superabundant multitude of thy tender mercies. Prepare us all in the way that thou pleaseat, and especially this our brother N.,whom it is thy appointment to call the soonest; and grant him happily to breathe out his soul with true patience, perfect resignation, full remission of his sins, the strongest faith, firm hope, and entire charity, in the most perfect state, into thy most sweet embrace and most loving kiss, to thy everlasting praise.
Ah! most sweet Redeemer, Lord Jesus, by those mournful words which thou utteredst when dying on the Cross, and exhausted by the sorrows of thy Passion: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? remove not, I beseech thee, from thy servant, our brother N., the help of thy mercy, for in this hour and moment of extreme affliction he is, from faintness of soul and exhaustion of spirit, unable to invoke thee.
By the triumph of thy holy Cross, and by the infinite merit of thy Death and Passion, think towards him, O Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, — thoughts of mercy and consolation. Deliver him out of all his anguish, and by thy own most holy Hands, which, O good Jesus and most loving Father, thou hast, for him and for us all, permitted to be fastened with nails upon the Cross, deliver him from the torments that are due to him, and bring him safe to everlasting rest. Amen.
To the same effect are the Prayers for a happy death, above, chap. xi.
TO THE GOOD READER.
Here, good reader, we now close the Paradise, which I entreat and exhort thee so to use, as that it may prepare for thee the way to another, and that, when on the point of departure hence, thou too mayest merit to hear: This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.
The author and translators will be well repaid by one ejaculation for them offered to God from thy heart.
