not the death of a sinner how long wilt thou delay to hear help and heal my Soul 4. Return O Lord from the rigour of Justice to the sweetness of Mercy deliver my soul from the bands and fetters of her sins and from under the power of Satan and save me from thy wrath and from everlasting damnation good Lord deliver me for thy mercie 's sake wherein is my onely trust through the merits of my Saviour 5. For in death whether spiritual in sin or corporal for sin there is no remembrance of thee either by confessing our sins unto thee or imploring mercy from thee and who will give thee thanks in the pit None sure do praise thy Name in the grave of death which is the dwelling-place of silence and oblivion much less in the pit of hell where thy great Name is not praised but blasphemed rather 6. I am weary of my groanings having long laboured under the heavy burthen of my sins every night wash I my bed both in the night when I should sleep and in the day Or in the night and obscurity of my sins I wash with the tears of compunction the bed of my Conscience Tho. Aquin. when I go to rest I water my couch with my tears Even all the places of my ease rest and refreshment are bedewed with tears of compunction and godly sorrow 7. Mine eye wherein my exteriour beauty chiefly consists is consumed with grief the inward sorrow of my Soul thereby emptying it self and worn away because of all mine enemies because my ghostly enemies daily prevail against me by my consent to their suggestions and temptations unto wickedness But being resolved to avoid all occasions of such temptations therefore 8. Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity For the future I must leave the society of all such as do not onely work wickedness but also tempt others to sin with them for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping He hath put my tears into his bottle and it concerns me therefore to separate my self from the company and counsel of the ungodly O how audible and effectual is the voice of weeping for therefore 9. The Lord hath heard my petition graciously accepted and answered my desires in the pardon of mine offences and the Lord will receive my prayer when I thus humble my self under his mighty hand And then 9. All my enemies shall be confounded they shall be frustrated in their designs and enterprises against my Soul and soar vexed when all their contrivances fail them they shall be turned back from their farther assaults of my innocence and put to shame suddenly Even before their intentions be put in execution their plots shall be blasted when the Lord vouchsafes to hear the voice of my weeping And O that I could so weep and bewail my sins that the Lord may hear in Heaven and be merciful unto me and heal my Soul to glorifie his Name Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be Amen Psalm XXXII Verse 1. BLessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven as to the guilt contracted and whose sin is covered that it appear not to his punishment Or whose original pollution is washed away in the Laver of Baptism and his actual transgressions covered with the robes of Christ's merits 2. Blessed is the man He is blessed in Hope though not in Fruition to whom the Lord imputeth not his iniquity to his eternal separation from the presence of God But of such an one it is required that he be sincere in his Repentance and in whose spirit there is no guile no hypocrisie or deceit in his Repentance but he turneth unto the Lord with all his heart and this too from all the errours of his ways 3. Whilst I kept silence covering and not confessing my sins or Whilst I filently considered with my self the multitude and hainousness of my transgressions my bones consumed away the strength and support of my Soul failed me through my daily complaining not as I ought to complain in the confession of my sins for therein I have kept silence but through the secret murmurs of my troubled conscience and fear of the just judgments of God 4. Day and night thy hand is heavy upon me My daily practice and continuance in my sins makes every day more heavy the hand of Divine justice for the fear whereof my moisture is like the drought in summer The sap of grace and vigour of the Spirit languisheth and the verdure of my Devotion is dried up even as the fruits of the earth are parched by the Sun 's hot beams in the height of Summer And now being sensible of this my sad condition 5. I will acknowledge my sin unto thee both my sins of Omission and mine iniquity my sins of Commission have I not hid but laid them all open before thee purging my Conscience from the venom of them by Confession And this I firmly resolved with my self to doe 6. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord accusing my self that thou O Lord mayst excuse me condemning my self that thou mayst acquit me discovering my nakedness and shame that thou maist cover me with the robes of thy mercy through the merits of my Saviour and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin being confessed bewailed and forsaken 7. For this thy great mercy in pardoning offences sincerely repented shall every one that is godly pray unto thee that he may be cleansed from his sins for there is no man so godly that sinneth not but therefore godly because thou art gracious both in forgiving the wickedness of his sins and strengthning him with grace to abjure them And he that is thus godly will not neglect those blessed opportunitles of Prayer in the time when thou maist be found ready and propense to hear and forgive and that 's the time of this present life wherein there are great water-flouds of temptations and troubles but they shall not come nigh him The Prayer of the godly is a strong Bulwark and thus he prayeth in the time of trouble 8. Thou art my biding-place Under the sacred wings of thy merciful protection is my refuge in the midst of the greatest tribulation thou shalt preserve me from trouble like Noah and his family in the Ark when the rest of the world perished by water thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance Being on all sides delivered and preserved from the flouds of many waters I will sing praises unto thy great Name for the same The answer of God to a true Peititent 9. I will inform thee and teach thee outwardly by my Word and inwardly by my Spirit the way of true wisedom which is both to know God and know thy self wherein thou shalt go what good is to be done and what evil to be left undone and I will guide thee with mine eye have a constant eye upon
rather to be as a cast-away given up to a reprobate sense yet take not thy holy Spirit from me though I have often quench'd his sacred fires by my extravagant lusts yet leave me not forsake me not utterly But 13. Give me the comfort of thy help again or Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation which by my sins I have forfeited and lost and stablish me with thy free spirit Free me by thy holy Spirit of liberty from the law of sin and of death 14. Then shall I teach both by word and example thy waies of mercy and truth unto the wicked who follow the ways of their own hearts and sinners shall be converted unto thee by the example of my sincere conversion and seasonable admonitions 15. Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God from all the kinds and degrees of bloud-guiltiness such are immoderate anger hatred malice envy and from all mortal or soul-killing sins thou that art the God of my health the health both of my body and Soul both temporal and eternal Salvation is from thee and therefore my tongue shall sing of thy righteousness extolling thy truth in making good thy promised mercies to the truly penitent 16. O Lord open my lips which my sins have closed up and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise which becometh not the lips of sinners but thou art a God forgiving offences and even out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast perfected praise 17. For thou O Lord desirest no sacrifice of slain beasts for the expiation of sin else would I give it thee were it thy pleasure to accept the same but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings 'T is not the outward carnal offerings though commanded by thee that thou respectest as the principal means to pacifie thy displeasure but the inward devotion and compunction of the person offering 18. The sacrifices of God those he chiefly respecteth and accepteth are a troubled spirit wounded and groaning under the sad sense of his sins a broken and contrite heart the fallow-ground whereof is broken up by a strict Self-examination contrite by Compunction weeded by Confession watered with the tears of godly Sorrow such a Sacrifice O God thou wilt not despise but accept through his merits who with a torn body and broken heart offered up himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world 19. O be favourable and gracious unto Sion Let thy blessing plentifully descend upon our holy Mother the Church both universal and this particular Church whereof I am a Member build thou the walls of Jerusalem Repair the breaches both in true doctrine and discipline which through licenciousness in opinion and conversation are greatly decayed that the Souls of the righteous may enjoy the vision of peace 20. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness with those sacred acts and offices of true Repentance whereby through Faith in the bloud of Christ the sinner is justified with burnt-offerings not of beasts without spot or defect but of holy innocent persons enfir'd with godly zeal and devotion to thy Service and whole burnt-offerings even the whole man devoted to a whole entire obedience through the whole course of life then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar themselves shall they offer upon the Altar of a pure heart a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Psalm CII Verse 1. HEar my praier O Lord as to the saving effects thereof and let my crying come unto thee be accepted by thee since my loud voice manifests the inward zeal and devotion of my heart 2. Hide not thy face from me under the thick cloud of my transgressions in the time of my trouble when burthened with the weight of sin or violence of temptation inclâ—ne thine ears to me when I call being penitent and humbled under thy mighty hand O hear me and that right soon there being danger in delay 3. For my days are consumed away like smoak spent in airy light vain unprofitable and black sinful works and my bones the strength and support of my Soul are burnt up as it were a firebrand scorched and withered through the exorbitant heat of carnal concupiscence which renders me liable to the fire of thy wrath 4. My heart is smitten down and withered like grass As when the grass is mowed down and withered by the Sun 's hot beams so my Soul being smitten down by the violence of temptation is dried up and withered in her devotion so that I forget to eat my bread neglecting the sweet refreshments of thy Holy Word and Sacraments where the Soul is nourished with the bread of life 5. For the voice of my groaning under the heavy burthen of my sins my bones will scarce cleave to my flesh being macerated by the strict rigour of penitential severities 6. I am become like a pelican in the wilderness flying even the sight and society of men through shame and confusion of face and like an owl that is in the desart that takes up her lodging in ruinous houses and not inhabited 7. I have watched in the serious consideration of my sinful and sad condition and am even as it were a sparrow flying the company of sinners that sitteth alone upon the house top solitary serious and studious how to escape the snares of sin below and mount up my Soul to Heaven above 8. Mine enemies revile me all the day long Such as hate to be reformed and are enemies to a serious and settled course of Religion continually deride and revile me and they that are mad upon me with rage and fury are sworn together against me have conspired my ruine 9. For I have eaten ashes as it were bread My meat was as unpleasant to me as if I had eaten ashes and mingled my drink with weeping All my wonted corporal refreshments were sowred with spiritual sorrow for my sins Or a August in loc I have exercised the penitential rigours of ashes and weeping sack-cloath and ashes being the armour and cloathing of penitents 10. And that because of thine indignation and wrath That 's the chief ingredient in my sorrow that I have deservedly incurred thy wrath for thou hast lift me up and cast me down Thou seemest as it were to raise me up that I may fall with the greater weight and violence or Thou hast raised me to great honour to be stampt after thine own image but for want of understanding I have faln down as low as the beasts that perish 11. My days are gone like a shadow they are not onely vain empty and unprofitable but also darksom and gloomy because I have declined from the Sun of righteousness and I am withered like grass for want of the celestial dew of Divine grace 12. But thou O Lord shalt endure for ever Whilst all other things pass away thou changest not being immutable as in mercy to raise up so
thy Cross my Crown and thy Death my Life for ever God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world b Gal. 6.14 III. Meditations out of the Prophet Jeremy IS it nothing to you Lam. 1.12 all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Ob that mine head were waters Jer. 9.1 and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the Sufferings of my Saviour Shall I not weep for him who both wept and bled for me yea wept out every drop of his most precious Bloud to deliver me from weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for ever In the natural Body if one Member suffer all suffer with it and 't is thus in the Body mysticall also If I be a lively Member of Christ his Afflictions will afflict and pierce my heart his Passion will excite both compassion and compunction in my Soul so as to bewail not my Saviour onely but my self and my Sins also to bewail my self and the hardness of my heart that I cannot even with a floud of tears bewail my Saviour in his Sufferings nor yet sufficiently lament and abhor my Sins the causes thereof Upon the Passion of our Lord the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom That Temple mystically represents the Heart of man which signifies by its triangular form that 't is framed to be a Temple consecrated to the thrice-blessed Trinity But woe and alas my Heart is harder then the stones of that material Temple and receives not any deep impressions of that honour and happiness whereunto it was created Yet if any thing will mollify its stifness it must be the precious Bloud of my dear Redeemer which was for this very end shed upon the Cross There he bled whilst he had one drop to shed and there together with his precious Bloud he poured forth his righteous Soul with strong cryings and tears to melt the stony hearts of the sons of men into tears of Penitence and Devotion of divine Love and Obedience The gaping Wounds of my dear Lord are as so many Mouths opened to shew forth the bowels of his Compassion and through the hollow of his pierced Side may the devout Soul behold with the eye of faith his broken Heart flaming with the love of Man and dying for love O senseless ingratefull Soul who art not wounded with the Wounds of thy Saviour who art not throughly pierced with the dart of his Love who was pierced to the heart for the love of thee whose mouth is not continually opened in the praise of him all whose Wounds were as so many mouths praising the Lord for thy Redemption I am surely bound deeply engaged to love to honour to obey and wholly to live unto him who died for me even to give up my self my whole self all that I am and all that I have to his service who gave up his whole self every member of his Body every power of his Soul every drop of his Bloud a Sacrifice for my Sins And the very God of peace sanctify me wholly to his service And I pray God my whole spirit and Soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. IV. Saint Augustine 's Recommendation of the Passion of Christ unto God the Father BEhold Holy Father thy Blessed Son suffering for me great and grievous things Regard most glorious King who it was that suffered and remember in mercy for whom he suffered Is not this He my Lord even that Innocent one whom to redeem a Servant thou offeredst up being a Son Is not this He even that Authour and Giver of Life who was led as an innocent Lamb to the slaughter and became obedient unto thee even unto death and feared not to undergo the most bitter of all deaths Is not this He whom thou the dispenser of all Salvation didst beget from all eternity but in fulness of time wouldst have him partaker of my infirmity This is truly thy Deity who hath put on my mortality who was lifted up on the Cross and in my flesh suffered that sad punishment of a cursed death Look back O Lord my God with the eyes of thy Majesty upon this unspeakable work of mercy Behold thy sweet Son in all the parts of his Body extended and rackt See his innocent Hands flowing with his precious bloud and pardon in great mercy the iniquities which my wicked hands have committed Consider his naked Side pierced with a cruel spear and renew me in the sacred Font which I believe to have issued thence Behold those immaculate Feet which never stood in the way of sinners but alway walked in the Law of the Lord cruelly bored and transfixed with nails remove far from me the way of iniquity and make me to chuse the way of truth to hate and decline the ways of the ungodly and to walk in the paths of thy Commandments O hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not I beseech thee O King of Saints by him who is the chief of Saints my Blessed Redeemer make me to run the way of thy Commandments that I may be united unto him who abhorred not to be cloathed with my flesh Behold most merciful Creatour the Humanity of thy beloved Son and have mercy upon the infirmity of thy frail creature His naked Breast is white and wan his pierced Side red and bloudy his distorted Bowels wither his splendid Eyes do languish his majestick Countenance is pale his procerous Arms are stiff and cold his marble Thighs hang down whilst his precious Bloud like water bedews his Feet Behold the punishment of God made Man and relax the misery of created man consider the sufferings of the Redeemer and forgive the sins of the redeemed This is He my Lord whom thou hast stricken for the sins of thy people although he be thy beloved Son in whom thou art well pleased This is He who knew no sin neither was any guile found in his mouth and yet he was numbred amongst the Transgressours and bore the sins of many CHAP. V. Saint Ambrose 's Commemoration of our Saviour's Passion O Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the living God the Creatour and Redeemer of all mankind we give thee thanks unworthy though they be yet desire they may be devout and acceptable to thee who for us miserable sinners camest down from Heaven and tookest flesh of the blessed Virgin Mary of her thou vouchsafedst to be born to be wrapt in swadling-cloaths and laid in a manger to suck the breasts to be circumcised in thy tender flesh to be manifested to the Wise men and adored by them to be presented in the Temple to be carried
into Egypt to return into thy countrey to be subject to thy parents to be baptized by John to be afflicted with a forty days fast and thrice to be tempted of the Devil to be wearied with journeys and macerated by hunger and thirst and watchings to be tired with preaching to weep for compassion to be rejected of the Jews and frequently abused by them Thy Passion approaching thou vouchsafedst to be heavy and exceeding sorrowful to pray not onely with bended knees but thrice to fall upon thy face to be in a bitter Agony and to sweat drops of bloud to be betrayed by Judas with a deceitful kiss to be apprehended by the Jews and bound as a thief to be left desolate and alone for all thy Disciples forsook thee and fled To be led to Annas the High-priest first and there to be buffeted to be sent by him bound to Caiaphas and there to be many ways derided to be brought before the council of the Jews and there to be falsely accused and condemned to have thy face polluted with spittings to be provok'd by manifold reproâ—ches to be scorned and blasphemed and again smitten on the face and buffeted to be delivered bound unto Pilate and before him vehemently accused unto death and by him to be sent unto Herod and there to be calumniated and set at nought by him and his men of war to be arrayed in white and sent back unto Pilate by his command to be bound to a pillar and cruelly scourged unto bloud to be by him condemned and delivered up to the souldiers to be crucified by whom thou wast mockt with a purple garment and pierced with a Crown of thorns derided with a Reed in stead of a Regal sceptre and with bowing of knees named in contempt The King of the Jews again the third time bespatter'd with spittle and buffeted and beaten with a Reed on thy head laden with the weight of thy Cross and led away to the place of thy Passion there again stript naked of thy garments and profered to drink Gall mingled with Myrrh At last thou wast extended on the Cross thy hands and feet transfixed with nails crucified amongst thieves numbred amongst transgressours blasphemed both by them that stood by and by them that passed by and in the extremity of thy sufferings criedst out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Thy head bowed down thou didst give up the ghost and thy Side was pierced by a Souldier whence issued both water and bloud Taken down from the Cross and buried by Joseph the third day thou didst rise again and appear to thy disciples The fortieth day thou ascendedst into Heaven and sitting on the right hand of God the Father thou didst send down the promise of the Holy Ghost upon thy blessed Apostles and Disciples and shalt come again to Judgment to render to all men according to their works done in the body whether they be good or whether they be evil O Blessed Lord Jesus by all these thy most sacred Sufferings by thy bitter death and most precious bloud shed for us and by all things foretold of thee and fulfill'd by thee vouchsafe in great mercy to deliver me a sordid sinner with all my friends and enemies parents brothers sisters all that are poor and desolate tempted and afflicted bound and imprison'd with all Christian people From all our tribulations and distresses from the snares of the Devil from the bonds and chains of our Sins and from all evils both of Soul and body good Lord deliver save and defend us All our imaginations and actions vouchsafe so to dispose and order that they may be acceptable unto thee fill us with thy grace and with holy peace and with all vertue and grant us herein to persevere even unto death that making a good end of this present life thou mayst bring us to eternal life in thy celestial Kingdom where thou livest and reignest CHAP. VI. Saint Gregorie 's Praiers upon the Passion of Christ I. I Adore thee Holy Lord Jesus hanging upon the Cross and bearing on thy venerable head a Crown of Thorns and I humbly beg by thy Cross to be delivered from the destroying Angel II. I Adore thee Holy Lord Jesus Christ expanded on the Cross with five great wounds in thy nailed hands and feet and pierced side and I humbly beg that thy dire and gastly wounds may be a healing remedy to my sin-sick Soul III. I Adore thee Holy Lord Jesus panting under the sad weight of the sins of the world and I humbly beg by that unconceivable bitterness of sorrow thy innocent Soul suffered in that moment when it left the body have mercy upon my Soul in the memert of her departure hence IV. I Adore thee Holy Lord Jesus laid in the Sepulchre and anointed with Myrrh and Aloes and I humbly beg that thy death may be the life of my Soul V. O Save Holy Jesus the good Shepherd who laid down his life for his Sheep save and preserve the righteous call home the wicked justifie the penitent have mercy upon all true believers and upon me a miserable sinner Amen CHAP. VII The Form of Praier used by our Lord upon the Cross viz. the XXII Psalm paraphrased Verse 1. MY God my God So prayed my dear Redeemer hanging upon the Cross the gemination of his words expressing both the great Devotion and also the bitter Anguish of his Soul look upon me imploring divine commiseration and assistence in the sufferings of his humane nature why hast thou forsaken me That 's the height of sorrow and suffering to be therein forsaken as if the personall union of his divine and humane nature were dissolved and art so far from my health not affording the least mitigation of my tormenting pains or consolation therein and from the words of my complaint or the voice of my roaring for with strong crying and tears I offer up my prayers and supplications a Heb. 5.7 2. O my God I will never cease to call thee so though now thine indignation for the sins of the world lieth heavy upon me so that though I cry in the day-time in the which I suffer the torments of crucifixion yet thou hearest not so as to deliver me from them and in the night-season also when I was in a bitter agony sweating drops of bloud under the pressure of the Sins of men and thy wrath for them in both seasons and sad sufferings I take no rest no ease of my Soul's sorrows no cessation of my bodily torments 3. And thou continuest holy just and faithfull in all thy promises of mercy to the miserable or thou dwellest in thy holy one in this holy and innocent body of mine though nailed to the cross So we reade God was in Christ reconciling the world b 2 Cor. 5.19 O thou worship of Israel who hast so often delivered thy people and been made both the subject matter of their prayers and praises and onely object of
opprobrious language I have transgrest the precepts of thy Gospell injoyning me to feed the hungry clothe the naked visit the sick I have been unjust in detaining the Dues of thy Church and in the dispensation of Ecclesiasticall goods in the contracts of Usury bargaining and sale over-reaching lying withholding what has been more or less righteous and just I have not attended upon thy publick and solemn Worship upon Sundays and Holidays devoted thereunto I have not behaved my self upon such days soberly righteously and godly I have approached and come into thy House without that reverence and godly fear which becometh that Sacred place and there I have demeaned my self unseemly sitting standing leaning lolling and staring about when the respective parts of thy Sacred Service required more humble and devout gestures and behaviour I have entertained vain idle wandering thoughts and intermingled unprofitable wanton worldly talk in the time of thy solemn Worship I have unhallowed many holy things many holy actions by using the same as common and unclean and with unclean hands and an impure conscience I have not joyned with a right understanding and devotion in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs publick Praiers and other the sacred acts of Religious Worship too often speaking with my lips cursorily and customarily whilst my heart hath been roving by evill imaginations and false suspicions judging rashly of what is sacred and holy when transcending my shallow capacity I have sinned by perverse reasonings against the Truth because either above my understanding or not agreeable with my will by consenting and not reproving the sinfull by not instructing the ignorant not reducing the erroneous not admonishing not exhorting such as have gone astray to entertain more sound and sober counsells I have not reverenced my Superiours I have both defamed and disobeyed my Governours Ecclesiasticall and Civil neither have I repayed to my friends and benefactours such gratefull acknowledgments and due obsequiousness as becometh I have entertained in my heart many loose and unchast thoughts and filthy lusts and have looked upon the carnal copulation and intermixture of beasts with an unclean delectation of mind I have been guilty of much superfluous and opprobrious language of lying and slandering of falsehoods and flatteries of railing and reviling of scurrilous and vain jangling of profane and irreligious speaking and customary swearing of taking unlawfull oaths of much filthy communication and of all the evills of an untamed tongue the instrument of a corrupt heart I have even renounced the Covenant of my God by not renouncing the Devil and all his works I have too often yielded to his suggestions to disobey the will of God and to transgress his Commandments in the breach of my Duty both towards God and Man And thus I have sinned both in my thoughts and desires in my words and actions by seeing hearing tasting touching smelling even all my Senses have been as so many windows to let in Sin to my Soul and Death by Sin And not onely thus but in all kinds of Vice whereunto humane frailty is liable or in whatever any dissolute and debauched person doth or can offend have I offended the Great Lord of Heaven and earth And I acknowledge my self above all the men in the world to be the greatest of Sinners Have mercy upon me Almighty and most mercifull Father for thy Son my Lord Jesus Christ his sake pardon and deliver me from all mine offences confirm and strengthen me in all goodness and bring me to everlasting life through Jesus Christ Psalm 6. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger Psal 32. Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven Psal 38. Put me not to rebuke O Lord Psal 51. Have mercy upon me O God Psal 102. Hear my praier O Lord and let my crying Psal 130. Out of the deeps have I called unto Psal 143. Hear my praier O Lord and consider Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name the world to come through Jesus Christ III. O mercifull Lord to whom chiefly it appertaineth to forgive sins and by whom alone the Souls of true Penitents are absolved from all their offences wash me O wash my unclean Soul in the fountain of thine inexhaustible mercy through faith in the bloud of my dear Redeemer Jesus Christ IV. Look down from Heaven O Lord with the eye of pity and compassion upon thy humble servant confessing his wickedness and being sorry for his sins imploring withall thy pardon and trusting alone in thy mercics through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ V. Be propitious O Lord we humbly beseech thee be propitious to the praiers and supplications of thy humble servants and grant that the remission of our sins being obtained we may evermore rejoyce in thy heavenly benediction through Jesus Christ CHAP. X. The Lord's Praier paraphrased Praefat. ad Orat. Domin ex Lit. Mozarab Ad te pervenire cupimus Domine per Christum qui apud te factus est Advocatus noster Orationem quam ipso Domino instruente didicimus ad te introire permittas proclamantes è terris PATER NOSTER QVIES IN COELIS OVR Father 1. The Preface as we have a Being with all things by Creation and Providence 2. as we are reasonable creatures with Men and Angels by Representation and Likeness 3. as we are Christians by Adoption and Grace Which art in Heaven by thy Majesty and great Glory in earth by thy Mercy and good Providence and in all things both in Heaven and earth by thy essential Presence Thou O Lord art more ready to hear then we are to pray and art wont to give more then we desire or deserve as being our Father and though daily provok'd by our sins yet still our Father and thou art able to doe exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think as being in Heaven And to Heaven vouchsafe to raise up our immortal Souls Let them not cleave to the dust of worldly vanities since we have a Father in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Petition 1 O that all the Nations whom thou hast made would come and worship thee and glorifie thy Name which is great wonderful and holy but more especially may thy ever-blessed Name be magnified by me and by all people who have thy Name call'd upon us in all our thoughts words and deeds manifesting that reverence and godly fear that divine love and filial obedience we owe unto thee Our Father which art in Heaven Thy Kingdom come Petit. 2 Maiest thou rule and reign in all the affections of our hearts and over all the actions of our lives swaying thy Sceptre of Righteousness by thy Holy Word and Spirit to the destruction of the Kingdom of Sin and Satan And may we all live in obedience of thy most holy Laws and continue such loyal and faithful subjects of thy Kingdom of Grace in this life that we may become Saints in thy Kingdome of Glory in the life to come Thy
in justice to cast down and thy remembrance throughout all generations Thy gracious promises both of the life that now is and of that which is to come are in all ages remembred to thy praise and glory 13. Thou shalt arise to redeem deliver and defend and have mercy upon Sion thy Church militant here upon earth for it is time that thou have mercy upon her the time of this life is the seasonable time of mercy because it is a time of misery yea the time is come even the fulness of time is compleated of our Redemption and Salvation 14. And why thy servants think upon her stones both Angels and Saints resent with much regret the dispersed members of thy Church and it pitieth them to see her in the dust they pity her distractions and confusions and have great desires to succour and relieve her 15. The heathen shall fear thy name O Lord which now they blaspheme but being converted from their Idolatries and from all the errours of their ways they shall with us adore the blessed and saving Name of Jesus and all the Kings of the earth thy majesty being converted unto thee they shall in all humility confess the greatness of thy Majesty far to transcend their greatest power and glory 16. When the Lord shall build up Sion repair the breaches of his Church and settle it upon the foundation of Prophets and Apostles and when his glory shall appear the glory of his great grace shall manifest it self in the edification and support of his Church upon the pillars of Truth and Peace 17. When he turneth him to the prayer of the poor destitute For his ears are ever open to the prayers of the humble and poor in spirit and such as be destitute of all exteriour consolations and despiseth not their desire when flowing from a true Faith and enfir'd with Charity and Devotion 18. This shall be written for those that come after That the succeeding people of God under the Gospel may have upon record the wondrous works of God under the Law and the people that shall be born regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost shall praise the Lord. for the grace of Redemption and great mercy attain'd 19. For he hath looked down from his Sanctuary God the Son from the bosom of his Father above looked down with the eye of his mercy upon us miserable sinners here below out of heaven did the Lord behold the earth when the King of Heaven descended upon earth when the day-spring on high came down to visit us when the Word was made flesh for the building up of Sion 20. That he might hear the mourning of such as are in captivity groaning under the bonds and chains of their sins and deliver out of the gulf of sin and clutches of Satan the children appointed unto death as the due wages of sin 21. That they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion being delivered from the sad condition of being the children of the Devil in the vast womb of this wicked world to be the children of God in the sacred womb of their Mother the Church they might therein and therefore extoll the great Name of God and his worship at Hierusalem promote and advance the holy Worship of God in his Church and unanimously joyn therein together to the glory of his Name 22. When the people are gathered together When the people of God dispersed through the world shall be nevertheless joyned together in the unity of the true Faith enlivened by divine Charity and the kingdoms also to serve the Lord. when both the Kings and the people of their dominion assemble together and joyn with one heart and one mouth in the publick Worship of God then shall the Name of the Lord be magnified in Sion 23. He brought down my strength in my journey In the mean time whilst I walk in the way of Repentance my strength is decayed and he hath shortned my days of health and outward prosperity that I may apply my heart unto wisedom 24. But I said addressing my self unto God by Prayer O my God the God of my life of my health of my joy my God and my all take me not away in the midst of mine age before the natural course of my life expire as for thy years they endure throughout all generations being from everlasting to everlasting in respect of whose duration the years of my life are nothing and therefore I humbly beg they may not be shortned through the violence of thy afflicting hand 25. Thou Lord who art without beginning in the beginning of time hast laid the foundations of the earth which is the centre of this visible World and the heavens are the works of thy hands both the Heavens and the earth and all things visible and invisible are of thy Creation 26. They shall perish as having their beginning in time but thou shalt endure as being from all eternity and through all the changes of created beings remaining in thy self unchangeable 27. They all shall wax old as doth a garment which is worse for the wearing and as avesture shalt thou change them from their present state and condition and they shall be changed in their qualities and operations But thou art the same in thy self immutable and thy years shalt not fail or rather being not liable at all to any term of years but without either beginning or end of Time 28. The children of thy servants if they follow the steps of their godly Fathers in the sacred service of God shall continue in the land of the living being translated from the life of Grace to the life of Glory and their seed of good works the issue of their true faith shall stand fast in thy sight being treasured up in Heaven where no moth or rust corrupteth Glory be to the Father As it was in the beginning Psalm CXXX Verse 1. OVT of the depths both of my sins and sufferings and out of the depth of my heart wounded with godly sorrow for my sins have I called as Jonas out of the whale's belly so do I lift up my voice in praier to be delivered from the power of the Devil unto thee O Lord with whom alone is power to help and save me Lord hear my voice in my prayers which I make before thee 2. O let thine ears which are not corporeal but wholly spiritual and therefore more quick andintense to consider well the voice of my complaint be intent to release me of my sins under the weight whereof my Soul complains 3. If thou Lord to whom no secrets are hid wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss so as to take notice of all our faults and failings and punish us accordingly O Lord who may abide it There is none so exactly righteous and holy as to abide the strict scrutiny of thy vindicative justice since every sin from which none is free is in respect of the person offended
which being plainly fully and yet very briefly taught in our Church-Catechism to be therefore ignorant of these things which every Child is bound to learn and say is another Species of an unworthy Communicant 3. He discerns not this Sacramental Body of the Lord who prepares not himself to receive the same with all reverence and godly fear t Heb. 12.28 with hands washed in innocency v Psal 26.6 and into a pure and clean heart x Isa 1.16 Psal 24.4 into a Soul cleansed from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit y 2 Cor. 7.1 and perfumed as was our Lord's crucified Body with the sweet odours of Humility and Compunction of Love and Devotion of Obedience and Charity And hereunto all the parts and kinds of true Repentance do necessarily concur for there can be no cleanness of hands no purity of heart if the naturally stiff and proud heart be not first humbled and its stifness broken with godly sorrow for sin and its filthiness washed off with the devout tears of true Penitence through Faith in the bloud of Christ And he that receives Christ's Holy Body and Bloud into his Soul not first emptied of all his Sins by holy Faith and all the sacred offices of true Repentance doth with Judas betray his Master into the hands of his enemies even those very enemies which crucified him for those were our Sins And therefore 't is said of such unworthy Receivers that they are guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ To avoid such a horrid Sin 1 Cor. 11.27 and Damnation following the same v. 29. betwixt both Verses 't is commanded v. 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat Self-examination as 't is in the former Leaves prescribed to be practised is the first and the greatest Duty and requires the most of spiritual labour care and industry of all that is required to the worthy Receiving of the Holy Communion And this because 't is not onely necessary in it self but necessarily conducing to the sincere performance of all the other Religious Duties commanded Our Repentance in all its parts our Humiliation and godly Sorrow for sin our holy Purposes and Resolves of amendment our Faith our Hope our Charity must be examined that they be sincere and without hypocrisy And therefore it is that this Duty is commanded by the Apostle as if it were alone sufficient when sincerely performed to make us acceptable Guests at the Lord's Table saying Let a man examine himself and so let him eat And indeed this so great so necessary a Duty is as greatly extolled and withall pretended unto by most men especially such as talk much of their Religion but practise little 'T is generally the pretence and the plea of such who cry up Self-examination to cry down the Sacerdotal power and function to withdraw themselves from under the guidance and examination of their respective Pastours whose Instructions being not received or observed but so far forth as to every man seemeth good in his own eyes is the great reason why this grand Duty is so generally neglected or negligently performed The which is manifest 1. From the numerous company of those who make no conscience of coming to the Holy Communion when invited 'T is not possible that men otherwise prudent as to their worldly concerns should yet be so sottish so retchless so stupidly careless of their eternal health and happiness did they ever seriously examine and consider the state and condition of their Souls But whilst they know not themselves in their spiritual wants weakness and wickedness how can they have any desire much lesse a delight to come to the fountain of mercy truth and holiness z Wisedom 2 21 22. Matt. 5.6 'T is the reason 2. Why many persons having received the Sacrament but feeling no virtue no efficacy no power of grace no consolation flowing from these celestral Mysteries of Salvation have therefore afterwards slighted and neglected the same For whilst their ignorances and errours whether in opinion or practice for want of due Examination appeared not unto them that Sun of Righteousness shined not into their hearts who appears not but through the windows and the openings of broken hearts and displayed consciences a Wised 5.6 And besides such is the corrupt nature of all finfulness and vice that if the leaven thereof be not narrowly searched out and abandoned it will sour the Bread of life and make it without any tast of sweetness to the Soul b 1 Cor. 5.7 8. 'T is the reason 3. Why many persons have by the receiving of that Blessed Sacrament been more hardened in their sins and in the errours of their ways For errours in judgment and offences in conversation which are the soars and diseases of the Soul being not searched to the bottom and salved by Repentance and the acknowledgement of the Truth c 2 Tim. 2.25 do change the spiritual food and nourishment of the Soul into the poison thereof whereby what was ordained unto life is found unto death d Rom. 7.10 CHAP. II. Meditations and Praiers preparatory to the Holy Communion the Week before THE truly sincere good Christian whose Faith is not in Fancy or Opinion or Presumption or consisting in word and tongue alone but in deed and in truth who desires truly to serve God and to honour and obey him with his whole heart and through his whole life every such qualified Christian will as soon as he hath notice given by his Pastour of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be administred seriously apply himself to the great work of fitting preparing and ordering his Soul for the joyfull and devout entertainment of his Blessed Redeemer thereinto In order to such a Blessed work 't will be very usefull and advantageous the whole Week foregoing to adde to your daily Praiers and Meditations these or the like following Collects with the Psalms ensuing I. Almighty God our heavenly Father who of thy tender mercy didst give thine onely Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption and hast commanded us to continue a perpetual memory of that his precious Death untill his comiong again Hear me O mercifull Father I most humbly beseech thee and grant that I may with that right Understandingâ— true Faith sincere Repentance deep Humility and fervent Charity receive the Sacrament of my dear Saviour's Death accoridng to his institution and command that I may be made partaker of all the benefits of his Passion to the justification sanctification and eternal Salvation of my Soul through the same Jesus Christ II. I will not presume to approach thine Altar O Lord trusting in mine own Righteousness but in thy manifold and great Mercies I am not worthy to gather up the crums that fall from thy Table for I am an unclean creature to whom the Childrens bread belongs not having too often returned to my old Sins as the dog to his vomit But
Self-examination by the Decalogue or by the Third part of the Vow in Baptism To keep God's Holy Will and Commandments c. CHAP. V. The Examination of Religious actions CHAP. VI. The Examination of Repentance CHAP. VII Considerations with Directions in the Confession of Sin CHAP. VIII A Form of Confession of Sin fitted to the Rules of Self-examination whereunto every one may adde or substract as he finds himself guilty or not guilty CHAP. IX An ancient Form of Confession extant Biblioth Patrum CHAP. X. The Lord's Praier paraphrased CHAP. XI The Seven Penitential Psalms paraphrased CHAP. XII Meditations and Praiers to be partakers of the Merits of what our Blessed Redeemer hath done and suffered for us Pag. 195. l. 26. for Christ's number read this number p. 200. l. 27. for his read this THE PRACTICAL Christian PART I. CHAP. I. Of the great necessity of SELF-EXAMINATION 1. WHosoever believes as a Christian his Soul to be immortall being either entitled to everlasting Joy through Faith and Obedience to the Gospell of Christ or liable to eternall Woe through Disobedience and Misbelief a Joh. 5.28 29. must be very stupid and sottish if he do not frequently examine himself b Psal 4.4 2 Cor. 13.5 Gal. 6.4 whether he may reasonably conclude â—he is in the state of Grace and Salvation or of Sin and of Death the wages whereof c Rom. 6.23 2. That every man should know himself is such a fundamentall principle of true wisedom that wise men of old affirmed Nosce teipsum to be a command immediately derived to the sons of men by a voice from Hea ven as being absolutely necessary to the right guidance of all the actions of humane life upon earth 3. The reasonable Soul were it not debauched by the sensuall appetite and distracted by the hurry of exorbitant desires could not but often remember her self examine and call to mind the Authour and End of her Being the immortality and dignity of her nature what is her errand into this world and how she shall subsist in the world to come what is her chiefest Good and wherein her perfection and felicity consists which cannot be to eat and drink and sleep purchase lands build houses satisfy the lusts of the flesh swell with pride of life She would consider that she is stampt after the Image of God and her Happiness consists in the knowledge love and enjoyment of the Divine Majesty and in the imitation and representation according to her modell of the Perfections of the Godhead But alas vain man being in honour hath no understanding considers not the honour of his being after the Image of his Maker but receives his Divine immortall Soul in vain whilst he follows the sway of his sensuall irrationall appetite and is compared to the beasts that perish d Psal 49.12 4. And well it were for all such inconsiderate and imprudent persons if their Souls were as perishing and mortall as those which animate the beasts of the field But â—o their eternall sorrow 't is far otherwise for there is an account to be given by every man of his immortal Soul and of the Image of God stamped thereupon viz. how this blessed Image hath been either defaced or kept undefiled how it hath been obscured or how shined how deformed or how beautified through all the actions of each man's life For God will bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill * Eccles. 12.14 Rom. 2.16 and 14.10 2 Cor. 5.10 5. Upon every man's Examination both in his particular and in the generall Judgment depends his everlasting well-being or undoing for ever each man's condition then shall be unchangeable whether it be of glory or misery They that have done good shall go into everlasting life and they that have done evill into everlasting fire f Matth. 25.46 6. Since this great Triall then shall be upon life and death eternall 't wil be wisely done to try beforehand Such is the advice of the wise Siracides Before judgment examine thy self and in the day of visitation thou shalt find mercy g Ecclus. 18.20 To examine accuse judge and condemn thy self in this life may through the merits of Christ acquit thee in the life to come So saith the Apostle If we would judge our selves we should not be judged h 1 Cor. 11.31 7. Now then sinfull man delay not to pass judgment upon thy self remember that the Great Judge himself hath said it I will reprove thee and set before thee the things that thou hast done i Psal 50.21 Be wise then and prevent this sad and dismall reproof by setting in order before thy self all the Sins of thy life And to this Triall of thy self these following particulars do necessarily concur 1. A Tribunall must be erected and this is not to be without thee but within thee even in thine own heart k 1 Joh. 3.20 21. 2. The Judge to sit upon this Seat of judicature must be thy Reason guided by the Law of the most High wherein beware of a misunderstanding and wresting of the letter of the Law to pass any unjust and partiall sentence upon thy self for that may undoe thee for ever l 2 Pet. 3.16 3. The Witnesses to be produc'd against thee are the Conscience bearing witness and the thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another and thus shall it be also in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus m Rom. 2.15 16. 4. The Executioners that stand ready to seize the Criminall are Fear and terrour and an horrible dread overwhelming the Soul n Phil. 2.12 Psal 55.5 These do ever attend 5. Self-condemnation which is an unfeigned and sad acknowledgment to have incurred the dismall Sentence of condemnation to death eternall To prevent which 6. Execution must be done and the bloud of the guilty Soul must be shed 'T is not to be believ'd or hoped that a black diseased Soul should recover its health and beauty after the Image of God except she bleed plentifully bleed in the tears of Compunction and godly sorrow bleed in the Confession of her Sins with an abhorrence of them for the filthiness guilt and danger contracted by them so as for the future to renounce and abjure them for ever 8. Thus to examine judge and condemn thy self is the same Christian duty which is called Repentance without the practice whereof our Lord positively affirms that we are all undone for ever saying Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish o Luk. 13.3 5. And he saith the same words again at the same time and in the same Text recorded 1. to enforce the great necessity of Repentance against all carnall careless self-conceited and seduced persons 2. to manifest his great goodness who would not have any to perish but that all should come to Repentance p 2 Pet. 3.9 9.
Sinners we are all less or more q Jam 3 2. but God in great mercy has ordained and commanded Repentance as the great antidote against the poison of Sin and preservative from death r Matth. 3 7 8. And that Repentance which is thus salutary consists of 2 generall parts 1. to confess with sorrow our sins past 2. for ever to abjure and forsake them And to such a true Penitent onely is mercy promised †Prov. 28.13 Joh. 8.11 1 Joh. 1.9 10. To both these generall heads of true Repentance a full knowlege and deep sense of all hainous sins even punctually and particularly is absolutely necessary For no man can confess his Sins who knows them not nor forsake them who is not feelingly sensible of the guilt and danger contracted by them t Psal 51.3 Isa 59.12 Self-examination is therefore commanded as a previous duty necessarily conducing to a true Conversion v Psal 4.4 Lam. 3.40 or which is the same to a true Repentance both in respect of all its integral parts and also of the fruits meet for Repentance which are no other but the Good works of a new Obedience x Col. 1.10 11. The just man falleth seven times y Prov. 24.16 and upon consideration of his seven times daily failings he hath seven times daily confessions z Psal 119.164 to the praise of God a â—es 7.19 with frequent laments in the night also b Psal 6.6 and 77.6 At least twice aday morning and evening he takes a view of his miscarriages the by-past day and night confessing and bewailing his frequent backslidings and in all holy humility imploring with tears of godly sorrow the pardon of his daily offences with firm resolution of more care and caution more zeal of innocence and purity both in heart and life for the time to come 12. 'T is a great imprudence even madness in the hearts of men to put off from day to day this Self-examination or reckoning with our selves Since 't is difficult to account strictly for the misdemeanours of one day how much more hard then to set straight and even the accounts of a long sinfull life whereas he who daily accounts with himself and his offended God for his daily transgressions shall have but one day's sins to account for upon his dying day c Luk. 12.42 43. 13. We reade of Moyses that his leprous hand was made whole and recovered its native whiteness by thrusting it into his bosome d Exod. 4.7 And thus is the Soul cleansed from the leprosy of Sin by thrusting the hand which is the instrument of action into the bosom of thine own Conscience to enter and strictly to search into the inner man to ransack all the corners of the deceitfull heart to examine what affections lurk there and what excursions they have thence made into any extravagant and sinfull actions that they may be thence ejected and abandoned This is the way both to keep the heart pure and the hands clean hence comes both the knowledge of thy self and the fear of God hence comes Sense of sin holy Compunction godly Sorrow Humiliation and true Repentance in all its branches and worthy fruits Hence the Soul becomes inflamed with the ardent heats of holy Devotion and fervent Prayers for pardon and peace mercy and grace Sanctification and Redemption Hence arise in the heart holy Resolves of new Obedience with holy breathings after God and his Salvation Therefore is this Duty of Self-examination called the Magazine or Store-house of all Christian Vertue 14. And because to receive worthily the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ is the chiefest of all Christian performances and requires the practice of all Christian Vertues therefore after an especial manner is Self-examination commanded as a necessary Preparative to that Sacramentall Feast which from the doctrine of S. Paul we are taught in the Principles of our Religion where in the last Question of the Catechism it is demanded What is required of them that come to the Lord's Supper and 't is answered To examine themselves whether they truly repent them of their former sins CHAP. II. The Rule of Self-examination by the Vow in Baptism 1. SInce Self-examination is a Duty of so great so high so generall concernment as hath appeared it will be necessary that it be sincerely and throughly performed not slightly partially and deceitfully not by any false rules and erring opinions but by such a Rule as will not deceive us when we shall come to our great Examination and Triall at the Last day 2. There be too many who do flatter and deceive themselves by a bare and naked Faith in Christ by virtue whereof they conceit themselves to be justified and of the number of God's elect and assured of Salvation But these are groundless presumptions except thy Faith do purify thy heart a Act. 15.9 from all inordinate affections and cleanse thy hands from all sinfull actions b 2 Cor. 7.1 Jam. 4.8 and be also fruitfull in all good works c Jam. 2.26 3. The Rule according to which we shall be tried when we shall all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ is not that of Faith alone under that notion whereby 't is too frequently misunderstood but that of an universall Obedience to the Gospell of Christ d 2 Thess 1.8 whereof Christian Charity is the Compendium and completion * Matt. 25.35 36 c. 4. The summe of Evangelicall Obedience is exprest in that Vow which every true Christian hath made when he was baptized or Christened And by this as S. Gregory observes f Greg. Hom. 19. every man may try the truth of his Faith in Christ For as no man can be said to be faithfull who keeps not his promise so neither can any Christian be said to have any true Faith towards God if he performs not the promise he hath made unto him especially considering that hereupon righteousness and everlasting happiness doth depend For 5. This Baptismall Vow is the condition upon which we are admitted into the Covenant of Grace and made members of Christ children of God and heirs of the Kingdome of Heaven And therefore they who perform not this condition but slight neglect or negligently observe the same do uncovenant themselves and return again to their naturall state of Sin and Misery viz. become children of wrath enemies of God and heirs of eternall damnation g Heb. 10.23 26 27 28 29. 6. The holy Christian Religion we all profess is no other but God's Will and Testament wherein a goodly inheritance is promis'd and bequeath'd but not to be obtained as S. Augustine observes h Aug. Ser. de Tem. 167. except as in all other Testaments we observe the will of the Testatour nor is there any thing more clearly exprest in the revealed will of God then this That the benefits of the Covenant of Grace belong onely to them who keep the
thee for thy guidance in the way of life And he that is thus guided himself will say unto others 10. Be ye not like to the horse that is untam'd head-strong and stubborn or to the mule that is foolish and slothful which have no understanding or reason to bridle their sensual appetites whose mouths must be held with bit and bridle lest they fall upon thee Be not so brutish as not to keep the ways of God's Laws except he whip and spur thee with affliction and trouble this is like a horse that will not obey his rider without a bridle in his jaws and a spur in his sides 11. Great plagues remain for the ungodly often in this life to drive them to repentance but assuredly in the life to come if they repent not but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord and will be doing good his holy confidence in God being not onely notionary in the brain and fancy but practical in the heart and life mercy embraceth him on every side The Lord's mercy shall surround him for his protection and support him for his perseverance in the way to Heaven where he shall both see and enjoy Divine mercy on every side 1. above him in the beatifical Vision of God's Majesty 2. below him in the torments he hath escaped 3. and mercy round about him in the blissful society of Angels and Saints great cause of joy surely 12. Be glad O ye righteous through the testimony of a good Conscience and rejoyce in the Lord not in your own merits for by grace we are saved and be joyfull not ye that prosper in the world but all ye that are true of heart sincere and upright before God whose wills and affections are conformable to the Divine will both in desire and deed such may rejoyce heartily in this life in the assured hope of celestial happiness in the life to come And therefore Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Psalm XXXVIII Verse 1. PVT me not to rebuke O Lord in thine anger to take revenge of the ingratitude and perjury of mine offences against thee neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure Let not my correction for my faults be in rigour of justice but temper'd with mercy as a father chasteneth his son whom he loveth 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me The sharp sentences of thy holy Word against sinners pierce my heart with fear and terrour and thy hand presseth me soar Thy vindicative power which thou exercisest against offenders weigheth down and oppresseth myspirits 3. There is no health in my flesh thence is the spring and foment of my sinful corruption and therefore justly punished because of thine anger the sad effects whereof afflict me neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sin The sinful sickness of my Soul renders me so disquieted and disturb'd as be those who are so afflicted with bodily pain and sickness that they find no ease or intermission of their anguish 4. For mine iniquities by my frequent reiteration of them are gone over my head their number is greater then the hairs of my head and so prevalent withall that they have brought under both head and heart both my Judgment and Affections are ensnared thereby and are as a heavy burthen which sinks the body to the earth so is the weight of sin upon the Soul too heavy for me to bear the weight of punishment due thereunto 5. My wounds stink My sins through long continuance in them fester in my Soul and are corrupt through my foolishness in consenting and delighting my self to wallow with the sow in the mire of sinful pollutions 6. I am brought into so great trouble and misery Both the powers and parts of my Soul and body are so distemper'd and disturb'd that I go mourning all the day long The sense of my sins and just fears of punishment make the day of my present life sad and heavy 7. For my loyns are filled with a soar disease there there my carnal lusts engendred the fulfilling whereof hath made my Soul like a loathsome leper or some such ulcerous creature and there is no soundness in my flesh which alway lusteth against the spirit to the great distemper of both 8. I am feeble in body through carnal incentives and soar broken in spirit by their prevalency over me I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart My conscience gain-saying such exorbitances but not prevailing makes me now cry aloud through its disquietude unto the searcher of all hearts 9. Lord thou knowest all my desire my earnest longings after thee for ease and help and my groaning under the heavy weight of my sins and of thy displeasure is not hid from thee although I should be silent and not express the same by prayers and tears 10. My heart panteth through the disquietude of its unruly passions the peace of my Conscience being also lost and my strength hath failed me the wonted vigour of my Devotion is decayed whence fear and solicitude do issue and the light of mine eyes is gone from me My understanding which is the eye of the Soul is darkned through the sway of its passions and the Sun of righteousness is gone down upon my Soul because of the deeds of darkness I have committed 11. My lovers and my neighbours who are obliged by the ties of friendship and continued conversation did stand looking upon my trouble â—â—t moving to perform their wonted friendly offices to me and my kinsmen they of mine own flesh and bloud either out of scorn or abhorrence of my troubled estate 〈◊〉 aâ— far off as if I were a stranger to them and not onely my friends but mine enemies 12. They that seâ—k â—fter my soul the Devil and his Angels and wicked men their instruments laid sâ—â—res for me by their cunning temptations of me unto sin to destroy me and they that went about to doe me evil endeavoured by all means to doe me all the mischief was in their power have to this end talked of wickedness framed lies raised false reports consulted and contrived pernicious designs against me and imagined deceit all the day long or continually framed all their imaginations to deceive and ruine me 13. As for me I was like a deaf man that heareth not With such patience I sustained all this as if I had heard nothing of their consultations nor known any thing of their designs against me and as one that is dumb who doth not open his mouth either to rail against mine enemies or to murmur at the sadness of my condition 14. I became even as a man that heareth not taking no notice of what was said or done against me and in whose mouth are no reproofs I opened not my mouth to reprove much less to revile my adversaries So my dear Saviour has taught me by his example who suffered himself with all sweetness of patience he was led as a sheep to the
infinite 4. For there is mercy with thee to forgive the sins of the penitent and to raise up them that are faln therefore shalt thou be feared or worshipped with reverence and godly fear thy mercy engaging and sweetly working upon our hearts to fear thy Name 5. I look for the Lord even for his saving mercy my soul doth wait for him to heal her soars and satisfie her longing desires with the oil and wine of mercy and consolation in his word is my trust for therein he hath promised to pardon the penitent to heal the broken-hearted And I doubt not but he will be as good as his word and therefore 6. My soul fleeth unto the Lord upon the spiritual wings of ardent desires strong hopes fervent prayers before the morning-watch very early in the morning of the day or in the morning of my life the time of my youth I say before the morning-watch or more carnestly then such who are appointed watch-men for the night do wait for the morning to be discharged from their watch and have liberty to repose themselves 7. O Israel Ye that are of the number of God's people members of his Church if you be wise trust not in your selves nor in others but trust in the Lord who never faileth to help them that put their trust in him and be doing good for with the Lord there is mercy There is there was and ever will be mercy with him to justifie sinners that truly repent and believe in him for his mercy endureth for ever and with him there is plenteous redemption His precious bloud whereby we are redeemed is plentifully sufficient to satisfie for our sins and not for ours onely but for the sins of the whole world 8. And he shall redeem Israel No doubt but he will more especially above all others redeem his own inheritance from all his sins Be they never so many mortal and venial if truly repented through Faith in the bloud of Christ they shall be pardoned And therefore we have great reason to give Glory to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Psalm CXLIII Verse 1. HEar my prayer O Lord for the obtaining of what is good and consider my desire for the avoiding of what is evil hearken unto me in both respects for thy truth of thy promises made to hear the prayers of the humble and for thy righteousness sake in performing all such promises to those who trust not in their own but in thy righteousness condemning themselves that they may be absolved by thee 2. And enter not into judgment without any intermixture of mercy with thy servant O Lord I dare not say thy son but confess with the Prodigal that I have sinned against Heaven but reject me not from among the number of thy servants for in thy sight who art a God of purer eyes then to behold iniquity shall no man living in this frail mortal flesh be justified by his own merits but by the mercy of God through the merits of Christ 3. For the enemy the Devil hath persecuted my soul and doth incessantly undermine its innocence by his temptations and snares he hath smitten my life down to the ground so that my Soul grovels in the dust of earthly desires he hath laid me in the darkness involv'd in the night of secular lusts as the men that have been long dead in their trespasses and sins having no sense or feeling of their desperate condition 4. Therefore is my spirit vexed within me My Conscience within me being defiled and my Soul which would aspire to Heaven-ward depressed with the weight of her sins and the corruption of her flesh is a great corrosive and vexation of my spirit and my heart within me is desolate destitute of all consolation 5. Yet do I remember the time past wherein thy people have been exercised and tried both by adversity and prosperity both by temptations and deliverances and for my consolation and strengthning my hopes of deliverance I muse upon all thy works wherein I observe as thy great power and wisedom so thy mercy allaying the rigour of thy justice yea I enâ—â—ise my self in the works of thy hands wherein I find thy mercy to be over thy works and that I though an unprofitable work of thy hands may obtain mercy also 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee both praying with my lips and working with my hands to obtain may petitions and my soul pours forth her self in the expansion of my hands which being in her self dry and barren of consolation gaspeth unto thee the fountain of living waters and well-spring of Divine graces even as a thirsty land gapeth to be fill'd and satisfied with rain from Heaven 7. Hear me O Lord watering my thirsty Soul with the celestial dew of thy Divine grace and that soon delay not to satisfie the thirst of my soul which is great for my spirit waxeth faint hath lost its wonted fersour of devotion being oppressed with the burthen of her sins and destitute of the sweet refreshments and influences of thy Holy Spirit hide not thy face from me as one turns away his face from his enemie or one with whom he is justly offended lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit If thou look not in mercy upon me I shall be in the same condition with them that are involved in the pit both of sin and of death 8. O let me hear be made sensible of thy loving kindness betimes in the morning early and betimes in this life and after the night of this life is ended in the morning of that day which never shall have end for in thee is my trust not in my self nor in any help of man for it is but vain and so will prove my trust in thee also except I obey thy will and walk in thy ways the which that I may do I humbly beg shew thou me the way of thy laws and the paths of thy Commandments wherein I should walk as leading to my native home of Heaven where my immortal Soul was first framed by the hands of the Almighty for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul which being made after thine Image aspires to become perfect in the beatifical vision and fruition of thy sacred Majesty In which way being soar let and hindred it implores thy assistence saying 9. Deliver me from mine enemies O God both visible and invisible ghostly and bodily adversaries for I flee unto thee when assaulted by them to hide me under the covert of thy protection from all the storms of temptations which daily arise in the tumultuous sea of this life 10. Teach me who am naturally blind and careless of my duty to doe the thing that pleaseth thee not onely to know but to doe thy will not to follow mine own pleasure but what is pleasing and acceptable unto thee for thou art my God who hast created and redeemed me and that I may be
year as a day of Fasting and Abstinence and it was ever observed as such since our Lord died upon the Friday through all the Ages of the Church untill these last and worst of days wherein the evil spirit of contradiction against the Religious practices of Christ's Church doth so rage as amongst many others to cry down all Times and Days devoted to the Service of God except what they call the Sabbath-day the which under the Gospel is neither properly so called nor rightly observed by such as truly understand not the IV. Commandment but misinterpret the sound meaning of the Spirit by the killing Letter of the Law 3. All orthodox and understanding good Christians in stead of a Jewish Sabbath observe as festival and holy the Christian Sunday because the Sun of Righteousness arose upon that day from death to life and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel in which respect 't is frequently in Holy Scripture called the Lord's day 4. And there is the like reason for the observance of Friday as fasting in commemoration of Christ's Passion as there is for Sunday as festival in commemoration of his Resurrection Nor is this obscurely but plainly enough commanded by our Lord himself But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days a Luk. 5.35 These words are both 1. a positive command to all the Disciples of Christ they shall fast and also 2. the days whereon they shall fast are prescribed in those days whereon the Bridegroom was taken away from them which are the Fridays of the year whereon our Lord the Bridegroom and Head of his Church was taken off by a bitter death upon the Cross It is therefore but meet and just that all true Members of this Head should fast and pray and be humbled for their Sins on that day especially whereon the Son of God so sadly suffered and sorrowed for the Sins of the world Friday Meditations I. Part of LXIX Psalm paraphrased Verse 13. LORD I make my praier unto thee in an acceptable time Now is the acceptable time now is the day of Salvation even the day whereon for us men and for our Salvation the Blessed Son of God was crucified unto death 14. Hear me O God in the multitude of thy mercies against the multitude of my Sins which require a multitude of mercies to pardon them even in the truth of thy Salvation which on this day was so dearly purchased with the precious Bloud of the Son of God as a Lamb without spot 15. Take me out of the mire of all my sinfull pollutions and of all exorbitant lusts both secular and sensual that I sink not under the weight and pressure of them O let mâ— be delivered from them that hate me meaning chiefly the Devil and his angels and all the enemies of my Soul and out of the deep waters the rising waves of my unruly Passions and the waters of Trouble and Affliction which issue thence 16. Let not the water-floud of iniquity which overflows the face of the earth drown me with the rest of evill-doers neither let the deep swallow me up the deep abyss of Death the wages of Sin and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me so as that I arise not out of the gulph of Sin and Death to the life of Grace and Glory 17. Hear me O Lord for thy loâ—â—â— kindness is comfortable T is the 〈◊〉 and fountain life and soul of 〈◊〉 consolation at all times and in 〈◊〉 conditions both prosperous and adverse turn thee unto me not for any worth that is in me to attract thy loving-kindness but according to the multitude of thy mercies which are ever manifested to all them who truly turn unto thee 18. Hide not thy face from thy servant as angry and displeased for the alienations of my heart from thee and negligence in thy service for I am in trouble troubled for my Sins and frequent back-slidings and the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise O haste thee and hear me For if thou make as though thou hearest not I shall be like them that goe down into the pit 19. Draw nigh unto my Soal and save it who for the Salvation of my Soul didst this day humble thy self unto death even the cursed death of the Cross by the Merits and efficacy of which Cross and Passion O deliver me from all mine offences because of mine enemies that they triumph not in my confusion II. Meditations out of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. LIII Verse 4. SVrely he hath born our griefs and carried our serrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed 6. All we like sheep have gone astray and God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all In the Sufferings of thy Saviour O my Soul thou maiest see as in a glass thine own Deformities and Sins The Great Lord over all Blessed for ever to be reproached reviled scorned contemned and numbred amongst the transgressours discovers thy false and uncharitable Judging Censuring Condemning Evil-speaking Lying and Slandering Railing and Reviling of others The blessed Face of Jesus besmeared with Spittle doth remember thee of all thy unclean Lusts and of all the filthy Communication that has proceeded out of thy mouth His blessed Mouth embittered with Gall and Vinegar doth mind thee of thy Effeminacy and Luxury Drunkenness and Gluttony and his Whipping of thy Stubbornness and Disobedience to the Laws of Heaven The King of Glory to wear a Crown of Thorns and for his Robes of Majesty onely a little Linen to cover his nakedness declares the iniquity of thy Pride and Vain-glory the folly of Gay cloathing and all thy vain and foolish affectation of the Pomps and Vanities of this sinfull World That Crown of Thorns beaten into his Temples with a Reed and much rage discovers the offensive nature of immoderate Cares of the world with the sharp and piercing Vexations issuing thence which eat up the Consolation of the heart and all true sincere Devotion of the spirit O sweetest Jesu let all my Sins be done away through thy Sufferings which did both represent and satisfy for them Let thy Wounds be a Salve for my Sin-wounded Soul and by thy Stripes let her be healed of all her Distempers Let thy Bonds discharge that Bond of malediction and woe wherein my Sins have enwrapt my Soul and let my Obligation to punishment be cancelled by thy Cross Let thy Pains deliver me from the Pains of Hell and thy Labours procure my Rest with the Saints in Heaven Let thy Sorrows purchase the Joys and thy Griefs the Pleasures of thy right hand Let thy Captivity be my Redemption thy Humiliation my Exaltation
will will be done in earth as it is in heaven May all we Petit. 3 whose immortal Souls do dwell in earthly Tabernacles as readily zealously constantly obey thy will and as chearfully submit to thy good pleasure as do thy blessed Angels and Saints in their blissful mansions of Heaven above Give us this day our daily bread Petit. 4 Even all things necessary both for our Souls and bodies both the bread of Heaven and earthly bread And grant that what we do enjoy upon earth may be rightly ours not to any other belonging and neither acquired by injustice nor uncharitably detained by us and our daily bread according to our daily necessities administred to us who daily wait upon thee O Lord who givest unto all their meâ—t in due season And that our daily abuse of thy gifts may not rob us of them Petit. 5 Forgive us our trespasses even all our transgressions of thy most holy Laws pardon good Lord whose nature and property it is alway to have mercy and to forgive But this we presume not to ask but upon thine own terms As we forgive those that trespass against us The trespasses of others and our sufferings from them are but few and trifling in respect of our sins and trespasses against thee for they be many and hainous but as sin hath abounded in us so doth grace and mercy abound also with thee but we are men of hard corrupt uncircumcised hearts Have mercy upon us O Lord and forgive us both our sins against thee and our uncharitableness unto our neighbours soften our hard hearts to be kindly affectioned one towards another forbearing and forgiving one another as we hope and humbly beg to be forgiven by thee through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lead us not into temptation Petit. 6 Suffer us not any more to fall into fins and trespasses against thee When we are led away with our lusts and tempted O leave us not then to our selves who are weak and frail and too prone to all that is evil but assist and enable us by thy Divine grace to overcome all the affaults of our ghostly enemies and to continue thy faithful servants and souldiers to our lives ends Deliver us from evil Petit. 7 From the evil of sin by thy grace and from the evil of punishment by thy mercy and from the authour of all evils the Devil From the temporal evils and miseries of this life and from the evils of a sad eternity in the life to come from thy wrath and from everlasting damnation Good Lord deliver us Liberati à malo confirmati semper in bono tibi servire mereamur Deo ac Domino nostro Pone Domine sine peccatis nostris da gaudium trdâ—ulâ—stis praebe redemptionem captivis fanitatem infirmis reâ—â—tiémque defunctis concede paâ—em securitatem in omnibus drebus â—â—stris france audaciam omnium inâ—micorum â—â—strorum exaudi Deus orationes omnium servorum cuorum fidelium Christianorum in hâ—â— die in omni tempore per Dominum nostrum Jesum Lit. Mozarab For thine is the Kingdom Conclusion Thou rulest and reignest over all and thy Dominion is absolute and independent the power whereof cannot be broken nor its glory eclipsed like the frail and fading Kingdoms of this world But thine is the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Thy Dominion is an everlasting Dominion such as shall not pass away and thy Kingdom such as cannot be destroyed but shall stand fast in power and eminent in glory for ever O give us hearts yielding a willing obedience to the Laws of thy Kingdom full of reverence and awful fear of thy Power studious to advance thy Glory upon earth that we may in the end arrive at thy Kingdom in Heaven where thou livest and reignest Blessed Father Son and Holy Ghost One God world without end Amen CHAP. XI The Seven Penitentiall Psalms paraphrased THE Psalms of David being by all Christians of what perswasion soever acknowledged to be the immediate dictates of God's Holy Spirit it must necessarily be acknowledged also that he who understandingly and devoutly prays in the very words of the Psalms prays by the Holy and true Spirit of God The truth whereof which by many blind Zelots is too much slighted and neglected we have both confirmed and the practice commanded Eph. 5.18 19. Be ye filled with the Spirit Speaking to your selves or among your selves which is done by answering each other in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs i. e. such as are the dictates of the Holy Spirit compared with Col. 3.16 Thus prayed our Lord upon the Cross in the very words of the Psalmist Psal 22.1 and 31.5 And so hath ever prayed the Church of Christ Psalmus totius Ecclesiae vox Aug. Prolog in Ps Chrys de Poen Hom. 6. Ambr. de Virg. l. 5. in all the Ages thereof Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs are and ever were the constant regular standing parts of God's Worship both under the Law and under the Gospel And he must needs be a desperate Fanatick who will not acknowledge the words of God's own Spirit to be more wise pithy pertinent and effectually prevailing with God in our Prayers then any words of man's devising how seemingly-zealous and taking soever 'T is a strange but not a true Spirit of holy Prayer then those persons pretend unto who slight the devout use of the Psalms which are the treasury of all sound Devotion and trust to their own extempore or studied expressions in Prayer preferring the dictates of their own Spirit before those of the Spirit of God himself The Penitential Psalms are so called because commended by the Church of Christ and by the constant practice of orthodox devout Christians to the Religious use of all true Penitents in their Prayers to be used upon all days of Humiliation and Fasting and in the time of sickness or any disness So prayed S. Aug. upon his Death-bed he wept and bewailed his sins in the devout use of the Penitential Psalms And those are also the most effectual Prayers we can use in the practice of Repentance by way of preparation to the holy Communion Psalm VI. Vers 1. O Lord the Judge of all men rebuke me not in thine indignation which I have deservedly incurr'd neither chasten me for mine offences in thy hot displeasure flaming to consume me 2. Have mercy upon me O Lord whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive for I am weak both through original corruption and manifold actual transgressions O Lord heal me pour the wine and oyl of thy grace and mercy into the wounds of my sinful soul for my bones are vexed that interiour strength which supports my Soul is troubled and sore shaken by many falls and failings 3. My soul also being conscious of her guilt and distemper'd condition is sore troubled being terrified at the apprehension of thy strict Justice and her own deserts but thou O Lord who desirest
whither Blessed Lord whither should a defiled Soul go to be cleansed but unto that Fountain which is opened in the house of Israel for sin and for uncleanness In this inexhaustible Fountain of Divine grace my sinfull Soul longs to be washed and through the effusion of the precious Bloud of my Redeemer to be purified and my whole self for the future to be sincerely devoted to serve thee in holiness and righteousness before thee all the days of my life Amen III. Assist me Blessed Lord in the Triall and impartial Examination of my heart and of all the actions of my life in the full Confession of all my Sins with the tears of true Penitence and godly Sorrow for them in my Praiers for mercy and pardon of them and for grace to be sanctified against them O hear in Heaven and be mercifull unto me forgive me my Sins and heal my Soul through the merits and mediation of my dearest Saviour Jesus Christ Amen A short preparatory Meditation to the Sacrament out of S. Ambrose O with what great contrition of heart with what a floud of tears with what reverence fear and trembling with what purity of mind and chastity of body is that Divine celestial Mystery to be celebrated where thy Flesh O Lord is truly received and thy Bloud is truly drunk where things most high and low Divine and humane are mysteriously intermingled where the Angels of Heaven are invisibly present beholding and assisting in the celebration and where thou O Lord art inconceivably present both as the Priest and the Sacrifice O who can worthily either administer or receive such grand tremend celestial Mysteries except Thou the Omnipotent God make him worthy of thy Grace Even so come Lord Jesus The XXIII Psalm paraphrased Verse 1. THE Lord who hath created redeemed and sanctified me is my Shepherd to feed guide and defend me from the ravening of my ghostly foes therefore I can lack nothing that is needfull or convenient either for Soul or body 2. He shall feed me in a green pasture My Soul doth he feed with the verdant refreshing Indoctrinations of his Holy Word and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort Such are the influences of the Holy Ghost the Comforter and such are the Sacraments of his Church which as waters do quench the fire of Concupiscence wash off the pollution of Sin cleanse the heart from all vain and impure thoughts and desires satisfy the spiritual thirst of the Soul and feed the same to life eternal and these be Comforts both great and glorious 3. He shall convert my soul from the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and from the sinfull Lusts of the Flesh and bring me forth into the paths of righteousness to keep God's holy Will and Commandments and to walk in the same all the days of my life and this he will doe for his Name 's sake that his Name which is great wonderfull and holy may be glorified in me and by me 4. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death be conversant amidst continual Temptations and Tribulations which are the miseries of mortality and the shadows of death in this valley of tears I will fear none evill neither the evil of Sin nor Death the wages of Sin for thou art with me dwelling in my heart by Faith in this mortal life that after the shadow of death is vanished I may dwell with thee by Vision in life immortal Aug. thy rod and thy staff comfort me thy rod to correct me thy staff to support me thy rod to punish me when I doe evill thy staff to sustain me in my sufferings for my Sins Both are great comforts to the devout Soul as being signs of Adoption and Grace purchased by the mystical Rod and Staff of my Saviour's Sufferings on the wood of his Cross This was the rod of the Lord's indignation for our Sins and the rod wherewithall our Lord beat the Devil out of his strong holds this was the staff also or stay of fallen Man the merits whereof I humbly beg to be applied to my Soul in the Sacrament of his Passion For 5. Thou shalt prepare a table before me The Table of the Lord is spred before all true Believers where is prepared the Bread of Heaven the food of Angels the Body and Bloud of Christ for the strengthning and refreshing of my Soul against them that trouble me and these are chiefly home-bred Enemies even all those sinful Lusts of the flesh which war against the Soul But that I may be prepared for the conflict with them thou hast anointed my head with oil The Unction of the Holy one are the Graces of the Holy Spirit which from Christ the Head do flow down upon his Members in the devout use of his Sacraments and my cup shall be full That Cup of blessing which is the Communion of the Bloud of Christ is full of grace and heavenly benediction And this in all humility I call my cup because I am invited nay commanded to take and drink thereof And if I receive it worthily I may then rejoycing say The Lord himself is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup and as it follows 6. Thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life 'T was thy loving-kindness and mercy preventing me whereby I was called unto the state of Grace and Salvation and I believe and humbly pray that thy Grace may also follow me to continue in the same to my life's end and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever This is the end and the perfection of all the Lord's Blessings upon me He is therefore my Shepherd and doth feed and guide me protect and defend me correct and support me and with his precious Body and Bloud doth nourish me in his house of praier here below that I may hereafter dwell in his house of praise above and with his holy Angels and Saints for ever sing Glory be to God the Father As it was in the beginning Other Psalms seasonable for Meditation and relating to this Divine subject in several Verses are the XLII XLIII LXXXI LXXXIV Psalms the which I have not paraphrased or explained that this Volume might not swell into too great a bulk CHAP. III. Meditations and Praiers for the Friday especially before the Communion 1. AMongst all the days of the Week Friday is the most seasonable and fittest for the performance of those Religious Duties the which though never out of season are yet then most practical when commanded as necessary Preparatives for the worthy receiving of the Sacrament viz. the grand Duty of Self-examination of Confession of sins with Contrition Humiliation and Fasting as also for Meditations and Praiers upon the Passion of our Lord since it was upon this day of the week he was crucified and died for our Sins 2. 'T is upon this account that our Church enjoyns this day to be observed through the whole