OF PREPARATION WHICH IS requifite before praier. CHAP. V

IT shal now be requisite forvs, to treate particularlie of euerie one of these parts aforesaide, & first of the Preparation, which goeth before the others.

Being in the place of praier, kneeling or standing, thy armes stretched out in manner of a crucifixe, or prostrate vppon the grownd, or sitting (yf thou canst not settel thie self in anie other sort) after thou hast made the signe of the Crosse, thou must recollect thie imagination, & withdrawe the same from all things of this life, and lift vp thy mind to heauen, considering that our Lord beholdeth, and looketh vppon thee. Thou must also stand there with such attention and reuerence, as yf thou hadst God there reallie present before thine eys, and with a general repentance of thy sinnes (yf thie praier be in the morning) thou maist sale the general confession Confiteor Deo, &c. or (yf thy meditation be in the euening) thou maist examine thy conscience, touching all that which, thou hast thought, spoken, or donne, or heard in that daie, as also, how forgetful thou hast ben of our lord; and repenting thy self of all the defects cōmitted that daie and of al those of thy life past, and humbling thy self before the maiestie of almightie God, in whose sight thou standest, thou maist vtter these woords of the holie Patriarch.

I wil speake to my lord, ¹ although I be but dust & as hes: and with the substance and matter of these few woords, thou maist, for som little time, entertaine thy self, considering wel what thou art, and what God is, that so thou maist with more reuerence, humble thy self before so great a maiestie, as is that of almightie God. For thou art a bottomlesse depth of infinite sinnes and miseries: and God is an infinite deepenes of al riches and greatnes: and being in this consideration, thou must dooe him al due reuerence, and humble thy self before his supreme maiestie.

With this also, thou must humblie beseeche this lord to giue thee grace, that thou maist stand there with such attention and deuotion, with such in ward recollection, and with such feare and reuerence, as it behoueth thee to haue before so soueraine a maiestie, and that thou maist so passe ouer this time of praier, that thou maist com from the same with new desires and force, to doe al such things as appertaine to his service. For the praier, which yeeldeth not this fruite, is to be esteemed verie vnperfect and of small valew.

Footnotes

1. Genes. 18.27. ↩