worldy men playes the Tyrant in the world snatching turning all things from the true scope and intention for which they were made by God diverting them to prophane uses by turbulent and forcible wayes The world pleaseth it self to set up Idols every where to make it self adored in them as cheif Soveraign It makes use of the Sun to light his crimes of the fatnesse of the earth to fatten his pleasure of apparrell for his luxury of all metals to kindle Avarice and of the purest beauties to serve sensuality And if by chance it love any creature with a well-wishing love and as it ought to be loved that is not permanent The wind is not more inconstant nor a calm at Sea more unfaithfull then worldly friendship For sometimes it begins with Fire and ends in Ice It is made as between a pot and a glasse and is broken sooner then a glasse The ancient Almans tried their children in the Rhine but true friendship is tried in a sea of Tribulation It is only Jesus the preserver and restorer of all things who loves us from Eternity to Eternity We must follow the sacred steps of his examples to reduce our selves to the finall point of our happinesse 2. The water a first was a mild element which served the Majesty of God as a floting Charior since as the Scripture saith his Spirit was carried upon the waters from whence he drew the seeds which produced all the world But after man had sinned like a suprâ—me Judge he made use of the gentlest things to be the Instruments of our punishments The water which carried the divine mercies was chosen at the deluge to drown all â—ankind Now at this time Iesus sanctified it by his sacred touch He took the Bason which being in his hands became greater and more full of Majesty then all the Ocean Our spots which eternity could not wash clean are taken away at Baptisme by one onely drop of water sanct fied by his blessing He prevents the bath of his bloud by the bath of an element which he doth expresly before his institution of the blessed Sacrament to teach us what purity of life of heart of faith of in ention and affections we must bring to the holy Eucharist It is necessary to chase away all strange gods which are sins and passions before we receive the God of Israel we must wash our selves in the waters of repentance change our attire by a new conversation It is too much for us to give flesh for flesh the body of a miserable man for that of Iesus Christ The consideration of our sins should bring up the bloud of blushing in our cheeks since they vvere the onely cause vvhy he shed his most precious bloud upon the Crosse for us Alas the heavens are not pure before his most pure spirit vvhich purifies all nature Then hovv can we go to him vvith so many voluntary stains and deformities Is it not to cast flowers upon a dunghill and to drive Swine to a clear fountain when we will go to Jesus the Authour of innocency carrying with us the steps and spots of our hainous sins 3. Iesus would not onely take upon himself the form of man but that also of a base servant as saint paul saith It vvas the office of slaves to carry water to wash bodies which made David say that Moab should be the Bason of his hope expressing thereby that he would humble the Moabites so low that they should serve onely to bring water to wash unclean houses Alas vvho vvould have said that the Messias was come amongst us to execute the office of a Moabite What force hath conquered him vvhat arms have brought him under but onely love Hovv can vve then become proud and burn incense to that Idoll called point of honour when we see hovv our God humbled himself in this action Observe with vvhat preparation the Evangelist said that his heavenly Father had put all into his hands that he came from God and went to God and yet instead of taking the worlds Scepter he takes a Bason and humbles himself to the most servile offices And if the waters of this Bason cannot burst in us the foul imposthume of vanity we must expect no other remedy but the eternal flames of hell fire Aspirations O King of Lovers and Master of all holy Loves Thou lovest for an end and till the accomplishment of that end It appertains only to thee to teach the Art of loving well since thou hast practised it so admirably Thou art none of those delicate friends who only make love to beauties to gold and silk thou lovest our very poverty and our miseries because they serve for objects of thy charity Let proud Michol laugh while she list to see my dear David made as a water bearer I honour him as much in that posture as I would sitting upon the throne of all the world I look upon him holding this Bason as upon him that holds the vast Seas in his hands O my mercifull Jesus I beseech thee wash wash again and make clean my most sinfull soul Be it as black as hell being in thy hands it may become more white then that Dove with silver wings of which the Prophet speaks I go I run to the fountains I burn with love amongst thy purifying waters I desire affectionately to humble my self but I know not where to find so low a place as thine when thou wast humbled before Iudas to wash his traitours feet Vpon the Garden of Mount Olivet Moralities 1. JEsus enters into a Garden to expiate the sin committed in a Garden by the first man The first Adam stole the fruit and the second is ordained to make satisfaction It is a strange thing that he chose the places of our delights for suffering his pains and never lookt upon our most dainty sweets but to draw out of them most bitter sorrows Gardens are made for recreations but our Saviour finds there onely desolation The Olives which are tokens of Peace denounce War unto him The plants there do groan the flowers are but flowers of death and those fountains are but fountains of sweat and bloud He that shall study well this Garden must needs be ashamed of all his pleasant Gardens and will forsake those refined curiosities of Tulips to make his heart become another manner of Garden where Jesus should be planted as the onely tree of life which brings forth the most perfect fruits of justice 2. It was there that the greatest Champion of the world undertook so great combats which began with sweat and bloud but ended with the losse of his life There were three marvelous agonies of God Death of Ioy and Sorrow of the Soul and Flesh of Iesus God and Death were two incompatible things since God is the first and the most universal of all lives who banisheth from him all the operations of death and yet his love finds means to unite them together for our
they would not speak one ill word What honour can you expect by yielding at the first entrance to a temptation Looke not upon the violence of it but contemplate the Crown which you should gain by conquering it think at your entrance how you will come off and know for certain that he who truly considers the consequence of a wicked action will never begin it 6. Lent is the Spring time for sanctified resolutions it mortifies the body that the spirit may triumph it is a time of grace which tends to salvation and mercy It imports extreamly to commend all to God at the beginning to sanctifie this fasting which is a part of our devotion we must abstaine from flesh be conteÌ„t with one meal at seasonable hours without making over large collations except age infirmity or weaknesse labour or necessity of other functions shall dispence with our diet for those who are unable to fast suffer more by their disability then others do by fasting It is good to follow the counsell of Athanasius who adviseth to eat late and little and at a table where there is but one sort of meat We must also fast by abstinence from vice For to weaken our body and yet nourish our naughty passions is to fast as the Devils do who eat nothing and yet devour the world by the rage of their malice Sobriety is a stream which waters all virtues Our soul and body are as the scales of a ballance if you pull down the one you raise up the other and if you tame your flesh it makes the Spirit raign govern Aspirations O Most mercifull Lord Father and Protectour of all my life how great are the temptations and snares vvhereunto I am subject vvhen I eat drink sleep vvhen I do business vvhen I am both in conversation solitude Whither shall this poor soul goe which thou hast thrown into a body so frail in a world so corrupt and amongst the assaults of so many pernitious enemies Open O Lord thine eyes for my guidance and compassionate my infirmities without thee I can do nothing and in thee I can do all that I ought Give me O Lord a piercing eye to see my danger and the wings of an Eagle to flie from it or the heart of a Lion to fight valiantly that I may never be wanting in my dutie and fidelity to thee I owe all that I am or have to thy gracions favour and I will hope for my salvation not by any proportion of my own virtues which are weak and slender but by thy boundlesse liberalities which onely do crown all our good works The Gospel upon Munday the first week in Lent out of S. Matthew 25. Of the Judgement day ANd when the Sonne of man shall come in his Majesty and all the Angels with him then shall he sit upon the seat of his Majesty And all nations shall be gathered together before him and he shall separate them one from another as the Pastour separateth the sheep from the goats And shall set the sheep at his right hand but the goats at his left Then shall the King say to them that shall be at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father possesse you the kingdom prepared for yoâ— from the foundation of the world For I was hungred and you gave me to eat I was athirst and you gave me to drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you covered me sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me Then shall the just answer him saying Lord when did we see theâ— an hungred and fed thee a thirst and gave thee drink and when did wee see thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and covered thee or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee And the King answering shall say to them Amen I say to you as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Then shall he say â—o them also that shall be at his left hand Get you away from me you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and you gave me not to eate I was a thirst and you gave me not to drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and you covered me not sick and in prison and you did not visit me Then they also shall answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee Then he shall answer them saying Amen I say to you as long as you did it not to one of these lesser neither did you it to me And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Moralities 1. BEhold here a Gospel of great terrour where our spirit like the Dove of Noah is placed upon the great deluge of Gods wrath and knows not where to find footing Every thing is most dreadfull But what can be more terrible then the certainty of Gods judgement joyned with the great uncertainty of the hour of our death It is an unchangeable decree that we must all be presented before the high Tribunall of the living God to render a just account of all which our soul hath done while it was joyned with our body as we are taught by S. Paul We must make an account of our time spent of our thoughts words actions of that we have done and that we have omitted of life death and of the bloud of Jesus Christ and thereupon receive a judgement of everlasting life or death All men know that this must certainely be done but no man knows the hour or moment when it shall be So many clocks strike about us every day yet none can let us know the hour of our death 2. O how great is the solitude of a soul in her separation from so many great inticements of the world wherein many men live and in an instant to see nothing but the good or ill we have done one either side us what an astonishment will it be for a man suddenly to see all the actions of his life as upon a piece of Tapistree spred before his eyes where his sins will appear like so many thorns so many serpents so many venemous beasts Where will then be that cozening vail of reputation and reason of state which as yet cover so many wicked actions The soul shall in that day of God be shewed naked to all the world and her own eyes will most vex her by witnessing so plainly what she hath done 3. O what a parting water is Gods judgemet which in a moment shall separate the mettals so different O what a division will then be made of some men which now live upon the earth Some shall be made clear bright like the starres of heaven and others like Coles burning in hell O what
put upon him ugly antick faces we compass him round about with terrours and illusions of all which he never so much as thought It is a profound sleep in which Nature lets it self fail insensibly when she is tired with the disquiets of this life It is a cessation of all those services which the soul renders to the flesh It is an execution of Gods will and a decree common to all the world To be disquieted and drawn by the ears o pay a debt which so many millions of men of all conditions have paid before us is to do as a frog that would swim against a sharp stream of a forcible torâ—ent We have been as it were dead to so many ages which went before us we die piece-meal every day we assay death so often in our sleep discreet men expect him fools despise him and the most disdainfull persons must entertain him Shall vve not knovv and endeavour to do that one thing vvell vvhich being once vvell performed vvill give us life for ever Me thinks it is rather a gift of God to die soon then to stay late amongst the occasions of sinne 3. It is not death but a vvicked life vve have cause to fear That onely lies heavie both troubles us and keeps us from understanding and tasting the svveets of death He that can die to so many little dead and dying things vvhich make us die every day by our unvvillingness to forsake thë shall find that death is nothing to him But vve vvould fain in death carry the vvorld vvith us upon our shoulders to the grave that is a thing vve cannot do We vvould avoid the judgement of a just God that is a thing vvhich vve should not so much as thinke Let us clear our accounts before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance a moderate care of our bodies buriall Let us order our goods by a good and charitable testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children kindred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Iesus fountain of all lives in whose bosome all things are living Iesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdome of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be alwayes of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. Iohn 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sickman Lazarus of bethania of the Town of Mary and Martha her sister And Mary was she that anointed our Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick And Iesus hearing said to them This sicknesse is not to death but for the glory of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Iesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he was sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Iewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Iewes sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Iesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world but if he walk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Iesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Iesus saïd to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I was not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore who called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Iesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania was nigh to Ierusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Iewes were come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore when she heard that Iesus was come went to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Iesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that what things soever thou shalt ask of God God will give thee Iesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Iesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this world Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sicknesse to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God then when she raiseth up the greatnesse of her courage the body being cast down with sicknesse A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolors 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange
redemption The joy of beatitude was a fruition of all celestial delights whereunto nothing which displeased could have accesse and yet Iesus suffered sorrow to give him a mortal blow even in the Sanctuary of his Divinity He afflicted himself for us because we knew not what it was to afflict our selves for him and he descended by our stâ—ps to the very anguishes of death to make us rise by his death to the greatest joyes of life To be short there was a great duel between the affectionate love and the virginal flesh of Iesus His soul did naturally love a body which was so obedient and his bodie followed wholly the inclinations of his soul There was so perfect an agreement between these two parties that their separation must needs be most dolorous Yet Iesus would have it so signe the decree by sweating bloud And as if it had been too little to weep for our sinnes with two eyes he suffered as many eyes as he had veins to be made in his body to shed for us tears of his own bloud 3. Observe here how this soul of Iesus amongst those great anguishes continued alwayes constant like the needle of a Sea-compass in a storm He prayes he exhorts be orders he reproves and he encourages he is like the heavens which amongst so many motions and agitations lose no part of their measure or proportion Nature and obedience make great convulsions in his heart but he remains constantly obedient to the will of his heavenly Father he tears himself from himself to make himself a voluntary sacrifice for death amongst all his inclinations to life to teach us that principal lesson of Christianitie which is to desire onely what God will and to execute all the decrees of his divine providence as our chiefest helps to obtain perfection Aspirations O Beauteous garden of Olives which from henceforth shalt be the most delicious objects of my heart I will lose my self in thy walks I will be lost with God that I may never be lost I will breath only thy air since it is made noble by the sighs of my dear Master I will gather thy flowers since Iesus hath marked them with his bloud I will wash my self in those fountains since they are sanctified by the sweat of my Iesus I will have no other joy but the sorrow of the Son of God nor any other will but his O my sweet Saviour Master and teacher of all humane kind wilt thou be abridged of thine own will which was so reasonable pure to give me an example of mortifying my passions and shall I before thy face retain any wicked or disordinate appetites Is it possible I should desire to be Lord of my self who am so bad a Master when I see the Author of all goodnesse separate himself from himself onely to make me and all mankind partakers of his merits Of the apprehension of Iesus IN that obscure dolorous night wherein our Saviour was apprehended three sorts of darknesses were cast upon the Iews upon Iudas upon S. Peter A darkness of obduration upon the hearts of the Iews a darknesse of ingratefull malignity upon Iudas and a darknesse of infirmity upon Saint Peter Was there ever any blindness like that of the Iews who sought for the shining sun with lighted torches without knowing him by so many beams of power which shined from him They are strucken down with the voice of the Son of God as with lightning and they rise again upon the earth to arme themselves against heaven They bind his hands to take away the use of his forces but they could not stop the course of his bounties To shew that he is totally good he is good and charitable even amongst his merciless executioners and he lost all he had savng his Godhead only to gain patience When Saint Peter stroke the high Priests servant the patience of our Lord Iesus received the blow and had no patience till he was healed If goodness did shew forth any one beam in the Garden modesty sent forth another in the house of Annas when his face was strucken by a servile hand his mouth opened it self as a Temple from whence nothing came but sweetnesse and light The God of Truth speaketh to Caiphas and they spit upon his brightnesse and cover that face which must discover heaven for us The mirrour of Angels is tarnisht with the spittle of infernal mouths wounded by most sacrilegious hands without any disturbance of his constancie That was invincible by his virtue as the wilfulness of the Iews stood unmoveable by their obduration There are souls which after they have filled the earth with crimes expect no cure of their discases but by the hell of the reprobate 2. The second darkness appeareth by the black passion of Iudas who falls down into hell with his eys open and after he had fold his soul sold Jesus and both all he had and all he was to buy an infamous halter to hang himself A soul become passionate with wanton love with ambition or avarice is banished into it self as into a direct hell and delivered to her own passion as to the Furies The Poets Hydra had but seven heads but the spirit of Avarice S. Iohn Climacus saith hath ten thousand The conversation of Iesus which was so full of infinite attractions could never win the spirit of Judas when it was once bewitched with covetousnesse The tinkling of silver kept him from rightly understanding Jesus He makes use of the most holy things to betray Holiness it self He employes the kisse of peace to begin war He carries poyson in his heart and hony in his mouth he puts on the spirit of Iesus to betray him This shews us plainly that covetous and traiterous persons are farthest from God and nearest to the Devils The third power of darknesse appeared in the infirmitie of Saint Peter who after so many protestations of fidelity for fear of death renounced the Authour of life One of the Ancients said the greatest frailty of Humanity was that the wisest men were not infallibly wise at all times And all men are astonished to see that the greatest spirits being left to themselves become barren and suffer eclipses which give example to the wisest and terrour to all the world God hath suffered the fall of St. Peter to make us have in â—orrour all presumption of our own forces to teach us that over great assurance is oft times mother of an approaching danger Besides it seemeth he would by this example consecrate the virtue of repentance in this fault of him whom he chose to be head of his Church to make us see that there is no dignitie so high nor holinesse so eminent which doth not ow Tribute to the mercie of God Aspirations Vpon Saint Peters tears IT is most true saith Saint Peter that a proud felicity hath alwaies reeling feet Thou which didst defie the gates of hell hast yielded thy self to the voice of a simple woman
of their own ruines and fear nothing so they may tumble into precipices of gold and silver 2. What great paines you take for these children as if they did not more belong to God then you you cast day and night where to place them when the providence of God which is the great Harbinger of the world hath already markt their lodgings One is settled in a good Religious course another in the grave another perhaps shall have more then is necessary to make him a good man Eve imagined that her sonne Cain having all the world would have become some great God when ambition made him a devil incarnate You shall rarely make your children great Saints by getting them great honours You desire they should possesse all that which overthrows them and pretending to make a building with one hand you destroy it with the other By all your earnest wishes and all your laborious endeavours for advancement of your children you effect nothing but thereby give them inticements to pleasure and weapons for iniquity 3. Whereupon should we build our ambitions if not upon the bloud of the holy Lamb At the foot of the Cross we behold a God covered with bloud crowned with thorns and reproaches who warns us to be humble and at the same time we egarly pursue worldly glory ambition We resemble that unhappy daughter of Miltiades who did prostitute her self under her fathers Trophees By our unmeasurable hunting after honours amongst the ignominies of Iesus Christ we abandon our selves to dishonour and make no other use of the Cross but only to be a witnesse of our infidelity Aspirations AVoid be gone you importunate cares of worldly goods and honours you little tyrants which burn the bloud within our veins and fill the most innocent pleasures of our life with bitter sorows what have I more to do with you My children shall be what God will They shall be but too rich when they have virtue for their portion and but too high when they shall see a true contempt of the world under their feet God forbid that I should go about any worldly throne upon the holy Lambs bloud or that I should talk of honours when there is mention made of the holy crosse O Jesus thou father of all true glories thou shalt from henceforth be my onely crown All greatnesse where thou art not shall to me be onely basenesse I will mount up to thee by the stairs of humility since by those thou camest down to me I will kisse the paths of mount Calvary which thou hast sprinkled with thy precious bloud and esteem the Crosse above all worldly things since thou hast consecrated it by thy cruell pains and brought us forth upon that dolours bed to the day of thy eternity The Gospel upon Thursday the second week in Lent out of S. Luke 16. Of the rich Glutton and poor Lazarus THere was a certain rich man and he was clothed with purple and silk and he fared every day magnifically And there was a certain begger called Lazarus that lay at his gate full of sores desiring to be filled of the crums that fâ—ll from the rich mans table but the dogs also came and licked his sores And it came to passe that the begger died and was carried of the Angels into Abrahams bosome And the rich man also died and he was buried in hell and lifting up his eyes when he was in torments he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosome And he crying said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger into water for to cool my tongue because I am tormented in this flame And Abraham said to him son remember that thou didst receive good things in thy life time and Lazarus likewise evill but now he is comforted and thou tormented And beside all these things between us and you there is fixed a great Chaos that they which will passe from hence to you may not neither go from thence hither And he said then fath r I heseech thee that thou wouldest send him to my fathers house for I have five brâ—thren for to testifie unto them lest they also come into this place of torments And Abraham said to him they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But he said no father Abraham but if some man shall go from the dead to them they will do pennance And he said to him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither if one shall rise again from the dead will they believe Moralities 1. A Rich man and a poor meet in this world the one loden with treasures the other with ulcers They both meet in the other world the one in a gulf of fire the other in an Abyss of delights Their ends are as different as their lives were contrary to teach us that he which shall consider rightly the end of all worldly sins and vanities will have in horrour the desire of them And as there is nothing for which godly poor men may not hope so is there nothing which wicked rich men should not fear He that is proud of riches is proud of his burdens and chains but if he unload them upon the poor he will be eased of his pain and secured in his way 2. The life of man is a marvelous Comedy wherein the greatest part of our actions are plaid under a curtain which the divine providence draws over them to cover us It concealed poor Lazarus kept him in obscurity like the fish which we never see till it be dead But Jesus draws the curtain and makes himself the historian of this good poor man shewing us the state of his soul of his body of his life death He makes him appear in Abrahams bosome as within the temple of rest and happiness and makes him known to the rich man as to the treasurer of hells riches Are not we unworthy the name which we carry when we despise the poor and hate poverty as the greatest misery since the Sonne of God having once consecrated it upon the throne of his Manger made it serve for his spouse during life and his bride maid at the time of his death 3. This rich glutton dreamed and at the end of his dream found himself buried in hell All those pomps of his life were scattered in an instant as so many nocturnall illusions and his heart filled with eternall grief and torment His first misery is a sudden unexpected and hideous change from a huge sea of delicacies into an unsufferable gulf of fire where he doth acknowledge that one of the greatest vexations in misery is to have been happy Another disaster which afflicts him is to see Lazarus in Abrahams bosome to teach us that the damned are tormented by Paradise even to the very lowest par of Hell and that the most grievous of their torments is they can never forget their losse of God So saith Theophilact that Adam was placed
that such proceedings are abominable before God there can be no better devotion in the world then to have a true and right seeling of God to live in honesty not sophisticated but such as is produced out of the pure lights of nature The conscience of hypocrites is a spiders web whereof no garment can ever be made Hypocrisie is a very subtil fault and a secret poison which kills other virtues with their own swords 2. Iesus is our great Master who hath abridged six hundred and thirteen Precepts of the old Testament within the law of love Do but love saith Saint Augustine and do what you vvill but then your love must go to the right fountain which is the heart of God It is in him you must cherish and honour your nearest friends and for him also you are bound to love even your greatest enemies Be not afraid to shew him your heart stark naked that he may pierce it vvith his arrows for the wounds of such an archer are much more precious then rubies You shall gain all by loving him and death it self vvhich comes from this love is the gate of life If you love him truly you vvilll have the three conditions of love which are to serve him to imitate him and to suffer for him You must serve him vvith all fidelitie in your prayers and all your actions you must imitate him vvhat possibly you can in all the passages of his life And you must hold it for a glory to participate vvith a valiant patience all the fruits of his Cross Aspirations O Great God vvho judgest all hearts and doest penetrate the most secret retiremēts of our consciences drive away from me all counterfeit Pharisaical devotions which are nothing but shews cannot subsist but by false apparencies O my God my Iesus make me keep the Law of thy love and nothing else It is a yoke vvhich brings vvith it more honor then burden It is a yoke which hath wings but no heavinesse Make me serve thee O my Master since thou beholdest the services of all the Angels under thy feet Make me imitate thee O my Redeemer since thou art the originall of all perfections make me suffer for thee O King of the afflicted and that I may not know what it is to suffer by knowing what it is to love The Gospel on Thursday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus cured the Fever of Simons Mother in Lavv. ANd Iesus rising up out of the Synagogue entred into Simons house and Simons wives mother was holden with a great Fever and they besought him for her And standing over her he commanded the Fever and it lest her And incontinent rising she ministred to them And when the Sun was down all that had diseased of sundrie maladies brought them to him But he imposing hands upon every one cured them And Devils went out from many crying and saying that thou art the Son of God And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak that they knew he was Christ And when it was day going forth he went into a Desart place and the multitudes sought him and came even unto him and they held him that he should not depart from them To whom he said That to other Cities also must I Evangelize the Kingdome of God because therefore I was sent And he was preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee Moralities 1. A Soul within a sick body is a Princesse that dwels in a ruinous house Health is the best of all temporall goods without which all honors are as the beams of an eclipsed Sun Riches are unpleasing and all pleasures are languishing All joy of the heart subsists naturally in the health of the body But yet it is true that the most healthfull persons are not alwaies the most holy What profit is there in that health which serves for a provocation to sinne for an inticement to worldly pleasure and a gate to death The best souls are never better nor stronger then when their bodies are sick their diseases are too hard for their mortall bodies but their courage is invincible It is a great knovvledge to understand our own infirmities Prosperity keeps us from the view of them but adversity shews them to us We should hardly know what death is if so many diseases did not teach us every day that we are mortall Semiramis the proudest of all Queens had made a law whereby she was to be adored in stead of all the gods but being humbled by a great sicknesse she acknowledged her self to be but a woman 2. All the Apostles pray for this holy woman which was sick but she herself asked nothing nor did complain of any thing She leaves all to God who is only Master of life and death She knew that he which gives his benefits with such bounty hath the wisdome to chuse those which are most fit for us How do we know whether we desiring to be delivered from a sicknesse do not aske of God to take away a gift which is very necessary to our salvation That malady or affliction which makes us distaste worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to taste the joyes of heaven 3. How many sicke persons in the heate of a Feaver promise much and when they are well again perform nothing That body which carried all the marks of death in the face is no sooner grown strong by health which rejoyceth the heart fils the vains with bloud but it becomes a slave to sin The gifts of God being abused serve for nothing but to make it wicked and so the soul is killed by recovery of the flesh But this pious woman is no sooner on foot but she serves the Author of life and employes all those limbs which Jesus cured of the Feaver to prepare some provisions to refresh him He that will not use the treasures of heaven with acknowledge ment deserves never to keep them When a man is recovered from a great sicknesse as his body is renewed by health so on the other side he should renew his spirit by virtue The body saith Saint Maximus is the bed of the soul where it sleeps too easily in continuall health and forgets it self in many things But a good round sicknesse doth not onely move but turn over this bed which maketh the soul awake to think on her salvation and make a total conversion Aspirations O Word Incarnate all Feavers and Devils flie before the beams of thy redoubted face Must nothing but the hea◠of my passions alwayes resist thy powers and bounties To what maladies and indispositions am I subject I have more diseases in my soul then limbs in my body My weaknesse bends under thy scourges and yet my sinnes continue still unmoveable Stay O benigne Lord stay thy-self near me Cast upon my dull and heavy eyes one beam from those thine eyes which make all storms clear and all disasters happy Command that my weaknesse leave me and that I may arise to perform my
in sinnes and dost thou teach us And they did cast him forth Iesus heard that they câ—st him forth and when he had found him he said to him Dost thou believe in the Sonne of God He answered and said Who is the Lord that I may believe in him And Iesus said to him Both thou hast seen him and he that talketh with thee he it is But he said I believe Lord and falling down he adored him Moralities 1. JEsus the Father of all brightnesse who walked accompanied with his twelve Apostles as the Sun doth with the hours of the day gives eyes to a blind man and doth it by clay and spittle to teach us that none hath power to do works above nature but he that was the Authour of it On the other side a blind man becomes a King over persons of the clearest light being restored to light he renders again the same to the first fountain from vvhence it came He makes himself an Advocate to plead for the chiefest truth and of a poor beggar becomes a confessor after he had deplored his misery at the Temple gate teacheth all mankind the estate of its own felicities We should in imitation of him love the light by adoring the fountain of it and behave our selves as witnesses and defenders of the truth 2. God is a light and by his light draws all unto him he makes a break of day by his grace in this life which becomes afterward a perfect day for all eternity But many lose themselves in this world some for want of light some by a false light and some by having too much light 3. Those lose themselves for vvant of light vvho are not all instructed in the faith and maximes of Christian Religion and those instead of approching near the light love their ovvn darkness They hate the light of their salvation as the shadovv of death and think that if you give them eyes to see their blindnesse you take away their life If they seem Christians they yet have nothing but the name the appearance the book of Jesus is shut from them or if they make a shew to read they may name the letters but never can produce one right good word 4. Others destroy themselves by false lights who being wedded to their own opinions adoring the Chimeraes of their spirit think themselves full of knowledge just happy that the Sun riseth only for them and that all the rest of the world is in darkness they conceive they have the fairest stars for conductors but at the end of their career they find too late that this pretended light was but an Ignis fatuus which led them to a precipice of eternal flames It is the worst of all follies to be wise in our own eye sight and the worst of all temptations is for a man to be a devil to himself 5. Those ruine themselves with too much light who have all Gods law by heart but never have any heart to that law They know the Scriptures all learning sciences they understand every thing but themselves they can find spots in the Sun they can give new names to the stars they perswade themselvs that God is all that they apprehend But after all this heap of knowledge they are found to be like the Sages of Pharaoh and can produce nothing but bloud and frogs Thay embroil and trouble the world they stain their own lives and at their deaths leave nothing to continue but the memory of their sins It would be more expedient for them rather then have such light to carry fiâ—e wherewith to be burning in the love of God and not to swell and burst with that kind of knowledge All learning which is not joined with a good life is like a picture in the aire which hath no table to make it subsist It is not sufficient to be elevated in spirit like the Prophets except a man do enter into some perfect imitation of their virtues Aspirations O Fountain of all brightnesse before whom night can have no vail who seest the day spring out of thy bosome to spread it self over all nature wilt thou have no pity upon my blindness will there be no medicine for my eyes which have so often grown dull and heavy with earthly humours O Lord I want light being alwaies so blind to my own sinnes So many years are past wherein I have dwelt vvith my self and yet know not what I am Self-love maketh me sometimes apprehend imaginary virtues in great and see all my crimes in little I too often believe my own judgement and adore my own opinions as gods and goddesses if thou send me any light I make so ill use of it that I dazle my self even in the brightnesse of thy day making little or no profit of that which would be so much to my advantage if I were so happy as to know it But henceforth I will have no eyes but for thee I will only contemplate thee O life of all beauties and draw all the powers of my soul into my eyes that I may the better apprehend the mistery of thy bounties O cast upon me one beam of thy grace so powerfull that it may never forsake me till I may see the day of thy glory The Gospell upon Thursday the fourth week in Lent St Luke the 7. Of the Widows Son raised from death to life at Naim by our Saviour ANd it came to passe afterward he went into a City that is called Naim and there wâ—nt with him his Disciples and a very great multitude And when he came nigh to the gate of the City behold a dead man was carried forth the only Son of his Mother and she was a Widow and a great muâ—â—itude of the City with her whom when our Lord had seen being moved with mercy upon her he said to her Weep not And he came near and touched the Cossin And they that carried it stood still and he said Young man I say to thee Arise And he that was dead sate up and began to speak And he gave him to his Mother and fear took them all and they magnified God saying That a great Prophet is risen among us and that God hath visited his People And this saying went forth into all Iewry of him and into all the Countrey about Moralities JEsus met at the Gates of Naim which is interpâ—eted the Town of Beauties a young man carried to burial to shew us that neither beauty nor youth are freed from the Laws of death We fear death and there is almost nothing more immortal here below every thing dies but death it self We see him alwaies in the Gospells we touch him every day by our experiences and yet neither the Gospells make us sufficiently faithfull nor our experiences well advised 2. If we behold death by his natural face he seems a litle strange to us because we have not seen him well acted We lay upon him sithes bows and arrows we
All those conquests which thou didst promise to thy self are become the trophees of so weak a hand Return to the combat since she hath triumphed over thee do thou at least triumph over thy self Alas I am afraid even to behold the place of my fall and the weak snares of a simple woman appear to me as boisterous chains Yet what can he fear who is resolute to die If thou find death amongst those Massacres thou shouldst rather embrace then decline it For what can it do but make thee companion of life it self Our soul is yet too foul to be a sacrifice for God let us first wash it with tears I fell down before the fire and I will rise by water I have walked upon the sea to come to Iesus and I will now return to him by the way of my tears I will speak now only by my tears since I have lately talked so wickedly with my mouth Since that which should open to speak Oracles for the Church hath been employed to commit foul treason since we have nothing left free to us but sighs and groans let us make use of the last liberty which is left us and when all is spent return to the mercy of Jesus which all the sins of the world can never evacuate I will from henceforth be a perpetuall example to the Church by my fall and rising again from death for the comfort of sinners and the fault of one night shall be lamented by me all the dayes of my life Moralities upon the Pretorian or Iudgement Hall 1. IN the passion of our Saviour all things are divine and it seemeth they go as high as they could be raised by that Soveraign power joyned with extream love Iesus the most supream and redoubted judge who will come in his great Majesty to judge the world fire and lightning streaming from his face and all things trembling under his feet was pleased at this time to be judged as a criminall person Every thing is most admirable in this judgement The accusers speak nothing of those things which they had resolved in their counsels but all spake against their consciences As soon as they are heard they are condemned justice for saketh them they are wholly possest with rage Pilate before he gave judgement upon Iesus pronounced it against himselfe for after he had so many times declared him innocent he could not give judgement without protesting himself to be unjust The silence of Iesus is more admired by this Infidell then the eloquence of all the world and truth without speaking one word triumpheth over falshood A Pagan Lady the wife of Pilate is more knowing then all the Laws more religious then the Priests more zealous then the Apostles more couragious then the men of Arms when she sleepeth Iesus is in her sleep when she talketh Iesus is upon her tongue if she write Iesus iâ— under her pen her letter defended him at the judgement Hall when all the world condemned him she calleth him holy when they used him like a theif She maketh her husband wash his hands before he touched that bloud the high price of which she proclamed She vvas a Roman Lady by Nation called Claudia Prâ—cula and it vvas very fit she should defend this Jesus who was to plant the seat of his Church in Rome All this while Jesus doth good amongst so many evils He had caused a place to be bought newly for the burial of Pilgrims at the price of his bloud he reconciles Herod and Pilate by the loss of his life He sets Barrabas at liberty by the loss of his honour he speaks not one word to him that had killed Saint Iohn the Baptist who was the voice And the other to revenge himself vvithout thinking what he did shewed him as a king He appears before Pilate as the king of dolours that he might become for us the king of glories But what a horrour is it to consider that in this judgement he was used like a slave like a sorcerer like an accursed sacrifice Slavery made him subject to be whipped the crown of thorns was given onely to Enchanters that made him appear as a Sorcerer And so many curses pronounced against him made him as the dismissive Goat mentioned in Leviticus which vvas a miserable beast upon which they cast all their execrations before they sent it to die in the desart He that bindeth the shovvers in clouds to make them vvater the earth is bound and dravvn like a criminall person He that holds the vast seas in his sist and ballanceth heaven with his fingers is strucken by servile hands He that enamels the bosome of the earth with a rare pleasing diversitie of flowers is most ignominiously crowned with a crown of thorns O hideous prodigies which took away from us the light of the Sun and covered the Moon with a sorrowfull darknesse Behold what a Garland of flowers he hath taken upon his head to expiate the sins of both Sexes It was made of briers and thorns which the earth of our flesh had sowed for us which the virtue of his Crosse took away All the pricks of death were thrust upon this prodigious patience which planted her throne upon the head of our Lord. Consider how the Son of God would be used for our sins while we live in delicacies and one little offensive word goeth to our hearts to which though he that spake it gave the swiftnesse of wings yet we keep it so shut up in our hearts that it getteth leaden heels which make it continue there fixed Aspirations ALas what do I see here a crown of thorns grafted upon a man of thorns A man of dolours who burns between two fires the one of love the other of tribulation both which do enflame and devour him equally and yet never can consume him O thou the most pure of all beauties where have my sins placed thee Thou art no more a man but a bloody skin taken from the teeth of Tygers and Leopards Alas what a spectacle is this to dispoil this silk * Ego sum vermis non hoâ—o Psalm 21. worm which at this day attires our Churches and Altars How could they make those men who looked upon thy chaste body strike and disfigure it O white Alabaster how hast thou been so changed into scarlet Every stroke hath made a wound and every wound a fountain of blood And yet so many fountains of thy so precious blood cannot draw from me one tear But O sacred Nightingale of the Cross who hath put thee within these thorns to make so great harmonies only by thy silence O holy thorns I do doe not ask you where are your roses I know well they are the blood of Jesus and I am not ignorant that all roses would be thorns if they had any feeling of that which you have Jesus carried them upon his head but I will bear them at my heart and thou O Jesus shalt be the
be to you And when he had said this he shewed them his hands and side The Disciples therefore were glad when they saw our Lord He said therefore to them again Peace be to you As my Father hath sent me I also do send you When he had said this he breathed upon them and he said to them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them and whose you shall retain they are retained But Thomas one of the twelve who is called Didymus was not with them when Iesus came the other Disciples therefore said to him We have seen our Lord. But he said to them Vnlesse I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side I will not believe And after eight dayes again his Disciples were within and Thomas with them Iesus cometh the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said Peace be to you Then he saith to Thomas Put in thy finger hither and see my hands and bring hither thy hand and put it into my side and be not incredulous but faithfull Thomas answered and said to him My Lord and my God Iesus saith to him Because thou hast seen me Thomas thou hast believed Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed Moralities 1. JEsus the Father of all blessed harmonies after so many combats makes a generall peace in all nature He pacifieth Limbo taking the holy Fathers out of darknesse to enjoy an eternall light and sending the damned to the bottom of hell He pacifies the earth making it from thenceforth to breathe the aire of his mercies He pacifieth his Apostles by delivering them from that profound sadness which they conceived by the imaginary losse of their dear Master He pacifieth Heaven by sweetning the sharpnesse of his heavenly Father quenching by his wounds the fire which was kindled of his just anger Every thing smileth upon this grear Peace-maker Nature leaveth her mourning and putteth on her robes of chearfulness to congratulate with him his great and admirable conquests It is in him that the heavenly Father by a singular delight hath poured out the fulnesse of all Graces to make us an eternal dwelling and to reconcile all in him and by him pacifying by his bloud froÌ„ the Cross all that is upon earth and in heaven This is our Iosuah of whom the Scripture speaketh that he clears all difference and appeaseth all battels No stroke of any hammer or other iron was heard at the building of Solomons Temple and behold the Church which is the Temple of the living God doth edifie souls with a marvellous tranquillity 2. The Sun is not so well set forth by his beames as our Saviour is magnificently adorned with his wounds Those are the Characters which he hath engraved upon his flesh after a hundred ingenious fashions The Ladies count their pearls and diamonds but our Saviour counts his wounds in the highest attire of his Magnificences It is from thence that the beauty of his body taketh a new state of glory and our faith in the resurrection is confirmed that the good fill themselves with hope Miscreants with terrour and Martyrs finde wherewith to enflame their courage These divine wounds open themselves as so many mouths to plead our cause before the Celestiall Father Our Saviour Jesus never spake better for us then by the voice of his precious Bloud Great enquity hath been made for those mountains of mirth franking cence which Solomon promiseth in the Canticles but now we have found them in the wounds of Jesus It is from thence that there cometh forth a million of sanctified exhalations of sweetnesse of peace and propitiation as from an eternall sanctuary A man may say they are like the Carbuncle which melteth the wax upon which it is imprinted for they melt our hears by a most profitable impression At this sight the eternall Father calmes his countenance and the sword of his justice returneth into the sheath Shall not we be worthy of all miserie if we do arme these wounds against us which are so effectuall in our behalf And if this bloud of our Abel after it hath reconciled his cruell executioners should finde just matter to condemn us for our ingratitudes Iohn the second King of Portugall had made a secret vow never to refuse any thing which should be asked of him in the virtue of our Saviours wounds which made him give all his silver vessels to a poor gentleman that had found out the word And why should not wee give our selves to God who both buyeth and requireth us by the wounds of Jesus 3. Jesus inspireth the sacred breath of his mouth upon his Apostles as upon the first fruits of Christianity to repair the first breath and respiration of lives which the Author of our â—ace did so miserably lose If we can obtain a part of this we shall be like the wheels of Ezekiels mysterious chariot which are filled with the spirit of life That great Divine called Mathias Vieâ—na said that light was the substance of colours and the Spirit of Iesus is the same of all our virtues If we live of his flesh there is great reason we should be animated by his Spirit Happy a 1000. times are they who are possessed with the Spirit of Jesus which is to their spirit as the apple of the eye Saint Thomas was deprived of this amorous communication by reason of his incredulity He would see with his eyes and feel with his hands that which should rather be coÌ„prehended by faith which is an eye blessedly blind which knoweth all within its own blindnesse is also at hand which remaining on earth goeth to find God in Heaven Aspirations GReat Peace-maker of the world who by the effusion of thy precious bloud hast pacified the wars of fourty ages which went before thy death This word of peace hath cost thee many battails many sweats and labours to ciment this agreement of Heaven and earth of sence and reason of God and man Behold thou art at this present like the Dove of Noahs Ark thou hast escaped a great deluge of passions and many torrents of dolours thrown headlong upon one another Thou bringest us the green Olive branch to be the marke of thy eternall aliances What Shall my soul be so audacious and disordered as to talk to thee of war when thou speakest to her of peace To offer thee a weapon when thou offerest her the Articles of her reconciliation signed with thy precious bloud Oh what earth could open wide enough her bosome to swallow me if I should live like a little Abiron with a hand armed against Heaven which pours out for me nothing but flowers and roses Raign O my sweet Saviour within all the conquered powers of my soul and within my heart as a conquest which thou hast gotten by so many titles I will swear upon thy wounds which after they have been the monuments of thy fidelity shall be the adored Altars of my vows sacrifices I will promise thereupon inviolable fidelity to thy service I will live no more but for thee since thou hast kild my death in thy life and makest my life flourish within thy triumphant Resurrection FINIS