The Handmaid to Private Devotion, Title page 1 – Outline of contents 1
Ancilla Pietatis: OR, THE HAND-MAID to Priuate DEVOTION: Presenting a Manuell to furnish her with Necessary Principles of Faith. Forcible Motiues to a holy life. Vsefull Formes of Hymnes and Prayers: fitted to
The Christian Feasts and Fasts.
The Weeks of the yeere.
The daies of the Weeke.
Christus fide concipitur, confessione nascitur deuotione tenetur S. Leo.
By Daniel Featly, D. Diuinity.
At London printed for Nicholas Bourne. Anno Domini 1626
Then another Angel: Re Watch yee in Faith and Hope. and
A ye serpent was lif: Io: 3.14
Loo y3 starre: Matt 2.9.
…: Luk: 2.11
There apeared …
Why stand ye … Acts …
… Mat: 28. …
Deuotion.
Handmaid
…in Christo Patris … Coll. Emman. Cantab.
TO THE RIGHT Noble and Religious Lady, the Dutchesse of Buckingam her GRACE.
May it please your Grace:
SAint Ierome in a Funerall Oration,Pretiosissimum de locis sanct… monile per…idi…. strewing flowers vppon the hearst of Fabiola, said cōcerning her, VVee hauehave 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 hauehave 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 vponupon 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 onelyonly 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 vntounto you a seruant to attend you in your closet; I meane THE HAND-MAID TO PRIVATE DEVOTION; who vponupon 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.
Your Graces humbly deuoted, DANIEL FEATLY.
THE PREFACE to the Reader.
CHRISTIAN READER,
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 onelyonly most needefull, but delightfull also to them that are therein exercised.
It is an easie taske, and almost eueryevery 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 eueryevery 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 mē of rational vnderstāding & 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 hauehave not seduced God's people, but hauehave 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 vponupon 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 vntounto 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 vponupon 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…eeyed with superstitiō. 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 thēselus 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 vsus 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 hauehave 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 frō vsus; 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? hauehave we suchstore of them? or such want of better employmēt for them? See we not wrath is gone out against vsus, and the fire long agoe kindled, and not yet quenched by our teares? Lord, thou hast shewed thy people terrible things; thou hast giuen vsus a drinke of deadly wine, and hast caused vsus to suck out the dreggs of it, because we (Moab like) are setled vponupon 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 vponupon vsus. 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 vsus a long season in continuall showers. We hauehave bin hard hearted, and barren in good works, and therefore thou madest heretofore the heauen aboue vsus as brasse, and the earth vnderunder vsus 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 hauehave 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 hauehave no weapons to contend with thy iustice but prayers and teares. We hauehave 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 onelyonly 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 merciemercy, not in iudgement. Take not thy hand off of vsus to fetch a greater stroake at vsus. Deliuer vsus not from one Plague as thou diddest Pharoh, to send a worse in steede thereof. Put vsus not out of thine hands into which we are fallen, to giuegive vsus ouer into the hands of our enemies. Saue vsus not from the Sword to kill vsus with Famine; neither preserue vsus from a corporall, to starue vsus with a spirituall. Take not away one plaister, to apply a smarter in the place; but perfectly heale our wounds. Bee absolutely reconciled vntounto vsus in him, vponupon whom thou hast already layed the chastisement of our peace. O remember not our our old sinnes, but hauehave mercy vponupon vsus, and that soone, for wee are come to great misery. Helpe vsus, ô God of our saluation, for the glory of thy name; ô deliuer vsus, and bee mercifull to our sins for thy names sake. O thinke vponupon thy congregation, and Mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt. Looke vponupon the hands of many thousands that hauehave 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 hauehave 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 hauehave done, and pardoned for that they left. What they hauehave 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, HaueHave salt, and hauehave peace. If I hauehave salt, hauehave thou peace, the rather, because Hymnes, Prayers, and other religious exercises are spirituall sacrifices; and eueryevery 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 vponupon the legall sacrifices, that God neuer appointed hony to be offered vntounto him. And the morall truth vailed vnderunder that shadow, was that in our spirituall oblations, nothing pleaseth God that is onelyonly sweete, and hath not some smacke … it of biting truth.
Next I hauehave 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 superstitiō 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 vsus the vse of all Gods creatures, because they hauehave beene superstitiously or profanely abused some way or other. But admit there might be a legall caueat put in against the Saints Plea, what hauehave 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 hauehave Coppies faire written in golden characters by Chrysostome in his Homilies, Chrysologus, Leo, Augustine, Bernard, & other deuout Fathers in their Sermons vponupon 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 hauehave drawne formes of exhortations, hymnes, and prayers, carying throughout a manifest impression of the feast to which they are dedicated. And before them I hauehave prefixed a Paralell of the Prophesie of the old, and the Historie of the new Testament compared together, that thou mightest hauehave 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 hauehave 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 louelove testified to man-kinde by his fasting, watching, praying, weeping, bleeding, and dying for vsus on the Crosse. But they wil say, these are the sacred fewell of eueryevery 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 hauehave 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 hauehave beene wrote almost, as well vppon any parcell of Scripture, as vponupon 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 vponupon 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 hauehave 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 hauehave 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 onelyonly Gods owne words to bee set downe.
To summe vp all in a word, I hauehave brought thee into the Spouse garden of flowers and spices; I hauehave gathered some out (almost) of eueryevery 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.
A Generall Table, representing the Method of this Worke.
This Manuell hath in it described a plat of holy ground diuided into
1 A garden of spirituall flowers,
1 For ornament, to decke and dresse vp the inner roome, to entertaine the Spouse, as prēparations to religious duties
In generall
Prayer.
Hearing the Word.
In speciall to
Receiuing § Sacrament.
2. For sent, to make nose-gayes, according to the seasons of the yeere; as formes of hymnes, prayers, and thanksgiuings
Ordinarie, for the weeke dayes.
Extraordinary, for Christian
Feasts.
Fasts.
3 For medicine to cure & strengthen; as
Admonitions out of Scripture.
Prayers for
Men in sicknesse.
Women in childbearing.
Thāksgiuing for
Recouerie of men.
Deliuery of women.
2 The nursery thereof, which is set with 52. plants of Paradise, agreeable to the weekes in the yeere, digested into a Catechisme; in which are set downe
Rules, according to which
Graces, by which—
Blessings, for which—
wee ought to pray and giuegive thaks.