midst of Light and now unless he get assistance of the light of Grace by Prayer what will become of him And how shall he keep himself standing in the midst of so much darkness and so many confusions as he has been subject to ever since he was banished thence 3. What is our Nature but a Vessel of Passions and Miseries a seed-plot of Sins and of Misfortunes Consider Man in his Generation and thou shalt find him to be nothing but Corruption Behold him in the darkness of his Mother's womb and thou shalt find him a little lump of living filth Behold him taken Captive before ever he was at liberty and a Prisoner before he hath committed any Crime His Body scarcely formed and yet already shut up in a most obscure Dungeon Thus was he acquainted with darkness before he saw any light and came headlong crying into the World as an Omen of his precipitate Passions and future Miseries Yet alas that Captivity which his Body suffers in his Mother's Womb is less to be lamented than the other which his Soul suffers in his Body 4. Behold that is a Captive not only to corruption and filth as the Body for that were tolerable but also to the loathsomness of sin created to an Original Servitude and condemned to Troubles without number or measure To begin to be and to begin to be in Servitude is in Man one and the same thing We are all born Slaves of the common Enemy what have we then to be proud of Only one Man exempted himself from this hard Servitude for he was God All the rest fell all the rest are Tributaries without remedy 5. Man is born to suffer and to weep he forces out his way by the strait passages of Afflictions Pangs and Throws causing them to his Mother and sometimes even her very Death What kind of Creature is this that cannot come to life without hazarding to give or to receive death And who at the same time begins to live and to lament being accustom'd to Tears before he comes acquainted with Laughter But it is no wonder he should weep at his Mother's feet for being born seeing the miseries that expect him in the World The Body hath cause enough to bewail its innumerable pains and the Soul its innumerable sins Finally Man is born the most feeble and helpless of all Creatures being destitute of every thing and needing the succour of every body He is kept alive by the Alms Care and Compassion of his Parents being utterly unable to help himself and utterly useless to all others 6. In this sad condition God's mercy steps in and makes him His by the Water of Baptism He takes from him the â—…gs of the Old Adam and cloaths him with the Robe of Grace making him the Adopted Son of God by the blood of the Eternal Son of God O! happy he if his Fortune ended here and if in this Holiness and Innocency of Childhood he might pass from Grace to Glory But no alas he is not so happy for he grows up either to a greater Reward or to harder Sufferings The light of Reason no sooner begins to glimmer in him but presently his Appetite rushes forth to oppose it and that being commonly strong and powerful drags the other after it because it is weaken'd by the first fall unless it be assisted by God's Grace His Affections take birth with his Understanding and with them his Passions gather strength these grow and daily darken his Reason he lives a painful and vexatious life in a continual conflict sometimes falling sometimes getting up again and very often totally overcome and willingly yielding up the Victory His Life whilst an Infant is meer impotence whilst a Child ignorance whilst a Youth danger whilst a Man care when Old weakness pain and sorrow and his passage through all these Ages is frailty sin and folly In short he lives such a life that Death uses sometimes to be his Wish often his Refuge and always the great Remedy of his Miseries This is the external Man therefore do thou use thy endeavours to become an internal Man Conquer Nature by the help of Grace thy Appetite by that of Reason the Delights of the Flesh by Mortification the Deceits of the World by Prayer and even Death it self by a Religious Life The Second WEEK Of the Frailty of Man and of the Miseries of his Body THis is the Nature of Man in general Look now in particular upon the Body that gross and visible part of our frailty Job saith not that man's Body hath some miseries and troubles but that he is of few days and full of troubles Would'st thou see it They are so many that they commonly break forth because they cannot be contained within him and ever and anon that which afflicts him inwardly discovers it self outwardly in boyls and blisters in swellings and discolourings of the skin The Year hath fewer days than there be ways of dying suddenly and can any body live in so stupid a Lethargy as not so much as to dream of an Eternal Life The Year and even our Life hath fewer hours than there be Mortal Diseases in the Body as Naturalists affirm and can any one live forgetful of his Soul We may wonder how life can continue in the Body having so many Gates and Windows to get out at How is it possible that the four Humours which are Enemies to one another should agree and last together in so strait so narrow and so obscure a place as is man's Body Yet they do not agree but with a most obstinate strife and contest they do disorder and discompose our life What is the Body but a false and seeming Friend to the Soul yet in truth its certain and deadly Enemy What is the Body but a Vessel of Poyson which to day is not perceived yet kills to morrow What is the Body but a heap of loathsomness and corruption What is it but a living deceit which yet continually undeceives us if we would be undeceived and a security in appearance but a constant infelicity Whilst it is in Health it cheats us and never speaks truth but in Sickness so long as it lives it is a lye and never tells truth till it be dead 2. Our life is nothing but death in a disguise and when it has made an end of acting its part the Mask is pull'd off The most beautiful Body carries that within it which were sufficient to make it eternally fly from it self if it were possible so to do It is full of filth and corruption so loathsome and so nauseous that it is a scandal but to name them It is a source of Uncleanness and the wretched dwelling of Impurities which are so numerous that it was necessary to make many Common Sewers for them to run out at because there was not room enough for them within The Body is so frail that every thing hath a powerful Jurisdiction over it a little dust choaks it a little
my Senses Powers and Faculties since I have abused them all in offending against thee my God nor will I defer my Tears till my Death since I did not defer my Sins till my Death 3. I desire O Lord that I may not be to seek for Oil in my Lamp when the Bridegroom calls but to have it ready prepar'd and lighted against his coming To get Oil after death is impossible grant that I may buy it and furnish my self before I fall asleep Life without thy Grace is not only Sleep but Death grant therefore O Lord that I may prepare for Death during Life by living well Grant O Lord my God that the Bridegroom at his coming may find me watching grant O Lord that when the Thief shall come to break into this House of my Body and rob me of my Soul I may not be found asleep in any customary Sin but awake upon my Guard and with my Lamp ready lighted and let me never hear from thee the Light eternal that terrible saying I know thee not 4. Grant that at thy second coming thou mayest find me with my Loins girt and my Light burning and able to give such an account of the Talents which thou hast given me that the Benefits of thy former coming may by thy Mercy be made effectual to my Soul What shall become of me O my God if I loose thee If once I loose thee O Light eternal when shall I be able ever to recover thee Deliver my Soul from the roaring Lion free my darling from the Power of the infernal Dragon if once I loose my self and thee Is it possible I should ever find thee again my Saviour Is there any passage from Hell to Glory Is there any Redemption in that place of Torment where all Mercies are utterly cut off Shall I expose my Soul to that hazard to that danger and to that loss at my Death for not repenting while I live Shall I trust that which is most precious and most important to the most unfit and the most uncertain time Shall I put off the loosing or enjoying thee eternally O my Jesus to a Conjuncture so full of anguish and confusion as scarce affords a possibility of knowing thee No Lord suffer me not I beseech thee to fall into so miserable a Condition rather let me die now instantly at this present moment in thy Grace than so foolishly to adventure the loss of both thy Grace and Glory 5. This is the Answer we should make to God these are the Thoughts we ought to feel these are the Requests we ought to make before the Agony of Death for then the Pains of the Body the Anguish of the Soul the Grief for leaving the Pleasures of this World and the Fear of going into the Torments of the next the Distraction of thy Thoughts and the Decay of thy Understanding will neither suffer thee to attend thy Prayers nor allow thee time to consider what to pray for O how ignorant how mad a Folly it is to delay our amendment till the Hour of Death What a mistake it is to believe that our dammage does not increase with that deceit and our deceit with that dammage What an Error to think I shall be better when I see and feel my self daily growing worse And that the end of my Life shall be good when the whole course of it from the beginning has been evil What a Cheat the Devil puts upon a Man to perswade him that when his Soul is torn out of his Body he shall be able to imploy himself in any thing else than to feel that strong Division between the Body and the Soul 6. This puts an end to the Sinner's Life this puts an end to his Delights this puts an end to his Acquaintance His Friends his Riches his Honour his Power all these must be left this is the thing that disquiets and afflicts him thither his Mind runs then where he had placed his contentment thither his sorrow his torture and confusion where he had rivetted his Heart His thought his care and his attention being taken up with what he loses and which is worse with what he fears he is in too great a Distraction to discourse of that which he should and which imports him most 7. And therefore if thou wilt live eternally die before thou diest Think of that now which thou meanest to think of hereafter Let not Death go out of thy Memory and so thou shalt amend thy Life Live and do all things as a Person that must die and thou shalt die to live for ever Thy Death shall be but a Passage not a Death and a passage to eternal Life not a dying to eternal Death MARCH The First WEEK Of the particular Account that each Man is to give immediately after his Death 1. NOW give ear and I will tell another thing more dreadful and terrible more quick and speedy and of more hazard and danger Anger than Death it self And that is the account thou art instantly to give with the Judgment and Sentence that shall be passed upon thee in particular at the Moment of thy Death What so soon Yes so soon scarce dead when already judged and Sentence past either to absolve or to condemn thee The Body is not yet quite cold upon its Bed And is the Soul judged already They are yet holding a Looking-glass to my Mouth to try whether I have any Breath left in me and is my Cause already dispatched concluded and sentenced The Body is not yet put into a Winding-sheet and is the Soul already judged and which is more the Sentence executed upon it Shall there not be a little delay Will they not allow me a little space to think how I may satisfie by some excuse the Charge that is brought against me Will they pluck me away and precipitate me so suddenly without having any thing to lay hold on when I am driven out of the Body without any thing to lay hold on when I am snatched to Judgment without any thing to lay hold on when I am hurried to execution without finding one moment of delay ere I receive the Sentence Is it possible that there is no place of refuge No retreat where I may stop a little though it were but at the foot of that very Judgment-seat where I am to be sentenced or at the Threshold of that Dungeon where I am to he imprisoned May not the Execution be suspended for a little while Is there no Chappel as I pass where a condemned Person may linger a while and pray between the Judgment-seat and the dismal place of Torment Is it possible that there is no other way either on the Right-hand or on the Left from Death to this account to this Judgment and to this Sentence whereby I may escape and hide my self Can I not turn back again Is it absolutely necessary I must be thrown headlong Must I needs swallow that bitter draught and be forc't to make that
to voluntary occasions if he may be called Spiritual that does so is in greater danger of falling than a loose and debauched man for the loose man incurs less danger because he incurs more and the cautious person probably incurs more because he incurs less How is this you 'l say I do not understand it Then I will explain it to thee The Lascivious man by custom in that Vice sometimes looses his Appetite or at least abates it and with that the Temptation but it encreases with the cautious man and becomes more ardent by his forbearance and therefore the Tempter is more sollicitous vigilant and vehement to overcome him The Delights wherewith the Devil entices a Spiritual Man are in the imagination and have nothing of act whereby he may become undeceived but those of the Vicious Man are filthy in his practise of them and that very filthiness and foulness tires him enlightens him and undeceives him for this reason Spiritual Persons ought to be more watchful and wary than those that are Sensual and if not they will do as the Galatians who ended in the Flesh having begun in the Spirit In Conclusion would'st thou be chast careful and wary Would'st thou conquer this Vice Then fly from it Other sins are conquer'd by fighting this by flying This flight is both the Combat the Victory and the Triumph but withal use Abstinence and other acts of Mortification to overcome and subdue so powerful a Passion There is a sort of Devils saith our Saviour that cannot be cast out without Fasting and Prayer To eat much and to drink much and neither to think of God nor call upon him in Prayer is not the way to conquer that strong contagious and dangerous Passion It is frail and needs strong Remedies It is incontinent and needs continent Remedies It is unruly and unbridled and therefore needs Remedies that may restrain and tame it By Abstinence thou mayest also conquer Gluttony the foul ugly Mother of many sins The ancient Philosophers though they had but the Light of their Candle which is Natural Reason yet said very excellently That a Vertuous Life consisted wholly in two words Sustine Abstine Bear and Forbear or be patient and abstemious If a Heathen could say so by the Light of his Candle What shall a Spiritual Man say being enlightened by the Sun of Christian Verities and by the Rays of Eternal and Celestial Light Abstinence is an Universal Vertue which comprehends innumerable Vertues and so this Vertue alone is a general Antidote against the Maladies of a Spiritual Life Would'st thou not sin Why then abstain from offending God by the breach of his holy Commandments Would'st thou grow in the Internal Life Why then abstain from rejecting his holy Counsels Would'st thou have the Vertues come and lodge within thee Why then abstain from running into Vice Would'st thou be perfect in all things Why then fast inwardly as well as outwardly Would'st thou subdue thy Vices Encompass thy self with the Vertues for that is the Girdle which our Saviour tells us is the Scourge of Vice What good doth it to begirt the Body with a Cord and make it lean with fasting if in the mean while the Soul grow big and swell up with Self-will What good does the yellow meager Countenance which speaks abstinence from Meat and Drink if in the mean while wrath and hatred give a worse Complexion to the Soul because they feed it with a worse Nourishment In the midst of your Fast says God your own Will reigns whereas the resigning it up to my Will ought to be the Crown and Honour of your Fast. This is another kind of Abstinence than that which is contrary to Gluttony but I will now say something of that Of Gluttony Gluttony is an infamous Vice that pollutes and destroys both Body and Soul no less than Sensuality dulling and abasing the Senses of the one and the Powers of the other It is a loathsome Vice and filthy both in its Cause and in its Effects for in its cause it fills a man with foul Humours and Diseases with Painfulness and Misery and in its Effects because by wakening and feeding the Appetite it breeds as many Mortal Distempers in the Soul as Diseases in the Body The Scripture tells us The People sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play As if it had said They sate long at Meat whereas they should have eaten but as it were in passing They did eat as if their utmost end had been eating and that they had been born for nothing else and not considering that they were born to live after another manner as soon as they had done eating they played away their Life their Fortune and their Honour God commanded that the Paschal Lamb should be eaten standing with their Loins Girt and their Staves in their hands What is this but to teach us that as our Lives pass quick away our Meals should do so too Let us eat and drink said some deluded men for to morrow we shall die See what a madness Observe what a foolish Consequence these Epicures draw when Gluttony is the Antecedent Because they are to die to morrow they eat excessively to day But Wretches if you must die to morrow and vomit up your Meat giving a strict account of what ye shall eat and drink Why do you cram your selves like Beasts to day Death uses to terrifie and undeceive every Body else but it hardens these and deceives them more and that which affrights others from sin invites these stupid men to sin See how Gluttony dulls and stupifies the Understanding since it fills it with such ignorant and sensless Discourses and Arguments O heavenly Abstinence and Moderation which givest a pure a long and a righteous Life Long because thou correctest those foul gross humours that choak and drown it Pure because thou dost quite banish them and Righteous because thou cuttest off Passions by taking away the nourishment of Vices whereof Gluttony is a fruitful Mother O heavenly Abstinence thou art the Forerunner of great Blessings By having prepared themselves with Abstinence and Fasting Moses received from God the Tables of the Law Elias received Nourishment from an Angel and the Saviour of Souls obtained innumerable Victories O holy Abstinence which dost sweeten adorn and sanctifie Repentance For by thee Vertue is cherished Vice is put to flight and holy Desires and Perfections become active vigorous and permanent The Second WEEK Of Patience THou wilt think perhaps that by being humble liberal abstinent and chast thou hast perfected the Spiritual Life but thou hast not done all yet thou must have Patience also for without that thou can'st scarce be said to have begun Those other Vertues look to what thou oughtest to do within thy self and to what thou oughtest to do to others This teacheth thee how thou oughtest to suffer from others when they oppress and injure thee The Vertue of Patience is an inward fortitude of the
profit 't is manifest that in the Night you will find nothing but Errours and Mischiefs Who would refuse to go his Journey while the Sun shines believing that he shall find his way better in the dark Therefore shake off idleness and embrace fervency and diligence Do you think you shall be able to find diligence at your Death when you have wasted all your Life in laziness and in sloth or that you shall find Amendment when you come to be judged Idleness being the Mother of all Vices The Saints call Idleness the Sepulchre of the Living because Worms Rottenness and Corruption are engendred by it and that it foments all kinds of Miseries together That holy Man understood it well who living in the Desart busied himself in carrying stones from one place to another and in bringing them back thither again and being asked why he did so he answered I avoid idleness or at least I master that body that would master me No Vice is so destructive to the Spirit nor so kind a Companion to the Flesh as idleness and although it seems the least is yet the cause of the greatest Evils Besides being slothful and idle in good there is no ill which does not encrease and become worse by it for it is the same thing as to set open the Gate of the Soul to all the Passions and Vices that shall have a mind to enter There is no Vice so mean but will adventure to assault an idle Man because it looks upon him as one that will not take the pains to make any resistance being so weak as to have yielded up himself even before he be attempted and so all wickednesses take confidence to come upon him and assume to themselves a Jurisdiction over him If the Devil be diligent watchful bold strong heedful crafty and cruel What will he be not able to do against a weak idle careless and disarmed Man The holy the spiritual and the diligent who night and day busie themselves in some vertuous Employment have much ado to escape free from the Assaults of the Devil How then shall the slothful be able to defend himself from so designing and so dangerous an Enemy So much thou dost encrease in holiness as thou dost encrease in diligence and therefore work always without ceasing for those works are Safety and Reward and do advance thee in Spirit and Charity The blessed Virgin came to so much Perfection by working for having begun with such unspeakable Graces she rose to more than can be imagined only by going on each moment encreasing and improving her former Gifts and Graces The holy Apostles were the Light of the World and observe how diligent they were They went about like the Sun in perpetual motion and by that means Twelve Men alone were able in a little more than Thirty Years to enlighten to reduce and to confound the blindness of the Gentiles throughout the whole World How could holy Persons in former Ages become in few Years such Prodigies of Holiness but by their diligence to encrease and redouble their Talents and by constantly following the Dictates of the Holy Spirit which governed them Even those valiant and ambitious Men that heretofore conquer'nt so many Nations and Countreys could never have done it but by diligence One of those being ask'd How in less than Nine Years he had gained so many Kingdoms answer'd Non procrastinando by not delaying till to Morrow If this be necessary for the Conquest of frail mortal and inconstant Kingdoms that are but Heaps of Dung What diligence and care is needful in us Christians for the gaining of the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven Traffick till I come says the Saviour of Souls Be industrious and suffer not your Talents to lie idle That slothful Servant who buried his Talent did no other harm but that he did so and sat down quietly by it and yet for all that the Lord condemns him to Hell and calls him wicked Servant Serve nequam Cursed of God because being lazy and sluggish he gave that to the Earth and to what is Sensual which was due to Heaven and to what is Spiritual Our Humane Condition and Misery can hardly hold to an Indifference If thou dost not labour in that which is good thou wilt take pains in that which is Evil not to watch is to fall asleep not to serve God and please him is little better than to offend him and in the Opinion of those who will allow no indifference in things it is as I have shew'd absolutely to offend him Believe me 't is not for nothing that Christ so often calls upon us to Watch He pronounced that word fourteen times and his blessed Lips exhort us to it so often with that very same word Watch. Sloth Idleness Omission and Negligence is the sleep of Death which carries us to Death Eternal Watch then for the Devil sleeps not for thine Appetite sleeps not Watch least the Bridegroom find thee without Oyl like the foolish Virgins when he shall come to judge thee Watch for the Thief goes about carefully to rob thy House Watch for the Infernal Lyon goes about seeking to devour thee Watch and expect the coming of thy Lord with thy Lamp burning when he shall come from the first Marriage unto the second that is from his first to his second Coming Finally If thou wilt be a true Spiritual Person thou must work and labour sweat and walk without stopping and with fervent steps follow the Lord who goes before thee carrying the Cross on his Divine Shoulders and giving strength breath and courage unto thy Fervency by his Love NOVEMBER The First WEEK Of the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit in General IT is time now to gather in the Fruits of this Spiritual Year that we may praise God in the advantages of a Plentiful Encrease St. Paul the Light and the Apostle of the Gentiles teacheth us That the Fruits of the Spirit are Twelve to wit Charity Peace Long-suffering Benignity Faith Continence Joy Patience Goodness Meekness Modesty and Chastity I admire that he puts the End in the Middle and seems to make the Root to be the Fruit For I should think that the Fruits of the Spirit were the Graces and the Blessings we have already treated of in some of the former Months that is to say a happy Death Absolution from Judgment a Pardon pronounced to us at the passing of that Sentence and the Reward Crown and Glory of the Blessed in the other Life which is given to those that have fought a good fight in this but to make the Fruit of the Spirit and of being vertuous to be Vertue it self seems to me either to put the end of Vertue in the middle or else to anticipate that Fruit in this Life which only can be attained perfectly in the Life Eternal But St. Paul by naming the excellent Fruits of the Spirit wisely answers the wicked of this World who hold the Spiritual Life for Folly and
was black and cruel Now they bring the Blessed Jesus thus tied and bound at Midnight to the House of Annas who was the Father-in-law of Caiaphas the High-Priest and there without Right or Reason without Justice or Mercy the Universal Judge of Souls is examined as a guilty Person He gives them a modest holy Answer for which they give him a box on the Ear the whole Heaven weeping at that time to see so horrid a Crime committed upon Earth From that day Affronts became honourable Ignominy glorious and that began to be Renown which before had been Contempt The Cross had been accounted shameful till the unspeakable Mysteries of Man's Redemption were celebrated upon it but from the time that God blessed and consecrated Pains and Punishments with his Pains and Punishments to be Merry began to be a great Danger and to Suffer was made to be a great Honour While our Lord suffered these things in the House of Annas the Officers and People gathered themselves together in the House of Caiaphas and they led the most meek and holy Jesus before him because he was the High-Priest for that Year and so the Lamb was brought before a Council of Lions and ravening Wolves There Envy Examines him Injustice Condemns him and the Blasphemers of God pronounce God himself to be a Blasphemer O Folly that exceeds all Folly O Wickedness that surpasses all Wickedness Man condemns God for a Blasphemer when the greatest Blasphemy that Man's Nature could commit was to declare so foolish a Condemnation and so Blasphemous a Sentence But while they are condemning our Blessed Lord his Divine Majesty suffers no less by the Denial of his Loving Disciple than by the Persecution of his bitter Enemies but his merciful Eyes raise him up again since it was the fall of a Lover who came to seek for his Beloved St. Peter fell where no body else durst come His fall was by the frailty of our Nature but his coming thither when all the rest forsook their Master and fled was by the Valour of Grace It was not so with the Impenitent Judas who besides his being a Covetous Traitor was also distrustful of Mercy for he having made Restitution of his ill-gotten Money did with a worse kind of Repentance seek his Remedy in Despair Behold Jesus being condemn'd to Death by the Jew they deliver him up to the Gentile and having loaded him with Injuries Affronts Buffetings and a thousand other sorts of Punishment they present him to Pilate By him he is examined again and the Idolater less partial acknowledges the Malice of the Sons of Israel and the Vertue and Holiness of the Son of God Yet what does that help if Envy and Cruelty be more powerful in Persecuting than Truth and Innocency in Defending But to the end that the pains of our Redeemer might be the greater he finds him very slack and remiss in his Defence and them very fierce vigorous and constant in his Prosecution but at last the violent and importunate Accuser always gets the better of a weak and unconcern'd Judge so Pilate not to give himself the trouble of defending Innocency delivers it up bound into the hands of Malice yet having some little scruple to commit so great a wickedness he would fain have shuffled it off to another and remits him to Herod to see if he could ease himself of so troublesome a Cause and avoid so foul a Crime as that which those fierce Tygers would have had him to commit They bring the Saviour of Souls to the House of Herod and that sensual Incestuous King would have had him to work some Miracle for his Diversion not having been willing to believe those he had wrought for his Salvation Our Blessed Lord gives him no Answer for he that had beheaded John Baptist and silenced the voice of his Holy Forerunner did not deserve to hear the voice of the Eternal Word In the end the Eternal Wisdom being despised as a Fool Herod disdains to be the Judge of his Cause and so being cloathed in a Robe of Scorn they bring him back again to Pilate Thither the cruel Multitude follow him with their Clamours and being impatient to see Injustice so backward to Condemn Innocency they with loud cries entreat the Gentile that he might be Crucified because the Superstitious Jew would not defile himself by his death in the time of the Passover thinking that provided he kept but an outward Purity it was no matter though he had a thousand Impurities and bloody stains in his Soul How well did our Saviour tell them that they were Cups washed clean on the outside but that within they were full of Riot and Excess and whited Sepulchres whose inside was full of Rottenness and Corruption The President makes still some resistance and for an expedient of Pity Condemns the Holy Jesus to be scourged believing that at the sight of his Scourging and Crowning with Thorns his fierce Accusers would be softened and satisfied O Pity more cruel than Cruelty itself Are five thousand lashes a merciful means to save the Innocent Behold O my Soul what sort of Compassion was used in the dolorous Passion of the Redeemer of Souls since they took it for a kind of Pity to tear his Flesh with so great a number of Stripes and how justly it is said That the mercies of the wicked are cruel Thus shedding Rivers of Blood crowned with Thorns having put a Reed in his hand and an infamous Robe of Purple on his back he brings forth the Lord Jesus to be seen by that ungratâ—ful People bidding them behold the man but they still fierce and barbarous cry out to have him crucified How soft are Rocks how gentle are Lions and Tygers in comparison of such Monsters Behold our Savage hardness since God suffers in this manner for Man and Man still continues cruel and obdurate towards God! Is it possible that so many wounds and sufferings should not work upon them nor at all abate their fury Is it possible so doleful so miserable a Spectacle should not soften Humane hearts There is no Anger no Rage nor Fury so violent against a Criminal which does not relent to some tenderness at the sight of his Punishment but here at the sight of Innocency itself tormented abused and affronted with all kinds of Mockery and Derision they become more hardened more furious and more enraged Sure they were Statues of Brass since all this could not move them or if they had the flesh at least it was impossible they should have the hearts of Men. But O Lord how much more reason have we to condemn our selves For if our sinful and obdurate Souls are not chang'd and soften'd by thy Pains and Sufferings believing and confessing thee what wonder is it if those cruel Murtherers persisted in their bloody purpose since they denied and rejected thee The President seeing that his Expedient had been fruitless and that the People were grown but the more furious by
in receiving Honours And this which seems to be a very hard Law is so sweet an one that though St. Paul contents himself here with an Equality yet some Saints as we see in the Examples that have been given pass on further and express more Joy in Sufferings than in Comforts though these come from God and those from the hands of Men. As we may believe that the Divine Goodness of our Lord took more delight in Redeeming Mankind upon the Cross than in the Glories of his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor though upon Mount Tabor those Favours came from the hands of his Father and upon Mount Calvary his Sufferings came from the hands of Men. So likewise those who suffer for God the Holy Apostles and all those that now follow or have followed them rejoyce more in Pains and Tribulations which God sends them by the hands of Men than in those Favours and Comforts which they receive immediately from God himself Therefore our Saviour said to his Disciples at his going to his last Supper when he was beginning to enter upon his Holy Passion With a great desire have I desir'd to eat this Passover with you but he said no such thing to them when he went to the Glories of Mount Tabor In imitation of this we read of one that for a favour begged of Christ to be crowned with Thorns another to bear the marks of his Wounds with a lively feeling of his dolorous Passion One Devout Soul begs Lord if I may obtain my desire grant that I may be despised for thy sake Another meditating on Christ crucified Lord I desire nothing but thy self and to be crucified with thee This in my Opinion was an high and wise Petition because he asked to suffer with Christ in this life as Christ in this life had suffered for him and then presently to have Christ himself for a Reward in the Life Eternal for he that begs for Christ crucified to be made his it is clear he does not beg for a Glorious Christ but wounded bloody and in the anguish of his Passion and so he asked not the Crown of Thorns alone nor the five Wounds alone but also what he suffer'd in the scourgings at the Pillar Not only the Mockeries the Buffetings and the pains of his Passion but the Slanders Affronts and Persecutions which he suffered before it And not those alone but whatsoever he suffered from his Blessed Mother's Womb and the Manger till he expir'd upon the Cross This we ought to ask and imitate in this life and to advance thereby in Grace and Patience and thereby thou shalt see how certain it is that such Holy Devout Persons not only do possess that equality of Patience wherewith St. Paul Arms his Spiritual Man in receiving Affronts and Crosses with as chearful a Countenance as the Pleasures of this World but that their Delight is greater and their Patience more chearful in suffering than their Joy is in rejoycing The Second WEEK Of the Ninth and Tenth Fruits of the Holy Spirit Goodness and Meekness THese two Fruits of the Spirit which God gives to those that are exercised in the Spiritual Life are as the Cause and the Effect for in truth Goodness is the Mother of Meekness And as some Fruits by reason of their great fecundity grow one within another and as an Ear of Corn produces many Grains so Goodness produces Gentleness Meekness and Affability repeated again and again in all its words and actions And we must take notice that this Goodness which St. Paul names here for a Fruit of the Spirit is not barely that Vertue which is the first cause of Grace that is to say a disposition to receive and to hold it by the Soul 's being free from the guilt of any great sin for that is a Fruit of the Divine Goodness and Mercy which gave the Soul light and strength to cast out sin rather than a Fruit of the Spirit But the Goodness here meant is in my Opinion an high Gift of Grace and Favour which God grants to holy Souls after they have serv'd him long in the Spiritual Life whereby the Soul is cleansed and purified not only from greater sins but even from lesser nay even the least Passions and by taking away those Barks as it were and inward Rinds of our Nature lays it bare and naked from those folds and doublings of imperfect Habits leaving the Soul in so great a purity truth and sincerity that St. Paul calls it perfect Goodness It is as if God should make an Old Man to become a New Man or as if an old decayed and broken House should by his Power not only be repaired and strengthened and made up again in the same proportion grace and Beauty it had at first but also be brought to a greater perfection and enriched with more costly Ornaments And though it still leaves in him the incitement and provocation to sin for that never ceases nor does Grace take it away yet it is as much weakened and disabled as Reason was in it before This Goodness and Sincerity the Lord found in holy Job and to give him an high Praise indeed he said He was single and upright God by his Grace had taken from him all those folds and doublings which we have in our Souls those corners and hollow places where Malice uses to dwell He had cast out all Imperfections from thence and had filled it with his Lights and Vertues making him a Mirrour of his high Perfections This Goodness and Sincerity is that which Christ desir'd to find in his Disciples when they were contending who should be the greatest and he Discoursing upon it took a Child and laying his Holy Hands upon the Head of that little Angel said unto them Unless ye become as this little Child ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Some Authors say this Child was St. Ignatius afterwards Bishop of Antioch and Martyr who was one of the most Holy Disciples that the Apostles had and from that touch of Christ's hand he became so much in love with him that he took for his Motto Amor meus crucifixus est For his only Love was Christ crucified and at his Martyrdom this holy Man defied the Lions that were to tear him in pieces and said to them I am the Wheat of Christ and I shall be ground by your teeth that I may be worthy to be made the Bread of that Lord. This Digression I have made to quicken the Faith of Clergy-men for if Christ but by touching him made him to become so holy how holy ought we to be who not only touch the Bread of the Lord but the Bread which is the Lord and do so often Consecrate and Receive it Two things God requir'd of the Apostles in imitation of that Child first Humility for since they were proudly striving who should have the highest place he could not set before them a fitter Example than that Age and that Humility Do ye
is so much the better to be exercised because it depends upon his most Holy Hand We ought never to think our Comfort and Happiness more secure than when it is in the hand of God and if I could forsake whatsoever I have or can have and utterly renounce it and give it up to his most blessed hands without returning to ask it again I would renounce it only that I might depend totally and absolutely upon such liberal hands It is clear that all our Ruine and Destruction depends only upon our own Weakness and Misery and that all our Strength and Happiness depends only upon God And therefore one of the Reasons why Chastity is possible is because it depends more upon the Bounty of the Lord than other Vertues for if it depended only upon our selves there would be no such thing as Chastity in the World We are weak wretched and miserable Vessels filled with Passions and so of our selves we can neither receive nor keep those Treasures which God bestows upon us Even our Free-will though continually defended and assisted by Grace without which we could not make so much as one step in Goodness is every moment choosing the worst and having Eternal Life on the one hand and an Eternal Death on the other we embrace Death and turn our backs upon Eternal Life What therefore would become of Chastity that high Gift if we depended upon our selves and it were not given us from above Thus though all depend upon God yet chiefly the Gift of Chastity this most sweet and excellent Fruit. The Grace of entertaining holy Thoughts is his that of flying the Occasions that are dangerous and of loving this unspotted Vertue is from his Favour and the preserving and persevering in it all proceeds from his Powerful Hand Therefore thou oughtest with great care to strive to follow the Chast Motions of his Holy Spirit to avoid all Places and Companies that may be dangerous endeavouring to subdue and mortifie thy self earnestly praying to God for his Favour and acknowledging that if his Divine Majesty give it not there is nothing in thy self but Misery and Destruction and that all thy Good thy Remedy and thy Chastity consists only in his Grace Mercy and Goodness The Fourth WEEK Of Perseverance and Prayer to God O That I had these Gifts O that I might die with these Vertues of the Spiritual Year O that I were able to spend my Hours my Days my Weeks my Months and my Years in this safe Doctrine Be not discouraged do but go on persevere and call upon God in Prayer for that is all thy Remedy Constancy Perseverance and Continuance in Prayer obtain all things Many run says St. Paul but one alone wins the Prize Many Vertues run in the Spiritual Life many are exercised and practised but the Reward and Crown is given only to Perseverance without that Gift the rest will profit nothing Take notice what our Saviour says That if we seek we shall find if we ask he will give us and if we knock he will open unto us Remember how he tells you it succeeded to the Man that awakened his Friend to borrow three Loaves by reason that a Stranger was come into his House he came unseasonably to him disturbing his Rest in the Night yet he let him have them because of his Importunity which without that he would not have done for his Friendship Remember the poor Widow that persisted earnestly to beg of the Unjust Judge who carelesly delayed to dispatch her business her Importunity did more than the Right of her Cause for that overcame his Sloth when this was not at all regarded Call to mind that Christ says If a Son importunes his Father for an Egg he will not give him a Scorpion but the thing he desires All these Comparisons our Saviour sets before us to the end we may persevere and not faint nor turn back again to slothfulness but that we should still pray and beg and call and cry for at last he will hear us He that puts his hand to the Plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven What shall he lose it only for looking back In but looking back there is great danger of losing it Hast thou not seen it in Lot's Wife who only by looking back towards Sodom was turned into a Pillar of Salt to season us by her Punishment and to give us warning not to do as she did Having once renounced the World and its Vanities we must not so much as think upon them with delight or trouble for having left them for this is a looking back O how many Vertues and Perfections how many excelencies of Holiness have fallen by looking back and not pressing on constantly forward to the Mark of our high Calling What lofty Trees and tall Cedars of Libanus have fallen at the feet of little Shrubs Remember Solomon more Rich in Gifts than in Wealth Remember Judas the Apostle chosen of God for one of the firm Pillars of his Church Look upon Origen the Master of Christian Instruction and upon Tertullian a stout Defender of the Faith and the Terror of Hereticks What wonderful what dreadful Falls were theirs How fair how safe how excellent were their beginnings and their progress But how unfortunate how sad how doubtful their conclusions Whence all that Mischief whence all those great Misfortunes Because they persevered not they continued not instant in Prayer They grew weary of asking and of well-doing They trusted in themselves who should only have put their trust in God and been fearful of themselves It is clear that in Solomon there began at first some secret thought and that his Wisdom was so high that he either made no reckoning of it in the beginning or that being so Wise a Man he found out some plausible Reasons to bring Idolatrous Queens into his House believing that in regard of his great Holiness and Learning there could not be so great danger for him as for others nor that cause in him to avoid it which mov'd God to forbid his People the taking of Women of another Religion He presumes being a Man that used to speak with God he should never suffer himself to be perswaded by them but rather that he should convert them and gain their Souls by drawing them over to the Worship of the true God But they were more powerful with their Beauty and Allurements than Solomon with all his Eloquence and their Perswasions overthrew him and all his Wisdom Then he found Reasons to allow them Temples only for themselves at first and within a while by Idolizing them he became an Idolater with them in that Temple of the Devil O how great a Fire was kindled from one Spark Shut thine Eyes and thine Ears against all Evil cut off the first thoughts and first beginnings of it make hast from the path of Destruction and from whatsoever may draw thee near to any thing that is evil and if thou wilt