it were unreasonable to be colerick at the Ditch or stone and seek revenge like a Dog so no less folly is it to be angry with a Person for doing thee a displeasure Since either 't is done justly or unjustly if justly thou oughtst to turn thine anger on thy self for deserving it and not on the doer if unjustly then certainly he was unjust before he did it and if thou then wert not angry with him for being unjust neither oughtst thou be now for his doing unjustly it being but natural and what in reason thou shouldst expect that an unjust Person should do unjust things Again since no humane Action or Desire is reasonable which aims not at some good to him that wills or does it and Revenge ayms only at the Evill of the Offender which is no ways thy Good but meerly as a satisfaction of thy vindicative appetite in reason thou oughtst not to wish anothers ill but rather repress thine own unreasonable Humour The third Point COnsider the Reward promis'd thee by our kind Master for Meekness You shall find rest says he to your Souls and in another place Blessed are the Meek for they shall possess the Land and again In your Patience that is Meekness you shall possess that is enjoy your Souls Of all which the sense is that besides the Reward in Heaven the greatest sweetness this present Life affords viz. A quiet and contented mind is properly and peculiarly reserv'd for the Meek as a recompence of their Vertue Whereas those that seek Revenge are alwaies in contention and at debate with one another which for the most part costs their Purses well in Sutes and Law-wranglings and many times their skins even their Lives too in desperate quarrels Besides within what tumults of Passion are rais'd in their Souls what cares what fears continually disquiet and torment them that they neither enjoy themselves nor even the temporal blessings God has given them 'T is Meekness alone then you see affords contentment and sweetens our whole Life Conclusion COnclude then What a good God wee serve who is so sollicitous as for our Future so even for our Present happiness that hee 's pleas'd not only most tenderly to recommend and with sweet words allure us to it but even to introduce them by exhibiting himself to us as a Master and Pattern of those means by which true temporal comforts and contentments as much as this present Life admits are to be obtain'd What evasion can there be from such kindness what excuse from so important so pleasant an Interest No either renounce the name of Christian or resolve to addict thy self seriously to the exercise of this Vertue The twelfth Consideration Fraternal Charity is the true Mark of a good Christian and the only sure way to eternal Happiness The first Point COnsider first Our Lord and dear Master to fix on us a greater necessity and as it were a double tye of mutual Love and Charity to one another was pleas'd not only to strengthen the old Cōmandement of loving our Neighbour as our self by commanding it anew as from himself when he said I give you a new Command and This is my Command that you Love one another but also in most particular manner to recommend and appropriate it to the Law of Grace as a special Mark and Sign of Christianity whereby true Christians are distinguisht from false By this men shall know that you are my Disciples If you Love one another Since therefore true Love is never idle nor consists in words only but is active according to its power 't is evident That which Christ commands us is that we be alwaies ready as much as in us lys to do good to all Men but especially to those that are truly Brethren that is good Christians The second Point AGain consider Since as the Apostle says He that Loves his neighbour has fulfill'd the Law 't is evident this mutual Charity ought to be embrac'd not only as a particular Vertue but as the common Mother and producer of all the rest For if he that loves his Neighbour has fulfill'd the Law the whole Law then is nothing but of Love and doing good to our neighbour Wherein admire the tender goodness of God whose care and providence tends wholy to this That it may be well with all and every one of us See how by that Law which commands thee to do good to all thou canst by that very same Law all and every other person is commanded to do thee what good they can O! how holy is this Law of Christ which so carefully provides for the welfare and advantage of all but withall how profitable how gainfull to thee since for that little good thou canst do to others it obliges all others readily to do thee all the good they can which must needs be infinitely more than what thou art able to do for them The third Point LAstly Consider the beloved Disciple St. John's words He that loves not his Brother whom he sees how can he love God whom he sees not and observe that the love of thy Neighbour must be the Touchstone where on to try thy love to God whether indeed it be true or a counterfeit and as they say but a Lip-love having God in thy Mouth but in thy heart the World For if thou lov'st not thy Neighbour 't is evident thou lov'st something else that hinders thee from loving him which because it cannot be God must needs be some created good as Honour Riches Pleasure c. which thou lovest inordinately that is for it self and not in order to God and so clearly as long as thou lov'st not thy Neighbour thou hast not God for thy last end nor lov'st him above all things as is thy duty for as much as thou lovest God so much more doubtless thou lovest those things he loves amongst which the chiefest if not the only thing we know is our Neighbour whose love even by Nature is so recommended to us that without friendship and conversation with one another our very lives would be tedious and miserable Conclusion COnclude therefore with a serious and effectual Resolution in Truth and Actions to love thy Neighbour to contemn none to refuse none in what thou art able to help them but whatever good thou canst do to any person without prejudicing thy self even with a little prejudice to thy self when 't is much for his advantage to do it chearfully and willingly be glad when thou hast oblig'd any esteeming that day lost wherein thou hast done good to none And be certain this Practice will be so far from injuring thee that nothing will more advantage nothing render thee more grateful and acceptable both to God and Man FINIS 1. The future Life preferrable 2. Because knowledge there more perfect 3. God being it's sole Object Therefore only to be minded 1. All delight from the Intellect 2. Whence God transcends all Corporal Pleasures 3. He only filling the Soul Therefore fully resolve for Him 1. Gloriously qualify'd 2. Vniversally honour'd 3. Entirely complyd with Therefore here to be sacrifiz'd up in hope 1. Equal to the Inclination of a Soul's Nature 2. Aggravated by the folly of her choice 3. Especially a Christian Therefore in time prevent It. 1. Missing their unalterable desires 2. Incompossible in themselves 3. Which they see Eternal Therefore regulate the Affections 1. Extream sorrow including All 2. With Contempt on all sides 3. All hightned through the subjection of the Body Therefore Love not thy self here 2. That Best which begets a Love to It. 3. Every deliberate Action important Therefore be careful and diligent 1. The mean's to Natur 's end truly pleasant 2. Whence Vertue brings Peace and Vice disquiet 3. Piety not debarring ev'n temporal Contentments Therefore confidently proceed in It. 1. Creating the World nay Himself for Man 2. Passing through so painful a Life and Death 3. Feeding us with Himself Therefore value thy Salvatition 1. Rendred easily capable of high Mysteries 2. Encourag'd by His Example 3. Endear'd by His sufferings Therefore inexcusably be good 1. No Christian revengeful 2. All anger unreasonable 3. Meekness alone sweetens Life Therefore strongly embrace It. 1. Appropriated to the Law of Grace Wherein every one has an advantage 3. The Touchstone of our Love to God Therefore improve It's occasions
possest but for those there was not the least certainty by never so great endeavours to compass them nor the least hope long to hold them VVhen the unhappy Soul shall be clearly convinc'd of all this will it not incomparably encrease its grief and infinitely augment its torments its pains The third Point BUt above all Those wretched Souls who whilst they liv'd in their Bodies had receiv'd greater Knowledge of this Beatitude and by the honour of being Christians had heard and believ'd both that there was an eternal Happiness provided for them if themselves would and that it incomparably exceeded all temporal Goods and worldly Felicity yet see on the other side how they spent their whole lives in running after Vanities and trash as if they had been Pagans and ignorant of Heav'n such must needs out of this knowledge fall into an incredible yet unprofitable Repentance and according to our Saviours sentence be beaten with many stripes as the VVise-man explicates like great Persons be greatly tormented Conclusion COnclude with fear and trembling lest what happens to many and perhaps to most Christians may also be thy lot and resolve with a constant courage to shake off quickly the burthen of all worldly Fears or Affections that hinder thy march to Heav'n lest when Death shall surprize thee thou mayst not peradventure find time for Repentance nor be able to alter in a moment what thy whole life has been us'd to The fifth Consideration The unspeakable Pains which the damned Souls shall suffer through their own disordinate Affections The first point COnsider Since a Soul cannot be without desires but something it must Love wherefore if it Loves not true Beatitude it must needs desire false Goods whence it will clearly follow that The Souls of the Wicked who dye without loving God must after death desire those same goods on which they placed their affections whilst they liv'd in this World and the Acts of a separated Soul being incomparably more strong and violent than any it could possibly exercise in the Body Those Souls must be all on fire and incredibly burn with perpetual longings after the goods of this life which notwithstanding cannot be had in that State and yet the desire of such is now grown natural to them and consequently as unchangeable and immortal as their Nature They must therefore be eternally tormented with a furious yet fruitless desire of those things they can never obtain whence follows a continual Desperation insufferable grief and A version from the causes of so great evil Viz. Hatred against God and Themselves and a raging Madness altogether inexplicable The second Point BUt further It being almost impossible that he who directs not his life to God should so lettle his Affections on any one temporal thing as not to be distracted with successive desires of now this now that independent of one another and all those Acts which in this life are successive and at severall times being in the next world altogether and at once in the Soul It must needs follow that such a Soul in the next life desires at the same time contrary and incompossible things and so for ever remains divided in and against it self alwaies at debate and strife with it self and as if compounded of so many furious beasts as it has contrary Passions perpetually biting and tearing one another without the least minute of rest becomming thus to it self a most bitter spiteful and tedious enemy and which way soever it turns still meeting new goads and spears that gore it to the very heart The third Point ANd which is yet more grievous than all the rest When these unhappy Souls shall clearly see that these evils into which they have plung'd themselves shall never have an end can never be lessen'd with any success of time nor admit of any the least comfort no not so much as a little Oblivion or not thinking on them for a Moment but shall alwaies and all at once in a heap o're-whelm oppress them continually gnawing and eating yet without consuming their very Bowels what mountains of Calamities what Etnas of despair must this needs draw upon them Do but reflect on your self what a terrour 't is wont to strike when you have some time thought of this Eternity by multiplying hundreds thousands and Millions of years which notwithstanding when you have gone as far as you are able is infinitely short of what Eternity is and then tell me what effect you think this sad consideration must needs produce in the damned who by the excellency of their Nature and the State wherein they now are cannot but behold the horrid countenance of this their accursed Eternity truly and such as in it self it is for ever Conclusion COnclude then Since our eternal misery flows from the habits and affections our Souls acquire in this life which if misplac't upon objects unenjoyable in the next engage us above all possibility of relief into everlasting sorrows and distractions Resolve from this hour from this very moment to bid adieu to the vanities of this world and as you cannot but know that Nothing ought to be belov'd but for our last end which is God so couragiously strive to regulate your Affections and force them to be subject to this only rule of true Reason The sixth Consideration Though the Bodies of the damned by reason of their State be incorruptible after the Resurrection yet shall not their Souls be exempt from Corporal pains The first Point COnsider As all pleasure in Man proceeds from the Soul so of necessity must all grief too wherefore as in the highest delight all kind of pleasure is contain'd so in the extreamest sorrow all kind of grief is included Since therefore all the corporal pains we suffer are but several griefs in the Soul it evidently follows that in damned Souls where extream sorrow reigns no kind of pain can be wanting Whence though their Bodies be in a state of Immutability and no material Instruments of Torment can work on them after the Resurrection yet shall not they be free even from corporal pains but feel incomparably more grievously than they ever could in this life the torments of burning by Fire the gnawing of Worms and Serpents the affliction of weeping and wayling the causes of gnashing the Teeth and all Pains whatever have been shew'd to holy Persons in their approved Visions The second Point AGain When all their wickednesses and most infamous Actions when every Word and Thought shall not only be written in their own Consciences but layd open to the sight of all the World those wretched Creatures of necessity must then appear both to themselves and all others most effeminate foolish and wicked and by consequence most base and infamous and thereby most hateful even to themselves contemptible to God and his Angels with all the Blessed Souls nay even to the very Devils and all the damned crew but especially
Contradiction and cast us into those very evils we seek most to fly And as all Vices are contrary to our Nature and cannot be kept subject to Reason's Rule so are they of necessity bitter and painful in their effects pressing their Followers still downward from evill to worse till in death they tumble them at length into Hell where they shall justly complain that They have walked thither by difficult and rough ways and even been weary'd in their Iniquities The third Point THirdly Since our Bodies are made for our Souls and the Dispositions of the one for the Operations of the other it follows that then our Souls best operate when our Bodies are best dispos'd and that Disposition of the Body is truly best which is best fitted to the Operations of the Soul whence 't is an errour to think it well with our Bodies when they are not fit to serve our Soul And hence again it follows that ev'n Those delights and comforts of the Body which God has created for it 's necessary Recreation are not to be deny'd to a Pious Life in their due proportion that a Pious and Orderly Life truly and really more abounds with corporal delights than the Life of the wicked as appears to any that considers the inconveniences unavoydably flowing from disorder and that ev'n They who abstain from those corporal delights which are enjoy'd in Marriage the possession of Riches such find here other far greater temporal Pleasures incompatible with these as Honour Friendship Knowledge excellent Conversation and the like which abundantly supply the defect of those material enjoyments and rende◠their Life more sweet and happy ev'n in this world Conclusion COnclude then without fear to commit thy self to God and a Pious Life and know that the Almighty has no need of thee nor made thee for his own sake but for thine that thou might'st partaker that Happiness whereof He was Essentially full and therefore He were not wise but would miss of his End had He not prepar'd all things convenient to render thee happy Be thou then but confident and discreetly proceed and thou shalt quickly find by experience what a difference there is between a wicked or negligent and a truly vertuous and devout Life how much more pleasant how much more full of comfort and delight this is than that and how sweetly yet strongly our wise Creatour has fram'd all the parts of our Felicity conformable to each other and to the End for which he has ordain'd us The ninth Consideration God highly esteems our Felicity then how ought we to value It. The first point COnsider Since Almighty God is essentially happy and in Possession of all Good and therefore incapable of the least new addition by his Creatures 't is evident that whatever he has created he made not for his own but for thine and thy Brethrens sake not to render himself but thee and them happy and by consequence has valew'd your Felicity above all the rest of his works Behold therefore Heaven Earth and Sea and all the Creatures wherewith he has stor'd adorn'd them created for thee and to bring thee to happiness nor cared for but as means to that End And which is yet infinitely more ev'n beyond all amazement see the Divinity it self humbled and impoverish't to raise and enrich thee Him whom but now wee concluded through his own fulness incapable of encrease devested for thy sake of all his Royal Privileges and cloth'd with all our miseries and infirmities For what know we amongst the whole mass of Creatures so distressed and helpless as a poor Infant newly born what so subject to all kind of contingencies and inconveniencies what requiring so much care and industry to nurse and breed up to its perfection Thank on every particular and see at how high a rate the unerrable judgement of the Almighty has valew'd thy happiness The second Point BUt again Consider the whole Life and Death of this poor God pillag'd of his own to purchase thy glory See a Life of three and thirty long years endur'd in cōtinual necessities labours molestations and contradictions How often was it necessary that this most meek and innocent Lamb who never brake a brused Reed nor quench'd the smoaking Flax should to give thee an example of Patience undergoe the anger and indignation of his enemies How often to teach thee Meekness and Humility was He to be chidden threatned reproach'd and blasphem'd without once op'ning his mouth to reply What shall I say of his Travayls Sweats Weariness Lying without dores Watching whole nights in Prayer Fasting Poverty not having a House wherein to shrow'd his Head living on Alms continual Dangers and Flying from one place to another especially in the last three years of his Life O but His End Consider his Anguish in the Garden the manner of his Apprehension his leading or rather dragging from one Tribunal to another all sorts of contempt all manner of insolent and abusive revilements weigh the Pains he suffer'd in the most tender and sensible parts of his Body His being Betray'd by One and Forsaken by the rest of his Disciples the doleful presence of his dearest Mother and other afflicted Friends In fine his ignominious Death and the effusion of the last drop of his Blood for thy Redemption and eternal Happiness The third Point LAstly Consider how not content with all this He spar'd not his Glorious Body but ordain'd even That too to serve as a means for thy Felicity leaving himself to thee in the Blessed Sacrament under the forms of Bread and Wine not only to be seen and adored but ev'n to be handled broken chew'd swallow'd and incorporated by thee for all this is as truly and really verify'd of him invested with the Accidents or forms of Bread and Wine as it would be of the Bread it self were it taken before Consecration and It 's connatural Accidents are now as truly Those of His Body as they were of the Bread whilst it continu'd such Add now to this all the Injuries and indignities that are offer'd his Sacred Person as it lyes veyl'd under those Accidents for thy Love whether by Negligence of inconsiderate Servants or Malice of wicked Sinners and see to what a pitch his Charity to thee is heightned which has made Him in a manner prefer thee before Himself Conclusion COnclude therefore Since thou neither mayst nor canst doubt but that the judgement of thy God is most certain impartial and unerrable what care and esteem oughtst thou to have of thine own Salvation what Sollicitude to seek the means of attaining It what diligence to omit nothing in order to assure It whereof thou see'st him so industriously careful who is no wayes concern'd more than out of pure Goodness whether thou bee'st a sav'd Soul or no and yet whom even Goodness it self could not so transport as to make him think any price too high to procure thee Felicity The
tenth Consideration The great Benefits Mankind has receiv'd by Christ's comming into the World The first Point COnsider first By this most wise Oeconomy and gracious dispensation of Christ great Steward of God's house the Church Mankind is made capable of admirable Secrets and high Mysterys and has attain'd a most certain knowledge of them for who so simple that cannot beleeve what is told him when nothing else is requir'd and what can be so firm and certain either to our Senses or Understandings as the Word of God for since by It all other things were made and from It had their Natures It doubtless in It self is far more securely constant and fixt than the very subsistence of all created Beings and those Causes à priore that give a certâ—inty to our Demonstrations And hence 't is that now whole Nations of People learned and ignorant wise and simple every silly old Woman clearly conceives and most firmly believs the Immortality of the Soul the Condition of the good and wicked after Death the Eternity of Pains or Pleasures that attend us with other most important Verities concerning which we find very little amongst the Philosophers as whereat the greatest Wits of them but groap'd like blind Men The second Point AGain By Christ's Example wee are strongly encourag'd to all Vertue Can there be any so faint-hearted as not to dare Venture himself the same way he sees his Captain pass before him who he 's sure both knows the best and securest Path to salvation and is so perfectly good that even in his Voice he cannot deceive much less counterfeit in his Actions When we see him then choose for himself the same things he proposes to us and tread out the way which he would have us walk nay when we see him not only Live and Dye in this way but Rise again and enter the Possession of those Glories he woos us to hope for can we any loÌ„ger doubt whether we should follow his foot-steps and beat the same Path or shall we not confidently aspire to the Happiness he so faithfully has promis'd and so dearly purchas'd The third Point BUt above all By this Grace of Christ our Charity to God is extreamly heightned by degrees excessively strange and remarkable for First whereas God was invisible and inaccessible ev'n to our very thoughts before He 's now become a Man like us expos'd to the apprehension even of our senses that most easy and obvious way of our knowing Next by this gracious condescendence He has espous'd all the Titles that may endear our Affections having made himself our Master our Friend our Companion our Brother His Father to become ours and himself a Member of the same Body with us And knowing that as it is the greatest possible testimony of Love to suffer for a Friend so 't is the most effective means to beget a mutual Love our Heavenly Father desirous to settle a perfect correspondence in That betwixt his only Begotten and us his adopted Sons sent Him into this world to suffer for our sakes all kind of evils all manner of contempts all sorts of injuries miseries torments and a most shameful Death Sic Deus dilexit Mundum ut Filium suum unigenitum daret pro mundi Vitâ To such a point did God love us as to give up even to death for our Life his only his equal his coessential and consubstantial Son Nor was This Son less forward and willing to accept than his Father to enjoyn him all this for us but as his Apostle says Dilexit me tradidit seipsum pro me He lov'd me and so lov'd me as to Live in miseries and Dye with torments for me Nor did his love end with his Life Since though it was necessary to withdraw his Corporal Presence from our senses yet Love would not let him entirely be absent but wittily found out this stupendious Invention to remain with us in the Blessed Sacrament not only to be seen and ador'd by our Faith but really to incorporate and mingle his Flesh with ours making himself the nourishment both of our Souls and Bodies In fine by this his Oeconomy and the powring out of his Holy Spirit and changing in a manner the whole World at least so far as concern'd Mens Souls through the innumerable Miracles wrought by Himself and his Followers to the Conversion of Nations he has rendred those things easy to us by the custom of hearing and seeing them done by others which before seem'd almost impossible and not to be imitated and so taken away the greatest hinderances of our Love to him Conclusion COnclude therefore Now ther 's no excuse left but an absolute necessity impos'd on thee to live holily the means thereof being rendred both so easy familiar to thee and so laudable too amongst Men that 't is almost a shame and counted worthy of reproach to live otherwise What canst thou then pretend what allege to exempt thy self No Almighty God has so ensnar'd and hedg'd thee in on every side with obligations to be Vertuous that thou canst not now without great inconveniences ev'n in this world be Vicious All things invite thee All things allure thee All things in a manner compel thee to be good O follow and follow willingly The eleventh Consideration Meekness and Humility is the readiest way to Happiness not only hereafter but ev'n in this Life The first point Consider Though our Saviour was vouchsaf'd us both as a Master and Model of all Vertures and a perfect Pattern for all the Actions of our whole Life yet two Vertues we find especially particularly and in a manner only recommended to us Meekness and mutual Charity the first he enforces on us in these sweet words Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart and you shall find rest for your Souls Behold therefore if thou wilt be a Christian thou must very carefully practise this Vertue nor indeed canst thou chalenge that name unless thou at least endeavour to become Meek and Humble and so far only thou mayst judge thy self to have profited in the School of Christ as thou find'st thy self advanc'd in the progress of this Vertue Now what is this humble Meekness so highly commended to us by our great Master but A sweetness of Disposition which makes us not seek Revenge or render evill for evill no not even in desire That then thou art here commanded is When thou sufferest an injury not to render nor wish any harm to the Person that did it unless by way of correction to such as are under thy charge and even then to be sure the punishment be inflicted for Love of them not thy self for their amendment not thy satisfaction The second point COnsider 'T is irrational and not becomming a Person of understanding to wish evill to another because he has offended thee For as if thou shouldst fall into a Ditch or a stone fall upon thee