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 always as if we were actually in his presence before his eyes and in his bosom An ancient Tradition doth observe that after our Lords Ascension the Apostles did never eat together but they left the first napkin for their good Master conceiving that according to his promise he was always with them Let us accustom 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 always present If respect make him formidable love will teach us that he is the Father of all sweetness There can be no greater comfort in this world than to be present in heart and body with that which we love beast 2. Jesus is taken by his Apostles for a Spirit because after the Resurrection he pierced the walls and appeared suddenly as Spirits do S. Paul also saith in the second to the Corinthians that now we do no more know Christ according to the flesh that is to say by the passions of a mortal body as S. 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 Creatour of sense He teaches us the life of Spirits and the commerce of Angels and makes assayes of our immortality by a body now immortal Why are we so tied to our sense and glued to the earth Must we suffer our selves to enter into a kingdom of death when we are told of the resurrection 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 entered into the kingdom of spirits and immortal 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 than the Sun is to digest vapours He did no more nourish himself with our corruptible meats than 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 mildness of a shepheard So Jesus the true Son of David by his condescending to us hath consecrated a certain degree whereby we may ascend to Heaven Are not we ashamed that we have so little humility or respect to our inferiours but are always so full of our selves since our Lord sitting in his Throne of glory and majesty doth yet abase himself to the actions of our mortal life Let it be seen by our hands whether we be resuscitated by doing good works and giving liberal 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 celestial sweetness which is extracted from prayer And if we seem to refuse fish let us at least remain in the element of piety as fish is in water Aspirations THy love is most tender and thy cares most generous O mild Saviour Amongst all the torrents of thy Passion thou hast not tasted the waters of forgetfulness Thou returnest to thy children as a Nightingale to her little nest Thou dost comfort them with thy visits and makest them familiar with thy glorious life Thou eatest of a honey-comb by just right having first tasted the bitter gall of that unmercifull Cross It is thus that our sorrows should be turned into sweets Thou must always 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 fire too much near familiarity will burn us and the want of it will let us freeze 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 S. John the 20. THerefore when it was late that day the first of the Sabbaths and the doors were shut where the Disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews Jesus came and stood in the midst and saith to them Peace be to you And when he had said this he shewed them his hands and side The Disciples therefore were glad when they saw our Lord. He said therefore to them again Peace be to you As my Father hath sent me I also do send you When he had said this he breathed upon them and he said to them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them and whose you shall retain they are retained But Thomas one of the twelve who is called Didymus was not with them when Jesus came the other Disciples therefore said to him We have seen our Lord. But he said to them Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side I will not believe And after eight days again his Disciples were within and Thomas with them Jesus cometh the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said Peace be to you Then he saith to Thomas Put in thy finger hither and see my hands and bring hither thy hand and put it into my side and be not incredulous but faithfull Thomas answered and said to him My Lord and my God Jesus saith to him Because thou hast seen me Thomas thou hast believed Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed Moralities 1. JEsus the Father of all blessed harmonies after so many combats makes a general peace in all nature He pacifieth Limbo taking the holy Fathers out of darkness to enjoy an eternal light and sending the damned to the bottom of hell He pacifieth the earth making it from thenceforth to breathe the air of his mercies He pacifieth his Apostles by delivering them from that profound sadness which they conceived by the imaginary loss of their dear Master
Ordures which never are washed off miseries which are without end But this world wherein we live as it hath sanctities which are not without hazard and Felicities which cannot be without change so it hath sinnes waited on by pardon and miseries comforted by remedies yet against iniquities God hath given us penance and against calamities mercy Deum extra se effici creaturis omanibus providendo S. Maximus God in heaven produceth another God not in substance but in person and on earth a second image of himself which is this divine mercy It is an infinite goodnesse of the Father of Nature and grace to have here below seated this excellent passion to the end great maladies might not be without great medicines Of all living creatures there is none more miserable Man as he is the most miserable of all creatures so he is the most mercifull then man nor is there any likewise more mercifull then man whilest he is man and that he despoil not himself of that which God hath made him to do that which ought never to be so much as thought on And if he forget mildnesse and Compassion which is naturall to him our sovereign Creatour teacheth it him by his own miseries Alas How can one man harden his heart one against another on what side soever he look he seeth the tokens of his infirmities and scarce can he go a step but he finds a lesson of humility against his vanities If he consider what is above him he beholdeth the heavens and the air which so waste and change his life that yet without them he cannot live If he cast his eye round about him and under his feet he sees waters which in moistening him rot him and earth which being spread as a Table before his eyes fails not to serve him for a Tomb. It is a strange thing that even evils are necessary for him and that he cannot overslip things which kill him Smelling tasting meat and drink sleep and repose do with his life what Penelope did with her web what one houre makes another unmakes and the very sources of the greatest blessings are found to be wholly infected with mortall poyson But if man come to examine himself he finds he hath a body frail naked disarmed begging of all creatures exposed to all the injuries of elements of beasts and men and there is not a hand so little which strives not violently to pull off his skin Heat cold drouth moisture labour maladies old age exercise him and if he think to take a little repose idlenesse corrupteth him If he enter farther in to himself he meeteth a spirit fastned to the brink of his lips which is invaded by an army of passions so many times fleshed for his ruine And yet we must truly say that of all the evils of man there is not any worse then Man hath no greater evil then Man man It is he who causeth wars and shipwracks murthers and poysons he who burneth houses and whole Cities he who maketh Wildernesses of the most flourishing Provinces he who demolisheth the foundations of the most famous buildings he who rednceth the greatest riches to nakednesse he who putteth Princes into fetters who exposeth Ladies to dishonour who thrusts the knife into the throats of the pleople who not content with so many manner of deaths daily inventeth new to force out a soul by the violence of torments by as many bloudy gates as it receiveth wounds Good God! what doth not man against man when he hath once renounced humanity Novv vvhat remedy vvould there be in so great and horrible confusions vvhich make a hell of the earth vvere it not that God hath given us this vvholesome mercy vvhich it seems is come from heaven to unloose our chains to vvipe avvay our tears to svveeten our acerbities repair our losses and rebeautifie our felicities Mercy tilleth the fields of heaven and had it not descended on earth all which God did had been lost saith the golden mouth of the West Chry l. 1. 4. so § 2. The Essence of Compassion and how it findeth place in hearts the most generous GOd then hath caused Compassion to grow in our hearts as a Celestiall inspiration which stirreth The Essence of this passion up the will to succour the miseries of another and taketh its source as Theology observeth from a dislike we conceive out of the consideration of a certain dissent and disorder we see in a civil life when we behold a man like unto us according to nature so different in quality and so ill handled by the mishap of the accidents of life Thence it comes to passe that all good souls have tender hearts and especially such as know what worldly miseries are as learned men and those who have had experience of them and who think they may also feel them in the uncertainty of life and condition of humane things The bowels of mercy open with some sweetnesse in the evils which nearly touch us namely when we see persons innocently qualified delicate well disposed to fall into great calamities and ruines of fortune Honourable old men ill used young people snatched away in the flower of their age and beauty Ladies despised and dishonoured afflictions without remedies or remedies that come too late when the evil is ended And moreover when those afflicted persons shew constancy and generosity in their affliction it penetrateth into the deepest apprehensions of the soul Yet we still find among so many objects of miseries hearts which have no compassion and as if they were made of rocks or anviles are never mollified with the sufferings of mortals This proceeds in some from a great stupidity from a nature very savage in others from a narrownesse of heart caused by self-love which perpetually keeps them busied within themselves never going forth to behold the miseries of another in some from long prosperities which make them forget the condition of men in others from the nature of a Hangman who takes delight in bloud in fire and in all horrid things Such kind of men think nature did them wrong in not having given them the horn of a Rhinoceros Detestation of Cruelty the paws of bears the throat of a Lion the teeth of Tigers to crush to quail to devour and tear men in pieces They supply by a cursed industry that which by nature faileth them They make themselves mouths of fire by the means of flaming fornaces and boiling caldrons hands by the invention of Iron hooks arms with combs of steel fingers with scorpions and feet with the claws of wild beasts You would say these are men composed of the instruments of all torments or rather devils crept into humane bodies to create a Hell on Earth Such are those Tonoes of Japonia who study to saw to hack asunder to beat and bray in a morter the courage of Christians thinking the greatest marks of their power to be scaffolds and gibbets where are practised inventions
well observed this maxim that to Theodorus Anagnostes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 witness the zeal he bare to our Religion he caused the head of one of his officers to be cut off who having been bred in the Catholick Church became an Arian thinking by this means to be advanced into the good favour of his Master But this brave King My friend saith he since thou hast been disloyal to God I can never think thou wilt be faithful to thy Prince Thou shalt wash away the stain of thy treachery with thy bloud to teach posterity thou must not mingle the interests of God with the profane pretenses of thy fortunes He shewed himself very zealous to preserve peace in the Church in a most dangerous schism raised in his time For Pope Anastasius being deceased and they proceeding lawfully to the election of Symmachus there was a Senatour of an unquiet spirit who desirous to make a Pope at the devotion of the Emperour of Constantinople so to countenance his Extravagencies banded Altar against Altar and caused an Antipope to be chosen named Laurentius which rent both Senate and Clergy into great partialities But Theodorick very speedily quenched the fire and being well informed of the business seeing Symmachus was first elected and supported by the soundest part he mantained him with a strong hand against all the enterprises of adversaries who durst not in the end resist his authority Besides having published an Edict against the favourers of the Heruli who perplexed the Province of Genoa and Milan whither they were retired that fell out to be the cause of very many miseries and tears among the poor people who having no support so helpful unto them as the Bishops threw themselves into the arms of Epiphanes and Laurentius both great Saints and great Prelates the one of Pauta the other of Milan Epiphanes undertook to speak and said to the King Sir Should I here reckon up all the favours which you have received from God I might make you appear more sparing in your desires than he hath been in his liberalities since you have asked nothing of heaven which hath not ever surmounted your vows and hopes But not to speak at this time of so many prodigies is it not a very great wonder to see you do justice in the throne of your enemy and to behold us pleading the cause of your servants with such a confidence in a place which the terrour of arms had heretofore rendered so dreadful Sir it is the Saviour of the world who hath given into your hand this people which hath charged us with their requests Take good heed how you offend him by ill using the gift he hath afforded you Know how an invisible power hath led you by the hand into so many encounters and battels that the air rain and seasons have favoured your standards as if they had been to you engaged Now is the time you must acknowledge so many benefits by your piety not despising the tears of the afflicted which are the sacrifices of suppliants The examples of your Predecessours who have been cast out of the throne for their iniquity shew you cannot establish it but in your virtues Upon this consideration your Countrey prostrate at your feet most humbly beggeth you would be pleased to sweeten the rigour of your laws not onely by doing good to the innocent but by pardoning the culpable For very little would our clemency be if we did onely abstain to strike those who have given offence to none not considering mercy is not made for any but the miserable In revengeing your injuries you shall do like men of the earth and by pardoning share in glory with that great Monarch of heaven who daily maketh his sun to shine on criminal heads as well as the most innocent The King made a most courteous answer saying There was no reason that earthly powers should resist the prayers of Bishops who made heaven propitious and that he remitted to all in general the punishments of death ordained by laws but in so Vitia transmittit ad posteròs qui praesentibus culpis ignoscit much that the ulcer must be purged least by shewing himself too indulgent to vices he might make them pass into example for posterity the consideration of his state required the Authours of sedition should be removed to the end their presence might not foment the evil The reply was found very reasonable and letters of grace instantly dispatched by Urbicus who was one of the chiefest officers in the Court for expeditions He satisfied not himself with this favour but calling the good Bishop into his cabinet having highly commended him sent him among the Gauls to redeem the Italian prisoners there by reason the Burgundians in certain incursions had taken away very many and others over-whelmed with the miseries which proceed from civil wars were voluntarily stept aside The King gave commission to the Bishops to rally them to their troups liberally defraying the charges that were necessary There is also found one amongst his letters addressed Cassiodor l. 2. c. 2. 29. to Count Adela wherein he witnesseth that though he had a great desire to preserve his people in full peace and repose because the glory of a Prince consisteth in the tranquility of his subjects yet that he principally intended the Churches should enjoy this favour since in obliging them the mercies and blessings of God were drawn on his kingdom and pursuing this course he commanded Duke Ida to cause all the Ecclesiastical possessions to be restored which some had usurped in Languedoc after the death of Alarick Observe the good foundations of piety which he laid by the counsel of Boetius The second Maxim was to bend all his endeavours and imploy his best thoughts for the comfort of the people because there is not any way more powerful to gain the hearts of all the world than by sweetening the sharpness of the times present or the burdens of the passed We have seen said he by experience that those who are desirous to possess gold without the love of the people have been very unsafe that Kings differ not from other men but in being powerful to do good and that the common sort measure their greatness onely by their bounty that is it which heretofore made the Gods of Gentiles and which maintaineth Monarchies on the firm rock of constancy Theodorick imbraced this care most particularly Cassioder l. 4. ep 36. for he punctually enquired after the losses of his poor subjects and if he found any molested by the passage of some troups or other like he released them of taxes and ordinary subsidies as it may yet be seen in his letters and namely in one which he wrot to President Faustus wherein he commanded him to hold his hand in this business Because saith Lib. ◠Epis ◠he a body over-burdened sinketh to the ground and that it were better to despise a slight gain than to deprive himself
of his power in the misery of mortals but with the Scripture that he separateth light from darkness with a diamond to wit a most strong and resplendent knowledge of the merit and demerit of men What sense is Notable passage Adamante diserevit lucem tenebras Eccles 16. 14. Secundum 70 there to make a power which takes its glory from ignorance and is potent in contempt of reason Is not this to make all terrible even to its own favours What sense is it to appoint a Judge to satisfie the whole world according to desert and to make him sign Decrees irrevocable in favour of some one before knowledge of all merit Cannot we make him potent unless we make him unjust Adde also that in the feeling we have of Praedestination Goodness of God the mercy of the most mild Father shineth with visible marks For we do not make him to damn him through a negligence of thoughts and coldness of affection which cannot be in a God so active or a heart so loving but we believe his goodness extendeth to Cain and Judas and would they have endeavoured they had the means to gain beatitude which never fails any man if he want not correspondence In the end we likewise acknowledge in this point Si voluisset Esau cacurrisset Dei adjutorio pervenisset Aug. ad Simp. l. 4. 2. the most prudent government of God who will have nothing idle in nature nor grace He could enlighten us without the Sun and afford us fruit without the earth but he will his creatures operate and that one unfold the rays of his substance another supply with the juice of its bosom In like manner he is pleased we make his grace to profit us to raise our riches out of his favours and derive our glory from his bounty He will give a title of merit to our happiness to advance the quality of his gifts He will crown in us what comes from himself as if it were wholly ours Why shall we shut up the eyes of his wisdom why tie up the hands of his liberality An Ancient said He more esteemed the judgement of certain men than their proper benefits God will we value both in him that we enjoy his bounty by favour and his judgement by merit The actions of the Sovereign Monarch are free from controul as his gifts from repentance I will leave you now to conclude what quiet we Third point Repose of Conscience may have in our consciences upon the matter of Praedestination I leave you to think whether a good soul have not cause to say O be the Divine Providence praised for evermore since it so worthily hath provided for me I cannot adore its counsels unless I love its goodness It sweeteneth my pains it comforteth my cares when it teacheth me my eternal happiness depends on him and me on him who loveth me tenderly and on me who cannot hate my self unless I derogate from my essence after I have failed in all virtues Courage then we roul not under this fatality which writeth laws on diamonds and ties us to inevitable necessities The fodder is not cast we have yet the mettal boyling apace in hand we may appear on the mould of virtue we may make our selves such by the grace of God as to put our salvation in assurance our life into repose and death into crowns I cannot fear God with a slavish fear since he is nought but goodness but I will ever dread my works since I am frailty it self Let us hereafter live in such sort as we would be judged Let us consecrate our life to innocency and banish all sin Let us undertake piety humility obedience alms and devotion towards the Blessed Virgin which are most assured marks of Praedestination Let us not presume of our own forces nor despair likewise of Gods mercy If we stand upright let us still fear the declining of nature which easily bendeth to evil and if we stoop let us quickly raise our selves again making all avail to our salvation yea our proper falls We have a great Advocate in Heaven who openeth as many mouthes for us as we have inflicted wounds on his body We have inflicted them through cruelty and they will receive us through mercy serving us towards Heaven for a chariot of triumph as they were to us on earth a mirrour in life and a sepulcher in death The sixth EXAMPLE upon the sixth Drawn out of Simeon of Constantinoplâ— MAXIM Of the secret Power of Praedestination PROCOPIUS PRaedestination is an admirable secret wherein Marvellous secret of Praedestination experience teacheth us there is nothing which the happy ought not to fear nor any thing the miserable may not hope Stars fall from the firmament to be changed into dung-hills and dung-hills of the earth mount to Heaven to be metamorphosed into stars The graces of God insinuate themselves by secret ways and the impressions of the will are extreamly nice all that past is a dream and the future a cloud where thunders murmur in the dark We tremble when we read in the History of holy Historia Patrum orientis Raderus Fathers that an Hermit grown white in the austerities of Religion understanding a notable thief had gained Heaven by a sigh he cast forth in the instant of his death was much displeased and presently became nought because God was good blaming his mercy to trie his justice For one sole censure made him loose forty years of penance and drew his foot out of Paradise to deliver his soul to hell I purpose here consequently to produce a singular conversion that you may admire and fear the secret ways of God Simeon of Constantinople is the Authour of it who enlarged it with many words but I will abbreviate it into good proportion which shall render it no whit the less effectual The Emperour Diocletian having pacified Aegypt sojourned sometime in Antioch of purpose to destroy Actor 12. the name of Jesus Christ in the same place where the faithfull began to be called Christians Theodosia a Procopius presented to Dioclesian great Ladie came to him bringing her son along with her named Neanias in very good equipage with purpose to prefer him in Court and satisfie her ambition To make her self the more acceptable she freely protested her deceased husband died a Christian that she had often attempted to work him to forsake this superstition adverse to Gods and men and that being unable to prevail upon his inveterate obstinacy she had manured this young plant speaking of her son carefully training him in the service of the gods and Prince with infinite detestation against Christianitie Diocletian who was much delighted with such accidents loudly praised the Ladie and casting his eye on Neanias he found him of handsom shape good presence understanding and valiant whereof he conceived great hope he might prove hereafter a principal instrument of his desires That which also pleased him the more
running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him And his son said to him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son And the father said to his servants Quickly bring forth the first stole and do it on him and put a ring upon his hand and shoes upon his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry because this my son was dead and is revived was lost and is found And they began to make merry But his elder son was in the field and when he came and drew nigh to the house he heard musick and dancing And he called one of the servants and asked what these things should be And he said to him Thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe But he had indignation and would not go in His father therefore going forth began to desire him But he answering said to his father Behold so many years do I serve thee and I never transgressed thy commandment and thou didst never give me a Kid to make merry with my friends But after that thy son this that hath devoured his substance with whores is come thou hast killed for him the fatted calf But he said to him Son thou art always with me and all my things are thine But it behoved us to make merry and be glad because this thy brother was dead and is revived was lost and is found Moralities 1. THis parable is a true table expressing the excursions of a prodigal soul and her return to the mercy of God by the way of repentance Note that the first step which she trode toward her own destruction as Cain did was her departing from God not by changing of place but of heart It departed from the chiefest light which made it fall into an eclipse of reason and so into profound darkness She diverted her self from the greatest bounty which made her encline toward all wickedness being strayed from her sovereign being which made her become just nothing 2. She continued in sin as in a Countrey which was just nothing where she was vexed on all sides with disquiet with cares with fears and discontents All sins toss their followers as the ball is tossed at Baloon Vanity sends them to pride pride to violence violence to avarice avarice to ambition ambition to pomp and riot pomp to gluttony gluttony to luxury luxury to idleness idleness to contempt and poverty and that poverty brings them to all worldly misery For all mischiefs follow a wicked soul which departing from God thinks to find a better condition 3. Affliction opens the eyes of man and makes him come to himself that he may the better return to God There is no journey so far as when a man departs from himself not by place but by manners A sea of Licentiousness interposeth it self between his soul and innocence to divorce her from the way of goodness But Gods grace is a burning wind which dries it up and having brought man to himself takes him by the hand and leads him even to God 4. O what a happy thing it is to consider the effects of Gods mercy in the entertainment of the good father to his prodigal son The one had lost all which he had of a good son but the other had not lost what belonged to a good father The son had yet said nothing when fatherly affection pleaded for him in the heart of his father who felt the dolours of a spiritual labour and his entrails were moved to give a second birth to his son Though he were old yet he went the pace of a young man Charity gives him wings to flie to the embracements of his lost child He is most joyfull of that comes with him even of his very poverty This without doubt should give us a marvellous confidence in Gods mercy when we seek it with hearty repentance It is a sea of bounty which washeth away all that is amiss Since he hath changed the name of master into that of father he will rather command by love than reign by a predominant power No man ought to despair of pardon except he who can be as fully wicked as God is good none is so mercifull as God none is so good a father as he for when you may have lost your part of all his virtues you can never while you live lose the possibility of his mercy He will receive you between his arms without any other reason but your return by repentance 5. The same Parable is also a true glass shewing the life of those young unthrifts who think they are born onely for sport for their bellies and for pleasure They imagine their fathers keep for them the golden mines of Peru and their life being without government their expences are without measure Some of them run through the world they wander into all places but never enter into consideration of themselves They return from forrain parts loden with debts and bring home nothing but some new fantastical fashions cringes and corantoes There are many of them in whom pride and misery continue inseparable after they have lost their money and their brains Their fathers are causes of their faults by gathering so much wealth for those who know not how to use it Yet if they have the true repentance of the prodigal child he must not deny them pardon But mercy must not be had of those who ask it by strong hand or seek it by a counterfeit sorrow Aspirations IT is an accursed wandring to travel into the countrey of nothing where pleasure drops down as water from a storm the miserable consequences whereof have leaden feet which never remove from the heart Good God what a countrey is that where the earth is made of quick-silver which steals it self from under our feet when we think to tread upon it What a countrey is that where if a man gather one bud of roses he must be forced to eat a thousand thorns and be companion with the most nasty filthy beasts in their stinking ordures and be glad to eat of their loathsom draffe for want of other meat Alas I have surfetted and such a misery as this is necessary to make me remember the happiness which I possessed in thy house O mercifull Father behold my prodigal soul which returns to thee and will have no other advocate but thy goodness which as yet pleads for me within thy heart I have consumed all which I had but I could not consume thy mercy For that is as an Abyss which surpasseth that of my sins and Miseries Receive me as a mercenary servant if I may not obtain the name of a son Why shouldst not thou receive that which is thine since the wicked spirits have taken that which was not theirs Either shew me mercy or else shew me a heart more fatherly than thine and if neither earth nor heaven can
had redeemed her brother from the power of death The faithfull Mary who had shed tears gave what she had most precious and observes no measure in the worth because Jesus cannot be valued Cleopatra's pearl estimated to be worth two hundred thousand crowns which she made her friend swallow at a Banquet this holy woman thought too base She melts her heart in a sacred Limbeck of love and distils it out by her eyes And Jesus makes so great account of her waters and perfumes that he would suffer no body to wash his feet when he instituted the blessed Sacrament as not being willing to deface the sacred characters of his sacred Lover 3. Judas murmures and covers his villanous passion of Avarice under the colour of Charity and Mercy toward the poor And just so do many cover their vices with a specious shew of virtue The proud man would be thought Magnanimous the prodigal would pass for liberal the covetous for a good husband the brain-sick rash man would be reputed couragious the glutton a hospitable good fellow Sloth puts on the face of quietness timorousness of wisdom impudence of boldness insolence of liberty and over-confident or sawcy prating would be taken for eloquence Many men for their own particular interests borrow some colours of the publick good and very many actions both unjust and unreasonable take upon them a semblance of piety S. Irenaeus saith that many give water coloured with sleckt whitelime or plaster in stead of milk * * * A Farse is a French Jig wherein the faces of all the actours aâ—e whited over with meal And all their life is but a Farse where Blackamores are whited over with meal Poor truth suffers much more amongst these cozenages But you must take notice that in the end wicked and dissembling Judas did burst and shew his damned soul stark naked Yet some think fairly to cover foul intentions who must needs know well that hypocrisie hath no vail to cozen death Aspirations I See no Altars in all the world more amiable than the feet of our Saviour I will go by his steps to find his feet and by the excellencies of the best of men I will go find out the God of gods Those feet are admirable and S. John hath well described them to be made of mettal burning in a furnace they are feet of mettal by their constancy and feet of fire by the enflamed affections of their Master Let Judas murmure at it what he will but if I had a sea of sweet odours and odoriferous perfumes I would empty them all upon an object so worthy of love Give O mine eyes Give at least tears to this precious Holocaust which goes to sacrifice it self for satisfaction of your libidinous concupiscences Wash it with your waters before it wash you with its bloud O my soul seek not after excrements of thy head to drie it Thy hairs are thy thoughts which must onely think of him who thought so kindly and passionately of thee on the day of his Eternity The Gospel upon Maunday Thursday S. John the 13. Of our Saviours washing the feet of his Apostles ANd before the festival day of the Pasche Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should pass out of this world to his Father whereas he had loved his that were in the world unto the end he loved them And when supper was done whereas the devil now had put into the heart of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon to betray him knowing that the Father gave him all things into his hands and that he came from God and goeth to God be riseth from supper and layeth aside his garments and having taken a towel girded himself After that he put water into a bason and began to wash the feet of the Disciples and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded He cometh therefore to Simon Peter and Peter saith to him Lord dost thou wash my feet Jesus answered and said to him That which I do thou knowest not now hereafter thou shalt know Peter saith to him Thou shalt not wash my feet for ever Jesus answered him if I wash thee not thou shalt not have part with me Simon Peter saith to him Lord not onely my feet but also hands and head Jesus saith to him He that is washed needeth not but to wash his feet but is clean wholly and you are clean but not all for he knew who he was that would betray him therefore he said You are not clean all Therefore after he had washed their feet and taken his garments being set down again he said to them Know you what I have done to you You call me Master and Lord and you say well for I am so If then I have washed your feet Lord and Master you also ought to wash one anothers feet For I have given you an example that as I have done to you so do you also Moralities 1. JEsus loves his servants for an end and till the full accomplishment of that end The world loves his creatures with a love which tends to concupiscence but that is not the end for which they were made or should be loved There is a very great difference between them for the love of worldly men plays the tyrant in the world snatching and turning all things from the true scope and intention for which they were made by God diverting them to profane uses by turbulent and forcible ways The world pleaseth it self to set up Idols every where to make it self adored in them as chief Sovereign It makes use of the Sun to light his crimes of the fatness of the earth to fatten his pleasures of apparrel for his luxury of all mettals 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 than worldly friendship For sometimes it begins with Fire and ends in Ice It is made as between a pot and a glass and is broken sooner than a glass The ancient Almans tried their children in the Rbine but true friendship is tried in a sea of Tribulation It is onely 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 our first beginning and to bring our selves to the final point of our happiness 2. The water at first was a mild element which served the Majesty of God as a floting chariot 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 Supream 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 mankind Now at this
God calling Theutbergue he at least should then have all facility in his marriage with Valdrada but the Pope considering the evil practises of this lustfull love which had scandalized all Christendome and the former usage of his wife he let him understand that this match was for ever forbidden Provoked desire burns to fury and he again beginneth a most notorious whoredome since he could not colour it with the title of marriage Thereupon menaces and thunders from Rome follow and the name of Valdrada is mentioned in all excommunications reiterated one after another The miserable Lotharius seeing himself crossed by God and men perpetually pricked with remorse of conscience resolved to take a journey to Rome and to present himself to Hadrian the second successour of Nicholas and to get his absolution and to mediate the affair of his marriage his heart still propending towards her whom he so unfortunately had loved The Pope harkened to him and received him to penance and disposed himself to say Masse wherein he was fully to finish the affair of his reconciliation When he came to the instant of Communion he takes the venerable Hoast in his hand and addresseth himself to king Lotharius and all his complices ready to communicate and sayes to them Sir if it be true that having renounced your unchaste loves you this day do present your submissions to God and to the Church in all sincerity come near you and yours to this blessed Sacrament with all confidence in the mercy of God But if you still retein the old Leaven of your inordinate affections get you from the Altar both you and all those who have served you in this businesse if you will not be involved in the vengeance of God This speech was a stroke of thunder that affrighted the king and his followers and which made many of them instantly to retirâ— Lotharius was ashamed to go back and albeit he yet felt the flames of his love to burn in his heart yet failed he not to passe further with his greatest intimates and friends From that time not any one of those who had unworthily communicated had any health all miserably died and the poor Lotharius returning from his voyage found the end of his life and direfull passion in the city of Placentia Valdrada submitting her self to a just penance obteined absolution from Pope Adrian Gontier and Theutgard seeing themselves deposed without hope of recovery armed their pens against the Pope to no purpose But afterward Gontier made great submission that he might be reestablished yet obteined not what he desired for it was answered him that it was from respect of honour and temporall gain that all these humiliations proceeded and therefore it were much better for him to persever in the exercise of his penance which was so much the more bitter unto him for that he had in the beginning of this businesse prostituted his Niece to King Lotharius under the hope of marriage which his ambition figured to him So true it is that God chasticeth vice with a rod of Iron in such as too near approch the Sanctuary Valdrada is not alone among the Ladies of the old Court who hath made her self to be talked of in so ill a sense Love appeared as weak and shamefull in Ogine Queen of France Mother of Lewis Outremer who transported with foolish affection married her self to a young gallaâ—t nâ—med Heribert sonne of him who had betrayed and imprisoned Charls the simple her husband 5. The like passion was scandalous in the time of Annals of France Philip le Bel in three noble Princesses married to three sons of France who were all accused of unchastity by their own husbands and fell into horrible disasters to teach women of quality in what account they ought to hold the honour of chastity 6. But verily never any thing in this kind did equal the exorbitancy of Queen Eleanor who renounced Fâ—ance which had eyes too chaste to tolerate her disorders She going along to the conquest of the holy land with King Lewis the young her husband lost piety and reputation resigning her self to the love of a Sultan Sarazin the turbant nor dusky colour of a hideous man being able to stay the fury of her passion She was the daughter of William the last Duke of Aquitane who in his time was a scourge of mankind he alone at one meal did eat as much as eight men and this vast body filled with wine and viands burnt like a Fornace throwing out flames of choler and lust on all sides S. Bernard knocked him down like a Boar foaming at his feet presenting the holy Hoast before him and by that miracle made a Hermit of him His daughter imitating his evil habits had no part in his conversion living in all liberty Which was the cause that the King under colour of affinity made his match with her to be broken and restored Guyenne to her which she brought This bold woman not amazed at this divorce espouseth Henry of England a man as passionate as she where she found a terrible businesse when her unquiet spirit powerfully bustling in affairs of state and the interests of her husbands children she saw her self shut up in a prison where she lay for the space of fourteen years in rage and languours which put a penance upon her more irksome to her humour then it proved profitable to her soul Good God! what heavie horrours what Tragedies and what scourges of God do alwayes fall on sin What a pleasing spectacle it is to see amidst such confusions victories gained over evil love 7. It is very true that he who would recount the remarkable The honour the French have born to the virtue of Chastity acts of chastity resplendent in the Court of France and especially among Ladies for one who ought to be forgotten a thousand might be found who had lived with very singular testimonies of Integrity but it is certain that Historians have an itch to set down mischiefs and crimes rather then virtues which is the cause that when so many honourable women walk in the beaten track of a well ordered life we no more admire it then the ordinary course of the Sun But if one step awry all curious eyes look on her as on a star in Eclipse Yet in so great a negligence of Historians to write the rare effects of modesty we do not want good arguments which testifie the love our nation hath in all ages born to purity 8. Nicetas a Greek Authour in the lamentations of the city of Constantinople taken by the French cannot hold from admiring Baldwin the conquerour thereof who entring into a vanquished City wherein there were many beauties never did he cast so much as one wanton glance beginning his triumph from the victory he got over himself and that which he practised in his own person he caused to be exactly observed among his attendants commanding his Heralds twice in a week to proclaim throughout the
He pacifieth Heaven by sweetening the sharpness of his Heavenly Father quenching by his wounds the fire which was kindled of his just anger Every thing smileth upon this great Peace-maker Nature leaveth her mourning and putteth on robes of chearfulness to congratulate with him his great and admirable conquests It is in him that the Heavenly Father by a singular delight hath poured out the fullness of all Graces to make us an eternal dwelling and to reconcile all in him and by him pacifying by his bloud from the Cross all that is upon earth and in Heaven This is our Joshua of whom the Scripture speaketh that he clears all differences and appeaseth all battels No stroke of any hammer or other iron was heard at the building of Solomon's Temple and behold the Church which is the Temple of the living God doth edifie souls with a marvellous tranquilitie 2. The Sun is not so well set forth by his beams as our Saviour is magnificently adorned with his wounds Those are the characters which he hath engraved upon his flesh alter a hundred ingenious fashions The Ladies count their pearls and diamonds but our Saviour keeps his wounds in the highest attire of his Magnificences It is from thence that the beauty of his body taketh a new state of glory and our faith in the resurrection is confirmed that the good fill themselves with hope miscreants with terrour and Martyrs find wherewith to enflame their courage These divine wounds open themselves as so many mouthes to plead our cause before the Celestial Father Our Saviour Jesus never spake better for us than by the voice of his precious Bloud Great inquiry hath been made for those mountains of myrrh and frankincense which Solomon promiseth in the Canticles but now we have found them in the wounds of Jesus It is from thence that there cometh forth a million of sanctified exhalations of sweetness of peace and propitiation as from an eternal Sanctuary A man may say they are like the Carbuncle which melteth the wax upon which it is imprinted for they melt our hearts by a most profitable impression At this sight the Eternal Father calms his countenance and the sword of his Justice returneth into the sheath Shall not we be worthy of all miseries if we do not arm these wounds against us which are so effectual in our behalf And if this bloud of our Abel after it hath reconciled his cruel executioners should find just matter to condemn us for our ingratitudes John the Second King of Portugal had made a sacred vow never to refuse any thing which should be asked of him in the virtue of our Saviour's wounds which made him give all his silver vessel to a poor gentleman that had found out the word And why should not we give our selves to God who both buyeth and requireth us by the wounds of Jesus 3. Jesus inspireth the sacred breath of his mouth upon the Apostles as upon the first fruits of Christianity to repair the first breath and respiration of lives which the Authour of our race did so miserably lose If we can obtain a part of this we shall be like the wheels of Ezechiels mysterious chariot which are filled with the spirit of life That great Divine called Matthias Vienna said That light was the substance of colours and the spirit of Jesus is the same of all our virtues If we live of his flesh there is great reason we should be animated by his Spirit Happy a thousand times are they who are possessed with the the Spirit of Jesus which is to their spirit as the apple of the eye S. Thomas was deprived of this amorous communication by reason of his incredulitie He would see with his eyes and feel with his hands that which should rather be comprehended by faith which is an eye blessedly blind which knoweth all within its own blindness and is also a hand which remaining on earth goeth to find God in Heaven Aspirations GReat Peace-maker of the world who by the effusion of thy precious bloud hast pacified the wars of fourty ages which went before thy death This word of peace hath cost thee many battels many sweats and labours to cement this agreement of Heaven and earth of sence and reason of God and man Behold thou art at this present like the Dove of Noah's Ark thou hast escaped a great deluge of passions and many torrents of dolours thrown head-long one upon another Thou bringest us the green Olive branch to be the mark of thy eternal alliances What Shall my soul be so audacious and disordered as to talk to thee of war when thou speakest to her of peace To offer thee a weapon when thou offerest her the Articles of her reconciliation signed with thy precious bloud Oh what earth could open wide enough her bosom to swallow me if I should live like a little Abiram with a hand armed against Heaven which pours out for me nothing but flowers and roses Reign O my sweet Saviour within all the conquered powers of my soul and within my heart as a conquest which thou hast gotten by so many titles I will swear upon thy wounds which after they have been the monuments of thy fidelity shall be the adored Altars of my vows and sacrifices I will promise thereupon an inviolable fidelity to thy service I will live no more but for thee since thou hast killed my death in thy life and makest my life flourish within thy triumphant Resurrection FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Setting down the most observable Matters contained in the first three TOMES of the HOLY COURT A Aâ—dâ—rites Fol 38 Abdâ—lâ—â—in 7 Abraham the Hermit 86 Abstinence defined 468 The Aâ—â—rons of men must be directed to one assured Butt 67 Apprehension of Affronts 47 Retreat into the Conscience in Affronts is a good remedy against them 58 Aglae a noble Dame 379 She is a worldly Widow ibid. She is in love ibid. Her admirable Conversion 380 Her devotion in enquiry after Martyrs ibid. Her speech to Boniface her Steward ibid. Agrippa Grand-child of Herod 3â—2 His flatterie ibid. Alexander son of Mariamne imprisoned 130 Alms the works of God 9 Ambition an itch 56 It is a forreign vice ibid. It is the life of a slave 57 The Ambitious are miserable ibid. Extream disaster of an Ambitions man ib. Ambitious men travel for Rachel and find 〈◊〉 58 Ambition was the God of Antiochus 347 Sr. Ambrose 175 His Calling ib. His Election 176 His rare endowments 179 His government ib. He cherisheth the Religious 181 He took away superstitions and excesses ib. His puritie of invention ib. His Oration against Symmachus 184 He refuteth Symmachus his strongest arguments ib. His answer concerning the dearth 186 His greatness in the Conversion of Sr. Augustine 188 He speaketh unto the two souls of his Pupils 211 His brave speech to Theodorick 214 The majestie of Sr. Ambrose 205 His prudence and charitie 209 He is persecuted by Justice 206 Resolution of Sr.