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The PRAYER.
O Holy King of Sion, Eternal Jesus, who with great Humility and infinite Love didst enter into the Holy City, riding upon an Asse, that thou mightest verisie the Predictions of the Prophets, and give example of Meekness and of the gentle and pater∣nal government which the eternal Father laid upon thy shoulders; be pleased, deares̄t Lord, to enter into my Soul with triumph, trampling over all thine enemies: and give me grace to entertain thee with joy and adoration, with abjection of my own desires, with lopping off all my supersluous branches of a temporal condition, and spending them in the offices of Charity and Religion, and devesting my self of all my desires, laying them at thy holy feet, that I may bear the yoke and burthen of the Lord with alacrity, with love, and the wonders of a satisfied and triumphant spirit. Lord, enter in and take possession; and thou, to whose honour the very stones would give testimony, make my sto∣ny heart an instrument of thy praises; let me strew thy way with flowers of Vertue, and the holy Rosary of Christian Graces: and by thy aid and example let us also triumph over all our infirmities and hostilities, and then lay our victories at thy feet, and at last follow thee into thy heavenly Jerusalem with palms in our hands, and joy in our hearts, and eternal acclamations on our lips, rejoycing in thee, and singing Hallelujahs in a hap∣py Eternity to thee, O holy King of Sion, eternal Jesus. Amen.
2.
O Blessed and dear Lord, who wert pleased to permit thy self to be sold to the as∣semblies of evil persons for a vile price by one of thy own servants, for whom thou hadst done so great favours, and hadst designed a crown and a throne to him, and he turned himself into a sooty coal, and entred into the portion of evil Angels; teach us to value thee above all the joys of men, to prize thee at an estimate beyond all the wealth of nature, to buy wisdome, and not to sell it, to part with all that we may enjoy thee: and let no temptation abuse our understandings, no loss vex us into impatience, no fru∣stration of hope fill us with indignation, no pressure of calamitous accidents make us angry at thee the fountain of love and blessing, no Covetousness transport us into the suburbs of Hell and the regions of sin; but make us to love thee as well as ever any creature lo∣ved thee, that we may never burn in any fires but of a holy love, nor sink in any in∣undation but what proceeds from penitential showrs, and suffer no violence but of impla∣cable desires to live with thee, and, when thou callest us, to suffer with thee, and for thee.
3.
LOrd, let me never be betrayed by my self, or any violent accident and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 temptation; let me never be sold for the vile price of temporal gain, or transient pleasure, or a pleasant dream; but since thou hast bought me with a price, even then when thou wert sold thy self, let me never be separated from thy possession. I am thine, bought with a price, Lord, save me; and in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels remember, Lord, that I cost thee as dear as any, and therefore cast me not into the portion of Judas: but let me walk and dwell and bathe in the field of thy bloud, and pass from hence pure and sanctified into the society of the elect Apostles, receiving my part with them, and my lot in the communications of thy inheritance, O gracious Lord and dearest Saviour Jesus.