Crush and destroy the least Reliques and Remains of any Sin into whatever part it is Retir'd or under what disguise soever It lurks and hides These being indeed the True Idols and Abominations which God hath commanded to put from Vs and utterly to annihilate if we mean to Receive and Conserve His Grace Lastly It is My Saviour Himself that is in This Sacrament O that I might Love according to His Example here Retirement Re-collection Abstraction and Separation from all Creatures as He continues still unmix'd with any now no less in within me than in the whole Church always In a Profound Silence under a Wonderful Humility leading here a Life perfectly Internal and absorpt in a Contemplation and Adoration perpetual of the Greatness and Incomprehensible Majesty of God his Father Upon the Priest's gathering up the Crums and lesser particles of the Hoste and sucking in the rest in the Chalice DEVOTION THe Fragments O Lord The least Crum that jalls from Thy Table the least Drop of Thy Wine no Remainder of Thy Honey Comb is so little but is enough for me as well as for that modest Canaanite and for Thy Apostles at that miraculous Entertainment in the Desart or at That Collation upon Thy Resurrection Indeed all the Graces that we are capable of in This Life are but Crums falling from That Thy Table above but few drops of that Inexhaustible Fountain with which Thy Blessed in Heaven are so abundantly Refresh'd but on Vs here are but sprinkled a little to relieve our Necessities and sustain Vs from fainting in our Passage through the Desart of This World Yet as Thou art no less whole and Entire in the pettyest Particle and Attom of these Symbols than in the biggest Portion so I avouch that there is force enough to Nourish me and to Strengthen me too against all mine Enemies in the Lightest Grain of Thy Grace because Thou art always All in It and With and By It dost uncessantly derive Thy Spirit into Our Hearts Which well considered should Oblige Vs everyone to live Contented in This Life as we shall do in the Next be the Gifts Great or Small that we receive from Thy Mercy Vpon the bringing back again of the Book to the Right-Hand IT is to shew that the Gospel which was remov'd from the Jews at first shall return to them again and be receiv'd towards the end of the World And then the whole Church consisting both of Jew and Gentile being United together The Priest Blesseth God for all the Favours shewn to it in order thereunto and particularly for the Present Communion by which he hath re-united so many beseeching Him that this Receiving of Him at this time may tend to His everlasting Honour DEVOTION I Admire and Adore O my God Thy Goodness and Insinite Patience who having been so long Oppos'd and Vilifi'd by the Jews wilt yet at last before the end of the World receive them again for all that and restore to them the Light of the Gospel before taken from them as is signifi'd by bringing back the Book before the Mass ends to the place It had at the beginning God forbid I should ever Despair of any Sinner how Great or Wretched and Harden'd soever he be as long as He yet Lives No let me rather in all Humility wait till Thy Mercy or Thy Justice declare it self toward Him in the Season that Thou hast appointed and the mean while Pray for Him Wishing Him Thy Grace with the same Charity wherewith Thy Church still implor'd It for the Jews her Enemies and first Persecutors though receive it they should not till after many Ages and at present are Harden'd and even Abandon'd by Thee after a manner most notoriously Hideous O let me so Intercede for a Mercy and a true Repentance for the worst of mine Enemies make me carry them always in my Heart though they little deserve It and have turn'd me out of theirs as Thou lodgest and bearest me in Thine without considering my unworthiness and wert willing to receive me even when I hated Thee and ran from Thee as fast and as far as I was able Sweeten me into a Benignity that as I have receiv'd Thy Grace without all merit so I may keep it without all Envy and be an earnest Suitor unto Thee that Thou wouldst vouchsafe it also to those who I am sure cannot less deserve it than I. Nay let it be to me a particular delight and joy when ever Thou shalt be pleas'd to indulge it to them in a greater abundance than Thou hast done to me that so even their abundance may be as truly mine and the â—â—ches of them supply what is wanting in me as Thy Apostle says At the last Benediction AFter this tender of Thanks in Conclusion of all the Priest turns to the People to Bless them as was us'd to be done in the Old Law after the Sacrifice and shall be more fully done hereafter by our Saviour Himself in that General Benediction of all the Elect at the end of the World Hence is it that he reads the Gospel of St. John treating particularly of the Eternal Generation of the Word and the Highest Mysteries of that His Deity To shew that immemediately after that Last Benediction we shall pass into Heaven there to be better acquainted with and Eternally Admire and Praise these Mysteries And that Jesus Christ having gather'd together all His chosen shall lead them in and place them in the Bosom of His Father where He is from all Eternity His Only Son and where He shall admit Us as His Brethren that where He is We may be also and this without any prejudice of His being still the Only because He shall make Us One with Him Amen DEVOTION I Beseech Thee O my God to make me so partaker of Thy Body and Blood and so to Order the rest of my Life that I may receive That great Benediction which Thou shalt give to Thy Servants at the Last day The which is now Represented unto Me by This which the Priest gives to the People in the end of the Mass In the Hope of This let me live and grow Invincibly strong against the rudest Assaults of the Enemy In the expectation of so great Comfort let my Heart be so Establish'd as to Dread nothing nor can the greatest Beauties or Pleasures in This World seem any thing to the sight of That last Glory or to the perception of That Blessing accumulative of all Blessings which then shall be receiv'd in the presence of Millions of Angels and of all Men which ever were or shall be The Blessing and St. John's Gospel DEVOTION ANd after that Solemn Benediction take me O my God with Thee into Heaven that Heaven of Heavens Where I may enjoy Thee in Thy Majesty in thy Beatitude and Life so Glorious A Scantling of which seems to be Represented to Vs by that Beginning of St. John 's Gospel which is said after the Mass Wherein
Impart to Us and account Ours DEVOTION DO not forget O Lord Those Souls whom though gone out of this World Thou hast yet a Favour for because they are better dispos'd for the receiving the Effects of Thy Mercy in That Condition than those who are still joyn'd to this Body of Clay Haste so much the more to help Them as They do more Humbly and more Patiently wait for Thy help desiring no other Happiness than to fulfill thy Will and good Pleasure and therefore finding so far as That is done upon them even in Purgatory and in the midst of extream pains which they suffer a kind of Paradice I would I had as much Purity as They to be the more capable of Interceding for Them But since I come far short of That I interpose and present Thee with that of those Saints who now reign with Thee which is the best that can be found among Creatures but especially with that of the King of Saints Thy Son from whom as from the Fountain and Head flow all those Graces and Merits which Thou hast Communicated to Thy Servants and to whom thou canst not deny the farther Perfecting and Final Accomplishment of Thine Elect since Thou hast already begun to work Righteousness and Holiness in Them Add then and Finish the Rest of what is to be done in Them and Unite both the Living and the Dead to Thy Son as to the proper Head of Their Body and only Source of their Virtue and Victory that together with Him they may Sing to Thee Triumphant Lauds to all Eternity after they have Labour'd and Suffer'd as He and in Him to Thy Glory in this World At the Nobis quoque Peccatoribus DEVOTION O That these Words now spoken out by the Priest might Humble me Effectually to make me Cry to Thee for Mercy for my self and all Thy Faithfull upon Earth who all with me now appear before Thee but as One and the same sinner and one and the same Penitent Work in me the Flexibleness and Humble dejection of that Publican whom Thou hast Justify'd in the Temple and under the Law that smiting my Breast like Him I may obtain the same Grace which Thou accorded'st to Him at the same time that Thou didst blast the Pride of the Pharisee Per quem Haec Omnia c. ANd from this Acknowledgment of our own Worthlessness the Priest goes on to another much Greater Confessing to God the Father that also This Sacrifice now upon the Altar and all its worth and Virtue or what ever else contain'd in it comes only from Him by Jesus Christ by whom He Creates It to be a Source of Sanctity and Life and all Blessings and so Gives It to Vs Not but that Jesus Christ was all this before But because by the same Act by which He produceth Him in this Sacrament He likewise Communicates to Him all those Graces and Virtues which he hath as by that Act by which He begot Him from all Eternity He also endow'd Him with all those Excellencies and Perfections proper to the Son of God and so is the production of this Sacrament a lively Image of that Eternal Generation Nor is this yet all that is acknowledg'd but farther That the same God the Father thus producing qualifying this Sacrament also Gives it to Vs Praestas Nobis and by it derives into Us a Participation of all the Excellencies it contains so that this Sacrament becomes not only an Image of that Eternal Generation of Jesus Christ before all time but also of that Incarnation of Him by which in time the Father gives Him to Us and with Him all His Perfections by a New Production as in many Places Holy Scripture testifies DEVOTION THee O God the Father Thee I Adore as the Prime and Original Author of this Sacrifice and wonderful Mystery The Holy Ghost makes It by the Priest Jesus Christ makes It by the Holy Ghost but Thou makest It by Jesus Christ and 't is from Thee as from its Fountain that all the Graces all the Perfections all the Great things contain'd in this Sacrament are deriv'd and It again becomes another Fountain of them to Vs I Admire and Celebrate from the bottom of my Heart this Miracle and more yet that Bounty which after it hath wrought it so Applies it to Men thereby to Feed them thereby to Save them just as for Thy Works have no Parallels but Thy works just as Thou gavest Thy only Son to Men by another Miracle of Incarnation in the fulness of time after Thou hadst first begotten Him in Thy bosom before all Time by which transcends all Miracles an Eternal Generation O let this account of Thy goodness debase and cast me down as low as doth mine own Illness since in the midst of all these Fountains and Sluces of Graces so super-abundantly deluging from forth this Mystery wretched I shall still remain parch'd and barren and dry and Wither'd I unless thou stream into me from thence and that uncessantly another new Grace by which I may suck in the Benefit of all the rest Per Ipsum cum Ipso in Ipso c. NExt to these Two Acknowledgements the Priest here makes a Third That That Honour and Glory that ariseth to God the Father from this His Infinite Bounty comes not to Him but By and With and In Jesus Christ By Jesus Christ as through the Hands of a Mediator for God receives nothing from Us immediately nor we from Him but Jesus Christ standing in the middle between Hands all things from the Father to Us and so back again from Us to the Father With Jesus Christ Because the Son being in all things equal to the Father receives too equally with Him the Glory that men render unto Him and all in the Union of the Holy Spirit In Jesus Christ Because He is the Vine and all men but the Branches in Him and only by being in Him can they bear any Fruit to His Father the Husbandman DEVOTION EStrange me O my God from from all Humane Inventions and ways of Worshipping Thee of what sort soever though never so specious and Holy in Appearance In things of Thy Service let me never be Acted by my own private Spring by my own proper Spirit nor upon any Motive tending to give my self Satisfaction That I may do nothing but at the Call and in submission to the Conduct and by the Spirit of Thy Son since Thou Receivest not any thing from Us but what we Offer unto Thee by Him as being the Mediator nay as being the First Mover and Author of all the Good we do nor received'st it so neither but in the same Act by which He receives It together with Him because both are one and the same Nature One and the same God and therefore are both equally concern'd and Honour'd by the Homages we pay Lastly Thou receivedest nothing but in Him also that is but from Those who are so in Him as that He
and They are but One living in the Unity of His Body consisting of such Members and Co-integrated with Him in a True though not Ordinary sense In one person May I never be perswaded to acknowledge any other manner of Honouring and Serving Thee or of Performing Acts and Exercises of Holy Religion to Thee but This wherein are compriz'd and to which tend all that be good and True so that in Effect The Eucharist and Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Thy Son may be to Me not only a Lively Representation and Continual Memorial of His Passion but also a complete and moving Model of all the Actions and good Works that belong to a Christian Life O Holy Body of my Saviour Let Virtue Issue out from Thee to Bless me Now that the Priest Lifts Thee and the Chalice a little up from the Altar into the Air and presently re-placeth you there again It is even so O Lord that thou usest to give Vs suddain and short Glympses of Thy Self in this Life by certain quick Gleams of Light which dure not like those Thou displayest in Heaven permanently and Eternally But 't is enough to make me Thine for ever that but once thou vouchsafe to pass before the Eyes of my Soul though but like a flash of Lightning as heretofore thou didst to Elias Humble my Soul lowly with the Priest still as He bowes so oft before thee at Thine Altar and Adores Thee in Silence Let the Eyes thereof shew their Modest Submission in Closing themselves to All the Objects of this World and They shall quickly discern Thee upon the Altar of my Heart within when I am Thus become Thy True Temple At the Pater Noster NOw these acknowledgements or Acts of Faith being thus Solemnly made that whatsoever Good we receive from or whatsoever Service or Worship or Glory we thereupon pay to God do all pass through Jesus Christ the Priest proceeds to desire that this devout Spiritual Commerce between Heaven and Us may be put in Execution and he begs It not only in the Name of Jesus Christ joyning himself to Him as a Brother imploring one common Father but in Those very words which Jesus Christ taught Vs to say Testifying thereby that not only the External Vocal Prayer which he recites is His but the Internal Mental one too and that It is He and His Spirit that Prayes in Vs and makes Vs Pray and say so But because in the very first words of this Lords Prayer we are to call God Our Father The Priest reflecting upon the greatness of the Honour we receive by being permitted the Use of That Title because of Gods Infinite Eminency and Grandeur above Us vile and abject Creatures Infinite unworthy to take such a Term into our Mouths He excuses this Presumption in Himself and Us declaring that if we dare to call God Our Father It is not only by the command of Jesus Christ but also by the very Express form of words so drawn by Himself for Us to do It by which we much less dare to alter or omit Wherefore he proceeds to say it as with some Considence shewn by a louder Tone so with Earnest and flagrant Desire that what is contain'd in this Prayer may be accomplish'd and stand Ratify'd for ever To which Vote the People give their most Hearty Assent by their subjoyning the last Clause as it were Subscribing and Sealing it with Et Libera nos a Malo And thus is the Canon of the Mass clos'd with the same Joynt desire of Priest and People and with the same Elevation of Hearts and Aspiration towards God as its Preface began with DEVOTION T Is most properly Now Certainly Now at the Holy Mass that Thou Obligest Vs to believe Thee to be Our Father Now that Thou here dispencest to Vs Thy Childrens Bread â—â—eding Vs with the Body and Blood of thine only Son with His very Substance Humane and Divine to make Vs Gods too and Children of the most High This Largess and Honour is so Great that though our Faith permits not to doubt of It yet an Humble Estimate of our selves and true Acknowledgement of our great vility and unworthiness makes it almost incredible at least suffers us not to receive any assurance thereof but in the single bare contemplation of thy Mercy only Imprint we beseech thee This Resentment so deep in our Souls that we growing as little in our own esteem as we are design'd to be Great in Thine may therefore be made the more certain of this Great Favour and Incomprehensible Dignity and by this means be in a better disposition and preparation to receive the precious Earnest thereof in the Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which is but the Typical Pledge of that Other Infinitely Higher and more August which thou reserv'st for us in Heaven Only take such Care of Vs in the mean time that we no way degenerate from this Divine quality of being Children of Thine nor render Our Selves unworthy of having Thee for Our Father by some Ungracious deed that may argue Vs to Be no less than thy profest Enemies O if the frailty of this Present Life is not Compatible with an absolute Freedom from all sorts of Faults as we are sure the Felilicities of the Next will be yet Guard Vs at least that we incur none but such as are altogether Inseparable from this Frailty and so ruine not that Dignity which Thou hast given us of being Thy Children for all This Only take we good heed still of Explating them again as soon as ever committed and of Procuring from Thee our Own Pardon by Pardoning in like manner freely and from the Heart whosoever have Offended Us since this is that most Equitable Condition which thou hast so wisely caution'd in this Admirable Prayer and wilt surely Observe so as not to Pardon the Trespasses against Thee Our Father unless we first forgive those that our Brethren commit against Vs I cannot say that I would desire such Exact Purity or so Perfect an Absolution from all my Sins for any other reason but that I may be so able more Holily to Serve and Glorifie Thee having no desire of any one thing in this World so much as to see Thy Name Hallow'd Thy Kingdom come and Establish'd in the total Ruine of Thine Enemies Thy Will be done in the utmost Latitude as well by good Men as Bad These fulfulling It though against their Own Will but those in perfect Love and True Obedience Libera Nos quaesumus Domine Da Propitius Pacem THe Canon ended the Priest now begins to prepare Himself to the Participation and Communion of this Sacrifice Which he does First by Imploring Peace from God 2. And then wishing and deriving It to the People still shewing that he can impart to them nothing of Himself but must first receive it Himself from God Now Peace is the chiefest and prime qualification or disposition toward the Receiving
what was proper and naturally Thine And what A simple Figure and Commemoration only of That can it ever have such a Power The Blood of the Heyfer sprinkled though the true and near Figure of that Blood shed upon the Cross yet serv'd only to the Purification of the Flesh No 't is the Proper Blood of God alone that purges Our Consciences from dead works to serve the Living God The Resurrection of the Body O Gracious Jesus When shall It be that in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump the Dead shall arise and the same Flesh of every One now crumbled into Dust and scatter'd a thousand ways shall be re-compacted again into an Incorruptible Immortal Consistency Good God the Miracle of Miracles This And yet I am contemplating one well nigh Equal That in a Moment too in the twinkling of an Eye at the Trumpet of thy Word that very Body of Thine Seated at the right Hand of thy Father in Heaven is in a certain manner Reproduc'd in this Sacrament in all places where-ever the Mystery of It is duly Celebrated But O my wonderful Saviour If a little Leaven can Leaven a great Lump of Dough If one Spark of Fire be enough to Enflame a whole House if one Grain of Corn put into the Earth there works so as out of that Earth to cause so many more to grow and shoot up How may I hope that Thy Blessed Body entring into mine will Greg. Nyssen cap. 37. in its due time ferment it so as to make It rise warm and heat and Enflame It so as to make It like Thy Glorious Body and cause it to come up Immortal Impassible Subtile Nimble Clear and Shineing with all the Radiant Qualities that belong to Its perfection and may be expected from so Divine a Seed This Efficacy I confess can never be in the Figures of thy Body It comes only from the true and Real Presence of thy Precious Body It Self being There The Life Everlasting And indeed what other Nourishment Blessed Saviour but thy dear Body alone can possibly give A Life Everlasting It must be Bread that Lives It Self or it cannot give Life Bread that comes down from Heaven to give a Heavenly Life Bread that is no other than Thine Own Self my Lord and my God to give an Immortal Eternal Everlasting Life The Manna which was a true Type and Figure of thy Body yet could not do That there is need of some Food to be had more Substantial and Solid and Spiritual for such a Life and what can that be but Thy Self who hast Life in Thy Self and Livest now and for evermore World without End Amen This you see if you have Read and Weigh'd it well that the Articles of Our CREED cannot be consider'd in that full heighth wherein they ought to be literally and expresly believ'd and profess'd by every good Christian but that withall they dispose the Soul to a Firm Faith of the Real Presence of the true Body and Blood of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament which Article thereby seems to carry a very Natural and congenious proportion to all the rest at least as the possibility I may add and probability of it which is enough for the first step The next step shall be to weigh the several Testimonies of the Fathers and Their various Expressions wherein they seem to Labour so to set down what they believ'd in this High Mystery as that it might not be mistaken by Others wherefore from Them it will further appear that the Faith of the greatest part of the Church in all Ages was as it is now of the Real Presence Lastly Shall the particular Exceptions Answers Limitations Distinctions Subterfuges of latter Dissenters as to those Testimonies be produc'd and brought into the Light One by One. All this if you receive not Satisfaction before and if not after I have no other way left to help you with but Prayer Jam hoc qui dicit Non meis Disputationibus Refellendus sed Sanctorum Orationibus Revocandus est Aug. Preparatory Prayers toward the due Receiving of the Blessed Sacrament Authoriz'd by the Church Ad Mensam Dulcissimi Convivii c. TO Thy Table O most Bountiful Lord Jesus Christ where with such Delicious and Heavenly Food Thou usest to Entertain and Feast Pure Souls I a sinner though not presuming on any Merit or Desert of Mine but solely on Thy Goodness and Gracious Invitation do yet Tremble and Fear to approach For I have a Heart still prone to evil and Treacherous evne to the deceiving of my Self A Mind unconstant in all good Purposes A Body enslav'd to sin and which hath been Tainted and render'd loathsome by Corruption Original and many Crimes committed in it Senses wholly depriv'd and by long Custom dispos'd to admit any sort of Temptation Members all retain'd for the Service of some Vice or other A Tongue especially an unruly Evil and under no Guard or Discipline It self a very World of Iniquity And therefore now in this Misery and great Perplexity what to do and how to carry my self in this Conjuncture of Thy Call and my own Wretchedness towards Thee a God of so much Benignity but of such a Frightning Majesty too I nevertheless am here come unto Thee But To Thee as the Fountain of Mercy To Thee as the sole Curer of all my Maladies and Distempers at Present and the best Preserver against all Ills to come And whom I dare not appear before as my Judge I humbly Sue to have for my Saviour To Thee O Lord as such I here unbind and lay open my Wounds and Sores To Thee I discover my shame I know my Sins are great and many and they cause this Fear in me but I hope in Thy Mercies which are without number or stint Look upon me Then with those tender Eyes of Thy Compassion O Merciful Jesus Eternal and most Munificent Saviour God and Man Crucify'd for Man Hail Saving Sacrifice Offer'd up on the Altar of the Cross for Me and all Mankind Hail Precious and Royal Blood pour'd forth of the Wounds of my Crucify'd Lord and Cleansing a whole World from Sin Remember Lord this Creature of Thine for whom Thou hast spilt that Blood I am sorry that I have Offended Thee I desire to Amend what is Amiss Take from me O most Indulgent Saviour all my Iniquities and Transgressions that so beset me and cleave so close to me that being Purg'd and Sanctify'd throughout in Spirit Soul and Body I may come Worthily to feed at Thy Table on the Holiest of all Things And Grant that this Sacred prae-libation and fore-taste of Thy Body and Blood which I now intend to take though most unworthy may be to me A full Remission of my sins A perfect Evacuation of all vitiated and peccant Humours A chacing out of my Mind all unseemly Cogitations A producing therein a Series of better Thoughts and Sentiments An Effectual and Active Principle of
Messias coming together with the Joy of Men and Angels immediatly upon It. This being the Hymne Sung at His Nativity Very properly therefore is This Angelical Hymne of Joy omitted upon days of Sadness and Penitence such as are days of Commemorations of the Dead and Ordinary Feria's which in going before Sunday the day of the Resurrection sitly shaddow out to us the Time of this Life to be a Time of Repentance and preparing our selves for that Great Lords-day at the General Resurrection And so this Hymn of Glory is Sung still on every Lords-day and the days of the Blessed Virgin and the other Saints now Regnant in the Glory of Christ their Lord. DEVOTION I Humbly Thank Thee my God! That thou hast been pleas'd to give Me my Being Now after thy Incarnation and Nativity Vnder the New-Law and In Thy Holy Church Thus separating me from so many Infidels so many Hereticks and Schismaticks as be without and if I be not Treacherous to my self from so many False Christians that Live even in the midst of It as if they had as little Faith as those I beseech Thee that As the Reflection upon this Transcendent Good is deservedly the Cause of so Great Joy and Jubilation common to All the Angels in Heaven and on Earth to All Men of good Will so It may ever Affect my Soul more sensible and more piercingly then All the Pleasures or then All the Pains that can befall It in this World Make me count it my chiefest Felicity to be One in the Number ber of those Men of Peace and Good-Will that the Angels Saluted and gave the Joy to at Thy Nativity Give me that Peace which the World cannot give and That Good Will which alone gives me back again to Thee There 's no good Good Will but in a True Love of Thee O give me That Dominus Vobiscum HEre the Priest turning about to the People and Blessing Them seems to Communicate to them the Benedictions of Christ Jesus now born in the Flesh for this very purpose to Bless Mankind And therefore his Blessing in particular is That God may continue amongst Vs Exprest in those very words which unfold That Name which the Scripture gives to Christ in order to his Incarnation that is Emanuel as much as to say A God with Vs But before he pronounceth This Blessing He Kisses the Altar as It were taking It in his Mouth first from Jesus Christ himself in whose stead stands the Altar as from whom being an in-exhaustible Spring open'd by God for our refreshment All manner of Blessings Favours and Graces are deriv'd upon Us. DEVOTION VOuchsaefe me the Grace to lead in this Blessed Time of the New-Law and in the Communion of thy Holy Church where thou art still Present with Vs after a special manner such a Life as may render me capable of all thy Blessings that thou mayst still Turn thy Face towards Me and lift up the Light of Thy Countenance upon Me to succour Me and to impart unto Me every day more and more of that Rich Treasure which thou hast provided for Me. V upon the Priest's turning back again and Praying Oratio HAving breath'd forth this Benediction over the People He turns him to Jesus Christ again 1. to the Altar to present to Him some Prayers as the time requires one or more for Confirmation of That Blessing and humbly to testifie his Dependance on him as not being any thing but his Instrument nor able to confer on others the least good but only by way of Humble Petition to his Divine Majesty DEVOTION ENable me to Pray without Ceasing as thy Scriptures Command me since in this Life thou bestowest Nothing upon Us for our good but by being Petition'd first Let me then still be putting up Requests unto Thee often Re-inforcing the Old and Multiplying as Thy Priest at the Altar does New upon every important occasion At the Reading the Epistle NExt is read The Epistle taken sometimes out of the New Testament Sometimes out of the Old This puts me in mind of that Notice which was all along given To the Jews of the Coming of their Messias first by the Prophets fore-told and then exhibited to them by St. John and the Apostles And for this reason I think 't is read on that Corner of the Altar which is on the Priest's Right-hand because the Jews were a Nation chiefly Belov'd of God and at first his chosen People to whom he entrusted his Oracles DEVOTION I Do not a little Wonder at Thy Constant and Vntyr'd Love to the Jews who were the Only People whom Thy Prophets were sent to Save to whom Thou thy Self cam'st and Preached'st the Gospel And though not the Only yet the First to whom Thy Apostles declar'd Thy Resurrection Thy Resurrection A point of such moment that to Represent It the more Lively The Priest who sustains the Person of Thee Risen throughout the Whole Mass even in the Act of Sacrificing and Oblation Celebrates all Standing O my God Permit not Me to Slight Thy Holy Word or to Undervalue its Preachers who come to Vs in Thy Name and on thy Errand As that Stiff-necked Hard-hearted and Rebellious People have rejected the Addresses of the Prophets and Apostles Thy Servants nay of Thy Son Christ Jesus himself Let not thy Holy Commands be a New Occasion and Aggravation of Sin to Me as to Them It was but Improve them to Me into True Gospel and Words of Salvation by Inspiriting me to do That which Thy Law injoyneth and not suffering my Sinful Inclinations to Quench this Spirit and Evacuate Thy Grace Gradual and Alleluja or Tractus Immediately after the Epistle read succeeds the Gradual with either Alleluja or the Tractus IF with the Alleluja I apprehend that thereby Priest and People joyn in Acclamations of Praise and Thanks to God as It were in lieu and Supplement for the Jews Ingratitude Infidelity and great neglect of the Gospel as if therefore by way of Reparation we would shew our selves the more zealous and by certain Degrees of Versicles and Benedictions raise our selves to be more Attentive to what they slighted Or if in the place of Alleluja a Tractus be annex'd which being a Mournful Ditty therefore appointed for days of Penitence and Sorrow and to be read more Gravely and drawn out more leasurely and Sadly We are admonish'd thereby to compose our selves to ask Pardon of God for Those Sins which we also no less than the Jews have committed in our Great Neglect of the Gospel and to look on our selves as partakers of their Guilt and to be Penitent for It. DEVOTION LEt Thy Goodness prevent me from such Jewish Ingratitude and more Now I have received from thee so many more and Greater Favours than They. As particularly The Light of the Gospel the Grace of Baptism and then a greater Portion of Thy Holy Spirit Confirming Me and Even Thine Own Body and Blood for Nourishment Be It the Business to
take up All my Thoughts All my Life long To weigh the Greatness and Variety of Thy Mercies And may Nothing in the World have such Power as to make me pass by inconsiderately much less to forget the least The Tractus DEVOTION I Fall down before Thee O dear Father with Shame and great Confusion of Face calling to Mind Those Sins which I have committed particularly against the Precepts of thy Gospel which Gospel I though I refus'd not with the Jews but entertain'd it with Protestation to Live according to it and if need were to Die for It yet have violated frequently by Great and Enormous Crimes being so much less excusable than They into how much stricter an Oblation I enter'd into I have Cause enough to fear O my God that Thou shouldst Abandon Me too at last as Thou hast for saken Them because having contracted a deeper Guilt than They 't is but Reason I should be more severely punish'd To provide against such a mischief in Time I now beg of Thee The Spirit of Repentance which I beseech Thee to Give and continue to Me to my last gasp whereby to Expiate my grievous Faults and to put me again into the Quality of a True Christian For the Spirit of Repentance It is which is the very Beginning of Christianity and most Proper Condition of the New Law delivering us from the Sins and consequently from the sad Effects of the Old which is according to the Apostle the Law of Wrath and Death and working out of us by degrees still more what yet it finds in us as Relicks of the Flests of Judaism or of base Earthliness Vpon the removing the Book UPon this Action my Consideration is That The Jews refusing to Hear and understand aright the Prophets and Apostles were at length Neglected and the Apostles turn'd unto the Gentiles bringing The Gospel and the News of a Saviour to Them which is now represented by changing the place of the Book from the Right Hand of the Priest to the Left denoting that Christ had now left the Jews who before were the people of His Right-Hand and that in their stead The Heathens at His Left that is abandon'd heretofore to the Curse of God and not His people were now made his people and dearly Belov'd and That among Us it is that Jesus Christ now keeps Residence and Establishes His Church Here is made indeed No intimation at all that the Gospel was ever Preach'd to the Jews though to them it was Preach'd first and here is something betokening as if Christ had Preach'd It to the Gentiles which yet he never did But the Reason of Both is First That That is omitted because that Preaching of it to the Jews was so In-effectual and Fruitless as not considerable especially in respect what Glorious Entertainment It had afterward among the Gentiles in the full Explication and vigour of It as of a New Law And Secondly That This is solely insisted on Because though Christ Preach'd not Himself in person to the Gentiles but only by his Apostles Ministers yet was It in so wonderful Success and Communication of Grace and Benediction and Reformation of Manners the True Fruits of the Gospel that Now only among these seems He to have fully Exercis'd his Office of an Evangelical Preacher now only indeed to have promulgated the Law of Grace in the quickening Spirit as oppos'd to That of the Jews in the Killing Letter DEVOTION NEver O Lord take away The Grace thou hast Given from Me to Confer It on Another as in thy Justice Thou hast remov'd Thy Gospel from the Jew to the Gentile Let Thy Gifts in me be without Repentance as Thy Scripture speaks Make me ever Remember That saying of St. John * 3 Apoc. 11 a Figure of Thy Elect Take heed Hold fast That which Thou hast that no man take Thy Crown Let me not be Tempted to prize my self as more Worthy than such Offenders whom thou hast not favour'd as Thou hast done Me least I come under that Curse and Malediction wherewith Thy Apostle Threatens the Gentiles 11 Rom. 20 21 22. if they arrogantly insult over the Jews whom Thou hast rejected Transplant Me Out of those Countries of the World where Thou art not duly Worshipped into some Holy Land Exempt from its Malignity and Corruption where I may serve Thee more freely and more Faithfully Make me comprehend the force of those words of the Apostle Exhorting Vs to follow Thee On the Right-hand and on the Left that at all turns Of Adversity and Prosperity Health and Sickness Life and Death I may cleave to Thee unseparably The Gospel THe Book being remov'd to the Left-hand of the Priest To shew as I have said the publication of the Gospel of Jesus Christ now to those on his Left-hand That were his Enemies the Gentiles After some preparation by 1. Particular Prayers for Assistance 2. And Benediction 3. He Crosses the Book and Himself 4. And Names the part he intends to Read 5. The People stand up and Answer Gloria tibi Domine and in that posture continue during the Reading 6. Testify not only their readiness to Hear but also to put in Execution whatever is therein propos'd 7. The Gospel being read the people give again their Approbation 8. With Laus tibi Christe and the Priest saying 9. Per Evangelica Dicta c. Kisseth It. All testifying a high respect to the Gospel The Book continues in that same place almost to the end of the Mass Intimating thereby the continuation of the Gospel among the Gentiles only to almost the end of the World DEVOTION GIve me the Grace to understand and take the Words of Thy H. Gospel as one of thy Faithful Ones that is As a Man ready to do as It says and to practice suitably to what he Professes to Believe Make Me Stand always firm and Erected above All that otherwise might be Impediments to my Ready Obedience Hearing thy Voice as a Friend of the Bridegrooms and joying in nothing so much as rightly to Understand Thy Will and fully to Accomplish It. Let My Spirit Kiss Thee as at the End of the Gospel the Priest does the Book thereby in all Holy Reverence to Adore Thee after I have gotten a glimpse of Thee by that Light which thou hast Now been pleas'd to dart into Me from Thy Words Make me always keep thus Close unto Thee and continue in this Union with Thee which certainly I Owe unto Thee as to One that hath the Words of Eternal Life and Art the very Soul of the Gospel O whither should I go from Thee Never let any Occurrence in this Life never any danger that any Enemy of mine may engage me in be able to separate Me from my Obedience to Thee It is in This preparation of Heart for whatsoever Thou shalt Command Me be the Consequencce what It will that I desire to lay the Foundation of all my Piety and Devotion At the Credo