sins let him fett the at his right hand amongst his elect Maist thou see thy Redeemer face to face and being alwayes present before him lett thy happy eyes behold the manifest truth and having finally received thy place amongst the troupes of the blessed spirits mayst thou enjoy the sweetnesse of divine contemplation world without end Amen Suscipe Domine O Lord receive thy servant into that happy place where he hopes for salvation from thy mercy Amen O Lord deliver the soule of thy servant from all the dangers of Hell from the snares of torments and all paines and sufferings Amen O Lord deliver the soule of thy servant as thou hast delivered Enoch and Elias from the ordinary death of Men Amen O Lord deliver the soule of thy servant as thou hast delivered Noe from the floud Amen O Lord deliver the soule of thy servant as thou hast delivered Abraham from the Chaldeans Amen O Lord deliver the soule of