which the world cannot give that our harts being disposed to keepe thy Commandements and the feare of enemies being taken away the tymes through thy protection may be peacible by the merits of thy deare sonne Jesus Amen A Prayer in tyme of famine and Pestilence GRant unto us we beseech thee O Lord the effect of our prayers and by thy mercie turne away from us pestilence and famine that the harts of Men may know that such scourges proceed from thy indignation and cease by thy mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer for raine O God in whom we live are mooved and have our beeing grant unto us competent raine that sufficiently releeved by thy present aide we may more confidently desire things everlasting through our Lord Jesus Amen A prayer for faire weather HEare us O Lord crying unto thee and grant unto us making humble supplications faire weather that we who justly are afflicted for our sins may by thy grace preventing find mercy through our Lord Amen A prayer in any tribulation A Lmighty God despise not thy people crying unto thee in affliction but for the glory of thy name thou being pacifi'd succour the afflicted through our Lord Amen A Prayer for forgivenes of sins O God who rejecteth none but art pacifi'd by mercifull pitty through penance even towards the greatest sinners thou being merciful respect the prayers of our humility enlighten our harts that we may be able to fulfill thy commandements through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer for such as are in a journey HArken to our supplication O Lord and dispose the way of thy safegard that among all varieties of this passage and life they may ever be protected by thy ayde through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer to be said at the conclusion of our usvall prayers ACcept O most clement God by the prayers and merits of the blessed and ever Virgin Mary and of all thy glorious Saints the office of our service and if we have done any thing worthy of praise thou being mercifull regard it and what is donne negligently mercifully pardon it who livest and raignest one God in perfect Trinity world without end Amen A blessing to be used at the end of all our daily prayers The Imperiall Majesty of God blesse me The Regal Divinity protect me The everlasting Deity keepe me The glorious unity comfort me The incomprehensible Trinity defend me The inestimable goodnesse direct me The power of the Father governe me The wisdome of the sonne quicken me The vertue of the holy Ghost illuminate me and be with me Amen O souveraine and my most mercifull God let this blessing be unto me all health and safty both of body and soule against all myne enemies visible and invisible now and for ever more Amen Of Aspirations and jaculatory Prayers A jaculatory prayer is a briefe elevation of our mind and hart to God as meditation is the same at large They are a speciall great meanes to all spiritual progresse and vertue yea they are as the vital spirits and the very nerves of prayer and are to be used both in tyme of prayer and also very often at other tymes They are a great support a cherishing and a very powerfull invitation to the soule in the tyme of drynesse and desolation to raise her affection unto God This kind of prayer is very briefe easie and very fruitfull It is to be made with fervent affection devotion and true tendernes of hart as king David usually did practise it and by this holy exercise we may be enabled to obtayne that guift commended to us by our blessed Saviour Luke 18.1 Thest 5. it behooves continually to praye and never to give over pray without ceasing saith S. Paul These jaculatory prayers are often in the day to be repeated according to the diversity of occasions and oportunities either vocally or only mentally What fruit they bring and how efficacious they are to gaine perfection and to transport the mind from earthly cogitation unto celestial the experience of innumerable vertuous soules have made good proofe and wil better teach then words can expresse They are called jaculatory as darting prayers because in a moment they pierce the heavens and present our requests to Almighty God testifying the ardent desires and holy affections of a soule seeking and thirsting after the fountaine of all perfection goodnesse and sanctity Say with S. Austin O my Lord and God that I but knew thee and knew my selfe O grant me perseverance in thy graces and true contrition for all my offences Forgive me Lord the multitude of my sins and have mercy on me O my great and loving God o that I had never offended thee O that I could obtaine the right practise of true humility and patice Grant me O Lord the grace that I may hate nothing but sin and my selfe and love nothing but thee and my neighbour in thee and for thee O that thou my deare Lord may be the beginning the progresse and the end of all my actions Not my will O Lord but thyne be donne Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Let al transitory things O Lord become vile unto me and let all things that are thine be deare unto me and thou O God above all Forsake me not O Lord my God depart not from me attend unto my help Psal 37. O Lord the God of my salvation To thee O Lord Psal 24. I have raised my soule my God in thee is all my confidence Create a cleane hart in me O God and renew a right spirit in my bowels Psal 50. The practise of Aspirations upon the affection of the imitation of our divine Redeemer Iesus Christ AMongst all sortes of Affections that above all others is most profitable which mouveth us to imitate that most perfect example of all divine vertues our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ stirring up our affection and desire to embrace and to imitate his holy vertues by the practise of these or the like holy and fervent aspirations Most mild most loving and patient Jesus the perfect example to be imitated grant me the grace to imitate thy mildnesse meekness patience and thy profound humility Ah grant me O most powerfull Lord in all things to be conformable unto thy heavenly will and pleasure O the true owner of my soule endowe me with thy love for which thou hat created me and nothing else can give it true rest and satisfaction but that alone O most profound humility correct my pride O invincible patience when shall I by thy example be truly patient bestow on me thy benignity to correct my cholerick passion and great impatience I beseech thee O my benigne and powerfull Lord when wilt thou bestow on me the grace to make me humble patient devout and conformable to thy holy will The practise of Aspirations upon the affection of admiration of our divine Redeemers love to Man O my God who art thou
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
They that repay evil things for good did back bite me because I followed goodnesse Forsake me not O Lord my God depart not from me Incline unto my helpe O Lord God of my salvation Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 50. HAve mercy on me O God according to thy great mercy And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquities Wash me hencefourth from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Because I doe know my iniquity and my sin is alwayes against me To thee only have I sinned and have donne evill before thee that thou maist be justified in thy words and maist overcome when thou art judged For behould I was conceived in iniquities and my mother conceived me in sin For behould thou hast loved truth the uncertaine and hidden things of thy wisdome thou hast made manifest to me Thou shalt sprincle me with hysope and I shall be cleansed thou shalst wash me and I shall be made whiter then snow To my hearing thou shalst give joy and gladnesse and humbled harts shall rejoyce Turne away thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities Create a cleane hart in me O God and renew a right spirit in my bowels Cast me not away from thy face and thy holy spirit take not away from me Render unto me the joy of thy salvation and confirme me with a principall spirit I will teach the unjust thy wayes and the impious shall be converted unto thee Deliver me from blouds O God the God of my salvation and my tongue shall exalt thy justice Thou O Lord shalt open my lips and my mouth shall declare thy praise Because if thou wouldest have had sacrifice I had verily given it with whole-burnt-offerings thou wilt not be delighted A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit a contrite and humble hart O God thou wilst not dispise Deale favorably O Lord in thy good will with Syon and let the walls of Hierusalem be built up Then shalt thou accept sacrifice of justice oblations and whole-burnt-offerings then shall they lay calves upon thine altar Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 101. O Lord heare my prayer and let my cry come unto thee Turne not away thy face from me in what day soever I am in tribulation incline thine eare to me In what day soever I shal call upon thee heare me speedily For my dayes have vanished as smoke and my bones are withered as a dry-burnt fire-brand I am smitten as grasse and my hart is withered for I have forgotten to eate my bread For the voyce of my groning my bonne hath cleaved to my flesh I am become like a pelican of the wildernesse I am become as a night raven in the house I have watched and am become as a sparow solitary in the house toppe All the day did my ennemies upbraide me and they that praised me sware against me For I did eate ashes as bread and mingled my drink with weeping At the face of the wrath of thy indignation for that lifting me up thou hast throwne me downe My dayes have declined as a shadow I am withered as grasse But thou O Lord endurest for ever and thy memoriall in generation and generation Thou rising up shalt have mercy on Syon for the tyme is come Because the stones thereof have pleased thy servants and they shall have pitty on the earth thereof And the Gentils shall feare thy name O Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory For our Lord hath builded Syon and he shall be seene in his glory He hath had respect to the prayer of the humble and he hath not dispised their petition Let these things be written in an other generation and the people that shall be created shall praise our lord Because he hath looked fourth from his high holy place our Lord from Heaven hath looked upon the earth That he might heare the gronings of the fettered that he might loose the children of them that are flayne That they may shew fourth the name of our Lord in Syon and his prayse in Hierusalem In the assembling of the people togeather in one and kings to serve our Lord. He answered him in the way of his strength shew me the fewnesse of my dayes Call me not back in the halfe of my dayes thy yeares are unto generation and generation In the beginning O Lord thou hast founded the earth and the Heavens are the workes of thy hands They shall perish but thou art permanent and they shall all wax old as a garment And as a vesture thou shalst change them and they shall be changed but thou art the selfe same and thy yeares shall not faile The children of thy servants shall inhabit and their seede shall be directed for ever Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 129. FRom the depthes I have cryed to thee O Lord Lord heare my cry Let thine eares be intent to the voyce of my petition If thou shalt observe iniquities O Lord Lord who shall sustayne it Because with thee there is propitiation and for thy law I have expected thee O Lord. My soule hath expected in his word my soule hath hoped in our Lord. From the morning watch even until night let Israel hope in our Lord. Because with our Lord there is mercy and with him plentifull redemption And he shall redeeme Israel from all his iniquities Glory be to the Father c. Psalem 142. LOrd heare my prayer with thine eares receive my petition in thy truth heare me in thy justice And enter not into judgment with thy servant because no man living shall be justifi'd in thy sight Because the enemie hath persecuted my soule he hath humbled my life in the Earth He hath set me in obscure places as the dead of the world and my spirit is in anguish upon me with in me my hart is troubled I was mindfull of old dayes I have meditated in all thy workes in the facts of thy hands did I meditate I have stretched forth my hand to thee my soule is as earth without water unto thee Heare me quickly O Lord my spirit hath fainted Turne not away thy face from me and I shall be like to them that descend into the lake Make me heare thy mercy in the morning because I have hoped in thee Make the way knowne to me wherein I may walke because I have lifted up my soule to thee Deliver me from mine enemies O Lord to thee I have fled teach me to doe thy will because thou art my God Thy good spirit will conduct me into the right way for thy names sake O Lord thou wilt quicken me in thy equity Thou wilst bring forth my soule out of tribulation and in thy mercy thou wilst destroy mine enemies And thou wilst destroy all that afflict my soule because I am thy servant Glory be to the Father c. The Antiphone Remenber not O Lord our or our Parents offences Neither take
not answer to what purpose remayned they in the world but with the insipid salt are to be cast forth as saith Jesus Christ upon the dunghill And so likewise if we correspond not to our end what can we justly expect but our owne destruction But dost thou my soule now act according to the end of thy creation are all thy actions directed to the glory of God ô how farr am I from it and therefore how fruitlesly doe I employ both my tyme and labour and what a reproach will it be to me an other day for so shamefull a sin unlesse I doe speedily amend The due gratitude which in justice we owe unto Iesus Christ YOV are not your own saith the great Apostle for you are bought with a deare price which was no lesse then the precious blood of Jesus Christ by which he so mercifully hath redeemed us from the eternall captivity of Sathan And therefore most duly as redeemed slaves we ought both in justice and true gratitude to consecrate with a pure intention to his greater glory all our actions and service which not doing we doe robb most unjustly Jesus Christ of his right Which well considered ô what confusion will it be at our appearing before his dreadfull tribunall when after 40. 50. or 60. yeares as in proper quality of his redeemed slaves we shall not be able to shew one day perhaps employed faithfully in his service or true gratitude If I give but a dog an unprofitable bone he faunes and shewes me love yea and renders me much service wheras we shew neither loue nor gratitude to Jesus Christ who hath given us his life his infinit merits so many severall great graces and divine inspirations and finally purchaced Heaven for our Beatitude and we remayne insensible O horrid ingratitude the dog will be our shamefull reproach unlesse touched by his example we amend Our maine great affaire in this World is to save our soules O Strange and stupide folley of man to spare no cost paines nor diligence for meere worldly vanity and to want courage and resolution to labour for eternall salvation for which least care or industry is taken All losse whatsoever doth trouble us and we are insensible of loosing our owne dearest soule We finde upon our accompts great expences for our bodily commodities so much for apparel so much for feasting and curiosity in dyet so much in pleasure and gaming so much to gaine or to preserve some temporall interest so much to Phisitions and Apothecaries for our corporal health but little or nothing for the spiritual health of our infirme and much diseased soule which in some manner and unchristian like might seeme least of all to belong to us or as if it were to dye and end as doth the soule of a beast O what true brutality is this in vaine worldly and voluptuous men thus to preferre Earth before Heaven misery before beatitude their corruptible body before theire immortal soules and this uncertaine moment before an Eternity of blisse and never ending happinesse A serious reflection upon so great a folley ought to give us warning that whilst it is the acceptable tyme and the dayes of health we ought to prevent our crernall misery Of the divine presence of God WHo is a Christian must both be leeve and religiously adore Almighty God as truly present and really acting at the very botome of our soule for him we both live and moove in all we doe and therfore much greater confusion a thousand tymes needs must it be to us that our many and great desloyalties should lye more open to his divine view then were they exposed upon a publique stage to the eyes of all the kings and people of the world And yet O senslesse and wretched man to feare and be so much asshamed to committ in the sight of a mortall man that which he most impudently feares not to doe in the sight of God who immediately in most just revenge may command the Earth to open and swallow him downe alive both body and soule into the eternall tormenting flames of Hell which if we desire to avoyde let us deepely imprint this Christian verity in our soules by a serious and frequent reflection of this overseeing divine presence of God in all both our actions and thoughts whereof we are to give to him an exact accompt even to the least idle words And hereafter to receive an everlasting reward or punishment according to due desert Use often this holy practise whilst the tyme of health and the dayes acceptable are afforded you and feare to offend How we ought to distrust our selves NO enemy is so dangerous to damne us as our selves and therfore the best meanes to avoyde sin is to distrust our owne great frailty and carefully to watch over that badd humour and vicious propension to which we find our corrupt nature most inclined to draw us to offend which being well observed we shall easily perceive that all our sin and misery springs from that infected fountaine in following our disordinate humour and naturall inclination quite contrary to the internall holy motion of grace well verifying that mans domestick enemies are most dangerous We ought therefore seriously to examen what is our predominant and most vicious inclination against which we must earnestly crave Gods grace to resist and to stand watchfully upon our garde to suppresse and oppose the same But to gett a perfect victory over this dangerous enemy we must resolve to oppose it by the practise of that vertue which is most opposit thereunto as who is inclind to covetousnesse must practise the vertue of liberality if to vaine glory and pride the vertue of humility must be opposed If to cholere and passion the mildnesse and meeknesse of Jesus Christ and soe of all the rest Who shall practise this will not faile to bee happy Against detraction and Calumny THe holy proverb and S. Paul doe both agree that the detractor is odious both to God and Man Proverb 24.9 Rom 1.30 and yet no fault is so frequently committed in conversation as is this cursed sin of backbiting and calumny which sends more to Hell saith S. Benard then any other vice whatsoever for as the Divill possesseth the tongue of the detractor so doth he also the eare of him who willingly harkneth there unto and of-the two who committeth the greater sin S. Bernard confesseth jugenuously he could not easily determine A good expedient in hearing detraction to avoyde the danger of offending God will be to answere as did our B. Saviour to the accusing Pharisies he who amongst you is free from sin let him cast the first stone at her We must also abstaine from speaking of other mens faults in their absence nor willingly harken to them who shall doe it as being a thing from which no good can be likely to procede but rather breach of charity and much harme Wherefore if any shall presse you to give eare to them in
variety of mysticall colours symbolyzing with the severall vertues of the glorious Saints doth greatly adorne and beautify this holy spouse and is to us a motive and great encouragement to imitate those holy vertues which by meanes of these various coulours used in the Church are so fitly proposed to our view Nor was it without great reason that God in the old law appointed those 4. different colours for the Priests and Churches ornaments which were the colour bissynus that is a yallow colour like to that of raw silke The second was purpureus colour The purple colour The third was hyacinth that is a violet read blew or violet purple The fourth was coccineus that is a scarlet or crimson colour And as these different colours had their severall mysticall meanings for the peoples instruction so I doubt not but the impartiall reader will confesse no lesse to be contayned in the meanig of these colours which the Church inspired by the holy Ghost hath appointed to be used in the law of grace for the ornaments of Christ's holy Church and for the Priests vestments belonging to the same as by this briefe declaration it wil appeare The white colour is used upon the feasts of Angels Confessors What meaneth the vvhite colour used by the church and Virgins To represent to us the imitation of their holy chastity and saintly purity As also upon the solemne feasts of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Upon the Resurrection Ascension Corpus Christi and other the chiefest feasts of the greatest mysteries of our Faith which are to be celebrated in the white colour of Symbolyzing joy as testifies our Saviour's glorious splendor at his Transfiguration The two Angels in white who denounced his Resurrection And the joyfull white of his Saints in Heaven Apoc. 3.4 and Apoc. ca. 4. v. 4. Red What is signifi'd by the red colour is the scarlet dye of our B. Saviours passion and is the proper colour for the Churches ornements upon the feasts of the holy Crosse Of the Apostles and blessed Martyrs to shew that their glorious passage from this valley of misery to eternall joy was through the red sea of many tribulations and that their glory is purchased with the price of their owne deare blood They dyed their robes in the blood of the lambe Apoc. 7. The green colour is used in the Church from the octave of Epiphanie till Septuagesima What is signifid by the green colour And from the octave of Pentecost till Advent exclusively contayning the greatest part of the whole yeare and is to be industriously employed for our pourchasing Heaven which is to be got by vigorous force well represented by this colour the hierocliff of youth and consequently betokens this courageous and vigorous strength in vertuous exercises wherby that celestiall Citty is to be conquered The violet colour is a kind of blew What meaneth the violet colour and resembleth the colour of the sky of Heaven which we must know to be fast shutt againgst all sinners who by their true repentance shall not amende And therfore this colour is used in the Church all lent and Advent the proper tymes allotted for the practise of the worthy fruits of holy penance and satisfaction for our sins the only unhappy barr of the gate of Heaven against our soules Black is the mourning standart of the Church What meaneth the black colour displayed upon her Altars and other ornaments in the mournfull tymes wherin we celebrate the death and passion of our loving Lord and divine Redeemer Jesus Christ It also is used at the office of the deade therby to testify as well a civill respect from nature for our present separatiō from our frends as also to stirr up and moove in us therby a true compassion of their soules temporal great paine in Purgatory for whose speedy reliefe we ought most hartely to pray Having briefly here spoke of the quality and colours of the chiefe ornaments belonging to the Altar I will with like brevity treate also about the vestments and attyre belonging to the Priest for celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Masse that high function and supremest divine homage which can be done to him by any creature And therefore those ornaments if not very rich at least they ought to be comely and very decent as well in regard of that great reverence which is most due to those sacred mysteries as also that those divine actions should be had in greater veneration and therby the better to represent to us Christs bitter death and passion as I shall here declare by the meaning of those severall ornaments Observing here first the great antiquity and use of those holy ornaments which well appeares in England by that of S. Gregory the great who above a thousand yeares agoe did send into our Country vessals for the Altar Reliques bookes and ornaments for the Priests and Clearkes as both S. Bede and most historians doe declare The meaning of the severall ornaments which the Priest doth weare in celebrating the holy Masse THE Amice which the Priest puteth over his head What meaneth the amice that first ornament the Priest puts on vvhen be goeth to celebtate doth signify the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ under which lay hid and covered his most sacred Divinity 2. it signifies the linnen napkin wher with this our Mercifull Redemer was blind-foulded and after strock upon the face by those sacrilegious Iewes then saying to him Prophecy to us Math 26 o Christ who is he that strouck thee by which outrageous injury suffered for our sakes he purchaced grace enabling us to behould him face to face in eternall glory In putting it on he saith put on o Lord the helmit of salvation upon my head that I may overcome all my temptations to wicked sin The Albe or long white garment of the Albe doth signify the robe of innocency given us in the Sacrament of Baptisme And it represents the white garment which Herod put upon our Saviour reputing him as an ideot when with mockery and derision he sent him backe to Pilate The Priest putting it on he saith Luke 23 Make me white o Lord and cleanse my hart that being whitned in the blood of the lambe I may enjoy eternall gladnesse The girdle which the Priest puts about him of the Girdle doth signify the corde wherewith our Saviour was bound to the pillar when the cruell souldiers scourged him The two ends of the girdle turned up the one on the right side and the other on the left doe signify the two meanes to conserve our chastity which are fasting and prayer wherby we subdue the flesh and strengthen the spirit The Priest when he puteth the girdle about him saith gird me o Lord with the girdle of purity and quench in my loynes the humour of lust that there may remayne in me the vertue of continency and Chastity The Manuple represents to us
repent with my whole hart and soule for having so grievously offended thee whom I truly love above all things what soever I constantly resolue by thy helping grace carrefully to avoyde all occasions of my grevious sins ād from the bottome of my hart I blisse and adore thy great goodnesse for affording me so happy and secure à meanes by this holy Sacrement to make my blessed peace and reconciliation by grace and pardon againe with thee who hath so long and often tymes preserved me from Hell For which I having nothing wherby to shew in gratitude I offer to thee O Eternall Father the bitter death and Passion with all the sacred merits of thy divine sonne Jesus of his immaculate Virgin Mother and of all the blissed Saints and Angels of Heaven to praise and magnify thy mercy and great goodnesse unto me for all Eternity A prayer before Confession REceive my Confession O most benigne and clement lord Jesus the only hope for the salvation of my soule give unto me I beseech thee contrition of hart and teares to my eyes that both day and night I may bewaile all my negligences with humility and purity of hart Let my prayer o lord approach neere in thy sight If thou shalt be angry against me what helper may I seeke who will have mercy on my iniquities remember me o Lord who didst call the woman of Canaan and Publican to repentance and didst receive Peter weeping O Lord my God accept my prayers O good Jesu Saviour of the world who gavest thy selfe to the death of the Crosse that thou mightest save sinners regard me a wretched offender calling upon thy name and take not such heed to my wickednesse that thou forget thy mercy And though I have committed wherby thou maist condemne me yet thou hast not lost that wherby thou art wont to save us Spare me therfore O Lord my Saviour and have mercy on my sinfull soule loose the bands therof heale the wounds Lord Jesu I most humbly beseech thee Shew me thy face and I shall be safe Send fourth therfore o most loving Lord through the merits of the most pure and ever Virgin Mary thy immaculate mother and of all thy blessed Saints and Angels send fourth thy light into my soule which may shew unto me truly all my defects which it behooveth me to confesse and which may help and teach me to expresse them fully and with a contrite hart who with the Father and the holy Ghost liveth and rayneth one everlasting God Amen This done next goe and cast your selfe upon your knees with a reverent and humble hart as if at the feet of Jesus Christ in the person of his Vicar the Priest there conceiving your selfe as a criminel before your judge and as wholy depending upon Gods mercy not having any thing to alleage in your owne behalfe but a guilty conscience deserving eternall punishment raise all your hope in an humble confidence of his mercy and sacred merits of Jesus Christ detest your sin wherby you have offended so good and so gracious a God and crave humbly grace to amende You having asked your ghostly Fathers benediction and said your Confiteor til mea culpa c. then accuse your selfe plainly humbly and intirely and with all confidence and freedome endevour to lay open to him wherinsoever you can conceive or doubt to have greevously offended God for this freedome in confession takes away all scruple of conscience and gives a great peace and tranquility to the soule which is farr to be preferd before the greatest felicity in the world Finally you having confest all and said the rest of your Confiteor Then harken attentively to what the Priest shall say to you without any further searching into your conscience but take with humble submission the advertisments which he shall then give you as there the substitute of Jesus Christ And performe faithfully what he shall ordaine you either by way of counsel or penance This done retyre your selfe with a recollected mind to give humble thankes unto God and with feeling piety and devotion say this followinge prayer after your Confession A prayer out of F. Granada exciting in the soule compunction and sorrow for our sins O only sonne of God how great and ineffable are the blessings I have receiud ' from thee thou hast produced me of the dust and slime me of the earth thou hast created my soule out of nothing according to thy image and likenesse thou hast endued me with understanding memory and will thou hast given me a free will togeather with all my members and senses to the end that by their meanes I might know and love thee Thou hast conserved me in the narrow prison of my mothers wombe to the end I might not dye without the saving water of holy baptisme After so many sins as I have multiplid against thee thou hast had long patience with me even to this houre whilst many others lesse guilty then my selfe whom thou hast not so long expected to repentance are peradventure at present tormented in Hell Besides this o my Lord thou hast vouchsafed to make thy selfe Man and to converse amongst Men for my sake For me thou wouldest suffer grievous afflictions a bitter agony sorrow of soule and a bloody sweate Thou wouldst be apprehended bound struck spit upon injured blaspheamd ' buffeted thou wouldst be clad at one tyme in a white robe at an other in a red one in mockery For me thou wouldst be beaten scourgd crownd with thorns struck with a reede upon thy sacred head thou wouldst be blindfoulded condemned to death and dragged to the place of execution with a heavy crosse upon thy back to which crosse thou wouldst be fastned with hard and-ruged nailes thou wouldst be placed betweene two theeves and numbred amongst the wicked Call and vinagar was presented to thee for thy last draught and finally thou wouldst loose thy life by a most cruell death In this manner o my Lord and with these sufferings hast thou redeemed me and yet I most ungratefull for so great benefits have many tymes crucified thee againe by my sins wherby I have merited that all thy Creatures should rise up against me and in thy name take revenge upon me for these injuries Moreover what shall I say of the fearefull abuse I have made of thy Sacraments those blessed remedies which thou hast ordaynd ' me with thy most precious blood Thou hast washt and receiud me in holy Baptisme as one belonging to thy selfe there thou hast adopted me thy sonne there thou hast consecrated me as thy temple Thou hast anointed me as a Priest as a King and as a souldier who ought incessantly to fight against thy enemy There thou hast espoused my soule to thy selfe and adorn'd her with all the ornaments requisite to so high a dignity What have I done with all these jewels What care have I taken to conserve such immense riches thou hast adopted me thy sonne and I have rendred
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
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
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
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
they meane Acts of the love of God WHo am I my Souveraine Creator and who art thou who thus imposest so expresly on me a commande to love thee was it not sufficient for thee my God to permit me so to doe and was it not thy abundant goodnesse to permit thy selfe to be belou'd by so poore and so wretched a hart as mine and with thy grace ther unto to enable me Wherfore seeing that is thy commande my God I will obey and though a wretch and unworthy sinner I here in thy presence protest that I will love thee with my whole hart and with my soule and force And from hencefourth I chuse thee for ever to be the chiefe and Souveraine object af all the purest affections of my hart the accomplishment of whose blessed will I preferr before all that is in Heaven or Earth yea and my dearest life I would hold most gladly employd to testify this my love and due homage vnto thee O deare Jesu king of eternall beauty and heavenly glory I will no other inheritance but the O divine keeper of my soule take thou possession of this my hart wich was created for thee and pierce it with a thousand wounds of pure love that I may sweetly languish with wholsome sorrow for my having so much offended thee Acts of Faith OOmnipotent and Eternall God who hast given me an understanding to knowe thee and a wil to love thee I here protest before thy souveraine Majesty that with a firme faith I doe beleeve what thy holy Church inspired by the holy Ghost proposeth to be beleeved to which I intirely submit as being reveled to her by thee which therfore I embrace professe and by thy grace shall persever in it untill my dying day And I doe utterly disclayme and disavow what thy beloued spouse the holy Catholik Church condemns This is the faith which I professe and wherin I desire to be found at the hour of my death and at that dreadfull day of dome to be judgd by it accordingly Acts of Hope ALl my hope and considence is in thy mercy my loving God and in the sacred merits of my divine Redeemer Iesus by whom I hope for remission of my sins and humbly trust in his great goodnesse to continue in thy grace to my lives end and to praise and glorify him with thee o eternall Father and with the holy Ghost for all Eternity this my hope is laid up in my bosome Iob. 19. And although through humane fralty I daily offende thee yet I hope most gracious Lord by thy divine assistance to amende and to gaine more strength and constancy against my ghostly enemies O Lord of infinit mercy to whom a sorrowfull ād repentinge hart is alwayes a greatefull sacrifice although the multitude of my fins and great ingratitude might tempt me to despaire yet certaine I am my mercifull God that a contrite and humble hart thou wilt not dispise Psal 50. Acts of Adoration WIth the profundest and most humble respect of my soule prostrate both in hart and body before thy souveraine Majesty ô Omnipotent and eternall God I adore and acknowledge thee my souveraine Lord both of my life and beeing who can againe reduce me to that nothing out of which thou first createdst me and who by thy meere boundlesse goodnesse hast preserved me from it till this present day I render thee ô Lord all adoration and homage as thy submissive and humble creature depending intirely upon thy blessed will and pleasure And considering that what honour I am able to render to the merit of thy infinit Deity is so inconsiderable to supply that great defect I offer to thee the adoration which eternally thy Saints and Angels shall ever render to thee and my great desire is that all the creatures of Heaven and Earth may blesse adore and glorify thee with endlesse praise for all Eternity Acts of thankes giving and gratitude I Have merited nothing accordinge to the effect of thy great liberality to me ô my great God nor is there any thing in me which could move thee to bestow so great and many benefits both of body and soule on me who am so farr vncapable to render thee due thankes for having created redeemed preserved and calld me to the happy way for my salvation Thou hast given me o Lord reason both to know and serve thee and what daily favours hast thou conferd on me from how many perils of body and soule hast thou carefully by thy fatherly providence preserud me how great spirituall benefits hast thou bestowd on me by the merits of the bitter death and passion of my most loving Redeemer Jesus how often hast thou nourisht my soule at the sacred table with the bread of Angels wherby to give true force and grace to serve thee O how often hast thou awaked me from the mortall drousinesse of sin by thy heavenly grace and prevented me by thy holy inspirations from grievously offending thee Accept o heavenly Father in stead of my defect all the acceptable workes which Jesus Christ my loving Saviour hath offered to thee for me take this in my acknowledgment of due gratitude for these thy gracious benefits bestow'd on me and grant that all my life may be a continuall thankes giving to thy divine Maiesty to whom only is due all honour glory praise and benediction for ever and ever without end Acts of Love towards our Enemies THou hast taught me o God of all love both by thy word and example to love my enemies yea the whole practise of thy divine life well appears to have been a continuall exercise of doing good for evill as also was thy death the souveraine sacrifice to expiate their sins O grant me grace I beseech thee herein to imitate thy charity and to observe this thy holy commande Forgive therfore sweet Jesus I beseech thee all those that persecute and doe me any injury grant them finall repentance of all their sin̄es and after a happy persevetance in thy grace to enjoy thee in eternall blisse Acts of Humility I Acknowledge and before thee my God doe confesse that of my selfe I am a pure nothing neyther any thing could I doe My extraction is from nothing and my inheritame and proper share is only weackenesse sin and misery It is thou o Lord who hast drawne me from my nothing wherrin without thy meere goodnesse I had continued for all Eternity and thither should I againe returne wer 't not thy powerfull hand which continually preserves me from it All this I now acknowledging for truth what greater follye can ther be then to flatter my selfe with vaine esteeme nay lett me but passe yet one stepp further onn and consider my innumerable sins committed against this souveraine Majesty ought not I then to confesse my ill deserving the least of these thy so gracious benefits I doe acknowledge to my great confusion and thy glory that I neither have deserved thy consolation nor from thy creatures
are from the pernicious maximes of the world which shee ought most carefully to fly BLessed are the poore of spirit for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven Math. 5.8 Marke well how formely opposit to this divine maxime is that of the world which compts them only happy who are every way rich both in wealth and able to make most shew and glory in vaine florishing it But our divine Redeemer begun the publishing of his Ghospel by declaring to his disciples wherein the true Beatitude of this life did consist and therby to disabuse them of the false opinion amongst the people of this world who though they all doe naturally seeke for happinesse yet taking a quite contrary way for it they cannot enjoy it some spending their whole tyme and labour to pourchace vaine worldly honour or deluding pleasures others are as earnest to hurd upp sordid wealth as no lesse pensive afterwards in preserving it All which great follie proceeds from guiding themselves by the false principles of this world and neglecting the counsell of their heavenly Maister Jesus Christ For the world and its concupiscence doth so strongly possesse their harts that they become incapable to give eare to his doctrine which is only to conduct us to Beatitude And therefore it is no wonder if that which Jesus Christ proposeth here for happinesse seeme rather misery to the wordly eyes of Men whose thoughts not going beyond this present life which being but truly misery in it selfe it can no otherwise make us happy but only as it serves to help us to gaine that other of endlesse Blisse Blessed are those who mourne Math. 5. for they shall be comforted This seemes no lesse contrary to the sense of worldlings then the former But to understand how our Beatitude can consist in teares and mourning we must consider that by sin we are banisht people in this world and that all our felicity consists in the hope of our reestablishment and pardon by mourning penance and penitent teares And hence it is that mourning is the ground of our Beatitude Learne yee of me who am milde and humble of hart Matth. 11 and you shall find rest to your soules This mildnesse and humility of hart is esteemed by the vogue of this world to be but dulnesse unmanlinesse and weaknesse of hart They falsly judging that true courage and generosity must shew their Passion for the least offence or disrespect which their selfe esteeme conceives and thereupon engage themselves in great and dangerous quarrels with rest lesse disquiet of mind wheras the contrary is very happily enjoy'd by the meeke and humble of hart Blessed are they who hungar and thirst after justice Math. 5 for they shall be filled that is they who have ardent and earnest desires for the glory of God by accomplishing his Commandements and holy will But according to the maxime of the world we hungar and thirst much rather after our corrupt sensualities which bend all our thoughts and desires much rather to the transgression of his divine law wherby we can never hope to be satiated no more then was the prodigall child with empty huskes the proper food for swine Blessed are the cleane of hart for they shall see God that is Math 5 by a cleare vision in Beatitude But the maximes of the world which tye our harts to creatures by affection make them become defiled and impure and thereby obscure their spirituall sight from behoulding God Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven Math. 5 But by the maximes of the world quite contrariwise they are accompted to be most miserable and wheras by vertuous patience in suffering such persecution the godly obtayne the reward of eternall felicity the worldlings by seeking unjust revenge with indignation and wrath doe east their soules into the endlesse flames of Hell Give and there shall be given to you Luke 6 â—8 c. for with the same measure that you doe measure it shall be measured to you againe But self-interest being the great maxime of this world its practise is to take and obduratnesse of hart not permitting them to exercise this holy charity in releeving the needy and afflicted pore according to their owne measure they must expect justice without mercy because they shewed no mercy Saith S. James Woe to you that now doe laugh Luke 6.5 because you shall mourne and weepe Blessed 8. Augustin upon due reflexion on this holy maxime did often begg of God here to cutt and burne and not to spare him therby to spare him eternally But the wicked maxime of this world is to passe their dayes in present delight and jolity although in a moment they descend into Hell for ever But J say to you love your enemies doe good to them that hate you Math. 5 43. and pray for them that persecute and abuse you Our divine Redeemer Jesus both by his words and exemple hath recommended to us the practise of this holy maxime his whole life being a continuall exercise of doing good for evill But the wicked maxime of this world now contrariwise for an imaginary honour as they conceive it to revenge a wrong will put all at stake their hody and soule Gods honour and their neighbours damnation by that diabolicall practise of their duels If one strike thee on the right cheeeke turne to him also the other Math. 5.39 What herby we are taught by Christian patience to doe for gayning an enemy the world houlds it great basenesse of mind not to take full reparation by unlawfull revenge To him who will contend with thee in judgment Math. 5 40 and take away thy coates let goe also thy cloake unto him This charitable maxime though given us to avoyde disquiet contention and breach of charity yet worldlings accompt it meere follie and make small scruple to gaine an unlawfull fuite although to the great prejudice of their owne soules and totall temporall unjust ruyne of their poore neighbours livelyhood Why seest thou the mote in thy brothers eye Luke 6 41 but the beame which is in thy owne thou considerest not by this divine maxime we are advertised to looke well to the amendment of our owne faults much rather then to observe those in others But the sinful maxime of the world is to cover and conceale our owne great defects and to discover and publish much lesse in our neighbour But when thou doest an almes deed Math. 6.3 let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth This holy maxime doth teach us to hope by well doing to obtayne a recompence in Heaven but the Spirit of this world by seeking to be pay'd by the vaine glory of Men their merit can be no other but only the due punishment of their sin When thou doest fast Math. 6 16 annoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appeare not to men to fast This holy maxime gives
us the same instruction as the former and to avoyde hypocricy by vaine dissimulation Heape not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust Math. 6 19 and moth doe corrupt and where tho theeves doe digg through and steale The maxime which wordlings doe so generally practice is not only quite contrary unto this holy counsell of Jesus Christ but also even to reason it selfe they spending all their paine and industry for mere temporall wealth which they well know must be left unto others to spend and themselves only also charged with a very dangerous accompt for all and for which their eternall felicity may be greatly in danger Be not carefull therfore for the morrow Math. 6 34 for the morow shall be carefull for it selfe After our humane usuall industry employd then for the rest we must wholly place our confidence in God But the wordly maxime is with restlesse solicitude to make it the whole employment of their mind which should give also place to better thoughts Seek therfore first the kingdome of God Math. 6 33 and his justice and all these things shall be giving you The wordly irreligious maxime as contrary vnto this perswads us first and principally to labour for our temporals which argues the putting much more confidence in our owne humane industry then in the divine providence of God which is sinfull and great impiety All things therfore what soever you will that men doe Math. 7 12. doe you also to them for this is to you the lawe and the Prophets By this holy maxime we are taught by Jesus Christ the Commandement of loving our neighbour as our selfes But experience makes it too manifest how greatly contrary the worldly maxime is there unto which having interest for its guide must needs be defective in this holy rule of charity Broade is the gate and large the way that leadeth to perdition maâ— 12 and many there be that enter by it How narrow is the gate and straite is the way that leadeth to life and few there be that finde it The great truth of this divine maxime is plainly confessed by all and experience makes it manifest Yet such is the besotted follie of men with the present deluding follies of this world that they neglect as well to again the eternall felicity of Heaven as also to avoyde the never ending flames of Hell Feare yee not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soule math 10 38 but rather feare him that can destroy both soule and body in Hell This maxime is given to deterr us from sin wherby God is offended and our soule put in danger to be lost But sensuall people are so bwitched with their temporall affaires and their affection so fastned to the transitory contents of this world as they neither feare the offending of God nor the exposing their soules unto endlesse perdition therby He that taketh not up his crosse and followeth me math 10 38. is not worthey of me This holy maxime teacheth us that Heaven is not purchased but by bearing the crosse of tribulation contrary to the maxime of this world which perswads us here to seeke our paradise of pleasure and content But Paradise being only one it cannot be found both in this world and in the other The kingdome of Heaven suffers violence and the violent benre it away math 11.13 The violence ment here by this holy maxime is in curbing and ruling our passion and disordered affections to which the maxime of this world allowes full scope and liberty accompting that but an effect of magnanimity which is the guilt of sin He who seekes to exalt himselfe math 23 shall be humbled and who humbleth himselfe shall be exalted Jesus Christ hereby doth teach us that to seeke vaine glory and the praise of Men is but to loose the same and that flying and contemning it is the true meanes to obtayne it But the maxime of this world is to seeke and earnestly to runn after it and therefore we see by experience that they are like those who runn but after a shadow which as fast as we runn after it to catch it so fast it flyes from us although it followes them who fly away from it Where is your treasure math 6 there is your hart This divine maxime doth advertise us to labour for and as S. Paul exhorts us to gust and relish what is above where Christ sits at the right hand of God and not what is upon the Earth But worldly people have their harts so fast fixed upon the transitory affaires and vaine contents of this present life that their thoughts and industry are least of all upon what is eternall Many are cal'd but few are chosen math 20 1. This holy maxime is given us by our divine Redeemer to prevent our bould presumption who being cal'd unto the profession of his holy faith neglect to animate the same with the life of good workes without which faith it selfe is but dead and of no effect for our election unto beatitude as well appeares by that most dreadfull sentence at the day of doome against the reprobate who are not condemned for their want of true faith but for their not having accompanied it with good workes for which with a woefull goe yee cursed into internall fire c. they are excluded everlastingly from Beatitude He who persevers to the end math 10 shall be saved It is only perseverance which gayneth the crowne of victory and we must give this moment of our life to get it but the pernicious worldlings maxime prefers the enjoyment of this uncertaine moment in their vaine deluding pleasures and contents before the purchace of heavenly blisse which they might have gain'd at so easy a rate yea and with lesse torment both to their body and minde then they take to be condemned to the eternall flames of hell Devout prayers to be said some daily and others at convenient oportunity as each one shall best make choyce IT is most certaine that prayer is absolutely necessary for our salvation it being so that God will never bestow on us his graces requisit there unto but by the meanes of holy prayer Wherby we demande the same by this he preserves us also humble and acknowledging that of our selves we are able neither to resist our enemies nor to fly sin nor practise vertue wherby to worke our salvation but that from him must proceed all needfull succour to obtayne that Blisse No we neither are able to begin to doe well nor to persever without the speciall grace of God which is obtayn'd by holy prayer Yea like as the body cannot liue without respiration and ayre so neyther can the soule long continue in the life of Gods grace without the needfull exercise of prayer which is as necessary for the soule as is water for plants without which as they could produce no fruit soe neither can the soule
Lord Lambe of God who taketh away the sins of the world Have c. Christ heare us Christ graciously heare us Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Our Father which art in Heaven c. Let us pray O God of unspekable mercy who hath vouchsafed for our sakes to me made not only Man but the sonne of Man and wouldst have a woman to be thy Mother on Earth who from all Eternity hadst God to be thy Father in Heaven Grant we may celebrate her memory most devoutly venerate her Maternity most syncerly and be most humbly subject to her most excellent dignity who hath conceived Thee of the Holy Ghost hath brought Thee fourth of her wombe remaying a pure Virgin and to whom thou hast most humbly pleased to be subject heare on Earth who art the only begotten sonne of God our Lord Jesus Christ who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and rayneth world whithout end Amen DEfend we beseech Thee o Lord by the intercession of the ever Virgin Mary this thy family from all adversity and prostate before Thee with all our hartes protect us favorably from the snare of our enemies Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy only sonne who liveth with Thee in the vnity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen Finis Soli Deo Honor Gloria 10. May 1669. COurteous Reader bookes of this nature not being easily permitted to be printed at home no diligence of the corrector can avoyde the many faults which the Printer not understanding our langage must needs be very subject to committ His ignorance deserves your pardon and my paynes your prayers which I doe hartely crave Submitting intirely all the rest to the correction of the holy Cotholik Church Hopeing that if this little Manuel be used wiht the like intention whrewith it was composed the fruit will be not unanswerable to his desire who is a harty and true well wisher of the greatest happinesse to your dearest soule THE DOCTORS APPROBATION I Vnder vvitten Doctor of Divinity in the Vniversity of Paris have read ouer a little booke intitled a MANNVEL OF THE POORE MANS DEVOTION c. composed by VV.C. In vvhich I finde nothing contrary to the Catholike Apostolike and Roman faith or good manners but rather much that inciteth Christians to the true practise of solide piety and Devotion In vvittnesse vvheroff I have hereunto sett my hand this 2. day of Feb. 1669. F. GAGE Libellum Anglo idiomate scriptum à viro piissimo pariter ac Nobilissimo D. VV. C. sacerdote Anglo compositum optimis Instructionibus Meditationibus Orationibus plenum magna cum delectatione per legi in quo nihil nisi valde orthodoxum Christianae vitae ac Religiouis profectum quaerentibus maximè vero Neophytis vtilissunum deprehendi sapit porro authoris sui pietatem maximam ac viâ—ae integritatem quippe qui genetis splendorem quo maximè inter Anglos fulget virtutum suarum splendore excellere videatur Quamobrem bono Catholicorum Anglicanae diâ—ionis consulens hunc prelo dignissimum censeo ut ibi aliquos reperiat imitatores qui omnes vbique reperiet approbatores Datum Parisiis die 10. Decembris an restaurarae salutis 1669. I. MOLLONY sacrae Theologiae Facultatis Parisiensis Doctor A TABLE Of the chief contents in this Manuel A morning Exercice of holy prayer Page 3. The Angelus Domini for morning Noone and Evening pag. 14. Advertisments much conducing to Christian perfection pag. 15. An eveing Exercise for prayer before bedd pag. 17. King David his 7. Penitentiall Psalmes With the Litaniy of the Saints pag. 27. The true end of Man pag. 49. Of gratitude due to Iesus Christ p. 51. Our maine affaire is to save our soules pag. 53. Of Gods divine presence pag. 54. We ougth to distrust our selves p. 55. Against detraction and calumny p. 57. Of flying the oecasion of sin pag. 59. The small number of the Elect. p. 61. Of suffering persecution for justice sake pag. 63. Mans life subjct to innumerable miseries pag. 65. Reflection upon the word of Eternity pag. 68. The signification of Priestly Ornaments And of the other Ceremonies and divine Mysteries of the Masse pag. 71. A devout Exercise for hearing Masse with true profitt and piety p. 103. Spirituall advises of S. Theresa conducing to live happily with God and Man pag. 131. Pious Reflections for embracing vertue and flying vice which may be used as the subject of so many profitable Meditations pag. 136. Of the Sacrament of Confession p. 175. A table of sins helping the memory for a generall Confession pag. 180. An Act of Contrition pag. 196. A prayer before Confession pag. 197. A prayer exciting compunction for our sins pag. 20â— An Examen of Conscience for such as often frequent the Sacrament of Penance pag. 209. A devout prayer after Confession pag. 214. Of the Holy Communion pag. 221. Prayers before the Holy Communion pag. 230. A preparatory meditation hofore the holy Communion pag. 238. Prayers after the holy CoÌ„munion pag. 238. The Canticle of the 3. Children pag. 243. The Canticle of Zachary pag. 243. The B. Virgins Canticle of Magnificat pag. 247. The Himne of S. Ambrose and S. Augustin in thankes giving to God at his conversion pag. 248. The Psalme 148. wherein all creatures are invited to praise God pag. 251. A Meditation of thankes giving after Communion pag. 253. An Exercise for practising acts of the most necessary vertues pag. 256. Holy maxims pronounced by Iesus Christ much different from the maxims of the world pag. 293. Devout prayers to be said at convenient oportunity as each shall best make choyce p. 298. Of Aspirations and jaculatory prayers pag. 346. Of Meditation pag. 358. Matter of Meditation for each day in the weeke pag. 363. An Exercise preparatory to death With the recommendation of the soule in English pag. 379. An abridgment of the afore-said exercice which may bee used every day pag. 441. An appendix containing a touch stone of true and false prayer pag. 444. The Litany of our Saviour Iesus pag. 451. The Litany of our B. Lady p. 465. The faults escaped in printing the courteous Reader vvill easily both correct and pardon