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
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost thou wert signed with the Sign of the Cross in token that thou shouldest not be asham'd to confess the Faith of Christ crucified but manfully fight under his Banner against Sin the World the Flesh and the Devil and continue Christ's faithful Souldier and Servant unto thy life's end Consider that being come to Understanding thou art brought to take thy Baptismal Vow upon thy self in Confirmation whereby the Soul is fortified to fight the inward Battles of this Life and to bear the Cross Consider that at the receiving the Sacrament if thou dost it worthily thou renewest the same Vow and that the Benefits of Christ's Death cannot be convey'd to thee therein but by believing and working according to thy belief What is all this but to teach us that our Faith ought to be lively and that believing and doing must go together in a Christian For if thou wantest a hand to work thou wilt also want a hand to lay hold of Christ's Merits and to apply them to thy Soul Beg therefore of God that he would give thee a true a vital and an active Faith for by that means thou mayest have a sure and a certain Hope and an ardent Charity since they that believe well hope well and they that hope well love well He that works as he believes and believes as Christ commands him hopes in the same proportion that he believes If thou hopest as thou believest and believest as thou oughtest and lovest in the same manner as thou hopest Heaven and Glory are surely thine thou hast already conquer'd Hell The Devils flie already from thee The Angels are already with thee The Saints already bear thee Company Thou art already under the Protection of thy Blessed Saviour and art already sealed by him for an Heir predestinated to his Glory Pray therefore earnestly to God for a lively Faith and then thou shalt have certain Hope and fervent Charity The Root of that most beautiful Tree is Faith the green Leaves and fair Flowers of it are Hope and the sweet savoury Fruit is Charity This Tree of true Wisdom is the Tree of Eternal Life which cures the Wounds of the Tree of Death and of Knowledge Pant and gasp after the Fruit of this Spiritual Tree which is Divine Charity If thou feelest that if thou possessest that thou art already grown up and hast profited considerably in the Spiritual Life If thou feelest the love of God in thee and that thy heart be warmed with one spark thereof rejoyce and be of good courage for thou art already near the top of Calvary which is the Mount of Christian Perfection The day that God gives a Soul the feeling of his Love and an eager hearty desire to serve and to please him he draws it near to him and unites it to himself nay he already gives it a Pledge that living always so he may safely hope never to be parted from him Hast thou Divine Charity and dost thou feel the love of God within thee Thou wilt cast away Humane Passions and Imperfections and having banished that which is imperfect that which is perfect will continue and increase in thee Hast thou Divine Charity and dost thou feel the love of God Darkness will speedily flie away and an holy perfect Light will enlighten thee O Divine Charity how great is thy Power how great is thy Worth What is it that thou canst not do Thou art more Omnipotent in a manner than Omnipotency itself Thou madest the Son of God to leave the Bosom of his Omnipotent Father to seek a Mother to become Man and to die on the Cross for Man In the doing all which acts of excessive Kindness Omnipotency was as it were the Servant of Divine Charity since those things could not have been done if Omnipotency had not obey'd the infinite Love of God in performing what his Charity ordained If thou lovest God then I reckon thee safe on shore Persevere go on with joy and chearfulness and all will be easie sweet and pleasant to thee The Love of God facilitates the Exercises of a Spiritual Life and makes them sweet though in themselves they be bitter The Love of God chears the Soul and resists great Storms of Temptations Afflictions and Tribulations and keeps a Conscience pure holy prompt and lively The Love of God gives more pleasure in Suffering than Pleasure itself does in the enjoying The Love of God gives Light and drives away Darkness from the heart and as Night and Day cannot consist together so neither can Divine Charity and Sin The Love of God gives Strength and Perseverance in what is good and Valour and Constancy to oppose what is evil The Love of God roots out Passions Hatred and Revenge from the heart and introduces Pity Goodness and Mercy with the other excellent Vertues Finally the Love of God quickens defends comforts strengthens enlightens and perfects the Heart and Soul and so long as thou keepest it there it brings all under Subjection and Obedience to Reason It is strong sweet and powerful loving constant couragious and chearful it contains in it all that is good and casts out whatsoever is evil Exercise thy self then in Love if thou desirest the Lord should Crown thee If thou hast a mind to profit employ thy heart in loving Day and Night Love the Lord who in his Eternal purpose loved thee before there was Day or Night Let every return of thy breath breathe out the Love of this Lord so that thy respiration and thy love to him may he equally constant in thee THE THIRD PART OF THE Spiritual Year IN September October November December SEPTEMBER The First WEEK Of the Vertue of Religion and of the manner of Governing the Cardinal and Moral Vertues by that of Religion AN ardent Love a lively Faith and a constant Hope will bring thee to another most sweet and noble Vertue called Religion or the inward and outward Worship of God which is that that creates and promotes all the other Vertues and goes alway intermingled with Prayer In this thou oughtest to Exercise thy self with very great Humility All thy Conversation should be with God of God and for God Enter thy self into his Service by Faith adore him with Reverence and love all that appertains to him There is no need for thee to go up into Heaven to seek this Lord since for that purpose even Earth is Heaven and all Heaven is to be found in this narrow place of our Banishment Thou oughtest also to bear great Reverence to the Houses of God and to Sacred Persons for these are the Ministers of God and do represent God and those are Holy places consecrated and appointed for his outward Worship If thou dost live thus with Reverence and Fear and dost exercise the Vertue of Religion with Love which is the height of all Perfection thou shalt walk on in Spirit in Truth and in Prayer and shalt in the
kissed the Plague if he had met it in the Street There was another like this that was also a great Enemy to Mankind and they two visiting one another the first said I am very glad to be in the Company of one that abhors Men To which the other replied So should I also to be in thine but that thou art a Man Were these Men No certainly but Beasts and fiercer than Beasts Our blessed Redeemer did not thus but was always pleased to be called Man and being God the Eternal Son of God God of God seldom or never called himself the Son of God but often the Son of Man honouring that Nature which he came to Redeem and making himself Man by taking his Name from it Love thy Nature says the Holy Ghost hate not thine own Flesh If Men abhor Men and which is more Men that are vertuous for that is it which Envy commonly abhors who shall love Men or reward Vertue He is no true Christian that abhors Men through Envy or Cruelty for he follows not the principal Vertue which Jesus Christ did practise God being Divine became Humane and being God cloathed himself with our Nature to become Man and canst thou abhor thine own Nature or at least a Man Tell me after what manner did God converse with Men being perfect God and perfect Man How meek how gentle how favourable how sweet and gracious towards all Men Of Courtesie And this he did amongst other things to teach us not only Humility but even Courtesie Humanity and Civility as Beams of that Charity for that Infinite Love bestowed and communicated himself on that manner with his very Humanity The Saviour of Souls condemns any one that shall be rude and discourteous or that shall call his Brother Raca which in the Opinion of grave Expositors signifies a manner of discourteous and reproachful Behaviour and St. Paul also makes Courtesie an holy and a Sacred thing counselling that in honour we should prefer one another Honore se invicem praevenientes as who should say be Courteous and prevent one another in Civility or strive each of you to be the first in Courtesie Think not that Humanity and kind Behaviour is a slight matter in the Spiritual Life No it is of great weight and of much worth When thou art invited says our Saviour sit not down in the chiefest place least a more honourable than thou come and thou be forc'd with shame to take the lower Room Thou should'st strive to be Courteous and Civil for it is a great good to thy self and very pleasing to others Thy love of God cannot be great if it make thee not shew thy self meek and courteous towards Men. That has but a very small force which cannot break forth through the thickness of four fingers and that is as much as the distance can be from thy heart to the outside of thy breast If thy love of God be a true love it is not possible thou should'st forbear to love his Creatures and thou wilt do it so much the more by how much the more the love of God is pure and perfect in thee In the same proportion that thy love of God increases thy love to thy Neighbours will increase likewise and in the same proportion the one wasts and decays the other ceases and vanishes also If God who is love it self do love Man how can a Man that loves God forbear to love Man and to desire his good The love of God to Man appeared before his Divine Majesty created him his love being uncreate and eternal in it self though in respect of its manifestation to Mankind it had a beginning That loving Apostle the glory of Apostleship the beloved Evangelist and the adopted Son of the most blessed Virgin wrote an Epistle perswading to the love of God and of Men and being grown so old that his Disciples were fain to carry him in their Arms all his Sermon was Little Children love one another All we Men are Sons by Grace of one same Father which is God and Sons by Baptism of one same Mother which is the Church We are all made by one same Creator all redeemed by one same Price which is the Blood of Christ and all nourished by one same Milk which is his most holy Doctrine and admirable Sacraments And is it possible that so many Bonds and Obligations should not tye Man close to Man nor make them love and help one another Is it possible that Wrath Passion and Envy should break all these Obligations No No. Love Humane Nature for though it were not noble in it self yet it being created by God it becomes noble and is illustrious by being redeemed honoured and favoured by his most precious Son That which cost much is of great value but the repairing of Man's Nature cost the Blood of the Eternal Son of God He cloathed himself with it and honoured us also by it God Created Man after his own Likeness Who will not esteem Man for being the Image of God And the more because God afterwards by becoming Man made himself the Image of Man The Fourth WEEK Of Diligence and Fervency and of the Mischiefs of Omission and Sloth THE Vertues help forward one another The love of God will guide thee to that of Men. This love will bring thee to fervency and fervency will open the Gate to zeal and zeal for the good of thy Neighbours burning in Charity both for them and for thy self will open thee the Gate of Heaven This fervency and this love will not suffer thee to be lazy and sleepy for sleep is no usual Companion of Lovers Charity and Sloth cannot dwell together in one breast To sleep much and to love much are not things consistent My Father always worketh saith the Lord and I work What wonder is it that the Father and the Son should always be working since through the Holy Ghost they are always loving There can be no such thing as a lazy Spritual Person for so much as he hath of sloth so much he wanteth of being spiritual Love is full of an holy disquiet It is a sweet longing and refreshing and if it be afire how can idleness and sloth be in so active and stirring an Element Fly from sloth in the Spiritual Life fly from it I say for it is a great and terrible Evil. Go learn of the Ant says the Holy Spirit to the sluggard Judge what the Vice is and what the Person is that is infected with it who needs to be taught by so contemptible a Master and how much more wretched and contemptible is the Scholar Sloth stupifies the Senses dulls the powers of the Soul puts shackles upon all the Faculties and by little and little strips the Spiritual Man quite naked and leaves him meerly natural and sensual Sloth is the Mother of Omission and Omission is manifestly the ruin of us Dost thou see all the evil that is in the World It all proceeds and takes birth
Comfort and though my love was Lawful yet the end of it was Natural when it should have been Supernatural I loved them after another manner than I ought to have done for my love was Sensual whereas it should have been Spiritual and all this the Spouse felt very much even in those loves which were allowable and complained of it to her Beloved and his Divine Majesty as being much pleased with it took into his own hand the love of his Spouse towards her Neighbours and towards all Creatures and ordered it rightly making her to ove them all in that manner for those ends and in that degree which he approv'd And this which the Spouse asked of her Beloved we ought oftentimes to beg of him for our self love if the Lord doth not rectifie and reform it destroys and burns up the Soul with an inordinate fire and so the love of God is the only love which can be called love without fear of loving too much and all other loves whatsoever are loves of fears and jealousies and disquiets to an holy Soul They are loves intermix'd with fears whether I do not exceed whether I do not take from God that which I give to the Creatures whether I do not tye my Soul too fast unto them and entangle it with snares in the way of my Spiritual Life O Lord thou love of all the Creatures how miserable is this Life how full of Thorns and Stumbling blocks how full of Griefs Hazards and Dangers Since I cannot love that which is good and allowed without the fears of running into that which is evil and prohibited O God do thou regulate our love O thou Eternal Good grant that we may only love thee and that in thee alone we may love those whom thou wouldst have us to love and that we may do it when and how and for those ends that thou approvest Let none other love but thine O Lord enter into my Soul Drive out of it all other loves but that and if any other would force an entrance into my heart let the strength of thy love defend it and not suffer any other love to disturb my Soul nor oppose thy love within my Soul Thy love O dear Lord is a sweet love it is Chearfulness and Comfort Quiet and Contentment it is Joy and Glory All love besides this and contrary to this is Perturbation and Disquiet Heaviness and Pain Sorrow and Affliction Finally all the Saints have tasted of this Fruit and I have only given thee an Example of St. Paul to the end thou mayest know that the Holy Spirit and its Fruits are the same in the Primitive Church in these times and will be so in those that succeed us for God never waxeth old neither do his Gifts and Graces decay and if we miserable sinners neither have nor feel those Fruits it is because we hinder them with our Passions and by giving the Rein freely to our Inclinations for there are many now in the World who have and enjoy this heroical orderly and perfect love to God and to their Neighbour but let thou and I who are weak and frail endeavour to exercise our selves in those first Vertues and to cultivate the Tree of our Souls with Repentance and Contrition with Mortification and Tears but above all with the Blood of the Lamb and with hearty Prayers to him who shed it through the excess of his love that he would give us that sweet and excellent Fruit that most ravishing and glorious Love The Second WEEK Of Peace the Second Fruit of the Holy Spirit NExt to this Savoury Fruit of Divine and Humane Charity or of Love to God and our Neighbour follows the Delightful Fruit of Peace which quiets and recreates the Soul freeing it from those common Perturbations that use to disturb it Fear and Hope are two Humane Affections which do disquiet and discompose Worldly Minds God drives out these two from a holy Soul with two Coelestial Gifts which are Remedies against their Poyson and these be the Fear of God and the Hope of Glory From the instant that our Soul fears God alone it despises all things else from the instant that it hopes only for things Eternal it tramples upon those that are Temporal Such a Man keeps Peace with all Persons because he neither troubles nor importunes he neither vexes nor is jealous of any body since no body can deprive him of Eternity which is all he pretends to This Fruit of Peace also hath two parts one inward Peace of the Soul with God the other outward Peace with the Creatures From the inward Peace with God which is the Root springs up the outward one and spreads into several branches of the Creatures just as an outward heat proceeds from a secret fire and the brightness of light from flame and the love of our Neighbour from that of God The inward Peace of the Soul depends upon the Unity and Conformity of a Spiritual Man's Will with the Will of God for if he loves and desires the same thing and conforms himself to all that God does and resigns himself to all that he suffers and does so not only after things have come to pass but even prevents them with his desire that the Will of God should be done in him it is manifest that by such an Unity and Conformity he must have a constant Peace and that there can be no disagreement between that and him This Union with the Divine Will and the finding no contraction between it and the Humane Will begets Love and Peace with our Neighbours and makes it communicate with all Creatures for since it neither loves them nor desires any thing from them in any other way than according to God's Will and that God's Will is in order to Peace because it is the Original of Peace it necessarily follows that he must also have Peace with all the Creatures And so the true Spiritual Man who loves God with that Holy Fruit of Charity we have spoken of loving his Neighbours also in their proportion and keeping Union with the Will of God and inward Peace with him and for his sake with his Neighbours in all things that are good and holy must needs satisfie and content all Persons if they be good and if they be not so though he does not content them because that is not in his power yet he satisfies them with his Reason though perhaps they will not acknowledge themselves to be satisfied for if they be his Superiours he obeys them with Humility behaves himself towards them with Respect and yields readily to their Orders and Commands obeying his Superiours in the same manner as he obeys the Will of God If they be his Equals he gives them all that belongs to them and applies himself with Charity to assist in their Affairs He eases them in their Troubles comforts them in their Afflictions counsels them in their Doubts and helps them in their Necessities And if they be his
Heavenly Paradice but Lucifer who from a glorious Angel was become a Devil having been thrown out of Heaven for aspiring to be equal to God envied that Man should enjoy the Happiness which he had lost and knowing by woful Experience that Heaven could not contain a proud Person he thought himself sure to prevent Man's being admitted there if he could but make him guilty of the same Sin Pride Hereupon he subtilly first began to tempt the weaker Vessel Eve by shewing her the beautiful Fruit of the forbidden Tree telling her that by tasting it she might become like unto God himself and when by his perswasion he had deceived the Woman he made use of her as he still does to deceive the Man Thus Sin like a cunning Thief crept in at the Window of his Eye which he unwarily had set open to behold the Beauty of that Fruit and soon opened also the Doors of his Ears to admit the Enticement of his Wife conspiring with his treacherous Appetite to let in Death at the Gate of his Mouth by his disobedience in eating the Apple which was presented to him by her Then that blessed Union was broken and a Separation made not only between his Body and his Soul by a temporal Death the Sentence whereof instantly pass'd upon him though the Execution was deferr'd but also between his Soul and his God by an eternal Death to which he also became thereby liable and as a Fore-runner of both he and his Wife were driven out of Paradice from the Presence of their gracious Creator Now as the Departure of the Soul from the Body is Death so the Departure of God from the Soul can be no less than Hell for as in his presence there is fulness of Joy so in his absence there must be extremity of Sorrow and as at his Right-hand there be Pleasures for evermore so on his Left there must needs be everlasting Pains and what can the feeling of them be but Hell To this miserable Condition Sin brought our first Parents and from them all we their wretched Posterity became tainted with an original Corruption the Seeds whereof growing up into innumerable actual Transgressions afford no other Fruit but Death in this World and eternal Damnation in that which is to come but God being infinitely merciful would not abandon them to perish for ever in this sad Estate but out of the Bowels of his tender Compassion did with incomprehensible Wisdom find out a way for the Satisfaction of his own Justice and for the Salvation of Mankind It had been utterly impossible for all of them together to have done any thing in the least degree towards the Salvation of so much as one Man for it cost more to redeem a Soul so that they must have let that alone for ever But God contriv'd it by an Union much more admirable than that already mentioned and that was between the Divine and Humane Natures And Adam had no sooner broken the first Covenant of unsinning Obedience which God made with him in Paradice but he graciously made a Second with him and his Posterity in the second Adam the promised Messiah This he afterwards perform'd by sending his only begotten Son Jesus Christ equal to his Father as touching his Godhead into the World for the Redemption of Mankind who being conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost in the chast Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary became also perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane Flesh subsisting to the end that as Man he might be capable to suffer and as God to satifie for the sins of the whole World This was a Benefit so high and so transcendent that neither the Understanding of Man no nor that of Angels is able to comprehend it Here all consideration is confounded and humbles itself with astonishment to see that the Son of God to the end that he might cloath thee with his Grace cloathed himself with our Nature which is a poor torn wretched Garment full of beggery and misery and yet that Soveraign Eternal and Divine Majesty put it on for our sake and though this was exceeding much yet he did a great deal more for us since besides this Humanity which Christ the Divine Word took upon him he underwent so many Sufferings for Mankind and wove this seamless Coat of Grace which he gives us in Baptism with such unmeasurable griefs and torments as never have been suffer'd in all the World but by himself nor ever shall be Nay he did yet more for he not only wove this Coat of Grace with these unspeakable pains but even with his holy death and would end his Life in that very employment of weaving and finishing it to the end he might give that seamless Robe its utmost Beauty and Perfection Here all our thoughts ought to be Silence Amazement Terror Reverence and Admiration with Tears of Love and Contrition That the Eternal Son of God to cloath me with his Grace should cloath himself with my humble Nature and presently load himself with the burden of my sins and then take upon him their Punishment upon the Cross and die upon it for them That the cleansing of me should make him be defil'd with the spittings of blasphemous mouths That the giving me the Life of Grace should make him die the Death of Nature and that in such cruel Torments That for the washing of my Soul he should shed all his Precious Blood And that he should devest himself of all Humane Comfort only to give me Comfort Remedy and even Heaven itself This is a business more proper for our Love than our Meditation more to make us active in his Service than contemplative in our Thoughts and to be expressed more by our Wonder than our Words Yet it is good to meditate upon it that we may love him to consider it that we may serve him and to speak of it that by finding we cannot speak enough we may admire and adore him A Man that does me a kindness has my Thanks and if by his pains and danger he draw me out of any Trouble I shew my Gratitude by acknowledging it There be Laws that order Recompences for a Subject that saves the Life of his King in War or in Peace appointing him to be rewarded with Wealth and crowned with Ensigns of Honour Mordecai only for giving Notice to Ahasuerus that some of his Treacherous Servants meant to kill him was by the Command of that Heathen King cloathed with his own Royal Robe and his most beloved Favourite was made to lead the Horse upon which that Loyal Subject rode about the Streets of the City This was an high Honour easily attain'd so notable a demonstration of Favour so Royal and Majestick a Recompence but for a bare Advertisment Consider now if so much were due to a Vassal who by the discovery of a Traytor had sav'd the Life of a King what shall a Vassal owe to his King who not only hath sav'd him from Death but
most that run furthest from God O how much greater are the Sufferings of those that are so deceivd how much more painful and afflicting The Sinner passeth his whole Life in pains by reason of his Vices and so much the greater are his Torments by how much the greater are those Passions which disquiet and molest his troubled Mind Behold the loathsome Diseases of the sensual Man both of his Body and Soul Behold the unclean Surfeits of the Glutton Behold the fiery Rage of the Angry and Revengeful The racking Cares of the Covetous and the uneasie Emulations of the Proud Behold the frettings of the Envious Man All of them live or rather all of them die for how can they be said to live that undergo such Anguish and Vexation Then behold the difference between him that suffers for God outwardly and feels joy and comfort inwardly And how wilt thou grow in the Spiritual life without Temptations and Tribulations Thou canst not only not grow nor thrive but not so much as live in it Wouldst thou drive Sin out of thy Heart It must be by Mortification or else it will still remain there Wouldst thou drive away thy Passions It must be by conquering Temptations Wouldst thou be fitted for the Coelestial Building It must be by the Chisel and Mallet of Temptation and Mortification Wouldst thou throw out Vitious Habits It must be by exercising contrary Vertues Wouldst thou live humbled It is necessary that thou shouldst be afflicted Wouldst thou know what thou art By suffering Temptations thou shalt perceive thine own Frailty and Misery Wouldst thou cast self-Self-love out of thine unquiet Heart Deliver thy self up to an holy Self-denial Wouldst thou give thy self wholly to God thy Saviour and Redeemer Deny thy self and refuse to satisfie thine own desires Finally wouldst thou have Glory Take up the Cross embrace Sufferings love Tribulations do not defend thy self from the Cross but under the Cross and by the Cross do not defend thy self from Sufferings but under them by the power of Grace do not defend thy self from the Temptations which God sends thee but from the evil of those he sends thee That it is no easie matter to be saved but that it is necessary to fight Believe it he does but deceive thee who tells thee that thou mayest enjoy God in another Life without Suffering for him in this Life He does but cheat thee who says there are two Glories for the Soul one of Temporal Delights the other of Coelestial He deludes thee who says without any Tribulations thou shalt enjoy that Glory which our Lord entred into by suffering them He deceives thee who makes thee believe there is another way for thee than that which all the Saints pass'd through He cheats thee that says It is an easie matter for thee to live ill and to die well to take thy fill of Pleasures here and to partake in Eternal Joys hereafter He abuses thee that says 't is an easie thing to be sav'd and that the Gate of Heaven stands open for him at his death who hath lived wickedly all his life No the Saviour of Souls does not tell thee so but he says That narrow is the way that leads to Salvation He says We must strive to enter because the gate is strait He says The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and that the violent take it by force He tells thee His Flock is a little Flock that many are called but few chosen All this speaks no easiness nor temporal and sensual Sweetness but Rigour Courage Constancy Repentance Sorrow and a Life of Crosses and Tribulations Believe it the strictest Livers are at no small labour to obtain Salvation Strive therefore since it was not without cause that so many Holy Persons before thee have undergone the most terrible Difficulties and Afflictions in their way to Heaven Of the Grace of God This indeed is a sharp unpleasing Doctrine and very unwelcome to our Nature but if it be an Enemy to our Nature it is a Friend to our Spirit and to that Grace which brings Glory to our Nature It is a safe Doctrine because it is taught by our Redeemer It presses Men to take care of their Souls that they may seek God and not forsake him that they may serve him and not offend him But all this which is so difficult and even impossible to our frailty is sweet and easie by the Grace of God It is that Grace which fills and supports assists and conquers convinces and disposes does and perfects all The most powerful Grace of God is that which sweetens all Labours and renders them not only tolerable but delightful This Grace makes the good desire Sufferings as the bad do Pleasures and causes them to find Joys in their Austerities when the wicked find Trouble in the midst of their Delights Grace encourages sustains comforts and gives an inward sweetness to Sufferings which makes them more savoury and pleasant than the most pretended Enjoyments of this World Grace in the Spiritual Life strengthens the weak enlightens the blind eases the afflicted comforts the sorrowful and gives joy to the disconsolate Grace supports the Soul animates guides accompanies raises it when it is sinking leads it in the way and crowns it in the end O most powerful Grace of God! thou admirable effect of his Goodness All is owing to thee How many steps are taken in the Spiritual Life how many affections and desires are stirred up how many good actions are done how much perseverance is exercised how many tears are shed and how much love is enkindled all is owing to God's Holy Grace Fear not therefore Tribulations if Grace be with thee for by it Temptations and Tribulations will be rendred of no force and thou shalt conquer all by its Effectual and Omnipotent Power I can do all things saith the Apostle of the Gentiles through him that strengtheneth me for then he was strengthened by Grace Not I says he but the Grace of God which is in me as if he had said I work but I am carried guided and assisted by Grace for without it I neither know nor can do any thing being of my self unable so much as to think one good thought Behold with what facility David lamented his fall by the help of Grace Behold how quickly St. Peter wash'd away his sin with tears by the help of Grace Behold with what Resolution Mary Magdalene broke off the dissoluteness of her sinful Life by the help of Grace Behold how suddenly St. Paul from a Persecutor became a joyful sufferer of Persecution and the Prodigy of the World by the help of Grace See the World converted and reformed and Heaven peopled in a short time by the Apostles through the help of Grace Now that same Grace which made them Saints may make thee one also though now thou art a sinner 'T is the same Grace that favours and assists thee and is not less powerful now but is as kind as sweet
and to become Poor that we may imitate thee in thy Humanity Of the Birth of our Lord. Behold now when the appointed time for the Birth of the Messiah was come how the Eternal Son of God the Author of our Nature to Honour and Redeem it after having so long suffered that close Imprisonment in the pure Womb of an humble Virgin was humbly born in the Stable of an Inn and laid in a Manger He was born in a Stable amongst Beasts coming to live amongst brutish Men and he was laid in a Manger that was to be the Food of Souls and in an Inn the common receptacle of all Comers that all might have access to him who was the common Saviour of all Mankind Behold that poor Cottage of Bethlehem already transformed into a Heaven and his supposed Father the chaste Joseph with the Blessed Virgin his Mother kneeling to adore the Child of her Bowels who also was her Maker being the Creator of the whole World Behold all the Evangelical Spirits busie in worshipping the Lord God and in calling the Shepherds to acknowledge their true and eternal Shepherd The Angels sing Glory to God on high on Earth Peace and good will towards men exalting that Humility which had laid itself so low and manifesting his Divinity at the same time that his Humanity appeared Enter thou also with them O my Soul to adore the Divine Son of God who had now cloathed himself with the Nature of Man and fill'd it with greater Humanity and Love than ever till that time it was capable of Come thou therefore with love and lay aside thy fears if thou art a Shepherd to others thou art one of his Sheep This chief Eternal Shepherd comes to call and to seed not only the Sheep but their Shepherds also Draw near O my Soul to that Manger for his Deity and his Humility would have no greater Throne to the end that thou mightest the better approach it Seeing thy baseness his Divine Nature abased itself to the uttermost to the end that the baseness of thine might attain to so high a Greatness and Soveraignty Draw near my Soul be not afraid for his tender Mother holds him out to thee in her Arms and calls thee to his Humanity lest his Divinity should affright thee O Infant God the Joy and Consolation of Mankind O Infant God the Light of Eternity and Comfort of the Universe O Infant God the unspeakable Delight of all Creatures and the sweetest Gladness of Souls Why should not I suffer for thee since thou camest purposely into the World to suffer for me O Immortal and yet Mortal Child wherefore art thou in this Stable wherefore weeping and suffering in this Manger since thou art the Author of Grace and of all that is Graceful the Author of Delight of Joy and Gladness Were it not better O beautiful Infant were it not fitter that Sin that is I should suffer than thou who art Innocency itself Were it not fitter that the wicked should be in pain than that thy Goodness should endure it What hast thou done O tender Infant that thou bewailest the faults of others and makest the punishments of them thine own Wilt thou O sweetest Goodness wash my defiled Soul with thy Tears Wilt thou O lovely Child by suffering Cold inflame the coldness of my Heart or dost thou feel that cold to reproach the coldness of my Devotion O Glory and Comfort of my Soul Would God it were so clean and pure that I might offer it instead of Swathes to enfold and to embrace thy tender Body Would God it were full of Spiritual Flowers and sweet-smelling Vertues that I might lay them in that Manger instead of that straw which was honoured with bearing upon it that Divine Eternal Grain which is the Food and Nourishment of all that is created But O Holy and Eternal Infant I have nothing in me to offer thee but Thorns nothing but Sins and Miseries in my Soul and it is not just to anticipate those Thorns which must one day Crown thy sacred Head nor to begin so early to hurt that tender Body with them O thou that art my Happiness and my Glory how soon do my Sins begin thy Punishment How soon doth thy Love lye suffering between two Beasts dying for the love of Man who within few years art to suffer Death between two Men How soon O my Jesus after thy Birth art thou in the company of Beasts who art to live amongst Beasts and to dye amongst Beasts of a more cruel kind These at thy Birth are much more innocent for how brutish soever they be yet the Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but they would neither know nor receive their Saviour but first they scourge and buffet and then nail their Redeemer to the Cross Why dost thou weep O Heavenly Child Yet since it is natural to thee to weep because thou hast taken our Nature weep because I do not weep to the end that I may weep with thee since thou sighest let it be because I do not sigh since thou feelest pains let it be because I am insensible of thy pains and let them beget in me a deep sense of my unworthiness that thou shouldst suffer them for my sake Let those Tears of thine become my Remedy and my Rejoycing transfer them from thine eyes to mine and as they wash thy beautiful Cheeks let them also wash my polluted Soul Transfer the love of thy tender heart to this obdurate heart of mine and grant as it offends thee so it may infinitely grieve for having offended thee and desire with passionate longing to adore and to embrace thee Let the thought of that frosty Season wherein thou wert born thaw this frozen heart of mine into a love of thee that sufferedst that frost for me who am benumb'd with one more hard and lasting for that continued some few weeks perhaps but this of my heart has continued many years O that I had suffered it for thee dear Child for the most rigorous frost that is felt for thy sake is Warmth is Love and is not Ice but Fire to kindle and inflame my heart Thou wert born for my Happiness and for my Remedy Grant O dear Lord that such a Repentance such a Sorrow and such a Contrition may be born in my Soul as may prepare and fit me for my Remedy and grant that the light and power of those Beams of Love which dart from the beautiful Countenance of thy Humanity may drive away the darkness of Sin and Infidelity from my Soul which thou camest to banish from thence and may kindle in me such a fire of love towards thee as nothing may ever be able to extinguish it The Fourth WEEK Of the other Mysteries of our Lord till his Preaching and first of Circumcision IT is hard to get out of this Cottage that was honoured with the Birth of our Lord which is the sweetest Mystery and fill'd with the softest
Expressions of his Love but there is a necessity of waiting upon him through the other demonstrations of it and because he came to Redeem us it is very fit we should follow him that we may attain that Redemption It seem'd a small thing to his Love to shed tears for us in the cold he was expos'd to by the openness of that inconvenient place but he also shed his blood already for us by being wounded with the Legal Knife O tender Infant how soon dost thou pour out the blood of thy most precious Veins for my sake O who would not wish to be so happy to spend the last drop of his for thine My sins gave sharpness to that Knife which was the Instrument of thy pain in this Mystery and that blood was spilt by my Offences and by thy Loving-kindness As they Circumcise thy Flesh O Eternal Good of Souls do thou Circumcise my wickedness Lord cut away my Vices and Deformities Take away the Old Man O Lord form and reform the New-Grant that I may cease to do evil and begin to do good that by so doing I may live for evermore The Adoration of the Kings They bring back our Saviour wounded with Love and Grief as well as with that knife unto the Stable and the Manger unless it was perhaps in that very place that he pour'd forth his blood as well as his tears There they stay till three Kings come to Adore him in requital of that one who sought to destroy him O how much greater a Kingdom did they find at the feet of this Coelestial Infant in the Manger than in their own Royal Thrones How much higher were they advanced by laying themselves prostrate before him and to what an height were they exalted by having so humbled themselves By throwing down their Crowns at his feet they encompassed their Heads with brighter Crowns and those not earthly but Crowns of Grace and Glory They presented unto that Divine Child things Temporal and he gave them things Heavenly and Eternal The Gifts they presented to him were but transitory but those he filled them with were permanent and everlasting They Offer to him Gold Frankincense and Myrrh and he in exchange gives them the Golden Vertue of Charity the Incense of pure and fervent Devotion and for Myrrh the Grace of Mortification whereby dying to this World they began to live to that other which never shall have end O how much greater were those Gifts which were bestowed on them by that little Child than those that were offered to him by those great Kings They presented to him Gold as to the Creator of all the Riches of Heaven and of Earth and he in exchange gave them the Riches of the Earth and Heaven They gave him Incense the perfume whereof ascending from Earth towards Heaven acknowledged him God as well as Man and he gave them Grace as an Earnest that they themselves also should ascend into Heaven They gave him Myrrh as to a Mortal Man and he in being Mortal did by his death quicken them to live with him for ever in his Glory Let us offer to him with those Kings that which those Kings did offer let us offer Devotion Charity Mortification and Adoration let us offer to him a Life that from this day may aspire to an Eternal Life let us offer unto him Ardent Love Fervent Prayers and Humble Penitence let us offer to him all the Actions of our Life and let us take care that all our Actions be such as may be fit to be offered to him We may well draw near with an humble confidence to adore this Child who suffered himself to be approached by Children and to be adored by the poorest Men as well as by the richest Kings He was born poor himself to the end that he may be found by those that are poor and a Child that he may be ador'd by little ones for even out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings he has ordained strength and perfected praise Come with Humility and Assurance to make him an Offering of thy self and thou shalt find him tender and wounded with Love readily to accept thy Offering But what can I offer to thee O Glorious Infant I who am meer Poverty What Gold of Charity being with thee at Enmity What Works of Repentance being full of Obstinacy Rebellion and Impenitency What Devotion my Prayers being full of wandring Thoughts and Distractions O my God I come not only to adore thee but also to beg of thee Lord I believe that I please thee more in asking of thee than in giving to thee Such is thy Charity thy Goodness thy Mercy and Liberality that to exercise it and to be giving is thy Glory and thou rejoycest much more in that thou bestowest than in all thou canst receive from us poor necessitous Beggars And what can we bestow on thee O Infant God we that are nothing but Misery What can we give but trifles unworthy of a God and only tolerable for a meer Humane Child but far unfit for thee who art also God Thou alone canst give us what we ought to give thee and if the Gift which we ought to offer thee come not first from thine hand the worth of it can be no ways suitable to such an Hand to such a Child and to such a God Finally it is from hence thou must endeavour to draw those Gifts that thou oughtest to Present him It is from himself thou must obtain the Gold the Frankincense and the Myrrh in Prayer Charity and Mortification From hence thou must procure a Charity burning with the love of that Lord a Mortification constant in suffering for him that suffered for thee that suffered cold and shed his blood in that mean place for thy sake In short from hence thou must draw an earnest and fervent Devotion to contemplate and adore so many and so great Benefits without suffering them to slip out of thy Memory and him whom those Kings sought in that particular place thou must love seek follow and adore in all places wheresoever thou shalt happen to be Of His Presentation in the Temple His Holy Mother when the days of her Purification were accomplished according to the Law of Moses carries her Son the Eternal Son of God and with his supposed Father Joseph Presents him in the Temple with a pair of Turtle Doves the Offering appointed for the Poor they not being able to make a richer There he was received by the hands of Simeon the Priest who having been assured by the Holy Ghost that he should not die till he had seen the Lord's Christ knew by the same Spirit that that Promise was then fulfilled which he openly declared when taking him in his Arms he blessed God and desired to depart in peace for that his eyes had seen his Salvation which God had prepared before the face of all People to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his People Israel It
thy Teeth and contriving Scorpions for another but all this within thine own heart What Torture can the Enemy give thee that is greater nay equal to this that thou bringest upon thy self On the contrary he very often laughs when thou lamentest and he is at rest when thou art upon the rack By this it is manifest that 't is more easie more cheerful more pleasant and delightful for thee to love than to hate thine Enemy According to this it is not only pleasing to God but happy and comfortable to our selves to love our enemies According to this patience the medicine of Anger is not bitter but sweet and the heavenly Physician cures thee of a Calenture in the Dog-days by prescribing thee a draught of Cold water for he cures the Infernal fire of Anger and washes it away with the gentle Stream of Love and Charity For this reason we may justly call Patience the Celestial Art of Peace Would'st thou have Peace and Joy and Comfort in thy Soul Get Patience and thou shalt have Peace and by having Peace and Patience thou shalt not only have Joy and Comfort but the Author of Patience and Peace of Joy and Comfort shall dwell continually in thy Soul Of Moderation in speaking and the mischiefs of the Tongue There is yet another kind of Abstinence besides that excellent Vertue of forbearing the Excess of Meat and Drink which we have already spoken of which is that of forbearing superfluous and hurtful Talk for that is also a very admirable and profitable kind of Abstinence I do not know whether I should not say Thou shalt do a better and a greater thing to abstain from speaking much than eating much for speaking causes more mischiefs than eating and men grow tir'd and weary with eating but never with talking Our Saviour doth advertise us well of this when he says Not that which enters into the Mouth defiles the Soul but that which comes out of the Mouth Now they be words which come out of the Mouth and it is meat that goeth into the Mouth What then Is not excessive eating very hurtful Yes to the Body but the Soul receives no hurt from the meat but from the excessive delight in it whereas that whereby the Soul is so frequently defiled comes out of the mouth in filthy loose smutty and sinful words as also in those that slander and detract and destroy the Honours Lives and Fortunes of their Neighbours These are they commonly that do the mischief to our Souls The Tongue is the Source of Vice and the Ruiner of Vertue This little Instrument is a sharp and cruel Razour that cuts and burns and kills and sets the whole World on fire and is set on fire of Hell St. James calls it an unruly Member full of deadly poyson the matter of infinite vexations quarrels and contentions it disturbs disquiets and overturns all In short this little Engine is the universal Conveyance through which all the mischiefs of the World come out of the heart in counselling perswading disposing and quickning its destruction 'T is not without great reason that God hath shut up this dangerous and powerful Instrument the Tongue within a double wall of the Teeth and of the Lips to the end that it might be kept close and restrained and no words suffered to pass out of that Fortress till they be well examined One Bridle is enough for the fiercest Horse but for this little Worm two are not sufficient Think what a suspected House that is which needs two Porters either it is in a very unsafe Condition or else the keeping of it is of great importance Be very wary of thy Speech and keep thy self as much as thou canst towards silence for that is very secure but speaking very hazardous to thy Soul Think ruminate examine and file over thy words oftentimes before thou utter them with thy Tongue and consider that when once they come there and are shot from thence they become Arrows which cannot be recalled and which kill without remedy The Tongue says St. Austin being in a dark moist place is very apt to slip and it is very dangerous to go in slippery places without either light or care Of Silence Silence is the Furnace of Charity and as when the mouth of a Furnace is open the fire comes easily out of it so out of ours sometimes does the fervour of Spiritual Charity for the good of our Neighbour The ancient Philosophers that they might learn to know were taught to be silent for Silence is the Parent of inward peace rest and quietness If this be requisite in the Meditation and Contemplation of Natural Things how much more then in Eternal and Celestial Dost thou love Peace live in silence Would'st thou do much Take heed what thou sayest before thou speakest Let thy words pass twice through thy thoughts before they pass once through thy Tongue Hear see and say nothing if thou wilt be disturb'd at nothing Audi vide tace si vis vivere in pace I have often repented me of having spoken but never of having held my Tongue He that speaks makes himself subject to the Censure of all that hear him but he that keeps silence is the secret Censurer of all that speak See the difference there is between being a Subject and a Superiour between being a Judge and being Judged the same there is between speaking and hearing To speak much shews Confidence Lightness Imprudence and Vanity to speak little shews Modesty Goodness and Discretion The Third WEEK Of Envy ABstinence Patience and Silence are naturally followed by the Love of our Neighbour whereof the contrary is Envy an infamous Vice which took birth growth and gathered strength with our very Nature but I come short Envy is more ancient than our Nature for Lucifer and his Fellows stumbled in Heaven by Envy and fell headlong from thence into the bottomless Pit It being propos'd to that high Cherubim according to the Opinion of grave Authors that he should adore the Eternal Son of God when in future time he should be united to our Nature he disdained to do it through Envy that an Union should be made with the Humane when he might have taken the Angelical It was Pride in Lucifer not to adore the Son of God but it was a Pride according to this Opinion that had its Root in Envy It was Envy also that moved him afterwards in Paradise to lay that Trap into which our innocent Parents fell alluring their holy sincerity and goodness with offers of being like unto Gods It was his Envy to see them in the favour of their Eternal Creator while himself was Condemned into Everlasting Fire It was Envy that in the first steps of the Banishment of our first Parents made angry Cain an Enemy to God and to his Brother Abel and which made him first commit Murder then to Despair and at last to be quite cut off that Envy proceeding from God's favourable accepting of
the Sacrifice of the Liberal and turning away his Eyes from that of the Covetous This wild Beast within his heart broke out into open Fury and was the first that shed Humane Blood and the first that put the Life and Death of the Innocent into the power of the Guilty This was the first wickedness that after their own Disobedience afflicted our first Parents and the Tears Grief and Repentance for their own Offence were much encreased in seeing the Murder of their good and holy Son commitmitted by the hand of the other that was a wretched Villain and a Cast-away It was Envy that sowed innumerable Discords between those first Patriarchs and Heads of the several Tribes Joseph's Brethren not being able to endure his Vertues nor the kindness of his Father to him they resolved rather to sell him than to imitate him It was Envy that brought in the Dissentions and Discords between Jacob and Esau the elder not being able to suffer the Blessing of the younger It was Envy that took away the Vertue the Kingdom and the Life of Saul who because he could not bear the Valour and the Spirit of David chose rather utterly to destroy him than frame himself to follow his Example It was Envy also that durst attempt to bite even the Apostles themselves when seeing the favour of their Master to St. John they began to strive which of them should be the greatest It was Envy that was the chief Incentive that kindled the fire of Rage and Passion in the hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees and of the Priests and Masters of the Law against Jesus when seeing his Vertues and Miracles they chose rather to put him to Death than to enjoy Eternal Life Behold the Victories and Trophies of Envy and entertain a great abhorrence of this cruel Enemy for it is a powerful one though in it self it be vile base and infamous choosing rather to hate Vertue than to emulate it and affecting priority rather by destroying that which is good than by making that good which is evil It is an infamous a desperate and an ungrateful Vice for the first that it kills is the Person who entertains it and the Envious man dies with Envy himself but cannot thereby kill the Person envied It is an infamous Vice for that being able to ease it self in a great measure of vexation by imitating Vertue it frees it self rather by the destruction and death of the innocent and vertuous Person making Poyson of the Antidote and corrupting it self by the vertue of another It is an infamous Vice because it draws the nourishment of hatred and abhorrence out of the same ground from whence it ought to draw that of Love to Vertue and it defames and dishonours that which right Reason extols and magnifies It is an infamous Vice because it destroys the love of our Nature for whereas one man ought to love another as man and much more if he be vertuous Envy abhors him so much for being vertuous that it would not suffer him to continue man It is an infamous Vice because it prosecutes the damage of another without bringing any profit to it self and loads it self with more Crimes without lessening anothers Vertues It is an infamous Vice because it makes an Enemy of that Person whom it ought to imitate and esteem as a Friend choosing rather to abhor that which is good than to make use of it in forsaking that which is evil Finally Envy is the Vice of base wretched People for whereas the envious man might by a noble emulation and sincere endeavour make himself both vertuous and generous he chooses rather to torment himself and become more base more wretched and more miserable Remedies against Envy This Vice must be cured by means contrary to those we directed against Sensuality for that as we said must be cured by flight but Envy must be conquered by fighting Thus when thou feelest in thy heart the first motions towards Envy raise up thy self to encounter it with a stout Opposition and force thy self to love and praise that Person whom it would tempt thee to abhor and to calumniate Let both thy words and thy thoughts commend that Person whom thou art troubled to see preferred before thee Exalt his fame and copy his vertues with thy utmost endeavour There are two sorts of men in the World which are very great in my esteem those that acknowledge the ill which is in themselves and those that acknowledge the good which is in their Enemies It is a generous sense and a noble action for a man to conquer Envy and to own Vertue wheresoever he finds it That is a powerful and a generous light which illuminates the Soul and drives away the darkness of Envy and a Man will not be far from imitating the vertue of a person whom he rightly understands to be vertuous What dost thou gain by Envy but rage anguish and the gnawing of thy own bowels He enjoys all his happiness and thou choosest torments and vexations If Envy could take away the good things of the person envied if it could bring home his Riches and Honours to the House of the envious man though with the adding of Theft to his Envy yet at least he would get some profit by it and have wherewithal to comfort himself in the midst of his tortures But it is not so for the envied person remains healthful happy rich and powerful and the envious man poor afflicted wretched and miserable getting nothing of the Wealth he envies but of the colour of that Gold in his Complexion Better thy Fortune by thy Vertues but never attempt to advance it by Vices Do that which is in thy power which is to imitate whatsoever is good and fly from whatsoever is evil and strive not in vain to do what is above thy power namely to take away the goodness from him that is good by making thy self wicked and by torturing thy Soul with continual disquiets Of Charity to our Neighbours Charity towards our Neighbours is the bridle of Envy the total destruction of it With this thou must banish that out of thy heart Love to our Neighbours is a Ray of the Divine Love for Man imitates God in loving that which he loved that is to say Man for whom he died If we love not our Neighours whom will we love Will we perhaps love the wild brute Beast We are Humane by Nature let us be Humane also in our Love Who is there that abhors himself or who is there that abhors his own Natural Condition Our Nature has produced so Savage a Beast so pitiless a Man and so great an Enemy to Mankind that kissing a Child and being asked why He answered That he foresaw by his Art that Child would be a Souldier and a great Captain who would kill an infinite number of men and for that reason he began to love him This Man or rather this Monster of Cruelty would for the same cause have
Inferiours he loves them with a Fatherly Affection bears with them and favours them guides and directs them supplies their Wants and affords them a Remedy so far as he is able in whatsoever they have need for he loves himself for their sake Thus the Holy Spirit says Great is the Peace of those that love God because they have both outward and inward Peace with him with themselves and with all Men since they neitheir love nor do nor desire nor pretend to any thing but what God wills I like all this very well you 'll say but how will you give me Peace with the Wicked How can a Judge have Peace with Robbers and Murtherers A Superiour with an Insolent and Rebellious Subject An Honest and Loyal Subject with a Cruel and Merciless Superiour Or any one Man with another that persecutes him without Reason Is it necessary that a Man's Will must not be moved with these things and that neither his inward nor outward Peace must be disturbed by them There is a great deal of difference I answer between holding Peace with the Wicked and Conformity with the Wicked This ought never to be done the other may be done always Conformity speaks Union of Wills in respect of their Objects and this a good Man cannot have but with those that are good and in those things that are good for that cannot be called Peace that is War against God If I to keep Peace with the World should forsake that which is good and offend God the Author of Peace who is the chiefest Good that were but an evil Peace a seeming Quiet but a real Disquiet This is that the Prophet spake of That they should say Peace Peace when there was no Peace For there is no Peace saith my God to the wicked And thus when the Saviour of Souls left Peace as a Legacy to his Holy Apostles he told them that the Peace he gave them was his not that of the World nor as the World gives it for that is a Peace with Vices with Passions and Sensualities but a cruel and furious War against God With such Persons nor with their Sins we must have no Conformity which is that the World would have to make us all of her colour but we may have perfect Peace and which is more perfect hatred at the same time not abhorring those which are evil but that evil which is in them and loving their Persons that we may draw them into the way of goodness A Superiour who is a good Man may Correct and Reform and Love those whom he does Correct nay rather he does Correct and Reform them because he loves them with a very perfect and superiour love Well may a Companion Love and Counsel Advise and Guide his Companion to that which is good and have a dislike of the evil which he commits nay because he loves him he guides and draws him from that which is evil Well may a Subject disapprove the sin of a vicious Superiour and love him without helping him to effect it nay because he loves him he will not give more matter to his Condemnation nor add more Fuel to the Fire of his Punishment What! Dost thou think that Jesus Christ our good Master did not love those Buyers and Sellers whom he whipped out of the Temple when he overturned the Tables of the Money-Changers to banish Covetousness out of his Father's House It is certain that he did love them but he corrected them to amend them and such a Mischief needed such a Remedy He relieved their afflicted Souls that were kept in Slavery by their Covetousness and set their Reason at liberty which was captivated and kept a Prisoner by their Passion Reproof and Chastisement are as an Alms to the Soul that is poor in Vertue and that is in great Necessity for want of Light Counsel and Direction Such an one stands in need to be corrected and to be relieved with Instruction and Reformation by such means as may conduce most to his Amendment Who says that a Physician hates his Patient when he Cures him with a bitter Potion He hates the evil Humours in his Body and destroys and drives them out with that bitterness Nor is the Chirurgeon less kind when he cuts and lances than when he binds up a Wound with an healing Plaister And therefore sick and wounded Men do both thank and pay them for that sharpness and bitterness whereby they recover the sweetness of their Health And inward Peace with God and outward Peace with our Neighbour may be preserved by us and yet we not have any Conformity with them in their evil for since Peace is inseparable from Love it follows necessarily that from the time we begin to love them we must have an honest good and holy Peace with them which is the true Peace indeed for the other is not Peace but Destruction and a cruel War against God This difference there is between the Will of God and that of Men that to the Will of God we must Conform without any limitation or exception whatsoever Let him command order and dispose whatsoever he pleases for with him there are no Conditions nor Capitulations to be made We are totally to perform and absolutely to desire whatsoever God wills but with the Creatures it is otherwise for since their Rule is not Infallibly good and holy as that of God but very weak and fallible we must not deliver up our selves to that nor to their Will without Conditions and the first of them is that we never swerve nor vary from that Superiour Will and that our Prince our Father or our Friend must never require any thing from us but that which is agreeable to the Will of God And if they or any of our Neighbours go beyond that we must give them Peace but not Conformity we will give them Love to the end that they may love God and that we may draw them towards God and bring them to God but we will not give them Conformity for then we should offend him as they do This orderly perfect and holy kind of Peace is a very high fruit of the Holy Ghost for in it infinite good things are contained And as the Ancient Philosophers and Poets held that upon the top of Mount Olympus there was a perpetual Calmness and Serenity so the Person to whom God gives both inward and outward Peace is above all Humane Perturbations and feels not any Troubles to disquiet and molest him for he humbles and resigns himself freely to the Will of God in all things If evil Men persecute him he bears it patiently and reduces them if they can be reduced but if not he turns himself towards his God and begs of him to reduce them and to bring them home to himself and there is nothing high nor low great nor small that can take away that Peace and Tranquillity of Mind which God gives him by the means of his Love for in that love there
in receiving Honours And this which seems to be a very hard Law is so sweet an one that though St. Paul contents himself here with an Equality yet some Saints as we see in the Examples that have been given pass on further and express more Joy in Sufferings than in Comforts though these come from God and those from the hands of Men. As we may believe that the Divine Goodness of our Lord took more delight in Redeeming Mankind upon the Cross than in the Glories of his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor though upon Mount Tabor those Favours came from the hands of his Father and upon Mount Calvary his Sufferings came from the hands of Men. So likewise those who suffer for God the Holy Apostles and all those that now follow or have followed them rejoyce more in Pains and Tribulations which God sends them by the hands of Men than in those Favours and Comforts which they receive immediately from God himself Therefore our Saviour said to his Disciples at his going to his last Supper when he was beginning to enter upon his Holy Passion With a great desire have I desir'd to eat this Passover with you but he said no such thing to them when he went to the Glories of Mount Tabor In imitation of this we read of one that for a favour begged of Christ to be crowned with Thorns another to bear the marks of his Wounds with a lively feeling of his dolorous Passion One Devout Soul begs Lord if I may obtain my desire grant that I may be despised for thy sake Another meditating on Christ crucified Lord I desire nothing but thy self and to be crucified with thee This in my Opinion was an high and wise Petition because he asked to suffer with Christ in this life as Christ in this life had suffered for him and then presently to have Christ himself for a Reward in the Life Eternal for he that begs for Christ crucified to be made his it is clear he does not beg for a Glorious Christ but wounded bloody and in the anguish of his Passion and so he asked not the Crown of Thorns alone nor the five Wounds alone but also what he suffer'd in the scourgings at the Pillar Not only the Mockeries the Buffetings and the pains of his Passion but the Slanders Affronts and Persecutions which he suffered before it And not those alone but whatsoever he suffered from his Blessed Mother's Womb and the Manger till he expir'd upon the Cross This we ought to ask and imitate in this life and to advance thereby in Grace and Patience and thereby thou shalt see how certain it is that such Holy Devout Persons not only do possess that equality of Patience wherewith St. Paul Arms his Spiritual Man in receiving Affronts and Crosses with as chearful a Countenance as the Pleasures of this World but that their Delight is greater and their Patience more chearful in suffering than their Joy is in rejoycing The Second WEEK Of the Ninth and Tenth Fruits of the Holy Spirit Goodness and Meekness THese two Fruits of the Spirit which God gives to those that are exercised in the Spiritual Life are as the Cause and the Effect for in truth Goodness is the Mother of Meekness And as some Fruits by reason of their great fecundity grow one within another and as an Ear of Corn produces many Grains so Goodness produces Gentleness Meekness and Affability repeated again and again in all its words and actions And we must take notice that this Goodness which St. Paul names here for a Fruit of the Spirit is not barely that Vertue which is the first cause of Grace that is to say a disposition to receive and to hold it by the Soul 's being free from the guilt of any great sin for that is a Fruit of the Divine Goodness and Mercy which gave the Soul light and strength to cast out sin rather than a Fruit of the Spirit But the Goodness here meant is in my Opinion an high Gift of Grace and Favour which God grants to holy Souls after they have serv'd him long in the Spiritual Life whereby the Soul is cleansed and purified not only from greater sins but even from lesser nay even the least Passions and by taking away those Barks as it were and inward Rinds of our Nature lays it bare and naked from those folds and doublings of imperfect Habits leaving the Soul in so great a purity truth and sincerity that St. Paul calls it perfect Goodness It is as if God should make an Old Man to become a New Man or as if an old decayed and broken House should by his Power not only be repaired and strengthened and made up again in the same proportion grace and Beauty it had at first but also be brought to a greater perfection and enriched with more costly Ornaments And though it still leaves in him the incitement and provocation to sin for that never ceases nor does Grace take it away yet it is as much weakened and disabled as Reason was in it before This Goodness and Sincerity the Lord found in holy Job and to give him an high Praise indeed he said He was single and upright God by his Grace had taken from him all those folds and doublings which we have in our Souls those corners and hollow places where Malice uses to dwell He had cast out all Imperfections from thence and had filled it with his Lights and Vertues making him a Mirrour of his high Perfections This Goodness and Sincerity is that which Christ desir'd to find in his Disciples when they were contending who should be the greatest and he Discoursing upon it took a Child and laying his Holy Hands upon the Head of that little Angel said unto them Unless ye become as this little Child ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Some Authors say this Child was St. Ignatius afterwards Bishop of Antioch and Martyr who was one of the most Holy Disciples that the Apostles had and from that touch of Christ's hand he became so much in love with him that he took for his Motto Amor meus crucifixus est For his only Love was Christ crucified and at his Martyrdom this holy Man defied the Lions that were to tear him in pieces and said to them I am the Wheat of Christ and I shall be ground by your teeth that I may be worthy to be made the Bread of that Lord. This Digression I have made to quicken the Faith of Clergy-men for if Christ but by touching him made him to become so holy how holy ought we to be who not only touch the Bread of the Lord but the Bread which is the Lord and do so often Consecrate and Receive it Two things God requir'd of the Apostles in imitation of that Child first Humility for since they were proudly striving who should have the highest place he could not set before them a fitter Example than that Age and that Humility Do ye