glory, and see, love, praise and enjoy thee for ever. In the meantime, I beg that the kingdom of thy grace, and of thy love, may come into our souls; that thou mayst ever reign in us without control, and make us all according to thy own heart; that nothing in us may any more presume to rebel against thee, the true king of hearts; but that we may be ever faithful servants and subjects of thy love.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The blessed in heaven have no other will, O Lord, but thine. This will of thine they ever adore; this they eternally embrace and love; this they readily and cheerfully obey. Oh, that we, poor banished children of Adam here upon earth, did in like manner adore, embrace, and love thy will! Oh, that we obeyed it in like manner! Lord, it is my sincere desire and hearty prayer, that from henceforward thy holy will may be done by us in all things. Oh, grant that from this moment thy will may be the rule of our actions; and that in all our deliberations, like St. Paul, after his conversion, we may ever cry out to thee, O Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do? Oh, grant that in all our sufferings we may ever have a perfect conformity to thy holy will.

Give us this day our daily bread.

The bread of our souls, which is to support us during this day of our mortality, and to feed and nourish us to life everlasting, is no other, O Lord, than thy Son, who hast said, I am the living Bread, that came down from heaven; he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever: And the bread that I will gire is my flesh, for the life of the world. This bread of life we earnestly beg of thee. This we desire often to receive sacramentally, this we desire daily to

receive spiritually, for the nourishment of our souls with heavenly grace from this fountain of grace. Oh, come, dear Jesus, into our poor famished souls, satisfy our hunger here this day with this heavenly bread, till we come to the more happy day of eternity, where all veils being withdrawn, we shall for ever feast upon thy divinity. In the meantime, as to the necessities of this life, grant us what, in thy wisdom, thou seest best for us, and most conducive to thy honour and our eternal welfare.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass

against us.

Our sins, Lord, are innumerable, the debt that we owe thee is infinite; and we are poor and miserable, unable of ourselves to discharge the least part of this debt, or to make satisfaction for the least of these sins. But, prostrate in spirit before thee, we humbly implore thy mercy. We desire to offer thee the sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart. We offer thee the death and passion of thy only Son, which he has made over to us for the discharge of our debts. And, as he has promised forgiveness to those that forgive, we here from our hearts forgive all that have offended us, and hope through him to obtain forgiveness from thee.

Lead us not into temptation.

Alas! O Lord, man's life upon earth is a continual temptation. We are encompassed on all sides with mortal enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil, are ever attacking us with united forces. Our only hope in all these dangers and conflicts is in thy strength and protection. O stand thou for us, and we care not who is against us. We believe that thou art faithful, and wilt not suffer us to be tempted above

our strength. O never suffer us to forsake thee, and we know thou wilt never forsake us. Let not the devil circumvent us by his frauds and deceits; nor ever glory that he has prevailed over us: arm us both against the terrors and flatteries of the world, and all the dangers of our passions and concupiscences. And whatever trials thou art pleased to send us, let thy supporting grace ever carry us through them, with advantage to our souls. That by thy favour and mercy, we may be faithful unto death, and so receive the crown of life.

But deliver us from evil.

O Sovereign Goodness, the fountain of all our good, deliver us from all our evils: from our sins and the punishments we deserve for them; from wars, plagues, famine and such like scourges, which thy justice and our impenitence give us too much reason to apprehend are hanging over our heads: from heresy and schism, and all that blindness of soul which self-conceit and pride expose us to: in fine, from a hardened heart, from final impenitence, and everlasting damnation. From all these evils, for thy own goodness' sake, O Lord, deliver us.

Fifteen Meditations

ON THE PASSION OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

GOOD and gracious Jesus! who, being most high

in the glory of thy Father, and of one essence with him, didst vouchsafe, of thy infinite love, to be made man, to be born in a stable, to be laid in a manger, to be circumcised, and to fly into Egypt; afterwards to be baptized, to be tempted, to fast, to

watch, to teach the ignorant, and to heal the diseased; in thy whole life to suffer continual afflictions and persecutions; and at length voluntarily to suffer death upon the cross; and all this for me, and such wretched creatures as myself.

2. O good and gracious Jesus! who, having eaten the paschal lamb with thy dearly beloved disciples, didst arise from supper, gird thyself with a towel, pour water into a basin, and on bended knees didst humbly wash the feet of thy disciples, and wipe them with thy own hands.

3. O good and gracious Jesus! who, when the time of thy death approached, didst bequeath a most excellent legacy to thy children, leaving us thy most sacred body to be our meat, and thy most precious blood to be our drink: no wit can teach, no understanding penetrate the bottomless depth of this thy charity.

4. O good and gracious Jesus! who, having entered into the garden of Olives, didst begin to fear and to be sad; whereupon thou saidst to thy disciples, My soul is sorrowful, even unto death; and then leaving them, didst kneel upon the ground, and falling flat on thy face, didst pray to thy Father, If it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. And yet with perfect submission, wholly resignedst thyself to him, saying, Father, not my will, but thine be done and at length, through most painful agony, thy afflicted and fainting body sweated drops of blood.

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5. O good and gracious Jesus! who, inflamed with an ineffable desire to redeem me, didst go to meet thine enemies, and didst suffer Judas the traitor to kiss thee, and thyself to be taken and bound with cords, and as a malefactor disgracefully led by the basest of the people to Annas, where with admirable meekness

thou didst receive a cruel stroke on thy face, most unjustly given thee by a vile wretch and slave.

6. O good and gracious Jesus! who wast led, fast bound like a notorious malefactor, from Annas to the house of Caiphas the high priest, where the Jews most unjustly accused thee, and with barbarous insolence spat upon thy meek and amiable face, buffeting thy cheeks and blindfolding thine eyes, scornfully mocking, and maliciously affronting thee with injuries all that night.

7. O good and gracious Jesus! who in the morning wast brought to the presence of Pilate, and with a most sweet and humble countenance, casting thine eyes down, stoodst before him in the judgment-hall; and when thou wast most falsely calumniated by the Jews, and many insults and provocations were given thee, thou meekly heldest thy peace, and patiently sufferedst their unjust proceedings.

8. O good and gracious Jesus! who wast sent from Pilate to Herod; he out of vain curiosity coveting to see some miracle at thy hand, demanded many things of thee, and the Jews continuing their perverseness against thee; but to all these thy meekness replied not a word: wherefore Herod and all his court despised thee, and putting on thee a white garment in scorn and derision, sent thee thus back again to Pilate. O unspeakable humility and obedience to the will of thine enemies! thou wentest forth and returnedst again, and wast led up and down from place to place without gainsaying, but suffering them to do whatever they would.

9. O good and gracious Jesus! who in the judgment-hall wast stripped naked, and without any compassion most cruelly scourged. There was thy blessed virginal and tender flesh torn with stripes, and