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
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
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
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
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
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