SAint Ierome in a Funerall Oration , Pretiosissimum de locis sanct●● monile per●●idi●●● . strewing flowers vppon the hearst of Fabiola , said concerning her , Wee haue lost a most pretious iewell out of the Church . But since your happy departure from the Romish Synagogue , and repairing to our true reformed Church , wee may say on the contrary , in regard of you , We haue gained a most pretious Iewell to the Church . Such lowlinesse of minde in such height of fortunes : such Deuotion in such distractions ; such constancy in such temptations , wee blesse God for , in you ; wee pray God for , in others of your Sexe and ranke . If to touch vpon your modesty were not to wound it , and to relate your continuall practise of Deuotion were not to interrupt it , I should speake much of it , yet no more then they know to bee most true , who are neerest to you , when you draw neere to your Father in secret . But because it is not the least of your praises , that you cannot endure praise , Fascinant laudando . and there are many in England ( not onely in Africa ) who are bewitched by flattery ; I will drawe a veile before those eminent parts which my pensill cannot expresse . And therfore ceasing farther to blazon your vertues , I humblie craue leaue of you to preferre vnto you a seruant to attend you in your closet ; I meane THE HAND-MAID TO PRIVATE DEVOTION ; who vpon her knee , tenders to your Grace some helpes to your Deuotion , together with the Deuotion and prayers of the Author to God for you , to crowne you with the blessings of this life , and the blessednesse of the life to come .

IN the late dreadfull Visitation , when the waies of Sion mourned , because none passed by them ; and the gates of the Sanctuary lamented , because almost none entred at them ; Religion her selfe for the most , forbearing the Church , and keeping her closet , and there finding sufficient employment to complaine of , & bewaile the danger and desolation of her solemnest assemblies : I fell into a serious consideration of the vse and most vrgent necessity of PRIVATE DEVOTION . And to the end I might accord with my brethren in their groanes and cries , being smitten my selfe with a dangerous ( though not infectious ) disease ; I gaue ouer those waters of strife wherein I had met with the Romish Fisher , intangled in his owne Net ; and sought after the waters of Shiloah that runne softly , which at that season farre better relished with me then the other . Not that I altered my iudgement touching the studie of controuersies , which ( without all controuersie ) is not onely most needefull , but delightfull also to them that are therein exercised .

It is an easie taske , and almost euery ones labour now a dayes to gather flowers of Paradice , and make Posies , or Garlands of them for Christ's Spouse . But it is not for euery hand to meddle with those thornie difficulties , which yet must be carefully handled by them who will make a strong hedge or sure fence for the Lord's Vineyard . The more perplexed , and intricate the difficulty is , the greater is the contentment in beating out the truth in points of no lesse consequence then difference . Children are not so much delighted with smiting flints one against the other to see the sparcles , as men of rational understanding & discourse , by collision of contrary arguments , to strike out the fire of diuine Truth . And this fire as well as that other which the naturall heate of Deuotion kindleth , yeeldeth much warmth to the conscience euen of a dying man . Witnesse Oecolampadius , whose last words were these : Now I goe cheerefully to the tribunall of Christ , where it shall appeare , that I haue not seduced God's people , but haue sincerely taught the truth of God . I might instance likewise in Doctor Whitaker's Cygnea Cantio , his swanlike song before his death , wherein hee warble●h sweetely vpon those at this day most Vexed questions of vniuersall grace and freewill . And his contemporary , the eye of the other Vniuersity , Doctor Reynolds , when hee lay on his death bed , called for Doctor Abbots ( after the Lord Bishop of Salisbury ) Reply to W. Bishop , then newly come forth , and heard much of it read vnto him with great contentment .

But being ( as I said euen now ) out of tune in my body , I listed not , nor in that shaking weakenes could hold fast the peggs to streine and tune the iarring strings of c●ntrouersed opinions in point of Religion . That which I then most desired , was to settle my thoughts and affections , and compose my soule to rest by listening to the sweete songs of Sion , set to Dauids well-tuned harpe , and runs vpon in exquisite diuision by some of our excellent Asaphs in their pious Treatises , Soliloquies , Prayers , Meditations , and Contemplations . This heauenly musick so ranished my senses , that I found by experience in the twylight , betwixt the day of life , and night of death , that inlightened thoughts affoord nothing like comfort to en flamed affections . Now the oyle which feedeth this sacred flame ( next to the inspired holy Scriptures ) floweth most abundantly in Treatises of Deuotion . In which kinde of writings , the Romanists for the most part exceede in bulke , but our Diuines in weight . The Church of Rome ( like Leah ) is more fruitfull ; but her Deuotions ( like Leah in this also ) are blea●e-eyed with superstition . But the mother of our faith ( like Rachel ) is not altogether so fruitful , yet she is more comely , and beautiful , and I hope wil be also here after as fruitful . Verily if euer Priuate Deuotions powring themselus forth in brinish teares , were in season , now they are . Neuer losses so great to be bewailed ; neuer iudgements so fearefull to bee auerted ; neuer hearts so hard to be mollified ; neuer consciences so fowle to be rinsed by teares as now . Nature hath prouided a soueraigne remedy against the sting of the Scorpion in the oyle of the Scorpion . When thou feelest the sting , it is but bruising the Serpent , and rubbing it on the place , and the moisture presently of the Serpent killed , destroyeth the venome of that Serpent . I would to God our soules were as deare to vs as our bodies , and that we tooke as much care for remedies against sinne , as salues against enuenomed wounds . Then would we , as soone as we feele the sting of sinne in our consciences , bruise the Serpent by true contrition ; destroy the sinne , and apply the oyle of teares issuing from it , to cure the wound before it festered . But among other iust causes of teares , this is not the least that wee misspend our teares , and spill that heauenly dew , and profane the Font-water of our second baptisme ( as Saint Cyprian calleth it . ) Wee haue teares at our owne will in worldly losses ; but none at God's command for the losse of his grace . Wee take on for the death of our friends departing from vs ; but cannot wring out a teare for the spirituall death of our soules departing from God . Yet all our fretting and vexing , all our weeping and howling cannot fetch our friend backe againe , or repaire our worldly losses : whereas on the contrary ( as Saint Chrysostome piously noteth ) the afflicting of our soules , and serious bewailing of our sinnes , by God's grace , shall reuiue our soules , and recouer all our spirituall losses , and that with aduantage . What pittie , nay what folly is it , to powre costly eye-water out of a Venice-glasse into a vile pot or basen to wash our feete withall ? Do we not the like , when we turne godly sorrow into worldly , and abuse pretious teares to the bewailing of vile & base losses ? haue we suchstore of them ? or such want of better employment for them ? See we not wrath is gone out against vs , and the fire long agoe kindled , and not yet quenched by our teares ? Lord , thou hast shewed thy people terrible things ; thou hast giuen vs a drinke of deadly wine , and hast caused vs to suck out the dreggs of it , because we ( Moab like ) are setled vpon our Lees. As Pharaoh saw the hugh of his bloodie minde in the waters of Aegypt turned all redd as blood : so we may see the crimson colour of our sins in the vialls of thy wrath powred of late vpon vs . We trade not spiritually for the pearle of the Gospell , and therefore our Merchant's returnes faile . Wee would not weepe for our sins , and therefore the heauens did weepe for vs a long season in continuall showers . We haue bin hard hearted , and barren in good works , and therefore thou madest heretofore the heauen aboue vs as brasse , and the earth vnder vs as Yron . By drunkennesse and gluttony , by euill perswasions and worse examples , one soule hath infected another ; and therefore thou hast sent a Plague whereby one body infecteth another . Such a Plag● ▪ as our ancients neuer heard of , and our posterity will scarce belieue . The chiefe of our Cities haue beene ploughed vp , and sowed so thick with dead corps's that one could scarce lye by another . Against this and all other iudgements which thy law threatneth , and our sins prouoke , wee haue no weapons to contend with thy iustice but prayers and teares . We haue no meanes to clense the infected aire but our sighs and groanes . O Lord remoue our sins as a clowde , and iniquities as a mist , and then this dreadfull bloodie clowde which lately powred downe , but now onely droppeth , will vanish of it selfe . Consummate the worke of mercy thou hast begun , and quite remoue this iudgement through thy tender compassion in the bowells of Christ Iesus , wee beseech thee . But remoue this iudgement in mercie , not in iudgement . Take not thy hand off of vs to fetch a greater stroake at vs . Deliuer vs not from one Plague as thou diddest Pharoh , to send a worse in steede thereof . Put vs not out of thine hands into which we are fallen , to giue vs ouer into the hands of our enemies . Saue vs not from the Sword to kill vs with Famine ; neither preserue vs from a corporall , to starue vs with a spirituall . Take not away one plaister , to apply a smarter in the place ; but perfectly heale our wounds . Bee absolutely reconciled vnto vs in him , vpon whom thou hast already layed the chastisement of our peace . O remember not our our old sinnes , but haue mercy vpon vs , and that soone , for wee are come to great misery . Helpe vs , ô God of our saluation , for the glory of thy name ; ô deliuer vs , and bee mercifull to our sins for thy names sake . O thinke vpon thy congregation , and Mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt . Looke vpon the hands of many thousands that haue beene lifted vp to thee in Publike , and many more in Priuate , to iustifie thee in thy Iudgements , and blesse thee for thy mercies , and intreate thee for this Land , and thy disconsolate Spouse yet weeping in teares of bloud in diuerse places .

To strengthen and support the weaker of these hands , and fill their mouthes with continuall Deuotions , I haue furnished and replenished this Manuel , which I name THE HAND-MAID To PRIVATE DEVOTION , to waite on her in her Chamber , or Oratorie . The purtraying of her Mistresse I leaue to the pensill of some Diuine Apelles , whose taske will be the harder , because she neuer commeth abroade . All that my intention aimeth at , and my endeauours promise , is but to lay open a priuate way , and set vp certaine Stages for thy holy race , and pricke thee on forward in it . Farre better helpes in this kinde the pious charitie and zeale of religious and learned persons hath afforded thee ; of whom yet I may truely say , as Tully spake of the Emperours that dealt with Mithridates before Pompey , Laudandum quod secerunt , ignoscendum quod reliquerunt : They are to be commended for that they haue done , and pardoned for that they left . What they haue left , I labour to supply ; and if I cannot supply it , yet I thought fit to implie and intimate , that the Authors themselues , or the Publishers of their workes , might adde what they finde wanting .

First my thinkes I see in their bookes of Deuotion and prayers , Salomon's temple , without the gate called Bewtifull ; I meane , exquisite meditations , and orizons , without an entrance thereunto by preparation . With that part therefore I begin ; and it taketh vp the more roome in my booke , because it hath beene so scanted for place , or rather quite excluded in theirs . In it if thou finde some tertnesse , I intreate thee ( Courteous Reader ) to remember with me the precept of the Lord Iesu , Haue salt , and haue peace . If I haue salt , haue thou peace , the rather , because Hymnes , Prayers , and other religious exercises are spirituall sacrifices ; and euery sacrifice by the Law was to be seasoned with salt . Et quoniam mel in Dei sacrificijs non offertur , nimia dulcedo arte mutata est , & quâdam piperis austeritate condita apud Deum nil tantum suaue placet , nisi quod habet in se aliquid mordacis veritatis . It is S. Ierom's obseruation vpon the legall sacrifices , that God neuer appointed hony to be offered vnto him . And the morall truth vailed vnder that shadow , was that in our spirituall oblations , nothing pleaseth God that is onely sweete , and hath not some smacke 〈◊〉 it of biting truth .

Next I haue much maruelled what the reason might be that they vndertaking to fit prayers and de●●tions to seuerall seasons , and speciall occasions , baulked the Christian faste and feasts . For albeit the Saints dayes might fare the worse with them , because Popish superstition ouer cloyed them . Which yet is an abuse of arguing to argue from the abuse to the abolishing the right vse . By this meanes they might take from vs the vse of all Gods creatures , because they haue beene superstitiously or profanely abused some way or other . But admit there might be a legall caueat put in against the Saints Plea , what haue the feasts of our Lord and Sauiour deserued , that they should be struck out of their Callender , or sleightly passed without the honour of a meditation , Hymnes , or Prayer on them ? They cannot pleade want of president , authoritie , or direction : for they haue Coppies faire written in golden characters by Chrysostome in his Homilies , Chrysologus , Leo , Augustine , Bernard , & other deuout Fathers in their Sermons vpon these dayes . If they saw not them , why did they not follow the excellent patterne in the booke of Common Prayer ? Which laying before me , I haue drawne formes of exhortations , hymnes , and prayers , carying throughout a manifest impression of the feast to which they are dedicated . And before them I haue prefixed a Paralell of the Prophesie of the old , and the Historie of the new Testament compared together , that thou mightest haue an ocular demonstration of that which S. Austine writeth concerning both . The new Testament is vailed in the old , and the old is reuealed in the new .

After the feasts , or before as preparatiues to them , the Church fasts should haue beene ranked . But there being in their Deuotions no spirituall dainties allowed for the festiuals , I nothing maruelled at it that Christian fastes were vtterly vnprouided for , and ( if I may so speake ) fast with them . Extraordinarie fasts of humili●tion to auert some fearefull Plague or im●inent iudgement they take notice of , but the ordinarie fasts of Deuotion , they mention not at all . Yet certainely the deuoute soule out of a sympathie with her Sauiour cannot 〈◊〉 weepe with him , as well as re●oyce with him , in some measure . Fast with him on good-friday , as well as feast with him , and for him , on Easter day . If any teares of a sinner are the wine of Angels , I am perswaded they are those teares of Deuotion , which after much fasting , and Prayer , and meditation , spring out of the serious apprehension of Christs infinite loue testified to man-kinde by his fasting , watching , praying , weeping , bleeding , and dying for vs on the Crosse. But they wil say , these are the sacred fewell of euery dayes deuotion . Yet it is more proper to remember the ●orke of the day , in the day wherein it was wrought . And albeit the Iewes were bound alwayes to remember Gods wonderfull deliuerances ; yet more stricktly were they bound on the very day for that end appointed to be kept solemne . What though we finde no expresse commandement for them ? The practise of the ancient Church , and the religious constitutions of the present , ratified by Supreme authoritie , should sway in a matter of this nature , according to that golden rule of S. Bernard : Obey him as God who is in the place of God , in those things that are not against God . These fasts therefore should not haue bene forgotten .

I come now in the last place to the weekely Deuotions , wherein I finde Prayers for each seuerall day of the weeke . Yet as it is noted by the learned of S. Gregories Comment vppon Iob , that It is an excellent Commentarie fraught with rich learning especially in matter of moralitie . But it might haue beene wrote almost , as well vppon any parcell of Scripture , as vpon Iob. So you shall finde that the Prayers for each day may serue for any day as well as that to which they are intituled . For example , Munday's Prayer well fits Tuesday , and Tuesday's Wednesday ; and all three , Thursday , Friday , and Saturday . No day hath more interest in the Deuotion for it then another .

When Timothie found fault with ALEXANDER for striking a stroke amisse vpon the Harpe , and Alexander demanded of him ; Is it not all one whether I strike it this way , or that way , with these fingers , or these ? True , answered Timothie , It is all one to an Emperour , but not to a Musitian , It is no error in stale to strike as you doe ; but it is an error in art .

I confesse in like manner , it is no error in Religion ● set a godly Prayer for the day which hath no interest or relation at all to the day ; yet it is an indecorum and blurre in Art . It is all one as if they should set a marke before them , and shoote no more towards it then any other white , To auoid this improprietie , if not incongruitie , in the Morning Hymne and Prayer , I haue an eye to some worke of God the Father in the Creation wrought on that day : In the Euening Hymne and Prayer to some worke of God the Sonne wrought ( or by the Church remembred ) on that day in the Passion weeke .

For the admonitions and exhortations wherewith the Deuotions are interlaced , I tooke my patterne of them from S. CYPRIAN ; S. Cyprian lib. de exhortatione Martyrij . De agno per quem redempti & viuificati sumus lanam ipsam , & purpuram misi , quam cum acceperis to●icam tibi pro voluntate conficies . In exhortatione ●am necessaria amputandae sunt verborum nostrorum morae , & ambages sermonis humani s●btrahendae , & ponenda illa sola quae DEVS loquitur . W●th whose words , I will not cloathe mine owne . I haue sent thee cloth ( saith he ) made of the fleece of that Lamb , by whose bloud we are all redeemed . Take as much as will serue thy turne ; and fashion and fit thy garment to thine owne minde . All inferences and discourses of mine owne I omit , because in so needfull exhortations the delayes and lingering protractions of mens words are to be cut off , and onely Gods owne words to bee set downe .

To summe vp all in a word , I haue brought thee into the Spouse garden of flowers and spices ; I haue gathered some out ( almost ) of euery bed , and layed by them a thread in the Analysis or Method , to binde them vp together . Make thou thy Posie as thou likest best ; and breathe out with mee that sweete Prayer of the Spouse , cut in one of her knots .

Arise ô North and blow , ô South winde , tha●●he sent of our Spices & flowers may flow , and the beloued may come into his Garden . Cant. 4. 16.

GEntle Reader , the lesser escapes , I intreat thee to mend with thy pen , and to set some marginall notes at the right place which thou shalt find here and there a little misplaced .