us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Iesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his passion became like a scastold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entred to be tormented and crucified upon the Crosse of love which was the Crosse of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from heaveÌ„ to acomplish the businesse of all ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and this so precious shipwrak there remained one oâ—ely inestimable pearl which was his divine mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hands of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Iesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the vvhole vvorld as he did proportioning his torments according to the fruits which vvere to proceed from his cross Perhaps O faithfull soul thou lookest for a mans body in thy Iesus but thou findest nothing but the appearance of one crusted over with gore bloud Thou seekest for limbs findest nothing but vvounds Thou lookest for a Iesus which appeared glorious upon mount Thabor as upon a Throne of Majesty with all the ensigns of his glory and thou findest only a skin all bloudy fastned to a crosse betvven tvvo thieves And if the consideration of this cannot bring drops of bloud from thy heart it must be more insensible then a diâ—mond 3. To conclude observe the third quality of a good death which will declare it self by the exercise of great and heroick virtues Consider that incomparable mildnesse which hath astonished all ages hath encouraged all virtues hath condemned all revenges hath instructed all Schools and crowned all good actions He was raised upon the crosse vvhen his dolours were most sharp and piercing when his wounds did open on all sides when his precious bloud shed upon the earth and moistened it in great abundance when he saw his poor clothes torn in peices and yet bloudy in the hands of those who crucified him He considered the extreme malice of that cruell people how those which could not wound him with iron pierced him with the points of their accursed tongues He could quickly have made sire com down from heaven upon those rebellious heads And yet forgetting all his pains to remember his mercies he opened his mouth and the first worde he spake was in the favour of his enemies to negotiate their reconciliation before his soul departed The learned Cardinall Hugues admiring the excessive charity of our Saviour toward his enemies applies excellent well that which is spoken of the Sunne in Ecclesiasticus He brings news to all the world at his rising and at noon-day he burns the earth and heats those furnaces of Nature which make it produce all her fruits So Jesus the Sun of the intelligible world did manifest himself at his Nativity as in the morning But the Crosse was his bed at noon from whence came those burning streames of Love which inflames the hearts of all blessed persons who are like furnaces of that eternall fire which burns in holy Sion On the other part admire that great magnanimity which held him so long upon the Crosse as upon a Throne of honour and power when he bestowed Paradise upon a man that was his companion in suffering I cannot tell whether in this action we should more admire the good fortune of the good theif or the greatnesse of Jesus The happinesse of the good theif who is drawn for a cut throat to prison from prison to the judgement hall from thence to the Crosse and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but the heart of Jesus On the other side what can be more admirable then to see a man crucified to do that act which must be performed by the living God when the world shall end To save some to make others reprobate and to judge from the height of his Crosse as if he sate upon the cheifest throne of all Monarchs But we must needs affirm that the virtue of patience in this holds a chief place and teaches very admirable lessons He endures the torments of the body and the pains of the spirit in all the faculties of his soul in all the parts of his virgin flesh and by the cruelty and multiplicity of his wounds they all become one onely wound from the sole of his foot to the top of his head His delicate body suffers most innocently and all by most ingrate and hypocriticall persons who would colour their vengeance with an apparence of holinesse He suffers without any comfort at all and which is more without bemoaning himself he suffers whatsoever they would or could lay upon him to the very last gasp of his life Heaven weares mourning upon the Cross all the Citizens of heaven weep over his torments the earth quakes the stones rend themselves sepulchres open the dead arise Onely Jesus dies unmoveable upon this throne of patience To conclude who would not be astonished at the tranquillity of his spirit amongst those great convulsions of the world which moved round about the Cross amongst such bloudy dolours insolent cries insupportable blasphemies how he remained upon the Crosse as in a Sanctuary at the foot of an Altar bleeding weeping praying to mingle his prayers with his bloud and tears I do now understand why the Wise man said He planted Isles within the Abysse since that in so great a gulph of afflictions he shewed such a serenity of spirit thereby making a Paradise for his Father amongst so great pains by the sweet perfume of his virtues After he had prayed for his enemies given a promise of Paradise to the good thief and recommended his mother to his Disciple he shut up his eyes from all humane things entertaining himself onely with prayers and sighs to his heavenly Father O that at the time of our deaths we could imitate the death of Iesus and then we should be sure to find the streams of life Aspirations
said Take away these things hence and make not the house of my Father a house of Merchandise And his Disciples remembred that it is written The zeal of thy house hath eaten me The Iews therefore answered and said to him What sign dost thou shew us that thou doest these things Iesus answered and said to them Dissolve this Temple in three dayes I will raise it The Iews therefore said in fourty and six years was this Temple built and wilt thou raise it in three dayes But he spake of the Temple of his body Therefore when he was risen again from the dead his Disciples remembred that he said this they believed the Scripture and the word that Iesus did say And when he was at Ierusalem in the Pasche upon the festivall day many believed in his name seeing his signs which he did But Iesus did not commit himself unto them for that he knew all because it was not needfull for him that any should give testimony of man for he knew what was in man Moralities 1. PIety is a silver chain hanged up aloft which ties heaven and earth spirituall and temporall God and man together Devotion is a virtue derived to us from the Father of all light who gives us thereby means to hold a traffick or commerce with Angels All which is here below sinks by its proper weight leans downward toward naturall corruption Our spirit though it be immortall would follow the weight of our bodies if it were not indued with the knowledge of God which works the same effect in it as the Adamant doth with iron for it pierceth and gives it life together with a secret and powerfull spirit from which all great actions take their beginning You shall never do any great act if the honour of God and the reverence of sacred things shall not accompany all your pretences For if you ground your piety upon any temporall respects you resemble that people which believes the highest mountains do support the skies 2. There are no sinnes which God doth punish more rigorously nor speedily then those which are committed against devotion and piety He doth not here take up the scourge against naughty Iudges usurers and unchaste persons because the Church is to find a remedy against all faults which happen in the life of man But if a man commit a sinne against Gods Altar the remedy grows desperate King Ozias felt a leprosie rise upon his face at the instant when he made the fume rise from the censor which he usurped from the high Priests Ely the chief Priest was buried in the ruins of his own house for the sacriledge of his children without any consideration of those long services with he had performed at the Tabernacle Keep your self from symonies from irreverence in Churches and from abusing Sacraments He can have no excuse which makes his Iudge a witnesse 3. Iesus was violently moved by the zeal which he bare to the house of his heavenly Father But many wicked rich men limit their zeal onely to their own families They build great Palaces upon the peoples bloud and they nothing care though all the world be in a storm so long as they and what belongs to them be well covered But there is a revenging God who doth insensibly drie up the roots of proud Nations and throws disgrace and infamy upon the faces of those who neglect the glories of Gods Altars to advance their own He who builds without God doth demolish and whosoever thinks to make any great encrease without him shall find nothing but sterility Aspirations O Most pure Spirit of Iesus which wast consummate by zeal toward the house of God wilt thou never burn my heart with those adored flames wherewith thou inspirest chaste hearts Why do we take so much care of our houses which are built upon quicksilver and roll up and down upon the inconstancies of humane fortunes while we have no love nor zeal towards Gods Church which is the Palace we should chuse here upon earth to be as the Image of heaven above I will adore thy Altars all my life with a profound humility But I wil first make an Altar of my own heart where I will offer sacrifice to which I doubt not but thou wilt put fire with thine own hand The Gospel upon Tuesday the fourth week in Lent S. Iohn 7. The Iews marvel at the learning of Iesus who was never taught ANd when the festivity was now half done Iesus went up into the Temple and taught And the Iews marvelled saying how doth this man know letters whereas he hath not learned Iesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me If any man will do the will of him he shall understand of the doctrine whether it be of God or I speak of my self he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory But he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him he is true and injustice in him there is not Did not Moses give you the Law and none of you doth the Law Why seek you to kill me The Multitude answered and said thou hast a Devil who seeketh to kill thee Iesus answered and said to them One work I have done and you do all marvell Therefore Moses gave you circumcision not that is of Moses but of the Fathers and in the Sabbath ye circumcise a man If a man receive circumcision in the Sabbath that the law of Moses be not broken are you angry at me because I have healed a man wholly in the Sabbath Iudge not according to the face but judge just judgement Certain therefore of Ierusalem said Is not this he whom thy seek to kill And behold he speaks openly and they say nothing to him Have the Princes known indeed that this is Christ But this man we know whence he is But when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is Iesus therefore cried in the Temple teaching and saying Both me you do know and whence I am you know and of my self I am not come But he is true that sent me whom you know not I know him because I am of him and he sent me They sought therefore to apprehend him and no man laid hands upon him because his hour was not yet come But of the multitude many believed in him Moralities 1. IT appears by this Gospel that Iesus was judged according to apparences not according to truth It is one of the greatest confusions which is deeply rooted in the life of man that every thing is full of painting and instead of taking it off with a spunge we foment it and make our illusions voluntary The Prophet Isay adviseth us to use our judgement as men do leaven to season bread Al the objects presented to our imaginations which we esteem are fading if we do not adde some heavenly vigour to help our judgement 2. To judge according to apparences is agreat want both of judgement and courage The first makes us
in her hearâ— do now breath from her nothing but the delicacâ—â—s of chastity Her pleasing odours which were before vowed to sensuality are now become the sâ—veetest exhalations from that Amber oyle which brings an odoriferous perfume to Iesus Christ She brings with her Aromatick spices to burn her self at the mountain of her Sun vvho makes himself her Priest her Advocate and Brideman 5. She had gained the great jubilee and was assured of it by the word of the eternall Bishop and yet duting all the rest of hâ—â— life she practised upon her self a sanctified revenge her penance never ends but with her life to confound our coldnesse who know so little what it is to bewail a sin She is as timorous in the assurance of her pardon as we are secure at the approach of Gods justice No body could be so patient and so constant in her love but she that had a holy emulation toward heavenly charity It is her perseverance which draws to the earth a perfect copy of that life without limit which the blessed souls enjoy in heaven It is she alone to whom eternity was then given because she had power to offer repentant frailty to eternity it self Aspirations Upon Saint Mary Magdalens great Repentance O Jesus my Conquerour and my Soveraign Bishop thou art pleased to be satisfied of thy unworthy servant but I am not yet content with my self No no my life and penance shall end together since I have lost that which should never have been separated from my body before the separation of my soul And since I cannot enter chaste into my grave I will now go repentant into an obscure savage Cave where the sun shall shine no more upon a head so sinfull as mine Mine eyes O mine eyes who have first received that fire which hath so passionately devoured my soul I will make you imitate the pond of Hesebon and sooner shall those tvvo fountains be dried up which serve the stream of Iordan then you shall want vvater to vvash the steps of your Concupiscences I will have that neck vvhich hath suffered it self to be embraced by unlawfull Arms held under the yoke of him that hath overcome me and so happily subjected me to his empire These arms and hands which have been the chains of wanton embracements shall henceforth for ever be lifted up to Heaven in prayerâ— and they shall have no other Altars but the feet of my Lord and Master if I dare think my self worthy to kisse them This mouth which hath been the gate of unchastity shall now become a temple of Gods praises And this heart which hath been a burning furnace of worldly love shall be a burning lamp of holy affections before God and shall have no other oyle to maintain it but that water which shall be drawn from mine eyes O my God since I have so betrayed my heart abused my youth spent prodigally thy Treasures and made crowns to Baal out of thy silver since I have forsaken thee who art eternal unchangeable and incomparable Goodnesse without whom all other goods are nothing to sollow a wanton fire which hath brought me to the brim of an everlasting precipice where shall I â—nd sufficient tears to wash my offences where shall I find enow parts of my body to be continually offered up as the sacrifice o my repentance I would mâ—ke my life immortal to have my pains so lasting and if thy mercy will not let me be the object of thy vengeance let me at least serve for a sacrifice at thy Altars The Gospell upon Friday the fifth week in Lent St. Iohn 11. The Jews said What shall we do for this man doth many miracles THe chief Priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a councell and said What shall we doe for this man doth many signes if we let him alone so all will believe in him and the Romanes will come and take away our place and Nation But one of them named Caâ—phas being the high Priest of that year said to them You know nothing neither do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man die for the people and the whole Nation perish not And this he said not of himself but being the high Priest of that year he prophesied that Iesus should die for the Nation and not onely for the Nation but to gather in one the children of God that were dispersed From that day therefore they devised to kill him Iesus therefore walked no more openly among the Iews but he went into the Country beside the Desart unto a City that is called Ephrem and there he abode with his Disciples Moralities ONe of the greatest Tragedies acted in the life of man which makes curious persons to question wise men to wonder good men to groan and the wicked to rejoice is to see an innocent man oppressed by colour of justice Now Iesus being resolved to espouse our miseries as far as they can reach was pleased to passe through those rigours and formalities of the wicked coloured with a pretext of equity He is not here condemned by a mean people without consideration without power without formality of processe But by these chief Priests and principall men of that Nation assembled in Councell they informed themselves they reason and conclude his death The Lions of Solomons throne did anciently bear certain Writs of the Law to signifie that it was to be handled by couragious and clear seeing Iudges But here Foxes got it into their hands and did manage it by crafty deceits wickednesse Alas we are far from the Laws of God when we cannot abide the least word spoken against our reputation We are troubled to suffer for innocency as if it were a greater honour to suffer for a direct offence Shall we never think that the triumph of virtue consists in well doing and thereby sometimes receiving harm even from those who are esteemed good men 2. There are some difficulties in affairs where truth is shut up as within a cloud Wise men can hardly find out where the point lies but God doth so order it that falshood leaves alwayes certain marks by which it may be known and the beauty of truth is ever like that lake of Affrick which early or late discovers all that is cast into it and makes all impostures plainly appear when we think they are most conceald And this appears by the proceeding of Caiphas who chose to condemn Christ for those things which were the certain tokens that he was the true Messias He concluded his death by reason of his miracles and those gave him authority as to the prince of Isfe A troubled spirit makes darts of every thing which it can to fight against reason and kills it self not suspecting its own poison 3. The Devil publisheth Iesus for the true Messias and so doth likewise Caiphas prophecy the same It is not alwayes a certain mark of goodnesse to speak that which is good but it is an assurance of
worldy men playes the Tyrant in the world snatching turning all things from the true scope and intention for which they were made by God diverting them to prophane uses by turbulent and forcible wayes The world pleaseth it self to set up Idols every where to make it self adored in them as cheif Soveraign It makes use of the Sun to light his crimes of the fatnesse of the earth to fatten his pleasure of apparrell for his luxury of all metals to kindle Avarice and of the purest beauties to serve sensuality And if by chance it love any creature with a well-wishing love and as it ought to be loved that is not permanent The wind is not more inconstant nor a calm at Sea more unfaithfull then worldly friendship For sometimes it begins with Fire and ends in Ice It is made as between a pot and a glasse and is broken sooner then a glasse The ancient Almans tried their children in the Rhine but true friendship is tried in a sea of Tribulation It is only Jesus the preserver and restorer of all things who loves us from Eternity to Eternity We must follow the sacred steps of his examples to reduce our selves to the finall point of our happinesse 2. The water a first was a mild element which served the Majesty of God as a floting Charior since as the Scripture saith his Spirit was carried upon the waters from whence he drew the seeds which produced all the world But after man had sinned like a suprâ—me Judge he made use of the gentlest things to be the Instruments of our punishments The water which carried the divine mercies was chosen at the deluge to drown all â—ankind Now at this time Iesus sanctified it by his sacred touch He took the Bason which being in his hands became greater and more full of Majesty then all the Ocean Our spots which eternity could not wash clean are taken away at Baptisme by one onely drop of water sanct fied by his blessing He prevents the bath of his bloud by the bath of an element which he doth expresly before his institution of the blessed Sacrament to teach us what purity of life of heart of faith of in ention and affections we must bring to the holy Eucharist It is necessary to chase away all strange gods which are sins and passions before we receive the God of Israel we must wash our selves in the waters of repentance change our attire by a new conversation It is too much for us to give flesh for flesh the body of a miserable man for that of Iesus Christ The consideration of our sins should bring up the bloud of blushing in our cheeks since they vvere the onely cause vvhy he shed his most precious bloud upon the Crosse for us Alas the heavens are not pure before his most pure spirit vvhich purifies all nature Then hovv can we go to him vvith so many voluntary stains and deformities Is it not to cast flowers upon a dunghill and to drive Swine to a clear fountain when we will go to Jesus the Authour of innocency carrying with us the steps and spots of our hainous sins 3. Iesus would not onely take upon himself the form of man but that also of a base servant as saint paul saith It vvas the office of slaves to carry water to wash bodies which made David say that Moab should be the Bason of his hope expressing thereby that he would humble the Moabites so low that they should serve onely to bring water to wash unclean houses Alas vvho vvould have said that the Messias was come amongst us to execute the office of a Moabite What force hath conquered him vvhat arms have brought him under but onely love Hovv can vve then become proud and burn incense to that Idoll called point of honour when we see hovv our God humbled himself in this action Observe with vvhat preparation the Evangelist said that his heavenly Father had put all into his hands that he came from God and went to God and yet instead of taking the worlds Scepter he takes a Bason and humbles himself to the most servile offices And if the waters of this Bason cannot burst in us the foul imposthume of vanity we must expect no other remedy but the eternal flames of hell fire Aspirations O King of Lovers and Master of all holy Loves Thou lovest for an end and till the accomplishment of that end It appertains only to thee to teach the Art of loving well since thou hast practised it so admirably Thou art none of those delicate friends who only make love to beauties to gold and silk thou lovest our very poverty and our miseries because they serve for objects of thy charity Let proud Michol laugh while she list to see my dear David made as a water bearer I honour him as much in that posture as I would sitting upon the throne of all the world I look upon him holding this Bason as upon him that holds the vast Seas in his hands O my mercifull Jesus I beseech thee wash wash again and make clean my most sinfull soul Be it as black as hell being in thy hands it may become more white then that Dove with silver wings of which the Prophet speaks I go I run to the fountains I burn with love amongst thy purifying waters I desire affectionately to humble my self but I know not where to find so low a place as thine when thou wast humbled before Iudas to wash his traitours feet Vpon the Garden of Mount Olivet Moralities 1. JEsus enters into a Garden to expiate the sin committed in a Garden by the first man The first Adam stole the fruit and the second is ordained to make satisfaction It is a strange thing that he chose the places of our delights for suffering his pains and never lookt upon our most dainty sweets but to draw out of them most bitter sorrows Gardens are made for recreations but our Saviour finds there onely desolation The Olives which are tokens of Peace denounce War unto him The plants there do groan the flowers are but flowers of death and those fountains are but fountains of sweat and bloud He that shall study well this Garden must needs be ashamed of all his pleasant Gardens and will forsake those refined curiosities of Tulips to make his heart become another manner of Garden where Jesus should be planted as the onely tree of life which brings forth the most perfect fruits of justice 2. It was there that the greatest Champion of the world undertook so great combats which began with sweat and bloud but ended with the losse of his life There were three marvelous agonies of God Death of Ioy and Sorrow of the Soul and Flesh of Iesus God and Death were two incompatible things since God is the first and the most universal of all lives who banisheth from him all the operations of death and yet his love finds means to unite them together for our
my self with thee I do beseech thee my most Sacred Iesus by the most triumphant of thy glories let me no more fall into the image of death not into those appetites of smoak and earth which have so many times buried the light of my soul What have I to do with the illusions of this world I am for Heaven for Glory and for the resurrection which I will now make bud out of my thoughts that I may hereafter possesse them with a full fruition The Gospel upon Munday the Easter week St. Luke the 24. ANd behold two of them went the same day into a Town which was the space of sixty fâ—rlongs from Ierusalem named Emmans And they talked betwixt themselves of all those things that had chanced And it came to pass while they talked and reasoned with themselves Iesus also himself approaching went with them but their eyes were held that they might not know him And he said to them what are these communications that you confer one with another walking and are sad And one whose name was Cleophas answering said to him Art thou only a stranger in Ierusalem and hast not known the things that have been done in it these dayes To whom he said what things And they said concerning Iesus of Nazareth who was a man a Prophet mighty in work and word before God and all the people And how our chief Priests and Princes delivered him into condemnation of death and crucified him But we hoped that it was he that should redeem Israel And now besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done But certain women also of ours made us afraid who before it was light were at the Monument and not finding his body came saying that they saw a vision also of Angells who say that he is alive And certain men of ours went to the Monument and they found it so as the women said but him they found not And he said to them O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all things which the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so enter into his glory And beginning from Moses and all the Prophets he did interpret to them in all the Scriptures the things that were concerning him And they drew nigh to the Town whether they went and he made semblance to go further And they forced him saying tarry with us because it is toward night and the day is now far spent and he went in with them And icâ— came to passe while he sate at the Table with them he took bread and blessed and brake and did reach to them And their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight And they said one to the other was not our heart burning in us whilest he spake in the way and opened unto us the Scriptures And rising up the same hour they went back into Ierusalem and they found the Eleven gathered together and those that were with them saying that our Lord is risen ind ed and hath appeared to Simon And they told the things that were done in the way and how they knew him in the breaking of bread Moralities 1. IT is a strange thing that God is alwayes with us and we are so little with him We have our being our moving our life from him he carries us in his arms he keeps us as a Nurse does her dear child yet all this while we scarce know what he is use him so often as a stranger He is in our being yet we keep him far from our heart as a dead man who is quite forgotten And yet Enâ—ch walked with him for that he was taken from the conversation of men and reserved for Paradise To speak truth our soul should alwayes be languishing after her Iesus and count it a kind of Adultery to be separated from him so much as by thought Let us learn a little to talk with him we commonly have that in our tongue which we keep in our heart Let us sweeten the sadness of our pilgrimage by the contemplation of his beauties Let us look upon him as God and man the God of gods the Man of men our great Saviour and Prophet powerfull both in word and work for if his word be thunder his life is a lightning He hath been here doing good to all the world and suffering hurt from all the world doing good without reward and induring evil without impatience We all passe here as Torrents into valleys the onely question is of our passing well whether we look on worldly goods as on waters which passe under a bridge and as upon the furniture of an Inne which is none of ours If we be imbarqued in the Vessel of life let us not amuse our selves to gather Cockles upon the shore but so that we may alwayes have our eyes fixt upon Paradise 2. Two things do hinder those Pilgrims from knowing Jesus as they should The one is their eyes are dazeled and the other is the little account they make of the Crosse which drives them into a mistrust of the Resurrection And this is it which crosseth us all our life and so oft diverts us from the point of our happinesse Our eyes are dazled with false lights of the world they are darkned with so many mists and vapours of our own appetites and passions that we cannot see the goods of heaven in the brightest of their day Worldly chains have a certain effective vigour and pleasure which is only pa nted but they have a most certain sorrow and a most uncertain contentment They have a painfull labour and a timorous rest A possession full of misery and void of all beatitude If we had our eyes well opened to penetrate see what it is we should then say of all the most ravishing objects of the world How sensless was I when I courted you O deceitfull world thou didst appear great to me when I saw thee not as thou art But so soon as I did see thee rightly I did then cease to see thee for thou wast no more to me but just nothing We run in full career after all that pleaseth our sense and the Crosse which is so much preached to us is much more upon our Altars then in our hearts We will not know that the throne of Mount Calvary is the path way to heaven and as this truth wanders from our hearts Jesus departs from our eyes Let us at least pray Jesus to stay with us for it is late in our hearts and the night is far advanced by our want of true light We shall not know Jesus by discourse but by seeding him in the persons of his poor since he gives the continuall nourishment of his body Aspirations O Onely Pilgrim of the world first dweller in the heart of thy heavenly Father what a pilgrimage hast thou made descending from heaven to earth and yet without forsaking heaven Thou hast mark't thy
to abate and humble the proudest of all Creatures then to represent his beginning and his end The middle-part of our life like a kind of Proteus takes up on it severall shapes not understood by others but the first and last part of it deceive no man for they do both begin and end in Dust It is a strange thing that Man knowing well what he hath been and what he must be is not confounded in himself by observing the pride of his own life and the great disorder of his passions The end of all other creatures is less deformed then that of man Plants in their death retain some pleasing smell of their bodies The little rose buries it self in her naturall sweetnesse and carnation colour Many Creatures at their death leave us their teeth horns feathers skins of which we make great use Others after death are served up in silver and golden dishes to feed the geatest persons of the world Onely mans dead carcase is good for nothing but to feed worms and yet he often retains the presumptuous pride of a Giant by the exorbitance of his heart and the cruell nature of a murderer by the furious rage of his revenge Surely that man must either be stupid by nature or most wicked by his own election who will not correct and amend himself having still before his eyes ashes for his glasse and death for his mistres 2 This consideration of Dust is an excellent remedy to cure vices and an assured Rampire against all temptations S. Paulinus saith excellently well That holy Iob was free from all temptations when he was placed upon the smoke and dust of his humility He that lies upon the ground can fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streames of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napell which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Egyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we bury all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little businesse with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousnesse arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting blisse by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel upon Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocryticall Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward Put thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig thorow and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig thorow nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the Praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all vertues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abomination in his sight and â—ertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entring into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictnesse having been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchin stuffe It is no more burdensome to a couragious spirit then feathers are to a bird The chearfulnesse which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does halfe the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by almes deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with purenesse and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to lose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousnesse in life to encounter with such extream nakednesse in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend only on God Almighty comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carry our souls to heaven where Jesus on
I do this day renounce all the abuses of my soul I will grow and prosper under thy blessings I will flourish under thy aspect and fructifie under thy protection Command onely thy graces and sweet dews of heaven which are as paps of thy favours to rain upon me and water this rotten trunk of my heart Speak to that eye of love that beautifull eye of Iesus that it wil shine upon me but once with that ray which doth make souls happy for ever The Gospel upon Saturday the second week in Lent S. Luke 15. Of the prodigall Child ANd he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father Father give me the portion of substance that belongeth to me and he divided â— unto them the substance And not many dayes after the younger son gathering all his things together went from home into a far Countrey and there he wasted his substance living riotously And after he had spent all there fâ—ll a sore famine in that Countrey and he began to be in need and â—he went and cleaved to one of the Citizens of that Countrey and he sent him into his Farm to feed swine And he would fain have filled his belly of the husks that the swine did eat and no body gave unto him And returning to himself he said How many of my fathers hirelings have abundance of bread and I here perish for famine I will arise and will go to my father and say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hirelings And rising up he came to his father and when he was yet far off his father saw him and was moved with mercy and running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him And his son said to him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son And the father said to his servants Quickly bring forth the first stole and do it on him and put a ring upon his hand and shooes upon his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry because this my son was dead is revived was lost is found And they began to make merry But his elder son was in the field and when he came and drew nigh to the house he heard musick dancing he called one of the servants and asked what these things should be And he said to him Thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe But he had indigination would not go in His father therefore going forth began to desire him But he answering said to his father Behold so many years do I serve thee I never transgressed thy commandment and thou didst never give me a kid to make merry with my friends But after that thy sonne this that hath devoured his substance with whores is come thou hast killed for him the fatted calf But he said to him Sonne thou art alwayes with me and all my things are thine But it behoved us to make merâ—y and be glad because this thy brother was dead and is revived was lost and is found Moralities 1. THis parable is a true table expressing the excursions of a prodigall soul and her return to the mercy of God by the way of repentance Note that the first step which she trode toward her own destruction as Cain did was her departing from God not by changing of place but of heart It departed from the chiefest light which made it fall into an eclipse of reason and so into profound darknesse She diverted her self from the greatest bounty which made her encline toward all wickednesse being strayed from her soveraign being which made her become just nothing 2. She continued in sinne as in a countrey which was just nothing where she was vexed on all sides with disquiet with cares with fears and discontents All sins tosse their followers as the ball is tossed at Baloon Vanity sends them to pride pride to violence violence to avarice avarice to ambition ambition to pomp and riot pomp to gluttony gluttony to luxury luxury to idlenesse idlenesse to contempt and poverty and that poverty brings them to all worldly misery For all mischiefs follow a wicked soul which departing from God thinks to find a better condition 3. Affliction opens the eyes of man and makes him come to himself that he may the better return to God There is no journey so farre as when a man departs from himself not by place but by manners A sea of Licentiousnesse interposeth it self between his soul and innocence to divorce her from the way of goodnesse But Gods grace is a burning wind which dries it up and having brought man to himself takes him by the hand and leads him even to God 4. O what a happy thing it is to consider the effects of Gods mercy in the entertainment of the good father to his prodigall son The one had lost all which he had of a good sonne but the other had not lost what belonged to a good father The sonne had yet said nothing when fatherly affection pleaded for him in the heart of his father who felt the dolours of a spirituall labour and his entrails were moved to give a second birth to his sonne Though he were old yet he went the pace of a young man Charity gives him wings to flie to the embracements of his lost child He is most joyfull of all that comes with him eveÌ„ of his very poverty This without doubt should give us a marvellous confidence in Gods mercy when we seek it with hearty repentance It is a sea of bounty which washeth away all that is amisse Since he hath changed the name of master into that of father he will rather command by love then raign by a predominant power No man ought to dispair of pardon except he who can be as fully wicked as God is good none is so mercifull as God none is so good a father as he for when you may have lost your part of all his virtues you can never while you live lose the possibility of his mercy He will receive you between his arms without any other reason but your return by repentance 5. The same Parable is also a true glasse shewing the life of those young unthrists who think they are born onely for sport for their bellies and for pleasure They imagine their fathers keep for them the golden mines of Peru and their life being without government their expences are without measure Some of them runne through the world they wander into all places but never enter into consideration of themselves They return from forain parts loden with debts and bring home nothing but some new fantasticall fashions irps cringes and corantoes There are many of them in whom pride and misery continue inseparable after they have
that such proceedings are abominable before God there can be no better devotion in the world then to have a true and right seeling of God to live in honesty not sophisticated but such as is produced out of the pure lights of nature The conscience of hypocrites is a spiders web whereof no garment can ever be made Hypocrisie is a very subtil fault and a secret poison which kills other virtues with their own swords 2. Iesus is our great Master who hath abridged six hundred and thirteen Precepts of the old Testament within the law of love Do but love saith Saint Augustine and do what you vvill but then your love must go to the right fountain which is the heart of God It is in him you must cherish and honour your nearest friends and for him also you are bound to love even your greatest enemies Be not afraid to shew him your heart stark naked that he may pierce it vvith his arrows for the wounds of such an archer are much more precious then rubies You shall gain all by loving him and death it self vvhich comes from this love is the gate of life If you love him truly you vvilll have the three conditions of love which are to serve him to imitate him and to suffer for him You must serve him vvith all fidelitie in your prayers and all your actions you must imitate him vvhat possibly you can in all the passages of his life And you must hold it for a glory to participate vvith a valiant patience all the fruits of his Cross Aspirations O Great God vvho judgest all hearts and doest penetrate the most secret retiremēts of our consciences drive away from me all counterfeit Pharisaical devotions which are nothing but shews cannot subsist but by false apparencies O my God my Iesus make me keep the Law of thy love and nothing else It is a yoke vvhich brings vvith it more honor then burden It is a yoke which hath wings but no heavinesse Make me serve thee O my Master since thou beholdest the services of all the Angels under thy feet Make me imitate thee O my Redeemer since thou art the originall of all perfections make me suffer for thee O King of the afflicted and that I may not know what it is to suffer by knowing what it is to love The Gospel on Thursday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus cured the Fever of Simons Mother in Lavv. ANd Iesus rising up out of the Synagogue entred into Simons house and Simons wives mother was holden with a great Fever and they besought him for her And standing over her he commanded the Fever and it lest her And incontinent rising she ministred to them And when the Sun was down all that had diseased of sundrie maladies brought them to him But he imposing hands upon every one cured them And Devils went out from many crying and saying that thou art the Son of God And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak that they knew he was Christ And when it was day going forth he went into a Desart place and the multitudes sought him and came even unto him and they held him that he should not depart from them To whom he said That to other Cities also must I Evangelize the Kingdome of God because therefore I was sent And he was preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee Moralities 1. A Soul within a sick body is a Princesse that dwels in a ruinous house Health is the best of all temporall goods without which all honors are as the beams of an eclipsed Sun Riches are unpleasing and all pleasures are languishing All joy of the heart subsists naturally in the health of the body But yet it is true that the most healthfull persons are not alwaies the most holy What profit is there in that health which serves for a provocation to sinne for an inticement to worldly pleasure and a gate to death The best souls are never better nor stronger then when their bodies are sick their diseases are too hard for their mortall bodies but their courage is invincible It is a great knovvledge to understand our own infirmities Prosperity keeps us from the view of them but adversity shews them to us We should hardly know what death is if so many diseases did not teach us every day that we are mortall Semiramis the proudest of all Queens had made a law whereby she was to be adored in stead of all the gods but being humbled by a great sicknesse she acknowledged her self to be but a woman 2. All the Apostles pray for this holy woman which was sick but she herself asked nothing nor did complain of any thing She leaves all to God who is only Master of life and death She knew that he which gives his benefits with such bounty hath the wisdome to chuse those which are most fit for us How do we know whether we desiring to be delivered from a sicknesse do not aske of God to take away a gift which is very necessary to our salvation That malady or affliction which makes us distaste worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to taste the joyes of heaven 3. How many sicke persons in the heate of a Feaver promise much and when they are well again perform nothing That body which carried all the marks of death in the face is no sooner grown strong by health which rejoyceth the heart fils the vains with bloud but it becomes a slave to sin The gifts of God being abused serve for nothing but to make it wicked and so the soul is killed by recovery of the flesh But this pious woman is no sooner on foot but she serves the Author of life and employes all those limbs which Jesus cured of the Feaver to prepare some provisions to refresh him He that will not use the treasures of heaven with acknowledge ment deserves never to keep them When a man is recovered from a great sicknesse as his body is renewed by health so on the other side he should renew his spirit by virtue The body saith Saint Maximus is the bed of the soul where it sleeps too easily in continuall health and forgets it self in many things But a good round sicknesse doth not onely move but turn over this bed which maketh the soul awake to think on her salvation and make a total conversion Aspirations O Word Incarnate all Feavers and Devils flie before the beams of thy redoubted face Must nothing but the hea◠of my passions alwayes resist thy powers and bounties To what maladies and indispositions am I subject I have more diseases in my soul then limbs in my body My weaknesse bends under thy scourges and yet my sinnes continue still unmoveable Stay O benigne Lord stay thy-self near me Cast upon my dull and heavy eyes one beam from those thine eyes which make all storms clear and all disasters happy Command that my weaknesse leave me and that I may arise to perform my
admirable in the contempt of death The heavenly Trumpet hath already sounded for thee and cheerfulnesse gives wings to carry thee to this great combat where death and life sight singly together which makes life die for a time and death live for ever I will forsake my very soul to follow thee in this Agony and find my life in thy death as thou hast extinguished death in thy life The Gospel upon Palm Sunday S. Matthew 21. Our Saviour came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his Passion ANd when they drew nigh to Ierusalem and were come to Bethphage unto mount Olivet then Iesus sent two Disciples saying to them Go ye into the town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Asse tied and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye That our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them goe And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee mock and sitting upon an Asse and a Colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke And the Disciples going did as Iesus commanded them and they brought the Asse and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him to sit thereon And a very great multitude spred their garments in the way and others did cut boughs from the trees and strewed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Moralities 1. OUr Saviour goes to his death in triumph he appears to be a King but a King of Hearts who requires nothing of us but our selves onely to make us happy and contented in him He triumphs before the victory because non but he could be sure of the future certainty of his happiness But he watered his triumphs with tears to weep for our joyes which where to proceed out of his sadness It is related by an ancient Oratour that when Constantine made his entry into great Britany where he was born the people received him with so great applause that they killed the Sails and Oars of the Vessell which brought him were ready to pave the streets with their bodies for him to tread on If they did so for a mortal man what should we not do for an eternal God who comes to buy us with his precious bloud and demands entrance into our hearts only to give us Paradise 2. He walks towards his Cross amongst the cries of favour and joy to teach us with what chearfulnesse we should conform our selves to abide our own sufferings imitating the Apostles who receiv'd their first reproches as Manna from Heaven He would have us prepared resolved alwaies to suffer death patiently whether it be a death which raiseth up our spirit to forsake sensuality ot a natural death Whatsoever it be we should embrace it as the day which must bring us to our lodging after a troublesome pilgrimage Doth it not appear plainly that those who are loth to forsake the world are like herbs put into an earthen pot amongst straw dung yet would be unwilling to come forth of it The forniture of out worldly lodging grows rotten the roof is ready to fall upon our heads the foundation shakes under our feet and we fear that day which if vve our selves vvill shall be the â—orning of our eternall happinesse It is not death but onely the opinion of it which is terrible and every man considers it according to the disposition of his own spirit 3. The Palm branches vvhich we carry in our hands require from us the renewing of a life purified and cleansed in the bloud of the holy Lambe In the beginning of lent we take upon our heads the ashes of Palm branches to teach us that we do then enter as it vvere into the Sepulchre of repentance But novv vve carry green bows to make us know that now vve come out of the tomb of Ashes to enter again into the strength of doing good vvorks in imitation of the trees vvhich having been covered vvith snovv and buried in the sharpnesse of vvinter do again begin to bud in the Spring time 4. The garments spread under the feet of Jesus declare that all our temporall goods should be employed tovvard his glory and that vve must forsake our affections to all things vvhich perish that vve may be partakers of his kingdome No man can stand firm that is delighted vvith movable things He that is subject to vvorldly affections binds himself to a vvheel vvhich turns about continually Jesus accepted this triumph onely to despise it he reserved the honour of it in his own hands to drovvn it in the floud of his tears and in the sea of his precious bloud If you be rich and wealthy do not publish it vainly but let the poor feel it You must live amongst all the greatnesse jollity of this world as a man whose onely businesse must be to go to God Aspirations O Soveraign King of hearts after whom all chaste loves do languish I am filled with joy to see tâ—ee walk amongst the cries of joy and the palms gâ—rments of thy admirers which served for carpets I am ravished wi h thy onours and the delights of thy glory and I applaud thy triumphs Alas that all the earth is not obedient to thy laws and that the tongues of aâ—l people do not make one voice to acknowledge thee sole Monarch of heaven and earth Triumph at least in the hearts of thy faithfull servants O my magnificent Master make a triumphall Ark composed of hearts Put fire to it vvith thy adored hand Send out one spark of that heat vvhich tâ—ou camest to spread upon the earth Let every thing burn for thee and consume it self in thy love I do irrevocably bind my heart to the magnificence of thy triumpâ— and I love better to be thy slave then to be saluted king of the vvhole vvorld The Gospel upon Munday in holy week S. Iohn 12. Saint Mary Magdalen anointed our Saviours feet vvith precious ointment at vvhich Iudas repined JEsus therefore six dayes before the Pasche came to Bethaenia where Lazarus was that had been dead whom Iesus raised and they made him a supper there and Martha ministred but Lazarus was one of them that sate at the table with him Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right Spikenard precious and anointed the feet of Iesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled of the odour of the Ointment One therefore of his Disciples Iudas Iscariot he that was to betray him said Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor And he said this not because he cared for the poor but because he waâ— a thiâ—fâ— and having the
redemption The joy of beatitude was a fruition of all celestial delights whereunto nothing which displeased could have accesse and yet Iesus suffered sorrow to give him a mortal blow even in the Sanctuary of his Divinity He afflicted himself for us because we knew not what it was to afflict our selves for him and he descended by our stâ—ps to the very anguishes of death to make us rise by his death to the greatest joyes of life To be short there was a great duel between the affectionate love and the virginal flesh of Iesus His soul did naturally love a body which was so obedient and his bodie followed wholly the inclinations of his soul There was so perfect an agreement between these two parties that their separation must needs be most dolorous Yet Iesus would have it so signe the decree by sweating bloud And as if it had been too little to weep for our sinnes with two eyes he suffered as many eyes as he had veins to be made in his body to shed for us tears of his own bloud 3. Observe here how this soul of Iesus amongst those great anguishes continued alwayes constant like the needle of a Sea-compass in a storm He prayes he exhorts be orders he reproves and he encourages he is like the heavens which amongst so many motions and agitations lose no part of their measure or proportion Nature and obedience make great convulsions in his heart but he remains constantly obedient to the will of his heavenly Father he tears himself from himself to make himself a voluntary sacrifice for death amongst all his inclinations to life to teach us that principal lesson of Christianitie which is to desire onely what God will and to execute all the decrees of his divine providence as our chiefest helps to obtain perfection Aspirations O Beauteous garden of Olives which from henceforth shalt be the most delicious objects of my heart I will lose my self in thy walks I will be lost with God that I may never be lost I will breath only thy air since it is made noble by the sighs of my dear Master I will gather thy flowers since Iesus hath marked them with his bloud I will wash my self in those fountains since they are sanctified by the sweat of my Iesus I will have no other joy but the sorrow of the Son of God nor any other will but his O my sweet Saviour Master and teacher of all humane kind wilt thou be abridged of thine own will which was so reasonable pure to give me an example of mortifying my passions and shall I before thy face retain any wicked or disordinate appetites Is it possible I should desire to be Lord of my self who am so bad a Master when I see the Author of all goodnesse separate himself from himself onely to make me and all mankind partakers of his merits Of the apprehension of Iesus IN that obscure dolorous night wherein our Saviour was apprehended three sorts of darknesses were cast upon the Iews upon Iudas upon S. Peter A darkness of obduration upon the hearts of the Iews a darknesse of ingratefull malignity upon Iudas and a darknesse of infirmity upon Saint Peter Was there ever any blindness like that of the Iews who sought for the shining sun with lighted torches without knowing him by so many beams of power which shined from him They are strucken down with the voice of the Son of God as with lightning and they rise again upon the earth to arme themselves against heaven They bind his hands to take away the use of his forces but they could not stop the course of his bounties To shew that he is totally good he is good and charitable even amongst his merciless executioners and he lost all he had savng his Godhead only to gain patience When Saint Peter stroke the high Priests servant the patience of our Lord Iesus received the blow and had no patience till he was healed If goodness did shew forth any one beam in the Garden modesty sent forth another in the house of Annas when his face was strucken by a servile hand his mouth opened it self as a Temple from whence nothing came but sweetnesse and light The God of Truth speaketh to Caiphas and they spit upon his brightnesse and cover that face which must discover heaven for us The mirrour of Angels is tarnisht with the spittle of infernal mouths wounded by most sacrilegious hands without any disturbance of his constancie That was invincible by his virtue as the wilfulness of the Iews stood unmoveable by their obduration There are souls which after they have filled the earth with crimes expect no cure of their discases but by the hell of the reprobate 2. The second darkness appeareth by the black passion of Iudas who falls down into hell with his eys open and after he had fold his soul sold Jesus and both all he had and all he was to buy an infamous halter to hang himself A soul become passionate with wanton love with ambition or avarice is banished into it self as into a direct hell and delivered to her own passion as to the Furies The Poets Hydra had but seven heads but the spirit of Avarice S. Iohn Climacus saith hath ten thousand The conversation of Iesus which was so full of infinite attractions could never win the spirit of Judas when it was once bewitched with covetousnesse The tinkling of silver kept him from rightly understanding Jesus He makes use of the most holy things to betray Holiness it self He employes the kisse of peace to begin war He carries poyson in his heart and hony in his mouth he puts on the spirit of Iesus to betray him This shews us plainly that covetous and traiterous persons are farthest from God and nearest to the Devils The third power of darknesse appeared in the infirmitie of Saint Peter who after so many protestations of fidelity for fear of death renounced the Authour of life One of the Ancients said the greatest frailty of Humanity was that the wisest men were not infallibly wise at all times And all men are astonished to see that the greatest spirits being left to themselves become barren and suffer eclipses which give example to the wisest and terrour to all the world God hath suffered the fall of St. Peter to make us have in â—orrour all presumption of our own forces to teach us that over great assurance is oft times mother of an approaching danger Besides it seemeth he would by this example consecrate the virtue of repentance in this fault of him whom he chose to be head of his Church to make us see that there is no dignitie so high nor holinesse so eminent which doth not ow Tribute to the mercie of God Aspirations Vpon Saint Peters tears IT is most true saith Saint Peter that a proud felicity hath alwaies reeling feet Thou which didst defie the gates of hell hast yielded thy self to the voice of a simple woman
object of my present dolours that thou maist after be the fountain of my everlasting joyes Moralities for Good Friday upon the death of Iesus Christ MOunt Calvary is a marvellous Scaffold where the chiefest Monarch of all the world loseth his life to restore our salvation which was lost and where he makes the Sun to be eclipsed over his head and stones to be cloven under his feet to teach us by insensible creatures the feeling which we should have of his sufferings This is the school where Iesus teacheth that great Lesson which is the way to do well we cannot better learn it then by his examples since he was pleased to make himself passible motal to overcome our passions and to be the Author of our immortality The qualities of a good death may be reduced to three points of which the first is to have a right conformity to the will of God for the manner the hour and circumstances of our death The second is to forsake as well the affections as the presence of all creatures of this base world The third is to unite our selves to God by the practise of great virtues which will serve as steps to glory Now these three conditions are to be seen in the death of the Prince of Glory upon mount Calvry which we will take as the purest Idea's whereby to regulate our passage out of this world 1. COnsider in the first place that every man living hath a naturall inclination to life because it hath some kind of divinity in it We love it when it smileth upon us as if it were our Paradise and if it be troublesom yet we strive to retain it though it be accompanied with very great miseries And if we must needs forsake this miserable body we then desire to leave it by some gentle and easie death This make thus plainly see the generosity of our Saviour who being Master of life and death and having it in his power to chuse that manner of death which would be least hideous being of it self full enough of horrour yet neverthelesse to conform himself to the will of his heavenly Father to confound our delicacies he would needs leave his life by the most dolorous and ignominious which was to be found amongst all the deaths of the whole world The Crosse amongst the Gentiles was a punishment for slaves and the most desperate persons of the whole world The Crosse amongst the Hebrews was accursed It was the ordinary curse which the most uncapable and most malicious mouths did pronounce against their greatest enemies The death of a crucified man was the most continuall languishings and tearing of a soul from the body with most excessive violence and agony And yet the eternall wisdome chose this kind of punishment and drank all the sorrows of a cup so bitter He should have died upon some Trophee and breathed out his last amongst flowers left his soul in a moment and if he must needs have felt death to have had the least sense of it that might be But he would try the rigour of all greatest sufferings he would fall to the very bottom of dishonour and having ever spared from himself all the pleasures of this life to make his death compleat he would spare none of those infinite dolours The devout Simon of Cassia asketh oâ—r Saviour going toward mount Calvary saying O Lord whether go you with the extream weight of this dry and barten piece of wood Whether do you carry it and why Where do you mean to set it Upon mount Cavalry That place is most wild and stony Hovv vvill you plant it Who shall water it Iesus answers I bear upon my shoulders a piece of wood which must conquer him who must make a far greater conquest by the same piece of wood I carry it to mount Calvary to plant it by my death and vvater it with my bloud This wood which I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of all the world and to draw all after me And then O faithfull soul wilt not thou suffer some confusion at thine own delicaâ—ies to be so fearfull of death by an ordinary disease in a Down bed amongst such necessary services such favourable helps coÌ„solations kindnesses of friends so sensible of thy condition We bemoan and complain our selves of heat cold distaste of disquiet of grief Let us allow some of this to Nature yet must it be confest that we lament out selves very much because we have never known how we should lament a Jesus Christ crucified Let us die as it shall please the divine providence If death come when we are old it it a haven If in youth it is a direct benefit antedated If by sicknesse it is the nature of our bodies If by external violence it is yet alwaies the decree of Heaven It is no matter how many deaths there are we are sure there can be but one for us 2. Consider farther the second condition of a good death which consists in the forsaking of all creatures and you shall find it most punctually observed by our Saviour at the time of his death Ferrara a great Diâ—vine who hath written a book of the hidden Word toucheth twelve things abandoned by our Saviour 1. His apparell leaving himself naked 2. The marks of his dignity 3. The Colledge of his Apostles 4. The sweetnesse of all comfort 5. His own proper will 6. The authority of virtuos 7. The power of An Angells 8. The perfect joyes of his soul 9. The proper charity of his body 10. The honours due to him 11. His own skin 12. All his bloud Now do but consider his abandoning the principal of those things how bitter it was First the abandoning of nearest and most faithfull friends is able to afflict any heart Behold him forsaken by all his so well beloved disciples of whom he had made choice amongst all mortal men to be the depositaries of his doctrine of his life of his bloud If Iudas be at the mysterie of his passion it is to betray him If Saint Peter be there assisting it is to deny him If his sorrowfull mother stand at the foot of the cross it is to encrease the grief of her Son and after he had been so ill handled by his cruel executioners to crucifie him again by the hands of Love The couragious Mother to triumph over her self by a magnanimous constancie was present at the execution of her dear Son She fixed her eyes upon all his wounds to engrave them deep in her heart She opened her soul wide to receive that sharp piercing sword with which she was threatned by that venerable old Simeon at her purification And Iesus who saw her so afflicted for his sake felt himself doubly crucified upon the wood of the Cross and the heart of his deat Mother We know it by experience that when we love one tenderly his afflictions disgraces will trouble us more then our own because he living in