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
I come with the Olive-branch of Peace in my mouth the Merits and Intercession of the Prince of Peace I have nothing else to plead but by them and by them only I hope to be received and kept from ever departing from thee any more If thou hast not been so great a Sinner as I art thou less bound to God for preserving thee from it than I for being pardon'd and reclaimed Shall the Benefit by thee be accounted less because it is really much greater Does the Hand that saved me from a Wound do me a smaller kindness than that which cures me when I am wounded Or rather is not the benefit of Preserving much the greater by saving the Blood I should have lost by the Wound and the Pain I should have suffered in the Cure For though it require a greater Power to lift me up when I am down than when I am up to keep me from falling yet to me the Benefit is more worth which prevents me from a Mischief than that which gives me remedy when I am in it Thus have I seen O God for how many Benefits I am indebted to thee notwithstanding my many Sins O let not an horrible Ingratitude be the last and greatest of them all Man's Laws have ordained no Punishment for that infamous Crime either because they did not believe that any thing in the World could be so bad as an ungrateful Person or that they could find no Punishment proportionable to so great a Crime The wildest and the most savage Breasts are grateful to their Benefactors and good turns have tamed the fiercest Lions but we more savage than the furious Beasts are so far from Gratitude that on the contrary we each moment offend our most gracious Benefactor But suffer us not O Lord to do so any longer and let the greatest of all thy Benefits be to make us thankful for them and with the humblest Devotion of our Souls to acknowledge that the Number of them is infinite and their Nature most transcendent Of the Guard of Angels We have seen how watchful the All-seeing Eye of God's Providence is for the Preservation of our Souls and Bodies The Holy Jesus tells us that without it not so much as a Sparrow falls to the Ground how much less a Man who is more worth than many Sparrows And to express his great Care of our smallest concerns he says that even the very Hairs of our Head are numbred Thus dwelling under the Defence of the most High and abiding under the Shadow of the Almighty any other Protection might be thought wholly needless yet God as subordinate to that hath out of his super-abundant Love to Mankind been pleased from the Beginning of the World to protect them particularly by the Guard of Angels for having created those Blessed Spirits in distinct Hierarchies and Choirs the chiefest of them he applied principally to the Worship and Veneration of himself and appointed others to serve him in the Succour and Assistance of Humane Nature We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that they are Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister to those that shall be Heirs of Salvation And their forwardness to obey God in all things that relate to the good of Man is seen in many places of the Scripture HEre the Author having cited many places where Angels have been employ'd for the Service or for the Punishment of Mankind makes a long Discourse whereby he endeavours to establish their Doctrine of adoring and praying to Angels and proceeds with great Devotion therein but here our Church forbids us to go along with him allowing us to search the Scriptures where we find express Texts and Examples flatly to the contrary thus we read in the Revelation that when St. John was going to fall down and to adore the Angel he was strictly forbidden by him saying See thou do it not for I am thy Fellow-servant Worship thou God And we have a plain Text fore-warning us to take heed that no Man deceive us by a voluntary Humility and the Worshipping of Angels St. Paul was wrapp'd up into the Third Heaven and yet he makes no relation of those blessed Inhabitants but says he saw what it was not lawful for Man to utter and the Scripture tells us that things secret belong unto the Lord but the things that are revealed belong to us We ought therefore to content our selves with them and not to be wise beyond Sobriety but while they pretend not only to know particularly the Names and Ranks of the several Choirs in each Hierarchy but also the particular Business and Employment of every one of them Our part should be to acknowledge how infinitely we are indebted to God for his Goodness towards us and to raise our Minds to the highest Admiration and Reverence of God's unspeakable Power in Creating them and to the most ardent Love of his Goodness in employing their Ministry for our Benefit but most especially for that happy Message brought by the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word which was the beginning of our Redemption and for the joyful News of his Nativity delivered to the poor Shepherds by an Angel when suddenly a Multitude of the heavenly Host sung Glory to God on high c. How can we forbear to cry out with the Psalmist Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou regardest him Thou madest him lower than the Angels to crown him with Glory and Honour Instead of praying to them let us lift up our Minds and Prayers to the Creator of them and in Thankfulness for all Mercies join with that blessed Choir to magnifie him Let us beseech him that hath ordained and constituted the Services of Angles and Men in a wonderful Order mercifully to grant that as his holy Angels always do him service in Heaven so by his appointment they may succour and defend us on Earth through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen The Fourth WEEK Of the Benefit of Redemption WE are come now to the utmost top of all the Divine Benefits which requires a most attentive Consideration Our great Creator in the making of Man designed a most wonderful Union between his Soul his Body and his God Three things so vastly distant and so strangely different that nothing but Omnipotency could have joyn'd them together for what can be more different than a dead Clod of Earth and a living immaterial Soul What can be more distant than a Soul dwelling here below in the narrow Limits of an Earthly Body and the Divinity of an infinite and an eternal God who dwelleth in the highest Heavens and whom even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain In this blessed State he was placed in the Garden of Paradice where nothing was forbidden him but the Tree of Knowledge and with this Covenant that if he continued in obedience he should never die but be translated from that Earthly to an
that the third Person in the Holy Trinity might Govern the Church which the second had founded in his Blood and which the first still supports with abundance of Coelestial Blessings This is a Week which is sufficient to employ all our Days and Weeks and Years even to Eternity in imitating those Vertues in adoring those Mysteries and in for ever praising that Saviour and Redeemer of Souls who performed them for our sakes The Fourth WEEK Of the Exercise of the three Theological Vertues Faith Hope and Charity upon Contemplation of the Life and Death of our Saviour WE have been furnished with large matter of Consideration which not only is sweet and holy but also most profitable to our Souls For the Life of Jesus Christ must be the Looking-glass of our Lives His Passion must banish the Sins and Passions of our Hearts His Sufferings must moderate and reform our Pleasures His Wounds must be the Cure of our Wounds and Maladies His Cross must be our Banner and his Death our Life From hence as from a most clear and beautiful Original thou art to Copy out those Vertues which are to resist assault and conquer thy Vices Upon these high and Heavenly Mysteries thou art to fix thy Faith thy Hope and thy Love at all times So far as thou shalt think and meditate upon the Life and Passion of our Lord so far will thy Faith quicken and enliven thee and that Faith which being Dead and without Works will be but the cause of thy greater Condemnation by being made a living and a working Faith will obtain for thee a high Reward If you have Faith sayes our Saviour you shall remove Mountains O how great is the power of Faith If you have Faith ask of me and you shall receive seek me and you shall find me and if you knock it shall be opened unto you That lively Faith which is offered and given us in the Life and Death of the Saviour of Souls is not only to believe what Faith teaches us but also to do in the same measure as we believe To believe so many Heavenly Mysteries and not to act in conformity to them is a very imperfect Faith To believe a God will not serve the turn alone The Devils saith St. James believe and tremble too and yet are now burning in Hell The Devil knows very well that God is God and abhors him though he believes Dost thou believe in God art thou a Christian T is well But tell me how many are Condemned for ever who believed but did not do accordingly Dost thou believe in Christ and yet wilt not follow Christ and which is worse dost thou Persecute him and Crucifie him again by thy wicked Life Woe be to thee and woe be to me if we thus believe in Christ This People saith he honour me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me Woe be to thee and me if we honour Christ on that manner Not all those saith the Holy Jesus that cry unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that does the will of my Father That is to say there are two sorts of Persons that cry Lord Lord which are two sorts of Believers The one say and do not do believe but do not work The other both say and do believe and likewise work He that believes and does shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that believes a God and yet works against him and Offends and Crucifies him shall never be admitted into those Heavenly Mansions 'T is not enough to do without believing nor to believe without doing both are necessary and we must work without giving over Let every one look and consider what his works are for thither he shall go whither his Thoughts Words and Actions direct their Course Are they sinful Then to Hell Are they full of Tears Repentance and Contrition Then to Heaven Look what thou sowest for that shalt thou reap If Corruption thou shalt reap Corruption if Perfection thou shalt reap Perfection Dost thou sow Vertues in this Life Thou shalt reap Coelestial Crowns in the other Dost thou sow Vices Thou shalt reap Eternal Torments A lively Faith I say a lively Faith is that which will save us a lively active a pure holy Faith not one defil'd with Sins deformed with Passions and full of Misery and Presumption Dost thou live as if thou wert an Heathen and yet believe thy self a Christian Unless thou amendest thy Life the Heathen shall carry the Christian along with him to Hell but the Christian shall never carry the Heathen along with him to Heaven Dost thou believe an Eternity and yet livest without any memory of that Eternity having all thy thoughts fastened on that which is meerly Temporal These Transitory and Temporal things will pass away and then thou shalt come to suffer Torments in Eternity Do not deceive thy self nor think it is enough to believe without working nor that Christ's having suffered for thee will be enough to save thee whilst thou ungratefully offendest him that suffered for thee Alas that will not serve the turn but rather it will be enough and too much to damn thee Dost thou think Christ came to suffer to the end that thou mightest the more freely sin against him Dost thou think he came into the World that thou mightest heap up thy wickednesses upon his holy shoulders Dost thou think he came to facilitate thy Crimes to the end that obstinate sinners might compound their Vices with his Merits Dost thou think that Heavenly Master of Purity and Holiness came to open a Gate unto all Vice whereby his Sufferings might serve to save those that only believed and wrought nothing but Sins and Transgressions The Eternal Son of God came into the World not only to Redeem us but also to Teach us In his Blood he left Redemption and in his Life Instruction He underwent his Passion to redeem Souls but his Actions were so high and holy to amend inform direct and purifie them The effect of his Pains his Cross his Death is to give Merit to our Works and Grace and Force to a Christian to suffer with him but the effect of his Vertues Perfections and whole Life is to teach us and to set us a Pattern to imitate as far as we are able I have given you an Example says he that ye should do as I have done And in another place he says Whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple He is no perfect Christian nor is it possible he should be that flies from the Cross even though he might escape it Every Christian is to follow and embrace the Cross of his Redeemer Can any Man be a perfect Christian without keeping the Commandments No certainly Why then the keeping of them is to follow Christ in taking up his Cross Consider that when thou camest into the Gate of the Church by being Baptized in the Name of the
Thy fear of his Judgment is so great because that of thy Sins is so little Thou livest in a course of wickedness and committest thy wickedness with boldness and even with greediness and then thou art afraid to be judged and that is because thou art to be justly condemned But thy chief and principal fear ought to be that of offending so severe a Judge and thy chief and principal hope ought to be that of being judged by so indulgent and so loving a Father It is the part of an unfaithful Servant not to dare appear before his Master's face and though he fears him yet he does not love him But a good Servant is glad to come to the Presence of his Master Every Call of his is a joy to him every Command a comfort and he runs chearfully to wait upon him at every knock but an evil Servant is afraid to see him because he was not afraid to offend him 10. Every sin thou committest unless thou repent of it is a rigorous Sentence against thy self every guilty action and every wilful transgression is a Criminal Article whereof thou accusest thy self at that Tribunal How is it possible for thee not to tremble and dread the Judgment and thy Account in the other Life if thou livest without Judgment and without Account in this Repent therefore pray and weep love and serve thy Judge here that thou mayest find him kind gentle and gracious hereafter He is a Judge that suffers himself to be gain'd in this life therefore use means to win his favour before he comes to Judge thee in his anger for thy having slighted and neglected to get his favour when thou mightest have done it Tremble with apprehension to see him in his wrath who may yet be appeased by the means I have shewed thee and who being reconciled first fills the Penitent's Soul with transports of his Love and after with those Joys and Pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore The Fourth WEEK Of the Vniversal Judgment at the end of the World 1. I AM something comforted with your Discourse says the Penitent but I have heard dreadful things of that great Day when all Mankind must rise to Judgment that horrible Trumpet which makes even the Dead to hear how much more the deaf does also make the heart to tremble and confounds the senses with amazement It is no wonder indeed that thou shouldst be dismayed at that which affrighted St. Hierome and very many other holy Men thou mayest very well tremble at that which they were afraid of 2. Who can choose but fear and tremble to see the whole Creation destroyed by the Creator of it and all the World consumed by his powerful hand Who can choose but fear the Signs which fore-run that Judgment those terrible Earth-quakes and horrible roarings of the Sea Who would not fear to see the Elements those preservers of Life to become its furious Enemies and fighting with one another to become the Ministers of Death Who can choose but fear to see the confusion of Mankind some calling on the Rocks to hide them others upon the Darkness to cover them all being full of terror and astonishment to see all sorts of miseries come together to bring our Nature to an end Who can choose but fear to see the Sun covered with a deadly Vail his light obscured that of the Moon extinguished the Stars also falling from their places and overwhelming the Generations of Men. Nothing to be heard but publick Complaints and Lamentations Cries Sighs and Groans nothing to be seen but Fears Dangers Losses Miseries and Confusions 3. Can any one choose but be affrighted to see the dead rise again by God's Command at the sound of that horrible Trumpet to take up the consumed and scattered pieces of their Body to cloath themselves therewith and each one unite it to his Soul that he may appear at the dreadful Judgment-seat of God waiting for the Sentence either of Eternal Life or of Eternal Death Who can choose but be amazed with fear to see the Almighty cloathed in Majesty to come down with the Court of Heaven armed with Justice to be exercised against sin and wickedness Who would not be dismayed to see the Creator hurle flames of fire against all he hath created to see Houses and Cities Palaces and Kingdoms burnt together and finally to see the whole World destroyed in that cruel and dreadful Conflagration Who would not even dye with fear to see so many Angels and so many Devils together divided from one another on the right hand and on the left expecting the word of Sentence to be put in execution The Angels carrying the good to Eternal Joys and the Devils dragging the wicked to Eternal Torments 4. How is it possible not to fear a Tribunal so dreadful a Judgment so terrible and a Sentence so formidable from whence there is no Appeal and the Execution whereof is either Life Eternal or Death Eternal for ever for ever for ever so that they shall know no end of that ever ever ever My Soul is astonished and amazed in the consideration of the Universal Judgment It is dismayed to think and to imagine all this which is but as a Dream thus represented to us in writing in comparison of what it will be and of what we shall see it in effect 5. Grant O Lord that I may tremble bewail lament and sigh deeply for my sins and wickednesses before I hear that killing Sentence pronounced against them by thy Divine lips Grant that my Tears and Repentance my Sorrow and Contrition may make my polluted Soul fit to be washed and purified by thy most precious Blood to the end I may never hear that confounding word Go ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 6. O give me grace to imitate the Martyrs in Faith the Confessors in Hope and the Blessed Virgin thy most holy Mother and all the rest of the Saints in Charity to the end I may hear that most sweet and most welcome call of Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 7. Oh that I had never offended thee my dearest Lord that I might not see thee offended Oh that I had ever served thee that I might see thee appeased Mercy sweet Saviour mercy in this Life that I may find it in the Judgment and in the Sentence of the Life to come Prepare me O Lord Jesus for my particular Judgment that I may be able to stand in thy Universal Judgment Have mercy upon me when thou shalt Judge me alone to the end thou mayest have mercy upon me when thou shalt Judge me and all the World together O grant I may live with such care to judge and call my self to an Account in this Life that the remembrance of that other which I must one day give to thee and my earnest endeavour to make my self ready for it may
here while he gives them time to do it and for neglecting his many calls both of mercy and chastisement and thereby making Hell to become their own choice 7. Is it possible O my Jesus that I have chosen that horrible place by choosing Sin and continuing in it Yes for God set before thee Life and Death Blessing and Cursing and left the Election to thy self Why then Lord if I have hitherto chosen Death and that accursed place by sinning grant I may get out of it before I go into it and that by repenting by forsaking my sins and by relieving thy poor Members I may gain thee to be my Saviour and at the last day be called to thee with those comfortable words Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for you from the Beginning of the World The Third WEEK Of the Company of the Damned and of their pain of Sense 1. IF that terrible Abode were only a wide empty space though sad obscure and afflictive to the Wicked yet without such ill Company it might be more tolerable But the fierce and cruel Inhabitants and their hateful Company is worse and more intolerable than the place it self None but Devils and damned Persons are the Neighbours of that infernal City The Devils that are busily inflicting Tortures and the damned most impatient in suffering them raging and blaspheming with incredible Fury Nothing is heard there but the noise of the Lash and the cry of those that feel it a sighing without comsort a groaning without ease an eternal Woe and alas an endless weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth 2. Their Lamentations are Oaths Curses and Blasphemies they rage despair and they belch out Vengeance without Revenge and Wrath without Satisfaction O good Jesus The hearing of one Curse the hearing of one Blasphemy is sufficient to pierce a Heart and afflict a Soul What will it then be to hear so many horrid Curses and Blasphemies This may be reckoned the very Hell of Hell it self But alas Lord the Damned do not only hear and suffer them but also utter them and that is yet much worse and more to be abhorred Rather O Lord let me suffer a Hell without pains but without Sins and Blasphemies than a Hell of Sins and Blasphemies without any other pain 3. In that unhappy and calamitous City and among those wretched Citizens all their Peace is Discord all their Quiet War all their Comfort Anger all their Order is Division Disagreement and Confusion Imagine thou didst behold a City where the Inhabitants went up and down killing and burning one another with Swords and Fire-brands in their Hands here loud Complaints there louder Cries here Rage there Death and Desperation Such a place were peaceable and quiet in comparison of the Hatreds Fightings and Discords that are in Hell For those at last come to an end when the Inhabitants have made an end of one another But these instead of ending are always beginning a new The Sufferings of those have some measure and limitation but these have no degree below infinite nor any limit short of Eternity and finally the Companions Friends and Neighbours of that dismal Abode are only the Devils and the Damned most inveterately hating and abhorring themselves and one another 4. Think how the nice and delicate Person will be able to endure this surly boisterous Company who by being used to suffer nothing that can cross his tender Inclination is become too haughty and insolent to bear the Company of his own Family or so much as bear with patience the attendance of his Servants How will the proud scornful and dissolute Woman endure to see her self encompassed with Devils and with Souls as proud and imperious as her self who cannot endure the Company of that Husband which God has given her How will the tyrannical Governour be able to suffer so many Devils to be his Superiors and to tyrannize over him who cannot suffer his Inferiors though Loyal and Obedient to live quietly under him And how will the rebellious Subject be able to suffer so many infernal Princes to exercise over him the Empire of their cruel Wills who never can suffer one good just and moderate Sovereign ruling him according to the Laws 5. Oh if thou didst turn the Eyes of thy Consideration another way and didst see loose and sensual Persons instead of the delightful Embraces of their lustful Lovers embraced and inflamed by Vipers and fiery Basilikes and suffering unexpressible Torments without any remedy or comfort If thou didst see the Scornful the Proud the Haughty trampled upon by Devils dragg'd and despised by them and burning in unquenchible Fire If thou didst see the ambitious Grasping at the top of Flames and Smoak and for ever suffering the Thirst which that of their ambition kindled here in so short a Life If thou didst see the rich covetous Miser in eternal beggary and nakedness without any other plenty but of Fire Torment Anguish and Affliction If thou didst see the beautiful and lascivious Woman whose Sins and Vanities carry her to Hell there become ugly loathsome and abominable her Body parched with flames and her Soul racked with vexation and despair If thou didst see the debauched Clergy-man who instead of guiding Souls to Heaven by his Doctrine brings many to Hell by his evil Example tormented there in living Flames his holy Orders much increasing his punishment and what was here his Honour and his Ornament becoming there the greatest Aggravation of his Crimes If thou didst see the Glutton and the Drunkard the Epicure and the Libertine there hungry and thirsty lean and pale all their Delights reduced to Fire and Brimstone without one drop of Water to cool or quench their thirst and instead of their delicate meats to be now devoured themselves and gnawed for ever by the Worm of their own Consciences If thou didst see all this and heard'st so many sad Cries and woeful Lamentations so many Curses Blasphemies and Confusions If I say thou didst see hear and well consider all this Ah! how much more careful would'st thou be to see to hear and to live otherwise than thou hast done hitherto Therefore go down into Hell by consideration while thou livest that thou mayest not go down into it by condemnation when thou diest Look well upon it thus and behold it now to the end thou mayest not be thrown into it now by Meditation to the end thou mayest never see it any other way nor be there compelled to feel the weight of God's wrathful Indignation The Fourth WEEK Of the Duration and the Pain of Loss and of the Worm of Conscience 1. IS there any Evil in Hell greater than this Can there be any other greater Yes there is yet another greater and more cruel than all these and that is the Eternity of them 2. If these horrible Misfortunes Torments and Miseries were to last for a Hundred thousand Years or for a hundred Millions of Years and that then
Christian and now no body can destroy thee but thou thy self and thou art told by the Word of Truth that the greatest outward Enemy the Devil will flie from thee if thou dost but resist him Thou canst not but be greatly chear'd with these Encouragements and much comforted by seriously considering what thou hast received in Baptism We Christians certainly ought never to lose the sight of that Benefit but still to reflect upon the greatness of it with thankful hearts Yet we ought not only to look upon what God hath done for us but also to think upon our part of this Covenant and to weigh the Duties we are oblig'd to by it Remember that thy God fathers and God-mothers when thou wert baptized did promise and vow in thy Name that thou shouldst forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh as likewise that thou shouldst believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith contained in the Apostles Creed and finally that thou shouldst keep God's Holy Will and Commandments contain'd in the Decalogue and walk in the same all the days of thy life The Church appointed them to do this for thee as thy Sureties because at that time by reason of thy tender Age thou wert not able to make much less to perform these Promises but being come to Understanding thou art bound to take that Vow upon thy self and they may properly be called God-fathers and God-mothers because in the mean while it is their Duty to take care that their God-Children as they grow up may be taught what a Solemn Vow Promise and Profession they have made for them and to cause them to be instructed both in the Articles of the Creed and in the Ten Commandments Moreover if at any time they shall hear them speak or see them do any thing contrary to that Divine Law they ought to put them in mind that they promised and vowed the contrary in their Baptism But O! how little of this care is there in the World there is nothing more neglected or forgotten than this Duty of God-fathers yet I hope not generally I cannot have such hard thoughts for though I must needs confess it is too much slighted yet certainly there be many that have a due regard of it But since Children when they grow to Age are themselves bound to perform what was promised in their Names by their God-fathers and God-mothers They may in great part discharge themselves when they take care that their God-children be so well Instructed in the Christian Religion as to know the Duties that Vow engages them to and when being of years able to renew that Covenant and to take the charge of their Souls upon themselves they shall have perswaded them upon serious consideration so to do and have brought them to the Bishop to be Confirmed according to that Order which the Wisdom of the Church hath established appointing all the Members thereof to be so or at least to be ready and desirous to be so before they be admitted to the Holy Communion The Bishop by whose Ministry this Office is performed first causeth the Parties who are to be Confirmed to make an open Confession in the Publick Congregation that they do renew the Promise and Vow that was made in their Name at their Baptism ratifying and confirming the same in their own Persons and acknowledging themselves bound to believe and to do all those things which their God-fathers and God-mothers then undertook for them He also prays to God to strengthen them by the Holy Ghost the Comforter and daily to increase in them his manifold Gifts and Graces the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly Strength the Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and to fill them with the Spirit of his holy Fear for ever Lastly he lays his hand upon each Child and blesses him as our Saviour did upon those Children that were brought to him and concludes beseeching God to direct sanctifie and govern both their Hearts and Bodies in the ways of his Laws and in the works of his Commandments that through his mighty Protection both here and ever they may be preserved in Body and Soul through our Lord Jesus Christ Much are those Parents and Sureties to be blamed that omit to bring them to this Order of Confirmation it being a great benefit both to the Sureties in the discharge of their Obligation and to the Children who are duly fitted and prepared for it for they are thereby awakened to an early sense of Religion and to a future endeavour of performing their Duty in it When Young Plants are removed out of their Nurseries and set in the open Field it is necessary to fence them about with Stakes to hinder their being crop'd or trodden down by Beasts and it is no less necessary thus to confirm and strengthen new beginners in Christianity that they may be the better guarded at their coming into the open World against the dangerous approach of brutish Men. Such Branches as are so engrafted into the true Vine God doubtless vouchsafes to water with his Grace and though in weak measure at first yet if they continue to take firm Root he will not fail to make them thrive and bring forth good Fruit. Those gifts of the Spirit prayed for on their behalf will likewise through his Mercy increase till they become so many strong Bulwarks to defend their Souls against the Common Enemy within which they may stand safe to fight according to their Vow against the World the Flesh and the Devil Remember therefore always the Obligation that lies upon thee by that Vow We are engaged in our Childhood to that which we neglect when we are grown up whereas being grown up we should be careful to perform that which our Sureties promised for us when we were Children Keep then still in mind that thou art a listed Souldier forget not in what Army thou art enroll'd what Captain thou art to follow what Fidelity thou hast sworn to him and fight valiantly even to the death rather than suffer thy self to be overcome by the subtil Perswasions and Devices of his and thine own Enemies The Souldiers of this World for a very small hire keep Fidelity to their General they fight and die for him without any other bond or tye than that of some little piece of Money ill paid and yet they give their blood and daily venture their life for that Pay whereas we Christians the Souldiers of Jesus Christ listed under the Ensign of his Cross assisted by so many Benefits of Grace being Heirs and Co-heirs of Glory and having Heaven for our Pay do frequently desert our Colours like vile infamous Cowards and by sin treacherously fly over into the Enemies Camp The Souldiers of the World fight to defend their King or their General but here our General fights and gives his Blood and his Life for the
in the Kingdom of Glory O happy Torments O joyful Death that is rewarded with eternal Bliss This Knowledge and these Lights will God encrease in thee if thou livest humbly mortified and resigned disposing thy self daily to receive more Grace Of the Purity of Intentions O that I could see my self so secure in this Kingdom of Grace as never to enter into that sad and dismal Kingdom of Sin But how can I be secure so long as I live in this miserable Life so full of Snares and Dangers There can be no security where Man's Will is to act which is so weak and frail and so unsteady The World is full of Snares there are more Stumbling-blocks than Steps We carry within us the Nourishment of our own Miseries and the Source of our Passions is the cause of our Sins and Imperfections But for all that Wouldst thou persevere in this Kingdom of Grace and go with full sail into the Kingdom of Glory Watch then and pray hope and fear trust and persist Let thine Intentions be pure and thy Conscience clean and do all things as in the Presence of God and believe that the end of this short Voyage will be the Haven of the Coelestial Country and of eternal Salvation Let thine Intentions be pure I repeat it again to thee let thine Intentions be pure for thereby thy Passage shall be safe from Rocks and Tempests If thy Intention really be to serve God and to please him in all things thy Practice thy Words thy Actions will also be to please him in all things As Matters go with thee internally so will they also externally If the Tree be good it gives good Fruit and if evil evil Fruit. An evil Tree cannot bring forth that which is good nor the good that which is evil The Quality of the Spiritual Tree is taken from that of the Intentions and the Quality of Fruits and Works from that of the Tree O happy he who has a clean and pure Heart that is a clean and pure Intention O happy he who desires and loves nothing but God and his Service for all the Exercises of such a Man will be to serve and adore him Thus then if thou desirest to persevere and to encrease in the Spiritual Life let thy first rule be to purifie thy Intention for that gives Life to thy Works and Cleanness to thy Heart If thine Eye be single saith God all thy Body will be full of Light as if he had said if the Intention be right the Body of all the Actions will be right and shining in good Example The Light that lightens thy Body is thine Intention if it be pure it enlightens thee if otherwise thou wilt walk in darkness See! how a Lanthorn shines that has a little Candle in it it not only is clear it self but gives light to all that are round about it So the Soul that has a pure holy Intention within it has thereby all its Actions made holy clear and perfect God is to be thy Intention in all thou dost in all thou speakest in all thou thinkest and whatsoever thou dost must be for God with God and through God Of Purity of Conscience If this be thy Intention and thou hast attain'd its Purity thou shalt easily by the Grace of God attain Purity of Conscience also or rather it may be said if thou hast the one thou already hast the other also for what is Purity of Conscience but Purity of Heart and Intention If that be pure thy Thoughts Words and Actions will be so likewise and if they be pure thy Heart and Conscience are so too yet Purity of Conscience signifies not to consent to any blemish or defect in thee and when thou findest any to throw it away presently and to wash it with tears It signifies an attentive Care and Vigilance to purifie the Soul from all Sins and Imperfections small as well as great and not to allow them entrance or let them remain there but to confess bewail and forsake them It signifies an implacable Enmity between Innocency Truth and Sincerity of Heart and Sins of all kinds and a dissent and contradiction to them without permitting them to make any stay in it It signifies an exact care to see and observe what passes in thy Soul and not to tolerate any thing in it not only that is contrary but that tends but to the lessening thy desires to please God It signifies a great disquiet and uneasiness at any thing that offends God and an open War against Sins without having any Contentment or Satisfaction till thou hast thrown them out by Penitence and Contrition Those that live and walk with this hatefulness and with this desire are they which the Saviour of Souls meant when he said Blessed are the pure for they shall see God as if he had said 't is impossible to see God without purity of Heart Let a Man do works that are never so perfect and holy let him be liberal in Alms visit Hospitals pray and suffer as much as he will or do any thing else If his Heart and Conscience be not pure 't is impossible for him to see or enjoy God till he have cleansed and purified them Into Heaven no defect can enter nothing but what is clear shall be received into that bright City for a Man must enter there as he is to live there No Man can see God in Glory even though he were in Glory unless his sight be made so clear by purity of Life as to be able by the Divine goodness to be raised to behold God Employ therefore all thy care to cleanse thy Heart and Conscience not to consent that any Sins Passions or Imperfections should lodge there but to throw them out and wash them off with tears I do not say that thou shouldst have none though I wish it but that thou shouldst not entertain them for it is impossible in this sinful Life that a Man should not fall into small and sometimes even into great Sins but whether they be great or small he ought to detest them as soon as they are perceived and not to keep but to cast them out instantly with humble Sorrow Do not go to sleep with Sin in thine Heart before thou hast washed it out with tears Think how unsafe it would be for a Man to sleep with a Viper in his Bosom but 't is far more dangerous to sleep with Sin in the Soul As the Sea casts out dead Bodies so do thou cast Sins out of thy Soul See how long thou canst keep a burning Coal in the Palm of thine Hand and even a less time suffer Sin to continue in thy Soul As in the other Life no Man can see God without a pure Heart so in this Spiritual Life seldom does a Man hearken to God till he hath cleansed his Conscience by casting out his Sins Sins and Passions are troublesome Companions and make so great a noise that they disquiet and deafen the
as strong and effectual as it was then Grace does not grow old but continues the same or rather increases Strive then fight and persevere for he that without Grace is but meer weakness may by it become a powerful Conquerour The Second WEEK Of the Glory of the Blessed THough the former Doctrine was sad and disconsolate I hope this last has chear'd and comforted thee We must still walk between hope and fear for the doubt of fear restrains us and the light of hope sets us forward To facilitate the way of the Spirit is good and sound Counsel and of possible performance for it is made easie by Grace and therefore a Christian ought not to be afraid of it but to facilitate Salvation and to make it consistent with a loose and licentious Life to make it attainable without seeking Heaven in good earnest without Repentance and Contrition through Grace and without conquering the Passions and banishing them from the Soul to make it easie I say to be sav'd that way is a most plain Fallacy and dangerous Deceit St. Paul tells us That through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore the steps that lead to Glory are Tribulations And believe me even so it is purchased at a very cheap rate for all we can suffer in this Life full of Miseries is not worthy of the Glory that shall be revealed which he obtains who suffers willingly for God What can our Sufferings be in comparison of those Enjoyments How light are they all in respect of the eternal weight of Glory What an inexpressible Happiness must it be to see ones self admitted to be one of the Citizens of the Coelestial Jerusalem to see ones self in the ravishing Company of Saints and Angels to see ones self with the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and Virgins to see all those Just and Holy Spirits singing Hymns and Praises to the Glory of God And yet all this is less though unspeakably great than to see the holy Humanity of our Lord that gracious Countenance those Divine Eyes whose brightness darkeneth the Sun and enlightens all the Creatures those Hands and Feet and that pierced Side from whence as Blood heretofore there now comes forth the Splendour of Glory the Stream of Grace the Joy and Comfort of all the Saints And still this is less than to see God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons in One Essence the beginning and the end of all Creatures that ineffable Mystery which exceeds all created Understandings before whom all the Angels and Saints prostrate themselves in Adoration This is that which amazes the Pen and humbles the highest Meditations in contemplation whereof the most lofty Cherubims and Seraphims lose themselves not being able fully to comprehend it From this Fountain and Original of Divinity and Goodness proceed all the Felicities of those holy Citizens in that Triumphant Jerusalem from that Source of Joy and Delights flow all their Delights and Pleasures from that Infinite Omnipotent and Supream Essence which is Incomprehensible in all it's Attributes springs the Original Glory of the Blessed All their Power and Being arises from his Power and Being The sight of that Goodness that Wisdom and Charity is the cause of theirs From that Light proceeds their Light Only to see one of his Attributes whether his Goodness Justice or Mercy though 't is impossible to see any one of them without seeing the rest is enough to give inexpressible Glory to all the Creatures What a blessedness also is it to turn the Eyes upon the Order and Beauty of that whole Coelestial Court To see the Martyrs crown'd with Ensigns of their own Valour to see the Holy Confessors adorn'd with their Vertues to see the Virgins with their Palms and Crowns only to see the Order wherein they are rank'd and wherewith they Adore and Praise the Lord to see the Nine Quires of Angels with the Three admirable Hierarchies only to see the great number of beatified Souls and Spirits every one in his Place and Employment serving their Creator and the Author of all their Happiness with unspeakable Contentment What a wonderful and high Felicity is this Then what Peace what Contentment what Joy what Quiet what Sweetness what Union what Conformity what Ardent love of God and of his Creatures is there in that blessed City Finally wouldst thou see what Heaven is Look what all the Delights of this World are freed from any mixture of Disgust and thou shalt find that in respect of them they are but Pains and Torments Think what it is to hear the sweetest Voices to smell the sweetest Perfumes and to enjoy whatever can delight the rest of the Senses think of an Heart full of Joy and Contentment an Understanding with all the Powers of the Soul fill'd with all the Delights and Pleasures that this World can afford it is all but Sadness and Affliction Pain and Anguish in the highest degree in comparison of those Eternal Joys Wouldst thou know what Glory is Then consider who it is that gives it to the Saints Think how Infinite the Power of God is it 's his Power that gives that Glory Think how Infinite is his Wisdom 't is that Wisdom which gives that Glory Think how Infinite is his Goodness 't is that Goodness which gives that Glory If then an Infinite Power an Infinite Wisdom and an Infinite Goodness joyn together to give Glory what must that Glory be which is the effect of such a Power of such a Wisdom and of such a Goodness If God gives to every one of his Saints in his just proportion according to his Love his Power and his Wisdom what Riches shall he give who is infinitely Rich What Wisdom and Light shall he give who is Infinitely Wise And what Joy shall he give who is Infinitely Good and Happy If the necessitous Person measures his hopes by the Power and Hand of the Liberal what shall the Joy be that is given by an Infinite Power which is willing to give that which is Infinite Wouldst thou see what Joys those are which God will give to the Blessed in Heaven Think how great the Punishments are that are inflicted upon the Damned in Hell If those are so sharp and intolerable for the pain of them to the wicked how sweet and superabundant will be the Enjoyments of the good Though his Justice and his Mercy are Essentially equal yet in the effects his Mercy is greater than his Justice for he punishes in Hell less than Sinners deserve and rewards in Heaven more than the Saints deserve What Glory shall he give in Heaven who punisheth so terribly in Hell with everlasting Fire Wouldst thou see the Joys which he confers upon the Elect who serve him in this Life Think what he suffered for them and what he did to save them If he gave his Blood and Life upon the Cross for the bad as well as for the good
strive to Purchase them even at the loss of all which is Temporal and in this Life as much as may be to imitate the same Eternity which is to be done by the Practice of those three Vertues which St. Bernard recommends to us in these words With Poverty of Spirit with Meekness and Contrition of Heart is renewed in the Soul a Similitude and Image of that Eternity which embraces all times For with Poverty of Spirit we merit the future with Meekness we possess the present and with the Tears of Repentance we recover what is past Let all thine Actions be accompanied with this Thought For Ever that for ever shall be rewarded what thou doest well and with this consideration thou wilt not only animate thy self to do good works but to do them well If in all thy deeds thou wouldst but propose to thy self Eternity and wholly respect it thou wouldst find little difficulty in any good works thou goest about Fix therefore thine Eyes and Thoughts upon that which is to be given us for that which may be done in a moment Blessed be God who bestows upon us a Reward without end for Troubles so short that they scarcely have a beginning The Benefit which David reaped by this consideration was a firm Resolution to mend his Life and change into a new Man animating himself to a greater Observance and a more high Perfection And so in that Psalm wherein he says That he thought upon the days of Old and the years of Eternity he adds immediately the effect of his Meditation saying That he was to begin anew Considering that Eternity never ends but still begins and that it is wholly a beginning he determined with such new fervour to give a beginning to a more perfect Life that he would never flag or be dismayed in the prosecution of it willing in this to imitate Eternity which as it is ever beginning so he would ever begin to deserve it And what great matter is it if that which we are to enjoy for ever be ever in beginning that we should likewise be ever beginning to deserve it Our Reward is not to fail us and therefore there is no reason why we should fail and grow weary in our Service and Endeavours Our Joy is ever to begin why should not then our Endeavours be ever beginning The Repose we hope for shall never have an end why should then our Deservings ever cease We ought never to look back upon our Labours past but still to animate our selves to labour anew for God and his Service as did the Apostle St. Paul who says of himself That he did forget what was past that he did enlarge his heart and mind extending it for that which is to come which the Apostle spake in a time when he had suffered much and done such Services to God in the good of Souls that he had already laboured more than all the Apostles After that he had entred into the Synagogues of Damascus and publickly preached Jesus Christ with the most evident danger of his Life After that he had converted many People in Arabia Tarsus and Antioch After he had distributed great Alms gathering them with much labour made long Journeys and brought them unto the Poor in Jerusalem After the suffering of innumerable Persecutions and after infinite more Services performed for the Church After all these it seemed unto him that he had suffered nothing done nothing for Christ and he forgot it all as if it had been the first day of his Conversion determining still to do more to suffer more to labour more to begin anew esteeming himself after so many Labours and Services an useless unprofitable Servant and to be far short of deserving that Eternal Blessedness which is reserved for the Faithful in Glory And indeed what proportion does a whole Life of Labours and Sufferings bear to an everlasting Reward and never-ending Joys What Conditions canst thou think too rigid to be performed or what Calamities too hard to be undergone for the attainment of an Immortal and Incorruptible Crown If we would but allow this Point it 's due consideration how slight should we think all the Evils and Troubles of this World How inconsiderable are all Pains and Difficulties to them that have a Prospect of those future Beatitudes Let me see thee O God in thy Glory and let me suffer a thousand Torments in this Life till I come to see thee Let me see you O Blessed Angels in Heaven and let me suffer upon Earth till I come to see you Let me be admitted into your blessed Company O happy Saints hereafter and let me suffer whatever ye suffered here Come Pains and Punishments so I may but see those Eternal Joys and Contentments Let me endure any thing in this Vale of Miseries so I may at last come to the City of God the Heavenly Jerusalem abounding in all manner of Joys and Comforts Finally O my Jesus do whatsoever thou wilt with me here so that I may but at last see adore praise and enjoy thee for ever there The Third WEEK Of the Imitation of the Life of our Blessed Saviour and of his Mysteries IF the Examples of Men nay even of the worst may help very much towards the making us good being incited thereby to take care to avoid their evil Action and if those of good Men are so prevalent to draw us unto Vertue what excellent Vertues may be acquir'd by imitating those which are to be seen through the whole course of the Life of our Blessed Saviour who has commanded us to learn of him And whither should we go but to the Life and Passion of our Blessed Redeemer for the attaining of that Glory which he has purchased for us with his most precious Blood Where shall we find those Vertues which we ought to practice in the Kingdom of Grace which is the way to it but in his holy Imitation Where those Merits which must give Life and Value to all the best Actions we can possibly perform but in the Merits and Sufferings of his Cross And where the Grace that must Animate Quicken and Fortifie our Nature but in that which he obtained for us by those Sufferings and by that Cross And thus wouldst thou have Glory Then go strait to the Passion of our Lord. Wouldst thou improve thy self in good and holy Customs Fix the Eyes of thy Consideration upon the passages of his most Holy Life Wouldst thou know how to Fight and Conquer Behold his Battles and his Victories Wouldst thou walk in the way of Eternal Life Follow him in those holy steps which he has trod before thee Wouldst thou overcome the World the Flesh and the Devil those Enemies of the Cross Take up the Cross and follow him who goes before thee carrying it upon his own shoulders Dost thou desire Light and Knowledge the Fire of Charity the Fervour of Devotion and to banish all Wickedness and Imperfection from thy Soul Then contemplate the
Mysteries of the Blessed Jesus for in them thou shalt find Light Joy and Company Fervency Grace and Devotion Go on and continue this Holy Meditation and it shall fill thy Soul with Treasures of Spiritual Comfort Of the Mystery of the Incarnation And first behold and consider the Eternal Son of God Co-eternal Co-omnipotent and Infinitely Wise with the Father coming forth from the Father yet without leaving him to be made Man the Holy Ghost in this high Mystery co-operating with the Father and the Son for the Three Divine Persons who concurred in the Creation of Man concurred also in his Reparation and Redemption Consider how he sets forth accompanied with the whole Court of Heaven and takes Flesh in the chaste Womb of the most pure and perfect Virgin that Nature ever saw the most Blessed Virgin Mary the Honour of Nazareth the Glory of Jerusalem and the Joy of all Israel Behold that unspeakable Union between the Divinity and the Humanity behold the Eternal Word cloathing himself with our Nature and espousing himself to it in that Virgin Bride-bed Here thou mayest know what thou owest to thy Creator and Saviour who for the love of thee and for thy Remedy made himself Man took on him the form of a Servant and subjected himself to all the Labours and Miseries to which Mankind is liable and together with our Nature loaded himself likewise with all their Pains and Punishments and which is more being Innocency itself he took upon him all their Sins also to suffer for them Consider thus what God did for thee and then consider likewise what thou owest to God for having done all this for thee That the Immense the Omnipotent and the Infinitely Wise should become Man for the Redemption of Man That those two Extreams so distant and distinct should be conjoyned that the Nature of Man which is Frailty and Misery should be united to the Divine Person of the Eternal Son of God which is the Supream and Soveraign Deity What greater cause can there be of Astonishment and Admiration Men use to say when they would express any thing impossible Heaven and Earth shall meet before this can come to pass Consider how much greater a thing is God's joyning the Humanity with the Divinity for my sake than the meeting of Heaven and Earth Can there be a greater Favour than that God to shew his love to us should do impossibilities Could Omnipotency want other means to Save and Redeem Mankind Could not his Infinite Wisdom have contriv'd other ways for the Salvation of the Sons of Adam without engaging himself in this incomprehensible expression of Love Yes most probably For to him that is All-powerful the most difficult things were very easie and to him that is Infinitely Wise they were also most clear and manifest but his excessive Love would for the Salvation of Man give that which was not precisely necessary and having it in his power to do less for their sakes he would needs do more O more than Infinite Goodness O Love that exceedest all Consideration That thou the Immense the Omnipotent and Infinite God shouldst be made Man for Man That thou shouldest so have limited thy self being the unbounded Creator of all things both in Heaven and Earth That thou shouldst be reduced to so short and narrow a space Thou who comprehendest the whole Creation within thy self and yet hast infinite room within that unmeasurable comprehension That thou shouldst become passible being by thy Divine Nature incapable of Labour Pains and Sufferings And not only passible but already beginning actually to suffer being Innocency and Goodness itself and the very Original of all Goodness and Innocency This does not only amaze Man's Understanding but even that of the highest Cherubims and only that same God can comprehend it who celebrated and performed this high and Soveraign Mystery Now let us come back to our selves and consider what is it for Man sinful Man to suffer that drags so many Chains of Passions and Wickednesses it being just that he should suffer for them since this Divine Lord suffers a close Restraint and Imprisonment in the Virgin 's Womb What is it for Man to humble himself for God's sake seeing God for Man's sake humbled himself so far as even to become Man What a small thing is it for Man to shut himself up in a Cell or to hide himself in a strait Enclosure in hope that he shall come forth to the enjoyment of Eternal Liberty since God the Son imprisons himself so closely for nine Months to come forth to suffer so many ways for Thirty and three years that he might purchase and obtain that very Liberty for Man What is it for the low the mean the vile and the unworthy to humble himself since the Divine the Immense the Omnipotent the Infinite and the most High hath abased himself to so great a degree Draw from hence that Humility which after a certain manner thou oughtest to be proud of as an Honour since thou dost that which God himself did for it must needs be always a great Honour to do that which has been done by that Eternal Majesty Behold what thankfulness thou owest to that unspeakable Goodness for that wonderful expression of his Love in the Incarnation of the Son of the Eternal God and how it can be possible for Man with sufficient gratitude to acknowledge that God should make himself Man for the Redemption of Man that he should come down from Heaven to Earth to make Earth an Inheritor of Heaven This in my Opinion was the greatest of all the expressions of God's Love and Kindness in this was the greatest Conquest of his Charity in this it was that he measured the most unmeasurable distance When once he was made Man to suffer for Man was but an Humane distance although a very vast one because that Man was God but that being God he should make himself Man was a Divine distance and that so beyond all excess that for the measuring of it it was necessary that Omnipotency itself should yield to the greater power of Love When once he had made himself passible by becoming Man it was so natural for him to suffer that if he would have freed his Humanity from it it must have been by the help of his Divinity but for him being God to make himself Man that he might become passible this was a Prodigy more than Divine and which does almost seem incredible Those that are of High and Noble Birth avoid to come near the Plebeians and Vulgar sort those that are Rich scorn to have any thing to do with the Poor and those that are Wise despise to talk with the Ignorant But thou O Eternal Wisdom Riches and Nobility not only camest near to our Poverty our Baseness and our Frailty but cloathed'st thy self therewith to instruct to enrich and to enoble our Nature From henceforth Lord we ought to learn from thy Divinity to humble and abase our selves
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
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
it condemns him to Death though disswaded by his Wife upon her Dream from having any thing to do with that Just Person and delivers him to them to be crucified since all that was easier for such a mean complying Judge to consent to than to trouble and hazard himself in the further Defence of Innocency Yet that he might remain clear and spotless and honoured in the Opinion of the World in Condemning our Saviour he declares himself not guilty of his Blood and so he washes his hands and satisfies himself with laying the Crime upon others But what greater Infamy can a Judge be guilty of than to suffer the Accusers themselves to write and to sign the Sentence This being done our Blessed Saviour carries his Cross alone for a great part of the way to Mount Calvary and because they thought the time long of his getting thither they make Simon the Cyrenian help him to bear it that he might be there so much the sooner for it was not out of pity that they gave him that Assistance but it was an effect of their Cruelty nor did they intend it for any ease to his Life but for the hastening of his Death In his way to Calvary he is bewailed by the Daughters of Jerusalem leaving this Glory to the Women that they alone wept at the Passion of their Lord their Master and their Redeemer They strip his Body for the cloathing of our Souls and at the same time both Heaven and Earth were cloathed with Grief and Darkness to mourn for the Sufferings of their Creator They with rough hard Nails fasten the Eternal Son of God unto the Cross the Ingratitude of the Jews making him that requital for all his Divine Benefits Those blessed Feet that travelled up and down so many weary steps to seek Sinners that he might save and pardon them Those liberal Hands full of Charity and Beneficence are bored through and nailed by those very Persons whom he came to succour Not to acknowledge a good turn is Ingratitude and Wickedness what shall it then be to pierce both the Hands and Feet of ones Benefactor Then they raise up the Blessed Jesus upon the Cross and allow him the Superiority over two Thieves as fit Subjects for the King of that Royal Throne and by the same action they raise and exalt Man's Nature and advance it in a manner to be Divine When the Son of Man shall be raised up said his Divine Majesty he will draw all along with him It is clear he did so since by his most precious Blood he washed and redeemed them and with his most ardent Love he called and enflamed them O my dearest Lord God who wert wounded and despised crucified and crowned with Thorns and for my sins didst suffer so many torments upon the Cross I beseech thee by the Merits of them all O sweetest Jesus to pardon all my grievous Offences Since thou hast drawn up all draw me up also O most Gracious Saviour Do not suffer that most precious Blood to leave unwashed this Soul which confesses thee and acknowledges thee to be God Thy ardent Charity interceded to thy Father for those very Enemies that crucified thee How much rather then wilt thou be the Mediator and Redeemer of a poor Christian who confesses and adores thy Sovereign Majesty Behold admire and adore thy Suffering Saviour and bewail thy sins the cause of all his Sufferings Behold all Creatures in amazement to see their Creator in so woful a condition Behold the Heavens obscur'd at that Eclipse of his Heavenly Beauties Behold the Earth and all the Elements confounded at the awfulness of his Pains and Torments Behold how the Sun withdraws its Light not to see so horrid a Wickedness and so terrible an Ingratitude Behold even the very Rocks so softened as to cleave asunder in compassion What kind of hearts then are those that remain unsensible Lord suffer not mine to be one of them but let it melt with Love and Contrition to think of thy heavy Torments and of my hainous Offences The Vail of the Temple was rent in twain and shall my Heart be whole Shall not my Breast and all my Bowels open themselves to receive the Blood which thou sheddest for my Redemption Behold the Holy Virgin at the Foot of her Son's Cross who recommends her to the care of his beloved Disciple Behold how one drop of his Blood falling upon the good Thief was to him the Baptism of Life and eternal Condemnation to the Bad who knew not how to make his advantage of it He there made the Divine Nature propitious to the Human that it might be pardoned and by the last of those seven Words which he spake upon the Cross declar'd that by his Blood and Death he had finished the Work of our Redemption Then after having hung three Hours alive upon the Cross He that was the Life of Souls gave them Life by his Death and a Life eternal which Triumphs over Death for ever When he was dead the Souldier with a Spear pierced his most holy Side out of which came Water and Blood representing the two Sacraments and making a wide Door for holy Souls to enter and after other three Hours the Piety of his Friends takes him down from the Cross laying his precious Body in a new Sepulchre which was bestowed on him by the Charity of Joseph of Arimathea So he who during his Life had not a House to rest his Head in was so poor likewise at his Death that he had not so much as a Grave of his own to put his Body in There they sadly lament his loss and burying him in their Hearts as they had done in that Tomb they leave him there embalmed with Spices that as it was Prophesied of him he might be as the Rich in his Death and though there they leave him yet they carry him away with them in their remembrance that we by their example never may forget him After his sad and bloody Passion succeeded his Powerful Resurrection when he had conquered Hell as well as Death and then the Glorious Triumph of his Ascension to the end that Human Nature might not only be Redeemed but also Honoured and Crowned yet before he went up into Heaven he comforted his Mother and the Apostles to whom he several times appeared after his Resurrection to the end that their Joy for it might recompense the Sadness they had felt at his dolorous Passion He examined St. Peter thrice concerning his Love that by three Confessions he might purge away the Shame of his three Denials bidding him as often to feed his Lambs He signified to him by what death he should Glorifie God commanding them all to Preach the Gospel and assuring them that he would be with them to the end of the World Within few days after he made good his promise in sending them another Comforter for at Pentecost the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in fiery Tongues to the end
by Rome and by the Roman Empire Shall we ascribe the Vertue of Fortitude to those Royal and Imperial Crowned Serpents of the Earth who laid waste and dispeopled the Earth Shall we allow that Atila or Totila with such like Monsters of Cruelty were endowed with the Vertue of Fortitude These and their Fellows who by their weak and powerless Ambition over-turn'd the World destroyed pillaged burned and razed innumerable Cities Kingdoms Nations and Provinces at the same time while they were captivating the World were themselves captivated by their Passions No these were not truly strong and valiant but Men powerfully weak who turned the World upside down They had been valiant if their Valour had overcome their Passion and if they had known how to confine their hearts within the limits of Reason Julius Caesar had been truly Valiant if he had defended his Country and Citizens and had been able to defend himself from himself without passing from the Name of Citizen to that of Tyrant We might have ascrib'd Fortitude to Alexander if he had governed his own Kingdom in Peace defending his Crown in just War within the Bounds of Macedonia but to make an Inundation upon Asia to take away so many Crowns and make them the Trophies of his Ambition was a powerful Weakness but neither Valour nor Fortitude The Vertue of Fortitude preserves the Mind in that which is right just and holy without consenting to let Passion enter to disorder and triumph over Reason He that is first conquer'd by the Vertue of Fortitude will have force to conquer himself subduing his Appetite making it yield to Reason and setting that up to Reign and Govern in his heart Shall he that disquiets a City and makes hurly-burlies in it becoming the scandal of the People be said to have the Vertue of Fortitude though he kill and burn and make himself the Terror of a Country He has only a strong Frailty so mad and frantick that he can neither order nor contain himself within those Honest and Lawful terms which are allowed in our Commerce with others He lives and acts as being dragg'd and trampled on by his Fancy and Humour and would he then have us think him to be truly Valiant The Powerful Prince the King that defends his Crown justly and orderly the General that Governs his Army rightly keeping Military Discipline the Judge who constantly repelling Passions and Partialities gives to every one that which is his own working in subjection to the Laws of God and those of his Country the Honest Man that walks fixing his Eyes only upon God and Reason the Modest Woman that firmly and constantly defends her Chastity these may indeed be said to have the Vertue of Fortitude The good Prelate that with just Discipline governs the Souls under his Charge the Glorious Martyr who in the midst of Persecution encompassed or rather crowned with Torments and Tyrants yet breaths Valour Constancy and Perseverance Finally all those who give their Body their Fame their Fortune or their Life for the saving of their Soul and keep that strong constant and persevering in goodness only for God's sake whether they suffer or suffer not whether they are esteemed or despised in the World These are they that are truly Valiant and are eminently possess'd of that honourable glorious and couragious Vertue of Holy Fortitude The Third WEEK Of Temperance the Fourth of the Cardinal Vertues TEmperance which moderates our Passions and governs our Souls with rectitude hath its Root also in Religion and must direct itself to God if it will be a perfect Vertue It s Duty is to reduce the Appetite both irascible and concupiscible to moderate bounds in order to God and his Holy Laws Anger is the Sword of Reason which sometimes she is necessitated to draw to defend her self but yet acts in such a manner that by Temperance she cuts out only what is sufficient without passing on to what is superfluous There have been Natural Philosophers that condemn'd Anger and would have Reason to be sufficient of itself they thought to devest Humane Nature of Passions was enough to make it to act prudently without any other means pretending to bring mens minds to an insensibility and to banish from them all manner of Natural Affections but they deceived themselves for it is neither possible nor convenient that Reason should quite lay aside the use of Passions and Affections because they move our hearts to act That which is convenient and possible is by the help of Grace to govern our Affections well and to regulate our Passions Let the Prince be angry as much as Justice and Occasion requires and let him moderate his Anger by the right Rule of Reason A General that sees an unjust and cruel Enemy coming to destroy his Army may and ought to defend himself with Anger and stir up his Fury to obtain the Victory Let the Superiour use his Anger to chastise the wicked and yet at the same time have compassion upon the wicked Let Reason Command let Anger Serve and Obey and let them joyn together to go as far as is convenient Be angry says the Lord but sin not as who should say Let Reason temper Anger and let Anger be subservient to Reason The Zeal of Moses when he was angry flew those that rebelled against the Law that of Elias brought Fire from Heaven upon the Souldiers of Ahab Heaven did administer Fire to his Zeal because his Zeal was moved with a just and heavenly Anger Our Saviour also sanctified Anger when seeing the Temple of his Eternal Father profaned by the Jews he twice took up the Whip to drive out the Buyers and Sellers and when he threw down the Tables of the Money-Changers Thou must not therefore think that an easie clemency and slackness which suffers the bad to run to ruin deserves the name of Temperance for to tolerate the bad and leave the good undefended is not Temperance but a base Remisness and detestable Negligence For Superiours to be sluggish whilst Subjects are insolent is so far from Temperance that it is an egregious Intemperance Temperance is that which neither comes short in what is right nor goes so far as what is prohibited Temperance is that which does not punish when it is urged by Grief or Importunity but when Reason appoints and the Nature of the thing requires Temperance is that which does what God commands and neither swerves from it by excess in going too far nor by defect in doing too little It is not Temperance for a Man utterly to forbear eating but to eat temperately It does not forbid a Man to sustain his Body but to give it as much as the inordinate Appetite requires It gives that which is sufficient but allows not that which is excessive When the Appetite asks what is necessary it grants it but if it demand what is hurtful it denies it Thus Temperance is the Bridle of the Appetite whether it be concupiscible or irascible
dislike and enmity Our frail miserable Nature being inclin'd to evil is subtil and discursive in any thing that is bad but is dull blind and careless in all good and if a Divine Ray from above does not help and clarifie our Natural Light it will presently be obscur'd if not extinguished by our Passion It is therefore very useful and convenient in the Spiritual Life to walk in the Divine Presence with the light of Prayer in our hands to the end that by the brightness thereof we may with God's Grace and Spirit choose the fittest means for so high an end despising vain and worldly Wisdom and making use of one that is Divine Spiritual and Celestial O let thy Prudence and Discretion consist in following the ways of thy Salvation All the means thou employest to this end are Christian good holy just powerful and prudent And all those Motives which would put thee out of those ways though they seem to come shining with Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance are really unjust weak intemperate and very imprudent The end of any thing ought to govern the means Thy end ought to be to save thy Soul to serve please and not to offend God to live an internal and spiritual life to make thy life a preparation for death to fit thy self by death for Judgment by Judgment for thy Account and by thy Account for that Sentence which may deliver thee from Eternal Condemnation and give thee the Crown of Glory in Life Eternal Oh! What an heavenly Prudence is this Oh what Justice What Fortitude What Temperance How well are they all temper'd with one another and and how imprudent and unjust how foolish how mad how distemper'd and how ruinous is the contrary Thus these four which were wont to be Natural Politick and Heathen Vertues thou mayest by a right intention and direction transform into Christian and Spiritual ones taking from Prudence not what the Flesh but what the Spirit requires from Justice not what the Inferiour but the Superiour directs from Fortitude not what Passion but what Reason commands and from Temperance what is allowed by God not by the World and the Devil The Fourth WEEK Of Humility and its contrary Pride WIth these Rules which are not worldly and natural but holy and spiritual concerning the four Cardinal Vertues the first thing that thou art to practise continually in the life of the Soul is Humility This is an unspeakable Vertue indeed and the Mother of all the rest for they are all bred and produced in her Bowels Humility is that which the Eternal Word chose among all the rest when being God he became Flesh to dwell amongst us clothed in our Humane Nature for the Immense and Omnipotent Lord of Heaven shew'd himself in this World so naked so poor as to be born in a Stable so little and so limited as to be contained in a Manger He consecrated Humility and dedicated himself to it through the whole Course of his most holy Life from the Virginal inclosure of his Mother's Womb and taught it upon the Cross by his most holy Death This is that which he has left for an Inheritance to his faithful Followers when he said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and when afterwards having humbled himself at his Disciples feet he bad them do as he had done We have seen already how great a number of Vertues our blessed Saviour the Example of Christian Perfection did practise whilst he liv'd in this World leaving us to imitate that Divine Original and yet for all that he calls upon us sollicits and perswades us in particular to Copy none but his Humility Why did he not call upon us to practise his Patience Why did he not bid us learn his Charity Why not his Zeal and Diligence Why not his Fortitude Justice and Temperance but only his Humility By reason that the greatest fall and wound of both the Natures Angelical and Humane was Pride and so that Nature of the two that remains in a possibility of being cured which is the Humane and which our Lord came to remedy finds its principal Medicine in Humility Wilt thou see how contrary Pride is to Humility that thou mayest the better know how contrary Humility is to Pride Why Pride is the Natural Mother of all the Devils she engendred them in her Bowels and an Infernal Pride made them Devils of so many Angels they would needs be like God and equal themselves to him in Power and that Pride threw them in an instant from Heaven into the bottomless Pit Would'st thou now see what Humility is It is that which made Angels to be more Angels than they were before for when taking warning by the Fall of their Companions they humbled themselves before God he confirmed them in his Grace and fixed them for Angels eternally in his Glory above the danger of ever becoming Devils And would'st thou see what Pride is Look upon our first Parents Adam and Eve in their highest Felicity of Paradise and thou shalt see that because they would be as Gods and pass from Humane Limits to Divine they were instantly cast out banish'd naked and undone sowing Tribulations and Sorrows and reaping Thorns Afflictions and Misfortunes Would'st thou see what is Humility Behold those same first Parents weeping grieving and bewailing their Fault with an humble Penitence and thou wilt also behold them pardoned by the Divine Goodness and both themselves and their Posterity restored to Grace and Glory with a remedy more noble and much superiour to the Felicity they had lost Wilt thou see what Pride is Look upon Cain who despises God by denying the best of his Fruits which were due to him as the Author and Lord of the Inheritance and being proud and covetous forgets the Banishment the Example and the Tears of his Parents and would exempt himself from that just and holy Tribute This Sin carries him to another which is worse I mean that of Envy and Envy thrusts him on to a higher that of Murder even the murder of a Brother and this drives him to the greatest of all which is final Obstinacy and Impenitence He lives in Despair flying from himself and dying wounded with a deadly Arrow becomes the Head of the Reprobates and the Damned And wilt thou see on the other side what Humility is Look upon holy and blessed Abel who humbly acknowledges his Eternal Creator by offering him his Fruits He gives him the best of them and the best of his Soul which is Humility whereupon God blesses favours and crowns him as being the first Martyr of Heaven and the First-fruits of those that were called appointed and predestinated by the Will of Christ to an immortal Glory Finally these first successes and contrary effects of these two Contraries have been followed by innumerable others and there is nothing seen nor has been seen nor ever shall be seen but the ruins of Pride and the triumphs of Humility
Therefore of all those Vertues thou oughtest to follow and exercise in this Spiritual Life there is none thou shouldest so deeply meditate upon nor so earnestly beg that God would give thee as that of holy Humility Though Humility be a Vertue as it is exercis'd yet it is a Gift as it is bestow'd and therefore it is needful to beg it of God with earnestness constancy and humbleness So great is our Pride and so great is our Vanity that without a particular succour and favour of our good Master Jesus we are not capable of true holy and perfect Humility Pride is so natural to us and so rooted in us that even when we exercise our selves in Employments of Humility we are wont unless God by Grace prevent it to make them the matter of our Vanity How mischievous must that needs be which turns our Remedy into a Mischief How great is my Pride if when I prostrate my self meekly and humbly I often rise up again proud insolent and disdainful Even in the midst of Humility there may spring up a Vanity of being Humble and an inward Pride may grow out of a Conceit of my Humility which is worse than an outward Pride cloath'd with Vanity for that when it hurts does undeceive but this both hurts and deceives together O Lord of Mercy and Pity that my Vanity should be so excessive as to make me unless thou prevent it grow vain and proud in the very Temple of Humility That I should profane those holy Walls and upon the Altar of the Lord set up the Idol of Dagon and that I should adore my self in that place where I ought to adore none but God alone Therefore beg Humility of God without ceasing and whatsoever thou shalt do that is orderly right honest good holy or perfect still beg of God Humility If thou wert able to give sight to the Blind strength to the Lame Ears to the Deaf nay even to raise the Dead yet tremble and pray to God for Humility If thou could'st speak as an Angel and do Works that might become a Seraphim If thou drawest all the World after thee and that for God if thou convertest Souls if thou art a Master in Spirit and Perfection and that all thou goest about succeeds to thy desires yet tremble and pray to God for Humility Believe me between Hell and those Successes Miracles and Perfections there is not the breadth of a finger I say not so much since all the distance between them is but thine own Will which is weaker and of less power than thy finger Dost thou work Miracles Why so did Judas Dost thou know much Lucifer knew more Art thou good Adam was much better Are thy Writings heavenly Those of David were much more so Hast thou Divine Revelations So had Solomon Yet some of these fell and others of them were lost for ever Humility I say Humility Stick close to that for thereby all things shall redound to thy profit and without it any thing may be thy ruine and destruction Go with humble confidence into the presence of the Lord with humbleness because thou art wicked and with confidence because he is infinitely good Go with contrition because he sees thy wickedness and go with cheerfulness because thou fixest thy eyes upon his goodness Never place the end of thy remedy in thy self nor believe in thy Works alone that thou shalt go to Heaven for them or that thine own hands and feet shall carry thee thither Thou shalt not enter there without them but neither shalt thou enter for them It is God that carries us to Heaven and his Grace his Goodness his Pity his Merits his Death Passion and Mercy for without these let us do what we can and take never so much pains we shall never be able to get thither It is a better Phrase to say God has taken him up to Heaven than to say He is gone to Heaven God carries us guides us helps us God calls pardons and crowns us and all this because he loves us Lazarus that holy Beggar was carried by Angels to Abraham's bosom but the rich Glutton went to Hell of himself God carries us to Heaven if we be sav'd and we condemn our selves if we be damned Dost thou look upon thy good works Thou owest them all to God Dost thou see the Repentance that reformes thee the Chastity that adorns thee and the Charity that enflames thee Thou art endebted for them all to God The Pot dress'd up with Flowers is not proud of them for it is but a little Earth and Dung honour'd by the hand of the Gardiner What hast thou that thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou foolishly boast as if thou hadst not received it They are the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles He that has wrought best in the Spiritual Life he that has been a Martyr of Perfection he that has liv'd so as to strike all the World with admiration of his Spirit and Fervour he that has most exercised himself in all Verrtues the most generous Martyr the glorious Apostles St. John the Baptist the most holy Virgin and all the Saints and just Persons at their entring and being crown'd in Glory do not give thanks to their own Excellencies nor ascribe their Salvation to themselves but unto God and to his Mercy Goodness Blood and precious Merits which gave them those Excellencies and Vertues They liv'd humbly they entred with humbleness into Heaven and they are crowned for their Humility Therefore be thou humble and do not think thy self the Author of thy Fortune when it is good but when it is bad acknowledge that thou art so Depend for all thy Fortune upon God Those hands that made and fashioned thee will preserve inform and reform thee Believe that of thy self thou art nothing but a source of misery and that thou hast no goodness nor any stability in thee but what is given thee by his Goodness Grace and Mercy Attribute all that is good and holy in thee to God to whom it all belongs but all that is evil wretched and imperfect to thy self for that only is thine own Labour sweat persevere exercise thy self in what is good and with care and diligence avoid all that is evil But in doing all this rely nothing upon thy self without God but trust all to him who is thy Helper within thee above thee and round about thee Then let the Humility which thou embracest inwardly shoot forth also outwardly in all thy Actions for it is not easie to believe that internal Humility can dwell with external Vanity Let thy words and actions suit with an humble heart for to praise and applaud ones self openly and pretend to be esteemed and respected does not make it very probable that Humility is lodged within The Humility of that Mind comes very short that cannot reach from the inside to the outside the distance being so little between one and the other
The Tree is known by its fruit as our Saviour says and the Root is known by the Tree and for a Man to be proud in his outward behaviour and to be very humble in his heart are two things very hardly compatible Do not excuse thy self with thy Office or Dignity thereby to be dispens'd from an external Humility and from conforming it to the internal There is no Dignity so high wherein Humility may not apparently shine forth Our Kings who in publick represent the Majesty of God do often exercise their Humility in touching the poorest Cripples and sometimes even in washing the feet of their Maundy-men after Christ's Example Why cannot the Bishop represent his Dignity in his Cathedral and afterwards exercise his Charity and Humility with the Poor at home He is no less honourable at their naked feet washing and kissing them than in the Grandeur of the Church and of his Dignity If in the one he represents Mount Tabor in the other he represents the Humility our Saviour practise at his last Supper Believe me when the Vertues do not break forth from the internal and shew themselves in the external they are much to be suspected and those Affections are seldom powerful that can be stifled and conceal'd within Can'st thou think that thou art humble when seeing thy self despis'd thou breakest out like Lightning in thy Defence Thou mayest be humble in thine own conceit but art far from being so in good earnest They that are both outwardly and inwardly humble do not despise others but yet they despise themselves and are so far from being sensible when they are despis'd that they rejoyce and delight in being despised which are the four degrees of perfect Humility Seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not Be not eager to get Offices and Places of Honour but set thy self down in the lowest room as the Holy Jesus adviseth lest a more honourable than thou come and thou be fain with shame to leave it and remove lower There may be reason sometimes perhaps to shew thy reason to make thy self esteemed yet I fear very much that in those matters they are but thine own reasonings and not right reason It has happened heretofore to me poor weak vain and wretched Man to set forth such reasons my self and as one who then had but small light sometimes to enforce them also thinking that therein I did very good service but looking afterwards upon those occasions in a clearer light I saw that was but deceit and vanity and no perfect Humility True Humility is when a Man humbles himself to the Will of God and suffers himself to be governed thereby when he thinks that there is no Employment so mean as his desert and that every Dignity is too high for his unworthiness The reasons that are contrary to this are reasons sought for but not found They are Reasons of Nature but seldom of the Spirit or of Grace This which seems to thee to be Humility is conveniency and safety for the humble Man is quiet in his Humility whilst the proud Man labours and endangers himself by his Pride I have read of an holy Man that upon occasion of seeing one fall from an high Dignity to a Scaffold threw himself flat on the ground taking fast hold of it with his hands and being asked why he did so He answer'd crying out That I may not fall Besides in natural reason a Man of an humble heart cannot fall Whither can he fall that through Humility lies prostrate upon the Earth He may well get up higher but can go no lower He may well rise and be crowned but who can humble him that hath throughly mortified himself Therefore it is that our Lord hath said They that exalt themselves in this Life shall be humbled in the other and in the same proportion that a Man humbles himself here he shall be exalted hereafter The Eternal Word abased himself in coming down to the Earth and laying himself prostrate upon it but he quickly after ascended into Heaven to be crowned there On the other side Lucifer would needs be crowned in Heaven but for his punishment was thrown down headlong into Hell Thus thou seest Humility not only is honour and profit but also as I told thee before safety conveniency peace joy and comfort How courteous is the humble Man What a many quarrels and vexations is he freed from All seek for the humble Person to honour him and he by having Humility appeases quiets and pacifies them all If they despise me says the true humble Man it is that I desire If they esteem me it is a thing I have found which belongs not to me and therefore I offer it up to God who is the right owner of it for what am I but Earth and Dung Dust Ashes and Corruption This is my own this is what I deserve which is to be humbled persecuted and despised OCTOBER The First WEEK Of Liberality and its contrary Covetousness IF thou be humble thou wilt be also liberal for the humble Man desires nothing for himself Every thing is too much for his Poverty for true Poverty is true Humility He that is of an humble heart flies from his own honour and excellency but he that is proud loves his riches and heaps them up that he may be esteemed respected reverenc'd and ador'd for he seeks his own excellency and delights in it Covetousness is the Daughter of Pride which is the fruitful Mother of Vices for she nourishes supports and encreases them There go many Vices to the forming of Covetousness many to the practise and many to the preserving of it and therefore St. Paul calls it The Root of all Evil. Covetousness made Cain the first of the Damned because that he might keep the best Fruits for himself he gave the worst to God Covetousness put the Whip twice in the hand of Christ to drive it out of the Temple because it made his Father's House a Den of Thieves Consider the Saviour of Souls made angry Consider that infinite Meekness and Gentleness made fierce and thou mayest judge how terrible that Vice is which could bring his infinite Pity to be so severe Covetousness of a Disciple made Judas a Traitor and wrought upon him to sell his Master transforming him from a chosen Apostle into the worst Man that ever was born On the Contrary Humility and Liberality the Enemies of Covetousness are the Mothers of Poverty of Spirit of unconcernedness for the Goods of this World and of dis-engagement from all things created They love most their Creator who delight most to humble divest and set themselves at liberty in his Presence nor would draw after them those Impediments Snares and Miseries of this Life which they call Riches The Poor Man that is not humble may be as insolent as the Rich and many times more than the Rich but he that is poor and humble too can neither be Insolent nor does pretend or desire to be
Wealthy From hence it comes to pass that the humble Man is very free and liberal for he that desires nothing for himself does easily give away all and he that thinks that all he has is too much for him does neither covet nor desire any thing he has not Thus the humble and meek of heart are not only liberal and forward to give Alms but prodigal after an holy manner and when they want wherewithal to give they readily give their very selves Serapion the Sindonite gave his upper-Coat to a poor Man he met and passing on further he gave his under one to another remaining in a manner naked with only the New Testament in his hand which he also gave away to a third and being ask'd Who stripped him so He answered that Charity had strip'd him of his upper-Coat the Gospel of his under one and of the Book of the Gospel Christ himself the Author of the Gospel This same Man sold himself twice to Slavery that he might convert his Masters And another Bishop after he had given all he had to the poor hired himself out by the Day that he might have wherewithal to give therefore fly from Covetousness more than from the Fire Love Holy Poverty Charity and Liberality and if thou must exceed in any kind rather err on the right hand of giving than on the left hand of refusing Our Saviour as an Ancient Father of the Church says is always between two Thieves and this is most verified in the Moral Vertues because the excess or defect destroys the Vertue which consists in the middle He that does not give that which is sufficient is covetous He that gives too much is prodigal but he that gives that which is useful fitting and necessary is liberal and so with him Jesus Christ is to be found Therefore when through Humane frailty thou art like to err on the one hand or the other and dost not know how to walk straight in the middle way keep on the right hand for the Prodigal Man is the good Thief and the evil Thief is the Covetous and God more easily pardons him that gives I always observe in the Holy Gospel Prodigal Persons pardoned and Covetous ones condemned Mary Magdalene was tax'd of Prodigality for breaking the Box of precious Oyntment to serve our Redeemer which was great wast according to appearance O Heavenly Prodigal all seems little to her for the anointing of her Lord She breaks the Box and with it all her vain desires she casts her self down a prodigal Sinner and presently rose up a pardoned Saint she was Prodigal in good and so what she did was to be accounted rather love than wast but the Prodigal Son was Prodigal in Evil and spent his Portion foolishly amongst Harlots wandring and distressed about the World yet in the midst of all those squandrings God gave him a good and holy Consideration of remembring his Father and a Resolution to return penitently to seek him This wretch went astray 't is true but yet he gave he ruined himself but he relieved others If he sinned in giving ill yet there was something good wrought in that giving ill namely to give to succour and to sustain those that wanted If he offended God in sinning yet he imitated God in giving at least for God gives not only to the good but also to the evil and to give though with squandring to the bad was an evil not totally void of good The unjust Steward that lessened the Debts to his Master's cost to pass them so afterwards in his Accounts did very ill but yet he gave and the Lord commended him as having done wisely and puts him for an Example that we should make Friends of the unrighteous Mammon that is of Money ill-gotten and that we should get out of that wickedness by giving when we cannot find the Person to whom it should be restor'd but the Covetous Man that had so many Barns and yet in his thought was foolishly contriving to build more and greater ones to hoard up the great abundance of his Corn was himself cast into Hell as a bundle of Tares And the other Rich Glutton who would not give so much as the broken scraps of his Gluttony to feed the holy Beggar that lay at his Door was also for ever condemned there being amongst the evil they did nothing that was good for Pity to lay hold on And thus it is ill to be Prodigal and it is also ill to be Covetous The good thing is to be Liberal and a giver of Alms yet of the two extreams he is the less evil with equal imperfection that gives than he that refuses He that throws away than he that takes away and he that wastes than he that spares Of Chastity and Abstinence With Humility and Liberality thou oughtest to love Chastity the inward and the outward Cloathing which cleanses and beautifies the Conscience and adorns the Soul with a white Garment sweetly perfumed and very pleasing in the Lord's Eyes A Vertue beloved of our Saviour and his Mother and one of those he shew'd most kindness to Jesus being a Virgin himself would have a Virgin-Mother and a Virgin-Father in her Husband Joseph a Virgin-Fore-runner in the Baptist a Virgin-Disciple in St. John the Evangelist and even in Heaven Virginity had its first birth in the Angelical Nature O Heavenly Virginity O Soveraign Purity O un-utterable Chastity which dwellest in Heaven and wert a Vertue there before thou wert known upon Earth O Heavenly Virginity which waitest upon the Virgin-Lamb who is accompanied by Virgins that follow him whithersoever he goeth O Heavenly Virginity which art the fruit of the Blood of the Lamb since it is that Wine which engendreth Virgins Virginity and Chastity purifie the Soul and which is more admirable preserve the Body also pure white and spotless Chastity makes the Spirit pure clean and fervent Chastity disposes the Will to give itself wholly up to God and not to love the Creatures nor to forsake the Creator for them Chastity keeps the Powers Faculties and Senses clean to the end that being pure chast and dis-engaged we may forsake all Creatures freely seeking after the Creator Chastity betroths itself to Vertue protects and defends it and obliges the Eternal Son of God and his Holy Mother with all the Saints and Angels to be our Friends Finally wouldst thou see the excellency of Chastity Look upon its contraries Lust and Sensuality Wouldst thou know the beauty of Light Consider the ugly and loathsome horror of Darkness These defile embase and make deformed whereas the other clears adorns and beautifies The Mischiefs of Sensuality Sensuality depraves the Senses defiles the powers of the Soul disorders all our Faculties destroys all our Rational part and reduces us to be meerly Animal Sensuality obscures Reason and makes Passion tyrannize over it Other Vices do bespot the Soul this the Soul and Body too The rest are Vices and Passions of Discourse this is a
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
nor ask Pardon what can we hope for from a Just and an Almighty Lord being offended and provoked Let us cast away and forsake our Evil and then be certain that in God we shall find nothing but Goodness and Pity Let us throw down our Arms and cast away those Weapons wherewith we have fought against him let us fall prostrate at his Feet and not be so foolish as to fight against an Omnipotent God and if we cease to sin against him Repenting and bewailing our former evil ways God who is strict severe and rigorous to the Wicked will be found gracious sweet and merciful to the Penitent It cannot be certainly known in this Life what will become of a Soul in the other but we may well conjecture and I would have thee govern thy Life by that which may probably be conjectured and not weary and distract thy self in seeking after certain Proofs of that which cannot possibly be known If I see a Man that fears God that loves and serves him that frequents the Sacrament that is constant in Prayer that often recollects himself to think of Eternity that is kind to the Poor and forward to relieve them that hears the Word of God with Humility and Delight and who if through frailty he falls sometimes presently seeks to God for Pardon with Penitent Tears humbling himself confessing his sins and flying from the occasions of them I dare be bold to conjecture and to hope nay to be well assured in the Divine Goodness that the Soul of that Man will not fail to be saved But if on the other side I see one forgetful of Eternity regardless of Heavenly things much given to the Pleasures and Honours and Riches of this World full of Vices and Passions without any remembrance of Death or Judgment Heaven or Hell making it his only business to delight and to entertain himself to eat and drink with Curiosity and Excess and that does no right to others nor will suffer any the least wrong done to himself I cannot but fear upon these grounds that he will not escape Damnation and I neither hold that to be Presumption nor this rash Judgment for that is an Holy Hope which we ought to have in the Divine Goodness and Mercy and this a Pious Doubt and Fear which is due to the Divine Justice This manner of Conjecture is taught us by the Holy Scripture and therefore it cannot be an evil thing for I see that Lazarus a poor humble Beggar that bore his Miseries with Patience was sav'd and I see the rich hard-hearted Glutton who fared deliciously and wallowed in his Vices was condemned Now how should I frame my Conjecture but by the Experience of what I have seen I see Judas despairing of God's Mercy after his Fall was condemned and St. Peter after his by weeping and repenting was saved and must I not needs gather from thence that he who distrusts God's Mercy will be condemned and he that begs it and trusts in it will be sav'd I see Saul who made no reckoning of his sins was condemned and I see David who lamented and forsook his was saved Must I not needs collect from hence that he who regards not and is not concerned for an evil Life will most probably have an evil Death and that he will have a good one who turns from his evil ways and amends them during his Life I see Covetous Cain condemned because he was Covetous and repented not himself of his Covetousness and I see Liberal Abel saved because he frankly offered to God of the Fruits of his Flock From hence I must necessarily think that he who denies or grudges to bestow part of those Goods in the Service of God which he received from him is going in the broad Path of Destruction but he that gives chearfully and bountifully to the Poor and by returning that part acknowledges that he has received all from a more Liberal Hand is going in the right and certain way to Heaven where he shall receive an hundred fold and be eternally Crowned In short I see nothing else in the Scripture but Examples of the good that are saved and of the wicked that are damned and that the Gift of final Perseverance is given by God to those at their Death who by their constant Prayers and Good Works have made it their endeavour to obtain it during the course of their Life That Prodigy of the World the good Thief who escap'd from Shipwrack at his Death upon the Plank of the Cross was an instance of the extraordinary Power of Grace and one of those strange Wonders that concurred at the Crucifying of our Saviour It was like the tremblings of the Earth and the cleavings of the Rocks like the tearing of the Vail of the Temple and the Dead breaking out of their Sepulchres to return to life like the darkning of the Sun and the disturbance of the whole Frame of Nature Amongst these and other Prodigies that great Wonder may justly be reckoned that he should die a Saint who had been a Thief during the whole course of his Life till that moment And observe that though there were many Graves that opened and many that arose from the Dead many Rocks that were cleft many Lights that were darkened and many Signs that manifested the Power and Efficacy of the Death of Christ there was but one of a Conversion at the last gasp And though the Lord Jesus had another Thief as near him to whom he might have shewed the same Mercy yet he suffered him to die in his Impenitency and to go to the Devil The very words which Jesus spake when he saved the good Thief do contain a warning that no Man may venture to delay his Repentance till his Death for he said Verily Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise All which words seem to be full of Limitations Verily Verily I say unto thee is as it were a kind of Oath for a thing so admirable as the saving of a Man at his Death who had all his Life-time been a Thief and a wicked Person seemed to stand in need of an Oath for to make it be believed I say unto thee is added as who should say Do not believe others if they should say it is easie for those to be sav'd who delay their Repentance till their Death No that is no easie matter but I will now at this time make that easie for thee which else doth seem impossible as if he had limited that Grace then unto that Soul because it departed from his Body in the sight of his dying Saviour I say unto thee now for as for others I shall see hereafter how I shall deal with them This day that is this day of so great Mercy this day a day of so many Prodigies this day when I desire to shew how far my Grace and Mercy can extend for other days I shall refer them to my Justice and to
knowledge of thy self thou mayest come to some knowledge of him Excuse not thy Sloth and Cowardize by laying the fault upon the Frailty of thy Nature for that is but to accuse God as an hard Master that expects much where he gives but little No he expects no more from any Man than what he enables him to perform Raise therefore thy Courage by Contemplation of those divine Benefits he hath bestowed upon thee Make clear the Glass of thy Soul and in it thou shalt see God and shalt hear and find him for although God be in all places by his Essence Power and Presence yet is he no where better seen and known than where he is present through Grace What a number of things wilt thou find within thee by beholding God within thy self What Treasury What Chearfulness What Joy What Wisdom St. Augustin seeks God over all the World and says of himself That he sought but could not find that without him which he already had within him He entred into himself and there found what he had sought though he could not find it by wandring abroad If thou hast God within thy self in vain wilt thou seek him elsewhere 'T is within thy Soul 't is within thy Heart that this Precious Treasure is to be found If not there then no where else As soon as thou findest him within thee thou shalt see ineffable Lights and meet with Directions that shall guide thee to keep him fast within thy self and yet to find him every where without thee also Thou shalt learn to trust him and by that to fear him There shalt thou see the Divine Benefits what he has done in thy favour without thee above thee and on every side of thee thou shalt find it all there There shalt thou see and meditate what thou owest him and by thy internal and superiour knowledge thou shalt be able to see to ponder and to penetrate what before thou neither didst see nor know nor love nor consider Of the Benefit of Creation Thou shalt see the good he did thee in Creating thee in making thee a reasonable Creature in giving thee a Soul and forming in thee an admirable Image of his Heavenly Countenance Thou shalt see what he did for thee in drawing thee out of the Abyss and Confusion of nothing to be capable of all things Thou shrit see what he did in that when it was in his power to make thee a Stone a Tree or a brute Beast he made thee a Reasonable Creature and capable of God himself Tell me what hadst thou done that could oblige him to it Upon what merits did this high Benefit fall Didst thou perhaps win him to it by thy sins which were then present to him at thy Creation Oh how unspeakable is that Benefit bestowed even in the sight of Ingratitude itself That God should have all my sins present before him at my Creation and should yet Create me that in Creating me he should fix his eyes upon his own Mercy and cast my sins behind his back this was a goodness more wonderful than can well be conceived The anger of a liberal Person grows enraged by the presence of an ungrateful one whom he has relieved and yet here my Creator not only was not angry but in the sight of all my Offences bestowed a Benefit upon me which it had been much to have granted upon the highest Services Behold how greatly we are indebted to God for Creating us reasonable Men at the same time he beheld our sins making us capable to bewail them and flexible docil and disposed through his Grace to wash them with our Tears By this first and principal Benefit he filled us with infinite other Benefits for in giving us that chief Jewel the Soul all the rest though greater are less because they all depend upon that It is more to be a Man than to be a Great Man It is more to be a Man than all that can be contained in the Being of Man It is much to be Wise but it is more to be Man than to be Wise because he could not be Wise unless he were a Man It is much to be Rich Powerful and Noble but more to be a Man because he has all those by being Man It is much to be a King but more to be a Man because without being a Man he could not be a King It is much to be Good Holy and Vertuous but it is more to be a Man because he could be none of these without a Rational Soul which makes him to be a Man Know thy Dignity O Man and use it with respect and do not abase that part of thee which is Man to the level of that other which is but Animal Let not sin defile that Soveraign and that Coelestial Majesty which thou hast in thy Soul for to spot blemish and deface it is great sin and ingratitude To make thee a Man was to give thee all that is visible and to make thee capable of all that is invisible What Thanks what Services do these Benefits require To make thee a Man was to make thee Head King and Soveraign of this inferiour Nature He chose thee for Prince of the Planets of the Sun of the Moon and of the Stars Finally he gave thee the Elements all things mixt and all the several Individuals for thy Contemplation and for thine Inheritance Thus God's Creating Man and giving him a Rational Soul is the chiefest and greatest of all the Gifts he hath bestowed upon Men for although afterwards he enriched them with others of his Grace which are more excellent yet they all depend on that of Nature They are Benefits which fall upon this first Benefit and without which they could be of no Efficacy or Advantage But let me not pass over in silence or forget to mention in particular those other admirable and illustrious Endowments which in Creating thee a Man and giving thee a Soul God hath furnished thee with so vastly surpassing those of the inferiour and irrational Tribe I mean the glorious and sublime powers of thy Soul by which it operates for how do they transcend the low Capacities of sensitive Beings How noble and excellent are thy Faculties and how wonderful their Operations in respect of the grosness and inactivity of theirs Thou hast an Understanding capable of knowing all things able to draw Inferences from precedent Propositions and to frame Conceptions of universal and immaterial Objects God hath given thee ability if thou wouldst improve it to penetrate into the profoundest depths of Humane Knowledge and in some measure into his Divine Essence thou art able to make some discovery of those infinite Perfections which concentre in him the Original of all Perfections and to soar up by Contemplation into the highest Heavens where this infinite and incomprehensible Nature most eminently resides Thou art able from things made and visible to collect the absolute necessity of the existence of some first Being which
is the Author of them and invisible Thou seest the frame of Nature contriv'd in a wonderful manner and beholdest innumerable Creatures of all kinds some having but Being others Being and Life a third sort Being Life and Motion a fourth Being Life Motion and Sense a fifth Being Life Motion Sense and Reason and from hence thou art able to infer that there must be a Creator of them since nothing can make itself and so proceeding through the whole Chain of Causes thou comest at last to one first Cause of all things which is eternal self-existent and independent and to him thy understanding bids thee ascribe infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness all which Attributes were most illustriously displayed in the Creation of the Universe And further as by the light of this Principle thou art able to discover the Being of God so by the same thou art enabled to comprehend thy Duty to Adore Reverence Worship Serve and Obey him Thou knowest thou couldst be made for nothing but for his Service and that his having made thee gives him a most indisputable Right to thy Obedience and Homage thou knowest the difference between Good and Evil and apprehendest not only what is pleasant or unpleasant to the Senses which is the utmost degree of Knowledge that the brute Creatures arrive at but also what is honest or dishonest just or unjust morally good or morally evil and art sensible of thy Obligations to prosecute the one and avoid the other and from hence it is that thy Conscience that internal Witness and Judge seldom fails to excuse and comfort thee when thou dost thy Duty or to accuse and torment thee with uneasie thoughts when thou committest Sin Further this unvaluable Benefit qualifies thee for Society and Government Blessings not known or enjoy'd by the lower rank of Creatures which are unsociable and incapable of Discipline or Order and capacitates thee for that which we deservedly account a most desirable happiness the Conversation of thy Friends and of those of thine own kind without which thou wouldst be disconsolate and miserable O inexpressible Benefit of thy bountiful Maker deserving thy most intense meditation and the service of thy whole life What return canst thou make to God for this singular Gift What requital worthy of so vast a Favour Has God made thee an Understanding Creature and given thee a Capacity to comprehend not only Natural Objects contain'd in this low Sphere of matter but also things supernatural above the reach of sense Let it then be thy principal care to endeavour after an improvement of this Noble Faculty to employ it about things that are suitable to its Dignity but above all to know God and his Son Jesus Christ which is Eternal Life Consider how it imports thee to acquire a due knowledge of those Holy and Divine Truths which God hath been pleased to manifest concerning himself and whatever escapes thee suffer not thy self to be ignorant or unskill'd in those Sacred Oracles which contain the will of God to be performed by thee if thou desirest to partake of his Glorious Promises or ever to enter into his beatifick Presence 'T is the Gift of God that thy Nature is enriched with this high Ornament and Perfection and therefore use it to his Glory and have a constant regard to his Honour in the employment of it Let thy whole aim bet to magnifie God thereby and have a care of dishonouring him by his own Gift which he gave thee for thy benefit but to be used in his Service In a word seek all occasions to shew thy thankfulness for it to celebrate the goodness of thy Divine Benefactor and to shew forth his Praise by applying it constantly to the glorification of his great and venerable Name But besides this Faculty of Understanding thou hast yet others which are no less excellent and sublime for which thou art equally obliged and indebted to thy liberal Creator He has given thee Memory that Store-house of Science and common Receptacle of all things that are apprehended by the Understanding an Endowment most eminently useful and beneficial to thee To this thou committest as to a Guardian or Register whatever thy Judgment or Imagination presents drawing it forth again and remanding it back when occasion requires In this thou treasurest up the Images of things and lodgest innumerable Idea's vastly different from each other the most disagreeable Objects being therein reconcil'd and joyn'd together without the least jarring or discord confusion or disorder and which is most wonderful by how much the greater the multitude of the Objects is that are fastened there by so much the more space there remains for others and by how much the more thou endeavourest to croud and to fill it so much the more it will still hold it being capable of an infinite extension From the assistance of this Faculty thou derivest many great and considerable Advantages Thou art enabled thereby to reflect upon thy past Actions and Follies in order to amend them for the future to represent things absent and gone as present before thee to descant upon the Mercies of God which have been formerly extended to thee and upon thine own Ingratitude in making him no other return for them but disobedience and sin and remembring how vile thy Practices have been by this means thou mayest conceive an hatred and detestation of them and be brought to Repentance Finally by the help of this Gift thou mayest recollect the principal passages of thy Life and recal to mind what thou hast done amiss which is the first step to Contrition and Amendment Since therefore God hath vouchsafed to endue thee with so admirable a Perfection and to plant in thy Soul so useful and excellent a Faculty strive to embellish and adorn it with suitable Objects and consider how thou art obliged above all things to remember thy Creator and to lay up his Word within thy heart Remember him who gave thee Memory and bear in mind thy great Engagement to him for this Benefit Be careful to treasure up his precious and saving Truths nor let his Goodness and Bounty to thee be ever forgotten 'T is a most unnatural Ingratitude not to remember him whose Gift it is that thou remembrest any thing else and to let him slip out of thy memory who took care to furnish thee with that Noble Treasury for the Entertainment of himself and of things that are agreeable to thy Nature Nor are these all the Advantages which thou enjoyest from God's having given thee a reasonable Soul thou hast still something of equal Worth and Excellency with the former Endowments deserving thy Thankfulness and Acknowledgment Thou hast a Will uncapable of constraint or force which above all other Possessions is most properly thine own in thine own power and not subject to any external violence Thy Understanding may be taken from thee by several Accidents and Diseases and thou mayest be depriv'd of thy Memory by sundry Mischances but