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
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
to their Superior Potestates or to God who tho in himself Omnipotent yet is thus pleased by many Subordinations of Agents to govern the Universe but especially to provide all manner of Protection for his Servants in it And if for nothing else yet what a sad thing were it to be wicked for this that we should thus contristate so many near tho not seen Friends and Patrons labouring our Salvation in vain For these see Ezech. 10 11 12. 6.50 2. Pet. 2.11 comp 10. Job 1.6 Dan. 4.13.17 Rev. 8.3 4 5. 5 6. Zech. 4.10 Luk. 1.19 Tobit 12.15 1. Kin. 22.19 Psal 84.7 12. The Prayers and Intercessions of the beatified Saints in Heaven for us here on Earth secure of their own Salvation still solicitous for ours and the many Benefits that are received thereby 13. The Good growing better by perseverance in well-doing from custome and a former habit as the wicked by continuing in sin grow daily worse Digr Of the great Power of Custome 14. That as it is a very dangerous condition if any after having begun in a more special manner to serve God and after much well-doing shall fall away and abandon themselves to sin so it is no easy matter for nor often happens to those who are once truly converted to God after they have found such a difference in their Satisfaction and comfort in serving God from what they had in serving the World and after their tast of earthly pleasures is so much altered Rom. 6.21 so to fall-away but that falling they easily and quickly rise again and are very unquiet and discontented whilst they live in their sin Digr Of the great folly of not undertaking a strict and holy life out of fear of inability to persevere 15. The great retardements he receives who hath made some Progress in Holiness and Mortification for the committing any single act of any greater sin from the fears he hath 1 Of loosing all his former pains and holy endeavors of the Reformation of himself Ne perdat quod operatus est 2. Jo. 8. I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Cant. 5.3 2 Of the after-long griefs and self-afflictions he knows he shall suffer for such an act 3 Of his being though pardoned yet set so much backward in his love to God and the love of God to him 4 And of his being denied those great visitations and consolations of the Holy Spirit 16. The certain addition of new and greater Graces upon former well managed Habenti dabitur Matt. 11 12. 17. The chiefest Graces of God's Spirit ordinarily not meerly gratuital but rewards of former service and nothing given that is not first laboured for except the ability to labour for them The Grace little in comparison which is bestowed at the first And this little again from the unprofiting withdrawn Non habenti auferetur quod habet Regnum coelorum patitur vim violenti rapiunt 18. Our Preparations necessary for attaining Grace and that it ordinarily worketh in us according to each man's capacity and his former natural and acquired parts neither usually changeth it in us all natural imperfections 19. The accesses and recesses and the vicissitudes of the Influences and Actings of the Holy Spirit in us according to the more or less exercise of our Devotions the several preparations and elevations of the heart towards God and Divine things and also according to the present needs of our imployments sufferings and that it is excited and improved by our fervency and care and cooled by our neglect grieved affronted quenched by our resistance See 1. Cor. 12.31 2. Tim. 1.16 1. Tim. 4.12 13 14 15. 2. Tim. 2.1 Apocal. 3.19 Rom. 12.11 2. Cor. 6.1 2. 8.7 Gal. 5.25 Eph. 5.17 18. Col. 3.14 15 16. Col. 4 5 6. Heb. 12.28 Eph. 4.30 Matt. 25.8 1. Thes 5.19 Heb. 10.29 1. Cor. 3.17 Most of which Texts are Exhortations concerning husbanding and improving the Graces received of God and not resisting the Spirit Therefore not to incur such hazard the internal motions of this Spirit whether operating in the Understanding or the Will are to be very diligently attended-on expected hearkned to especially in time of Prayer with much silencing of our own reason and passions and among other things its unity carefully to be preserved in a bond of Peace with all our Fellow-members Eph. 4.3 25. Col. 3.14 15. Phil. 1.27 20. God's Spirit working less or more in all the Regenerate Gal. 5.17 and all those Acts mentioned Gal. 5 22 23 its Fruits And therefore we obliged to a reverent entertaining and prosecuting of all those illuminations and motions that arise in us which we think tend to any good though many times the Spirit to advance our co-operation and reward in doing well upon less assurance gives no evident testimony to its self this pious resentment of the Celestial Influence that we dayly receive much encouraging us to go forward in Piety and to return our thanks Digr Of the well keeping and preserving Graces given 21. Internal Consolations much more abounding by external and secular avoided 22. By more holiness a ready assent to more illuminations qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris and Christianity not so much a Science but Experience sentitur antequam discitur nor do they though much learned who serve not truly know God i. e. in his chiefest Excellencies He being so intelligible only by this Experience but they do remain still in darkness and Wisdome is justified only of her children 23. By practising and exercising of things better the speedy attainment to a perfect dis-affection and contempt of things worse and nothing worth So by purging our selves from those works which are opposite to the doctrine of true Faith we procure a true Faith see Jo. 3.19 20. Jo. 5.44 Quod nolumus difficile credimus from working believing and from working loving 24. The great vertue and efficacy of the most excellent Grace of Charity or Love which once possessed doth the work and effect of all other Graces by its own power and cureth all Sins better than their proper remedies whilst it seeks in all things punctually to observe and conform-to the Will of him and in no small thing to displease him with whom this ravished Soul is sick of Love Whilst she careth only for the things of the Lord how she may please the Lord 1 Cor. 7.23 and languishing with a perpetual desire of two things 1. Prayer 2. Mortifications and Sufferings the last the more to shew her love to God the other always in some manner to enjoy it And this love of God also infers that of our Neighbour in respect of the many near relations he hath to God and besides the Precept of it And this love of our Neighbour again in its doing them no manner of ill compendiously fulfills all the other laws of our Duty towards them as is observed by the Apostle Rom. 13.9 10. 1. Cor. 13.4 25. The excellent degrees of Perfection that
may be attained in this life And that our future glorification cheifly consists in a higher degree of Sanctification and Vnion with God and with Christ And this also then to be enjoyed in a higher degree by those who have acquired it here in a higher measure Hic esse incipimus quod futuri sumus 26. The holy Pattern of our Lord and of the Saints that have gone before us shewing the Evangelical Precepts practicable and inviting and incouraging our imitation Ecce Ecclesia plena gregibus c. St. Aust Confess 8. l. 11. c. Behold the Church full of Societies of good Examples There are embraced within her arms so many children Boys and Girles so much flourishing Youth and all other Ages c. Tu non poteris quod isti istae Art not thou able to do what those Youths and Maidens are 27. The high estimation and value the good works of his Saints have with God As being the acts of his adopted Children of his Son whose Members they are and he in them and they in him Of his Holy Spirit always to be acknowledged the principal Author of all these in them 28. The Progress of Piety to consist in an holy emulation and coveting and pursuing still higher spiritual Gifts 1. Cor. 12.31 14.1 in inventing and beginning every day some new resolutions of holiness thinking no Sanctity already acquired worthy to gain eternal life Not as though I had attained or were already perfect but I pursue c. said the great Apostle Phil 3.12 13 14. Matt. 11 12. And that it is not want of Grace but of our indeavour and using at first some force upon our selves according to which the Spirit is encreased that hinders us from being Saints the violent take heaven by force Et il Paradiso non è fatto Per ì Poltroni 29. The chief advance of our spiritual Estate to be assiduity of Prayer with the neglect of which those who attempt Holiness seem only to indeavour to serve God with more pains and trouble and to deprive themselves in their work of all content and solace and besides of those strong inclinations to the attempting still something more excellent which the very exercise of Prayer is not only a Means to procure but by exciting in us the love of God an Instrument to effect 30. The just aggravations of our continuance in Sin when we are by the former considerations left without any Plea of inability to Vertue and Piety Digr 1. Of the hainousness and danger of returning to Sin or looking back towards forsaken pleasures after having escaped their former pollutions 2. Pet. 2.21 and tasted the heavenly Gift Heb. 6.4 Digr 2. Of the great Peril and also Ingratitude of neglecting or resisting the Motions of the Holy Spirit in us or incurring those Sins whereby it is offended and grieved and of the desolate condition of such as are once thus forsaken PART II. COUNSELS §. 11. COncerning these Counsels by way of Introduction Consider That you are obliged to the observance of all God's Precepts and Commands and that as the Reward is very high eternal life so these Precepts are very pure and contrary to carnal and secular Lusts Now many Counsels there are delivered by our Lord by his Apostles by the Saints of following times in the observance of which Counsels though recommended only not enjoined to any the Precepts are much more easily kept because such Counsels practised put us out of the occasions and temptations of sinning but without these Counsels much more difficultly the Precepts observed Because such persons retaining still the temptations engage themselves as it were upon a perpetual Fight that they may not fall into the Sin in which as the Victory is very honorable so the Battle is very hazardous for their Enemies being thus allowed all the advantages and preparations they can make against them without receiving any disturbance therein are hereby very much strengthned and Experience shews that the most of such Combatants lose the day and little Apology they can make for themselves since they choose to work out their Salvation rather with such pain and uncertainty when they are shewed a way to do it with much ease and security A difficulty indeed there is also in the Counsel but it is only at the first namely resolutely to accept and embrace it the practice of which Custome afterwards renders most easy but the difficulty of avoiding Sin where the Counsels are neglected and all temptations and occasions indulged is perpetual and never at an end §. 12 Again there being a certain Latitude in all Christian Vertues and Duties amongst which also I number our repentance and humiliations for Sin in which you may go so high as that the degree wherein you perform it as to the quantity frequency c. is indeed for encouraging our best endeavors by the Divine wisdome allowed commended or if you will required upon the title of perfection and lastly highly rewarded but out of his mercy to our weakness is not strictly commanded upon the forfeiture of our being any longer good or vertuous nor the omission of them punished So on the other side you may go so low as that the degree wherein you perform it as to the quantity frequency c. is the most inferior that the Vertue to exist at all can admit and further than which if you descend you fall short of it and break the Precept concerning it and commit a Sin Again The bounds of this lowest degree less than which transgresseth the Precept being also very uncertain so that it is hard to say thus much done if no more is sufficient as it may be certainly concluded of the higher degrees that the more the better I say from these Considerations a wise man would rather have something over than something wanting something of what is in Consilio only than fall short of what is in Praecepto and not to divide a hair in his obedience and choose to walk still upon the brink of Sining And this especially When as the most of men upon what confidence I know not but de facto so it is fall short of Salvation See before § 5. n. 3. And again Whenas we shall not lose a mite of the over-measure we make for attaining heaven which shall not have its peculiar reward Eccl. 11.23 Say not what profit is there of my service and what good thing shall I have hereafter When as all the Contest is whether we should love God so much more who so without all measure loveth us or how far sinless we may love the world i. e. God's Enemy When at least as to one main matter Repentance and Humiliations for Sin perhaps our past offences have been so high as they also require an excessive proportion of Penitences and self-revenges Lastly When as the Saints that have gone before us have walked in all these Counsels and thought this perhaps little enough to preserve Innocence and gain Heaven
such Prayer for it is a thing too painful and toilsome By this means of using a Book I began to recollect these powers of my Soul and as it were with such enticements alluring on my Soul I proceeded in my Prayer And oftentimes but opening the Book I needed no more and sometimes I read little other times much according to the favour that our Lord pleased to do me Thus she with great assiduity in Prayer and it seems not without using much pains and diligence and suffering of some aridities at the first in recollecting her faculties and shutting out by-thoughts and removing their occasions attained afterward to so high and frequent unions of her Soul with God and to such a perfection in this holy art of Prayer as to become a most famous Pattern therein to all ensuing Generations You may find also an eminent proficiency and the like experiences therein of the Holy Father Balthasar Alvarez sometimes Confessor to St. Tereza as is storied in the 13 14 15.40 41. Chapters of his Life And the reason why there are so few of those who possess great purity of Conscience and Conversation that attain to the like divine favours and supernatural effects of Prayer seems to be the not using the same frequency of Prayer and the like couragious diligence and resolute patience in encountring all difficulties therein at the beginning See her Life Cap. 8. as this great St. Teresa and some others have done §. 110. When any thing in Prayer extraordinarily affects you staying and spending so much more of the time alotted for your devotions upon it causing your reason to observe and the set method of your Prayers to yield to if I may so say the lusts of the Spirit which if at all other times it causeth all good motions in us certainly operates them more especially in Prayer See Rom. 8.26 and doubtless hence will arise as more content so more profit to the Soul Here then the longer you fix in any one point of Prayer the brieflier running over the rest §. 111. 17. There are two acts of Prayer Meditation and Contemplation One the discoursive part thereof performed more by the Vnderstanding and used more in the beginning of Prayer the other the more enjoying and passionative part performed chiefly by the will and happening more in the end of Prayer at least to those not much practised Of these the second ordinarily is produced by the first the working of the brain by degrees kindling passions in the heart and long meditation of God and his perfections c enflaming our affections towards him and the Holy Spirit operateth in both in one by illumination and in the other by love but more chiefly in the second Sometimes the vehement inclinations of the will by a more immediate power of grace preceding the acts of the Vnderstanding and forcing it to follow them but more commonly the intellect by reasoning exciting the will and the passions You therefore here are to use the fore-named acts of the Soul interchangeably only the first yielding to the second as it grows to any strength but then when the second languisheth it is to be excited again by the first for we are neither to think we pray best when we think of nothing at all nor when we are most full of loquacity For the brain being wholly idle the affections go out for want of fuel nor is there any operation of the passions without some using at the same time of the imagination And again the affections not operating the speculations of the intellect are fruitless and comfortless But if at the first also the understanding happen to be dull sluggish and unoperative as is usual to new beginners and to the same persons at some times much more than at others you are to excite both it and the affections by reading some select book of devotion taken with you to Prayer till you find your self able without its help to proceed Teresa in the 4th Chapter of her Life reports of her self that for eighteen years she never durst betake her self to mental Prayer without a Book in her hand that she might still repair to reading in case of any distraction from impertinent thoughts or aridity and barrenness of Soul §. 112. Digr 1. Of the great effects which the affections thus enflamed in Prayer with the love of God c work in the Soul and the influence they have afterward upon its actions causing in it a greater vilifying of the world and abhorrence of all sin and displeasing God and of tepidity in his service and raising a love to mortifications and sufferings freeing it from melancholy for the absence of some worldly conveniences or delights and making it valiant against all impediments of Piety and against the flesh and vigorous to all good works and amongst other effects much illuminating the understanding Digr 2. That tho by Prayer we may dispose our selves tho this disposing also is from God in some manner for those spiritual graces and influences supernatural which some Saints of God enjoy in some extatical raptures and unions with God and that to him that hath is given yet that these are supernatural always and for their efficiency clearly independent on our art or endeavours and that God only gives them when and where he pleaseth tho mostwhat he pleaseth to give them upon our much endeavours for them §. 113. Imaginary place of address 18. Ordering and fashioning in your thoughts and this without much curiosity or trouble to your fancy an imagined place of your addresses to God or our Saviour and a several manner of his presence and appearance to you such as may make most impression upon you and may suit best with the subject of your present meditations and devotions whether it be Confession or Thanksgiving or Petition or Doxology c. Which composition of place will make you more sensible what you are who and what He to whom you speak and breed high degrees of humility love resignation shame compassion and tenderness according to the business you then negotiate with him As representing to your self God in his Majesty according to the visions of Ezechiel c. 1. Esai c. 6. Dan. c. 7. St. John Apoc. c. 4. c. Our Saviour in his gentleness and familiarity and readiness to help according to some of those postures you read in the Gospel Or in his Glory according to Rev. 1. or 19. Chapters §. 114. In confessing of and beging mercy and pardon for your sins imagining your self appearing as a poor prisoner in shackles haled before him sitting in Judgment Or as the prodigal Son returning with shame before his Father Or as one full of Vlcers and Sores before a Physitian that can certainly cure him Or as one taken prisoner and kept in chains by his enemy and begging his freedome from his own Prince passing-by in triumph Or presenting your self to him as if you lay on your death-bed Or as when you were in
is the Blood of this Covenant See Exod. 24. ch Heb. 8.7 c. Heb. 10.29 12.24 comp Luk. 22.20 This Holy Ceremony being a Sacrament a Seal an Obsignation of the pardoning all former offences between the parties that were at difference and of our reconciliation with God and admittance to the hopes and lawful enjoynments of all his Blessings spiritual corporal temporal eternal Rom. 4.11 Matt. 26.28 §. 151. 4. Eucharistical 4. Being the Christians Eucharistical Sacrifice answering the Jews peace or thank-offering 1. By which Rite we commemorating Christ through whom all blessings descend to us Eph. 2.18 3.12.21 Jo. 14.13 Eph. 3 4.6 Col. 3.17 Rom. 1.8 Heb. 13.15 unto the father do bless and give him thanks for all persons and things c. 2. Then by eating and partaking of which as the Jews and also Idolaters by eating of theirs therefore the eating of the Heathens Sacrifices was always most strictly forbid the Israelites Exod. 34.15 Numb 25.2 Psal 106.18 Ezech. 18.6 we are admitted as it were to the table of our God to eat of his bread Lev. 11.6 3.11 and to amity communion fellowship with him 1. Cor. 10.14 to 22. 3. By partaking and eating of which Sacrifice being the Body and Blood of Christ we are admitted also to communion with the Son and mystically incorporated into him who is the second Adam from Heaven 1. Cor. 15. made members of his body flesh of his flesh c. and this not in a metaphor but in a great mystery Eph. 5.32 And then from being partakers of the Body become also partakers of the Spirit of Christ 1. Cor. 6.17 and see the Spirit specially conferred in the Eucharist 1. Cor. 12 13. and by it eternal life conveyed to us c. Jo. 6.58 comp 63. by which relation he becomes now obliged to nourish and cherish us c Eph. 5.30 and from partaking of the nature and spirit of this second Adam the heir of all things Heb. 1.2 Col. 1.16 become now Sons of God also as he Heirs of Eternal life as he c. as by the first Adam we were of eternal death See 1. Cor. 12 13. Eph. 4.24.5.29 c. 1. Cor. 6.19.15.17.19 Jo. 17.21.23 4.14.6.56 57. comp 1. Cor. 10.17 18 24. 4. By eating and partaking of which one bread we also become one bread amongst our selves 1. Cor. 10.17 and have Communion with all the Saints of God and partake both of the glory and benefit and service in their prayers charity sufferings c. of all the rest of the members of Christ's Body and of all the family of God as well that in heaven as that upon earth Eph. 3.15 Heb. 12.23 Col. 7.20 Eph. 2.19 Phil. 3.20 §. 152. The Christians Passover 5. Being the Christians Passover answering to and at the same time instituted instead of the Israelites Paschal Lamb the Christians breaking bread and cup of blessing or thanksgiving for these two are all one 1. Cor. 10.16 being like theirs then at that solemnity we giving thanks also at the celebration of it as they then for that in Aegypt for our everlasting redemption by the sprinkling upon us of the blood of the Lamb of God from Satan and the destroying Angel 1. Cor. 5.7 §. 153. Our duty of homage for the use of God's Creatures 6. The Christians Oblation of bread and wine and anciently other fruits or as now alms of money instead of them presented now upon God's table tho this charity far more punctually and plentifully observed in the primitive times being answerable to those customes under the law of bringing to the Lord at the Passover the first fruits Levit. 23.10.14.16 By which Oblation we acknowledging him the Lord and Doner of all good things and praising him for all the good works of the Creation do sanctify for the future the use of his Creatures do procure the continuance and increase of them to us See Deut. 16.19 1. Cor. 10.16 and all this only through Jesus Christ By whom being the natural Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 we now begin to have a new right our former being lost in Adam's fall to the Creatures before unclean unto us and defiled also with sin 1. Tim. 4.3 Rom. 14.14 Tit. 1.15 Psal 8.7 Luk. 11.41 but now sanctified through God's Word Prayer Thanksgiving and giving Alms of them done especially now at the Eucharist whilst to the unclean all things remain still unclean 1. Cor. 7.14 But then besides all those former benefits of the Creation these Symbols are at this time more specially set forth for a thankful remembrance unto God for the precious death of Christ and all other benefits of our Redemption 1. Cor. 3.21 comp 23. §. 154. The Symbol of our Resurrection and Immortality 7. Being the Christians Viaticum answering to the fruit of the Tree of life in Paradise and to the Manna and Rock-water in the Wilderness which were types of it 1. Cor. 10.2 3 4. 12 13. The particular nourishment instituted since our ejection out of Paradise for the prèserving of the Body and Soul unto everlasting life and for a particular pledge and assurance of our Resurrection Hence by Conc. Nicen. called Symbola Resurrectionis and hence that form used generally in the Church Custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam See Jo. 6.32.35.40 c. For the Son the second Adam that is a quickning Spirit 1. Cor. 15.45 hath life in himself Jo. 5.26 and therefore he that eateth him also liveth by him Jo. 6.57 §. 155. The Symbol of our Christianity 8. Being instituted for a perpetually sensible Anniversary or Memorial unto us of our Saviour's passion and donation then of himself for and also to us so to confirm our faith and hope in him and love to him and our belief of our being all united together in and amongst our selves thereby to take away all differences and encrease our love one to another As likewise for a perpetual publick external mark of the Christian profession to distinguish them from all other sects and false religions 9. Finally to summe up what is said Being the chief means worthily received of obtaining remission of sins increase of the Spirit any particular spiritual or temporal blessing or deliverances for our selves or for others All these being to be obtained only through Christ Jo. 11.46 who is in the Eucharist offered as our own to God the Father by us this given i. e. to the Father for you Luk. 22.19 And again who is in the Eucharist by the Father and by himself given to us with all the privileges that belong unto him for with him are freely given us all things else Rom. 8.29 According to the which the primitive times observed a powerful efficacy in the Sacrament for working many wonderful mercies and deliverances to God's servants Again as impetratory for mercies so this Cup of Blessing 1. Cor. 10.16 which the Priest blesseth This Cup of Salvation Psal 116.12.13.17 being the most special thanksgiving most acceptable and well pleasing
you may be so much the more so also hereafter for the present pre-electing sufferings even wheren no more power of doing good to others by them than without them §. 162. Digr 1. Of the Example of our Saviour and of his Saints suffering the greatest torments with all patience joy desire Digr 2. Of the many sufferings for Christianity to which the very best conditions of life are daily exposed and invited by God 2. Tim. 3.12 and that as well from enemies within the rebelling flesh as without the reproaches of the Godly the wicked world Digr 3. That the more absence of afflictions is the sign of a weaker and more pusillanimous Christian As God gives his servants strength to bear what evils he lays upon them so ordinarily laying these upon them in some proportion to the strength which he foresees in them to bear For to them that have is given till they have abundance 7. To increase your patience in and desire of sufferings §. 163. Using frequent premeditation of and making a pre-occupated acquaintance with them Quod alii patiendo leve sapiens cogitando facit 8. Often reading the sufferings of Martyrs and comparing your own with the greater calamities of some others and some of those also of the weaker Sex tender delicate Ladies flourishing in nobility youth beauty Or chiefly of your blessed Saviour and meditating often of his passion §. 164. 9. Considering That these evils serve very much for advancing 1. God's Glory in your service of him when you seem to serve him for nought nay to embrace misery that you may serve him 2. God's power and wisdome shewed most in rescuing and delivering and wonderfully out of Evil extracting unexpected good 3. The true Good of the Sufferer Rom. 8.28 §. 165. 1. In that the times of sufferances are far more innocent in respect of vice than those of prosperity And the state of sickness and infirmity than the state of health Optimi sumus cum infirmi Quem enim infirmum aut avaritia aut libido solicitat non amoribus servit non appetit honores Invidet nemini neminem despicit sermonibus malignis non attendit c. Pliny 7. l. 26. Ep. Incusare deos aut homines ejus est qui vivere velit Tacit. 2. Are far more fruitful in production of virtues best teaching you self-knowledge and humility Knowledge of the world and contempt thereof Inviting you most powerfully to the love of another world best teaching prayer and fervent devotions Tunc Deos tunc hominem esse se meminit Are the best ablutions and refinings of us from former sins and whether voluntary or necessitated the most effectual motives through the sufferings of Jesus Christ to God of pardoning them and preventing his eternal Judgments upon them Deus non bis vindicat in id ipsum 3. Are the proper season for the greater joys and consolations of the Spirit The truest enterchanges of love for we love one the more for whom we suffer as well as e converso and Dearnesses between God and the Soul even his intimatest Communications of himself unto her Ps 91.15 The greatest assurances of Salvations c are received and perceived in the times of sufferings God not usually accumulating his upon any other secular joys therefore it was a great priviledge of the disciples of our Lord by extraordinary sufferings to be admitted to partake all these See Act. 16.25 4.8 5.41 2. Cor. 4.11.16 4. Nay the very retirements from you and temporary desertions of all the consolations of the Spirit give you an occasion of so much higher reward Dum a Deo derelictus seipsum quis patienter exuit atque ita Deo propter Deum caret §. 166. 10. That the Saints Glory in the next world is proportionably greater as greater here every ones sufferings And contrarily less as here more secular content 11. Lastly That for the substance of the evil and affliction it self It hath nothing in it so terrible as apprehended that long sufferings cannot be great And great sufferings not long Great pains being either interquiescent Omnis dolor magnus interquiescit or nature by them in a short time dissolved §. 167. I. HEADS for Meditation of SINS Use some of the Meditations set down p. 187. § 114. and § 141. For discovery of your sins use some of those ways prescribed before § 77. p. 155. Then for the measuring their true guilt some of those Considerations such as most move you set down p. 1 2 c. To which add this consideration That many dying without repentance and out of God's Grace in their youth or at that age when you also were if you are not still impenitent now suffer and so must world without end Hell torments for much lesser sins than you have committed Lastly for exercising your affections and resolutions Imagine with your self what one remitted hither out of those torments from which the merciful God preserving you is all one as if he had released you had that poor wretch a new time allowed him here to make his peace would do And then do you so seriously and anxiously go about your thanksgiving for God's long suffering equivalent to a release your penances your reformation of life I say as such a frighted Soul would do O that thou may'st know in this thy day for then they shall be hid c. §. 168. II. HEADS for Meditation of SICKNESS DEATH JUDGMENT Consider 1. First the great benefit and powerful operation of this Meditation especially being urged by our Saviour and the other Scriptures as a chief motive to vigilancy and diligence in well doing For which consider those places Luk. 21.34 16.9 Matt. 24.42 c. 2.13 Mark 13.35 Deut. 32.29 Eccl. 11.9 7.2 3 4. Ps 90.12 41. 1.4 39.4 Lam. 1.9 1. Being very beneficial for weakning pride and ambition worldly cares and designs and generally all sin and inordinacy of affections Eccl. 2.21.18 19. 1. Cor. 7.29 30 31. Ecclesiasticus 7.36 Facile contemnit omnia qui cogitat se esse moriturum semper Nihil sic revocat a peccato quam frequens mortis meditatio Mors quae in malis habentur ob oculos tibi quotidie versentur sic nihil unquam humile cogitabis i. e. to do unworthy things for worldly ends nec impensè cupies quicquam Epictetus 2. Being useful for taking away the fear terrour and astonishment thereof when it come which we are sure one day must come which are much lessened by often premeditation forewarned forearm'd Ab assuetis non fit passio 2. After this imagine your self lying on your death-bed taking your leave for ever of this world and all things dear to you therein even of your own Body for a long time And 2ly Going to the place where God's justice shall assign you the day of his mercy to you being then expired and his patience and long suffering ended and our Saviour also then ceasing for you his intercessions 1. 3. Then in order to the
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
obtain pardon and forgiveness of all our sins We sinners c. That the receiving thy Body and Blood may not be to us to judgment and condemnation but to life and salvation and that worthily receiving thy Body and Blood we hunger nor thirst any more nor dy eternally We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That through the worthy participation of thy Body and Blood thou in us and we in thee may abide for ever and that as many as eat of this Bread may be made one in peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That in innocence we may compass thine Altar O Lord and together with thy unspotted Sacrifice offer up our selves a living holy and acceptable Sacrifice to God We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That whom we believe to be in this holy Mystery really present tho veiled under the external elements we may behold at length with open face in everlasting glory We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. Son of God who takest away the sins of the world Hear us good Lord. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Have mercy on us He gave us food from heaven Man did eat Angels Bread Our Father which art Heaven c. O Lord hear our Prayers And let our cry come unto thee Let us pray WE adore thee O Lord Jesus with a true and lively faith in the Sacrament of the Altar with thy body and soul thy flesh and blood by the ineffable power of thy wisdome and goodness really present who at thy departure out of this world to the Father left us this Sacrament as a pledge of thy love that by a new and admirable way thou mightst still remain with us whose delight is to be with the Sons of men Cleanse our souls we beseech thee from all our sins and infirmities and feed them with the crums which fall from thy table that we may be filled with the marrow and fatness of thy heavenly blessings Come unto us dear Saviour and heal our sinful souls feed the hungry and refresh the weak Deliver us from all evil make us always adhere to thy commandements and never suffer us to be separated from thee Who livest and reignest one God world without end Amen O God who in this admirable Sacrament hast left us a memorial of thy Passion grant us we beseech thee so worthily to reverence the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood that we may daily find in us the fruit of thy Redemption Who livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen WE adore thee O Saviour of our Souls eternal word of the Father true Sacrifice offered for the sins of the whole world O most precious treasure replenished with all delight the resting place of pure and clean hearts O Angelical viand O Celestial bread O Eternal word of the Father which art for us made flesh and yet remainest God in the self same person We confess Thee most undoubtedly true God and Man consecrated in a most miraculous manner on our Altars to be there given to us and offered to thy Father for us Thou art the assured hope and only Salvation of sinners Thou art the Sovereign restorative of those that languish and the inexhaustible treasure of the poor distressed Pilgrims Hallowed be thy name O most sweet Saviour Jesus Christ may all thy Creatures sing forth praises and thanksgivings unto thee for the love wherewith thou tendrest our welfare by descending from heaven and offering up thy pure and innocent Body on the Cross for our Redemption Hallowed be thy name most blessed Jesus that after thy Resurrection and Ascension since thou wast to ascend into heaven there to sit at the right hand of the Father thou vouchsafest to leave us the self same immortal Body as a memorial of thy departure and a pledge of thy infinite love thou bearest us O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy on us and grant us thy peace refresh our Souls with this spiritual and heavenly food and comfort us continually with thy graces that neither in life nor death we may depart from thee nor be deprived at any time of thy celestial benedictions who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost in all Eternity Amen O Most loving Father who sparedst not thy own Son but deliveredst him to death for us all who if we ask thee Bread will not give us a Stone or for an Egg a Scorpion Behold we offer up unto thee Eternal Father this Lamb thy only Son and the infinite merits of his Sacrifice performed on the Cross and beseech thee to give us this day our daily bread bread for the body and all necessaries for this present life whereby we may be the better enabled to serve thee but especially the bread of our Souls the gifts and graces of thy Holy Spirit and whatsoever is necessary to strengthen them lest we faint in the way that we are walking in toward our heavenly country where we shall be abundantly satisfied with the pleasures of thy heavenly table who livest and reignest with the Son and the Holy Ghost one God for ever and ever Amen O Most bountiful Father who givest us from heaven the corn of thine Elect and bread of Life who hast sowed them on earth and laid them up in the Granary of thy Church for the feeding of thy children Grant us frequently to be refreshed with this bread yea spiritually at least to receive it daily which is so useful for us every day and that we may be sustained by this heavenly Viaticum in this our Pilgrimage that in the strength of that food we may travel on to the Mount of God by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen O Father of Mercies and God of all Consolation who in the abundance of thy infinite Charity hath given us thy only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but inherit eternal Life and that our necessities may be relieved out of the immense treasure of his Merits Behold me a wretched Sinner tho called by thy mercy into the Society of your Son now also partaking of his Body and Blood and therefore at this instant embracing him in my Breast and possessing him as my very self and what 's intimately united to me And as such in union of that love wherewith heretofore He gave himself for us on the Altar of the Cross and now communicates himself to us in the Sacrament of the Altar I offer Him to thee with all his merits and virtues to thine everlasting praise and glory that thou may'st be perfectly pleased in him and that we who by no action of our own can by the merits and patronage of thy most beloved Son may be compleatly acceptable to thee I present thee O Holy Father with that entire Charity Religion Humility Meekness
world to come we never be seduced by our own or any evil Spirit but inspired continually and lead by thee may be ready to every good work and relish those things which are hidden from the world Purify our minds by thy holy inspirations exhilarate them when sad with thy chast and innocent joys lead them when going astray into all truth inflame them when cold with the fire of thy charity and unite them when disagreeing by thy bond of peace Finally be thou the tye whereby we may love the Father and the Son and the sweet fruition unto us of the Father and the Son with whom we worship and adore thee in the unity of the same God-head for ever and ever Amen LITANIES of the Eucharist 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 proceeding from the Father and the Son Have mercy on us O Sacred Trinity one God Have mercy on us O Father who openest thy hand and fillest with thy blessing every living thing Father to whom the eyes of all things look up and thou givest them their meat in due season Have mercy on us Who feddest Abraham the Father of the Faithful with bread and wine by the hand of Melchisedech thy Priest Have mercy on us Who appointedst to the Israelites the Paschal Lamb in remembrance of their deliverance from bondage under Pharaoh Have mercy on us Who feddest them travelling thro the wilderness with Manna from heaven the food of Angels and didst also severely punish them loathing that Manna Have mercy on us O Father who hast given us thy only begotten Son the true Bread from heaven Have mercy on us Jesu that heavenly Bread who descendedst from heaven and givest life unto the world the Word made flesh and inhabiting in us Have mercy on us Jesu who bestowedst thy self upon us at thy birth for our Brother at thy table for food at thy death for our ransome and at last in thy kingdome for our reward Have mercy on us Jesu who pitying the multitude not having what to eat didst miraculously multiply the five loaves for many thousands Have mercy on us Jesu who invitest all that labour and are heavy burthened to come unto thee that thou may'st refresh them Have mercy on us Jesu who at thy departure out of this world unto the Father left us a lasting monument of thy love in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Have mercy on us Jesu who institutedst this Sacrament for a dayly Sacrifice and pure Oblation of thy self unto God thy Father unto the end of the world Have mercy on us O spotless Lamb of God that wast slain from the beginning of the world Have mercy on us O Living Bread born in Bethlehem the House of Bread who gavest thy own flesh for the life of the world Have mercy on us Jesu the true food which lasteth to eternal life to whom whosoever cometh shall never hunger and in whom whosoever believeth shall never thirst Have mercy on us Jesu whose flesh and blood whoso eateth and drinketh shall never dye but hath life eternal and dwelleth in thee and thou in him and thou wilt raise him up at the last day Have mercy on us Jesu who in this blessed Sacrament givest us our dayly bread and the cup of blessing our Viaticum in the house of death and who hast prepared a table in my sight against all that trouble us Have mercy on us Jesu the tree of Life planted in the midst of Paradise whose fruit gives Immortality to those that eat it Have mercy on us Jesu the Paschal Lamb without spot eaten in remembrance of our deliverance from the bondage of Satan Have mercy on us Jesu the heavenly Manna that containest all sweetness food of Angels and bread of Pilgrims eaten by us in the wilderness of this world whilst we travel towards the heavenly Canaan Have mercy on us Jesu the true Vine which makest fruitful and nourishest with thy heavenly juice every branch abiding in thee Have mercy on us Jesu the mystical Pelican who feedest thy young ones with the blood of thy own breast the good Samaritan who pourest celestial wine and oyl into our wounds Have mercy on us Jesu an High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech who offerest unto us bread and wine even thy own self Have mercy on us Jesu the good Shepherd who feedest thy sheep with thy flesh and blood Have mercy on us Be merciful O Jesu and spare us From receiving thy body and blood unworthily and to condemnation from all neglect in coming to thy living table from all prophane irreverence and negligence whilst we draw near to thine Altar Be merciful O Jesu and spare us From hungring and thirsting after earthly things from all sin and from everlasting death Be merciful O Jesu and spare us By that exceeding great purity and innocence thou requirest in all them that approach this Sacrament signified by thy washing thy Disciples feet Be merciful O Jesu c. By that enflamed charity wherewith thou institutedst that Divine Sacrament Be merciful O Jesu and spare us By thy Body broken for us on the Cross and bestowed on us in this Sacrament Be merciful O Jesu and spare us In the day of Judgment Deliver us O Lord. We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That we may never waver in our faith and belief of the words of thy mouth who art truth it self and an omnipotent God with whom every word is possible We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That we may with all thankfulness adore thee in this blessed Sacrament and worthily commemorate thy Passion so full of charity and that our faith devotion and reverence thereto may dayly be increased We sinners c. That through a true confession of all our sins thou wouldst bring us to a more frequent receiving hereof so that at length as the Hart pants after the rivers of waters our souls may thirst after thee the living God present in this venerable Sacrament We beseech thee to hear us That thou would vouchsafe to turn in unto us miserable sinners to heal our souls which are sick unto death that by this celestial bread they may be sustained and satisfied with the fulness of thy house and inebriated with the rivers of thy bounty We sinners bessech Thee c. That in the strength of this food we may walk through this Wilderness to thy holy Mountain We sinners c. That thou wouldst wash us throughly from the filth of our sins when we desire to partake of thine Altar so that we may approach thereto with longing and gladness and not without a Wedding-garment We sinners c. That at the hour of our death thou wouldst comfort and arm us with this heavenly Viaticum We sinners c. That we may receive thee into our hearts with love and fear that thereby we may be made worthy to