to abate and humble the proudest of all Creatures then to represent his beginning and his end The middle-part of our life like a kind of Proteus takes up on it severall shapes not understood by others but the first and last part of it deceive no man for they do both begin and end in Dust It is a strange thing that Man knowing well what he hath been and what he must be is not confounded in himself by observing the pride of his own life and the great disorder of his passions The end of all other creatures is less deformed then that of man Plants in their death retain some pleasing smell of their bodies The little rose buries it self in her naturall sweetnesse and carnation colour Many Creatures at their death leave us their teeth horns feathers skins of which we make great use Others after death are served up in silver and golden dishes to feed the geatest persons of the world Onely mans dead carcase is good for nothing but to feed worms and yet he often retains the presumptuous pride of a Giant by the exorbitance of his heart and the cruell nature of a murderer by the furious rage of his revenge Surely that man must either be stupid by nature or most wicked by his own election who will not correct and amend himself having still before his eyes ashes for his glasse and death for his mistres 2 This consideration of Dust is an excellent remedy to cure vices and an assured Rampire against all temptations S. Paulinus saith excellently well That holy Iob was free from all temptations when he was placed upon the smoke and dust of his humility He that lies upon the ground can fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streames of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napell which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Egyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we bury all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little businesse with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousnesse arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting blisse by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel upon Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocryticall Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward Put thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig thorow and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig thorow nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the Praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all vertues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abomination in his sight and â—ertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entring into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictnesse having been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchin stuffe It is no more burdensome to a couragious spirit then feathers are to a bird The chearfulnesse which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does halfe the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by almes deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with purenesse and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to lose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousnesse in life to encounter with such extream nakednesse in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend only on God Almighty comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carry our souls to heaven where Jesus on
they would not speak one ill word What honour can you expect by yielding at the first entrance to a temptation Looke not upon the violence of it but contemplate the Crown which you should gain by conquering it think at your entrance how you will come off and know for certain that he who truly considers the consequence of a wicked action will never begin it 6. Lent is the Spring time for sanctified resolutions it mortifies the body that the spirit may triumph it is a time of grace which tends to salvation and mercy It imports extreamly to commend all to God at the beginning to sanctifie this fasting which is a part of our devotion we must abstaine from flesh be conteÌ„t with one meal at seasonable hours without making over large collations except age infirmity or weaknesse labour or necessity of other functions shall dispence with our diet for those who are unable to fast suffer more by their disability then others do by fasting It is good to follow the counsell of Athanasius who adviseth to eat late and little and at a table where there is but one sort of meat We must also fast by abstinence from vice For to weaken our body and yet nourish our naughty passions is to fast as the Devils do who eat nothing and yet devour the world by the rage of their malice Sobriety is a stream which waters all virtues Our soul and body are as the scales of a ballance if you pull down the one you raise up the other and if you tame your flesh it makes the Spirit raign govern Aspirations O Most mercifull Lord Father and Protectour of all my life how great are the temptations and snares vvhereunto I am subject vvhen I eat drink sleep vvhen I do business vvhen I am both in conversation solitude Whither shall this poor soul goe which thou hast thrown into a body so frail in a world so corrupt and amongst the assaults of so many pernitious enemies Open O Lord thine eyes for my guidance and compassionate my infirmities without thee I can do nothing and in thee I can do all that I ought Give me O Lord a piercing eye to see my danger and the wings of an Eagle to flie from it or the heart of a Lion to fight valiantly that I may never be wanting in my dutie and fidelity to thee I owe all that I am or have to thy gracions favour and I will hope for my salvation not by any proportion of my own virtues which are weak and slender but by thy boundlesse liberalities which onely do crown all our good works The Gospel upon Munday the first week in Lent out of S. Matthew 25. Of the Judgement day ANd when the Sonne of man shall come in his Majesty and all the Angels with him then shall he sit upon the seat of his Majesty And all nations shall be gathered together before him and he shall separate them one from another as the Pastour separateth the sheep from the goats And shall set the sheep at his right hand but the goats at his left Then shall the King say to them that shall be at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father possesse you the kingdom prepared for yoâ— from the foundation of the world For I was hungred and you gave me to eat I was athirst and you gave me to drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you covered me sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me Then shall the just answer him saying Lord when did we see theâ— an hungred and fed thee a thirst and gave thee drink and when did wee see thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and covered thee or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee And the King answering shall say to them Amen I say to you as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Then shall he say â—o them also that shall be at his left hand Get you away from me you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and you gave me not to eate I was a thirst and you gave me not to drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and you covered me not sick and in prison and you did not visit me Then they also shall answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee Then he shall answer them saying Amen I say to you as long as you did it not to one of these lesser neither did you it to me And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Moralities 1. BEhold here a Gospel of great terrour where our spirit like the Dove of Noah is placed upon the great deluge of Gods wrath and knows not where to find footing Every thing is most dreadfull But what can be more terrible then the certainty of Gods judgement joyned with the great uncertainty of the hour of our death It is an unchangeable decree that we must all be presented before the high Tribunall of the living God to render a just account of all which our soul hath done while it was joyned with our body as we are taught by S. Paul We must make an account of our time spent of our thoughts words actions of that we have done and that we have omitted of life death and of the bloud of Jesus Christ and thereupon receive a judgement of everlasting life or death All men know that this must certainely be done but no man knows the hour or moment when it shall be So many clocks strike about us every day yet none can let us know the hour of our death 2. O how great is the solitude of a soul in her separation from so many great inticements of the world wherein many men live and in an instant to see nothing but the good or ill we have done one either side us what an astonishment will it be for a man suddenly to see all the actions of his life as upon a piece of Tapistree spred before his eyes where his sins will appear like so many thorns so many serpents so many venemous beasts Where will then be that cozening vail of reputation and reason of state which as yet cover so many wicked actions The soul shall in that day of God be shewed naked to all the world and her own eyes will most vex her by witnessing so plainly what she hath done 3. O what a parting water is Gods judgemet which in a moment shall separate the mettals so different O what a division will then be made of some men which now live upon the earth Some shall be made clear bright like the starres of heaven and others like Coles burning in hell O what
of their own ruines and fear nothing so they may tumble into precipices of gold and silver 2. What great paines you take for these children as if they did not more belong to God then you you cast day and night where to place them when the providence of God which is the great Harbinger of the world hath already markt their lodgings One is settled in a good Religious course another in the grave another perhaps shall have more then is necessary to make him a good man Eve imagined that her sonne Cain having all the world would have become some great God when ambition made him a devil incarnate You shall rarely make your children great Saints by getting them great honours You desire they should possesse all that which overthrows them and pretending to make a building with one hand you destroy it with the other By all your earnest wishes and all your laborious endeavours for advancement of your children you effect nothing but thereby give them inticements to pleasure and weapons for iniquity 3. Whereupon should we build our ambitions if not upon the bloud of the holy Lamb At the foot of the Cross we behold a God covered with bloud crowned with thorns and reproaches who warns us to be humble and at the same time we egarly pursue worldly glory ambition We resemble that unhappy daughter of Miltiades who did prostitute her self under her fathers Trophees By our unmeasurable hunting after honours amongst the ignominies of Iesus Christ we abandon our selves to dishonour and make no other use of the Cross but only to be a witnesse of our infidelity Aspirations AVoid be gone you importunate cares of worldly goods and honours you little tyrants which burn the bloud within our veins and fill the most innocent pleasures of our life with bitter sorows what have I more to do with you My children shall be what God will They shall be but too rich when they have virtue for their portion and but too high when they shall see a true contempt of the world under their feet God forbid that I should go about any worldly throne upon the holy Lambs bloud or that I should talk of honours when there is mention made of the holy crosse O Jesus thou father of all true glories thou shalt from henceforth be my onely crown All greatnesse where thou art not shall to me be onely basenesse I will mount up to thee by the stairs of humility since by those thou camest down to me I will kisse the paths of mount Calvary which thou hast sprinkled with thy precious bloud and esteem the Crosse above all worldly things since thou hast consecrated it by thy cruell pains and brought us forth upon that dolours bed to the day of thy eternity The Gospel upon Thursday the second week in Lent out of S. Luke 16. Of the rich Glutton and poor Lazarus THere was a certain rich man and he was clothed with purple and silk and he fared every day magnifically And there was a certain begger called Lazarus that lay at his gate full of sores desiring to be filled of the crums that fâ—ll from the rich mans table but the dogs also came and licked his sores And it came to passe that the begger died and was carried of the Angels into Abrahams bosome And the rich man also died and he was buried in hell and lifting up his eyes when he was in torments he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosome And he crying said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger into water for to cool my tongue because I am tormented in this flame And Abraham said to him son remember that thou didst receive good things in thy life time and Lazarus likewise evill but now he is comforted and thou tormented And beside all these things between us and you there is fixed a great Chaos that they which will passe from hence to you may not neither go from thence hither And he said then fath r I heseech thee that thou wouldest send him to my fathers house for I have five brâ—thren for to testifie unto them lest they also come into this place of torments And Abraham said to him they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But he said no father Abraham but if some man shall go from the dead to them they will do pennance And he said to him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither if one shall rise again from the dead will they believe Moralities 1. A Rich man and a poor meet in this world the one loden with treasures the other with ulcers They both meet in the other world the one in a gulf of fire the other in an Abyss of delights Their ends are as different as their lives were contrary to teach us that he which shall consider rightly the end of all worldly sins and vanities will have in horrour the desire of them And as there is nothing for which godly poor men may not hope so is there nothing which wicked rich men should not fear He that is proud of riches is proud of his burdens and chains but if he unload them upon the poor he will be eased of his pain and secured in his way 2. The life of man is a marvelous Comedy wherein the greatest part of our actions are plaid under a curtain which the divine providence draws over them to cover us It concealed poor Lazarus kept him in obscurity like the fish which we never see till it be dead But Jesus draws the curtain and makes himself the historian of this good poor man shewing us the state of his soul of his body of his life death He makes him appear in Abrahams bosome as within the temple of rest and happiness and makes him known to the rich man as to the treasurer of hells riches Are not we unworthy the name which we carry when we despise the poor and hate poverty as the greatest misery since the Sonne of God having once consecrated it upon the throne of his Manger made it serve for his spouse during life and his bride maid at the time of his death 3. This rich glutton dreamed and at the end of his dream found himself buried in hell All those pomps of his life were scattered in an instant as so many nocturnall illusions and his heart filled with eternall grief and torment His first misery is a sudden unexpected and hideous change from a huge sea of delicacies into an unsufferable gulf of fire where he doth acknowledge that one of the greatest vexations in misery is to have been happy Another disaster which afflicts him is to see Lazarus in Abrahams bosome to teach us that the damned are tormented by Paradise even to the very lowest par of Hell and that the most grievous of their torments is they can never forget their losse of God So saith Theophilact that Adam was placed
that such proceedings are abominable before God there can be no better devotion in the world then to have a true and right seeling of God to live in honesty not sophisticated but such as is produced out of the pure lights of nature The conscience of hypocrites is a spiders web whereof no garment can ever be made Hypocrisie is a very subtil fault and a secret poison which kills other virtues with their own swords 2. Iesus is our great Master who hath abridged six hundred and thirteen Precepts of the old Testament within the law of love Do but love saith Saint Augustine and do what you vvill but then your love must go to the right fountain which is the heart of God It is in him you must cherish and honour your nearest friends and for him also you are bound to love even your greatest enemies Be not afraid to shew him your heart stark naked that he may pierce it vvith his arrows for the wounds of such an archer are much more precious then rubies You shall gain all by loving him and death it self vvhich comes from this love is the gate of life If you love him truly you vvilll have the three conditions of love which are to serve him to imitate him and to suffer for him You must serve him vvith all fidelitie in your prayers and all your actions you must imitate him vvhat possibly you can in all the passages of his life And you must hold it for a glory to participate vvith a valiant patience all the fruits of his Cross Aspirations O Great God vvho judgest all hearts and doest penetrate the most secret retiremēts of our consciences drive away from me all counterfeit Pharisaical devotions which are nothing but shews cannot subsist but by false apparencies O my God my Iesus make me keep the Law of thy love and nothing else It is a yoke vvhich brings vvith it more honor then burden It is a yoke which hath wings but no heavinesse Make me serve thee O my Master since thou beholdest the services of all the Angels under thy feet Make me imitate thee O my Redeemer since thou art the originall of all perfections make me suffer for thee O King of the afflicted and that I may not know what it is to suffer by knowing what it is to love The Gospel on Thursday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus cured the Fever of Simons Mother in Lavv. ANd Iesus rising up out of the Synagogue entred into Simons house and Simons wives mother was holden with a great Fever and they besought him for her And standing over her he commanded the Fever and it lest her And incontinent rising she ministred to them And when the Sun was down all that had diseased of sundrie maladies brought them to him But he imposing hands upon every one cured them And Devils went out from many crying and saying that thou art the Son of God And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak that they knew he was Christ And when it was day going forth he went into a Desart place and the multitudes sought him and came even unto him and they held him that he should not depart from them To whom he said That to other Cities also must I Evangelize the Kingdome of God because therefore I was sent And he was preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee Moralities 1. A Soul within a sick body is a Princesse that dwels in a ruinous house Health is the best of all temporall goods without which all honors are as the beams of an eclipsed Sun Riches are unpleasing and all pleasures are languishing All joy of the heart subsists naturally in the health of the body But yet it is true that the most healthfull persons are not alwaies the most holy What profit is there in that health which serves for a provocation to sinne for an inticement to worldly pleasure and a gate to death The best souls are never better nor stronger then when their bodies are sick their diseases are too hard for their mortall bodies but their courage is invincible It is a great knovvledge to understand our own infirmities Prosperity keeps us from the view of them but adversity shews them to us We should hardly know what death is if so many diseases did not teach us every day that we are mortall Semiramis the proudest of all Queens had made a law whereby she was to be adored in stead of all the gods but being humbled by a great sicknesse she acknowledged her self to be but a woman 2. All the Apostles pray for this holy woman which was sick but she herself asked nothing nor did complain of any thing She leaves all to God who is only Master of life and death She knew that he which gives his benefits with such bounty hath the wisdome to chuse those which are most fit for us How do we know whether we desiring to be delivered from a sicknesse do not aske of God to take away a gift which is very necessary to our salvation That malady or affliction which makes us distaste worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to taste the joyes of heaven 3. How many sicke persons in the heate of a Feaver promise much and when they are well again perform nothing That body which carried all the marks of death in the face is no sooner grown strong by health which rejoyceth the heart fils the vains with bloud but it becomes a slave to sin The gifts of God being abused serve for nothing but to make it wicked and so the soul is killed by recovery of the flesh But this pious woman is no sooner on foot but she serves the Author of life and employes all those limbs which Jesus cured of the Feaver to prepare some provisions to refresh him He that will not use the treasures of heaven with acknowledge ment deserves never to keep them When a man is recovered from a great sicknesse as his body is renewed by health so on the other side he should renew his spirit by virtue The body saith Saint Maximus is the bed of the soul where it sleeps too easily in continuall health and forgets it self in many things But a good round sicknesse doth not onely move but turn over this bed which maketh the soul awake to think on her salvation and make a total conversion Aspirations O Word Incarnate all Feavers and Devils flie before the beams of thy redoubted face Must nothing but the hea◠of my passions alwayes resist thy powers and bounties To what maladies and indispositions am I subject I have more diseases in my soul then limbs in my body My weaknesse bends under thy scourges and yet my sinnes continue still unmoveable Stay O benigne Lord stay thy-self near me Cast upon my dull and heavy eyes one beam from those thine eyes which make all storms clear and all disasters happy Command that my weaknesse leave me and that I may arise to perform my
object of my present dolours that thou maist after be the fountain of my everlasting joyes Moralities for Good Friday upon the death of Iesus Christ MOunt Calvary is a marvellous Scaffold where the chiefest Monarch of all the world loseth his life to restore our salvation which was lost and where he makes the Sun to be eclipsed over his head and stones to be cloven under his feet to teach us by insensible creatures the feeling which we should have of his sufferings This is the school where Iesus teacheth that great Lesson which is the way to do well we cannot better learn it then by his examples since he was pleased to make himself passible motal to overcome our passions and to be the Author of our immortality The qualities of a good death may be reduced to three points of which the first is to have a right conformity to the will of God for the manner the hour and circumstances of our death The second is to forsake as well the affections as the presence of all creatures of this base world The third is to unite our selves to God by the practise of great virtues which will serve as steps to glory Now these three conditions are to be seen in the death of the Prince of Glory upon mount Calvry which we will take as the purest Idea's whereby to regulate our passage out of this world 1. COnsider in the first place that every man living hath a naturall inclination to life because it hath some kind of divinity in it We love it when it smileth upon us as if it were our Paradise and if it be troublesom yet we strive to retain it though it be accompanied with very great miseries And if we must needs forsake this miserable body we then desire to leave it by some gentle and easie death This make thus plainly see the generosity of our Saviour who being Master of life and death and having it in his power to chuse that manner of death which would be least hideous being of it self full enough of horrour yet neverthelesse to conform himself to the will of his heavenly Father to confound our delicacies he would needs leave his life by the most dolorous and ignominious which was to be found amongst all the deaths of the whole world The Crosse amongst the Gentiles was a punishment for slaves and the most desperate persons of the whole world The Crosse amongst the Hebrews was accursed It was the ordinary curse which the most uncapable and most malicious mouths did pronounce against their greatest enemies The death of a crucified man was the most continuall languishings and tearing of a soul from the body with most excessive violence and agony And yet the eternall wisdome chose this kind of punishment and drank all the sorrows of a cup so bitter He should have died upon some Trophee and breathed out his last amongst flowers left his soul in a moment and if he must needs have felt death to have had the least sense of it that might be But he would try the rigour of all greatest sufferings he would fall to the very bottom of dishonour and having ever spared from himself all the pleasures of this life to make his death compleat he would spare none of those infinite dolours The devout Simon of Cassia asketh oâ—r Saviour going toward mount Calvary saying O Lord whether go you with the extream weight of this dry and barten piece of wood Whether do you carry it and why Where do you mean to set it Upon mount Cavalry That place is most wild and stony Hovv vvill you plant it Who shall water it Iesus answers I bear upon my shoulders a piece of wood which must conquer him who must make a far greater conquest by the same piece of wood I carry it to mount Calvary to plant it by my death and vvater it with my bloud This wood which I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of all the world and to draw all after me And then O faithfull soul wilt not thou suffer some confusion at thine own delicaâ—ies to be so fearfull of death by an ordinary disease in a Down bed amongst such necessary services such favourable helps coÌ„solations kindnesses of friends so sensible of thy condition We bemoan and complain our selves of heat cold distaste of disquiet of grief Let us allow some of this to Nature yet must it be confest that we lament out selves very much because we have never known how we should lament a Jesus Christ crucified Let us die as it shall please the divine providence If death come when we are old it it a haven If in youth it is a direct benefit antedated If by sicknesse it is the nature of our bodies If by external violence it is yet alwaies the decree of Heaven It is no matter how many deaths there are we are sure there can be but one for us 2. Consider farther the second condition of a good death which consists in the forsaking of all creatures and you shall find it most punctually observed by our Saviour at the time of his death Ferrara a great Diâ—vine who hath written a book of the hidden Word toucheth twelve things abandoned by our Saviour 1. His apparell leaving himself naked 2. The marks of his dignity 3. The Colledge of his Apostles 4. The sweetnesse of all comfort 5. His own proper will 6. The authority of virtuos 7. The power of An Angells 8. The perfect joyes of his soul 9. The proper charity of his body 10. The honours due to him 11. His own skin 12. All his bloud Now do but consider his abandoning the principal of those things how bitter it was First the abandoning of nearest and most faithfull friends is able to afflict any heart Behold him forsaken by all his so well beloved disciples of whom he had made choice amongst all mortal men to be the depositaries of his doctrine of his life of his bloud If Iudas be at the mysterie of his passion it is to betray him If Saint Peter be there assisting it is to deny him If his sorrowfull mother stand at the foot of the cross it is to encrease the grief of her Son and after he had been so ill handled by his cruel executioners to crucifie him again by the hands of Love The couragious Mother to triumph over her self by a magnanimous constancie was present at the execution of her dear Son She fixed her eyes upon all his wounds to engrave them deep in her heart She opened her soul wide to receive that sharp piercing sword with which she was threatned by that venerable old Simeon at her purification And Iesus who saw her so afflicted for his sake felt himself doubly crucified upon the wood of the Cross and the heart of his deat Mother We know it by experience that when we love one tenderly his afflictions disgraces will trouble us more then our own because he living in
steps by thy conquests made visible thy way by thine own light thou hast watered it with thy precious blood paved it with thy wounds O what a goodly thing it is to walk with thee when thou openest thy sacred mouth as the opening of a temple to discover the beauties and mysteries of it O that it is most pleasing to understand that mouth which distils so much honey through lips of Roses But wherefore My good Lord art thou pleased to hide thy self from a soul which languishes after thee Take away the vail from mine eyes and suffer thy self to be seen in the vesture of thy heavenly beauties If I must bear the Crosse and passe by the throne of mount Calvary to come to Heaven I most humbly submit to thy divine pleasure that I may possesse all that thou art The Gospel upon Tuesday in Easter week S. Luke the 24. ANd whiles they spake these things Iesus stood in the midst of them and he saith to them Peace be to you It is I fear not But they being troubled and frighted imagined they saw a Spirit And he saith to them Why are you troubled and cogitations arise in your hearts See my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have And when he had said this he shewed them his hands and feet But they yet not believing and marvelling for joy he said Have you here any thing to be eaten But they offered him a piece of fish broiled and a hony comb And when he had eaten before them taking the remains he gave to them And he said to them These are the words which I spake to you when I was yet with you that all things must needs be fulfilled which are writen in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms of me Then he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures And he said to them That so it is written and so it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day and penance to be preached in his Name and remission of sins unto all Nations Moralities 1. WE think sometimes that Jesus is far from us when he is in the midst of our heart he watches over us and stretches out his divine hands for our protection Let us live alwayes as if we were actually in his presence before his eyes and in his bosome An ancient Tradition doth observe that after our Lords Ascention the Apostles did never eat together but they left the first napkin for their good Master conceiving that according to his promise he was alwayes with them Let us accustome our selves to this exercise of Gods presence It is a happy necessity to make us do well to believe and apprehend that our Judge is alwayes present I frespect make him formidable love will teach us that he is the Father of all sweetness There can be no greater comfort in this world then to be present in heart and body with that which we love best 2. Jesus is taken by his Apostles for a Spirit because after the Resurrection he pierced the vvalls and appeared suddenly as Spirits do Saint Paul also saith in the second to the Corinthians that novv we do no more know Christ according to the flesh that is to say by the passions of a mortall body as Saint Epiphanius doth expound it We must make little use of our bodies to converse with our Jesus who hath taken upon him the rare qualities of a spirit We must raise our selves above our senses when we go to the Father of light and the Creatonâ— of sense He teaches us the life of Spirits and commerce of Angels and makes assayes of our immortality by a body now immortal Why are we so tyed to our sense and glued to the earth Must we suffer our selves to enter into a kingdome of death when we are told of the resurrâ—ction of him who is the Authour of all lives 3. Admire the condescending and bounties of our Lord to his dear Disciples He that was entred into the kingdome of spirits and immortall conversation suffers his feet and hands to be touched to prove in him the reality of a true body He eats in presence of his Apostles though he was not in more estate to digest meat then the Sun is to digest vapours He did no more nourish himself with our corruptible meats then the Stars do by the vapours of the earth And yet he took them to confirm our belief and to make us familiar with him It is the act of great and generous spirits to abase themselves and condescend to their inferiours So David being anointed King and inspired as a Prophet doth not shew his person terrible in the height of his great glory but still retained the mildnesse of a Shepherd So Iesus the true Son of David by his condscending to us hath consecrated a certain degree whereby we my ascend to heaveÌ„ Are not we ashamed that we have so little humility or respect to our inferiours but are alwayes so full of ourselves since our Lord sitting in his throne of Glory and Majesty doth yet abase himself to the actions of our mortall life Let it be seen by our hands whether we be resâ—scitated by doing good works and giving liberall alms Let it appear by our feet that they follow the paths of the most holy persons Let it be seen by our nourishment which should be most of honey that is of that celestiall sweetnesse which is extracted from prayer And if we seem to refuse fish let us at least remain in the elemeÌ„t of piety as fishes in water Aspirations THy love is most tender thy cares most generous O mild Saviour Amongst all the Torrents of thy Passion thou hast not tasted the water of forgetfulnesse Thou returnest to thy children as a Nightingle to her little nest Thou dost comfort them with thy visits and makest them familar with thy glorious life Thou eatest of a honey combe by just right having first tasted the bitter gall of that unmercifull crosse It is thus that our sorrows should be turned into sweets Thou must alwayes be most welcome to me in my troubles for I know well that thou onely canst pacifie and give them remedy I will govern my self toward thee as to the sire too much near familarity will burn us and the want of it will let us freez I will eat honey with thee in the blessed Sacrament I know that many there do chew but few receive thee worthily Make me O Lord I beseech thee capable of those which here on earth shall be the true Antepasts to our future glory The Gospel upon Low Sunday Saint Iohn the 20. THerefore when it was late that day the first of the Sabbaths and the doors where shut where the Disciples were gathered together for fear of the Iews Iesus came and stood in the middest and said to them Peace
sufferings and of his death to teach us that his crosse was the step by which he mounted up to beatitude Aspirations O Blessed Palace O Magnificent Tabor which this day didst hold upon thee the Prince of Glory I love and admire thee but I admire somewhat else above thee It is the heavenly Jerusalem that triumphant company that face of God where all those beauties are which shall never cease to be beauties It is for that I live for that I die for that I languish with a holy impatience O my Jesus my most benigne Lord transform me then into thee that I may thereby be transformed into God If I have carried the earthly Image of Adam why should I not also carry the form of Jesus Catch me O Lord within those tissued nets and golden toils of brightnesse which thou didst plant upon this sacred mountain It is there I would leave mine eyes it is there I resolve to breath out my soul I ask no tabernacles to be their built for me I have long since contemplated thy heart O Father of essences and all bounties as the most faithfull abode of my eternity The Gospell upon Munday the second week in Lent St. Iohn 8. Iesus said unto the Iews where I goe ye cannot come AGain therefore Iesus said to them I goe and you shall seek me and shall die in your sin Whither I go you cannot come The Iews therefore said why will he kill himself because he saith whither I go you cannot come And he said to them you are of this world I am not of this world Therefore I say to you that you shall die in your sins For if you believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins They said therefore to him Who art thou Iesus said to them The beginning who also speak to you Many things I have to speak and judge of you but he that sent me is true and what I have heard of him these things I speak in the world And they knew not that he said to them that his Father was God Iesus therefore said to them when you sha l have exalted the Son of man then you shall know that I am he and of my self I do nothing but as the Father hath taught me these things I speak and he that sent me is with me and he hath not left me alone because the things that please him I do alwayes Moralities 1. ONe of the greatest misfortunes of our life is that we never sufficiently know our own good till we lose it We flie from that we should seek we seek that vve should avoid and never begin to bevvail our losses but vvhen they are not to be recovered Those Jevvs possessed an inestimable treasure by the presence conversation of the Son of God But they set light by it and so at last they lamented amongst eternal flames what they would not see in so clear a light Let us take heed of despising holy things and avoid hardnesse of heart which is a gulf of unavoidable mischiefs 2. It is a strange thing that God is so near us and yet we so far from him That which hinders us from finding him is because he is above and we below We are too much for the world too fast nailed to the earth too much bound to our superfluous businesses and cares of this life too much subject to our own appetites He must not be slave to his body that pretends to receive good from God who is a Spirit He must not embark himself deeply into worldly matters who desires the society of Angels He must pass from his sense to his reason from reason to grace from grace to glory If you desire to find God search for him as the three Kings did in the manger in his humility Look for him as the blessed Virgin did in the temple in his piety Seek him as the Maries did in his Sepulchre by the meditation of death But stay not there save onely to make a passage to life 3. When you have lifted me up to the Cross saith our Saviour you shall know that I am the true Son of God And indeed â—t is a great wonder that the infinite power of that Divinity would manifest it self in the infirmity of the Crosse It was onely for God to perform this great design and ascend up to his throne of Glory by the basest disgraces of the world The good thief saw no other title or sign of his kingdome but onely his body covered over with bloud and oppressed with dolours He learned by that book of the Crosse all the glory of Paradise and he apprehended that none but God could endure with such patience so great torments If you will be children of God you must make it appear by participation of his Cross by suffering tribulation By that Sun our Eagle tries his young ones he who cannot abide that shining ray sprinkled with bloud shall never attain to beatitude It is not comely to see t e members of a head crowned with thorn sit in a rotten chair of delicacies Aspirations O Blessed Saviour who dost lift up all the earth with three fingers of thy power raise up a little this sinfull mass of my body which weighs down it self so heavily Give me the wings of an Eagle to fly after thee for I am constantly resolved to follow thee whithersoever thou goest for though it should be within the shadow of death what can I fear being in the arms of life I am not of my self nor of the world which is so great a deceiver Since I am thine by so many titles which bind me to adoration I will be so in life in death in time and for all eternity I will take part of thy sufferings since they are the ensignes of our Christian warfare Tribulation is a most excellent engine the more a man is kept under the higher he mounts He descends by perfect humility that he may ascend to thee by the steps of glory The Gospel upon Tuesday the second week in Lent S. Matthew the 23. Iesus said the Pharisees sit in Moses chair believe therefore what they say THen Iesus speak to the multitudes and to his Disciples saying upon the chair of Moses have sitten the Scribes and Pharisees All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you observe ye and do ye but according to their works do ye not for they say and do not for they bind heavy burthens and importable and put them upon mens shoulders but with a finger of their own they will not move them But they do all their works for to be seen of men for they make broad their Phylacteries and enlarge their fringes And they love the first places at suppers and the first chairs in the Synagogues and salutations in the market place and to be called of men Rabbi But be not you called Rabbi for one is your Master and all you are brethren And call none father to your self upon
put upon him ugly antick faces we compass him round about with terrours and illusions of all which he never so much as thought It is a profound sleep in which Nature lets it self fail insensibly when she is tired with the disquiets of this life It is a cessation of all those services which the soul renders to the flesh It is an execution of Gods will and a decree common to all the world To be disquieted and drawn by the ears o pay a debt which so many millions of men of all conditions have paid before us is to do as a frog that would swim against a sharp stream of a forcible torâ—ent We have been as it were dead to so many ages which went before us we die piece-meal every day we assay death so often in our sleep discreet men expect him fools despise him and the most disdainfull persons must entertain him Shall vve not knovv and endeavour to do that one thing vvell vvhich being once vvell performed vvill give us life for ever Me thinks it is rather a gift of God to die soon then to stay late amongst the occasions of sinne 3. It is not death but a vvicked life vve have cause to fear That onely lies heavie both troubles us and keeps us from understanding and tasting the svveets of death He that can die to so many little dead and dying things vvhich make us die every day by our unvvillingness to forsake thë shall find that death is nothing to him But vve vvould fain in death carry the vvorld vvith us upon our shoulders to the grave that is a thing vve cannot do We vvould avoid the judgement of a just God that is a thing vvhich vve should not so much as thinke Let us clear our accounts before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance a moderate care of our bodies buriall Let us order our goods by a good and charitable testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children kindred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Iesus fountain of all lives in whose bosome all things are living Iesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdome of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be alwayes of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. Iohn 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sickman Lazarus of bethania of the Town of Mary and Martha her sister And Mary was she that anointed our Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick And Iesus hearing said to them This sicknesse is not to death but for the glory of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Iesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he was sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Iewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Iewes sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Iesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world but if he walk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Iesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Iesus saïd to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I was not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore who called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Iesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania was nigh to Ierusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Iewes were come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore when she heard that Iesus was come went to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Iesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that what things soever thou shalt ask of God God will give thee Iesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Iesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this world Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sicknesse to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God then when she raiseth up the greatnesse of her courage the body being cast down with sicknesse A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolors 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange
God as they doe who seek for health by remedies which are a thousand times worse then the disease But they addressed themselves to the living God the God of life and death to drive away death And to recover life they were content only to shew the woūd to the faithfull friendship of the Physician Without prescribing any remedies for that is better left to his providence then committed to our passion 3. He deferres his cure to raise from death The delay of Gods favours is not alwaies a refusall but sometimes a double liberality the vows of good men are paid with usury It was expedient that Lazarus should die that he might triumph over death in the triumph of Iesus Christ It is here that we should alwayes raise high our thoughts by considering our glory in the state of resurrection he would have us believe it not onely as it is a lesson of Nature imprinted above the skies upon the plants or elements of the world and as a doctrine which many ancient Philosophers had by the light of nature but also as a belief which is fast joyned to the faith we have in the Divine providence which keeps our bodies in trust under its seal within the bosome of the earth so that no prescription of time can make laws to restrain his power having passed his word and raised up Lazarus who was but as one grain of seed in respect of all posterity 4. Iesus wept over Lazarus thereby to weep over us all Our evils were lamentable could never sufficiently be deplored without opening a fountain of tears within heaven and within the eyes of the Son of God This is justly the river which comes from that place of all pleasure to water Paradise How could those heavenly tears come from any other then the place of all delight since they issued from a brain and from eyes which were united to the divinity And how should they not water Paradise since for so many ages they have flowed over the Church for producing the fruits of justice The balme of Egypt could not grow without water of that well Which was comonly called the fountain of Jesus because the blessed Virgin had there washed the clothes of her dear Sonne And we have no Odour of virtue nor good conversation which is not directly barren except it be endued with the merit of our Saviours tears Aspirations O Eyes of my Saviour from whence the sun receives his clearest light fair eyes which onely deserve eternall joyes and delights Why should you this day be moistened with tears Thou didst give me O onely love of my heart the bloud of thy soul before thou shedst that of thy body There are so many things to make me weep and I feel them so little that if thy tears do not weep for me I shall alwayes be miserable Water then O my sweet Master the barrennesse of my soul from that fountain of blessing which I have opened within thine eyes and heart I have opened it by my sins and let it I beseech thee blesse me by thine infinite mercies The Gospel upon Saturday the fourth week in Lent S. Iohn 8. Upon our Saviours words I am the light of the world AGain therefore Iesus spake to them saying I am the light of the world he that followeth me walketh not in darknesse but shall have the light of life The Pharisees therefore said to him Thou givest testimony of thy self thy testimony is not true Iesus answered and said to them although I do give testimony of my self my testimony is true because I know whence I came and whether I go but you know not whence I came or whether I go You judge according to the flesh I do not judge any man And if I doe judge my judgement is true because I am not alone but I and he that sent me the Father And in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true I am he that give testimony of my self and he that sent me the Father giveth testimony of me They said therefore to him Where is thy Father Iesus answered Neither me do you know nor my Father if you did know me perhaps you might know my Father also These words Iesus spake in the Treasury teaching in the Temple and no man apprehended him because his hour was not yet come Moralities 1. THere is in the blessed Trinity a communicating light to which nothing is communicated another light which is communicative and communicated and a third light which is communicated but not communicating The first is the heavenly Father who gives but takes nothing The second is that of the Son who takes from his Father and gives to the Holy Ghost all that can be given The third is the Holy Ghost which receives equally from the Father the Son and doth produce nothing in the Trinity But Jesus illuminating from all eternity this state for ever to be adored did vouchsafe to descend into the Countrey of our darknesse to scatter it by his brightnesse It is he that hath thrown down the Crocodiles and Bars from profane Altars who hath broken so many Idols who hath overthrown so many Temples of the adulterers and murdering gods to plant the honours of his heavenly Father He hath invested the world during so many ages with the shining of his face He doth not cease to give light nor to kindle in our hearts many inspirations which are like so many stars to conduct us to the fountain of all our happinesse You are very blind if you doe not see this and much more miserable if you despise it 2. It is most dangerous to do as the Jews did to speak every day to the light and yet love their own darknesse Screech-owls find holes and nights to keep themselves from day which they cannot abide But he that flies from the face of God where can he find darknesse enough to hide himself When he shall be within the gulf of sin his own conscience will light up a thousand torches to see his punishments It is the worst of all mischiefs to pay for the contempt of the fountain of light by suffering eternall darknesse 3. Let us behold the conversation of Jesus Christ as a sea mark stickt all over with lights his life gives testimony of his Sanctity his miracles publish his power his law declares his infinite wisdome his Sanctity gives us an example to imitate his power gives the strength of Authority to make him the more readily obeyed and from his wisdome faith is given us to regulate and govern our belief Aspirations O My Lord Jesus the spirit of all beauties and the most visible of all lights what do the eyes of my soul if they be not always busied in the contemplation of thy brightnesse When I find thou art departed from me methinks I am buried within my self and that my soul is nothing else but a Sepulchre of terrours phantomes and deaths But when thou returnest by thy visits
have glorified cast a divine brightness upon his body But when he concealed himself the stars discovered him at his birth the Sun at his death all the Elements did then confesse him and all creatures gave testimony of his divinity 2. We should be well known of God if we did not so curiously inquire into the knowledge of the world Vanity at this day opens all her gates to manifest divers men to the world who should otherwise be buried in obscurity and darkness It maketh some appear by the â—uxurious excess of their apparell as so many sale creatures whose heads being high and coâ—ly drest up go to the market of idle love Others by the riches pomps of the world others by honours and dignities others by the spirit of industry and others by the deeds of arms and policy Every one sets out himself to be seen and esteemed in the world It seemeth that life is made for nothing but to be showed and that we should alwayes live for that which makes us die We are a kind of walking spirits which return late to our lodgings But yet nevertheless giving our selves so continually to the world methinks we should at least stay with our selves every day one short hour It is said that the Pellican hides her eggs and that they must be stolen from her to make them disclose But vanitie is an egge which all the world hatcheth under her wings and none are willing to forsake it 3. If it be needful to shew your self to the world be then known by your virtues which are characters of the divinity Let men know you by your good examples which are the seeds of eternity and of all fair actions You must be known by your almes and bounty which are the steps with God left imprinted in this world If you must rise to honours and dignities take them as instruments of holinesse and be not powerfull but to be more obliged to do good by so being Aspirations O God which did conceal thy self how comes it about that I desire so much to be seen and make my self known to the world What can I discover if I shew that which I am but onely sin vanity misery and inconstancy which make the foure elements of my life To what serves this itch of seeing but onely to receive into our eyes the seeds of curiosity Why do we cover to be so much seen but to expose our selves to vanity and to carry a Torch in a blast of wind Alas O Mercifull Lord I have very long lived for my self and for the eyes of the world when shall I begin to live for thee Shall I never see those happy moments of my life which will receive light onely from the day of thy face Let me O most beloved of my heart be bind to all the world so that I may have eyes for thee If the condition of my estate must needs shew me to the world let it be to give it part of thy light without receiving any part of that darknesse which covereth it Let me be in the world to do good but let me dwell in thee as within the fountain of all goodnesse The Gospel upon Wednesday the fifth week in Lent Saint Iohn the 10. The Iews said If thou be the Messias tell us plainly ANd the Dedication was in Ierusalem and it was winter and Iesus walked in the Temple in Solomons Porch The Iews therefore compassed him round about and said to him How long dost thou bold our soul in suspence If thou be Christ tel us openly Iesus answered them I speak to you and you believe not The works that I do in the Name of my Father they give testimony of me But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them life everlasting and they shall not perish for ever and no man shall pluck them out of my hand My Father that which he hath given me is greater then all and no man can pluck them out of the hand of my Father I and the Father are one The Iews took up stones to stone him Iesus answered them Many good works I have shewed you from my Father for which of these works doe you stone me The Iews answered him For a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because thou being as man makest thy self God Iesus answered them is it not written in your Law that I said you are Gods if he called them Gods to whom the word of God was made and the Scripture cannot be broken whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world say you That thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God if I doe not the works of my Father believe me not But if I doe and if you will not believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in the Father Moralities 1. THe Woolfs encompasse the good Shepheard counterfeiting Lambs to draw truth out of his mouth which they would persecute They resembled a certain Plant which carrieth the name shape of a Lamb but hath a contrary substance and different qualities for it is ravenous as a wolf devours all the herbs which grow about it So are there many who do insinuate themselves into the freindship of good men by fair but counterfeit respects to the end that afterward they may be made the object of their cruelty Those men look after the Messias in the Porch of Solomon as Herod sought after him in the manger not to adore but to kill him Their mouth carries honey when their heart hatcheth poison but nothing is unknown to God from whom hell it self hath not darknesse enough to hide it self 2. Jesus knows his flock his flock reciprocally knows him and in that consists all our happinesse to know God and to be known of him The cheifest of all wisdome is to know him and to be known by him to be written in the Book of life which is the last cheifest of all felicities It is true that he knows all things by the knowledge of a clear intelligence which serves the wicked onely to discover plainly their crimes where as he knows the just by a science of favour and approbation which indeed is eternall predestination If we be unknown to God we must make our selves known to him by some good virtue which doth not depend onely upon us The first beam is of prevenient grace and our vocation to Christianity which is part of our predestination and is not at all within our power We have not been elected because we have believed in God by our own forces but we believe because we have been elected The first knowledge comes purely from God but it is in us by his grace to pursue this first light and to advance our predestination to glory by forcing our selves to know him perfectly who hath known us
us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Iesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his passion became like a scastold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entred to be tormented and crucified upon the Crosse of love which was the Crosse of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from heaveÌ„ to acomplish the businesse of all ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and this so precious shipwrak there remained one oâ—ely inestimable pearl which was his divine mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hands of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Iesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the vvhole vvorld as he did proportioning his torments according to the fruits which vvere to proceed from his cross Perhaps O faithfull soul thou lookest for a mans body in thy Iesus but thou findest nothing but the appearance of one crusted over with gore bloud Thou seekest for limbs findest nothing but vvounds Thou lookest for a Iesus which appeared glorious upon mount Thabor as upon a Throne of Majesty with all the ensigns of his glory and thou findest only a skin all bloudy fastned to a crosse betvven tvvo thieves And if the consideration of this cannot bring drops of bloud from thy heart it must be more insensible then a diâ—mond 3. To conclude observe the third quality of a good death which will declare it self by the exercise of great and heroick virtues Consider that incomparable mildnesse which hath astonished all ages hath encouraged all virtues hath condemned all revenges hath instructed all Schools and crowned all good actions He was raised upon the crosse vvhen his dolours were most sharp and piercing when his wounds did open on all sides when his precious bloud shed upon the earth and moistened it in great abundance when he saw his poor clothes torn in peices and yet bloudy in the hands of those who crucified him He considered the extreme malice of that cruell people how those which could not wound him with iron pierced him with the points of their accursed tongues He could quickly have made sire com down from heaven upon those rebellious heads And yet forgetting all his pains to remember his mercies he opened his mouth and the first worde he spake was in the favour of his enemies to negotiate their reconciliation before his soul departed The learned Cardinall Hugues admiring the excessive charity of our Saviour toward his enemies applies excellent well that which is spoken of the Sunne in Ecclesiasticus He brings news to all the world at his rising and at noon-day he burns the earth and heats those furnaces of Nature which make it produce all her fruits So Jesus the Sun of the intelligible world did manifest himself at his Nativity as in the morning But the Crosse was his bed at noon from whence came those burning streames of Love which inflames the hearts of all blessed persons who are like furnaces of that eternall fire which burns in holy Sion On the other part admire that great magnanimity which held him so long upon the Crosse as upon a Throne of honour and power when he bestowed Paradise upon a man that was his companion in suffering I cannot tell whether in this action we should more admire the good fortune of the good theif or the greatnesse of Jesus The happinesse of the good theif who is drawn for a cut throat to prison from prison to the judgement hall from thence to the Crosse and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but the heart of Jesus On the other side what can be more admirable then to see a man crucified to do that act which must be performed by the living God when the world shall end To save some to make others reprobate and to judge from the height of his Crosse as if he sate upon the cheifest throne of all Monarchs But we must needs affirm that the virtue of patience in this holds a chief place and teaches very admirable lessons He endures the torments of the body and the pains of the spirit in all the faculties of his soul in all the parts of his virgin flesh and by the cruelty and multiplicity of his wounds they all become one onely wound from the sole of his foot to the top of his head His delicate body suffers most innocently and all by most ingrate and hypocriticall persons who would colour their vengeance with an apparence of holinesse He suffers without any comfort at all and which is more without bemoaning himself he suffers whatsoever they would or could lay upon him to the very last gasp of his life Heaven weares mourning upon the Cross all the Citizens of heaven weep over his torments the earth quakes the stones rend themselves sepulchres open the dead arise Onely Jesus dies unmoveable upon this throne of patience To conclude who would not be astonished at the tranquillity of his spirit amongst those great convulsions of the world which moved round about the Cross amongst such bloudy dolours insolent cries insupportable blasphemies how he remained upon the Crosse as in a Sanctuary at the foot of an Altar bleeding weeping praying to mingle his prayers with his bloud and tears I do now understand why the Wise man said He planted Isles within the Abysse since that in so great a gulph of afflictions he shewed such a serenity of spirit thereby making a Paradise for his Father amongst so great pains by the sweet perfume of his virtues After he had prayed for his enemies given a promise of Paradise to the good thief and recommended his mother to his Disciple he shut up his eyes from all humane things entertaining himself onely with prayers and sighs to his heavenly Father O that at the time of our deaths we could imitate the death of Iesus and then we should be sure to find the streams of life Aspirations
not find and where I am you cannot come And in the last the great day of the festivity Iesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth in me as the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water And this he said of the Spirit that they should receive which believed in him Moralities 1. TAke for your comfort this excellent word of our Saviour he that is thirsty and desires in this world to thirst after God let him come unto me and he shall quench his thirst at the chiefest fountain S. Augustine saith we are all here as David was in the desart of Idumea our life is a perpetual alteration which will never be settled while we live If we be weary we desire rest and if we rest over long our bed becomes troublesome though it should be all ofâ—oses Then again we thirst to be in action and business which also in a short time tires us and puts us into another â—lteration and that carries us again to a desire to do nothing All our life goeth like Penelopies web what one hour effects the next destroyes We do sufficiently perceive that we are not well in this world It is a large bed but very troublesome wherein every man stirs and tumbles himself up and down but no man can here attain to his perfect happinesse 2. This shews us plainly that we are made for God and that we should thirst after divine things if we desire true contentment There is no default in him because all that can be desired is there yet there is no superfluity because there can be nothing beyond him There only we abound without necessity we are assured without fear glorious without change And it is there only where we find all our sa isfactions perfectly accomplished For to speak truth contentment coÌ„sisteth in four principal things which are to have a contenting object to have a heart capable to appreheÌ„d it to feel a strong inclination to it to enter into an absolute full possession ofâ— Now God hath provided for all this by his infinite bounty He will not have us affect any other object of pleasure but his own He is God therefore can have nothing but God for his satisfaction intends graciously that we shall have the same He will have us thirst after him and quench our thirst within himself to this our soul is singularly disposed for as God is a Spirit so is our soul only spi itual We have so strong an inclination to love God that even our vices themselves without thinking what they do love somewhat of God For if pride affect greatness their can be nothing so great as the Monarch of it If luxury love pleasure God containeth all pure delights in his bosome and this which I say may be verified of all sins whatsoever If the presence of a right object and the enjoyning be wanting we have nothing so present as God St. Paul saith we are all within him within him vve live and within him we have the fountain of all our motions we see him through all his creatures untill he take off the vail and so let us see him and taste of his Glory 3 A true and perfect way to make us thirst after God is to forsake the burning thirst which we have after bodily and worldly goods Our soul and flesh go in the several scales of a ballance the rising of one pulls down the other It is a having two wives for us to think we can place all our delights in God and withall enjoy all worldly contentments A man must have a conscience free from earthly matters to receive the infusion of grace we must pass by Cavalry before we can come to Tabor and first taste gall with Iesus before we can taste that honey-comb which he took after his resurrection Aspirations O God true God of my salvation My heart which feeleth it self moved with an affectionate zeal thinks alwaies upon thee and in thinking finds an earnest thirst after thy beauties which heats my veins My soul is all consumed and I find that my flesh it self insensibly followeth the violence of my spirit I am here as within the desarts of Affâ—ica in a barren world the drought whereof makes it a direct habitation for dragons O my God I am tormented with this flame and yet I cherish it more then my self Will there be no good Lazarus found to dip the end of his finger within the fountain of the highest heaven a little to alay the burning of my thirst Do not tell me O my dear Spouse that there is a great Chaos between thee and me Thou hast already passed it in coming to me by thy bounty and wilt not thou lift me up then by thy mercy The Gospel upon Tuesday the fifth week in Lent S. Iohn 7. Jesus went not into Iewry because the Iews had a purpose to take away his life AFter these things Iesus walked into Galilee for he would not walk into Iewry because the Iews sought to kill him And the festival day of the Iews Scenopegia was at hand And his bretheren said to him Passe from hence and go into Iewry that thy Disciples also may see thy works which thou dost For no man doth any thing in secret and seeketh himself to be in publick if thou do these things manifest thy self to the world for neither did his bretheren believe in him Iesus therefore saith to them My time is not yet come but your time is alwaies ready The world cannot hate you but me it hateth because I give testimony of it that the works thereof are evil Go you up to this festivall day I go not up to this festivall day because my time is not yet accomplished When he had said these things himself taâ—ied in Galilee But after his bretheren were gone up then he also went up to the festivall day not openly but as it were in secret The Iews therefore sought him in the festivall day and said Where is he And there was much murmuring in the multitude of him For certain said that he is good And others said No but he seduceth the multitudes yet no man spake openly of him for fear of the Iews Moralities 1. IEsus hides himself in this Gospel as the Sun within a cloud to shew himself at his own time to teach us that all the secrets of our life consisteth in well concealing and well discovering our selves He did conceal the life which he took from nature when he might have been born a perfect man as well as Adam and yet did he hide himself in the hay of a base Stable He concealeth his life of Grace dissembling under silence so many great and divine virtues as if he had lockt up the stars underlock and key as holy Iob saith He keeps secret his life of Glory retaining for thirty three years the light of his soul which should without intermission
worldy men playes the Tyrant in the world snatching turning all things from the true scope and intention for which they were made by God diverting them to prophane uses by turbulent and forcible wayes The world pleaseth it self to set up Idols every where to make it self adored in them as cheif Soveraign It makes use of the Sun to light his crimes of the fatnesse of the earth to fatten his pleasure of apparrell for his luxury of all metals to kindle Avarice and of the purest beauties to serve sensuality And if by chance it love any creature with a well-wishing love and as it ought to be loved that is not permanent The wind is not more inconstant nor a calm at Sea more unfaithfull then worldly friendship For sometimes it begins with Fire and ends in Ice It is made as between a pot and a glasse and is broken sooner then a glasse The ancient Almans tried their children in the Rhine but true friendship is tried in a sea of Tribulation It is only Jesus the preserver and restorer of all things who loves us from Eternity to Eternity We must follow the sacred steps of his examples to reduce our selves to the finall point of our happinesse 2. The water a first was a mild element which served the Majesty of God as a floting Charior since as the Scripture saith his Spirit was carried upon the waters from whence he drew the seeds which produced all the world But after man had sinned like a suprâ—me Judge he made use of the gentlest things to be the Instruments of our punishments The water which carried the divine mercies was chosen at the deluge to drown all â—ankind Now at this time Iesus sanctified it by his sacred touch He took the Bason which being in his hands became greater and more full of Majesty then all the Ocean Our spots which eternity could not wash clean are taken away at Baptisme by one onely drop of water sanct fied by his blessing He prevents the bath of his bloud by the bath of an element which he doth expresly before his institution of the blessed Sacrament to teach us what purity of life of heart of faith of in ention and affections we must bring to the holy Eucharist It is necessary to chase away all strange gods which are sins and passions before we receive the God of Israel we must wash our selves in the waters of repentance change our attire by a new conversation It is too much for us to give flesh for flesh the body of a miserable man for that of Iesus Christ The consideration of our sins should bring up the bloud of blushing in our cheeks since they vvere the onely cause vvhy he shed his most precious bloud upon the Crosse for us Alas the heavens are not pure before his most pure spirit vvhich purifies all nature Then hovv can we go to him vvith so many voluntary stains and deformities Is it not to cast flowers upon a dunghill and to drive Swine to a clear fountain when we will go to Jesus the Authour of innocency carrying with us the steps and spots of our hainous sins 3. Iesus would not onely take upon himself the form of man but that also of a base servant as saint paul saith It vvas the office of slaves to carry water to wash bodies which made David say that Moab should be the Bason of his hope expressing thereby that he would humble the Moabites so low that they should serve onely to bring water to wash unclean houses Alas vvho vvould have said that the Messias was come amongst us to execute the office of a Moabite What force hath conquered him vvhat arms have brought him under but onely love Hovv can vve then become proud and burn incense to that Idoll called point of honour when we see hovv our God humbled himself in this action Observe with vvhat preparation the Evangelist said that his heavenly Father had put all into his hands that he came from God and went to God and yet instead of taking the worlds Scepter he takes a Bason and humbles himself to the most servile offices And if the waters of this Bason cannot burst in us the foul imposthume of vanity we must expect no other remedy but the eternal flames of hell fire Aspirations O King of Lovers and Master of all holy Loves Thou lovest for an end and till the accomplishment of that end It appertains only to thee to teach the Art of loving well since thou hast practised it so admirably Thou art none of those delicate friends who only make love to beauties to gold and silk thou lovest our very poverty and our miseries because they serve for objects of thy charity Let proud Michol laugh while she list to see my dear David made as a water bearer I honour him as much in that posture as I would sitting upon the throne of all the world I look upon him holding this Bason as upon him that holds the vast Seas in his hands O my mercifull Jesus I beseech thee wash wash again and make clean my most sinfull soul Be it as black as hell being in thy hands it may become more white then that Dove with silver wings of which the Prophet speaks I go I run to the fountains I burn with love amongst thy purifying waters I desire affectionately to humble my self but I know not where to find so low a place as thine when thou wast humbled before Iudas to wash his traitours feet Vpon the Garden of Mount Olivet Moralities 1. JEsus enters into a Garden to expiate the sin committed in a Garden by the first man The first Adam stole the fruit and the second is ordained to make satisfaction It is a strange thing that he chose the places of our delights for suffering his pains and never lookt upon our most dainty sweets but to draw out of them most bitter sorrows Gardens are made for recreations but our Saviour finds there onely desolation The Olives which are tokens of Peace denounce War unto him The plants there do groan the flowers are but flowers of death and those fountains are but fountains of sweat and bloud He that shall study well this Garden must needs be ashamed of all his pleasant Gardens and will forsake those refined curiosities of Tulips to make his heart become another manner of Garden where Jesus should be planted as the onely tree of life which brings forth the most perfect fruits of justice 2. It was there that the greatest Champion of the world undertook so great combats which began with sweat and bloud but ended with the losse of his life There were three marvelous agonies of God Death of Ioy and Sorrow of the Soul and Flesh of Iesus God and Death were two incompatible things since God is the first and the most universal of all lives who banisheth from him all the operations of death and yet his love finds means to unite them together for our
redemption The joy of beatitude was a fruition of all celestial delights whereunto nothing which displeased could have accesse and yet Iesus suffered sorrow to give him a mortal blow even in the Sanctuary of his Divinity He afflicted himself for us because we knew not what it was to afflict our selves for him and he descended by our stâ—ps to the very anguishes of death to make us rise by his death to the greatest joyes of life To be short there was a great duel between the affectionate love and the virginal flesh of Iesus His soul did naturally love a body which was so obedient and his bodie followed wholly the inclinations of his soul There was so perfect an agreement between these two parties that their separation must needs be most dolorous Yet Iesus would have it so signe the decree by sweating bloud And as if it had been too little to weep for our sinnes with two eyes he suffered as many eyes as he had veins to be made in his body to shed for us tears of his own bloud 3. Observe here how this soul of Iesus amongst those great anguishes continued alwayes constant like the needle of a Sea-compass in a storm He prayes he exhorts be orders he reproves and he encourages he is like the heavens which amongst so many motions and agitations lose no part of their measure or proportion Nature and obedience make great convulsions in his heart but he remains constantly obedient to the will of his heavenly Father he tears himself from himself to make himself a voluntary sacrifice for death amongst all his inclinations to life to teach us that principal lesson of Christianitie which is to desire onely what God will and to execute all the decrees of his divine providence as our chiefest helps to obtain perfection Aspirations O Beauteous garden of Olives which from henceforth shalt be the most delicious objects of my heart I will lose my self in thy walks I will be lost with God that I may never be lost I will breath only thy air since it is made noble by the sighs of my dear Master I will gather thy flowers since Iesus hath marked them with his bloud I will wash my self in those fountains since they are sanctified by the sweat of my Iesus I will have no other joy but the sorrow of the Son of God nor any other will but his O my sweet Saviour Master and teacher of all humane kind wilt thou be abridged of thine own will which was so reasonable pure to give me an example of mortifying my passions and shall I before thy face retain any wicked or disordinate appetites Is it possible I should desire to be Lord of my self who am so bad a Master when I see the Author of all goodnesse separate himself from himself onely to make me and all mankind partakers of his merits Of the apprehension of Iesus IN that obscure dolorous night wherein our Saviour was apprehended three sorts of darknesses were cast upon the Iews upon Iudas upon S. Peter A darkness of obduration upon the hearts of the Iews a darknesse of ingratefull malignity upon Iudas and a darknesse of infirmity upon Saint Peter Was there ever any blindness like that of the Iews who sought for the shining sun with lighted torches without knowing him by so many beams of power which shined from him They are strucken down with the voice of the Son of God as with lightning and they rise again upon the earth to arme themselves against heaven They bind his hands to take away the use of his forces but they could not stop the course of his bounties To shew that he is totally good he is good and charitable even amongst his merciless executioners and he lost all he had savng his Godhead only to gain patience When Saint Peter stroke the high Priests servant the patience of our Lord Iesus received the blow and had no patience till he was healed If goodness did shew forth any one beam in the Garden modesty sent forth another in the house of Annas when his face was strucken by a servile hand his mouth opened it self as a Temple from whence nothing came but sweetnesse and light The God of Truth speaketh to Caiphas and they spit upon his brightnesse and cover that face which must discover heaven for us The mirrour of Angels is tarnisht with the spittle of infernal mouths wounded by most sacrilegious hands without any disturbance of his constancie That was invincible by his virtue as the wilfulness of the Iews stood unmoveable by their obduration There are souls which after they have filled the earth with crimes expect no cure of their discases but by the hell of the reprobate 2. The second darkness appeareth by the black passion of Iudas who falls down into hell with his eys open and after he had fold his soul sold Jesus and both all he had and all he was to buy an infamous halter to hang himself A soul become passionate with wanton love with ambition or avarice is banished into it self as into a direct hell and delivered to her own passion as to the Furies The Poets Hydra had but seven heads but the spirit of Avarice S. Iohn Climacus saith hath ten thousand The conversation of Iesus which was so full of infinite attractions could never win the spirit of Judas when it was once bewitched with covetousnesse The tinkling of silver kept him from rightly understanding Jesus He makes use of the most holy things to betray Holiness it self He employes the kisse of peace to begin war He carries poyson in his heart and hony in his mouth he puts on the spirit of Iesus to betray him This shews us plainly that covetous and traiterous persons are farthest from God and nearest to the Devils The third power of darknesse appeared in the infirmitie of Saint Peter who after so many protestations of fidelity for fear of death renounced the Authour of life One of the Ancients said the greatest frailty of Humanity was that the wisest men were not infallibly wise at all times And all men are astonished to see that the greatest spirits being left to themselves become barren and suffer eclipses which give example to the wisest and terrour to all the world God hath suffered the fall of St. Peter to make us have in â—orrour all presumption of our own forces to teach us that over great assurance is oft times mother of an approaching danger Besides it seemeth he would by this example consecrate the virtue of repentance in this fault of him whom he chose to be head of his Church to make us see that there is no dignitie so high nor holinesse so eminent which doth not ow Tribute to the mercie of God Aspirations Vpon Saint Peters tears IT is most true saith Saint Peter that a proud felicity hath alwaies reeling feet Thou which didst defie the gates of hell hast yielded thy self to the voice of a simple woman