or approve you according to your doings 2. Making you most gracious promises upon obedience to his will and following his counsels and again grievously threatning you upon contempt of his laws and these promises And using all possible means your liberty being reserved and your will not forced to wean and fright you from the ways of death and allure you to the ways of life 3. Redeeming you after that in your natural condition you became dis-obedient when without strength Rom. 5 6 when a sinner ver 8. when an enemy ver 10. from sin death satan hell into whose cruel hands you were fallen by his own Son Him that was brought up with him his dayly delight Prov. 8.30 sent out of his own bosome Jo. 1.18 Even by him God that made the world to be given up to death to be hanged on the tree for you and in your stead Remitting all your Sin gratis for his sufferings without requiring of you so strict an account for offences how grievous soever committed in the time past before you were by the receit of the stronger iluminations of his Spirit converted unto him 4. Calling you by being born according to his good pleasure in a Christian Common-wealth to Grace i. e. To the hearing of his holy word To the use and benefit of his holy Sacraments the sure pledges of his love and seals of the future performance of all his promises of remission of sin of increase of Grace c. _____ To the guidance and assistance of his holy Clergy To the Example of many holy Saints 5. Having long patience and forbearance with you whilst notwithstanding these you continued still vicious ready to be reconciled whenever you would return unto him and with all patience waiting for your repentance and himself practising most exactly towards you all the rules of long-suffering and forgiveness which he hath enjoyned you towards others 6. In your Conversion preventing you with his Grace regenerating and making you a new Creature after the image of his Son by infusing into you a new principle the Spirit which remains in you during your whole life and sufficiently enabling you in all the parts of holiness if you be not wanting to it on your part 7. Giving you day by day many illuminations divine inspirations and admonitions and by his Grace in you making you capable of and rewardable with new mercies unto you 8. Ordaining you after a few days spent here on earth to an immortal condition and unconceivable joys in heaven and to have this your vile Body after its corruption raised again in great glory and beauty §. 174. 9. Affections and Resolutions Such as these 1. Admiring his Goodness Your Ingratitude 2. Sorrow for ever having offended him 3. Re-loving him 4. Indeavouring hereafter to serve him 5. Suffering any misery for him 6. Imitating his goodness to you in yours to others c. For Considerations are easily multiplied §. 175. VI. HEADS for Meditation on the Several Offices and Benefits to Mankind of Jesus Christ our Lord extracted out of the larger Discourse of our Saviour's Benefits Consider 1. The world being full of ignorance and sin Jesus Christ 1. Law giver and Apostle The Truth the holy one of God in the fulness of time anointed by the Father and sent into the world A new Law-giver ministring not the letter of the law but the Spirit An Apostle preaching the Gospel Remitting Sins Conferring the Holy Ghost having the Keys of and admitting some into and shutting others out of the Kingdome of Heaven And who before his necessary departure ordained others by succession of Ordination to be continued to the world's end Sending them as the Father sent him delivering over his doctrine and delegating his authority and embassy and keys unto them and unto the end of the world from heaven assisting their Ministry Matt. 28.20 Appellations relating unto this Office Shepherd Pastour Bishop 1. Pet. 2.25 1. Pet. 5.4 §. 176. 2. After thus teaching the Way of life Christ the Exemplar and Pattern to mankind in his life and death The Way 2. Exemplar of all obedience to God's commands and of all suffering for righteousness sake which God hath here required And in his Resurrection and Ascension of the reward which God hath for hereafter promised §. 177. 3. God's former Covenant of Works being found unprofitable unto us 3. Mediatour upon the breach thereof now liable to God's wrath and eternal death Jesus Christ the Mediator of a new Covenant and Testament founded in remission of sins reconciling sinners to God Sealing this Covenant with his Blood the blood of the New Testament Luk. 22.20 and ratifying this Testament with his death and after his Resurrection having put into his own hands by the Father the donation of the rewards promised to those that keep the conditions of this Covenant §. 178. 4. God's justice not pardoning Sin gratis Christ the Sacrifice 4. Sacrifice the lamb of God the true sin-offering for the world expiating our guilt and our passover delivering us sprinkled with his blood Heb. 12.24 from the destroying Angel And our peace-offering by eating whereof we have Communion with God with his Son and all that is his with the Saints and all that is theirs Lastly by eating whereof being the Bread of Life our Souls and Bodies are preserved unto everlasting life as in paradise they should have been by the tree of life §. 179. 5. Man being indebted to God's justice by him unsatisfiable and in bondage to sin 5. Redeemer to the law to death and to Satan the grand Executioner of God's justice and Prince of this lower world Jesus Christ the Redeemer by paying a ransome freeing us from our debt and by making a conquest delivering us out of our slavery By whom we are freed already from the dominion of sin from the condemnation of the law from the chains of Satan from the approach of death eternal from the hurt and therefore from the fear of death temporal that being now only a passage to happiness But when the good time is come shall be by the same Redeemer yet more perfectly freed from all these than as yet we are namely from any adherence or possibility of sin from any temptation of Satan from being restrained to any law from being capable of any mortality through Jesus Christ our Lord. §. 180. 6. God making a Covenant with the first Adam made of the earth involving his seed 6. Second Adam The Life 1. Cor. 15.45 and he by his pride transgressing it so both losing the reward and bringing death both on himself and his posterity Jesus Christ the second Adam descending from heaven assuming our nature entring a Covenant involving his seed fulfilling it by walking a contrary way to the first i. e. by humility and so receiving the reward for himself and for his seed Both the holy spirit and immortality which were lost by the first Adam being now in their due time
all sins past as present and always before him whilst to the sinner himself many are never known many once known quite forgotten Again He as being the person wronged by sin who is always a higher valuer of the offence than is the party offending justly aggravating it from the supreme dignity of his person his infinite love and numberless benefactions to the Sinner his former long patience toward Him his exceeding holiness and purity so opposite to its filthiness c. See Gen. 6.6 Where 't is said That man's sin grieved him at his heart and it repented our Lord that ever he had made him on the earth And again Mar. 3.5 That our most meek Lord Jesus was so provoked by it That he looked round about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts But especially the hainousness of sins may be learnt from the many experienced stupendious Judgments upon them at which man is much troubled how to make them bear any just proportion to his Faults Which dreadful revenges upon Sin you may consider 1. In the faln Angels for one sin exiled from heaven and held in chains of darkness near upon ever since the Creation of the world besides what is to come made also for ever uncapable of any means of Reconciliation 2. In Adam for one sin ejected out of his most pleasant Habitation apparrel'd with the covering of Beasts condemned to eat his Bread in labour and sorrow and penance for near a 1000 years and then to return to Putrefaction and a curse laid on all his Posterity and on the ground they lived on for his sake 3. In the drowning at one time for their lusts and oppressions of all the men in the world except Eight persons their children and infants and all other living creatures for their sake 4. In the storm of Fire and Brimstone rained upon the five Cities for their Lusts and those pleasant Plains turned to a dead Lake till this day and yet these Cities to undergo a new Damnation at the day of Judgment as if they had as yet suffered nothing See Mat. 11.22 Where our Lord aggravating the punishment of Bethsaida saith it shall be then more intolerable than that of Sodome 5. In the severe punishments of David though otherwise a most holy person the sad story of which you may read in the 13.15 and 24. Chapters of 2. Sam. Concerning all which forenamed punishments this is a sufficient evidence that the sins deserved them because he who is Justice it self and from whom man learns the true notions of it inflicted them 6. Lastly In the precious Sacrifice of the only Son of God required by his Father for the Expiation of Sin This of the present temporal punishments But then consider also 2ly The future punishment for all sin here unrepented of and unforsaken before death in the world to come 27. 1 Immediately after death Of the Soul Exemplified in the deceased rich man tormented in fire whilst his brethren yet living in their jollity here on earth Luk. 16.24 And in the Beast and false Prophet their being cast into the Lake of fire before the Invasion of Gog and Magog and before Satan's being shut up there See Rev. 19 20. Comp. 20.8.10 Which also appears from our Lord 's declaring that a temporal death kills the Body but not the Soul Matt. 10.28 And St. Pet. 1. Ep. 3 4. adviseth the adorning of the hidden man of the heart because this not corruptible And Ibid. ver 19. makes mention of Spirits in Prison viz. the spirits of such persons as were preached-to in the days of Noah And if the Souls of the Righteous be then presently in Paradise Luk. 23.43 and with Christ their Lord and partake of God's mercy and glory the Souls of the Wicked must be then presently imprisoned and remain with the Devil their Master feel the lashes of God's Justice and begin their never ending misery and ignominy Whilst the Body descends into the Grave the poor Soul by the strength of Angels being forced downward into a far lower Dungeon an infernum inferius in the most innermost bowels of the earth from whence it shall never return again nor see light save at the last day that which flasheth from the face of the angry Judge when it is brought to his Bar to receive its last doom doubled torments and to make it much more sensible of them forc'd to take along with it its loathed Mate the Body into the same profound pit Who then can tell the agony of such person now come to the end of his days when scorched with Feavers he desires to dye and by death can remove only into a bed of fire when he cannot endure his present pains and hath no change save to far greater these he cannot suffer and the other if ceasing to suffer these he can no way avoid nor knows he what way to turn himself in this Labyrinth of Despairs These sufferings of the Soul having been by some endured already above 5000 years and those of the rich glutton in flames if this not made wholly a Parable suffered now above sixteen Centuries though he lived here not one 28. 2 After Dooms-day Of Soul and Body Where also weigh well the terrible description of these punishments mentioned in his Word who cannot lye The Body raised in dishonour A Carcass deformed stinking Chains binding hand and foot Prison depth of the Earth Dungeon Bottomless Pit A Fire and Brimstone-Lake Immobility Suffocation Worm or Serpent gnawing Fire devouring Thirst never refreshed Body never consumed Sense never stupified Weeping wailing gnashing the teeth Society of wicked men and Devils ugly stinking All hating cursing one another hating cursing God cast into a land of Oblivion Psal 88.12 None to comfort none to bemoan The ancient Compassion of Saints and Angels and God now turned into Hate and Derision No Mediator no Redeemer The Soul always in an Agony and sick to death restless hopeless despairing wounded to the heart with the sense of lost happiness as well as present misery And all her sufferings eternal eternal Eternal these pains God in his upright Justice not being so indulgent as to grant to that his wretched Creature the relief of an Annihilation And these pains unremitting the rich man sparingly begging of the beggar that before wanted his relief but only one drop of water falling from the dipped tip of his finger Luk. 16.24 and it would not be granted him The greatness of God's vengeance then answering the greatness of his person and of his patience when yet for the present so much hating sin which Patience abused at last turns to Fury and no wrath comparable to the wrath of the Lamb. See Rev. 6.6 Rom. 2.5 And from the magnitude of this wrath and punishment is chiefly learnt the magnitude of sin and what a Monster that must be that deserves such Torments for ever and ever from him that cannot do the least Injustice Digr Of the Degrees
forewarned us like a thief at a time when we are asleep and think less of it than at other times we do Now this imagined great distance still from our death chiefly ariseth from every ones reckoning his own end only from deficiency of nature which yet not one of 1000 dyes of and not from accidental distempers when as most commonly this our lamp goes out either choaked with its own nourishment or violently extinguished by some external accident before its Oyl is half consumed And since nothing is more common then example of this in others on every side what self love and dotage is it to promise our selves a better destiny till we also surprized become the like example to others 23. And consider likewise and think with your self how many are dying in that very time you are thinking and meditating of it 24. 2 When this time shall come your impotency and unfitness from your fears your pains and many times the want of your senses that will then be to order either the matter of your Soul or of your worldly affairs to do any thing with sufficient devotion or prudence and also your friends at that time hiding from you as much as they can the danger of your sickness Nay your self perhaps when decumbent under the stroke of death yet removing it a far off still and certainly presuming being loath to imagine the worst of a recovery only because some few so sick have not dyed of whom your unkind friends will not be wanting to mind you also because your self formerly have recovered 25. For exciting your resolutions and affections Indeavour to make the same judgment of things for the present and to have the same opinion now of your sins of the world and its pleasures and its cares and your designs in it and what you imagine you should in such a case at such a time purpose now resolve upon 26. Prepare your self for that terrible and dreadful hour in some of those Duties set down before 27. Avoid not but use and seek out all the sad memorials of death that may be as visiting Hospitals the sick sore and putrifying dying persons hearing their speeches their groans looking on the skeletons of the dead frequenting funerals Making many reflections on the passing of time decays of your own Body or other mens c. Remembring often Eccl. 7.2 3 4. Repeating often the 90 Psalm Recalling to mind and keeping a Catalogue sometimes to be reviewed of your friends and acquaintance deceased Considering what they were did are Thus much for Sickness and Death §. 169. For Consideration of the General day of Judgment some more particulars may yet be added Consider 1. That that is the proper day of justice and wrath as the present is of Grace and Mercy See Rom. 2.5.8 9. 2. Thes 1.7 8. Rev. 11.18 6.16 Luk. 18.7 2. Cor. 5.11 God's justice upon sin by Christ's Mediation being delayed till that time that many might come to repentance 2. Pet. 3.9 and these his present temporal punishments being inflicted chiefly not for vengeance but for other ends either for their good that suffer or other mens that behold it Therefore the present called our day Luk. 19.42 2. Cor. 6.2 wherein our free will doth as it pleaseth That the day of the Lord 2. Pet. 3.10 1. Thes 5.2 wherein removing this free power we yet enjoy God will gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and all that do iniquity and cast them into the furnace Matt. 13.41 2. The dreadful signs that shall be then of God's wrath and the terribleness of the appearance of that day beyond all other terrors and the alteration of Heaven and Earth and putting out of the Sun before the sitting in judgment Rev. 20.11 comp 12. tho not till after the resurrection 1. Thes 4.16 See 2. Pet. 3.10.12 Psal 18.7 c. Nahum 1.3 c. Esai 30.27 c. Matt. 24.29 c. Rev. 20.11 Joel 3.2.12 c. to 17. Zechariah 14.4 Luk. 21.36 3. As the Bodies of the righteous raised in great beauty and glory so those of the wicked in great filthiness and deformity 4. The horrible fear and trembling of the wicked then living Matt. 30. Luk. 21.25 26. Rev. 1.7 6.16 11.18 Rev. 1.7 this day coming upon them when full of sin and security Matt. 24.12.38 Luk. 18.8 21.35 1. Thes 5.3 2. Thes 2 3. And of the Souls of the formerly dead then being brought out of their prisons 1. Pet. 3.19 and reunited to their loathsome companion the Body Now to be sentenced together with the devil to eternal torments whom also we may suppose deprecating as the Devils Luk. 8.31 5. The confidence and joy of the righteous then living and of the Souls of the dead then coming out of the place of rest and bliss and reunited to their Bodies their Bodies carefully gathered up and brought together by the Angels and such as they are described 1. Cor. 15.42 c. 2. Thes 1.10 both these being then caught up in the clouds and having their ascension like our Saviour's and meeting the Lord coming in his Glory with his Blessed Angels to Judgment in the air 1. Thes 4.17 Luk. 21.28 1. Jo. 2.28 1. Cor. 7.7 2 Tim. 4.8 Tit. 2.13 1. Thes 5.4 2. Pet. 3.12 whom we may suppose singing together as in Rev. 19.6 7 8. 6. A particular appearance and examination of all the Sons of Adam assembled together Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham's time then confronting Corazin and Bethsaida in Christ's time c. And every one giving account of himself to God the Counsels of all their hearts being made manifest and secrets divulged Rom. 14.10.12 1. Cor. 4.5 Matt. 10.15 Rev. 20.12 Rom. 2.16 Ecclesiastes 12.14 7. Books kept containing all mens works then brought forth and opened Rev. 12.20 In which how many sins never thought of for Repentance shall be then brought to our Remembrance for Condemnation And besides them a peculiar Book of life called also a Book of remembrance Mal. 3.16 being not of actions but only of names i. e. of those who have here served and pleased God that none of them might be forgotten or unrewarded in that day All the rest who are not writ in that happy book being abandoned to eternal destruction Exod. 32.32 33. Phil. 4.3 Rev. 3.5 20.15 Luk. 10.20 Jo. 10.28 29. 8. The manifestation at that time of God's just judgment the manner whereof is set down by St. Paul Rom. 2. from 6. to 17. verse which shall be upon no other point but down-right according to works Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 Matt. 16.27 c. In which works words Matt. 12.37 Jud. 15. and thoughts Rom. 2.16 are contained According to works either those that men have persevered in without any repentance of them at all or where any repentance of them hath been which cancels all the work before it Ezech. 18.21 22. according to the works done after it whether these be good or whether they be evil which being evil
most of men suddenly carried away hence not by the decays of old age but some accidental Distemper or mischance See the larger Meditations on Death below § 170. 4. That eternal Estate depending on our ordering this momentany 5. The Sufferings of the present not worthy to be compared with the Felicities to come nor with the Torments 6. The Pleasures of the present not worthy to be compared with the Sufferings to come nor with the Pleasures II. Concerning the Condition of all present things about us II. Concerning the condition of all present things about us Consider 1. The good things of this world 1 attained with much trouble which is many times also destitute of success 2 Very fleeting in no one moment exactly like themselves in another and not at all certainly enjoyed Here meditate on the temporal Crosses of the greatest and happiest of men David considering his many Psalms of complaint Solomon considering the Confessions of Ecclesiastes Ezechias Josias Constantine Augustus c. And that all Conditions are equally liable to the greatest and intimatest of evils i. e. Sickness 2. The enjoyment no way satisfying not only vanity in them but vexation Ecclesiastes 1.26 3. Though never so satisfying yet many of them forbidden by our Maker and not to be enjoyed without sin The end of our and their Creation not being our present happiness in a full indulgement of them but in the use only of such as are necessary and allowed and in our subjection to many strict Laws and great Temptations and constant service and worship of our Creator here and hereafter an eternal Fruition of him 4. Those that may be without sin enjoyed yet many of them hinderances to our future happiness and tempting to sin and ordinarily our pleasure not to be had both here and hereafter 5. Lastly Consider how few those pleasures and how momentany that time will appear upon your sad Death-bed with which you have bargained for eternal pains Ecclesiasticus 11.27 and how sweet and gentle those commands and how short the time of your restraint by them by which you might have gained eternal felicity III. Concerning the unreasonableness and hurt of Sin III. Concerning the unreasonableness and hurt of Sin Consider 1. The great unreasonableness of sin and the constant opposition it hath both to the publick and to a man's private natural good Or That all things naturally and in the judgment of right reason good for man are by the supreme Law-giver allowed and only things naturally as we are men hurtful prohibited 2. The chief Causes of Sin 1. External The Devil and the evil Spirits his Angels enemies to man Digr Of the great malice and power of Satan intervening in humane affairs in general and of the incessant temptations and suggestions of evil Spirits to the production of Sin circumeuntes quaerentes quem devorent 3. 2ly Internal The sensitive part disobedient and rebellious to the rational Digr Of the great power and the many ways that the sensitive faculties have in perverting reason for the production of Sin 4. The Antecedent of a sinful Act the torment of an inordinate desire 5. The great trouble and servitude that is under Sin 6. The Consequents of Sin 1. Either Inquietude of Conscience Or which is worse a dangerous blindness of mind and hardness of Heart within 7. 2ly Stronger Delusion by God's Grace abandoning us to the will of Satan from abroad And so the Curse of Sin still more Sin 8 1. The present Temporal punishments of Sin in this world Some inflicted by God's vengeance which especially pursues Murder and Cruelty Adultery Disobedience to Parents Breach of Oaths and Solemn Promises 9. Some naturally caused by the Sin Among these Sickness a shortned life Infamy Poverty Quarrels Disconsolation and Despair 10. 2 Such Punishments inflicted and that very severely for greater sins even upon those who are in God's favour and Penitents 11. Inflicted upon many Generations one for the sins of another God using besides those on private persons Inquisitions Ps 9.12 and Judgments more publick at pre-appointed times on families on nations wicked 12. These publick Judgments returning ordinarily once in three or four Generations upon the disobedient Exod. 20.5.34.7 for God's Eternity and exceeding patience maketh not such hast as we 13. Then These Judgments extending further than Man's Justice doth 1st For the Sufferers namely to Relatives in that particular sin not faulty to Children to Buildings And 2ly further than man's for the Crimes also that such persons are charged with namely for those of many Predecessors for God's hand is heavier than man's 14. Punishing 1st the Crimes if very grievous of the Fathers though they become afterwards penitent and received into favour upon their Posterity wicked or other Relatives As appears in Manasseh 2. Chron. 33.10 13. 2. King 24.3 4. And in David 2. Sam. 24 17. 15. 2ly The Crimes of sinning Parents upon Posterity innocent of such Crimes though not every way righteous Ezech. 18.14 2. Sam. 21.1.14 2. Sam. 12.18 But never this in the same measure as he doth on a wicked Progeny See Ezech. 18. chap. 16. Using ordinarily the more wicked his Instruments to punish the less 17. The first and more in Grace when lapsed the first and more in punishment 18. Punishing men for their guilt in one thing by another thing wherein they are innocent or involving those in the same punishments who are innocent as to that common guilt for which he punisheth the rest 19. Punishing also the Instruments of his Justice and of his punishments they executing them most what unjustly and punishing also the Rejoycers at his punishments 20. In equal guilt punishing some not others Lu. 13.2.4 21. In unequal guilt punishing all alike yet not this by punishing any beyond but only some less than their desert 22. Punishing at certain times only the sins of many times and sometimes the less wicked age for the sins of the more wicked 23. Not excusing sin the more when grown to general custome as man doth but ordinarily then his wrath breaking forth upon it when the commonness makes it seem no fault and so when the Sinners least fear or think of wrath Our sins appearing greatest to him when least to our selves 24. Punishing in such set places universally the less faulty there as the more whilst at the same time elsewhere people more faulty enjoy impunity and yet the Lord in all these punishments most righteous since of these the more guilty are always punished much under the less guilty never beyond their demerits their Demerits I say in some other if not in the same kind 25. Inflicted not according to the estimation which man the Offender maketh of his sin but which God the Judge who reckons many very hainous which the other accounts very small and all sins in general far more sinful than man doth He looking on the heart and discovering its malice and hypocrisy more perfectly than the sinner himself doth beholding
of future Torments * according to the several measures of sin here Matt. 10.15 * According to the measures of sinful pleasures enjoyed here Rev. 18.7 Luk. 16.25 * According to the greater knowledge of God's will here Luk. 12.4.47 48. 29. After all that is said seriously imagine What one of those poor Souls released from Hell-torments would do not to return again to those intolerable pains what rigid long Penances he would undergo what great works of Piety and Devotions he would attempt what a strict watch he would keep over his words and thoughts and after all think this nothing in comparison of such a deliverance And then do you endeavour to do the like mortification who perhaps are a greater Sinner to prevent those pains and secure your future Condition The unreasonableness and hurt of Sin thus seriously pondered IV. Concerning the difficulty of Repentance IV. Next Concerning Repentance and its Difficulties Consider 1. 1 It s Inferiority to innocence And 2 the great advantages of early Piety 2. Wicked actions of the afterward penitent though not condemning us yet 1 Diminishing our future happiness i.e. the more clear Vision and the more perfect fruition of that which we then shall most ardently love or if you will the more ardent love of that which is supremely amiable 2 Hindering for the present the larger donations and consolations of the Spirit 3. The folly of sinning because of a cure which will be so bitter if effectual 4. The uncertainty of attaining Repentance and converting unto God at what time we shall desire it Forgiveness being promised to Repentance But not so longer life or in it the Grace of Repentance to a Sinner And this supposed that the Elect cannot finally fall away yet not any sure but only by perseverance or extraordinary Revelation that they are of that number since many believers are not so Jam. 2.14.19 20. Matt. 25.44 In illum crediderunt Bona operari non curaverunt St. Austine De Fide Oper. cap. 15. 5. The uncertainty afterward of our having performed it sufficiently 6. Upon continuance in sin still more difficulty of Repentance sin habituated growing much stronger 7. And less care also of Repentance as a sin is more frequented so it appearing lesser 8. And sins of Malice which by the Judgment of God do darken the heart being followed with sins of Ignorance And then this not-knowing that we sin utterly barring up all way to repentance Jer. 2.35 9. And so much sorer Repentance penances humiliations tears c. to be performed for a longer and increased guilt and for the delay also of Repentance 10. The time of an acceptable Repentance perhaps to some tho none can know to whom expired before this life be so For which at your leisure consider these Texts Heb. 3.11 6.4 10.26 12.16 17. Luk. 19.42 Matt. 12.42 Jo. 5.14 12.39 40. Apocal 16.9.11 Job 27.9 35.12 13. Prov. 1.24.28 28.9 Es 1.15 Jer. 11.11 14.12 Ezech. 8.18 Zeph. 2.2 2. Chron. 36.16 Esay 6.9 10.55.6 Psal 18.41 Psal 32.6 Eccles 9.12 Jer. 14.10 Ezech. 14.13 14. Zechar. 7.13 2. King 22.16 c. 23.25 26 27. Josiah's Prayers and Reformation not countervailing Manasses his sins Manasses tho a Penitent 2. Chron. 33.12 c. Hos 9.7 5 6. Matt. 13.15 21.19 25.10 11. Luk. 13.24 25. 12.58 19.42 21.35 Jo. 8.21 2. Pet. 2.20 1. Thes 2.13.16 The Case of Cain Gen. 4.13 Of Saul 1. Sam. 15.24 30 31. 1. Cor. 9.24 Some Runners losing the Race 2. Tim. 2.5 Some Combatants losing the Crown It may be some or other of these Texts God's Grace co-operating may prevail with you for an early Reformation for fear of a later fruitless Repentance 11. And they at last abandoned and condemned to more sins as the punishment of former Act. 7.42 Rom. 1.24 Hence 12. Later Repentance less hopeful 13. And from little hopes of forgiveness there growing more hardheartedness in sinning 14. After Repentance If there happens a relapse to the same degree of sinning as formerly this Estate far worse than before that of the Impenitent was Either the guilt of former sin upon relapse as some say returning or rather the very guilt of the relapse so much more aggravated from former sin forgiven 15. Lastly That a true and effectual Repentance is where death prevents not nothing else but a sincere Reformation of life and actual walking in Holiness and Righteousness all our days Together with a continual voluntary Contrition looking back to our former sinful life Contrition both interior and exterior joined together in forbearing things delightful and in practising things painful to the flesh and to nature Corpo voto Anima desolata Digr 1. Of the severe Penitences done in the Primitive Church 2. Recommendation of doing voluntary publick Penance 3. That the fear of God's Justice and doubtfulness of his forgiveness either of the eternal or also temporal punishments for sins committed after Baptisme is the chiefest promoter of the painful humiliations of Repentance And presumption of the certainty of our Salvation or of the divine mercy either general to all or particular to us when such sinners by some miscalled Faith is the greatest hindrance thereof Qui a peur il est asseur §. 5 Par. 1. V. Concerning the Measure of this Reformation V. Concerning the measure of this Reformation Consider 1. The strictness of the last Judgment not only concerning our Works but Words and Thoughts where there hath been here no after-penitence for and Reformation from them More especially concerning the imployment of our abilities and the Duties of our Profession or calling Luk. 19.13 12.42 43. Matt. 25.15.30 Matt. 20.8 Luk. 16.2 And concerning our deeds of charity and mercy Matt. 25.42 16.9 10. Matt. 10.42 Luk. 16.25 Comp. 21. 2. And the severity thereof The Lord Jesus then coming as with great power and glory Matt. 24.30 so in great wrath to take vengeance on the disobedient to his Gospel c. 2. Thes 1.7 8. Rev. 6.16 n. 18. 3. The Paucity of the saved and even of those who profess Christianity but by their own default man being a creature indued with free will that so his actions might be capable of punishment and reward Many called but few chosen and many more condemned by God's Justice than saved by his Mercy Concerning this weigh well our Lord's Answer to the Question asked him If few saved Luk. 13.23 That the Gate of Salvation is strait and that many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able i. e. seek too late when the Gate is shut There is a Time then it seems when the Gate shall be shut upon us after which shutting we in vain seek the opening of it See § 4. n. 10. As he tells the Jews also Jo. 7.34 and 8.21 That they should seek him and yet dye in their sins because come too late But though many seek to enter in that shall not yet perhaps the most may enter in still Therefore see the Question answered yet
so long on such a subject Repeating committing to memory so many Psalms Multiplying extraordinary hours of Prayer Visiting some loathed objects of mortality or pitty Confessing our fault to another every time we commit it c. Many of which and many more may be largely exemplified in the practices of our Lord Himself §. 34. 19. Confessing frequently your sins to your spiritual Guide 1. Confessing very frequently all your sins to your spiritual Father and Director to receive his ministerial Absolution from them upon judgment of your penitence his Sacerdotal Benediction and prescription of such Humiliations and Penances as may be thought further necessary for the appeasing of God's wrath towards them and your present cure from them to receive his spiritual advice and Consolations his Prayers and Intercessions to God for you to put your self to the oftener shame and the taking revenge on your self for them to glorify the justice of God's judgments if then you lye under any and to avert them For Confession of sin is a special means to the sick or otherwise afflicted for their recovery and deliverance out of their distress Jam. 5.14 15 16. The resolution of such frequent confessing keeps a modest man in awe from sinning the preparing for Confession helps him better to know his Sins the testifying to another of his sorrow for them binds him more to forsake them and God's grace and illumination accompanies such Humiliation 2. Your Confession to reap the more benefit therefrom to be always very particular that by the more exact knowledge of the state of your conscience both concerning the several facts and especially concerning the motives to and the continuance of them your spiritual Physitian may apply more proper remedies to your disease 3. Vncovering your sins especially your greater sins and those that more afflict your conscience to other your confidents and amongst them to those rather by whom you are esteemed and who are more eminent than you in Piety for your greater Mortification And very beneficial it is to do the same upon the rising of any temptation for this much confounds your spiritual adversary that suggests them to see himself ministerial to your vertues instead of faults 4. Ordering with some others daily conversation with you a mutual conscientious and free admonition of your faults Even the wisest and holiest of men being not so well as others much inferior able to discern some of their imperfections §. 35. 20. Openly professing a zeal of Piety and Christian Vertues 1. Making open profession of your extraordinary desire and affection to Devotion and Piety Forbearing no holy Action because to be done openly and in publick and resolved for this willingly to undergo the imputation as it must be at first of Hypocrisy or Vain-glory. Remembering Ecclesiasticus 20.22 There is that destroyeth his own Soul through bashfulness and by accepting of persons overthroweth himself By this course you shall never afterward be ashamed of your duty when it happens to be contrary to fashion having once for all pre-occupated this shame in your former Profession By this you shall stand at all times engaged to make good what you so openly pretend By this others as knowing your resolution will cease to tempt or seduce you from it and will abandon you to your better inclinations 2. Contemning utterly and scorning worldly Reputation and Disgrace the pleasing or the offending of men which are the greatest enemies of Piety 3. Contemning in the exercise of Religious Duties scandals and offences unjustly taken at you §. 36. 21. Strongly apprehending God's presence n. 1. Strongly imagining or rather apprehending what is a truth the presence of God as also of his Holy Angels standing always by you in the place where you are and looking into your deeds words and thoughts and much rejoycing in your Virtues This Imagination thro God's Grace is easily attained by accustoming your fancy awhile thereto and will much enliven your prayers and discourses with God and sanctify and solace your Solitudes c. But without often weighing and pondering this presence your general knowledge thus unapplied that God is present in all things will not benefit you so much See larger Directions concerning this below § 94. §. 36. n. 2. 22. Contemplating his Omni-Agency Considering God's Omni-agency and that nothing small or great in this world happens to us by chance but that God's Creatures only perform and execute what his hand and his counsel determined before to be done i e. that nothing here is done without the Divine knowledge permission and providence directing it to the Divine i. e. to some good or also the very best End The Benefits of which Meditation are always exceeding great For who strongly believes and remembers this conforms himself peaceably to all events as to God's Will and is contented with whatever happens as knowing this Divine Will to be steered also with infinite Wisdome Therefore as he is diligent in his labours directed to many particular good ends so he trusts not in these to effect such ends but looks more at the motions of the Divine Will and Co-operation and so soon as ever this by the event discovers it self to him whether it dis-appoint or prosper his works and those ordered in the best manner he could for God's Service He sides with this Divine Will it being as the main end his actions aimed at And thus he is never defeated in his purpose Is ready to praise God on all occasions whether seeming as to particular ends good or bad as knowing indeed all best that God doth Entertains with chearfulnes and resignation to this Superior Power all cross accidents gives God particular thanks for every thing that falls out well suffers none of God's excellent works to be lost and passed by unregarded but observes them speaks of them acknowledgeth them for his and gives him Glory and admires and commends no persons else for any good but only as his Instruments and with an eyeing of him as the chief Principle thereof Is displeased with the actions of none of God's Creatures in order to himself and especially not with those of his enemies cannot think ill of them for this but always excuseth and pardoneth them as looking beyond and above them at the Divine Providence which by them exerciseth a necessary tryal of his patience and other Christian Virtues Finally in all things that befall him he sees as it were God's Will writ upon them and so out of the love of God admits them into his affections saying continually in his heart Domine fiat voluntas tua Pater mi non sicut ego volo sed sicut Tu. And so continues always in repose is seldome or never much angry or discontented And by this way exceedingly pleaseth God for he is always undissemblingly commending whatever He doth PART III. DUTIES §. 37. AFter these Considerations and Counsels the two first parts chiefly directing to the cure and preventing of Sin our negative Holiness in
2. A right ordering of our Judgment concerning Truth and Error 1. Judging of the truth of Doctrines as you see they tend to godliness 1. Tim. 6.3 Tit. 1.1 and as they are more fitted for bringing forth in us the fruits of good works For by their fruits are true and false doctrines certainly known Matt. 7.16.20 holiness and truth vice and error being consectaries one of another §. 46. 2. Taking heed of those doctrines which weaken the practice of Piety c. To name you some of them such as these seem to be If any Should teach you That to abstain from any thing which it is lawful by God's word to enjoy is fruitless will-worship Superstition Should assure you of an equal facility of attaining heaven in all conditions of life not noting to you the great lets and temptations that are in some beyond others as in honors riches marriage c. to excite your choice of the Better or your vigilance in the other Should disallow or discourage Vows and other prefortifications against those things which have been former occasions of sinning and the abstaining where-from is in our Power Should speak against frequent hours of prayer in the day frequent days of solemn worship in the year frequent celebrations of the Eucharist frequent Confession and Communion frequent fasting days and macerations of the Body c. Should remit unto you the reins of your obedience to the authority of the Church requiring it only to her when she commands that which you in your own judgment weighing her reasons do think just and right to be believed or practised Should disallow confession of your sins to the Priest Should affirm that confession to God or the Priest is sufficient for remission of Sin without reformation of life and quitting Sin Or that an internal sorrow of the Soul for them is only required and any further external and corporal penances humiliations or punishing your self for them useless Or teach that these penances and mortifications are necessary only when they are imposed to satisfy the scandal given the Church but no way to appease the wrath of God Or that your sins are remitted by mony alms Ecclesiastical indulgences or Absolutions when these are not preceded by a true Contrition Should teach you that all sins without any distinction amongst them are equally effecting your damnation and either that All or that None put you out of the Grace and favour of God and that several degrees of Penitence are not necessary according to the quality of your offence Should teach you that good works are not necessary to Salvation and that the promises of reward are made only to faith or necessary not from a strict obligation of every regenerate man to do them having time for it but only out of gratitude or as fruits that necessarily spring out of a true faith Should so extol Faith in our Saviour's merits i.e. in his good works as to make supervacuous inherent Righteousness Or faith in our Saviour's satisfaction i.e. in his sufferings as to void all our self-afflictions mortifications and conformity unto his death Should teach your inability though in the state of Grace to observe all God's Commandments and to please him in your works and to fulfil his law as to the forbearance of all greater sins and offences against any part thereof Should hold no degrees of perfection in our obedience nor any latitude of goodness above that of not being in fault making none better than him that only keeps from sinning or him whoever is not the most good to be amongst offenders and one falling short of the highest degree of any virtue as of Prayer Charity c. in this to be guilty of sin to the taking away of all confidence in God for any good or acceptable work done by us and emulation of being perfect and pre-eminence of those who are Saints Should teach the heavenly reward to be to all persons equal so that who is more holy than the rest that enter-in thither Suppose St. Paul than the Publican doth in the overplus of his mortifications c serve God for nought Should extol Predestination Election Grace certainty of Salvation c. i. e. the mercies of God so far as to remit and discourage all Man's endeavours Should deny the continuance of God's miraculous works now as they have been in former times to Holy mens Prayers to the great weakning of Prayer and Faith and of the making use of the intercessions of Saints and of holy men for us Should labour more to instruct you in what sense and quatenus such and such Christian virtues are not to be practised than in what they are whereby you become more inclined to the omission than inflamed to the practice of them As That Confession of sins to the Priest is not to be used if not necessary jure divino or because all our sins cannot be recounted or remembred Not almes not penances that is as self-sufficient satisfactions to God's justice for your sins Not good works that is as thinking to merit heaven by them abstracting from our Lord's Not set times of Prayer of Fasting that is as of divine command or essential parts of God's Worship No Addresses to Saints or Holy-men of God for their Prayers and Intercessions to God for us lawful i. e. with such a belief and intention as if the Divine Majesty did not immediately hear or receive our own Prayers or as if our Lord's Intercessions and Mediation for us were defective or unsufficient without them Should teach you that voluntary poverty or selling our Goods to give them to the Poor Celibacy preaching without charges remitting just Law-suits and not requiring by constraint satisfaction for damages not wearing of gold costly apparel c. 1. Pet. 3.3 are no general Advices and Counsels to all save only in preparatione animi to do them in some time of great exigence as in persecution c. but are particular precepts and so obligatory to some only we know not whom in some particular cases we know not when I say Taking heed and having great jealousy of the truth of such doctrines which you experimentally find do weaken the practice of Piety as several of these doctrines fore-mentioned seem to do §. 47. 3. Considering Doctors Religions Sects according to the less or more liberty or severity of their doctrines remissness or strictness of their discipline the more or less practice of mortifications and devotions in them for the severest Religion is the best and the most Spiritual consolations and the surest way of Salvation are in it According to their erring more in speculative points or more in practicals for the Error in practicals is much more dangerous Since a small measure of knowledge is exacted of Christians but much of duty Again According to the more works and Monuments of Piety and Charity which you find to abound in either For there surely is the greatest love of God and love is never without light
some danger of your life In an extraordinary storm of Thunder Earthquake Shipwrack in your last sickness Or as if the trumpet were sounding and the dreadful day of Judgment had surprized you Or as if you suffered the torments which Dives doth yet with some hopes of being delivered And such passion for pardon and resolutions for amendment as you would put on in such a case those presently entertain and so bespeak God for such things are no fictions but one day will come upon you Again addressing your self to our Saviour as Peter cryed out when sinking in the waves Or when he cryed Lord not my feet only Jo. 13.9 Or weeping as he when his good Master looked back upon him after he had denyed him Or as blind Bartimeus importuning him for the restoring of his sight Or as the Paralitick expecting that good word thy sins are forgiven thee c for instances are infinite such like addresses may profitably be used for acts of Confession and beging pardon §. 115. 2. Again in thanksgiving for his benefits and especially that of your redemption imagining your self standing before the Emperor of the whole world condemned to dye the most horrible death for treason against him and then this Emperor sending his onely Son that justice may not be defeated all others refusing to dye for you one of the vilest of all his subjects and then being thus delivered say to him what your heart shall tell you Or imagining your self to accompany our Saviour having first charged himself with your guilt and to answer justice for it quite through his passion Being behind him in the Garden at the time of his Agony and sweating of Blood When He tyed with cords and carried away Prisoner you with Peter and John following and beholding his usage in the Judgment-hall and weeping with Peter when he looks on you the Sinner he so suffers for Beholding his cruel whipping at a Post following him from thence and helping him with Simon when he faints with their hard usage to bear his Cross Then with his distressed Mother and Disciple standing before him hanging and bleeding on the Cross and then drawing nearer and with great compassion to his innocence and grief for your sins that caused such his pains desiring to bear part of his sorrows and resolving also to suffer all things for him say further what your heart shall teach you But then finding him after he is risen again and exalted over all still at his Prayers and Intercessions to the Father for you Say again and resolve what your heart shall teach you So also for other benefits imagining God sitting on the top of heaven compassed with all Celestial Courtiers looking down on millions of men and dispensing here judgments there mercies and amongst so many millions taking notice of you and before his Angels testifying his good will unto you and desire of your Salvation and sending by the chiefest of his train many gifts and tokens of his love and withal diverting his judgments from coming nigh your dwelling and then falling down see whether your heart can thank him §. 116. 3. In praising or giving glory to God or our Saviour imagining the Show Rev. 4.8 or 5.9 7.10.12 and your self amongst that Heavenly Quire crying Holy Holy c. Es 6.3 Or Bless the Lord with me all ye his Angels c. Psal 103.20 Or crying Glory in the highest with the multitude at our Saviours triumph Luk. 19.37 c. Or with Mary giving Glory to and worshipping him leading Captivity captive upon his Resurrection-day Or with Stephen him standing at the right hand of God §. 117. 4 In petitioning him for spiritual graces or temporal necessities Imagining our Saviour as at his last Supper giving his Body c or as sitting on Jacob's Well and you beging of him with the Samaritan Sinner Lord give me that water or with the Canaanitish Woman asking for some crums that may fall from the Childrens table or patiently sitting with Mary at his feet to receive his gracious answer or the unum necessarium So for making intercession for others Imagining a friend in prison or torments crying out for your aid as you pass by and that some few words spoken by you may procure his liberty or save his life Or some part of your body wounded and pained and that you are going to seek help for it Or rather that some member of your blessed Saviour as all true Christians are was some way distressed and that he after so much kindness shewed to and intercessions made for you would try now the return of your love to him in interceding for it c. Now who thinks such acts of imagination useless let him only consider the great effects of Imagination in another kind which he hath experienced in advancing his lusts and many false pleasures and conceited felicities sometimes in sometimes before the acting of a sin §. 118. Frequency of Prayer 19. Not omitting your Prayers when you find in your self little devotion or also much distraction of thoughts c. For if it be a fault to do them slightly it is a greater not to do them at all And God many times gives unexpected grace to those who endeavor and devotion is often acquired by entring into Prayer when we had it not before 20. Not omitting and thinking your self excused from your private dayly devotions by your presence at some common For besides that those are many times a necessitated these a more free will offering and worship who is there that hath not particular sins necessities mercies which are not in the publick prayers confessed or petitioned for 21. Vsing many times or hours of Prayer or Meditation in the day and that rather upon your knees for so you will be more observant what you are doing according to the best permittance of your ordinary employments custome of praying at length will make you in love with praying i. e. conversing with God Frater eamus paulisper precatum Aloys Gonzaga 22. Not omitting your set devotions for the intervening of ordinary business or ordinary works of Charity Because you stand more obliged in this duty towards God and greatest Charity towards your Soul than in some lesser towards your own or towards your neighbours temporal affairs And because also whether our own or our neighbours business it is much more furthered by our prayers procuring God's blessing than by our labours and indeed when we have most business then have we most use of Prayer 23. Vsing some set times annual monthly or weekly for your extraordinary devotions Confessions and reviewing your Spiritual Condition 24. Using extraordinary times of Prayer before and after extraordinary employments 25. Avoiding Taedium mentis as in all things so in your devotions For such who delight not in their work cannot long persevere in it This taedium is always relieved by variety of employment According to the old rule of the Religious Nunc lege nunc ora nunc cum
all your Fathers were before you occasioning Charities always in this employment meditating on some portion of Ecclesiastes Forbearing as much as may be the entertainment of any long and entangled designs so that you cannot so contentedly go off the stage of this world and say a Nunc dimittis in pace when God calleth for it Carefully from time to time discharging all debts 2. For your behaviour in sickness in doing the duties proper to it First when sickness comes not being ashamed to shew fear and imagining it always more dangerous than it is and preparing your self always though in likelihood it is not as if it were a sickness to death gladly then taking occasion to reconcile your self fully to God and to conclude with the world that your recovery may more perfectly begin a new and better life or your end not surprise you unprepared In this not fearing so much the harm which melancholy and sadness may do to your Body as the mischief which security may do to your Soul and knowing that such sadness through obtaining of God remission of sin c is the readiest way also to procure your health and in the time of your sickness also ends in more joy For making this reconciliation Examining your self by what sin it is likely you have lately most displeased God and doing repentance and humiliation for it as if it had caused your sickness Jo. 5.14 Matt. 9.2 Examining your self more specially concerning sins towards your neighbour those chiefly against the 5 6 7 8 9. Commandments in which man's laws also enjoyn reparation And making restitution satisfactions Asking forgiveness c. Forgiving and declaring your forgiveness towards any that have so trespassed against you Confessing all your sins to God and endeavouring to do this as particularly as if all confessed were presently to be pardoned and all forgot to be answered for at the day of judgment Sending early for the Priest and confessing your sins to him as it is recommended to your practice by the Church in case of a troubled conscience and if your Conscience be not troubled for your sin then know you have yet more need to do it Receiving absolution and the Communion making then a singular Confession and Thanksgiving to God for all the greater mercies received through your whole life Giving alms to some poor and desiring especially their prayers for you Making resolutions and vows but not rash ones and if it may be with the advice of your spiritual Father and with making your professions also to him as a witness of them concerning reformation upon your recovery Avoiding much especially secular conversation and removing company from you Entertaining an attendant that can read holy things to you such as you shall direct and have provided in your health at that time to be administred unto you Praying extraordinarily if your pains permit Using and in all things obeying the Physitian Offering up a contented patience of these sufferings to God in regard of the far greater desert of your sins and that to your Saviour in regard of his far greater sufferings for you §. 160. Digr 1. Of the many times great uncharitableness and mischief of encouraging sick persons with hopes of recovery at sometimes making them omit the necessary preparations for death and at other times loose the many great benefits of sickness in humiliations confessions c. Digr 2. Of some necessary questions to be proposed to the sick See Notes of Sick Digr 3. Of various admonitions necessary to be used to the sick as they happen to be found in an ignorant or a sensless or a presuming or a despairing condition Digr 4. Of Psalms and other Scriptures proper to be read to the Sick As Psal 6.22 23.32.38.57.86.88 90.102 103.107.130.142 143. Job 1 2. Ezech. 18. The passion of our Saviour in one of the Gospels beginning at his Prayer in the Garden Jo. 17. Rom. 8. 1. Cor. 15. 1. Thess 4. Rev. 21 22. Digr 5. Of short Scripture-Ejaculations proper to be used by them See Notes of Sick Digr 6. Directions for the behaviour of the Visitors of or Attendants upon the sick Non consolari eos spe recuperandae sanitatis See before § 161. n. 1. Non plorare Non ridere Non alienos sermones miscere Non multum loqui necsubtilia Sancto silentio Deum precari See Vita Camelli De Lellis §. 161. 2. Exercising Christian Fortitude 1. Joyfully entertaining all those temporal miseries which happen to you for your sin which many other servants of God have both earnestly begged of God and not obtaining this have voluntarily infliected upon themselves and desiring that you may suffer here yet more for them Hic ure seca c. and not seeking too passionately to diminish them and whilst much grieving and humbling your self for the cause thereof yet accepting and rejoycing in the punishment and hoping in the execution of some part of God's righteous justice upon you in this world to find through Christ's merits the more mercy in the next Lam. 33.9 Jer. 30.15 2. Joyfully embracing the favour Phil. 1.29 of all those afflictions which happen unto you for doing your duty and for refusing to sin especially of persecutions Matt. 5.10 11. saying such words as these This is painful to me but acceptable to God and he will love me for it This thy will I willingly suffer and much more for thy sake O my Saviour who sufferedst so much for me 3. Yet taking great care that you mistake not God's judgments upon your sins for tryals only of your holiness bringing forth presumption instead of humiliation Digr That there is required a holy life and purity of conscience not only for the particular cause for which we suffer but general to entertain our sufferings with true comfort and joy Else you ought to bear them with great sorrow not for them but for your sins as God's true judgments upon you in relation to them tho executed as 't is usual through man's injustice God ordinarily punishing our innocence in one thing for our guilt in another thus making his scourges more bitter unto us 4. Not shunning nor preventing any disgraces by foregoing the smallest duty Using no compliance no diffimulation no flattery no timidity modesty or being ashamed of good but rather provoking evil and exposing your self on all occasions in any thing for Christ's sake to scorn hate danger c. without fear in thus doing of seeming proud or contemptuous Rev. 21 8. But the fearful 5. Vndertaking voluntarily and with all alacrity such sufferings tho easily avoidable by the enduring of which you may any way do the more good which troubles though it is lawful to decline yet it is more expedient for benefitting others to entertain Such were our Saviour's such St. Paul's Sufferings so much gloried of 1. Cor. 9. 6. One degree higher Out of the pure imitation of our Saviour and to be made in all things here more conformable to him Phil. 3.10 that
O Holy Spirit the Comforter in all afflictions and sufferings giving ability to bear them internal peace and spiritual joy in them and who art the author of a constant lively hope and confidence in God Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who distributest and dividest thy gifts and graces variously to every one according to thy good pleasure Have mercy on us The Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of knowledge and truth the Spirit of counsel and fortitude Have mercy on us The Spirit of sobriety chastity and temperance the Spirit of modesty patience and prayer Have mercy on us The Spirit of humility benignity and meekness the Spirit of compunction sanctification and the fear of God the Spirit of peace and love Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart and reproving the World of sin of justice and of judgment Have mercy on us Be merciful and spare us O Holy Spirit Be merciful and hear us O Holy Spirit From all temptations and deceits of the Devil from all sin and every evil Spirit Deliver us O Holy Spirit From all filthiness and uncleanness of soul and body from the Spirit of fornication from the Spirit of anger strife contention and envy and all uncharitableness Deliver us O holy Spirit From all presumption and despair from opposing the known truth from hardness of heart and final impenitency Deliver us O holy Spirit By thy eternal procession from the Father and the Son by the miraculous conception of the Son of God by thy operation by thy descent upon our Saviour at his Baptisme and by thy sitting upon his Apostles Deliver us O holy Spirit In the day of Judgment Deliver us O holy Spirit We Sinners beseech Thee to hear us O holy Spirit That thou would'st spare us That thou wouldst keep us from blaspheming thee O Holy Ghost and from doing any contumely to the Spirit of Grace We sinners beseech Thee c. That we may never quench grieve or neglect this Holy Spirit but may prepare our hearts for thy holy inspirations and may diligently hearken to discover and obey thy godly motions which lead us to all perfection We sinners beseech Thee c. That remembring how we are the Temples of the Holy Ghost we may take heed of violating them and that as we live by the Spirit we may walk in the Spirit and fulfil no more the lusts of the flesh but by the Spirit mortify the deeds thereof so that sowing in the Spirit we may of the Spirit reap life eternal We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou wouldst vouchsafe to stir up and cherish in us poverty of Spirit and enkindle in us a hunger and thirst after Justice that we may be peaceable and worthy to be called the Sons of God We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou wouldest infuse into us perfect charity and mercy and that we may constantly and manfully endure persecution for Justice sake We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou would'st vouchasafe us to continue unto the end in faith hope and charity and that we may be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit that is in all thy servants in the bond of peace We sinners beseech Thee c. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Pour on us the holy Spirit O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Send us the promised Spirit from the Father O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Grant us the Spirit of Peace Our Father which art Heaven c. Create in us clean hearts O God And renew right Spirits in our Bowels Cast us not away from thy face O Lord And take not thy holy Spirit from us Restore unto us the joy of thy Salvation And confirm us with thy principal Spirit The Grace of thy Holy Spirit Enlighten our senses and hearts O Lord hear our Prayers And let our cry come unto thee Let us pray O Holy Ghost the Comforter we commend to thee our souls and bodies the beginning and the end of our lives give us grace to be heartily sorry for our sins for the love of God and to do true penance for them that we may be perfectly purified from them before we depart hence out of this mortal body Of our selves O Lord we are corrupt and blind in our affections and desires if we rely on our own judgments easily seduced into error easily overcome by temptation Wherefore to thee O Holy Spirit we wholly offer and commit the guidance of our Souls defend and keep us thy servants from all evil teach and illuminate our minds strengthen our weak Spirits against inordinate pusillanimity and superfluous scruples of conscience and keep us humble that we fall not into presumption Give us a right faith unmovable hope and perfect charity that we may sweetly delight in thee and every-where fulfil thy will and pleasure who livest and reignest with the Father and Son one God world without end Amen O Eternal God who didst send thy Holy Spirit upon thy Church and didst promise that he should abide with it for ever let the same Spirit lead us to all truth defend us from all sin enrich us with his gifts refresh us with his comforts and rule in our hearts for ever And grant O bountiful Lord the Doner of every good and perfect gift that we may prepare our hearts for his holy inspirations may diligently hearken to clearly discover believe and obey his godly motions may never quench never grieve this Holy Spirit but living in him may by him be sealed to the day of redemption through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth world without end Amen O Blessed Spirit the Almighty Paraclete the communication bond and union of the Father and Son the conduit conveying to us all that we receive from the Father and the Son The dear pledge and token of our absent Lord until his blessed return by whose power all things are enlivened which do truly live and whose delight is to reside and converse in the hearts of the simple which thou vouchsafest to consecrate as Temples to thy self Come gracious Spirit have mercy upon us descend from heaven into our hearts waiting for thy comfort and so fit us for thine own self that through the multitude of thy compassions our meanness may be accepted of thy greatness and our weakness of thy strength Sanctify the temples of our bodies and consecrate them for thy own habitation Make glad with thy presence our Souls that long after thee make ready a mansion fit for thy self adorn thy bride-chamber furnish thy resting place with the variety of thy own gifts and graces drive out from thence whatsoever is old and fading renew in us thy own workman-ship with beauty incorruptible for ever convey into us heavenly light heat and motion that having tasted of the heavenly gift and the powers of the
bringest down to the grave and raisest from thence again Have mercy on us Who savedst Noah from drowning in the Flood Lot from burning in Sodom and Isaac from imminent death who slaying all the first-born in Aegypt in one night preservedst safe the Israelites who deliveredst thy People stung with fiery Serpents by looking up to the Brazen one Have mercy on us Who at the Prayer of Elias and Eliseus thy Prophets restoredst the dead to life again who healedst Naaman the Syrian of his Leprosy by Eliseus the Prophet Have mercy on us Who freedst King Ezechias praying unto thee in his weakness with tears from his disease and death who at length restoredst Job most miserably afflicted in his body by Satan Have mercy on us JESU Son of the living God who wast sent to heal the broken in heart to preach enlargement to the captives and to comfort all that mourned who tookest upon thee our infirmities and barest our griefs who wentest about doing good and healing all that were sick and oppressed of the devil by whose power the blind received their sight the lame walked the lepers were cleansed and the dead raised Have mercy on us Who curedst with thy word the man that had been Paralytick eight and thirty years who healedst the woman that had been twelve years sick of her infirmity of blood and spent all she had upon the Physitians by the touch of the hemm of thy garment who restoredst to perfect health the woman vexed with a Spirit of infirmity and bowed down eighteen years Have mercy c. Who restoredst sight to him that had been blind from his birth who absent curedst the servant of the Centurion of eminent faith who deliveredst the woman of Canaan's daughter having respect to the faith of her mother Have mercy on us Who raisedst the daughter of Jairus Ruler of the Synagogue being newly dead who restoredst to life the only Son of his Mother that was dead and carried forth into the street who raisedst Lazarus after he had lain four days from the grave Have mercy on us Who in thine Agony being sorrowful unto death sweatedst drops of blood who praying that the cup of thy Passion and death might pass from thee submittedst thy self to the will of thy Father who dying commendedst thy Spirit into the hands of thy Father Have mercy on us Who by thy death destroyedst him that hath the power of death and diseases who by thy Resurrection procuredst us a lively hope of our rising also from death Have mercy on us Who sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles adornedst them with divers gifts of miracles and healings who by the shadow of St. Peter and the handkerchiefs and aprons brought from the body of St. Paul healedst many diseases Who gavest to them that believed on thee power to cast out devils in thy name to take up Serpents to lay their hands upon the sick and heal them Have mercy on us Who ascending into heaven art Lord of life and hast the power of death Have mercy on us O Father of mercies and God of all consolation who comfortest us in all our tribulations who sufferest us not to be tempted above that which we are able to bear but with the temptation makest away to escape Have mercy on us Who chastisest and scourgest those whom thou lovest who judgest and correctest us with weaknesses and sickness and death it self that we may not be condemned with the world Have mercy on us O Lamb of God that takest c. From the guilt and burthen of our sins Deliver us c. From all the temptations and wiles from all illusions and assaults of the devil Deliver us O Lord. From all impatience and murmuring against thy providence from all weakness of mind from distrust and despair of thy mercy from the fear of death and too great a desire of life Deliver us c. From distraction of mind about the things of this world and neglect of preparing for life eternal from grievous pain and agony which may withdraw our minds from thee Deliver us c. From thy wrath and heavy indignation from the terrible sentence of the supreme Judge from the gates of hell and powers of darkness from the bitter pains of eternal death Deliver us c. By the infinite and great mercies of God the Father by the infinite and great merits of God the Son by the grace and consolations of God the Holy Ghost Deliver c. By the pains of death which compassed thee about in the Garden at the approach of thy Passion by thine agony and bloody sweat Deliver us c. By thine affliction of heart on the Cross when thou criedst out unto thy Father by the ardency of thy love whereby thou undertookst our sorrows and with thy stripes curedst our wounds Deliver us c. By thy powerful Resurrection and glorious Ascension by thy gracious and most prevalent Intercession and Mediation Deliver us c. In the time of our necessities and straits in the hour of death and day of judgment Deliver us O Lord. We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That thou wouldst not enter into judgment with thy servants for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified that thou wouldst not be extreme to mark our iniquities for who can abide it that thou wouldst lighten our eyes that we sleep not in death least at any time our enemy prevail over us We sinners beseech Thee to hear us That being delivered out of the hand of our enemies we may serve thee without fear in holiness and justice all the days of our life We sinners beseech Thee to hear us That being made whole by thy grace from our disease we sin no more lest a worse thing come unto us We sinners beseech Thee to hear us That being uncertain of the time of our death and thy coming to judgment we may in time set in order our worldly affairs that thou wouldst vouchsafe us the grace to confess intirely and be sincerely contrite for our sins to forgive from our hearts all that have offended us and make satisfaction to all whom we have injured We sinners beseech Thee to hear us That being reconciled to thee and all the world with a constant faith and firm hope we may reverently receive the Viaticum of thy Sacred Body and continue unto the end in thy grace and favour We sinners beseech c. That when and howsoever it shall please thee to dispose of us either for life or death we may most chearfully submit our selves to thy most holy will that as we have received good from the hands of our Lord so we may undergo evil with all patience We sinners beseech c. That we neglect not the chastisement of our Lord nor faint when we are reproved by thee but looking up to the Author and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross may run with patience the race that is
judge the living and the dead Give rest to the Souls of the Faithful departed O Lamb of God at whose presence the earth shall be moved and the heavens melt away Give rest to the Souls of the Faithful departed O Lamb of God in whose blessed book of Life their names are written Give eternal rest to the Souls of the Faithful departed The Antiphon DEliver us O Lord and all thy Faithful in that day of terror when the Sun and Moon shall be darkned and the Stars fall down from heaven in that day of calamity and amazement when heaven it self shall shake and the Pillars of the earth be moved and the glorious Majesty of Jesus come with innumerable Angels to judge the world by fire Deliver us O Lord in that dreadful day And place us with thy blessed at thy right hand for ever O Lord hear our Prayers And let our Supplications come to thee ALmighty God with whom do live the Spirits of the perfect and in whose holy custody are deposited the Souls of all those that depart hence in an inferior degree of thy grace who being by their imperfect Charity rendred unworthy thy presence are detained in a state of grief and from thy beatifical sight as we bless thee for the Saints already admitted to thy glory so we humbly offer our Prayers for thy afflicted servants who continually wait and sigh after the day of their deliverance Pardon their sins supply their unpreparedness and wipe away the tears from their eyes that they may see thee and in thy glorious light eternally rejoyce Thro Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen O Eternal God who besides the general precepts of Charity hast commanded a particular respect to parents kindred and benefactors grant we beseech thee that as they were the instruments by which thy providence bestowed on us our birth education and innumerable other benefits so our Prayers may be a means to obtain for them a speedy delivery from any privation of bliss which they may suffer for their sins and a free admittance to thy infinite joys Thro Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen MOst wise and merciful Lord who hast ordained this life as a passage to the future confining our Conversion to the time of our Pilgrimage here and reserving for hereafter the state of punishment and reward vouchsafe us thy grace who are yet alive and still have opportunity of reconcilement to thee so to watch over all our actions and correct every least deviation from the true way to Heaven that we be neither surprised with our sins uncancelled nor our duties imperfect but when our Bodies go down into the grave our Souls may ascend to thee and dwell for ever in the mansions of eternal felicity Thro Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen The LITANY of Christian Virtues O God the Father of Heaven Have mercy on us O God the Son Redeemer of the world Have c. O God the Holy Ghost Have mercy on us O Sacred Trinity one God Have mercy on us O Lord just and good and a rewarder of all those that seek thee diligently Have mercy on us Who createdst our first Parents in innocency and holiness after thine own image and gavest a testimony to the offerings of just Abel Have mercy on us Who savedst in the Ark from the Flood Noah a Preacher of Justice and deliveredst from the Fire just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked Have mercy on us Who gavedst the Promise to Abraham found faithful after many trials Have mercy on us Who deliveredst Jacob endued with a wonderful patience and confidence in adversities from all evils and gavest a joyful end to thy servant Job that pattern of patience Have mercy on us Who rewardest the singular modesty and chastity of Joseph with the rule over Aegypt Have mercy on us Who choosest Moses the meekest man upon earth to be Ruler over thy people and electedst Joshuah notable for valour and constancy to lead thy people into the land of Promise Have mercy on us Who gavest the Priesthood to the Sons of Levi for their great courage in vindicating thine honor and deliveredst from all dangers the Prophet Elias for his incomparable Zeal for thy true worship against the false Prophets and at length took'st him up into heaven Have mercy on us Who set'st Samuel Judge over thy people a lover of Justice and free from bribes And liftedst up David a man after thy own heart in the faithful service of thee to be King of Israel Have mercy on us Who replenishedst Solomon humbly begging Wisdome of thee both with it and many other Graces And adornedst Daniel and his Companions being singularly temperate and sober with wisdome and beauty Have mercy c. Who chosest the Blessed Virgin Mary adorned with singular chastity humility obedience and all other Virtues to be the Mother of thy Son Have mercy on us Who sentest John Baptist a fore-runner of thy Son a Preacher of penance and of great austerities and abstinence Have mercy on us Who sentest JESUS Christ thy only begotten Son into the world the pattern of all Holiness that we should follow his example Have mercy on us Who hast chosen us in him before the foundations of the world that we also should be holy and unblameable in thy sight Have mercy on us Who hast predestinated us that we should be made conformable to the image of thy Son and hast created us in him to good works which thou hast ordained that we should walk in them Have mercy on us Who hast redeemed us from our vain conversation by the precious blood of Christ and hast regenerated us by thy word unto a lively hope of an eternal inheritance Have mercy on us O Jesu who knewest no sin neither was guile found in thy mouth but appearedst to take away the sins of the world Have mercy on us JESUS who barest our sins in thy body on the Cross that we being dead unto sin may live unto Justice and Holiness Have mercy on us Who hast delivered us out of darkness into light from the power of Satan into thy Kingdome and hast bestowed upon us the remission of sins and an inheritance amongst thy Saints Have mercy on us Who promisedst thy Disciples that forsook all for thee twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel who committedst unto St. Peter notably confessing and loving thee the feeding of thy sheep Have mercy on us Who vouchsafest to St. John notable for chastity the singular priviledge of thy love Have mercy on us Who sendedst thy holy Spirit whereby divine Charity is spread abroad in our hearts Have mercy on us Be merciful and spare us O Lord. Be merciful and grant unto us O Lord The virtue of humility and patience spiritual poverty and meekness longanimity and obedience to those that are set over us Grant unto us O Lord A quiet mind and contented with our present condition true peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Grant us c.