to abate and humble the proudest of all Creatures then to represent his beginning and his end The middle-part of our life like a kind of Proteus takes up on it severall shapes not understood by others but the first and last part of it deceive no man for they do both begin and end in Dust It is a strange thing that Man knowing well what he hath been and what he must be is not confounded in himself by observing the pride of his own life and the great disorder of his passions The end of all other creatures is less deformed then that of man Plants in their death retain some pleasing smell of their bodies The little rose buries it self in her naturall sweetnesse and carnation colour Many Creatures at their death leave us their teeth horns feathers skins of which we make great use Others after death are served up in silver and golden dishes to feed the geatest persons of the world Onely mans dead carcase is good for nothing but to feed worms and yet he often retains the presumptuous pride of a Giant by the exorbitance of his heart and the cruell nature of a murderer by the furious rage of his revenge Surely that man must either be stupid by nature or most wicked by his own election who will not correct and amend himself having still before his eyes ashes for his glasse and death for his mistres 2 This consideration of Dust is an excellent remedy to cure vices and an assured Rampire against all temptations S. Paulinus saith excellently well That holy Iob was free from all temptations when he was placed upon the smoke and dust of his humility He that lies upon the ground can fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streames of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napell which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Egyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we bury all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little businesse with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousnesse arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting blisse by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel upon Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocryticall Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward Put thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig thorow and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig thorow nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the Praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all vertues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abomination in his sight and â—ertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entring into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictnesse having been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchin stuffe It is no more burdensome to a couragious spirit then feathers are to a bird The chearfulnesse which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does halfe the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by almes deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with purenesse and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to lose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousnesse in life to encounter with such extream nakednesse in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend only on God Almighty comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carry our souls to heaven where Jesus on
the day of his Ascension did place our Soveraigne good Onely Serpents and covetous men desire to sleep among treasures as Saint Clement saith But the greatest riches of the world is poverty free from Covetousnesse Aspirations I Seek thee O invincible God within the Abysse of thy brightnesse and I see thee through the vail of thy creatures Wilt thou alwaies be hidden from me Shall I never see thy face which with a glimpse of thy splendour canst make Paradise I work in secret but I know thou art able to reward me in the light A man can lose nothing by serving thee and yet nothing is valuable to thy service for the paine it selfe is a sufficient recompense Thou art the food of my fastings and the cure of my infirmities What have I to do with Moles to dig the earth like them and there to hide treasures Is it not time to close the earth When thou doest open heaven and to carry my heart where thou art since all my riches is in thee Doth not he deserve to be everlastingly poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as thou art The Gospel upon the first Thursday in Lent S. Matthew 18. of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ANd when he was entered into Caphearnaum there came unto him a Centurion beseeching him and saying Lord my boy lieth at home sick of the palsie and is sore tormented And Iesus saith to him I will come and cure him And the Centurion making answer said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof but onely say the word and my boy shall be healed For I also am a man subject to Authority having under me souldiers and I say to this go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and be doth it And Iesus hearing this marvelled and said to them that followed him Amen I say to you I have not found so grea faith in Israel And I say to you that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven but the children of the kingdoms shall becast out into the exteriour darknesse there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And Iesus said to the Centurion go and as thou hast believed be it done unto thee And the boy was healed in the same houre Moralities 1. OUr whole Salvation consists in two principals The one is in our being sensible of God the other in our moving toward him the first proceeds from faith the other comes of charity other virtues O what a happy thing it is to follow the example of this good Centurion by having such elevated thoughts of the Divinity and to know nothing of God but what he is To behold our heavenly father within this great family of the world who effects all things by his single word Creates by his power governs by his councell orders by his goodness this great universality of all things The most insensible creatures have ears to hear him Feavers and tempests are part of that running camp which marcheth under his Standard They advance and retire themselves under the shadow of his command he onely hath power to give measures to the heavens bounds to the sea to joyn the east and west together in an instant and to be in all places where his pleasure is understood 2. O how goodly a thing it is to go unto him like this great Captain To go said I Nay rather to flie as he doth by the two wings of charity and humility His charity made him have a tender care of his poor servant to esteem his health more dear then great men do the rarest pieces in their Cabinets He doth not trust his servants but take the charge upon himselfe making himself by the power of love a servant to him who by birth was made subject to his command What can be said of so many Masters and Mistresses now adayes who live alwayes slaves to their passions having no care at all of the Salvation health or necessities of their servants as if they were nothing else but the scumme of the world They make great use of their labours and service which is just but neglect their bodies and kill their soules by the infection of their wicked examples Mark the humility of this souldier who doth not thinke his house worthy to be enlightened by one sole Glimpse of our blessed Saviours presence By the words of Saint Augustine we may say he made himself worthy by believing and declaring himself so unworthy yea worthy that our Saviour should enter not only into his house but into his very soul And upon the matter he could not have spoken with such faith and humility if he had not first enclosed in his heart him whom he durst not receive into his house 3 The Gentiles come near unto God and the Iews go from him to teach us that ordinarily the most obliged persons are most ungratefull and disesteem their benefactpurs for no other reason but because they receive benefits daily from them If you speak courteously to them they answer churlishly and in the same proportion wherein you are good you make them wicked therefore we must be carefull that we be not so toward God Many are distasted with devotion as the Israelites were with Manna All which is good doth displease them because it is ordinary And you shall finde some who like naughty grounds cast up thorns where roses are planted But we have great reason to sâ—ar that nothing but Hell fire is capable to punish those who despise the Graces of God and esteem that which comes from him as a thing of no value Aspirations O Almighty Lord who ' doest govern all things in the family of this world and dost binde all insensible creatures by the bare sound of thy voice in a chaine of everlasting obedience Must I onely be still rebellious against thy will Feavers and Palsies have their ears for thee and yet my unruly spirit is not obedient Alas alas this family of my heart is ill governed It hath violent passions my thoughts are wandering my reason is ill obeyed Shall it never be like the house of this good Centurion where every thing went by measure because he measured himself by thy commandments O Lord I wil come resolutely by a profound humility an inward feeling of my self since I am so contemptible before thine eyes I will come with Charity towards these of my houshold and toward all that shall need me O God of my heart I beseech thee let nothing from henceforth move in me but onely to advance my coming toward thee who art the beginning of all motions and the onely repose of all things which move The Gospel for the first Friday in Lent S. Mat. 5. Wherein we are directed to pray for our Enemies YOu have heard that it was said thou shaâ—e love thy neighbour
and hate thine enemie But I say to you love your enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute and abuse you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven who maketh his Sun to rise upon good and bad and raineth upon just and unjust For if you love them that love you what reward shall you have Do not also the Publicans this And if you salute your brethren onely what do you more Do not also the heathen this Be you perfect therefore as also your heavenly Father is perfect Moralities 1. A Man that loves nothing but according to his natural inclination loves onely like a beast or an infidel The best sort of love is that which is commanded by God is derived from judgement conducted by reason and perfected by Charity Me thinks it should be harder for a good Christian to hate then love his enemy Hate makes him our equal whereas love placeth us quite above him By hating a mans enemy he breaks the laws of God he fights against the Incarnation of Christ wich was acted to unite all things in the bands of love he gives the lie to the most blessed Eucharist whose nature is to make the hearts of all Christians the same he lives like another Cain in the world alwayes disquieted by seeking revenge and it is a very death to him to hear of another mans prosperity Whereas to love an enemy doth not bind us to love the injuty he hath done us for we must not consider him as a malefactour but as a man of our own nature as he is the Image of God and as he is a Christian God doth onely command perfect things not impossible That which is very hard to flesh and bloud becomes easie by the help of grace and reason Our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ being the Father of all harmony can and doth reconcile all contrarieties at his will and pleasure 2. If revenge seem sweet the gaining of it is most bitter But there is nothing in the world more profitable then to pardon an enemy by imitation of our Saviour For it is then that our conscience can assure us to be the children of God and inheritors of his glory We must not fear to be despised for esteeming virtue for such contempt can only proceed from those who know not the true value of that glory which belongs to the just There is no better way to revenge then leave it to God who alwayes doth his own business Ween David wept for Saul who was his enemy his Clemency did insensibly make degrees by which he mounted up to the throne of Iudah A good work which comes from the spirit of vanity is like an emptied Mine good for nothing God who is invisible would have our aspects turned alwayes toward him and blind toward the world Alms given by the sound of a Trumpet makes a great noise on the earth but reaps little fruit in heaven The fly of vanity is a mischievous thing which destroyes all the perfumes of charity What need we any spectators of our good works every place is full where God is and where he is not there onely is Solitude Aspirations O God of all holy affections when shall I love all that thou lovest and have in horrour all that displeaseth thy divine Majesty If I cannot love in some person his defects and sinns I will love in him thine Image and in that vvill I acknovvledge thy mercies If he be a piece of broken glass in that little piece there vvill shine some lines of a God Creator and of a God Redeemer If thou hast chosen him to exercise my patience vvhy should I make him the object of my revenge since he gives me trouble to gaine me a Crovvn He is a hammer to pollish and make me bright I will not hurt him but reverence the arme that strikes me I resigne all vengence into thy hands since it is a Right reserved for thy Almighty power And certainly the best revenge I can take is to gratifie my enemy Give unto me O most mercifull Prince the grace to suffer and let the sacrifice of my sufferings mount up to thy propitiatory throne The Gospel for the first Saturday in Lent S. Matthew 6. Of the Apostles danger at Sea and relief by our Saviour ANd when he had dismissed them he went into the mountain to pray and when it was late the boat was in the midst of the Sea and himself alone on the land And seeing them labouring in rowing for the wind was against them and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh to them walking upon the sea and he would have passed by them But they seeing him walking upon the sea thought it was a ghost and cryed out for all saw him and were troubled And immediately he talked with them and said to them have confidence it is I fear ye not And he went up to them into the ship and the wind ceased and they were farre more astonied within themselves for they understood not concerning the loaves for their heart was blinded And when they had passed over they came into the land of Genesareth and set to the shore And when they were gone out of the boat incontinent they knew him and running through that whole countrey they began to carry about in couches those that were ill at ease where they heard he was And whethersoever he eâ—tred into towns or into villages or cities they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment and as many as touched him were made whole Moralities 1. WHat a painfull thing it is to row when Jesus is not in the boat all our travell is just nothing without Gods favour A little blast of wind is worth more then an hundred stroakes of Oares What troublesome businesses there are how many intricate families do labour much yet advance nothing because God withdrawes himself from their iniquities if he do not build the workman destroyes what he is building But all falls out right to those that embark themselves with Jesus They may passe to the Indies in a basket when others shall miscarry in a good ship well furnished 2. But how comes it about that the ship of the poor Apostles is beaten so furiously by the windes and tempests There are many ships with silver beaks with fine linnen sails and silken tackles upon which the sea seems to smile Do the waters reserve there choller only to vent it upon that ship which carries just persons This is the course of mans life The brave and happy men of this world enjoy theis wishes but their ship doth perish in the harbour as it is sporting whereas God by his infinite providence gives tempests to his elect that he may work a miraculous calme by his Almighty power Dangers are witnesses of their floting and Combats are causes of their merit Never think any man happy in
his wickednesse for he is just like a fish that playes with the baite when the hook sticks fast in his throat We must waite and â—ttend for help from heaven patiently withâ—ut being tired even till the fourth which is is the last watch of the night All which proceeds from the hand of God comes ever in fit time and that man is a great gainer by his patient attendance who thereby gets nothing but perseverance 3. They know Jesus very ill that take him for a Phantome or an illusion and cry out for fear of his presence which should make them most rejoyce So do those souls which are little acquainted with God who live in blindenesse and make much of their own darknesse Let us learn to discerne God from the illusions of the world The tempest ceaseth when he doth approach and the quietnesse of our heart is a sure marke of his presence which fils the soul with splendour and makes it a delicious Garden He makes all good wheresoever he comes and the steps which his feet leave are the bounties of his heart To touch the Hem of his Garment cures all that are sick to teach us that the forms which cover the blessed Sacrament are the fringes of his holy humanity which cures our sins Aspirations O Lord my soul is in night and darknesse and I feel that thou art far from me What Billows of disquiet arise within my heart what idle thoughts which have been too much considered Alas most redoubted Lord and Father of mercy canst thou behold from firm land this poor vessel which labours so extreamly being deprived of thy most amiable presence I row strongly but can advance nothing except thou come into my soul Come O my adored Master walk upon this tempestuous Sea of my heart ascend into this poor Vessell say unto me take courage It is I. Be not conceited that I will take thee for an illusion for I know thee too well by thy powers and bounties to be so mistaken The least thought of my heart will quiet it self to adore thy steps Thou shalt raigne within me thou shalt disperse my cares thou shalt recover my decayed senses thou shalt lighten my understanding thou shalt inflame my will thou shalt cure all my infirmities And to conclude thou only shalt work in me and I will be wholly thine The Gospel upon the first Sunday in Lent S. Matthew the 4. Of our Saviours being tempted in the Desart THen Iesus was led of the spirit into the Desart to be tempted of the Devill and when he had fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights afterward he was hungry And the tempter aproached and said to him If thou be the Sonne of God command that these stones be made bread Who answered and said it is written not in bread alone doth man live but in every word that procedeth from the mouth of God Then the Devil took him up into the holy City and set him upon the pinacle of the Temple and said to him If thou be the son of God cast thy self down for it is written that he will give his Angels charge of thee and in their hands shall they hold thee up lest perhaps thou knock thy foot against a stone Iesus said to him again It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Again the Devil took him up into a very high mountain and he shewed him all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them and said to him all these will I give thee if falling down thou wilt adore me Then Iesus saith to him avant Satan for it is written the Lord thy God shalt thou a dore and him only shalt thou serve When the Divil left him and behold Angels came and ministred to him Moralities 1. IEsus suffered himself to be tempted saith Saint Augustine to the end he might serve for a Mediatour for an example for a remedy to work our victory over all temptations We must fight on his side Our life is a continuall warfare and our dayes are ChampioÌ„s which enters into the lists There is no greater temptation then to have none at all Sleeping water doth nourish poyson Motion is the worlds soul fighting against temptations is the soul of virtues and gloâ—y doth spring and bud out of tribulations Virtue hinders not temptation but surmount it Jesus fasted saith the ordinary Glosse that he might be tempted is tempted because he did fast He fasted fourty dayes and then was hungry he did eat with his Disciples the space of fourty dayes after his resurrection without any more necessity of meat then the Sun hath of the earths vapours to make us thereby know that it onely appertained to him to teach that great secret how to manage vvant and abundance by vvich S. Paul vvas glorified 2. The first victory over a temptation is tâ— knovv that vvhich tempts us Some temptations are gay smiling at their beginning as those of love and pleasure vvhich end in terrible bitter stormes Others are troublesome and irksome Others doubt full and intricate Others rapide and sudden vvhich cease upon their prey like an Eagle Others are close and catching These are the snares of Satan vvho fomes like a Bore to arsike a Lion and hisseth like a Serpent We should alvvayes have an eye ready to mark from whence the temptation comes whither it tends what is the root of it what the course what the progresse and what power it may have over our spirit 3. Solitude of heart fasting prayer the word of God are weapons of an excellent temper which the word incarnate teacheth us to use in this conflict These things are to be used with discretion by the counsell of a good directour to whom a man must declare all his most secret thoughts and bear a breast of Christall toward him with a firm purpose to let him see all the inward motions of his heart It is also good to note here that our Lord would expresly be tempted in that Desart which is between Jerusalem and Jericho where the Samaritan mentioned in the parable did poure wine and oyl into the sores of the poor wounded man to teach us that by his combat he came to cure the wounds of Adam and all his race in the very place where they were received 4. Sin is killed by flying the occasions of it Absence resistance coldnesse silence labour diversion have overcome many assaults of the enemy Somtimes a Spiders web is strong enough to preserve chastity at other times the thick walls of Semiramis are not sufficient God governs all and a good will to concur with him is a strong assurance in all perils and it will keep us untoucht amidst the flames of lust 5. Since it imports us so much to fight valiantly let us bring the hearts of Lions Where is our Christianity if we do not give testimony of it to God both by our sidelity and courage How many Martyrs have been rosted and broild because
demand a sign of Jesus THen answered him certain of the Scribes and Pharisees saying Master we would see a sign from thee who answered and said to them The wicked and advouterous generation seeketh a sign and a sign shall not be given it but the sign of Ionas the Prophet For as Ionas was in the Whales belly three dayes and three nights so shall the Sonne of man be in the heart of the earth three dayes and three nights The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgement with this generation and shall condemne it because they did penance at the preaching of Ionas And behold more then Ionas here The Queen of the south shall rise in the judgement with this generation and shall condemne it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdome of Solomon and behold more then Solomon here And when an unclean spirit shall go out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth not Then hee saith I will returne into my house whence I came out And coming he findeth it vacant swept with besomes and trimmed then goeth he and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked then himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last of that man be made worse then the first So shall it be also to this wicked generation As he was yet speaking to the multitudes behold his mother and his brethren stood without seeking to speak to him and one said unto him behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without seeking thee But he answering him that told him said who is my mother and who are my brethren And stretching forth his hand upon his Disciples he said Behold my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven he is my brother and sister and mother Moralities 1. 'T is a very ill sign when we desire signs to make us believe in God The signs which we demand to fortifie out faith are ofttimes marks of our infidelity There is not a more dangerous plague in the events of worldly affairs then to deal with the Devil or to cast nativities All these things fil men whith more saults then knowledge For divine Oracles have more need to be reverenced then interpreted He that will find God must seek him with simplicity and professe him with piety 2. Some require a sign and yet between heaven and earth all is full of signs How many creatures soever there are they are all steps and characters of the Divinity What a happy thing it is to study what God is by the volume of time and by that great Book of the world There is not so small a floure of the meddows nor so little a creature upon earth which doth not tell us some news of him He speaks in our ears by all creatures which are so many Organ-pipes to convey his Spirit and voice to us But he hath no sign so great as the word incarnate which carries all the types of his glory and power About him onely should be all our curiosity our knowledge our admiration and our love because in him we can be sure to find all our repose and consolation 3. Are we not very miserable since we know not our own good but by the losse of it which makes us esteem so little of those things we have in our hands The Ninivites did hear old Ionas the Prophet The Queen of Saba came from farre to hear the wisdome of Solomon Jesus speaks to us usually from the Pulpits from the Altars in our conversations in our affairs and recreations And yet we do not sufficiently esteem his words nor inspirations A surfeited spirit mislikes honey and is distasted with manna raving after the rotten pots of Egypt But it is the last and worst of all ills to dispise our own good Too much confidence is mother of an approaching danger A man must keep himself from relapses which are worse then sinnes which are the greatest evils of the world he that loves danger shall perish in it The first sinne brings with it one Devil but the second brings seven There are some who vomit up their sinnes as the sea doth cockles to swallow them again Their life is nothing but an ebbing and flowing of sinnes and their most innocent retreats are a disposition to iniquity For as boild water doth soonest freez because the cold works upon it with the greater force so those little fervours of devotion which an unfaithfull soul feels in confessions and receiving if it be not resolute quite to forsake wickednesse serve for nothing else but to provoke the wicked spirit to make a new impression upon her It is then we have most reason to fear Gods justice when we despise his mercy We become nearest of kin to him when his Ordinances are followed by our manners and our life by his precepts Aspirations O Word Incarnate the great sign of thy heavenly Father who carriest all the marks of his glory and all the characters of his powers It is thou alone whom I seek whom I esteem and honour All that I see all I understand all that I feel is nothing to me if it do not carry thy name and take colour from thy beauties nor be animated by thy Spirit Thy conversation hath no trouble and thy presence no distaste O let me never lose by my negligence what I possesse by thy bounty Keep me from relapses keep me from the second gulf and second hell of sinne He is too blind that profits noting by experience of his own wickednesse and by a full knowledge of thy bounties The Gospel upon Thursday the first week in Lent out of S. Matthew the 15. Of the woman of Canaan ANd Iesus went forth from thence and retired into the quarters of Tyre and Sidon And behold a woman of Canaan came forth out of these coasts and crying out said to him have mercy upon me O Lord the Son of David my daughter is sore vexed of a Devil who answered her not a word And his Disciples came and besought him saying dismisse her because she cryeth out after us And he answering said I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel But she came and adored him saying Lord help me who answering said It is not good to take the bread of children and to cast it to the dogs but she said yea Lord for the dogs also eat of the crums that fall from the tables of their masters Then Iesus answering said to her O woman great is thy faith be it done to thee as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that hour Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus Christ after his great and wondrous discent from heaven to earth from being infinite to be finite from being God to be man used many severall means for salvation of the world And behold entring upon the frontiers of Tyre and Sidon he was pleased to conceal himself But
that such proceedings are abominable before God there can be no better devotion in the world then to have a true and right seeling of God to live in honesty not sophisticated but such as is produced out of the pure lights of nature The conscience of hypocrites is a spiders web whereof no garment can ever be made Hypocrisie is a very subtil fault and a secret poison which kills other virtues with their own swords 2. Iesus is our great Master who hath abridged six hundred and thirteen Precepts of the old Testament within the law of love Do but love saith Saint Augustine and do what you vvill but then your love must go to the right fountain which is the heart of God It is in him you must cherish and honour your nearest friends and for him also you are bound to love even your greatest enemies Be not afraid to shew him your heart stark naked that he may pierce it vvith his arrows for the wounds of such an archer are much more precious then rubies You shall gain all by loving him and death it self vvhich comes from this love is the gate of life If you love him truly you vvilll have the three conditions of love which are to serve him to imitate him and to suffer for him You must serve him vvith all fidelitie in your prayers and all your actions you must imitate him vvhat possibly you can in all the passages of his life And you must hold it for a glory to participate vvith a valiant patience all the fruits of his Cross Aspirations O Great God vvho judgest all hearts and doest penetrate the most secret retiremēts of our consciences drive away from me all counterfeit Pharisaical devotions which are nothing but shews cannot subsist but by false apparencies O my God my Iesus make me keep the Law of thy love and nothing else It is a yoke vvhich brings vvith it more honor then burden It is a yoke which hath wings but no heavinesse Make me serve thee O my Master since thou beholdest the services of all the Angels under thy feet Make me imitate thee O my Redeemer since thou art the originall of all perfections make me suffer for thee O King of the afflicted and that I may not know what it is to suffer by knowing what it is to love The Gospel on Thursday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus cured the Fever of Simons Mother in Lavv. ANd Iesus rising up out of the Synagogue entred into Simons house and Simons wives mother was holden with a great Fever and they besought him for her And standing over her he commanded the Fever and it lest her And incontinent rising she ministred to them And when the Sun was down all that had diseased of sundrie maladies brought them to him But he imposing hands upon every one cured them And Devils went out from many crying and saying that thou art the Son of God And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak that they knew he was Christ And when it was day going forth he went into a Desart place and the multitudes sought him and came even unto him and they held him that he should not depart from them To whom he said That to other Cities also must I Evangelize the Kingdome of God because therefore I was sent And he was preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee Moralities 1. A Soul within a sick body is a Princesse that dwels in a ruinous house Health is the best of all temporall goods without which all honors are as the beams of an eclipsed Sun Riches are unpleasing and all pleasures are languishing All joy of the heart subsists naturally in the health of the body But yet it is true that the most healthfull persons are not alwaies the most holy What profit is there in that health which serves for a provocation to sinne for an inticement to worldly pleasure and a gate to death The best souls are never better nor stronger then when their bodies are sick their diseases are too hard for their mortall bodies but their courage is invincible It is a great knovvledge to understand our own infirmities Prosperity keeps us from the view of them but adversity shews them to us We should hardly know what death is if so many diseases did not teach us every day that we are mortall Semiramis the proudest of all Queens had made a law whereby she was to be adored in stead of all the gods but being humbled by a great sicknesse she acknowledged her self to be but a woman 2. All the Apostles pray for this holy woman which was sick but she herself asked nothing nor did complain of any thing She leaves all to God who is only Master of life and death She knew that he which gives his benefits with such bounty hath the wisdome to chuse those which are most fit for us How do we know whether we desiring to be delivered from a sicknesse do not aske of God to take away a gift which is very necessary to our salvation That malady or affliction which makes us distaste worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to taste the joyes of heaven 3. How many sicke persons in the heate of a Feaver promise much and when they are well again perform nothing That body which carried all the marks of death in the face is no sooner grown strong by health which rejoyceth the heart fils the vains with bloud but it becomes a slave to sin The gifts of God being abused serve for nothing but to make it wicked and so the soul is killed by recovery of the flesh But this pious woman is no sooner on foot but she serves the Author of life and employes all those limbs which Jesus cured of the Feaver to prepare some provisions to refresh him He that will not use the treasures of heaven with acknowledge ment deserves never to keep them When a man is recovered from a great sicknesse as his body is renewed by health so on the other side he should renew his spirit by virtue The body saith Saint Maximus is the bed of the soul where it sleeps too easily in continuall health and forgets it self in many things But a good round sicknesse doth not onely move but turn over this bed which maketh the soul awake to think on her salvation and make a total conversion Aspirations O Word Incarnate all Feavers and Devils flie before the beams of thy redoubted face Must nothing but the hea◠of my passions alwayes resist thy powers and bounties To what maladies and indispositions am I subject I have more diseases in my soul then limbs in my body My weaknesse bends under thy scourges and yet my sinnes continue still unmoveable Stay O benigne Lord stay thy-self near me Cast upon my dull and heavy eyes one beam from those thine eyes which make all storms clear and all disasters happy Command that my weaknesse leave me and that I may arise to perform my
not find and where I am you cannot come And in the last the great day of the festivity Iesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth in me as the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water And this he said of the Spirit that they should receive which believed in him Moralities 1. TAke for your comfort this excellent word of our Saviour he that is thirsty and desires in this world to thirst after God let him come unto me and he shall quench his thirst at the chiefest fountain S. Augustine saith we are all here as David was in the desart of Idumea our life is a perpetual alteration which will never be settled while we live If we be weary we desire rest and if we rest over long our bed becomes troublesome though it should be all ofâ—oses Then again we thirst to be in action and business which also in a short time tires us and puts us into another â—lteration and that carries us again to a desire to do nothing All our life goeth like Penelopies web what one hour effects the next destroyes We do sufficiently perceive that we are not well in this world It is a large bed but very troublesome wherein every man stirs and tumbles himself up and down but no man can here attain to his perfect happinesse 2. This shews us plainly that we are made for God and that we should thirst after divine things if we desire true contentment There is no default in him because all that can be desired is there yet there is no superfluity because there can be nothing beyond him There only we abound without necessity we are assured without fear glorious without change And it is there only where we find all our sa isfactions perfectly accomplished For to speak truth contentment coÌ„sisteth in four principal things which are to have a contenting object to have a heart capable to appreheÌ„d it to feel a strong inclination to it to enter into an absolute full possession ofâ— Now God hath provided for all this by his infinite bounty He will not have us affect any other object of pleasure but his own He is God therefore can have nothing but God for his satisfaction intends graciously that we shall have the same He will have us thirst after him and quench our thirst within himself to this our soul is singularly disposed for as God is a Spirit so is our soul only spi itual We have so strong an inclination to love God that even our vices themselves without thinking what they do love somewhat of God For if pride affect greatness their can be nothing so great as the Monarch of it If luxury love pleasure God containeth all pure delights in his bosome and this which I say may be verified of all sins whatsoever If the presence of a right object and the enjoyning be wanting we have nothing so present as God St. Paul saith we are all within him within him vve live and within him we have the fountain of all our motions we see him through all his creatures untill he take off the vail and so let us see him and taste of his Glory 3 A true and perfect way to make us thirst after God is to forsake the burning thirst which we have after bodily and worldly goods Our soul and flesh go in the several scales of a ballance the rising of one pulls down the other It is a having two wives for us to think we can place all our delights in God and withall enjoy all worldly contentments A man must have a conscience free from earthly matters to receive the infusion of grace we must pass by Cavalry before we can come to Tabor and first taste gall with Iesus before we can taste that honey-comb which he took after his resurrection Aspirations O God true God of my salvation My heart which feeleth it self moved with an affectionate zeal thinks alwaies upon thee and in thinking finds an earnest thirst after thy beauties which heats my veins My soul is all consumed and I find that my flesh it self insensibly followeth the violence of my spirit I am here as within the desarts of Affâ—ica in a barren world the drought whereof makes it a direct habitation for dragons O my God I am tormented with this flame and yet I cherish it more then my self Will there be no good Lazarus found to dip the end of his finger within the fountain of the highest heaven a little to alay the burning of my thirst Do not tell me O my dear Spouse that there is a great Chaos between thee and me Thou hast already passed it in coming to me by thy bounty and wilt not thou lift me up then by thy mercy The Gospel upon Tuesday the fifth week in Lent S. Iohn 7. Jesus went not into Iewry because the Iews had a purpose to take away his life AFter these things Iesus walked into Galilee for he would not walk into Iewry because the Iews sought to kill him And the festival day of the Iews Scenopegia was at hand And his bretheren said to him Passe from hence and go into Iewry that thy Disciples also may see thy works which thou dost For no man doth any thing in secret and seeketh himself to be in publick if thou do these things manifest thy self to the world for neither did his bretheren believe in him Iesus therefore saith to them My time is not yet come but your time is alwaies ready The world cannot hate you but me it hateth because I give testimony of it that the works thereof are evil Go you up to this festivall day I go not up to this festivall day because my time is not yet accomplished When he had said these things himself taâ—ied in Galilee But after his bretheren were gone up then he also went up to the festivall day not openly but as it were in secret The Iews therefore sought him in the festivall day and said Where is he And there was much murmuring in the multitude of him For certain said that he is good And others said No but he seduceth the multitudes yet no man spake openly of him for fear of the Iews Moralities 1. IEsus hides himself in this Gospel as the Sun within a cloud to shew himself at his own time to teach us that all the secrets of our life consisteth in well concealing and well discovering our selves He did conceal the life which he took from nature when he might have been born a perfect man as well as Adam and yet did he hide himself in the hay of a base Stable He concealeth his life of Grace dissembling under silence so many great and divine virtues as if he had lockt up the stars underlock and key as holy Iob saith He keeps secret his life of Glory retaining for thirty three years the light of his soul which should without intermission
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