Expressions of his Love but there is a necessity of waiting upon him through the other demonstrations of it and because he came to Redeem us it is very fit we should follow him that we may attain that Redemption It seem'd a small thing to his Love to shed tears for us in the cold he was expos'd to by the openness of that inconvenient place but he also shed his blood already for us by being wounded with the Legal Knife O tender Infant how soon dost thou pour out the blood of thy most precious Veins for my sake O who would not wish to be so happy to spend the last drop of his for thine My sins gave sharpness to that Knife which was the Instrument of thy pain in this Mystery and that blood was spilt by my Offences and by thy Loving-kindness As they Circumcise thy Flesh O Eternal Good of Souls do thou Circumcise my wickedness Lord cut away my Vices and Deformities Take away the Old Man O Lord form and reform the New-Grant that I may cease to do evil and begin to do good that by so doing I may live for evermore The Adoration of the Kings They bring back our Saviour wounded with Love and Grief as well as with that knife unto the Stable and the Manger unless it was perhaps in that very place that he pour'd forth his blood as well as his tears There they stay till three Kings come to Adore him in requital of that one who sought to destroy him O how much greater a Kingdom did they find at the feet of this Coelestial Infant in the Manger than in their own Royal Thrones How much higher were they advanced by laying themselves prostrate before him and to what an height were they exalted by having so humbled themselves By throwing down their Crowns at his feet they encompassed their Heads with brighter Crowns and those not earthly but Crowns of Grace and Glory They presented unto that Divine Child things Temporal and he gave them things Heavenly and Eternal The Gifts they presented to him were but transitory but those he filled them with were permanent and everlasting They Offer to him Gold Frankincense and Myrrh and he in exchange gives them the Golden Vertue of Charity the Incense of pure and fervent Devotion and for Myrrh the Grace of Mortification whereby dying to this World they began to live to that other which never shall have end O how much greater were those Gifts which were bestowed on them by that little Child than those that were offered to him by those great Kings They presented to him Gold as to the Creator of all the Riches of Heaven and of Earth and he in exchange gave them the Riches of the Earth and Heaven They gave him Incense the perfume whereof ascending from Earth towards Heaven acknowledged him God as well as Man and he gave them Grace as an Earnest that they themselves also should ascend into Heaven They gave him Myrrh as to a Mortal Man and he in being Mortal did by his death quicken them to live with him for ever in his Glory Let us offer to him with those Kings that which those Kings did offer let us offer Devotion Charity Mortification and Adoration let us offer to him a Life that from this day may aspire to an Eternal Life let us offer unto him Ardent Love Fervent Prayers and Humble Penitence let us offer to him all the Actions of our Life and let us take care that all our Actions be such as may be fit to be offered to him We may well draw near with an humble confidence to adore this Child who suffered himself to be approached by Children and to be adored by the poorest Men as well as by the richest Kings He was born poor himself to the end that he may be found by those that are poor and a Child that he may be ador'd by little ones for even out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings he has ordained strength and perfected praise Come with Humility and Assurance to make him an Offering of thy self and thou shalt find him tender and wounded with Love readily to accept thy Offering But what can I offer to thee O Glorious Infant I who am meer Poverty What Gold of Charity being with thee at Enmity What Works of Repentance being full of Obstinacy Rebellion and Impenitency What Devotion my Prayers being full of wandring Thoughts and Distractions O my God I come not only to adore thee but also to beg of thee Lord I believe that I please thee more in asking of thee than in giving to thee Such is thy Charity thy Goodness thy Mercy and Liberality that to exercise it and to be giving is thy Glory and thou rejoycest much more in that thou bestowest than in all thou canst receive from us poor necessitous Beggars And what can we bestow on thee O Infant God we that are nothing but Misery What can we give but trifles unworthy of a God and only tolerable for a meer Humane Child but far unfit for thee who art also God Thou alone canst give us what we ought to give thee and if the Gift which we ought to offer thee come not first from thine hand the worth of it can be no ways suitable to such an Hand to such a Child and to such a God Finally it is from hence thou must endeavour to draw those Gifts that thou oughtest to Present him It is from himself thou must obtain the Gold the Frankincense and the Myrrh in Prayer Charity and Mortification From hence thou must procure a Charity burning with the love of that Lord a Mortification constant in suffering for him that suffered for thee that suffered cold and shed his blood in that mean place for thy sake In short from hence thou must draw an earnest and fervent Devotion to contemplate and adore so many and so great Benefits without suffering them to slip out of thy Memory and him whom those Kings sought in that particular place thou must love seek follow and adore in all places wheresoever thou shalt happen to be Of His Presentation in the Temple His Holy Mother when the days of her Purification were accomplished according to the Law of Moses carries her Son the Eternal Son of God and with his supposed Father Joseph Presents him in the Temple with a pair of Turtle Doves the Offering appointed for the Poor they not being able to make a richer There he was received by the hands of Simeon the Priest who having been assured by the Holy Ghost that he should not die till he had seen the Lord's Christ knew by the same Spirit that that Promise was then fulfilled which he openly declared when taking him in his Arms he blessed God and desired to depart in peace for that his eyes had seen his Salvation which God had prepared before the face of all People to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his People Israel It
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
without the support of thy powerful hand O how we abuse those admirable Gifts which thou so graciously bestowest upon us We extinguish the light of Reason within us we banish truth and goodness from us and transform our selves into wild Beasts or worse if we forsake thy Law and give our selves up to the obedience of our own Appetite The Fourth WEEK Of the Miseries and Sins of each Man in particular 1. THese are the Miseries of our Nature lightly and briefly expressed but what kind of ones and how many are they in each one of us individuals seeing they are so great and so considerable in their Root If the Tree be so bitter what bitterness must be in the Fruit How blind are we O God if we do not see that which is so near us How blind are we if we do not see what we are our selves How wretched if such innumerable Miseries do not enlighten us to seek for Mercy How unworthy if we do not bewail the Sins we daily commit 2. Let every one well consider himself and he shall see what is in himself Let each of us turn the Eye of his Mind to behold himself within Let each of us put our hand in our bosom and he will draw it out full of Leprosie If the just Man falls seven times a day or rather seventy times seven what shall I do that am unjust and wicked Do not judge of this or measure it by others but judge of it and measure it by thy self and me 3. Scarce did the Light of natural Discourse begin to shine in my Child-hood when I embraced Evil it being my Duty to have embraced Good My Reason increas'd with my Age but my Passion increased much faster than it What a grief what a pity to see Reason banished from a Man's Soul by Passion That being set between Evil and Good my Soul should fly from Good to Evil Woe is me how soon I lost the Robe of Grace How soon I made my self an infamous Slave of Sin How soon its snares and nets intangled me How soon its darkness obscur'd all my light How early I began to grow worse and to hasten that approaching Night How early I forsook the Banner of the Redeemer of Souls and flying from the City of God to that of my beastly Appetite I quitted the Holy Jerusalem to take up my dwelling in Babylon How late I recover'd thee O sweet Jesus of my Life How late I know the way to serve thee having so early known the way to offend thee Slow have I been to follow thee O my Jesus but very hasty to persecute thee Who can suffer this This slowness and that haste Crucifie my Soul O Lord and I will bewail them both eternally in my Life till I see thee in the Life eternal by my death 4. How long did I go as a lost and prodigal Son flying from my heavenly Father that sought me How long like a wandring Sheep flying from my Shepherd that ran after me How long did I go astray in the venemous Pasture of worldly Vices taking Poyson and Death to be my nourishment I embraced my Deceits and my Undoings being fond of that which killed me Blindly stumbling I followed after Vanity and in a bold folly I hunted after my own destruction Who called me and brought me back when I was lost laying me gently upon his Shoulders Who was that divine Samaritan that took care of me the Man full of Wounds and that lay half dead as I was going from Jerusalem Who but thou O my Jesus who wert more wounded by thy Love for Man then I by the Love of my Sins Who but thou sweet Jesus that wert more ready to lay down thy Life for me then I was to have my Life saved by thee 5. For me to be lost and wicked and wretched O eternal Glory is natural to me and to my Vices that being properly of my own Stock but for thee who art infinitely good to seek after him that was lost and wicked and wretched thy infinite Justice requiring rather that thou should'st destroy then save such a Person is a Work that belongs only to thy unspeakable Mercy and to the Bowels of thy Compassion Thine infinite Goodness O my Jesus doth still exceed my horrible wickedness and look how vast the distance is between thee and me between finite and infinite So vast is that between my ruine and my remedy Blessed be thou my God for though the one be great the other is unmeasurable in greatness 6. But Oh that being once found and cured by thy hand I had never lost and forsaken thee again Oh that I had but once cost thee the Pains the Sweat the Blood the Torments and the Death which thou paid'st for me But Lord I have often nay numberless times crucified thee again 7. Look not Lord upon my wickedness but upon thine own goodness To offend thee though but once was a great Evil but to do it so many thousand times is an Evil of the highest Magnitude To offend by forgetfulness of thee before I was pardon'd was very ill since to forget thee is a very great Evil but to offend thee after being pardon'd is an ill beyond all ills because it is to be ingrateful and an Enemy to my greatest Benefactor To offend thee before I knew thee was very ill but to offend thee knowing thee and acknowledging thee still to offend thee is a much greater aggravation To offend thee as an open Enemy is a great Crime but to offend thee as a false Friend and a treacherous Disciple is the highest of Treasons To contrive and commit Sins in thine absence without remembring that thou standest looking on is very bad since there is no absence from thee who art in all places but to offend thee in sight of thy Divine Countenance and even while born upon thy Shoulders to betray thee in thy very House and at thy very Table is a degree of Wickedness above all comparison I am utterly lost O Lord unless thy kindness pardon and direct me My Sins deserve a thousand Hells unless thy divine Goodness and Mercy free and defend me 8. How often good God after having been cleansed have I return'd to wallow in the Mire How often after having been cur'd have I renew'd my wounds and like a perjur'd Soldier forsaken the Banners of thy Grace and enter'd my self in pay under thine Enemies Colours How often like thy treacherous Disciple have I sold thee for the vile price of some beastly Pleasure Many a time to satisfie my anger or revenge have I offended thy Meekness Many a time have I by despising and trampling upon others offended thy great Humility Many a time have I by known and wilful Sins fearlesly ventur'd to provoke thy Justice O dear Jesus tye me now fast to thy Cross let not my Lips nor my Soul be parted from thy divine Feet fasten me with thy Nails pierce me with the Launce that wounded thee
it Is there no remedy against this Evil nor defence against this Danger 2. The Evil is not in being judged but in going unprepar'd to Judgment This imminent danger hath an easy plain and safe remedy by the Grace of God And that is for a Man to judge himself often times before God judge him once for all Wouldst thou not be afraid of the Judgment nor of that dreadful Sentence Judge thy self before hand examine thy self before thou comest to be examin'd call thy self frequently to a strict account humble thy self amend thy Life and at the sight of thy Sins pray and weep and thou shalt go willingly to Judgment and come off safe with thy account Serve thy Judge love thy Judge and obey him in all things before he come to judge thee and thou shalt go contentedly to his Judgment and find thy Judge to be thy Friend 3. Consider that many Saints have desir'd that their Life might be shorten'd that their Death might be hasten'd and that they might come to Judgment thereby to enjoy God They desir'd to be dissolved and to leave this mortal Tabernacle They desir'd this knot of Life might be untied and to be free from the Prison of this miserable and corruptible Body to see their God their Creator and Redeemer whom they loved served and ador'd while they lived in this World They esteem'd Death as Life because it freed them from a dying Life which delay'd their enjoyment of an eternal Life 4. They could not pass to the beatifical Vision of their God without going by the way of the Judgment and Sentence They did as it were die with an eager desire of dying and joyfully embrac'd that Death which brought them to behold the kind the cheerful and beautiful Countenance of their loving Judge They knew they were to be judged by their Father their God their Creator and Redeemer their faithful Friend and their most gracious Lord. They loved him in their Life they sought him by their Death they ador'd him in the Judgment and with an humble confidence in his infinite Pity they hoped for Mercy in the Sentence They knew their offences were many but they had bewailed them they knew though they were Sinners they had lived desirous to please him diligent to serve him and with care not to offend him They knew they could not put their cause into better hands and that the same Person was to judge them who had shed his Blood for them and given his Life upon the Cross for their Redemption They went to offer their Works their Tears and their Repentance unto God yet without trusting any thing in their Works they relied wholly upon the Goodness of God and the Merits of their Saviour 5. For though it be just that the Judgments of the Lord should be fear'd yet it is as just that they should be loved My Father says the holy Soul is to judge me what am I then afraid of My Lord and my God is my Judge How can I choose but hope and trust in my Lord and my God though he be my Judge If he have a kindness for me and I have a reverence for him What can I look for in the Sentence but Mercy and Compassion What Son is afraid to be judged by his own Father if he hath not lived and acted as an Enemy to his Father or if he hath bewailed the time that he was his Enemy What Wife is afraid to be judged by her tenderly affectionate Husband if she hath not been an Adulteress or hath heartily lamented that Injury and penitently begged pardon of her dearly loving Husband What Friend is afraid to be judged by his Friend if he hath been faithful to him or hath shewed a real grief for the breach of his Fidelity Though I be afraid and wretched says a sick Soul I have been desirous to serve thee O my God thy Precepts have been my Direction and thy Counsels have been my Rule if not in the execution yet at least in my intention and earnest desire I hope for mercy from that eternal goodness of God my Creator and Redeemer who dyed upon a Cross for my Salvation He that was so gracious and so loving in Redeeming me cannot but be a sweet and tender Father in Judging me 6. These are the breathings of a Holy Soul Thus said St. Paul and many others when they desir'd to be dissolved that they might come to the presence of God and for the obtaining of that did not fear to put their Cause and Sentence into his hand They feared his Power and they adored his Power They were afraid by reason of their sins and yet they hoped knowing his mercy and loving-kindness Their love conquered their fear because their hearts were inflam'd with that perfect Charity which casts out fear And thus if thou doest desire to have a holy and assured hope humbly resign'd and yet chearful in the Judgment and in the Sentence do that which the Saints have done and thou shalt hope as they have hoped 7. Make account in thy life-time of that Account thou art to give hereafter I repeat it to thee once again keep a Judgment-seat within thy self every day till thou comest to thy last Judge thy self ten thousand times and consider in what steps thou treadest for according to what thou doest in this World thou shalt be judged in the other Strictly observe thy very thoughts and mend what thou shalt find amiss For by this means thou shalt increase that love which casts out fear Do thou judge thine own Actions before God judges them beg light of him to see and know them and tears to bewail them and so with a holy resignation and with an humble confidence thou mayest appear in the presence of God Take good heed to thy Words Thoughts and Actions and square them by the Rule of the Divine Law and of the Will of that Lord who is to Judge thee and strive in this Life to obtain Mercy and Pardon for thy Sins and Miseries 8. Be careful to purifie thy Understanding and to purge it from evil fill it with honest and spiritual Considerations cleanse thy will from corrupt Desires and fill it with the love of thy Creator Let thy Memory be the Store-house of Holy Meditations and then hope and trust love and adore the Judgment of the Lord. His goodness does more desire to Pardon thee than thou dost to be pardoned He is more desirous of thy Salvation than thou art to be saved He is more desirous to deliver thee from that Infernal Dragon than thou art to be delivered Be careful I warn thee once again on what hand thou livest in this life for on that hand thou shalt find thy self when Death carries thee from hence 9. Fear the Judgment of the Lord for it is very just so to do fear humble thy self and tremble but yet hope and be more afraid of the sins wherewith thou offendest him than thou art of his righteous Judgment
a scandal to others as this wretched Person is to me Grant that I may detest the Vice but not the Man Convert him I beseech thee from the evil of his ways and so strengthen me in the Paths of thy Commandments that I may never fall away but persevere in them constantly unto my Live's end Of the Benefit of Preservation whereby we our selves have been delivered from particular Dangers Now if the Calamities of others when but look'd upon are a just Motive to us of Thankfulness how much more those we our selves have been freed from by particular Escapes God permitting us sometimes to fall into dangers that his Goodness and fatherly Care may be the more visibly manifested in our deliverance and that we may acknowledge our selves more obliged to remember them with Gratitude and to make him returns of Duty and Obedience Thou mayest be able to relate and express those he has shew'd to thee I will relate those done to my self though it be more easie to have a Sense of them than to express it I shall not need to insist upon his Benefits of doing one good since thou wilt know them by those of delivering me from evil Here the Author reckons up his particular deliverances which I omit to insert Do thou likewise Reader following his Example recount to thy self the chief of those dangers God hath preserved thee in which it concerns thee carefully to remember and gratefully to lay them to heart And when thou hast recollected as many as thou canst say with the Psalmist Praise thou the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Who forgiveth all thy Sins and healeth all thine Infirmities Who saveth thy Life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness I will always give thanks unto the Lord his praise shall ever be in my mouth O praise the Lord with me and let us magnify his Name together Of the Preservation of our Souls But is not the Preservation of the Body from corporal Death much less considerable than that of the Soul from spiritual Death Yes certainly There is no comparison between them for the former is only in order to the latter and when he saves us from any such dangers as those I have before-mentioned they are to mind us of our Mortality and to make us think in what condition we should have been if he had then snatch'd us suddenly out of this World His sparing us longer was only to give us a longer time to repent and to urge us to make use of it to the end that when he shall come again to take us away in good earnest he may find us prepar'd for Death in being reconciled to him by Repentance and newness of Life Thus in all the occasions wherein he delivered me from a Temporal he delivered me also from eternal Death affording me a longer time to break off and to forsake my Sins by a Repentance not to be repented of quick'ning my Faith to lay faster hold on my Saviour least I should be pluck'd away from him as I had like to have been while I was in so great an Error as to presume he would be held by me whilst I was loath to let go my sins as if it had been possible to embrace Christ and the World both at the same time How often when his Divine Majesty was ready to throw me justly into Hell with one hand hath he detained me with the other And when I was already condemn'd by his Divine Justice how often hath he saved me by his Compassion and Mercy How often when I was going nay running to throw my self into the infernal Flames hath this compassionate Lord stopt me in my Career and freed me from Temptations which were hurrying me to eternal Miseries How often hath he driven back the Devil who had seized me and was dragging me away when his Divine Majesty laid hold upon me rescued sustained and receivcd me pardoning my wickedness and embracing me in the Arms of his boundless Charity How often when being blind and foolish I went astray hath he sought me and brought me home How hath he called advertised reproved and counselled me by which means I was recovered and restored How often sometimes sleeping sometimes waking while I was dead to Grace but quick to Sin hath he rouzed me up called me and led me by the hand to make me forsake Sin and return to Grace Who then bound the Hands of his Justice who entreated for me when I was lull'd asleep in that sinful security What was there in me that I should find more favour than those that are taken away from amongst us in the midst of their days and in the heat of their youthful Lusts My Sins cried out against me but the Lord stopped his Ears My offences daily encreased against him and his Mercies abounded as daily towards me I sinned and he did expect me I fled from him and he followed me and when I was even weary in offending him yet his long sufferance was not weary in expecting me for in the midst of all my Sins I received many good Inspirations and Reproofs from his Holy Spirit which check'd me in my inconsiderate course of Life How often did he call me with the Voice of Love How often did he terrifie me with threats and fears laying before me the Peril of Death and the Rigour of his Divine Justice How often hath he followed me with his Word preached How often invited me with Blessings and chastened me with Crosses compassing me about and hedging my way with Thorns that I might not be able to break from him By all these holy Methods he made me at last to see the Vanity the Folly the Deceitfulness and even the Painfulness of Sin l found that it was dangerous and costly as well as slavish to be hurried up and down by the Tyranny of my unruly and vicious Passions I found I had no fruit of those things whereof I was afterwards ashamed and was at last convinced that the end of them was Death nay and death eternal Then did I fully resolve being assisted by thy Grace with an unchangeable purpose to alter my course of Life and to run the way of thy Commandments since thou hadst set my Heart at liberty My Soul escaped even as a Bird out of the Hand of the Fowler the Snare was broken and I was delivered O let me never again be entangled with the Birdlime of sinful Delights from which it is so hard to get disengag'd but grant I may now soar up to those Pleasures which are at thy Right-hand for evermore taking my flight freely to thee and to the Ark of thy rest for the Deluge of Wickedness that hath covered the Face of the Earth affords no safe place for the sole of my Foot O put forth thine hand to take me in to thee as Noah did the Dove
upon the Cross purchasing our Redemption by his Death the Merits and Benefits whereof shall therein be assur'd and convey'd to thee as a Pledge and Seal of thy Pardon Apply it to thy self with an humble Confidence in his Promises with a firm Faith that his Blood was shed for thee since thou art admitted to be a partaker thereof That Divine Antidote is not only to be thy Medicine but thy Nourishment and receiving it with lowliness and Devotion thou shalt not only find Grace but the Author of Grace thou shalt not only find the Guide but the Way the Comfort and Support of the Spirtual Life If he be God Eternal the Son of the Eternal Father whom thou receivest into thy Breast art not thou certain that all his Vertues and Attributes enter with him If in receiving him I make him not only my Guest but also my Lord and Ruler I become one with him as the fire which heats the Iron is united with it If his Goodness be in me when I receive him how is it that it does not abolish my Wickedness If his Omnipotency why does it not take away my Weakness If his Love be in me why does it not expel my Luke-warmness If his Purity and Chastity why don't they chase away all my Defilements A PRAYER O Eternal and Coelestial Light O my Redeemer and Soveraign Master and Physician O sweet Spouse of my Soul What is it that hinders the Operation of so great a Light in me but that my Soul is in so thick a Mist of Darkness What is it that can hinder the admirable Effects of thy Grace in me but the wickedness of my ungrateful heart What keeps the Divine Strength and Power from waking but my great coldness and hardness of heart What hinders thee O Heavenly Physician from curing the Diseases of my Soul but that it loves them and abhors the Remedy What hinders thy Sheep O Heavenly Shepherd from receiving the Coelestial Food thou offerest them but their being lost and running astray after sensual Delights the Poyson of their Vices What hinders the amorous Embraces and Favours of this loving Bridegroom but the ungrateful forgetfulness of his Spouse My heart gives it self up to worldly Loves and so does not perceive these glorious Pleasures What keeps my Soul from receiving the Graces and Favours which my King entring into it would bestow but the Passions and Rebellions wherewith it is fill'd What hinders me from hearing the wholsome Counsels of my most wise Instructor or if I hear them from following them but that my Passions make me deaf to his Inspirations or weak and unable to follow those which I have heard O Lord my God and my Redeemer All my Sickness is in my self all my Cure is in thee O my God since thou dost vouchsafe to enter into me stay there and deliver me from my self I am mine own Enemy no body can hurt me if I hurt not my self Free me from that inward Enemy O dear and potent Friend Thou art the strength of Heaven Thou art the succour of the Weak and I am weak Thou art the light of the Blind and I am blind Thou art the comfort of the Afflicted and I am afflicted Thou art the Shepherd of lost Sheep and I am one of them Thou art the pardoner of the Ungrateful and I am even Ingratitude itself What can Cure so great an Ignorance but thy Heavenly Wisdom What can take away or destroy so great a wickedness but thine Infinite Charity What can cleanse so many Defilements but thine ineffable Purity What can give strength to my feeble Soul overwhelmed with Vices but the Infinite Power of thy Glorious Vertues Have I thee here within me and wilt thou not Cure me I will not believe it Lord. Art thou one of those that see their Friends in the Sea of their Troubles and suffer them to be drowned Art not thou He who alone art able if thou wilt to appease a Tempest Art not thou He who stretch'd forth his hand to Peter when he was sinking in the waves Art not thou He who sleeping in the Ship didst awake and calm the Sea when it was ready to be swallowed up Art not thou He who walked'st upon the Waters of the Sea only to help those that were in them Art not thou He who both by Sea and Land in Mountains Towns and Cities wert the Universal Remedy both of Souls and Bodies For to whom thou gavest Grace in the one thou also gavest Health in the other Art thou less able in my Soul than thou wert in Judaea and Palestine Is not thy Power as great to Cure Souls now as it was to Cure Bodies then since thou didst therefore Cure their Bodies that thou mightest the better Cure their Souls Is thy skill less now adays O Omnipotent Physician than it was in those times Does not thy Immense Charity rather increase if it be possible for it to receive any augmentation Does not every one of thy Benefits call a great many more after it Canst thou do any thing else than give more and more and more Art not thou All-powerful O my Jesus Art not thou all Love and Goodness And art not thou infinitely Wise If then thou art both able knowing and willing How is it that I feel not the effects of thy Power Goodness and Wisdom It is true I have very often resisted them all but now I penitently yield my self up to them now I humbly prostrate my self I call I seek and adore the Author of my Remedy Enter into me O Lord my Glory Cast out of me all Humane Resistance and though wretch that I am I did resist thy Vertues I will no longer resist thy Remedies I desire O my God to desire Lend thy helping hand and banish all that can separate me from thee Drive out of me all that Will which opposeth thy Blessed Will O Lord God I believe as another incredulous Person said help thou my unbelief and my obdurate Nature which is the Original of all my harm I believe I will I desire I love I seek I weep O merciful Lord O Eternal and Heavenly Light pardon and banish my want of Love my Coldness my Ingratitude and my Forgetfulness I would fain desire but I know not how to desire I would fain work but I know not how to work but since thou entrest into me O my Jesus work thou in me Separate from me and destroy in me all that hinders and detains me from serving from loving from following and adoring thee Let that Love of thine which was enflamed with the love of me conquer and expel this ungrateful want of love Let thy Light drive away my Darkness and thy Goodness my Wickedness Finally O Lord make thy self Master of me of my heart of my will and of all my Faculties and carry my Soul thy Captive in the Triumph of thine Infinite Love These are the breathings thou oughtest to send forth from the bottom of thy
is said that Joseph and his Mother marvelled at those things that were spoken of him and no doubt rejoyced greatly to hear them but that Joy was quickly check'd for though he blessed them he said to Mary his Mother Behold this Child is set for the fall as well as the rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own Soul also There the Virgin-Mother saw the future Passion of her Son Prophesied of unto her and her heart was wounded with a Mortal stroke of Grief and of Compassion From that moment she never wanted Sufferings nor did that Sword foretold by Simeon ever depart from her Soul Thus he subjected himself to the Law who was exempt from all Law and who came to give us Laws and shall thou and I be so vain and proud and foolish as to shake off from us the necessary Yoke of Laws Does he obey to whom all ought to be obedient and shall thou and I who are born only to obey resist Humility and Obedience No let us submit to our Superiours and obey not only for Wrath but for Conscience-sake and let us pray unto God that as his only begotten Son Jesus Christ submitted himself to be presented in the Temple in the substance of our Flesh so we may be presented unto him with pure and clean hearts by the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Of his Flight into Egypt With this sweet Lord and his blessed Mother and Joseph his reputed Father thou art next to leave Judea and accompany them flying into Egypt to avoid the Cruelty of that Tyrant who slew so many Innocents that he might slay Innocency itself Go along with those Fugitives through those Sandy Desarts with a desire to serve them in the way and if thou couldest to lessen the weariness of so tedious a Journey Make hast to get before to prepare them a Lodging and that not in any material House but in thy heart and that it may be the fitter to receive him fill thy Soul with affectionate desires to please him with fear to offend him and with unwillingness ever to be separated from him Of the other Mysteries Being returned from Egypt go along with thy Blessed Saviour to the House of his Mother Behold him there growing up in Age and in Grace and Beauty who is the Fountain and Original of all Grace and Beauty There beg of him that thou mayest daily grow in Grace and Charity which is the greatest beauty of the Soul Lose thy self also with him in his way to the Temple since thou art utterly lost without him Seek him there with the Virgin and thou mayest find him at Twelve Years old disputing with the Doctors and teaching the Law and Precepts of his Father for first he accomplished them and then he taught them Follow the Blessed Virgin and imitate the trouble and the care she was in for having lost him and her great joy and gladness in finding him again to serve him Do thou lament like her when thou losest God by sin and rejoyce no less to find him again by Grace and by Repentance Seek God in the Temple and thou shalt find him there but then thou must be sure to seek him with Fervour and Devotion Seek God there by Prayer and by Prayer thou shalt be sure to find him Seek him in the Divine Precepts and in Obedience to them thou mayest be certain he will be found by thee He afterwards retires and dwells in privacy with his humble Mother and his supposed Father from the Age of Twelve to Thirty living obscurely those Eighteen Years whereof the Scripture gives us no particular Account saying only that he was obedient to his Parents and we may reasonably believe that he who was the Example of all Vertues would not spend so much time in Idleness which is the nourisher of all Vices but rather that he assisted honest Joseph in the business of his Occupation and that probably he used even that painful means to help to support that Poverty who came to relieve the Poverty of all Mankind For though the Jews in one of the Evangelists call him but a Carpenter's Son in another they asked Is not this the Carpenter Some of them probably having seen him employed in that Profession Behold the Creator of all things subjecting himself to his own mean Creatures and thou rebellious and wretched Creature wilt not thou submit thy self to thy great Creator Behold that Majesty nay that Divinity obedient to the Humanity of his Father and Mother and wilt thou be disobedient and refractory to his Commands who is thy Eternal Father and who gave thee a Being in this World to no other end but that thou mightest obey and serve him Behold him helping to build Houses for others who never had one of his own to rest his head in Imitate him in his laborious Industry and give not up thy self to sloth and laziness Though God hath given thee Riches so that thou art not forced to work for Necessity remember that a slothful hand tendeth to Poverty and if thou exercisest thy self in some manual Business thou wilt be the better able to bear a low Condition if thy uncertain Riches should make themselves wings and flie away Learn also to be contented in the poorest Estate by his Example who in this World was worse provided for than the Foxes for they have Holes or the Birds of the Air for they have Nests And Pray to that builder of the Coelestial Jerusalem that since in his Father's House there be many Mansions he would bestow the meanest corner in one of them upon thee and that in his good time he would remove thee from this Earthly Habitation to an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Here let us stay and dwell a while longer upon the thoughts of our Saviour's strange condescension in that poor painful and obscure manner of Life for here it is thy Folly and mine thy Pride and mine must find their Cure To see the Creator of Heaven and Earth live Eighteen Years in silence obedience and humility may well be a Cure for the highest Vanity and for the most rebellious Obstinacy since the Maker and Creator of all things humbled himself to serve and obey two of his own Creatures for the space of Eighteen Years who would not humble himself below all Creatures for Eighteen Thousand nay for an Eternity of Years O my God O God-man that wert so humble so resigned and so obedient for Man give me that Obedience and Humility cure my Pride and Vanity and grant that forsaking the noise and hurry of this tumultuous World I may retire with delight not absolutely to a soliâ—ary unactive life but frequently into the privacy of my Closet there to admire thy Divine Excellencies and to contemplate thy Humane Vertues and that by Imitation of the one I may through thy Mercy obtain a participation of the
God which indeed was the principal design of all his Miracles which being so infinitely and apparently above the power of Nature could not but create great confidence in his Disciples that himself would verifie those great Promises upon which he established his Law nor fail to make a very deep impression upon all Persons whose interest and love of the World did not destroy the Piety of their Wills and put their Understandings into Fetters So marvellous was the force of Conviction by these supernatural Operations that to minds unbiass'd and honestly dispos'd to receive the truth it was hardly resistible Who could chuse but be wrought upon to confess his Divinity from the sight of that first Miracle which he wrought after his descent from the Mount upon the poor leprous Person which came to him worshipping him and begging to be healed He did but barely put forth his hand and touch him and immediately his Leprosie was cleansed What so great Vertue could possibly proceed from Natural Agents or from whence could so sudden and effectual a Remedy come but from that Great and Heavenly Physician who is Lord of Nature and consequently has no need to use Physical means but by a word of his mouth can accomplish whatever he pleases both in Heaven and Earth He bad the Man go to the Priest to offer an Oblation according to the Rites of Moses his Law hereby teaching what Respect and Obedience we owe to the Laws of that Religion which is duly established For in all the wonderful Works which he wrought for the healing Men's Bodies he had this further design to heal their Minds too by insinuating good Instructions He was a Physician of Souls as well as of Bodies and always had an eye to the Spiritual benefit of Men by contributing to their bodily ease This Observation holds in all those Corporal Cures which he wrought for the outward good of Men by that Divine Power which God had anointed him with As his Miracles were intended for Mercy so also for Doctrine The Impotent and Diseased Persons were not more cured than we instructed which will appear if we cast an eye upon some of his Miraculous Cures Behold him then in the next place giving sight to the Blind to one who besides his blindness was also possess'd with a dumb Devil which being cast out he presently spake and saw to another by anointing his Eyes with Clay and Spittle which one would think were more likely to have blinded him if he could have seen and even to one that was born blind without any natural capacity of receiving sight which more increased the Wonder of the Multitude all confessing That since the beginning of the World it was never known that any one had received sight who was born blind And do not these Examples teach us to admire his Goodness and his Power which working both with means and without means nay and against means too may convince us of his being God as well as Man How should we be excited by this excessive Bounty of our Lord to beg of him to enlighten the blindness of our Understandings which is far greater and worse than the blindness of those Men and to give us such a clear sight of Heavenly things as may make us look upon all the Greatness the Riches and the Pleasures of this World only with Contempt and Pity that we may plainly perceive the Path that leads to eternal Happiness and avoid all those stumbling-blocks which are laid in the way O thou that openedst the Eyes of the Blind suffer not the thick Mists of Ignorance to obscure and darken my mind and so hinder it from seeing and knowing in my day the things which belong to my Peace that they may never be hid from me See in another place a Noble Personage coming to Jesus with much Reverence and desiring him with great importunity to come to his House and cure his Son being now ready to dye Jesus who did not do his Miracles by Natural Operations cured the Child at a distance and dismissed the Prince telling him his Son lived which he found to be true and that he recovered at that time when Jesus spake those salutary and healing words Whereupon he and all his House became Disciples and were throughly convinced of his being the true Messiah and that Salvation was only through him which effect the Miracle did naturally tend to produce Behold at another time how soundly he sleeps in the midst of a most violent Tempest which so affrighted his Disciples that they hastily awoke him saying Lord save us we perish Thus quietly do they rest in the midst of dangers which trust in God and so are they dismayed with fears who dare not repose an entire confidence in him Imitate thou his Disciples in having recourse to Prayer in all thy distresses but rely upon God with assurance of his help Observe how their distrust was check'd with a Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Yet his Mercy granted their Request for he presently rebuked the Winds and the Seas and their was a great Calm In like manner O Lord compose the storms of my troubled Breast appease the boisterous Winds of my unruly Passions and the rolling Billows of my exorbitant and unsteady Desires Say unto them as thou didst unto the Sea Peace and be still so shall I safely pass through the Tempestuous Waves of this miserable World with a calm and contented mind till I arrive at the Haven of endless Rest and Comfort in thy Kingdom Nor does he only quiet the Sea but walks upon the Waters of it which seem'd so strange to his Disciples that they took him for a Spirit St. Peter having his Master still in his thoughts that he might be certain calls out If it be Thou command me to come to thee Observe the strength of his Love which makes him desirous to be with Jesus in any place how dangerous soever and yet the weakness of his Fear which presently causes his Faith to fail though he had an Omnipotent hand ready to help him His heart first sinks in his Body and then his Body sinks in the Water Learn then to follow Christ by imitating the Vertues which he practised as Man his Patience Meekness Humility and Charity and do not affect to do those things which he performed as God It is enough for us to undergo Dangers when Providence shall bring them upon us and too much to run our selves into them unnecessarily for that is to tempt God by a vain Presumption the Punishment whereof is to be left to our selves and most probably to perish in our own rashness Let us next accompany our Saviour to the Marriage in Cana and indeed there it was that he wrought his first Miracle where to rescue the married Pair who were poor and wanted Wine from Affront and Trouble he commanded the Water-pots to be filled with Water which by his Divine Power he changed into Wine where the
different proceeding of God and the World is highly observable Every man sets forth good Wine at first and then the worst but God not only turns the Water into Wine but into such Wine that still the last draught is most pleasant The World presents us with fair Language promising Hopes convenient Fortunes pompous Honours and these are the outsides of the Bole but when it is swallowed these dissolve in the instant and there remains nothing but bitterness and corruption Every sin smiles in the first Address but when we have well drunk then comes that which is worse Fears and Terrors of Conscience and Shame and Displeasure and diffidence in the day of Death But when after the manner of the purifying of the Christians we fill our Water-pots with Water watering our Couch with our Tears and moistening our Cheeks with the perpetual distillations of Repentance then Christ turns our Water into Wine first Penitents and then Communicants first Waters of Sorrow and then the Wine of the Chalice first the Justifications of Correction and then the Sanctifications of the Sacrament and the Effects of the Divine Power Joy and Peace and Serenity hopes full of Confidence and Confidence without Shame and Boldness without Presumption for Jesus keeps the best Wine till the last not only because of the reservations of the highest Joys till the nearer approaches of Glory but also because our relishes are higher after a long enjoyment than at the first Essays such being the Nature of Grace that it encreases in Relish as it does in Enjoyment every part of Grace being a new Duty and new Reward Next let us contemplate those most apparent and indubitable effects of a Power truly Divine and All-sufficient that our Saviour wrought in raising the Dead and recalling Life and Breath into them which is a Work that baffles all the Powers of Nature and is too difficult to be compassed by a limited Vertue See how he comforts Jairus one of the Rulers of the Synagogue when certain Messengers came and declared to him the departure of his Daughter whom having left at home at the point of Death he came to Jesus to beg a Cure for her and desired him to trouble the Master no further Be not afraid says he only believe As if he had said Trouble not thy self at this doleful Message neither be grieved for thy Daughter for I am as able to restore her to Life now she is Dead as I was to heal her when she was Sick had I had a timely notice of her illness Only have Faith in me and believe that I am able to accomplish this great Action and it shall presently be accomplished And according as he believed so was the event for entring in where the Damsel was lying he took her by the Hand and said unto her Talitha cumi that is Damsel arise and immediately she arose and walked to the great Astonishment and Joy of those that were mourning and weeping for her Decease In like manner our Lord beholding another Object of Pity namely the Widow of Nain bewailing and lamenting the Death of her only Son who was now carrying to be Buried had compassion on her and bad her forbear weeping for that her Son should be restored to her again and by the Voice of his Mouth which commands the whole Creation and awakens the Dead recover Sense and Motion which was soon effected for he did but call Young man I say unto thee arise and forthwith he that was dead sate up and began to speak whereupon there came a fear on all And being struck with amazement at the sight of so marvellous an Action they glorified God saying A great Prophet is risen up among us and God hath visited his People At another time he exercised this Supernatural and Divine Vertue in raising up his beloved Friend Lazarus from the Grave who had been buried four Days and had seen Corruption His Sisters Martha and Mary in his Sickness sent to Jesus saying Behold he whom thou lovest is sick Jesus permitted him to taste of Death that the Glory of God might be manifested in his return to Life He determined to get him Glory by his Resurrection and therefore when he knew of his Death he said to his Disciples Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of sleep As he went he was met by Martha who received him with this mournful Lamentation Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died the same words wherewith Mary received him afterwards when she came to him but however taking comfort by Faith I know said she That even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God God will give it thee Jesus answered her Thy brother shall rise again and that not only at the last day as she understood him but instantly Wherefore he demanded where they had laid him and coming to the place he bad them take away the stone from the cave which being done He cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth at the sound of which words the slumbring Carcass was awakened all its parts revived and his Soul re-united to his Body So readily do all Creatures obey when God commands These Instances our Lord designed as Types of our rising again at the final Consummation of the World to an immortal State When our corruptible shall put on incorruption and our mortal immortality As they were raised again to a Temporal Being so shall we to an Eternal in Joy or Misery How greatly then does it import us so to frame our lives in this World that we may be counted worthy to rise again to eternal Life and not to Eternal Death Can we truly and heartily believe that our Souls and Bodies shall be re-united at the last Day and be called before Christs Tribunal to be judged and sentenced according to their Deeds here and yet live in a careless security without ever regarding to set right our Accounts before we appear at that Judgment-seat Can any thing be more absurd than to entertain this Faith and yet to live as if we utterly disown'd it If we were really perswaded and convinced of this grand Truth and Article of Christianity and would often meditate upon it we should not fail to guard ourselves against the assaults of Sin and enchantments of Pleasure to live Soberly Righteously and Godly and to apply our whole Endeavours to prepare our Souls and Bodies for a glorious and â—appy Re-union Finally to name no more of our Lord's Miracles let us come to that Sign which was given to the Jews and Pharisees to cure if possible their obstinate Incredulity that greatest of Miracles which could have no suspicion of Imposture no Instance or Precedent or Imitation and that is Jesus his own lying in the Grave three Days and three Nights and then his raising up himself again and appearing unto many and conversing for forty Days together giving probation of his rising and of the verity of his Body and making a
was black and cruel Now they bring the Blessed Jesus thus tied and bound at Midnight to the House of Annas who was the Father-in-law of Caiaphas the High-Priest and there without Right or Reason without Justice or Mercy the Universal Judge of Souls is examined as a guilty Person He gives them a modest holy Answer for which they give him a box on the Ear the whole Heaven weeping at that time to see so horrid a Crime committed upon Earth From that day Affronts became honourable Ignominy glorious and that began to be Renown which before had been Contempt The Cross had been accounted shameful till the unspeakable Mysteries of Man's Redemption were celebrated upon it but from the time that God blessed and consecrated Pains and Punishments with his Pains and Punishments to be Merry began to be a great Danger and to Suffer was made to be a great Honour While our Lord suffered these things in the House of Annas the Officers and People gathered themselves together in the House of Caiaphas and they led the most meek and holy Jesus before him because he was the High-Priest for that Year and so the Lamb was brought before a Council of Lions and ravening Wolves There Envy Examines him Injustice Condemns him and the Blasphemers of God pronounce God himself to be a Blasphemer O Folly that exceeds all Folly O Wickedness that surpasses all Wickedness Man condemns God for a Blasphemer when the greatest Blasphemy that Man's Nature could commit was to declare so foolish a Condemnation and so Blasphemous a Sentence But while they are condemning our Blessed Lord his Divine Majesty suffers no less by the Denial of his Loving Disciple than by the Persecution of his bitter Enemies but his merciful Eyes raise him up again since it was the fall of a Lover who came to seek for his Beloved St. Peter fell where no body else durst come His fall was by the frailty of our Nature but his coming thither when all the rest forsook their Master and fled was by the Valour of Grace It was not so with the Impenitent Judas who besides his being a Covetous Traitor was also distrustful of Mercy for he having made Restitution of his ill-gotten Money did with a worse kind of Repentance seek his Remedy in Despair Behold Jesus being condemn'd to Death by the Jew they deliver him up to the Gentile and having loaded him with Injuries Affronts Buffetings and a thousand other sorts of Punishment they present him to Pilate By him he is examined again and the Idolater less partial acknowledges the Malice of the Sons of Israel and the Vertue and Holiness of the Son of God Yet what does that help if Envy and Cruelty be more powerful in Persecuting than Truth and Innocency in Defending But to the end that the pains of our Redeemer might be the greater he finds him very slack and remiss in his Defence and them very fierce vigorous and constant in his Prosecution but at last the violent and importunate Accuser always gets the better of a weak and unconcern'd Judge so Pilate not to give himself the trouble of defending Innocency delivers it up bound into the hands of Malice yet having some little scruple to commit so great a wickedness he would fain have shuffled it off to another and remits him to Herod to see if he could ease himself of so troublesome a Cause and avoid so foul a Crime as that which those fierce Tygers would have had him to commit They bring the Saviour of Souls to the House of Herod and that sensual Incestuous King would have had him to work some Miracle for his Diversion not having been willing to believe those he had wrought for his Salvation Our Blessed Lord gives him no Answer for he that had beheaded John Baptist and silenced the voice of his Holy Forerunner did not deserve to hear the voice of the Eternal Word In the end the Eternal Wisdom being despised as a Fool Herod disdains to be the Judge of his Cause and so being cloathed in a Robe of Scorn they bring him back again to Pilate Thither the cruel Multitude follow him with their Clamours and being impatient to see Injustice so backward to Condemn Innocency they with loud cries entreat the Gentile that he might be Crucified because the Superstitious Jew would not defile himself by his death in the time of the Passover thinking that provided he kept but an outward Purity it was no matter though he had a thousand Impurities and bloody stains in his Soul How well did our Saviour tell them that they were Cups washed clean on the outside but that within they were full of Riot and Excess and whited Sepulchres whose inside was full of Rottenness and Corruption The President makes still some resistance and for an expedient of Pity Condemns the Holy Jesus to be scourged believing that at the sight of his Scourging and Crowning with Thorns his fierce Accusers would be softened and satisfied O Pity more cruel than Cruelty itself Are five thousand lashes a merciful means to save the Innocent Behold O my Soul what sort of Compassion was used in the dolorous Passion of the Redeemer of Souls since they took it for a kind of Pity to tear his Flesh with so great a number of Stripes and how justly it is said That the mercies of the wicked are cruel Thus shedding Rivers of Blood crowned with Thorns having put a Reed in his hand and an infamous Robe of Purple on his back he brings forth the Lord Jesus to be seen by that ungratâ—ful People bidding them behold the man but they still fierce and barbarous cry out to have him crucified How soft are Rocks how gentle are Lions and Tygers in comparison of such Monsters Behold our Savage hardness since God suffers in this manner for Man and Man still continues cruel and obdurate towards God! Is it possible that so many wounds and sufferings should not work upon them nor at all abate their fury Is it possible so doleful so miserable a Spectacle should not soften Humane hearts There is no Anger no Rage nor Fury so violent against a Criminal which does not relent to some tenderness at the sight of his Punishment but here at the sight of Innocency itself tormented abused and affronted with all kinds of Mockery and Derision they become more hardened more furious and more enraged Sure they were Statues of Brass since all this could not move them or if they had the flesh at least it was impossible they should have the hearts of Men. But O Lord how much more reason have we to condemn our selves For if our sinful and obdurate Souls are not chang'd and soften'd by thy Pains and Sufferings believing and confessing thee what wonder is it if those cruel Murtherers persisted in their bloody purpose since they denied and rejected thee The President seeing that his Expedient had been fruitless and that the People were grown but the more furious by
Peace This Charity which the Apostle here offers as the highest Gift and Fruit of the Divine Spirit is reduc'd into two kinds First that which the Soul bears towards God not only when it begins to be in Grace for that may be with many imperfections and fastnings to worldly things but an excellent perfect and inflamed Charity which with its fire burns up and with its flame consumes all the Dross Imperfections and Miseries which our wretched Nature sends up as in smoke to the Region of the Spirit This excellent and superiour Charity which neither suffers nor allows so much as a consent to the smallest sins nor admits voluntary imperfections and adhaesions to earthly things how little soever they be and which if they come does not entertain them but presently casts them out and bewails them is a great Gift of the Holy Spirit the highest of all its Fruits for this strips the Soul of all that is imperfect and cloaths it with all that is holy perfect and heroical This Fruit of the Spirit is the Source and Original of whatsoever good our weakness is capable of it takes off those Skins that covered the old Adam and adorns us with the Garment of Grace of the new Adam Jesus Christ our Lord. Those Skins are our Passions and Imperfections and this Garment is made up of our Saviour's Vertue This Heroick Charity not only begets but defends the new Man in us it roots out our old customs of sin pulls up those habits of sensual delight and throws out those formerly beloved Vices and Miseries wherewith it hath been choaked up so that the Lord's Inheritance becomes clean and fitly tilled to receive the spiritual Seed namely those Gifts and Graces which God is pleased to communicate to Souls Where God bestows the Fruit of this ardent Charity I count that Soul to be safely got into Port as having by the Grace of our Lord overcome those strong Billows and broken through those contrary Winds that would have hindred its passage because God affords therewith a constancy and firmness in holy Exercises a continual desire and longing to prosecute and to finish its Course and to die in Christ with Christ and for Christ for all things else it neither values them nor loves them nor fears them He that has gotten to receive from God this high degree of Charity is governed in all things by his Hand and punctually follows his Directions for he loves the Name of God and that Love moves and guides informs counsels and accompanies him from Life to Death This Love is that which the Church asks of God for her faithful Children when she says O Lord who never failest to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy stedfast fear and love keep us we beseech thee under the protection of thy good Providence and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy Holy Name through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen St. Paul had this Fruit of Charity when he said Who shall separate me from the love of Christ Who Neither Tribulation nor Sword nor Persecution nor Death no nor Hell itself which is as if God having cloathed and armed that Saint with this Charity had made him capable to defie all Creatures and all things contrary to the love of his Creator This Charity and Fruit of the Holy Ghost he had when he said That he desir'd to be dissolved and to be with Christ for that his Soul filled and enflamed with Charity which is the ripe and seasonable Fruit of the Holy Ghost waited to be gathered by the hand of the Master of that Garden who planted it in him and had not the Earth for its Centre which corrupts and rots the Fruits that fall upon it but Heaven where he was to be laid up and preserved for ever This Charity and Divine Fruit of the Spirit that Saint had who said I live but not in my self and I so earnestly long after so high a life that I even die because I do not die as St. Paul also said I live yet not I but Christ who liveth in me his Death was Life and his Life Death as he likewise spoke Who shall deliver me from this body of death or from the death of this Body as holding the life of this Body to be no better than death and very death it self to be as life because it was to be a sweet passage to him to Eternal Life All the Saints have held the same for God communicates this high Fruit of Charity either more or less to them all and all of them have suffered this amorous Impatiency which is that the Spouse in the Canticles expresses when she says Encompass me with flowers for I die for love O sweet Death O glorious Life O healthful Sickness O Coelestial Fire which kindlest and enflamest which enlightenest and enamourest burning with delight and by thy consolations changing Earth into Heaven O eternal Jesus O sweet O glorious O loving and powerful Lord grant that I may die of this Wound Grant I may be enflam'd by this Heavenly Fire Grant I may see by this Light and be consumed by this Heat O that I might be turned into ashes in the burnings of this amorous Fire and that I may cease to be in this life to the end that I may be with thee eternally in the other Ah! when a Soul once comes to know and to understand this Love how little does it regard the loves of this World I mean not only those that are light and vain but those also that are allowable if they be worldly for God cleanses and purifies the Soul in such manner from all Propriety although it be of those Affections which are tolerable yet imperfect through their excess that he possesses the Soul totally with his love and from the most inward to the uttermost extent of the heart and from the superiour to the most inferiour parts of it fills it wholly with himself so that if such an one loves his Parents whether Natural or Spiritual he does it in God and for God and if he loves his Brethren whether those of Nature or those of Grace he loves them also in God and for God who orders and governs all his Love This the holy Soul says in the Canticles when amongst other Favours her Spouse had done her she acknowledges that he had ordered and governed her Affections As if she had said though there were Charity in me yet it was inordinate for I loved some more than I ought to have loved them others when I ought not to have loved them and others after another manner than I ought to have loved them I loved more than I ought to have loved because that Affection which I gave inordinately unto a Creature although a Father I stole from the Creator who is my true Father I loved them for that which I ought not to have loved them for that is for mine own Delight for mine own Interest and
is so much the better to be exercised because it depends upon his most Holy Hand We ought never to think our Comfort and Happiness more secure than when it is in the hand of God and if I could forsake whatsoever I have or can have and utterly renounce it and give it up to his most blessed hands without returning to ask it again I would renounce it only that I might depend totally and absolutely upon such liberal hands It is clear that all our Ruine and Destruction depends only upon our own Weakness and Misery and that all our Strength and Happiness depends only upon God And therefore one of the Reasons why Chastity is possible is because it depends more upon the Bounty of the Lord than other Vertues for if it depended only upon our selves there would be no such thing as Chastity in the World We are weak wretched and miserable Vessels filled with Passions and so of our selves we can neither receive nor keep those Treasures which God bestows upon us Even our Free-will though continually defended and assisted by Grace without which we could not make so much as one step in Goodness is every moment choosing the worst and having Eternal Life on the one hand and an Eternal Death on the other we embrace Death and turn our backs upon Eternal Life What therefore would become of Chastity that high Gift if we depended upon our selves and it were not given us from above Thus though all depend upon God yet chiefly the Gift of Chastity this most sweet and excellent Fruit. The Grace of entertaining holy Thoughts is his that of flying the Occasions that are dangerous and of loving this unspotted Vertue is from his Favour and the preserving and persevering in it all proceeds from his Powerful Hand Therefore thou oughtest with great care to strive to follow the Chast Motions of his Holy Spirit to avoid all Places and Companies that may be dangerous endeavouring to subdue and mortifie thy self earnestly praying to God for his Favour and acknowledging that if his Divine Majesty give it not there is nothing in thy self but Misery and Destruction and that all thy Good thy Remedy and thy Chastity consists only in his Grace Mercy and Goodness The Fourth WEEK Of Perseverance and Prayer to God O That I had these Gifts O that I might die with these Vertues of the Spiritual Year O that I were able to spend my Hours my Days my Weeks my Months and my Years in this safe Doctrine Be not discouraged do but go on persevere and call upon God in Prayer for that is all thy Remedy Constancy Perseverance and Continuance in Prayer obtain all things Many run says St. Paul but one alone wins the Prize Many Vertues run in the Spiritual Life many are exercised and practised but the Reward and Crown is given only to Perseverance without that Gift the rest will profit nothing Take notice what our Saviour says That if we seek we shall find if we ask he will give us and if we knock he will open unto us Remember how he tells you it succeeded to the Man that awakened his Friend to borrow three Loaves by reason that a Stranger was come into his House he came unseasonably to him disturbing his Rest in the Night yet he let him have them because of his Importunity which without that he would not have done for his Friendship Remember the poor Widow that persisted earnestly to beg of the Unjust Judge who carelesly delayed to dispatch her business her Importunity did more than the Right of her Cause for that overcame his Sloth when this was not at all regarded Call to mind that Christ says If a Son importunes his Father for an Egg he will not give him a Scorpion but the thing he desires All these Comparisons our Saviour sets before us to the end we may persevere and not faint nor turn back again to slothfulness but that we should still pray and beg and call and cry for at last he will hear us He that puts his hand to the Plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven What shall he lose it only for looking back In but looking back there is great danger of losing it Hast thou not seen it in Lot's Wife who only by looking back towards Sodom was turned into a Pillar of Salt to season us by her Punishment and to give us warning not to do as she did Having once renounced the World and its Vanities we must not so much as think upon them with delight or trouble for having left them for this is a looking back O how many Vertues and Perfections how many excelencies of Holiness have fallen by looking back and not pressing on constantly forward to the Mark of our high Calling What lofty Trees and tall Cedars of Libanus have fallen at the feet of little Shrubs Remember Solomon more Rich in Gifts than in Wealth Remember Judas the Apostle chosen of God for one of the firm Pillars of his Church Look upon Origen the Master of Christian Instruction and upon Tertullian a stout Defender of the Faith and the Terror of Hereticks What wonderful what dreadful Falls were theirs How fair how safe how excellent were their beginnings and their progress But how unfortunate how sad how doubtful their conclusions Whence all that Mischief whence all those great Misfortunes Because they persevered not they continued not instant in Prayer They grew weary of asking and of well-doing They trusted in themselves who should only have put their trust in God and been fearful of themselves It is clear that in Solomon there began at first some secret thought and that his Wisdom was so high that he either made no reckoning of it in the beginning or that being so Wise a Man he found out some plausible Reasons to bring Idolatrous Queens into his House believing that in regard of his great Holiness and Learning there could not be so great danger for him as for others nor that cause in him to avoid it which mov'd God to forbid his People the taking of Women of another Religion He presumes being a Man that used to speak with God he should never suffer himself to be perswaded by them but rather that he should convert them and gain their Souls by drawing them over to the Worship of the true God But they were more powerful with their Beauty and Allurements than Solomon with all his Eloquence and their Perswasions overthrew him and all his Wisdom Then he found Reasons to allow them Temples only for themselves at first and within a while by Idolizing them he became an Idolater with them in that Temple of the Devil O how great a Fire was kindled from one Spark Shut thine Eyes and thine Ears against all Evil cut off the first thoughts and first beginnings of it make hast from the path of Destruction and from whatsoever may draw thee near to any thing that is evil and if thou wilt