O Spectacles of horrour but Abysse of goodnesse and mercy I feel my heart divided by horrour pity hate love execration and adoration But my admiration and being ravished carries me beyond my self Is this then that bloudy sacrifice which hath been expected from all ages This hidden mystery this profound knowledge of the Cross this dolorous Iesus which makes the honourable amends between heaven and earth to the eternal Father for expiation of the sinnes of humane kind Alas poor Lord thou hadst but one life and I see a thousand instruments of death which have taken it away Was there need of opening so many bloudy doors to let out thine innocent soul Could it not part from thy body without making on all sides so many wounds which after they have served for the objects of mens cruelty serve now for those of thy mercy O my Iesus I know not to whom I speak for I do no more know thee in the state thou now art or if I do it is onely by thy miseries because they are so excessive that there was need of a God to suffer what thou hast indured I look upon thy disfigured countenance to find some part of thy resemblance and yet can find none but that of thy love Alas O beautifull head which dost carry all the glory of the highest heaven divide with me this dolorous Crown of Thorns they were my sinnes which sowed them and it is thy pleasure that thine innocencie should mow them Give me O Sacred mouth give me that Gall which I see upon thy lips suffer me to sprinkle all my pleasures with it since after a long continuance it did shut up and conclude all thy dolours Give me O Sacred hands and adored feet the Nails which have pierced you love binds you fast enough to the Cross without them But do thou O Lord hold me fast to thy self by the chains of thine immense charity O Lance cruel Lance why didst thou open that most precious side thou didst think perhaps to find there the Sons life and yet thou foundest nothing but the Mothers heart But without so much as thinking what thou didst in playing the murderer thou hast made a sepulchre wherein I will from henceforth bury my soul When I behold these wounds of my dear Saviour I do acknowledge the strokes of my own hand I will therefore likewise engrave there my repentance I will write my conversion with an eternal Character And if I must live I will never breathe any other life but that onely which shall be produced from the death of my Iesus crucified The Gospel for Easter Day S. Mark the 16. ANd when the Sabbath was past Mary Magdalen and Mary of Iames and Salome bought spices that coming they might anoint Iesus And very early the first of the Sabbaths they come to the Monument the Sun being now risen And they say one to another who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the Monument And looking they saw the stone rolled back For it was very great And entring into the Monument they saw a young man sitting on the right hand covered with a white Robe and they were astonied Who saith to them Be not dismayed you seek Iesus of Nazareth that was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him But go tell his Disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee there shall you see him as he told you Moralities 1. THe Sepulchre of Iesus becomes a fountain of life which carries in power all the glories of the highest heaven Our Saviour riseth from thence as day out of the East and appears as triumphant in the ornaments of his beauties as he had been humbled by the excesse of his mercies The rage of the Iews loseth here its power death his sting Sathan his kingdome the Tomb his corruption and hell his conquest Mortality is destroyed life is illuminated all is drowned in one day of glory which comes from the glorious light of our Redeemer It is now saith Tertullian that he is revested with his Robe of honour and is acknowledged as the eternall Priest for all eternity It is now saith Saint Gregory Nazianzen that he reassembles humane kind which was scattered so many years by the sin of one man and placeth it between the Arms of his Divinity This is the Master-piece of his profound humility and I dare boldly affirm saith S. Ambrose that God had lost the whole world if this Sacred virtue which he made so clearly shine in his beloved Son had not put him into possession of his Conquests We should all languish after this Triumphant state of the Resurrection which wil make an end of all our pains and make our Crowns everlasting 2. Let us love our Iesus as the Maries did that with them we may be honoured with his visits Their love is indesatigable couragious and insatiable They had all the day walkt round about the Iudgement Hall Mount Calvary the Crosse and the Sepulchre They were not wearied with all that And night had no sleep to shut up their eyes They forsake the Image of death which is sleep to find death it self and never looked after any bed except the Sepulchre of their Master They travell amongst darknesse pikes lances the affrights of Arms and of the night nothing makes them affraid If there appear a difficulty to remove the stones love gives them arms They spare nothing for their Master and Saviour They are above Nichodemus and Ioseph they have more equisite perfumes for they are ready to melt and distil their hearts upon the Tomb of their Master O faithfull lovers seek no more for the living amongst the dead That cannot die for love which is the root of life 3. The Angel in form of a young man covered with a white Robe shews us that all is young and white in immortality The Resurrection hath no old age it is an age which can neither grow nor diminish These holy Maries enter alive into the Sepulchre where they thought to find death but they learn news of the chiefest lives Their faith there confirmed their piety satisfied there is promises assured and their love receives consolation Aspirations I Do not this day look toward the East O my Jesus I consider the Sepulchre it is from thence this fair Sun is risen O that thou appearest amiable dear spouse of my soul Thy head which was covered with thorns is now â—rowned wiâ—h a Diadem of Stars and Lâ—ghts and all the glory of the highest Heaven rests upon it Thine eyes which were eclipsed in bloâ—d have enlightned them with fires and delicious brightnesse which melâ— my heart Tâ—y feet and hands so far as I can see are enameld with Rubies which after they have been the objects of mens cruelty are now become eternal marks of thy bounty O Iesus no more my wounded but my glorified Iesus where am I what do I I see I flie I swound I die I revive
to abate and humble the proudest of all Creatures then to represent his beginning and his end The middle-part of our life like a kind of Proteus takes up on it severall shapes not understood by others but the first and last part of it deceive no man for they do both begin and end in Dust It is a strange thing that Man knowing well what he hath been and what he must be is not confounded in himself by observing the pride of his own life and the great disorder of his passions The end of all other creatures is less deformed then that of man Plants in their death retain some pleasing smell of their bodies The little rose buries it self in her naturall sweetnesse and carnation colour Many Creatures at their death leave us their teeth horns feathers skins of which we make great use Others after death are served up in silver and golden dishes to feed the geatest persons of the world Onely mans dead carcase is good for nothing but to feed worms and yet he often retains the presumptuous pride of a Giant by the exorbitance of his heart and the cruell nature of a murderer by the furious rage of his revenge Surely that man must either be stupid by nature or most wicked by his own election who will not correct and amend himself having still before his eyes ashes for his glasse and death for his mistres 2 This consideration of Dust is an excellent remedy to cure vices and an assured Rampire against all temptations S. Paulinus saith excellently well That holy Iob was free from all temptations when he was placed upon the smoke and dust of his humility He that lies upon the ground can fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streames of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napell which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Egyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we bury all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little businesse with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousnesse arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting blisse by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel upon Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocryticall Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward Put thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig thorow and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig thorow nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the Praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all vertues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abomination in his sight and â—ertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entring into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictnesse having been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchin stuffe It is no more burdensome to a couragious spirit then feathers are to a bird The chearfulnesse which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does halfe the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by almes deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with purenesse and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to lose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousnesse in life to encounter with such extream nakednesse in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend only on God Almighty comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carry our souls to heaven where Jesus on
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
so liberally 3. Iesus will not be known singly by his words but by his works Our words must agree with our good actions as the needle of a clock agrees with the springs When we have heard or read some good doctrine that Sermon or reading must passe into our manners It is surely a strange thing that many imploy that leisure to know much and yet will not spend some considerable time to make themselves good Christians We must be Philosophers more by imitating the example of God then by any curious enquiry of his greatnesse Our Christianity teacheth us that we should be more knowing skilfull in the practise of our life then of our tongue and that we are rather made to perform great actions then to speak them We must have a speciall care that our hands do not give our mouth the lie What can we gain in the judgement of God by being like those tres which haue a fair outside garnished with leaves yet good for nothing but to give a shadow and to make a little noise when the wind blows God requires of us fruit since he is the father of all fertility nothing is barren in the land of the living Aspirations O My God I know thee because thou was first pleased to know me Thou hast known me by thy goodnesse and I will do my best to know thee that I may obtain all happinesse O that I might know that my name is written in the book of life and also know the life which I may possesse within the heart of Iesus in which so many lives do live O how should I then find my spirit ravished in those beautifull Ideas of glory Fix thine eyes on me O Lord and thou shalt thereby bring me to the fountain of all happinesse The Father hath given me to thee I am the conquest of thy precious bloud Suffer not a soul to be taken away from the which hath cost thee so many sweats sufferings I am thine by so many titles that I will be no more mine own but only to have the right of renouncing that which I am and to establish what shall be thine in this little kingdome of my heart The Gospel upon Thursday the fifth week in Lent S. Iohn 7. Upon S. Mary Magdalens washing our Saviours feet in the Phariseâ— house ANd one of the Pharisees desired him to eat with him And he being entred into the house of the Pharisee he sate down to meat And behold a woman that was in the Citie a sinner as she knew that he set down in the Pharisees house she brought an Alabaster box of ointment and standing behinde beside his feet she began to water his feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with oyntment And the Pharisee that had bid him seeing it spake within himself saying This man if he were a Prophet would know certes who and what manner of woman she is which toucheth him that she is a sinner And Iesus answering said to him Simon I have somewhat to say unto thee But he said Master say A certain creditour had two debtors own did ow five hundred pence and the other fifty they having not wherewith to pay he forgave both whether therefore doth love him more Simon answering said I suppose that he to whom he forgave more But he said to him Thou hast judged rightly And turning to the woman he said unto Simon Doest thou see this woman I entred into thy house water to my feet thou didst not give but she with tears hath watered my feet and with her hairs hath wiped them Kisse thou gavest me not but she since I came in hath not ceased to kisse my feet With oyl thou didst not annoint my head but she with ointment hath anointed my feet For the which I say to thee many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much But to whom lesse is forgiven he loveth lesse And he said to her Thy sins are forgiven thee And they that sate together at the table began to say within themselves Who is this that also forgiveth sins And he said to the woman Thy faith hath made thee safe Go in peace Moralities 1. SAint Mary Magdalen is under the feet of Jesus Christ as is that work of Saphires mentioned in Exodus under the feet of God It is a work wrought by the right hand of the Highest the wonder of women the most happy of all lovers who made profit of sin which destroys all who sanctified that love which so little knew the way to any sanctity This is the fountain mentioned in the Book of Hester in the vision of Mardocheus A fountain which became a River and after changes it self into the Sun which gives beams and showers at one instant She is a fountain at the Pharisees table she is a â—iver in her solitary grove she is a Sun both in Paradise in that great exaltation wherein the Catholick Church now beholds her Being now in glory she doth not yet forbear to open fountains of tears by imitation of her within the souls of repentant sinners of whom incessantly she procures the conversion Happy is that heart which is pierced with the imitation of her virtues thereby to gain some part of her crowns 2. Every thing is admirable in her conversion A sinner wounded with love cures her self by love She changes the fire of Babylon into that of Ierusalem She plucks out of her wound the venomous dart of worldly love to make large room for the arrows of Iesus which pierce her heart and at an instant make a harmony of heavenly passions within the bottome of her soul She holds the wound dearer then life and goes streight to her conquerour ro desire death or increase of love 3. She appears most ingenious in her affections to provide no water wherewith to wash her Masters feet since she could draw it so fitly out of her own eyes This was the water which Iesus did thirst after when he asked of the Samaritan woman some to drink But the poor woman was so astonished that she forsook her pitcher forgot that which Iesus asked Now the holy Magdalen brings her eyes to the Pharisees table as two vessels full of christal water which was of that puâ—e stream which comes from the holy Lamb. Heaven is wont to vvater the earth but here the earth waters Heaven A soul w ich was before black and burnt up with the fi e of concupiscence provides a fountain for the King of highest Heaven She draws tears from her sins to make them become the joyes of Paradise 4. She sanctifies all that which vvas esteemed most prophane Her hairs which were the nets vvherein so many captive souls did sigh under the yoke of wanton love are now as the ensignes and standards of wicked Cupid trampled under the feet of her Conquerour Those kisses which carried the poison of a luxurious pâ—ssioÌ„
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
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
it is very hard to avoid the curiosity of a woman who seeking his presence was thereby certain to find the full point of her felicity A very small beam of illumination reflecting upon her carried her out of her Countrey and a little spark of light brought her to find out the clear streams of truth We must not be tired with seeking God and when we have found him his presence should not diminish but increase our desire to keep him still We are to make entrance into our happinesse by taking fast hold of the first means offered for our salvation and we must not refuse or lose a good fortune which knocks at our door 2. Great is the power of a woman when she applies her self to virtue behold at one instant how one of that sex assails God and the devil prevailing with the one by submission and conquering the other by command And he which gave the wide Sea arms to contain all the world findes his own chains of a prayer which himself did inspirâ—â— She draws unto her by a pious violence the God of all strength such was the fervency of her prayer such was the wisdome of heâ— answers and such the faith of her words As he passed away without speaking she hath the boldnesse to call him to her whiles he iâ— silent she prayes when he excuseth himself she adores him when he refuseth her suit she draws him to her To be short she iâ— stronger then the Patriarch Iacob for wheâ—â— he did wrestle with the Angel he returned lame from the conflict but this woman after she had been so powerfull with God returns strait to her house there to see her victories and possesse her conquests 3. Mark with what weapons she overcame the greatest of all conquerours Chatity drew her from home to seek health for her daughter because like a good mother she loved her not with a luxurious love but in her affliction feeling all her dolours by their passionate reflection upon her heart Her faith was planted upon so firm a rock that amongst all the appearances of dispair her hope remained constant Humility did effect that the name of Dog was given her for a title of glory she making profit of injuries and converting into honour the greatest contempt of her person Her words were low and humble but her faith was wondrous high since in a moment she chased away the devil saved her daughter and changed the word Dog into the name of a Sheep of Christs flock as Sedulius writes Perseverance was the last of her virtues in the Combat but it was the first which gained her Crown If you will imitate her in these four virtues Love Faith Humility and Perseverance they are the principal materialls of which the body of your perfection must be compounded Aspiration O Jesus Christ Son of David I remember well that thy forefather did by his harp chase away a devil from Saul And wilt not thou who art the Father of all blessed harmonies drive away from me so many little spirits of Affections Appetites and Passions which trouble and discompose my heart This poor soul which is the breath of thy mouth and daughter of thine infinite bounties is like the Sun under a cloud possessed with many wicked spirits but it hath none worse then that of self-self-love Look upon me O Lord with thine eyes of mercy and send me nor away with silence since thou art the Word Rather call me Dog so that I may be suffered to gather up the crums which fall from thy table Whatsoever proceeds from thy mouth is sacred and must be taken by me as a relick If thou say I shall obtain my desire I say I will have no other then what thou inspirest and I can be contented with nothing but what shall be thy blessed will and pleasure The Gospell upon Friday the first week in Lent St. Iohn 15. Of the Probatick Pond AFter these things there was a festival day of the Iews and Iesus went up to Ierusalem and there is at Ierusalem upon Probatica a Pond which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida having five porches In these lay a great multitude of sick persons of blind lame withered expecting the stirring of the water And an Angel of our Lord descended at a certain time into the pond and the water was stirred And he that had gonâ— down first into the pond after the stirring of the water was made whose of whatsoever infirmity he was holden And there was a certain man there that had been eight and thirty years in his infirmity Him when Iesus had seen lying and knew that he had now a long time he saith to him Wilt thou be made whole The sick man answered him Lord I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pond for whiles I come another goeth down before me Iesus saith to him Arise take up thy bed and walk And forthwith he was made whole and he took up his bed and walked And it was the Sabbath that day The Iews therefore said to him that was healed it is the Sabbath thou mayest not take up thy bed He answered them he that made me whole he said to me take up thy bed and walk They asked him therefore What is that man that said to thee take up thy bed and walk But he that was made whole knew not who it was For Iesus shrunk aside from the multitude standing in the place Afterward Iesus findeth him in the temple and said to him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest some worse thing chance to thee That man went his way and told the Iews that it was Iesus that made him whole Moralities 1. ALl the world is but one great Hospitall wherein so many persons languish expecting the moving of the water the time of their good fortune The Angels of earth vvhich govern our fortunes goe not so fast as our desires But Iesus vvho is the great Angell of councell is alwaies ready to cure our maladies to support our weaknesse and make perfect our virtues We need only to follow his motions and inspirations to meet with everlasting rest It is a lamentable thing that some can patiently expect the barren favours of men twenty or thirty years together and yet will not continue three dayes in prayer to seek the inestimamable graces of God 2. The first step we must make toward our salvation is to desire it That man is worthy to be eternally sick who fears nothing else but the losse of his bodily health Men generally do all what they can possibly to cure their corporal infirmities they abide a thousand vexations which are but too certain to recover a health which is most uncertain And as for the passions of the mind some love the Feavers of their own love their worldly ambition above their own life They suck the head of a venemous aspick are killed by the tongue of a viper They will not part with that
us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Iesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his passion became like a scastold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entred to be tormented and crucified upon the Crosse of love which was the Crosse of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from heaveÌ„ to acomplish the businesse of all ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and this so precious shipwrak there remained one oâ—ely inestimable pearl which was his divine mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hands of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Iesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the vvhole vvorld as he did proportioning his torments according to the fruits which vvere to proceed from his cross Perhaps O faithfull soul thou lookest for a mans body in thy Iesus but thou findest nothing but the appearance of one crusted over with gore bloud Thou seekest for limbs findest nothing but vvounds Thou lookest for a Iesus which appeared glorious upon mount Thabor as upon a Throne of Majesty with all the ensigns of his glory and thou findest only a skin all bloudy fastned to a crosse betvven tvvo thieves And if the consideration of this cannot bring drops of bloud from thy heart it must be more insensible then a diâ—mond 3. To conclude observe the third quality of a good death which will declare it self by the exercise of great and heroick virtues Consider that incomparable mildnesse which hath astonished all ages hath encouraged all virtues hath condemned all revenges hath instructed all Schools and crowned all good actions He was raised upon the crosse vvhen his dolours were most sharp and piercing when his wounds did open on all sides when his precious bloud shed upon the earth and moistened it in great abundance when he saw his poor clothes torn in peices and yet bloudy in the hands of those who crucified him He considered the extreme malice of that cruell people how those which could not wound him with iron pierced him with the points of their accursed tongues He could quickly have made sire com down from heaven upon those rebellious heads And yet forgetting all his pains to remember his mercies he opened his mouth and the first worde he spake was in the favour of his enemies to negotiate their reconciliation before his soul departed The learned Cardinall Hugues admiring the excessive charity of our Saviour toward his enemies applies excellent well that which is spoken of the Sunne in Ecclesiasticus He brings news to all the world at his rising and at noon-day he burns the earth and heats those furnaces of Nature which make it produce all her fruits So Jesus the Sun of the intelligible world did manifest himself at his Nativity as in the morning But the Crosse was his bed at noon from whence came those burning streames of Love which inflames the hearts of all blessed persons who are like furnaces of that eternall fire which burns in holy Sion On the other part admire that great magnanimity which held him so long upon the Crosse as upon a Throne of honour and power when he bestowed Paradise upon a man that was his companion in suffering I cannot tell whether in this action we should more admire the good fortune of the good theif or the greatnesse of Jesus The happinesse of the good theif who is drawn for a cut throat to prison from prison to the judgement hall from thence to the Crosse and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but the heart of Jesus On the other side what can be more admirable then to see a man crucified to do that act which must be performed by the living God when the world shall end To save some to make others reprobate and to judge from the height of his Crosse as if he sate upon the cheifest throne of all Monarchs But we must needs affirm that the virtue of patience in this holds a chief place and teaches very admirable lessons He endures the torments of the body and the pains of the spirit in all the faculties of his soul in all the parts of his virgin flesh and by the cruelty and multiplicity of his wounds they all become one onely wound from the sole of his foot to the top of his head His delicate body suffers most innocently and all by most ingrate and hypocriticall persons who would colour their vengeance with an apparence of holinesse He suffers without any comfort at all and which is more without bemoaning himself he suffers whatsoever they would or could lay upon him to the very last gasp of his life Heaven weares mourning upon the Cross all the Citizens of heaven weep over his torments the earth quakes the stones rend themselves sepulchres open the dead arise Onely Jesus dies unmoveable upon this throne of patience To conclude who would not be astonished at the tranquillity of his spirit amongst those great convulsions of the world which moved round about the Cross amongst such bloudy dolours insolent cries insupportable blasphemies how he remained upon the Crosse as in a Sanctuary at the foot of an Altar bleeding weeping praying to mingle his prayers with his bloud and tears I do now understand why the Wise man said He planted Isles within the Abysse since that in so great a gulph of afflictions he shewed such a serenity of spirit thereby making a Paradise for his Father amongst so great pains by the sweet perfume of his virtues After he had prayed for his enemies given a promise of Paradise to the good thief and recommended his mother to his Disciple he shut up his eyes from all humane things entertaining himself onely with prayers and sighs to his heavenly Father O that at the time of our deaths we could imitate the death of Iesus and then we should be sure to find the streams of life Aspirations