Premeditation

“ I press into places of temptation, and tempt the devil himself, and solicit and importune them who had rather be left unsolicited by me. I fall sick of sin, and am bedded and bedrid, buried and putrified in the practice of sin, and all this while have no presage, no pulse, no sense of my sickness. ”

“ And inasmuch as fear is usually the beginning of justification, whatever awakes this fear is matter of meditation accommodated to them; such are the last things of man, as death, judgment particular and universal, hell, and such other like things, which will be put in the first part, with certain forms of prayer, accommodated for the examination of the conscience, for confession, and communicating, and for the obtaining of perfect justification, which is the end of the purgative way. ”

“ Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May this sickness be to the honor of Thy holy name, and for the good of my soul. For this end, I here offer myself with an entire submission to all Thine appointments, to suffer whatever Thou pleasest, and in what manner Thou pleasest; for I am Thy creature, O Lord, who have most ungratefully offended Thee; and since my sins have a long time cried aloud to heaven for justice, why should I now complain if I feel Thy hand upon me? ”

“ A clergyman, who had laboured for a great number of years, once recorded his melancholy experience, that, out of two thousand whom he had known to give signs of repentance when prostrated by sickness, only two individuals evidenced by their conduct after recovery that their repentance had been sincere. Let all who would postpone the solemn work till they are stretched upon a death-bed, ponder well this alarming testimony. Friends may eagerly mark the cry for mercy, wrung by fear of approaching judgment, as evidence that a broken and contrite heart has been touched by the Spirit of grace ”

“ In the hour of temptation, when they are enticed into youthful sins, do Thou succour them with gifts of the Holy Ghost: enable them to resist temptation; give them boldness, the resolute mind, the fear of sin, the tenderness of science, stedfastness, that no persuasion of evil companions, nor the voice of any charmer, nor ridicule, nor false shame, nor any pleasure which sin promises, may draw them away towards the paths of hell. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, even by ruling himself after Thy Word." ”

“ For the sick whom Thou chastenest in Thy love I offer up my prayers; heal their sickness if it be expedient for them. May it do Thy work in their souls, that they be not chastened in vain. May they look up to Thee, and turn to Thee with a new heart, and repent upon their beds, and in their patience shew forth the fruits of repentance. May their sickness be received as an angel into their house; may they entertain it as an angel and minister of grace; when it shall depart may they remember that they have had an angel, and consider the message wherewith it was sent unto their souls. ”

“ Thus the wisdom of God provides, that the antidote shall grow upon the same root from which the poison springs, that the remedy against the most dangerous temptations shall be found in the same affection from whence the temptation arises. ”

“ In the event that you have sinned grievously, resolve to go to confession at the first opportunity. Meditate for a few moments on eternity, death, judgment, heaven, and hell, mindful of the admonition of the Holy Spirit: "In all thy works, O man, remember thy last end and thou wilt never sin." ”

“ If our temptation consists in a distaste for prayers, we must say even more prayers, with greater attention, and the more the Devil prompts us to give them up, the more we must increase their number. The temptations we must fear most are those of which we are not conscious. ”

“ One explanation is to be got from our Lord’s words to His disciples at the time of His agony in the garden: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” If you fail to be on your guard, if you live carelessly, without watching or praying, God suffers you, as a punishment, to be brought within the scope of temptation, and you find it too strong for you. Therefore the prayer may be interpreted by expansion thus: make us watchful and prayerful, so that we never be suffered to fall into temptation as into a snare. ”

“ Though we have occasion to repent daily, God's gifts and callings are without repentance. The heart may be swept and garnished, and yet still remain the devil's palace; but, if it be washed, it belongs to Christ, and he will not lose it. [2.] See what ought to be the daily care of those who through grace are in a justified state, and that is to wash their feet; to cleanse themselves from the guilt they contract daily through infirmity and inadvertence, by the renewed exercise of repentance, with a believing application of the virtue of Christ's blood. ”

“ As long as we are in this world, let us repent with our whole heart of the evil deeds which we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord whilst we have time for repentance. For after that we have gone forth from this world, we are no longer able to confess or repent there. ”

“ To enter into the spirit of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and matter silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the Divine Principle that destroys sickness, sin, and death. ”

“ Temptation makes us deaf to the voice within; and yielding to temptation, as you see, my son, leads us into sin; and this is why we pray, in the Lord's prayer, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver [Pg 151] us from evil,' which is sin, for there is no greater evil than sin. ”

“ Why do you not confess and discover your malady to him by Confession: Why do you suffer your disease to increase till it be inflamed, and deeply rooted in you? Re-enter into your own breasts ; reflect upon your own ways. You have offended God, you have provoked your Creator, who is the Lord and judge, not only of this life, but of the life to come.—Enquire into the disease wherewith you are seized; be sorry; afflict yourselves, and communicate your affliction to your brethren, that they may be afflicted with you; that so you may obtain the pardon of your sins. ”

“ We should not be cast down if we have many temptations and even commit numerous faults. ‘Virtue,’ says the Apostle, ‘is made perfect in infirmity.’ [5] Spiritual progress is effected less by sensible devotion, relish and spiritual consolations, than by means of interior humiliation and frequent recourse to God.”*
15. Habitually add to your confession some general accusation of all the sins of your past life, or of such of them as occasion you most [57] remorse. Say, for example, I accuse myself of sins against purity, or charity, or temperance. ”

“ But I spoke of no other kind of that temptation save only that one which is the daughter that the devil begetteth upon pusillanimity, because those other kinds of temptation fall not under the nature of tribulation and fear, and therefore fall they far out of our matter here. They are such temptations as need only counsel, and not comfort or consolation, because the persons tempted with them are not troubled in their mind with that kind of temptation. ”

“ The phenomenon of repentance is simply the operation of a natural law, by which the last impressions made upon the mind are generally cancelled from the memory first, by the progress of fever and disease, thus leaving the earlier impressions to rule the judgment. ”

“ If, then, we do not fly from the external occasions, how can we resist temptation and avoid sin? Let us, therefore, place before our eyes the general remedy which Jesus has prescribed for conquering temptations and saving our souls. ”

“ Prayer, as already observed, implies belief in supernatural intervention. Such belief is competent to beget hope, and with it courage, energy, and effort. Suppose contrition and remorse induce the sufferer to pray for Divine aid and mercy, suppose suffering is the natural penalty of his or her own misdeeds, and suppose the contrition and the prayer lead to resistance of similar temptations, and hence to greater happiness,—can it be said that the power to resist temptation or endure the penalty are due to supernatural aid? ”

“ This meditation has most efficacy to move to perfect contrition and sorrow for sin, which proceeds from the love of Almighty God above all things, considering the grievousness of sin, not only by the baseness of the offender, but by the highness of the offended; for by how much greater the injured is, so much greater is the injury ”

“ Body and mind are correlated in man's salvation; for man will no more enter heaven sick than as a sinner, and Christ's Christianity casts out sickness as well as sin of every sort.
Test, if you will, metaphysical healing on two patients: one having morals to be healed, the other having a physical ailment. Use as your medicine the great alterative, Truth: give to the immoralist a mental dose that says, “You have no pleasure in sin,” and witness the effects. ”

“ Yet those who are convinced that "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil," must mean, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the tempter," have a very important piece of evidence to add to all the rest. Is a gross superstition embodied in the very wording of the model prayer? ”

“ Moreover, these meditations, as we have said elsewhere, suit best with those who do begin to turn from Almighty God from their wicked courses. For these had need to be helped by the consideration of these things, to the detestation and horror of sin, the fear of God, the contempt of the world, which are, as it were, the first steps to the amendment of our former perverse life; therefore, it is good, that they should sometimes insist in them, that they may have the better foundation for other ensuing virtues. ”

“ As for those remedies which are to be made use of to fence against, and cure the sinfulness of our thoughts in such-like instances; it behoves us to repent of those sins, which may have been the occasion of, or given rise to them. ”

“ Almighty God and Father, because of sin Thou appointest over men all manner of diseases, but in particular bodily sickness, that they may not perish with the world. I come unto Thee with my [100] load of sins and confess that on account of these I have deserved not only this sickness, but also eternal damnation, being a child of wrath by nature and sold under sin, besides having, all the days of my life, transgressed all Thy commandments a countless number of times. I take my refuge in Thy boundless mercy. Enter not into judgment with me, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. ”

“ The Lord is addressing such as mean to put off repenting and praying, and serving him, to another time, when sickness or some other calamity shall frighten them into calling on him for pardon and help. ”

“ And in conclusion we may make another catalogue of our own sins and miseries, counting them before God, and exaggerating them very much with sorrow of heart; for the more we shall exaggerate them the more we excite God's mercy to remedy them. ”

“ For both by temptation the devil persecuteth us, and by persecution the devil also tempteth us. And as persecution is tribulation to every man, so is temptation tribulation to a good man. Now, though the devil, our spiritual enemy, fight against man in both, yet this difference hath the common temptation from the persecution: Temptation is, as it were, the fiend's snare, and persecution his plain open fight. And therefore will I now call all this kind of tribulation here by the name of temptation, and that shall I divide into two parts. ”

“ Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Get your consciences wounded, and resolve not to hear the counsel of carnal friends. Go thou and lie at God's footstool, and confess thy sins before him, for it is he that confesseth and forsaketh all, shall find mercy; and where there is this true and hearty confession, there must needs be a godly sorrow for sin. ”

“ Lord! teach us to act according to Thy good pleasure, and Thy good Spirit direct our footsteps, that we may walk before Thee in faith, patience and hope, in godliness and honesty, in meekness, humility and chastity, and all Christian virtues. But when we sin, then chastise us gently; when [131] our sins trouble us, comfort us with Thy grace, and Thy joyful Spirit uphold us. When satan assails us, do Thou support us, when the world persecutes us, then protect us; when our flesh and blood would overpower us, then strengthen our spirit; when we err, set us aright again. ”

“ Before all things I declare and testify to you that you shall observe none of the impious customs of the pagans, neither sorcerers, nor diviners, nor soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor must you presume for any cause, or for any sickness, to consult or inquire of them; for he who commits this sin loses unavoidably the grace of baptism. In like manner pay no attention to auguries, and sneezings; and when you are on a journey pay no attention to the singing of certain little birds. ”

“ We meditate when we interiorly consider and apply to our soul's need each petition of the Pater, or other prayer. We meditate when we reverently contemplate in others the type of God's mercy or power. ”

“ Sinners who desire truly to be converted, and to turn to God, and to change their life, are to take for the matter of their meditation their own sins, and all such things as may aid them to know the number and enormity of them, or that may cause a detestation of them, and sorrow for having committed them. ”