do Thou receive her into Thine, that the work of Thy hands, for which they were nailed to the cross, may not be destroyed! I offer myself to imitate in this life Thy poverty and nakedness, that in death Thy hands may receive me, and may carry me with them to the repose of Thy glory! Amen.
5. We may likewise make addresses and prayers to our blessed Lady the Virgin, and to our guardian angel and other saints, beseeching their favour for that hour; for while we live we ought to negotiate that which should aid us at that instant.
(To this purpose we shall make use of a manner of preparation to die well, which will be put in the fourth part in the 51st meditation, collected from what Christ our Saviour did at his death, as likewise of what will be said in the fifth part in the 34th meditation, concerning the glorious assumption of our blessed Lady.)
MEDITATION IX.
ON THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT THAT IS MADE OF THE SOUL IN THE INSTANT OF DEATH. [1]
In this meditation I must presuppose that truth of our faith, that all men (as St. Paul [2] says) are to be " manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may" give a reason of all " that he hath done, whether it be good or evil," while he lived in this body, and this judgment is made invisibly after death; for "Statutum est omnibus hominibus semel mori, et post hoc judicium;" " It is appointed by Almighty God unto men once to die, and after this the judgment," [3] from which (as from death) no man will escape.
