services due to thy greatnesse as I will for ever ow my salvation to thy infinite power and bounty The Gospel upon Friday the third week in Lent S. Iohn 4. Of the Samaritan woman at Iacobs Well neer Sichar HE cometh therefore into a Citie of Samaria which is called Sichar beside the Maner that Iacob gave to Ioseph his sonne And there was there the fountain of Iacob Iesus therefore wearied of his journey sate so upon the fountain It was about the sixth hour There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Iesus saith to her Give me to drinke for his Disciples were gone into the City to buy meats therefore that Samaritan woman saith to him How doest thou being a Iew aske of me to drink which am a Samaritan woman for the Iews do not communicate with the Samaritanes Iesus answered and said to her If thou didst know the gift of God and who he is that saith unto thee Give me to drinke thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water The woman saith to him Sir neither hast thou wherein to draw and the Well is deep Whence hast thou the living water Art thou greater then our father Iacob who gave us the Well and himself drank of it and his children and his cattell Iesus answered and said to her Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever but the water that I will give him shall become unto him a fountain of water springing up unto life everlasting The woman saith to him Lord give me this water that I may not thirst nor come hither to draw Iesus saith to her Go call thy husband and come hither The woman answered and said I have no husband Iesus saith to her Thou hast said well that I have no husband for thou hast had five husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband This thou hast said truely The woman saith to him Lord I perceive that thou art a Prophet Our Fathers adored in this mountain and you say that Ierusalem is the place where men must adore Iesus saith to her Woman believe me that the hour shall come when you shall neither in this mountaine nor in Ierusalem adore the Father You adore that you know not We adore that we know for salvation is of the Iews but the hour cometh and now is when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and veritie For the Father also seeketh such to adore him God is a spirit and they â—hat adore him must adore in spirit and verity The woman saith to him I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ therefore when he cometh he will shew us all things Iesus saith to her I am he that speak with thee And incontinent his Disciples came and they marvelled that he talked with a woman No man for all that said What seekest thou or why talkest thou with her The woman therefore left her water pot and she went into the Citie and saith to those men Come and see a man that hath told me all things whatsoever I have done Is not he Christ They went forth therefore out of the Citie and came to him In the mean time the Disciples desired him saying Rabbi eat But he said to them I have meat to eat which you know not The Disciples therefore said one to another hath any man brought him for to eat Iesus saith to them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me to perfect his work Do not you say that yet there are foure moneths harvest cometh Behold I say to you lift up your eyes and see the Countries that they are white already to harvest And he that reapeth receiveth hire and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejace together For in this is the saying true that it is one man that soweth and it is another that reapeth I have sent you to reap that which you laboured not others have laboured and you have entred into their labours And of that Citie many believed in him of the Samaritanes for the word of the woman giving testimony that he told me all things whatsoever I have done Therefore when the Samaritanes were come to him they desired him that he would tarry there And he tarried there two dayes And many moe beleeved for his own word and they said to the woman That now not for thy saying do we besieve for our selves have heard and do know that this is the Saviour of the world indeed Moralities 1. THe God of all power is weary the main sea desires a drop of salt water the King of Angels becomes a suppliant for a little part of all that which is his own This Gospel shews us clearly the love of God toward humane nature and the infinit zeal which he hath to the salvation of souls Is it not a thing which should load us with confusion to see that he who is filled with all felicities hath onely one thirst which is that we should thirst after him and that we should make chief account of that living water which he carrieth within his breast which indeed properly is grace the onely way to glory 2. Behold the difference between Iacobs Well and the Well of Iesus between contentments of the world and the pleasures of God The Well of Iacob is common to men and beasts to shew unto us that a man which glorifieth himself of his sensual delights makes a Trophee of his own basenes and a triumph of his fault It is just as if Nebuchodoneser forsaking his crown and throne to transform himself into a beast should brag that he had gotten a hansom stable and very good hay But the fountain of Jesus holds in it the water of graces a wholesome water pure and Christalline which brings us to the society of Angels The water of Iacob though it be but a water for beasts yet it is hard to obtain There are many which run mad after riches honours and contentments of this world and can never come to possesse them They live in a mill and gain nothing out of it but the noise and dust They turn round about upon the wheel of disquiet and never rest But if a good fortune some times cast them a bone there are a hundred dogs which strive to catch it All their life is nothing but expectation and their end onely despair Whereas the Well of Iefus is open to all the world he seeketh he asketh he calleth he giveth gratis he requireth nothing of us but our selves and would have us for no other reason but onely to make us happy The Well of Iacob begetteth thirst but doth not quench it Do not you consider that the Samaritan woman left her pot there and did not drink After so many fantomes and illusions which do amuse worldlings they must part
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
in her hearâ— do now breath from her nothing but the delicacâ—â—s of chastity Her pleasing odours which were before vowed to sensuality are now become the sâ—veetest exhalations from that Amber oyle which brings an odoriferous perfume to Iesus Christ She brings with her Aromatick spices to burn her self at the mountain of her Sun vvho makes himself her Priest her Advocate and Brideman 5. She had gained the great jubilee and was assured of it by the word of the eternall Bishop and yet duting all the rest of hâ—â— life she practised upon her self a sanctified revenge her penance never ends but with her life to confound our coldnesse who know so little what it is to bewail a sin She is as timorous in the assurance of her pardon as we are secure at the approach of Gods justice No body could be so patient and so constant in her love but she that had a holy emulation toward heavenly charity It is her perseverance which draws to the earth a perfect copy of that life without limit which the blessed souls enjoy in heaven It is she alone to whom eternity was then given because she had power to offer repentant frailty to eternity it self Aspirations Upon Saint Mary Magdalens great Repentance O Jesus my Conquerour and my Soveraign Bishop thou art pleased to be satisfied of thy unworthy servant but I am not yet content with my self No no my life and penance shall end together since I have lost that which should never have been separated from my body before the separation of my soul And since I cannot enter chaste into my grave I will now go repentant into an obscure savage Cave where the sun shall shine no more upon a head so sinfull as mine Mine eyes O mine eyes who have first received that fire which hath so passionately devoured my soul I will make you imitate the pond of Hesebon and sooner shall those tvvo fountains be dried up which serve the stream of Iordan then you shall want vvater to vvash the steps of your Concupiscences I will have that neck vvhich hath suffered it self to be embraced by unlawfull Arms held under the yoke of him that hath overcome me and so happily subjected me to his empire These arms and hands which have been the chains of wanton embracements shall henceforth for ever be lifted up to Heaven in prayerâ— and they shall have no other Altars but the feet of my Lord and Master if I dare think my self worthy to kisse them This mouth which hath been the gate of unchastity shall now become a temple of Gods praises And this heart which hath been a burning furnace of worldly love shall be a burning lamp of holy affections before God and shall have no other oyle to maintain it but that water which shall be drawn from mine eyes O my God since I have so betrayed my heart abused my youth spent prodigally thy Treasures and made crowns to Baal out of thy silver since I have forsaken thee who art eternal unchangeable and incomparable Goodnesse without whom all other goods are nothing to sollow a wanton fire which hath brought me to the brim of an everlasting precipice where shall I â—nd sufficient tears to wash my offences where shall I find enow parts of my body to be continually offered up as the sacrifice o my repentance I would mâ—ke my life immortal to have my pains so lasting and if thy mercy will not let me be the object of thy vengeance let me at least serve for a sacrifice at thy Altars The Gospell upon Friday the fifth week in Lent St. Iohn 11. The Jews said What shall we do for this man doth many miracles THe chief Priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a councell and said What shall we doe for this man doth many signes if we let him alone so all will believe in him and the Romanes will come and take away our place and Nation But one of them named Caâ—phas being the high Priest of that year said to them You know nothing neither do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man die for the people and the whole Nation perish not And this he said not of himself but being the high Priest of that year he prophesied that Iesus should die for the Nation and not onely for the Nation but to gather in one the children of God that were dispersed From that day therefore they devised to kill him Iesus therefore walked no more openly among the Iews but he went into the Country beside the Desart unto a City that is called Ephrem and there he abode with his Disciples Moralities ONe of the greatest Tragedies acted in the life of man which makes curious persons to question wise men to wonder good men to groan and the wicked to rejoice is to see an innocent man oppressed by colour of justice Now Iesus being resolved to espouse our miseries as far as they can reach was pleased to passe through those rigours and formalities of the wicked coloured with a pretext of equity He is not here condemned by a mean people without consideration without power without formality of processe But by these chief Priests and principall men of that Nation assembled in Councell they informed themselves they reason and conclude his death The Lions of Solomons throne did anciently bear certain Writs of the Law to signifie that it was to be handled by couragious and clear seeing Iudges But here Foxes got it into their hands and did manage it by crafty deceits wickednesse Alas we are far from the Laws of God when we cannot abide the least word spoken against our reputation We are troubled to suffer for innocency as if it were a greater honour to suffer for a direct offence Shall we never think that the triumph of virtue consists in well doing and thereby sometimes receiving harm even from those who are esteemed good men 2. There are some difficulties in affairs where truth is shut up as within a cloud Wise men can hardly find out where the point lies but God doth so order it that falshood leaves alwayes certain marks by which it may be known and the beauty of truth is ever like that lake of Affrick which early or late discovers all that is cast into it and makes all impostures plainly appear when we think they are most conceald And this appears by the proceeding of Caiphas who chose to condemn Christ for those things which were the certain tokens that he was the true Messias He concluded his death by reason of his miracles and those gave him authority as to the prince of Isfe A troubled spirit makes darts of every thing which it can to fight against reason and kills it self not suspecting its own poison 3. The Devil publisheth Iesus for the true Messias and so doth likewise Caiphas prophecy the same It is not alwayes a certain mark of goodnesse to speak that which is good but it is an assurance of
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