is the mother of all sinnes is the principall occasion thereof For if you came into the world to ruine and annihilate the Kingdome of death and the empire of sinne much more did you come to combate the pomp of the world and to destroy the pride of men It was to this end you were borne and lived so poore and abject It was for this end that you died in the midst of so many confusions loaden with so many reproaches it was to condemne pride that your whole life your sufferings and death were onely in humiliations Since them O Lord you neither liv'd nor dy'd but to condemne pride which is the spring of all miseries I condemne it with you and detest it for your sake Be pleased to root out of my heart and to ingrave in my soule the love of humility And as in this mystery you abandon your selfe to the false judgments of men who esteem you worthy all the tortures which you indure so vouchsafe to give me the grace that for the combating my pride I may affect contempt despise the false judgments of men And for the completement of my blessing I beg of you that I may partake of the grace and spirit of your Passion and that you will be pleased to form in me your dispositions your actions and sufferings for I shall assuredly raigne with you if I become like unto you IESUS is nailed unto the Crosse Point I. PIlate abandoneth Jesus to the will and malice of sinners and Jesus himselfe became obedient in every thing even to the death of the Crosse He is delivered up to the Jewes and Gentiles to be nailed and fastned to this ignominious piece of wood in such sort as they shall ordaine Adore Jesus who satisfieth by his obedience for the disobedience of sinners and learne to love obedience and to preferre the will of God before all things of this world even before your owne life PRAYER O My Saviour and my God! I remaine not in this world but to fulfill your holy will all my happinesse depends on this point and the perfection of my soule consists in this vertue hitherto both Heaven Earth the Elements and all Creatures in obeying you teach me what I ought to doe But the death of my Iesus ô Eternall Father and his obedience in all the mysteries of his Passion evidenceth to me that I ought to preferre your holy will before my own contentments my private interest and even life it selfe that I must feare neither contempts nor sufferances nor even labours in all occasions which concerne that obedience which I owe your Soveraigne Majesty for if your Sonne hath abandoned himselfe to an ignominious death if he hath given his adorable feet and hands to be cruelly nailed unto a Crosse and if he subjected himselfe to the will of sinners and executioners what can I doe lesse from henceforward then learne of my Iesus the obedience which I owe to all that you require of me In honour then of the obedience of your Sonne and in homage to this vertue which he hath practised rendering himself obedient even to the death of the Crosse I give my selfe unto you O Father of mercy and acknowledge my selfe your Creature and Vassall and I purpose faithfully to obey you and to live under the lawes of your Empire Do not permit Lord if you please that I ever prove rebellious to you or that to fulfill my owne will I forsake yours but by an effect of the Mysterie which I contemplate grant that I preferre your holy will before all earthly things and even my owne life for such is my desire Point II. BEhold the submission wherein Jesus the King of glory vouchsafeth to place himselfe for our sinnes when as with a profound silence he submits to the Iudges to the Executioners and his Enemies And he even abandoneth himselfe to the power of Divels obeying so humbly and readily when they go about to uncloath him to naile and fasten him to the Crosse Subject your selfe for his sake as much as you may chiefly when there shall be occasion of being humbled or suffering any thing for the honour of God PRAYER GIve me the grace O God of love and goodnesse to know you and understand my selfe for if you impart unto me this light and affect me with a sense of this verity it will be easie for me to annihilate my selfe in the presence of your Soveraigne Majesty it will be no longer uneasie for me to condemne and confound my selfe considering the little love I beare you and it will be facile for me to suffer contempts humiliations and the Crosses of this present life For O benigne Iesus I see you all naked in the midst of most cruell Executioners stretched out upon this ignominious wood of the Crosse and if you who are the onely Son of my God have been pleased to endure for my sake the scourges the nailes and the Crosse why shall I refuse for the love of you the pains and contempts of this life No no Lord I detest my pride I accuse my remissenesse and renounce the delicacies and effeminacies of this world to the end I may imitate you and partake of the spirit grace and merits of your death and passion Point III. COnsider Jesus suffering in all things which may bring him pain humiliation and confusion to expiate the abuse we make of every thing which we imploy in offending the Divine Majesty and to condemne the inordinate love wherein we preferre the creature before the Creator Implore his grace to make good use of all things and take an aversion to the wantonnesse of the flesh PRAYER O Amiable Iesus you have created me to love you and have loved me to oblige me to your love nay all that you have done and suffered was but to draw me to you and to ingage me in your service I render you thanks with my whole heart and I beseech you to give me the grace that I may love you above all things and love nothing but your selfe in all things Be pleased to annihilate in me whatsoever is opposite to your love consume in my heart selfe-love and all affections to creatures to the end I may unite my selfe to you and live wholly for you I know very well that my crimes and offences have rendred me unworthy of this grace But O God of love and goodnesse you have suffered death on the Crosse to obtaine for us this grace and to attract us to your love Fix then if you please O benigne Iesus fix I say your love in my heart and your feare in my soule and grant that I may love you with all my power and with all my forces in order to your command Iesus upon the Crosse Point I. IEsus suffers in all the parts of his body who hath nothing whole from the feet to the head for he is covered all over with wounds bruised with blowes and his bloud quite exhausted He indures all these severall paines
to expiate the abuse which we make of our bodies to condemne the pleasures and volupties of the world Offer your Soule your body and life to Jesus and desire strength of him to despise the delights of this life and grace to suffer whatsoever shall happen to you PRAYER BEnigne Iesus what comparison can there be between the grandeurs of your Soveraigne Majesty and the abasement of the Crosse You are life in your divine Essence and you are life and glory to every rationall creature Why doe you then abase your selfe O ineffable greatnesse even to the torment of an ignominious death You undergoe it for me poor and miserable sinner and your love reduces you to a death on the Crosse to give life to me who am dead by sin This state is too unworthy of your greatnesse remaine rather on the Throne of your glory and leave me in the miseries and misfortunes which I have acquired by my demerits And if your goodnesse excite and invite you to shew me favour let it be at least without concernement of your greatnesse or abasement of your incomprehensible Majesty But I clearly discerne O my Iesus that it is your infinite goodnesse that invites you to love us with an infinite love and hath procured the communication of your selfe to our soules in an unconceivable manner for you exhaust your owne person to give your selfe unto men and you even consume your selfe in the flames of Charity to shew me your love and oblige me to love you You suffer and die to the end that having purchased me at the price of your bloud and life I may be no longer mine and live no more to my selfe but remain wholly yours and live only for you Alas Lord when will this happinesse befall me it is what I desire for I am yours my soulde my body and actions are yours I offer and submit them entirely and eternally to your holy will that you may do in and by me what you please for I am wholly yours as you are all mine Point II. JEsus thus covered over with wounds and suffering in all the members of his body is on the Altar of the Crosse as a victime for all sinners offering himself to his Father to heale them of the wounds made by their sinnes and he gives even to the last drop of his bloud for expiation of their offences Compassionate his Dolous render him thankes for the love he beares you and protest never more to offend him PRAYER ALl that you suffer on the Crosse O amiable Iesus and the paines which have consummated your Passion are but the ransome of my offences and the satisfaction of all my crimes for they are my sinnes which have deprived you of life it is my pride which hath humbled you my self and the pleasures of my life have scourged you my perverse inclinations and vaine desires have crowned you with thornes in fine you die upon the ignominious Tree of the Crosse to deliver me from the capiivity of the Divell and sinne and to satisfie the divine Justice justly irritated against me so that I consider you on the Altar of the Crosse as an holy victime which you offer unto your Father to appease him and your death is a sacrifice which you make to him of your selfe to merit life for mee and to obtaine pardon for my offences After so great a benifit can I be so unhappy as seeke to revive sinne in my soul and render my selfe still a slave to it Can I desire to enter into a new commerce with vice and obey my own concupiscences which have crucified you No no succour of my Soule I detest them with my whole heart and hate them with all my force for the love of you I will no longer offend you by the assistance of your holy grace which I beg of you by the merits of your passion Since you die onely to extirpate sinne in my soule and to banish vice out of my conscience Effect Lord effect what you desire and give me a holy inabilitie of offending you Point III. IEsus sheds his bloud in suffering and expires by the effusion thereof But the nailes and Executioners being unable to extinguish the ardor of his love which even in death it selfe cannot die he conserves what remaines of it in his heart and body to poure out upon the Crosse even to the last drop that he may evidence to us the profusion which he intends to make of his spirit of his graces and love Sacrifice unto him your heart and offer your selfe to him to beare the effects of the Crosse as he shall please to imprint them in your Soule PRAYER I Adore you O my Iesus crucified as the beginning of all happinesse and as the Spring of all graces and benedictions which either have been or shall ever be communicated to men I adore all the thoughts and desires which you have had upon the Crosse of giving your grace love to your elect finally my Saviour I adore the profusion you make of your bloud even to the last drop and the excesse of love which you expresse in all the states of your life and death Grant me the grace to beare the effects thereof and faithfully to co-operate with the merits of your Passion for what will it availe me O God of love that you are dead upon the Crosse and bountifull in communicating your Spirit and grace if I render my selfe unworthy of it and oppose my selfe against it by my iniquitie Neverthelesse it is what I feare for I am too miserable and shall surely remaine obdurate in my sinne if you prevent me not with your grace if you guard me not with your succour and if you continue not your favour to me Wherefore O â—â—exhaustible goodnesse be pleased not to thinke it enough to have given your bloud and life but bestow on me over and above I bâ—seech you your spiâ—it your grace and love And I make a gift to you of my heart my spirit and life and remit into your hands the libertie wherein you have created me to the end I may become from henceforth a slave to your love and that my soule may live no longer then to receive the effects of your death and the life of your Crosse IESUS lying dead betweene the armes of his holy Mother Point I. IT is an unheard of thing to see God upon the Crosse and life in death yet you behold Jesus stretched out between the armes of his holy Mother He is dead but by this meanes he becomes the life of our Soules This manner of death is infinitely distant from the greatnesse of God but love hath wrought this wonder to convey life to your soule and death to your sins Give your selfe to Jesus and Mary to be are in you these two effects of life and death PRAYER IF I desire to live in God and in order to what he requires of a Christian I must needs die to sinne alter my depraved customes and
for my sinnes Point II. THe great love of the holy Virgin hath made her suffer extremely her life is no other but a Martyrdome her thoughts are fixed only upon the Crosse and her eyes have no other object then death and the death of her Sonne Her love is now but languishing and her languishments cause her incessantly to sigh after her God and her Sonne O my soule how happy should you be if you could live no longer but to love and suffer PRAYER Holy Virgin how shall I attaine so light enough to conceive your greatnesse and grace to imitate the severall dispositions of your soule I know and faith teacheth me that you are the Mother of God that your soule is full of grace and I confesse that you are the worthiest object of love and the most capable of favours from the blessed Trinity yet I see your soule all immersed in the bitternesse of the Crosse Your life is no longer but a Martyrdome your love is languishing and the object of your sighs are fixed onely on the death of your Sonne O how content should I be O Virgin life of my soule if I could lead such a life as yours How happy should I be if in imitation of you I had no other repose then in afflictions no other delight but in the Crosse nor other life but in the death of your Sonne I deserve not this favour I have not grace enough to live in so holy a manner neverthelesse I desire to live no longer but to love and no longer to love but to suffer I offer my selfe unto you for all this dispose now wholly of me as you shall please Point III. IF Love makes our Soule live in what she most affects surely the holy Virgin lives no longer but in Jesus suffering and dying since he loves nothing but Jesus And as Jesus is crucified in his body so the Virgin is in her soule The Sonne dies on the Crosse The Mother swounds at his feet The side of the Sonne is pierced with a Lance the heart of the Mother is transpierced with the sword of sorrow thus both of them live and die together What will you doe O my Soule at the sight of this sad spectacle since all this is done and accomplished for you Beseech the Sonne and the Mother to inspire you with true love and to render you worthy of bearing faithfully the grace and effects of the Crosse and Passion PRAYER WEre I unwilling O benigne Mother of my soul yet the affection which you beare me obligeth me to love you I am content nay I desire it with my whole heart but I am unable to effect it without a favour from heaven But as it is a great mercy that you vouchsafe to love and co-operate to my salvation so is it a great grace that I may be able to love you and live in your service I beg then this favour of you O Virgin Mother of my soule and I beseech you to change my heart that from henceforward I may bee yours and entirely dedicated to your service Put me in a state of perpetuall servitude towards you establish me in the true love of Jesus and procure that I may both live and die persevering in that love and service which I owe you I remit my life O holy Virgin into your hands I remit into your hands the houre of my death because I will be wholly yours and depend on you in such sort as my God and my Iesus desires it of me Be pleased then O Mother of mercy to receive me into your protection and to looke on mee as the object of your goodnesse and the subject of your commiseration Accept of my good will fortifie my weaknesse and give mee the grace to put in practice the good purposes which God hath suggested to me by your intercession and no longer permit that I act any thing which may annihilate in my soule the effects of grace but obtaine for me a capacity of receiving in my heart such effects of the Crosse as my Iesus shall infuse into it and fidelity to co-operate therewith in such sort as my God and my Iesus requires of me ASPIRATIONS OF The Soule unto God in forme of PRAYER The oblation of ones selfe unto God Lord Iesus of my selfe I can doe nothing for I am a miserable creature but with you nothing is impossible to me Abide then in me O happinesse of my soule live and raigne over me to effect in me what is acceptable to you You have all power and I offer it you a fresh over my life and actions even from the bottome of my soule I remit into your hands the same liberty will and life which you have given me Be pleased to accept and keepe them as yours for I am wholly yours and will depend on you Another Oblation MY Iesus by the nature of your being by the eminency of your greatnesse and by the state of your miseries you have been pleased to be both my Father my Lord and my Judge I implore all these adorable qualities and I invoke the power which you have over me by these holy properties which are in you and I beseech you by the same mercy and goodnesse which hath made you take on you those states that you would vouchsafe to inspire me with that fidelity which I owe you that I may be by my life your Sonne as you are my Father by grace that I may be your slave by a true subjection since you are my Lord. And as I acknowledge and adore you as my Saviour so let me be your captive being wholly yours and acting nothing but for you And since you are my Judge and that I confesse my selfe criminall be pleased to distill into my soule the zeale of your Justice to the end by your Grace and with vour Justice I may execute Justice on my selfe and satisfie your just indignation occasioned by the multitude of offences which I have presumed to commit against your divine goodnesse Thus I desire it thus doe I give my selfe up unto you O Iesus Saviour and Iudge of my Soule to become the victime of your will and to bear the effects of your grace Spirit and mysteries in such sort as you shall please In this manner I renounce my selfe to enter into all the dispositions and states which the eternall Father will have me beare in you and for your sake O Iesus A Resignation to the will of God O Iesus Father and beginning of all light illuminate my soule with your splendor that I may discerne what is disagreeable to you and give mee the grace to avoid it Grant that I may both know your will and accomplish it in every point for I desire to be wholly yours and to live no longer but for you To put ones self into the protection of Almighty God SAviour of my soule Author of my salvation see the dangers wherein I am remaining in this life sustaine mee with your hand that I may
not fall and governe me by your Spirit that I wander not in the nations of my perverse inclinations Defend me good Iesus and deliver me from my selfe and permit me not to adhere to my affections nor to follow my owne appetites I renounce them all since they separate me from you and I conjure your goodness to annihilate them to the end that adhering wholly unto you I may be for nothing but your selfe for such is my desire you know it O love of my soule To ask the love of God OBject of all Love perfect Beauty ineffable Goodnesse who can choose but love you I purpose it but am unable I will love to death and will die but in loving you Transpierce my heart with your love and my body with your feare effect O powerfull God! effect powerfully that your Spirit may consume in me all that is of my selfe that I may bee wholly yours and love none but you and that living in you I may die to all other things A protestation of Love Shall I be alwaies overlightned in my selfe distracted in my thoughts inconstant in my motions How long will you permit me Lord to follow my owne inclinations and to be violently affected with the Creature Recall my spirit withdraw it from all things to retaine it for your selfe Let not your just conduct O most amiable goodnesse abandon me for leaving me to my self blind that I am I should lose my selfe in my Cupidities and separate my selfe from you to live no longer but for my selfe Let death rather force me away yea fill O God of love fill rather my life with bitternesse my heart with feare and my soule with continuall displeasure then permit that to please the Creature or to satisfie my selfe I may displease your divine Majesty An Act of Love WHy shall I not love you O most amiable goodnesse You oblige me thereunto by your love you attract me by your benefits and you command it by your goodnesse I will then love you because I ought and I desire that my heart may love you with all his power because nothing is amiable but your selfe But I cannot love if you inspire me not with love Abide then in me O desirable love live in me to the end that following the lawes of your love I may live and consummate my selfe in you Aspirations of Love VVhether are you gone sweet Spouse of my soule Alas I carry a heart replenished with bitternesse when I have no sense of you I keep my self aloofe from you loft in my thoughts I perceive my selfe wandring in various objects for a heighth of miserie I walke in the night of a heart darkened with selfe-love My life is all humane and as a child of Adam my life is in the old man I know not whether I have a being or no only I know that I am miserable but to live in this sort is a cruell death it is not to live at all to live without you it is too long a Martirdome Take pitty on my soule returne and possesse me entirely Restore me your spirit give me your life and change my whole heart Why can I not like a Phoenix consume my selfe in the ardors of your eternall love and alter my course of life being to be no longer but in you to live no longer but for you You can effect this O God who can do all things Sighes of Love MY eyes are bathed in teares and my voice is broken with sighes my life is but a death and all things are but a Martirdome to me when I thinke where my God is Alas this thought makes me powr out all my soule and I languish both day and night when I know that I must remain in this abode of miserie I cry out from the bottome of my heart How long Lord how long And must I yet live for a long time in the land of the dead and absent from your face remain among the perills of this miserable life Must I being oppressed with my body feele my selfe removed from the sweet attractives of your Caresses I am content with it since it is your Pleasure Great God Master of my soule your will is my delight your love my direction But effect O God who can do all things effect by your mercy that as your Son and my Iesus lives only in love and this love makes him die so I may live no longer then in loving you and that love may make me suffer To sue for the contempt of all things TOo long O my soule doest thou seeke vanity and affect lies This world hath nothing in it stable permanent all is perishable therein Goodnesse truth peace and repose are found only in God thou losest thy selfe in selfe-loving and seeking thy selfe thou art estranged from God Come then to my succour O Saviour of my soule and reach me your hand dissipate all these allurements which detaine me captive Open to me your heart O my so amiable Iesus to shelter me in the midst of so many surprizes see Lord see how from all sides snares are laid for me to make roe fall in love with this world Doe not permit it O love of my soule my heart is for you alone preserve it then as yours Another MY eyes discerne not O Adorable verity the errour of vanity and my heart feels not the horrour of all vices But come O Sun of Iustice come and shine upon my soule consume with your beames all that is displeasing to you give me your spirit which opens my eyes to discerne verity which inspires me with love to adhere unto it which redresseth my will and teacheth it to detest the world and gives me the grace to seek you alone and to live only for the love of you To demand light and direction for your soul SUnne of Iustice illuminate the darknesse of my spirit Comforter of soules draw me out of the ignorance wherein I live I walke in the shadow of death amidst the perils of this life and severing my selfe from you who are the way and life of my soule I run like a vagabond into the curious research of the objects of my senses Do you not see it O my God who see all things Come then to my succour light of my soule I aske nothing but your selfe my heart fighes after you and my eyes seeke you every where Dart therefore O Iesus a glance of your face infuse a ray of your beauty into the bottome of my Soule to call me back to you and make me know who you are and what I am to the end I may be wholly yours and that being no longer mine I may love you alone To invoke Grace GReat God! your Treasures are unexhaustible and your hands full of gifts You are rich only in goodnesse and in shewing mercy you evidence what you are Mercy then Lord mercy for I am a sinner one glance of your eye one word of your mouth can deliver me from evils for while you look on me I shall love you while you speake to me I shall follow and run after you in the odour of the sweet perfumes of your heavenly grace To call for Contrition FRom the depth of my misery I elevate my heart unto you O God of goodnesse my soule sighes after you God of mercy And now that I am sensible of my misfortune that the weight of my sins oppresse me within I cry aloud unto you lend me your eares and fix on me your benigne eyes to withdraw me from the evill whereunto I find my selfe fastned Give me your arme Father of mercy to sustaine the yoke of my offences light to know them teares to bewaile them and the zeale of your justice to satisfy for them I can no longer endure the foulenesse of my life nor to live any longer distant from you O happinesse of my soule I pant after you you know it but I cannot escape out of the place which captivates me nor breake the bands which fasten me if the power of your Spirit and the Spirit of your love doe not dissolve and break them in pieces loosen them then O Lord and render me the liberty which you have purchased for your children at the price of your life Affection to accomplish our good purposes I Feel my selfe seized with a flame of love which makes me protest never more to forsake you O Jesus the love of my soule I am weary to see my selfe in the midst of so many inconstancies I desire to be entirely yours you know it very well Lord for it is of you as of a spring of goodnesse that my soule is full of desires and my will of good affections it is a gift of your hand preserve it by your grace and give me your arme and benediction to uphold me in my good purposes and that I may punctually accomplish what I have promised you stimulated and incited by the motions of your Spirit alwayes holy to the end you may finish and perfect in me what you have begun by your infinite mercy for without you I can doe nothing and by you am enabled to doe all things FINIS A PRAYER which the Church useth to invoke the love of God DEVS qui diligentibus te facis cuncta prodesse da cordibus nostris inviolabilem tuae charitatis affectum ut desideria de tua inspiratione concept nullâ possint tentatione mutari Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum c. Amen
DEVOUT ENTERTAINMENTS OF A Christian Soule Composed in French by the R.F. I.H. Quarre P. of the Oratory of JESUS and D. D. Translated into English by J. M. of W. Prisoner in the Tower of London Printed at Paris Anno Domini MDCXLVIII The Translators Addresse to the pious and Christian Reader THe most charitable and excellent title of this worke is properly me thinks addressed unto you good Reader since you are the likeliest to relish and make true use of the admirable conceptions which are offered you in this little golden Treatise It came to my hands as a Missive of Charity sent to entertaine me in my sad imprisonment and upon a serious perusall the finding it of so divine a spirit and of so universall a concernment was invitement enough to me to propose the naturallizing these Meditations in our Countrey by contributing so much as I am able to them namely an English Tongue in which though they lose something of their native grace yet I have reason to believe that the charity of the Authour will be content to be somewhat diminish'd himselfe to become more beneficiall to his neighbours nor need I doubt but that the force of his heavenly spirit will break through even my grosse language and be not onely heard but reverenced amidst the noise of Drums and Trumpets so frequent in these unhappy times wherein we have more cause then ever to remember the great Trumpet of the Angell wherefore the voice of this Author which seemes Angelicall will come very seasonable both to awake drowsie and to advance pious soules in the ardors of their love towards God for here is a loud Alarum for all sleepy and slothfull Souldiers calling unto them to take up the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit to defend themselves by the supply of so powerfull succours as these holy Meditations against the furious assaults of our common enemy whose principall attempt is against what these Entertainments seeke the most to fortifie namely the love of God The Authour shewes you that this love of God is the most Essentiall point of Christianity Be watchfull therefore I beseech you and keep this fortresse safe from the surprize of our professed enemy and then nothing can be feared for God expects more at your hands and in loving him you fulfill his whole Law and sweeten to your selves the rigour of all humane Lawes After he hath set you in the way of applying continually those duties which appertaine to the preservation of you in this happy state he presents you with some Considerations upon the whole Passion of our blessed Saviour as a powerfull motive to invite you to this pure love which he demands of you and to render homage to this excessive goodnesse for so great and inestimable a benefit which it hath purchased for you at so dear a rate as even the death of the onely Son of God And truly when we looke upon the sufferings which Jesus Christ hath indured for us ought we not to reproach our selves for bearing impatiently a few crosses and contradictions in this short pilgrimage for if so sacred a person sustained such violent pains for us can we conceive our selves exempt from them No no let us rather be ashamed at our cowardice and effeminate affections in desiring to find no opposition in our way but to tread still upon roses thornes seeming too harsh for our dainty feet which if they be so tender cannot looke like feet appertaining to a head stuck full of thornes and alas we cannot expect a share in the glory of our head Christ Jesus if we as his members beare not willingly a part in his combats When we are called into the Field of the Crosse let us then consider how happie we are that may make to our selves a Crowne of these thornes whereof there are store at hand in these hard times let us march joyfully that we may triumphantly passe through Mount Calvary fastned as S. Paul saith to the Crosse with Christ and this is the nearest way to the heavenly Jerusalem where we shall be refreshed after all our labours with the sight of that soveraigne object of our love the increated Beauty and Verity whose first sight is no lesse then eternall beatitude Desiring to pay some respect to the Authour I shall rather doe him injury if I keep you too long by any discourse of mine from entering into his devout Entertainments whose prayers you have and mine shall presume to attend on his to implore an efficacious operation of his holy labours and my charitable designe J. W. The Introduction Concerning the necessity of the Love of God ALL the favours which Heaven showres downe upon us are only to withdraw us out of the captivity of sin and the world and to place us in the liberty of the grace of Christianity to the end God may reigne in our hearts It is for this reason wee are made Christians and receive the faith of Baptisme Jesus Christ died on the Crosse for this end and when he descended from the bosome of his Father to be made Man his designe was only to establish the Kingdome of God amongst the children of men And if we may be allowed to enter into consideration of the eternal thoughts of the eternall Father we may easily discern that in the whole Incarnation and Passion of his Son and in the whole disposition of our salvation he hath no other aime then to seat the Kingdome of God in our soules and to procure that our heart which is created only for God may be really the Throne and residence of the Divinity In effect all the Sacraments which Jesus Christ himselfe hath instituted and left unto his Church as so many springs and fountains of graces and benedictions are onely to dispose and place in us the Kingdome of Jesus Christ to produce the reigning of God in us and to abolish the dominion of the world the Divell and Sin When Jesus Christ taught his Apostles how they were to pray he gave them the Pater Noster and wills us to desire above all things that his Kingdome come that is according to S. Gregory to ask of God that God may reigne in us And Iesus Christ himselfe said to his Apostles that the chiefest desire of a Christian ought to be that God may reigne in his heart Seeke first of all saith he the Kingdome of God It is certain then that God ought to reigne in us not sin nor the world And evident it is that the grace of Christianity causeth the Kingdome of God to preside in our hearts Now God cannot reigne in us but by love and charity for S. Iohn saith God is charity and he that abides in charity abides in God and God in him His meaning is that by love God makes his residence in the soule he placeth there his Throne he reignes and commands there and quickeneth the whole soule He is there as the Sun to the Heavens which illuminates
I do not doubt but that you will meet at first with some difficulties in these practices but do not think that before the Judgment of Almighty God you can be exempt from paine and labour On the contrary you ought to animate your self for love and charity which gives us God and opens Paradise to us deserves well that we labour seriously to acquire it and that we be very careful to conserve it if God vouchsafe to bestow it on us 18. To assist you in the acquisition of charity or rather to dispose you to receive it from the hand of God I conceive it fit for you to practice the three ensuing Acts which I am going to set before you 19. The first is that you enter into the poor simple thought of that love and charity which Jesus Christ hath for you or else consider how the Son of God is all love Then stay as little as you please upon this thought adore in your heart this love of Jesus with an humble respect After this you offer your self unto Christ Jesus and give your self intire to Him open your heart to Him to the end he may infuse into it the spirit of love even as he possesseth the plenitude thereof and according to the intention he hath that you should love God 20. The second is that you renounce cheerfully all that diverts you from loving God and beseech Christ Jesus to indue you with a hatred against all that is opposite unto this love or which may separate you from God 21. The third is that you resolve to be very circumspect to avoide all that hinders you from loving God Now nothing is a greater obstacle to it then mortall sinne and the love of Creatures And to aide you herein entertain your self sometimes in thoughts which may produce love in you At least endeavour as much as you may that no day passe away without some spirituall Lecture which may incourage you in these practices of love and charity You may perform these three acts in the form which I am going to prescribe you 22. My Lord and my God! I adore you as the increated love I give my self unto your love to bear the effects thereof in what manner you shall please and I renounce all that is repugnant in me to the love which I owe you Be pleased to gives me only the grace that I may divest my self of all that is opposite unto your love and that henceforward I may accept of nothing which is averse unto it 23. I particularly recommend unto you this last exercise in as much as the eternall Father bestows nothing on us but by his Sonne especially no Graces and Vertues And because our works have no other merit before God then what they receive from Jesus Christ I say that in this exercise you should give and offer your selfe unto Christ Jesus to the end he may bestow on you what is necessary and set on your workes and good intentions the price and value which they are to beare in the sight of God finally that you may reduce into act the desire you have of loving God 24 Moreover when God is pleased to confer any grace on us he would have us to cooperate with it without this cooperation his gifts arc fruitlesse Now we begin to cooperate when we give our selves unto Jesus Christ to beare the effects of the vertue which we desire of him and when we renounce all that is repugnant to it These are the reasons which invite mee so earnestly to recommend unto you this exercise These are the few entertainments which I purpose to present unto you concerning the acquisition practice of Charity Let us treat now of Prayer OF PRAYER AND Of the Presence of God The second Entertainment §. I. Concerning the Excellency of Prayer 1. WE are all bound to pray it is the duty of the Soule it is a lesson which Iesus Christ gave unto his Apostles and Disciples it is the practice of the Church and the customs of all Christians And God will have us to be sensible o◠our infirmities and miseries and acknowledge our poverty to the end wee may resort unto him and that he may be honoured by our prayers 2. Prayer is an entertainment communication of the soule with God and of God with the soule And in Prayer the soule elevates her self unto God and God vouchsafes to descen◠unto the soule 3. Prayer well made is a mirrour wherein the soule behold her selfe and where shee finde what shee is and somtimes she learnes thereby to know God and begins to relish him 4. Prayer obtaines all things for us Prayer teacheth all It is finally the food and aliment of the soule and so necessary that as without naturall meat the body languisheth so doth the soule without Prayer §. II. Of the Presence of God in Prayer 1. I Advise you then to set your affection upon Prayer There are two sorts thereof the one vocall the other mentall I will not take from you vocall Prayer because it is very good but indeed I counsell you not to charge and oblige your selfe unto many vocall Prayers 2 Nor will I oblige you unto mentall Prayer for few persons are capable of entertaining the inselves with it Neverthelesse I conceive it usefull nay necessary for you to make choice every day of some point or verity of faith to meditate on it as long as you please 3 It is an exercise which I propose to you as necessary for most certaine it is that every one hath need of recalling his spirit and evidently your mind is the more straying and distracted the more you remaine in the world Wherefore if you have any care of your salvation you must strive to recollect your soule which is so much ingaged in exteriour things as it may be said to be scarce in your body 4 Now the true meanes for recalling your soule is to place your selfe every day in the presence of God and to remaine some time in silence taking some good thought for your entertainment 5 What time you shall make choice of I leave unto your own conveniency at least I advise you to take part of the holy Masse for your meditation and to imploy it in this exercise but do it with affection As for the saying of your Beads or other vocall Prayers you may finde time enough If I may be credited you will preferre this little recollection before all the rest for it is more important then it seemeth and experience will teach it you if you please 6. What proportion of time you will imploy therein I leave unto your own zeale and devotion I beseech you onely not to faile in taking every day some good thought and seriously to stay upon it though it be but for some small time and if it be possible doe this every morning Affectionate your selfe unto this exercise which is briefe and will prove more facile then you imagine however it is profitable
for you and I dare say in a manner necessary 7. The subject which you are to take for your entertainment shall be the Passion of the Son of God or the foure finall ends of man sometimes Gods love towards you sometimes the vanity of all things finally take some point of Faith or of the Creed for your application 8. The manner and method which you are to observe herein must be very naturall I doe not require to make use of reason or discourse but of your affection and will Apply your whole heart unto it and that sufficeth procure also that your attention therein bee entire 9. The first thing you must doe is to place your selfe in the presence of God because in all your prayers you speak with God and treat of things of great consequence for you speak to him of the honour and love you owe him you treat concerning your owne salvation and the benefits of your soule 10 This exercise or practice of the presence of God is absolutely necessary for you for if you have a care of your salvation and desire to live in the feare of God surely you ought to know how to keepe your selfe continually in the presence of God remembring still that in what place sâ—eveâ— you are God sees and considers you not exterâ—â—lly onely but even into the center of your heart The presence of God is an exercise which detaines the soule and obligeth her to act nothing which may bee unworthy of God 11. Moreover when you will pray and what Prayer soever you make were it but saying the Pater noster or your Beads you still ought to doe it with respect and attention for sure you cannot performe these Devotions as you ought if your spirit be not recollected Now the means of recollecting your minde is to place your selfe in the presence of God Wherefore I advise you to habituate your selfe in this exercise I meane to place and keepe your selfe often in the presence of Almighty God 12. You will say peradventure that you are not able to fix your spirit to which I answer that it is no good signe and for this reason you ought to pity your self For how can you hear well the holy Masse say well your ordinary prayers use the Sacrament of Penance or communicate as you ought if you know not how to setle your cogitation see you not that this is to be sick indeed without discerning it Now the practice of the presence of God as I will explicate it to you is the true only remedy for your disease 13. It is a practice which is common necessary for all good Christians who are willing to avoid sin preserve themselves in grace or desire to treat with God with that respect as becoms them this is what I desire that in the beginning of your prayer you place your self attentively in the presence of God 14. You may do it in two manners The first by imagination when you recall your mind and all the powers of your soul and when you represent God unto your self with a Majesty worthy God and figuring to your selfe that you are prostrated before the Throne of his infinite greatnesse and that you remain there to treat with him about the affaires of your soule and what concerneth the service and worship which you owe him 15. The other manner is by faith then you make no use of your imagination but having sweetly called back your soule into it selfe you conceive your selfe to be before God whose greatnesse and Majestie is infinite and incomprehensible that this is the same God whom the Angells and Saints do serve and adore You consider how faith teacheth you that this self same God is every where and he presides in the bottome and center of your soule with the same Majesty Power and Love as he doth in Heaven Rest somtime upon this thought and if you can procure to enter into your owne heart to adore God as you conceive him to be there 16. This last manner of considering the Presence of God seems to me more beneficiall then any other and hath more force to recall our spirit and to bring back our soule into her selfe it teacheth us to seeke God not as farre distant from us or in Heaven but in our selves and in the center of our heart And for this reason I advise you to make often use of this exercise for I promise that you shall derive from it great advantages And if you shall persevere you will make a little Paradise of your heart and your soule will performe on earth what the Angells doe in Heaven §. III. A manner how to recollect ones selfe for mentall Prayer 1. AT the first entrance then into Prayer place your self in the presence of God conformably to the manner I have newly exhibited to you And if this thought of Gods presence possesseth your soule and retaines you in great attention keep your selfe therein as long as you can were it during the whole Masse and omit without scruple the rest of your devotions for you enter not into the Church and apply not your selfe unto Prayer but to remaine before God to adore him with respect and humility and to keepe your selfe in his presence as his devout servant When you have attained unto this rest content since God seems to be so with you And in this case you are to desire nothing more because you have all when God is satisfied 2. And if this thought of Gods presence will not serve to entertaine you any long time in that case take presently some verity or mystery for your meditation For example consider how Iesu Christ hath loved you so much as to suffer death for you Then pawse a while how little soever you please to consider this benefit strive onely to ponder it with attention And out of this consideration endeavour to extract some little affection or frame some conference with God upon that which you considered Now to the end it may prove more facile to you I prescribe at the end of this Booke some Meditations upon the principall points of the Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ which will serve you for a Modell 3. During the little time you shall employ in this manner of Prayer if God gives you some good inspiration or pious desire do not neglect it but hearken unto God and receive his grace and inspiration with respect and love Resolve to put in practice what God proposeth to you and give your selfe unto Christ Iesus and his holy Mother the Virgin Mary to the end they may be pleased to preserve in your soule the good desires which you feele and supplicate them to give you the grace to put them in practice conformable to that manner which God requires of you 4. The profit which I would have you to make of this exercise which I call recollection of spirit is to establish and preserve your selfe in the feare of God to excite and advance
justice of a God whom I have so often irritated What shall I doe O God of mercy but endeavour to prevent the day of your Justice and from henceforth begin to satisfie by a holy Penance for all the sinnes which I have committed ungratefull and mserable wretch that I am I heartily desire it but am unable to effect it without your grace Assist me then O God of love and goodnesse bestow on me a true contrition for my offences Breake my heart with griefe melt my heart in your love liquifie my soule in Charitie fill my will with a hatred of sinne and grant me the grace never more to offend you It is what I desire with my whole heart to the end I may give my selfe entirely to you and renounce my selfe and all creatures which sever me from you Point III. BEhold in this mystery the love of Jesus who exerciseth the power and rigours of it upon his own person this love abaseth him even unto our sorrowes and oppresseth him with paines and attristations so violently as he enters into an agonie even to sweat blood in ahundance he suffers all this to invest you with his vertue and cleanse you with his Bloud This love is what you ought to ask often of him and with great humility PRAYER CAn it possibly be O my Iesus that you should love me even to such a degree as I consider you in this misterie and I not love you Can I be so insensible as to see you languishing and suffering for my sinnes and not abandon them Alas my Saviour can I indure to see you bathed in your owne bloud and covered over with so painefull a sweat by the horrour which you conceive of my offences Can I have the heart to behold you in the rigours which the Justice of your Father exerciseth on you for my sinnes and that considering you in so pitifull a state I should not conceive a horrour of my pravitie and a detestation of my offences No no Lord I will hate my selfe to love you I will detest all vice for your sake and never more will I offend you and for a marke of my desire I give you my heart I offer you my soule I dedicate to you my life and renounce all that is displeasing to you to the end I may no longer offend you but live in all things conformable to your holy will This is the intention and desire of my soule but it will be fruitlesse if you stretch not out your arme and give me not your grace to accomplish them This is what I begge of you prostrated in your presence humbly imploring your divine Mercy The taking of IESUS in the Garden Point I. JESUS suffereth himselfe to be taken and deprives himself of his power who was able to annihilate his enemies to the end that being made captive for us hee might have right to place us in the freedome of grace In imitation of Jesus who suffered himselfe to be made a captive for you resolve never to make use of your owne power when there shall be any occasion of suffering for the glory of God PRAYER I Do not doubt my Saviour of your power but I admire your love which triumpheth over you and worketh so great a miracle on your selfe for love captivates your strength restraines your power and reduceth you into a state of impotency and weaknesse to the end you may be capable of suffering for mee poore and wretched creature that I am Who will not be ravished in the thought of this love And who will not remaine astonished that God suffers for man the just for the sinner And thus you doe benigne Iesus in this mistery which I contemplate Now for this love which you expresse towards me and which renders you captive to set me at liberty what else can I doe but cast my selfe with heart and spirit at your feet and become an humble suitor that your love may render mee his captive that it may triumph over my heart to the end being denuded of all things I may become for ever the slave of your love Grant that it may be so my Iesus since it is both my duty and desire Point II. JESUS perseveres in the humiliations and sufferances of his captivity remaining in the midst of executioners in silence without plaints without strength or power In imitation of him affect such things as humble you and administer occasion of sufferance and propose to your selfe never to reject them PRAYER SInce I see you O sweet Jesus in the midst of executioners exposed unto their malice and that in this mysterie you abandon your selfe unto all sorts of confusions and to the false accusations of sinners appearing as criminall in the midst of these miscreants what lesse can I doe Lord then annihilate my selfe in your presence and humble my selfe in imitation of you in the view of all creatures And if in the various states of your life you embraced humility onely and made choice of nothing but confusions if you who are alone worthy of honour and respect despised the Grandeurs of the earth and the vaine contentments of this world to live and die onely in depressions and sufferances Finally if you O benigne Iesus who are the onely Son of God were pleased to become an object of scorne and contempt of men alas what do I miserable wretch deserve to be and what rank shall I hold in the world I who am a sinner criminall and unworthy of all things Surely my sweet Iesus I heartily condemne my pride and doe protest that with my whole affection assisted by your holy grace which I implore I resolve from henceforth to affect lowlinesse and indure for your sake all the humiliations and Crosses of this life And why shall I refuse humbly to suffer them for your sake since you have indured them so holily for mine I offer my selfe then unto you for that effect and I abandon my selfe with my whole heart unto your divine conduct grant only that I may be such as you require me to be Point III ACknowledge the strange abasement of Jesus who permits men to binde and lead him captive and to touch him with their prophane hands who is the Holy of Holies Hee offers his sacred mouth to receive the kisse of Judas his greatest enemy Offer your selfe unto him to beare all the contradictions of men and the contempt of all creatures and demand of him even love for your enemies if you have any PRAYER YOur life and the divers mysteries of your passion your labours and sufferances O my Saviour give me a lesson and teach me what I am to doe but how shall I doe it and how can I imitate you if you lend me not your hand if you prevent and affist me not with your grace For my perverted heart and my proud nature oppose themselves wholly to you and contest against all that you propose unto me I see my Lord I see how you offer your sacred mouth
to receive of Judas the kisse of Treason how you present your hands and abandon your adorable body to the rage of Devills and to the malice of men and sinners to dispose of you and your life in whatsoever cruelty could suggest unto them Alas who is able O my sweet Iesus to imitate you I fervently desire it but acknowledge my owne impotency for I feele contradiction in my selfe and tremble at this thought However leave me not O Saviour of my soule in case I am not able to imitate you in all things at least let me doe it in what I may and I can doe much if you give me your grace Open then my eyes that I may discerne what I am change my heart that it may affect what you love and animate my spirit humbly to indure all contempts and confusions All that I am now able to doe in the presence of your Soveraigne Majesty is to accuse my malice to condemne my pride and to offer unto you my will my heart and soule to order them as you please Succour my infirmity fortifie my weaknesse breake my obstinacy and by the fire of your love be pleased to consume all my iniquity IESUS is fastned and scourged at the Pillar Point I. SHead you not tears of love and compassion beholding Jesus the Beauty of Heaven and the Glory of Paradise exposed to the cruelty of barbarous men fastned all naked to a Pillar to make you a bath of his bloud and to cleanse the staines of your soule Give him thanks and render him teares of love contrition for the bloud which he hath given you in this mystery PRAYER MY Iesus Grant that my heart may break with griefe and my soule dissolve in your love for you oblige me to it by your benefits And to say truly who can choose but love you seeing that by the excesse of the love which you beare us you have expos'd your selfe to the rage of Devills and to the malice of sinners And why shall I not break my heart asunder with sorrow and contrition since by my offences I am the occasion of the pains which you suffer How farre more just were it O Saviour of the world that you should remaine in your Glory in the Throne of your greatnesse and that I who have rendred my selfe the slave of sinne and of my passions should be fastned to this Pillar and torn with the scourges of your justice But since your love is content to make paiment for mee grant that I may love you as I ought and no longer offend you This is my intention I desire it with my whole heart and I beg it of you with an entire affection Point II. CHrist Jesus upon the Pillar put on the condition of a slave and criminall to beare the effects of the rage of Devills and men He remaines there in the midst of them like a Lamb victimated and abandoned of his Father deserted by his Apostles and afflicted by all creatures Compassionate this state of Jesus and beg of him that from henceforth you may remaine abandoned and resigned unto all that he shall ordaine PRAYER A Las my Jesus I have made the debt and you have paid it it is I it is I who am guilty and you are punished it is I unhappy that I am who have irritated Heaven and rendred my selfe unworthy of all your favours I both know and confesse that I deserve nothing but hell and for my sins to be sacrificed unto the divine Justice which I have so often contemned but your goodnesse which seekes nothing but my Salvation by a prodigy of love makes an admirable exchange For you enter O Saviour of my Soul into my condition and loading your selfe with my offences you are now victimated like an innocent Lambe and left to the Justice of God abandoned on all sides and plunged into to all sorts of sufferances What lesse can I doe O my Iesus in recognition of this love then adore your goodnesse and abandon my selfe entirely to you to be what you please I give my selfe then unto this mystery and offer my selfe unto you to beare the effects thereof in such a manner as you desire Point III. THe Body of Jesus is covered all over with wounds from the very head to the feet and exhausted of bloud and strength Consider that the wounds drops of bloud you see on it are as so many tongues which enunciate to you his love and teach you how you ought to love him in humiliations and sufferances Offer unto him your life your body and bloud never to imploy them but for his glory PRAYER I Am yours O good Iesus my soule my life my body and bloud are no longer mine but yours in respect that for my sake you make a profusion of your owne bloud you abandon your body unto wounds and sufferances your soule and life you give to me upon the Crosse After all these graces and favours shall I not be yours No no Lord all these drops of bloud which you shed and all the wounds of your body are so many tongues which condemne my ingratitude and invite me to your love I am willing to love and from this very instant and for ever I desire to be wholly yours and resolve to love nothing but you alone Bruise bend breake and oppresse my soule if you please combat my life with a thousand afflictions make me suffer as long as you please yet will I never utter any other words then that I am yours and that I love you alone IESUS is crowned with Thornes Point I. THe love which Jesus beares us exerciseth on him the power and rigours thereof love placeth him amongst thornes and even death it selfe love exposeth him unto mockeries spittings buffets and the contempt of his enemies Consider all this and beg of Jesus that the selfe-same love may exercise on you the power thereof Offer your selfe unto all the effects which he shall vouchsafe to produce in your soule bee it in the thornes of Penance or in the death of your vices and earthly affections PRAYER O How happy should I be if your love would once take Empire over my heart Let not the fault be mine for I desire it I seeke it and offer my selfe wholly to you to beare the effects thereof Grant then Lord grant speedily that the power of your love may deeply wound my soule In loving you nothing will be difficult for me in this world for if love hath cloathed you O good Iesus with our miseries and loaden you with our sinnes if love hath fastned you on the Crosse what will it not worke on me if it raigne there and exercise his power Then would it be that I should truly die unto my selfe to live in you that I should despise all things to love you alone and that stimulated by this love I should satisfie for my past crimes never more to commit the like But when will that blessed houre arrive that I shall love
be esteemed and honoured by men Wherefore in view of the contempt which you indure I purpose to alter my course of life and to imitate you if I can and with this resolution I cast my selfe at your feet O my Iesus I adore your profound humility I implore the power of this vertue to come upon me and I give my selfe intirely to you to beare the effects thereof in such sort as to you shall seem good I know very well that I ought to affect humiliations confusions and contempts I know that they are my portion they are the most conformable to my state since I am a sinner But my perverted spirit and quite corrupted nature is averse thereunto Neverthelesse Lord I will love you succour only my weaknesse annihilate my aversions and fortifie my will that I may put in practise the good resolution which I have taken in your presence Point III. IESUS beares the Rigours Dolours and Humiliations which our sinnes have merited It is for this cause he presents himselfe unto the people to suffer and unto his Father to satisfie his justice Cast your selfe at his feet O my soule and say affectionately Behold the man whom I seeke for he is my Jesus my Saviour and my All I see him I embrace him and I resolve that he shall be my King and reigne alone in my heart PRAYER AT the sight of what you act and suffer for me O my Iesus I remaine distracted and fall into a kind of rapture for what am I Lord And what need have you of me that you should seeke my salvation at the cost of so many labours What is there in my soule capable of inviting you to offer your selfe unto your Father to appease by your torments his Justice which I have irritated by my offences Surely is is nothing but love which exercising the power and rigour thereof made you become man and suffer death for me O Love how powerfull art thou since thou hast reduced my Iesus into state wherein I contemplate him in his life and death O Love how strong is thine arme since thou hast drawne my Iesus from the Throne of his glory to place him in humiliations and to subject him to so many paines Love if thou hast power over my God must not thou have it over my heart No there is no meanes to withstand it whatsoever it costs I must love him who hath loved us more then his own life who in giving himselfe requires nothing but our love I resigne my self then unto you ô Love of my Soule to love you with my whole heart Grant onely if you please that I may love nothing but you for you both command and oblige me to love you I am content but unable to do it without your grace Effect then this work in me of loving you and loosen my heart from all earthly affections to the end I may entirely unite my selfe to you And be pleased to give mee a holy inability which may render me uncapable of severing my selfe from you and of loving any other IESUS carrieth his Crosse Point I. COnsider the hunger and insatiable thirst the extreme love and desire which Jesus hath to suffer for us having never said It is enough nor refusing any torments which are inflicted on him allowing all persons to torture him Ask of Jesus that he would vouchsafe to estrange you from the pleasures of the world and admit no longer any repugnancy in your selfe to indure for his sake PRAYER O Amiable Iesus How just is it that I now confesse the excesse of your love and acknowledge the mercies which you shew me for you are not satisfied in purchasing me by the profusion of your bloud and appeasing the divine Justice by your death but excited by the love which you beare me and by a desire of my salvation you expose your selfe to all sorts of confusions and by a divine patience you refuse no tortures and shun no paines which impiety invents to make you suffer At the sight of so much goodnesse and at the object of your vertues what can I do lesse whereby I may become the most acceptable to you then imitate your life and imbrace with you all crosses and sufferances For I know you have said of it that he is unworthy of you who beares not his crosse with you and refuses to follow you I purpose then O Saviour of my soule I purpose willingly to follow you and renouncing my owne pleasures sufferance shall be my onely love and delight I cannot effect it without your grace be pleased therefore to bestow it on me for without you I can do nothing and with you I am inabled to doe all things Point II. IESUS loaden with his Crosse sinkes under the burthen not of the heavinesse of the wood but under the weight of our offences wherewith he charged himselfe before the Iustice of his Father And in view of the whole world he carrieth the confusion and contempt which our crimes have merited Beg of him the spirit and gift of Penance to the end taking part in the satisfactions of Christ Jesus you may endeavour in some measure by your self to satisfy God whom you have so often offended PRAYER MY Iesus give me light to discerne the weight of sinne the grace to detest it as it deserveth and love to become repentant as I ought for I intend Lord to doe Penance I know that you have suffered for me and that you died to give me life and to associate me to the number of your children And true it is that all that you have done was only to obtaine pardon for my offences and to satisfie for the paine due unto my crimes finally it is true Lord that your merits are infinite But yet it is likewise just and you give it me in command that I alter my course of life and doe Penance to sati fie your divine Justice for otherwise I cannot partake of the satisfaction of your Crosse nor of the merits of your sufferings Be pleased then to bestow on me the spirit of Penance and the zeale of your Justice that I may exercise it on my selfe But vouchsafe to give it me from this instant for feare lest I be surprized and excepting the houre of death and the day of vengeance I find my selfe unworthy of mercy I desire to prevent lest I be prevented It is a blessing which depends on you and which I beg of you with my whole heart Point III. COnsider the humiliation which Jesus hath borne in the thoughts and judgements of men who esteemed him strucken and reproved condemned and abandoned even of God himselfe judging him worthy of all the torments which he indured Render him thanks for supporting all this in satisfaction for the pride of men and from henceforth strive to affect humility and learn to despise the vaine judgements which may be made of you PRAYER ALl the sinnes of men O amiable Iesus are the cause of your death but pride which
withdraw my heart from selfe-love and all affection to creatures But how shall I doe it O blessed Virgin if I receive not powerfull assistance for I am able to act nothing if I want efficacious grace which operates in and with me what God desires of me Now from whence may I have it but from and by you O Mother of grace and mercy since God hath put into your hands the price of my Salvation and since you hold in your armes the fountaine of all graces I repaire then to you O benigne Virgin and I give my selfe to you to the end by the power which you have in quality of my Saviours mother you may produce in my soule the effects of life and death my meaning is that you operate in such sort by your favour that I may really die to my vices and sinnes that I may detest and hate them and lead such a life as God expects of me and to which I obliged my selfe when by Baptisme I was incorporated and made a member of Iesus Christ your Sonne Point II. THe Son of God vouchsafed to unite pains sorrows afflictions and crosses to himselfe and his holy Mother with designe to render them from thenceforth pleasing sweet and worthy to be esteemed and desired on earth Begin to esteem them because they are deified in Jesus and honoured in his holy Mother And if you are unable to aske them of God at least resolve to be are them with humility and patience when they shall happen to you PRAYER YOu have ever been O holy Virgin the wel-beloved of the eternall Father You are amongst all the pure creatures the worthiest object of his love You are his spouse and the true Mother of Iesus as he is his Father and he gives you his Son with him hath put into your hands the treasures of Heaven and earth and all the riches of Divinitie For this reason you are the worthiest of all pure creatures and with my Iesus you are the happinesse of the whole world Neverthelesse O Mother of God I see you in the midst of mount Calvary and at the foot of the Crosse holding your Son dead between your armes You take off the Crowne of thornes you wipe his wounds you wash his body with teares and kisse a thousand times the bruises of his flesh You suffer likewise with him the ignominies and dolors of the Crosse so that humiliations crosses afflictions are both in you and in Jesus In him and you they are become divine sanctified and rendred acceptable And for this cause they are worthie of being esteemed and desired by Christians What must I then doe O holy Virgin if I will love you what other thing can I doe but affect Crosses and humiliations with you and humble my selfe like you I desine and purpose it thus in my soule procure me only the grace that in all occasions I may beare every thing with fidelity and patience in such sort as God requires of me and you desire I should Point III. THe holy Virgin holding her Son between her armes offers him to God and the divine Iustice for satisfaction of our offences And as the Father hath given his Son to the world and the Son delivered himselfe up to the Crosse to save us So the holy Virgin both with heart and will sacrificeth her owne Son that she may in this sort minister unto our Salvation Give her thanks for this extraordinary Charity and beseech her to render you faithfull to all the graces which the death of the Son of God hath acquired PRAYER YOu have been chosen ô Mother of grace and mercy to be the repairer of the world and to co-operate in a most peculiar manner to the salvation of all mankind You did when you gave your Sonne Christ Jesus to be delivered up to the death of the Crosse and you do it when holding him dead between your armes you offer him to the divine Justice as a Victime and Sacrifice of propitiation which satisfies God for the sinnes of the world And in this respect you are our Repairer for Jesus who is the Saviour of men is yours he is your Sonne and you are his Mother And in this quality you have right to his life his preservation and all his condition Neverthelesse O Mother of our Soules you consent to his death you incourage him to torments you conduct him to the Crosse and like another Abraham you sacrifice in will and affection your only Sonne and you sacrifice him for my sinnes so great is your charity and love towards me But what can I doe in recognition of so sublime a benefit Wherein am I able to acknowledge O benigne Virgin so ardent a Charity At least since you give your Sonne for me procure that I may be your slave and since you resigne him to efface the sinnes of the world and that hee may merit for us such graces as are necessary for our salvation be pleased to mediate that I may be faithfull to all the graces which he hath purchased for me by his death and that I may live no longer but for his honour and yours as you give him to the Crosse and deliver him up to death for me Our LADIE of Compassion Point I. Since the Eternall Father can have no compatency in the dolours of his Son he substituted the holy Virgin imprinting in her heart and Spirit the vertue of the Crosse and the Spirit of his sufferings and piercing her heart with the sword of sorrow he made her suffer with her Sonne that in some manner she might co-operate to our Salvation Consider what Jesus and the holy Virgin suffer for you and from henceforth take delight in the thought of their sufferings and in the love of the Crosse PRAYER O Virgin and mother of my Iesus I render you thanks for having contributed to our salvation not only by giving your Sonne but also in taking your share in his Passions for if he indure you suffer with him The scourges the thornes the nailes and the lance have pierced his body but love and sorrow have transpierced your heart and gauled your soule Wherefore holy Virgin the true refuge of sinners I adore Iesus for my Saviour but I reverence you as his Mother and acknowledge you for the Repairer of the Universe since you cooperate doubly in the good of our soules For you give us your Sonne and suffer with him for us Be pleased also to mediate O Virgin spring of life and grace that I may be from henceforward the object of your commiserations And since you have loved me so much as to give me your Sonne and to give him even for the Crosse since your love and charity fastens you to my interests and makes you suffer for mee procure that I may suffer all for you but chiefly engrave in my heart such a hatred of sinne as I may rather indure a thousand deaths then so much as once offend my Jesus your Sonne who died