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ground_n	earth_n	great_a	water_n	1,720	5	6.0907	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B04460	[The] manner of performing the Novena, or, The nine days devotion to St. Francis Xaverius: of the Society of Jesus, and apostle of India. As also the devotion of the ten Fridays to the same saint.	Brown, Levinius, 1671-1764.; Scarisbrike, Edward, 1639-1709.	1690 (1690)	Wing M459B; ESTC R229394	36,323	117

all Creatures HEre are Devout Reader two Considerations the first to be imitated the second to be admired yet both very profitable for you for whether you imitate or admire Saint Xaverius you may assure your self of his Protection and Intercession The first is his Love of God the second his Power over all Creatures As for the first what do you think Devout Client of St. Francis of the Love he bore to God His whole Life is a sufficient Proof thereof according to that great Saying Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis Deeds are the Marks of Love But yet to give you some more particular Signs thereof here are some few Reflections no less true than wonderful This Love of God did so enflame his Heart and set it all on fire that he was not able to suffer it's insupportable Heat nor scarce endure his Cloaths Once as he was walking in the Streets of Goa he was so totally absorped with the Love of God that he took no notice of an Elephant that broke loose and threatned Death to all it met but yet afterwards to the great Wonder of all it retired The like happened to him going from Amangucci to Meaco when he run like a Servant behind a Noblemans Horse never feeling the Thorns that continually tore his Feet so much was his Mind absorpt in the Abyss of the Love of God Every where he was out of himself and totally in God But above all in Prayer Mass and Thanksgiving after the Divine Sacrifice His Soul betrayed it self so clearly in his very Countenance that the Pope said of him that he was Vultu adco inflammatus ut Angelicam prorsus Charitatem repraesentaret Seeming rather a burning Seraphim and a blessed Spirit upon Earth than a Man What say you pious Reader you do wonder and admire him and I am comforted thereat because hereby you may frame some Conceit of the great Love St. Xaverius bore to God But why do not you endeavour also to love the same God For he is the same he was then ever deserving to be beloved above all things Created and should you not love him you would always prove the most miserable Creature in the World for not placing your Affection upon a God that is so worthy of Love seeing to Love him is the sole happiness of Man As for the second Point proposed in the beginning God even in this Life seemed to reward his Saint with an universal Power and Dominion over all Creatures The Heaven saw the Day encreased three Hours by the Prayers of this second Josue that the Christians might give a total Overthrow to the Infidels The Earth rent it self with most horrid Earthquakes to frighten the Citizens of Tolo to the Christian Faith which they had so shamefully forsaken the Air bore him up from the Ground several times both by Night and Day The Fire raging and threatning several Houses obey'd his Command and offered not to pass the Limits prescrib'd by St. Xaverius But the Water seem'd to acknowledge most of all his Power He was an Anchor to Ships in the greatest Storms a favourable Gale to carry them thro' the most dangerous Shallows and Sands of the Seas a Calm allaying Tempests and a Haven for those that suffered Shipwrack The very Idolaters called him the God of the Sea and spared no charge for themselves and their Goods to sail in the Ship Saint Xaverius went in In the Indies he often changed Salt Water into Fresh and once by only dipping his Foot into the Sea He allayed tempests sometimes by Prayer other times with Relicks he wore or with the Sign of the Cross and once by letting his Cross into the Water which God to double the Wonder permitted a Wave to snatch away and so bereft him of his o●●● Comfort when behold soon after a Lobster with open Claws above Water brought it to St. Francis again It is impossible to specifie every particular Miracle wrought in this kind by St. Francis let these few in short suffice to convince you that in this Glorious Saint you have a Patron ready to command all Creatures for your Good so that in all Occasions and Necessities you may have recourse to him with Confidence and hope in his most powerful Intercession and Assistance The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To obtain the Holy love of God WHat did you aim at throughout the whole course of your life O Holy Apostle but to bring all the World to the love of God And now will you not O great lover of God! obtain for me a poor helpless creature an ardent desire of loving him above all things Ah! I doubt not of your help and intercession but I apprehend my own Weakness least permitting my self to be deceived by the foolish Love of Creatures I may swerve from the true love of my Creator Help me then O Holy St. Francis That I may not be so deluded but yielding up my will to God I may by a holy necessity always love him both in this life and in the next Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Eighth FRIDAY Upon the Love of St. Francis Xaverius towards his Neighbour HE that truly loveth God does extend his Affection also to his Neighbour as being dear to God and his lively Image So that Saint Xaverius loving God as you have seen ought consequently to love his Neighbor which he did in the perfectest manner he could fulfilling those Words of St. Paul * Omnibus omnia 1 Cor. 9.22 factus to all men becoming all things that he might save all * 2 Cor. 6.6 In Charitate non ficta sed verà In true not feigned Charity He never spared any Labours Troubles Difficulties nor even Life it self to benefit him either in his Temporal or Spiritual Necessities tho' he laboured most to succour the Soul as being the more noble Part. The only Aim and Design of his Apostolical Missions and hard Enterprizes was the Salvation of Souls and where he proposed to himself any Hopes of converting any to God he let slip nothing that might any way promote or further his Intentions With Children he was one always so concerned for their Spiritual Profit that tho' he was a Man of that Authority and Esteem yet he disdained not to go about with a little Bell exhorting Parents to send their Children to be instructed in the Christian Doctrine With Sinners he became as I may say a Sinner familiarly treating and conversing with them that so he might bring them to God for pretending to be ignorant of their Vices Blasphemies Murders Usuries and all their whole Life he changed the Hatred they bore him into Love and the Love they bore to all vicious Habits and Propensions into a detestable Hatred of Sin To Infidels as particularly recommended to him from Heaven he shew'd such Charity that no body can express it And if the Height of this according to the Oracle of Truth it self be to give his Life for his Beloved

France Portuga India Japony and innumerable other Countries wherein he exercised this Vertue in diverse Ways and in a most perfect Degree with the poor Prisoners Children Slaves Souldiers Seamen and what not And this in a most abject and contemptible manner choosing for his Lodging the Hospitals for his Cloths course Canvas and for his Meat Dry Bread Burnt Rice and the like But God ordered it so that the more he humbled and debased himself the more he should be esteemed by others Hence it was Pope Paul the third admired him and that he was honoured and respected by the King of Portugal in an extraordinary manner and no less by the Vice Roys of India by Governours of Towns and Countries and by all Persons of Note The Portuguese even in Portugal gave him the Name of Apostle the Gentiles stuck not to give him Divine Titles the Mahometans held him for a great Prophet many Idolatrous Kings called him Great Father whole Towns and Countries came to meet him The Missioners of the Society that were designed for the Indies thought it a Paradise to be sent to never so hard Enterprizes if Saint Francis were but there so little did they think of themselves to enjoy him Gonzalo Fernandez crept upon his Knees to St. Francis who knock'd at the Door to speak with him Angero a Japonian came from the farthest part of the East to the Island of Molucche above two thousand Miles only to treat with the Saint about the Affairs of his Soul After the Saint's Death a new Convertite sailed from Goa to the Castle of Xavier in Spain above fifteen thousand Miles only to see and reverence the Chamber St. Francis was born in You see how true God's Promise is and how much it is verified in this great Saint * Luc. 18.14 He that humbleth himself shall be exalted Let every one reflect upon this and see how he behaveth himself according to his State with his Superiors with his Equals and with his Inferiors Let him see if he carries himself as a good Christian ought with Charity and Submission or rather with Pride and Haughtiness and accordingly let him purpose to persever in the good or mend what is amiss The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To obtain Christian Humility MOst humble St. Francis I most earnestly desire you would beg of Almighty God for me Strength and Courage to overcome my Pride and imitate your Humility whereby I may offend no body either in Thought Word or Deed out of Pride or Contempt I purpose on my part to use all possible Diligence thereunto that I may glorifie God and edifie my Neighbour Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Third FRIDAY Upon the Penance and Mortification of St. Francis Xaverius PEnance here is not taken for a part of the Sacrament but it is a Vertue that embraces hard Difficulties and painful Afflictions for Satisfaction for Sins committed against God Most sharp were the Mortifications this Holy Apostle used and inflicted upon himself besides the insupportable Sufferings annexed to his Apostostolical Charge and Office His Fasts were very frequent and had not God particularly inspired him to undertake them might be called most indiscreet for he passed three four and sometimes seven Days without the least Sustenance tho' his ordinary Diet might be justly called a perpetual Fast as hath been gathered out of one of his Letters to a Friend of his wherein he confesses that he lived more like a Bird than a Man with nothing but water and Rice His Watchings were continual spending the best part of the Night in Prayer His Sleep and Rest which he even unwillingly allowed to Nature were rather to torment than ease him for at Sea he lay upon the Cables and at Land upon the hard Ground or a Bed of Cords He wore Day and Night a continual Hair-Shirt He girded himself with Chains riveted with Points of Iron He disciplin'd himself to Blood with Whips armed with Rowels of Steel His Eyes were in a perpetual Bath of Tears for the Offences he knew were committed by others against God Confessing himself always a Sinner and being both Confessor and Penitent he shared with others in their Penances and undertook to satisfie for them himself witness that Heroick Act upon the Coast of Cananor where to move a Sinner to Sorrow for his inveterate Sins he retired himself into a Grove hard by and there cruelly tore his Body with Whips till such Quantity of Blood trickled down his Back as provoked the Sinner to abundant Tears and a true Compunction and so he reconciled him to God But what Wonder he should practise these most cruel Mortifications in this his Office of Apostle seeing from the first Moment he begun a perfect Lise he accustomed himself to most rigid Austerities Who is ignorant that to satisfie God for his too great Niceness and Spruceness in Cloths and Nimbleness in Dancing he tied his Thighs so strait with little Cords that he was not able to breath so far had he let them eat into his Flesh that they could not be seen whereof he must necessarily have died had not God most miraculously cured him whom he had designed for the Apostle of the new World Every one knows that in the Hospital of Vicenza to get a total Victory over himself he lucked the Corruption and Matter of a most pestiferous and loathsome Impostume And before he said his first Mass he spent forty Days in most rigid Penance shut up in a little Grot of Mount Celso within the Confines of Padoua In fine these Austerities were so dear to him that he never left them off to his dying Day so that with good reason he might say with St. Paul * Cor. 15.31 I die daily and * for thy sake we are mortified all the Day As God is a most just Rewarder of the least thing done for his sake so he did abundantly recompence and sweeten these Pains of St. Francis with Infinite and Divine Consolations which his Heart not being able to bear they appeared even in his very Countenance seeming to be always enflamed yet always cheerful and pleasant even in the most difficult Enterprizes shewing to the World that he was really in his Heart a Citizen of Heaven This abundance of Heavenly Comfort forced him to cry out Satis est Domine Satis est Psal 43. ver 23. It is enough Lord it is enough Begging that an end might be put to those Delights his Heart of Flesh was uncapable to endure That Posture of opening his Breast which he was often seen in was only to mitigate a little that Divine Heat of the Love of God that without Intermission burnt and consumed his Heart I 'll omit those Extasies or Rapts wherein his Body was often seen lifted from the Ground and those frequent Rays of Light that so environed him that he seemed rather a Seraphim of Divine Love than a Man of Earth Thomas Fernandez found him often in Manapar of Piscaria

elevated a Cubit from the Ground with his Face surrounded with Rays and his Eyes sparkling like Stars Many Eye-witnesses attested that at Mass and Communion in Malaca and Meliapor he was several times seen quite alienated from his Senses and elevated in the Air. These are some Tokens of those Divine Consolations this Angel of Heaven enjoyed here upon Earth in Reward of the Sufferings he undertook for the Love of God What have we now to say for our selves miserable and tender Creatures that so much shun all occasions of suffering even when our state of life and condition require it How ignorant are we of the true good It is no wonder divine consolations are so scarce with us since we fly all Trouble and Difficulties that might else in some manner deserve and draw down those Favours upon us The COLLOQUY To St Francis Xaverius To obtain a desire of Penance and Mortification O Most Mortified Apostle Behold at your Feet the greatest Sinner of the World and yet the most delicate the most deserving of Penance and yet the greatest shunner of it who Implores your Help that he may begin to love that once which he ought always to perform and thereby satisfy God for his Sins You O Dear Saint Most Innocent and yet so generous an Embracer of Austerity obtain for me of my suffering Saviour your Spirit that I may set my Affection more thereon and thereby diminishing the pains of Purgatory due to my Sins I may the sooner come to enjoy with you the Beatifical Vision Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Fourth FRIDAY Upon the Patience of St. Francis Xaverius PAtience is a Vertue that Strengthens our Mind against all Difficulties that might otherwise deter us from our Duty This Holy Apostle was so abundantly Endowed with this Vertue that he might justly say with St. Paul * 2 Cor. 6.4 Let us exhibit our selves as the Ministers of God in much Patience Truly it was very necessary in those his long and most Troublesome Sicknesses as when Destitute of all Human Comfort he was obliged in Vicenza to lye in the same Bed with a most filthy and loathsome Sick man and in his Journey from Amangucci to Meaco to live only upon Water and Burnt Rice and in the Island of Sanciano to dye totally abandoned by all Yet these inconveniences were nothing to those he suffered in changing so often to so contrary Climats from one excess to another accommodating himself to the Barbarous Incivilities of People so different from the Europeans in Life and Manners In the Excessive Heats of the Torrid Zone in the Incommodities of Sea Voyages in Tempests and Dangers of Shipwrack What shall I say of Persecutions from Men and Devils He was often in the Publick Market-places laught at by the People sought for to Death by the Gentiles and Bonzi their Priests as a Destroyer of their Idols and Gods most Shamefully and Unhumanly reviled by Governours of Towns and Countries Captains of Ships Soldiers and Seamen and even by Christians amongst whom some bad are always to be found utterly hated as a reformer of their manners and wicked Lives finally left and betray'd most ungratefully by those he had been most Beneficial unto The Devils also set upon him divers times and once beat him most unmercifully in Meliapor as he prayed all Night at the Tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle and they always Persecuted him as their Sworn and most Bitter Enemy Yet what did St. Francis do What would you a most Delicate Nice and Cowardly Creature have done Quitted what you had undertaken fainted and yeilded at the first seeming Difficulty and fled back No no quite contrary he like an undaunted Soldier not the least struck with these Oppositions stood his Ground and Faithfully Discharged himself of his Apostolical Duty and Commission witness his Journeys in his Ten Years amounting to an hundred Thousand Miles equivalent to almost five times the whole Circumference of the Earth wherein he abolish'd innumerable Superstitions Rooted out many Abuses Corrected many Wicked and Inveterate Manners threw down Idols Converted Innumerable Souls and Baptized with his own Hand above a Million and Two Hundred Thousand Persons Worthy Fruits indeed of the invincible Patience of St. Xaverius But what do I miserable Creature How do I bear even the least things that happen daily How ought I to be asham'd that have not the Heart to Suffer the least Word Check or Cross Answer from another which makes me so often neglect my Duty to God and fail so frequently in the Employment I am in I am truly Confounded seeing with how little Patience I might so much Promote God's Glory and that failing in the first I am so Notoriously Deficient in the Latter The COLLOQUY To St Francis Xaverius To obtain the Vertue of Patience YOU see most Patient Apostle the baseness of my Heart so streight and narrow as not to dare to open it-self to receive the least Cross or Adversity but presently it yields and Faints Yet my Crosses are not like yours which were so hard and Painful but slight Troubles and small Difficulties and yet I am most impatient in all occurrences O most Patient Xaverius Obtain of the Divine Goodness for me your Spirit of Patience that manfully resisting all Difficulties annexed to my State and Condition I may Faithfully comply with God's Holy Will Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Fifth FRIDAY Upon the Continual Prayer of St. Francis Xaverius PRayer is an act of Religion whereby we have recourse to God begging what is fit we should ask of him St. John Damascen calls it an ascent of our Minds to God whereby we treat and Converse with him St. Francis's Prayer was continual fulfilling that * St. Luc. 18.1 It behoveth always to Pray and never to cease And that of the Apostle * Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven Altho' he was always United to God yet he had some particular times alotted for it spending the Night chiefly in continual Prayer and Contemplation never allowing himself above two or three Hours for natural Rest On Ship-board for Prayer he prefixed from Midnight till Morning whereupon the Seamen used to say the Ship Sails securely seeing Father Francis stands Sentinel In Manapar he was at several Hours in the Night observed by his Host and sound always upon his Knees at the Foot of a Crucifix But what sort of Prayer was it Worthy indeed of that Seraphical Heart all Burning and set on Fire and carrying him to his only Center God In so much that many Confessed they could not look him in the Face even in Familiar Conversation amongst them his Countenance so Dazled their Eyes His short tho' most Inflamed Jaculatory Aspirations give us sufficiently to understand what Fire Consumed his most Ardent and loving Soul having been often heard to say even in his Sleep and Raging Sickness and commonly in Latin O Sanctissima Trinitas O mi Jesu O Dulcis Jesu O Jesu cordis mei