as strong and effectual as it was then Grace does not grow old but continues the same or rather increases Strive then fight and persevere for he that without Grace is but meer weakness may by it become a powerful Conquerour The Second WEEK Of the Glory of the Blessed THough the former Doctrine was sad and disconsolate I hope this last has chear'd and comforted thee We must still walk between hope and fear for the doubt of fear restrains us and the light of hope sets us forward To facilitate the way of the Spirit is good and sound Counsel and of possible performance for it is made easie by Grace and therefore a Christian ought not to be afraid of it but to facilitate Salvation and to make it consistent with a loose and licentious Life to make it attainable without seeking Heaven in good earnest without Repentance and Contrition through Grace and without conquering the Passions and banishing them from the Soul to make it easie I say to be sav'd that way is a most plain Fallacy and dangerous Deceit St. Paul tells us That through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore the steps that lead to Glory are Tribulations And believe me even so it is purchased at a very cheap rate for all we can suffer in this Life full of Miseries is not worthy of the Glory that shall be revealed which he obtains who suffers willingly for God What can our Sufferings be in comparison of those Enjoyments How light are they all in respect of the eternal weight of Glory What an inexpressible Happiness must it be to see ones self admitted to be one of the Citizens of the Coelestial Jerusalem to see ones self in the ravishing Company of Saints and Angels to see ones self with the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and Virgins to see all those Just and Holy Spirits singing Hymns and Praises to the Glory of God And yet all this is less though unspeakably great than to see the holy Humanity of our Lord that gracious Countenance those Divine Eyes whose brightness darkeneth the Sun and enlightens all the Creatures those Hands and Feet and that pierced Side from whence as Blood heretofore there now comes forth the Splendour of Glory the Stream of Grace the Joy and Comfort of all the Saints And still this is less than to see God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons in One Essence the beginning and the end of all Creatures that ineffable Mystery which exceeds all created Understandings before whom all the Angels and Saints prostrate themselves in Adoration This is that which amazes the Pen and humbles the highest Meditations in contemplation whereof the most lofty Cherubims and Seraphims lose themselves not being able fully to comprehend it From this Fountain and Original of Divinity and Goodness proceed all the Felicities of those holy Citizens in that Triumphant Jerusalem from that Source of Joy and Delights flow all their Delights and Pleasures from that Infinite Omnipotent and Supream Essence which is Incomprehensible in all it's Attributes springs the Original Glory of the Blessed All their Power and Being arises from his Power and Being The sight of that Goodness that Wisdom and Charity is the cause of theirs From that Light proceeds their Light Only to see one of his Attributes whether his Goodness Justice or Mercy though 't is impossible to see any one of them without seeing the rest is enough to give inexpressible Glory to all the Creatures What a blessedness also is it to turn the Eyes upon the Order and Beauty of that whole Coelestial Court To see the Martyrs crown'd with Ensigns of their own Valour to see the Holy Confessors adorn'd with their Vertues to see the Virgins with their Palms and Crowns only to see the Order wherein they are rank'd and wherewith they Adore and Praise the Lord to see the Nine Quires of Angels with the Three admirable Hierarchies only to see the great number of beatified Souls and Spirits every one in his Place and Employment serving their Creator and the Author of all their Happiness with unspeakable Contentment What a wonderful and high Felicity is this Then what Peace what Contentment what Joy what Quiet what Sweetness what Union what Conformity what Ardent love of God and of his Creatures is there in that blessed City Finally wouldst thou see what Heaven is Look what all the Delights of this World are freed from any mixture of Disgust and thou shalt find that in respect of them they are but Pains and Torments Think what it is to hear the sweetest Voices to smell the sweetest Perfumes and to enjoy whatever can delight the rest of the Senses think of an Heart full of Joy and Contentment an Understanding with all the Powers of the Soul fill'd with all the Delights and Pleasures that this World can afford it is all but Sadness and Affliction Pain and Anguish in the highest degree in comparison of those Eternal Joys Wouldst thou know what Glory is Then consider who it is that gives it to the Saints Think how Infinite the Power of God is it 's his Power that gives that Glory Think how Infinite is his Wisdom 't is that Wisdom which gives that Glory Think how Infinite is his Goodness 't is that Goodness which gives that Glory If then an Infinite Power an Infinite Wisdom and an Infinite Goodness joyn together to give Glory what must that Glory be which is the effect of such a Power of such a Wisdom and of such a Goodness If God gives to every one of his Saints in his just proportion according to his Love his Power and his Wisdom what Riches shall he give who is infinitely Rich What Wisdom and Light shall he give who is Infinitely Wise And what Joy shall he give who is Infinitely Good and Happy If the necessitous Person measures his hopes by the Power and Hand of the Liberal what shall the Joy be that is given by an Infinite Power which is willing to give that which is Infinite Wouldst thou see what Joys those are which God will give to the Blessed in Heaven Think how great the Punishments are that are inflicted upon the Damned in Hell If those are so sharp and intolerable for the pain of them to the wicked how sweet and superabundant will be the Enjoyments of the good Though his Justice and his Mercy are Essentially equal yet in the effects his Mercy is greater than his Justice for he punishes in Hell less than Sinners deserve and rewards in Heaven more than the Saints deserve What Glory shall he give in Heaven who punisheth so terribly in Hell with everlasting Fire Wouldst thou see the Joys which he confers upon the Elect who serve him in this Life Think what he suffered for them and what he did to save them If he gave his Blood and Life upon the Cross for the bad as well as for the good
places and orders of Men which sad and lamentable Evil as it is the desire of all good Men as far as in them lies to remedy so he believes an impartial and diligent perusal of this and such-like Spiritual Treatises will by the assistance of God's Grace be Instrumental to the producing of that blessed effect He found by reading this Book that in it were laid down the most profitable and useful Instructions the most affecting and forcible Arguments to allure to the Service of God and the most solid and substantial Nourishment that can be administred to Souls And this gave him Encouragment to undergo the pleasing Trouble of preparing it for a Publick Reading Which being effected his hearty Prayers to Almighty God are that his Endeavours may have their desired influence upon the Hearts and Minds of all that shall vouchsafe to peruse them and that that Devout and Heavenly Spirit may in some measure be communicated to them whereby the Spiritual Author of this Spiritual Year was acted in Designing and Perfecting so Divine and Profitable a Work THE Author's PREFACE THE Design of this Piece is to draw Souls to the serious Consideration of Eternity to move their Affections to the Love of Heavenly things and to bring them to a Contempt of those that are Temporal and transitory In it they will see much of what is treated at large in divers Spiritual Books and the substance of what lies dispersed in them summed up in this one not with that Spirit and Learning wherewith those Authors wrote but with equal desire for the good of Souls Indeed that which we are able to do is nothing in respect of what God does by that Grace which he hath tyed to the Ministry for without all doubt 't is He that does all He that moves all He that directs all He that amends all and brings all to Perfection Though St. Paul was a Vessel of Election full of the Spirit and might have had as great confidence in himself as any other Apostle yet this made him say That his Planting was nothing and his Watering nothing but that it was God that gave the Increase However it much animates the Labourers of the Gospel in the Spiritual Work to find that it often happens to them as it does to Husband-men who scatter their Seed on their Land with perfect heedlesness part of it falling beside and part being thrown from them with an uncertain direction only with a purpose to fill the Field with Seed and yet returning home afterwards to take their rest God while they are asleep sends Rain upon the Inheritance moistens the Earth disposes the Seed tempers the Heat seasons the Elements makes it rot revive and rise again so that even in Corruption it takes Root grows up and brings forth the full Ear. What did the Sower more than cast away the Seed from him as if he regarded it not And yet it springs up and gives an abundant increase All that he did was to prepare the Matter that God might work the Miracle which as St. Austin says is only little in Man's Consideration because he sees God work it so often This hope encourages me to scatter the Seeds of the Divine Word into the Hearts of the Faithful trusting that God who is the Worker of all that we do will give his Blessing his Grace and Power to the end that the Fruit may be multiplied which Effect in the Parable of the Sower his Divine Majesty intimates he useth to produce in those Souls who receive it with Attention and with a pious holy Affection it taking Root in them as in a fertile Soil But it may be some will say there be already so many Books of Devout Meditations that this might well have been spared they being so Holy and Spiritual and this not so being written by so wretched a sinner as I am To this I answer that though all other Persons might be questioned why they make Spiritual Treatises since there are so many yet that account ought not to be demanded from Bishops since it is a thing as proper to their Ministry to Write to Teach and Instruct as the very Name of a Pastor And in that Work 't is lawful for a Prelate to Teach not only Opportunely but in a manner Importunely as St. Paul teaches his Disciple Timothy who was Bishop of Ephesus Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine that is by Sermons by Writing by Conversing and by Example And therefore We Bishops ought ever to fear the contrary Censure and Question Why do ye not write Spiritual Books And this being the more dreadful Censure we ought to embrace that which we have least need to fear and to avoid that which can most condemn us Moreover 't is a very affected and unreasonable Complaint of the Politick Censurer who is troubled that so many Spiritual Treatises come forth into the World for God can never be too much praised thereby nor can Evangelical Counsels be too often repeated nor Discourses that aim at the Salvation of Souls be too frequent though consisting of one same Matter To say the truth we have seen nothing else in the Church of God from the time that His Divine Majesty settled it with his Blood but this Succession of Doctrine which has accompanied that of those same Ministers whom by their Vocation and excellent Abilities he called and appointed for Masters of Christian Instruction The Four Evangelists wrote those four Books which contain all the Treasures of Grace in the Life and Death of our Saviour yet St. John did not forbear to write his three Epistles and the Revelation St. Luke the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter two Epistles and St. Paul fourteen St. James one St. Jude another and their Disciples Ignatius Polycarp and others did also write though they might have contented themselves with what the Apostles had done who were the General Ministers and Teachers of the Faith After these succeed the Doctors of the Greek and Latine Churches who filled the World with Writings without any prejudice to those or rather proceeding upon the same Doctrine and using it according to their purpose have enlightened and enriched the Church to the great profit and comfort of Souls That Book of the Imitation of Christ made by Thomas a Kempis which some call the Contempt of the World and others The Christian Pattern though it be a very little one is yet so full of weight that those other Spiritual Treatises which have been written since might seem superfluous yet for all that the Venerable Lewis de Granada having translated and incorporated it into his Meditations with those of another excellent Author which are very Heavenly both in their Spirit Style and Matter did not only make others after them but wrote also the Guide of Sinners which has reduced converted and guided so many as likewise the Symbol of the Faith and several
the Sacrifice of the Liberal and turning away his Eyes from that of the Covetous This wild Beast within his heart broke out into open Fury and was the first that shed Humane Blood and the first that put the Life and Death of the Innocent into the power of the Guilty This was the first wickedness that after their own Disobedience afflicted our first Parents and the Tears Grief and Repentance for their own Offence were much encreased in seeing the Murder of their good and holy Son commitmitted by the hand of the other that was a wretched Villain and a Cast-away It was Envy that sowed innumerable Discords between those first Patriarchs and Heads of the several Tribes Joseph's Brethren not being able to endure his Vertues nor the kindness of his Father to him they resolved rather to sell him than to imitate him It was Envy that brought in the Dissentions and Discords between Jacob and Esau the elder not being able to suffer the Blessing of the younger It was Envy that took away the Vertue the Kingdom and the Life of Saul who because he could not bear the Valour and the Spirit of David chose rather utterly to destroy him than frame himself to follow his Example It was Envy also that durst attempt to bite even the Apostles themselves when seeing the favour of their Master to St. John they began to strive which of them should be the greatest It was Envy that was the chief Incentive that kindled the fire of Rage and Passion in the hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees and of the Priests and Masters of the Law against Jesus when seeing his Vertues and Miracles they chose rather to put him to Death than to enjoy Eternal Life Behold the Victories and Trophies of Envy and entertain a great abhorrence of this cruel Enemy for it is a powerful one though in it self it be vile base and infamous choosing rather to hate Vertue than to emulate it and affecting priority rather by destroying that which is good than by making that good which is evil It is an infamous a desperate and an ungrateful Vice for the first that it kills is the Person who entertains it and the Envious man dies with Envy himself but cannot thereby kill the Person envied It is an infamous Vice for that being able to ease it self in a great measure of vexation by imitating Vertue it frees it self rather by the destruction and death of the innocent and vertuous Person making Poyson of the Antidote and corrupting it self by the vertue of another It is an infamous Vice because it draws the nourishment of hatred and abhorrence out of the same ground from whence it ought to draw that of Love to Vertue and it defames and dishonours that which right Reason extols and magnifies It is an infamous Vice because it destroys the love of our Nature for whereas one man ought to love another as man and much more if he be vertuous Envy abhors him so much for being vertuous that it would not suffer him to continue man It is an infamous Vice because it prosecutes the damage of another without bringing any profit to it self and loads it self with more Crimes without lessening anothers Vertues It is an infamous Vice because it makes an Enemy of that Person whom it ought to imitate and esteem as a Friend choosing rather to abhor that which is good than to make use of it in forsaking that which is evil Finally Envy is the Vice of base wretched People for whereas the envious man might by a noble emulation and sincere endeavour make himself both vertuous and generous he chooses rather to torment himself and become more base more wretched and more miserable Remedies against Envy This Vice must be cured by means contrary to those we directed against Sensuality for that as we said must be cured by flight but Envy must be conquered by fighting Thus when thou feelest in thy heart the first motions towards Envy raise up thy self to encounter it with a stout Opposition and force thy self to love and praise that Person whom it would tempt thee to abhor and to calumniate Let both thy words and thy thoughts commend that Person whom thou art troubled to see preferred before thee Exalt his fame and copy his vertues with thy utmost endeavour There are two sorts of men in the World which are very great in my esteem those that acknowledge the ill which is in themselves and those that acknowledge the good which is in their Enemies It is a generous sense and a noble action for a man to conquer Envy and to own Vertue wheresoever he finds it That is a powerful and a generous light which illuminates the Soul and drives away the darkness of Envy and a Man will not be far from imitating the vertue of a person whom he rightly understands to be vertuous What dost thou gain by Envy but rage anguish and the gnawing of thy own bowels He enjoys all his happiness and thou choosest torments and vexations If Envy could take away the good things of the person envied if it could bring home his Riches and Honours to the House of the envious man though with the adding of Theft to his Envy yet at least he would get some profit by it and have wherewithal to comfort himself in the midst of his tortures But it is not so for the envied person remains healthful happy rich and powerful and the envious man poor afflicted wretched and miserable getting nothing of the Wealth he envies but of the colour of that Gold in his Complexion Better thy Fortune by thy Vertues but never attempt to advance it by Vices Do that which is in thy power which is to imitate whatsoever is good and fly from whatsoever is evil and strive not in vain to do what is above thy power namely to take away the goodness from him that is good by making thy self wicked and by torturing thy Soul with continual disquiets Of Charity to our Neighbours Charity towards our Neighbours is the bridle of Envy the total destruction of it With this thou must banish that out of thy heart Love to our Neighbours is a Ray of the Divine Love for Man imitates God in loving that which he loved that is to say Man for whom he died If we love not our Neighours whom will we love Will we perhaps love the wild brute Beast We are Humane by Nature let us be Humane also in our Love Who is there that abhors himself or who is there that abhors his own Natural Condition Our Nature has produced so Savage a Beast so pitiless a Man and so great an Enemy to Mankind that kissing a Child and being asked why He answered That he foresaw by his Art that Child would be a Souldier and a great Captain who would kill an infinite number of men and for that reason he began to love him This Man or rather this Monster of Cruelty would for the same cause have
profit 't is manifest that in the Night you will find nothing but Errours and Mischiefs Who would refuse to go his Journey while the Sun shines believing that he shall find his way better in the dark Therefore shake off idleness and embrace fervency and diligence Do you think you shall be able to find diligence at your Death when you have wasted all your Life in laziness and in sloth or that you shall find Amendment when you come to be judged Idleness being the Mother of all Vices The Saints call Idleness the Sepulchre of the Living because Worms Rottenness and Corruption are engendred by it and that it foments all kinds of Miseries together That holy Man understood it well who living in the Desart busied himself in carrying stones from one place to another and in bringing them back thither again and being asked why he did so he answered I avoid idleness or at least I master that body that would master me No Vice is so destructive to the Spirit nor so kind a Companion to the Flesh as idleness and although it seems the least is yet the cause of the greatest Evils Besides being slothful and idle in good there is no ill which does not encrease and become worse by it for it is the same thing as to set open the Gate of the Soul to all the Passions and Vices that shall have a mind to enter There is no Vice so mean but will adventure to assault an idle Man because it looks upon him as one that will not take the pains to make any resistance being so weak as to have yielded up himself even before he be attempted and so all wickednesses take confidence to come upon him and assume to themselves a Jurisdiction over him If the Devil be diligent watchful bold strong heedful crafty and cruel What will he be not able to do against a weak idle careless and disarmed Man The holy the spiritual and the diligent who night and day busie themselves in some vertuous Employment have much ado to escape free from the Assaults of the Devil How then shall the slothful be able to defend himself from so designing and so dangerous an Enemy So much thou dost encrease in holiness as thou dost encrease in diligence and therefore work always without ceasing for those works are Safety and Reward and do advance thee in Spirit and Charity The blessed Virgin came to so much Perfection by working for having begun with such unspeakable Graces she rose to more than can be imagined only by going on each moment encreasing and improving her former Gifts and Graces The holy Apostles were the Light of the World and observe how diligent they were They went about like the Sun in perpetual motion and by that means Twelve Men alone were able in a little more than Thirty Years to enlighten to reduce and to confound the blindness of the Gentiles throughout the whole World How could holy Persons in former Ages become in few Years such Prodigies of Holiness but by their diligence to encrease and redouble their Talents and by constantly following the Dictates of the Holy Spirit which governed them Even those valiant and ambitious Men that heretofore conquer'nt so many Nations and Countreys could never have done it but by diligence One of those being ask'd How in less than Nine Years he had gained so many Kingdoms answer'd Non procrastinando by not delaying till to Morrow If this be necessary for the Conquest of frail mortal and inconstant Kingdoms that are but Heaps of Dung What diligence and care is needful in us Christians for the gaining of the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven Traffick till I come says the Saviour of Souls Be industrious and suffer not your Talents to lie idle That slothful Servant who buried his Talent did no other harm but that he did so and sat down quietly by it and yet for all that the Lord condemns him to Hell and calls him wicked Servant Serve nequam Cursed of God because being lazy and sluggish he gave that to the Earth and to what is Sensual which was due to Heaven and to what is Spiritual Our Humane Condition and Misery can hardly hold to an Indifference If thou dost not labour in that which is good thou wilt take pains in that which is Evil not to watch is to fall asleep not to serve God and please him is little better than to offend him and in the Opinion of those who will allow no indifference in things it is as I have shew'd absolutely to offend him Believe me 't is not for nothing that Christ so often calls upon us to Watch He pronounced that word fourteen times and his blessed Lips exhort us to it so often with that very same word Watch. Sloth Idleness Omission and Negligence is the sleep of Death which carries us to Death Eternal Watch then for the Devil sleeps not for thine Appetite sleeps not Watch least the Bridegroom find thee without Oyl like the foolish Virgins when he shall come to judge thee Watch for the Thief goes about carefully to rob thy House Watch for the Infernal Lyon goes about seeking to devour thee Watch and expect the coming of thy Lord with thy Lamp burning when he shall come from the first Marriage unto the second that is from his first to his second Coming Finally If thou wilt be a true Spiritual Person thou must work and labour sweat and walk without stopping and with fervent steps follow the Lord who goes before thee carrying the Cross on his Divine Shoulders and giving strength breath and courage unto thy Fervency by his Love NOVEMBER The First WEEK Of the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit in General IT is time now to gather in the Fruits of this Spiritual Year that we may praise God in the advantages of a Plentiful Encrease St. Paul the Light and the Apostle of the Gentiles teacheth us That the Fruits of the Spirit are Twelve to wit Charity Peace Long-suffering Benignity Faith Continence Joy Patience Goodness Meekness Modesty and Chastity I admire that he puts the End in the Middle and seems to make the Root to be the Fruit For I should think that the Fruits of the Spirit were the Graces and the Blessings we have already treated of in some of the former Months that is to say a happy Death Absolution from Judgment a Pardon pronounced to us at the passing of that Sentence and the Reward Crown and Glory of the Blessed in the other Life which is given to those that have fought a good fight in this but to make the Fruit of the Spirit and of being vertuous to be Vertue it self seems to me either to put the end of Vertue in the middle or else to anticipate that Fruit in this Life which only can be attained perfectly in the Life Eternal But St. Paul by naming the excellent Fruits of the Spirit wisely answers the wicked of this World who hold the Spiritual Life for Folly and
laugh at the Godly for mortifying and persecuting themselves with Abstinence and other Acts of Repentance living retir'd and abstracted from the World and despising Humane Delight and Felicity Loose and debauch'd Persons use to ask those of stricter Life What Fruit do ye get by that Mortification by that Solitariness and Fasting wherewith ye torment and destroy your selves Had you not better live merrily and enjoy the Pleasures of the Flesh as we do The Apostle replys What Fruits do we get Twelve heavenly Fruits the Holy Spirit gives us which we would not Exchange for all the Fruits for all the Delights and for all the Pleasures which the World can bestow And we must take notice that he most discreetly forbears to reckon for the present Fruits those Eight Beatitudes with which Christ begins his Sermon upon the Mount for they are Promises of Blessings in the future and though some of them are not without effect even in this Life yet they all chiefly regard the Life to come He says Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted that is with everlasting Comforts Blessed are the meek for they shall possess the earth that is the Land of the Living which is Heaven Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness that is do earnestly desire to be good for they shall be filled that is shall have most perfect goodness in Glory Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy that is at the Day of Judgment Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven St. Paul would not reckon these for the Fruits of the Spirit because our Saviour had spoken of them before in his Gospel and these are not the Fruits of our Banishment but of our Country Those Beatitudes are the Fruits of these other Twelve which St. Paul here nameth That which he meant was to turn the Argument upon those poor deceived Wretches of this World saying Do ye ask us What Fruit we have in mortifying our selves by the power of the Spirit We answer That we not only obtain Eternal Glory as Christ promised us in the Life to come and that proportionable to what we suffer here for he says We shall receive an hundred fold but that even in this Life he gives us Fruits of Glory Comfort Peace and Joy and the Spirit causes such heavenly Effects in us as give our Life the advantage far above all the Feasts and Merriments of yours St. Paul seems to compare Spiritual Delights with Sensual Pleasures and the Recreations of the Good with the Pastimes of the Wicked This appears in that he does not count Eternal Glory for the Fruit of the Spirit but those Effects which the Spirit it self produces in this Life which are Joy Peace Long-suffering c. as if he should have said The Spirit has two sorts of Fruits one for this Life which is an Internal Glory and the other for the Life to come which is both an External Internal and Supernal Glory Two Fruits one of Temporal Peace upon Earth and the other of Eternal Peace in Heaven This Question which sinners make to the righteous seems to correspond to that which St. Paul makes to sinners when he asks them What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed and they if they will answer truly can answer nothing but that Grief Misery and Confusion has been the Fruit of them but they answer only with another Question saying And you What Fruit do you get by following of Vertue To which St. Paul answers Not One Fruit but Twelve most savory and pleasant ones which are the cause of Eternal Fruits He likewise implicitly puts the Beatitudes for the Fruit of the Spirit and comprehends them in these Twelve as one that gives the name of the Effect to the Cause for it is as if he had said Do thou assure me that thou enjoyest these Twelve Fruits of the Spirit in this Life and I will assure thee that thou shalt enjoy those Eight Beatitudes in the other Life Do thou assure me that thou livest here in the Kingdom of Grace and I will assure thee that thou shalt Reign there for ever in the Kingdom of Glory 'T is true one would think that these Twelve Fruits which we now speak of gathering in and storing up for the Harvest of the Spiritual Year seem to be those common Vertues we spoke of in the Second Part but though they be like there is great difference between them for this Peace this Chastity this Charity this Benignity c. are not altogether the same with those there spoken of but these do presuppose those and these are a Supream Habit which God gives by his Holy Spirit whereby he raises facilitates perfects and crowns those Vertues which are there begun and brings them to an high and heroical Perfection The Reason upon which I ground my self is That those Vertues though they be serviceable for the Exercise of Grace yet they are not called the Fruits of the Spirit but Vertues which conduce to the Spirit and with which we begin and proceed in the Spiritual Life but these Fruits which St. Paul here mentions are more than Vertues they are Gifts and Fruits which grow from the Spirit and as a Tree after having been digged about manur'd prun'd and taken care of all the Year does by gathering an inward Sap beget the generative vertue of its Fruit defends it by its Bark in the Winter shelters it with its Leaves in the Summer seasons it with the Sun and the Air in the Autumn and lastly offers up its Fruit to be gathered by the owner which is the best of all his Labours So also these Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit are the best of the Spiritual Life and much more excellent than those Vertues wherewith Men begin and go on in it at the first and these grow from them into a Fruit which by and through their means the Holy Spirit ripens and makes more fragrant more savoury and more substantial than all those Vertues of the beginning We will go on discoursing of these Twelve Fruits in the remaining Weeks of this Spiritual Year to the end that thou mayest rejoyce in finding That Blessedness is not only the Reward of Vertue but that Vertue it self is Blessedness already and that thou mayest see and know and feel within thy self that whatsoever is not Spirit and Vertue and the Love of God is nothing but Sadness Pain and Misery Of Charity the first Fruit of the Holy Spirit Here St. Paul the great Master of Souls seems in these Fruits and Gifts of the Holy Spirit to joyn the beginning with the end and the Root with the Fruit for he says that the two first Fruits which the Holy Ghost gives to a Spiritual Man are Charity and
Inferiours he loves them with a Fatherly Affection bears with them and favours them guides and directs them supplies their Wants and affords them a Remedy so far as he is able in whatsoever they have need for he loves himself for their sake Thus the Holy Spirit says Great is the Peace of those that love God because they have both outward and inward Peace with him with themselves and with all Men since they neitheir love nor do nor desire nor pretend to any thing but what God wills I like all this very well you 'll say but how will you give me Peace with the Wicked How can a Judge have Peace with Robbers and Murtherers A Superiour with an Insolent and Rebellious Subject An Honest and Loyal Subject with a Cruel and Merciless Superiour Or any one Man with another that persecutes him without Reason Is it necessary that a Man's Will must not be moved with these things and that neither his inward nor outward Peace must be disturbed by them There is a great deal of difference I answer between holding Peace with the Wicked and Conformity with the Wicked This ought never to be done the other may be done always Conformity speaks Union of Wills in respect of their Objects and this a good Man cannot have but with those that are good and in those things that are good for that cannot be called Peace that is War against God If I to keep Peace with the World should forsake that which is good and offend God the Author of Peace who is the chiefest Good that were but an evil Peace a seeming Quiet but a real Disquiet This is that the Prophet spake of That they should say Peace Peace when there was no Peace For there is no Peace saith my God to the wicked And thus when the Saviour of Souls left Peace as a Legacy to his Holy Apostles he told them that the Peace he gave them was his not that of the World nor as the World gives it for that is a Peace with Vices with Passions and Sensualities but a cruel and furious War against God With such Persons nor with their Sins we must have no Conformity which is that the World would have to make us all of her colour but we may have perfect Peace and which is more perfect hatred at the same time not abhorring those which are evil but that evil which is in them and loving their Persons that we may draw them into the way of goodness A Superiour who is a good Man may Correct and Reform and Love those whom he does Correct nay rather he does Correct and Reform them because he loves them with a very perfect and superiour love Well may a Companion Love and Counsel Advise and Guide his Companion to that which is good and have a dislike of the evil which he commits nay because he loves him he guides and draws him from that which is evil Well may a Subject disapprove the sin of a vicious Superiour and love him without helping him to effect it nay because he loves him he will not give more matter to his Condemnation nor add more Fuel to the Fire of his Punishment What! Dost thou think that Jesus Christ our good Master did not love those Buyers and Sellers whom he whipped out of the Temple when he overturned the Tables of the Money-Changers to banish Covetousness out of his Father's House It is certain that he did love them but he corrected them to amend them and such a Mischief needed such a Remedy He relieved their afflicted Souls that were kept in Slavery by their Covetousness and set their Reason at liberty which was captivated and kept a Prisoner by their Passion Reproof and Chastisement are as an Alms to the Soul that is poor in Vertue and that is in great Necessity for want of Light Counsel and Direction Such an one stands in need to be corrected and to be relieved with Instruction and Reformation by such means as may conduce most to his Amendment Who says that a Physician hates his Patient when he Cures him with a bitter Potion He hates the evil Humours in his Body and destroys and drives them out with that bitterness Nor is the Chirurgeon less kind when he cuts and lances than when he binds up a Wound with an healing Plaister And therefore sick and wounded Men do both thank and pay them for that sharpness and bitterness whereby they recover the sweetness of their Health And inward Peace with God and outward Peace with our Neighbour may be preserved by us and yet we not have any Conformity with them in their evil for since Peace is inseparable from Love it follows necessarily that from the time we begin to love them we must have an honest good and holy Peace with them which is the true Peace indeed for the other is not Peace but Destruction and a cruel War against God This difference there is between the Will of God and that of Men that to the Will of God we must Conform without any limitation or exception whatsoever Let him command order and dispose whatsoever he pleases for with him there are no Conditions nor Capitulations to be made We are totally to perform and absolutely to desire whatsoever God wills but with the Creatures it is otherwise for since their Rule is not Infallibly good and holy as that of God but very weak and fallible we must not deliver up our selves to that nor to their Will without Conditions and the first of them is that we never swerve nor vary from that Superiour Will and that our Prince our Father or our Friend must never require any thing from us but that which is agreeable to the Will of God And if they or any of our Neighbours go beyond that we must give them Peace but not Conformity we will give them Love to the end that they may love God and that we may draw them towards God and bring them to God but we will not give them Conformity for then we should offend him as they do This orderly perfect and holy kind of Peace is a very high fruit of the Holy Ghost for in it infinite good things are contained And as the Ancient Philosophers and Poets held that upon the top of Mount Olympus there was a perpetual Calmness and Serenity so the Person to whom God gives both inward and outward Peace is above all Humane Perturbations and feels not any Troubles to disquiet and molest him for he humbles and resigns himself freely to the Will of God in all things If evil Men persecute him he bears it patiently and reduces them if they can be reduced but if not he turns himself towards his God and begs of him to reduce them and to bring them home to himself and there is nothing high nor low great nor small that can take away that Peace and Tranquillity of Mind which God gives him by the means of his Love for in that love there
is a full resignation to all that God doth disposeth or permitteth and there he quiets comforts and chears up himself where the Will of God is for in that the true Peace consists The Third WEEK Of the Third and Fourth Fruits of the Holy Spirit Longanimity and Benignity THE Apostle of the Gentiles proposes Longanimity as a Fruit of the Holy Spirit because it is not only profitable but necessary for the preservation of Peace and Charity and is a most excellent Vertue of Souls Longanimity signifies a dilating and enlargement of the heart which gives it a capacity of bearing both inward and outward Troubles and having this nothing affrights or amazes nothing terrifies nor afflicts it And if God did not give this admirable Fruit and Gift to the Soul it would be lost and fall away at every step and neither act with valour constancy nor perseverance The heart of Man is so little that it is not sufficient to give a small break-fast to a Kite and so of it self it is not capable of any great thing being so wretched a Morsel Can the Sea be contained in a Thimble Can the thing contained be greater than what contains it If the Vessel of this Human Nature that is Man's heart be so narrow what great thing can find room within it Now see the Miracle that God works with the Spiritual Man and how high a Fruit this Longanimity and the Enlarging of the Heart is which God gives to a Soul according to the measure it hath served loved and pleased him or according as he thinks fit to give it of his own good will making it so capacious as to be able to contain the Soveraign Gifts and Vertues of God and which is more even God himself who contains all things It would be a rare thing if a Man that lives in a poor little Cottage should of a sudden find himself in a Royal Stately and Majestick Palace or in a huge populous City What a wonderful Enlargement would that be of his poor Hermitage O Divine Beauty O heavenly Architect O immense good of Souls How vastly thou dilatest how strangely thou enlargest Man's heart with thy Grace and with thy Spirit Who does not sometimes see a Man great in Wit in Fortune and in Quality Who in a few years nay perhaps in a few Months before was busily running after childish Pleasures and drag'd along by his mean vile and sensual Appetite in such trouble anguish and affliction that his Soul hardly so big as a Child's Rattle was capable of nothing but empty Vanities his Heart being scarcely so big in comparison as a Pepper Corn mistaking every action stumbling at every step every thing afflicting him every thing tormenting him and God of a sudden entring into him and with Soveraign Light enlarging his Heart and spreading out his Mind by Longanimity he begins to despise and to mock at those things which he so fondly hunted after before and pretended to as things highly considerable but now being made capable of greater Matters turning his back to such mean vile Trifles he seeks after that which is really great and high that which is heavenly and unspeakable without ever resting or contenting himself till he have attained it What is this who enlarged that Heart Who stretched out that narrow Vessel which before was fill'd with a few small drops and now nothing can fill it but the unmeasurable Sea of the Passion of our Lord Who made a Giant of this Dwarf that before could hardly wield a Straw and now like Sampson is able to throw down and carry away Pillars and bear all the strong weaknesses of this Life Who hath made him that before cried as a Child because he could not get an Hobby-horse for such are the highest things the World can give now undervalue and despise whole Nature to ingulf himself in the vast Ocean of Grace Who hath made him that a while before followed hunted after and embraced Dung and Corruption to think the whole Heavens too little for him aiming to seek and possess the Creator of them and of himself Yesterday he was as busie in making little Houses of Sticks upon the Sand and covering them with Straw as Children are about making Dirt-Pies in some Corner and now he tramples upon the Stars and pretending to Eternity can content himself with no House but the Empyreal Heavens Who could work these Miracles but the Holy Ghost giving that Heart his Fruit and Blessing in that high Gift of Longanimity which enlarges it and dilates the Soul making it capable of those infinite good things that Supream Gift being the Tree which bears these admirable Fruits This St. Paul knew when he said When I was a Child I spoke as a Child I thought as a Child and did as a Child and in all that he acknowledged his own littleness but now that I am a Man I act as a Man and put away all childlish things Behold the difference between a Child and a Man In a Child all things are childish in a Man they are serious In a Child there is neither strength nor capacity he is a publick Necessity that lives upon Alms which Charity bestows upon him whether it be of his Parents or of his Nurse or of any other that takes pity on him A Man has strength and ability he is a publick Succour that is capable of any thing Now the same difference that there is between a Man and a Child nay a far greater there is between a good Spiritual Man and a wicked debauch'd Fellow that lives in a loose and sinful Course I say a much greater for the growth of a Child that becomes a Man is a natural Growth which is short limited and slow increasing by very insensible degrees and that hardly rises six Feet from the Ground in fourscore Years but the growth of a Man that was wicked and to whom God hath shewed the kindness to make him good and holy and to give him that Gift of Longanimity that is a growth of Grace in which there is no Geometrical material Distance or Degrees but is all Supernatural Behold the distance there is between Heaven and Earth that between an evil and good Man is yet greater Nay how far it is from Hell which is much lower than the Superficies of the Earth unto the Empyreal Heaven where God himself doth inhabit and so great is the distance between a vicious and a vertuous Person Now consider what difference there is between a heart when God hath enlarged it with this Gift of Longanimity and what it was before for that which was so fill'd with some trifling Passion that the Breast was not able to contain it but it broke forth and ran over through the Lips is made capable to receive even God himself so vast is the difference between an evil and a good Man And take notice that this place of St. Paul may also be understood not only of the infinite distance between the
Heart of a Man when it is limited and straitned in the Miseries of this World and when it is possess'd of God and made capable of his Gifts and Mercies but also between the Heart that went on in a course remisly vertuous and that had but begun to take some steps in the Spiritual Life and an Heart that by holy Exercises and Perseverance in Prayer hath obtained of God to be enlarged by this Gift of Longanimity for though it was hard for St. Paul and even impossible after the instant of his Conversion to have his Heart taken up with slight or trifling things because God from the very beginning of his Conversion made that Vessel of Election so capable as to receive his rarest Gifts and Graces for he had rare Light rare Knowledge and rare Zeal for the Honour and Glory of God even from the very first yet other Spiritual Men go on following the steps of the Spirit in that proportion which the Lord has been pleased to communicate to them according to the measure of their Service but in the beginning they were Children as St. Paul says and God afterwards by degrees makes them to grow up Men to become great and strong and bold to own and to persist in a vertuous Course and God gives them such largeness of heart at length that those who in the beginning were scarce able to such a little Milk can now digest the strongest Meat and those who at first were disquieted with every thing and whose weak Stomachs turned at the swallowing of a Pea are now able like Estriches to digest Iron They can bear and teach others so to do they can suffer cheerfully and guide others in the same way without any trouble And it is certain that this high Gift and Fruit of Longanimity though it be very important for all yet it is most so for Superiours for in them it is necessary that they may know how to bear with patience the Faults and Impertinencies of those under their Charge and to govern them with patience and without passion And so when God endued Solomon with what he needed for the Government of such an innumerable multitude of Subjects he amongst those other Vertues and Gifts wherewith he adorned him bestowed on him also as the Text saith this Longanimity and Largeness of Heart so that it contain'd even the Sands upon the Sea-shore as who should say that Royal Breast was capable of all things nothing could overwhelm or trouble him for he dispatched all Affairs with calmness and serenity A Spiritual Man sometimes disquiets himself because there are sins in the World What Would he that there should be none If there were sins in Jerusalem where Christ himself lived who was able to remedy them Shall there be none where he dwells Let him remedy those he can and let him beg of God with Tears and Prayers that he would remedy the rest but let him lay aside all sollicitude and disquiet and possess his own Soul with Patience A Spiritual Man is troubled that he cannot mend a thousand little Faults in himself What Would he shine here in Perfection Let him humble himself and acknowledge his Misery and pray to God for the remedy Let him bewail his Defects with humility for God sees his sorrow and pain and knows what he has need of and if he delay his Amendment to day probably he will grant it to morrow In this respect largeness of heart is needful for all things and thou must understand that God is not a God of Affliction and Disquiet but of Peace and Tranquillity Next to the Holy Spirit of Longanimity St. Paul reckons that of Benignity which is an outward pleasingness proceeding from an inward one whereby a Man behaves himself with Charity towards all and it was discreetly done of the Apostle to place this after Longanimity because it is a sweet Effect of that most generous Vertue and as it were a Fruit or benefit of that Fruit. For Benignity which is that outward gentleness of Behaviour is exercis'd not only with the good but oftentimes also with the evil and the wicked to mend and reclaim them and to bring them into a better way and which could not be done by Benignity without Longanimity for if I should converse so much with those that do ill as to disturb my self and abhor and disdain them if I should be weary of them or despise them how could I behave my self towards them with Benignity How could I by Charity draw them to Grace and to Charity and how could I win them with sweetness and bring them gently to that which is right Gracious and righteous is the Lord says David First he calls him gracious then righteous because by his graciousness and benignity he brings sinners into the right way as it follows in the same Verse of that Psalm And in another O taste and see how gracious the Lord is Taste of that which is gracious and sweet to the end that Nature afterwards may be able to suffer those bitter Remedies which Grace applies for the curing and rectifying of it Benignity then is an heavenly and gracious Affection and an Effect of Longanimity and Charity or I may call it Charity practised both towards the good and towards the bad Benignity is like the Sun which does good to all without difference it covers warms quickens cherishes guides and directs all whether they be good or bad This heavenly Gift is as we have said one of the most important Vertues of the Spiritual Life but chiefly for Superiours and therefore they will do well always to pray for it because it tempers and moderates that Zeal which else commonly burns with too much violence in their Charity To make Iron cut well they use to temper it with Steel which is softer and makes it cut more smoothly than it would do with its own hardness and brittleness The Winter does not leap of a sudden into the Summer nor the Summer into the Winter but the cold of the Winter is sweetned by the benignity of the Spring and the heat of Summer is qualified by the temperate Weather of the Autumn For a good Man to think that he can make an evil one good and holy in an instant or to conquer that force by force is neither very easie nor convenient Even God himself works naturally and makes use of these natural means to bring Souls to his interiour and spiritual Secrets That Divine Lord ordinarily catches and gain Souls by their Bodies and so in Judea and Palestine he cured and rejoyced them with Corporal Health and then bestowed Spiritual Health upon them also To his holy Disciples first he promised Kingdoms and Glories and Crowns and Thrones of Eternity to the end that afterwards they might be the better enabled to bear Crosses and Persecutions Deaths and Torments First they saw him Glorious and Triumphant in Mount Tabor to the end that afterward they might be able to endure the Pains
should have said Although I do believe yet I fear my Incredulity and therefore O Lord I fain would believe with an higher Faith and with a more firm Assurance The Faith then which that Man desir'd over and above that which he had already is that Fruit which is here spoken of by St. Paul Consider that Faith for the want of which our Lord reproached St. Peter when he leaped out of the Ship into the Sea to go to adore him and feared and sunk and begged help whereupon the Lord stretching out his hand to succour him said Why art thou fearful O man of little Faith That Faith which our Saviour found wanting in St. Peter although he had so high a Faith as to throw himself into the Sea is this Fruit of the Spirit That Faith which gave him the boldness to leap into the Sea was great and that Faith which he had in crying out to the Lord for help was that Faith which we call the Theological Vertue but that which he wanted yet and which our Saviour found wanting in him was this high Gift of Faith Consider that Faith with which the same St. Peter being with St. John in the Porch of the Temple which was called Beautiful after the Passion of our Lord said unto the lame Man that begged an Alms of him Silver and Gold have I none but that which I have I give thee In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk and he cured him in such a manner that it seemed as if St. Peter had taken Strength and Faith as Money out of his Purse Now this Soveraign Gift of believing that God can and that God will work such a Miracle and that it will succeed according to his Faith is the Gift which St. Paul here speaks of Consider that Faith of the Centurion and that of the Canaanitish Woman which the Lord so highly commended that Faith is this Fruit of the Divine Spirit That Faith whereby the Gospel was propagated which the Lord gave to his Apostles after he had confirmed them in Grace and which was necessary to conquer the Gentile-World and which in less than an hundred years enlightened all the World so that those Trophies of Faith were seen and heard and felt in all places and the Echo of them resounded into all Countries that Faith which we might explain and set forth by many other Examples St. Paul here calls the Fruit of the Spirit but after Christ had formed and established his Church he hath very seldom given this kind of Faith unless unto some few that have led a very Spiritual Life and have often conquered the Flesh by the Spirit and have held the Inferiour part of Nature so subdued by Grace that God hath been pleased to bestow this high Gift of Grace upon them for the Service of his Church in some extraordinary occasion Some others will have this Faith and Fruit of the Spirit here mentioned to be an high Gift of believing the Truths of God and his Promises Behold that which the Blessed Virgin had in believing the Soveraign Mystery of the Incarnation of her Son and that profound Humility wherewith she captivated her own Understanding and her Will unto the Power of God Behold that Faith wherewith the Prophets believed and declared such Heavenly Mysteries long before they came to pass Behold that belief of Faith which the Lord found wanting in Moses and Aaron at the Waters of Strife in the Desart for which they were condemned never to enter into the Land of Canaan Behold that Faith which the Holy Angel Gabriel wanted in the Holy Priest Zachariah when he declared to him that the Baptist should be born of an Ancient Mother and struck him dumb because he believed not Behold that Faith which the three Children had in Babylon when they told the Tyrant that though he should cast them into the fiery Furnace or into the Den of Lions yet the Lord their God would deliver them nay and though he should nor deliver them yet would not they quit their Faith nor cease to believe in that same God which was a most excellent and discreet Answer Now this Fruit proceeded from the Spirit which governed those Holy Souls and others that have been favoured and adorned with this Heroical degree of Faith There be some also that say that this Gift or Fruit of the Holy Spirit is the Gift of Fidelity to keep Faith and Promise to our Neighbours Though this be holy profitable and necessary for if the due regard of this Vertue fall to the ground all Peace and Truth in Correspondency between Man and Man falls with it yet for all that I am of Opinion that this Holy Fruit is no other but that Supernatural Gift first mentioned and that whosoever has that shall have all the rest for they depend upon its Power and Vertue And therefore do thou act with Diligence and Constancy Pray continually with Fervency and love thy Redeemer ardently and tenderly for to those who do these things God grants this Fruit and excellent Gift of the Spirit Of Continence Continence which is the Sixth Fruit of the Spirit though it seem to be the Antidote of that Vice which is forbidden in the Seventh Commandment yet I do not believe that in this place it signifies the Fruit of Chastity for St. Paul puts that expresly for the last of the Twelve and it is not probable that he would offer us the same Fruit twice for that would be an imperfect repetition and cannot suit with the Wisdom of that Spirit which guided his holy Pen and so my Opinion is that in this place by Continence is meant an Universal Girdle or Wall that encompasses the honest Appetite on every side to the end that it may not go beyond the due compass allowed nor break forth to any thing prohibited but that it may preserve guide and promote the Fruit of the Holy Spirit Continence is a Gift and a general Vertue whereby whatsoever is loose and destructive whatsoever is opposite or repugnant to the Divine Spirit is restrained It is a Bridle to the Appetite and the Bit that curbs it and brings it so under subjection as to make it go right It is the Mother of the Spirit and that which most nourishes and advances the Vertues thereof making it to become great and heroical This Gift of Continence begets Mortification in all things subdues the Flesh and makes it yield to Reason It also begets self-denial whereby a Spiritual Man rejects his own Will and delivers himself up to be disposed by the Will of God It begets that Heroical Humility whereby he brings down Pride and flies from his own Excellency to prostrate himself before the Excellency of God This Girdle of Continence which St. Paul here speaks of that which the Lord bids us to gird our Loins withall against his coming to Judgment for being begirt therewith and having our Lamps burning in our hand we shall be admitted unto
Pleasures of this World in comparison of it This Joy overcomes all Difficulties it tramples them down and flies above them it burns and consumes them and makes the greatest Labours to become a Pleasure The Masters of the Synagogue called the Apostles before them reproved them scourged them threatned them and commanded them that they should not Preach sending them away not only punished but reproached and shamefully affronted but they go out and presently Preach again with exceeding Joy as the Text saith that they were thought worthy to suffer for the Lord's sake Take heed say some to the Apostles it is not two Months since the Jews crucified your dear Master and if you do not forbear to Preach they will do the same to you What care we answered they if the Joy we feel outweighs that fear nay that Joy hath already banished it and made us utterly insensible of it arming us against the worst that they can do This Joy and this Courage continued in their Successors many of which so readily embraced Martyrdom A Tyrant commands St. Lawrence to give him up the Treasures of the Church who replies he will do it very willingly He goes and distributes the Treasure amongst all the Poor he could find and brings an Army of Lame and Blind of weak and diseased Persons unto that Covetous Praetor saying very chearfully to him Here I have brought you the Treasures of the Church Take heed good Man the Tyrant will be revenged on thee Let him do what he can I care not for my Joy in serving God is dearer to me than my Life They lay him upon a Grid-Iron with live Coals under it which kindle the fire of his Joy and of his Love at the same time that the flames do scorch his Body yet he smiling and jesting says to the Tyrant Now this side is broyl'd enough it is time to turn the other and you may eat of it Who among such real Torments among that Fire Smoak and Confusion could produce that holy Jest that Joy that chearfulness that pleasantness of Wit and Contentment God and none but God who was pleased to make that Martyr's Joy to Triumph over all his Sufferings Who made St. Andrew the Apostle to sing the Praises of the Lord when he was fastened upon the very Cross but this Joy this wondrous Fruit of the Spirit Certainly there is no Chearfulness no Contentment no Joy but in God Rejoyce and be glad in the Lord ye righteous says David and in another place Great is the joy of those that fear the Lord. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad says our Saviour when ye shall suffer for my Names-sake for great is your reward in Heaven and Christ himself for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame Thus that inward Joy drives away and banishes all the toils and troubles and all the Sufferings of the Spiritual Life This Fruit then of the Spirit which is called Joy contains in it both Honour and Profit and is well worth thy praying for since it facilitates and sweetens all thy Pains and will make thee forward and chearful in giving up thy self to undergo any thing for the Lord's sake and will thereby make thee to be favoured and be loved by him For as the Scripture tells us God loveth a chearful giver Of the Fruit of Patience The Fruit of Patience is more properly called a Fruit than the rest because Christ literally calls it so where speaking of those that keep the good Seed of his Divine Word and of his holy Inspirations in their hearts and lay them up and put them in practice He says they shall bring forth their fruit in Patience that is because a chearful and resigned Patience is one of the most excellent Fruits of the Holy Spirit and the most profitable and necessary to serve God with Purity the most profitable because the Lord says In Patience ye shall possess your souls which is the greatest profit that can be attained or thought of in this life as who should say if your Life be Spiritual full of Tribulations and a sharp continual War both within and without if it be a Conquest that consist in dying not in killing not in Persecuting and Oppressing others but suffering Persecutions and in subduing ones self certainly Patience is very necessary for that War And as in those of the World Men get the Victory by Impatience by Anger and Fury by Force and by Revenge so in the Spiritual Warfare we must Conquer by Suffering and by Humility for the Combat here is to undergo Pains and Hardship to live and die with bearing and with Patience This Fruit is also necessary because by it the rest are preserved The Apostle explains it where he says Patience is necessary for you that ye may obtain the Promises and in another place That ye may be made worthy of the promises of Christ that is that ye may obtain the Blessings which are set forth in the Eight Beatitudes and in many other places where the Lord says Your name is written in the Book of Life and that there ye shall receive an hundred-fold whatsoever ye shall have forsaken here for the love of God Patience is necessary because neither Faith Hope nor Charity nor any other of the Moral and Cardinal Vertues without Patience are of any worth for in losing that they lose their Beauty and become vain and ineffectual Finally if this be a life of Labours and Afflictions of Slanders and Reproaches what Vertue can be more profitable more necessary more important and of more frequent use than Patience For all the blows both inward and outward that are struck at the Mind of Man must be receiv'd upon the Shield of Patience and he that wants that can never be able to sustain the Combat therefore St. Paul when he furnishes the Christian with Spiritual Arms puts upon his left Arm the in-expugnable Shield of Patience that he may be able to withstand the fiery Darts of his Enemy Assumens scutum inexpugnabile Equitatem observing that in the word Equitatem he not only meant to express ordinary Patience but an equality of Mind which is the Excellent and Heroick Patience and that is the Fruit here spoken of as who should say It must be a Patience full of Equality receiving Crosses and Afflictions with as great a Chearfulness and Contentment as thou couldst do their contraries Take notice that St. Paul says not that thy Patience should be equal but even Equality itself Consider the Joy thou hast for the Favours of God thou oughtest to have the very same when he sends Tribulations for they also are his Favours Give not thy Affections more to things that are Delightful than to those that are Disgustful to Pleasure than to Pain to Comfort than to Affliction Thy Chearfulness ought to be equal in Sufferings as in Joys in Rebukes as in Applauses in being pull'd down as in being advanc'd and in suffering Affronts as
in receiving Honours And this which seems to be a very hard Law is so sweet an one that though St. Paul contents himself here with an Equality yet some Saints as we see in the Examples that have been given pass on further and express more Joy in Sufferings than in Comforts though these come from God and those from the hands of Men. As we may believe that the Divine Goodness of our Lord took more delight in Redeeming Mankind upon the Cross than in the Glories of his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor though upon Mount Tabor those Favours came from the hands of his Father and upon Mount Calvary his Sufferings came from the hands of Men. So likewise those who suffer for God the Holy Apostles and all those that now follow or have followed them rejoyce more in Pains and Tribulations which God sends them by the hands of Men than in those Favours and Comforts which they receive immediately from God himself Therefore our Saviour said to his Disciples at his going to his last Supper when he was beginning to enter upon his Holy Passion With a great desire have I desir'd to eat this Passover with you but he said no such thing to them when he went to the Glories of Mount Tabor In imitation of this we read of one that for a favour begged of Christ to be crowned with Thorns another to bear the marks of his Wounds with a lively feeling of his dolorous Passion One Devout Soul begs Lord if I may obtain my desire grant that I may be despised for thy sake Another meditating on Christ crucified Lord I desire nothing but thy self and to be crucified with thee This in my Opinion was an high and wise Petition because he asked to suffer with Christ in this life as Christ in this life had suffered for him and then presently to have Christ himself for a Reward in the Life Eternal for he that begs for Christ crucified to be made his it is clear he does not beg for a Glorious Christ but wounded bloody and in the anguish of his Passion and so he asked not the Crown of Thorns alone nor the five Wounds alone but also what he suffer'd in the scourgings at the Pillar Not only the Mockeries the Buffetings and the pains of his Passion but the Slanders Affronts and Persecutions which he suffered before it And not those alone but whatsoever he suffered from his Blessed Mother's Womb and the Manger till he expir'd upon the Cross This we ought to ask and imitate in this life and to advance thereby in Grace and Patience and thereby thou shalt see how certain it is that such Holy Devout Persons not only do possess that equality of Patience wherewith St. Paul Arms his Spiritual Man in receiving Affronts and Crosses with as chearful a Countenance as the Pleasures of this World but that their Delight is greater and their Patience more chearful in suffering than their Joy is in rejoycing The Second WEEK Of the Ninth and Tenth Fruits of the Holy Spirit Goodness and Meekness THese two Fruits of the Spirit which God gives to those that are exercised in the Spiritual Life are as the Cause and the Effect for in truth Goodness is the Mother of Meekness And as some Fruits by reason of their great fecundity grow one within another and as an Ear of Corn produces many Grains so Goodness produces Gentleness Meekness and Affability repeated again and again in all its words and actions And we must take notice that this Goodness which St. Paul names here for a Fruit of the Spirit is not barely that Vertue which is the first cause of Grace that is to say a disposition to receive and to hold it by the Soul 's being free from the guilt of any great sin for that is a Fruit of the Divine Goodness and Mercy which gave the Soul light and strength to cast out sin rather than a Fruit of the Spirit But the Goodness here meant is in my Opinion an high Gift of Grace and Favour which God grants to holy Souls after they have serv'd him long in the Spiritual Life whereby the Soul is cleansed and purified not only from greater sins but even from lesser nay even the least Passions and by taking away those Barks as it were and inward Rinds of our Nature lays it bare and naked from those folds and doublings of imperfect Habits leaving the Soul in so great a purity truth and sincerity that St. Paul calls it perfect Goodness It is as if God should make an Old Man to become a New Man or as if an old decayed and broken House should by his Power not only be repaired and strengthened and made up again in the same proportion grace and Beauty it had at first but also be brought to a greater perfection and enriched with more costly Ornaments And though it still leaves in him the incitement and provocation to sin for that never ceases nor does Grace take it away yet it is as much weakened and disabled as Reason was in it before This Goodness and Sincerity the Lord found in holy Job and to give him an high Praise indeed he said He was single and upright God by his Grace had taken from him all those folds and doublings which we have in our Souls those corners and hollow places where Malice uses to dwell He had cast out all Imperfections from thence and had filled it with his Lights and Vertues making him a Mirrour of his high Perfections This Goodness and Sincerity is that which Christ desir'd to find in his Disciples when they were contending who should be the greatest and he Discoursing upon it took a Child and laying his Holy Hands upon the Head of that little Angel said unto them Unless ye become as this little Child ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Some Authors say this Child was St. Ignatius afterwards Bishop of Antioch and Martyr who was one of the most Holy Disciples that the Apostles had and from that touch of Christ's hand he became so much in love with him that he took for his Motto Amor meus crucifixus est For his only Love was Christ crucified and at his Martyrdom this holy Man defied the Lions that were to tear him in pieces and said to them I am the Wheat of Christ and I shall be ground by your teeth that I may be worthy to be made the Bread of that Lord. This Digression I have made to quicken the Faith of Clergy-men for if Christ but by touching him made him to become so holy how holy ought we to be who not only touch the Bread of the Lord but the Bread which is the Lord and do so often Consecrate and Receive it Two things God requir'd of the Apostles in imitation of that Child first Humility for since they were proudly striving who should have the highest place he could not set before them a fitter Example than that Age and that Humility Do ye
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