merry How dare that Sinner laugh since that instant will come wherein it will not profit him to weep why does he not now with tears ask pardon for his sins when after death he cannot obtain it There shall be then no mercy no remedy no protection from God or man no defence but what each man hath from his own works Let us then endeavour they may be good ones since we have nothing in the other life to trust to but them The rich man shall not then have multitudes of Servants to set forth his greatness and authority nor well-feed Lawyers to defend his process onely his good works shall bestead him and they onely shall defend him and in that instant when even the mercy of God shall fail him and the blood of Christ shall not appease the Divine justice onely his good works shall not fail him then when their treasures which have been heaped up in this world and guarded with so much care shall fail their Masters their alms bestowed on the poor shall not fail them there when their Children Kindred Friends and Servants shall all fail them the Strangers which they have lodged the Sick which they have visited in the Hospitals and the needy which they have succoured shall not fail them The rich man is to leave his wealth behind him without knowing who shall possess it 〈◊〉 his good works shall goe along with him and they onely when nothing else can shall avail him neither shall Christ who is the Judge of the living and the dead at that time admit of other Patrons or Advocates Let us then take heed we turn not those against us which are onely at that dreadful time to bestead us It is to be admired how many dare do ill in the presence of that Judge with whom nothing can prevail but doing well and the wonder is much the greater that we dare with our evil works offend him who is to judge them The Theef is not so impudent as to rob his neighbour if the Magistrate look on but would be held a fool if he should rob or offend the Magistrate himself in his own house How dares then this poor thing of man injure the very person of his most upright and just Judge before whom it is most certain he shall appear to his face in his own house in so high a manner as to preferre the Devil his and our greatest enemy before him How great was the malice of the Jews when they judged it fitter that Barabbas should live than the Son of God Let the Sinner then consider his own insolence who judges it better to please the Devil than Christ his Redeemer Every one who sins makes as it were a Judgment and passes a Sentence in favour of Satan against Jesus Christ Of this unjust Judgment of man the Son of God who is most unjustly sentenced by a Sinner will at the last day take a most strict and severe account Let him expect from his own injustice how great is to be the Divine justice against him Let a Christian therefore consider that he hath not now his own but the cause of Christ in hand Let him take heed how he works since all his actions are to be viewed and reviewed by his Redeemer An Artist who knew his work was to appear before some King or to be examined by some great Master in the same art would strive to give it the greatest perfection of his skill Since therefore all our works are to appear before the King of Heaven and the chief Master of vertues Jesus Christ let us endeavour that they may be perfect and compleat and the rather because he is not to examine them for curiositie but to pass upon us a Sentence either of condemnation or eternal happiness Let us then call to mind that we are to give an account unto God Almighty and let us therefore take heed what we doe let us weep for what is amiss let us forsake our sins and strive to do vertuous actions let us look upon our selves as guilty offenders and let us stand in perpetual fear of the Judge as Abbot Amno advises us of whom it is reported in the Book of the lives of Fathers translated by Pelagius the Cardinal In vitis Pat. lib. 5. That being demanded by a young Monk what he should doe that might most profit him answered Entertain the same thoughts with the Malefactors in prison who are still enquiring Where is the Judge When will he come every hour expecting their punishment and weeping for their misdemeanors In this manner ought the Christian ever to be in fear and anxietie still reprehending himself and saying Ay me wretch that I am how shall I appear before the Tribunal of Christ how shall I be able to give an account of all my actions If thou shalt always have these thoughts thou mayest be saved and shalt not fail of obtaining what thou demandest towards thy salvation and all will be little enough Climac gra 6. St. John Climacus writes of a certain Monk who had lived long with small fervour and edification who falling into a grievous infirmity wherein he remained some space without sense or feeling was during that time brought before the Tribunal of God and from thence returned unto life wherein he continued ever after in that fear and astonishment that he caused the door of his little Cell which was so small and narrow that he had scarce room to move in it to be stopt up there remained as it were inclosed in prison the space of twelve years during which time he never spake with any nor fed upon other than bread and water but sat ever meditating upon what he had seen in that rapture wherein his thoughts were so intent as he never moved his eyes from the place where they were fixed but persevering still in his silence and astonishment could not contain the tears from abundantly flowing down his aged face At last saith the Saint his death now drawing near we broke open the door and entred into his Cell and having asked him in all humility that he would say something unto us of instruction all we could obtain from him was this Pardon me Fathers He who knew what it were truly and with his whole heart to think upon death would never have the boldness to sin The rigour of Divine Judgment which is to pass after death occasioned in this Monk so great change and penitence of life § 2. The second cause of the terribleness of death which is the laying open of all wherein we have offended in this life ANother thing of great horror is to happen in the end of life which shall make that hour wherein the Soul expires most horrible unto sinners and That is the sight of their own sins whose deformity and multitude shall then clearly and distinctly appear unto them and although now we remain in ignorance of many and see the guilt of none they shall then when we
something of the merits of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Then he said Now 't is well The Religious much admired that a young man so innocent should speak things so dreadful and with such a strange noise When the young man was returned to his senses they demanded of him to declare unto them the meaning of those words and great cryes He answered them I saw that in the Judgement of Almighty God so strict an accompt was taken even of idle words and other things that seemed very little and they weighed them so exactly that the merits in respect of the demerits were almost nothing at all And for this reason I gave that first terrible and sad outcry Afterwards I saw that the demerits were weighed with great attention and that little regard was made of the merits For this reason I spake the second words And seeing that the merits were so few and inconsiderable for to be justified I spake the third And in regard that with the merits of the Passion of Christ our Saviour the balance wherein my good works were weighed more than the other immediately a favourable sentence was given in my behalf For this reason I said now 't is well And having said this he gave up his ghost § 3. The third cause of the terribleness of the end of Temporal Life which is the charge which shall be given of divine benefits received THere is also in the end of life another cause of much terrour unto Sinners which is the lively knowledge which they shall have of the divine benefits received and the Charge which shall be laid against them for their great ingratitude and abuse of them This is also signified by what the Prophet Daniel spake of the Throne and Tribunal of God For he not onely said it was of flames of fire by which was given us to understand the rigour of divine justice against Sinners signified by the violence heat and activity of fire and the discovery and manifestation of sins signified by the light and brightness of the flames but he also adds that from the face of the Judge there proceeded a heady and rapid river which was also of fire signifying by the swiftness of the course and the issuing of it from God the multitude of his graces and benefits which flowing from the divine goodness are communicated and poured down upon his Creatures His saying that this so great river shall in that day be of fire is to make us understand the rigour of that Charge against us for our abuse of those infinite benefits bestowed together with the light and clearness wherewith we shall know them and the horrour and confusion which shall then seise upon us for our great ingratitude and the small account we have made of them in so much as Sinners in that instant are not onely to stand in fear of their own bad works but of the grace and benefits of God Almighty conferr'd upon them Another mourning Weed and confusion shall cover them when they shall see what God hath done to oblige and assist them toward their salvation and what they to the contrary have done to draw upon them their own damnation They shall tremble to see what God did for their good and that he did so much as he could do no more all which hath been mis-imployed and abused by themselves This is so clear and evident on the part of God Almighty that he calls men themselves as witnesses and Judges of the truth and therefore speaking under the Metaphor of a Vineyard by his Prophet Isay Isai 5. he saith in this manner Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge betwixt me and my Vineyard what ought I to have done more unto my Vineyard and have not done it And after the incarnation of the Son of God the Lord turns again to upbraid men with the same resentment and signifies more fully the multitude of his benefits under the same Metaphor of a Vineyard Mat. 21. which a man planted and so much cherished and esteemed it that he sent thither his onely Son who was slain in the demand of it Let therefore men enter into judgement against themselves and let them be judges whether God could have done more for them and has not done it they being still so ungrateful towards their Creatour as if he had been their enemy and done them some notorious injury Coming therefore to consider every one of these benefits by its self The first which occurs is that of the Creation which was signified by our Saviour Jesus Christ when he said that He planted a Vineyard and what could God do more for thee since in this one benefit of thy Creation he gave thee all what thou art both in soul and body If wanting an arm thou wouldest esteem thy self much obliged and be very thankful unto him who should bestow one upon thee which were sound strong and useful why art thou not so to God who hath given thee arms heart soul body and all Consider what thou wert before he gave thee a being Nothing and now thou enjoyest not onely a being but the best being of the Elemental world Philosophers say that betwixt being and not being there is an infinite distance See then what thou owest unto thy Creatour and thou shalt find thy debt to be no less than infinite since he hath not onely given thee a being but a noble being and that not by necessity but out of an infinite love and by election making choice of thee amongst an infinity of men possible whom he might have created If lots were to be cast amongst a hundred persons for some honourable charge how fortunate would he be esteemed who should draw the lot from so many Competitors behold then thy own happiness who from an absolute nothing hast light upon a being amongst an infinity of creatures possible And whence proceeds this singular favour but from God who out of those numberless millions hath pickt out thee leaving many others who if he had created them would have served him better than thy self See then what God could have done for thee and has not having chosen thee without any desert of thine from amongst so many and preferred thee before those whom he foresaw would have been more thankful Besides this he not onely created thee by election and gave thee a noble being but supernatural happiness being no way due unto thy nature he created thee for it and gave thee for thy end the most high and eminent that could be imagined to wit the eternal possession of thy Creatour It was enough for God to create thee for a natural happiness conformable to what thou wert but he not to leave any thing undone which he could do created thee for a supernatural blessedness in so much as there is no creature which hath a higher end then thy self See then if God could do more for thee and has not and see what thou oughtest to do
because he who passes from nothing to be a Creature capable of reason and glory ought alwayes to look upon the end for which he was created and from that consideration to make a change of his life as David did of his who confesses in the same Psalm That his change came from the right hand of the most high Let us then as he did remember to change our customs from tepid to become fervent and from Sinners just because the end for which we were created is onely God This onely consideration of so high an end will be able to work a change in us And for this reason David gave this Title to another Psalme To the end For those that are to be changed or altered The holy Prophet well knew the importance of this mindefulness of our last end and therefore he repeated it in his Psalms to the end that having our attention alwaies fixed upon it we should not cease to ayme at it nor spoil our intentions by the mixture of other thoughts of less consideration as he gives to understand in the Inscription of his Psalm 74 which sayes Vnto the end Corrupt not Another Version saies To the end Lose not As if he should say Look upon the end for which thou art created to the end thou maist not lose it Let us also consider that glory being no wayes due unto our nature yet God out of his mercy created us to enjoy it and when he might have made us for a natural felicity and perfection was pleased to create us for a supernatural Other creatures he made for us but us for himself There is no creature hath a more noble end than we there is neither Seraphin nor Archangel that surpasses us in this Let us therefore know the value of it that we may not lose it and with it our selves Consider also that if God should not have made thee for himself nor to the end thou mightest serve him but had left the free and at liberty and had onely given thee a being yet even for that thou owest him all what thou art The Son although the Father be not his end yet ows him all respect and reverence because he begat him The Husbandman who plants a tree hath right unto the fruit God therefore who created and planted thee hath right unto thee and all that thou art And if his right be such for making thee it is no less for ordaining thee for himself There is no Dominion so absolute as both Divines and Philosophers affirm as that of the End over those things which are in order to it in so much as Marcilius Ficinus sayes Mar. Ficinus l. 1. Epis The end is a Lord more excellent then those things which as Servants and Ministers relate unto it For this reason man although he be neither the Creatour nor utmost end of Corporal things yet because he is their immediate end and that they were ordained for his use is their Lord and God who is the utmost end of man and them is the Lord of all Philo calls the End the head of things For as a Prince is the absolute head and Lord of his vassals and Kingdom so the End is Lord and head of those things which have a relation unto it and therefore man who is wholly from God and for God ought not to stir a hand or a foot but in order to his service One of the Philosophers calls the End The cause of causes another The principal of all causes If therefore unto God because he is thy efficient cause thou owest him what thou art for being thy final cause thou owest him more then thou art For this obligation looks not upon that which thou hast received which is thy finite and limited being but upon that for which thou art ordained which is a being divine infinite and without limit Even God himself as he is the efficient cause of things doth as it were serve himself as he is the chief good and Final cause of things and doth not make them but for this end What right then hast thou to work for any thing but God since God doth not nor will work for any thing but himself The End is the cause of causes and therefore if thou owest thy self unto God for being thy Maker thou owest thy self unto him for being thy End for he had not been thy Maker if it had not been for some End which was the cause of thy creation §. 2. Consider the force of the End in the several Orders of things Natural Artificial and Moral that thou maiest from hence gather what force it ought to have in things supernatural With what violence do the the Elements tend unto their centre because it is their End With what force doth a stone fall from high and with what violence doth it press unto its natural place and bears down all before it And the fire that it may attain his Sphere how it mounts above the highest hills and rocks Consider a great Stone hung in the air by some Cable how it strives to get loose and being at liberty with what violence it falls upon the earth with what speed and earnestness without stay or diversion to one part or other it tends straight to its Center In this manner thou oughtest to seek after thy Lord God with all the powers of thy soul with all the forces of thy body and all the affections of thy heart all thy inclinations are to tend that way thou art to go directly to him without diverting on either hand or looking upon any creature which may detain thee bearing down all things temporal before thee A stone that it may attain its end sticks not to fall in water fire or to be dasht in a thousaud pieces and thou that thou mayest attain thy God art not to stop at any thing not at the loss of goods or honour or at the very tearing of thy members in pieces and as our Saviour sayes If thy Eye scandalize thee pluck it out or cut off thy Foot or Hand if it offend thee for it is better to enter into heaven blind or lame then to fall into hell fire sound and entire Things natural find no quiet but in their Centre and the Mariners needle rests not but when it beholds the North no more shall the Soul ever meet with repose but in God And certainly the cause of the greatest miseries and afflictions in the world proceeds from our deviating from God who is our onely End and eternal happiness Let the heart of man therefore undeceive it self for it shall never finde quiet and content but in its Creatour If we come to things Artificial Those which are not directed to some end what are they but a disorderly confusion If a Painter should draw his lines without proposing any Idea unto himself what would be the issue of his work but a great blot If in painting some great Captain he should instead of a Sword place in
he is issues forth of himself and is communicated unto man Who is not amazed that the same Divinity which the eternal Father communicates unto the eternal Word who is God as he is should after an admirable manner be communicated unto human nature which was enemy unto him O Sea of divine goodness that thus powrest forth thy self to do good without regarding unto whom O Ocean of bounty that thus overflowest in benefits even towards thine enemies This work is likewise infinitly good because with goodness it overcoms an infinitly malice and frees him who was so evil that he deserved an infinit punishment It is infinitly good because it sets forth God with an infinit desire to pardon and do good even unto the greatest Traytour and who least deserved it It shewes him also infinitly good and compleat in all vertue and perfection that rather then to fail the least jot in his Justice he would take upon him that which was due unto a most unjust and accursed offender and humbled himself unto death that he who was condemned to die should not perish eternally I know not any thing that can set forth God as a more exact and perfect pattern of all vertue then a work of so much Justice and Mercy Who would not be amazed at the goodness and piety of a great Emperour who having a desire to pardon a notorious Traytour should rather then abate one jot of his inflexible justice take upon him the habit and shape of that Traytour and die publiqnely in the market place that the offender might be spared This did God taking upon him the form of a Servant and dying upon the Cross to free condemned man from eternal death O God every way most perfect and good which art so scrupulous in thy justice and so indulgent in thy mercy rigorous with thy self that thou mightest be merciful with us O God infinitly good infinitly holy infinitely exact and perfect in all Let the Angels praise thee for all thy perfections since all are transcendent and infinitely good §. 3. To this maybe added the excellent Manner by which a work every way so excellently good was performed and with what love and desire of thy benefit it was wrought From whence could a work of so much goodness issue but from a furnace of love in the divine brest And if by the effect we may know the cause that love which made God resolve upon a work so admirable strange and high could not be other then immense in it self for since the work was infinitly good it could not proceed but from an infinite love nor that love but from an infinite being Besides this it was a great prerogative and honour to humane nature that God should rather make himself a man than an Angel With being an Angel he might have freed Man and honoured the Angels communicated his divine goodness unto the Creatures and done a work of infinite bounty and favour This notwithstanding he was so passionate a lover of man and if I may so say so fond of humane nature that he would not onely oblige man by redeeming him but in the manner of his redemption he would not only that Man should be redeemed but that he should be redeemed by a Man and so would not onely give the remedy but conferre also the honour upon our nature Neither was he content in honouring man more than Angels but would redeem him and not the Angels This was a demonstration of his affection unto Man beyond all expression that not pardoning the Angels who were of a more excellent and supream being then ours he yet took pitie of us and not of them and would do that for us which he did not for them Unto this add that when Man sinned and the whole stock of mankind was ruin'd there remained no just man to commiserate and intercede for him But when the Angels fell there remained thousands rightious who might pitie those of their own nature and be sensible of their loss and yet he would do this for Man and not for Angels The time also when this great work of mercy was put in execution shews not a little the sweetness of God Almighty to our nature It was in a time when mankind was most forgetful of God when men strove to make themselves adored for Gods and those who could not attain unto it themselves adored other men worse then devils Then did God think of making himself Man and for Man who would make himself God This was a love indeed to do most for us then when we most offended him But let us see what good we received by this great work Certainly if we had received no good at all it was much to free us from those evils whereunto we were plunged to deliver us from the ignominy of Sin from the slavery of the Devil and from the horrour of Hell To free us from these evils without any other benefit might be held an infinite good And though there had been no evils to be freed from nor goods to be bestowed upon us yet the honour which our nature received in having God to become one of us was an incomparable blessing But joyning to this honour our deliverance from those horrid and desperate evils what happiness may be compared to ours Justin writes that Alexander the Great beholding Lysimachus wounded in the head and that he lost much blood took his Diadem and bound it about his temples to stay his bleeding This was a great favour from so mighty a Prince as well in the care he took of him as in the manner taking the Ensigne of Majesty from his own head and giving it to his vassal But Lysimachus had not injuried Alexander he had served him faithfully and received that wound in his quarrel Neither did Alexander give him his Diadem for ever but suffer'd him onely to wear it upon that present occasion But the mortal wound of sin was not received by man in defence of God or in his quarrel but in rebellion against him Yet God vouchsafes to cure the Traytor honors him with his own Diadem which is his Divinitie communicating it upon him not for a short space and then to take it from him but bâ—stowing it upon him for all eternity What a bounty is this unto an enemy that in freeing him from such a miserie crowns him with so great happiness But if to all this we shall add those other blessings which he bestows upon us giving us his grace adopting us the Sons of God and making us Heirs of heaven how infinitly will our obligations increase since we are not onely freed from so great evils but enriched with unspeakable benefits and our nature honoured by his favours above that of Angels All is marvailous all is great all is transcendent in this unspeakable goodness The work it self is transcendent the manner and love by which it was performed is transcendent The evils from which it frees us are eternal the rewards which
that lie had lost his wits but he never had them perfecter since he laught at human greatness and now perceived how ridiculous a thing is that which we call felicity and in his heart rightly esteemed it as it is a vanity of vanities I believe the same judgement which this King gave of the vanity of temporal things would if it had been askt been given by the Emperour Andronicus when naked and his head shaved like a Slave he was infamously dragged thorow the Streets of Constantinople What was then his Imperial Diadem what his Throne and Majesty what his Ornaments of gold and silver All was vanity and a vanity of vanities Neither would this have been denied by Vitellius when they threw dirt in his face and haled him into the Market-place to be executed What were then the Spectacles of the Amphitheater and Games of the Circus the Signiory of the World but vanity of vanities and universal vanity The same would Craesus have preached from the flames the Tyrant Bajazet from his Cage King Bolislaus from his Kitchen and Dionysius from his School If alive they would have said this upon the sight onely of the instability of this life what would they now say upon the experience of eternity whereinto they are entred Let us take the opinion of those Princes which are damned what they now think of the Majesty which they enjoyed in this life Vanity they will say it was a smoke a dream a shadow And without doubt those Kings which are now in heaven in possession of those eternal joyes will say the same That all felicity here below is poor scarce and short and vanity of vanities and worse if it have been an occasion of sin But it is not needful to call witnesses from the other life since the vanity of this is so evident that he who shall set himself to consider the greatness of this World shall perceive that by how much it is more glorious by so much it is more vain What greater Majesty than that of the Roman Empire Let us call to mind what happened in that Scarce was the election of a Roman Emperour known before they who chose him or some more subtle or powerful than they had murthered him An although they studied nothing more than to preserve themselves in the Imperial dignity yet few there were that could effect it Amongst nineteen or twenty Emperours which passed betwixt Antoninus the Philosopher and Claudius the second not one escaped a violent death besides many other Tyrants who took the names of Emperours as in Galienus his time thirty usurped that title and murthered one another in so much as he who called himself an Emperour was almost certain to die a violent death so as the greatest felicity of the world was tyed to the greatest mishap And it is to be wondered that any though almost forced would accept the Diadem But such is the folly of men that having before their eyes so many lamentable examples they gape after those glories which hardly last from morning until night Some of them had scarce been saluted Emperours when they were cut in pieces Aurelianus was one of those who exhibited the most glorious triumph that ever Rome beheld where were shewed An infinite number of Captives from the three parts of the World Many rare beasts as Tygers Lions Ounces Elephants Dromidaries A mighty quantity of Arms taken from the conquered Enemies Three most sumptuous Chariots one of the King of Palmerins another of the Persians and a third of the Goths Two who called themselves Emperours and the great Queen Cenobia adorned with most precious jewels and rich pearls and fettered in chains of gold He himself entred in a triumphal Chariot taken from the King of Gothes drawn by Stags immediately followed by the conquering Army richly armed crowned with Laurel and carrying Palms in their hands Never Emperour arrived at such a height of glory But how long lasted it A short time after he was stabbed with poniards having hardly time to take notice of his greatness much less to enjoy it By how many steps and strange ways did Aelias Pertinax in his old age climb unto the Imperial Throne and lost it before it was known in the Empire that he commanded it He was the Son of a Slave and first a Merchant by which he became a good accomptant then he studied Grammar and became a Schoolmaster after that a Lawyer and having learned to defend causes was made an Advocate but not prospering by these courses he listed himself a Souldier Neither seemed he in that to thrive much better for being arrived to the dignity of a Centurion he was cashiered with infamy But he quitted it not so for returning unto the same trade in process of time he became a Senatour shortly after Consul then President of Syria at last when he expected the Hangman to take away his life he was saluted Emperour by those Souldiers who then came fresh from the slaughter of Commodus They entring his house by night he told them he was the man whom the Tyrant had sent them to murther but they presented him the Scepter and Diadem which he accepted although then 70 years of age and after had scarce warmed the Imperial Seat having onely raigned three Moneths when he was cut in pieces in a time he least suspected it being so beloved esteemed and praised by the Romans that every one would have spent a thousand lives to have saved his yet notwithstanding a few Souldiers passed publickly through the middest of the City and in the sight of all stabbed an Emperour so beloved and honoured of the people and returned back without any so much as questioning them when those of one street so few were the murtherers had been sufficient to have killed them with stones Who sees not here the inconstancy and vanity of humane things as well in the life as unexpected death of this Prince by how many changes and windings did he climbe unto the top of the Imperial greatness and how sodainly without any stop or turn at all was he tumbled headlong down how long was his fortune in growing and how quickly cut seaventy years of a prosperous life ended in the counterfeit felicity of three Moneths and the unhappy death of an hour Then all is vanity of vanities since that which costs so much lasts so little and death in less than one hour overthrows the fortune of seaventy years §. 2. If the felicity of this life did onely end when life ends yet that were sufficient to undervalue it but it often ends before it and sometimes changes into disgraces and mishaps so as with our own eyes we often behold an end of our greatest fortunes Let us not therefore trust in life because it may fail whilest the goods of it remain and let us as little trust in them because they may likewise fail whilest it continues Let this instability of things undeceive us and let us seriously consider their
souls hearts and bodies looking upon our selves hence forward as on a thing not ours but his acknowledging that we owe him more than what we are or can do So shall we not debase our love by placing it upon the creatures If we shall then consider the infinite love which God bears us we shall finde that we have no love left to bestow upon any thing but him no not upon our selves To know truly the greatness of this divine love we are to suppose that true and perfect Love consists much in action but is most apparent in patience and suffering and also in communication of its proper goods unto those whom it loves See then how great is his love who hath wrought such stupendious works for thee as are his Incarnation and thy Redemption and continues still untill this hour working for thy good after a thousand wayes in all his creatures making the Corn to grow which is to feed thee the Wooll to encrease which is to cloath thee supports the Sun which is to enlighten thee draws Waters from the veins of the earth to quench thy thirst and in every thing still operates for thee Consider how he gives a being unto the Elements life to Plants sense to Beasts understanding to Angels and all to thee working in thee alone all which he works in the other degrees of nature How apparent then is the love of God in his works who does so great things for the good of man who deserves to be forsaken by him and reduced to nothing Consider then the excess of love in his patience who hath endured such cruel torments and so painful a death for thee and hath born with thee as often as thou hast offended him And if patience be a tryal of love where shall we find so great an example How excessive were that love if a King who after his Vassal had a thousand times attempted to murther him should not onely pardon but continue stil to favour and enrich him with his own Rents and Revenues who would not be amazed at such a love and think that King infatuated O goodness and longaminity of God who suffers us a thousand times to turn again and crucifie thee our Redeemer the King of Glory and art still silent Behold also his love in communicating all the good he hath unto us The Father delivers up his onely Son the Son his Body and Blood for us and they both together send the Holy Ghost by whom we are by grace made partakers of the Divine Nature See if a more great more real or more tender love than this can be imagined wherein he shares with us all he has and gives us all he can And if love be to be paid with love what love doest thou owe him See if thou hast an affection yet free to be imployed apon any but thy Lover and thy God Requite then this excess of good will by having no other will but his and answer his love with a love like his of works and patience Our Lord is not content we should onely love him with our tongues but reprehends those who cry unto him Lord Lord and doe not what he commands For even good words if they want works are condemned as false and feigned Let us love him then in earnest let us suffer for him and communicate with him all we have Let us not think to come off with this love gratis it is to cost us all is ours If we love our God truely who so much loved us we must resolve to lose honours wealth and pleasure in serving and requiting him Above all if we consider him to be God who is infinitely beautiful good wise powerful eternal immense immutable there is no heart possible which can equal the love which he deserves for any one of those Divine Attributes What shall then his whole infinity deserve which eminently contains all the beauties and perfections of his Creatures either real or imaginable for all are but as a drop in respect of an immense Ocean all depend upon God who so communicates his beauties and perfections to the Creatures as they still remain in himself after a more excellent manner and in such sort distributes them as he parts not from them but unites them all in one simple perfection From whence as from a fountain all that is good flows and is yet still in the Original in a more high and transcendent manner And if men as the wise man sayes admiring the beauty of some creatures adored them as Gods let them hence understand how beautiful is the Lord of all things since he who made them is the Author and Father of Beauty And if they wonder at their force and vertue in their operations let them know that he who made them is more powerful than they And by the beauty and greatness of the created let the understanding climbe to the knowledge of the Creator and hence collect that if the effect be good the cause must needs be so too for nothing can give what it hath not And therefore he who made things so beautiful and so good cannot choose but be most beautiful and most excellently good himself So as if the imagination should joyn in one piece all the good and all the perfection of all creatures possible or imaginable yet God were infinitely more perfect and more beautiful than that From hence it follows that as God is infinitely perfect and beautiful so he must be infinitely amiable and if infinitely amiable we are to love him with an infinite love so as if the capacity of our heart were infinite it were wholly to be employed in loving him How can we then since our hearts are limited and the object infinite spare any part of it for the things of this life Besides such is the loveliness of God that we are not to love our selves but because he loves us and if we are not to love our selves but for his sake how are we diverted to love other things for their own sake O infinite God! how doe I rejoyce that thou art so good so perfect so beautiful the source and original of all beauty and perfection as that I ought not onely to withdraw my love and affection from all other creatures but even from my self and place it wholly upon thee from whom my being and all the good I have is derived as the beams from the Sun or water from the Fountain For as the conservation of the rayes according to a mystick Doctor depends more upon the Sun than upon themselves and the current of the stream more from the Fountain than it self In such manner the good of man depends wholly upon God who is the Spring and Fountain of all his good and perfection from whence it follows that man when he relies upon himself is sure to fall and when he loves himself loses himself but flying and abhorring himself preserves himself according to what is written in the holy Gospel He who loves