redemption The joy of beatitude was a fruition of all celestial delights whereunto nothing which displeased could have accesse and yet Iesus suffered sorrow to give him a mortal blow even in the Sanctuary of his Divinity He afflicted himself for us because we knew not what it was to afflict our selves for him and he descended by our stâ—ps to the very anguishes of death to make us rise by his death to the greatest joyes of life To be short there was a great duel between the affectionate love and the virginal flesh of Iesus His soul did naturally love a body which was so obedient and his bodie followed wholly the inclinations of his soul There was so perfect an agreement between these two parties that their separation must needs be most dolorous Yet Iesus would have it so signe the decree by sweating bloud And as if it had been too little to weep for our sinnes with two eyes he suffered as many eyes as he had veins to be made in his body to shed for us tears of his own bloud 3. Observe here how this soul of Iesus amongst those great anguishes continued alwayes constant like the needle of a Sea-compass in a storm He prayes he exhorts be orders he reproves and he encourages he is like the heavens which amongst so many motions and agitations lose no part of their measure or proportion Nature and obedience make great convulsions in his heart but he remains constantly obedient to the will of his heavenly Father he tears himself from himself to make himself a voluntary sacrifice for death amongst all his inclinations to life to teach us that principal lesson of Christianitie which is to desire onely what God will and to execute all the decrees of his divine providence as our chiefest helps to obtain perfection Aspirations O Beauteous garden of Olives which from henceforth shalt be the most delicious objects of my heart I will lose my self in thy walks I will be lost with God that I may never be lost I will breath only thy air since it is made noble by the sighs of my dear Master I will gather thy flowers since Iesus hath marked them with his bloud I will wash my self in those fountains since they are sanctified by the sweat of my Iesus I will have no other joy but the sorrow of the Son of God nor any other will but his O my sweet Saviour Master and teacher of all humane kind wilt thou be abridged of thine own will which was so reasonable pure to give me an example of mortifying my passions and shall I before thy face retain any wicked or disordinate appetites Is it possible I should desire to be Lord of my self who am so bad a Master when I see the Author of all goodnesse separate himself from himself onely to make me and all mankind partakers of his merits Of the apprehension of Iesus IN that obscure dolorous night wherein our Saviour was apprehended three sorts of darknesses were cast upon the Iews upon Iudas upon S. Peter A darkness of obduration upon the hearts of the Iews a darknesse of ingratefull malignity upon Iudas and a darknesse of infirmity upon Saint Peter Was there ever any blindness like that of the Iews who sought for the shining sun with lighted torches without knowing him by so many beams of power which shined from him They are strucken down with the voice of the Son of God as with lightning and they rise again upon the earth to arme themselves against heaven They bind his hands to take away the use of his forces but they could not stop the course of his bounties To shew that he is totally good he is good and charitable even amongst his merciless executioners and he lost all he had savng his Godhead only to gain patience When Saint Peter stroke the high Priests servant the patience of our Lord Iesus received the blow and had no patience till he was healed If goodness did shew forth any one beam in the Garden modesty sent forth another in the house of Annas when his face was strucken by a servile hand his mouth opened it self as a Temple from whence nothing came but sweetnesse and light The God of Truth speaketh to Caiphas and they spit upon his brightnesse and cover that face which must discover heaven for us The mirrour of Angels is tarnisht with the spittle of infernal mouths wounded by most sacrilegious hands without any disturbance of his constancie That was invincible by his virtue as the wilfulness of the Iews stood unmoveable by their obduration There are souls which after they have filled the earth with crimes expect no cure of their discases but by the hell of the reprobate 2. The second darkness appeareth by the black passion of Iudas who falls down into hell with his eys open and after he had fold his soul sold Jesus and both all he had and all he was to buy an infamous halter to hang himself A soul become passionate with wanton love with ambition or avarice is banished into it self as into a direct hell and delivered to her own passion as to the Furies The Poets Hydra had but seven heads but the spirit of Avarice S. Iohn Climacus saith hath ten thousand The conversation of Iesus which was so full of infinite attractions could never win the spirit of Judas when it was once bewitched with covetousnesse The tinkling of silver kept him from rightly understanding Jesus He makes use of the most holy things to betray Holiness it self He employes the kisse of peace to begin war He carries poyson in his heart and hony in his mouth he puts on the spirit of Iesus to betray him This shews us plainly that covetous and traiterous persons are farthest from God and nearest to the Devils The third power of darknesse appeared in the infirmitie of Saint Peter who after so many protestations of fidelity for fear of death renounced the Authour of life One of the Ancients said the greatest frailty of Humanity was that the wisest men were not infallibly wise at all times And all men are astonished to see that the greatest spirits being left to themselves become barren and suffer eclipses which give example to the wisest and terrour to all the world God hath suffered the fall of St. Peter to make us have in â—orrour all presumption of our own forces to teach us that over great assurance is oft times mother of an approaching danger Besides it seemeth he would by this example consecrate the virtue of repentance in this fault of him whom he chose to be head of his Church to make us see that there is no dignitie so high nor holinesse so eminent which doth not ow Tribute to the mercie of God Aspirations Vpon Saint Peters tears IT is most true saith Saint Peter that a proud felicity hath alwaies reeling feet Thou which didst defie the gates of hell hast yielded thy self to the voice of a simple woman
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
that such proceedings are abominable before God there can be no better devotion in the world then to have a true and right seeling of God to live in honesty not sophisticated but such as is produced out of the pure lights of nature The conscience of hypocrites is a spiders web whereof no garment can ever be made Hypocrisie is a very subtil fault and a secret poison which kills other virtues with their own swords 2. Iesus is our great Master who hath abridged six hundred and thirteen Precepts of the old Testament within the law of love Do but love saith Saint Augustine and do what you vvill but then your love must go to the right fountain which is the heart of God It is in him you must cherish and honour your nearest friends and for him also you are bound to love even your greatest enemies Be not afraid to shew him your heart stark naked that he may pierce it vvith his arrows for the wounds of such an archer are much more precious then rubies You shall gain all by loving him and death it self vvhich comes from this love is the gate of life If you love him truly you vvilll have the three conditions of love which are to serve him to imitate him and to suffer for him You must serve him vvith all fidelitie in your prayers and all your actions you must imitate him vvhat possibly you can in all the passages of his life And you must hold it for a glory to participate vvith a valiant patience all the fruits of his Cross Aspirations O Great God vvho judgest all hearts and doest penetrate the most secret retiremēts of our consciences drive away from me all counterfeit Pharisaical devotions which are nothing but shews cannot subsist but by false apparencies O my God my Iesus make me keep the Law of thy love and nothing else It is a yoke vvhich brings vvith it more honor then burden It is a yoke which hath wings but no heavinesse Make me serve thee O my Master since thou beholdest the services of all the Angels under thy feet Make me imitate thee O my Redeemer since thou art the originall of all perfections make me suffer for thee O King of the afflicted and that I may not know what it is to suffer by knowing what it is to love The Gospel on Thursday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus cured the Fever of Simons Mother in Lavv. ANd Iesus rising up out of the Synagogue entred into Simons house and Simons wives mother was holden with a great Fever and they besought him for her And standing over her he commanded the Fever and it lest her And incontinent rising she ministred to them And when the Sun was down all that had diseased of sundrie maladies brought them to him But he imposing hands upon every one cured them And Devils went out from many crying and saying that thou art the Son of God And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak that they knew he was Christ And when it was day going forth he went into a Desart place and the multitudes sought him and came even unto him and they held him that he should not depart from them To whom he said That to other Cities also must I Evangelize the Kingdome of God because therefore I was sent And he was preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee Moralities 1. A Soul within a sick body is a Princesse that dwels in a ruinous house Health is the best of all temporall goods without which all honors are as the beams of an eclipsed Sun Riches are unpleasing and all pleasures are languishing All joy of the heart subsists naturally in the health of the body But yet it is true that the most healthfull persons are not alwaies the most holy What profit is there in that health which serves for a provocation to sinne for an inticement to worldly pleasure and a gate to death The best souls are never better nor stronger then when their bodies are sick their diseases are too hard for their mortall bodies but their courage is invincible It is a great knovvledge to understand our own infirmities Prosperity keeps us from the view of them but adversity shews them to us We should hardly know what death is if so many diseases did not teach us every day that we are mortall Semiramis the proudest of all Queens had made a law whereby she was to be adored in stead of all the gods but being humbled by a great sicknesse she acknowledged her self to be but a woman 2. All the Apostles pray for this holy woman which was sick but she herself asked nothing nor did complain of any thing She leaves all to God who is only Master of life and death She knew that he which gives his benefits with such bounty hath the wisdome to chuse those which are most fit for us How do we know whether we desiring to be delivered from a sicknesse do not aske of God to take away a gift which is very necessary to our salvation That malady or affliction which makes us distaste worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to taste the joyes of heaven 3. How many sicke persons in the heate of a Feaver promise much and when they are well again perform nothing That body which carried all the marks of death in the face is no sooner grown strong by health which rejoyceth the heart fils the vains with bloud but it becomes a slave to sin The gifts of God being abused serve for nothing but to make it wicked and so the soul is killed by recovery of the flesh But this pious woman is no sooner on foot but she serves the Author of life and employes all those limbs which Jesus cured of the Feaver to prepare some provisions to refresh him He that will not use the treasures of heaven with acknowledge ment deserves never to keep them When a man is recovered from a great sicknesse as his body is renewed by health so on the other side he should renew his spirit by virtue The body saith Saint Maximus is the bed of the soul where it sleeps too easily in continuall health and forgets it self in many things But a good round sicknesse doth not onely move but turn over this bed which maketh the soul awake to think on her salvation and make a total conversion Aspirations O Word Incarnate all Feavers and Devils flie before the beams of thy redoubted face Must nothing but the hea◠of my passions alwayes resist thy powers and bounties To what maladies and indispositions am I subject I have more diseases in my soul then limbs in my body My weaknesse bends under thy scourges and yet my sinnes continue still unmoveable Stay O benigne Lord stay thy-self near me Cast upon my dull and heavy eyes one beam from those thine eyes which make all storms clear and all disasters happy Command that my weaknesse leave me and that I may arise to perform my
put upon him ugly antick faces we compass him round about with terrours and illusions of all which he never so much as thought It is a profound sleep in which Nature lets it self fail insensibly when she is tired with the disquiets of this life It is a cessation of all those services which the soul renders to the flesh It is an execution of Gods will and a decree common to all the world To be disquieted and drawn by the ears o pay a debt which so many millions of men of all conditions have paid before us is to do as a frog that would swim against a sharp stream of a forcible torâ—ent We have been as it were dead to so many ages which went before us we die piece-meal every day we assay death so often in our sleep discreet men expect him fools despise him and the most disdainfull persons must entertain him Shall vve not knovv and endeavour to do that one thing vvell vvhich being once vvell performed vvill give us life for ever Me thinks it is rather a gift of God to die soon then to stay late amongst the occasions of sinne 3. It is not death but a vvicked life vve have cause to fear That onely lies heavie both troubles us and keeps us from understanding and tasting the svveets of death He that can die to so many little dead and dying things vvhich make us die every day by our unvvillingness to forsake thë shall find that death is nothing to him But vve vvould fain in death carry the vvorld vvith us upon our shoulders to the grave that is a thing vve cannot do We vvould avoid the judgement of a just God that is a thing vvhich vve should not so much as thinke Let us clear our accounts before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance a moderate care of our bodies buriall Let us order our goods by a good and charitable testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children kindred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Iesus fountain of all lives in whose bosome all things are living Iesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdome of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be alwayes of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. Iohn 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sickman Lazarus of bethania of the Town of Mary and Martha her sister And Mary was she that anointed our Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick And Iesus hearing said to them This sicknesse is not to death but for the glory of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Iesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he was sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Iewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Iewes sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Iesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world but if he walk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Iesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Iesus saïd to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I was not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore who called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Iesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania was nigh to Ierusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Iewes were come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore when she heard that Iesus was come went to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Iesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that what things soever thou shalt ask of God God will give thee Iesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Iesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this world Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sicknesse to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God then when she raiseth up the greatnesse of her courage the body being cast down with sicknesse A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolors 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange
the day of his Ascension did place our Soveraigne good Onely Serpents and covetous men desire to sleep among treasures as Saint Clement saith But the greatest riches of the world is poverty free from Covetousnesse Aspirations I Seek thee O invincible God within the Abysse of thy brightnesse and I see thee through the vail of thy creatures Wilt thou alwaies be hidden from me Shall I never see thy face which with a glimpse of thy splendour canst make Paradise I work in secret but I know thou art able to reward me in the light A man can lose nothing by serving thee and yet nothing is valuable to thy service for the paine it selfe is a sufficient recompense Thou art the food of my fastings and the cure of my infirmities What have I to do with Moles to dig the earth like them and there to hide treasures Is it not time to close the earth When thou doest open heaven and to carry my heart where thou art since all my riches is in thee Doth not he deserve to be everlastingly poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as thou art The Gospel upon the first Thursday in Lent S. Matthew 18. of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ANd when he was entered into Caphearnaum there came unto him a Centurion beseeching him and saying Lord my boy lieth at home sick of the palsie and is sore tormented And Iesus saith to him I will come and cure him And the Centurion making answer said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof but onely say the word and my boy shall be healed For I also am a man subject to Authority having under me souldiers and I say to this go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and be doth it And Iesus hearing this marvelled and said to them that followed him Amen I say to you I have not found so grea faith in Israel And I say to you that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven but the children of the kingdoms shall becast out into the exteriour darknesse there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And Iesus said to the Centurion go and as thou hast believed be it done unto thee And the boy was healed in the same houre Moralities 1. OUr whole Salvation consists in two principals The one is in our being sensible of God the other in our moving toward him the first proceeds from faith the other comes of charity other virtues O what a happy thing it is to follow the example of this good Centurion by having such elevated thoughts of the Divinity and to know nothing of God but what he is To behold our heavenly father within this great family of the world who effects all things by his single word Creates by his power governs by his councell orders by his goodness this great universality of all things The most insensible creatures have ears to hear him Feavers and tempests are part of that running camp which marcheth under his Standard They advance and retire themselves under the shadow of his command he onely hath power to give measures to the heavens bounds to the sea to joyn the east and west together in an instant and to be in all places where his pleasure is understood 2. O how goodly a thing it is to go unto him like this great Captain To go said I Nay rather to flie as he doth by the two wings of charity and humility His charity made him have a tender care of his poor servant to esteem his health more dear then great men do the rarest pieces in their Cabinets He doth not trust his servants but take the charge upon himselfe making himself by the power of love a servant to him who by birth was made subject to his command What can be said of so many Masters and Mistresses now adayes who live alwayes slaves to their passions having no care at all of the Salvation health or necessities of their servants as if they were nothing else but the scumme of the world They make great use of their labours and service which is just but neglect their bodies and kill their soules by the infection of their wicked examples Mark the humility of this souldier who doth not thinke his house worthy to be enlightened by one sole Glimpse of our blessed Saviours presence By the words of Saint Augustine we may say he made himself worthy by believing and declaring himself so unworthy yea worthy that our Saviour should enter not only into his house but into his very soul And upon the matter he could not have spoken with such faith and humility if he had not first enclosed in his heart him whom he durst not receive into his house 3 The Gentiles come near unto God and the Iews go from him to teach us that ordinarily the most obliged persons are most ungratefull and disesteem their benefactpurs for no other reason but because they receive benefits daily from them If you speak courteously to them they answer churlishly and in the same proportion wherein you are good you make them wicked therefore we must be carefull that we be not so toward God Many are distasted with devotion as the Israelites were with Manna All which is good doth displease them because it is ordinary And you shall finde some who like naughty grounds cast up thorns where roses are planted But we have great reason to sâ—ar that nothing but Hell fire is capable to punish those who despise the Graces of God and esteem that which comes from him as a thing of no value Aspirations O Almighty Lord who ' doest govern all things in the family of this world and dost binde all insensible creatures by the bare sound of thy voice in a chaine of everlasting obedience Must I onely be still rebellious against thy will Feavers and Palsies have their ears for thee and yet my unruly spirit is not obedient Alas alas this family of my heart is ill governed It hath violent passions my thoughts are wandering my reason is ill obeyed Shall it never be like the house of this good Centurion where every thing went by measure because he measured himself by thy commandments O Lord I wil come resolutely by a profound humility an inward feeling of my self since I am so contemptible before thine eyes I will come with Charity towards these of my houshold and toward all that shall need me O God of my heart I beseech thee let nothing from henceforth move in me but onely to advance my coming toward thee who art the beginning of all motions and the onely repose of all things which move The Gospel for the first Friday in Lent S. Mat. 5. Wherein we are directed to pray for our Enemies YOu have heard that it was said thou shaâ—e love thy neighbour
a dreadfull change will it be to a damned soul at her separation from this life to live onely in the company of devils in that piercing sence of torments eternal punishment It is a very troublesome thing to be tied with silken strings in a bed of Roses for the space of eight dayes together What may we then think of a damned soul which must dwell in a bed of flames so long as there shall be a God 4. Make use of the time given you to work your salvation live such a life as may end with a happy death so obtain that favourable judgement which shall say Come O thou soul blessed of God my Father possess the kingdome which is prepared for thee from the beginning of the world There is no better means to avoid the rigour of Gods judgements then to fear them continually Imâ—tate the tree mentioned in an Emblem which being designed to make a ship and finding it self wind shaken as it grew upon the land said what will become of me in the sea If we be already moved in this world by the bare consideration of the punishment due to sin think what it will be in that vast sea dreadful Abysse of Gods judgements Aspirations O King of dreadfull Majesty who doest justly dam and undeservedly save souls save me O fountain of mercy Remember thy self sweet Jesus that I was the cause of that great journey which thou tookest from God to man and do not destroy me in that dreadfull day which must decide the Question of my life or death for all eternity Take care of my last end since thou art the cause of my beginning the onely cause of all that I am O Father of bounties wouldest thou stop a mouth which desires so earnestly to praise and confess thee everlastingly Alas O eternal Sweetness wouldst thou dam a soul which hath cost thee so much sweat and bloud giving it for ever to those cruel and accursed pâ—wers of darknesse Rather O Lord pierce my heart with such a fear of thy judgements that I may alwayes dread and never feel them If I forget awake my memory if I flie from thee recall me again If I deferre my amendment stay for me If I return do not despise my soul but open those armes of mercy which thou didst spread upon the Crosse with such rigorous justice against thy self for satisfaction of my sins The Gospel upon Tuesday the first vveek in Lent out of S. Matth. 21. Jesus drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple ANd when he was entered Ierusalem the whole city was moved saying Who is this And the people said this is Iesus the Prophet of Nazareth in Galilee And Iesus entered into the Temple of God and cast out all that sold and bought in the Temple and the Tables of the bankers and the chairs of them that sold pidgeons he overthrew and he saith to them it is written my house shall be called the house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves And there came to him the blind and the lame in the temple and he healed them And the chief Priests and Scribes seeing the marvellous things that he did and the children crying in the Temple and saying Hosanna to the sonne of David they had indignation and said to him hearest thou what these say And Iesus said to them very well have you never read that out of the mouthes of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise and leaving them he went forth out of the city into Bethania and remained there Moralities 1. JEsus entering into Jerusalem vvent strait to the Temple as a good Son goes to his Fathers house as a high Priest to the Sanctuary as a sacrifice to the altar He doth very lively interest himself in the goods of His heavenly Father and chaseth out every prophane thing out of that sacred place to give thereby glory to the living God and to put all things in order It is a vvicked stain to Religion vvhen Ecclesiasticall persons are vicious and vvhen Churches are prophaned Saint Chrysostome sai h that priests are the heart of the Church but vvhen they are vvicked they turn all into sin A decaying tree hath alvvayes some ill quality about the root so vvhen any people are vvithout discipline the pastours are vvithout virtue The vvant of reverence in Churches begets the contempt of God they cannot have Jesus in their hearts vvhen they give him affronts even in his ovvn Temple 2. His House saith he is a house of prayer but your heart should be the sanctuary and your lips the door So long as you are vvithout the exercise of prayer you shall be like a Bee vvithout a sting vvhich can make neither honey nor wax Prayer is the chiefest and most effectuall means of that Angelicall conversation to which God calls us by the merits of his passion and by the effects of his triumphant resurrection It is the sacred businesse which man hath with God and to speak with Saint Gregory Nazianzen it is the art to make our souls divine Before all things you must put into an order the number the time the place the manner of your prayers and be sure that you pay unto God this tribute with respect ferver and perseverance But if you desire to make a very good prayer learn betimes to make a prayer of all your life Incense hath no smell without fire and prayer is of no force without charity A man must converse innocently purely with men that desires to Treat worthily with God 3. Keep your person and your house clean from ill managing all holy things and from those irreverences which are sometimes committed in Churches It is a happy thing for a man to be ignorant of the trade of buying and selling benefices and to have no entercourse with the tribunals of iniquity Many other sinnes are written in sand and blown away with a small breath of Gods mercy But the faults of so great impiety are carved upon a corner of the altar with a graver of steel or with a diamond point as the Prophet saith He deserves to be made eternally culpable who dries up the fountain which should wast himself or poisons the stream which he himself must drink or contaminates the sacraments which are given him to purifie his soul Aspirations SPirit of God which by reason of thy eminent height canst pray to no body and yet by thy divine wisdome makest all the world pray to thee Give me the gift of prayer since it is the mother of wisdome the seal of virginity the sanctuary for our evils and fountain of al our goods Grant that I my adore thee in Spirit with reverence stedfastnesse and perseverance and if it be thy divine pleasure that I pray unto thee as I ought inspire unto me by thy vittue such prayers as thou wilt hear by thy bounty The Gospel upon Wednesday the first week of Lent S. Matth. 12. The Pharisees
which kills them and if you take from them the worm which makes them itch or the executioner who doth indeed torment them they believe you take away the chiefest of their felicity Happy is that soul which holds nothing so dear in this world but will forsake it willingly to find God and will spare nothing to gain Paradise 3. There is nothing more common nor so rare as man The world is full of vitious and unprofitable men But to find one very compleat in all good things is to find a direct Phenix There are more businesses without men then men without businesses For how many charitable employments might many lazy and idle persons find out So many poor mens affairs continue at a stand so many miserable creatures languish so many desolate persons long to find some man who with little trouble to himself would take some small care of their affairs and make up a little piece of their fortunes Jesus is the man of God desired of all ages to him we must apply our selves since he is both life and truth By him we may come to all happiness by him we may live in the fountains streams of life in him we may contemplate the chiefest of all truths Aspirations WHat patience have I in committing sins and how impatient am I in my sufferings for them I am ever most readie to execute vice unwilling to abide the punishment O good God there are many years in which I have retained an inclination to this disorder to that sin My soul is bound as it were with Iron chains in this unhappy bed wil there be no Angel to move the water for me But art not thou the Lord and Prince of Angels Then I most humbly beseech thee O blessed Saviour do thou command and by thy only word my affairs wil go well and receive a happy dispatch my body will become sound my soul innocent my heart at rest and my life an eternal Glory The Gospell upon Saturday the first week in Lent and the Sunday following out of St. Matthew 17. Of the Transfiguration of our Lord. ANd after six dayes Iesus taketh unto him Peter and Iames and Iohn his brother and bringeth them into a high mountain apart and he was transfigured before them And his face did shine as the Sun and his garments became white as Snow And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him And Peter answering said to Iesus Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three tabernacles one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias And as he was yet speaking behold a bright cloud overshadowed them And loe a voice out of the Cloud saying This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And the Disciples hearing it fell upon their face and were sore afraid And Iesus came and touched them and he said to them Arise and fear not And they lifting up their eyes saw no body but onely Iesus And as they descended from the mount Iesus commanded them saying Tell the vision to no body till the Son of man be risen from the dead Moralities 1. THe words of the Prophet Osee are accomplished the nets and toils planted upon mount Tabor not to catch birds but hearts The mountain which before was a den for Tigers and Panthers according to the Story is now beautified by our Saviour and becomes a place full of sweetness and ravishments Jesus appears transfigured in the high robes of his glory The cloud made him a pavilion of gold the Sun made his face shine like it self The heavenly Father doth acknowledge his Son as the true Prince of glory Moses and Elias both appear in brightness the one bearing the Tables of the Law and the other carried in a burning Chariot as Origen saith which made the Apostles know him For the Hebrews had certain figures of the most famous men of their Nation in books They both as Saint Luke saith were seen in glory and Majesty which fell upon them by reflection of the beames which came from the body of Jesus who is the true fountain of brightness The Apostles lose theÌ„selves in the deliciousness of this great spectacle and by â—eeing more then they ever did desired to lose their eyes O that the world is most contemptible to him that knows how to value God as he ought So many fine powders so many pendents and favours of Glasse so many Towers and Columns of durt plastered over with gold are followed by a million of Idolaters To conclude so many worldly â—ewels are like the empty imaginations of a sick spirit not enlightened by the beams of truth Let us rely upon the word saith Saint Augustine which remains for ever while men passe like the water of a fountain which hides it self in the Spring shews it self in the stream and loseth it self at last in the Sea But God is alwayes himself there needs no Tabernacle made by the hands of man to remain with him for in Paradise he is both the God and the Temple 2. Tabor is yet but a small patern we must get all the piece we must go to the Palace of Angels and brightnesse where the Tabernacles are not made by the hands of men There we shall see the face of the living God clearly and at full There the beauties shall have no vails to hide them from us Our being shall have no end Our knowledges will not be subject to errour nor our loves and affections to displeasure O what a joy will it be to enjoy all and desire nothing to be a Magistrate without a successour to be a King with out an enemy to be rich without covetousnesse to negotiate without money and to be everliving without fear of death 3. But who can get up to this mountain except he of whom the Prophet speaks who hath innocent hands and a clean heart who hath not received his soul of God in vain to bury it in worldly pelf To follow Jesus we must transform our selves into him by hearing and following his doctrin since God the Father proposeth him for the teacher of mankind and commands us to hearken unto him We must follow his examples since those are the originalls of all virtues The best trade we can practise in this world is that of transfiguration and we may do it by reducing our form to the form of our Lord and walking upon earth like men in heaveÌ„ Then will the Sun make us have shining faces when purity shall accompany all our actions and intentions Our clothes shall be as white as snow when we shall once become innocent in our conversations we shal then be ravished like the Apostles and after we have been at mount Tabor we shall be blind to the rest of the world and see nothing but Jesus It is moreover to be noted that our Saviouâ— did at that time entertain himself with discourse of his great future
they have no other sault but that they are not sufficiently carefull of their own health Others do correct with such sharpnesse and violence that they wound their own hearts to care other mens and seem to have a greater minde to please their own passions then to amend those whom they would instruct Correction should be accompanied with sweetnesse but it must carry with all a little vigour to make a right temper and to keepe a mean between softnesse and austerity Jesus in the Prophet Isai is called both a rod and a flower to shew us according to Origen that he carries severity mingled with sweetnesse to use either of them according to the diversity of persons 3. It is not a very easie thing to receive brotherly correction patiently we are so farre in love with being well thought of And after we have lost the tree of life which is virtue it self we would keep the bark of it which is onely reputation All shadows proceed from those bodies upon which somewhat shines honour is the child of a known virtue and many when they cannot get one lawfull are willing to have a Basâ—ard This is the cause why so many resemble those serpents which requite them with poison who sing to them pleasant songs Whatsoever is spoken to instruct them makes them passionate and dart out angry speeches against those who speak to them mild and gentle words of truth and tending to their salvation Rest assured you can never get perfection except you count it a glory to learn and discover your own imperfections 4. There is nothing of more force then the praiers of just men which are animated by the same spirit cimented together with perfect concord They are most powerfull both in heaven and earth When they desire what God will they are alwaies heard if not according to the wishes of their own nature yet according to the greater profits of his grace He is alwayes happy who hath that which he would because he knows how to wish what is fitting and finds means to obtain what he desires by reason of his abstinence from coveting that which cannot be had 5. We must not offer to limit our goodnesse but as it comes from an infinite God we should make it as near being infinite as we can He gives the lie to virtues who will reduce them to a certain number We must never be weary of well doing but imitate the nature of celestiall things which never make any end but to begin again Aspirations O God what spots are in my soul and how little do I looke into my own imperfections Wilt thou never shew me to my self for some good time that I may cure my self by horrour of seeing what I am since I do so often wound my self by being too indulgent to my own naughty affections It is a great offence to break the glass which representeth me to my self by brotherly correction and to think I shall commit no more sins when no body will take liberty to reprove me I will humble my self to the very dust and mount up to thy glory by contempt of my own basenesse Alas must my soul be alwaies so far in love with it self that it cannot suffer the remonstrance of a friend how will it then endure the tooth of an enemy what can she love being so partial to her self if she do not love most ugly darkness O my redoubted Master I fear thine eyes which see those obscurities which the foolish world takes to be brightnesse If I cannot be alwaies innocent make me at least acknowledge my self faulty that I may know my self as I am to the end thou mayest know me for an object capable of thy mercy The Gospel upon Wednesday the third week in Lent Saint Matthew 15. The Pharisees asked Jesus Why do thy Disciples contradict ancient Traditions THen came to him from Ierusalem Scribes and Pharisees saying Why do thy Disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients For they wash not their hands when they eat bread But he answering said to them Why do you also transgresse the commandement of God for your tradition For God said Honour Father and Mother and he that shall curse Father or Mother dying let him die But you say Whosoever shall say to Father or Mother The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me shall profit thee and shall not honour his Father or his Mother and you have made frustrate the commandment of God for your own tradition Hypocrites well hath Esay prophesied of you saying This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me And in vain do they worship me teaching doctrines and commandments of men And having called together the multitudes unto him he said to them Hear ye and understand Not that which entreth into the mouth defileth a man but that which proceedeth out of the mouth that defileth a man Then came his Disciples and said to him Dost thou know that the Pharisees when they heard this word were scandalized But he answering said All planting which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone blind they are guides of the blind and if the blind be guide to the blind both fall into the ditch And Peter answering said to him Expound us this parable But he said Are you also as yet without understanding Do you not understand that all that entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast forth into the privie But the things that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and those things defile a man For from the heart come forth evil cogitations murders advouteries fornications thefts false testimonies blasphemies These are the things that defile but to eat with unwashen hands doth not defile a man Moralities 1. THe spirit of man is wretched makes it self business by being disquieted with petty little things tormenting it self with formalities whilest it lives in a deep neglect of all that which is most essential to her salvation The Pharises did place their perfections in washing themselves every hour of the day in bearing writs of the Law upon their foreheads and thorns upon their heels but made no scruple to take away the honor due to fathers mothers from their children to make spoil of the world by a ravenous avarice which took upon it the apparance of piety and to give up innocent bloud under shew of justice The world doth now furnish it self with such like devotions Some make it a sin to look upon a fair flower with delight to eat with a good appetite to drink cool wine in hot weather to burn a paper upon which the name of Iesus is written to tread upon two straws that lie a cross But to set mony to usury to remember injuries for ever to keep a poor workmans wages to oppress the weak to accuse the innocent to spoil miserable persons These are the little sins which pass for virtues in this world Assure your self
God as they doe who seek for health by remedies which are a thousand times worse then the disease But they addressed themselves to the living God the God of life and death to drive away death And to recover life they were content only to shew the woūd to the faithfull friendship of the Physician Without prescribing any remedies for that is better left to his providence then committed to our passion 3. He deferres his cure to raise from death The delay of Gods favours is not alwaies a refusall but sometimes a double liberality the vows of good men are paid with usury It was expedient that Lazarus should die that he might triumph over death in the triumph of Iesus Christ It is here that we should alwayes raise high our thoughts by considering our glory in the state of resurrection he would have us believe it not onely as it is a lesson of Nature imprinted above the skies upon the plants or elements of the world and as a doctrine which many ancient Philosophers had by the light of nature but also as a belief which is fast joyned to the faith we have in the Divine providence which keeps our bodies in trust under its seal within the bosome of the earth so that no prescription of time can make laws to restrain his power having passed his word and raised up Lazarus who was but as one grain of seed in respect of all posterity 4. Iesus wept over Lazarus thereby to weep over us all Our evils were lamentable could never sufficiently be deplored without opening a fountain of tears within heaven and within the eyes of the Son of God This is justly the river which comes from that place of all pleasure to water Paradise How could those heavenly tears come from any other then the place of all delight since they issued from a brain and from eyes which were united to the divinity And how should they not water Paradise since for so many ages they have flowed over the Church for producing the fruits of justice The balme of Egypt could not grow without water of that well Which was comonly called the fountain of Jesus because the blessed Virgin had there washed the clothes of her dear Sonne And we have no Odour of virtue nor good conversation which is not directly barren except it be endued with the merit of our Saviours tears Aspirations O Eyes of my Saviour from whence the sun receives his clearest light fair eyes which onely deserve eternall joyes and delights Why should you this day be moistened with tears Thou didst give me O onely love of my heart the bloud of thy soul before thou shedst that of thy body There are so many things to make me weep and I feel them so little that if thy tears do not weep for me I shall alwayes be miserable Water then O my sweet Master the barrennesse of my soul from that fountain of blessing which I have opened within thine eyes and heart I have opened it by my sins and let it I beseech thee blesse me by thine infinite mercies The Gospel upon Saturday the fourth week in Lent S. Iohn 8. Upon our Saviours words I am the light of the world AGain therefore Iesus spake to them saying I am the light of the world he that followeth me walketh not in darknesse but shall have the light of life The Pharisees therefore said to him Thou givest testimony of thy self thy testimony is not true Iesus answered and said to them although I do give testimony of my self my testimony is true because I know whence I came and whether I go but you know not whence I came or whether I go You judge according to the flesh I do not judge any man And if I doe judge my judgement is true because I am not alone but I and he that sent me the Father And in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true I am he that give testimony of my self and he that sent me the Father giveth testimony of me They said therefore to him Where is thy Father Iesus answered Neither me do you know nor my Father if you did know me perhaps you might know my Father also These words Iesus spake in the Treasury teaching in the Temple and no man apprehended him because his hour was not yet come Moralities 1. THere is in the blessed Trinity a communicating light to which nothing is communicated another light which is communicative and communicated and a third light which is communicated but not communicating The first is the heavenly Father who gives but takes nothing The second is that of the Son who takes from his Father and gives to the Holy Ghost all that can be given The third is the Holy Ghost which receives equally from the Father the Son and doth produce nothing in the Trinity But Jesus illuminating from all eternity this state for ever to be adored did vouchsafe to descend into the Countrey of our darknesse to scatter it by his brightnesse It is he that hath thrown down the Crocodiles and Bars from profane Altars who hath broken so many Idols who hath overthrown so many Temples of the adulterers and murdering gods to plant the honours of his heavenly Father He hath invested the world during so many ages with the shining of his face He doth not cease to give light nor to kindle in our hearts many inspirations which are like so many stars to conduct us to the fountain of all our happinesse You are very blind if you doe not see this and much more miserable if you despise it 2. It is most dangerous to do as the Jews did to speak every day to the light and yet love their own darknesse Screech-owls find holes and nights to keep themselves from day which they cannot abide But he that flies from the face of God where can he find darknesse enough to hide himself When he shall be within the gulf of sin his own conscience will light up a thousand torches to see his punishments It is the worst of all mischiefs to pay for the contempt of the fountain of light by suffering eternall darknesse 3. Let us behold the conversation of Jesus Christ as a sea mark stickt all over with lights his life gives testimony of his Sanctity his miracles publish his power his law declares his infinite wisdome his Sanctity gives us an example to imitate his power gives the strength of Authority to make him the more readily obeyed and from his wisdome faith is given us to regulate and govern our belief Aspirations O My Lord Jesus the spirit of all beauties and the most visible of all lights what do the eyes of my soul if they be not always busied in the contemplation of thy brightnesse When I find thou art departed from me methinks I am buried within my self and that my soul is nothing else but a Sepulchre of terrours phantomes and deaths But when thou returnest by thy visits
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
virtue to avoid that which is ill There are many from whom good works do escape while they both think and do ill Truth makes use of their tongues when Devils command their hearts It is this which makes us see our Saviours Empire and the extent of his conquests which is not limited by time he being already entred into possesson of eternity and it is not bounded by place because it contains all Immensity Night hath no power to cover it because it is light it self It cannot be shut up in any deceitfull shadow because it scatters and discovers all falshood It cannot be comprehended within our senses because it exceeds their capacity and it is present in all places being omnipotent and eternall in all time Aspirations O Jesus Father of all blessed unions who hast suffered death to unite all the children of God together who are scattered over all the countreys of the world wilt thou have no pity of my heart so many times torn in pieces and strayed among a great multitude of objects which estrange and draw me from the first of all unities My soul melts through all the Gates of my senses by running after so many creatures which do kindle covetousnesse but never serve to refresh or cool the heat of it Draw me O Lord from the great throng of so many exteriour things that I may retire into my own heart and from thence arise to thine where I may find that peace which thou hast cimented fast with thy most precious blood When shall I see the first beams of that liberty which thou grantest to thy Children When shall my thoughts return from wandering in those barren regions where thou art not acknowledged When shall I be reunited and so purified by thy favours that they may celebrate continuall dayes of feast in my soul I am already there in desire and shall be there in presence when by help of thine infinite grace and mercy I can be wholly thine The Gospel upon Saturday the fifth week in Lent S. Iohn 12. The chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow Jesus BVt the chief Priests devised to kill Lazarus also because many for him of the Iewes went away and believed in Iesus And on the morrow a great multitude that was come to a festival day when they had heard that Iesus cometh to Ierusalem they took the boughs of Palms and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna blessed is he that commeth in the name of our Lord the King of Israel And Iesus found a young Asse and sate upon it as it is written Fear not daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh sitting upon an Asses colt These things his Disciples did not know at the first but when Iesus was glorified then they remembred that these things had been written of him and these things they did to him The multitude therefore gave testimony which was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead For therefore all the multitude came to meet him because they heard that he had done this sign The Pharisees therefore said among themselves Do you see that we prevail nothing Behold the whole world is gone after him And there were certain Gentiles of them that came up to adore in the Festivall day These therefore came to Philip who was of Bethsaida of Galilee and desired him saying Sir we are desirous to see Iesus Philip cometh and telleth Andrew Again Andrew aâ—d â—hilip told Iesus but Iesus answered them saying The hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified Amen Amen I say to you Vnlesse the grain of wheat falling into the ground die it self remaineth alone but if it die it bringeth much fruit He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world doth keep it to life everlasting If any man minister to me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my minister be If any man minister to me my Father will honour him Moralities 1. ADmire here the extasies of our sweet Saviour He is ravished by the object of his death and is transported by the Idea of his sufferings The trumpet of heaven souÌ„ded in the voyce which was heard by this great multitude He encourages himself to his combat he looks confidently upon the Crosse as the fountain of his glories and planted his elevation upon the lowest abasements Shall not we love this Crosse which Jesus hath cherished as his Spouse He gave up his soul in the arms of it to conquer our souls We shall never be worthy of him till we bear the Ensigns of his war and the ornaments of his peace Every thing is Paradise to him that knows how to love the Crosse and every thing is hell to those who flie from it and no body flies it but shall find it It is the gate of our mortality whether we must all come though we turn our backs to it 2. What a great secret it is to hate our soul that we may love it to hate it for a time that we may love it for all eternity to punish it in this life to give it thereby a perpetuall rest in that to come to despise it that we may honour it To handle it roughly that it may be perfectly established in all delights And yet this is the way which all just men have passed to arrive at the chiefest point of their rest They have resembled the Flowers de-Luce which weep for a time and out of their own tears produce seeds which renew their beauties The salt sea for them becomes a flourishing field as it did to the people of God when they came forth of the chains of Egypt The cloud which appeared to the Prophet Ezekiel carried with it winds and storms but it was environd with a golden circle to teach us that the storms of affliction which happen to Gods children are encompassed with brightnesse and smiling felicity They must rot as a grain of wheat that they may bud out and flourish in the ear They must abide the diversity of times and endure the Sythe and Flail They must be ground in a mill and passe by water and fire before they can be made bread pleasing to Jesus Christ Our losses are our advantages we lose nothing but to gain by it we humble and abase our selves to be exalted we despoil our selves to be better clothed and we mortifie our selves to be revived O what a grain of wheat is Jesus Christ who hath past all these trialls to make the height of all heavenly glories bud out of his infinite sufferings Aspirations O God I have that passionate desire which these strangers had to see Jesus I doe not ask it of Philip nor shall Philip have cause to ask Andrew My Jesus I ask it of thy self thou art beautifull even in the way of the Crosse Thou dist shew thy self couragious in the Abysse of thy pains thou art
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
us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Iesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his passion became like a scastold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entred to be tormented and crucified upon the Crosse of love which was the Crosse of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from heaveÌ„ to acomplish the businesse of all ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and this so precious shipwrak there remained one oâ—ely inestimable pearl which was his divine mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hands of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Iesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the vvhole vvorld as he did proportioning his torments according to the fruits which vvere to proceed from his cross Perhaps O faithfull soul thou lookest for a mans body in thy Iesus but thou findest nothing but the appearance of one crusted over with gore bloud Thou seekest for limbs findest nothing but vvounds Thou lookest for a Iesus which appeared glorious upon mount Thabor as upon a Throne of Majesty with all the ensigns of his glory and thou findest only a skin all bloudy fastned to a crosse betvven tvvo thieves And if the consideration of this cannot bring drops of bloud from thy heart it must be more insensible then a diâ—mond 3. To conclude observe the third quality of a good death which will declare it self by the exercise of great and heroick virtues Consider that incomparable mildnesse which hath astonished all ages hath encouraged all virtues hath condemned all revenges hath instructed all Schools and crowned all good actions He was raised upon the crosse vvhen his dolours were most sharp and piercing when his wounds did open on all sides when his precious bloud shed upon the earth and moistened it in great abundance when he saw his poor clothes torn in peices and yet bloudy in the hands of those who crucified him He considered the extreme malice of that cruell people how those which could not wound him with iron pierced him with the points of their accursed tongues He could quickly have made sire com down from heaven upon those rebellious heads And yet forgetting all his pains to remember his mercies he opened his mouth and the first worde he spake was in the favour of his enemies to negotiate their reconciliation before his soul departed The learned Cardinall Hugues admiring the excessive charity of our Saviour toward his enemies applies excellent well that which is spoken of the Sunne in Ecclesiasticus He brings news to all the world at his rising and at noon-day he burns the earth and heats those furnaces of Nature which make it produce all her fruits So Jesus the Sun of the intelligible world did manifest himself at his Nativity as in the morning But the Crosse was his bed at noon from whence came those burning streames of Love which inflames the hearts of all blessed persons who are like furnaces of that eternall fire which burns in holy Sion On the other part admire that great magnanimity which held him so long upon the Crosse as upon a Throne of honour and power when he bestowed Paradise upon a man that was his companion in suffering I cannot tell whether in this action we should more admire the good fortune of the good theif or the greatnesse of Jesus The happinesse of the good theif who is drawn for a cut throat to prison from prison to the judgement hall from thence to the Crosse and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but the heart of Jesus On the other side what can be more admirable then to see a man crucified to do that act which must be performed by the living God when the world shall end To save some to make others reprobate and to judge from the height of his Crosse as if he sate upon the cheifest throne of all Monarchs But we must needs affirm that the virtue of patience in this holds a chief place and teaches very admirable lessons He endures the torments of the body and the pains of the spirit in all the faculties of his soul in all the parts of his virgin flesh and by the cruelty and multiplicity of his wounds they all become one onely wound from the sole of his foot to the top of his head His delicate body suffers most innocently and all by most ingrate and hypocriticall persons who would colour their vengeance with an apparence of holinesse He suffers without any comfort at all and which is more without bemoaning himself he suffers whatsoever they would or could lay upon him to the very last gasp of his life Heaven weares mourning upon the Cross all the Citizens of heaven weep over his torments the earth quakes the stones rend themselves sepulchres open the dead arise Onely Jesus dies unmoveable upon this throne of patience To conclude who would not be astonished at the tranquillity of his spirit amongst those great convulsions of the world which moved round about the Cross amongst such bloudy dolours insolent cries insupportable blasphemies how he remained upon the Crosse as in a Sanctuary at the foot of an Altar bleeding weeping praying to mingle his prayers with his bloud and tears I do now understand why the Wise man said He planted Isles within the Abysse since that in so great a gulph of afflictions he shewed such a serenity of spirit thereby making a Paradise for his Father amongst so great pains by the sweet perfume of his virtues After he had prayed for his enemies given a promise of Paradise to the good thief and recommended his mother to his Disciple he shut up his eyes from all humane things entertaining himself onely with prayers and sighs to his heavenly Father O that at the time of our deaths we could imitate the death of Iesus and then we should be sure to find the streams of life Aspirations