object of my present dolours that thou maist after be the fountain of my everlasting joyes Moralities for Good Friday upon the death of Iesus Christ MOunt Calvary is a marvellous Scaffold where the chiefest Monarch of all the world loseth his life to restore our salvation which was lost and where he makes the Sun to be eclipsed over his head and stones to be cloven under his feet to teach us by insensible creatures the feeling which we should have of his sufferings This is the school where Iesus teacheth that great Lesson which is the way to do well we cannot better learn it then by his examples since he was pleased to make himself passible motal to overcome our passions and to be the Author of our immortality The qualities of a good death may be reduced to three points of which the first is to have a right conformity to the will of God for the manner the hour and circumstances of our death The second is to forsake as well the affections as the presence of all creatures of this base world The third is to unite our selves to God by the practise of great virtues which will serve as steps to glory Now these three conditions are to be seen in the death of the Prince of Glory upon mount Calvry which we will take as the purest Idea's whereby to regulate our passage out of this world 1. COnsider in the first place that every man living hath a naturall inclination to life because it hath some kind of divinity in it We love it when it smileth upon us as if it were our Paradise and if it be troublesom yet we strive to retain it though it be accompanied with very great miseries And if we must needs forsake this miserable body we then desire to leave it by some gentle and easie death This make thus plainly see the generosity of our Saviour who being Master of life and death and having it in his power to chuse that manner of death which would be least hideous being of it self full enough of horrour yet neverthelesse to conform himself to the will of his heavenly Father to confound our delicacies he would needs leave his life by the most dolorous and ignominious which was to be found amongst all the deaths of the whole world The Crosse amongst the Gentiles was a punishment for slaves and the most desperate persons of the whole world The Crosse amongst the Hebrews was accursed It was the ordinary curse which the most uncapable and most malicious mouths did pronounce against their greatest enemies The death of a crucified man was the most continuall languishings and tearing of a soul from the body with most excessive violence and agony And yet the eternall wisdome chose this kind of punishment and drank all the sorrows of a cup so bitter He should have died upon some Trophee and breathed out his last amongst flowers left his soul in a moment and if he must needs have felt death to have had the least sense of it that might be But he would try the rigour of all greatest sufferings he would fall to the very bottom of dishonour and having ever spared from himself all the pleasures of this life to make his death compleat he would spare none of those infinite dolours The devout Simon of Cassia asketh oâ—r Saviour going toward mount Calvary saying O Lord whether go you with the extream weight of this dry and barten piece of wood Whether do you carry it and why Where do you mean to set it Upon mount Cavalry That place is most wild and stony Hovv vvill you plant it Who shall water it Iesus answers I bear upon my shoulders a piece of wood which must conquer him who must make a far greater conquest by the same piece of wood I carry it to mount Calvary to plant it by my death and vvater it with my bloud This wood which I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of all the world and to draw all after me And then O faithfull soul wilt not thou suffer some confusion at thine own delicaâ—ies to be so fearfull of death by an ordinary disease in a Down bed amongst such necessary services such favourable helps coÌ„solations kindnesses of friends so sensible of thy condition We bemoan and complain our selves of heat cold distaste of disquiet of grief Let us allow some of this to Nature yet must it be confest that we lament out selves very much because we have never known how we should lament a Jesus Christ crucified Let us die as it shall please the divine providence If death come when we are old it it a haven If in youth it is a direct benefit antedated If by sicknesse it is the nature of our bodies If by external violence it is yet alwaies the decree of Heaven It is no matter how many deaths there are we are sure there can be but one for us 2. Consider farther the second condition of a good death which consists in the forsaking of all creatures and you shall find it most punctually observed by our Saviour at the time of his death Ferrara a great Diâ—vine who hath written a book of the hidden Word toucheth twelve things abandoned by our Saviour 1. His apparell leaving himself naked 2. The marks of his dignity 3. The Colledge of his Apostles 4. The sweetnesse of all comfort 5. His own proper will 6. The authority of virtuos 7. The power of An Angells 8. The perfect joyes of his soul 9. The proper charity of his body 10. The honours due to him 11. His own skin 12. All his bloud Now do but consider his abandoning the principal of those things how bitter it was First the abandoning of nearest and most faithfull friends is able to afflict any heart Behold him forsaken by all his so well beloved disciples of whom he had made choice amongst all mortal men to be the depositaries of his doctrine of his life of his bloud If Iudas be at the mysterie of his passion it is to betray him If Saint Peter be there assisting it is to deny him If his sorrowfull mother stand at the foot of the cross it is to encrease the grief of her Son and after he had been so ill handled by his cruel executioners to crucifie him again by the hands of Love The couragious Mother to triumph over her self by a magnanimous constancie was present at the execution of her dear Son She fixed her eyes upon all his wounds to engrave them deep in her heart She opened her soul wide to receive that sharp piercing sword with which she was threatned by that venerable old Simeon at her purification And Iesus who saw her so afflicted for his sake felt himself doubly crucified upon the wood of the Cross and the heart of his deat Mother We know it by experience that when we love one tenderly his afflictions disgraces will trouble us more then our own because he living in
they have no other sault but that they are not sufficiently carefull of their own health Others do correct with such sharpnesse and violence that they wound their own hearts to care other mens and seem to have a greater minde to please their own passions then to amend those whom they would instruct Correction should be accompanied with sweetnesse but it must carry with all a little vigour to make a right temper and to keepe a mean between softnesse and austerity Jesus in the Prophet Isai is called both a rod and a flower to shew us according to Origen that he carries severity mingled with sweetnesse to use either of them according to the diversity of persons 3. It is not a very easie thing to receive brotherly correction patiently we are so farre in love with being well thought of And after we have lost the tree of life which is virtue it self we would keep the bark of it which is onely reputation All shadows proceed from those bodies upon which somewhat shines honour is the child of a known virtue and many when they cannot get one lawfull are willing to have a Basâ—ard This is the cause why so many resemble those serpents which requite them with poison who sing to them pleasant songs Whatsoever is spoken to instruct them makes them passionate and dart out angry speeches against those who speak to them mild and gentle words of truth and tending to their salvation Rest assured you can never get perfection except you count it a glory to learn and discover your own imperfections 4. There is nothing of more force then the praiers of just men which are animated by the same spirit cimented together with perfect concord They are most powerfull both in heaven and earth When they desire what God will they are alwaies heard if not according to the wishes of their own nature yet according to the greater profits of his grace He is alwayes happy who hath that which he would because he knows how to wish what is fitting and finds means to obtain what he desires by reason of his abstinence from coveting that which cannot be had 5. We must not offer to limit our goodnesse but as it comes from an infinite God we should make it as near being infinite as we can He gives the lie to virtues who will reduce them to a certain number We must never be weary of well doing but imitate the nature of celestiall things which never make any end but to begin again Aspirations O God what spots are in my soul and how little do I looke into my own imperfections Wilt thou never shew me to my self for some good time that I may cure my self by horrour of seeing what I am since I do so often wound my self by being too indulgent to my own naughty affections It is a great offence to break the glass which representeth me to my self by brotherly correction and to think I shall commit no more sins when no body will take liberty to reprove me I will humble my self to the very dust and mount up to thy glory by contempt of my own basenesse Alas must my soul be alwaies so far in love with it self that it cannot suffer the remonstrance of a friend how will it then endure the tooth of an enemy what can she love being so partial to her self if she do not love most ugly darkness O my redoubted Master I fear thine eyes which see those obscurities which the foolish world takes to be brightnesse If I cannot be alwaies innocent make me at least acknowledge my self faulty that I may know my self as I am to the end thou mayest know me for an object capable of thy mercy The Gospel upon Wednesday the third week in Lent Saint Matthew 15. The Pharisees asked Jesus Why do thy Disciples contradict ancient Traditions THen came to him from Ierusalem Scribes and Pharisees saying Why do thy Disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients For they wash not their hands when they eat bread But he answering said to them Why do you also transgresse the commandement of God for your tradition For God said Honour Father and Mother and he that shall curse Father or Mother dying let him die But you say Whosoever shall say to Father or Mother The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me shall profit thee and shall not honour his Father or his Mother and you have made frustrate the commandment of God for your own tradition Hypocrites well hath Esay prophesied of you saying This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me And in vain do they worship me teaching doctrines and commandments of men And having called together the multitudes unto him he said to them Hear ye and understand Not that which entreth into the mouth defileth a man but that which proceedeth out of the mouth that defileth a man Then came his Disciples and said to him Dost thou know that the Pharisees when they heard this word were scandalized But he answering said All planting which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone blind they are guides of the blind and if the blind be guide to the blind both fall into the ditch And Peter answering said to him Expound us this parable But he said Are you also as yet without understanding Do you not understand that all that entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast forth into the privie But the things that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and those things defile a man For from the heart come forth evil cogitations murders advouteries fornications thefts false testimonies blasphemies These are the things that defile but to eat with unwashen hands doth not defile a man Moralities 1. THe spirit of man is wretched makes it self business by being disquieted with petty little things tormenting it self with formalities whilest it lives in a deep neglect of all that which is most essential to her salvation The Pharises did place their perfections in washing themselves every hour of the day in bearing writs of the Law upon their foreheads and thorns upon their heels but made no scruple to take away the honor due to fathers mothers from their children to make spoil of the world by a ravenous avarice which took upon it the apparance of piety and to give up innocent bloud under shew of justice The world doth now furnish it self with such like devotions Some make it a sin to look upon a fair flower with delight to eat with a good appetite to drink cool wine in hot weather to burn a paper upon which the name of Iesus is written to tread upon two straws that lie a cross But to set mony to usury to remember injuries for ever to keep a poor workmans wages to oppress the weak to accuse the innocent to spoil miserable persons These are the little sins which pass for virtues in this world Assure your self
virtue to avoid that which is ill There are many from whom good works do escape while they both think and do ill Truth makes use of their tongues when Devils command their hearts It is this which makes us see our Saviours Empire and the extent of his conquests which is not limited by time he being already entred into possesson of eternity and it is not bounded by place because it contains all Immensity Night hath no power to cover it because it is light it self It cannot be shut up in any deceitfull shadow because it scatters and discovers all falshood It cannot be comprehended within our senses because it exceeds their capacity and it is present in all places being omnipotent and eternall in all time Aspirations O Jesus Father of all blessed unions who hast suffered death to unite all the children of God together who are scattered over all the countreys of the world wilt thou have no pity of my heart so many times torn in pieces and strayed among a great multitude of objects which estrange and draw me from the first of all unities My soul melts through all the Gates of my senses by running after so many creatures which do kindle covetousnesse but never serve to refresh or cool the heat of it Draw me O Lord from the great throng of so many exteriour things that I may retire into my own heart and from thence arise to thine where I may find that peace which thou hast cimented fast with thy most precious blood When shall I see the first beams of that liberty which thou grantest to thy Children When shall my thoughts return from wandering in those barren regions where thou art not acknowledged When shall I be reunited and so purified by thy favours that they may celebrate continuall dayes of feast in my soul I am already there in desire and shall be there in presence when by help of thine infinite grace and mercy I can be wholly thine The Gospel upon Saturday the fifth week in Lent S. Iohn 12. The chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow Jesus BVt the chief Priests devised to kill Lazarus also because many for him of the Iewes went away and believed in Iesus And on the morrow a great multitude that was come to a festival day when they had heard that Iesus cometh to Ierusalem they took the boughs of Palms and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna blessed is he that commeth in the name of our Lord the King of Israel And Iesus found a young Asse and sate upon it as it is written Fear not daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh sitting upon an Asses colt These things his Disciples did not know at the first but when Iesus was glorified then they remembred that these things had been written of him and these things they did to him The multitude therefore gave testimony which was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead For therefore all the multitude came to meet him because they heard that he had done this sign The Pharisees therefore said among themselves Do you see that we prevail nothing Behold the whole world is gone after him And there were certain Gentiles of them that came up to adore in the Festivall day These therefore came to Philip who was of Bethsaida of Galilee and desired him saying Sir we are desirous to see Iesus Philip cometh and telleth Andrew Again Andrew aâ—d â—hilip told Iesus but Iesus answered them saying The hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified Amen Amen I say to you Vnlesse the grain of wheat falling into the ground die it self remaineth alone but if it die it bringeth much fruit He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world doth keep it to life everlasting If any man minister to me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my minister be If any man minister to me my Father will honour him Moralities 1. ADmire here the extasies of our sweet Saviour He is ravished by the object of his death and is transported by the Idea of his sufferings The trumpet of heaven souÌ„ded in the voyce which was heard by this great multitude He encourages himself to his combat he looks confidently upon the Crosse as the fountain of his glories and planted his elevation upon the lowest abasements Shall not we love this Crosse which Jesus hath cherished as his Spouse He gave up his soul in the arms of it to conquer our souls We shall never be worthy of him till we bear the Ensigns of his war and the ornaments of his peace Every thing is Paradise to him that knows how to love the Crosse and every thing is hell to those who flie from it and no body flies it but shall find it It is the gate of our mortality whether we must all come though we turn our backs to it 2. What a great secret it is to hate our soul that we may love it to hate it for a time that we may love it for all eternity to punish it in this life to give it thereby a perpetuall rest in that to come to despise it that we may honour it To handle it roughly that it may be perfectly established in all delights And yet this is the way which all just men have passed to arrive at the chiefest point of their rest They have resembled the Flowers de-Luce which weep for a time and out of their own tears produce seeds which renew their beauties The salt sea for them becomes a flourishing field as it did to the people of God when they came forth of the chains of Egypt The cloud which appeared to the Prophet Ezekiel carried with it winds and storms but it was environd with a golden circle to teach us that the storms of affliction which happen to Gods children are encompassed with brightnesse and smiling felicity They must rot as a grain of wheat that they may bud out and flourish in the ear They must abide the diversity of times and endure the Sythe and Flail They must be ground in a mill and passe by water and fire before they can be made bread pleasing to Jesus Christ Our losses are our advantages we lose nothing but to gain by it we humble and abase our selves to be exalted we despoil our selves to be better clothed and we mortifie our selves to be revived O what a grain of wheat is Jesus Christ who hath past all these trialls to make the height of all heavenly glories bud out of his infinite sufferings Aspirations O God I have that passionate desire which these strangers had to see Jesus I doe not ask it of Philip nor shall Philip have cause to ask Andrew My Jesus I ask it of thy self thou art beautifull even in the way of the Crosse Thou dist shew thy self couragious in the Abysse of thy pains thou art
admirable in the contempt of death The heavenly Trumpet hath already sounded for thee and cheerfulnesse gives wings to carry thee to this great combat where death and life sight singly together which makes life die for a time and death live for ever I will forsake my very soul to follow thee in this Agony and find my life in thy death as thou hast extinguished death in thy life The Gospel upon Palm Sunday S. Matthew 21. Our Saviour came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his Passion ANd when they drew nigh to Ierusalem and were come to Bethphage unto mount Olivet then Iesus sent two Disciples saying to them Go ye into the town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Asse tied and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye That our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them goe And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee mock and sitting upon an Asse and a Colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke And the Disciples going did as Iesus commanded them and they brought the Asse and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him to sit thereon And a very great multitude spred their garments in the way and others did cut boughs from the trees and strewed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Moralities 1. OUr Saviour goes to his death in triumph he appears to be a King but a King of Hearts who requires nothing of us but our selves onely to make us happy and contented in him He triumphs before the victory because non but he could be sure of the future certainty of his happiness But he watered his triumphs with tears to weep for our joyes which where to proceed out of his sadness It is related by an ancient Oratour that when Constantine made his entry into great Britany where he was born the people received him with so great applause that they killed the Sails and Oars of the Vessell which brought him were ready to pave the streets with their bodies for him to tread on If they did so for a mortal man what should we not do for an eternal God who comes to buy us with his precious bloud and demands entrance into our hearts only to give us Paradise 2. He walks towards his Cross amongst the cries of favour and joy to teach us with what chearfulnesse we should conform our selves to abide our own sufferings imitating the Apostles who receiv'd their first reproches as Manna from Heaven He would have us prepared resolved alwaies to suffer death patiently whether it be a death which raiseth up our spirit to forsake sensuality ot a natural death Whatsoever it be we should embrace it as the day which must bring us to our lodging after a troublesome pilgrimage Doth it not appear plainly that those who are loth to forsake the world are like herbs put into an earthen pot amongst straw dung yet would be unwilling to come forth of it The forniture of out worldly lodging grows rotten the roof is ready to fall upon our heads the foundation shakes under our feet and we fear that day which if vve our selves vvill shall be the â—orning of our eternall happinesse It is not death but onely the opinion of it which is terrible and every man considers it according to the disposition of his own spirit 3. The Palm branches vvhich we carry in our hands require from us the renewing of a life purified and cleansed in the bloud of the holy Lambe In the beginning of lent we take upon our heads the ashes of Palm branches to teach us that we do then enter as it vvere into the Sepulchre of repentance But novv vve carry green bows to make us know that now vve come out of the tomb of Ashes to enter again into the strength of doing good vvorks in imitation of the trees vvhich having been covered vvith snovv and buried in the sharpnesse of vvinter do again begin to bud in the Spring time 4. The garments spread under the feet of Jesus declare that all our temporall goods should be employed tovvard his glory and that vve must forsake our affections to all things vvhich perish that vve may be partakers of his kingdome No man can stand firm that is delighted vvith movable things He that is subject to vvorldly affections binds himself to a vvheel vvhich turns about continually Jesus accepted this triumph onely to despise it he reserved the honour of it in his own hands to drovvn it in the floud of his tears and in the sea of his precious bloud If you be rich and wealthy do not publish it vainly but let the poor feel it You must live amongst all the greatnesse jollity of this world as a man whose onely businesse must be to go to God Aspirations O Soveraign King of hearts after whom all chaste loves do languish I am filled with joy to see tâ—ee walk amongst the cries of joy and the palms gâ—rments of thy admirers which served for carpets I am ravished wi h thy onours and the delights of thy glory and I applaud thy triumphs Alas that all the earth is not obedient to thy laws and that the tongues of aâ—l people do not make one voice to acknowledge thee sole Monarch of heaven and earth Triumph at least in the hearts of thy faithfull servants O my magnificent Master make a triumphall Ark composed of hearts Put fire to it vvith thy adored hand Send out one spark of that heat vvhich tâ—ou camest to spread upon the earth Let every thing burn for thee and consume it self in thy love I do irrevocably bind my heart to the magnificence of thy triumpâ— and I love better to be thy slave then to be saluted king of the vvhole vvorld The Gospel upon Munday in holy week S. Iohn 12. Saint Mary Magdalen anointed our Saviours feet vvith precious ointment at vvhich Iudas repined JEsus therefore six dayes before the Pasche came to Bethaenia where Lazarus was that had been dead whom Iesus raised and they made him a supper there and Martha ministred but Lazarus was one of them that sate at the table with him Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right Spikenard precious and anointed the feet of Iesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled of the odour of the Ointment One therefore of his Disciples Iudas Iscariot he that was to betray him said Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor And he said this not because he cared for the poor but because he waâ— a thiâ—fâ— and having the
us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Iesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his passion became like a scastold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entred to be tormented and crucified upon the Crosse of love which was the Crosse of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from heaveÌ„ to acomplish the businesse of all ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and this so precious shipwrak there remained one oâ—ely inestimable pearl which was his divine mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hands of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Iesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the vvhole vvorld as he did proportioning his torments according to the fruits which vvere to proceed from his cross Perhaps O faithfull soul thou lookest for a mans body in thy Iesus but thou findest nothing but the appearance of one crusted over with gore bloud Thou seekest for limbs findest nothing but vvounds Thou lookest for a Iesus which appeared glorious upon mount Thabor as upon a Throne of Majesty with all the ensigns of his glory and thou findest only a skin all bloudy fastned to a crosse betvven tvvo thieves And if the consideration of this cannot bring drops of bloud from thy heart it must be more insensible then a diâ—mond 3. To conclude observe the third quality of a good death which will declare it self by the exercise of great and heroick virtues Consider that incomparable mildnesse which hath astonished all ages hath encouraged all virtues hath condemned all revenges hath instructed all Schools and crowned all good actions He was raised upon the crosse vvhen his dolours were most sharp and piercing when his wounds did open on all sides when his precious bloud shed upon the earth and moistened it in great abundance when he saw his poor clothes torn in peices and yet bloudy in the hands of those who crucified him He considered the extreme malice of that cruell people how those which could not wound him with iron pierced him with the points of their accursed tongues He could quickly have made sire com down from heaven upon those rebellious heads And yet forgetting all his pains to remember his mercies he opened his mouth and the first worde he spake was in the favour of his enemies to negotiate their reconciliation before his soul departed The learned Cardinall Hugues admiring the excessive charity of our Saviour toward his enemies applies excellent well that which is spoken of the Sunne in Ecclesiasticus He brings news to all the world at his rising and at noon-day he burns the earth and heats those furnaces of Nature which make it produce all her fruits So Jesus the Sun of the intelligible world did manifest himself at his Nativity as in the morning But the Crosse was his bed at noon from whence came those burning streames of Love which inflames the hearts of all blessed persons who are like furnaces of that eternall fire which burns in holy Sion On the other part admire that great magnanimity which held him so long upon the Crosse as upon a Throne of honour and power when he bestowed Paradise upon a man that was his companion in suffering I cannot tell whether in this action we should more admire the good fortune of the good theif or the greatnesse of Jesus The happinesse of the good theif who is drawn for a cut throat to prison from prison to the judgement hall from thence to the Crosse and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but the heart of Jesus On the other side what can be more admirable then to see a man crucified to do that act which must be performed by the living God when the world shall end To save some to make others reprobate and to judge from the height of his Crosse as if he sate upon the cheifest throne of all Monarchs But we must needs affirm that the virtue of patience in this holds a chief place and teaches very admirable lessons He endures the torments of the body and the pains of the spirit in all the faculties of his soul in all the parts of his virgin flesh and by the cruelty and multiplicity of his wounds they all become one onely wound from the sole of his foot to the top of his head His delicate body suffers most innocently and all by most ingrate and hypocriticall persons who would colour their vengeance with an apparence of holinesse He suffers without any comfort at all and which is more without bemoaning himself he suffers whatsoever they would or could lay upon him to the very last gasp of his life Heaven weares mourning upon the Cross all the Citizens of heaven weep over his torments the earth quakes the stones rend themselves sepulchres open the dead arise Onely Jesus dies unmoveable upon this throne of patience To conclude who would not be astonished at the tranquillity of his spirit amongst those great convulsions of the world which moved round about the Cross amongst such bloudy dolours insolent cries insupportable blasphemies how he remained upon the Crosse as in a Sanctuary at the foot of an Altar bleeding weeping praying to mingle his prayers with his bloud and tears I do now understand why the Wise man said He planted Isles within the Abysse since that in so great a gulph of afflictions he shewed such a serenity of spirit thereby making a Paradise for his Father amongst so great pains by the sweet perfume of his virtues After he had prayed for his enemies given a promise of Paradise to the good thief and recommended his mother to his Disciple he shut up his eyes from all humane things entertaining himself onely with prayers and sighs to his heavenly Father O that at the time of our deaths we could imitate the death of Iesus and then we should be sure to find the streams of life Aspirations