away that Death hastens and that thou thy self art the Theatre of thine own Tragedy I will not tell thee that Death is coming 't is already come with it thou livest with it thou eatest with it thou walkest and labourest and with it thou sleepest Now since thou sleepest with it Why doest not thou awake with it also An indisposition of thy Stomach the aking of thy Head a pain in any part of thy Body briefly all such like accidents are so many knocks that Death gives at thy Door to rouze thee to the Remembrance of it Lend but thine Ear to hearken and thou shalt hear it call upon thee in the beginning of thy sickness it begins to finish what it has been about ever since thou were born and Death makes an end of thee even in the time of thy very Life It is a powerful Enemy that allows no means to fly to make resistance or to capitulate A terrible Enemy that will neither pardon nor be perswaded nor suffer it self to be entreated nor conquered nor convinced 2. Ah yield thy self to Death before it force thee to yield and to wait upon its triumph Receive it by Meditation before it come to execution accustom thy self to the Thought of Death and that will take away the Fear of Death It is a great Morsel and will not be got down the Throat at once thou had'st need to divide it into parts by frequent consideration that thou mayest be able to swallow it the more easily The Saints by often thinking of it made their Death more tolerable and their Life more religious Their end was always present to them and by that means they made both the beginning and the middle of all their Actions holy To forget Death is a great Mischief and an evident Destruction The unwary and unprovided Soldier is already foil'd and conquer'd 3. Why are so many ruined in their Life Because they bear not in mind the Remembrance of Death Why are so many condemned after Death Because it was never present to their thoughts in the time of their Life They live as if they never were to die they die as if they were never to be judged and yet in one instant they are dead judged and condemn'd 4. Do all the Actions of thy Life as having still an eye to thy Death this will lessen the Fear of thy Account and of the Sentence which condemns to eternal death Woe be to thee if thou stayest till death to begin to live Woe be to thee if thou stayest till thy end to begin to work Woe be to thee if thou deceivest thy self with to Morrow to Morrow to Morrow and art so foolish as to think thy self sure of to Morrow No let thy delays be applied to sin and the present time to repentance to day to day to day nay instantly this very moment bewail thy offences and resolve upon amendment and say to morrow to morrow or rather never never when thou art tempted to commit a wilful Sin 5. Oh how many are now burning in Hell for being such fools as to believe that they should find a to Morrow to repent in and who neither found Repentance nor to Morrow Oh how many are now burning in Hell because they would not repent when they might and afterwards could not when they would Oh how many are there now burning in Hell who delay'd to work out their Salvation while the Light of their Day lasted and afterwards had neither light nor time being seized upon suddenly by the dark Night of Death Fools ridiculous Fools that left the Matter of greatest Importance to be done in the time of greatest Confusion Fools ridiculous Fools to give the worst of their time to the saving of their Souls which is the only Matter of Concernment and the present which is the best and the most acceptable to the damning of them To imploy their Health their Youth and their Strength in sinful Pleasures and to put off their Contrition and Amendment till they are sick and old and feeble In offending the Just the Holy and Omnipotent God they spend all the Years of their Life and to obtain Pardon can afford nothing but the Moment of their death To offend him they give all their Senses Powers and Faculties while they are quick and lively and think them good enough for repentance when they are dull sleepy and stupified They lay the heavy load of Repentance upon decrepid old Age which is not able to bear it self and waste their most active and vigorous Days in vain delights and trifles Finally they lie dead in Sins all the Years of their Life and presume they shall be able to rise to Repentance that is to lead a godly Life in the Hour of their Death 6. Suppose a tender hearted Father pitying the Ruine of a Son justly disinherited and brought to slavery by his many Rebellions should send Messengers on purpose to fetch him home from Captivity to his Favour and to his Fortune provided he return before a certain Day prefixt Suppose they inform him the Road is very dangerous especially near his Journey 's end and that the Evening will probably be very dark and tempestuous What wouldst thou think of him if instead of hastening to his Father's embraces and the plenty of his House he should be so ungrateful to his Father's kindness so forgetful of his past misery and so regardless of his future happiness as to turn into the first pleasant Meadow he spies by the way and if notwithstanding the many earnest Calls of those that were sent to bring him who tell him how the day wasts and that they cannot stay for him he should lie down and loiter out the time picking up Flowers and catching Butterflies till Night force him in the midst of stormy Winds Rains and Thunder-claps to grope for his way alone in the Dark through Bryars Bogs and Precipices where it is in a manner impossible to escape Destruction It is hard to think that any Man can possibly be so stupid and wretched or so wilfully foolish yet thou thy self art much more stupid wretched and foolish than He if deluded by the Pleasure of Sin thou delayest thy Repentance till the Night of Death for He knew the certain number of Hours in his Day but thou knowest not how few there may be in thine nor how suddenly thy Sun may set and leave thee perhaps before thy Noon exposed to a darker and a more tempestuous Passage Again He lies in the cool Shade of a pleasant Meadow but thou probably liest wallowing like a Swine in the Mire of Sensuality or basking in the Heat of Lust in spite of the Perswasions of thy Spiritual Guides that would bring thee into the Ways that are truly pleasant and into the Paths of Peace In short He by the delay of his Journey ventures but the loss of an earthly Inheritance or at the worst of a temporal Life but thou by that of thy repentance wilt loose an
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
without the support of thy powerful hand O how we abuse those admirable Gifts which thou so graciously bestowest upon us We extinguish the light of Reason within us we banish truth and goodness from us and transform our selves into wild Beasts or worse if we forsake thy Law and give our selves up to the obedience of our own Appetite The Fourth WEEK Of the Miseries and Sins of each Man in particular 1. THese are the Miseries of our Nature lightly and briefly expressed but what kind of ones and how many are they in each one of us individuals seeing they are so great and so considerable in their Root If the Tree be so bitter what bitterness must be in the Fruit How blind are we O God if we do not see that which is so near us How blind are we if we do not see what we are our selves How wretched if such innumerable Miseries do not enlighten us to seek for Mercy How unworthy if we do not bewail the Sins we daily commit 2. Let every one well consider himself and he shall see what is in himself Let each of us turn the Eye of his Mind to behold himself within Let each of us put our hand in our bosom and he will draw it out full of Leprosie If the just Man falls seven times a day or rather seventy times seven what shall I do that am unjust and wicked Do not judge of this or measure it by others but judge of it and measure it by thy self and me 3. Scarce did the Light of natural Discourse begin to shine in my Child-hood when I embraced Evil it being my Duty to have embraced Good My Reason increas'd with my Age but my Passion increased much faster than it What a grief what a pity to see Reason banished from a Man's Soul by Passion That being set between Evil and Good my Soul should fly from Good to Evil Woe is me how soon I lost the Robe of Grace How soon I made my self an infamous Slave of Sin How soon its snares and nets intangled me How soon its darkness obscur'd all my light How early I began to grow worse and to hasten that approaching Night How early I forsook the Banner of the Redeemer of Souls and flying from the City of God to that of my beastly Appetite I quitted the Holy Jerusalem to take up my dwelling in Babylon How late I recover'd thee O sweet Jesus of my Life How late I know the way to serve thee having so early known the way to offend thee Slow have I been to follow thee O my Jesus but very hasty to persecute thee Who can suffer this This slowness and that haste Crucifie my Soul O Lord and I will bewail them both eternally in my Life till I see thee in the Life eternal by my death 4. How long did I go as a lost and prodigal Son flying from my heavenly Father that sought me How long like a wandring Sheep flying from my Shepherd that ran after me How long did I go astray in the venemous Pasture of worldly Vices taking Poyson and Death to be my nourishment I embraced my Deceits and my Undoings being fond of that which killed me Blindly stumbling I followed after Vanity and in a bold folly I hunted after my own destruction Who called me and brought me back when I was lost laying me gently upon his Shoulders Who was that divine Samaritan that took care of me the Man full of Wounds and that lay half dead as I was going from Jerusalem Who but thou O my Jesus who wert more wounded by thy Love for Man then I by the Love of my Sins Who but thou sweet Jesus that wert more ready to lay down thy Life for me then I was to have my Life saved by thee 5. For me to be lost and wicked and wretched O eternal Glory is natural to me and to my Vices that being properly of my own Stock but for thee who art infinitely good to seek after him that was lost and wicked and wretched thy infinite Justice requiring rather that thou should'st destroy then save such a Person is a Work that belongs only to thy unspeakable Mercy and to the Bowels of thy Compassion Thine infinite Goodness O my Jesus doth still exceed my horrible wickedness and look how vast the distance is between thee and me between finite and infinite So vast is that between my ruine and my remedy Blessed be thou my God for though the one be great the other is unmeasurable in greatness 6. But Oh that being once found and cured by thy hand I had never lost and forsaken thee again Oh that I had but once cost thee the Pains the Sweat the Blood the Torments and the Death which thou paid'st for me But Lord I have often nay numberless times crucified thee again 7. Look not Lord upon my wickedness but upon thine own goodness To offend thee though but once was a great Evil but to do it so many thousand times is an Evil of the highest Magnitude To offend by forgetfulness of thee before I was pardon'd was very ill since to forget thee is a very great Evil but to offend thee after being pardon'd is an ill beyond all ills because it is to be ingrateful and an Enemy to my greatest Benefactor To offend thee before I knew thee was very ill but to offend thee knowing thee and acknowledging thee still to offend thee is a much greater aggravation To offend thee as an open Enemy is a great Crime but to offend thee as a false Friend and a treacherous Disciple is the highest of Treasons To contrive and commit Sins in thine absence without remembring that thou standest looking on is very bad since there is no absence from thee who art in all places but to offend thee in sight of thy Divine Countenance and even while born upon thy Shoulders to betray thee in thy very House and at thy very Table is a degree of Wickedness above all comparison I am utterly lost O Lord unless thy kindness pardon and direct me My Sins deserve a thousand Hells unless thy divine Goodness and Mercy free and defend me 8. How often good God after having been cleansed have I return'd to wallow in the Mire How often after having been cur'd have I renew'd my wounds and like a perjur'd Soldier forsaken the Banners of thy Grace and enter'd my self in pay under thine Enemies Colours How often like thy treacherous Disciple have I sold thee for the vile price of some beastly Pleasure Many a time to satisfie my anger or revenge have I offended thy Meekness Many a time have I by despising and trampling upon others offended thy great Humility Many a time have I by known and wilful Sins fearlesly ventur'd to provoke thy Justice O dear Jesus tye me now fast to thy Cross let not my Lips nor my Soul be parted from thy divine Feet fasten me with thy Nails pierce me with the Launce that wounded thee
irrevocable leap from the Delights of this World to the Miseries of the other 3. No no there is no remedy that most bitter Potion is forc't not voluntary and it must of necessity be drunk for they will not let thee spill it To die to be judged to have Sentence executed and to conclude all and make an end for ever is but one instant See how thou goest out of this Life for so thou shalt enter into Judgment see in what condition thou art to make thy account for in the same thou shalt come from thy account see well how thy Case stands for according to the Proof so shall the Sentence be There is no mending of Answers no Wrestings nor Perjuries nor Briberies in that high Court of Justice all is dispatched in a moment the Charge the Answer the Judgment the Sentence and the Execution The Sentence is but to look upon the Criminal to come into the Presence of God is to be condemned and even but to come into the Presence of God is a casting off the Wicked from his sight for ever and a receiving of the Good into eternal Joys 4. What and is there then no remedy for a Sinner before God's Tribunal Is there no way to come off from that Judgment and from that account Yes there is a remedy But what I beseech you To judge thy self in this Life and to call thy self daily to strict account Let the Sinner pass Judgment upon himself during his Life and then his Death shall be a Comfort his Account a Blessing that great Day a Day of Mercy then the Sentence shall be Joy and the Execution Glory The Sentence is published there but the Tryal is made here and according as the Case is found the Sentence is fitted to the Tryal God pronounces the Sentence in his Tribunal according to the Tryal but thou and I are here forming and giving Matter to that Tryal by our Thoughts by our Words and by our Actions Take heed what thou doest for there thou shalt find it and take heed what thou sayest for there thou shalt hear it the Tryal I say is of our own making by it that most righteous Judge shall judge us take heed then what thou thinkest for there thou shalt see it and take heed what thou sowest for there thou shalt reap it 5. As thy Life shall be here such shall be thy Death thy Account and thy Sentence at that Tribunal and afterwards the Execution The Judgment is God's Truth the Sentence is his Righteousness and the Execution his Justice It is neither the Judgment nor the Sentence principally which condemns a Person but the wickedness of his Life The Sentence of God's eternal Judgment is rather a Declaration then a Condemnation Thou didst sentence and condemn thy self when thou didst Sin and being already condemned thou goest to be judged by dying in thy sins All that is done there is but to declare that thy Wickedness deserves Hell and thy Life eternal Death 6. And according to this at the last Judgment in the Gospel our Lord says nothing else in pronouncing it but Go ye cursed or Come ye blessed of my Father He does not say My will condemns the Wicked nor my will absolves the Good as he finds them so he judges he finds those cursed and as cursed he casts them from him he finds these blessed and as blessed he calls them he embraces them and takes them to himself The reason of this is because that as God is the eternal Truth he judges according as he finds the Tryal and if that be deadly the Sentence of necessity must be so likewise 7. He that will escape Judgment at the Day of Judgment must begin from this present time to judge himself He that will clear his account at that day of Account must begin in this Life to call himself to an account Let a Man take good heed on what hand he lives in this mortal Life on that hand he shall be placed in the immortal Life if on the Left hand then on the Left if on the Right-hand on the Right In this World which is full of Deceits and Equivocations in Suits and Causes all the danger of the Person condemned is in the Judgment past upon him for his Innocence will little avail to save him if the Sentence condemn him nor if that absolve him will the greatest Crime and the most evidently proved do him any harm but at God's Tribunal the Danger is not in the Sentence but in the Case of the Criminal Hereby amongst many other Reasons God is justified in condemning the Wicked although he be Mercy it self for it is not his Mercy Goodness and Pity but the Sins the Guilt and the Malice of the Wicked that condemns them 'T is they that choose their own Sentence for they make their own process in this Life 'T is they that make Hell their own choice because they wilfully choose those Sins that carry them thither and will not choose Repentance that would free them from it They are the makers of their own Misfortunes and themselves are the Causes of their Death their Hell and their Damnation by not applying Tears and Contrition to their Sins 8. O what a strange Doctrine is this According to it there is nothing to be fear'd at the Day of Judgment but our Lives nothing to be fear'd in the Sentence but our Sins Nay all is to be fear'd for terrible and dreadful are the Judgments of the Lord yet are they just righteous and holy therefore fear Sin which brings thee to be sentenc'd fear Guilt which brings thee for ever to be condemned fear that Sentence which throws thee into eternal Damnation and fear that Judgment which casts thee headlong to everlasting Torments The Second WEEK Of the Rectitude and Severity of the Judgment 1. BUT admit all this be so yet may not some of our faults be forgotten or some of our Sins excused at that Day Thô I go out of this Life in the Judge's disfavour may I not in the other Appeal or reply or beg and obtain his Favour before he pass the Sentence May I not by Gift or Craft or Industry or subtilty of Discourse evade or extenuate or hide or at least disguise the Sins I have committed 2. O how foolishly doest thou argue if thou canst have such a Thought Thou art more blind in thy reasoning than thou art in sinning for that is but weakness but this the highest Ignorance What excuse canst thou possibly have for offending thy God and thy Redeemer who died upon the Cross only to free thee from Death and Sin What excuse for not being willing to take the Benefit of his Sacraments What excuse for rejecting his Helps and holy Inspirations What excuse for the frequent rebelling against his holy Commandments What excuse for refusing his divine Counsels What excuse for stopping thine ears to the Masters of Christian Instruction and to those loud Cries with which his
Preachers daily call upon thee from their Pulpits 3. What canst thou say for having neglected the Directions of thy Spiritual Guides those internal Physicians of Souls and Consciences What canst thou say for having so often turned away from God who by them called upon thee daily intreating thee and offering thee eternal Life What for following his and thine own Enemy that offer'd thee nothing but eternal Death What canst thou say to quit thy self from so many Accusations What Evasion canst thou find to so full an Evidence Or how wilt thou get off from so weighty a Charge wherein thou wilt not be able to answer so much as one of Ten thousand If the Charge be true how will it be possible for thee to oppose the Truth thy Judge being also the Truth it self What deceit will be able to prevail before so great a Light and such a manifest Conviction Dost thou think O simple Creature to over-reach that infinite Wisdom Doth thy Ignorance think to circumvent him who sees the time present the time past and the time to come all at one instant Or does thy foolish proud Presumption hope to escape his all-seeing Eye Thou deceivest thy self and not him in so silly a conceit his Judgments are Evidences his Sentences Truths and his Execution Justice and doest thou think there can be forgetfulness of thy faults in that eternal Comprehension that beholds all things There is not the lightest Thought the suddenest Motion the inconsiderablest Word nor the smallest Action which is not punctually registred there That eternal Justice has all Sins counted weighed and measured in his presence from the first bitter Fruit of Adam's Apple to the last and slightest Sin of all Mankind till the end of the World That which was only known to thy Chamber to the secretest Corner of thy House or of thy Heart that which is unknown to thy most favoured Servant or most intimate Friend is all publick and manifest before the Face of thy Creator The Leaves of all the Trees in the World the Sand of all the Seas all the Stars of the Sky and the Atoms of the Sun with whatsoever is created are all numbered and present to him and canst thou believe he will forget thy Sins 4. Wouldst thou know what the Judgment is that thou mayest live with Judgment before thou comest to Judgment 5. It is an exact and particular Register of thy loose and wretched Life all that thou hast said seen done and thought in seventy Years of thine age is perfectly seen to God in that instant as if thou wert but then in doing of it 6. O Jesus my Lord and my God is it then all one thing with thee to behold and to judge And is thy Judgment the perfect and particular Sight of all the Sins and Transgressions of our whole Life Alas Alas What then shall become of me at that Day Is it possible O my great God that thou shouldst then see all my Crimes and soul Misdeeds That thou shouldest then see all my Subtilties Deceits and Falshoods Must all my beastly Vices and filthy Sensualities be seen by thee at that Judgment with the Pride and Presumption wherewith I have despised and trampled upon others with my unjust censurings and rash judgings of my Neighbours and my Vanity and Folly in thinking better of my self then of them Shalt thou then see the Sins not only of my Person but likewise of my Office and Dignity My Sins of Omission as well as those of Commission The Evils I have done the good Actions I have left undone and my suffering others to act those Crimes which I might have hindered Must thy pure Eyes which cannot behold Inquity see and behold and judge all mine Iniquities in that one instant How can I but tremble to think that thy holy and heavenly Eye should see such filthy Impurities and such horrible Abominations What can I hope for in that Sentence What can my Wickedness expect from thy eternal Justice but everlasting Torments All my Bones quake for fear O God and I am ready to wish the Rocks might hide me and the Hills might cover me from thy Presence but I know how vain that is and that even in the Center of the Earth thy Right-hand will find me out I am therefore plainly convinced that there is no refuge for me but from the Bar of thy Justice to the Bowels of thy Mercy Yet how shall I dare take Sanctuary there having so much abused it Now I discover the necessity I stand in of a Mediator to plead there for me yet dare not beg his Intercession having so long neglected it Thou of thy infinite Mercy and Goodness hast given thine own dear Son even the Man Christ Jesus to be that Mediator for all Mankind and in him some beams of Hope begin to comfort me remembring his excessive Love that willingly died upon the Cross to make Satisfaction to thy Justice for the Sins of all But with what confidence can I hope in him whom I have so often crucified afresh by my redoubled Offences This is my sad Condition and when I look only upon my Guilt I am almost ready to despair But Lord I know that that is a greater Sin than any I have yet committed therefore I will hope even against hope and carnestly beg of thee O my dearest Saviour that since thou hast hitherto given me time and now so loudly callest me to Repentance by this terrible Meditation of God's vigorous Judgment I may not delay a Moment longer to lament and bewail the Multitude of my Transgressions Grant I may go to that great Day with Tears of Contrition and that I may depart from it with Songs of Praise Grant I may go to it weeping for having offended thee and that I may come from it with joy for thy having pardoned me And since thou seest my sins which provoked thy Wrath grant thou mayest also see my Repentance to obtain thy Mercy Grant O dear Jesus that since thou seest my Ingratitude thou mayest also see my Heart deeply grieved and afflicted for having been so ungrateful And lastly grant I most earnestly beseech thee that I may see thy infinite Pity interposing the Merit of thy Death thy Blood thy Cross and Passion between thy Father's Justice and my sinful Soul now and ever and most especially in that great and terrible Day and that in the mean while I by thy Grace may so spend the rest of my days in Sorrow and Amendment of Life that at my Death I may be received into thy Glory Amen The Third WEEK Of the Means there are in this Life to prevent the Account and Judgment of the other 1. I Am stricken with amazement stand trembling at the thought of the Judgments of the Lord. I know not what to do nor can find any way how to escape them I am ashamed and confounded to appear in his presence full of so many Miseries and Sins Is it not possible to delay
never depart out of my mind Amen APRIL The First WEEK Of the Torments of Hell 1. OH what terrible things are these Death Judgment Account and Sentence without any Remedy Yet there are things more terrible than all these and they are viz. To be damned and to suffer the Torments of Hell to all Eternity Death is Life Judgment is Joy the Account is Pleasure and the Sentence is Delight in comparison of what it is to depart from thence condemned to be thrown eternally into Hell and Damnation and to suffer there those intolerable pains which a sinner hath deserved here This is that which makes Death terrible Judgment formidable the Account insupportable and the Sentence dreadful Actions are measur'd by their Successes and Causes by their Effects 2. If they had condemned me to lye for many years in some strait place and some narrow Dungeon and always in obscure darkness where mine eyes should never see the Light that were a great Evil but in Hell the darkness is far more horrible without the least hope of light 3. If they had condemned me for ever to suffer extremity of Torment though but in one Hand in one Foot or in any one particular Member that were a great Evil But in Hell the whole Body and Soul suffer together without having one part or Member free to comfort another and all of them suffering for ever and ever 4. If they had condemned me to some moderate pain of sense and such as might have been endur'd leaving my Thought and Understanding free yet that pain being for ever would be a very great Evil but that in Hell is far greater for the pains that are suffered there are unmeasurably sharper both in their intension and extension 5. If they had condemned me to lye among Gally-Slaves Traytors and Murderers the vilest and basest of Wretches men of abominable Life and worse Manners this were a great Evil to be tyed to such ill Company But they condemn me to be amongst utter Enemies who not only abhor but would fain destroy one another and themselves too to hear nothing else but Yellings and Blasphemies to see none but Tormentors executing their Rage and their Revenge upon the damned by a death that knows no death and an end that is still beginning and which keeps it duration even in the midst of Torment 6. If they had condemned me to some limited time though it were for a hundred years to suffer such sharp and terrible pains that were a great Evil since we see that one year of acute pain is insufferable how much more then for millions of millions of years But for ever for ever for ever to suffer innumerable and remediless Miseries and Torments which have no end nor limitation but must last eternally who can be able to suffer and undergo them 7. If they had condemned me to all these Sufferings in my Body alone leaving my Soul free that I might feel no more Affliction than what is caused by the Punishment of my Body that were an intolerable Evil but the torment which is felt within is greater than that without and more insufferable is that excess of grief and anguish which the never dying Worm of Conscience gives unto the Soul than all the pains and torments which are laid upon the Body These are as it were the body of Hell but the soul of it is the torment of the Soul far more intolerable and disconsolate Yet this is but a slightdraught a very remote and faint description of Hell in general consider it now in particular The Second WEEK Of the Place of Hell 1. COnsider now the Place of Hell the Habitation of Devils the horrible dwelling of the Damned A dwelling that is no dwelling a habitation that is no habitation a place that is no place but horror darkness fire torment and confusion There is nothing in those unhappy Prisons that speaks order there is nothing that speaks distinction all is disorder all is contrariety all flame and yet all obscurity All that is seen there is fire and flame which do torment but not enlighten The Place where those miserable wretches are condemned is Sorrow their Rest is Affliction their Food is burning and their walk a passing from one terrible pain to another more intolerable 2. The Lodgings of that horrible Palace are Racks and Tortures the Halls and Galleries are fire and its continuance the Chambers and Closets are vexation and anguish the Windows are darkness and the Light is to see nothing but miseries and woes Think what they shall do and suffer there who here imploy all their care and spend all that Money which they owe to the Poor in sumptuous Buildings in stately Appartments in costly Furniture in curious Pieces and in rich Accomodations 3. Nature does require ease comfort joy light and cheerfulness but the Damned shall there find pain affliction grief sadness and obscurity How much does a Man suffer lying in a dark Dungeon Nay how tedious it is to suffer an easie Bed if a Man be kept there but two or three Years nay but two or three Days by any sharp infirmity his weariness makes it a severe and a heavy Punishment How much does a Man suffer being fastened to the Bank of a Gally a Chain at his Foot an Oar in both his Hands and his Shoulders exposed to cruel Lashes But alas how spacious and lightsome are Dungeons How pleasant is a sick Bed and how delightful are Gallies and the sharpest Pains of this mortal Life in comparison of those unutterable Sufferings of the Damned in Hell 4. Man's Nature desires fair Houses large and cheerful Appartments but that is a place strait close and narrow for the pain of it and only great wide and spacious in the lasting of that pain Nature requires room and liberty to walk to dilate the Heart and cheer the Senses but that is a place where the Limbs have no Motion the Heart no Enlargement and where the Senses on all sides meet howlings tortures griefs stenches fire and confusion Nature requires a place to delight and recreate it self But that place is all misery and discomfort torments and more torments Losses Sorrows and Sufferings without end without measure and without remedy 5. Finally the place of Hell is a place of calamities even beyond all imagination and of extremity of tortures for an eternal Duration It s limit is to repeat eternity it ceasing to be is a new beginning and a continual repetition of torment 6. Now all this being so is there any one that believes it who would not suffer here to the end he may not suffer hereafter Woe be to thee and me if we do not consider here and endeavour to prevent what is prepared and what expects us there Woe be to thee and me if we do not examine weigh and bewail the times wherein we have offended that eternal Judge who condemns the most part of Mankind to that infernal abode for not considering these things
at last they might have an end and that there did shine some glimpse of hope though so remote of their being ended it were not absolutely Hell It is no infernal Evil that hath a conclusion nor can that be called the Pain of the Damned which can be seen as it were behind going away from them That ever ever ever eternity eternity eternity is the Torment of all the Torments of Hell To shut the door against all Mercy for ever To bolt and lock the Gates of Hell and to throw the Key into the bottomless Pit so that it shall never be taken out of it again For the Damned to turn their Eyes on every side and find all passages utterly barr'd up to see the Dungeon not inhabitable and yet closed up on every side and to lie burning and suffering in it to eternity this this is the Evil of all the Evils of Hell 3. Never never never to see the Face of God! That the Damned shall never be admitted to the Light of his heavenly Countenance That they shall never have any benefit by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ which he came to offer for them as well as for the rest of Mankind if they would have made themselves capable of it That the Devils shall never stir from their sides nor cease one moment to torment them That they shall never be able to think one honest thought to speak one vertuous Word nor to do any one Action but what shall be abominably wicked That they shall always go wishing and seeking for Death and yet never find it That neither the Tormentor nor the Tormented nor the Torments themselves nor the place of those Torments shall ever come to an end What is this good Lord what is this but Horror and Astonishment 4. Ah how my Thoughts are disturbed and even distracted and Nature it self is in amazement and in a manner lost in the Meditation of these Things How well was it spoken of him that said there were but two sorts of Punishments to be ordain'd in this World for all those that are the Followers of it and that are deceived by it One for the Heretick if he does not believe and another for the Fool if he believes and does not do accordingly Is there a Hell for ever And yet we do we sin Is there a Hell for ever And yet do we not fear Is there a Hell for ever And yet do we not repent Oh! what a Terror is stricken into my Soul by contemplating the Eternity of those Torments But is it not hard that God should inflict eternal Punishments for temporal Offences Oh take heed of judging thy Judge who has forbidden thee to judge so much as thy Neighbour how much more then thy Creator If thou wilt needs be judging judge thy self for that thou lawfully mayest do but presume not to question his ways for they are unsearchable and his Judgments past finding out Thou mayest as well empty the vastness of the Ocean and pour all the Water of it into an Egg-shell as fathom the Depths of his Proceedings with thy shallow capacity Yet there want not Reasons to convince thee of God's Justice and to vindicate it from Incongruity God sets before thee Blessing and Cursing Life eternal and Death eternal he shews thee the way to obtain the one and to escape the other He calls upon thee often in his Word and by his Ministers to walk in the narrow way that leads to Life but if still thou wilt go in that great Road which thou knowest must of necessity bring thee to eternal Death thou makest it thine own choice and oughtest rather to blame thine own choice and oughtest rather to blame thine own Folly than God's Justice He hath set before thee Heaven and Hell and out of his exceeding love sent his own Son to take Man's Nature upon him on purpose that he might suffer Death to redeem thee from the one and purchase the other for thee He swears As I live I will not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he would turn from his wickedness and live He invites thee earnestly saying Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways and kindly expostulates Why will ye die But if after all this method of Mercy Men will not be wrought upon but will run on to their own destruction which they are forewarn'd must be eternal it is their own will not God's severity that is to be blamed Besides if a Man sin as long as he can even to his Death and would continue to do so for ever if he lived so long which is not unknown to God who searches the secretest corners of his Heart and foresees his most hidden thoughts long before that they are only evil and that continually can it be unjust that he should be condemned to suffer continually He does what he can against God by his Sin and may not God justly correspond with him in punishment He never ceased from Sins while he had power to commit them and God ceases not from punishing while he hath power to inflict it which is for ever Add to this that an offence which may seem very small against an equal becomes an heinous Crime if committed against the Majesty of a King by one of the basest of his Subjects And if David who was a great King calls himself a Worm and no Man humbling himself in the Presence of God how vast must the disproportion be between God's infinite Majesty and such a Worm as thou art being so much inferior to David Therefore even the smallest of thy Sins committed against that infinite Majesty must needs have an infinite guilt and so may justly suffer an infinite punishment More Arguments might be brought to this purpose but to dispute those Points is not the business of this Design This is enough to shew their Error and teach them to beg pardon for it beseeching God to forgive the lightest Thought that can entrench upon his Justice and to give them Grace to make such use of this Representation of those eternal Pains as may make them careful instantly to forsake and lament their Sins and totally to apply themselves to obtain his Mercies 5. If I have struck a Terror by representing the bodily Pains of Hell and the Duration of them how will it move thee seriously to consider how far they are exceeded by the Torments of that Worm of Conscience which gnaws the Souls of the Damned which kills them without suffering them to die and which devours and consumes them without any diminution or bringing them one moment nearer to their end This is Hell in the Abstract The Pains and Torments of the Body shew only the outside of those Vessels of Wrath and of that Hell where they are tortured but the inside of it is that Worm of a Man 's own Conscience and his rage against himself for his Sins and Follies This is the bitterness of that Cup of Gall and Wormwood wherewith those Vessels are filled
a scandal to others as this wretched Person is to me Grant that I may detest the Vice but not the Man Convert him I beseech thee from the evil of his ways and so strengthen me in the Paths of thy Commandments that I may never fall away but persevere in them constantly unto my Live's end Of the Benefit of Preservation whereby we our selves have been delivered from particular Dangers Now if the Calamities of others when but look'd upon are a just Motive to us of Thankfulness how much more those we our selves have been freed from by particular Escapes God permitting us sometimes to fall into dangers that his Goodness and fatherly Care may be the more visibly manifested in our deliverance and that we may acknowledge our selves more obliged to remember them with Gratitude and to make him returns of Duty and Obedience Thou mayest be able to relate and express those he has shew'd to thee I will relate those done to my self though it be more easie to have a Sense of them than to express it I shall not need to insist upon his Benefits of doing one good since thou wilt know them by those of delivering me from evil Here the Author reckons up his particular deliverances which I omit to insert Do thou likewise Reader following his Example recount to thy self the chief of those dangers God hath preserved thee in which it concerns thee carefully to remember and gratefully to lay them to heart And when thou hast recollected as many as thou canst say with the Psalmist Praise thou the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Who forgiveth all thy Sins and healeth all thine Infirmities Who saveth thy Life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness I will always give thanks unto the Lord his praise shall ever be in my mouth O praise the Lord with me and let us magnify his Name together Of the Preservation of our Souls But is not the Preservation of the Body from corporal Death much less considerable than that of the Soul from spiritual Death Yes certainly There is no comparison between them for the former is only in order to the latter and when he saves us from any such dangers as those I have before-mentioned they are to mind us of our Mortality and to make us think in what condition we should have been if he had then snatch'd us suddenly out of this World His sparing us longer was only to give us a longer time to repent and to urge us to make use of it to the end that when he shall come again to take us away in good earnest he may find us prepar'd for Death in being reconciled to him by Repentance and newness of Life Thus in all the occasions wherein he delivered me from a Temporal he delivered me also from eternal Death affording me a longer time to break off and to forsake my Sins by a Repentance not to be repented of quick'ning my Faith to lay faster hold on my Saviour least I should be pluck'd away from him as I had like to have been while I was in so great an Error as to presume he would be held by me whilst I was loath to let go my sins as if it had been possible to embrace Christ and the World both at the same time How often when his Divine Majesty was ready to throw me justly into Hell with one hand hath he detained me with the other And when I was already condemn'd by his Divine Justice how often hath he saved me by his Compassion and Mercy How often when I was going nay running to throw my self into the infernal Flames hath this compassionate Lord stopt me in my Career and freed me from Temptations which were hurrying me to eternal Miseries How often hath he driven back the Devil who had seized me and was dragging me away when his Divine Majesty laid hold upon me rescued sustained and receivcd me pardoning my wickedness and embracing me in the Arms of his boundless Charity How often when being blind and foolish I went astray hath he sought me and brought me home How hath he called advertised reproved and counselled me by which means I was recovered and restored How often sometimes sleeping sometimes waking while I was dead to Grace but quick to Sin hath he rouzed me up called me and led me by the hand to make me forsake Sin and return to Grace Who then bound the Hands of his Justice who entreated for me when I was lull'd asleep in that sinful security What was there in me that I should find more favour than those that are taken away from amongst us in the midst of their days and in the heat of their youthful Lusts My Sins cried out against me but the Lord stopped his Ears My offences daily encreased against him and his Mercies abounded as daily towards me I sinned and he did expect me I fled from him and he followed me and when I was even weary in offending him yet his long sufferance was not weary in expecting me for in the midst of all my Sins I received many good Inspirations and Reproofs from his Holy Spirit which check'd me in my inconsiderate course of Life How often did he call me with the Voice of Love How often did he terrifie me with threats and fears laying before me the Peril of Death and the Rigour of his Divine Justice How often hath he followed me with his Word preached How often invited me with Blessings and chastened me with Crosses compassing me about and hedging my way with Thorns that I might not be able to break from him By all these holy Methods he made me at last to see the Vanity the Folly the Deceitfulness and even the Painfulness of Sin l found that it was dangerous and costly as well as slavish to be hurried up and down by the Tyranny of my unruly and vicious Passions I found I had no fruit of those things whereof I was afterwards ashamed and was at last convinced that the end of them was Death nay and death eternal Then did I fully resolve being assisted by thy Grace with an unchangeable purpose to alter my course of Life and to run the way of thy Commandments since thou hadst set my Heart at liberty My Soul escaped even as a Bird out of the Hand of the Fowler the Snare was broken and I was delivered O let me never again be entangled with the Birdlime of sinful Delights from which it is so hard to get disengag'd but grant I may now soar up to those Pleasures which are at thy Right-hand for evermore taking my flight freely to thee and to the Ark of thy rest for the Deluge of Wickedness that hath covered the Face of the Earth affords no safe place for the sole of my Foot O put forth thine hand to take me in to thee as Noah did the Dove
which is more hath given him Eternal Life freeing him from everlasting Damnation and not at so cheap a rate as words but by sweating Blood suffering Torments and giving up himself to Death even the death of the Cross Can this Benefit this Love this excess of Kindness find any in the World that can be compar'd to it And if we should be ungrateful for it or forgetful of it which in some sort is worse than to be ungrateful could there possibly be a greater wickedness O Lord suffer not me I beseech thee to be guilty of so great an Error of so great a Folly and of so great a Wickedness for such a strange want of Love and such an abominable Ingratitude cannot be thought of by any good Person without horror JVNE The First WEEK Of Baptism and Confirmation COnsider now what God hath done for thee in particular towards making thee a partaker of this high Benefit of Redemption for though Christ by his death paid a sufficient Price for the Souls of all Mankind yet thou no more than many others couldst have had no share in it hadst thou not been made a Member of his Body and how high soever the Benefit of Creation be it had been much better for thee never to have been born than not to have been made a Christian But what couldst thou a poor helpless Infant do towards the attaining so great a Benefit when thou didst not so much as know thy want of it Yet the Mercy of thy most Gracious God prevented thy desires and in his eternal purpose he determined thee to be one of that happy number that should be born of Christian Parents in that part of the World where the Gospel is most purely profess'd and where thou wert early consecrated to him in Baptism Thou wert brought to that Laver of Regeneration where the stains of thy Original Corruption were washed away in the Blood of Christ represented by the outward and visible sign of Water wherewith thou wert sprinkled to signifie thy death unto Sin and thy new birth unto Righteousness Thou wert baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost according to thy Saviour's Appointment By the Gate of that Holy Sacrament thou wert admitted into the Church and made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven being by Nature born in sin thou wert thereby made a Child of Grace Thus the second Covenant made with Mankind in Christ Jesus was sealed between God and thee which cannot fail on his part to be faithfully performed if thou be but careful on thine to do the best thou canst and to serve him with sincere if not with perfect Obedience Men use to envy those that are born of Noble Parents whose Care Power and Greatness may support and succour the naked weak and innocent Infants but O! what a Noble Birth is that of Faith What rich Mantles and Swadling-cloaths are the Coelestial Vertues That this little Creature shall no sooner be born but that at the same instant he comes into the care not of a weak frail Mother who lies unable to help her self by reason of the Pangs and Throws she suffer'd for the bringing of a Child into the World but of an Holy Perfect and Spiritual Mother which is the Catholick Church that cloaths him with the Robe of Grace an admirable Pledge of a safe and an eternal Inheritance in Glory That the Child should scarcely be born when already the Son of God as an invisible Minister doth by the visible hand of his Minister baptize and at the same time wash away sin from that Soul and fill it with Graces Gifts and Vertues This is an Honour which is indeed deservedly to be valued and a Benefit which can never be sufficiently admir'd From the time that the Water of Baptism washed off the filthy rags of Adam and cloathed thee with Grace in the Blood of the Lamb sin which had wounded thee before became wounded it self and whereas before it gave death from that time it suffered death In Natural Sicknesses the Remedies seldome reach to the Diseases and the Body when it is recovered hardly gets so great strength as what it lost by Sickness but in the Spiritual Sickness and in the Hurts and Diseases of the Soul it uses to be much otherwise for the wounded party recovers more strength and vigour when he is gotten up again than what he lost by falling into them The Devil ruined us but God is more powerful in good than he is in evil Sin destroy'd us and Grace renew'd us but Grace is more effectual to renew us than Sin to destroy us Our weak and ruined Nature was indebted Ten Thousand Talents but the Eternal Son of God hath satisfied the Debt not with Ten Thousand nor with an Hundred Thousand but with his Blood a Price of inestimable value Dost thou think that any thing can be more powerful than God Hath he not received thee into his Church by Baptism And hath not he on his part promised to protect to free and to assist thee Hast thou not passed through those Waters flying from the Enemy that pursued thee Did not that Red Sea of thy Saviour's blood open to give thee passage And did it not shut again to drown the Egyptian I mean Original Sin Then what hast thou to be afraid of Sing the Victory with Miriam and the Daughters of Israel which the Son of a better and a more glorious Myriam hath obtained for thee Is not God thy succour and thy hope Whom hast thou to fear Is not he thy defence and thy protection What dost thou dread When a man is once cloathed with the Grace of God in Baptism all his Enemies are but few By the Infusions of Grace thou oughtest to count Sin and Nature to be already conquer'd What signifies the Signing thee with the Sign of the Cross in thy Forehead but the marking thee out for a Souldier of Jesus Christ Be not therefore asham'd to confess the Faith of Christ crucified Thou art not only his Souldier but art furnished with Arms of his Magazine The Old Man is put away and thou art cloathed with the New and that New Man is Jesus Christ who enters into thy Soul to cloath it with himself and with his Graces for he enters to arm to defend to favour to protect and to assist thee The Field in which thou fightest is thine own for he strengthens and encourages thee in all encounters Thou fightest in the Militant Church whereof thou art a Member against which that Enemy with whom thou fightest can never prevail Great part of the Victory consists in the Advantage of Ground but all is favourable to thee from the time thou art entred into the Church That Entry by Baptism was the first Victory for the entrance it self was a Victory and that Victory a Triumph From that day Hell trembles at thee only because thou art a
to his Face Let so many Publicans and Sinners so many Harlots and other wicked Livers speak this who repenting were pardoned and the Traiterous Apostle Judas who persisting in Impenitency was Damned Of the Institution of the Holy Sacrament This Gracious Action being finished he holds a most loving Discourse to his Disciples preparing them to see their Master suffer and to bear all those sufferings they were to undergo themselves O how does he forewarn and advise them How does he encourage and instruct them How does he enlighten and comfort them There he rebukes Peter thereby giving a Lesson to the rest and shews them Beams of Mercy even in those Prophecies of Tribulations and Afflictions that were to befal them If he foretel their Frailties and their Failings he also assures them of Victories and Triumphs and that they shall subdue and trample upon the World through the Vertue and Power of his Grace That most tender Discourse being likewise ended he Celebrated the third and last Supper or more properly the admirable and unspeakable Mystery of the Sacrament in which he expressed and Epitomized the Intimacies of his unmeasurable Goodness and Charity To make himself Man and to suffer for Man seemed but a small thing to his Love unless he still remained with Man to be the food of Man O Infinite Charity which contentest not thy self with being our Redemption unless thou also becomest our Nourishment O Infinite Charity who not only offerest thy self to Death to save my Life but who also wilt enter into my Breast to give me a better Life and to defend and free me from a more lasting Death O Infinite Charity who having our Ingratitude in thy thoughts and that thou wert to be condemned by Men to die upon the Cross yet leavest us a benefit which we could not have received but by thy passing first through so great an Ingratitude of Men O Infinite Charity which knowing that my Offences would nail thee to the Cross wert yet providing that remedy for those very Offences O Infinite Charity which knowing that a thousand Injuries and Torments were contriving in the Hearts of Men against thy unspeakable Goodness and Mercy didst yet leave thy self for Food to those Infamous Mouths and having it in thy Power to inflict a severe punishment upon them for so great a Wickedness wert offering them means and expedients of Mercy Goodness and Charity What was Man doing when thou didst institute this blessed Sacrament for him What but preparing the Scourges the Crown of Thorns the Nails and the Cross for thee He was designing thy cruel Death and thou his eternal Life He was contriving Torments for thee and thou Glory for him He was platting a Crown of sharp Thorns for thy sacred Head and thou a Crown of Joys and Eternities for his Lord is it thy Custom to repay Benefits for Injuries and to give Crowns for the Reward of Ingratitude Come hither O devout Souls come and bewail with me so great a Sin Come love with me so great a Love Come with a Spiritual Hunger and offer up your hearts to receive that Divine Nourishment and let whatsoever is in you of your selves go forth of you to make room for this most deservedly beloved Lord to enter Of the Consecration of the Apostles After that our Sovereign Lord and Master had Consecrated the Elements of Bread and Wine breaking the one and giving it them to Eat and pouring out the other and commanding all to Drink calling the one his Body and the other his Blood and thereby changing not their nature but their use that they might become a Sacrament which should remain in his Church not only for a Remembrance of his precious Death and Passion but also for a Conveyance of the Merits thereof for the Remission of Sins He Consecrated also the Apostles themselves and gave them the Power and Vertue to Consecrate and Ordain others and to send them forth as he did them for the Propagation of his Gospel and for the Administration and Government of Souls This was another admirable expression of the Love of our Lord Jesus to Mankind since whereas he could have taken upon him the nature of Angels and left them Heirs of that rich Possession of Receiving Consecrating and Administring those precious Symbols he was pleased to bestow that Benefit and Priviledge upon Mankind which thereby received Honour and Favour as well as Remedy But Lord I wonder not at that since from the time thou madest thy self Man all advantages were brought to Man by joyning thy Divinity to his Humanity O that as thou hast given to us Bishops and Priests this Dignity we had also the Spirit the Devotion and the Piety of the Apostles And Lord as the Power thou hast conferr'd upon us is what thou hast not granted to Angels and to Seraphins O that the Perfection of our Manners and the Purity and Charity of our Souls were in some degree suitable to that of Angels and of Seraphins But O God we have a Dignity of great weight upon very weak shoulders the Dignity is fit for Angels the Weakness is of miserable Sinners And thou only O Eternal Goodness thy Mercy and thy Strength alone can help and encourage and support our Weakness and Misery Since then O sweet Lord thou givest us this Dignity give us also those parts and qualifications which are expedient for it Since thou hast given us the Obligations help us also with the Abilities since thou givest us the Ministry give us also the Spirit As thou hast made us to represent thee make us also to imitate thee As thou hast given us the Power give us also the Vertue with the Power Suffer us not O Divine Goodness to serve in that High Dignity with Uncharitableness and Indignity If thou wilt not help the Bishops the Fathers of the Faith and the Shepherds of Souls O thou Eternal lover of Souls whom wilt thou help If our Light must enlighten the Souls of others what shall become both of us and others if we want thy Light Thou callest the Apostles and Ministers the Salt of the Earth and if the Salt lose its savour how shall their Doctrine be seasoned If the blind lead the blind shall they not both fall into the ditch Grant O Lord that thy Goodness and thy Love may dwell in us that thy Mercy and thy Charity may burn in our hearts and that the fire of thy Divine Love may break forth from thence to kindle and enflame the hearts of our Christian Brethren Our Blessed Saviour having Consecrated his Holy Apostles to be Teachers of the Faith and Pillars of his Church and having made himself their Minister and their Priest enters into the breasts of those that were to be his Ministers and Priests to become an unbloody Sacrifice in the Altar of those living Temples before he was a bloody one upon the Altar of the Cross They with profound Reverence receive the Lord whom they adore and behold
end infallibly attain the Crown of Eternity 'T is Religion that sanctifies and gives worth to the four Cardinal and to the Moral Vertues for without it they are only Natural though they have an outward Beauty yet inwardly they are empty of Grace and Value The Gentiles Barbarians Idolaters and Hereticks also have Vertues but they are only Natural ones they want that Soul that Spirit and that Efficacy which they get by the direction and intention of serving God by them Without Religion and love to God thou shalt find no Vertue in thy heart that can deserve to be so called but the worth of it will increase by how much the more it is performed with Purity Fervour Attention and Devotion Endeavour to keep thy Conscience clean and to do all things through God and for God for that is all thy Vertue all thy Remedy and the value of all thy Actions The same pains taken only by changing the Intention may either prove an Advantage or a Ruin to thy Soul O how good and holy might the Vicious Man be if he would but suffer so much for God in Vertue as he does to satisfie his Lusts in Vice The Covetous man plows up the Seas and runs up and down through several Countries to get Wealth but think what Treasures what Crowns he might acquire if he would undergo the same hazards as St. Paul and the Holy Apostles did for Zeal of propagating the Faith See the ardent Passion wherewith the Sensual Man rushes upon an Object full of Misery and Corruption which though to him a seeming Good is indeed but Loathsomness and Folly If thou gavest thy heart and soul with as much eagerness to God that true first and chiefest Good to whom it is due O how happy mightest thou be Only by changing thy Labours for another Object they would become holy which else are perverse and imperfect Only by changing the Intent and the Action nay sometimes by only changing the Intent and not the Action the Heart is made clean and pure which would else be sinful and defiled Only by giving that to the Invisible which is given to what is Visible Men might with the same nay with less pains lay up Rewards in this Life which will be delivered to them again in that to come whereas by employing Diligence to attain sinful Pleasures they also procure Eternal Damnation O what Labours what Difficulties what Misfortunes and Afflictions do Mortals undergo here upon Earth and at last either they perish in the search or else they obtain but perishing Advantages which when they have found and conquer'd and possess'd are all no better than a little Earth They spend their time which wastes and comes to an end in seeking finding and acquiring that which they long to enjoy and they always find the Pains but seldom the Enjoyments Vain Labours Unprofitable Travels Ill-employed Pains and Unhappy Vexations To spend their Time their Life their Honour and their Estate in seeking and acquiring that which it is not a pin matter whether they get or lose That which I no sooner have deceived my self into the delight of possessing all my life but I am undeceived with the sadness of having it taken from me by Death This is that which the Damned bewail themselves for saying We wearied our selves in the ways of wickedness and destruction yea we have gone through Desarts where there lay no way but as for the way of the Lord we have not known it What hath Pride profited us Or what good have Riches with our vaunting brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and like a Post that passeth by And seeing the Righteous stand with great boldness before such as afflicted them in this World they complain saying This is he whom we had sometimes in Derision and a Proveâ—…â—f Reproach We Fools counted his Life Madness and his end without Honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot among the Saints O Happy Labours O Heavenly Repentance which workest enrichest and obtainest the Crown of Everlasting Life Of the Application of Christian Works And thus Holy Men say that one ought not so much to consider what pains a Man takes or what sufferings he undergoes in this Life but for whom and for what end he either does or suffers Non quantum says St. Austin sed ex quanto A Criminal is extreamly sorry that he has killed an Innocent Person because he is going to be hanged for the Fact He is much troubled for the Murder by reason that his Life must satisfie for the others Death But this Sorrow how great soever it be will not procure him the least degree of Reward Why Is he not sorry and extreamly sorry for having killed him Yes but his grief is not for his sin nor for having offended God but he bewails his own Death and is afflicted for the loss of his Life yet let him change his Intention and he may save his Soul with much less sorrow We squander away Treasures by not applying our Intention to a good Object in what we do All our Actions may be holy and profitable to our Salvation whether they be good or indifferent if we do them for God and offer them to God The same thing â—…at is either naturally good and yet for want of application remains without either Sin or Merit in the Opinion of some or that is sinful and imperfect in the Opinion of others may be made holy good and effectual to our Souls only by being done out of love to God Nay there are some that say there is nothing Indifferent and that whatsoever is not directed to God is guilty and inordinate and even to walk and discourse without applying it to God is in a degree sinful though in itself it have no other ill than the not being directed to God Finally they say that if what we do be not good it must of necessity be bad if not in a high yet at least in some measure O how hard this Judgment seems yet in my Opinion it discovers very excellent Reason in the Root of it For we are in such manner Debtors to God all our Senses Powers and Faculties being his and we are so much indebted to him for those Talents which he gave to our management to the end we might increase them in his Service that not to do so whether it be in a great matter or in a small must needs be either a small or a great Offence Work for me says God to his Creatures Traffique till I come since to that end it was I gave thee all thou hast All that thou dost not restore unto me thou takest away from me Consider that thou robbest me of all that which thou dost deny me To work for any other or for thy self as thy ultimate end is to work against me If thou placest thy End in the Creature thou takest it away from the Creator If thou dost not place it in
dislike and enmity Our frail miserable Nature being inclin'd to evil is subtil and discursive in any thing that is bad but is dull blind and careless in all good and if a Divine Ray from above does not help and clarifie our Natural Light it will presently be obscur'd if not extinguished by our Passion It is therefore very useful and convenient in the Spiritual Life to walk in the Divine Presence with the light of Prayer in our hands to the end that by the brightness thereof we may with God's Grace and Spirit choose the fittest means for so high an end despising vain and worldly Wisdom and making use of one that is Divine Spiritual and Celestial O let thy Prudence and Discretion consist in following the ways of thy Salvation All the means thou employest to this end are Christian good holy just powerful and prudent And all those Motives which would put thee out of those ways though they seem to come shining with Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance are really unjust weak intemperate and very imprudent The end of any thing ought to govern the means Thy end ought to be to save thy Soul to serve please and not to offend God to live an internal and spiritual life to make thy life a preparation for death to fit thy self by death for Judgment by Judgment for thy Account and by thy Account for that Sentence which may deliver thee from Eternal Condemnation and give thee the Crown of Glory in Life Eternal Oh! What an heavenly Prudence is this Oh what Justice What Fortitude What Temperance How well are they all temper'd with one another and and how imprudent and unjust how foolish how mad how distemper'd and how ruinous is the contrary Thus these four which were wont to be Natural Politick and Heathen Vertues thou mayest by a right intention and direction transform into Christian and Spiritual ones taking from Prudence not what the Flesh but what the Spirit requires from Justice not what the Inferiour but the Superiour directs from Fortitude not what Passion but what Reason commands and from Temperance what is allowed by God not by the World and the Devil The Fourth WEEK Of Humility and its contrary Pride WIth these Rules which are not worldly and natural but holy and spiritual concerning the four Cardinal Vertues the first thing that thou art to practise continually in the life of the Soul is Humility This is an unspeakable Vertue indeed and the Mother of all the rest for they are all bred and produced in her Bowels Humility is that which the Eternal Word chose among all the rest when being God he became Flesh to dwell amongst us clothed in our Humane Nature for the Immense and Omnipotent Lord of Heaven shew'd himself in this World so naked so poor as to be born in a Stable so little and so limited as to be contained in a Manger He consecrated Humility and dedicated himself to it through the whole Course of his most holy Life from the Virginal inclosure of his Mother's Womb and taught it upon the Cross by his most holy Death This is that which he has left for an Inheritance to his faithful Followers when he said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and when afterwards having humbled himself at his Disciples feet he bad them do as he had done We have seen already how great a number of Vertues our blessed Saviour the Example of Christian Perfection did practise whilst he liv'd in this World leaving us to imitate that Divine Original and yet for all that he calls upon us sollicits and perswades us in particular to Copy none but his Humility Why did he not call upon us to practise his Patience Why did he not bid us learn his Charity Why not his Zeal and Diligence Why not his Fortitude Justice and Temperance but only his Humility By reason that the greatest fall and wound of both the Natures Angelical and Humane was Pride and so that Nature of the two that remains in a possibility of being cured which is the Humane and which our Lord came to remedy finds its principal Medicine in Humility Wilt thou see how contrary Pride is to Humility that thou mayest the better know how contrary Humility is to Pride Why Pride is the Natural Mother of all the Devils she engendred them in her Bowels and an Infernal Pride made them Devils of so many Angels they would needs be like God and equal themselves to him in Power and that Pride threw them in an instant from Heaven into the bottomless Pit Would'st thou now see what Humility is It is that which made Angels to be more Angels than they were before for when taking warning by the Fall of their Companions they humbled themselves before God he confirmed them in his Grace and fixed them for Angels eternally in his Glory above the danger of ever becoming Devils And would'st thou see what Pride is Look upon our first Parents Adam and Eve in their highest Felicity of Paradise and thou shalt see that because they would be as Gods and pass from Humane Limits to Divine they were instantly cast out banish'd naked and undone sowing Tribulations and Sorrows and reaping Thorns Afflictions and Misfortunes Would'st thou see what is Humility Behold those same first Parents weeping grieving and bewailing their Fault with an humble Penitence and thou wilt also behold them pardoned by the Divine Goodness and both themselves and their Posterity restored to Grace and Glory with a remedy more noble and much superiour to the Felicity they had lost Wilt thou see what Pride is Look upon Cain who despises God by denying the best of his Fruits which were due to him as the Author and Lord of the Inheritance and being proud and covetous forgets the Banishment the Example and the Tears of his Parents and would exempt himself from that just and holy Tribute This Sin carries him to another which is worse I mean that of Envy and Envy thrusts him on to a higher that of Murder even the murder of a Brother and this drives him to the greatest of all which is final Obstinacy and Impenitence He lives in Despair flying from himself and dying wounded with a deadly Arrow becomes the Head of the Reprobates and the Damned And wilt thou see on the other side what Humility is Look upon holy and blessed Abel who humbly acknowledges his Eternal Creator by offering him his Fruits He gives him the best of them and the best of his Soul which is Humility whereupon God blesses favours and crowns him as being the first Martyr of Heaven and the First-fruits of those that were called appointed and predestinated by the Will of Christ to an immortal Glory Finally these first successes and contrary effects of these two Contraries have been followed by innumerable others and there is nothing seen nor has been seen nor ever shall be seen but the ruins of Pride and the triumphs of Humility
Mind to bear for God's sake what is laid upon us by men and is as necessary for the Spiritual Life as Breath is for the Natural Think how impossible it is for one that is continually shot at with Bows and Guns to escape unless he have some defence against the Bullets and Arrows As impossible it is for thee to live in the Spiritual Life without being defended with the shield of Patience All things assault and shoot at him that loves God The Devil persecutes him the World slanders him the Flesh tempts him he is afflicted from without he is drawn and allured from without his Superiours trample upon him his Equals despise him his Inferiours presume to affront him and even the Lord himself whom he adores does seem also sometimes to be his Enemy because he has a mind to make trial how far his Courage and Constancy will reach Thus it is said in the Book of Wisdom That God proves the Good to the end he may find them worthy of himself And Job complained of this and said Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy Wilt thou break a Leaf driven to and fro and wilt thou pursue the dry Stubble Thou writest bitter things against me c. Consider what Patience he had need to have who is persecuted by God by the World by the Flesh by the Devil and by his own self In short the Spiritual Life is a fruitful Seed-plot of Thorns and the way of Afflictions and therefore it is necessary at every step to have the Staff of Patience in thy hand to support thee Is it not the way of the Cross Why then have Patience Is it not the way of Difficulties Why then have Patience Is it not a way of Tribulations Why then have Patience By this one Vertue alone many Vices are destroyed Without Patience thou would'st throw the Cross from thy shoulders and run over to the Party of thy Enemies which are thy Delights and the Devils for this reason the Lord recommended Patience to his Disciples above all other Vertues saying In patience possess your Souls He sent them out as Lambs into the midst of Wolves he sent them to preach teach and to give light to a foolish perverse and a wicked World what could they look for but Pains Crosses Death and Torments And how should they be able to make any advantage of them without Patience and Suffering In another place he tells us That the good bring forth fruit in patience as inferring That without Patience there is no Fruit at all of Vertue This is most certain That the Vertues how many soever they be can neither consist with one another nor have any Life Subsistence or Perseverance in themselves without Patience And reason shews it for all of them make it their business to subdue the Appetite and to give Reason her Sceptre and Empire The Appetite resists and desires Superiority Reason on the other side sights and makes opposition so that to hold out such a cruel obstinate continual and internal War there is a necessity of having a great deal of Patience Affronts Calumnies and Persecutions assault the Spiritual Man What other Remedy has he but Patience He walks with Temptations round about him What Remedy is there but Patience He falls into Imperfections and Miseries and the Enemy tempts him to Desperation What other Remedy but Patience Patience Humility Constancy and Perseverance which are all Sisters do crown the Soul and make it triumphant in the Spiritual Life What else was the Life of Christ our blessed Example but a long constant repeated and enlarged Patience Behold him suffering cold in the Manger the smart of a Knife in Circumcision heat and weariness in his flying to Egypt slanders revilings and insolencies from some Ministers of the Law in his Manifestation Scourging Thorns Wounds Death and the Cross in his Passion In all this he consecrated Patience and the same Vertue was practis'd by his Mother in the Torments of her Son suffering in her tender heart what our Lord suffered in his Divine Person What Complaints were heard from our sweet Master Jesus O the innumerable Injuries that were done him But what resentments did he shew Why to teach to give light to guide to suffer to entreat and to pray for his Enemies Patience is not only a Merit and a Merit of very great excellency but it is Comfort Peace and Joy and very great Wisdom Who is the Wise man says one of the Fathers of the Church and answers that doubt The Patient man And who is more wise He that is more Patient And who is the wisest of all He that is most Patient of all Of Anger Believe me Anger is an ugly fierce ignorant and unruly Vice for it vexes afflicts disquiets precipitates and works nothing but confusion coming very short in Means and in Remedies Patience will free thee from all this for it enlarges the Heart encreases the Understanding and gives strength and depth to our Discourse What dost thou think that Anger is but a short madness for the angry man and the mad man differ only in time not in action The furious mad man is angry for a long time and the furious angry man is mad for a short time Would'st thou see the Picture of Anger Look in a Glass when thou art angry and thou shalt see a terrible ugliness in thy Face thine Eyes sparkle with rage thy Brows wrinkled with Frowns thy Complexion discompos'd and enflam'd with redness and all thy actions sudden and disorder'd What a kind of thing is Anger in the Soul which thus transforms the Countenance and deformes the whole Person The Lord in that holy Precept of loving Enemies had an Eye not only to the good of the Enemy and the Person hated but also to that of the Friend by whom he would have him to be loved His aim was not only that the one should not die but also that the other might live and which is more he desir'd not only to prevent a Christian from defiling his Soul with hatred but also to preserve him from the vexation and torment of so unquiet a Passion His intent in this most sweet and gentle Precept was to give the Christian a Temporal as well as an Eternal Life Eternal by his obedience and Temporal by his quiet To hate is rage disquiet anguish and death and so he banished Anger from the Soul to free it from death anguish and disquiet Dost thou think that by thy hatred thou takest revenge upon thine Enemy Thou art deceived it is he that is revenged on thee What greater punishment can thy Enemy inflict upon thee than that to which thou condemnest thy self meerly by thy hatred Thou frettest thou stormest thou vexest and tormentest thy self thou abhorrest on the one side and longest eagerly on the other and livest in a continual Affliction between the earnestness of thy Desires and Aversions tossing and turning to and fro biting thy Lips grinding
the Sacrifice of the Liberal and turning away his Eyes from that of the Covetous This wild Beast within his heart broke out into open Fury and was the first that shed Humane Blood and the first that put the Life and Death of the Innocent into the power of the Guilty This was the first wickedness that after their own Disobedience afflicted our first Parents and the Tears Grief and Repentance for their own Offence were much encreased in seeing the Murder of their good and holy Son commitmitted by the hand of the other that was a wretched Villain and a Cast-away It was Envy that sowed innumerable Discords between those first Patriarchs and Heads of the several Tribes Joseph's Brethren not being able to endure his Vertues nor the kindness of his Father to him they resolved rather to sell him than to imitate him It was Envy that brought in the Dissentions and Discords between Jacob and Esau the elder not being able to suffer the Blessing of the younger It was Envy that took away the Vertue the Kingdom and the Life of Saul who because he could not bear the Valour and the Spirit of David chose rather utterly to destroy him than frame himself to follow his Example It was Envy also that durst attempt to bite even the Apostles themselves when seeing the favour of their Master to St. John they began to strive which of them should be the greatest It was Envy that was the chief Incentive that kindled the fire of Rage and Passion in the hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees and of the Priests and Masters of the Law against Jesus when seeing his Vertues and Miracles they chose rather to put him to Death than to enjoy Eternal Life Behold the Victories and Trophies of Envy and entertain a great abhorrence of this cruel Enemy for it is a powerful one though in it self it be vile base and infamous choosing rather to hate Vertue than to emulate it and affecting priority rather by destroying that which is good than by making that good which is evil It is an infamous a desperate and an ungrateful Vice for the first that it kills is the Person who entertains it and the Envious man dies with Envy himself but cannot thereby kill the Person envied It is an infamous Vice for that being able to ease it self in a great measure of vexation by imitating Vertue it frees it self rather by the destruction and death of the innocent and vertuous Person making Poyson of the Antidote and corrupting it self by the vertue of another It is an infamous Vice because it draws the nourishment of hatred and abhorrence out of the same ground from whence it ought to draw that of Love to Vertue and it defames and dishonours that which right Reason extols and magnifies It is an infamous Vice because it destroys the love of our Nature for whereas one man ought to love another as man and much more if he be vertuous Envy abhors him so much for being vertuous that it would not suffer him to continue man It is an infamous Vice because it prosecutes the damage of another without bringing any profit to it self and loads it self with more Crimes without lessening anothers Vertues It is an infamous Vice because it makes an Enemy of that Person whom it ought to imitate and esteem as a Friend choosing rather to abhor that which is good than to make use of it in forsaking that which is evil Finally Envy is the Vice of base wretched People for whereas the envious man might by a noble emulation and sincere endeavour make himself both vertuous and generous he chooses rather to torment himself and become more base more wretched and more miserable Remedies against Envy This Vice must be cured by means contrary to those we directed against Sensuality for that as we said must be cured by flight but Envy must be conquered by fighting Thus when thou feelest in thy heart the first motions towards Envy raise up thy self to encounter it with a stout Opposition and force thy self to love and praise that Person whom it would tempt thee to abhor and to calumniate Let both thy words and thy thoughts commend that Person whom thou art troubled to see preferred before thee Exalt his fame and copy his vertues with thy utmost endeavour There are two sorts of men in the World which are very great in my esteem those that acknowledge the ill which is in themselves and those that acknowledge the good which is in their Enemies It is a generous sense and a noble action for a man to conquer Envy and to own Vertue wheresoever he finds it That is a powerful and a generous light which illuminates the Soul and drives away the darkness of Envy and a Man will not be far from imitating the vertue of a person whom he rightly understands to be vertuous What dost thou gain by Envy but rage anguish and the gnawing of thy own bowels He enjoys all his happiness and thou choosest torments and vexations If Envy could take away the good things of the person envied if it could bring home his Riches and Honours to the House of the envious man though with the adding of Theft to his Envy yet at least he would get some profit by it and have wherewithal to comfort himself in the midst of his tortures But it is not so for the envied person remains healthful happy rich and powerful and the envious man poor afflicted wretched and miserable getting nothing of the Wealth he envies but of the colour of that Gold in his Complexion Better thy Fortune by thy Vertues but never attempt to advance it by Vices Do that which is in thy power which is to imitate whatsoever is good and fly from whatsoever is evil and strive not in vain to do what is above thy power namely to take away the goodness from him that is good by making thy self wicked and by torturing thy Soul with continual disquiets Of Charity to our Neighbours Charity towards our Neighbours is the bridle of Envy the total destruction of it With this thou must banish that out of thy heart Love to our Neighbours is a Ray of the Divine Love for Man imitates God in loving that which he loved that is to say Man for whom he died If we love not our Neighours whom will we love Will we perhaps love the wild brute Beast We are Humane by Nature let us be Humane also in our Love Who is there that abhors himself or who is there that abhors his own Natural Condition Our Nature has produced so Savage a Beast so pitiless a Man and so great an Enemy to Mankind that kissing a Child and being asked why He answered That he foresaw by his Art that Child would be a Souldier and a great Captain who would kill an infinite number of men and for that reason he began to love him This Man or rather this Monster of Cruelty would for the same cause have
manner More just 't is true replys that partial Judge but not more easie for they are many and he is but one The correcting of them could not be effected without difficulty but to chastise the Innocent is very easie I forsake Justice to follow that which is safe and easie and so let Innocence pay for the fault of my Sloth and Remisness And how succeeded the Omission of so faint-hearted a Judge with this cruel Expedient of saving our Saviour by scourging and crowning him with Thorns Much worse than if without any pity or remorse he had given him out to be crucified For the People being hard and obstinate were not softned with the Pains of the Holy Jesus but rather they became more obdurate in their sin seeing that their Passion and Wickedness was more couragious than the heart of the Judge and therefore not doubting to get the Victory over him they cried out more fiercely with loud Voices Let him be crucified Let him be crucified Then the Judge being of himself cowardly and fearful was the more afraid hearing such furious Cries and finding that the matter grew harder upon him was conquered by them and being slothful timorous and unactive resolved to condemn him because he had not the courage diligence and industry which were necessary to save him But Pilate if thou meanedst to condemn him after he was scourged buffeted and crowned with Thorns and after thou hadst shewn him to the People as a Mock-King affronted and abused had it not been a less Evil to have condemned him before and to have prevented all those Pains and Reproaches It would have been a less Evil says he I confess but my faint-hearted lukewarmness used them as means to save his Iâ—nocence and the discourses of a slothful person tend always to his own conveniency and the injury of another Observe what a kind of pity that of the slothful man is and thou wilt find it more cruel then Cruelty it self If Pilate had condemned our Saviour at once how unjust how severe how cruel soever yet he had spar'd him five thousand Lashes and an infinite number of other Reproaches whereas by being pardoned and defended with such sloth his Pains and sufferings were infinitely aggravated Besides the lightness wherewith this infamous Judge pass'd over such terrible wickednesses was in a manner worse then all the rest for with but washing his Hands in a little Water the President declar'd himself and all the People Innocent and the Innocent Guilty He declared the Innocent Guilty because though he knew and confessed his Innocence yet he suffered him to be Crucified as a Criminal and he Absolved the guilty People because he forbore to Chastise them though he knew their Malice The reason of this is that amongst all the other great Evils of the Sloth Omission and Negligence of Judges this is one that it is very short-sighted and forgetful of all the Mischiefs that it does for it looks with very little or no light at all upon those Evils which either it committeth or permitteth Pilate condemns our Saviour and delivers him into the hands of his Enemies he delivers up that blessed Lamb to those ravenouâ— Wolves he gives them a greater liberty than they had before and not only whips and imprisons him but condemns him also to be Crucified and with a little Water not only washes himself from all these Wickednesses but commends himself and expects to be thought a just an holy and an innocent Judge A City shall be enflam'd with heinous Crimes a Commonwealth shall burn in all manner of loosness and debauchery and a lazy slothful Governour shall in the mean while sleep carelesly whole nights and days and although all those Enormous Crimes are committed because his remisness forbears to correct them yet because he does not act those things himself he thinks he is holy justified and guiltless No do not so do thou strive in thy Person and in thy Employment to act with attention diligence and vigilance abhorring Sloth and Remisness Do not make the sins of others become thine own Crimes through Omission Take not upon thee the Office of a Judg Magistrate or Superiour unless thou hast Vigilance Diligence Zeal and Courage to correct Offences It is not I that tell thee this but the Word of God in the Proverbs as who should say If thou art a Governour and allowest those that are under thy Charge to commit Wickedness thou makest their Faults to become thine own Measure therefore thy strength before thou undertakest such an Employment and having entred into it a Judge take heed thou come not out of it a Criminal Sloth and Negligence are as we have seen hurtful in all Persons but in Prelates Magistrates and Superiours it is the Pest of the Publick for under the coldness and indifferency of Omission there is no Mischief that will not be ventur'd upon all bold daring Crimes being the Consequences of it and it is better to live where nothing than where every thing is counted lawful But in the Spiritual Life Diligence is that which promotes it securing our inward Advancement and our going forward in the way of Vertue for every step that Diligence takes adds Glory to the Crown of our Reward The time of our Race passeth swift away that of our Life flies very fast and which is most dangerous Death hastens and then we shall neither have time to run to work to make satisfaction nor to recover the opportunities we have lost and therefore it is necessary to make use of this present Moment before it pass for it is impossible to be recalled Work while you have light says the Saviour of Souls Work before my Time come in which I shall call you to account and judge you for your Time On the other side while you have light walk and work before the Day-light of Life pass away least having spent your time viciously or idly which is all one the darkness of the Night of Death seize upon you at unawares Can any Evil be greater or equal to that of loitering all the day in idleness and vice expecting the darkness of Night and of Death the punishment of idle vicious and slothful Persons The Life of our Saviour in this World was all working suffering taking pains walking watching teaching putting Men in mind of the account they were to give of the Universal Judgment of Hell and of Glory His Zeal his Diligence and his Goodness not suffering his Charity to be one moment idle Why stand ye here all the day idle said he in the Parable to those that were found in the Market-Place as who should say Can you spend all the Day in sloth and idleness while Night the Sword of the slothful hangs over your Head and will certainly fall upon you If you will not work in the Day how will it be possible for you to work in the Night If you refuse him the Day which is the time of working rightly and with