Chrift, came down to take human flesh in thy moft venerable womb. Fy the fifteen moft glorious joys which thou hadst of thy Son our Lord Jefus Chrift; By that holy and great compaffion, and moft bitter grief of heart, which thou hadft, when thou didst behold thy Son our Lord Jefus Chrift stripped before the crofs, and lifted upon the fame, hanging, crucified, wounded, thirfting, and the moft bitter drink of gall and vinegar put into his mouth; heard'ft him cry eli, and didft fee him die: By thofe five wounds of thy fame Son; by the fhrinking of thy bowels, through the extreme grief of his wounds; by the forrow which thou hadft, when thou didst behold him wounded; by the fountains of his blood; by all his paffion, and forrow of thy heart; and by the fountains of thy tears, that thou vouchfafe to come with all the faints and elect of God, and haften to my help and counsel, in all my prayers and petitions, in all my diftreffes and neceffities, as also in all those things, wherein I am to act, fpeak, or think, all the days and nights, hours and moments of my life: And obtain for me, thy fervant, of thy beloved Son our Lord Jefus Chrift, the accomplishment of all virtues, with all mercy and confolation, all counsel and aid, all benediction and fanctification, all falvation, peace and profperity, all joy and gladnefs, abundance of all fpiri-,

tual goods, fufficiency of corporal and grace of the Holy Ghoft. Prevail with the fame holy fpirit, to difpofe of me in all occurrences, to guard my foul, to govern and protect my body, to ftir up my mind, to order my manners, to approve my acts, fuggeft holy thoughts, and pardon the evil I have done, to amend the prefent, and moderate things to come, to beftow on me an honeft and chafte life, to grant me faith, hope, and charity, to make me firmly believe the articles of faith, and obferve the precepts of the law, to rule and protect the fenfes of my body, to deliver me on all occafions from mortal fin, and to be my defence till the laft hour of my life. Make this your interceffion, O facred Virginmother of God, and mother of mercy, that he may graciously admit my prayer, and grant me life everlafting. Amen.

Another Prayer to the Bleffed Virgin, and to St. John the Evangelift.

UNTOUCHED, and for ever bleffed, fingular and incomparable Virgin Mary, mother of God, moft grateful temple of God, the fanctuary of the Holy Ghoft, the gate of the kingdom of heaven, by whom, next to God, the whole world liveth. Incline, O mother of mercy, the ears of thy pity, to my unworthy fupplications, and be propitious to me a moft retched finner; and be thou my merciful

helper in all things. O moft bleffed John, the familiar friend of Chrift, who by the fame Lord Jefus Chrift was chosen a Virgin, and among the reft more beloved, above all inftructed in the heavenly myfteries, for thou wert made a moft worthy Apoftle and Evangelift; thee also I call upon, with Mary the mother of the fame Lord Jefus Chrift our Saviour, that thou vouchfafe to afford me thy aid, with hers. O ye two celeftial gems, Mary and John. O ye two lights divinely fhining before God, chafe away by your bright beams, the clouds of my offences. For you are thofe two, in whom the only begotten Son of God, for the merit of moft fincere virginity, hanging upon the cross, confirmed the privilege of his love, faying thus to the one of you, Woman behold thy Son; and then to the other, Behold thy Mother. In the fweetnefs therefore of this moft facred love, through which by our Lord's own mouth, as Mother and Son, you were joined in one; I, a moft wretched finner, recommend this day to you both my body and foul; that at all hours and moments, internally and externally, you vouchfafe to be my conftant guardians, and my devout interceffors to God: Afk earnestly for me, I beseech you, Health of body and foul: Procure, I befeech you, procure by your glorious prayers, that the pure fpirit, the best giver of graces, may vouchlafe to vifit my heart, and dwell therein; may is

thoroughly purge me from all filth of vice; enlighten and adorn me with facred virtues; caufe me perfectly to ftand and persevere in the love of God and my neighbour; and after the courfe of this life, may the most benign Comforter bring me to the joys of his elect: Who with God the Father, and the Son, liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.

The Complaint of the Bleffed Virgin Mary. Stabat Mater Dolorofa.

UN

NDER the world-redeeming rood
The moft afflicted mother ftood,
Mingling her tears with her Son's blood.
As that ftream'd down from ev'ry part
Of all his wounds fhe felt the fmart:
What pierc'd his body pierc'd her heart.
Who can with tearlefs eyes look on,
When fuch a Mother, fuch a Son
Wounded and gasping does bemoan ?
O worse than Jewish heart that could
Unmov'd behold the double flood
Of Mary's tears and Jefus' blood.
Alas! our fins they were not his,
In this atoning facrifice;

For which he bleeds, for which he dies.
When graves did open, rocks were rent;
When nature and each element

His torments and her grief refent :

Shall man, the caufe of all his pain,

And all her grief, fhall finful man

Alone infenfible remain ?

Ah! pious mother, teach my heart

Of fighs and tears the holy art;

And in thy grief to bear a part.

That fword of grief which did pass thro Thy very foul, O may it now

One kind wound on my heart beftow.
Great Queen of forrows! in thy train
Let me a mourner's place obtain,
With tears to cleanfe all finful ftain.
To heal the leprofy of fin,

We must the cure with tears begin :
All flesh corrupts without their brine.
Refuge of finners, grant that we
May tread thy fteps, and let it be
Our forrow not to grieve like thee.
O! may the wounds of thy dear Son
Our contrite hearts poffefs alone,
And all terrene affections drown!

Those wounds, which now the ftars out

Thofe furnaces of love divine,

May they our droffy fouls refine;

And on us fuch impreffion make,
That we of fuff'ring for his fake,
May joyfully our portion take.

Let us his proper badge put on ;
Let's glory in the cross alone:
By which he marks us for his own.
That when the laft affizes come
For ev'ry man to hear his doom,
On his right hand we may find room.
O! hear us Mary! Jefus, hear,
Our humble pray'rs, fecure our fear,
When thou in judgment fhalt appear.

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