mory is blessed; I bless and magnify thy holy and ever-glorious name, for the great grace and blessing manifested to thy Apostles and martyrs, and other holy persons, who have glorified thy name in the days of their flesh, and have served the interest of religion and of thy service: and this day we have thy servant [name the Apostle or martyr, &c.] in remembrance, whom thou hast led through the troubles and temptations of this world, and now hast lodged in the bosom of a certain hope and great beatitude until the day of restitution of all things. Blessed be the mercy and eternal goodness of God; and the memory of all thy saints is blessed. Teach me to practise their doctrine, to imitate their lives, following their example, and being united as a part of the same mystical body by the band of the same faith, and a holy hope, and a never-ceasing charity. And may it please thee of thy gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy kingdom, that we with thy servant [*] and all others departed in the true faith and fear of thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss in body and soul in thy eternal and everlasting kingdom. Amen.

A Form of Prayer recording all the Parts and Mysteries of Christ's Passion, being a short History of it to be used especially in the Week of the Passion, and before the receiving the blessed Sacrament.

All praise, honour and glory be to the holy and eternal Jesus. I adore thee, O blessed Redeemer, eternal God, the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel; for thou hast done and suffered for me more than I could wish, more than I could think of, even all that a lost and a miserable perishing sinner could possibly need.

Thou wert afflicted with thirst and hunger, with heat and cold, with labours and sorrows, with hard

journeys and restless nights; and when thou wert contriving all the mysterious and admirable ways of paying our scores, thou didst suffer thyself to be designed to slaughter by those for whom in love thou wert ready to die.

"What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man that thou thus visitest him?"

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus; for thou wentest about doing good, working miracles of mercy, healing the sick, comforting the distressed, instructing the ignorant, raising the dead, enlightening the blind, strengthening the lame, straightening the crooked, relieving the poor, preaching the Gospel, and reconciling sinners by the mightiness of thy power, by the wisdom of thy Spirit, by the word of God, and the merits of thy passion, thy healthful and bitter passion.

&c.

66

Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him,"

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, who wert content to be conspired against by the Jews, to be sold by thy servant for a vile price, and to wash the feet of him that took money for thy life, and to give to him and to all thy Apostles thy most holy body and blood, to become a sacrifice for their sins, even for their betraying and denying thee, and for all my sins, even for my crucifying thee afresh, and for such sins which I am ashamed to think of, but that the greatness of my sins magnifies the infiniteness of thy mercies, who didst so great things for so vile a person.

66

Lord, what is man," &c.

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, who being to depart the world, didst comfort thy Apostles, pouring out into their ears and hearts treasures of admirable discourses; who didst recommend them to thy Father with a mighty charity, and then didst enter into the garden set with nothing but briars and sorrows, where thou didst suffer a most unspeakable agony, until the sweat strained through thy pure skin like drops of

blood, and there didst sigh and groan, and fall flat upon the earth, and pray, and submit to the intolerable burthen of thy Father's wrath, which I had deserved, and thou sufferedst.

"Lord, what is man," &c.

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, who hast sanctified to us all our natural infirmities and passions, by vouchsafing to be in fear and trembling, and sore amazement, by being bound and imprisoned, by being harassed and dragged with cords of violence and rude hands, by being sought after like a thief, and used like a sinner, who wert the most holy and the most innocent, purer than an angel, and brighter than the morning-star.

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be thy loving kindness and pity by which thou didst neglect thy own sorrows, and go to comfort the sadness of thy disciples, quickening their dulness, encouraging their duty, arming their weakness with excellent precepts against the day of trial. Blessed be

that humility and sorrow of thine, who being Lord of the angels, yet wouldest need and receive comfort from thy servant the angel; who didst offer thyself to thy persecutors, and madest them able to seize thee; and didst receive the traitor's kiss, and wouldst do a miracle to cure a wound of one of thy spiteful enemies; and didst reprove a zealous servant in behalf of a malicious adversary; and then didst go like a lamb to the slaughter, without noise or violence or resistance, when thou couldst have commanded millions of angels for thy guard and rescue.

"Lord, what is man," &c.

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be that holy sorrow thou didst suffer when thy disciples fled, and thou wert left alone in the hands of cruel men, who like evening wolves thirsted for a draught of thy best blood: and thou wert led to the house of Annas, and there asked ensnaring questions, and smit

ten on the face; and from thence wert dragged to the house of Caiaphas, and there all night didst endure spittings, affronts, scorn, contumelies, blows, and intolerable insolencies; and all this for man, who was thy enemy, and the cause of all thy sorrows.

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be thy mercy, who when thy servant Peter denied thee and forsook thee and foreswore thee, didst look back upon him, and by that gracious and chiding look didst call him back to himself and thee; who wert accused before the High Priest, and railed upon, and examined to evil purposes, and with designs of blood; who wert declared guilty of death, for speaking a most necessary and most profitable truth; who wert sent to Pilate and found innocent, and sent to Herod and still found innocent, and wert arrayed in white, both to declare thy innocence, and yet to deride thy person, and wert sent back to Pilate and examined again, and yet nothing but innocence found in thee, and malice round about thee to devour thy life, which yet thou wert more desirous to lay down for them, than they were to take it from thee.

"Lord, what is man," &c.

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be that patience and charity by which for our sakes thou wert content to be smitten with canes, and have that holy face, which angels with joy and wonder do behold, be spit upon, and be despised, when compared with Barabbas, and scourged most rudely with unhallowed hands, till the pavement was purpled with that holy blood, and condemned to a sad and shameful, a public and painful death, and arrayed in scarlet, and crowned with thorns, and stripped naked, and then clothed, and loaden with the cross, and bound hard with cords, and dragged most vilely and most piteously till the load was too great, and did sink thy tender and virginal body to the earth; and yet didst comfort the weeping women, and didst more pity thy persecu

tors than thyself, and wert grieved for the miseries of Jerusalem to come forty years after, more than for thy present passion.

"Lord, what is man," &c.

Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be that incomparable sweetness and holy sorrow which thou sufferedst, when thy holy hands and feet were nailed upon the cross, and the cross being set in a hollowness of the earth did in the fall rend the wounds wider, and there naked and bleeding, sick and faint, wounded and despised, didst hang upon the weight of thy wounds three long hours, praying for thy persecutors, satisfying thy Father's wrath, reconciling the penitent thief, providing for thy holy and afflicted mother, tasting vinegar and gall; and when the fulness of thy suffering was accomplished, didst give thy soul into the hands of God, and didst descend to the regions of longing souls, who waited for the revelation of this thy day in their prisons of hope: and then thy body was transfixed with a spear, and there issued forth water and blood; and thy body was composed to burial, and dwelt in darkness three days and three nights.

"Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man, that thou thus visitest him?"

The Prayer.

Thus, O blessed Jesu, thou didst finish thy holy passion with pain and anguish so great that nothing could be greater than it, except thyself and thy own infinite mercy; and all this for man, even for me, than whom nothing could be more miserable, thyself only excepted, who becamest so by undertaking our guilt and our punishment. And now, Lord, who hast done so much for me, be pleased only to make it effectual to me, that it may not be useless and lost as to my particular case, lest I become eternally miserable, and lost to all hopes and possibilities of comfort. All this