Publisher's Synopsis
Introduction 4 I 9 The First Consideration for Sunday II 16 The Second Consideration for Monday III 24 The Third Consideration for Tuesday IV 33 The Fourth Consideration for Wednesday V 42 The Fifth Consideration for Thursday VI 54 The Sixth Consideration for Friday VII 69 The Seventh Consideration for Saturday VIII 81 Litanies for a Happy Death Excerpt: In order, therefore, to receive a due impression, first recommend yourself by some short prayer to the Holy Ghost, to the blessed Virgin, and to your angel guardian; then entertain yourself for some time with the meditation, weighing every particular, and not superficially running it over at first sight. If in the course of the day, the devil assault you by some evil suggestion, wicked insinuation or example, oppose, in your own defence, the morning's meditation, recalling it immediately to your memory. Shall not that great thought, as St. Augustine calls it, which has given to the church so many martyrs, so many hermits, so many religious, virgins and penitents, inspire you with sufficient courage, to contemn one moment of pleasure to avoid an eternity of misery? I hope, if other remedies have proved ineffectual, this at least may help you; and if it do not, I know of none that will. "The wound which cannot be healed by gentle applications, must be cured by incision; if that fails, it must be done by fire, and what is not cured by fire, must be looked on as incurable." Finally, as prayer is the principal means ordained by Divine Providence for obtaining that grace, which, of all others, is the most conducive to avoid eternal damnation, we have assigned a proper form of prayer for every day, to remind us of the advice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: Watch at all times, praying that ye may be made worthy to avoid all those things, and stand before the Son of Man. Luke xxi. Be, therefore, always on your guard; open your eyes by serious consideration; beseech God to enable you to avoid so consummate an evil, as that of being eternally damned, and of obtaining the inestimable treasure of the enjoyment of his presence in heaven forever.
