all of it as a King in his Kingdome who commands all as the Father of a family in his house who ruleth and directeth every thing And even as wind disperses smoake and fire liquifies and melts waxe so Charity which gives us God and is even God himselfe reigning in us dissipates our imperfections consumes our inordinate affections and delivering us from sin subjecteth us entirely to the power and direction of Iesus Christ who reignes in us Whence it followes that whoever is willing to become a true Christian of what condition soever he may be in this world ought to desire that God may reigne in him he must dispose himselfe thereunto and render his soule and conscience worthy to be the Kingdome and habitation of God And to arrive to this blessed condition he ought to be in the state of love and charity whence we are to inferre That all the true exercises of a Christian must tend unto the obtaining of love and all that he is to doe all that he is to learne and the very method which he is to observe in order to a good life consists onely in love and charity Wherefore it were to be wished that we would learne no other lesson in this world nor imbrace other exercise then that of Love and Charity And in effect God demands nothing of us but love for he that loveth fulfills the whole Law of God And Jesus Christ being ready to die recommends nothing more to his Disciples then love vertue is not acceptable to God and our whole life hath no merit without Charity Finally God gives not his Paradise but unto love Is it not then very true that the exercise and practise of love ought to be the sole entertainment and whole occupation of a soule that intends her Salvation In as much as it is most certaine that at the houre of death God resolving to judge us will respect nothing but love for he will receive us if we expire in the state of love and reejct us in case he finds us destitute thereof I pray tell me now you that read what I write when you shall come to the houre of death and be in that moment wherein you are to appeare before the Tribunall of God to receive the definitive sentence of your Eternity if you find your selfe void of the love of God what sorrow will you not feele for having passed away your life in toyes for having set your affection on trifles and not loved God who is only amiable and the true happinesse of our soules And at this last houre which you cannot avoid wherein you shall be constrained to abandon both this life and all that is in this world what anguish will you not suffer for having rendred your selfe the slave of vanity and unto all inordinate motions of concupiscence for having violated and despised all holy and divine Lawes to satisfie your owne desires Finally what displeasure will you feele for having shut your heart against the love of God to lodge therein the love of so many creatures Surely at the time of your death you will as I may say even die for sorrow and this griefe will be that worme which shall eternally gnaw your soule for having so much studied to please the creature and for having been so strongly fastned thereunto as to prostrate your selfe to vanity and pleasures and for having despised the love of God who is your happinesse and the true delight of your soule But suppose that you shall be saved and that you are in the role of those Elect whom God intends to place in his Kingdome of glory where there is no other God but Love no law but that of Love and where the life and entertainment of the Saints is but a perfect and eternall Love Though you be I say of this number and if your name be written in the booke of life yet God will not save you without Love and Charity for you must necessarily die in Charity if you will be saved Let us suppose then that you have Love at this last houre it will be surely a true love of God If then you can ever Love God with a true love how much paine will you feele for not having loved him sooner How much more bitterly will you detest the world and all the creatures which you have loved and which have diverted you from loving a God who loveth you so much as to give you his Paradise It is then yea it is then when you will understand the love which God beares you and that you will love God truly then will it be that the more light you shall receive and the purer your soule shall be the more will you detest the world and deplore your owne ingratitude and undoubtedly in this point will consist the sharpest of your paines and the most insupportable dolours which you shall suffer in Purgatory I say all this to recall your soule and perswade you if you can to prevent the miseries of this houre and moment which you cannot escape and that from this instant preparing your selfe for death you may begin to seek and desire no other thing but love In all your devotions learne to love God and take courage to despise manfully all impediments unto true love Let all your Entertainments and Devotions be in order to love and in all your exercises of mercy strive onely to root out of your heart and remove from your life all that distanceth you from the love of God For your assistance herein I thought fit to present unto you some few documents which I conceive very profitable for all such as have a desire to live well I stile them Devout Entertainments because indeed the soule ought to entertain and busie her selfe onely in love and charity And I call them Devout in as much as true devotion consists only in this point of loving God It is not my intention to discredit other Exercises which are recommended to soules because they are good and profitable if they direct unto Love and Charity But I may well say with S. Paul that all is nothing without Charity Wherefore I could wish that a true Christian had no other object or end in all his actions then love that he would studie nothing but love and strive to correct all his defects opposite to the love of God for all being well considered whoever hath Charity hath all things And indeed we see so many persons frequent the divine Sacraments we see so many who exercise themselves in works of piety and neverthelesse little profit and change is observed in the life of Christians If reasons may be given for it there is no other in my opinion then their defectivenesse in loving God This is the reason why in all this little Treatise I speak of nothing but Love and Charity It is true also that I treat of the Presence of God and shew the practice of it but I have done it in consideration of love because I conceive
Apostle 4. When you heare it so often mentioned that we ought to performe acts of the love of God let not that produce a beliefe in you that it is in our own power without grace to love God with such a love as we owe him For it is so sublime a thing to love God as it transcends all the power of Nature It is requisite that God by his grace unite his power unto our whole faculties to inable us to forme one single act of the love of God And indeed there is a necessity of Gods giving us his grace love for our loving him because of our selves we are unable to doe it without his assistance and we render our selves unworthy of it by our sins 5. I will not then enjoyn you to make often acts of the love of God but say onely that you must often request this love and dispose your selfe to receive it And above all you are to annihilate in your soule as much as you can possibly all that may divert God from giving you this love or hinder the love of God from raigning in your heart This is the most important point for to implore the love of God and to live quite contrary is but to mock and deride him 6. It is not enough to aske it of God but you must likewise desire it fervently And surely I wish that this desire may be great in your soule that it may be the powerfullest of all your inclinations and the most lively affection which raignes in you For to desire love is a strong disposition unto love And truly one can hardly desire the love of God without a present concession of it 7. Nay I could wish for the benefit of your soule that you had no other desire then to love God and please him in all things and that every moment you did awaken in your self this desire of loving God O what great things would he operate in you Surely your life would be pleasing and all things out of God indifferent to you Endeavour that your exercises of piety and the most usuall occupations of your soule even when you are distributing Almes be with an intention to increase this desire to nourish and practice it I meane that all your employments and exercises of vertue should be either fruits of love or meanes to attaine unto the love of God Above all in the use of the Sacraments I wish you to retaine this pure intention for if at any time you are to seek the means of acquiring the love of God it is by receiving the holy Sacraments principally that of Confession and Communion Wherefore when you Confesse and Communicate endeavour that it may be alwayes with this love and with an intention thereby to introduce the love of God 8. It imports you very much to have a good and pure intention in all that you shal doe Now the Intention which I wish you alwayes to have is to act and suffer all for the pure love of God for God ought to be the object and end of your life and actions There are some who regard their proper interest and doe every thing to the end they may merit I doe not condemne them but I advise not you to proceed in this manner for it is a mercenary intention I contrariwise conjure you to doe nothing but for the pure love of God If you doe all for God God will doe all for you if you give all unto God he will give himselfe entirely unto you and that ought to suffice you 9. In few words I desire that Charity and Love may be the object of all your actions the subject of your imployments the most ordinary exercise of your life and piety Surely if you have a fervent desire to love God all this will be easie to you and by the same degrees as this desire shall increase by the same you will advance in the love of God and Vertue 10. It is not enough to demand desire the love of God you must cooperate also in this point I will recommend onely two things unto you and in my opinion they will suffice 11. The first is that you be very carefull to keep your conscience pure and free from sin and above all ingrave in your soule this disposition which ought to remaine alwayes in the centre of your heart to wit that for no worldly respect you offend God and that neither the goods nor evils of this life procure you to doe any thing against the Commandments of God My meaning is that neither the love nor feare of men nor the world or mutuall complacency draw you to offend God how little soever it be 12. The other point which I would recommend unto you is the giving your heart wholly unto God for it is created onely for him By your heart I understand your love and I meane that you beware of fixing your selfe unto the Creature by love and affection And I intend by this Creature the world temporall goods and all earthly things 13. I know very wel that you cannot live without love but that which I recommend unto you is the remaining in the world and in the use of creatures without placing your heart and affection on them But since you ought to love God who is infinitely amiable and coÌ„mands you to love him above all things there is nothing difficult in this which I propose to you for there is nothing sweeter or more facile then Love and I only beg of you to prefer God above all creatures is there any thing more reasonable 14. Remember this principle which is alwayes veritable that a foule by the same degrees she fastens her selfe by love unto the creature by the same doth she loosen and seperate her self from God and as much as she sever's her self from the creature so much doth she unite her self and approach unto God Consider well this maxime to reap profit by it for if you will love God with your heart and if the desire which you have to love God be sincere you will be very carefull not to adhere unto any creature which is all I recommend unto you 15. But in this point of the love of God beware of being like unto the Jewes and Pharisees who Fasted Prayed gave Almes and bare on their foreheads the written Law of Moses and yet their hearts were wholy alienated from God you must needs understand my meaning without farther explanation 19. Take heed also that you resemble not those who speak much and do little Finally be not like unto the Samaritans who adored Idols and the true God in one and tâ—â—… same Temple To love God and the Creature both together are things incompatible for true love is neither partiall nor divided but intire cordiall and perfect Still call to mind that the heart of man is created wholy for God And he ought to love God alone or if he love any other thing let it be for God and in order to God 17.
be esteemed and honoured by men Wherefore in view of the contempt which you indure I purpose to alter my course of life and to imitate you if I can and with this resolution I cast my selfe at your feet O my Iesus I adore your profound humility I implore the power of this vertue to come upon me and I give my selfe intirely to you to beare the effects thereof in such sort as to you shall seem good I know very well that I ought to affect humiliations confusions and contempts I know that they are my portion they are the most conformable to my state since I am a sinner But my perverted spirit and quite corrupted nature is averse thereunto Neverthelesse Lord I will love you succour only my weaknesse annihilate my aversions and fortifie my will that I may put in practise the good resolution which I have taken in your presence Point III. IESUS beares the Rigours Dolours and Humiliations which our sinnes have merited It is for this cause he presents himselfe unto the people to suffer and unto his Father to satisfie his justice Cast your selfe at his feet O my soule and say affectionately Behold the man whom I seeke for he is my Jesus my Saviour and my All I see him I embrace him and I resolve that he shall be my King and reigne alone in my heart PRAYER AT the sight of what you act and suffer for me O my Iesus I remaine distracted and fall into a kind of rapture for what am I Lord And what need have you of me that you should seeke my salvation at the cost of so many labours What is there in my soule capable of inviting you to offer your selfe unto your Father to appease by your torments his Justice which I have irritated by my offences Surely is is nothing but love which exercising the power and rigour thereof made you become man and suffer death for me O Love how powerfull art thou since thou hast reduced my Iesus into state wherein I contemplate him in his life and death O Love how strong is thine arme since thou hast drawne my Iesus from the Throne of his glory to place him in humiliations and to subject him to so many paines Love if thou hast power over my God must not thou have it over my heart No there is no meanes to withstand it whatsoever it costs I must love him who hath loved us more then his own life who in giving himselfe requires nothing but our love I resigne my self then unto you ô Love of my Soule to love you with my whole heart Grant onely if you please that I may love nothing but you for you both command and oblige me to love you I am content but unable to do it without your grace Effect then this work in me of loving you and loosen my heart from all earthly affections to the end I may entirely unite my selfe to you And be pleased to give mee a holy inability which may render me uncapable of severing my selfe from you and of loving any other IESUS carrieth his Crosse Point I. COnsider the hunger and insatiable thirst the extreme love and desire which Jesus hath to suffer for us having never said It is enough nor refusing any torments which are inflicted on him allowing all persons to torture him Ask of Jesus that he would vouchsafe to estrange you from the pleasures of the world and admit no longer any repugnancy in your selfe to indure for his sake PRAYER O Amiable Iesus How just is it that I now confesse the excesse of your love and acknowledge the mercies which you shew me for you are not satisfied in purchasing me by the profusion of your bloud and appeasing the divine Justice by your death but excited by the love which you beare me and by a desire of my salvation you expose your selfe to all sorts of confusions and by a divine patience you refuse no tortures and shun no paines which impiety invents to make you suffer At the sight of so much goodnesse and at the object of your vertues what can I do lesse whereby I may become the most acceptable to you then imitate your life and imbrace with you all crosses and sufferances For I know you have said of it that he is unworthy of you who beares not his crosse with you and refuses to follow you I purpose then O Saviour of my soule I purpose willingly to follow you and renouncing my owne pleasures sufferance shall be my onely love and delight I cannot effect it without your grace be pleased therefore to bestow it on me for without you I can do nothing and with you I am inabled to doe all things Point II. IESUS loaden with his Crosse sinkes under the burthen not of the heavinesse of the wood but under the weight of our offences wherewith he charged himselfe before the Iustice of his Father And in view of the whole world he carrieth the confusion and contempt which our crimes have merited Beg of him the spirit and gift of Penance to the end taking part in the satisfactions of Christ Jesus you may endeavour in some measure by your self to satisfy God whom you have so often offended PRAYER MY Iesus give me light to discerne the weight of sinne the grace to detest it as it deserveth and love to become repentant as I ought for I intend Lord to doe Penance I know that you have suffered for me and that you died to give me life and to associate me to the number of your children And true it is that all that you have done was only to obtaine pardon for my offences and to satisfie for the paine due unto my crimes finally it is true Lord that your merits are infinite But yet it is likewise just and you give it me in command that I alter my course of life and doe Penance to sati fie your divine Justice for otherwise I cannot partake of the satisfaction of your Crosse nor of the merits of your sufferings Be pleased then to bestow on me the spirit of Penance and the zeale of your Justice that I may exercise it on my selfe But vouchsafe to give it me from this instant for feare lest I be surprized and excepting the houre of death and the day of vengeance I find my selfe unworthy of mercy I desire to prevent lest I be prevented It is a blessing which depends on you and which I beg of you with my whole heart Point III. COnsider the humiliation which Jesus hath borne in the thoughts and judgements of men who esteemed him strucken and reproved condemned and abandoned even of God himselfe judging him worthy of all the torments which he indured Render him thanks for supporting all this in satisfaction for the pride of men and from henceforth strive to affect humility and learn to despise the vaine judgements which may be made of you PRAYER ALl the sinnes of men O amiable Iesus are the cause of your death but pride which
withdraw my heart from selfe-love and all affection to creatures But how shall I doe it O blessed Virgin if I receive not powerfull assistance for I am able to act nothing if I want efficacious grace which operates in and with me what God desires of me Now from whence may I have it but from and by you O Mother of grace and mercy since God hath put into your hands the price of my Salvation and since you hold in your armes the fountaine of all graces I repaire then to you O benigne Virgin and I give my selfe to you to the end by the power which you have in quality of my Saviours mother you may produce in my soule the effects of life and death my meaning is that you operate in such sort by your favour that I may really die to my vices and sinnes that I may detest and hate them and lead such a life as God expects of me and to which I obliged my selfe when by Baptisme I was incorporated and made a member of Iesus Christ your Sonne Point II. THe Son of God vouchsafed to unite pains sorrows afflictions and crosses to himselfe and his holy Mother with designe to render them from thenceforth pleasing sweet and worthy to be esteemed and desired on earth Begin to esteem them because they are deified in Jesus and honoured in his holy Mother And if you are unable to aske them of God at least resolve to be are them with humility and patience when they shall happen to you PRAYER YOu have ever been O holy Virgin the wel-beloved of the eternall Father You are amongst all the pure creatures the worthiest object of his love You are his spouse and the true Mother of Iesus as he is his Father and he gives you his Son with him hath put into your hands the treasures of Heaven and earth and all the riches of Divinitie For this reason you are the worthiest of all pure creatures and with my Iesus you are the happinesse of the whole world Neverthelesse O Mother of God I see you in the midst of mount Calvary and at the foot of the Crosse holding your Son dead between your armes You take off the Crowne of thornes you wipe his wounds you wash his body with teares and kisse a thousand times the bruises of his flesh You suffer likewise with him the ignominies and dolors of the Crosse so that humiliations crosses afflictions are both in you and in Jesus In him and you they are become divine sanctified and rendred acceptable And for this cause they are worthie of being esteemed and desired by Christians What must I then doe O holy Virgin if I will love you what other thing can I doe but affect Crosses and humiliations with you and humble my selfe like you I desine and purpose it thus in my soule procure me only the grace that in all occasions I may beare every thing with fidelity and patience in such sort as God requires of me and you desire I should Point III. THe holy Virgin holding her Son between her armes offers him to God and the divine Iustice for satisfaction of our offences And as the Father hath given his Son to the world and the Son delivered himselfe up to the Crosse to save us So the holy Virgin both with heart and will sacrificeth her owne Son that she may in this sort minister unto our Salvation Give her thanks for this extraordinary Charity and beseech her to render you faithfull to all the graces which the death of the Son of God hath acquired PRAYER YOu have been chosen ô Mother of grace and mercy to be the repairer of the world and to co-operate in a most peculiar manner to the salvation of all mankind You did when you gave your Sonne Christ Jesus to be delivered up to the death of the Crosse and you do it when holding him dead between your armes you offer him to the divine Justice as a Victime and Sacrifice of propitiation which satisfies God for the sinnes of the world And in this respect you are our Repairer for Jesus who is the Saviour of men is yours he is your Sonne and you are his Mother And in this quality you have right to his life his preservation and all his condition Neverthelesse O Mother of our Soules you consent to his death you incourage him to torments you conduct him to the Crosse and like another Abraham you sacrifice in will and affection your only Sonne and you sacrifice him for my sinnes so great is your charity and love towards me But what can I doe in recognition of so sublime a benefit Wherein am I able to acknowledge O benigne Virgin so ardent a Charity At least since you give your Sonne for me procure that I may be your slave and since you resigne him to efface the sinnes of the world and that hee may merit for us such graces as are necessary for our salvation be pleased to mediate that I may be faithfull to all the graces which he hath purchased for me by his death and that I may live no longer but for his honour and yours as you give him to the Crosse and deliver him up to death for me Our LADIE of Compassion Point I. Since the Eternall Father can have no compatency in the dolours of his Son he substituted the holy Virgin imprinting in her heart and Spirit the vertue of the Crosse and the Spirit of his sufferings and piercing her heart with the sword of sorrow he made her suffer with her Sonne that in some manner she might co-operate to our Salvation Consider what Jesus and the holy Virgin suffer for you and from henceforth take delight in the thought of their sufferings and in the love of the Crosse PRAYER O Virgin and mother of my Iesus I render you thanks for having contributed to our salvation not only by giving your Sonne but also in taking your share in his Passions for if he indure you suffer with him The scourges the thornes the nailes and the lance have pierced his body but love and sorrow have transpierced your heart and gauled your soule Wherefore holy Virgin the true refuge of sinners I adore Iesus for my Saviour but I reverence you as his Mother and acknowledge you for the Repairer of the Universe since you cooperate doubly in the good of our soules For you give us your Sonne and suffer with him for us Be pleased also to mediate O Virgin spring of life and grace that I may be from henceforward the object of your commiserations And since you have loved me so much as to give me your Sonne and to give him even for the Crosse since your love and charity fastens you to my interests and makes you suffer for mee procure that I may suffer all for you but chiefly engrave in my heart such a hatred of sinne as I may rather indure a thousand deaths then so much as once offend my Jesus your Sonne who died
justice of a God whom I have so often irritated What shall I doe O God of mercy but endeavour to prevent the day of your Justice and from henceforth begin to satisfie by a holy Penance for all the sinnes which I have committed ungratefull and mserable wretch that I am I heartily desire it but am unable to effect it without your grace Assist me then O God of love and goodnesse bestow on me a true contrition for my offences Breake my heart with griefe melt my heart in your love liquifie my soule in Charitie fill my will with a hatred of sinne and grant me the grace never more to offend you It is what I desire with my whole heart to the end I may give my selfe entirely to you and renounce my selfe and all creatures which sever me from you Point III. BEhold in this mystery the love of Jesus who exerciseth the power and rigours of it upon his own person this love abaseth him even unto our sorrowes and oppresseth him with paines and attristations so violently as he enters into an agonie even to sweat blood in ahundance he suffers all this to invest you with his vertue and cleanse you with his Bloud This love is what you ought to ask often of him and with great humility PRAYER CAn it possibly be O my Iesus that you should love me even to such a degree as I consider you in this misterie and I not love you Can I be so insensible as to see you languishing and suffering for my sinnes and not abandon them Alas my Saviour can I indure to see you bathed in your owne bloud and covered over with so painefull a sweat by the horrour which you conceive of my offences Can I have the heart to behold you in the rigours which the Justice of your Father exerciseth on you for my sinnes and that considering you in so pitifull a state I should not conceive a horrour of my pravitie and a detestation of my offences No no Lord I will hate my selfe to love you I will detest all vice for your sake and never more will I offend you and for a marke of my desire I give you my heart I offer you my soule I dedicate to you my life and renounce all that is displeasing to you to the end I may no longer offend you but live in all things conformable to your holy will This is the intention and desire of my soule but it will be fruitlesse if you stretch not out your arme and give me not your grace to accomplish them This is what I begge of you prostrated in your presence humbly imploring your divine Mercy The taking of IESUS in the Garden Point I. JESUS suffereth himselfe to be taken and deprives himself of his power who was able to annihilate his enemies to the end that being made captive for us hee might have right to place us in the freedome of grace In imitation of Jesus who suffered himselfe to be made a captive for you resolve never to make use of your owne power when there shall be any occasion of suffering for the glory of God PRAYER I Do not doubt my Saviour of your power but I admire your love which triumpheth over you and worketh so great a miracle on your selfe for love captivates your strength restraines your power and reduceth you into a state of impotency and weaknesse to the end you may be capable of suffering for mee poore and wretched creature that I am Who will not be ravished in the thought of this love And who will not remaine astonished that God suffers for man the just for the sinner And thus you doe benigne Iesus in this mistery which I contemplate Now for this love which you expresse towards me and which renders you captive to set me at liberty what else can I doe but cast my selfe with heart and spirit at your feet and become an humble suitor that your love may render mee his captive that it may triumph over my heart to the end being denuded of all things I may become for ever the slave of your love Grant that it may be so my Iesus since it is both my duty and desire Point II. JESUS perseveres in the humiliations and sufferances of his captivity remaining in the midst of executioners in silence without plaints without strength or power In imitation of him affect such things as humble you and administer occasion of sufferance and propose to your selfe never to reject them PRAYER SInce I see you O sweet Jesus in the midst of executioners exposed unto their malice and that in this mysterie you abandon your selfe unto all sorts of confusions and to the false accusations of sinners appearing as criminall in the midst of these miscreants what lesse can I doe Lord then annihilate my selfe in your presence and humble my selfe in imitation of you in the view of all creatures And if in the various states of your life you embraced humility onely and made choice of nothing but confusions if you who are alone worthy of honour and respect despised the Grandeurs of the earth and the vaine contentments of this world to live and die onely in depressions and sufferances Finally if you O benigne Iesus who are the onely Son of God were pleased to become an object of scorne and contempt of men alas what do I miserable wretch deserve to be and what rank shall I hold in the world I who am a sinner criminall and unworthy of all things Surely my sweet Iesus I heartily condemne my pride and doe protest that with my whole affection assisted by your holy grace which I implore I resolve from henceforth to affect lowlinesse and indure for your sake all the humiliations and Crosses of this life And why shall I refuse humbly to suffer them for your sake since you have indured them so holily for mine I offer my selfe then unto you for that effect and I abandon my selfe with my whole heart unto your divine conduct grant only that I may be such as you require me to be Point III ACknowledge the strange abasement of Jesus who permits men to binde and lead him captive and to touch him with their prophane hands who is the Holy of Holies Hee offers his sacred mouth to receive the kisse of Judas his greatest enemy Offer your selfe unto him to beare all the contradictions of men and the contempt of all creatures and demand of him even love for your enemies if you have any PRAYER YOur life and the divers mysteries of your passion your labours and sufferances O my Saviour give me a lesson and teach me what I am to doe but how shall I doe it and how can I imitate you if you lend me not your hand if you prevent and affist me not with your grace For my perverted heart and my proud nature oppose themselves wholly to you and contest against all that you propose unto me I see my Lord I see how you offer your sacred mouth
to receive of Judas the kisse of Treason how you present your hands and abandon your adorable body to the rage of Devills and to the malice of men and sinners to dispose of you and your life in whatsoever cruelty could suggest unto them Alas who is able O my sweet Iesus to imitate you I fervently desire it but acknowledge my owne impotency for I feele contradiction in my selfe and tremble at this thought However leave me not O Saviour of my soule in case I am not able to imitate you in all things at least let me doe it in what I may and I can doe much if you give me your grace Open then my eyes that I may discerne what I am change my heart that it may affect what you love and animate my spirit humbly to indure all contempts and confusions All that I am now able to doe in the presence of your Soveraigne Majesty is to accuse my malice to condemne my pride and to offer unto you my will my heart and soule to order them as you please Succour my infirmity fortifie my weaknesse breake my obstinacy and by the fire of your love be pleased to consume all my iniquity IESUS is fastned and scourged at the Pillar Point I. SHead you not tears of love and compassion beholding Jesus the Beauty of Heaven and the Glory of Paradise exposed to the cruelty of barbarous men fastned all naked to a Pillar to make you a bath of his bloud and to cleanse the staines of your soule Give him thanks and render him teares of love contrition for the bloud which he hath given you in this mystery PRAYER MY Iesus Grant that my heart may break with griefe and my soule dissolve in your love for you oblige me to it by your benefits And to say truly who can choose but love you seeing that by the excesse of the love which you beare us you have expos'd your selfe to the rage of Devills and to the malice of sinners And why shall I not break my heart asunder with sorrow and contrition since by my offences I am the occasion of the pains which you suffer How farre more just were it O Saviour of the world that you should remaine in your Glory in the Throne of your greatnesse and that I who have rendred my selfe the slave of sinne and of my passions should be fastned to this Pillar and torn with the scourges of your justice But since your love is content to make paiment for mee grant that I may love you as I ought and no longer offend you This is my intention I desire it with my whole heart and I beg it of you with an entire affection Point II. CHrist Jesus upon the Pillar put on the condition of a slave and criminall to beare the effects of the rage of Devills and men He remaines there in the midst of them like a Lamb victimated and abandoned of his Father deserted by his Apostles and afflicted by all creatures Compassionate this state of Jesus and beg of him that from henceforth you may remaine abandoned and resigned unto all that he shall ordaine PRAYER A Las my Jesus I have made the debt and you have paid it it is I it is I who am guilty and you are punished it is I unhappy that I am who have irritated Heaven and rendred my selfe unworthy of all your favours I both know and confesse that I deserve nothing but hell and for my sins to be sacrificed unto the divine Justice which I have so often contemned but your goodnesse which seekes nothing but my Salvation by a prodigy of love makes an admirable exchange For you enter O Saviour of my Soul into my condition and loading your selfe with my offences you are now victimated like an innocent Lambe and left to the Justice of God abandoned on all sides and plunged into to all sorts of sufferances What lesse can I doe O my Iesus in recognition of this love then adore your goodnesse and abandon my selfe entirely to you to be what you please I give my selfe then unto this mystery and offer my selfe unto you to beare the effects thereof in such a manner as you desire Point III. THe Body of Jesus is covered all over with wounds from the very head to the feet and exhausted of bloud and strength Consider that the wounds drops of bloud you see on it are as so many tongues which enunciate to you his love and teach you how you ought to love him in humiliations and sufferances Offer unto him your life your body and bloud never to imploy them but for his glory PRAYER I Am yours O good Iesus my soule my life my body and bloud are no longer mine but yours in respect that for my sake you make a profusion of your owne bloud you abandon your body unto wounds and sufferances your soule and life you give to me upon the Crosse After all these graces and favours shall I not be yours No no Lord all these drops of bloud which you shed and all the wounds of your body are so many tongues which condemne my ingratitude and invite me to your love I am willing to love and from this very instant and for ever I desire to be wholly yours and resolve to love nothing but you alone Bruise bend breake and oppresse my soule if you please combat my life with a thousand afflictions make me suffer as long as you please yet will I never utter any other words then that I am yours and that I love you alone IESUS is crowned with Thornes Point I. THe love which Jesus beares us exerciseth on him the power and rigours thereof love placeth him amongst thornes and even death it selfe love exposeth him unto mockeries spittings buffets and the contempt of his enemies Consider all this and beg of Jesus that the selfe-same love may exercise on you the power thereof Offer your selfe unto all the effects which he shall vouchsafe to produce in your soule bee it in the thornes of Penance or in the death of your vices and earthly affections PRAYER O How happy should I be if your love would once take Empire over my heart Let not the fault be mine for I desire it I seeke it and offer my selfe wholly to you to beare the effects thereof Grant then Lord grant speedily that the power of your love may deeply wound my soule In loving you nothing will be difficult for me in this world for if love hath cloathed you O good Iesus with our miseries and loaden you with our sinnes if love hath fastned you on the Crosse what will it not worke on me if it raigne there and exercise his power Then would it be that I should truly die unto my selfe to live in you that I should despise all things to love you alone and that stimulated by this love I should satisfie for my past crimes never more to commit the like But when will that blessed houre arrive that I shall love
is the mother of all sinnes is the principall occasion thereof For if you came into the world to ruine and annihilate the Kingdome of death and the empire of sinne much more did you come to combate the pomp of the world and to destroy the pride of men It was to this end you were borne and lived so poore and abject It was for this end that you died in the midst of so many confusions loaden with so many reproaches it was to condemne pride that your whole life your sufferings and death were onely in humiliations Since them O Lord you neither liv'd nor dy'd but to condemne pride which is the spring of all miseries I condemne it with you and detest it for your sake Be pleased to root out of my heart and to ingrave in my soule the love of humility And as in this mystery you abandon your selfe to the false judgments of men who esteem you worthy all the tortures which you indure so vouchsafe to give me the grace that for the combating my pride I may affect contempt despise the false judgments of men And for the completement of my blessing I beg of you that I may partake of the grace and spirit of your Passion and that you will be pleased to form in me your dispositions your actions and sufferings for I shall assuredly raigne with you if I become like unto you IESUS is nailed unto the Crosse Point I. PIlate abandoneth Jesus to the will and malice of sinners and Jesus himselfe became obedient in every thing even to the death of the Crosse He is delivered up to the Jewes and Gentiles to be nailed and fastned to this ignominious piece of wood in such sort as they shall ordaine Adore Jesus who satisfieth by his obedience for the disobedience of sinners and learne to love obedience and to preferre the will of God before all things of this world even before your owne life PRAYER O My Saviour and my God! I remaine not in this world but to fulfill your holy will all my happinesse depends on this point and the perfection of my soule consists in this vertue hitherto both Heaven Earth the Elements and all Creatures in obeying you teach me what I ought to doe But the death of my Iesus ô Eternall Father and his obedience in all the mysteries of his Passion evidenceth to me that I ought to preferre your holy will before my own contentments my private interest and even life it selfe that I must feare neither contempts nor sufferances nor even labours in all occasions which concerne that obedience which I owe your Soveraigne Majesty for if your Sonne hath abandoned himselfe to an ignominious death if he hath given his adorable feet and hands to be cruelly nailed unto a Crosse and if he subjected himselfe to the will of sinners and executioners what can I doe lesse from henceforward then learne of my Iesus the obedience which I owe to all that you require of me In honour then of the obedience of your Sonne and in homage to this vertue which he hath practised rendering himself obedient even to the death of the Crosse I give my selfe unto you O Father of mercy and acknowledge my selfe your Creature and Vassall and I purpose faithfully to obey you and to live under the lawes of your Empire Do not permit Lord if you please that I ever prove rebellious to you or that to fulfill my owne will I forsake yours but by an effect of the Mysterie which I contemplate grant that I preferre your holy will before all earthly things and even my owne life for such is my desire Point II. BEhold the submission wherein Jesus the King of glory vouchsafeth to place himselfe for our sinnes when as with a profound silence he submits to the Iudges to the Executioners and his Enemies And he even abandoneth himselfe to the power of Divels obeying so humbly and readily when they go about to uncloath him to naile and fasten him to the Crosse Subject your selfe for his sake as much as you may chiefly when there shall be occasion of being humbled or suffering any thing for the honour of God PRAYER GIve me the grace O God of love and goodnesse to know you and understand my selfe for if you impart unto me this light and affect me with a sense of this verity it will be easie for me to annihilate my selfe in the presence of your Soveraigne Majesty it will be no longer uneasie for me to condemne and confound my selfe considering the little love I beare you and it will be facile for me to suffer contempts humiliations and the Crosses of this present life For O benigne Iesus I see you all naked in the midst of most cruell Executioners stretched out upon this ignominious wood of the Crosse and if you who are the onely Son of my God have been pleased to endure for my sake the scourges the nailes and the Crosse why shall I refuse for the love of you the pains and contempts of this life No no Lord I detest my pride I accuse my remissenesse and renounce the delicacies and effeminacies of this world to the end I may imitate you and partake of the spirit grace and merits of your death and passion Point III. COnsider Jesus suffering in all things which may bring him pain humiliation and confusion to expiate the abuse we make of every thing which we imploy in offending the Divine Majesty and to condemne the inordinate love wherein we preferre the creature before the Creator Implore his grace to make good use of all things and take an aversion to the wantonnesse of the flesh PRAYER O Amiable Iesus you have created me to love you and have loved me to oblige me to your love nay all that you have done and suffered was but to draw me to you and to ingage me in your service I render you thanks with my whole heart and I beseech you to give me the grace that I may love you above all things and love nothing but your selfe in all things Be pleased to annihilate in me whatsoever is opposite to your love consume in my heart selfe-love and all affections to creatures to the end I may unite my selfe to you and live wholly for you I know very well that my crimes and offences have rendred me unworthy of this grace But O God of love and goodnesse you have suffered death on the Crosse to obtaine for us this grace and to attract us to your love Fix then if you please O benigne Iesus fix I say your love in my heart and your feare in my soule and grant that I may love you with all my power and with all my forces in order to your command Iesus upon the Crosse Point I. IEsus suffers in all the parts of his body who hath nothing whole from the feet to the head for he is covered all over with wounds bruised with blowes and his bloud quite exhausted He indures all these severall paines
not fall and governe me by your Spirit that I wander not in the nations of my perverse inclinations Defend me good Iesus and deliver me from my selfe and permit me not to adhere to my affections nor to follow my owne appetites I renounce them all since they separate me from you and I conjure your goodness to annihilate them to the end that adhering wholly unto you I may be for nothing but your selfe for such is my desire you know it O love of my soule To ask the love of God OBject of all Love perfect Beauty ineffable Goodnesse who can choose but love you I purpose it but am unable I will love to death and will die but in loving you Transpierce my heart with your love and my body with your feare effect O powerfull God! effect powerfully that your Spirit may consume in me all that is of my selfe that I may bee wholly yours and love none but you and that living in you I may die to all other things A protestation of Love Shall I be alwaies overlightned in my selfe distracted in my thoughts inconstant in my motions How long will you permit me Lord to follow my owne inclinations and to be violently affected with the Creature Recall my spirit withdraw it from all things to retaine it for your selfe Let not your just conduct O most amiable goodnesse abandon me for leaving me to my self blind that I am I should lose my selfe in my Cupidities and separate my selfe from you to live no longer but for my selfe Let death rather force me away yea fill O God of love fill rather my life with bitternesse my heart with feare and my soule with continuall displeasure then permit that to please the Creature or to satisfie my selfe I may displease your divine Majesty An Act of Love WHy shall I not love you O most amiable goodnesse You oblige me thereunto by your love you attract me by your benefits and you command it by your goodnesse I will then love you because I ought and I desire that my heart may love you with all his power because nothing is amiable but your selfe But I cannot love if you inspire me not with love Abide then in me O desirable love live in me to the end that following the lawes of your love I may live and consummate my selfe in you Aspirations of Love VVhether are you gone sweet Spouse of my soule Alas I carry a heart replenished with bitternesse when I have no sense of you I keep my self aloofe from you loft in my thoughts I perceive my selfe wandring in various objects for a heighth of miserie I walke in the night of a heart darkened with selfe-love My life is all humane and as a child of Adam my life is in the old man I know not whether I have a being or no only I know that I am miserable but to live in this sort is a cruell death it is not to live at all to live without you it is too long a Martirdome Take pitty on my soule returne and possesse me entirely Restore me your spirit give me your life and change my whole heart Why can I not like a Phoenix consume my selfe in the ardors of your eternall love and alter my course of life being to be no longer but in you to live no longer but for you You can effect this O God who can do all things Sighes of Love MY eyes are bathed in teares and my voice is broken with sighes my life is but a death and all things are but a Martirdome to me when I thinke where my God is Alas this thought makes me powr out all my soule and I languish both day and night when I know that I must remain in this abode of miserie I cry out from the bottome of my heart How long Lord how long And must I yet live for a long time in the land of the dead and absent from your face remain among the perills of this miserable life Must I being oppressed with my body feele my selfe removed from the sweet attractives of your Caresses I am content with it since it is your Pleasure Great God Master of my soule your will is my delight your love my direction But effect O God who can do all things effect by your mercy that as your Son and my Iesus lives only in love and this love makes him die so I may live no longer then in loving you and that love may make me suffer To sue for the contempt of all things TOo long O my soule doest thou seeke vanity and affect lies This world hath nothing in it stable permanent all is perishable therein Goodnesse truth peace and repose are found only in God thou losest thy selfe in selfe-loving and seeking thy selfe thou art estranged from God Come then to my succour O Saviour of my soule and reach me your hand dissipate all these allurements which detaine me captive Open to me your heart O my so amiable Iesus to shelter me in the midst of so many surprizes see Lord see how from all sides snares are laid for me to make roe fall in love with this world Doe not permit it O love of my soule my heart is for you alone preserve it then as yours Another MY eyes discerne not O Adorable verity the errour of vanity and my heart feels not the horrour of all vices But come O Sun of Iustice come and shine upon my soule consume with your beames all that is displeasing to you give me your spirit which opens my eyes to discerne verity which inspires me with love to adhere unto it which redresseth my will and teacheth it to detest the world and gives me the grace to seek you alone and to live only for the love of you To demand light and direction for your soul SUnne of Iustice illuminate the darknesse of my spirit Comforter of soules draw me out of the ignorance wherein I live I walke in the shadow of death amidst the perils of this life and severing my selfe from you who are the way and life of my soule I run like a vagabond into the curious research of the objects of my senses Do you not see it O my God who see all things Come then to my succour light of my soule I aske nothing but your selfe my heart fighes after you and my eyes seeke you every where Dart therefore O Iesus a glance of your face infuse a ray of your beauty into the bottome of my Soule to call me back to you and make me know who you are and what I am to the end I may be wholly yours and that being no longer mine I may love you alone To invoke Grace GReat God! your Treasures are unexhaustible and your hands full of gifts You are rich only in goodnesse and in shewing mercy you evidence what you are Mercy then Lord mercy for I am a sinner one glance of your eye one word of your mouth can deliver me from evils for while you look on me I shall love you while you speake to me I shall follow and run after you in the odour of the sweet perfumes of your heavenly grace To call for Contrition FRom the depth of my misery I elevate my heart unto you O God of goodnesse my soule sighes after you God of mercy And now that I am sensible of my misfortune that the weight of my sins oppresse me within I cry aloud unto you lend me your eares and fix on me your benigne eyes to withdraw me from the evill whereunto I find my selfe fastned Give me your arme Father of mercy to sustaine the yoke of my offences light to know them teares to bewaile them and the zeale of your justice to satisfy for them I can no longer endure the foulenesse of my life nor to live any longer distant from you O happinesse of my soule I pant after you you know it but I cannot escape out of the place which captivates me nor breake the bands which fasten me if the power of your Spirit and the Spirit of your love doe not dissolve and break them in pieces loosen them then O Lord and render me the liberty which you have purchased for your children at the price of your life Affection to accomplish our good purposes I Feel my selfe seized with a flame of love which makes me protest never more to forsake you O Jesus the love of my soule I am weary to see my selfe in the midst of so many inconstancies I desire to be entirely yours you know it very well Lord for it is of you as of a spring of goodnesse that my soule is full of desires and my will of good affections it is a gift of your hand preserve it by your grace and give me your arme and benediction to uphold me in my good purposes and that I may punctually accomplish what I have promised you stimulated and incited by the motions of your Spirit alwayes holy to the end you may finish and perfect in me what you have begun by your infinite mercy for without you I can doe nothing and by you am enabled to doe all things FINIS A PRAYER which the Church useth to invoke the love of God DEVS qui diligentibus te facis cuncta prodesse da cordibus nostris inviolabilem tuae charitatis affectum ut desideria de tua inspiratione concept nullâ possint tentatione mutari Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum c. Amen