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merciful; that I may receive thy precious body devoutly, reverently, with meekness, contrition, and great affection, with spiritual comfort and gladness at thy mystical presence. Feed my soul with bread from heaven, fill me with charity, conform me to thy will in all things, save me from all dangers bodily and ghostly: assist and guide me in all doubts and fears, prepare and strengthen me against all surreptions and sudden incursions of temptations, cleanse me from all stains of sin, and suffer nothing to abide in me but thyself only, who art the life of souls, the food of the elect, and the joy of angels. Give me such a gust and an holy relish in this divine nutriment, that nothing may ever hereafter please me but what savours of thee and thy miraculous sweetness. Teach me to loath all the pleasures and beauties of this life; and let my soul be so inebriated with the pleasures of thy table, that I may be comprehended and swallowed up with thy love and sweetness: let me think on nothing but thee, covet nothing but thee, enjoy nothing but thee, nothing in comparison with thee, and neither do nor profess any thing but what leads to thee, and is in order to the performance of thy will and the fruition of thy glories. Transfix my soul, O blessed Jesu, with so great love of thee, so great devotion in receiving the holy sacrament, that I may be transformed to the fellowship of thy sufferings, and admitted to a participation of all the benefits of thy passion, and to a communion of thy graces and thy glories. I desire to be with thee: dissolve all the chains of my sin, and then come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Let my soul feed on thee greedily, for thou art the Spring of light and life, the Fountain of wisdom and health, a torrent of divine pleasure and tranquillity, the Author of peace and comfort. Enter into me, sweet Jesu, take thou possession of my soul, and be thou Lord over me and all my faculties, and preserve me with great mercy and tenderness, that no doubting or infidelity, no impenitence or remanent affection to a sin, no impurity or irreverence, may make me unworthy and incapable of thy glorious approach. Let not my sins crucify the Lord of life again; let it not be said concerning me, The hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table: that this holy communion may not be unto me an occasion of death, but a blessed peace-offering for my sins, and a gate of life and glory. Grant this, O

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blessed God, for his sake, who is both Sacrifice and Priest, the Master of the feast and the Feast itself, even Jesus Christ, to whom with thee, O Father, and thy Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

A Prayer after the receiving the consecrated Bread.

I GIVE thanks unto thee, almighty and eternal God, that thou hast not rejected me from thy holy table, but hast refreshed my soul with the salutary refection of the body of thy Son Jesus Christ. Lord, if I had lived innocently, and had kept all thy commandments, I could have had no proportion of merit to so transcendent a mercy; but since I have lived in all manner of sin, and multiplied provocations against thy Divine Majesty, thy mercy is so glorious and infinite, that I am amazed at the consideration of its immensity. Go on, O my dear God, to finish so blessed a redemption; and now that thou hast begun to celebrate a marriage and holy union between thyself and my soul, let me never throw off the wedding garment, or stain it with po lution of deadly sin, nor seek after other lovers; but let me for ever and ever be united unto thee, being transformed into thy will in this life, and to the likeness of thy glories in the life to come, who livest and reignest, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

After receiving the Cup.

O just and dear God, who, out of the unmeasurable abysses of wisdom and mercy; hast redeemed us, and offered life, and grace, and salvation to us, by the real exhibition of thy Son, Jesus Christ, in the sacrifice of his death upon the altar of the cross, and by commemoration of his bitter agonies in the holy sacrament; grant that that great and venerable sacrifice, which we now commemorate sacramentally, may procure of thee for thy whole church mercy and great assistance in all trials, deliverance from all heresies, schisms, sacrilege, and persecutions; to all sick people health and salvation, redemption for captives, competency of living to the indigent and necessitous, comfort to the

afflicted, relief to the oppressed, repentance to all sinners, softness of spirit and a tender conscience to the obstinate, conversion to the Jews, Turks, and remedy to all that are in any trouble or adversity. And grant to us, O Lord, that this blessed sacrament and sacrifice of commemoration, in virtue of that dreadful and proper sacrifice upon the cross, may obtain for me, and for us all who have communicated this day, pardon and peace; and that we may derive from thee, by this ministry, grace to expel all our sins, to mortify all our lusts, to exterminate all concupiscence, to crucify all inordinacy and irregularity, to produce in us humility, and chastity, and obedience, and meekness of spirit, and charity, and may become our defence and armour against the violence and invasions of all our ghostly enemies and temporal disadvantages: and give us this grace and favour, that we may not die in the guilt and commission of a sin without repentance, nor without receiving the blessed sacrament; but that we may so live and die, that we may at last rest in thy bosom, and be embraced with the comprehensions of thy eternal charity, who livest and reignest, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

All blessing, and praise, and honour, be unto thee, O blessed Redeemer; and to thee we, the banished and miserable sons of Adam, do call for mercy and defence, and to thee we sigh and cry in this valley of tears. O dearest Advocate, turn those thy merciful eyes towards us, and show us thy glorious face in thy kingdom, where no tears or sighing, or fears or sadness, can approach. Amen. Sweetest Jesu. Amen,

PRAYERS PREPARATORY TO DEATH.

I.

A Prayer for a blessed Ending, to be said in Time of Health or Sickness.

O BLESSED Jesu, Fountain of eternal mercy, the Life of the soul, and glorious Conqueror over death and sin, I humbly beseech thee to give me grace so to spend this transitory

life in virtuous and holy exercises, that when the day of my death shall come, in the midst of all my pains I may feel the sweet refreshings of thy Holy Spirit comforting my soul, sustaining mine infirmities, and relieving all my spiritual necessities and grant that in the unity of the holy catholic church, and in the integrity of Christian faith, with confidence and hope of thy mercy, in great love towards thee, in peace with my neighbours, and in charity with all the world, I may, through thy grace, depart hence out of this vale of misery, and go unto that glorious country, where thou hast purchased an inheritance for us with the price of thy most precious blood, and reignest in it gloriously in the unity of thy Father and ours, and thy Holy Spirit and our ghostly Comforter, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

come.

II.

A Prayer to be said at the Beginning of a Sickness.

O Lord my God, who chastisest every one, whom thou receivest, and, with thy fatherly correction, smitest all those whom thou consignest to the inheritance of sons, write my soul in the book of life, and number me amongst thy children, whom thou hast smitten with the rod of sickness, and, by thy chastisements, hast brought me into the lot of the righteous. Thou, O blessed Jesu, art a helper in the needful time of trouble; lay no more upon me than thou shalt enable me to bear, and let thy gentle correction in this life prevent the unsupportable stripes of thy vengeance in the life to Smite me now, that thou mayest spare me to all eternity and yet, O blessed High Priest, who art touched with a sense of our infirmities, smite me friendly, and reprove me with such a tenderness as thou bearest unto thy children, to whom thou conveyest suppletory comforts, greater than the pains of chastisement,-and in due time restore me to health, and to thy solemn assemblies again, and to the joy of thy countenance. Give me patience and humility, and the grace of repentance and an absolute dereliction of myself, and a resignation to thy pleasure and providence, with a power to do thy will in all things, and then do what thou pleasest to me; only in health or sickness, in life or death, let me feel thy comforts refreshing my soul,

and let thy grace pardon all my sins. Grant this, O blessed Jesu, for my trust is in thee only: thou art my God, and my merciful Saviour and Redeemer.

III.

Amen.

A Prayer to be said in the Progress of a Sickness.

O Lord my God, blessed Jesu, who, by thy bitter death and passion, hast sweetened the cup of death to us, taking away its bitterness and sting, and making it an entrance to life and glory; have pity upon me thy servant, who have so deep a share in sin, that I cannot shake off the terrors of death, but that my nature, with its hereditary corruption, still would preserve itself in a disunion from the joys of thy kingdom. Lord, I acknowledge my own infirmities, and beg thy pity. It is better for me to be with thee: but the remembrance of my sins doth so depress my growing confidence, that I am in a great strait between my fears and hopes, between the infirmities of my nature and the better desires of conforming to thy holy will and pleasure. O my dear Redeemer, wean my soul and all my desires from the flatteries of this world; pardon all my sins, and consign so great a favour by the comforts and attestation of thy divinest Spirit, that, my fears being mastered, my sins pardoned, my desires rectified, as the hart thirsts after the springs of water, so my soul may long after thee, O God, and to enter into thy courts. Heavenly Father, if it may be for thy glory and my ghostly good, to have the days of my pilgrimage prolonged, I beg of thee health and life; but if it be not pleasing to thee to have this cup pass from me, thy will be done: my Saviour hath drunk off all the bitterness. Behold, O Lord, I am in thy hands, do with me as seemeth good in thine eyes. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me. I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest; for it is thou, Lord, only, who shalt make me to dwell in everlasting safety, and to partake of the joys of thy kingdom, who livest and reignest, eternal God, world without end. Amen.

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