Heavenly Paradice but Lucifer who from a glorious Angel was become a Devil having been thrown out of Heaven for aspiring to be equal to God envied that Man should enjoy the Happiness which he had lost and knowing by woful Experience that Heaven could not contain a proud Person he thought himself sure to prevent Man's being admitted there if he could but make him guilty of the same Sin Pride Hereupon he subtilly first began to tempt the weaker Vessel Eve by shewing her the beautiful Fruit of the forbidden Tree telling her that by tasting it she might become like unto God himself and when by his perswasion he had deceived the Woman he made use of her as he still does to deceive the Man Thus Sin like a cunning Thief crept in at the Window of his Eye which he unwarily had set open to behold the Beauty of that Fruit and soon opened also the Doors of his Ears to admit the Enticement of his Wife conspiring with his treacherous Appetite to let in Death at the Gate of his Mouth by his disobedience in eating the Apple which was presented to him by her Then that blessed Union was broken and a Separation made not only between his Body and his Soul by a temporal Death the Sentence whereof instantly pass'd upon him though the Execution was deferr'd but also between his Soul and his God by an eternal Death to which he also became thereby liable and as a Fore-runner of both he and his Wife were driven out of Paradice from the Presence of their gracious Creator Now as the Departure of the Soul from the Body is Death so the Departure of God from the Soul can be no less than Hell for as in his presence there is fulness of Joy so in his absence there must be extremity of Sorrow and as at his Right-hand there be Pleasures for evermore so on his Left there must needs be everlasting Pains and what can the feeling of them be but Hell To this miserable Condition Sin brought our first Parents and from them all we their wretched Posterity became tainted with an original Corruption the Seeds whereof growing up into innumerable actual Transgressions afford no other Fruit but Death in this World and eternal Damnation in that which is to come but God being infinitely merciful would not abandon them to perish for ever in this sad Estate but out of the Bowels of his tender Compassion did with incomprehensible Wisdom find out a way for the Satisfaction of his own Justice and for the Salvation of Mankind It had been utterly impossible for all of them together to have done any thing in the least degree towards the Salvation of so much as one Man for it cost more to redeem a Soul so that they must have let that alone for ever But God contriv'd it by an Union much more admirable than that already mentioned and that was between the Divine and Humane Natures And Adam had no sooner broken the first Covenant of unsinning Obedience which God made with him in Paradice but he graciously made a Second with him and his Posterity in the second Adam the promised Messiah This he afterwards perform'd by sending his only begotten Son Jesus Christ equal to his Father as touching his Godhead into the World for the Redemption of Mankind who being conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost in the chast Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary became also perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane Flesh subsisting to the end that as Man he might be capable to suffer and as God to satifie for the sins of the whole World This was a Benefit so high and so transcendent that neither the Understanding of Man no nor that of Angels is able to comprehend it Here all consideration is confounded and humbles itself with astonishment to see that the Son of God to the end that he might cloath thee with his Grace cloathed himself with our Nature which is a poor torn wretched Garment full of beggery and misery and yet that Soveraign Eternal and Divine Majesty put it on for our sake and though this was exceeding much yet he did a great deal more for us since besides this Humanity which Christ the Divine Word took upon him he underwent so many Sufferings for Mankind and wove this seamless Coat of Grace which he gives us in Baptism with such unmeasurable griefs and torments as never have been suffer'd in all the World but by himself nor ever shall be Nay he did yet more for he not only wove this Coat of Grace with these unspeakable pains but even with his holy death and would end his Life in that very employment of weaving and finishing it to the end he might give that seamless Robe its utmost Beauty and Perfection Here all our thoughts ought to be Silence Amazement Terror Reverence and Admiration with Tears of Love and Contrition That the Eternal Son of God to cloath me with his Grace should cloath himself with my humble Nature and presently load himself with the burden of my sins and then take upon him their Punishment upon the Cross and die upon it for them That the cleansing of me should make him be defil'd with the spittings of blasphemous mouths That the giving me the Life of Grace should make him die the Death of Nature and that in such cruel Torments That for the washing of my Soul he should shed all his Precious Blood And that he should devest himself of all Humane Comfort only to give me Comfort Remedy and even Heaven itself This is a business more proper for our Love than our Meditation more to make us active in his Service than contemplative in our Thoughts and to be expressed more by our Wonder than our Words Yet it is good to meditate upon it that we may love him to consider it that we may serve him and to speak of it that by finding we cannot speak enough we may admire and adore him A Man that does me a kindness has my Thanks and if by his pains and danger he draw me out of any Trouble I shew my Gratitude by acknowledging it There be Laws that order Recompences for a Subject that saves the Life of his King in War or in Peace appointing him to be rewarded with Wealth and crowned with Ensigns of Honour Mordecai only for giving Notice to Ahasuerus that some of his Treacherous Servants meant to kill him was by the Command of that Heathen King cloathed with his own Royal Robe and his most beloved Favourite was made to lead the Horse upon which that Loyal Subject rode about the Streets of the City This was an high Honour easily attain'd so notable a demonstration of Favour so Royal and Majestick a Recompence but for a bare Advertisment Consider now if so much were due to a Vassal who by the discovery of a Traytor had sav'd the Life of a King what shall a Vassal owe to his King who not only hath sav'd him from Death but
their Frailty can permit they need neither desire nor trouble themselves for more and if God shall please to give them any thing beyond that let them decline it with Humility or receive it with Reverence and preserve it with Fear working in all things with resignation and the Counsel of their Spiritual Guide for the Revelations whereby we are to be saved are already revealed to the Church and for the rest though they may be profitable yet they are not necessary to my Design To conclude I offer this Work such as it is full I confess of Imperfections to all that are desirous to improve and go forward in the Spiritual Life with a most affectionate desire of their good earnestly exhorting them to the principal end which the whole aims at namely to know how much earthly transitory things ought to be despised and therefore to flie from Vices to avoid Worldly Delights and to embrace those which are Heavenly and Eternal to practise the Vertues to frequent the Sacrament to Pray earnestly and often and finally to labour and take pains in the Kingdom of Grace that they may come to enjoy God eternally in the Kingdom of Glory AN INDEX OF THE Several Subjects treated of in each Month and Week of this Spiritual Year JANUARY Week I. OF the Frailty of Humane Nature Week II. Of the Weakness of Man and the Miseries of his Body Week III. Of the Miseries of the Soul and its Passions Week IV. Of the Miseries and Sins of each Man in particular FEBRUARY Week I. Of the Remembrance of Death Week II. How much it concerns the Soul to remember Death in the time of Life Week III. The dreadful Call of God to the sinner that defers Repentance till his Death Week IV. The Answer of a Repenting sinner and that we ought to prepare our selves for Death MARCH Week I. Of the particular Account that each man is to give immediately after his Death Week II. Of the Rectitude and Severity of the Judgment Week III. Of the means there are in this Life to prevent the Account and Judgment of the other Week IV. Of the Universal Judgment at the end of the World APRIL Week I. Of the Torments of Hell Week II. Of the Place of Hell Week III. Of the Company of the Damned and of their pain of Sense Week IV. Of the duration of the pain above-mentioned of the pain of Loss and of the Worm of Conscience MAY. Week I. Of the Divine Benefits Of the Benefit of Creation Week II. Of the Institution of Matrimony Of Civil Society and Government Week III. Of the Benefit of Preservation first of our Bodies Of Preservation from particucular dangers Of the Preservation of our Souls Of the Guard of Angels Week IV. Of the Benefit of Redemption JUNE Week I. Of Baptism and Confirmation Week II. Of Repentance and Absolution Of the Holy Eucharist A Prayer Week III. Of Frequenting the Sacrament Week IV. Of the Kingdom of Grace Of the Purity of Intentions Of Purity of Conscience JULY Week I. Of Temptations and the Grace of God in them That it is no easie matter to be sav'd but that it is necessary to fight Of the Grace of God Week II. Of the Glory of the Blessed Week III. Of the Imitation of the Life of our Blessed Saviour and of his Mysteries Of the Mystery of the Incarnation Of the Birth of our Lord. Week IV. Of the other Mysteries of our Lord till his Preaching and first of his Circumcision The Adoration of the Kings Of his Presentation in the Temple Of his Flight into Egypt Of the other Mysteries AUGUST Week I. Of the Baptism and Preaching of our Lord with his Doctrine Miracles and Parables Week II. The Eve of the Passion Of the last Supper and of the washing of his Disciples Feet Of the Institution of the Holy Sacrament Of the Consecration of the Apostles Week III. Of his Agony in the Garden his Death Resurrection and Ascension Week IV. Of the Exercise of the three Theological Vertues Faith Hope and Charity upon Contemplation of the Life and Death of our Saviour SEPTEMBER Week I. Of the Vertue of Religion and of the manner of governing the Cardinal and Moral Vertues by that of Religion Of the Application of Christian Works Week II. Of the three first of the Cardinal Vertues Prudence Justice Fortitude and first of Prudence Of Justice and of good and evil Judges Of Fortitude Week III. Of Temperance the Fourth of the Cardinal Vertues Of the manner of governing the Moral Vertues by the Cardinal Of Judging falsly Week IV. Of Humility and its contrary Pride OCTOBER Week I. Of Liberality and its contrary Covetousness Of Chastity and Abstinence The Mischiefs of Sensuality Of Remedies against Sensuality Of Gluttony Week II. Of Patience Of Anger Of Moderation in speaking and the mischiefs of the Tongue Of Silence Week III. Of Envy Remedies against Envy Of Charity to our Neighbours Of Courtesie Week IV. Of Diligence and Fervency and of the mischiefs of Omission and Sloth NOVEMBER Week I. Of the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit in general Of Charity the First Fruit of the Holy Spirit Week II. Of Peace the Second Fruit of the Holy Spirit Week III. Of Longanimity and Benignity the Third and Fourth Fruits of the Holy Spirit Week IV. Of Faith the Fifth Fruit of the Holy Spirit Of Continence the Sixth Fruit. DECEMBER Week I. Of Joy the Seventh Fruit of the Holy Spirit Of Patience the Eighth Fruit. Week II. Of Goodness the Ninth Fruit of the Holy Spirit Of Meekness the Tenth Fruit. Week III. Of Modesty the Eleventh Fruit of the Holy Spirit Of Chastity the Twelfth and last Fruit. Week IV. Of Perseverance and Prayer to God THE Spiritual Year JANVARY The First WEEK Of the Weakness of Humane Nature HEAR Son the Instruction of thy Father and learn to fear God who is thy true Father Consider thy beginning if thou desirest to have a good ending Look what thou art and thou wilt see what thou shalt be Know thy self and thou shalt know God Behold thy self that thou mayest behold him thou art blind from thy birth like the man in the Gospel and mayest recover thy sight as he did by putting Clay upon thine eyes That is the matter thou art made of and it had remain'd Clay for ever if the Spirit of God had not breathed life into it Thus thou seest what Humane Nature is and that it speaks nothing but weakness and frailty 2. Would'st thou see how strong it is Look how long it stood Man being created in Innocence scarce continu'd so for a few days some say hardly a few hours His Nature was so perfect and so strong that it was able to destroy it self and without any inward weakness it yielded in Adam and Eve to an outward Enemy What is it like to be now that it is sick and mortally wounded since it ruined it self when it was sound and healthful Man fell in Paradise in the
thou wert never to be called to Account therefore O sinner thou wilt find at thy death that 't is more easie to tremble at thy Account than to give it 4. Thou hast spent all thy life in sin and wickedness without any remembrance of the Glory to come what Idea therefore can thy Memory have of that Glory when thou comest to dye If it be tedious and wearisome to thee to confess a few daily sins how dost thou think thou shalt find Diligence and Patience enough when thou comest to dye to confess that infinite number thou hast committed from the time of thy birth Thou canst not or wilt not now in thy health lift a hundred weight and dost thou think thou shalt be able in thy sickness to lift a hundred thousand Dost thou reserve that weight to be laid upon thee in thy weakness which thou darest not venture to lift at in thy full strength What profit or advantage can thy Death bring thee when all thy care and trouble will be imployed about the losing of thy Life Thy Heart being glued to the Wealth and to the World which thou must leave How wilt thou be able to loosen it from thence and to join it to what thou hast never cared for The Chains of thy Passions tye thee fast to this transitory World How wilt thou be able to break them in an instant and to give thy self to that which is eternal 5. It cost me Tears and Groans Prayers and loud Cries to raise up Lazarus to Life again who had been dead but four days of a natural Death What will it cost to raise up thee from the spiritual Death in which thou hast lain dead perhaps these forty Years I raised up Lazarus without his doing any thing to help towards his own Resurrection but I will not revive thee unless thou dost something on thy part and how wilt thou be able O wretched Man to perform that under a double Death thy Soul in that of Sin and thy Body so near to that of Corruption Thy Spirit being conquered and having yielded it self a Slave to thine Appetite which has domineer'd powerfully all thy Life and forc't thy Soul to the Drudgery of Sin Dost thou believe that in breathing out thy last Gasp thou shalt be able to recover its liberty No thou wilt find that though it be freed from thy Body for a time it is going to suffer a much greater slavery in Hell and to be tormented by the Devil in Chains of Darkness till the Day of Judgment when thy Body indeed shall rise from the Grave as did that of Lazarus to be joined again with thy Soul yet not as his to Life but to die eternally and to be for ever banished from my sight 6. Thou hast used thy self all thy Life to follow thine own will and never to deny thy self in any thing and doest thou think thou shalt have power to do that in the end of it which has always been so contrary to thy Inclinations Or if thou hast endeavour'd to get Victories over thy self and hast fought without success that spiritual Combate is it probable thou shalt overcome thy self better in thy utmost weakness and when thou liest gasping for Breath If thou couldst not conquer that Enemy when thou hadst all thy strength if with the force of Reason quicken'd by frequent Admonitions called upon by many Exhortations and excited by several good Examples thou could'st not subdue thy sensual Appetite in so many Years how wilt thou conquer it when thy Reason and Understanding shall have forsaken thee and when the Ear of thy Body shall be as deaf to all other Motives as that of thy Soul has been till then Thinkest thou when thou liest fainting in thy Death-bed without strength to move a Hand rattling in the Throat and gasping for Breath to overcome that Enemy that potent Enemy insulting over thee in the Pride of so many repeated Victories That Enemy which the Apostles themselves and their Successors with so many other excellent Saints fought against all their Lives wilt thou conquer with the dregs of thine being without Memory without Understanding and even without Sense in that great disorder and confusion which Death uses to bring especially to those who have always suffer'd their Appetite to triumph over them 7. How long O Sinner wilt thou go on in this foolish Presumption I do not bid thee despair when thou diest but I bid thee work out thy Salvation with fear and trembling while thou livest I deny not but that I saved the good Thief He believed on me when my Disciples forsook me and fled and prayed to me even when I was nailed to the Cross to such an extraordinary Faith I shew'd an extraordinary Favour and though I promised he should be with me that day in Paradice thou mayest remember I suffered him that was crucified with me on the other hand to be condemned If he who died so near my side and looking upon that Blood which I shed for him was damned Wilt thou delay still and hope to escape at that last Hour I do not forbid thee to hope when thou comest to die but I bid thee to do good works in the mean while and serve me during thy Life without deferring it till Death for if thou despisest the warning I give thee now the time will come when thou shalt call and I will not hear and when thou shalt cry Lord Lord I will answer I know thee not thou worker of Iniquity Depart from me into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels The Fourth WEEK The Answer of a repenting Sinner and that we ought to prepare our selves for Death 1. AH let us all quake and tremble what shall we answer to these terrible Words of the Lord What shall we answer to these Arguments which are rather evident Conclusions What shall we answer to that eternal Wisdom to that eternal Light and Truth whose Sayings are undeniable and whose Accusings are clear Convictions Here is nothing to be done but to acknowledge our guilt to humble our selves and amend our Lives Here is nothing to be done but with Repentance Humility and Contrition to weep and sigh and earnestly beg for Mercy 2. Here is nothing to be done but with a most intimate Desire and Sorrow of the Soul to say Lord I have sinned against thee all my Life and I will bewail my offences during my Life that I may likewise bewail them at my Death If I be not willing to lament them now perhaps then I shall neither be willing nor able I sinned in the best of my time and so made it the worst and I desire to forsake my Sins in the best that remains before the last comes which is the worst indeed I desire O God to imploy the remainder of my days in thy Service since thou yet affordest me time to bewail that time which I so sinfully have lost I desire to lament my Sins with all
my Senses Powers and Faculties since I have abused them all in offending against thee my God nor will I defer my Tears till my Death since I did not defer my Sins till my Death 3. I desire O Lord that I may not be to seek for Oil in my Lamp when the Bridegroom calls but to have it ready prepar'd and lighted against his coming To get Oil after death is impossible grant that I may buy it and furnish my self before I fall asleep Life without thy Grace is not only Sleep but Death grant therefore O Lord that I may prepare for Death during Life by living well Grant O Lord my God that the Bridegroom at his coming may find me watching grant O Lord that when the Thief shall come to break into this House of my Body and rob me of my Soul I may not be found asleep in any customary Sin but awake upon my Guard and with my Lamp ready lighted and let me never hear from thee the Light eternal that terrible saying I know thee not 4. Grant that at thy second coming thou mayest find me with my Loins girt and my Light burning and able to give such an account of the Talents which thou hast given me that the Benefits of thy former coming may by thy Mercy be made effectual to my Soul What shall become of me O my God if I loose thee If once I loose thee O Light eternal when shall I be able ever to recover thee Deliver my Soul from the roaring Lion free my darling from the Power of the infernal Dragon if once I loose my self and thee Is it possible I should ever find thee again my Saviour Is there any passage from Hell to Glory Is there any Redemption in that place of Torment where all Mercies are utterly cut off Shall I expose my Soul to that hazard to that danger and to that loss at my Death for not repenting while I live Shall I trust that which is most precious and most important to the most unfit and the most uncertain time Shall I put off the loosing or enjoying thee eternally O my Jesus to a Conjuncture so full of anguish and confusion as scarce affords a possibility of knowing thee No Lord suffer me not I beseech thee to fall into so miserable a Condition rather let me die now instantly at this present moment in thy Grace than so foolishly to adventure the loss of both thy Grace and Glory 5. This is the Answer we should make to God these are the Thoughts we ought to feel these are the Requests we ought to make before the Agony of Death for then the Pains of the Body the Anguish of the Soul the Grief for leaving the Pleasures of this World and the Fear of going into the Torments of the next the Distraction of thy Thoughts and the Decay of thy Understanding will neither suffer thee to attend thy Prayers nor allow thee time to consider what to pray for O how ignorant how mad a Folly it is to delay our amendment till the Hour of Death What a mistake it is to believe that our dammage does not increase with that deceit and our deceit with that dammage What an Error to think I shall be better when I see and feel my self daily growing worse And that the end of my Life shall be good when the whole course of it from the beginning has been evil What a Cheat the Devil puts upon a Man to perswade him that when his Soul is torn out of his Body he shall be able to imploy himself in any thing else than to feel that strong Division between the Body and the Soul 6. This puts an end to the Sinner's Life this puts an end to his Delights this puts an end to his Acquaintance His Friends his Riches his Honour his Power all these must be left this is the thing that disquiets and afflicts him thither his Mind runs then where he had placed his contentment thither his sorrow his torture and confusion where he had rivetted his Heart His thought his care and his attention being taken up with what he loses and which is worse with what he fears he is in too great a Distraction to discourse of that which he should and which imports him most 7. And therefore if thou wilt live eternally die before thou diest Think of that now which thou meanest to think of hereafter Let not Death go out of thy Memory and so thou shalt amend thy Life Live and do all things as a Person that must die and thou shalt die to live for ever Thy Death shall be but a Passage not a Death and a passage to eternal Life not a dying to eternal Death MARCH The First WEEK Of the particular Account that each Man is to give immediately after his Death 1. NOW give ear and I will tell another thing more dreadful and terrible more quick and speedy and of more hazard and danger Anger than Death it self And that is the account thou art instantly to give with the Judgment and Sentence that shall be passed upon thee in particular at the Moment of thy Death What so soon Yes so soon scarce dead when already judged and Sentence past either to absolve or to condemn thee The Body is not yet quite cold upon its Bed And is the Soul judged already They are yet holding a Looking-glass to my Mouth to try whether I have any Breath left in me and is my Cause already dispatched concluded and sentenced The Body is not yet put into a Winding-sheet and is the Soul already judged and which is more the Sentence executed upon it Shall there not be a little delay Will they not allow me a little space to think how I may satisfie by some excuse the Charge that is brought against me Will they pluck me away and precipitate me so suddenly without having any thing to lay hold on when I am driven out of the Body without any thing to lay hold on when I am snatched to Judgment without any thing to lay hold on when I am hurried to execution without finding one moment of delay ere I receive the Sentence Is it possible that there is no place of refuge No retreat where I may stop a little though it were but at the foot of that very Judgment-seat where I am to be sentenced or at the Threshold of that Dungeon where I am to he imprisoned May not the Execution be suspended for a little while Is there no Chappel as I pass where a condemned Person may linger a while and pray between the Judgment-seat and the dismal place of Torment Is it possible that there is no other way either on the Right-hand or on the Left from Death to this account to this Judgment and to this Sentence whereby I may escape and hide my self Can I not turn back again Is it absolutely necessary I must be thrown headlong Must I needs swallow that bitter draught and be forc't to make that
a scandal to others as this wretched Person is to me Grant that I may detest the Vice but not the Man Convert him I beseech thee from the evil of his ways and so strengthen me in the Paths of thy Commandments that I may never fall away but persevere in them constantly unto my Live's end Of the Benefit of Preservation whereby we our selves have been delivered from particular Dangers Now if the Calamities of others when but look'd upon are a just Motive to us of Thankfulness how much more those we our selves have been freed from by particular Escapes God permitting us sometimes to fall into dangers that his Goodness and fatherly Care may be the more visibly manifested in our deliverance and that we may acknowledge our selves more obliged to remember them with Gratitude and to make him returns of Duty and Obedience Thou mayest be able to relate and express those he has shew'd to thee I will relate those done to my self though it be more easie to have a Sense of them than to express it I shall not need to insist upon his Benefits of doing one good since thou wilt know them by those of delivering me from evil Here the Author reckons up his particular deliverances which I omit to insert Do thou likewise Reader following his Example recount to thy self the chief of those dangers God hath preserved thee in which it concerns thee carefully to remember and gratefully to lay them to heart And when thou hast recollected as many as thou canst say with the Psalmist Praise thou the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Who forgiveth all thy Sins and healeth all thine Infirmities Who saveth thy Life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness I will always give thanks unto the Lord his praise shall ever be in my mouth O praise the Lord with me and let us magnify his Name together Of the Preservation of our Souls But is not the Preservation of the Body from corporal Death much less considerable than that of the Soul from spiritual Death Yes certainly There is no comparison between them for the former is only in order to the latter and when he saves us from any such dangers as those I have before-mentioned they are to mind us of our Mortality and to make us think in what condition we should have been if he had then snatch'd us suddenly out of this World His sparing us longer was only to give us a longer time to repent and to urge us to make use of it to the end that when he shall come again to take us away in good earnest he may find us prepar'd for Death in being reconciled to him by Repentance and newness of Life Thus in all the occasions wherein he delivered me from a Temporal he delivered me also from eternal Death affording me a longer time to break off and to forsake my Sins by a Repentance not to be repented of quick'ning my Faith to lay faster hold on my Saviour least I should be pluck'd away from him as I had like to have been while I was in so great an Error as to presume he would be held by me whilst I was loath to let go my sins as if it had been possible to embrace Christ and the World both at the same time How often when his Divine Majesty was ready to throw me justly into Hell with one hand hath he detained me with the other And when I was already condemn'd by his Divine Justice how often hath he saved me by his Compassion and Mercy How often when I was going nay running to throw my self into the infernal Flames hath this compassionate Lord stopt me in my Career and freed me from Temptations which were hurrying me to eternal Miseries How often hath he driven back the Devil who had seized me and was dragging me away when his Divine Majesty laid hold upon me rescued sustained and receivcd me pardoning my wickedness and embracing me in the Arms of his boundless Charity How often when being blind and foolish I went astray hath he sought me and brought me home How hath he called advertised reproved and counselled me by which means I was recovered and restored How often sometimes sleeping sometimes waking while I was dead to Grace but quick to Sin hath he rouzed me up called me and led me by the hand to make me forsake Sin and return to Grace Who then bound the Hands of his Justice who entreated for me when I was lull'd asleep in that sinful security What was there in me that I should find more favour than those that are taken away from amongst us in the midst of their days and in the heat of their youthful Lusts My Sins cried out against me but the Lord stopped his Ears My offences daily encreased against him and his Mercies abounded as daily towards me I sinned and he did expect me I fled from him and he followed me and when I was even weary in offending him yet his long sufferance was not weary in expecting me for in the midst of all my Sins I received many good Inspirations and Reproofs from his Holy Spirit which check'd me in my inconsiderate course of Life How often did he call me with the Voice of Love How often did he terrifie me with threats and fears laying before me the Peril of Death and the Rigour of his Divine Justice How often hath he followed me with his Word preached How often invited me with Blessings and chastened me with Crosses compassing me about and hedging my way with Thorns that I might not be able to break from him By all these holy Methods he made me at last to see the Vanity the Folly the Deceitfulness and even the Painfulness of Sin l found that it was dangerous and costly as well as slavish to be hurried up and down by the Tyranny of my unruly and vicious Passions I found I had no fruit of those things whereof I was afterwards ashamed and was at last convinced that the end of them was Death nay and death eternal Then did I fully resolve being assisted by thy Grace with an unchangeable purpose to alter my course of Life and to run the way of thy Commandments since thou hadst set my Heart at liberty My Soul escaped even as a Bird out of the Hand of the Fowler the Snare was broken and I was delivered O let me never again be entangled with the Birdlime of sinful Delights from which it is so hard to get disengag'd but grant I may now soar up to those Pleasures which are at thy Right-hand for evermore taking my flight freely to thee and to the Ark of thy rest for the Deluge of Wickedness that hath covered the Face of the Earth affords no safe place for the sole of my Foot O put forth thine hand to take me in to thee as Noah did the Dove
which is more hath given him Eternal Life freeing him from everlasting Damnation and not at so cheap a rate as words but by sweating Blood suffering Torments and giving up himself to Death even the death of the Cross Can this Benefit this Love this excess of Kindness find any in the World that can be compar'd to it And if we should be ungrateful for it or forgetful of it which in some sort is worse than to be ungrateful could there possibly be a greater wickedness O Lord suffer not me I beseech thee to be guilty of so great an Error of so great a Folly and of so great a Wickedness for such a strange want of Love and such an abominable Ingratitude cannot be thought of by any good Person without horror JVNE The First WEEK Of Baptism and Confirmation COnsider now what God hath done for thee in particular towards making thee a partaker of this high Benefit of Redemption for though Christ by his death paid a sufficient Price for the Souls of all Mankind yet thou no more than many others couldst have had no share in it hadst thou not been made a Member of his Body and how high soever the Benefit of Creation be it had been much better for thee never to have been born than not to have been made a Christian But what couldst thou a poor helpless Infant do towards the attaining so great a Benefit when thou didst not so much as know thy want of it Yet the Mercy of thy most Gracious God prevented thy desires and in his eternal purpose he determined thee to be one of that happy number that should be born of Christian Parents in that part of the World where the Gospel is most purely profess'd and where thou wert early consecrated to him in Baptism Thou wert brought to that Laver of Regeneration where the stains of thy Original Corruption were washed away in the Blood of Christ represented by the outward and visible sign of Water wherewith thou wert sprinkled to signifie thy death unto Sin and thy new birth unto Righteousness Thou wert baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost according to thy Saviour's Appointment By the Gate of that Holy Sacrament thou wert admitted into the Church and made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven being by Nature born in sin thou wert thereby made a Child of Grace Thus the second Covenant made with Mankind in Christ Jesus was sealed between God and thee which cannot fail on his part to be faithfully performed if thou be but careful on thine to do the best thou canst and to serve him with sincere if not with perfect Obedience Men use to envy those that are born of Noble Parents whose Care Power and Greatness may support and succour the naked weak and innocent Infants but O! what a Noble Birth is that of Faith What rich Mantles and Swadling-cloaths are the Coelestial Vertues That this little Creature shall no sooner be born but that at the same instant he comes into the care not of a weak frail Mother who lies unable to help her self by reason of the Pangs and Throws she suffer'd for the bringing of a Child into the World but of an Holy Perfect and Spiritual Mother which is the Catholick Church that cloaths him with the Robe of Grace an admirable Pledge of a safe and an eternal Inheritance in Glory That the Child should scarcely be born when already the Son of God as an invisible Minister doth by the visible hand of his Minister baptize and at the same time wash away sin from that Soul and fill it with Graces Gifts and Vertues This is an Honour which is indeed deservedly to be valued and a Benefit which can never be sufficiently admir'd From the time that the Water of Baptism washed off the filthy rags of Adam and cloathed thee with Grace in the Blood of the Lamb sin which had wounded thee before became wounded it self and whereas before it gave death from that time it suffered death In Natural Sicknesses the Remedies seldome reach to the Diseases and the Body when it is recovered hardly gets so great strength as what it lost by Sickness but in the Spiritual Sickness and in the Hurts and Diseases of the Soul it uses to be much otherwise for the wounded party recovers more strength and vigour when he is gotten up again than what he lost by falling into them The Devil ruined us but God is more powerful in good than he is in evil Sin destroy'd us and Grace renew'd us but Grace is more effectual to renew us than Sin to destroy us Our weak and ruined Nature was indebted Ten Thousand Talents but the Eternal Son of God hath satisfied the Debt not with Ten Thousand nor with an Hundred Thousand but with his Blood a Price of inestimable value Dost thou think that any thing can be more powerful than God Hath he not received thee into his Church by Baptism And hath not he on his part promised to protect to free and to assist thee Hast thou not passed through those Waters flying from the Enemy that pursued thee Did not that Red Sea of thy Saviour's blood open to give thee passage And did it not shut again to drown the Egyptian I mean Original Sin Then what hast thou to be afraid of Sing the Victory with Miriam and the Daughters of Israel which the Son of a better and a more glorious Myriam hath obtained for thee Is not God thy succour and thy hope Whom hast thou to fear Is not he thy defence and thy protection What dost thou dread When a man is once cloathed with the Grace of God in Baptism all his Enemies are but few By the Infusions of Grace thou oughtest to count Sin and Nature to be already conquer'd What signifies the Signing thee with the Sign of the Cross in thy Forehead but the marking thee out for a Souldier of Jesus Christ Be not therefore asham'd to confess the Faith of Christ crucified Thou art not only his Souldier but art furnished with Arms of his Magazine The Old Man is put away and thou art cloathed with the New and that New Man is Jesus Christ who enters into thy Soul to cloath it with himself and with his Graces for he enters to arm to defend to favour to protect and to assist thee The Field in which thou fightest is thine own for he strengthens and encourages thee in all encounters Thou fightest in the Militant Church whereof thou art a Member against which that Enemy with whom thou fightest can never prevail Great part of the Victory consists in the Advantage of Ground but all is favourable to thee from the time thou art entred into the Church That Entry by Baptism was the first Victory for the entrance it self was a Victory and that Victory a Triumph From that day Hell trembles at thee only because thou art a
it condemns him to Death though disswaded by his Wife upon her Dream from having any thing to do with that Just Person and delivers him to them to be crucified since all that was easier for such a mean complying Judge to consent to than to trouble and hazard himself in the further Defence of Innocency Yet that he might remain clear and spotless and honoured in the Opinion of the World in Condemning our Saviour he declares himself not guilty of his Blood and so he washes his hands and satisfies himself with laying the Crime upon others But what greater Infamy can a Judge be guilty of than to suffer the Accusers themselves to write and to sign the Sentence This being done our Blessed Saviour carries his Cross alone for a great part of the way to Mount Calvary and because they thought the time long of his getting thither they make Simon the Cyrenian help him to bear it that he might be there so much the sooner for it was not out of pity that they gave him that Assistance but it was an effect of their Cruelty nor did they intend it for any ease to his Life but for the hastening of his Death In his way to Calvary he is bewailed by the Daughters of Jerusalem leaving this Glory to the Women that they alone wept at the Passion of their Lord their Master and their Redeemer They strip his Body for the cloathing of our Souls and at the same time both Heaven and Earth were cloathed with Grief and Darkness to mourn for the Sufferings of their Creator They with rough hard Nails fasten the Eternal Son of God unto the Cross the Ingratitude of the Jews making him that requital for all his Divine Benefits Those blessed Feet that travelled up and down so many weary steps to seek Sinners that he might save and pardon them Those liberal Hands full of Charity and Beneficence are bored through and nailed by those very Persons whom he came to succour Not to acknowledge a good turn is Ingratitude and Wickedness what shall it then be to pierce both the Hands and Feet of ones Benefactor Then they raise up the Blessed Jesus upon the Cross and allow him the Superiority over two Thieves as fit Subjects for the King of that Royal Throne and by the same action they raise and exalt Man's Nature and advance it in a manner to be Divine When the Son of Man shall be raised up said his Divine Majesty he will draw all along with him It is clear he did so since by his most precious Blood he washed and redeemed them and with his most ardent Love he called and enflamed them O my dearest Lord God who wert wounded and despised crucified and crowned with Thorns and for my sins didst suffer so many torments upon the Cross I beseech thee by the Merits of them all O sweetest Jesus to pardon all my grievous Offences Since thou hast drawn up all draw me up also O most Gracious Saviour Do not suffer that most precious Blood to leave unwashed this Soul which confesses thee and acknowledges thee to be God Thy ardent Charity interceded to thy Father for those very Enemies that crucified thee How much rather then wilt thou be the Mediator and Redeemer of a poor Christian who confesses and adores thy Sovereign Majesty Behold admire and adore thy Suffering Saviour and bewail thy sins the cause of all his Sufferings Behold all Creatures in amazement to see their Creator in so woful a condition Behold the Heavens obscur'd at that Eclipse of his Heavenly Beauties Behold the Earth and all the Elements confounded at the awfulness of his Pains and Torments Behold how the Sun withdraws its Light not to see so horrid a Wickedness and so terrible an Ingratitude Behold even the very Rocks so softened as to cleave asunder in compassion What kind of hearts then are those that remain unsensible Lord suffer not mine to be one of them but let it melt with Love and Contrition to think of thy heavy Torments and of my hainous Offences The Vail of the Temple was rent in twain and shall my Heart be whole Shall not my Breast and all my Bowels open themselves to receive the Blood which thou sheddest for my Redemption Behold the Holy Virgin at the Foot of her Son's Cross who recommends her to the care of his beloved Disciple Behold how one drop of his Blood falling upon the good Thief was to him the Baptism of Life and eternal Condemnation to the Bad who knew not how to make his advantage of it He there made the Divine Nature propitious to the Human that it might be pardoned and by the last of those seven Words which he spake upon the Cross declar'd that by his Blood and Death he had finished the Work of our Redemption Then after having hung three Hours alive upon the Cross He that was the Life of Souls gave them Life by his Death and a Life eternal which Triumphs over Death for ever When he was dead the Souldier with a Spear pierced his most holy Side out of which came Water and Blood representing the two Sacraments and making a wide Door for holy Souls to enter and after other three Hours the Piety of his Friends takes him down from the Cross laying his precious Body in a new Sepulchre which was bestowed on him by the Charity of Joseph of Arimathea So he who during his Life had not a House to rest his Head in was so poor likewise at his Death that he had not so much as a Grave of his own to put his Body in There they sadly lament his loss and burying him in their Hearts as they had done in that Tomb they leave him there embalmed with Spices that as it was Prophesied of him he might be as the Rich in his Death and though there they leave him yet they carry him away with them in their remembrance that we by their example never may forget him After his sad and bloody Passion succeeded his Powerful Resurrection when he had conquered Hell as well as Death and then the Glorious Triumph of his Ascension to the end that Human Nature might not only be Redeemed but also Honoured and Crowned yet before he went up into Heaven he comforted his Mother and the Apostles to whom he several times appeared after his Resurrection to the end that their Joy for it might recompense the Sadness they had felt at his dolorous Passion He examined St. Peter thrice concerning his Love that by three Confessions he might purge away the Shame of his three Denials bidding him as often to feed his Lambs He signified to him by what death he should Glorifie God commanding them all to Preach the Gospel and assuring them that he would be with them to the end of the World Within few days after he made good his promise in sending them another Comforter for at Pentecost the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in fiery Tongues to the end
midst of Light and now unless he get assistance of the light of Grace by Prayer what will become of him And how shall he keep himself standing in the midst of so much darkness and so many confusions as he has been subject to ever since he was banished thence 3. What is our Nature but a Vessel of Passions and Miseries a seed-plot of Sins and of Misfortunes Consider Man in his Generation and thou shalt find him to be nothing but Corruption Behold him in the darkness of his Mother's womb and thou shalt find him a little lump of living filth Behold him taken Captive before ever he was at liberty and a Prisoner before he hath committed any Crime His Body scarcely formed and yet already shut up in a most obscure Dungeon Thus was he acquainted with darkness before he saw any light and came headlong crying into the World as an Omen of his precipitate Passions and future Miseries Yet alas that Captivity which his Body suffers in his Mother's Womb is less to be lamented than the other which his Soul suffers in his Body 4. Behold that is a Captive not only to corruption and filth as the Body for that were tolerable but also to the loathsomness of sin created to an Original Servitude and condemned to Troubles without number or measure To begin to be and to begin to be in Servitude is in Man one and the same thing We are all born Slaves of the common Enemy what have we then to be proud of Only one Man exempted himself from this hard Servitude for he was God All the rest fell all the rest are Tributaries without remedy 5. Man is born to suffer and to weep he forces out his way by the strait passages of Afflictions Pangs and Throws causing them to his Mother and sometimes even her very Death What kind of Creature is this that cannot come to life without hazarding to give or to receive death And who at the same time begins to live and to lament being accustom'd to Tears before he comes acquainted with Laughter But it is no wonder he should weep at his Mother's feet for being born seeing the miseries that expect him in the World The Body hath cause enough to bewail its innumerable pains and the Soul its innumerable sins Finally Man is born the most feeble and helpless of all Creatures being destitute of every thing and needing the succour of every body He is kept alive by the Alms Care and Compassion of his Parents being utterly unable to help himself and utterly useless to all others 6. In this sad condition God's mercy steps in and makes him His by the Water of Baptism He takes from him the â—…gs of the Old Adam and cloaths him with the Robe of Grace making him the Adopted Son of God by the blood of the Eternal Son of God O! happy he if his Fortune ended here and if in this Holiness and Innocency of Childhood he might pass from Grace to Glory But no alas he is not so happy for he grows up either to a greater Reward or to harder Sufferings The light of Reason no sooner begins to glimmer in him but presently his Appetite rushes forth to oppose it and that being commonly strong and powerful drags the other after it because it is weaken'd by the first fall unless it be assisted by God's Grace His Affections take birth with his Understanding and with them his Passions gather strength these grow and daily darken his Reason he lives a painful and vexatious life in a continual conflict sometimes falling sometimes getting up again and very often totally overcome and willingly yielding up the Victory His Life whilst an Infant is meer impotence whilst a Child ignorance whilst a Youth danger whilst a Man care when Old weakness pain and sorrow and his passage through all these Ages is frailty sin and folly In short he lives such a life that Death uses sometimes to be his Wish often his Refuge and always the great Remedy of his Miseries This is the external Man therefore do thou use thy endeavours to become an internal Man Conquer Nature by the help of Grace thy Appetite by that of Reason the Delights of the Flesh by Mortification the Deceits of the World by Prayer and even Death it self by a Religious Life The Second WEEK Of the Frailty of Man and of the Miseries of his Body THis is the Nature of Man in general Look now in particular upon the Body that gross and visible part of our frailty Job saith not that man's Body hath some miseries and troubles but that he is of few days and full of troubles Would'st thou see it They are so many that they commonly break forth because they cannot be contained within him and ever and anon that which afflicts him inwardly discovers it self outwardly in boyls and blisters in swellings and discolourings of the skin The Year hath fewer days than there be ways of dying suddenly and can any body live in so stupid a Lethargy as not so much as to dream of an Eternal Life The Year and even our Life hath fewer hours than there be Mortal Diseases in the Body as Naturalists affirm and can any one live forgetful of his Soul We may wonder how life can continue in the Body having so many Gates and Windows to get out at How is it possible that the four Humours which are Enemies to one another should agree and last together in so strait so narrow and so obscure a place as is man's Body Yet they do not agree but with a most obstinate strife and contest they do disorder and discompose our life What is the Body but a false and seeming Friend to the Soul yet in truth its certain and deadly Enemy What is the Body but a Vessel of Poyson which to day is not perceived yet kills to morrow What is the Body but a heap of loathsomness and corruption What is it but a living deceit which yet continually undeceives us if we would be undeceived and a security in appearance but a constant infelicity Whilst it is in Health it cheats us and never speaks truth but in Sickness so long as it lives it is a lye and never tells truth till it be dead 2. Our life is nothing but death in a disguise and when it has made an end of acting its part the Mask is pull'd off The most beautiful Body carries that within it which were sufficient to make it eternally fly from it self if it were possible so to do It is full of filth and corruption so loathsome and so nauseous that it is a scandal but to name them It is a source of Uncleanness and the wretched dwelling of Impurities which are so numerous that it was necessary to make many Common Sewers for them to run out at because there was not room enough for them within The Body is so frail that every thing hath a powerful Jurisdiction over it a little dust choaks it a little
fire consumes it a little water drowns it and even a blast of air destroys it Some have been seen to dye with Laughter others have been killed with Joy one is drown'd with a draught of Milk and another choaked with a Hair nay even a man 's own breath meeting with his own breath hath made an end of him with a Heicough In conclusion man's Body is the death of his very life can any thing be more frail and weak Can any thing be more death Or can any thing less deserve the name of life 3. O the deceit of Mortals that can be cheated with this Dunghill This gross corruptible and miserable part of us drags all the World Captive after it Shall we serve and pamper so vile and so base an Enemy Shall we sweat and take such pains for its Delights and Pleasures 4. No let us not do so Use thy Body as a Subject and let the Soul live as the Prince Ruling in it Let the better part of thee Command and the meaner Obey Let Reason take the Empire and let thy Appetite serve as a subdued Vassal Let Grace rule thy Reason and then let Reason be the Counsellor of thy Soul that it may Govern thy internal Monarchy in Holiness towards God and in Righteousness toward Man The Third WEEK Of the Miseries and Passions of the Soul 1. BUT take heed how thou sufferest thy Soul to Command unless it be obedient to the Command of God for alas neither is the Soul without its hazards The miseries thereof are not less but greater except it be govern'd by the Creator of both Body and Soul The Rational Soul was in its first beginnings sound and strong it became wounded by Adam's sin and though cur'd by Grace in Baptism yet the seed and inciter of sin still remains The Scar of that Wound is not yet worn out and there still remains a hard Exercise and Conflict of our Nature which is always rebellious till Grace bring it to subjection Our fleshly Appetite commonly governs and draws our Reason after it the Passions live triumphing in our Souls and keep the Vertues in Captivity 2. What mischiefs have been acted by Mankind that owe not their Original to the Passions of the Soul What does not the Devil owe to those fomenters of Crimes and to those Parents of so many miseries What Vanity or what Folly is there in the World that is not derived from the same source Behold the Cities and Kingdoms which man's Passions have set on fire and destroy'd Behold the Cruelties Murders Adulteries Robberies and other Abominations Behold Mortals concurring to hasten their mortality and thinking themselves ruined if they cannot ruine one another All these and innumerable other mischiefs are due to the Passions of the Soul 3. The Wars the Sieges the Battails and the Victories by which men so carefully seek the ways to destroy one another proceed from them Man's Nature being so blind as to call that Victory Happiness and Triumph which is the undoing the consuming and the extirpation of it self Consider those necessary Harms those unavoidable Misfortunes those bloody Cruelties the Killings Robbings Burnings and all those things which so many cannot live without and by this thou seest what Humane Nature is 4. He that poyson'd the Waters on purpose that whole Nations and Kingdoms might perish by them He that envenomed the Dust whereby numberless Persons died infected He that fed his Horses with the flesh of his Guests He that wished the whole Empire had but one Neck that he might cut it off at one stroke He that in a rage cut the Throats of thousands of his Neighbours The Enemies of the Faith that by wild Beasts and by their own Cruelty fiercer than that of wild Beasts tore in pieces and destroyed so many just and holy men so many innocent Martyrs and Confessors All these were hurryed to those Villanies by their Passions In conclusion whatever horrid Wickedness whatever hainous Crime man hath or shall commit proceed all from the Passions of the Soul 5. O how much greater are the ruines of Souls than those of Bodies The Body is brutish it obeys and does not discourse but the Soul hath the light of Understanding which should direct govern and preserve the Body and yet it kindles enflames and destroys the Body dragging it along with it self to utter Perdition 6. What do we see in this World but enormities of the Soul which the Body often pays for upon the Gibbet or the Scaffold The Whip the Rope the Hatcher the Galleys Banishment Imprisonment and many more Penalties of the Body are not sufficient for that multitude of wickednesses which are committed by the Soul It is for the Soul's Offences such multitude of Bodies are punished and yet the number of those Persons whose Crimes are pardon'd or not known doth far exceed that of those that suffer 7. Would'st thou know how great the miseries of the Soul and of its Passions are Measure it by the effects They extinguish the Light of Natural Reason in it and make it to become brutish and unnatural nay bruit Beasts have the advantage in very many things over passionate Men. See how temperate they are in comparison of Men When did the sincerity of Men equal that of the Dove When their Prudence reach that of the Serpent It is manifest never since the Eternal Son of God bids us to be wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves When did the Providence of Man equal that of the Ant It is manifest never since the Holy Spirit sends the improvident Person to learn of the Ant. When did his Meekness equal that of the Lamb It is manifest never since the Baptist gives that sweet Title of the Lamb to the Redeemer of the World 8. When was there ever seen so many Battels and Slaughters amongst Beasts as we see daily amongst Men Who ever saw Troops of Lions making War against other Lions Of Wolves against other Wolves Or of any other wild Beasts against those of their own kind Have our Fields ever had Armies formed of irrational Creatures Only Man is a Beast to his own kind Man is a Wolf to Man nay which is worse Man is a Man to Man for by what more reproachful name can he be called since men make such Wars as the fiercest of Beasts never do 9. When do Beasts practice that Sensuality and Uncleanness which Men are guilty of They content themselves at certain times to pay that debt to Nature which conserves their Kind When did irrational Nature seek to satisfie the Appetites of Gluttony How simple is their Diet how frugal how healthful and how natural This is the life of Beasts while we set our wits on work to procure our destruction by our Food and our death by vicious excesses in the nourishment of our life 10. Free our Souls O Lord from Passions which make them veryer Beasts than the Beasts themselves And what are we Lord if thou leavest us
Thy fear of his Judgment is so great because that of thy Sins is so little Thou livest in a course of wickedness and committest thy wickedness with boldness and even with greediness and then thou art afraid to be judged and that is because thou art to be justly condemned But thy chief and principal fear ought to be that of offending so severe a Judge and thy chief and principal hope ought to be that of being judged by so indulgent and so loving a Father It is the part of an unfaithful Servant not to dare appear before his Master's face and though he fears him yet he does not love him But a good Servant is glad to come to the Presence of his Master Every Call of his is a joy to him every Command a comfort and he runs chearfully to wait upon him at every knock but an evil Servant is afraid to see him because he was not afraid to offend him 10. Every sin thou committest unless thou repent of it is a rigorous Sentence against thy self every guilty action and every wilful transgression is a Criminal Article whereof thou accusest thy self at that Tribunal How is it possible for thee not to tremble and dread the Judgment and thy Account in the other Life if thou livest without Judgment and without Account in this Repent therefore pray and weep love and serve thy Judge here that thou mayest find him kind gentle and gracious hereafter He is a Judge that suffers himself to be gain'd in this life therefore use means to win his favour before he comes to Judge thee in his anger for thy having slighted and neglected to get his favour when thou mightest have done it Tremble with apprehension to see him in his wrath who may yet be appeased by the means I have shewed thee and who being reconciled first fills the Penitent's Soul with transports of his Love and after with those Joys and Pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore The Fourth WEEK Of the Vniversal Judgment at the end of the World 1. I AM something comforted with your Discourse says the Penitent but I have heard dreadful things of that great Day when all Mankind must rise to Judgment that horrible Trumpet which makes even the Dead to hear how much more the deaf does also make the heart to tremble and confounds the senses with amazement It is no wonder indeed that thou shouldst be dismayed at that which affrighted St. Hierome and very many other holy Men thou mayest very well tremble at that which they were afraid of 2. Who can choose but fear and tremble to see the whole Creation destroyed by the Creator of it and all the World consumed by his powerful hand Who can choose but fear the Signs which fore-run that Judgment those terrible Earth-quakes and horrible roarings of the Sea Who would not fear to see the Elements those preservers of Life to become its furious Enemies and fighting with one another to become the Ministers of Death Who can choose but fear to see the confusion of Mankind some calling on the Rocks to hide them others upon the Darkness to cover them all being full of terror and astonishment to see all sorts of miseries come together to bring our Nature to an end Who can choose but fear to see the Sun covered with a deadly Vail his light obscured that of the Moon extinguished the Stars also falling from their places and overwhelming the Generations of Men. Nothing to be heard but publick Complaints and Lamentations Cries Sighs and Groans nothing to be seen but Fears Dangers Losses Miseries and Confusions 3. Can any one choose but be affrighted to see the dead rise again by God's Command at the sound of that horrible Trumpet to take up the consumed and scattered pieces of their Body to cloath themselves therewith and each one unite it to his Soul that he may appear at the dreadful Judgment-seat of God waiting for the Sentence either of Eternal Life or of Eternal Death Who can choose but be amazed with fear to see the Almighty cloathed in Majesty to come down with the Court of Heaven armed with Justice to be exercised against sin and wickedness Who would not be dismayed to see the Creator hurle flames of fire against all he hath created to see Houses and Cities Palaces and Kingdoms burnt together and finally to see the whole World destroyed in that cruel and dreadful Conflagration Who would not even dye with fear to see so many Angels and so many Devils together divided from one another on the right hand and on the left expecting the word of Sentence to be put in execution The Angels carrying the good to Eternal Joys and the Devils dragging the wicked to Eternal Torments 4. How is it possible not to fear a Tribunal so dreadful a Judgment so terrible and a Sentence so formidable from whence there is no Appeal and the Execution whereof is either Life Eternal or Death Eternal for ever for ever for ever so that they shall know no end of that ever ever ever My Soul is astonished and amazed in the consideration of the Universal Judgment It is dismayed to think and to imagine all this which is but as a Dream thus represented to us in writing in comparison of what it will be and of what we shall see it in effect 5. Grant O Lord that I may tremble bewail lament and sigh deeply for my sins and wickednesses before I hear that killing Sentence pronounced against them by thy Divine lips Grant that my Tears and Repentance my Sorrow and Contrition may make my polluted Soul fit to be washed and purified by thy most precious Blood to the end I may never hear that confounding word Go ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 6. O give me grace to imitate the Martyrs in Faith the Confessors in Hope and the Blessed Virgin thy most holy Mother and all the rest of the Saints in Charity to the end I may hear that most sweet and most welcome call of Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 7. Oh that I had never offended thee my dearest Lord that I might not see thee offended Oh that I had ever served thee that I might see thee appeased Mercy sweet Saviour mercy in this Life that I may find it in the Judgment and in the Sentence of the Life to come Prepare me O Lord Jesus for my particular Judgment that I may be able to stand in thy Universal Judgment Have mercy upon me when thou shalt Judge me alone to the end thou mayest have mercy upon me when thou shalt Judge me and all the World together O grant I may live with such care to judge and call my self to an Account in this Life that the remembrance of that other which I must one day give to thee and my earnest endeavour to make my self ready for it may
never depart out of my mind Amen APRIL The First WEEK Of the Torments of Hell 1. OH what terrible things are these Death Judgment Account and Sentence without any Remedy Yet there are things more terrible than all these and they are viz. To be damned and to suffer the Torments of Hell to all Eternity Death is Life Judgment is Joy the Account is Pleasure and the Sentence is Delight in comparison of what it is to depart from thence condemned to be thrown eternally into Hell and Damnation and to suffer there those intolerable pains which a sinner hath deserved here This is that which makes Death terrible Judgment formidable the Account insupportable and the Sentence dreadful Actions are measur'd by their Successes and Causes by their Effects 2. If they had condemned me to lye for many years in some strait place and some narrow Dungeon and always in obscure darkness where mine eyes should never see the Light that were a great Evil but in Hell the darkness is far more horrible without the least hope of light 3. If they had condemned me for ever to suffer extremity of Torment though but in one Hand in one Foot or in any one particular Member that were a great Evil But in Hell the whole Body and Soul suffer together without having one part or Member free to comfort another and all of them suffering for ever and ever 4. If they had condemned me to some moderate pain of sense and such as might have been endur'd leaving my Thought and Understanding free yet that pain being for ever would be a very great Evil but that in Hell is far greater for the pains that are suffered there are unmeasurably sharper both in their intension and extension 5. If they had condemned me to lye among Gally-Slaves Traytors and Murderers the vilest and basest of Wretches men of abominable Life and worse Manners this were a great Evil to be tyed to such ill Company But they condemn me to be amongst utter Enemies who not only abhor but would fain destroy one another and themselves too to hear nothing else but Yellings and Blasphemies to see none but Tormentors executing their Rage and their Revenge upon the damned by a death that knows no death and an end that is still beginning and which keeps it duration even in the midst of Torment 6. If they had condemned me to some limited time though it were for a hundred years to suffer such sharp and terrible pains that were a great Evil since we see that one year of acute pain is insufferable how much more then for millions of millions of years But for ever for ever for ever to suffer innumerable and remediless Miseries and Torments which have no end nor limitation but must last eternally who can be able to suffer and undergo them 7. If they had condemned me to all these Sufferings in my Body alone leaving my Soul free that I might feel no more Affliction than what is caused by the Punishment of my Body that were an intolerable Evil but the torment which is felt within is greater than that without and more insufferable is that excess of grief and anguish which the never dying Worm of Conscience gives unto the Soul than all the pains and torments which are laid upon the Body These are as it were the body of Hell but the soul of it is the torment of the Soul far more intolerable and disconsolate Yet this is but a slightdraught a very remote and faint description of Hell in general consider it now in particular The Second WEEK Of the Place of Hell 1. COnsider now the Place of Hell the Habitation of Devils the horrible dwelling of the Damned A dwelling that is no dwelling a habitation that is no habitation a place that is no place but horror darkness fire torment and confusion There is nothing in those unhappy Prisons that speaks order there is nothing that speaks distinction all is disorder all is contrariety all flame and yet all obscurity All that is seen there is fire and flame which do torment but not enlighten The Place where those miserable wretches are condemned is Sorrow their Rest is Affliction their Food is burning and their walk a passing from one terrible pain to another more intolerable 2. The Lodgings of that horrible Palace are Racks and Tortures the Halls and Galleries are fire and its continuance the Chambers and Closets are vexation and anguish the Windows are darkness and the Light is to see nothing but miseries and woes Think what they shall do and suffer there who here imploy all their care and spend all that Money which they owe to the Poor in sumptuous Buildings in stately Appartments in costly Furniture in curious Pieces and in rich Accomodations 3. Nature does require ease comfort joy light and cheerfulness but the Damned shall there find pain affliction grief sadness and obscurity How much does a Man suffer lying in a dark Dungeon Nay how tedious it is to suffer an easie Bed if a Man be kept there but two or three Years nay but two or three Days by any sharp infirmity his weariness makes it a severe and a heavy Punishment How much does a Man suffer being fastened to the Bank of a Gally a Chain at his Foot an Oar in both his Hands and his Shoulders exposed to cruel Lashes But alas how spacious and lightsome are Dungeons How pleasant is a sick Bed and how delightful are Gallies and the sharpest Pains of this mortal Life in comparison of those unutterable Sufferings of the Damned in Hell 4. Man's Nature desires fair Houses large and cheerful Appartments but that is a place strait close and narrow for the pain of it and only great wide and spacious in the lasting of that pain Nature requires room and liberty to walk to dilate the Heart and cheer the Senses but that is a place where the Limbs have no Motion the Heart no Enlargement and where the Senses on all sides meet howlings tortures griefs stenches fire and confusion Nature requires a place to delight and recreate it self But that place is all misery and discomfort torments and more torments Losses Sorrows and Sufferings without end without measure and without remedy 5. Finally the place of Hell is a place of calamities even beyond all imagination and of extremity of tortures for an eternal Duration It s limit is to repeat eternity it ceasing to be is a new beginning and a continual repetition of torment 6. Now all this being so is there any one that believes it who would not suffer here to the end he may not suffer hereafter Woe be to thee and me if we do not consider here and endeavour to prevent what is prepared and what expects us there Woe be to thee and me if we do not examine weigh and bewail the times wherein we have offended that eternal Judge who condemns the most part of Mankind to that infernal abode for not considering these things
here while he gives them time to do it and for neglecting his many calls both of mercy and chastisement and thereby making Hell to become their own choice 7. Is it possible O my Jesus that I have chosen that horrible place by choosing Sin and continuing in it Yes for God set before thee Life and Death Blessing and Cursing and left the Election to thy self Why then Lord if I have hitherto chosen Death and that accursed place by sinning grant I may get out of it before I go into it and that by repenting by forsaking my sins and by relieving thy poor Members I may gain thee to be my Saviour and at the last day be called to thee with those comfortable words Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for you from the Beginning of the World The Third WEEK Of the Company of the Damned and of their pain of Sense 1. IF that terrible Abode were only a wide empty space though sad obscure and afflictive to the Wicked yet without such ill Company it might be more tolerable But the fierce and cruel Inhabitants and their hateful Company is worse and more intolerable than the place it self None but Devils and damned Persons are the Neighbours of that infernal City The Devils that are busily inflicting Tortures and the damned most impatient in suffering them raging and blaspheming with incredible Fury Nothing is heard there but the noise of the Lash and the cry of those that feel it a sighing without comsort a groaning without ease an eternal Woe and alas an endless weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth 2. Their Lamentations are Oaths Curses and Blasphemies they rage despair and they belch out Vengeance without Revenge and Wrath without Satisfaction O good Jesus The hearing of one Curse the hearing of one Blasphemy is sufficient to pierce a Heart and afflict a Soul What will it then be to hear so many horrid Curses and Blasphemies This may be reckoned the very Hell of Hell it self But alas Lord the Damned do not only hear and suffer them but also utter them and that is yet much worse and more to be abhorred Rather O Lord let me suffer a Hell without pains but without Sins and Blasphemies than a Hell of Sins and Blasphemies without any other pain 3. In that unhappy and calamitous City and among those wretched Citizens all their Peace is Discord all their Quiet War all their Comfort Anger all their Order is Division Disagreement and Confusion Imagine thou didst behold a City where the Inhabitants went up and down killing and burning one another with Swords and Fire-brands in their Hands here loud Complaints there louder Cries here Rage there Death and Desperation Such a place were peaceable and quiet in comparison of the Hatreds Fightings and Discords that are in Hell For those at last come to an end when the Inhabitants have made an end of one another But these instead of ending are always beginning a new The Sufferings of those have some measure and limitation but these have no degree below infinite nor any limit short of Eternity and finally the Companions Friends and Neighbours of that dismal Abode are only the Devils and the Damned most inveterately hating and abhorring themselves and one another 4. Think how the nice and delicate Person will be able to endure this surly boisterous Company who by being used to suffer nothing that can cross his tender Inclination is become too haughty and insolent to bear the Company of his own Family or so much as bear with patience the attendance of his Servants How will the proud scornful and dissolute Woman endure to see her self encompassed with Devils and with Souls as proud and imperious as her self who cannot endure the Company of that Husband which God has given her How will the tyrannical Governour be able to suffer so many Devils to be his Superiors and to tyrannize over him who cannot suffer his Inferiors though Loyal and Obedient to live quietly under him And how will the rebellious Subject be able to suffer so many infernal Princes to exercise over him the Empire of their cruel Wills who never can suffer one good just and moderate Sovereign ruling him according to the Laws 5. Oh if thou didst turn the Eyes of thy Consideration another way and didst see loose and sensual Persons instead of the delightful Embraces of their lustful Lovers embraced and inflamed by Vipers and fiery Basilikes and suffering unexpressible Torments without any remedy or comfort If thou didst see the Scornful the Proud the Haughty trampled upon by Devils dragg'd and despised by them and burning in unquenchible Fire If thou didst see the ambitious Grasping at the top of Flames and Smoak and for ever suffering the Thirst which that of their ambition kindled here in so short a Life If thou didst see the rich covetous Miser in eternal beggary and nakedness without any other plenty but of Fire Torment Anguish and Affliction If thou didst see the beautiful and lascivious Woman whose Sins and Vanities carry her to Hell there become ugly loathsome and abominable her Body parched with flames and her Soul racked with vexation and despair If thou didst see the debauched Clergy-man who instead of guiding Souls to Heaven by his Doctrine brings many to Hell by his evil Example tormented there in living Flames his holy Orders much increasing his punishment and what was here his Honour and his Ornament becoming there the greatest Aggravation of his Crimes If thou didst see the Glutton and the Drunkard the Epicure and the Libertine there hungry and thirsty lean and pale all their Delights reduced to Fire and Brimstone without one drop of Water to cool or quench their thirst and instead of their delicate meats to be now devoured themselves and gnawed for ever by the Worm of their own Consciences If thou didst see all this and heard'st so many sad Cries and woeful Lamentations so many Curses Blasphemies and Confusions If I say thou didst see hear and well consider all this Ah! how much more careful would'st thou be to see to hear and to live otherwise than thou hast done hitherto Therefore go down into Hell by consideration while thou livest that thou mayest not go down into it by condemnation when thou diest Look well upon it thus and behold it now to the end thou mayest not be thrown into it now by Meditation to the end thou mayest never see it any other way nor be there compelled to feel the weight of God's wrathful Indignation The Fourth WEEK Of the Duration and the Pain of Loss and of the Worm of Conscience 1. IS there any Evil in Hell greater than this Can there be any other greater Yes there is yet another greater and more cruel than all these and that is the Eternity of them 2. If these horrible Misfortunes Torments and Miseries were to last for a Hundred thousand Years or for a hundred Millions of Years and that then
nothing can despoil thee of thy Will or hinder the freedom of its Operations Thou canst choose or refuse act or not act and art exempt from that fatality whereby inanimate Beings are mov'd Thou hast no necessity upon thee to determine thy Actions this or that way nor art thou led by Natural Instinct with the Brutes to pursue those things which make for thy good but by Election and Choice having an absolute liberty either to follow or reject what is outwardly represented to thee Thou canst not be compelled to do such things as are evil and prejudicial to thee but 't is purely thine own act The Devil himself that great Tempter can only sollicit and allure perswade and entice thee he cannot force thee to do any immoral Action nor all the Powers of Darkness much less have men any Authority over thy Will They must obtain thy consent before they can draw thee into sin and thou must will the evil before thou canst act it 'T is in thy power whether thou shalt follow the Counsels and Suggestions of wicked men or whether thou shalt refuse to be led by them nor is it possible that thy Will should be driven by compulsion or violence to the prosecution of Objects which it does not first seek and desire Consider then the greatness of this Gift and study how to express thy gratitude to God for it Since he has made thee Agent and given thee Election take heed that thou direct thy Choice to such things as tend to his Honour and thine own Benefit Be sure to govern thy Will by the Rule of Reason and let no Passions or Temptations prevail to vitiate or corrupt it for otherwise that which is in itself a great Blessing will prove to thee a Curse and an Instrument of Misery Remember thou art under a Moral though not a Natural Restraint that 't is thy Duty to will only such things as are good and honest though thou hast power to embrace the contrary God leaves thee to thy freedom whether thou wilt obey him by practising such Duties as he hath commanded in his Word and be saved or whether thou wilt disobey him by pursuing those Vices which he has forbidden and be damned He leaves it to thy choice whether thou wilt use the means that lead to Eternal Life or to Eternal Death Be not therefore so regardless of thy Happiness as to choose Misery and so utterly unthinking as to make Damnation thine own choice O consider how much depends upon the due regulation of thy Will and labour to restrain its unbounded freedom within the limits of thy Duty Apply it only to Vertue and Goodness and thy Reward shall be a Crown of Glory and everlasting Peace The Second WEEK Of the Institution of Matrimony GOD having Created Man and perfectly furnish'd him with suitable Faculties did next provide him a meet Help and a comfortable Companion blessing them for the propagation of Mankind by the Institution of Matrimony and though it was abus'd by Polygamy yet Christ afterwards reduc'd it to its Primitive state telling the Jews that from the beginning it was not so for Male and Female created he them He himself honoured that State by being born of a Virgin betrothed to an Husband with whom she lived as in Wedlock He honoured it also by being present at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee working there a wonderful Miracle which was his first He communicates particular Graces and Gifts to it First that of Fidelity to Husbands to the end that a Man who ought to give Example to his Wife may not run into that which is forbidden by forsaking that which is allowed him and to the Woman that she may not be false and treacherous to her Husband And as it is a Bond which cannot be untyed so nothing should untye the Affections of their hearts To this Grace of Fidelity and reciprocal Chastity he gives that of Patience to enable them to bear the burdens of Marriage which are great That the Wife should bear the condition of her Husband and that the Husband should provide Maintenance for the Wife and that both carrying that holy Yoke upon their shoulders may go on with equal steps in the ways of Vertue and Religion taking care of their Children and Family with Humility and Prudence This Patience is the seasoning of that Holy State without which the married Pair must be undone Where there are Troubles Patience is necessary as Remedies are where there are Wounds The Soul and Body how close soever united yet are not always at agreement with themselves but ever and anon there are Quarrels between them How then shall the Husband and Wife agree always who though they be two in one flesh as the Soul and the Body yet they are two several Persons and each in itself remains one One of the great wonders of the Grace of this Holy Institution is to preserve two Persons of several Sexes and often of contrary Conditions and Humours united together which is done by Patience A great Miracle To live tied to one another with that strict Bond and yet to act with quietness and tranquillity each seeking the good of the other as much as their own Who but God could bring Peace out of Diversity and Concord out of Contrariety And though married Persons do frequently live in Discord that is not the fault of the Institution but our misery and frailty which throws away the Grace and Benefit which might be receiv'd from it If a rich man should offer me his Riches and I turn away from him Is he ever the less rich because I refuse them If the Sun enlightens me and I shut my Windows and do choose darkness does it cease to give light because I will not see it This Institution is light is holy is pure If the married Couple do not dispose themselves to receive it If they choose Discord rather than Agreement to persecute rather than to bear with one another and to hate rather than to love one another this they may do without being married for there be many that live in Dissention besides Men and Wives but to live to agree to be united in affection and to have a mutual complyance for so long a time as the whole Life nothing but the Grace of God giving a Blessing to them can effect as he does in those who dispose themselves for such Attainments Thus if there be disagreeing Couples it is because they do not conform themselves to serve and to please God who is the Author of those Blessings and if they would but reconcile themselves to God they would soon be reconcil'd in Peace to each other The Holy Ghost tells us that Zachary and Elizabeth were righteous before God walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God blameless and thence it was that they lived peaceably together If the chief Wheels in a Clock be in disorder the less cannot move regularly A Bone out of Joynt gives great
I come with the Olive-branch of Peace in my mouth the Merits and Intercession of the Prince of Peace I have nothing else to plead but by them and by them only I hope to be received and kept from ever departing from thee any more If thou hast not been so great a Sinner as I art thou less bound to God for preserving thee from it than I for being pardon'd and reclaimed Shall the Benefit by thee be accounted less because it is really much greater Does the Hand that saved me from a Wound do me a smaller kindness than that which cures me when I am wounded Or rather is not the benefit of Preserving much the greater by saving the Blood I should have lost by the Wound and the Pain I should have suffered in the Cure For though it require a greater Power to lift me up when I am down than when I am up to keep me from falling yet to me the Benefit is more worth which prevents me from a Mischief than that which gives me remedy when I am in it Thus have I seen O God for how many Benefits I am indebted to thee notwithstanding my many Sins O let not an horrible Ingratitude be the last and greatest of them all Man's Laws have ordained no Punishment for that infamous Crime either because they did not believe that any thing in the World could be so bad as an ungrateful Person or that they could find no Punishment proportionable to so great a Crime The wildest and the most savage Breasts are grateful to their Benefactors and good turns have tamed the fiercest Lions but we more savage than the furious Beasts are so far from Gratitude that on the contrary we each moment offend our most gracious Benefactor But suffer us not O Lord to do so any longer and let the greatest of all thy Benefits be to make us thankful for them and with the humblest Devotion of our Souls to acknowledge that the Number of them is infinite and their Nature most transcendent Of the Guard of Angels We have seen how watchful the All-seeing Eye of God's Providence is for the Preservation of our Souls and Bodies The Holy Jesus tells us that without it not so much as a Sparrow falls to the Ground how much less a Man who is more worth than many Sparrows And to express his great Care of our smallest concerns he says that even the very Hairs of our Head are numbred Thus dwelling under the Defence of the most High and abiding under the Shadow of the Almighty any other Protection might be thought wholly needless yet God as subordinate to that hath out of his super-abundant Love to Mankind been pleased from the Beginning of the World to protect them particularly by the Guard of Angels for having created those Blessed Spirits in distinct Hierarchies and Choirs the chiefest of them he applied principally to the Worship and Veneration of himself and appointed others to serve him in the Succour and Assistance of Humane Nature We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that they are Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister to those that shall be Heirs of Salvation And their forwardness to obey God in all things that relate to the good of Man is seen in many places of the Scripture HEre the Author having cited many places where Angels have been employ'd for the Service or for the Punishment of Mankind makes a long Discourse whereby he endeavours to establish their Doctrine of adoring and praying to Angels and proceeds with great Devotion therein but here our Church forbids us to go along with him allowing us to search the Scriptures where we find express Texts and Examples flatly to the contrary thus we read in the Revelation that when St. John was going to fall down and to adore the Angel he was strictly forbidden by him saying See thou do it not for I am thy Fellow-servant Worship thou God And we have a plain Text fore-warning us to take heed that no Man deceive us by a voluntary Humility and the Worshipping of Angels St. Paul was wrapp'd up into the Third Heaven and yet he makes no relation of those blessed Inhabitants but says he saw what it was not lawful for Man to utter and the Scripture tells us that things secret belong unto the Lord but the things that are revealed belong to us We ought therefore to content our selves with them and not to be wise beyond Sobriety but while they pretend not only to know particularly the Names and Ranks of the several Choirs in each Hierarchy but also the particular Business and Employment of every one of them Our part should be to acknowledge how infinitely we are indebted to God for his Goodness towards us and to raise our Minds to the highest Admiration and Reverence of God's unspeakable Power in Creating them and to the most ardent Love of his Goodness in employing their Ministry for our Benefit but most especially for that happy Message brought by the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word which was the beginning of our Redemption and for the joyful News of his Nativity delivered to the poor Shepherds by an Angel when suddenly a Multitude of the heavenly Host sung Glory to God on high c. How can we forbear to cry out with the Psalmist Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou regardest him Thou madest him lower than the Angels to crown him with Glory and Honour Instead of praying to them let us lift up our Minds and Prayers to the Creator of them and in Thankfulness for all Mercies join with that blessed Choir to magnifie him Let us beseech him that hath ordained and constituted the Services of Angles and Men in a wonderful Order mercifully to grant that as his holy Angels always do him service in Heaven so by his appointment they may succour and defend us on Earth through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen The Fourth WEEK Of the Benefit of Redemption WE are come now to the utmost top of all the Divine Benefits which requires a most attentive Consideration Our great Creator in the making of Man designed a most wonderful Union between his Soul his Body and his God Three things so vastly distant and so strangely different that nothing but Omnipotency could have joyn'd them together for what can be more different than a dead Clod of Earth and a living immaterial Soul What can be more distant than a Soul dwelling here below in the narrow Limits of an Earthly Body and the Divinity of an infinite and an eternal God who dwelleth in the highest Heavens and whom even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain In this blessed State he was placed in the Garden of Paradice where nothing was forbidden him but the Tree of Knowledge and with this Covenant that if he continued in obedience he should never die but be translated from that Earthly to an
Christian and now no body can destroy thee but thou thy self and thou art told by the Word of Truth that the greatest outward Enemy the Devil will flie from thee if thou dost but resist him Thou canst not but be greatly chear'd with these Encouragements and much comforted by seriously considering what thou hast received in Baptism We Christians certainly ought never to lose the sight of that Benefit but still to reflect upon the greatness of it with thankful hearts Yet we ought not only to look upon what God hath done for us but also to think upon our part of this Covenant and to weigh the Duties we are oblig'd to by it Remember that thy God fathers and God-mothers when thou wert baptized did promise and vow in thy Name that thou shouldst forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh as likewise that thou shouldst believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith contained in the Apostles Creed and finally that thou shouldst keep God's Holy Will and Commandments contain'd in the Decalogue and walk in the same all the days of thy life The Church appointed them to do this for thee as thy Sureties because at that time by reason of thy tender Age thou wert not able to make much less to perform these Promises but being come to Understanding thou art bound to take that Vow upon thy self and they may properly be called God-fathers and God-mothers because in the mean while it is their Duty to take care that their God-Children as they grow up may be taught what a Solemn Vow Promise and Profession they have made for them and to cause them to be instructed both in the Articles of the Creed and in the Ten Commandments Moreover if at any time they shall hear them speak or see them do any thing contrary to that Divine Law they ought to put them in mind that they promised and vowed the contrary in their Baptism But O! how little of this care is there in the World there is nothing more neglected or forgotten than this Duty of God-fathers yet I hope not generally I cannot have such hard thoughts for though I must needs confess it is too much slighted yet certainly there be many that have a due regard of it But since Children when they grow to Age are themselves bound to perform what was promised in their Names by their God-fathers and God-mothers They may in great part discharge themselves when they take care that their God-children be so well Instructed in the Christian Religion as to know the Duties that Vow engages them to and when being of years able to renew that Covenant and to take the charge of their Souls upon themselves they shall have perswaded them upon serious consideration so to do and have brought them to the Bishop to be Confirmed according to that Order which the Wisdom of the Church hath established appointing all the Members thereof to be so or at least to be ready and desirous to be so before they be admitted to the Holy Communion The Bishop by whose Ministry this Office is performed first causeth the Parties who are to be Confirmed to make an open Confession in the Publick Congregation that they do renew the Promise and Vow that was made in their Name at their Baptism ratifying and confirming the same in their own Persons and acknowledging themselves bound to believe and to do all those things which their God-fathers and God-mothers then undertook for them He also prays to God to strengthen them by the Holy Ghost the Comforter and daily to increase in them his manifold Gifts and Graces the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly Strength the Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and to fill them with the Spirit of his holy Fear for ever Lastly he lays his hand upon each Child and blesses him as our Saviour did upon those Children that were brought to him and concludes beseeching God to direct sanctifie and govern both their Hearts and Bodies in the ways of his Laws and in the works of his Commandments that through his mighty Protection both here and ever they may be preserved in Body and Soul through our Lord Jesus Christ Much are those Parents and Sureties to be blamed that omit to bring them to this Order of Confirmation it being a great benefit both to the Sureties in the discharge of their Obligation and to the Children who are duly fitted and prepared for it for they are thereby awakened to an early sense of Religion and to a future endeavour of performing their Duty in it When Young Plants are removed out of their Nurseries and set in the open Field it is necessary to fence them about with Stakes to hinder their being crop'd or trodden down by Beasts and it is no less necessary thus to confirm and strengthen new beginners in Christianity that they may be the better guarded at their coming into the open World against the dangerous approach of brutish Men. Such Branches as are so engrafted into the true Vine God doubtless vouchsafes to water with his Grace and though in weak measure at first yet if they continue to take firm Root he will not fail to make them thrive and bring forth good Fruit. Those gifts of the Spirit prayed for on their behalf will likewise through his Mercy increase till they become so many strong Bulwarks to defend their Souls against the Common Enemy within which they may stand safe to fight according to their Vow against the World the Flesh and the Devil Remember therefore always the Obligation that lies upon thee by that Vow We are engaged in our Childhood to that which we neglect when we are grown up whereas being grown up we should be careful to perform that which our Sureties promised for us when we were Children Keep then still in mind that thou art a listed Souldier forget not in what Army thou art enroll'd what Captain thou art to follow what Fidelity thou hast sworn to him and fight valiantly even to the death rather than suffer thy self to be overcome by the subtil Perswasions and Devices of his and thine own Enemies The Souldiers of this World for a very small hire keep Fidelity to their General they fight and die for him without any other bond or tye than that of some little piece of Money ill paid and yet they give their blood and daily venture their life for that Pay whereas we Christians the Souldiers of Jesus Christ listed under the Ensign of his Cross assisted by so many Benefits of Grace being Heirs and Co-heirs of Glory and having Heaven for our Pay do frequently desert our Colours like vile infamous Cowards and by sin treacherously fly over into the Enemies Camp The Souldiers of the World fight to defend their King or their General but here our General fights and gives his Blood and his Life for the
upon the Cross purchasing our Redemption by his Death the Merits and Benefits whereof shall therein be assur'd and convey'd to thee as a Pledge and Seal of thy Pardon Apply it to thy self with an humble Confidence in his Promises with a firm Faith that his Blood was shed for thee since thou art admitted to be a partaker thereof That Divine Antidote is not only to be thy Medicine but thy Nourishment and receiving it with lowliness and Devotion thou shalt not only find Grace but the Author of Grace thou shalt not only find the Guide but the Way the Comfort and Support of the Spirtual Life If he be God Eternal the Son of the Eternal Father whom thou receivest into thy Breast art not thou certain that all his Vertues and Attributes enter with him If in receiving him I make him not only my Guest but also my Lord and Ruler I become one with him as the fire which heats the Iron is united with it If his Goodness be in me when I receive him how is it that it does not abolish my Wickedness If his Omnipotency why does it not take away my Weakness If his Love be in me why does it not expel my Luke-warmness If his Purity and Chastity why don't they chase away all my Defilements A PRAYER O Eternal and Coelestial Light O my Redeemer and Soveraign Master and Physician O sweet Spouse of my Soul What is it that hinders the Operation of so great a Light in me but that my Soul is in so thick a Mist of Darkness What is it that can hinder the admirable Effects of thy Grace in me but the wickedness of my ungrateful heart What keeps the Divine Strength and Power from waking but my great coldness and hardness of heart What hinders thee O Heavenly Physician from curing the Diseases of my Soul but that it loves them and abhors the Remedy What hinders thy Sheep O Heavenly Shepherd from receiving the Coelestial Food thou offerest them but their being lost and running astray after sensual Delights the Poyson of their Vices What hinders the amorous Embraces and Favours of this loving Bridegroom but the ungrateful forgetfulness of his Spouse My heart gives it self up to worldly Loves and so does not perceive these glorious Pleasures What keeps my Soul from receiving the Graces and Favours which my King entring into it would bestow but the Passions and Rebellions wherewith it is fill'd What hinders me from hearing the wholsome Counsels of my most wise Instructor or if I hear them from following them but that my Passions make me deaf to his Inspirations or weak and unable to follow those which I have heard O Lord my God and my Redeemer All my Sickness is in my self all my Cure is in thee O my God since thou dost vouchsafe to enter into me stay there and deliver me from my self I am mine own Enemy no body can hurt me if I hurt not my self Free me from that inward Enemy O dear and potent Friend Thou art the strength of Heaven Thou art the succour of the Weak and I am weak Thou art the light of the Blind and I am blind Thou art the comfort of the Afflicted and I am afflicted Thou art the Shepherd of lost Sheep and I am one of them Thou art the pardoner of the Ungrateful and I am even Ingratitude itself What can Cure so great an Ignorance but thy Heavenly Wisdom What can take away or destroy so great a wickedness but thine Infinite Charity What can cleanse so many Defilements but thine ineffable Purity What can give strength to my feeble Soul overwhelmed with Vices but the Infinite Power of thy Glorious Vertues Have I thee here within me and wilt thou not Cure me I will not believe it Lord. Art thou one of those that see their Friends in the Sea of their Troubles and suffer them to be drowned Art not thou He who alone art able if thou wilt to appease a Tempest Art not thou He who stretch'd forth his hand to Peter when he was sinking in the waves Art not thou He who sleeping in the Ship didst awake and calm the Sea when it was ready to be swallowed up Art not thou He who walked'st upon the Waters of the Sea only to help those that were in them Art not thou He who both by Sea and Land in Mountains Towns and Cities wert the Universal Remedy both of Souls and Bodies For to whom thou gavest Grace in the one thou also gavest Health in the other Art thou less able in my Soul than thou wert in Judaea and Palestine Is not thy Power as great to Cure Souls now as it was to Cure Bodies then since thou didst therefore Cure their Bodies that thou mightest the better Cure their Souls Is thy skill less now adays O Omnipotent Physician than it was in those times Does not thy Immense Charity rather increase if it be possible for it to receive any augmentation Does not every one of thy Benefits call a great many more after it Canst thou do any thing else than give more and more and more Art not thou All-powerful O my Jesus Art not thou all Love and Goodness And art not thou infinitely Wise If then thou art both able knowing and willing How is it that I feel not the effects of thy Power Goodness and Wisdom It is true I have very often resisted them all but now I penitently yield my self up to them now I humbly prostrate my self I call I seek and adore the Author of my Remedy Enter into me O Lord my Glory Cast out of me all Humane Resistance and though wretch that I am I did resist thy Vertues I will no longer resist thy Remedies I desire O my God to desire Lend thy helping hand and banish all that can separate me from thee Drive out of me all that Will which opposeth thy Blessed Will O Lord God I believe as another incredulous Person said help thou my unbelief and my obdurate Nature which is the Original of all my harm I believe I will I desire I love I seek I weep O merciful Lord O Eternal and Heavenly Light pardon and banish my want of Love my Coldness my Ingratitude and my Forgetfulness I would fain desire but I know not how to desire I would fain work but I know not how to work but since thou entrest into me O my Jesus work thou in me Separate from me and destroy in me all that hinders and detains me from serving from loving from following and adoring thee Let that Love of thine which was enflamed with the love of me conquer and expel this ungrateful want of love Let thy Light drive away my Darkness and thy Goodness my Wickedness Finally O Lord make thy self Master of me of my heart of my will and of all my Faculties and carry my Soul thy Captive in the Triumph of thine Infinite Love These are the breathings thou oughtest to send forth from the bottom of thy
frequently receive and consecrate the Sacrament were they that fear'd him most and within that Humility Reverence and Fear they found the Treasures of Love O what tears of Fear did they shed at the receiving of it What fire of Love did they find in their Breasts by being so united to their Saviour What high knowledge sprang up from the depth of their Humility and Fear What Faith in believing and adoring him What Hope in seeking him and what Charity in finding and possessing him They did as St. Peter did at the first knowledge of his Master's Divinity in the Miracle of the draught of Fishes when throwing himself prostrate at his feet he said Depart from me O Lâ—rd for I am a sinful Man The Apostle runs to his Master's feet and at the same time prays him to depart from him His high fear makes him beg that he would depart and his ardent Love makes him at the same instant to draw near that approach was caused by Love and the bidding him depart proceeded from fear Thus at the Communion be thou all Humility Fear and Acknowledgment that thou art unworthy to receive so great a Lord but yet knowing thy unworthiness thou oughtest so much the rather to approach so high a Majesty with Love as well as with Fear and Humility That Fear which separates us from God is never a good Fear for where but in God can we find the Perfection both of Love and Fear O eternal God is not thy Goodness communicable Art not thou a God who givest thy self and makest all Creatures to participate of thy Goodness Then why shall not we come to this Communion and receive this communicable Good Art not thou Goodness and Liberality it self who bestowest thy Treasures upon all Didst thou institute this Sacrament in Bread and Wine to the end that Men should only see it and not receive and eat it Why didst thou leave thy self in this manner amongst Men but to be their Support and Nourishment When thou didst consecrate this Coelestial Bread didst thou not receive it first of all thy self and then give it unto thy Holy Disciples Thou knewest O Lord their Imperfections and that they would forsake thee and deny thee that very night yet thou gavest them remedy in thy blessed Body for without that their fall and their loss had been much greater O eternal Glory dost thou seek me and shâ—ll not I receive thee Dost thou come from Heaven to seek me and shall I fly out of the Church that I may not receive thee Thou comest O eternal Shepherd to be both my Shepherd and my Food and shall I poor lost and wandring Sheep refuse this Food and refuse to be born upon those blessed Shoulders Didst thou shed thy Blood to give it me for drink and was thy Body broken that I might feed upon it and shall I shut my Lips and my Heart and Soul against this meat and against this drink If I reject thee who art the Remedy of all my Griefs whom shall I ever receive If I drink not of thee thou Fountain of all Goodness when shall my thirst be satisfied If I bath not in this Fountain which thou hast set open for Sin and for Uncleanness who shall wash this Soul full of so many abominable Pollutions And if I be not to receive thee my God my Lord and my Creator but when I am indeed worthily disposed for it when shall I ever dare to approach thy Table Is any the highest Cherubim or Seraphin worthy to receive thee Can the greatest Purity deserve to partake of that unspeakable Greatness Is there any Goodness worthy or capable of that infinite Majesty The Blessed Virgin thy Mother confesses she is not worthy to receive thee and what am I then polluted Wretch and sinful Man unworthy beyond all unworthiness Didst thou not know O eternal God when thou didst institute this Sacrament that it was to be received by weak Men and mâ—…erable Sinners Thou didst consecrate it with this Condition O infinite Mercy that thou wert to suffer the Misery of our Nature and to bear with the Neglects and Imperfections of our Frailty Before thou madest thy self the Nourishment of Men thou knewest the Weakness and Sinfulness of Men and didst leave this Institution not only for our nourishment but also for the remedy of our Diseases Who can cure them O God but thou Who else can guide and strengthen and encourage me to encounter all the Difficulties to avoid all the Deceits and to overcome all the Temptations that I meet with in this Spiritual Warfare Who can be my Antidote against the Poison of Sin but the Author of Grace Who can enable me in this Banishment to travel through the most rugged Passages into my heavenly Country but thou who art the Way the Truth and the Life that dost sustain lead cheer and refresh me Do not suffer me O Lord to have that kind of fear which shall hinder me from serving and adoring thee from seeking and finding thee from possessing and enjoying thee but give me a filial and reverential Fear and such an one as even in the midst of fear may enflame me with thy Love Thus may we comfort and encourage our selves against the thought that Fear cannot well consist with Love by which mistake some are kept from daring to receive the Sacrament And because St. John says That perfect Love casts out Fear they believe that Love and Fear are not compatible and that not having this Love it would be a great Presumption in them to receive the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Holy Jesus But they do not well understand St. John for he does not speak of reverential Fear which is very consistent with Love and grows up with it but of servile Fear for that is it which is thrown out by holy and perfect Love The holy Fear of God keeps no Man from doing any thing that is good and much less from the chiefest good which is the receiving this blessed Sacrament but rather by how much more perfect fear is so much the more does it burn in Love and so much the nearer does it draw us to God And thou must not only take heed that filial fear hinder thee not from receiving it with that frequency which thy Spiritual Guide shall advise but thou oughtest also not to forbear the receiving it though with but a servile Fear If thou hast thy Conscience burdened with no heinous Sin and hast confessed and lamented all those thou knowest thy self guilty of resolving to forsake them for the future Go with Humility and an holy Confidence to receive that Sacrament for God may turn thy Attrition into Contrition and his Love will better thy fear though in the beginning it be Servile yet if thou frequent the Table of the Lord his Grace will amend it and make it to become Filial It often happens and very often that beginning by the fear of Hell and Punishment a Man
in the Kingdom of Glory O happy Torments O joyful Death that is rewarded with eternal Bliss This Knowledge and these Lights will God encrease in thee if thou livest humbly mortified and resigned disposing thy self daily to receive more Grace Of the Purity of Intentions O that I could see my self so secure in this Kingdom of Grace as never to enter into that sad and dismal Kingdom of Sin But how can I be secure so long as I live in this miserable Life so full of Snares and Dangers There can be no security where Man's Will is to act which is so weak and frail and so unsteady The World is full of Snares there are more Stumbling-blocks than Steps We carry within us the Nourishment of our own Miseries and the Source of our Passions is the cause of our Sins and Imperfections But for all that Wouldst thou persevere in this Kingdom of Grace and go with full sail into the Kingdom of Glory Watch then and pray hope and fear trust and persist Let thine Intentions be pure and thy Conscience clean and do all things as in the Presence of God and believe that the end of this short Voyage will be the Haven of the Coelestial Country and of eternal Salvation Let thine Intentions be pure I repeat it again to thee let thine Intentions be pure for thereby thy Passage shall be safe from Rocks and Tempests If thy Intention really be to serve God and to please him in all things thy Practice thy Words thy Actions will also be to please him in all things As Matters go with thee internally so will they also externally If the Tree be good it gives good Fruit and if evil evil Fruit. An evil Tree cannot bring forth that which is good nor the good that which is evil The Quality of the Spiritual Tree is taken from that of the Intentions and the Quality of Fruits and Works from that of the Tree O happy he who has a clean and pure Heart that is a clean and pure Intention O happy he who desires and loves nothing but God and his Service for all the Exercises of such a Man will be to serve and adore him Thus then if thou desirest to persevere and to encrease in the Spiritual Life let thy first rule be to purifie thy Intention for that gives Life to thy Works and Cleanness to thy Heart If thine Eye be single saith God all thy Body will be full of Light as if he had said if the Intention be right the Body of all the Actions will be right and shining in good Example The Light that lightens thy Body is thine Intention if it be pure it enlightens thee if otherwise thou wilt walk in darkness See! how a Lanthorn shines that has a little Candle in it it not only is clear it self but gives light to all that are round about it So the Soul that has a pure holy Intention within it has thereby all its Actions made holy clear and perfect God is to be thy Intention in all thou dost in all thou speakest in all thou thinkest and whatsoever thou dost must be for God with God and through God Of Purity of Conscience If this be thy Intention and thou hast attain'd its Purity thou shalt easily by the Grace of God attain Purity of Conscience also or rather it may be said if thou hast the one thou already hast the other also for what is Purity of Conscience but Purity of Heart and Intention If that be pure thy Thoughts Words and Actions will be so likewise and if they be pure thy Heart and Conscience are so too yet Purity of Conscience signifies not to consent to any blemish or defect in thee and when thou findest any to throw it away presently and to wash it with tears It signifies an attentive Care and Vigilance to purifie the Soul from all Sins and Imperfections small as well as great and not to allow them entrance or let them remain there but to confess bewail and forsake them It signifies an implacable Enmity between Innocency Truth and Sincerity of Heart and Sins of all kinds and a dissent and contradiction to them without permitting them to make any stay in it It signifies an exact care to see and observe what passes in thy Soul and not to tolerate any thing in it not only that is contrary but that tends but to the lessening thy desires to please God It signifies a great disquiet and uneasiness at any thing that offends God and an open War against Sins without having any Contentment or Satisfaction till thou hast thrown them out by Penitence and Contrition Those that live and walk with this hatefulness and with this desire are they which the Saviour of Souls meant when he said Blessed are the pure for they shall see God as if he had said 't is impossible to see God without purity of Heart Let a Man do works that are never so perfect and holy let him be liberal in Alms visit Hospitals pray and suffer as much as he will or do any thing else If his Heart and Conscience be not pure 't is impossible for him to see or enjoy God till he have cleansed and purified them Into Heaven no defect can enter nothing but what is clear shall be received into that bright City for a Man must enter there as he is to live there No Man can see God in Glory even though he were in Glory unless his sight be made so clear by purity of Life as to be able by the Divine goodness to be raised to behold God Employ therefore all thy care to cleanse thy Heart and Conscience not to consent that any Sins Passions or Imperfections should lodge there but to throw them out and wash them off with tears I do not say that thou shouldst have none though I wish it but that thou shouldst not entertain them for it is impossible in this sinful Life that a Man should not fall into small and sometimes even into great Sins but whether they be great or small he ought to detest them as soon as they are perceived and not to keep but to cast them out instantly with humble Sorrow Do not go to sleep with Sin in thine Heart before thou hast washed it out with tears Think how unsafe it would be for a Man to sleep with a Viper in his Bosom but 't is far more dangerous to sleep with Sin in the Soul As the Sea casts out dead Bodies so do thou cast Sins out of thy Soul See how long thou canst keep a burning Coal in the Palm of thine Hand and even a less time suffer Sin to continue in thy Soul As in the other Life no Man can see God without a pure Heart so in this Spiritual Life seldom does a Man hearken to God till he hath cleansed his Conscience by casting out his Sins Sins and Passions are troublesome Companions and make so great a noise that they disquiet and deafen the
most that run furthest from God O how much greater are the Sufferings of those that are so deceivd how much more painful and afflicting The Sinner passeth his whole Life in pains by reason of his Vices and so much the greater are his Torments by how much the greater are those Passions which disquiet and molest his troubled Mind Behold the loathsome Diseases of the sensual Man both of his Body and Soul Behold the unclean Surfeits of the Glutton Behold the fiery Rage of the Angry and Revengeful The racking Cares of the Covetous and the uneasie Emulations of the Proud Behold the frettings of the Envious Man All of them live or rather all of them die for how can they be said to live that undergo such Anguish and Vexation Then behold the difference between him that suffers for God outwardly and feels joy and comfort inwardly And how wilt thou grow in the Spiritual life without Temptations and Tribulations Thou canst not only not grow nor thrive but not so much as live in it Wouldst thou drive Sin out of thy Heart It must be by Mortification or else it will still remain there Wouldst thou drive away thy Passions It must be by conquering Temptations Wouldst thou be fitted for the Coelestial Building It must be by the Chisel and Mallet of Temptation and Mortification Wouldst thou throw out Vitious Habits It must be by exercising contrary Vertues Wouldst thou live humbled It is necessary that thou shouldst be afflicted Wouldst thou know what thou art By suffering Temptations thou shalt perceive thine own Frailty and Misery Wouldst thou cast Self-love out of thine unquiet Heart Deliver thy self up to an holy Self-denial Wouldst thou give thy self wholly to God thy Saviour and Redeemer Deny thy self and refuse to satisfie thine own desires Finally wouldst thou have Glory Take up the Cross embrace Sufferings love Tribulations do not defend thy self from the Cross but under the Cross and by the Cross do not defend thy self from Sufferings but under them by the power of Grace do not defend thy self from the Temptations which God sends thee but from the evil of those he sends thee That it is no easie matter to be saved but that it is necessary to fight Believe it he does but deceive thee who tells thee that thou mayest enjoy God in another Life without Suffering for him in this Life He does but cheat thee who says there are two Glories for the Soul one of Temporal Delights the other of Coelestial He deludes thee who says without any Tribulations thou shalt enjoy that Glory which our Lord entred into by suffering them He deceives thee who makes thee believe there is another way for thee than that which all the Saints pass'd through He cheats thee that says It is an easie matter for thee to live ill and to die well to take thy fill of Pleasures here and to partake in Eternal Joys hereafter He abuses thee that says 't is an easie thing to be sav'd and that the Gate of Heaven stands open for him at his death who hath lived wickedly all his life No the Saviour of Souls does not tell thee so but he says That narrow is the way that leads to Salvation He says We must strive to enter because the gate is strait He says The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and that the violent take it by force He tells thee His Flock is a little Flock that many are called but few chosen All this speaks no easiness nor temporal and sensual Sweetness but Rigour Courage Constancy Repentance Sorrow and a Life of Crosses and Tribulations Believe it the strictest Livers are at no small labour to obtain Salvation Strive therefore since it was not without cause that so many Holy Persons before thee have undergone the most terrible Difficulties and Afflictions in their way to Heaven Of the Grace of God This indeed is a sharp unpleasing Doctrine and very unwelcome to our Nature but if it be an Enemy to our Nature it is a Friend to our Spirit and to that Grace which brings Glory to our Nature It is a safe Doctrine because it is taught by our Redeemer It presses Men to take care of their Souls that they may seek God and not forsake him that they may serve him and not offend him But all this which is so difficult and even impossible to our frailty is sweet and easie by the Grace of God It is that Grace which fills and supports assists and conquers convinces and disposes does and perfects all The most powerful Grace of God is that which sweetens all Labours and renders them not only tolerable but delightful This Grace makes the good desire Sufferings as the bad do Pleasures and causes them to find Joys in their Austerities when the wicked find Trouble in the midst of their Delights Grace encourages sustains comforts and gives an inward sweetness to Sufferings which makes them more savoury and pleasant than the most pretended Enjoyments of this World Grace in the Spiritual Life strengthens the weak enlightens the blind eases the afflicted comforts the sorrowful and gives joy to the disconsolate Grace supports the Soul animates guides accompanies raises it when it is sinking leads it in the way and crowns it in the end O most powerful Grace of God! thou admirable effect of his Goodness All is owing to thee How many steps are taken in the Spiritual Life how many affections and desires are stirred up how many good actions are done how much perseverance is exercised how many tears are shed and how much love is enkindled all is owing to God's Holy Grace Fear not therefore Tribulations if Grace be with thee for by it Temptations and Tribulations will be rendred of no force and thou shalt conquer all by its Effectual and Omnipotent Power I can do all things saith the Apostle of the Gentiles through him that strengtheneth me for then he was strengthened by Grace Not I says he but the Grace of God which is in me as if he had said I work but I am carried guided and assisted by Grace for without it I neither know nor can do any thing being of my self unable so much as to think one good thought Behold with what facility David lamented his fall by the help of Grace Behold how quickly St. Peter wash'd away his sin with tears by the help of Grace Behold with what Resolution Mary Magdalene broke off the dissoluteness of her sinful Life by the help of Grace Behold how suddenly St. Paul from a Persecutor became a joyful sufferer of Persecution and the Prodigy of the World by the help of Grace See the World converted and reformed and Heaven peopled in a short time by the Apostles through the help of Grace Now that same Grace which made them Saints may make thee one also though now thou art a sinner 'T is the same Grace that favours and assists thee and is not less powerful now but is as kind as sweet
God which indeed was the principal design of all his Miracles which being so infinitely and apparently above the power of Nature could not but create great confidence in his Disciples that himself would verifie those great Promises upon which he established his Law nor fail to make a very deep impression upon all Persons whose interest and love of the World did not destroy the Piety of their Wills and put their Understandings into Fetters So marvellous was the force of Conviction by these supernatural Operations that to minds unbiass'd and honestly dispos'd to receive the truth it was hardly resistible Who could chuse but be wrought upon to confess his Divinity from the sight of that first Miracle which he wrought after his descent from the Mount upon the poor leprous Person which came to him worshipping him and begging to be healed He did but barely put forth his hand and touch him and immediately his Leprosie was cleansed What so great Vertue could possibly proceed from Natural Agents or from whence could so sudden and effectual a Remedy come but from that Great and Heavenly Physician who is Lord of Nature and consequently has no need to use Physical means but by a word of his mouth can accomplish whatever he pleases both in Heaven and Earth He bad the Man go to the Priest to offer an Oblation according to the Rites of Moses his Law hereby teaching what Respect and Obedience we owe to the Laws of that Religion which is duly established For in all the wonderful Works which he wrought for the healing Men's Bodies he had this further design to heal their Minds too by insinuating good Instructions He was a Physician of Souls as well as of Bodies and always had an eye to the Spiritual benefit of Men by contributing to their bodily ease This Observation holds in all those Corporal Cures which he wrought for the outward good of Men by that Divine Power which God had anointed him with As his Miracles were intended for Mercy so also for Doctrine The Impotent and Diseased Persons were not more cured than we instructed which will appear if we cast an eye upon some of his Miraculous Cures Behold him then in the next place giving sight to the Blind to one who besides his blindness was also possess'd with a dumb Devil which being cast out he presently spake and saw to another by anointing his Eyes with Clay and Spittle which one would think were more likely to have blinded him if he could have seen and even to one that was born blind without any natural capacity of receiving sight which more increased the Wonder of the Multitude all confessing That since the beginning of the World it was never known that any one had received sight who was born blind And do not these Examples teach us to admire his Goodness and his Power which working both with means and without means nay and against means too may convince us of his being God as well as Man How should we be excited by this excessive Bounty of our Lord to beg of him to enlighten the blindness of our Understandings which is far greater and worse than the blindness of those Men and to give us such a clear sight of Heavenly things as may make us look upon all the Greatness the Riches and the Pleasures of this World only with Contempt and Pity that we may plainly perceive the Path that leads to eternal Happiness and avoid all those stumbling-blocks which are laid in the way O thou that openedst the Eyes of the Blind suffer not the thick Mists of Ignorance to obscure and darken my mind and so hinder it from seeing and knowing in my day the things which belong to my Peace that they may never be hid from me See in another place a Noble Personage coming to Jesus with much Reverence and desiring him with great importunity to come to his House and cure his Son being now ready to dye Jesus who did not do his Miracles by Natural Operations cured the Child at a distance and dismissed the Prince telling him his Son lived which he found to be true and that he recovered at that time when Jesus spake those salutary and healing words Whereupon he and all his House became Disciples and were throughly convinced of his being the true Messiah and that Salvation was only through him which effect the Miracle did naturally tend to produce Behold at another time how soundly he sleeps in the midst of a most violent Tempest which so affrighted his Disciples that they hastily awoke him saying Lord save us we perish Thus quietly do they rest in the midst of dangers which trust in God and so are they dismayed with fears who dare not repose an entire confidence in him Imitate thou his Disciples in having recourse to Prayer in all thy distresses but rely upon God with assurance of his help Observe how their distrust was check'd with a Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Yet his Mercy granted their Request for he presently rebuked the Winds and the Seas and their was a great Calm In like manner O Lord compose the storms of my troubled Breast appease the boisterous Winds of my unruly Passions and the rolling Billows of my exorbitant and unsteady Desires Say unto them as thou didst unto the Sea Peace and be still so shall I safely pass through the Tempestuous Waves of this miserable World with a calm and contented mind till I arrive at the Haven of endless Rest and Comfort in thy Kingdom Nor does he only quiet the Sea but walks upon the Waters of it which seem'd so strange to his Disciples that they took him for a Spirit St. Peter having his Master still in his thoughts that he might be certain calls out If it be Thou command me to come to thee Observe the strength of his Love which makes him desirous to be with Jesus in any place how dangerous soever and yet the weakness of his Fear which presently causes his Faith to fail though he had an Omnipotent hand ready to help him His heart first sinks in his Body and then his Body sinks in the Water Learn then to follow Christ by imitating the Vertues which he practised as Man his Patience Meekness Humility and Charity and do not affect to do those things which he performed as God It is enough for us to undergo Dangers when Providence shall bring them upon us and too much to run our selves into them unnecessarily for that is to tempt God by a vain Presumption the Punishment whereof is to be left to our selves and most probably to perish in our own rashness Let us next accompany our Saviour to the Marriage in Cana and indeed there it was that he wrought his first Miracle where to rescue the married Pair who were poor and wanted Wine from Affront and Trouble he commanded the Water-pots to be filled with Water which by his Divine Power he changed into Wine where the
in receiving him and at the same time feel within themselves him that ministers unto them and two fires becoming but one inflame them that without by their Eyes and that within by their Hearts That happy Night the Lord took possession of the breast and heart of Men and they in exchange took a Proof of the excessive Love of God but our Saviour likewise had a Proof of Man's Ingratitude since the Traitor Judas received him his infinite Charity being resolv'd to try if he could possibly be washed clean within who was not purified at all by his having been washed without But he that had kept his foul Intention notwithstanding the washing of his Feet and would not make use of that Water to wash his evil Eye was as little the better for the inward washing for he shut his Eyes against that Beam which would have enlightened him and the fire of his Covetousness was more powerful than the fire of so great a Charity He suffered his Redeemer to come into his breast not that he might receive him but that he might the better sell him and so he carried him along with him that he might not get away when he was to deliver him up in the Garden At the same instant that he received the Saviour of Souls into his covetous Breast he presently went out to sell him to the Jews whereby it appears that he received him to the end that he might betray him more securely that way than by leaving him behind And this was the first and most grievous step of his Passion to be received by that Treacherous Disciple O let us that are Priests tremble in Receiving and Administring the Sacrament of him who in loving us enters as a meek and a gentle Lamb into our breast and who when he comes to Judge us will be a fierce Lion if we receive him here unworthily The Third WEEK Of his Agony in the Garden his Death Resurrection and Ascension THese three unspeakable Mysteries being ended the Saviour of Souls goes forth into the Garden of Gethsemane to give beginning to his dolorous Passion that the place where the second Adam rais'd us up might be like that where the first Adam cast us down It was in a Garden we were ruined by the first of Men and in another Garden we were repair'd by the best of Men. There our Redeemer sweats drops of Blood for the purging of thy sins and mine so laborious was it to bear the weight of our sins that his holy Pores were thereby opened and even Innocency itself was put into an Agony by that intolerable burden There to see the Ingratitude of Mankind and how much they would despise the un-utterable Treasures of Man's Redemption made blood break forth from the Body of the King of Heaven and run trickling down to the very Earth There he thrice made earnest Prayer unto his Father for himself and for us asking strength of Body for himself and strength of Soul for us There he repeated his Prayer so often to teach us that our Prayer ought to be earnest and persevering The Humane Nature begg'd assistance from the Divine and he weighed the heaviness and shrunk from the bitterness of that Cup that his Divinity might help his Humanity in the drinking of it There our dear Master by suffering taught us to suffer that our Patience and Courage in Suffering depends wholly upon God and that there is nothing in us but Miseries as if he should have said If I who am God as well as Man do as Man need the succour and favour of God and ask it with a threefold repetition Why do not ye weak wretched and miserable Men ask it a thousand times and why are ye not instant devout and fervent in your Prayers He there also granted that the Cup of his grievous Passion should pass on to his Disciples and that they and from them the rest of his Church should inherit that Patrimony of Pains and that effectual Medicine of Sins Let this Cup pass from me says he to his Father as if his meaning had been Grant O my God and Father that these my Apostles and all those that by the Preaching of them and their Successors shall heartily receive and embrace my Religion may drink of this Cup with me that they may also Reign with me There he was comforted by an Angel who was himself the Comfort of Angels and being God would shew himself as Man to stand in need of Divine Consolation giving us assurance that we likewise in our needs shall be succoured and protected by Angels There all his Disciples are dismayed or fallen asleep and none waâ—ches but the Traitor Judas O Lord how luke-warm and indifferent is our Love how strong how vigilant is our Ingratitude In serving thee dear Jesus we are dull and sleepy in offending thee we are lively and watchful Who could bear with such Wickedness but only thy infinite Goodness Who but thou O most Gracious Saviour could endure such sleepiness and such watchfulness such watchfulness in Sin and such sleepiness in Love Judas being Treacherous and Covetous for a little Money sells the Eternal Son of God and makes them pay for him to whom he freely offers himself in Gift Those infamous Ministers of Covetousness and Envy come with great force of Arms to lay hold of a gentle Lamb and Humane Weakness attempts with Cords to bind the Divine Omnipotence But what great matter was it that he should suffer himself to be bound by their wickedness when he had already bound himself with his own Charity That Treacherous Disciple with infamous lips kisses his Face and turns the Signal of Peace into a Signal of the greatest Treachery The Lord calls him Friend although he was so cruel an Enemy and still bore with him and loved him because he suffered himself to be sold for Love His design was to try if it were possible to soften the heart that was so hardened in mischief but his heart being in his Purse he neither would nor could let it be wrought upon by the meekness of his Master St. Peter being both fervent and valiant at the taking of our Redeemer cuts off an Ear of one of the Servants and it is probable he would have done the like to Judas if he had been near him but the most sweet and merciful Jesus restores it reproving that loving Disciple and being able with his Divinity to have defended his Humanity he makes use of the one to manifest the other by a clearer demonstration discovering his Divinity in the Miracle and his Humanity in the Advice and Remedy O more than infinite Goodness O thy merciful forwardness to Pardon and to Suffer Thou reprovest him that defends thee and curest him that offends and comes to take thee Yet in that hurry and disorder of wickedness the Miracle was not taken notice of and it being a Night of so much darkness to what could it prompt the minds of Men but to what
by Rome and by the Roman Empire Shall we ascribe the Vertue of Fortitude to those Royal and Imperial Crowned Serpents of the Earth who laid waste and dispeopled the Earth Shall we allow that Atila or Totila with such like Monsters of Cruelty were endowed with the Vertue of Fortitude These and their Fellows who by their weak and powerless Ambition over-turn'd the World destroyed pillaged burned and razed innumerable Cities Kingdoms Nations and Provinces at the same time while they were captivating the World were themselves captivated by their Passions No these were not truly strong and valiant but Men powerfully weak who turned the World upside down They had been valiant if their Valour had overcome their Passion and if they had known how to confine their hearts within the limits of Reason Julius Caesar had been truly Valiant if he had defended his Country and Citizens and had been able to defend himself from himself without passing from the Name of Citizen to that of Tyrant We might have ascrib'd Fortitude to Alexander if he had governed his own Kingdom in Peace defending his Crown in just War within the Bounds of Macedonia but to make an Inundation upon Asia to take away so many Crowns and make them the Trophies of his Ambition was a powerful Weakness but neither Valour nor Fortitude The Vertue of Fortitude preserves the Mind in that which is right just and holy without consenting to let Passion enter to disorder and triumph over Reason He that is first conquer'd by the Vertue of Fortitude will have force to conquer himself subduing his Appetite making it yield to Reason and setting that up to Reign and Govern in his heart Shall he that disquiets a City and makes hurly-burlies in it becoming the scandal of the People be said to have the Vertue of Fortitude though he kill and burn and make himself the Terror of a Country He has only a strong Frailty so mad and frantick that he can neither order nor contain himself within those Honest and Lawful terms which are allowed in our Commerce with others He lives and acts as being dragg'd and trampled on by his Fancy and Humour and would he then have us think him to be truly Valiant The Powerful Prince the King that defends his Crown justly and orderly the General that Governs his Army rightly keeping Military Discipline the Judge who constantly repelling Passions and Partialities gives to every one that which is his own working in subjection to the Laws of God and those of his Country the Honest Man that walks fixing his Eyes only upon God and Reason the Modest Woman that firmly and constantly defends her Chastity these may indeed be said to have the Vertue of Fortitude The good Prelate that with just Discipline governs the Souls under his Charge the Glorious Martyr who in the midst of Persecution encompassed or rather crowned with Torments and Tyrants yet breaths Valour Constancy and Perseverance Finally all those who give their Body their Fame their Fortune or their Life for the saving of their Soul and keep that strong constant and persevering in goodness only for God's sake whether they suffer or suffer not whether they are esteemed or despised in the World These are they that are truly Valiant and are eminently possess'd of that honourable glorious and couragious Vertue of Holy Fortitude The Third WEEK Of Temperance the Fourth of the Cardinal Vertues TEmperance which moderates our Passions and governs our Souls with rectitude hath its Root also in Religion and must direct itself to God if it will be a perfect Vertue It s Duty is to reduce the Appetite both irascible and concupiscible to moderate bounds in order to God and his Holy Laws Anger is the Sword of Reason which sometimes she is necessitated to draw to defend her self but yet acts in such a manner that by Temperance she cuts out only what is sufficient without passing on to what is superfluous There have been Natural Philosophers that condemn'd Anger and would have Reason to be sufficient of itself they thought to devest Humane Nature of Passions was enough to make it to act prudently without any other means pretending to bring mens minds to an insensibility and to banish from them all manner of Natural Affections but they deceived themselves for it is neither possible nor convenient that Reason should quite lay aside the use of Passions and Affections because they move our hearts to act That which is convenient and possible is by the help of Grace to govern our Affections well and to regulate our Passions Let the Prince be angry as much as Justice and Occasion requires and let him moderate his Anger by the right Rule of Reason A General that sees an unjust and cruel Enemy coming to destroy his Army may and ought to defend himself with Anger and stir up his Fury to obtain the Victory Let the Superiour use his Anger to chastise the wicked and yet at the same time have compassion upon the wicked Let Reason Command let Anger Serve and Obey and let them joyn together to go as far as is convenient Be angry says the Lord but sin not as who should say Let Reason temper Anger and let Anger be subservient to Reason The Zeal of Moses when he was angry flew those that rebelled against the Law that of Elias brought Fire from Heaven upon the Souldiers of Ahab Heaven did administer Fire to his Zeal because his Zeal was moved with a just and heavenly Anger Our Saviour also sanctified Anger when seeing the Temple of his Eternal Father profaned by the Jews he twice took up the Whip to drive out the Buyers and Sellers and when he threw down the Tables of the Money-Changers Thou must not therefore think that an easie clemency and slackness which suffers the bad to run to ruin deserves the name of Temperance for to tolerate the bad and leave the good undefended is not Temperance but a base Remisness and detestable Negligence For Superiours to be sluggish whilst Subjects are insolent is so far from Temperance that it is an egregious Intemperance Temperance is that which neither comes short in what is right nor goes so far as what is prohibited Temperance is that which does not punish when it is urged by Grief or Importunity but when Reason appoints and the Nature of the thing requires Temperance is that which does what God commands and neither swerves from it by excess in going too far nor by defect in doing too little It is not Temperance for a Man utterly to forbear eating but to eat temperately It does not forbid a Man to sustain his Body but to give it as much as the inordinate Appetite requires It gives that which is sufficient but allows not that which is excessive When the Appetite asks what is necessary it grants it but if it demand what is hurtful it denies it Thus Temperance is the Bridle of the Appetite whether it be concupiscible or irascible
beastly Passion common to Bruits that are not able to Discourse The Proud the Ambitious and the Covetous have something of Reason in them In those Vices something of Discourse is requisite and that Natural elation and vanity of the Mind speaks Superiority but the Base Lascivious and Sensual Person is very short and sottish in his Discoursing being totally sensual and bestial and agrees so much the more with Beasts by how much the more he is Brutish and Animal in his unbridled Passions Who is able to number the Ruins this Vice hath caused It is easier to lament than to reckon them See what it brought upon David It made that Heavenly Man become an Adulterer a Murtherer Treacherous Faithless and Cruel to a worthy and valiant Subject From the ill Example of the Father it pass'd on to the Incestuous Son and made Amnon to force his Sister Thamar Next it dispos'd Absalom to take Revenge by killing his Brother Amnon Thence proceeded the contempt of David's Reign when his Subjects saw themselves commanded by an Adulterous Murthering and Treacherous King Thence came a general Scandal and thence the Kingdom rebelled and the poor despised and persecuted King was fain to fly from his own Son bewailing the Sin he had committed the lives of an innumerable company of his Subjects being paid for one Sensual Delight Now if we have often imitated David in sinning let us imitate him also in repenting Let our Tears remedy that Mischief and let our Grief and Contrition help to make amends for our follies of Lasciviousness and let our Eyes bewail the Offence which by lustful looking upon Beauty they have committed Let Sorrow cure the heart that is wounded by that Passion and let the warning of such Examples make him Wise Chast and Wary who has been made Foolish Sensual and inconsiderate by the pleasure of a moment What Ruines and Misfortunes what Miseries and Desolations does not the Kingdom of Spain owe to this Sensual Vice It was above nine hundred Years under the Chain of an hard Captivity purging away the guilt of one sin hastily committed but long and sharply punished Look upon the Sensuality of the last King of the Goths how it made an end of his Empire threw down his Power to the ground drew Barbarians into Spain banished the Faith out of it filled it with Infidelity and quite rooted out the Valour and Goodness of the Gothish Nation Finally one momentany Delight cost the loss of an innumerable company of Lives and Souls This Example is of a Neighbour-Nation but the like Causes will probably produce the like Effects in other places many Instances whereof may be found in the Histories of all Countries to the end that great Persons chiefly may take warning because their evil deeds are of more dangerous consequence in the influence they have upon the Guilt and Punishment of others in this World but as to the other World even the meanest are as nearly concerned to fly this Vice for the consequence of it to them will be the rottenness of their Bodies and the damnation of their Souls which is bad enough unless God give them the Grace to Repent and forsake so ruinous a Vice Consider what the mischiefs of this sin must be in its Roots which produces such innumerable mischiefs in its Fruit What it must needs be in its beginning that has so dismal and lamentable an end what it must be in its original which gives birth to so many miseries and misfortunes O who could have believed that this Vice had been so heinous and so terrible One might have thought it indeed to be weak foul and ugly but not that it had power to produce such unspeakable mischiefs O! yes it works great ones and such as are truly unspeakable not only to each individual Person but also to the Publick Sensuality enervates the strength of Nations embases the Majesty of Princes blinds the Understanding weakens the Courage of their Souldiers besots the knowledge of their Wise men and fills the most Prudent with Ignorance and Folly Sensuality makes young men base and feeble old men blind and doting it dulls the reason of the wise darkens their knowledge in counsel and makes their Government rash heedless and inconsiderate It banishes Providence and casts out care and watchfulness from Kings and Kingdoms Of Remedies against Sensuality But what Remedy is there against such terrible Mischiefs God and the serious thought of him is the principal Remedy Prayer and begging earnestly of God to cleanse us and give us Chastity This is the only remedy since it is certain that no man can be chast without the gift of God Nemo enim continens esse poterit nisi Deus dederit Pray therefore continually that God would defend thy Soul from this Vice and give thee an hatred of it But together with this which is the principal Remedy there are others which God applies to free us from that inbred and Domestick Evil. And the first is the Protection and Intercession of Christ with his holy Example and thy endeavour to imitate the Purity of his Life for if thou prayest and actest contrary to thy Prayers thou provokest him to anger that should grant thy request and if thou wilt have the chast and holy Jesus to be thy Master thou must shew thy self to be his Disciple by striving to follow him in holiness and chastity Next this Remedy and even in this Remedy avoid the occasions of loosing thy Chastity Trust not in thy self nor presume upon thine own strength but believe thou shalt no longer be sav'd from falling than thou keepest thy self from the occasion of falling Think how is it possible to have live Coals upon thy Breast and not be burnt Think how is it possible that fire and tow should touch one another without being enflamed Think how is it possible to dawb thy self with Pitch and not be defiled Consider I say that there is as little possibility to escape safe from a voluntary and very near occasion If thou hast escap'd to day it is in a manner a Miracle and it is ten thousand to one that thou shalt fall miserably to morrow if thou presume to venture upon it again and shalt fall so much more fouly and irrecoverably by how much the more thou art confident that thou shalt not Let not thy Passion nor thy foolish Presumption deceive thee thou art not holier than David nor wiser than Solomon nor stronger than Sampson and yet all these fell by not avoiding the occasions and these were publick warnings which God hath left to the World to the end we may open our Eyes and be more wary Art thou a Spiritual Person and dost not avoid the occasions of sin Why then thou art not a Spiritual Person Thinkest thou because thou livest upon thy guard thou shalt not fall If thou trustest to that thou art fallen already unless thou also livest retired Sometimes nay often a Spiritual Person that exposes himself
to voluntary occasions if he may be called Spiritual that does so is in greater danger of falling than a loose and debauched man for the loose man incurs less danger because he incurs more and the cautious person probably incurs more because he incurs less How is this you 'l say I do not understand it Then I will explain it to thee The Lascivious man by custom in that Vice sometimes looses his Appetite or at least abates it and with that the Temptation but it encreases with the cautious man and becomes more ardent by his forbearance and therefore the Tempter is more sollicitous vigilant and vehement to overcome him The Delights wherewith the Devil entices a Spiritual Man are in the imagination and have nothing of act whereby he may become undeceived but those of the Vicious Man are filthy in his practise of them and that very filthiness and foulness tires him enlightens him and undeceives him for this reason Spiritual Persons ought to be more watchful and wary than those that are Sensual and if not they will do as the Galatians who ended in the Flesh having begun in the Spirit In Conclusion would'st thou be chast careful and wary Would'st thou conquer this Vice Then fly from it Other sins are conquer'd by fighting this by flying This flight is both the Combat the Victory and the Triumph but withal use Abstinence and other acts of Mortification to overcome and subdue so powerful a Passion There is a sort of Devils saith our Saviour that cannot be cast out without Fasting and Prayer To eat much and to drink much and neither to think of God nor call upon him in Prayer is not the way to conquer that strong contagious and dangerous Passion It is frail and needs strong Remedies It is incontinent and needs continent Remedies It is unruly and unbridled and therefore needs Remedies that may restrain and tame it By Abstinence thou mayest also conquer Gluttony the foul ugly Mother of many sins The ancient Philosophers though they had but the Light of their Candle which is Natural Reason yet said very excellently That a Vertuous Life consisted wholly in two words Sustine Abstine Bear and Forbear or be patient and abstemious If a Heathen could say so by the Light of his Candle What shall a Spiritual Man say being enlightened by the Sun of Christian Verities and by the Rays of Eternal and Celestial Light Abstinence is an Universal Vertue which comprehends innumerable Vertues and so this Vertue alone is a general Antidote against the Maladies of a Spiritual Life Would'st thou not sin Why then abstain from offending God by the breach of his holy Commandments Would'st thou grow in the Internal Life Why then abstain from rejecting his holy Counsels Would'st thou have the Vertues come and lodge within thee Why then abstain from running into Vice Would'st thou be perfect in all things Why then fast inwardly as well as outwardly Would'st thou subdue thy Vices Encompass thy self with the Vertues for that is the Girdle which our Saviour tells us is the Scourge of Vice What good doth it to begirt the Body with a Cord and make it lean with fasting if in the mean while the Soul grow big and swell up with Self-will What good does the yellow meager Countenance which speaks abstinence from Meat and Drink if in the mean while wrath and hatred give a worse Complexion to the Soul because they feed it with a worse Nourishment In the midst of your Fast says God your own Will reigns whereas the resigning it up to my Will ought to be the Crown and Honour of your Fast. This is another kind of Abstinence than that which is contrary to Gluttony but I will now say something of that Of Gluttony Gluttony is an infamous Vice that pollutes and destroys both Body and Soul no less than Sensuality dulling and abasing the Senses of the one and the Powers of the other It is a loathsome Vice and filthy both in its Cause and in its Effects for in its cause it fills a man with foul Humours and Diseases with Painfulness and Misery and in its Effects because by wakening and feeding the Appetite it breeds as many Mortal Distempers in the Soul as Diseases in the Body The Scripture tells us The People sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play As if it had said They sate long at Meat whereas they should have eaten but as it were in passing They did eat as if their utmost end had been eating and that they had been born for nothing else and not considering that they were born to live after another manner as soon as they had done eating they played away their Life their Fortune and their Honour God commanded that the Paschal Lamb should be eaten standing with their Loins Girt and their Staves in their hands What is this but to teach us that as our Lives pass quick away our Meals should do so too Let us eat and drink said some deluded men for to morrow we shall die See what a madness Observe what a foolish Consequence these Epicures draw when Gluttony is the Antecedent Because they are to die to morrow they eat excessively to day But Wretches if you must die to morrow and vomit up your Meat giving a strict account of what ye shall eat and drink Why do you cram your selves like Beasts to day Death uses to terrifie and undeceive every Body else but it hardens these and deceives them more and that which affrights others from sin invites these stupid men to sin See how Gluttony dulls and stupifies the Understanding since it fills it with such ignorant and sensless Discourses and Arguments O heavenly Abstinence and Moderation which givest a pure a long and a righteous Life Long because thou correctest those foul gross humours that choak and drown it Pure because thou dost quite banish them and Righteous because thou cuttest off Passions by taking away the nourishment of Vices whereof Gluttony is a fruitful Mother O heavenly Abstinence thou art the Forerunner of great Blessings By having prepared themselves with Abstinence and Fasting Moses received from God the Tables of the Law Elias received Nourishment from an Angel and the Saviour of Souls obtained innumerable Victories O holy Abstinence which dost sweeten adorn and sanctifie Repentance For by thee Vertue is cherished Vice is put to flight and holy Desires and Perfections become active vigorous and permanent The Second WEEK Of Patience THou wilt think perhaps that by being humble liberal abstinent and chast thou hast perfected the Spiritual Life but thou hast not done all yet thou must have Patience also for without that thou can'st scarce be said to have begun Those other Vertues look to what thou oughtest to do within thy self and to what thou oughtest to do to others This teacheth thee how thou oughtest to suffer from others when they oppress and injure thee The Vertue of Patience is an inward fortitude of the
thy Teeth and contriving Scorpions for another but all this within thine own heart What Torture can the Enemy give thee that is greater nay equal to this that thou bringest upon thy self On the contrary he very often laughs when thou lamentest and he is at rest when thou art upon the rack By this it is manifest that 't is more easie more cheerful more pleasant and delightful for thee to love than to hate thine Enemy According to this it is not only pleasing to God but happy and comfortable to our selves to love our enemies According to this patience the medicine of Anger is not bitter but sweet and the heavenly Physician cures thee of a Calenture in the Dog-days by prescribing thee a draught of Cold water for he cures the Infernal fire of Anger and washes it away with the gentle Stream of Love and Charity For this reason we may justly call Patience the Celestial Art of Peace Would'st thou have Peace and Joy and Comfort in thy Soul Get Patience and thou shalt have Peace and by having Peace and Patience thou shalt not only have Joy and Comfort but the Author of Patience and Peace of Joy and Comfort shall dwell continually in thy Soul Of Moderation in speaking and the mischiefs of the Tongue There is yet another kind of Abstinence besides that excellent Vertue of forbearing the Excess of Meat and Drink which we have already spoken of which is that of forbearing superfluous and hurtful Talk for that is also a very admirable and profitable kind of Abstinence I do not know whether I should not say Thou shalt do a better and a greater thing to abstain from speaking much than eating much for speaking causes more mischiefs than eating and men grow tir'd and weary with eating but never with talking Our Saviour doth advertise us well of this when he says Not that which enters into the Mouth defiles the Soul but that which comes out of the Mouth Now they be words which come out of the Mouth and it is meat that goeth into the Mouth What then Is not excessive eating very hurtful Yes to the Body but the Soul receives no hurt from the meat but from the excessive delight in it whereas that whereby the Soul is so frequently defiled comes out of the mouth in filthy loose smutty and sinful words as also in those that slander and detract and destroy the Honours Lives and Fortunes of their Neighbours These are they commonly that do the mischief to our Souls The Tongue is the Source of Vice and the Ruiner of Vertue This little Instrument is a sharp and cruel Razour that cuts and burns and kills and sets the whole World on fire and is set on fire of Hell St. James calls it an unruly Member full of deadly poyson the matter of infinite vexations quarrels and contentions it disturbs disquiets and overturns all In short this little Engine is the universal Conveyance through which all the mischiefs of the World come out of the heart in counselling perswading disposing and quickning its destruction 'T is not without great reason that God hath shut up this dangerous and powerful Instrument the Tongue within a double wall of the Teeth and of the Lips to the end that it might be kept close and restrained and no words suffered to pass out of that Fortress till they be well examined One Bridle is enough for the fiercest Horse but for this little Worm two are not sufficient Think what a suspected House that is which needs two Porters either it is in a very unsafe Condition or else the keeping of it is of great importance Be very wary of thy Speech and keep thy self as much as thou canst towards silence for that is very secure but speaking very hazardous to thy Soul Think ruminate examine and file over thy words oftentimes before thou utter them with thy Tongue and consider that when once they come there and are shot from thence they become Arrows which cannot be recalled and which kill without remedy The Tongue says St. Austin being in a dark moist place is very apt to slip and it is very dangerous to go in slippery places without either light or care Of Silence Silence is the Furnace of Charity and as when the mouth of a Furnace is open the fire comes easily out of it so out of ours sometimes does the fervour of Spiritual Charity for the good of our Neighbour The ancient Philosophers that they might learn to know were taught to be silent for Silence is the Parent of inward peace rest and quietness If this be requisite in the Meditation and Contemplation of Natural Things how much more then in Eternal and Celestial Dost thou love Peace live in silence Would'st thou do much Take heed what thou sayest before thou speakest Let thy words pass twice through thy thoughts before they pass once through thy Tongue Hear see and say nothing if thou wilt be disturb'd at nothing Audi vide tace si vis vivere in pace I have often repented me of having spoken but never of having held my Tongue He that speaks makes himself subject to the Censure of all that hear him but he that keeps silence is the secret Censurer of all that speak See the difference there is between being a Subject and a Superiour between being a Judge and being Judged the same there is between speaking and hearing To speak much shews Confidence Lightness Imprudence and Vanity to speak little shews Modesty Goodness and Discretion The Third WEEK Of Envy ABstinence Patience and Silence are naturally followed by the Love of our Neighbour whereof the contrary is Envy an infamous Vice which took birth growth and gathered strength with our very Nature but I come short Envy is more ancient than our Nature for Lucifer and his Fellows stumbled in Heaven by Envy and fell headlong from thence into the bottomless Pit It being propos'd to that high Cherubim according to the Opinion of grave Authors that he should adore the Eternal Son of God when in future time he should be united to our Nature he disdained to do it through Envy that an Union should be made with the Humane when he might have taken the Angelical It was Pride in Lucifer not to adore the Son of God but it was a Pride according to this Opinion that had its Root in Envy It was Envy also that moved him afterwards in Paradise to lay that Trap into which our innocent Parents fell alluring their holy sincerity and goodness with offers of being like unto Gods It was his Envy to see them in the favour of their Eternal Creator while himself was Condemned into Everlasting Fire It was Envy that in the first steps of the Banishment of our first Parents made angry Cain an Enemy to God and to his Brother Abel and which made him first commit Murder then to Despair and at last to be quite cut off that Envy proceeding from God's favourable accepting of
Comfort and though my love was Lawful yet the end of it was Natural when it should have been Supernatural I loved them after another manner than I ought to have done for my love was Sensual whereas it should have been Spiritual and all this the Spouse felt very much even in those loves which were allowable and complained of it to her Beloved and his Divine Majesty as being much pleased with it took into his own hand the love of his Spouse towards her Neighbours and towards all Creatures and ordered it rightly making her to ove them all in that manner for those ends and in that degree which he approv'd And this which the Spouse asked of her Beloved we ought oftentimes to beg of him for our self love if the Lord doth not rectifie and reform it destroys and burns up the Soul with an inordinate fire and so the love of God is the only love which can be called love without fear of loving too much and all other loves whatsoever are loves of fears and jealousies and disquiets to an holy Soul They are loves intermix'd with fears whether I do not exceed whether I do not take from God that which I give to the Creatures whether I do not tye my Soul too fast unto them and entangle it with snares in the way of my Spiritual Life O Lord thou love of all the Creatures how miserable is this Life how full of Thorns and Stumbling blocks how full of Griefs Hazards and Dangers Since I cannot love that which is good and allowed without the fears of running into that which is evil and prohibited O God do thou regulate our love O thou Eternal Good grant that we may only love thee and that in thee alone we may love those whom thou wouldst have us to love and that we may do it when and how and for those ends that thou approvest Let none other love but thine O Lord enter into my Soul Drive out of it all other loves but that and if any other would force an entrance into my heart let the strength of thy love defend it and not suffer any other love to disturb my Soul nor oppose thy love within my Soul Thy love O dear Lord is a sweet love it is Chearfulness and Comfort Quiet and Contentment it is Joy and Glory All love besides this and contrary to this is Perturbation and Disquiet Heaviness and Pain Sorrow and Affliction Finally all the Saints have tasted of this Fruit and I have only given thee an Example of St. Paul to the end thou mayest know that the Holy Spirit and its Fruits are the same in the Primitive Church in these times and will be so in those that succeed us for God never waxeth old neither do his Gifts and Graces decay and if we miserable sinners neither have nor feel those Fruits it is because we hinder them with our Passions and by giving the Rein freely to our Inclinations for there are many now in the World who have and enjoy this heroical orderly and perfect love to God and to their Neighbour but let thou and I who are weak and frail endeavour to exercise our selves in those first Vertues and to cultivate the Tree of our Souls with Repentance and Contrition with Mortification and Tears but above all with the Blood of the Lamb and with hearty Prayers to him who shed it through the excess of his love that he would give us that sweet and excellent Fruit that most ravishing and glorious Love The Second WEEK Of Peace the Second Fruit of the Holy Spirit NExt to this Savoury Fruit of Divine and Humane Charity or of Love to God and our Neighbour follows the Delightful Fruit of Peace which quiets and recreates the Soul freeing it from those common Perturbations that use to disturb it Fear and Hope are two Humane Affections which do disquiet and discompose Worldly Minds God drives out these two from a holy Soul with two Coelestial Gifts which are Remedies against their Poyson and these be the Fear of God and the Hope of Glory From the instant that our Soul fears God alone it despises all things else from the instant that it hopes only for things Eternal it tramples upon those that are Temporal Such a Man keeps Peace with all Persons because he neither troubles nor importunes he neither vexes nor is jealous of any body since no body can deprive him of Eternity which is all he pretends to This Fruit of Peace also hath two parts one inward Peace of the Soul with God the other outward Peace with the Creatures From the inward Peace with God which is the Root springs up the outward one and spreads into several branches of the Creatures just as an outward heat proceeds from a secret fire and the brightness of light from flame and the love of our Neighbour from that of God The inward Peace of the Soul depends upon the Unity and Conformity of a Spiritual Man's Will with the Will of God for if he loves and desires the same thing and conforms himself to all that God does and resigns himself to all that he suffers and does so not only after things have come to pass but even prevents them with his desire that the Will of God should be done in him it is manifest that by such an Unity and Conformity he must have a constant Peace and that there can be no disagreement between that and him This Union with the Divine Will and the finding no contraction between it and the Humane Will begets Love and Peace with our Neighbours and makes it communicate with all Creatures for since it neither loves them nor desires any thing from them in any other way than according to God's Will and that God's Will is in order to Peace because it is the Original of Peace it necessarily follows that he must also have Peace with all the Creatures And so the true Spiritual Man who loves God with that Holy Fruit of Charity we have spoken of loving his Neighbours also in their proportion and keeping Union with the Will of God and inward Peace with him and for his sake with his Neighbours in all things that are good and holy must needs satisfie and content all Persons if they be good and if they be not so though he does not content them because that is not in his power yet he satisfies them with his Reason though perhaps they will not acknowledge themselves to be satisfied for if they be his Superiours he obeys them with Humility behaves himself towards them with Respect and yields readily to their Orders and Commands obeying his Superiours in the same manner as he obeys the Will of God If they be his Equals he gives them all that belongs to them and applies himself with Charity to assist in their Affairs He eases them in their Troubles comforts them in their Afflictions counsels them in their Doubts and helps them in their Necessities And if they be his
desire to be great Then ye must become little that ye may be great For he that would be exalted must humble himself and he that humbles himself shall be exalted Behold I came down from Heaven and have humbled my self by taking the form of a Servant to be despised upon Earth and ye poor Earthen Vessels are ye lifting up your heads and your pretentions to the highest places in Heaven The second thing that he requir'd of them was that they should have the same Sincerity Goodness and Purity of Soul which that Child had Unless ye become pure and simple as this child ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This was to move them to that first Grace in all its Purity and Perfection since without that no Soul can enter into Heaven For a Christian must be brought back to that first Grace and Purity which he received in Baptism either by keeping his Soul from sin even from the lightest or else after having sinned whether lightly or grievously by washing his Soul with Tears of Repentance and Contrition and cleansing it from all stain and guilt by Faith in the Passion of Christ and by partaking of his Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrament and so the Soul is brought into the Purity of that little Child and made capable of entring into the Kingdom of Heaven Now the Sincerity and Charity and clearness of Conscience wherewith the Lord by the force of the Spirit and by the holy Exercises of the Spiritual Life cleanseth and purifieth a Soul St. Paul calls Goodness which in substance is an inward and superiour degree of pureness of Conscience so simple and so perfect that it resembles the Innocence of a Child This Goodness is an absolute compliance of our Thoughts Words and Actions to the Will of God It is a full resignation to whatsoever God does that goes whithersoever his Divine Majesty directs performs whatsoever he appoints and seeks and follows and loves God in all things By this kind of Goodness a good Man does not seem to be in search of that which is good but to be already in the possession of it and holds it as a thing which he had found before This Purity of Loving Thinking Speaking and Doing the Lord Jesus requir'd also in his Disciples when he said to them Let your words be Yea Yea and Nay Nay as if he should have said let your words speak according to your hearts and your hearts speak according to my holy Will Say neither more nor less than what ye think for the Speech ought in all things to be conformable to the Thoughts and whatsoever is more can neither be Goodness nor Sincerity for Christ himself says that it is sin and therefore to praise a Man very much we properly say he is a Man that thinks what he speaks and speaks what he thinks for the former praises his Truth and the other his Ingenuity and Goodness This intrinsick Goodness is that which is in God by his Essence and that for which he is so often praised in the Scripture saying Thou art good O Lord teach me to be good by thy goodness as who should say O uncreated Goodness impart some of thy Goodness to me and the Soul begs this same Goodness with a gentle Sweetness and Meekness when she prays Let the light of thy countenance O Lord shine upon us and teach us thy statutes which is a Prayer we ought very often to make to God Of Meekness This kind of Goodness is accompanied with Meekness as Light is with Brightness for that being true and sincere and holy and having so much of God in it his Divine Majesty does as it were cloath him outwardly with the latter who inwardly possesses the former making a sweet and gentle Meekness to shine through all his Deportment And so thou mayest know a good heart by a peaceable quiet behaviour for nothing moves or disturbs it Nothing disturbs a good Man because his Confidence and his Affection are only placed in God he loves and seeks him and disregards all things else Nothing affrights him for his Goodness by Love doth cast out Fear he desires nothing that is Temporal for he sees whatsoever is so passeth away and comes suddenly to an end Nothing moves him because he only seeks for God who is unmoveable Nothing afflicts him because he resists and conquers all Crosses with his Patience He wants nothing because he possesses God who possesses all things and desires nothing because God alone is to him All-sufficient Now consider what Meekness that Soul must have who neither loves nor desires nor pretends to any thing who is neither troubled nor affrighted nor discomposed at any thing but in all Occurrences rests quietly in God This is a rare Meekness indeed I say rare because it is admirable and because I believe few have it in this Mortal Life since we see that even the holiest Men have been angry and there are Persons that are very perfect who Reprove and Chide who Reform and Punish with Anger Nay even Moses himself who is called the Meekest Man upon Earth was certainly transported with great Anger when he threw down and brake the Tables of the Law which God had written with his own finger God and his Love can do all things and no body can number or weigh or measure the Miracles of his Grace But thou deceivest thy self as I have told thee if thou thinkest that a Spiritual Meekness excludes Zeal for Reformation since the being gentle in Heart and very couragious in Zeal may well enough consist together and it was a great cause of surprize and indignation for Moses to find that People worshipping an Idol that had so manifestly seen the Power of God so many ways made known to them in their Protection and Deliverance And Christ himself who far excell'd Moses in Meekness as in all other Vertues was angry when he whip'd the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple urging that Verse of the Psalm The Zeal of thine House hath even eaten me up And when he reprehended the Masters of the Law for destroying the Law and suffering the People to be loose and wicked though he was angry with them yet he was not the less meek in heart for the gentleness and serenity of it shin'd even through his Zeal and even then also he might have said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart He meekly had a sweetness within his Zeal as the Honey-comb was in the mouth of Samson's Lion He shewed his Anger to draw them to his Meekness and seeing so many Discourses and so many Sermons and so many Miracles had wrought nothing upon them to soften their hardness as we do Iron by Fire he applied that of his Zeal for a Remedy The Vices do oppose and hinder one another but the Vertues do assist and help one another A Man cannot be Prodigal and Covetous at the same time for if he will give
inward thoughts are loose and ungoverned what is it but a well-composed Falshood and a well studied Hypocrisie And all this is highly abominable to God nor do I wonder he should abhor it for his Divine Majesty is Truth and Sincerity itself and therefore he must of necessity detest a substantial Lye mask'd under the appearance of a Truth Christ reproved the Pharisees for making clean the outside of the Cup and Platter while within they were full of the deadly Poison of Extortion and Excess Make clean said he the inside and thereby the outside will become clean also He also calls them whited Sepulchres which had the appearance of Vertue and Religion but within were full of Bones Worms and Rottenness as if he should have said Ye have lively Passions within while your Passions seem utterly mortified without Thus this outward Modesty while it corresponds with the inward is both Vertue and Example but if it be not proportioned to that it is but a Mantle of Snow that covers an heap of Dung the Sun of Truth comes and melts it and then it is so much the worse by how much before it appeared the better Outward Modesty is always convenient in as much as it covers Imperfections to the end that a fault may not pass on to a scandal which is the worst and the most hurtful thing in the World yet when an ill Man makes use of outward Modesty to give Credit to his Authority and to those Erroneous Practises which he inwardly favours that concealed Wickedness is a great deal worse than a manifest Crime A Wolf in Sheep's cloathing is much more dangerous to the Flock than when he appears in his own shape for so he is known both to the Dog and to the Shepherd The one does but whistle and the other presently flies at him but when he comes in a fair Disguise he is unknown to both and the poor Flock is in danger to become his Prey Every body that has Eyes may escape a Precipice but hardly any body can escape a Snare for that has a seeming shew of Security but the other visibly shews the Hazard and the Danger The Common Enemy is never more dangerous to Souls than when he tempts with pretences of Good for he that takes him for an Angel of Light and of Holiness will more easily suffer himself to be perswaded than if he saw him in the Deformity of the Devil Though the Devil was a Serpent yet some Expositors say he spoke not to our first Parents in the figure of a Serpent but cloathed himself with a beautiful Appearance for fear lest Eve seeing him so ugly should have been afraid of his approach and so not have suffered her self to be perswaded by him He took the Colours of the Forbidden Fruit which was Beautiful in shew and Poison in reality Thus the Substantial Fruit of the Holy Spirit which thou must endeavour to obtain is not only an outward Modesty for under that great Treacheries and much Hypocrisie may lye hid though of itself it be good when it is not abused but an outward and an inward Modelty coupled together as well in the actions as in the manner of doing them and in ordering all we do in such a way that the Circumstances and Substance may receive mutual Advantage from one another and may together be like a fair gilt Case and Dial-plate exactly fitted to the proportion of a well-wrought Clock whereby being preserved from Rust and Foulness and defended from those Accidents that might spoil and disorder it the motions of its Wheels are kept regular and it is not only an Ornament to the place where the Maker sets it but a needful Help and Direction to all that look upon it for the disposing of their Time and of their Affairs and thereby the worth of the Case is also improv'd as a necessary and proper means of attaining the end for which the Clock is designed but if that be taken away the Case remains an empty useless thing and though the sight of it may please Fools and Ignorant Persons who regard not though the Hand point to a wrong Hour yet those of discerning Judgments will soon perceive the want of life and motion and disregard it as a thing of a flight and inconsiderable value Of the Fruit of Chastity The Fruit of Chastity is also a more excellent and higher Vertue than that we formerly spake of for this Fruit grows out of that being the Flower of that Tree and the production of that Holy Root This is a Chastity of an Heroical degree a Chastity of Supream Magnitude 't is that which those Saints were blessed with who gave their Lives to defend it or not to lose it This is that which the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of Virgins and the prime Example of Chastity had This is that which Joseph had not only the Patriarch who was first of that Name when by his Chastity he triumphed over the wanton Lightness of his infamous Mistress choosing rather to suffer a cruel Imprisonment than to blemish it or do a Treachery to his Master but also the other Patriarch Joseph the Husband of the Blessed Virgin more Holy and more Chast than the former This is that which the great John Baptist had in losing his Life for having endeavoured to cleanse the heart of that Tyrant Herod from the Vice contrary to Chastity which cost him his Head that was sacrificed to the Revengeful Adulteress And this is that which many of the Primitive Christians valued to so high a degree that nothing could stain the whiteness of their Chastity but the Blood of their own Veins which was shed for the preservation of it This excellent Vertue may live and reign also even in Wedlock and shine brightly in holy Matrimony for Continence Temperance and Modesty in the use of Marriage is perfect Chastity sanctifying honouring and authorizing that holy Bond as St. Paul says This Fruit of the Spirit is acquir'd or to say better given by God through the Holy Spirit both to the married and unmarried to Virgins and to all those that have exercis'd themselves in keeping a clean and holy Purity both in Body and Mind And although all these Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit are owing to his Infinite Bounty yet this of Chastity is so more than all the rest for if as we have said none can have that former degree of Chastity out by the Gift of God Nemo enim continens esse potest nisi Deus dederit how can any one by other means obtain this Flower of Chastity which is the Crown and Fruit of that excellent Vertue which honours and improves even Chastity itself being exercis'd in such occasions and with such Heroical Vertues as do much increase the Glory of it Nor does the dependance of this Admirable Vertue upon the Bounty of God more than others increase the difficulty of it for in my Opinion and according to my way of Understanding it